Steins; Gate 23 — Open the Steins Gate!

Steins; Gate,

I’m split about this episode. One one hand, I enjoyed it: the repeat of Christina’s death was pretty exciting, and Okabe returned to being Hououin Kyouma. But on the other hand, it just felt cheap. Okabe spent so much effort saving Mayuri, but now his future self just tells him what to do?

Christina’s Death: Take Two

I did like this scene (even if I have issues as to how we got here). Once it was revealed that the guy giving the talk was Christina’s father, everything clicked into place. Those kinds of *snap* moments are rare and hard to come by. From this, it became clear right away why Christina was attending the nutjob convention in the first place and who would kill her. Plus the events of the first episode made a lot more sense.

The creators did a nice job at including Okabe into what should have been a touching father-daughter reunion. I liked especially how Christina’s father decided that Christina and Okabe were conspiring to ruin him. It’s a reasonable conclusion, even if it’s wrong.

No Free Lunch

Okabe just finished reliving Mayushii’s death over and over again. But now, he gets a time travelling girl and a message from himself in the future telling him exactly what to do. It just feels like a cheap ending tacked onto the end of the VN as an afterthought to make everybody happy.

In the uncountable set of multiverses, there is exactly one timeline which will break free of local attractors and make everyone happy. We know this because… of science! From the future! And it just so happens that we’re one step away from reaching this perfect universe right now! It shouldn’t take much math to convince anyone that the probability of this happening is zero.

Inconsistencies and Changing the Rules

I probably shouldn’t think about time travel in Steins; Gate too much, because it’ll just make my head hurt. The show seemed to have a well-defined set of rules governing time travel, but this episode felt like the creators punched in the cheat code so we can get the ending where everyone lives happily ever after. One thing that changed is minor: Suzuha’s time machine can go forward now. That can easily be explained from improvements in Okabe and Daru’s research.

But the change that bothered me the most is Okabe receiving a message from himself in the future. What? How? Every other time Okabe has sent a message to the past, he doesn’t remember receiving it. If his future self can send messages without Okabe himself experiencing sending them, why didn’t that happen in the Mayushii timeline as well? Why did Okabe have to live up to the point he sent the message every other time, but not this time? It seems inconsistent.

In the same vein, why did the Okabe in the universe where he killed Christina have to send the message in the first place? Couldn’t the Okabe that sent Suzuha have done the same thing? He already knew that Okabe would need to receive the message. If he knew that Okabe needed to receive the message, couldn’t he have just sent the message himself?

Another thing: Christina saw the Okabe from the future originally, in the first episode (go watch it again if you don’t believe me). Now, to prevent her death, he can’t change what the other Okabe experiences. But he already did. Christina met the future Okabe before. Hopefully the remaining episodes will clear things up, but it all feels like a giant pretzel of contradictions to me. Does anyone have some better ideas for how to resolve the seeming contradictions? (no VN spoilers please)

Pet Peeves

It annoys me when science fiction shows make the entire universe anthropocentric. In this episode, the multiverse will explode in a set of contradictions if Okabe happens to see himself in the past. Right. Future Okabe has already affected past Okabe, and the light cone has become a light donut regardless of whether Okabe’s mind recognizes that fact. The universe is non-causal (or dissipates in a puff of contradictions, if Steins; Gate is to be believed). On the other hand, perhaps the universe is anthropocentric, and the universe disintegrates not because of non-causality but because Okabe’s mind recognized a contradiction in the structure of the universe. Then Okabe’s mind (from the future) can recognize the contradiction regardless of whether he sees himself. Either way, the idea of the universe self-destructing after causality is broken is silly: causality has already been broken. Furthermore, if we assume that all possible universes exist (as is implied), an infinite number of self-contradictory universes exist. Goodbye multiverse.

A similar application of anthropocentrism occurs in Noein. Haruka is the Steins Dragon’s Gate, and hers is the absolute reference frame (she’s the only one who matters when it comes to looking inside Schrodinger’s box). Some guy dies behind a door, and Haruka knows it. If Haruka opens the door and looks at him, he’ll die for real, and if she doesn’t he won’t. It depends on the mental act of seeing rather than the physical or mental act of observing.

This is just silly. Why are these stupid humans so full of themselves?

Hououin Kyouma Returns

Bwah ha ha ha!

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Working’!! — First Impressions

Impressions,

The second season of Working!! starts in October, and they decided to air the first episode a month early, as they did for the first season. There seems to be some controversy over the naming scheme: Working!! ==> Working’!!, but for those with a mathematical background it makes perfect sense. If you have a variable name (i.e., a) that you’ve already used but need to use again, you name the second variable a’ (a prime) rather than resorting to less descriptive names or subscripts. So it’s not an apostrophe, it’s a prime symbol, and the pronunciation would be “Working Prime!!”. Either way, the title is much better than counting the number of explanation marks at the end, which seems to be the current trend.

On to the episode itself. This was one of the last comedy shows that I thought needed a sequel. While I enjoyed the first season, by the end the jokes were starting to become repetitive. We have the millionth joke about how Poplar is cute and tiny, how Takanashi likes cute things, and how Inami hates men.

This episode took all those overused jokes and hit us on the head with them over and over again. Literally half the episode was about Poplar being short and cute, and Takanashi obsessing over her. They’ve had a year and a half to come up with new jokes, and this is the best they can do?

I’ll still watch it, since it can be funny when it’s not stale, but I won’t be blogging it. Talking about what’s funny is boring anyways.

Oh, and happy Labor Day. A perfect time to talk about working.

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Hanasaku Iroha 23 — Never Give Up!

Hanasaku Iroha,

Now this is more like it! Hanasaku Iroha has been in a slump for a while now, but this episode regained some of its old charm. The thing is, this show really stands out when it focuses on the drama: the best episodes have been the ones focusing on Ohana and her family, and that one Yuina episode. When the show focuses on the every day life of the inn staff, it’s decent but ultimately forgettable.

Fish Out of Water

The strategy this episode employed to fest things up was plucking the characters out of their comfort zones, and dropping them down with people they don’t usually interact with. The main focus was on two unusual pairings: Ohana with Takako, and Ko with Ohana’s mother.

Takako dashes off to Tokyo to get back the money that her husband was stupidly tricked out of by the producer. The manager tells Ohana to go too, and talk to her mother about what she will do now that the inn is closing. The long train ride together makes for some interesting conversation.

It’s clear that Ohana and Takako do not get along all that well. They sit at opposite corners of the train compartment, and Takako begins their conversation by saying “I didn’t expecte to be babysitting a high schooler.” Ohana retaliates by calling Takako an old lady, and things only go downhill from there. But we learn each of their thoughts on becoming the manager, and things come back to Ohana’s relationship with Ko. Takako brings in a more adult perspective and makes light of Ohana’s problems, but Ohana breaks down crying. Putting Takako and Ohana together made for some interesting conversation and development.

The second unusual pairing was Ko and Ohana’s mother. This was extremely awkward, as one would imagine, and Ko looked like he was about to run away most of the time. It didn’t help that Ohana’s mom kept picking on him. But we learned more about both of the characters this way, and now Ko knows a bit more about Ohana’s life at the inn, through the movie of all things. I like how they actually brought that movie back into the story.

Random Thoughts

  • I loved the scene where Enishi went crying to Beanman about Takako leaving, and Beanman told him what it means to “be a man.”
  • Takako and Ohana’s mom are friends and are teaming up? Everyone’s screwed.
  • Takako’s self defense skills… wow.
  • With Ko and Ohana meeting up again, we should be in for a treat next week as well.
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Mardock Scramble: The First Compression Review — A-

Reviews,

I went into this movie with no expectations whatsoever, and came out blown away. If you see only a single movie this year, make it this one.

Mardock Scramble begins brutally, with the rape and murder of a young girl, Balot. I thought at first that Balot would just be a throwaway character to introduce our heroic detective and evil villain, who would be the lead characters in a fast-paced action show. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Mardock scramble turned out to be a deeply introspective film examining Balot’s past.

Balot

Balot is one of the most interesting characters I’ve seen in a while. Her first line in the film is “I wish I were dead.” When she is brought back to life, she is asked to visualize what she most wants, and a gun appears in her hand. The doctor assumes that Balot wants revenge against her murderer. But then Balot sets the barrel to her own cheek and pulls the trigger.

Suffice to say that Balot is a very broken person. Half of the movie takes the form of a walk around town with Oeufcoque, an AI who helps reveal her past, with interspersed gun fights and car chases. Initially, Balot is afraid to go to court because her past and her shame will be revealed to the world.

But her budding relationship with Oeufcoque changes her mind. Balot attempts to construct her relationship with Oeufcoque based on what she’s used to. She tells him she wants him to love her, and in exchange she’ll do whatever he wants. Oeufcoque tries to tell her that he isn’t a man and that she should do as she wishes regardless, but Balot has the impression that he wants her to go to court, and does so.

The court scene was my favorite part of the movie. Balot, since she can’t speak, is given three buttons to answer questions with: yes, no, and silence, along with a jeopardy-style writing stylus. The film managed to convey an incredible amount of information and emotion through these three buttons and a skillful use of flashbacks.

“When you were younger, did you engage in sexual relations with your own father?” Yes.
“Why didn’t you offer resistance?” I loved my dad.
“You loved him as a man?” No.
“Your brother offered violent resistance to your father when he learned of your relationship. Do you know why?” He loved me.
“As a woman?” No.
“Do you still love your father?” Silence.
“Do you love your father as a man?” I don’t know how to love my family anymore.
“Do you believe you are to blame for what happened to your family?” *hesitation* Yes.

Now this is a great way to tell the story of someone’s past: through flashbacks which are firmly grounded in the present, both emotionally and cinematically.

The Cycle of Abuse

By the end of the movie, the chain comes full circle, and Balot begins to abuse Oeufcocque, using him against his will to murder the villains. Oeufcocque has also been abused in the past, by the man Balot is fighting, and a built-in reaction makes him reject Balot. But Oeufcocque decides to accept Balot regardless, and fights against the reaction in response to Balot’s tearful apology. Balot is forgiven and cracks are formed in the cycle of abuse. At this point, the film ends on a cliffhanger with bullets approaching Balot. The credits roll and we go into a fitting rendition of Amazing Grace.

I’ve noticed that grace and forgiveness do not seem to factor into anime as much as western media. The focus instead seems to be on building trust in relationships. The only show that immediately comes to mind with a focus on forgiveness is Sola; does anyone else have thoughts on this?

Graphic Violence

Mardock Scramble does not pull its punches. It’s a very graphic film. We have some of the more complete depictions of rape in anime, exploding body pieces, and some utterly grotesque villains such as Welldone the Pussyhand. I thought this was a good thing, but be warned.

World Building

The world of Mardock Scramble is interesting and unique, but the main thing the film does so well is avoid getting bogged down in the details. The show doesn’t even bother trying to explain most of its sci-fi components. The film makes the spectacular seem mundane, because in Balot’s world, it is.

Final Thoughts

Balot’s characterization blew me away. The setting is fascinating and there’s just the right mix of well-scripted dialogue and action. My main complaint is that we have to wait now for the next two movies in the trilogy.

  • Plot / Script – 9 / 10 – Great script, especially that courtroom scene.
  • Characters – 10 / 10 – Ten points here just for Balot. I didn’t even mention the villains, but they’re also quite fascinating (aside from the body parts gang).
  • Production – 10 / 10 – A beautifully rendered world. Balot’s voice actor did an especially great job.
  • Overall – A-

Recommendations – Ghost in the Shell (for a similar world, if little else), Phantom

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Dantalian no Shoka 08 — No.

Dantalian no Shoka,

I’ve been pretty patient with Dantalian so far, but really, when are they planning to go somewhere with this? These short stories all get resolved without our protagonists doing anything, and have nothing in common with each other aside from Dalian acting cute. The creators decided to address the lack of continuity this week by bringing back Camilla and the stupid suitor. That suitor is pretty much the last thing I ever wanted to see make a return.

Huey and Dalian’s Continued Uselessness

I mentioned last week how Huey and Dalian are passerby, powerless to change the events unfolding around them. This pattern continued this week. They chase after Camilla to save her from trading her life away with a phantom book, only to discover that she traded the dangerous phantom book away for a teddy bear. Are Huey and Dalian concerned about how the book will be used in the hands of its new owner? Nah, they just head home with Camilla to eat snacks. Huey and Dalian were ineffectual throughout this ordeal.

Then we have the suitor with his girlfriend trying to kill him. He literally begs Huey for help, and Huey refuses, although a simple explanation could clear everything up. Dalian says that he needs to die at least once. They proceed to watch politely from the sidelines as the woman burns Huey’s friend alive, then cheerfully escort her to the door.

So it turns out they sent the friend to the underworld and brought him back with a phantom book: what of it? The fact remains that Huey and Dalian stood by impassively with a smile while their friend was burned to death, and politely escorted his murderer to the door. Even British manners have their limits. Making your characters powerless bystanders is one thing, but this scene brought it beyond the point of ridiculousness.

References

  • The Teddy Bear. Camilla mentions it was named after a certain president, Teddy Roosevelt. Roosevelt’s association with the Teddy Bear began after a cartoonshowed his role in the mercy killing of a bear. For those unfamiliar with Roosevelt, he was one of the most badass presidents in American history (I’d rank him second after Andrew Jackson).
  • The Book of Equivalent Exchange. This appears to refer to alchemy of the Fullmetal Alchemist variety. The twist is that value is only relative, so Camilla is able to trade a paper clip for a unwanted pocket watch. I don’t really get this book though: if the two people think something is an equivalent exchange, won’t they just do it? Why do they need the book…?
  • The Straw Millionaire. Camilla mentions this Japanese folktale. A man begins with a single piece of straw, and makes a series of trades to eventually receive a house.
  • The Book of Relationship. The two halves of this book, written 3000 years ago in the Mediterranean, represent two lovers tied together. It’s fictional (who would make a book with two halves?) and contains the spell from Hecate that Medea used to get revenge on Jason, her lover that ditched her. According to the most common version of the tale, Medea actually used poison, not fire, and killed the woman Jason was cheating with rather than Jason himself. Medea is often associated with Hecate and dark magic, however.
  • Book of Eleusis. This book refers to the Eleusinian mysteries, a set of rituals following Persephones’ yearly descent to Hades and return to her mother Demeter.
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