Tag Archives: anime

Fate / Zero 04 — Arrival of the King

October 22, 2011Fate / Zeroanime, fate / zerodraggle

This sure looks pretty.

Plotting

So let me get this straight. The heroic spirit Assassin, who is pretending to be dead, is sent to observe the battle. And he is spotted by a human, without a disguise or anything. To make things even better, Assassin doesn’t spot the other human watching from the roof below him.

I think this goes to show that a) the spirit of the future Kiritsugu should enter the Holy Grail War as the heroic spirit Assassin, and b) Kirei’s servant is grossly incompetent. Their entire trick was blown before the first battle even started? This is not what I would consider a legendary quality of assassin.

Rider

I complained before about Rider and Waver, but really, they’ve been carrying the show for two weeks now. Rider is worried about his opponents losing because he wants to face them himself? He stops right in the middle of the battle with his chariot, and announces his true name to everyone. Normally a character as pathetic as Waver would be annoying, but it works quite well when he’s paired with someone as outlandish as Rider. Him getting dragged along on top of the bridge was the icing on the cake.

The Battle

The battle between Saber and Lancer really was gorgeous. This is probably one of the nicest looking TV anime I’ve ever seen. I love how they handle the lighting.

The true identity of Lancer was revealed, as Diarmuid of the love spot.

One thing that’s kind of odd about Fate / zero is how the characters talk about things like it’s an RPG. Saber has “all A-level abilities”, Lancer has the “charm ability”, and so on. I can’t really think of why they’d want to do that. For me, at least, it breaks the atmosphere.

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Mawaru Penguindrum 15 — Transferring Trains

October 22, 2011Mawaru Penguindrumanime, mawaru penguindrumdraggle

Um… what just happened?

Daddy Issues

So Yuri’s past was overshadowed by the specter of her father (quite literally). I’m not the biggest fan of ascribing all of peoples’ problems to their parents. And Yuri’s father is pretty messed up, even to the extent of physically mutilating his own daughter with chisels.

On the bright side: little Yuri is pretty damn cute.

The Knight in Shining Armor

A few things to mention: first, Ringo is the one to call Shouma. This is clearly a call for attention.

Conveniently, Ringo’s room is right next door to Shouma’s. Or is this a coincidence? Perhaps it is the result of Yuri’s meddling. She doesn’t seem to be in that much of a hurry to get started with Ringo, for one thing. When Shouma trips on the bottle and loses consciousness, she comments on how jealous she is of them.

The Great Escape

Shouma just happens to be next door to Ringo. Masako disguises herself as a maid, has a conversation with herself, strips to a swimsuit, and jumps out the window with Yuri. They have a naked ping pong match, in the dark, with Masako’s slingshot balls in the hot tub. Masako makes her escape with scuba gear. And after all that, the diary turns out to be a fake.

I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry at this point. It was certainly… unexpected, to say the least. There’s being filled with surprises, and then there’s being ridiculous.

The Diary

I hadn’t thought about it until this week, but what do the symbols on Momoka’s diary represent? On the front we have two entwined serpents, opening up to surround a pagoda with their heads. On the back is a tortoise.

The twin snakes are reminiscent of Hermes’ Caduceus. Hermes gave his lyre, made of a tortoise shell, to his brother Apollo to make up for the cattle he stole. In return, Apollo gifted Hermes with the Caduceus. The Caduceus is a symbol of balance and reciprocity, so it is fitting for the cover of Momoka’s diary, where transferring between fates comes at a cost.

Next, note when the diary is torn in two, who has each half. Masako has the side with the two snakes, the Caduceus that belongs to Hermes, the cunning trickster and messenger of the Gods. As Mario’s hat’s / Sanetoshi’s agent, Masako is indeed the messenger of the Gods. And her theft this episode and earlier kiss with Kanba certainly appear to be the work of a trickster.

On the other hand, Yuri has the half with the tortoise, Apollo’s lyre. Apollo is the god of music and poetry, things that are beautiful. Yuri is a beautiful actress and singer. Furthermore, Apollo had plenty of lovers, both male and female (although I don’t think this was particularly unique among the Greek gods).

Savior of the World

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
— John 15:13

Last week’s title was “Princess of Lies,” and this week follows up with “Savior of the World.” It’s a pretty easy connection to make between the title and Momoka. For Momoka loved Yuri so much, that she gave her only life, so that Yuri would not perish but have eternal life. Of course, given that this is Penguindrum, I doubt that it’s this simple: Momoka probably has some dark secret as well.

But let’s run with it for a bit. If Momoka is the Christ, and Yuri is Satan, where does that leave us? The situation is quite similar to Victor Hugo’s incomplete work La fin de Satan. Unfortunately, this isn’t readily available in English, so here’s a summary:

…God is trapped by Satan in his own creation, which God therefore repeatedly tries to destroy, without success. God is clearly not almighty, yet his Opponent cannot unseat him for one unexpected reason: As a former Angel, Satan is desperately in love with God and detests the fetid darkness in which he is compelled to abide, which is tantamount to saying that he hates himself as much as he cherishes his enemy. Eventually the two must come to terms, lest God’s creation be irremediably spoiled and Satan altogether disgusted with himself and his foul surroundings. Strangely enough, the stakes of the final reconciliation of the two mighty opponents is the destruction of the world, envisioned as a positive outcome.
— The Tree of Gnosis, p. 255, Ioan Couliano

That could fit our story so far perfectly. Momoka is trapped by Yuri through her own choice to mess with fate for Yuri’s sake. Yuri desperately loves Momoka, and hates the fetid world she has been left behind in, where nothing is beautiful, almost as much as she despises herself. This leads her to oppose the world Momoka has chosen. Let’s see if the endings match up.

I’ll also note that this fits in well with the association of Ringo with Eve in the gnostic narrative. Eve is given the breath of God, and becomes a divine being trapped in a body of matter. Likewise, Ringo inherits a portion of Momoka’s spirit (through reincarnation). The snake leads Eve to remember her divine roots, as Yuri leads Ringo to abandon her quest to become Momoka and become more fully herself. Alternatively, the archons (Yuri) lust after the reflection of the divine they glimpsed, see the same thing in Eve (Ringo) and rape her. Take your pick.

Random Thoughts

I just realized Masako’s catchphrase “I want to crush it” seems awfully familiar in the context of the Eden story. God curses man and the snake: “He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
I wonder what this banana could possibly symbolize…? Poor Shouma.

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Guilty Crown 02 — I Wish this was Code Geass

October 20, 2011Guilty Crownanime, guilty crowndraggle

I won’t mince words: this was painful.

The Power of Kings

Everyone and their second cousin has been comparing Guilty Crown to Code Geass, as have I. So let me clarify: I don’t object to the fact that Guilty Crown resembles Code Geass. I object to the fact that Guilty Crown doesn’t resemble Code Geass enough! (Thanks to animekritik for leading me to realize this.)

“What?” you ask. “Why would you want to see something that’s already been done? Just go watch Code Geass!”

“Ok,” I answer. I go rewatch Code Geass. And it is @#(&#^ awesome! (note: This is not a figure of speech. I literally did rewatch it this past week.) Since Code Geass is so great, why wouldn’t I want more of it?!

What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
— Ecclesiastes 1:9

Every work is built on other works. Sure, there are “original” ideas which set things apart. But nothing is created in a vacuum. Just go read tvtropes for five minutes.

The thing is, a story isn’t just a result of putting building blocks together to construct a narrative with. It’s about how you tell the story.

Let’s take an example from anime. Rahxephon is heavily influenced (to put it mildly) by Evangelion. Plenty of people dismiss Rahxephon as a mere “copy” of Evangelion. But I greatly prefer Rahxephon. It took the same components, and told a better story. I expect to hear a ton of objections that Evangelion is better, but if you think so, please try to tell me with a straight face that the ending of the Evangelion TV series was good storytelling.

Let’s look at another example, this time from the realm of literature: the Belgariad. If you haven’t read it (you should!) it tells the story of a farm boy who meets a princess, learns he is a king, and becomes a sorceror. It is as strait-laced as fantasy stories come. The same story has been told thousands of times before. But David Eddings tells it better than anyone else ever has.

So back to Code Geass. Throughout each episode of Code Geass (on my sixth rewatch!), I was jumping up and down screaming with a big grin plastered on my face. After the second episode of Guilty Crown, I was left pondering what I should whine about first on my blog. Guilty Crown has all the trappings of Code Geass: a boy from an oppressed Japan who gains magic powers, a revolution led by a mastermind, school life segments, and much much more. The more interesting question is: what does Code Geass have that Guilty Crown lacks?

Lelouch. We could compare him with Gai, but…
The sense of excitement. Code Geass never fails to leave you jumping up and down waiting for what will happen next. And when Lelouch’s plans work, it’s bloody awesome. On the other hand, here’s how Guilty Crown reveals that Gai is a military genius: our lead couple declares, “Right on schedule. Wow, it’s all going according to his plan!” Needless to say, this does not pack the same punch as unexpected, massive destruction coupled with a flourish of Zero’s cape and Lelouch’s maniacal laughter.
Moral ambiguity. Is what Lelouch is doing right? Is what Britannia does wrong? Sometimes, but often not. Guilty Crown has none of this subtlety. Let me quote fatty: “We will never give in to terrorism! If you don’t show yourselves, we will blow up the whole city!” How subtle. After Guilty Crown’s battle, cue the somber music and a survey of the destruction. Right, like anyone cares.
Interesting villains. I have never hated a fictional character as much as Suzaku. The villains from Guilty Crown are a spoiled teenager and a bald “fatty”.
Side characters. Code Geass has Lloyd, C.C. and Diethard. Guilty Crown has a pilot who orgasms to robots, a cat-eared DDR player and a girl who gets a sword pulled out of her chest. ‘Nuff said.

Code Geass and Guilty Crown may tell a similar story, but while Code Geass makes it exciting, Guilty Crown makes it boring, silly and pandering. See below.

P.S. I am only talking about Code Geass R1.

Keepin’ it Classy

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UN-GO 02 — The Cutthroat World of Vocaloid

October 20, 2011UN-GOanime, un-godraggle

I said last week that I wasn’t going to blog this. I lied. This episode was pretty good, and since I’ve blogged every other noitaminA series since I started this blog…

A Bitch in Heat

I complained last week that Inga bothered me. Well, he / she has already started to grow on me. The whole transformation sequence this week was great.

First, you see Inga with this big grin and his eyes rolled up to the top of his head, eyeing his prey, as the two women make what seems to be an obvious lie. Then he tries to provoke the two women, claiming the murderer could be the ghost of their friend. He laughs uproariously and keeps pointing at the girl’s picture when they don’t take the bait, clearly impatient. One of the women runs away, and he literally leaps after her, chasing the woman down a long corridor, giggling while the woman pants.

The detective grabs Inga’s shoulder, and his face is plastered with a goofy grin. Inga shakes back and forth and shouts that he can’t hold it in anymore, as the lights begin to flicker. He grasps the detective and transforms.

My point is, this sequence did a great job at portraying Inga’s excitement. He is more beast than human, and his excitement is sexual in nature.

The Mystery Itself

Shrek: Uh… ogres are like onions!
[holds up an onion, which Donkey sniffs]
Donkey: They stink?
Shrek: Yes… No!
Donkey: Oh, they make you cry?
Shrek: No!
Donkey: Oh, you leave ’em out in the sun, they get all brown, start sproutin’ little white hairs…
Shrek: [peels an onion] NO! Layers. Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. Onions have layers. You get it? We both have layers.

It was interesting how they pulled off the mystery of this episode. They set up the problem quite quickly. And before we had much time to even think about what had happened, Kaishou presents his solution. This solution is not obvious at all from the setup— the taxi driver is a cross-dresser. This seems suspect, but the show doesn’t stop to give us time to think about it. Immediately we jump to the Defeated Detective’s meeting with his client.

One idea comes out on top, that the two members of the singing group precipitated the murder. But it turns out that this isn’t the truth either: the woman the detective met with originally is the killer. Then, we discover that behind this is a deeper myster. The idol group itself was created as a government conspiracy. So we have an enigma (the government coverup) behind an enigma (the Defeated Detective’s explanation) behind an enigma (the murderer’s explanation) behind an enigma (Kaishou’s explanation) behind an enigma (the original mystery).

UN-GO is like an onion.

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Fall 2011 — First Impressions

October 19, 2011Seasonal Impressionsanime, lists, seasonal impressionsdraggle

I’ve loosely ranked this season’s new offerings from worst to best. I did the same thing this summer as well, since I was away and couldn’t make individual first impression posts. I found the last list useful, both for reference and to compare with how things turned out at the end in my post-season post. This time the list will be more concise since I’ve already written at length on every first episode.

Overall, this seems to be a step back from the last two seasons, but last season especially was an outlier. So I’m not going to read much into it. Anyway, Penguindrum is still airing, so I have no complaints.

22. Maken-ki!
Pointless fighting and fanservice show of the season. This has to have the most worthless protagonist I’ve ever seen in an anime. And I’ve seen a lot. Dropped.

21. Tamayura ~hitotose~
I already said everything that needs to be said in my post. Dropped

20. Kimi to Boku
Tamayura, but with cynical whiny men. Dropped.

19. Mashiroiro Symphony
Makes Hoshizora e Kakaru Hoshi look inspired. Dropped.

18. ϕ Brain
Starting to bore me. What’s the point of a show about puzzles, if you can’t solve the puzzles? Soon to be dropped.

17. Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon
As the show progresses, it’s less and less clear what it’s supposed to be about. It’s terrible, but in such a way you can’t tear your eyes from the unfolding disaster.

16. Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!
The first episode was pretty good. But then they dropped the fighting, lost all sense of focus, and turned it into your typical harem.