#army of apes

[thezanyarthropleura]

50 years ago today, at least a few people were watching the premiere episode of Saru no Gundan, or Army of Apes – a 1974 Tsuburaya Productions tokusatsu television series you might know better as Sandy Frank’s Time of the Apes, most likely through its appearance on Mystery Science Theater 3000’s episode 306 (or K17). The full series was never officially released overseas, but an English subtitled version has been making the rounds, and as an avid fan of other tokusatsu such as the Gamera films even outside their Sandy Frank/MST3K context, I decided to check out the series a little over a month ago.

I will never look at Time of the Apes the same way again.

(AKA: “Why doesn’t Johnny care, and why should you?”)

The first five or so episodes are rough, with a repetitive cycle of our protagonists getting captured by Gebar and the ape army, escaping, and getting captured again. It almost makes one long for the cut-down and far quicker Time of the Apes pacing, although then we’d have to forfeit the wonderfully overdesigned arts-and-crafts snake made by Izumi, Yurika, and Jiro to frighten the ape guards. These are the episodes that represent the majority of footage used by Sandy Frank in the film version, ending at Godo, Jiro/Johnny, and Pepe’s escape via train and skipping over six full episodes before the next included scene.

That next scene in question is the infiltration sequence from episode 12 that reunites the whole cast again, concluding with a brief argument about what to do next. Izumi/Katherine’s insistence that the group remain with the Prime Minister/Commander is one of the only moments in Time of the Apes that suggests the human protagonists have any option in this new world other than to flee. It’s quickly dismissed, and we cut to an unrelated escape sequence taken from nine episodes later.

In Army of Apes, after a few intervening events, Izumi actually wins that argument, with Godo agreeing to put aside his hatred for the apes and accept the protection of the Prime Minister and the peaceful Gorilla faction. It’s only once they believe the Minister has been killed in an attack on his motorcade that the reunited cast is forced to go on the run again.

What happens in those missing six episodes, and what continues throughout those subsequent nine, is what’s truly at the heart of Army of Apes, especially when compared to the more straightforward Time of the Apes. In the 6-12 stretch, the main cast remains separated into two groups – Godo, Jiro, and Pepe are displaced by having taken multiple trains away from the army headquarters, meanwhile Izumi and Yurika travel alongside the Prime Minister and Deputy Director Sabo in an attempt to find them. The humans thus have plenty of time to interact with various apes out in the world during their adventures, these guest characters often providing the central storyline for the episode. After the midpoint of episode 13, the episodic structure is slightly lost as the overarching plot picks up (the cast catching wind of the mysterious UCOM and investigating the history of how humans were replaced by apes), but the encounters continue, all serving the series’ central question: “Can humans live in a land of apes?”

The stories in these episodes vary from familiar tropes to deeply bold statements, from bright and heartwarming to monumentally tragic. Beginning with episode 6 we have an ape father and son, who barely interact with the main cast but whose differing views on the subject of humans cause them both to be killed for standing in the way of Gebar’s vengeful pursuit of Godo. Episode 7 features the street musician Reed, an ape guitarist who bonds with Yurika over a love of music – together, they create the series’ second recurring lyrical theme, There’s Love Somewhere, which continues to be associated with Yurika and her friendships with ape characters throughout the show’s run. Later on, a blind ape woman mistakes Godo for her son Uri, who in reality died on his way home escaping a life of crime. The group saves a woman named Ura and are welcomed into her village. A member of the army must choose whether or not to help the humans after they save his young child. Mari, a nurse, hunts down the humans in revenge, believing them to have killed her secret agent husband, only to learn they tried to save him.

(You might have also heard there’s robots and ninjas in this show. That’s also true.)

The big game-changer moment for the series, though, is likely episode 9, in which a Baboon named Lag abducts Yurika with the intent to raise her as a future bride. The series pulls very few punches with just how dangerous and dark a situation it’s invoking – in fact, this is where the previously accommodating, but dismissive Prime Minister fully steps up into a protective role over Izumi and Yurika. There is, in particular, a moment where Lag makes Yurika perform her song for him, which feels deeply upsetting – a corruption of something that holds personal significance for her.

But while Lag is terrifying, we also see the side of him that’s more misguided than overtly malicious, framed somewhat as a victim of his own view of the world. Circumstances ultimately conspire such that Lag dies to protect Yurika, and I don’t consider this a redemption – Lag never confronts his actions, and acknowledging that Yurika is worth saving still isn’t the same as acknowledging that her worth includes the ability to make her own choices. But none of the characters involved, not even Yurika, view his death as anything but a tragedy. He gets a solemn burial, just like the other character deaths up to that point, and when Yurika performs her song for Ura’s village in a later episode, she dedicates it in part to Lag, choosing to mention him only as someone who saved her life.

This is another core theme in Army of Apes – that death is never a good thing, that all loss of life is tragic. It’s far from a completely pacifistic message – the fights against the army result in plenty of on-screen deaths that get little-to-no gravitas, and it’s not always explicitly self-defense either – but there’s a running trend of our main characters solving problems by reaching out through compassion whenever possible. Even the main title’s lyrics (to the best I can gather from an incomplete translation) remark that the right way to fight as a human is to “take up the weapon of love” – a sentiment all but directly stated at the end of episode 13, when Godo hurls a rifle away into the ocean and declares “we have stronger weapons.”

It's also invoked clearly in the Prime Minister’s speech as he awaits his execution, undercut only slightly by the fact he’s buying time for a rescue attempt. He asks to be brought water as a last request, but instead of drinking it, he uses it to water the flowers in his room, explaining that while he is to die, the flowers will live on into tomorrow. This is after every other leader of the Gorilla faction, including Deputy Sabo, has been executed by Luzer and the Chimpanzee uprising – in a story arc that predates Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith by 30 years, but these days, would never escape direct comparison to Order 66.

Sandy Frank, to circle back one last time, condensed the entire Chimpanzee uprising story arc into a single scene (with suspiciously exposition-rich background dialogue). After that, though, Time of the Apes presents the final two episodes of the series in relative completion. One of the scenes featured is the last conversation with the Prime Minister, where the humans reaffirm their insistence that they can’t live in an ape country.

In reality, there’s been quite the debate up to this point – and it’s additionally interesting and significant for a work in this genre that the entire concept of repopulating the human species, including any mention of romantic partners, is almost wholly absent from the series, and is never a concern of any of the human characters. The debate is always spoken of in terms of human connection, a sense of community and peace, and whether that’s possible between humans and apes. Godo’s hatred of apes due to the trauma of his family’s death is certainly a strong point of contention, but while Izumi laments the unfamiliarity of the new world, there’s a distinct sense that if she didn’t have Godo’s and the childrens’ needs to think of, she would have stopped trying to escape a long time ago. She and Yurika have formed an especially close bond with the Prime Minister, and Jiro, who eagerly insists “I don’t always cry,” discovers in the end that he has a strong attachment to Pepe, and is distraught when the two friends part ways for the last time.

(In other words… as it turns out, Johnny does care.)

Within the mountain, in a moment that’s particularly effective after having watched the full series as opposed to the film, the humans learn from E U C COM that they are truly the only four humans remaining in the world – the time-travelers having missed meeting anyone besides Godo by a margin of two years or less. It’s only then, when faced with an ultimatum of either being sent to another planet or further into Earth’s future, that the protagonists start to resist the idea of leaving, perhaps discovering only when it’s too late that they’d rather stay with the apes, after all.

Of course, the final turn tables back on E U C COM and it miscalculates – and no, the full context of the series does not add any realism to the pseudoscience/technobabble of why extremely cold temperatures turned the cryogenic preservation pods into actual backwards-operating time machines. Izumi, Jiro, and Yurika end up back in the present human world, and thus the series avoids giving a final answer to its central question.

In Time of the Apes, it probably doesn’t matter, as what we’re given is a fairly standard stock happy ending for the “well, that was a scary experience!” story Sandy Frank chose to tell.

But in Army of Apes, the answer is already pretty clear:

By this point, Godo and Jiro have promised to return and visit Uri’s mother someday. Ura’s village has welcomed the entire group, with a genuine invitation to stay and live there. Even the Prime Minister, who has lost all his closest associates, resigned his position, and resolved as a point of honor to exile himself from ape society (with his last act being to ensure the humans’ safety in his absence), seems to be setting himself up to live out the rest of his days in the company of the humans he’s grown so fond of, if only they’d stayed. We’ve seen humans and apes treat each other as if they’re one in the same, with often only Godo’s pain of the past and the others’ search for answers driving them to leave these opportunities behind. Gebar, now acting alone and outside the bounds of any military authority, is the last active ape threat to the humans, and once he learns the truth about his family and finally sets aside his grudge against Godo, there really is nothing to say that even if the time travelers were never able to return home, the series couldn’t have ended just as happily, or even more so.

Take up the weapon of love, fight like a human Army of apes, what are you doing?

[quantumleper]

Gohan | Dragon Ball Franchise

[chernobog13]

Promotional ad for the television series Army of the Apes (Saru no Gundan) (1974).

Not at all inspired by the Planet of the Apes films. Not at all.

[rrcraft-and-lore]

Armies of the Dead/heaven in myths and epic fantasy - and the magic horns behind them!

One of the most famous armies of dead soldiers? The Men of Dunharrow, the army of the dead from Lord of the Rings who broke their oaths and renewed them finally under Aragorn.

Let's do this!

If you're a younger fantasy reader, or more modern, perhaps your introduction to this idea is in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time with his magical horn that summons an army and legendary heroes to the field.

Some fans have said this is inspired by the Norse horn Gjallarhorn. 

This is the horn trusted to Heimdallr to be blown to announce the beginning of Ragnarok and summon the Norse gods to the "thing" (thing is used in this case legitimately to mean - meeting, assembly, folkmoot) - in a moment like NORSE AVENGERS, ASSEMBLE! 

This includes the Einherjar, the spirits of Norse warriors of honored dead who fell in battle and reside in Valhalla. But was there another possible influence?

Well, we know RJ was a Tolkien fan, and honestly who wouldn't be back in the days of early fantasy? 

So, what of Tolkien's ghostly army of dead warriors? Well, if you haven't read the books, you might not know that Aragorn too summons his army of the dead with a magical horn (cut from the films). That's right. 

You see, Elrohir (one of the sons of Elrond, also cut from the films) entrusts Aragorn with a silver horn to summon the dead with at the Stone of Erech to deal with them. Tolkien was a Norse buff and loved the old epics as well as poems. 

So he was likely familiar with the stories just like with Gjallarhorn as well. But also, quite possibly the Song of Roland (a French epic poem) in where Roland and his forces are ambushed at Roncesvalles and are going to lose. In final desperation, Roland blows the horn, and the emperor hears the call. But the aid will not arrive in time (unlike the films and more modern stories where the heroes do arrive to save the day - this is cuz we like the just in the nick of time trope) so Roland dies blowing it one last time to hard in vengeance his temples burst (and he ascends to heaven), but...Charlemagne's army arrives in the aftermath and scatters the enemy. But, are there other armies of the dead? In fact, yes. 

The Night Marchers of Hawaii who come with a warm wind, & the smell of sulfur, and the call of a conch shell to herald them. If you come upon this procession with torches in the night, and you are an enemy...time to RUN! Because if you watch them your eyes might be incinerated.

Then there is the Wild Hunt - a shared myth motif present through eastern, northern, and western European cultures. A ghostly army of the souls of dead men (and creatures) usually united under a leader (though this figure changes), Herne, Odin/Woden, Gwyn ap Nudd, Sigurd or Siegfried the Dragon Slayer, Theodoric the Great, onward. Now, they're not summoned by a horn, but in some tales their coming is announced by one.

Now, an Indian cognate of the Wild Hunt and warriors in the service of heavens The Maruts.

The number of them vary from 20+ to over 180, to even more (yay conflicting mythological sources and arguments in ancient texts and interpretations).

But who are they? Companions and servants to Lord Indra, Slayer of the First Born of Dragons, and lord of the heavens and storms! So, fittingly, these warriors are very...storm themed. Violent, aggressive, expert combatants armed with lightning weaponary, and golden chariots to fly through the clouds on. Their war crys and battle sounds are like thunder. Their blows would split clouds (sounding thunder) and would hunt the enemies of Lord Indra and slaughter demons/monsters.

Interestingly they are often associated as the sons (children) of Rudra (the Rig Vedic storm and wind god). However, there is another group that often gets that association (obviously so), the Rudras.

The Rudras are similar in (some) regards to the Maruts but not all. They aid Vishnu in his battles against demons and are clad in lion-skins, and wear serpents around their necks. A crescent moon adorns their foreheads, and they wield golden tridents and carry a skull in one hand they wear necklaces of lightning illuminated clouds (how's that for bling bling?), and are monstrously feral in battle. Lord Shiva can call them with a blow of a conch shell/horn. 

Their overlap, association with the Maruts is because of some etymology and shared functions as they too are a divine/spiritual/demigod group of heavenly warriors to aid the good and destroy evil - demons/adversaries, and the root word in their name means the roarers, thunderers, or the shouters - and this is also mentioned of the Maruts.

Are these all there are for legendary armies of the dead, of gods/heaven to be summoned to the field or aid? No. But, it's rainy, I'm a little messed up (mental health and meds), and tired. 

So I'm going to bow out and read and study for Tremaine 3 and leave this minor comparative thread here for folks into this stuff.

[thelasthippie]

Wars of world 2024 reflection...

I know this post will be ignored, maybe reported or deleted... But seeing the barbarities around the world nowadays I need to put it somewhere every X time.... If I don't I couldn't sleep... And if just 1 person see this and help for something would be fine.. 😔

(Every picture will be more disturbing than the other one. ADVISE )

I see how people forgot the horrors of world war ... Forgot how unnecessary it was.

I see how half world is on war with their stupid politic/religious/economic reasons... Believing in presidents and ideologies ... Are of u are guilty.

I see how soldiers and armies are responsible of all the pain. Not powerful people, just soldiers. Just poors killing poors , and they look like proud and courageous men... I'm ashame of anyone who took a weapon for money. Of every soldier of every army of every country. Ashamed of my own specie.

I see how the big corps and powerful nations make business and preserve their fortunes with innocent blood just because all soldiers and war supports didn't took a history book and rode some pages.

How we repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat the same mistakes as the grandfather's of our grandfathers

I see how we are damned ... We aren't more than monkeys who learnt to talk... We don't know to boikot all this nightmare, to unite against who decide all this hell and we force to solve any problem with energy, territory or society instead to claim revenge and blood.

I see how media is convincing us that the war have a meaning...

I don't care if it's Israel, USA, Russia, Europe, Middle east, India... All of them are trash.

All of them who talk about revenge, hate, freedom at cost of war and dead, if one of these pieces of shit is reading this, please go out this blog.

I hope there's some kind of divine pain for all of you who put a meaning to wars... Stupids... Fanatics... Murderers... Demons.

Let people live in peace and explote yourselves with all your money.

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

THE AURAL EQUIVALENT OF FRENETIC BRAIN REARRANGEMENT IN 1997.

PIC(S) INFO: Part 2 of 2 -- Spotlight on the BLACK ARMY JACKET/NOOTHGRUSH split vinyl 7 inch inlay illustrations, released jointly under the Reservoir and Monkeybite labels in 1997. From the private collection of Yasuhiro Yoshitome (@yasuhiro_1623).

Source: www.picuki.com/media/3150367847729726683.

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

Hamburger Hill (1987, John Irvin)

25/03/2024

Hamburger Hill is a 1987 film directed by John Irvin, inspired by the Battle of Hamburger Hill, which occurred during the Vietnam War.

Vietnam, 1969, a group of young paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division, under the command of Sergeant Frantz, is sent to the A Shau valley to try to wrest Hill 937 from the North Vietnamese, which, following the battle, will be nicknamed "Hamburger Hill" (meat grinder hill), due to the significant losses suffered by American soldiers.

Filmed between October and December 1986, Hamburger Hill is part of the Vietnam-movie genre of the period, coming out a year after Oliver Stone's Platoon and at the same time as Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.

[kafi-farigh-yusra]

Army Public School attack, Peshawar. (Dec 16, 2014)

144 dreams ,144 families, 144 children

All gone within an hour.

"Smallest coffins are the heaviest."

Hum nahi bhoolay 💔

[generallemarc]

What are you all so worried about? It was only one block that was controlled by a foreign gang extorting and killing people! You shouldn't be caring about the videos showing that exact thing happen, you should care about the graphs that say violent crime is down, except for when we demand you give us your guns. Who cares about individuals anyways? Those people being extorted weren't of a larger number than the ones in those graphs, so they don't matter, and you should believe us because we're the only arbiters of truth trustworthy news sources.

[henk-heijmans]

Here, a US Air Transport Command plane, loaded with war supplies, flies over the pyramids at Giza, near Cairo, Egypt, 1943 - AP Photo/U.S. Army

[47thpennvols]

Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia, 19 October 1864 (Alfred Waud)

Alfred Waud's sketch of the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia, 19 October 1864 (U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).

[pretzelogic1]

My Top Ten and Bottom Ten New Watches of the Month:

[archivesoftheapes]

[naradreamt]

me and the fellas got a little bamboozled last night thanks to the closet collection

[marshmallowfairbanks]

Art: Mighty Oak