#like we just like how its presented as just part of yuki as opposed to some tragedy or scary thing

[echidnana]

we also like surface level liked how yuki's delusions and hallucinations were treated in school live. like she's cared for by the other girls and they all treat her with respect and compassion, and as long as she's not actively putting herself in danger they don't challenge her even though it has to be painful for them sometimes

[papers4me]

Fruits Basket Manga Review , ch 109

-The Tragedy of a an episodic format attempting to connect narrative in a series: (Tohru’s Background or Kyo’s Focus?)

One of my issues with se03, ep6 (other than it being 3 chapters combined horribly with new material added for shock value) is that it was weakly undecided who would be the focus? who would the narrative follow?: Is it tohru’s own pov abt herself? is it the gramps giving boring exposition abt tohru over weak still images of flashbacks or is kyo thinking abt tohru’s pain?

The truth is, it was all the above in the manga, but the manga gave each a chapter focus so that the chapter is well-directed with focused narrative. The anime weakly jumbled the 3 chapters together as they always do. You mix chapters & tada~ you got an ep, you only need a broad weak theme that connects the dots! here: it is tohru! & that’s it. As long as the 3 chapters discuss tohru in any form & manner, nothing will seem off if we put them next to each other in a 20 minute ep! right? riiiiiight ????

.. this was never a correct way. Just like a chapter needed a narrative direction, the ep is the same!!

ch 107: The beginning of tohru’s pov on her realization abt loving kyo.

ch108: tohru’s full pov of shock upon reaching the conclusion that she loves him & the beginning of her mom’s issues & abandonment.

ch109: Kyo’s pov abt tohru’s pain & his involvement, guil & the sheet hug.

ch110: (completely cut from the anime!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Kyoru’s part: the aftermath of kyo & tohru crossing the line of being in the most vulnerable & intimate, building towards a more crushing impact of the climax. The stronger & more painful their love is, the more it will hurt. Also a yuchi buildup?!!!!

-so, you see each chapter has a direction i& a narrative it follows independently that is weaved together to make a connected tissue of the overall plot. The anime puts the 3 chapters next to each other & we are lost on who to follow? kyo or tohru or the gramps. That’s why it feels tohru is weak & her two chapters worth of pov is stolen from her cuz it cut or shortened to include the grandpa, kyo, isuzu, shigure & let’s not forget (kazuma, yuki & haru) at the beginning, the dramatic shock value addition & OP & ED. All these take valuable screen time. The ep shocks us by moving from tohru to kyo. One minute she’s crying with him on the streets, next he’s at the grave & she’s visiting isuzu.

Kyo said he isn't going to the grave in the ep, upon seeing him actually going, I just assumed he wanted to avoid, hana, cuz I’m so invested in his story that I remember sth happened in se1, ep 14.. ages ago, The anime didn’t even allow kyo to inner talk abt avoiding hana... In their weird mind, kyo only inner talks in dramatic situations..See the difference!

Not only the writer (a) reminds us why kyo avoided the grave visit, she also (b) seized the opportunity to shine lifht onto an issue that will be the center of kyo’s struggles: Running away!

The anime introduce this in kyo’s pov only when kyo confronts tohru. Only when it was needed & couldnt be avoided. This is sth that will be the core of all the climax & the aftermath as well! Kyo running away.. How bad are you if you avoid inserting one line only that can be said in few seconds & establish great deal & foreshadow plenty!!!!!!!!!! I can’t for the life of my understand why short lines are cut from kyo when in the anime they have him be standing silent in the graveyard. Like slap the line above the silent scene!!!!! But doing so means the anime team understands tohru & kyo’s issues. They don’t. Not the slightest.

-Ep 6 signals the beginning of the anime moving from episodic format of se1, 2 & 5 eps of se3 & entering a connect plot. The anime doesn’t know how to do that & screwed tohru in the process. The protagonist’s main issues are one ep worth only. The antagonist main issues are one ep only (ep7).  Ep 6, was treated as a stand alone ep (minus the inserted shock scene to create a lingering issue that needs a following ep to explain. TOLD YOU they don’t know how to make a series!). Thus the following ep 7 is akito’s focus. Everything that was established in ep 6 was pit on hold until akito reaches the craziest mindset for the climax. See why ep 6 was so bad? it is Should NOT be a stand alone ep.

-The plot connects kyoru emotional & physically: (Kyo’s chapter with a tohru’s focus:

Unlike the anime, the chapter knows what it’s presenting 7 where it’s going. Kyo’s issues. This ch focuses on him uncovering parts of his past as it connects with tohru’s. Unlike the anime, we know why kyo's connection to kyoko’s past. The anime is hiding this for the climax, no problem, it can still work both ways. However, hiding kyoko /kyo connection doesn't necessarily mean hiding kyoko/tohru connection. But the anime is cutting this to milk it in an ova or series next year~ no problem,  it can still work if you handle this ep’s  flashback better. for all the artistic creativity they inserted in the added scene, they failed miserably in tohru’s flashback portion. how?

By choosing a frontal pov shot in tohru’s grandpa flashback as if the audience are the ones who abandoned tohru or opening the door to find her alone. it does NOT work at all. why? the audience are encouraged to be like tohru since ep 1 as tohru is the mother, angel, fixer & endearing hopeful girl. The audience will NEVER abandon tohru, that’s why tohru’s story felt disconnected & weak in the anime. Not knowing what kyoko did, who would abandon such child?! differently not us. so why use the frontal pov shot? -_-’

-tohru confesses her pain to kyo without being ushered by isuzu, without any outside factor. She simply visited the grave & came home. hiding her pain. once again. like she always do. One question by kyo, prompts her to “ complain a little” call back to se1, ep5 as he advised. we see tohru get out of her shell little by little. NOT SCREAM OR SLAP. She opened up. why? cuz the story is abt “ opening the lid” not abt “ snatching the lid”. No need for shocks. Yuki opened his lide slowly, tohru even slower, kyo is resisting opening his altho it is cracking in this chapter. When your story focuses on character buildup it pays!

-I’ll give the anime credit when it due. The hug scene is so good both in manga & anime. but so awesome in animation, colors, music & voice acting. It’s breathtaking & painful. The most beautiful kyoru scene in the whole anime.

-It represents their mutual vulnerability, understanding, pain & determination to love the other but not also let go. kyo has made his mind to be locked in order not to hurt tohru & tohru has made her mind that she can’t let go of her mom.

You see, the scene’s meaning hits different between manga & anime; In the anime: tohru has already challenged the sohmas & screamed to be with kyo, while kyo is still decided to leave her. In the manga: they’re both at the same spot (undecided). I like both interpretations but I’ll choose the manga’s version. Simply cuz it means tohru is still uncovering her issues which means more focus on her, & more explanation of why cant tohru love her mom & kyo at the same time.

-This expression on tohru’s face is a the complete opposite of the shock value expression in ep 6! T_T. I do’nt even hate the shocked scene addition itself that much, I just think (a) this is NOT its time! Tohru deserved better spotlight! (b) kyo didn’t friggen forget! ah! THIS I HATE! (c) the whole shocked scene was so wasted in ep 7. tohru return to her stupid dumb lalala~ land, cooking & forgetting kyo. what growth? what determination & screams to isuzu? what enduring kagura’s slaps? nope! just happy & cooking, lalala~ no one was freaking over her mom’s picture~ lalala~ & kyo just slept it over~ shhhh... its okay. he’ll forget again... see? totally wasted!

The anime knows nothing abt connected narrative! augh!

Side Notes:

We see kyo asking the gramps why he’s offering him info abt tohru which is so logical! XD. I love it.

I’ve read ch 110 & wanted to insert the kyoru scene in ch 110 here, & put yuchi alone in a different post, then I realized I’ll need to talk abt it again once I analyze yuki’s own expressions! XD. so, I’ll put all ch 110 together in one post. It kinda half written by now, so I’ll publish it very soon in two days time. I didn’t read ch 111 yet tho.

I hope ch 110 is the last I feel this much disappointments in furuba’s anime & by ch 11, it hopefully be be minor changes altho I doubt that cuz the manga needed to dwell into tohru’s mindset & the anime kinda stopped after ep 6. so, yup! more big changes coming!

The sheet hug is so brilliant in theory & application! so romantic & so endearing! love it so much! The anime did it so well, too!

I love kyo’s narration & pov cuz it’s so refreshing change from the anime where he rarely does!

I really wish they kept the kyoko abandoning tohru part in the anime... sigh~ it has nothing much to affect her story with katsuya. so it won’t ruin the spin off/ ova or whatever it’s called. 

I love the light focus on tohru in this chapter & how organic & natural it is opposed to how forced the plot seems in the anime....

[animatedminds]

Star Wars: Visions - Episode 8: Lop and Ochō

Early reveal for the rest of the review: this is by far my favorite of the films so far (who knows, maybe Episode 9 will extremely wow me, but until then...), for what is actually a variety of reasons that I will probably go into at length. And because there’s nothing I like better than to nerd out at length, there is better time than now to delve into... Episode 8: Lop and Ochō Developed By: Geno Studio Directed By: Yuki Igarashi Another one that uses a brief narration to approximate the opening crawl of the films, again to great thematic effect.

This is also another one with an explicit timeframe. During the rise of the Galactic Empire, we focus on a formerly isolated planet that has reached out to the Galactic Empire in hopes that the Empire’s influence can modernize their society (some very clear Japanese historical subtext here), leading to many aliens immigrating to the planet. This includes Lop, a homeless bunny-girl alien (mildly jarring, since Gamorreans aside animal-people aliens is something you’re more likely to find in Wing Commander) who escaped from captivity and one day bumped into the patriarch of the ruling clan of the planet and his young daughter. The daughter - Ochō - insists on adopting Lop, leading to her father bringing her into the family: and so Lop and Ochō become like sisters.

Years later, strife strikes as the patriarch - Lop and Ocho’s father - realizes that the Empire only intends to exploit their planet and mobilizes a guerilla force to strike back. But Ochō takes the opposite opinion: without the Empire’s influence, their backwards planet is doomed to fall behind no matter how noble their culture is, so they must submit to ensure their own future. This rift explodes as Ochō formally joins the Empire and their father steps up his efforts to fight back, while Lop stops at nothing to stop the fighting and bring her adopted family back together again.

The very first thing I’m going to focus on here is the choice in how the story opts to approach the setting. Here, instead of getting a Jedi who visits this planet, seeing these people as an outsider does in the way most of the other shorts set up narratives of this type, the focus is on this particualr culture and how its individuals see the Empire’s presence. You are immersed into these people and their ideologies, their history and how Lop and Ocho fit into it all as heirs in the next generation. This is a fantastic way of doing this - you may recall that back during my review of The Village Bride, I commended that short for giving the people of that short a distinct means of looking at the Force, but even in that one the people were secondary: objects of the Jedi’s perspective. Here, Lop is technically an outsider, but that only outlines the prominence of the setting and storytelling as she is then raised alongside this new family and world.

The presentation here is very similar to something like Lost Stars, a book in the current canon that I’ve always seen as one of the best Star Wars novels made in the last few decades. Like Lost Stars, this short uses the characters culture to set up their upbringings and situations, and then applies that to the issue of the Empire: Lop chooses to oppose the Empire - or, more accurately, to try and bring Ochō back home - because of how much her adopted people’s attachment to family has shaped her. Ochō chooses to join the Empire because she sees nothing but the big picture, her good intentions leading her down a draconian path, and as the story goes on her conceit as an entitled heir eventually starts to show itself. The conflict does strike similar beats as the one between Thane Kyrell and Ciena Ree for similar reasons: the story makes sure we know why these characters are going to split before the split happens.

The characterization is good, is what I’m saying. A great example of doing great, distinctive character work in a short amount of time.

I should also get the visuals. This short combines bright, modern character designs with a very classical, painted aesthetic for the world around the characters. This gives it a very classic animation feel, like watching a Miyazaki movie or Sleeping Beauty: the location art of this episode is among the series’ best, and the action animation manages to combine a fluidity of motion with a simplicity of choreography, in a way not unlike The Ninth Jedi - another of the shorts whose action animation stood out.

Back to the plot with another interesting track: the story makes it unclear how strongly force sensitivity plays a role, which also gives it a good contrast to the others which generally don’t just star Jedi, but are almost exclusively about Jedi intrigue and entanglements: Lop is clearly strong with the force, but she has no context for that and her objectives have nothing to do with being a Jedi - she is centered around her people and her family. The lightsaber we see in the short - fantastically - has a backstory similar to the Darksaber we see throughout The Clone Wars, Rebels and The Mandalorian: centuries ago, a Jedi was trained from this warrior culture, and instead of passing their saber down to a padawan or giving it back into the Order, this Jedi instead passed the saber down through their family, again cycling back to the way this short uses the characters’ unique perspective and history to approach the setting rather than the other way around. The people in the short only have legends of the Jedi, and the only thing that’s significant here is that the sword featured is the prized possession of their clan.

This gives the story a lot of room for questioning, especially as the ending is open rather than definitive: is Lop going to learn more about the force, and if so will she do through the lens of her people? Who was this old Jedi, and does the sword have a history like the Darksaber does? And most importantly: the war against the Empire does not end with the end of the short: where will it go from here? Will Lop and Ochō ever be reunited? There is a degree to which this short comes off almost like a pilot for a longer story, which would serve me just fine - for the reason I’m about to get into now: As always, a purpose of these reviews is to look at how much potential these shorts - which are currently non-canon - have to some day become canon, or even at least be followed up on by the studios involved. The potential there comes down a few key factors: the major one being the amount of support these shorts get from the fanbase. But another is in how easily or organically these shorts can be incorporated into the framework of the Star Wars universe.

And are the chances for this short’s incorporation good? ABSOLUTELY. I generally judged the other shorts’ potential on how little they contradicted the world and setting around them. With this one, however, its simpler to think of it from the opposite direction: this is exactly the kind of stories that gets told in the Star Wars universe today. There are several stories I can think of just like this in concept that were made within the last few years alone, or even being made right now: the current canon loves its stories about X culture in one corner of the galaxy and how its reacting to the rise of the Empire, which heroes come from there and why. Where those heroes go in the end. The comics, especially, always seem to be on the lookout for more focus characters to play with, but I also mentioned Lost Stars earlier, and that’s a very good point of comparison: for the same reason Lost Stars makes for one of the best prose installments of the current canon, Lop and Ochō has a lot of open real estate it can waltz into to define its own part of the universe.

Besides a couple superficial stylistic things (the symbols on the lightsaber blade, as I mentioned before, Star Wars doesn’t typically do strictly “animal people” as species - that’s more a Wing Commander thing - but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t if they really wanted to), there’s nothing really stopping this thing from getting canonized. I really hope people make some noise for it, because I’m being serious when I say this of all the films has The Best Chances of being followed up - minus The Duel which, of course, was already getting a followup before the series even released.

All in all, I mean it when I say this was my favorite of all of the shorts. It, pound for pound, has everything that I found enjoyable about this set of films all in one package, ever interesting means of approaching the Star Wars universe that I was looking for, all of the interesting ways of looking at situations we already know that I was hoping for, with a set of endearing characters on top of it.

If we can get more stuff like Lop and Ochō in the future, I would be more than happy. If we can get more Lop and Ochō specifically, all the better for it. I also mean it when I say I hope people make some noise for this one. It’s worth it.

[lilyginnyblackv2]

Furuba Episode 8 - Thoughts SPOILERS!

Honestly, I don’t really have all that much to say about this episode (EDIT: I lied. I still ended up having a lot to say!). It is very much so a build up episode, which is fine, because you need those every know and again. It also helps to keep building up the tension as you see Akito wandering around, going to check out what Tohru is up to, and so forth. I think this episode succeeds at what it sets out to do, so it was a good episode in that way.

I will say that some of the translations were just...odd, though. I really didn’t like how they translated Rin’s scene with Kagura, “pretend love” just doesn’t hold the same intensity and “truth bomb”-ness to it as “forcing yourself on him and calling it love.” I feel both are very accurate descriptors, just the manga translation is more impactful. I’ll be interested in seeing how the dub decides to translate it. Also, I don’t know, maybe it is just because the word “cringe” has these really negative and meme-ish connotations attached to it now, nut that translation felt a bit...odd to me too. Like, it lost that impact again. Rin saying it was painful to watch is intricately connected to her backstory. Saying it makes her cringe...feels...less intense and less connected, I suppose. Once again, I hope the dub approaches that translation a bit differently. I tend to prefer the dub translations over the subs anyway so, here’s to hoping!

There were a few other small moments like that with the translations that threw me out of the episode a bit. But this episode was still good overall. And I still think the moment with Rin and Kagura was good on its own. Kagura and her mom talking was good too and the door smash was nice as well. It honestly reminds me to not feel too bad about Shigure’s house getting beat up and smashed by Kagura.

The Kyoru scenes were still wonderful, getting to see Hermit Crab-san animated was so precious too! Watching him scurry across the top of the sandcastle as they talk with each other! So cute! T0T The wave scene also does a good job of being surprising. Seeing it animated, you really do get a sense of how big that wave was, lol. And seeing Kyo and Tohru’s interactions animated - you can really see in this episode how hard Kyo has fallen for Tohru.

By that same token, they also really bring the Yuki and Tohru moments to life too. There is a softness to their scenes though. Like, in the way they were animated and colored. And Yuki telling Tohru that there was nothing wrong with him kissing her, I like that too. Too often we make kissing out to be this super intimate act, something only regulated to couples (even, to some extent, head kisses). In Japan this is even more so. So it’s kinda nice to see a kiss being normalized, in a way. Presented as a way to show someone that you care about them. It’s very sweet. This is also one of the reasons why I find Yuki and Tohru’s relationship and bond so important. It really puts a lot of things like this on their head.

At the same time, I do think that this episode really highlights the difference between Kyo and Tohru’s moments and the natural feel to them as opposed to Yuki and Tohru’s moment here, where it really does feel like something straight out of a shoujo manga. It’s purposeful of course, and Tohru herself picks up on it a bit more than usual this time, herself.

This is something that, as a manga reader, I’ve always noticed about their moments and scenes together, but more and more anime only fans seem to be picking up on this as well. I feel the animation does a really good job of bringing this part of Yuki’s journey and his understanding of his relationship and bond with Tohru to life and making it more obvious. The reboot in general has been doing a good job with that in general. They are doing a good job of translating that aspect to the screen and making sure that fans can really start to see and feel the difference between the two.

Also, that last shot that we get of Tohru and Yuki on the beach (after they return from seeing Akito)...I really love how they framed it. That really is the last “moment” between the two of them and that shot really alludes to that, with Yuki walking away from her.

I think they did a wonderful job with showing Tohru’s more introspective side in today’s episode. Moments like this one:

They were quiet moments. There were actually a number of “quiet” moments in this episode, likely meant to reflect the “quiet voices” that Tohru talks about. It was all well done. I also felt that Tohru was drawn a bit more maturely in this episode. Similar to Kyo and Yuki, she looked a bit older now. Maybe that was my imagination though. Also, I love how we still got lanky limbs! Oh, teenaged growth spurts!

One amusing addition was Momiji’s transformation. When he transformed back, they legit have Tohru look right at him! It’s present in the manga too, but you don’t actually see Momiji partially naked in the manga like you do here in the episode, you just see smoke, so yeah...here it was a bit more obvious and OMG, I laughed! XD

I like how they handled the Rin scene. It was tastefully done and the ending scene when she rips the top that Tohru gave her to wear and starts stomping on the sandcastle. It was all just really well done. Very powerful. It also never really registered to me before when reading the manga that she was wearing Tohru’s clothes. I think that’s because the shirt is (or looks to be) black in the manga, and Rin wearing black is very in-character/common. Seeing her wearing a blue shirt really stood out more and added more to the Tohru and Rin contrasts that we see happen in this episode.

Hmm...I think I only have a bit more to comment on. The Akito and Haru scene. The atmosphere was perfect. I also like how during the scene with Akito and Shigure a few episodes ago, the animators drew Akito in a way that, if you are paying close attention, you can guess that maybe she is a woman. But with Haru they don’t give any clues about that. It fits with the perception of the characters themselves, with the older Zodiac members being aware and the younger ones not. I think this is a good approach to take with Akito in the reboot anime, tbh.

Anyway, Shigure’s smug face this episode, oof. And seeing Kureno on a computer was interesting. Just another reminder about the advancement of technology in the remake as opposed to the manga. It really does make me wonder how they might approach the whole “Sorta Cinderella DVD” situation with Kureno and Arisa, though. They could still go the DVD route though. Physical DVDs and CDs are still fairly popular in Japan, and would actually fit the Sohma clan even more now, since DVDs are less “high tech” and more “older” tech nowadays, and that kind of goes with the Sohma clan being more “old school” in many ways.

But yeah, I still wrote a lot and next week is Kyoru and I will cry! T0T The wait for next week is going to be so long, but it will totally be worth it! <3

[animebw]

Binge-Watching: Future Diary, Redial OVA

In which we close things out not with a bang, but a pleasant exhale.

On a broad scale, the Redial OVA doesn’t add much of consequence to the show at large. It just provides closure to the bittersweet ending, bringing it together on a far more joyous, happily-ever-after note. Yuno and Yukki are reunited in space, Yuno takes on the burden of her past life’s crimes and learns to live with the pain, and everyone generally just has a good time of it. There isn’t that much to analyze on an individual level, and that’s okay; this is mainly just fanservice for the fans, getting to see their favorite characters doing a-okay one last time. But on a broader sense, this OVA confirmed for me the surprisingly positive feelings I had about Future Diary’s finale. I actually genuinely enjoyed this dumb little epilogue. No, it’s barely above standard as these things go, and my loathing of beach episodes has not diminished in time (Also, fuck you for chickening out on the gays, show. Hinata and Mao deserve better.), yet what this episode proved beyond a shadow of a doubt is that this story and these characters can work if the writing is just strong enough to let them. Seeing everybody just hanging out, without the need for a convoluted and poorly-thought-out murder plot going on in the background, allows them to actually breathe and develop some warm, human dimensions that just weren’t present in the actual show for the most part. I liked hanging out with them, watching them shoot the shit and just be kids for once. It’s still not anything special, but ir proves that Future Diary as a whole is not an unmitigated wash. There was potential here, and while the show proper didn’t utilize that potential until its closing act, it’s at least comforting to know it existed.

Odds and Ends

-”What’s... going on?” This poor fuck’s going to be scarred for life, isn’t he?

-”I will pickle you in brine!” That might be one of the most badass one-liners I’ve ever heard. Hinata, I wish you were in a better show.

-”Only turkeys threaten girls!” pfft

-I see the CG has gotten a little better. At least it’s moving naturally and fully now as opposed to janky.

-”Well, I’ve gotta breastfeed my kids.” Ninth has certainly grown on me, I’ll give her that.

-”Why are you buying crap you can’t eat?” god dammit why am I agreeing with Kousaka

-This just in, Twelfth is worse at keeping his identity secret than Clark Kent.

-”I call it: Future Monopoly!” rofl

-Interesting detail how Yuno contacts the god realm the same way Yuki does, by hanging out under her blanket. Is that just the universal portal to the Astral plane?

-I... was not ready for Mecha Murmur. You extra idiot.

And with that, I have finally finished Future Diary. Expect my closing thoughts later tonight, as well as what show will take its place!

[givemesnekboiasap]

Destiny Entwined

So, this chapter is much longer than the previous one, Sunflower. There are bits and pieces of wordings that I compiled from the Ikesen Prologue, so copyright have been added. Hopefully this doesn’t deter the reading by much.

Thank you to those who have been reading my writing. Hope you’ll enjoy this!

Aftermath of the wormhole, forested area near the cliff

Aoi stays behind with her foster brothers of nine years as Sasuke disappears into the surroundings to scout the area. They heard that a fire has broke out at the temple, with their nemesis inside. Present company held their breaths as they waited impatiently for Sasuke to sneak up to the Oda encampment for information.

“Hmm, I think I heard something rustling just around the corner…”

Aoi turns her head towards the sound; hurried footsteps trampling through the undergrowth, rustling of clothes instead of the clacking noise of armour. Could be a civilian but in the middle of the night, deep in the forest? One and one is making four instead of two.

“...Yuki…” The young man need no further instructions; he leaps off his horse and runs after the source. The remaining three hear scuffling and a shout from Yukimura. Shingen tightens his steed and the onyx surges forward. Kenshin narrows his eyes as the muffled sounds becomes clearer, with Yukimura arguing with a female.

“...He must have spotted the female from his perch on his stallion, that no good flirt....”

Aoi swallows a chuckle from bubbling out; her other foster brother is infamous in his dismay on female in general, present company excluded of course. Both of them get off their horses and tied the ropes on a nearby branch of a tree. After Shingen tries his hand in putting the female at ease, Kenshin snaps at his frenemy before turning his gaze at the female in question. Everyone’s looking at her with suspicion except for Aoi but the young female is too terrified to even notice her. It was then she felt Sasuke moving out from the shadows to join them.

(Copyrights to Cybird) “My lords, I’ve returned. Nobunaga’s forces have extinguished the fires at Honno-ji.”

Kenshin nods in reply, his mismatching eyes never leaving the female as he continues his questioning.

(Copyrights to Cybird) “Thank you for your investigation, Sasuke. So, I presume Nobunaga is alive, then?”

“Yes.”

Everyone immediately grimace, so much so that even the female bystander could see it on their faces. It is then Sasuke turns to look at her and his slight hesitation is enough to let Aoi know she’s the one the two of them are looking for. Maybe it is unusual for the ninja to have any reaction, but his single word captures his lord’s attention and Aoi nearly facepalms. Luckily, Sasuke manages to worm his way out by making up some excuses and Shingen teases him on being a fast player. Aoi ignores the remaining banter and walks back to gather her stuff from the saddlebag. She cannot bring her weapon along; it’ll be too obvious and she needs to keep as many cards up her sleeves as possible to survive. One of the Mitsumono has reported back to her that the One-eyed Dragon and the Right-hand of the Devil are on horsebacks, heading this way. Quickly, she slips between the bushes, away from the her brothers before they notice her absence.

She manages to cut in just as Sasuke finishes his explanation and both of them nearly jump out of their skins when she appears behind Sasuke’s back.

“W-who are you?”

“Hello, there. We’ve been looking for you, well, more like this guy here, has been searching for you. I’m Aoi Tsukimaru, the main reason why this astrophysicist-in-the-making decides to research wormholes, but there’s no time for additional explanation. We are about to expect some company, and I suggest that either you stay here with me or disappear with Sasuke-kun. Tick-tock, my girl…...time’s up.”

As she was able to grab hold of Sasuke’s hand, one voice echoes out in the forest, causing the young woman to hesitate. Aoi quickly motions Sasuke to hide and he melts into the shadows. The female immediately starts to panic when she realises her only link to her timeline has vanished before her very eyes. Aoi places her hand on her shoulder to calm her down a little, and slips her stuff into the woman’s large shoulder bag. Just in the nick of time, as the undergrowth part ways, revealing two men on horsebacks. Aoi blinks as this is the first time she gets to meet up with the enemies up close. Her brothers never told her they are drop-dead gorgeous.

While Aoi rubs her head as she ponders over her situation, the female time-traveler starts to bicker with one of the guys wearing green kimono under his armour. The other one turns to look at her with curious eye and she turns her head away, pretending to be shy. He lost interest in Aoi and started laughing when he overheard the young female criticizes Nobunaga’s behaviour. That’s when the eyepatch guy pick her up like a rice sack and dumps her in front of him. The warlord wearing green, Aoi guess, should be Hideyoshi Toyotomi, while the guy with the eyepatch is a dead giveaway, should be Masamune Date, notices her and starts to interrogate her presence in the forest. Aoi guilely spins out a story of her being lost after she wanders off to ease herself. He bought her story and offers his hand up his saddle.

Aoi takes his hand and he lifts her up and over, causing her to nearly losing her composure as he helps her adjust her seating. Aoi mentally pats herself in the back to having change back into a kimono instead of her usual hakuma outfit, or there will be hell to pay.

(Copyrights to Cybird) “Masamune Date. Remember it, Mai.”

Then he turns his attention to Aoi asking for her name. Hideyoshi looks at his companion with exasperation, feeling the trickle of time slowly slipping by.

“Ahh, my name is Aoi. Aoi Tsukimaru. Pleased to meet you, Lord Date.”

Aoi blinks while Mai sulky listens to Hideyoshi as he launches a round of explanation while Masamune chuckles at Aoi’s polite introduction.

“I like you, lass. You’re another interesting one. Two females with opposing behaviours found by us, seems like the gods decides to spice things up a little.”

(Copyrights to Cybird) “Thank you both for the introduction. Could I be put down now?”

“Settle down. You’ll spooked the horse.”

“Don’t I matter? I’m pretty spooked.”

“Come to think of it, you do look a little spooked.”

The grin on Masamune’s face as he readied his horse as all the indication that the fearless warlord of Oshu is planning to hightail out of here as after Mai finishes her complaints. True enough, with a snap of the reins, Masamune, together with Mai, shoots off into the distance, leaving Hideyoshi with Aoi.

“I’m sorry, but we’re in a hurry to meet up with the rest of our troops. Once everything is settled, I’ll seek audience from my lord about getting you back to your residence.”

“Thank you, Lord Toyotomi, but I think it’s better if we adjourn that request until we meet up with your lord. Better catch up with Lord Date, he’s got a headstart in front of you.”

Hideyoshi quickly flicks his reins, and they gallop after the One-eyed Dragon. Soon, they managed to catch up with him. Hideyoshi sees Mai clinging on to the man for dear life and shouts at him

(Copyrights to Cybird) “Don’t lose her.”

“I won’t. Hold on tight, Mai.”

“I’m not going with you guys!”

“Nobunaga-sama has already departed camp. He ordered you brought to him.”

Hideyoshi comments, his voice gruff with underlying frustration as Masamune nods in agreement.

(Copyrights to Cybird) “We need to ride fast if we’re gonna catch up. Don’t fall off, now.”

“No, wait! Where are you taking me?”

Aoi watches as Masamune takes the lead, galloping at an increasing speed. Hideyoshi smoothly adjusts himself to match the brutal pace. She chuckles softly at Mai’s loud protest, despite the fear of falling off the horse, and marvels at her bravery. Comparing to herself when she first arrived, that ball of steel took a long time to disperse even after under the care of Shingen and Kenshin. Some would say its normal for a teenage girl who lost most of her memories to live in fear after being thrown into the past, as her instincts scream this is not Kansas anymore.

Hideyoshi hears the female in his arms laughing over something and asks her about it. Aoi turns her head and shook it, a tiny smirk grace her face. He blinks in surprise and blurts out the first thing that comes to his mind.

“Could you not do that? It reminds me of someone that is a constant headache to me.”

“Ohh, pray tell who could that be, hn?”

Hideyoshi couldn’t help but physically shudders in reaction at Aoi’s reply. It sounds way too much like a certain silver haired fox lurking among them. Aoi blushes when she realises she has fallen back to her snarky remarks, the statement he posted to her was way too similar to how Yukimura would have phased and she automatically answers back.

“My apologise, Lord Toyotomi…”

“...Please, call me Hideyoshi…”

“...Alright, Hideyoshi-san. You reminded me of one of my brothers when you ask me not to smirk so...please accept my sincere apology.”

“I will accept your apology on one condition, and that is not to use ‘Sorry’ for every imaginable mistakes you may commit and just say ‘Thank you’ for any help you’ll receive.”

Aoi turns away from him, her demeanor changed after that, more reserved than ever as she whispers something under her breath

“...wish I could hold on to that promise after everything is revealed……”

Both parties falls into silence as the pounding of the two horses crossing the plains thunders on, with Hideyoshi’s gut heavy with doubt as he wonders that cryptic words from the female in his arms.

to be continued...

[sunriseinorbit]

How the Haikyuu!! Soundtrack Reflects Tsukishima Kei’s Character Development

Disclaimer! I’m only talking about the anime because that’s what has music and I’m not caught up with the manga anyway. 

Haikyuu!! is really good and you know what else is really good? Its soundtrack, composed by Asami Tachibana and anime soundtrack god Yuki Hayashi (you may know him as the man behind the iconic soundtrack to Boku no Hero Academia as well as Death Parade and Kiznaiver among others).

And you know what else is really good? Its character development, specifically this guy’s:

(Am I biased? Hell yeah I am, do you know how big my crush on him was freshman year? But I digress.)

One thing I love about this series is how it brings characters in as antagonists and makes them super relatable and then, in many cases, sees them become protagonists in their own right, if not protagonists in the eyes of the narrative. Tsukishima is no exception. He’s the second character to do it after Kageyama, and the two of them are by and large some of the most developed characters the series has to offer, along with Hinata, Yamaguchi, and Oikawa.

But we’re talking about Tsukishima, and specifically, we’re talking about how the soundtrack highlights his character development through three specific tracks. (If you want to see me talk about his character development specifically, I wrote a meta on that last year!) And this is going to be a long one, so I’ll put the rest under a read more.

The first, Kageyama vs. Tsukishima from Season 1′s OST, is the odd one out of the bunch, but it does have his name in it, so I thought it was worth looking at.

 At this point in the series, we view Tsukishima as an antagonist, an obstacle Hinata and Kageyama have to overcome in order to gain their spots on Karasuno. And the song reflects that, with an ominous electronic bassline serving as an ostinato (a short melodic or rhythmic phrase that repeats in the background throughout a piece of music - one of the most infamous examples in classical music is Ravel’s Bolero).

This bassline also stays on the same 2 E’s the whole time, making for dissonance when the actual bassline ascends chromatically. This builds tension, especially when the bassline hits an F at 0:25 and an F# at 0:31 that never really resolves at the end of the song, even when the melody ends at 1:01. This ascension is also very slow, making for an even more ominous tone.

Speaking of the melody, one of the other interesting things about this track is how it weaves in a chord progression between the melody (which comes in at 0:21) and the bassline. This chord progression isn’t present at the very beginning, but as it slowly creeps in, there are a lot of seventh, ninth, and eleventh chords that never really resolve to major or minor (though the whole song does have a minor tone, it’s still kind of ambiguous). 

The combination of electronic instrumentation and the lack of resolution, along with a fairly simple melody on top of it all. give an impression to the audience that at this point, Tsukishima is cool and collected but also someone you don’t want to mess with because you don’t know who he is yet.

Onward! Now the real fun begins!

Season 2, particularly the training camp arc in its first half, is a time of growth and change. The main conflict during this arc comes from characters who want to change going up against characters who want to stay how they are (e.g. Kageyama and Hinata’s fight) or characters getting in the way of each other in the process of changing (e.g. Hinata stealing the ball from Asahi)

And notably, this arc contains the catalyst for Tsukishima’s character development that’s continued steadily throughout the anime at this point. After all, we all remember episode 8, don’t we?

No, not that. Okay, kind of that but mostly this:

Episode eight is when Tsukishima actually starts putting effort into volleyball and into his own personal development, and his main song on the OST this season, Moonrise, reflects that perfectly:

There are three parts to what makes this song special, and the first one is much more easier to understand than the other two:

This song starts with an ostinato, a simple drum beat (that sounds like a heartbeat, make of that what you will), and a simple (well, mostly) four-bar chord progression, all synthesized. 

The rest of the song consists of adding things to that, like more concrete piano chords, guitar, and a solid percussion line. Taking separate elements and putting them together, specifically elements from other teams’ playing styles, is what Karasuno focuses on during this arc and this season. Noya tries to do the libero set that Watari does, Asahi tries to do Ubugawa’s jump serves, all of Karasuno tries Shinzen’s synchronized attack, and Tsukishima (along with Hinata) learns about blocking from Kuroo (and a little bit Bokuto). The song reflecting that adds a nice touch. 

(This next point is where I get big on the music theory, so I’ll link a video about it a little bit farther down if you’re confused)

This song is, not unlike Tsukishima himself, calculated. It sounds smart, almost crafty, but it also has a bright quality to it. Why’s that? It’s time for everyone’s favorite music theory concept, modes!

These are the seven big modes (here’s a video about them) but we’ll mostly be focusing on these two:

Aeolian mode is your typical minor scale, but this song isn’t in C minor, it’s in C dorian, which makes all the difference: The raised 6 in dorian mode as opposed to aeolian mode.

So here’s the beginning of the song I transcribed earlier, except this time the raised 6ths (the A naturals) are all in red:

This use of A natural instead of A flat makes the piece brighter because we’re borrowing from a key that’s a step clockwise on the circle of fifths and thus a brighter-sounding mode. (There’s one video about this concept here and another one here about Persona 5 that also has a bit about Dorian mode! 8 Bit Music Theory is just really good y’all)

And is character development bright? Heck yeah.

The raised sixth also makes the 4-3 suspension in bars 7 and 8 go to F major instead of F minor, which makes that resolution more happy and hopeful:

The third thing about this song that makes it really interesting and fit Tsukishima’s character during this arc is its floaty feeling. It’s echo-y and synthesized and it sounds curious. Well, there’s two reasons for that: 

The first is the tempo and meter, a slow-ish three that is clearly felt in one rather than three beats but isn’t a Strauss waltz or anything like that. The beats aren’t clearly defined, so it feels more floaty. 

The second is the prevalence of 7th, 9th, and 11th chords that have ambiguous tonality - that is to say, they have elements of major and minor. (Think something from Zelda BoTW) Practically every chord in this song isn’t just a major or minor triad, which adds to its curiosity. For example, here’s a C minor 7 chord that’s used a lot in this song:

But hidden within this chord are both a C minor triad and an E flat major triad, the relative major (C minor is in orange, E flat major is in green)

That contributes to the ambiguity of the song and the feeling of uncertainty.

So now that we know Moonrise stupidly well, where do we go from here? Season 3, of course!

Most iconic anime moments of 2016 am I right?

Tsukishima’s main theme in the Season 3 soundtrack is The Halo Around the Moon (There’s also The Daytime Moon, but I’m not going to be talking about that in this meta because it doesn’t really fit in besides giving a more general heroic vibe)

You may notice right off the bat that this song has a lot in common with Moonrise, because it does. There are also a lot of differences, but I’ll talk about those later on.

First off, there’s an ostinato similar to the one used in Moonrise, and here they are back to back:

This first one is Moonrise:

And this second one is Halo Around the Moon:

Notice something interesting? I did, and I’ll put it in blue:

Yes, despite these two tracks being in different keys (C minor and G minor respectively), the beginnings of the ostinatos are exactly the same. That’s the first indication that Halo Around the Moon is a reprise of sorts of Moonrise. 

And here’s something funny: The Dorian-mode raised sixth I was talking about earlier? Guess where C minor borrowed that from? That’s right, G minor!

Another key similarity is at 0:18 in the song. Recognize that chord progression? You should, it’s the same one that’s used in most of Moonrise, complete with 4-3 suspensions into C major thanks to, you guessed it, a raised sixth.

The third important similarity is, of course, the prevalence of seventh chords, which again contribute to a sense of ambiguity.

There are more similarities between the two songs than that, but this post is long enough already, so let’s get to the differences:

There’s one rhythmic difference between the two that contributes a lot to the tone Halo has compared to Moonrise. I mentioned earlier that Moonrise is floaty, in a slow three without emphasized beats other than the downbeat. In contrast, Halo is in a solid four with clear beats even before the drums come in. One of the biggest reasons this works is the syncopation (putting emphasis on offbeats, something that happens a lot in jazz music, which this song is sort of emulating). You can see it with the ties in the ostinato, with the chords in the piano and guitar, and in the bassline.

The other reason this song sounds a lot more serious and solid is the fact that it isn’t restricted to dorian mode like Moonrise is. You’ll never see an A flat anywhere in Moonrise, but in Halo, an E flat seventh chord is the first sound you hear. Since aeolian mode (typical G minor, with E flats), is a shade darker than dorian mode (raised sixths, in this case E naturals), this makes Halo a lot more serious. Even so, Halo does switch back and forth between dorian and aeolian mode, which makes it retain a little bit of the wonder that Moonrise had. 

So what does that mean in context of the scene it appears in? It reflects that Tsukishima is more confident in himself and his abilities, which is one of the biggest points that scene tries to make. The mode switching also shows that he’s still unpredictable (one of the main points Kageyama vs Tsukishima tried to make, too!) and has somewhere to go (which he does - during this whole match, he becomes Karasuno’s chief strategist and even pulls a Hinata face when going in for a hit at one point). But most importantly, this song is triumphant, with the electric guitar chords at the beginning and the ending that builds tension and excitement the whole way through. 

Tl;dr: Tsukishima’s themes, even without their obvious titles, are clearly connected to him through their use of ostinatos, ambiguous chords, and dorian mode to make everything seem a little brighter, and the subtle and not so subtle changes between them show how he’s changed right along with the anime itself.

[jira-chii]

Thoughts on the Shoumetsu Toshi anime after it aired

This post is probably overdue because the anime finished...a while ago. 

*Warning for long post and spoilers for the Shoumetsu Toshi anime*

Also, I didn’t rewatch the anime for this; I read the scripts.

So, before the Shoumetsu Toshi anime aired in April, I had written some initial speculations, mainly outlining three key challenges of adaptation the anime would have to face. Now that I've finished the anime, I would like to revisit that post and elaborate on how they handled those challenges.

Tldr on my og post: the anime had to find a way to not include too many of the (very loveable) characters from the game, had to be able to tell a complex story in a clear way within a 12 episode limit, and they had to do it in an interesting way without too much exposition. I definitely feel like the anime staff had these goals in mind, as there is evidence in the anime that they put in a lot of effort to solve them. But they may have fallen just short of that goal. 

Before I continue further though, I would like to say that I maintain my belief that making an anime adaptation from a source material as complex as Shoumetsu Toshi is incredibly difficult, and I admire the anime production team for tackling the challenge head on (putting in actual effort to make the anime a standalone-product, as opposed to shoehorning in an exact copy of the game’s storyline as so many other adaptations do for some quick marketing).

That said, the final product did not quite match my expectations (my bad for having my hopes up that high in the first place), and while I would love to chalk most of it up to episode constraints, time restrictions, budget limitations, and other factors outside the production team’s control, the truth is my issue is probably at a much more fundamental level.

Let's go through the order identified in my original post. 

Too many characters 

After watching the anime I am sure the producers were acutely aware of this challenge, and knew they had to be selective in who to choose to include in the production: characters who could not only propel the plot forward, but had interesting stories of their own to tell. 

Fan favourites like Tsubasa and Yoshiaki were an obvious choice, and including a mix of both frightening tamashii like Suzumebachi, and less violent ones such as SPR5, I can understand. The only real tamashii choice I can’t justify is Rou. Apart from looking slightly menacing, he does nothing, says nothing (maybe just one word. He gets a mention in the credits), and even worse he appears in episode one. 

My primary issue with Rou is that his character's design has too much...character. He’s a friggin’ monk. Flying around in a highway tunnel. It’s bound to raise questions. Which are never answered. If you introduce a character that flashy you've got to give him a backstory (he has one btw, but it's too complex to fit into this already packed anime). 

One could argue Rou's only purpose was to act as a weapon for the enemy, but I would think sticking with Suzumebachi would have been better? They serve the same role, and I feel having Takuya and Yuki resolve the conflict with Suzumebachi over the span of two episodes instead of just the one would make him seem like more of a threat and upped the tension. 

On the other end of the spectrum I have complaints about characters they didn't include, namely Lisa. How could you have Kouta without Lisa, that is just such a foreign concept to me? This could be due to the availability of the seiyuu themselves but, honestly, I would have rather they removed Kouta altogether. Don’t get me wrong. I love Kouta to bits, but for the purposes of the anime, it feels like he doesn't do anything at all. 

In fact, if you think about it, Kikyou, Yumiko, Eiji, Kouta, and Geek to an extent, basically all serve the exact same purpose. Which means having all of them at once is a waste of space. I know they made an effort to make it seem like Eiji and Kikyou are from a different organisation to Yumiko and Kouta. But really, what's the point? So what if Yumiko and Kouta used to work for the enemy? The impact of that to the main thrust of the story is minor; there are probably less convoluted ways to get to the same result. We could have had just Yumiko and Eiji and I’m pretty sure the story could be the same. Introducing just two of these characters instead of like, five, in episode one alone no less, also relieves the cognitive load on the audience (we can only take in so much information in those 20 minutes).

The actual problem though, is not so much there being too many characters, but that they were not used to their maximum potential.

For instance, if we broke down the explanatory purpose of just the tamashii that appeared in the anime, we would get something like this:

SPR5 explains that tamashii can materialise alternate possibilities;

Tsubasa shows AFs can be used to enhance the powers of the orphans who awakened powers as a result of human experimentation; 

Orphans reinforce what we learned from SPR5, including that the way to escape the alternate dimension is to fulfil their wish; 

Rou and Suzumebachi do nothing but seem threatening...; 

Akira protects Yuki and gets guilt tripped by Souma... 

One way of judging whether a character was “used” well, is to look at the narrative purpose they serve, and its correlation with the ending. You can probably see that, by themselves, with the exception of maybe SPR5 and orphans, these don't contribute much to understanding the ending of the anime. But that’s not to say they are useless filler. Some serve a functional purpose (for example, Yuki needs Akira to fight). Others contribute to the overall "core message" in their own way. Which seems to be: even though life is tough you have to move on. You can't change the past because then you would be denying the futures of those living in the present (More on this message later. Also, this exact theme appears in Souma's arc in Shoumetsu Toshi 0, but it’s done better).

However, even if a character’s or concept’s narrative purpose is not “useless”, that is not to say they couldn’t be made more “useful”. For example, AFs are basically never mentioned again after Souma dies. I only realised looking back retrospectively, but what was the real point of all that? Did we really need AFs in this story at all? Was there a way we could get to the same conclusion without the AFs? Alternatively, could we alter the ending to make the AFs more relevant?

Part of this involves altering the structure and flow of the story. Another part of this would be giving more strategic time for the important characters to make clear their narrative purpose. It is not easy to do that with a cast as big as Shoumetsu Toshi’s, but as a rule of thumb, the more important a character, the more screen time they should get.

I’ll use SPR5 as an example. In my original post, I was concerned they would get too much screen time, and in a sense they did. But it wasn't useful extra screen time, and this is a problem because the plot point that the anime uses SPR5 to explain is incredibly complex for just one episode. For that same reason, it seems reasonable to give them that extra screen time; but it could have been utilised better. For example, we could use their early cameos to make it clear they were victims of Lost. Before we formally meet Geek, why not show him mourning over SPR5 like everyone else did for the victims on the third anniversary of Lost, then show him binging their old videos. While you’re at it, why not throw in a comment lamenting that the idols will never have another live performance again? 

The advantage of this is that it is a much more clear and direct method of conveying information (compared to just the ambiguous montage we had at the very start of the anime). Additionally, having the audience know this stuff in advance, means it is more likely they will make an instant connection when they formally see Yua’s tamashii. Which means less time needs to be spent clarifying things we should already know (that SPR5 should be dead), and more time can be used productively on progressing the story (or apportioning more screen time to other important characters later in the show, like poor Ryouko).

Of course, this relies heavily on these pieces of knowledge being displayed in a clear enough way, or leaving a large enough impact, that we are able to link them in our minds almost instantaneously, even after several episodes.

Complex storyline

This was definitely where I thought the anime failed the hardest but was admittedly also the most difficult to pull off. 

First of all, the pacing was awful. The anime went for a 4-4-4 split for their twelve episodes, involving four episodes to set up the main plot, followed by four episodes focusing on stories of tamashii, and then a final four episodes resolving the main conflict. The problem with this is that major events are not given the time they need to make an impact. Like I mentioned, just introducing Ryouko earlier and keeping her around for more than one episode is a simple solution that would do wonders to fix the pacing. Therefore, I would suggest a better ratio for the split would have been 2-6-4.

It was clear that the anime was focusing on a linear story, and tried to link plot points to tamashii where possible (some with more success than others). It is very much plot-driven (as opposed to character-driven), and I honestly don’t have a problem with that. Except that using character-focussed side stories as a vessel to connect to a larger plot is undeniably one of the game’s greatest strengths, and it really shows. The anime’s best episodes were arguably the middle four, which focused on tamashii’s side stories. After the orphanage arc wrapped up, the anime honestly just went downhill from there.

But even then, some very deliberate decisions regarding the overall feel of the show seriously limited the potential of even those four episodes.

For instance, did anyone else feel something was missing with the Kaitodan? And I don't just mean the omission of some very important members, but the overall feel of the team. They were lacking charisma, and, while this is mainly due to not having enough time to develop, it is also a result of purposefully making them behave in a way that fit the story.

Essentially, the anime tried fitting all their characters into a very similar narrative pattern. Everyone needed a tragic character arc, whether it was losing someone dear to them, or losing their dreams and futures. The aim was to depict a truly horrible reality, to contrast against the ideal in an alternate reality, a parallel world. 

But the result of this was losing a lot of the core characteristics that made these characters beloved in the first place. Characters aren't given the full scope to showcase their personalities. Rui definitely felt a lot less playful, Sumire seemed to use a gun more than her signature chainsaw, and I fear this was also part of the reason Yayoi, Kouji and Saori got cut out. Their natural state was just too...positive, for the atmosphere the anime was going for. And I think this is a missed opportunity.   

What I am saying is essentially, this anime needed a better balance of positive and negative. While watching the show, there were times where I really thought it would have been better if the anime didn’t try so hard to be dark and dramatic and gloomy. One could argue that the core message of the anime relied on Yuki feeling miserable almost the whole time, but that doesn't mean you have to subject your audience to never-ending despair as well. Especially when another core message is that this world is worth living in. 

The key scenes in particular that I think could be leveraged are the "parallel world" scenes within Lost. These moments are so important as a reference point to understand the implication of Yuki's final decision. We need to know there is an alternative, and see how good life "could" have been. Yet these pivotal scenes are only given a brief couple of minutes. And that's such a waste, because I really think Lost was the most interesting setting in the whole anime. That's, like, literally where the tamashii are supposed to be. It's also where most of the surreal Observer symbolism happens, which is what 90% of the game's fans were looking forward to. And yet we're only in it for (not even) two episodes! What's the point of calling this anime Shoumetsu Toshi if they're not even in said Shoumetsu Toshi for half the time??

Anyway, my point is, Yuki makes a very big decision at the end of her journey, with huge implications. But, up until then, there was very little to actually guide her (and us) in that direction. Why, after everything she has been through, would she choose to reject resetting the world? We could probably come up with some answers if we tried (meeting Takuya being one of them), but these answers are never made obvious enough. And while this could have been done on purpose to put the “correctness” of Yuki’s final decision into question, it also risks jeopardising the message of the entire anime. Because there’s not enough evidence to convince us that her decision was the right one, and too much evidence making us believe it was the wrong one. And there’s no pay-off to either. 

As a result, despite the very strong core message, I could not help but feel that not much was resolved in the end. It was quite unsatisfying in that there wasn't enough closure for our main characters, but at the same time the ending felt surprisingly closed and final - there's no real hint that they want to make a sequel? Which is disappointing.

The biggest disappointment though was that there was no plot twist. There were so many interesting concepts they could have explored more. The source material by itself gives a heap of options around parallel worlds alone. What if inside Lost we actually dropped Takuya and Yuki into one of those ideal alternate parallel worlds? And had them live it out more fully? And gave Yuki more time to explore it, and give her some concrete reason to believe that keeping her world as it is, despite its flaws, is actually the best decision? 

You might accuse me of trying to fit more into an already packed anime but I am strongly of the opinion that a story's conceptual potential should be explored to its fullest wherever possible, even if it means not wrapping up everything perfectly by the end of twelve episodes. I would argue the anime could have, and should have, spaced out its events more to end on a cliffhanger, with a potential for a sequel (regardless of whether or not a sequel would even be feasible). Because saying this is the end, is just sad. 

Exposition 

This was the one thing the Shoumetsu Toshi anime probably spent the most effort addressing. The anime attempts to follow, for the most part, a show, don't tell approach. This is especially evident in the first few episodes, which are full of action. And well done on them for trying that. Key word being trying, because I don't think they actually successfully pulled off the show, don't tell. Because there is still a heap of exposition (sometimes they try to dress it up by having a news crew exposit instead of Eiji, or Yumiko. But don't be fooled). And even worse, a heap of missing exposition, which becomes apparent when you realise they needed an entire episode of just flashback to explain some key concepts (episode 9), because they couldn't do it in the eight whole episodes prior. Even worse, we were still left with so many questions about what happened in episode 11.

I guess what they needed was more strategic exposition, which should have been tied into the way the story was told and its pacing (see what I mentioned about the narrative purpose of the tamashii earlier). Sadly, the character who needed to utilise strategic exposition the most, but epically failed to do so, was Yuki herself.

Yuki’s poor character development was one of the things I definitely did not expect. She's the main character! But her personality is so...flat. Or rather, it doesn't make much sense.

Yuki’s perspective is the one we primarily view the anime from. She is shown to us at the very start of the show. Yuki is meant to be relatable to us. In the first half at least, we actually know more about her than Takuya does. We get to see flashbacks of her past that she doesn’t reveal to anyone else. We experience the same confusion she does when Takuya busts her out. We are meant to feel as betrayed as she does when Takuya calls her a “package”. If the anime continued on this trajectory, we are actually supposed to fully understand why Yuki makes the decision she does at the end. Except they completely broke our suspension of disbelief when Yuki basically develops complete trust in Takuya by the end of episode 2, and is even confident enough to enable someone else to move forward in episode 3. Something happened to Yuki that we weren’t a part of. And now she is no longer relatable because for some reason we weren’t on that journey with her.

Even worse, Yuki’s biggest character development happens off-screen, when Takuya is off at the orphanage doing an entire investigation without her. Isn’t it kind of sad, that Yuki gets more character development out of talking about Takuya to Yumiko, rather than actually interacting with him. This is also part of the reason the events of episode 11 are just baffling. Because the fact of the matter is, for the entire first half of the anime (possibly even the first three-quarters), Yuki and Takuya just don't seem to trust each other enough to make their relationship believable.

When even your main characters lose credibility, it becomes difficult to feel invested in the rest of the show. This feeling is exacerbated in Shoumetsu Toshi because the anime relied so much on drama. How many times did we see/hear the gunshot cliche? Gunshots serve as an effective way to transition between scenes, while creating a cliffhanger effect. The problem with this, though, is doing it too much, especially within a short span of time, results in high-tension scenes losing impact. Even worse, when you’re not even invested in the characters enough to care whether or not they die, the whole scene just feels cheap and ridiculous.

Basically, there were milestones we needed to see to make Yuki’s development seem natural and credible. Specifically, her development involved her gradually trusting in Takuya, and growing more confident in herself. These require at least one of two things happening: Takuya does something to make him worth trusting, or something happens to make Yuki come to the decision that she wants to go to Lost. I think the anime tried to go for the former in episode 1 (by having Takuya persist on taking Yuki to Lost despite his injuries), and the latter in episode 2 (symbolically through Yuki jumping onto the scooter with Takuya). But I'm not sure this is the best way to depict such a relationship convincingly to the audience. 

Wouldn't it make more sense to do it the other way? To have the two cooperating because they each have different motives to go to Lost (Yuki to find her father, Takuya to fulfil his contract), and then have Takuya do something outside his contract to finally get Yuki to trust him? 

Yuki probably did have a glimmer of hope when Takuya rescued her, but those hopes were dashed when he called her a literal package. I don't see why she should continue to trust him. Is it because he decided to look for her, and convince her to go to Lost? But that's not a particularly satisfying reason. Because the implication right now is, regardless of whether or not Yuki trusts Takuya, he is going to take her to Lost, even by force. Because of his dedication to his contract. 

Likewise, Yuki doesn't even get to the point of telling Takuya what traumatised her, even though she was ready to tell Ryouko everything after she brings up her father. Ryouko makes Yuki realise she really does want to find her father and is the first person she opens up to about the experimentation she was subjected to. This could have been a great opportunity to let Yuki decide for herself that she wants to go to Lost, regardless of whether or not she trusts Takuya. 

My point is basically: have Ryouko be Yuki's emotional crutch, while Yuki decides whether or not Takuya is trustworthy. Keep Ryouko around for a while longer to get us emotionally invested, and lull Yuki (and us) into a false sense of security. Eventually, it should get to the point where, if Ryouko died and Takuya comforted Yuki, we would know it was not just out of sympathy. Capitalise on Ryouko’s death. Show how bad Takuya is at comforting, but also that he's willing to try. Then, contrast this to what he does after Souma's death. He goes through all the rubble (basically Souma's corpse) to find the choker. Because he understood how important that was to Yuki. The two didn't need to say a word to each other to understand how the other was feeling. Takuya didn't even need to see Yuki. Just silently hands over Souma's choker, as he keeps his eyes on the road ahead, never looking back. 

If one could naturally see the progression in their relationship until this moment, almost everything that follows in the anime starts to make a lot more sense: especially the seaside scene and the Lost scene. 

The frustrating thing is, I could see signs of this in the anime, but they weren’t explicit enough. It is absolutely crucial to just nail that transition in their relationship: from cooperation, to dependence, to actual trust. It needs to happen in that order, and it needs to be incredibly obvious. Going for subtlety for something as important as this, is definitely not a good idea. 

Anyway, this post has become very long and messy so I’ll stop now, but I am definitely not going to stop talking about this topic. I think the key to theoretically fixing this anime is a stronger integration of plot and character. I've already given a bit of an idea into how this could be done, but it's probably a little hard to visualise from just what I’ve written here. In the future I do plan to go the whole way and actually write up a pseudo episode-by-episode potential outline of an alternate way to do the anime. So look forward to that.

In the meantime, you can see the prequel to this post here.

Or my thoughts on just episodes 5 and 6 (the Kaitodan-Tsubasa-Yoshiaki arc) here (including another way I would have done it)

[perfectackeracy]

considering what you've already written on the topic of eren's behavior during chapter 84 up until recently; what do you think of him as a character in general?

Eh, I’ll give my judgement when the story will be over. He is the main character after all and I feel like giving a judgement now would be too premature, despite us nearing the end of the manga. I’ve got the beginning but the end is absolutely necessary for me to answer your question properly.

Still, if you want something partial, but still long, follow me under the cut (too bad for mobile users because screw the interface right).

It truly depends of how Isayama writes him at the end, if he really intended him to be some normie who tried to be a hero and change things, but failed, or… something else. Indeed, the end heavily relies of what’s presented to us at the beginning:

“No… But I feel like I just had the longest dream.. What was it? Now I can’t remember…” - Ch.1

Flashback? Future vision? We all thought till chapter 89 came that future vision was bull. It took a whole chapter to suddenly invert the perspective. While there isn’t many chapters left, there’s still facts that are going to pop up that might suddenly change our perception of the characters forever.

…Just like mine with Eren in chapter 84.

I’d actually like the normie one because it would fit what Eren did at the beginning: joining the Survey Corps on a whim because he hates being confined and ended up inheriting a power considered absolute, realizing he made a huge mistake from the start.

It seems Isayama, who previously had a vague idea of what he wanted to do with him, found something more defined. If I recall correctly he felt inspired by Yuki Kaiji, the voice actor from Eren. He even told Araki to make him more pathetic than in the original manga, implying Eren was never meant to be the literal version of a hero, a character with admirable traits.

Usually, the typical shônen protagonist is a character who has a dream, since they were little and do almost anything in order to accomplish it, whether it is becoming the strongest, becoming somebody important, solving a mystery, finding somebody from your life who has gone missing, etc… Their personality vary from manga to manga, but it’s often the cheerful teenager, naive or hot-blooded, capable of being a simpleton due to his lack of experience but also the one who motivates people, is surrounded by his nakama and clashes with rivals and enemies.

The vengeful protagonist also exists, but they’re mostly present in dark shônen or shônen trying to deal with more mature themes without being labeled as a seinen. Eren registers in this category, while building the development of a typical shônen protagonist without exhibiting its qualities: he’s not full of dream and ambition, something a shônen MC should inspire in the heart of young boys. Instead, he’s described as being selfish, having a complex or no ambition at all.

As extra evidence, his highschool AU describes him as the frustrated normie who’s annoyed “in one way or another”. The fake preview from volume 22 describes him as neither belonging to the nerds or the jocks nor having any dreams or interests (it’s interesting how the formulation here ends in “もない” on the three sentences of the description, almost as if Eren meant nothing), despite the wannabe’s reputation being neutral. That’s kinda sad when you think about it actually, because at his core, he really needs to fuel his blank state.

Still, Isayama doesn’t make him wander around aimlessly in the canon storyline and managed to give him a purpose. He strangely carries themes like the Chosen One because people, specifically Grisha imposed that on him. Carla called her son special for the sole reason he was born into this world, that every human who sees the light of the day is considered special. 

Because he was frustrated about “Humanity’s submission against the titans”, that’s what prompted him to step out and defy the “imposed slavery” on him. He wasn’t always like that, though. Meeting and knowing Armin triggered that complex about him lacking ambition.

Eren and Armin meeting for the first time - Ch. 83

When he first met Armin, he befriended him fairly quickly because of their status as outcasts. Eren already showed signs of not belonging to the other kids, probably because he had trouble sharing the same interests as them and also because he gets irritated quickly and gets into fights to shut them up. Funnily enough, those panels show the first signs of Eren’s prevalent traits: fighting back and beating them or else you’re a loser.

“I had never thought about what was beyond the walls until then… I’d only spent my days looking at the clouds in the sky. Not that it’s anything strange for a kid eight or nine years old to not be thinking about anything… but then you came running to me with a book. Both of us were outcasts, not able to get along with the other kids in town. That’s all we were back then. But when I heard you telling me those things… and I saw the look in your eyes. That’s when I knew for the first time. I wasn’t free. I noticed that I had been living in a birdcage for all this time. And that these freakish things had taken my freedom. The world was so big, but they’d forced me into a tiny cage. And when I realized that… I knew I could never forgive them.” - Ch.73

It wasn’t so much about the ocean or the contents of the outside world Eren was motivated for. Because he was aimlessly starting at the sky, he couldn’t believe someone like Armin could conceive something like… ambition. That’s why Eren was intrigued by the look in his eyes. And because the titans were actually obstacles to his personal space, he held a grudge against them. They were in the way, they were giant-sized bullies, they have to be removed.

Eren’s character song actually fist up nicely with his character: “男はロマンだぜ！たけだ君っ“ by Shinsei Kamattechan (lyrics and translation here) illustrates somebody talking to a certain Takeda, who prompts him to disobey his parents and do whatever they want because they’re free, despite them being children (the song talks about spending money carelessly and buying cigarettes). Eren being either one of the kids, wants his taste of freedom without having any authority telling him not to do it.

“From the day we’re born, there was something special about all of us: we’re free” - Ch. 73

Needless to say, I think that attitude and that grudge against the titans pushed him to idolize the Survey Corps and eventually join them. Because they went as far as destroying his district, making him swear extermination on every person responsible.

Then there was his meeting with Mikasa.

“You see Eren, that attitude is why you only have one friend.” - Ch. 5

Here we have yet Eren’s “normie” attitude demonstrated when it comes to Grisha asking him to get familiar with Mikasa. But then, he certainly wans’t expecting corpses.

Eren ready to begin the chase - Ch. 5

I tend to see this chapter as Eren being triggered by seeing dead bodies on the floor. Him seeing Mikasa’s parents being brutally murdered tingled his sense of justice and frustration: “How dare they kill people? This if worthy of the death penalty and I’m going to inflict that to them!”. The way he got close to these bandits is almost as scary as what they were planning to do with Mikasa: he’s approaching the first one by acting like an innocent child with clear murder intent (He’s supposed to be 9!!!). He then proceeds to pin down the second one before repeatedly stabbing himself over and over.

“I stopped dangerous beasts!! They only happened to resemble humans!! If you hadn’t come here, they would have been gone by the time the military police brigade had arrived!! The MPs wouldn’t have made it in time!!” - Ch. 5

Notice how the justification he brings to kill them is because they reduced themselves to low beasts who kill people, and as beasts, it’s “only natural” they deserve a death penalty. Besides, Eren is motivating Mikasa using the same logic he used for Armin: fight or you’re a complete loser.

Eren “teaching” Mikasa - Ch. 5

Needless to say that Eren wasn’t opposed to let Mikasa live in his house. He came to realize years later his attitude towards the bandits was pure impulse, as he gets lectured by Reiner about the meaning of being a soldier in chapter 17.

In the very first chapter of the series, every trait I’ve mentioned till there transpires into his motivation into joining the Survey Corps, so he wouldn’t live as a “caged animal” any longer. He gets upset when people are talking trash about them because he truly believed they were doing it for great justice. And that day, when the wall has been breached, it just so happens that Eren had a weird dream when he was crying and it was finally the day where Grisha showed him the basement. That day truly changed his life, for the best or the worst.

“I hate the idea of spending my whole life… inside the wall, ignorant of what’s happening in the world outside!!” - Ch. 1

But of course, this “outside” serves mostly as an excuse to give him more space. As he declared later: “They’re our lives! we can do whatever we want with them, right?”

When Shiganshina fell, Eren made his vow to kill every single titan left. During that time, he punched Hannes for preventing him from saving his mom. What was interesting is that piece of flashback before scrolling back to present.

“I’ll never be able… to go home again. Up to the end, all I could do was argue and be stubborn! Mom’s gone!! I’m never gonna see her again… Why is this happening to us? Is it because humans are weak? Is crying the only thing the weak can do?! I’m gonna destroy them!! Every last one… of those animals… that’s on this Earth!” - Ch. 2

The night when Shiganshina has fallen was the night where Grisha passed his titan power to Eren. The part where Grisha stated two contradictory statements in relation with chapter 89.

“Eren, get revenge for your mother. You can do it.” - Ch. 71

“Eren… never let this key… out of your sight. And everytime you look at it… remember… that you have to go to the basement room. The injection will cause damage to your memory… That’s why I can’t explain this to you now… but when you go to the basement room someday, you’ll learn the truth… it will be a hard and merciless road… but you have to recapture Wall Maria and get to that room. The power I’m giving you will be useful then. Their memories will teach you how to use it… if you want to save Mikasa… Armin… and everyone else… you’ll have to… control this power!” - Ch. 10

“Dad… Stop it! Dad! What are you doing?! You’ve been acting crazy since mom died!!”, “Eren!! Hold out your arm!” - Ch. 3

“You will be the one… to avenge your mother!!”, “Okay“ - Ch. 63

This moment was really hard to piece out together because what was thought as a contradiction became a succession of events where Grisha scared his son with the shifter power talk, but riled back him for a short while by settling him as one one who will avenge his mom. Earlier, Grisha made his mind and picked him as the legitimate successor of the Attack Titan. Thanks to chapter 89, it may have been inevitable. In this scene, he went from a sorrowful expression to an angry one, almost swapping memories for a brief instant like what happened with Kruger. In any case he burdened Eren with his shifter power and the Coordinate, thus making him bare probably the biggest sin going by Ymir’s curse. 

Because of that, his whole life changed. So did Eldians’.

The next segment is about Eren joining the military, two years after working in a settlement. This is the time where his attitude sort of... changed.

Eren trying to let his will of dominance pushing him forward - Ch. 15

Chronologically, starting from that point, Eren uses “we” when talking about Humanity. Mostly because, as stated by his dialogue in chapter, he believes in unity against a common enemy. He settled the titans as the enemy “humanity” was supposed to defeat, despite him quickly meeting, and clashing with people who didn’t agree with that notion: it started with Hannes not taking his job seriously, then Jean who outright admitted he’d rather live a comfy life inside the walls. Even much later in chapter 72, when Eren mentions that spirit of unity, Armin internally disagrees by thinking about his bullies. 

Eren’s world was mostly an ideal one, where you loop the first opening of the anime and have humanity fighting against the titans, forgetting not every single human is motivated by rage: Mikasa is fine with living with Eren in a quaint place, Levi “the hero” is mostly motivated by Erwin, Jean wanted and comfy life among the MP, people have a very negative opinion of the SC in general, Ymir doesn’t mind living her life for herself despite knowing much more about what’s happening than Eren does...

His biggest obstacle was the first step for 3DMG training, where Keith sabotaged the equipment on purpose. For the first time, Eren felt like his goal just evaporated in the air, with everybody mocking him for it, followed by an argument with Mikasa, who’s trying to dissuade him:

“You shouldn’t set your sights on that anyway. If you’re not cut for it, what can you do? Because at this rate, you’re just going to die in vain. And all your dreams and efforts will be for nothing. I’m saying you shouldn’t aim to be a soldier. You can always support the human race by being a producer. Laying down your life isn’t the only way to fight. [...] ...Your resolve has nothing to do with it. It’s not your decision whether you get to be a soldier, Eren...” - Ch. 16

Eventually, nothing worked. Eren still wants to pass the 3DMG exam. While talking to Reiner and Bertolt, he declares his will to kill the titans is a need he personally feels: becoming a soldier is a way to achieve this. I’m sure he’d find another way out if he can’t pass the exams, mostly because he has nothing left to make him move.

Parts of his personality have been shaped later by Reiner and Annie: Reiner about the solider mumbo-jumbo, Annie because of her techniques aiming to defeat people quickly. He demonstrated these two aspects during his fight with Jean (with Annie and Reiner even looking!). 

“...I see... he was... just venting his feelings. Like I did before... but I’m different now... I’m... a soldier! [...] I’ll use my skills to finish this.” - Ch. 17

The most important part of his training is reserved for hand-to-hand techniques, skills proving themselves to be really useful once Eren shifts to a titan. Seems Annie was really insistent on teaching Eren these techniques as soon as he reminded her of her father, because Eren’s reality was just as misplaced as his. You can see that insistence if you connect chapter 17 and chapter 44 together.

I think I’d rather break this analysis into several parts because it’s getting way too long. Eren faced different trials in Trost, during the FT arc and so on, where he had to deal with huge losses, traitors, the hard truth and eventually, the coordinate settling in.

[recentanimenews]

Bookshelf Briefs 3/7/20

Ao Haru Ride, Vol. 9 | By Io Sakisaka | VIZ Media – Ao Haru Ride is probably the most straight-up dramatic shoujo that I am reading at the moment, and though it relies largely on story beats that would usually annoy me—like misunderstandings and poor communication—I still really enjoy it. Kou and Futaba have feelings for each other, but Kou’s misguided decision to reject Futaba in favor of hanging out with a sad former classmate kept them apart. Now, Futaba believes Kou and said classmate are a couple, so she’s trying to move on with Kikuchi, a very nice boy whom she’s trying her best to fall for. I love that Kou’s actions have consequences and also that we see their friends discussing the situation and deciding that they can’t fix things for him; this time he has to be the one to act. I also note that Kikuchi is especially likable for a romantic rival, which is kind of rare. Recommened! – Michelle Smith

Given, Vol. 1 | By Natsuki Kizu | SuBLime – Ritsuka Uenohara got so good at playing the guitar that he started to find it boring. That changes when he meets a mysterious classmate named Mafuyu Sato, who is carrying around a very nice guitar yet has no idea how to play it. Mafuyu sings for Uenohara the melody that keeps running through his head, which proves to be the spark that gets Uenohara excited about music again. Mafuyu joins Uenohara’s band as their new singer—the other members are two college guys who seem poised to have a love story of their own—and they’re quickly gearing up for their first live show. Meanwhile, Uenohara’s confused about just how he feels about Mafuyu. Given already has a lot to love: the band dynamics, the relationship between the two leads, the mystery of Mafuyu’s past… I’m eager for more! – Michelle Smith

Komi Can’t Commmunicate, Vol. 5 | By Tomohito Oda | VIZ Media – Komi Can’t Communicate is a very charming series with likable characters. (The exception, of course, is Yamai, who continues to be thoroughly gross.) In this volume, the gang patronizes a run-down restaurant whose proprietors think Komi is a famous reviewer, meets a couple of new characters (Komi is up to 13 friends now!), and plans/executes a maid café for the cultural festival. What I really like is that though there are many comedic moments, Komi continues to make genuine progress in overcoming her communication difficulties. Her mom is shocked and happy to see her talking on the phone, she’s able to say something when out shopping with the two new characters, and she even manages a brief solo dance with Tadano before Najimi turns it into a group thing. This series is sixteen volumes and counting so far and I am definitely here for the long haul. – Michelle Smith

A Man and His Cat, Vol. 1 | By Umi Sakurai | Square Enix – A flat-faced exotic shorthair keeps getting passed over at the pet store until a kind older gentleman arrives to take him home. Through a series of short chapters, they get to know each other. The human (Kanda) names the kitty Fukumaru, and it soon becomes apparent that he has lost his beloved wife, who had spoken of the possibility of getting a cat when their children were grown. This is an extremely sweet series about two beings who need each other, with dashes of humor provided by typical cat behaviors. I laughed out loud at a particularly evocative panel depicting what happens when Kanda removes an offending cover from Fukumaru’s litter box. I also appreciated seeing the pair through the eyes of Kanda’s long-time friend, who hasn’t seen him smile this much in ages. I’m looking forward to volume two! – Michelle Smith

My Androgynous Boyfriend, Vol. 1 | By Tamekou | Seven Seas – There’s a certain type of advertising line that goes “come for the _________, stay for the _________,” and I definitely feel that this works with My Androgynous Boyfriend. The androgyny is definitely a strong part of the title, such as needing to hide Meguru’s relationship with Wako to avoid fan rage, and pairing him up with another pretty boy model, Kira (which goes south fast when both disagree with the idea). But mostly I loved the simple loving relationship between Wako and Meguru, which is strong, sexy, and not something I was expecting in this sort of series. Wako also gets a lot to do, as well as some of the best lines. It’s a series where I come away going “is the next volume out already?” – Sean Gaffney

My Hero Academia: Smash!!, Vol. 3 | By Hirofumi Neda and Kohei Horikoshi | VIZ Media – Smash!! continues to be pretty fun, though there seemed to be an inordinate amount of Mineta in this particular volume. True, much of that consists of the girls orchestrating his punishment for being such a total creep, which I guess is better than it could’ve been. Story-wise, volume three takes readers through the League of Villains’ attack on the training camp, but there are many diversions prior to that, including summer vacation hijinks, rescue drills, Halloween, etc. What I like best are things I’d never had reason to think of before, like Tokoyami’s inability to perform CPR, or just completely absurd visuals like Todoroki being depicted in a poodle costume or Aizawa playing the victim in a rescue scenario. I don’t know how much reread potential this series has, but… well, “pretty fun” about sums it up. – Michelle Smith

Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu, Vol. 6 | By Natsuya Semikawa and Virginia Nitouhei | Udon Entertainment – This is still, for the most part, a lighthearted series about people enjoying delicious pub food, but there is an ominous undercurrent to the whole thing that implies that the conservative forces are starting to rally against the izakaya as being a den of witches and that things may not be bright and sunny for long. Till then, there’s omelettes, and Hamburg Steak, and any number of tasty food that the customers, even if they may be reluctant at first, come to love. The question is whether that love of food can enter the hearts of the Church, which is very much in a “everything progressive and non-traditional must go into the fire” frame of mind. – Sean Gaffney

Scarlet, Vol. 1 | By Chiri Yuino | Seven Seas – This proved to be a lot darker and less fanservice-filled than I expected given the cover… and yes, I know the cover shows a vampire and her (rather happy) victim. But the vampire’s not all that happy, and in the end this is a book about the horrors of drug addiction, albeit one coached in the language of fairy tales and legends. Fine is a tragic vampire who wants to be human again, and Iris Redblood gets to be Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf at the same time. Together, they do indeed fight crime, but they don’t always win the day—sometimes the cute little girl ends up dying. And yes, there’s more than a tinge of yuri to this, which is why I suspect folks here will pick it up. It’s pretty good, but not sure if I need more of it. – Sean Gaffney

Takane & Hana, Vol. 13 | By Yuki Shiwasu | Viz Media – Another unbalanced volume, this is definitely front-loaded, with the first half having some of the best material in the entire series, as Takane and Hana open up to each other in a private moment (that turns out to be a little less than private) and admit their feelings. The second half shows them trying to negotiate this thing they now have, going on a date (well, more of an endurance hike), and a trip to Okinawa, where they run into another annoying little problem—they still have to hide things, so she’s the “kid sister,” which irritates Takane no end. And, well, there’s also the problem if Hana lacking a certain sense of shame—fortunately Takane has it for her. The first half, though? Magnificent. – Sean Gaffney

Tales of Wedding Rings, Vol. 8 | By Maybe | Yen Press – I enjoy the art and characters, but the series does love its one plot, which is “make it look like sex will be happening any day now but never actually have it occur.” Yes, they figure out a way to get out of the “bone or die” space without actually boning, and are able to move on with the fantasy part of the plot. Which actually involves the somewhat unwieldy party splitting up, so the next book should at least try to move away from will-they-or-won’t-they? a bit. In the meantime, this is another one where there’s no real conflict between the girls (as opposed to the previous generation of ring bearers). Even Saphir, seemingly the one who cares the least, is more a jerk with a heart of gold. Getting sort of trying. – Sean Gaffney

Umma’s Table | By Yeon-sik Hong | Drawn and Quarterly – Having greatly appreciated Uncomfortably Happily, I was excited that Drawn and Quarterly would be releasing another of Hong’s manhwa in translation, Umma’s Table. The narrative follows a cartoonist named Madang and his struggle to balance (and to some extent keep separate) his life as a new parent and his life as a caregiver for his ailing mother and father. Although shadowed by his father’s alcoholism and the lasting impact it has on multiple generations, some of Madang’s happiest and most nostalgic memories are those of family meals and his mother’s food. Overall, Umma’s Table is a bittersweet, wrenching work, but it’s not without moments of hope as Madang reflects on the complexities and parallels of his experiences both as a father and as a son. While not as explicitly autobiographical as Uncomfortably Happily, elements from Hong’s life are present in Umma’s Table as well, providing a sense of visceral honesty. – Ash Brown

By: Ash Brown

[papers4me]

Fruits Basket SE02, ep11

There’s a such a sad tone throughout the episode because the theme is “letting go”. Currently: Kagura letting go of kyo. Kyo letting go of being with tohru, Possible future I hope for/want so bad: tohru letting go of the sohma’s. Yes. Girl needs to carve her own path, not solely live for others. Selfish kagura was wrong, selfless kyo can be wrong. But selfless tohru is definitely wrong! Be selfish tohru! plz! I want this for you so bad!!!

-Tohru’s Mission:

I’m so happy there are no magic cure for the curse! Nothing supernatural tohru needs to do. The curse is a metaphor for abuse & trauma, so breaking it with realistic & logical ways is awesome! Forming healthier bonds to replace the toxic ones is a plausible solution.The writer could’ve easily gone the anime-magic style, but didn’t! Tohru in her curse-breaker mode contacting Kazuma who didn’t hold back. “why must you bow you head/do so much” YES!! “you’ve already done so much”. Tell her!! she’s done enough for them. That image of her hugging kyo in his cat form is literally more than anybody could’ve done! the shunned cat, the hideous monster has been embraced by the beauty. love that someone within the story is against the idea of curse-breaker tohru!

-The nature of Abuse/Curse: The abused always lack the strength to oppose the abuser, cuz the abuser has systematically crushed their will/spirit & instilled twisted beliefs, brainwashing the victims into believing they can’t escape & no one is waiting for them, or they’re harmful, so they should stay inside.

-Kazuma’s opinion of Akito: abusers always look pathetic to outsiders, their strength is only dominating their victims. kazuma, an outsider, sees Akito as A spoiled child-like adult. “Fragile & unstable”. Notice how Kazuma’s words humanize Akito. He doesn’t call her monster! but a person who needs to be stopped for herself & others.

-THE “DATE”:

Once again, kyo/kagura date is everything but a date. It has all the typical signs of kagura/kyo “date”. She demands it, he’s refuses, she’s manipulates him using tears, he reluctantly accepts. She initially wanted to experience date-like activities, movies, lunch, he tries, he even dressed up for her, but she can read his eyes: please END this. She gives up leading him to where it all started. That park...happy place, right?

-The unfortunate memory:

To her: she was happily making a friend less fortunate than her, to him: it was a happy memory of ever making any fiend. To her: his misfortune is an opportunity to create a better image of herself: “The beauty accepting the pitiful beast“. To him: it was a moment of fear, alone in the park in his ugliest form, better hide well & wait till I’m human again.. mommy will be mad ..no more playing in the park...no more freedom. It’s tragic how this memory shaped their present relationship. What broke that day wasn’t kyo’s beads, but his trust in her. Whatever trust he had for his big sister is shattered by the pain of his true form & all its ugly outcomes. how tragic that she tried to overcompensate for years, to erase what happened & replace it with forced affection, manipulations, violence, ANYTHING! just let me be the beauty that loves the beast. The tragedy wasn’t that Kagura wanted to fix her human mistake, the tragedy was that she ONLY wanted to heal her own pain. Everybody is afraid of monsters. kyo’s mom. Tohru, too. Kagura screaming & running away wasn’t new to kyo. it is sth he accepts as normal. her leaving him behind is what broke him. He’s as afraid of this monster as everybody else. yet, he’s always left alone with it. Until tohru came & stayed with him. Tohru wins his trust cuz she saw the pain in the beast, the fear, the loneliness. Kagura lost it cuz she left him behind like everybody else did. Kagura’s confession is heartbreaking for them both. but it is tragic that even in her confession she only saw her pain. “I never thought abt your pain”, No one cares abt the monster. They are Not humans. “I only thought abt myself”.

Kyo’s growth:

Silent, understanding, firm, yet kind kyo is a side we usually see with tohru, where he listens silently until she finishes, no rush, no interruption. This side Kagura sees now for the first time. He’s letting her unload her baggage, no matter how painful it is to hear how she pitted him. pity is one of kyo’s worst pet peeves. Yet, he showed no disgust or annoyance. No access to his thoughts. His face & solemn expression conveys lots. Every sentence, decision, expression, & word he said were perfect & showed immense growth.

She realized the difference between them. Both were in pain, both matured to understand themselves better, both gained courage to let go of toxic feelings, however, unlike her, kyo saw her pain & sized to relieve it.

“I won’t fall in love with you”calmly but firmly “I never will” stopping any possible scenarios. Typical kyo, no pampered words to color things differently, just direct, straightforward & honest sentences. That’s how he is with tohru. “I’m not upset abt you looking down on me” reliving her from guilt (a destructive feeling kyo knows too well), “you have nothing to apologize for” regardless if she must or not, kyo is releasing her of the outcomes of her confession. She doesn’t need to fix or explain or justify anything. “No matter your reason was, I’m happy you played with me”. Kyo chose to remember the one positive part of that memory & let go of the darkness attached to it. Them playing together. Not her leaving him. He chose to keep this memory precious & thank her for it.  It’s then that kagura herself chose to do the same, let go of the darkness & bring the innocent memory: “kyo-chan, I love you”. Kyo choosing to embrace her until she’s done crying & thanking her is a precious part of himself that is so endearing. Oh how the table have turned!! The monster is the one comforting the beauty. The monster is not pitiful nor ugly, he’s kind & oh so endearingly sweet. After all, it is not a love story. It never was.

Side Notes:

tohru asking before using the phone in the house she’s been living in for  a year now! my precious girl! T_T.

How twisted the sohma’s are to deny a dead relative burial in the family’s gravesite. All cat zodiacs are even denied after death?! tortured by ridicule & solitary life confinement & even disowned after death. tragic. that’s kyo’s fate. It’s a metaphor for the abusive environment, one can’t expect logic or humanity from such abusive systems. 

kyo covering tohru’s ears...son, why are u so obvious? it hurts, lol. Yuki is in disbelief of how your love-sick brain works. lol

Kyo & black button down shirt. that’s it. That’s the note. 

Kagura finally graduated from comic-relief with violent tendencies to human character with flaws, mistakes & tragic choices. yay!

[recentanimenews]

INTERVIEW: Chihayafuru Producer on Overcoming Odds and Uncertainty

Chihayafuru is an anime that’s difficult to define within typical genres. The series weaves together the intense competition and battles of shonen or sports manga with the subtle emotionality of a shojo story. Despite centering around karuta, a competitive card game that seems pretty impenetrable to Western audiences with its references to Japanese literature, the series has found a very dedicated fan community outside of Japan. We were lucky enough to have the chance to talk to Toshio Nakatani, a producer who has worked on the anime adaptation of Chihayafuru, including the third season! 

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us. Are you enjoying San Jose so far?

Nakatani: Yeah. It’s my first time but it’s very comfortable. 

How do you like the weather? How does it compare to Japan this time of year? 

Nakatani: It’s less humid. It’s much more comfortable.

Could you tell us a little bit about your career and how you ended up becoming a producer in anime?

Nakatani: When I graduated college, I had no real inclination that I would become an anime producer at that point. I knew I wanted to do filmmaking and storytelling. I wanted to work up to the content put out at National Geographic, but then I was assigned to animation.

Did you have any sort of affection for anime before starting as producer?

Nakatani: I certainly consumed anime, but definitely not to the extent of imagining that I would be contributing in the capacity that I do. So, it was a surprise.

Producing is often a very work-heavy role in the sense that they have to manage so many different aspects–like scheduling, recording, making sure that scripts are coming along and keeping up with the animation process. What draws you to this role as opposed to any other role in the anime industry?

Nakatani: I personally think that anime is one of the most attractive genres, as far as TV producing goes. I say this because, as a producer, I get to touch on all aspects of production including directing and the animation is handled, and that isn’t necessarily possible for other TV productions. For example, with other genres of TV like variety shows or documentaries, the roles are very much defined and it’s more about managing the parts that you’re expected to within your role, but as a producer you may not have control of the entire scope of the project. With animation, from the beginning of the project to the end, the producer is able to drive the process. He’s obviously not the one who’s going to be drawing the animation or actually working on the music or the voice acting. But I do have a part in driving the entire process, realistically. In that way, anime is a bit special.

Would you say that producers in anime have a bit more of a creative influence than in other sorts of TV shows?

Nakatani: It’s not necessarily the case that in other genres you can’t express creativity. It’s more the case that the roles are inherently defined from the beginning. From the budgeting, to the organization, to who the staff might be. It’s very defined. Anime requires that producers manage most aspects of production themselves. I find that kind of freedom refreshing and attractive.

Chihayafuru is a show that is beloved amongst fans, and you’ve been a producer for the series ever since its debut. Could you tell us a bit more about how the Chihayafuru manga was originally selected for adaptation?

Nakatani: The manga itself has been very popular so there was a lot of interest in making it into an anime. But, because it doesn’t belong to a typical genre, Chihayafuru was not easy to execute as an anime–all of the moments of intensity kind of unfold on a tatami mat. It’s more of a mental game, the stories being told. Which is not the best–or the easiest–to express through drawing and animation.  As in media like Western movies, Cool Runnings, Major League–ragtag teams coming together and kind of overcoming the odds–Chihayafuru takes the action and excitement of a shonen manga as well as the emotional depth of shojo and combines them. So I find it rewarding overcoming the challenge of having to tackle that.

Are there any examples–either within or outside of anime–of movies or shows that combine such disparate elements that you could work off of as a model? Or was this sort of like treading new ground for you?

Nakatani: An example of something like Chihayafuru might be a shonen judo manga called Yawara! by Naoki Urasawa. I feel that the action and the character moments combined in a similar fashion. But, in particular, the director for the Yawara! anime, Morio Asaka, worked on other series like NANA, which belongs to the shojo genre. So he has worked on both kinds of mediums, so I felt that Asaka-san would be a very good fit for this. I approached him and that was that. 

How closely have you and your team worked with the original manga creator Yuki Suetsugu on adaptations over the years?

Nakatani: We had a relationship with the author from the very beginning. Obviously, we had tons of questions, so we got the producers, the director, and the animation director for a bunch of meetings, and this continues to this day.

(c)Yuki Suetsugu/Kodansha

Could you tell us about how much the creative staff researched karuta for the series?

Nakatani: Karuta is very culturally significant in Japan, obviously, but it’s actually not a very prevalent game. It isn’t commonly played by everyone. So we did, indeed, research and we did contact a Japanese karuta association. We also attended competitions, including high school competitions, to get a feel for the game.

We’re finally getting to a continuation of the anime in a third season. Can you tell us how it feels to come back to this very special show?

Nakatani: Technically, it’s been six years since season 2, and we’ve changed quite a bit. The actors have grown in their careers, as well as the staff. Also, feelings toward the IP itself are a bit more removed. So, all of these aspects are a bit of a challenge. Presently, the voice actors and the staff have become popular so it was a bit difficult to bring them all back together for this season. Also challenging was the discussion of where to start the story and where to end the story. This was kind of an elaborate process that was tough to approach. In particular, the lead voice actor’s growth in her career–she’s become far more skilled in her acting. So, in order to recreate the more pure, innocent type of acting from the earlier seasons was a challenge since that had changed.

Have there been many changes in anime production, in terms of new technology, that have affected the newer season coming out?

Nakatani: No particular advancements in terms of technology, but animation is something the staff really needed to work on together, as a team. It’s not really possible to work on solo. So, it’s most important to create and maintain the best environment for collaboration. And so, that’s something that we always pay attention to. To make sure it’s the best environment for the team to work together.

What are some of the measures that you take to make sure that the environment is the best for that sort of collaboration?

Nakatani: The biggest thing might be maintaining motivation. The fan payback is obviously a big help in this. However, the media and the production environment itself is becoming more business oriented. It is becoming more sophisticated, and there are more elements I have to juggle. So, I find myself putting more effort into facilitating these aspects and insulating the team from having to deal with that. So, that’s my answer rather than more distinctly putting measures in place.

As someone who has to deal with a lot of the business side, it’s very good to have someone protecting the creative team from that. So, thank you for your hard work in that regard.

Nakatani: Relative to eight years ago, on the production side, the environment and the reality has changed quite a bit in terms of how busy and how many projects we work on at one time. So it’s just a lot more hectic. This is where I’m coming from when I say I’ve put a lot of effort into trying to keep calm and manage everything accordingly. Eight years ago there was no Netflix or Amazon so it’s a different landscape. 

How does it feel to be working with Morio Asaka as a director and Yuko Kakihara for the script once again?

Nakatani: When they adapt the original work, they don’t just try to retell the story frame for frame. It’s far more important to remain true to the emotional storytelling–to the sentiment of the story arc itself. It’s very important for the director and the writer to really communicate and play ball, and make sure that they are really balancing these elements correctly to tell the story that they want. I feel that it really wouldn’t have been possible without Morio Asaka and Yuko Kakihara together. I think it’s a great thing that they’re coming back for a third season. As proof of that, I feel the anime itself is true to the emotional storytelling of the original and so we’re very proud of that.

So, one of the stand-out aspects of Chihayafuru that a lot of Western fans really enjoy is how poetic and beautiful the music is. It can be romantic and also elevate the karuta performances. Kousuke Yamashita is returning for season 3. Could you tell us a little bit about how the music will be handled for the third season?

Nakatani: I’m very happy to receive this question because we pay a lot of respect and attention to this facet of the series. The music is an element that doesn’t exist in the manga. It’s really important for the subtle ups and downs of the drama. We place a lot of emphasis on the range of different musical instruments used, like the piano, drums, the strings, and the way they come together to culminate in this product that actually conveys the emotional beats and the atmosphere of the story.

I think that really does shine through–a lot of the fans comment on how perfectly the interplay of the visuals and the music works.

Nakatani: One of the things we pay most attention to is establishing quietness. Even if there is no actual sound in a scene itself, how do you express that through the production of the music?

What is the most important aspect of Chihayafuru as a whole that you want fans to get out of the anime adaptation?

Nakatani: In the story, the main characters try hard but sometimes they encounter difficulties. It’s a high schooler’s story and at that stage, in adolescence, they don’t necessarily understand themselves, they are still developing. In the story, characters are spending time with friends and there’s growth through experience. You’re not sure exactly where it’s going to end up because it’s a time of uncertainty in a person’s life. We want the fans relate to and feel the experience of the main character on a personal level and take away what Chihaya and Taichi take away through the story. In Season 3, in particular, the uncertainty within the main character is about to give way to some direction and I’m looking forward to fans connecting to the character in that moment, as well.

I have another question that’s a little bit broad. How does anime tell stories differently than any other media like film, novels, or manga?

Nakatani: A movie is limited to maybe two hours. Anime, and in Chihayafuru, in particular, is made of building blocks of emotions, relationships, events, all built slowly on top of each other and woven together. And that’s kind of difficult to accomplish in the short span of a movie. The live-action Chihayafuru film was great, in my opinion, but it also made me wonder what I could do uniquely as an anime. Like the perspective, for example, from underneath the tatami. That’s something you can accomplish easier with anime. Or trying to explore the inner workings of the characters might lend itself more to anime, as well.

Are there any last words you’d like to send to the Chihayafuru fans in the West?

Nakatani: Even in Japan, karuta may be well known culturally, but it isn’t, like I said, actually very prevalent. So, I’m very touched that the West has taken a liking to this, regardless. But the actual storytelling isn’t necessarily limited to the karuta itself–it’s more about the struggle and the experiences and growth of the characters. So, I hope for fans to be able to continue to relate to these characters and their sometimes subtle but really quite meaningful coming-of-age moments. I hope that the fans can glean some motivation, happiness, or positivity from the anime and that’s the message I’d like to impart.

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By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com