Sunday, May 21, 2006

Is it Join the Lost Experience or Join the migration to Electronics?
I was watching Lost a couple of weeks ago and when the show ended there was this weird advertisement saying ‘to join the Lost experience’ while watching it I thought it was quiet strange, but more so it seemed really familiar. Than it hit me, the advertisement was just like the advertisement for the cult Scratch in the Cowboy Bebop episode Brain Scratch, the music, the voice narrating even the pictures used throughout the advertisement were similar. Was it just a coincidence or has the blurry line between reality and the tiny dots finally and officially been crossed?
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Sunday, April 16, 2006

V for Vendetta
Warning this is just my cynical opinion and little facts actually reside within this post, but hey what else is new.
I went and seen V for Vendetta the other day and I absolutely loved it. Ok so there was some romance in it that is totally against my beliefs but it wasn’t shoved down your throat like normally happens and they had the potential to make it really corny but seemed to take the high road. The best part was the political theme that the film centred around, and better yet was the fact that he never removes his mask for her even when she asks him.
I heard a review from a critic that absolutely hated the film, which normally makes me laugh or I just ignore. But this particular review was just too pathetic to ignore, they stated that the political themes within the film were so relevant to today’s situations that the film needed to be viewed by everyone. Although due to the way in which the film was portrayed it will never reach the wide audience that it should have therefore making less of a social impact than it should have. I haven’t read the novel but from what I heard the director toned down parts of to make it, and in order to reach a wider audience, and I don’t know how financially successful it was although I’ve seen it on the front page of a major magazine so I gathered that it was reasonably successful.

Now while I think its great that they believe that the film should be viewed by a wide audience I think its unrealistic for that to be achieved while actually having everyone grasp the depth of the film. The director already changed parts and to achieve what the critic is asking I think to many changes would have had to be made, therefore losing the absolute impact that it now has. Ok look at society these days, while there is an increased awareness amongst people about the larger things in life either not everyone is really ready for a full assault, or the contrast of the fact that the others are subjected to the overexposure to violence that they face everyday has inturn desensitised them. So I may sound like I’m putting the average person down but hey that’s just what my experiences have taught me, the average person does not really live outside their box, they either believe every damn thing fed to them or they just don’t give a damn if it doesn’t directly affect them. Although I must admit that their boxes are obviously stretching they aren’t really making any significant achievements, and its not until people start living outside these boxes that the real statement in this film will be appreciated and understood for what it is by a much wider audience.
I know I must be sounding like a broken record by now, but I still believe that directors are creating for profit rather than art. And even though this film was a blockbuster creation, the fact that it stemmed from an art and dared to question only emphasises the rarity of art in the film industry that is not fully appreciated by this desensitised society.

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Saturday, March 18, 2006

   I was flicking through a magazine the other day, and there was this heading reading ‘10 WAYS TO STAY YOUNG AND HEALTHY LOOKING’. Looking at it I thought right I’ll bite, what new pathetic strategies are they trying to sell to the vane these days, in the list was the usual, until I can across ‘Fall in Love’. Damn I couldn’t believe it as if it wasn’t already bad enough the amount of romantic comedies that are consuming entertainment these days its now a new way to stay young.

I’m the type of person who doesn’t believe in love, and before you get any ideas, no I haven’t been dumped or rejected, I’ve felt this way for as long as I can remember. I just believe why complicate your life with unnecessary issues. As I’ve gotten older my beliefs against love have only intensified. It was bad enough that I couldn’t find a decent TV program that wasn’t dealing with the teen drama of love, than my family would start talking to me about how it was only a matter of time before I would change and find some one, than the final draw came when friends started giving me those talks about finding that special someone. So I decided to try to work out what the hell was wrong with these people.

Well here is my conclusion, there is one thing that everyone in this world has in common we are all afraid of living without existing. Ok that sounds really strange, but I believe that everyone, whether conscious or subconscious shares this same drive for immortality, which lets face it unless you believe in reincarnation there is really no way to live forever. Although if we are to leave marks in this world no matter how little they are we will be remembered and therefore create a form of immortality. What better way to leave these marks and prove our existence than becoming unforgettably famous or having a family, and leaving people that will not only cry over your grave but spread your memory. Ok so becoming famous or all powerful is a pretty popular method, although as Dickens showed Scrooge in ‘A Christmas Carol’ power will not get immortality if no one cries over your grave, so hey love it is.

By now if your not to bored to read on you’re probably thinking right were does the anime come into it, well it pretty obvious that most anime have this love connected with existence theme somewhere. Vampire Hunter D – Bloodlust has this within it.
Evangelion is another pretty obvious one, as it not only questions our existence but it helped inspired my theory.
Fruits basket is one that thrives on love as most of the characters use Tohru’s love for them as validation. They now have a reason to live and peruse an existence.
Any Stand Alone Complex fan will have at least heard of Catcher in the Rye, if not read it, with both the series and the novel sharing the same basic theme. Salinger had the ability to create this perfect character, Holden was so damn convincing as the non-conformist, he didn’t pull any punches is creating that pessimistic attitude that may him an individual within society, although like so many other characters he gave up on his individuality by playing into the restriction of falling in love.

What I really hate about love is that while ever you love someone, you have something to protect therefore you are vulnerable. You are controlled by the fact that what you do could ultimately hurt that someone.

I had this friend who I was always discussing philosophy with. Anyway we use to be forever arguing about whether one could isolate themselves from society, I always believed it possible, but she always maintained that with sharing similarities and being recognised we could never become completely isolated. After thinking through it for ages I finally came to the devastating fact that maybe she was right. We all strive for existence and immortality and from the way everyone acts around me its obvious that love is the only sure fire way to achieve this. Therefore while ever I had that subconscious yearning for immortality I would always be faced with the threat of falling in love. And therefore I could never strike out and achieve absolute individuality, because not matter how different I was physically and psychologically I would still share that same reason for living as everyone else.

So my question here is ‘Do you agree that love is are answer to immortality or just a method of control, to ensure no matter what we will never achieve absolute individuality?’

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Saturday, March 11, 2006

‘I need a saga, what’s the saga? It Ghost In The Shell SAC’. Ok, I know, I know that was a lame rip off of the Queens Of The Stone Age, but hey aren’t we all lame rip off artist at heart.
Seriously I haven’t liked an anime this much since Cowboy Bebop, and for me that’s a miracle. I mean the whole series has both the art and the substance that most programs seem to lake these days. Don’t get me wrong I really liked both of Ohsii’s GITS films, but I guess I found them a little confusing. I’m pretty daft at the best of times but I find that with all of Ohii’s films you have to watch them twice before you even begin to understand their depth and even then you sometimes feel like his intensions aren’t being fully recognised. I always tend to look at Oshii’s films like that saying by A ZEN KOAN ‘We know the sound of two hands clapping. But what is the sound of one hand clapping?’ I mean is the answer as simple as silence, and the trick or message is that as humans we can’t accept the simplistic and instead try digging deeper to find an answer that we think is more appropriate or is there really a more complex answer?

Like Cowboy Bebop, GITS SAC isn’t afraid to confront society with the issues that have such a great effect on us, but are not openly discussed. Like in Jungle Cruize, the confrontation of the desensitisation of war, while confronting the phycology of this violent desensitisation.

Escape From is one of my favourite episodes confronting the discussion of life, death and immortality. I think its beautiful the way the little girl is the one who teachers the Tachikoma’s about death, and while the girl accepts death and wishes to grieve in an unbelievably informed method it is the A.I. that begins to contemplate the ultimate questions, which they latter faced in Barrage. I guess what I also liked about that episode was the director that created the perfect film. The film that he created was not about profits, but purely art. By detaching himself from the vanity associated with fame he was almost able to create immortality by developing a movie that people willing loved to death (literally).

Really what seems to make this series stand out is the use of the laughing man, he is perfect yet not at the same time. The way I see it they created him just like Holden in Catcher in The Rye. Holden is a pessimistic non-conformist teen, although at the same time he is still acceptable to society through the way that he falls in and out of love more times than he changes his shirt in the book. He constantly rebels against society by hating everything and staying true to his beliefs, but at the same time his inability to stop himself from falling into the trap of love just makes him a part of society. The Laughing Man wants to right the wrongs served within the pharmaceutical industries and expresses his strength in his beliefs through his willingness to die for this cause, although at the same time he is overwhelmed by a naive innocence as he wants the people to act of their own free will, openly admitting their mistakes to the world because that is what they believe is right.

If anyone knows where I can find translated versions of Shirow manga that I would hugely appreciate it, thanks.

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Tuesday, February 21, 2006

I’m a huge fan of Samurai Champloo and an even bigger fan of Cowboy Bebop. Now welcome to yet another one of my whinge sessions on what is wrong with this world. I just got Volume 6 and I was totally stoked about it, until I started into the first episode of the DVD. Hello what was the go with that, the animation suddenly changed, although they were only subtle changes, it was like a totally new animator came on the scene, the characters were totally different, but than in the next episode everything was back to normal again, I just can’t understand what the hell went wrong there. Even though that is really only a small factor I was still really po’ed by the whole situation.

Anyway onto what I really have to say, I’m probably going to offend when I say this but it’s the way I feel, besides I’m pretty sure no one really reads my profile. Watanabe seems to be selling out as his works advance. Seriously look at Cowboy Bebop the series, everything about that series was original statements against what is wrong with society.
Cowboy Funk, was a statement against commercialism, by using explosive teddy bears, stating that all of our problems stem from the social upbringing of children. While Brain Scratch, expressed how we may think we live our lives according to religion, but realistically were controlled by television, so much so that we can’t really distinguish reality from an illusion. Another episode that really stuck with me was Pierrot Le Fou, I think this had the greatest statement of society with the fact the science sees it necessary to create, whether it is needed or not. They create the perfect killing machine, their own Frankenstein’s monster for no apparent reason. Although deem him useless when he reverts to a childlike phycology, which realistically is an advantage because in today’s court system, people who commit crimes but don’t understand the consequences of their actions are given licensee.

While Watanabe does express some statements against society, such as he specifically created Lullabies of the Lost to show the cultural loss of the Ainu and Unholy Union, where he again uses religion to fuel violence and express how we are so easily mislead, when a god is involved. He doesn’t express the same qualities he fought for in Cowboy Bebop, and seems to be more concerned with creating something that will attract just about anyone, and retelling certain parts of Japanese history.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that he seems to have followed the lead created in Cowboy Bebop the Movie, although not quite as subtle. In Cowboy Bebop it was obvious that the movie centred around Spike, as was said in the interviews in the Extras, to make Spike more sexy and appealing to the audience, by showing a deeper side of him. I know lots were cheering over that, but it really seemed to under mind the terrorism and social statements that were being made in the movie. I think he does the same in Samurai Champloo.
While in Cowboy Bebop its obvious right from the start that Spike’s life is run by Julia. Watanabe creates these independent characters of Mugen and Jin, who fair enough are still run parts of their lives according to their access to brothels, but seem independent enough, not to really need love and than he throws all that away with Gamblers and Gallantry. Jin starts off telling the women how to kill herself properly, and ends up falling in love with her. Although he doesn’t even fight for her until the last final point, which is the absolute opposite to Spike. He starts off strong and independent, and ends up relying on Fuu and Mugen to help him save her. Aggh it just gets worse, Mugen goes throughout the whole serious not afraid of anything, except death. As in Misguided Miscreants, he challenges death and wins, Watanabe goes out of his way to deliberately create a character that is unstoppable (an absolute perfect Mad Pierrot), and than throws a mushroom cloud over it in Elegy of Entrapment, when Sara announces that Mugen only wants to be loved. Oh My God, I thought I was going to puke, how could they do that. I mean seriously that is something that you expect from most show but to do that with Mugen just seems wrong in every damn way possible.

He seems to further this disgrace by putting the love triangle between the main characters. When Fuu admits she wants to stay with one of them, although it isn’t really
made clear at the present. This seems to take focus off the other matters of the series and lead more suspense as to who ends up with who rather than the overall outcome of their journey.

All these factors seem to draw away from the originality of hip-hop feudal Japan that the show is about. That said, I still really enjoy the show, and would like to know what you think to.

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Wednesday, February 15, 2006

   i've been thinking about what i said in my last post, and since then i finally got The Place Promised in our early days. Although this may sound totally strange, but i really do believe that it is the Anime dirctors that create a far more powerful atmosphere that the audience can not resist reacting to. i'm the type of person who can't stand any type of romance, i just want to puke in those pathetic Hollywood romantic comedies. but i absolutely loved both of Shikai's films. they didn't over react on the issue and stuff it down your throat.

So i guess thats just one point as to how great anime directors really are.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2006

   Why the hell is it that only otaku’s seem to laugh during movies at the cinema?
I mean seriously, when ever I go to the movies I seem to be the only person in the cinema laughing, unless its an anime. And I don’t think its because the movies isn’t that funny, when you get out, every one goes on about how funny it was, which leaves me standing there stunned, thinking HELLO! I doubt you even smiled during film. It’s like everyone is so self conscious that their afraid to laugh out loud these days, but the room is completely dark its not like anyone will really know who was laughing anyway. I’m not saying this because I’m conscious of my own laugh, but I guess I feel really sorry for the director. I mean they go to all this effort to make an enjoyable film, and people care more about what total strangers in a dark room think about them, then really appreciating the film for what it is.

But at the same time I haven’t really found this to apply to adult anime, when I’ve seen these at the cinema the audience really does laugh at the funny parts, I’m probably caring about this way too much, but hey. It got me thinking are anime fans at that point where they’re so comfortable with themselves that they don’t care what strangers think, or they don’t give a stuff because they are simply there to see a cool film, and don’t think about such pathetic matters. Or is it that anime directors are just that good that absolutely no one can resist the temptation to laugh.

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