Tenkuu no Shiro Laputa (Castle in the Sky)

There is no word to describe the greatness of Hayao Miyazaki films. I has watched many of his films, from Future Boy Conan (TV series), Laputa, Nausicaa, Princess Mononoke, Sprited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service (adapted from novel), Howl’s Moving Castle and The Wind Rises, not a single one of them has bored me out. That old man is also famous for his remark that “otaku are harmful for anime industry”. Well, even Osamu Tezuka couldn’t escape his criticism anyway. It’s sad that he had retired so we cannot watch his new films anymore…

I’m always hesitant when trying to do an analysis on Miyazaki’s film, even though I absolutely want to do it! The reason is that when the work is so great multifaceted, it’s hard to do an analysis of it without looking like preposterous writer. The more philosophical the work is, the more philosophical maturity you need in order to analyse (and also understand) it. I hope this post will not end up like a nonsensical analysis.

Kuzu no Honkai

Well, I knew Kuzu no Honkai was an anime that was causing a lot of raging in anime community, but that’s not what I want to talk about. I only learned about it because of 4chan/a/ shitposting, which prompted me to watch the first episode, and my thought was…

“What a crazy story, man. Okay, I’ve gotta put this anime down and read the manga instead.”

Why did I decide to read the manga? The first reason is that, it’s better to read this type of in manga form (P.S. to everyone who still watching anime rather than reading manga or novels, I suggest reducing the time spent watching anime, because it wastes a lot of time). Second, the anime emphasised too much smut and sex, which is not my cup of tea and moreover, it might direct you away from the overall picture. And finally, the manga is nearly completed, so there is almost no waiting for more episodes/chapters.

In short, Kuzu no Honkai is a story about young people who are tormented by unrequited love. Unable to fulfil their love, they turn to other people as replacements, harming (psychologically) both themselves and other people in the process. Of course, the story is told in a exaggerated and melodramatic way, that why it’s so controversial. Some praise it for being “realistic”, while some call it out for being a f**cked up cuckolding-fest. I’m a simple man 🙂 hence, I keep my opinion that Kuzu no Honkai is an interesting story.

It is interesting by the way it describes the unrequited love drama, which was really bizarre that it couldn’t happen in reality, but somehow still made me thought about it.

In the end of manga, all of the “scums” (kuzu meaning scum) got their redemption moments and found their “supposedly” true love (P.S. quite a fairy tale and axed way of ending). But I think the important question is that, why they must suffer so much pain and misery, just to find their way out of the mess? Why they are acting like romance and love are the only things in their lives?

In my honest opinion, it’s due to our modern society has over-commercialised romantic love, spreading the idea that you could only be a “proper” member of society if (and only if) you had a lover, or not being a virgin. While in reality, there are many things in our lives that worth living for, not just romantic love. Our society considers having many shallow relationships is a good thing, and on the other hand, our society also alienates people who are too sensitive to accept shallow relationships. Eventually, this leads to the problem of hikikomori (social recluse) in Japan, or 4chan “basement dwellers” (robots, incels, etc…) in the West. Kuzu no Honkai only brought out the dark side of this modern “ideology of love”, albeit in an melodramatic way.

So the true way to overcome this mess is to not criticise the scums of Kuzu no Honkai, instead, our society’s view on romantic love must be criticised.

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Revised. 12/08/2020

Arete Hime (2001 movie)

This anime season has nothing interesting to me, therefore I decide to watch some old anime which no one seem to care about 🙂 It is a way of waiting until the Summer season, when Rewrite anime is aired. However, I do not have enough time for an detailed review post.

Arete Hime is quite an old-style anime, with a heavy fairy tale setting. In fact, I think that many manga and anime have some characteristics of  fairy tale anyway. What a fairy tale usually wants to tell us is a valuable lesson and/or the wishes of people. While an anime like KonoSuba is clearly not giving any “valuable lesson”, it is inherent that KonoSuba is an wish-fulfillment story.

On the other hand, Arete Hime has the appearance of a fairy tale, but in essence not quite so. It is a philosophical story, a story about the meaning of life. That was the conclusion I got after finishing this movie. While the story is somewhat vague, the pace is very slow, my impression for this movie is good overall.

Conclusion: Should watch if you like a meaningful story and don’t mind very slow pacing.

Opening song Красно Солнце (a very beautiful song):

 

Favourite Music #2: Hana no Sasayaki (by Melodic Taste)

It was a remix version of the opening theme of Princess Sarah, a 1985 anime series belong to the famous World Masterpiece Theater of Nippon Animation. I haven’t watched that anime yet, but the original story is so awesome. Maybe I will watch it when I have more free time.

Favourite Anime Music #1: Yume no Naka no Watashi no Yume

It is ironic that the ending song of an anime with a title like Humanity Has Declined is a cheerful and upbeat song, while a certain anime with an innocent theme like magica puella is actually very grim and dark.

The above one is a remix by a doujin circle called Melodic Taste, here is the original ending:

Patema Inverted (2013 Film) – Impression

Well, another nice and fuzzy anime film to watch, but I wonder why this film was so obscure? I even didn’t know who was the writer/director of this film before. Anyway, I will go to the main topic.

The story premise

Patema is from a civilization that lives in a system of tunnels and caverns deep underground. She likes to go exploring the world outside her village, despite being frequently warned of a mysterious danger that supposedly exists out there. While looking around in the “danger zone”, Patema is confronted by a figure standing on the ceiling, upside-down. She falls into a deep pit, and finds herself on the surface world, above ground, where she meets a boy named Age. They discover that the effect of gravity is reversed for Patema’s people; to Age, Patema is upside-down, while from Patema’s perspective, Age and his entire world are upside-down, which puts her in great danger of falling up into the sky. (from Wikipedia)

Thought on Cross†Channel

I had tried my best to resist the tempting of writing again, but this Visual Novel didn’t let me have any choice. It is the Historical Inevitability that I must write down my thought on this seeming mind-fucking “eroge” (consult Google on this term if you aren’t that corrupted yet). By the way, this “eroge” even make some random guy on the Internet write a book on it: https://georgehenryshaft.wordpress.com/2013/10/25/on-cross-channel-new-english-translation-released/. I am not devote as that guy, but it’s totally deserved a blog post.

On outside, it giving an aura of an innocent and joyful eroge. The inside is totally dark and insane. But this type of scamming had been done hundred times already. So the question is how the author will execute his sinister plot. What made Cross Channel different from Saya no Uta, Higurashi, Heaven’s Feel or similar shits?

Rakuen Tsuiho – Expelled from Paradise Impression

When I saw that Expelled from Paradise was written by Gen Urobuchi, I thought to myself that it would be my must-watch anime of the season (aside from that nonsense Twin-tails). And it didn’t let me down.

Mecha? Maybe it is another Suisei no Gargantia…