Anime and Literature

            Gosh! I’m so engrossed with anime nowadays that I tend to interchange my personal anime thoughts with the discussions that we had in our major class.  And now, it did happen.  Now I’m seeing anime like literary pieces of art.  Heck, you might find me weird right now, but please bear with me for a while. *laughs*

            My ideas about anime stuffs with a touch of literature really bother me.  So here are my personal observations to some anime shows – 

 1.         Le Chevalier D’Eon – This anime reminds me of Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo wherein we can clearly see revenge as a powerful controlling theme of the story – it controls the plot, and the characters as well.  The anime has also a historical context.  I think the setting of the story is set while the French Revolution is still brewing hot.  Hmmm, I find it really amazing to see a different view of Maximillien Robespierre in this anime.  There are also frequent references of the Bible.  Since the anime is still on-going (in Animax), I can’t comment on the story as a whole.  But one thing is for sure, the anime is really gory in its own special way.

                         Personal Rating:  4 buckets of popcorn.  PG: disturbing.

2.         Fate/Stay Night – A very interesting anime for me, and probably this will also interest my other course mates as well.  You see, it’s a little deconstructed anime of mixed literary stories in which the female lead character is the female version of King Arthur in a modern world.   But the thing is, this female King Arthur (who is Saber) is a servant in this anime, working for her master Shiro, (a teenage guy) in search for the ultimate power of Holy Grail.  You can actually comment on this anime in a feminist point of view: Saber as the female King Arthur, capable of strength and power, yet still a servant to a young boy.  Tchuh, it’s ironic really, a little reflection about this anime might help.

                        Personal Rating: 3 buckets of popcorn. 

 3.         Blood+ - The perfect anime example for ‘in medias res’ technique, wherein the story started right away with the protagonist (Saya) finding that she is the only one capable to defeat the Chiropterans (monsters that feast on blood).  The anime is initially set in present day (2005) but the story has flashbacks that date back in 1832. The series ended in the year 2013. The fight between Saya (with the Red Shield) against Diva, her sister (with the Chiropterans and the Goldschmidts) is like an external conflict of moral philosophy versus scientific philosophy.  The internal conflict is clearly depicted on Saya’s internal struggle to fight and protect the humans and rediscovering her identity in the end.  It’s a really nice anime, I like the way the events unfold in my eyes, it’s exciting.

                         Personal Rating: 5 buckets of popcorn.  PG: lots of bloodshed.

4.         Fullmetal Alchemist – It’s difficult to comment on this anime, as this is definitely superb and I may not be able to say the right or proper words to describe it.  I find that some characters suggest universality.  Like Blood+, it is a battle of science vs. moral principles (at some scenes, religion) and by this, theme is sharply defined.  The internal struggles of the characters are major bonus for the story.  I love the metaphorical naming of the characters; some of their names are very suggestive of their nature (e.g. Lust, Envy, Greed).  For me, this anime uses plot to reveal character and it did so in a very perfect way.  After all, the significant actions will only lie to the protagonist itself. 

                       Personal Rating:  4 buckets of popcorn.

5.         Inuyasha – Like Blood+, Inuyasha also uses ‘in medias res’ technique.  The story started with Inuyasha and Kagome trying to gather the Shikon no Tama (Banal na kristal, in tagalog version) but the story also include flashback scenes that date 50 years ago.  It has an amazing feudal era environment as its historical context.  One of my personal favorites.

                        Personal Rating:  5 buckets of popcorn.

6.         Honey and Clover (Season 1,2) – Personally, I like this anime because it’s about love, friendship and sacrifice in a very natural way.  There is a high degree of verisimilitude, which means that it is, in a way, very realistic and suggests universality.  There is a huge room for the exploration of feelings and emotions both for the characters and the viewers of the anime.  Tone? sentimentality.  The opening lines signify the whole theme of that particular episode.  Funny enough, I find that some scenes in the story are forms of masochism, like loving a person when he doesn’t love you back, hanging around as a third wheel, or working in a firm with the one you love who was just busy chasing another girl.  Sigh.  Pivotal event? when your love is not reciprocated, and this messes up everyone in the story. Jeez! Lots of emotional strain for Pete’s sake! This is just one of those anime wherein the plot depends on the character itself.  The quality of human nature, characters’ motivations and struggles, and coping with emotional problems make up the plot of the story.

                          Personal Rating:  5 buckets of popcorn.

             So that’s it.  Yep, you might say that I’m too subjective for just choosing only these six animes (most of them are my personal favorites) but you must understand, it’s not at all appropriate to present my personal views to those anime shows that I didn’t even finish or witness.  After all, this is my post, so I can write whatever I please.  Hahaha! I’m actually planning to give my points for the Wolf’s Rain anime, which I’m trying to put an analogy to John Donne’s metaphysical nature.  Yeah, for me, Wolf’s Rain has a really metaphysical touch to it, but I think that I have to understand first (really understand!) what makes it metaphysical as I couldn’t even describe the how and why of it.  And what’s more, the Princess Tutu anime has a nice plot (I tell you!) where the narrator messes up with the story. It’s a bit deconstructed too. You can find it yourself.

              Sigh.  I’m really addicted to these things.  You can suggest anime for me to watch where I can find a nice analogy of it to literature. 

            See ya! 

Of Snakes, Moral Lessons and Darwin’s Theory of Evolution

            The usual misconception about Mr. Darwin’s theory is that it meant that humans are great great descendants of apes.  And I’m guilty of believing that, of course, I thought I have known it by heart all through out high school, my teachers discussed about it, they settled debates in which sometimes I am shunted to the affirmative side and forced to defend Mr. Darwin.  It was only in college that I realized the whole truth that the theory was really about the idea that apes and humans have the same common and one ancestor.  The idea came really as shocking to me, as we have been taught that we really were descendants of monkeys.  But even worse was this idea of mine that Mr. Darwin formulated this theory because of his self-realization that he looked like an ape.  *** 

           Whenever we talked about stories in high school, we never really discussed the story as it is, not in the same way that we discussed it in our major class. We don’t talk about the historical and cultural contexts, the underlying motives or the author’s background.   The main focus for the story itself is not even the plot construction, how the events unfold, but it had always been about the moral lesson.  Yep, I knew how to derive moral lessons out of those stories.  But I remember one time when we were tasked to review a story and surprisingly, I couldn’t derive a single stinking moral lesson out of it. Why though?

            I forgot the title of the story and the whole idea, but all I could remember was it was just a reflection of something, a realization of an event perhaps, but I couldn’t categorize it as a moral lesson really.  That disturbed me a lot. Are all short stories required to have a moral lesson? I think not, but it should have an insight to ponder on at least.  And for me, an insight is equally different from a moral lesson.

            Maybe that time the moral lesson of the story couldn’t penetrate in my head.  Or maybe I was turning bad.  Sigh.  Either of the two will do.  *** 

           There was a time when I forgot the readings for the next major class. As I can’t concentrate without my own personal readings (with marginal notes and own private scribbles, haha…) I went back to the boarding house which was just a walking distance from school.  The creepy part was that, as I was about to reach the main library, I encountered a snake just a step away from me.  It was a green snake, all through out, and totally gross.  You might puke yourself if you’d see that.  I ran back to school, I could almost climb the oblation statue for help.  Jeez, that snake, when I think about it in my head, it gives me the creeps.  I ran back to school and cried.  Uh huh, the fear of death because of one grossly animal.  Because of that incident, I couldn’t visit the main library anymore (which was actually loaded with more interesting books) and I couldn’t go home without someone to share death in case the green snake will strike again. 

Anime Updates! [as of December 19, 2007]

                Konnichi wa! It’s Christmas break! Finally, after week after week of assignments, projects and critical essays, I’m finally resting here at my place, no worries at all. Well, except for the flash-fic-project-in-a-postcard for our creative writing class, everything is really under control. I’d say, I’ve been roaming around here, looking for a suitable postcard for my flash fic story, but the sight of the usual postcards of national heroes and national amusement places really irked me. Not that I’m really against the idea of using them – it’s just, the picture is really a far-out image for my flash fic. I have another idea though, I’ll buy a postcard and from that, I’ll make a flash fic story out of it, whether it’s a photo of Rizal or Mt. Mayon. Feasible, but it’s my last resort.

                Leaving my flash fic behind, I’ve been hacking manga (Japanese comics) comics lately in the net. Well, hacking is not really the fitting word for it, since I’ve noticed that mangas really are all over the net. It’s actually free. And I also want to share it to anyone who cares. Maybe you’ll realize that my chosen manga are subjective, but I don’t really chose the famous ones, no – only the ones that I really like (I think that’s self-explanatory enough). Besides, the famous ones are licensed, so it’s difficult to hack (?) them actually.

                Some of the mangas that I’ve just downloaded are actually cheesy (yeah sort of, that I admit) but love themed manga are actually swarming the net compared to others. I’ll put a link somewhere here in my blog for you download in the future, so you better check it out, some other time. I’ve just posted only the Lovesick manga but don’t worry, you need not to wait long for the others.

 

1. Lovesick – hmmm, well, the character is love sick, if that’s the way to put it. She like someone she’s not supposed to like. I’ve already shared it here in my blog, you’ll find a link somewhere here – just see Hacked Stuffs. They are ready to download, for free. No hassle. Volume 1, chapters 1-6.
2. Kaichou wa Maid-Sama- This one is my personal favorite, and it’s the current project of Aku Tenshi as of the moment. I’ll be updating it every now and then. It’s a story of a high school student council president – a girl, that is, in a co-ed high school. The fact is, the school was once an exclusive all-boys school. 80% of the students are boys. It’s a battle of the sexes, (wahaha!). What they don’t know is that their strong council president is a maid, literally, in a café. Only Usui-kun knows about it, the hottest guy and the most intelligent in their class. Things really got steamy when the rich Usui-kun asked her to be her personal maid. Current project: Volume 1, chapters 1-3.
3. Confidential Assassination Troop – Not so good anime for me. Definitely, not my type of anime. Nevertheless, I’ll still put a link for you to download it. Just don’t expect that I’ll update it every now and then. Maybe if I’m bored. Not sure project: Volume 1, Chapter 1.
4. Kyou Kara Maou! – I sure hope you know about this anime, it’s been aired in Animax. The manga is sooo cool! I really like it. The main character is Yuuri, who was flushed down the toilet and to the other world. The ridiculous thing about this is that – he is hailed as a Demon King in that place! Current project: Volume 1, chapter 1-3.Salad Days - A series of love stories of teenage love – what could be cheesier than that? But you might as well read it if you have time, and I find it really enjoyable in a way unexplainable. Current project: Volume 1, Chapters 1-6; Volume 2, Chapters 1-6, Volume 3, Chapter 1.

 

                So that’s it. I’m currently working on a separate blog for my anime stuffs, so that I need not to put so many anime stuffs here in my personal online journal. And maybe I will reorganized my anime songs and share them all to you too. Some of the songs I have are those from Blood+, Colourcloud Palace, Fate Stay Night, Honey and Clover, Samurai X, Inuyasha, and many more of my personal favorites.

                 Have a very happy anime Christmas! Jaa, sayonara minna-san!