[PREV - MEDIAVORES] [TOP]
November 29, 2013
A triplet of j-culture, from
a born-again j-cultist, all
stuck on a theme: the flavor STEINS_GATE
at the core is much the same. HIGASHI_NO_EDEN
HENTAI_PRINCE
"What a Wonderful World" (manga)
"The Flowers of Evil" (manga)
"The World God Only Knows" (anime)
And the theme, that theme is this:
How is one to live in a world that seems to
positively repel ideals, to the point where
realistic is the antonym of idealistic.
The series of tales in "Wonderful World"
depict a bleak, greyed-out Japan, in which The similarity in title
the struggling, bottom-rank characters to "It's a Wonderful Life"
all eventually manage to find some tiny is probably intended...
shred of meaning to hang on to, some reason could it be the Japanese
to keep trying to move forward. titles are identical?
There's an occasional fantastic element,
an occasional bit of crime melodrama, but
it's clear the author's heart is in the
mundane.
In the second tale, a picked on, bullied
school girl is followed by a talking crow that
keeps bugging her about why she bothers to
keep living-- she joins her classmates annual
ritual, a bicycle version of chicken, in which
she suicidally charges over the edge of a
building, saving herself at the last minute by
grabbing the crow on the way down.
The one I like best is a simpler story, about
a guy feeling envious of his old friends who've
made it big in the music business-- then he hears
that they're embarassed about it: they're big
CD was entirely a product of studio musicians,
it wasn't really even theirs.
"A dream is only a dream when you're
dreaming. When you wake up, what's
left is reality."
In "Flowers of Evil", the young teenager in a
stunningly ordinary Japanese town indulges in a
sense of superiority over his peers based on his
study of literature, including the Baudelaire of
the title. He plays at being evil, stealing the
gym clothes of a female classmate (huffing girls The authors of this
clothes apparently being a well-known perversion are completely in
in Japan). He's observed by a young woman more sympathy with the
twisted than he is, who begins blackmailing him, kids rejection of
forcing him to do other silly things like go the normal, their
around wearing the stolen clothes under his own. attempt at finding
These three form a triangle that drags them into something "on the
a cycle of escalation, attracting the attention other side", a
of the police and uncomprehending parents... place beyond all
this where the
normals don't go.
There's also an awareness
of how hopeless this is,
how it can't lead anywhere
but to a romantic suicide--
a rejection of the world in
favor of some shapeless ideal.
In "The World God Only Knows", (flavor: satiric
romantic comedy) we have a prime example of the
self-referential tale, the story for otakus, by
otakus, about an otaku-- a game freak, obsessed
with dating-sims, who explicitly rejects the
straight world as a game with a really crappy MELANCOLY
design. He is then plunged into one of the
most-absurd, intentionally cliched set-ups
imaginable-- complete with a cute-demon After watching the
side-kick enrolled in his classes pretending to first episode I put
be his little sister. Their mission: detect this aside for months.
young women who have been inhabited by "loose It takes work to get
souls" taking advantage of some hole in their passed the beginning
spirits-- the young man must make them fall in and let the conceit
love, and drive out the loose soul with a kiss. take on weight.
He claims to believe in the
otaku party-line "2D is better
than 3D": he claims to have no
interest in 3-D women. He's There are some obvious issues
very annoyed that this here you might tag as feminist
soul-catching business is concerns: this is a story about
cutting into his gaming time. confused young women whose
problems are all solved with a
A running joke, though, is that his kiss: the icy serial-seducer as
experience with dating-sim games hero.
really does translate into the real
world: he's constantly saying things Or at least, that's his
like "Hm, this is a library girl... affectation, though it's
they're really quiet, I'm going to clear we are not supposed to
have to listen carefully..." take the main character's
pose entirely seriously.
So it's kind of like Bleach
without the stupid sword fights.
The main issue here is dealt
with, but only occasionally: This show uses that one-step-
forward-one-back style of series
The failings of reality, fiction unwilling to drop the
the retreat into a world of other shoe-- and because you may
imagination, because every drop the show once it's all
ideal seems in conflict wrapped up.
with the real.
OPENENDED
"So ideals are just
another element of
reality?"
MEDIAVORES
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