May 14th, 2015
Asocial Behavior and the Cowboy Plot Structure of Early SAO
Anime Relations: Sword Art Online
Asocial Behavior and the Cowboy Plot Structure of Early SAO
One of the things I think they did really right with SAO, especially in the beginning, was the structure. You'll notice how Kirito does not gather a group of friends. In fact, he never gathers a group of "Nakama" until the second season. Instead he spends all his time adventuring alone, and in the episodes we see, he teams up, usually with some beautiful girl, and solves some episodic issue on his own. I usually tell people it's like an old western where the cowboy comes out of the wilderness, saves everyone and then disappears back into the wilderness despite the cries of the bartender's daughter for him to come back.
Now this is somewhat unique in Japanese animation, that is the level of Kritio's solitude, but Clint Eastwood has done this schtick a million times. What makes it special in SAO? The answer, of course is the context. This happens in an MMO and our MC is a hikkikomori super nerd. Lets start with Kirito's character and what he brings to the set up. So far as we can tell, Kirito had no life before SAO. he says that during the six month of the beta, all he did was go to school and play SAO. We see no friends of his in the game or afterwards so we can safely assume he was a loner in the strictest sense of the word. And he does not appear to have made any friends amongst the beta testers indicating that his adventures within the beta were totally solo. Kirito was the monster at the end of the tunnel after whom none dare follow.
Kirito is a lifeless game addict and in any normal social situation he would drown like a kitten at sea. But here he is depicted as the lone swordsman out of the wilderness, the black beater who solos the front lines. But what keeps this from becoming just an escapist fantasy is that Kirito remains alone. Over and over again he leaves alone. Not because he was universally rejected or because he hates people. Its clear he loves company even if he doesn't know how to deal with group conversations. He seems to thrive on the attention he receives from his female partners as long as he's alone with them. The real reason Kirito is alone is not because he wants to be alone, its because he doesn't feel worthy of his friends.
Look at Kirito's attitude in the first episode, when he's hanging out with Klein. Kirito is clearly the superior warrior, put if you pay attention to their conversation, Kirito never strays from the topic of the game and as soon as Klein mentions his friends Kirito seems uneasy. He immediately becomes more distant and though Klein promises to talk to him again and offers to introduce him, Kirito thanks him for not doing so ans If yu ask me, I'd say that Kirito never expected to hear from Klein again. He's been though this a thousand times, friends in an MMO have a great time adventuring together, then one of them has to go and they promise to meet again, but they forget and never see each other again.Kirito sees it coming and he doesn't begrudge Klein for it. He just accepts that he'll never have any friends and smiles.
This is the point where I would like to mention the significance of this being an MMO. From my own experience in MMOs such as Guild Wars, Lineage II, RF Online, and Tera I can say that the general MMO experience is a single player one. Kirito is the exemplar of the MMO hero. The game is full of people and supposedly intended for multilayer. But 90% of play is about soloing the front lines and becoming the black beater who lives out in the wilderness and teams up only when it is absolutely necessary or just with one other person for a few hours to have fun. Active guilds or groups of friends who play together are rare. Its not unusual to have friends who play, but to have friends who are online at the same time as you and who are in line fo the same dungeons as you and at approximately the same level, these things are unusual. MMOs have struggle to solve this issue and bring greater sociality into the game world. But Kirito is the emblem f nearly very MMO hero up to the time of SAO's publication. His asociality mimics the structural asociality of MMO players.
Moreover, Kirito's attitude and asociality are common enough in real life, and that is the real value he shows us, that our social habits online mirror or social habits in reality. Remember Kirito's creed, you are who you are whether you're in the game or irl. You are you and the broken promises of friendship in MMOs and just a mirror image of th transience and fragility of friendship in modern society.
One of the things I think they did really right with SAO, especially in the beginning, was the structure. You'll notice how Kirito does not gather a group of friends. In fact, he never gathers a group of "Nakama" until the second season. Instead he spends all his time adventuring alone, and in the episodes we see, he teams up, usually with some beautiful girl, and solves some episodic issue on his own. I usually tell people it's like an old western where the cowboy comes out of the wilderness, saves everyone and then disappears back into the wilderness despite the cries of the bartender's daughter for him to come back.
Now this is somewhat unique in Japanese animation, that is the level of Kritio's solitude, but Clint Eastwood has done this schtick a million times. What makes it special in SAO? The answer, of course is the context. This happens in an MMO and our MC is a hikkikomori super nerd. Lets start with Kirito's character and what he brings to the set up. So far as we can tell, Kirito had no life before SAO. he says that during the six month of the beta, all he did was go to school and play SAO. We see no friends of his in the game or afterwards so we can safely assume he was a loner in the strictest sense of the word. And he does not appear to have made any friends amongst the beta testers indicating that his adventures within the beta were totally solo. Kirito was the monster at the end of the tunnel after whom none dare follow.
Kirito is a lifeless game addict and in any normal social situation he would drown like a kitten at sea. But here he is depicted as the lone swordsman out of the wilderness, the black beater who solos the front lines. But what keeps this from becoming just an escapist fantasy is that Kirito remains alone. Over and over again he leaves alone. Not because he was universally rejected or because he hates people. Its clear he loves company even if he doesn't know how to deal with group conversations. He seems to thrive on the attention he receives from his female partners as long as he's alone with them. The real reason Kirito is alone is not because he wants to be alone, its because he doesn't feel worthy of his friends.
Look at Kirito's attitude in the first episode, when he's hanging out with Klein. Kirito is clearly the superior warrior, put if you pay attention to their conversation, Kirito never strays from the topic of the game and as soon as Klein mentions his friends Kirito seems uneasy. He immediately becomes more distant and though Klein promises to talk to him again and offers to introduce him, Kirito thanks him for not doing so ans If yu ask me, I'd say that Kirito never expected to hear from Klein again. He's been though this a thousand times, friends in an MMO have a great time adventuring together, then one of them has to go and they promise to meet again, but they forget and never see each other again.Kirito sees it coming and he doesn't begrudge Klein for it. He just accepts that he'll never have any friends and smiles.
This is the point where I would like to mention the significance of this being an MMO. From my own experience in MMOs such as Guild Wars, Lineage II, RF Online, and Tera I can say that the general MMO experience is a single player one. Kirito is the exemplar of the MMO hero. The game is full of people and supposedly intended for multilayer. But 90% of play is about soloing the front lines and becoming the black beater who lives out in the wilderness and teams up only when it is absolutely necessary or just with one other person for a few hours to have fun. Active guilds or groups of friends who play together are rare. Its not unusual to have friends who play, but to have friends who are online at the same time as you and who are in line fo the same dungeons as you and at approximately the same level, these things are unusual. MMOs have struggle to solve this issue and bring greater sociality into the game world. But Kirito is the emblem f nearly very MMO hero up to the time of SAO's publication. His asociality mimics the structural asociality of MMO players.
Moreover, Kirito's attitude and asociality are common enough in real life, and that is the real value he shows us, that our social habits online mirror or social habits in reality. Remember Kirito's creed, you are who you are whether you're in the game or irl. You are you and the broken promises of friendship in MMOs and just a mirror image of th transience and fragility of friendship in modern society.
Posted by Muan142 | May 14, 2015 10:38 AM | 1 comments
April 25th, 2015
The Obedient Son and the Whale
Anime Relations: Love Hina Christmas Special: Silent Eve
Once, there was a village on a tiny island, and out of this village came a boy. The boy voyaged out in a little boat and slew a great and mighty whale bringing its flesh back for his people to eat. They made him the island’s king, and together they built a shrine to him using bones from the whales he’d slain to make mortar. The new king continued hunting and killing whales and his people continued to feed off of them until there was only one left. This one the king dealt a crippling wound and left him as a living monument to the strength of the king.
In time the king married and had many sons. The islanders became wealthy and strong. Other islanders came to trade for bones and whale flesh. The islanders conquered other tribes and made an empire of many islands. But, one day the meat stores grew low and the islanders began to starve.
The king, hearing the islanders’ cries, turned to his eldest son, a strong man, brawny, tall and well-loved. He sent his son to go out and slay the last whale for its meat. The eldest son went out in his boat, but after a month he did not return.
When the eldest son did not return, the people grew anxious and pleaded with their king to send another. He sent his second eldest, not so strong as the first, but filled with the wild strength of spirit that makes a man stand tall. This son sailed out willingly, but he did not return either. This pattern of failure continued until the king was left with only one son - the youngest and weakest of them all.
Now the king sent for his youngest son and bid him go and slay the whale, but the youngest son refused saying, “You tell me to slay a whale, but you have already sent my brothers to do the same work and they have not returned. I am the youngest and smallest of my many brothers, what shall I do that they could not? I know that I am not like you. I am neither strong nor brave nor very wise. I am a poor sailor, weak of body and weak of heart. I am soft and lazy. I read my poems in the shade. The lowest fisher monger is more fit to the task than I.
“Please father, I am content to starve and die. Do not send me out onto the waves to a painful lonely death. Let me die here where at least I have a shady room and a soft bed.”
At this, the king flew into a rage and spoke in a voice like thunder saying, “It is as you say. You grow soft, and so you are not welcome here. You have become like a woman and no woman is fit to inherit my throne. Go, leave this island at once. And if you die alone and miserable out on the ocean tides, that does not concern me, for you are no son of mine. And if we starve and die when you do not return, then at least I shall be rid of you.”
The youngest son was given a spear, a boat, and a small crew and sent off onto the blue ocean waves. The son sat on the edge of the boat and wept looking down at the sharks and fishes who would devour his bones. The sun beat on his back.
Many days they sailed in the doldrums over empty seas to where the wounded whale floated helpless upon the ocean swells. The youngest son could not command his crew to turn back, for his father had sent men with stronger hearts than his who were commanded to take him to the whale’s abode. At the crests of swells, the youngest son could see in the distance the figure of the mighty whale on the horizon.
As their approach brought them within sight of the whale, the youngest son felt awe begin to overpower his heart. The creature’s body stretched nearly from horizon to horizon. Its great mouth could have swallowed up an island. Its massive black shiny body looked like a mass of volcanic rock washed smooth by the ocean waves.
The son beheld the great wound in the mighty creature’s side half in half out of the sea. It still flowed with dark blood, almost black. The wound looked covered in parasites. Its gore was swollen and blackish, rotting and turning green. Puss mixed with the blood, and little fishes and sharks nibbled at is edges and swallowed up its blood.
The son cowered and his legs shook. As they drew closer, he did not dare take up his spear. He felt his bones quake within him, felt himself become like a speck of sand before the leviathan. As they came alongside its body he dropped to one knee, his jaw hanging open, his eyes wide. He beheld the hulking mass of the leviathan as it filled with breath, then exhaled laboriously. Each time it did this, a great swell emanated from where its body met the water and it seemed as if the whole ocean were bending to the creature’s will.
They sailed along its body up to the face, and, as they came alongside the whale’s eye, the son looked into it. His whole world seemed reflected in that eye which seemed big enough both to see and understand everything. And it seemed sad. Draped in deep black, that eye seemed as if it were mourning for the whole world.
The son ordered his men to fold sail. He stepped to the boat’s edge, stood before the great eye with his spear, and felt hollow and small. In a loud beseeching tone he called out, “O mighty one, I am the son of the king who wounded you so long ago. I see the wounds have never healed and I pity you. More than that, I am in awe of you and cannot stand to slaughter you as my father has commanded me to do. If I did not know there was a God in heaven, I should think the creator of all things is laying before me now. I am ashamed of my father who in his cruelty slew you. Your form is beautiful and magnificent and I cannot stand the thought of seeing it decay any further. I do not care if my people starve. I do not care what they will do to me. I will not murder you nor do you harm in any way. I leave you in peace and pray for your well-being.” Saying this, the son cast away his spear into the deep and motioned for his men to set sail. They obeyed for they too were now in awe of the mighty one. “Whoever I meet from now on,” said the son, “I will tell of your beauty and your greatness.”
But as the son and his crew were turning to go, the whale spoke with a deep and mighty voice which caused the sea to ripple and the timbers of the ship to shake, “Insolent vermin. In only one generation, see how far the house of the great king has fallen. He sends his many sons to slay me; they give me pretty words and cast their spears away. I slayed them for their trouble. The little fish who feed from my wound that the great king gave me now feed also on the flesh of his sons.
“A pathetic and impotent little shrimp. That is what I see when I look at you and remember your father. I remember the king, your father, who usurped us. He was a man of the hurricane. His empire is of many islands. How far has the family of man fallen in a single generation that a man of the spear, a whale killer like a hero of ancient times, a king of many islands, should have so many sons as pitiful as you? I lie here, dying of my wounds and am doomed to remember the day I received them forever. You say I am a beautiful creature, but how would I appear to you if, like you, I were one to shy away from the kill. I am wounded and crippled now, but am still more like your father than you. I was a creature of the hurricane with madness in my eyes. In my heart the wild song still sings. In my youth, I slew leviathans who were greater to me than I am to you. And when I saw your father, I knew that we were like one being. He is a monster, for he eats the flesh of monsters. He is a hunter and a madman. He sings the song of the storm and follows its call. In him the promise of my generation was fulfilled, for he succeeded us. He was worthy.
“Now, I have many children and they spit at your father and curse his name. They hate him for having crippled me, but they spit at me and curse my name, too, when they do so, for I am like your father, not like them. And when you praise me, kneel before me, worship me and call me beautiful but deny me even the honor of your spear, you curse me also. Think you that I care for your praises and flowery language? I am not a woman that I would be flattered in such a way. I lived as a creature of storms; let me die as one also. Give me the honor of your spear and slay me as you came here to do. Live like me, be like me, kill me, become the storm and be my son for I have none. That is the kindness which I require of the great king’s child. That is how I would be honored. Now kill me and consume my flesh as your father would have. Show my sons what I require of them. Only then I will be satisfied with you.”
The son was then greatly astonished and ashamed in his heart by what had been said. He bowed his head in obedience, took a new spear from his crew, and slew the mighty whale with zeal in his heart returning with much meat and bones for his village.
In time the king married and had many sons. The islanders became wealthy and strong. Other islanders came to trade for bones and whale flesh. The islanders conquered other tribes and made an empire of many islands. But, one day the meat stores grew low and the islanders began to starve.
The king, hearing the islanders’ cries, turned to his eldest son, a strong man, brawny, tall and well-loved. He sent his son to go out and slay the last whale for its meat. The eldest son went out in his boat, but after a month he did not return.
When the eldest son did not return, the people grew anxious and pleaded with their king to send another. He sent his second eldest, not so strong as the first, but filled with the wild strength of spirit that makes a man stand tall. This son sailed out willingly, but he did not return either. This pattern of failure continued until the king was left with only one son - the youngest and weakest of them all.
Now the king sent for his youngest son and bid him go and slay the whale, but the youngest son refused saying, “You tell me to slay a whale, but you have already sent my brothers to do the same work and they have not returned. I am the youngest and smallest of my many brothers, what shall I do that they could not? I know that I am not like you. I am neither strong nor brave nor very wise. I am a poor sailor, weak of body and weak of heart. I am soft and lazy. I read my poems in the shade. The lowest fisher monger is more fit to the task than I.
“Please father, I am content to starve and die. Do not send me out onto the waves to a painful lonely death. Let me die here where at least I have a shady room and a soft bed.”
At this, the king flew into a rage and spoke in a voice like thunder saying, “It is as you say. You grow soft, and so you are not welcome here. You have become like a woman and no woman is fit to inherit my throne. Go, leave this island at once. And if you die alone and miserable out on the ocean tides, that does not concern me, for you are no son of mine. And if we starve and die when you do not return, then at least I shall be rid of you.”
The youngest son was given a spear, a boat, and a small crew and sent off onto the blue ocean waves. The son sat on the edge of the boat and wept looking down at the sharks and fishes who would devour his bones. The sun beat on his back.
Many days they sailed in the doldrums over empty seas to where the wounded whale floated helpless upon the ocean swells. The youngest son could not command his crew to turn back, for his father had sent men with stronger hearts than his who were commanded to take him to the whale’s abode. At the crests of swells, the youngest son could see in the distance the figure of the mighty whale on the horizon.
As their approach brought them within sight of the whale, the youngest son felt awe begin to overpower his heart. The creature’s body stretched nearly from horizon to horizon. Its great mouth could have swallowed up an island. Its massive black shiny body looked like a mass of volcanic rock washed smooth by the ocean waves.
The son beheld the great wound in the mighty creature’s side half in half out of the sea. It still flowed with dark blood, almost black. The wound looked covered in parasites. Its gore was swollen and blackish, rotting and turning green. Puss mixed with the blood, and little fishes and sharks nibbled at is edges and swallowed up its blood.
The son cowered and his legs shook. As they drew closer, he did not dare take up his spear. He felt his bones quake within him, felt himself become like a speck of sand before the leviathan. As they came alongside its body he dropped to one knee, his jaw hanging open, his eyes wide. He beheld the hulking mass of the leviathan as it filled with breath, then exhaled laboriously. Each time it did this, a great swell emanated from where its body met the water and it seemed as if the whole ocean were bending to the creature’s will.
They sailed along its body up to the face, and, as they came alongside the whale’s eye, the son looked into it. His whole world seemed reflected in that eye which seemed big enough both to see and understand everything. And it seemed sad. Draped in deep black, that eye seemed as if it were mourning for the whole world.
The son ordered his men to fold sail. He stepped to the boat’s edge, stood before the great eye with his spear, and felt hollow and small. In a loud beseeching tone he called out, “O mighty one, I am the son of the king who wounded you so long ago. I see the wounds have never healed and I pity you. More than that, I am in awe of you and cannot stand to slaughter you as my father has commanded me to do. If I did not know there was a God in heaven, I should think the creator of all things is laying before me now. I am ashamed of my father who in his cruelty slew you. Your form is beautiful and magnificent and I cannot stand the thought of seeing it decay any further. I do not care if my people starve. I do not care what they will do to me. I will not murder you nor do you harm in any way. I leave you in peace and pray for your well-being.” Saying this, the son cast away his spear into the deep and motioned for his men to set sail. They obeyed for they too were now in awe of the mighty one. “Whoever I meet from now on,” said the son, “I will tell of your beauty and your greatness.”
But as the son and his crew were turning to go, the whale spoke with a deep and mighty voice which caused the sea to ripple and the timbers of the ship to shake, “Insolent vermin. In only one generation, see how far the house of the great king has fallen. He sends his many sons to slay me; they give me pretty words and cast their spears away. I slayed them for their trouble. The little fish who feed from my wound that the great king gave me now feed also on the flesh of his sons.
“A pathetic and impotent little shrimp. That is what I see when I look at you and remember your father. I remember the king, your father, who usurped us. He was a man of the hurricane. His empire is of many islands. How far has the family of man fallen in a single generation that a man of the spear, a whale killer like a hero of ancient times, a king of many islands, should have so many sons as pitiful as you? I lie here, dying of my wounds and am doomed to remember the day I received them forever. You say I am a beautiful creature, but how would I appear to you if, like you, I were one to shy away from the kill. I am wounded and crippled now, but am still more like your father than you. I was a creature of the hurricane with madness in my eyes. In my heart the wild song still sings. In my youth, I slew leviathans who were greater to me than I am to you. And when I saw your father, I knew that we were like one being. He is a monster, for he eats the flesh of monsters. He is a hunter and a madman. He sings the song of the storm and follows its call. In him the promise of my generation was fulfilled, for he succeeded us. He was worthy.
“Now, I have many children and they spit at your father and curse his name. They hate him for having crippled me, but they spit at me and curse my name, too, when they do so, for I am like your father, not like them. And when you praise me, kneel before me, worship me and call me beautiful but deny me even the honor of your spear, you curse me also. Think you that I care for your praises and flowery language? I am not a woman that I would be flattered in such a way. I lived as a creature of storms; let me die as one also. Give me the honor of your spear and slay me as you came here to do. Live like me, be like me, kill me, become the storm and be my son for I have none. That is the kindness which I require of the great king’s child. That is how I would be honored. Now kill me and consume my flesh as your father would have. Show my sons what I require of them. Only then I will be satisfied with you.”
The son was then greatly astonished and ashamed in his heart by what had been said. He bowed his head in obedience, took a new spear from his crew, and slew the mighty whale with zeal in his heart returning with much meat and bones for his village.
Posted by Muan142 | Apr 25, 2015 11:43 AM | 0 comments
April 13th, 2015
MAL MBTI PERSONALITIES CHART
Anime Relations: Love Hina
Here's the updated chart with names:
NAMES
ANALYSTS
DIPLOMATS
SENTINELS
EXPLORERS
NAMES
ANALYSTS
DIPLOMATS
SENTINELS
EXPLORERS
Posted by Muan142 | Apr 13, 2015 5:17 PM | 0 comments
March 31st, 2015
Bio
Anime Relations: Tenchi Muyou!
I'm 26. I live in Georgia in the United States., Metro Atlanta Area. I'm told it's
like it's own little state. My friends tell me I've never really lived in a small
town before, so I wouldn't know what the rest of Georgia is like. Got into anime...
hell, a long time ago. Really, I guess, Tenchi Muyo! on Toonami is what
turned me into a DVD buying fan. Then it was Nadesico. I recorded Bubblegum
Crisis 2040 on VHS back when it was on Showtime so I could watch it all in
order.
My major is in English, but I do webdesign and some light programing. I write
really distant future scifi and fantasy with a bit of success. I can read and
understand enough Japanese to be annoyed with Netflix translations. I really
like cooking, too. Same appeal as programming if you ask me. If you want to
know my likes and dislikes, check below. I really love religion and philosophy,
but then I am an English major and in America that's usually about as close as
you get to a philosophy major.
like it's own little state. My friends tell me I've never really lived in a small
town before, so I wouldn't know what the rest of Georgia is like. Got into anime...
hell, a long time ago. Really, I guess, Tenchi Muyo! on Toonami is what
turned me into a DVD buying fan. Then it was Nadesico. I recorded Bubblegum
Crisis 2040 on VHS back when it was on Showtime so I could watch it all in
order.
My major is in English, but I do webdesign and some light programing. I write
really distant future scifi and fantasy with a bit of success. I can read and
understand enough Japanese to be annoyed with Netflix translations. I really
like cooking, too. Same appeal as programming if you ask me. If you want to
know my likes and dislikes, check below. I really love religion and philosophy,
but then I am an English major and in America that's usually about as close as
you get to a philosophy major.
Posted by Muan142 | Mar 31, 2015 8:05 AM | 0 comments
Likes/Dislikes
If I watched all of it, I probably gave it an 8.
I prefer to review animes that I enjoy, but which have a lot of problems. It makes me feel like a special little snowflake.
In terms of my likes and dislikes
Likes
-surrealism and mindscrews
-guile heroes
-Scif & fantasy
-flat chests
-incest romance
Dislikes
-French coffee
-human villains
-super robots
-harem romance
-Kimi ga Nozomu Eien
Also, the more episodes, the better.
So basically I need an anime that's about 50-100 episodes long where the MC is a cyborg older sister with a flat chest, a soft spot for her little brother, and an IQ of 190 who, pilots a giant robot, drinks Turkish coffee and explores the deep inner reaches of her subconscious by fighting gods and demons with the power of her Batman gambits. Like Kino's Journey crossed with Bakemonogatari crossed with Ghost in the Shell I guess. That should tickle my moe sense just right.
[/spoiler]
I prefer to review animes that I enjoy, but which have a lot of problems. It makes me feel like a special little snowflake.
In terms of my likes and dislikes
Likes
-surrealism and mindscrews
-guile heroes
-Scif & fantasy
-flat chests
-incest romance
Dislikes
-French coffee
-human villains
-super robots
-harem romance
-Kimi ga Nozomu Eien
Also, the more episodes, the better.
So basically I need an anime that's about 50-100 episodes long where the MC is a cyborg older sister with a flat chest, a soft spot for her little brother, and an IQ of 190 who, pilots a giant robot, drinks Turkish coffee and explores the deep inner reaches of her subconscious by fighting gods and demons with the power of her Batman gambits. Like Kino's Journey crossed with Bakemonogatari crossed with Ghost in the Shell I guess. That should tickle my moe sense just right.
Posted by Muan142 | Mar 31, 2015 8:03 AM | 0 comments
3 Best Girls in Anime
Reki from Haibane Renmei
Izumi Konata from Lucky Star
Kanbaru Suruga from Bakemonogatari
Yes, they are all at least suspected lesbians, but it's only confirmed with Kanbaru, and she's at least a little bi-curious. I figure if we combine all three the final absolute value of the resultant sexual orientation gradient would be no greater than .4. I can get by on that.
Posted by Muan142 | Mar 31, 2015 8:01 AM | 0 comments