CENCOROLL Episode 1 Discussion

Rosa_FOEtida said:
It wasn't bad, but I felt like it was the tip of the iceberg. I think it would have been better as a TV series, as there was little time for any plot or character development, and it seemed like there could have be enough of that to last at least 12 episodes.

On the plus side, Cenco's transformations were imaginitive and the battles were quite good.

6/10 for me.

Fall said:
Cencoroll was something that I had been interested in for a while, but never ended up watching. I finally ended up watching it. I have to say that I loved how apathetic the characters were, whether that makes them believable or not. It feels like there was extremely heavy use of symbolism here that flew right over my head. The fact that the characters were so nonchalant about everything clued me into this. That, and the ending song and the scene immediately following it.

What are the monsters? What is control? And why do they have to fight and eat each other?

Monsters have to eat other monsters to survive. Every monster is controlled by a person, but after the credits, we see a human getting devoured (or perhaps consumed) by their own monster.

I suppose you could liken 'monsters' to egos, hidden personalities/feelings or the repressed feelings deep inside human beings.

"You're not afraid?"

That's what lethargy dude asks kininarimasu girl when she discovers his monster, even though he's trying to hide it; mask it as something else. If you start thinking of it like that, you might be able to see it as a very surreal representation of a love story. The 'monster' takes a liking to Yuki (kininarimasu girl) very quickly. In which case, Cenco likely represents letahrgy-dude's inhibitions, sexual appetite and desire for human connection.

If you think about it for a second, lethargy dude doesn't have friends. Rather, he's in a situation where he doesn't want anything like friends. He pushes Yuki away when she says she wants to ride in the car Cenco transforms into. It's common for people to 'reject them before they reject me', and this is exactly what he's doing here. He does actually starve for human connection, so he reluctantly accepts her proposal. All the while, the 'monster' is very eager. In this case, the 'monster' becomes a representation of 'the truth buried under the lies', or what lethargy dude actually feels, as opposed to his superficial attitude. This could then explain why he's so apathetic--his personality is divided into two pieces: his superficial fascade and his involuntary but undeniably honest feelings.

But then, why are these monsters at war with each other? Why do they have to eat each other to survive? And what exactly is 'control'?

To be honest, I'm not very sure. However, I at least feel like my analysis is at least somewhat correct. I don't think it's a futile attempt to try and derive meaning from Cencoroll, and I doubt that it's as empty as it appears. I've seen people criticise Cencoroll for leaving many things unexplained, but I've not seen any such criticisms of anime like Serial Experiments Lain. The very point is to leave those things unexplained and use metaphors as specific or more vague allusions to the truth behind the creator's thoughts and feelings that went into the show. It's often been said that 'actions speak louder than words,' something I certainly agree with. I'd add that they also speak more eloquently than words.

I just can't help but feel that there's something I'm missing here with Cencoroll. But it's also long-since been proven that even if you can derive deep meaning out of something, that doesn't necessarily it had deep meaning to begin with. That just means that it had perfectly shaped holes for you to fill that meaning in with. It's not digging out meaning, but shovelling it in. Just because something doesn't feel right doesn't mean that it isn't. Just because there's a logically consistent possible answer doesn't mean it's the actual answer--for example, in a murder case. One possible answer may fit the clues and contain the motive, but that doesn't mean that it happened. Often, it just means that you're misunderstanding and mixing up the facts in your mind.

But still, I think there is a deeper meaning to Cencoroll. Whether I unearth it or whether I fill it in, if I don't know the difference, I'll be equally as satisfied. And that's the beauty of symbolism: there are so many different interpretations that the 'true' meaning becomes even more obscured than with just words. But unlike in a murder case, one truth doesn't have to prevail over all the others. In fact, the square root of 4 can be equal to either 2 or -2. Both logically consistent; both correct. As long as it fits and there aren't any discrepancies, then it is correct, logically. Or maybe, if you answered '2' if someone asked you what the square root of 4 was, you'd only be half-correct. The correct answer is '+-2'. That's how I see it.

So in actuality, I might be just as correct to say that Cencoroll has meaning as someone else who says that it doesn't. I'm just going to say that I enjoyed the 30 minutes I spent watching Cencoroll as much as I did the 30 minutes analysing it.