February 19th, 2020
Babylon - a show that just couldn't commit to one idea
Anime Relations: Babylon
I love binging animes, especially ones involving mystery. Watching week to week is well and good, but seeing everything play out as you watch the episodes back to back is just fun. Even the slow moving mystery shows make sense when you watch it all in one go.
I mention this, because when Babylon came out I watched the first three episodes with everyone and was hooked. A show that has a female temptress who is a capable villain. Check! An anime that deals with adults and not teens. Check! A show that is shocking, but thought provoking at the same time. Check!
I was all in.
After watching the first three episodes, I knew that I needed to binge watch this so I put it on hold and only recently finished it. Was it good? It did have good parts, but also a lot of bad. Did binge watching help speed up the slow moving parts? Kind of, but then it didn't.
I think Babylon had a lot of promise, but ultimately there were three main issues that I had with the show.
The first part,
Good and Evil is a topic that has been discussed since forever. What is evil? Can good remain if there's no evil in the world? Is it evil to let people do what they want, even if it isn't good? etc...
It's a fine enough topic to discuss, but the show over complicated the topic to the point that it got boring. It seemed liked the characters were saying the same thing over and over again, without any conclusion to the debate. Add in the suicide bill and it just felt redundant.
And the suicide bill. I understand the theory behind it, but why is it such a big deal that nations all around the world have to debate about it?
Is suicide a proper basis to discuss the concept of good vs evil? If you are religious, then suicide is almost always a sin. If you support euthanasia, then suicide is fine when it comes to chronic pain. But most people, if they see someone trying to kill themselves, you'll try to stop them. That's just basic human nature. If you're in war and someone tries to kill themselves before a big battle, because they don't want to fight, some might call them a traitor. If you are hanging by a rope with someone and you're on the bottom, you might cut your own line to save the other person....
Basically, when it comes to the topic of suicide there are many levels in with to discuss it. But here's the problem. The show took on the broad topic of suicide and minimized it, while taking the topic of good vs evil and over emphasized it. The imbalance of it weighed the show down, especially in the latter episodes.
At it's core, Babylon is a show about good vs evil, but in order to emphasize this part and to create angst for Seizeki Zen, he needs a beacon of evil to direct his hate to. So Magase Ai comes in to show us just how evil people can be.
Magase Ai is evil. Her words feel like rape and instead of using her power to create good in the world, she enjoys messing with people and making them kill themselves. As a villain, she's fine. Watching Seizeki try to capture her only for her to be one step ahead is a great cat and mouse game.
Here's the problem though - Babylon is a show that is grounded in reality. So how is Magase able to tempt so many people into death?
Is it hypnotism? Is it a supernatural element? Who exactly is Magase Ai and why is she doing what she is doing? Not the whole making every suicide themselves, but with regards to the suicide bill. Why is she working with Itsuki Kaika? Do they actually have a kid together? Why hasn't she tempted him into evil? Is the show saying that she has, since he is pushing for the suicide bill?
There are too many questions regarding her and her nature that are never answered. I don't think a show needs to answer everything, but it should answer some things, no?
The way Magase Ai managed to tempt everyone around her can only be explained if you say it's supernatural, but the show never did that which made it unbelievable. Take Death Note for example. It's a show that is also grounded in reality, but it has a supernatural element that explains how Light, as Kira, is able to do what he's doing.
By giving us a Death Note and a Shinigami, it allows us to understand the supernatural aspect even though the show is a human story.
Hell Girl is another story that has a supernatural element, but it's still based in reality since the humans are the ones invoking the services of Enma Ai.
Makishima, from Psycho-Pass, isn't a supernatural entity but an oversight that the Sybil system never imagined at its creation so his evil makes sense in lieu of the show's narrative.
Magase Ai is what? And that's the problem that I have.
I wish the show just fully committed to the idea of Magase Ai having a supernatural power, because it would explain away so many of my questions. But the way the show tried to move away from it and didn't address it, made the entire thing unbelievable.
Suspending one's disbelief is to be expected when it comes to works of fiction, but you need to give us a reason to do this.
I know I bashed on Magase Ai above, but from episodes 1-7 the cat and mouse game between her and Seizaki were at the forefront, so I was able to overlook most of my issues. The mind games and tension were building up to the shocker of episode 7.
And then we get an American president who is known as the Thinker to take us back to the suicide bill and whether that is good or evil.
The shift of narrative and tone didn't flow well. To take all of that high tension from the last episode and slow it down so suddenly until it came to a grinding halt was off putting.
The endless debate over whether the suicide bill is good or not vs the endless debate over good vs evil isn't something that I want. Then to add Magase Ai after without ever explaining why she is pushing for this bill, just made me want the show to end.
All of these issues of mine is something that I could easily overlook if it was the only problem in a show. But adding them together without explaining the purpose of Magase Ai and the suicide bill just makes for a uneven show.
Despite all this, the ending worked in the grand scheme of things so I don't necessarily have a problem with it. I also enjoyed the first seven episodes. It's just that everything that happened after it kind of ruined the appeal of the show.
I mention this, because when Babylon came out I watched the first three episodes with everyone and was hooked. A show that has a female temptress who is a capable villain. Check! An anime that deals with adults and not teens. Check! A show that is shocking, but thought provoking at the same time. Check!
I was all in.
After watching the first three episodes, I knew that I needed to binge watch this so I put it on hold and only recently finished it. Was it good? It did have good parts, but also a lot of bad. Did binge watching help speed up the slow moving parts? Kind of, but then it didn't.
I think Babylon had a lot of promise, but ultimately there were three main issues that I had with the show.
- The suicide bill and the debate of good vs evil bogged the show down.
- Magase Ai, while cool in theory (and a character that I liked), never really made sense on the show
- The change in tone and tension from 1-7 and 8-12 wasn't done well
The first part,
- the suicide bill and the debate of good vs evil.
Good and Evil is a topic that has been discussed since forever. What is evil? Can good remain if there's no evil in the world? Is it evil to let people do what they want, even if it isn't good? etc...
It's a fine enough topic to discuss, but the show over complicated the topic to the point that it got boring. It seemed liked the characters were saying the same thing over and over again, without any conclusion to the debate. Add in the suicide bill and it just felt redundant.
And the suicide bill. I understand the theory behind it, but why is it such a big deal that nations all around the world have to debate about it?
Is suicide a proper basis to discuss the concept of good vs evil? If you are religious, then suicide is almost always a sin. If you support euthanasia, then suicide is fine when it comes to chronic pain. But most people, if they see someone trying to kill themselves, you'll try to stop them. That's just basic human nature. If you're in war and someone tries to kill themselves before a big battle, because they don't want to fight, some might call them a traitor. If you are hanging by a rope with someone and you're on the bottom, you might cut your own line to save the other person....
Basically, when it comes to the topic of suicide there are many levels in with to discuss it. But here's the problem. The show took on the broad topic of suicide and minimized it, while taking the topic of good vs evil and over emphasized it. The imbalance of it weighed the show down, especially in the latter episodes.
- Magase Ai, while cool in theory (and a character that I liked), never really made sense on the show
At it's core, Babylon is a show about good vs evil, but in order to emphasize this part and to create angst for Seizeki Zen, he needs a beacon of evil to direct his hate to. So Magase Ai comes in to show us just how evil people can be.
Magase Ai is evil. Her words feel like rape and instead of using her power to create good in the world, she enjoys messing with people and making them kill themselves. As a villain, she's fine. Watching Seizeki try to capture her only for her to be one step ahead is a great cat and mouse game.
Here's the problem though - Babylon is a show that is grounded in reality. So how is Magase able to tempt so many people into death?
Is it hypnotism? Is it a supernatural element? Who exactly is Magase Ai and why is she doing what she is doing? Not the whole making every suicide themselves, but with regards to the suicide bill. Why is she working with Itsuki Kaika? Do they actually have a kid together? Why hasn't she tempted him into evil? Is the show saying that she has, since he is pushing for the suicide bill?
There are too many questions regarding her and her nature that are never answered. I don't think a show needs to answer everything, but it should answer some things, no?
The way Magase Ai managed to tempt everyone around her can only be explained if you say it's supernatural, but the show never did that which made it unbelievable. Take Death Note for example. It's a show that is also grounded in reality, but it has a supernatural element that explains how Light, as Kira, is able to do what he's doing.
By giving us a Death Note and a Shinigami, it allows us to understand the supernatural aspect even though the show is a human story.
Hell Girl is another story that has a supernatural element, but it's still based in reality since the humans are the ones invoking the services of Enma Ai.
Makishima, from Psycho-Pass, isn't a supernatural entity but an oversight that the Sybil system never imagined at its creation so his evil makes sense in lieu of the show's narrative.
Magase Ai is what? And that's the problem that I have.
I wish the show just fully committed to the idea of Magase Ai having a supernatural power, because it would explain away so many of my questions. But the way the show tried to move away from it and didn't address it, made the entire thing unbelievable.
Suspending one's disbelief is to be expected when it comes to works of fiction, but you need to give us a reason to do this.
- The change in tone and tension from 1-7 and 8-12 wasn't done well
I know I bashed on Magase Ai above, but from episodes 1-7 the cat and mouse game between her and Seizaki were at the forefront, so I was able to overlook most of my issues. The mind games and tension were building up to the shocker of episode 7.
And then we get an American president who is known as the Thinker to take us back to the suicide bill and whether that is good or evil.
The shift of narrative and tone didn't flow well. To take all of that high tension from the last episode and slow it down so suddenly until it came to a grinding halt was off putting.
The endless debate over whether the suicide bill is good or not vs the endless debate over good vs evil isn't something that I want. Then to add Magase Ai after without ever explaining why she is pushing for this bill, just made me want the show to end.
-..-.-..-
All of these issues of mine is something that I could easily overlook if it was the only problem in a show. But adding them together without explaining the purpose of Magase Ai and the suicide bill just makes for a uneven show.
Despite all this, the ending worked in the grand scheme of things so I don't necessarily have a problem with it. I also enjoyed the first seven episodes. It's just that everything that happened after it kind of ruined the appeal of the show.
Posted by HiddenSilentMe | Feb 19, 2020 10:46 AM | 0 comments