vendettared's Blog

Anime Relations: Shinseiki Evangelion, Shinseiki Evangelion Movie: Air/Magokoro wo, Kimi ni, Evangelion Movie 1: Jo

Disclaimer: This blog mainly serves not as a review per se but more of my opinions of the movie and Evangelion in general. A good knowledge of Neon Genesis Evangelion is quite necessary.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Introduction

The intention of my blog is to talk about Evangelion, why the world has to have a Rebuild of Evangelion series. To review the first part of the Rebuild of Eva series is pretty superfluous because 1.0 was a pretty faithful retelling of the original anime series up to Operation Yashima (Episode 1 - 6) with some rather sinister changes sprinkled all over… one notable change that Sachiel became the Fourth instead Angel instead of the Third.. a more sinister one is that Misato addressed the being in Terminal Dogma as Lilith in which in the anime series everyone in NERV save for Gendo, Ritsuko and Kozo thought it was Adam.

Kaoru Nagisa (my favorite character in NGE)’s entrance in Rebuild is a telling sign that Rebuild of Evangelion possess the potential to provide a much.. shocking interpretation to the Neon Genesis Evangelion in a manner that smacks of the frivolous recklessness of Hideaki Anno that can be seen in his treatment of Neon Genesis Evangelion that at times smacks of being pompous. To illustrate my points, there was a huge swath of blood on the moon that’s reminscent to the one split by Rei/Lilith in the End of Evangelion. The structure on the moon, ostensibly to be made by SEELE, in the story proper of Neon Genesis Evangelion and End of Evangelion.. SEELE possess no such facility or structure. Furthermore, in that scene there were frames of a chained being, with a purple mask and the words of Kaoru that "The Third remains the same" and in the same breath mentions about Shinji so it’s likely to be the (new) Third Angel. The Earth in Rebuild of Evangelion had oceans of blood red which strangely resembles LCL, still this blog serves not as a vehicle of speculation. For that purpose exists forums and sites with far more elaborate and logically sounding theories.



In the very words of Hideaki Anno, the director and creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion, "It’s strange that ‘Evangelion’ has become such a hit - all the characters are so sick! " in a 1996 interview. That very sentence serves as the premise for my blog, why’s Evangelion so popular? What flaws or needs lies in the original series that requires a Rebuild of it? To start with such a question, one should take the first step in looking at what’s arguably one of the opus of the 90s.

The Original Impact of Evangelion

Neon Genesis Evangelion can be seen as the culmination of a wave that started with Hayao Miyazaki’s films of Kiki’s Delivery Service and Totoro and Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira in the late 80s , what can be seen as a deconstructing of anime perceived during that period where it was prone to overt acts of machismo and set on grandiose scales such as the space operas or sagas like the Mobile Suit Gundam series and Super Dimension Macross. However on the theatrical front, it was quite different with works such as Nausicaa which still remains one of the best pieces of animation ever made and one that presided the rise of Studio Ghibli. Nausicaa is quite the polar opposite of series like Mobile Suit Gundam with its self-contained storyline unlike the space sagas often paying homages to earlier works such as Mazinger Z and Space Battleship Yamato not unlike their Western counterparts such as Star Wars which in turn was based on Eastern influences. The approach by Nausicaa with the female-centric by Miyazaki in contrast to the machismo of the mecha subgenre with the Gaia philosophy woven together in a self-contained fantasy saga which was quite different to the animes in the 80s. The success of Nausicaa brought other films such as Grave of Fireflies and Tale of Genji, films that contained or were based on important literary works. However this was limited only to the theatrical front, space operas/sagas such as Gundam and Macross and the otaku subculture in its young stage influenced anime as seen through works like Urusei Yatsura.

What has Evangelion brought to the world of animation? At that point of time, the Japanese animation industry was suffering from the collapse of the Japanese bubble and the fact that many of expensive works such as Akira bombed on the box office and the creative surge in the 80s due to the lack of animators was drying out as studios refused to take risks in the form of new and experimental works as they were no longer delivering. Hideaki Anno and Gainax started out in the form of the legendary Daicon films, they were and probably still are known as the company most willing to indulge in the otaku culture albeit in a surreal and unique manner. Hideaki Anno wanted to create a piece of work that would jumpstart the industry and Gainax in particular as many of their businesses were losing money. He would create an ultimate otaku piece, an opus so to say and he did via the creation of Evangelion.

Marrying religion symbolism with science fiction

One thing very popular with the fans in Evangelion is the Judeo-Christian elements in it with biblical terms and angelology such as Adam, Lilith and such being used very readily, the Human Instrumentality Project which is portrayed as an alternate Day of Judgement and such. However, it’s known from Kazuya Tsurumaki, assistant director, in interviews that Evangelion didn’t used Christian symbolism on purpose or to evangelise. It’s known that Gainax took such an artistic approach to differentiate themselves with other mecha animes because religion was not really used as a central theme in mecha animes then. It provided a form of (pseudo) intellectualism that seemingly propagated by itself in many animes after Evangelion such as RahXephon and others along with the strong Western influence and presence would be seen in the Japanese anime industry afterwards . An interesting thing to note is that in many anime, the western influences are mostly Germanic or French. I believe that Evangelion plays a strong role in propagating such influences through subtle manner such as using music composed by Beethoven and J.S Bach or pieces inspired by Pachalbel such as Komm Susser Tod.



Apart from the glaring spectre of religion, Evangelion takes a lot of their influences from western fiction. Hideaki Anno himself acknowledged the imprint of Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End in Evangelion, furthermore the strong presence of music in Evangelion leads me to wonder whether does Evangelion’s ideas carries the shadow of John Ronald Reuel (J.R.R) Tolkien’s concept of world creation via sound where a world was created via perfect harmony of music and evils are borne out of dissonance in it. The struggle for identity and conformity will be revisited later in the blog on the points of philosophy. The writer, Cordwainer Smith was also seen as an apparent influence in Evangelion and one recognised by Hideaki Anno through Cordwainer Smith’s Instrumentality for Mankind books however the Human Instrumentality Project is a very different project with Cordwainer Smith’s although both are on the survival of humanity.

At this point of the blog, we can see so far that Evangelion offered something quite different from many other animes. Marrying science fiction with religious symbolism, it was and is still very unique in thesense with many animes tried to emulate such as Le Chevalier D’ Eon but Evangelion remains definitive. The battles in Evangelion, where great robots clashed with monsters in the most empirical sense, how’s different is that from many other mecha animes and science fiction? However, it’s not that simple in Evangelion, the creatures and robots that battled are not just that, they are agents or proxies of greater and often invisible powers. As though, being charted by a power that one cannot fathom and struggles to comprehend. The EVAs are cloned from Adam, the first Angel by humanity that are Lilith-based life form to fight the agents of a possible alternate existence. To use Evangelion jargon, Evangelion represents the destruction of the AT field of two rather cerebral themes, a breakdown of both into a primordial soup of fiction where it would be easily drunk by the mainstream audience and understood. Personally, I see Evangelion more as derived from fiction married with psychoanalysis with religion used to facilitate this two and to create a vector where it would be so eye-catching not to be ignored. If the aliens beings were not named after biblical terms and the Tree of Sephiroth (It’s a Kabbalah term) was named something else for one of the halves to initiate Instrumentality. Nevertheless, if we are to do so, Evangelion will no longer be Evangelion, religion is often used as because of its ability to grab the attention of others. Hideaki Anno, managed to weave all three central tenets of influence together, a very good point would be how every key character in Evangelion parallels a branch in the Tree of Sephiroth. Each will represent a trial that one faces to achieve union with God or Instrumentality in Evangelion which foreshadowed the psychological issues that they faced. Yet this is a popular fan theory, I will relate to the "theorycrafting" tendencies to the relevancy of Evangelion.

Characters and Psychoanalysis



To another point or probably the most popular reason for Evangelion to be a hit would be the characters and the character development in it especially to Shinji Ikari. It’s known that Gainax’s president, Takeshi Sawamura got arrested for tax evasion of 580 million yen after the popularity of Evangelion. It won’t be an exaggeration that Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langley Soryu helped Gainax to achieve that, both are by far the most popular characters in Evangelion along with other characters such as Misato Katsuragi, Gendo Ikari and such yet the crown jewels in the Evangelion franchise are indubitably Rei and Asuka. Although not the very first, the debate of whether Asuka is a tsundere or one who popularised the personality still rages on today. Rei Ayanami’s popularity endures so much that the silent and stoic female types in Japanese anime onwards are labelled as Rei clones such as Yuki Nagato from Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu fame. Gainax, known as the studio that acts as the vanguard for fanservice has definitely not failed that reputation simply through the fact the amount of merchandise and paraphernalia that Evangelion has and the staggering amount of fan-produced works as well. Apart from Rei and Asuka whose appeal be it sexual or not, other characters such as Gendo Ikari, Shinji Ikari and Misato Katsuragi appeal to audiences as well. Peeling away the layer of base aesthetic value, most of the key characters possess strong character depth in the form of their psychological traumas and scars. Shinji Ikari, the protagonist in Evangelion undergoes very strong character development and changes in the story proper despite his depiction as someone who lack emotional resilience and his constant trumpeting of his fears justifying his need to escape away. In that sense, Shinji Ikari reminds me of Holden Cauldfield from J.D Salinger’s famous work, Catcher in the Rye. This is because in Shinji Ikari, one can see the common themes such as familial neglect, the tension between the self or teenagers and the outside world and a reclusive outlook to life, however many more differences can be drawn out.

Shinji Ikari poses as an interesting comparison to earlier protagonists to mecha anime such as Char Aznable and Amuro Ray in the Mobile Gundam series, where Shinji is pretty much a "wuss" and unable to display acts of valiant machismo that Char and Amuro were capable of. Subsequently, many animes had protagonists that were not able to grapple with their own dark secrets and trauma leading to mental breakdowns projected as berserk acts of uncontrollable violence. That, I believed has to be partly credited to Shinji Ikari although the personality type of an overtly emotional and insecure mecha pilot has earlier origins such as Kamille Bidan in Zeta Gundam. Many character types in Evangelion would be propagated in later animes in one form or another, it is common for people to compare a certain personality and call it a "Rei-clone" or a "Gendo imitation", such is the popularity of Evangelion that people associate personality types to the franchise instead of according such characters their own unique identity.

Along with the other two influences of science fiction and religion symbolism, psychoanalysis and philosophy is the third tenet in the influences behind Evangelion. Almost every key character in Evangelion suffered from a certain psychological trauma or stress, Shinji Ikari suffered from an implied Oedipus complex towards his mother Yui Ikari as shown through his relationship towards Rei Ayanami who was supposedly created from the remains of Yui Ikari and EVA-01 which has the soul of Yui Ikari. Shinji suffered from a social phobia where he used it to justify his alienation from the world, this is not very far from Kierkegaard’s works where the Danish philosopher wrote about alienation and basing their self-worth through passion, desire and other intangibles as opposed to using objective items such as money and such. Kierkegaard’s influence is very apparent in Evangelion where the episode 16 title "Sickness unto Death" , "死に至る病、そして" is a reference to his work, this concept about despair in relation to existence where one suffers and falls into despair because they are not able to define themselves in relation to the world be it defining themselves as a self-contained entity or not able to recognise a transcendental creator beyond them. Shinji’s thoughts in Rebuild where he justified his continuing as a EVA pilot because of the praise given by others and that his father willed for this although later in the story in Neon Genesis Evangelion, he piloted EVA-01 because of his mother ’s soul in it. Isn’t that a form of raison’ d ‘etre? Where Shinji seeks his self-worth through such means? In the end, Shinji Ikari in a clear reference to Freud, was told that he has to dissociate away from his mother and insisting on his own individuality instead of conforming with the community.



Beside Shinji Ikari, familial neglect is a huge psychological scar for characters such as Asuka Langley Soryu and Misato Katsuragi. Asuka Langley Soryu suffered from a mother who refused to believe that Asuka was her daugther instead thinking of an Asuka doll to be her daughter instead after a "Contact Experiment", Asuka had the misfortune of watching her mother hanging dead with the doll. In maybe infantile protests to outward expectation that it was acceptable for her to be sad and upset, Asuka however chose to project confidence and superiority as a shell to protect herself from the scars of the past.To invoke Sartre, such acts can be seen as "bad faith" because external actions and perceptions are being projected to mask and change the self within where it is a form of denial of the self and freedom. Asuka also exhibited what can be seen as an Electra complex in her advances towards Ryoji Kaji however it’s more likely to be mixed with changes such as puberty seen through her relationship with Shinji Ikari. The Electra complex is much more pronounced in Misato Katsuragi’s relationship with Ryoji Kaji where she admitted that she seeked for her father in Kaji. Like other characters, she seeked external empowerment to validate herself via using her femininity and seeking solace in physical gratification such as her relationships with Ryoji Kaji and Shinji Ikari, her sexual interests in both were mainly due because both resembled her father in various sense. This tendency of maintaining a societal identity via having relationships with others at least on the surface can be seen through Ritsuko Akagi as well. Her seemingly good relationship with Misato Katsuragi was shattered as Neon Genesis Evangelion progressed on when Misato realised that Ritsuko’s involvement in the Human Instrumentality Project and her complicity in hiding it away from the world. Ritsuko like Misato Katsuragi was uncomfortable with men as seen through her professed confusion over the illogic of Misato’s relationship with Kaji and other romantic relationship, this can be traced due to the fact that she had little contact with man in her childhood. Another sign of her feigned societal relations can be seen that Misato and Ritsuko rarely go into personal and deeper issues in their conversations, Ritsuko’s love of cats probably was an extension of her attempted independence because of the solitary traits of cats. Yet I wrote attempted because of her relationship with Gendo Ikari which was implied to be sexual and in a sense a form of perverse Electra complex because Gendo had a relationship with her mother, Naoko Akagi. Ritsuko hated her mother and she was strangely calm over Casper’s rejection of her commands seeing that it was her mother instead of Casper rejecting her.



Rei Ayanami was different in the aspect that she was not wholly human yet possessing human aspects. "An emotional change causes certain muscles in the face to tense, producing an "expression". Rei is expressionless but is it that she doesn’t feel emotion, or that she is merely unable to express it?" as said by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Neon Genesis Evangelion’s character designer in the Neon Genesis Evangelion volume 3. In a sense, does this mean that Rei is less human because she’s not fully human or taking upon the interesting opposite, more human because she’s genetically less human? Throughout the series, it’s shown that Rei is learning and adapting to emotions and her identity as being the vessel for the soul of Lilith meant that she’s able of perceiving emotions perhaps beyond the scale defined by one’s own mind. Yet being encased in a human vessel made from the remains of Yui Ikari, Rei is still suspect to "human" emotions especially having bearing the realisation that she can be transferred from one body to another, this can be seen as an allusion to the Freudian’s concept of Id, ego and superego via the conversation between the three Rei in End of Evangelion. Her relationship with Gendo Ikari is coloured with Rei’s awareness that Gendo sees her perhaps as a ghost of his wife and won’t let the existence of Rei Ayanami simply vanish.

Gendo Ikari despite being perceived as a heartless person who toyed and manipulated everyone for his own interest, not unlike Ryoji Kaji, had a deep emotional reason for doing so through his obsession in resurrecting his dead wife via his own version of the Human Instrumentality Project. To invoke Kierkegaard, Gendo Ikari attempted to overcome his despair by employing his despair against itself by using the very existence that killed his wife as a tool to resurrect it.

The relevance of Evangelion and Rebuild of Evangelion

What does all this psychoanalysis means to the audience who watched and love Evangelion? In my personal opinion, the emotional depth of the characters as explained via psychoanalysis helps to relate the characters to the audience on several levels. It creates in a sense, some form of stratification where people can connect to the Evangelion characters because they represent in various manners something in them, be it an ideal or something intimate to them. Many people has criticised the psychoanalysis presence in Evangelion and disparaged it as scientific mumbo-jumbo because it creates seemingly convoluted personalities which led to confusion. Hideaki Anno said before that Evangelion is meant to be interpreted by the self and the audience should never expect any forms of spoonfeeding for a definite answer because the series is not out to create one. The seemingly "convoluted" personalities in my opinion, are a twisted fantasy depiction of human personalities. Excellent fiction should always portray imagination and creativity but still able to relate on any level with the reader intimately. Another plausible explaination is that the reactions are a form of rejection or denials to the portrayal of the characters, it can be due to many reasons but that would be up to the personal self to decide.



The Human Instrumentality Project where every human being would be assimilated in a form of God-like hive mind conscience although is drawn from works such as Arthur C.Clarke’s Childhood’s End, it can be related to the otaku subculture in a sense. Hideaki Anno once said that Evangelion is a story of people not running away from their fears of breaking out from their solitude to reach out to people, even if it was a little step, it would suffice. Jean-Paul Sartre, the 20th century philosopher said that every human being is borne free and abandoned where every truth that one faces is essentially theirs. Their every decision and actions are inevitably our own, and we have to take the responsibility for those thus many unable to withstand this "condemned freedom" will choose to run away from it. In End of Evangelion, Shinji Ikari was told how to establish his own identity as explained earlier in the blog. If one is to look at the myraid definitions of otaku, one realises that there are many definitions to pick from but one common line is that many otakus are depicted as socially ineptitude at least in the eyes of the general society. The otaku subculture are often united together into sub-communities via differing binding agents such as the genre of anime or some other object, in Evangelion jargon, isn’t such a thing be seen as an anti AT-field? Where the barriers between person and person are melted away and they assimilate together in a community exhibiting aspects not unlike those of a hive-mind such as forming barriers of entry and having a form of collective subconsciousness.

Another recurring aspect in the otaku subculture is of the privileging of the feminine form and often lauding and mystifying it to the pedestal of admiration and worship. Gainax’s Neon Genesis Evangelion doesnt fail in this aspect by creating beautiful females in the eyes of their audiences that are still being seen as definitive in their own unique moulds and character. It would be excessively harsh to claim that Evangelion is used as some form of cruel mockery of the otaku subculture, despite Hideaki Anno’s belief in the later parts of production of Neon Genesis Evangelion that the otaku lifestyle is an autistic one and decided to use Evangelion as a form of critique on it. The dread of the individual towards their potential freedom be it unrestricted or shackled by the objective world’s circumstances is not limited to any community, it’s a human complex. How common is it for people to escape from reality under the shelter of mediocrity? To deny their actual potential by claiming that the world is rejecting them in this form thus they would be offered comfort if they are to merge with the rest? To use back J.R.R Tolkien’s concept of world creation via sound, are dissonances in the grand orchestra of creation or in this case, life be inherently evil or wrong?

What’s the relevancy of Evangelion to the world of anime and the otaku subculture? It would be pompous for me to make such a claim yet won’t Evangelion in process of becoming the ultimate otaku film be made into the antithesis of the societal makeup of the subculture as a form of shock evolution of the culture? Hideaki Anno himself had noted that in recent years, there had been little creative breakthrough in the Japanese anime industry in recent years because the current generation has been brought up on mass-produced animation unlike the 80s where there were room for alternative and experimental films to be made and produced. He went on to claim that the audiences and producers are only interested in producing and watching the same type of animation and no one saw an urgency for change which was one of the reasons why he decided to do a Rebuild of Evangelion. He admitted that it’s hard for absolute originality because people have been shackled by the same mindset and thinking frame for a generation but there was a need for the mould to be broken. Ironically, the formation of the current consciousness of this generation is heavily influenced by Evangelion and the themes brought by it but strangely not the theme of need of choosing individuality over an all-consuming communal consciousness.

Would it be far-fetched to claim that Rebuild of Evangelion will repeat history? To achieve what the original Neon Genesis Evangelion did? By breaking the-then conventions and telling the world of her concepts and lessons in a simpler and a more digestible manner? Such an answer can only be answered by everyone who saw the Rebuild of Evangelion and the original Neon Genesis Evangelion, the pseudo-intellectuals, the fanboys, the hardcore fans, the bashers and the many others who doesn’t comprehend Evangelion for a multitude of reasons such as convoluted complexity and such.



Perhaps there will never be a definitive answer or there isn’t meant to be any. Yet we are (not) alone and do you love (not) Evangelion to go ponder about it?

Anime Relations: Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan, Samurai Champloo, Juubee Ninpuuchou

When the concept of the historical samurai is perceived, what is it that normally comes to mind? The representation of the samurai to the masses is typically the “lone warrior” stereotype, traveling Japan to hone his skills in swordsmanship, partaking in ridding the land of evildoers, and abiding by principles of a certain code of honor called Bushido. And one may wonder how this image came about when the history behind this elite, social warrior class is far from reality (though certain figures did partake in such activity)? Pop culture is mainly to blame for this image, for it is the various mediums of pop culture that feeds the masses these highly romanticized characters, portraying highly exaggerated characters of what the samurai were or should be. By romanticizing an element of Japanese history as momentous as the samurai, it provides a sense of nationalism and unity in one’s own history, giving Japan international identity in a world so caught up in self image.



In order to analyze how and why samurai are romanticized in Japanese popular culture, it is first necessary to provide some history to define what samurai really were. Samurai were a military elite, evolving through a series of rebellions as central government grew weak from absence of devices to protect quickly growing shoen, or private rice farms, in the mid 800 A.D. Since shoen were products of private agreements, essential defense of these estates was agreed upon privately by the small landowners and farmers of each individual shoen (Turnbull 16). Thus, the samurai were born. As time went on, the samurai grew in number and power and eventually played a much greater role in history, acting as servants of their provincial daimyo, or lords, during feudal periods, and servants of the shogun as well, who was the military leader of Japan after the Emperor fell out of power (Turnbull). After a state of peace was reigned in by Tokugawa Ieyasu following hundreds of years of civil war, and two unstable governments, bakufu, the role of the samurai again changed. Now, the samurai were a military caste with no wars to fight, and while some sought other professions or ways to occupy themselves, the majority became unemployed or a burden on society, until they were gradually abolished as a social class following the reclaimation of power by the Emperor Meiji in the 1860's (Turnbull). Though there is much more to tell, this history must be abridged for the sake of analyzing how and why these warriors came to be so exaggerated.



Perhaps the most romanticized element of the samurai in popular culture is their strict adherence to a code of morals rooted in principles of honor, loyalty, devotion, and martial practice, more aptly named Bushido. The fact is that Bushido was less a code of honor, and more a strategic manipulation by the Tokugawa bakufu, government, to keep local daimyo subservient by stressing loyalty to one’s lord. The Tokugawa were extremely paranoid about civil war, and rightly so, since the only two other governments had failed due to constant warfare. Thus, they employed measures including a fabricated code of honor to keep samurai and local daimyo allegiant to the shogun (samurai-archives). Previous to the Edo jidai, Edo period, there was no code of honor, for had there been, many of the warfare tactics used would not have been possible. One must remember that samurai were just ordinary people, born into a higher status (samurai-archives). This is not to say that there were never any honorable or noble samurai. There were certainly great men among them, evidenced by records of men such as Takeda Shingen, Yagyu Munenori, Minamoto no Yoshitsune, or Shimmen Musashi Miyamoto, but character traits and principles to live by vary from person to person, and in that aspect nothing was different from how it is today.

The same goes for the typical pilgrimage throughout Japan to hone one’s swordsmanship skill. This misconception is similar to the misconception of Bushido in that individual skill with a weapon varied from person to person. Not all samurai practiced heavily with a sword, therefore not all samurai were master swordsmen. Though there were many great samurai swordsmen, one must look at the situation realistically in that if the samurai did not train with whatever their weapon may be, which many chose not to, they would not be particularly effective in a battle. Writings such as the Go Rin no Sho, Koyo Gunkan, or the Budo Shoshinshu, clearly show that many did devote their lives to their swordsmanship, however this was not the case with all (samurai-archives). It is even foolish to say that all samurai used katana. Samurai were versatile in their choice of arms in battle, and it is often thought that firearms were shunned and viewed as dishonorable. The fact is that firearms were embraced by samurai, and skill with a teppo (musket) was no less regarded than skill with a sword. The Japanese had no problem borrowing ideals or technology from other nations, which is evident in Japanese history, so naturally when the gun came along, samurai were not oblivious to the fact that it was far superior to the bow (samurai-archives). This type of misconception places samurai on a much more human level than previously regarded.



The third most common misconception of Japanese history comes with stealth, and clad in black. Or it is more accurate to say that they did not come clad and in black. Ninja were not mystical assassins that the entire world makes them out to be. Ninja were samurai. They were not disgraced or shamed into performing stealthy tasks or used magical hand signals to conjure spells as is the common falsity. Daimyo who were in need of reconnaissance, assassination, or any other task that required infiltration of enemy territory would call upon a samurai to do so. Ninja were simply samurai performing ninja activity, not an individual whose only duty was to perform stealthy jobs (samurai-archives). The fact that they dressed in all black and jumped across rooftops is a lie as well, stemming from bunraku puppet theater, in which the puppeteers would dress in all black on stage to give the impression of invisibility to the audience. The best way to not be seen, as the samurai knew, was to blend in with the enemy. Thus, this was the main method of stealth utilized (samurai-archives).

Much can be said for the reasons why samurai are so romanticized in Japanese popular culture today. One of the most important reasons perhaps, is that by romanticizing an aspect of one’s own history, it gives a sense of pride and nationalism. By exaggerating qualities of the various historically noble men and expanding that image onto the whole of a social class, audiences accept samurai as a more respectable medium. When popular media provides the romanticized samurai, it builds confidence in the audience in how the samurai were in real life, even though such was not the case with all samurai (Developing Maturity). However, it does give the impression that samurai were infused with a sense of loyalty and honor, and when pop culture projects this through its various mediums, it bestows the audience with the same impression (Developing Maturity). Such was the case with much of the manga during World War II. Manga was blamed by Americans for being overrun with “Bushido” type qualities, helping to fuel Japanese nationalism. Especially by targeting younger audiences such as teenage boys, pride in one’s own history can be more easily instilled. This is not to say that these romanticizations are done to promote nationalistic rebellion, though that may be true in some cases, but are more so done in order to give the Japanese an international identity in a world in which defining oneself is extremely difficult. In doing so, it gives the Japanese a medium of delineating who they are via their own history, exaggerated or not. The suggestion that the samurai may not have a place any longer in modern culture is evidenced by the “answering of a yearning for continuity with Japan’s unwesternized heritage”(Developing Maturity). It gives international audiences an impression of what the Japanese or Japanese history stands for, while giving the Japanese audience a way to be proud of their origin and a definite identity.



Romanticizing samurai in Japanese popular culture can also act as a vehicle for escapism. In order to escape from the present, pop culture provides fantasy worlds in which anything is possible, one of which is in fact the past. Escapism caters a method of presenting the audience with otherwise impossible images that are now possible through the mediums of anime, manga, or literature (Izawa 140). For many Japanese today, social culture is “often seen as blanketed under stifling layers of politeness and formality, characterized by endless bowing,” allowing for justification of imagination in which they are provided with fantastical images in the privacy of their own mind (Izawa 139). The exaggeration of samurai in escapist fantasy exploits the audience’s imagination by going back to a world long gone and looking at it in the best light possible. By overstating the samurai’s devotion to a martial way, and their specific codes of honor, the medium of pop culture can show a more fantastic story as opposed to a realistic one. Probably one of the most ideal examples of this is the anime Samurai Champloo, in which fight scenes are choreographed with moves that are not even humanly possible, yet seem second nature to the main characters. Even the characters themselves display amplified “Bushido” qualities. Jin, the quiet, wise, samurai, is created to be the obvious and overt follower of a clear set of principles, while Mugen, the rowdy tough-guy, only shows a conscience when trouble arises, yet both characters clearly show unhuman skill with their weapons, that of which could only be possible through escapist pop culture.



Another key in the popularity of this image of samurai can be applied to a younger demographic. Anime, manga, and even literature in which this image of the samurai appears is often used to attract younger audiences (Boys Are Forever). Given the history of civil war in which the samurai thrived, the topic of these warriors automatically implies violence and emphasis on action, a key in attracting a teenage demographic. Various mediums of pop media such as anime like Ninja Scroll, literature like Musashi, or manga like Vagabond (based off of Musashi) are accurate portrayals of the point trying to be made. All three were tremendous successes in their own right, and each had intimate portraits of violence to attract readers (Boys Are Forever). Audiences now base assumptions off of the stereotype of samurai of all being noble warriors and equating that to automatic violence, since the only attraction there could possibly be from this stereotype is the violence.

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Perhaps the main draw in terms of cross culture appeal is the fact that romanticized samurai in Japanese pop culture provides recognizable icons for those overseas and across international borders. Hyperbolizing the samurai in such a way that they appear as a whole to be a loyal body of master warriors provides international interest in certain characters due to admirable traits. By magnifying something uniquely Japanese, not only are Japanese audiences instilled with a sense of identity, but foreign audiences are compelled to take an interest in a culture so different from their own (Iwabuchi 104-5). Recognizable icons in pop media are the vehicle to gaining recognition from those foreign audiences. For example, the anime Rurouni Kenshin has gained international fame due to the fact that the main character of Kenshin Himura is portrayed as an honorable samurai in atonement for past sins. Foreign audiences can relate to a character with a dark past and admire him for attempting to make up for whatever crime he may have committed. Such is also the case with Hollywood movies like The Last Samurai. As inaccurate of a movie as it was, American filmmakers mimicked the overstated qualities of the samurai that they saw in Japanese popular culture to further spread a relatable character who finds some sort of enlightenment in a romanticized Bushido to American audiences.



Japanese popular culture fails to depict the samurai for what they actually were, people. Instead it overstates them as a legendary caste of invincible, honorable warriors. However, it is this exaggeration that provides Japanese audiences the sense of nationalism and identity that socially bonds them, while also fabricating an escapist fantasy with which to shun the formal world. There is also certainly no doubt that this image of the samurai is immensely popular, catching on in not only Japan, but all across the world as it attracts viewers to the history, however inaccurate it may be, of an culturally enriching country. But what seems to be forgotten in constant analysis and examination is that, maybe, sometimes people just realize truthfully that the samurai are just really damn cool.

Anime Relations: Elfen Lied

Jesus Christ Almighty do I watch a lot of unspeakable garbage.

The anime series Elfen Lied, if judged entirely by the merits of its first episode, is a lot like a seven-year-old in gang colors. It's trying really, really hard to impress you, maybe even scare you. But the overall effect is just sort of sad and forced, and in the end, you don't really see the kid amounting to much down the road. You just kind of shake your head slowly, and wonder how something so completely bereft of critical self-examination can exist in the modern world. And then you shrug and get a sandwich.

I knew I would hate this series, because everyone in sight was queuing up to take turns masturbating onto its face. Every review I read wasn't just positive; they were gibbering epiphanies. The authors probably had to take breaks between paragraphs. And that's never good.



To the show's credit, the opening number is mildly interesting, since it's obviously a nod to Gustav Klimt. It would have been nice, if branding didn't require a willowy anime chickie with perfectly spherical tits be crowbarred into every scene to the tune of an inconsolable Latin aria.



Killer floating stabby-stab pen. She does this twice. Someone on the writing staff was clearly very impressed with themselves for coming up with this little trick.

Elfen Lied is, from what I can tell, about an nightmarishly powerful psychic.



Seriously, why are the guards even given guns in the first place? Why did they even hire guards? For the salary of five of 'em they coulda just installed a motion-triggered bomb or poison gas in that head restraint and called it a day.

The first and only episode I've seen documents her escape from her containment facility. There's a lot of psi-chopping involved, and people falling apart, and ballpoint pens in eye sockets, and a security force that seems to be staffed exclusively with pressurized hemophiliacs, who are quickly promoted to blood geysers when our lovely, naked, oddly shiny heroine walks towards them with slow, spooky purpose.



You know she's special cuz she's gotta wear a helmet.

The episode hits an incredibly satisfying high point when Clumsy Girl is abruptly and unceremoniously dismissed from the mortal coil at the hands of Naked Psychic. You know Clumsy Girl, right? She gets a lot of work in anime. She's the cutsey-pie little fuck-up who likes to spill food and look embarrassed and squeak like a chew toy and TRY HER BEST, DESU.



Ha ha.

Naked Psychic, who we learn is named Lucy, chops her head off in front of a bunch of people for no real reason, and then uses her twitching corpse to deflect machine gun fire. I approve of this scene.

Ultimately, Lucy escapes her sooper-sekret facility with nothing more severe than a sniper-placed anti-tank round to the temple, knocking her into the ocean. She washes up the next day on a civilian beach, and the show's meager potential slams into a wall of crap with the force of a bullet train the moment she's spotted by Bland Protagonist.



If you listen closely enough, you can hear the show starting to suck

She has no memory. She behaves like a three-year-old. And all she can say is "nyuu."

I understand it was an anti-tank round. I do. Really. But what the shit, Japan.



WHAT A PERFECT FREE HOUSE JUST FOR ME HOW VERY UNUSUAL FOR THIS PARTICULAR GENRE OF ENTERTAINMENT

Setting aside the 500-page thesis I could write on Near-Mute Imbecilic Hot Chicks in Anime and the Japanese Male Libido, Lucy the former psychic death machine is taken home by Bland Protagonist. He's obviously not the easily-ruffled type, since it doesn't seem to bother him that his new pet sex object has horns. (Or, uh, cat ears. Or barrettes, or whatever the fuck those are.) It also doesn't occur to him that installing buxom, half-clothed brain-injury victims that don't belong to him as wards of his no-strings-attached Phat Palatial Estate might not be considered the act of charity I'm sure he's convinced himself it is by the local police force, television news crews, or habitual sex offender registries.



Which fetish is this one, again? This is the internet, I'm losing track.

I stopped paying total attention at this point. Lucy pissed the floor around then to highlight her newfound stupidity, and some woman gets slapped right off her feet into a triple lutz by the Evil Special Agent being sent to kill Lucy with such ridiculous force that I giggled, but the rest is really just a blur.



Japan: Keepin' that pimp hand strong.

Verdict? Six. I would give Elfen Lied seven out of ten, but it loses a point for having a name that doesn't make sense. I can only assume it sounds cool if you're not a native English-speaker.



The next time I psychically eviscerate a mob of prison guards, I'm gonna make this face and see how far it gets me.

Game developers must always tread a fine line between their artistic vision and the reality of what makes a good game as opposed to a desktop science experiment. Sure, the idea of an ultra-detailed space sim (for example) where you can literally control every aspect of the game might sound great in theory (just like Communism or car jousting); in practice, unfortunately, you might wind up with Battlecruiser 3000AD: A Derek Smart Pile of Steaming Monkey Feces, or whatever that bug-ridden mess was actually called. Games must remain games, but in the last 5-7 years there has been a growing dichotomy between how developers and marketing departments define what that really means. While developers realize that there are certain consumer accessibility requirements that games must meet, they also generally assume that their games can nonetheless exhibit a certain degree of complexity. Marketing departments, on the other hand, come from a long history of treating consumers of video games like 10-year old children, despite the fact that the demographics of this particular market have long moved into much more mature age groups.

It then becomes a tug of war between the developers (or more precisely, game designers), who want the game to be as rich and detailed as reasonably possible (exception to this rule: EA), and the publishers, who just want a game that's 'good enough for the kids' to be released at some point during this millennium...assumedly so that they can cackle evilly while rubbing their glistening, naked bodies with 100 dollar bills and the blood of the innocent, or whatever it is that game publishers actually do.

The root of this problem, of course, is that there is a rather large amount of moolah to be made in the games biz these days. And while the marketing people have obviously seen the statistics indicating that the average console gamer is now in their 20s and 30s, they are clearly refusing to actually respond to this shift. This leads me to believe that they therefore simply assume that most console gamers are blithering idiots as compared to their PC-playing brethren (definitely NOT an exception to this rule: EA). Among other things, this means that the battle for 'user friendliness' is slowly turning console gaming into a form of entertainment slightly less challenging (and certainly less interesting) than scratching yourself with rusty pruning shears (try it some time). Ok, please don't actually try it some time, or at the very least film it and put it on YouTube so we can all enjoy it.



One of the most obvious recent examples of this "Gaming for Dummies" philosophy is Assassin's Creed. Now please don't get me wrong, I quite liked the game: the gorgeous visuals, sublime setting, and almost meditative gameplay ensured that it was an impressive experience. What a shame, then, that it also single-handedly led to the creation of the phrase "Press X to Win." There is just no challenge to this game at all, no punishment for failure, and certainly no need to do anything in a fight but block and tap X to counter and instantly kill your opponent ad infinitum, until you've eventually finished the game or worn that little blue button down to the point that you need a new controller.

Devil May Cry 4is another example of oversimplification damaging the challenge in games (and thus fun and replayability). Once upon a time fighting games and beat'em ups used to require an 82 button combo just to walk forward a step; DMC4, on the other hand, could be considered exceedingly complex only in a parallel universe where you have a great deal of difficulty remembering to press Y or feed yourself. Examples of the stunningly difficult to master, advanced combat manoeuvres that DMC4 forces you to learn include Tap Y - Y - Y; or maybe Tap Y and then hold Y; and of course, the dreaded Tap Y five times in a row.



I' m all for not having to master ridiculously long combos in games, but seriously, Capcom, one freaking button? As though that wasn't going to get old super fast! Combine it with the fact that all the cool fights happen in cutscenes, and it's a wonder that they didn't just release this as an anime and cut out the middleman completely.

Then, of course, there's Army of Two: a game which so fails to live up to its potential that it's actually kind of heartbreaking. This was meant to be a complex, enjoyable co-op experience with legitimate tactics, genuine teamwork-based moves, and a slick, modern storyline chock full of bad-assery and more machismo than a Village People song. The sad part is that a fair bit of this stuff was in the game initially, but was then stripped out due to the fact that half the features didn't work properly, and the other half might have required a modicum of intelligence on the part of the player. What we got instead was a game so hacked up and crippled by a desire to be more palatable to Joe Dumb Consolegamer that it is now just a buggy, repetitive mess that is half unplayable and half too boring to bother playing anyway.



I guess I just love the irony (if crying, wailing, and much gnashing of teeth can be classified as 'love') of the idea that while modern games are supposed to be all about freedom - bigger worlds, more expansive ideas, and emergent gameplay - the people in charge of the cash get scared and think that gamers can't handle this freedom with their fragile, pea-sized brains and thus won't spend money on it unless there's a tutorial window every 30 seconds, or an incredibly irritating "guide" character like Burnout Paradise'sDJ Atomica - may he die a horribly slow and infinitely painful death.

The really absurd thing is the fact that numerous titles in recent times have been highly successful, despite requiring the player to occasionally exercise their brain matter and think for themselves. Titles like Oblivion, for example, or the Orange Box, do not feel the need to mollycoddle the player and thus actually manage to encourage creativity and immersion. How popular do you think the GTA series would be if every aspect of the game not directly related to the storyline was removed due to being too difficult?

When that ridiculous thought has finished percolating, take a look over at the PC gaming shelf in your local GameStop and consider why it is that genres like 4X games, turn-based strategy, RTS, or hardcore RPGs are still considered "inappropriate" for consoles? Sure, once upon a time digital control methods and lackluster system specs might have made these styles of game a no-no, but why couldn't Neverwinter Nights 2 or the phenomenal Sins of a Solar Empire be ported over these days? If it's a matter of controls, it's already been shown that RTS can be pretty decent on console (see Tiberium Wars), plus there is always the option of hooking a keyboard into a USB slot (which all the next-gen consoles should be taking advantage of anyway) and enjoying all those sexy beige function keys.

I don't think anyone really looks back on the dark old days of keyboard overlays and 600 page manuals with much in the way of teary-eyed nostalgia, but the sheer contempt exhibited toward console gamers through today's stupidly simple design is more than a little insulting. If a game like Army of Two is sold specifically to adults (as an MA rating and more swearing than a Tarantino flick would seem to indicate), shouldn't it be assumed that the adults playing it are in possession of enough adult intelligence to comprehend the finer points of play?

It's a scary thought, but maybe we'll eventually get to the stage where "Press X to Win" will be more than just a facetious little comment made by a particularly witty forum goer. Imagine, if you will, the public relations department's wet dream of the perfect game: every jump will land, every race will be won, every damsel will be rescued (and/or ravished, depending on whether you're playing as Conan or Mario), and every enemy will fall before your unintentionally hilarious, but undeniably phallic blade. Best of all it will all be so incredibly intuitive and user friendly that you won't actually have to even touch the controller. Oh wait, looks like we just invented cinema!

In all seriousness, though, the only way this alarming trend toward assumed console gamer idiocy can be stopped is by making a stand for our rights as people who somehow manage to both play games and not be morons. We are the generation of the information age - not only can we operate the microwave and program the VCR, we can also perform financial analysis, create complex websites, and program the very presentation software that marketing folk use to try to prove that the video game consumer of the internet generation is still the mental equivalent of the snotty 10 year old that was the primary consumer of games in the 80s and 90s. And yes, we also play games.

So if you are sick to death of annoying tutorials; if you've had enough of awesome gameplay features being cut right before release due to 'complexity' issues; if you are ready to murder the next PR drone that talks about "accessibility" or "user-friendliness" as a substitute for good old fashioned fun, then do something about it! Jump onto a forum, send off an angry email, and most of all, refuse to buy condescending, oversimplified games if that is what it takes to let them know that we resent being treated like the children that are no longer the primary audience of consoles (and have not been for a damn long time). If the software giants are rocked by enough consumer pressure to get rid of this ridiculous "Gaming for Dummies" design ethos, then maybe, just maybe, they will realize that their target audience deserves to be treated like the adults they know we are.