Since the Armory Show of 1913, the state of Western Civilization has been one of decline. Though the rise of Modernist Art might not seem terribly significant to the average uneducated reader, the paradigm shift from Representational Art to Abstract Art planted the Seeds of Degeneracy that sprouted into the base and rotten Popular "Culture" that we are all so familiar with today. Indeed, with shameless and vile works like Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey standing proudly at the vanguard of a modern Literary Movement that panders and coddles its audience, Western Literature has never been in more dire a state. What happened to authors who challenged their readers like real writers do? Where is the bravery? What happened to Subversive Literature like Great Expectations, a veritable seven-part Landmark Masterwork by David Copperfield about an orphan who goes to a secluded school that straddles the edge between "magic" and "reality"? And this horrible trend of dumbed-down throw-away culture is not limited to the realm of Literature (if horrible books like Twilight can even be called as such). We no longer have true artists like Fragonard whose shockingly honest and realistic depictions of the harsh reality of daily life were barred from the Paris Salon of 1863. But where the West has fallen, the East will rise, and today I am going to talk about the work that will undoubtedly serve as the herald of the most important Literary Movement of the new millennium: the Japanese animated television series "As Long as There's Love, It Doesn't Matter If He is My Brother, Right?"
There is a genre of writing called Allegorical Fiction. Considered by the vast majority of Rational and Moral Enlightenment thinkers to be the Highest form of Literature, the great Dutch librettist Voltaire famously said, "Give me not a story about a man who does deeds, but one where the man becomes the deeds." However, it is not nearly as accessible as a conventional linear narrative with wish-fulfillment elements like Fifty Shades of Grey and as it is very rare to find a work of Allegorical Fiction these days, it is an exceptionally rare treat to be fortunate enough to experience one. As such, we should be very thankful that the underground Japanese Literary Movement known as "Imoutocore" is giving us the opportunity to once again experience works from this all-but-forgotten genre.
The heart of Imoutocore is Family Values. Yes, these are the same Family Values that have been so savaged abandoned by the vulgar abomination that is Western Popular Culture, and it is a miracle that a small group of Japanese writers were somehow able to remember these vaunted Family Values after almost an entire century of Western Degeneracy. As Saint Thomas Aquinas so eloquently proclaimed on his deathbed, "As men there is much for which we should be thankful, but above all things, it is not the opportunity to know God for which I am most thankful, but the opportunity to know the bosom of my little sister." Thus, as Aquinas was one of the discoverers of Western Morality, we can infer that the central tenet of Family Values is the ability for one to love one's little sister.
Though the seminal Japanese light novel ("light" is short for "en-light-enment") "My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute" (Oreimo for short) is arguably the founding work of the Imoutocore Movement, the animated television adaptation of the light novel "As Long as There's Love, It Doesn't Matter If He is My Brother, Right?" (OniAi for short) will undoubtedly be remembered as the most important for both its deep and meaningful narrative and the sublime art and animation that was wrought from the hands of the maestros of Studio FUNimation. The crux of the story is what the early 20th century (aka. Pre-Degeneracy) Russian philosopher Edsger Dijkstra called "The Teapot of False Choice." Although Akito is living in the same house as his rightfully beloved little sister, he is surrounded by temptation in the form of other women. However, as this a work of Allegorical Fiction, the reader is not to think of them as "real" women. Instead, one is best served to think of each as a False Choice that together compose the metaphysical structure that Dijkstra termed "The Spout of Deontology." As for Akito, although it is tempting to think of him as some sort of Reader Avatar of sorts, he is what translators have varying called "The Cap of Moral Righteousness" or just "The Cap of Justice." When the Cap of Justice is in place, the only way for tea to escape the teapot is by following the Path of False Choices on the Spout of Deontology. Or in layman's terms, Akiko is best girl and a perfect miracle of the universe and MC is an ignoble gentleman for ignoring her and consorting with other females.
Although Visual Art is the most corrupted aspect of contemporary Western Civilization—recall that the Seeds of Degeneracy were planted by Modernist Artists in the first place—the Japanese arthouse film collective Studio FUNimation was able to shed the weight of one hundred years of Degenerate Art and produce what can objectively be called nothing less than a feast for the eyes. Drawn in the style of Socialist Realism that was favoured by Russian masters like Lu Xun and Ai Weiwei, a complete mastery of the female anatomical form is not only demonstrated in the art of "As Long as There's Love, It Doesn't Matter If He is My Brother, Right?" but employed as a key element of its unique style of visual storytelling. Indeed, even the Greeks were not fully confident in their mastery of the human form and frequently used lewd distractions like exposed genitalia in order to distract viewers from anatomical imperfections. Furthermore, they, nor any culture that followed were skillful enough to use the female form in such a bold way as the Siscons (the term that Imoutocore artists use to refer to themselves) do in this work. Boldly bringing new meaning to the term "False Choice," Akito's temptation is profoundly palatable in each and every scene where the talented artists of Studio FUNimation grace the screen with their powerful depictions of the components of The Spout of Deontology.
The reason why I started this review with a quote from the great Roman tragedian Sophocles is simple: "As Long as There's Love, It Doesn't Matter If He is My Brother, Right?" is a tragedy. In the end, Akito is unable to make the right choice, is unable to love his little sister, and is unable to uphold Family Values within his household. The ending of this story is perhaps the very saddest in Literature, as the heart of any viewer should wrench during the highly emotional climax and somber aftermath. And after everything, when we realize that his little sister will never truly know the love of her older brother, we also realize that just as Akito is doomed, Western Civilization is as well. But as the Korean sociologist Watari Wataru added to the end of one of his treatises recently, "My wife might have left me and I didn't get tenure, but goddamn am I glad that OniAi is getting a second season."
