Afterimage
Capsule impressions of pop-culture, mostly anime.
‘Arabesque’ by Salyu is from the soundtrack for ‘All About Lily Chou-Chou.’ In the film, Lily Chou-Chou is a fictional singer (played by Salyu) and this is one of the songs her fans use to slip into the ‘ether’; a place she’s able to conjure within them, a sanctuary from reality. They feel the music so deeply that it’s only while listening to it and talking about it that they feel truly secure enough to honestly communicate with others. The ether is something I totally get, after all, it’s where I am right now, a place where fellow fans are like kindred spirits, capable of understanding each other with words unsaid. It’s cathartic to feel that sense of comradery, and I think it’s why I blog; to reach out; I think everything is subconscious in that way. All that we consume says something about us. ‘Arabesque’ is an immersive song, soft, warm and textured.
Wubley stuff. The song is “Luv (sic) pt. 2” by Nujabes feat. Shing02.
Image from episode 21 of “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG.”
Heroes die
Go Nagai is awesome! Much of the praise for “Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-Hen” is (deservedly) heaped upon its director, Yasuhiro Imagawa, but he is fundamentally driven by Nagai’s own style, and only a director of Imagawa’s pedigree is capable of transforming it to animation. Indeed, it’s rare to think that even within the last 3 minutes of the last episode, everything is still up in the air, but as anyone who has read “Devilman” should well know, Nagai will always take an apocalypse over world-peace. And so he does; what a fun and exhilarating series.
Episode 18 of Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C 2nd GIG
Set in a snowy Berlin, Batou glares down at the dark streets of the city. It’s cold out. He’s been there for days, perched on the shoulder of the Statue of Victoria, searching for this one terrorist. He sees a girl in a wheel-chair; she’s looking up in his direction, straight at him. She can’t see him, that’s impossible, right? Yet he becomes fascinated by the girl, jumping from roof to roof, following her every move. Berlin is an old, beautiful city, especially when it snows. The street-lights glow against the night sky.
Skeleton me
‘Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood’ is a great series and, arguably, has developed into best of 2009. As of episode 22, every further instalment is exciting and heartfelt; pushing the characters forwards and expanding their journeys beyond older horizons.
Scar has always been an enigma, seemingly on the brink of becoming an anti-hero, yet never quite making it. His encounter with Winry was intense; after all, he murdered her parents, so you couldn’t blame her for shooting him. Yet she doesn’t. Not everyone is a natural born killer. People make an eye for an eye sound so easy.
Silence hides the sniper
Saitou may be one of the lesser lights of Section 9, but his back-story in episode 13 of ‘2nd Gig’ is also one of the series’ very best. Jumping back years, it depicts his first encounter with the Major; as a sniper, heartlessly decimating her unit of army meat-heads. Clearly influenced by ‘Full Metal Jacket,’ their battle is waged between derelict houses and smashed walls. Soldier after soldier is picked off by Saitou as the younger Kusanagi homes in on his position. One senses desperation in the air; the sky grey, rain falls, moisture clings to the skin.
Even when you know the stars in the sky are all fake?
Some anime are best seen weekly, but most, not; “Darker Than Black” sits firmly in the latter category, and is a good example of the “stand alone complex” style, in that its episodic nature slowly progresses towards building the skeleton of a larger beast; it’s a world rife with important dates, names and places, the kind of details one can only breathe-in when genuinely determined to dive right into its story.
Its first arc is an excellent introduction, both in terms of the weird supernatural elements that underpin everything, to, and more vitally, a sweeping undercurrent of melancholy.
Meow
It’s exciting to think just how ripe with potential Tensai Okamura’s world is for future adventures; it takes just 30 seconds to realise “Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor” is going to be a very good series indeed. Having shed the noir-tanned skin of its predecessor, “Gemini” interweaves some frankly awesome action scenes with a vibrant sense of humour. Switching to a cast of school-kids was a risk, but it works; they slightly warm the mood, while the writing has retained its ability to chill the blood with sudden bursts of cold violence.
Fullmetal Love Story
Episode 10 of ‘Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG’ was excellent. The series has so far felt a bit bogged down in ‘techno-babble’ and complicated government slang-terms, but this was an almost purely visual instalment that relies heavily on Yoko Kanno’s score, ending as by far and away the most emotional episode yet. The plot is concerned with Major Kusanagi’s childhood and how she became a ‘full-body’ cyborg, but also tells a melancholy love story, all seen from the secondary perspective of Kusanagi’s first crush, who also lost his original body in the same accident.
