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Mar 11, 2024
I've been thinking a bit about this story and what it's trying to convey through Aikawa. As I've read the review of
another user specifically critiquing Aikawa's lack of character or rather her character being defined too much by trauma
which she has suffered, I began to wonder whenever it's morally right.
Is it morally correct to accuse a person (or fictional character) of being defined too much by their trauma ? How could
they not be ? After all trauma is something incredibly haunting that keeps it's fangs deeply
within you until you wither away or decide to do something about it.
Aikawa is a character that was
...
not too uncommon in the 2000s. With her big round bug eyes, bangs over forehead and a shy
kind response that you saw coming from miles away. In other words....boring. We don't know what she likes to do in her
free time, we don't know what aspirations she has for the future, we don't know anything that would make her "dynamic".
Precisely therein I believe lies the problem. Has her lack of "living" been imposed upon her by trauma or simply
bad writing ? Only thing that adds "spice" to Aikawa is her terrible abuse which she has suffered under her stepfather.
The only thing that is disrupting this story and refusing to let it be just another harem manga in mid-2000s.
She may not be doing anything in her free time that we would describe as a hobby. But she is doing something.
By endlessly being forced to think about her past and being held a hostage by it, Aikawa's boring character ends up
being a result of something disruptive happening within her life. As if the story perhaps subconsciously acknowledges
that such a cliché protagonist can only exist as a byproduct of something terrible. And suddently the archetype of this
shallow, shy, tame girl recieves a backstory and a purpose for its existence. In Bitter virgin, this archetype can only
exist under these circumstances. It turns her from archetype into an original. Unique. Her shyness, shallowness are a
sign of trauma. Her kindness and cheerfullness are a sign of resistance to said trauma. The unavoidable effect of
trauma comes into play. It both forms and deforms her. Ultimatelly, this is a story not about overcoming trauma but
making the first step to do so. And the first step is realising and accepting that you are a deserving of love.
That you are worthy of it. The potential of Aikawa's character can only be realised once she overcomes her past. After
which she will no longer be defined by the horror of trauma but rather the journey she took to overcome it. Journey
filled with love and support that will help her blossom and find her "true character".
Of course the more realistic interpretation is that mangaka added the horror of rape onto the archetype of Aikawa and
it simply did not change her that much. The archetype remained the same. Only "spice" was added to hide its unoriginallity.
Most other characters act as narrative tools to get our protagonists where they need to be. With the exception of
Daisuke's sister that I genuinely liked. She complimented Aikawa's and Daisuke's stories while remaining her own person
throughout. Ibuse Kazuki on the other hand only existed to prolong the story by 20 chapters. It is when I remember
Kazuki's character I realise that my "positive" interpretation of Aikawa is futile. Much like her, Kazuki too is an
archetype. So is Daisuke and pretty much everyone else besides Suwa Izumi, Daisuke's sister. Hints of potential
uniqueness that could have been added into their characters end up being nothing more than my own schizophrenic
delusions. The writing relies too much on coincidences and drawn out repetitive dialogue.
Prehaps it was precisely this cliché world of harem that mangaka was aiming for. Maybe she wanted to explore these
themes with archetypes that most of us are familiar with. The idea that rape or miscarriege can happen to anyone.
People around that you are familiar with just like these archetypes or even to you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Nov 16, 2022
This is just embarrassing to be honest. Tokyo Revengers was a battle shonen manga with a simple premise, simple characters and simple messages. Thanks to it's simplicity the reader could just lay back and enjoy a simple tale of a man travelling back in time to fix the past which led to his old love dying. Takemitchy along the way had to learn that changing the past is not as easy as it might appear. Sometimes he accomplished his goal in changing a terrible event of the past for the better while other times all he could do was change past events from terrible to
...
just bad. All while being the physical underdog in every encounter. He kept on fighting thanks to his incredible will to save the ones he cared about and the help which he received from them. Not because of his big muscles. After some time the manga started getting repetitive. Takemitchy changes something in the past thanks to his will and ocean of tears which he shed, then travels back into the future and finds out things are just as bad if not worse, after that be goes back and boom ! We have another arc based around the same idea again and again. Same types of speeches, very similar outcomes all while the cast kept on rapidly expanding. I believe this is my biggest problem with this manga. Author kept on throwing new characters at the reader all while expecting you to remember all of them. All of their backstories, names, "arc's", and relevance to the main storyline. It may not seem like a big problem but at a certain point in the story I genuinely thought that the mangaka was just parodying himself. In the last arc before the final one we were building up to a showdown between Takemitchy and a big antagonist. Inbetween those two walking towards each other we got like FIVE backstories of random side characters which brought nothing to the table. It just kept on interrupting the main storyline to give us another backstory for a character nobody cares about or even remembers. For every step Takemitchy took we got another backstory. I thought it would never end. Not to mention something similar happened in the final arc right after a very important character died. Like TWENTY new characters showed up out of UTTERLY nowhere, introduced themselves and started fighting. Despite being repetitive, spending obscene amount of time on filler characters and lacking emotion in the last arc I kept on reading. Last couple of chapters were actually intriguing. There was a promise of concequences, something big happening which would shake the story. Maybe not save the bad parts but still give a meaning to the good parts and end Takemichy's character arc. With the final plot twist we were almost there. It was so simple to craft an ending with a profound message and weight which would make readers remember this story fondly. I don't want to spoil anyone but I feel like we were so close to at least getting something good at the end instead of the embarrassing looney tunes ending. It was so sad it actually makes me feel rude even criticising the author. I actually think he just wanted to give everyone a happy ending. Which is fair. His characters. And his story.
Too bad it's just so lame.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Jun 16, 2022
This is my second manga from Junji Ito and sadly it's even worse than the first one. I'am still positive that Junji Ito has made some great mangas that I will eventually read. But this was not one of them.
Story moves rather quickly but even despite of that the atmosphere was pretty haunting. At least in the first chapter. After that I was being way too distracted by the ridicoulous portrayal of human nature and borderline hysterically comedic moments towards the end. I don't know whenever it was Junji's intention to make me laugh. I genuinely believe that he was doing it on purpose.
...
What's funnier is that people actually taking the ending seriously. Like not even some of the craziest shounen out there would dare to get this ridicoulous.
The only character which I liked was Mr. homeless man. He was funny, charming and even a little bit sassy which I appreciate. His introduction towards the end just goes to show that the ending was not supposed to be taken seriously. As for the rest of the cast they were pretty basic with little to no room for any developments.
Frankly, I don't care whenever Junji Ito wanted to comment on celebrity worship or the way we treat our planet. At least that's what it seemed like to me. It almost feels like I'am just pointlessly using my brain juice trying to undestand what Junji was exactly trying to say through his convoluted ways. While talking about those things we must subconsciously accept some "truths" regarding human nature that this story is trying to push onto us.
It is the end of the world and civilization is falling apart. We revert back to our old ancient ways and start thinking and acting primitive. Someone propouses a crazy idea as how to save the world which involves murdering and burning people alive. We all of course believe that person because now that the civilization has fallen we have once more become ruthless. As long as we can guarantee our survival it does not matter whenever we will commit terrible atroctites. In a matter of hours new religion is formed and a witch hunt can begin. If you look closely you can actually see that most of us are smiling and seem to be quite enjoying all this death and torture. Well of course we are having a good time. We no longer have to pretend that we are civilized and instead can relieve our basic needs. What a truly deep and insightful look into human nature and our own psyche.
Also what a load of bullshit.
Does anyone actually believe that in a case of a catastrophe we would all become like this ? What a gross oversimplification of humanity and history itself. Religious cults and such massive murderous, one could even say backwards, movements take time to form. Atrocities in which we wipe out or attempt to wipe out an entire groups of people don't happen overnight. It takes years, decades if not centuries of manipulation and villainization. Material conditions which lead to medieval persecutions by religious people did not happen overnight. There wasn't one scared guy that proposed something sadistic in hopes of saving the world and accidentally created a massive movement. In reality religious movements were deliberately manipulated by people in power in hopes of controlling the masses. This story took place in a matter of hours. None of the studies from sociology or psychology has any proof that this is how humans would act in crisis. Many studies that tried to prove that underneath the blanket of civilization, slumbers some sort of warmongering cavemen were proven to be staged. Even so, those staged studies had disastrous concequences on real world. Laws are being made in believe that humans are irrational. Our very system is built around that idea. It is the greatest lie that was ever told. These types of stories perpetuate these lies and I can't exactly say that I'am a fan of that. In big catastrophical events humans actually help each other more than you think. It's beautiful how much more sensitive we become during those moments. Of course media won't talk about that. They will talk about rioting, looting, raping and murdering that they don't even know if it happened. The guy in this story that proposed that they murder Remina to save the world should have gotten ignored. Our rationality and humanity is not that fragile. If the world was actually ending most people would be with their loved ones or they would be partying and having wild orgies. Of course few building would burn so what ? If you believe that rapes would be happening on every corner than you are wrong. It would happen there and there but most of the time those rapists would probably be beaten to death. These types of stories are dangerous. They become self fulfilling prophecies. People in power may mistreat us and use excuses about dangerous human nature. We believe them and after some time we start acting accordingly.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Jun 14, 2022
With this type of story I think it would be more productive to not look at it literally. If you take the story literally it becomes nonsensical and kind of random. It's more interesting to examine what this gore, cruelty and all types of violence supposed to represent. What is hiding behind them.
Boys in Hikari club are both disgusted of adulthood and are terrified of growing old. Pubic hair, more mature bodies, having jobs or even applying make-up are all viewed as signs that you've entered adulthood. For them it is better to die young than to become adults. This type of thinking is what
...
I can PARTLY understand. All of your childhood you keep hearing from adults about how much harder you're going to have it once you become older. Whenever you look there are adults gloryfing childhood to an unhealthy degree and villainize bodies of adult people. Usually women.
Edginess runs through their veins. The whole club is structured like a religious sect with Zera as Jesus figure. Better comparison would be nazism. Historical aspect of Japanese uniforms aside, they remind me of the nazi uniforms. Not to mention the boys like to speak german and Zera has build some sort of cult of personality around himself. Their devotion to Zera is absolute and cannot be questioned while everyone fights for his attention and love. Zera once even got compared to Hitler by a seer. He was capable and manipulative enough to take over the club and encourage vile behaviour. Much like nazis, these boys also don't know anything about women.
In their mind women are only a means to a pleasure. Once Litchi kidnaps Kanon, they immediately deify her by putting her on a throne. She becomes an object of worship. Of course they could not even be bothered to ask her name. That is because her name does not matter. Only her beauty. Only that gives her a value. One of the characters trying to explain beauty to Litchi points towards classical paintings of Botticelli or pre-Raphaelite brotherhood. Some of those paintings show women with fair skin, long silky hair, surrounded by flowers in a garden as if they themselves were just one of the flowers. When the boy has to explain what beauty is beyond pointing at those paintings he starts sweating and talks about curves. For them those paintings are an equivalent to porn magazines. They never had any meaningful relationship with women so they cling onto artistic ideals. Anything below that is unacceptable. Only character that manages to make some sort of human connection beyond lust is Litchi himself. His cold demeanor that was installed into him is being melted away by emotional connection that the boys could never give him, for they do not know it.
In the end intrigues, lust, obsession, inability to be honest with their feelings and desire to cling onto power is what destroys them. It's not just toxic obsession with women. Even Jaibo's obsessive love and lust for Zera was equaly damaging. The problem was not the whenever they are obsessed with men or women. Problem was not their sexuality but rather sheer disgust, fear of adulthood and caring only about their own feelings and desires.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 14, 2022
It was a strange little read. Best thing about it is that it's a short story that you can finish in a couple of minutes. The art was really well drawn. Feels like there could be a bit more imagination putted into art as the enviroment was mostly swallowed by darkness. Nonethless it still looks really detailed. It will make you keep reading despite its unlikeable and abhorent characters. The only person which I was rooting for in this story was death itself. I just wanted everyone to die. While mangaka tried to make MC more relatable and his actions more justifiable, that did not
...
make me care about him. Thats not to say he was excusing him considering the ending.
THERE is one interesting aspect of the story that made me wanna write this review and lay all my thoughts into text. This story at first felt like an incel power fantasy. I might be going into spoilers here. MC's wife was a gold-digger and cared mostly about material gains. She put the full blame of what happened on MC while neglecting her own mistake of not closing the balcon doors when she was leaving. She never even wanted a child and described the existence of their son as an "accident". MC was expected to provide as the man of the house and once he was unable he was viewed as a failure. His father-in-law despised him as he viewed him not worthy of his daughter. Society itself was letting him down. MC tried to solve his difficult situation with violence. Most people would look at this part of the story and would view him as a monster. But I think that there is a group of people on certain forums that would try to excuse him and to a certain degree even support his actions. After a ruthless torture MC managed to free himself and emerge as knife wielding, hoodie wearing badass. Killing the monster, saving the girl and gaining a new son and a new family. Society turned him into a monster but within the depths of the cave there is no society. He makes his own society as he pleases. No longer trusting his new wife, she remained in shackles. His new son is listening to every word he says and not talking back. They remained hidden in this place which seemed like an atomic shelter. A nuclear family.
Or maybe not.
Maybe my wild interpretation is totally false and I'am just schizoposting. But I like doing this. Whenever the mangaka did this on purpouse or on accident does not matter. He still choose to write the story this way.
This says a lot about our society.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 28, 2021
Finishing this manga feels like I was released and awaken from two-hour long nightmare. If you ever wanted to know what does it feel like working as a linguist, than simply read this manga.
The only reason I kept on reading was because of the translation. I must say that this translation was nowhere near as good as Ghost stories dub. Some memes were funny but most of them kept on repeating themselves. Brexit memes were maybe the funniest until I realised the translator actually voted for brexit. :( bullocks
Outside of the unique translation, this manga has nothing to offer. Characters all suck, the story sucks,
...
art is fine, there is no one here to root for except maybe the "cheese and crackers" girl. Nothing makes sense and not even the sex scenes are fun.
Just rewatch Ghost stories or Hellsing abridged.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Nov 17, 2021
I was enjoying this anime quite a lot. It reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean and other similar Disney movies. Adventurous show with upbeat cast and hint of darkness laying underneath the plot.
Closer we got towards the end it was becoming more and more clear that this show will crumble under its own weight. Storylines had to be dropped and characters were abandoned. Promise of an arc with Shitan or some sort of development for Fena were not fulfilled. Instead Shitan and rest of the crew ended up with only surface level characterisation no more important than Abel's generic soldiers. Nobody could
...
even be bothered to mention the banishment from the island ever again. I guess they were just allowed to go back in and those concequences for their actions were non-existant.
So we got all this wonderful character potiential out of the way....what replaced it in the climax of the story ? What replaced it was a philosophycal question as to whenever humanity deserves to keep on living. Are the sins which we are committing too much for our continuous existance ? Does the weight of love balance the weight of hatred ?
Were all of those deaths caused by Fena's crew in order to protect her justified ? And if so does that mean that deaths which Abel caused were justified as well ? He did all of that out of love as well after all.
The answer to all of those questions is.....I don't know. Neither does the story. We never get any anwers on the morality of our heroes. So no answers nor any conclusion to the stories of our characters. What was all of this for then ? This finale had little to no build up. It came, asked the question, did not bother to answer and left as quickly as it came.
The main problem of Kaizoku Oujo is its lenght. It is way too short. I know Crunchyroll putted a lot of time and money into this show and that they tried quite a lot. Maybe they should have putted even more time and money into it. This show should have drastically change its own structure or have 24 episodes. Near the end characters talked about their journey as if it was much longer than it actually was.
All of this is so strange considerig they spent ONE ENTIRE EPISODE near the climax just silently walking and building up the final reveal instead of developing characters....like....dude.....
You don't have 24 episodes. Hurry it up.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Nov 8, 2021
From the dark unintentional comedy of Ichiro's life to
mangaka shamelessly advertising and praising his
other mangas. All I can say is that this shit is hilarious.
At least it was in the first episode. I was not sure whenever the creators wanted to have me crying from laughter on the floor or not. Probably not. Considering the mangaka of Inuyashiki was created by Hiroya Oku, the mangaka responsible for one of the worst mangas ever. Even after the abomination that was Gigant I had decided to give Oku-senpai one more chance to redeem himself. It wasn't fair of me to judge him based on only one of
...
his lesser known mangas. While not as bad as Gigant, Inuyashiki still carries most things which I did not like about Gigant.
First episode reminds me of the movie Joker but on steroids. Lots and lots of steroids. Meaning everything that happens in the first couple of minutes to our miserable protagonist Ichiro Inuyashiki is so over the top that it ceases to be tragic and instead becomes comedic. Ichiro starts drowning in utter despair within first 30 seconds. I should be sad that this nearly sixty year old man's life is so tragic that it brought him to tears. I wanted to be sad but I really couldn't. I was too busy laughing.
Ichiro's good for nothing family that clearly hates him decides to go out to get some food while he unpacks the boxes after moving into their new home.
So he unpacks them. Alone......and sad.
Than he finds a dog. Doggo is also sad. So he brings doggo home. Family not likey the doggo. Now they are even sadder.
On paper some of these things may sound good but they are executed poorly.
I don't understand why the mangaka went so out of his way to make Ichiro's family, especially his kids be so unlikeable. Most kids would be excited to have a dog. Not Ichiro's kids. They are not happy. They're never happy. Little shits.
The story wants you to feel bad about Ichiro and only about that. This becomes problem later on when the story starts requiring for you to also care about Ichiro's family. But you clearly don't care because the show never took any time to make them relatable or even slightly likeable.
Why not make them into little brats that can't bring themselves to actually express their love for their dad ? Maybe have a scene where one of their classmates is making fun of Ichiro so they decide to slightly defend him. Or when they see Ichiro being sad they give him a worried look but in the end decide not to say anything ? I want to see their daily routines, their normal boring lifes and how they function as human beings.
I did like the scene on the train where Ichiro has fantasies about teaching rude kids some manners. Showing that he desires to be a heroic figure but can't bring himself to it.
They kicked his ass. Even in his own fantasies he still looses.......wow.
Ichiro has cancer. Bet you weren't expecting that.
Again.
There was no build up, no emotional reaction. Only puppy dog eyes which Ichiro has been making this entire first episode. The story just showed you that Ichiro's life is sad and decided to move on. On top of that the doctor was so nonchalant about it. Because of course he was. That world is so mean ! You get it ? His life is sad ! Did you get it ? Did you ? Did you ??????
I want to see WHY he keeps on living despite his miserable circumstances.
Oh yeah. A spaceship also kills him later on. But don't worry. They bring him back as a cool brand new GRANDPA CYBORG !!! What we've been all waiting for.
Ichiro rediscovering himself in his room felt oddly sexual. It's so funny to me how his wife could hear the dog barking but not his hellish screams.
If you still don't get that this world is very cruel than enjoy a bunch of teenagers burning a homeless man alive. Japan is metal.
Homeless man who now got his second chance at life with his long lost love. You get it, kids ? He's just like Ichiro. That's called symbolism. Or half assed storytelling. It reminds me of "one day before retirement" trope.
Whole theme of young people mistreating old people got dropped here and was never picked up. This anime either goes extremely over the top with it's emotional moments or just glosses over them.
The introduction of Hiro made Inuyashiki a lot more interesting. Not better. But interesting. It felt like Hiro was both villain and a protagonist. Often the story just straight up forgot about Ichiro and instead focused on Hiro, the least psychotic anime fan. Dialogue in this show was never good. Acceptable at best. Painful at most.
But that was the advantage of Hiro as a character. His psychopathy allowed for this bad dialogue to be turned into some anti-social awkwardness that often enhanced the story. Ending of second episode was I think thriller done really well. The dialogue, the brutality of Hiro and invasion of everyday life was all pretty scary and deranged.
The reason why Hiro kills people and why Ichiro saves them is so dumb. It makes them feel human. But what does that even mean ? They can feel emotions when they are not doing those acts. They cry, laugh and love. Their primary motivations are never touched upon. If being human means to cry like Ichiro thought than the only time Hiro could feel anything was when he was dealing with the consequences of his own actions. But Hiro felt like human during the act of killing not the consequences. What was so nice about it that made him feel human ? :// Or how do they feel like when not performing those acts ?
Everything in this anime is either bad or half-assed. Theme of young abusing the old, theme of technology in wrong hands and celebrity worship, the asteroid storyline, main characters and their dialogue. Everything just comes and goes without resolution, answer, build up or any satisfaction.
Once you remove Hiros psychopathy and Ichiro's sadness what do they have ? What character remains ? There is nothing there really. Barely any characterisation. It is power fantasy in the end. Power fantasy of being the ultimate villain and doing whatever you want AND being the ultimate hero doing whatever you want. This is the type of stuff I came up when I was edgy sixteen year old. A self insert story where entire world is againts me until I do some heroic deeds and they see and worship me for who I want or could be not who I am.
Ichiro's family BEGINS to love him only because he become life saving Godlike cyborg. They didn't have a heart to heart, no emotional family drama. They simply started loving him because he is a cyborg. Why didn't they love him before ? Because he was lame old man ? And if they did love him why didn't we see it ? This could have been reverse Breaking bad at least in concept if not the quality. This story isn't as half as deep as it thinks it is.
When the story proposed the idea of Hiro redemption story I got excited. It presented interesting idea as to whenever he should still be punished for the crimes which he has commited and in the process not being allowed to keep on saving human lifes or should he just be allowed to go ? Interesting development in the story which was halted and brought back to the status quo right away. What was even the point of that ? Hiro saving lifes was never addressed again. Another wasted opportunity.
I do like the main two voice actors that they choose for the roles of Hiro and Ichiro. The fact that they dont have any other experience with voice acting but only acting made it feel like their characters stand out.
I may have a soft spot for sad old people and rememption stories but that clearly isn't enough to make me like a story.
In a nutshell:
A half-assed SuperHero/Villain power fantasy that attemps to provide a deep meaningful story, but ultimately fails at both.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Sep 29, 2021
I expected another Ex-arm
Instead I got Akira that was just way too much on the nose.
(And worse in every other aspect as well)
At first I thought it would be a political story considering the genre, but then it suprised me when the show started inclining towards more religious route. In the second half it went back and connected it with the political aspect.
Don't get me wrong. In it's core the idea is decent enough to follow and expand upon. The problem lies with its terrible execution and abysmal handling of its own characters. If you can even call them that.
Show started in
...
a rather mysterious way with too much exposition. Exposition that will keep on not only repeating but also multiplying. I mean, why would you even relay an information to your brother that he has already been well aware of for MANY years ? Like he gets it. The water is wet and our parents are sacks of shit. Shocker.
Instead of slowly explaining the themes and meanings of the show, the story just drops everything on you in one episode out of utterly nowhere. Up until that you could have interpreted it in couple of ways and theorize about your own possible interpretations.. But worry not ! There is no longer any need for using any percentage of your brain power. It could have been handled so much better. The entire thing was just couple of dudes sitting in a room and explaining what the story is about. What an easy way out of good writing.
The other thing that really grinds my gears is the Noah's ark bit.
Ark, rapture, dying for sins of humanity, return of Christ, crusifixion and all the other good christian stuff can be found in here. But Noah's ark showcases a big problem with the show. Instead of remaining as a painting in the big exposition scene, the show later draws attention to its own symbolism and that just makes me role my eyes. Don't tell me. I get it. I get the meaning. Why do you have a need to explaing everything ? Just shut up you. Leave something to my imagination. I know this feels like a minor thing but like I said. Its like this the entire time.
Of course its capitalism that gets the most amount of shit. I was suprised that the word capitalism wasn't actually mentioned. Words like competition, equality and new version of the word materialism get mentioned all the time. And its pretty obvious on whose side the story is considering what religious figures represent each side. I liked it more when there were subtle mentions of war in middle east (that is still going on in 2041(cringe) ) and ways how China and Usa distabilize those regions. Not that I disagree with criticism of capitalism but it could have been handled better. Just because I agree with some of its messages that doesn't mean it makes for a good show. For a while I also got the feeling as if atheism was getting blasted as well but I don't actually think its atheism itself. More like the act of not believing in utterly anything. Neither God/s nor reincarnation or not even something like nature. More than atheism it was criticising Nihilism. Some of its better ideas felt like an afterthought. I actually really like the ending to the Prophet character.
Overall it was as if the author thought of ideas and messages they wanted to put into their story and instead of actually making a story they made a numbered list of why this and this is good or bad.
The characters are utterly laughable. Well I would laugh if there was something to actually laugh at. They don't exist. There is not a single thing I can tell you about them other than the brothers like each other. And even those very strong bonds are showcased to us by the brothers calling each others names from a long distance. But trust me. They have like really strong bonds. But you don't wanna know about it here. It's something really special. They're not your usual brothers. They care about each other.
With that said. I still ship the blue haired brother with the brother of the pink haired guy. You know ? The black haired guy. I thought they were about to kiss at some point and like a droplet of blood actually started pumping through my veins only to have been wasted on nothing.
Also the designs. I know that rule of cool stands but since I am already at it I might as well mention it. An authoritarian world that supresses not only religion but also fiction and music has no absolutely no reason to allow its poster boys to wear such punk inspired clothing. Punk has always been going hand in hand with anarchism. Which is absolute opposite of what the government wants. Because you know....they want to keep on existing.
Also why do the soldier uniforms glow in the dark in such vibrant colors. Or why make them glowy at all ?!
Art is fun to look at. Might take a second to get an used to. But once you do its pretty ok. I actually like it. Reminds me of Dorohedoro. Sad thing is that it is so forgettable because of its lack of important and memorable character moments.
I really love the voice acting. Its filled with well known voice actors. Feels like home right away if you are familiar with them which you probably are. Too bad they had such terrible script to work with.
The dialogue is bad. Very bad. I refuse to elaborate.
Night Head 2041 was many things. But let it be know that it was not boring. I had fun. Wasn't enjoying myself. But I had fun. If you are going to watch it remember that it DOES NOT care about its own characters. But only themes and messages. Which they also don't really do a good job of presenting. They do this coming full circle at the end but its just not earned at all.
At least I learned something about how not to write a story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Sep 26, 2021
Trepanation in an ancient "medical" procedure involving digging a hole through the skull to the surface of the brain. At the beggining of the music video you can see and hear drilling sound of modern medical equipment.
First sound heard afterwards reminds me of clowns at circus. The sound is being accompanied by morphing pictures of animals which all represent different aspects of human nature. Begins with skull of a goat which is Fallen angel Lucifer or Baphomet. Corrupted version of prophet Muhammad. It changes into fish which resides in water (duh). Which also happens to be where life was first developed on this
...
planet. In the depths of the ocean and depths of our consciousness. Fish turns into octopus. This can mean going deeper into the depths and mystery of consciousness. Next is spider. They can represent femininity, corrupted femininity or both good and bad luck. Usually people are afraid of spiders but rarely they actually are dangerous. Spider turns into malicious teeth that eat you awhole. All of these images were surrounded by waving DNA on the sides of the video.
Our main blue haired girl opens her eyes and starts singing after a second of silence. At first I was distracted by the animation to focus properly on the singing, but upon hearing the song for like tenth time I can finally appretiate it.
Blue haired girl begins singing in a robotic mechanical way talking to what I think is herself about pretty much how there is no more time and she either takes something or lets it go. If she wants to see herself she must make the "deal". Afterwards she is surrounded by blue butterflies. She notices them coming from behind her and gets visibly more impatient. Metamorphosis and transformation are what lies behind meaning of butterflies that are flying all around her. While she is trying to catch them, singing continues inside her head.
"Tell me how its taste"
"The taste of heels"
"They coming up again"
"I gotta tame them all"
She wants to know "taste" of either feeling or literal taste of some food. Taste of heels is her desire to be feminine and wear such clothing. To know what it´s like.
Trying to catch these feeling and truly understand them.
Butterflies turn from time to time to something resembling basic geometrical shapes. She notices and stop herself before catching one. Orange or red butterflies start flying right next to the blue ones. She gets hypnotised by the blue ones and we go inside her again.
Same enviroment as before. Girl turns into a deer which can mean messenger. Right after that it´s octopus again meaning we are goin even deeper inside of her consciousness . Now it´s goat´s skull again which splits into two and morphs into butterfly. And butterfly turns into a new red/orange version of our girl.
NOW she fits with the orange enviroment like a painting unlike the original girl and all the animals in the middle which were all blue.
Singing begins again, this time she sounds lot more softer and human. Like a mother speaking to a toddler. One of her eyes is focused while the other one blends into her face as if it wasn´t even real.
"Maybe we´ve been blind"
"But the falcon´s eye reftracted the lights"
"You find what you wanted ? "
"Did you miss what you lost here ? "
"Can´t call your name without crying"
"I´am wading through this river"
"The unclear promise"
"And I will believe it again"
In the middle of singing we are shown blue haired girl standing right on the opposite side and we realise there are two of them. Blue haired girl attempts to touch her but she holds back. Suprised opens her mouth for a second as if she wanted to sing along. Her eyes turn bright red and she disintegrates. Orange eyes appear on the screen for a second.
Blue girl comes back with her mouth closed and singing continues without the orange girl. Singing of her dear pain that can´t go away. It´s like the blames the blue girl for driving her away. One of the lyrics is:
"I think I could feel. I would let you stay here."
Enviroment changes behind the blue girl into bright blue as well. She sinks into the deep blue abyss. Only to realise it´s orange at the bottom.
Next shot of her is being consumed by orange enviroment laying and floating.
Verses repeat but this blue haired girl sings them. Now they´re one.
"Maybe we´ve been blind"
"But the falcon´s eye reftracted the lights"
"You find what you wanted ? "
"Did you miss what you lost here ? "
"Can´t call your name without crying"
"I´am wading through this river"
"The unclear promise"
"And I will believe it again"
Her head splits into many more. They talk to each other through singing. One can´t let the other one go away. She is trying not to blame herself. When she turns into a deer her head explodes. Now she is cow. Symbol for continuance of life. Both hatred and love are same to her. Desperately trying to keep her emotions and attachment to reality she looses herself.
Next scene for me represents flow of time and growing desperation and unsatisfaction with herself and her discovery. At some point it feels like she warns herself not to let go.
"Maybe we´ve been blind"
"But the falcon´s eye reftracted the lights"
"You find what you wanted ? "
"Did you miss what you lost here ? "
"Can´t call your name without crying"
"I´am wading through this river"
"The unclear promise"
"And I will believe it again"
Everything is consumed by darkness. She turns back the clock. Fishes and octopuses swim far away. Blue girl is swimming back to the surface and submerges. Even the last butterfly in her subconsciousness fades away.
She opens her eyes.
And finally catches the butterfly. Smiles. Looks at her hand.
And finds nothing.
Unlike in the first scene. The colors here are lot brighter and welcoming. Only to turn to what they were at the beggining. Just...a bit blurry. Confused not saddened she looks into the distance as the camera reveals her full body in the real world.
Half-human half-machine. Unfinished. Left in what is a desolate place with no conscious lifeform. From the distance she keeps blinking at us like a lost child.
During the credits we see the butterfly still residing in the building with the girl.
What we have confirmed by the singer that this is a story about half android trying co attain human consciousness.
But I also think that she has achieved this very think many times before. Every time she achieves it and becomes one with her consciousness she feels lost and overwhelmed by these emotions in an empty world with no one to explain any of them to her. She tries to keep them but at the end gives up her consciousness and forgets until one day she starts desiring or wondering about it again and comes back to reclaim it in an endless cycle.
Was she blind when desiring consciousness or when she was trying to get rid of it.
also it sounds nice so listen to it.....now....again
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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