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Jun 3, 2019
Spoilers ahead, I suppose. Discretion advised.
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What a shame, indeed.
I get it. The show is about manliness, manic (to the point of suicidal) intentions overcoming the limitations of the universe, parodying the mecha genre and its inherently dark undertones, the innate sense of humanity having the capacity to deal with all the problems that it confronts, the ability to grit one's teeth and tell the world that they are not going to bring them down, so on and so forth. I also understand that you cannot think too hard about what you are seeing on screen: when robots the size of whole galaxies (inexplicably)
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show up, wondering how they don't take millions of years just to take their next step is the last thing you are supposed to think about.
There are those I respect from whom I heard this show was good. No, the actual words were, "this anime is a key to my creative abilities". Given how envious I am of their abilities, I eagerly watched this show. Simon, a boy without a future. Kamina, the man who knows the right words but not the right sense. They become brothers after Simon realises that Kamina has a dream that he can get behind and drill. Fine. The world is keeping them down, so they will first rebel against their village and its narrow ways. Of course, they do not succeed, but they aren't disappointed because, the very next day, everything comes crashing down, starting with a giant robot that has no intention beyond generally causing mayhem, and a teenager named Yoko who wears that ridiculous attire in the name of mobility and comfort. Their world has been a lie, and Kamina is the most satisfied of the bunch, because he can now finally believe in his own memories. So far, so good.
The show progresses and you get caught along with the characters. Then more characters show up. "O...kay", I said, "I suppose this is fine". They make a pit-stop at "moral ambiguity village" where they are treated as gods, because they fell down from the sky, but leave without any real conflict of beliefs. And I realised something was off. Nothing was gained in terms of conviction; they simply chose not to deal with the potential conflict at all. Hmm.
Alright. We have a big fight on our hands. But then something bad happens (to only one person among everyone involved in the fighting), and the whole thing grinds to a halt. "Well, that is what you get for tempting fate all this time, right?" I blurt out. But, wait, what are these emotions doing here? Remorse? Despair? Impotence (you know, lack of "manly spirit" and all that)? Before they can take their toll on the show, Nia shows up, left to die in a sealed coffin (but, somehow, assigned a caretaker, who didn't bother to show up when she was left to die while seemingly wanting to get the protagonists killed earlier in the show). She holds the show back, making sure that it doesn't go the same way Evangelion went, because letting the small things get in the way will kill the momentum. Nia gives the show the dose of morphine that pushes it on until the first half is complete.
Then the second half begins. An ominous cloud looms over everyone. Humans have become a prosperous species within just seven years (that is not how humans work, but the show didn't care and it isn't going to start now). Rossiu, Simon's partner and the erstwhile apprentice of the priest of "moral ambiguity village", is now starting to darken the mood. Sewage problems, perception of the government he is running, maintaining order. The old guard is completely dumbfounded: they are fighters, not bureaucrats. Simon is apparently at peace, for he "saved" the world, but when the Anti-Spirals, opposed to the use of the Spiral Energy that Simon exhibits most brilliantly, attack the Earth, everyone turns on Simon for being himself. Nia is pulled away, with the show making up a new character motivation for her, like it did in the past with her caretaker. Of course, here, Rossiu becomes the centre- having to take decisions he was afraid of taking but ready to accept what must follow. Honestly, this was the closest the show came to becoming interesting: what are the consequences of believing in yourself when not everyone agrees with your methods? Simon never understood this and he almost becomes the ceremonial scapegoat that would be sacrificed for the well-being of Rossiu's government. Of course, another contrivance prevents this, and the show is back on track with its attempts at embarrassing itself with each passing episode.
The show explains that Spiral Energy is a metaphor for the fighting spirit in general and the evolutionary drive which moves all living organisms. The spiralling drill is represented in the double helix of the DNA, changing and constantly bettering itself. The Anti-Spirals believe that this energy will bring about the end of the universe because of something called the Spiral Nemesis, a prophesied ("prophesied", "predicted", it doesn't make a difference) end-state of the universe when Spiral Energy grows bigger and bigger in each organism that evolves to the point where the organisms begin violating the law of conservation of mass and a black hole sucks up all of existence. I wish that I didn't know half as much as I did about astrophysics and evolution as I did when I watched this show, because all I wanted to do when I heard this explanation was to sit in a corner and cry.
I was left wondering what the people I had admired saw in the show. The women never had any real reason to come into conflict with the men after they became significant others- the definition of an idealised relationship. That is why Yoko and Simon could not live their lives with the ones they loved. The whiplash of moving from the first to the second season, only to be told that none of that matters- the definition of a cop-out. The show didn't want to deal with the issues it raises, just move past it.
The juvenile beliefs that thoughtless bravado can accomplish anything is so much easier to swallow when the people dying have not been important all this time and that harebrained schemes work better than any well-thought out plans that might fail was enough to make me yell angrily at the show, because I had realised that there was nothing that I could get from this. People will continue to appreciate this show and speak about how it stands as an epitome of manliness, testosterone, hope, and whatever else they think will get them to stop thinking about their depressing lives. Fine.
I'm not saying that the show needed to be realistic. What I'm saying is, if Evangelion represents depression, this represents mania. Not the mild kind which gives a person all sorts of ideas to keep pushing and do a lot more than they previously could, but the kind that can lead to the hospitalisation of both the person who is suffering from it and the people surrounding this person. This is neither a children's story, nor a story many can connect with unless they have separated themselves from reality to a significant enough degree: Kamina's and Simon's manliness-laden nonsense are used by megalomaniacs with cults of personalities in our world. You listen to them because they stop you from feeling bad about what you could have done, just so long as you sacrifice yourself to their dream. "There is a better tomorrow" should not be coming out of the mouths of men who have taken over the responsibility of being the only grown-ups in the world, while they themselves have no real understanding of the losses grown-ups have to deal with.
I got up from my chair and got out of my room. "This show wasn't for you," they'd say. I sighed. I had lost something that I did not expect to- a sense of stability. What does creativity mean at all? Is this what they, the ones I respect, used to fuel their imaginations that I was in awe of? I had no answer. I closed my eyes, felt a strange discomfort flood my chest, and, realising what this was, I ran to the toilet and let my breakfast come back out of my mouth. I saw the pieces of bread, the half-digested buns of rice among the yellowish brown and I closed my eyes, trying not to remember what I saw throughout the series. I hurled again, and I felt okay.
Having written this, I feel a lot better.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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May 22, 2019
I guess it had to eventually come to this. Going over the piles and piles of manga, the josei genre has always been considered somewhat disreputable, given its low sales figures and its association with the "ladies comics" which contain rather overt amounts of sexual content. But the Wikipedia page stated that the content portrayed "realistic relationships". Having never been in one, I decided to see the side of the world that not only belongs to a different voice and demographic, but also a different set of concerns.
I admit, I was not ready for this. Not the story, or the characters, or the art,
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or any of the other things that most would expect to see in such stories. What I saw was myself feeling bad about making fun of my mom and my sister when they were watching their regularly scheduled soap operas, which are produced with the kind of alarming frequency all over India that one can understand how women are kept away from the streets, protesting about unequal wages or mistreatment. Not that I felt that I was wrong in making fun of them (yeah, I am a terrible person); I just understood the appeal.
See, I have understood for some time that Steins;Gate's melodramatic elements were necessary for producing that extremely effective climax in episode 22, melodrama that arises from its interpretation of romance. Romance is not really frowned upon in media aimed at men, of course- it is just an extension of the main course of events, and these would involve an adventure that always keeps the pace, so that nobody complains that "nothing is happening". But, here, the point is the nitty-gritty. You touch upon the circumstances surrounding two people who see their relationship as an adventure (a statement I, not too long ago, would be physically unable to write given how stupid and trite it used to sound in my head), or, rather, whose relationship the author sees as an adventure.
The protagonist is Chiwa, a part-timer who just-so-happens to work at the same firm whose chairman fell in love with her grandmother. The chairman is obsessed with having some part of her grandmother in his genetic line (in some creepy justification that makes me want to celebrate the dying trend of believing in the purity of bloodlines and other such close-minded nonsense) and feels that she would make a good wife for Hokuto, his grandson.
Hokuto, the guy who has slept around quite a lot in an (allegedly) conservative society like Japan because he is young, successful, and everything else Japanese women seem to want of a man. Hokuto, the guy who kisses his wife without her permission early on and, at least twice, threatens her with rape, once in front of her. "But he was joking, dude. Besides it was 2005; don't be so harsh." But I am not: I am not trying to suggest that Hokuto is a "bad" guy or a "bad guy" or a bad "guy", even though, to current sensibilities, the latter traits might make him unacceptable to many of the prospective readers (unless it is Japanese women, in which case I genuinely don't know what their reaction will be). The point is that Hokuto is not a man who is driven to change the world or go where no one has gone before, but someone who shows his less-than-palatable side within the context of a relationship that society offers and forces upon him. He claims that he does not want to get married or have kids, but also does not want to be disloyal to his new wife now that he is committed to her- the latter concern eventually triumphs and he comes out a model family man who loves his wife by the end. What bothered me most was how both Chiwa and Hokuto are committed to making the marriage work even though there is no reason why these two people would end up together, because here, in India, arranged marriages are still a thing and I am starting to dread what this manga is suggesting.
That there is nothing of value within this manga is, obviously, untrue- the final line deriding Asahina, one of Chiwa's bosses and her ex-boyfriend from her university days, did hit home a little too hard. But what bothered me more was the realisation that there is an alternative ethics at work here- an ethics which justifies a man threatening her wife with rape to shut her up while she is trying to show her concern for him, or the way in which he tries to make his wife jealous by not calling her or returning her messages when out of town, to the readers. By claiming that all of it is a way for the characters to show that they love each other, the readers have no choice but to keep making concessions about what they thought was the right thing to do in a given situation (and, unlike the shonen or seinen genres, these situations are not out of the realm of possibility for most of the readers). It was, indeed, just like going to a different land and finding yourself talking to people only using the most basic of terminology, without really understanding how alone you really are among this large group of happy people with nothing on their minds except petty squabbles, family politics, and other boring things. I know many may find the trip enjoyable, even enlightening to a certain extent.
But all I could do was remember to call a friend and write this review before I went to bed tonight.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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May 19, 2019
One of the more curious fantasies people have is becoming involved in a complicated relationship with another person. What is curious, indeed, is why the relationship appears so much more interesting than any that society would otherwise describe as "normal", or even *shudder* "healthy". Rakujitsu no Pathos uses many of the tropes to be found in hentai productions, something that Tsuyatsuya is already well-versed with, but there is always a careful realisation that boundaries are necessary to exacerbate the situation. That is why there are a sizeable group of people who do not wish to have intercourse straight away but after teasing it. Some just
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want to keep teasing, because, honestly, what would be more boring than do the deed without any preface- are we animals who are content with simply fucking for the sake of the evolutionary drive?
Rakujitsu no Pathos is good precisely because the author's skill in depicting what is considered an outright taboo relationship by most of society is put to extensive use- a woman who once thought herself better than others for not indulging in sex finds herself craving for it once she lets herself free, a man learns that he is not emotionally attached to the women he wants to bone, and we learn the circumstances that would turn otherwise "responsible" and "upstanding" people (yes, even the mangaka who draws hentai) into the participants of encounters which involve going to second and third base, but never the first nor hitting a home run. The woman is alone, bored out of her mind, and has realised how much she likes sex. She was, previously, also the teacher of her current neighbour. The neighbour, of course, harboured sexual feelings towards the teacher, even groping her, but, now that she is bored and he is an adult, it does not appear to be a trespass any longer but a "cute" gesture by an equally "cute" little man. Her husband is 12 years older than her, and she still wants to be the good wife, but the husband does next to nothing to reaffirm his wife's commitment to him. Why should she feel like she is his servant? She is a human being too. She has needs, and wants to feel needed...
Makoto, the woman, finds, in her "cute" one-time student, Aki, the person who will reciprocate these feelings. That someone else may instead have him for their own purposes at the expense of Makoto is unacceptable to her. The feelings grow. They touch each other. Slowly. Makoto finds a different side to manhood. Aki basks in the chance to let his most childish feelings bubble up to the surface. They come closer. But... isn't Makoto a good wife?
Besides, Aki has his assistant, Masami, putting her moves on him. Shouldn't she act like an adult? Yes, yes. But it is so difficult to do that when Aki-kun looks at her with those needy eyes, and it is so much fun imagining Aki-kun doing all the naughty things that her husband is so thoroughly incapable of. Makoto does not want to care. Her head goes all over the place. She cannot kiss, nor have sex with him, because then they will have breached an unwritten rule in her mind. Aki knows how illogical his teacher's thoughts are, but he doesn't care either, so long as he gets to touch her and take her where she wants to go. He'll play along with whatever stupid thing she wants him to do, and she won't mind too much when he comes too strongly on to her.
The sun sets slowly. The pupils widen and the child gives its mother that very hungry look, the look that the mother expects and is excited by. She removes the folds of her shirt. The child finally stops crying...
While insubstantial for most, and lacking in the presence of a large cast of characters, I believe that the specific emotions that the manga indulges in cannot accommodate a large roster of characters, genre storytelling, or melodrama. The psychological depth of the characters is most suited to a manga that reflects the "illicit" give-and-take relationship of the people we see in our news feeds which talk about the wives who had sexual relations with their neighbours, who were once their students. Our responses to the news feeds are defence mechanisms- "we wouldn't ever dream of doing this", we tell ourselves, aside from "shame on her" and "I thought women were more discerning; the guy must be a smooth-talker". I understand that, to many, another male's perspective on how women might have near-insatiable appetites might appear to be yet another exploitative depiction of women. Maybe they are right. But I, a cis-male to be completely fair (the last time I say that out loud anywhere), am not so sure. Perhaps men allow desire its due place in the mind more often...? Or is the point of male desire a way to explore power? What if the women being in power are just another male fantasy? Doesn't that mean that the women have no choice but to express their sexuality only if the men allow the to?
I don't know. All I know is, Tsuyatsuya appears to be intimately familiar with the categories of desire- at the very least, Aki seems like a real person. I will be eagerly awaiting for more from him.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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May 10, 2019
Please note that the following review contains spoilers.
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At some point, anyone who reads manga and engages with the community would be encouraged to read Berserk. Not only rated the highest on this very site, but beloved by fans who have been invested in the characters that they have spent so much of their lives admiring and despising, and, in the case of some, both in equal measures. This is not the least bit difficult to understand why once the reader comes across Guts, the intrepid and implacable "hero" of the story. Many mistake him for the protagonist of the manga. A shame, really, given how
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that just sets up many for disappointment later down the line. This was the case with me, too, initially.
You see, detractors are just as much inspired by reactionary zeal as they are with a genuine feeling of betrayal. This is the case with a lot of things in life, and, I believe, is the case here too. The number of people who would bandy about the sheer brilliance of "The Golden Age" arc is so large it is almost insufferable when one encounters them. Not that they are wrong, just that their attitude appears controversial to them, and those they speak to would predictably be provoked at the suggestion that Berserk kind of does fall apart after that (should they know what Berserk is in the first place, of course). But the reason I was feeling uncomfortable with the direction the story was taking came much later, after the equally appreciated "Lost Children Chapter". This chapter, along with the initial chapters before the prequel starts, gives the reader the impression that this is the direction Berserk is taking: a lone, grizzled man struggling against the world's worst to kill someone he once wanted to be an equal to but ended up being responsible for perpetrating almost unspeakable cruelty on both him and on the ones he loved. He is fighting not just monsters, but monsters who have reasons to regret their lives, for all have lost something or someone they held dearly to become what they are. Guts will kill anyone in his path, even children, to reach his goal, no matter the fact that he has no actual idea how he will accomplish his goal.
A tragedy of a man who knows how to survive a fight with a hundred men as well as the truth that the need for revenge alone is keeping him sane. Perhaps he always knew that Griffith, the man he once looked up to, can no longer be defeated by his own strength. But he does not care and he will go on harbouring the wish, regardless of what it costs his soul, as he goes about killing monsters. He would rather die fighting than grieve and try to move on. So he does just that, because you cannot use a sword to build a house or to find solace in what you have left. He kills and kills and does not stop. Griffith has got to be at the end of one of these treks.
Suddenly, the deformed demon child born to Casca, Guts's lover, informs Guts that its mother is in danger. Guts stops. What was his quest about, really? To defeat Griffith, now that he is furthest from human? Is the reason behind his crusade not his lover? Guts promptly leaves for the city where Casca is to be burned without thinking twice. And everyone is confronted with a change in tone that many refuse to swallow.
You see, Miura, the author, seems to have realised, or believed, that one of the core aspects of Berserk is the political intrigue and large scale battles that he introduced in "The Golden Age" arc. Not only are the main characters during this arc involved in scheming, planning, and executing war against a variety of factions in this medieval setting but Griffith has apparently been promised a kingdom and he will get it. He forces Guts to become a member. Guts is in awe of Griffith, as are the band of followers Griffith has amassed around him. He appears above human law or grasp, something to be worshipped or desecrated rather than just loved or despised. He seems to believe that about himself too. But, eventually, Guts is tired of simply being Griffith's lackey and decides to walk away. Griffith is having none of it, but he no longer commands Guts's awed loyalty, only his respect. This clash of wills, and the subsequent course of events that creates the unbridgeable rift between Guts and Griffith, would not have been possible without the intrigue, without the battles they participated in together. Perhaps Miura believes that maybe this will pay off in the future?
And, given that this is still where we find ourselves, with an incomplete saga and Guts in the company of people he would not think twice about abandoning along the way about ten volumes ago, we are not sure how the answers will arrive. There are a lot of characters that appear to have something in their pasts that could have been used for some extremely dramatic purposes: Farnese, the one-time leader of a band of ceremonial holy knights sent to capture Guts, finds herself attracted to this "bad boy"- she could have failed to rescue or protect Casca on many occasions, because nothing suggests she is ready to handle any pressure from someone she has conflicting feelings for and about; or Casca herself could have deliberately endangered Guts after he attacked her, since, having lost her sanity, she doesn't much feel for Guts; or perhaps Guts himself attacking the rest of the group, or the major members of his group, while in his cursed armour. Anything to reiterate the themes of the earlier stories: that the world that the characters thought they knew is actually full of cruelty and hatred, that the perpetrators of this cruelty are mostly humans trying to achieve the best for themselves, that people will be prepared to sacrifice that which they love most if they are going to get what they want. The amount of time we are made to wait is what makes those who have decided to keep reading antsy and those who have given up on the manga feel vindicated.
I began the manga thinking it was a better version of The Witcher: where The Witcher tried to do a deliberate send up of fairy tales, Berserk was not particularly concerned but achieved it (spectacularly) anyway. The use of magic was quite interesting, for Berserk implicitly suggested that all the magic in the world (insofar as the initial chapters are concerned) is some form of dark magic. This taints all magic seen in the manga, and Guts's fortitude to take on foes who have lost parts of their humanity gives the impression of someone fighting fate itself, the definition of a strong, instantly compelling protagonist. But then Puck, the good-natured elf who was only acted as a foil to Guts before, apparently remembers he has a home that he can bring humans to, and Schierke, the witch in training, more-or-less confirms that there are noble magi who practice magic away from the wicked world of men and their machinations. The spark was almost gone, to be replaced by the melodrama of how much the women (including the prepubescent-looking Schierke) are drawn to Guts, and how terrifying yet awe-inspiring Guts is to the others once he lets his darker impulses gain control of him, represented literally by the cursed suit of armour he wears encasing his head and his false left arm completely to give him the appearance of the wolf he imagines his hatred looks like to him in his dreams.
But then there is Griffith, who is, unfortunately, the second protagonist. Capable of transcending time, he nevertheless comes back just to have a kingdom, starting his own band with near-limitless powers he had achieved through his transformation. One wonders why, since Griffith obviously cannot age, he could not have chosen a better time to be resurrected, perhaps after Guts had died? If not, it is clear that fate, or rather the fact that Miura has to end this manga somehow, forced Griffith into coming back. Griffith brings back the politics featuring increasingly interchangeable nobles and battles that would have once taken whole volumes to complete but now end in one chapter or less. And if fate has already decided how the manga will end, I can only hope that there are a lot of days between where the manga is right now and where it is supposed to end.
For, despite the adventures on the high seas, Griffith going about doing boring stuff without anyone like Guts for him to obsess over, or the band of friends Guts himself has amassed, Guts is still there. The difficulties he has experienced and how he has tackled them have stuck with me, no matter how much the artwork looks like it owes a little too much to H.R. Giger. Despite the brief amount of time he spent with Casca before she lost her sanity, it is clear that he will be there for her, whether she wants him to or not. Some might say that it might not be the best thing for Casca. Guts is going to find that out now. I can't wait to learn what comes next.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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May 1, 2019
I believe the words of Kazuhira Miller from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain best explain the feelings I had when I was watching this show.
"Why are we still here? Just to suffer?"
What can I say. It is not really possible to spoil Eromanga-sensei, because there really is nothing in the story that a regular fan of anime has not already seen a thousand times over. This show is one of those things you use to creep out people who haven't seen anything like it- lolicon, siscon, domination, etc. Unlike Domestic na Kanojo (which I would contend was making its point about legitimising sexual
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relationships between step-siblings and between a student and a teacher to an extent where it gets almost political, since most of the major characters don't have a problem with it), the parents in Eromanga-sensei are absent, making it no different from the pseudo-incest hentai that portray such relationships. Of course, while the hentai features the siblings having sex with each other, the absence here is used to tease the viewer as the anime portrays characters who recreate yet another harem around the pathetic male-character who just can't seem to say or do anything wrong in front of the ever-increasing coterie of girls who like him.
I have never felt true despair like I did while watching this show. Pigeon Blood was at least offensive. This is just stuffed to the throat with time-tested tropes that will never offend enough anyone who has seen enough anime.
I have seen enough anime.
Oh no.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Apr 9, 2019
Discretion advised. Spoilers ahead.
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The difficulty in talking about "Domestic na Kanojo" is the effectiveness with which it can disarm the reader into believing that socially problematic relationships can be understood in terms of good people who are trying their best to be themselves and to help others, regardless of whether these others need help or not. That it can do this is indicative of the skill the author indubitably possesses, but the reason why she is doing it is never made entirely clear.
To say that I did not enjoy "Domestic na Kanojo" would be completely dishonest of me. Having spent the last week finishing all
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of the chapters in a delirious state, to the point where I could not stop reading until long past my bedtime, all I have left to say is that this might imply something deeply shameful about my preferences. The number of times the plot contrivances came together to portray a family where step-siblings have sex with each other, are attracted to each other, and where the parents are left clueless about the most of what is happening, however, does indicate the possibility of one of several points the author is trying to make. What bothers me most is what the point actually is, given that this series has not ended and, I am sure, will not end for another five years, given the general structure of the manga.
"What point can there be to a manga like this?" you may rightfully ask. Well, so far, I have been able to infer only three possibilities: that the manga is an indictment of the nuclear family model, that the manga pushes the boundaries of acceptable media when the premises are wholeheartedly borrowed from what are otherwise considered hentai, or that there is no point and that the manga is blatantly using tropes with proven to evoke emotional responses from the readers. At the service of these teleological readings of the manga, we have what I will call, at the risk of sounding potentially racist (given the generalisation this term implies), "Japaneseisms"- highly Japan-specific socio-cultural expressions, as seen in the number of times people insist that they'll do their best to achieve the smallest of goals (no matter how stupid or illogical the pursuit might be), pine about youth and how great it must feel to be one (so that you can vicariously experience it through these characters, no matter the trauma actual youth might experience were they to be in this situation), or not barge in somebody else's business (despite how doing so might have saved these characters a lot of trouble later down the line).
The difficulties related to reorganising a family where the parents marry after their children have already hit puberty and the constant access they have to each other, living in the same house as the people one is attracted to, can be so significant as to tear families apart once something like this comes out in the open. The fact that it didn't (or, more accurately, that it did and still could not) suggests that the people involved in the story who are aware of the relationship not only present a sort of surreal reality where friends don't find this taboo but, at the same time, encourage both the characters in such a relationship (and, by extension, the reader's connection with them) when it would have been much more socially appropriate to put a stop to it.
The fact that no law exists preventing such relationships developed within the same house leading to children exacerbates the situation these reorganised families exist in, and the manga espouses this point very strongly in the beginning of the series. Obviously, there are a lot of attempts that the characters make to come back to their senses, leaving this house, but they all fail because the manga does not want the characters to forget what they did so easily and, consequently, reveals that the characters are ripe for melodramatic exploitation. Is the teacher/step-sister going to realise that her teacher didn't have sex with her while she was still in school because he was acting like a professional? Nope. Natsuo keeps coming on to her, and this emotional wreck of a woman can't help herself return this kid's feelings.
"But there are other characters who also have feelings for their teachers, right?" Indeed. But, and this is important, they are all women, not men. There isn't another guy like Natsuo in their high school who is prone to worrying about his loved ones and trying to take care of them. Why is he so special? The answer is that this is the explanation given by most Japanese writers who wish to explain why a large coterie of girls are consistently interested in one guy. The guy is always capable of making things right, and the girls all have issues that just this one guy is oh-so capable of dealing with. If this is the case, why wouldn't both of his step-sisters in this family not want to have the guy all for themselves? He is passionate to the older one, and just too considerate for the younger one.
Obviously, there are caveats that suggest otherwise. The characters try to push people away from them in order to pull their minds away from thinking about how much they want to bone the other. But the characters are never prepared to completely get over these feelings. Nor are they prepared to openly explain their relationship to their parents, something that would have definitively changed the dynamics of this situation from cute to realistic. For all the amount of worrying Natsuo allegedly does, he never considers the amount of pain he is potentially inflicting upon his father and his step-mother. The pain is there, since his step-mother begins to question the nature of Hina, the elder "sister", and Natsuo. And he is the one who is supposed to be emotionally stable- Hina is an idiot who cannot keep her emotions in check when it comes to either her profession or her new family, while Rui, the younger one, is callous, because she can lie effectively without thinking twice about what she is doing, jealous, given how Natsuo seems incapable of quitting Hina initially (which she finds attractive), and suspicious, as she got second-pickings and worries that Natsuo might fall for another women, of which there are several for him to choose from.
As to whether the manga is a genre innovator, the fact that the manga tries to justify what are essentially doujinshi and hentai premises can also be put forward. It is almost similar to the idea of James Gunn's PG Porn, for those who like everything about porn except the sex. The justification for these premises are to be found in the long-running traditions of doujinshi and hentai, which feature people in these situations. Consequently, by combining rote melodrama with what you would otherwise find yourself reading right before you get to the "good stuff" to touch yourself to, this manga is accomplishing something that even the hentai or doujinshi don't bother with- legitimising sexual relationships between step-siblings.
The people who get to know of the relationship Natsuo has had with his step-sisters don't chastise him enough to find him repulsive or to realise that he has gone this far simply because he was not told this was potentially wrong before. While explicitly sexual representations of such relationships don't comment upon whether these relationships are okay, and, if they do, suggest that they aren't okay but are "illicit fun", the relationships portrayed here suggest that those who cannot accept this relationship are not capable of thinking about it from the couple's point of view and are, therefore, close-minded. Obviously, there are people who do engage in step-sibling relationships in real-life, but the number of times their close friends, family or acquaintances would call them out on this is certainly much higher than the one time a girl who likes Natsuo called him "immoral" after he came clean about having screwed both his elder and younger step-sisters.
Of course, the sex is not explicitly presented. The genitals are never rendered clearly, and the "ecchi" situations are to be found in other manga as well. And I am aware that the manga that do discuss topics of sexual relationships between step-siblings are not known for featuring large casts of supporting characters. But we have to understand that the large supporting cast never acts like it represents how members of society might actually act when they are confronted with this knowledge (unless all Japanese youngsters know about the difficulties and problems related to having feelings and sexual relationships with step-siblings, something that I am deeply sceptical about). The point is that, while in the other manga, the characters ostensibly acted like high school characters, they don't here. Also, even if the sex is not explicit, the manga does show it in the .5 chapters, which holds tone and the direction of the whole manga.
The most cynical point this manga can potentially espouse is that there is no point to all of this. The drama is hokey, the characters archetypal to the point of being stereotypical, the situations and premises already dealt with in countless other series, and this manga just so happens to be a combination of all of these manga. There is no grand point, the manga had to move copies and show the work of one Sasuka Kei, a highly talented, if deviant, manga artist. If this is the case, we find ourselves looking into the abyss of capitalist realism, where the notion of family ethics can be blatantly abandoned without any real care in the world without trying to contextualise it within an acceptable framework. This leads to the attitude where it doesn't matter what the content of the manga is so much as the number of people prepared to read it, and if they get to develop a context of their own rather than having to deal with the context in which the creative work functions within, all the better.
This is the only point where finding counter-points is much harder for me. This might indicate my dedication to this specific reading of the manga, but, at the same time, it also indicates how easy it is to look at it from this point of view and ask another set of difficult questions. Who is this manga really for? What are they to gain from it?
I could go on, of course, looking at Natsuo's attraction towards an older woman as an attempt to fulfil his Oedipal needs, or at the intensity of Rui's feelings for Natsuo as a consequence of dealing with, and resolving, in a socially unacceptable manner, her own Oedipal complexes (that's right, folks; traditional Freudian psychoanalysis does not have an Electra complex), but I believe that, for now, this discussion into why "Domestic na Kanojo" has been something that I spent the last week obsessing over is something that I want to be able to have closure over. This is not to say that I will not be following the chapters as they keep coming. Just that there is very little that I want right now than to stop misinterpreting messages my lady friends send me as being flirtatious. The world is more complex than that presented here. I'm so looking forward to going back to being an ugly, rude loser.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Sep 2, 2018
Before I start, I must confess that I do not know the names of the characters, as it is pointless in even trying to remember them. Please watch the show and find the appropriate connections. That said...
Bible Black is a show that, itself, suffers from a curse- its reputation. The hentai with "a story", it isn't so much the first hentai with a story, nor does it have a story that will stick with you. The images that confront the viewer are somewhat difficult to process, but only if the viewer sees in the fetishes on display a reflection of the horrifying, animalistic imagination that
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humanity harbours in its deepest recesses, as seen in the techniques used to torture a teacher, perpetrated by the brainwashed posse of a witchcraft-practitioner who deems the teacher responsible for her condition (said witchcraft-practitioner is not a full-on witch because she was screwed over by a group of girls who wanted to be witches).
Since this is not Pigeon Blood, the rather unfortunate combination of fetish for its own sake, incomplete plot, blatant misogyny, and characters we feel nothing but contempt for is not present here. Instead, Bible Black's reputation, in some ways, is well deserved, because Bible Black sets itself the challenge of trying to use tropes like a show with intelligent (or at least sentient) writers does. You can notice these attempts in the interactions between the male and female leads, acting like they are in a normal anime where they avoid their obvious attraction towards each other because how else is the show going to keep milking the viewers for attention? But, despite all of it, the last thing that is going to happen is the two having anal sex, right? ...right?
While the need to depict sex hampers the show in a myriad ways, perhaps the most interesting thing about Bible Black is that it uses the hentai format to mine horror tropes with wanton abandon. It strikes gold on some very memorable places in the process. The afore-mentioned torture sequence is one of them, but the standout is the one near the finale, where the main character has to make a choice between staying and trying to defeat the "evil" in front of him or rush to his house and keep the two women there, one being his sister (whose breast he fondled earlier), from being killed after they are raped by the male cronies of the witchcraft-practitioner. There is also a rape scene that is not presented just for the purpose of titillation. I understand that there is this very dangerous undercurrent in Japanese hentai, where depictions of rape are somehow turned into situations where the woman ends up liking it, but, here, the woman feels betrayed and disgusted when the male lead, her "boyfriend", just watches as she is raped by the witchcraft-practitioner's cronies. There are consequences to the characters' actions, after all. The scene is, thus, not nearly as gratuitous as it would be otherwise. It shows that the writers had a grasp of humanity that is otherwise not seen as necessary when they are allowed to let their sexual imaginations run wild, thereby rendering what is depicted, ultimately, futile and pointless.
Of course, most of the time, it just hits dirt and tar, and the viewers passively watch how much women say they like having unprotected sex with both the male lead and the witchcraft-practitioner. The script's less developed tendencies are visible when the latter, earlier in the show, is looking for a virgin to sacrifice, but has vaginal sex with all the girls she sees (with her magic penis, because lesbian sex is kind of weird for men and the Japanese were the first discover that, or something). Somehow, virginity has nothing to do with the rest of a woman's orifices, even though everyone seems just as excited when they put their penises (or other implements, if they don't have one) into the anus or mouth.
The most problematic segment of the show comes up when the teacher begs the male lead, her student, to have sex with her to keep her calm. Having been put under a spell which makes her crave sex, the male lead complies after protesting, even though the better choice would have been if both did not go through with it, despite the teacher's apparent helplessness. What makes this segment problematic rather than simply loathsome is because the complicated power play taking place between the characters, despite the gratuitous detail with which the two go about their business. Does this not constitute a major breach in the kind of relationships a teacher is allowed to cultivate with her students? What does having sex where even the teacher climaxes (remember, she craved sex, not orgasms) do to their relationship? Is the male lead a victim of abuse, despite the fact that he apparently wishes to have sex with many of these women? Bible Black answers none of these questions, sticking to its trope-laden presentation of the sexual act there. But it does linger in the mind, because the show humanises some of its characters; it is not so much of a stretch to think that those not entirely human might come to a head later.
As for the depiction of the "futanari", it reveals a very clearly masculine subjectivity residing in the antagonist, while pursuing goals that would otherwise be given over to the "evil queen" archetype. While the retractable penis itself makes the antagonist, the witchcraft-practitioner, capable of forcing herself upon the female students like nobody else, the fact that she can also produce semen is what overloads the imaginary circuit of sexuality. Regardless of whether or not she can have children, she can always (visibly) climax during sex, making her not just a woman who can always enjoy sex but, in a way, seek it in a manner that is otherwise stereotyped as male behaviour. Even when having sex with the male lead (with her vagina this time), she keeps him from climaxing, almost driving him mad. That she does not have a pair of testicles suggests she has none of the weaknesses associated with having male sexual organs, nor does she have to participate in the associated language of how much of a "man" one is (because, you know, she has no "balls"). Yes, the Japanese never really seem to have a problem with masculinity, but that is how it would affect the sexual psyche of the Western male (and, honestly, for Japan, even India is to the West). I am not quite sure whether other depictions of the "futanari" are as vivid, but, within the context of the show, it was quite fascinating to see how women with power still need the shaft but not the rest of the package.
I suppose the show, in some ways, does deserve its curse. While Pigeon Blood is marred by obscurity, as it should, Bible Black spawned a(n excellent) prequel and a (misguided) sequel. Watching the two has been an interesting experience. Hentai is not a genre I believe I will become a fan of; after a while, the umpteenth "She's your step-sister; your guy friends from out of town are actually girls; your landlady/customer/miscellaneous lady relation looks like a little girl but really isn't" narratives just made me realise what Marx meant by the term "use-value" and how much most hentai participate in the same flows of capital by developing new ways to nurture and evoke desire within the bored participant-viewer: keep pushing the envelope, but never too much. Still, the fact that Bible Black uses horror to its advantage is undeniable. How much of it is deliberate remains a mystery.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 30, 2018
Look, I am not a regular viewer of anime. For all I know, I'm probably missing something that I would not otherwise if I viewed anime as regularly as you. Still, Death Note was an interesting experience that made me realise that following the culture surrounding it is a good way of losing whatever sense of taste I have apparently cultivated.
Death Note is not a bad show. Its just a show that is too clever for its own good. Actually, "clever" makes it sound like a backhanded compliment- "paranoid" would suit it better. Paranoia swirls around in the mind of its protagonist, Yagami Light,
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telling him that someone might always suspect him, a teenager, of murdering people despite the means of the murders being untraceable- there was no real way the law would have caught up to him until he decided to take public requests. But he insists that he may be caught. So he builds an elaborate invention to destroy a goofy-looking notebook with rules written in a foreign language in case someone in his house or outside tries to reach for it. Egging him on is the Spirit of Death Ryuk, who acts both to applaud the pointless complexity of Yagami's thinking and to be an audience POV character, because, even if you don't understand what's happening, Ryuk affirms how the whole thing could only come from the mind of a supremely intelligent person so that you too applaud at what's happening on the screen. I followed this logic too, until I realised that such thinking is characteristic of paranoid individuals- the last thing they need is encouragement.
Then there is L- the weirdo who's strange behaviour makes everybody uncomfortable, except for his butler Watery. No wait, its "Watari" or something. Anyway, he apparently comes from money and has a cult going in the background to make sure his "legacy" survives with M and N, in case something happens to him. Of course, something does, and how this happens is so convoluted that only people who have seen the show can begin to fathom. Regardless, Ryuk is there to prevent anyone from calling out the bucket-sized plot-hole as well as the horse-sized good luck necessary for such a plan to work and induce exhilaration at the completely artificial solution to Yagami's equally Byzantine problem, because of course another Spirit of Death would fall in love with one of the worst characters I've ever seen in anime, no matter how little I have seen of it.
Maybe that's the point. This show is not about two geniuses fighting each other over their own ideas of justice- its about how the biggest geniuses in the world are paranoid people, and giving them Death Notes is like throwing petrol on a raging fire. Unfortunately, the original author had a lot of petrol to spare, as is visible in the problem called Misa Amane.
The aforementioned "worst character", Misa is the kind of baggage an intrepid traveller is offended when asked to carry. Not only is she shallow and stupid, but her committing suicide was one of the best things that happened at the end of the show. While Yagami treats her like the pointless piece of garbage she is, it just reflects what a terrible view this show has of female characters. Why couldn't L have been a woman? Or anyone in the "anti-Kira" gang? Or "Near" or "Mello" (what amazing names)? At the very least, the show wouldn't have appeared to be contemptuous of women then.
The pointless use of logic to substitute for characters shows how much storytelling has changed. No need for emotional development, just throw the closest approximation of intelligence that the writer believes he has on the screen. However, do not be fooled into thinking that this is actually intelligence, because the writing leaves a lot unsaid about the failures in intelligence made by the characters: How, for instance, does Yagami justify murdering people who weren't given a fair trial? What if he killed people who were wrongly convicted? He didn't have access to the evidence that those actually investigating crimes did, right? And even if he did, where did he gather them for criminals from outside Tokyo, let alone Japan? In short, Yagami's juvenile sense of justice remains unquestioned by his actions or his emotions. Both the Death Note and Ryuk prevent him from seeing anything other than what he does and the audience feels compelled to accept him because Ryuk will tell you how impressive all of this is supposed to be.
But then comes the second season. I liked it far more than the painfully manipulative first season, because it was trying to discuss the consequences of Yagami's actions, with religions popping up around Kira and the anti-Kira gang realising what a big mistake they had made by trusting Yagami. That is precisely why I could tolerate Near and Mello- they came from a bigger world, not to be easily placed within the conflict of insulated geniuses who kept fighting among and decided the "fate of the world" for themselves. Yes, even Near, who is almost an L clone, except that he has a close friend in Mello. There was nothing I liked more than Yagami breaking down because that was the only time I heard the voice acting of Mamoru Miyano come to life in this show. I won't say that the second season justifies the first season, with the introduction of new Death Notes for no discernable reason other than to increase the list of characters, but I do feel that there was far more that was redeemed in this season.
I still maintain that Death Note was not worth my time, but I am kind of okay with it existing. I nearly forgot about it and I am sure that, now I have written this here, I will forget about it within a few more months. I understand that reading this may likely incense you into writing some really mean comments. If you are going to insult my intelligence, please do: I found out that I am really insecure about it and I need as much of your salt as you can spare in order to get over it. At least that way, this show wouldn't have been a waste.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Mar 28, 2018
Neon Genesis Evangelion, with its portentous name and an equally heavy bag of themes, remains one of the most influential television series featuring giant robots. Obviously, there are ur-anime within this genre, given how often NGE has been called a "deconstruction" of such shows, which present a far more clearer picture of what exactly NGE was trying to criticise, if it was trying in the first place: tropes about a young boy who has to save the world in a giant robot that he controls, meeting friends and changing for the better over the course of the show, etc. As more than enough analyses have
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been performed examining the characters, themes, setting, show's longevity and impact, I, instead, wish to look at it from a very different light: a perspective of someone who does not follow anime to any significant degree. I will be focussing on what the themes are based on, raise a few points on what the plot might mean in the larger context of the story, and end it with a clarification of the fact that none of what I say is, in any way, definitive.
While regular discussions on the themes of the show may focus on the theological imagery, the fragility of the protagonists and the strange attempts at a conclusion made by the series that have, in themselves, created opportunities for discussions on what the themes actually were, I am of the opinion that NGE's themes are clumsy attempts at grasping the reality of the world that the series takes place in. This "theme" overwhelms all the rest in order to give them a base to claim narrative importance. This "theme" also undermines everything that there is to say about its own fiction. Let me elaborate.
The show features humanity as born from an extraterrestrial "seed", Lilith: both Adam and Lilith are "seeds" because, in this sexual metaphor, the earth is the egg and the womb. This is the first indication of the clumsiness of the "theme": the names. NGE uses nouns found in Abrahamic faiths in order to imbue its own fiction with meanings that our brains react to instinctively, like, as China Mieville in his foreword to the Gormenghast series calls, "hermeneutic engines". The names really mean nothing, but calling the seeds "Adam" and "Lilith", the show "Neon Genesis Evangelion", and the monsters "Angels" with names like "Sachiel" and "Israfel" immediately makes them somehow more significant than they really are. They are exotic flavours to an robot anime otaku's diet. The point of all of the names is justified by the close-readers who are convinced of the grandiosity of the themes this series allegedly tackles, despite never addressing why, then, there are no religious characters within the series. Couldn't at least one member of the UN or NERV be a devout Christian and bring up tidings of the Apocalypse or be a little bit shaken after seeing a giant cross burn through the city or up into the sky? And, even if the story takes place in Japan, the rest of the world is involved too. Why aren't there more foreigners coming to witness the end of the world?
Because this show is not about the end of the world- it is about a series that already sees itself as a mecha anime, having grown tired of not being able to question its identity. So, it doubles down on cliches like the school environment where Rei (of all people) needs to go to school with Shinji and Asuka (didn't she already have a degree or something?) and never-ending summers where the cicadas never die. There are no psychiatrists, psychologists or any number of health professionals that could provide the children with medication or therapy which all of them seem desperately in need of because their presence would imply something that would break the suspension of disbelief- namely, reasoning possessed by adults. The story comes from a world where there are hundreds of anime where children took care of saving the world, sometimes in giant robots. The difference between reality and fiction in such a world is quite blurry. Shinji Ikari has to get a grip all by himself, with nobody in his circle of friends prepared to look beyond their own problems unless they need him to do something for them. This almost backfired when Misato Katsuragi (Shinji's guardian, also damaged) couldn't help herself and tried to seduce Ikari. Rei Ayanami remains a blank cipher whose affection towards Ikari could be interpreted as Oedipal on one extreme and entirely projected by the audience (and Ikari, perhaps) on the other. Gendo Ikari can't even feign affection for his son for the sake of his own mission. Asuka Langley Soryuu keeps pushing people she likes away because she hates herself. These characters have baggage and no real opportunity to resolve them, even after they get to monologue about themselves.
The function these characters have within the plot is similarly clumsy. From a weekly-monster show to the "deconstruction" of the genre, NGE makes a huge leap that, by its very nature, could not but lead to some terrible failures when attempted. The last two episodes show just that- the creators thinking that Ikari was the one character whose arc needed to be resolved, leaving behind the many names and voices behind, under the black title-screens announcing the progress of the "Instrumentality Project"- something that Ikari himself never asked for. The "Project" represents a convenient endpoint for the show- because the viewers were never supposed to know what happens to the world after the "Project" came to life. We do see the result in The End of Evangelion, but that, too, leaves more questions (why does the diagram of the Tree of Life show up in the sky? Are viewers seeing it or is everyone in the show seeing it too? Why does it look like a diagram at all, instead of the thing it is supposed to represent?).
The plot could not give us a proper clarification of the events that took place, because, once the creative team behind the show understood that the latter episodes could, by focussing on Ikari, reinterpret what the show said about its own fiction into something more personal and intimate, there was no reason to stop with making the themes appear heavier. The only time a Biblical sounding track is used is near the end of the series- Ode to Joy (because...it sound "angelic"?) playing while Asuka is nearly killed fighting an Angel. This is the equivalent of informing the audience that it is time to pay attention to the Christian imagery by dumping a Church organ on their heads.
Of course, then there are literary theory readings that are performed in order to show the depth of the work. I am sceptical of this, mostly because this reading usually presumes a relationship with an author, which most have decided is Hideaki Anno. This is complicated by the fact that Anno was subject to his producers at Gainax, his creative team and his audience. If these are taken into account, then the use of literary theory in the analysis of this show was an expectation that was already built into NGE, which means that the show wanted to simulate at being thematically heavy, not reveal itself as a deep show on analysis. This is why the show has so many overt themes related to psychoanalysis (a field which has proven next to useless in treating depression realistically), Abrahamic religions (which remain a fascination for most Japanese, not a reality as is the case outside Japan), a point that I would like to emphasise is the case with virtually all forms of commercial art seeking artistic merit, and NGE is certainly just that.
This is not to say that the experience and feelings one can have when they watch this show was somehow worthless or meaningless. It is difficult not to respond emotionally to the show, because of how well it grabs your attention. I was engaged as the show went on and, knowing what to expect, felt like the ending was as good a conclusion as any, given those its copycats following it have tried to come up with. I was not there when the show was airing on Japanese TV and people were getting angry about how terribly the show had ended. The show's flawed, even unwatchable. But it is very difficult to ignore it.
At the risk of repeating what Solid Snake told Raiden at the end of Metal Gear Solid 2, I hope that you too have fun with the show and nothing more. Seriously, there are better things to do with your time. Maybe that's what the show was trying to tell me....
Damn it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 1, 2018
Instead of reviewing such an irresponsible work, I would like you, the ever-ethereal reader, to imagine the following: imagine a world where it was possible to find a two-episode show that reaffirms male hypersexuality and anatomy as the pinacle of sexual agency while requesting tutelage within the leavened and turgid political environment that allows for such acts of grotesque popular art to become acceptable (as demonstrated by its pathetic grasp of fetishes and an inability to find a limit) to not only legitimise itself as a product of an industry, a culture, an author, but to convince itself of its own artistic merit. The horror
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that you sense in the words within these notes for the prospective viewer is not founded upon the images that floated past their vision, for the images, by definition, can leave nothing to the imagination. Rather, it is within the realisation that the world I asked you to imagine is the world I found this show in.
It is, almost, enlightening that true horror still exists. It is neither in the human trafficking scene, nor in the scene where artists with no control decided that they wanted to see a perenially tortured woman have forced sex with a more-than-willing (at the moment) demure creature, appearing like a woman but with two penises below and a vagina for a mouth. It is in the realisation that there are no boundaries left that an "author", a "culture", an "industry" cannot go. For that means there is nowhere left to go.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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