I sure hope so.

IMPLICATIONS, IMPLICATIONS, IMPLICATIONS

One thing that stories of the 21st century have in abundance, are implications. Little things that are unconfirmable to the viewers/readers of the story, which all have to with the background.

When you go to wikipedia or book review site and look at the story summary, they are often shown like:

“Since the Italian government in Gunslinger Girl is implied to be corrupt, support for the PRF is considerable, ranging from civilians and businessmen to government officials and elite special forces units.” (PrintPage – older Gunslinger Girl wikipedia revision )

It is implied that genetic engineering has been used extensively to manipulate human beings so that they are all colorblind, and physically conform with Sameness.
(Gradesaver – The Giver wikipedia summary)

Even extra information for stories dates probably further than the Star Wars expanded universe books. The trope for that is All There in the Manual. For books and movies these implications are all apparent based on the amount of detail the story has. Videogames do this through exploration. We are just talking about implications, because videogames do implications the best. The reason I’m writing this, is because someone finally pointed out the fact that Valve (a game studio that you are likely all somewhat familiar with) uses this storytelling method quite often.

[The grafitti left behind in the safe rooms of Left 4 Dead] essentially tells the story of the game, without showing the player through things such as cinematics. A similar approach was used in one of their earlier game series. (Left 4 Dead wiki)

Whilst the Halo game series fall back on the novels for extra information. Valve games usually rely on fake-websites or very specific game details for such info.

In Half-Life 2, as you travel across the highway you see huge shoreline as well as grounded ships. I personally did not pay attention to this detail, but later a fan-made timeline surmised that this was the result of the Combine (the aliens of the series) draining the oceans.

In the finale of Portal, you see a red phone disconnected. You can imagine there nay have been lots of discussion about this phone. However, the Orange Box came equipped with developer commentary and it was explained that this phone was originally installed for the scientists to contact each other in the case that a certain AI got very upset and started killing people.

I actually don’t have very many examples of this sort of thing. But I’m hoping more games (whether or not they are by Valve) will continue to implement this. Games with large universes and lore are quite nice, and this is simply part of that.

I call this a good show. Spoilers for the final episodes below.

Tatami Galaxy is a show that talks about something in life that is quite important, it is about understanding the elements of your personal life as cherish-able and not trying to go farther than that.

Throughout these 11 episodes, we begin to see the problem with our main character (“Watashi”). He has aspirations for a perfect life, but of course fails to see the opportunities granted toward him.

The Rise

Eventually the consistent parallel worlds we see in the show manifest themselves into probably the funniest/scariest way. In the scenario where he chooses not to involve himself on the campus, Watashi sleeps in the 4.5 Tatami room that he has always been in and he wakes up to find that he is trapped in the same room. Like so:

You cannot escape

You get the idea, each room is the corresponding room from those parallel worlds. Now of course, he doesn’t realize this immediately. It takes time to notice the slight differences after all.

There is of course symbolism in this moment. But it really is just a visualization of the situation that our narrator is in (I talked about this last time). He is trapped in the same cycle of repetition.

And then of course there’s the fact that he can never seem to give that Mochiguma to Akashi.

The Climax

(my words do not do this part justice)

As the narrator begins to look on these other worlds. He learns of the people he has missed in the current one. Including Higuchi, Jougasaki, Hanuki, and Ozu.

In a moment of dramatic irony he notes that Ozu would have made his campus life fun (I had to rewatch this to understand it), and it seem like Ozu is indeed his only friend throughout the parallel worlds (what we have been seeing no doubt).

He then ends up in the original room (or is it?) and remembers Akashi, recalling that even in this world he fell in love with her and also has the goddamn Mochiguma.

Suddenly the moths (that have collected over the rooms of parallel worlds) flush out towards Watashi. He jumps out the window of the room and………….he has the left the Tatami world and has ended up on the night of the Gozan Ceremony (the same ceremony as the first episode, and the same one Ozu was trying to steal an airship for).

In a sequence that follows with dramatic music and and symbolizes that Watashi has the combined himself into everyone persona from the parallel worlds, he attempts saves Ozu (lacking his youkai face) from a crowd of angry people (Jougasaki is part of the crowd, and the onlookers include Akashi, Hanuki, and Higuchi). The moths from before overwhelm everyone and the two guys fall into the rapid water of the nearby river and are hanging on for dear life

Higuchi prevents the crowd from further violence, Jougasaki saves the two, and Hanuki leaves with Ozu toward the hospital. Watashi then meets with Akashi (scared to half to death by the moths) finally returns the goddamn mochiguma and he suggests they leave for neko ramen, something she has been (understandingly) wanting to hear for a while.

The Epilogue

Everything is resolved in the end. Which is plainly excellent for a series with such morose atmosphere.There is one particularly awesome moment. Throughout this strange turn of events, Watashi and Ozu have switched roles, with Watashi flashing the youkai face as he teases Ozu about Ozu’s girlfriend.

The series then ends the opening credits (making sense as it opened with ending credits) feeling me with joy cause I love the opening song to death.

Concluding thoughts

The bizarre presentation of the show made me skeptical at first, but it began to grow on me when I saw that it had very serious themes. With such a depressed protagonist, I imagine the author probably had some emotional issues that he put into the story (as is common with much Japanese media).

I’m still not sure if I love the show (well as much I love Bakemonogatari that is). But it really is one of the best shows of this year. It’s amusing, it’s trippy, and it’s about accepting your life for what it is.

Reading the original novel would be a pleasure

They need to make a whole show with art like this.

Late as always.

Akiyuki Shinbo is an interesting figure. While I have never actually called “my favorite” anime director. I’d say I probably consider him favorite.

His anime is mostly recognizable for being zaniness, craziness, full of (clashingly beautiful) colors, lolicon, and (for me) generally entertaining.

Of shows by him I have seen: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha, Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei, abit of Pani Poni Dash!, abit of Hidamari Sketch, Bakemonogatari (as you know is one of my favorite), and Triangle Heart ~Sweet Songs Forever~.

SoulTaker is an earlier anime by him (aired in 2001), I decided to watch two of three episodes on a DVD that fell into my possession years ago. I had assumed it was an OVA because the box wasn’t labeled “volume 1″ but after glancing at wikipedia it’s a whole 13 episode long series (which makes sense considering the pacing of the first two episodes).

Plot

Date Kyosuke witnesses his mother’s dying moments and then is immediately stabbed by her in the heart. He wakes up after being rescued from a buried coffin (how her got there is anyone’s guess) by girl named Mitsuki Maya, he has obviously survived his wound.

The story then follows Kyosuke as he is joined by Mibu Shiro (a mysterious guy who smokes….something) and fights against two organizations: KIRIHARA, and the HOSPITAL.

Production

Through the storyboards, art direction, and overall storytelling you can tell this is a work by Shinbo. However it doesn’t feel very well put together, so you can deduce that this is when he was when he was first starting out.

What do I mean? Well think about this: if you look at Bakemonogatar or Triangle Heart, even if you don’t take anime seriously, you can still garner some sense of seriousness. There’s characters, dealing with a problem, they need to solve said problem whether it’s emotional or through an antagonist.

For SoulTaker you can some of that through the first half of episode one. Kyosuke has to deal with the fact that his mother stabbed him, he then finds out that Maya is a fragment of his sister’s soul, which could make for some interesting psychological intrigue.

But then the appearance crazy transformations and power attacks (LIGHTNING BREAKERRRRR…wait….thatsounds familiar) sort of diminish all that. This is more apparent in episode 2, in midst of everything a giant samurai robot appears out of nowhere, and then you begin to think “am I watching anything serious?”

As always pandering to lolicon side of anime, there’s the character known as Komugi. I haven’t seen enough of her though.

Overall

From the episodes I’ve seen, this show is cool artistic direction with a really skewered plot. I’ll make my way through this somehow.

I don’t know why I keep forgetting that I’m supposed to post on WEDNESDAY. I’ll blame this show’s confusion.

Tatami Galaxy or “Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei” (Mythical 4.5 Tatami Mat Collection) is MADHOUSE’s newest attempt to create awesome visuals whilst telling a story with odd presentation.

Tatami Galaxy tells the story of an unnamed protagonist. Me and other internet goers have taken to calling him “Watashi” (which is how he refers to himself).

This unnamed college-student protagonist is mixture of self-loathing, concentrated effort, and mild social awkwardness. During his campus life (where he lives in a 4.5 Tatami room) .He is accompanied by someone somehow worse than him who’s name is Ozu, who despite being horribly malicious with conscious knowledge of his behavior, still has some sense of loyalty. Watashi met Ozu after joining the Tennis club but was shunned by nearly everyone else involved, so he and Ozu decided to make it their hobby to ruin people’s relationships for the next two years.

Watashi is given a visit by the god of matrimony, who tells him to go confront the love of his life, Akashi-san (part of the engineering department….you’ll be hearing that alot). With crazy antics in between, the protagonist fails to form a relationship with her in the first episode.

Every episode apparently shows a differing two-year period. Episode two shows what happens when Watashi joins the film-club, episode three, shows the cycling club, and so on and so forth.

Presentation

On the animation. I’m not gonna bother describing it because it’s too hard for me to describe.
Watashi as the narrator is the most distinctive part of the show. Mostly because he talks like a guy vocally typing on a type-writer.

Each episode begins by showing the present state of Watashi.
Then it shows how he got to that state.
Then it of course it finalizes everything by showing the resolution (or lack thereof)

In terms of character development. The series does not seem to intend for any. We simply see multiple angles fo the same characters. Watashi remains self-loathing and passive, Ozu remains malicious and ridiculous, and Akashi remains deadpan, and the god of matrimony has the same personality throughout.

Normally I would criticize this aspect (as my motto maintains “character development > god”) but because it allows the viewers to focus on one thing only (the events of the episode), it is quite effective.

Analysis

In this Groundhog Day type story, it’s a little confusing as to what we are supposed to figure out. The pattern is relatively simple.

1. Watashi gets on the campus, decides what club he is going to join
2. Whether or not he likes it, he always becomes affiliated with Ozu
3. By the end of the episode (and thus the two-year period), he fails to form any solid relations with Akashi.

But things get a little bit weirder. In one episode, Watashi doesn’t join any club, but yet still meets with Ozu. Another episode has him try to get closer with a different woman, within that same episode he also has some sort of fetish that was not elaborated in the previous episodes.

So eventually we might get an answer as to what this all means. But after seeing 6 episodes, I can’t tell if this will be a half season long or a full season.

Title

Whilst I usually don’t enjoy the way localized titles don’t literally translate the Japanese name. I have to say that the title “Tatami Galaxy” is actually very appropriate.

Each episode is a depiction of what could have happened to Watashi. Because he lives in a Tatami filled-room. It’s obvious that the whole series is intended to by the “Tatami Galaxy”, and Watashi’s journey (or perhaps even our journey) through these instances.

Music

The music creates a atmosphere of mysteriousness, but because of the crazy visuals I don’t have a conscious effort to pay attention to it.

As for the opening and ending? I love the opening because it has this “feel-good” tune to it, which connects with something that protagonist needs to figue out (he needs to calm down). I’m actually listening to it right now (check it out).

The ending has gotten alot of praise, I’m still not 100% sure how to think of it (it’s haunting that’s for sure). It has a morose feeling attached to it which seems not fully connected with the series…..which is actually nice aspect.

I still need to actually catch up with this show. But from what I’ve watched it shows a dilemma that comedy anime has.

Working!! is by A1-Pictures, makers of Kannagi, Sora no Woto, Kuroshitusji, the Valkyria Chronicles anime, and the upcoming Black Rock Shooter OVA.

In terms of whether I like them or not. I guess I like them, they turn out quality material with nice animation. Additionally they provide a contrast with Kyoto Animation (which I am slightly less fond of). Working!! features alot of what Kannagi had: a bunch of characters together with slice of life elements.

SORRY LET ME GET TO THE POINT

My main criticism of Working!! is that it relies very much on gag humor. As summarized by someone on a IRC channel I go to (with loads of sarcasm)

“LOL get it? It’s funny cause she’s small!”
“HAHAHA! She has a sword. People freak out”
“Oh look! She hit him again cause she hates men”

And so to me this seems like it’s not very well done. However this has been present to me for the first 4-5 episodes and so I will need to watch abit more, also this is not exactly A1-Pictures’ fault because they are simply adapting a manga into anime with their stylistic choices.

Despite that big complaint, Working!! isn’t really that bad. It doesn’t try to be deep, it has good voice work, it’s got some love-able side characters (Souta’s sisters for the most part) and the opening is kind of catchy. Rather, Working!! is actually a refreshing show, it’s comedy but it’s not as crazy as more of the recent ones (Mayoi Neko Overrun and Arakawa Under the Bridge for example). So I will continue to watch.

Hopefully this will be longer than my usual posts.

I mentioned wayyyyy back that I once showed my film teacher some anime.

My teacher was not a big fan of anime due to being exposed to more moe-related material.
I can only imagine some kids from my school had shown her repeats of the Haruhi dance sequence and she had gone mad from seeing it too much.

Emphasis on was. I lent her a DVD of “Denpa Teki na Kanojo” and she liked it. Since this was my last year of highschool and I had only 24 days of classes left, I opted to show her something before I left.

So now every free-period I get I’m watching anime with my teacher… LIVING THE DREAM and we get analyze it together.

Hitagi Crab

When we started the first episode I had totally forgotten that it started with a panty-shot of Tsubasa. Hilariously, she ended up seeing it twice because we had to get the sound working. By this point, I’m already a nervous wreck.

After the long montage of violence we get to see Senjougahara massive fall from the top of the stairs. We both love the imagery and I point out that it’s possible that the entire sequence is possibly an exaggeration of what happened (explaining the long surreal spiral stair-case).

Around this point. Senjougahara mentions “tsundere” and I have to take this point to describe some anime terminology for her.

As Senjougahara and Araragi travel through the city she says: “….Considering Japan’s high-population density, there aren’t many people in this show.” Which is a big smack in the face to me, because it’s something I should have picked up on.

So we discussed this point. The lack of people can be seen in two ways:
1. There are literally no people there.
2. Metaphorically it represents that as young-adults the main characters are isolated by their perception of the world as a bleak place or are atleast isolated BECAUSE they are young-adults.

When we reach Meme’s part of the episode, my teacher finds him fascinating as he is almost a father figure but yet lacks alot of humanity. I take this time to mention that Meme is voiced by Takahiro Sakurai, who often voices sinister but morally ambiguous characters.

Episode 2 begins, epic fanservice ensues and I continue to worry if my teacher will get turned off by this. But I’m not that worried considering that the nudity in this sequence is given more “beauty” than just rampant sexuality. Around this time she says “this show isn’t intended for kids is it?”

On the actual scene itself. I begin to notice that they foreshadow Senjougahara’s past much more than her lines in episode 1. When she changes her clothes in front of Araragi (nonchalantly) we are seeing that she has no fear of Araragi, connecting this with her past we can see that she has gone through a trauma that has left her with armor, but also with emptiness.

After Meme’s rant she manages to pick up on the first pun (“Kani” means crab, while “Kami” means god). I explain the latter pun “Omoi” meaning both “feelings” and “weight”, which oddly enough does seem to transfer well over to english. The revelation of Senjougahara’s rape uses alot of imagery, my teacher loves it.

Mayoi Snail

This episode was interesting to discuss. I first told my teacher about the love of lolita-type anime characters and how the director (Akiyuki Shinbo) often panders to that crowd in his shows.

Once again my teacher notices the absence of people (of course though, this chapter actually uses that within the story). We both note the cinematography is filled with extreme-long shots, thus emphasizing how alone Araragi is within the playground.

Neither of us can figure out if the structure in the middle of the playground is symbolic of anything.

Suruga Monkey

Here my teacher manages one up me on intellectual knowledge twice. First she already knows the Monkey’s Paw short story (which I had only heard of in various anime). During the study session she points out that Senjougahara is writing the Gettysburg Address. Whether the latter bit has any significance in the story….I’m not sure (perhaps noting Kanbaru’s lack of control of her body?)

There are alot of lesbian implications in regards to the Senjougahara/Kanbaru relationship, even before Kanbaru admits her sexual orientation.

After Kanbaru finishes her long confession of how she cannot control her jealously my teacher asks me a whole set copy of the series.