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[shayagain]

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[shayagain]

I completely agree with what you said about the movie scene. It was just so intense to watch. I wonder if we can say that she has also been kinda exposed as her job as an idol (not to the same extent of course) I was just thinking about the mainstream representation of idols. Like in the movie, all of her information was online by a crazy fan. It's insane. And the point where you pointed about that Rumi was crying during the scene, I wonder if it has anything to do with her wanting to embody Mimas persona. She wants to be her, so she felt emotional while watching it? Maybe a stretch but it was something I was thinking about. 

Perfect Blue

This movie was really intense and I had to take a break halfway through due to how uncomfortable it made me feel. In the second half, the movie becomes really confusing as, much like Mima, we can’t distinguish illusion from reality. I believe this movie achieves its goal of confusing and terrifying its viewers very well and does a good job of clearing up some of the mystery at the end. Had we not learned that Rumi was the one tampering with Mima’s image the whole time due to a personality disorder, I don’t think I would have enjoyed the movie as much as too many things would need to be explained. In fact, I believe some of the dream sequences that we see play out take place in Rumi’s perspective, although this is all up to interpretation.

The main theme of this film deals with how toxic fan culture can become, particularly to mentally unstable individuals. In the first half of the film, we see the people Mima works with get attacked one by one when she leaves music to pursue acting. From bombs being planted in letters to vicious stabbings, all of these attacks are meant to send a message to Mima and force her back into music. When she continues to pursue acting despite these messages, things become more intense. We see her being stalked by a man that is being manipulated by Rumi, which contrasts the ideas on otakus discussed earlier in the course. We came to the conclusion that otakus have the ability to distinguish their fictional desires from reality, creating a distance between the two while still enjoying both. Here, we see the result of the line between reality and fiction becoming blurred as Rumi begins to picture herself as the real Mima and Mima’s stalker believing that he is Mima’s protector. As such, these two seek to kill Mima in order to preserve the new reality they have fabricated in their minds.

Something else I noticed about this film concerned Mima’s acting and how she was constantly pushed to expose more and more of herself, from acting out a **** scene to having nude pictures of herself being taken for the consumption of others. I understand that people have the right to do what they wish with their bodies, but the whole situation seems very exploitative. They take an idol who is known for being very innocent and expose her to the public just to make a quick buck. Many of the people she works with, such as her photographer and her agent, seem to encourage her down this path while it is Rumi who is the only one that gets concerned for Mima being placed in these positions. I think I remember seeing her agent flinch during the scene, showing how even he may think it is too much. Yet, she is still pushed to continue down this path by those around her.

I think while this movie may be very uncomfortable to watch, it is an important film that highlights the toxic side of fan culture as well as the exploitation of women in the media. And if you’re in the mood for a psychological thriller, I believe this film captures that essence spectacularly well.

[shayagain]

Perfect Blue ~ 4/22

Wow, this movie took my mind of a rollercoaster. The production of Perfect Blue was so unique and truly kept me at the edge of my seat the whole time. The themes were chilling and honestly, made me a bit uneasy at some points.

I guess I should start at the main theme in this anime. The director took time in blurring the lines between illusion and reality. At some points, viewers would be looking at a scene, but then the scene would switch perspective and change the who vibe. It was strange. I guess an example can be in the very begging. I didn't read the description of the movie so I honest to God thought we were watching another action anime. The protagonist's name is Mima and she is an idol. She has this perfected persona as an idol who is loved by many. When Mima decided that she wanted to abandon being an Idol for acting, a piece of her identity was lost.

To jump around, the theme of identity and finding oneself was an equally as big aspect of the movie. It was honestly so trippy to watch and I little hard to explain. So, when Mima abandoned her idol person, Rumi, a former idol tried to take that identity and make a ‘new Mima’ type person. It's so hard to explain. When she looked in the mirror it would be Mima, she even wore the same outfits.

I guess to continue on identity. Mima also faced identity issues when filing her first movie. Her character in the movie suffered from a mental illness and Mima was wondering if she struggled with the same illness in reality. In the murder scene, Mima started to believe that she killed the person in real life.

I don't know, I think them of illusions, reality, and identities make this movie what it is. I'm still a bit confused, but regardless, what an amazing movie. 

[shayagain]

Your comment about Decim was very interesting. I actually did not take his appearance into account at all. His appearance being a reflection of his character can greatly be seen. It was almost frustrating to watch just how quick he gave judgment onto people. I guess it is understandable because he was never a human, but with this, its ridiculous that he would be given that type of power. Human emotions are powerful and not as surface level as he sees them. 

Sign Me Up For The Death Parade Please

Wow, Death Parade was really a unique anime. The story was framed around these moral dilemnas, in which we, as the viewers, must judge whether characters presented to us are “good” or “bad,” at their essence. (It reminds me of those trolley problems.) Of course, the conclusion that the show arrives at is the fact that nothing is that black and white, and that every person’s life decisions are morally ambiguous. 

Speaking of black and white, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Decim is visually black and white (in terms of his hair and his clothing). His appearance certainly reflects his views: that every person is either good or bad, and that this moral quality can be exposed given enough prodding. It’s a bit of a stretch, but it kind of reminds me of the ideology of essentialism. But in this case, it would be essentialism of the individual, the idea that each individual, at their essence, is good or evil, and that all of their life choices can be rationalized by this essence. 

This seems like a silly ideology, but it certainly pervades through everyone’s thought processes. People are guilty or not guilty, going to the afterlife or going to purgatory, etc. And much like how, in this anime, games are used to decide the fates of the dead, the judicial system kind of seems like a game too; one side wins and one side loses, and both are trying to do everything they can to eke out an advantage over the other while following the rules. And this “game” ultimately decides how society will then judge this person. 

I’ll be honest; the little interpersonal dramas between members of the Quindecim bar were kind of boring to me. But I thought that the overall premise of this anime was pretty interesting. And that metal music during the end credits went super hard! :D

[shayagain]

Death Parade !! - 4/19

Wow, Death Parade is a part of my top anime list. I usually find myself watching Slice of Life amines or a romantic one, so this show was a change from the usual setting. I found myself captivated by the unique storyline and gore through.

 The anime's main theme to me was judgment and morality. In the anime, when a person dies, they are sent to a place where they are forced to play a game under the pretense that their lives are at risk. In all actuality, the fate of their souls is being judged by these non-human beings. They will either be reincarnated, or they will be cast into a void. The anime takes a great amount of time to highlight the complexity of human emotions and how judgment can be made from it. There a sticky line between good and badly displayed in the characters in the anime, I guess for example the boy that murdered two men, but it was to avenge his sisters abuse. At one end, someone could dream him morally bad because he did the murder, but at the other end, he could be defended because the man that he killed by an abuser and hurt his sister. The non-humans (sorry I forgot the term for them) pushed them to the extreme to try to uncover the hidden, deeper nature of their souls.

 It was quite upsetting to see these people be pushed to their breaking points by the demon guy. It is important to note that he has never lived on Earth. He has never experience human emotions and how much they can affect how a person act. It’s not enough to place judgment of somebody because of an outburst. The black-haired girl seems to be the only one who understands that, you can see this clearly in episode 9.

[shayagain]

I'm glad that you mentioned the part about Violet's underlying guilt as well. I also saw those flashbacks as her reliving that dark time in her life. The part when she was looking at the blood coating her hands was quite literally referring to the saying “having blood on your hands” she has killed, and she can't escape from that time. I feel like her also being a Doll that was made to fight symbolizes how soldiers can become robots when given orders from higher officials. I may be stretching, but it's just a thought haha. 

Violet Evergarden

           A theme that this series portrays is the pain the war has brought upon society, we see the emotional pain caused by the loss of a loved one. When Violet was writing the letter to the lady, she found out instead that it was supposed to be the climax to an opera. The letter was supposed to be directed to a soldier by his spouse, the letter would capture the emotion of women and men. This shows much efforts to try to get over the loved ones that were lost at war. This is the transition where they must go on about their days with their loved ones not being there anymore.

           The movie also focuses on the scars and pain left behind by war. In some scenes we are shown bloodshed and battle scenes from Violets dream or memory. We see that the guilt of being in the war and causing bloodshed and also being the one to suffer from losing a devasting amount of their men at war. There seems to be a constant commentary that society should learn to accept the past and move on.

We see how Violet must now live life a very different way than what she would use to in war. We see how she progresses from awaiting to be ordered to do something to actually doing something that is her free will. She has to learn to live on without the major and now has to fit into a post-war society.

In episode 10 we see how Miss Ann’s mom was not worried about the past and writing towards her dead husband from war. Instead the letters are directed to Miss Ann and are symbolic to thinking about the future and learning how to live on without the presence of your loved ones.

[shayagain]

violet evergarden {4/17}

While watching Violet Evergarden, I can say that I was thoroughly entertained the whole time. The animation was beautiful and the story is different than I have ever seen before. I can enjoy a science fiction type anime. 

When watching the special, I was a little confused about what the purpose of the anime was. I didn't grasp the idea of what a Doll was until later in the episode. These Dolls were constructed as military weapons. To fight in wars. Violet has a few scenes of intense flashbacks of the war and having blood on her hands. I think that this is a commentary on the impacts of war. I feel like Violet being a machine may have been a metaphor for the actual soldiers that fight. They are taught to command orders of people who are higher than them- almost becoming machine-like. I don't know, I may be reading into this too much, but that was just what I thought in my head.

Another motif throughout the episodes that were assigned was letters. The Doll's jobs are to write letters for people and Violet is a very sought after Doll hired by multiple people such as the opera singer in the special, the man who wanted to write to his sister and the sick mother in episode 10. Letters play such a big role in the anime. They are meant to connect people bringing them closer together. We felt the sadness when we saw that so many letters never went to their true destination, and saw the happiness and appreciation when people were able to get a letter written by her- such as the opera singer who started crying. Another heart-wrenching part was when  Ann was reading all of the letters written by her mom when she died. Absolutely beautiful.

The letters show people that they will always have a part of the other person. Just like in the opera song and the countless letters that were for Ann.

[shayagain]

I liked how you pointed out your apprehension about the material the author presented. I'm not a big history person, so I feel like I could be susceptible to taking false information too. What you said about the manga being dumbed down was a very important, impressive thing. I feel like this aspect is important because it goes to show his hypocrisy. Throughout the manga, he preaches about brainwashing, but isn't that what he was doing? Trying to brainwash the Japanese youth? 

Sensoron - Apr. 13th

Kobayashi took an interesting approach to the subject of defending Japan by making it into a manga. Sensoron discusses the war crimes Japan has been accused of and defends it by disproving the evidence that portrayed Japan as ruthless and brutal. The real-life examples Kobayashi definitely dumbs down his argument enough that a younger audience could understand what is trying to get across. In the manga, Kobayashi only takes the stance of thinking Japan did absolutely nothing in World War II and in the post-war Era. He disproves photos and documents that supported crimes Japan was tried for, however, he does not acknowledge Japan has committed horrible acts during World War II. It seems the manga author has a very nationalist mindset of Japan has done nothing wrong. It is hard to know if Kobayashi is telling the truth in his manga unless you research it on your own. As this manga talks about kids being brainwashed with false information, the manga could be doing the same thing. Kobayashi is trying to convince his readers that Japan can do wrong and the world is against Japan. I cannot determine if Kobayashi’s statements are right or wrong because I would have to do research of my own. As he mentions in the article, it is hard to trust what information is right and what information is wrong. So to take Kobayashi’s arguments with absolute truth would be defeating the purpose of the message he seems to convey in the manga. I am curious as to what exactly Kobayashi’s goal with this manga was. If it was to show that Japan has not anything wrong, what within Japanese society would change drastically?

[shayagain]

Sensoron,,  4/13

Alright, so this manga was different than anything I have ever read before. It is no secret that I am in no means a history fanatic, but I am no stranger to World War II and the history that goes with it. So this specific anime was an interesting one because the author of the manga was trying to defend all of Japan's wartime crimes that they have committed during  World War II. He spends time trying to disprove any of the claims of Japan being wrong by any means. I remember some parts in the manga where he would go out of his way to try to disprove any documentation or pictures that depicted Japan in a negative light. I can't help but notice the stylistic approach that the author decided to take in the manga. Everything was very easily read, almost in a way to appear to a younger audience. A lot of the information that was given in the writing is easy to be consumed and taken without fact check. When thinking about this issue, I automatically thought about how everyone says don't believe everything you read on the internet. It was the same energy honestly.

Going along with this statement, another big issue that I saw that was present in the manga was the fact that the author mentioned how everyone was being brainwashed to believe false propaganda against Japan. I really couldn't help but make the connection between what he was saying about brainwashing and the fact that he was trying to pin anything bad Japan did on false propaganda. It was very hypercritical in my opinion.

Like I said before, I am not a history major, It was never my strongest subject, but I was able to see the hypocritical information that the author was trying to present. 

[shayagain]

Wow, you're right, I didn't even think of talking about the themes of gender in my blog post. I like how you pointed out how Okudera likes Taki better when Mitsuha is in his body. I noticed that I was interested in it also. I remember how after the date she even commented about how he doesn't seem like the same person. I feel like the icing on the cake was when they were showing 8 years past the comet hitting, Okudera was married. I saw a ring on her finger. It seemed that the relationship would have worked out if say Mitsuha was stuck in Taki’s body. There is a lot to think about for sure

Your Name - 4/10/2020

               Your Name was one of the first anime movies that I ever watched, and it was a pretty good one to start with. Watching it again made me remember the first time I watched it in AP Computer Science class because of my friend who wouldn’t stop telling me to watch it (thanks Jason). It has an interesting story which includes all sorts of unique elements that makes the plot quite eventful. Taki and Mitsuha swapped bodies and got to experience lifestyles which were significantly different from their own since Taki lived in a busy city while Mitsuha had a more rural lifestyle. Then we find out that they even got to travel through time which was pretty crazy too.

               The movie addresses some issues with gender too. When Taki swaps with Mitsuha, he acts more masculine in her body and does things which girls normally wouldn’t do while Mitsuha acts more feminine in his body. I like the scene where Mitsuha doesn’t know which pronoun to use for her herself while she’s in Taki’s body. Interestingly, when Mitsuha acts more feminine in Taki’s body, Okudera becomes closer to Taki, and when Taki acts more masculine in Mitsuha’s body, she becomes more popular at school and even got a confession from a girl. Acting outside of normal gender norms benefitted their lives which is different from what we saw in Wandering Son where Shuuichi was ostracized for acting like a girl.

[shayagain]

Your Name,, aka: Cinematic Masterpiece.

Wow. let me just start by saying Your Name is the single best piece of cinematic art that has ever been produced and I stand by that. This movie was stunning. The art was beautiful, the characters were perfect. Just everything about this movie. I have never felt so touched by a movie. Wow, okay. Let me stop gushing about this movie and start my blog post.

The movie starts with the introduction of two main characters. There are Taki and Mitsuha. The two characters are complete juxtapositions of each other. Mitsuha is more shy and timid and Taki is louder and gets into trouble more. This foil causes disrupt between their actual lives whenever they switch bodies. We see this when Mitshua gets made because Taki is picking fights as her, and when Mitshua tries to help Taki in his love life. He didn't like that at all.

The most interesting part, however, was the motif of time and being linked together by it. I'm not gonna lie, I was very confused at some points especially when viewers found out that both Taki and Mitsuha were experiencing the same events three years apart. I feel like it shows that time [links everyone together. Time can be manipulated and even changed - we see this with the saving of Mitsuha’s village. I don't know, It just feels like the movie was trying to tell us that everyone is linked to each other. I also wanted to emphasize the differences between Taki and Mitsuha and how they contrast again. Taki was from the city and Mitsuha was from a rural area where they didn't even have cafes. She was so mesmerized by the city society and even expressed how much she didn't like living where she did at the beginning of the movie. The contrast between technology and tradition was so interesting to watch in the movie.

Anyways, these movies cinematography was beautiful and I will say that every day for the rest of my life.

[shayagain]

I really like how you took time to actually look at the article and incorporate it into your analysis of the anime. I completely agree with what you said, I mentioned it briefly in my own post, but I see how the anime can be very controversial because all of the heavy stereotypes on each individual country. I feel like some uproar was bound to happen and we see it in Korea. Its crazy that that many people signed the petition. Personally, I really enjoyed the anime and saw the personifications as comical, but that's the thing about controversy, it varies from person to person, 

Hetalia Axis Powers - Apr. 6th

Watching Hetalia Axis Powers really threw me back to middle school where it was the only show I watched for over a month (yikes). It is different watching it now and watching it back when I was 12-13 because I did not know much about world history. I took a lot of history classes in high school so I actually knew what was happening in each episode this time around. Something I picked up on in the show, that I did not notice years ago, was there are many stereotypes for each country. In Annett’s “World Conflict”, she states that the anime makes fun of stereotypes, but does not dismiss them because the characters only play the stereotype. Hetalia Axis Powers is seen controversial because of this reason where hurtful stereotypes are presented and insists that it is true. The anime sets up bad examples of how some people view those of different nationalities and/or ethnicities. Hetalia being a popular anime means almost everyone has access to it and watching it puts a horrible influence on those who are easily susceptible to believing that people from other countries literally act like that. It carries into people making racist and prejudiced comments.

Annett also brings up the biased side of the anime. Past conflicts between South Korea and Japan are presented in the anime with a favorable bias toward Japan. Over 17,000 Koreans signed a petition to cancel Hetalia Axis Powers because of the anger they felt over events shown in the anime, such as the ones during World War II and the Dokdo/Takeshima dispute, and depicted Korea in a disdainful manner. It is interesting to know that the anime has a bias, even if it is not blatantly obvious, because it was written by a Japanese man. The show has gathered hate from fans of other nationalities/ethnicities because of the downplay of certain events by projecting it in a silly and/or cute way. However, it is mentioned in “World Conflict” that some Hetalia fans are educating others by providing factual information of past historical events that are portrayed in the anime. 

[shayagain]

Hetalia ! Axis Powers  ~ 4/5

This was my very first time watching Hetalia. I remember back in middle and high school some of my friends talking about the show. I remember being so confused about these characters names “Britain” and “Germany”. The closest I ever came to watching it was looking up clips on YouTube and being completely overwhelmed by all of the historical information. As you can assume, history has never been my favorite subject.

Now that I am older and have been through countless history classes in highs school, I can say that I do understand the issues being talked about in the anime. I was surprised by the show. I found myself laughing throughout the anime because it was so light-hearted and the characters were so likable. I don't know, the anime took such serious issues such as the World Wars and but a chemical twist on it. I think that it can also be taken as controversial, but in my opinion, it was so enjoyable.

I noticed that in the anime, a lot of the humor was from stereotypes. The countries in the anime where personified into such exaggerated characters. For example, the country where viewers see this the most is with little North Italy. Throughout the show, he was constantly tired, weak and deadweight to the Axis alliance. The only thing he knew how to do was cook pasta. Though stereotypical all of the pasta jokes kept being thoughtfully entertained throughout. Also with stereotypes America is another country personified to extremes. America in the anime was constantly eating hamburgers and wanting to be seen as the hero even though they did minimal work, it was funny because it was pretty historically accurate.

With these stereotypes being shown in the anime, it is easy to assume that there were some controversies. In the article, the author tells how negatively Korea reacted to the anime because they did not like the personified caricature that the Japanese created of them. I don't know, I didn't mind how America was personified. I fully support haha.

[shayagain]

I really like the point that you made in the begging about humans playing god and becoming selfish and giving up on trying to fix the world that they ruined. I agree when you said that the effort was pointless because people have free will. I don't know, I see it in our society today even. I mean look at all of the coral bleaching and environmental disaster that is happening in the world today. There will always be those people who will harm the Earth like you stated above. 

Xenoblade Chronicles

I had only heard of Xenoblade through it’s inclusion in Super Smash Bros. along with the occasional social media posts by its fan base. I’m not a big fan of JRPGs and most RPGs (I don’t even like Pokemon that much) so I never gave the series a try. But I knew the fan base for this lesser known Nintendo title is extremely passionate about their series, something that I can relate to as a Metroid fan. So I gave the cutscenes we watched an honest shot and wow, was I shocked at how much I fell in love with this story.

Although we were only able to watch a small fraction of the game’s 100+ cutscenes, I still feel like I was able to resonate with a lot of the characters and the commentary on environmentalism this story was trying to tell. From my understanding, Klaus tried to play god and restart the Universe to undo the damage humans had done. He then crafted this story’s world in an effort to avoid the selfishness of humans, creating the Titans and the Blades. However, he came to realize that these new humans were just like the ones in his previous world and gave up on trying to fix the world. Playing god and fixing the world’s problems to one’s liking is ultimately pointless so long as humans have freewill. There will always be those that seek to exploit nature for its resources, damaging the world they live in. Yet, the opposite is also true.

Throughout the story, we see countless examples of humans controlling Blades and using their power to achieve their goals. Due to the connection Blades have to Klaus and the Titans, I believe this story is trying to depict the Blades as a being of the environment. While this could symbolism could easily be used to further show how humans exploit their environment, the story centers around Rex’s connection to Pyra/Mythra and their opposition against those that seek to destroy humanity for the destruction it causes to the environment. I think this is meant to show how the solution to our environmental destruction must come from working with and using the tools provided to us by the environment.

Lastly, I want to touch on the ending of this story. Mythra lies to Rex and gives her life to save the world from total destruction. Yet, Rex is not willing to let her go at first. He goes into a panic and doesn’t realize he is hurting Poppi when he begs for her assistance. Gramps then tells him to know when to let things go, which causes him to snap out of his fit and accept Mythra’s decision. While being a great moment of growth for Rex in his transition into adulthood, I believe this ending also tells us what should be done when our work to restore the environment is complete. We must understand how we came to damage the place that gives us life and return the tools it has lent us, returning to a quiet life of harmony with nature. Nature will find a way to correct itself, but it offers us the opportunity to right our wrongs if we chose to take it. If so, we must not exploit her tools for more than their intended purpose.

[shayagain]

Xenoblade Chronicles 2  - 4/3

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 certainly gave me the experience to something I have never watched before. The video game cut scenes that were assigned to watch were very taboo to be- having that I am in no sense a gamer. The animation took me some time to get used to, but a couple of videos into it, I found myself indifferent to the animation.

Like I have stated in the past, I have a deep love for dystopian fantasy-like tropes, so the plot of this video game was right up my ally. I loved hearing about all the different societies and alternate universe that the writer made.

So going back to the actual videos, right at the beginning of the clips, viewers are immediately given the background information about the whole game. The setting of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is somewhere known as Alrest. The creator of Alrest is known as the Architect. The Architect is above being a human and can control everything. Viewers are then told that Alrest is overrun by something known as a sea of clouds where Titans live. These Titans are actual beasts that float in the sky. They have their civilizations and cultures. The homes the people of Alrest after they got sent away from the World Tree. The fabled Elysium was supposed to be there. Elysium is away from the sea of clouds and a place of paradise.

Back to the Titans, it is revealed that these Titans are not immortal. They will eventually die and sink below the dreaded sea of clouds.  Jumping to the end of the videos where the deeper meaning of the anime is revealed, it is revealed that Pyre's memories about Elysium were wrong. Instead of a paradise full of greenery and flowing water, Elysium is deserted with no plants and all of the buildings are in ruins. I think that this goes to show how much humans have ruined the world. They wanted something better without the knowledge that they had already ruined what was said the best place they could ever be.

I honestly see parallels in the society that we live in today. Much of the beautiful places in this world are being damaged due to humans' habitants. Think of the coral reefs for example. I'm sure that there can be more said about these videos, but that is my commentary.

[shayagain]

Otaku Documentary Response

The documentary that we were assigned to watch was very informative. Unfortunately, the SwampCon that was supposed to be held was canceled due to the impending virus. Even though we didn't get to experience the convention one-on-one, the documentary did a very good job of introducing the topic of Otakus and what that term represents and insight in what makes a convention a convention.

At the beginning of the documentary, the host started by truing to introduce what an Otaku was and whether or not the people at the convention identified as an Otaku or not. It was honestly pretty interesting listening to why or why not the people identified as one. There were surprisingly some mixed opinions on the terms. Also, when looking at the comments of the YouTube video I was able to get a deeper insight into the term. I remember reading a comment where a person was saying that they found it weird how Americans embrace the term Otaku while in Japan, the term Otaku essentially means someone who has no life outside of anime and manga. The term in Japan has a negative connotation. Going back to the Americans embracing the term, a lot of them said that they would call themselves an Otaku and there was even one girl who said that the term was cool to use back when she was younger. It was interesting to see how Americans have revamped the word, switching it from a negative word to meaning someone who just enjoys the Japanese culture.

Another aspect that I liked looking at was the idea of cosplay. I am very familiar with the term cosplay and I find great joy in looking up cosplay of my favorite anime characters online. The documentary did such a good job of highlighting the hard work and dedication that goes into the craft. It was nice to see how people showed off all of their hard work. All of the costumes that were shown were handmade and I found it nice to see how proud everyone was of their outfits. It was interesting to learn about all the different subdivisions of cosplay, for example, Lolita fashion. I didn't know that there were so many rules of thumb that go into fashion and how many communities that there were in the Lolita fashion.

The last thing I wanted to talk about was the consumerism I saw. Just in the first episode, I was able to see just how extreme the consumerism in the Otaku culture is. Throughout all of the animes that we watched in class, consumerism has been a key area of interest. There were a couple of people in the documentary who expressed that they have spent so much money at these conventions like the Lolita girl and the boy in the beginning. I also found it interesting when they showed a separate area where they sold all different types of merchandise ranging from figurines to t-shirts. They even had separate areas for different niches.

All in all, I can say that I enjoyed watching the documentary. I have never been to an anime convention so it was nice to see what goes into a convention and what makes an Otaku.

[shayagain]

I completely agree with everything you said. Extremely well put. I also wanted to add to your thoughts about the deeper meaning of the movie. At the end of the movie, the people did see how the Ohms and the insects were completely harmless, and they were the ones who were creating the destruction. I agree with what you said about that. I also wanted to add how I thought that these kinda parallels are society today. Crazy because the civilization in the movie was kind of a dystopia. I don't know, throughout the movie I was constantly thinking about the issues with climate change and environmental problems. 

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

“You may live to see man made horrors beyond your comprehension.”

-Nikola Tesla

I have a high regard and respect for movies from Studio Ghibli, and I hope to watch them all eventually. This is the first time I’ve viewed Studio Ghibli, and they lived up to their reputation with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, an inventive and piece that any viewer can tell is created for the love of the art and not for the money. 

The main protagonist is Nausicaä, the princess of the Valley of the Wind. Her happy homecoming with Lord Yupa illustrates how in the thousand year aftermath of the seven days of fire, humanity has lost its industrial and aggressively capitalistic foundation system, and The Valley of the Wind is very much a gemeinschaft, with the people respecting and cooperating with each other. A hierarchy exists, since Nausicaä and her father are monarchs, but this monarchy is idealistic, her father being a gentle king, our heroine being a calm and loving princess. This image rejects the industrial society we have built, giving an example of a true community in which people flourish. 

The true message of the film, however, comes through with the fact that the beautiful Valley of the Wind is under constant threat by the toxic jungle. The world-building here is particularly excellent, as insects are its main inhabitants. Insects are the most diverse and abundant group of animals on earth, and it would make sense that they would become dominant animals after the seven days of fire, since many species can even survive nuclear explosions. There is a testament to the intricacy and unknowable contents of nature, as Nausicaä discovers that these insects are not aggressive animals, but protecting the forest that needs ample time to renew itself. Another contribution to this theme is the mysterious Ohm. With their feelers, they revealed to Nausicaä that the Pejite pilot was still alive. They do the same thing to resuscitate Nausicaä. It is never explained how they are able to do this, and that is why it is humbling to the human species. Although we are able to make such bounds and learn so much, there are some mysteries of this planet that we cannot solve, and questions that don’t need to be answered. 

Humanity’s hubris rears its ugly head through the Tolmekians (less so, but still, through the Pejites). The Tolmekians masked their ambitions of conquest under those of unification, as many powers have in our own time. Furthermore, they ignore the patterns that humanity has seen. They are aware that the giant warrior was something wrong in the cosmic sense, they were a result of human arrogance and had scorched the earth as a consequence, and yet the Tolmekians believed that they were somehow better, that they could do what ancient humans could not. It is interesting that while the Valley of the Wind uses futuristic gliders, the Pejites their unique flying craft, the Tolmekian aircraft all looks very antique. They even look a little antique to us, more like World War II aircraft than the sleek fighter jets we have now. They are also notoriously flimsy, foreshadowing that Tolmekian brute strength is a delicate facade, as when things turn, their soldiers do as well, deserting. 

Thus, the overarching message of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is environmentalism, but not in the “paper-straw sense”. It reminds us of the consequences of our actions not in the way seeing a dead seabird does, but in the way that seeing an entire city ravaged by a storm does. It doesn’t make us think of the dodo bird, but of the passenger pigeon. This makes the message far more chilling, that although we may seem the dominant species, we are bound to nature’s whims. Thus, we must not concern ourselves with petty, artificial arguments such as the control of kingdoms. A respectful understanding of nature and its laws is the only way we can ensure the survival of our species far into the future.