Charting Simoun’s Adult-Child Divide
So a bunch of us were just talking about the children in Simoun, and as they age and fight wars, they have to make some tough choices. This post will echoing some of my own thoughts on the matter. Here is a heads up: there will be some spoilers–not that this post would make a lot of sense without understanding Simoun anyways.
Should you brave the rest, do yourself the favor and watch it, or at least read about it.
Presumably, a mark of adulthood is choosing one’s gender–going to the Spring. The not-only-symbolic act has multiple dimensions to it, the one that struck me the most is of when and of what context each of the girls undergo the choosing. If we can say the moment a gender is selected, they reach some societal notion of adulthood, then:
1. Some people never grow up by society’s standards. That’s the easy, “Utena”/”Canvas 2″ ending.
2. People grow up through/in anticipation of romantic relationships. Several of the major characters in the show ended up paired with someone else, only to select their gender in accordance with their spouses. I believe some characters also either selected or contemplated such choice in anticipation of someone they like to get hooked up with. To some extent it is a logical choice, and follows the way how real life society prepares some (even many) adolescent kids. I guess there could be a side chapter in Simoun in which a teenager, not unlike Rodoreamon’s circumstances, is forced to choose a gender to vie for familial power and wealth through inter-clan marriage. (Perhaps it’ll involve a mermaid. Better yet, imagine the setting as applied to Gonzo’s Romeo x Juliet, in which the turning-of-age Akai Kaze decides to be a man in order to shoulder the burden of revenge! Yaoi bait indeed.)
More realistically, the average Rodoreamon would just either become a priestess as long as possible, or submit to his or her role in fate, perhaps thanks to the bonds formed through clansmanship or some sense of familial pride, almost nationalism in form.
3. Lastly, we have the impoverished, war-torn, pollution-filled third world babies who were made male days after they were born. Those who aren’t become suicide bombers?
And that’s just going to the Spring.
Another notion about the Simoun adult-child divide is actually one that challenges our understanding about ideals. For instance, what kind of adults would send an army of kids into war? I believe this was always a backdrop to the show that never was brought forward explicitly (perhaps alluded during the episodes when the Theocracy army coordinated their attacks with Chor Tempest). It makes sense when you are one of those invading countries where childhood is a luxury and those who enjoy it pay with their lives, but it doesn’t make sense when you are affluent and capable of sustaining that lifestyle.
So the question turns around–the Chor Tempest all “graduated” with something admirable left in their veins. Some started humble trades and families, others tended to war orphans and other charities. A few gave themselves to individualism and in search of personal happiness. And then some are deemed to be eternally lost, yet also as never-ending symbols of the ideas Chor Tempest fought for. Some died to save others. But what are these ideas? It is surely not land, wealth and power. But it may very well be things equally petty, like a measure of personal happiness at the expense of personal responsibilities, or even pride.
Is it some fleeting sense of beauty that blossomed under the glass house of powerless individualism?
Perhaps all of that answer to why is Neviril still in it; why she became a girl who leapt through time.
Not quite like death and taxes, but the visit to the Spring is still an inevitability. Dominura and Yun’s stories are great examples in where such details are equally potent as the main points of their stories. However what the characters make of their lives before or after the graduation don’t really matter, if they still live by those ideals. At the same time, society does not identify them by their ideals, but rather by their occupations; mere labels. Is this why Simoun’s drama unfold at first via the flourishing of status-bickering for Neviril and her elite rank?
To speak of another moment in which a child’s mind is blown, I find the Dominura/Rimone pairing particularly challenging in that this is the logically-minded, intellectual couple, forged on a relationship that is probably the purest of them all. The turning point was when Dominura opened the FOUNT OF SPIRAL ENERGYSimoun craft to investigate its supernatural powers; and as such demonstrated actually that she was the only scientifically-thinking gal in the group. Maturity through forbidden knowledge? Or is it more like the Original Sin? At any rate, along with Rimone, who follows instructions like the prophet Samuel encountering his Lord for the first time, they decided to do it and see what the hell is going on.
But will they be remembered by their single-minded search for self and truth? Probably not.
And what’s delicious is just how people react to the heterosexual/homosexual/asexual pairings in the show. It’s as if the fans of Simoun is playing right into its satirical jab on society; but that is okay. Us hardcore fans are like huge, overgrown kids, right?
Thanks for your insightful analysis. I was mentally cataloging anime I’d watched a few days ago, and realized that Simoun remained among the top few in terms of originality, depth and relevance. It is amazing how in spite of its fantasy setting, Simoun is able to deal with themes like prejudice and inequality, innocence and corruption, with such facility. It is quite unfortunate that a majority of viewers still dismiss it as pure yuri fanservice.
A very nice essay, with an interesting look at Neverille’s ans Aeru’s “choice” (which might have been partly N’s response to her political family’s pressure to choose).
Time to watch Simoun again.
[…] own dismissal of Simoun when I first laid eyes on it. The motivation was that I wrote about Simoun not long ago, and the act sent me straight back into a reverie; I went back and read some of the silly things I […]