Shiro Emiya and the Economy
Shiro Emiya in UBW is all about the hero who “saves one meaning not saving another.” In other words, when you choose to save one person, you lose your chance to save another person because there’s only so much you can do. It’s the limited resource constraint in economics.
There is no way we can save everyone. There is not enough resources for everything that everyone wants to do, if it is even possible to achieve it. The anime otaku is intimately familiar with this concept, simply because it takes a large amount of time to consume all the anime a real otaku would want to watch. There are limited numbers of minutes and seconds in a person’s life, after all. We have to drop some shows!
That is the basic criticism as seen here, as applied to economics. A unit of money spent in infrastructure project via taxation means a dollar of money not spent being invested in a private enterprise which may very well drive the same infrastructural development. Or maybe it’ll sit in some safe investment portfolio, not doing much. I’m not saying which way to spend the money is better than the other, but that there is a dichotomy. A sound fiscal policy doses both the pros and cons of a spending policy, as well as the pros and cons of an if-we-didn’t-spend-the-money-could-have-done-that policy.
A more relevant example than brick-chucking hoodlums can be seen in the video game resale issue that some are making things out to be. The scenario is, if you are unfamiliar, is that used game sales do cannibalize into new game sales especially as many people purchase new games and used games from the same store, where the same games, new versus used, are displayed in proximity for shoppers. While the marginal profit retailers make on new games are small to none, they make much more off used games, usually purchased from the very same customers, sold for credit. In order to try to get in on the used game action, publishers are trying a variety of things, but invariably at expense of customers of new games.
The “limited economics” reversal as applied to the used game situation is summed up simply here. TL;DR, it just means that because people trade in old games primarily so they can buy new games, by meddling with used game sales, it makes more expensive effectively for people who trade in games, and with that could mean fewer people buying new games as it raises the effective cost of new games.
I think in UBW, Shiro comes to terms with his ideal (borrowed, perhaps, from classical economists) both by trying to double that dollar, to save two birds with one projection magic. This way you traverse two alternatives at the opportunity cost of one. Then again there WERE two Shiros so that was a possible route, AMIRITE.
Shiro is oddly the strongest example of this principle that I’ve seen in all of anime/manga/games, and even so the stories themselves are fairly weak examples. Are there any better ones?
The Crab Club
This week at Crab Club–
How Has Anime Changed Over the Past 15 Years?
Ask John the same question, and you can read his answer.
It is a tough question to tackle, so I felt it was unfair to criticize him behind his back. Rather, I want to supplement his survey of the last 15 years of anime by pointing out some key changes that JP and I (mostly I) felt that was too important to be left out of John’s answer. There are also some erroneous bits, but I’m going to ignore them for now (ie., LOL moe and tsundere in anime predates 1995 kkthx).
Japan, now online: Between 1995 and 2010, cellular phone penetration has skyrocketed in Japan. If you recall Makoto Shinkai’s 5 cm/s, that was a key plot device in the first segment, especially coming into the film as a generation who find their cell phones second-nature. I presume this is how most modern Japanese teens and young adults feel about cell phones. Of course, Japan is this weird place where more people go online and do their internet stuff via cell phones than with their personal computers, so that also means places like 2ch is really a socially important thing today. Let’s not even go into how important 2ch is for anime fans of Japan. And 2ch didn’t officially exist until 1999.
The impact of 2ch on anime is hard to point and cite authoritatively, even if I’m sure we could cite to a bunch of stuff. It is, however, notable as a way for industry folks to gauge and interact with fans. Leaks to 2ch is almost like a marketing tool nowadays. (Kanatagatari’s leak is widely thought of as on purpose, for example.) We have anime and manga made about the Train Man story, which is essentially a national-cultural nod to 2ch. Obviously 2ch gets referenced in anime and manga, too. Still the real impact of 2ch has on anime is on the fans, on the fan industries (read: doujin market), and as a social hub that can make or break a work. Gurren Lagann episode 4 anyone?
And that’s just 2ch. Blogging; Mixi; online stream sites like Nico and Youtube, DTO sites, paid-streams, even the likes of Crunchyroll and foreign-operated licensees all play a notable role in the evolution of anime especially in the latter part of this decade. Pixiv and similar communities fostered growth of talents, even if only in part. It also presented a fan-facing revenue stream, complemented that whole “Comic Market” mentality that, well, we’ll get right to it.
The Game in the Anime, the Anime in the Game
While I disagree with his take about Bakatest, there’s a side point that has been cooking for the past couple decades. I rarely see anyone talk about it, so maybe it’s time to bring it up.
Let’s start with the term “moe blob” as a debased term. (And I love you Nayuki, don’t take this the wrong way!)
Have we ever considered the doujin-soft game Glove on Fight, which is a full-on parody in nature, the kind of forerunner of the modern insult? The original promotional flash video drives home the idea of the game pretty well, that you have your standard 8-pack of popular bishoujo characters in a fighting game. Well, that’s just combining two otaku pastimes, one could say. But a boxing game? With the kind of design exaggeration you can see above?
Glove on Fight is an easy pick because it is an extreme exaggeration. Super deformity has its root in manga and anime as comedic, light-hearted things, but GOF is not quite your standard SD-ness. It operates within the same visual/iconic vocabulary as SD (note that the eyes are small, near-perfect circles) but the characters express themselves appropriately, fitting for a fighting game.
The turn of the century marked a major rush of getting manga and anime visuals crammed into our Japanese video games. Well, it’s not an exact mark, as the concept has been around for ages. It is only until the Playstation era that we had graphical hardware and advances in production techniques to make it notably more cinematic, more like an anime. Final Fantasy 7 is a good example. Before then, it was present, but largely in that SD form in which we are familiar with almost on a genetic level.
I say “genetic” level because people who grew up in the 80s are probably familiar with these concepts at a young age; the evolution of these manga-style icons matched the evolution of the bodies and souls of that generation of people. Games like the very original Super Mario Bros used SD emoticons to express simple concepts (like being stomped on is bad). It’s so pervasive that even some of us brute Americans understand what X_X means, loosely.
At any rate, what I wanted to say is that Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu brings that visual style, that “Disgaea” feel (which is trying to cop a manga/anime style), to an anime. It’s like a double regurgitation. It’s like watching not just a trailer video for Glove on Fight, but an anime based on Glove on Fight. I mean, Disgaea is like a sprite-based game, but Bakatest uses their “game” video as a 3d/2d rendered thing that they can crunch out (without actually doing the 2D animation stuff, perhaps). Just so it gives a feel that it’s like a video game. It’s different technology, and there are differences in the visuals, but it’s the same visual representation.
I wonder what would an anime that is suppose to feel like a chapter in Sakura Taisen would feel like. I guess that wouldn’t be any different? In which ways could an anime adaptation of a video game or manga visual aesthetics feel sufficiently like a newly invented thing? This is the finer points about an adaptation that ought to get talked about more…
Type Moon Plays a Game of Pool, or the Illusion of UBW
Nasu Kinoko’s world (Nasuverse) is a game of pool where reality marbles clash.
When I was a kid, I played with marbles. It’s a great way to learn how things roll, you know? Children fancy marbles because they are pretty, shiny, and colored like the kaleidoscope. Rainbow is weak sauce in comparison. It’s like, you can’t find an identical marble. It’s like a freaking fractal screen saver. It’s also cheap.
A GRSI discussion thread appeared recently in which we discussed the merits of Index/Railgun’s universe, specifically the psionics. The underlying idea is similar; Kazuma Kamachi’s version of psionics is projection of an individual’s sense of reality to affect actual reality. I should say, the impression of Shiro’s world in Fate’s Unlimited Blade Works arc left me with the same taste. Oh yeah, this is really a UBW review post in disguise. I’ve just finished a couple weeks ago, and I guess it’s time to share before the UBW film hits the theaters later this year and before the memories fade further.
In as such that ultimately some of its plot devices play second fiddle to thematic satisfaction and poetic justice, UBW is interesting as a sample of the superhero genre. Especially as a Japanese thing. It is sadly a genre I’m wholly indifferent about, so I won’t bore you with that aspect of UBW. However, the underlying paradox and predestination of Emiya Shiro is what makes UBW interesting, and I don’t recall people really talking about that specifically. [Probably because 90% of the time when I read anything about UBW, it just makes my eyes tired and TL;DR.] I am going to presume someone has talked about it already. Instead, I’ll focus on the stupid Nasu thing that he does every time, and what went down with UBW that made it less annoying than in some of his other works.
For starters, Shiro’s ability: If you’ve seen Fate anime, you would know that he can reinforce things and make weapons or whatever. It is explained within the game as his ability to project an idea. The more he understands what he projects, the better the projection is. The stronger he believes in the projection, the more durable and real the projected item becomes.
[Oh, yeah, spoilers for UBW incoming!]
Does this make sense in terms of Shiro’s ideal? Yeah, sure, but it could work with any ideal. In as much as ideals are ideas, notion of perfections, it is almost always a goal, a destination, a race in which people strive towards but never “arrive” at completely. The general idea I got from EMIYA (to use the heroic spirit term and not the class term…speaking of which, does every Nasuverse protagonist have a projection of their other selves?) is that he merely was unable to recognize with the imperfection within the nature of an ideal, in the paradox that ideals are perfect but are also flawed in that they cannot be truly achieved (as in, the law of “conservation of saving people”). The “save everyone” ideal is a natural choice; it is a plot vehicle to have some battle and get Shiro off his lazy butt and go fight “the impossible row row fight the powah” sort of way. The particulars of that ideal eggs the plot towards an epic, climatic moment, as it would be difficult to use just any ideal and still create a satisfying story.
I recommend this other ideal that could work: “The student council is my harem!” (Yea, Good END indeed.)
Of course, I sort of jest. Shiro’s Reality Marble is, in the end, his magic that allows him to be who he was created to be and to be who he is called to be. At the same time, that doesn’t mean he is locked in his predestined ways (as in EMIYA) but in some “learn from your future mistakes” way. It still makes me chuckle how Shiro’s magic is basically a literal analogy to “my idealism/sense of perfection is better/stronger/harder than yours!” when he picked his fights with Gilgamesh. From there, Gil’s Gates of Babylon thingamajig is a metaphor of “reality” as it is full of “the original” noble phantasms; or things of the real world. The faster and harder Shiro believes in his ideal, he can fend off the harsh reality and stay on course.
So yeah, UBW is basically a story about ideal versus reality, both against cynicism and giving up. Thankfully there’s this cute tsundere on the side and a very majestic mentor supporting you throughout the game. Oh, I guess there was something about a sheath too.
I just can’t take Nasu seriously. Not that it isn’t entertaining and fun, and at times creative, but LOL. I mean if you think about it, the whole “I will stab your appendicitis” or “I will kill the poison in your blood” thing is basically the same as “I will project my ideal, you know, that idea that I strongly believe in, and because of the power of heart my ideal is stronger than your ideal, I will win, if you know what I’m saying.” Except thankfully in UBW we got an actual fight scene to resolve it, rather than just Shiki doing surgery, or some acid-tripped dream. Still, it is just ludicrous.
At the same time, when I look back to stories like Asura Cryin’ or Index, I appreciate the brutal appearance and purpose-driven sophistry in Nasu’s writing. They’re all just different flavors of the same story. At the least, Nasu’s babble is there for a reason and sometimes it’s pretty interesting, just like those marble balls to a child.
P.S. The best visual illustration of the “reality marble” term is the epilogue to the 1997 film Man In Black. It is not the same as the verbal illustration in which the term comes about, but I am sure that this happy coincidence relate beyond this persistent pun I used to build this post out of nonsense.
