Year In Review: N-Squared List
Just like last year, I guess some things have not changed. This could be a reference.
Missing Aoi Hana or What Makes (Some) Otaku Tick
I thoroughly enjoyed Aoi Hana during its broadcast the past season. It deserves more credit for being the enjoyable life-like drama that it was. People should talk about it!
It occur to me that one reason why I didn’t write much about it back then is because it just wasn’t very compelling. There’s some kind of emotional or psychological mechanism that failed to fully trigger when I think about Aoi Hana. In contrast to Taisho Yakyuu Musume, for example, there’s just something missing about Aoi Hana which doesn’t trigger the fanboy in me.
To draw a bigger parallel I think we have to go to a series or franchise that’s more engrossing, like the “When they cry” line of games. Or just the general murder mystery genre boom that seems ever ongoing in Japan.
But what is compelling doesn’t have to be so dramatic or intense, I think. Aoi Hana is dramatic enough, at any rate.
What exasperates my longing for this water-color-y motion picture is the new show, Sasameki Koto. It’s almost a subtle deconstruction of the yuri romance genre in how obvious everything is. It’s like because the whole point is trying to be subtle or tongue in cheek about it, the characters go through the motion like someone playing charades.
I exaggerate some, but it’s all so obvious that it just isn’t as intriguing. I applaud that the direction worked out so clearly. It isn’t so easy to be so clear without using words, even if that’s one advantage of the animation medium.
Sweet Blue Flower: N Things List
Just to posit some questions now that the anime has concluded:
1. The concept of mono no aware applies to yuri in that it is a phase for some people, where a perfect storm of hormones, social pressures, societal organization and adolescence make perfect such unions, despite their flawed and fleeting nature. The key “flag” in Aoi Hana is memory. And in the romanticized form of yuri that we find in stories like Aoi Hana, does the lens of memory achieve the same notion, as a vehicle to tell a story about a fleeting moment in life via the perspective of a timeless aspect of human existence? It’s like, “press-butan, receeb-mono-no-aware.”
2. Speaking of memory, I have this book that I’m like 4 chapters into, but it’s written in that opaque, dense academic style. Maybe once I run out of translated light novels to read and grow weary of Love Plus, I will get back to it (could be the case, soon)! But if you want a theory as to why the memories are a common theme/plot device in anime, I’ve found it a better starter on that theme than any single thing, on or off the internet, that I have ever read. The only major problem I had with it is that it refers to about 30-40 different titles and even I have not seen all of them, and you do need a firm grasp of some of those shows to understand some the pieces. Thankfully I did see far majority of them, as they tend to be the variety that sees US/UK distribution.
3. And it does make me think of Kanon, immediately. Thanks to the way the last episode of Aoi Hana was framed…and how could you not, Nayuki?
4. The ongoing manga is curious from what I hear, but I don’t think it’s worth parting with that sweet blue impression that I have of the anime, “just to figure out what happens next.” The artistic direction is typical of JC Staff’s latest renditions with Kenichi Kasai, but at the same time it may just mean I cannot get enough of that watercolor-y, soft style…that is assuredly missing from the manga.
5. But when it went from that subdued but organic coloring style into “sad memory flashback” mode in the last episode, at the scene in the library, I cracked up. Because someone just oversaturated the video with blue. I mean, okay, Aoi Hana. Yeah. But it felt like a cheap thing to do. Perhaps it is done in good style and taste that is common of anime, but still.
6. I realized one thing that I do like about Aoi Hana is how all the relationships are kind of cute. Every one of them. Sure, they are mundane relationships you could find anywhere (well, almost), but even the intra-sibling bickering between the Sugimoto sisters came off to me with less malice but more half-hearted tease. It’s like they know it is inconsiderate, but they do it anyways because it lets them express their own emotions. Kind of like teasing the girl you like when you were little, not realizing that was the case? At any rate, I think the cute statement also includes the straight-up male-female pairings in the show, including Sugimoto’s crush and even Motegi’s bold confession, as they are cute in their own, different ways.
7. Which is to say, Motegi’s plot thread is really the one I’m curious about, and how that plays with Akira’s life. That might be enough to get me interested in the manga, especially if that plot thread has content and is not out of dressing or convenience.
8. On re-inspection, however, Fumi is a rather well-crafted character; from the inexperienced voice acting to the crybaby nature. In some ways she is not meant to be a very likable character. She wears her self-loathing on the outside, and that managed to come across to me as genuine rather than irritating. It is like as if she really doesn’t care if you like her or not, except it bothers her to the extent of being able to fit in with society. It’s a very natural feel of selfishness, and it comes across in a sympathetic manner. I think Fumi is both the weakest link and the riskiest link in the show, but without her it would not have worked.
9. Last but not at all least–the train man strikes.
