True Tears Is a What?
[Okay, so wordpress just ate the ‘finished’ version of this post and spit back at me the revision prior to completing, so I lost maybe 2-3 paragraphs worth of blargh. Which is disturbing why it happened. Sigh. Anyways, here’s as much of it as I can recollect.]
I think I got True Tears, but I’m not sure. Something didn’t click.
I finished watching it a week ago, and I’ve been thinking about it when I could. Maybe it would be helpful to watch it alongside Simoun’s bonus material (thanks Media Blaster!) where the director, Junji Nishimura, gave some insights into why Simoun was the way it was.
I looked towards Simoun for answers because the two are actually quite complimentary. The key difference between the two is that Simoun did not follow a standard, dramatic formula; True Tears was a straight forward love-triangle. The rest of the two shows, from abstract reads of the mood down to the use of still-frame, traditional illustration stills, are quite similar.
They are also different, of course, but what puzzles me about True Tears is the purpose of the tears allegory. In a nutshell it simply symbolized [and I quote myself] the exchanging feelings, expressing them, and appreciating the other person. Shinichiro even got to appreciate his mom and dad; his mom appreciated what Hiromi is going through; and Hiromi with Shinichiro’s struggle with Noe.
But is that it? What does it mean?
Of course there’s also the Raigomaru/Jibeta story. The problem with that is the story itself is a parallelism for the character development pattern in the show, for the audience, and yet at the same time the characters projected themselves onto the chicken in a conscious manner. Both Noe and Shinichiro looked at Jibeta and Raigomaru similarly and expressed themselves through the chickens, identified with one or the other chicken throughout the course of the show. It got complicated when you start to think too deep; how did Noe know what Shinichiro drawn in the book before the last episode? Why did she wanted to throw Jibeta into the sea? And if seeing Shinichiro dance is her “Raigomaru sees Jibeta fly” moment, why did she jump afterwards? Or are they switched?
I guess understanding the last couple episodes symbolically will be key to understanding True Tears. Too bad I don’t.
I’ve read elsewhere that Simoun is much like a WW2-era war drama involving airplane pilots and attached love interest pining for their return, looking longingly down the stretched runway and into the skies. I suppose, fittingly so, such was exactly how True Tears ended. Minus the runway.
Team Simoun Needs Your Help!
Until 10~11pm Japan time, you can still vote for Rimone in the 2007 Saimoe contest. Tomorrow The-Very -Good-Girl Mamiina will be up in the running, so please support her as well! If you like Simoun and is curious about Saimoe, you can read about what Saimoe is here, as well how to vote in the world-wide contest about Japanese anime 2-D chara popularity.
Or if you’re really lazy, just:
1. click here at least 1 hour (ideally 2) before 8:58AM US Eastern time, keep the new window open.
2. Wait two hours (or right after 8:58am if you are getting this in really last-minute), then refresh that window you kept open. Keep it opened.
3. click here and then click on the top most thread that has a number less than 1001.
4. Scroll down to the bottom with the text box, input the code [[balhblabhab]] from step #2 (including the [[]]) into the text box.
5. If you are voting today (up to Monday, Sept. 10 US Eastern time), next line in the text box put in <<リモネ＠シムーン>> — the text string starting with << and ends with >>. If you are voting tomorrow for Mamiina, put in << マミーナ＠シムーン>> instead.
6. Click the button next to the text box. Should be the only one on the page.
7. Click again on the button on the next page (scroll down a bit maybe).
8. ???
9. Profit!
That is, if nothing went wrong. A lot of European ISPs seem to work fine. No proxies will likely to work with this. It sucks for me, but hey, it’s worth a shot for VERY GOODNESS.
An Entertaining Uninstall Redux
Chiaki Ishikawa at AX explains a lot about Uninstall. And how Simoun’s production was full of girls.
Yea, some guy booted the audio from her show. To save you the trouble of having people yell into your ears by listening to that hour-long thing, here are some tidbits:
1. As an anisong singer (she explained what that was) she really got into it through Kajiura’s collab in Gundam Seed. Their partnership had a deep impact on her, it seems. She has been doing solo only a year or two.
2. Speaking of anisong singing, she wrote Uninstall in a way that people (in Japan) will recognize that it is an anisong. So, naturally, Ishikawa sang “a ni song, a ni song.” HAHAHAHA. You go girl. Only a song’s writer can mock the song’s fan the best? Oh, oops, I’m suppose to keep this secret! (Isn’t this on the internet already? But I bet not a recording of her singing just that…)
3. Which songs? Annaniisshodattanoni, Kimigaitamonogatari, Yasashiiyoake (she soloed), Uninstall, Utsukushiikerebasoredeii, Kimiwabokuniniteiru, and Obsession. Ugh @ Obsession. I hate this song. Well, I think she sang it better here than on the CD at the least…
4. She doesn’t do many lives at all. (Ugh)
5. I can use a picture of her costume? LOL.
Speaking of Uninstall, though, there’s also Ishikawa’s blog and it talks about that a bit (under 7/3). Among other things. For someone who saw the first Gundam series when she was little (I guess this is heading 6?), she’s a champ for toughing it out on this AX trip…and wow, that’d also make her someone who was inspired (well, maybe subconsciously) by it and ended up working on the franchise, even if probably unintentionally. It’s all up there.
Simoun Fans: AX 2007’s Got Your OP and ED
It’s not new news, but Chiaki Ishikawa and Savage Genius are both having appearences at AX. Probably together.
Together with the Hare Hare Yukai team and Momoi, that’s like… 1/5 of Animelo or something. Maybe that skinny thing will make up the other 4/5…or something.
As much as AX is criticized as more an industry affair and not as fan-pandering compared to other cons, I think that’s only true if you do fandom differently than I do fandom. For crying out loud, this year’s AX has finally surpassed my threshold of “lol I don’t really care” with their high-power, high-profile guest list…and their damned musical performances. I’m just glad no one on my “must see” list has made it there, since I just don’t have the time and money for this business.
Anyways, Ishikawa is the neglected half of See-Saw, but I think she brings a lot to the table and makes good complement to Kajiura’s sounds. I like her solo works a lot too. Splooge on her website here. Too bad “uninstall” is still a corny word.
Back in 2006
I think I’m still not completely over with Simoun.
It’s just odd; so I have a copy of the second soundtrack to Simoun on my portable mp3 player, and I spend about 80 minutes listening to music on my commute daily. Normally I listen to a bunch of random anime pop songs mixed with other random songs, but yesterday I switched over to the Simoun stuff for some unexplainable reason. This was on my way in the morning.
Later that day I was at lunch with a colleague who I’ve known for some time, but mostly casually. I know he watched anime but isn’t much of a hardcore guy like many others who may be reading this blog. Conversation invariably turn towards anime, and he was lamenting on Busou Renkin, and so was I–I guess both of us was expecting more out of it than what it is. On our way out of the eatery suddenly he mentions Simoun. I was like ZOMG ANOTHER PERSON WHO WATCHES IT. What’s amusing is that he said the same things everyone who’s seen it in entirety has said: it’s fresh, original, unexpected; good art and music; pandering is a draw but something more lurks behind. Mamiina is a good girl. The soundtrack is really good.
In the greater scheme of things, I believe, looking back at 2006 is going to puff my expectation unrealistically for the current year. While I can’t say that 2007 has been “bad” already, 2006 was really a very, very good year for anime. Japan has to do better than Negima!? and Manabi Straight to match, and those two shows are already top notch.
OTOH, it’s also a matter of “when you’ve seen these shows” as all the great 2006 shows will be making their way to the English-language fan-sphere this year. Mushishi? Tsubasa? Paprika is coming out in 35mm. Plus Suzumiya Haruhi and Black Lagoon. My.
I can’t wait.
