Haruhara Haruko:
Haruko is the Vespa/Rabbit riding, Rickenbacker bass wielding, “splendiferous house keeper at Ta-Kun’s house,” who’s “…at least twenty years old” (according to Mamimi) and happens to be the main catalyst for events in the story. The main events of the plot start when Haruko runs over Naota with her Vespa (its actually a Japanese brand called a Rabbit but in the show it’s referred to as a Vespa, so I’ll be referring to it as such), gives him mouth-to-mouth, decides she’d better hit him again when she realizes he isn’t dead, hits him in the head with her left handed Rickenbacker bass, and shakes him stating that “it“ won‘t come out. This causes a bump to form later on Naota’s head (the “it” Haruko was referring to) from which the first two robots (Canti and a hand monster) spring. As for why Haruko is doing all of this, well…..
She’s an alien. A galaxy space patrol officer to be exact, supposedly on the tail of an “astral being named Atomsk” who apparently has so much NO “he can steal whole start systems.” The things is, Atomsk has been captured by a shady organization named Medical Mechanica (more on them later). The other things is, Haruko isn’t tracking Atomsk because she wants to capture him, it turns out she’s in love with him (supposedly, her actions raise some questions as to her true motives). So Haruko chases Atomsk around the universe and presumably does battle with Medical Mechanica along the way (we never really get a history of Haruko vs. MM but its pretty safe to assume based on some off hand comments made throughout the show). Then she comes to Earth. And as stated above, meets Naota and our story takes off. Haruko’s motive’s aren’t really clear up until the end. At first she appears to have come to Earth to help protect it from MM (not the case AT ALL). It’s implied that Haruko has been to Earth before because Amarao (who will be referred to as Eyebrows from now on) implies that he knows her multiple times (he talks to Naota about what a big mistake it is to get involved with her) in the baseball episode especially, claims to know her real name, says he wants to impress a girl that he hasn’t seen for a long time (Haruko is the only one he could be realistically be talking about), and Haruko says his guitar is small, “as usual” (in the fifth episode) and that perhaps what’s happening with Naota has happened before on Earth with Eyebrows (its clear that Eyebrows was once/still is in love with Haruko and that she doesn’t reciprocate those feelings) although if it was there’s a good chance it wasn’t successful (Haruko tells Naota repeatedly that “his head is the only one that works” and when she pulls Eyebrows guitar out of his head its small and ineffectual) which leaves a lot of things unexplained (how earth is still even there for one, but I’ll deal with more of this later when I get into the plot). Haruko clearly hates MM, although its more for imprisoning Atomsk than for what they’re doing on a larger scale: almost all of her actions are motivated by her desire to free Atomsk. She often manipulates Naota in order to further her own plans and uses other people, like Naota’s dad, to get Naota to do what she wants. However, despite her plotting, many of the things that trigger robots to emerge from Naota’s head occur without Haruko’s interference. Much of the above needs to be explained so…
Haruko, Atomsk, and the Channel to N.O.:
Basically Haruko can open a portal using “the left and right brain’s distinct thought processes” that is “capable of pulling things through from light years away.” This is the explanation they give for the robots that emerge from Naota’s head (I’ll get into what I think exactly causes them later). The idea behind this is to pull through robots made by MM until Atomsk appears (either as a robot since he’s imprisoned by MM or to keep MM from accomplishing their goals: its never definitively stated whether Haruko knows Atomsk is imprisoned in Canti). Haruko is capable of doing battle with the MM robots that come out of Naota’s head but she never actually defeats one without Canti’s help and while in the earlier fights its more of a partnership once it comes to the fourth episode its clear that Haruko can’t do any real damage to the robot. Its often unclear how much Haruko knows about the portal. She says early on that the channel is imperfect, when in fact it turns out that its capable of pulling Atomsk through in his true form. Eyebrows tells her that when Canti turns red, the red version is Atomsk; she responds to this in an odd manner. She gets extremely angry although we can’t be certain if its because she didn’t know this information, if she’s angry at what Eyebrows is insinuating (the fact that Atomsk can in fact be contained inside a MM robot and what that implies (that if she gains those powers she may still not be able to completely be invulnerable from MM)), or if she’s angry that Eyebrows is stupid enough to insinuate that a robot is Atomsk’s true form (it shows that he thinks Atomsk has a humanoid form, I’ll discuss whether or not that’s correct later). She also is unsure that Naota is the correct channel for the portal, shown through her attempt to use his dad’s head (which doesn’t work). Despite the fact that her exact knowledge about the portal remains somewhat of a mystery we do see that Haruko manipulates Naota in order to get the robots to come out. We see in the last episode that she’s gained his trust in order to feed him to the terminal core to make Atomsk appear (presumably to save Earth or wreak vengeance on MM). Haruko also exploits Naota in the baseball episode by making him believe she’s in a relationship with his dad (which just turns out to be a robot of hers) in order to make Naota overflow with jealousy and another robot to emerge. The fact that Haruko manipulates Naota leads us to the conclusion that she believes that if the situation becomes dire enough (the robots become more powerful as the emotions that cause them become more potent) Atomsk will step in (leading us down the line of reasoning once again that Canti is Atomsk considering he is the most powerful being pulled through outside of the actual Atomsk which is pulled through by Naota’s true love for Haruko and his brother but since Mamimi’s love for Tasuku and jealousy of Tasuku’s new girlfriend is clearly the second most powerful emotion that overflows in the series). However she seems to believe that lust will bring the true Atomsk through. This is why she flirts and is overtly sexual with Naota throughout the series: when she ties to make him jealous by seemingly having sex with his dad for example. She becomes more and more overtly sexual, pulling his guitar (in an extremely double entendre filled scene) out from inside him as well as trying to have sex with him in the second to last episode (they’re in bed, she’s wearing a slip, on top of him, yeah). She doesn’t know what love (what truly brings out Atomsk in my opinion) is, only lust (which she has for Atomsk, she wants his power more than anything as we find out at the end when she battles Naota for it). Its evident from conversations Eyebrows has about Haruko as well as through his interactions with a female member of his team he only understands relationships in an immature lustful manner.
Haruko learns some humanity:
Haruko clearly plays to the fact that Naota misses his brother and sort of fills in that roll for him. During the first battle on the bridge when Naota sees her swing her guitar for the first time he says his brother’s name (in the original Japanese, not the dub). Haruko teaches Naota to “swing the bat” (literally and figuratively) which his brother never really did (its stated multiple times in the baseball episode that Naota doesn’t swing the bat when playing baseball; he doesn’t swing the bat when it comes to other things like Mamimi either (Mamimi also claims that Naota isn’t one to swing the bat)). Haruko also takes Naota riding on her moped by the beach which he says he’s never done and clearly enjoyed. There’s a particularly poignant scene in the last episode after Haruko returns when Naota hugs her and starts crying and asking why she left (clearly he’s talking about not just Haruko but his brother). Haruko one of the only characters that treats Naota like the kid that he is and doesn’t expect him to be his brother. She tells him multiple times that he shouldn’t come with her because he’s still just a kid (and has lots of life ahead of him to experience). Haruko does come to gain some humanity and care for Naota to come degree. This manifests itself in her taking him on a vacation of sorts when she returns from space in the last episode (this can be argued as manipulation but I think it can be both at the same time, I think its motivated a little bit by each factor). When Naota gains Atomsk’s power at the end and then confesses his love to Haruko, Atomsk emerges in his true from Haruko sees that Atomsk emerges through the portal when love overflows. She then acts like an older brother to Naota telling him that he shouldn’t come with her, that he’s still a kid and that he’ll get it next time (talking about being in love). This compassion from Haruko shows that she’s gone beyond simply manipulating Naota by acting as a brother stand in and truly cares about him.
Dec 22, 2010
Dec 13, 2010
Pillow Talk, Part Un
This may not be the "best" anime I've seen, but its without a doubt the second best and my personal favorite. Here's my take on the not-that-confusing greatness that is FLCL.
Warning: There are MASSIVE spoilers. Honestly it won't make much of a difference if you know the plot before you see it, but still in the words of an animated lion, be prepared. I’m going to go through this on a character by character basis and then do the plot and some other random stuff if I haven’t hit on it by then.
Mamimi:
Samejima Mamimi has had it rough before we meet her in FLCL. Her parents are divorced (she reminisces about school plays saying that even though they were stupid, those were happy memories because her parents went to see them together), she gets bullied in school as well as having no friends (we never see her with any other people outside of Naota and when Naota tells her over the phone to go out with her friends she just stands under the bridge and looks dejected, as for the bullying we see her standing in a river in one episode and one of Naota’s friends says he saw some girls bullying her the other day), she doesn’t like school (she frequently cuts class to hang out by the bridge), and her boyfriend just went to America. Mamimi is not in the best state of mind as we see through a couple of mental deteriorations throughout the series. First, in “Fire starter” its implied that Mamimi is starting at least some, if not all of the fires that have been suspected to be arson around the city. The hints to this are somewhat subtle but there are two major ones. First Mamimi has been calling the robot that came out of Naota’s head Canti, which is in reference to a videogame she’s been playing called fire starter in which you are tasked by the God of Black Flame to burn a fictional city of demons that is ever expanding without completely destroying it (because if you do you won’t have a place to live) in order to prevent if from explanding and taking over the whole world. The god, Canti, has black wings and Mamimi see’s Canti with black wings flying one day and is convinced that he is the God of the Black Flames. During the episode there have been a number of fires that are suspected to be arson. Mamimi and Naota are walking across a bridge later, after Mamimi is seen in a river and one of Naota’s friends says he saw her being bullied recently, when her fire starter game falls out of her pocket. Naota later finds her in a ring of cigarettes by the burnt out husk of her old school and tries to giver Mamimi her game back and she says she doesn’t need it anymore, after which she goes to Canti and asks for his kiss and his absolution. Now when you combine this with the second big hint, which is that during a voice over when Naota is talking about the fire starter game you hear a policeman introduced earlier in the episode is says that they know Mamimi is has been committing the arsons. From the fact that Mamimi sees Canti as a sort of God of arson we can infer that by asking for his absolution she meant she was asking for his approval of her work. As to why she’s committing arson there’s a few possible explanations. In my opinion, Canti is a manifestation of Mamimi’s feelings for Naota’s brother Tasku (more on why later, just roll with it for now) and since she sees him as the God from her videogame she’s trying to win back his approval by committing arson (hence her asking for his absolution with a kiss). As to why Mamimi projects her thoughts from her videogame onto Canti (outside of the fact that he actually has black wings throughout the majority of the episode) stems from how Mamimi and Tasuku met. During the episode its explained that there was a fire at the elementary school Mamimi and Tasuku attended. Mamimi claims that Canti was the one that saved her the night of the fire as well (really I think it was Tasuku since who exactly she is talking about in the sentence is a little vague and it would have been extremely unlikely that Canti was there without some very convoluted theories) which reinforces the fact that he is supposed to be a manifestation of Tasuku. Anyways, Mamimi says something to the effect that she used to wish the school would go away before she met Tasuku (I haven’t found conclusive evidence as to whether she burned it down or not) and now, even though it burned down the ashes remain (symbolic of her relationship with Tasuku but more on that soon). Although later in the episode, during a battle with a medical mechanica robot, a projectile and explosion cause the ashes to scatter and the wreckage to completely disappear which foreshadows some later events. Fire starter is the first episode where we really get into Mamimi’s relationship with Tasuku, speaking of which…..
Mamimi’s relationship with Taskuku. Taskuku is Naota’s older brother who has gone to America to play baseball. He used to date Mamimi: however we find out in the first episode that he hasn’t contacted Mamimi (in probably the best scene in the whole anime, in my humble opinion: just had to mention how awesome the bridge scene is) and that he even has an American girlfriend. When Naota tells her this, we get a fairly odd response from Mamimi. She starts clutching her head, stating that she is going to overflow and after doing so passes out. As soon as this happens the first of the robots emerges form Naota’s heard (this is actually the only time that two robots emerge, which is significant but I’ll get into that in another section). I’m going to go into my theory behind the robots later but briefly, they’re manifestations of strong emotions of people that they’ve been keeping bottled up. The fact that Canti emerges when Mamimi “overflows,” as well as the fact that the two times he “activates” (watch the show and you’ll know what I mean) and Atomsk’s symbol appears on him Naota says Tasku’s name (he also says it when Haruko hits Canti with her bass (in the English subtitles of the Japanese voiced version)). However, he doesn’t do anything brotherly towards Naota (that’s another character) except protect him, which more cements him as a Mamimi’s version of Tasuku and speaking of protecting we get into the next facet of the Mamimi/Tasuku relationship which is that Mamimi saw Tasuku as her protector. As we discussed earlier, Mamimi is being bullied at the time that the show is going on. She says that Canti is the protector of the weak in “Fire Starter” and also claims that she is the protector of the weak when she rescues a kitten. From the fact that Mamimi is now being bullied and that she calls Canti the protector of the weak we can infer that Mamimi saw Tasuku as her kind of protector: however Tasuku clearly was not only her shelter from bullying. As was stated earlier Mamimi’s parents are divorced. In Tasuku Mamimi had someone that cared about her and would shield her from the harsh realities of her relatively painful life. The fact that Mamimi saw Tasuku as her protector explains some of her other odd behavior as a result of his being gone. Mamimi calls Naota “Ta-kun” (a shortened Naota but also clearly in reference to Tasuku) and does, what the show refers to as, “perverted things” with him. Now the motivation behind these “perverted” acts is a little bit of mixed bag, the fact that Mamimi refers to Ta-kun is clearly meant to show that she’s using him as a replacement for Tasuku. HOWEVER, despite the fact that she uses sexual things as an outlet has nothing to do with the fact that she’s Naota as a faux-Tasuku. If she actually wanted a sexual replacement for Tasuku she would find someone who wasn’t a middle-schooler. She does it because she just wants an outlet to escape and let out pent up emotions in the way that Tasuku’s protection used to give her. This is solidified by the fact that when Naota actually tries to step into Tasuku’s ex-role as boyfriend Mamimi gets weirded out and tells him that he isn’t supposed to do things like that. You can argue that Mamimi is also sexual with Naota because that’s how her and Tasuku showed affection and that she chooses Naota instead of a random person as a replacement because he’s Tasuku’s brother and reminds her of him, and these are both true. However, neither of these means that Mamimi is using Naota as a sexual replacement for Tasuku or that she’s simply using Naota to let out pent up sexual feelings toward Tasuku (that last one may be part of it but there is definitely other motivation behind it. Seriously. Mamimi’s thing with Naota is not supposed to be SEXUAL sexual. If that makes sense. She’s not just giving a middle-schooler hickies because she’s horny. Honest). Now when Naota starts spending time with Haruko and ignoring (not really but I can’t think of a better word) Mamimi she tries to find other outlets for her emotions and affection in a kitten, and the terminal core robo-dog. Unfortunately for her these things still don’t help (the dog actually makes her deteriorate further into a revenge obsessed semi-deranged Mamimi and it takes the dog getting out of control and eating some of Naota’s friends truck to snap her out of it). And this inability to replace Tasuku leads us to Mamimi’s main development/point/moral/etc which is…..
Sometimes you just have to let things be, you can’t necessarily replace or get over things; sometimes good things leave your life. Mamimi is sinking deeper and deeper into a depression/funk as the show progresses and Naota is paying more and more attention to Haruko and less and less attention to her. She tries to remedy this by finding replacement Ta-Kuns but as I stated above she can’t find anyone to replace Tasuku and her feelings of loneliness and loss threaten to consume her (as seen when the terminal core leads her to become an extremely revenge obsessed semi-psychotic individual). But when she sees Naota confess his love to Haruko and watches Haruko leave (I said there would be spoilers) she realizes that good things in life, the things that make you the happiest, will leave and there is nothing you can do about it. After realizing this, Mamimi sees that there is nothing but painful memories for her in Mabase and leaves to pursue her dream of becoming a professional photographer.
Well there you have it. That’s all the important things I can think of about Mamimi. She’s a depressed girl because the only person who she ever thought cared about her left and has an American girl friend so she’s using sexuality and his younger brother to try to shield herself/give herself an outlet from the pain in her life as well as a way of expressing affection for a person she no longer can. But she eventually realizes that sometimes things just happen and goes off on her own. Her overflowing with emotion is one of the key things that gets the ball rolling in the series (since he almost pure love for Tasuku is the thing that first manifested Canti/Atomsk) and “something amazing” did result from it, just as she says in the very beginning of the series. She is my favorite character of the series by far and has some amazing dialogue, especially the bridge scene.
And that’s all about that. Haruko is next.
Warning: There are MASSIVE spoilers. Honestly it won't make much of a difference if you know the plot before you see it, but still in the words of an animated lion, be prepared. I’m going to go through this on a character by character basis and then do the plot and some other random stuff if I haven’t hit on it by then.
Mamimi:
Samejima Mamimi has had it rough before we meet her in FLCL. Her parents are divorced (she reminisces about school plays saying that even though they were stupid, those were happy memories because her parents went to see them together), she gets bullied in school as well as having no friends (we never see her with any other people outside of Naota and when Naota tells her over the phone to go out with her friends she just stands under the bridge and looks dejected, as for the bullying we see her standing in a river in one episode and one of Naota’s friends says he saw some girls bullying her the other day), she doesn’t like school (she frequently cuts class to hang out by the bridge), and her boyfriend just went to America. Mamimi is not in the best state of mind as we see through a couple of mental deteriorations throughout the series. First, in “Fire starter” its implied that Mamimi is starting at least some, if not all of the fires that have been suspected to be arson around the city. The hints to this are somewhat subtle but there are two major ones. First Mamimi has been calling the robot that came out of Naota’s head Canti, which is in reference to a videogame she’s been playing called fire starter in which you are tasked by the God of Black Flame to burn a fictional city of demons that is ever expanding without completely destroying it (because if you do you won’t have a place to live) in order to prevent if from explanding and taking over the whole world. The god, Canti, has black wings and Mamimi see’s Canti with black wings flying one day and is convinced that he is the God of the Black Flames. During the episode there have been a number of fires that are suspected to be arson. Mamimi and Naota are walking across a bridge later, after Mamimi is seen in a river and one of Naota’s friends says he saw her being bullied recently, when her fire starter game falls out of her pocket. Naota later finds her in a ring of cigarettes by the burnt out husk of her old school and tries to giver Mamimi her game back and she says she doesn’t need it anymore, after which she goes to Canti and asks for his kiss and his absolution. Now when you combine this with the second big hint, which is that during a voice over when Naota is talking about the fire starter game you hear a policeman introduced earlier in the episode is says that they know Mamimi is has been committing the arsons. From the fact that Mamimi sees Canti as a sort of God of arson we can infer that by asking for his absolution she meant she was asking for his approval of her work. As to why she’s committing arson there’s a few possible explanations. In my opinion, Canti is a manifestation of Mamimi’s feelings for Naota’s brother Tasku (more on why later, just roll with it for now) and since she sees him as the God from her videogame she’s trying to win back his approval by committing arson (hence her asking for his absolution with a kiss). As to why Mamimi projects her thoughts from her videogame onto Canti (outside of the fact that he actually has black wings throughout the majority of the episode) stems from how Mamimi and Tasuku met. During the episode its explained that there was a fire at the elementary school Mamimi and Tasuku attended. Mamimi claims that Canti was the one that saved her the night of the fire as well (really I think it was Tasuku since who exactly she is talking about in the sentence is a little vague and it would have been extremely unlikely that Canti was there without some very convoluted theories) which reinforces the fact that he is supposed to be a manifestation of Tasuku. Anyways, Mamimi says something to the effect that she used to wish the school would go away before she met Tasuku (I haven’t found conclusive evidence as to whether she burned it down or not) and now, even though it burned down the ashes remain (symbolic of her relationship with Tasuku but more on that soon). Although later in the episode, during a battle with a medical mechanica robot, a projectile and explosion cause the ashes to scatter and the wreckage to completely disappear which foreshadows some later events. Fire starter is the first episode where we really get into Mamimi’s relationship with Tasuku, speaking of which…..
Mamimi’s relationship with Taskuku. Taskuku is Naota’s older brother who has gone to America to play baseball. He used to date Mamimi: however we find out in the first episode that he hasn’t contacted Mamimi (in probably the best scene in the whole anime, in my humble opinion: just had to mention how awesome the bridge scene is) and that he even has an American girlfriend. When Naota tells her this, we get a fairly odd response from Mamimi. She starts clutching her head, stating that she is going to overflow and after doing so passes out. As soon as this happens the first of the robots emerges form Naota’s heard (this is actually the only time that two robots emerge, which is significant but I’ll get into that in another section). I’m going to go into my theory behind the robots later but briefly, they’re manifestations of strong emotions of people that they’ve been keeping bottled up. The fact that Canti emerges when Mamimi “overflows,” as well as the fact that the two times he “activates” (watch the show and you’ll know what I mean) and Atomsk’s symbol appears on him Naota says Tasku’s name (he also says it when Haruko hits Canti with her bass (in the English subtitles of the Japanese voiced version)). However, he doesn’t do anything brotherly towards Naota (that’s another character) except protect him, which more cements him as a Mamimi’s version of Tasuku and speaking of protecting we get into the next facet of the Mamimi/Tasuku relationship which is that Mamimi saw Tasuku as her protector. As we discussed earlier, Mamimi is being bullied at the time that the show is going on. She says that Canti is the protector of the weak in “Fire Starter” and also claims that she is the protector of the weak when she rescues a kitten. From the fact that Mamimi is now being bullied and that she calls Canti the protector of the weak we can infer that Mamimi saw Tasuku as her kind of protector: however Tasuku clearly was not only her shelter from bullying. As was stated earlier Mamimi’s parents are divorced. In Tasuku Mamimi had someone that cared about her and would shield her from the harsh realities of her relatively painful life. The fact that Mamimi saw Tasuku as her protector explains some of her other odd behavior as a result of his being gone. Mamimi calls Naota “Ta-kun” (a shortened Naota but also clearly in reference to Tasuku) and does, what the show refers to as, “perverted things” with him. Now the motivation behind these “perverted” acts is a little bit of mixed bag, the fact that Mamimi refers to Ta-kun is clearly meant to show that she’s using him as a replacement for Tasuku. HOWEVER, despite the fact that she uses sexual things as an outlet has nothing to do with the fact that she’s Naota as a faux-Tasuku. If she actually wanted a sexual replacement for Tasuku she would find someone who wasn’t a middle-schooler. She does it because she just wants an outlet to escape and let out pent up emotions in the way that Tasuku’s protection used to give her. This is solidified by the fact that when Naota actually tries to step into Tasuku’s ex-role as boyfriend Mamimi gets weirded out and tells him that he isn’t supposed to do things like that. You can argue that Mamimi is also sexual with Naota because that’s how her and Tasuku showed affection and that she chooses Naota instead of a random person as a replacement because he’s Tasuku’s brother and reminds her of him, and these are both true. However, neither of these means that Mamimi is using Naota as a sexual replacement for Tasuku or that she’s simply using Naota to let out pent up sexual feelings toward Tasuku (that last one may be part of it but there is definitely other motivation behind it. Seriously. Mamimi’s thing with Naota is not supposed to be SEXUAL sexual. If that makes sense. She’s not just giving a middle-schooler hickies because she’s horny. Honest). Now when Naota starts spending time with Haruko and ignoring (not really but I can’t think of a better word) Mamimi she tries to find other outlets for her emotions and affection in a kitten, and the terminal core robo-dog. Unfortunately for her these things still don’t help (the dog actually makes her deteriorate further into a revenge obsessed semi-deranged Mamimi and it takes the dog getting out of control and eating some of Naota’s friends truck to snap her out of it). And this inability to replace Tasuku leads us to Mamimi’s main development/point/moral/etc which is…..
Sometimes you just have to let things be, you can’t necessarily replace or get over things; sometimes good things leave your life. Mamimi is sinking deeper and deeper into a depression/funk as the show progresses and Naota is paying more and more attention to Haruko and less and less attention to her. She tries to remedy this by finding replacement Ta-Kuns but as I stated above she can’t find anyone to replace Tasuku and her feelings of loneliness and loss threaten to consume her (as seen when the terminal core leads her to become an extremely revenge obsessed semi-psychotic individual). But when she sees Naota confess his love to Haruko and watches Haruko leave (I said there would be spoilers) she realizes that good things in life, the things that make you the happiest, will leave and there is nothing you can do about it. After realizing this, Mamimi sees that there is nothing but painful memories for her in Mabase and leaves to pursue her dream of becoming a professional photographer.
Well there you have it. That’s all the important things I can think of about Mamimi. She’s a depressed girl because the only person who she ever thought cared about her left and has an American girl friend so she’s using sexuality and his younger brother to try to shield herself/give herself an outlet from the pain in her life as well as a way of expressing affection for a person she no longer can. But she eventually realizes that sometimes things just happen and goes off on her own. Her overflowing with emotion is one of the key things that gets the ball rolling in the series (since he almost pure love for Tasuku is the thing that first manifested Canti/Atomsk) and “something amazing” did result from it, just as she says in the very beginning of the series. She is my favorite character of the series by far and has some amazing dialogue, especially the bridge scene.
And that’s all about that. Haruko is next.
Dec 9, 2010
Hey Hey My My
Rock and Roll is not dead, it’s just in remission…
I’d like to talk about something very near and dear to me, the subject of music. More specifically the idea that much of the spirit of Rock and Roll as well as much of the general “goodness” has left modern music, never to return. To these prophets of the musical apocalypse I say, there is hope. It is not the end, however bleak much of the musical landscape, the popular musical landscape especially, may be I don’t think rock and roll will ever die. My intent by writing this is twofold, first I intend to point out what I think is wrong with a lot of modern music, as well as giving some counter examples that prove that Rock and Roll isn’t dead, its just hiding, as well as give examples of past times when I feel something similar has happened and sort of show through charting the path music has taken to get to where we are now (in a very broad and semi-uneducated way). I’m not a music major, I took piano lessons, played a brass instrument from 5th grade all through high school. I don’t know a lot of theory, that much history, or obscure music. If I slight anyone’s favorite band by not including them or including them in a way that doesn’t capture their true “soul,” sorry, I’m going of my opinions and what I like. Feel free to not read this, it won’t hurt my feelings. Anyways, here we go…
What’s wrong with modern music:
There are a LOT of people (by my calculations) that are not fans of modern pop music, calling most of it things ranging from musical abortions to the worst music made by anyone ever. I myself am not a fan in the slightest and I think I’ve figured out the reason why. Most people point to the inane lyrics or overly repetitive beats, all of which are true, but don’t necessarily separate THIS bad music from other music I personally enjoy that I know is not that much better in either of those regards. No I have another theory as to why I can’t stand most of the modern trash that comes out, even the catchy stuff. The music. Has. No. Soul. Music is supposed to harness and emotion, ballads make us yearn for love, punk music personifies our anger, odes bring us to tears, etc (again, just to be clear, these are GENERALIZATIONS, not meant to imply that all forms of music cannot capture all facets of human emotion). Yet modern music doesn’t try to express an emotion as much as a drive, and that drive is sex. Now to set things straight, you can sing about sex and have it be emotional and especially passionate (Black Dog comes to mind as a great example). However, modern music, for the most part, doesn’t even display passion. It’s mindless, talking about sex and want without discussing desire or passion and it comes out in the instrumentals (as loath as I am to call them that) as well. Looping bass and repetitive beats do not an emotional song make. I think this lack of emotion may stem from the fact that modern music is a lot less personal than music used to be as well, people don’t write their own stuff, don’t make their own “instrumentals” (part of the reason rappers such as Dr. Dre and PUTS are far FAR superior to any modern stuff), and the music isn’t even made on instruments but computers (not that I have anything against computerized background music, electronica and artists such as K-Flay use them very well, but especially if you aren’t making the music yourself using the computer then it just makes the music have even less of a personal and human feel, taking away from the emotion). All of these just serve to distance artists from the music and prevent them from really connecting with their audience because if they didn’t write it, how can they truly express what the song is about? They can’t, unless the song is vapid and either overly bubbly nonsense or inane songs about sex. Lastly, I’d like to add that mediocre background music can be excused in the face of extremely clever wordplay or extremely poignant lyrics. Modern music doesn’t have these.
But in spite of all of this there is still good music. Bands like the Hives, Stereogram, Cage the Elephant, and the Arctic Monkeys have kept the punk music scene very much alive (also Bubble Puppy, but they only do vinyl which makes them quite hard to get). Jack White (and his numerous projects), Them Crooked Vultures, Government Mule, Foxy Shazam, and Black Joe Louis and the Honey Bears are still out there for those pining for classic rock and there are numerous other bands that I don’t want to get into. But Rock and Roll has also branched into a more subtle expression of emotion, usually dripping with irony, that is “indie music.” With indie music, Rock and Roll has gone more underground and taken on more of a folk sound but regardless it is still there. There are also fantastic music overseas, with surfer rock like the 5,6,7,8’s and the Bristols, as well as amazing alternative out of Asia like Asian Kung-fu Generation and the Pillows, as well as some amazing folksy stuff like Camera Obscura. And there’s metal. I don’t know much about it, but it’s there, growing in popularity, and I don’t think it can ever be killed. Ever.
How we got here and why not to worry about where we’re going:
The way I see it, the vacant overly sexualized modern pop as well as the subtlety of emotion in indie music can be linked to the nineties. I love the nineties, but alternative especially had a tendency toward the melodramatic and hyper emotional (not that that’s a bad thing necessarily). But we’re seeing the backlash against that now. Fortunately I think modern music is already headed in the right direction. See, the way I see things, the nineties extreme emotion was both a backlash against the very electronic sound of eighties pop (which isn’t bad, it still captured the feeling of wonder and emotions associated with it very well) as well as drawing inspiration from the very emotional music of post punk like the Smiths and Joy Division as well as punk and the very original stirrings of alternative like the Pixies and the Violent Femmes. Now modern music is, in my opinion, headed back towards the electronic sound of the eighties with synth heavy bands like Phoenix and Passion Pit. So it seems we’re going in a sort of reverse backlash order. I don’t know what we’re going to get next but my guess would be a return to a sort of seventies glam rock pop, which the eighties both drew from and were a sort of backlash against. If anything we should see a very heavy resurgence of electronic music, as has happened with the groundswell of internet electronica artists like Pogo gaining major recognition as well as the new branch of electronica that’as gaining popularity, Dubstep. From here I would think pop will move away from the skippy auto-tune like T-Paine and head in two directions, one towards a Peter Gabriel/Genesis/Huey Louis etc kind of pop and the other towards a very electric sound. Regardless of how it happens, I foresee the lack of emotion in modern music leading to a resurgence of one of the extremely emotionally charged musical styles emerging from the indie scene (be it punk, post punk, bubbly 50’s esque pop/rock, or something else, I think it’s too early for a resurgence of the nineties Seattle scene sound). These are just my thoughts.
So, in conclusion, fear not lovers of rock. The rock isn’t gone, its just hiding.
I’d like to talk about something very near and dear to me, the subject of music. More specifically the idea that much of the spirit of Rock and Roll as well as much of the general “goodness” has left modern music, never to return. To these prophets of the musical apocalypse I say, there is hope. It is not the end, however bleak much of the musical landscape, the popular musical landscape especially, may be I don’t think rock and roll will ever die. My intent by writing this is twofold, first I intend to point out what I think is wrong with a lot of modern music, as well as giving some counter examples that prove that Rock and Roll isn’t dead, its just hiding, as well as give examples of past times when I feel something similar has happened and sort of show through charting the path music has taken to get to where we are now (in a very broad and semi-uneducated way). I’m not a music major, I took piano lessons, played a brass instrument from 5th grade all through high school. I don’t know a lot of theory, that much history, or obscure music. If I slight anyone’s favorite band by not including them or including them in a way that doesn’t capture their true “soul,” sorry, I’m going of my opinions and what I like. Feel free to not read this, it won’t hurt my feelings. Anyways, here we go…
What’s wrong with modern music:
There are a LOT of people (by my calculations) that are not fans of modern pop music, calling most of it things ranging from musical abortions to the worst music made by anyone ever. I myself am not a fan in the slightest and I think I’ve figured out the reason why. Most people point to the inane lyrics or overly repetitive beats, all of which are true, but don’t necessarily separate THIS bad music from other music I personally enjoy that I know is not that much better in either of those regards. No I have another theory as to why I can’t stand most of the modern trash that comes out, even the catchy stuff. The music. Has. No. Soul. Music is supposed to harness and emotion, ballads make us yearn for love, punk music personifies our anger, odes bring us to tears, etc (again, just to be clear, these are GENERALIZATIONS, not meant to imply that all forms of music cannot capture all facets of human emotion). Yet modern music doesn’t try to express an emotion as much as a drive, and that drive is sex. Now to set things straight, you can sing about sex and have it be emotional and especially passionate (Black Dog comes to mind as a great example). However, modern music, for the most part, doesn’t even display passion. It’s mindless, talking about sex and want without discussing desire or passion and it comes out in the instrumentals (as loath as I am to call them that) as well. Looping bass and repetitive beats do not an emotional song make. I think this lack of emotion may stem from the fact that modern music is a lot less personal than music used to be as well, people don’t write their own stuff, don’t make their own “instrumentals” (part of the reason rappers such as Dr. Dre and PUTS are far FAR superior to any modern stuff), and the music isn’t even made on instruments but computers (not that I have anything against computerized background music, electronica and artists such as K-Flay use them very well, but especially if you aren’t making the music yourself using the computer then it just makes the music have even less of a personal and human feel, taking away from the emotion). All of these just serve to distance artists from the music and prevent them from really connecting with their audience because if they didn’t write it, how can they truly express what the song is about? They can’t, unless the song is vapid and either overly bubbly nonsense or inane songs about sex. Lastly, I’d like to add that mediocre background music can be excused in the face of extremely clever wordplay or extremely poignant lyrics. Modern music doesn’t have these.
But in spite of all of this there is still good music. Bands like the Hives, Stereogram, Cage the Elephant, and the Arctic Monkeys have kept the punk music scene very much alive (also Bubble Puppy, but they only do vinyl which makes them quite hard to get). Jack White (and his numerous projects), Them Crooked Vultures, Government Mule, Foxy Shazam, and Black Joe Louis and the Honey Bears are still out there for those pining for classic rock and there are numerous other bands that I don’t want to get into. But Rock and Roll has also branched into a more subtle expression of emotion, usually dripping with irony, that is “indie music.” With indie music, Rock and Roll has gone more underground and taken on more of a folk sound but regardless it is still there. There are also fantastic music overseas, with surfer rock like the 5,6,7,8’s and the Bristols, as well as amazing alternative out of Asia like Asian Kung-fu Generation and the Pillows, as well as some amazing folksy stuff like Camera Obscura. And there’s metal. I don’t know much about it, but it’s there, growing in popularity, and I don’t think it can ever be killed. Ever.
How we got here and why not to worry about where we’re going:
The way I see it, the vacant overly sexualized modern pop as well as the subtlety of emotion in indie music can be linked to the nineties. I love the nineties, but alternative especially had a tendency toward the melodramatic and hyper emotional (not that that’s a bad thing necessarily). But we’re seeing the backlash against that now. Fortunately I think modern music is already headed in the right direction. See, the way I see things, the nineties extreme emotion was both a backlash against the very electronic sound of eighties pop (which isn’t bad, it still captured the feeling of wonder and emotions associated with it very well) as well as drawing inspiration from the very emotional music of post punk like the Smiths and Joy Division as well as punk and the very original stirrings of alternative like the Pixies and the Violent Femmes. Now modern music is, in my opinion, headed back towards the electronic sound of the eighties with synth heavy bands like Phoenix and Passion Pit. So it seems we’re going in a sort of reverse backlash order. I don’t know what we’re going to get next but my guess would be a return to a sort of seventies glam rock pop, which the eighties both drew from and were a sort of backlash against. If anything we should see a very heavy resurgence of electronic music, as has happened with the groundswell of internet electronica artists like Pogo gaining major recognition as well as the new branch of electronica that’as gaining popularity, Dubstep. From here I would think pop will move away from the skippy auto-tune like T-Paine and head in two directions, one towards a Peter Gabriel/Genesis/Huey Louis etc kind of pop and the other towards a very electric sound. Regardless of how it happens, I foresee the lack of emotion in modern music leading to a resurgence of one of the extremely emotionally charged musical styles emerging from the indie scene (be it punk, post punk, bubbly 50’s esque pop/rock, or something else, I think it’s too early for a resurgence of the nineties Seattle scene sound). These are just my thoughts.
So, in conclusion, fear not lovers of rock. The rock isn’t gone, its just hiding.
Oct 3, 2010
"You forgot about one thing..." Twilight Part 2
The "Relationship:"
The romance between the protagonists of this masterpiece of mediocrity is something that deserves special attention, since it will inevitably be the defining romance of my generation. Fortunately, the huge amount of depth contained within these two kindred souls adds to the complexities of their relationship making for a truly memorable, emotional, and not to mention passionate journey. Bella and Edward were destined for each other simply by their shared interests alone, not to mention the lust they have for each other that the reader is constantly given helpful reminders of. Edward, immortal vampire who is a piano virtuoso, expert chef, literary savant, medical trainee and virtual master of any conceivable skill. Bella fits well into these interests with her lack of interest in any kind of music, odd (some would say stereotypically teenage) affection for her beater of a truck, and mild literary floundering. Edward's concern over and dislike for Bella's truck only makes her attachment to it more endearing and in no way takes away one of two possible potential interests they could share and instead leads Bella to fill that hole with her werewolf best friend eventually causing conflict throughout the book. And even though its never explicitly stated we can infer that Edward would find Bella's extremely shallow literary knowledge endearing and would in no way get frustrated with being unable to discuss the vast majority of what he's read with her.
Their relationship is pretty much based solely on lust, which still makes no sense because Bella is described as being very average looking (although she somehow becomes an unbelievably attractive vampire, even for a vampire, because magic). This pretty much is just the author exploiting the desire to be with a perfect person without any real reason to back it up.
Fuck it. I'm tired of this. The rest of this is going to be very condensed. They only talk about how much they like each other when they're with each other, they don't discuss WHY because there isn't one. They talk about whether they get married or have sex, and Bella negotiates sex for marriage because she's a horny twat like most people my age, this is a bullshit stereotypical high school relationship that makes no sense and is extremely annoying. She tortures her "best friend" the werewolf for no reason, continuing to lead him on even after Edward impregnates her. She claims she loves the vampire boy but then leads on her werewolf friend and even REALIZES WHAT SHE'S DOING yet claims she can't help it because she loves Jacob too much. Bella is a selfish bitch that makes nonsensical decisions (keeping vampire baby that would logically kill her if not for the magical deus-ex juice that is venom). There's a random death at the end that serves to cause anguish to minor characters we don't care about (not that the reader cares about ANY of the characters) and ultimately is pretty much just shock value. It turns out there somehow there were also other vampire human babies that no one knew about which unravels the evil vampires support because it cuts through the veil of their lies because magic and UGH.
Not that you didn't already know this but this book is fucking stupid. Hopefully this helped put HOW stupid it actually is in perspective if you cared. Lastly, the fact that this romance is idealized by so many people of all ages is ridiculous in my mind. There are so many more realistic and still more dynamic and loving relationships from our(ish) generation. My example, Jesse Custer and Tulip. Way fucking better.
Next time: Formulaic whining and general craziness. I'll go into the amazing and awful mess that is Neon Genesis Evangelion!
The romance between the protagonists of this masterpiece of mediocrity is something that deserves special attention, since it will inevitably be the defining romance of my generation. Fortunately, the huge amount of depth contained within these two kindred souls adds to the complexities of their relationship making for a truly memorable, emotional, and not to mention passionate journey. Bella and Edward were destined for each other simply by their shared interests alone, not to mention the lust they have for each other that the reader is constantly given helpful reminders of. Edward, immortal vampire who is a piano virtuoso, expert chef, literary savant, medical trainee and virtual master of any conceivable skill. Bella fits well into these interests with her lack of interest in any kind of music, odd (some would say stereotypically teenage) affection for her beater of a truck, and mild literary floundering. Edward's concern over and dislike for Bella's truck only makes her attachment to it more endearing and in no way takes away one of two possible potential interests they could share and instead leads Bella to fill that hole with her werewolf best friend eventually causing conflict throughout the book. And even though its never explicitly stated we can infer that Edward would find Bella's extremely shallow literary knowledge endearing and would in no way get frustrated with being unable to discuss the vast majority of what he's read with her.
Their relationship is pretty much based solely on lust, which still makes no sense because Bella is described as being very average looking (although she somehow becomes an unbelievably attractive vampire, even for a vampire, because magic). This pretty much is just the author exploiting the desire to be with a perfect person without any real reason to back it up.
Fuck it. I'm tired of this. The rest of this is going to be very condensed. They only talk about how much they like each other when they're with each other, they don't discuss WHY because there isn't one. They talk about whether they get married or have sex, and Bella negotiates sex for marriage because she's a horny twat like most people my age, this is a bullshit stereotypical high school relationship that makes no sense and is extremely annoying. She tortures her "best friend" the werewolf for no reason, continuing to lead him on even after Edward impregnates her. She claims she loves the vampire boy but then leads on her werewolf friend and even REALIZES WHAT SHE'S DOING yet claims she can't help it because she loves Jacob too much. Bella is a selfish bitch that makes nonsensical decisions (keeping vampire baby that would logically kill her if not for the magical deus-ex juice that is venom). There's a random death at the end that serves to cause anguish to minor characters we don't care about (not that the reader cares about ANY of the characters) and ultimately is pretty much just shock value. It turns out there somehow there were also other vampire human babies that no one knew about which unravels the evil vampires support because it cuts through the veil of their lies because magic and UGH.
Not that you didn't already know this but this book is fucking stupid. Hopefully this helped put HOW stupid it actually is in perspective if you cared. Lastly, the fact that this romance is idealized by so many people of all ages is ridiculous in my mind. There are so many more realistic and still more dynamic and loving relationships from our(ish) generation. My example, Jesse Custer and Tulip. Way fucking better.
Next time: Formulaic whining and general craziness. I'll go into the amazing and awful mess that is Neon Genesis Evangelion!
Oct 2, 2010
On Twilight
Before I begin this I'd like to establish some things. First things first, I have only read the fourth book in this series (the details of WHY I embarked on this painful venture I would be more than willing to share but have no relevance to this discussion) and am basing everything following on my reading of only that book. Second, I am not trying to bash twilight based on its literary merit, style, etc. I am not an expert on literature and don't feel that I would be justified in discussing it on those merits (although in my opinion it WASN'T very good at all based on those merits). What I am attempting to do in this (hopefully series) is to point out the plot holes and things that I found comically nonsensical and offended my common sense as a human being.
Plot Holes:
One of the biggest plot holes in my opinion was that Edward could get Bella pregnant. Firstly, the fact that Edward is a vampire with no blood would make the logistics of the act in general a bit tricky since the male reproductive organ requires CIRCULATION to work, but if you want to explain it away with venom or vampire magic or whatever, since they never go into it in the book. The huge problem I have is in the way that the infertility of female vampires is explained in the book. Supposedly, no one ever had any way of knowing whether male vampires are fertile or not, because female vampires are infertile due to being frozen in the exact time they become vampire. Since they are frozen in time they no longer go through menstrual cycles, etc. This is the reasoning the book gives for female vampires infertility.
The one problem with this?
THIS WOULD MEAN MALE VAMPIRES ARE INFERTILE TOO.
I'm sure most semi-intelligent people know this but apparently Ms. Meyer doesn't so I'm going to spell this out. Both male and female reproductive systems work on a very basic and fundamental level in the same way. Cells meios and produce gametes (sperm and egg cells for their respective genders). This means that if females can't produce eggs males can't produce sperm. Therefore, the entire premise of this book is contradictory and impossible.
Bella's Powers:
How fortunate that when Bella became a vampire her power manifested itself in a shield that could conveniently shield against the major threats the antagonists posed and conveniently she grasped how to extend the shield to protect everyone in their party, decisively defeating the antagonists. The entire "epic" final battle is a huge series of conveniences and Dragon Ball Z esque power level (without any of the ridiculous epicness) rises for no real reason except anger and "the power of love" the most bullshit way of writing yourself out of corners ever. And even though the shield kind of makes sense (because Edward can't read her mind before) but the fact that she can extend it has no explanation other than plot convenience.
That's all for now internet.
Next time, we finish Twilight.
Next in the series: Neon Genesis Evangelion (the what the fuck show that is awful, then amazing)
Plot Holes:
One of the biggest plot holes in my opinion was that Edward could get Bella pregnant. Firstly, the fact that Edward is a vampire with no blood would make the logistics of the act in general a bit tricky since the male reproductive organ requires CIRCULATION to work, but if you want to explain it away with venom or vampire magic or whatever, since they never go into it in the book. The huge problem I have is in the way that the infertility of female vampires is explained in the book. Supposedly, no one ever had any way of knowing whether male vampires are fertile or not, because female vampires are infertile due to being frozen in the exact time they become vampire. Since they are frozen in time they no longer go through menstrual cycles, etc. This is the reasoning the book gives for female vampires infertility.
The one problem with this?
THIS WOULD MEAN MALE VAMPIRES ARE INFERTILE TOO.
I'm sure most semi-intelligent people know this but apparently Ms. Meyer doesn't so I'm going to spell this out. Both male and female reproductive systems work on a very basic and fundamental level in the same way. Cells meios and produce gametes (sperm and egg cells for their respective genders). This means that if females can't produce eggs males can't produce sperm. Therefore, the entire premise of this book is contradictory and impossible.
Bella's Powers:
How fortunate that when Bella became a vampire her power manifested itself in a shield that could conveniently shield against the major threats the antagonists posed and conveniently she grasped how to extend the shield to protect everyone in their party, decisively defeating the antagonists. The entire "epic" final battle is a huge series of conveniences and Dragon Ball Z esque power level (without any of the ridiculous epicness) rises for no real reason except anger and "the power of love" the most bullshit way of writing yourself out of corners ever. And even though the shield kind of makes sense (because Edward can't read her mind before) but the fact that she can extend it has no explanation other than plot convenience.
That's all for now internet.
Next time, we finish Twilight.
Next in the series: Neon Genesis Evangelion (the what the fuck show that is awful, then amazing)
Feb 23, 2010
Free Music
Feb 20, 2010
Wallpapers
Moon
Well, I'm a little late on this post, seeing as the Academy Award Nominations were announced over two weeks ago. Nevertheless, since I consider myself to be a film buff, I feel obligated to talk about Moon. For those of you who haven't seen the film, here is a brief summary, courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes:
It is the near future. Astronaut Sam Bell is living on the far side of the moon, completing a three-year contract with Lunar Industries to mine Earth’s primary source of energy, Helium-3. It is a lonely job, made harder by a broken satellite that allows no live communications home. Taped messages are all Sam can send and receive. Thankfully, his time on the moon is nearly over, and Sam will be reunited with his wife, Tess, and their three-year-old daughter, Eve, in only a few short weeks. Finally, he will leave the isolation of “Sarang,” the moon base that has been his home for so long, and he will finally have someone to talk to beyond “Gerty,” the base’s well-intentioned, but rather uncomplicated computer. Suddenly, Sam’s health starts to deteriorate. Painful headaches, hallucinations and a lack of focus lead to an almost fatal accident on a routine drive on the moon in a lunar rover. While recuperating back at the base (with no memory of how he got there), Sam meets a younger, angrier version of himself, who claims to be there to fulfill the same three year contract Sam started all those years ago.--© Sony Pictures Classics
I would summarize it myself, but I fear that my version would inevitably reveal too much of the plot...
Now, the reason this film has become a "hot topic" on movie blogs and review sites is because it was gypped. It did not receive a single Oscar nomination. Unfortunately, if you haven't seen the film, you probably don't understand why this is a big deal. To channel my inner-child's sci-fi obsession: the film was awesome! Not only was Moon intellectually stimulating (unlike Avatar, which was nominated for nine Academy Awards), but it also paid homage to a slew of sci-fi films. One of the most obvious "head nods" was to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Everything, from the plain white space station to the monotonous voice of Kevin Spacey as Gerty (the robot), was reminiscent of a time when science fiction was more than CGI and the ever so important "wow" factor (e.g. explosions). On top of that, Moon also showcased Sam Rockwell's talent and unique style as an actor; and for that reason in particular, I felt that this movie deserved some love.
Sadly, the Oscar nominations have been finalized for 18 days now. So, all I can say to you, the reader, is to spread the word about this movie.
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