The mission of saving the world is limited to middle or high school
students in Japan. After all, it's only during this short period of life
that teenagers are allowed to have their 'inner darkness', fall in and
out of love for the first time, and behave in a way they want. After
that, they're supposed to choose their future profession, enter a
university, find a job and become a 'shakaijin' - a 'full-fledged member
of society'.
Since it's a given, I wouldn't dream of blaming Japanese anime directors
for creating one more anime about schoolchildren. I wouldn't complain
that exploring the topic of pain, sharing one's emotions and
interdependence could as well involve young people or grown-ups, not
students.
However, I have to complain about the way it's done.
A bunch of students are kidnapped, used in a medical experiment without
their consent, and ordered what to do by a kuudere gothic loli. They
just go along with it, of course, demanding little explanation, because,
well, how else do you make a story. The bunch consists of such generic
characters and every new development is so predictable that I'm not sure
if there isn't a manual called 'how to create a dramatic story about
youth' circulating between anime studios in Japan. The characters
conveniently wait for a new event to get angry or dissatisfied, and
change their mind about things very quickly, because you know, they only
have 12 episodes to show it. It's no less surprising how conveniently
new aspects of this 'kizuna' interdependence are revealed, one at a
time: pain - when it's necessary to explain the concept, frustration -
when it's necessary to introduce more drama, mind reading - only when
the characters started to get close, to make them realise it's not
possible for them to become close. The pain from Hisomu, the secret 7th
member, was only relayed to the rest when it was time to find him. No
earlier than that. Sad things only happen under the rain and the umbrella is bound to be red. Ts-ts-ts.
Yeah, this is one wonderful 'sharing of pain' concept. All the connected
guys felt it when Niko was lightly punching Katsuhira in the head.
Still, they commented 'it does not hurt!' when Chidori and Katsuhira fell
down from a height of several meters, without any time to brace
themselves, on a jumping sheet. Which is of course an absolutely safe
and pleasant thing to do.
If this were the only case when the concept of pain was misinterpreted
by the creators, I'd understand, but it's impressive how much they
managed to ignore the vast range of consequences of taking pain as the
subject of research.
Is a good song used for the opening a guarantee that the anime will be
good? Seems like not. At least not when the ending theme is less than
impressive.
Actually, you know... I'm sorry BOOM BOOM SATELLITES' last song, and a
rather listenable soundtrack, too, were wasted on this mediocrity.
Even the attempt to introduce some madness was wasted.
No comments:
Post a Comment