His word, my will;

1. androgyny

2. healthy coping skills

3. patterned socks

4. dumbasses

fishfishlove:

Anime version:

Manga Version:

Your assignment is to write a 100 word essay comparing and contrasting these two portrayals of the same event and what these similarities and differences could mean. This will be 60% of your final grade.

Well, dear friend, I say as I crack my knuckles and set my compilation of soft classical music to accompany this ‘analysis’, let’s do our damnedest to meet that 60% requirement, shall we?

The anime seemingly prides itself on projecting a much more ‘serious’ and sombre tone on all fronts imaginable, and the iconic snake scene is of literally no exception. We are treated to the drama of the series’ love of dark, sober lighting in this portion of the episode in particular to reflect the dire gravity of our heroes’ predicament. This appropriately accompanies the considerably more erratic and urgent depth this scene was awarded in the show (as opposed to the slower and more controlled nature of the attack that occurred in the novels, and I assume this version of the manga too.) The scene is framed in the anime to better suit these dramatic requirements, focusing on Hiraga from behind and the camera lingering upon which enough to allow us the understanding of what he is attempting to accomplish, while still (relatively) maintaining and adhering to the sense of desperation and exigency the scene is trying to project. The goal here was clearly, to at least some degree, to carry and impart the intended dramatic weight to this admittedly intense scenario. This is directly opposed to the alternative and quite frankly more suggestive approach the manga seems to default to.

That is to say, the manga and the novel seems at face value to lack a whole bunch of the harsh, dramatic tension the anime tried to push, likely due to the altered nature and environment of the attack as a whole. With Roberto apparently having been just dozing on the bed while Hiraga showered off and the snake itself being a much less deadly candidate for polishing off our beloved Italian priest in the tale’s original incarnation, things are already taken down a notch from the tense and troubling atmosphere afforded by the anime’s preferred direction. The manga noticeably does not possess the dark and foreboding lighting intrinsic to the anime, and instead offers us a nice, bright look at exactly what we have on our plates, and exactly what they want us to be paying attention to. That being, Hiraga’s lips being wide open and planted firmly on Roberto’s thigh, visualised at an angle that demands we take close heed of that precise moment of contact sooner than merely implying it as part of the general scene we are supposed to be minding. Rather, this lips-to-thigh contact has become the very explicit focal point of the scene, and carries considerably less dramatic weight because of its ridiculously suggestive framing. Hiraga dons a look that is alarmingly serene for the situation he is finding himself in, as compared to his appropriately palpable distress in the anime. You could argue that this is because he had less cause for alarm in this version of the events, as I stated before, but I somehow am not buying it. The focus and direction here is certainly…different, to say the least.

Anime version:

Manga Version:

1. Composition. Up top the view is obscured, and the action a little mechanical. You know what’s happening, but it’s a bit stiff, unceremonious. The shot’s nearly head-on from behind Hiraga as he sucks out the poison. Whereas in the lower picture, putting the point of contact right in the center and foreground of the panel. I’m no expert, but my eye got drawn right to Roberto’s stunned expression, to his knee, to Hiraga with his lips right up on the skin. You hit all the right narrative beats for that narrative journey. Not only this, but the composition strengthens the reader’s emotional connection to the scene by showing character expressions. Not just one, in fact, but both. Which leads me to my next point:

2. Expressions. The one I like to dig into most his Hiraga’s, because. Well. Look at that. Stretched lips, hooded eyes, sweat on his skin. Much more sensual than the anime adaptation, and you get his fingertips pressing into Roberto’s knee. It’s fleshy and visceral. No wonder Roberto looks so shocked.

3. Look man, I’m just gonna drop in some freaking precedent.