Japanese Visual Culture

I’m really glad that we got to watch Serial Experiments Lain for this semester’s last class. It was a cool show! The anime’s art style is unique and I think the bleak backgrounds really added to the atmosphere. It’s very minimalist, but it works wonders for this show.

I was sometimes confused by random, short sequences that the plot didn’t really explain. For example, there was a guy who was chased around and murdered (?) by a little girl, but I don’t think the show ever clarified who either of them were. Then, some guy killed (?) that girl in a game called Phantoma in the Wired using his handgun (no pun intended). Also, where is Mika? Can someone check up on her?

However, the moments when I could comprehend the show were good. I wonder if the version of Lain that is confident is a reference to how the shield of anonymity makes people lose their expressional filter when they’re talking on the internet. Also, it was kind of annoying to see Lain’s family basically neglect her well-being, except for her father to some extent. I did end up watching the very last episode of the anime, too, and it was nice to see her father talking to her in limbo.

My favorite episode was the last one we were assigned, where Arisu reminds Lain that she is human and stops Eiri’s plan from coming to fruition. It was wholesome to see Lain trying to comfort Arisu and vice versa, despite Lain letting her see man-made horrors beyond her comprehension, going so far as to erase herself from everyone’s memories to stop their suffering. It felt like Lain was more human than she ever was during those moments. Actually, I think they intentionally made it ambiguous whether Lain is a human, homunculus, program, or a God. In any case, it was awesome to see her putting Eiri, a false God, in his place. By all means, own that fraud!

Paprika felt like a fever dream to watch, no pun intended. I can definitely see how the movie inspired Inception. I did watch Inception a while back and I feel like it was a bit more complex than Paprika since there were multiple layers of shared dreams, while in Paprika, there’s pretty much one big dream and it can intersect between multiple people, but I don’t think it’s meant to be multilayered (dream within a dream), to my understanding. Paprika’s surrealism and altered realities also reminded me of Mima’s delusions in Perfect Blue. Anyway, the animation quality and surrealism were really cool but I’m not sure if I got anything analyzable out of the movie, to be honest. I’m open to hearing what themes other people got out of it, though.

I guess one thing that was slightly confusing was whether Paprika and Dr. Chiba were actually the same person. Throughout the movie, it seemed like Paprika was a persona that Dr. Chiba imagined herself as when she dreamed. However, at the very end, within the big dream, it seemed like Paprika was able to separate herself from Dr. Chiba and became an independent entity with her own thoughts. And then Paprika, naturally, as one normally does, ate the bald chairman and saved the world from the big dream. I’m betting that someone during class is going to propose the theory that Paprika is a reincarnation of Jesus who died to save everyone.

It was kind of weird how multiple men wanted to be romantically involved with Paprika at one point or another. Dr. Konakawa wanted to kiss Paprika in his dream after his performance on stage, which was actually Shima in real life? Then, Osanai… I don’t even know what he was doing to her. That scene was wild.

In episode 15, we can see Squealer and his species worry about becoming extinct and therefore try to exploit the queen. They knew they were smart and believed that they deserve some power, yet the queen had so much and ruled over them unfavorably. I feel like this represents governments/powers throughout history: the government exploits or neglects its citizens and, therefore, the citizens retaliate, protest, etc. at the power's expense. The citizens come together to build power and make changes to the government/power. Squealer and his species worked together, forming a union, and tried to negotiate, yet they ended up trapping her and still exploit her for the benefit of the colony. This is similar to when the newly formed government reduces the power of the leader, making them instead a public figure (kind of like the president or prime minister). Then we see things like war prisoners, enslavement, imperialism/colonialism in episode 21, which we see in history during an overthrow of rule as well. In the last episode, the Squealer talks about how change is necessary, which I do think is true, but that the sacrifices would have been worth it if they had won, which I disagree with: in the end, people lost their lives. War and violence are the problem (I can see why Squealer thought they needed to resort to it, especially when they tried to propose equal rights, but to continually hurt the Queen and other species? That does not seem very moral). In the end, it is quite a morally grey area when you consider all things, though.

I think there is also commentary on patriarchy. The Robber Fly colony thinks that the queen's only job should be childbirth, while the "smart" ones should have the power. The queens are stuck inside (domestic duties, trapped in the house) while the men (I think) are free to roam and rule. This also reminds me of Japanese history. There were queens with power an extremely long time ago in Japan, like Queen Himiko, that people at first accepted as ruler; however, men soon believed they deserved the power, labeling women that ruled as evil (people believed that Queen Himiko had magical powers that she used for evil purposes as well), resulting in men ruling Japan. Then, they use violence, blaming the Goat Moths for shooting an arrow when they used violence first. This represents the common opinion that men often resort to violence more compared to women, like starting something as small as fights or as big as war.

Now, something that I find quite disturbing is how kids ended up having a child?! Like I think they are 14? Definitely an interesting plot by the storywriter - I wonder what the idea was behind that?

I think that overall, this anime is a commentary on power, whether its a ruler, and man and woman, magical powers, or the responsibility that comes with it.

Not gonna lie, I didn’t really enjoy Shin Sekai Yori. I don’t think it was a bad anime, I just think I personally don’t have the brain capacity for it. So much information is thrown at you and I made the mistake of trying to fold laundry and watch the show at the same time, LOL. From what I gathered, we follow the young Saki Watanabe as she finally gains her powers and moves on to an academy meant for people who possess psychic abilities. She joins group 1, with the members being Reiko, Satoru, Maria, Mamoru, and Shun. 

I think the episode that stuck out most to me was episode 4. They encounter a thing called the Minoshiro, which reveals the answer to any question they ask. It ends up being a fake Minoshiro, in which a guy comes to destroy for them. However, they learn a lot of useful and saddening information from them. They learn about society from the Dark Ages and their own society, and the creation of Ogres and Karmic beings. They also learn information on the population of those with PK, such as only 0.3% of the population obtain PK and there were movements to eradicate them, some even leading to war. It made me feel sorry for these kids, they are absorbing so much information at such a young age, and given a lot of responsibility for holding this type of power. A lot is to be said about the development and destruction of certain societies and eras. It went from embracing PK powers to suppressing anyone who has them, leading to what they called the Dark Ages. Then it progresses back into acceptance or practice of PK powers into the present time in this anime. Episode 4 contained a big chunk of the history of this universe, and I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. I feel like this show tried to implement many themes but I could not really catch myself developing any of my own thoughts. I think our next round of episodes will help me get a clearer idea of the message of this anime, but right now I feel like my mind is convoluted with the huge information dumps, especially in episode 4. One thing I did notice is the question of what it means to be human and to be treated as human. This goes for the rat people, Queerats, and all other beings in this universe. Even the existence as humans obtaining PK is called into question. So what makes one human, and what is the ethics of treating one as one? 

The last episode of Eden of the East felt like it was something straight out of an action movie. The part where all of the NEETs worked together to plan out how to intercept the incoming missiles within seconds is like a visualization of people on the internet using Reddit to track down a piece of lost media, or something along those lines. In general, the appearance of the naked, angry NEETs were really funny to see. Something about the imagery of 20,000 of them simultaneously yelling and jumping out of shipping containers was so surreal. The scene where they immediately dispersed to the sides of the room when women were passing through, like vampires to garlic, was also really funny. “Don’t worry, they’re probably only interested in 2D” completely caught me off guard, too.

I don’t think I’m the only one who didn’t expect the ending to be so abrupt. I thought that I had watched the wrong episode at first but it really turned out to be the last one. I searched it up and apparently there’s a couple of sequel movies that follow the anime series. I kind of wish we were assigned to watch those for class because I feel like there are still a lot of loose ends that remain. What does Takizawa intend to do as the King of Japan? Who is the real Supporter? Is Ato still out there? There’s still so much to be explained.

Something that relates to our previous in-class discussions was Itazu’s belief that conspiracies emerge when a nation is weak. When there isn’t a physical higher power that enacts power onto the common people, those people start to make things up to fill in that gap, such as religion or conspiracies. Perhaps this is why Takizawa wants to become the King of Japan so that people aren’t misled by falsehoods any longer?

Eden of the East was an interesting watch. It was kind of bizarre to hear people speaking non-broken English in anime and even more bizarre that the Americans understood Japanese with no issue (but weirdly wholesome). I’m actually glad that they laid out the rules of the game played by the Selecao in one of the first episodes because it probably would’ve taken me a while to figure it out had they not explained it in a straightforward way. For some reason, I can’t take this anime too seriously because it feels a bit unrealistic. Morimi just trusts a stranger who flashed her, the police view their jobs as a joke, people aren’t taking any big measures to investigate or stop the Selecao, and the Selecao are so far above the law in every way possible with no meaningful backlash or regulation.

Regarding “Work Culture” by Mouer, it was disappointing yet not surprising to learn that postwar conservatives dismissed leftist activists, who demanded a raise in minimum wage and guaranteed human rights, as foreign individualists who did not belong in a collectivist Japan. Honestly, that is really one of the weakest excuses that can be thought of, and what makes it crazier is that the conservatives said this AFTER the war and AFTER everyone realized the dangers that collective, blind faith in their government’s right-wing propaganda could bring. I don’t know how anyone would actually believe them, especially in regards to something as important as giving people decent lives. It’s clear that their motive was to save money on both distributing reasonable salaries and implementing safety guidelines/enforcement, which are notoriously expensive to implement in many cases. What exactly was their argument? “Because we’re a group, you must be honored to earn less money (and effectively save us money but ignore that part) and be prepared to risk your life at all times!” Who would fall for this, genuinely?

I’m kind of confused and a little disappointed after watching the new episodes of Zipang. It seems that the Mirai crew of Japanese soldiers from the 21st century initially did not intend to alter the real timeline. However, as time went on and as they came face to face with opposition, it seems like they ended up destroying quite a few American ships. More importantly, I thought that this anime would make a completely pacifist commentary on the war at first from viewing the first few episodes, as it originally seemed like Kusaka’s goal was nothing more than to help the Mirai crew achieve peace rather than to embrace the nationalist mindset of the past. While Kusaka did help achieve peace for Japan, the way that they did it was… interesting. Kusaka wanted a modified Japan that wasn’t like “old” or “new” Japan, but rather something in the middle (Zipang) that did not thoughtlessly go to war and did not surrender unconditionally or shamefully, thus necessitating the maintenance of an army. This approach was not quite what I expected at all and it appeals to Japanese conservatives in the sense that it imagines a version of Japan that still retains a military standing even after the war. In other words, Zipang does not imagine a Japan that dominated the war but it does still imagine a Japan that avoids nuclear disaster and preserves its stature and military might, of course, all without taking accountability for their actions. If my interpretation is correct, then I am disappointed in how it turned out. I wanted to like Kusaka because his story reminded me of that of Captain America, although I guess in reverse. Plus, his outfit was really cool. Anyway, I wish that this anime could have headed in a different direction.

This week we start off by watching episodes 1,3,6, and 7 of the anime series “Zipang” by Kazuhiro Furuhashi. I thought this anime was interesting and blended together themes like history, drama, and moral dilemmas into a captivating narrative. The series is set during World War II and follows the crew of the modern Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer, the Mirai. During a routine naval exercise, the Mirai is mysteriously transported back in time to the Battle of Midway in 1942. Faced with the ethical dilemma of intervening in a war that they know the outcome of, the crew grapples with their duty as modern Japanese citizens and the consequences of altering history. One of the most compelling aspects of "Zipang" is its exploration of moral ambiguity. As the crew navigates the complexities of their situation, they are forced to confront the consequences of their actions. Should they intervene and potentially change the course of history, or should they adhere to a strict non-intervention policy? These questions resonate deeply with viewers, prompting them to reflect on the ethical implications of altering the past. For example, In Episode 3, the crew's moral dilemma becomes palpable when Kadomatsu saves an Imperial Japanese Naval officer from a sinking seaplane. This action sparks a divide among the crew, as they grapple with the realization that their intervention may have changed the course of history. Moreover, "Zipang" excels in its portrayal of historical accuracy. The anime was produced in collaboration with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force which (JMSDF) making it more authentic and accurate. Director Kazuhiro Furuhashi pays attention to detail, ensuring that the events depicted in the anime remain faithful to real-world history. From the depiction of iconic battleships like the Yamato and Nagato-class battleship to the portrayal of historical figures, every aspect of the show is authentic, adding an extra layer of depth to the story. This anime series was interesting because I feel like we haven’t seen an anime that specifically focused on soldiers during World War II. We watched Barefoot Gen and Grave of Fireflies but those focused more on civilians during the war rather than soldiers.

I actually really enjoyed watching Welcome to the NHK and might watch more of it this summer. The comedy of this show landed for me, though I will agree that a lot of it is pretty distasteful and fan-service heavy. It’s not for everyone, especially if you don’t feel a connection with the characters. Speaking of which, while I mostly pitied the hikikomori characters such as Satou and Yamazaki, I did find some aspects of their lives to be somewhat relatable, such as occasionally having intrusive paranoia or comparing the quality of my life with that of others (minus the degeneracy, though). Also, in my opinion, while the show definitely contains themes of mental struggles, it never takes itself too seriously. Case in point: they made the scene of a (prevented) group suicide really funny.

Something that resonated with me in particular was when Satou questioned whether creating and releasing a digital game counts toward escaping his life as a hikikomori. As a Computer Science major who has an interest in game development, I have impostor syndrome as well, where I sometimes doubt whether my abilities are up to snuff or whether I’m doing any “real work” that matters at all to anyone. It’s easy to compare your routine to that of others, especially when you’re doing things digitally and don’t have anything that can be physically presented. I think a lot of people nowadays go through that to some extent, though.

I’m disappointed that we didn’t get to actually learn about the conspiracy that Satou and Hitomi brought up, unless I happened to miss something. They kind of just mention it at different times to justify their actions. It would be nice to receive more lore regarding the NHK and their motives.