apartments as venues of mysterious violence are very interesting. when you think of this sort of thing re: rider, the second episode's bat man comes to mind, but the (2016) amazon ant colony and the strange disappearance of the previous ryuki rider are also often foremost for me
i feel that… such a thing in a venue of what is supposed to be a home, with both families and with the strangely alienated entities of neighbors (as by that stranger danger apprehension or the depersonalizing of professional conduct), in such contained and close spaces has such a stark feel to it. additionally, the strangely impenetrable-yet-paper-thin veneer that comes to be as an outside observer or in late arrival really pulls on one's thoughts.
both as sites of humanity and sites of violence, the sense of location as autopsy becomes particularly strong in such instances for me.
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i kind of want to re-organize those so that they're post-able but i kind of have no idea how to make them proper cleanly distinct and complete thoughts. here's some excerpts for fun though:
(re: the first episode) "[doctor ryuuichirou's] intent feels very much that, despite ryuusei's creation as a machine--furthermore as a murder robot created in service of the same callous churn of war and the world that killed his son, that continues to heartlessly dispose of lives for profit--he wants to impress upon this life he has brought into the world that that such bloodshed is not the end of him. even amid the tumult, that he can be a person that can (and with the responsibilty of his power and existence, indeed perhaps must) beget good things."
"there is a characterization of ryuusei by loss (of his father, as well as to have lost his first battle), a superhuman robot's origin as by a sharp realization of powerlessness."
(re: examining robot parallels) "the two are characterized by encounters and realizations of solitude and loneliness. ryuusei's anguish at the loss that heralded his arrival into the world (the loss that preluded him, his stranding in time and intention and being, the humanity he explores, pursues, and garners that connects him despite that). topgunder's best friend having betrayed him--that he insists on what he believes is solitude in the wake of it."
"in seeking to sharpen his killing philosophy and be an honorable assassin, topgunder intends to make something deeper with more tangible meaning and purpose in what he does, to create something that isn't muddied by opportunism. this also clarifies his disgust with the party in his debut episodes, that everyone there is seeking to satisfy themselves."
"connections with others can often be unknowable. for topgunder, he has come to presume bitterness that empty space, and thus rebuffs it before it can hurt him. taking orders and leveling a rifle, these things can be predicted and understood, like the trajectory of a bullet. maybe you can find some dignity in best realizing the directive you have been given--supposed happiness in remaining a tool that is used and best serves some kind of means."
"the regard with both such curiosity and loneliness is very particular to the two. similar to ryuusei's awe with the beauty and preciousness of human beings, topgunder's gaze at times feels awed by metalder's warmth and kindness."
there's also a vague train of thought i've had about the season about like, the themes of eating and cooking and philosophies re: food and relationships and humanity. like... as it relates to potential desires to monopolize or to nourish, as it passed along through relationships in the body as well as in one's habits, about things that are untouchable but that are still hungered for, etc
there's a general atmosphere about the boundaries of desires and how blurry and muddled that gets at times 💠the way those sort of things can consume the beholder as well ("it is a kind of bondage, don't you think"--both the model and the artist being held by the act)
very nice visual motifs of solemn lone figures (particularly, the continuity of the stalks of the spider lilies and the figures in the warped heat of the concrete)...
the characters' natures are very much elusive or otherwise hidden, so there's various elsewhere-directed gestures and sentiments placed in parallel instead that make the direct touches feel so much more particular.
especially here, it is presented as an impossibility (the premise of a duel, the continual missing of cueballs, sonoi's conclusion that he must also die in their fight; it must be this way, it must be that it cannot be)--irreconcilably discrete despite a remarkable vastness.
blade and the themes of trepidation and fear regarding the body make the instances of happiness and triumph with the characters' made and loved selves feel so especially impactful
those first episodes really are pretty disorienting to watch, but the heavy anxiety in that early arc is revisited by some of the most important narrative beats in ways that are very interesting to me (the appearance of joker and the subsequent debut of wild card, as well as king form and that final transformation)...
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the key matter to hibiki is very much mentorship/support and direction and deliberate action in cultivating an awareness of/connection to the self and the relationships we have to the world around us. various processes are shown in a detail that you generally don't see in this sort of genre.
the attention people have to performing send-offs to the oni, packaging mochi made for delivery at tachibana's, the guided/supported piecing together of disk animals, the sights and people on the way to school, chopping firewood and building a hearth--the mundane and the fantastic are detailed in a way that shows how consideration is needed for both. it communicates a very real sense of gathered effort, lends believable weight to hibiki's value towards training, and imbues them with a sense of meaning that you can carry with you
particular to youth, the curiosity towards the building of the world is very much respected and fulfilled here in various ways (things can often become abstracted and strange in various avenues of life; a flood of information and procedure is prescribed and memorized, but simultaneously things feel very rarely explained in clear and tangible ways--there is no time or patience or space for it). in hibiki, the world is rendered more real, more approachable, less of a stranger and more full of wonder.
the way asumu's gaze follows the people of takeshi with that particular admiration and curiosity was always so sweet. it hearkens to how important it feels particularly as a young person when encountering people who fill you with that wonder, who take the time to give deliberate consideration, who broaden the range of the world in both larger and smaller, personal ways...
additionally, it feels strange to mention, but there's a bit of a characteristic wetness to the fighting in the first half that feels somewhat intentional. somewhat related to the pathos of blood, there is a presence to liquids. the usual toku sparks fly away and fizzle out (they, like cg fireballs and such, feel less physical, more fantastic) whereas monster blood and water sticks to the body--it persists on the person
the injuries as well, while oni have increased regenerative power, there was focus on doing so and the effort expended in such. there is a consideration to these things's tangible sense.
it's a smaller thing compared to other running themes in the season, but i really like the curiosity to some of the interactions between ichijou and rose lady.
she seems to recognize something when she sees him sometimes. i think a lot to when ichijou first sees her interact with gouma with her reaction to being told that he fought kuuga (she holds his face for a bit, with the intent of reaching past gouma to touch kuuga, to wonder at daguva). it feels very strange and unpredictable when you first see it, but with the whole of the context, it's a shockingly fond gesture.
they are both witness and herald to their respective partners. in the scene where they watch each other alone through that curtain of sparks, she feels almost to know him (like her).
that geed is a season themed around "genetics" and that it so thoroughly and insistently expresses the importance of "finding what is important" (though riku begins by feeling lost because he does not know his own origins, that when he eventually does, he is able to reject it precisely because of his forged connections and cultivated feelings) is very nice!
it's a very simple and an obvious sort of message, but i appreciate that it imparts it so wholeheartedly all the same.
the sort of textural sense to its expression is interesting. things feel a little more "bodily" here: that riku was biologically cultivated (described originally "a lump of flesh"), that the little stars are incubated within living beings, that fukuide converts capsules via a process of one of his own organs, etc.
it is sharply purposeful that a kind of functional view towards the individuals involved becomes precisely the antagonist's downfall, but that recognition of the physical in the first place helps communicate it especially well. in my opinion, it gives a tiny bit of visceral grounding and urgency--the sort of curious strangeness at being reminded that we are all also meat, after all.
