Cormier Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

So this week we watched Nausicaa, which I think was an okay film. It was slightly hard to watch due to my “restlessness”, but overall I think it was enjoyable. Like Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa deals with environmental concerns and also has the theme of powerful women. Nausicaa willingly fights for her people and even protects the insects that threaten their existence. She’s also a very peaceful person and tries to solve problems without resorting to violence, unlike San from Princess Mononoke. The one time she is violent in the film is when her father was attacked. And even then she felt guilty for letting her anger allow her kill and hurt others. Also like San, she loves nature and is willing to protect it.

Though the environmental issues in both Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa are caused by humans, I found it interesting that Princess Mononoke takes place in the past while Nausicaa is post-apocalyptic and set in the future. In both cases of the films, the environment and ecology was only messed up because of the actions of humans. I’d say that it’s kind of the same thing in real life. Plant too many crops consistently on one plot of land, the soil will become infertile, etc. Nature replenishes itself, but it’s humans who hinder the process and even make the problem worse. The fact that the earth, or nature,  doesn’t really need humans is something I never really thought of before. It makes me feel like a parasite almost =/

Cormier Ah! My Goddess

So this week we watched Ah! My Goddess.  After becoming extremely frustrated with the streaming, I went to YouTube, where, luckily, there was a subtitled version of the movie. But I actually really enjoyed it. It’s obvious that it’s a shojo, or an anime targeted to girls, but I found it to be really cute. I also liked the romance too. Compared to the other anime we’ve watched, such as Vampire Hunter D, where the romance was just corny and cliché’d, or Ninja Scroll, where it was just awkward and even humorous at some points, Keiichi and Belldandy make an adorable and believable couple. It’s just straight up adorable when they walk through the judgment gate together. I wonder if it’s weird that I enjoyed the romance twists in the movie. From Belldandy and Keiichi to Belldandy and Celestin to Keiichi and Morgan. I just enjoyed it all, haha.

Ah! My Goddess also has the theme of powerful women again. The main roles in the movie, other than Keiichi and Celestin, are female. It’s also interesting because Celestin, one of the few male characters, is also the villain. But like Lady Eboshi in Princess Mononoke, it’s unclear whether or not he’s really the bad guy. He, also like Lady Eboshi, desires a utopia free from suffering. So he intends to destroy the world and begin with a fresh start. Morgan, the fairy princess’s, allegiance is also unclear. Even though she can also be considered a villain, she only wanted to love again. And she even went after Keiichi, so I was kind of like, “Whoa.”

But overall, A!MG was good. I liked it.

Belldandy!

Cormier Princess Mononoke

So we watched Princess Mononoke this week and I really liked it! The best parts were Xavi’s snoring and the part where the wolf grabs Ashitaka’s head and starts shaking him around! Sooo funny! But anyway, one of the most interesting characters in the anime is Lady Aboshi. In a way, she has two sides to her personality because she’s kind yet destructive. She rescues several prostitutes and lepers, the outcasts in society, and they become some of the most productive and powerful people in Iron Town. However, the effect the “sustainability” of Iron Town has on the surrounding environment is horrible and many of the animals and plant life either die off or are in danger of dying. Lady Aboshi is also kind of greedy because even though she knows her actions will destroy the environment, her dream of expanding Iron Town holds more weight than the habitats in the forest.

What strikes me as really interesting about Princess Mononoke though is the powerful role women have throughout the movie. Lady Aboshi is the leader of Iron Town and the men in the town support her. The women in the town are in charge of creating the iron, which is the town’s main resource. Also, San’s mother, the wolf goddess, is also shown to be smarter and wiser than the boar god. Some people may think that women’s roles in this anime may be a sign that women may be getting better, or more prominent roles in media, but I think it’s slightly strange that Lady Aboshi is a lead female character but she’s portrayed as having evil intentions. And her plans are also foiled. It kind of makes me wonder if women have unsuccessful roles in the anime on purpose or something. I don’t know, but it’s just something I thought of.

Lady Aboshi and San fighting. GET IT

Cormier Grave of the Fireflies

So in Grave of the Fireflies, a 14 year old boy, Seita, and his 4 year old sister, Setsuko, are in the midst of World War II. Their town is unfortunate enough to suffer from several air raids throughout the film and their mother is killed during one. One of the aspects of the movie that I really enjoyed was the fact that Setsuko, in a way, was mature for a child. Even though Seita refrained from telling Setsuko that their mother had died, Setsuko already knew. And even though she was upset, she never openly had a breakdown like any normal 4 year old child would. The fact that Setsuko was under circumstances that no child should ever have to endure, she handled her situation fairly well. In society (especially American society), we really don’t give children credit for understanding things labeled as “for adults.” But children ask a lot of questions and that in itself shows that they want to learn things. Even though they don’t always understand the answers, the question “Why?” is a huge one. Such as when Setsuko asks, “Why do fireflies live so shortly?” or something along the lines of that.

I also feel as if Seita isn’t given enough credit for what he does throughout the movie too. I suppose the age of 14 can still be considered to be a “kid” right? But Seita does so much to take care of Setsuko. He finds food, plays with her, carries her, cooks, bathes her, and everything else their aunt was too much of a “b-word” to do. Like she was steady complaining about how he never did anything, but he was taking care of his sister! Honestly, I wish someone would tell me that. Seriously. But the love that they had for each other was so sweet. The movie was so good in that aspect and I actually wish that I cried. But it was horrible how Setsuko’s ashes were tossed away carelessly by the guard man and Seita was never properly buried or cremated. A really unfortunate end for two lovable characters. R.I.P.

Gah, they're so adorable

But on an ending note, it was really sad to read that the author of the novel, The Grave of the Fireflies, based the novel on his own experiences and that it was a way of relieving himself of the guilt he felt for the death of his baby sister. So sad.

I wouldn't know how to feel about a live action version, but I LOVE this picture :')

Cormier Harp of Burma

So this week’s anime was Harp of Burma. I actually liked it compared to Botchan, which I think is also in like the “Anime Classics” dvd. In the film, a group of World War II soldiers are assigned in Burma until they learn that the war is over and Japan surrendered. One member of their squadron, Mizushima, goes on a mission to get a group of fellow Japanese to surrender but gets wounded while on assignment. When he finally recovers and takes on the guise of a monk, he sees the decaying bodies of all the Japanese soldiers who died fighting in the war and he is unable to cope. Rather than going back to Japan with his team, he dedicates his life to burying the bodies.

Overall, I’d say that it’s just interesting to see the Japanese view of death. Since the Shinto religion doesn’t really promise an afterlife, the Japanese seem to celebrate their lives. Suicide is only valid if it’s honorable, such as the death of Kuribayashi, who was mortally wounded in battle. Suicide to escape punishment or the harshness or life or something of the like is deemed cowardly. From what I’ve seen, there aren’t any examples of “honorable” suicide in America because it’s generally frowned upon here. And maybe that’s because we have such a Christian background that really denounces suicide and even calls it a sin.

Kuribayashi from Letters From Iwo Jima

The best thing I read out of the chapter was probably about the fact that in anime, characters can die at any time or place. Even lead characters. But in America, the good guys always win and main characters usually don’t die. One thing I’ve noticed is that death is also somewhat unacceptable in American literature. If you think about certain books like Lord of the Flies (where the most sensible boys on the island both get killed), A Separate Peace, The Great Gatsby, and Of Mice and Men, lead characters have all died and these books have all ended up on the banned books list. Maybe their banned status isn’t linked to the deaths of lead characters, but it’s something a lot of banned books have in common. Just some food for thought :)

Lenny and George from Of Mice and Men, "LENNY, WE AIN'T GOT NO KETCHUP " 

Cormier Vampire Hunter D

So for Vampire Hunter D I can't say that I enjoyed it much. Most of the movie was spent wishing it would end. I had never heard of spaghetti westerns before watching this movie and I know little to nothing about vampires, but it was interesting to see the connection between Vampire Hunter D and western movies.

Doris, who lives in a small country town, is a bit of a typical damsel-in-distress who gets bitten by a 10,000 year old vampire who is bored with his life. Then D, the mysterious vampiel who's the biological son of Dracula, comes to help her. And of course they fall in love. But I thought it was so strange that D just rode away at the end and Doris just waved back at him. Did they totally forget that they were in love?

A semi-interesting character was Lamika, another vampiel who believed she had noble blood. I wish it was stressed more in the movie about the vampires' ancestry and the tainting of their family line. But overall I think that Vampire Hunter D is like a western and supernatural (sort of) at the same time.

Cormier Perfect Blue

So this week, we watched Perfect Blue and I have to say that it's up there with Akira. Even though it was really confusing at times, it was really enjoyable even with outrageous comments and laughter in the background. I have to say that one of the most interesting characters to me was Me-Mania. First of all, his appearance is just atrocious and if I ever saw someone like that in a dark alley I'd be GONE. His dead-looking eye and his chipped teeth just make him look beyond creepy. In a way he's like the perfect stalker. His obsession with Mima's pop idol image leads him to believe that he is her and he makes the diary webpage where he claims to be her. This, in addition to Rumi's murders and imitations of pop idol Mima, drives Mima crazy and leads her to question what's real and what isn't. He kind of despises Mima's new image as an actress and goes out of his way to destroy it to get "revenge" for pop idol Mima. If that makes any sense. Though we didn't touch on it in class, was I the only one who thought that Me-Mania's voice was also really creepy?

SO GROSS!! 

Another really horrible aspect of the anime was the rape scene. It's hard to watch something like that and keep a straight face, but sometimes the rape scenes, violence, and gore really contribute to the film as a whole because it just shows the seriousness behind what the characters are going through as the plot develops. Especially in this case because right after the rape scene, Mima really starts to lose her sense of self and her innocence. I haven't seen all of Black Swan except for the 20 minutes we saw in class (I really want to finish watching it though), but from what I know about the movie, Nina starts to lose her innocence with her portrayal of the Black Swan right? The similarities between Nina and Mima such as their professions in the arts, names, and loss of innocence are really interesting. Black Swan may be like an updated version of Perfect Blue!

Perfect Blue/Black Swan movie poster!