Haha, that's some Marxist frustration in the second quote. It's obviously true that anime does a bad job of developing good protagonists most of the time. That's true of most mediums.
1988. I assume he means that the characters have no reason to do what they do beside the fact that it is their role - but we're not given a reason for them to be in that role. I trimmed the quote somewhat.
1988. I assume he means that the characters have no reason to do what they do beside the fact that it is their role - but we're not given a reason for them to be in that role.
Ultima got destroyed by deadly radiation from an exploding star!
hahaha I guess that means Stellvia wins the Astroball tournament! Wait what? When did this show start to get serious? I didn't skip an episode did I? 9 comes after 8. Was there an 8.5 which was a stereotypical anime onsen episode set to the backdrop of a
neighboring star going supernova
? Or maybe I've just been trolled. All this happy atmosphere and light hearted character banter has been setting us all up for the fall.
The people of "Somewhere in Japan" look on with nonchalance at the impending devestation.
So I mean really, we start the episode by learning that
another radiation wave had obliterated Ultima. Thankfully the local resident hot chick Rinna (the one Haly watches porn of) had escaped an episode earlier to play space jousting with Shima. Not only that, but we learn that in TWO DAYS the fallout will reach Earth. Time for the "Great Mission"? Already? But uh...it's episode 9 guys, that can't be right?
Anyway, shit does indeed get serious and all of Stellvia locks down to prepare for shock from the impact etc. These exploding stars are apparently dangerous stuff, with explosions reminiscent of Captain Falcon defeating Black Shadow with a Falcon Punch that simultaneously destroyed the entire galaxy. The first wave from the star exploding (189 years previously) nearly destroyed all of humanity and it was only electromagnetic. Now the second wave will have er..."pieces of the star"...right...anyway...it'll be presumably more dangerous.
The plan for Stellvia is to prepare and maintain a barrier over themselves, the Earth and Luna. A last line of defense, if you will. To add to the dramatic effect, this episode intermitently reminds you how long till it all goes down. It's actually really effective.
This SHAFT headtilt brought to you in glorious forced 16:9
It's not all doom and gloom though, instead (to my relief) Stellvia retreats to it's more familiar territory of coming of age themes, comedy, romance and of course, character development.
Shima and potential love interest Kouta are doing training in their Biancas of firing the field generators, or something. Anyway, Kouta does really well. Again. This guy is supremely talented but seemingly has a morbid fear of anyone finding out.
Buckling under pressure, Shima is Shima and messes up. She gets down about it, of course and phones her family. It's an emotional call, with equally emotional music. I've not really commented on the music so far, but it's been really good and always appropriate. Her family are preparing to move into bunkers and are all too aware of the danger Shima is in. She tries to keep smiling though and tells them to call her the day after tomorrow. Smooth.
This whole episode could almost be the stereotypical "night before", but in typical Stellvia fashion it's really an episode to itself. Shima's tears, a standard already, were there in droves. Her confidence built, she's ready for the Great Mission and so am I! Let's do this! Cue end credits. Ok maybe it was a stereotypical "night before" episode, but I enjoyed it anyway. Also we had the first murmurings of
Shima's romantic feelings for Captain Awesome Kouta.
If AnimeGAF has taught me anything it's don't play the shipping game and if you do, don't play it with Chihayafuru. This time round though, it should be fairly easy. What's the worst that could happen? For now, there's bigger fish to fry and for the first time this show ends with a cliffhanger. Bring it on.
If I do it often enough you'll get used to it, then 4:3 anime just won't look right to you any more; a problem I live with every day. Misery loves company.
If I do it often enough you'll get used to it, then 4:3 anime just won't look right to you any more; a problem I live with every day. Misery loves company.
If I do it often enough you'll get used to it, then 4:3 anime just won't look right to you any more; a problem I live with every day. Misery loves company.
Mundane people working on mundane projects for mundane spectators, with mundane protagonists in (sometimes) exciting situations... I see it as something normal if you want to connect with the viewer, to let identify themselves with the state of affairs.
The problem is that Mr. Miyazaki believes he is some kind of outcast from society, or something!
Mundane people working on mundane projects for mundane spectators, with mundane protagonists in (sometimes) exciting situations... I see it as something normal if you want to connect with the viewer, some kind of self-identification.
The problem is that Mr. Miyazaki believes he is an some kind of outcast from society, or something!
Well, I didn't mean to connect "mundane" and "boring." My point is you can have good, interesting protagonists with mundane jobs, and bad, boring protagonists with incredibly interesting jobs. It's about the inner life and development of the character, not their outer circumstances.
Just to clarify, in this particular essay Miyazaki goes completely off the rails and starts linking stuff together without much reasoned argument. For example:
Loss of motive. Japanese animation is a testimony to the horrors that occur when people keep producing works that don't assign independent motivations to protagonists based on some sort of value system. You can't revile opponents just because you're a player on the Yomiuri Giants baseball team and they're on the Chuinchi Dragons, the Hiroshima Carp, or the Hanshin Tigers. If that's the case, everything merely devolves into a situation where no one wants to lose and everyone's in the same boat. Lots of robot-space war anime shows like this have been produced, and the cast of characters is usually little more than a crown of scattered young people. Young viewers originally saw this is a simulation of society that they would eventually have to participate in and accepted the schizoid deception as reality, but they also quickly sickened of these shows.
Well, I didn't mean to connect "mundane" and "boring." My point is you can have good, interesting protagonists with mundane jobs, and bad, boring protagonists with incredibly interesting jobs. It's about the inner life and development of the character, not their outer circumstances.
Well, I didn't mean to connect "mundane" and "boring." My point is you can have good, interesting protagonists with mundane jobs, and bad, boring protagonists with incredibly interesting jobs. It's about the inner life and development of the character, not their outer circumstances.
From numerous articles that I've read, old Miyazaki would not be a fan of new Miyazaki at all. In fact there are numerous times where he criticizes stuff that you'd find in Ponyo or Howl's Moving Castle.
If I do it often enough you'll get used to it, then 4:3 anime just won't look right to you any more; a problem I live with every day. Misery loves company.
Well, it's not like there are many places left to go with mechanical design that are completely 'out there'. After four decades of creations, of all shapes, scales, textures and aesthetics it's pretty difficult to be 'wholly original'.
I'm ok with tsunderes by the way, as long as they arent Kugilolis.
I guess that schtick is just played out to the point where Im completely sick of it.