Returned!

I'm back at school, and hard at work watching new anime. Unfortunately, my once-faithful sites proved defunct, requiring new software undownloadable on public computers and my Ghost in the Shell ambitions are ruined. Fortunately, I found a new site that may prove fruitful. I'm rewatching Bebop, then maybe Eva, and then something new. I'm going to have fun!

Interlude

Until I return to St. John's, my anime viewing will be sharply limited and I will see few, if any, new material. Over the fall semester, I hope to watch Outlaw Star, Eva, DeathNote, and a few other new ones I'm considering. With anime my problem is opposite the others - I tend to bite off more than I should chew, if you know what I mean. Therefore I mean to strictly control myself and not let my passive side get the best of me.

Disney vs. Anime

It is a very silly question, I know, but I asked it to myself anyway; which is better, Disney or Anime? Perhaps that is the wrong question though. Disney movies are overwhelmingly geared towards a younger audience - take Cinderella, Snow White, and even classics like Beauty and the Beast. Thus Disney's animation is oftentimes beautifully done and the films are engaging, yet they seem a little puerile on occasion. Therein lies the difference, I think. Anime is most certainly not geared towards a younger audience exclusively - Eva, Death Note, Princess Mononoke, Lain, and films like Paprika are very much intended for mature audiences. Who in their right mind would let a six year old watch the final episodes of Eva? Not I! I would slap an R rating on Eva immediately and without second thought. This difference means that anime is free to explore adult themes and complex issues that would evade the mind of a six-year-old. Such a child could easily enjoy an anime classic like Spirited Away but be lost, terrified, and confused in Death Note.

On the other hand, the classic Disney movies (Fox and the Hound, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Robin Hood, The Jungle Book, Bambi, etc.) never lose their innocence and beauty precisely because they are intended to be enjoyed by young children. Even now can I watch those films and deeply appreciate the themes treated in them; friendship, responsibility, love, service, maturity, loss of innocence, and so on. Some part of those works will impact me in some way the anime never will, usually on an emotional level. (I still wish to weep when I watch The Fox and the Hound)

However, anime causes me to think in ways I have never thought before. Death Note, anyone? I am still distressed by that series, and though I'll probably work my way through it again in the fall, it horrifies and entrances me. Lain. Paprika. Princess Mononoke. Grave of the Fireflies (almost unviewable). All these films stirred my intellect and forced me to look at things in a different light; there are no hard and fast answers to the questions they pose and the themes they explore, whether or not they do so at the child's level.

Thus I conclude: my opening question was patently absurd. Disney and anime are far too different to be accurately contrasted though they share the same medium. How can childlike innocence (which all Disney classics display proudly) be compared with the rigorous intellectualism (oftentimes not appropriate for the child) of anime? (I am conveniently ignoring anime films geared towards children like Howl's Moving Castle, Castle in the Sky, etc.) I am convinced they cannot. The very element that makes Disney films themselves is precisely the limitation that anime removes whenever it is convenient. Sometimes both Disney and anime fail at their intended target when creating films or television series, but there can be no dispute over the clear distinction of their methods.

On the Power of Judgment

I believe you are aware that the premise of Death Note is the power the protagonist, Light Yagami, has; namely, to kill anyone he wishes. He wishes to use this power to rid the world of crime and thus he has the best of intentions. However, is an inevitable result of this power tragedy? And what are its implications for Justice and morality? Is it just to kill a criminal? Would it be just for me, if I had this power, to kill men like Osama ben Laden, Muqada al-Sadr, O.J. Simpson, and the like?

I ask this question primarily because the greatest reason I am drawn to Death Note is the similarity to Light that I have - I am worried that did I have this power, I would act precisely as he acts. It may turn out that this is just fine and therefore this is a good thing. But if it is evil and unjust then I truly have something to worry about.

I know that followers of the Way are forbidden to take revenge, as clearly stated by St. Paul and other apostles and even by Our Lord Himself. But is this really revenge? It is killing men who should die! It is killing men who are destroying our world and rotting its very core! How is this so wrong? Do we not authorize the State to do such things? Why then would we forbid such vigilante justice?

The largest impasse that can be raised against using the power of a Death Note for me is the assertion that it is nothing more than another attempt at playing God. Once again, if God does not factor into the equation, I think it is perfectly justified. If I had the opportunity to kill Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao, Castro, Ho Chi Minh, Hitler, Hussein, or renegades like al-Qaeda and Hezbollah, I would do so in a second and without hesitation. But God is in the picture and it is His presence that makes me uneasy. Would it be justified for a Christian to act in this way, playing God? I am inclined to say no but am worried that I would kill them anyway if I had the chance.

Am I a potential mass murderer? Or is it absurd to even speak of it as murder, at least in an unjustified sense since anyone would accept a very clear distinction between killing Pol Pot or others like him and killing innocent people for sport. When a State executes a criminal, is it murder?

Anime Repertoire

Here is a partial list of anime films and TV series I have seen, in roughly chronological order: (partial in the sense of my not remembering completely what we watched in the Anime Club)

• Spirited Away
• Princess Mononoke
• Lain (fragments)
• Akira
• Grave of the Fireflies
• Lain (complete)
• Millennium Actress
• Cowboy Bebop (incomplete)
• Howl's Moving Castle
• Castle in the Sky
• Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
• Paprika
• Steamboy
• Galaxy Express 999
• The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
• Outlaw Star (incomplete)
• Neon Genesis Evangelion
• Death Note

As you can see, it is a fairly good list. I return and edit this post by including other films and such, but this is a good starting point. As stated earlier, I am watching Death Note at the moment, and it is very good. It's very very dark, but very good. A fine series. I can see why Kat likes it, but it's really disturbing sometimes - even more so than Eva!

All of these are worth watching, and most are exceptionally fine; anime classics indeed. If I were a rich man, I would allocate myself an anime budget of ten dollars a month. But instead I am a broke college student who throws all of his money at Weigle Hall and will graduate with at least $20,000 in debt as far as he can see. So it's Internet watching and copyright-violating downloads for the time being. This is second-best, but this second best is pretty bloody good if you ask me.

Pilot

Like many anime enthusiasts, I am starting a weblog on the subject. I am surely not the first one to do this, but have been inspired by no one and no thing save my medium itself - Anime. I have become completely enamored of it, and am very excited to begin this blog.

I first saw anime some time last year (2007) with Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away. His masterpiece, Princess Mononoke followed suit in the next few weeks. And then last fall, as a freshman at St. John's College, I saw many anime films and TV series - almost all of Miyazaki's work, Cowboy Bebop, Haruhi, Eva, Outlaw Star, Millennium Actress, and I am now in the process of devouring Death Note.

Welcome to my secret interest.