Half-Masked

See, this is why I like Roger Ebert. When you agree with him, he doesn’t just preach to the choir. He finds a way to say something completely new about a subject. He expresses those thoughts to you in ways no other critic even thinks to attempt, and words them in ways that make you really think about what he’s said. And when you disagree with him, he finds a way to make a convincing case for his feelings. I never think “ah, he’s just an idiot”. He has a way of opening up a film, to show things I would never have noticed. This is why I like comparing notes about anything, with anyone for that matter. This world is full of surprises, some of them can only be seen one person at a time.

I really liked his review of The Dark Knight, but a part of me was hoping he’d gone a little more in-depth about the Joker. I knew he’d find a way to talk about him in a way no one else would, so he wouldn’t just be telling me what I already know. The road he chose was a valid one though, finding a way to say as little, and yet all that needs to be said about that character. Sometimes it’s better to let the work speak for itself.

For his “Elevating Oscar Picks” articles, he gave us that elaboration I’ve been waiting for, and he does not disappoint. I thought I had this character figured out, but then Roger chimes in with an angle I’d never considered: That Heath’s Joker is a man of immense self-loathing. He has a point. In fact, whenever I see the picture of that character he chose to headline the article, I don’t see a smile there. I see a painted expression, perhaps an attempt at a grin, but what I think it hides is a deep-rooted anger, transmuted to angry laughter, concentrated to laser-perfection and vented through his swath of violence and millions of ticks. I always knew where he was aiming his contempt, but I never considered the source of his ammunition.

END OF LINE

~A.H.

"YAAAaayy!"

Kagura was added a little too late into Azumanga Daioh, but she still managed to leave a good impression on me. It’s regrettable that she isn’t seen with the rest of the cast very often, so she doesn’t get to take part in their memorable experiences as much as I’d have liked her to. She’s the Terry Gilliam of these Pythons. I don’t know if this is in keeping true to the manga or an independent artistic decision, but by the time I actually started to care about her, it was only a couple of episodes toward the series finale. Nonetheless, there are a couple of scenes that stand out for me, and a few reasons why I wish she’d been given more of a head-start(when she keeps Chiyo company on a late-night trip to a convenience store, for example).

Alternate title: "The Melancholy of Kagura Suzumiya"

Firstly, I like her voice. Oh, that voice. I don’t have the words to describe it, because I’ve never heard anything quite like how she sounds. The solution the american dub came to was “dumb blonde”. They missed the mark by about a continent, but in all fairness they did have their work cut out for them. The tan and the hair are a nice touch as well. There is something inherently cat-like about her appearance. Little details, I know, but they help her stand out.

Pictured: Stinko-Man

She’s also not a part of a pair of characters, like Yomi & Tomo, Nyamo & Yukari or Kaorin & Chihiro. She’s able to stand on her own merits, although she does attempt to be Sakaki’s rival early on. When she fails at this, she finds it’s much easier to just be her pal(if you can’t beat ‘em…). Even though she doesn’t realize that her attempts actually upset Sakaki(she scares away cats so they won’t bite her, but that means Sakaki can’t keep trying to pet them). I think this is the show’s way of saying that anime rivalries are pretty stupid, and best abandoned.

Pictured: The Internet.

Besides, she already has that with Tomo, who treats her like a second Yomi. You’d think they’d be great friends, since they share so much in common. They’re both wildly competitive tomboys who are self-admitted boneheads. Maybe Tomo doesn’t like seeing a reflection of herself. And since she’s added into the main roster of the girls later into the show, she’s not privy to the “dance of frustration”. Tomo says or does something with way more energy than is necessary, usually complicating matters. This in turn allows the girls to spend time working together to set things straight. Usually Yomi or one of the teachers will insult her/get her back in line, she’ll try to justify it or place blame on someone else, and the dance begins anew.

That's like Charles Manson saying "You crayzeh!"

Kagura isn’t really in on it, though. She and Tomo are horseplaying, and Kagura accidentally knocks over a “tent” Chiyo and Yomi are setting up for the athletics festival. Tomo does her usual delightfully bothersome shouting ritual. She’s expecting Kagura to say “Shut up!”, or something along those lines. She’s expecting her to get annoyed. She didn’t expect her to be completely overwhelmed with guilt and teeter past the edge of tears. Neither did I.

I theorize that a lot of people don’t really feel guilt. They try to validate themselves, or misdirect blame. They make excuses. “Oh, mistakes happen.” “It must be fate.” “It wasn’t me!”. Lying, that’s another thing most of us will do to get out of facing our mistakes and trying to make amends. Kids and CEO’s pull this shit all of the time.

The reason I try(TRY, not succeed) to be considerate to those around me, to be a decent person, even if it comes at my own cost, is because I know all too well that horrible sinking feeling. I know what it means to feel guilty. I’ve done stupid things in my time, things that have hurt or disappointed others. All of us have. Even when the uh… “victims”? Is that too strong a word? I mean, it’s not like I’ve ever killed a person or anything. In fact, aside from the usual “file-sharing”, I’m not the kind of person to go around committing crimes. I don’t even drink. I’m as vanilla as they come.

But I remember all too well that sensation of being devoured, and knowing that I’ve deserved every second of that awful feeling. And it never feels like it’s enough to make up for the disappointment caused, even if the disappointed assure me that it’s nothing to beat myself up over. I don’t even remember anything specific I’ve done to cause such grief in others OR myself. I think maybe I stole a pencil or something in the 4th grade. I don’t know anymore. Must’ve blocked those events out. The feelings are branded to the soul, however.

This is demonstrated in a simple, yet no-less terrific little piece of episode 23, when her self-pity is shown as her waist-deep in a black, crushing void. She says: “Why am I so rough with handling things?”, and this tells me that this is inside of her battered soul, and not something she is saying out loud. I know what she’s feeling, because I’ve occupied that obsidian dimension more times than I can count.

Maybe it comes down to a matter of pride? Someone with a lot of self-respect might think: “What? Me? I can’t be wrong! There must be some mistake! It must be someone else’s fault!” Speaking as the polar opposite of this thought-process, some times I just naturally assume that if something is wrong in my life, then it is a direct result of my own existence, somehow. Perhaps this isn’t healthy. But then, I just ate fried cheese on an expired tortilla wrap. A healthy lifestyle is not one of my advertised features.

But this isn’t all about me, is it? Kagura is an athlete in training. The other girls, Chiyo in particular, are impressed that she is so focused on one aspect of her life: sports. Running. Her swim-team… and uh… I guess that’s it. That’s a lot of pressure to improve and succeed. The other girls have scattered focus on foods, events, diets, studies, meeting up with friends now and then, and all manner of things. Kagura isn’t the brightest crayon in the box, however(something Tomo, who isn’t exactly a rocket scientist herself, cheerfully points out in order to rile her up). She’s not smart enough to get decent grades, and it didn’t seem like she had a lot of friends prior to entering the main cast of Azumanga Daioh. So she’s focused on getting an athletic scholarship. She spends her free time exercising, training. She’s put all of her chips on being physically excellent.

That’s a risky gamble. Look at all of the comedians who started out as sports players who had to retire due to injuries. At least they had comedy to fall back on. Devoting all of your goals into one aspect of yourself that can be quickly and randomly robbed from you like that, that’s enough pressure to turn coal into diamonds. And she’s not exactly the boastful type either, which leads me to believe that she doesn’t have the best opinion of herself. The thought of being consistently beaten by Sakaki in athletic events, despite Sakaki never needing to train as hard as her must weigh deep.

And see how quickly she tries to defend herself from Tomo’s playful jabbings? She has to defend her vulnerable spots. There’s no insulated layer of egotism or self-assurance to protect her. By putting that much focus on one thing, she stands to lose a lot more than if she’d spread those priorities out. This is someone who takes failure very seriously, and she sees she’s just failed her friends. Chiyo and Yomi don’t see it as being that bad, but she does.

So she decides not to bark back at Tomo(now completely stunned, and trying to get Kagura to be upset at her so she’ll stop directing it inwards). Instead, she gives more than one apology to Chiyo for being unable to control her rough-housing. Then she tries to punish herself, as I’ve done in many-a guilt-ridden time in my own life. She tries to rebuilt the tent by herself.

Keeping in mind that we’re not talking about the little kid character, who you’d think would be more emotionally vulnerable. This is a young adult, and a strong one at that, but her greatest shortcoming is that she’s not aware of it. And now she’s reduced to tears over her actions. Fortunate then, that she is friends with understanding and compassionate young women. They comfort her, let her know that it’s not so bad, and get back to building the tent with smiles on their big anime faces.

Is it weird to feel proud of cartoon characters? Here I was, at Episode 23, thinking this show didn’t have any more surprises for me. They know how little time they have left to be in the same place, in the same circle. They’d rather maximize their happiness than to dwell on their faults.

Food goes in here!

Life can never be the way it is shown in Azumanga Daioh, but that’s not what I think about when I watch it. It convinces me that this is what life SHOULD be like. This is the way people should treat each other. This is the way life would be if we really deserved it.

END OF LINE

~A.H.

The following are some of my favourite selections of music from both of the official soundtracks to Azumanga Daioh. Due to the temporary nature of any Youtube video that is not unwatchable webcam dreck, if any of these links go down by the time you read this, I’d try Amazon.com. In fact, I’d attempt looking to buy these CD’s even if the youtube links are still up.

Or I would, if I had a freaking credit card. Goddamnit.

This show would not be what it is without these songs in the background, accompanying the characters almost every step of the way.

(Also, my apologies, for I do not know what most of these tracks are called in English):

~~~~~~

“Sakura, Sake”

Simple and short, but I love it when an episode ends with this song. I wouldn’t call it “ska”, because it’s at a slower tempo and it lacks frustrated compositions. In fact, I’m not even sure why the word “ska” comes to mind. That’s almost insulting to it.

===

“Shuhgaku ryokoh desuka”

Is there any possible combination of notes and instruments more perfect than 1:02-1:21?

===

“Osanpo Desu”

Great acoustic guitar/orchestral intro, and a pleasant, flutey tune to follow(oh shut up, I never said I was good at describing musical terminology… isness…icoty…). For some reason this is the first track I remember, even though it’s not the first song you hear in the starting episode. The guitar segment is used at one of the best parts of the series, when Nyamo drunkenly teaches the girls about the birds and the bees. We see the passage of time, and the cycle of life on Earth, but all sound except the guitar and string instruments is drowned out. It’s funny the first time, but hilarious the second when Nyamo, with facial expressions alone, is confronted with the effects of her prior speech the next morning through a hangover.

===

“Shin Gakki(6)”

There are several variations on this theme, but this one is my favourite. I like that it’s less cheery than the others, and I’ll always associate it with Osaka first explaining to the audience how she’s considered “slow”, while she half-mindedly plays with a bar of soap in the school washroom.

===

“Like This Sky”

This is all we hear during the Victory Parade scene. That article sums up my thoughts on everything in that scene. It, and several other scenes that use this music would be much less than they are without it.

END OF LINE

~A.H.

You know? It’s nice to read an article about black characters in video games by a black video game fan, that doesn’t complain that the chick in Resident Evil 5 “isn’t black enough”.

Which, really, is one of the stupidest complaints I’ve ever heard, and this isn’t just limited to video games. “Isn’t black enough“? That depends greatly on what each of our definitions of “black” is. What would be “black enough”? This is a complaint I’ve actually heard. Does it matter if they’re Haitian? What if they’re from India? Or the Dominican Republic? Is being educated, well-spoken or responsible compared to a racist stereotype not black enough? Is Cole Train in Gears of War “black enough”? Does a black character in a video game have to speak only in ebonics to be black? Is it merely a matter of appearances? Like, is there a specific point, a divider line you could say, at which someone with strong African heritage is somehow not black, because their skin isn’t dark enough? If you think so, here’s an article about Victor Varnado.

I agree with pretty much everything Darius White had to say, including his sentiment that Sazh Katzroy in FFXIII has the potential to be either really awful, or so awful that he pulls a Shatner, comes right back around and becomes awesome. It could go either way at this point. I hear he’s supposed to be a pretty decent, if not virtuous guy, so one could make the assumption that the script won’t call for him to be a Wacky Black Guy. The ball is now in the court of whoever provides his voice.

NOTE: While I’m here, I might as well tackle a not-so-unrelated subject. I went to my friend’s house the other day, and he has the Resident Evil 5 demo. When prompted to decide who to play as, Chris Redfield or Sheva Alomar, I went with Sheva. Chris is Chris alright, he’s a staple face of the series, but there’s something I like about Sheva. I certainly wouldn’t say she’s “not black enough”, just because the zombies have a darker skin tone than her.

That’s another thing, all of this controversy about RE 5 being a game where you shoot black zombies. There are several things wrong with the line of thinking that this game is “racist” because of that:

1. They’re polygons. They’re wireframes. They’re non-real computer animations, for crying out loud.
2. THEY’RE ZOMBIES. They’re not black people. They’re not African. They were in context of the story at some point, yes. But they’re not “black” anymore. Now they are fucking zombies. Zombification knows no prejudices. It doesn’t matter if before you were infected you were male, female, white, black, christian, jew, muslim, scientologist, none of that matters. You’re a fucking Zombie now. And fucking Zombies will fucking EAT YOU. Unless you kill them to (re?)death. They instigate the violence and cannot be reasoned with. Self-defence against a mindless engine of cranial violence is not “racist”. If the fucking Zombies decide to attack you with pieces of chicken, or all of them talk like Chris Tucker, then yeah, that’d be a little insensitive. Trying to make the case that this game is racist because you kill many “black people” would only be true if those black people were innocent civilians minding their own business and doing absolutely nothing to warrant shooting them in the head. These are not “innocent civilians”. These are murder-machines(AKA: fucking Zombies). It would, however, be racist to have to shoot Sheva, and only then if the reasoning behind that would be solely because of her ethnicity.
3. THE GAME TAKES PLACE IN AFRICA! You know, where the whole mythology of the fucking Zombie was born? Yeah, not everyone from Africa is black, but what do you expect? RUSSIANS?! If this game took place in Switzerland or Alabama and the focus was on shooting black zombies, then there’d be reason for outrage. But we’re talking about a continent bursting at the seams with black people. This may surprise those of you hungry for something to make into a civil-rights movement, but if a zombie outbreak ever does occur in an area heavily populated by people with dark skin, then you’re going to see a lot of zombies with dark skin. This is not the result of racism or cultural ignorance on the part of Capcom. That is what would happen, unless the catalyst were some strain of virus that only turns white people into fucking Zombies. If you become a fucking Zombie, you’re fair game. No one is going to give you a break if you were once black or asian or a Native American. And they shouldn’t feel bad about it. Nor should we campaign for the plight of imaginary monsters hell-bent on devouring living flesh just because they have darker skin than most GREEN OR GRAY FUCKING ZOMBIES.

END OF LINE
~A.H.

If only I’d have known Andy Serkis would do the job of summarizing my thoughts on whether or not Games are Art. I certainly wouldn’t have attempted numerous, epic opinions arriving at the same conclusion he did, but in only a couple of sentences.

“Games — there’s no heart in them. They’re not about anything that is lasting. We put so much into the writing of film scripts and plays, but not into games. And games are where the audience is going to be,“

Why wasn’t I ever able to say that, or in that few words? What is WRONG with me? Why do I always have to have such a big mouth? =(

I don’t know. Unfortunately for all of you, this will not stop me from delivering the following wall of text.

This is a sad observation. The reason the way things are is because none of the big, medium or small game developers think a story is important. They might say it to generate PR, but they do not walk that walk. The last game I’ve played that was comparable to even a mediocre book was Shadow of the Colossus, and that was 4 years ago. Maybe Portal and Bioshock, and that’s a maybe with a capital “M”. I mean, how much would people like movies if the only films that ever got made were by Michael Bay, Uwe Boll and Guy Ritchie? We’d have given up on cinema a long time ago, and never looked back. I don’t want that to happen to video games, but if nobody taps the well, I will forever thirst for stimulation beyond what tickles our hand-eye-coordination.

I understand that gameplay is important. KOTOR’s interesting plot and characters were wasted for me, thanks to being one of the shittiest games I’ve ever played. I totally get why the people who make video games would place the top priority on how their game plays.

But have you noticed that a lot of game companies treat video games like…. porn? They think we’re just there for the action. They’re obsessed with sequels. It’s referred to as an “industry” more often than an “art-form”. Their attempts at an entertaining or thoughtful narrative are painfully, criminally, offensively stupid. Except with porn, there’s no expectation for brilliance, so it’s okay for them. There’s no excuse for video games to be as insultingly moronic as they are. It’s never occurred to these people that they can have their cake as well as eat it too. Instead they seem to think they have to choose between a recipe without flour, or one without eggs. I don’t know what the results of that would be, but I guarantee it wouldn’t be a delicious goddamn cake.

But we put up with it, because most of you are just in it for the action. You’re okay with being covered in shit, and that’s the message the publishers get, which encourages or forces the developers to shit on us even more(depends on the publisher/developer). Several forces supporting each other’s descent into poo destruction, some unholy union of a Hydra and an Ouroboros. I seriously have to wonder if we’ll ever interrupt this cycle of low-expectations, or if I’m the only one who even wants to(or shows that with my purchasing decisions). David Wong said in the Gamer’s Manifesto that “We get only what we put up with.”

Serkis is optimistic though, with a “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet!” attitude. I like his thoughts on the subject, and I wish I weren’t so skeptical so that I could fully agree with him. But I don’t think better days are ahead for video games. In these times of economic frailty, we’re going to see even less risk-taking than ever. There’s a lot of people employed at video game companies who can’t afford to appeal to our better aspects. Not in this day and age. They’ve seen the road Ico, Beyond Good & Evil and countless other fresh experiences traveled. Those games were trampled and left to die beneath our stampede for more crap. This means more sequels, legally-retarded roid-ragers shooting aliens and more Madden is all that’s on the horizon. Even Valve decided to just do a big dumb zombie-shooting game(not that Left 4 Dead isn’t kickass, but these are the guys who made Portal for crying out loud).

Is this my problem? Is my “story/characters/music-first” ideal asking too much? No, and no. We all deserve better, especially now of all times. Entertainment is nice. It’s great. It’s wonderful! But we cannot survive on that alone. A recession without art is a depression. I really hope Gollum is onto something here. I hate how some of the supposedly greatest accomplishments in this year’s video games make me yearn for the profound narrative nuances of Custer’s Revenge.

I miss the days when games were thought of as toys. At least then, they were creative.

END OF LINE

~A.H.

Teh lulz.

This has meme potential written ALL over it. {Example}

END OF LINE

~A.H.

I have been dreading this one. Every other character supplied with me a steady flow of things to say about them. Psychological analyses. Funny anecdotes. It comes naturally for me for just about every character in Azumanga Daioh… except these two. I had to hammer this one out of my system. I don’t know why this is. These are two of my favourite characters, and yet I find myself either:

• Incapable of finding the words I need to describe them,
• Dead-stuck at finding a way to describe them in ways that aren’t blatantly obvious and redundant(”Yukari is childish, Nyamo is the clean one…“), OR
• Describing them in ways that doesn’t give away or spoil some of the best gags in the show.

Those of us who’ve seen these two in action wouldn’t be hearing anything they don’t know, and those who haven’t would be robbed of some hilarious moments they could have discovered themselves. I didn’t want this to just be a wikipedia article.

1/100th of what's probably the funniest scene in the show's run.

I even hated getting screengrabs of them, because there’s at least five(and as many as twenty) screenshot opportunities in each episode. Not even Tomo & Yomi have got that good an average. How do you cut out the widows and orphans there? It feels like I’d have to just make this article one never-ending series of .gif animations to get the point across. Gif animations with sound, because these two really have got some voices… Or just link to the episodes I guess, but then what would be the point of writing anything then?

In the end, just about all of the screenshots in this article are from Episode 3. And I even left some of those out of the final draft. If you haven’t seen this series, I hope by the time you reach the bottom of this page, you’ll have an idea for just how much hilarity these two bring to Azumanga Daioh.

“Nyamo” is one of those gals who’s cute when she’s angry. Not that she’s a bitter person, but she is more than occasionally frustrated by her friend/rival “Yukari”. The visuals help, but I attribute this mostly to her voice actress. There’s something about her growl at Yukari when she is blackmailed by her frienemy about a “love letter”(which is also animated/performed in hilarious fashion. These two breach my ability to convey their awesomeness through text alone. The hardest part of writing this is that, like most of the cast, it feels like nothing short of seeing this program will really give you a fair understanding of them.) Even when she’s (justifiably) upset at Yukari, Nyamo’s likable. It’s no wonder she’s popular with the students.

She’s that “popular teacher”. She doesn’t dress like a “teacher”(until the last episode, where Yukari, who looks a bit older and more like an adult, is the more casually-dressed). And while she is responsible for herself and her class, there is something casual and inviting about her which says she’s less about strictness and more about sensibility. She’s young, fresh, experienced, talented, intelligent and compassionate. She’s the type of teacher who buys her gym class juice even when they don’t come in first place. I think this is why the students connect with her and seek her council so often. Sometimes we just feel closer to those in our age bracket. The girls probably think of her as being on “their” side, instead of being just a teacher.

*(Picture unrelated)*

This doesn’t mean she’s without a wild side(getting drunk in front of the girls to, ironically, keep Yukari from getting drunk in front of the girls). She’s as competitive as Yukari during the sports festivals, but she doesn’t go so far as making fun of the losing class or betting money on the kids in hers. And then there’s the never-quite explained embarrassing moments of her past that Yukari is barely able to keep from blabbing about(mostly involving Nyamo’s romantic life[or lack thereof]).

The way Yukari is animated in this scene never fails to crack me up.

Then there’s Yukari…

Hoo boy. Where do I even begin?

Oh, there we go.

She’s like a Mike Judge character taken to the extreme. Somewhere between Peggy Hill, Homer Simpson and a hot sweater, there’s Yukari. But because this is anime, she can change size and shape depending on her mood, and is capable of superhuman violence at a moment’s whim. That is a frightening concept, but it inspires a humorous reaction instead of dread(unlike a certain other teacher character in this show).

She's also a sight for sore eyes.

And while there’s a possibility of Tomo being jealous of Yomi, it is not so subtle that Yukari is envious of her own chum.

When two schoolgirls have a question for Nyamo(most likely about some feminine area), Yukari scares them off trying to convince them to talk to her about it instead. When she overhears two boys comparing the teachers on a scale of Hotness, she repeatedly attacks the boy who openly favours Nyamo. And time and again, Nyamo consistently one-ups her in just about any sport imaginable.

Out of all of the characters, she’s by and far the most childish, and that’s including the 11-year old girl. There isn’t a school in the world where she’s qualified to teach. She even gloats to Nyamo whenever her students accomplish anything(like she’s the one who deserves recognition). Reprehensible. Self-centred. Whiny. Lazy. Perfect. There is little if anything likable about this person, and yet she’s the most immediately entertaining cast member.

She’s annoying too. But, not in a bad way… okay, bad for these characters, but she’s annoying on purpose, and within the borders of human endurance. There’s a nasally tone to her voice, but she’s got such an unpredictable mood that sometimes she’ll even seem almost, sort of, kinda… nice. Her voice becomes almost convincingly kind to suit it, and can also be representative of a furious, howling woodland creature when in the throes of anger.

When she does appear to be in a good mood, it usually turns out the situation primarily suits her own needs, and only coincidentally helps someone else. She assures a depressed Osaka that she and her friends will all be in the same class in the next year, but we find out it’s only because she’s too lazy to learn a lot of new names or seating arrangements. The only time I think she’s ever really doing it for someone else is when she supports the girl Kaorin’s SUPER-CRUSH on Sakaki. One scene focuses on her picking the petals off of flowers. “I WILL be in Sakaki-san’s class, I WON’T be in Sakaki-san’s class…“. When it looks like she’s down to an unfavourable last petal, Yukari offers her another flower and joins in with Kaorin’s chanting at each petal drop. Then she looks electrified, and her hair becomes an afro….

See? Out of context, none of this shit matters. It’s all just a dorky animu mess when I try to explain it. But when you’re there with the show, with the acting, the animation, the music, the sound effects, when all of that comes together, these characters make some of the best television there is.

These two are a bit like Yomi and Tomo. They’re friends, yet more often than not tend to be each other’s cause for any and all immediate grief. Sometimes they’re rivals. Nyamo being the more mature and responsible one tries to reign in the calamity that follows Yukari. Yukari tries to coax Nyamo into loosening up, in an attempt to get Nyamo to admit she’s just as childish.

She’s not entirely wrong either. I think this is what really gets on Nyamo’s nerves(although the blackmail and teasing of Nyamo’s less-than-stellar academic intelligence probably isn’t helping). She knows her loudmouth friend is at least a little bit right. She’s mature, but she’s not a stuffed shirt.

Reading over this, I don’t think I’ve succeeded in writing about these two as much as I have the main cast. I knew this would happen. Damnit. I’ll have to explore these two more in a later post. For now I leave you with Yukari, molesting Nyamo’s specially-ordered pillow.

My brill, my brill, my brill...

END OF LINE

~A.H.

Dreams. Sometimes they’re not just about wish-fulfillment. Sometimes they unlock our deepest fears. They never fail to remind us of our hopeless, meager temporality.

I believe of all four dream sequences shown in Episode 8, Osaka’s feels the most “accurate” to the loose pseudo-structure of real dreams(misnomer). There are odd parts that don’t just defy the rules, but go on much longer than she would seemingly have control over. And like several dreams you and I have had, hers leads to a terrible feeling of sadness from goofy origins. Dreams have a way of taking a sudden u-turn like that. It’s ridiculous when we recount dreams like that in waking consciousness, but in their midst, we are defenseless.

Chiyo is most likely the best friend she has. Any dream where you are unknowingly responsible for your best friend’s death, no matter how nonsensical the situation, is always a breaking experience, haunting long after the fact. Because she’s still within a dream, for all she knows she isn’t. I can see why anyone would react to this sequence with uneasy perplexity or even find humour in it. Osaka happens to make a hilarious face here. But what we are seeing is a young girl trapped in an agonizing scenario until she wakes up.

And she’s not the only one.

Sakaki is a very lonely person. Even in her dreams, she hesitates to pet that neighborhood cat that always bites her hand. Here, when she does gather up the nerve, the cat doesn’t bite her hand. Wish-fulfillment. But it runs away instead, disappearing into a fathomless white space. This is more upsetting to her. She’d rather it attack her than reject her and leave.

She then meets up with an infinitely smaller Chiyo-chan… But wait, we’re talking about someone with a view that’s a little more distorted than others’. She’s tall for her age, so everything looks shorter to her. Is Chiyo-chan smaller than ever, or is she just a giant in her dreams?

Then we formally meet the crazy, noodle-armed cat-thing with a man’s voice. He is offered to Sakaki, who is unable to own a cat in reality due to her mother’s allergies. What follows is a journey through seasons and places and memories, of things that were and were not. Tiny bridges over streams, sandwiched between nothing, and also nothing. She is surrounded at all sides by a clear void in her life. Valleys and plains and flower-studded fields occupy empty patches of white space in her head. He hovers close by her. He leads, yet she holds the leash. He tells her a secret: he is not a real cat, but she is polite and, despite not being the real thing, she gets something out of it. Just having the quiet company soothes her soul.

This is the driving focus of this character. All she wants is to be able to feel and hold and love something smaller than herself. When she can’t have that, then just the proximity appears to do wonders. When she can’t have that, you can find her staring longingly out the window in the back of her classroom. Incomplete.

When it comes time for him to leave into the sky for some reason, her reaction is one of real visible hurt. While he advises her to get a cat, he stops(and goes) after admitting she really can’t, as she still lives with her allergy-ridden parents. But what else could he have said? He is, after all, just a product of her sub-conscious(at least here).

“This is just your memory. I can’t give you any new information.”

She is left alone again. A giant crowded by a yearning for companionship.

Another point of interest is when the cat-thing(who in Sakaki’s dream state fulfills the role of Chiyo’s father) thanks her for “always taking care of (his) daughter”. You don’t throw a line like that into an episode like this, in regards to a girl like this, in a SHOW like this without it meaning something. That is important, I think. On many occasions, Sakaki is willing to protect Chiyo from things like a mob of angry cats, to a simple snowball in a winter snowball fight. When not in immediate danger, she stands by her as a protective guardian on call. Perhaps this is her way of saying thanks for inviting and accepting her as a friend.

I won’t bother to describe Tomo-Chan’s or Kaorin’s dream sequences in great detail. But I will say that they’re some of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, which really helps in an episode otherwise consumed with the aching insufficiencies of its characters. As for Tomo’s, watch the Japanese version. Mandy Clark went on a one-woman mission to destroy everything about that scene. She succeeded.

Mandy Clark, seen here receiving the "Bobby Edner Award For Terrible Fucking Voice Acting"...

At the end of this episode, just about everyone is disappointed in some way. Osaka’s dream left her grief-stricken for accidentally causing the “death” of her friend. Sakaki is abandoned by both what she wants and the vague imitation that she would settle for. Kaorin’s looks primed for a happy ending, but she is woken up by her mother before that can be fulfilled. That scenario, I think, is a universally unfair blow we have all suffered. Tomo’s dream appears more upbeat, but it is entirely about how she wishes she were regarded in reality. Which means, in spite of her ego, she isn’t satisfied with what she is currently.

Chiyo-chan remarks later that she didn’t have a dream that night. She sounds a bit disappointed, but I think she was the most fortunate character in this episode. Sometimes nothing is better than something.

That penguin is up to something.

END OF LINE

~A.H.