Anime Thoughts: It'll only get worse from here

Attack on Titan [eps. 11-13 - Icon, Wound & Primal Desires: The Battle for Trost, Parts 7-9]
Now that’s more like it. These episodes were way more interesting and got me invested in whether Eren was going to succeed or not. They spent too long trapped in Trost just trying to get out, and then the stand-off with the garrison soldiers dragged on longer than it needed to, so it was great to see them introduce something and resolve it in what felt like the right amount of time. What really made it work, besides the fact they managed to succeed at something for the first time in the show, was how it was undercut by the looming spectre of the Colossal and Armored Titans. It creates the feeling that this could all be temporary, since the Colossal or Armored Titan could pop up at any moment and go *punt* ‘nice try.’ I like how the story uses the idea that no matter how much humanity might succeed, it may ultimately be fighting a losing battle as a way of creating tension. The characters aren’t the most well-developed, but they’ve built up at least some of them enough that they’re worth rooting for – though there’s been a serious shortage of Sasha since the Battle for Trost started and that damn well better get rectified. It’s a good balance between hoping for the best and wanting the characters to succeed, and knowing that they’re vastly outclassed and potentially at the mercy of their enemy at every moment, possibly with little chance for them to really do anything besides go down fighting.

Which is the great thing about this show. It’s an action show on the surface, and you can enjoy it for the fights where characters take down monsters while swinging around Spiderman-style, and the novel ways they devise to better fight the Titans. But then it has the deeper level that looks at the way humans react in desperate situations – the way ‘every man for himself’ attitudes can flare up at moments of crisis, the paranoia when they think the enemy could be in their very midst, the extreme measures that need to be taken. Having Eren lose control of his Titan form wasn’t the most novel twist, but it was still a good use of ‘to fight monsters, you need to create monsters’ and the dangers that entails. Plus, it’s one more hint that the nature and origin of the Titans may be more sinister than everyone realizes. Suffice to say, I no longer believe my earlier suspicions that they were aliens/alien biological weapons or some kind of divine punishment. After all, who says Eren is the first person to transform into a Titan and lose control?

Not that I think we’re going to get answers anytime soon. I still wanna see what’s in the basement, but if that’s going to involve retaking Eren’s hometown, not to mention making it back there in the first place, I don’t think it’s going to happen anytime soon. There’s enough else that’s good about this series to keep me watching, but the Mystery of the Basement just adds one more reason to.

Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet [eps. 11-13, Supreme Ruler of Terror, Moment of Decision & Legend of the Verdurous Planet]

I can’t think of a good lead-in, so I’m…telling you that, for some reason. But anyway. The Alliance-by-proxy was unsurprisingly Borg-like, what with how it greeted Pinion’s fleet with basically ‘you will be assimilated, resistance is futile,’ and as totalitarian and dogmatic as you’d expect, defining happiness as how well everyone understands their position and performs their role, and having the skewed perception that people on Earth ‘fear’ the Hideauze. As far as I can tell, nobody really ‘fears’ them. They’re wary of them and avoid antagonizing them, but they also accept that if they don’t bother the Hideauze, the Hideauze won’t bother them; there’s no perception of them as an active threat. But then again, in this case the Alliance probably defines ‘living in fear of’ as ‘not actively trying to exterminate’ – you know, because any right-thinking person would instinctively find the Hideauze abhorrent and desire to wipe them out of existence, so fear must be the only reason they aren’t.

It also highlights one of the big ironies of the series, the fact that both sides actually believe in cooperation. The Gargantians, of course, believe that everyone should be included, and differences will only make them richer for it. The Alliance also wants all humans to come together for the betterment of their race. Problem is, it has a specific vision of what that means, to the point where they exclude people who do not meet a specific definition of ‘human.’ The theme here isn’t so much ‘cooperation is better than hostility’ as it is how noble purposes can be twisted into something harmful, and the danger of thinking your way is the best way, becoming so invested in it that it becomes ideology and anyone who feels otherwise no longer just disagrees with you but is repugnant, even outright blasphemous. When you get down to it, what basis does the Alliance really have for despising the Hideauze other than ‘turning into a space crustacean is icky’? And that touches on the idea of what, exactly, makes us human. We didn’t spring out of the primordial ooze as nearly-hairless bipeds – we evolved over time into that form as a means of adapting to our environment, which is exactly what the proto-Hideauze faction was trying to do; they even called themselves ‘Evolvers.’ It wasn’t necessarily ‘natural’ evolution, since it was probably at least somewhat directed and controlled, but since humans didn’t always exist in their current form, which the Alliance considers ‘pure,’ what makes changing it somehow worse or ‘not how humans do things’ than using machines to overcome our limitations? It’s a question with no right answer, which shows just how arbitrary discrimination and prejudice are.

Also, my speculation that Amy might die so that everyone could learn how bad fighting was? It would’ve made no sense when you think about it. Everyone doesn’t need to learn fighting is bad – the Gargantians already know that, and the people of the pseudo-Alliance were presumably just brainwashed by Striker. It’s Ledo who needs to learn something, and it’s not that fighting is bad, but that you can make your own choices, and since he was already starting to do by virtue of encountering a different way of life than the one he’d known, all that was left was for him to recognize that by rejecting Striker’s vision for humans on Earth. Amy’s death would serve no purpose in that kind of character arc, and as for losing someone close to him to complete the coming-into-his-own journey, Chamber makes way more sense since he’s known the latter for so much longer, presumably his whole life. He was basically Ledo’s mentor. And his character arc ties into another major theme of how each generation needs to make its own path, rather than blindly following the course of those who came before, which may not even be relevant anymore.

Overall, it was a good show. It didn’t quite live up to what it could’ve been, but it still had some good themes, even if ‘we’re all the same,’ or at least ‘we’re not so different’ and ‘you need to follow your own path in life’ have been done before, and the setting was still colorful and fun. Not the best thing ever, but I’m still glad I watched it.

Flowers of Evil [eps. 12-13]

Not much to say about episode 12 except that yes, in turns out Nakamura’s parents, or rather, her dad since her mother’s no longer around, isn’t abusive, just neglectful. Not that he’s necessarily wrong in finding her difficult to understand, but he doesn’t seem to be trying very hard. I’m not a parent, so I won’t dwell too much on this, but I still think it’s plenty fair to say he isn’t doing a good job of trying to help her. And he’s not the only one. That’s the reason I’m not completely happy with the phrasing I used last time, about how Nakamura is responding to her situation “in completely the wrong way.” It’s still true, strictly speaking, but it puts too onus on her alone. As much as she has responsibility for her own behaviour, you can’t blame her quite so much when she’s lacking in support from her peers, teachers, and the adults in her family. It’s also uncertain how much of what she feels is frustration with her present circumstances and how much is actual clinical depression. And now it feels weird that that never occurred to me until I was typing that sentence. The boredom of living in a small town and typical teenage frustrations with one’s peers and angst over whether you’ll ever do anything with your life explain her feelings to some extent. But if she has depression that adds a whole other dimension and really would go a long way towards clarifying why she acts the way she does.

Also, points for Ai. I can’t think of any ulterior reason she’d have to ask Yamada and what’s-his-name about Kasuga, so the only explanation I can see is that she’s in some way concerned about him. Not that I think she’s suddenly supremely worried about his well-being or anything, but she still felt the need to ask about him instead of writing it off as a weirdo being weird. I may have been wrong about her. Wouldn’t be the first time.

Well, that turned out a bit longer than I thought it would. But anyway, episode 13. Spending a few minutes at the start just lingering on Kasuga being in Nakamura’s room was one thing; the anticipation and ‘man, this is such a bad idea!’ made it uncomfortable, which is exactly what it was meant to be. We all know what happened the last time Kasuga was alone and did something ill-advised, and Nakamura is unlikely to be as forgiving as Saeki was. But then we got the constant flashbacks like the episode was a recap on fast-forward (or in some cases, rewind), and then glimpses of things that hadn’t happened yet with voiceovers like in the next-episode previews, and I was just confused. Then: ‘End of Part 1.’ And I thought to myself, ‘oh, that makes sense.’ I’m not sure why I was assuming the show would somehow tell the whole story, since I knew shortly after I started watching that the manga has ten volumes so far, so why wouldn’t I assume it was only going to cover part of it? Granted, it did sort of feel like it was building towards an ending; the way things had played out up to now, the story could’ve been wrapped up at this point.

But it wasn’t, and if the preview hinted at one thing, it’s that shit hasn’t gone down yet, not even close. From the look of things, Nakamura’s going to get worse, Saeki will become jealous, perhaps even vindictive, and if the end of the episode is anything to go by, Kasuga’s just turned to the dark side. Some of the stuff that I wrote earlier feels premature now. Sure, if things had ended here, it would ultimately be a minor episode in his life, but since now it’s clear things have just gotten started, well, he may be more screwed than I thought. Worse, rather than making ill-advised decisions because he’s struggling between doing the right thing and fear of the consequences the former will bring, which is at least understandable, it looks like he’s actively embraced the part of him that feels anger and frustration. Normally, it’d be great that he wants to help Nakamura, but it looks like he’s just going to encourage her self-loathing and insecurity, albeit under the guise that it’s what makes them better than the ‘shit faces’ they’re surrounded by. It’s the same as what she was doing to him, only in reverse, and it’s interesting to see how the power dynamic between them has changed. Sure, Nakamura could still tell everyone about what he did, but that was never really the point; it was just a way to get closer to what she thought was a kindred spirit. Once he ‘rejected’ her by choosing not to run away while they were on the mountain, she gave up. Now that she’s symbolically defeated and powerless, Kasuga’s the one in control. And it doesn’t look like he’s going to use that power in a productive way.

So yeah, I really hope they make a second season. There’s so much wrong going on here, but that’s what makes it so compelling to watch.

Anime Thoughts: Wait, only Saeki's parents called the police? Not Kasuga's?

Flowers of Evil [eps. 10-11]

When Saeki reacted to Nakamura’s claims about why Kasuga wore her gym uniform on their date and what else he did with it with ‘I don’t care, as long as it was because he cared about me!’, she started to seem almost too forgiving. Seriously, does nothing she hears about this pile of insanity faze her? But hey, that’s her choice, and it’s not like it’s a bad thing that she doesn’t jump to conclusions, since apart from the fact that he actually was wearing the uniform, everything else Nakamura said was BS. And since she admitted to Saeki that her offer to be friends was insincere and that she lied to Kasuga, no doubt Saeki’s realized anything Nakamura says should be taken with a grain of salt. And, still, I think that’s the point – Saeki isn’t a judgemental person, and is willing to accept people as they are – she outright tells Kasuga as much. This is just her following through on that and not suddenly changing her mind the moment she learns something unpleasant.

Which is something Kasuga doesn’t seem to have realized. At the start of episode 11 he’s spent a whole month in a funk, avoiding Saeki, convinced his life is over, and generally becoming withdrawn. It’s a difficult and guilt-ridden time for him, especially now that he’s been found out, so it’s understandable that he’d be bummed out so much, especially when, as someone who appears to be comfortably middle-class, this is probably the worst thing he’s gone through. But at the same time, the world didn’t end. He may have destroyed his chances of having a relationship with Saeki, but she’s still forgiven him. His parents were disappointed and upset, but they haven’t disowned him. The only people who know he’s responsible at all are the few who should know (and Nakamura). It was wrong, and probably something that’ll bother him for the rest of his life – I know I’ve done a number of things when I was his age or younger that still make me cringe (I’ve never stolen a girl’s gym clothes, but I have said some pretty insensitive things) – but he hasn’t screwed himself over as much as he thinks. He may not have the life experience and perspective to realize it yet, but in the grand scheme of things, this is a bump in the road. And there’s nothing stopping him from moving away for college or a post-graduation job, so yes, contrary to what he thinks, he can, in fact, ‘get outta this town.’

But enough about Kasuga. I’ve been wondering when we’ll get to find out more about Nakamura. In episode 10, when Saeki called her house, the way her dad talked made it sound like her parents may be neglectful, rather than outright abusive as I was previously assuming, but nothing other than that. Now that the issue of Saeki’s gym uniform has been resolved and Kasuga’s clued in to how Nakamura feels, hopefully we’ll finally get to see just what makes her tick. I stand by my assessment from the first post on this show, but it can’t be said enough that she’s reacting to it in completely the wrong way, and I really want to see just why that is. When she told off Kasuga in his dream, I even started to wonder if she’s going to commit suicide, since he, effectively, rejected her by choosing not to run off with her. And now that the person she pegged as the only one who might ‘get’ her has turned away, presumably she’d feel like she has nothing left. Since he’s finally about to do what she wanted all along, I suspect that might change, but I suppose we’ll see.

Anime Thoughts: And it'll all go downhill from here

Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet [ep. 9, Deep Sea Secret]
If you’re going to introduce something like a legendary cursed sea, it helps if you set it up beforehand, even if it’s just something like a name-drop, which is all they would’ve needed for the Sea of Mists. I thought they were just going into ‘whalesquid territory,’ which it is, but not that it was also some supposedly supernatural place shunned by mariners since time immemorial. It’s like how attacking the whalesquid is supposedly some sort of ancient taboo, but for something with supernatural connotations, they didn’t really do anything about it. Rather, the Gargantian response to Ledo’s actions was weak. They tried to stop him when the whalesquid actually attacked, but there weren’t any mobs calling for blood, or discussions of some plan to stop him long-term since he was making it clear he was going to kill-‘em-all – they just filed complaints like some present-day concerned citizens. True, Chamber is a pretty compelling deterrent, but the only substantive response was ‘we have someone who can kill them handy? Sweet, let’s go after their treasure!’ It makes avoiding attacking the whalesquid look like a practical measure, akin to what you should do when you’re suddenly faced with a bear in the woods, not something based in superstition. It’s not like the Sea of Mists is a bad name, it’s a great one by all appearances, it’s the way they framed it that I’m talking about, because for all the existence of things like that and the taboo on avoiding whalesquid, the Gargantians don’t actually seem superstitious at all. And it's not like 'the Sea of Mists' is a bad name - it's an excellent one since it describes the area literally; it's the framing of it that I'm talking about. Granted, it didn’t help that the show wasted two episodes on pointless fanservice instead of setting any of this up.

As for the revelation about the Hideauze, well, I’m pleased that I wasn’t able to completely say ‘called it!’ since they still managed to surprise me with something. Also, obligatory reference (and what Ledo would be if he did manage to make it back to the Alliance; you know, right before they euthanize him because he’s obviously deranged). I did start to suspect something was up when the Hideauze larvae looked like either Greys or human embryos, but I’m not really gonna count suspicions I didn’t even have until the episode itself as figuring it out beforehand.

A lot of it is definitely Your-Mileage-May-Vary, though. Like how they didn’t even try to give any technobabble on how they accomplished the transformation of humans into Hideauze, and whether that’s a cop-out, or just as well since any possible explanation would probably be nonsense anyway. And the whole ‘the Hideauze are humans!’ thing at all. Aside from the general weirdness of the concept, there’s the issue of how it fits into the themes of the show. Personally, I’m not really sure. On the one hand, it speaks to how people on both sides of a conflict can get so wrapped up in their differences they forget what they have in common, and how we dehumanize our enemies, turning them into lower life forms so it’s easier to justify killing them. In this case, they just went with an extreme version by visually representing the Hideauze as monstrous when they were still humans (in a sense, at least) the entire time. But on the other hand, since they’re human Ledo basically has no choice but to re-evaluate his conception of them. Plus, there already are humans who are obliging him to see that there’s more than one way of doing things – the Gargantians. The Hideauze aren’t much more than a refinement of that – not only is there more than one worldview, but also more than one solution to the same problem. If they genuinely were a different species, Ledo would be right that they’re different from humans, which would make the realization that ‘different’ doesn’t mean ‘evil’ harder to accept, but, I think, reinforce the show’s message of cooperation and coexistence all the more strongly.

Flowers of Evil [ep. 9]

When Saeki refused to break up with Kasuga, I thought we were about to find out she’s as bad as the rest if not worse. But nope, she’s still better than just about everyone else in this series. She can tell Kasuga really does like her and just wants to understand him better. I’m not sure I’d brush off stealing her uniform as ‘that’s just how boys are’, but it’s nice to see that she didn’t just jump to ‘you’re sick! I never want to see you again!’ Not that it wouldn’t have been understandable if she was weirded out by what Kasuga did and didn’t want to be with him anymore, but I like that the story hasn’t gone for the obvious like that. Oh, I’m sure she still is at least somewhat weirded out by it, but she isn’t making a snap reversal of her opinion of him, which is one of the things that makes her such a good person.

Which is exactly why she’s right – talking to her would be way more helpful than turning to Nakamura, who just encourages Kasuga’s anxieties and harmful behaviours, under the pretext that she’s bringing out the ‘real’ him. Of course, it’s not and Saeki’s right. Sure, the theft itself was perverted, regardless of the fact he did it out of panic rather than design, but one act does not a pervert make, it makes an awkward teenager who hasn’t figured out how to balance his sexual thoughts and desires with his more high-minded ideals. That’s hard to do, and it’s worse when others, especially people you can’t avoid and whom you want to have a good opinion of you, find out. He can avoid Saeki, more or less, but his mom is a lot harder, though both are squarely in the category of people he doesn’t want to think badly of him.

He certainly imagined the other two would have worse reactions; Saeki actually doing the whole dismiss-him-as-a-pervert, while his mother exclaimed “I’m disappointed! What will we tell the neighbors?” Because apparently she’d care more about the family’s social standing than trying to understand and help her own son. Now, I’m not familiar with all the nuances of Japanese culture in this regard, so it’s possible, and I suspect it to be the case, that Kasuga’s worries aren’t entirely unfounded. But that isn’t how she reacted. It’s been pretty clear up to now that she could tell something was up, what with her frustration at him always coming home late without prior warning, and her actions after finding out, both the way she approached him and that she went to look for him, suggest that she’s more worried than angry. Not to mention, Saeki pretty much explicitly forgave him, and isn’t all that bothered by the act itself. Not that either of them isn’t disappointed, because they both certainly are, but they know him better than that. Problem is, that’s not the reaction he was expected, and in some ways, not how the thinks they should feel, so he’s unable to accept it, and turns once again to the last person he should be, but, in his limited understanding, the only one who’ll take him as he is.

Anime Thoughts: Now that I think about it, Mikasa does have a slightly different skin tone

Attack on Titan [eps. 7-8, The Small Blade & Hearing the Heartbeat: The Battle for Trost, Parts 3-4]
Man, I would so not want to be in that lift just then!

I’m not sure how to feel about Jean right now. Earlier he’d been characterized as the unlikeable jackass who looked down on everyone else but, because he wanted to join the military police, was obviously just a coward. But he ended up being a pretty good leader this time around. What’s-his-name* probably has a point – he may be more of a coward than he’s been willing to let on, but that makes him more likely to empathize with others who are scared. And I also kept waiting for things to go ‘you’re such a great leader, Jean!’ *yoink* *gulp!*. Which is weird, because I could’ve sworn what’s-his-name was the one who got grabbed just before they reached the HQ?

Writing that made me feel like I should be commenting on other characters. But, well, I’ve already done Mikasa and Armin and didn’t see anything that would inspire additional commentary these last two episodes (which, to be fair, could be due to lag between when I saw them and when I actually got around to finishing this), and other than Jean, well, nobody’s really done anything standout. Not to mention I’ve forgotten most of their names. Given the setup, there’s obvious assumption that it’s because most of them are going to get eaten sooner or later, but it’s still kind of unfortunate. Because it would make their deaths more meaningful, and because it might give me something to talk about in the ‘all the obvious stuff was commented on when the show started and I can’t think of things to say stretch.’

Meanwhile, I had a theory that the Titan-killing Titan had absorbed Eren’s essence or something (it did look vaguely like him), but not that once it collapsed it would look as if he’d been piloting it mecha-style. I say ‘look’ because the preview for the next episode then went and tells us he became a Titan. That…raises some interesting possibilities about the nature and origin of the Titans as a whole.

*I’d go back and check what his name is, but, y’know, most everyone not Mikasa, Armin, and, as of now, Eren, being tagged as ‘expendable.’

Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet [ep. 8, Separation]

Figures, right after I complain about Chamber’s inability to figure out their coordinates, he figures them out. Of course, it’s still kinda plot-convenient, since it came right as Ledo’s caught between what he’s learned on Gargantia and what he’s been taught to believe the last sixteen years. Being told ‘we ain’t going nowhere!’ is exactly what he’d need to hear to push him towards the option that’ll let him cling to a shred of the only life he’s ever known until…however long it’s been since he came out of stasis; not very long, at any rate. Not that I think that’s a bad way to do it, per se, but it still struck me as odd how long it took Chamber to get the results.

Also, most convenient heart attack, ever!

I guess I could’ve been wrong about Ledo being a clone, since he thinks that kid was his little brother. But he only thinks so, and the Galactic Alliance seem like the types to do things as efficiently as possible, and family definitely sounds like the type of thing that would fall under ‘inefficient and unnecessary.’ Now, Ledo had earned the right to get it on just before…whatever it was the brought him to Earth. So it’s possible that children are still created the old-fashioned way, even if the Alliance doesn’t do the whole ‘familial relationships’ thing.

And I suppose you could say he’s finally given a reason why the Hideauze are this super-abhorrent, extermination-is-the-only-option menace to humanity. And the reason is…they “oppress the domain of humanity.” Whatever that means. Are they invaders, or, maybe, are they preventing humanity from expanding unopposed? I don’t strictly believe the latter is exactly the case, but I do believe the situation isn’t as good (humanity) vs. evil (Hideauze) as Ledo’s been taught to believe, and it does seem like one way to interpret what he said. As in, humanity believes it’s its manifest destiny to expand and conquer the stars, and have found a way to rationalize anything that doesn’t fit that perception as an obstacle that needs to be removed at all costs.

Honestly, part of me believes they originated on Earth. Hey, it’s the simplest explanation as to why they’re there. And would drive home the idea that cooperation is always possible even more. Not that Ledo will appreciate have to realize that.

But he’s not the only one about to get something they won’t appreciate. Dude, yes, Amy likes you, and I get that you like her too, and that’s why you want to do what you think is necessary to protect her. That and you can sympathize with her affection for her little brother, something you were denied and so don’t want her to feel the same loss. But yeah, I’m sure committing genocide as exactly the sort of thing to earn you gratitude from a girl who’s been raised to believe in peaceful coexistence.

Flowers of Evil [eps. 7-8]

Well, that must have been cathartic. Which wouldn’t be surprising, given how much Kasuga’s been trying to hide and act normal, that he’d finally say ‘oh fuck it!’ and let loose.

And that was an unusual way to start episode 8 – literally six minutes of Kasuga and Nakamura just walking home holding hands. It might even have been endearing, if their relationship wasn’t fucked all to hell.

Then Saeki caught me by surprise. When she said good morning to Kasuga I thought to myself ‘she’s not very perceptive, is she?’ since, like multiple times before, Kasuga’s behaviour’s been slightly off – this time he had an anxious posture and didn’t respond when she asked him a question. Well, technically she does ask if something’s wrong, but clearly didn’t think it was worth dwelling on since she let it pass with a ‘we’ll be late.’ Sure, some of it, like when they were on the date, could have been interpreted as nervousness about that, but given the number of strange things she’s seen happen to him, like getting a bucket of water dumped on his head, or that the time she saw him with Nakamura in the library, surely she’d start to wonder if something was up? I guess in the absence of any explicit reason to suspect anything, it’s just a case of not seeing what she doesn’t expect to see. But then she was the one who put the clues together and figured out everything else. Not that it’d be hard for her to do, since she’s the only one who’s looked at the book long enough to remember the flower, but it was still wrong of me to assume she’s clueless. Not to mention, seeing things that way overlooks that she was suspicious after she saw him and Nakamura in the library – that’s why she asked him if she could trust him. So yeah, I’m the one who wasn’t very perceptive.