Revolutionary Girl Utena [anime]

This review is built out of three reviews from my LiveJournal, so it's a bit choppy.

The Yuri content of Revolutionary Girl Utena (RGU), for me, so far ranks third behind MariMite and Kannazuki no Miko, but not by far. Although with the opening sequence alone, it possibly ranks first. Oh, and if this doesn't convince you, Utena drawing the magical sword of Dios out of Anthy's chest in nearly every single episode is the sexiest scene I've EVER seen in anime. ^_^; I know, I'm a sucker.

RGU is very obviously 90's. Which is obvious once you hit the music. I'm not overly keen on any of the music, particularly the duel music. The "Truth" ending theme wasn't too horrible and the opening theme slowly grew on me, though I wouldn't go too out of my way to listen to it - it's catchier than a lot of other series. "Virtual Star Hasseigaku" is by far the best ending theme/song in the series, accompanied by the best closing sequence animation.

Superficially, the series is structured in one of those typical fight/arena series, where each episode cumulates in the protagonist having a showdown with some other character, and right before the fight you get the same song with the same animation with it every single time. Utena has to duel everyone three times in three arcs of the series (one arc for each 13 episodes). Though there was an evolution to these arcs, it was very obvious to me the second time I watched RGU that the entire series could of been condensed into 13 episodes and saved us all time.

One thing I like about RGU is the lack of outright stereotypes. Once you think you've found one, you discover they've put a twist on it. Also, I really appreciate the theme of "Normal is what normal is for YOU" - epitomized by Utena herself.

The shadow puppet things are really annoying and some episodes (like the cowbell one) seem absolutely pointless. But as a whole, so far I'm having an easier time following along than, say, Yamibou or Kannazuki no Miko.

Solid storyline, if a bit tedious at moments with pointless bizarreness at times, good character development with realism and honor paid to all the characters (at least, for the main characters), and the entire thing was wrapped up well without any loose threads, as long as you aren't opposed to endings that make you think for yourself. As for yuri content, there was more of that in the opening and ending sequences (second version of the ending) than in the entire series, all three seasons but I think that's mostly if you're measuring by fan-service. ;) RGU addresses gender roles in an obvious way without making it a main point, which I really liked - it is just worked into "that's how life is" and any f/f relationships are treated pretty much the same. In that respect, I rank it second only to Maria-sama ga Miteru in terms of queer awareness in anime I have seen personally.

I have watched all of RGU twice and after the second time I felt I'd wasted my time and felt more than ever that this series could of done with some hefty condensing of the entire thing into way fewer episodes. The repetitiousness drives me crazy, boring me to the point that I no longer cared to try and decypher all the fun surrealness. I can see how everyone benefited from the creators creating the film Adolescence of Utena - which basically condenses not only the characters, duels, and Anthy and Utena's relationship but also condenses all the surreal elements into a single 90 minute film. Perfect.

Myst, Riven, Exile in brief

Lately, Kaisa has been playing "Myst III: Exile" on her new iMac. We're both big Myst fans, starting back when Myst was new. I loved that game! We got Riven when it was new, too, only our computer wasnt' fast enough to run it properly so if I hadn't looked it up, I NEVER would of figured out how to open those domes around the islands because the video would freeze the computer. :\ Despite that, Riven is my very favorite of them all (so far) for its detailed luciousness and mysteriousness and plot. I even have an actual Moiety knife which I use as a letter opener. :D

Anyway, so I was chatting to Eric about Myst a bit and he said there was a fifth one out. We didn't even have the fourth! I needed to check the mail today, so Kais and I both went, and then went to Fred Meyers afterward, where they had both Myst IV and V. We just bought IV: Revalations, since it was only $20, and headed home.

Unfortunately, Kaisa has first dibs on it since she's already nearly done replaying Exile. Once she's done, I'm going to replay Exile, too, while she tackles the latest Myst incarnation. I'm muchly excited as Cyan is once again onboard for this game and it got better reviews than Exile (my least favorite of them all).

Besides the strange texture to everything due to the 3-D-ness of Exile, I think the lack of cultures is what makes it feel... empty. The only age that got me excited was the last one because people LIVED there, and you can't even explore it! Grr. I know Myst had no big civilizations, either, but you KNOW people lived there and that it had history. And it was new. The four main ages of Exile are just training grounds for learning how to write an Age. Or write TO one, I should say.

South of Nowhere, first episode

Watched the premiere of "South of Nowhere" and was glad to see the promise of young lesbians on tv. yay! I could actually relate to the main characters because I'm from a small town and I feel exactly like the three siblings do when I'm around big-city folk. I don't do any fancy handshake stuff - I just do a simple handshake. I don't do popularity contests and I don't do the dating/dance thing. I also don't do the beat up someone for looking at me weird/looking at my gf too much thing. And the parent saying anti-gay things around me when I think I might be gay is also a home-run hitter as well. I look forward to the next episode.

Noir

Assuming you are all good at looking things up in Wikipedia, I will skip to my review of the series:

I've read it all over the 'net and I agree - I am amazed anyone continues to watch Noir after the first five episodes. They repeat so many scenes over and over, like a blacksmith pounding an anville, I just want to shout, "Enough already!" I suppose it might not of been so bad if I were watching it weekly as it aired on TV but that is not the case with watching it on DVD. Luckily I was prepared with the knowlege that the first eps were like this and so persevered, much to my delight.

The first few episodes are pretty standard as far as story goes. There is some mystery but it's mostly confusing - repetitious flashbacks and the usual Japanese storytelling element of just throwing the audience into the story and making the viewer figure stuff out over time. The story is kind of slow, developmentally, until the third main character, Chloe, shows up. Then the series really takes off: the action sequences are more interesting, the plot becomes more direct, and the characters are now a part of a giant story arc that takes them to the last episode, rather than living more episodically.

As of the first half of the series, I was thinking Noir was okay but not my favorite. After that last half Noir became one of my favorite anime. The limited animation is eased over with good music by Yuki Kajiura (some of the music, like that damn watch song and the opening theme I really don't like), and like Wikipedia says, the lack of blood kind of adds to the stylistic air of it all. I think if there HAD been blood, it might of felt too much like a gore-fest with plot and characters being secondary. Although it pissed me off when OUR characters got hurt and unrealistically nothing came of it except maybe some bandages or a hole in the shirt.

Noir seems pretty unique to me in the world of anime. It's definetly done in a film noir style - in framing, in dialogue, in story, and in action. It's amazing how much can be conveyed in the flinch of an eye rather than giant stretches of dialogue. Noir made me appreciate the subleties that can be achieved on a small budget with anime. Noir even holds up in re-watching and I find that when compared to other gunfighting anime, I like Noir the best - even beyond higher budgeted series like Ghost in the Shell. Noir excells in its simplicity.

I've seen a lot of anime since I originally watched Noir and this is still one of my favorites.

Mogwai

Mogwai is a "post-rock"/progressive band from Scotland, which is a really undescriptive description. It's rather gentle drawn out music based around a single theme for each song. Post rock is to rock what new-age is to folk -- some new age, particularly the more ambient stuff, is drawn out and rather gentle, changing in sound and pattern over time. That's what Mogwai's music is, only with electric guitars and the like - and instrumental. Nice background music.

For the most part Mogwai is made up of electric guitars and drums - little to no vocals (I have most of their songs and there's only a handful of songs with vocals). Even the fastest song is still quite slow by most standards. The songs tend to be very atmospheric and slowly evolve and progress, like trance music.

My favorite songs are those that have some kind of hook and those that build and build, slowly layering on the guitars until they burst.

Some key favorite songs:
New Paths to Helicon, part II (Government Commissions version)
Golden Porsche
Ratts of the Capital
Burn Girl Prom Queen
Dial: Revenge
You Don't Know Jesus
Summer
Waltz for Aidan
Stanley Kubrick

Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito

Spoilers for the entire series: this is a rant. Consider yourself warned.
When I watched this, I was watching it for yuri content and little else. It wasn't the most painful thing I'd ever seen, and sadly I must admit the masturbation scenes (Hazuki) were unfortunatley the best part if you're going to be a loser fan-girl about it, because any scene involving Hatsuki (Eve) was just too painful to watch. Some of the episodes were dreadfully boring - like, most of the ones without Hazuki. Episodes with Gargantua were dull - and he just pissed me off. The only decent eps with him were of when he was a kid, and even then only the last episode of him with a kid was at all interesting to me because at that point they'd finally FOUND Eve and I was able to cheer Hazuki on in trying to talk Eve/Hatsumi into staying with her.

Which of course, didn't happen, and the whole thing being in Hazuki's head and she being the only one in her reality to remember Hazuki was ridiculous. How depressing is that?!? What is the POINT of an ending like that? I *almost* don't mind tragic endings if they have a greater purpose, but this one didn't. Eve is all powerful, she could choose to be with whomever she wanted to. I mean, its' not like she'd be missed at the library -- she'd already been GONE for hundreds of years, albeit in different worlds for 16 years at a time, but still, she never went BACK to the library or her real job in between those lives. So what DIFFERENCE would it make if she took one more little break and spent a life with Hazumi?

And Lilith's hat was UGLY and large and pointless. I hated it near as much as I hated that bloated little bird.

I liked the outer space episode, that was pretty good. The thing with the parents was CREEPY. I didn't see that coming at all.

Anyway. As much as I just complained, I don't regret watching it at all. I don't think I'll watch it AGAIN, but as far as shoujo-ai/yuri history goes, it is a well known example (unfortunately, heh) and to have a better frame of reference for yuri in anime, I feel more knowlegeable the more I watch. Like with lesbian films - I've watched a lot of them, and a lot of bad ones, too (like "Therese and Isabelle", this 60's French pulp black and white film that was SO terribly dubbed in the version I saw... it was laughably bad - to the point of where I'd actually watch it again just to make fun of it some more). So, yeah.

The Birthday Massacre

This is one of those wonderful instances of happy accident. My boss was the one who stumbled upon The Birthday Massacre (TBM for short) while looking for a "happy birthday" song to send to someone for their birthday. He found the song "Happy Birthday" by TBM and was disturbed by it. I went and listened to it to see what he was talking about and liked what I heard. I made offsite backups of their songs to review before purchasing both their albums Nothing and Nowhere and Violet.

TBM's music is hard to describe. It has heavy synth-goth electric guitars remeniscent of APerfectCircle/Lacuna Coil/The Cure - with that warped echoey 80's sound. The chord progressions are not your typical metal/goth at all. Then there's all this 80's synth that sounds like something from an 80's cartoon film like Rainbow Brite except that the mood of the music overall kills any potential cheesyness usually associated with such synths. And that's the key to the music - the mood it captures. The lyrics themselves are dark; horror stuff - like a narration from the video game "Alice" or if you made depressing endings for 80's films like "Pretty in Pink" and "Sixteen Candles". TBM's name comes from one of the songs, about a literal birthday massacre where the birthday boy and his girl kill all the guests. But if you weren't paying attention to the lyrics of most of their songs you wouldn't guess that's what they were sinigng about because the music doesn't have that immediate sense of doom or horror that most pop-goth music does.

The most impressive thing for me is the nostalgia of it. You probably had to of grown up as a kid in the 80's to really appreciate this: for me, my most treasured memories of being a kid in the 80's were of swords and sorcery, of riding horseback and defeating immesurable etherial magics. Stuff like "The Neverending Story", "Labyrinth", and Jim Henson's "the Storyteller" capture that dark mythology with creatures equally scary and creepy but fascinating and magical. TBM's music, for me, captures the sound of my memories, the way I felt back then, believing in this drama much larger than me. Their music is at once 80's but dark and mysterious and modern at the same time. I've never heard anything that FELT like a memory before; like I know it. It's like smelling something that you hadn't smelled since you were a kid and wondering how the hell it could be here, now, and being overtaken with memory at it.

So, yeah. Yay! I likey very much. Oh, and very cool - they recorded this as their previous incarnation "Imagica" - they did a remake of the Neverending Story theme song. :D Which is probably the most positive/bubbly thing they've done by far, but hey....

Edit to add: I always thought the lyrics and mood of their song "The Dream" described the main character Sarah of the film Labyrinth pretty well. Then one day I stumbled across a fan video for Labyrinth that uses this song! It's not half bad, either. :D