It started off relatively slow but has always had potential to end really well. It took a while, and I wasn’t really sure how I felt about it. Now I can say that Nabari no Ou is a good show…thus far. I’ve only watched the first nineteen episodes, assuming twenty-six in all. Most of that has been development of characters. The main plot is a little light. Basically, there is still time for this show to suck.

Okay, first lets start with the OP, it is my favorite amongst the shows I’m currently following. Yeah, it’s the “sha la la.”

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I’m not really all that hard to please. I’ve stated before, I only ask for a good story and interesting characters. That’s about it. Admittedly, these aspects of a show are very subjective. To that end, it is my opinion that Nabari no Ou has both. Of interest is the show’s male lead. It’s hard not to like Miharu simply because he doesn’t fall into the standard male lead molds.  We don’t often get a main male character that is defined mostly as feminine and apathetic towards the world.

The key element being that “apathy.” Usually, to explain this type of character’s distance from the world, shyness is used. Miharu, at first, simply doesn’t care too much about anything. Of course, we see a refreshing devilish side to his character surface every now and again. Oddly, that devilish aspect of his character tells us much about him. It shows that while he distances himself from the world he doesn’t necessarily have a lack of understanding of that world. In fact, he does understand; yet, he chooses to be seperate from it. Why exactly he has made this choice is exactly what the story seems to be examining.

The outsider, the loner, the outcast. These are all standard fair in the world of anime. In particular, among lead characters, they are used to reinforce the role of that character in the eyes of the viewer. That status plays no small role in the place that the plot has for them.

It also plays no small part in the effectiveness of relating to the viewer. No one really feels “common.” We know too much about the intricacies of ourselves to feel “common.” The problem is that others don’t see us the same way we see ourselves. Taken from the vantage of the outside world, we are remarkably similar. We have two hands, two feet, two eyes, two ears, and one nose. We speak and hear. We see and feel. The world has a place for those that are remarkable and those that are not so much remarkable. But, if you asked anyone they would say most people are “normal” or “common.”

While we don’t really feel normal or common, we learn to accept what the world is telling us. That we are normal and common. At the very least, most do not fight the assumption much. We still don’t feel common or normal.

Then we find something that we relate to. We are drawn to it because it seems familiar. There is a substance or spark of recognition. In this story, Miharu finds Yoite. He doesn’t simply empathizes with him. That wouldn’t fit into his character. Miharu is drawn to Yoite.

That which seems familiar in Yoite, he finds confusing. Is it that he is confused by his own intentions, his own self? Miharu stated goal in the first episode is to lead a “carefree life.” Until he developed a connection with Yoite that could be taken literally, as in not caring (apathy). After his interaction with Yoite that goal is pretty much gone.

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Maybe it’s just me, but I think it would be so totally awesome to have bat-wings and a tail =)

Every so often an anime makes an unintendedly brilliant scene. It is one so perfectly drawn and executed that it could only be explained as a sheer accident. H2O’s appeared in episode 11.

We were not sure what was going on. It was slowly being revealed that the past may not have been what we thought. Takuma was as confused as we were, but he was quickly coming to the conclusions that we had already drawn within the preceding minutes.

Here, at this very moment, is when Takuma officially “snaps.” Notice, one need not actually be 100% crazy to be technically crazy.

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Yeah, I’m trying out this writing on screen caps thing to see how it goes. meh.

One of the prevailing elements of the Fuko arc was the thought of being forgotten. The simple thought of other’s memories of one’s self being left behind in the flow of time and events is an issue that everyone deals with. Some people simply do not care of their legacy while others devote their entire lives to its pursuit. I don’t believe that the “message” of the first nine episodes of Clannad were about being forgotten, but I do think it was a major factor in the overall conveyance.

Many recognized the undertones of friendship and family in the story. In particular, the differences between Tomoya and Nagisa’s home lives. The difference was that of a dysfunctional incomplete family versus a complete and happy one. The disconnect between the two polar opposites was not played upon in the story because the story wasn’t about family alone. Obviously, these elements have future roles to play. I point these out here because family and friends are, most often, the only people who care to carry our memories.

Naturally, this being the Fuko arc means we spent most of the time with the opportunity to examine Fuko herself. Going back to my original comment about one’s legacy, we see what Fuko was doing was totally altruistic. She has no idea when or if she will ever awaken; yet, she devotes her time to her sister’s happiness. One could go over the reasoning or her motivation without much enlightenment. The simply fact is that her goal was singularly focused on the wedding and nothing more.

Fuko didn’t seem to care about much else other than the wedding (…and cute things). Although, the final episode of her arc did show that she cared about the futures of the friends she had made. The fact that memories of her existed after she had gone was the key point for me.

I don’t care if I ever appear in a history book. It doesn’t matter to me much if I have a footnote in a paper somewhere or if I get a section in an encyclopedia. What does it matter? One can make a strong argument that we are the summation of our memories. More than that, our existence is only realized when we are the memories of others, living within others.

My name in a book, written as a story, read by no one, doesn’t matter. Whether we are famous or infamous our existence is bound to be forgotten. Forgotten by the masses of people on this world who never knew us or wanted to know us, save for a few people who were put upon this earth with you. Save for that small group who actually knew you because they had to know you. If life’s one saving grace was that at least someone remembered us for a little while, I don’t think that would be so bad.

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I can think of 37.5 naughty things I would do if I were an astral projection. The plot would follow an exponential curve getting progressively naughtier from 1 to 37. The last 0.5 is pretty much an asymptotic naughtiness bound by infinity.

“…crying school girls…” – check!

It’s rather embarrassing that I would do a mid-season review of some of the shows I’m watching and coincidentally not watch episode eight of Myself; Yourself. This episode turned out to not only be a very good episode but also a turning point in the story.

Many of the other bloggers who did Fall ’07 reviews mentioned the necessity to not rush one’s judgment based on superficial content. Something I don’t recall being mentioned was the intentional way a story is structured to put all of the really good stuff at the end, near the climax. It seems evident that Myself; Yourself will not have multiple story arcs (or subplots apparently). Those facts initially lead me to expect something “big” towards the end of the series. This is fairly standard stuff. For the most part I still expect a quick climax and conclusion.

I think the key point here is Nanaka. Naturally, with all the buildup around her character, I’m enticed to discover what it is that caused her so much pain. Nanaka’s emotional outburst added the emotional charge that this show needed. It was all about our expectations. We knew that she was suppressing her feeling, and we could tell that those emotions would burst forth eventually.

Watching it finally happen is a release for the audience as much as it is for her character. It should have happened earlier. Although, then we wouldn’t have been treated to a moody evasive Nanaka. Honestly, do we not all like moody evasive Nanaka.

I was expecting a gradual escalation of the story line and was totally unprepared for a transient point in the series where the story would get even “better.” Silly me, it looks like that’s exactly what happened.

On another note, Aoi’s tendency to jump to conclusions makes me think she has a dirty mind.

Part A: Impression

There are aspects of us that make us human. For that there is no doubt. Upon closer examination we see that our actions are rife with instinctive behavior. How much of what we do is guided by those actions is debatable, and how much that driving force we can consciously willfully deter is also debatable. One can make no argument that human beings are driven by forces other than conscious controllable thought. We have a heart; it beats whether we want it to or not.

We are simply and completely at the will of our memories. They haunt us and teach us about ourselves and those around us. To some the haunting fog of our past is a shadow cast upon it all. All the images and sounds of our history become a hazy dull coating on those irrepressible moments in time. Those key events that shaped the beings that we are today. They are uniquely us. They define us. They literally are us in the sense that we are more than a body. We are more than a beating heart.

We understand others only when we come to understand ourselves. It starts with the child who has no sense of others. It ends with the adult who by virtue of simply being human understands the concept inherent in the word, “other.” We are painfully aware that others don’t understand us. We are comically unaware that they actually do. In a paradox the scope that encompasses the entirety of humanity we see that it is actually easier to understand others than it is to understand ourselves. After all, our eyes can only see outward.

One could make a very good case that our being is simply the total sum of our memories. The lives lived are a combination of thoughts, events, and times intermingled with those of others. We share our memories. I’ll tell you a story. Once upon a time, I lived. (more…)