Anime Scenes Meme
Tagged by quaint_twilight
a) Choose five favorite anime scenes - the ones you find the most dramatic, amusing, heartbreaking, romantic, sensual or just tend to like for no particular reason, something meaningful for you. Though the scenes don't have to be entirely mute, what is important is NOT the dialogue, but what happens, or the gesture the character(s) make(s), the action somebody takes. It has to defend itself with the sound turned off ^_^
b) Describe it briefly and, if possible, try to explain why did you choose it. You can choose from one anime only or from various titles - it's up to you.
c) Put the whole thing on your LJ, with the name of the person who tagged you.
d) Tag at least two people to do the same - the more, the better (don't tag the person who tagged you).
e) If it's more comfortable for you, feel free to translate this meme into your language. The rules above stay the same.
(I don't tag people-it's like chain letters; it's just one of those things I don't do. I'd love to see anyone's responses.)
1. AKIRA: The moment when Kaneda and Tetsuo have been fighting at the Olympic Stadium, and they stop for a second and start talking, and Tetsuo has this annoyed/amused/tired-of-it tone of voice, as if they were just old friends again. It's the scene where he says something to the effect of: "Kaneda, we're not kids anymore." I love it because it's a sweet, short, subtle, powerful expression of the core fact that all the epic, life-and-death rivalry in the world can't erase the fact that they are really, deep down, best friends.
2. AKIRA (because Akira still rocks): The whole scene in which Kaneda, at great personal peril, has infiltrated the institution where Tetsuo is being held just at the moment that Tetsuo, newly awakened to his super Akira powers, is having a showdown with the weird kids. And Kaneda blazes in and says something like, "I'm here to rescue you, you idiot." And Tetsuo stares at him blankly for a second, then goes back to the super-powers showdown and inadvertently blasts Kaneda into a wall, after which he laughs and said he forgot about Kaneda and has that little speech about how he doesn't need Kaneda to rescue him anymore; he'll be the one rescuing Kaneda. (Interesting that the beginning of his real enmity with Kaneda is a sideways expression of friendship: that he'll rescue him, a direct reflection of Kaneda's show of friendship for Tetsuo: he rescues him but with condescension, "you idiot.") I love the scene because it's dialogic: it shows Kaneda and Tetsuo both on the tracks of their own individual adventures, crashing to together and realizing they've become completely separate. It's like Joyce's "The Dead," really, when you realize the person you thought you knew has a life you never dreamed of.
3. PLEASE SAVE MY EARTH: Issei and Jinpachi's kiss scene but not for that reason. It's the scene in which Jinpachi is nattering on about how helplessly he loves Alice, and Issei finally tells him he has some nerve nattering on that way in front of Issei, who is really still Enju and is still in love with him. I love this scene because it's a lovely friendship moment for the two of them; it really gives a sense of two guys who have been almost as close as family since they were little and are on very (socially) intimate terms yet, when it comes to romantic love, utterly at cross-purposes. It sums up their relationship.
4. SIMOUN: When Anubituf kisses Guragief and tells him maybe he's still a sibylla. I like how such an understated moment (very brief kiss) does so much narrative work. It explicates the relationship between A and G: their history as sibyllae together, the underlying/under-expressed romance in their current relationship. It's superbly in character for Anubituf, who is emotionally reserved but pushed far enough to act out ever so slightly. It expresses the grief that both of them feel for their lost girlhood and lost status as sacred religious figures, their pining for their days as pilots of Simouns. And thus, it encapsulates on the major themes of the story: its elegiac mourning for lost childhood.
5. NOW AND THEN, HERE AND THERE: (It's hard to choose just one; the effect is built by many tragic moments piled on each other, but...) when Shu invites Nabuca to escape from Hellywood with Lala Ru and him. And there's a (let's be honest) way too long, budget-cutting still shot while Nabuca ponders this. But if the shot is too long, the psychological crisis could hardly be more intense. Nabuca wants to say yes. He hates Hellywood; he wants out. But his psychological cohesion depends on his belief that escape is impossible, because only through that belief can he justify his obeying the order to shoot down his fellow villagers who tried to escape some years before. So he cannot permit himself to believe that he can do what he longs to do and knows he should do. And finally he tells Shu he won't go with them. And this is the irremediable error after which his story is one, long descent into full-fledged tragic fall.
(Note: Why have I not mentioned MoB or AnK when I love them so very, very much? I love them, but while both shows have many good points, in general, I think the anime interpretation limits these stories. For both fandoms, I consider myself principally a book fan, even though I haven't had full access to either book!)
a) Choose five favorite anime scenes - the ones you find the most dramatic, amusing, heartbreaking, romantic, sensual or just tend to like for no particular reason, something meaningful for you. Though the scenes don't have to be entirely mute, what is important is NOT the dialogue, but what happens, or the gesture the character(s) make(s), the action somebody takes. It has to defend itself with the sound turned off ^_^
b) Describe it briefly and, if possible, try to explain why did you choose it. You can choose from one anime only or from various titles - it's up to you.
c) Put the whole thing on your LJ, with the name of the person who tagged you.
d) Tag at least two people to do the same - the more, the better (don't tag the person who tagged you).
e) If it's more comfortable for you, feel free to translate this meme into your language. The rules above stay the same.
(I don't tag people-it's like chain letters; it's just one of those things I don't do. I'd love to see anyone's responses.)
1. AKIRA: The moment when Kaneda and Tetsuo have been fighting at the Olympic Stadium, and they stop for a second and start talking, and Tetsuo has this annoyed/amused/tired-of-it tone of voice, as if they were just old friends again. It's the scene where he says something to the effect of: "Kaneda, we're not kids anymore." I love it because it's a sweet, short, subtle, powerful expression of the core fact that all the epic, life-and-death rivalry in the world can't erase the fact that they are really, deep down, best friends.
2. AKIRA (because Akira still rocks): The whole scene in which Kaneda, at great personal peril, has infiltrated the institution where Tetsuo is being held just at the moment that Tetsuo, newly awakened to his super Akira powers, is having a showdown with the weird kids. And Kaneda blazes in and says something like, "I'm here to rescue you, you idiot." And Tetsuo stares at him blankly for a second, then goes back to the super-powers showdown and inadvertently blasts Kaneda into a wall, after which he laughs and said he forgot about Kaneda and has that little speech about how he doesn't need Kaneda to rescue him anymore; he'll be the one rescuing Kaneda. (Interesting that the beginning of his real enmity with Kaneda is a sideways expression of friendship: that he'll rescue him, a direct reflection of Kaneda's show of friendship for Tetsuo: he rescues him but with condescension, "you idiot.") I love the scene because it's dialogic: it shows Kaneda and Tetsuo both on the tracks of their own individual adventures, crashing to together and realizing they've become completely separate. It's like Joyce's "The Dead," really, when you realize the person you thought you knew has a life you never dreamed of.
3. PLEASE SAVE MY EARTH: Issei and Jinpachi's kiss scene but not for that reason. It's the scene in which Jinpachi is nattering on about how helplessly he loves Alice, and Issei finally tells him he has some nerve nattering on that way in front of Issei, who is really still Enju and is still in love with him. I love this scene because it's a lovely friendship moment for the two of them; it really gives a sense of two guys who have been almost as close as family since they were little and are on very (socially) intimate terms yet, when it comes to romantic love, utterly at cross-purposes. It sums up their relationship.
4. SIMOUN: When Anubituf kisses Guragief and tells him maybe he's still a sibylla. I like how such an understated moment (very brief kiss) does so much narrative work. It explicates the relationship between A and G: their history as sibyllae together, the underlying/under-expressed romance in their current relationship. It's superbly in character for Anubituf, who is emotionally reserved but pushed far enough to act out ever so slightly. It expresses the grief that both of them feel for their lost girlhood and lost status as sacred religious figures, their pining for their days as pilots of Simouns. And thus, it encapsulates on the major themes of the story: its elegiac mourning for lost childhood.
5. NOW AND THEN, HERE AND THERE: (It's hard to choose just one; the effect is built by many tragic moments piled on each other, but...) when Shu invites Nabuca to escape from Hellywood with Lala Ru and him. And there's a (let's be honest) way too long, budget-cutting still shot while Nabuca ponders this. But if the shot is too long, the psychological crisis could hardly be more intense. Nabuca wants to say yes. He hates Hellywood; he wants out. But his psychological cohesion depends on his belief that escape is impossible, because only through that belief can he justify his obeying the order to shoot down his fellow villagers who tried to escape some years before. So he cannot permit himself to believe that he can do what he longs to do and knows he should do. And finally he tells Shu he won't go with them. And this is the irremediable error after which his story is one, long descent into full-fledged tragic fall.
(Note: Why have I not mentioned MoB or AnK when I love them so very, very much? I love them, but while both shows have many good points, in general, I think the anime interpretation limits these stories. For both fandoms, I consider myself principally a book fan, even though I haven't had full access to either book!)