Shoji Kawamori and the Great Personal Dilemma

[manachwan]

I love Shoji Kawamori's works. But I hate and love him (and the works). And although he is someone I sometimes hate to love, I don't think I ever loved to hate him (er, maybe at one point).

I could be looking into this too much, making a huge stretch or who knows what, but I just find it interesting how he handles his series, characters and the

Comments

[ikumi_mimura]

It's interesting because when I re-watched Escaflowne recently, what hit me wasn't exactly how the characters are portrayed in terms of gender but how the series is one huge political allegory. It hit me like a brick, really, how in the end all of the armies that were allied with each other turned on each other in a flash. It was a huge allegory for Mutually Assured Destruction, and how much of an illusion it really is.

I do agree with your breakdown of Hitomi, Vann, Allen and Merle though. Personally I loved how flawed and awkward they all were, especially Vann and Hitomi. In terms of traditional "courtship" they both screw up a lot-- Vann by never coming out and saying what he means to say and Hitomi by taking that as a sign that Vann isn't interested when he very much is. It's probably one of the better written romances in the series.

[manachwan]

Oh definitely. That's actually one of the parts I loved about Escaflowne a ton. The whole show was political and showed so many sides to politics. Since this was my first time finishing the show, it also hit me like a brick.

Oh, yes, so much. I think that really made them better. Being so flawed and awkward helped me enjoy them. They weren't just stubborn or oblivious as is typical in most works, but they were often awkward. I really loved their romance. Watching them drift together and then apart because of their own awkwardness and outside circumstances was the best kind of torture.

And I love your icon~. Some RP buddies and I had a huge Star Trek discussion the other night, so that made me smile.

[ikumi_mimura]

It always struck me as gutsy for a Japanese show to deal with anything that approaches nuclear weapons in such stark, obvious allegory--but then it's such an ingrained part of the Eastern subconscious there are times I think it's hard to not address it.

It was the best kind of torture! Especially when Hitomi and Allen are manipulated by the fate...machine...thingy. One of those wonderful instances of the audience being aware of the foul play and the characters not.

And thank you! I love Beverly. She gets a lot of flack as a character but she hold her own.

[manachwan]

Very true. Sometimes stuff that pops up in anime and manga bug me (or straight up disgust me), but I also commend how forward and brave they can be compared to everyone else in broaching certain issues. They might not even flesh something out entirely or appropriately, but they don't completely ignore things either.

Oh, definitely! That whole moment with people manipulated by it was all so painfully great to watch. Exactly.

Haha, yea. I notice with ST, there's always that character or two who gets crap for whatever reason, but people should still be able to admit that the character was cool or a bad ass.

[ikumi_mimura]

Exactly. I think in the West we have two ways of dealing with uncomfortable topics, especially if it's political or historical: we glorify our own roll in it or sweep it under the carpet all together. Something Yatzee of Zero Punctuation said about all of the WWII based FPS games comes to mind, actually...why is it that the US is so hard on to glorify a chapter in history the rest of the world would rather forget? Probably because it's the last time we could even vaguely call ourselves good guys.

Granted, Japan has it's topics it tries to ignore too, but for various reasons I don't think it happens as often, particularly in popular media.

Haha, well really, I'm a huge fan of Beverly and Wesley, her son (otherwise known as the most hated character in the fandom, period.) I can't help it though, they're like, the most awesome mother/son team ever.