How does one watch complicated Anime?
Lain, B' Phantom, Saikano, Eva, Utena, FLCL, RahXephon, Madlax, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Patlabour Movies, 100 ghost stories, Le Portrait de Petit Cossette.
Not all of them are apples to my eye, yet each and every one important to me in their own way.
Everyone watches Anime to be entertained... I am no exception.
These very Anime forces my brain to twist in four dimensions, and are what I personally consider the true reason I watch them.
Our brains are very powerful blobs of fat... yet even they have limitations. To increase the speed of parallel processing, the lipid-and-sugar blocks create simple programs that speeds up decision making by screening options. These programs are made during our lives, and are influenced by the environment much more than DNA. These very programs are the main reason why we could handle vague inputs like 'a little to the left' when an AI has difficulties.
Yet these very short-cuts are dangerous when over-relied on. Especially since most people don't even know they exist.
A believe that peasants are weak and exist to serve rulers, for example, can develop in the mind of a young prince. There wasn't any reason why he shouldn't think so... Because his experiences seemed to reinforce this idea. Regardless that his father might be a wise ruler who earned the throne through respect and humidity.
So when he finally becomes King, the programing affects his thinking... He 'saves time' in making decisions by not worrying about the people, and raised taxes rather than lower spending. After all, that's what the peasants are for.
The results are self-evident in History.
But how could this have been averted?
Perhaps, by letting the Prince experience and understand ideas that are NOT the same as his own. To view possibilities and choices that others made, to see that the little kingdom is NOT the whole world... And that therefore he really ruled no one, just tolerated by some.
These 'other' truths are painful to absorb... To change the programing often does. Yet if one realizes that they know nothing (and therefore, have no rights in asking that an Anime should tell a specific story that THEY had in mind.), the effects, at least for me, are beneficial.
I still remember back in high school, when a 9th grader asked me if the 'Angels' of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" were 'bad-guys', since humans are fighting them.
We all know that humans are capable of every act under the sun... yet this boy had since wrote the program 'the most human looking side are the good guys' using the popular media as a source of data.
'What makes you think the humans are the good-guys?' was my reply to him.
He could not answer, for his brain hadn't bothered to work this out yet. After seeing dozens of shows and movies where the human are the good guys (and for good reasons in most cases), his brain has long ceased to check if the righteous actions were the real measure of being good, but rather of those actions taken by people that look the most humanoid.
Seeing the world from the eyes of alien race (RahXephon), Immortal soul of the Earth (Lain), the asian undead (100 ghost stories), three-year old androids (GitSac), and the one who was losing her humanity, and views her own (impossible) death as a blessing, (Saikano) most people would feel some degree of discomfort.
I believe that these discomforts are due to the loss of the comfy blanket that is Intentional Ignorance.
('innocence' is what we call it when the people are young. However, after one becomes an adult, to retain the innocence by shutting off one's eyes and ears is inexcusable)
If what we believe is so right, then lets test it! The real truth will survive scrutiny. If it doesn't, don't cry for the loss. You are one step closer to see the world as it is, rather than what you want to see.
In conclusion, complex Animes are complex because they don't follow fixed paths our brains are used to. They don't agree with what we believe should be. However, they keep us on our toes, reminding us that the REAL world has always been beyond our reach. To stop searching, believing that one has finally reach the tallest mountain in the world, does not make one a mountain climber... But someone who USED TO BE one.
False-Comfort?, or knowledge and a reason to go on?
You must choose yourselves.
As for me, I am in love with this world. It is not good, evil, or even somewhere in between. It just IS. Brushing aside my own brain's desire to be lazy, I would try to decipher it. Complex Animes have in their core the very mind and ghost of its creators. By comprehending their visions, I try to learn the wisdoms and faults that they, as humans, possess.
(I know that, looking back, I must have sounded arrogant.
I now must apologize for my lack of skill in English. I have so much that I don't know... )
A big HELLO!!! to Sutsume :)
Not all of them are apples to my eye, yet each and every one important to me in their own way.
Everyone watches Anime to be entertained... I am no exception.
These very Anime forces my brain to twist in four dimensions, and are what I personally consider the true reason I watch them.
Our brains are very powerful blobs of fat... yet even they have limitations. To increase the speed of parallel processing, the lipid-and-sugar blocks create simple programs that speeds up decision making by screening options. These programs are made during our lives, and are influenced by the environment much more than DNA. These very programs are the main reason why we could handle vague inputs like 'a little to the left' when an AI has difficulties.
Yet these very short-cuts are dangerous when over-relied on. Especially since most people don't even know they exist.
A believe that peasants are weak and exist to serve rulers, for example, can develop in the mind of a young prince. There wasn't any reason why he shouldn't think so... Because his experiences seemed to reinforce this idea. Regardless that his father might be a wise ruler who earned the throne through respect and humidity.
So when he finally becomes King, the programing affects his thinking... He 'saves time' in making decisions by not worrying about the people, and raised taxes rather than lower spending. After all, that's what the peasants are for.
The results are self-evident in History.
But how could this have been averted?
Perhaps, by letting the Prince experience and understand ideas that are NOT the same as his own. To view possibilities and choices that others made, to see that the little kingdom is NOT the whole world... And that therefore he really ruled no one, just tolerated by some.
These 'other' truths are painful to absorb... To change the programing often does. Yet if one realizes that they know nothing (and therefore, have no rights in asking that an Anime should tell a specific story that THEY had in mind.), the effects, at least for me, are beneficial.
I still remember back in high school, when a 9th grader asked me if the 'Angels' of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" were 'bad-guys', since humans are fighting them.
We all know that humans are capable of every act under the sun... yet this boy had since wrote the program 'the most human looking side are the good guys' using the popular media as a source of data.
'What makes you think the humans are the good-guys?' was my reply to him.
He could not answer, for his brain hadn't bothered to work this out yet. After seeing dozens of shows and movies where the human are the good guys (and for good reasons in most cases), his brain has long ceased to check if the righteous actions were the real measure of being good, but rather of those actions taken by people that look the most humanoid.
Seeing the world from the eyes of alien race (RahXephon), Immortal soul of the Earth (Lain), the asian undead (100 ghost stories), three-year old androids (GitSac), and the one who was losing her humanity, and views her own (impossible) death as a blessing, (Saikano) most people would feel some degree of discomfort.
I believe that these discomforts are due to the loss of the comfy blanket that is Intentional Ignorance.
('innocence' is what we call it when the people are young. However, after one becomes an adult, to retain the innocence by shutting off one's eyes and ears is inexcusable)
If what we believe is so right, then lets test it! The real truth will survive scrutiny. If it doesn't, don't cry for the loss. You are one step closer to see the world as it is, rather than what you want to see.
In conclusion, complex Animes are complex because they don't follow fixed paths our brains are used to. They don't agree with what we believe should be. However, they keep us on our toes, reminding us that the REAL world has always been beyond our reach. To stop searching, believing that one has finally reach the tallest mountain in the world, does not make one a mountain climber... But someone who USED TO BE one.
False-Comfort?, or knowledge and a reason to go on?
You must choose yourselves.
As for me, I am in love with this world. It is not good, evil, or even somewhere in between. It just IS. Brushing aside my own brain's desire to be lazy, I would try to decipher it. Complex Animes have in their core the very mind and ghost of its creators. By comprehending their visions, I try to learn the wisdoms and faults that they, as humans, possess.
(I know that, looking back, I must have sounded arrogant.
I now must apologize for my lack of skill in English. I have so much that I don't know... )
A big HELLO!!! to Sutsume :)