REVIEW: Maou: Encounter with the Shadow. Part 1/3.
I have to warn you beforehand that this review is going to be the longest one of those I’ve written so far.
I’m splitting it into 3 parts, because altogether this research turned out to be rather long.
Forgive the Lang and Lit graduate for the possible geeking.
-----------------------------------------------------------
It’s exactly two weeks since I finished watching “Maou” and decided to write a review on this drama. But somehow, even though I knew in the beginning that it’s going to be rather hard, it turns out to be even harder. Words just didn’t come at first.
It’s interesting though. Usually I can express my thoughts well, when writing out my impressions on a movie, book or whatever. And here I feel like I’ve opened a Chamber of Secrets and I get attacked by so much information and hidden meanings that I don’t know where to start. So in a way it will be more of an essay, a research than a proper review. I will try to stay true to my original course and take this one main theme that triggered my interest most while I was watching this drama.
I remember that when I first heard of Maou from ice_axel, she mentioned the Tarot cards and it got me interested (as I’ve been doing Tarot readings for over 10 years now). But since I’m usually really cautious when it comes to subjects like demons and devilry and frightful images, I didn’t give it a chance. But then… The things we’re afraid of most are also weirdly fascinating. Be it the cards, the mystery, the acting duo, or the dark story… in the end, I gave in. And I don’t regret a second of it.
“Maou” is not just a drama, or a story about revenge and redemption, or a psychological thriller. Yes, it is all of that but above all, it is a story of succumbing to your darker side, unleashing your shadow. At least, that’s how I saw it. For me, that brings forth a much deeper meaning. And this is the theme I would like to explore in my essay.
Intro
Have you ever felt like this? You’re watching a movie, you see the antagonist, and you feel like there’s something missing. You want to know the whole story. What changed them? What made them become what they are now? What have they suffered that made them want to hurt other people? It may be just me but really, I remember having these questions in my head, numerous times.
So far Japanese movies and dramas haven’t failed to show these stories-behind-the-villain, and for that I’m forever grateful. No person is born with a black heart. But like everything in this world needs a balance, and like there will always be good and evil out there, likewise every person has a bright side and a dark one too.
Before you learn anything about the protagonists of the drama, the first story you hear is that of the angel who earned the God’s wrath and was thrown out of Heaven. The one whose name means “light-bearer”. His name is Lucifer.
“Why did a beautiful angel become the Devil King, Maou? What earned him God’s anger?” In a way, these questions might sound strange but looking for the answer to them, you get to the core. One of the first things that parents teach their kids is that there is good and evil in this world. The thing they don’t say is that you can’t divide the world evenly into black and white. Because every person has both good and evil inside their souls, their personal heaven and hell.
We indirectly meet two of the three protagonists in the first scene: the story of Lucifer/Maou and his angel face is told to kids in a church yard by a girl whom we’ll see later as the main heroine of the drama.
The protagonist here is Naruse Ryou (his real name being Manaka Tomoo), the highly respectable lawyer whose skills and success in court earned him the nickname “angelic lawyer” from the media. However, this angelic image is in fact only a mask behind which we see the avenger. His aim is to destroy everybody who was involved in the murder of his younger brother Hideo 11 years ago. And to do it calmly. Steadily. Step by step.
Like Lucifer took the name of Satan when thrown out of Heaven, Manaka Tomoo gives up his previous life and is reborn as Naruse Ryou after he loses his family (mother dies of heart attack at the funeral of her younger son). Later on, creating a new name from his real one, Manaka Tomoo starts his revenge under the alias of Amano Makoto. Taking this name, he becomes Maou.
The girl who tells the story of Lucifer in the first scene is Sakita Shiori, a pure soul who possesses the power of psychometry, “reading” the leftover images from different objects, which lets her see the events she never witnessed in person. The Harry Potter geek in me immediately draws a parallel with Priori Incantatem spell. That’s exactly how she “witnessed” the events of 11 years ago when the murder was committed.
And the last one of the protagonist trio is the hot-headed Serizawa Naoto, the policeman and the main target of Maou's killing plans, because it was Naoto who caused the death of Hideo and it is the sin he has to repent for. Amano Makoto, the avenger, seeks to reveal the truth about the murder that was distorted, the pursuit of truth is his obsession because back then Naoto was cleared of all charges and justice never took place. However, the whole details of the events of that day are known only to the unfortunate “killer” Naoto. The murder in fact was an accident.
The drama is full of contrasts on different levels. And right here we already have a good-and-evil controversy for every main character:
• Naruse Ryou: angelic lawyer and Maou
• Serizawa Naoto: a juvenile delinquent and a policeman
• Sakita Shiori: it’s not a controversy within the character but rather an opposition of her pure soul and the dark images that psychometry skills bring upon her
I. Shadow archetype and its reflection in the characters of "Maou"
Since the essay is called “Encounter with the Shadow”, I’d better talk a bit about the concept of Shadow as it is.
One of the main archetypical images in Carl Gustav Jung’s philosophy is that of the Shadow. It represents the hidden desires, instincts, weaknesses, suppressed longings, aggression. It is the unconscious, the unknown part of ourselves that we can’t control. You can see this Shadow in others, what is more difficult is to know the power of your own. The Shadow is the chaos inside us that is opposed to the harmonious personality that we mould ourselves into to be viewed as adequate members of society. Our choice defines our future: whether we keep the inner demons caged or unleash them.
However, the encounter with the Shadow often happens in times of great commotion, a shock. And when it does, it takes a lot of strength to withstand the temptation, and not let your dark side get hold of you. It’s no longer a choice, it’s a challenge.
Lucifer’s pride was the reason of his downfall, his sin is the desire to rise above God. In this it doesn’t really correspond to the story of Manaka Tomoo, who could be a positive character but after he lost his family and saw the truth distorted, he chooses to take his revenge on Serizawa and everybody around him. However, releasing the darker side of the character and the alias names really show the connection between the two.
The interesting thing is that in the main characters we see three different reflections of Shadow archetype.
Naruse Ryou is the most complex character here, the man of many names and many faces. The angel and devil in one body.
Usually, people hide behind different masks, subconsciously choosing one that fits them best. Manaka Tomoo chooses two, each of which has a different name and purpose. Naruse Ryou is the name he takes to start a new life and to fulfil the dream of his brother who wanted to become a lawyer. This is his mask of justice, the wish to defend the innocent, to make up for the injustice that made him change his life.
Amano Makoto is the Shadow in its purest form. The fact that “Amano Makoto” name is made up from the letters of his real name (Manaka Tomoo) shows that the avenger self is indeed a part of this character’s personality. The brother’s murder and mother’s death are this trigger point, the shock that brings about the encounter with the Shadow. The other reading of Amano Makoto, “ame no shinjitsu” (the rain’s truth) implies the moment when Manaka Tomoo was standing in the rain watching Serizawa family and learning that Naoto is cleared of all charges of the murder.
Unleashing the darkness of his soul and all the destructive emotions, Manaka Tomoo lets his Shadow possess himself, he falls prisoner to it, and the farther he goes on with completion of his revenge plan, the more powerful the Shadow grows, leaving no chance for retreat.
When watching the drama, I couldn’t exactly call this character a devil, not even once. And it was a relief that I’m not the only one with this opinion.
The real Manaka Tomoo was a teenage boy who lost the ground under his feet on the day when his brother was killed, lost all trust in people after his mother died and when the truth about the murder was left unspoken. He grew up into a man longing for warmth and love, like any other, while he believes that he has no right for it. His true self that he’s forgotten about is awakened by Shiori. Only she can see through his masks, through the walls that he built around himself to shun all his real feelings from stranger’s eyes. However, Manaka Tomoo cannot fight off the Shadow that overtakes his true identity and dictates his further actions, leading him to death.
In Serizawa Naoto we see an inversed pattern. We learn that Naoto was a bully at school, openly displaying the craving for violence that is part of the Shadow side. His actions earned him a lot of hate from people he bullied. Yamano, his classmate, wants to kill him, and it’s Manaka Hideo who talks him out of it and takes his knife. Ironically, this is the knife that causes Hideo’s death.
The hate directed at Naoto and subsequent accidental murder of Hideo, his classmate, is the closest Naoto ever gets to see his Shadow. And afraid of what saw, of what he can become if he doesn’t stop, he runs away from it. Like Manaka Tomoo who chooses a new life as Naruse Ryou, the warrior of justice, Serizawa Naoto becomes a policeman to fight against violence. The Shadow he’s running away from is not just his past that can’t be re-written, the memories of the murder that haunt him, it is also the Shadow of Amano Makoto that eventually gets hold of him.
It’s interesting that the weakest character here, the bullied Yamano, not having his own strong personality, eventually assimilates with the avenger Shadow. He is indirectly responsible for the death of Hideo (it’s his knife Hideo gets stabbed with), likewise he is the one who drives Manaka Tomoo to complete the last step in his revenge. At first, he becomes the assistant of Maou, helping him in the implementation of the revenge plan. And when Manaka is ready to stop, trying to free himself of the Shadow, Yamano pushes him forward, when it doesn’t work he resorts to killing again. So in a way, we can say that in the end Yamano earns the ultimate Maou role.
The last one of the protagonists is Sakita Shiori. As the good-and-evil controversy did not come from within this character, it is the same with the Shadow. Shiori’s Shadow is the most latent of the three, because we don’t get even a glimpse of it. She is the messenger of light who, however, has to deal with a lot of darker issues. She feels the darkness coming from Maou and she is drawn to it, especially after learning that this man is the one she shared a memory with as a schoolgirl, under the rain. Shiori openly declares her feelings, and wants become Manaka Tomoo’s guardian angel, to lead him out of the darkness (before which we hear a beautiful allegoric story of brother and sister). And she would have succeeded. However, the power of the Shadow is too strong.
REVIEW: Maou: Encounter with the Shadow. Part 2/3
REVIEW: Maou: Encounter with the Shadow. Part 3/3
I’m splitting it into 3 parts, because altogether this research turned out to be rather long.
Forgive the Lang and Lit graduate for the possible geeking.
-----------------------------------------------------------
It’s exactly two weeks since I finished watching “Maou” and decided to write a review on this drama. But somehow, even though I knew in the beginning that it’s going to be rather hard, it turns out to be even harder. Words just didn’t come at first.
It’s interesting though. Usually I can express my thoughts well, when writing out my impressions on a movie, book or whatever. And here I feel like I’ve opened a Chamber of Secrets and I get attacked by so much information and hidden meanings that I don’t know where to start. So in a way it will be more of an essay, a research than a proper review. I will try to stay true to my original course and take this one main theme that triggered my interest most while I was watching this drama.
I remember that when I first heard of Maou from ice_axel, she mentioned the Tarot cards and it got me interested (as I’ve been doing Tarot readings for over 10 years now). But since I’m usually really cautious when it comes to subjects like demons and devilry and frightful images, I didn’t give it a chance. But then… The things we’re afraid of most are also weirdly fascinating. Be it the cards, the mystery, the acting duo, or the dark story… in the end, I gave in. And I don’t regret a second of it.
“Maou” is not just a drama, or a story about revenge and redemption, or a psychological thriller. Yes, it is all of that but above all, it is a story of succumbing to your darker side, unleashing your shadow. At least, that’s how I saw it. For me, that brings forth a much deeper meaning. And this is the theme I would like to explore in my essay.
Intro
Have you ever felt like this? You’re watching a movie, you see the antagonist, and you feel like there’s something missing. You want to know the whole story. What changed them? What made them become what they are now? What have they suffered that made them want to hurt other people? It may be just me but really, I remember having these questions in my head, numerous times.
So far Japanese movies and dramas haven’t failed to show these stories-behind-the-villain, and for that I’m forever grateful. No person is born with a black heart. But like everything in this world needs a balance, and like there will always be good and evil out there, likewise every person has a bright side and a dark one too.
Before you learn anything about the protagonists of the drama, the first story you hear is that of the angel who earned the God’s wrath and was thrown out of Heaven. The one whose name means “light-bearer”. His name is Lucifer.
“Why did a beautiful angel become the Devil King, Maou? What earned him God’s anger?” In a way, these questions might sound strange but looking for the answer to them, you get to the core. One of the first things that parents teach their kids is that there is good and evil in this world. The thing they don’t say is that you can’t divide the world evenly into black and white. Because every person has both good and evil inside their souls, their personal heaven and hell.
We indirectly meet two of the three protagonists in the first scene: the story of Lucifer/Maou and his angel face is told to kids in a church yard by a girl whom we’ll see later as the main heroine of the drama.
The protagonist here is Naruse Ryou (his real name being Manaka Tomoo), the highly respectable lawyer whose skills and success in court earned him the nickname “angelic lawyer” from the media. However, this angelic image is in fact only a mask behind which we see the avenger. His aim is to destroy everybody who was involved in the murder of his younger brother Hideo 11 years ago. And to do it calmly. Steadily. Step by step.
Like Lucifer took the name of Satan when thrown out of Heaven, Manaka Tomoo gives up his previous life and is reborn as Naruse Ryou after he loses his family (mother dies of heart attack at the funeral of her younger son). Later on, creating a new name from his real one, Manaka Tomoo starts his revenge under the alias of Amano Makoto. Taking this name, he becomes Maou.
The girl who tells the story of Lucifer in the first scene is Sakita Shiori, a pure soul who possesses the power of psychometry, “reading” the leftover images from different objects, which lets her see the events she never witnessed in person. The Harry Potter geek in me immediately draws a parallel with Priori Incantatem spell. That’s exactly how she “witnessed” the events of 11 years ago when the murder was committed.
And the last one of the protagonist trio is the hot-headed Serizawa Naoto, the policeman and the main target of Maou's killing plans, because it was Naoto who caused the death of Hideo and it is the sin he has to repent for. Amano Makoto, the avenger, seeks to reveal the truth about the murder that was distorted, the pursuit of truth is his obsession because back then Naoto was cleared of all charges and justice never took place. However, the whole details of the events of that day are known only to the unfortunate “killer” Naoto. The murder in fact was an accident.
The drama is full of contrasts on different levels. And right here we already have a good-and-evil controversy for every main character:
• Naruse Ryou: angelic lawyer and Maou
• Serizawa Naoto: a juvenile delinquent and a policeman
• Sakita Shiori: it’s not a controversy within the character but rather an opposition of her pure soul and the dark images that psychometry skills bring upon her
I. Shadow archetype and its reflection in the characters of "Maou"
Since the essay is called “Encounter with the Shadow”, I’d better talk a bit about the concept of Shadow as it is.
One of the main archetypical images in Carl Gustav Jung’s philosophy is that of the Shadow. It represents the hidden desires, instincts, weaknesses, suppressed longings, aggression. It is the unconscious, the unknown part of ourselves that we can’t control. You can see this Shadow in others, what is more difficult is to know the power of your own. The Shadow is the chaos inside us that is opposed to the harmonious personality that we mould ourselves into to be viewed as adequate members of society. Our choice defines our future: whether we keep the inner demons caged or unleash them.
However, the encounter with the Shadow often happens in times of great commotion, a shock. And when it does, it takes a lot of strength to withstand the temptation, and not let your dark side get hold of you. It’s no longer a choice, it’s a challenge.
Lucifer’s pride was the reason of his downfall, his sin is the desire to rise above God. In this it doesn’t really correspond to the story of Manaka Tomoo, who could be a positive character but after he lost his family and saw the truth distorted, he chooses to take his revenge on Serizawa and everybody around him. However, releasing the darker side of the character and the alias names really show the connection between the two.
The interesting thing is that in the main characters we see three different reflections of Shadow archetype.
Naruse Ryou is the most complex character here, the man of many names and many faces. The angel and devil in one body.
Usually, people hide behind different masks, subconsciously choosing one that fits them best. Manaka Tomoo chooses two, each of which has a different name and purpose. Naruse Ryou is the name he takes to start a new life and to fulfil the dream of his brother who wanted to become a lawyer. This is his mask of justice, the wish to defend the innocent, to make up for the injustice that made him change his life.
Amano Makoto is the Shadow in its purest form. The fact that “Amano Makoto” name is made up from the letters of his real name (Manaka Tomoo) shows that the avenger self is indeed a part of this character’s personality. The brother’s murder and mother’s death are this trigger point, the shock that brings about the encounter with the Shadow. The other reading of Amano Makoto, “ame no shinjitsu” (the rain’s truth) implies the moment when Manaka Tomoo was standing in the rain watching Serizawa family and learning that Naoto is cleared of all charges of the murder.
Unleashing the darkness of his soul and all the destructive emotions, Manaka Tomoo lets his Shadow possess himself, he falls prisoner to it, and the farther he goes on with completion of his revenge plan, the more powerful the Shadow grows, leaving no chance for retreat.
When watching the drama, I couldn’t exactly call this character a devil, not even once. And it was a relief that I’m not the only one with this opinion.
The real Manaka Tomoo was a teenage boy who lost the ground under his feet on the day when his brother was killed, lost all trust in people after his mother died and when the truth about the murder was left unspoken. He grew up into a man longing for warmth and love, like any other, while he believes that he has no right for it. His true self that he’s forgotten about is awakened by Shiori. Only she can see through his masks, through the walls that he built around himself to shun all his real feelings from stranger’s eyes. However, Manaka Tomoo cannot fight off the Shadow that overtakes his true identity and dictates his further actions, leading him to death.
In Serizawa Naoto we see an inversed pattern. We learn that Naoto was a bully at school, openly displaying the craving for violence that is part of the Shadow side. His actions earned him a lot of hate from people he bullied. Yamano, his classmate, wants to kill him, and it’s Manaka Hideo who talks him out of it and takes his knife. Ironically, this is the knife that causes Hideo’s death.
The hate directed at Naoto and subsequent accidental murder of Hideo, his classmate, is the closest Naoto ever gets to see his Shadow. And afraid of what saw, of what he can become if he doesn’t stop, he runs away from it. Like Manaka Tomoo who chooses a new life as Naruse Ryou, the warrior of justice, Serizawa Naoto becomes a policeman to fight against violence. The Shadow he’s running away from is not just his past that can’t be re-written, the memories of the murder that haunt him, it is also the Shadow of Amano Makoto that eventually gets hold of him.
It’s interesting that the weakest character here, the bullied Yamano, not having his own strong personality, eventually assimilates with the avenger Shadow. He is indirectly responsible for the death of Hideo (it’s his knife Hideo gets stabbed with), likewise he is the one who drives Manaka Tomoo to complete the last step in his revenge. At first, he becomes the assistant of Maou, helping him in the implementation of the revenge plan. And when Manaka is ready to stop, trying to free himself of the Shadow, Yamano pushes him forward, when it doesn’t work he resorts to killing again. So in a way, we can say that in the end Yamano earns the ultimate Maou role.
The last one of the protagonists is Sakita Shiori. As the good-and-evil controversy did not come from within this character, it is the same with the Shadow. Shiori’s Shadow is the most latent of the three, because we don’t get even a glimpse of it. She is the messenger of light who, however, has to deal with a lot of darker issues. She feels the darkness coming from Maou and she is drawn to it, especially after learning that this man is the one she shared a memory with as a schoolgirl, under the rain. Shiori openly declares her feelings, and wants become Manaka Tomoo’s guardian angel, to lead him out of the darkness (before which we hear a beautiful allegoric story of brother and sister). And she would have succeeded. However, the power of the Shadow is too strong.
REVIEW: Maou: Encounter with the Shadow. Part 2/3
REVIEW: Maou: Encounter with the Shadow. Part 3/3