30 Day Anime Meme - Day 9
Day 1 - Your Very First Anime
Day 2 - Favorite Anime You've Watched So Far
Day 3 - Your Anime Crush
Day 4 - Anime You're Ashamed You Enjoyed
Day 5 - Anime character you are most like (or wish you were)
Day 6 - Most Annoying Anime Character
Day 7 - Favorite Anime Couple
Day 8 - Most Epic Scene Ever
Day 9 - Saddest Anime Scene
SPOILER WARNINGS, Character death and plot endings.
'Sad' is relative. 'Sad' is very personal, and as I write this I still have no idea which scene from my shortlist I'm going to choose. I figure there's no universal standard for what effects a person emotionally, so I started by thinking back to what scenes actually hit me hard enough to make me cry. Since I could only think of five scenes that ever brought me to tears, I think I'll start with my shortlist and see if I can come to a conclusion while I compose:
1) The first time I cried during an anime was the point when Juri (and the audience) hears about Ruka's death in Revolutionary Girl Utena.
2) Next was during Trigun, when Vash killed Legato.
3) Continuing chronologically, several of the events surrounding Ayumu's death in Peacemaker.
4) Then, Minmay's breakdown at the end of Macross unquestionably made my list, although I doubt it would make most traditional lists of "sad" events -- she's supposed to be shown growing stronger as a person here.
5) And most recently (just a couple months ago, in fact), I couldn't stop myself losing it when Okita met his fate in Hakuouki. Blame the fact that I'm a Shinsengumi nut and Okita has always been my favorite captain, but seeing him go out this way made me despondent (and simultaneously happy to think that he would have been proud to do it, rather than dying the way he did historically).
Interestingly, looking at the list, there's just as strong a pattern to me as there was in yesterdays' set (moments that I consider "epic"). They all feature people who can't beat fate. They sacrifice themselves, their dreams, or both -- because they must. Whether someone forces their hand or it's a personal commitment to action, the character in each whose fate makes me sad seems to have "no choice". Something irreplaceable is crushed under the weight of inevitability.
Okita's death was the only moment on the list where I was smiling through my tears, as the cliche goes, but I notice there's also a common element of scenes one might call "rock bottom" for one or more characters -- before they bounce back despite an unthinkable loss, or perish with the one thing accomplished for which they would sacrifice anything. It's not just that there's no choice. It's something about the characters that says, "This is all I can hope for".
By volume of salt, Minmay is probably the obvious choice for this one. I made my considerations based on what affected me, and I don't believe I have ever been so distraught over a fictional character in any medium in my life (especially given that I went into that series prepared to find her annoying, not to empathize with her). I could say this or that about how something mitigates the "sadness" in each of those situations: how dying like an angry god would have made Okita proud, how Vash manages to recover and start again, thoughts on how Juri's life changes, Yamazaki's transformation... even Minmay's transformation by the end of the episode (whether she means what she says, or she's just committing herself to mean it someday). As I said above, by that standard the Macross example is probably the least sad, as the events amount to the world telling Minmay to grow up, followed by her agreeing.
So my final reason for choosing her is actually ::gasp:: logical.
You know how Shakespeare said, "some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em"? Everybody on the list above falls into one of the first two characters except for Lynn Minmay. In terms of story construction, she's a "hitobashira":
人柱 【ひとばしら】 (n) human pillar; human sacrifice
... and here I'm launching into the explanation that I said I'd keep a lid on during the Day 2 post. Essentially, she's a martyr, although mechanically all she does is sing, and her voice doesn't have any of the magical properties that later iterations of Macross develop. Despite the tendency towards realism in the series overall, she performs a function in relation to the other characters almost exclusively reserved for magic-based settings. Seeing that she has a "mysterious effect" beyond providing a little comfort and normalcy in the lives of the Macross's population, someone she loves asks her to do something crazy. She agrees to stand on the front lines of a war she's too scared and tired to fight because it's the only way to keep every Earth-born person in the universe from dying, and she makes it happen despite the fact it isn't "humanly possible".
The concept of the "hitobashira" is that a "pillar" (hashira) is supposed to be equivalent to a god, supporting an effort or a society by their presence and force of will. Those who have seen Prince of Tennis should be somewhat familiar with that usage from the motif, "the pillar of Seigaku". Magic Knights Rayearth is a better example, though probably less commonly known among people reading this journal; however, both examples focus on transferring the burden to the shoulders of someone who, according to tests put forward by the current "pillar", is capable of withstanding it. Ask an ordinary human to do a god's work, and that person ends up like a blown fuse. The tragedy of this happening to Minmay is that she's not in a magic setting.
Everyone around her sees her contribution as "just singing" without understanding that she, as a person, paid a heavy price to do it and could probably use a hug and a sabbatical long enough to mend, not to be dragged on a Scorched Earth charity tour by her drunk and abusive cousin. They appreciate the fact that they're alive, but literally no one that she sacrificed herself to save comprehends the reason why she can no longer bear to stand in front of an audience and sing. Watching her friends tell her that she simply has to get back up -- for the sake of the people who still need her to support them -- would be easier if Hikaru, Misa, or even Kaifun showed a hint of thinking she had done something challenging. As it was, Hikaru's claim that she'd never be alone as long as she had her music was, to me, physically painful.
The "rightness" of moving on and her ability to move on notwithstanding, that was just brutal.
Day 2 - Favorite Anime You've Watched So Far
Day 3 - Your Anime Crush
Day 4 - Anime You're Ashamed You Enjoyed
Day 5 - Anime character you are most like (or wish you were)
Day 6 - Most Annoying Anime Character
Day 7 - Favorite Anime Couple
Day 8 - Most Epic Scene Ever
Day 9 - Saddest Anime Scene
SPOILER WARNINGS, Character death and plot endings.
'Sad' is relative. 'Sad' is very personal, and as I write this I still have no idea which scene from my shortlist I'm going to choose. I figure there's no universal standard for what effects a person emotionally, so I started by thinking back to what scenes actually hit me hard enough to make me cry. Since I could only think of five scenes that ever brought me to tears, I think I'll start with my shortlist and see if I can come to a conclusion while I compose:
1) The first time I cried during an anime was the point when Juri (and the audience) hears about Ruka's death in Revolutionary Girl Utena.
2) Next was during Trigun, when Vash killed Legato.
3) Continuing chronologically, several of the events surrounding Ayumu's death in Peacemaker.
4) Then, Minmay's breakdown at the end of Macross unquestionably made my list, although I doubt it would make most traditional lists of "sad" events -- she's supposed to be shown growing stronger as a person here.
5) And most recently (just a couple months ago, in fact), I couldn't stop myself losing it when Okita met his fate in Hakuouki. Blame the fact that I'm a Shinsengumi nut and Okita has always been my favorite captain, but seeing him go out this way made me despondent (and simultaneously happy to think that he would have been proud to do it, rather than dying the way he did historically).
Interestingly, looking at the list, there's just as strong a pattern to me as there was in yesterdays' set (moments that I consider "epic"). They all feature people who can't beat fate. They sacrifice themselves, their dreams, or both -- because they must. Whether someone forces their hand or it's a personal commitment to action, the character in each whose fate makes me sad seems to have "no choice". Something irreplaceable is crushed under the weight of inevitability.
Okita's death was the only moment on the list where I was smiling through my tears, as the cliche goes, but I notice there's also a common element of scenes one might call "rock bottom" for one or more characters -- before they bounce back despite an unthinkable loss, or perish with the one thing accomplished for which they would sacrifice anything. It's not just that there's no choice. It's something about the characters that says, "This is all I can hope for".
By volume of salt, Minmay is probably the obvious choice for this one. I made my considerations based on what affected me, and I don't believe I have ever been so distraught over a fictional character in any medium in my life (especially given that I went into that series prepared to find her annoying, not to empathize with her). I could say this or that about how something mitigates the "sadness" in each of those situations: how dying like an angry god would have made Okita proud, how Vash manages to recover and start again, thoughts on how Juri's life changes, Yamazaki's transformation... even Minmay's transformation by the end of the episode (whether she means what she says, or she's just committing herself to mean it someday). As I said above, by that standard the Macross example is probably the least sad, as the events amount to the world telling Minmay to grow up, followed by her agreeing.
So my final reason for choosing her is actually ::gasp:: logical.
You know how Shakespeare said, "some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em"? Everybody on the list above falls into one of the first two characters except for Lynn Minmay. In terms of story construction, she's a "hitobashira":
人柱 【ひとばしら】 (n) human pillar; human sacrifice
... and here I'm launching into the explanation that I said I'd keep a lid on during the Day 2 post. Essentially, she's a martyr, although mechanically all she does is sing, and her voice doesn't have any of the magical properties that later iterations of Macross develop. Despite the tendency towards realism in the series overall, she performs a function in relation to the other characters almost exclusively reserved for magic-based settings. Seeing that she has a "mysterious effect" beyond providing a little comfort and normalcy in the lives of the Macross's population, someone she loves asks her to do something crazy. She agrees to stand on the front lines of a war she's too scared and tired to fight because it's the only way to keep every Earth-born person in the universe from dying, and she makes it happen despite the fact it isn't "humanly possible".
The concept of the "hitobashira" is that a "pillar" (hashira) is supposed to be equivalent to a god, supporting an effort or a society by their presence and force of will. Those who have seen Prince of Tennis should be somewhat familiar with that usage from the motif, "the pillar of Seigaku". Magic Knights Rayearth is a better example, though probably less commonly known among people reading this journal; however, both examples focus on transferring the burden to the shoulders of someone who, according to tests put forward by the current "pillar", is capable of withstanding it. Ask an ordinary human to do a god's work, and that person ends up like a blown fuse. The tragedy of this happening to Minmay is that she's not in a magic setting.
Everyone around her sees her contribution as "just singing" without understanding that she, as a person, paid a heavy price to do it and could probably use a hug and a sabbatical long enough to mend, not to be dragged on a Scorched Earth charity tour by her drunk and abusive cousin. They appreciate the fact that they're alive, but literally no one that she sacrificed herself to save comprehends the reason why she can no longer bear to stand in front of an audience and sing. Watching her friends tell her that she simply has to get back up -- for the sake of the people who still need her to support them -- would be easier if Hikaru, Misa, or even Kaifun showed a hint of thinking she had done something challenging. As it was, Hikaru's claim that she'd never be alone as long as she had her music was, to me, physically painful.
The "rightness" of moving on and her ability to move on notwithstanding, that was just brutal.