Four Hundred Years of Angst: Takaya and Naoe - Mirage of Blaze

Feb 06, 2008 20:36


Title:  Four Hundred Years of Angst: Takaya and Naoe - Mirage of Blaze

Author:  snaphappy_fma

E-mail:  snaphappy[underscore]fma[at]yahoo[dot]com

Fandom:  Mirage of Blaze

Pairing:  Takaya and Naoe

Disclaimer:  Mirage of Blaze was written by Mizuna Kuwabara; I am not making any money from this.

Warnings:  Spoilers for the entire anime series and OVA

Notes: ( Read more... )

#anime/animation, mirage of blaze

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Comments 25

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snaphappy_fma February 8 2008, 07:01:51 UTC
Thanks for reading it! I haven't read too many of the novel translations, but what I've read really fills in the gaps in the animeverse... The anime version, IMHO, spends too much time on plot details and not enough on Takaya/Kagetora and Naoe relating to each other... which I think is what we all really want to see ;).

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quaint_twilight February 8 2008, 06:27:32 UTC
Kagetora did not commit suicide after he was forced into Minako's body. After that incident, Minako!Kagetora perished in a cataclysmic battle with Nobunaga on top of a volcano.

I always felt that scene in the anime where Minako slits her throat to be more of an allusion to Kagetora's feelings that he was responsible for Minako's death

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snaphappy_fma February 8 2008, 07:10:21 UTC
Thanks for the clarification... I didn't know if the dream where Minako kills herself related to an actual event, or if it just reflected how Kagetora felt responsible for her death.

Geez, a VOLCANO? That's pretty apocalyptic. :0

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elflady_2001 February 8 2008, 07:19:57 UTC
I really enjoyed reading this. I've never read the novels (but intend to one day!) but saw the anime series and OVAs almost exactly one year ago (on 2/2/07!). It was such an unforgettable story and the angst nearly killed me.

Thank you.

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snaphappy_fma February 11 2008, 02:51:07 UTC
Thanks for reading... I know, the angst in this relationship just feels overwhelming at times. I'm glad you enjoyed reading the essay!

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meganinhiding February 8 2008, 19:14:38 UTC
I'm still absorbing this essay but here are my innate impressions ( ... )

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snaphappy_fma February 11 2008, 03:52:32 UTC
That's a fascinating idea - Naoe with the amnesia... it's hard to imagine Naoe without his bitterness - which is very sad, actually. I haven't read the source material for the OVA and was unaware of the reasoning behind any rewriting of the two dock scenes. My thought was to cover the anime series/OVA on their own merits, figuring that readers who found the story/characters intriguing could go on to read the source materials if that was their choice. It's unfortunate that the anime leaves out so much that's in the novels, and yet the novels are so inaccessible to non-Japanese-fluent fans. I intend to read the novels myself someday (I'm learning Japanese now - just not fast enough!). Thanks for your impressions, and for reading this.

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e_witness March 20 2008, 16:55:41 UTC
Oh, thank you so very much for this! I've been looking for something of this sort since I first entered the fandom. I watched the anime about five days ago (starting with a twelve-episode marathon that cut into some sleep and food) and was very confused with quite a few things. Part of my confusion was due to watching a version subbed in a language I'm not all that fluent in, but a greater part was simply because the characters are incredibly complex - and this isn't even touching on the plot which had my head turning so much I was forced to give up on it. Your essay clears some things up in my mind (For instance, "Ujimasa’s ultimate plan is to sacrifice Kagetora’s soul and turn it into an enormous energy weapon to use against the other clans." Had no idea!) and offers much food for thought on the characters.

Whether Takaya actually has a separate existence apart from Kagetora depends on whether one believes that the soul and the persona are two different entities.This is a question that is crucial to how one interprets their ( ... )

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snaphappy_fma March 27 2008, 05:21:17 UTC
Thanks so much for your comments! There are so many layers to Takaya/Kagetora and Naoe's relationship that one can muse over them for hours, I know ;). Mirage of Blaze was actually one of the first animes I ever watched, and I've fallen in love with a number of animes since then but MoB simply lingers with me: the characters, the overall adult tone and feel of the story, the music... Mirage of Blaze is just special. Thanks again for reading!

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