Cruel Angel Theses

I insist on coming clean about this: till a week ago I was one of those elitist bastards who wouldn’t touch eroge adaptations even if you paid me. Well, alright, maybe I would, but I always had a prejudice against them. Point being? The concept of eroges/visual novels/dating sims didn’t appeal to me at all. To put it crudely, they always seemed to me like a Japanese amalgam of Choose Your Own Adventure and Mills & Boon. It was that bad.

The logic behind the aversion? Pretty simple — it was how sex and a decent story were mutually exclusive. Or how the sex always came first and the story second. Oh, don’t tell me — they made the story first and then tried to cram in the sex later. I can imagine it already, some overweight, middle-aged salaryman looking over the shoulder of his Chinese sweatshop programmer, going “What do you MEAN they can’t have sex now?” Assuming then, that the eroge is in all respects created from the ground up with equal allowance to both sex and story doesn’t make it any better — just less pathetic, like comparing a home-made porno to a professional one.

But enough of that derogatory slant. Of course, I had heard of Kanon back then in ‘02, but the Toei version was hideous and there were better things to watch, like Haibane Renmei, Saikano, and Scryed. That friend of mine who got me into anime also had a thing for eroge with names like “Water Closet”. He also played Sentimental Shooters and the Princess Maker series quite some — as a result of which I learnt to ignore all things eroge-related.

4 years later KyoAni comes along and does a second adaptation. The community, still reeling from the void that Haruhi left behind, pounces on it like rabid mice. Some go into raptures about the whole thing, having played Kanon when it was still a game, with not so great character designs. Others denounce Toei’s version and swear allegiance to KyoAni (like they didn’t before). I sit up in my chair and start to pay more attention.

Thing is around this time I was catching up on a few years worth of anime, having practically watched nothing between ‘04-’06, and wanted to give it as much of a chance as possible; this meant not viewing episodes in-between Nanoha’s Raging Heart, Bokura ga Ita’s sludge-like pacing, and fiesty dolls with their creepy father complexes. So I waited for it to finish — in the meantime shoving all spoiler posts into a folder in my feedreader — and watched the whole thing over 3 days.

is there an unwritten rule that Makoto and Ayu can’t be in the same picture, together, alone? this was all I found under “+sawatari_makoto +tsukimiya_ayu” that was worksafe and not a group picture of some sort, and it was pretty annoying, even more so when you realise they’re technically still not alone.

And like all fairytale stories, I loved it. Well, maybe not so fairytale in that respect because I hated two of the girls, loved the other two, and didn’t know what to do with the last one. Kanon was equal parts epic and fail for me in the sense that Makoto’s arc did it for me, got me all depressed when I found out, even teary-eyed during the pseudo-wedding scene. Then Mai’s arc came along and things went downhill for a moment. Shiori’s arc made me gape in incredulity at the whole setup. While I was looking for something to happen to Nayuki (I didn’t take Akiko’s accident as a cue) Ayu’s arc came along and hit me in the face.

I was already guessing at her fate from vague spoilers in /a/ at the time, borderline stuff like “The last uguu” posted along with an screencap from that tree. But as the story went along I began to see hints dropped here and there about Ayu — the school, her family, the lack of a handphone — I noticed it all. And still kept on hoping — you know how it is with a show where you know the inevitable end’s coming, a sacrifice’s got to be made and it’s all pointing to that one person? And how you hope and pray things work out, even to the bitter end? I was doing that every step of the way.

Oddly enough, I felt dirty after it all was over. The SURPRISE MIRACLE TWIST got me (Ai Yazawa’s endings wouldn’t fail so hardcore if they were like that) at the end. I was like the stereotypical girl who, because her guy won’t cuddle with her post-coitus, feels used. That’s right, I felt like a whore.

This actually begs the question of story value — is an anime worth any less because it wilfully manipulates you into feeling a certain way from the get-go? The snow symbolism in Kanon was a nice touch that lent atmosphere. The themes of memory and miracles put the whole thing in a dream-like state that could be read as intentional, judging from Shiori’s butterfly quote. The five girls seemed to be — at least on the epidermal level — filling niches of tragic girls (in snow) that would result in touching even the most hardened fanboy’s heart. All just as planned.

Because if it isn’t — and here you’ll have to excuse me for beating the dying horse from my last post — then I don’t see why it should be any different for any other series. Is a self-aware anime that breaks the fourth wall indirectly though its irreverent aesthetics and self-ironic design, but still manages to deliver — is it any better or worse from its not so self-aware counterparts? Y’know, the ones who capture the audience’s heart through less contrived stories? As much as I’d like to put a Matrix reference here now and go “lol j/k”, I’m just sayin’. Tell me what you think.

Should be putting up a last post about Lucky Star later after I get around to watching the hideous speedsub that came up this morning; I also feel cheated at how they didn’t translate the karaoke, which was the only point for getting it. And Mishicorp’s non-failing Darker than Black sub Mishicorp’s sub was horrible, I take that back. Shinsen-Subs’ version owned the shit out of it. Several Chinese, starring in something that isn’t filling in the ethnic role or a period series? I always thought they were like the token blacks in American shows, so I’m happy with this development.

On a final note, I don’t plan on embracing eroge adaptations all and sundry, any time soon. I’m still the elitist bastard, albeit a more enlightened one. Key, however, will always be welcome with open arms — now that this post’s done I can finally begin on Air, which is purported to be better. That should take me a fortnight tops, so wait for it.