Cruel Angel Theses

This is about how Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight! was pretty much like Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad. By “pretty much” I mean “a lot”, and if you’ve seen both like I have you should be able to see the connection. It’s damn obvious if you ask me. Pity not many saw the glory that was Ray and his Engrish, because as far as mainstream tastes go Beck failed. Explanation after the cut.

no, I wasn’t expecting this either, despite the huge warning signs and how I seemed to have missed the glaring fact that Seioh High was an all-girls school.

A point-by-point comparison:

• Beck begins with a chance encounter
• The second-last episode is a huge concert
• Chronicles the everyday life of the band
• The last episode takes place a few years later
• 5 members in the band
• Unconsciously works towards a grand climax (concert)

and

• Manabi Straight begins with a chance encounter
• The second-last episode is a huge concert
• Chronicles the everyday life of the student council
• The last episode takes place a few years later
• 5 members in the student council
• Unconsciously works towards a grand climax (school fair)

The first five points are admittedly trivial, since correlation does not imply causation, and all that; besides, I’m not saying Manabi’s a rip-off or anything. There’s a more obvious similarity in the sixth and last one, though, and it’s this very point that you should pay attention to.

Beck was a tad difficult to digest, no thanks to its relatively uninteresting setting that didn’t exactly pull you in from the start. The typical loser kid protagonist was overplayed, to say nothing of the random guy wanting to show him the ropes, and a pretty childhood friend way out of his league. Until its direction became obvious in the later episodes (the climax, e.g. the concert) it dragged its feet mostly. Watching it became more of a “I’m watching this to finish it” thing, as opposed to Shakugan no Shana’s “I’m watching this because it’s interesting” thing.

Manabi Straight, on the other hand, won points through injecting original elements into a stale setting. Yet another student council? Been there, done that. Slice of life/high school/comedy again? Nothing new there. The magic lay in its implementation — how it portrayed Manabi, the main character, as not just another clich�d transfer student from the storeroom of anime stereotypes; the catchy, upbeat soundtrack that sounded decidedly different from most; effective commentary on the repercussions of Japan’s declining birth-rate, and in the same breath tackling the theme of progress in a decidedly quirky sci-fi future; the ever-present theme of love and friendship that wasn’t as annoying as I thought it was.

For comparison (Beck on top, Manabi below):

notice the sky background, group pose and all that.

I mentioned the last point above as being significant due to how it managed to break free of what you’d usually expect of a slice of life genre through working towards a goal that required definite resolution. Like how Koyuki’s band slowly but surely began their journey towards the bigtime by preparing for Grateful Sound, so did Manabi and the student council by preparing for the school fair.

It’s the sense of direction that prevents both from wandering around aimlessly. Series like Yotsuba&! and Hidamari Sketch excel through the ability of the characters to be innately interesting in their interaction, without the need for any overarching storyline or impending conflict needing resolution that hovers around them; however it’s a severely limited genre niche that doesn’t appeal to everyone. Beck, and to a greater extent Manabi, however, manage to overcome this.

Pure slice of life will never be to everyone’s taste. Even in its most diluted form you’ve got people protesting lamely about two characters talking for six minutes about food, but I suppose you knew about that already. Some people see the need in having their characters having purpose, or at least working towards a goal that requires conflict along the way, something to break the voyeurism of the genre itself.

But what conflict’s there to begin with? It’s the ingenious implementation here that worked with Beck, and it’s the same case this time round with Manabi. For the magic lies in the moment. The set-up for conflict usually comes about as masquerading as character development; it isn’t so much the conflict itself as what it means to the characters facing it — you can’t throw them into conflict early on because the trappings of the genre then clash with it, resulting in the inability for the viewer to connect and identify with them.

To elaborate further on what I meant by “the moment”: it’s tricky to define, and it might likely vary from person to person given its subjective nature, but in both Beck and Manabi the climatic resolution’s what sets it apart and makes it worthy of much critical acclaim. It’s just your everyday victory here, the small battle won in obtaining that much-needed exposure for the band despite previous setbacks (Beck) or finally getting the school fair to go on after much blood, sweat, and tears (Manabi); yet by virtue of it being an everyday victory — no saving the world or saving the girl here — it’s beautiful.

So slice of life conflict works, even if it has to do so in a very roundabout manner, and this is what endeared me to the show. I’d like to think that the identification that comes with a slice of life character is markedly different from that of a shounen, or shoujo character in the sense that instead of identifying with, or empathising for the character as is the norm, what happens with slice of life is that you care for them instead. As cheesy as it might sound, my take on slice of life conflict is how takes characterisation to a different level due to its real life roots and representativeness, and the aforementioned voyeuristic quality that allows for an intimate snapshot of a character you identify with as more than just the role he or she plays.

Yasuhiro Misawa did an excellent job composing, and I think Manabi’s soundtrack deserves special mention here thanks to its blending of elements that captured the mood of the show very well. A central theme of the show was the struggle between progress and tradition, represented by the Aikoh and Seioh schools respectively — and it’s mirrored here in the music. Embodying the spirit of youthful exuberance present throughout the show, Misawa blends together classical, acoustic, and electronica in varying BPM, occasionally throwing in full-length string/piano pieces and club beats to great results; the mix of “old” and “new” music styles, aside from complementing the show wonderfully, underscored the main theme quite well, and enhanced the experience of the show as a result.

It took me long enough to watch this, but I wanted to wait for Eclipse-gg to get on with the subs. Waiting too long kills the pace (I mean, just look at Code Geass). There were no low points of the show, unless you count Cockroach-tan as one of them: I didn’t really like how she was underdeveloped as a character, but that could’ve been due to how she wasn’t really involved in the student council except to act as a deus ex machina later on and a turning point for the general attitude of Seioh High’s students. I’m glad I watched this, and I’m wondering what the DVD-exclusive episode will turn out to be — anything Momo-related, or in the vein of H&C’s Chapter L and F would be great.