Knights of Sidonia Ep.4 (#thoughts)

“Sacrifices”

Massive Death Toll

Due to the failure of Akai’s Team, Sidonia had to do a sudden acceleration to maneuver itself to safety from the Gauna attack. What occurred next was spectacular, massive structures collide, people falling through windows, the damages seemed endless.

This sequence was reminiscent to the original Maccross series when the SDF1 first transformed from a galaxy class ship with a large human city inside to a galaxy class mecha. The result was similar but not as artistically crafted. Knights of Sidonia’s portrayal was captivating yet there was something annoying about it. When traveling on a ship on the ocean, its obvious when it has a sudden change of course, same thing with plains in Earth’s atmosphere and submarines in the depths but in space, an endless vacuum with no friction, plus a large interstellar space craft with its own gravitational field, a sudden shift wouldn’t do anything to its inhabitants, no one would feel and so this whole segment was completely off the mark for me. I understand this segment is to show the stakes in their desperate attempt to keep whats left of the “human” race alive by giving us a large casualty count and showing us that the war affects everyone, not just the pilots.

Unknown Enemy

I understand that the Gauna is supposed to be a dreadful foe. Much of the Gauna is unknown and when it rears its horrible pink and gelatinous face, there are no certainties but not knowing what they are capable of is rather frustrating and at times cheap. This gets rather formulaic, Guana chases Sidonia, everyone fails or is in complete disarray and only Nagate can place his thoughts together for a miraculous victory.

#Thoughts

Its repetition is getting obvious, my hope is that this anime will let other characters shine and not just to place them as cannon fodder or other possible damsels in distress. After 4 episodes, other than Nagata, there are no other characters that have been fleshed out and relatable. With Season 2 recently added to Netflix, I hope things change and adjust fast or this already struggling view will just move on to other anime titles.

Clamore #manga series retrospect

What its like:
Sailor Moon mixed with Berserk. 

The Good-
A sign of a good series is when its creators is able to portray value to the characters they are writing about, Claymore gives this up in loads.  What makes this series distinct is its focus on mythology with an emphasis on sorrow.  With every turn of the page, we fear an unexpected departure of a liked character or expecting a just a little hind of hope in an otherwise doomed world.  Its might me the optimist in me that hopes for a good ending for Clair’s adventure or the sadistic side of me to see this world end in its final agonizing death throws, whatever the case, the series has me gripped and with every end of a chapter, the following one never disappoints. 

The Bad-
With the balance of opening up and liking characters and the killing of said characters, I began to distance myself with the story.  One can only have his heart broken before it go’s numb and this is exactly what the series does.  There is no comicbooky resurrections, death is death and just like Clair, we must move on carrying the burden of loss to the ones that has fallen.  Deaths to loved characters are great effects to emotionally engage the readers but too much of it can fatigue or diminish its impact. 

*Spoilers* there is a part of the series that lets its readers peek beyond the Island of where all of this is happening.  We are told that there is a greater war on the outside world between 2 major countries, and that island they are in is nothing more than a R&D (Research and Development) installation.  I liked the idea but it was treated like an afterthought, especially knowing that It will never matter.  This portion of the story I could’ve done without.

The Ugly-
This series would’ve been better if the overall story would’ve been cut in half.  There were obvious ‘Filler’ chapters that prolongs its story, giving us a long pause for no really worthwhile.  This series almost overstayed its welcome but with its strong final story arch saved the series giving us a solid ending. 

All in All:
In my rating scale of
Buy it – must have in any manga lovers library
Borrow it – worth reading
Pass it – don’t waste your time

I will give it a BUY IT.  The art is haunting and cold, giving its readers a constant sense of dread while the story is gripping and a true page turner.  This is a series that grabs you by the throat and takes you along for a ride (a little bit of a long one at that).

Knights of Sidonia Ep.3 review

Here we begin the episode with a gladiatorial match between mecha pilots.  A key thing to consider is that even in space with sophisticated technology, philosophies, and cultural norms, at humanities core, we are competitive and social beings.

On Being Social Beings:

We are introduced with new supporting characters, this group is somewhat popular and shows an openness and acceptance with the main character Tanikaze.  I’m a bit worried that this fortunate event is a mere set up for cannon fodder for future episodes.  With this episode, there is less Space Combat and more on city life, much like resembling a typical High-school anime series complete paving the way to rivalry tropes, love triangles, and popular rankings showing us Class Elitism, and special benefits to those who are accepted into their society.

Called It! *Spoilers*

Even as I write this, Akai, Midorikawa, Aoki, and Momose all dead.  This whole episode was just to give us characters we ought to like, show how tough they are in the beginning, give us a peek at a “deep” relationship between Akai and Momose and then kill them off horribly in order to show how serious the Gauna is as a threat.

Final Comments:

This episode was generic, predictable, and lazy with a ‘fill in the blank’ plot that results in a boring experience.  What I find most annoying about this episode is that it stops the buildup and momentum of the last two episodes and gives you an ending that isn’t compelling enough to warrant another viewing.  I hope that the next episode picks up and brings the story back to its core characters rather than building up new ones and killing them off all because the writers are too scared to damage their already drab and monotone main cast.

Deadman Wonderland

Whats It Like:

“Hunger Games” mixed with “The Running Man” with a hint of social commentary on privatized systems of government and humanities thirst for entertainment.

The Game

With no time waisted, we are shown Tokyo post devastation. The city still in its reconstruction effort while the epicenter of the city now an ironically themed Disneyland like amusement park called “Wonderland”. Even more unique with Wonderland is that it is a prison ran by a private company, using its inmates as the parks concession stand employees, ride operators, janitors and other positions as their labor, for the more rougher inmates, they are chosen to be the entertainment guised as a game-show (here is where “The Running Man” parallel comes from). Those who pay for Wonderlands admission believes that these are simple games like Double Dare or Wipe Out, not knowing that the inmates are actually meeting their makers right before their eyes. Most of these themes are lightly touched and greatly ignored after a few episodes, what ends up happening is the cliché of a modified anime “High School” style environment, complete with the Jocks, Outcasts, Nerds, and everyone else archetypes. Its like a constant Cafeteria Food fight but with “Blood Powers” instead of tater tots, chicken nuggets, and hot-dogs as projectiles.

Wond-irection

The characters in this series is generic at best, tools and plot devices at worse. The narrative is through the eyes of this series main character, Ganta Igarashi, who is like every other awkward anime teenager with social, emotional, and physical inabilities but has potential to reach new heights, see the term “unlikely hero” but a stronger emphasis “unlike” due to the character constantly reminding you of his inabilities. Then there is the ‘crazy/childlike’ person, the ‘tough exterior with a heart of gold’ character, the likely hero with a twisted darkness hidden in, and the calm calculating bad-guy with a childhood complex. Watching this anime is like watching a child opening his toy box with popular characters coexisting in his fictional worlds, where Disney’s Aladin can coexist with Marvels Dethlok and Robotek’s Rick Hunter. This is where the ‘Meta’ portion of this anime begins. The CEO of the prison has these ‘generic’ archetypes duke it out with winners awarded and the looser damaged, much like a my child illustration. I appreciate this shows vague attempt but I might be over analyzing things and giving credit to something that is undeserved.

Spiritual Content

Outside of attempt with the social commentary of having a privatized prison system, the other Spiritual content can be found through a character calling himself the Uber Monk (or Super Monk if you are watching it with subtitles). His view of the world and humanity can be summarized with his view of suffering. Uber Monk views suffering as a virtue that he helps people realize, death comes to those who are gifted with those who desires release from suffering. In C.S. Lewis’s book, “The Problem With Pain” we are to understand that pain and suffering is the realization that there is something wrong with God’s creation, we are a fallen people, a people with corrupt programing. It is through God’s mercy and grace that we can be made right, and that is through His son, Jesus Christ. It is only through Jesus that we can operate with our designed intention, and that is to worship God, eventually, we are to look forward to the day that God returns and perfects His creation. Till then, we are to be light in a world filled with darkness and pain, though we suffer like Christ did, we have hope for an eternity of peace and happiness with God. With a materialistic philosophy, Uber Monk is not far off with his idea of pain and suffering, that if we are purely physical machines, then one must accept nihilism and that there is no purpose. Again, this philosophy/idea was executed with a talking head exposition that was, in most part, a throw away reason for why he is a ‘bad guy’.

Things to Consider

This anime spares no expense on vulgarity, gore and violence. Though the general reasons of the violence was for survival of the combatants, there are parts of the anime that has a sadistic attitude on human life. There is no actual nudity, i.e. breasts, penis, etc, but there are lots of sexual innuendos, suggestive sexual themes and underwear scenes. This anime is definitely not for children and please keep this in consideration when allowing teens in viewing this series.

Final Thoughts:

I understand that this is based on a manga series but the decision of the 13^th episode as a stand alone story of a side character seems fractured. The anime series was released at 2011 and shows no future seasons which adds more to the senselessness of its final episodes.

All in All

In my rating scale of

Buy It – Must add in your collection

Rent It – Worth looking into

Stream It – Check it out if its available

Pass It – Don’t waist your time

I will give it a STREAM IT, currently its at Netflix instant stream so its convenient.

All You Need Is Kill (Manga)

O death,  where is thy sting?

A year ago, I saw a trailer for a movie staring Tom Cruz called “The Edge of Tomorrow”. The trailer was intriguing and so I was interested of the movie. It wasnt long when a friend told me it was baised on a Japanese Visual Novel titled “All You Need Is Kill”. Because of the success of the novel and the attention the movie revieved, it was only logical for the novelto be converted into a manga.  Although this article will be about the Manga it will mostly revolve around the topic of death and what it represents to people, both Believers and Nonbelievers, in how the story uses the issue and in what can we conclude from it.

The plot:
There is a war between humans and an unknown race. Keiji Kiriya is a teenage boy who would become one of the many soldiers who will die in the battle field only to wake up the day before to relive the everything all over again. 

Death, the final frontier
This manga has a unique method of handling death. At the beginning of the story, death was feared and shocking. Keiji avoided death at all cost hoping he can change his destiny yet, all paths lead to his horrible conclusion.  After a few dozens of deaths only to be brought back, Keiji grew numb to it and almost seeked it. Its rather interesting that his response is this way, like a child who grows up with an abusive family, the shock of horrors done to the abused get dull and our rational minds turn it into the norm. This is what desensitization is, our mind comming to grips with things that are uncommon, allowing us to function. Through this  mental premis, I find i interpret Keijis ordeal true to how we function as humans, we fear death and its frontier, with thoughts of the reality or unreality of an afterlife,  the human soul, and God. It will drive a person into madness if they cannot desensitize their fear of death in an everyday functional life. We keep it tucked away as an unknown or a “we’ll get there when we get there” approach. Death is the focus on this manga and with that the reader is forced to face it in their own specific belief system.

O where is thy sting?
As a believer of the Gosple that saves us from Gods judgement of sin, i presuppose that there is a soul, and afterlife and an unknown journey we all take at the end of our lives, but as a Christian, i am assured that where I am going is a place that is not to be feared and is more real than the life we live now. This is where death lacks its bite, in Jesus we have no fear but hope. If you are reading this and do not feel the same security as i do, please shoot me a message and we can further discuss these matters, my hope is that you too will know true relief and hope granted to us by a loving God.

And back to the review…
This manga is well written and its delivery method of the action set peices are well crafted.
In a rating of:
Buy it: A must have in your collection
Borrow it: Worth a read
Pass it: Dont waste your time
I’ll give it an absolute “Buy it”.
This was one 9f my favorite reads of 2014