mould

REVIEW: Harry Potter and the Extra Pages
Avada Kedavra! Expelliarmus! (Reflect: effect x 1.5)

Harry Potter is the rage these days, so I'm hopping on the bandwagon. I'll just admit now that I had some pretty disparaging things to say about this series in general in the past, but I take all of it back now. I'd always admired Rowling as a storyteller and the series as a story; my criticism was that it lacked the depth and discussion which gives weight to scifi/fantasy, but screw the depth discussion and weight, it's all great fun and that's what matters! Rowling is our Queen!

So I was talking to some people and a few questions arose. One was, did Rowling change her style/intended plot as the book progressed? Did she even have a clear picture of Book 7? Some said the reference to the Ravenclaw tiara early on suggests so; others insist that Book 5ish onwards looked like she was going on the fly. I don't know and this isn't so important to me - even if she did start changing things to suit her audience (e.g. note the amount of action that creeps in by Book 4), it's fine. I think she did have an idea though - that's why Harry's so haXX0red n sploitz the whole series.

The main question I had was, what were all the extra pages used for? Especially towards the later books which got obscenely thick. A brief synopsis of a HP book would look like this: Some mysterious Death-eater/Voldemort thingy going on. Then HP with Dudleys kbing like siao. During this time he is exposed to some incident/piece of info which will have bearing on the later plot. Weasleys or others come to bring him to Burrow where he enjoys some time with Ron and Hermione. Then go to school. Quidditch, lessons, snogging are covered (school life in general). During lessons, Snape will kb him and he will kb back. He engages in nightly activities sometimes alone, sometimes with the 2 which will contribute to the plot. Part of this will be red-herringish in nature but will serve to develop character and maybe drop things that will be significant either later in the book or series (best example polyjuice potion). Whatever the case, Dumbledore will know exactly what is going on and insist on giving him cryptic clues that allow Rowling to add about 20-30% of the book length as Harry mills about until he gets a flash of inspiration.

Then the last 20-30% of the book arrives and a lot of action starts happening. There is a fight with Voldemort which ends with Harry talking to Dumbledore (who still refuses to say anything, even after he dies). Instead he talks about how much Harry has grown and how in time he will understand everything. The book that is most afflicted with this extra page syndrome, I think, is 6. My gripe with it is as follows: what is the value added to the main plot by the whole HBP arc? Answer: Character development for Snape. But so much? And the two scenes in 5 where Harry goes to him for private tuition do that so much more effectively. Granted, HBP gives us the coolest spell in the series (IMHO), Septum Sempra, but even so, I don't think it justifies so much book-space. The worst thing is, everything happens at the end. Suddenly Dumby is like, PS Harry, "Horcruxes". Book 7 is almost as bad: PS Harry, I'm dead but "Hallows". And 7 is super sianz until Ron comes back, after which action doesn't stop happening. What is the point of milling about for months? It's like, they just kept waiting and waiting until the doe realised how cock they were and decided to help them. So I suppose Rowling could maybe space out or compress the action a bit more. Though I freely admit that once you get to the exciting bits it's really un-putdownable.

The Quidditch bits are pretty cool, even if they don't add much value to the main plot. The lessons too. I said before that her magic is superficial - it's more a discussion of sociology than theology/philosophy (as magic in fantasy is generally a medium of), but she gives it enough detail and flavour to make up for that, especially with the wands (which are really not bad). There is some stuff about Horcruxes X Hallows X Harry, but that's like ok ok la. Another interesting point we made in our discussions was that her system doesn't give credit to experience points or levels in a classic RPG sense. Or more like it doesn't give credit to the magic and MP stats. Any student who knows enough spells and has enough accuracy can be as powerful as Voldemort or at least a Death-eater. What's the problem the MoM and the Aurors and the Order of the Phoenix have with them, I really wonder... I would like to see someone contest that assertion - the best we could come up with was: they don't have the willingness to use the Forbidden Curses. Pah. It's damn gay that a bunch of school kids can take out an organisation as scary as 'Death-Eaters', who seem to get pwned at every turn by these kids. This is analogous to Harry pwning Voldemort every single time via some haXX0red device, and a wand-disarming spell becoming the most powerful spell in the book. After the coverage in Book 3, you would have thought the Patronus would be really significant, but it's just a My Little Pony thing - it's purpose is twofold: defeat Dementors, who really don't feature that significantly in the plot (really, most times they appear they're replaceable) and to authenticate messages.

I'll move on to characters. Snape, of course, is really not bad. The whole best Occlumens thing is pretty seh. But his oily hair is not. When your signature spell is Septumsempra obviously you're cool. And I heart Ginny! She's the best girl ever! Why didn't Rowling give her more coverage? Introduce her r/ship earlier! Let her go on some quests! Argh redheads! She's maybe my favorite character! And I suppose she's not even that important. This actually brings me to another gripe. It's not really a gripe cos it can't be helped, but I think if she had pulled it off the series would have been really really cooler - she could have developed a larger cast of core characters more. Neville gets some, but more would have been good. Luna and Ginny too. The problem is that it's always HP or the 3 as the plot vehicle. And this kinda links to an issue I have with the Houses. Basically in the HP world if you're not Gryffindor that's it for you. Ravenclaw is ok, but very supporting. Slytherin is potentially cool but almost automatically bad guy. The saddest has got to be Hufflepuff. If you're there, gg. K, for a few other small things. I don't like Hagrid cos he always causes problems for people. The idea that James was a zhuge is a nice twist. Of course Fred and George are cool, and Fred's ending was a brave decision. Bellatrix Lestrange is ok too. Oh I just remembered something important. Basically Dumbledore controls the entire series. It's too Deux Ex Machina already (ok maybe I didn't use it properly, but in terms of info revelation no one can fault me for applying it like that). Like, even when dead he can come out and explain stuff! WTH man... Or rather, WTKC. And just control everything via little hints and games - leaving aside cynicism at how this helps Rowling fill the pages (re Harry's milling for much of the book), it really reflects a certain cockness about him. Can you just tell Harry what to do? Scared he put on the ring or whatever also need to take the risk right. Unless he wants to CONTROL Harry's character development - that's damn Bene Gesserit or whatever lor. Though the realisation Harry makes after reading Snape's memories at the end (about Dumby's intentions for him right from the start) is another matter, and pretty cool.

Ok, I think I won't spend too much time ranting about Ginny. I won't say too much about how it follows certain plotlines/symbols/themes that make successful stories like LOTR and Star Wars either, cos I'm sure that's pretty well-covered. The parallels and Jungian analyses are there for everyone to make. More interesting are the parallels with: NARUTO!!!

Here goes:
Snakes: Voldemort and Orochimaru (the whole immortality thing is really big with them), Nagini and Manda
The power of 3: Naruto is the Ron though. Harry is a Sasuke kinda guy, with whole family dying, no one loving him till he comes to school, parts of the snake in him etc etc. And the girls are mugger...what a stereotype man.
Family Guy: family/history is really important
Old man who dies: Duh.
Double-agent: Snape and Kabuto, though obviously Snape is more impt and much cooler.
Animals other than snakes: Dogs and deer, though the significance of deer is of course bigger in HP.
Dark organisation: Probably Akatsuki and the Death-eaters
Eyes: Moody and Kakashi. Haha, this one's stretching it a little.
Just a little crush: Ginny and Hinata, but Ginny is 1000000000000000000000 times infinity times cooler. The only similarity is the crush.

That's all I can think of for now. Anyone has anything to contribute, please do!

SPECIAL: Shounen cliche 1: Battousai complex

This may be the first or only of a series of cliches to be found in shounen action anime (so not the harem type!). It came about as a result of having read Samurai Deeper Kyo and realising how much of the (initial part, anyway) plot was predictable. But I thought about it and can only come up with two other anime which employ this plot device heavily - Trigun and of course Kenshin. The basic idea is that the current hero was in fact a terrible and uber-powerful killer in times gone. He usually knows this and hides his past in a tragic air of guilt and 'I cannot be happy, sinner that I am' type of thinking. This plot device doesn't provide a very strong element of surprise, since enough hints are dropped to let you in on the big secret. But it's good because it allows the author to bring in a lot of enemies from the past that are super powerful. Apart from that, it sometimes provides historical contrasts (when there's an epoch change, as with the case with Kenshin and Kyo) that can be interesting. I suppose it's particularly interesting to me because Aster follows in this type of tradition as well. Ok now on to the thing.

1) Goofiness. The hero in his current guise is often clowning around in a manner that greatly downplays his 'true strength'. This is because he doesn't 'want his power to hurt others anymore', so tries to avoid conflict even with baddies. He often 'happens' to come out of fights unscathed by goofy dodges that fool no one at all.

2) Young girls. The female lead is often a young girl who is associated with the new era. She often hits him/expresses her strong personality in physical or verbal abuse that is supposed to be 1) funny and 2) shows that she is zesty, strong and full of life, a juxtapose to the tragic-bishonen that is the hero. I find such heroines HIGHLY irritating and think they should just stfu. They also often need rescuing, sometimes in a manner that brings out the 'hidden past' of the hero.

3) Skeletons in the closet. The hero obviously has baggage from the past. Sometimes this is romantic, an incident that inevitably leaves him heartbroken and requires the zesty girl to salve. More often, it takes the form of antagonists who invariably say things like "show me your true self" or "so this is what the current age has done to you". Minor ones demand that the hero show them his full power and end up getting killed by the overwhelming difference in level. Major ones are full of contempt for the softness that has set into the hero but end up getting defeated by him when he 'overcomes the burdens of the past and steps bravely into the new age'.

Ok I'm a bit addled now so I think I must stop here. I would greatly appreciate from my wide readership any additions to the list of cliches or to the examples of anime with such a cliche. Any reference to mecha anime (the hero being a legendary pilot or something) would be particularly appreciated.

SPECIAL REVIEW???: Pirates of the Caribbean 3
There was a time when a pirate was free to make his own way in the world. But our time is coming to an end. (Barbossa)
No, the world's the same. There's just less in it. (Sparrow)
Welcome to Singapore! (Sao Feng)

Ok I think the first two aren't exactly accurate (I swiped off wikiquote, will tighten once I find out what they are...help is appreciated).

So I watched two films in two nights, both of which I enjoyed very much. First was She's All That (for the third time!), which was basically made very pleasurable by constant shots of Rachael Leigh Cook, who is probably one of my favourite Hollywood actresses now, and not just because she's the voice actor for TIFA LOCKHEART. Beauty shines through the tapestry of fate or whatever.

Second film, of course, is Pirates 3: At World's End. It's not as good as the first movie, but I enjoyed it quite a lot. Rollicking good fun, quite funny etc etc. As far as disappointing trilogies go, this is certainly far from the worst.

I suppose what I really want to blog about is the swashbuckling adventure in the movie that I think can never be achieved in 'real life'. I was thinking about it: is it possible to have that kind of adventure anymore? I blogged some time ago about why you can't save the world anymore, but I think the answer to this one is less objective and maybe a bit more personal. The truth is opportunities still abound, I think, for adventure in the world. Love, for example, is still a big adventure, I think, that can thrust people into the sense of being alive and greater than the material. But adrenaline without purpose, which is increasingly the only available surrogate today, is not adventure at all. So there are less opps, certainly, and here we blame capitalism again because capital accumulation requires bolting down, and once you bolt things down they can't move about, and when they can't move about you can't take them for your own, which is where much adventure lies. Being socially productive usually entails mutually beneficial deals rather than zero-sum, outwit outplay each other ones, which is where that kind of life-or-death swashbuckling stuff comes in. And also because of personal responsibility - you owe things to people around you, and the people around you want to be bolted down too. If they didn't, then all of you could go swashbuckling together, and wouldn't that be the best thing ever?

So is it the system of the world? I guess it's a yes. Adventure is about freedom AND purpose. It's not purpose that is lacking, I think, because we are still all able to define our purposes - only more and more they're being called fantasies and dreams. So maybe it's the freedom bit that's lacking today. Westerners like to talk about how people enjoy individual freedoms and stuff like that today. Sure, that's true. And economic opportunities support that claim too. But I think it's difficult to argue that something has been lost. And maybe it wasn't like that before to begin with - maybe in those period dramas it really wasn't like that at all, and Jack Sparrow really had to pay taxes too. But that doesn't undermine anything - we can say something is missing then - and we know it is, because we crave for it. At least I carve for it.

I suppose the question is, is this regrettable? Yes. Should we change it? Maybe not. Here I've gotta bring in some moral theory. I believe the most defensible objective we can set for mankind is a knowledge maximising path subject to maintaining a certain standard of happiness in the mean time. Happiness is adaptive, so that constraint is potentially quite loose. I think our objective should be to understand the whole universe as quickly as possible. And even if you say we can't, it doesn't change anything too. Then we should understand we can't as soon as possible, then go back to being happy till the end of days. But we must establish that we can't - we cannot give up the chance that we can, because if we can and we do, then we gain the potential to do stuff that really starts to matter I suppose - like happiness (I suppose?)

And so giving up individual adventure is worth it, I think, because then the collective adventure of humanity becomes more feasible. It's fun to sail ships across the vast sea...but what about flying ships across the vast universe? Going into other dimensions? Stuff like that. I think maybe it's a bit boring now - breech-loading, the norm of Westphalian sovereignty, and other stuff - the current state of development of the technology of power means that the time for supermen has passed: organisation and scale are the in thing now. But things may change. I suppose ultimately what it really points to is again the sad combination of the material and the immaterial in us - why is finding the fountain of youth more exciting than encoding the human genome? You know, some analogy along those lines. I suppose it's because adrenaline, risking death, establishing the right for your genes to continue where others might have failed are missing in the latter. We need that, and adventure (possible to a much smaller extent now) provides it along with the purpose found in realising our selves (preferably socially productive) in a neat package. I suppose things may change though. Does it then entail losing the socially productive aspect so required for knowledge accumulation? If it does, I don't know where I stand.

Geez...I know exactly what I mean but I don't think any of this will make any sense to non-mes. Lazy to communicate. Give me a break, ok? I've been trying to communicate for close to 8x3h now the message "I'm clever enough to get the mark I want" - and a simple one like that is hard enough!

Joke of the Day: Me

Ok apart from me, here's a very short post...I just thought of it and I absolutely had to put it up (very proud of it!):
Which clan in Naruto is most generous and kind?

Uchiha, because they have the Sharing-an

HAHAHAHA! What a great joke!

SPECIAL: Best Anime/Manga Moments 2
Mada mada dane

Seriously, with a choice between global imbalances (which to be honest is actually quite interesting) and blogging about my fav moments from the set of manga/anime I started in the post JC period, it's no wonder I left my notes by the side of my laptop.

Just a short word about dramatic moments in stories in general - sometimes when I write I begin with particular scenes in mind, and then contrive to create a situation leading up to such a scene. So I was just wondering if that's how real writers/storytellers do it too? Do they suddenly dream of a particular image, a particular line, and then build up towards it? In some of the following, I think that may well be the case, but in others, I guess the thing just comes through naturally.

Anyway, again in no particular order (in fact many of you - and by you I probably mean my sole reader, bob - will recognise these scenes from much earlier, but I may include a lengthier explanation than ranting coolcoolcool now):

Ok I've mentioned Bleach and Naruto before but just to recap a little, the Bleach ones are basically where Byakuya talks about the decisive power gap and reminds Renji that he, too, has bankai. I think Byakuya is seriously just a damn cool character, possibly the coolest in Bleach maybe apart from Kisuke. It's this whole noble house syndrome and his sheer arrogance. And the concept of his shikai is damn cool too, which I suppose makes his bankai a bit more disappointing. I hope he has the power to back it up, otherwise he'll just turn out to be a lameass and I'll be damn disappointed. The Zaraki-Ichigo fight when Zaraki cuts the building down is cool too, as well as Ichigo stopping the firebird. Hmm, when Rukia shows Sode no Shirayuki it's not bad. And of course when Ikkaku shows Ryumon Houzokimaru it's pretty impressive too. See that's why I think Bleach is a little superficial.

The Naruto ones include both action and inspiring moments. In terms of action, I would say some Shikamaru fights fall into this category, esp the one against Temari of course. Naruto's fight against Gaara, when he does his Tajyu Kage Bunshin, is super exciting, and when he completes it with a Thousand Years of Pain it's just damn Naruto. The Hokage battle, when Orochimaru does Edo Tensei, is not bad as well. In terms of action, I think the Lee v Gaara fight is possibly the best or at least one of the best fights I've ever seen. The music, how it's divided into two main phases (taking off the weights, then the Lotus), the development of Lee's character as well as Gaara getting his comeuppance - I would say Masashi planned the Prelims to culminate in this fight. In terms of inspiring, I keep coming back to Naruto v Neji, and Naruto taking the exam. Also, when the Sandaime thinks about the generations of Leaf ninja in his fight against Orochimaru, it's a nice moment too. Of special mention is Team 7 minus Sakura v Zabuza. We should note that Team 7 looks pretty cui here - it's 3 of them, including the Copy Ninja, against one. But even so, when Naruto/Sasuke do that Henge/Kage Bunshin combi, it's pretty exciting. Just wanna point out that excitement is not just about raw power overwhelming raw power ala Bleach - it's also about nifty moments like these.

Right. Now, One Piece. There are a few scenes which really stand out, none of which are directly linked to fighting. I think the one that comes at the top is when Luffy defeats the lightning dude and hits the bell, sounding it for Montblanc Cricket to hear. I've only read the chinese comic, but it's just really nice - symbolically it shows how important helping people with their dreams is to Luffy, and how hard he'll fight for them. About dreams, I think Oda isn't exactly saying we should believe in them no matter what; it's more like, we should believe in them no matter what people say - everyone said the island in the sky didn't exist, but Luffy helped Montblanc prove them wrong.

The second scene is when Luffy and gang invade Enies Lobby. They are trying to rescue Nico Robin who has been taken by the damn action CP9 and have finally fought through the miscellaneous barriers to face the main enemy. Luffy says something like, I don't care if you want to die, just come back to us and we can decide that later. He orders Soge King to shoot the World Govt flag down, and after some flashbacks, Nico cries that she does want to return to them. Just quite touching.

The third is when Vivi waves goodbye to the crew. She asks if they will be her companions forevermore, but before Luffy can shout yes, Nami reminds him that if he does she will not be able to lead Arbalesta. So instead all of them turn in a two-page panel to show the X sign on their wrists that they agreed upon as a signal to each other, to affirm their nakama-ship in silence.

One funny moment I seem to remember is when Luffy turns into Water Luffy when fighting Crocodile. Basically what I have to say about One Piece is that the fighting is a bit arbitrary in the sense that it's not really explained how Luffy or Zoro or whoever keep getting up to fight or getting stronger. But somehow because of the nature of this comic, you don't take those parts seriously so it doesn't affect the symbolic impact of the fight.

Next, Prince of Tennis! Ok I've mostly watched the anime for this one but my heightened filler-sense told me that the boring, dragged-out and totally inane arc just before the match against Rikkaidai, and most of the stuff that came after that would not be worth watching, so I switched over to the manga.

I suppose one scene that really stands out in my mind is the Inui-Kaidoh double against the Hyotei Gakuen Doubles 1 team (Shishido and Ootori) in the District finals (if I'm not wrong). Kaidoh is totally shacked out by Hyotei and everyone's wondering if this pair has broken. Then Shishido tells them that doubles is meant to be played by two people, and that it's over. Inui comes up to Kaidoh and says, Kaidoh, they're saying it's over. Kaidoh doesn't answer - instead, he asks, have you collected all the data? (Inui plays a style called 'data tennis' which involves observing and analysing opponents carefully and then predicting all their moves.) Inui says, yeah, all of it. Quite cool. Though later they end up losing.

The next one that's quite nice is from the manga - when Ryoma uses the state of self-actualisation against Sanada of Rikkaidai. He starts using all the moves he's learnt before, so that's quite seh...reminds me also of the time when Tezuka has just been defeated by Atobe (that part's quite cool too) and Ryoma has to fight a tiebreaker against Hiyoshi and plays at a new pace. I think Fuji's fight in the semis is nice as well, because he starts showing his new set of moves, including the uber-cool Hecathonshires thingy.

Lastly it's Tenjho Tenge and Air Gear. I've reread the former quite a number of times, so I'm a bit more familiar with it. Obviously the parts where Souichirou enters demon exorcist mode are all quite cool, including the first time he enters it. Later on, when he fights the bow and arrow guy and the multi-handed spear guy, the kind of berserk, evil love of destruction is fully brought out, making for overall a rather cool power. Masataka, of course, has two very nice scenes - the first, when he defeats Madoka by keeping absolutely still and waiting for an opportunity to strike at her, and the second, when he comes close to the concept of 真之武 by defeating the zombie shit and saving even his opponent's life. He's also pretty seh when he defeats the 100-odd group of Central Executive members who come to the bowling alley. From the flashback arc, Mitsuomi is quite action in his fight against Shin, and when he takes the position of top fighter within a few minutes. I missed this out on the first run...Air Gear. Of course there're a couple of scenes when Ikki grows wings as he sees the Sky/Wing Road (not sure which). That's good for the typical Ogure Ito artwork. But I think my favorite scene has to be when Kazu fights the bubble girl (Om?). At first he's a cui shit, feeling and being inferior and refusing to risk himself after the embarrassing defeat by Gabishi. But then he suddenly becomes action and shows his speed (his specialty), becoming so blindingly fast that even Om, the Water King, can barely react to him. Then he calls for her to pause for a moment and says in a paiseh way that he forgot to undo his brakes... Towards the end, when Om is defeated and jumps off a pillar to suicide, he does an action Flame Road move and saves her. That part's really cool.

Ok, well that's it I guess. I'm also reading DGrayman and Suzuka but neither are that interesting or memorable. Generally it takes a while for a series to pick up speed, so the first 1 or 2 books (tankobon) are usually a bit sian. But once they get into the 2nd or 3rd arc, where the characters begin finding out more about the 'main plot' and the 'power players' in that particular world and have to fight enemies who actually are really strong, it starts to get exciting. This is like after the Strawhats defeat Arlong and move into the Grand Line, or when Bob and Souichirou find out about the past, or when Ichigo enters Soul Society, or Kenshin goes to Kyoto, and so on.

Integration
Komm, susser tod

A while back I talked about how political equality is instrumental – that hierarchy can be a valid form of political and social organisation. Wait did I? Whatever, I’ll just recap as quickly as I can. The basic premise is that hierarchy is an inescapable part of human relations. In whatever sphere there will be those who are better and those who are worse. Some spheres are not so important (gardening); others are (charisma and strategic sense). It is then clear that power becomes distributed unevenly even when institutions are set up to guard against it. So while liberal democracy in its ideal form is good because 1) it tries to keep all other spheres away from the most obviously important one, direct access to the monopoly of violence and the authority of the state, and 2) if we go by the premise that humans should strive to be better than animals with their ‘laws of jungle’ political equality is morally justifiable, I don’t think that Dworkin’s equal concern and regard hold because people just don’t hold each other with equal concern and regard and you can’t ever institutionalise it. The feeling is not there. And political equality doesn’t secure the outcomes it seeks to secure anyway, because access to the means of violence hardly needs to be via formal institutions. So apart from the feeling, the outcome is not there either. On the other hand I think ideal hierarchy, with carefully delineated rights and responsibilities (cough Confucian cough), can safeguard moral equality for all in the pursuit of their ideal lives, which is what we’re really after after all. I’m not saying it’s better but it may well be that when you compare ideal against ideal, hierarchy gives as good as it takes. In non-ideal forms I think the argument for liberal democracy is still slightly stronger. Though with more weight on the liberal part. There’s a bit more to be said but I think that’s it in short.

Ok so that’s one. This time round I want to talk about the assumption of individualism in people’s motivations. With these two tools I’ll squeeze the balls of liberalism until it cries uncle. This one is much much more iffy than hierarchy, which is already quite iffy.

People are driven to assert themselves – that’s fairly uncontroversial. The drive to dominate, to be autonomous, to gain a sense of self – all of it stems from or is part of the need to individuate, to be a separate thing. So that’s human drive no. 1, and much of philosophy concerns this I suppose. But at the same time there are hints that there is another drive, and that is the drive towards integration. At a micro level one form is love, and at a macro level there’s that kind of mob fury or more benignly a sense of belonging to some group. So I suppose the key things are whether this sense of belonging is really an expression of individuation as well (kudos to Chew Xiang – we were in the kitchen when we talked about this if you remember), and whether it is morally worthwhile to pursue it or not.

On the first point, I guess it’s really empirical. Maybe the sense of belonging is actually a sense of safety? So groupiness is a means for survival, the pleasure you get when you know that your security is being assured to a greater extent. But at the same time I think people do get happy when they can connect with another person in a deep way – like when there’s mutual understanding (affection is too easy to reduce to biology) or empathy. And that’s not so easily reducible to the safety argument. But having thought a little more about this I think this drive seems a bit weak.

On the issue of whether it’s morally worthwhile to pursue, I really don’t know as well. In Evangelion (at first I thought, shit, this undermines any credibility this post had, but then I thought again, dude, credibility? What are you talking about???) this drive is captured most strongly, in the Human Complementation Project, where everyone merges into a giant Rei while becoming puddles of amniotic fluid. (Hence the title of the post.) In other words, if individuation is the creation and sustenance of an ego or self, integration is the loss of it. Under certain conditions or interpretations this can be known as death. So that’s one consequence of trying to become a part of something else – you lose your self. But then again, I think some part of everyone does yearn for this. Or just me maybe. The other thing to say about this is, maybe groupism is a primal, animal thing – running in a herd and stuff, while individuation is what it means to rise above that – in that sense, individuation may be morally superior (in the sense that it’s something to strive towards). So far as individuation encourages or is linked to certain traits like reasoning, that may be true. It’s quite sad in that way, because it seems like maybe one of the main things our intelligence gave to us was loneliness. Humans seem to spend much of their lives trying to overcome the barriers between each other, and only very occasionally succeeding. But there – isolation and differentiation in that case are the badges of our humanity, so far as humanity is being something a bit more than just a biological entity.

Ok I wanna conclude on a separate note. I was thinking about Rawls’ social contract, and I feel that what it really did was show the logical consequence of a set of beliefs, some of which are not grounded in human nature. I think you must always bring these things back to human nature and what it really is. To come up with fair terms for everyone, he says you should pretend you didn’t know who you might end up being and think about what logical/rational terms you would accept in that case. He’s quite right in saying that it makes sense to think about the worst-off person and then frame your fair terms around the possibility that you might be him – basically, “how would you feel if you were him?” But I don’t think such a social contract can ever come to pass. Obviously people would say that if we believe it’s good we should strive towards it and in the long run maybe people will really think that it makes sense, like welfare states today. But at the same time I feel that social contracts are instrumental. This whole golden rule business and whatnot – it’s all about what to do so that the guy next door doesn’t come over and kill you or take your money on a whim. That’s what social contracts are for, in my opinion, and if you remove that instrumental motivation for them, you end up with something that perhaps won’t ever be practicable. The thing is, I’m not the most worst-off guy, so how could I ever bring myself to weight the guy’s welfare so highly? But then again making a big statement like that always seems to invite events or people to prove me wrong. Probably will be. Ugh.

I digged this up recently - something I wanted to post but never got around to completing. There'll probably be a part 2 - this is the "1st generation" part, which involves anime from before I entered the army. Or rather, anime that didn't require the use of to-to-to-torrents. Your captain torrents. Whoever knows where that joke came from is SAD SAD SAD.

SPECIAL: Best Anime Moments

This is it: the best moments in my short anime-watching life. These are the clinchers, the seconds or minutes that renew again and again my attachment to this medium of entertainment and communication and reaffirm my hopes for it. Whether it's holding my breath in awe as my mouth gapes wide open, or the surreptitious rubbing of my eyes (no, not crying what, who's crying?), these congeries of colour-pixels and electronically-generated sound have the ability to induce emotions in me, and in so doing I believe they come to life, metaphorically born by the interaction between their creator and me, then killed off when the magic fades (if the magic fades). Price and quantity are the interaction of demand and supply. (ed: I can't for the life of me figure out what I was trying to say here.) I guess it applies to other media as well (for example the effect is even more significant with mere written words), but the line between anime and normal visual media (films and real-life people) is the most blurred one (amongst my favs of RPGs, anime and fiction), and that makes it seem all the more...dunno what. (ed: this part is totally incoherent too.)

I'll describe the moment (as best as I can) and its significance for me. In no particular order:

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Eva-01 goes berserk
Having waded past 00, 02 and the rest of NERV, Zeruel's wanton destruction incites our depressed hero to pilot the test-type Eva again. He is able to take the angel out of NERV HQ but ends up getting trashed when the portable power supply runs out. After a brief chat with mum, the Eva comes back online and proceeds to utterly destroy its opponent. The apex of this scene is when it eats the angel, with the synchro ratio blasting through the roof (400% I think).
This was like, wtf... There had been previous berserk moments, against the 3rd angel, when it came out of the Sea of Dirac, and against Touji's corrupted Eva (though that was the dummy system), but I think this is the pinnacle of raw Eva power. It's totally jaw-dropping. To all you pansies who like to watch white-and-blue-and-gold-coloured robots waltz endlessly through space in some sort of rhythm emotion, I'll tell you that nothing beats the sheer feeling of carnage and brutality this scene induces. I mean, I like Robotech and Gundam too, but this different mecha style feels much cooler to me.

Rurouni Kenshin: Kenshin's relationship with Tomoe (Manga and Tsuiokuhen)
From the time he kills Akira as the Battousai, up to when he kills Tomoe (sia la!). Every moment is poignantly-depicted, because you know how it's gonna turn out. Their interaction, both verbal and physical, is understated and minimal, but laden with pathos and that wonderfully heart-wrenching feeling of sublime beauty. The transcience of life and mortality underlying the entire plot heightens this 'moment of eternity' thing even more. Interestingly enough, though Watsuki based Tomoe on Rei, I prefer Asuka to the blue-haired (and blue-blooded?) clone.

Boys Be: the conversation between Kyoichi and his two friends in the episode with the weird dreams (of the falling planes in the airbase)
Boys Be was quite long ago, but the music of the scene stuck, and while the exact words have been forgotten, the general impression still remains. Kyoichi is talking about the kind of pain that comes with the loneliness of growing up. He says though that it's in fact a part of boyhood (I mean, it's not meant in a sexist way but whatever), which one of his friends agrees with while the other says that AV is the cure. It's rather forlorn I guess, but when I watched this series it meant a lot to me, cos it captured quite a lot of the things I felt. The music was really good too.

Evangelion: Death and Rebirth (Not End of Eva): At the very end, when Asuka/02 looks up to see the mass-production models circling above her like vultures. Tamashii no Rufuran plays and the credits appear.
It was Tamashii No Rufuran that clinched it for this moment. After defeating the UN/JDF whatever military, she looks up and sees that there is an even deadlier enemy waiting and that she has run out of power. Surreal.

Cowboy Bebop: when Ed and Faye are leaving the Bebop
Honky-tonk Women, far from being the frivolous episode its name suggests, must be one of the saddest moments in the series. The crew starts to break up, marking an end to the adventures they had together. Once again, transcience and mortality - everything must end. And also, how staying in the past holds you back from the future - Faye as she lies down in the 'bed' of her 'house'. Then, Spike begins to feel that he must leave too. Very sad, especially with Wo Qui Non Coin in the background.

Gensomaden Saiyuki: when it's raining, they're stuck in a tent and they think about the past (I think)
I'm not that sure about this part anymore, but it begins with one of them (Genzo I think) saying he hates the rain. And then there're lotsa flashbacks about how they struggled through their various tragedies to get to where they are. The best part for me was when Open up your mind by Mirai plays. It's somehow very moving.

Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory: Kou Uraki, near the end of the series, when he comes into his full potential as an ace Gundamn pilot, is launched from a ship in the RX-78GP03 Gundam "Dendrobium Orchis". This is a Gundam (the RX-78GP03S Gundam "Dendrobium Stamen") embedded within a removable weapons platform. He fires like a million missiles and performs some incredible acrobatics with the Orchis, destroying like a million enemy mobile suits, before detaching the weapons platform and fighting the main bad guy with the Stamen. It's just a classic Gundam moment I suppose.

Yep that's it for now I think. I have to admit that anime, because of the colour, motion and music + sound, makes it very difficult for manga to compete in terms of these moments which are engraved into your mind by sheer force of action. But not to worry - I have a few manga moments in mind when I do Part 2. This will include the Shonen Big 3: Naruto, Bleach and One Piece, and perhaps Tenjho Tenge as well. I can't quite think of anymore...I've watched quite a lot since army, but not all were that memorable.