Love in Umino Chika's works

Okay let me take a crack at love, a universal topic. Seen in lyrics, poems, the bible, even on the plans of a presidential candidate to save a country (Cabo Daciolo), this thing is unescapable. A fire that burns without being seen, a wise man’s doom and a fool’s hope and salvation. Something that is too ideal for an idealist to understand, and too real for a realist to see. Everybody has something to say about this question, and this analysis will be about Umino’s Chika take on the topic, me extrapolating conclusions, from the several ways such a broad ideal is portrayed through her manga, 3-gatsu no lion and Honey and Clove (Spica does not matter, really, in her body of work, and her spin offs were never translated so fuck me, I have not read those), and to asseverate the several meanings it takes.



(the way Umino's draws herself in her manga)


Starting with the easy part by introducing, what this analysis will not be about. Sadly, the feeling has absolutely nothing of Eros (will be using a lot the Greek denominations for love, so it is good to be at least familiar with its meanings) sexual desire and eroticism are pretty much a foreign object to any discussion regarding passion in these manga. Maybe one of the more defining aspects about Umino’s writing, is the complete lack of sexual intercourse (nobody fucks). We follow throughout her narratives, protagonists that are usually on the 18-24-year-old range, however they act as the timidest teenagers when dealing with sex, that seems to be the last thing in their minds. In spite of this, the expressions of this act, as rare as they may be, are also very telling. On honey and Clove, it occurs on a pivotal point in the development of the relation between Rika and Mayama (which for the extreme acts being portrayed is probably the best way to drive the importance of such interactions anyway), when both spend their first night together. Rika, a woman that lost her husband in an accident inflicted by her, losing the only person that truly mattered in the world, turns for Mayama, the young men that platonically loves her, and decides to hurt him. Exploiting the awareness of his feelings, agrees to sleep with him, just to disappears before dawn, wanting to leave him abandoned, broken, feeling the coldest rejection, another could possibly take. Such an act is far from senseless, it is done in order to strength a sentiment of sorrow, a general self-deprecation and hatred, a sense of melancholia and regret with the act of being alive itself. Those bringing a determination to abandon existence, finally exiting this world, that could have nothing more to offer her, whenever her husband work come to a completion (ensuring a suicide was actually her goal here). Confirming such, by destroying the only person that refused to abandon, despite the painful, melancholic existence. Note the lack of any romance in the enactment of this. There is also the implied sexual abuse between Rei and Kyouko, which is basically a power play, a demonstration of predominance, having a revenge regarding the way her father chooses Rei, instead of his actual children. That consists only of a way of instilling hatred, and to showcase how dysfunctional they are as a family unit.



(Answering like this to someone trying to hurt you deeply is just so awesome)


Finding a better picture of this topics, consists of studying one of the more interesting love “triangles” in fiction, the pair Morita, Takemoto and Hagu. Morita’s style of passion is very close to his own self-satisfaction, being based around egotistical needs, where feeling well is the most important factor, which is in one of the more criticized sentiments found in the manga. Therefore, Morita our protagonist has to follows such ideas to a tea, being a narcissistic man children (he is pretty similar to someone I know, actually), always acting according to his whims, while barely acknowledging the desire and situations of those around him. Nevertheless, having an arc that mostly revolves around these flaws, and concepts. Throughout the series, he learns and finds himself with great affection for Hagu, while she also corresponds, with a platonic infatuation. The sentiment is really particular in this case, though, in the sense it is completely twisted to self-gain. It is love that is as far away as possible, to be the most important aspect, one that happens to be a play thing, a ruse to use and discard whenever you find it necessary. A sentiment so devoid of any attention and care for others, where you can ask someone to abandon everything, to follow your desire for self-destruction, then ruin their life, and the act of accepting such a ludicrous purpose becomes an obligation. Having this abstract idea, to work as self-justification and indulgence, in a process to instrumentalize and completely dehumanize people. A relationship based on such feelings could never work, and rightfully so it doesn’t, as both come to separate ways in the end of the series, finding their mutual affection never met.



(Just love seeing these kids, in their pointless paths to adulthood)


In stark contrast with what I laid out above, we see Takemoto. Onto the character, you can find a very direct representation of philia, found in kindness and mutual appreciation, where going for the happiness of the beloved is essential. A sentiment found in the backward ways, the character goes in order to fulfill Hagu’s wishes, always worrying how she is feeling, what could he do for her, in order for both achieve joy, filled with empathy, so to speak. There is this sense of wonderment in his journey, of getting to know, seeing more aspects, facets, flaws, anxiety, just in general drawing in closer and getting to know the beloved, becomes a pleasure and a goal in of itself. There is no attempt to extinguish selfish interests on this form of love, Takemoto because of his low self-stem, has an almost pathological desire for altruism, he can only stop feeling worthless, and a generalized self-deprecation, when doing something for others, which he does, at any cost even. There is also a desire to run away from loneness and emptiness in the heart of the character (cause by a complete lack of direction, and capacity to make any choice for the future), that is usually channeled towards this relationship. Perhaps you could draw those feelings back to deeply rooted anxiety and worries, him searching the world and others, to run away from the more internalized painful truths in his mind. However, there is just so much merit, on the tale of this scary anxious kid, lost and with no sense of purpose for his existence, but still struggling to create connections, doing the best for others, so kind that the concept of hurting anyone is physically painful for him, and following peoples wills, as almost a mandate. I certainly found it adorable.



(The never ending desire to put my fingers around his neck)


This is the point where I add, there is actually a forth wheel, on this supposed love triangle from Honey and Clove. In the finale, the will them won’s them ends, with her abandoning the romantic interests, and going on a self-recovering journey, with her 30-year-old cousin, a controversial ending for many. When reading an Umino Chika manga, it is good to have an open mind, since the difference between romantic love, and familiar one, is always very fluid. Familiar love has nothing of Storge, meaning it does not come from a sense of natural obligation, there being lots of examples of such relations being completely deprived of the sentiment, in 3-gatsu no lion. Furthermore, Hagu and Shuuji’s relation, could only be described as one of complete devotion, there are literally no limits to where this man can go for Hagu, the manga ends with him literally quitting his job, giving up any savings, and going on a massive years long process, just to help her injured hands. Notice how this does not depend or is drawn from any qualities on the loved object, but on its intrinsic nature, she could treat Shuuji like shit and he would still love her. It is unconditional love, through and throughout, based on a sort of morbid obsession. Being together all throughout their lives, made them closer, knowing everything there could be about each other, allowing them to share a relationship, which could never be contested by Morita with his self-centeredness, or Takemoto with his personal insecurities. Those 3 types of affection are for me a template, every kind of love found in a Umino Chika work, more or less fits one of those.


There is a very telling discussion on 3-gatsu, on which the author displays what I believe to be some of her main ideas on the topic. On it, Akari is questioned about Rei’s growing feelings for Hina, and the chance of those blossoming into romance, with her literal response being of this as an impossibility. Each of them already shared a deeper bond, a filial love, which was way stronger, satisfactory and everlasting than any form of platonic romance or passion. To regress from this status on their relationship, would in fact be a downgrade. Something that makes a lot of sense in the context of 3-gatsu no lion, a story about our protagonist surpassing and learning to deal better with depression, trauma and personal anxiety, by finally forming the core family, he could only dream through most of his life.


So with that out of the way, I can finally get into what I consider my favorite couple in fiction (Shevek x Takver is up there though). The actual relation between Rei and Hina, is something I can only describe as a magical, unbelievable entity. They just complement each other so perfectly, their interactions always allowing and furthering growth, providing something the other deeply needs. On Rei’s side, we have this emotionally traumatized and repressed kid, always keeping a façade for others, finally acquiring better emotional intelligence, realizing that dealing with your emotions, trying to talk to people make them understand, face such issues head on, is always better than killing yourself internally by suppressing and wallowing toxic ideas in your mind. On what consist of the most poignant scene of the start of the show, where Rei is forced to confront her openness about the feelings of loss Hina has, as a result of the losing her mother, something he knows all too well. It also highlights another troubling aspect of personality, the tendency to internalize everything, create value based on how people perceive you (or better to say your own distorted vision of such perception). A process of self-evaluation only based on others opinions, where every criticism becomes something to be taken at face value, loneness and isolation are just natural, because if people perceive you as someone to be isolated, then you certainly deserved it. These ideals begin to break for Rei, when he sees Hina going through some of the same hardships. When receiving bullying by the rest her class, she refuses to internalizes any of the mean things they did or said her. Being ignored by people did not make her a horrible person, that deserved to be left alone. All she did was to stand for a friend, who was in pain and desperately needed help, company, a friend, and nothing the world said or did, could shake her certainty of being right. That the act of helping, being kind was pointless or wrong, despite how scared one may be, of some of its consequences. The mere idea of someone can actually taking such a stance, ensure their own merit, and worth in spite of a group’s perception and judgement, is just revolutionary for Rei, whom was never about to develop such conscious, because of a painful awareness of flaws, issues, and mistakes, that formed a monstrously distorted vision of self. Kyouko coming to his side and actually saying the most malicious hateful things, is a fact Rei actually takes some morbid pleasure in hearing, and assuring how much of a horrible person he actually is. Hina takes this, and shows there is a new way to deal with all of that, removing a truly dangerous certainty, once held.



(Like even more seeing these two though)


The act also takes an entire new meaning when seen through these specific circumstances. Rei was also someone that faced social ostracism, through his life never managing to create bonds with anyone in school, his only answer to the abuse he received from others, was to try to disappear, and never be noticed by them. In Hina, he finds something needed throughout all of life, someone which would stand for the socially isolated kid, that would not leave its side even when facing pressure from a class. Furthermore, she even affirmed the kid was not wrong for not fitting in, but the toxic group dynamic was the subject to blame. Rei feels Hina is there, refusing to abandon, always there by his side, an impossible beautiful and important symbol of goodness and kindness, that gives purpose for the hellish years of lonely school live. Sharing such poignant moments and ideals, gives Rei’s life, create a purpose for it and a new goal, in helping the loved one, while also allowing for a renewed desire and capacity for self-improvement.





Oddly enough, the complementary aspects of the relation do go both ways. Hina does gain greatly in terms of security, by having this relentless, always stable and trustworthy individual by her side. Someone that, although almost incapable of expressing himself in words, is always trying meddling, making plans and taking whenever action necessary. Being there, when the whole word starts falling down, because of her abusive father coming back. In teaching that there was no reason to get frozen by a few happy memories of the past, and reminding her what is the ideal of love, and relationship they strive for and hope to maintain. One that can be found in what the people of this house, the Kawamoto’s and Rei share, not on the cold indifference of this stranger. That can be found on people that wish for the best of the family, and would do anything to assure each other happiness, no questions asked.





You know, if you had payed close attention there is a strong parallel between the absolute fraternal love some character present, and the criticized egotistical love of Morita. You could see one as an even more extreme reversion, or its opposite. The questionable aspects of such unconditional fixation, despite a few positive examples are not above criticism. In this side of the field of parental love, we find the most hateful character Umino ever written (really everyone else is just so adorable) Seijirou, the father of the Kawamoto sisters. Onto his character you can find all the loveable characteristics of a compulsive liar, that says whatever suits him, and manipulate every situation to his binding, a vocal abuser of wife and children, that loves to go on tirades on how they are to blame for everything wrong in life. Someone that can leave a family just for being actually bored and wanting something new. But the sad part of this, is her wife still had that maniac obsession, an unconditional affection for such man, defending him despite many horrible actions. Wasting her life, for the return of the kind man she once knew, and fall in love with. This sickening and self-destructive aspect of devotion, is the authors criticism to those displays of love. As consequence of such events, there is a strange of melancholy, of a fundamentally broken household under the cheerfulness of the Kawamotos, the older sister being so emotional traumatized she becomes horrified of the act of following in love. Passion became such a monstrous thing, that can only lead someone to support abuse, ending up as an emotional wreck, completely ruining any happy memories connected to this aspect of life. And really, who can blame her, when the single experience Akari had with such, ended up in such a way, hurting the mother she loved the most?





There is this tendency if fiction to give a greater attention to declarations of love, starts of relationships, than the relations themselves, which is definitely followed here. Most main characters’ deal with this fear at some point, a general dread of exposing yourself, finally showing your innermost and more personal feelings, let the beloved one see what is there. Your pathetic self, which you believe has nothing to offer at its most fragile moment. Takemoto prefers to cross the entirety Japan with his bicycle, to run to the ends of the land, because facing such sentiments, Hagu, and his pointless search for purpose, was actually way more terrifying. Morita is only drawn to a point he can come close to indirectly confess any of that, in a situation where he has lost everything, and can only think of the worst thing to hurt both. Therefore, such moments are in fact periods of immense growth and change, where you can find the catharsis for the characters’ personal journeys, Rei’s declaration of marriage for Hina, or Mayama crying over how scared he is, because of how personal were the worlds out of his mouths. These paths of affection are deeply tied to personal growth and maturity, throughout both narratives, and with the even grander aspect of seeking purpose in life.


Because meaning is an integral part of an individual life’s, and the search for one in a never fulfilled loved, is a central question for some characters. Yamada and Takemoto, never met their objects of desire, the romantic relationship they desired, being born, growing, dyeing and only ever existing in their own minds. Far from denying any merit of such relations, those are reaffirmed as valuable, in going after their wishes, each learned so much, created relations, met new people and formed memories, which cannot be easily forgotten. Despite how aimless the whole thing may seem, and the entire road may as well have led to nowhere, there is this sense of wonderment in embarking on it, meeting all these new places and growing a lot in the process. Looking back Takemoto fells nothing but gratitude, for coming to know such a people, for falling in love, and having all this time with her. To say it is about the journey not the destination is an understatement, and surely these characters found their ever elusive purpose in such endeavors.


Seeing the narratives of Umino Chika as stories about people dealing with stagnation in life, a general inability to move forward and deal with their past, would be quite accurate. Most romantic relations have this static feature, we never actually get to see a personal changing their love inclination (with Rika and Yamada the change is closer to a subtle possibility than anything else). Furthermore, the will them, won’t them scenarios Honey and Clove create go nowhere. Which in a work of the predominance of the past over the present, that is trying to give this strong sickening sense of nostalgia and decay, focusing on the importance of memories, and a day to day life that seems to never change is essential. Life is perceiving as moronic, never changing for these characters, the entire iconography revolves about its cyclical nature, this can be seen on the oppressive Ferris wheels, the gentle four leaf lover, the attention to circles in a bicycle. However, love has such a transformative nature, it is what leads Rei out of his isolationist instance, to try and create more meaningful interactions with people. Having someone she genuinely cared, and worked towards motivates Kyouko in her little redemption arc. Far from something in service of decay, it stands as an object of change that leads to a general self-betterment , creating some of the better emotions and interactions, on the paths of the humans that dare to attempt it.


Perhaps the most interesting aspect is the character’s inability to explain anything though. They seem too clueless to completely understand any such feelings. Ask any of them, when they fall in love, what it about the person you appreciate so much, why would you go that far from her. They simply have no answer, no rational meaning or interpretation, or form to truly get any of it. As something they cannot rationally understand, they also act pretty irrationally about, always worrying, wasting time, energy, refusing to let go when being terminally rejected. But maybe those messy confusing parts are what such relations worth it, and believable in the end


As bright and idealistically as this discourse may be, setting up a bound is important. Getting to the realization love isn’t everything, nor it is supposed to be. When it appears as only a settle back, something stopping you of doing what you really need and wants to, then of course it needs to be discarded. Shimada and Hagu went through this route, having to leave people they cared deeply about. In shimada’s case it was a matter of personal ambition, finding love was not the most important to him, the frustrating and endless shogi life, he dreamed of, was, so he had to meet such a path with the determination to leave everything. For Hagu what mattered the most was achieving an actual dream, a simple vision of ultimate almost divine artistic expression. Her existence was only a mean to get to that, and she was ready to put everything away, in order to reach those desires. Both willfully made a choice, found a different way and goal in life, and found variable degrees of satisfaction in doing such. Despite the incoherent mess, I hope you have taken something out of what I wrote. You can find countless people talking about love, people describing it, giving their little worthless opinions on the subject. The number of those with something relevant to say, is way smaller though. But when an artist finally appears, and can portray a love that talks not only of the universal feeling, but seems to show the specific brand of passion you believe, that seems almost specifically made, you can find no equal anywhere, containing a particular feeling or representation felt or believes to still do. Then, that is something to take notice of. To elicit such special emotion and intensity in a melodrama (because let’s face it, this is what all her stories actually are), giving such warm fuzzy feels, to the point you feel the passion, the characters are displaying, even when the people involved cannot even put those in words. If you could not get by now, I do love her, and those works of fiction too.

---

(Please do try to give her works a chance, it would make sad young men really happy)

Amazing manga endings: Billy bat

You know, I have a pretty long gripe with the way people talk of acclaimed author Naoki Urasawa. His manga stand, finding no equal in the medium in terms of thematic and character depth, but there is this everlasting notion of him writing only bad endings, that pisses me off, to no end. The intent of this text is to present the development of ideas and narrative on the work, Billy Bat, and to showcase how that culminates, in my favorite finale in all of media.

The first thing that should be made clear when discussing this manga, is to clarify the narrative sequence, that is being used. We are talking about a work that occurs , from the beginnings of humankind existence(or at least of us as a self conscious entity), going as far as reimagining of mankind dystopic future and extinction (sort of), which follows dozens of different characters in several historical periods, being complicate to even properly point who is our main character supposed to be. Sure, I could be lazy and structure the story about a certain concept, as it could be argued, this is Billy Bat’s narrative, everything  can be traced to this concept in a way, his identity and nature sometimes taking central focus as an ongoing mystery. In order to counter this conceit, I will go about this in a roundabout way, but I hope to have explained why this is not the case by the end.

Perhaps the aspect that impress me the most In Billy Bat, is that no matter the time being presented, the Jesus Crist era, the warring states in the 19th century in Japan, the 60’s and 80’s in the United States. All of them have in common, something, a great focus on symbols, universal ideals, that move and motivate most of the characters being presented. Be it the search for God, in the ancient Israel, wishes of conquering the world and fighting with honor in the 19th century Japan, the conflicts between capitalism and communism and the search for truth in the post world war 2 Japan. The extreme variety of cultural encompassing movements take central stage inside characters struggles, showing how they motivate and control individuals. How said ideals evolve and change with time is also really important here, sometimes this is shown more directly when we see the same characters or older generations of the same family, how they change in completely different time periods, Kevin Goodman's experience with racism is completely unlike that of his parents, or how the Momochi clan, worries and attitude changes completely in a different time and culture. And sometimes more indirectly by simply contrasting several periods being presented, the two wars of the manga that will be talked about in depth below, being great examples. This is the single biggest purpose of the style of narrative being played here, with gigantic stretches of time portrayed and timeskips, that allows for the manga to have a great variety of historical periods being presented, all of them being the backbone, of its thematic exploration.

(Fiction Judas was not so great thought)

While also being a brilliant premise for tapping into one of Urasawa greatest strengths as a writer, his ability at making period pieces, using moments in history as not only as a backdrop for his histories , but integrating the biggest anxiety, conflicts and problems of the period, and blending those perfectly onto the history and characters he writes. Said strong aspect takes a bigger purpose here, where their own inclusion adds layers to the overall theme, of exploring the evolution of ideas in mankind’s history, the show is using. Managing to show those grandiose metanaratives, these lofty ideals that try to explain the society in simple terms and dichotomies, and showcase them in intimate personal emotionally charged ways, through poignantly character action. No matter how heady with its themes his works may get, he never forgets to have a human emotional core underneath the whole thing, blending effortlessly the emotional catharsis and intellectual exercises aspects, in his body of work. Nothing says this better than Kurusu arc, his ultimate conclusion of denying nihilism and destructive tendencies in his last moments.

(This manga take on Johan)

So, where is the title character Billy Bat in all of what I just said? Well if you compile of the greater ideals at play in the manga, 3 are pretty much ever recurring aspects in most stories and time periods being told, the conflict between truth and lies, a struggle for authenticity, to discover the real and the fake, usually portrayed through the struggles of the Billy Bat cartoonists, most notably the Chuck Culkin, Kevin Yamanga duo, whose arcs revolve mostly around that. And of course the dream of the travel to the moon, humanity's impossible goal, a distant vision and crazy dream throughout the ages, everyone during the 40s, 60s did not stop thinking about it, even its aftermath has great affect during the 80s. And of course Billy bat itself, the great number of symbols it takes throughout the ages, how it manifests shaping man in the most important decisions of humankind history. How it appears in different forms, mediums and cultures, sometimes incarnating even diametrically different concepts. Those can be seen in most main characters motivations, and usually are somewhat intertwined, finding out the truth usually takes form of wanting to understand Billy, even the journey to the moon takes form of finding his true origin, and identity.

(My favorite portrayal of Hitler in fiction)

When we reach the 21st century, the layout of main threads I explained above starts to get really messy. The turn of century is, even though nothing happened in it, the biggest turning point in history. Let's set thiswith an easy example, on how the search for truth is treated differently in two periods. The society of America during the 80s had as its most defining aspect a proliferation of paranoia and conspiracy theories, people were terrified the government and the media were lying to them and actually demanded to know the truth, regarding facts like Kennedy assassination, or the landing on the moon(not coincidentally exactly the facts that were portrayed during the 60s in the manga). The most meaningful event that shows the change, is having the recording which proved, that the landing on the moon showed to the world by the USA was fake, one of its biggest secrets is now out there on the streets, and appears in a cinematography lesson in the 00s. And guess what happens? No one gives a fuck. The recording that could prove the biggest journey for mankind was "false" is there and nobody gives a shit, not even to compare it to the official footage and find about the fake landing. We find both of the most important threads in the story completely undermined, losing any value in a matter of a few pages in this century.  There are dozens of example of this happening, "fake" versions of the Billy Bat comic are a widespread thing now, people were getting murdered by the hundreds by doing that through the 60s and 80s, now no one cares about the authenticity of what they are reading. Getting to the moon is considered a waste of money that ruined the soviets. 

This change is not limited to those, all other kind of ideals lose their meaning here. And it reflects the changes in power dynamics in this period. Take nationalism, the idea of the nation state as this enormous entity that served and enacted the interests of society. The nations were the grand center of power in the 60s, being the president of the USA( Kennedy) was the big position that could change history. Most other conflicts are instrumentalized by nations (capitalism x communism) the actions of the larger companies like Golden Cola and Billy Bat were usually tied to national interests, they served as propaganda and means to spread the national ideals of America. This submission being pretty much spelled out, by the way man of the Chuck Culkin enterprise, explicitely say to not defy government orders or requests. A good line in the 80s foreshadows the transition about to happen, the soviet union was handling to private sources the creation of equipment for their space exploration project. At the 21st century we really see the difference though, a new organization form rises, the multinational company. The Chuck Culkin enterprises arise from their humble beginning as an entertainment industry, to a gigantic company, which has control of several strategic sectors all throughout the world. Water, oil energy, theme parks, comics, just name the object, these guys have a big share in that market. This under precedent level of power makes them able to command the government of China to a massacre, no reasons asked. 

The birth of this new structure is not so much a complete change in the world of Billy Bat by itself, this manga has dealt with bigger changes with the way societies are run through the story, but a very specific difference of the new structure in place, is. There is a dialogue that showcases perfectly that change, when Timmy Sanada owner and biggest investor on Chuck Culkin enterprises is asked, what does his company stands for, what are the moral values it represents, to which he stands silent. The new symbol of power is empty, there is no greater system of beliefs it represents, nor does it presents any clear vision or future for society. Its lack of vision or morals is ultimately why it never works as the previous metanarratives as a binding force for society. It never manages to get people to internalize its value systems, make them belief this structure stands for freedom, or justice, something that would make them follow it, to motivate them, to give it something to fight for, even against their own self interest. It holds power over people only by offering cheap escapism to them(the theme parks being the personification of that), and providing means for their consumerist behavior.

Where I am going with this should be clear by now. This manga is at its final stages telling a pretty strong argument about post modernism, the school of thinking that abdicates the end of the grandiose metanarratives in modern times. Those bigger conflicts and ideals that would explain all of society in simple terms are no more, reality is just too complex and multifaceted to allow for that, there are just hundreds and hundreds of movements, ideals and clashes between gropes, all struggling for a hegemony. It comes to a point were the individual itself does not fit any metanaratives, he individually has to create the meaning and purpose, that will dictate his actions. This marks a change on Billy Bat himself, it is why he becomes unable of talking to people and influencing history(which not coincidentally coincides with the changes in century), there simply is no space for one man that can alter everything, no single event that can be avoided saving mankind The conflicts being faced now, environmental issues, social inequalities, lots of small racial and religious problems, lack of resources, there is nothing that can be done about those, just by appearing for a few people as Billy Bat always did. The manga have always had a focus on showing the historical development of societies, especially during the 20th century, but there is a different history at play here. One not written by a handful of people, whose names go to history book, but one having billions of people, all easily forgotten, but whose actions will decide the future. Billy Bat even this concept, the biggest story in the existence of mankind, which inspired, motivated and led to humanity’s current development stage is now irrelevant. It is now completely incapable of influencing events, both to doom mankind, or to ensure its survival.

Overall I got to say, this is a pretty grim scenario for humanity's future. It ends the search for purpose, truth and answers of your characters exactly with the non-existence of such. But the way said scenario is being portrayed makes all the difference here, even though individual attempts at saving the world, correcting the issues of humanity are deemed as impossible, the work is in no way encouraging people to simply give up, much to the contrary. In this point, I will have to focus on the individual, how the closest we have to a main character, Kevin Goodman is affected by reality. Kevin from birth was marked as a cartoonist, and had the biggest desire to write Billy Bat comics. It was what he kept practicing endlessly in his youth, but there was a problem, he kept getting rejected because of that,  heard everybody calling his work a fake, a copy of the real deal, published by Chuck Culkin enterprises. This left a huge mark on him, even though Kevin assumes as said company main author, he still refuses to consider himself the real deal, and still turns to Kevin Yamagata as the true author of Billy Bat. Steeping ahead a few years and we have a different issue plaguing Kevin.  Of him just being incapable of writing anymore, the glimpses of the future Billy Bat constantly brought to him are gone, no longer are there those visions that helped him lay out stories. Now he can only bring himself to write normal comics, those cannot give him insight into the future, or help him stop catastrophes, the whole thing just takes airs of pointlessness, Kevin sees no reason to keep doing and just starts looking for a cartoonist, that can still talk to Billy to understand what is going on. Ending put in the same helpless state as everybody else, unable to enact what he thinks would make a real difference, the situation of every individual in the end of the series. This situation of relative powerless far from maddening allows him to understand something, the value of everything else. 

When finding Billy Bat, Kevin is able to finally see the purpose in every little action, his own life as culmination of hundreds of little events, pointless to overall history, but that mean everything to him. It is the small meaning of every little action we take, that he finds out, and is in those that is where he find his motivation to keep writing. His continued life is paradoxically the result of two man who only took action because of how inspired they were by seeing stories. His father managed to stand up to an entire city of racists in the south of the USA, because of the act of reading the Billy Bat comics and Finny saved his life, also because of how much he loved that same comic. He sees in those events the inspiring potential of small intimate stories, the fact of people reading a story, finding it to be geared exactly for them, to portray their hopes, feelings and situation better than themselves could describe them. How potent and life changing those can be as an experience. It is this change from the all encompassing narratives, to trying to create meaning and change, with smaller, deeply personal narratives, the purpose of the storyteller. Far from despair, the situation of the individual in this point in history brings relief to the character. Kevin finally comes to terms with his place in the world, and is finally able to enact on his older almost subconscious desire, of simply telling the stories he always wanted, without getting bogged down with needless worries about the universe. In one that I can only describe as one of the most cathartic character moments in fiction.

(The ending everybody(idiots)kept telling me sucks)

The finale of the series represents a culmination and impressive representation of a lot I said above. Many complained about the last 3 chapters not having the main characters, which was exactly the point, to drive the idea home of the world changing, giving a sense of a narrative, where the actions of everybody not just of the few people we follow, is what really matters. Also it is absurd considering how pretty much every main character has had a complete psychological arc(Duvivier, both Kelvins, Chuck, Timmy), there is no need or point in showing anything else about these guya life's anymore. The war going on the final moments of the manga is an obvious parallel to another big conflict portrayed in the manga, the war for the land of Iga. The difference could not be more striking though, of both events, the war against the Momochi clan was one loaded with ideals, where a man could come to extremes of killing all the closest friends he had in life, and still consider himself justified. What was at stake was so clear in the mind of every warrior, their belief of them actually being justified so strong. In contrast no one has any idea what is going in the war at the end of the manga, every soldier is unsure what they are fighting for, what is this war about and what the heck they are supposed to do. Half the time they cannot even tell apart who are the enemies and allies, what army is each army doing, or what they are supposed to believe. The whole thing is basically a wasteland, which is a obvious reference to the ending of the world scenario(every Urasawa manga needs the end of the world as the stakes), where a kid would stand alone in a land in crumbles. This was the end of history according to Billy. We have two soldiers stepping on landmines that would explode if they moved, and ready to kill each other at any moment and a child in this place. The death of the soldiers would mark the world's end, the kid would end up dying alone in this wasteland just as promised. 

But then something extraordinary happens. Both soldiers see they share Billy Bat symbols on their shirts, and a mutual appreciation of Kevin Goodman comics, which in turn makes them able to identify, see eachother as more than enemies, but as fellow human beings. It also connects them to the child, that even on the verge of death is amazed they have an edition of the final comic, he was never able to read. Both even manage to resolve their issues through this, even finding a common goal in risking their lives in order to save the small children. After they succeed and manage to survive the kid finds himself at awe of something. The history he just witnessed is exactly like the last issue of Billy Bat he reads, everything in it seems to have a purpose, everything on that story seems to be made directly to him, this person, in exactely this situation. This finding wonders him, gives him new goals and motivations on life. This is how the last prophecy of Billy is avoided, through these specifics seemingly pointless messages, that found the public it meant the most to. The world is saved, and in the midst of the dread of the reality there is a sense of hope, humanity will find new meanings, to strive towards and persevere, even in the madness of the modern world.



(destroying youself or the world, aren't both the same?)

If you cannot say by now, Billy Bat is one of my favorite manga. This analysis started from a wish to give better understanding to some of its least appreciated aspects. Billy Bat is a really unique series, in a way the most ambitious work of fiction I have ever seen, attempting to explore in depth a topic as complex and vast as the historical evolution(most notably the ideological) of mankind. It might not have the best plotting(like every Urasawa work)and it does not hold a candle to something like Pluto in terms of character writing(it is hard to find things who do really). But what it achieved as a really is the most fascinating though experiment I have ever seen. In the end,  perhaps what this manga gives me is a sense of hope and purpose to keep writing and explore more glorious aspects of his works in the future.

(This attempt at making something like the Mr. Cynical explaining the ending of monster's video is embarassing, you should watch the real deal)

The best star wars movie

The last Jedi is my favorite movie of the current era Star Wars (the Disney ones). It managed to correct most of the issues I took with its predecessors, like the predictability and the dependency of well-known in the franchise plotlines and characters in the force awakens, or the lack of meaningful character arcs of rogue one, while also adding some ambitious themes and ideas, which were pretty much never seen before in the franchyse. The following essay will detail my impressions of the movie, and as such it will spoil the heck out of it.

(Kind of found relatable, how this guy was almost literally saying fuck Star wars and its ideals)

The biggest idea of this film is how to deal with the past, usually abstracted to dealing with the mistakes committed previously, and the fact we are inevitably going to end up committing them again. Said conflict is perfectly portrayed through our title character the supposed last jedi, Luke Skywalker, a deluded man waiting on death for himself, and the order he represents, incapable of moving on and helping anyone. His apparently uncaring demeanor for others is warranted though, it comes from a bigger conflict regarding merits of his existence and of the jedi order. His questioning comes in the form of establishing a myth parallel, both him and the jedi became mythical infallible existences in the people’s eyes. But what is the worth in the existence of such mythical perfect entities, when in the past both committed and will keep committing mistakes, inevitably failing to the people of the galaxy and to apprentices who fall to the dark side? Luke’s resolve at the end of the movie shows him having a more positive relation with his own failures, by making him not only linger on its horrible aspects and using it as an excuse for not even trying, but instead as means of learning important lessons, passing those to others and even correcting some of the damage caused.


Rey and Kylo Ren are also struggling on how to deal with the such issues in the movie, Rey constantly looks for who are her parents, hoping that her heritage would define her identity as an individual. Kylo Ren’s character is defined by figures of the past, being both Luke’s failure in being his master, and his own failure at becoming Darth Vader. Those failures led him to a completely negative view on heritage, which is showed by his posture and ideology at the end of the movie, trying desperately to forget everything that came before him and erase its existence, him literally quoting "let the past die, kill it if you must". Rey solution to the issue consists not of forgetting or erasing previous events, but accepting it all even the unpleasant truth about her parent’s identity, but still strive to move on, make your actions in the present define who you are, and what will be her part in the grand scheme of things (or at least I think so, the movie was never really clear on Rey’s final stance for some reason).

(My favorite emo nazi)

The questioning of why the jedi as a myth and institution should be maintained despite being really flawed is only answered at the movie’s ending moments. The scene in question shows previously presented slave kids playing with toys one of them being of the legendary jedi Luke Skywalker, while wearing the rebellion symbol. And it is as a symbol, that the movie is saying the mythical elements of the past are really important, the myths regarding the rebellion and the jedi order are shown here to be important as symbols to motivate people, get them to look at the sky and dream of something above their reach, to inspire this new generation to go beyond and try harder, at achieving whatever things they may want. This inspirational aspect of idealized institutions like the jedi, is portrayed as way more important than their real fallible existence. And that is the movie answer to Kylo Ren destructive tendencies, sure simply burning everything and pretending the past no longer exists may be an easier choice, but it also ignores all its potential of positively changing the present, which is pretty ironic since Kylo Ren himself is an example, of a kid inspired by a mythical figure to become who he is now. It is hard not to die this whole discorse, with the nostalgic glorification of past Star Wars found in a new hope. On a way this messier, more nuance view on past, where we stll view its merits, while alsoi admiting its flaws is the movie direct answer to that. On a way Kylo Ren is talking about the legacy of the Franchise, when he claims to let the whole thing die to move further. A view the movie is certainly not advocating for, with its reaffirmation of what the instituitions anc characters represent.

(Luke throwing the lightsaber, the symbol of the nostalgic bullshit of a new hope, off a cliff, is such a great scene)

On another topic this movie tries to showcase an ideological basis for what the resistance stands for, which is good after 5 movies (yes the rebellion and the resistance are the exact same thing) of them being only the guys which were against the empire (first order), and believed in the force. The ways it does so is not so great really, this idea is implemented through Finn and rose plotlines, which I have to say are not as interesting or really have any real purpose on the movie. Their whole go to the casino, find the codebreaker and disable the tracker plotline really added nothing or had much purpose in the grand scheme of things. They achieved nothing by doing this, nor it helped the rebellion, or had any significance outside the two characters involved (and Phasma), it could had been completed gutted out, and the plot of this movie would be almost the exact same. It does move the character arcs in significant ways though, Finn learns to stop worrying only about himself or Rey, starts caring more about others and finally officially identifies himself with the resistance (even though the movie starts by ignoring his character’s urgency and making him go to help the resistance anyway), his act of even willingly try to die for the rebellion, being a great example of that. But really what said plotline has to showcase of what the rebellion stands for, is really not worth the waste of time, it is in general. It does say that the rebellion represents all the oppressed class of the galaxy, freeing slaves and abused animals supposedly represent that, and their way of fighting, has more to do with love, protecting what they love, than destroying what they hate. In the end it amounts to making them the rebellious group that fights for love and the oppressed, which is still not making much of differentiate and giving them an ideology as a group. It also adds nothing to other themes this movie has going for, how to deal with the past, while also managing to directly contradict the criticism of black and white morality this movie seems to be going for.


Moving on, this is the part I have to admit this movie gets kind of tricky to understand in everything regarding its treatment of the force. The jedi and their teachings are completely different in here than what the prequel guys seemed to preach, first because Luke keeps constantly telling for Rey to channel the force through her emotions, which is exactly the way which the way the sith are supposed to use the force. Emotions like anger, fear and hatred are all the time quoted as the way to the dark side, while the jedi proclaim that a peace of spirit is the correct state for dealing with the force. I also am not sure if they just flipped the whole balance concept, from it representing the nonexistence of dark side users, since those represent imbalance in the force, or the coexistence of both sides as integral parts of the force, Luke seems to be saying the former with his definition of the force being everything and containing both perfect light and darkness, but directly contradicts it, by saying that in the time where there were no sith, there was balance. It also gets the whole, jedi are altruistic, while sith are egoistic monsters crazy for power, completely wrong. Luke Skywalker does not have a single altruistic act until the movie’s climax. Kylo Ren is far from acting out of pure egoistical desires, his ideal new order is supposedly motivated for the wellbeing of others, nor he seems to have any fixation on power, or getting stronger now, which is also a sith mark.


All of which begs the question, are those mistakes proof of the creative team lack of comprehension of the dualistic conflict of the force? And to that I have to say no, those represent what I think to be a bigger commentary the movie had towards the Star Wars franchise. The best place to see that is in Finn’s side plot with a character most people would deem as insignificant, the code breaker. More specifically his speech of both the rebels and the first order being a part of the same war machine. And that ideas like one side being the good guys while the other are the bad ones, are just rationalizations of the people involved in the conflict, in order to feel better about their actions. By blurring the lines of both the jedi and the sith ideological basis the movie is attempting to say the same for the jedi sith conflict, that the usage of ideals like light, dark side are also just attempts to justify the jedi. The portrayal of the jedi as decadent, flawed and even apathetic to the suffering of others, and of a new more humane dark side user, which supposedly aims for the best of the galaxy and really has several moments acknowledging his flaws are the framework for this newly morally more grounded complex conflict, the movie is trying to set up. The destruction of the ancient jedi texts is also a very telling moment, it signifies that no longer the definitions and concepts presented in those texts are useful to represent the current conflict, only serving to stop Luke from doing what he must. It would be a brilliant idea and development for Star Wars if the freaking film did not contradict it by having a pitch perfect version of a resistance, that only fights by saving those they love and represent the oppressed, or for the first order to still appear as the same genocidal fascist organization, so good luck presenting a morally complex conflict with those sides.


In conclusion there are lots of other smaller things I really liked about this movie, like how this movie seems to acknowledge a lot of the criticism of the force awakens and cleverly incorporate commentary on them into the narrative, like the whole discussion about why Kylo Ren lost to someone completely unexperienced on light saber fighting. How it uses the audience’s expectations of these new set of movies only being retreads of the original trilogy, making a structure that would at first confirm these expectations which in turn makes the story twists even more surprising. Or the way this movie never shines way from showing characters failing horribly in a lot of what they attempt, just to drive the theme of how to deal with mistakes, and constantly has characters developing and learning with said mistakes, Poe being the biggest example. These are all things I really appreciated but what really sells the movie for me is how authentic it ends up felling as an experience, with rogue one and to a larger extent episode 7, both end up felling like movies elaborated by a joint commit only looking on how to make the most crowd pleasing product, guarantying a safe profit apparently being their metric of great entertainment. The last jedi for me never felt like that, the fact it was scripted and directed by a practically unknown guy in the industry, which already shown bigger risks being taken in its creation. What I watched definitely feels like a more personal completely different vision for Star Wars, and despite how baffling and messy some of its parts may be, I still enjoyed a lot the fact this is the kind of movie we ended up getting.

 

(People who can not appreciate, the awesomeness of complete retarded moments like this, you have my condolences)

Black Mirror episode analysis

So today after a lot of debate with myself, I am finally starting my analysis of the TV series Black Mirror. This act is actually motivated by me having recurring issues with the series, that no one else seemed to be noticing or willing to talk about. I will be doing this with a series of texts focusing on each episode of the show’s new season, while also elaborating on my overarching criticism of the series as a whole.


As you could all expect, the first thing I will be talking about is the beginning episode of the fourth season, USS Calister. Just to clarify something first, I am the biggest fan imaginable of Star Trek, especially the original series, and yes this is absolutely crucial information to understand my view on the episode. So in regards to USS Callister’s premise, I feel obligated to point out how brilliant it is, it is quite likely the best episode concept in the entire series. The idea of having Black Mirror and taking into account what it all represents, as one of the more cynical and pessimistic views of humanity’s future possible dedicating an episode to study and comment on Star Trek, which is quite literally its complete opposite. Which is regarded in the cultural zeitgeist of your age as the definitive utopic optimistic representation of humanity’s future is an incredible idea. The ethos of both series is just so diametrically different, which is shown really well in the ways something like technology is portrayed on both series. In Black Mirror technology and its implications are only portrayed on the way they dehumanize people, how they are only a tool bringing suffering and issues to our society (yes, I pretend to write more on the topic of this show bullshit technophobic attitude on my next text). In Star Trek technology is more akin to a tool which serves as the means to potentialize humanity to their full capacity, it being the means that enable them to start the biggest adventure in humanity’s history, the exploration of space. Sure some of its negative aspects like its potential for destruction or to replace mankind also gets to be portrayed (guess which one of this has a more nuanced portrayal). So, this is really a promising premise that could go in so many great ways, imagine how awesome of an idea would be to study how did society views of the future changed from the 60`s? Or even better a really ambitious team could have tried to dissect the core of Star Trek, studying its idealism, putting the visualization of humanity presented at Star Trek at test, using the cynical perspective of the series as a framework for that study.



                      (At least they tried copying the best, I guess)


But yeah, you will not be seeing be seeing anything of the immense potential I wrote above in the actual episode. Star Trek, its imagenery (which weirdly contains references to various entries in the franchise, even though everything else is related only to OS), the series structure and conflict, are not being used here because Black Mirror wants to study any ideals Star Trek has to offer. They are here only to portray just how much Star Trek is simply a misogynist power fantasy for insecure virgin adult males. So basically using it as a fancy backdrop for misogyny and escapism is this episode brilliant intent. You can pretty much get the portrayal of how indulgent this scenario is going to be, in the its opening minutes. They consist of a boring guy called Capitan just being a fucking genius by destroying an enemy ship, and receiving tons of praise and affection from everyone around him. Yeah, this what Star trek is guys, and just to make sure people got the subtle message, that they were trying to make this reality a power fantasy for virgins, of course they have to include bullshit like nobody in this world actually having sexual organs. Which you end up finding later in the episode, is literally the plot. The whole place where this star trekky universe exists is just actually a virtual reality, built by a genius programmer, for the purpose of literally escaping his work related stress and even going to extremes in the fantasy he created, such as creating artificial replicas of his coworkers and locking those replicas against their will, in this universe where he acts as a God.


So yeah this scenario has not much to do with actual Star Trek to justify the heavy usage of elements borrowed from the series. You could put this is any generic space opera and not much would be lost in terms of themes. Heck making this a commentary on gaming culture would make a lot more sense, what it has to say relates way closely to the current state of that than to OS. But of course, they just present the parallel with gaming lazily at the finale and do nothing with it. There are attempts to justify this better though, the commentary on women`s representation being the best example. Several aspects of women unequal representation on 0S are called out by this episode, they do not have the right the take weapons on the missions which gives the view of them not being capable as fighters. Their uniform clearly is way different than the ones from their male counterpart, only serving to objectify them in the minds of the audience. The fact most women in OS are only added as token romantic interests, but are pretty useless otherwise is also being pointed here. Rightfully so may I add, the way women are presented in the Original Series of Star Trek(OS) really holds some ugly misogynistic misconceptions about women, which are actually being pointed out. To what extent this matters as an issue is arguable, looking back to a fifty-year-old Television series expecting a feminist sensibility and perspective of the 21 century is simply absurd. Those forms of presentation and usage of female characters cannot be taken totally out of the context they were created, being really common in most media of the time. So I do not think they point to an especially chauvinistic worldview (for the time).



                    (Can you guess which one of the shows I am writing above is the better one?)


But no, my issue is not with those valid issues the episode is raising, but with the logical leaps the series is taken in using those to reach a simple conclusion. That Star trek just consists of a safe fiction, a work whose only purpose is escapism and serves to reassure ugly prejudices of the audience. Because that is in no way shape or form the case. Star trek is actively challenging the audience with its concepts and storylines, it was never going for empty comfort in any stage or entry in the franchise, but bringing real questioning of key aspects of the human existence, while never shying away of giving the audience uncomfortable answers. What I am writing about here is the series that has the first example in America television history, of showing a mixed racial kiss between two actors, breaking an old taboo and creating lots of controversy. It is also the same series that in the height of America’s persecution of communism in the country, and fight against the Soviet Union, dared to portray a Russian as a likeable main character, which btw never stopped talking about how great places on Russia were. Really Star Trek always tackled such difficult political, social and racial subjects in a surprisingly mature way, never simply following audience’s misconceptions. So yeah seeing it all portrayed as the ultimate form of safe escapist fiction here, is not only retarded, but insulting to an unbelievable level.


This episode just really does not have a strong understanding of what it is trying to do. The whole thing just feels like it wants to eat its cake and have it too. And is doing so by wanting to pass as this serious critique of the Star Trek universe, but at the same presenting the exact same structure and conflict, completely straight in an almost glorified manner. Take the conflict we have here, a Godlike powered man-child which tries to control the enterprise (no way I am using the knock-off Black Mirror names for the same things) and its crew. This is the most recurring kind of conflict in all of Star Trek, Q the most memorable antagonist in Star Trek is exactly as I described above. It also develops and ends in the same way, by having the crew cooperating and using their wits to defeat the treat, also both end with the promise of more adventures for the respective groups. Even some gimmicks like it all being part of a virtual reality aren’t that new, considering things like the holodeck in Star Trek the next generation. Sure the crews in the Black Mirror version have more internal conflicts than anything in Star Trek, but that is it in terms of innovating the structure.


This resemblance leads to some really badly handled ideas, like Dale (the creators idea of a star trek fan) being supposed to be a commentary on the moralist gary stu captain a la Kirk. That ends up being having absolutely nothing in common with that character type, and being exactly the same as most Star Trek antagonists. It also leads to thematic dissonance, by having the show glorifying the structure and conflict by portraying it as an exciting even heartbreaking at times tale. But at the same time condemning it, as purely escapist nonsense. Between the critiquing and playing straight of Star Trek elements, I ended up with no idea, what the overall message was supposed to be. And yes you can take that as either incompetence of the production team, or this episode actually pulling some too deep for me ideas.



                        (Deep and mature storytelling)


You know if this episode was actually awful and completely devoid of any merit, I would not be even bothering to talk about it. Which is sadly not the case, this episode’s storytelling is actually extremely efficient. I am not kidding, setting easily distinguishable and well defined personalities for 6 main characters is no small feat, but this episode manages to pull that off. Heck it even develops in an understandable way one of said characters. It is kind of a well-executed story overall, it establishes the setting with not much exposition, it manages to increase the tension of the conflict well, while having everything culminating in a well done climax. The whole thing is paced really effectively, all the plans and situations happening through the episode are well explained and make sense in context. If you were to look only at the mechanics of story and characters, it mostly works. It is not hard to understand why people would get invested in these characters, or in the conflict and situations they are being presented. But what is the purpose those elements are all working towards, what is the essence this episode wants to transmit? Just everything I have been laying out above, which is why no matter how good some of its parts may be, the whole is thing just come off as worthless for me.

To summarize, Star Trek is a legendary series, that deserves all its cultural importance and impact. It is a legend that will keep reverberating throughout the years, achieving some of the pinnacles of timeless storytelling. Black mirror is just a fad, and inviting the comparisons, or even daring to mock such a series only helps to delineate its flaws

                    (Since apparentely there are people reading now, could you tell me if you want me to,                                                          continue this series on Black Mirror?)

13 reasons why it sucks and i hate it

Suicide, the act of taking your own life voluntarily. The destruction of men by his own hands, the almost illogical concept of bringing an end to your own existence, doing harm to yourself (or so Aristoteles though). To say this a controversial topic to address is a bit of an euphemism. Through all of fiction perhaps one of the tabooer subjects to portray, little organizations like World Health Organization advises against the portrayal of this kind of topic, due to passively influencing other people to commit such acts.





This colossal and universally important aspect of life, is what the series 13 reasons why (season 1 only here) tries to incorporate, by focusing on the life and after effects of a teenager suicide. Hearing this premise and being someone with a perhaps unhealthy interest for the topic, I was excited to say the least with the prospect of such a series, especially with it reaching mainstream success, and spreading awareness and debate about the topic. Which only increased the feeling of frustration when I sat down and saw what the show had to say about this. I find it hard to even admit this show actually is about suicide in the first place, since it blatantly avoids making a commentary or perhaps the two most important aspects the act raises. Like if human beings really have the right to choose death, to voluntarily give up on life, which is counterpoised by the views of this act as unnatural, or a manifestation of some sort of disease. It also makes us question our existence itself, is existence really inherently preferable to nonexistence, and if not suicide would be the most logical course of action. Good luck finding any commentary on both in this show though, it disregards completely any sort of questioning around this, not even a one sided propagandistic affirmation of a stance is made (not even the pro-life propaganda I was actually expecting). I understand those are somewhat frightening and controversial topics to present, and I can barely imagine how controversial it would be presenting suicide as the right thing to do in a mainstream show, but is that not what media should do? To dare to show, confront and make us face all this frightening thoughts, so we can have a better understanding and idea of them. Does making them taboo and treating people who think these way as sick are we not only adding guilt and disgust to their lives, for thinking that way? Anyways the mere idea of this as an insightful analysis on suicide is insulting and demeaning. I cannot in good mind recommend this show, even as an introductory work to someone that knows nothing about it in general.


Maybe am I using the wrong perspective to judge here. Perhaps the act itself was not what this series was about but it’s after effects. Losing someone because of suicide is a hard thing, especially for those closer to the person. Everyone that believes their family and loved ones will be better off without them, should read impressions of how hard that is a process for the survivors. Having to reevaluate and judge your entire relation with someone you love, looking everywhere reasons for why she did it. The guilty of not knowing if it was something you did, that made her take such drastic actions is close to unbearable. Such aspects are portrayed even poignantly at times by Hannah Bakker parents. Nothing else in the show really correlates to this theme though. Most of the characters this show decides to focus did not have any strong relation with Hannah, if anything most of them are way more concerned with their own self-preservation in this situation than feeling guilty about how they had influence in her death. Also giving definitive answers of why and whom actually had influence in her death takes the most painful part of the process, the uncertainty. Not knowing what you could had made, which actually hurt the person’s feelings, is usually way more terrifying than the actual answers of what the persons did. Of course Clay was relieved after hearing those tapes, but by making those tapes and its content the focus here, 13 reason why loses the most powerful and meaningful aspect of the grieve and frustration regarding the central death





And perhaps I am still viewing this through the wrong lenses. This could not be about suicide as a topic, but simply Hannah’s situation, a tight and solid personal story. But even so this series does not work. A simple look at our title character can show the reasons why that is such. Our protagonist  uses her suicide to practice what can only be called mental torture with her fellow peers, by extensively blaming them, for what happened to her. The only reason people ignore this simple fact is because of the ridiculous portrayal.Yes, those are the terms to accurately describe her actions. There is no way around this our protagonist commits such a hideous act, against a group of teenagers, that in their majority did not do anything worthy of such response. Have you realized the problem here? Because it gets even worse, despite being the perpetrator of such immoral acts with severe consequences, the series will attempt to justify it, portraying her as right every bloody time. Hannah is showed as this pinnacle of righteousness, that could never be wrong. This by itself would make me dislike this series.  It is hard to even say the moral disgust and frustration that such acts and their repercussions left on me. It is physically impossible for me, to actually fell sorrow or pity for our title character despite the horrible things that happen to her. Which always occur because of victimization of course, Hannah never does something wrong to deserve any aggression. The whole thing come to a ridiculous point where even though the series shows a gruesome scene of her graphically cutting her wrists, I still ended up feeling nothing but emptiness (did I mentioned how manipulative this series is in regards to its drama?).


Many will defend this bullshit by claiming Hannah had some bigger messages she wanted to show with those tapes. Which there actually are, with each one fighting to be dumber and more aggravating than the last. The importance of empathy is a very prevalent one. Trying to understand how the other feels is important, if not you may never know your own actions may have severe lasting consequences in their lives. And of course the best way to portray such concept, is by having our protagonist to preach it, while lacking any understanding or care, about how an act, such as blaming and judging people for her murder, may have for those people. The hypocrisy is just unbearable. The idea of this being necessary, as means to show what actually happened to her is also laughable. There are hundreds of less cruel and sadistic ways to go about this. No, I did not forget the idea, of the whole thing, and the main point of the series, to extensively tell the reasons why someone would commit such an extreme act. The problem is though; I disagree, what is being shown in those tapes are not reasons to kill yourself. They are just facts, a single repeating kind of fact, the actions committed by the people of Hannah school that she considers prejudicial to her (with one noticeable exception). There is no psychology, no inner motivation or philosophy behind it, just a general blaming of everyone else for what happened to her. This honestly seems less of a study of reasons for suicide, and more like a historian making a list of facts that are deemed of any importance. Such an impersonal and uninsightfull perspective is disappointing to say the least. Maybe I am being a little too harsh in all of this. Of course demanding such degrees of reasoning and logic, behind the acts of a clearly emotionally destroyed teenager is completely unreasonable. I understand that, but it was the author’s idea to put that same damaged teenager ideas on a pedestal. A lot of the work consists of proving why Hannah is the only one who is right, in her version of what happened and everyone else is wrong. She also feels like the voice of the author directly delivering the messages this show is trying to portray. So if the creators themselves put so much importance on Hannah opinion, her reasoning, and to justify why she is right every time, I see no reason why I should not put the same importance on it as well.



    (I am probably the only one that still cares about this show)


Let’s talk about this show depiction of teenage life for a change. This giant group of characters is supposed to portray exactly that anyway, the sprawling cast being necessary because all of them are supposed to represent a different aspect and side of teenage life. And to be fair this exploration has a variety of topics ranging from sexual violence, the unfair view that can be easily formed of women, lack of privacy, loneliness, suicide actually is not that much more prevalent than those ideas. Great on paper but there is something crucial missing and that is in the representation of any adult character. Well, the whole thing is very simple, every adult character and every major institution is despised and set out either as completely useless or openly malicious from the get go. The School counselor is completely ineffective in regards to anything regarding the students, the school council does not care for the teenagers well being and is just worried about the fact those kind of events can hurt the school image, and we have our co-protagonist Clay Jensen parents just laughing it up and never confronting their son no matter how stupid and clearly self-damaging his actions are. Never in the show any adult actually manages to portray a compelling counterargument, or perspective to our character’s worldviews. The series is indulging itself fully in these youngster’s ideas, to the point that the mere thought their shallow generalist ideas might not be right, never crosses anyone minds. I do not see what someone in the target audience can learn with something that blatantly panders and confirms their basic ideas, without even attempting to show any discording ones. Examples of this where constant, like the school being at fault for supposedly undermining the student’s problems, by making the most logical suggestion of trying to put the issue into a different perception, or being deemed as accusatory, to even slightly suggest, the bullied itself might be taking actions, that could be worsening his situation. So yeah fuck the adults, we crazy neurotic self-destructive teenagers are the ones that truly know what is right, is what I got out of this.


So do I need to add I also found the structure completely flawed? This story pacing is unbelievably slow like even the simplest plot points and character arcs take ages to actually progress. This is perfectly shown by how stale the drama is in this series, that can best be seen when several of the main characters have the exact same conversation, about what they will do about the possibility of the tapes being released, for the tenth time, with nothing being resolved, or done as a consequence of that. By that time, it is easy to realize to story is pointlessly going in circles because of the protagonist that loves to create false dilemmas to keep the plot going. I would love to be lying, when I say this series could easily be told in 4 episodes by getting rid of some characters and plotlines (the poem side story really added a lot to the overall story right). The exposition is also rather lacking. This is basically a story where most of your main characters already know perfectly well 50% of what is going to be shown in the series (what really happened to Hannah). So for not spoiling the audience of future events and twists, everybody has to deliver some completely artificial and cryptic lines just so the audience will not be spoiled of future events Tony(Jesus) being the worst offender. The fact everyone in the show is pointlessly withholding information annoyed me to no end.


Can you believe I still did not talk about the worst aspect of this series? The characters in this are just unbearable. My problem is not their characterization itself, which is actually mediocre and serviceable. But the fact they are all unpleasant horrible people. Being a terrible flawed person is not an issue in of itself, in fact some of my favorite characters can be described as such. But the unpleasantness of the 13 reasons why cast never leads to a complex struggling personality. It never leads to some complex troubled personality, it never gives great insight into the darkest sides of human psyche. There is no shinji desperately struggling with his insecurities and low self-esteem in this show. They are all just unpleasant annoying, flat characters. This base level characterization works in something like boku no hero academia, where every character is likeable, and their loveable personalities, still make them endearing despite their lack of complexity. In 13 reasons why it makes for a complete mess, where I ended up hating most of the characters. Hannah is now officially my most hated fictional character and I intend to write a future essay talking about her in length. Clay would also make the list of my most hated fictional characters, the way he is constantly blaming others and trying to forces his morals on them is just so obnoxious. I can only describe him as someone with very extreme case of hero complex, since he acts exactly like those obnoxious pacifist’s super-heroes, throwing around morality speeches at everyone around him. Nevermind how hilarious it is the fact he is obviously written to move the plot forward in some ways, his panic attacks only serving to prolong endlessly the act of him listening to the tapes, to the point he actually has some vivid hallucinations, just to give such exposition into what he is feeling.



                                              (my favorite cast of characters)


Tony manages to be even more infuriating, I just can never take seriously, someone that follows Hannah request as some holly word. But when he remains his annoying vagueness, even as those tapes lead Clay to coming close to commit suicide, is just too much. This level of stupidity cannot come from anything resembling a human being. Especially when he is repeatedly shown as the character with the highest moral values in the show. And I am not sure it was bad acting or bad writing, that gave him this monotone personality, with barely any emotional range as a character, but it was awful either way. Unlike what many would lead you to think, Bryce is not the worst thing in this by a long shot. Sure the show may be bent on trying to make the audience hate him, by making him do the most despicable acts with no redeeming qualities. However I do not. In fact he is just so pathetic and, a great representation of a cartoonish villain, that I do not find him even worth of any hate, nevermind interest.


Now I can finally go from hated elements to those I just did not get  actually. There is this weird intertext and relation between this and generic romantic comedies. In a lot of ways, the relation between Hannah and Clay is similar to those of the main couple in those stories. The side characters are also kind of close to some twisted version of the genre stereotypes. Now if the romantic comedy formula is only used as a common tool to tell the story which is being conveyed, this is awful storytelling because unlike the usual romantic comedy this formula is not useful to show the story and themes this series is going for, being completely unnecessary. But I think the idea they were going with that is to try to make a metanarrative and commentary about the genre, with said aspects. They are in the end trying to subvert both expectations and some tropey stereotypes. And I still ended up in the same problem thinking that what does the series has to say about the genre? I got nothing no focus in some overall messages or any larger commentary. They simply took out the silly message about love that gives purpose to the genre and elements and replaced it with nothing making this an even emptier work.


     (People who say season 2 is worst are delusional)           

Clockwork Orange review

Warning this review will have spoilers, so proceed at your own risk if you care.


Clockwork Orange stands as one of the more fascinating Works of fiction I have ever seen. It is known as one of the four most influential dystopic books of the 20th century, but the futuristic aspects of the society are weirdly underplayed. This narrative could occur on the London of the time the book was written without much difference. The book presents an extensive social commentary on a plethora of topics, and has a really unique and well-handled character arc for its protagonist, but those will be not the focus of this analysis. That will be, what I believe to be the main theme a central idea which all events and characters conform and help to inform about, a study on power, its several forms of manifestations and what is has to say on the subject.



A person lying naked on a floor, prostate in complete submission. His will as an individual, dignity and the value of his existence as a human, none of it matters in this state I am suggesting. He exists as an object for others to exercise their will. Perhaps this condition stands as an underlying ideal the book is trying to represent, a unique and absolute form of control. Our protagonist struggles to achieve this constantly, the ultra-violent acts he enacts are never senseless, or just to shock the audience (despite the first half being kind of overlong in displaying them but ok). They mark the way the character sees the world, in a way trying to submit it, with everyone to his will. Displaying physical strength are just the means to that, his crimes are not for money or luxury (although he takes those as well) but the main aspect of it is the joy humiliating, submitting others to him completely. There is an underlying despise with those who do not do the same , his school and parents are actually worth of scorn for trusting him, by simply believing and letting him do as he pleases. The idea of leaving matters to the choice of others of whom you cannot control is ludicrous here. The group surrounding him is also far from what I would describe as friends, what is ever present and evident in their interactions, is their power dynamics. Alex as the leader, Tosko as an oppressed subject, Georgie trying to subvert the chain of command.


Those Unilateral showings of strength are far from the ideal way to exert power though. When trying to control his “drugis” through that as well, Alex ends up quickly betrayed and arrested by the police forces. Usually restrictions on will, on the individual liberties need some form of justification to be followed. Government authority is not only guaranteed because the government has the monopoly on the usage of force, and can apply penalties to the citizens, but because in some way people do internalize its rule, see the authority as justified in doing such. There is no way to build an everlasting meaningful control by these methods, you can come up with the most gruesome violence you can think of, those can only grant you something as long as the threat persists. How valid those justification are is kind of irrelevant though, as long as they ease your control on the subject, are something that in some way shape or form he believes (and when he stops doing so just throw him to the pits with lots of violence).


The prison section is perhaps unique for presenting a directly different method for the same objective. The ways are more indirect, manipulation is the game he is playing. To deceive, to try and get others to do as he pleases almost unconsciously, always hiding the true intentions and goals. His relations are marked for this disingenuous tone, a false adulation and subservience motivated by self-interest. Although more nuanced and not allowing for the same kind of grandiose form of controls, those were useful as ways to gather information, and trust from others.


In no place are those concerns and topics more evident, or better portrayed than in the “treatment” our protagonist went through. This consisting of the ultimate attempt of coercion, to turn a human into a being completely incapable of disobeying. To teach through assimilation not morals, but the entire pattern of conducts which are socially and morally acceptable. By basically making the person own body into the judge, jury and executioner, it analyses each decision the individual even thinks of taking, and generates strong negative physical reactions to those deemed wrong. If you could even concede of a perfect citizen, one that not by reason or morals, but by its own nature is incapable of disobedience, this would be it. The degree of annihilation of the individual and the mere possibility of choice, is not in so far from the scenario I pictured on my second paragraph. And not surprising, the whole thing fails, even when submitted to the more imposing method imaginable, when subdued by the most horrible and generalized punition possible, there is a degree of humanity, a desire for something which never abandons the characters of this book. This is what leads Alex to attempt suicide, even act itself was strictly against his programming. By looking for the only escape possible, through death, ironically our protagonists achieves salvation, having the humanity and the capacity of choice restituted, because of the shocking experience.


Clockwork has an impressive method of exploring the political through the personal, and just in general making both one and the same. The macro and micro spheres of actions are really similar in this narrative. In both you can find the same things, groups of individuals struggling for power. The government is never worried with idealism, ensuring the best for the citizens, but in ways to enact better social enforcement, to in effect monopolize the violence, act so all the ways power can occur in society could be controlled, legalized by the state. The opposition is no difference, despite clowning themselves on masks of altruism, all they want is the position of those in charge, taking control on their hands. To that end, they never shy away from using those, like what they did with Alex. The book has a delightful cynicism towards those individuals, with its best display being on the uncertain and not important political results of their actions. Taking joy in tearing apart their hypocrisy, fake idealism, and justifications, just to show they all have the same feeling behind them. This desire to impose their will, get others to do as they wish, to truly see the world submitting to them. Really what is the difference between said institutions doing this, and Alex back in the alley beating up people?


The ending is marked for a twist, a new development in all I said above, which ties perfectly with the growth our protagonist underwent. The main lesson Alex takes from everything is to try to interact with others, get to know them and create relations, but ones not based on domination. In attempting to control everyone around him, all he ever achieved was being betrayed, by his drugies, prison mates, even his parents. Now he desires to try something different, to create a form of love as the basis to his bonds, by constructing a family. One where no matter how damaging and ludicrous can be the actions and choices of the people you love, you have to respect them all the same, and the best you can do is to advise, and still accept them despite their flaws. In hopes they will do the best, because there is no way to force them to. On this hopeful tone, the book makes its ending remark.


You know, Clockwork Orange is a hard work for me to review. The appeal and state it revels in, is something completely alien to me. Being frank, I am closer to the state of self-deprecation that marks a really unhealthy individual, which is portrayed when Alex is drugged by the government, than our horny, angry, hyper violent teen. The act of imposing my will on the world is something I rarely attempt. Nevertheless, the focus and resourcefulness in its exploration stands as remarkable. There are some minor things it gets wrong, like this degree of violence could only get the (supposed) expected effect of being shocking 50 years ago (blame our culture, that overexposes people to this shit) and the beginning being twice longer than it needed to. If fixed such simple issues would make this a masterpiece, so I am not mad at all this book get so much things right, but falters on the details. Concluding, my drugies, if you are not interested, or do not want to read this book, you can go suck a dick and watch crap like Texhnolyze or Akira.