![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatIs it just me or is LJ always slow?
Finished watching an odd Japanese anime film entitled Revolutionary Girl Utena The Movie. I'm guessing the television series makes more sense and is easier to follow.
This was a bit like watching abstract art.
I did figure out the plot - Utena, who is mourning the death of her childhood love Toga, comes to the Academy - a school of sorts. She meets the Rose Bride, who is trapped in a game of sorts because she's mourning the death of her brother, the Prince, who stabbed her through the heart and committed suicide after they committed incest. Toga died saving a young girl from drowning. Through a series of duels, Utena wins the Rose Bride and convinces her to leave this dream like world for the outside one - which is a world without roads, and looks like a bombed out wasteland, but where they will be naked and free to be who they are. Utena turns into a car which the Rose Bride drives going through various vehicular obstacles... until eventually...they are stripped of all clothes, all illusions, and ride what amounts to two-person scooter through the rocky hills of the desolated world outside the world of dreams. Kissing and loving one another, free of men, free of the need for princes or power.
Like I said, weird movie. Lots of psychological metaphors and sociological metaphors throughout. At one point...one of the female duelists vying for the Rose Bride, states "power is a male construct, but in order to have control over my life and not be their possession, I must play by their rules - so I seek power."
It's a fascinating film from the pov of Japanese Culture...which tends to be fairly rigid, and male-centric. Traditional gender roles. Also like most anime - it references Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Actually most Japanese science fiction, horror, and sci-fi/fantasy film and anime does. At least the ones I've seen do. As do the books. There's a definite fear of apocalypse, of destruction, and a sense of mourning regarding it - that you do not see in Western films - at least to this degree. The other interesting bit about Japanese anime is the nudity...only women are nude. And we only see their naked anatomy, it is always idealized - with curves, big breasts, and tiny waist. You rarely see the male anatomy in these films.
I wouldn't necessarily call it exploitative or gratuitous, but then nudity doesn't bother me. Possibly all those life drawing courses had an effect. It's just a body afterall. These could be better drawn - but its based on Magna, which is big eyes, pointy chins and noses, or round faces, and long limbs, tiny waists, big breasts. You think American Comic Book artists draw people alike...
It is a hard film to watch...because it's not a linear narrative and told mostly through metaphors and skips around a lot. I kept dozing off during it. And I've definitely seen better anime - this is not Spirited Away or for that matter Ghost in the Shell. Keep in mind, anime in Japan is blockbuster super-hero flicks in the US. They also view comics differently than we do, first of all, they don't see them as comics so much as graphic novels - they have them for literally every genre imaginable, ours are a wee bit more limited. You sort of have to keep all that in mind when watching Japanese Anime. It's not for kids, has a lot of nudity and sex scenes (not necessarily porn). (I define porn as well
art or film or writing that exists purely for the sake of masturbation or sexual titilliation - it has no real plot, no characters - outside of cliche or stereotypes, and lots of meaningless sex scenes. The characters, plot etc are there to have a sex scene. That's the whole point. Sort of like the Superman movie - except porn in question was fights scenes. Personally, I'd have preferred sex scenes...fight scenes are head-ache inducing. YMMV) This film is rather violent as well - with a lot of sword fights, but no clear deaths...or the deaths aren't permanent. There's only one or two sex scenes, and they occur either before or after violence.
Only recommend if you like surreal anime with weird Japaneses pop songs. Lyrics like "I feel the Middle Ages singing through me".
Also finished the latest Eloisa James Essex Sister novel, a series that I'm not liking all that much. The best so far is Pleasure for Pleasure. Kiss Me, Annabel suffers from the same subplot issues as Much Ado About You - we spend far too much time with the increasingly whiny and self-absorbed Imogene, who has got to be the most unlikable character that I've seen in a romance novel. I get what James is attempting with Imogene, but not quite sure it works. The character is a romantic fool. It's too traditional and doesn't take the fun risks that Pleasure for Pleasure did. Also the main romance is a tad trite and cliche...been there done that elsewhere and much much better. The Taming of the Shrew allusions don't quite work. The whole set-up is that the heroine is scared of being poor (an understandable fear - particularly during the Regency, when poor meant no showers, no baths, and very little food) and the hero thinks he wants to cure her of it...(he's oblivious to the problems since he always had a lot of money). It does not work. But they find their way back together. It's supposed to be funny...but I didn't find it all that amusing, Pleasure for Pleasure was funnier.
If you want to read an Essex Sisters novel via Eloisa James, I suggest skipping the series and just reading Pleasure for Pleasure.
Not sure what I'm reading next. There's so many to choose from. I have a tendency to accumulate books the way a dog accumulates bones.
Finished watching an odd Japanese anime film entitled Revolutionary Girl Utena The Movie. I'm guessing the television series makes more sense and is easier to follow.
This was a bit like watching abstract art.
I did figure out the plot - Utena, who is mourning the death of her childhood love Toga, comes to the Academy - a school of sorts. She meets the Rose Bride, who is trapped in a game of sorts because she's mourning the death of her brother, the Prince, who stabbed her through the heart and committed suicide after they committed incest. Toga died saving a young girl from drowning. Through a series of duels, Utena wins the Rose Bride and convinces her to leave this dream like world for the outside one - which is a world without roads, and looks like a bombed out wasteland, but where they will be naked and free to be who they are. Utena turns into a car which the Rose Bride drives going through various vehicular obstacles... until eventually...they are stripped of all clothes, all illusions, and ride what amounts to two-person scooter through the rocky hills of the desolated world outside the world of dreams. Kissing and loving one another, free of men, free of the need for princes or power.
Like I said, weird movie. Lots of psychological metaphors and sociological metaphors throughout. At one point...one of the female duelists vying for the Rose Bride, states "power is a male construct, but in order to have control over my life and not be their possession, I must play by their rules - so I seek power."
It's a fascinating film from the pov of Japanese Culture...which tends to be fairly rigid, and male-centric. Traditional gender roles. Also like most anime - it references Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Actually most Japanese science fiction, horror, and sci-fi/fantasy film and anime does. At least the ones I've seen do. As do the books. There's a definite fear of apocalypse, of destruction, and a sense of mourning regarding it - that you do not see in Western films - at least to this degree. The other interesting bit about Japanese anime is the nudity...only women are nude. And we only see their naked anatomy, it is always idealized - with curves, big breasts, and tiny waist. You rarely see the male anatomy in these films.
I wouldn't necessarily call it exploitative or gratuitous, but then nudity doesn't bother me. Possibly all those life drawing courses had an effect. It's just a body afterall. These could be better drawn - but its based on Magna, which is big eyes, pointy chins and noses, or round faces, and long limbs, tiny waists, big breasts. You think American Comic Book artists draw people alike...
It is a hard film to watch...because it's not a linear narrative and told mostly through metaphors and skips around a lot. I kept dozing off during it. And I've definitely seen better anime - this is not Spirited Away or for that matter Ghost in the Shell. Keep in mind, anime in Japan is blockbuster super-hero flicks in the US. They also view comics differently than we do, first of all, they don't see them as comics so much as graphic novels - they have them for literally every genre imaginable, ours are a wee bit more limited. You sort of have to keep all that in mind when watching Japanese Anime. It's not for kids, has a lot of nudity and sex scenes (not necessarily porn). (I define porn as well
art or film or writing that exists purely for the sake of masturbation or sexual titilliation - it has no real plot, no characters - outside of cliche or stereotypes, and lots of meaningless sex scenes. The characters, plot etc are there to have a sex scene. That's the whole point. Sort of like the Superman movie - except porn in question was fights scenes. Personally, I'd have preferred sex scenes...fight scenes are head-ache inducing. YMMV) This film is rather violent as well - with a lot of sword fights, but no clear deaths...or the deaths aren't permanent. There's only one or two sex scenes, and they occur either before or after violence.
Only recommend if you like surreal anime with weird Japaneses pop songs. Lyrics like "I feel the Middle Ages singing through me".
Also finished the latest Eloisa James Essex Sister novel, a series that I'm not liking all that much. The best so far is Pleasure for Pleasure. Kiss Me, Annabel suffers from the same subplot issues as Much Ado About You - we spend far too much time with the increasingly whiny and self-absorbed Imogene, who has got to be the most unlikable character that I've seen in a romance novel. I get what James is attempting with Imogene, but not quite sure it works. The character is a romantic fool. It's too traditional and doesn't take the fun risks that Pleasure for Pleasure did. Also the main romance is a tad trite and cliche...been there done that elsewhere and much much better. The Taming of the Shrew allusions don't quite work. The whole set-up is that the heroine is scared of being poor (an understandable fear - particularly during the Regency, when poor meant no showers, no baths, and very little food) and the hero thinks he wants to cure her of it...(he's oblivious to the problems since he always had a lot of money). It does not work. But they find their way back together. It's supposed to be funny...but I didn't find it all that amusing, Pleasure for Pleasure was funnier.
If you want to read an Essex Sisters novel via Eloisa James, I suggest skipping the series and just reading Pleasure for Pleasure.
Not sure what I'm reading next. There's so many to choose from. I have a tendency to accumulate books the way a dog accumulates bones.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-07-29 08:10 am (UTC)(Neon Genesis Evangelion *shudder*)
I think it always interesting to watch Anime and read manga, because while some cultural concepts about gender are still far more rigid than say in Europe, others are much less so.
I find it so interesting that the whole slash thing by women for women has to hide out on the internet here, though there clearly is a huge market. In Japan meanwhile slash manga are an institution ever since Zetsuai in the 80ties emerged from the fan scene.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-29 10:19 pm (UTC)Graphic novels/comic books are another thing altogether...keep in mind that in the US - comic books were traditionally geared towards boys and young men. Not women. Hence the hot babes with unnaturally big boobs, and the nerdy guy heroes. Who do you think the audience was???
Also the vast majority of writers and distributors were male. It's only really been within the last ten-fifteen years that women have been acknowledged as a major demographic for comics. And even so, most producers of comics still focus on men. That was one the problems with the Buffy comics - the producers of the comics saw it as being read mainly by a male audience -- oh they tried to feminize it a bit, but they still saw the main demo as being "male" and still fell into the stereotype of what "women want". It's an industry that unfortunately in the US is not exactly known for being feminist. That is changing and has changed a great deal with the internet ...