Gen X Otaku 1971: the OG blog

Finished Ghost Slayers Ayashi (some spoilers)

I finally finished Ghost Slayers Ayashi (天保異聞 妖奇士 Tenpō Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi^?) a few days ago, partly via Netflix, and partly via Interlibrary Loan, because just like with Code Geass, Netflix's holdings are incomplete with this series.  I mainly watched the English dub for the first-class voice talents involved, including Steven Jay Blum as Ryūdō Yukiatsu (竜導 往壓^?) and also Crispin Freeman as heretical, cross-dressing priest Edo Genbatsu (江戸 元閥^?).  The basic plot, well summarized by Wikipedia, is that in 1843, the fourteenth year of the Tenpō Era, ten years before the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry and the Black Ships, Edo is under attack by beasts from the underworld, known as Yōi (妖夷^?). Members of the Bansha Aratamesho, called the Ayashi (奇士^?), are assembled to repel the emergence of these yoi.  So we have here a basic historic epic fantasy story, and while there is an overall story arc leading to a conclusion of sorts, the story often becomes essentially a "monster of the week" kind of "dungeon crawl".

The most intriguing character is the mysterious foreign girl, a young Aztec girl from what is now Texas, but which used to be Northern Mexico, Nueva Espana, the beautiful, green eyed Atl (アトル Atoru^?).  Sometimes she dresses in her native garb, with her hair down, while other times she dresses incognito as a geisha.  She is somehow linked with the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl (Classical Nahuatl: Quetzalcohuātl [ketsaɬˈko.aːtɬ]); when she prayed to the Aztec god Quetzacoatl, she summoned a Yoi in the form of a horse that could also become a dragon; for a time she works in a circus alongside this friendly, massive horse Yoi, which in Japan Atl gives the name of Yukiwa (雪輪^?).

Rounding out the cast of heros is the deeply conflicted female samurai Saizō (宰蔵^?)...formerly the daughter of a theater owner and an aspiring actress, but the social customs of Japan at this time did not allow women to perform on stage in theaters.  After the tragic death of her father when the family theater burned under mysterious circumstances, she chose to begin dressing as a man and passing herself off as a samurai, in service to one Ogasawara Hōzaburō (小笠原 放三郎^?), the 20-year-old leader of the Ayashi of the Bansha Aratamesho. He is also a scholar in rangaku (蘭学^?, lit. Western studies). He often finds himself torn between his Ayashi work and the government's political schemes.

This story deals very deeply with Japanese culture and the curiosities of Japanese language in particular, so I can understand some fans preferring to watch this show in the original Japanese.  It's certainly the kind of historic epic I would consider watching in Japanese with subtitles myself, but again, the outstanding powerhouse English cast kept me with the dub this time.

Some recurring themes of Ghost Slayers Ayashi is the continual presence of an etherial realm known only as "The Other World".  Perhaps the afterlife, perhaps the realm of the gods and spirits...it has a very powerful allure; it is a place beyond time and space, where suffering is unknown.  But it is not life as we know it, either.

Ryūdō Yukiatsu (竜導 往壓^?) is the only human being known to have gone to the Other World and somehow made it back alive to our world.   He comes back imbued with the strange power known as Ayagami, which allows him to pull out a creature's "true form", based upon the Japanese characters in its name and their etymological origins...this can either be transformed into a weapon or reveal the creature's hidden weaknesses so it can be defeated.

The Yoi are described variously as deceptive creatures that lead humans astray, to being like empty suits of armor that can be piloted/controlled by the Gods or their descendants.  The gods are said to have once roamed all over Japan but now seem to have mostly retreated from the world of humanity, and now only the Yoi remain; Yoi seem to be summoned forth by human desires and human lies, dreams, hopes and fantasies...mostly crafted by humans seeking some form of escape from the grim, harsh, brutal reality of mid-19th century Japanese life...these lies, deceptions and fantasies become physically manifest in the form of Yoi.

Ghost Slayers Ayashi often seems to pose the question...is this frail human existence we lead, with all its pain and suffering, actually worth living?  Atl and Yukiatsu's longing for the Other World can be interpreted as a kind of Thanatos or "death wish".  In a pivotal moment, Atl escapes to the other world and Yukiatsu goes in to retrieve her...he confesses that it is not she who needs him, it is he who desperately needs her to find the will to go on living despite life's pain and suffering.  Hearing this, Atl smiles and says that's reason enough for her and returns to the realm of the living with Yukiatsu.

The final episode of Ghost Slayers Ayashi is a little hard to wrap my head around, since basically it loops back around to the beginning, with Atl going in to the Other World to retreive Yukiatsu; we find out that this in fact is how he was able to escape the Other World in his youth, as we see Atl meeting the much younger Yukiatsu in the Other World and leading him out; It was Atl's intervention in the future that enabled the younger Yukitasu to escape the Other World and to begin the story as it has unfolded througout the series.  The series essentially folds back in upon itself like a weird Möbius strip.

The series did not get good ratings in Japan and was thus ended here instead of extended to the originally planned 52 episodes.  The pace of the show is at times plodding and slow, the plot advancing at a snail's pace in many volumes.  It is a fun show, but it feels like a bit of a let down at the end.  Lots of threads are left unresolved.

The show gives you a lot of insight into Japanese history and culture, and gives you likeable, eccentric characters that you care about...many of the episodes seem utterly interchangable with any other episode in the series...while an over-arching story arc does normally exist, the series does take a long time in arriving there. 

Some of the themes of Ghost Slayers Ayashi also remind me of the more recent series Claymore with its Youma and their opponents, the Sisters of the Sword, a.k.a. Claymores, who are half-Youma themselves...in like manner, Yukiatsu runs a constant risk of being overcome and turning into a full Yoi himself, by tapping into the same source of spiritual power.  Yukiatsu is able to temporarily merge with Yukiwa to form a terrifying kind of "Man-Dragon" able to take down the more gigantic Yoi faced by our heroes.  It is using the enemy's power against them.

All in all, this series is very watchable, and can provide a resonable level of entertainment.  The English cast is excellent, but viewers may want to watch it in Japanese because of the historical setting as a samurai/fantasy epic, and the etymological nature of Yukiatsu's Ayagami power.

 

Finished Code Geass : SPOILERS FOLLOW

So last night I finished Part IV, Disc 2 of Code Geass: R2, Lelouch of the Rebellion, the final "turn" of this long running series.  The main plot device of the series is a mystical power posessed by a select few known only as "Geass".  Though the Japanese original, and the English dub both pronounce this as "gee-aas", the proper pronunciation is actually something more like "Gesh".  The concept is borrowed from Celtic mythology...spelled geis in Irish or geas in Scots-Gaelic, and meaning roughly "taboo" or "prohibition".  It is a staple of Celtic myth, a certain code of conduct a hero must uphold, certain things he must never do, regardless of circumstance.  It basically makes a convenient set up for tragedy.

Code Geass the anime series takes a lot of artistic license with this concept, by imbuing the main character, Lelouch vi Britannia (a.k.a. Lelouch Lamperouge) with the ability lay a geas upon one target by making eye contact with them.  In this fictional universe, Lelouch is able to force the target to unquestioningly obey a single command he gives.  Lelouch can only lay a single geas upon a single indivudial once.  After he's used it on someone, he can't use another one on the same individual ever again.  It also has a limited range.  Even still, it is a truly terrifying power.

Lelouch acquires this power from a mysterious, beautiful and evidently immortal, timeless witch named "C2" in the English dub.  In the original Japanese she is known as "C.C.", which they regard as highly unusual.  It had to be changed to "C2" in English because "C.C." in English is not an unusual name, it's short for Cecilia.   C2 makes a divine contract with Lelouch, which he swears to uphold.

There are other "Geass users" in this fictional universe, whose "Geass power" functions very differently, though no less ominously, than Lelouch's power.  Lelouch is a disgraced and exiled member of the Royal Family of the Holy Britannian Empire.  We are introduced to one other Geass user in the first season, and yet more come out of the woodwork in rapid succession in R2, as the second season is identified.  There is even a "Geass cancellation" power introduced, with tragic consequences for the character Shirley, one of Lelouch's love interests.

This series has a significant body count of tragic deaths...the death of saccharine-sweet Princess Euphemia is utterly horrific and sad.  Shirley's death made me cry as well.  Shirley loved Lelouch, even with her geass removed and knowing full well he was responsible for her father's death...she still loved him despite even that.  Really, the level of death and tragedy reaches truly Shakespearian levels in this anime series.

I may be of an miniority opinion here, but the most interesting characters to watch, I think, are the moral transformations of the some of the Britannian nobles, who go from being uniformly arrogant, insufferable pricks to characters with real moral depth, who come to learn suffering and compassion for others.  I was so very happy that Viletta chose to stick it out with Oghi, even with her memories fully restored.  By the end, I find it hard to hate Cornelia, either...she endures a lot of redemptive suffering throughout this series.

I'm also happy that C2 fell in love with Lelouch.  I feel most horribly for Nunally, who loses nearly everything dear to her...she does inherit a more peaceful, gentle world in the end, but at such a terrible personal cost.

By my final count, Lelouch gets to kiss 1) C2 (twice), 2) Shirley and 3) Kallen.  Quite the ladies man, no?

In one of the DVD extras, there's an interview with Johnny Yong Bosch, who voices Lelouch, and identifies him as an "evil" character, but I don't think this is quite right.  I have a hard time attaching the label "evil" to Lelouch.  Ruthless, yes.  Lelouch is definitely ruthless.  But he's also daring to face down a gigantic, tyrranical global empire.  Emperor Charles truly IS evil, and Lelouch opposes him.  Empries are brutal, evil, ugly things, so anyone that challenges imperial power has to at least have some moral impuse and kudos in their favor, whatever their personal flaws, vanities, etc.  Lelouch is vain, arrogant, manipulative, wickedly smart...but he's also charismatic and driven by a sense of moral outrage and a desire for justice and is ultimately very life-affirming.

A lot of anime fans, understandably, want to compare this series with another very popular series known as Death Note; they specifically want to compare Lelouch to Death Note's main character, Light Yagami.  The comparision seems inevitable.  I must say at the outset, I think that Death Note wins hands down overall as the better written show.  Whereas the plot twists and turns of Death Note are exciting and keep  you on the edge of your seat, wondering if the writers are going to paint themselves into a corner...and the amazing thing is, they never do.  Death Note never feels like it's trying too hard or implausible in any way.  The writing is simply that good.

The same can't be said for the Code Geass franchise....its sudden plot twists, reversals, etc, seem much more ham-fisted and clumsy than Death Note's, which are handled with such utter grace and finesse.  Code Geass too often relies on credibility-straining deus ex machina to pull the plot out of the ditch, over and over.  The cleverest thing about the Code Geass franchise are the long-term, unforseen consequences of the geasa, especially those laid by Lelouch.

Death Note's main character Light Yagami can be summed up in three words, "evil fucking genius".  I have no difficulty identifying Light Yagami as "evil".  If anything, he is even more ruthless, even more self-serving than Lelouch.  As I recall, Light has no self-critical thought in his head, never once questions himself or suffers any doubt of the rectitude of what he is doing.  His utter certainty of being absolutely correct is what makes him radically different from the deeply conflicted Lelouch vi Britannia.  Light Yagami is the perfect demonstration of the fact that most evil people believe deep down they are doing good, in some twisted way.

Lelouch's final act of self-sacrifice for the good of all is something Light Yagami would never be capable of in a million years.

I was reasonably satisfied with the ending of this show.  While some of the sudden reversals, people coming back from what seemed like certain death, etc, does strain credibility at times, the series is reasonably entertaining throughout, and these are a cast of characters we come to care deeply about, which is important in any anime series.  It is far more bombastic and over-the-top than Death Note but remains a sufficiently entertaining anime franchise in its own way.