Content Note: Mature themes, sexuality, sexual assault, graphic descriptions of sexual acts, puberty, body horror, suicide.
One of the most useful things about Science Fiction is its capacity to enable humans to address difficult subject matter in an oblique, abstract way that is otherwise too painful to confront directly. Couched in a SF setting with aliens and intelligent robots, it allows for examination at a distance and hopefully yields greater clarity through the act of processing the dramatic tale being spun and interpretive analysis.
I recently watched the 4-episode OVA series Alien Nine (エイリアン9, Eirian Nain) on DVD. I was guided to this series after finishing Arcade Gamer Fubuki. This show was featured on that rental disc's "previews" feature.
Don't let the cutesy art style fool you....it pulls the same trick as Made in Abyss on that score. This show is dark and disturbing. It's a coming of age story and uses the Science Fiction genre to explore the anxiety of puberty and how its changes can leave a young person feeling like an alien in their own body. There are even allusions to gang rape and sexual assault, mediated through the SF plot devices that I'll address in more detail below. The main character is on the one hand, a stereotypical "crybaby" archetype...but on the other hand...this girl has BEEN THROUGH SOME SHIT....she's clinically depressed, traumatized, and clearly suffering PTSD.
The main story is set in a world where alien invasions have ostensibly become commonplace and it's kind of like another chore that these 6th grade girls have to deal with; class officers are elected to fill various roles and Alien Hunter is one of them--a student is chosen as the class representative to the "Alien Party"....and it's an almost literal bug hunt....the aliens don't seem to be above average animal intelligence....they're nuisance pests...and the girls are aided by ostensibly "friendly" aliens called The Borg that are symbiotes. Specifically the girls affix them to their heads and wear them like winged helmets, granting them extra defensive and offensive capabilities. The Borg seem to agree with the humans that controlling the alien invasions are an important endeavor...but all may be not as they seem!
The show has a lot of twists and turns, and the end of Ep.3 is just as shocking as Madoka Ep.3--I literally yelled "Holy shit!" out loud watching it.
What's challenging for novice viewers to grasp or even accept is that the entire narrative is basically one long extended metaphor....nearly everything is a stand-in for something else in the real world. It's not "really" about an alien invasion at all. It's about alienation and feeling confused and frightened of the changes going on in one's own body...the extreme discomfort of what we call the "tween" years.
I deeply sympathized with main character Yuri Otani (大谷 ゆり, Otani Yuri)…yes, she belongs to the “crybaby” archetype, technically, but when you see the constant trauma she’s subjected to, I can hardly blame her, and it just gets worse as she slides deeper into clinical depression. She made the impression on me that this is what Shinji Ikari of Neon Genesis Evangelion would be like if he was a girl.
She was essentially railroaded into joining the Alien Party….once instance where student democracy is probably not the best solution! It’s a real “f*ck your buddy” kind of vote and a form of bullying. The truly equitable solution for such an undesirable duty would be for everyone to draw lots and whoever got the short straw has to serve for a specific tour of duty (6 weeks maybe?) then rotate off and another drawing is held and previous person is exempt from the next selection (assuming the “winner” survives the tour). Formal democracy doesn’t always produce the most just result in all instances…the teachers should’ve intervened…but given what we see of how the adults behave, maybe it was they who either intentionally (and sadistically) or thoughtlessly (with blatant disregard for their well-being) imposed the voting “solution” on the class in the first place! Like in Evangelion, the adults seem untrustworthy and aren't being fully transparent with their students.
Yuri Otani (大谷 ゆり, Otani Yuri) also becomes the target time and again of boys in the class who get possessed by hostile aliens…they start off attacking her one by one…in separate and distinct encounters...and yet even when they are seemingly “freed” from their alien possession, they voluntarily submit to it again for the thrill of it…and decide collectively to gang up on Yuri. The Hunt Club advisor, Megumi Hisakawa (久川 めぐみ, Hisakawa Megumi), trying to toughen Yuri up, disastrously sends her out on solo missions and she’s ambushed by all 3 boys at once in what is probably one of the most uncomfortable scenes of violence in the whole show…the allusion to gang rape & sexual assault is palpably there…the drill-like appendages of the boys’ aliens are undeniably phallic and Yuri’s terror unavoidably takes on a sexual dimension....
Blogger Kathryn K Williams argues, I think convincingly, that Yuri is absolutely raped in this scene:
"...Now for some more details concerning Yuri's rape. The boys' symbol of adulthood pierces the girl's symbol of adulthood. That's not to mention the inside of the girl's borgu looking, to some, like a placenta, the orientation, motion, and nature of the drills from the boys' aliens, and the nightmares in which Yuri finds herself shivering in the middle of a pool nude and crying, not to mention the nature and focus of the flashbacks Yuri experiences. All these point to a sexual attack....therefore more a symbol of her being raped."
"Regardless of whether you feel the attack is sexual, one point remains. In one form or another, that scene is a very violent and strong depiction of violence of men towards women."
I also read the entire narrative as an allegory for all young women experiencing puberty with their peers and having to adjust to being newly leered at in a sexual way not only by male peers but also older men and how uncomfortable and, well, alienating it all feels. Indeed the whole alien headgear thing is allegory for how the body changes in puberty and how young teens will speak of feeling like an alien in their own body in that liminal space between childhood and young adulthood when you’re not fully either. It’s a brilliant piece of art but so very unsettling and disturbing.
I was pleased to see I reached the same conclusions as Kathryn, who, as a young woman, is speaking from direct personal experience:
"....When I first started to watch Alien 9 I didn't know what I was getting into. The opening made me think it was going to be another silly cute Anime about children chasing aliens, but before I even got ten minutes into the first part, I knew it was much more. I wasn't sure what until much later but felt drawn into the show like nothing else. My first clue was the reaction Ootani Yuri had towards the aliens. The graph/chart that showed the percentage of girls who like and dislike aliens and what they didn't like about them. Yuri states that she doesn't like to be 'looked at, touched, and especially not licked' by aliens. It wasn't until later that I realized that the 'Borgu' is a representation of adolescence or even puberty. The other girls laugh during an examination and talk about how when a girl becomes an Alien Controller they are known to grow faster then normal. To me, this says something about a girl's puberty and some of the things that one would hear in elementary school about girls that have already hit that age. The biggest clue that I was right about the aliens being connected to adulthood is the teachers themselves who have wires for hair..."
Nice to know even as a 50-something CIS white dude I'm savvy enough to reach a similar conclusion out of my viewing and analysis.
Kathryn had further insights, thought, that I admit, slipped past me on first viewing but which I am inclined to concede raise quite valid points.
"...The third girl is Toomine Kasumi, a tiny energetic girl who seems to be perfect at everything. She has awards lining the walls of her room and doesn't seem to be afraid of anything. In fact, she seems to loves everything she does and everyone around her. Her father is willing to let her do anything she wants but will not let her quit until she sees it through. There is one thing Kasumi loves more then anything else and that is her big brother. At first they only hint at this, but later it becomes more apparent that this love is more then just sibling love. Also, she seems to be a lot more adult in way then the other girls, something I'll go into more later...
[...]
...There were a lot of little signs that showed that Kasumi was a lot more "adult" then the other girls. She was eager to become an Alien Controller. She pushed Yuri and Kumi together. The way she told everyone she 'loved' her brother when people asked about him, her bathing suit. To most she just looked like another chipper Anime girl, but to me she seemed much more. While she is inside Yellow Knife, he tells her about how much he loves her and there is a scene where a yellowish white fluid of some kind drops onto her cheek and rolls into her mouth. She licks her lips and smiles, saying 'Yes, big brother.'....":
Kathryn is too reserved to say it directly but I will ... we're talking about incest and sexual abuse of a minor by an older sibling. At the very least the older brother induced Kasumi to perform fellatio on him that she did willingly (but children cannot give meaningful consent, of course)...but the disturbing vision that Yuri is given suggests their taboo relationship went further:
In Yuri's vision, she sees a Human-Sized version of Yellow Knife literally penetrate Kasumi's womb and she cries out not in pain but in orgasmic ecstasy. The largely inescapable conclusion is Kasumi had intense sexual (vaginal) intercourse with her older brother, probably multiple times...which made their emotional intimacy and attachments unbreakable. They were doubtless discovered by their parents and this is the main reason the older brother was sent to study abroad, to put a halt to this unspeakably taboo relationship once and for all....but it was emotionally devastating for Kasumi to lose her big brother (and romantic lover) like that and she's been inconsolable ever since. The parents weren't wrong in sending the older brother to study abroad...where they failed was not getting Kasumi therapy and just pretending it never happened and focusing on her academic successes instead. Because therapy would require admitting the truth and that's just too shameful for her family to admit to, that Kasumi's brother raped her repeatedly, taking advantage of her naivete and innocence and exploiting her devotion to him and deep seated need to be praised. But no matter the accolades and successes, the brother's departure from Japan left a deep hole in Kasumi's soul that she's never been able to fill with any substitute.
While none of this is stated outright, it is very much the implication of these scenes in the aggregate, remembering again these are all extended metaphors, stand-ins for real world things and events. It's the most reasonable explanation of what's "really" going on behind the events on screen.
As Kathryn further analyses:
"...People have asked me where Yellow Knife came from because he states that he didn't want to be there. So who wanted him there? Kasumi. Yellow Knife isn't actually evil; he is just there to protect Kasumi. It is just like the Borgu. This becomes evident when Yuri's Borgu gets in an argument with Yellow Knife about who Yuri belongs to..."
And because Kathryn watched the subtitled Japanese version, she picked up on some additional details that the English dub kind of glosses over. For example...
" [an] interesting side note: When she sees Kumi at the door, Yuri says "Kumi-ch... uh... Kawamura-san." Then she blushes deep red and Kumi stammers and can't look at the other girl in the eyes. This told me so much about how these two felt about each other...."
Kathryn also notes that after Yuri's rape, the girls are better able to experience emotional empathy for each other, to actually feel what the other girls are feeling. She notes: "Their shared pain brings the girls a lot closer to each other. Kumi and Yuri stopped referring to each other by their last names at this time and start accepting their feelings for each other. There is a beautiful moment between Yuri and Kumi as Kumi wraps her arms around the little girl and whispered in her ear that she and everyone will always be there for Yuri. She then squeezes the little girl tight. Another during the fireworks festival where Kumi is staring at Yuri who is playing with a sparkler. Yuri looks up and the two girls eyes catch for a moment. They both blush and look away. It looks as though, maybe, these girls have a chance at recovering from whatever it was that was tormenting their young hearts."
The final episode deals largely with the resolution of the Yellow Knife alien crisis....Kasumi Tōmine (遠峰 かすみ, Tōmine Kasumi) violent resistance to being "rescued" from Yellow Knife is understood more clearly once the intimacy of her relationship to her older brother is considered in context. The alien arrived because of Kasumi's deep need to "see her brother again"...he is a manifestation of the brother, a symbolic "stand in". They other girls and their advisor Megumi Hisakawa (久川 めぐみ, Hisakawa Megumi) do manage to prevail at last.
I find Kathryn's summation very insightful and so will quote her at length, with supporting images:
"Back to Yellow Knife for a moment. Each of the Borgu are in a sense a part of the girls. Yuri and Kumi's both are there to help the girls out when they are needed. Yuri's tries to encourage her to be stronger and Kumi's tries to teach her that she isn't alone. So what about Kasumi's Borgu? It agrees with everything she does unconditionally, never disagrees, and even refers to her as Kasumi-ojosama (Princess Kasumi). She needed something that would understand her and protect her instead of something that would follow her ever beck and call. This is where Yellow Knife came in. Kasumi needed Yellow Knife and he appeared. He tried to be the one thing she needed more then anything in the world. Something that loved her as much as she loved him. Yellow Knife filled the gap that was left when her brother was taken away from her. When Yellow Knife frees her the two become one (as shown with Kasumi's hair trick)."
(Sidebar, Kasumi emerges from Yellow Knife and this is what we see.....these are very phallic structures visually...and actually literally as well, as they are part of a flower's pollen producing anther, i.e. part of its male reproductive system! Kasumi standing in what initially looks like a forest of penises...)
Kathyrn continues:
"...That evening Kumi calls her mother and tries to tell her about everything, but instead all she can say is that everything is perfectly fine and bursts into tears. Everything is fine; Kasumi is alive (or is she?). Yuri is a bit stronger. Kumi finally can let out her emotions, and her Borgu is recovering in the nurse's room. The sun rises on what looks like another normal day, but Kumi can't stop thinking. She roller blades up and down the library halls, moving faster and faster. Suddenly, her Borgu gets up and struggles to pull itself out the door; Kasumi is looking out a window when she suddenly turns around and starts running. Both find Kumi's body lying on the ground, dead. Yuri is the last to feel Kumi's pain as she bursts into tears and the credits start to roll...."
I admit I myself wasn't sure WTF had happened the first time through....I even thought briefly that Kasumi had killed Kumi out of revenge, but upon re-watching that is not a justified reading. Kasumi is merely the first to discover Kumi's body:
Kathyrn continues:
"...I've had many people ask me 'What happened?'. Well, Kumi committed suicide. It is hard to believe, but that is what happened. 'Why?' is the next question. Simple really, she gave herself one last reason to live, to save her friend (Yuri). She could not accept the fact that she wasn't truly alone in the world, so with her friends safe, she decided there was no reason left to live. (But but but...) This is the one thing I liked about the series. The girls didn't suddenly pull back together. They were real. It is not easy to just pull yourself back together after falling apart. I cried for days after watching the ending. I was shocked at first, but then I remembered how I was at that age. I tried killing myself in almost the same manner, but with a bicycle and not roller blades."
(Sidebar: Kumi built up enough speed, wheeled around to continue speeding backwards on the in-line skates, ramming head-first into the book shelf with enough force to induce massive blunt force trauma to her own head.)
Kathryn continues with her own relational anecdote:
"...Guess I was lucky because someone found me before I died. Or maybe Kumi was the lucky one because she was finally freed of her pains. The saddest thing for me was I really felt that Kumi and Yuri were finally accepting their feelings for each other. Although I'm not much for happy endings, I was truly hoping that those two would end up together. All of the characters in the series were so real even though the story was wrapped up in a surreal world. For me, it made a lot of sense. It took a moment (a week is a moment for me at times) but instead of getting mad at the film I felt it was beautiful. The emotions showed in Yuri were those of a child struggling and didn't seem false. Kumi's death didn't feel forced or that they were trying to go for shock value but more of a fact of life. It is a sad fact that many children suffer as these girls did, and when they die people are left lost and confused. They aren't sure what happened, or why. The fact that they didn't go out of their way to explain her death is the way it should be. Explaining things away is just a way for people to dismiss what is important: Kumi's pain."
(By the final look on Kumi's face, the tears that welled up and fell down her face as she lay dying....her death was not immediate and it was probably quite physically painful, on top of her emotional anguish that drove her to this final act.)
Because of their enhanced empathetic connection, even though they're not in the same room inside the school, Yuri can feel Kumi's pain and death...and cries uncontrollably just before the final credits roll because she knows in her heart that her friend is dead...
Oooof. This show is ROUGH, man. It's a beautiful piece of art that's got so much more inside it than the surface would lead you to believe. Like FLCL, it's an extended Sci-Fi driven metaphor about the experience of puberty. But it has the weight and seriousness equal to a Neon Genesis Evangelion. FLCL is at bottom a joyful romp, while Alien Nine is anything but.