Misunderstood

Humans are social creatures. Those who are watching Shigofumi get a good examples of this in the school bully episode. But what’s just as important to the courage to confess or the strength to overcome rejection…is the ability to say what you want to say.

It’s saying what you want to say. One of the fundamental problem with Rahxephon is how it doesn’t do a great job saying what it wants to say. I think that particular problem is a result of lacking the talent necessary to do the job; but that’s not what I really want to talk about. It’s a good example how you can have a fairly polished thing but have it botch the more substantive aspect of a good TV series.

The flip side is also true. Sometimes it’s a pain to get your viewer to understand something because they’re stuck somewhere else. Simoun is a good example. Even some of the most prudent and wisest viewers will have trouble seeing through the lesbian fanservice and strangely Korean style of animation.

Still, when there’s something interesting to say, people run the gauntlet of misunderstanding and potential disappointment because it’s worth saying whatever it is. Some do it with a little bit of help, like Shigofumi riding on Jigoku Shoujo’s coattails. Tatsuo Sato is a trickster like that sometimes, and he does this with some regularity.

Speaking in the same language is one way to reduce misunderstanding; but at the same time speaking in the right language, too, can do the same. It’s like how ef a tale of memories played off like a teroge harem but it’s actually a Shinkai-ish, artisan orgy. Soul Taker gave life to Komugi but did anyone else cared about that piece of artwork?

But even so there’s something to say about the sort of misunderstanding of watching Ookiku Furikabutte and being mistaken for a BL fan. Not that has happened (or should, IMO). I mean, I guess I can do the same and insult people who likes Touch. But not Prince of Tennis. Or Ippo.

Anyways, in good, earnest fun, I thought Shigofumi so far is doing a decent job telling both sides of the story. It’s what anime has always been keen to do. Go go ambiguous villainy! Maybe that is why people are quick to mark the “anime” thing as gore and porn in the west, because the rest of it is speaking in a foreign language. Its fans are naturally good at handling being misunderstood, am I right?


8 Responses to “Misunderstood”

  • digitalboy

    : O see, I knew it, I have a high tendency to bring up things that end up in your posts, lol. I tend to be a fan of many misunderstood anime – probably because I am a very frequently misunderstood person – one who is trying to deliver a message to the people around me, but delivering it in a way that people misinterpret *sigh*

  • Hinano

    It’s kinda how I now associated Katekyo Hitman Reborn to be one big homo orgy. I dropped the manga and I’m having trouble getting back into it because I forsee buttsecks in the near future chapters x(

  • Jeff Lawson

    Wait, Tatsuo Sato is directing Shigofumi? How’d I miss that? I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about the show as is, but now I feel especially compelled to check it out.

  • TheBigN

    Death is equivocal and how people relate to it is as well, and I like how Shigofumi focuses on these things, even if it doesn’t work with a lot of watchers.

    Does the fact that some episodes have been edited work for it?

  • omo

    >> It’s kinda how I now associated Katekyo Hitman Reborn to be one big homo orgy.

    Well, it just means you’re closer in attitude to the Japanese crowd. Much like some of the CCS pedofreaks I know…

    Lawson: yes. It’s Sato and the same core team doing Shigofumi. I have to say while there’s a lot of promise, there’s also some kind of incongruence in terms of the format that I’m used to coming from him.

  • BluWacky

    Aaaaand to resurrect from the past…

    I know you didn’t want to talk about it, but what do you think RahXephon is trying to say that it fails to? I don’t understand how your comment about Simoun follows on from the previous paragraph – I get that Simoun is superficially yuri Last Exile but underneath is more of a war story or whatever (didn’t make it past episode 4…) and it’s difficult for people to understand that because of first impressions, but how does that apply in reverse to Rah? Viewers get the message in spite of how it’s presented?

  • omo

    Rah is a simple story; there’s a lot of convoluted symbolism being tossed around but it’s kind of mystical as to how people get at the end how things were, but at least I didn’t quite understood what was the story trying to say before it got to the end, and went back and tried to understand what it was about, looking backward.

    In other words, the story was told in a butt-backward manner when it comes to character motivation and stuff like that.

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