Monday 15 August 2005

Pic of the day: Yamoto and Suzuka. (Girl is to the right.) Yamoto thinks: "I'd be happy to stay like this forever." But unlike me, the idiot almost immediately afterwards imagines that being just friends is not enough after all, and chaos ensues.

Suzuka anime impressions

I guess it is quite a bit early to write a review of this TV series, as I have only watched 7 episodes and it seems likely to go on to 24 or 26. But it has made some impact on me already, so I think it is fair to write a little about it now. Some spoilers cannot be avoided, I'm afraid.

Suzuka is the name of the series, and also of the female main character. The main viewpoint character is Yamoto, a young boy who comes to Tokyo to attend a high school that is renowned mainly for its sports teams. He did well in sports by the standard of the rural junior high school outside Hiroshima, but is not prepared for the higher level of competition here. More to the point, upon arriving he notices a girl jumping, and is impressed. The admiration quickly turns to love (of the fall-in type) as he gets to know her better. Which he can hardly avoid, since it turns out she is also his next-door neighbor in the apartment complex where he is living, and which is owned by his aunt. Any further similarity to Love Hina ends sometime during the first episode, I am happy to say.

***

This anime is strange in one way. It is not a typical boy anime, and not a typical girl anime. I would say it is closer to girl, but with an interesting twist in that the main character is a boy. Let me explain further: In anime for boys, if romance is the topic at all, it is often dealt with in the form of "harem". The boy is typically clueless and indecisive, but through some unusual circumstance a number of very different girls like him or live with him or some such. Basically the harem anime fulfills the wish of getting into a family-like situation without having to figure out how, but at the same time it puts on the boy the responsibility to choose which of the girls he really wants. In some such anime, usually based on computer games, each episode is dedicated to one of the girls so you learn to know her better. In other cases, where the anime is based on manga (comic books), it is typically a series of humorous (and borderline indecent) situations, with misunderstandings and complications. The classic in the genre is probably considered to be Love Hina, about a male student who inherits a privately owned all-girl dormitory. The girls are not amused, at first.

Anime for girls, on the other hand, does not have a harem one way or the other. Typically there is almost from the start one heroine and The One, the fated boy. However, various circumstances beyond their control keeps them apart. Often they dislike each other from the outset, being rivals or getting the wrong impression, but over time their feelings change. At this point, other complications step in, like a dark and tragic past or authority figures who oppose their relationship. This can go on for quite a long time. A well-known example is Kare Kano, also known as His and Her circumstances.

In Suzuka, it is clear from the outset that there is only one girl for Yamoto, but she does not feel quite the same for him. Her feelings are mixed: She is very focused on her sports career, while he comes across as relaxed, casual and downright indecisive. He has talent, but seems to lack the strength of character she has. (He actually is indecisive regarding sports and many other things, but not when it comes to love. With her, it is the other way around.) Also, he looks a lot like someone from her past... someone special, although we don't know who.

Yamoto also meets a childhood acquaintance, a girl who is a shrine maiden nearby and attends the same school. (Shrine maidens work at shrines or temples where they perform certain religious duties. It is not so much a job as a lifestyle, and often runs in families. They are sometimes assumed to have certain magical powers, but there is no sign of that here. This anime is blessedly free from magic, robots and catgirls.) The girl likes him and quickly develops a crush on him. I'm not quite sure if this is what they call a love triangle, but it is definitely an angle. Also, as a rather perfunctory nod to harem anime, there are two college girls who habitually show up at his place in order to drink their sake there. They don't really make any moves on him, just get drunk, babble and fall asleep in his apartment. I suppose these are meant to stimulate the fantasy of the male watcher. Or perhaps that's just me. Nah, probably not.

Suzuka gradually warms to her neighbor. It helps that she usually eats with his aunt and younger cousin, and so familiarity gradually breeds comfort. They go out shopping together, and even spends a day at an amusement park. As far as she is concerned, they are just friends, at least for now. His feelings run a bit faster than hers, though. OK, quite a bit. And then in episode 6 something happens that is very unusual in this kind of anime. It certainly shocked many of the forumites.

Spoiler (read backwards to unspoil):
Seirc dna emoh seog Otomay. Yrros syas neht, gnikoj si eh fi sksa ehs. "Mih htiw tuo og" ot reh sksa dna reh (sevol) "sekil" eh reh sllet Otomay, tou yad taerg a fo dne eht ta.
/spoiler

You sure don't see that often, especially so early in a series!

***

I love the opening song for this anime, "Start line". It is one of those songs that almost immediately inspires me to write. I am already plotting my next NaNoWriMo novel, even though November is so far off. More about that later, I hope. This music helps.

On the other hand, the anime strongly reminds me that I don't know how women think. Not just WHAT they think, but HOW. It is as mysterious as if their thoughts come up out of the ground, while ours fly under the skies like birds for all to see. I don't understand that in real life either. I guess this is pretty obvious at times. This is kinda depressing. I like to understand things, and to have such a large realm lost in the fog is a profound loss. Then again, I may never be able to grasp how they think as long as I insist on understanding everything. Oh well.

This is one of the very few realistic anime I have seen, actually. Not so much in the drawing style, which is still typical anime (large eyes, small mouths and barely any nose at all). It is the lack of anything supernatural, futuristic or just plain weird. All these people are disturbingly believable. It could be someone you knew. I get some of the same feeling as when watching Boys Be..., which was also like that. But it was easier to understand the people there. Even the girls. These ones are just as weird as in the real world. You get to know some of them really well, while others are more obscure and keep their own counsel. Intriguing.

I definitely intend to keep watching this one as long as I can, despite the sobering impact on my mind. It was a bit intense to catch up, but I think I can handle once a week. Besides, watching all the track & field activity motivates me to put on my own jogging shoes. Even though I don't have a girl to impress. Or perhaps BECAUSE I finally don't have any girl to impress. Who knows why men do the things we do? ^^