No Longer Human: Love is a But Memory for Now

It’s caught up with me. I tried to do too much taking on NaNoWriMo and it took all my will to write. Not the ideas part, I’ll always like that. But the work part.

I still have completed drafts, and I will publish those someday. But for now I need to give things a rest. I apologize not completing the shows this season, especially Aoi Bungaku.

Tsubasa Cat and Araragi Dog: Bakemonogatari 13

I can’t help but feel good about how Araragi reminisces about Senjougahara at the beginning of the episode. It tells me that their first date was indeed about something. Every step forward in his relationship with Senjougahara is initiated by her, and a lot of the good feelings I have come from these:

• Senjougahara apologizing to Araragi in Hitagi Crab 02 for her teasing and telling him her wish to be friends.
• “I love you.”
• Rescuing him from Suruga who had him by the entrails.
• “This is all I have.”

In every moment, Araragi is validated. His existence is justified. He is shown, through a discriminating perspective that is easy to respect: Senjougahara, to be a person of worth, and worthy of love. We thank her for this because it’s as if she is validating us, our own existence. Why do we feel this way?

It’s because I don’t feel that Bakemonogatari is being coy anymore. Araragi is not a viewer avatar for us to project ourselves into. He is us, and we don’t complain because we are fascinated by Senjougahara, who loves us. She loves us! We’re saved!

Senjougahara is an interesting carrot, and a beautiful one. But if there is a carrot, what of the stick?

Bee, Do, Have: Letter Bee 05

This episode I’ll focus on an operative dynamic in the narrative of Lag Seeing in his quest to become a Letter Bee. He seeks to become such a person, to wear the accouterments, to perform the functions, and then be happy and live his dream. Nothing wrong with this. It’s a process of earning, paying one’s dues, and so on.

After all, the identity is externally awarded. No one can become a Letter Bee just because one has the wish and the talent. There is standardized testing and certification, as usual for a civil service job. It is the work of this show to make this process, and the journey to fulfill it challenging and filled with conflict and excitement. However, the challenge that interested me in this episode is internal.

Aoi Bungaku 03: Who’s Afraid of this Monster?

Fear is all about relationships, in that fear can describe a relationship: Ikari Shinji is afraid of his father. Kyon and the SOS-dan are afraid of Haruhi. The third episode of Aoi Bungaku, of the ‘No Longer Human/Disqualified as Human’ arc is titled ‘Society.’ It is interesting for a number of reasons, to me it all goes back to our protagonist Youzo.

In the previous episode we are shown how he sees himself as a monster, and how his monstrosity is anchored in deceit. More than anything he is a liar, the kind that makes much of half- and quarter-truths to get by in life. This lie catches up to him. As an ‘artist’ it is the image he is most able to paint.

The visage of his ‘monstrous’ self-portrait hounds him relentlessly.

Discovered Deculture: My Fair Minmay ~ Dreaming Prelude

The good people at The Galaxy Network gives us a great gift: a Super Dimension Macross (TV) side story in scenario form — this means the draft never got produced as TV series episodes. This is a big deal! Why, this covers material of Minmay in the infancy of her stardom.

Minmay gets a bad rap for her immaturity as a teenager, exacerbated by the fact that she is the biggest star in a decimated race. I mean, there was literally no competition left. Also, in the form of the Zentraedi, anything she does is a guaranteed hit. This was an alien race that near literally (and ridiculously) had no culture.

Thus, the events and her behavior at the end of the TV series rather damned her, and made it easy for the fans of the show to sympathize with how the love triangle was resolved.