As I decided when I began this blog, I'd try to write about more than simply anime and manga. That being the case, I now have a new film that I just came back from seeing not too long ago. One of the stops on the very limited run of the film Linda Linda Linda is the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Sq. On a whim I learned about the screening, but very quickly did my homework by reading the synopsis on the Brattle's homepage, as well as the English site for the film. Within a matter of moments I resigned myself to taking a trip down the Red Line to go see it. I was not disappointed at all.
Linda Linda Linda opens up with a shot of a random Japanese school girl filming a small documentary about the high school festival. She declares that these students will never grow up, and they will never forget themselves at this time. It's an opening that puts the rest of the film into perspective. For those of us who have lived through high school and moved past it, we already know how easily so much of it is left behind us, we want to tell the girl the harsh truth, but at the same time, know that we will either not believed, or will only crush spirits.
The film follows four high school girls who want to play a few songs in the rock festival portion of their high school's annual festival. With the loss of two members, Kyoko, Kei, and Nozomi are forced to re-organize their plans for performance and end up asking a Korean exchange student, Son, to join them as their vocalist. Hilarity ensues as the four attempt to learn to perform three songs by the group, The Blue Hearts, a group sometimes referred to as "the Japanese Ramones". (One of the best tongue-in-cheek moments of the film is a quick shot of the Ramones themselves.) Among the songs chosen is the song "Linda Linda" from which the film gets its name. Take it from me, it's a song that gets stuck in your head very easily, but you're quite glad it's there.
Some of the most amusing moments come from Son's interaction with people as she struggles to communicate. As a person who's spent time in Japan with little Japanese language ability, these scenes are particularly amusing. Son's dealing with one boy, Macky, as he struggles to profess love for her in Korean as she tries to politely decline in Japanese is one of best scenes of the film. The awkwardness of the spontaneous and somewhat inappropriate situation is made even more comical by the language barriers.
For only three days of plot, the story of Linda Linda Linda unfolds incredibly well. The pace is neither rushed, not stagnant. In some way, the declaration that these students will never grow up is true. The life ahead of them barely matters (if at all) , what is important is the right-now and the festival.
I cannot help but amused to some extent by this film in a different way. The 12th episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya heavily parodies, the plot from Linda Linda Linda. Seeing the source now, I have a greater appreciation for both. I need to sit down and re-watch the episode now.
For those of you in the Boston area, do yourself a favor. If you can fit it into your schedule; sometime between now and its last show at the Brattle on Jan. 18th, go see Linda Linda Linda and give yourself a good laugh.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Saturday, January 6, 2007
Saikano
In my anime fandom, I try and avoid the absolute of labeling a title as one that everyone should see. (The one exception to this rule is probably Grave of the Fireflies, which posses the most uncanny type of story in that it grabs people in a way that no other movie/series I've seen prior or since can even remotely attempt to emulate.) While I work to avoid the absolute, I do have a list that I will highly recommend to others that have caught me in a very strong way. Yet it's sometimes tough to see a title that one so strongly enjoyed, get a less than impressed reaction from someone else. There is perhaps no better example of this in my experience of watching anime over the years than Saikano.
Having known of the existence of the anime since the summer of 2003, I hadn't watched a single episode, or read a single page of the manga until a spring 2006, when I finally borrowed the anime from someone. Very quickly I found out why so many people used Saikano as their trump card for sad titles. Yet the sadness never became a chore, the lives of Chise and Shuji, as well as the others that fill in the events of Saikano's story draw us closer. We want to know what happens next, we want to know how things will turn out. And even as the world is ending, we want to think of some last glimmer of hope to shine through.
Yet even if it is not glorious, radiant hope shining down, but pure unadulterated despair that comes through, Takahashi Shin makes a story that grabs us. Without trying to spoil too much, the final scene with Akemi is one of the most bittersweet I've ever seen in an anime title. It's still funny to think that something this potent started off as a dating sim.
After finishing the Saikano anime, I found myself seeking out the first volume of manga as soon as I had the cash to spare. Come Anime Boston 2006 in May, I was grabbing three volumes to keep going. The following weekend I was rushing to the mall to grab the final volumes. I consider myself relatively well exposed to a lot of different anime and manga titles, but I still remember reading Akemi's final scene in the manga, and for the first time I can remember, I had to stop reading a volume of manga, sit back, and simply say "whoa".
It is practically a cliché to declare "Oh, the manga was so much better than the anime" yet Saikano falls into this category well. Perhaps what makes things so well is Takahashi's knowledge of how to use text. There are pages vacant of any words, leaving us with nothing but a landscape or an intimate scene to take in, as well as pages that are covered with almost nothing but conversation and narration. Takahashi balances these two extremes so well, and each has its proper moment.
Saikano's tag line is "The Last Love Song on This Little Planet". Its fantastic plot make take the audience or reader away from a normal realm by adding an unusual Sci-fi element, and its core, the story is a love story about two people, barely out of their childhood, finding and understanding what true love is, even as the world around them is slowly falling to pieces.
As I said when I began this entry that I cannot say Saikano is something that everyone should read or watch. That being said, it does get my highest suggestion. The manga gets top billing, followed by the anime. (But shy away from the live action movie)
Having known of the existence of the anime since the summer of 2003, I hadn't watched a single episode, or read a single page of the manga until a spring 2006, when I finally borrowed the anime from someone. Very quickly I found out why so many people used Saikano as their trump card for sad titles. Yet the sadness never became a chore, the lives of Chise and Shuji, as well as the others that fill in the events of Saikano's story draw us closer. We want to know what happens next, we want to know how things will turn out. And even as the world is ending, we want to think of some last glimmer of hope to shine through.
Yet even if it is not glorious, radiant hope shining down, but pure unadulterated despair that comes through, Takahashi Shin makes a story that grabs us. Without trying to spoil too much, the final scene with Akemi is one of the most bittersweet I've ever seen in an anime title. It's still funny to think that something this potent started off as a dating sim.
After finishing the Saikano anime, I found myself seeking out the first volume of manga as soon as I had the cash to spare. Come Anime Boston 2006 in May, I was grabbing three volumes to keep going. The following weekend I was rushing to the mall to grab the final volumes. I consider myself relatively well exposed to a lot of different anime and manga titles, but I still remember reading Akemi's final scene in the manga, and for the first time I can remember, I had to stop reading a volume of manga, sit back, and simply say "whoa".
It is practically a cliché to declare "Oh, the manga was so much better than the anime" yet Saikano falls into this category well. Perhaps what makes things so well is Takahashi's knowledge of how to use text. There are pages vacant of any words, leaving us with nothing but a landscape or an intimate scene to take in, as well as pages that are covered with almost nothing but conversation and narration. Takahashi balances these two extremes so well, and each has its proper moment.
Saikano's tag line is "The Last Love Song on This Little Planet". Its fantastic plot make take the audience or reader away from a normal realm by adding an unusual Sci-fi element, and its core, the story is a love story about two people, barely out of their childhood, finding and understanding what true love is, even as the world around them is slowly falling to pieces.
As I said when I began this entry that I cannot say Saikano is something that everyone should read or watch. That being said, it does get my highest suggestion. The manga gets top billing, followed by the anime. (But shy away from the live action movie)
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