Lisa on Visual Culture

Yoshitoshe ABe

Yoshitoshi ABe is an artist and character designer who was deeply involved with the creation of four anime which mean a great deal to me: serial experments lain, Haibane Renmei, Texhnolyze and NieA_7. Rather than write about these in separate essays, I will do so here. I buy as many of ABe's art books as I can find, and I am slowly buying all the issues of Robot, which also contain his work. I have a wallpaper on one of my Mac monitors that shows Mayu, Lain and Rakka, and I've done homage myself to Lain, Ran and Reki. (Top right is one of my characters trying to look like Lain. Next are my poor sketches of Reki and Ran.) These anime, even NieA_7, which is on the surface a comedy, explore themes of alienation, otherness, mental illness, loss and suicide. Because these all are themes that run throughout my entire life, it is no surprise that I find much to think about in these works. Haibane Renmei and serial experments lain are on my (very) short list of most favorite anime.

These are not objective reviews. I'm talking about me and these works of art. Your footsteps may vary; I hope so. The works are listed in the order they were produced, and in which I first watched them.

serial experiments lain

No other animated work or movie has spoken to me in quite the way lain has, because of my personal issues and my lifelong involvement with computers. Watching lain for the first time was an emotional roller coaster like I do not believe. Alien Nine and lain were the first totally serious anime I ever saw. They changed my idea of what can be done in the medium, and began to open my eyes to the fact that in the USA we see a very tiny, skewed selection of Japanese anime and manga. (Okay, when I was little and a single plane flew overhead, I used to close my eyes and pray. I've always known about はだしのゲン and Sadako Sasaki and the Thousand Paper Cranes, so I guess I was just being a clueless gaijin who hadn't acutally thought this through.)

Haibane Renmei

The imagery in Haibane Renmei is beautiful. I grew up studying French and a good deal of medieval history. The harpsichord is a road to my heart. I have heard people say that Haibane Renmei may have been inspired by Haruki Murakami's novel Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. That could be so, or it could be that they both deal with the same issues of alienation and loss of self and happened upon a common metaphor. Does it matter?

There is no bridge for the distance between individuals. At best we manage to exchange poorly understood signals, but in the end we are alone; though how we reach that end may affect others.

NieA_7

Wacky and fun and totally about classism, racism, social stereotypes and xenophobia. And the alienation inherent in growing up and realizing that the world is going to change around you whether you want it to or not. Good times.

Texhnolyze

OMFG. O-M-F-G. The most unremittingly bleak (yet beautiful) thing I have ever in my life seen. It took me two tries to grit my teeth and make it through this. I so did not want to watch what happens in the final episode, but I did. We all have to learn to take those footsteps to the end, because we all arrive there, eventually.

Maybe the Ralph Bakshi animated film Wizards can hold a pale candle to the bleakness of Texhnolyze, but the sheer weight of 22 episodes walking slowly to the end is amazing. (I talked my best friend into seeing Wizards with me when it came out in 1977. He thought I was an idiot for wanting to watch such a thing. I would give much to have a friend who would willingly watch something like Texhnolyze with me, but it ain't gonna happen, not in my age group.)

Ah, yes; what is Texhnolyze about? Well, it's a science fiction story about the future of, the stupidity of, and the end of humanity. And of course what it means to be human and the essential futility of just about everything except living in the moment. (I think the recent animated movie Vexille may have been inspired in part by Texhnolyze. If it wasn't, it should have been.)

That's what I think, here in Lansing MI on 2008 February 3.

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