Aoi Bungaku

[Fevvers]

I don't think Sensei or the mother were villainized as much as the characters whose povs we were following (Sensei and K respectively) were biased and unreliable. I thought that was a nice touch to be honest.

[Ghostfriendly]

Originally Posted by Ansalem

Every shot they can, they portray him like this.

The view is angled, his glasses are shined, and his eyes not portrayed. It seems to me that they went beyond Sensei being winning from social standing and indifference to his friend, and intentional make him seem, well, evil.

Could this be Sensei's subjective view of himself as the jealous and heartless wretch who helped drive K to suicide, or how he imagines K himself as seeing him?

Originally Posted by Tale

In the original work, the narrative is done by another servant who serves the same lord. So, while he implies that there is a rumor about the one-sided love of their lord to the daughter of the painter, he denies it...not only once but quite a few times in the short work, which rather leaves the readers unsure of the truth. This kind of ambiguity is done in quite a lot of works in Akutagawa, most notably in In a Grove (Yabu no Naka), or in your post, Bamboo Grove. In fact, in Japanese, for example, a phrase such as Shinsou-ha Yabu no Naka or The truth is in a grove means the truth is unknown.

I think the old servant was a pretty classic unreliable narrator. The cruelty of the lord noted in the story's prologue, his enraged emotional reactions, and the lord's own word being given as the only evidence for his stated motives all suggest that the servant just can't face the fact that this guy's a murderous b*stard. The painter is a bit amoral too, though. I thought it was reasonable for the anime to put this narrative aside to simplify things; the king in the episode certainly wasn't a deep enough character for it.

[Ansalem]

Originally Posted by Ghostfriendly

Could this be Sensei's subjective view of himself as the jealous and heartless wretch who helped drive K to suicide, or how he imagines K himself as seeing him?

That's an interesting idea, but since it's from the second episode which is pretty clearly supposed to be from K's point of view, it doesn't really make sense like that to me.

[Tale]

Originally Posted by ClockWorkAngel

^ Ah it was the english translation; it was beautifully translated and I was very happy with it.

Seems to be a talented translator, then. I have this urge to understand the original in its own context, though.

Originally Posted by Fevvers

I don't think Sensei or the mother were villainized as much as the characters whose povs we were following (Sensei and K respectively) were biased and unreliable. I thought that was a nice touch to be honest.

It's my view, too and that is why I am surprised by so many people don't seem to notice the point.

Originally Posted by Ansalem

That's an interesting idea, but since it's from the second episode which is pretty clearly supposed to be from K's point of view, it doesn't really make sense like that to me.

That's where I lost yous. Ansalem, while you noticed the anime adapters tried to describe K's point of view, how can you miss that the latter part is not Sensei's but K's point of view? The latter part is built by K's self-consciousness while the former part is built by Sensei's self-consciousness, which is, I think, the beauty of this adaptation as Fevvers pointed out.

Originally Posted by Ghostfriendly

I think the old servant was a pretty classic unreliable narrator. The cruelty of the lord noted in the story's prologue, his enraged emotional reactions, and the lord's own word being given as the only evidence for his stated motives all suggest that the servant just can't face the fact that this guy's a murderous b*stard. The painter is a bit amoral too, though. I thought it was reasonable for the anime to put this narrative aside to simplify things; the king in the episode certainly wasn't a deep enough character for it.

Yes, I guess anime adaption is doing too much in this one.

[Ansalem]

Originally Posted by Tale

That's where I lost yous. Ansalem, while you noticed the anime adapters tried to describe K's point of view, how can you miss that the latter part is not Sensei's but K's point of view? The latter part is built by K's self-consciousness while the former part is built by Sensei's self-consciousness, which is, I think, the beauty of this adaptation as Fevvers pointed out.

You seem to have misunderstood something I said. I didn't miss the fact that the latter part is K's point of view...in fact, you responded to my quote that says

the second episode which is pretty clearly supposed to be from K's point of view

Episode 1 was Sensei Episode 2 was K, I get it.

I was responding to Ghostfriendly, who suggested that the menacing glasses/angles/phrases of Sensei in part 2 could Sensei's view of himself, or Sensei's view of K's view. Unless you think that the anime creators intended episode 1 to be Sensei's view and episode 2 to be what Sensei thought was K's point of view, that doesn't make sense to me. And there's nothing to me that hints that episode 2 is how Sensei thinks K viewed the events rather than how K supposedly viewed them.

Also, that second quote you attributed to me was Ghostfriendly.

[Tale]

Originally Posted by Ansalem

I was responding to Ghostfriendly, who suggested that the menacing glasses/angles/phrases of Sensei in part 2 could Sensei's view of himself, or Sensei's view of K's view. Unless you think that the anime creators intended episode 1 to be Sensei's view and episode 2 to be what Sensei thought was K's point of view, that doesn't make sense to me. And there's nothing to me that hints that episode 2 is how Sensei thinks K viewed the events rather than how K supposedly viewed them.

Also, that second quote you attributed to me was Ghostfriendly.

Guess it's true but I don't think it's appropriate for this forum to write it in this way.

In any case, I think the second episode is clearly from the point of K rather than Sensei. Otherwise, it would be a mistake of incompetent translator or something else.

[Ansalem]

Originally Posted by Tale

Guess it's true but I don't think it's appropriate for this forum to write it in this way.

In any case, I clearly think the second episode is clearly from the point of K rather than Sensei. Otherwise, it would be a mistake of incompetent translator or something else.

I don't understand what's inappropriate about what I wrote? Serious here.

Also, I completely agree that the second episode is the anime portraying the story from their interpretation of K's point of view. So, I don't even know what you're disagreeing with me about.

[Tale]

Originally Posted by Ansalem

I don't understand what's inappropriate about what I wrote? Serious here.

Oops, I cannot remember but I guess it's a part of what I wrote in a different context, which remained after editing. Copy and paste job has gone terribly wrong in my previous two posts. Somehow, I kept rejected by the board server even during my editing these posts. I guess I need to check out my browser settings.

Originally Posted by Ansalem

Also, I completely agree that the second episode is the anime portraying the story from their interpretation of K's point of view. So, I don't even know what you're disagreeing with me about.

Yes, it seems to be a simple misunderstanding of my side after quoting multiple posts. Sorry for confusing you.

[Reckoner]

Finally got around to seeing this anime. I thought it was absolutely wonderful. The last two episodes did feel out of place, with its setting and all, but the last scene as he lies in the finished painting of true hell, was just beautiful and at the same time horrifying.

Overall though, the best story for me was No Longer Human. I am actually quite interested in getting an english translated version of the book to read.

Wish we would get more anime like this.

[Archon_Wing]

It's really hard to find such an anime where every scene connects with the story and with each other. Perhaps one of the few that I could call "art".

I find Run, Melos! to be particularly memorable-- haven't really had a nice traditional tale of friendship and honor for a long while. It also serves as a nice compliment to the other rather dark stories.

And Kokoro gets a mention for its opening of alternative interpretations without coming off as pretentious.

[shiro jb]

aoi bungaku is a anime very sad D:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEVNX...eature=related
can anybody tell me the name of the song? Ç_Ç

[totoum]

This just made my day:

Spoiler:

I'll be able to get No longer human on dvd/blu ray in a few months.

Thank you Kaze.Thank you.

[SeijiSensei]

No Longer Human Anime Wins at Italy's Future Film Fest

Apparently the Ningen Shikaku arc was re-released as a a theatrical movie and won this Italian award. It joins some illustrious company:

Originally Posted by ANN

Previous winners of the Platinum Grand Prize include Satoshi Kon's Tokyo Godfathers (2004) and Makoto Shinkai's 5 Centimeters Per Second (2008).