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fignae · 2006-09-30, 13:59

It's only my second trip through 26, don't laugh at me.

Spoiler for my very sketchy reactions to the finale. not an essay, so the paragraphs don't tie up very well:

So I watched the Chinese subs at last, and I get it now. It's truly different when you go in knowing what happens. I was moved almost to tears, it was so bittersweet, and when it ended I felt lonely and empty, because.

The ending draws a wonderful blank, a vortex on which we can inscribe lots of different things but never know for sure. Even the other sibyllae do not know what really happens, not even why they so desperately need to send the two on. We are basically given two different, contradicting interpretations. The first is that they want to make something eternal, to stop the flow of time; but no, that's not right, is it? It's actually to affirm their own existences through hope, which the Suigyoku embodies.

The self-reflexivity is delightful, too. The music winds down because the show must end, the art must get torn down, the sibyllae must disappear. In the middle, Anubituf and co. ask the question everyone wants to know: why this, why now, why? There's no meaning in this end! But that's not the point. And perhaps there is a different answer here. It's not about hope either. What's important is choice. Or is it?

No matter which is the real answer for the people who remain, I think it doesn't change the fact that we know nothing about where Neviril and Aaeru went. What does the dancing mean? I'm inclined to think they have found a place outside of time and space (what amounts to transcendence). But it's impossible to portray that. The conclusion, as it is played out, becomes both a tribute to the filmic medium, which captures a slice of eternity, and a recognition that art can only reach a certain point (sort of Platonic). I find it incredibly sad, for what in our own lives is truly eternal? We'd have to look to religion, wouldn't we?

In the real world the sibyllae live in, there is no real cure for ephemerality. Life is a cycle, of the seasons. It is filled with death. But it is also a place of many births and young budding plants. And there is love. The episode begins with mourning, ends with mourning, Limone harking back to Yun and her cradle of death. Photographs. Engravings. I see this as a symptom of the modern world and our desire for memory. (Trivia of cyclicity: The blue-haired boy and the orange-haired girl in Paraietta's orphanage are exact replicas of the ones atop DomiLimo's Simoun, down to their seiyuu -- and yes, the seiyuu are reversed.)

As a side note, Neviril and Aaeru are so creepy, LOL. Their ghost-like shapes have permanently scarred me. In a semi-good way.

2006-09-30, 13:59	Link #2023
fignae floofer. floof. Join Date: Mar 2006	It's only my second trip through 26, don't laugh at me. Spoiler for my very sketchy reactions to the finale. not an essay, so the paragraphs don't tie up very well: So I watched the Chinese subs at last, and I get it now. It's truly different when you go in knowing what happens. I was moved almost to tears, it was so bittersweet, and when it ended I felt lonely and empty, because. The ending draws a wonderful blank, a vortex on which we can inscribe lots of different things but never know for sure. Even the other sibyllae do not know what really happens, not even why they so desperately need to send the two on. We are basically given two different, contradicting interpretations. The first is that they want to make something eternal, to stop the flow of time; but no, that's not right, is it? It's actually to affirm their own existences through hope, which the Suigyoku embodies. The self-reflexivity is delightful, too. The music winds down because the show must end, the art must get torn down, the sibyllae must disappear. In the middle, Anubituf and co. ask the question everyone wants to know: why this, why now, why? There's no meaning in this end! But that's not the point. And perhaps there is a different answer here. It's not about hope either. What's important is choice. Or is it? No matter which is the real answer for the people who remain, I think it doesn't change the fact that we know nothing about where Neviril and Aaeru went. What does the dancing mean? I'm inclined to think they have found a place outside of time and space (what amounts to transcendence). But it's impossible to portray that. The conclusion, as it is played out, becomes both a tribute to the filmic medium, which captures a slice of eternity, and a recognition that art can only reach a certain point (sort of Platonic). I find it incredibly sad, for what in our own lives is truly eternal? We'd have to look to religion, wouldn't we? In the real world the sibyllae live in, there is no real cure for ephemerality. Life is a cycle, of the seasons. It is filled with death. But it is also a place of many births and young budding plants. And there is love. The episode begins with mourning, ends with mourning, Limone harking back to Yun and her cradle of death. Photographs. Engravings. I see this as a symptom of the modern world and our desire for memory. (Trivia of cyclicity: The blue-haired boy and the orange-haired girl in Paraietta's orphanage are exact replicas of the ones atop DomiLimo's Simoun, down to their seiyuu -- and yes, the seiyuu are reversed.) As a side note, Neviril and Aaeru are so creepy, LOL. Their ghost-like shapes have permanently scarred me. In a semi-good way.