2009-10-24, 14:32
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Link #61 | |
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C.C. Loyalist
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Southeast Asia
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 Btw, DVD cover and info is out!  More info, together with the episode 4 preview, here. Also, I've seen episode 3, and made the usual LQ screenshots + crappier summary over here.
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2009-10-24, 15:04
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Link #63 | |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2009
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2009-10-24, 22:01
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Link #64 | |
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Waiting for more taiyuki!
Join Date: Jan 2004
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2009-10-25, 01:55
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Link #65 |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Age: 35
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This is terrible. Both the 'literary' shows of this season suck.
... lol Nah, I'm exaggerating. Trapeze will probably move up to 'decent' eventually. Aoi Bungaku, though... Episode 1 was alright. It somewhat distorted the spirit of the source material, but at least some hint of Youzo's charisma/repulsiveness remained. This, though, was just dismal. Goddamn, what a complete mess. Seriously. Where did the literature go? The starkness, the rejection, the intellectual distance. The force, the conviction, the individuality. The character? It's gone. Madhouse completely destroyed it. What can I even call this? It's just a story now, an empty, empty narrative 'oh hey this happened to some guy somewhere'. What is with all these fucking excuses? This fucking victimization. 'No Longer Human'? Ha! yeah right. Madhouse's Youzo is the very definition of human, so characterized by 'what happened to him', he's nothing more. Why is Youzo a 'monster'? Why is he fake, why cannot he connect with others, why can't he 'live more like a human'? Duh, Madhouse tells us. It's because he had a self-interested ass of a father. It's because he was raped as a child. It's because he was bullied by his classmates. It's because he 'wants to be an artist, sir'.  It's because his mind is being chased by a monster. On and on and on. 'This is how ugly humans are,' they are telling us. 'This is the monstrousity our ugliness can create.' Bullshit. lol. What a waste of a story. What a waste of human thought.The point was supposed to be, Youzo is ugly from the beginning. That was supposed to be the challenge, the spirit, the test of our narrative empathy. The narrative's charisma, its fascination, lay in the ugliness itself. Instead, we get...this. lol. What a complete failure.
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2009-10-25, 04:26
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Link #66 |
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Anime Hobbyist
Join Date: Dec 2004
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I still wouldn't call the guy am empathetic figure for it though. As for excuses, it was more like he was using it to justify it for himself and letting himself fall to that depths. That in itself is why he's rotten. Though I still get the impression that he's still victimized by circumstances either way. That's what the anime version comes across for me. Also, the show's short length is probably part in why they had to cut down the narrative content that way. I thought it was fine. If you want the original, there's always that option. Seems to happen a lot with anime conversions. I still am more miffed by the anime original ending for Claymore.
 PS- Actually looking back at the context of that particular story, aside from Youzo being a 'monster', it was more about he post-trauma of Youzo's life. Excuses or not, there was that sense of a life sliding down the tubes with him. And yes, I don't think it's that wild of a theory to say that he was somewhat victimized by it. Youzo as a soul just could not take it, period. Last edited by SuperKnuckles; 2009-10-25 at 04:39. |
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2009-10-25, 06:35
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Link #67 |
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Waiting for more taiyuki!
Join Date: Jan 2004
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I haven't seen episode 2 but nobody is ugly from birth imo. Experiences shape a person. Being abused, etc can have a detrimental effect on someone. I suck with personality disorders but I think that this might be his.
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2009-10-25, 21:41
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Link #68 | ||
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Age: 35
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I don't think there is actually any 'rottenness' in Youzo as portrayed by the show. What depths has he actually fallen to, on a personal level? He's scammed people for a bit of money, and he's attempted a double suicide. That's all. That's not particularly monstrous. The 'life sliding down the tubes' idea is not particularly original for a narrative, and if the anime truly is trying to communicating that, it has no basis in the source material. No Longer Human, the book, is autobiographical, starting from the protagonists childhood. There is no focus on a single particularly depressive period like it may appear the anime is doing. For an example of Youzo's 'ugliness' or 'inhumanity' as expressed in the original novel, take the scene where his siblings are requesting gifts from their father. In the anime, the scene is somewhat portrayed as if Youzo's true desire is books, but he is pressured into requesting a lion dance costume by...something, perhaps his father's perceptions of a proper childhood. The revelation with regards to the source material should be that Youzo did not actually desire books at all--in fact, he desired nothing, had no idea what to desire, and so, when confronted with the gesture of his father wondering what gifts his children would like for his trip down to the store, he can only smile dumbly, in a pale imitation of being 'human'. Youzo is a victim, a victim of the expectations of others, but the message is not that he would be 'just like you or me' otherwise. The person Youzo is truly a victim of is himself, of his own nature, in that he is truly apart from the desires and values of other humans, and his suffering is about trying to conceal that. Youzo doesn't actually like books (he wanted nothing). Youzo didn't actually want to be an artist (his 'art' only consists of self-portraits (that's right, not abstract monstrous shadow things), an attempt to depict the true self he is always concealing from others). Youzo wasn't actually persecuted by his classmates (his 'clowning', his becoming a spectacle on his own initiative, was not an attempt to protect himself or connect to others, but rather an attempt to appear human at all). In the anime, Youzo's true self is a monster, created by all the suffering or persecution he supposedly suffers. In the novel, Youzo's true self is merely different, unable to empathize with the desires and concerns other humans express (happiness at recieving gifts, appreciation for convenience or utility, friendly identification with others of similar taste or circumstance, etc.). Youzo only initially percieves it (his true self) as a monster he has to conceal, but later learns to confront and even embrace it through his exposure to the self-portrait of Van Gogh. His fear was never directed to his true self, but rather to its discovery by others. Sorry for the lengthy comparisons. That was pretty much just a second-hand information dump--again, I have no experience with the novel itself. I'd just like to restate that the primary grounds for my disappointment with the anime is the worthlessness of a story where 'guy is persecuted by lots of different things, becomes depressed, goes insane, becomes a monster.' Literature is about so much more than 'being able to understand the main character'. |
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2009-10-26, 01:32
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Link #69 |
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Anime Hobbyist
Join Date: Dec 2004
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Well, as far as Youzo being a monster is concerned, like you say, the biggest victim is probably Youzo again Youzo himself. Certainly, the anime takes some liberties with the source material. It's been ages since I have read it, but the overall dialogue still seems to be there. The specificities of the events have changed here and there and his siblings seem more openly treacherous than originally portrayed, but the singular idea still exists, in that Youzo lives vicariously. He lives through other peoples' eyes. He's become a caricature not only to others, but himself. Other than his outward face, there's little to nothing inside.
And ultimately, and as cliche as it may sound, that leads him to not finding himself, no longer finding himself to be human, a 'monster', etc. I don't think the monster in question is necessarily a pure evil entity other than that Youzo still fears it instinctually. I think it's the same for anybody when they suddenly realize their inner humanness and questions it. Youzo as I see it, is too sensitive of a soul and all that has ravaged his morality and destroyed his self worth, hence being a danger not only to himself but to others. Not in that he's become 'evil', necessarily, but that he has an unfixable disattachment to his humanity and his own ego. And orion, though he seems to wear the face of a narcissist in some ways, I think it's mostly an outer face. I believe he has what's called the Dependency Syndrome. Basically what the novel and the anime has portrayed so far. By being afraid to assert himself, to create an ego, to express any desire or will to take responsibility for his own being, to be consciously or subconsciously dependent on others, etc. Episode 2 basically tells us all this in no subtle ways. And Sol Falling, while you say Youzo hasn't expressed individuality, I think that's precisely the source of Youzo's melancholy and fear, because while he has always relied on others, he can't rely on himself. And all the cycle of suicidal thoughts seems to do with his realization that he is starting to be afraid of himself, as a human without an ego or real sense of individuality. |
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2009-10-26, 14:42
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Link #70 |
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Yuuki Aoi
Join Date: Jul 2004
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I've just watched eps 1 and 2 and it is clear that this show is playing in a higher league than 95% of other anime. How well it does there, I'm not sure. Visually and aurally, it is outstanding, in my opinion.
I haven't read the novel (yet), but I was nevertheless finding in ep1 that I couldn't get a real handle on the character. He just seemed shallow and smirking, and I didn't feel his motivations. The voice actor, Masato Sakai is a famous actor with a lot of drama and film credits, and I love his voice, but it didn't really start working for me until ep2. Getting more background there fleshed things out a lot more. I'm glad there are two more eps of this story to go. Sakai hasn't done much anime, but was outstanding in Yukikaze. Director Asaka Morio did NANA, and also Cardcaptor Sakura. Writer Suzuki Satoshi did Top Secret and Nougami Neuro. And of course, Paku Romi played the woman. But turning to more info about the author, Dazai Osamu, was a revelation. The story is semi-autobiographical. Reading potted bios here and here, I came away thinking that his qualifications for being human were somewhat less than the character's.
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2009-10-26, 19:43
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Link #71 |
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Major Lurker
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: <clap> <clap> <clap> <clap> Deep in the Heart of Texas
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Thanks for the link to the biography, Kaoru-chan! That is very informative. No Longer Human is virtually his autobiography. He was one messed-up dude!
Whereas other great writers like Nabokov or Grass have exposited this kind of anomic character fictionally or as a facet of themselves, this guy went whole hog. He really WAS "no longer human" and finally succeeded in killing himself as if to prove it.
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2009-10-27, 01:47
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Link #72 | |
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Anime Hobbyist
Join Date: Dec 2004
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2009-10-28, 15:20
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Link #74 | |
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Par toutatis!
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Canada
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Aoi bungaku is among the best anime of this fall. It is unfortunate that it did not garner a wider audience.
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Thanks Kaory Chujo for the link to the author. It is interesting the know that the story is semi-autobiographical. Can't wait for the conclusion. Cheers. |
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2009-10-31, 16:38
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Link #76 | |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2008
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I picked up that his 'clowning' at school was a deliberate way to seem human; incidents like this that show Youzou's mental state rather than the upbringing that determined it are especially vivid (Or the upbringing just determined his circumstances; born bad or raised bad is a serious debate, and the anime going with the latter is a predictable but reasonable choice). Most of the other characters so far seem a bit less than human themselves, from the mercenary cartoonist to the wantonly kind and cruel treatment of the kitten by the policeman. The journalist chick doesn't seem too bad, but from the way her legs were moving as she embraced her kid in bed, she might be a bit sexually frustrated. Maybe Youzou's otherness will turn out to have its nobler points compared to all that. |
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2009-11-02, 05:46
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Link #78 | |
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Anime Hobbyist
Join Date: Dec 2004
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Also, it is pretty clear in the story that Youzo is a cornered human being. Him being a bachelor and a woman-getter meant that he only saw the more superficial aspects of women. With his friends and family, there was more the fact that his father held political and monetary power rather than it being more emotionally in tune as a family. That and Japan was descending into World War 2 and their nation was starting to go pretty crazy by starting to wantonly attack China as was mentioned in episode 3. Even his friend who supposedly 'grows up' to go fight in the war is merely doing so as if he's some animal that needs to survive a harrowing time. Youzo is not only cornered by all these circumstances, but it's just that he himself as he admits, is hollow. He's inherently weak, much too sensitive and has allowed people to trample on his weakness and turn him into a facade of a human. In that sense, I sorta agree with the Joker analogy. Joker was the same kind of story in the comics himself. Abused by his own family, the downspiral of society basically turning a human into a caricature. |
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