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 Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2005 10:02 am
Since this is an anime-based forum, I'm sure a lot of you are anime fans like myself. I'd like to discuss some philosophical anime's... maybe a short review or discussion on specific anime's.
Serial Experiments Lain - If you haven't seen this anime, it's one you can really sink your brain into. A girl gets a computer shortly after one of her friends commited suicide. She ends up becoming very addicted to the computer and meeting hackers in very odd ways. Her parents keep buying her more computer stuff until her entire room is filled with hardware... and then she begins to transcend the lines between the "wired" and the real world. At one point, she actually connects to the internet WITHOUT a computer, using her mind alone - because the entire world is networked together.... and finally she even transcends into becoming God.
I had to watch the series a few times for this all to fully sink in, and I'm sure I still missed a lot of stuff.
So, any opinions on Lain? And if not, are there any other deep anime's you'd like to discuss?
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Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 1:39 pm
Wow....that one does sound interesting.
I mentioned this in another post here, but The Demon Ororon is an excelent depressing love story/philosophical manga...
Ororon
Basically, there's a half-angel, half-mortal girl who lives alone, apparantly orphaned and sole inheritor to her grandfather's fortune. She has no clue about her ancestry and what it means--she just thinks that she is some kind of medium, because dead things approach her all the time.
She finds on the street one day a demon--named Ororon--badly hurt and almost passed out. She takes him back to her house, and lets him recover there. Turns out, Ororon is the demon king of hell, and he tells her that he will grant her one wish. Chiaki (the girl) asks him to stay with her forever--and to her suprise, he accepts, and promises to stay with her forever.
However, that is simply not meant to be. Peaceful Chiaki is disturbed by Ororon's handling of the monsters and demons that try to attack them (him because there was a bounty on his head, her because she's half-angel, and heaven wants all half-breeds killed), and the tension between them leads to problems in the relationship (like we couldn't have predicted that one).
Much to Chiaki's dismay....the fighting continues, at a more gruesome pace. She herself lets loose with powers more destructive than anything even Ororon could unleash (and passes out in the meantime, not knowing what she did).
Through all of this both Chiaki and Ororon start wondering why. All that they want is to live a peaceful life together--Chiaki wonders how a God who created the world could allow such pain and suffering to exist, and Ororon wonders why he has had to kill in order to live since he was very, very young (9 or 11, can't recall--he's 123 in the book). His past haunts him through specters that attack him, along with other things.
Basically, the fighting escalates to include the elite members of hell, and Ororon dies. Chiaki is left alone, albeit with a few friends she made through her adventures with Ororon, but esentially, she is alone. Her thoughts at the end of the book circle back to the beginning, meeting Ororon on the street on a rainy monday.
End Ororon.
The books basically question why there is a god who allows such pain and cruelty in the world....the book is full of evil people/angels/demons/things that kill or harm without second thoughts. The author wonders how love can survive in such a world, and in her book, it doesn't.
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Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2005 8:24 am
Well... About the subject of love... "Versailles no Bara" (aka Lady Oscar) A new girl has been born in the Jaryeres family back in the pre-revolution france. But since the marriage only gives women, Mr. Jaryeres decided that the new baby would be a boy, and named it Oscar. This series is about painful love as the only way to eternal love, and aslo speaks about human nature and power abuse... When growing up, Oscar becames part of the Royal Guards -that protect Marie Antoinette, Queen of France-, and Oscar start to have doubts about what path to follow, the man's path or the woman's path?? In this sense, it also deals with finding your own identity... However, after lots and lots of events, in which Oscar also quits the Royal Guards and started to follow the Revolution Ideals, in which Andre stars loosing his sight and Oscar realizing that she has neumonia; she ended up falling in love with Andre Grandier, which was her servant and child-friend, but the day after she realizes that, Andre was shot by a Guard, So Oscar took him at full speed to the town's square hoping to find a doctor, but even the doctor's efforts are vain and Andre soon dies. Oscar feeling guilty about not realize her love earlier, she leaves the square to cry, and at the very next day, she joined tha french that want to attack The Bastille... and she gets shot also. Oscar is then withdraw from battle, but she eventually dies. This anime shows us that the only way for a love to be eternal, it need to be tragic. It's just so beautiful... crying crying crying ..U should see it...
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Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2005 11:00 pm
I'm sorry, but I gotta throw in an american Computer Animation... AntZ. I'm sure many of you have seen it. If not... you should! It's primarily about the fear of being an insignificant speck on the planet... but also about the hell of eternal work... and that even an insignificant speck can make a difference if he tries.  (notice the towers in the background)And contrary to popular belief... it's pronounced "Ant Zee" and not "Ants." As the Z is clearly capitalized... (and I'm a DBZ fan)
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Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2005 2:31 pm
Reign(sp?) the Conquerer is a good one, It is a fiction about Alexander the Great (with very female looking animation) that used to come on adult swim (every day except friday starting 11:00pm) that really brought me into philosophy.
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Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2005 2:47 pm
Battle Angel Alita (aka - GunNM)
Just remembered about this one. This anime/manga asks the question of WHAT makes us so human?
Not to ruin it for you or anything, but the story is about a cyborg with a human brain... and other cyborgs that have human bodies but robotic brains so that they may be more logical. The story is also based in the future showing how humans have the uncontrollable need to feel superior to each other in some way or another.
James Cameron is actually making an expensive HD CGI movie based on the series, and the movies are expected to hit in 2007 when more movie theatres are HD. He actually bought the license about 5-10 years ago! But the manga is extremely detailed both in pen & ink sketches and in story line. The plot is always thickening. As for anime? Well, they only did 2 OVA's which were released on video a long time ago... and not done nearly as well as the manga.
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Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 11:00 am
okay, I'm just going to have to say this, but how about Evangelion? I mean it's extreeeemely (yet discretly) religious, but there also may be other things that it is trying to say about religion, and about humans and creatures on the earth. The End of Evangelion is especially this way, I think. Does that make sense?
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Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 11:41 am
RawMaterial okay, I'm just going to have to say this, but how about Evangelion? I mean it's extreeeemely (yet discretly) religious, but there also may be other things that it is trying to say about religion, and about humans and creatures on the earth. The End of Evangelion is especially this way, I think. Does that make sense? Oh, Eva's more than religious. Much more... I was thinking of a new anime I've found on Swim since my return to nighttime television, s-CRY-ed (no clue how that's pronouced...anyone?). It seems to be written from a far-flung core, has supernatural elements, and actually got me to look inside. Haven't seen much of it crying , but what I have seen, I can describe. s-CRY-ed is about the aftermath of a gigantic earthquake that took place in the Kanagawa District of Japan (everything happens there, this is the third anime set in that region that I've watched) 22 years prior. After the earthquake, a group of people called Alter Users sprang up, most of them in a suspiciously perfect city called Holy. A lone Alter User named Kazuma quests to stop them from capturing every native Alter. That's the series, but just about every episode gets me thinking. Kazuma is very much an anti-hero, brash, impolite, with almost no care for anyone else, while the Alter Users of Holy are nice, and they seem to care about equality for everyone. It's what's underneath, their reasons for doing what they do, that gets me. Kazuma is fighting so that everyone can be free to choose what they wish in life, and Ryuho and the other Holy members seem to want to imprison all native Alters. I haven't seen the end, so that's all I know, but still...it makes me wonder about my own motivations in life.
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Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 10:21 am
Steamboy
Just came out on DVD... and I rented it yesterday. Killer movie!
The movie revolves around the philosophical debate of whether science should be used for war to protect & serve the country's needs or if science is for recreation and making people happy. The animation is outstanding, as is the art. It looks and feels like a Hollywood movie, but with a much thicker plot than most hollywood drivel.
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Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 11:03 am
Who said this club was started by Anime? Well the characters we choose are cartoons. And I do read manga and watch anime. Oh well. Does anyone know about Fullmetal Alchemist? It may be childish in some ways but it is somewhat philosophical in the fat that the soul of a person is what makes them human.
When I say that I am referring to the character alfonso. He is the one in the metal armor. He doesn't have a body but he does have his soul.
Also in s-CRY-ed I think that the leader of Holy is obssessed with becoming Holy himself and so is always looking for lackys. Yet I have yet to figure out what he is doing to people. It will probably be explained in the next episode. Sorry for getting off topic. sweatdrop
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Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2005 3:52 am
YES! I''ve only seen some of Serial Expierements Lain, but I''ve wanted to see the rest of it ever since, it looked absolutely great 3nodding
And some philosophical anime? HA, plenty, first thing that came to my mind when I saw this thread was Paranoia Agent and I can''t believe no one else has brought it up. Yes, it may seem to just be some random wierd crap, but it has a deeper meaning, some of it I haven''t figured out yet, but I know there''s something else more to it, each episode holds a story and it''s all connected to this boy with a golden bat, the boy, to the local authority, seems to be just this serial attacker/killer and they''re constantly trying to catch him through learning more about him, but from what I can tell the truth is that he''s not actually a being but the subconscious of the people that are getting attacked/killed. All of the victims were always cornered in their current lives, and needed to be saved somehow, and it''s not always humans either, at least it would seem not; One of the recent episodes had these three "people" an old man, homosexual middle aged man and a young girl, they all wanted to commit suicide to be "free" and no matter how hard they tried they couldn''t die, something always got in the way or something happened where they would just keep living. Near the end of the episode they found the boy with the golden bat as he was ending the life of someone in the room next to the three (they were sleeping in a hotel-type place) but instead of fearing him, they came towards him and asked/begged him to kill them, but something about this seemed to frighten him, so he ran away and they never caught him; I''m assuming he ran because he only "saves" those that want to be saved, or need to be saved that way, and he didn''t see it fit for these three to die yet...or at least that''s what it seemed in that part of the episode. At the very end they were walking down the street and just randomly there were these young girls that were getting a picture taken, and the three (the ones that wanted to die) just randomly jumped into the picture, and then went amongst their own business, but then it went back to the girls who had developed the picture (it was one of those instant-devolpes) and the girls looked at it and screamed in horror as if they''d seen something so disgusting it was painful...so to me, it sounds like the three weren''t actually human at all, just lost souls that couldn''t find their way, this would also explain why they couldn''t die, and also why they were at such age differences
<<....so as you can see, just one episode holds many a twist and turn to figure out....this is actually one of the few that I''ve been able to slightly decipher, I swear each plot is like reading binary
Also....I kind of think that FLCL has something deeper behind the stupid random crap, it only had 6 episodes but oddly enough in that time aliens invaded a boy learned more about his own personal life and the end of the world nearly came but it was all okay because he used (a really really cool) guitar to knock a giant ball back into space and used his empty head to contain a universally reknowned pirate-king, ....@_@ ....there''s more to it, but it''s too early I might put in more later.
About Evangelion ( of which the studio that made it also made FLCL; Studio GAINAX) Yes there are many many religious references in this anime, I havn''t seen the whole series and I swear I almost wet myself when I found out they were putting it on adult swim, their gonna have to completely dice it up to please the censors though crying gonk but if you ever get the chance, watch the series and listen to the commentary, it''s very funny and usually very helpful, OH and watch the end movies, Death & Rebirth and The End of Evangelion, with or (as I more prefer to understand it) with the commentary, many many things are explained and shown and it''s just unbelievable 3nodding .
@_@ !!
There are so many others, like Metropolis, or Castile in the Sky, Maybe even Ghost in the Shell, ect..
but I''m tired, and hungry, and this is enough for now X3
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Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 9:54 am
And watch Naruto, so you may be reminded that not giving up is also an option.
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