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suddenly i need to watch this show.
I think I figured out one thing: I'm interested in (taking the risk of trying to find opportunities for) seeing stories that do combine a clash of good and evil with a clash of different ideologies.
More seriously; I don't think I've watched a show that has raised real questions in a while. Infini-T Force kind of started out that way, but it... really really decided to blow itself up. Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau was a great story, but it was bad at concepts and themes.
Right now I am actually considering watching Kanojo ga Flag wo Owaretara just so I know I can still finish things, because it doesn't look promising* at the moment.
Wait, no, I have watched a show with meaning. It just happened to be a short show that never fleshed itself out (Taishou Mebiusline Chicchai-san).
*It is possibly terrible
Of course I don't think that means I think it's worth watching either.
I don't think any casting news has made me go from "YAY" to "wait what" so quickly.
I'm not sure how to feel about this series. And I'm not even talking about the omake.
The second half of this series was definitely significantly more...complicated than the first, in terms of the characterization and backstories.
FWIW they do introduce backstory late in the series that isn't relevant early in it, so it could be arguably ignored for the earlier arcs, giving rise to the possible interpretation that the same character might be a significantly different person between two different arcs. This is most relevant to the third and fourth arcs.
(FWIW this is a thing basically unique to this series, as this series presents four alternate timelines for how the story evolves, and these timelines branch off at various points.)
an assessment of/remarks on Yosuga no Sora: In Solitude, Where We Are Least Alone. This is a strange and distinctive series and I'm not really sure what to make of it.
Warning: this story involves sexual content, some of which may be disturbing (specifically sexual assault and incest), plus at one point at least one disturbing non-sexual element (suicide). In these remarks, I will mention these elements, with regards to their role in the story. The story is a romantic drama, or more accurately, it is four different romantic dramas based on the same cast of characters, and these elements are not treated lightly -- in fact, one of the show's strengths is exhibiting the emotions the characters feel, particularly with regards to romance and sexuality. (Some people call this a "harem", but given how each romance is explored individually, in essentially parallel alternate universes, this descriptor doesn't really apply all that well.)
Also, these remarks contains spoilers, and as such will be kept behind a spoiler tag. Though I'm not sure I expect any of you who're likely to read this are gonna ever watch this. I don't think I can recommend this series to anyone, because it is sufficiently...let's just say weird (and not in the usual absurdist/surrealist way either, as all the events portrayed herein are taken seriously, aside from the omake). But its strongly emotional drama and its use of branching story paths are certainly very interesting elements.
Also, warning: long and wordy.
Side A: covered by the first six episodes of the series.
Route A1: episodes 1, 2, 3, 4. Haruka (our lead guy) hooks up with the rich girl, Kazuha.
Route A2: episodes (1, 2), 5, 6. Haruka hooks up with the miko, Akira.
Side B: covered by the latter six episodes of the series, or technically, branching off the first episode.
Route B1: episodes (1), 7, 8, 9. Haruka hooks up with a childhood friend, Nao.
Route B2: episodes (1, 7), 10, 11, 12. Haruka hooks up with his sister, Sora. (Yes, you read that right.)
Route O: so named because each episode consists of about 22 minutes of normal episode content and then a two-minute omake. These twelve omake minisodes feature the rich girl's maid, Motoka, hooking up with Haruka, in various ways, and are not portrayed seriously.
Given that the show uses a multi-route presentation, it is unclear to what extent elements that are canon in one route are canon in another route. (Let's ignore Route O for this because it's not taken seriously.)
The first two routes already show this sort of "Schrödinger's box" element because in route A1 it is revealed that Akira (the miko) is Kazuha's (the rich girl's) older half-sister, but route A2 seems to develop that further and reveal that Akira is not her half-sister but instead might have been switched at birth, and then further reveals that they weren't switched at birth but instead Akira's original mother died from complications of childbirth, and with no one else to care for the baby, the rich girl's mother tried to take her in, and then there were other complications (possibly rumors of marital infidelity) that resulted in Akira being raised by people at the shrine, with the eventual result that she now lives alone at the shrine, but is financially supported by Kazuha's parents. Curiously, in Kazuha's route, Akira and Kazuha's father are reconciled, while in Akira's route, Akira and Kazuha's mother are reconciled.
However, it's the latter two routes which really get into the more disturbing elements with this approach. Early on it's shown that the Haruka and Nao (the childhood friend, since he's just moved back to his old hometown) have some sort of unspecified drama in their common past. Side B reveals this drama to be situation in their childhood wherein Nao sexually assaulted Haruka, when they were still children, which was apparently motivated by chronic marital strife between her parents. They had been good friends before that, but that traumatic event caused them to avoid each other noticeably afterwards, for Nao, out of guilt (and for Haruka, presumably out of a combination of guilt and fear), and is said to have changed Nao's personality. However, this event is apparently still part of the canon in Sora's route, where it's additionally revealed that Sora, who was hospitalized frequently in her childhood, kindled an abnormal sexual desire in Haruka (due to lack of the Westermarck effect) when she finally returned to living with their family, in what was probably their tween years (as they are twins). Sora herself is shown as displaying a similarly abnormal sexual desire for her brother in route B2, though her romantic interest in her brother could be arguably said to be portrayed as early as episode 1. Haruka, however, does not indulge her (as far as I remember) except in route B2, which suggests that he may not canonically feel this way about her in the other routes. (Considering how multi-route visual novels may essentially put the lead character's personality, romantic interest, and sexual predilections in the player's decisions...this is plausible.) Furthermore, route B1 suggests a mutual romantic interest between Haruka and Nao, while route B2 suggests that Haruka sees Nao more as a sexual interest, especially one that he has made for the purpose of trying to pull himself away from his sexual interest in his sister.
This whole thing about "Schrödinger's plot detail" is rather important to interpreting the earlier two routes, which are arguably the more "normal" seeming of the four, because it raises the question of to what extent Haruka felt the way he did with regards to Nao and/or Sora (as a result of past trauma and other circumstances) in the Kazuha's and Akira's routes, and thus could be seen as a commentary on the influence of abnormal sexual experiences during childhood on future sexual deviancy. In route B2, following having his incestuous activities with Sora exposed to Nao and Kozue, Haruka remarks to Nao that he tried to find romance elsewhere, but failed -- does he feel that he tried to find romance elsewhere and succeeded, in the alternate universes of the other routes, or was he never actually interested in his sister in the first place in those routes? It certainly does seem like his sister Sora (who reacts strongly negative to Nao in side B, as she feels jealous of her earlier sexual contact with Haruka) is clearly portrayed as upset at being a "third wheel" in Nao's route (route B1), which is resolved by her developing social connections to others outside of her brother (to whom she is deeply emotionally attached, especially following their parents' death in a tragic car accident before the start of the series). But in route B1, Sora's behavior culminates in highlighting Sora's emotional dependence on her brother, while in contrast, in route B2, this culminates in a sexual relationship with her brother, so it's not clear to what extent Sora's seeming incestuous interest is actually that or just a ploy to get her brother's attention, except in route B2.
Also, the show seems surprisingly plausible in terms of the reactions of Kozue and Nao to the incestuous relationship in route B2. Kozue reacts with very strong disgust, while Nao seems to be more resigned, possibly out of an unspoken feeling of guilt over her own actions.
Anyhow, I found that the show raised some very interesting (and sometimes disturbing) questions about the mental states of the various characters -- particularly Haruka, Sora, and Nao. Sora, rather consistently throughout the series, seemed to have a noticeable problem with emotional dependency on her brother (regardless of whether she has a corresponding sexual dependency as well). There are hints in at least some routes that she has the potential to "grow out of this" by establishing more normal social bonds with her schoolmates. Haruka's psychology is the "Schrödinger's box", as explained above. Nao isn't explored quite as much but one can certainly find it interesting to question to what extent her route could be interpreted as a "normalization" of girl-on-boy sexual assault, as Haruka admits to having appreciate the experience, despite also being shocked by it.
All in all, this show has a curious pacing where the two more normal relationships occur first, and then the two pairings which involve more disturbing elements occur in the second half, finally ending the show with a strange whimper. I'm not sure if they could have avoided putting Sora last, since she's sort of an obvious centerpiece for the show. But the result is a strangely unsettling aftertaste -- especially given how much care and attention are given to the characters' emotions, which are a big part of what make the first two routes (especially the first route, Kazuha's route) feel emotionally fulfilling.
Perhaps the show can be said to be represented by its two theme songs, both of which have frequently-shifting tonalities, especially the opening theme. It starts with an intro in B minor, then has a verse in C# minor that temporarily goes to F minor before shifting into F# minor for the refrain, which spends a good chunk of time there before shifting to F minor near the end and then back to F# minor. Most of these modulations are very distant relations, perhaps alluding to the contrasting emotions at play in the story.
This show keeps being wonderfully self-referential.
Related, I guess "people with social lives" is a good way to put that in the scheme of fast-paced subtitles but I don't think it captured the riajuu wonderfulness.
[02:31:52]
Anyhow, so I don't remember if I've mentioned this before, but my interpretation of Angel Beats is such that a lot of the events of the early episodes are actually relatively meaningless, but their meaninglessness is itself meaningful to the broader theme of the work.
This may seem odd but consider that it's because
Then I watched Charlotte. Charlotte has a somewhat similar cast, and a somewhat similar plot pacing. Angel Beats has, mainly in the earlier episodes, a plot pacing where seemingly disconnected things just sorta happen to the characters, at times, with events going by a little too fast to really appreciate an emotionally coherent response to things. Charlotte also has this problem, mainly in the later parts of the series.
Except Charlotte doesn't have the convenient excuses I mentioned for the bumpy plot pacing of the show, the way Angel Beats does.
This, in turn, makes me suspect that my interpretation of Angel Beats might not have been originally intended by the writers (presumably Jun Maeda). I don't know for sure, though, since I haven't read any commentary that he's written about the interpretation of either series.
wait what
Was basically a joke, but, Nao Tomori is the clearly very important deuteragonist girl, and "Charlotte" is a name that's basically entirely unrelated to the story except for being the name of one thing that is a barely-important spoiler.
Also I think she looks like a "Charlotte". Not sure why.
IRL: The Winter Olympics Reached Peak Ota.
On the other hand, Elesis is really awesome.
Interesting speculation/analysis as to why Jun Maeda made ZHIEND specifically a post-rock band rather than any other kind of band, and how this is a thematic contrast to the J-pop idol production How-Low Hello in the same show (Charlotte).
this is some next level symphogearing
yntkt