We see it countless times—a protagonist faces hardship in finding happiness, ultimately conquers his demons, and finally begins a new life with an object of happiness. In much of what we watch, this object of happiness is also an object of romance. This is the case for just about every one of those eroge adaptations you love, for just about every one of those harem manga adaptations. Sometimes a series like Negima comes along—it tries to obfuscate the search for love with magic and battle, but it never does so very well. Even one of my very favorite shows, Kannazuki no Miko, is slave to this pattern; ultimately, all that matters is that Himeko and Chikane can be happy lovers in some later lifetime.

Some of the best shows invert this trope—in Honey and Clover, for instance, does Takemoto win love?

But again: most give themselves up to it, to this “hero’s journey” version of romance.

… and what happens beyond that?

Perhaps I speak only for myself when I say I would like to read a story about someone who has found that happiness, overcome those hardships, and is now dealing with daily tedium. How does she remain enthusiastic about what she loves? How does he remind himself of his luck? How does he enjoy what he has?

At the rate at which movies, both live-action and animated, from across the world convey messages of taking risks, moving on, going for your goal—doesn’t the consumer grow restless?

Perhaps I speak only for myself when I say that sometimes I watch a particularly good—inspiring, even—movie or show, one that falls into the pattern I described in the first paragraph but that remains good nonetheless, and I feel a twinge inside: ‘what are you waiting for? Go for it! Find your true happiness!’ And that makes me uncomfortable. Because I’m happy. I’m lucky. At least, I think I am. And show after show, movie after movie, I constantly get this nagging feeling like I need to be more active somehow.

Where are the role-models for a happy, unexciting life with little conflict and a lot of repetition?

The answer is obvious: Aria is a good example. But beyond Aria. Something more relevant to the life of a human on Earth, who falls in love and struggles to live an ethical life in a Mexican Gulf of crude oil? By which I mean—Akari’s world is idyllic. And it’s wonderful. Just like her. But every lesson we learn from her is an abstraction. Is there an Akari who lives in our world, who can act as a more practical exemplar?

I just watched Amélie, a 2001 french film that probably every person in the world except for me had already seen. It rocked. It was beautiful. It spoke to my True-Tearsian crying-heart-imagination whateverthefuckitwascalled.

But Amélie doesn’t teach us much about living.

We see her combat her solitude—and we learn from that.
We see her combat her cowardice—and we learn from that.
We see her plotting—and Ashirogi Muto could learn from that.
And then we see her love and be( )loved; she is happy as she rides on her boyfriend’s electrical bicycle.

What do we see after that?

Has she conquered her fears? Will she not return to solitude someday? She and her Romeo may be fated to be with each other, a perfect match, fated to be together. This is what the movie suggests. And yet, does life work like that? Relatively few contemporary films/shows make this conceit. And without it, all we know is that she’s happy for a snapshot following her first good sex. Yay?

“lolikit, you’re asking for too much,” you might say.

Or maybe even, “lolikit, no one thinks that deeply about these things…”

But I am. Because I just watched a movie—that one on the 22nd, with my gorgeous gorgeous CCY-senpai—and that movie betrayed the trope.

STOP RIGHT THERE.

Before proceeding, I need you to understand that I am expecting of you all the maturity required to sit there as I tell you that I liked the Haruhi movie. No, no, no, you don’t get it. Today is not April 1st. You can trust the internet. Shut up. Sit there and listen.

The Haruhi movie was good.

But my praise relevant to this post (which is forthcoming below) was not my first reaction to the film. Reality check: I still think the show had some major, major shortcomings. I don’t think it was good. In fact, I think large chunks of it straight-up blew. I’m not flip-flopping.

So. Initial impressions.

First: why did I go to see the movie?
In all honesty? I wanted to troll the shit out of it. I didn’t want to watch Mazui’s “super low quality” camrip, and I didn’t want to spout verbal diarrhea without knowing what the movie was actually about. I managed to avoid spoilers for a long time… when CCY told me the movie was about Nagato, we already had our seats. I was surprised, and I knew I was in for a treat. Not because I’m a Nagato fanboy. Because I had the feeling it would be interesting.

I also wanted to see Haruhi on the big screen—Kyoto Animation didn’t let me down.

Second: any memorable reactions during the movie?
I laughed with the crowd during the opening animation. My heart raced when Asakura Ryoko entered the classroom—I admit, that was epic. I noted Itsuki’s jealousy very happily. I’d never been satisfied with pigeonholing him into the role of “comedic gay guy,” and having this much more realistic reason behind his treatment of Kyon was extremely gratifying. I winced every time Hirano Aya spoke, but she was relatively reserved, so it wasn’t too painful. It helped that Haruhi’s screen time was something like 5% of the movie. Awww yeah. Kyon running to Haruhi’s high school in the altered world was also exhilarating.

Third: any objections?
Two major objections:

Objection A. Kyon pressing the enter key to initiate the reset sequence. He clearly didn’t need to do it to be with Haruhi; the only explanation I can think of is that he wanted to be firm with Nagato. There might be some technicality I’m missing, but it seemed like he and Haruhi hit it off pretty nicely in the altered world. The club had gathered, and what was to stop them from having a fabulous time together?

Objection B. The lens flare during Kyon’s internal dialogue.

Fourth, and last before I return to my main topic: immediate, post-watch summary of feelings?
It was solid. The story was interesting; many of the important parts were very well executed (Kyon’s breakdown being a high-point, his hunching over his bike and saying “I miss Haruhi” being another). Stupid fanservice ratio was much lower than for the actual show. Nagato’s blank personality guided entirely by infantile emotions was very well done, too; initially, I feared “oh crap, did she write herself to be this way? Fucking damn.” But then it became clear. She just erased the lock on her emotions, and became a sort of empty human—empty, that is, save for her feelings for Kyon.

Now, back to the subject at hand.

Kyon.

Kyon.

You spend 15,000 summers with Haruhi, and you still want to be with her. You’re still satisfied with her, with your life. And it’s not because you’re a pushover. It’s because you love her. (Protip: next time you try to justify reverting the world, say that you love her, not that it’s more fun…)

With this film, Kyon goes into the same hall of fame as the beautiful Senjougahara Hitagi. A down-to-earth person who is reasonable and human in his dealings and reactions. Who goes for what he wants, taking others into consideration. Who can home in on the core of an issue.

And ultimately, who is loving.

He loves Nagato—and appreciates very deeply, I believe, that she tried to make a better world for him.

But more than that, he loves Haruhi, and goes out of his way to show it.

Think about it: why would he open that clubroom door?

Think about it: why would he go downstairs to watch that baseball game between two unrelated prefectures?

Think about it: why does he run, run like a madman, when he learns where to find Haruhi? The movie shows us his violent side for the first time. It’s extremely sexy. He goes batshit because Haruhi is missing. And when she’s there, resting by his side in her sleeping bag, his tenderness!

I feel sorry for Itsuki.

He can’t compete.

Ultimately, Kyon humanizes Haruhi. He makes her a sixteen-year-old girl instead of a megalomaniacal goddess. Recall a line from one of my aforementioned favorite shows, Kannazuki no Miko: “You’re neither an angel nor a devil, Chikane-chan, you’re just a sixteen-year-old girl, just like me…”

Kyon makes Haruhi impotent as a goddess. Why would she want to recreate the world? And why would she want to be a total bitch?

She’s improving.

And he, John Smith, is ruggedly taking on an eternity of banal happiness with the person he loves. 15000 summers is nothing for him, it’s a brief moment that Nagato easily erased from everyone’s memories. But 15000 summers is a lot more than Amélie’s “un autre été.”

I hate to say it, but… best anime of 2010, to date?

The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi.

I think we can all learn a thing or two from it.

After noticing Nyoronyolo‘s black sweatshirt in the Marriott hallway, being entranced the part of the design I could see and its trademark shade of purple, remarking to CCY, “dude, is that Nanoha? It’s Nanoha isn’t it?” and being correct, I pumped my fists.

Me: “Who’s good?! Who’s GOOD?! Just one corner of the spell circle, and I knew it was Nanoha’s!”
CCY: “How many shows have spell circles, though? Can’t be many.”
Me: “Hmmm… Fullmetal Alchemist… the watches in Eden of the East… oh! And Dennou Coil!!”
CCY: “Haha…”

Surprise of surprises, AniDB has a magic circle tag.

I’ve seen most of the shows in its lists: Scrapped Princess, Negima, Card Captor Sakura, etc. The ones I haven’t seen are fewer than the ones I’ve seen.

And the question is, are they worth watching? (And do they actually have lots of spell circles?)

- Kara no Kyoukai
- Strike Witches
- Macademi Wasshoi
- Pandora Hearts
- 07-Ghost
- Kurokami
- Tears to Tiara

Spell circles make everything better, but they don’t make shit better shit, so I really need to know if these shows are worth watching. Thanks.

Majime na Lolikit
How Aria Ruined Subtext, or Why Yuri Isn’t Funny Anymore

In early 2005, I finished watching AIR. At the time, I was active on the AnimeSuki.com forums (handle: Broken), and was active in discussing the episodes as they were aired and fansubbed. In the AIR episode 12 thread, someone linked to lovelykitsune.com‘s special feature. LK had written Misuzu’s final diary entry for her. I laughed my ass off and proceeded to read through the rest of his archives. I gobbled up his Maria-sama ga Miteru reviews like candy. It was, as he himself put it, a writer’s gold mine.

Amazed at how humorous this Maria-sama show appeared to be, I downloaded it (along with Negima and Kanon, some of the first anime I consumed after my introduction to the medium via Naruto) and watched it.

I laughed at the subtext and the ridiculous premise (it’s a lesbian Catholic school lolol) but the show simply wasn’t as funny as Lovely Kitsune had portrayed it. Saddened, I groped for a new angle from which to enjoy it, and eventually I found it: I could amuse myself by looking too far into possible subtext and then laughing at how gay everyone was (it’s a lesbian Catholic school lolol). It wasn’t that I was homophobic (those were turbulent times, and I was seriously considering the possibility that I myself was gay—actually, I still don’t have an answer O_o), but the overabundance of this otherness was more than enough to make me chuckle.

After reading Pretty Face (“Become my onee-sama #2!”) and watching such blockbusters as Mai-HiME (ShizNat) and Kannazuki no Miko (best confession scene ever), I found that I liked this ‘shoujo ai’ business quite a bit. They were so cute, and in a lot of cases they were facing adversity in order to stay true to themselves and their hearts.

A lot of the lulz went away, but the yuri goggles remained.

(What am I talking about? The lulz was as strong as ever. I lurked the shoujoai.com forums for a while and witnessed the first ever declaration of YFR—the hilarious forum interchange that led to me creating kyousora.com and infecting the minds of several other anibloggers.)

Eventually I came upon Strawberry Panic. It made me laugh at the yuri because it was laughable. I blame this entirely upon premise and script. Oh, and the over-dramatization of everything. Around the same time, I was just a fledgling aniblogger. I discovered danbooru. I discovered various other things… like Shoujo Sect… long and short of it is that I came to this revelation: yuri is hot!!

Subtext became even more awesome as I tread into the world of AWESOME Nanoha.

Desires were fulfilled as Kyoushiro to Towa no Sora ended.

And after some time, I saw Aria.

You say good things sometimes, Alice!

Aria’s an odd cookie. Almost entirely female cast, lots of deep caring and emotion, and yet not once—not once did I find a hint of girls’ love, subtextual or otherwise. I found sisterly doting, I found friendship, I found admiration.

Please direct your attention, for a moment, toward this post of Erica Friedman’s: Yuri Anime: Aria OAV Arietta (Thanks to icystorm over at Miminum Tempo for the heads’ up.)

I’ve never been a huge fan of Friedman’s. I know she’s done some great work, etc., but one day I stumbled across some Noir review of hers and it made me cringe. Noir wasn’t yuri as far as I could tell. I recall thinking to myself—is friendship such an impossible thing?

This is, for the record, the same reaction several of my classmates had in Bible as Literature when my teacher presented unto them the theory that David and Jonathan were “romantic friends.” So maybe I just had a preconception of Noir since I’d seen it before and might find the romance between Kirika and Mireille if I were to go into the show with Friedman’s review in mind… but there’s still a distinction, I feel, even between:

- romantic friendship

and

- sexuality

I can’t really imagine David and Jonathan going for that hawt hawt butthsekcz. They definitely did seem like more than (contemporary definition of) friends to me, though. The characters in Noir share an incredibly powerful bond; does that mean that they are a yuri couple? I don’t recall any indications that the two of them felt ANY attraction toward each other, physical or mental or otherwise. I was under the impression that they were brought together by the past, or fate, or something dumb like that, and that perhaps the “odd bedfellows” saying applies.

But a yuri couple?

And I say that same thing to Aria, only a million times over.

Creating something, together—possibly the height of human existence.

When I first watched Aria episode two or whichever, the one where Akari sleeps over in Aika’s room, I probably thought something like, “oooo yuri action oh yeah.” I guarantee that by the time I finished season one, such vulgar thoughts had been completely dispelled. When I say vulgar, I am not incriminating yuri—I am incriminating subtext. Sure, it’s there, and I’m sure people can find it (after all, Erica Friedman did!), but what does it add, other than cheap giggles? If it’s not solid, if it’s not canon, it’s only speculation.

Speculation is something that you get fans to do when you try to entice them with fluff (see: Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu). Did Kozue Amano want use to try to figure out which of the Aria girls were getting off on which others’ fingers? For some reason, I doubt it. Did Mag Garden? Please. It’s there, but only if you’ve trained yourself to find it anywhere can you find it in Aria. Subtext can literally be found in everything if you’re well enough trained.

It’s like over-analyzing things.

I’m not trying to be a deconstructionist, I’m just trying to rationalize—what benefit does Aria gain from lesbianism? I found it quite reassuringly non-retarded that the work just about never touched on sexuality (we know Akatsuki is crushing on Akari and that Aika and Harry Potter get together, but even that doesn’t tell us that much) because, from my point of view, sexuality is a fairly boring topic (though this does not mean that I intentionally ignore it). It’s much more interesting for me to focus on the scenery or the messages or the character drama than the possibilities of who’s attracted to whom. Yes, believe it or not, you can have character drama without romance! Alicia and Akari’s tearful hug in Origination 13 was not the culmination of their lust and sexual tension.

gomenasi, for everything gomenasai

Before you say “but it could be!” let me point you to a very similar scene, both in direction and character action: AIR episode 6; Tohno Minagi returns to her mother’s home and the two share a tearful embrace.

The writer(s) behind AIR had serious mom issues, methinks—there’s a bit of a trend here.

(I refuse to believe that Minagi was hot for her mom. If you think that this is a bad comparison becaue she was hot for her mom, please explain to me why and how she is hot for her mom.)

And because there is nothing explicitly stated in Aria, and because I see no sexuality implied in it, I don’t find any lesbians. Whether the characters ARE gay, or straight, or bi, or what have you, is a pointless question: none of the characters are in yuri relationships. You can spend a lifetime speculating about sexuality if you have no solid cues.

The idea of Aria porn makes me uneasy.

The show is too pure for that. Too innocent. Too much about living a certain way. Not at all about whom to do or why.

Similarly, the idea of pairing Aria characters and doing anything in the vein of fanporn unsettles me, be it fanfic or fanart or so much as discussing one’s support for a coupling. Much as Neo-Venezia is a world beyond disease and homicide, it is a world beyond sex. Such thoughts simply don’t exist in Aria. There was never anything about dating or societal pressures to fulfill gender roles and get into certain relationships or making babies or not making babies or defying a conservative society or taking advantage of a liberal one. None of these topics are touched upon, thus furthering the detachment from sexuality.

And with all the unbridled potential for yuri (a full cast of females at the extremes of hot or cute in terms of both appearance and personality), combined with this total absence of sexuality, I have completely lost my drive to examine subtext or find lesbians in anime.

I don’t see the point anymore.

Why seek cheap laughs or pursue fetishes when something so perfect, so pure, so devoid of questions exists? Aria is the end-all be-all of my anime experience, and it has vanquished my love for yuri. It has vanquished my love for giggling childishly at possibilities.

Aria killed subtext.

And one last note, in case any staunch Aria yuri fans are reading this:

If Akari and Alicia were in a lesbian relationship, would Alicia have left to go get married to some other person? Alicia is mature. She doesn’t need to graduate schoolgirl lesbianism.