Comments on: The Architecture of Signifiers

By: Responding to Some Amazing Hidamari Sketch Posts by Cuchlann (Part 2) « Fuzakenna!

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:57:55 +0000

[...] The Architecture of Signifiers [...]

By: Bakemonogatari Assorted Commentary Clippings « FungaFuFu

Bakemonogatari Assorted Commentary Clippings « FungaFuFu — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 08:49:38 +0000

[...] SHAFT certainly has a penchant for picking up on animal motifs or using other symbolic stand-ins for characters; a long time back Cuchlann over at SuperFanicom put up a post on signifiers in Hidamari Sketch: http://superfani.com/?p=3446 [...]

By: Will of the Wisps

Will of the Wisps — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 16:24:43 +0000

In a sense, this is the kind of posts that makes me jealous of English majors — I wish I the analysis skills or the insight for this kind of work. I will be looking forward to your other analysis!

By: Cuchlann

Cuchlann — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:02:20 +0000

@thebign @vendredi: Other interpretations are certainly viable. What I included, concerning the characters specifically, represents either what I *consider* to be pretty simple and obvious and my personal interpretations. Hiro is certainly touchy-feely, for example, as evidenced by her hair (not the symbol of same) wagging onto screen at times like tentacles.

The main thrust of the essay comes right at the end, I’m afraid — at least I didn’t include it in a footnote like Freud. All the other stuff just makes up (hopefully interesting) *stuff* with which to back that up. :)

By: vendredi

vendredi — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 05:54:16 +0000

My thoughts coincide with yours regarding Sae and Yuno, but as for the other two…

The cat paw interpretation actually makes a whole lot of sense. Up until now I was thinking more of a general “animal-paw” idea behind Miyako’s symbol – indicating possibly her perpetual hunger and also tendency to appear as a rather impulsive character, a “creature of instinct”, if you will.

The octopus-hair interpretation is pretty interesting. My initial gut reaction to it was that I thought the frazzly tentacles indicated more of a “touchy-feely” personality, maybe with a bit of sensuality, noted with regards to Hiro’s warmth as well as love of food.

By: TheBigN

TheBigN — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:19:32 +0000

Before x365 had begun, I tried myself to do a character study of the main characters by using a single shot (or two) which I felt exemplified each character the best. I like how you distill that even further by showing how even symbols can be enough, if used in the right context, to describe the characters. Though looking at it, our descriptions of Hiro are pretty different. :P

By: Pontifus

Pontifus — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 01:24:54 +0000

I was always interested in those few moments when Yuno’s X turns into an O, though I can’t remember the circumstances exactly. O is the “correct” to X’s “incorrect,” or the omicron to X’s chi, to throw out a few probably-irrelevant interpretations. One way of looking at it, I suppose, is that the O has more in common with the symbols of the other girls, particularly Miyako and Hiro’s, both of which include circles. Maybe it’s evidence that people are prone to revise the symbols they choose to represent themselves based on the symbols they choose to represent others, whether consciously or subconsciously (I’m thinking subconsciously, as Yuno never seems to be aware of it when her hairband turns into an O). In any case, the characters become so tied to their symbols that the change of a symbol, however momentary, immediately evokes in me a sense of deep change in the character herself.

By: dm

dm — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:07:06 +0000

After Miyako gives Yuno the nick-name Yunocchi, you occasionally see Yuno represented as: (small-tsu)-X. The small-tsu is a typographic convention in Japanese for representing a doubled consonant. X is, among other things, the Greek letter chi, turning the in-show convention into a multilingual pun.

By: Cuchlann

Cuchlann — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 23:00:07 +0000

Yes, to all of the above. I meant to talk more about her art, thanks for bringing that up. I would go so far as to say that (illustrations for Sae’s books notwithstanding) Miyako is the one who might end up as a career artist. I don’t think that’s even what the others want out of life.

By: zzeroparticle

zzeroparticle — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:53:45 +0000

And to add on to that comment about Miyako, I’d say that she’s the character in the series least restrained by societal norms and conventions. Throughout the series, her outbursts and her mischief demonstrate this along with her unbounded creativity which she conveys through her quick, oftentimes abstract sketches that only she can see. It’s this independent mindset that makes her the most feral of the lot, thereby emphasizing the appropriateness of the paw mark further, but it’s also the reason why I’m convinced that she’s the genius of the four when it comes to art.