Comments on: “By silverfish imperatrix whose incorrupted eye…”

By: anitations - omo et al. on “By silverfish imperatrix whose incorrupted eye…”

anitations - omo et al. on “By silverfish imperatrix whose incorrupted eye…” — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:55:03 +0000

[...] N told me to. [original post] [those reading in a reader may want to read on the blog for a more sensible presentation] omo: [...]

By: Pontifus

Pontifus — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 01:33:39 +0000

Yeah, you’re fine, I just had a hard time thinking of comments because my line of reasoning was already pretty similar, especially with regards to the setting. Also because I suck at commenting, as you well know.

By: Cuchlann

Cuchlann — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:25:45 +0000

Yeah, I’ll keep watching, probably more slowly. It’s possible I’ll entirely miss the plot hole. Sometimes I’m very oblivious.

By: Cuchlann

Cuchlann — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:24:56 +0000

I’m glad you liked that, it struck me as I was writing the post. Also, more cynically, Neo-Venezia doesn’t have any real citizens or geography they could get wrong. But the first sentiment has more meat for dialogue. ^_^

By: Cuchlann

Cuchlann — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:23:47 +0000

I, uh, guess that’s good?

By: Cuchlann

Cuchlann — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:23:23 +0000

Definitely — my claim that Aria is super-peaceful is by *no means* an indictment of the show; it is most definitely a personal preference.

Had to look up “DITW.” I agree here as well. My use of the phrase “traditional, colonialist breakdown” was meant to indicate that I don’t really subscribe to the breakdown much, myself. Short version: while there are differences in culture, I don’t think they are as pronounced or east/west delineated, as a lot of people like to think.

The small child conceit is a good one. I hadn’t thought of considering Ai-chan as a surrogate for the audience, but it makes perfect sense. I think you’re right there.

By: ghostlightning

ghostlightning — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:33:40 +0000

Yeah!

I’m very glad you can bring “Blue Mars” into this discussion. I too enjoyed YKK immensely.

By: vendredi

vendredi — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 09:31:57 +0000

“In the face of what appears to be a looming threat of cultural hybridization, Aria provides a vision of a world that goes into the stars, but is still essentially Japanese.”

That interpretation actually makes a lot of sense to me. One thing that always nagged me about watching ARIA was “why bother setting it on Mars? All the locations and highlights are essentially a reconstruction of Venice anyway, so why not set the story in Venice?” to which the answer is that it allows the author to take the romantic elements of Venice but present them in a fictional way that is accessible to the target audience – modern Japanese people.

By: ojisan

ojisan — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 08:33:24 +0000

I’ve been an Aria fan for four years or so, and just read the Mars trilogy this year – not really expecting there to be a connection. What’s odd is that by halfway thru Blue Mars, (SPOILERZ) at least some of the more wistful-wishful fantasy elements of Aria make a muted appearance, with believable rationales behind them. It’s part of the nature of colonialism that idealized representations of the home culture are recreated in inhospitable – or at least unlikely – environments.

“it rattles me to watch a show so much about just shrugging and moving on. In the traditional, colonialist breakdown, it’s enormously western of me.” And yet so many DITW Westerners like myself like it for exactly that reason. I migrated to Aria from Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou – one of the most passive and self-effacing manga ever. Stuff is addictive, I swear it.

A good way to represent a Utopic world like Aria is to take the view of a small child – willing to believe, curious but unsuspicious, etc. Which Aria has in the form of Ai-chan, who seldom appears but is the ‘audience’ for whom the stories are told.

BTW, great piece altogether. I musto go lurk in your archives -

By: ghostlightning

ghostlightning — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 03:22:59 +0000

Oh man, just imagine long, graceful and improbably sturdy mechanical designs… ungainly at first, the way mobile suits in Turn-A Gundam are, but long smooth lines and curves, with some lattice-work and gems/stained crystal that allows light to play in ridiculously dazzling ways. They’d be semi-sentient, kind of like the Nirvash, and would be around 12-15 feet tall.