[my 12 Days 6-8 are all compiled over here]
Awwww yeaaahh!
I’m actually squeezing two things in together here [joke cut], but you’re grown-up, you’ll deal with the inevitable heartbreak.
The first thing that made my heart well up in all sorts of happy glee, in this show, was the awesomeness. I think it actually contains some two metric tons more awesome than Mazinger Z, but then I was always a sucker for awesome-physical fighting — and Sengoku Basara doesn’t space out the awesome with twenty episodes of grunting, like some shows I could name. It helps that Production I.G. animated this show; they’re not fucking around when it comes to animation, those guys. It helps the show achieve a kind of fighting aesthetic only a few things can call a personal thing — Cowboy Bebop, again with its animation, alongside the music, had its own fighting aesthetic, that managed to cross through martial arts, gunfights, and space combat. Bruce Lee’s oddly formalized, frozen-to-hot-handed-combat style is also a kind of personal aesthetic. You can think of others, I’m sure, but my point is not everything manages to do this. This show manages it, and it’s filled with so much GAR and awesome and ass-kicking that it’s simply a joy to watch, even when someone’s not actually fighting.
The second “moment” is more specific. It’s that melange of scenes, once Date gets his people back from the crazy old man guy. Everything in that episode and the two following can be described as “loyalty-porn.” Lots of shows, movies, and books all throw around loyalty, and if it’s not entirely cliched we feel a little warm and satisfied inside. But Sengoku Basara does it so damn well I’m tempted to say I’ve never seen anything do it better. The show makes you feel that these people know they need each other, but would do their damnedest to keep their honor cleared anyway. It’s a network of obligation that doesn’t really use guilt — one could argue any kind of obligation implies a kind of guilt, but what the show does is remove what may be true from the equation. For these people an obligation is something you’re almost glad to have. It’s a kind of sign showing they’re who they say they are. It’s one of the primary sins of their enemies, Nobunaga and his people: they entirely ignore their obligations, to one another and to everyone else.
As almost everything else on the list so far, I haven’t finished this show. I hope to once I finish Mazinger Z. Sigh.
12 Days 9 (of twelve): awesome people and the love of honor that binds them!
I actually am let down by the action scenes here. Too much flash, not enough blood and grit for me. That said, I like this show very much for its ‘quiet’ moments. The dialogue, filled with manly turns of phrase so wonderfully delived, is just mad mad win ^_^