Shoujo Kakumei Utena

Most screwed up show I've ever seen. Seriously. Take a girly cartoon, throw in random humor (as opposed to humor at random), and complete it with lots of angst, confusion, and MUCH MUCH WRONGNESS and you've got Utena. It's rather shocking that the target audience of the show is little girls. Nevertheless, I think people tend to avoid Utena because they do think it's for little girls... but get passed that shell and you'll see something very disturbing inside. As the series progresses from episode to episode, shock value shoots way up.

Where do we begin. The series is generally broken down into three arcs. The Student Council arc introduces the major players, starts things off lightly... at least compared to the rest of the series... and is probably the silliest of the three. That's not to say that there aren't silly eps scattered throughout the series... but the angst factor is balanced a lot by typical shoujo antics and really bizarre humor. A lot of character exposition is done here, particularly among the student council members, and it really sets the stage for the last arc. The duels are really well done, with each battle being unique. I would say this arc has the best balance of everything that makes Utena what it is.

The second arc, the Black Rose Arc, seems to be almost isolated in that the major enemy comes out of nowhere, and in the end plays no significant role. That isn't to say the Black Rose arc is worthless... on the contrary, despite every duel being exactly the same, what I enjoyed is the emphasis on the characters' internal struggles. Before each battle, the duelist sits in an elevator, and basically talks about what they're feeling as if to a shrink. The psychoanalysis is sorta akin to the last two eps of Eva. Not to mention, the wrongness factor is driven way up. The series has tons of sexual and taboo innuendos... but while hinted in the first arc, it becomes a bit more blatant here.

The last arc, the Apocalpyse Saga as CPM has billed it, is way more plot-driven. For the first two arcs, you observe a lot of things, but you never know what's going on. This last arc reveals a lot of its secrets, but I still have no clue what the series was about. Haha. I'll edit this once I finish the series a 2nd time. The last arc also ups the wrongness factor, so that I generally felt disturbed after watching each ep.

So if I don't exactly understand it, do I like it? Yeah... I like it a lot. The series is quite twisted. You think everything is normal, and then the show will throw curveball that smacks you right in the face. The "wrongness" that I keep referencing is also kind of a plus, as I've not seen too many other things that elicit such a response. But most of all, it's pretty darn entertaining. It mixes sweet tender moments, cutesy-ness, nice choreographed sword battles, oddball humor, heart-wretching angst, great Mitsumune soundtrack, a quirky directing style and keeps you guessing as to what happens next every step of the way. There's no other series like it.

Kaze no Tani no Naushikaa vs Mononoke Hime

These movies are pretty much telling the same story. I just rewatched both of them back-to-back so I have a clearer picture of them. I wonder if that was intentional, as Nausicaa was Miyazaki's first Ghibli film, and Mononoke Hime was supposed to be his last.

Nausicaa tells the story about a world being swallowed up in the sea of decay. The guardians of the sea are huge swarms of insects who are constantly at war with man. Nausicaa is the princess of the Valley of the Wind. When a foreign ship crash-lands right next to the Valley, she and her land are caught up in a political struggle of survival. The foreign ship comes from Tormekia, a military country in the west and their calvary comes to scoop up the crashed cargo, which turns out to be spoils of war from Pejite, another empire. Each of the three groups is willing to do whatever it takes to guarantee their peoples' survival. In the end, the battle of man vs insect takes precedence.

Mononoke Hime begins with Prince Ashitaka saving his village from a possessed boar-god. In doing so, he is cursed with a deadly disease and is thus banished from his village. He goes westward looking for answers. In the west, you observe a battle between man and nature. Lady Eboshi creates an industrial empire for her and the Tatara people, but at the cost of destroying the forest. That causes the animal tribes to be quite ticked off, not the least of which is the Wolf tribe and San, the human girl they raised. Eventually Eboshi and her town get caught up in political battles as well, because of its great industrial wealth. It finally escalates into a battle of man and nature, with Ashitaka and San trying to save both.

In both, the main theme is man vs nature. They each point out how man the cause for their own suffering. What amuses me is how the West is sorta portrayed as the "villains", but I suppose that's kinda expected. Nausicaa focuses more on how man will abuse their power if it means survival for them. Mononoke on the other hand, shows a slightly less selfish motives, but nevertheless exposes consequences for man's luxuries.

I tend to think that Mononoke Hime was the better film, with a clearer message. The fact that Ashitaka gets integrated into the Tatara way of life allows us to really warm up to these people who are generally quite kind and sympathetic. Its this sympathetic response that brings it closer to home, whereas the self-surviving people in Nausicaa come off as evil. Mononoke Hime's entire story, even its political subtexts, revolves around the man vs nature conflict so it's impossible to miss.

But nevertheless, I like Nausicaa more. Granted it is a little messier in its point, and in some ways does not provide a resolution for its problems, but Nausicaa excels in some areas. Nausicaa herself is quite a charming character. She's tough as nails, self-sacrificing, fears nothing, and always looking after others' interests. Yet at the same time, she is also human - she acts rashly out of anger, weeps when tragedy occurs, and carries a childish innocence. It also feels like Mononoke is a remake of Nausicaa not only because of all the similarities in themes, but even in execution. There were some scenes in Mononoke that seemed straight-up ripped out of Nausicaa and repainted with the new characters. So even if MH was more effective, it often feels like it just touches up on what Nausicaa already did. Nausicaa was a pioneer in the world of animation, so I give it a lot of credit for that. And though it's almost 20 years old, it animates beautifully.

Regardless, though there's much in common with the two films, they'll both captivate you in different ways.