Ok, finally managed to watch air 9 and 10 last night. I should have been doing other things (like writing a real rant or something) but i just felt the need to veg, and for some compelling reason i was in the mood to watch the a show that is emotionally moving to some extent. Possible spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen em, but they are minor.
I’ve said before that sometimes the inspiration that you get from something is not only in how much you like something, but also in how you note that you would approach what it is doing differently. I confess, i tend to not only like but always want to write stories that have a high level of emotive movement in them. I always get into trouble with Megatokyo because it was never really set up to be that kind of story but i tend to interject a lot of it anyway. Warmth is a story where i am free to cut loose with a complex emotive roller coaster … which i wonder is a good thing or not.
A good emotive story is tempered by a lot of touch points and things that ground it in ways that readers/viewers can latch onto it and can understand it. Air does two things that to me create some stretches for people that make it harder (tho not impossible) to make that emotive connectivity between the characters and the viewer. The game is a bit more intimate than an anime is, of course, but it still applies there too. I’m not a fan of flashbacks. People are linear thinkers, and having to apply a layer of logic and backward thinking to what you are seeing i think causes an stretch in the emotive connection between you and the characters. Also, with this 1000 year leap back in time… its too fantastical, i think. It’s hard to connect with it. What touchpoint do modern people have with that ancient past? (even if it is well rendered.)
I think if i were japanese it might be an easier connection, so i’ve kept that in mind, and you can also argue that there are plenty of stories that take place in ancient japan that are very moving - the problem here is the jump. We are comfortably set in today, trying to grasp what is wrong with Misuzu, and fwoom, you get dumped into a 1000 year old story arc. I’m not saying that this is bad story telling, its just that to me, it weakens much of what AIR has been so good at up to now - the explanations start to become stretches that are alien to our own experiences and understandings of the world, and we have to work harder to maintain the emotive connections.
The flashbacks and jumping back and forth of the story combined with the extreme amount of faith that must be given to the fanciful and the magical take a lot of the mystery out of things - the problems of these characters suddenly become bigger than anything you or I would have to deal with and with that we sadly loose some connectivity.
I’m not being harsh here, honestly. This is more a reaction based on my own works and how seeing the completed work of some very masterful storytellers compares to the kinds of things i want to do and am doing to some extent. I think that Ayu’s plight in Kanon is very accessible because so much of the details for it remain a mystery, and i think explaining the mechanics of that mystery would have just hurt the story. It’s a fine line to walk, really.
Anyways, i don’t have much time for writing or watching anything right now anyway. The next two weeks are gonna suck because of the move and i’m still wondering if i should plan for a missed comic or two, or try fitfully yo not miss anything in the next two weeks. If i can manage that, it’d be a miracle, but somehow i think i could do it.
- pirotunes: Thievery Corporation - Scene At The Open Air Market -
… at least i hope i will. The sad thing is, all i wanna do right now is sit here and vegetate… can’t let myself do that, too much left to do this week.
I suppose it’s nothing to be ashamed of - MT rolled in at #10 with Sin City 1- 4 taking 4 spots over the #1, 3, 6 and 7 spots. I’ll keep my mouth shut from now on