[Anime] Mai HiME 24, Steel Angel Kurumi, Elfen Lied

So, I stayed up last night after the kids went to bed to watch the latest episode of Mai HiME, and I've been thinking about it. ( Spoilers )

I can't decide yet if I'm annoyed by it or not, because it goes beyond the "to thine own self be true" theme to a full-blown "will to power" theme. It's probably necessary in the context of story, but the implication now is that Mai is excused from whatever horrors she may commit next because she wants to do them with her whole heart and is not held back by the restraints of responsibility. There is an ugly assumption that nobody would ever really want to be responsible, that responsibility is never part of one's "own self being true".

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In lighter faire, I watched the first three episodes of Steel Angel Kurumi. This is a very silly series. It's about a young man who explores an abandoned and repudiatedly haunted house where, unknown to him, a world-famous roboticist is hiding from the military police. He activates a robot, a pink-haired buxom beauty (think Little Snow Fairy Sugar all grown up) who immediately calls him "master"!

The roboticist is angry because the robot doesn't recognize him for what he expects-- as her master. Madcap hilarity ensues, with a beautiful evil mad scientist after them, a very pushy "give me orders or I have nothing to do!" robot, a priestly older brother to the hero who keeps making comments about how "growing up is hard, right?" and a frustrated roboticst who keeps saying, "I made you, you could at least remember my name!"

This is entirely ecchi (light smutty comedy fare) video. The old general in charge of the military keeps getting caught looking at the nude photos of these "killer combat robots" on his computer, and Kurumi naturally has no clue why every man's eyes start at her chest first. Light-hearted and cute, it's easy to put down, and easy to pick up again. Braincandy.

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In a completely different vein, I watched the first half of Elfen Lied. This is a dark, depressing, violent series, and is completely unrepentant about it. If it uses nudity, it's only to provide a contrast between the prettiness of a character's facade with the ugliness within. The storyline is about a large, faceless organization breeding telekinetics who, unfortunately, are mostly violently psychopathic. One, "Lucy", escapes, but not before a bullet grazes her skull. The escape is one of the bloodiest things I've ever seen filmed; Lucy dismembers the assault squads after her with an ease that would make Palpitane envious.

Dazed and slightly brain-damaged, Lucy awakes on the beach and is taken in by a young man, Kouta, who lives alone in a vast, abandoned hotel. His parents were killed and he's living off an accident settlement, but his intention is to re-open the hotel after he finishes college. Lucy can't remember who she is; she can barely speak.

( Spoiler space for Elfen Lied. )

All of this is shown graphically and explicitly. It's ugly beyond words, reaching a depth of horror and catharsis that most writers can't reach and most filmmakers wouldn't dare touch. I can't say that I enjoyed watching it, but it is compelling, and I'll probably finish it.

(no subject)

Well, after a quick breakfast Omaha and I went out with the girls to Half-Price Books to return a paper-bag full of children's books they'd outgrown, programming books I'd outgrown, and fiction books nobody was ever going to read (Tom Clancy's Bear and Dragon; Tom Wolfe's A Man In Full), and to buy more. Yamaarashi-chan picked up a full set of The Chronicles of Narnia, and Kouryou-chan picked up a nicely segmented but slightly abridged copy of The Wind in the Willows, one of her favorites as well.

We'd somehow skipped lunch and so, desperate for food, we drove to McDonalds. Yeah, I know, we diss MD's a lot, but this was an emergency, man! I had just a burger, the girls got happy meals, and Omaha had a nightmare. She had to try three times to get the order and they still didn't get it right. She went inside and they still didn't get it right. The only part of her order they didn't screw up was the Sprite. Yeesh. So, that was our annual trip to MD's, not to be repeated for another year or so. The burger reminded me of why I don't eat there.

We headed up to Vivace's to hang out with some people, meeting the very lovely amythis (whose name I did remember by thinking of her as "a-myth-is", even though she claims nobody ever does), who writes fascinatingly well-charactered Harry Potter slash, and the equally fascinating Lion, who runs the Futures Project, a discussion site for the implication of practical biocybernetics. I found it fascinating that, even though I can't remember visiting this particular site before, some of the pages on the index come up as "You've read this already."

I went home, and Omaha decided to go hang out with a friend, so it was up to me to give the girls dinner (ravioli and meat sauce), Girl Scout cookies, and give them baths. We've been having an ant invasion, a slow-motion sort, and I finally got tired of it and sprayed the entire line of lineoleum around the bathroom with diatomaceous powder, a non-toxic but very effective ant solution. They've been quiet since.

Sleeping children.

I read to them, one chapter of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, and one chapter of Mole Meets The River. Yamaarashi-chan did her eye exercises, and Kouryou-chan had to do them too. I don't think there's any harm in doing so. They fell asleep in my bed. Before Omaha and I moved them into their own beds, I had to take a picture, they were too cute.

A new fansubbing group for Starship Operators!

Apparently, tired with Lunar Anime's slow translations of Starship Operators and freed up now that Ah! My Goddess the TV series and Naruto has been licensed, ANBU Fansubs has released the first three episodes. I don't know how good they are and we already have those three from Lunar, but it does mean that there's someone else who's paying attention and might actually give us more episodes.

Roller Skating!

The girls on skates.

So, after a breakfast that the girls were allowed to make themselves (Kouryou-chan had cereal; Yamaarashi-chan had peanut butter and bananas on toasted English muffins, and she did a good job of slicing up the bananas herself with a safety knife), Omaha and I took the girls roller skating. Kouryou-chan fell asleep in the car and was cranky when we got there, but after we got a hot-dog into her she was great on the floor. Yamaarashi-chan, who was barely moving last time, was this time confident and gliding across the floor, doing much better.

I like the Skate King place. It has that run-down cheeriness of every place that has to attract lots of children and their parents, but can't afford to charge too much or it loses its attractiveness. The carpet is ancient psychedelica hard-wear, patched in one or two places with duct tape. The crowd was thick this time with kids mostly in Yamaarashi-chan's age. It was neat that by the end of the day I over heard at least one parent point to Kouryou-chan and use her as an example of someone who was "trying." If only they knew how much effort Omaha and I went through to get her to try!

Yamaarashi-chan actually tried the backwards skate, but after one loop gave up because it was too hard. I didn't do it at all. Omaha tried and fell on her butt.

We had a lot of fun.