Oh, my, Simoun is sillier than I thought...

[elfs]

Simoun is even sillier than I thought. Get this: it's a long-lost colony on a distant planet. They're all genetically engineered humans. Everyone starts out life female; it's only after a "second puberty" around 16 that they get to choose to change their sex if they wish, but those who have so chosen can't operate their fighter aircraft. (Why anyone would choose to be male in this society is beyond me; women occupy absolutely every upper office.)

The art isn't all that great, either. But damn, there is a lot of girl-on-girl angst. And snogging.

Comments

[nbarnes.livejournal.com]

0_o

Good, vaguely plausible, gender-bending yuri premises can't be that hard to come up with, can they? I mean... it's The Matrix problem all over again; couldn't they have brainstormed up a premise that did everything for their story the old one did and also had the virtue of not suspending their audience's disbelief by the neck until dead?

[velvet-wood.livejournal.com]

Consider: there are genetic males in this society who 'choose' to become female, despite the social and financial negatives that females have, _and_ despite the stigma associated with being transgender and an _immense_ amount of pain and suffering in the process. Also consider that not everyone is at all ambitious... for example the number of women (our 'lower' sex in this culture) who profess to be truly _happy_ in a subordinate role of wife and mother. After considering all of that, it wouldn't be at all surprising that there would be plenty of people willing to choose (if they even consider it a choice...most transgender don't, so I'm assuming there's probably some of them strongly self-identified as male) to take on the 'lesser' gender role, especially if the process is painless and the discrimination mild (less job opportunities) rather than, as it is here, major (_no_ job opportunities, frequest social and familial ostracization, and the ever present threat of physical violence by religious fanatics etc.)

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I understand all that, but it doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the storyline. Although they did get one thing right: because the choice comes after "first" puberty, even the visibly male characters are voiced by seiyuu (female voice actresses), which causes a lot of interesting cognitive dissonance.

The almost universal opinion among anime afficionados is that nobody will admit to liking it: it's humorless, poorly animated, and excessively pretentious, and that when it comes out in the subtitled edition it will be the hot series of the season.

[bolindbergh]

... and the first fansub of episode 1 is now out. (Just in case anyone wants to jump on the hypothetical bandwagon. ;-))

[futabachan.livejournal.com]

The almost universal opinion among anime afficionados is that nobody will admit to liking it

I guess that makes me almost nobody, then -- I'm completely hooked.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, right, open the cockpit canopies, climb out onto the fuselage, and snog, while hundreds of enemy aircraft fill the unfriendly skies.

This does somewhat challenge the plausibility of the setting.

[woggie.livejournal.com]

I am unable to find torrents for Simoun.

How shall I bribe you?

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

http://datorrents.com/ has the first episode, untranslated. Just use the Search function. And still very active as of 09:00 UTC

[woggie.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

So do I bribe you instead? :)

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

Sorry, luv, you couldn't afford to keep me.

[woggie.livejournal.com]

I considered it impolite not to at least offer. :)

Simoun is one of the two best shows of the season...

[(Anonymous)]

...along with Suzumiya Haruhi. Your disbelief meter is set too high, or on the wrong axis. This is real SF, as opposed to simple space opera. Anyone who can watch an anime with magical girls, mecha, or unrealistic space wars in it should have no trouble with a top-notch SF story like Simoun.

Perhaps you are too uptight about the "snogging"? The idea is that the pre-flight kiss connects the maiden priestess-pilots in a way that enables the technology that runs their vehicles to work. ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.") They think of the whole flight as a prayer to god, who grants them the ability to fly. I expect we will learn more about the ancient technology that these people are using but don't understand. In most cases (I've watched to episode 13) there is no romantic aspect to the kiss at all. But what's wrong with SF yuri, anyway?

And some of what you say about the show is simply wrong. For example, most of the higher offices appear to be held by men. Second, the human relationships in this show are strong and realistic, despite the very weird setting. The whole thing, if you are willing to accept the fascinating premise, makes perfect sense. The authors did come up with a great premise. They don't have to look further. And they don't have to homogenize the story to make it easy for the unimaginative to accept.

The show seriously gives us a new way of thinking about gender: ask yourself which gender you would choose when you are 17 and go to the Spring to become an adult. The females who choose to become males take several years to change completely physiologically, and even then I suggest that they are not hormonally as male as people are on Earth today. There is no reason to be bothered by the female voices doing the male parts. The different timbre makes perfect sense in the story.

I can understand some hesitation in approaching this show: the kiss, the yuri, the strange revealing costumes, the apparent youth of some of the characters. But you are denying yourself some good dramatic art if you let your prejudices scare you off this excellent show. For drama, this approaches Nana. And as SF it throws almost everything in anime into the shade.

Re: Simoun is one of the two best shows of the season...

[bolindbergh]

You're a couple of months late, you know. The only people who will ever read this are those googling for "Simoun"...

Hindsighted observation: the yuri anime of the season turned out to be Strawberry Panic.