This week's Tsubasa: Chapter 208

[nenena]

Merry Christmas Eve, to those of you who celebrate it!

As a special Christmas gift from me, here: Have some crap.

Congratulations, CLAMP. You've actually made me identify with Eric Cartman for once in my entire life. Because, reading this latest chapter of Tsubasa, I realized that I just don't CARE about any of your crappy "shocking" character deaths any more. Especially when said character "deaths" are so obviously faked.

So, anyway, recap tiem. Syaoran is fighting Cloney. And Cloney is completely and utterly kicking Syaoran's ass. There's just no contest: the two of them aren't even close to being evenly matched. It's like watching Pikachu trying to fight Godzilla. Or Kid trying to fight Mosquito, if I may make a Soul Eater reference. So basically, no contest.

Cloney makes short work of Syaoran. He easily knocks Syaoran's sword out of his hand, sending it spinning through the air to land God knows where. Next, Cloney kicks Syaoran in the chest, knocking him down. Then he steps on Syaoran, pinning him to the ground.

Cloney raises his sword above Syaoran's heart, preparing to finish the job.

Fay sees this and is all like "ZOMG SYAORAN!!!!" But then FWR waves his hand, sending a gajillion more faceless soldiers to attack Fay and Kurogane, thus preventing them from dramatically rushing to Syaoran's aide.

Cloney lowers his sword and lets the tip dangle above Syaoran's eye. He stares down at Syaoran, dispassionately, and says, "I will do what I must do."

Then he plunges the sword into Syaoran's chest.

Now, here's what the artwork actually shows in that moment: Syaoran's eyes go wide and blank. Fay and Kurogane make "ZOMG YOU KILLED KENNY!!!!" faces. But the actual stabbing is shown in silhouette; we see the shadowy outline of Cloney, plunging the shadowy outline of his sword into what may or may not be the shadowy outline of Syaoran's chest, and the shadowy outline of a massive blood splatter all over the page.

It should be obvious to any reader that Syaoran isn't actually dead. CLAMP's pathetic tactic of using "artsy silhouette action" in a dramatic moment only serves as a transparent trick to allow them to stab Syaoran without actually killing him. I mean, come on. Let's compare for a moment: Every time that Sakura was stabbed through the chest - three times and counting, now - the artwork showed the moment of stabbity doom quite clearly. But with Syaoran, we're getting a pageful of deliberately obscured, shadowy stabbing action. Hmmmm. Clearly there is pathetic-attempt-at-cliffhanger-making tomfoolery afoot.

Cloney raises his sword, flicking a lot - a lot - of blood off of it. We're shown a panel of Cloney standing silently on top of what's left of Syaoran, although Syaoran's body is completely obscured by Cloney's swirling costume. Sigh.

Kurogane and Fay, however, are somewhat less intelligent than the average Shounen Magazine reader (target demographic: boys ages six to twelve), and have completely fallen for Cloney's feint. Kuorgane rushes toward them, dramatically screaming "Outta my way!!!" as he bloodily slices a path through an entire army of FWR's goons. Fay follows him.

We are treated to a delightful moment in which Kurogane and Fay, both in full-out beserker mode, completely decimate FWR's army, again. (Fay's gritty-teethed, crazy-eyed face is priceless.) They cut their way past the goons, and start running toward Cloney. Cloney turns his head slightly, regards them both coolly for a moment, then unleashes a nuclear-level blast of magical pwnage.

The resulting sparkly explosion devastates everything. Kurogane and Fay go down like tiny little gnats swatted by a giant magical hand. The ruins themselves are blown to pieces. When the dust settles, there's almost nothing left. The Dynamic Duo aren't dead, but they're definitely down for the count, lying bloody and battered amongst the now-unrecognizable rubble.

Cloney, still posing dramatically with one foot on Syaoran's "corpse," is the only one left standing.

"Nice," FWR comments, watching over Cloney. "You didn't just get rid of those two, you got rid of all of my fail-soldiers as well." And indeed, we can see the corpses of said fail-soldiers strewn throughout the rubble. "Excellent. That magical eye is turning out to be more useful than I'd anticipated. No, not quite... Perhaps this is now something more than simple 'magic'."

Cloney kneels down, and grabs the scruff of Syaoran's collar. He leans in close, and whispers something into Syaoran's ear. There's no word bubble, however, so whatever he said will have to remain a mystery for the time being.

Then Cloney stands up, grabs the hood of Syaoran's cloak, and begins dragging Syaoran's body toward the rift where FWR is waiting. We are given one final opportunity to see what sort of injuries Syaoran has actually sustained... But nooooo. In the final panel, Syaoran's body is completely obscured by the folds of his cloak. Only his limp arm, and the scruffy hair on top of his head, are shown peeking out of his cloak.

And the chapter ends.

Next up: A two-week break! Oh, CLAMP. You and your lame-ass cliffhangers.

For now, however, I guess Syaoran can join Kid in the exclusive "not dead, but definitely pining for the fjords" Shounen Manga Heroic Failure Club of Complete and Utter Failboat McFailPants Devastatingly Death-Inducing Fail. That's what you get for being a dumbass shounen action hero who runs around picking fights with opponents that are ridiculously more powerful than you.

Comments

[nenena.livejournal.com]

That's very interesting.

Now, here's a question. And this is something that I'm actually quite curious about: Do you think that maybe anime might seem unpredictable to you because you've had a very Western American framework for plot analysis "pounded into" your head?

The reason I ask is that to me, most anime actually comes across as extremely predictable. Like, every single Gundam series, ever. This isn't to say that the writing is bad, just that it rarely manages to genuinely surprise me. (And, on the other hand, actually surprising plot twists *can* be just plain bad writing - i.e. Tsubasa's revelation about Sakura being an AU version of Syaoran's mom. Shocking, yes, but YUCK.)

When I think about anime with good writing, they tend to all be based on manga with good writing. Like Soul Eater. There are notable exceptions, like Seirei no Moribito, but on the whole I think that most of my favorite anime series have been based closely on very very good manga. So I don't know how much credit the screenwriters can get for that. ;)

I also hesitate to say that anime writing as a whole is "so much better" than anything on American primetime television. I think that really depends on what you're watching. We can compare Soul Eater to Knight Rider and say that anime is better... Or we could compare Strike Witches to something like Battlestar Galactica, and then American television would look like the winner.

Edited to add: Oops, correction to myself: Seirei no Moribito was based on a novel, which it followed very closely. Oopsies.

So now I'm out of examples of *completely original* anime with stellar writing.

Um... Maybe Evangelion? At least until the ending.

Gurren Lagann, perhaps.

[corinn.livejournal.com]

First: Apologies. This post wanders all over the place.

Hmm, I think I agree with your point. I don't know your background, though-- have you been raised on the Eastern literature and plots? If so, I'm guessing that the cultural difference plays a huge part in predictability. There are, of course, vastly different audiovisual cues, some largely dealing with personality-- as you expound upon in your earlier analysis of Code Geass and anime character design in general. I've managed to pick that up on my own through the years (yay), and I'd really like to see someone turn the "personality revealed by character design" on its head. Like having someone who looks like Little Miss Innocence be a doublecrosser, or something. Perhaps that's happened; I'm really behind in current anime/manga. (By a couple years. I've just been so busy...) I actually only got into Soul Eater because of your promotion of it. And I don't have oodles of time lately (woe) so I'm only about six episodes into the anime, and maybe 20 twenty chapters into the manga.

ANYWAY.

Another of my big problems comparing American or Western screenwriting to anime is that I don't have cable, and thus am limited to network TV... which has its ups and downs. This past season actually had two new series that out-wrote my on-the-fly plot analysis nearly every time: Eleventh Hour and, most of the time, The Mentalist. Though the leading man annoys me. Anyway, CSI is still decent; Gray's Anatomy got too much whiny drama going on for me to put up with it anymore, since I used to watch it for interesting medical stuff; for some reason I didn't see much of House this season, but it's usually interesting... ummm, what else... Most sitcoms make me tear my hair out because I hate the nearly omnipresent American generalization of families as consisting of a stupid, insensitive lout married to an otherwise intelligent woman who puts up with gross idiocy on an hourly basis. (Thus, I always want to chuck the TV through a window whenever Everybody Loves Raymond or King of Queens come on.) I wish I could compare the writing to Heroes or Lost or some other vastly popular show, but they just never grabbed my attention. So most of my comparisons are to horrible sitcoms, which totally skews my comparisons. Admittedly, there is much higher-quality fare on cable TV. I'd really like to see some of the HBO stuff. Especially Rome. That looks cool.

In comparison to network TV sitcoms, though, I'd really like to see some well-written, intelligent, not-as-simplistic fare. Something witty.

Let's see... Though the original would never fly on network TV due to the many many Japanese cultural references, I wish there was an English equivalent to Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Something like a macabre SNL with a unifying "plot," I guess, as much as SZS has a "plot." SZS makes me realize how many things that bother me are really absurd. For some reason, I think the closest we have to that is either The Simpsons or South Park. Though I haven't watched either in quite awhile, so I could be off.

Blood+ was an interesting twist on the typical vampire saga. (Also an instance of Anime First.) Several big "Wait, what--? NO WAY!" moments in that one. Interesting subplots, huge "world domination through manipulation of a government" conspiracy that is only fully revealed near the end... If it was live-action it would totally be an HBO show. Too much blood and moral squick (well, that ONE scene, for the most part) for network TV. I found it to be refreshingly well-written. I really adore subplots.

Another Anime First is Princess Tutu. It pretends to be formulaic. Well, really, it establishes itself as formulaic, then kicks you in the face with its second season.

[corinn.livejournal.com]

I guess the sitcoms and sort-of "mystery" shows could be compared to monster-of-the-week type anime in its varying degrees of mindlessness. Many are mind-numbing. A very few are brilliant. I'm not saying that all anime is better than average network TV; I'm saying that the above-average anime is better than the average, very popular network TV. Not ALL sitcoms are awful; I just find that the majority are. Not ALL monster-of-the-week or collection formula anime are bad; many are. It's the ones that play with the average formula and make it a bit unique that thrive, in any media. It's like comparing CardCaptor Sakura to Tsubasa, which are both, at heart, collection formulas. I feel like there is a lot of Tsubasa-caliber writing on TV right now, with only the occasional CCS to brighten my evening.

Also, even if a "good" anime is based on manga, that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Some anime based on manga are stellar. Some adaptations are okay. Some make you shriek, "DID THEY READ THE SOURCE MATERIAL?!"-- and that can be in either a positive or negative light. It largely depends on the talent of the adaptive writers. Sometimes "not faithful to the book" makes for good-- or better-- entertainment. Western-wise... Hmm, most books get adapted into movies over here, though... So I suppose you could say that, even though Jurassic Park wasn't entirely faithful to the book, it was an awesome movie. Whereas the very less-than-faithful adaptation of (what I remember from reading it probably twelve years ago) the fairly awesome The Lost World novel was horrible. Then there are writers who can take mediocre literature and turn it into awesomesauce movies/tv. There are writers who take awesomesauce literature and turn it into drivel.

Anyway, I guess I am surprised by the anime I watch (in terms of plot) because I tend to gravitate towards the quirky or innovative ones, and can only watch a few episodes of a very formulaic series before getting annoyed and stopping. It's why I'm a bit apprehensive about the KOBATO. anime, because it has the potential to turn into a formulaic collection series in the wrong hands.

Also, coming back to your point about the predictability of anime versus Western TV: Perhaps the reason I like anime so much is that the cultural differences make things more difficult to predict on my part? Plot devices that are old news in Japan are still somewhat fresh to me, or are at least more interesting than Western old hat, since I grew up inundated in Western literary/media traditions. So what I see as "fresh and new!" is really just a matter of perspective.

Fascinating.


...I've heard a bit of buzz about Geass. I wasn't interested until I heard that there are alternate-history politics involved. Is it worth watching?

[nenena.livejournal.com]

Epic comment(s) is epic. ^__^ I really don't have a lot to add or disagree with, as you already explained everything so well. But a few points...

RE: American sitcoms. I agree that most family-centered network sitcoms are woefully awful. But I think that there are some truly amazing network sitcoms, especially those aired during the "Golden Age" of the late 90's, that were based around either a) a group of adult friends or b) a particular workplace or business. I.E. Friends and The Office, for ur-examples of both types. And then of course, there are the cable TV sitcoms, which generally have more freedom to break with expectation and feature better writing. So yeah, without cable, you are kind of missing out. ;)

I think that several Adult Swim original cartoons are trying very hard to be the American equivalent of SZS. Moral Orel would perhaps fit the bill, especially in the final season, but it ultimately does end on an upbeat note.

Princess Tutu! YES!!! I can't believe I forgot about that one. Yes, I totally agree, that is a perfect example of an anime written originally for television, not an adaptation of a book or comic, that happens to be freakin' amazing in the whole "writing" department.

Also, even if a "good" anime is based on manga, that doesn't necessarily mean anything. [...] There are writers who take awesomesauce literature and turn it into drivel.

Point taken. You're right. I guess that anime writers DO deserve credit for not mucking up their adaptations - or, in some rare instances, even improving upon the original.

...I've heard a bit of buzz about Geass. I wasn't interested until I heard that there are alternate-history politics involved. Is it worth watching?

I think that Geass is a huge steaming pile of shit, personally. But it comes bundled with all sorts of extremely entertaining trappings: Deliciously overwrought melodrama, love dodecahedrons, ridiculous military/political "intrigue," gorgeous high-quality animation, and very very very pretty character and mecha designs. Some of the characters themselves are pretty awesome, too, despite being trapped in a shitpile of an anime.

So, um, that's my opinion of Code Geass. I think it's definitely worth watching if you're the type of person who can enjoy "so-good-it's-bad" fare. If not, then maybe not.

[corinn.livejournal.com]

RE: American sitcoms. I agree that most family-centered network sitcoms are woefully awful. But I think that there are some truly amazing network sitcoms, especially those aired during the "Golden Age" of the late 90's, that were based around either a) a group of adult friends or b) a particular workplace or business.

Ah, and my biggest problem is that I keep thinking of current shows. (Also, I totally forgot about Numb3rs, which mostly rules.) I didn't pay much attention to TV in my teens. (I turned 17 in 2000, to give you a time frame there.) I bet if I went back and watched some of those 90s shows, I'd like some. Not Friends, because the actors almost universally annoy me (it happens, I guess). But X-Files would probably hold me. We actually watched a couple episodes for AP English Lit, to illustrate postmodernism. Evidently they draw inspiration from literature more often than I thought. I've seen part of a season of The Office (US version) and liked it in DVD form. Actually, I prefer most things in DVD form. Hmm. Anyway... Oh, a current sitcom that has BRILLIANT comedic writing: Two and a Half Men. Berta is love.

Hmm, digging in memories... I know I used to watch sitcoms with my mum, but all I remember are the TGIF staples (Boy Meets World, Step By Step), and those I "grew out of"-- or "grew disdain for"-- within a year or two... I never got into the Aaron Spelling shows, or Party of Five, or Friends... I was always a bit of an odd duck in my age group. I was usually reading something while everyone was fangirling over TV and movies. (To this day, I see a movie in a theater once every couple of years, and maaaybe see a new American movie on DVD a couple times a year. It makes people who try to make smalltalk with me depressed. Or annoyed, when I answer, "I read the book, though!")

I was much more adamant about watching animated shows. Afternoon (and Saturday morning) in the early nineties was awesome. Tiny Toons, Animaniacs (which I think of now as a sunnier version of SZS), Histeria!, Freakazoid, Peter Pan and the Pirates, ReBoot... And Nick in the late 80s was awesome, with their lineup of what I now know to actually be anime, most of which I have trouble remembering titles, but had awesome writing: The Little Bits, David the Gnome, Maya the Bee, umm... Koala Walla? ...and another with koalas and a little girl named Sandie. Unless I have the two shows reversed in my head. Anyway, I watched Saturday morning cartoons almost religiously into my late teens, and my mum would watch with me. These days the only really amusing thing I've found in that time slot is The Emperor's New School, which my mum and I will sometimes watch quietly together.

Hmm... Will and Grace was a good one, I think... and I think I used to watch Caroline in the City, though all I remember about it now is that it was about a redheaded cartoonist. OH, I used to watch Mad About You. Mum liked Wings, I think.

I'm thinking I must have a conversation with my mum, reminiscing about good TV.



Thank you for being so thought-provoking, by the way. That's why my reply was so long-- you poked me and turned my brain on, and then it wouldn't shut up. It was pleasant. We'll have to do this again sometime. XD

Perhaps I'll watch Geass, just so I can say I tried. xD