A quick discussion on two unrelated topics here, a concept I like to call ‘halo characters’ and a rant (albeit spoiler-free) on the status of Kure-nai through episode 9.

It’s pretty much as is, so let me use this pre-jump space as a mini-shoutbox, a mini-rant within a mini-rant post. It’s like those Russian dolls.

* Does anyone have plans for Anime Expo (AX), the weekend of the 4th of July? Some friends and I are considering making it happen (albeit very unlikely) and I’m just wondering if any of you can bribe me. Or provide rooms. Come to think of it, those two might be related.

* Those who said ItaKiss were better than Special A … yeah … you’re right. The latter has been on a horrible, horribly spiral recently with just Hikari bearing the weight of the show (Kei has since collapsed, for now).

I’m hoping this is just a result of S.A. spooling up for a bit of awesome later on, but ItaKiss is definitely pushing a lot harder with more plot and more intriguing characters. I don’t even hate Naoki any more, that’s how good it is.

* 300+ MB releases of Toshokan Sensou make me a sad panda. It’s one of my most-looked forward to shows of the season, yet it’s stalled out for me on episode 4 as I struggle to look for low-size subs. I use direct download, not torrenting … maybe that is my problem. Unless the crackdown in Japan busted a Toshokan Sensou capper, or something. It’s a tough gray-area issue to argue, so I’ll stay away from that.

And now, onto the main (minor) event…

Halo Characters
It’s a topic I’ve touched on briefly before in the past, and now it’s time to give it it’s 15 paragraphs … minutes … units of fame.

Halo characters don’t wear funny suits of green armor and a helmet, nor do they sport a glowing ring above their head, but rather, I mean halo characters in a different sense.

The concept of ‘halo characters’ is derived from the idea of a ‘halo car’ in the automotive industry, a magical, super-deluxe vehicle meant to bring up the image of a brand as a whole. It doesn’t have to be a usable, daily driver car; heck, it doesn’t have to be accessible to the majority of the public. It’s just a sort of display of power, like a nuclear warhead, that brings an aura of class, performance, or maybe both to an automobile maker.

I’ve extended the same concept to anime simply because I’ve followed the same train of thought when watching some anime. Sometimes, there is a character that’s just so incredibly, incomparably awesome that they just make the show shine when they’re on screen. They can do no wrong. Typically, they evolve in a sort of fourth-wall moe sense past any logical reasoning, to the point where their character may be flawed, it may be ridiculous, but you don’t care because they’ve shown up again and made the show awesome.

This trend personally is most apparent in harem anime for me, or for shows with a wide cast in general, especially those with direct character competition. One finds one or two characters out of the crowd that are more deserving, more adorable, or more amusing than the rest, gets to rooting for them, and it simply snowballs from there.

Well, some people may be sane enough to stop at an earlier point, but personally, I have a lot of fun cheering (in my head; unfortunately I am not man enough to scream in real life due to anime just yet) when a character shows up to make some awesome happen.

Of course there are some downsides to this, such as the reality distorting that tends to happen (as I’ve noticed I can’t rationally and sensibly explain why I’m smitten with Shiori anymore), or the fact that this takes away the focus from other, equally deserving characters in the show which just happen to not be the same one as the character you are idolizing.

But on the whole I find it a lot of fun, and another way to immerse yourself in that famous (perhaps infamous) anime experience, where one forms a real bond in the show, to find yourself a halo character from at least a few shows, that break all laws of rationality and common sense. You don’t have to be a raving, banner-waving, “kyaaaaaa~” (or “kitaaaaaaaaaa~”) shouting fanperson, but if you at least crack a smile whenever you see your favorite character on, it can add a bit of entertainment to your show.

Provided that you didn’t pick a side character to idolize, whereupon you will be horribly grumpy at the lack of screentime they get.

(Incidentally, some halo characters on my side: Osaka [Azumanga], Shiori [Kanon], Nagato [Haruhi], Otoha [H2O], Mina [TokiMemo], Tsukasa [Lucky Star], Satsuki [Tsukihime])

Kure-nai and the Kuhouin Conundrum
Kure-nai is one of those shows that could probably have a made-for-TV documentary created from it - perhaps it is just my perspective on it, but it really seemed like an anime that came out of nowhere to become one of the most talked-about and enjoyed shows of the spring season.

And truly, it is a very strong show in many regards. The character interactions are always entertaining, with that delectable mix of warm, fuzzy slice-of-life and straight-up humor tuned to a razor-sharp edge.

The personalities themselves are a great mix, from the typically overapologetic (yet well-meaning) Shinkurou, to the naive noble child Murasaki, to the cold and lonely Yayoi, the mysterious Benika, the double-edged love interests and plot characters from Shinkurou’s school and the just simply comic characters living in Shinkurou’s house, all of them are at the least very amusing or entertaining to watch and at the most almost sobering in their maturity and realism.

Undoubtedly it has shone in its moments of light drama, like in the seventh episode “Women”, where some relationship drama ensues between a few of the lesser characters. It’s a quite fresh perspective of romance, without all the fuzziness and simplicity of a one-versus-one field, instead opting for the larger ocean of college students looking for love, companionship, or a bedmate. Rarely do we see this side of love without it getting over-the-top with boxcutters and bloodiness but in Kure-nai it’s treated with respect and as such it comes across as a good lesson about women, an intriguing way to see more into a character, and an amusing scene too, courtesy of Murasaki.

Where for me, though, the show goes wrong, and you’ll excuse me if this is just a serious, too-long expansion of something that the dinosaurs have already trampled underfoot, is when the sweet slice-of-life exterior of the show gives way to the bitter plot-filled, dramatic interior.

Perhaps it’s my fault for not paying attention to the plot of Kure-nai but the Kuhouin backstory shook me off from the start like a bucking bull, being horribly confusing to me with all the vague foreshadowing and evil glares, until episode nine whipped it back into line. I’m grateful to Kure-nai for catering to dense people like me - while others may feel cheated by the show stating the enemy’s motives straight off - but the characterization of the Kuhouin family grates on my nerves even more.

What I’ve been lucky to enjoy in a lot of shows that I watch is a blurriness between black and white; there’s never really been very many “epitomes of true evil” evident in my anime. Sure, there might be a jealous haremette, a vicious gamemaster, or someone out for the main character’s throat, but all these characters are eventually shown to have realistic motives and stories that still affect you in a way other than inciting hatred.

Kure-nai drops the ball in this regard - at least so far - with regard to the Kuhouin family in the depicting of their characters as loli-raping, innocent-punching, stomach-kicking no-holds-barred vicious fiends who do all this for the means of upholding the family name.

Perhaps it’s sensible; crazy cults do exist, and people do go crazy with power, but my beef with the Kuhouins is that they really clash with the rest of the show. Everyone else has a bit of a conflict, a light side and a dark side; in varying proportions, definitely, but you never get the sense that a character is wholly flat. Even the side characters, Shinkurou’s flatmates, have more than just comedy to them.

But the Kuhouin family, at least the section of it sent to Shinkurou’s apartment complex in the ninth episode, is just pure evil. It’s not so much that I dislike their character, but dislike the lack of dimension to their character, relative to everyone else.

Of course, there is still time for change, and there might be one character who is the voice of dissent, who could make the image of the Kuhouin family as a whole mixed and gray-area, but as it is now the majority of individuals in the Kuhouin family are just way off the deep end of the ‘bad guy’ pool and don’t contribute much to the story except in a purely plot-device sense.

My viewership of Kure-nai is kind of like falling in love with a bipolar person (no, not a tsundere), where you really, really like one side of the show and wish you could just take that part of it, as opposed to the other side which turns you off. It remains to be seen whether the ugly side of Kure-nai will sink it or not, but overall I still have high hopes for this show - although it may feel a bit empty next episode…

-CCY

(Oh god the IOSYS it won’t go away can’t stop singing vocal Touhou remixes … I swear, I break new barriers I placed for myself on the road to Touhoutardism every day … yet I’m still less than 1% of the most hardcore fan of it.

Also, more pictures = good?)

If you liked this post, try...

• July 9, 2008 -- [Rapidfire] The Touhou Conspiracy, Part I: Analyze it slowly! Yukkuri
• July 3, 2008 -- Memorializing Makoto: School Days, one year later
• June 15, 2008 -- [Rapidfire] Shuffle! returns, selling out, Howl’s Moving Castle and emotional connection
• August 14, 2008 -- Lost my Magic: Why I suddenly went missing from ItaKiss and the shoujo scene
• June 25, 2008 -- Eating Your Cake Too: Shippers Anonymous and the curiosity of desire

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 at 8:34 pm and is filed under Analysis, Kure-nai, Rapidfire. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.