Cruel Angel Theses

This was originally supposed to be one of those comments, the long type that almost deserve a blog post of their own, but not quite. I’ve found that those prone towards leaving long and elaborate comments eventually buckle under collective pressure and get a blog of their own, and while I was writing the fourth paragraph of this particular comment I realised the redundancy of it all, and saved it for a post instead. Author‘s probably doing a victory dance right now.

speaking of frogs, the pseudo-yuri pair need to die, along with their puppets

I’ve reached an anime blog burnout of sorts recently. Having 55-odd people on my list, I have the habit of actually taking the time to read the posts of those I subscribe to, whether I comment on them or not. The quality/quantity overload as of late, when coupled with how I’m saving a number of those posts for later due to being behind on some Winter shows, can only mean that my commenting pattern is erratic — I’ve taken to leaving comments en masse on my fellow bloggers’ posts once I get around to theirs.

Jen’s post on kimikiss 13 was one such one I had the privilege of finally reading lately. Ever since she made that elaborate and immensely helpful post on the differences between the game and anime, I’ve realised how much I always look forward to her posts week after week, for they fill a sorely-needed niche in the blogosphere through her passionate writing about an anime that hasn’t been as popular as, say, ef.

Eriko, then, seems at first glance to be the black sheep in an otherwise normal cast of characters. She’s the rumoured school genius, the almost-delinquent that any school would be wont to have; despite not turning up for classes, she scores full marks in all her exams consistently — the quintessential genius cum delinquent, the eternal eccentric forever doomed to silence with the occasional one-liners, and plenty of looking good in-between.

I remember the first time I encountered a silent-type character in anime. It was Evangelion, and it could’ve been due to that early exposure to Rei that I now look upon the archetype with something resembling nostalgia and tolerant amusement. While it’s a matter of significant annoyance if you know that the character’s being silent for the sake of being silent, and not due to some flaw or traumatic past that she inevitably possesses, when done right it’s ultimately satisfying, for who hasn’t been through a sullen, brooding phase in their life at one point or another?

With this in mind, I didn’t find her sudden transition from ice queen to be particularly unrealistic. Maybe it’s due to how I’ve always looked at her as not being “emotionless”, but “indifferent”. In order for this to make sense, of course, you have to take into account how she’s had every reason to be indifferent to life in general, given her high IQ and the manner in which she conducts herself. She doesn’t understand anyone or want to be understood by anybody, and her conducting of an experiment with Kazuki only goes to demonstrate this further — she’s ignorant of how people can’t just be experimented on like two chemicals in a test tube.

You could call this the heart overtaking the head, or even a process of humanisation. Eriko evidently hasn’t loved or been loved in this manner before, and while she might be aware as to the process of relationships and kissing and how the latter naturally comes about as the result of the former, she’s under the illusion that she’s above it all, hence her “experiments”. While I understand how she might have seemed like an ice princess initially, Eriko’s never been fully guilty of the emotionless, played-to-death stereotype present in shows of this genre, always deviating from the mould , and that’s why her character works for me.

“Let’s count the amount of expressions that I’ve made in the 13 episodes so far… one… one… one…”

One particular point that Jen made which I feel deserves addressing is this (emphasis mine):

A few weeks back, I thought about how an H&C-like “inner thoughts monologue” of the characters would do wonders for this series. I’m happy to see that we’re starting to see more of this effect in the show, like the case of Mao and Asuka. I used to think that we need this monologue for Kai, but I don’t think it’s necessary anymore, given that we already see him opening up. It’s a must for Eriko however, especially with the abrupt character development we’ve seen of her.

My contention here is how Takemoto’s monologue was more or less essential in that his thoughts were of the private nature, one not easily shown if not done in an omniscient manner. His story was that of coming of age, of falling in love for the first time, and how would this have otherwise been articulated with such bittersweet honesty, if not through displaying his inner thoughts?

This is why I think the monologue is unnecessary for Eriko. Honey and Clover’s was great because it didn’t necessarily focus on all the characters with the same emphasis as Takemoto, and Eriko’s a good example of how it’s better to show than tell in this instance. I don’t need to know her thoughts if her actions speak volumes: for example, her going out with Kazuki to the ramen shop and suggestion that they play Hide and Seek at Mitsuki’s house — they all speak of her wanting to be accepted, a far cry from her previous self.

With that in mind, it’s no surprise that she’s finally come to fall for Kazuki, and fall hard, despite her unnatural approach towards love. In that sense she’s about as human as Shana is in terms of her emotions, which are quite immature and undeveloped for someone of her age — she doesn’t know what it’s like to feel the way she does. Who needs monologues anyway, when her feelings are written all over her face?

Throughout most of ef’s run I would watch it back to back with kimikiss, fashioning a balance not unlike that of Good and Evil; in one corner, the much maligned yet ultimately brilliant ef, branded a pariah for doing things differently; in the other corner, the blogosphere’s darling, a picturesque, if somewhat vanilla kimikiss lauded several times over for bringing H&C’s magic to a dating sim adaptation. While the former redeemed itself quite some time back with a strong finish, the latter isn’t doing too bad if recent events are anything to go by, and I’m glad the long, slow wait has finally paid off.