Has an anime ever moved you to tears?

Kanodin · January 20, 2009, 9:05pm

The problem with the manga was that it just started getting ridiculous.

Doug · January 22, 2009, 4:11pm

Nargrakhan:

Kimuzukashii MEIJI:

When Cz says sorry during the fight in space it seemed more like a ploy to get Shannon to lower his guard to me, since she said it as she was charging at him.

Heh… moar spoilers.

[spoiler]The key is she didn’t fire.

Shannon fired his blast, while Cz own weapon systems were silent in that final charge. Note that she got BEHIND him. Shannon even cursed at the opening she had. Cz didn’t fire. Instead she charged. As an Artillery Peacemaker her weapon range is greater than a Dragoon’s (as confirmed in the official art/episode guidebook), further made deadlier by the fact her limiters were off. Cz had the advantage in that duel - except she really didn’t want to fight. Who knows why Cz couldn’t just surrender… maybe her programming made it impossible… but it’s evident that she could decide how she died.

The sequence was like this: Cz was behind Zefiris, swinged in front of her, then got behind Zefiris again. Zefiris was still stuck “forward” with Shannon cursing because Cz had gotten into a winning position. Note that Cz doesn’t open fire, like she had done endlessly the first rounds before. Instead there’s a deliberate several frames that show her moving towards Zefiris… she didn’t need to do that. Just open fire. Because Cz did that, in the next frame it showed Zefiris forward facing Cz again (she had time to flip around again)… and then the head shot at point blank range.

There was a long discussion on 2chan, that wondered about Shannon’s reaction to the head shot on Cz. He seemed shocked by it. The shot with him cursing and then eyes dilating, follows with the killing shot. You then get a reshot of the “she’s behind me” expression he had earlier, and then screaming Cz’s name. The notion is that Shannon didn’t make the shot, but Zefiris did. Earlier in the battle Shannon told Zefiris to not hold back… to give him full power. Then there’s also the open knowledge that the Dragoon didn’t like Cz’s special relationship with her master. Not to say she killed Cz with true evil intent… just that Zefiris didn’t hold back when she could kill Cz. Perhaps Shannon realized too late, that Cz was faking the attack run.

In any case, Cz told Shannon, “I’m sorry” just before the fatal strike. Those two simple words explain everything about her thoughts at that moment… the life she wanted and couldn’t have; the love she felt for Shannon. Another key point: she kept the ear ring Shannon gave her (but hid it from him and the other Peacekeeper). She wanted her old life… fate dictated otherwise.[/spoiler]

Wow, Narg, I bow to your psychoanalytical skills… m(-.-)m

bamboo · January 23, 2009, 1:26pm

I cryed when Spike died at the end of Cowby BeBop. But, more to the point, anime in general nevers fails to engage me emotionally. Here’s one way of looking at it: you go see a live-action movie and while you might get caught up in the characters momentarily, you know that Martin Downey, jr. is not really Ironman and that as an actor, he has a life outside the movie. But with anime the character really is that character (even tho you may distantly be aware that what you’re seeing are just cartoons and that the voices are being provided by some seiyu in a little box somewhere. When something happens to that character, the effect seems more real. To put it another way, Scott McCloud in his book: Understanding Comics, shows how a cartoon has more power to engage the interest of a viewer than does a more representational drawing.

This may just be me, but I always feel sad after watching anime–even the funny ones. There is a long tradition in Japanese art of mono no aware, the melancholy contemplation of the fleeting beauty of things, and I think this is apparent in anime, as well as what you might call “high” art.

baxaca · January 23, 2009, 1:35pm

bamboo:

I cryed when Spike died at the end of Cowby BeBop. But, more to the point, anime in general nevers fails to engage me emotionally. Here’s one way of looking at it: you go see a live-action movie and while you might get caught up in the characters momentarily, you know that Martin Downey, jr. is not really Ironman and that as an actor, he has a life outside the movie. But with anime the character really is that character (even tho you may distantly be aware that what you’re seeing are just cartoons and that the voices are being provided by some seiyu in a little box somewhere. When something happens to that character, the effect seems more real. To put it another way, Scott McCloud in his book: Understanding Comics, shows how a cartoon has more power to engage the interest of a viewer than does a more representational drawing.

This may just be me, but I always feel sad after watching anime–even the funny ones. There is a long tradition in Japanese art of mono no aware, the melancholy contemplation of the fleeting beauty of things, and I think this is apparent in anime, as well as what you might call “high” art.

Buying spoiler tags

Doug · January 23, 2009, 3:57pm

Hey Narg another thing I thought of while watching Scrapped Princess:

There’s another aspect to the whole CZ, Zefirys Conflict… Basically that in the course of the show Zeffy was able to overcome her programming (Helping Pacifica save Shannon from Natalie’s Brainwashing.) While CZ was unable to.

At least that’s my take on it

Nargrakhan · January 23, 2009, 5:29pm

Agreed.

[spoiler]I believe the Peacemakers were designed to strictly obey their commanding authority, so that they couldn’t be controlled by the alien invaders. Of course the aliens ended up having the controller of the Peacemakers betray humanity (Celia Mauser), so that turned out to be a bad idea in the end (unlike the Dragoons, who were loyal to humanity itself - not a central command).

So it was Celia Mauser who prevented Cz from being happy.

Yet technically, maybe Cz did break her programming. She was supposed to kill Shannon… but she didn’t. For that moment when she allowed herself to die, Cz overcame her programming enough to let Shannon kill her.

I like to think that Cz died with a smile on her face… at least she knew Shannon would survive.[/spoiler]

Kimuzukashii_MEIJI · January 23, 2009, 7:17pm

While this thread is going a bit off the purpose it was intended for, I can’t help but chime in some more regarding Scrapped Princess.
I’m not sure if you remember, but when the history of the “ancients” is being told, it is revealed that the Dragoons were so powerful that they were a threat to both humans and the enemy. That is why they added in the need for a Dragoon Knight as a controller. However, adding in the human element of the Dragoon Knight also weakened the power of a Dragoon. That is why the Peacemakers were created, and also explains the safeguards built in to them. One other point: Cz was not required to kill Shannon. The only thing she was truly required to do, like all the Peacemakers, is make sure the Providence Breaker was eliminated. Since they were all “locked out of the system” and unable to return to the world, the fight in space had no real purpose; it was just a continuation of previous hostilities. This makes Cz’s death all the more tragic.

le_nuage · January 24, 2009, 5:08am

True… especialy the fact that Bando or Rando (I don’t remember) didn’t die after being cut in half…

The end was really sad… or depressing.

olf_le_fol · January 24, 2009, 8:42am

About Sutepri, I was more moved when Fulle crawled desperately back to Pacifica, and especially afterwards when Shannon found him and said “Someone should tell him that, wherever he wanted to go, he’s not able to go there any longer, or his soul will not know rest.” Then, when Pacifica cried, without knowing why, when the bath locker key fell from her pocket.