The Vision of Escaflowne was an anime I used to watch extensively during some difficult times in University. Just the other day I found all the soundtracks I had from the series, including 3 Japanese-language Drama CDs ; I did not understand them at the time as I had just started learning the language. I had the opportunity to listen to it today, and I have to admit, I missed this show.
Escaflowne was probably the last Japanese Animated TV show I really enjoyed from start to finish. The animation was gorgeous, the story was a mix of high-fantasy with mecha-sci fi bits, and I genuinely liked all the characters. The movie came along, and was even better (animation wise), but the story always bothered me.
There were two Drama CDs released to supplement the story, and I listened to the first part today as I quietly strolled around the neighbourhood at 11 PM.
The story being recounted is one of a 10th grader named Hitomi, who is having a personal crisis. Having injured herself during a race at school, she becomes withdrawn from all the people around her.
Her good friend Yukari tries to comfort her and get her to prepare some university application forms, but Hitomi doesn t want to. Yukari proceeds to tell her that she is going into the science department, and is going to one day build rockets that will take people to space. Hitomi mocks her, and leaves her behind as she skips the rest of the school day in a depressed haze.
On the train she looks out at the sea and wonders why the sunlight is so different in winter as compared to the summer, and she lets the train take her where it wants.
Arriving at a large station, her feelings of isolation grow as the mass of humanity around her seems to be headed wherever they would like, while she has no goal, and is just trying to find where to go. She finds herself guided by the sound of music and winds up in a train she never rode in her life.
She stays on the train, supposedly drifting ina nd out of consciousness, wherein she sees a fossilized dragon with its wings pointed at the stars. She is awoken by an old man who asks her what happened to her ankle. She explains that she fell down, and he asks her if she would like to come with him.
She is a bit shocked, and he tells her that she seems to be the only one to realize that time is passing by; everyone else is too caught up in it to realize. After continuing her conversation, the old man suddenly vanishes and she starts to wonder if it is a dream.
Eventually she reaches an odd train station that is located right next to some mountains.
The train leaves when she gets out, and she realizes she will have to wait a long time for the next one. (For some reason she goes to the bus stop, not the train stop, but I can t recall correctly). She runs into a kitten and starts asking her why she is here.
She starts explaining her own problems to the cat, when the old man suddenly reappears. He tells her there is a small limestone cave up ahead, and takes her up there. As they walk onwards, she starts explaining that she doesn t have any faith in her future, she hates the person she was before, and never will fall in love.
The old man looks at her and asks her why she is so pesimistic about the future, and she starts talking about her lack of faith in school. Eventually it reaches the true story about why she was injured. During her time in the running club, there was only one girl she could not pass, no matter what.
At this competition, the same girl overtook her and Hitomi thought to herself If only she didn t exist, I would be the best! . At that instant, she fell to the ground and injured her ankle, putting an end to her running.
From here on in, it starts bridging to the story of the anime. Talking about stuff like how she is the Goddess of Wings , how Folken wants her to bring an end to all that exists (so as to bring an end to sadness), and his brother Van stopping him from bringing her over. To be honest, most of it is fading into mush for me, as it has been an hour or two since I listened to it (and remembering stuff while translating is not the easiest thing in the world).
I guess it says something about me that this was the part I was able to remember, I m not sure that says something about me that I d like to admit :/ I really enjoyed it through, and I look forward to listening to the next part (Gaea). Monday, as is my new custom, I went to in downtown Montreal. The class starts at 7 PM, and I am only able to break my fast at 6:46; meaning that I could not eat 2 hours in advance, or much of anything before class.
In short, I was sustained by a combination of an Omelate Sandwich, a salad, and a glass of Orange Juice that I had at approximately 5:30 AM. I am not sure if the problem is how bad my cardio has become, but close to the end, when I had to chain my kicks with my punches, I nearly blacked out. In the end I could only do about 80% of what was done in the class, but I am pretty happy I managed to get through the day.
Although other people might have other ideas about it, I think it is shameful that I have so little energy despite having a desk job, and barely expending anything the rest of the day. If the Prophet and his companions could work on building mosques and the such during the harsh desert days, why is it that I cannot do a freaking Martial Arts class?
I really need to work harder.
Even now my hands are shaking. Japan and Korea have had an entire history of unpleasentness, ever since one of the first Shoguns decided that he would let Korea play host to the extra soldiers left over at the end of the Sengoku Jidai. The nonsense has gone on, in the form of brutal rapes and other sorts of intransigence from the Japanese in World War 2, and the subsequent polite forgetfulness which translates to history books in which such actions never happened.
Koreans were never one to take things lying down. They ripped off a lot of Japanese technological innovations (such as those in the car market), and claim that a North Korean attack on South Korea necessitates a South Korean attack on Japan. However, nothing is as bitter as their feud over cartoons.
A Japanese writer released a comic book called (something along the lines of) I hate the Korean-wave (Korean-wave being the reference to a growing popularity of Korean culture in Japan). I have conflicting reports about how bad it was (some say that it was meant to be a carciture of the right wing), but it was taken as a direct insult in much of Korea. Korean artists responded with releasing comics detailing grossly (and I mean that in every sense of the word) exaggerated carcitures of Japanese women.
I ve said this before, but both countries are better off wondering why they need constant (read: expensive) protection from the United States rather than sniping at each other. Don t expect sense to enter this feud anytime soon though.
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