Crystal Tokyo Anime Blog

      About every year or so, a harem type anime series , or at least a anime series that is loaded with girls comes along that makes me wish that I was about the main character’s age and had my choice of those girls. Examples of anime from the past where I would have wanted to have my choice of the girls are; Love Hina, Kanon, Clannad, KimiKiss, Ai Yori Aoshi, Shuffle, Azumanga Daioh, Da Capo, Lucky Star, and now my newest favorite Bakemonogatari.

      I think that the reason why I like these kind of series is that in my younger days, me and my friends were kind of like those harem leads; a little clueless and confused about the fairer sex. But, unlike those Japanese male harem leads we were horny dogs, and any fairly nice looking girl was a target of opportunity, almost nothing was off limits. I think that this phase lasted up until about age 20 when I finally realized that was more to an relationship than getting a girl to jump in the sack with me. But, these harem type anime make me long of those good old days, and what makes these series interesting is that the girls are ready for the taking if the lead would just get off his ass and go for it.

     So, this brings me to Bakemonogatari, I find the cast of girls surrounding Koyomi to be quite an interesting bunch and tasty bunch. Now, I’ll go down and describe each girls in detail, and at the end, I’ll make my choice.

The girls of Bakemonogatari.

Karen and Tsukihi Araragi (Koyami’s younger sisters)

Pluses: Well, they’re both young and cute, and they live in the same house as you making them highly available.

Minuses: If you even consider them you must be crazy, they’re your sisters for god sakes.

Conclusion: While his sisters are really cute, they’re totally off limits for you. I think that the best thing to happen would be if Koyomi had some males friends that found his sisters attractive then maybe they’d stop riding his ass if they got a little loving.

Hitagi Senjōgahara (the star of the fascination movement)

Pluses: She’s very attractive, and she one of the very few tsundere girls to even admit to having that trait, she’s straight forward, and hell, she’s even undressed in front of you. She’s told you that she loves you, and she’s agreed to be your GF.

Minuses: I don’t know, but something just bothers me about her, while I find her an extremely interesting girl, she still has major issues.

Conclusion: While I wouldn’t mind hitting that, I’d always have to keep one eye open in case she snaps.

Nadeko Sengoku (friend of your sisters)

Pluses: Nadeko is young and cute, you see her quite often because she’s your younger sisters’ friend, and she’s clearly crushing on you.

Minuses: Nadeko is about three or four years younger than you, and she’s a friend of your younger sisters. If you dated Nadeko you would be accused of robbing the cradle, and your sisters might think that you’re an asshole.

Conclusion: Nadeko is clearly attracted to you, and you’ve know her for a longtime, so this could be a high risk/reward relationship.

Tsubasa Hanekawa (Koyomi’s long time friend)

Pluses: Tsubasa is very attractive,  intelligent, quiet and thoughtful, and she’s your long time friend. You also know that Tsubasa struggles with her inner nature to be a completely good girl, and that deep down inside she wants to be a little wild.

Minuses: Tsubasa has a terrible family life, and you know that she’s the subject of occasional physical abuse and maybe even worse things.

Conclusion: For all her problems Tsubasa is literally the girl next door type, and even better she harbors a hidden wild side. This is almost the perfect situation; with you, Tsubasa could unleash her hidden wild child and let off all her hidden desires to your benefit making for some rewarding study sessions.

Suruga Kanbaru (you stole her crush)

Pluses: Suruga is very athletic, strong, and attractive.

Minuses: Suruga is a raging lesbian who’s attracted to your GF.

Conclusion: Are you crazy, leave this one alone because she tried to kill you once before.

Shinobu Oshino (the loli vampire)

Pluses: She was once a smoking hot vampire, and now, well……..she’s quite a loli.

Minuses:  Shinobu’s a almost totally catatonic loli vampire, and she’s not good for much interaction.

Conclusion: While it’s only a small step to take from sharing your blood with her to sharing other personal fluids I don’t see this relationship being very rewarding.

 Mayoi Hachikuji (the lost snail)

Pluses: Mayoi, literally is the true eternal loli, while you get older she stays the same.

Minuses: Well, first of all, she’s dead, and secondly while never getting older might be a plus, it would be kind of weird having a ghost loli as a GF as you got older.

Conclusion: While having a ghost loli for a GF might be fun and safe since I don’t think that statutory rape laws apply to dead girls that no one else can see, I think having Mayoi appear and disappear would be quite annoying. Plus, don’t piss her off, because she’s got one hell of a bite, ouch!

The winner of my Bakemonogatari harem prize goes to……………………….

      While it was a tough choice picking what girl I would want if I was Koyomi, it came down to a three way race between Nadeko, Tsubasa, and Hitagi with me choosing Nadeko as my winner.

      One of the biggest deciding factors came down to the simple fact that out of all the girls Nadeko seemed to be the most normal of the whole bunch, and that her supernatural problem was a result of other peoples problems with her, and not her having a major personal/family issue.

        Another factor in this decision was one of the emotional age/maturity level between Nadeko and Koyomi (and boys and girls in general). So, while Koyomi is several years older than Nadeko he’s really at about the same maturity level as she’s currently at. Koyomi’s a virgin boy who’s clearly attracted to Nadeko, and she’s a virgin girl who clearly is attracted to him, so I thinks it’s a perfect match. All they have to do is keep their relationship on the QT for a year or so, and then after another year or two when Koyomi’s a college junior and Nadeko’s a high school senior all people will say is that they make a cute couple and wonder if they’ll be invited to the wedding in a year or so.

      Plus, if I was Koyomi’s age, I wouldn’t mind it a bit to come home to find  Nadeko waiting for me dressed as below, Sweet!

        This episode begins with the corrupted versions of Warin, Sam, and the Turtle Elder’s daughter confronting Marin and Kanon.  They claim that Marin no longer loves Urin and that she wants to kill her, Marin says that’s not possible and she’d never wish for that. So, they say that it’s Kanon and the Turtle Elder’s fault and begin attacking them.

        While Kanon and the Turtle Elder are fighting with their enemies, Warin confronts Marin and tells her that her sister is waiting for her, and all she has to do is give into the darkness and all the sorrow and pain will vanish. Marin can tell that Warin’s heart is in terrible pain, so she tries to purify all her friends with her power, but that attempt fails. The Elder tries to give Kanon his fire to defeat the enemies but she refuses saying that the only one who has to be defeated is Senda.

        Once Kanon and Marin are able to combine powers they create an affect that is able to purify all of Marin’s friends and the surrounding area. Later, back at Kanon’s house, the girls think that they might have the power to save Urin without killing her, and still be able to defeat Senda. When Kanon’s mother stops by to talk with them they can tell that she’s also being affected by Sedna’s growing powers. So, the girls and the Turtle Elder head off to the sea to find Urin, but before they leave, the Elder tells the girls that if he’s taken over by Senda to please don’t think twice about defeating him.

       When the group arrives at the location where Urin was last seen they discover her missing, so Marin suggests that maybe Urin went back to their underwater home. Once there, Marin finds Urin sleeping in her bed, and when Marin makes it to her side, Urin awakens. She tells Marin about a terrible dream she had where Marin befriended the sky dwellers and began to hate her and that she would never come to see her again. Urin says she’s been doing her best to be able to defend herself and she asks if Marin will help her defeat the sky dwellers if they come here. Soon, Urin notices that Kanon and the Turtle Elder are also inside their home and she screams “no”, and unleashes her power blasting a hole in the roof allowing her to flee from the group.

       Later, we see the island sea priestess standing near a cliff overlooking the sea where we hear her tell the sea and the sky not to be sad or have fear and that sooner or later the eternal struggle has to end with the light and the darkness finally intertwining with each other.

       Marin and her group follow Urin back to the place where Senda was released and they hear Urin having a conversation with Senda. A tearful Urin tells Senda that she thought her sister loved her, and she thought that they would always be together, but Senda tells her that before light can purify the darkness she needs to snatch away the light and leave them in darkness and sorrow. Marin tries to talk Senda into letting Urin go but she just ignores her, and Marin and Kanon attempt to combine powers and purify Urin.

        When their combined powers hit Urin, she thinks that this is all the fault of the light, so she uses Kanon’s ring to draw all the power away from both Marin and Kanon. Once Urin has sucked all of their power from them she sends a blast of her own power back at Marin and Kanon.

      Urin’s power hits Marin and Kanon and it draws out and shatters both of their orbs of lights, and Marin and Kanon lose their transformations. Then a huge amount of Sedna’s power is released from the seafloor, and Urin tells them that this is the heart of darkness as she sends it towards them, so please give into it. As the power of darkness sinks into each member of the group the Turtle Elder collapses. As the power of darkness continues to sink into Marin’s and Kanon’s bodies they both get weaker, and Marin says this feels like what happened to her at the eclipse.

       Now, Kanon and Marin come to understand the true nature of Senda and how she was created, Senda is all the sorrow and pain that the islanders have been throwing into the sea. Sedna is the living combination of all the pain and suffering the island people were unable to share, all the misunderstandings between people, and all the loneliness that the people couldn’t deal with. Kanon knows this for a fact because she can feel Ooshima’s pain and suffering, and she can also feel the pain that her mother couldn’t share with anyone after the death of her father.  As, Marin and Kanon are losing awareness, Kanon says that the Turtle Elder had it all wrong, and Marin says that they now have nothing to fear because she now believes that they will be able to save Urin. Well, that’s all for this episode.

      Well, only one regular episode of Sea Story left to go,  I think that things have just gotten a lot easier for the girls to handle. Throughout the entire series the Turtle Elder has been driving Marin and Kanon forward in an attempt to make them soldiers of light in a battle with their mortal enemy, darkness. It turns out that until now the Turtle Elder and the girls were only operating with half knowledge, I had wondered throughout the series why Sedna couldn’t be defeated for good in the past. The island’s shrine priestess had been trying to drop them hints about the nature of the darkness affecting the island and he refused to listen.

       If this had been a typical anime Sedna would have just been a evil creature that needed destroying, but in affect Sedna is the child of every islander who ever went to the little shrine and tossed their loneliness and sorrow into the sea. That’s why Marin felt the same pain from the eclipse when the heart of darkness attacked her, in the previous episode Marin tossed her sorrow into the sea and now it’s returning home to roost. Kanon now understand this because she can feel her mother’s pain, and Ooshima’s suffering. Senda is the creation of everyone who had ever tossed away something to hard to deal with, and now I think both Marin and Kanon understand that Sedna can’t be killed as long as people can’t come to terms with their own emotions.

         This understanding now makes Sedna much easier to deal with because you can’t despise or hate Sedna because in the end you’ll only hate and despise yourself. The key to dealing with Sedna is that the girls will have to embrace her and love her breaking the cycle of self-loathing, self-isolation, and come to terms with all of our painful emotions. This is a message that we’ve seen in many popular anime like in Sailor Moon when Usagi says that you can’t kill chaos but you can keep it in the recesses of our hearts, and also in fruits basket when Tohru tells Momiji that we must learn to live with all our painful memories and feelings, we must transcend them because they make us who we are. I think that all the girls need to do is to give Sedna and nice big hug & kiss, and tell her welcome home, you’ve been gone too long.

Reviewing anime and emotional connection.       

         Generally when I review a anime series I take several things into account like; is the story new or original, is the animation of good quality, is the soundtrack appropriate, are there good plot twists that keep me interested in the show on a episode to episode basis, is the world the creators are constructing believable in some way, is their some overall message the story is trying to convey to me, and many other factors. But, to me the most important aspect of any series is one of emotional impact; when I suspend my disbelief and float away from my 40+ year old self who’s worked since the age of sixteen and spent 23 years in the military and slip  into the main characters’ shoes do their actions, reactions, and emotional experiences to their  current situations feel right and true. Or, in other words, can I actually put myself inside the characters’ heads so to speak, and actually experience all the sadness, pain, loss, joy, excitement, and love along with them?

       While TM 8.0 had its weak points the true power of this series lay in the emotional impact it had on me, I laughed, I cried, and I road along with Mirai on her bittersweet emotional  roller-coaster like journey to emotional maturity, and by the end, I felt drained, but better for having taken the journey.

TM 8.0 characters and story.  

        Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 is a basically the story of three characters sharing a journey through a Tokyo devastated by a major earthquake with its streets filled with the presence of death and loss. When Mirai, Yuuki, and Mari began their journey together their first priority was one of survival and gradually their end goal became one of wanting to return home and reunite with their families. While TM 8.0 featured three main characters the true focus of the series was Mirai’s painful journey to emotional maturity.

Mirai-  Basically, TM 8.0 is told and experienced from the perspective of Mirai; she is your typical 12-14 year old girl, she’s at the point in her life where she’s trying to come to grips with her identity, she’s not a little girl any longer in physical terms but neither is she a young woman  in emotional terms. Mirai feels frustrated because she knows she’s not a child any longer but she thinks that she’s still looked at as being a child, so in affect she thinks the world sucks and nobody understands her, she’s a typical normal young teen aged girl. Mirai’s interactions with her mother, father, and brother reflect this stage of her life, Mirai looks and acts with her family like everything is a burden to her she only thinks and reacts to situations on a how it will affect her basis, and while Mirai might understand that her actions might be causing waves within her family she really doesn’t care. In TM 8.0 Mirai represents the self, but a self that is disconnected with those around her and her responsibilities to family, friends, and the greater society around her.

Yuuki- is Mirai’s younger brother, and he’s your typical energetic and lively young boy, Yuuki rushes forward with enthusiasm to the objects of his interest. What Yuuki wants more than anything in the world is for his family to return to what it was like a few years ago, to a time before Mirai’s teen angst started causing problems in the family, and a return to a time when his mother and father weren’t so busy with work that things like family day trips were more common, Yuuki wants a return to innocence. In TM 8.0 Yuuki represents innocence, but not just is own, he also represents Mirai’s innocence.

Mari- The third member along for the journey is Mari, she’s in her late twenties to early thirties, and Mari serves as mother and guardian to both Yuuki and Mirai. Mari works as a delivery bike driver and she is a widow that supports her elderly mother and her young daughter Hina. In TM 8.0 Mari represents what us adults might aspire to be in that situation by protecting and guarding the weak, and Mari serves as role model for how Mirai might want to behave.

         The story begins with Mirai unwillingly taking her brother Yuuki to a robot convention on their mother’s birthday, the two of them spend time inside the convention center, and then Yuuki wishes to buy a birthday gift for their mother, so they go shopping. After buying the gift, Mirai waits for Yuuki outside while he uses the restroom and goes to buy Mirai a drink. While Mirai is outside she looks at her text messages and asks herself why everything makes her so angry, and in a moment of childish spite she texts that she wishes the world would break, and it does.

        At that moment, a very destructive earthquake strikes the Tokyo area and lays waste to the city. Once Mirai realizes her brother is still inside the building she rushes inside to find him and she meets up with Mari who helps locate and rescue Yuuki from the building. From that point on, Mari becomes a guardian and mother figure to both Yuuki and Mirai helping them get off the island safely.

       The three of them continue their journey home together Mirai, Yuuki, and Mari become travelling companions on a journey of survival where they experienced devastation, loss, and suffering but they also learned a lot about themselves. While on this journey the greatest personal growth was experienced by Mirai, before the earthquake she was pretty self-centered and oblivious to her roles to her friends, to her brother, to her parents, and to the greater society. But, as the group travels through the devastated landscape Mirai began to notice the sufferings of others, courage in the face of loss, and normal citizens doing their best to help others and she found herself lacking. What makes the turn of events even more heart rending is that at the moment Mirai vows to be a better sister, a better daughter, and help when she can, her world is turned upside down by the loss of her brother, when Yuuki died so died Mirai’s innocence.

       Yuuki’s death had such a profound affect on Mirai’s mind that for a period of a couple of days she managed to block out his death and replace those facts with a hallucination of Yuuki still being alive with her leading him home. While I had at first been very cold to this plot twist I went back and re-watched episodes 8-11 back to back and now take a much gentler approach to those episodes. I now feel that the “ghost/hallucination” Yuuki of 8-10 was Mirai’s mind giving her the strength through her memories of Yuuki’s best qualities to carry onwards when she really wanted to curl up in a ball and just cry. At several points after Yuuki’s death his voice through Mirai gave hope and strength to others when there should have been none, that was the voice of innocence and youth speaking.

       When Mirai’s mind finally reached the point where it could no longer suppress the true memory of Yuuki’s death her hallucination of Yuuki comes right out and tells her he died, her world came truly crashing down around her. At that point, Mirai’s depression had reached a level where she no longer wished to return home without Yuuki, and the ”true” Yuuki returns one last time to help his sister complete their promise to return home together. I feel that the final Yuuki was truly his ghost/spirit, because this time Yuuki cast no shadow while the hallucination Yuuki from Mirai mind did, and this Yuuki was much more somber and had the feel of a person on one last mission. When Mirai and Yuuki finally make it home Yuuki thanks Mirai and begins to vanish, and when Mirai tells him not to leave he says he’ll always live in her heart and that he loves her.

       I found the final half of episode 11 to be extremely emotional and Mirai’s reunion with her mother and father held tremendous impact and their grieving touched me. I also really loved how Mari helped show Mirai that their can be a future after loss, their joint emotional catharsis felt true and right because Mirai was finally able to share her pain with some who experienced the trauma of their joint journey. 

Of Yuuki and his backpack. (Parts are from a earlier post)

        With Yuuki death his backpack and the bridge take on tremendous symbolic importance, Mari offers to carry it but Mirai declines saying that it’s her brother’s, so she’ll carry it. So, the pack takes on the meaning that Mirai now has to live her life by paying off the obligation she owns to her dead brother’s spirit for the love she received from him and sometimes didn’t repay in kind. In Asian and Japanese culture family roles and obligations are of extreme importance, in affect, Mirai must live her life as good person  honoring the memory of her brother. Also, under the principles of Confucianism names have importance; Mirai’s name can mean the future, and Yuuki’s name can mean strength, or courage but it can also mean tender hope or gentle hope. So, when Mirai crosses that bridge she must begin a new phase of her life and move forward towards the future with tender/gentle hope as a better daughter, a better friend, and a person connected to the world around her.

       Now this is major speculation on my part, I also think that the backpack might also include Yuuki’s remains, with the high rate of deaths normal Japanese/Buddhist funeral procedures were probably suspended and Yuuki was probably cremated right away so Mirai was telling the truth when she told Yuuki that she would get them home.

       While I was wrong about the Yuuki’s remains being in the backpack I was right about the backpack representing Yuuki’s spirit. The pack really did contain Yuuki’s hopes and dreams, his dreams of a happy birthday for his mother, his wish for the four of them to be a happy family, and his hopes of having a better relationship with his sister. When Mari returned the backpack to Mirai she now understands her loss fully and has now crossed the bridge to emotional maturity and she now knows what she must do to be a better person. Mirai now has the strength of her younger brother to guide her forward towards a better more hopeful future.

   Overall, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 was a very powerful and emotionally moving experience, and I felt that all the main characters were realistic and believable. This series had a story to tell and it did so in a mostly straight forward way with a few little twists thrown in here and there to keep the viewers slightly off balance. TM 8.0 is a great example of anime storytelling of the highest level, and it easily is one of the best series of the year.