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| "But still, Hanekawa is right..." "So right that it is scary and makes you cringe." |
[Time for Monogatari again! Nekomonogatari Black spoilers (If you are not interested in the plot, skip the second to fourth paragraph)]
Hanekawa Tsubasa, the class representative of Araragi Koyomi's class in Naoetsu Private High School. Despite coming from an abusive family, she is an overachiever in academics, physically well endowed, yet with a kind demeanor and humble personality. In other words, nothing short of perfect. Or is she?
Hanekawa Tsubasa, the class representative of Araragi Koyomi's class in Naoetsu Private High School. Despite coming from an abusive family, she is an overachiever in academics, physically well endowed, yet with a kind demeanor and humble personality. In other words, nothing short of perfect. Or is she?
One must imagine how much stress she would need to lead such a grueling existence without a word of complaint. As one tries to improve himself, and gets rid of some flaws, the bars raise as expectations of him increase, and any flaws left on him stand out more so than ever. For some, Any sane person would need a facet for release of stress accumulated from the mundane and unwavering world that punishes anyone for imperfection. For some it would be friends, and for some, family, lover. Sad to say for our heroine, none of these are readily available, and it is this fact which attracted the aberration onto her, the sawarineko (the meddling cat).
As mentioned in the series, the sawarineko is in fact a weak aberration, nothing that should cause much trouble before being dismissed. Yet, continuous effort by the aberration expert Oshino Meme has failed, and it required Araragi to sacrifice his own body to finally damage the aberration. Yet, at the end it was still not dealt with, and continues to exist in a dormant state.
What caused such an abnormal behaviour? As mentioned, it is not the fact that the aberration itself is strong. It was actually because of the fact that Hanekawa herself refuses to let the aberration be exorcised.
The take home message is then clear: There exist nothing known as perfection. Much as Gen Urobuchi took the world of magical girls and exposed the dark realities behind, Nisio Isin took Hanekawa and mercilessly tore her apart, pointing out that there is no such thing as a perfect person. The more convincing the facade of perfection, the more harmful it is to the person behind the mask, and when the mask falls off, even something as trivial as the sawarineko is able to run rampant.
What even is perfection in the first place? Perfection is the absence of flaws. But with respect to what do we define flaws? When buying a house, I would prefer it to be convenient, near the city centre but potentially up high to muffle noise. To me, this is perfection: A quiet place for me to be alone. To someone who likes nature, however, this would contain the flaw that it is in the city. To a person who likes to party, this house would have the drawback of not being able to accommodate his hobby. In some respects, talking about perfection in a person is also similar, when we are talking about the prospect of romance. Someone that appeals to one may not appeal to another.
Yet, the perfection talked about here is different. It is the quality of being able to appeal to almost everyone. Almost everyone would agree that Hanekawa is attractive in some respects, or at least a very respectable person. In other words, we are not talking about perfection with respect to an individual, but to the society. Yes, indeed, society is the key here.
Society must have been a thing that came to be when humans decided that surviving alone is less effective than surviving as a group. While individuals have contradicting objectives, each one decides to sacrifice some of its utility for "public" utility, so as to maximize the overall gain of the human species. But, as I have explained in previous posts, I believe that towards the end, humans are individuals. To deny the fulfilling of individual wills means to live in an untruthful way. Inevitably, no one in the modern society is truly living an honest life. At least this is what I think.
To put it in another way, society, formed by a large group of humans, is hardly human at all. What public utility means is abstract and mechanical (The analogy of the members of a society as "nuts and bolts" in a "machine" seems quite prescient then). Viewing from the Marxist perspective, we also see that the objectives of a society aligns more with those in power and with great wealth than those otherwise. The Capitalist society thus exists to serve the needs of fewer people than expected. Nietzsche again puts it quite well with his aphorisms:
"Madness is something rare in individuals — but in groups, parties, peoples, and ages, it is the rule."
Now, doesn't the notion to "strive for perfection" seem ridiculous? To pursue perfection means to appeal to this machine, which at the end may or may not give any reward to the hard labour put in to perfect oneself. Society, composing of millions of people, who think in millions of different ways, is a mathematical function that has an unimaginably large amount of variables. Purely thinking in terms of risk and reward, this is definitely an unworthy and potentially damaging investment.
Another important point to mention about society is its literal inhumanity, manifested with the complete lack of emotions and sentiments. The very existence of the society is founded upon the rational realization of maximized public utility. To maintain a society with emotions would be quite self-destructive indeed. Though I may not fully agree and honestly do not care, many can attest to this fact when democratic voting turnouts favour the irrational and emotional choice. Many are furious about this fact, but let us not forget that humans are at the end driven by emotions. Those who denounce this premise, I am sorry to say, are rather inhuman in my eyes.
What this entails, then, is a massive strain that is placed on the individual who wishes to be perfect. A human cannot choose whether it is human. The fact that we exist means we are trying to be human. It is no surprise that such an individual as Hanekawa would choose to adopt the aberration rather than to banish it, for it is the only way to release the intense frustration of the loss of individuality, or should I say humanity. It is also why Meme would have no sympathy for this epitome of perfection, for she, to him, is hardly human at all as she stands, and have we not enough humans to sympathize over than to sympathize a robotic persona?
Finally, as much as I have criticized the notion of a society, I would not declare myself to be against the idea of the current establishment, pertaining to the structure of the society in a general sense. Of course, it would be great to attain the zenith of individualism, but as the world currently stands, I think it is better if we just lied to ourselves and live a convenient life. After all, a century isn't that long, and it is not that I, a lazy, unmotivated and rather dull person, could do anything about humanity anyway.
At least this is what I think.
ED Discussion 13: Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises) ED, Hikoukigumo [1]
"Longing to be in the sky,
Speeding through the sky,
A whole life, A vapour trail."
What caused such an abnormal behaviour? As mentioned, it is not the fact that the aberration itself is strong. It was actually because of the fact that Hanekawa herself refuses to let the aberration be exorcised.
The take home message is then clear: There exist nothing known as perfection. Much as Gen Urobuchi took the world of magical girls and exposed the dark realities behind, Nisio Isin took Hanekawa and mercilessly tore her apart, pointing out that there is no such thing as a perfect person. The more convincing the facade of perfection, the more harmful it is to the person behind the mask, and when the mask falls off, even something as trivial as the sawarineko is able to run rampant.
What even is perfection in the first place? Perfection is the absence of flaws. But with respect to what do we define flaws? When buying a house, I would prefer it to be convenient, near the city centre but potentially up high to muffle noise. To me, this is perfection: A quiet place for me to be alone. To someone who likes nature, however, this would contain the flaw that it is in the city. To a person who likes to party, this house would have the drawback of not being able to accommodate his hobby. In some respects, talking about perfection in a person is also similar, when we are talking about the prospect of romance. Someone that appeals to one may not appeal to another.
Yet, the perfection talked about here is different. It is the quality of being able to appeal to almost everyone. Almost everyone would agree that Hanekawa is attractive in some respects, or at least a very respectable person. In other words, we are not talking about perfection with respect to an individual, but to the society. Yes, indeed, society is the key here.
Society must have been a thing that came to be when humans decided that surviving alone is less effective than surviving as a group. While individuals have contradicting objectives, each one decides to sacrifice some of its utility for "public" utility, so as to maximize the overall gain of the human species. But, as I have explained in previous posts, I believe that towards the end, humans are individuals. To deny the fulfilling of individual wills means to live in an untruthful way. Inevitably, no one in the modern society is truly living an honest life. At least this is what I think.
To put it in another way, society, formed by a large group of humans, is hardly human at all. What public utility means is abstract and mechanical (The analogy of the members of a society as "nuts and bolts" in a "machine" seems quite prescient then). Viewing from the Marxist perspective, we also see that the objectives of a society aligns more with those in power and with great wealth than those otherwise. The Capitalist society thus exists to serve the needs of fewer people than expected. Nietzsche again puts it quite well with his aphorisms:
"Madness is something rare in individuals — but in groups, parties, peoples, and ages, it is the rule."
Now, doesn't the notion to "strive for perfection" seem ridiculous? To pursue perfection means to appeal to this machine, which at the end may or may not give any reward to the hard labour put in to perfect oneself. Society, composing of millions of people, who think in millions of different ways, is a mathematical function that has an unimaginably large amount of variables. Purely thinking in terms of risk and reward, this is definitely an unworthy and potentially damaging investment.
Another important point to mention about society is its literal inhumanity, manifested with the complete lack of emotions and sentiments. The very existence of the society is founded upon the rational realization of maximized public utility. To maintain a society with emotions would be quite self-destructive indeed. Though I may not fully agree and honestly do not care, many can attest to this fact when democratic voting turnouts favour the irrational and emotional choice. Many are furious about this fact, but let us not forget that humans are at the end driven by emotions. Those who denounce this premise, I am sorry to say, are rather inhuman in my eyes.
What this entails, then, is a massive strain that is placed on the individual who wishes to be perfect. A human cannot choose whether it is human. The fact that we exist means we are trying to be human. It is no surprise that such an individual as Hanekawa would choose to adopt the aberration rather than to banish it, for it is the only way to release the intense frustration of the loss of individuality, or should I say humanity. It is also why Meme would have no sympathy for this epitome of perfection, for she, to him, is hardly human at all as she stands, and have we not enough humans to sympathize over than to sympathize a robotic persona?
Finally, as much as I have criticized the notion of a society, I would not declare myself to be against the idea of the current establishment, pertaining to the structure of the society in a general sense. Of course, it would be great to attain the zenith of individualism, but as the world currently stands, I think it is better if we just lied to ourselves and live a convenient life. After all, a century isn't that long, and it is not that I, a lazy, unmotivated and rather dull person, could do anything about humanity anyway.
At least this is what I think.
ED Discussion 13: Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises) ED, Hikoukigumo [1]
"Longing to be in the sky,
Speeding through the sky,
A whole life, A vapour trail."
For one that claims to watch anime, my knowledge and experience of the Ghibli canon is embarrassingly narrow. What I watch is always decided on a whim after finishing a particular series, and Ghibli films seem to always fall behind schedule. In any case, I decided to start to remedy this with Kaze Tachinu, a narrative of the life of Jiro Horikoshi, a famous aviation engineer in early 20th century Japan (with fictional additions).
The profession of engineers, much like that of a scientist, is romanticized a lot. One would imagine the genius kid, whose brain literally is filled with endless ideas and can instantly figure out any practical problem, figuring out some extremely subtle detail in a massive project run by engineering giants such as NASA and saves the world of an originally inevitable crisis with seconds to spare. That or endless tinkering and experimenting with every mechanism and device around him. After all, human thinking tends towards simplification and generalizations, so such images are convenient ways out of talking about technical professions whose job descriptions are not often clear.
Of course, in reality, engineers are not perfect machines that output world-saving ideas. Much of engineering work (of course, my thinking is biased towards electronic/software engineering but I suppose other fields are similar) is meeting with clients, squashing bugs, testing and building minor increments that produce barely noticeable improvements in performances. Moreover, of course there are some (read: quite a good bit of) romanticizing in Miyazaki's film, but he does show, even if briefly, a glimpse into a real engineering workplace, and shows the struggles of Horikoshi as he spends years chasing after his dream of designing and building a revolutionary aircraft.
The film was accused by some as defending Imperial Japan, since Horikoshi's aircraft design eventually went into war effort of the axis in WWII. Indeed, this is slightly reminiscent of Der Untergang, which does portray Hitler in a sympathetic light in his final days. The fact that Japan took part in the war as an attacker was only briefly mentioned towards the end, when the war was lost. In the film, Horikoshi repeatedly lamented how Japan is weak, and demonstrated quite a bit of patriotism. In my opinion, I did not feel that the Imperial government is glorified. Rather, the suffering as a result of the war effort was portrayed quite vividly, as Japan, closing itself off to the world, lags behind in technology, much demonstrated by the frustration of Horikoshi. I felt, as I watched the film, that Miyazaki is obviously critical of the notion of war and conflict, and choosing this setting and telling the story in the point of view of an engineer with a clear ambition such as Horikoshi amplifies this theme.
When I watch any show/film, in addition to paying attention to the plot and characters, I also especially like to feel the atmosphere and ambiance of the film. Most of my first impressions and interpretations come from this method. Ghibli films, as I have heard, are particularly rich in background and atmosphere crafting. This film is no exception to this observation. Set in the 20th century, as globalization only really started several decades ago, Japan feels like a mixture of modernity and tradition, civilization and backwardness. Horikoshi is a rather unique individual, and he is made even more special in this setting as one of the pioneers of aeronautical science in Japan. His ambition is rather ill placed in a milieu such as 20th century Japan, as Japan struggles to follow the footsteps of giants like Germany. These confusing and dark times make the purity of Horikoshi's dreams shine even brighter.
I suppose this film is quite apt as Miyazaki's last film before his retirement. In a sense the film is quite biographic, describing an artisan who wishes to add to the world's beauty through his creations. It is certainly an inspiration to old and young alike, to kindle or rekindle the passion of creativity. I saw in this film, however, the fatefulness of Horikoshi's life, as he is swept along in the flow of time, enduring the tumultuous waves of conflict. Yet, to not be drowned in despair, and relentlessly, bit by bit, construct the landscape he has dreamt of in his entire life takes a special kind of talent. Despite destined to vanish like a thin vapour trail, at least he lived true to himself and his wishes.
Of course, in reality, engineers are not perfect machines that output world-saving ideas. Much of engineering work (of course, my thinking is biased towards electronic/software engineering but I suppose other fields are similar) is meeting with clients, squashing bugs, testing and building minor increments that produce barely noticeable improvements in performances. Moreover, of course there are some (read: quite a good bit of) romanticizing in Miyazaki's film, but he does show, even if briefly, a glimpse into a real engineering workplace, and shows the struggles of Horikoshi as he spends years chasing after his dream of designing and building a revolutionary aircraft.
The film was accused by some as defending Imperial Japan, since Horikoshi's aircraft design eventually went into war effort of the axis in WWII. Indeed, this is slightly reminiscent of Der Untergang, which does portray Hitler in a sympathetic light in his final days. The fact that Japan took part in the war as an attacker was only briefly mentioned towards the end, when the war was lost. In the film, Horikoshi repeatedly lamented how Japan is weak, and demonstrated quite a bit of patriotism. In my opinion, I did not feel that the Imperial government is glorified. Rather, the suffering as a result of the war effort was portrayed quite vividly, as Japan, closing itself off to the world, lags behind in technology, much demonstrated by the frustration of Horikoshi. I felt, as I watched the film, that Miyazaki is obviously critical of the notion of war and conflict, and choosing this setting and telling the story in the point of view of an engineer with a clear ambition such as Horikoshi amplifies this theme.
When I watch any show/film, in addition to paying attention to the plot and characters, I also especially like to feel the atmosphere and ambiance of the film. Most of my first impressions and interpretations come from this method. Ghibli films, as I have heard, are particularly rich in background and atmosphere crafting. This film is no exception to this observation. Set in the 20th century, as globalization only really started several decades ago, Japan feels like a mixture of modernity and tradition, civilization and backwardness. Horikoshi is a rather unique individual, and he is made even more special in this setting as one of the pioneers of aeronautical science in Japan. His ambition is rather ill placed in a milieu such as 20th century Japan, as Japan struggles to follow the footsteps of giants like Germany. These confusing and dark times make the purity of Horikoshi's dreams shine even brighter.
I suppose this film is quite apt as Miyazaki's last film before his retirement. In a sense the film is quite biographic, describing an artisan who wishes to add to the world's beauty through his creations. It is certainly an inspiration to old and young alike, to kindle or rekindle the passion of creativity. I saw in this film, however, the fatefulness of Horikoshi's life, as he is swept along in the flow of time, enduring the tumultuous waves of conflict. Yet, to not be drowned in despair, and relentlessly, bit by bit, construct the landscape he has dreamt of in his entire life takes a special kind of talent. Despite destined to vanish like a thin vapour trail, at least he lived true to himself and his wishes.
[1]: Also listen to the cover by Goose House (Group that sang Hikaru Nara, Shigatsu OP)
