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ANN Book Club: Texhnolyze.

Well, I don't know about everyone else, but that interview told me to expect a lot of style and not much depth, actually.

It also said that, like Lain, this is not a particularly overtly symbolic series and furthermore, multiple interpretations can and should be gleaned.

Clearly Ichise (got the name right, I hope?) would be a dead man without some very tight twine. Seriously, you can NOT lose that much blood and survive. The tourniquet probably barely held him together.

That aside, I find it interesting that his punishment from the yakuza, harsh as it was, squarely fit his crime. Did anyone else notice this? He slapped their prized whore with his right arm when she made advances on him. Therefore, they cut off his right arm. For as much still doesn't make sense to me in this show, that rang pretty true. The yakuza are true gangsters in that they are deadly, organized by twisted (but rational to them) rules that govern everyone below them.

There appears to be a resistance to whatever Al-Capone-esque totalitarianism exists in the city far below ground, in this Lux place, or was it Nage?

I'm still pretty confused, but I know that Ran is a valuable asset to whatever underground respite hides out from the Alliance of Yakuza up top.

No, who Ichise is and why he was had to sleep with the whore to get his money is ANYBODY'S guess.

He's a boxer. From above.

On a side note, guys, I will be rejuvenating the Haibane Renmei and Kino's Journey threads for thoughts on ANY part of the series for a while.

This will be in about two weeks, mind you, but I will be doing Book Club threads on Paranoia Agent and Wolf's Rain.

When that man came (forgot whether he has a name or not )...

... and wanted to shoot him, he told him that living is a matter of choice under any circumstance. This is what I see in Ichise's ardent desire to walk, to do something ... anything except to stay there and face death by losing blood.

The only thing that had me a little skeptical going into it is some of the things I hear about how depressing it is.

It also sounds like this series will have more graphic content in it than I'd prefer as well, however I do hear it isn't like, on the level of Berserk or Elfen Lied or anything like that, so I may be able to handle it more than I think.

One scene that especially stuck out to me was when Ichise saw (imagined) the stairs, which would look short from our point of view, stretch out as though walking up them would be like walking to his death. This was also emphasized because of the shining golden quality of the stairs as he saw himself (with both arms and legs) walking up past his real self, like an important part of him died.

I liken Texhnolyze to being the 2001: A Space Odyssey of anime, with elements from gangster films, German philosophers and especially Buddhism. (It's to Buddhism what Wolf's Rain is to Hinduism, in a way. Neither of those two religions have really been given such emphasis in anime outside of those two series.) There's different ways to see certain story progressions, but, in the end, there's a defining skeleton that makes thematic interpretation fairly easy if one pays attention enough.

And like 2001, Texhnolyze is very, very slow, massively allegorical, emotionally detached (though neither without its tender moments) and extremely ambitious.

I'm still pretty confused, but I know that Ran is a valuable asset to whatever underground respite hides out from the Alliance of Yakuza up top.

?

Could you clarify this?

He's a boxer. From above.

Again, could you clarify this?

In response to the concerned forum member who stated that "Texhnolyze is even more confusing than Lain," I have to peacefully disagree. It takes 7 or 8 episodes before the pieces of plot all start to come together, but once they do, it makes for one hell of a tale.

I absolutely LOVE the first episode of Texhnolyze. The lack of dialogue is such a brilliant move. So many series break storytelling's most important rule: show, don't tell. I can't even begin to count the series that have characters explaining backstory ("Oh, you've been this way ever since you moved to Tokyo three years ago after your girlfriend left you") instead of taking a much more subtle approach.

Anyhow, the "live!" message of this show is really strong, and the VA of Ichise did a terrific job of portraying the desperate, angry will to live without words. It really impressed me how convincing this was.

-The violence isn't so 'violent' (pardon my French). I have seen worse but then again I have seen only the two first epsiodes because I don't want to cheat and I want to watch them together with the rest of the people interested in this series.

-The violence in Texhnolyze isn't like either of those series. It is a hyper-violent series, but doesn't glorify the actions.

-The graphic content isn't too bad, although this is just from my point of view. As you may have guessed, and assuming you've watched the interview by the time you read this, the series has quite a bit to do with losing one's limbs, so there's only so much that can be done with that.

Ok, one: I may actually be the one who gets the things in a slower pace (trust me I do that many times) and maybe this series isn't that hard to get (I am trying to reassure you and myself at this point ). I think the different way of telling the story is the key and makes a different note from other series. Also the pace is slow, indeed, but then in the second episode the action really intensifies itself and it goes at a much rapid step. I think it really depends on what the creators wanted to focus on that particular episode and what they tried to make out of it. But honestly, I can't have a definite opinion on the series yet, but I really want to watch it and see what happens next. So please, just watch it and make your own opnion; I wouldn't like to be the cause of your giving up on this series or not enjoying it too much because of what I said. Who knows? Maybe you will find it even more interesting than me! (See what you have done? You made me panic! )

You heard that? I heard Texhnolyze was more straightforward. But anyway, yeah, you shouldn't have too much to worry about thanks to this thread. What you may have trouble with is just the heavy emotional aspects of the series rather than trying to understand it. Either way, it doesn't bother me cause I'll watch anything and be fine even if I'm emotionally scarred in the end or have no idea what happened.

People tend to ignore the more uplifting aspects of Texhnolyze. I mentioned to AG that it can be a life-affirming story. It has one of the most touching and universal messages in anime -- it's only rivaled by Haibane and Honneamise in that area, for me.

On the other hand, there's no use denying that it's also incredibly dark. It tackles very dark subjects with very little -- if arguably any -- of the conventions in anime. It doesn't emotionally pander to the audience. It isn't preachy. It's sad.

I compared it to Wolf's Rain above. The results of both series are not the same, but they both tackle heavy themes. They both use religious symbolism (Buddhism and Hinduism, respectively) to get their messages across.

some of you wrote:

-The violence isn't so 'violent' (pardon my French). I have seen worse but then again I have seen only the two first epsiodes because I don't want to cheat and I want to watch them together with the rest of the people interested in this series. -The violence in Texhnolyze isn't like either of those series. It is a hyper-violent series, but doesn't glorify the actions. -The graphic content isn't too bad, although this is just from my point of view. As you may have guessed, and assuming you've watched the interview by the time you read this, the series has quite a bit to do with losing one's limbs, so there's only so much that can be done with that.

Wow, I mentioned the term "graphic content" and all you guys mention is violence and absolutely nothing about sex.....

But yeah, it's not just the graphic violence I'm concerned with, it's any graphic sexual content I'm worried about as well. I've heard there were some sex scenes in it but I also hear it's nothing too bad at all, more inferring such rather than actually showing it or anything like that, but I don't know exactly. So how is it in that sense? Clean enough it'll be okay with me? Sounds like the level of violence should be just fine by my standards as well.

Ah-HEH-ah-HUH-ah-HEEEEEH-ah-HUUUUUH-AGH-AGH-AGH-AH-HEEEEEH-ah-GGGGGGGHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!

Yeah, so that's all I got from the lead character in that episode. Well, there was a wicked cool OP...

He slapped their prized whore with his right arm when she made advances on him. Therefore, they cut off his right arm.

At the very beginning and throughout most of the first episode he was like an emotionless robot. And at other times, like in the beginning when he was boxing and at the end when he was defending himself from the yakuza, he seemed more like an animal. So I'm getting the impression that he was made to seem unhuman to the viewers, at least for now. Or at least the world he lives in has made him this way.

One scene that especially stuck out to me was when Ichise saw (imagined) the stairs, which would look short from our point of view, stretch out as though walking up them would be like walking to his death. This was also emphasized because of the shining golden quality of the stairs as he saw himself (with both arms and legs) walking up past his real self, like an important part of him died.

JO wrote:

Clearly Ichise (got the name right, I hope?) would be a dead man without some very tight twine. Seriously, you can NOT lose that much blood and survive. The tourniquet probably barely held him together.

There's a reason for Ichise's seemingly superhuman ability to survive such harsh actions against his body, but I'll leave that unsaid until much later in this discussion.

I'll have to confirm it tonight, but basically she wanted to cheat on him from her husband/lover. Didn't work out, obviously, and so she had him contact the Organo (or perhaps he's in the Organo; don't remember which) to punish Ichise for hurting her.

Quote:

In response to the concerned forum member who stated that "Texhnolyze is even more confusing than Lain," I have to peacefully disagree. It takes 7 or 8 episodes before the pieces of plot all start to come together, but once they do, it makes for one hell of a tale.

At this point it can not be as confusing as lain. Absolutely no way. Laughing After now having watched it twice, lain has got to pop right under Evangelion as the most vaguely deep but horribly pretentious anime I've ever seen. I got...the message...but there seemed to be an awful lot of baggage. Anime dazed

Out of curiosity why do you care about "graphic" sex? I can understand someone being squeamish about violence but everyone likes sex, right?

Wow, that is a good comparison. I get the feeling that will become more obvious with further episodes...

Um, yeah, sorry. I simply meant that Ran having precognitive abilities has got to be a huge plus for a society that's constantly under rogue attack. We saw what happened in episode one. Without her foresight, they'd all be fish paste.

Just a guess. If he was involved with the syndicate, he must live in the city. He knows them and the Organo whore-woman somewhat well. Hence "above," I meant the city.

After now having watched it twice, lain has got to pop right under Evangelion as the most vaguely deep but horribly pretentious anime I've ever seen. I got...the message...but there seemed to be an awful lot of baggage.

I've seen a lot of stuff he's written or story-manned now (Lain, Pet Shop of Horrors, Digimon Tamers, Alice in Cyberland and now a bit of Texhnolyze) and I think Konaka could stand to take a lesson from Satoshi Kon and try to "keep it simple stupid" when dealing with psychological/philosophical ruminations. I still think he's a genius, but he's not very accessible.

Anyway, I didn't get why Ichise was punished,

and I still don't understand the twisted rules of the gangsters, but I guess that the more power you have, the less sense your rules make...

The man with the mask (Yoshii?) sure seems interesting, is he some kind of immigrator?

The cuts do make it hard to connect the characters to one another*.

Like take Elfen Lied for example. The reason why I've decided not to watch that series in the end is simply because of the fact that it's a series who's main theme is the exploration of the violent, dark and shockingly disturbing side of human nature.

Writing off the woman as a "whore" and the sex scene as gratuitous really does an injustice to the interactions that are going on between Ichise and those around him. One of the shots during the scene focuses on a porcelain doll sitting still and lifeless; the shot then zooms in on the doll's eye, which fades into the eye of the woman. A similar shot of the same doll's eye later fades into the eye of the man observing the act. These two shots, and the woman's obviously artificial hand, set up a relationship between the dolls and the people in the scene that would seem to indicate that their actions are as empty of life as the dolls themselves: empty lust in the case of the woman, bored indifference in the case of the observer. The most doll-like of the three, however, is Ichise.

Though there are no direct links between the dolls and Ichise, either through his eyes or body positioning, he remains motionless and expressionless wherever he is placed. He doesn't react at all to the woman, or what is happening to him, until she begins to take his eye and he responds with violence. Even then though, as the camera pulls away from him sitting up on the bed, he still has the same blank expression he had throughout the entire scene. In fact, the only times in the episode where he shows any kind of expression at all are his recollection of his smile during the fight, and the agonized look he has when he is maimed at the end. When it comes to normal human interactions -- sex, or merely acknowledging the presence of others on the street -- Ichise is as lifeless as the dolls.

At this point I've only seen through episode two, but the groundwork has obviously been laid for a lot of personal growth on the part of Ichise. The scene where he watches his former self walking up the stairs seems to be an acknowledgement of his old life, the fact that a part of it has passed him by forever, and the fact that he can no longer afford the luxury of being as disengaged from other humans as he was.

... those Yakuza guys were saying about opressing these outbursts of religious groups that were rebelling or something like that, can't really remember exactly what they were saying.

That was something I took note of though, the whole idea behind what that Yakuza guy that was beating the crap out of Ichise was saying along the lines of "petty scum like you shouldn't be allowed to Texhnolize." That's why I brought up that whole idea of a religious movement or something of people who found Texhnolizing to be sacred, and along comes the Yakuza, taking complete control of the area and stripping the people of their sacred practice, hogging it all to themselves.

I mean even into episode 2 when things were being made mroe sense out of and there was more dialog and whatnot, Ichise's character, along with Ran's, still remain to be the only characters who haven't spoken a word and still keep you in the dark about them. There's just so much mystery surrounding both of their characters because we know so little about them, other then they both seem to be emotionless, empty shells.

I think the reason why I was able to see it so easily in fact was that scene earlier where he's falling and he imagines his arm there to break his fall as if he wished it was still there, but it indeed wasn't, so he just fell flat on the ground.

However, my issue with it so far has mostly been what was said in the interview about how they wanted to portray something like this more realistically rather than the typical shounen jump-esque "I loose more blood than my body can hold but somehow I'm still alive!" type of thing. It's great in those other series but in a series like this, especially after that interview, it not only doesn't seem to fit very well, but seems to also contradict what the original creator's main intentions were.

HK wrote:

I'll have to confirm it tonight, but basically she wanted to cheat on him from her husband/lover. Didn't work out, obviously, and so she had him contact the Organo (or perhaps he's in the Organo; don't remember which) to punish Ichise for hurting her.

Wow, you were actually able to determine this how now?

With Lain it just felt so confusing to the point where I was never really sure if rewatching it would help at all, if I'd feel like I was watching the same confusing things over and over again still making no sense of it.

At this point I've only seen through episode two, but the groundwork has obviously been laid for a lot of personal growth on the part of Ichise. The scene where he watches his former self walking up the stairs seems to be an acknowledgement of his old life, the fact that a part of it has passed him by forever, and the fact that he can no longer afford the luxury of being as disengaged from other humans as he was.

Man, isn't the one of the coolest opening themes ever?

...and the omnipresent Obelisk. Keep all of them in mind.

Just a random aside: this is one of the best examples of anime on a low budget. Art direction, storyboards and backgrounds are about as good as they come; the characters' expression convey their feelings, not awkward and annoying aural cues frequent in anime. Animation isn't anything spectacular, but gets the job done and is quite impressive in spots.

The transition from day to night in the city is very controlled. Also take note of the back of the first DVD volume referring to Lux as an "experimental city."

But I'm surprised no one has asked this question: what does Yoshii intend on doing in Lux?