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REVIEW: Texhnolyze DVD


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Raikuro



Joined: 22 Feb 2009
Posts: 347
PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 2:03 pm Reply with quote
Keichitsu0305 wrote:
all three Abe TV series!

Lain
Haibane Renmei
Texhnolyze
NieA_7
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DmonHiro





PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:01 pm Reply with quote
This confuses me. I understand wanting to watch a show that makes you think, but why would ANYONE watch a show that makes them feel awful? Question
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danilo07



Joined: 25 Dec 2011
Posts: 1580
PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:04 pm Reply with quote
DmonHiro wrote:
This confuses me. I understand wanting to watch a show that makes you think, but why would ANYONE watch a show that makes them feel awful? Question

When we live in a relatively good times like this,people occasionally want to feel like a piece of shit.
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DmonHiro





PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:16 pm Reply with quote
danilo07 wrote:
When we live in a relatively good times like this,people occasionally want to feel like a piece of shit.


That can't be true. I'm living a fairly good life, why on Earth would I EVER want to feel like a piece of shit? It makes no sense.
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supercreep



Joined: 11 Dec 2011
Posts: 526
PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:18 pm Reply with quote
It's more complicated than simply saying that people want to feel like shit. It's more akin to wanting to explore a theme, an emotion, that one doesn't usually experience. At least that's how I feel about it.
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:20 pm Reply with quote
I agree Texhnolyze is the kind of show one wants to experience once, but never want to ever again afterwards. Sort of like The Godfather movies. Grave of the Fire Flies is another.
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Bonham



Joined: 20 Nov 2010
Posts: 419
Location: NYC
PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:23 pm Reply with quote
Keichitsu0305 wrote:
Also, maybe I’m reading to much into it, but I’ve noticed that while Haibane & Lain have female protagonist (the soul & the mind), Texhnolyze, sort of, has a male as the lead (the flesh). Perhaps, unintentionally, these works might have implied some form of gender roles in Japanese society? Perhaps, certain genders are more “in tune” with certain human traits then others?

ABe actually jokes about having to do character designs for so many "old men" in their disc interview (which I'm glad Funimation was able to include on this release).

An important point of reference might be Shigurui, which Hiroshi Hamasaki also directed. I know that tends to be more divisive and can understand why, but the anime seems to be a critique of a violent, patriarchal society taken to its logical and horrifying extremes. The male characters there are just as destructive, and they also ultimately bring upon their own downfall as many characters do in Texhnolyze. If you wanna have any feminist reading into those shows, it seems like those kind of male-dominated societies are only destined to fall. (The worlds in Lain, NieA_7 and Haibane are more female-oriented, and more sustainable.)

Quote:
Excellent review Carl. I can’t wait to own all three Abe TV series!

Even though Funimation didn't rescue it, NieA_7 is the other ABe-related series. It seems to be the black sheep of the four, but if you enjoy the others -- or at least Haibane -- you'll probably get something out of it.

Edit: There's still some copies available on Amazon at relatively sane prices.

Animegomaniac wrote:
A half formed idea followed up with a lot of hand waving which I don't buy. Ok, it's not that hard...
As I already said in the Haibane thread...

Aside from this (it's obvious that other people here, including Carl, find the ideas coherent and not "half-formed" in Texhnolyze, Haibane Renmei and other series, and there are people who find it "entertaining," or "interesting," or "compelling," or whatever word people care to describe being sucked into the show and liking it), you say that the visuals are "ugly as sin." I know this is subjective and all, but how are the colors, compositions, character designs and architectural designs "ugly as sin"? I'm now half-expecting someone to tell me that Roger Deakins, Sven Nykvist and Christopher Doyle are all hacks...

Tuor_of_Gondolin wrote:
Knowing that you've done all that you could and there isn't anything else to be done is not the same as giving into dispair.

This definitely jibes more with the final scene of the series.

In addition to what you said about Ichise and Ran, I think he also didn't want to repeat with happened with his mother. She was abandoned after Ichise's father spoiler[was framed and killed.] Yet she was still able to help Ichise as Ran did in episode five. It's pretty clear he wants to return that favor, and resist what seems to be unfolding around him (after all, he's been fighting back his entire life).

supercreep wrote:
It's more complicated than simply saying that people want to feel like shit. It's more akin to wanting to explore a theme, an emotion, that one doesn't usually experience. At least that's how I feel about it.

Exactly. It's not as though people only watch, read and listen to things that make them happy. A lot of people have watched Grave of the Fireflies, despite knowing its premise. There's even those who have watched it more than once! And plenty of people like to watch and read tragedies. Or listen to sad music.

I mean, hell, The Wire is probably the most-acclaimed television series of all time, and with only a few exceptions, that show is as bleak and dark as they come. Yep people love it and rewatch it over and over again.

Escapism isn't always about consuming things that are easy to take in. Sometimes it provides a catharsis that the audience needs.


Last edited by Bonham on Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:26 pm; edited 1 time in total
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danilo07



Joined: 25 Dec 2011
Posts: 1580
PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:25 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
That can't be true. I'm living a fairly good life, why on Earth would I EVER want to feel like a piece of shit? It makes no sense.

I think of it like a reality stimulation,you are able to feel these awful emotions whilst still not really having them.That makes people appreciate their happiness a lot more.
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Chagen46



Joined: 27 Jun 2010
Posts: 4377
PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:35 pm Reply with quote
DmonHiro wrote:
danilo07 wrote:
When we live in a relatively good times like this,people occasionally want to feel like a piece of shit.


That can't be true. I'm living a fairly good life, why on Earth would I EVER want to feel like a piece of shit? It makes no sense.


Danilo didn't really explain it well, I'd say it's about watching an intellectually stimulating work that simply happens to be incredibly depressing and nihilistic.
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Yanqui U.X.O.



Joined: 02 May 2010
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:49 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I wouldn't call Texhnolyze nihilist. On the most basic level, if it really saw no point to humanity's existence, I don't think spoiler[the final shots of the series would be of Ichise smiling as his arm projects Ran's flower. The series seems to suggest that relationships and actions without ideology are what validates us, but presents a world where nearly everyone is an ideologue. Ichise is the lone exception to this -- and perhaps Onishi by the end, when he realizes what the Obelisk is and smiles as he's gun downed -- and so despite his failure, I think Ichise attains a certain peace at the end, and the final ending theme, Walking Through the Empty Ages, seems to point to this.]


I think that's a good point and well-said. Ichise may have become a part of the Organo, but only because he respected Onishi. He was never really one of them and clearly didn't fit in or benefit from being a part of it at all (aside from meeting Toyama). Every group ideology in the show fails: the ego-driven Organo, the anarchistic Racan, the collectivism of the Union, and the fatalism of Gabe. The show argues in favor of finding your own way of living and a meaning to life, even if that meaning is something as simple as wanting to help and protect another person. The relationship between Ichise and Ran is driven purely by mutual care, sympathy, and understanding, and the show certainly seems to approve of a meaning derived from those kind of qualities than any other philosophy it presents.

Like you said, if the show really wanted to be nihilistic, all it needed to do was simply end with spoiler[Ichise laying down and dying alone and miserable. Roll credits. Instead, it also included the burial sequence, the music, the presence of the flower,etc, all of it resulting in a huge emotional catharsis that had been building for almost the entire series]. The incredibly beautiful, serene, and tragic nature of it goes against the 'pure bleakness and nothingness' that the review tried to sell so hard.

While they're not as actively depressing, I found Jin-Roh and even Cat Soup to be far more nihilistic works than Texhnolyze.
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Keichitsu0305





PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 5:30 pm Reply with quote
Raikuro wrote:
Keichitsu0305 wrote:
all three Abe TV series!

Lain
Haibane Renmei
Texhnolyze
NieA_7

All three American licensed Abe TV series. Wink

Bonham wrote:
Perhaps, unintentionally, these works might have implied some form of gender roles in Japanese society? Perhaps, certain genders are more “in tune” with certain human traits then others?

ABe actually jokes about having to do character designs for so many "old men" in their disc interview (which I'm glad Funimation was able to include on this release).

An important point of reference might be Shigurui, which Hiroshi Hamasaki also directed. I know that tends to be more divisive[...] but the anime seems to be a critique of a violent, patriarchal society taken to its logical and horrifying extremes. The male characters there are just as destructive, and they also ultimately bring upon their own downfall as many characters do in Texhnolyze. If you wanna have any feminist reading into those shows, it seems like those kind of male-dominated societies are only destined to fall. (The worlds in Lain, NieA_7 and Haibane are more female-oriented, and more sustainable.)[/quote]

Actually, I've been planning to start Shigurui (I'm actually studying East Asian History so Japan's coming up next) and I think that's great example of destruction and, perhaps, self-hatred?
So far, Texhnolyze seems hell-bent to destroy itself from the inside out. Like some form of disease cause by it's own mistreatment which goes back to the idea of the "body". If the mind or soul isn't in check, the body will react violently sort of like a person who enjoys taking power but doesn't consider the consequences or the well-being of its own people. But, you actually voiced most of the reasons why I found this particularly interesting so thank you for the reply.
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SoandSo



Joined: 13 Feb 2010
Posts: 204
PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 7:57 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
His only company is a stone-faced girl, a masked seer who stays by him without a word or reason—sometimes following, sometimes leading: a silent pigtailed Virgil accompanying a blank-eyed, half-machine Dante through the grimy hell of a mafia mining town.


lol Never change, Carl.
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JackCox



Joined: 22 Jun 2006
Posts: 386
PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 8:07 pm Reply with quote
One of the greatest endings to any anime series I have seen.

spoiler[Ichise's Death is the best thing that could have happened to him.]
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Suena



Joined: 27 May 2012
Posts: 289
PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 8:26 pm Reply with quote
Watched it once, loved it.

Tried to watch it again and....just......couldn't.........make............it.....
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Exaar



Joined: 19 Apr 2006
Posts: 279
Location: Delaware
PostPosted: Tue Sep 25, 2012 8:19 am Reply with quote
Great review. I love this series, although as stated, even though I own the original 2004 Geneon release, it's hard to come up with the motivation to watch it a second time.

For me it falls into that same soul-crushingly depressing category as Saikano. Seen it once, acknowledge how powerful it is, never touch it again for fear of your soul being sucked into the television. Texhnolyze definitely wins for being the most intellectually stimulating and believable, in a horrible sort of way, series in this category though.
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