August 4th, 2013.
Thoughts and Notes:
Shorter Notes:
- Both here and last episode when they went to meet Benten. What sort of power does she have in the human sphere? What sort of power do the Friday Fellows exert?
- Why is it surprising to have a silly-feeling anime where last episode’s events still matter, rather than start this episode as if nothing ever happened. Sometimes I feel as if anime is growing up *Gets all teary-eyed*
- So Benten’s bodyguards are tengu. Very interesting. So they can follow around as she flies to and fro?
- This discussion, where she discusses how tasty tanuki are, and he nonchalantly says “I like everything in this world but tanuki hot pot”? I can’t help but think of movies describing the Cold War, and some of the discussions in these movies, as well as noir films. How they just sit there and chitchat about these things.
- Honestly, the time with the Friday Fellows made me smile. So laid back, so friendly. So stress-free.
- “You’re so spoiled!” – Yasaburo sounds so put-upon. I can understand him. When I was younger and people older than me forced me to take on the role of the mature adult, it was so annoying. Let me be a kid, yo.
Longer Thoughts:
- Hotei, the sensei, there’s a fine line here between killing something and thanking it for giving you its food as some shamanistic communities are said to do, and well, it’s almost as if he’s a parable for otaku culture and misogyny – You want something so much that you consume it, it doesn’t really mean you appreciate it. Your “appreciation” is one that takes possession of the object of your desire, not leaving any of it, any dignity for the object itself, which is no object at all, to uphold!
- Benten later explores the issue exactly. Those who love something for the dignity it possesses, and then remove its dignity end up disgusted with it and throw it away for being “unclean”, and then, not understanding it is through their own actions that it is now unclean, they move on to the next pure thing, to ruin it as well.
- The cycle of life, all here in one room. A man saves a tanuki, she goes on to marry and give birth. He eats her husband. The son, whose life was indirectly given to him by the man’s actions, who also took away his father, is now at the very same place, where the man can give or take his life away – but directly, this time. You let the cattle breed, so you could have more cattle to feast on later.
- The dinner on the rooftops really made me think of Disney’s Lady and the Tramp. The city is really full of hidden gems where you can have a pretty moment, isn’t it?
- You just need to know the right places, and have the right power. It pays to be Benten. She has an interesting life, which is all that Yasaburo ever wanted. This is also why Yasaburo is so in-love with Benten. What could be more interesting than to always walk the fine line of being eaten? To be in love with your enemy? There’s a definite sense of Romanticism here (not love-romance, mind).
I think this is my favourite episode of the show thus far. Good discussion, good atmosphere. As if I were there with the Friday Fellows myself.
Geekorner-Geekulture. 