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Male Anxiety in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
Oct. 3rd, 2008 10:38 pmIn the beginning, there are only sounds, something beaten hit repeatedly, making a wet sound.
Then, images. Blood splattering, and two girls being beaten to death by a boy.
Then, a cut to the opening sequence. Bright flowers in kaleidoscope views. Intermixed with the vibrant nature scenes are flashes of people - characters with an extremely cutesy design. But still with disturbing images...a girl walking on broken glass, a candle going out, a butterfly with its wing torn off. Of course, all set to a gorgeous and foreboding song, in my opinion. Anime series often do a fantastic job with their opening sequences, but I really do like Higurashi's a lot.
I have blogged about the first episode of the anime series Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When They Cry) before in this post, but did not fully analyze it. Last Sunday, I watched the first 2.5 episodes at Geek.Kon and found myself taking notes, so I'll try and explain what I thought here.
Higurashi is unique in that the series is divided into 4-episode arcs. Each arc opens with a horrifically violent scene. The opening credits play, and then four episodes are spent explaining how the original, violent scene came to be.
In the first mini-arc, a boy named Keiichi has recently moved to a small, rural village in Japan, in the year 1983. His school is a small one; in one room, 15 children of varying ages form small "classes." As the teacher is often off helping others, Keiichi teaches the two girls in his grade, even though Mion is both older and the class president.
Keiichi receives help from his female classmates, who offer to help him navigate their village. He ends up spending lunch with four other girls. In a normal anime, this set-up would be referred to as a "harem anime," one in which a nondescript and unremarkable male protagonist is surrounded by beautiful women - all of whom are interested him in a potentially romantic way. Of course, this anime seems to be bending that trope until it breaks....literally.
( Spoilers through the first 2.5 episodes of the series )
I know that the entire series isn't necessarily like this. For example, I know that after the first arc resets, and the second 4-episode arc begins with two of the girls fighting, one of them stabs herself in the head with a knife until she kills herself. So what starts off as male anxiety in the first arc might turn into a simple anxiety about power, and who has it. I would have to continue watching to see what happens.
Still, the specific "male anxiety" was an interesting lens to use for watching the first mini-arc of the series.
I would like to continue watching this series (available in the U.S. on DVD, and on Netflix). It's strange for me in that I grow really, really bored with the cutesy, innocent scenes, and am more in it for unraveling the mysteries and watching the characters go crazy. It'll be really neat to watch everything reset every four episodes as well, and see if any patterns develop.
Then, images. Blood splattering, and two girls being beaten to death by a boy.
Then, a cut to the opening sequence. Bright flowers in kaleidoscope views. Intermixed with the vibrant nature scenes are flashes of people - characters with an extremely cutesy design. But still with disturbing images...a girl walking on broken glass, a candle going out, a butterfly with its wing torn off. Of course, all set to a gorgeous and foreboding song, in my opinion. Anime series often do a fantastic job with their opening sequences, but I really do like Higurashi's a lot.
I have blogged about the first episode of the anime series Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When They Cry) before in this post, but did not fully analyze it. Last Sunday, I watched the first 2.5 episodes at Geek.Kon and found myself taking notes, so I'll try and explain what I thought here.
Higurashi is unique in that the series is divided into 4-episode arcs. Each arc opens with a horrifically violent scene. The opening credits play, and then four episodes are spent explaining how the original, violent scene came to be.
In the first mini-arc, a boy named Keiichi has recently moved to a small, rural village in Japan, in the year 1983. His school is a small one; in one room, 15 children of varying ages form small "classes." As the teacher is often off helping others, Keiichi teaches the two girls in his grade, even though Mion is both older and the class president.
Keiichi receives help from his female classmates, who offer to help him navigate their village. He ends up spending lunch with four other girls. In a normal anime, this set-up would be referred to as a "harem anime," one in which a nondescript and unremarkable male protagonist is surrounded by beautiful women - all of whom are interested him in a potentially romantic way. Of course, this anime seems to be bending that trope until it breaks....literally.
( Spoilers through the first 2.5 episodes of the series )
I know that the entire series isn't necessarily like this. For example, I know that after the first arc resets, and the second 4-episode arc begins with two of the girls fighting, one of them stabs herself in the head with a knife until she kills herself. So what starts off as male anxiety in the first arc might turn into a simple anxiety about power, and who has it. I would have to continue watching to see what happens.
Still, the specific "male anxiety" was an interesting lens to use for watching the first mini-arc of the series.
I would like to continue watching this series (available in the U.S. on DVD, and on Netflix). It's strange for me in that I grow really, really bored with the cutesy, innocent scenes, and am more in it for unraveling the mysteries and watching the characters go crazy. It'll be really neat to watch everything reset every four episodes as well, and see if any patterns develop.
