We owe a bit of help.

I am not certain how many people there are who both read my rinky-dink little blog and are somehow unaware of the earthquake in Japan at this late stage of the day, but take a moment to read if you haven’t heard the news yet. It’s a terrible situation, although thankfully Japan is more prepared for this than anywhere in the world, so while the damage is truly terrible (hundreds of Japanese are dead), it is not nearly as bad as it could have been if an earthquake of this magnitude had struck elsewhere in Asia (or many other places in the world). And, thankfully, everyone I know in Japan — personally or as online acquaintances — seems to be OK. Hopefully, it is likewise for all of you.

Like ExecutiveOtaku over at THAT, I also encourage anyone with the means to do so to donate to your relief effort of choice. If any of us can lend a hand to our friends all over the globe, then I think we’re obligated to do so. The response after Hurricane Katrina was massive, after all, so should we not repay the world in kind? Personally, I donated to the GlobalGiving relief fund; it seems like a reputable organization to me. The Red Cross is also an option, of course, and I’m sure there will be plenty of other charitable organizations pitching in to help out. Even a few dollars is helpful.

Hopefully the relief effort goes as smoothly as possible in these trying times.

Diary of an Anime Lived: Kamina Is My Bro

Sorry, probably not the Kamina who comes to mind for most of you. :p

(This post is part of the Diary of an Anime Lived series.)

RahXephon is a series with the right content that I viewed at the right time in my life. I was still a relative newbie to anime back in 2004 and was still discovering how mature and complex some series could be; Cowboy Bebop – and, to a lesser extent, Trigun – had blown my mind, but RahXephon has stuck with me for six years after my first watch despite it being a notoriously difficult series to crack. And although I love many aspects of the series, it is series protagonist Ayato Kamina who struck the deepest chord within me, and for reasons I haven’t seen elaborated upon much in anything I have read about the series. (Although if someone can point me in the direction of some similar posts after reading this one, I’d definitely appreciate it!)

(Minor spoilers for RahXephon within this post, although there is nothing huge, storywise.)

A Violent Battle Between Head and Heart

I had a jumbled idea of what I wanted this post to be about beforehand, but ghostlightning’s great — and well timed! — post yesterday had me thinking a bit more about what I wanted to express. Definitely give his post a read, because it is very interesting; I haven’t read the manga he writes about, but it’s not completely necessary to understand the post.

A necessary warning: I try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but there are a couple from Now and Then, Here and There‘s final episode that I believed were necessary to make my points clearer, so if you want to avoid all spoilers for that series, then tread carefully or avoid the post altogether. Sorry. And no images in this post because, frankly, writing this has wiped me out, and I don’t have the energy to get images right now, haha. Maybe I’ll edit some in later.

When I watched Now and Then, Here and There a few weeks back, I wondered how the series would end. It is not an easy show to watch — it pushes the boundaries of suffering, cruelty and violence in ways many anime do not dare, both in content and presentation. I wondered how the finale would top this; now, I never thought there would be some large-scale bloody battle with both sides duking it out, because it seemed to me that this would run counter to the series’ message, but still, I wondered what would happen. Well, there is blood shed — plenty of it — and the situation resolves itself through a Deus Ex Machina of sorts. And the survivors are left with what they have.