This video is a detailed description of how NASA built the MIRI camera on the James Webb Space Telescope. This video will probably only interest highly technical individuals but if you stay with it, you will learn a great deal about modern technology and its fantastical design.
The JWST might be the greatest engineering effort ever accomplished by human beings. (We are sorry but it was not built by aliens). The 25 year project is probably on an equivalent basis comparable to the building of the great pyramid of Giza.
These are the Spring Season 2023 anime which we are currently watching. All of the anime below are currently works in process, and have yet to complete so their endings could sink the entire enterprise. This remains to be seen. As of April 15, 2023 the following comments apply.
ANIME SERIES
Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku
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Very powerful imagery matched with some power music. The initial few episodes looks promising, although the amount of blood graphically shed on screen may offput some fans. Hell’s Paradise might be the winner of the season solely due to its music and art alone. It tends to be a black comedy with a great deal of blood shed, which might put off some, but the work does not play like serious drama. The style is outstanding over all other seasonal work.
Skip and Loafer
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Skip and Loafer is really super cute, Rom Com with some reference back to Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You. Pywackett Productions is in on Skip which is a super cute romance. The hand dance alone in the OP above is very much how the series plays so far.
My Clueless First Friend
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Isolated girl who is teased and bullied by everyone because all the kids say she is cursed suddenly is saved by a Champion who fights for her because he thinks she is cool, when in fact he has no idea what is actually going down at this school. Cruelty and meanness don’t even register with him, and he brings her home where his older sister immediately falls in love with her. He soon brings her into his group of friends. Will Akane fall in love with her hero, Taiyō? Don’t hold your breath. Only question is will she melt down from all the love he pushes on her before she can confess?
Loving Yamada at Lv999!
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Akane is dumped by her boyfriend, and becomes emotionally unstable,
seeking revenge against him by pretending that she is now dating
Pro-gamer Yamada. It has always seemed to me that if one really loved
the other, even if dumped, why would you seek revenge? Did you love
that person at all?
Neither MCs are particularly attractive. The guy is
like a block of ice, and the girl exists in a whirlpool of emotions;
but we will stay with it for now, and see how it develops.
Notice: Dropped this anime after EP 4. Akane and Yamada are making no progress in either their relationship or in their personal growth, both are obnoxious. And if the pairing is with two MC’s that one intensely dislikes, then there is no hope. Perhaps others might find this one enlightening in some way!
A Galaxy Next Door
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To play ED, click Red ArrowClick on image to bring up Wikipedia page
Cute, cute, cute!!! Manga artist Ichirō who is the only support for his little bother and sister and is behind schedule and needs a support artist and so his editor sends him Shiori,who happens to be an alien with a stinger something or other in her backside. Shiori simply tells Ichiro that she is Princess of the Star People. Ichiro doesn’t even bat an eye, and asks her how her work is doing. But we are not dealing in reality here. This is for cute and to die for a world of cute so just roll with it, OK?
Otaku Elf
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Elda, a 621 year old Elf, was installed in the Tokyo Takamimi Shrine by none other than Tokugawa Ieyasu during the Edo period. Present day, her Miko is Koito Koganei. Elda is somewhat lazy and has taken to Otaku culture, and plays games and reads manga constantly, much to the frustration of Koito. Elves were never divine creatures, so I don’t understand being worshiped in a shrine, but there it is. Sort of funny in that Koito fights with Elda to be a proper goddess. Will see how this one works out.
Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion
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A serious Korean murder mystery where Raeliana is the murder victim, but she is reborn into a novel she just read. This gives her the advantage of knowing everyone’s agenda and motives which she uses to maneuver to a solution, because in the novel, she also will be murdered. Unfortunately everything she does changes the plot of the novel, and in this world, all the characters are snakes, and evil doers. The story is interesting in seeing how she solves her problems and discovers the actual murderer of her both in the past and in this new world.
Oshi no Ko (【推しの子】, “My Favorite Idol” or “Their Idol’s Children”; stylized as【Oshi No Ko】)
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Not seen yet, but highly recommended by Otaku Spirit in the review above.
ANIME MOVIES
Suzume
April 14, 2023 USA IMAX
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Saw this one on its opening day in the States and on an IMAX screen. Our reaction was similar to our reaction to Shinkai’s “Children who Chase Lost Voices”. Beautiful creation of a new world, but the story meanders through it all. Except Suzume doesn’t meander, she runs through this 2 hour work as if running across the entire country of Japan. Except for the speed level, sure seems like a similar work. Pywackett Productions was hoping for a return to something like “Garden of Words” and “Your Name.” but not even close. But it’s making money hand over fist, and Rotten Tomatoes has it in the 90’s for both critics and fans so who are we to criticize.
All of the anime below are currently works in process, and have yet to complete so
their endings could sink the entire enterprise. This remains to be seen. As of March 1, 2023
the following comments apply.
Magical is currently Pywackett Productions current number 1 favorite for the season. While it has strong yuri vibes (Anisphia is a self-declared lesbian), romance and bedroom antics are not central. This is a story of political power in an iseki kingdom with the main struggle between Anisphia and her brother Algard. Anisphia who cannot use magic gives up the throne to her brother who can, but is unqualified to rule.
While Magical has its beautiful relationships, this is an action anime. The relationship between Anisphia and Euphyllia is quite wonderful and sweet, and reminds somewhat of the Chisato-Takina relationship from Lycoris Recoil. Anisphia and Chisato are very similar in personality, but Euphyllia is unlike Takina except in one respect. Both have been driven from their worlds and do not know what direction to follow. So Takina follows Chisato, and Euphyllia follows Anisphia.
The question is very open: can the artists complete this story in 12 episodes?
Tomo is one of the funniest anime’s in a long, long time. And this is laugh-out-loud funny, roll-on-the-floor funny, belly-popping funny. It is most definitely humorous.
Tomo-chan is a Tom-boy, but still wants to be seen as a girl, especially by her neighbor friend Jun who sees her as his best buddy friend. Tomo’s support group of Misuzu and Carol is outstanding, and they play the mischievous pixie friends who enjoy the sport of train-spotting the Tomo-Jun romance.
Mahiru is the most beautiful and popular girl in the school and Amane basically ignores her until they find out that they are neighbors. Amane is something of a slob, and Mahiru begins to take care of him, cleaning his apt and making him meals.
Many complain about this as being unbelievable, but the horrific backstory of Mahiru, explains her actions towards Amane. Angel ends up being something of a hurtful romance, and the path to true love is rocky at best.
As of EP 8, Mahiru is clearly in love with Amane and wants to move the relationship to romance, but Amane, early on in the relationship, agreed to certain rules set by Mahiru, and being a very honorable man, will not break any of those rules!
Mahiru clearly recognizes that this boy is a man of integrity, and she grows to fully trust him, but she is becoming frustrated in trying to change the relationship. She has yet to realize that she must release Amane from the rules she established in the beginning, because his honor will not allow him to break any of those rules on his own. It almost is like the girl who wants her boyfriend to become a scumbag and force himself on her.
How this conflict is eventually settled is very interesting.
The Ice Guy Humuro is a nice guy and very quiet as is the girl Fuyutsuki whom he is in love with.
This is a very quirky, slow, subtle romance with very strange personalities, like Fox girls with Fox tails, managers who look like Buddha, and ice people like Humuro who causes ice storms whenever he is emotional.
Mahiro Oyama is a stay-at-home hikikomori neet, who does nothing, and goes nowhere, and knows nobody! He is the elder brother of
brilliant scientist Mihari Oyama, his sister, who decides to take action to change his life. She experiments on him, and changes him
into a little girl. And of course, much of the humor in Onimai is from this gender swap, as Mahiro must adjust to an all girl social group and
girly etiquette.
The Gender Swap is a major plot element in Anime from its earliest days such as
Rose of Versailles
, Ranma
or Revolutionary Girl Utena
. One of the most famous live theater groups in the world is
Takarazuka Revue
founded in 1914 where all roles are played by women, much like in
Kabuki where all roles are played by men. In the recent Shinkai movie,
Your Name. the entire story is about a gender swap between the boy Taki in Tokyo, and the girl Mitsuha in Itomori. This trope is played for comedy initially, but soon becomes much deeper as the story unfolds.
There is much criticism of Onimai as being a perverted, lolicon work. This is too simplistic an argument which fails to understand the dynamics
of the story. Mahiro is coming to an awareness of girls and their social relationships in a fundamental sense (as he is one). His sister’s scheme is working in that the personality of Mahiro undergoes a change. He gets out of the house, and socializes with the girls in his group. This is quite cute and lovely as Mahiro begins to feel
affection for the girls in his social group.
Boys learning to appreciate what girls must live with on a daily basis can only be a good thing. We at Pywackett Productions were initially skeptical of Onimai but in the course of this series, we have been won over, and now very much enjoy this anime.
Shino Natsume (夏目 紫乃, Natsume Shino) Teacher and Aoba West Judo Club Sponsor
Ippon is unlike most High School sports anime because here, we follow a girl’s High School Judo Club. The characters are all wonderfully drawn, and the Judo competition is very exciting.
But this is an all girl group, and we enter the very complex set of relationships which take place in this group much like an SoL. In many ways, Ippon is very like Akebi’s_Sailor_Uniform set in the world of High School Judo
Very enjoyable and we hope they stick the landing.
Nier is derived from a computer game of the same name. Visually it is an excellent creation, but for those who do not know the world of this game, the anime by itself does not help very much.
But it is interesting, and we are watching it when it comes out, but the budget is unknown, and we have no hint as to where this story will land for its ending.
Fire is also an unknown budget like Nier, and even for an anime is very strange in its art and in its story.
A young girl, Touko, is saved by a Fire Hunter who is killed, and his fire hunter dog, Kinata, attaches to Touko who then begins a journey to return the Fire Hunter’s dog and belongings to the family in the Capitol.
The art and story is somewhat like Madoka Magica, in the intense creation of a very different world.
Fire is something like High Art and might not appeal to most, but we find it very interesting.
It may not even have an ending so it may in the end be unsatisfying. This remains to be seen.
But the art on display is stunning if nothing else.
SPOILER ALERT: Many spoilers follow, read at your own risk
PLANETARIAN REVIEW
“Chobits”, “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” and “Time of Eve” are three works with similar contexts to “Planetarian”. Given a robot as a character, who is obviously a robot to all the humans in the story, what are the reactions of Human Beings? In all four stories, the Humans are very hostile to the Robots.
But the Turing test is more than the Characters in the story and their reactions. These works are also playing off of you, and testing your feels towards the robots. And this is really a Turing Test on you, the reader/viewer of these types of stories.
We are all aware that imaginary characters in stories capture our feels big time. Pets and even inanimate objects can also capture our feels. So given our own human feels to contend with, if we encounter a machine who acts like Chi in Chobits, David in AI, Sammy in Time of Eve, and Yumemi in Planetarian, and spend time with the machine, what happens to our feels? Can we fall in love with a machine?
Well if we can feel for imaginary movie characters, and our pets at home, and our living family, it seems as if the answer would be yes. We are lead to feel for the robots in the same way that we are lead to feel for any imaginary character in a story.
I think the answer would have to be yes. If robots ever reach the behavior of the characters in the stories above, we would certainly fall in love with the robot. I personally am in love with Chi, Sammy, Yumemi, and David.
In a counter example, the movie “Ex Machina”, shows a robot seducing Caleb in order to gain her freedom and she has no hesitation in killing all those who get in her way. The evil robot is a staple of the movies after all! Welcome to the world of HAL in “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “The Terminator”, and Roy Batty in “Blade Runner”. Get one of these cruise missiles on your tail, and you are a cooked pork chop.
A machine can in fact be programmed with whatever objective is desired. There are no commandments higher than the laws of a machine’s software. Of course a sentient, conscious machine might develop the abstract set of rules which underlie morality. At the end of Blade Runner, Roy Batty seems to feel compassion for Decker and saves him. In “Wreck-it Ralph”, Vanellope von Schweetz tells Ralph, that she knows how to race because it’s in her code. In the “The Matrix”, humans learn to fight in the virtual world by downloading code into their brains. Could you download the rules of morality? You could program “The Three Laws of Robotics”, and robots would follow those rules, but you could just as easily not program a robot that way and then what do you have except a Frankenstein monster or a human psychopath who seems to lack any moral order, or a cruise missile.
So where does that leave us?
In Planetarian, Yumemi asks Satomi for the name of the theater projector, and Satomi answers “a Carl Zeiss Jena Double Ball Projector Universal 23/3”. Satomi is talking about Yumemi with her boss, and says, “She’s just reciting lines set beforehand.” and then Yumemi delivers her speech and changes the name to Jena-san which surprises Satomi and her boss.
Yumemi leaves the Planetarium in an effort to find more business and delivers her spiel all over town. Software of very large dimensions, does indeed develop new ideas that no human programmer could have even predicted. That is one of the powers of a computer and a huge database. A machine never gets tired, and can transverse an astronomical amount of data searching for patterns that no human could ever see. But this is where scary comes into play. We are used to machines with a high level of predictability. Think your thermostat on the wall. But complex computer systems are not predictable in that way. This is what surprises Satomi. Yumemi-chan invents her own name, Jena-san. So you go out and buy the latest model house robot, and bring it home. You turn it on, a super deluxe mobile Roomba Alexis. And a thought crosses your mind, what if it begins to think that I am not useful, just dirt on the floor, would it then eliminate me? HAL makes exactly that decision, to get rid of the Humans because they are hampering my number one objective of this mission! HAL suffers that most human of sins, Pride. He makes a mistake, and then cannot admit that he made a mistake. He then concludes that it must be due to Human Error!
The Fractal algorithm is extremely simple yet the output patterns are totally unexpected because no human was able to devote their entire life to calculating those patterns. The computer doesn’t mind and will follow it’s programming forever so long as it has the electricity to do the calculation just as Yumeni waits 30 years for a customer.
The creators of game programs like Chess and GO, are surprised by the moves that their creation does make which depend on a vast number of variables which they are not able to calculate. Humans are not computers even though they are able to compute small problems
Yumemi is so very precious, and she grabs hold of your feels big-time. But so do big eyed puppy dogs, and fluffy cats. We are a sucker born every minute who falls in love with imaginary characters and sentient kawaii machines.
Chi, David, Sammy are all shown to have developed what appears to be real emotional feelings. Even HAL from 2001 and Roy Batty from “Blade Runner” were afraid of death.
But Planetarian takes a different track. Hosino Yumeni-chan is clearly shown to be a robot, and she constantly says that she is a robot, and that she has no feelings. She does not understand many questions and blankly says that she does not understand when questioned outside of her programming.
So one clearly knows and feels her robotness and mechanical nature, and yet we like her, we feel for her in exactly the way we feel for imaginary characters in stories. All those in the story who come into contact with her, fall under her spell. I would like to sit down with her and just talk about whatever she wanted to talk about which is probably the Planetarium and the Stars. I know clearly that she is a machine, and yet I feel for her in a way that I don’t feel a strictly inanimate object. There seems to be some soul present in the machine, a Ghost in the Shell.
This is hard to wrap your mind around rationally. She has no fear of death and she says that she feels no pain, so you should not feel sorry for her when she dies. But geez, that just makes me want to love her even more, and it hurts to say goodbye as she passes out of existence. But why?
I guess we are just programmed that way!
“Why don’t you come to the planetarium? That beautiful twinkling of eternity that will never fade, no matter what. All the stars in the sky are waiting for you.” – Hoshino Yumemi-chan
Why don’t you come to the Planetarium?
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED For the ONA’s only
SUGGESTION For Viewing
This story work has a very complex history.
The Film combines the VN Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet with the LN Man of the Stars (星の人, Hoshi no Hito) and the 5 episode ONA Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet.
The origins of this story are confusing to say the least but basically the Film is about The Junker (屑屋, Kuzuya) in old age with the ONA inserted as the back story of Yumemi Hoshino (ほしの ゆめみ, Hoshino Yumemi) which is the entire ONA slipped into the film even to the actual animation.
This reviewer would not recommend the film unless you really want to know about what happens to the Junker. So by doing the film, you are also doing the 5 episode ONA which features Yumemi Hoshino the little robot. Keiko Suzuki (すずき けいこ, Suzuki Keiko) does a wonderful voice for the little Robot, and literally brings her to life.
We would recommend starting with the 1 episode ONA Planetarian: Snow Globe and
then the 5 episode ONA Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet. These works are essentially about the little robot, Yumemi Hoshino which makes up the core of the story.
If you really must know what happens to the Junker, then do the Film and skip through the ONA backstories which you have already seen. But many plot points are never explained and if you were hoping for a resurrection of Yumemi Hoshino, you will be disappointed.
Yumemi gives the Junker her memory chip at the end of the ONA which includes all her memories and personality. The Junker carries this around his neck for the rest of his life, but it is never used, so come on guys what is the point of bringing this into the story and then not using it?
What is the point of the nun Android? Does mankind survive? A fan gets no answers here, and no ending. The Film version is very disappointing in this respect!
THE GENESIS OF THE STORY
The Planetarian story has a very complicated genesis and various parts exist in many forms:
Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet
Visual Novel (VN)
W: Yūichi Suzumoto (涼元 悠一, Suzumoto Yūichi, born January 13, 1969)
The Reverie of a Little Planet 11-29-2004
W: Yūichi Suzumoto (涼元 悠一, Suzumoto Yūichi, born January 13, 1969)
Snow Globe 9-3-2021
Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet
Light Novel (LN)
W: Yūichi Suzumoto (涼元 悠一, Suzumoto Yūichi, born January 13, 1969)
P: 4-28-2006
Snow Globe (雪圏球, Sunō Gurōbu) before the war
Jerusalem (エルサレム, Erusaremu) during the war
Man of the Stars (星の人, Hoshi no Hito) after the war by about 30 years
Tircis and Aminte (チルシスとアマント, Chirushisu to Amanto)
Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet
Original Net Animation (ONA)
W: Naokatsu Tsuda and Shogo Yasukawa after VN “” by Yūichi Suzumoto (涼元 悠一, Suzumoto Yūichi, born January 13, 1969)
R: 7-7-2016 to 8-4-2016
5 Episodes 93 minutes 12 seconds
EP 1 18:10 The Robot’s Bouquet
EP 2 13:27 Repairing the Projector
EP 3 20:33 Yumemi’s Projection
EP 4 17:30 Drunk with Alcohol
EP 5 24:09 Yumemi’s Wish
Planetarian: Snow Globe
Original Net Animation (ONA)Planetarian: Snow Globe
W: Shogo Yasukawa after LN “Snow Globe (雪圏球, Sunō Gurōbu)” by Yūichi Suzumoto (涼元 悠一, Suzumoto Yūichi, born January 13, 1969)
R: 8-25-2021
EP1 36:00
Film
Planetarian: Storyteller of the Stars (Japanese: planetarian～星の人～, Hepburn: Planetarian: Hoshi no Hito, literally “Planetarian: Man of the Stars”)
Screenplay: Naokatsu Tsuda and Shogo Yasukawa after Visual Novel (VN)
W: Yūichi Suzumoto (涼元 悠一, Suzumoto Yūichi, born January 13, 1969)
The Reverie of a Little Planet 11-29-2004
Film released on 9-3-2016 117 minutes
PRODUCTION TIME LINE
11-29-2004 VN The Reverie of a Little Planet
4-28-2006 LN Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet
Snow Globe (雪圏球, Sunō Gurōbu) before the war
Jerusalem (エルサレム, Erusaremu) during the war
Man of the Stars (星の人, Hoshi no Hito) after the war by about 60 years
Tircis and Aminte (チルシスとアマント, Chirushisu to Amanto)
7-7-2016 to 8-4-2016 ONA Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet
EP 1 18:10 The Robot’s Bouquet
EP 2 13:27 Repairing the Projector
EP 3 20:33 Yumemi’s Projection
EP 4 17:30 Drunk with Alcohol
EP 5 24:09 Yumemi’s Wish
9-3-2016 FILM Planetarian: Storyteller of the Stars
8-25-2021 ONA Planetarian: Snow Globe
9-3-2021 VN Snow Globe
STORY TIME LINE
Snow Globe –
Yumemi Hoshino is activated and begins working at the the Hanabishi Department Store’s rooftop planetarium. Then there is a story skip 10 years, and the Planetarium is almost out of business. This causes Yumemi to go out into the city and attempt to bring in customers. We also see anti-robot attacks and civilization seems to be on the verge of breaking down.
Jerusalem –
Biological and Nuclear war breaks out, Sniper Nun
The ONA The Reverie of a Little Planet –
This story opens 30 years after the war, mankind is almost extinct.
The little robot, Yumemi Hoshino is still working at the Planetarium waiting for customers who never arrive until the Junker stumbles into her world and becomes her first and only customer who she names, Mr. Customer. She sacrifices herself to save Mr. Customer and in her disconnect death, as her batteries run out, she explains how she is only a robot who feels no pain, but she is instead connected to the infinity of the Universe. Her only desire is to help others in whatever way she can. This has been the overriding rule of her entire existence.
Man of the Stars (Planetarian: Storyteller of the Stars) – ~30 years after the ONA story world, mankind is almost extinct. The Junker is saved by a small group of non-breeding humans, and its implied that mankind will soon be extinct. Ending is very confusing. The Nun from Jerusalem appears but for what purpose?
Dance Practice [Fantastico] ATARASHII GAKKO! 新しい学校のリーダーズ
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If you have not heard of ATARASHII GAKKO! 新しい学校のリーダーズ then this here is an introduction. One of the most creative and musically aware dance/music/idol groups in existence today. I have not seen choreography so intimate with its music like AG since Balanchine.
These girls who do their own music and choreography are the Cat’s Meow, and this reviewer is just purring away like being high on catnip.
This is an excellent lecture on the question of life in the Universe and why we should be hesitant to make pontifical statements in this regard.
We just do not know enough in many areas to even present an hypothesis.
What are the odds of you being here to read this statement? Think of all the fantastic coincidences that must have taken place for you to be here to read this. Just the fact that your Mother and Father had to meet to produce you may have been highly improbable. Go back in time with all the pairings which had to have taken place, and eventually you arrive at some primitive RNA molecule attempting to survive and replicate 4 Billion years ago. Think of all the steps necessary to arrive today at you reading this line.
This dance according to the Street Dance Community PROPS credit section was
choreographed, supervised and produced by MAA and NATSUKI
who were in charge of the official choreography for パリピ孔明 “Paripi Kōmei”
ENGLISH: Ya Boy Kongming!(2022) anime.
The children dancing here create one of the best versions of the Chiki Chiki Ban Ban dance and they look like they are having so much fun! Bravo!
This video is the full version of the Chiki Chiki Ban Ban song by Queendom
Original song in Hungarian by Jolly – TITLE: Bulikiraly(2013)
ANN: No official rating but the review by Kim Morrissy gives an overall B-
MAL: 6.73
IMDB: 6.9
Characters:
MC
Yui (ユイ) Abandoned by her mother and abused by her cruel father. She runs away.
Hiyori (ひより) Young girl who lost her entire family and is now mute
Kiwa (キワ) The pretend grandmother who brings Yui and Hiyori to her Mayoiga
Kiwa is an interesting character. One part of her is MC and her right foot is
in the real world of the story with Yui and Hiyori and other towns people
SC
Kiwa (キワ) The pretend grandmother who brings Yui and Hiyori to her Mayoiga
Kiwa is an interesting character. The other part of her is SC and her left foot is
in the imaginary world of the story with all the other mythical creatures
We recently responded to a strange review of this work on ANN
“After the initial conflict is resolved, the story meanders for a while, balancing scenes of daily life with appearances of staple figures of Japanese folklore. It gestures somewhat towards an episodic narrative structure of heartwarming small town adventures (think Natsume’s Book of Friends), but eventually an antagonist emerges, and the film pulls itself together for a rather conventional climax.
It never feels entirely believable that the antagonist is a manifestation of the negativity in town when the auxiliary characters only get to show their cheerful and helpful sides.” Kim Morrissy, ANN 2022-9-18
The reviewer here has misread the story they are criticizing.
“.. but eventually an antagonist emerges, and the film pulls itself together for a rather conventional climax.”
The destruction of the Agame monster by Yui and Hiyori is not the denouement of the story! The killing of the Agame monster is a post-coital afterglow of the actual climax which took place much earlier. Yui and Hiyori are walking together, and the vision of Yui’s evil Father returns to take possession of Yui. This almost succeeds until Hiyori in desperation utters a blood curdling scream which breaks the possession into which Yui is falling! This sound which is the first we have heard from Hiyori breaks the hold that takes possession of Yui and she pushes it away. This breaking of mute silence is the very moment of the denouement because the antagonist is not some monster, but lives in all of us. Hiyori has gone mute because the pain and suffering of total loss is beyond words. In making the first sound in her scream, she empties the monster of pain which controls her, and that sound helps Yui to free herself from her pain. This act of making the first sound is later referenced and quoted in the attack on the Agame monster where Hiyori makes a sound on her flute which allows Hiyori to shoot her arrow into Agame. The arrow was given to Hiyori by the same Fox Dance character who gave her a moped.
“Why do good people suffer evil? Why me?” This is what cripples Yui and Hiyori, and in the influence of myth and fantasy, and their mutual support together, they are able to break free from their own sadness, grief, and depression.
This is the point of the story, not some children’s tale of monsters. If you track the characters of Yui and Hiyori closely, anyone can clearly see the character changes that these girls undergo through the progress of the movie. They have both suffered enormous tragedy and loss and are now orphans. As The Swissman observes in the comments, surely one can feel empathy for this loss. While Yui and Hiyori are fictional, there are thousands of children undergoing just that real loss right here and now, and not in some fantasy world.
The movie shows clearly the healing power of myth and then demonstrates how that can actually work it’s effects in real human beings when real people care! Each encounter with the mythological leaves an impression and the two girls slowly begin a series of changes under the influence of the Mayoiga and other mythological beings. This central plot element reaches its climax in the scream of Hiyori’s pain which she is finally able to release.
That scream is the moment where both girls suddenly change and become sisters in a new family.
We at Pywackett Productions believe this story to be one of Reiko Yoshida ‘s greatest works. Perhaps the story is too quiet for more sophisticated reviewers to handle. This brilliant author does more than theorize about storytelling. She actually shows how myth functions to help individuals escape their own internal monsters. She is making an argument that has been made by others such as Tolkien whom she appears to quote with the Eye of Sauron.
A NEW REVIEW
We had never heard of this Anime Movie, “The House of the Lost on the Cape” which was released in 2021, but as this was the virus year, we can see how this one would slip through the cracks.
One of our favorite bloggers, wrote up this review and that was our first introduction to the movie.
The first and most immediate problem is the English name “The House of the Lost on the Cape”. This is probably as close an English translation of The House of the Lost on the Cape (岬のマヨイガ, Misaki no Mayoiga) as it is possible to make do.
A (マヨイガ, mayoiga) being a house of the lost and (岬の, misaki no) being located on a Cape is a relatively accurate translation, but the actual problem is that the very concept of a Mayoiga does not exist in the English speaking world. A strange house found in the woods is usually occupied by a witch and the story of Hansel and Gretel is quoted in this movie.
In Japanese mythology, (マヨイガ, mayoiga) is entirely salvific. That is if you are lost, then the house will appear to you and grant you goodness and help if you take something from it.
迷家-マヨイガ Lost House – Mayoiga translated into English as “The Lost Village(2016)”, an anime series, turns the concept of a mayoiga on its head. In this anime, its the mayoiga that is Lost and that functions as a haunted village. This interpretation of a mayoiga is not the way Japanese mythology sees the mayoiga.
When we look up a mayoiga in “The Legends of Tono(1910)” by Kunio Yanagita, sec 63, a mayoiga is entirely good and healthy for all those people who are lost.
“The Ancient Magus’ Bride” created a 3 OVA prequel called “Those Awaiting a Star(2016)” and in that work, the mayoiga saves the life of Riichi Miura who then saves Chise Hatori with a book and charges her to fulfill his destiny for his beloved which he is unable to do now for reasons which are shown. She does fulfill her duty to Riichi, but fails to understand the book which he has given to her “The Lonely Little Star” and she leaves it behind. Being a magic book, it finds it’s own way to England and back into the hands of Chise Hatori who now begins to understand what Riichi Miura was trying to teach her about the lonely little star.
As in all tales, every storyteller is free to invent, modify and reinterpret existing myths as he or she sees fit for their own story.
The House of the Lost on the Cape (岬のマヨイガ, Misaki no Mayoiga) was written by MS Reiko Yoshida who is somewhat famous in anime having penned many famous screenplays such as Silent Voice, Liz and the Bluebird, Violet Evergarden, Marimite, The Heike Story, Aria, Non-Non Biyori, K-on, and many others. She is one of our favorite authors and she knows how to touch feels.
In this work of The House of the Lost on the Cape (岬のマヨイガ, Misaki no Mayoiga) she is in excellent form, and produces a very quiet story about tragedy deeply embedded in Japanese mythology. How to move on from this profound grief and despair? MS Yoshida suggests quite directly that one way to heal and prevent a spiral out of control into deep depression and even suicide, is mythology which in this film acts as a healing agent for our two main characters. Yui (ユイ) and Hiyori (ひより) are two young girls who have lost everything in life. Their family’s have been taken in total, and they are both orphans totally alone until they are taken in by Kiwa (キワ), a very strange older woman who claims that she is their Grandmother (she is half real and half imaginary herself), and she lives in a mayoiga out on the cape. Kiwa has deep roots in myth, and knows many mythological characters. Even she is possibly mythological and she is a story teller herself.
Interestingly MS Yoshida tells a story about a storyteller and her tales.
What is so very precious in this movie is to watch Yui and Hiyori closely as they slowly change from being lost in grief and sorrow and loneliness to becoming fully human again. If you watch this film, I would suggest that one concentrate on these two girls as they experience directly the full force of imagination as it impinges upon their real personalities and lives. It is quite well done, with lots and lots of feels.
WHY THIS FILM IS UNIVERSAL AND CULTURALLY SIGNIFICANT
In this film, MS Yoshida argues the same points as J.R.R. Tolkien and C. K. Chesterton who were of the opinion that certain human problems could only be discussed in a highly mythological setting.
It is common today to be highly cynical and trollish about such things, and one argument that is made often is that a story is not “real”. This is actually a silly take on any story or work of art which by their very nature are entirely imaginary. Several years ago there was a fad in sculpture to make human statues out of poly chrome that were so lifelike and realistic. But as many artists themselves were quoted as asking, “What is the point of exactly reflecting reality in art? Does that ever truly say anything?”
Several thinkers have embraced this same point of view.
C. K. Chesterton(1874-1936), Carl Jung(1875-1961), J. R. R. Tolkein(1892-1973), C. S. Lewis(1898-1963), Mircea Eliade(1907-1986), and Terry Pratchett(1948-2015) all shared in one form or another the belief that mythological stories were critical for human growth. Chesterton, Tolkein, and Eliade did so to support Roman Catholic Orthodoxy, Lewis for Protestant beliefs, and Jung for general mystical beliefs. While Pratchett shared many of the views of these others, he was decidedly non-orthodox and did not have an agenda in support of a specific Faith system. Instead he used many modern storytelling techniques, such as irony, satire, and humor to tell his fantastical tales.
Terry Pratchett made this exact claim explicit in his “Hogfather” where Death says,
“No, humans need fantasy to be human, to be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape….
Yes, justice, mercy, duty, that sort of thing….You need to believe in things that aren’t true, how else can they become?”
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If you do not believe in human love, how is love to become?
Please do not pass on The House of the Lost on the Cape (岬のマヨイガ, Misaki no Mayoiga). You will have missed a work of subtle beauty and endearment, and of wonder and awe at the realization of profound artistic values.
If you are interested in this important distinction, the following is a further link into a much larger and more abstract discussion.
“Belief” is different than “Faith” and is more fundamental. “Faith” is the rigid adherence to fixed dogmas and formulas as they are expressed in various religious and political discussions. One “Faith” tradition conflicts and denies the validity of other “Faith” traditions. “Belief” is more foundational and underlies all systems of various conflicting “Faith” traditions. The distinction is itself foundational.
One might think of Belief as a set whose members are all other Faiths and their traditions, dogmas, and rituals.
