Keep asking the big questions: Uta Kata, Transcendent

(tags review, book, science fiction, anime, spoiler)

I finally finished watching my copy of the 12+1 episode Uta Kata (うた∽かた), an anime series from late 2004. I forgot that I didn't watch the last two episodes, because I wanted the magic to continue. That's a stupid reason. But really, I like this anime because I like how Masumi "Masumin" Asano (浅野真澄) is playful with her character. Other than that, this anime asks the questions, if you had (or borrowed) the power of gods, what would you do with the power? Would you be remorseful? Would you do things over? I liked how this series asked the questions through the trials of a coming-of-age girl, a girl who asks her mom not to call her "Ichika-chan" but "Ichika" like a full grown adult. The parents even have their scene where they question themselves, shouldn't the parents be there to hear the selfish tantrums of their children?

Unfortunately (but I don't mind that much, haha), this anime has panty shot/fan-service-like angles and pretty girl costume transformation scenes which detracts from the message. In other points, the DVDs have a commentary track with voice goddess Masumin just having rapid-fire tougue-twisting fun. Also there's a DVD extra Kamakura sight-seeing trip to explain the scenic areas used in anime. Masumin makes some insightful comments ("I'm impressed because this is the first time I've seen a flying bird's back" when at the observation tower in Kamakura) and does a good job introducing the tourist spots with information. Unfortunately Masumin doesn't seem to harmonize well with her co-star Yoko Honda (本多陽子). Maybe they should have made more takes?

When I had Uta-Kata fever, I did buy the Comic Market released setting books (原画集) by the director Keiji Gouto (後藤圭二), too. Actually I'm not very fond of his drawing style because the eyes look messy. Here's one of the setting books:

This post is a double-feature. Switching gears...

I also finished the book Transcendent (Wikipedia link, be careful of spoilers) by Stephen Baxter, one of my favorite science fiction writers. I was feeling in the mood for something in English, but I should be studying Japanese more, so with some guilt I picked it up at my favorite foreign bookstore Random Walk (ランダムウォーク 神戸元町店). Anyway, the book is the third in the Destiny's Children series and I have read the first two. This book also asks the question about if you had (or borrowed) the power of gods, what would you do with the power? Would you be remorseful? Would you do things over? Ultimately it reached a similiar conclusion to Uta-Kata, which is grand coincidence. I liked how Baxter uses (recycles?) the big ideas that he introduced in the first two Destiny's Children books and bases more intriguing ideas onto them. One of his themes is it's all about brains and how we might evolve to lose them. He also used one big idea from one of his other books in collobration with Arthur C. Clarke, namely The Light of Other Days (Wikipedia link, be careful of spoilers). How can humans transcend their own existance without remembering their former selves? Let us "Witness".

Unfortunately even I could not suspend my disbelief with some of the plot. How can a group of 21 century people imagine what our descendants half a million years in the future want? There's a little deus ex machina and characters making the startlingly correct leaps of logic, as if the author himself was leading them along. Heh. Well, let's celebrate the inquisitive and insightful human nature. Science fiction is partly salve anyway.

I can't wait till the 4th book in the Destiny's Children series, Resplendent, comes out (in paperback). It's not another big novel, but a collection of short stories. I didn't mention it clearly before, but Baxter really has a cohesive universe that spans his books. The stories he wrote in the 1990 link up in the books that he writes in the present. Or, maybe this small series is just part of his overarcing series Xeelee Sequence. Sweet genius!

At least Baxter doesn't succumb to gaming pleasure, like that other guy Iain Banks, according to Joystiq. He's another British science fiction writer that some mention breathlessly with Baxter, so... Imagine breaking your copy of a game because you were so obsessed with it. That hasn't happened to me, yet.

No sexy anime pictures about this one, har har!