I spent my high school career at Haynes, a public magnet school in Metairie. It's not "Haynes Middle School", or "Haynes High School", but rather "Haynes Academy", as it spans sixth (and starting in 2010) to twelfth grade. Haynes boasts a newly added upper class, a mingling of dwarfish hordes of children with what one could argue are young adults, a large, diverse faculty which seems to actually try to avoid cooperating with one another, and an administration that's just as incohesive as the rest of the school. Because of these factors, I always felt that my school was really at odds with itself, both in its internal relations and in its appearance to the rest of the world. Bringing this all to Botchan: I have seen seedy academic politics firsthand and feel like my experience helps me to understand and appreciate the film.
Red Shirt
The vice-principal at my high school was really nothing like red Red Shirt, contemptible in his own ways, but far from vain and manipulative. He most enjoyed spending his time issuing forth Catholic school levels of strictness on the most negligible offenses like untucked shirts, missing IDs, or students who arrived a few minutes late. Our principal, however, was certainly comparable to Botchan's in some ways. Though he was an extremely likable and jolly man, he suffered from being too much of an appeaser, we never really saw exercise his power to the fullest extent, and he would rarely, if ever, involve himself in affairs or disputes between the faculty. We had our fair share of Weaklings, who never had much to say about anything; of Clowns, who would ally themselves on friendship rather than any kind of reason; a few Porcupines, who would speak out against misbehavior to no avail; but, we really only had one Botchan, and she left after one long year of head-butting.
I don't think we had any of these.
We did have one teacher who, despite not being vice principal, seems to be more Red Shirt than Red Shirt is. Out of respect for my classmates, and because I don't feel like devoting any sort of brain power to such an unpleasant person, I'm not going to go into great detail on this woman. However, in a parallel to Botchan, there was a particular...incident...a year or two ago involving our Red Shirt and a few strategically placed eggs, but unlike Botchan's lighthearted 'all has been resolved' ending, I believe the great heroes behind this incident received some unfortunate repercussions. Shame.
If I had watched Ninja Scroll a few years ago, or really just outside of the context of this class, I probably wouldn't have been nearly as intrigued by it as our discussions have led me to be, though that's not to say I would have enjoyed watching it any less. The movie is visceral, graphic, and incredibly sexy; anyone seeking to take even a most superficial enjoyment from the film will be greatly pleased. On the other hand, the movie is also chock full of symbolism, folklore, and interesting notes on both modern and historic Japanese culture. I was particularly interested in the point Professor McCay made about Ninja Scroll's kind of celebration of female sexuality, as it's an interesting blend of both the more superficial and truly meaningful qualities of the movie. While I would like to analyze this point, I'd also like to take a look at the film's overall use of sexuality and aesthetics between genders.
It's no secret that Ninja Scroll features some very powerful female characters. Benisato, Zakuro, and Kagero, while having hugely disparate means and allegiances, are equally beautiful and lethal. It's also worth noting that they operate within predominantly male groups as equals. These women are presented as being just as strong as (and sometimes stronger) than the men they fight alongside. This gender equality and female empowerment is a very Japanese hallmark; it's representative of a society which tends not to draw such clear and unnecessary distinctions between sexes. And while I'm on the subject....
Yurimaru
(...and in respect to his long hair, soft-spokenness, fashionability, and generally non-traditional masculinity, Utsutsu, too.) I don't remember who said it, but I recall someone in class yesterday summing up Yurimaru by saying, "He's beautiful." This is an absolutely textbook example of the whole concept of bishōnen (which explains my song choice for this blog.) Just as the women have a masculine quality in their strength, some of the men have feminine qualities in their beauty. I feel like this whole ideology would be completely lost on the average American viewer. Our society leans much more in favor of damsels in distress, and strong, stereotypically male protagonists. To the average viewer, Jubei may seem to fit this role perfectly...
...but, this would be disregarding his critical dependence upon Kagero. Between poisoning Tessai, wedging her tanto into a bamboo tree, and being the very cure to the poison that guarantees to kill Jubei, Kagero saves Jubei just as often as he saves her, another emphasis of their equality. It's not as if she's some tag-along broad who's always in need of rescuing à la Bond girls or Lois Lane.
Though some people may find the overt sexuality in Ninja Scroll to be a bit unnecessary, I feel they're not looking into it deeply enough. Personally, I find it to be a very relevant commentary on Japanese culture and the sometimes absurdity of gender distinction.
Akira is many, many things. It is cinematically gorgeous, symbolically rich, and perhaps most of all, it is extremely relevant. The messages Akira conveys about government corruption, social injustice, the abuse of power, adolescent rebellion, and the alienation of mankind and nature are themes which are essentially timeless. Perhaps not timeless, but particularly relevant to our post-modern society. When watching Akira (though it was made in the eighties and set in the two-thousands) I found myself often relating it to the events and general sentiments of the 1960s in America, hence the song I used to introduce the blog. Thinking of this decade in our history, it's hard to not immediately conjure up black and white images of students placing flowers into gun barrels, running from tear gas, or yelling over the body of a friend who was murdered by government law enforcement. Images akin to these make up a large portion of Akira; I recall hearing about a clash between student protesters and soldiers hardly minutes into the film.
Just as the young adults of the sixties grew up in the shadow of the second world war, Akira's youth are shaped by the events of the third world war. This is really something which makes the film's use of extreme examples seem...not so unlikely.
If it's not gritty images of protest that spring to mind when you think of the sixties, then it's likely the counter-culture movement. Long hair, drug abuse, avant-garde music, avant-garde everything. This was an entire generation's rebellion against the stagnant social order that brought the world into its current, deplorable state. In Akira we see the same thing: adolescents who express themselves through radical behavior. They fully embrace their alienation from society, existing only as they please rather than however anyone else would have them behave. They are outcasts, but they are true to themselves.
As they are the minority in this society, they highly value camaraderie and find comfort in each other; the biker gangs are very close-knit and their friendships extend beyond all things. Consider how as Akira's aura begins to envelop Neo-Tokyo, Kaneda and Tetsuo reach out to each other, Kaneda forgoing safety in an obviously hopeless attempt to save his friend. Or consider how even when Tetsuo steals his bike, Kaneda's first concern is his friend's safety. These 'delinquents' are compassionate in a way the rest of society doesn't even know.
I really wish I had the attention span to write a fully comprehensive work on the parallelism between this two subjects, because they're just so rife with similarities and cultural commentary and it's all just absolutely fascinating to think about. Something else I really wanted to get into, but will save for another film, is the use of sound and music. Cowboy Bebop and Fooly Cooly -which are defined by their soundtracks as much as their narratives- are two of my favorite series. Akira's mix of minimalism and tribal sounding tracks is just thematically and theatrically awesome. It's really cool music, though it really doesn't have the same gravity out of the context of the film:
My name is Ryan McCarty, but you can find me on Facebook under Matt Ford. Mind you I'm not the actual Matt Ford, who now goes to LSU, nor am I my girlfriend who is also known as Matt Ford.
I spend my spare time playing guitars...
Octopus's Garden:D
...playing videogames...
It's official: Shao Kahn sucks.
...and being a fan of Adventure Time.
Beach TI-
I'm a general studies major with no real idea of what I'm going to do with my life. Besides one brief and unfortunate stint with Cafe du Monde, I've spent my life gleefully unemployed. I spend my abundance of free time with my friends enjoying the finer, freer, and generally more affordable things in life. Including, but certainly not limited to: Goodwill shopping, making lamps out of used liquor bottles, watching Batman (weeknights@10:30, weekends@2:30), hunting down food trucks (Taceaux Loceaux and BooKooBBQ anyone?), and not finishing my blogs.