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timepiececlockAm I staying up all night to watch PT and knit? Yes. And yes, I knit now! I started tonight. I'm making a purple scarf. It's great. I can't purle though, the book's explanation just confuses me.
Disc 1
I had forgotten the actual degree of abrupt little asshole Fakir was in the first episodes. I mean, really. He's quite the nasty bitch.
I'm "eh" about Mytho's dub VA; he's alright for the soft-spoken stuff, a little jarring for the louder stuff. Ahiru/Duck's dub VA is quite talented; some of those lines must be murder on your throat. Rue's English voice is lovely and Fakir's is positively splendid. I still wish they had used his actor for Sasuke in the Naruto dub.
I'd forgotten how often, in these first episodes, they repeat the line that the princess is fated never to be with the one she loves. Ahiru says it about five or six times, Drosselmeyer says it twice that often, and even Rue repeats it once. I know how that dialogue reads in the beginning of the show, but having seen the end and knowing how the cards fall... that prediction takes on new tragic meaning, as does Drosselmeyer's fanatic insistence that the audience "never forget that Ahiru, as her true self, is a duck." It's something the audience and Ahiru forget over the course of the series... we start to see her as a girl who turns into a duck, not a duck that turns into a girl. That change in perception (or misperception) correlates with the fact that as the series progresses, Ahiru begins to operate as if it were that way, particularly in her relationships with the other characters. It reminds me so much of The Last Unicorn, as Ahiru is forever changed by being human, and what her true identity is begins to blur as she becomes more than what she was. The transformative aspect of this series is beautiful. The first half of the series we discover who these characters are as pieces of them are revealed... the second half of the series takes those newly-revealed characters and this time transforms them.
Disc 1
I had forgotten the actual degree of abrupt little asshole Fakir was in the first episodes. I mean, really. He's quite the nasty bitch.
I'm "eh" about Mytho's dub VA; he's alright for the soft-spoken stuff, a little jarring for the louder stuff. Ahiru/Duck's dub VA is quite talented; some of those lines must be murder on your throat. Rue's English voice is lovely and Fakir's is positively splendid. I still wish they had used his actor for Sasuke in the Naruto dub.
I'd forgotten how often, in these first episodes, they repeat the line that the princess is fated never to be with the one she loves. Ahiru says it about five or six times, Drosselmeyer says it twice that often, and even Rue repeats it once. I know how that dialogue reads in the beginning of the show, but having seen the end and knowing how the cards fall... that prediction takes on new tragic meaning, as does Drosselmeyer's fanatic insistence that the audience "never forget that Ahiru, as her true self, is a duck." It's something the audience and Ahiru forget over the course of the series... we start to see her as a girl who turns into a duck, not a duck that turns into a girl. That change in perception (or misperception) correlates with the fact that as the series progresses, Ahiru begins to operate as if it were that way, particularly in her relationships with the other characters. It reminds me so much of The Last Unicorn, as Ahiru is forever changed by being human, and what her true identity is begins to blur as she becomes more than what she was. The transformative aspect of this series is beautiful. The first half of the series we discover who these characters are as pieces of them are revealed... the second half of the series takes those newly-revealed characters and this time transforms them.
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Re: MORE SPOILERS!
Date: 2008-01-28 04:51 am (UTC)Mytho is the most passive character since the stupid girl I hate from Phantom of the Opera.
If you've ever watched any Utena, then you'll understand me when I say that he is the Anthy of the series, only for helpless birds instead of flowers! They are both impassive and, umm, objects, and sort of tossed around by the other characters - though in Utena, the tossing of Anthy is much more crude and sexual and downright annoying. I like Mytho a lot more than I like Anthy, though; actually, it's more like I hate Anthy, whereas I tolerate and appreciate Mytho without any particular preference. (ANTHY, IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE ROSE BRIDE, JUST SAY SO. Utena, Juri, and Miki are not such jerks that they'd fight for you when you make it clear that you hate it, Touga's busy womanizing everyone else, and Saionji's an easy win for Utena.) I don't... even want to get into Anthy's issues with her brother. I didn't get far enough in the series to completely understand them, either.
Admittedly, I did love Utena the character. But anyway, yes - what started out as a power struggle to protect Mytho, with the male in the lead, ended up an achievement of all three but particularly through the girls. I also loved that Fakir could not counter-write through Mytho's perspective but only through Ahiru's - this doesn't only highlight that Fakir's understanding of Ahiru far surpassed his understanding of anyone else, but also that Ahiru, the pacifist female, had the most of whatever it took to return the rest of Mytho. It marked Fakir's growth when he allowed his role to become Ahiru's and when he came to the realization that he is Mytho's support by being Ahiru's support - and I will never stop loving that he doesn't drop the role of support after the story, but only lives up to it by staying with Ahiru when he no longer needs to.
Re: MORE SPOILERS!
Date: 2008-01-28 11:10 am (UTC)But Mytho doesn't exist in Utena. Except maybe as a potential in everyone. No one is that pure in Utena.
I don't think Rue as a dark magical girl (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DarkMagicalGirl) is that rare an archetype either. While redemption stories which use a female character are much rarer than the ones with males, they do happen occasionnaly. However it is rare for the redemptive character to be as passive and innately pure as Mytho.
Ahiru's definitly a female archetype still IMHO. It's her ability to reach to people and have them open up to her compassion, to inspire them with her capacity for hope which makes her a hero.