Tag Archives: Terror in Resonance

Why It Works: Music in Anime: The Song is the Story

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Today I’ve got a Why It Works post I’m very happy with, as I got to write at length on a topic I’m always fascinated by – storytelling conveyed without narrative, and particularly storytelling conveyed through sound design. The entry point for this discussion was how well Carole & Tuesday’s songwriting expresses its protagonists’ growth, but many of my favorite shows use not just music, but in-show musical performance as key emotional moments and character turns. As a musician and songwriter myself, I’m naturally inclined to embrace music-focused anime, and fortunately, several of my favorite anime directors seem to love musical performances just as much as I do. Here’s the piece!

Music in Anime: The Song is the Story

Why It Works: Cowboy Bebop’s Shinichiro Watanabe is Directing an Anime this Spring!

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Today on Why It Works, I used the occasion of Carole & Tuesday’s upcoming release to talk about Watanabe’s work in a more general sense, highlighting the themes and narrative quirks that have remained consistent all through his many years as a director. I get the feeling my insistence his works are all a part of one cohesive statement might not tempt people who are just hoping for Bebop 2, but I gotta try! Regardless, I enjoyed looking and thinking back over Watanabe’s career, and now feel even more excited for his new show. I hope you enjoy the piece!

Cowboy Bebop’s Shinichiro Watanabe is Directing an Anime this Spring!

Terror in Resonance – Review

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Time for another review! This time I got a chance to revisit one of my favorite shows from 2014, and actually found it even more enjoyable in retrospect. Knowing from the start that the thriller stuff would be kind of silly made it easier to focus on the show’s actual strengths; its plot is functional and sometimes over-the-top, but that doesn’t really take away from the show’s strong ideas or gorgeous execution. The show feels filmic in a way only KyoAni shows tend to match, and it’s kind of astonishing how gracefully the show’s ideas are illustrated, considering this is the same show that also features friggin’ airport chess. Its weaknesses ultimately feel almost inconsequential to me; it’d be nice if this show were actually perfect, but it’s still really damn good.

You can check out my review over at ANN, or my episode notes below!

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Top Ten Anime of 2014

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I had to stretch to get a top 10 this year. I’m ready to admit that. Last year, it was easy – in fact, it was too easy, and I ended up expanding my list to twelve shows basically by necessity. But this year didn’t have quite the top shelf of 2013, and so concessions had to be made. There are certainly a couple notable absences here, with I’m guessing the biggest ones being Kill la Kill, Space Dandy, and maybe Nozaki-kun. The reason for those absences is simple – I didn’t like any of those shows very much. If you’re looking for a general “all the shows that enjoyed positive appraisal among the kinds of people who make a point of appraising shows,” I’m guessing all three of those would be included, but this is my list, and I’m gonna talk about what I wanna. (Incidentally, if you are looking for a list like that, my fellow critics at ANN all contributed their own top five lists to this recent retrospective – and that’s all shows that started in 2014, so even my list over there is pretty different). My list may be a little shorter this year, but it’s still got some real gems, and considering three of the year’s best shows aren’t included simply because they aren’t finished (Shirobako, KimiUso, and Parasyte), I’d say we made off okay. Let’s run it down!

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12 Days of Anime, #3: Lisa Feels The Wind

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There’s just something about that open road. Modern society is an inescapable monolith, and wherever you go will be just one more spot on the map, but when you’re young and hopeful and feel like freedom is a real thing, the road has a real power to it.

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ANN’s Top Five Anime of 2014

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ANN just posted their big top five anime of the year retrospective, which includes the results of their reader poll and lists from a bunch of their staff, including yours truly. This list was based on full-length shows that started in 2014, meaning no Hanamonogatari or Samurai Flamenco, while shows like Shirobako are eligible. Meaning the list I submitted there is actually fairly different from the top ten list I’ll be posting here in a week or so, but it still offers a fine preview of my thoughts on the year, and actually highlights how badly I think this fall season pulled everything together. This was a weak year in anime, but the silver lining is that fall’s continuing shows (Shirobako, KimiUso, Parasyte, FSN) are almost single-handedly ensuring 2015 will be better. And the other ANN writers highlight a whole bunch of other compelling stuff, so clearly animeland will survive. Here’s to 2014!

Shirobako

Terror in Resonance and the Shadow Children

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“When heaven has a line around the corner,
we shouldn’t have to wait around and hope to get in
if we can carpenter a home in our heart right now
and carve a palace from within.”
– The Antlers

“Tramps like us, baby we were born to run.”
– Bruce Springsteen

The world is against us, but the world is at our backs. The future could be ours, or there might just not be a future. There’s no “outside” of what we’re escaping, but we move forward anyway. Our only certainties are the wind, the darkness, and the distant horizon.

We live in the shadow of a great and terrible machine. That’s Terror in Resonance’s opening assumption; an assumption the show often takes very literally. Its characters weave in and out of society’s sunlit face and shadowed reality, and the rigidity of our modern social order is perhaps the show’s single constant antagonist. Whether they struggle against it or accept its presence, it is always there, always dictating the lives they may live. Terror in Resonance is a story of adolescent rebellion and societal alienation. It is a story of what the world demands of us, and what we become in its eyes. It is a story of anyone who is cast as a child by the world, and of the things only children can do.

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Zankyou no Terror – Episode 11

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Welp, here we are. In spite of everyone’s best wishes, the bomb’s been set – nobody wanted this, but this is where alienation has brought us. I’ve really enjoyed this show, and I’m confident it’ll end well, but I can’t say exactly what that ending will be. I doubt it’ll be happy – the context this show is stabbing at isn’t a happy one, and our actual world doesn’t offer any easy solutions to the questions of power dynamics and societal disconnect we’re dealing with here. All I’m hoping for is an ending that stays with you – I think one of art’s highest purposes is holding a mirror to the world, and I think Zankyou is as angry and driven a show as I’ve come across in recent memory. Let’s see it through to the end.

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Zankyou no Terror – Episode 10

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Welp, time for terror. Twelve’s betrayed Nine in order to save Lisa, Shibazaki’s learned the truth, and Five is as ridiculous and show-warping as ever. Let’s see what happens next!

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Zankyou no Terror – Episode 9

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Time again for terror! Lisa’s been captured, Twelve’s made his choice, and Nine stands alone. With three episodes left, it seems unlikely this will all end in smiles and rainbows, but I’d sure like for Lisa and Twelve to get out of this, at least. That may defeat the show’s purpose, though – Nine’s anger is just as understandable as their connection, and no one can really escape the world they’re born into. All you can do is adapt or burn the damn thing down.

Incidentally, vestenet made a great post about Zankyou’s historical context over at Isn’t It Electrifying. I’d definitely check that out to see some of the more specific unrest and political circumstances Zankyou’s building on!

Alright, let’s get to terror.

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