Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am eager to return to a long-dormant property, as we at last continue our journey through Texhnolyze. Fortunately, Texhnolyze isn’t the toughest show to catch up on: in fact, it’s basically an exercise in dramatic minimalism, possessing a scant handful of characters, and generally focusing more on director Hiroshi Hamasaki’s stifling atmosphere than overt narrative progression. We have the boxer Ichise, we have Kazuho, and we have Orsini, but more important than any of them is this oppressive world they inhabit, this bleak expanse of ominous shadows and overbearing sunlight.
In this saturated alien landscape, consistent themes are beginning to emerge. Chiaki J. Konaka is clearly fascinated by the advent of transhumanism, but seems skeptical regarding the “legitimacy” of artificial bodies. His doubts are realized through the ambiguous perspective of the Raffia surgeon, as well as the anxieties of groups like the Salvation Union. Meanwhile, Orsini’s criminal dealings emphasize the unequal distribution any such gifts would be subject to in our own world; even if whole replacement bodies can be acquired, such rebirths would only be available to the upper classes, here literally defined as “the Class” from “the Hill.”
As a representative of Organo, the criminal organization secretly running our city Lukuss, Orsini possesses the unique capacity to travel between class lines, existing in both the upper and lower societies. But Orsini is no savior; he’s a criminal and a company man, with his proud amorality standing as one of the most interesting things about him. If anyone is going to challenge this system, I’d bet it’s the mysterious Ran – but with her motives as unclear as anyone’s, it seems more likely she’s just trying to survive. This is a world of scroungers, not saviors, and it feels all the more convincing for it. Let’s return to Texhnolyze!