Otaku Evolution Episode 66 – Spirited Away by elliott-morbell
It’s the 2nd Year Anniversary of Otaku Evolution! (I’m still trying to get people to actually watch it.) In this episode, I’m reviewing Spirited Away, the Academy Award-winning Studio Ghibli film! If you want to see me review more well-known, beloved classics like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Black Lagoon, Trigun, Evangelion, or Giant Robo, I’m going to need your financial support! Please contribute to my Patreon!
Savour for a small moment this shot, for it speaks volumes about certain facets of each character’s personality. Once you’re done, move to the next paragraph.
Like I’ve mentioned earlier, the Freid arc is my favourite arc in the series. The crux of its appeal I will speak of later, but for right now, here’s a supporting reason why it is the case. Allow me to direct you to what is their royal palace:
Fanelia has Japan; Asturia has European canal cities; Zaibach has the Industrial Revolution; and Freid has the ancient Khmer kingdoms for inspiration. It’s a type of civilization we rarely see in animu, never mind other mediums outside of the successor countries (only other example I can think of right now is the Gamecube game Eternal Darkness), thus it is a unexpected but welcome sight. I’m very hardpressed to think of any other recent animu which takes all these unique civilizations and have them coexist in one world. The question is why haven’t they? Where is that recent fantasy animu in the vein of Escaflowne that does what it does oh so well? I’m open to suggestions.
Just like that, moments after Hitomi finds out of Van’s rather peculiar growth on his back, the show throws us into Van’s past without hesitation. Instead of dragging things out by shrouding his life story with mystery, it allows a continuation of a conversation he and Hitomi had during the last episode. Turns out Van’s mostly dead family is cloaked with its fair share of tragedy, and that certain Judeo-Christian manifestations of divinity have a more negative context on Gaea. A nice twist on convention to be sure, and explains the sad face Van gives to Hitomi at the episode’s beginning.
So, about a month ago, I got a full-on copyright strike on my YouTube account for disputing a copyright flagging for a test video for a review I was planning to do on Riding Bean. The company that complained is called Molebeat, a Japanese company that deals with intellectual property. Despite my video being well under Fair Use law (#WTFU), I now have a strike that limits the length of videos I can upload onto YouTube, and thus my splitting this video into two parts. Attempts to contact this “Molebeat” company via e-mail have so far been in vain. I think that a company should have to have their own YT account before they can make copyright complaints, so the person being complained against can easily contact them.
Either I forgot or I did not notice, but when Hitomi has that dream sequence where Allen is with her in the real world (and who apparently knows how to use a pager, [HA HA! Foreshadowing!]), she dreams him repeating the near exact words Millerna professed to him in the previous episode. It’s a nice touch showing how Hitomi’s teenage subconscious is working inbetween kidnappings by Gecko Men and cities in flames, compartmentalizing a Princess’s statements and refitting them into her new objet d’drool. Then when that pager keeps finding its way into the story proper, she gets hit with a whammy when it is found out Amano is still concerned about her, and will even try calling it in the hopes she will reply. Great set-up and payoff there show, even if you’ve made the poor girl even more conflicted than she was the last episode, and this shot doesn’t help either.
Of all the Masumune Shirow adaptations I could pick, why did I choose Black Magic M-66? Because it’s short, it’s quirky, and it’s easy to review? Hm, yeah, probably. But also because I could actually monetize a video about it on YouTube. Be sure to contribute to my Patreon and maybe I’ll review stuff like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
My Dailymotion page: http://www.dailymotion.com/elliott-morbell
My Vimeo page: https://vimeo.com/user5558619
My DeviantArt page: http://penguintruth.deviantart.com/
Predictably, the cliffhanger in the last episode is resolved without much fuss by a very effective Van, and thus allows us to delve into the topic of this week’s episode: Fiery passions. Although we’ve seen Hitomi gazing with longing eyes over Allen, it has been left on the backburner for the rather paltry endeavours of rescuing Van and brave escapes. With the inclusion of Princess Millerna to the cast, now comes the complications, and the show goes shoujo on us once again.
I don’t say this as a bad thing, since the first episode did it so well, and Van is too intense on his warrior-ring like so:
It’s a much-delayed new episode of Otaku Evolution, starring myself, guest-starring Pen Pen, and special thanks to… I dunno, you maybe, if you contribute to my Patreon! I take a look at strangely decently-CGed air battle-featured Sentō Yōsei Yukikaze, a five-part OVA that features some of the best aircraft in anime! Enjoy, rate, share, subscribe, etc.
– Penguin Truth
(2016)
If that article subtitle doesn’t seem at all special it’s because you’re not having the small jingle played during most intros of Team Fortress 2’s “Meet The” videos pop up in your head as you read it.
In any case, yeah the scene where Dilandau tries to snipe Van from afar with that one Crima Claw is one of the great moments in the show. It does so much for it, establishing how far Dilandau will go to kill off Van whenever he has a chance, his noticing of Hitomi’s continued presence, how his actions clash with the diplomatic Folken, and the limits of Zaibach’s guymelef technology. It sticks with you, and it helps it is the only time you’ll ever see a guymelef do such a thing, thus cementing its memorability. It’s how Dilandau rolls on the battlefield and even in the capital of a country that is an ally to Zaibach.
If you’ve been paying attention to the show, the revelation in this episode shouldn’t come as a surprise. After mentions from Episode 1 (Van moments before going off to slay some dragons) and Episode 3 (the conversation before meeting with Emperor Dornkirk), it is finally revealed Van and Folken are brothers. The former’s pretty pissed off that the brother he thought died during the very ritual he went through episodes ago is on the other side, and the latter just likes to be enigmatic as all get out because of some big Gaea-saving Plan the dear Emperor has. It cements all those floating bits of info into one of the major conflicts of the show in a natural way that unveils quite a bit but not TOO much.
