Blurring fantasy

This has been a trend in progress for a while, and I wonder how everyone feels about it. I speak of what appears to be a movement towards an increased sort of hyper-realism. Maybe we should just call it Shinkai-ism, since he has been this towering figure as of late.

Come to think of it, Voices of a Distant Star was what got the ball rolling for me, followed by The Place Promised in our Early Days. I saw a reference to Chiaroscuro in a comment, but I can't remember where (doh!). And lest we forget already, trains and train stations have never looked so good.


But the emphasis isn't purely on visuals in Byousoku 5 cm. The sound effects, when present, may well have been enhanced audio recordings of the real thing, from the Doppler effect as a train moves away from a crossing signal, to the distinct tone of a cell phone on vibrate.

Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo makes use of filtered photographs, as does at least the ending to Manabi Straight. Less extreme might be Kyoto Animation, but do we not laud the studio for its attention to detail precisely it looks so realistic? Is the concept of quality in anime, in the current vernacular, linked to how closely animated entities resemble their real world counterparts?


Anyone with more viewing experience should feel free to contradict me, but my impression is that this obsession with realism is beginning to pick up steam, whether it be filtering a photo or meticulously drawing scale models of the here and now. Dennou Coil is also insanely detailed, and even Sky Girls is getting more detail than the premise deserves.

You may feel that it cheapens the viewing experience, i.e. "If I wanted a dose of reality I'd just leave my basement house", but the plausibility and consistency that these constructs lend generate a lot of goodwill from viewers with less sophisticated tastes in art (i.e. me).

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Why take pride in anime?

When you can take pride in Popeye?



How timely. Via BoingBoing.

For the record, I am fairly indifferent when it comes to pride. I am of the view that enjoying anime is something that is a part of me, and I feel no particular pride or shame in what is basically a fact. It's a weak, fence sitting position to take, sure to draw fire from those who fear being looked down upon, and those who think fans are clearly not hardcore enough.

Does it make sense to take pride in other people's work? Or the talents of others? To take pride in something that is not you or not created/accomplished through some contribution by you, is not unlike propping yourself up. And so it is that while the anime studios and their staff may take pride in anime, I merely like watching it and respecting their work.

Another related notion that I do not subscribe to, although maybe I should if only slightly, is pride in country. Why should I be proud of my nationality? I am certainly not ashamed of it, but I refuse to exist vicariously through the great deeds of others. On the flip side, I do not wish to be viewed as someone greater or lesser for being from some country. Nationalism's flip side is racism.

Pride is also exclusive. If you take pride in some sports team, can you objectively watch a match in which they come out the loser? Can you honestly watch such a match for what it is, a display of talent and organization, as opposed to some affront or vindication of your very existence? It's just not healthy. Sometimes, it leads to riots. Combine nationalism with soccer sports, and…

But by extension, I have a dislike for this Anime-ism; the implication that others may or do look down upon you, and for the backlash that in response, one must be a fan unto hooliganism [I know, the entry was in jest]. It engenders dishonest notions that one form of art and entertainment is superior to all others. It makes people want to keep anime to themselves, where it can remain in the hands of those with superior intellect and moral fibre.

This is not the first time that this closeting effect has come up to haunt the anime fan. Perhaps it's a common symptom with movements that have not (yet) gained mainstream acceptance, a collective self-consciousness among its many constituents.

The world doesn't need more silently oppressed people any more than it needs hooligans and soccer riots. Anime is not such a big deal that you have to keep all to yourself, nor should it be rubbed into the faces of everyone you come across. Be passionate, be dignified.

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They said rock and roll was dead, too

That didn't stop the US from exporting it around the world and establishing cultural hegemony. Along with Cher. And hip-hop.

As stated before, if you want to pick a new term, go with genres or other catchy and marketable names for anime's derivatives. Why should we be tied to saying, "That's anime" and "That's not anime" when it would make everyone's lives easier to narrow things down a bit and say, "That's a kid's show" and "That's slice of life."

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Anime is the new rock

On the left: Guitar Hero v.314159

Or perhaps I should say, anime is the new rock n' roll. Now wading in to spread disinformation, sow confusion, and stir the pot.

To claim that anime is even remotely related to rock and roll is to imply that anime will become as dominating an influence on animation as rock and roll was on popular music. And yet, there are signs that this may be the case, although that's beyond the limited scope of this entry.

Just as rock and roll arose out of the confluence of African-American and Western-European musical styles, anime (in a modern sense) arose out of the confluence of Japanese art and American animation, specifically Disney. While there was animation ongoing in Japan prior to the rise of Disney, it wasn't until the 1960's that anime achieved a modicum of international success.

Rock and roll exploded into the global (or just Western industrialized nations) mainstream in 1956 and from it came just plain rock, acid, folk rock, art rock, punk, Merseybeat, metal, death metal, emo, the list goes on. Not all of these derivative styles originated in the United States: punk is distinctly British and there's a reason there's the Mersey in Merseybeat.

The different flavours of rock are so many that we cease to lump them into one category known as rock and roll. Without a passing interest in musical history, rock and roll's connection likely doesn't even enter into the mind.

Anime's explosion was much more muted in that it was localized to Japan for much of the intervening years, but I think that the case also applies. Defining anime as a general category will only aid in identifying the small subset of commonality between derivatives, and as such will only have passing historical interest.

I think that one day, maybe even in my lifetime, people won't speak of "anime" any more than they would speak of "rock" in general terms. Instead they will talk about "mecha" as its own entity just as others speak of "punk" as its own entity.

Oh wait, they already do. What were we debating about again? I suppose I agreez. Anime is a style and aesthetic and influence. Just like rock and roll.

P.S. In response to Maglor: In keeping with the spirit of the English language, we must not only assimilate words and terms from other languages, but we must also bastardize evolve their meanings beyond their initial roots and combine them or just plain make up our own definitions! I leave that as an exercise to the reader.

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Blue-skying anime ownership

This crackpot post was motivated by another industry panel where piracy was brought up. It's a discussion of what amounts to a business model that is currently not possible for a variety of reasons. From a content production view, it calls for anime licensing companies to integrate with anime licensor companies at an unprecedented level, an effective amalgamation in all but name. On the technical side, much of the technology already exists. What's lacking is the will. Brace yourselves, this is a bit of a head-scratcher, after these messages.

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Problems with personal storage of any kind

The problems associated with delivering the so-called R1 release are numerous and ought to be well known by this time. First, a licensing company has to step up to the plate at all, and take on the risk of licensing a work. Following that, the script has to be translated, voice actors hired, recording studio time put in, post-processing and disc stamping, promoting the work in the target market, the list goes on. A frequent complaint among anime buyers is the giant time lag between licensing agreement and first volume release. Even then, there may be spelling errors in the subtitles, or the video quality may be inferior to their R2 counterparts.

A personal quibble for me is that DVD (english) subtitles are inevitably yellow and single-line. Maybe it's because I use MPC as my DVD player as I haven't tried others. Regardless, it's ugly.

No matter what, you've bought the product and you're stuck with whatever problems are present. Then there is the problem of storing them. For one thing, if you really want to go all out to support a series and get the collector's box, it takes up more space than just the regular box. For another, the discs may not last forever.

I am hesitant to store anime these days. I may be technically inclined, but that doesn't obviate the fact that I'm also lazy. Burning DVD's is time consuming and they may not last forever (we'll see). Hard drives, despite being cheap and plentiful as external drive solutions, fail and you're not about to try and recover that data. I'm also not desperate enough to construct a RAID system out of multiple drives to back up my anime. What I want, and I suspect a lot of other people would like this as well, is someone to store my stuff for me.

Outsource your storage!

A trend today is that we want to, at least physically, own less and less. Pictures? Put them on an image host. Who needs CD's when that same music can go on to a bit of storage that may or may not have a player with it? Some things we don't even want to keep on our own computers now. Like images, we put our e-mail, our calendars, our feed readers, etc. on servers.

In a roundabout way, I have just cast my vote in favour of anime streaming. I won't have to back up episodes. I don't have to use up existing hard drive space or obtain new drives. Better yet, streaming is flexible. If the player application supports soft subs, I won't have to see ugly yellow subtitles. Video and audio quality can be broadcast grade or better.

There are caveats, though. Obviously I'm going to have to pay money. The question is whether such a service is worth the money as-is. The answer is no. While the service is nice, I want to own the series and all the rights that go along with it. If I want to download it to watch on the airplane, I should be able to. In short, no DRM. If I decide that I want to sell the series, I should be able to. That one's a little trickier to deal with.

Content production

This topic is a bit easier to deal with. Companies with already established licenses for long running series (Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, etc.) would probably have a much easier go at this. To reduce the time lag between japanese release and, say, english release, translation has to start as soon as possible. The shortest time reasonable is only attained if translation commences as soon as the script is released.

Close proximity to the source is also beneficial. Put translators in the same time zone as the original script writers. If they can be put in the same building, on the same floor, even better.

Use soft subtitles. In addition to the flexibility gained by dictating position, colour, font, and special effects for text, they do not force the video to be re-encoded, preserving the original video quality. Any errors can be quickly corrected without a re-encode as well.

Like the current trend in software development, emphasis should be placed on putting out an initial product first and then adding features and even subtitle corrections. Subtitles are all that is required first, followed by dubbing at a later point, and then special music videos and the like. Any consumer who purchases the initial release should be entitled to these future updates and features.

Content protection

While there can't be any DRM, there can be digital watermarking. Watermarks will probably find most success embedded in the video content itself. They must not degrade video quality, and must be robust to attacks via video filters. Such developments are now in progress and may be ready for commercial use.

Content delivery

Any of these companies will either have to retain the services of a content distribution network like Akamai, Limelight Networks, or Google (lol?), or develop their own distribution network capable of providing high, sustained, bandwidth, like a much speedier incarnation of Stage6 if they want to stream HD resolution. The need for a one to one correspondence between watermarked video and owner necessitates the need for individual video streams. That is to say, multi-casting at the router node or using peer-to-peer networks, in their current stage, will not work.

Watermarks will be generated and inserted into the video content on the fly, so the host will not need as many copies of the video as there are owners. However, there is no escaping the need for an incredibly large pipe. Bandwidth must be dirt cheap, and to maintain the streaming experience, users should probably have downlink speeds at or better than DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem standards.

Fibre-optic would be nice, in other words.

The user may opt to download an episode and walk away, or stream a lower resolution version which can be generated on the fly using a hardware rescaler. Modifications to the existing TCP/IP protocol, or the development of a completely new standard, would be desirable in order to maximize the payload bandwidth.

Distribution costs could be decreased via the use of next-generation codecs such MPEG-4 AVC, packaged in a subtitle-friendly video container such as MKV. The processing demands on the user would increase, but tough luck. The world is moving to 720p and 1080i anyway, and will require either dedicated hardware such as graphics cards, or processors with SIMD/vector processing instruction sets.

Bridging ownership in the physical and digital worlds

I forget where I first saw this, but it must have been from one of the figure collectors such as TJ Han or bj0rn. Rather than support a series by buying the DVD's, they preferred to buy figurines. They're more compact than a DVD set, you can take photos of them, and they're probably marginally less fragile than a bunch of DVD's.

Why not implant a security token in each figurine?

Each figurine would contain a private key — a digital certificate. The token could also be implemented using a pseudo-random number generator with a secret seed, but a private key coupled with wireless USB, Bluetooth, or RFID would probably be more seamless. In conjunction with an account number or password, the user would use two-factor authentication to access an anime series.

An example scenario

Suppose I want to buy Code Geass (I'm just throwing out an example. Don't brick me if CG is not your cup of tea). Because the licensing company put their translators in the same room as the script writers when they were still writing the script(!!), an initial, english subtitle only, release for the first four episodes is available for streaming or downloading. I go to the purchase page, where a number of character figures, as well as Knightmare Frame models, are on sale. I select one and pay for it. In doing so, not only do I get the figure of my choice, I get access to all episodes and any bonus features once they are released.

A couple days later, my figure arrives in the mail. Using my account number or password or whatnot, and the figure (via RFID), I gain access to the streaming site and player. The video is mine. I can have the player save the video container file instead of deleting it once another episode is run or the player closes. If I so choose, I can back it up to hard drive, or put it on my portable video player.

What if I want to sell the series?

So you want to sell the series, or give it to someone else. The first step is to actually hand over the physical figurine. This might be a sore point for collectors, but hey, if you really didn't like the series you ought to reconsider collecting figures from that series in the first place.

The second step is to transfer access ownership. The buyer will have to have their own account. A possible method is to have the buyer provide you with their account information, a publicly exposed piece NOT used to authenticate. Through an update page, the seller can inform the company that ownership has changed to a different account.

Note that these two steps may be performed in any order. The seller would probably want to confirm receipt of funds before transferring ownership of either the access rights or the figurine. Escrow services and the like exist today to provide seller protection.

I want to share my anime / Thwarting the evil-doers

Share away. Just make sure your buddy doesn't get caught with your video, because that watermark can and will be traced back to you. Consumers will not be treated like criminals, but discovered criminal actions will have a trail. As noted before, the robust watermark will discourage piracy to some extent.

If you have not willingly lent out your copy of the video (i.e. your account and your figurine were stolen), the situation should be treated in the same way as if you've lost your credit card. Your existing account will be suspended and a new one issued. Unfortunately, you will likely be responsible for the cost of replacing your figurine, although maybe the company will give you a break and strike the cost associated with the access rights.

Challenges

In this current legal (copyright) climate, one would have to be crazy to trust any company with their property, especially property that they'll likely pay in excess of $10 for. For this to work, the consumer must trust the company not to be evil and won't one day change the terms of the agreement to extract more money.

On the content provider side, they would have to accept that most of their customers are not crooks, and that they are willing to pay for convenience and timely delivery.

On the technical side, a lot more people have to be willing to make online purchases. The bandwidth must be there on both sides. Everyone needs contemporary systems to play the video. Companies must have a the necessary infrastructure to manufacture or order these figurines, and any manufacturer needs to be able to embed a digital certificate into their products. I think RFID would be the way to go, although that necessitates the use of an RFID reader. Current secure authentication RFID tags are expensive, although their cost should come down in line with insecure RFID tags.

I want my pencil board!

Who's to say that RFID tags, which are flexible, can't be embedded into the middle of a pencil board? But the point is well taken. With the disappearance of DVD's, physical bonus features will for the most part disappear. That is the disadvantage of jumping into a series early, as variety will be limited. A possible solution would be to sell non-RFID versions of those items at a reduced price. I don't think most companies would let you trade up to a newer item.

Conclusion

Large pipes and peering agreements. Advances in digital watermarking. Advances in strong authentication. Advances in RFID technology. Advances in video encoding, decoding, and production. Secure transaction frameworks and fraud mitigation systems. All of the components exist if even in a limited form, today. Technically, this system is possible. The real question is, can both the consumer and producer come to an understanding of what it will take to move into the next phase of media distribution?

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Music as an evolutionary product

melody.'s latest, READY TO GO! is pretty forgettable, I won't dispute that. It reeks of cynicism to say this, but melody. and her production team are just doing their job. That there is a market for this kind of music must say something. Whether that something is positive or negative I leave up to you. Speculation as to what that something is, after these messages.

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Memorable were the last two tracks, Shine and Dangerous, the former a decent upbeat pop track, the latter a stronger dance offering than Finding my Road. But in general, this album is safe, capable of being mindlessly consumed.

You can rag on people and the music they listen to until you're blue in the face, but the truth is some people just need something to consume, like food. I can and have eaten instant noodles for lunch for a week or two straight and haven't given it a second thought.

With the advent of epic quantities of disposable income following World War II and the subsequent baby boom and sharp rise in post-war standard of living for countries who weren't bombed back to the stone age, comes all these neat things such as disposable cars *cough*GM*cough*, disposable clothes (but only in the sense that they're unfashionable; few actually try to keep a lid on the size of their wardrobes), disposable technology through built-in obsolescence and making gadgets as fashionable (or unfashionable) as clothing. Why couldn't the western industrialized nations have disposable entertainment? And so they did, and through cultural hegemony, the rest of the world embraced the concept.

Disposable entertainment is not new, as evidenced by the likes of the Brill Building and its predecessor Tin Pan Alley, but it's only been recently that people have thought to link it to, say, capitalism, or the ruining of modern society, and then complain bitterly about it.

For those who like their music only semi-dignified

So, about that something, maybe it's as mundane as evolution. We may complain about how pop music all sounds the same, but we really just see the trees in the forest. The revolution may happen overnight, but it's decades in the making. In that time span, people need something new. It doesn't have to be different, it just has to be new.

Some things just don't change. It's a sore point among classical (era) music lovers to claim that all of their music sounds the same, but in many ways it was just as predictable as today's pop structure. When the predominant structure back in the day was the Sonata-Allegro form, you really did know when the performer was modulating. This distressed Debussy to no end, and breaking away from that form was a hallmark of Impressionism.

As with most other things, it is technology that is the great differentiator. Where there was only one Haydn or Bach capable of cranking out prodigious amounts of music, a few stars like Lizst or Beethoven, and the obscure guy like Franz Schubert or Mozart (he died broke), there are any number of cookie-cutter producers, great live acts, and obscure indie bands. The music video has displaced the live concert as a promotional tool as well as an experience mechanism. Accurate digital audio synthesis has replaced sheet music, which had varying quality directly proportional to skill and orchestral organization. Back then, sometimes it was literally only possible to listen to music when the composer themselves delivered a concert, because it was just too hard to play.

If anything, technology is accelerating the progression of musical styles. Consider yourself back in the 1800's. You would have heard classical music your entire life. Full stop. In this day and age, we've had a jazz revival, a latin fad, a classical blip (in the form of Celine Dion and Titanic), the age of boy-bands and girl-bands. This all occurred in the span of just over 10 years.

I myself want to experience the music I listen to. Experiencing is a lot like going to a concert, and it takes a bit out of me, and so I don't listen to as much music as the average consumer. But I have no overriding disdain for the average non-fanboy or non-fangirl. Yes, mainstream music continues to sound the same at the same time, but take comfort in the knowledge that it does not progress at a glacial pace.

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For the love of it

While we're all playing purist, as inspired by the tenth episode of Lucky Channel, let's talk about another term that has been butchered modified due to the passage of time. While there are plenty of terms that have changed throughout history, this one has the benefit that it's in the language that I'm writing in, and one that has some bearing on what (and how) I write.

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That term, is amateurism. The opposite, of course, is professionalism. I generally have a disdain for -ism's, as usually any -ism has a polarizing extreme opposite. While I've forgotten the first place I read about -ism's, Beware of isms because they very quickly move to schisms by Huston Smith will suffice. In this case, I aspire not to amateurism, nor professionalism, but some data point in between.

Anyone who can take down a Zaku with a compact grenade launcher is PRO in my books.

That amateur and its derivatives are frequently used in a negative tone, while professional and its derivatives are generally referenced positively, reflects heavily on the kind of society that most of us live in. The general consensus is that professionals make lots of money. They're lawyers, doctors, accountants, engineers, and various other licensed occupations that traditional Asian parents want their kids to become.

By contrast, amateurs are unskilled n00bs who are generally unemployable.

Money is but one view. At its root, amateur means to be a lover of. Whether or not you make a living out of doing what you love is a different issue entirely, although those who can are often the subject of much envy.

Just because you love whatever, be it music, or games, etc. does not automatically mean you are bad. Nor does the fact that you do whatever for a living make you good. Digitally re-mastered, heavily marketed pop acts are professionals in every sense of the world: they sing for a living; multiple studio sessions and a mixer ensure that every song is error free and extremely shiny; public perception is key, with the hype machine and marketing department being indications that such perception can be easily bought. Believe it or not, some acts are quite good, and others not so much.

Most of us, and I suppose I mean those who write about anime and related sundry topics, are amateurs, hopefully. We love to watch anime, and want to talk about it, choosing a written medium to do so. At least, that's the plan.

Although I can be inconsistent about it, I try to be a bit self-conscious when writing. More than mere polish — writing technique is on a continuum orthogonal to content — to be self-conscious is to be aware of others and concerned about how others view you. Most times, people want to be viewed in a positive light and I'm no exception. I don't want to be thought of as having shoddy writing, so I edit my entries, although I'm still working on those skills. If I have to censor myself to head off disrespect, so be it.

Some people have no self-consciousness, using their posts to vent, to lash out, i.e. to cry, in game parlance. That's fine; it's up to each individual to figure out where they're comfortable at, how they wish to be viewed by others. At times I wonder if some have given any consideration at all, or whether such soul-searching is some triggered event, scheduled to fire off around middle-age. I look for meaning all the time, sometimes in the silliest of places. But that's just where I stand.

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Chikane Himemiya - character notes

Episode 8 Chikane laying down the LAW. She's actually saying How rude! Kneel! to Souma's mech, while Souma is currently doing the kneeling.

Chikane is a polarizing character, sparking her own share of disputes even among fans of Kannazuki no Miko. Still, chances are that if you don't feel strongly about Chikane, then you can't get into the rest of the series. Love her or not, her presence defined each episode, as well as all related KOTOKO songs. What follows is essentially my shrine to one Himemiya Chikane, the tragic figure who deserved, if not a happy ending, then at least more than 12 episodes of fighting robots.

Spoilers will follow, obviously.

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Before I start out at all, I make reference to a TV Trope below, one that deals with the actions of episode eight, and the trope offers two ways of viewing rape. At this point in time, I continue to sit on the fence. I don't support what happened, it's not okay, and yet I have to accept it because the scene is there, sitting on my DVD. You just don't look cover your eyes when there's an 800 pound gorilla or elephant (take your pick) in the room, beside you, taking up your oxygen and possibly stealing your tunes. So let's talk about it, and what does it say about Chikane. How you feel about the whole thing says more about you than anything else, including the series.

Chikane is in an awkward position. In a lot of stories involving mystical elements or just combat of any sort, the lead characters are gifted with relevant abilities right off the bat. In Kannazuki no Miko, the most immediate powers are in the hands of the evil doers and one good guy, at a ratio of 7 to 1. I'll overlook the fact that the good guy was supposed to be an evil doer.

It's made clear that Chikane and Himeko should be the most important characters in the second episode, but in the overall scheme of things, other characters — the evil doers — continue to carry the initiative until the eighth episode. In each encounter, Chikane and Himeko are no match for the Orochi, and have to be bailed out by Souma, in possession of powers that (more than) match those of the Orochi members.

While Himeko has no distinguishing abilities, Chikane does. Himeko is nothing but a normal high school student with the ability to summon a giant fighting robot, which passes as the currency of power in this series. She lacks any athleticism, which might aid her in fending off an attack (but not by a giant robot) and if nothing else, in running away.

Chikane, on the other hand, has demonstrated athleticism and a sense of marksmanship. It's just that these abilities are totally irrelevant against superhumans and robots alike, and episode after episode demonstrates that no one feels this more acutely than her.

As noted by Souma in episode eight, Chikane is competitive but not for the sake of winning. I should clarify that statement; there are some things that one can be good at with a bit of practice and discipline, but I think what the scenes during Souma's passage wanted to make clear was that in other activities, she would succeed at cost to her own well-being. There are battles that are chosen for her, all of which are in a school setting and only do require some practice and discipline, and then there are battles that she chooses to fight.

This dedication plays into a sense of chivalrous love for Himeko. Chikane pictures herself as what can only be the idealized image of a knight: protecting her loved one, not only physically but guaranteeing her happiness, even if that means Chikane would forever sit on the sidelines, at best a good friend. You could argue that she's not being totally honest with herself, given her various actions (the stolen kiss, the hairpin), but I will give her the benefit of the doubt.

See, Chikane always operates alone, away from others, in the dark, in situations of uncertainty. I think in her pre-episode seven mind, which was unaware of the consequences of defeating Orochi, Souma's and Himeko's relationship would be official and in the open, denying her of the unofficial (read: uncertain) environment. She could live with that; she is aware of her actions in public. As a side note, it's only in episode eight that she loses her sense of social propriety, or actively disregards it, and only in the archery scene.

Chikane isn't quite Batman, and I'm not about to get into a pissing contest as to who would beat who in a fight, but Chikane does approach something like a dark knight.

Against Chikane's sometimes desperate desire to be the protector crashes wave after wave of humiliating failure. What was probably once a spotless record of success is now marred by numerous defeats. She deals with the adversity with much grace, allowing Himeko to cry enough tears into Chikane's shoulder for the both of them. Inwardly, she grows that much more desperate until, well, the end of episode seven.

Chikane's penchant for acting independently, in the shadows, gets her into a lot of trouble, but her actions are commensurate with her motivation. By doing what she did in episode eight, she accomplishes a number of short-term goals:

• Clearly power flows from the joints of a giant fighting robot, and only incidentally through the barrels of some robots' guns and cannons should they have them. Chikane has no such robot, but obviously the next best solution is to take someone else's, and since of none of the evil doers appear unless it's to kill her or Himeko, Souma will have to do. She could track down Souma and defeat him with ease, as is demonstrated, but her actions have the indirect effect of drawing him to the mansion.


• Chikane works best in the shadows, and the Orochi power base is not sun-kissed.


• This is something she has to do alone. Chikane attempts to cut ties with the only person who can summon an answer to Orochi, although we know how that turns out. She also really cuts ties with the only guy who would and could protect them, and takes that power along with her, fused with whatever was gifted to her as Priestess of the Moon.

At some point in time, Chikane should also have turned Souma into stone. This could have the effect of obliterating any faith left in Himeko. Then, Chikane and Himeko could have had their confrontation without the initial robot fight. Why didn't she do it? Perhaps because Souma was not really the enemy, not in the rather short timeframe of the story and not in Chikane's mind, either. She didn't need to protect Himeko from Souma but those out to kill her. In a tragic twist, that group included Chikane, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

There's no defence like a good offence, so what better way to protect Himeko from her attackers than to kill them all? The outcome couldn't have been better, for then she would be the lone evil doer, her working environment of choice. On top of that, since Chikane was out to kill Himeko herself, she was going to have to die as well. The pieces of the puzzle come together in this neat and ordered fashion, completely aligned with Chikane's perception of herself, and the idealized role she was to play in Himeko's life.

KnM is unusual in that the lion's share of screen time goes to Chikane, when it can be argued that the character who changes the most is Himeko. Coincidentally, there was a recent thread on the Yuricon Yahoo group about why Strawberry Panic was being given such a bad rap, and one message compared both SP and KnM to MariMite. Chikane got compared to Sachiko, and obviously Sachiko is a better(?) character because she develops over time, especially, apparently, in the OVA. Sachiko gets three seasons to evolve, but I digress. I think the big picture view is, Chikane is a tragic character, and her flaw is a fierce independence that is only conveyed in her actions.

Tragic characters don't change, which is the point. Their flaws directly bring about their own demise, which they realize only when it's too late. In a variation on this premise, Chikane, quite aware of what it means to be alone, and to act alone, plots her own demise. This kind of self-awareness and discipline is generally regarded as a good thing, but really it is only strength of character, and strength can either help or harm. Chikane has done both, but what we see most viscerally is her ability to harm.

Because one can generally argue any point by heaping on sufficient support, I conclude with this one: Chikane personifies the moon. It isn't so much that she looks the part, which she does. In episode eight, chibi Chikane sits on that tree, reading, quietly observing the world alone. She is that solitary beacon in the darkness, and people do not hang around her to bask in her warmth, as the moon doesn't illuminate the land like the sun does. People look up to her like they look up at some towering figure. Himeko, despite treating Chikane as normally as she has ever been treated, continues to view her as the voice of reason up till the end. It is in that end that Himeko finally places herself on equal footing with Chikane, essentially climbing onto the pedestal that she continued to place Chikane on despite the latter falling back to earth, and then some.

Is Chikane a beautiful character? Of course. Her story is beautiful just like puzzles and tragedies can be beautiful. I hope I've gone some way to argue or re-affirm that for skeptics and fans alike.

If nothing else, there's beauty in the breakdown.

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