Of M. I. C. E and Mushishi

I recently watched the anime version of Mushishi by Yuki Urushibara, an amazing female artist who has created an incredible world. At the same time, I happened to be reading Orson Scott Card's How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy and came across the M.I.C.E concept that created an 'ah ha' moment Oprah would say.

Mushishi is a beautiful show with strange environments, creatures, and a world that held me entranced, in the literal sense of the world, episode after episode. Still, I couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that something was off.

The uneasiness that grew in me as I watched this show was that despite my enjoyment of the story world, I realized that nothing much happens on a Character, Idea, or and Event level in the show. This story world was all about the Mileu - the environment.

To briefly go over the M.I.C.E quotient, basically story tellers lean towards one more than the other.  For example:

• Milieu - More about this strange world you've landed in
• Idea - More about finding an answer to a question
• Character - About a character's inner transformation in his community
• Event - About the typical Hero's Journey, the characters need to set the universe in order think Lord of the Rings

Check out this Audio from Writingexcuses.com that explains it in detail.

The main character Ginko is a strange, white-haired man, with a glass eye that wanders from village to village;  he helps cure the conditions that Mushishi (spirit thingys) cause in humans and their environments. He can't stick in one area long because these creatures are attracted to him, so he's constantly meeting new people, but not creating any connections to them.

The show is very episodic? I'm not quite sure that's the word. Ginko shows up in a village that a mushishi is bothering (sometimes the villagers call him), he asks what happens, people tell him without reservation, and he finds a way to cure them...or not. The end.

Ginko has no internal conflict about what he's doing, he doesn't think mushishi are 'evil' or have to be destroyed. His philosophy is that these mushishi alive too and does what he can to minimize the damage.There's really no external conflict with the people he's around or the physical world.

Almost every character is each new episode is the same -  the characters have a serene calm about them despite the havoc the mushishi are creating in their physical bodies or environments. And honestly, despite the strange situations the mushishi create, I don't quite understand the explanations of the mushishi and how Ginko solves/heals people.

But I suppose it doesn't really matter. I watched all 26 episodes of this show despite not really 'getting' it.  It's not about character development, or changing the world, or yourself. It's about getting lost in a strange new world where impossible creatures are all around the edges of the ordinary world.

Comic, TV, and Book Conventions in Vancouver, BC 2013

I had the pleasure of attending the San Diego Comic Con last year (and I've just realized I haven't written a blog post about that experience). I'm amazed about how many conventions and galleries have popped up in my hometown of Vancouver, BC in the past few years.Here's a list and I plan to attend a few of them.

Cassandra Clare March 26
Cassandra Clare at Metrotown Chapters
Not really a convention but an author that I've been following for a while.

Ayden Gallery
Showcasing various artists

Art Spiegelman FEB 16-JUN 9
Vancouver Art Gallery

Fan Pop APR 20 - 21
Fan Expo Vancouver

Anime Revolution AUG 16 - 18
Anime Revolution

Supernatural AUG 23-25
Supernatural TV Show

MegaComic Con OCT 6-7
Vancouver Mega Comic Con

VCON OCT 4-6
Vancouver Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention

SIWA OCT 25-27
Surrey International Writers' Conference

Comic Con  
Vancover Comic Con

Canadian Awards

Sun Burst Award - for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic
Prix Aurora Awards - Canada's Science Fiction & Fantasy Awards
Joes Shuster Awards -  Canadian Comic Awards, news and links
Canadian Video Game Awards - The Canadian Video game Awards
The Constellation Awards - Science fiction awards focused on rewarding excellence in science fiction film and television

Deus ex machina and NO 6 the anime

No 6 was an anime instantly that pulled me into its post apocalyptic world. The story started gently, ramped up slowly, and was woven beautifully into a pattern that I thought would lead to an amazing ending.

Then I got kicked in the face.

Now, I don't know if the eleven episode anime simply compressed the nine volume novel by Atsuko Asano into utter non-sense but I was shell shocked after the last episode. What just happened? I asked myself. Ok, I understand what happened, but why? For the love of God, why?

Deus ex Machina is 'a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention' says the good old Wikipedia. Intervention  by a Goddess in this case.

** Spoilers ahead **

We have two main characters in conflict: one wishes to save No 6 (Shion),  one wishes to destroy it (Nezumi). The character arcs were great, Shion slowly goes from the idealist to the destroyer. Nezumi arcs from the destroyer to one who wants to save the city. But how can we both destroy and save No 6 in a manner that both characters would accept? Bring down the walls that surround NO 6 and the outside. Great, I accepted that answer.

What I don't quiet understand is how the story contrived to do that in the last episode. The Goddess archetype through Safu called Eriulias brings down the walls which is fine, then Nezumi dies and is brought back to life.

Ok....

Within the context of the story that was presented up to that last episode, that's a lot to take.The ending completely lost me because it didn't fit into the carefully constructed story that went before it. *sigh* When a wonderful story like this traumatizes me because of shit that doesn't make sense, then I get irritable. I'm lying in wait to see if the NO 6 novels, wonderfully translated at http://9th-ave.blogspot.com/ really ends that way.

The Book of Friends or Natsume Yuujinchou

In the country-side of small-town Japan, Takashi Natsume is running from something. Out of breath and slightly panicked, he crashes through bushes to the main road and stops in front of two high-school boys. Out of breath, he asks casually if there's a holy place round. After confirming his route with the baffled boys, Takashi takes off again as if there's a bakemono (monster) after him.

There is.

This anime is a delight of the yokai (spirits), kami (gods), and monsters (bakemono) of Japan. With every moment, I had the feeling of a world filled with magic and wonder. The water colours of this anime put me in that lazy, summer-time mood were the sun is shinning, and anything is possible.

The premise of the story is that Takashi, who has been shuttled from family member to family member since he was orphaned, comes to settle in the country-side. In the country-side, the spirits of the land take an unusual interest in him, mistaking him for his grandmother, Reiko. Takashi discovers that his grandmother had been bully the spirits in the area, and collecting their in the Book of Friends, after defeating them in battle. Once their names were written in this Book, anyone who read their names had power over them. The spirits are not happy and want their names back.

The spirits have various ways of hounding Takashi to return their names: politely, in anger, or by generally being a nuisance. Since Takashi is kind heartened, he returns their names without reservation. This causes Madara, his appointed Lucky Cat guardian, to berate him with disgust and contempt as Madara wants to use the Book of Friends to control all the spirits whose names are written within.

This anime is a perfect blend of humor and heartache. The story theme of loneliness is woven through every encounter with the sprits of the land. The story of the forgotten god in his shrine, once so powerful and tall when he was filled with the prayers of his believers, and who slowly faded away when his last worshipper finally died was incredibly sad. The loneliness of Takashi is also prevalent through out each story, as he brings his understanding of himself - a strange boy with who talked to imaginary friends and who was shunned – into play when interacting with the spirits.

The anime ended too soon and I have every intention of reading the manga version by Midorikawa Yuki. I’m also happy to find that a third season called Natsume Yuujinchou San has been announced for later in 2011.

Conventions in Vancouver

Vancouver has a large anime and manga related convention called Anime Evolution that I've attended as a convention goer and an artist ever since its inception at SFU. It is a grand place to see the talented artists we have in Vancouver in the Artist's Alley and of course to gorge on fine, imported Japanese popular culture.


Two of my favorite artists Nina Matsumoto and Camilla d’Errico whose careers I've had the pleasure of seeing explode into book deals and online and offline fame will be attending the convention this year.

Nina Matsumoto has a manga out from DelRey called Yokaiden in which the mythological creatures of Japan are heavily featured.

Camilla d'Errico whose works hang in the Ayden Gallery in Tinseltown has combined manga style art with surrealism.








Other conventions going on in Vancouver this year:

Anime Evolution
http://www.animeevolution.com
Aug 13-1 5

Vancouver Comic Con
http://www.vancouvercomiccon.com/
Aug 29 (happens once per month)

Vancouver's Convention of Science Fiction and Fantasy
http://www.vcon.ca/
Oct 1-3


Surrey International Writer's Conference
http://www.siwc.ca/
Oct 22-24

The Tale of the Gallant Jiriaya and its influence on Naruto

Like the story of Kagua Hime or the Adventures of Monkey which respectively influenced Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball, the old Japanese folktale of Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari (The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya) has influenced several stories and characters in anime and manga.

Remember the three legendary Ninjas of Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Tsusande in Naruto? Their names and their powers of toad, snake, and snail magic are pulled from this story. In this folktale, Tsusande and Jiraiya were married when they were attacked by their one time friend Orochimaru. Orochimaru had fallen under the influence of snake magic.


Kishimoto wove this folk-tale into Naruto brilliantly. Like Kagua Hime or the Adventures of Monkey, he's given this Japanese folk-tale of Jiraiya new life and has shared it with millions of people across the world.

 

As a side note, Orochimaru in Naruto has another power of pulling a sword out of this mouth. In Japanese Myth, this sword is called the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi (Grasscutter Sword).

The Japanese god Susanoo found this sword in the body of the eight-tailed and head serpent called Yamata no Orochi he slew to protect a Shinto God's daughter. If the name Susanoo sounds familiar, it's the third ability Sasuke uses with the Mangekyō Sharingan.

Switching Gender Roles in Manga: Men as Women and Women as Men

The reversal of the traditional female and male role in a story is interesting to me because it exposes the conventions of a story. In terms of character archetypes, story genres, and the hero's journey, there are reasons why these conventions exists; they work.

They work on a level that is universal in that most people around the world despite cultural and traditional differences can recognize and identify with a story imported from another culture (as with the case with anime and manga).

However, with the understanding of a convention, it's interesting what happens when the writer makes a slight change. For example what happens when women play what is typically the male 'prince/hero/rescuer' lead in an story? and men play what is typically the female 'princess/heroine/damsel in distress' lead in a story?

Note: I'm not talking about these characters trying to be the opposite sex...just that they are playing roles traditionally reserved for the opposite different gender -- if that makes sense.


Utena (Utena) and Bakuretsu Tenshi (Jo) 

1. Have personalities that are bold, brave, unconquerable
2. Strides boldly into adventure
3. They are stronger and more skilled than everyone else
4. They have a princess they are trying to save

To the right is an image of the hero Utena with her princess, Anthy. As you can see, even the cover image shows immediately that Utena is the protector. She's standing in front of Anthy, aggressively looking into the camera, her stature is strong and upright, and she seems to be saying, I'll take you on.







 Gankutsuo (Viscount Albert de Morcerf)

1. Has a softer, empathic personality
2. Attracted to the man that whisks him away on an adventure
3. No physical battle prowess
4. Saves the hero with a kiss

Gankutsuo is a trippy anime that pushes the boundaries of animation and turns the convention of the heroine role on its head. In contrast to Utena's stance above, Albert, in the heroine role is in a pose traditionally reserved for a woman, which is caught, helpless and submissive. The story of Gankutsuo reminded me of Beauty and the Beast, with Albert playing the role of Belle.





Conventions work because they are tried and tested through the ages, however it's trippy to see what happens when there's a slight change, as in the role reversals above.