You can't Deconstruct the Magical Girl genre because there is nothing wrong with it.

You can parody the formula and the tropes, but there is nothing morally wrong with it to truly deconstruct.

Western Comic Book Superheroes abound in Deconstructions because there is something fundamentally wrong with that genre, with it's complex relationship to violence and state power and fictional billionaires, no matter where you fall on the American Political Spectrum there is potentially something for you to find wrong with that genre.  

Individual Magical Girl Warrior shows may sometimes have their own problematic elements, but the core of what the genre is has nothing you can criticize.

Madoka Magica is confused with a deconstruction not just because it's dark.  It's also attempting to be a meta commentary of some kind, referencing earlier works in the genre in ways kind of comparable to what Watchmen does with Superhero Comics, but it's also similar to the way George Lucas was quoting earlier works in Star Wars.  And as I talked about once before this is really the first time one used the term "Magical Girl" in universe.

However the thing about a good Genre Deconstruction like Watchmen is none of it's individual elements were unprecedented in the genre, it's only the way they are put together to draw a different kind of complete picture that makes it unlike anything that came before.  There was in fact no shortage of prior Superhero Comics that had been dark and gritty and/or dealt with similar political themes and social issues.

With Madoka however what makes it so dark in the unique way it's dark (Magical Girl shows had done "dark" stuff before) is tied to what is unprecedented about it.  There is no prior precedent for the monsters the Magical Girls are fighting being all former Magical Girls.  There was also no prior precedent for the wish granting element.  Even before the moment said to be when the show "reveled itself" it had already established a mechanical distinction from prior works of the genre in how the Grief Seed system discourages them from working together as teams.

You might cynically think this all means Madoka was trying to be a Deconstruction but failed because the Genre is Deconstruction proof.  But no I don't think even that has truly happened to this Genre yet.  If Madoka Magica is Deconstructing anything it's the ways one might criticize the genre.

To a certain extent Madoka also plays out like a Greek Tragedy where a tragic fate befalls various characters because they have a tragic flaw.  But none of these tragic character flaws are because of the characters being like a traditional Magical Girl.  I recently watched ClearAndSweet's Youtube videos on Madoka (a series that isn't done yet) and what they've been stressing is how their flaws are all ways in which they fall short of being a traditional Magical Girl.  The title character is the one who is cut out to be a Magical Girl show protagonist but she is being kept from becoming a Magical Girl.

At face value Mami seems like an ideal Magical Girl, her death however is what is commonly misunderstood.  The show definitely at first tricks us into thinking she died because she finally found happiness like what Whedon loved to do on Buffy.  But what the show actually does explicitly say is that her death was the result of refusing Homura's help.  Her stubbornly writing Homura off as an enemy is something a proper Magical Girl Heroine would never do, Usagi is defined in certain seasons by her refusal to write off any fellow Senshi no matter how antagonistic they're currently being.

Each of the four lacks something different.  And the thing is Magical Girls with these kinds of character flaws can be supporting characters in a traditional Magical Girl show, I could probably compare each of them to an Outer Senshi or PreCure Sixth Ranger.  But the key to their ablity to overcome those flaws is the inspiration and example and emotional support that comes from the lead Magical Girl, who for most of this show is being held back.

Another thing that often defines Deconstructions is that they are supposed to be more "realistic" takes on their genres.  Madoka is the exact opposite, and I don't mean by that anything about how it uses it's supernatural elements, I mean how even Madoka's mundane slice of life scenes do not feel like they are happening in the real world.  Sailor Moon mostly takes place in a specific district of Tokyo, you can travel there and visit Rei's shrine or the park where Nephrite died.  So when the Supernatrual stuff happens it feels like it's disrupting a realistic reality.  Mitakihara city however feels like it's made up of elaborate Theater Stages.  Sailor Moon has been adapted into Live Action already and I think it can be again even more faithfully, but Madoka is a story I feel can only work in Animation, how unreal it is is largely the point.

Madoka is definitely not saying Magical Girls would be a bad thing in the real world, it's saying you need to contrive a world much more dystopic then ours for things to go nearly this badly and yet they are still able to set things right in the end.  Madoka is neither a Deconstruction or a Reconstruction, it's a rejection of the very idea of deconstructing this genre. 

Madoka Magica is a show that can work for someone who has no prior experience with The Genre, SFDebris reviews of the show document that perspective well.  But the perception of it's relationship to the genre has (I think mostly in The West) been clouded by how many people watched it who usually wouldn't watch a Magical Girl show, too many people watched it for the darkness not the light at the end of the tunnel.  But in Japan the show was originally marketed without putting the darkness up front, it was marketed to traditional Magical Girl fans, not to edge lords.

Madoka isn't the only show that gets called a Deconstruction of this genre, people also call Utena one.  Utena I do not consider properly part of the genre at all.  It's related, related enough that it's among the earlier shows Madoka is referencing and related enough that any fan of the genre should see it at some point.  I would not ultimately call Utena a Genre Deconstruction at all, what it is working to deconstruct is The Patriarchy, and the values of the Magical Girl Warrior which Ikuhara and Enokido kind of helped build in the first place are one of the weapons they are using to do that.

I don't like to dwell on the negative but I guess I can't close out this post without clarifying that I am anti-Rebellion.

Why do I even want Hollywood Live Action adaptations of Anime?

I've talked about issues related to this already, how I feel LA adaptations of Anime can be done and what I think hinders the most failed attempts that have been made so far.

However I'm also someone who's said I consider Animation an inherently superior art-form to Live Action films, with Anime specifically providing most of the examples of why.  And I consider more serialized mediums better for fleshing out stories and character then theatrical films.  So why then do I even want stories that are already in their most ideal form to get Hollywood Live Action adaptations?

It's because I'm a fan in principle of seeing the same basic story get retold in different ways.  Sometimes even in the same medium, we have two Sailor Moon Anime now and I love comparing them, appreciating the strengths of each version even when it sometimes seems like I'm being more harsh to one of them.

So for every TV Anime I'd like to see remade as a Hollywood movie there are more Hollywood movies I'd like to see remade as TV Anime.  For every story set in modern Japan I'm a defender of seeing re-imagined as set in modern America, there are more stories traditionally set in modern America I'd like to see re-imagined as being set in modern Japan.  I have a High School Anime version of Jesus Christ Superstar worked out in my head, and I've begun contemplating how I'd reboot the Superman mythos with Kal-El's rocket landing in Kansai rather then Kansas.

And there is also the fact that some people simply aren't gonna take an interest in a franchise till it has a Hollywood Blockbuster version, but then once that gets them interested they hopefully will check out other versions.

I do tend to enjoy Hollywood movies, something not typical of a person who blogs about niche Nerdy interests on the Internet.  I'm a fan of many that have been popularly considered to be bad and mostly enjoy the popular ones I sometimes call overrated.  Though interestingly I still haven't even tried the most notoriously bad Anime adaptations yet.  I've currently seen 4 arguably 5 live action movies based on Anime that were made in The West, they are Speed Racer, Lady Oscar, Death Note, Battle Angel Alita and Detective Pikachu.  The two I like the least are actually the two that are not Hollywood blockbusters.

Anime 2020 Winter Returns?

 Episode 18 of Railgun T was surprisingly fun given the absurd premise.

Well Azure Lane episode 11’s Dub finally dropped.  It’s really weird jumping back in here now when it had been so long since I watched the first 10 episodes, I practically forgot everything.

BOFURI episode 9’s Dub also finally dropped and was pretty fun.  It’s like the end of Spring brought back Winter.  

Maybe in that spirit I should consider returning to Grand Order Babylonia which I’d put on hold after episode 11 for reasons unrelated to Pandemic schedule disruptions.  Seems that Dub froze at episode 18, maybe it’ll return soon too.

Follow my Anime viewing in real time at these links..

https://myanimelist.net/profile/JaredMithrandir

https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir 

Also here is the introductory post for this series.

https://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/anime-2020.html

Superman:Man of Tomorrow is a good animated movie

And it has inspired some spurious thoughts for me to comment on.

So for the first act of the film it felt like they were kind of handling things very similarly to Man of Steel, and I was predicting in my head that it'll be received differently because it has a brighter color pallet and more traditional musical score.  But by the end it distinguished itself from MOS in a much more substantive way.

The first main props to give this film is it playing up the Superman as an Immigrant allegory far more explicitly then any prior superman movie.  I'm noting that here but talking about that aspect of the film in-depth is better suited for someone who's actually had an immigrant experience.

Batman V Superman I still feel was touching on that in a more substantive way then any prior Live Action movie, but it's also wrapped up in Snyder's other themes and Batman being the one made into a Xenophobic Bigot is something too many fans didn't wanna deal with.  I of course feel making an icon like Batman the one who has to overcome being wrong in that area is more challenging to the audience, but I'm someone who feels after all the attention DKR gets that it's only fair Batman become the villain of a Superman story for a change.

The final resolution of this film is almost a case study in why perhaps Superman is better suited for Anime then Batman.  Batman has gotten two shots at an Anime because, A. DC gives Batman more attention at everything, and B. I imagine everyone working at DC still stereotypes Anime as edgy 90s OVAs.

The main thing that I think would be different if this film had been done by an Anime studio with Anime writers is that even Rudy wouldn't have had to die, which is what I'd have preferred.  But I imagine most negative reviews of this film (if they exist at all) will focus on how much of a cop-out it is that J'onn and Lobo both have fake out deaths.

I don't think anything gives more of a misrepresentation of my overall tastes then how often I feel compelled to defend things I'm not really a super fan of for getting hate they don't deserve. For example I defended Twilight on IMDB when my preferred taste in YA Vampire Melodrama was The Vampire Diaries (the first four books and the first two season of the CW TV Show are very different but both very good) for example.

But lately of course I kinda hate how some people's main experience with me may be seeing Tweets and YouTube comments where I defend Zach Snyder.  Because the stereotype of a Zach Snyder fanboy is some edgy hipster who looks down on Superhero movies where the Hero saves a kitten from a tree and has empathy for the villains they fight.  And yet I've spent most of the last month watching Sailor Moon content and Raildex Anime.

Even when it comes to my status as a defender of Hollywood blockbusters that get crapped on I'd rather the face of it be Speed Racer, Super Mario Bros, The Phantom Menace or more recently Sonic and the sequels to Frozen and Maleficent.  I mainly love optimistic feel good movies.

Heck going back to The Vampire Diaries my main criticism of the show's early seasons was that they kept killing people off, like every three episodes.  And what made me finally drop the show was when they started literally sending characters to Hell.

Fact is I haven't even watched any of the Zach Snyder movies I'm nominally a fan of in over a year.  In fact you may notice I can't even consistently spell his name right. Lately my Zach Snyder experience has mainly been watching YouTube videos about his movies.

And of course my taste in Superman in general is much closer to this animated movie then to Man of Steel or BvS.  But Superman is an Icon and a flexible one, I can respect taking him in a direction I wouldn't.

And to prove there is a limit to how much Edginess I can tolerate even for Batman.  The work of the other Snyder who's famously written for Batman I absolutely despise, and yes that even includes the stuff most people seem to like.

Sometimes it seems like the problem is the internet has gotten so polarized between "Dark and Edgy" vs "uplifting and optimistic" that I guess some people can't wrap their head around appreciating both.  But then people who hate on Snyder's movies will praise Logan and The Last Jedi.  I guess it's easy to claim those films are less unrelentingly dark because it's harder to pretend they don't have funny haha moments.  But to me Logan is the Superhero movie that flat out crosses the line into being too pessimistic to ever be appropriate for that franchise in ways DC has only ever done in the actual Comics.  And the other one I don't want to get into again.

I've watched a couple mind-numbing Zack Snyder video essays where when I'm not going "no the film is literally saying the opposite" I'm instead going, "Western Superhero Comics are simply not compatible with your preferences, watch Anime instead".  Of course recommending Anime can be hard, because sometimes the ones that are the least "Dark" are also the most "fanservciy".  I wanna recommend No Game No Life but these SJWs will not be able to get past the amount of screen time given to the 11 year old girl's panties.  I wanna recommend Railgun but then we have certain quirks of Kuroko and Saten, and then Index flat out doesn't relent.  I wanna recommend a Magical Girl show but.... well the actual Shoujo ones should be fine but there aren't many of them I give a 10 out of 10.

If I tried hard enough I could think of plenty of fan service free recommendations.  But I'm realizing that in every area my favorite stories are the ones who's great qualities overcome the aspects I generally don't prefer, rather then ones that are exactly like what I would write since those really don't exist, not till I get off my lazy @$$ and write something myself, and mostly the stuff that does seem close to that is what actually makes me go "I'd do that better" which is the kind of critic I'd rather not be.

And that's why I have to still consider Man of Steel a better Superman origin story then Man of Tomorrow even though the latter is in premise more like my Superman.  Man of Steel has the advantage of an actual feature length to flesh itself out, and even regardless of that simply is more expertly written and directed.  Still this movie is good and I recommend it for everyone who's a fan of Superman.

Anime 2020 August 21

Follow my Anime viewing in real time at these links..
https://myanimelist.net/profile/JaredMithrandir
https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir
Also here is the introductory post for this series.
https://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/anime-2020.html

I could not even finish the first episode of Peter Grill and the Philosopher's Time.  I theoretically could love a show with this premise or else I wouldn’t have even tried, but this execution is not my thing.

I assumed Monster Girl Doctor would be about a Monster Girl who’s a doctor, I should have known better.

I decided to re-watch the first half of Railgun T while I have nothing else new coming out, it’s holding up great.
https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir/status/1295202312516927494

Back to the present of Railgun.  In my post on The Wolverine I ranted briefly on how I don’t like predicting the future being presented as a scientific rather than magical ability.  Maybe it’s a silly distinction to make, Magick or Science really shouldn’t change it’s Determinist philosophical implication. But when it’s Magick I more easily accept that the rules for how changeable the future is will inevitably be flexible to serve the interest of the plot.

Maybe it’s then inconsistent that Time Travel is something I only like seeing done in SciFi and hate seeing thrown into Fantasy.  Maybe delving into Time is just so problematic that I’m only really into it when they do something really interesting, and these biases are just based on what Genres I currently think have handled them less badly.  I like how Your Name dealt with the Grandfather Paradox by just having people not remember doing the time travel related activities they engaged in.

"There's not gonna be any fireworks"

For 8 years I have held the position that The Dark Knight Rises is a great stand alone film but a crappy sequel to Nolan's first two Batman movies.  But that latter criticism was always expressed as merely nerdy whining that it contradicted what I felt The Dark Knight was saying was gonna happen next after the credits rolled.

However I have come to terms with having a deeper ideological issue with TDKR even as a stand alone film, that has also shown how it's in my eyes incongruity with Nolan's prior Batman films had more substance then I originally thought.

The Dark Knight Rises becoming it's endgame made the Nolanverse quite possibly the most Pro-Cop and Anti-Anarchist interpretation of Batman ever.  And perhaps that was always where it was destined to go, Batman Begins has all this Police Corruption stuff taken from Year One and The Long Halloween, but it was kind of always implying this is unique to Gotham and why Gotham uniquely needs The Batman.  And then TDK had the sonar plot that I've grown more conflicted on how it was handled.  But still the first two movies can be authorial intent or not read as pretty Anarchistic and here's why.

One of the problems with Ledger's Joker being called an "Anarchist" is that his view of Human nature is one actual philosophical Anarchists reject, when he says "when the chips are down, these civilized people, will eat each other" he is expressing a Hobbesian view of Human nature.  Watch the Jack Saint video on Post Apocalyptic fiction for a primer on what that term means.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwVN95XfOPM

BTW in this movie, of the scenes where The Joker is at least seemingly explaining his world view and motivations, what he says to Batman is where I think he's most honest, Batman is who he sees himself as making this argument with.  He lies to Batman about a basic statement of fact by switching Dent and Rachel's locations, but not about his goals and philosophy.  What he said to Dent was I think partly honest but also designed to "push" Dent where he wanted.

At the climax of the movie comes the scene which provides the title of this post, where all of the sudden Batman of all people is the DC character who sounds like an Anime protagonist expressing faith in the innate goodness of humanity.  And he is proven right and The Joker is proven wrong just like in The Killing Joke.

However there is a frequent take that the fall of Harvey Dent means The Joker did win, which is how The Joker saw it, he wanted us to think he already had Batman in a no wins scenario.  But from an Anarchist perspective what does that actually prove?  The one person corruptible enough for him to corrupt was an agent of the state, Gotham's second highest ranked politician.  And he needed to vindicate Dent's distrust of two corrupt cops to do it.  Even The Joker's victory vindicates actual Anarchism more then it does Hobbesianism.

But then comes The Dark Knight Rises with it's Tale of Two Cities inspired plot, Bane's plan is a Statist's perception of Anarchism much more so then The Joker's was.  And thus this film suddenly is vindicating a Hobbesian view of the unwashed masses while glorifying The Police with a heroic last stand.

However let's return to the Sonar plot of The Dark Knight.  The common cynical reading of the film is that it's saying this was okay in this extreme circumstance since it did work.  First of all I think arguing an authoritarian measure shouldn't be done because it doesn't work is the cheap cop out.  You can argue all day long that the death penalty isn't a good deterrent and torture doesn't get people to tell the truth and I would not consider you wrong, but I also feel those methods are inherently amoral even if they did work.

The Sonar did work for Batman at first, but it also glitched out and caused him to lose the actual physical fight with The Joker.  The fact is the people on those ferries are who actually defeated The Joker and not just ideologically, since The Joker probably wouldn't have been so caught off guard by that glove trick if he hadn't been frustrated by there being no fireworks.

And while the Sonar worked for finding The Joker was it really necessary?  Fact is he wasn't particularity hiding at that point, once the Ferry situation started places overlooking them would naturally be the first place to look.  

The one thing that was always going to need to be a part of the third Nolan Bat-Film was for the truth about Harvey Dent to come out and for Gotham to move past it's idealization of a fallen idol.  However everything surrounding what TDKR did with that undermined what the prior two films had built.

Another post on Watch Orders

Debating about unconventional watch orders has become a hot topic again lately.  Watching something in its release order is never inherently a bad order but there are plenty of cases where I feel it’s not the best.

For an example of a case where I do favor the release order even though a dispute kind of does exist, The Chronicles of Narnia books should be read in the order Lewis wrote them.  A Horse and His Boy does stand on its own in a way none of the others but the first do, so it can perhaps be read a little out of sequence and maybe if you're into stuff with a 1001 Night flavor it would benefit you to read it second, but definitely start with Wardrobe and save Last Battle for last.  In Anime terms AHaHB can perhaps be considered a Gaiden rather than part of the main saga.

For Star Wars I strongly feel Episodes I-VI should be watched in chronological order, and then the rest I really don’t care about as long as you see nothing before finishing the 6 George Lucas movies.  I actually think it would be hilarious to have someone watch the Disney Sequel Trilogy backwards and see what perspective that causes.

For the Raildex franchise I shall offer an incomplete recommended viewing order, incomplete since Railgun season 3 is still airing.  This is neither the release order or chronological order strictly speaking.

A Certain Scientific Railgun season 1 (skip episode 2 on the initial viewing but besides that all of it)
A Certain Magical Index season 1 (all of it if you can but if you don’t like it the rest of Railgun can stand on its own.)
A Certain Scientific Railgun S
A Certain Scientific Accelerator (currently has only one 12 episode season)
A Certain Magical Index II (the first 7 episodes)
A Certain Magical Index The Movie: The Miracle of The Endymion
A Certain Scientific Railgun T (First episode)
A Certain Magical Index II (episode 8)

A Certain Scientific Railgun T (Episodes 2-3)

A Certain Magical Index II (Episodes 9-13 the Daihasei festival arc)
A Certain Scientific Railgun T (episodes  4-15)

[Update: I've decided you should finish IndexII before seeing the rest of Railgun T]

The Blackcoats novels (English name of the French Les Habits Noirs) were published by BlackCoatPress in a different order then Paul Feval originally wrote them.  Nonetheless in the afterward of the last one they published both the translator and editor expressed the opinion that the books should ideally be read in Feval’s order.  I’m not sure I agree, but it’s complicated.

For the way my brain works Salem Street was the ideal first impression and The Invisible Weapon a great second.  But Salem Street has an element most modern readers will likely be put off by, (but I know of some specific people who’d love it).  They all stand on their own pretty well, but the actual first book is the longest of them and so perhaps a little overwhelming for someone new to reading 19th Century pulpy French Novels no one considered worth translating into English till over a hundred years after the author died.  The Invisible Weapon is in my opinion the absolute best of them and so I see no reason not to simply start with it.  Cadet Gang should be saved for last only because I kind of don’t recommend reading it at all.

My doing this post now was partly because of a recent Mother’s Basement video.  I have currently no direct knowledge of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, but I know Part 6 is the first female Jojo so I’ve been intending for a while to start with it when the Anime comes, I don’t care how confusing it will be.

I’ve saved Fate/ for last because that is the most contentious topic.  I am a firm start with Fate/Zero person.

A lot of people will claim it’s only the convoluted nature of how Fate/ has been adapted that makes there be any dispute at all and if only more people would just read the Visual Novel it’d be fine.  However I disagree, even if you are willing and able to consume each Fate/ story in it’s original medium first, I still say read Fate/Zero first.  But I mostly just recommend watching the Anime, translations of Light Novels and Visual Novels suck, but the Aniplex Dub of the UFOtable Anime is perfect.

Fate/Zero simply is by nature the most accessible.  Every person who would like Fate/Stay Night but not Fate/Zero is already into Fate/, they don’t need to be talked into giving it a chance.  There are lots of people for whom Fate/Zero is the only Fate/ they would enjoy.  And I think there are other potential Fate/Zero fans who’d enjoy Fate/Apocrypha before anything else.