J.D. Salinger, Gyroids and Spider-Tanks

Anime Christmas  - Week 4 - Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

Ridley Scott's Blade Runner set an important standard for science fiction that few visual works have met since. It was a film that closely examined humanity and the effects of progressing technology on the individual on an intellectual and emotional level. Although many others will argue that other works such as the Star Trek franchise and even the recent Battlestar Galactica remake explore these themes as well, few will argue that the sophistication and poignancy with which Blade Runner attacks these ideas has gone almost unmatched.

This, however, is where Kenji Kamiyama's Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex comes in. Over the course of two 26 episode series, Ghost in the Shell: SAC manages to establish and extend ideas put forward by Blade Runner beyond the limitations of a 120 minute film. The maturity with which this anime explores the human condition as cyborgs, androids and constant unfettered access to electronic information become more prolific in our lives will leave your lungs short of breath and your mind thoroughly exercised. It is thought-provoking and intellectually driven like no other anime I have seen.

Three main characters: Motoko "Major" Kusanagi (foreground) and Togusa and Batou (background)

But first - a history lesson. Ghost in the Shell itself refers to a setting and a collection of characters common to three unrelated storylines - so unrelated that they could be considered different 'realities'. The confusion comes about because publication of each of the three realities is happening alternately and concurrently. Chronologically, the first reality is depicted in Shirow Masamune's serial Manga, published from 1989 to 1997, with sequel Manga published in the early 2000s. From this manga was adapted a film: Mamoru Oshii's 1995 film Ghost in the Shell - the second reality. Within this reality a second film, Ghost in the Shell: Innocence,  was released on 2004. The final reality comes from two anime series and one theatrically released movie, also adapting elements from the original manga: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, (or Ghost in the Shell: SAC for short). Each storyline chooses to depict the setting and the characters in significantly different ways, though central elements remain the same.

It is the third and most mature of these realities (if not as well known in western media) that I rate amongst the best anime I have ever watched.

Ghost in the Shell: SAC is set in the year 2030, where the geopolitical landscape has drastically changed as a result of  a further two world wars and Japan has emerged a thriving economic and technological power. In this world, prosthetic technology has advanced to the point where virtually all disabilities are curable with any number of prosthetic implants that perform better than organs they are replacing.

Both series of SAC follow an aggressive, black-ops, law enforcement and detective agency known as Public Security Section 9. Section 9 is staffed by mostly ex military personnel who have undergone major cybernetic enhancements. Among them are Motoko 'Major' Kusanagi - a steadfast field leader who underwent 'full body prosthesis' as a young child and has emerged as one of the fiercest and formidable field combatants in the modern world; Batou a light hearted if typical alpha-male and second in command; and Togusa the only non-military and completely human (having all natural body parts) field member of Section 9, recruited from the police force as a stand-out detective. Heading section nine is Daisuke 'Chief' Aramaki, an determined, politically connected old man whose age and political prowess betray the virility of his crusade for justice.

The Section 9 rogues gallery. including the Major (centre), Batou (centre left), Togusa (centre Right) and chief Aramki (foreground right)

SAC and it's second season (entitled SAC: 2nd GIG) explore two major themes prevalent in the world it's set in. The first series follows the 'Laughing Man' crime - a mysterious, unsolved Catcher in the Rye inspired kidnapping that inspired many copycats since, and the second follows terrorism wrought by the 'Individual Eleven' syndicate - a militant body with extremist anti-government, pro-refugee views.

The Laughing Man story arc has attained legendary status within the fictional setting of Ghost in the Shell and in the real world across the internet as more and more people view the series - and with good reason. The story arc is both enthralling and thought provoking. The mystery behind the Laughing Man crime and the conspiracy that is eventually uncovered by Section 9 is presented in a manner which puts much western crime-fiction to shame. The complexity of the crime itself and how the legend evolves as the information is proliferated across an internet much more sophisticated and accessible than our own is not only believable, but extremely thought-provoking.

The unfolding of the first series prompts an introversion into how our minds and opinions are shaped by mass media and projects how mass media will be shaped by more and more people being given access to tools to proliferate their own ideas. It is one of few visual works that examine the social implications of  the growth information technology on such a grand and profound scale. Other science fiction works do well to tell stories of human exploration and how expansion has effected the human condition, but few prompt such introversion as the Laughing Man story arc, with the depiction of minds as fragile as ours being exposed to so much information at once. The result is a story that moves you intellectually and emotionally as the perpetrator behind the crimes and the lines between what is right and wrong become more and more muddled.

The Laughing Man insignia - a badge of justice adopted by corporate terrorists in the first Ghost in the Shell: SAC series.

The second series and story arc - the 'Individual Eleven' - depicts a desperate political battle as refugees from two world wars struggle to find their own identity and establish a place for themselves in the new world. What sets the Individual Eleven story arc apart from other political fiction is that it looks more deeply into each characters' individual motivations than most storytellers are able to achieve. Although the political machinations are detailed and complex (to the inaccessibility of many viewers, unfortunately), Kamiyama's writing and direction always fall back to the personal story of each of the characters.

What results is a detailed exposition of the personal stories of not only the members of Section 9, but of also members of the Individual Eleven (namely their charismatic leader, Hideo Kuze) and the political powers that seek to quash both parties. It is in these personal expositions, expanding from the first series, that we begin to see echos of the ideas originally prevalent in Blade Runner. Through different contexts and characters, Kamiyama shows us how we are supposed to identify ourselves as humans in a world where our bodies can become entirely artificial and where politics and war have destroyed all present day ideas of cultural identity.

Special mention must be made of the Tachikomas - multi-purpose 'spider-tanks' outfitted with learning Artificial Intelligence used in Section 9 as artillery backup and extra heavy muscle. Their journey through both series and developing sense of self-awareness, self-worth and self-sacrifice provide the most profound insight into the nature of what it is to be human and have a soul.

The Major (right) confronts Kuze (left) in the climax of Ghost In the Shell: SAC 2nd GIG

The series does not go without some major criticism. Sadly, the first series of the anime is rampant with what is known is 'fan-service'. Fan-service is a term that refers to elements that are specifically aimed at satiating the tastes of immature teenage boys. In the first series of SAC, this takes the form of cheesy one-liners, half baked 'standalone' episodes (unrelated to the main story arc) and, most significantly, Motoko Kusanagi's choice of costume: a pink one-piece swimsuit with over-thigh pink stockings and a leather jacket. Sadly, the first series shares the original Manga's vision of pandering to teenage boys, with the Manga depicting a gratuitously explicit lesbian orgy and the anime portraying Kusanagi with lesbian overtones that don't significantly contribute to the exposition of her character.

The second series does improve on this. Kusanagi is seen wearing more tastefully fashionable clothing day to day and full body suits whilst in the field. 2nd GIG significantly fleshes out Kusanagi's back story, making her a much more of a complex three-dimensional character than in the first series. The second series also cuts out much of the 'standalone' stories, choosing instead to focus on furthering the main plotline.

The Major in her swimsuit and stockings - her costume on and off duty for most of the first series

Despite its flaws, it is hard to top Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex across any genre or medium in sophistication of thought and intelligence in storytelling. Much modern science fiction relies on action, special effects and horror in order to entertain modern audiences. Ghost in the Shell is one of few works that explores high science fiction concepts in a mature and well thought out manner. Its intellectualism is alienating for many, but save the unfortunate fan-service that dominates most other works in the Ghost in the Shell franchise, Stand Alone Complex is a masterpiece of storytelling in animation.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Wanderers

 Anime Christmas - Week 3 - Planetes

I am a stickler for Science Fiction. My relative immersion in the genre is more or less why I decided to study engineering. There are two major pitfalls in the presentation of speculative fiction, however. The first is most commonly recognised - that the 'science' and the world in general is not well thought out enough and results in derision from cynical (and rather lonely) nerds. The second is the most prolific - that the world is so detailed and complex that the fiction is too daunting to get into and the work goes largely unappreciated by anyone not hardened to the genre.

Planetes, adapted to anime by director Goro Taniguchi and screenwriter Ichiro Okouchi (a duo that would later make Code Geass) is one of those rare works of fiction that hits the sweet spot in between those two points. It presents plausible science fiction whilst focusing on down-to-earth, character-level exposition so that your average viewer can really connect with and understand the themes that are raised in the anime.

Hard Science Fiction - Hachi adjusts his inertia in order to collect a piece of space debris

Planetes (transliterated from the greek Πλανήτης meaning 'wanderer' from where we derive the word 'planet') de-romanticises the nature of space travel for a young, fresh 20 year old Ai Tanabe. In the year 2075, space-born rubbish has built up to the point where it poses major hazards for anyone wanting to operate in orbit around earth. In response, space development corporations have started up their own "Debris Sections" - departments whose job it is to clean up the garbage in space and make it safer for all space-bound travelers. It is in such a section at space development conglomerate Technora Corporation that Ai begins her career in the space industry. 

The Debris Section of Technora Satellite 7, dubbed 'Half Section' is staffed by a series of colourful 'half crazy', 'half witted' characters. Amongst the venerable staff at Half Section are Hachimaki, a loud, obnoxious but ultimately passionate astronaut; Fee, a tough non-nonsense spaceship pilot; and Yuri, the soft-spoken voice of reason for the team. From the perspective of Ai and the others at Half Section we begin to see a world not too far from our own, where space-bound operations are commonplace.

Half Section - Ai (right) argues with Hachimaki (2nd Left) whilst Yuri (far left) tends to the space station's animals and Fee (background) gets ready for a smoke in her smoke-suit.

The anime manages to combine realism and believability with relatibility and a sense of personal, down to earth connectedness with the characters on screen. Planetes manages to avoid what other science fiction works have done by focusing on forging this incredibly complex and interesting world through the eyes of characters that we would meet walking down the street, in a pub or in the office.

The realism and research depicted in Planetes is only rivaled by the most sophisticated of Hollywood screenplays and special effects. The series does not only tell of an extraordinary amount of research, but also visually depicts the space environments in a very fluid and breath-taking way. The nature of maneuvering in space, the effects of gravity and the limits of what foreseeable human technology can do is depicted with great care and detail.

This is coupled with the much-reported fact that the cel-count was increased during zero-gravity sequences in order to make character movement seem more fluid and portray a more believable space-like environment. The result is a depiction of a strongly believable and real-world like space environment.

Fluidity in motion - depiction of zero-gravity envrionment

This believability is extended to the themes present on the nature of space-development and its effects on both a personal and geo-political scale. Throughout the series we are presented with themes that range from a girl born on the moon who has developed health problems due to growing up in a low-gravity environment; to small upstart space-development companies being swallowed by larger, more aggressive conglomerates; and even to the small fictional third world country of El Tanika and the involvement of the militaristic International Treaty Organisation (INTO) in a geopolitical landscape changing due to humanity's reaching out into space. Planetes is rich with detail and very well thought out themes that strike home because they are so relatable to events happening in the present day.

The emotional connection with this series, though, comes mainly through the loving characterisation of the members of Half Section. Fundamentally, Ai, Hachimaki, Fee and even the eccentric Debris Section Managers, Phillipe and Ravi, are characters we wouldn't be surprised to come across in every day life. These are people that we can imagine settling down and having a beer with at the local pub once our day at work is over. They are people that come from a context that is not very far removed from our own.

For this reason, the anime is able to reach out to even non science fiction fanboys and grab the attention of its audience. It is through Half Section's eyes that Taniguchi presents the complex setting and themes inherent within Planetes. We see and experience things as they experience them and feel the awe, excitement and disappointment at what happens as we begin to stride out into space.

That isn't to say, though, that the anime doesn't misstep with its characterisation and themes. More than once, Ai will present a naive and overly altruistic view on the nature of cliches like 'love conquers all' and 'destiny' and what have you. Given her development and coming of age is a major theme of the anime, a few too many happy endings ring true to such soft and slightly unbelievable motivations and end up betraying the 'hard' nature of the hard science fiction.

Ai (left) and Hachimaki (right) - their budding relationship is a major theme throughout the series

I won't lie - my personal (and perhaps professional) interest in humanity taking steps in space exploration is a major contributor to my fondness of this series. The idea that people are actively seeking to explore the rest of the Solar System and that people look to the sky with a real sense of awe and wonder is one that hits home particularly for me. Once upon a time I wanted to be an astronaut, now I'm looking at making a career out of building satellites.

It makes me slightly sad that so much of the world's energy has been focused on internal struggles and disagreements on economics and the environment, and that so much of our technological development has focused on consumer electronics and iPhones. The movement to send more men out further into space is dying. This anime represents what we could do in a very real way, and what I want 2075 to look like.

Eikichi Onizuka, 22 years old. Bachelor. Teacher. Yoroshiku.

Anime Christmas - Week 2 - Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO)

Common reactions to this anime from my friends include: "Are you serious...", "What?!" and "Oh Japan...". The nature of the central character to this anime is somewhat contentious, and the anime almost matches its poignancy with its misgivings. At its heart though, I found Noriyuki Abe's anime adaption of Great Teacher Onizuka to be a good thing and certainly one of the most entertaining anime I've watched. You just have to take a fair bit of it with a rather large grain of salt.

Eikichi Onizuka - Borderline delinquent schoolteacher

The series chronicles the misadventures of the naive, brash, outrageous and academically inept ex-biker Eikichi Onizuka as he tries to become a school teacher in late-nineties Japan. However, Onizuka is a man pointedly unmindful of the standards and expectations of both teacher and student in a rather rigid society and consequently comes into grief with local educational authorities and lobby groups fairly often. Along with a high school class who have a passionate hatred for all teachers, what follows is a heart-warming, if at times questionable 43 half-hour episodes.

All of the manga, anime and live-action incarnations of the Great Teacher Onizuka story have achieved enormous popularity. GTO is an optimistic story that draws its appeal from the earnestness and bizarreness of Onizuka's approach to teaching, and the affect that the man is able to have on a set of emotionally damaged students. Pair this with the perfect comedic artistry and timing in the anime and what results is quite a memorable experience and an anime that should be watched by anyone who has gone through or is going through high school.

Much of the comedic value of GTO comes from the manner in which the titular character goes about realising his dream of being a ‘great teacher’. Eikichi Onizuka presents a mesmerising and (arguably) admirably idealistic view on what the teacher-student relationship should be. At heart Eikichi wants to become a teacher to make school 'fun' and undo the wrongs that were done to him as a student because he was viewed as 'trash'. Now, on its own this sentiment would not be a recipe for realistically happy endings. But the beauty of this anime is that the tour-de-force that is Onizuka’s brashness and block headed determination makes his slightly unrealistic hope for education a reality in outrageous and inevitably comical ways.

The manner in which Onizuka wins over the heart of his students to that end is as mesmerising and unbelievable as it is comedic. Eikichi goes about his life rather carelessly and throughout most of the series stumbles upon the right solution not because of any conscious effort to, but that’s because his actions are the inevitable result of who he is. Throughout the course of the series, we see him throw himself off a building no less than 5 times in order to save students falling from great heights; he consecutively dates the mother of every student in his class in order to get to know their home lives better; and he ties up and terrorises most (if not all) students in his class who cause him grief.

Onizuka has a fondness for wearing animal costumes, and generally dicking about whenever teaching

At face value most of the above actions make him seem more like a careless borderline criminal. The charm and heart of this series, though, lies in Eikichi’s earnestness and his ability to profoundly affect the people around him. Onizuka presents a mesmerising and (arguably) admirably idealistic view on what the teacher-student relationship should be. He pushes closeness and understanding rather than the prejudice and labelling that other teachers and perhaps too many in modern society use to deal with disaffected youths. And his philosophy is made all the more poignant because he himself was a juvenile delinquent once upon a time – and he grew up to realise how much more fulfilled his life would be if he had older figures who cared.

The subsequent attachments that students in his class subsequently form to him are quite touching. To echo a sentiment I mentioned before regarding Gurren Lagann, it comes off less as being naive and more as being hopefully optimistic, given the culture of apathy that was in vogue when I was in high school (not too long ago). As the series progresses, more students come to see him not just as an abstract teacher figure who is to be respected, but as a valuable friend without whom their lives would be a little less bright. This connection, portrayed quite believably, is one that can be somewhat lost as generations grow further apart from each other.

Yoshikawa (left) in particular forms a close bond with Onizuka as he is ostricised in the classroom for being quiet and meek

No proper treatise of  GTO can go without mention of the visual style of the anime. This anime has possibly the best slapstick and visual comedic timing of any animated television show I have ever watched. Whilst the various plot elements have comedic value in and of themselves, the series rises above all others in making us laugh with bizarre facial expressions, over-exaggerated body movements and background slapstick that harks back to the days of silent cinema and Charlie Chaplain.

The visual gags are coupled with Scooby-doo style sound effects and a brilliantly mischievous score that emphasises exactly how much of a caricature Onizuka tends to make himself. Often you will hear a slow understated trumpet or a kick-ass ascending big band motif that alerts you to the fact that Eikichi is about to do something monumentally stupid. The result is a lot of hearty laughter as Onizuka rolls form one ridiculous situation to the next

Background Comedy - Onizuka outside the window, surreptitiously listening in on his students being scolded inside

I cannot finish this post however, without warning you about the misgivings I have on this anime. There are a notable number of scenes in this anime which border on perversion and situations where you start to question Onizuka's judgement. The series itself starts with Onizuka wanting to become a teacher in order to hunt for a young wife (though he does find his conscience and calling to teaching very quickly). These elements are not a deal-breaker for the entire series, but they exist and should be viewed with some amount of objectivity. That said, it should be noted that many of the perverse elements from the manga were actually toned down for the television adaptations, with much nudity and violence removed.

At the end of the day, Great Teacher Onizuka is one of the great classic anime and is probably the only 'conventional' anime that I will review. Of the anime that I would recommend to those who are entering the genre, GTO would be the one that follows convention most closely (with others like Cowboy Bebop being unique in their own right). It does a good job of making us empathise with an otherwise unsavoury character, and takes us on a rather wild and unpredictable ride in the process

Onizuka-sensei - what a boss.

'With your drill, pierce the heavens'

Anime Christmas - Week 1 - Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

When I first asked my friend to describe this anime to me, he attempted to make the shape of an exponential curve with both his arms, accompanied by barely human but very triumphant noises coming from his mouth. After watching the series, though, I've found myself doing more or less the same thing whenever I recommend Hiroyuki Imaishi's acclaimed anime to other people.

Kamina, Simon, Yoko and the Gurren Lagann mecha (Background)

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (or Gurren Lagann for short) tells the story of human-kind's resurgence to power on an Earth set in the distant future. On this Earth, the surface is dominated by wildlife and half human 'beast-men' who are hellbent on oppressing the human race by forcing them to live in underground mining settlements. It is in one of these settlements that our protagonist, young Simon the driller, comes across a mysterious 'Core Drill' that unlocks an even more mysterious robot buried in the soil beneath his home. Edged on by his over-the-top, in-your-face brother (from an ambiguous mother), Kamina, Simon and his newfound mecha (dubbed the 'Lagann') become the catalyst for a human revolution of gargantuan scale.

Simon and the Core Drill

This is one of my favourite anime for three reasons: the story, the characters, and what it says about the human spirit.

The most appropriate word to use to describe this particular anime is an adjective that is perhaps overused in our current internet generation: epic. The series becomes more epic in epically increasing amounts with every single passing moment in every single passing episode. From a meager existence underground, we are taken on a journey that starts with a boy fighting only to protect his overzealous older brother, and ends with a man defending universe in the preservation of hope and passion for all intelligent beings who inhabit it. The progression and suspense of the plot is such that it is difficult to give any detail at all without ruining some major plot reveals (which, by the way, start from episode two and do not stop).

The scale of this series surpasses that of all modern speculative fiction that I have ever come across (save for a select few, such as Dune and all its sequels). And I do not make that statement lightly. The ever increasing scale of the plot is represented quite literally in the expansion of the size of the robots in this series. Simon's initially modest 'Lagann' combines with other robots which fit into each other like Matryoshka dolls. It makes for some very fun and very entertaining transformation sequences. Admittedly, the anime starts out somewhat slow. The first few episodes leave a little to be desired. But the series gains momentum. Fast.

More importantly, though, this anime does most television shows are only able to do superficially - it affects your emotions in a truly profound way. The characters are vivid, detailed, tangible and each relatable in a very real sense. As the stakes in the plot become higher, so does your emotional investment in each of the characters. On their journey they meet and recruit a host of other characters, including the iconic Yoko - a top grade marksman with little desire for clothing. Each character is given adequate attention and detail, and it never feels crowded on the screen.

From the left: Kamina and Simon (left and centre) as they see the surface for the first time after escaping the underground with Yoko (right)

Such is the skill of veteran screenwriter Kazuki Nakashima's characterisation, that not only do you find yourself on the verge of tears at Simon's struggles, but you find yourself in the odd position of feeling sorry for the show's supposed villains as well. This anime is not a simple good-guy, bad-guy story. The characters on both sides are surprisingly complex and fleshed out in  such a way that the struggles of all are laid out to bare.

And finally, the message that this anime sends out about the human spirit. Though somewhat naive and idealistic,  it is delivered in a deftly subtle but breathtaking way. Ultimately the story and the characters in Gurren Lagann serve as metaphors for the nature of perseverance and willpower. The very premise of the anime - having mecha that are somehow powered by the personal impetus and willpower of the pilot - further that particular purpose.

What sets Gurren Lagann apart from other, much cheesier Super Robot Anime, though, is that the discourse provided on the nature of modern apathy is presented in quite a meaningfully sophisticated manner. Over the course of the series we are shown how standing up and saying no to injustice is a step towards a more hopeful future. In this framework, the anime  subtly and intelligently explores the nature of revolution and its need in a stagnant and apathetic society.

 Those who have been through the same education on English Literature as I have will groan, but to describe this series, I will fall back on an outdated cliche: this anime is a triumph of the human spirit. It is rare to find a science fiction story that works in so many fantastical elements whilst maintaining a close link with your emotions. Too often do other shows try to do the same things and make us scoff and roll our eyes cynically. It is singularly impossible for any audience to bear a cynical grudge against this series. Nakashima and Imaishi have managed to find that rare balance between inspiring idealism and naive foolishness.

Gurren Lagann has almost everything. It is comedic and it is tragic. It has love and it has heartbreaking loss. It takes you to the heights of triumph, only to plunge you back into the depths of despair where it seems like there is no hope - until Simon decides that it's not over and spins his drill even faster.

 I challenge you to watch the final scene of the series and not shed manly tears.

Anime Anime Anime

Anime Christmas - Week 0

The bad rap that Anime gets from western culture is undeserved. To those who are unacquainted with the genre, two opinions form: 1 - that Anime is 'just cartoon' and therefore only for kids, or 2 - that Anime just serves fanboys with oversexualised depictions of women (of all ages) and fantastical, high concept situations.  

The first sentiment represents a significant cultural misunderstanding. Western, English speaking cartoons have existed mostly for the entertainment of children. Cartoons were meant to be light hearted, no frills and mostly fun form of entertainment. The two major cartoon production companies in America, Warner Bros. and Disney, made damn well sure that this was the case for about 50 years.

In Japan, though, Anime and 'cartoon' media have always been treated as a legitimate form of art and expression. So much so that their Anime market is not only one of their most successful entertainment-based exports, but also dominant in their media. On our television screens and in our movie theaters, we see the opposite happening with cartoons not being given nearly as much money or attention as 'live action' films and television shows.

Anime is often as rich with visual detail as blockbuster Hollywood films - scene taken from Ghost in the Shell: Innocence 

The differences in the evolution of media in both societies has bred differences of gut reactions when considering this particular genre. People who grew up watching English speaking television see animation as a kids thing - non serious and funny. But before fobbing off Anime as 'just another cartoon', we need to consider that Anime is a serious form of expression for a lot of Japanese storytelling and art. More money, attention and love have been put into Anime than has ever been put into a Disney or Warner Bros cartoon. 

Anime does have its downfalls. On the second point I raised earlier, I concede that about 98 percent of the visual and (less so) character depictions of women in Anime are doing no favour for feminism. Women, irregardless of age, are almost always impossibly buxom and wear form fitting and very revealing outfits (googling the character of Miu from History's Strongest Disciple: Kenichi will raise some very alarming questions about appropriateness, considering Miu's age).

Motoko Kusanagi (Left) - one of the most well developed but most poorly dressed female characters in Anime. At least Batou (right) is grinning as  he gets a good view.

However, Hollywood is able to fail in many of the same way that people see Anime to fail. As there are a multitude of seemingly trashy Anime, there are also trashy Hollywood films. Such films exist solely for the exploitation of explosion effects and sexualising women. And the proportion of Hollywood films whose story lack substance would easily equal that of the proportion of Anime that are considered unsophisticated or poor.

What a fair number of people don't realise, though, is that Anime is exploiting an opportunity unique to animation: storytelling for a drastically reduced cost. Animation costs, though not insignificant, represent a notable saving on having to build props or render a complex background from a green-screen. With this, many Japanese (and some American and English) storytellers have been able to tell some truly breathtaking and amazing stories. Such stories would not make it to the cut of a big budget Hollywood film or the cutthroat American television industry - without having to sacrifice artistic vision for what would be a good investment for the ratings.

That said, Anime does have the same woes in regard to 'audience pandering' as American Telvision or film does. But the low cost and high (local) demand for Anime makes the form extremely prolific. This proliferation allows for a much more varied and creative set of works to be made.  Without it, some quite unique and beautiful storytelling would not occur. Exemplars of this phenomenon are listed below.

To celebrate my staying with this blog until now, I've decided to declare December an Anime Christmas. For each week left of 2012 I'll be writing articles about my four favourite anime (aside from Cowboy Bebop, which I've already covered). They are

Week 1: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Week 2: Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO)

  

Week 3: Πλανήτης or "Planetes"

Week 4: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

I hope you have as much fun reading about them as I do revisiting them.

Blue Underpants

Whether it be by second hand or first, Superman's costume has been one of the seminal superhero costumes for all comic book superheroes that followed. Tights, cape, emblem on the chest, coloured belt and underpants on the outside.

This formula or many elements of it have been adopted by many superheroes who followed. Batman wears almost exactly the same format, save for his cowl. Spiderman has his trademark spider symbol on his chest, as does Captain America and  all the Lanterns, regardless of their colour. Even modern, more humorous takes on the genre have their underpants on the outside, like the Incredibles from Brad Bird's 2004 film of the same name.

One thing has distinguished Superman's costume over almost all other superhero costumes, however: it has not changed. Through all media, from comic book to movie to television and cartoon series, the 'S' shield, red underpants, blue tights and red cape have not changed (save for a brief period in the early 2000s where Superman Red/Superman Blue saga sent fanboys off on a massive rage).

The costume remains the same - Depictions of Superman over the years

The constancy of Superman's costume is something of a small wonder. The only other superhero whose costume has retained consistency for a comparable amount of time that comes to mind is Spiderman. Green Lantern, the X-Men and even the beloved Batman have gone through costume changes as their comic books have evolved and their stories have been adapted to film.  The X-Men films went from yellow to black tights and the Batman comics adopted the new, more modern looking Bat-crest without the yellow background. These changes have been accepted and even lauded as welcome modernisations of their appearences.

Through all of this, however, Superman in every film and cartoon representation has retained the same appearance, with exactly the same costume each time (with some slight colour tone or shape changes). And the change that came with the Superman Red/Superman Blue saga was met with vehement dislike and rage - a lesson that all people who have portrayed him since have learned well. He is a symbol of the archetype Superhero. The Superhero. He along with his costume is symbol of idealism in heroism that characters not only in his universe but that also writers and critics outside of the comic book genre have all been fascinated with and acknowledged.

This will all change with the DC Universe's New 52 comic-book reboot and Zack Synder's Man of Steel film reboot. Both the main Superman comic-book line and the new Man of Steel movie will see Supes having his blue crotch area exposed, uncovered by his traditional red "Kryptonian overpants". DC Comics will now portray Superman has wearing blue "Kryptonian Battle Armor", a tact that leaked photos of Henry Cavill on-set seem to indicate that Zack Snyder is going toward as well.

Superman's new blue battle armor (left) and Henry Cavill's blue tights (right)

To be fair on both of these machinations, the change is subtle with many classic elements remaining. The 'S' is still (more or less) the same and he still sports a red cape. However, I have a couple of issues that my friends have noticed as well with both these designs.

Let us focus on the DC Comics battle armor first. DC have made the decision with their New 52 reboot to specifically modernise all their major superheroes in order to try and attract a new and younger audience. The notion of a battle armor, with its sleek lines and high collar, then, would make some amount of sense. The same logic was applied with how Batman was depicted from simply looking like he was wearing tights to the armored kevlar in all of the Tim Burton, Joel Schumaker and Christopher Nolan Batman films. Form fitting armor with sleek assembly points looks cool.

There are two issues however. Firstly the colours - ditching the yellow belt and red underpants. The seeming silliness of having your underpants on the outside has been the butt of most Superhero jokes for as long as there have been smart-alec primary school boys. And the explanation of this as being Kryptonian fashion in the form of "over pants" is a slight stretch of the imagination. On an aesthetic level, though, it has always worked. Balancing the predominantly blue colours of his suit with the red pants and yellow belt always made his outfit look more appealing and less same-y than the battle armor's blue dominance.

Secondly - the high collar, and the idea of the armor altogether. Half of what has made Superman so appealing and fascinating as a superhero is that he has to change from Clark Kent to Superman in a flash. Meaningful character development, plot points and even humour has been derived from the costume change phenomenon. This works because his costume is low collared and is a pair of tights that would fit discreetly under a business shirt (ignoring the null-space where his cape must be stored). The tights are workman's clothes - simple sleek and they get the job done. He's not trying to cover up - he's just getting comfortable for super powered shenanigans.

Fundamentally, Superman is a superhero who doesn't need too much fancy equipment on hand. The appeal of Superman is that he is able to do his thing because of his natural abilities. He's not a technological genius who is using money and technology to fight crime. He doesn't even derive his power for some object or plot device that was bestowed onto him with great responsibility. He was born with the powers of a God, and instead of abusing them, he's decided to use his natural, unaided abilities to help mankind. And I'm not entirely sure why the Man of Steel needs armor, unless he's fighting the likes of Doomsday or other Kryptonians on a daily basis.

And what of Henry Cavill in the new Man of Steel film? The obvious muscle suit, muted dirty colours of his 'S' shield, odd decorative emobossing and reptilian-like texture to his costume all adds up to one thing: too much. Superman is supposed to be simple and majestic and idealitsic, not a dirty sweaty John Rambo-esque macho man. And the Red Underpants would have hidden the obvious sock he's stuffed down the front of his trousers.

To make a long point short - the Superman costume was fine as it was. I respect both DC comics and Synder's desire to make it more modern and hip to the young kids, but his costume is a timeless  classic that has been a beloved symbol for a very long time. I think that the classic costume can still work for a modern audience.

It seems as though the change is being made purely for the of change rather than any real unhappiness with how his costume looks. A headline, showstopper to get people in comic stores and buying issues to see what the new Superman is like. I have yet to see where this new series will go, and perhaps it will 'reinvent' him in a meaningful and and exciting way. It will take time after the hype has died down to really see if the New 52 turns out good things for the blue boy scout.

And change is bad. We fear change.

Superman from Brian Azzarello's For Tomorrow mini-series - possibly the most perfect visual depiction of superman to date.

Arctic Oasis Monkeys

Recently, Noel Gallagher released an album that would mark his first solo work since the disbanding of Oasis, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. Much to the chagrin to my friends, Oasis holds something of a special place in my heart. Wonderwall made me first pick up the guitar and actively want to learn music (a path that would eventually end in Zeppelin). So what do I think after a month of listening to the much praised High Flying Birds? I think that the Arctic Monkeys are pretty damn good.

Allow me to explain. Listening to High Flying Birds made me nostalgic for britrock (or 'britpop' to its deriders). The Arctic Monkeys had tickled my fancy a little when I listened to Whatever People Say I am, I'm not and Favourite Worst Nightmare back in high school. I figured that after however many years of not following them, I'd give their two recent albums, Humbug and Suck It and See, a try.

The result of the last month's worth of listening to these three albums on repeat is that I have struck upon exactly why Oasis whimpered out after What's the Story Morning Glory (a behemoth of a second album).

In High Flying Birds, Noel continues upon the path that Oasis would have trod if they had simply agreed to Noel's songwriting leadership. You can hear that Noel is trying to make himself mature musically by breaking out of the rock and guitar based framework that Oasis was steeped in. Gone are the heavy guitar riffs, the wall-of-sound power chords and simple-ass basslines. Tracks like The Death of You and Me and Soldier Boy and Jesus Freaks now incorporate keyboards, big bands, string ensembles, backup singers and almost dance-like beats.

To be fair on Noel, it's not a bad effort. The songs come out as being catchy, well produced and well executed. Reviews to his album have been quite welcoming in light of the burning pile of fail that Beady Eye (Liam Gallagher's little side project) turned out to be. It is solid, well executed and all those other adjectives that, sadly, fall short of what really good music should be - captivating, impressive, infectious, intense, and make you put songs on repeat. This is where the Arctic Monkeys come in.

The Arctic Monkeys had the same 'musical maturity' mantra that Oasis and Noel Gallagher were trying to aim for. The difference with the Monkeys, though, is that they didn't feel as they needed bells and whistles in the form of strings and trumpets to make their music interesting. Thanks in no small part to the influence of Josh Homme (of Queens of the Stone Age fame) Humbug and Suck it and See achieve musical maturity with just guitars and drums.

A case study: All My Own Stunts, Track 7 off Suck it and See. Here is a track where everything comes together and does what all rock music should be doing. The guitars aren't just playing three power chords and there is more than just one riff through the whole song. The drums don't just keep the beat, they speak with the guitars and define the pace of the song. The song isn't just chorus-verse-chorus-verse, it changes mood, moves into sections and takes you on a ride. And the bassist isn't just the kid drooling in the corner who couldn't play guitar.

This holds true for almost every track off Humbug and Suck it and See. And they're not all in the same style of 'desert rock' that the Arctic Money's direction has been labelled as. Reckless Serenade manages to combine pub and surf rock into quite a nice and lackadaisical piece. And they go into high school prom territory with Piledriver Waltz.

So, what's the point? The point is that Noel Gallagher has done okay, trying to become better at music the way he has - but only okay and not in a way that injects any great deal of hope into the genre. Whether this is because the medium of his improvement is slightly unfocussed or because he himself is limited as a musician, I'm not entirely sure. The Arctic Monkeys, on the other hand, have been quite ambitiously unambitious and managed to prove themselves a great deal more than Noel has, while sticking to the same instruments. It's proof that good musicality can be achieved by being more creative with ordinary tools, and that you don't need the bells and whistles, or rather, record scratches and sampled synth that dominates a metric ton of other popular music.

I don't listen to music because of cool sounds, catchy rhythms or even technically complex guitar solos. I listen to music because it takes me on a ride.

Be simple, be good.

Arctic Monkeys - garage band

On Facebook

"Being added as a friend has always meant very little. Being deleted however seems to mean a lot - why would you delete someone from your facebook unless you truly disliked them? We seem to have come to the conclusion that adding someone is such a casual and disinterested action that to delete someone must suggest some kind of abnormal dislike." - CC

This post is in response to a recent blog post by CC. In it, she speaks of Facebook within the context of the internet deadening our connectedness with the real world, be it socially with other people, or in a more physical sense wanting to explore the world outside and experience real things. It is a thoughtful post, and you should read it - it'll put this post into somewhat better context.

In order to contextualise my own viewpoint on this matter, though, I will start with something of a personal anecdote. 

The internet was not a friendly place in high school. I had started a blog and participated in a forum here or there because, for the same reason I started this blog, it seemed like harmless fun. What I didn't count on, though, was two things: one - how brutal people (particularly teenagers) can criticise each other out of either spite or their own need to feel superior or dominant in some way; and two - how tender I was to this kind of criticism, being a teenager myself. 

I was hurt, more than I should have been, and I retracted myself from the interwebs. For a very long time I refused to put any of my personal input into the internet.

My addendum to CC's thesis on the effects of connectivity is that both benefits and detriments of this phenomenon are strongly affected by the way in which we, the user, choose to receive them. This is not to say, though, that the responsibility of all the rage and emotive content that is inspired the internet lies solely on the reader. 'Social Enabling' tools and particularly Facebook have evolved to a point where we are being unintentionally drawn toward certain things in ways which we can't resist because of how subtle they are. 

Inevitably, the more 'user friendly' or 'easy' posting your thoughts on the internet become, the more what you do and read is manipulated by social trends. The solution to handling this is to maintain an awareness of what is going on and then by your own judgement choose how to receive information. I hope that this blog post will raise that awareness, if only by a little.

Over time, the successive developments of Usenet, Blogs, Micro-Blogs and finally Facebook have each successively been touted as the downfall of thoughtfulness in print. 

Usenet and the start of the internet were (admittedly very mildly) seen as opportunity for uncensored, unedited and unthoughtful content to be published. This occurred to the ire of those who believed in the robustness of hard print. The ease with which Usenet allowed for people to 'post' their thoughts into a widely proliferated medium lacked the editorial processes that hard print used to filter out the crap. The logic was that the hard work you put into trying to get something printed in a book or in a newspaper meant that not only was your work reviewed (and therefore worthy of being distributed), but that you earned it. No wonder then, that people in the early 80s would view this as a sad descent into anarchy with the masses being given an accessible tool to proliferate their unfettered thoughts and opinions.

The rebuttal to this argument, however, is a phrase (that may or may not be stolen) that I often utter to my friends in this situations: "there have been long haired youths since the beginning of time". The point being that however debaucherous higher ups view whatever is happening now in society, once upon a time they were in that situation with their progenitors, and in about 10 years time something will come along that will make this all seem civilized in comparison anyway.

For the most part this has rung true as 'opinion proliferating' has become easier and easier with the invention of more enabling media. Once Blogging became a thing, blogs then became the target of this level of criticism. Where Usenet, forums and website-making required some foreknowledge of how and where to write things down, Blogging meant that any person with a web browser could write basically anything.  Then, micro-blogging in the form of Twitter made this even easier - 'thoughtful' sentences with a click of a button and hundreds, even thousands of followers instantly read and digest. 

Twitter - short and apparently significant ramblings

But so far, this is (relatively) okay. Control for us users remains clear because we can identify what content is genuinely intellectual and what isn't particularly thoughtful. It's still relatively clear on what level we can choose to react to these things by judging their form or theme. This selectivity, however, has become infinitely less clear with the union of social networking and micro-blogging that is Facebook. 

Facebook is a complex beast. The concept of 'social networking' by itself was a complicated enough process without the internet stepping in and shoving in our faces things that we might not otherwise see. As CC points out, most of the content is made up of in-jokes that can fly over our heads, the 'friend-defriend' dynamic becomes randomly complex and we become depressed when our witty remarks don't garner attention from our supposed 'friends'.

The shiny 'f' that makes Facebooking so easy

A particularly interesting point comes from the fact that a lot of these Facebook emotional by-products come as a result of what Zuckerberg and others in the Facebook think-tank are doing to prevent it. Although much of Facebook's success can be attributed to the nature of the user interface and (supposed) accessibility much of the website's sticking power comes from the metric that governs what gets put into the top of your 'feed'. The website has evolved to the point where it employs complex but rather effective algorithms that essentially deem what has happened in your 'social network' that should be most important to you.

Facebook distinguishes between what is a 'top story', and everything else

The critical mistake with this is that in order to invoke an 'effective' algorithm, you need to generalise the emotional response of very individual human beings. The result? For a lot of users, fun, meeting people and starting conversation - as the website makers intended. But for others (who make up a significant portion of Facebook) alienation, sadness and ennui for a number of different reasons. As sophisticated as the Facebook programming can be, it will not be able to predict exactly what will make us feel better in moments of non-typical emotion. And sometimes it can step badly wrong.

I am not arguing that Facebook will be 'the downfall of this generation' as some older stuffier schoolteachers (who are now on Facebook) have preached to me in the past. At the end of the day I have gotten a great deal out of Facebook - some of my greatest friendships were initiated by 'friending' them after meeting them casually (an exercise without which I possibly would not have continued further contact). I was connected to my ex-girlfriend via a mutual acquaintance through Facebook - what turned out to be a happy and long relationship.

So how are we to treat Facebook then? We treat it like how we have treated micro-blogging, blogging, the internet, newsprint and television - with necessary and selective detachment. As self-serving as it may seem, I emotionally connect with Facebook when it makes me happy, but as soon as something that provokes an unsavoury emotion from me crops up, I remind myself that it's 'just Facebook'. It's harmless to use these things to amuse ourselves day to day, but we should leave serious discussion and the confrontation of our own emotions to more severe forms of communication.

Those who are happiest using something like Facebook will by and large have healthy lives off the internet and with real people. At the end of the day Facebook should be treated like any other media which is slightly mindless - as harmless entertainment. Nothing more.

Take Facebook with a grain of salt.

Captain America is a Walking Bullseye

"Now get your ass up here. We've got just enough time for me to spray-paint the bullseye on your back. Ah, by bullseye I of course mean, uh,  camouflage..."

- Sarge, Red Vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles

I was mostly quite impressed with how Joe Johnston's 2011 film adaptation of Captain America initially handled how monumentally silly Captain America's costume looks (even by comic-book standards). Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, is initially recruited by a United States Senator eager to increase the revenue going into fighting World War II and is used as a predictably very cheesy poster boy for the war effort. Essentially, he becomes a mascot for war-bonds

Against the backdrop of gaudy vaudeville dancers singing about the war-effort and capturing the heart of a more impressionable 1940s America, it makes sense then that Captain America would wear the long-johns version of the American flag, don a cap with a giant 'A' on the forehead and carry a shield that's begging to be punched because of how stupid it looks. It's not meant to be functional or even cool - it's meant to be a tongue-in-cheek homage to the original Captain America costume, satirising how silly it all looked.

Then they unveiled his battle costume. And the whole point of the satire kind of went out the window.

Captain America - Joke Costume and Actual. Spot the difference.

In general, superhero costumes are meant to be, well, a bit silly. But I am on the side of fanboys, comic-book readers and cartoon followers when I say that they do (for the most part, at least) have a point beyond the obvious 'look at me' factor. They can be infinitely functional and serve as good identifiers for a brand, much like for the Police or any Emergency Services. And in most of the cases where costumes are showy and gaudy, that showiness and gaudiness has a point.

To illustrate this, I'll take a look at the hero who's appearance is easiest to justify - Batman. Though it started off as being a costume mostly for the sake of being a costume, the Batsuit has evolved over the years into something which has two distinct and very necessary motivations: the armour, and the symbol.

Batman over the years - from silly to functional

Batman's armour plays a major role in Batman's overall abilities. Depending on which versions you happen to come across,  the Batsuit is made from materials that range from specialised and hardened rubber, to armoured kevlar plating. The point of this, of course, is quite simple - to take bullets, punches and hard falls. The amount of acrobatics and sheer violence involved in Batman's day to day activities would necessitate a hard outer shell. Street thugs and your average bank robber wouldn't really stand a chance punching into abs lined with hard metal.

Secondly, the symbol and appearance. Off the bat, its fairly obvious that the colour scheme that Bruce Wayne has chosen is good camouflage for night-based shenanigans in a Gothic inspired city. But beyond that (and a point which works such as Year One and Batman Begins go into a fair amount of detail) is that the Bat and the Bat-crest are a symbol. This symbol is meant to inject fear into the heart of criminals and, to a lesser extent, hope into those who would uphold justice. The prevalence and recognition of this symbol would mean that Batman doesn't have to beat up criminals in order to stop the crime. Criminals don't commit crimes because of the mere threat of being beaten to within an inch of their life by a borderline psychotic.

And besides that, it actually looks pretty damn cool.

Either if not both of these two points hold true for most other superheros. The Green Lantern wears an identifying uniform just like any other law enforcer (domestic or inter-planetary). The acrobatic feats performed by Wonder Woman, the X-Men, Spiderman and the Flash would mean that they need leotard-like tights to allow for certain degrees of freedom in movement. Superman wears a red cape and a giant 'S' on his chest to inspire hope, selflessness and goodwill in others.

Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Cyclops and Spiderman

So what's my gripe with Captain America? Two things.

First is the setting of his story and his acts. Admittedly the World War II setting is something that is particular to the movie and a select number of comic books. Here is a man who is supposedly a super-soldier, participating in convert ops and special tactical missions in order to undo the Nazis. With all of this in mind, you can't help but realise that, especially for someone who specifically is not invulnerable, his costume screams 'Bullseye'. His shield is circular and has very colourful concentric rings to let a lookout know that he's coming from a kilometre away. There's a massive bright white star on his chest to guide a marksman to his vital organs. And you get bonus points if you manage to sock him where the 'A' is on his forehead.

The second point is that it's all just too...American. As much as Superman has been pushed over the years to eschew particularly American values ("Truth, Justice and the American Way"), his appearance and presentation have always maintained a level of flexibility such that he can represent these values from a universal perspective. His 'S', Spiderman's webbing and even the stars on Wonder Woman's undergarments can be removed from the 'American' framework if the writer sees fit to have them represent greater values. Captain America is too closely tethered to the stars and stripes all over his body and his name for that ever to happen.

Maybe, since most of the superhero movie-watching, comic-book-reading public come from America, this doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. That's fine. As long as he stays bright and stupid enough for anyone gifted with human sight to pick him off for a distance, the rest of the world will be ok.

Target Practice

Perhaps I am being a bit harsh. The movie does do a good job of trying to circumvent these issues. Steve Rogers isn't fighting so that America is king, he's fighting because he 'hates bullies' - a simple but very noble sentiment. And the dulling of the colours, the removal of most of the red and white stripes and the amalgam of the traditional Captain America tights with a sturdy flak jacket and heavy pants make it all work within the context of a fun action movie... to an extent.

It just seems a little sad that Captain America is too mired his original 1940s identity and appearance for these problems to be overcome.

There Will be Wood

Up until recently I only thought of Jonny Greenwood as 'that awesome guitarist from Radiohead'. Consequently I chiefly associated him with bizarre, dissonant but very awesome guitar riffs and tones. When I had heard that he had composed the score to the film adaptation of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood, I thought that it would be similar to the prevalence of Radiohead's music in Linklater's A Scanner Darkly (ethereal, esoteric sort of electronica).

Imagine my surprise, then, when I watched a movie with some of the most jarring and emotionally wrought classically-based string compositions I have ever heard.

For those who are acquainted with Haruki Murakami's novel and the works of Radiohead, it actually isn't overly surprising from a thematic point of view. Norwegian Wood deals with a young and profound tragedy that pervades the existence of the novel's protagonist, Watanabe Toru. The subsequent sense of (almost) hopeless depression and discord in Watanabe's life is not an uncommon theme in Radiohead's music.

Hence, it's not entirely unexpected that Jonny Greenwood should compose a score to reflect the same set of emotions.  Sure, his compositions are strongly string based, but it's not such a stretch, given previous demonstration of his musical finesse in Radiohead, that he would be capable of composing pieces for a string orchestra. Not to say that the music was by any means simple - it was powerfully moving. Without it, scenes in Anh Hung's faithful film adaptation would be lacking in a lot of emotional power.

The real shock came when I sat down with a friend and watched Paul Thomas Anderson's 2007 film, There Will Be Blood. The film portrays the rise of a successful Oil Baron (played by Daniel Day Lewis) and his descent into madness as he lusts after money and power.

The key to understanding this character and the movie, though, especially within the early scenes of this film, is Jonny Greenwood's score.

The beginning scenes of this film could rather be innocently confused with 'just' another film portraying the somewhat repulsive nature of big corporations. The dissonant and darkly foreboding nature of Greenwood's score, however, do an amazingly effective job of conveying how deeply disturbed the events unfolding in the film are.

Greenwood's composition is, in a word, wrong. The broken rhythms, the string sections not agreeing with each other, the dissonance and sparseness of the music - they all alert you to the fact that something is very very wrong. Daniel Day Lewis's character is so good at acting like he's honest that without the music, you would believe that he was a good man. Such is the power of the score, however, that you can't shake the feeling that something deeply, deeply wrong is happening.

This sense of dissonance pervades the entire film and eventually builds to the point where what is happening on screen finally fulfills the promise put forward by Greenwood's haunting score. The effect is powerfully disturbing.

The music in this movie is beautiful, moving and complex. Most of all, it comes from a completely different direction to  Radiohead's Punk-Rock based roots.

There Will Be Blood went on to be nominated for eight Academy Awards. Best Original Score was not one of them.

The reason cited for Greenwood's disqualification was that his work for There Will Be Blood did not contain a large enough ratio of music developed specifically for the film to music taken from elsewhere. This was in no small part due to Greenwood adopting many of the themes from his score directly from a previous string composition of his, Popcorn Superhet Reciever - a piece he composed whilst the BBC Concert Orchestra's 'composer-in-residence'

When Thom Yorke did work independent of Radiohead, he made The Eraser, a mainly electronic album that reflected a lot of where Radiohead were going anyway. When Jonny Greenwood went solo, he became the BBC Concert Orchestra's 'Composer-in-residence', composed three piano and symphony based pieces and wrote the score to two of the best movies I've seen in recent years.

I was shocked by how different this music was from what I expected when I thought 'Jonny Greenwood' and I am in awe of precisely how much of a talented musician this man must be.

The world needs more creative forces like this one.

And yes, I am well aware that the title of this post sounds somewhat like the title to a porno.