"Un doble suicidio"

For the ones that don’t know, the anime is the term that is used to refer to all the animation that comes from Japan. It has a really characteristic style and you may have seen it…big eyes, colorful hairs, small mouths and big smiles. Something like this:

What if I tell you that this series that at first sight seem to be for child has a more mature and in some cases dark and cruel side? The anime has a lot of different genres, from the kodomo, which is from children and has characters and histories that are innocent, funny and in sometimes very fantasious (animes like Heidi, Pokemon, Digimon and Hamtaro); to the gore, that is the most bloody, crude and cruel type of anime, it has really (and some, really, really) hard scenes (animes like Elfen Lied, Blood+, Akira  Higurashi no koro ni, etc.) . It has a really big spectre and with the pass of the years (from 1917) that spectre has being growing. But, I think that the most recurrent themes on the anime are: love, friendship, nature, technology and adventures, but, the anime world is so huge that this is not the 100% of them.

Well, with this little and general introduction I will go to the point: one of the best animes that I have seen lately. I started to saw it on April of the last year and from the first episode it captivated me because it was different of what I always see, in anime I usually see more of the fantasious, Shonen and suspense type, and to encounter a anime like “Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu” was like to open a door to another type of anime, more realistic. Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu (from now on just ‘Shouwa Gen’) is an anime that is based on a manga (is like the “Japanese comic” that is made just in white-black scale, more details in other occasion) wrote by Haruko Kumota, and actually it has two seasons and two OVAS (just google it…). The first season (13 chapters) was released the second of April of the past year and the second (12 chapters) the seventh of January of the present year, you should now, I’m not a very patient person and even so I followed it since it was released on April and I wait every week to see another chapter. The anime genre is denominated as Historical Fiction and Josei and it is set (more or less) in the Japan of the XX century and also in the present Japan.

Is so much to talk about this anime that if I don’t start for the beginning I just will get lost, so, permit me to tell you after this introduction in the anime, what I love of it. First of all, the axis of all the serie is the Rakugo (3. Is a japanese art that consist on telling a history in a “monologue style” using just a handkerchief and a fan. I consider it like the art of “simplicity and masks”), our main characters are rakugo tale tellers and along the series are several scenes in which the characters are telling the stories. At this point I should say, the first time I saw it I was really impressed and excited to know another type of japanese art (I like japanese culture a lot), by the approaches and angles that the chapter has and that made the stories develop better, and also by the fresh anime plot, so the first chapter was really interesting for me, but, when I saw it on a second time with my mom I notice that I enjoy it a lot because I was in a way immersed in the japanese culture and in the anime world, which is very different to all the series and movies that we are used to, it has a different rhythm. BUT, I assure that seeing the whole serie is really worth and this is why:

Shouwa Gen shows a little of Japan history, before the Second World War and when Japan received a lot more influences of the occidental lifestyle. In the serie you can perceive this change in the environments of the anime and in the worries of the characters. That worries born from the problem that Japan was changing and people interests too, and for the Rakugo, that is a very traditional and conservative art, was a really tough hit (as much in real life like in the anime). In this situation you can perceive clearly the feelings of the characters towards rakugo, their ways to use it to know themselves, their ways of express themselves on stage and also what they believe that rakugo is and what should be on a future. Shouwa Gen has a very complex characters, that grew and grew in each chapter, and so their relationships. Shouwa Gen may look like the typical “telenovela” of grandma’s TV, but it is completely different, what I mean with this is that sometimes is dramatic and it has complicated love relationships, but is not at all (not even close) to the dramatism and the complicated, confusing and the unfaithful relationship of the “telenovelas”, they are a mature and very Japanese, kind of relationships with unexpected ends. If you don’t like the cheesy and happy ever after histories this is your anime.

This anime shows almost all what means to be human, the characters may seem flat, but, they have a lot of psychology behind. This complexity contrast with the simplicity and in some cases banality of the stories that Rakugo tells, and with the simplicity of the art. It shows the fears, the worries, the happiness, the hate, the love, the sadness and guilty that people can experiment and how they endure that.

But, just seeing all the anime you can notice this and a lot of other things that makes this such a great anime. Of course it will not be for everyone, it has a lot of japanese comedy and also a very loud and energetic character (that I know some people hate), and some might be bored by the Rakugo, but, if you give it a chance you will be surprised how much you will be emotionally involved with the personages.

To incentivize you here is it’s opening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K28Lcc-MdJs

Video games culture

Maybe once in your life you have heard about video games and how they entertain the people. You may think this is just for kids and teenagers, well, your are wrong. This entertainment is made for everyone, and so adults play with them, but why is it so difficult to hear an adult playing a video game? The answer is simple, they are too busy in their quest to be "happy" earning money, and they loose their life on it. In video games we could say you loose your life but... in a different way, deppending on the type of game you bought you will waste your life in a good way. For example, if you try a sandbox video game you will "visit" new worlds, of course you won't experience it like in real life, but it will be a great sensation, because you can do whatever you want, in the way you want, of course there are some limitations.

If you have changed your idea of video games, you might be wondering where do I start, and how. Some consoles are too expensive, and the games are too, especially if it is new. You could start with a Play Station 3, nowadays it is cheap, but if you could afford a HD televison and a good and updated console, you could buy a Play Station Pro, or maybe a X Box one, both have incredible games. If you want to start with a shooter game you can buy Call of Duty 3 or maybe Far Cry 4, the last one is a sandbox too. If you want a sport game there are multiple games, for example FIFA 17 or Madden NFL 17. There are a lot of games you will find, but you have to remember that video games aren't going to be  good for your health, at least once you have to stop and go to exercise and socialize with other humans, not from video games, real humans.

Those magic times…

(If you haven’t seen the old Beauty and The Beast movie of Disney, maybe you should not be reading this…)

All of us, at least should have listened about the new live action of the Disney’s The Beauty and the Beast, directed by Bill Condon, and starring Dan Stevens and the famous Emma Watson. This version was recently released on equadorian cinemas and I went to watch it past saturday. I must say...I really love it. And I do principally because I have an history with Beauty and the Beast, it was the first movie that I saw on the cinema, I don’t remember very well but my mom told me that I was astonished with it, and when seeing it I reconnected with that feelings.

I grew up with Disney movies, Alice, Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora, Belle, Mulan, Pocahontas and others were like my first referents, but when I grew up I think that some of the magic get lost. Seeing again that Beauty and the Beast, almost exactly like the first movie that I saw, reconnect me with that little girl on the cinema, captivated by the colors and the purity of that love story. I must say, I don’t consider myself a romantic person and I don’t like typical and cheesy love stories fan, but, that movie really made me “fangirl”, it really moved. I think that this is because Beauty and the Beast has always been a untypical love story, and also because the reinforcement of Belle’s personality.

In the animated movie was a simple, intelligent, kind and independent girl but the “princess and perfect” that is common in the Disney princess movies always remain in her. In the new movie it was also something like that Belle was too much perfect...but it’s a fairy tale of the type “They lived happily ever after”, we can’t do much about it. But, much of the princess ways were let aside and more on the strong and independent personality went out, and this is positive. Other positive think that I saw was that in the movie were light winks about actuality themes, marriage, the concept of family, the appearances and superficiality, and of course the most polemic of all: LGBTI, the positive thing that I see is that the presence of this theme was so natural that you just don’t really see it in the moment, they just give you slightly signals and let the rest be speculation, I like that.

The other things that I like, and they are more physical, were the clothes, the places, the music, the decorations, the colors and the characters. Referring to the clothes and the places I can say that all, and I say all, of them were just…”princess type”, what I mean with this is that all of them were just too “fashion” and bright for just a small village on the mountains in the England of the XVI century, but, this is not bad, this type of clothes with the decoration and the colors in general of the movie, transmit more the ‘innocent fantasy’ style that I perceive in Disney movies, in other words, it really makes you feel in a fairy tale and not in the real world. In contrast with movies like the new “Alice in Wonderland”, the new “Snow White and the Hunter” the Beauty and the Beast in more in the new “Cinderella” and “Malefic” style, more fanciful. Of course it has their dark tones, specially when we see the beast, and the castle on ruins in the winter, but I say it again: it is surprisingly like the movie. If we remember the movie it was the same, the contrast between the outside that is snowy, dark, dangerous, and with a uncomfortable decoration and the inside, which is bright, gold, warm, safe and filled with books and magic, of course after the poor servants cleaned it (Maybe it can be related with the message of the story?).

And the music...other element that transport us to the first movies. The soundtrack was in charge of the same person that make the soundtrack in the original Disney movie: Alan Menken (who has also made other Disney movies soundtracks). Alan used the songs that were on the first Disney version but he composed another four songs for the movie. This is the detail that I appreciated the most…the music in the Disney movies is something that is unique and I believe that every Disney fan (or loving parents) had found themselves humming or singing one of them in the most unexpected moment. From my little experience with musicals in real life I believed that I would never like it (I have a really bad experience with a musical movie…), for me, seeing a musical with real persons just made me feel overwhelmed by the quantity of the songs and how unnecessary for the history are. But La La Land and Beauty and the Beast make me see another face of musicals, that I believe that are more like “musical movies” than a musical itself. I make this difference because to me movies like La La Land and The Beauty and the Beast use the singing and dancing resourse to make more deep the feeling of the movie, it is necessary to the history, is harmonious and they don’t make me feel overwhelmed.

Concluding: The Beauty and the Beast is a movie that I really love because it was so similar with the original one that I saw when I was very little, and at the same time has the actuality influence and it make polemic themes seem natural. I don’t believe that this is a “Movie Of The Year”, nor even a transcendental movie, but I really enjoy it and made me feel the magic and carefree of fairy tales again.

I must say, I am not an expert on musicals and movies, I’m just talking from my experience and my feelings about the movie, and in the same way I want to know your opinion: What do you think about The Beauty and The Beast? Have you gone to see it already? If you don’t what were your expectatives? (without spoilers please!)    

-SPOILER ALERT-

Another detail that I love is the part where Belle and the Beast travel with the magic book. To discover more about Belle’s past and why her mom was not with her closed a lot of questions that some of us were curious about when little, and to share the pain of discover the truth about her mother’s dead and how painful was for her father with the Beast was a very good way to develop more the relationship between them. Beast knows the pain of losing a mother and, I think, that through this both of them could connect better with their own and with the other feelings.