I started watching a new anime today called "Hell Girl" and I really liked it. The basic story is someone is doing horrible things to these people (one person stalked an underage girl and sent her weird gifts, and ended up killing her father for getting in his way, one person killed a person's best friend, and blamed him for it, thereby ruining his life.) So, at midnight, you can load a website where you send their name to the aforementioned Hell Girl, named Ai, and she takes their soul to Hell, after what appears to be an attempt to get them to confess their sins, (whether or not this would save them is unclear, no one has confessed thus far.) but on the condition that you accept her deal, which is if you send them to Hell immediately, you damn your own soul to Hell upon your death. It doesn't matter what they did. I really find this morality interesting, in that, yes, they are horrible bastards, and they deserve every bit of Hell that's coming to them, but can you really damn them without paying the same price?
It started me thinking about why I like the shows, music, movies, etc. I do. I found it has to do with one main thing. THEMES.
Fullmetal Alchemist's main themes are "What is humanity?" the cycle of nature and its irreversability, and sacrifice vs. gain.
Death Note: Absolute power corrupts absolutely, good vs. evil, and the certainty of death.
Hell Girl: Morality.
And those are just animes. What about movies?
Dead Poet's Society: Creativity, and what happens when a creative soul is forced to conform.
Songs?
Her Ghost in the Fog by Cradle of Filth: true love, religious hypocrisy, and vengeance.
Coheed and Cambria's entire discography: Good vs. evil, destiny and its unavoidability, and liberation.
Kamelot's Ariel Saga: Deals with the devil, ultimate truth, and the overcoming of adversity.
Books?
The World According to Garp: The nature of nihilism and the certainty of death.
A Clockwork Orange: True morality, the nature of evil, and forced conformity.
There are other things that make things good, like good writing, composition, and acting, but, in general, I tend to enjoy things that have deep and/or strong themes driving them, even if they aren't totally obvious. Just my little rant.
You didn't finish Garp, and you know it!! Tsk tsk!
ReplyDeleteI also disagree about the certainty of death, rather the theme of the book to me seems to be more about life, the interlocking of emotions, and sort of a butterfly effect.
Had you actually finished the book, you would know that Garp is in the end undone by an unlikely extremist he'd unknowingly scorned.