Original Title: 成熟という檻『魔法少女まどか☆マギカ論』
Here's a link to read a PDF version that keeps all the footnotes and formatting that I don't retain here. Read on after the jump.
1.2
An Inhuman Order—A Comparison
with J-Horror
The Terror of Order
Taking
Madoka☆Magica together as a whole, one aspect of the story that is overlooked is its
horror-esque worldview and narrative structure. Urobuchi Geni himself has stated that Madoka☆Magica is horror; citing
W.W. Jacobs’[1]
novella The Monkey’s Paw as an example (Megastore, 2011 June
issue). The story, The Monkey’s Paw,
is about a mummified monkey’s paw that grants three wishes, but instead brings
about misfortune upon an elderly couple. Also, since Urobuchi was in charge of
the script for the visual novel Song of Saya[2],
which was based on the Cthulhu Mythos[3],
the creation of Kyubey as an alien may reflect an influence from Lovecraft[4].
However,
in contrast to Lovecraft’s horror novels, where monsters that exceed human
comprehension appear one after the other, in the world of Madoka☆Magica those sorts of
creatures do not exist. Witches are the sad ruins of what were once girls who
believed in hope; Kyubey is only a small animal that is killed any number of
times by Homura (when one dies the next Kyubey is dispatched.). The eeriness of
the story comes from the very “Order” itself that controls the magical girls.
At
first, Iwakami Atsuhirō, the producer, and Shinbō Akiyuki, the director, said
that they expected that Urobuchi would place the magical girls in an intense
battle of strange ability users like in Fate/Zero (ibid). Certainly, both works depict people competing
based on rules, but the similarities end there. In the end, Madoka☆Magica and Fate/Zero
are completely different types of works. In Fate/Zero the characters outwit
the rules, and occasionally use what can be considered foul play, which causes
one surprise after another to occur. Because of this, it is difficult to be
able to guess how the battle will end. In contrast to that, the rules of Madoka☆Magica have almost no
unexpected gaps. If we look at things from Kyubey’s point of view there are no
big surprises until Madoka makes her contract in the final episode.
At
the beginning, the full story behind the hidden rules is only gradually
revealed. Even the actions of Homura, who Kyubey calls “an irregularity”, are
revealed in episode eleven to have been beneficial to Kyubey’s side, and
contrary to her own intentions. Compared to Fate/Zero the rules of Madoka☆Magica are
overwhelmingly severe. This is one of the reasons why the happy ending of Madoka☆Magica presents a
gloomier impression than the bad ending we are presented with in Fate/Zero.
This
kind of setting is common in the so-called J-Horror films that started a
domestic movement throughout the 1990s and the first half of the 2000s. These
films popularized the motif of human beings controlled by a senseless law or order.
The most famous of these is probably Ringu[5],
directed by Nakata Hideo, and the script by Takahashi Hiroshi. This is a digression but, Urobuchi Gen also
had the same well from Ringu appear in Song of Saya, when he was
in charge of the script for the visual novel.
Asakawa
Reiko (Matsushima Nanako) is a TV director covering the urban legend of a
cursed videotape being passed around that kills those who watch it in exactly
one week. At first the existence of the tape is thought to be a simple rumor,
but after the strange death of her niece, Ōishi Tomoko (Takeuchi Yūko), who had
also watched the tape, and discovering that her friends also died at the same
time, it rapidly takes on a sense of reality. Discovering what appears to be
the tape, she dubiously replays the tape and, a paranormal phenomenon occurs.
Sensing that her life is in danger, she seeks the aid of her ex-husband Ryūji
(Sanada Hiroyuki), giving him a dub of the tape. After that, her son Yōichi
(Ōtaka Rikiya), tempted by the ghost of the dead Tomoko, watches the tape,
further emphasizing the impending situation. They soon discover that the one
who created the cursed tape appears to be the vengeful spirit of Yamamura
Sadako, a woman with supernatural powers who met an untimely death. The two of
them finally manage to arrive at the well where Sadako’s submerged corpse is
located. Lowered into the well, Reiko embraces Sadako’s remains as Ryūji
announces that exactly one week has passed since Reiko watched the tape.
They’re saved! The two are relieved.
However,
the following day, Ryūji dies from the curse. In order to save Yōichi, Reiko
thinks about why she was the only one to survive, finally arriving at the
answer. Make a dubbing of the tape and show it to someone- that is the
condition for survival. If so, then as those who have watched the tape struggle
to survive the curse must spread through the world. In order to save Yōichi,
she drives back to her father’s house.
The establishment of showing the tape to another
person to survive comes from the original work; but on several points the film
places much more emphasis on the inhumanity of “Order” than the original novelii.
First, the motive for Sadako
diffusing the video was cut from the film.
Sadako’s curse is more like an automatic system rather than a grudge. Later
on, in Ringu 2 (1999) (In addition the contents are different than Rasen[6]
the continuation of Ringu, by the
original author Suzuki Kōji[7].),
Sadako’s corpse has been pulled out, but even now, in hell, Sadako appears to
repeatedly climb-up and then fall down the well; Takahashi Hiroshi talks about
that in the following:
The original
meaning of climbing up has already vanished. …only this simple act is eternal,
repeating, changing itself into a curse and giving birth to an ominous power.
“Why were you the only one saved?” the voice of Sadako asks, even the meaning
of ‘to survive’ vanishes. That’s the
most terrifying thing; Mai (Note: She’s the heroine of Ringu 2[8])
gets a taste of the feel of the real hell from that “inhuman” voice.
Takahashi says
that, caught in eternal repetition, meaning vanishes from Sadako’s acts and
words. She has already lost motive and individuality, only that power continues
to call out for disaster.
Also not appearing
in the original work is the episode where Tomoko shows the video, which serves
a role above emphasizing this “inhumanity.” Just as Ryūji’s words “That’s not
Tomoko anymore” foreshadow, the personalities of the victims are also snatched
away; transformed into part of the system. Furthermore, I would like to bring
attention to the scene about “rumors of the video are spreading” as another
transformation point
Reiko: Who did the story start with?
Ryūji:
Stories like that don’t start with anyone. People feel anxious, and the rumors
start flying.
Reiko:
Anxious…
Ryūji: Or people start them hoping things
will turn out like this.iii
The rumor that was
not caused by anyone’s intentions symbolizes the emptiness of Sadako’s curse.
Horror depicts the
terror of the irrational and the collapse of order; on the other hand it also
frequently takes up the theme of the terror of order. At this point I shall reference Furuya
Toshihiro’s[9] Ghosts
VS Aliens? Fate and Love in J-Horror. In this study Furuya takes Takahashi
Hiroshi, Shimizu Takashi[10],
and Kurosawa Kiyoshi[11];
stating that Shimizu and Kurosawa are the “supernaturalist group” and Takahashi
is in the “Extraterrestrialist group.”
…The supernaturalist group sensitively infers
and gives shape to those scenes where inconsistencies, contradictions and gaps
appear; in contrast to the mystery, the desire to seek out a systematic
solution is not strong. The mystery is the vivid sensation of the world as it
is; from the start it is not something that a solution can seek out. In
contrast, the extraterrestrialist group has a strong desire to systematically
understand, or systematically construct, a work.
The supernaturalists also believe in the
“Laws of the World” but, as they are something that surpasses human knowledge…
the universe is constantly putting new wonders before one’s eyes. To the extraterrestrialists
the “Laws of the World” must exist as a system, with everything in the world already
written down somewhere and decided upon…”Novelty” does not exist in the world.
(The Brain Oozing Out into the World—The Logic of Sensation and the Dream’s
Image, Fururya Toshihiro, Seidosha, 2008. p. 62-63)
The terror of
irrationality depicted in the works of the “supernaturalists” is a world full
of mysteries, but in the works of the “extraterrestrialists” that take up the
theme of the terror of order, the world has been filled with well-known things.
Furuya’s study
also has the tendency to be over-classificatory. For example, in several of
Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s horror films, does he not depict the terror of a
deterministic system? Although at the present, in much of horror criticism
there is a tendency to only emphasize the terror of the unknown, irrationality
and chaos (what Furuya calls “the supernaturalist group”). Furuya also does a
great service for pointing out that, within this climate, the terror of the
known, reason, and order (the “extraterrestrialist” group) also exists.
Against this
background of horror theorists, who frequently only pay attention to the terror
of irrationality, there could be some influence from Western Sublime
Aesthetics. The sublime is the feeling people have when confronted with things
that surpass their ability to understand, causing a feeling like a mixture of
fear and excitement. For example, the flames blown out from the Sun are how
many tens of times larger than the Earth; a galaxy is gathered from billions or
hundreds of billions of suns; that galaxy is furthermore one of the tens of
thousands gathered into a galactic cluster… when you consider things like this,
there is a feeling that your perception is spreading out. That is the sublime.
M.H. Nicholson[12]
claims that in Europe the sublime was a feeling that could only be caused by
religious subjects, but from around the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries it
also started to turn towards the vastness, variety and unruliness of nature.
“Something strange” indeed has come into
the minds of these modern people, something that has broken down the idols of
pattern, regularity, symmetry, restraint, proportion, and replaced them by
ideals of diversity, variety, irregularity, most of all by ideals of
indefiniteness and vastness. (Mountain
Gloom and Mountain Glory: The Development of the Aesthetics of the Infinite.
M.H. Nicholson, Cornell University Press 1959. p.16)
For example, to
the Europeans of the past, for whom order and balance were themselves beautiful,
the unruly craggy mountains could be nothing but ugly.
However, from the
eighteenth century onward those same mountains changed into sublime subjects of
reverence.
Nicholson asserts
that this change was brought about by the development of the natural sciences.
From Galileo’s[13] discovery
of the mountains of the Moon, it was conjectured that the Moon and each of the
planets were, like the Earth, singular worlds. On the other hand, novae caused
thinking about the waning of heavenly bodies, along with the observation of
spots on the Sun and Moon, leading to the collapse of the belief that the
heavens were eternal and unchanging. This was the manner in which the people
confronting a vast and unruly world discovered the sublime.
In horror there
are many works that depict this kind of fear of a sublime existence. Be that as
it may, we should not conclude that chaotic things are themselves frightening, or
that those things that can be logically broken down are not. There are also
works that, like the group of work that Furuya calls “extraterrestrialist”,
depict the fear of everything that is can be explained by logic and not one
step beyond.
We can also say
that Madoka☆Magica follows this pattern of “extraterrestrialist” horror. What is
terrifying in this anime is not its irrationality, it is the “Reason” that hope
must be rewarded with despair, and that a magical girl will become a witch.
This sense appears in the following section where Kyubey talks about the
objectives of his group.
I hope you
don’t misunderstand, but it’s not like we hold any malice towards mankind. All
of this is done to extend the lifespan of the universe. Madoka do you know the
word “entropy”? To give you a simple example, the heat energy you gain by
burning wood in a campfire is unequal to the energy it takes to grow the tree
you’re burning. When you convert energy between forms there is a loss involved.
And so, the total amount of energy in the universe is diminishing. That’s why we
searched for a form of energy not bound by the laws of thermodynamics, and what
we discovered was the magical energy from magical girlsiv.
There
are some odd points in his explanation of energy, but that’s not a problem. As
we have just seen, the concept of an infinite, vast frightening universe gives
birth to the aesthetics of the sublime. What Kyubey emphasizes is the total
reverse of that; the wasteful use of energy leads to a withered, finite
universe, the shape of a universe confined by the law of entropic increase.
Cosmic
Conflict
Drama
is born from antagonism (conflict). Linda Seger[14]
has classified this by the scale of the conflict (Making a Good Script Great
3rd Edition. Silman-James Press 2010 p.190 see below[15]).
The biggest scale is the “Cosmic
Conflict.” In this type mankind opposes God or the universe. As an example I
would like to take a look at the episode “Shrinking” from Tezuka Osamu’s[16] Black
Jack[17].
Called
by his former teacher, Togakushi, Black Jack (hereafter BJ), proceeds to
Africa. There a strange disease that causing people and animals to shrink and
die is widespread. Togakushi, himself infected by the disease, requests that BJ
investigate a cure with him. BJ refuses but as Togakushi tells him “You already
have it. You touched the dead lion;” leaving him with no choice but to
cooperate. Eventually, BJ succeeds in making a serum, but is too late to save
Togakushi. As he breathes his last,
Togakushi tells him that this strange disease was a “warning from God;” that
the only way for the living things of the world to share its food is to shrink
their bodies. Taking the tiny corpse in both hands, BJ turns to the sky and
roars:
You, so-called God! You are cruel!! Doctors cure illnesses and save
lives! As a result there’s a population explosion… and a billion starve to
death in a food shortage! If this is your design… what are we doctors for?v
Tezuka was an author who frequently
took up the cosmic conflict, which can be said about his compilation Phoenix[18].
The logic of God or the world moves without regard for the opinions of man, and
all we can do is futilely vent our hatred and sadness; this is the prototypical
cosmic conflict.
This sense that “an inhuman order” is depicted in horror
is new. Whereas the height of affinity towards cosmic conflict in J-Horror is in
big-hit, entertaining works like Ringu, Ju-on: The Grudge and One
Missed Call[19]
that are starting to be produced; the production of complex experimental works
speculating on the relationship between man and the world are also contributing
to this. The films Charisma[20]
and Pulse (Kairo)[21],
directed by Kurosawa Kiyoshi, as well as the films Sodom the Killer[22]
and Kyōfu[23],
directed by Takahashi Hiroshi[24],
and so forth are like that. I don’t find it strange that Madoka☆Magica, which has
similar characteristics, continues to be a commercially successful,
thematically powerful work. If you think about it, Phoenix’s Tezuka
Osamu was also a writer that brought together entertainment and theme.
The Severance of Drama
The laws of the
world disregard man. This same unfeeling recognition is conveyed to the
audience. In J-Horror, it seems that to an extent this kind of scene frequently
depicts the unexpected severance of the drama by an “inhuman order.”
Once
again I will take up Ringu as an example. In the scene where Reiko discovers
Sadako’s remains at the bottom of the well, it seems to give an impression that
the film is going for a drama of “trauma and healing.” “Please…where are
you?...” as if in response to Reiko’s appeal the corpse appears. The mysterious
music flows; the figure of Reiko holding tight to the corpse. The setting of
Sadako shunned by people in life, and after death being shut up in the well, is
still effective here. The soul of the lonely Sadako is just now saved.
However, Takayama’s death tells us that that story is hopelessly
misguided. This technique of “severance
of the drama” was subsequently adopted by other J-Horror authors.
Shimizu Takashi’s The Grudge 2[25],
for example, describes the coming-of-age story of Aubree (Amber Tamblyn), who
lives in the shadow of her dazzling older sister Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar).
But in the end, she is released from the inferiority complex she held towards
her sister, and fighting Kayako, the ghost that killed her sister, she quickly
finds the tables turned and finds that she herself has turned into a ghost.
Shiraishi
Kōji’s Teke Teke 2 is the story of a female high school student, Nakajima
Reiko (Nakamura Miu), who borrows the power of the evil spirit Teke Teke, to
take revenge against the delinquent students who are antagonizing her. After
Reiko has annihilated the delinquent group, she herself becomes the victim of
Teke Teke to protect her best friend Mizutani Natsuki (Iwata Sayuri), who had
followed her because she was worried. Mizutani whispers “thank you” to Reiko’s
body. But, in the next instant, Reiko’s body turns into Teke Teke and kills her.
As
a matter of fact, this technique is inconspicuously introduced into Madoka☆Magica as well. However,
in pointing out that as a preliminary step various details must be explained.
For now, keeping that in mind will be sufficient.
Calling out to Friends
In
episode nine, Kyōko, in order to save Sayaka, who has become a witch, requests
the help of Sayaka’s best-friend, Madoka.
She
might have turned into a witch, but she might remember the voice of a friend.
If you call out to her, maybe she’ll regain her memories from when she was
human. The only one who can probably
reach her is you.
Thus,
the two of them head to the witch Octavia’s location, but fail. Madoka is
rescued by Homura and Kyōko dies; frankly this situation itself is a common
pattern that has been seen in several J-Horror works before. Often cited as a
forerunner of J-horror is the Scary True Stories[26]
series (1991-92) directed by Tsuruta Norio[27]
with the script by Konaka Chiaki[28].
Despite their production techniques—the indistinct figure of a person standing
in the distance, the odd movements of an approaching ghost—eschewing elements
of splatter films to generate terror, they were successively developed by Nakata
Hideo[29],
Takahashi Hiroshi, and Kurosawa Kiyoshi; becoming established as a genre of
J-Horror. Already in the Scary True Stories series, in the episode “My
Friend at the Stairwell,” we see that this “calling out to the dead” has been
depicted. The dead are depicted as leading a lonely existence, with those that
want to help having no other means than calling out to them, and ultimately
unable to do so, share’s many similarities with Madoka☆Magica.
This
pattern, as seen in Mihara Jun’s[30]
Hamidashikko[31]
(1975-1981), of calling out to someone who has closed off their heart because
of a sickness of the spirit, may be born from the application of this narrative
to horror. Later, in the TV Drama Gakkō no Kaidan: Haru no Mononoke Special[32] (2001),
Tsuruta Hideo, having further refined the same theme, would direct his
masterpiece “Something Possesses.”
You
can feel the strong influence of “My Friend at the Stairwell” here, but also in
the previously mentioned Pulse (Kairo). This film, on several points,
draws closer and closer to Madoka☆Magica. Let us try to summarize the content that
emphasizes our argument.
A
mysterious website appears online, displaying the message “would you like to
meet a ghost?” and the phenomenon of those who access the site being taught how
to create the “forbidden room.” The “forbidden room” is a room where every
crevice is covered up with red tape. When one enters this space, a ghost
appears. Those who meet a ghost are a shortly thereafter turned into black
stains on the wall (the figures of those turned into stains are revealed to
mutter “help me…help me…” This is a direct influence from “My Friend at the
Stairwell”). The only way to prevent this is to commit suicide before turning
into a stain. The cause of this phenomenon is the number of the dead from
prehistory exceeding the capacity of the spirit world. At the moment when the
dead seek an exit, the rule that “a room with every crevice covered with red
tape becomes a passage from the spirit world to the present world” comes into
existence from this slight impetus. Thus begins the invasion of the present
world by the dead, spreading out to the entire world.
With
this as the film’s setting, the alternating storylines of a university student,
Kawashima Ryōsuke (Karō Haruhiko), and an OL, Kudō Michi (Asō Kumiko). Ryōsuke
wants to protect the woman he loves, Karasawa Harue (Koyuki), but his naïveté
prevents him from understanding the constant feelings of isolation that torment
Harue. Eventually, she dumps Ryōsuke and leaves. Meanwhile, Michi loses her
workplace friends one after another. Towards the end of the film Ryōsuke,
wandering about the ruined world, encounters Michi. Hearing Haure’s story from
Ryōsuke, Michi suggests that they go help her together. After the two have
searched around they discover the bizarre condition of Harue, whose head is
completely covered by a trash bag at an abandoned factory. She had already
entered the “forbidden room” and, ignoring Ryōsuke’s pleas, shoots herself in
the head with the pistol in her hand. They both fall down. After that, Ryōsuke,
carrying gasoline from the factory, inadvertently enters the (likely made by
Harue) “forbidden room.” Noticing the
accident, Michi extricates Ryōsuke, who has already encountered the spirit
world. The film ends with Ryōsuke vanishing at Michi’s side.
In
this work the motif of “an inhuman order or rule,” that was vague in “My Friend
at the Stairwell” is clearly introduced. Once the “forbidden room” started to
move there was no stopping it; the hopes of mankind were swept away. What
finally isolated Kyōko and Sayaka were the heartless rules that control the
magical girls. One futher thing, after
considering its influence on Madoka☆Magica, Pulse (Kairo), strikes me as also having the setting of those who
are seized with despair become victims. In the “how to make a forbidden room”
instructions, that Harue has printed out from the ghost site, mixed into the
specific instructions of covering up crevices with tape and so forth, the
phrase “bring despair unto the world” is written.
This
may not be the fault of the fanbase, as there are few examples to point out,
but J-Horror has a strong influence on anime and manga, with a reciprocal
influential effect likely. For example, at the start of Neon Genesis
Evangelion[33]
cuts of Ikari Shinji having visions of Ayanami Rei, projected as standing in
place for just as moment throughout the city, resemble an often used direction
in J-Horror. Like Konaka Chiaki in the beginning, there are creators that are
active in extending into horror films and anime.
At
present, the horror productions cultivated by J-Horror have become too popular,
losing their former impact; the depiction of an indistinct figure of person
standing in the distance being put to use has also lessened, but as for Madoka☆Magica, that narrative structure doesn’t seem to have lost its force as of yet.
1.3
The Survival Conditions of Magical Girls— Madoka☆Magica as Horror
Survival Conditions—Sayaka
We can sense the strong influence
from the “inhuman order” depicted in J-Horror in Madoka☆Magica. However, the shape
of its distinctive characteristics is also allowed to progress.
For
the time being let us call the various settings related to magical girls—Soul
Gems, Grief Seeds, witches, and including all their preparations— as the
“Magical Girl System.” The Magical Girl System itself is the first time we
notice the “inhuman order” in Madoka☆Magica.
In the second half
of the story, however, the shadow of an enormous “inhuman order” rather than “Reason”
becomes pronounced. In the world of the story if you embrace hope in defiance
of “Reason” it will always be returned with despair. The Incubators utilize
this law to change magical girls—the symbol of hope—into witches—the symbol of
despair—extracting energy from this process. In other words, we can say that
the “Magical Girl System” is something that was established to parasitize “Reason.”
The relationship between these two “inhuman orders” has become somewhat complex,
but as this will be important later on, I would like you to comprehend this
ahead of time.
In
episode eleven there is a scene where Kyubey appears before Madoka, who is in a
daze from the deaths of Sayaka and Kyōko, and says “It was not entirely
unexpected. The signs were there for a while.”
In Ringu,
for example, there was the rule that if you watch Sadako’s video, you die;
however, if you dub the tape and show it to someone else within a week you will
be saved. Judging from Kyubey’s way of speaking here there seems to be similar
conditions separating life and death in Madoka☆Magica as well. If you
fall to despair you turn into a witch is definite, but there are various other
rules which are difficult to probe.
For example, in
episode seven when Kyōko says “if you wish for hope, an equal amount of despair
will be rained down upon you, too. That’s how everything stays in equilibrium…and
the world’s balance doesn’t get disturbed.” There were probably many viewers
who took this as a half-metaphorical argument. As matter of fact, later on,
from Kyubey’s own mouth, it is made clear that it is a rule of the grave world
of the story. This is how, in the case of Madoka☆Magica, if one is not
being attentive you could miss what the rules are.
Furthermore, and I
will explain this fully later, it seems as if the survival conditions differ
among the magical girls. I myself am
unable to clarify everything (particularly in regards to the survival condition
of Mami, where there are many points of uncertainty). Be that as it may, I
believe that we know considerably many things about Kyōko and Sayaka. Let us
begin here by first considering Sayaka’s death.
Sayaka, who
admired Mami, goes overboard in her pursuit of justice. Kyōko is the one who
continues to warn her.
Magic is only supposed to be used to grant
wishes for yourself. If you use it for
someone else, it always ends up going bad. Didn’t Tomoe Mami even teach you
that much?
Sayaka rejects
this but, just before she changes into a witch, she acknowledges that Kyōko was
right. This is a sad situation. This is because after meeting Sayaka, Kyōko
starts to recover her former kindness.
“Should magic be
used for someone else or not?” The
antagonism between Sayaka and Kyōko is entwined with the presentation of the
setting. Witches employ small monsters called familiars, but a familiar
sometimes differentiate from the main body and after a short while grow up to
be a witch itself. While familiars also kill people they do not possess Grief
Seeds. The two of them are in conflict over whether or not familiars should be
killed. Kyōko asserts that since, after a while, familiars turn into witches
and give birth to the valuable resources of Grief Seeds, that they should be
kept alive. However, from Sayaka’s perspective it is impossible to ignore these
familiars that commit murder.
This setting
subsequently leads to Sayaka’s witchification. To magical girls, fighting
familiars has the meaning of consuming magic power with no means of recovering
it. The experienced Mami is one thing, but for Sayaka, who has only just
changed into a magical girl, this is a dangerous deed even under normal
circumstances.
However, having
lost Kyōsuke, and her body being no longer that of a human, Sayaka, no longer
able to find any meaning to her own existence outside of being a hero, rejects
Homura and Kyōko, who won’t fight familiars, by proving at any cost that she
does not fight for the sake of Grief Seeds.
While in battle
with a witch Sayaka is saved by Kyōko and, not wanting to be indebted to her,
pushes the Grief Seed she obtained onto Kyōko. In the end, she kicks away the
Grief Seed that Homura, trying to stop Sayaka’s witchification, had offered
her, leading Homura to lose her self-control and attempting to kill her.
Kyōko, having
affection for Sayaka, is unable to take in the urgency of the situation because
she has no knowledge of witchification (had she known, she probably would not
have taken Sayaka’s Grief Seed, no matter how much it was forced on her).
Conversely, Homura, who does know the situation, simply does not want Sayaka’s
witchifiction to cause Madoka any sadness, not from any deep wish to save
Sayaka. This slippage of friendliness is clever, yet cruel. In this manner
Sayaka tumbles towards ruin.
At this stage has
“Reason” determined that the rule “don’t use magic for the sake of others” is a
condition of survival? Is this merely sense for surviving as a magical girl? It
is not clear. We can also see that Sayaka’s own abilities result in an
inadequate way of fighting that is only perverse and self-destructive.
When we think a
little more about the reason why one must not use magic for the sake of others,
however, how we see it begins to change. Kyōko herself asserts this basis- even
though hope is repaid with despair, it is not profitable to only take despair
onto oneself, she explains, but it is likely that this theory is only a
half-truth. According to the afterword of Fate/Zero
vol.1 the “Reason” of the universe flows in the direction of evil. If so,
then good deeds must defy “Reason.” In other words, are magical girls not
caught in a reversed fate of incurring punishment when they do good deeds? If
we consider this, then it appears likely that there is a strong possibility
that Sayaka’s fall was also caused by an effect of “Reason.”
In episode five
when Madoka succumbs to her sense of guilt over Sayaka becoming a magical girl
and protecting the city while she did not, Sayaka says the following to calm
her:
Which is to say, you don’t have to feel
guilty. This just means there’s no problem if you don’t want to become a
magical girl.
But, in episode
eight where she at last transforms into a witch, because of all the anguish
that has piled up in her, she can no longer contain her resentment towards
Madoka.
Then you fight them. I heard from Kyubey
that you have more natural talent than anyone. Without suffering the way I do,
you could finish off any witch easily. If you really want to do something for
me, you could experience what I’ve experienced first. You can’t, can you? Of
course not. You can’t give up being human just out of a little pity, can you?!
Sayaka knows, in her
heart, that her words were unfair, and she criticizes herself while running
away from Madoka. But, she will not be given the chance to apologize to Madoka
for that. For until her witchification, the two will not be able to meet again.
The Magical Girl System will not permit Sayaka to be a kind person. Her lines
explain the situation: “for as much happiness we wish on one person, we can’t
help but curse someone else. That’s how it works for us magical girls.”
Now, just as Kyōko
warned, because she used magic for the sake of other people, she ended up suffering
herself, but there was yet another stage; witchification.
Homura and Madoka
have the following conversation about Sayaka’s witchification:
Madoka: That can’t be… why…Sayaka just wanted to save people from the witches;
she wanted to become a hero. She became a magical girl wanting to do that… So
why?
Homua:
She just ended up bearing a curse as powerful as her wish. She will now live
cursing as many people as she had saved.
By the decree of
“Reason,” when a magical girl does good things, they bear in their hearts
resentment and curses to the same extent. Magical girls turn into witches in
the end, and because they spread those negative emotions, their goods deeds
from their time as magical girls are cancelled out. No matter how much they may
fight for the sake of justice, in the world of Madoka☆Magica, which has become an arrangement that can never be revised.
Survival Conditions—Kyōko
Sayaka’s
transgressed survival condition was primarily “don’t use magic for the sake of
others,” but what about Kyōko? Actually, she is a character for whom we are
given many hints about the survival conditions of magical girls. Let us first
confirm her past.
Her
father was a clergyman, but his desire to save people led him to preach things
too far outside the doctrine, and he was excommunicated. There was no one who
would listen to him. Kyōko, who loved her father, made a contract with Kyubey,
and wished that people would listen to her father. The church seemed to teem with believers. But
one day he realized that it was caused by magic and condemned Kyōko.
He called me, his own
daughter, a witch who tainted people’s hearts. Isn’t that hilarious? After I
had been out hunting real witches every night!
Despair
already afflicts her father and he commits a murder-suicide leaving Kyōko
alone. Kyōko suffers because “my wish destroyed my whole family. Because I went
and made a wish for someone else… without really knowing what he wanted, I
ended up bringing everyone misfortune.” While fighting witches she “thought my
dad and me—one from the front, and one from the shadows—were going to save this
world together.” Kyōko must feel that “like
an idiot, I thought of it as my role and threw myself into hunting witches”,
and from now on she swears to never use magic for the sake of someone else ever
again.
When
Kyōko’s wish was betrayed and she lost her family, she should have been tormented
by the “phase transition between hope and despair.” She herself knows there is
a rule that “if you wish for hope, an equal amount of despair will be rained
down upon you, too. That’s how
everything stays in equilibrium…and the world’s balance doesn’t get disturbed.” When Kyōko is fighiting Octavia there is also
a scene that relates that she has also experienced the same suffering as the
witch. “You’re mad aren’t you? You can’t forgive anyone for what’s happened. I
know. Once you feel better, come back to us, okay?” If this is so, then why did
she not undergo witchification?
Perhaps
Kyōko, by discarding hope, was able to protect herself from the despair that
was returned. As we have already seen, one of the themes of Madoka☆Magica is that for as much hope as one holds, when that hope is betrayed the
despair becomes that much deeper. We can say that Kyōko personifies that
existence.
This character of “having no hope”
is represented in Kyōko’s actions and speech. First of all, in contrast to
Sayaka, lets us look back at her lines when she claims that familiars should be
left alone.
Ever heard of the food chain? They taught you about it in school,
right? Witches eat weak humans, and in turn we eat those witches. It’s the
basic rule of this world. The weak have to give way to the strong.
It has already been stated that in Madoka☆Magica hope defies “Reason.” If we turn this around, then those who discard
hope are in accord with “Reason.” As we guessed, it is declaring that here
Kyōko is following the “Reason” of the Magical Girl System. Of course, as
already stated, her actions of not using magic for the sake of others are in
accord with “Reason.”
In contrast to her rough appearance
and speech, Kyōko’s actions are always deliberate. Her obsession with
information shows this well. When she sets her sights on Mitakihara, before
commencing battle she observes Sayaka’s situation from a distance, and she does
not fight Homura, because she doesn’t know the true nature of her abilities. We
also see this when Homura tells her where “Walpurgisnacht” will appear, and she
questions the source of the information. “Lokk, I’m not saying we should trust
each other or anything, but can’t you show me your hand just a little bit more?” When she stops Homura from killing Sayaka and
notices the limits of Homura’s time stop ability her interest shows. Kyōko is
the type that avoids reckless behavior by not shirking her previous information
gathering. This characteristic agrees with her having no hope.
Furthermore, according to Urobuchi
Gen, it seems there was a hidden setting, in which Kyōko, due to the shock of
losing her family, can no longer use the dazzling magic power she originally
had (Megami Magazine, July 2011 issue). Does this setting not also
display discarding hope is the source of her magic power?
If we consider these points, it
appears that perhaps Kyōko’s survival conditions were “having no hope is in
accord with ’Reason’.” However, after
Sayaka’s witchification, these conditions are destroyed one by one.
When a Soul Gem has completely
clouded over it shatters; turning into a Grief Seed and giving birth to a
witch. Since Soul Gems are, in the end, the true forms of magical girls, at
that time all that remains are the bodies they had as humans. Although I say
that, without a Soul Gem their bodies are no different from corpses. When Kyōko
and Homura escape together from the labyrinth of Sayaka, who has become a
witch, she carries out Sayaka’s remains. When Homura, in an indifferent tone,
tells the wailing Madoka about the fate of witchification, Kyōko grabs Homura’s
collar and, in a voice filled with rage, says:
Who the hell do you think you are? Are you trying to brag about how
much you know?
This line shows that Kyōko’s
kindness has returned, but it also has a further separate meaning. Here at
last, Kyōko casts off her former cautiousness and obsession with information. The
figure of Kyōko angered by Homura’s coldness is simultaneously touching and
ominous. Actually, the following day Kyōko attempts the hopeless experiment of
saving Sayaka. Continuing from the previous scene, Kyōko carries Sayaka’s
remains to the hotel she is staying at and uses magic to prevent their decay.
She intends to keep Sayaka’s body ready for when they recover her Soul Gem. “Why
are you going so far to keep the corpse fresh?” From Kyubey’s manner of
speaking it seems as if this act itself requires magic power. Kyōko, who made
obtaining Grief Seeds her main priority, is expending magic power for Sayaka’s
sake. This scene has several meanings. It represents the strength of the
feelings that Kyōko has for Sayaka, as well as showing that she has discarded
her belief that magic not be used for the sake of others, and that she has at
last started to defy “Reason.”
Kyōko sounds out Kyubey about the
means of saving Sayaka. He knows of no methods for doing so, but at the same
time says that “magical girls defy established logic. I wouldn’t be surprised
by any absurd things you accomplish.” Kyubey’s line here suggests the
possibility of success, but if we consider this very carefully, we can say that
this too is ominous; because it has the meaning of “the act of saving Sayaka
goes against ‘Reason’.” Requesting Madoka’s help in saving Sayaka Kyōko says
the following:
You might think I’m stupid, but I don’t want to give up until we know
for sure that she can’t be saved.
In Madoka☆Magica, “not giving up”
is also an evil omen. Because those who do not give up have embraced hope. As
previously stated, in Madoka’s dream in episode one Kyubey says “if she
[Homura] gives up it’s all over” and proceeds to form a contract with Madoka.
From this temptation Madoka becomes a magical girl, and a greater witch than
Walpurgis. In episode four Sayaka, in an effort to calm the crying and shouting
Kyōsuke, says “it’s going to be okay. I’m sure someday, somehow… just don’t
give up and I’m sure someday—” Immediately following that she contracts with
Kyubey.
Furthermore, when Madoka asks “do
you think it will work?” Kyōko replies:
No idea. (Smiling) I’m saying we do it because we don’t know. If we cut
that witch in two, maybe Sayaka’s Soul Gem will just kind of fall out instead
of a Grief Seed. Stories where love and courage win out in the end always turn
out like that, you know?
Here, Kyōko has completely regained
her hope. Those hopeless days must have been painful for Kyōko, but now she has
a sunny expression.
However, the consequences were
cruel. Kyōko’s hope is smashed into tiny bits. There is a production that
vividly shows this. In the witch’s labyrinth there is a blue silhouette of
Sayaka and a red silhouette of Kyōko floating. As Kyōko’s shadow goes to
embrace her opponent, Sayaka’s shadow collapses. Until now the shadows
represented the scene in Kyōko’s mind, but this is wound into a vortex, and
changes into blood trickling down from the real her.
I beg you God, My life sucked. Let me have a happy dream just once…
The realism that she had locked away
in a cage was her bulwark. When she threw that away “in a dream” she was
destroyed as if it were a matter of course.
The road until Kyōko’s death comes
is already filled with omens. Kyōko’s behavior at this time is not like her
usual self. We can even say that it is too unalert. Still, I would like to touch on her rather tragic situation.
In Homura’s case, for example, because her wish was “to become the one who
protects her (Madoka),” so long as her actions are for the sake of saving
Madoka, they are protected by the contract, and end up not conflicting with the
survival conditions. However, there is no such relationship between Kyōko and
Sayaka. When she desires to save Sayaka there is nothing Kyōko can do but to
ignore the survival conditions and proceed towards her death.
As I explained in the previous
chapter, in Pulse(Kairo) there existed a rule that “when you despair you are
possessed by a ghost.” At a glance the rules of Madoka☆Magica are similar, but
there is no escape. In Pulse (Kairo),
Michi, who did not discard hope to the end, survives. However, in Madoka☆Magica Kyōko, who obtains hope, simply dies. The
Magical Girl System forces people to abandon hope.
Survival Conditions—Mami
There are many
points that unclear about the survival conditions for Mami, but for the time
being I would like to simply touch on them. In episode three she dies, defeated
by the witch Charlotte. Could there be some sort of “rule” here? What comes to
mind are Homura’s words:
Unchecked kindness grows into naïveté, and
brash courage often leads one to be caught off guard. Further, no matter how
hard you try, there is no thanks or recompense. Those who cannot comprehend
this are not fit to be magical girls. That is why Tomoe Mami lost her life.
Is
Homura simply saying that her resolution as a warrior was not sufficient? Is
she telling about some kind of rule? I couldn’t come to any conclusions, but I
get the impression that she died as a result of somehow losing her
self-control. Mami teaches Madoka and Sayaka, who are wavering over whether
they should make a contract, about what sort of a life a magical girl has. However, even though deep down she wants
companions, she must not deceive her juniors; and while she restrains Kyubey,
who wants to make them form a contract, she herself decides to guide them
impartially (nonetheless, she is criticized by Homura, who says “you’re trying
to lead them [Madoka and Sayaka] so that they want to be magical girls.”).
However, she drops her guard because Madoka has decided to become a magical
girl. Opening up to Madoka about her own painful feelings of loneliness, she
then proceeds to innocently frolic into combat, and then she is devoured by the
witch.
Yet,
in episode ten, as shown in Homura’s time loop, Mami has formed a tag-team with
Madoka in another time line. It appears that since Mami will not be able to
survive the visitation of “Walpurgisnacht,” she has been fighting together with
Madoka for at best a month, but the Mami of this time line may not be
exceptionally lucky.
Additionally,
there is the mystery as to why Mami was able to carry on for so long as a hero,
even though Sayaka and Kyōko were
destroyed by fighting for the sake of others. This is also unanswerable, but I
wonder if there is perhaps a connection between her forming a contract for her
own sake (she was on the verge of death from a traffic accident and formed a
contract with Kyubey to avoid death), as opposed to the rest of the girls who
all made contracts for the sake of someone else? If good deeds defy “Reason,”
then in her case, where her first wish was not a good deed, then the extent
that it defies Reason is lower than that of the other magical girls, and the
timing of the “phase transition between hope and despair” may not happen as
quickly. At the present this is my best guess.
Because the setting of the survival
conditions is extremely important for understanding Madoka☆Magica, I will take this
opportunity to touch on them.
The Magical Girl System and “Reason”
Kyubey
talks as if all these rules that torment the magical girls are actions of the
“Reason” of the universe, and that his kind takes no responsibility for them.
According to them, any hope that is not suitable to “Reason” gives birth to
disaster as a matter of course.
If you consider that a betrayal, then
making wishes is a mistake to begin with.
But
there is a part of what they say that is savage and terrible. For example,
after Kyōko’s death Homura and Kyubey
exchange the following dialogue:
Homura: Did Sakura Kyōko ever have a chance to save Miki Sayaka?
Kyubey: Of course not. That’s impossible.
Homura: Then why didn’t you stop her?
Kyubey: Of course, I would have stopped a pointless
sacrifice. But in this specific case, there was a good reason for us to lose
her. Now you’re the only one left who can face the Walpurgisnacht. And
undoubtedly, there is no way you can win alone. In order to protect this city,
Madoka has no choice but to become a magical girl.
Homura had teamed up with Kyōko in
order to repel “Walpurgisnacht” without letting Madoka form a contract. Kyubey
says that he allowed Kyōko to return to Octavia’s location in order to defeat
that plan. Thereupon, Kyubey, despite he himself spurring on Kyōko, says about
her death that “it was not entirely unexpected. The signs were there
for a while,” talking as if everything
was inevitable.
In Sayaka’s case as well we discover
these points of uncertainty. One of the causes of her ruin was that she
continued to fight familiars. However,
if you fight familiars without obtaining a Grief Seed it becomes easy to exhaust
magic power; in this manner are the Incubators not the ones who created the
Magical Girl System?
I would like to consider this point
a little more minutely. Grief Seeds absorb the impurities (despair) of Soul
Gems, but they cannot be used more than a few times. Kyubey collects the
exhausted Grief Seeds. It seems that the Incubators are also somehow able to
acquire the energy of despair by this Grief Seed collecting and not only from
the time of witchification. Theoretically speaking, if magical girls are simply
left alone, then someday they should be assailed by the “phase transition between
hope and despair” and turn into witches.
However, 1 if magical girls are somehow induced to fight witches, then the
exhaustion of their magic power (the accumulation of despair) can be
accelerated. 2 If there is a system to collect the impurities (despair) from Soul
Gems, then in the period until witchification many times more energy can be
acquired. The Incubators allow witches to hold Grief Seeds, and let the magical
girls aim for them. 1and2 solve this all at once.
However, at this point one problem
arises. Just as Kyōko’s example of the food chain explained, witches are, on
average, weaker than magical girls. Therefore, if the process of witches being
born from magical girls is not commenced, then the witches would soon all be
killed off. We can surmise that this is reason that the Incubators have the
witches reproduce by the detaching of familiars and hatching from Grief Seeds.
At this time, having familiars that
are witch larvae being targeted by magical girls is inconvenient because it
becomes a hindrance to reproduction. Is it for that reason that the Incubators
do not allow them to hold Grief Seeds, and construct an environment where it is
difficult to fight familiars? If that is the case, then here it becomes what
Lawrence Lessig[34]
calls regulation carried out by architecture[35]. Regulation by architecture is an indirect
method of regulation. When there is some act that you do not want to let people
do, you design the surrounding environment so as to make it difficult to do
that act.
Robert Moses built bridges on Long Island to block buses, so that
African Americans, who depended primarily on public transportation, could not
easily get to public beaches. That was regulation through architecture,
invidious yet familiar. (Code and other laws of cyberspace[36]. Basic Books
p.92)
Even without creating directly
racist laws, the same objective can be accomplished, to an extent, by the
layout of the environment. What the Incubators are doing is the same as this.
Namely, they have constructed an environment where it is difficult for magical
girls to fight familiars. If we go by what Kyubey himself says, this method
seemed to be rather effective.
It’s true, magical girls like Mami are rare. It’s natural for people to
want to be rewarded for their work. Most do approach witch-hunting with their
own benefit in mind.
Of course, isn’t it only natural
that since Grief Seeds are also witches eggs that familiars, which have not
progressed beyond the larval stage, would not have them? It seems this claim is
possible. I would like to answer this
objection as follows. To begin with, there is no necessity for witches’ eggs to
be an item that purifies Soul Gems. Rather, was it not because the Incubators
chose the eggs as purification items in order to prevent the magical girls from
hunting the familiars? Since the Magical Girl System is so excessively
convenient for the Incubators, I cannot believe that it does not completely
reflect their will.
So, why do they rely on regulation
by architecture and other circuitous means? This is also not outside the limits
of speculation, but there seems to be a hint in episode three. We can discover
it in Kyubey’s lines to Madoka, who is wavering over whether or not she should
make a contract.
… and considering my position, I can’t rush you into deciding either.
Suggesting wishes would also be against the rules.
Who decided on these “rules?” Since
all Incubators are animals that are all the same with no individuality, perhaps
they also have no social classes. Still, according to what he says later on
there seems to be many other civilizations that exist in the universe.
If we assume that there is some kind
of cosmic civilization alliance, might they not have established rules for
contact with primitive civilizations? Also, because “Suggesting wishes would
also be against the rules,” it is probably even more forbidden to directly
manipulate the behavior of mankind. We can consider the architecture of the
Magical Girl System to be an indirect form of behavioral control.
If we consider from all these points then the Incubators
are certainly acquainted with “Reason,” but they are not its perfect
mouthpieces. Due to their selfish use of “Reason” while establishing the
Magical Girl System, and claiming the entire system to be unassailable reason,
there is a strong possibility that it is a mask that is somewhat warped.
i
Translator’s note: All Japanese names
follow the Japanese convention of family name followed by first name. For
consistency, when dialogue is quoted from the anime Japanese names that are
shown in the Western convention have been changed back to the Japanese
convention.
[1]
W.W. Jacobs (1863-1943). Writer. Representative works include Many Cargoes
(1896), The Monkey’s Paw (1902) and The Lady of the Barge (1902).
[2] Song
of Saya (2003). Script: Urobuchi Gen. Voice Actors: Hikaru, Kawamura Midori
[3]
Cthulhu Mythos. A fictional mythological system based on the fictional world
written about by Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
[4]
Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937). Novelist and Poet. Representative works
include The Shadow Over Innsmouth
and The Call of Cthulhu
[5] Ringu
Director: Nakata Hideo. Script: Takahashi Hiroshi. Starring: Matsushima Nanako
and Sanada Hiroyuki.
ii All of the film titles that appear here have
been translated using the same name as the North American release, when it
exists. As an example, there are several alternate names for the Ringu series when discussing it in
English. The titles of the novels are translated as Ring and Spiral, the
original Japanese films are referred to as Ringu
and Rasen, and the American
remake is called The Ring (Rasen was not commercially released in
North America). The English version of the manga, which is based on Ringu, is also called The Ring.
[6] Rasen
(1998) Director: Iida Jōji Script: Iida Jōji and Suzuki Kōji Starring: Nakatani Miki
(DVD Pony Canyon)
[7]
Suzuki Kōji
(1954~) Writer and Essayist. Notable Works: Paradise, Ring, Spiral and
numerous others. Winner of the 1995 Yoshikawa Eiji Newcomer’s Award.
[8] Ringu
2 (1999) Director: Nakata Hideo Script: Takahashi Hiroshi Starring:
Nakatani Miki, Sanada Hiroyuki (DVD Pony Canyon.
iii Dialogue
taken from the subtitles used in the North American DVD release of Ringu.
[9]
Furuya Toshihiro (1967~) Artist and Critic. Notable Works: The Brain Oozing Out
into the World—The Logic of Sensation and the Dream’s Image (sekai he to
shimidasu nō kankaku no ronri, imeeji no miru yume)(Seidosha), The Person
Who One Day Suddenly Became a Novelist (hito ha aru hi shōsetsuka ni naru) (Seidosha).
[My translations of the titles. They have not been previously translated to my
knowledge.]
[10]
Shimizu Takashi (1972~) Film Director. Notable Works: Jū-on:
The Grudge, The Grudge 2, Reincarnation and many others.
[11]
Kurosawa Kiyoshi (1955~) Film Director and Screenwriter. Notable Works: Cure,
Pulse (Kairo) (Pulse) (Dai-ei Films), Bright Future and many others.
Winner of the 54th annual
Cannes International Film Festival International Federation of Film Critics
Award.
[12]
Marjorie Hope Nicholson (1894-1981). Writer. Major Works: The Breaking
of the Circle: Studies in the Effect of the New Science upon Seventeenth
Century Poetry (Northwestern University Press, 1950), Mountain Gloom
and Mountain Glory: The Development of the Aesthetics of the Infinite (Cornell University
Press, 1959), Science and Imagination (Cornell University Press, 1962).
[13]
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). Physicist, Astronomer, and Philosopher. Major
Works: Siderius Nuncius, or the Sidereal Messenger (University of
Chicago Press, 1989), Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
(University of California Press, 2nd Revised Edition, 1962), and Mechanics.
iv All
dialogue quoted from the series follows the subtitles used in the official
North American release by Aniplex when possible. Because the DVD containing ep.
9-12 will not be released until June 2012, the yesy Subs version is used for
quotes from episode 9, like the quote above, and the gg Subs version is used
for quotes from ep. 10-12.
[14]
Linda Seger. Screenwriter. Making a Good Script Great 3rd Edition
(Silman-Jones Press, 2010)
[15] Making
a Good Script Great 3rd Edition (2010) is an instruction manual
for sketching good scenarios. Using films from the past as examples, it
explains the structure of screenplays.
[16]
Tezuka Osamu (1928-1989). Manga artist, Animator and Medical Doctor. Notable
Works: Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, Phoenix and numerous
others.
[17] Black
Jack (Serialized from 1973-78 and from 1979-83). One of Tezuka Osamu’s
works. Tagged as a monumental work of medical manga.
v Quotation
taken from the 2009 Vertical Press Release of Black Jack vol. 3
[18] Phoenix
(1954~incomplete). A work that
Tezuka Osamu worked on from his first days as a manga artist through his
twilight years. This work has influenced many other manga artists. Remains
unfinished.
[19] One
Missed Call (2004). Director: Miike Takashi Script: Daira Minako Starring:
Shibasaki Kō,
Tsusumi Shin’ichi (DVD Bappu).
[20] Charisma
(1999) Written and Directed by Kurosawa Kiyoshi. Starring: Yakusho Kōji
and Ikeuchi Hiroyuki
[21] Pulse
(Kairo) (2001). Written and Directed by Kurosawa Kiyoshi. Starring:
Haruhiko Katō
and Asō
Kumiko. (DVD Kadokawa Entertainment)
[22] Sodom
the Killer (2004). Written and Directed by Takahashi Hiroshi. Starring:
Urai Takashi and Komine Rena
[23] Kyōfu
(2010). Written and Directed by Takashi
Hiroshi. Starring: Fujii Mina, Nakamura Yuri and Katahira Nagisa. (DVD Geneon
Universal)
[24]
Takahashi Hiroshi (1959~). Film Director and Screenwriter. Notable Works: The Night has a Thousand
Eyes, Sodom the Killer and Kyōfu.
[25] The
Grudge 2 (2006). Director: Shimizu Takashi Script: Stephen Susco Starring:
Amber Tamblyn and Ariel Kebbel. (DVD Avex Entertainment)
[26] Scary
True Stories (1991-92). Director: Tsuruta Norio Script: Konaka Chiaki. Called
by some the origin of J-Horror.
[27]
Tsuruta Norio (1960~). Film Director and
Screenwriter. Notable Works: Scary True Stories, Kakashi, Premonition
and many others.
[28]
Konaka Chiaki (1961~). Screenwriter and Novelist. Author of Ultraman Tiga,
Digimon Tamers, Shin’en wo Aruku Mono
(Those Who Walk the Abyss) [My translation] (Tokuma Dyuaru Bunko) and numerous
others.
[29]
Nakata Hideo (1961~). Film Director.
Notable Works: Don’t Look Up (DVD Bandai Visual), Dark Water
(DVD Tōhō)
and many others.
[30]
Mihara Jun (1952-1995). Manga artist. Notable Works: Hamidashikko Series
(Hakusensha), Bokura no Omiai (Shūeisha), Lou to Solomon
(Hakusensha), and many others.
[31] Hamidashikko
(1975-1981). A manga by Mihara Jun. As a collection of short stories it has also
been called The Hamidashikko Series
[32] Gakkō no Kaidan:
Haru no Mononoke Special[32] (2001).
Production and Script: Yaguchi Shinobu Starring: Fukatsu Eri and Shigeyama
Ippei. (DVD Dai-ei)
[33] Neon
Genesis Evangelion (1995~). Original Work: GAINAX Director: Anno Hideaki
Voice Actors: Ogata Megumi, Hayashibara Megumi and Miyamura Yūko.
[34]
Lawrence Lessig (1961~). Director of the
Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics. Author of Code and other laws of
cyberspace (Basic Books)
[35]
Architecture— in regards to Architecture as an academic discipline, this refers
to design techniques or the altering of architectural styles; at present it
refers to the basic design and layout ideology of hardware, OSes, networks,
etc.
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