Aria the Natural and other anime flavours

Aria still stands out as something of an anomoly in the industry. I’m currently plunging my way happily through the second season, Aria the Natural, and twenty-odd eps in and only a handful from the end, and it still doesn’t have any unifying story.
I love it.
Every episode is engaging, the characters multi-faceted, and the themes always heart-warming. Aria revolves around the city of Neo-Venezia (New Venice, on another planet) and that it has been built on miracles. The characters of the anime experience either these past miracles, new miracles in the present, or their own personal miracles as such. It is about as charming as an anime can be, and not at all shallow.

Nevertheless, it’s coming to that time of the year again when I have two series’ calling out to me. The first is ABe’s ever-wonderful Haibane Renmei, the second is ABe and Ueda’s brilliant Texhnolyze. Both are series’ that do well to be viewed alone, however Haibane lends itself to be viewed with at least one other, if not a signifficant other, given its warmth and intimacy. While I am lacking in the signifficant part of the equation, there are a few others with which I wouldn’t mind sharing it. Seeds have been sown, we shall see what grows in the coming months.

As for Texhnolyze… like ABe and Ueda’s first gem, Serial Experiments: Lain, it takes a certain flavour, a certain abstract tilt to appreciate and experience fully what is on offer. On the surface, some see ultra-violence and dull quietness, a little beneath and people see some kind of political intrugue. For those of us who speak the language of the creators, there is a whole lot more. I remember watching Lain and Texhnolyze for the first time and thinking to myself ‘Oh my god – I can’t believe it, someone who finally speaks my language’, and it will come as no surprise that I felt the exact same thing upon experiencing Oshii’s deeper (and later) works.

While Texhnolyze doesn’t really share many themes with the films of David Lynch (… or does it?), the way in which the works are received is similar. There are those who straight-out won’t get it, those who partially get it, those who try and get it, looking up forums, spoilers etc. to explain it, and those to whom it simply speaks directly without any barrier of perception. Yes, I do indeed feel some small element of elitist pride in being a speaker of the ABe/Ueda abstract language, but when all is said and done, Texhnolyze, much like Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, is not about its clever devices – it is about some of the things closest to our spiritual and emotional beings.

I hope that has been sufficiently enigmatic to make you curious enough to watch Texhnolyze. Make no mistake, for most, it is a test. You’ll want to watch it in a darkened room away from distractions, and in as short a time as possible – three to four nights at most.

I’ve spent a little bit of time poking around the new releases of anime, and while NANA and Nodame Cantabile are finishing up now making them fully available, there hasn’t really been anything out there to match the brilliance of ABe and Ueda – no, I’m not a fan of Satoshi Kon, yes, I know I should give Ergo Proxy a try but the first episode didn’t impress me at all but I’ll give it another thrash one of these days.

But it’ll have to be after I watch Texhnolyze again. For that, I will need to take a very deep breath…