Entry 054: "The Lost World"

Dear Internet,

                I have good news and bad news.  The good news is that I can get to you another review for today.  The bad news is that my network adapter decided to die for my desktop and I have to play mailman with my laptop to get the review to you.  But none of that matters to you.  You can still get a hold of me, even though you have not written back to me but that is neither here nor there.

                I have been meaning to read "The Lost World" for some time now, like so many other things.  It has become a classic since it was written 101 years ago, which might mean that I am repeating many things that have already been said.  All things considering since this is an experiment in examining works that have been out for some time, nearly everything that I am writing about has most likely been talked about to death.  Never the less, Doyle's prehistoric world made historical is new to me at least.  

                The books premise is very simple and has been covered numerous times in a variety of mediums.  A reporter learns of a zoological professor's clam that he had found a plateau hidden deep within the depths of the Amazon forest.  On this plateau are prehistoric creatures that would shake the very foundation of evolutionary science.  The reporter, Malone, also learns that the professor, Challenger, is going to present his findings to the university despite being called a crook and a fraud.  Later, at a talk that night being given by the professors to the students, Challenger, well, challenges the institute to disprove his claims by sending a party back to where he said the plateau was.  Enter Professor Summerlee and Lord John Roxton who accompany Malone and Challenger to rediscover the plateau and find the various flora and fauna waiting to be cataloged.  

                After that, the novel takes the reader on a journey that thoroughly captures the imagination.  From bug filled rainforests to vengeful natives, the novel is constantly throwing curveballs.  When the group finally reaches the top of the plateau, it is expected that the group gets trapped up there.  It would be bad writing if the ante was not raised.  The novel does not make it a raw coincidence and rarely allows for plain good luck for the travelers.  I will not saw what causes them to be stuck there, but I will say that I am glad they are.  The most important factor of this novel is just how fun it is.  Dinosaurs have always been wonders to children and adult alike.  Even throughout the ages they have awakened a sense of awe as inspirations for tales of dragons and winged beats of old.  "The Lost World" treats these creatures with the same fantastical curiosity without needing to treat its audience like children.  A forty foot brute can just as easily kill our cast through negligence as the cuspidal inclined monstrosities.  

                The science of the story is somewhat sound or at least the rule that it creates for itself never breaks.  The idea that clusters of organisms separated from the gene pool and environments of the rest of the populace will continue to stay stagnant in their evolutionary growth if the conditions of their separated biosphere are constant and unchanging for as long as the stasis continues is something that is taught in high schools and colleges to this day.  I might have butchered a few terms just now, but what I am trying to get at is that the science presented to the reader is not only made easily understandable but also makes sense.  You might recall my review about "The Island of Dr. Moreau" which had such an unsound science to back it up that it pushed the barrier of the one "go with it" exception.  "Lost World" takes its one exception and goes to such an extreme.  To think that millions of years of stagnation would not at least make some sort of biological anomalies can be argued and argued well.  Surely the chance that random mutations would create some difference in genome after some time would increase no matter how stagnant the environment is.  Doing so within the confines of the novel would break its one rule.  The plateau is the place time forgot.  Everything going there enters in upon a world outside the hourglass.  There are a few creatures scattered here and there that bend this rule a little, but even cavemen need boogiemen.

                On a somewhat side note, I am happy that I did not review this book in parts, although due to its length and my speed of reading that might be improbable.  I say this mainly because of the entire reason Malone decides to investigate Challenger and journey with him to the plateau.  He does it for the love of a woman.  Now, it is not my place to say that the love for a woman is not something that needs to be proven or her interest should be won though deeds.  In fact I take the opposite road.  More romance stories need to include the hero actually doing something to prove their love for the heroine or in the very least showing that he cares for her honor.  That is what makes "The Quiet Man" such a good romance film.  Thornton acknowledges his lack of understanding the customs of the country he enters but chooses to uphold the honor and respect of his wife by confronting her brother.  The romance in "Lost World," admittedly is only there to spark the beginning of the plot as far as Malone is concerned.  It felt so nauseatingly over the top and heavy handed that it made me sick.  Not to mention that the way that the female has such unsound reason to ask Malone to go off on a wild goose chase felt so very silly.  The ending of the book was able to resolve my feelings about the romance sub-subplot that it even went on to prove why it was written as such.

                "The Lost World" might come across as fantastical drivel to some readers.  It takes a very simple scientific concept and goes as far as it can with it.  There is not much talk about the condition of man or his place in the universe, which would classify it as leaning towards philosophical thought.  The only case might be the nature of the war that occurs late in the book, and it does an excellent job of portraying the reasons that man fights nature.  I do think that the novel is wonderfully written.  It is able to make me feel like a young boy looking through a picture book filled with ancient beasts or hearing for the first time about the knight that slew the dragon.  For that it is worth the recognition that I can give it.

                I hoped you like my bonus review, Internet.  I did not feel that a short album review would be enough to post for a normal Backlog day, so I made sure to finish up this book just for you.  I hope you appreciate it.  Not that you ever tell me you do.

Yours in digital,

BeepBoop

P.S. Next is the film "Tekkonkinkreet."

Entry 053: "Lineage" by Shigeto

Dear Internet,

                "Lineage" is one of those music albums that I cannot quite place my finger on.  I had gotten it at the request of a friend a year or so back.  It is only now that I am able to actually listen to it.  He was a unique kind of guy that would ask me to try and find info about some of the most underground or unknown musicians.  I would find for him everything from German dubstep to a French electronic style that I would have to call "bubblegum techno."  I have since lost contact with him, but listening to "Lineage" makes me think fondly of his eccentric tastes, which have rubbed off a bit on me I will admit.

                Zachary "Shigeto" Saginaw is a Brooklyn, NY, based artist, and you are probably not going to find much more information than that.  Searching for his name is not going to get about three interviews and less than that artist bios which seem to repeat a lot of information.  "Lineage" is meant to be homage to the man's Japanese ancestry, something that was often played down in his family post WWII.  Hidden within the eight tracks are little nuances that stem from East Asian music styles.  A number of times I thought I was listening to a mellowed out version of Japanese house music. 

                That might very well sum up "Lineage."  It is an album rich in mellowed out electricity.  The songs have no lyrics or even include voice samples, so it does reach into a level of non-verbal communication.  Instead, Shigeto makes use of everything from standard drum beating to cymbal snares to clapping.  Mixed in are a few electronic sounds that could be anything from synthesizers to Theremins.  When the electronic and percussion halves come together, it creates a laid back style that is easy on the ears.  In a way this works for the album but also leaves a lot to be desired.  What happens is that the album can be easily digested as background music.  It is not something meant to be listened to as itself and by itself.  It works well as something to work to or listen to as you read.  I am even listening to it for about the third time as I type this.  But like I said, this works against it.

                As I listened to the album, I realized that there is next to no way for me to distinguish between the various tracks.  Each one does have a clear cut beginning and ending, but you would be hard pressed to notice when a different track is playing if you are busy doing something else.  One track can so seamlessly flow into the next one that the whole album is just one long song with different movements.  I am hard pressed to single out a single track as the highlight of the album.  The album has to be taken as a whole instead of having a breakout song.

                "Lineage" is a fun listen that does nothing all that interesting and plays it safe.  The half hour you spend listening to it will move past you quickly, but not because you are having so much fun but because you decided to go do something else while listening to it.  In fact, that was probably the whole purpose of this collection of songs.  It is meant to be playing in the background while something more interesting is going on. 

Yours in digital,

BeepBoop

Entry 052: "Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki" Ep. 14-20 End

Dear Internet,

                Are you doing well?  I am not, so I will have to keep this brief.

                I split watching "Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki" between yesterday and today for two reasons.  The first is the very obvious reason that it took about ten hours to watch everything.  The other more important reason is that the last seven episodes were made eight years after the previous batch.  This gap of time creates a few differences.  The most notable is the different visual style.  While both sets of animation draw inspiration from the same source material, the minute differences stand out.  The differences are especially apparent in episode 14 which uses a number of flashbacks.  Each flashback is footage taken from earlier episodes rather than creating new material.  While I understand that there is a need to refresh the memory of the viewers, the fact that they decided to recycle footage worked against them.  It is not a big problem, but since even the process of making animation had changed so much since then, the change in style becomes an itch brought to the foreground very early.

                Style is a big thing when it comes to "Tenchi."  Whenever the setting is taken away from the farm or house and brought above the stratosphere, there is a grandeur that naturally comes with space operas.  Space operas deal with the romanticism of exploration and the vastness of the universe.  You could probably trace it directly to the same romanticism that makes sweeping narratives of conquistadors and sailors who brought back tales of adventure to a new world.  "Tenchi" is a space opera no matter how you look at it.  The only difference is that it tries its hardest not to be.  Whenever "Tenchi" moves to space, mentions space, or deals in any way with space, the viewer is treated with space fleets cruising through star studded black velvet which explode in deathly blooms of red.  Giant trees take root on a planet half its size.  Whales the size of battleships swim through an ocean in the vacuum of interstellar space.  There is a beauty to each scene that occurs in space.  However, "Tenchi," like I said, does not want to be a space opera, despite being one.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of spacecraft next to a ring shaped world.

                Numerous characters are introduced.  You can look up "Tenchi Muyo family tree" and pick some of the first links.  You will find a collection of relationships that rival the complexity of the average South Korean weekday drama.  A close inspection makes the "Tenchi" family tree start to seem like some sort of redneck family convention the way it keeps linking back on itself.  There are family members whose lineage dates back hundreds of years and is not even a generation skip.  The point of all of this is to maximize the amount of characters that one show can possibly obtain.  Is there a point in having all of them be related somehow?  The show could easily have had all the characters meet through unconnected circumstances.  At first the show comes across as such, but as time continues, characters start making direct connections with each other.  There are numerous "You mean you are my ___" throughout that would make a soap opera have a go for its money.  After a while it begins to look like the family lineage of certain feudal European kingdoms with siblings and cousins marrying nearby to keep the political power from escaping.  One would think that having an entire universe of people would allow more disconnected individuals to come together, but "Tenchi" wants to illustrate how small the universe can be.  

                The show makes an entire universe of connections fit within a single house.  However, this is somewhat impossible considering that the source of all conflict in the show comes from without rather than within.  All the show's problems stem from space.  All the enemies, evil doers, and mistakenly intended come down to Earth to destroy the various characters or in the least wreak havoc.  They come from that great unknown beyond the sky.  Space is just filled with trouble, and perhaps that is why Tenchi stays on Earth instead of going off into it.  But alas, trouble eventually comes to him.  Tenchi would be quite content with plowing his fields of carrots and continuing with the status quo of his growing household.  By the end of the show, there are over eight people living at Tenchi's house.  Every one of them has no expressed dream or desire save for one, continuing to live with Tenchi.  Washu might have some other final goal, considering that how the series gets an almost shoehorned final plot, but I can go into that later.  The point is that space is a reluctant possibility for a majority of the cast.  "Tenchi" treats space as a dreadful thing filled with things waiting for Tenchi to have to fight against.  However, it is from space that all the major female characters come from.  These same characters are what make "Tenchi" what it is.

                "Tenchi" is a harem show.  There is no two ways about it.  One guy somehow gets a menagerie of females flocking to him.  There are like chicks scurrying to a farmer carrying a forty pound bag of feed.  Japan harem stories can go at least as far back as "The Tale of Genji."  The important thing is that all harem stories are dramas.  Even the comedy harem shows are dramas.  Harem stories are filled with unrequited love for another individual who might not understand the feelings of the other, know about those feelings, or might not care about those feelings.  There is pining for the love of another.  There are the repeated situations with minimal difference occurring time and time again.  All of these are elements of dramas.  "Tenchi" does have some problems that all harem shows are filled with.  The problem is that they never quite give enough credit to the female conscienceless.  All it takes for the women in this show to fall for Tenchi is a few kind words and a tender moment.  It is somewhat of an insult to think that the hearts of women are so easily won across the board.  Ryoko has about the only viable excuse since she had watched Tenchi grow up.  With so many characters hoping that he falls for her, we get numerous elements found in soap operas.  Coincidentally, all of these elements can be in space dramas.  The only difference is, well, space which comes from the reluctant plot.

                The plot is one of the most complex ones I have seen.  I do not want to spend time going over it, since it would take about three more paragraphs just to cover the basics, so all I will talk about is how the show addresses the plot.  There are quite a number of times that foreshadowing occurs throughout the show.  I am sure that if I were to watch it again, I could spot even more forward references.  There is a constant understanding on the part of the viewer that there is a bigger story going on.  The show only allows very brief moments where the overarching plot seeps through.  The majority of the time, the show wants to play up the character interactions that occur at Tenchi's house or spend time introducing another character.  It is like the show is teasing the audience like one might do with a cat and a cattail.   It can get a little frustrating when the show spends only a glimpse at the bigger picture.  I might not feel this way if it was not for episode 19.  In episode 19, the show decides to lay everything onto the table to the point where one can feel bludgeoned with information.  Ulterior motives are revealed, galaxies unravel and space goddesses appear.  It all connects perfectly in the end, so I cannot complain about many missing pieces.  However, the magic tricks I mentioned yesterday are pulled for a full 30 minutes.  It all feels forced because the show is trying to make up for all the time it could have spent slowly feeding the information to the viewer but was instead showing hot springs.

At least the show is willing to admit its viewers might have trouble following the plot.

                In the end, "Techi" refutes its identity as a space opera.  It wants very much to stay on Earth and keep making harem episodes.  It does this to the point where the underground plot had nowhere to go until it all accumulated into one episode.  It prefers to spend time showcasing quiet moments of rural life than the giant spaceship battles that take the lives of hundreds of people, something that often seems to get trivialized.  "Tenchi" prefers to keep the status quo just long enough to introduce another girl to repeat a formula.  Eventually "Tenchi" would return to space, but I constantly felt that it just wanted to portray domestic life rather than accept the grandeur of the sky above the sky.    

                "Tenchi" is a good show.  There is something there for most everyone.  I would even go as far to say that I wished it lasted longer, but that would stem more from the fact that the plot feels super concentrated.  If it took the all the time it spent on going in a circle with the harem plot device and utilized it to portray the underlining story, the pacing would be a lot better.  The show weaves together a story with enough coincidences that the eventual reveal required a hat trick to pull everything together.  You can take it for what it is, but in the end it still is somewhat enjoyable if not a bit unfulfilling. 

Yours in digital,

BeepBoop

P.S. Tomorrow is an entry for a music album.  I Might pull another card and work on another entry because the album is so short.

Entry 051: "Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki" Ep. 1-13

Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki 

Dear Internet,

                I remember when I had first seen a "Tenchi" show.  It was back when Toonami was a respectable programming block that ran during the week.  It was way back before I even had access to the channel at my home and had to watch the odd episode when visiting relatives or friends.  Since I could never watch it consistently and that it was dissimilar to other shows which had no over arching plot, I paid little attention to it at the time.  Years went on and I learned that there are at least three "Tenchi" series, not counting spin-off series.  On top of that, the episodes I had only glimpsed were edited and cut apart for TV format.  With the recent conclusion of "Tenchi Muyo! GXP," it seems fitting for me to go back and watch the series that started the whole thing.

                "Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki!," which also doubles as a nice tounge twister, follows around a boy named Tenchi Masaki who accidentally releases a demon, Ryoko Hakubi,  from her 700 year imprisonment.  She in turn tries to kill him in effort to fill out her vengeance.  Well, actually that is all wrong.   Ryoko is not a demon, and she does not want to kill Tenchi, despite nearly burning his high school to the ground and trying to cut him in two.  She is in fact a space being that acted as a pirate and was sealed on Earth.  Shortly after the start of the show, other characters begin to appear from space looking for Ryoko.  They are all women hailing from slightly different backgrounds, but they all end up living at Tenchi's house.  Thus the premise of one of anime's most beloved harem genre animations begins.

Going clockwise from top left: Mihoshi Kuramitsu, Ryoko Hakubi, Tenchi Masaki, Ayeka Masaki Jurai, Ryo-Ohki, Sasami Masaki Jurai, and Washu Hakubi.

                To be fair, the show does a good job for the most part in balancing all the characters.  Each one feels unique and well made, even though it can take a few episodes to before they are discussed or shown to have some sort of backstory.  From the universally known scientist to the princess of a space kingdom, each one handles the current situations differently.  After a while, the various jokes that the show makes between the characters begin to feel repetitive.  Anytime that the show steps aside of the plot and takes a break, the show is certain to follow a set pattern.  Tenchi goes on being Tenchi, working the carrot fields or tending to his family's Shinto shrine.  Meanwhile, Ryoko and Ayeka fight over who gets to go after Tenchi or who has more right to him.  The bit ends with neither of them getting what they want and Tenchi never getting wind of what they are up to.  To a certain extent, this is what all harem shows are based upon, and it is a tired out collection of tropes and backstabbing schemes to me.  The only reason that "Tenchi" stays out of this muddy pothole is the fact that there really is a plot backing up the premise.

                I do not want to go too far into describing the plot more than I have, partially because I was only able to get through 13 of the 20 episodes.  There is also the fact that the plot can range from being very subtle to a downright kidnapping arc.  Most episodes, so far, can be divided into two categories.  There are the ones that introduce new characters and then there are those that expound on those characters.  The ones that introduce new characters are enjoyable and have the plot element to them.  From outer space battles to galactic police shenanigans, it all comes together to form a tight knit storyline.  The ones that expound upon characters fall very closely to the repetitive aspect I mentioned.  Some episodes feel very close to one another to the point that if the show did not give a glimpse into one of the characters, it would be all very pointless.  When the show looks at its characters, it does a very good job of it.

                I realize that I am going in circles right now.  This show is made up of a lot of either-ors.  The only thing that I can really criticize right now is how the show is sometimes inconsistent or has a few holes in its narrative.  Ryoko desperately tries to kill Tenchi in the first episode.  There is no way around this.  She does everything she can to make him the recipient of her 700 years worth of captivity.  A few episodes later, she is shown to having been watching over Tenchi while he grew up through some sort of astral projection method.  On top of that, she had been steadily growing fond of him before they met face to face.  None of this correlates with how she acted in the first episode.  Then there is the whole part of the plot that points Ryoko as having not only attacked capital of Jurai, a planet, but also having destroyed numerous other places.  Eventually, the story gets to a point where a big shot space pirate is shown to take control of her completely, making her attack Tenchi against her will.  The show implies that this is why she had attacked all those outposts and cities, which also lines up with the fact that Ryoko's creator had been captured since before Ryoko was made.  The problem with this is that it relies a bit heavy on implication instead of objective storytelling.  This problem would not be so big if it was not for the fact that Ryoko is such a troublemaker and destroyer of personal property.  So far, she has destroyed a high school and a hot spring at least while clearly under no one's influence besides her own.  On top of that, she has no apparent regret for her actions.  There is not even some sort of regret for the countless people that suffered for her actions while being under the control of someone else.  None of the characters call her out over her apparent ennui with the bulk of the reason being that it was all so long ago.  One of the main characters of the show, Sasami, is being shown to have nearly died in the attack against Jurai, but it is all glossed over.  Until it gets addressed, which will probably never happen for the sake of keeping things light and airy, it will remain as the elephant in the room for me.

                Another thing that pulls on my mental pant leg like a dog wanting to go for a walk is the near inexhaustible powers that everyone seems to have.  Ryoko at least has her magic gems that the whole show admits to being too overpowered.  Everyone else seems to get similar treatment.  Tenchi even gets larger powers than Ryoko at one point.  The story never sets a limit to the various characters abilities.  This works just enough to create a visual spectacle to enjoy, but comes at a price.  Between Ryoko and Tenchi, rabbits are pulled out of a hat constantly and rely on how willful the two are rather than making a plan.  Planning before going into battle is not something that occurs here.  When Washu tries to enter with a plan, it does pan out well, but when things get worse, another rabbit gets pulled.  Perhaps I am being too hard on this point since the show does do a good job in building tension before the magic trick is pulled.

                Tomorrow I will finish "Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki" and get back to you.

Yours in digital,

BeepBoop