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elabyI wrote this a few weeks ago, but I keep forgetting to post it XD In which I babble a metric ton about WK.
We finished watching Weiß Kreuz (Kapitel - the first series) the other night. Man, having a television in the bedroom is the awesomest thing ever! XD Thank you,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
_melisande_ and um_schonheit and family!
I had forgotten how absolutely wretched the animation in this series truly is. I can probably count on one hand the scenes where it's clear they said "Okay, let's dedicate three week's budget to this one!" And everything else was done with what was left over. It was so obvious from the wonky faces, the weird coloring, the jerky repetitive movements and extremely blatant attempts to avoid actually animating things - in one scene, a character is vaulting over a high bar in gym class, and all we see are her running sneakers, sky, then a still of her laying on the mat afterwards. Somebody on the production team must've liked Omi, though, because he was certainly the least maimed art-wise. Heh, it doesn't help that we've been watching Moribito and Samurai Champloo lately; Moribito has film-quality art and animation and everybody looks so slick and moves so awesomely in Samurai Champloo.
It goes without saying that WK is a slapdash angst-fest created for the sole purpose of torturing cool-looking bishounen, but I really really love it all the same XD It has such potential, good lord, although this series rarely taps into that potential. I can't say for Gluhen, because I haven't seen it, and I hear that events in the drama CDs are such that the characters all act completely different afterwards anyway. I'm not sure I'd want to see that ^^;; (Unless it meant Aya being less of a two-dimensional bastard. Sorry, Koyasu.)
caitirin said to me the night we watched the end that it was like the creators just kept saying "Ooh, ooh, wouldn't it be cool if--!" and they piled cool idea on top of cool idea with no regard for whether Cool Idea 254 directly contradicted Cool Idea 17 back in the third episode. I'll discuss the gaping plot holes later, but this is so true, especially considering how the Takatori family was built up as The Ultimate Evil and then virtually disappeared after the middle of the series. (Which was, of course, good for me, as it let Schwarz step into the limelight.) It was like they'd resolve things and then go "Oh crap, what now? We can't let the boys be happy! Hurry, kidnap the sister! Bring back the dead girlfriend and make her evil!"
Anyway, the last two episodes get so close to the above-mentioned potential that it's maddening. They're actually pretty good, comparatively, especially if you're partial to Schwarz. It also seems like at the last minute the production team was all "Okay, what fan contingent haven't we appeased yet? Oh, the slashers! Quick, Omi/Ken! GO!"
I mean, in a series like this where even the psycho villains are hot, the urge to slash them all goes through the roof, you know? The problem is that the Weiß boys act like they can barely stand each other, let alone harbor romantic feelings. Or lust. Whatever. In the manga it's a little easier since Ken and Aya have loads of tension and Yoji is less self-centered, but in the anime, the closest you get is that Omi loves everybody because he's an adorable woobie.
However, they throw little Omi/Ken bones to the fans every so often. It's really the only pairing possible, since Aya is so wrapped up in himself and Yoji, as much as he talks about seducing women, really only thinks about Asuka. Ken's a nice guy (that's about all he is, poor schmuck) and Omi is love-starved and sincere and affectionate, so naturally Ken would be the one he'd form the best relationship with. In the mid-series climax episode, there's this hilarious moment, possibly the most (unintentionally) impeccably timed line in the series. All the fighting is over and the bad guys have just turned tail, and then from behind a pile of rocks you hear Omi go "Ken-kun, mou ii!" ("stop!" or "that's enough!") accompanied by flailing limbs. The scene cuts to a sunrise and silence for several seconds, as if Omi's cry was some kind of punchline. After that, of course, we find out that Omi's just worried that Ken will bleed out if he moves, but come on. If you've ever seen or heard any yaoi, there's a particular voice they use in, erm, intimate moments... and that's definitely the voice Omi was using XD
So in the last episode, there's this adorable moment where the four of them are kind of goofing around with each other (god, if only they'd capitalized on this for the other 25-odd episodes the series would've been so much more rewarding!) and Omi, over on one side of the forest with Aya, calls to Ken and Yoji to be careful. Yoji ruffles Ken's hair and says teasingly "Did you hear that, Ken?" Ken blushes like crazy and tells Yoji to stuff it. Back on Omi's side, Omi's all *disappointed/confused/exasperated face* and Aya rolls his eyes at their antics. If the only lot of them could've just forgotten their own lonely angst for long enough to be silly with each other like this more often!
And then, later on, during the ZOMG Dramatic Final Showdown, Crawford expounds on his beliefs that humanity doesn't deserve to be protected (more on that later), and Aya responds that they're fighting for those they love. The whole time this speech is going on, they show Ken getting the snot beaten out of him and Omi freaking out and overcoming his own dire injuries to save him, then Ken doing the same. It's very sweet, in a "Why couldn't you have shown us this sort of thing earlier?" way.
The last episodes are really great for their Schwarz quotient, too. A slightly upped end-of-series budget meant prettier close-ups, at least, and not only was there more interaction between them all but finally a freaking explanation as to their motive/goal (such as it is). And they were all dressed up in matching white suits at the end XD Schuldig didn't have his bandana and sunglasses either, which I imagine might've been Crawford's doing. He seems like he's the only one concerned with making sure they all look presentable.
Speaking of Crawford (I am slightly single-minded, you may have noticed), these episodes were good ones for trying to glean things about his character. For example, there were two separate instances in which he stopped Schuldig from molesting/beating on Sakura, once because "we can still use her" and once without giving a reason. From this I infer that Crawford for whatever reason isn't okay with unnecessary violence, probably because he thinks it's undignified or there are better ways to get what you want. This reinforces my long-held belief that he had to be pretty darn frustrated to slap Nagi back in the Schreient-gets-killed-off episode (slapping being anime code for "this here is srs bidnis"). Similarly, we can assume that Schuldig gets off on unnecessary violence (and lying and messing with people's heads, among other things, I'm sure), but actually listens to Crawford when he tells him to knock it off. No surprise on either count there, huh?
We also, in the last episode, are treated to the only time Crawford appears even remotely intimidated by anyone. Schwarz misplaces Aya-chan and Eszett* gives Crawford a sort of mini heart attack with their magical scary old people powers as a warning. Crawford was all "My apologies, no need to worry, we have everything under control" but you could tell he was sweating. Which is interesting, since later on when the four of them are faced with only one Evil Old Dude, he's not threatened whatsoever. It must be the three of them put together that had Crawford nervous. Nervous, but eternally businesslike.
*I think I finally figured out how to spell this mofo! I've rarely seen the spelling of anything in fandom range more widely than this one. My subtitles usually stuck to "Estet" and Crawford's image song is called EstE, but I've seen a myriad of spellings and even SZ ("ess zed", I assume). In either the manga or the film book I have, they spell it "Esutsetto" in Japanese, and Wikipedia tells me that German name for the double-s character ß is Eszett, pronounced "es'tset". So maybe this means that the Evil Foreign Old People are German? I think all it really means is that the creators thought German words sounded cool so they used them to name all of their major organizations.
So Schwarz's goal, as we finally learn in this episode, is apparently nothing more complicated than total anarchy. Crawford said some time earlier that he didn't care what the people Schwarz was working for had planned, because it was the journey they were interested in, not the result. And while he professed belief in the resurrection of "that one" using Aya-chan's body (very Lovecraftian,caitirin commented), by the time the Evil Old People had finally started their ritual, Schwarz had clearly become powerful enough not to need Estzett's patronage anymore. Dunno when that happened, or how, but I suspect it was sucked into the same plot hole as Sakura actually having "that one" possess her for a short time. She went all demon-eyed and freaky during the ritual when we still thought she was Aya-chan, but she was fine the minute Weiß rescued her and she suffered no negative aftereffects ^^;;
But I was talking about motivations, right? The whole time, that's what Schwarz has been after: chaos. Because, as Crawford tells Aya, the people Weiß are trying to protect would turn around and murder and steal and do horrible things because that's the way humanity is, and why protect that? It's way cynical, but I suppose he's not lying. Nagi goes on to say that with their powers, they could live through anything, even the resurrection of the devil. So what do they want, ultimately? The entire world to descend into anarchy, because organization doesn't work anyway? Then what, they'd be the only ones left and the crazy dysfunctional pseudo-family that is Schwarz would live happily ever after in a big pile of rubble? I have no idea.
Here are some possible extensions of this motivation (I think too much, have you noticed?):
All we know about Nagi from the anime is that he was shunned as a child, presumably because of his psychokinetic powers, and he wants to get back at the world that was so cruel to him. A breakdown in the normalcy of the established order would be good punishment for the people who hurt him because he was different, I suppose? Nagi is more blatantly cynical than Crawford in the anime (the drama CDs are a different beast for everybody involved) - he calls everything stupid, or ridiculous, and he doesn't appear to believe in anything. He's in love with Tot, though, and wants to make her happy, but that whole storyline is never played out. Nagi wants the apocalypse, for lack of a better term, because he wants the people who hurt him to suffer, and by extension, the society who taught them to fear those who are different.
Farfarello. Farfarello hates God! Farfarello is a pitiable victim and none of this is his fault! I can only assume that he believes God created order in the world, and by destroying it, he's making an ultimate attack on said deity. So instead of the nebulous "society" that Nagi wants to hurt, Farfarello's target is the equally nebulous "God". He's the Schwarz member with the most background we're given - killed his whole family when he was a kid because he found out his real mother was the nun who taught his Sunday school - but this somehow doesn't give him any more depth. That's WK for you, I guess.
Schuldig has no past that the anime goes into (or the drama CDs, as far as I know, beyond having gone to Rosenkruz at the same time as Crawford and sleeping with Sylvia while he was there). Schuldig seems like an instant-gratification sort of person to me, though, and so I don't really feel that he's interested in plunging the world into chaos so much as the shenanigans he can get up to in the process. He likes hurting people, he likes messing with people, and this gives him the perfect opportunity. Anime Schuldig, unlike manga Schuldig (who I think was in charge of Schwarz), doesn't strike me as someone who bothers to think about the future. It's all nownownow with him. I could be wrong.
Crawford we don't get any background for either, aside from the same Rosenkruz-and-Sylvia combination as Schuldig. He's the flip side of Schuldig - a planner, methodical, a control freak. He's always looking one step (or several) ahead, and I guess it would make sense that he's fixated on the future when he can see bits and pieces of it. He hates mess and plans the hell out of things; he's very consequence-oriented. I guess he really is the opposite of Schuldig, isn't he? They're both manipulators, but where Schuldig manipulates feelings, Crawford manipulates events. And to what end? He's so meticulous that you'd think he's got to have something definite planned, but all we get by way of explanation is "anarchy". I can only assume that he thinks people should have to fend for themselves, since humanity in general isn't worth protecting, and what does that say about him? Personal power is paramount, if you'll forgive the alliteration? That sounds like a good fit for him. The "humanity isn't worth protecting because they do bad things" idea is interesting. He obviously has no qualms doing bad things himself. It's got to be either that he values self-sufficiency - not needing to be protected by others - or that, like Nagi, he wants to punish humanity for something that happened to him. I tend to lean toward the former, although the latter has the possibility to launch a thousand angstfics.
We finished watching Weiß Kreuz (Kapitel - the first series) the other night. Man, having a television in the bedroom is the awesomest thing ever! XD Thank you,
_melisande_ and um_schonheit and family!I had forgotten how absolutely wretched the animation in this series truly is. I can probably count on one hand the scenes where it's clear they said "Okay, let's dedicate three week's budget to this one!" And everything else was done with what was left over. It was so obvious from the wonky faces, the weird coloring, the jerky repetitive movements and extremely blatant attempts to avoid actually animating things - in one scene, a character is vaulting over a high bar in gym class, and all we see are her running sneakers, sky, then a still of her laying on the mat afterwards. Somebody on the production team must've liked Omi, though, because he was certainly the least maimed art-wise. Heh, it doesn't help that we've been watching Moribito and Samurai Champloo lately; Moribito has film-quality art and animation and everybody looks so slick and moves so awesomely in Samurai Champloo.
It goes without saying that WK is a slapdash angst-fest created for the sole purpose of torturing cool-looking bishounen, but I really really love it all the same XD It has such potential, good lord, although this series rarely taps into that potential. I can't say for Gluhen, because I haven't seen it, and I hear that events in the drama CDs are such that the characters all act completely different afterwards anyway. I'm not sure I'd want to see that ^^;; (Unless it meant Aya being less of a two-dimensional bastard. Sorry, Koyasu.)
caitirin said to me the night we watched the end that it was like the creators just kept saying "Ooh, ooh, wouldn't it be cool if--!" and they piled cool idea on top of cool idea with no regard for whether Cool Idea 254 directly contradicted Cool Idea 17 back in the third episode. I'll discuss the gaping plot holes later, but this is so true, especially considering how the Takatori family was built up as The Ultimate Evil and then virtually disappeared after the middle of the series. (Which was, of course, good for me, as it let Schwarz step into the limelight.) It was like they'd resolve things and then go "Oh crap, what now? We can't let the boys be happy! Hurry, kidnap the sister! Bring back the dead girlfriend and make her evil!"Anyway, the last two episodes get so close to the above-mentioned potential that it's maddening. They're actually pretty good, comparatively, especially if you're partial to Schwarz. It also seems like at the last minute the production team was all "Okay, what fan contingent haven't we appeased yet? Oh, the slashers! Quick, Omi/Ken! GO!"
I mean, in a series like this where even the psycho villains are hot, the urge to slash them all goes through the roof, you know? The problem is that the Weiß boys act like they can barely stand each other, let alone harbor romantic feelings. Or lust. Whatever. In the manga it's a little easier since Ken and Aya have loads of tension and Yoji is less self-centered, but in the anime, the closest you get is that Omi loves everybody because he's an adorable woobie.
However, they throw little Omi/Ken bones to the fans every so often. It's really the only pairing possible, since Aya is so wrapped up in himself and Yoji, as much as he talks about seducing women, really only thinks about Asuka. Ken's a nice guy (that's about all he is, poor schmuck) and Omi is love-starved and sincere and affectionate, so naturally Ken would be the one he'd form the best relationship with. In the mid-series climax episode, there's this hilarious moment, possibly the most (unintentionally) impeccably timed line in the series. All the fighting is over and the bad guys have just turned tail, and then from behind a pile of rocks you hear Omi go "Ken-kun, mou ii!" ("stop!" or "that's enough!") accompanied by flailing limbs. The scene cuts to a sunrise and silence for several seconds, as if Omi's cry was some kind of punchline. After that, of course, we find out that Omi's just worried that Ken will bleed out if he moves, but come on. If you've ever seen or heard any yaoi, there's a particular voice they use in, erm, intimate moments... and that's definitely the voice Omi was using XD
So in the last episode, there's this adorable moment where the four of them are kind of goofing around with each other (god, if only they'd capitalized on this for the other 25-odd episodes the series would've been so much more rewarding!) and Omi, over on one side of the forest with Aya, calls to Ken and Yoji to be careful. Yoji ruffles Ken's hair and says teasingly "Did you hear that, Ken?" Ken blushes like crazy and tells Yoji to stuff it. Back on Omi's side, Omi's all *disappointed/confused/exasperated face* and Aya rolls his eyes at their antics. If the only lot of them could've just forgotten their own lonely angst for long enough to be silly with each other like this more often!
And then, later on, during the ZOMG Dramatic Final Showdown, Crawford expounds on his beliefs that humanity doesn't deserve to be protected (more on that later), and Aya responds that they're fighting for those they love. The whole time this speech is going on, they show Ken getting the snot beaten out of him and Omi freaking out and overcoming his own dire injuries to save him, then Ken doing the same. It's very sweet, in a "Why couldn't you have shown us this sort of thing earlier?" way.
The last episodes are really great for their Schwarz quotient, too. A slightly upped end-of-series budget meant prettier close-ups, at least, and not only was there more interaction between them all but finally a freaking explanation as to their motive/goal (such as it is). And they were all dressed up in matching white suits at the end XD Schuldig didn't have his bandana and sunglasses either, which I imagine might've been Crawford's doing. He seems like he's the only one concerned with making sure they all look presentable.
Speaking of Crawford (I am slightly single-minded, you may have noticed), these episodes were good ones for trying to glean things about his character. For example, there were two separate instances in which he stopped Schuldig from molesting/beating on Sakura, once because "we can still use her" and once without giving a reason. From this I infer that Crawford for whatever reason isn't okay with unnecessary violence, probably because he thinks it's undignified or there are better ways to get what you want. This reinforces my long-held belief that he had to be pretty darn frustrated to slap Nagi back in the Schreient-gets-killed-off episode (slapping being anime code for "this here is srs bidnis"). Similarly, we can assume that Schuldig gets off on unnecessary violence (and lying and messing with people's heads, among other things, I'm sure), but actually listens to Crawford when he tells him to knock it off. No surprise on either count there, huh?
We also, in the last episode, are treated to the only time Crawford appears even remotely intimidated by anyone. Schwarz misplaces Aya-chan and Eszett* gives Crawford a sort of mini heart attack with their magical scary old people powers as a warning. Crawford was all "My apologies, no need to worry, we have everything under control" but you could tell he was sweating. Which is interesting, since later on when the four of them are faced with only one Evil Old Dude, he's not threatened whatsoever. It must be the three of them put together that had Crawford nervous. Nervous, but eternally businesslike.
*I think I finally figured out how to spell this mofo! I've rarely seen the spelling of anything in fandom range more widely than this one. My subtitles usually stuck to "Estet" and Crawford's image song is called EstE, but I've seen a myriad of spellings and even SZ ("ess zed", I assume). In either the manga or the film book I have, they spell it "Esutsetto" in Japanese, and Wikipedia tells me that German name for the double-s character ß is Eszett, pronounced "es'tset". So maybe this means that the Evil Foreign Old People are German? I think all it really means is that the creators thought German words sounded cool so they used them to name all of their major organizations.
So Schwarz's goal, as we finally learn in this episode, is apparently nothing more complicated than total anarchy. Crawford said some time earlier that he didn't care what the people Schwarz was working for had planned, because it was the journey they were interested in, not the result. And while he professed belief in the resurrection of "that one" using Aya-chan's body (very Lovecraftian,
caitirin commented), by the time the Evil Old People had finally started their ritual, Schwarz had clearly become powerful enough not to need Estzett's patronage anymore. Dunno when that happened, or how, but I suspect it was sucked into the same plot hole as Sakura actually having "that one" possess her for a short time. She went all demon-eyed and freaky during the ritual when we still thought she was Aya-chan, but she was fine the minute Weiß rescued her and she suffered no negative aftereffects ^^;;But I was talking about motivations, right? The whole time, that's what Schwarz has been after: chaos. Because, as Crawford tells Aya, the people Weiß are trying to protect would turn around and murder and steal and do horrible things because that's the way humanity is, and why protect that? It's way cynical, but I suppose he's not lying. Nagi goes on to say that with their powers, they could live through anything, even the resurrection of the devil. So what do they want, ultimately? The entire world to descend into anarchy, because organization doesn't work anyway? Then what, they'd be the only ones left and the crazy dysfunctional pseudo-family that is Schwarz would live happily ever after in a big pile of rubble? I have no idea.
Here are some possible extensions of this motivation (I think too much, have you noticed?):
All we know about Nagi from the anime is that he was shunned as a child, presumably because of his psychokinetic powers, and he wants to get back at the world that was so cruel to him. A breakdown in the normalcy of the established order would be good punishment for the people who hurt him because he was different, I suppose? Nagi is more blatantly cynical than Crawford in the anime (the drama CDs are a different beast for everybody involved) - he calls everything stupid, or ridiculous, and he doesn't appear to believe in anything. He's in love with Tot, though, and wants to make her happy, but that whole storyline is never played out. Nagi wants the apocalypse, for lack of a better term, because he wants the people who hurt him to suffer, and by extension, the society who taught them to fear those who are different.
Farfarello. Farfarello hates God! Farfarello is a pitiable victim and none of this is his fault! I can only assume that he believes God created order in the world, and by destroying it, he's making an ultimate attack on said deity. So instead of the nebulous "society" that Nagi wants to hurt, Farfarello's target is the equally nebulous "God". He's the Schwarz member with the most background we're given - killed his whole family when he was a kid because he found out his real mother was the nun who taught his Sunday school - but this somehow doesn't give him any more depth. That's WK for you, I guess.
Schuldig has no past that the anime goes into (or the drama CDs, as far as I know, beyond having gone to Rosenkruz at the same time as Crawford and sleeping with Sylvia while he was there). Schuldig seems like an instant-gratification sort of person to me, though, and so I don't really feel that he's interested in plunging the world into chaos so much as the shenanigans he can get up to in the process. He likes hurting people, he likes messing with people, and this gives him the perfect opportunity. Anime Schuldig, unlike manga Schuldig (who I think was in charge of Schwarz), doesn't strike me as someone who bothers to think about the future. It's all nownownow with him. I could be wrong.
Crawford we don't get any background for either, aside from the same Rosenkruz-and-Sylvia combination as Schuldig. He's the flip side of Schuldig - a planner, methodical, a control freak. He's always looking one step (or several) ahead, and I guess it would make sense that he's fixated on the future when he can see bits and pieces of it. He hates mess and plans the hell out of things; he's very consequence-oriented. I guess he really is the opposite of Schuldig, isn't he? They're both manipulators, but where Schuldig manipulates feelings, Crawford manipulates events. And to what end? He's so meticulous that you'd think he's got to have something definite planned, but all we get by way of explanation is "anarchy". I can only assume that he thinks people should have to fend for themselves, since humanity in general isn't worth protecting, and what does that say about him? Personal power is paramount, if you'll forgive the alliteration? That sounds like a good fit for him. The "humanity isn't worth protecting because they do bad things" idea is interesting. He obviously has no qualms doing bad things himself. It's got to be either that he values self-sufficiency - not needing to be protected by others - or that, like Nagi, he wants to punish humanity for something that happened to him. I tend to lean toward the former, although the latter has the possibility to launch a thousand angstfics.
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