Good Old Fashioned Anime Breakdowns Part II

 Good Old Fashioned Anime Breakdowns Part II

 



We return to our regular unglued programming. As we dig in the wealth of unstable characters whether because they are completely bonkers in the most unique way or have a lapse of insanity, this list will show you that even being an anime character doesn’t mean you’re getting off scott free, baggage happens and at ten bucks a pound it can get awfully expensive. Was that a lapse for me, who can say, guess you’ll have to keep reading to find out. Queue the maniacal laughter.

 

 

Parasyte The Maxium: This show is like a loaded gun and it seems to have an unlimited supply of bullets, right out the gate it fires away, one traumatic horrifying scenario after another, along the way you get great character development, relationships waiting on a razor blade, and a slew of unexpected twists. One of them shakes the main character Shinichi so bad, it shows on his appearance, he looks aged in those collection of episodes, like his skin is a thin sheet wrapped around his skull and you can see all the bones hiding underneath. There’s just a complete exhaustion in his eyes but a restless thirst for revenge continues to drive him with a good dose of haunting reminders of what is lost, reminders of what happened. You feel pushed to the corner the way he does and it really feels like Shinchi could be on the verge on losing it all. So what happens next? Well you just have to watch and find out.

 

Elfen Lied-  The entire story is built on something traumatic, as we look at Lucy, a diconlous, experimented on and hunted that meets a young boy and due to an escape from a facility and an injury to her head, she becomes the seemingly helpless Mew. However her pursuer’s aren’t very far and of course their actions lead to an injury that brings back the ruthless Lucy. Limbs will fly and yet it only makes a crazed soldier even more crazed and one of the scientist desperately wanting to be like her, possibly sexual intercourse and diclonius babies? Here’s your source for all thinks unglued, misshapen, trying to be put together again, even scarier how through it, some things can fit.

 

DBZ- There's quite a few moments where it doesn’t matter how strong the enemy is, a character is just pushed too far. While this might be more transformative than it is a breakdown I believe they’re one in the same. So I guess that leaves it open for dozens of shows, quite true, a lot of them I’d like to use but for the moment we’ll use Dragon Ball Z as a fine example. After the death of Krillin in the Freiza saga we get to see an enraged Goku as he slowly turns into a Super Sayian. Now there’s plenty of moments I know but this was one that felt like it wrapped around the series nicely, they were childhood friends, it was Goku pushed to his furthest limit before he tapped into what was pure rage through purity. Transformations are a thing but it seemed worthy of noting considering the type of character Goku is, to be pushed to such a far extreme.

 

Another- In this strange anime there’s a quiet panic that lives in the town. Further into the story we slowly discover the truth, things seem to change when we see why certain behavior is tolerated in the town, why one person is shun and the fear that still lives in everyone in the town if they decide to acknowledge a character's existence. There’s even an attempt to solve it, which seems to work for a while. But let me tell you, nothing could stop this anime breakdown. I mean the entire thing comes to a boil and it’s just one completely paranoid breakdown. Which I guess isn’t completely paranoid considering that people keep dying but resolve that with murder, not such a great idea. The most horrifying thing about Another is when people suddenly become irrational and it seems to bring out the worse in them.

 

Perfect Blue – Perfect Blue directed by legendary director Satsashi Kon gives us an insight into a pop star who faces the mounting pressure following her decision to take another direction in her career. This leads to a breakdown of the psyche and a whole lot of  disturbing images, some of  her own  harsh critique of herself, showing her the worst of what she is now and trying to make her believe she is these things. Not to mention the critical way she's being viewed by the public. A twisted follower of the pop star and a whole lot of things you’d probably associate with a breakdown,  this is psychological in the most horrifying sense. The film shows us truly the inside of a mind under pressure ready to collapse.

 

Gundam 00- What’s interesting about this series is traumatic situations molded the characters into what they are, driving the purpose that we see them have in the show. In Gundam 00 three coalitions which are the majority of countries in the world are competing for the resource of solar energy. It may be the future but things remain unchanged with war and tense standoffs, while other countries remain in turmoil. That is until Celestal Being, a secret group with the mobile suits Gundam having technology light years ahead of the rest of the world begin to forcefully end conflicts around the world, holding both sides responsible if necessary. Their goal to eradicate war completely.

 

      Several of them have reached points of a breakdown but one of the ones I like to point out is the Gundam Meister Allelujah.  Subject to human experimentation the trauma has created a split personality in him, Hallelujah. This side of the mind is cruel and vicious and seems to warp his behavior, it seems the best thing to do might be to deal. Especially if it means attacking a secret facility with the same experiments still happening, ones even undermining the government authority they answer to. Unfortunately ending wars in the world becomes more difficult when the characters are having a war inside themselves.


 

Stein’s Gate- This one is probably a bit of a spoiler so I’ll cover it as best as possible. The series deals in time travel and the first half is interesting in seeing what results these yield. There’s also the sense that any underlining threat is really just an imaginative role playing despite the characters stumbling on such a strange discovery. In fact it’s placed in the back of your mind enough to see what would happen if characters got certain inner wishes granted, how the world around them is changed.

        The threat is real though and when those actions play out it changes the course of the series, leaving it as agonizing viewing to have to watch one character try to make it right with perhaps the answer that it can never be made right again, only worse, who’s to say though, you have to watch and find out. But that is definitely a branch of an anime breakdown, to live through something horrible over and over again just to try and stop it from happening.



Psycho-Pass- There’s something to be said about Shougo Makishima. Clearly the man is deranged and his actions might be from a break down he doesn’t fully contemplate. Or is the world crazy and he just realizes it? Instead of being the ha ha ha I will win evil stereo type. He kind of does win in a sense, if nothing else, he seems to bypass an entire system and structure that is supposed to be the opposing force. Not only that but he proves how flawed the system is with ease, having Akane witness to his horrible actions and revealing the disturbing truth of the Sybil system. So much happens you have to wonder how is Akane’s state of mind supposed to handle it.

 

      That is really the question in the second season of the series, it isn’t too obvious but the concerns of others seem to be the concern of yours, as something feels a bit unstable with Akane. It’s one thing to learn the truth of what you thought you were fighting for, it’s another to live with it and continue forward no matter the reason, where does that lead, what’s the truth of your actions and the outcome you seek. Is there anything left of you once you reach it. That is the question in a series that doesn’t just let you have an anime breakdown, it arrests you for it on the potential that you can be a criminal. Or is that why? Hmm?

 

So many shows, so little to hold minds together. There’s a good chance that in a handful of shows you’ll get, you’ll have at least one or two with people not wound all that tight. Whether from their ambitions, motives or traumatic experiences, sometimes, it mirrors the reaction that people make, when something happens and they find there’s a part of themselves they didn’t know as well as they thought.