Take A Pick Tuesday : Working The First Season

Take A Pick Tuesday- Working!!!/Wagnaria: The First Season

 

 

 

An interesting thing about anime is that you never know where you can get a show out of, so it makes sense that they would have a show about working or well at least being in the workplace. I know it isn’t the first one to be made but it doesn’t stop it from being a wholly unique experience. In need for another employee Popura Taneshima asks a young man with glasses if he would like to work at the family restaurant Wagnaria, although she’s a complete stranger that asks him out of the blue he says yes, why? That would be because of his love for very tiny cute things and she happens to be very short.

 

      So we hit the ground running and see Sota Takanashi starting at the restaurant but everyone there is similar to him that they are a bit unique for sure. His love of small things that in some terms can make him come off as being a pervert is not the oddest thing this family restaurant has to offer. There is Yachiyo Todoroki who has a fixation on her female manager Kyoko Shirafuji, who also happens to be Yachiyo’s childhood friend,  who eat or snacks I should say more than anything else, mostly this means parfaits that are prepared by her chief waitress,. Even so Yachiyo is a star waitress except for the fact that she carries around a katana with her that tends to make people just a little nervous.

 

        Another waitress and one whose largely focused on is Mahiru Inami, who has androphobia,  a phobia of men so every time Takanashi sees her he gets punched in the face. Although in truth any men is in danger which includes the other employees as well. The focus on her is as large as the various attempts made in helping her get her androphobia under control. The effort means as terrified as Inami is of all men, she takes a certain liking to Takanashi. There is of course certain other issues involving her such as with her father, a major jealous type and Takanashi having to dress like a woman, when the man comes to pay a visit.  Of course you also have the cook Jun Sato, he may be a little more normal except for the way he teases Taneshima with her height, which believe it or not she is a year older than the main character Sota Takanashi. The cook also reminds me of Sanji from One Piece if the pirate cook was less hyper to see women and a little quieter and cool as he is when Nami, Robin or any hot woman is around. He is also in love with Yachiyo but for obvious reasons he can’t tell her this considering her fixation on the manager who had saved her from being bullied and would then become childhood friends.  

 

        Then there is also Hitoomi Soma who seems to be kind of nosy and manipulative but everyone just sort of deals with it, he also works in the kitchen with Jun Sato, no one knows anything about him which he uses to his advantage so that he always has leverage on everyone else. Though occasionally in between lying to certain workers like Taneshima he’ll tip the line and comment on the unrequited love that Sato has for Yachiyo and get hit or have to be face to face with Inami and her androphoiba. In fact his fear like everyone else is if the main character Takanashi leaves then her reaction to her phobia will be taken out on the rest of the men.  The big manager Hyogo Oota whose never really there is gone most of the time searching for his wife and is afraid of Kyoko even though he’s her superior especially if he doesn’t bring souvenirs. Often he’ll have to fear Yachiyo who seems to want to kill him with her sword when she thinks that he’s trying to seduce Kyoko. This makes his visits back to Wagnaria very brief and returns to looking for his wife, though his wife couldn’t even find herself if she wanted to, with her horrible sense of direction.

 

     Although in one return Oota did bring something other than a souvenir Aoi Yamada a mysterious sixteen year old he met during one of his vast searches for his wife.  Soon after she begins to work and actually lives in the restaurant. Although she worries about her place in the restaurant want she really wants is a family, something no doubt brought on by Oota who in the second season she asks to adopt her.  Then you have the quiet Maya Matsumoto who isn’t so quiet on the fact that she is the only “normal worker” among the rest of the staff in Wagnaria, when I first started watching the series it almost seemed like the character was meant to be a joke, in the background always but never introduced, supposedly she is the normal one. Although she gets her occasional moment here and there it’s clear she’s not nearly as focused on as is the rest of the characters.

 

      The show does a fine job at being able to make its jokes without having to cross that cautious line of being old and used,  you know starting to miss the sensitive funny bone spots. At least I keep laughing at especially when Inami sees Takanashi and punches him in the face.There is also Takanashi’s  family who he tries to keep under wraps, though they show them at home. Well most of them shown in the first season anyway. As said there are various love connections in the series, though you could say it’s love that goes unnoticed mostly, something you might believe as a show that will for the most part be unresolved and shouldn’t have any expectations of connections can be something more. If nothing else they leave room by the end of the season to dive deeper on the characters relationships. Time will tell as I get on to the second season and then wait for the third season in works.

 

      The family restaurant is the center piece for the show even if they’re not in the restaurant like when they go to a hot springs trip together though a complication stops them from having a ride over there and Sato the cook happens to drive by and ends up attempting to take them to the hot springs. Though not planning on making another much longer stop he runs out of gas and they end up getting a ride elsewhere leaving him. Even a pretty big episode where two characters go somewhere else, the other characters are meeting about it at work, even though there not scheduled. One of the great strengths of the show is how the characters complement each other. Which is kind of essential in a slice of life comedy and it offers that warm relaxing feeling that brings just a simple joy to watch and may be a great change of pace depending on the show you watched before it. While this means that they also give you sufficient time to understand all the characters, you know without a doubt that there is plenty of room to explore. Though I do like how they get a grasp of each other’s niches and deal with it in everyday situations in the workplaces like Kyoko hiding the toys that come with the kids meals from Takanashi since he’s obsessed with tiny things.

 

 Definitely in some ways it feels like a 4-Panel manga and in fact it is, at least that’s what it’s based off of from the manga but that also can be misleading in the sense of it being non-linear, it definitely continues whatever the story in each episode is, there is just so much going on. Which is a good thing in this instance, especially what they managed to squeeze in on such a short episode count for these season. The charm and confidence in the show makes it unsurprising to see the popularity and attention it has. It’s hard not to feel your spirits lifted when watching it, the only surprise is that it took so long for me to watch it.  Sure enough though I’ll be following the second season with the same enthusiasm.  As well as the third season coming out this summer! It won’t take long either, the first two seasons are only twelve episodes. If anything seems obvious from watching the series is what they promote with the characters that the essence that draws them together is the enjoyment that they having in being around each other, there are a lot of anime that have settings in restaurants or more so in the kitchen these days, if you’re looking for one to start with that might be a little different than Wagnaria might be for you.

 

25 Years of Seeing The Ghost: Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex

                               Take A Pick Tuesday: Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex

 

 

In anticipation for the new Ghost In The Shell film coming out this summer and a desire to spotlight the twenty five years of Ghost In The Shell. We look at its ambitious TV show series Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex.  Often a corner stone in the evolution of anime and one of the titles that managed to influence film  and bring a new generation of viewers from the western world,  it stands as both a technical achievement,  the use of computer animation integrated with hand drawn 2-d animations as well as the dark turn over it’s head dystopian political thriller story telling pinnacle in anime. Of which a wealth of stories would be built on, insight would allow for expansion, which is always interesting but can be boggled down with mixed results but this is Ghost in the Shell we’re talking about, so it’s expanse  brings something else, something entirely new.

 

      After the groundbreaking film and hot off the heels of it’s follow up, in came Stand Alone Complex, a TV show that highlighted an even broader aspect of the themes with the franchise and allowing the real purpose of Section 9 which the main character Motoko Kusgani and the rest of her until work for show more evident.  Some have compared it in some ways to being a cop show and yes in a way they are cops or investigators though what could seem like a procedural cop show genre is still Ghost In The Shell and so it is its own special thing. Truly it is.  Though that really should make sense, the person responsible for bringing the films to life Mamoru Oshii had worked on and would continue to work on Patlabor: The Mobile Police Anime films, show live action films. A classic show that built something new on certain concepts that honestly felt incredibly unique being introduced by these shows and films in the first place.

 

     Many of the issues dealt with in the series are now issues we deal with nearly ten years since, as well as other issues that we are on the brink of looking at, those that may bring questions by certain groups and will become the subject of massive debate. Maybe sometimes in a not so friendly way. While both seasons of the TV show have an undertone, a story line, the individual episodes look also at the concepts and ideas raised.  Concepts of immortality, the ghost in the machine, or even what has a soul to begin with, religion, corruption, refugees, addiction, human trafficking, various political and bureaucratic limitations as well as the things played with behind the scenes, something more than intrigue, misinformation and also obsession and even mythology if you can believe it.

 

      The final theme brought to mind an episode where one of the members of Section 9 the least changed with cybernetic implants internally Tougasa, leaves a 500 yen coin on a body, saying it’s for the river ferry  before they zip up the bag. Lies and truths juggled so much that only the capable hands of someone like Section 9 could make it possible. Though what seems like assisting another section of the government isn’t always what it seems, a challenge they always have to face. As in the films there is a clear interpretation of how governments sometimes work, how sometimes they don’t play well with each other and the fallout from that can be quite something.

 

       There’s something about the way each episode is directed and written, it can easily hook someone no matter which episode their sitting down to. You get sometimes this question at the end and they won’t spoon feed the answer, it’s intentional because in some ways they are giving you the answer.  It leaves it to be thought provoking, even when the answer is actually handed to you, there is the sense of lingering that doesn’t hurt the fresh takes of the episodes.   Another driving force in the series that can't be ignored is the music composed by Yoko Kanno famed for her work for Cowboy Bebop to The Vision of Escaflowne. The sometimes jazz sometimes electronic, sometimes classical  fits very well into the thought provoking series. It's only fitting that such a legendary composer would work with such a legendary series. It helps to show how polished this show is right off from the start. It also invites for a widening scope of what the series is.  The length of the Stand Alone Complex allows more than just themes to be expanded and explored but the characters in it as well.

 

     What was it like for Motoko Kusgani, who has lived in a cybernetic prostatic body since she was young, even since before most had. What desires lie under the surface of the tough as nails major, what memories. That is something you'll definitely see in pieces, whether when helping a child with a prostatic body like herself, a strange place she dives into where people watch a movie they can never tear there selves away from or perhaps the story of when first got her body, how she managed to move on.

         Moral walls bumped into repeatedly and how interesting when Batou is the one to hit them, it allows a little more of what makes him the way he is an understanding thing. Batou has evolved in the films and show, always maintained his humor, he can be quick tempered in certain situations when the wall is hit and he too looks at many of the themes in the show as all characters do in it, interesting contrast to the rather philosophical Batou in the second film Ghost In The Shell 2 Innocence. Or is it really, the times that he gets serious aren't too different from those that are in the movie and there are quite a few times that it involves the Major. Even Batou's time as a ranger comes into play, reminding you that Batou is more than what he shows on the surface. The show isn’t satisfied with just having the Major the fascinating one.

        Certain decisions like not wanting to kill robot dogs, rather running from them out of pity and the anger of a killer he remembers from the jungle are just a couple of twists from the character. Everyone, even down to Chief Aramaki of Section 9 gets a broader tale told, while we are already attached to these characters because of the films we watch over and over again, you grow newfound attachments to the characters as well as get interesting stories into how they became the people that they are.  Not to leave out all the other characters of Section 9 in fact you may get a little insight in who they were before they joined, what might have led them down the path, as well as knowing them beyond what you may have seen in the films.

In the first season the underlining case is dealing with the Laughing man, a supposed remerging first class hacker that had originally become known by bringing a CEO of Serano Genomics at gun point on national television to confess the crime he committed. Which really was a stand on corruption in the corporate world. With this reprisal six years later of the supposed return of The Laughing Man it leaves Section 9 to investigate why exactly this hacker who leaves his trademark smile symbol with the hat on the side. Used to block his identity as well as to hack into major networks and figures. What exactly is it that the laughing man wants this time, what does he bring with his reemergence and how deeply affected will Section 9 be after investigating it.

      Soon it becomes clear that anything that is happening now is linked to what happened six years ago. It has to do with the suppression of a vaccine for cyberbrain sclerosis. Even in the future there are diseases we struggle to cure but instead of approving the vaccine they decided to veto it in favor of micromachine treatment which had already been proven ineffective but the profits they stood to gain from the process were far more appealing. As Section 9 plunges deeper into exactly how this came to be realizing that the laughing man could have been trying to expose something far worse, far more corrupt than what anyone could have feared him to be, it will lead so deep into the government that it will even threaten their existence as a unit.

What's interesting about the case is the how something that stands for truth can be twisted into something that is mass marketed, where does something that reveals what is phony also become phony. It definitely has a way of showing how so many struggles for a resolution to a problem in society can become a problem in themselves.  Which begs the question where does the real Laughing Man stand in all this,  what does he comprise of and can anything that had been the purpose of something such as The Laughing Man really survive intact.  

The second season. "2^nd gig" deals with the individual eleven and starts from the repercussions of the first season.  With a let’s say affected Section 9 just to keep you guessing.  However they would come in need after a terrorist group would become a threat known as the Individual Eleven, a group that spurs from the issues of refugees that had come into Japan for cheap labor and later were tossed to the side. Their train of thought and concern for refuges could very well be something that someone is manipulated but their belief in the cause could very well out weigh any outsider's personal motive. It’s up to section 9 to stop the group as well as one person in particular Hideo Kozua that like the laughing man is a particular interest to Motoko. Except in this case there is a possibility she is connected to him in a far more personal way.

       This one focuses more on war as opposed to the statement of effects on relying on technology as the first season had. It also reinforced the time frame of the series and manages to shed a little light in how Japan had come to where it was from before and after the two World Wars. To say these particular threats are nemesis would probably downplay their significance as they reinforce the problems that are present in this future world/Japan. One that would see two more world wars and it’s range of issues can be seen as quite relevant to today.

Ghost In The Shell is all about showing the boundaries we set for ourselves and how we sometimes transcend them, how we search for a way to or do so without knowing. There is no bounds in the future but of course that isn’t the end merely the beginning of something with its own set of dilemmas.  It does something very unique in which it begs you to examine and reexamine certain things in our lives,, almost everything as well as to understand the future they’re in is something close to what the present is becoming and can become.  What the movies have done for fans and may have not for those that had watched it but may have not been nearly as interested, has now something they can offer into spades. The fifty plus episode count has plenty to sink your teeth in and if that’s not enough there was a movie that took place after the second season. The Solid State Society. If the potential of these stories now begins to pique certain viewers interest than they should be prepared for more to come.