Twelve Thingies: A whimper, not a bang
Sadly, someone beat me to the Eliot reference here. Fortunately, it was 2DT in this swell post.
What was it Def Leppard said? It’s better to burn out than to fade away, right? I suppose the going theory would be that going down in flames makes for a much better story. Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, then, is defying conventional heavy metal wisdom. Because although it takes place at the end of the world, this is not the end from some nuclear disaster or a zombie apocalypse movie. In fact, who knows exactly what happened? I suppose you could guess that global warming finally got the best of us, the seas rose, and the bulk of the earth drowned, leaving a few survivors in a simple life on high ground.
It’s that simplicity that makes YKK what it is. The easy-breezy pace of life, the high technology of humanlike robots mingling with old scooters and street markets, the weird plants and creatures that resemble man-made items of yore… it’s fundamentally weird, but only when you step back and look at it as such.
What’s pervasive in your mind throughout YKK is an almost-overwhelming sense of melancholy, of sad nostalgia. The earth itself seems to long for the glory days of humanity, even as it’s in the last phase of reclaiming itself from them. As 2DT mentions, it seems very Japanese to quietly accept the end of the world like this; after all, we don’t see what anyone’s doing elsewhere on earth, but something in YKK does give the impression that this is… just how it is. After all, what can you do? Nothing. It’s over. This is the twilight of humanity, and I only hope that we go with such grace and poise.
It’d be strange to see something out of Japanese culture like Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night.” The eternal line, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” would be quite at odds with the atmosphere that YKK tries to execute.
Yeah I think 2DT made that point well — it would be strange indeed. And YKK is definitely about going as gently as possible into that good night.
Melancholy isn’t sadness, though there is some sadness in it.
But then again, humanity evolved — just not in the way we hoped we would. Our children are the robots, may they live forever.
This is true. I had that thought as well, but I honestly haven’t done much in the way of thinking about the ramifications of that. It’s certainly one of the sadder aspects — the robots flying around in the plane that can’t stop, or trying to serve coffee to people who aren’t there. I suppose we all have to go on for a while after burying our parents, though.
Funny, that quotation came up in my seminar today. Someone suggested that the whimper is actually the cry of the child, because Eliot plays elsewhere with paradoxical combinations of birth and death: ‘this Birth was / Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death’; ‘at this birth season of decease’.
As for YKK itself, I’ve filed it in that group of titles that, while undoubtedly good, would probably bore me to tears if I tried them. I’m glad other people are around to appreciate it properly.
Just because TheBigN likes everything doesn’t mean you shouldn’t listen to him in this case
It certainly made me think right off the bat I’d be bored, although I suppose Aria primed me a little. It’s really more interesting than Aria though, because it’s a decidedly un-dystopian picture of a dystopian future. Your wheels will constantly turn trying to figure out all the things that are left unsaid in the story. Then again, I’m a sucker for hints and unsaid things; it’s a desire that’s rarely satisfied by anime and manga, but how wonderful when it is.
IKnight should forgo his preconceived notions, and check YKK out, in my opinion. He should at least give himself the chance to be bored by it. It’s highly ranked as a manga for a reason.
And great to see that you enjoyed it, otou-san.
Agreed. I’m not sure what makes it so riveting, even without a plot — perhaps it’s the unanswered questions that pick at your brain, but whatever it is I am in love with YKK.
Crap. I really meant to comment on this right when I saw it.
I agonized over using Eliot, because that one line is just so terribly cliche today. But really, what else fits?
I agree on both counts. It’s a very gothy-cliche thing to go to Eliot in general but as you say, it just works here.