December 04, 2008
I just ripped the second disk of Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan and scanned through it. I haven't yet done the first one.
As I was looking at the images, it occurred to me that there was an alternative way of looking at what's going on.
The nominal story is that in the future Sakura (our hero) will invent a form of immortality which, as a side effect, causes all female humans to stop maturing at physical age 12. God, in his infinite wisdom, thinks this is intolerable and he sends some of his angels back in time to kill Sakura before this abomination can take place. The anime takes place in Sakura's present, when he's in school, before he does any of the stuff that gets God mad at him.
But what if that's not really it? How about this instead? Sakura's "immortality" doesn't mean someone can't die, it just means they stop aging. Death is still possible through violence or mischance, and eventually Sakura does die.
And what we're seeing is his punishment in Hell for what he did. Dokuro-chan and the others aren't angels, they're demons. (That's why several of them have horns, you know.)
That's also why he hasn't long since gone insane: God won't permit that because it would desensitize him to his eternal torment.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at
12:34 AM
| Comments (5)
| Add Comment
Post contains 221 words, total size 1 kb.
Leaving aside the normal "what's the point" objection to eternal damnation, what's the point of recreating his soul as a younger boy who has yet to sin in this fashion, and then damning that? Time travel to prevent future catastrophe, okay, maybe. Punishing the guilty for transgressions against nature... if you really want to, I guess. Punishing an innocent for stuff he didn't even do? I mean, he can't even repent!
However... (gulp) That doesn't mean that your explanation is necessarily incorrect. The Japanese don't take their morality from religion in the same way that the West does (did?), so it's entirely possible that they constructed a scenario that requires God to function in ways that are completely evil without even thinking that it might take away from their story, such as it is with Dokuro-chan. I'm reminded of the Chrono Crusade extra which introduces Mary Magdalene as "the first of Jesus' many women." ;p
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at December 04, 2008 03:04 AM (7TgBH)
Well, that's certainly how I felt when I watched the show, so the thought that he's suffering eternal damnation does make me feel a little better.
Posted by: Wonderduck at December 04, 2008 05:50 AM (jcrUS)
I always figured the immortality model was of the second type. Either way, you get something that has the potential of greatly damaging human society, perhaps to the level of causing a mass die off, if possible. I'd hate to think of what exactly it would do to the childbirth mortality/truama situation.
There is also the whole Dokuro is part of a Xanatos gambit to make sure the serum is invented as part of the end times option.
Even if the Japanese are influenced by religion, that would not mean that they have any particular knowledge of Christian theology. My own knowledge is poor, but because of cultural background I know enough to be able to laugh whenever it is brought up in the Japanese media I've seen. Although, the Christian girl in Guyver could be a fairly accurate representation, so it might be a sampling issue.
Posted by: PatBuckman at December 04, 2008 07:43 AM (jz8wZ)
Well, while we're posing alternative theories, might as well post mine.
Sakura is NOT the one who invents the "immortality vaccine." Rather, a girl who is infatuated with him does, and the reason why it's engineered to make all the women into lolis is due to a combination of an apocalyptic application of the "Hell hath no fury" principle, and Sakura's lecherousness (which is really mild, as Japanese lechery goes, but love and/or obession tends to blow these things out of proportion).
The angels have been sent to disrupt the relationship that causes such bitter jealousy, without harming or impeding the girl who actually DOES invent the "immortality vaccine," as it would benefit the entire human race if it could only be created without being tainted by envy.
Posted by: Tatterdemalian at December 04, 2008 09:43 AM (4njWT)
Posted by: BigD at December 04, 2008 12:35 PM (LjWr8)
Enclose all spoilers in spoiler tags:
[spoiler]your spoiler here[/spoiler]
Spoilers which are not properly tagged will be ruthlessly deleted on sight.
Also, I hate unsolicited suggestions and advice. (Even when you think you're being funny.)
At Chizumatic, we take pride in being incomplete, incorrect, inconsistent, and unfair. We do all of them deliberately.
How to put links in your comment
Comments are disabled. Post is locked.21 queries taking 0.0093 seconds, 22 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.