Kids on the Slope: Love, Jazz, and Society

Kids on the Slope an anime based on the manga Sakamichi no Apollo by Yuki Kodama--which by the way I have not read yet-- is a great seriies about two young men and a young women and how they are united by jass in a troubled time. And yes without a doubt the 1960's were a troubled time filled with political movements and protesting in the United States and other parts of the world. And you can see this reflected in the series along with other themes.

The story takes place in a small town in 1966 where two lonely young men who never had any other male friends their age meet and even though they have so many differences they become good friends through the love of music. Sentaro being half japanese, his father being a America GI from World War II, was ostrazed and even mistreated by family members and thus became a deliquent. His only friend being Ritsuko his neighbor. Unfortunately this wasn't a isolated case. I once had a coworker tell me how she had a similar experince as a child before her mother came to the States with her father. Unlike Sentaro whose father was unknown, my coworkers father married her mother. However, while in Japan people were not friendly. It's sad that children had to suffer for things that happened before they were born.

The other young man Kaoru also came from a troubled background. His parents divorsed when he was young and his father is constntly leaving him to work on a ship so he's moved around alot since young. Thus he found it difficult to make friends and deal with people. At first he thinks that Sentaro has a great life with a loving familly not realizing that in truth he's an orphen who is happy with his adopted mother and siblings but whose absent adopted father didn't accept him. In meeting they both help each other to grow and find acceptance.

Another social issue thats brought up is with Brother Jun. He plays trumpet when he's in town when he jams with Kaoru and Sen at Mukae records. While at college he gets involved with political movements and finds himself in trouble. His friend is seriouly injured in an altercation with the police and Jun ends up dropping out of school and being disowed by his familly. I believe that this is the same student political movement that one of the charachters in The Twelve Kingdoms first novel mentions to Yoko, when talking of how he was involved in a protest and he crawled under some desks and found himself in another world. However, Junichi doesn't escape to another world he just finds himself looseing everything. Everything but love.

The series is also a love story. Ritsuko initially is in love with Sen. Kaoru falls for Ritsuko. Sen falls in love with Yuriko. Yuriko falls in love with Junichi. Unrequited love, changing hearts, and true love can each be seen in the series. But the most important type of love in the series is that of friendship. And the glue binding them is Jazz.

Jazz is more American then Apple pie. Originating from african drumming and ragtime we get the wonderful and various forms of jazz.  The music in this series is great. I like the fact it shows music beinging people who usually wouldn't get to know each other together. Music is something that can touch the hearts of those who hear it and unite us regardless of who we are. For instance the scene where Kaoru and Sen play at the school festival when there is an equipment issue for the band and everyone is like wow thats amazing. Music is a powerful force.

This series is great to watch. Its not exciting in an action way but it is exciting in a musical way. It reminds me of back in high school when I used to be in concert band, marching band, and Jazz band. Its fun. Not only do you have a great creative team of Yoko Kanno and Shinichiro Watanabe. They did an excellent job as expected.

Zetman: The true path of a hero or what is Justice

(Warning do not read if you haven't watched through at least episode 12)

The Zetman anime even if flawed and seeming to be missing something nonetheless is still a great story with some good themes on the nature of good and evil. There are several questions asked in the story: 1)What is evil? 2)What is justice? 3)What defines a hero?

In Zetman you have two types of evil: evil for the sake of greed and evil that destroys human life. The first type is seen in the Amagi Coorporation. It starts out telling us that they created monsters in the labratory for bloody life and death games used to amuse the wealthy but these monsters called players became self aware and revolted escaping into the human world.  Creating life in order to use it as entertainment is evil. This was driven by their greed. In fact the Amagi coorporation is painted as evil in the series. Kanzaki wanting ZET to have a heart and not to be a killing machine escapes from that evil and raises Jin on the street and in doing so makes him human. You even see greed motivating other charachters in the series to do horrendious deeds. For instance a man Kouga trusted ended up just being someone useing him in order to gain power in the company. The second evil is that which destroys human life. Which would be the regressed players, who contray to the organization EVOL, wants to kill humans and get revenge. These players are not only hunted by ZET and Kouga-kun but even in their organization if caught they will be terminated.

Justice is something hard to define in some ways. The series brings up lots of moral questions. For instance if your sister is held hostage and in danger and 3 high school girls will be killed who do you save. Is it possible to save everyone or do you have to pick and choose? Is it truely the needs of the one out weighs the needs of the few or do we have another choice? Kouga in the begining is only focused on catching the bad guys and destroying evil but Jin is more concerned about saveing everyones life. Does justice really need sacrifies in order to be correct? Through a series of sick games played with his mind Kouga decides to take the same route that Emiya Kirisugu in Fate/Extra does. Destroy evil and save lives no matter the cost. Kouga even goes so far as to kill his own parents becasue the Amagi corporation is the source of the evil destorying so many lives. But is this truely justice?

What is a hero? Is a hero the one who every one sings praises on every street corner? Or the one who hides in the shadows praise unsung? Is it kouga who sacrifices others to save the rest or is it Jin who looks for ways to save everyone? Kouga's sister even says at one point that it looks like Kouga only wants everyone to praise him. Is he truely a hero? In the end I think he looked more like a villian. His obsession with being a hero and being rightous lead him down the path to darkness. While Jin who wasn't even human learns about love and protecting others on his path to giving up humanity. But in the end who was really human? Jin who wanted to save everyone or Kouga who killed his own parents?

Zetman is defiently a dark series. But the questions it asks are definetly intresting. I hope that Viz licenses the manga becuse i really would like to read it. Or maybe i should take a look a kinokuniya and see if they have it. It's a great story and I want to see it in its best form.