How Did Naoko Takeuchi Influence Magical Girl Anime?

The original Japanese voicing for D is extremely subdued, which is accomplished beautifully by Showtaro Morikubo. His portrayal of D is one of quiet intensity and barely containing his emotions. As a result, he has influenced the voice acting for many stoic heroes afterwards. In a big shift from the typical over-the-top, larger than life voice acting of earlier anime, his style of voice acting for D is much more cinematographically natural and intends to delve deeper into the characters’ psyches as opposed to grandly voicing them. And that’s just really cool.

A note on the detectives: In Gone Girl, the police are amateurish and outsmarted by Amy. But in The Girl on the Train, a detective helps to uncover the truth and there are several key moments of insight but these come from the detective and also from Rachel’s damaged memory. The work of a detective and the retrieval of truth from within a self damaged by past trauma is a theme that moves from outsmarting a system to internal truth-seeking.

A lesser known example: Read or Die (OVA and TV series). The main antagonist of the OVA is a woman trying to conquer the world with paper. In the TV series R.O.D the TV, Yomiko Readman’s protégées, The Paper Sisters, are all powerful bibliophiles who use their skills to work as bodyguards. As they are incredibly powerful, The Paper Sisters also give their charges a hand in battle. The main villain, Joker, is also a powerful woman. Overall the series is a lot of fun, an action packed takes on the idea that knowledge (books) is power, mainly held by women.

'The Quiet Girl' is a heart breaking but uplifting film that ends with Cáit returning to her troubled home, but she has been changed by the love of Colm’s family. The film is very restrained and does not contain any grand speeches. However the quiet glances that there are, are very meaningful. The final shot of Cáit walking away down the road is incredibly moving and is made all the more powerful by Colm’s soft voice calling out her name.

A very practical theme of communication and its failure is developed in the stories: missed calls and texts that do not arrive, names forgotten, letters that arrive late. Most of the plots are constructed around the communications between the two body-swapped characters and the failed attempts to understand each other in the world that they are both in to return to. The moments of clear and perfect understanding in all the stories are extremely rare and precious against the background of so much ‘noise’. The themes are not limited to romantic misunderstandings but extend to the basic problems of human communication in order to convey one’s inner world to another human being. The supernatural elements in the stories are often used as a metaphor for such communication: a magical connection that goes around the normal ways of human communication and conveys the message of the supernatural connection that is so difficult to achieve in real life.

Community impact: The main-stream anime fandom creates a ton of fan art, fan fiction, videos analysing the story, characters, etc. We have a great site here (in terms of content) but the site’s culture is very closed off and consumptive. Right now, this site is more of a library than a forum, so all we really do is tag and rate. This experience is significantly different from that of the typical user of mainstream anime fandom sites, where engaging with the content is typically a social and creative activity. As opposed to engaging in private, passive consumption on the Website, fans of anime frequently gather to collaboratively analyze an episode of a show like ‘Attack on Titan’ or to look at a doujinshi. Therefore, the difference is not just in the type of content (be it doujinshi or TV anime), but rather the types of behaviors and communities said content fosters. Mainstream anime fandoms encourage outward-looking creative endeavors, whereas the ANIM provision caters to a consumption-based solitary habit.

I think this title is also reinterpreted at the end of the story. At first we understand “The Girl in the Park” to be Charlotte, the little girl whom Julia wants so desperately. And in the end “The Girl” could also be Julia’s lost daughter and she can find her in every park, in every public space. Or “The Girl” could also be Julia herself. She is stuck in the same park where she lost her daughter and she cannot leave her there. The story dissolves the figure of the little girl and we are left with the feeling of loss in normal circumstances. And that’s how The Park functions as well. It’s any public space in which we feel the painful closeness of the past. Julia leaves a particular park but she carries “the girl” with her.

For me, one of the biggest assets to the series is the extreme depth given to all of the characters and how they experience life on this crazy rollercoaster with us. Needless to say, the attempt to try to uncover further meaning as well as speculated alternate storylines have brought forth many captivating Nana fan theories. As was stated previously, many believe that the relationship between the two Nanas (Osaki & Komatsu, or simply ‘Hachi’) will shape up in unique ways as they each attempt to fulfill their separate quests for life. Some speculate that perhaps the two dream-chasers are meant to search for stability with each other and debate what will happen if each of them ends up living alternate lives. Maybe their relationship will symbolize hope, and the chase for both of their lives and ambition. The fate of Ren can also lead to interesting discussions within the ‘Nana’ fan community. Many of them wonder whether Nana Osaki would have grown up as much as she did if Ren hadn’t died, and how her life would have been different. It’s possible that Ren could have brought Nana back down to earth, or maybe he would have fueled her darker ambitions. Nana Osaki’s emotional reactions to Ren’s death are felt throughout the story and spark conversations regarding how loss affects people to such great extent. There are also many great theories related to the timeframe of the novel and the relations of its characters. It’s said that the novel presents a non-linear timeframe of its characters, therefore they are distant from reality. The theories of the fans are also split around the issue of whether the characters are pursuing their dreams or just illusions. Does the reality of the characters blend with their fantasies? Are they trying to fulfill their destiny? These are the kinds of questions that fans have to answer while discussing the series and they have numerous interpretations. But, the largest amount of interpretations for every event that is taking place in the series, weave together within the story line of ‘Nana’ and expose the merits of an excellent story writer. For this reason, there are plenty of discussion themes within the series for everyone. Each of the stories mirroring human relations and their aspirations, allow viewers to relate to them, inspire discussion and teach a lesson, thereby, enabling the series to remain one of the great and classic works of Japanese pop culture, even to this day.

One of the things that I found particularly impressive about the ending of this thriller was the way it was character-driven even as the plot of the mystery was being solved. Rather than focusing on the why of Wren’s return, I was most interested in the younger sister’s reactions to the woman. She cycled through rage, grief and even pity for Wren within a few pages, and each of those emotions felt true to someone who had grown up processing complex trauma. The older sister, who had become the more level-headed of the two in terms of survival, was practical and started making plans for their new life, including where they would live and how they would get therapy. But the rest of the emotions in the scene, especially the younger sister’s, were gripping and gave a sense of the scope of what they had been through. The freedom they had been searching for was paralyzing, and while there was no more villain to fight, the real struggle was just beginning. The author depicted the sisters as being woefully unprepared to deal with life on their own and that gave continued tension even after the main plot point had been resolved. It was a very sobering and realistic depiction of the “after” of a kidnapping story, something that so many other stories ignore in favor of just the rescue. Overall, that focus on the aftermath of the story was what made this ending and this book so exceptional in the thriller genre.

A related manga work would be the manga adaptation of ‘The Legend of Korra’ after the series has concluded. The adaptation follows the continuation of Korra’s journey, to master the elements and the Avatar State, but also to dominate her own personal demons, such as her past, her self-doubt, as well as politics in a changing era. Korra is eventually able to learn how to dominate, not with brute force, but as a masterful leader and mediator, dealing with the spiritual consequences of her actions. The manga follows a wonderful domination-of-self narrative.