I once wrote a post discussing my intense response to Clannad After Story, which had everything to do with my experience with fatherhood. I was reminded of this today when I read a news article about a devastating death that brought a similarly strong response, but in a much more tragic and painful sense.
We each bring our individual experiences with us when we experience media. They affect our enjoyment of series, movies, and readings, and how we interpret these pieces. Maybe most profoundly, our experiences can evoke emotional responses with us, some of them from very deep within. These experiences affect who we are, how we view the world, and even how we view the invisible world (if we believe in one).
But what about you?
What scenes from an anime or which series have evoked a powerful (and perhaps unexpected) response within you? Why?
I can only think of a list of spoilers, but here goes:
1. The Death of Pacifica Casull’s mother in Scrapped Princess (Saddest scene ever)
2. The Pseudo-Death of Rose in Solty Rei (Very sad)
3. The killer twins arc in Black Lagoon (Really made me think about human sinfulness)
4. The scene where the cyborg has a prayer answered in Twin Signal (that was completely unexpected, only in the sub version)
5. That famous scene which occurs after Lelouch accidentally casts a Geass on Euphemia (I doubt whether there was a single person who was not distraught by this scene)
I’ve never seen any of the series (and probably won’t), so I don’t mind the spoilers. 😉
With the exception of #5 that is. I’ve posted about that scene before – it was very troubling for me. It stayed with me days and weeks after I watched it. Very good example.
Well, Black Lagoon’s pretty violent and Twin Signal’s a fun, but average show; but you really should watch Scrapped Princess and Solty Rei. The former’s a classic of the fantasy genre and comes from the pen of Ichiro Sakaki, who’s a household name in Japan.
Solty Rei has a particularly awesome hero, a bounty hunter who feels that he has nothing to live for after the death of his wife and daughter. This tragedy has just about completely warped his personality. He starts to find meaning in life after meeting a cute android in the form of a young girl named Solty. You’d probably love it. Here’s a link to a review: http://www.anime-planet.com/reviews/a384.html.
You know, I’ve considered Solty Rei a number of times in the past. Thanks for the info!
I have yet to see anything in any medium (barring any Crucifixion scene) as the eclipse in Berserk. Spoilers: in order to fulfill the antagonist’s dream (who has been the general of a mercenary band) he sacrifices every single one of his soldiers to demonic forces, and you spend the entire episode watching them being torn to shreds and eaten alive (bar the main character and his love interest, who is raped by said antagonist at the end of the episode). I felt like ripping my teeth out at the end of the episode, and the only other time I wanted to do that was after watching Apocalypse Now.
I’ve seen Code Geass as well, and trust me, the shock value doesn’t lay a finger on the eclipse (which, despite my description, is the culmination of a bunch of themes and symbols that were going on during the show, making it far more than just a shock-value tactic).
On a happier note, Madoka’s transformation into the Goddess left me in tears the second time I watched it — that’s obviously due to my religious background.
Ah, well, yes, that scene from Berserk does sound a lot more shocking than Code Geass. Yet another reason why I’ll avoid that series.
Madoka’s a great example!
Madoka’s Transformation was beautiful.
I also started sobbing the first time I watched Euphie’s Fall in Code Geass.
One of my favorite scenes outside the emotion packed animes was actually the midseason Climax of Fresh Precure. For those of you who are reading who aren’t familiar with this series it’s basically the Girl’s version of the Sentai programs (Read Power Rangers if you’re not in the know and is shown after them every week actually). It can steal ideas from them at times. For example, this time around, we have the introduction of the ‘Sixth Ranger’ or Villain turned to the side of Justice. She had been alone all of her life living in a world without emotion, love, only blind obedience to the Alternate Dimension’s overlord. She had come to understand the pain and suffering she was directly causing in performing her orders and it depressed her until… Call her Red ranger for simplicity… decided that her family would adopt her. That episode was full of showing this young woman what exactly Love, and what the bonds between a family meant that was so beautifully well done that I found myself tearing up at the end.
Thanks for sharing – that does sound very moving!
Also, it seems like Euphie’s fall and Madoka’s sacrifice seemed to be particular impacting moments for lots of people.
[…] week, Charles over at Beneath the Tangles asked “What scenes from an anime or which series have evoked a powerful (and perhaps unexpected) […]
I don’t this is rather late, haha, but I have more than 4,000 emails still to go, most of them subscriptions left over from my one month vacation in june to July. I don’t delete, i read all of them. So, I’m trying to catch up. Anyways, the anime that moved me was Graveyard of the Fireflies…. I know there are others, but I think this is the one that made me cry.
Very powerful story – all the more so since it’s based on reality. Thanks for sharing. 🙂