Forum - View topicGegege no Kitarou (TV).
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15580 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 53
Okay, I think that this was one of the times I was not really on board for whole message of the episode, even if it did not appear too bad. The episode actually kind of linked back to the first episode, with the return of the YouTuber out for attention, causing trouble with a Youkai again, pulling a dirty to get attention. While not exactly straight up offensive, how it handled in the end came off a bit insensitive. Specifically what turned me off was a line where the guy that many of us connected to the Logan Paul controversy, says that he wants to make it off ad revenue on YouTube, or he would have to get a real job. The implication being that a YouTuber is not a real job. The episode ended where it looks like he avoided the corporate pathway to instead go into hospitalities at a restaurant. While not quite the cog in the machine he was afraid of, it kind of disregards that the independent media of a YouTuber, that there is worth in an audience's attention, and the people can put a lot of work into it without just trying to use dirty tricks. The Game Theorists have been especially strong in showing the work required, looks at the morality of the content creators, how it can be a force of good, and yeah some of the problems. It just feels like this episode was too much in the defence of old media, by too strong of a strawman of things like YouTube. At least as it now stands, but it would require something to balance itself out. |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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Honestly, I have to wonder what show you're watching. Social media have been a target of criticism throughout the entire series. It's pretty clear the writers think kids have better uses for their time than staring at screens involved in chat groups or following some "Ootuber." I think the issues around social media are presented in a more sophisticated fashion in Gatchaman Crowds, but the target for episodes like this one are the 10-14 year-olds in the audience eating their breakfasts and watching Kitarou on a Sunday morning.
I think Ootuber-guy might discover he really has a talent for video productions, but he needs to learn a lot of humility first. Both Medama-Oyaji and guest star Hikakin share the same advice: take your time, find what you love, and then become your own "main character." |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15580 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Geez, I can be inconsistent.
Episode 55 The episode did get my attention, the message of the episode being about a change in times, where things are not always as acceptable as they once were. Possibly of interest where this show is half the time about how the ancient yokai can be seen as relevant again for modern issues. The episode's titular Hihi seeming already having gone through renaissance, where his energy was put towards the training of young women for tennis, but the methods pretty much amounting to now days as harassment. A bit of a tight line, where clearly being put that some of the things he was being accused of as harassment, were kind of silly, and just innocent while he was trying to be helpful. There was a real risk there of saying that modern calls against things of harassment are exaggerations, and the men who get accused of it are the real victims. But it kind of veered off a bit that really things may have been seen as fine in the past, and could have even work for both parties to have felt fulfilled from some things, it might simply just not fly now. Yeah, it did seem that media was being shown as kind of silly about scrutinizing him so harshly, but despite how it did seem that the girl was being a little petty in being overly friendly with her worthless new coach, her own choice and feeling safe was probably still valid. I liked the episode, because while it did seem maybe a bit like a silly story, and perhaps a jab at reactionary media, I see other things that are relevant. You see it often the people who are clearly old school, complain about all sorts of red tape, maybe saying that there is too much political correctness, and they see things worked fine before, and they think it is dumb how things have become. They may not be malicious, and they can point to what they see as the good of how things were. And they can kind of be victims, because they simply cannot fit in with how things have become, despite being a veteran that should be listened to, but despite that I think that it is probably wrong to try and bend over backwards to try and accommodate to the old school, when standards have changed and say that is wrong. Especially in the west you have the "Me Too", which has actually felt like it has been overdue for showing the terrible things that somehow still treated as okay. Sort of less broadly it has me thinking about entertainment, and how you could connect that to the series' main theme of yokai. Gaijin Goombah recently did a video titled: The History of Yokai in Japan!. It was a start to a new series he was starting to focus on yokai, with him already done a lot on ninja in pop culture, and there was some pretty interesting stuff. Like about how yokai became small legends based on phenomena, to catalogued, to then disproving and trying to remove, before being seen as something relevant for Japanese history and should be remembered for their heritage. And that how the stories and monsters have been repurposed and as to meet relevancy of different times, where something that was just evil incarnate could become the face of something else, and I think this show is one such example. This episode in particular was an interesting point about how sometimes things don't translate the best over a changing of times, they even had a quick mention that in old legends the Hihi would kidnap young women, a legend that's subcontext would not be okay for something meant to be more friendlier now. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15580 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 83
Sometimes this show has really weird morals. Really could not get past how everyone seemed to blame one guy, a musician, just for taking a picture of a tree he likes. A bunch of young adults (or such) leave trash behind to visit the area, and blame Takumi. The old guy apparently does not like the trash and new people, so he organises for the tree to get cut down, and blames Takumi, rather than put things in place to try and counter the extra people and stop trash. And then the Yokai does a bunch of shitty things in trying to kill people, an overreaction to the people who simply went there, and started lots of house fires, and blame Takumi again. And the show never said that the Takumi guy was completely innocent in all this, unfairly having blame put on. Kind of feels like the episode had some level of Japan's over the top views of hatred to outsiders who mean no harm, like calling foreigners a problem for simply not understanding local customs. Weird traditions that trump on freedoms, rather than being fair. I have similar problem to an episode a while back, where the apparent good episode to a story where a guy wanted to leave the responsibility forced onto him of being expected to be a priest, had all his friends die and had to be such a priest. Because apparently traditions matter most, and you have to follow them rather than do what you want. And also the Halloween episode from a few episodes back, where apparently the day was characterised as an excuse for people to act like idiots and be destructive. Watched a Gaijin Goomba video that explained that it was pulling from a specific venue area where there have been problems, and mischaracterised event holders. The fact that it comes from a foreign festival to be just as much of a reason it was saying that it was bad. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15580 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 97 (finale)
I am mostly glad that it has finally ended, it has had a bit of a nice run, but it has mostly felt like this adaption with Mana should end. It is hard to say things like the anti war message it ended on are bad, it even seemed to especially critical of nihilistic self destruction on matters of pride. but I also think not everything was done with the most careful hand. You can see the last few times I posted here on the show it was times that I don't think its message was the best or done so in a way I agree with, and it only took some of these to feel like it had poisoned the rest of it. I could see some things as really just a cultural thing to Japan, with perhaps giving a good insight into a common Japanese mindset. But I was not always comfortable with how it could feel like scapegoating via making things ridiculously bad or a type of logic I can't follow. In the end it was just kind of starting to feel like the characters in this show were being used as crutches for the topic of the week, with some lack of long term character development to be worth time. Rat man for instance just kind of repeatably acted as an irredeemably awful character that caused or helped make worse about 1/4 of problems, that I can't believe why any good person would give them the time of day and not stop causing the next person that could hurt a lot of people. It also felt like character were often way too simple and quick to result to awful things, that it just made them often feel like they were stupid, especially if their opinions could change quickly. I know that this final arc was putting up some explanation of people suddenly becoming irrationally angry and violent as if it was some dark cloud of negativity, but it just felt like a way to get character to act how they wanted. Anyway, happy this is over, that I don't have to feel like possibly adding another take from an episode I was not really into as damaging the rest of the series that could be good. Also feels like a bit of a commitment to watch. Still not happy how the western yokai thing was done, like Japan gets monsters with deep and really old mythology to them, while the west gets things like Frankenstein and pop ideas of witches. My rating is So-so (5/10), I might even recommend watching the first cour or so, and some episodes could be good, but the sheer volume it became and what I would call poisonous episodes, it became something that mostly lost my attention other than just finishing it. |
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