Forum - View topicTrains and symbolism?
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ailblentyn
 Posts: 1688 Location: body in Ohio, heart in Sydney |
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I'm trying to think of examples of symbolic trains in anime.
My starting point was the train-in-space as metaphor for the soul's journey "Night on the Galactic Railroad" and "Spring and Chaos", and the (apparently) not unrelated train-in-space as metaphor for life's journey in "Galaxy Express 999". But I'm thinking there are probably many other examples of trains as symbols in anime. Here are two, but can anyone add any? - Firstly, the train ride in "Spirited Away", which seems again a symbol of life's journey, with emphasis (it seems to me) on the things and people encountered and left behind. -The train at the end of "Only Yesterday" is used to do something quite different. By alighting from the train, Taeko is not just literally returning to Toshio, but also heeding a call from her past to get off the life track she's on. She's on the wrong metaphorical train! So, other candidates for "Great symbolic trains of anime"? (Obviously all the above are interpretations and open to challenge anyway!) |
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6588 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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Another common train metaphor is connection-separation. The king of this metaphor is Makoto Shinkai.
His most recent film, 5 Centimetres Per Second is practically built around the notion. In the first section Takoko visits Akari by train. Heavy snow delays the trains for hours. In the last section the two are separated by passing trains at a road crossing. This last trope is also used prominently in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Koi Kaze. |
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agila61
 Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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A much smaller train symbolism, but still a train symbolism in anime the train ride in the final episode of the final season of Maria-sama ga Miteru (season 4, ep. 13). The distance that the pair travel out of Tokyo into the mountains as they take one train to another and at least a shuttle bus to the final destination symbolizes both the distance that Touko-chan has placed between herself and others and the willingness of Fumi-san to make the effort to bridge the distance.
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Errinundra
Moderator
Posts: 6588 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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agila61, a similar thing happens in Clannad After Story where Tomoya and Ushio travel a long way in order to re-connect.
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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This is a little outside the scope of your topic, but in the second half of Otogi Zoshi the railway system of Tokyo plays an important part, not just in terms of the plot but also regarding the symbolism. Problem is, the symbolism is a little complex, and there are also several spoilers attached.
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RHachicho
 Posts: 897 Location: Essex, UK |
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While not strichtly speaking an Anime the Midgar trains in Final Fantasy 7 seemed to reak of the same kind of symbolism. With their dinginess and overboard secuirity mirroring the corruption and facism of midgar itself. And symbolising the beggining of their journey.
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poilk92
 Posts: 433 Location: Long Beach California |
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[Don't bother to make your post if all it's going to be is mindless trolling crap like this. - Key]
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Unicorn_Blade
 Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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Haibane Renmei had a wonderful, symbolic scene with the train towards the ending... I would probably to watch it again though to describe it in detail, it has been a while since I saw it.
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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The train in The Girl who Leapt through Time was used as a rather important device: the process of the chimes sounding, the crossing barriers descending and the train approaching recurs several times. After the first time one sees such a sequence, one comes to associate it with doom and ill-consequence — there is a tangible sense of relief when we see the train pass without any incurrence of harm.
Out of all the animated scenes to have involved a train, I have seen few that are more stirring than the finale of Baby Blue, a part of Genius Party. Though not pertaining to the train itself, what the viewer sees beside the track is so very affectionate, and alone acts to bring the short film to a conclusion. Its poignancy is made more intense by the fact the passenger quickly becomes transfixed by the gesture he sees, even though his train passes it at a great speed. |
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ailblentyn
Posts: 1688 Location: body in Ohio, heart in Sydney |
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Thanks! So many I hadn't thought of - or haven't seen. I had completely forgotten about Shinkai's love of time spent travelling in trains, not to mention the inexorable trains of fate in The Girl Who Leapt through Time and Haibane Renmei. (How could I have forgotten that?)
Travelling in trains, railway crossings as barriers, glimpsing something through the window of a fast-moving train, railway networks, trains that run on an unforgiving timetable, ... oncoming trains! spoiler[Do you think Reki was actually run over by Big One from The Galaxy Railways?] 
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agila61
Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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In Serial Experiments Lain there is a bit of that too, which seems very natural give that the series opens spoiler[with a suicide jumping in front of a train]. Passing in trains moving the opposite direction to symbolize separation shows up in Tokyo Godfathers as well. |
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Nerv1
 Posts: 601 |
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There is a recurring train scene that occurs in Shinji's mind trips in Evangelion. It seems to symbolize that it is a personal hell( the worst day of his life might have been when his father sent him away on a train, as implied), as he is constantly shown in the sequences when he thinks of the crap things in his life.
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agila61
Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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Yes, the train ride or the train station symbolizing separation ... in Evangelion, given the explicitly psychological subtexts, symbolizing alienation ... again, in miniature rather than writ large, that appears in Marimite in the Forest of Thorns arc in season one, Sei Setou waits at a train station spoiler[to run away with Shiori Kubo, but after a long despairing wait its Sei Setou's onee-sama who appears instead]. And in Aoi Hana, the two friends meet for the morning at the train station, but I don't think that is symbolic so much as where two friends are likely to meet for the first time in the morning on the way to school. |
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EricJ
 Posts: 876 |
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In Ghost Sweeper Mikami, the team has to investigate a haunted train about to be retired, only to find out that the train itself is the ghost, having developed its own sentient spirit after so many brave years on the tracks--Just like all the other brave trains that united Japan back in the day, etc.
(A standard Japanese belief that old faithful objects would develop a spirit, but it was easy for the show to fall into cultural nationalism.) |
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Moonsaber
 Posts: 343 Location: USA |
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For an example outside anime, does one find it interesting that the first real shadow battle in Persona 3 is of a runaway train? Is this symbolizing the start of the journey?
You see a lot of fresh starts in anime like this, such as the Twins in Myself, Yourself leaving by train. Bokuru ga Ita has a theme of leaving by train, and a fair amount of shows start with arrival by train, possibly meaning a start of change. One example of this is Kanon. Of course, with train travel as common as it is in Japan, this is open to interpretation, but in my opinion anime directors and writers are aware of symbolism. |
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