Unwinnable

First thing’s first: say it with me. “Tek—No—Lies.” Well done! OK. Now make your way through a dizzying, wordless 11-minute narrative montage, and we’ll descend together into Lux.

Immediately following 2002’s Haibane Renmei (see last week’s column), ABe Yoshitoshi provided character designs for Hamasaki Hiroshi’s Texhnolyze (2003, 22 episodes), a post-genocidal, underworld masterpiece of animated storytelling complete with bio-robotic technological innovation, class warfare, precognition, evolutionary psychology and a healthy bout among existential, nihilistic, and utilitarian philosophies. And it’s pretty good. (more…)

An entire genre of anime exists that is dedicated to exploring quotidian events that can culminate in life-altering experiences. These shows are often very slowly paced, colored in soft pastels and set to light, whimsical scores. Little happens in the plot and there is much comic relief (from boredom, I guess). ABe Yoshitoshi’s Haibane Renmei (2002, 13 episodes) might have suffered the same shortfalls of much of this ‘slice of life’ anime were it not for one major discrepancy: the characters in this slice of life are all dead. (more…)