It can get a little tiring thinking about plot and character all the time, can’t it? The Araragi Theory of Bakemonogatari, the Nasu-ified story of CANAAN, the theme of the value of life (and, well, brotherhood) in FMA: Brotherhood – while all of these things are good by themselves, they can easily lead to a mentally-taxed viewer.
Well, when you look at it objectively, being mentally taxed isn’t exactly a bad thing. If anything, it’s good to have stuff to think about while watching anime, but as everyone knows, sometimes it’s nice to just kick back and relax. But what is it about these shows that lets us do that? Aria is an extreme case, but even so, what is it about the show that causes it to be such a stress reliever? The characters and story are part of it, but surely that isn’t everything. When I started questioning why I fell so easily for a show about baseball girls in the early 20th century, though, I knew it was time to get to the bottom of it.
The term “milieu” in literature refers to the environment or setting in which a story takes place. Thankfully, that’s not what I’m here to talk about (I could do with a lecture on the topic myself). What I do want to talk about is how basic things like setting and premise can affect a person’s enjoyment of a show, and how vague intangibles like atmosphere can often make or break a story.
It sounds strange when you put it that way. If a story is good, then isn’t it just that: good? How can a good story be bad? And yet, when it comes time to input your MAL ratings, you probably find yourself wondering how much you enjoyed the series you just finished, weighing its objective quality against your subjective experience. It’s difficult to describe because it’s all internal, but when you do away with the independent factors that define what a show is about, it’s surprising to find that there are still a lot of aspects that could affect your enjoyment.
Really, I’m not using this as an excuse to post pictures of Hazuki!
If I said that I like goth-loli character designs and therefore I like Tsukuyomi, you’d probably take it the wrong way, so let’s look at it from a different angle. What makes Tsukuyomi appealing to me? Well, there’s Hazuki, of course. Looking at moe as an aesthetic, that means that I like the art and character designs. Fair enough. But Tsukuyomi isn’t the only show to feature goth-lolis, and yet it’s certainly the only one to make me react like this. So why did it happen, then? It’s because it involves more than just goth-loli character designs; it’s saturated in the romanticized gothic anime setting.
I suppose it would be unfair to compare Tsukuyomi to Victorian literature since, for one, vampires were scary back then. But that aside, it’s a fact that the show is stuffed to the brim with the kind of imagery (mysterious misty castle), architecture (design of said castle), music (eerie, string-heavy), and all-around tone that people usually associate with the Victorians and their horror stories. Of course, since this is an anime, those things should instantly bring to mind magic battles and vampire lolis.
The same can be said for similar stories like the manga Tetragrammaton Labyrinth, which I fell for instantly for no apparent reason. Looking back, the reason was actually quite obvious: I like gothic settings in anime, especially when they’re accompanied by vague fanservice (or in this case yuri, which makes the deal arguably sweeter).
At any rate, back to Taishou Yakyuu Musume. Why am I raving over this show when I could be pretending to analyze Fullmetal Alchemist or scouring Danbooru for new Senjougahara pictures? Well, it’s because of something completely indescribable.
It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
That’s it, really. It doesn’t overload my heart like a good shoujo manga, nor my moe-senses like the aforementioned goth-loli paradise; it’s just plain warm and fuzzy, in the truest sense of the word. The everyday adventures of a bunch of 1920s Japanese girls as they fight against society’s norms shouldn’t rank too highly in my book, even if it’s got a touch of romance and it’s closer to being a comedy than a drama. And yet, contrary to my common sense and preconceptions, I can’t help but feel good every time I finish an episode.
And that’s about all I can say. I did say that these things were intangible, remember? There’s no way to describe it: it’s simply a magical combination of plot, character, aesthetic, and dialogue that produces an atmosphere that can only be described as pleasant. The same goes for all atmospheres of all genres – you can never put your finger on it and describe it as you want to, but the moment you start watching, you know it’s there. It’s that invisible X-factor that makes a good thing even better.
~ ETERNAL
つづく
