YOU KNOW, LIKE, "NYAH" ❀ TEXT

[smileyfaced]

I'm disappointed to see a lack of diversity in our entertainment. Given the work we're doing, I thought there'd be a greater selection to choose from.

Therefore, I propose we use this space to bring URSULA's attention to any media she should have in her databases. We clearly can't accept whatever people suggest willy-nilly, so I will preside as a judge to help filter submissions.

Here is my contribution:

Top 5 Animes of All Time (Not Up For Debate)
1. Death Diary
2. Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2
3. F8/Magical Future Dream
4. Hellchorus
5. Neon Elfen Tales: Nightmare Fall Reloaded

Discuss the merits of your top five shows. Provide a short synopsis so I know exactly what I'm to judge.

Comments

[smileyfaced]

While anime is the blatantly superior media, I'll accept others. What are you bringing to the table?

[despairing_hope]

Perhaps The Demon of the Lonely Isle by Edogawa Ranpo, a lot of his works are rather interesting in fact. Twilight Syndrome is also a good game series that wouldn't be so bad to have around. I am a Cat by Natsume Souseki. Dark Water by Koji Suzuki, I don't mind his other works as well which include Ring. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

[They were all mostly books.]

Rule of Rose was also a good game. Maybe No Escape series as well. Oh and for anime I rather liked Bug Master. It's very whimsical. And maybe Summer's Book of Friends as well. Ah but if I mention that I can't ignore Into the Forest of Fireflies' Light].

[smileyfaced]

[Oh, literature. They're foreign authors, but Chara recognizes some of the names.]

Interesting choices. May I ask why you chose The Demon of the Lonely Isle over his other works?

Your taste in anime is... cute. I can permit those. They will be shortlisted.

[despairing_hope]

It's some of his best, even if it was the beginning of him conforming to the standards of the time as best he could. However I would still say it is one of the best examples of Ero Guro. It was also quite daring considering the characters and the time it was published. Though I suppose a bit less daring then than if it had been published later.

As for why that one, it was too easy to say something like The Fiend with Twenty Faces or The Black Lizard I also don't really like the title character in that. She's clever, and her plans are interesting. But her desires are flat and despairing.

[smileyfaced]

Humans are simple. And I believe despair fits right into the genre of Ero Guro, does it not? The Black Lizard's desire to preserve beauty--while perverting it into something grotesque--is a stellar example.

[despairing_hope]

That is true, they are quite despairing. Perhaps it is because she is who we see the story through, instead of Akechi san solving the case. It creates a desire to see her succeed, and yet we also desire to see how Akechi san will capture her. There's a duality that exists. And... up to a certain point I could equally root for both, who was more clever? Who would one up the other. But then... such despair. I would have been fine with simply keep a human zoo, perhaps even the skinning. It's the drowning somehow that felt so despairing. Even though Akechi san always wins, it didn't quite feel like Hope won in the end for that particular story.

I suppose this is just a conflicting interest of mine.

It's sort of like stories where the protagonist is revealed to be the villain at the end of the novel. It's an interesting twist, it's surprising, and yet, there's a feeling of conflict, of duality there.

[The more he thought about it the more he felt conflicted. Somehow now it was far more important that Hope be prominent than it had been before. Perhaps it was because he had read all these before....]

[smileyfaced]

Hope seems a rather important concept to you.
What would a hopeful ending have been?
It's not as though the Black Lizard could be allowed to roam freely. She was beyond redemption.

[despairing_hope]

Perhaps if she hadn't simply poisoned herself in the end. It was giving up. Though, at the same time and for the era I can't really think of a better way to have ended the story.

[smileyfaced]

Not to mention the subjectivity of "hope." It's an unreliable construct.

[despairing_hope]

Not really, you just have to consider the context.

[smileyfaced]

Are you saying you can draw hope from any situation?

[despairing_hope]

Of course you can. Even the most despairing of situations will only be stepping stones for an even greater hope!

[smileyfaced]

For those who can afford to obtain hope, perhaps. But those who are bereft by fate and of the means to gain hope are merely buying into a delusion. That's poison.

[despairing_hope]

No one is beyond hope, unless they've been consumed by despair. But that's someone giving up if they desired hope to begin with. That's a person not strong enough to fight for it. A person lacking enough hope to see their own future. Or those sorts of people who simply embrace despair.

[smileyfaced]

So, what? Those who hope are strong and those who fall into despair are weak?

[despairing_hope]

No, Hope favors the weak after all. The strong don't need it as much. Those who are strong are more likely not to fight their all for it. Their hope wasn't strong enough for them to fight against despair is all.

To lose to despair, it's the worst. It's unforgivable.

[smileyfaced]

Says the person who loves Ero Guro works. Don't you think that's hypocritical?

[despairing_hope]

I wouldn't say I love them, but I can appreciate their literary artistry. But my enjoyment of those sorts of themes in fiction have nothing to do with my opinions on hope.

There's genres I like way more, like mysteries, supernatural suspence.

[smileyfaced]

If you say so. You do seem the sort to enjoy a gruesome murder case, however.

[despairing_hope]

Only the hope inspired from it! Though getting to solve complex murders is fun. There's also something to be said about aranging a perfect murder as well!

[smileyfaced]

Oh? How can hope be inspired from arranging a murder? Do elaborate.

[despairing_hope]

It depends on the situation. On one hand perhaps the person murdered was one who brought despair. Or, perhaps the one doing the murder must do it in order to achieve their hopes. Perhaps murder is the only choice given to a group and engaging in it is the way to strive forward towards their desires. There's also using murder to make it so others must work hard and struggle over adversity and thus strengthening their hope.