Sep 11, 2012
When Winston Smith was brought into Room 101 in 1984, he was forced to face his greatest fear, rats, and in doing so, he betrayed his love and solidified Big Brother's grip on him. He loved Big Brother because that was all his crushed spirit could possibly see.
One is my Room 101 anime. O'Brien would strap me into that chair, fit the wire cage on my head and I'd have blind girls, pretentious ghosts and a fountain of tears struggling to form. But unlike Winston, I would not give in. My spirit would not be crushed. Onii-sama would not have me in his mad clutches.
...
One would teach me that I could still feel pain and that it is good to feel and to stay alive.
If I could emerge from One still wanting to draw breath into my lungs, it would mean that, yes, life still means enough to me to go on living. If I can escape from the fresh hells One introduces with each episode -- if I can crawl out from under the misery heaped upon the poor viewer who surely does not deserve such a cruel fate as watching One, unless he, of course, broke a promise to a childhood friend -- then I can survive anything life throws at me. One gives me the courage to face my job, face my love and face society itself by virtue of being so soul-crushingly boring and mind-destroying.
Five Frames of Animation is Peace
Lack of Tears is Slavery
Ghost Sex is Strength
These are the virtues set forth by Onii-sama. He destroys the eyes with stunningly awful visuals, turns the brain into mush with hackneyed, incomprehensible drama and suffuses into the spirit with vague promises of seduction. His words whisper insidiously into the viewer's ear: cry. Cry. Cry. It is sad because we say so. Please cry, won't you?
But no. It is not sad. Only the effort inspires pity. So desperate is Onii-sama to grab the hearts of the common man that he sets forth tired tropes and vague character types in the hopes that the viewer will fill in the rest with their youthful spirit. We supply the toys; now, you play dolls and cry.
No, Onii-sama. We will not give in. We will not stand for this. We demand better! We demand to know what is happening! We demand to know why it is so sad! We demand to know why parts of this anime take place in hell and why the city turns into Atlantis at the end!
We demand life. One offers ghosts. Onii-sama has nothing.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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