Lacayo's dress analysis and the virtual diva. Part 1.

I’m sitting in my room, JPop music is blasting from my earphones as I continue to think on the bizarre movie I watched.  Filled with a sense of suspense that makes you unconsciously shuffle to the edge of your seat, Perfect Blue is a psychological thriller that immerses into the mind of the character to the point of schizophrenia.  In this movie you see elements like the loss of innocence, the influence of media and the not-so-perfect life that is constantly overlooked for celebrities, throw in a pinch of psychosis and an identity crisis and you’ve got yourself a hit.

One of the points that I want to focus on this time is the whole idea of the media and how that shapes the lives of celebrities. That also runs parallel to the loss of innocence, with the media being the channel to do so. Ill also throw in a surprise in the end that may have me rambling for quite a bit.

Innocent little girl.

At first you have Mima, the child-like main singer for the pop band CHAM! Mima is innocent in every aspect; her look portrays someone who is pure. This is proved by her outfit. Mima wears a white, ballet-like dress with pink ribbons. The color white is commonly associated with innocence and purity, it’s clean and radiant. Just like Mima. Now, Mima is singing her last concert, when she announces that she is no longer going to sing, people begin to protest. The media and the people don’t want her to leave her image of the cute pop star. Things begin to get a little weird for Mima. Not only does she receive a fax that spells out traitor, he is also almost a victim to a letter bomb and she then finds out of the creepy website known as “Mima’s Room” The people begin to go against her, the media begins to tarnish her and that only becomes worse for her.

The transition from Pop-idol to actress is a great change in Mima’s life. Not only is she going from singing in flowery costumes to pretending to be a split-personality murderer, she’s transitioning from being a girl to becoming a woman. This transition bluntly begins when Mima has to take part in a rape scene. Despite the fact that the rape was unreal, the trauma that comes with it is not. Because of the rape, Mima becomes psychologically unstable.  After that you begin to see a change in her attitude, and even a change in her clothing.

Anyone else notice how her stripper costume is very much alike to her pop-idol attire?

Things are starting to change.

 Its white, it’s flowery and it has ribbons, but it has a more sexual tone to it. The lingerie she wears and well, the fact that she’s stripping just tells you that things are about to change, she’s turning her little girl looks into a more woman-like attire; she’s growing, especially sexually.  The catch is it’s all on TV. The media is changing her to become that woman, its moving her in that direction and everyone gets to see it.

As the murders begin, Mima also begins to lose her sense of reality. Things don’t seem to go together for her, she doesn’t know if she’s killing people or dreaming anymore. She then proceeds to a photo-shoot, which ends up with her naked. This is part 2 of her maturing process, the flower costume is removed and she exposes herself as a woman. Her white attire is no more. This, again, is run by the media; everyone is able to see the new Mima and her new sensual personality.  

On the final scene Mima has killed Me-Mima and is with Rumi in her room.  Rumi comes into the room wearing a red dress reminiscent to Mima’s old white dress. Rumi then tries to kill Mima and ends up through glass in her stomach. The fact that Rumi is now wearing the dress symbolizes that Mima’s old self is no more, the one who was a singer and an almost porn star. Why do I say this? Well, first of all Mima sees Rumi as herself; she’s wearing a flowery dress and its red. The whole aspect of the dress, the ruffles and stuff, represents her innocence. However, the fact that the dress is red is a symbol of her new sexual side. The catch is that Rumi is wearing it, therefore the innocence and the sexuality is something that is leaving Mima. When Rumi is stabbed, the innocent and sexual part of Mima is taken away with her. Nevertheless, the fact that Mima saves Rumi from being hit by a car means that Mima is not getting rid of those two things, instead she is coping with it and maturing.

So, we can see how Mima changes, her personality changes and her attire changes in the movie. It’s pretty good and I found myself noticing her changes while watching the movie….even if I was freaking out about my lost sweater that night.

Now…talking of the media and divas…. 

"You knows inside my soul because of you
All this innocence that you inspire
You know you are just as heaven intended youCome on open up your flower, flower" Cornbread, Dave Matthews Band

-Xavi

Lacayo's teachers and a little nostalgia.

I guess I tend to say this a lot now days; however I just can’t seem to find another way of saying what I feel. Now, I don’t want to turn this into some melodrama about high school being completely terrible. Neither do I want to lie and say that high school was amazing and I have an undying wish to become 15 again and take quizzes on the 50 states and their capitals. I’m going to talk about teachers, the ones in the movie and how they relate to an extent to the ones in Nicaragua Christian Academy.

The man in the middle....thats my school director,.

In Botchan we see how high school students treat their professors, whether with respect or complete impertinence. You have porcupine, with his unchanging expression and his uncanny ability to have is arms crossed for days. Students love the guy; they respect him and treat him fairly. The students go so far as to applauding him when he walks into the classroom all beaten up. Botchan, on the other hand, gets mocked for eating tempura and swimming while in the public baths (who does that?). The main difference between the two is the level of respect they receive and give off. You can only be respected if you respect people.

How many times have I said respect in the last paragraph? 

Anyway, in Nicaragua Christian Academy we had pretty much the same thing. We had our porcupines and we had out Botchans, and I’m guessing that many of you guys did too. For example, there was Mr. Jason Liechty, our Botchan. We didn’t stalk him though. Now that I think about it, I feel bad for him; we were immaturely rude and cruel to him. But I respect the guy now; he dealt with us and gave us a reality check close to the end of 8^th grade. You see, after the whole episode where we made him cry and storm off the class, he apologized. He actually apologized to us for calling us shoveling crap and yelling, we just sat there, awestruck by the attitude he took. Nevertheless, we still teased him but it was more of a nice and easy and respectful kind of tease.

David Russell: Social Science

Then we had our porcupines…we had 2: Joel Kleinsasser and David Russell. Back at NCA the simple mention of their names calls for respect and admiration. The same way that thinking of puppies make you naturally go aww, or how when you see a tall man in a suit you’re intimidated if not outright embarrassed by the fact that your shirt has a stain. But I digress…..

Joel Kleinsasser: Science

 Those two teachers were passion, charisma and humor…if they could somehow merge into one entity they would probably de-throne the Pope. They treated us with the professionalism that an educator naturally does but they also had a sense of friendliness that engaged you, whether inside or outside the classroom. They were both interested in getting to know us and becoming our friends. Also, you have to give merit to anyone who can make chemistry and U.S history something to look forward to every day.

 Botchan was an interesting movie, it wasn’t fantastic but neither was it terrible. It made me thing of high school and the many experiences I shared with my friends back at home.  I guess this is what they call being homesick…

A little thank you.

"O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won" Oh Captain My Captain- Walt Whitman -Xavi

Lacayo's mind and the Deadly Sins

I walk into the screening room, smoothie in my hand and donettes in my pocket. My mind is tossing different scenarios that could potentially show up in what I’m about to see; Giant red ogres, demon women that seduce men into their deaths, ninjas and some magical scroll that gives power.  Blood, guts and sex were also in there considering the warnings we had received in class. Not that I was hoping for sex, I’m no pervert okay? Anyways, about 2 hours later I’m walking out of the room with a half asleep look, a full stomach and mixed feelings about Ninja Scroll.

            What can I say? The movie has potential, the characters all seem to have interesting backgrounds, the plot could have been better but it wasn’t outright awful and the style is a good kind of old-school anime. The problem is, the characters are somewhat stale and mix that with a mediocre plot and you get a movie that didn’t quite live to the expectations that other people had set in my head. But I’m not here to talk about how I don’t like the movie, which to a certain extent is not true; I’m here to talk about an interesting parallel I found while watching the movie.

            I hope I’m not stretching a theme here that may not be even present in the movie. I’m very much aware that Japanese Shinto and Western Christianity are at two different ends of the spectrum. However, knowing the Japanese’s affinity of the Western world, I think my point can pass.

            While watching the movie I made a mental note as to how many enemies Jubei had to face before finally being able to fight his nemesis, Gemma. “7 demons and one leader…” I though to myself as Utsutsu (the blind samurai) toppled over. “The Seven Deadly sins and the devil! That’s it”

          

  So lets go over the deadly sins:

Which is YOUR deadly sin?

Gluttony: an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.

Lust: an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.

Greed: the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual

Pride: an excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God.

Sloth: the avoidance of physical or spiritual work

Envy: the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation

Wrath: Inappropriate feelings of hatred and anger. Impatience with the law, or seeking revenge outside of justice, such as with unnecessary vigilantism. Wishing to do evil or harm to others.

Now Lets link the villains with the sins.

The Oni...disturbing 

Gluttony: Tessai: One may at first think that Tessai is the representation of Lust due to his sexual assault on Kagero. However, further thinking made me realize that he’s actually gluttony. Gluttony, I believe, doesn’t only apply to food, it can also be just the overall to indulge excessively in anything, whether killing people, drinking their blood or raping. Also, as Tessai is about to rape Kagero you see how he licks her entire body and even goes as far as pretty much chewing Kagero’s entire breast.

75% of the time naked.

Lust: Benisato: This is kind of a given. In most of her screen time, Benisato is fighting around in her birthday suit. Her first appearance is an attempt to tempt and kill jubei, her tattoos give her that sense of dazzling beauty that both enthralls and scares. She’s also Gemmas love and their sexual relationship is mentioned many times in the movie.

Gross

Greed: Mushizo: A little bit hard on this one but I ended up linking him to greed for one reason: his size. You see, he’s pretty much a dwarf, ridiculously small (not to mention butt-ugly) and relatively weak. I can only deduce by his characteristics that Mushizo had an awful past. Hypothetically, before he obtained his powers probably had a thirst for power that led him to commit some terrible act in order to have wasps living in him. The wasps, the representation of his greed (more and more and more) ultimately end up killing him.

Blind in the eyes and blinded by pride

Pride: Utsutsu: Even if Utsutsu is in the film for only 7 minutes, one is able to see his pride through a couple of things he says and does. First, by saving his Jubei when he is about to fall down the cliff shows that Utsutsu has the confidence to defeat Jubei; an enemy with less poise  would have probably let Jubei fall to his certain death. Also, the fact that Utsutsu points out that Jubei’s eyesight is his greatest weakness proves that Utsutsu is certain of his abilities to the point of arrogance. That self-assurance leads to his demise, he was confident that he knew his surroundings but in the end forgot about the blade that caused him to miss.

Never fights directly

Sloth: Shijima: Puppets, that’s the one thing that connects to sloth. Shijima tends to hide in the darkness, unseen by his enemies and then strikes. However, Shijima doesn’t strike directly; he uses his victims as puppets who do all the work for them. He’s not lazy; he’s avoiding the dirty work while he sits in the shadows, protected.

Yuri in Japanese means Lily

Envy: Yurimaru: This one is rather easy, Yurimaru embodies envy. He is envious that Benisato is in a sexual relationship with Gemma. He desires Gemma to be his own. Yurimaru, because of his envy, rejects any other that desires to be with him. He doesn’t care, all he wants is Gemma and he hates Benisato for having him. That rejection he gives to others causes Zakuro to become enraged at him which well…ends up killing him.

Touchy personality.

Wrath: Zakuro: Okay, so a couple of things as of why. This lady is explosive (pun intended), the violence her explosions create can easily connect to the feeling or wrath, where you just want to crush everything. Also, because Yurimaru rejects her, she becomes infuriated and ends up, out of revenge, blowing up Yurimaru. Another thing that should be noted is that the color red is generally associated with wrath, giving her more reason to represent the sin.

And what is Gemma? Well that’s easy, he’s the devil. The source of the sins and the one who controls all that evil...

These devils, along with their leader, are the source of turmoil to Jubei, who represents justice and the good in everyone. In the same way, the seven deadly sins are struggles that everyone needs to learn to overcome in order to be better people, no matter the religion. Chessyness aside, the movie was good and the parallelism between the deadly sins and the 7 demons is an interesting and hidden topic.






Well that's enough rambling for this week.


"Praise God who has many names, but the devil has many more. With the love that my mom gave to me I'm gonna drop the devil to the floor." Dave Matthews: Eh hee
-Xavi

Lacayo's perspective and the Postmodernist reflection.

Akira...A whole lot more than it seems.

After watching one of the anime all-time classics, Akira, I find myself completely confused and lightheaded. The movie itself was great, the animations were smooth and the story line was as confusing as an episode of Lost. Nevertheless, it was good, but I'm not going to write a critique about the movie. As we were in class today, Professor McCay prompted us to analyze different aspects of the movies and, considering my overflowing luck, I ended up with the Post-Modernist influences in the movie. First of all, at that particular moment I still had no idea what on earth the Postmodernist manifesto was, even less on how it applied with Akira.

After much deliberation and the exchange of many "WTF?" looks, I finally began to understand the concept a little bit more. The movement branches off from the original Modernist viewpoint; which goes against the "traditional forms of art, architecture, religious faith...and daily life" (Wikipedia). Therefore, the Postmodernist movement believes that the norm/reality is subject to change because of people and their reactions to life. How do they relate? Modernism just wants to change the norm while Postmodernism believes that it’s always subject to change. This is just a very simple definition and still the concepts take a moment to understand. I still haven’t been able to fully grasp the idea of it.

Now, how does this relate to Akira and Tetsuo?

Let’s put in consideration Tetsuo’s situation. He’s a poor young man who is pretty much in the bottom of the caste system. I personally believe that one of the reasons he’s alive is because he has friends who care for him and protect him when circumstances become difficult, which seems to happen a lot to this unfortunate guy. This dependency on friends causes Tetsuo to develop resentment towards his friends; he is tired of the “damsel in distress” image he has. Tetsuo wants his own rules, he wants to have the power to set his own directions and not follow and be constantly saved by those who are stronger than him.  When Tetsuo obtains his psychic powers, he is able to finally set his own rules. Here’s when the theme of Postmodernism is at its highest. Tetsuo doesn’t want the reality that has been set for him; therefore he seeks to create his own reality where he is the one with power, a hero, almost a god. People begin to worship him and they begin to accept the norm which he is setting but ultimately that reality which he seeks ends up turning against him…or does it?

Tetsuo: An image of Postmodernism?
From a boy to a god to an abomination.

Postmodernism questions purpose and truth, it seeks its own norm which ultimately changes because of the natural flow of life. Tetsuo is trying to change his reality; he questions his purpose, realizes his position and aims to change it. Nevertheless, it doesn’t go as he intended. However, the ending of the movie is open-ended, leaving us to interpret what is the scenario and what is the closure as the screen fades to black and Tetsuo calls his own name.

Ultimately, meager Tetsuo tried hard to change his norm, he achieved that and yet his norm changed again in a manner of minutes. That is Postmodernism at its finest.

Now, despite all of that, the movie was fantastic. I can for sure see why it’s deemed as one of the greatest anime movies of all times. It can for sure be added to my list of ‘watched and loved’ anime.

“I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take...when people run in circles. It's a very, very Mad World.”

-Xavi

Lacayo Quick Facts

I was never the kind of person to just write and ramble about myself for more than 2 minutes. I generally enjoy hearing other people talk about their life, their experiences and such. Nevertheless, whenever prompted to or if the level of sugar in my body is excessively high, I can go on and on and on.

I'm not saying that I'm a shy guy, not at all, I'm more of the kind of person that enjoys a two way conversation rather than a one way "I'm going to blast out everything in my life while you fall asleep" monologue. But I digress.

My name is Xavier Lacayo, feel free to call me Xavi. Any other nicknames must be submitted by mail.
I'm a 19 year old Communications major from Nicaragua, which is not in Africa. Trust me, a lot of people have asked me if it is.

I'm not entirely sure what else to put, so how about a list? Because lists make life so much more simple.
But before I begin with that, just a little warning. I have a really hard time picking favorites. Hence the long list of anime when the professor only asked us to pick one. But I digress, again.

Favorite Food (by request of Britnee): Oriental Food. Sushi and Kimchi are in the top.

Favorite Music: From Blink 182 to Disney, The Cranberries to JPop, Dave Matthews and Glee.  I have a wide selection of musical preferences. I also really like Hatsune Miku, whom which you will find out eventually if you do not already know who it is.

Favorite Anime (how about top 10?): The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Soul Eater, Dragon Ball Z, Death Note (still have to finish it), Lucky Star, FLCL, Ghost in the Shell, Spirited Away, Fate Stay Night and Fruits Basket.

Favorite Hobby: I love to play videogames, hands down. I own a N64 with about 25 (if not more) games. I also love to read and write. I enjoy drawing but I'm terrible at it. One random hobby of mine is also photography; whether with my cellphone camera or my brothers $700 god of pictures, if I see anything worthwhile I'll take it. Another thing I very much enjoy is hanging out with friends and meeting new people, so hit me up whenever you want to chill!

I'm not entirely sure of what to put next. I look forward to being able to discuss anime with all of you and see your blogs. Any questions? I rather answer questions than just ramble on.


"And celebrate we will, 'Cuz life is short but sweet for certain"
-Xavi.