Refusal to engage
I'm not sure what says more about me, the fact that I read all of Onani Master Kurosawa in one sitting last night, or the fact that I read all of Onani Master Kurosawa in one night because I was waiting around for live English commentary of the Shinhan Bank ProLeague finals.
For Day 2, I think I'm going to wake up at around the right time. Staying up was a silly decision.
Speaking of which, I was saying and doing stupid stuff right through my high school years, and arguably right through university. You might say that I continue to utter stupid and perform acts of similar calibre to this very day. If offered the opportunity to compress all that into a span of two years between the desperately forgettable grades of 8 and 9, I would take it.
As befitting the first term of the title Onani Master Kurosawa (hereafter abbreviated to OMK) lewd subject matter can be found, and is what's on tap (literally) for about half the manga, consensus being that the turning point is around the 17th chapter, with transition being as early as chapter 8 with the library scene. It makes one wonder if the subversion of the original premise was planned from the beginning.
That subversion is, I think, one of the most lucid, tangible articulations of a one-sided relationship that I've ever seen.
- Of a loner latching onto someone because they mistook general sociability and respect for something more.
- Of the shell-shock from the realization of being wrong, and by being wrong having lost a wager they were unaware of making, because they couldn't reign in their feelings.
- Of rage at the object of affection climbing down from the pedestal, yet climbing ever higher at the same time, out of reach.
- Of the hollowing of the soul and the resignation and nausea of drifting out to sea.
You know, in some of the stormiest chapters of OMK, the story plays out like a blunt and brutal interpretation of 5 Centimeters Per Second. That's not to say that 5 cm/s is not brutal, but the brutality is just out of sight, masked by the gentle words of the tormented and the pink sunset palette of memory.
Call to arms
The destructive paths that play out, whether it be Kurosawa, Kitahara, or Takaki, are marked by a willingness to engage to the exclusion of everything else, including reality. It contradicts the title of this entry, but they are in fact two sides of the same coin.
It could be an obsession with standing apart, or a victim's belief that bullying is no one's business but their own, or the pristine image of a childhood sweetheart laser-etched into memory.
We refuse to engage with something because we cling to something else. What's fascinating is how we, as observers, react to variations of the same theme.
Someone who is ruled by their simple prejudices is deplorable. Someone who is ruled by the image-bearing pedestal on their back is simulatenously romantic and noble. To the former we might say, "Get over yourself" while to the latter we might say, "Fight on!"
Is it biological?
One of my many pipe dreams is that we disabuse children of these silly notions and double standards as early as possible, lest it paralyse them for the rest of their lives. Innoculate them against drowning in their own tears as they negotiate that path of thorns: Life.
P.S.
Kitahara is Konata's evil twin.
Sugawa, as terrible as she was, has always been pretty sharp, dialog and design-wise. To be blunt, it's the people with fight in them that generally rise to the top. Tomorrow's leaders will always get their start intimidating in the classroom and out in the yard.
Hey, it worked for Jean Chrétien.