Although the sound of the waves has gone, and the romance has been distorted, we are not free because of freedom in this era of complete intelligence and no taboos. Everything becomes so indifferent, everything can be copied, everything is no longer real. Romance has become a collective unconscious memory.
Watching "Hearing the Waves" reminds me of "I should have heard the waves". The sadness it left in my heart is faint and long. . . . . .
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Text/Translated by Shinji Miyadai/
Edited by Ling : This article is translated from the final commentary of Tokoma Bunko's novel "Hearing the Waves". The author, Dr. Shinji Miyadai, is an Assistant Professor and Doctor of Sociology at Tokyo Independent University.
This article not only reviews the work itself in depth, but also discusses the emergence of "Hearing the Waves" from the perspective of Japanese manga culture and the cultural development of young people. Many sharp and thorough analysis and knowledge of girl comics in the article are enough to make any reader and commenter in China who think they understand "Hearing the Waves" ashamed. For anime produced by Japanese, maybe only pure Japanese can really understand it. There are many viewpoints and ways of thinking unique to Japanese society in the article, which can allow us to examine and re-experience the charm of this work from another angle, and at the same time, it can also play a certain guiding role for colleagues who are engaged in drama pretending in China. I believe that this is the meaning of the translator's translation of this text, and the meaning of our choice of this text is also the same.
【】The impact of the animated version of "Hearing the Waves"
I have written articles about the animated version of "Hearing the Waves" twice so far. This animation was broadcast on the Japanese TV series on the evening of May 5, 1993. The Kanto region alone has reached an extremely rare high ratings of 17.4%. The supervisor is Mochizuki Tomomi who is famous for "Creamy Mami", and the painting supervisor and character design is "Kiki's Delivery Service" Katsuya Kondo. The first commentary was published in a book called "The Disintegration of Subculture Mythology". If the animations of Hayao Miyazaki and Kaoru Takada pursue the "realistic sense of action" such as "opening the window when smoking," then Mochizuki Kondo's anime pursues the "realistic sense of relationship" like a girl's manga. I would like to praise this as something unprecedented in the history of Japanese animation. A brief explanation will be given below.
First of all, focusing on comics, there are two series in itself-1. "Agent experience stories" that describe the turbulent experience that is impossible under ordinary circumstances; 2. "Relational stories" that describe the relationship between the self and others. Originally, comics were also influenced by the tradition of teenage novels, and at the beginning there were only "agent experience stories". In shojo comics after 1973, "relational stories" began to prevail. But in animation, after that, it is still all "agent experience stories." Although some robot animations are affected by girl manga (such as "MACROSS", etc.). But the relationship described in it is only at an infant level. From the perspective of girls who have been trained in shojo comics, most of them are ridiculously naive stories. The second time I came into contact with this work was on a book called "The Practice of the End of the World". The author mentioned above that when he saw me in a conversation with Hayao Miyazaki, who had just finished "Listen to the Ear", one thing that made him irritated. I said something like this: "Hearing the Waves", which was also produced at GHIBLI Studio a year ago, is much more interesting. I am afraid that only the elementary school students or grandparents in the low school years are moved by "Listen to the Ear". The girls appearing in Miyazaki anime are always strong and gentle, and have ideals like motherhood (Lana, Nausicaa, Hita). Where is such a guy? But in "Hearing the Waves", "the girl of reality" clearly appeared. Yes, it is the image of a girl who is completely incomprehensible from the eyes of a boy. Just like Muto Rikako.
In the past, whether it was in shonen manga or girl manga, the phenomenon of "should" was everywhere. "Should" be cheerful, strong and upright teenagers and "should" pure, upright and beautiful girls, "should" will usher in a glorious future, so "should" believe in the future to live. But "should" began to disappear in girl manga after 73 years: I "but I am" an ordinary girl who is neither beautiful nor honest, and not clever. Is it possible for me to be like this. "Yes!" Shoujo Manga replied. After 1977, the affirmed "actual situation is" type is no longer limited to the "introverted me", but expanded to describe the parental disharmony, injustice, and blind skin dating without love, etc. "Because I worry about complicated relationships". Shojo comics have evolved toward "to convey to readers, in a complex and anti-expected reality, the psychological preparation and basic wisdom necessary to keep life from degenerating and degenerating", this is "reality". This was a common phenomenon in girl manga at the time, but it has never been incorporated into animation until "Hearing the Waves".
[] Better than the animated version of the original secret
, but I honestly think the animated version than the original icehouse cold child regressed. For example, Rikako, who returned to Tokyo after becoming a college student, said to a friend in Kochi, "In Tokyo, there is someone I want to meet. That person is a person sleeping in a bathtub." This is a scene that is not in the original work. This kind of "predetermined reconciliation" (equivalent to the final "save" for boys) just weakens the charm of the original. What is the secret of the original charm? To pursue this, one must know the history of shojo manga. It is not a wild "agent experience", but a "relationship" that can also happen to oneself. Girl manga began to evolve to describe complex "relationship" after the 70s. Its peak is probably around 86. "The Hot Journey" by Nanae Wooden House, and "The Edge of the Sea" by Miko Yakura are works of this period.
At the same time, the circulation of "Shounen Jump" exceeded 4 million copies, and the climax of the young man's comics. On the one hand, it is the simple drama of "defeat the enemy, and then a stronger enemy appears"; on the other, you can experience the same painful complex relationship as in real life by just flipping through the comics. The juvenile culture and the girl culture have since produced a sharp differentiation. However, such girly comics began to decline rapidly after 1987. One reason is that the age at which girls "graduated" from comics has dropped; the other reason is that these girls who have been only reading comics have obviously become "unworkable" children. These things have been clearly verified in a statistical survey of college students in the 1990s. When I was young, I read "Good Friends" and "RIBBON". After the third grade of elementary school, I added "Separate Book MARGUERITE". When I arrived in middle school, I also yearned for a wonderful relationship. But when you get to middle school, you have to face the reality of whether you are good at love or not. Girls who are good at love have graduated from comics to reality, those who are not good at "Flowers and Dreams" school, but at this time still insist on continuing to read "Marguerite" is the sports school. This situation has basically formed. (Editor: The above mentioned are some classic serials of girl comics. Among them, "Flower and Dream" is the most famous in China. The current serialized work is "Fruit Basket") Like this, for many children, from Love and physical maturity have become a reality since the middle school age, and the "relationship" described in the girl manga itself has gradually regressed to a simple thing.
Read manga because you don’t know how to love? I don't think so. Quite the contrary: because reality becomes free and one can fall in love, complicated romanticism becomes impossible. First, the establishment of romanticism requires a difference, but this difference is gradually lost. Because many things became free, the realm began to disappear. Second, as a condition for the establishment of romanticism, the incompleteness of information acquisition is very important. But as the information society is getting closer to complete information, this gradually becomes impossible. The descriptions are made separately below.
[] Lost romance, girl comics will decline "Separate marriage" (separated marriage) and "de facto marriage" (cohabitation marriage without legal procedures, but legal in Japan) increased, making the realm of marriage and non-marriage ambiguous. Euthanasia began to be accepted by people, making the realm of suicide and non-suicide become ambiguous. The realm like this gradually became vague and ambiguous, and the ideology of "taboo", which appeared purely to prevent contact between the two parties, of course disappeared. Therefore, the hope of marriage, the hope of contact with each other, the hope of death, the hope of true communication... This kind of romance also loses its support. There is no big difference between being married and not getting married, and there is no big difference between death and immortality, and personal behavior after physiological maturity is no longer strongly restricted by moral codes... etc. "Let's get married" no longer brings the thunderous shock, "I want to die" has become a mantra. With the disappearance of the differences in conditions that caused intense conflicts, the romantic soil has gradually become barren. (Editor: This also applies to explaining why the topic selection of domestic TV dramas has always remained in the era of intense ideological conflicts such as the Qing Palace and the Republic of China.)
On top of the disappearance of differences, complete intelligence is added. In a complex society, there can be no empiricism that "everyone is the same". What is happy, you must make your own decisions while repeating your mistakes. However, in the things that I decide, there are also situations where I cannot turn my head back like suicide. "What will happen if I confess?" "Does suicide hurt?" In order not to make a mistake, correct and sufficient information is needed, that is, "complete information." As society becomes more complex, independent decision making becomes more and more important. And as independent decisions become important, complete intelligence becomes important. This is an unavoidable trend. The irony is that if you can get complete and detailed "complete information" regardless of size, people will lose the motivation to experience life. It is precisely because people need to constantly experience the unknown in order to actively survive.
When we were middle school students, in the first half of the 1970s, whether it was a relationship or a physical problem, we all knew nothing about it (the one-sided "incomplete information"). Because I’m in a boys’ school, the girls feel completely confused about what they are thinking (overwhelming boundaries between men and women). But because of this, misunderstandings can arise freely—"Girls are like this, right?" "Do girls think that way?" It is precisely because of misunderstandings that romance arises. It's different now. Before doing anything, what will be the result of how to do it, as long as you want to know, open the magazine, TV, and the Internet, you can know at any time. Hair style, clothing, way of speaking, and even behavioral patterns are becoming more neutral, and it doesn't matter whether you are a male or a female. As a result, the romanticism that underpins the complex relationship of girl manga can only slowly fade.
[] Impossible romance here
icehouse cold child "hear the waves", serialized over a five-year 90 February to 92 January after the girl comics from the golden age. However, it is even higher than the level of girl comics in the prime of life, and it is even more heartbreaking. From girls to boys, many readers are attracted by this work. In 1993, the animated version that used this as the original work-I would like to emphasize again, from the perspective of the broadcast time-received unimaginable high ratings.
In my opinion as a shonen manga expert, Ms. Hashimuro Hanko seems to have made the impossible possible. Then, by exploring the mystery, you can get insight into the unique setting of "not free" created in this work. In the words just now, a device for generating "incomplete information" and "conditional differences" has been deliberately added to the world of works. There are many more specifically, let us focus on the following three points here. 1. Use the place (small city) as the stage. 2. Unfold on the basis of recollection. 3. Adopt a boy's perspective. If these three points are reversed-1. Take Tokyo as the stage. 2. Describe now. 3. Use the girl's perspective.
In this case, the drama of "Hearing the Waves" is completely untenable.
There are dense interpersonal relationships that are not available in Tokyo, and there is no way to avoid others' eyes and ears, so there is no freedom. Because of this, you must understand the difference between what you can't do and what you can do to survive. In addition, because Tokyo is far away (similar to Shanghai and Beijing), only a limited number of fragmented people came in. So for people in places (such as some remote small and medium-sized cities), they have illusions about Tokyo. Muto Rikako is defined as a "Tokyo girl" because of this.
The protagonist Dosaki Taku lives in Tokyo, and it is also important for him to think back and forth about living in the local high school era. In the past, it was in the local and young age, surrounded by countless regional differences, and in incomplete information that was only half-knowledgeable. Maybe everyone has the incredible sense of clarity (which can also be understood as shame and embarrassment) when you look back now, and it is enough to prove how sensitive and overwhelmed it was at that time to understand it. Now all the differences have disappeared, and all that should be known are known. Because I was once sensitive, I can only think about it now. Therefore, memories are so heartbreaking.
Of course, without the use of the memory model, a love story based entirely on a local college may also be written. But unlike ten years ago, even in local colleges and universities, the sense of difference has long been lifted and approached to complete intelligence (even if that happens, it will become a comic cartoon). Therefore, it is a bit reluctant to insist on doing this. Even if you only recall the events one or two years ago, the use of such a form of recollection can highlight the sense of fetters that happened in the past.
【】We regret that we are not free because of our freedom
Finally, it is also important that the protagonist in the first-person narrative is a boy. Because compared with girls who are already familiar with complex relational subcultures like shojo comics, boys who have adapted to the simple upgraded subculture of "Shoun Jump" style have fewer opportunities to truly understand interpersonal relationships. pitful. Compared with girls, boys are still in a state of incomplete intelligence. So it's impossible for boys to understand girls "the way girls understand them." In 1987, the experience rate of high school boys with opposite sex physical experience was 1.5 times that of girls. However, in 1994, the experience rate of girls exceeded that of the past, reaching 1.4 times that of boys. Because quite a lot of girls are interacting with adult men who are not small in age. Boys of the same age are not rivals at all. (Editor: Although the first half is a bit surprising, but this second half...
speaking too well!) If you take a contemporary high school girl as the protagonist, because you have too much information and you are close to complete information, the love story is just It has become a bubble drama, not even a funny comedy. Unless you take a really bad girl as the protagonist... and if you use a boy as the protagonist, you will have a sense of bondage that is almost 10 years away from the girl, and the romantic element necessary for the reduction of the love story will be produced.
For example, there is a very typical plot. Tosaki Taku always gives in to his friend Matsuno, who loves Rikako, because he has a kind of country-style friendship that is more important than love. Because of this mentality, Taku would never understand Rigazi's true feelings. The protagonist is like this, so readers can't know the mood of Rikako, the mood of Taku who doesn't understand Rikako, and the mood of Matsuno who can fully understand the mood of both of them. (Edit: a bit convoluted, but hit the nail on the head)
But for Taku, a protagonist who is confined to a small rural circle and ignorant, readers should not think he is so stupid or pitiful, but will feel envied and dazzling. "Yes, in the cities where I have stayed not long ago, there are so many boys like this, and I am one of them." It is a man who thinks like this. "I have been in love with such a boy." There should be many women who think this way. Now, we are freed from the limitation of "this is not okay, that's not okay", and we can easily get information about the same sex and the opposite sex. That is to say, gradually become free with the intensification of urbanization. But if you take a closer look, you will feel that you have become uncomfortable because of your freedom. Warm memories, sour and sweet mood, anxious and fiery romance are drifting away from us. Let us recall the times in the past when we were able to fly freely because we were half-knowledgeable and uncomfortable. Yes, the times when we could hear the sound of the waves. Let the reader recall the feeling that "I should have heard the sound of the waves". The charm of "Hearing the Waves" is in this place. Looking back at these times, there is an indescribable, heart-wrenching sensation stuck in the chest, making people unable to help tears.
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