The theme of courage and trust The
protagonist of the animation, Fujinuma Satoru, is a 29-year-old young man who has suffered setbacks in his career and lost his life. Like many others, he also had the "hero" dream of helping others and helping those in distress when he was young. But what does it take to be a hero? Strength, resourcefulness, faith, chance, luck... Maybe it takes many days and the right place to be a hero, or maybe nothing is needed. I'm not a hero, so I don't dare to speculate. The answer to this question from the animation "The City Where Only I Don't Exist" is that in order to become a hero, you must first have courage, followed by the help of friends, but the premise of getting help is that friends must trust each other. Therefore, the two themes of courage and trust run through the animation throughout. Regardless of whether the concept itself can stand up to scrutiny, at least this animation has made a relatively perfect explanation of it, so that it can justify itself.
This interpretation is mainly accomplished by depicting the transformation of characters, especially the transformation of the protagonist. In terms of character creation, the male protagonist is set as an ordinary person with heroic ideals. His "ordinary" lies in that he, like us, often lacks courage, making some things he wanted to do, but not what he can do. made. Eighteen years ago, Satoru Fujinuma was on his way home when he came across Kayo Hinizuki who was wandering alone in the park. He may have vaguely felt that it was getting late and Kayo was not safe alone, so he wanted to ask Kayo to drop by and go home together, but He opened his mouth and backed away without making a sound. Maybe it's because he's afraid of the stares that Kadai casts, after all, Kadai looks very withdrawn; maybe it's because he's afraid of the rumors from his classmates, after all, it seems very close to go home together. In any case, due to various reasons, Fujinuma Satoru did not have the courage to invite Kayo to go home together, but the next day came the news that Kayo was abducted and died. If there is no ability to travel through time and space, this matter may make Fujinuma Satoru regret for life.
This incident directly led to the death of three primary school students, including Kadai, and made the male protagonist's childhood friend "Brother Courage" wrongly imprisoned. In addition, the murder of the male protagonist's mother 18 years later is also inextricably linked to this incident. It is also the pain of the male protagonist's loss of a close relative and the sense of despair when he was framed, that made him decide to change the future by changing the past after traveling back 18 years ago. Of course, all changes must first start with changing himself. Under the stimulation of strong grief and remorse, Fujinuma Satoru changed his past attitude of inaction and actively communicated with Kayo to help him open his heart. However, as he deepened his understanding of Kadai, Fujinuma Satoru found that he could not save Kadai by himself, so he joined forces with his friends, his mother and others to help Kadai escape from his mother's domestic violence and the clutches of the lures. It should be noted that the reason why Fujinuma Satoru was able to get the help of Kayo’s friendship and friends, or the reason why he was able to gain the trust of Kayo and his friends, was because he showed his true self, which also required courage. Through this arrangement, the two themes of courage and trust are perfectly integrated in the animation narrative, becoming a main line of the protagonist's inner transformation and growth. In addition, it is not difficult for us to find that there is a hidden line beyond the main line of the story, which is the transmission of courage. The "courage" and "courage" that Shiratori Jun always talks about has undoubtedly influenced the male protagonist, making him at least muster up his courage after crossing. And a series of positive behaviors of the male protagonist also conveyed this courage to Jiadai and his friends. The delivery of this beautiful quality, although it sounds cliché, is extremely moving after the unique artistic expression of animation.
Repeatedly comparing
the title "The City Where I Don't Exist", which runs through the animation, obviously has a double reference. One is that the hero of the story, Fujinuma Satoru, traveled back to 18 years ago twice in a row. After saving everyone, he He became a vegetative person because of the murder and slept for 15 years. During these 15 years, the youth he should have had become a blank, and he did not exist in this small town; secondly, "The City That Only I Don't Exist" is the object of Fujinuma Satoru's rescue - a child of Kayo Hinizuki In this essay, Kadai's mother's long-term domestic abuse has made her miserable. In her essay, she veiled her desire to escape from this sick family. Perhaps we should not simply understand this contrasting relationship as a comparison between positive and negative, confrontation and avoidance. But at least, we can get a little hint for interpreting this work and pay attention to the contrast of various concepts, characters and images in the animation.
As the story progresses, we find that similar comparisons are being made all the time. The contrasting relationship between courage and cowardice, trust and doubt, saving and being saved makes the theme of the work more prominent. Courage and trust have been discussed above, so I won't repeat them here, but here I want to talk about the contrasting relationship between redemption.
On the one hand, this is the relationship between the protagonist Fujinuma Satoru and the object he saves, which is expressed as saving people and saving himself. While saving people, Fujinuma Satoru summoned the courage, opened his heart, and achieved self-redemption. This is well represented in the animation. The previous manga of Fujinuma Satoru was evaluated by the editor as "not deep enough in the heart". The reason is that as a creator, he has not opened his heart, so how can he deeply express the character's heart? After a series of growth, Fujinuma Satoru saved himself in saving people, opened his heart, and the comics were also well received.
On the other hand, this contrast also exists in the relationship between Fujinuma Satoru and the villain, the murderer. Here, it is expressed as a choice between saving and not saving. Yatsushiro's reason for killing is that he can see the spider silk hanging over the head of some people, and kill one when he sees one. This allusion comes from Akutagawa Ryusuke's short story "Spider Silk". In hell, countless wicked people are suffering, and the Buddha couldn't bear the suffering and cast a spider silk into hell. A wicked man named Jiantuoduo climbed up the silk, and the silk continued. Countless wicked people saw this and followed him and climbed up the spider silk. Jiantuoduo was afraid that the silk would be broken, and shouted: "Hey, sinners! This spider silk! It's mine. Whose permission did you have to come up? Go down! Go down!" At this moment, the silk was broken, and Jiantuo was in hell again. In the animation, the spider silk symbolizes a certain chance of salvation, and Yatsushiro did something similar to Kendo, he kept depriving others of the chance of salvation, until the spider silk above his head was also cut by invisible scissors . And Fujinuma Satoru continued to save people, and even if he slept for 15 years, he was still reborn. This contrasting relationship also reflects the theme that saving others is saving oneself, and harming others is also harming oneself. It can be said to be another modern expression of "Spider Silk".
The sense of regret has neutralized the happy ending
. First of all, I will state my position. I am not disgusted with the happy ending. Although the happy ending has been criticized in literature, I think that in the current era of cultural diversity, any ending is possible. The key depends on how the work achieves this ending.
Overall, the ending of "The City Where Only I Don't Exist" is quite satisfactory, even if the male protagonist sleeps for fifteen years, even if the childhood sweetheart Jiadai is married and has children. But apart from the villains, most of them are alive and well. "Brother Courage" formed a family, Kadai gained happiness, Fujinuma Satoru had a successful career, and met Airi. They face life bravely, trust each other, help each other, and the little friends who have had conflicts in the past have also released their suspicions. Is there anything unsatisfactory? Someone said: "Jade was once rescued by the male protagonist, but fell in love with someone else while the male protagonist was sleeping, and even got married and had children. This arrangement is the author forcibly feeding shit." But if you are allowed to eat candy every day, you will also feel tired. isn't it? Besides, is this really "fuck"? Let's analyze it carefully. The animation shows from the beginning that although the male protagonist's crossing behavior can prevent bad things from happening, it will also cause a backlash to the male protagonist, causing him to suffer some kind of misfortune. This means that there is a price to be paid to be a hero, and a reasonable and reasonable setting is also a very common arrangement. But maybe 15 years is too long, or maybe everyone likes Jiadai too much and hopes that she and the male protagonist will make a pair, causing many viewers to be very dissatisfied with the ending.
However, 15 years is so long, and this is still known from the perspective of our audience. As a character in the play, Kadai has no idea whether the male protagonist can wake up. Is it necessary to let Kadai be a "widow" for the male protagonist all his life? This is definitely not what the hero wants to see. So is it possible to get rid of the vegetative setting and let the male protagonist save everyone without disaster? Of course you can, but the author did not do this arrangement. Because for Fujinuma Satoru, who witnessed Kadai's death twice, who Kadai married was really not that important. As long as Kadai can be safe and happy, he can cry with joy. Moreover, without the foreshadowing of this huge disaster that has been dormant for 15 years, would the reunion of Fujinuma Satoru and Airi be so moving? There will always be shortcomings in life. Literary and artistic works often reflect life. There are shortcomings and hope. Don't ignore the future of Fujinuma Satoru and Airi because of Kayo getting married and having children.
By the way, "Future" is the name of the baby in Kadai's arms.
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