Takahashi and the many halves

A comic about multiple multiple halves

Rumiko Takahashi's manga series Ranma 1/2 is a peculiar and fascinating story about a legendary cursed spring Jusenkyo and how every time a person falls into these waters, they are doomed to become whatever it is that died there when they come into contact with cold water. As crazy at it might sound, this makes for a very interesting series of events since the many creatures that drowned in the springs include many animals and a girl, the latter being the curse of the main character Saotome Ranma.

What I thoroughly enjoy about this story is the many levels of complexity it involves. It is a fairly long story with new characters being added constantly. Every time a new character is introduces, they create some sort of conflict, and every conflict either lasts for a long time or becomes a reoccurring thing that comes back again and again in the most unexpected situations. A lot of the characters end up being affected by the curse which only makes things more interesting especially when the character they end up becoming has something to do with their personality or life story. In the end all the stories are incredibly well developed and end up being intertwined in some unexpected way. All-in-all there is always something new coming around the corner, and the plot is always thickening and getting better with every page.

Even though the story is mean to be fairly comedic, the plot and sub-stories can get fairly serious and inspiring as well as history-oriented. There are many thins to be learned from Ranma 1/2 from teen relationship advice, to urban legends, to ancient history.

Super cool man...

Fantastic images

Fantastic Planet 1973 is a stop motion animation written and directed by Rene Laloux. It is a story about humans who live in a planet also inhabited by strange blue alien-like creatures that treat the humans like pets. It is based on French novel Oms en serie from 1967.

The imagery and some of the ideas displayed in this film are very interesting and reminiscent of hippie culture. The aliens have this concept of collective imagination and passing on information unto new generations through an out-of-body thought transfer system. Hippies were into the psychedelic and out-of-body experiences like shared spiritual connections and collective thought. At the same time, the strange style of visuals and colors and even the peculiar clothing can be related to hippie culture. Even though they are not exactly the same, the "trippy" imagery is very interesting. The "alien's" physical contortions can also be related to hippie culture. They believed in shared love and would often partake in collective group sexual activity. Also, yoga like practices were adopted and the body as a whole was let out and given more freedom. 

The concept of peace and love is also at play in the film as this human-alien society is at conflict and war throughout the story. By the end however, there is resolution to their conflict and human and aliens are able to live together in harmony alluding to hippie's ideas of peace, all-inclusive love for all, and a sense of community which happens automatically as the humans and aliens come to share their fantastic planet.

Feminism

A Struggle Within a Struggle

Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel Persepolis depicts her upbringing in Iran during and after the Islamic revolution. Although Persepolis is a story about growing up in Iran during a time of great turmoil, the works can be easily analyzed through a feminist perspective. Marjane Satrapi’s particular experience, as a woman, influences the story greatly. Her point of view is different from that of a man’s because of the extreme gender ideologies embedded in her culture. Her story is about her, a woman, growing up during the revolution, but at the same time, growing up in a culture that is notorious for being oppressive toward women. Her experience, and that of all women of her time is not only about the revolution of their society, but their own revolution against sexists standards. Even though Marjane Satrapi has identified herself as a humanist, and not specifically as a feminist, Persepolis can be perceived as a feminist work because while showing Satrapi's struggles during the Iranian revolution it also inevitably, as an autobiography of a woman, shows her struggles against a sexist culture. The story is not meant to be solely a feminist commentary, but there are subtle mentions of this perspective throughout the story.

From the time she is young, Marjane is a very spirited girl and tells us about her dreams of being a prophet, and in one small panel, the prophets comment "a woman?" The story does not elaborate, does not focus on this point but it is still there.

There is more evidence when Marjane's mother is verbally attacked in the street by fundamentalist men who tell her women like her should be thrown in the garbage because she was not wearing a veil.

Feminism however, is not only about women, boys are also targeted in this revolution and sexist ideas are engrained in their minds from a young age. Boys were told that dying in war would merit a reward from heaven and as part of this reward there would be women. This objectifies women and is engrained in boy's minds at a very young age.

Marjane is eventually sent away to protect her as a young woman from the atrocities in her country.