I wasn’t exactly excited over Nisemonogatari since I was pretty much expecting already that they’ll really adapt the rest of the Monogatari series given that Tsukihi and Karen haven’t had their respective arcs yet. But right after I saw the trailer, I can’t believe how much I missed the characters, especially Hitagi. The surreal backgrounds and settings, the walls of texts, and the eerie architectural design of the abandoned cram school, to name one, still fascinates me up until now.

The start of the first episode remains to be a mystery but Hitagi is still the same old Hitagi who loves to speak in a cold and condescending manner. And as usual, her actions to show her obsession love for Araragi are still very outlandish. She still has that overbearing and domineering personality. Watching her tease a restrained (because of unknown reasons) Araragi and banter with him totally made me remember why I liked Bakemonogatari.

I don’t know if it was Penguindrum’s influence or just my imagination but it looks like Akiyuki Shinbo has started to project some symbols in the series. I must note that despite the intriguing design of Hitagi’s house, it’s just one of those creative styles used by Shaft. Meanwhile, in the Araragi residence, if one could notice, the ceiling of the lounge where Tsukihi was lying while watching TV is filled with stage spotlights. Rings a bell? In the latter half of the episode, Hachikuji mentions that experiencing reality is like being on the limelight – a stage where everything and anything happens. But on the contrary, witnessing supernatural occurrences  seem to happen only in the back stage. Karen’s absence might be a foreshadowing to what we all know as the Karen Bee arc.

Another thing I noticed were the contradictory statements made by almost all the characters. First, Hitagi’s “Wouldn’t it be better if you died?,” which is obviously a statement made to simply mock Araragi. Then there’s Nadeko’s lie that she’s busy everyday except that day (obvious lie is obvious). Tsukihi’s wordplays on the meaning of trouble, trust and worry, and of course, Hachikuji’s “courage” positivity illusion on phrases. The one that really made an impact to me though would be the dialogue between Hachikuji and Koyomi about family.

Hachikuji mentions that it is rather expected for someone to have at least one secret to his family and that telling it to them means that they’ll be sharing the burden. Koyomi agrees to Hachikuji’s advice that it is proper not to do anything until he can’t hide his secret anymore of being a demi-vampire to his family. Meanwhile, shifting it onto the topic where Koyomi asks if Hachikuji would eventually leave the city, Koyomi mentions that he’ll be angry if ever Hachikuji won’t tell him if ever she ran into trouble. In a way, it’s contradictory that Koyomi decided not to tell his family about his condition even though he prompts other people (Hachikuji) not to hide anything from him once they’ve got trouble and that he’ll gladly share the burden.

I don’t know if the title has something to do with it but I’ve read Kizumonogatari and I don’t think there were situations/statements like these. Then again, it might just be Nisio Isin’s penchant for wordplay in general.

I would have loved to see everyone in the first episode but I guess that was asking for too much. I greatly enjoyed the somehow overview episode for what has happened so far after the events of Bakemonogatari. I was definitely surprised that majority of the first episode’s character development went to Hachikuji considering she’s the least involved to everything. I guess it also builds up my interest on what really happened prior to Koyomi being kidnapped since the first episode ended right at the middle of the flashback.

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image credits: pixiv user こうじ

Well first, I have to thank the person who recommended this show to me. I’m totally interested in anime that touches the topic of cyberspace since it feels very meta. Aside from this, the psychological aspect of the show was greatly executed that it resonates well to some of my own self-aimed questions. Well then, here’s a “review” of the series.

No matter where you are… everyone is always connected.

It was rather obvious during the start of the series that it touches the topic of cyberspace and the thin line that separates the real world and the cyberspace. The verity of the latter is often disregarded due to the absence of any corporeal manifestation and I think that the show was successful in making the viewers more confused (intentionally I believe) through several revelations and irregular situations that show Lain’s other wired existences.

I liked the heavy and timely dead air present in the series. It makes me feel more conscious and wary of every scene. Most of the time, these scenes are the more compelling ones to watch because they are harder to comprehend simply through Lain’s doubtful facial expressions.

The ominous feeling starts off when Lain started acting creepy right after she finally showed interest to NAVIs or basically the computers. This part is crucial in such that it began showing Lain’s slow transformation in her personality. Despite this development, I’m actually puzzled on what the trigger was for her sudden interest. Was Chisa’s death really that significant? I bet not because it was stated that they only went home together once. Was her message that persuasive for Lain to check out NAVIs? Curiosity, and nothing more? I beg to disagree. This is why, despite the nice build up during the middle, I still find the series weak in terms of exposition. It was mind-boggling, yes, but it failed to register as a nice set off for everything that happened so far.

I already had a feeling that Lain possessed different personalities since I thought it’s just normal for anyone to use a different persona (it’s always different to some degree) when communicating in cyberspace, and she was just hiding it from everyone else. Also, I thought that the series has this nice mysterious atmosphere due to the series’s style of relying on rumors and on thoughts of other people (but not that of Lain) when the series tried to introduce the existence of her wired version.

It was very apparent that the chip Psyche’s function could be attributed to an individual’s very own consciousness. It was an outright reference to the psychology term psyche which refers to the human mind. NAVI provides only the essential and default functions but the Psyche chip allows her complete control over the Wired. The source of this chip was ambiguous. But I believe, probably just like the others, that it came from the Knights.

One of the interesting things that the series presents is Lain’s dilemma towards her real identity. Is it the one existing in the physical world or the one in the wired? I thought that it was very surreal that Lain wasn’t capable of controlling her other ‘selves’ in the wired world because humans should be ordinarily capable of doing so. Despite the ramifications on cyberspace, humans could still grasp and remember their actions. Contrary to that, Lain was acting forgetful of almost all the things that her wired existence has done. I thought that it was just a way of trying to portray the wired world’s frightening power to rule over that of the physical world (just one way of interpreting it). Of course, another interpretation would be to emphasize Lain’s peculiarities to that of an ordinary human. Psychologically speaking though, I enjoyed the moments she pondered on who’s the real her. Is there only one real Lain? I honestly believe that every Lain is part of her collective conscience, the same analogy with a person’s varied facades to dynamic settings and situations.

I would have loved if the series explored more on to the game Phantoma that’s capable of killing people in the wired world because it readily obscures the border between the two worlds via death. This would further push the topic on the duality of the worlds via Protocol 7. Also, is it just me who didn’t understand the deeper connection between the KIDS Project and the Knights? Its involvement to Knights was very vague such that I didn’t even understand its connection to Knight’s objective regarding the unification of the human consciousness. I thought that this one was a shallow plot tool because Lain was shown to care for the kids used in the experiment. I thought that it was out-of-character for her to react that way because she didn’t even budge when a man shot himself in front of her.

The series is rather overwhelming on the complex plot it laid. I don’t even fully understand all the scenes, especially the ones that are borderline hallucinations and events in the wired but all I can say is that it has a very engaging subject which is worthwhile to explore and discuss further. If I had to comment though on the totality of the concepts used, I loved science-fiction especially the ones mentioned during the episode, Infornography. Although, I never really liked the plot tool explaining that Lain wasn’t human but some sort of a program/ artificial human since this pretty much beats the purpose of self-insertion of the watcher, seeing that Lain is probably the most appropriate character to relate with to feel the utmost message of the story.

The ending was abrupt, especially the cut off scene right after Alice’s breakdown simply showing the menu window. It was a let down and too much simplification to the execution of Lain’s decision. Still, I didn’t like her choice of action because it was such a cowardly decision. I was hoping for an ending where she could achieve a balance between her two dominant personalities existing in the Wired and the physical world but it didn’t happen. Then again, her existence’s nature as an artificial human must have been a factor for her decision.

The scene with Alice at the end was beautiful though.

PS. If you are planning to watch this series, I suggest watching it at least twice to clearly understand the gist of the story.

PSS. It’s not that I didn’t like the ending, I just felt that it lacked impact due to what Lain has become at the end. Someone who’s existence was erased from everyone’s.

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image credits: pixiv user E9L, and Yoshitoshi Abe

To tell the truth, I forgot already most of the stories and cases solved by Victorique which is why it’s a bit hard to write this post, thus the delayed publishing. As a detective genre lover, I’d say that Gosick was pretty much successful in establishing a universe of its own via the folklore it offers to the audience. I’m quite amazed on how the show was able to associate each of the stories/ urban legends to the real cases happening around the academy.

The cases were hard to grasp because most of it had some fictional element, but I really enjoyed them a lot. The series’ first few episodes felt like a tour to the universe that Gosick has built, a fictional Europe. Meanwhile,  the latter episodes explored the significance of Victorique and Kazuya on the war, and those who pull the strings. What’s nice to watch in this show aren’t just the cases alone. The relationship between Kazuya and Victorique was also nicely built up through the use of the cases and it was just a matter of parallelism between the stories to flesh out illustrious character development.

In terms of the cases, the Gray Wolf Village arc was my favorite because it established quite a nice concept on the setting and a good backstory for Victorique, enough to propel the story’s subplots such as the resolution of her mother’s story. But personally, the one that I clearly remember would be the case inside the ship that involved kids of different nationalities because it really reminded me of Sherlock Holmes’ way of story telling. I must say that it’s that episode that made me continue watching. And yes, it makes me rather curious on how they were able to recreate that atmosphere despite the Japanese roots of the story.

Day 4

At first, I was mildly frustrated on why aliens seem to come up a lot (spare me the entropy thing). From Star Driver, to Madoka and then this. I was about to give up on the concept but I was glad that Denpa used the alien thing differently.

I don’t think there would be any other anime that aired this year that would beat Denpa in the “surreal” category. Who will forget how beautiful episode 3 was? The I CAN’T FLY scene, Maekawa-san’s analogy of aliens to religion and Ryuuko’s opinion about mysteries. It was a very striking episode which really got me hooked to the series.

Whenever Erio speaks in a highfalutin manner, my brain screams Haruhi and Nagato. I don’t know, don’t ask me but it bears a semblance. I like the cryptic way she talks, albeit pretentious, because it makes her situation more interesting. What really is her connection to aliens? Just like Makoto, I’m drawn to her out of curiosity. Although Makoto claims that it must be her way of covering for her failure to understand the accident (prior to her futon-wrapped appearance), it fails to register in my brain that it is the sole reason or the trigger for her to act like that. No one knows what truly happened — it would have been better, I believe, if that thing was the one explored more by the series.

Mysteries are your hopes. Just like how I think of the deep sea, dreaming of undiscovered creatures, mysteries should constantly push us forward. By putting that all in the past and using them only to secure a bit of peace, Touwa Erio is no longer human. But she is NOT an alien.

Makoto’s attempt to analyze Erio’s situation was quite a good watch because it showed a lot of his character. Crushing the illusion, as Makoto dubbed it, might be the quickest and most effective way for Erio to learn the truth. But I think it’s rude of him to not consider what she might feel after that. Good thing Makoto wasn’t that ill-willed since he also had the intention to formally start their relationship as cousins. He also redeemed himself a bit by feeling guilty after that. But I guess it was the whole point of the show; to show up to what extent Makoto would do to receive and understand the signals being sent by Erio.

One more thing to enjoy about Denpa would be Makoto’s Seishun Points. To tell the truth, I don’t yet fully understand the scoring details of Seishun Points despite Makoto’s full explanation during episode 4. All I know is that the whole bike thing really deserves a +5. I somehow envy Makoto for crafting such scoring. He’s rather adventuresome and the whole scoring thing was like a self-induced push for him to do and explore lots of things. Yes, must be youth… (Ugh, I feel so old)

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image credits: pixiv users 吉ちん, 伍長

I don’t think I really need to explain anything about this series except the act of describing it as fabulous. I know it started airing 2010 but I always use the ending date to categorize it as an anime of what year. The whole Kiraboshi thing really got me hooked -before I knew it, it’s already viral. I still recall always reading Good Haro’s updates about the series. Unfortunately, I’m still not at that level where one is able to memorize the Hebrew runes and the names of the Cybodies, haha. But seriously, staring at that chart took a lot of my time.

Despite the “monster of the week” pattern of this show, I won’t say that there was a time that I was bored. From its flamboyant backgrounds of Zero Time, impressive Maiden songs (I’m biased towards Monochrome and Komorebi no Contact), to its weirdly funny Glittering Crux members, I don’t think it’s fair to say that it was just an all “flashy-sparkly” gay show, not to mention that there’s that vague allegory within Sarina’s play, Sakana’s story and the relationship of  the protagonists.

I think what I really found fascinating about the show is the relationship of the Hebrew/Phoenician letter’s meaning to the driver’s first phase power – but then, that’s just me, hahaha. I also read that there were references made from ‘The Little Prince’ but I don’t think I’ve seen any post in the anisphere trying to decipher any connection between the two (aside from the names).

Keito really piqued my interest during the start of the show because she’s obviously plotting something, and yet nobody knows her motives. She’s one of the cunning leaders who openly admits that she’s Ivrogne. Although I wasn’t pleased on how she was presented later on (aside from the rapist gag) because she certainly made a fool out of herself, I’d say she’s one of the reasons why I lasted watching it. Marino was a great character as well. The source of her existence was a big surprise to me. The Mizuno episode where she tried to leave the island was disturbing. Wako’s character development was such a joke! I was laughing when she made that monologue at the last episode on how she’s feeling so torn because she loves both Takuto and Sugata.

PS. I wrote this post 3AM. None of this would probably make sense. Proofreading later.

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image credits: pixiv user おぢみ

I believe that I have one post sitting in the drafts which was supposed to be about Fractale, and to be specific, the Fractale System itself. Since I lost the motivation to actually continue the post (who knows if it’ll rise from the graveyard), I thought I should at least mention it here. And no, this post isn’t a rant of what it has become. After all, 12 moments is supposed to outline the best parts of what happened throughout the year. 

After I saw a glimpse of the concept art, I compelled myself to watch Fractale. But above all else, I was totally drawn in by the idea of post-scarcity since I’m pretty much a major in Economics. I rarely encounter concepts that’s under the umbrella of Economics (or at least the obvious ones) except Spice and Wolf, [C], and this one.

Regardless of the plot, I totally enjoyed the setting of Fractale. The first episodes really tickled my brain with “what if” situations. I especially find parental abandonment, on the case of Clain, interesting despite the existence of the so-called doppels as a proxy for his parents. I don’t really treat the setting as futuristic because I doubt such society would exist but given these conditions, would parents really leave their kid living near the cliff in pursuit of their own happiness? I think it’s during these situations that we can see how people truly weigh their priorities in life.

We were always taught to associate the price of something to the opportunity cost attached to an activity. But that’s pretty much because everything requires a resource such as time, and it has its price. The cost of the resource reflects its scarcity. Of course, everything might be abundant but that doesn’t exactly mean you’ll be able to afford everything. This is the case with the setting of Fractale and I think it’s interesting to observe how people would adapt to this kind of environment. Everyone knows that everything is scarce, which ties the concept of how everything is priced in this world, economically speaking.

What would be your choice in life now when the world is offering you almost everything? Would you rebel and fight or succumb to the system? This is pretty much what Fractale made me thought off.

image credits: (official artwork)

Characterization

The series was actually engaging but it had me thinking why some of the characters were like that.

Narumi had a very questionable personality during the start of the series. He claims that he’s already used to not seeing the “full image” – which is why he remained being a lone dot. But, he was annoyingly bowing to everything that’s happening around him. There’s no pressure at all being applied to him but he still unwillingly went and got dragged by Ayaka. He actually instinctively stayed during the scene in episode 1 where the girl jumped from the window even though Hiro and everyone else actually didn’t even mind him witnessing the event.

Yeah, in short he was so pretentious. He claims that he doesn’t want to be involved even though he actually badly wants to. Ok, so the word “badly” might be an overstatement, but I don’t see the reason behind his choice to stay after Ayaka left him (aside from the fact that she originally planned to treat him for dinner, tsk.).

Meanwhile, Alice was also pretentious at some degree. I don’t know why she over emphasizes on the word NEET every time  she introduces herself. Not to mention, her jargon about detectives being speakers for the dead. Her introduction to Narumi also went over the top. She blames herself for being inefficient and for failing to prevent the death of people she doesn’t even know. Messiah complex? I don’t know– but for someone with that kind of thinking, I wonder why she chooses to stay inside her apartment every time instead.

Really now, I don’t get why these two main characters contradict their selves.

On being a victim of circumstance

I tried to look on the net the definition but I think the closest would be “Someone whose bad luck was not of his own making” (Ringo’s DESTINYYY suddenly rang on my head). I honestly don’t believe that there exists an instance where one simply got drifted along. That person did allow the external forces to take over, and that was his/her own decision (it’s a different case if the decision was beyond the control of the person, then again there’s just a thin line between beyond and within).

There is this post from 4ch regarding the run-of-the-mill formula being used by several anime in male protagonists and after reading this, I though that there is a need to clarify the synonymy of the phrases “victim of circumstance” and “going with the flow”. Though I won’t deny the fact that the trend is getting a bit stale already, I think that there’s a misunderstanding on how these two phrases are being used interchangeably to describe the characters mentioned in the post.

The general consensus among personality researchers is that behavior  is a function of the person, the situation, and the person within the situation. The situation clearly isn’t a primary factor because Narumi lacks the knowledge to know the future consequences of being involved with Alice and everyone else so this is clearly a question of his personality and I think that it’s pretty clear throughout the anime that he likes to stick his nose pretty much where ever he goes, which is why after watching the series, I was convinced that he isn’t a victim of circumstance, since he wasn’t a victim of something beyond his control. He might be going with the flow though, and that’s different because it’s within his control. It was his very own choice to initiate the sake ceremony with Yondaime. It was his choice all along, perhaps in lieu of Ayaka’s efforts to befriend him; he must have felt the responsibility to return the mutuality of the relationship by sticking with her, even if that means being associated with the NEETs and a yakuza group.

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image credits: pixiv user Tiv

Considering I’ve got my own background of time traveling from Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, Steins;Gate never failed to amaze me on how it constructs and deconstructs each and every building block it presented. But, there is this one thing that makes me feel iffy about Steins;Gate, and it’s the existence of predetermined events ie, Mayuri’s death, regardless of the means, not unless Okarin returns to the beta timeline. This is rather shitty in my opinion because it’s as if all the D-mails were tightly tied in order to invoke Mayuri’s death even though the original cause used to be a gunshot. Also, the dialogue of Okarin to Moeka regarding her fate to die on 8/15 was a blatant statement about predetermination. I’m not quite convinced as to why this is the case even if the show makes references to the Butterfly effect. Isn’t it quite surprising that a mere text could change and cause divergence in the timeline and yet actual change in the decision of the character outside the influence of D-mail won’t change his/her fate?

What now? D-mails have surpassed entropy? No matter how I look at it D-mails are like spam text messages. Since it’s quite obvious that the D-mails were the conditions that triggered Mayuri’s death, I don’t know why the series set it as if it’s the absolute initial conditions, that Mayuri’s death is irreversible not unless it’s those conditions that are changed. Supposedly, there are no absolute initial conditions if we are talking about predetermination so I wonder why they came up with the solution through cancellation of the D-mails instead.

Cancelling the D-mails is also a complicated thing on its own. Just for an easier analogy:

Open MS Paint. Have a blank picture, save it. This is timeline A. Now, draw a spot on it. That’s timeline B. Now erase that spot. While it looks exactly like the first one (timeline A), it’s still timeline C. As proof, exit MS Paint. It will ask if you want to save the changes (even though it looks exactly the same). (from Chrono Compendium)

As easy as it may sound, the timeline where D-mails have been cancelled is still different from the timeline before the mails were sent. Recall that D-mail has its own flaw when it was tried by Daru and more recently by Okarin in an attempt to cancel Moeka’s D-mail. The actual thing which triggered all of the events up until now is the act of believing in what was written in the mail as well the significance of the information relative to the situation it will be applied to. That means, to cancel the mail, the second D-mail must hold greater significance than the earlier.

I may have interpreted things differently (please do object if it’s wrong) but I see D-mails as a “horizontal” travel in the timelines while Kurisu’s can do “vertical” travel. I think it’s quite understandable to assume that predetermination might exist if one chooses to undergo vertical travel since one might simply choose to observe, like what Okarin is doing lately. The thing is, Okarin never simply observed during the first few travels. I still remember that scene where Okarin and Mayuri almost escaped only for Nae to push Mayuri to the rail track. I don’t know what’s the deal about this. Yes, there’s the Butterfly effect that triggers the death flag for Mayuri but why won’t changes right on that timeline cause any divergence? It’s as if all of the possible scenarios were already written down only to end with Mayuri dying. Just to clarify, I’d like to believe that Okarin is carrying out his free will in trying to save Mayuri many times(which is obvious, see: Bad end with Feyris).  It’s just that the predetermination of Mayuri’s death through various means despite avoiding the Rounders undermines Okarin’s exercise of free will. Did he really had a choice? Or was his decision to save Mayuri already written down in the future history book?

Although the series suggests that the equilibrium of the timeline can only be achieved through Mayuri’s death, and that it can only be thwarted by cancelling the D-mails, I’m not buying it. I think Mayuri’s death could have been easily thwarted simply by knowing all available information and possible escape routes before the Rounders approach the lab. This is why I find it unbelievable that despite escaping the Rounders, she still dies. I’d say that cancelling the D-mails should only have been to related to SERN’s discovery of their time machine, and not Mayuri’s death. It could have been believable up until now if cancelling the D-mails was primarily to shut up SERN but since it is also related to Mayuri’s death, it appears to me that it was forced so it’ll have that despair feeling needed to dramatize Okarin’s situation as well as the dilemma of who to sacrifice between Mayuri and Kurisu.

But then again,

Everything is purely a problem of possibilities, and the world is only stabilized by the viewpoint of the one who observes it.

– which is undoubtedly Okarin… But of course, I’m still quite skeptic up until now about the Reading Steiner since it’s the reason why only Okarin is immune to timeline changes and yet the means as to how he acquired it didn’t have any back story as of yet.

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image credits: pixiv users nineo, ぎうにう, huke

In lieu of the August 1 Memorial Day of Digimon, I marathoned the first and second seasons of Digimon. Watching it again made me notice the theme of parallelism and juxtaposition of the two worlds, namely the Digital World and the Physical World. The state of one reflects the state of the other. If there’s a disturbance existing in the Digital World, then it would probably create a disturbance as well in the Physical World. Whenever I think of this, I can’t help but associate it to Summer Wars (not just because of Mamoru Hosoda).

Summer Wars, albeit farfetched on its own (Internet controlling mere traffic lights), was more successful in trying to portray how disturbances in the Digital World could affect our lives and even lead to death of a beloved one. Digimon is of course, more farfetched than Summer Wars since the effects of the disturbances in the Digital World is manifested through warp gates opening in the Physical World thus enabling Digimons to travel to the Physical World and wreak havoc.

Naturally, I’d say that every bit of information that the Internet possesses influence our every day decisions. From researching homework, up to knowing the latest news. Nowadays, Internet also already allows us to perform online business transactions and of course, catch up with our friends through the (in)famous social networking sites.

Like what I’ve said regarding the connection between the two worlds, it’s quite hard to establish the neutrality of the other to another. If there’s a mess in Facebook, Twitter, or any other social networking site, chances are, it will materialize as an issue in the Physical World or vice versa. The cyberspace has slowly become an extended reality for almost everyone, of any age.

“Extended” reality is actually an understatement. Anything that’s an extension, is just an accessory. I doubt everything in the cyberspace is mere “accessory” for everybody. The “me” in the internet is undoubtedly a part of me, that’s not just an accessory. This goes back to the reasonable connection between the Digital World and the Physical World because this overlapping concept of individuality from both worlds results to the connection that ties the two. Your avatar in the cyberspace can never be the real you, similar as to how the physical you can never really show who you truly are. You can never separate the you in the Physical World and the other you in the cyberspace because the combination of the two actually forms your true persona. Thus, a disturbance present in one world leads to a disturbance in the other. One can never truly separate it completely.

In Durarara!!, Mikado is both an ordinary student and leader of the Dollars and he’s not just the latter or the former – he is the combination of the two. When both Anri and Kida got involved with the mess between the Yellow Scarves and Dollars, one can’t really say that Mikado was able to detach himself from being the leader of the Dollars even though he’s only an ordinary student by default in the physical world.

To wrap it up, both Physical World and the Digital World reflects and affects each others’ status primarily because the two are pieces of who we are and of what the world is. Yes, we are also made of the bits of these files, documents, and data that the Internet has.

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image credits: pixiv users Rella/C80土セ-02b, ni, シエル

I don’t know if this will turn out a bit technical but I’ll try my best not to (or at least explain through layman’s terms). I have to say as well that this representation in [C] is rather weird. I am well aware of how bad IMF’s reputation is to developing countries because of the disparity in the bargaining power of the developing country to what IMF/US demands as a compensation for the loans and debts that they provide as a form of assistance to the countries. This is why it was quite surprising that one of the good guys (well, I consider her as one) actually came from IMF. I know that I’m biased but because of this, it’s as if IMF has become a great institution all of a sudden (which up until now, I still can’t seem to accept!).

Side B: Satou

Having studied economics as a major, most of our perspectives were from the point of view of the government which aims to “regulate” and make sure that the market is favorable for all of its stakeholders, or so that’s how it is supposed to be. I am well aware of the conspiracy spiraling right now and the arguments of other economists who prefer to have a laissez-faire policy wherein the government is encouraged to let the market as is and not meddle whatever happens. Why? because some economists says that the government is actually the one causing the irregularities and distortions in the economy. They build new roads and provide jobs to people who did the construction but was there really a need to construct new roads? Of course, this is just in theory but, some economists say that the government is creating an artificial demand to supply for which of course is a distortion in the economy.

As you can see, I believe that this is Jennifer’s stance. She kept pointing out that what Mikuni is doing are mere stop-gap measures (which is absolutely right! I am referring to the absorption he did to the pharmaceutical company) and doesn’t really solve the problem. She appears to be nonchalant with what’s going to happen because she knows that it was meant to happen in the first place. As for this, Mikuni represents the government. What made this portrayal obvious was Mikuni’s possession of the Darkness card which allows him to control the printing of Midas money. Who else could control that in real life but the government (well, indirectly through the central bank)?

Of course, back then when we were still kids, it should have crossed our minds at least once. Why not just print lots of money? I bet we’re all guilty of thinking innocently on how that could be a solution to poverty. To cut it short, it will result to hyperinflation if done wrongly without any proper reason. Proper reason, as in, eg. increase in the demand for money due to increasing number of transactions, not the likes of “because Japan is about to vanish”. But since Mikuni needed the cash to buy and rescue the stock prices… He had to print money.

Maybe several people are still puzzled why printing additional Midas money equates sacrificing the future. It is quite related to future inflationary effect. If people have 100 USD in their time deposit right now, then in the future, its value could actually become mere 10 USD simply because a lot of people have USD already due to the printing of more Midas money; thus, the depreciation on the value of the currency.

Satou’s efforts in trying to stop Mikuni for a third round of printing money was more or less justified because that will really leave JPY worthless in the eyes of entrepreneurs. Mikuni might be saying that it’s for the sake of preventing Japan from vanishing (which of course is a metaphor) but, it doesn’t really help the economy recuperate. It’s just there to prolong the present.

So, what do you prefer, an economy with people like Mikuni doing machinations in order to “save the country” by deteriorating its future or an economy free from any external influence? Mikuni might be doing a favor for everyone in the financial district since they don’t have to commit suicide anymore after losing a deal but, I don’t think it outweighs the future he steals from everyone else.

Just like what I mentioned from the previous post, you can’t really be a real Entre if you’re not prepared for the risk of being bankrupt. It’s a natural effect of competition ie, the deals.

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image credits: pixiv users ポ中, 糸吉, カナン

I honestly think that the show was vague during the last episodes due to the fast pace but I guess it was just reasonable for a show showcasing the world economy, considering the minute and ever changing prices of not only stocks but also commodities. Time is of the essence after all, if we are talking about trading stocks.

Side A: Sennoza

The first concept which readily entered my mind ever since the episode, which involved Sennoza, was intertemporal consistency. As a brief description on what the economic concept is about, it primarily discusses the unequal consumption and allocation of one’s resources for the present and the future. In my case, I’ve always believed that the optimal situation lies in the balance of the two, but of course if I delve further, it’ll go on and probably touch the concept of risk-aversion which is not that relevant in [C] per se. Note that the key concept in here is “balance”.

Obviously, Sennoza tries to argue that the present would mean nothing if therein lies a future left without any choice to choose from. A linear path for everyone (a repetition of the present). Mikuni meanwhile argues that this kind of disposition is only for those who are better off compared to everyone else because they have the luxury of planning ahead for their future. Other people who are faced with coping with the present won’t even be able to think that far ahead if they are faced with something difficult in the present.

Of course, I disagree with Mikuni. He must be underestimating those who are economically disadvantaged. Even if a person is poverty stricken today, that doesn’t stop him from planning what he should do in the future. Although I get Mikuni’s point for his remark on how unpredictable the future could be, I think it’s better to do something about it rather than get complacent on what’s the current state. What he’s doing is like what Msyu told Q during the final episode. He only keeps providing blood for the transfusion for a bedridden person, but the fact is that, the problem is still there. The kidney or the liver is still not functional and thus needs to be replaced!

It’s quite ironic that Mikuni was able to get onto the top of the financial district with this kind of mindset. He’s very much a risk-averse person who would probably keep on hedging just to avoid risk, which is why he prefers the certainty of the present compared to the unpredictability of future. But of course, everyone knows that hackneyed statement about investing already. “The higher the risk, the higher the return”. He’ll never achieve his full potential if he’s afraid of what the future holds.

What I liked about the show is that it further presented the conflict between Sennoza and Mikuni through that dialogue from one of Kimimaro’s company from his part time (the old guy) when he mentioned that he planned to cancel his insurance. There was this side of me telling me that it’s just common sense to act and choose that option because of how the present economy was portrayed in the anime but another part of me was saying that it wasn’t a wise decision as well because the economy could get even worse than the present and that he might lose that back-up support if it happens in the future once he cancels the insurance.

But of course, I’m not saying that Sennoza is entirely correct as well. Just as how I phrase it, it really should be a balance between the  present and the future. It might be loosely related to Economics but future is equally important with present. Sacrificing the opportunity cost of either of the two for one will distort your living. Are you willing to party all day night today for the sake of having fun even though you know there would be an exam tomorrow? Are you willing to save up 99% of your allowance just to buy that trendy gadget to the extent of skipping your meals?

Next Post >> Side B: Satou

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image credits: pixiv users カナン, ina