Moving pictures

Some may wonder why I watch anime so much. I don't watch the Powerpuff girls movies where everything is roundish and cute-ish. So far the ones I have been hooked on are very disturbing ones like 'Death note', sentimental and a bit girly (such as 'Nana'), or just adventurer type anime like 'Mushishi' or 'Claymore'.

I was blown away by all of them.

'Nana' dwelled so much into women feelings and friendships, as well as loneliness, it was quite refreshing to follow a storyline where things are not always happening according to a fairytale. 'Mushishi' on the other hand consists of tales that can only be possible because of the rich beliefs in spirits in the nippon culture. A bit like how a sorcerer or a traditional medicine man travelling around the country would encounter many strange cases that reveals some behavioural oddities (example the flower which blooms everyevening and makes you forget the previous day for the rest of your life once you inhale its scent: some people are better off forgetting and seeing a new day).
One of my favourites is 'Claymore', which follows the adventures of a girl named Claire who is 1/4 monster and 3/4 human (the other Claymores are traditionally half human half monster), and who exists to kill monsters that threaten the humans...a bit twisted really. However the Claymores get their strength from their monster side, but are trained to control the monster in them. I just found it very true as most humans are monsters and it's really our humanity that makes us 'civilized' or not eat each other's guts. This week though this anime came to mind when they granted 2 labs to start animal-human hybrid cells research. I am afraid it won't be long before a lab get broken and hybrid cells that are supposed to be destroyed after research get stolen and developed into chimeras: would it be or feel human or would it be animal? How would we judge? Not content with procreation, we human really are obsessed with creation.

'Death Note' is about a psychological chase and mystery between a bored brilliant student who found a strange diary and the police led by a genius teenager. The diary allows its owner to kill anyone by visualizing the face of its victim and writing his name in the diary. Armed with the death note, he becomes drunken with ambition to create a world free of criminals, and to become the god of that world. He is challenged by the other genius who also remains anonymous. Think 'The departed' where each one tries to unmask and kill the other. This anime actually springs from a novel or a manga apparently, and there are also movies made of it. However, the characters are not as cute and polished as in the manga or anime.