逆淚2018-6-17 16:21 /
Origin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2Waber-6YQ
By A Sleepy Insomniac
The CGI animation in Houseki no Kuni is great and all but I don't think that this is the main reason for its prediculously high scroe in MAL. Rather I think the reason why so many people are so enamored with the show is simply because of the character arc of its main character.
Phos's character arc is exactly what get people excited where people hear about it. She starts off as this bratty, lazy, useless character that still lovable due to our sarcastic and eminently memetic nature. However, as the show continues, you get to watch her slowly developed into a more mature and somber character, while still catching glimpses of her once lazy and sarcastic side to asure you she's still the same gem. This is further emphasized by how drastically the visual design of Phos changes over the cross of the show. After all they literally break her down and rebuild her several times: first she had new legs, then she had new arms then she had new hair, then she covered up her legs again. This visual development really helps Phos's transformation and development as a character seem significant. Furthermore, all of this development was at the behest of Phos's own desire to grow. In other words Phos was an active protagonist, by seeing her as a being that actually has her own desires and actually strives to reach them by herself, she becomes more enduring(endearing?) and every bit of for development feels more meaningful.
It was also great to watch this character arc chronologically, not with some stupid in medias res prologue, that cuts back to one year later, so I like this aspect of the show as much as the next person. But here's the thing: the characters of Houseki no Kuni are still just gems, nothing more than glorified rocks, so why do rocks need to develop? OK, so hear me out: All the gems in the gem society of Houseki no Kuni are at least several hundred years old, with the older ones being several thousands of years old. The only thing that the gems have ever done is fight the Lunarians. So the state of the society on the secluded island has basically remained unchanged since the fighting began. They wake up. They patrol the island. A Lunarian shows up. They kill it. They go back to sleep. Runs(?) repeat, while hibernating once every winter. So aside from getting better fighting the Lunarians, there isn't really much CHANGE going on in the island. So why does Phos develop so much, what is so different about her?
For context, assuming that the seasonal patterns of earth haven't changed since the splitting of humanity into its three core components: flesh, bone, and soul (don't ask). Then Phos's character arc takes place over more or less a single year. For being that basically lives forever, this is less than the blink of an eye. so here's the thing: the gem society that Phos lives in is pretty much a post-scare(?) utopia. No one needs food. No one gets sick. No one ages. If not for the Lunarians constantly trying to adopt them, these gems won't really need to do anything. They could just laze around in the grass for the rest of eternity with basically no consequence. Their muscles won't atrophy because their body masses in organic. They would never die from starvation or dehydration, because all they need to survive is light. The sun could even blow up and they'd still be fine if they just stay close enough to intact and floated to some other light source. They could basically just be rocks.
Fortunately, relatively speaking, the Lunarians DO exist, so the gems of the society do have to do some things. They must fight off this threat, retrieve shards for members to reassemble them, and continue to research their enemy in the hopes of finding more efficient ways to dispatch them. Phos really can't do any of this, because of how lazy and brittle she is, thus it makes sense that the rest of the gems would be annoyed with her for not contributing. However, given the fact that the rest of the gems are already taking care of everything, the fact that Phos is even there shouldn't even really matter, Phos could literally just decide to take a bowl of light up to her room and stay there for the rest of time, or simply decide to give herself up to the Lunarians. To put it bluntly, her gem comrades wouldn't be affected that much either way. Her existence does not deprive them of resources, nor what her nonexistence help them procure more. Phos doesn't really need to do anything.
In fact, the very fact that Phos doesn't resigned herself to becoming an actual hunk of rock is the reason why she gives her comrades so much trouble, otherwise she would never have to be saved from the Lunarians, or the SNAIL THING, or the OCEAN. Despite her lazy and unmotivated nature, Phos still deeply wanted to find a purpose in life. Granted she was offered a purpose in the form of writing the encyclopedia for the island, which she rejected, making for an interresting parallel where Cinnabar who accepted the purpose that was thrust upon her. But throughout the entire series, Phos spends most of her screen time pursuing her own purpose in life. So if Phos is so obviously unsuited to do anything, remotely useful or even achieve anything that would bring herself pleasure, why doesn't she just shut herself in a room and hibernate for the rest of eternity? Well, then she really would just be a hunk of rock.
In fact, the reason why all the gems don't just barricade themselves an underground bunker to escape the Lunarians, is the exact same thing: these gem things are questionably alive but definitely sentiment. And according to the lore of the show, this sentience drove these beings to find reasons for existence. What this says about Houseki no Kuni's philosophy on existence is kind of interresting. It's basically making the statement that if something exists and its purpose for existing cannot be defined then it doesn't really matter if it exists or not? The reason why Phos had to develop so much was due to how comparatively useless she was to all of the other gems. The others had all been born into their own little niches that they filled, and thus were easily able to find purposes for existing. Being(?) in fighting the Lunarians or putting shattered gems back together. Even Zircon, the gem closes in terms of age to Phos, had easily become a gem warrior because of how she was initially created. It is this fear of existential meaningless that drives Phos to such extreme measures in order to be able to fulfill her own purpose for existence. Had she been born with a high hardness, she would never have clung so dearly to her quest for purpose. It is only because of the fact that she was born weak and subjected to the principle that existence must be for a purpose that Phos is able to undergo such a drastic character arc in such a short amount of time.
Furthermore the static nature of the setting of the story made it so that everything was already pretty much set in place. So the only way that Phos would be able to grow is by actively seeking out growth. It was by being a story with the central dogma of giving meaning to existence that Houseki no Kuni was able to make a rock existing in a hyper static environment where nothing really changes into an active protagonist. And the reason why that's significant is because of this simple fact:
Rocks don't grow.
Thanks for watching the video. I'm sorry about the audio in the beginning. But I just got a new microphone but it's. . . it's not like a good one. So I'm still kind of getting used to it, hopefully will show up in the next video. Ah. . . Exam week is kind of close right now, so probably be taking a short hiatus from making videos. I. . . I'll come back eventually but I might pop up some other places in the meanwhile. Ahm. . . So like that's about it. Houseki no Kuni's like a pretty good show, you should go watch it. Ah. . . Hurray for Amazon Strike's death and go follow me on Twitter and have a nice day.
断句还有不少地方可以斟酌... 有翻译的打算
By A Sleepy Insomniac
The CGI animation in Houseki no Kuni is great and all but I don't think that this is the main reason for its prediculously high scroe in MAL. Rather I think the reason why so many people are so enamored with the show is simply because of the character arc of its main character.
Phos's character arc is exactly what get people excited where people hear about it. She starts off as this bratty, lazy, useless character that still lovable due to our sarcastic and eminently memetic nature. However, as the show continues, you get to watch her slowly developed into a more mature and somber character, while still catching glimpses of her once lazy and sarcastic side to asure you she's still the same gem. This is further emphasized by how drastically the visual design of Phos changes over the cross of the show. After all they literally break her down and rebuild her several times: first she had new legs, then she had new arms then she had new hair, then she covered up her legs again. This visual development really helps Phos's transformation and development as a character seem significant. Furthermore, all of this development was at the behest of Phos's own desire to grow. In other words Phos was an active protagonist, by seeing her as a being that actually has her own desires and actually strives to reach them by herself, she becomes more enduring(endearing?) and every bit of for development feels more meaningful.
It was also great to watch this character arc chronologically, not with some stupid in medias res prologue, that cuts back to one year later, so I like this aspect of the show as much as the next person. But here's the thing: the characters of Houseki no Kuni are still just gems, nothing more than glorified rocks, so why do rocks need to develop? OK, so hear me out: All the gems in the gem society of Houseki no Kuni are at least several hundred years old, with the older ones being several thousands of years old. The only thing that the gems have ever done is fight the Lunarians. So the state of the society on the secluded island has basically remained unchanged since the fighting began. They wake up. They patrol the island. A Lunarian shows up. They kill it. They go back to sleep. Runs(?) repeat, while hibernating once every winter. So aside from getting better fighting the Lunarians, there isn't really much CHANGE going on in the island. So why does Phos develop so much, what is so different about her?
For context, assuming that the seasonal patterns of earth haven't changed since the splitting of humanity into its three core components: flesh, bone, and soul (don't ask). Then Phos's character arc takes place over more or less a single year. For being that basically lives forever, this is less than the blink of an eye. so here's the thing: the gem society that Phos lives in is pretty much a post-scare(?) utopia. No one needs food. No one gets sick. No one ages. If not for the Lunarians constantly trying to adopt them, these gems won't really need to do anything. They could just laze around in the grass for the rest of eternity with basically no consequence. Their muscles won't atrophy because their body masses in organic. They would never die from starvation or dehydration, because all they need to survive is light. The sun could even blow up and they'd still be fine if they just stay close enough to intact and floated to some other light source. They could basically just be rocks.
Fortunately, relatively speaking, the Lunarians DO exist, so the gems of the society do have to do some things. They must fight off this threat, retrieve shards for members to reassemble them, and continue to research their enemy in the hopes of finding more efficient ways to dispatch them. Phos really can't do any of this, because of how lazy and brittle she is, thus it makes sense that the rest of the gems would be annoyed with her for not contributing. However, given the fact that the rest of the gems are already taking care of everything, the fact that Phos is even there shouldn't even really matter, Phos could literally just decide to take a bowl of light up to her room and stay there for the rest of time, or simply decide to give herself up to the Lunarians. To put it bluntly, her gem comrades wouldn't be affected that much either way. Her existence does not deprive them of resources, nor what her nonexistence help them procure more. Phos doesn't really need to do anything.
In fact, the very fact that Phos doesn't resigned herself to becoming an actual hunk of rock is the reason why she gives her comrades so much trouble, otherwise she would never have to be saved from the Lunarians, or the SNAIL THING, or the OCEAN. Despite her lazy and unmotivated nature, Phos still deeply wanted to find a purpose in life. Granted she was offered a purpose in the form of writing the encyclopedia for the island, which she rejected, making for an interresting parallel where Cinnabar who accepted the purpose that was thrust upon her. But throughout the entire series, Phos spends most of her screen time pursuing her own purpose in life. So if Phos is so obviously unsuited to do anything, remotely useful or even achieve anything that would bring herself pleasure, why doesn't she just shut herself in a room and hibernate for the rest of eternity? Well, then she really would just be a hunk of rock.
In fact, the reason why all the gems don't just barricade themselves an underground bunker to escape the Lunarians, is the exact same thing: these gem things are questionably alive but definitely sentiment. And according to the lore of the show, this sentience drove these beings to find reasons for existence. What this says about Houseki no Kuni's philosophy on existence is kind of interresting. It's basically making the statement that if something exists and its purpose for existing cannot be defined then it doesn't really matter if it exists or not? The reason why Phos had to develop so much was due to how comparatively useless she was to all of the other gems. The others had all been born into their own little niches that they filled, and thus were easily able to find purposes for existing. Being(?) in fighting the Lunarians or putting shattered gems back together. Even Zircon, the gem closes in terms of age to Phos, had easily become a gem warrior because of how she was initially created. It is this fear of existential meaningless that drives Phos to such extreme measures in order to be able to fulfill her own purpose for existence. Had she been born with a high hardness, she would never have clung so dearly to her quest for purpose. It is only because of the fact that she was born weak and subjected to the principle that existence must be for a purpose that Phos is able to undergo such a drastic character arc in such a short amount of time.
Furthermore the static nature of the setting of the story made it so that everything was already pretty much set in place. So the only way that Phos would be able to grow is by actively seeking out growth. It was by being a story with the central dogma of giving meaning to existence that Houseki no Kuni was able to make a rock existing in a hyper static environment where nothing really changes into an active protagonist. And the reason why that's significant is because of this simple fact:
Rocks don't grow.
Thanks for watching the video. I'm sorry about the audio in the beginning. But I just got a new microphone but it's. . . it's not like a good one. So I'm still kind of getting used to it, hopefully will show up in the next video. Ah. . . Exam week is kind of close right now, so probably be taking a short hiatus from making videos. I. . . I'll come back eventually but I might pop up some other places in the meanwhile. Ahm. . . So like that's about it. Houseki no Kuni's like a pretty good show, you should go watch it. Ah. . . Hurray for Amazon Strike's death and go follow me on Twitter and have a nice day.
断句还有不少地方可以斟酌... 有翻译的打算
#1 - 2018-6-17 18:16
逆淚 (19914)
