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Forum - View topicAnime & The Apocalypse: Finding Catharsis in the End of Everything
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tintor2
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Probably the only anime that tackled the armageddon with a happy ending is Ideon although it sure was strange.
Nagai probably made the armageddon creepy as heck with Devilman. Clamp also tackled this with the 1996 X movie where, while the humanity survives we can't say the same thing about the warriors and Tokyo's citizens. |
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Probablytomorrow
Posts: 164 |
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Gonna have to watch Girls' Last Tour, at least, now.
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KitKat1721
 Posts: 954 |
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For what its worth, I like reading more personal stories like this (hence why I've been a big fan of Lauren Orsini's Anime Origin Story). I wonder if its because as I've gotten older and have been an anime fan for longer/know my own tastes fairly well? More personal editorials and in-depth interviews are just what I gravitate towards more than just reviews, even though the latter can still have a degree of that personal touch, its not so much the priority.
Also thinking about it, someone could pick three completely different series for an "Anime & The Apocalypse" essay and I wouldn't bat an eye (like for me, Wolf's Rain was always that big, emotionally impactful apocalypse series alongside Utena). There really have been a lot of great, memorable works in that very specific area. |
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Doctorkev
 Posts: 83 Location: Scotland |
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This was a fantastic article (that covered three of my all-time favourite anime shows), and I'm very glad you decided to publish it. I'd certainly love to read more personal, insightful content like this on the site.
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Triltaison
 Posts: 729 |
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You're not alone! Sometimes it needs to end, and you picked some great ones. I'm also with Kitkat in the Wolf's Rain camp as a particularly memorable/great apocalypse.
I'd like to add Twilight of the Cockroaches as a great war apocalypse tale just chock full of that hopeless catharsis. And another for me is just the entire world of Vampire Hunter D, since the world clearly broke so long ago that we're on the cusp of the next apocalypse again. There's something so wonderful about a hero working through an irredeemably broken world that doesn't have a happy ending waiting at the end of the journey, and will likely be there at ground zero when everything finally crumbles to dust. |
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AmazingSpiderHam
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I'd absolutely read more of your prose, Lynzee. Especially if it gives you some type of catharsis. As a person who has struggled through my own depression and also as someone with a partner currently dealing with her own past traumas, a lot of what you said here rang true. I love reading this type of writing. It also helps me connect to the material(s) referenced and organize my own feelings. Keep it going!
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duckdealer
Posts: 7 |
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Great article! I would love to see more like this.
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Killv5
Posts: 1 |
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Jaw dropping article. A novel I recently read called "The Girl with All the Gifts" is very much in the same vein as these anime in that it sees the end of humanity as a release from suffering. I love seeing all the other recommendations in the comments too.
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R3solve
Posts: 3 |
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It’s nice to know I’m not alone feeling this way and thinking to this degree about these topics. True art should say something profound and resonant, that’s what separates it from entertainment. As someone who also has “a past” and a future where only one thing is certain, this article is touching and affirming.
If I could have I say, I’d want to see more people being real in this space. (ANN) If folks are only here for bubblegum and rainbows they should have the potential to encounter something serious and challenging. How else will they become people who can think and feel meaningful things even if they’re not pleasant instead of turning away and humming loudly their favorite anisong? Thank you PS:Never had a desire to “discuss it in the forums” before now. Lurker for a decade. Had to pipe up now to say thanks. PPS: GLT is my favorite manga, and the anisong I hum loudly to deny space to the noise is the intro to FLCL. |
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cmage
Posts: 1 |
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Another long-time lurker prompted to make an account. Thanks for posting this. I like reading personal stories like this; I like reviews but do want to read more in-depth stuff sometimes. I’m a bit tired of academic-style analysis in general, but this is a kind of writing about anime that I can get behind.
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Karasu-Lacryma
Posts: 114 |
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A great article. I just started Casshern Sins, and as unsubtle as it is, its lonely-immortal-wandering-the-wastes-with-occasional-tragic-encounters formula and beautifully quiet atmosphere make for a level of cathartic escapism I've not experienced in a while. I doubt it'll prove as profound as anything on this list, but it still stands out (so far) as a satisfying journey with amazing visual direction.
Started the related Clamp X series and couldn't get into it, but the opening scene amid the ruins of the city is beautiful. The happiest apocalypse anime I've seen has to be Humanity Has Declined, even if it's not the most hopeful ending; definitely one of the quirkier series out there. |
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sourpatchthekid
Posts: 64 |
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Really enjoyed reading this. I'd definitely like to see more essays and stuff like this in the future on ANN
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nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5120 |
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Just wanted to say that I would appreciate more essays in this vein.
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Shay Guy
 Posts: 2137 |
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I hope this isn't too frivolous a thought to voice in response to a heartfelt, personal essay like this (and please forgive me if so), but... it sounds like the mastermind from Danganronpa would hate Girls' Last Tour. The notion of despair bringing peace and comfort while hope brings pain would probably strike them as perverse and wrongheaded -- even when they weaponized hope, they thought of it as a means to greater "despair" and chaos.
(Kodaka would see the logic, I'm sure, given how chapter 5 of V3 went.) |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4594 |
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Apologies for the slight bump, but this was definitely worth a comment even if delayed. This was a fantastic read, Lynzee; thanks for sharing so much of yourself in it. Anime frequently has a way of treating the apocalypse that I can't recall ever seeing in American media. We tend to tell stories about people engaged in desperate last-chance attempts to avert an apocalyptic event, or people trying to escape during the midst of an unavoidable apocalypse, or people fighting to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. And of course you can find all of those in anime, but there's another theme that's more unique: "Everything is ending, there's no way to stop it, and that's okay." I suspect a lot of this comes down to differences in cultural traditions. Girls' Last Tour is such a fantastic example of this: it takes what should be an incredibly bleak and depressing setting and superimposes these two cheerful main characters who know they represent the last days of humanity yet are just...living their lives, going on their journey. And I'd never thought of Utena in quite those terms, but you're absolutely right that it represents an embrace of the apocalyptic, but in an internal sense as opposed to the traditional external. (Well, who knows what the hell was literal and metaphorical in Adolescence...) Utena, and then Anthy, choose to tear down the structures that surround them in favor of an unknown wilderness where they can build their own future.
(As for End of Eva, it's...well, it's definitely a movie.) A few people mentioned it earlier, but for me, Wolf's Rain will always be the ur-example of this theme. My very first forays into anime late on Saturday nights in college saw me stumble across the final few episodes of the series, and even though I had no context whatsoever for what I was seeing, it still left a massive impact on me. The characters move through a world that is literally going through its last days, actively striving for an end that they believe a new beginning. And while the wolves are the primary focus of the show, for my money no one represents this sentiment of accepting the end better than Hubb. spoiler[He gets drawn into the wolves' quest entirely against his will, seeking only to find Cher, but in the end she's taken away from him. He has nothing left, and he could have just crumpled and given up, but instead he decides to use his final moments to help the wolves reach Paradise. He knows it's a place he can't enter as a human, but he's fine with that, and he vows to travel with the wolves for as long as he can. And that's just what he does.] It's still probably the single-most beautiful anime series I have ever watched, all the more so because of its bleakness. That shot of Kiba in the snow hits me every damn time. The other series that instantly comes to mind is Texhnolyze (perhaps a bit less enthusiastically given recent events...). It's hard to think of a series that's darker in tone, both literally and metaphorically. A crumbling underground city, full of desperate terrible people, seemingly intent on driving the entire world to ruin. Ichise stumbles through much of the main plot like an interloper, getting involved in these grand machinations, but in the end spoiler[only he is left, sitting there smiling as everything fades away.]. It's a stark, brutal series, but again there is almost something beautiful about this acceptance of the inevitable. It's one I should desperately rewatch, because I've forgotten far more about it than I remember. (Also want to second the shout-outs to Casshern Sins and Humanity Has Declined, though the latter is more like embracing the apocalypse while strung out on speed.  )
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