Customer Reviews

Texhnolyze - Death & Serenity (Vol. 6)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I followed Texhnolyze through it's fansubs, waited patiently for each DVD to come out.
You don't have to sit and ponder, look hard and deep to find a meaning in Texhnolyze. It hits you right in the face from the beginning.
There are some people out there that society likes to forget. Likes to shove to the backburners and ignore. In this tale, they are a whole race of people - the people of the underground city of Lux.
And even within them, sides are chosen. You're either in or your out. Ichise is one of these outcasts and he lives by what he knows. The only thing he knows - his strength, his brute force.
This point is particularly brought out in one of the last episodes, when Ichise makes the decision to protect Ran. He's come to feel something for the girl and, perhaps, in a way she reminds him of the mother he could never save. So he goes to offer the only thing he's sure of having - his body. That's always been his bargaining chip, always been what everyone wanted.
Anger, rage and fighting. Though are all Ichise knows. How do you expect him to act any less animalistic than the animal this society made him become? It's clear through most of the show that he doesn't know how to react to people.
Likewise, it's the same old sort of theme out of many a popular sci-fi movie - man bringing about an end to his own world. Ichise inadvertantly is thrust into all of this by his texhnolyze, Ran is thrust by her visions and everyone else by some intricate connection. But eventually, Lux collapses because of technology, the classic warning given in so many Apocalypse movies.

Not each episode requires such in-depth searches for meaning. It all fits into the grandier scheme and message of the series itself. This series, as a whole, is a very good series. It does require connecting together pieces and keeping larger themes in mind, as well as a little psychology but what good series /doesn't/?

Is this series depressing or what? This final dvd for Texhnolyzed shows more of the madness generated by the wild beast that is potentially brewing within all humankind. The human world was divided into the peace loving populace and those with more of a propensity towards violence, who were banished to the underground world of Lukuss. A scenario of what may happen to the world under such policies is illustrated. If non-traditional, Nihilistic story lines and raw animated expressions are what you're looking for, pick up this series.

With this volume, the series ends. It could easily have been titled "As I lay dying", in English, given the way the series ends. To those of you surprised by the ending, really, did you imagine there could be a good ending to all of this? What I find most interesting is that it is the UN-modified "Salvation Union" inhabitants of Lux (Lux is Latin for "Light", by the way) end up being the most monstrous beings of all.

The ending is about as happy as the end in GILGAMESH, if you're familiar with that anime.

Ichise is indeed fairly stupid, unreflective, animalistic and violent. His only emotional growth comes from Doc's compassion for him, his acceptance of his new limbs, Onishi's grudging respect for him as a warrior, learning to forgive his late father, and his developing feelings of affection and concern for Ran, the only other human being Ichise ever learns to care about, albeit too late to be of any help. Ichise's eventual reconciliation with the Organo (they being the entity that cut his limbs off to begin with) is interesting, though he joins them mainly because he doesn't know where else to go. Ichise learns to respect the more intelligent/wise of the "godfathers" of the Organo.
If you listen carefully, you'll note one of the voice actors of the godfathers also supplied the voice of the OSS Colonel in the original Medal of Honor first-person shooter game on Playstation.

I found Onishi to be an admirable character and an honorable leader, despite being a Yakuza-like crime boss. He tries to hold his organization and the city together in the face of a direct assault by The Class. Conservative? Some things are worth trying to conserve. None of the other "pretenders" to the Organo leadership can hold a candle to Onishi's integrity.

Yoshii, from the surface world, is also ultimately a tragic figure, as we learn in this final volume. His "ghost" still inhabits the surface world, and we can see why he fled that lifeless realm to Lux to experience the full vitality of life, even as a bomb throwing anarchist/agent provocateur..."better to burn out than fade away", go out with a bang not a whimper. He disrupts the uneasy peace between the Organo, the Salvation Union, and the Racan, and the tensions cause the organizations to collapse from within, weakening their collective strength before the onslaught of The Class. All three factions do unite to put up a heroic resistance to The Class, but eventually they fail. In the ensuing madness, Kano sabotages the Obelisk, so that nothing remains but Kano and the murderous remnants of the mob-like Salvation Union. Ichise is indeed alone in the end, the last genuine, sane human being, despite his texhnolyzed limbs.

Still, if we recall one of the sages of Gabe, cities fall, are overcome, and those who overcome the cities are themselves overcome, and the city begins anew....this has happened 6 times already. So there is faint hope that the mobs of the Salvation Union will eventually lose their bloodlust and set themselves to the task of rebuilding, yet again, this time without "The Class" to guide them. It reminds me of The Matrix Trilogy, where the Architect informs Neo that Zion has fallen and been rebuilt multiple times already. Ichise is likely mortally wounded, and has only the memories of Ran to comfort him, he will not live to see the future. The series is a meditation on the failure of technology to civilize and uplift the human condition, and the misguided human hope that it ever could. There will be no technological salvation, but salvation of the human condition is more than just chanting slogans and eschewing high tech a la the so-called "Salvation Union".

The animation is very well done, quite beautiful. I have to wonder if the opening sequences later inspired the opening sequences of ERGO PROXY, as it reminds me of that. I was able to watch the entire series on rental DVDs, but I'm not sure I would buy the boxed set to this series or not.

This beautiful but at times unsatisfying show finally comes to a conclusion that most people will find depressing and hopeless, much like Wolf's Rain. Ichise's journey to the surface world to warn them of an impending attack seems pointless when most of the people have evolved into ghost-like wraiths that only live on memories of their past lives. He decides to return to Lukuss for the sake of Ran, the seer that has watched over him for much of the show. Onishi meanwhile looks for answers in the voice of the City that has always spoken to him about his best course of action. If the city cannot be saved and brought back by from its madness, then mankind itself might become extinct!

Texhnolyze, like a fine work of art, enlightens and frightens, by showing the dangers of tying man's evolution to technology instead of evolving spiritually. The show is beautiful and sublime but does not conform to the "Hollywood" model of having a happy ending. Some issues are too big to be decided by cookie-cutters. We're dealing with tragedy here in which even if the characters knew the answers to ending the crises, they wouldn't have the power to implement them. Such is life. Great show if a tad disappointing.

A beautifully animated anime, told with its own hypnotic type rhythm drawing you into the narrative. But what the hell is that narrative saying or about? Is there a moral or message in any of it? Why r there different qualities and flaws in different characters?
This much is intentional anyway...in Lukkas there is feeling and passion, different groups/classes of people, law of the jungle making it especially hard to survive without throwing your lot in with sum party, loyalty and betrayal, jealousy.
ON the surface(of the earth) it is the opposite, a monolithic group of living dead bureaucrats who are all controlled by a radio and incapable of any personalised interactions.
That part at least i get! There is also technolyzation of body parts that esculates to apocaplytic consequences, a seer, something called raffia which is exported to the class on the surface world and mayhem mayhem mayhem.
It's an constantly stylishly told tale but whether there's anything to pin that tale to is not so obvious. Leaves one wondering is there something i didn't get or missed or was there nothing there in the first place?
A director's commentary would b supercool for an anime like this and could make all the difference for what is a great show.

This anime plunges into the heart of darkness that seems to be missing in a lot of the animes that seem to come out today! I just finished watching this final vol of the series and I have to say I DID NOT SEE THIS ENDING COMING AT ALL!! No I'm not going to tell you what happens but don't expect a happy ending.
Although the series is all about the dark side of human nature A lot of the main Characters will have you pulling your hair out but if your into that sort of GIVE UP ON LIFE AND KILL YOURSELF NOW TYPE ANIMES Than maybe Texhnolyze is right up your alley but than again if your like me and sick of all the brain dead anime that never wants to make any sense and seems to want to pull into the debts of hell than might I recommend Ghost In A Shell Stand Alone Complex instead.

Be kind to me, go mark down that horribly pretentious review on Unite: 02.

Texh is something that demands interpretation, taken at face value, it is nothing. It has to be noted that all of the characters are types, in a way, representing an aspect of the human psyche. If you want to interpret the negative(?, might actually be positive or ambivalent) conclusion at the end, it is the result of the fact that every particular character is incomplete.

Ichise is f*cking stupid. He has an animal drive, which is why the powerless Ran takes to him. In some episode, Ichise remarks that to avoid Ran's prognostication(You will destroy everything, and you will be all alone in the end), he must take sophistication. Civilization, to rise above the animal nature that is the core of his person. He remarks to Ran in 25, or was that 26, as he rushes back to Lux, since he's met Ran, he's changed. Before, whenever he met a difficulty, he would do as critics of Texh claimed: "Punch Punch!" Episode 26 makes its response: Ichise hasn't changed in the least. When Onishi is ordered by Ran to kill her, and the ravaging mobs of Lux obliterates Onishi, leaving only the lumps of texhnolyze that are his legs, Ichise breaks into his signature rage. It references the first episode: we cut to a flashback of Ichise living as a pit fighter. He punches the mob, crushing their skulls in, to the cheers of a crowd long since dead. Blood pours on the floor as a rainlike torrent, a staccato of bullet fire. Someone shoots his arm, severing the control nerves. This is the extent of his change: the least he can do, is accept his new body. He accepts his new arm, accepts his new leg. Doc's ghost from on high, returns to her lab and reactivates his texhnolyze. Ichise, once more capable, slaughters the mob. Ichise, now without direction, searches for nothing but Ran. He heads to the Opera House, to seek Kano and find a direction he does not have, of himself.

He meets Kohakura on his way up, and sees the rooted bodies of the shapes, unable to kill, and reduced to staring at their reality until the end of time.

He meets Kano. Kano goes off on a long rant, about how he never wanted to go to the surface world in the first place: apparently, the Class had manuevered for their descent into Lux, with a vast population of guinea pigs. One doesn't know if Gabe is indigenous, or was brought down by the Class. This is all a method, and it is possible to speculate that Kano had raped Ran. In the world of Texhnolyze, the semen of the man apparently can be virulent poison at times. Yoshii killed the hooker in the second volume by coming in her. His life energy overwhelmed the woman, who only wishes to live, who is deprived of any hope. Here, Kano might have driven Ran insane by raping her. Here, Abortion Is Murder: Ran may have ordered Onishi to abort a pregnancy by killing her. Ichise, seeing Ran's corpsehead, attached to an obviously useless shape lifesupport unit, freaks out. He rages at Kano, ignorant. He punches Kano's head off. In the end, he is resigned to his fate. He is badly wounded, and will probably die. He will be all alone in the end, after all. He can't be allowed to talk to Shapes rooted in the ground, and steal their battery packs to ensure their mobility.

Onishi is an arch conservative, as that other reviewer said of his organization. He really can't effect any change, he cannot create a future for himself, the Organ, or Lux(Lukuss is very funny, I'm told the Japanese version transliterates directly to Ruku9su or something. Lukuss is very similar to lux, which is: " The International System unit of illumination, equal to one lumen per square meter." In episode 26, Kohakura uses what is apparently a japanese pun: Lukuss is the ninth sphere of the reviving hell. http://buddhism.inbaltimore.org/threeheaps4.html). When you see that, Yoshii's brutality against the Organ(killing Onishi's wife, randomly sniping Organo members) is a tad more understandable. Texhnolyze is kind to Onishi: when there is nothing left for him, when what he has guarded is destroyed, Ran conveniently asks him to kill her before a screaming mob. Euthanasia, am I rite?

I am tired, and I am out of insight. I have no time to interpret this any more, and it would be nice if you could get a Joycean scholar to work on this for us. This piece is extremely full of symbolism, from the regenerative lizard in the first episode, to the train streaking through the darkness, only to meet a dead end above, to the dragonfly(hmmm, what does dragonfly mean in a Japanese context? The color of Shapes are also weird, I know that in Japan, black is the mourning color, but in China, white(which I find a tad more appropriate), is the color of death.

Texhnolyze, ultimately, is very flawed. If the symbolism is not properly considered, it's wholly unenjoyable. And sometimes the symbols may be excessively trite, and there are some displays of Japanese bias(Mizuho being excessively stupid). The characters, it has been said a thousand times, are obviously flat. They are not completely sympathetic, because they are all flawed. Why are they in Lux in the first place? It is, quite possibly, the ninth sphere of the reviving hell. They are all tragedies.