I've got a theory
Oct. 18th, 2008 09:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timerippleGorgeous day. Walked down by BU to catch the Head of the Charles for a while before doing some light reading. (Shut up. Structuralism is totally light reading. It makes sense!) I also watched the first episode of Scrap Teacher. No subtitles yet, but... it really doesn’t need them. My impressions condensed and writ below:
Teacher Voiceover: "So, it was the start of a new semester at this crappy underachieving school. Brought my nail file along, stocked up on cup ramen, all hyped and ready for another year! (Not.) Wasn’t very impressed with the enthusiastic new teacher, even after he skydived out of a helicopter, but on plus side he did bring along these three tiny but cute badasses and their Irish jig Theme o’ Triumph music. So maybe he’ll turn out okay. We’ll see. ‘Scuse me now, gotta go slurp some noodles before they get all soggy. See you next week!"
It was while discussing Bad Fan Behavior with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
snowqueenofhoth that I started talking about stalking underaged idols and the whole marketing overdose as a twisted, inverted commodification of labor. I realized that 1) maybe I understand Marxism better than I thought, and 2) even though I come up with stuff like that in our IM conversations all the time (see also the Unified Theory of Ryo’s Consumptive Attractiveness; the Pseudo-Marxist Signification Theory of Inappropriate Idol Stalking And Why It’s Wrong), Rachel is still friends with me.
In that vein, and because I have new glasses that say "i are smart, seriuz grad student", I bring you "Videointertextuality: A Vaguely Structuralist Deconstruction (sort of) of Two JE PVs".
I’ve been watching the NEWS Nippon and Hoshi wo Mezashite PVs and spazzing like a mad spazzy thing. Apparently my crash course in post-structuralism has taken over my brain, because there’s a way to read these two in light of each other that relies on and emphasizes difference, visual traces, absence. ESPECIALLY absence, omg. I've mostly confined myself to the imagery, because analyzing the lyrics would take forever and also I don't speak Japanese.
NEWS Nippon is terrifyingly prophetic, I kid you not. You thought Hoshi wo Mezashite (the song) was subtle punishment? Take another long, long look at the visual elements...
So. NEWS Nippon first. Thematically, there's a whole lost-in-space thing going on- zooming around in a crazily spinning space ship with no real apparent destination, heading for a crash landing on Earth at the end. The three with the joysticks are clearly just playing around, not having an actual course. The three in white space suits are floating in freefall. (Chibi!space-suit!Masuda is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen, btw. He just about beats chibi!space-suit!Tegoshi.) The two of the three in silver space suits who look angsty are Ryo and Uchi. (I love how they appear to be sitting in Jefferies tubes.) They’re linked by the order of the shots, but they’re not in a two-shot together here. Yamapi’s all by himself. And, interestingly enough, each of the costumed groups of three loses one member.
The compass visual and verbal motif- "to north! to east! go west! go south!"- which way will they go? They’re scattered,divided, leaderless... whoops, wrong movie, sorry. But they’re not unified- even when they’re dancing together in what looks like a big circular transporter room, there are circular tunnels leading off in different directions. The final shot is their ship, spinning crazily, headed for a crash collision with Earth.
And the honeycomb viewscreens thing is the most terrifyingly prophetic bit of all. There are only seven active viewscreens and nine members, and they only count “one two three four five six seven” in the song. Only at the very end do all nine of them get to be in the viewscreens, which are hexagonal. There are nine now, but soon there will be seven, and then six.
The amount of visual intertextuality between NEWS Nippon and Hoshi wo Mezashite is stunning. In the first shot, the remaining reconstituted six are sitting on what appears to be an asteroid or something, floating in black space introduced by very pretty CG stars. In one of the greatest ironies of all time, suddenly they’re standing against a blue sky singing “is everybody here?” To which the answer is both obviously “yes” and screamingly “no!”
I’m not going to touch the part where they sing to their still, silent doubles. Except to note that the camera is again circling. (And Ryo looks like he’s illustrating where his heart has been torn out.)
And then the curtain flutters away and they’re sitting on... some kind of jeep. (Maybe they’ve exchanged their CG spaceship for very shiny Earth transport. Yeah, that’s it.) Koyama, formerly wielder of the undirected joystick, is in the driver’s seat. Ryo is in the back seat (no further comment on that score) with his arm stretched along the back of the seat as though it were supposed to be around somebody’s shoulders.
Not even going to address the looks on their faces. (But Massu is still the cutest thing ever.)
Aaaaand then they’re back on the asteroid, now with a starry background: “hoshi wo mezashite”- they have a goal, a destination: “let’s reach for the stars”. And then the sun comes up and they’re... not in space any more. They break up into sets of three, like in NEWS Nippon, but there are only two sets now in the sunrise. (The Japanese flag is the rising sun, isn't it? This could well be a reference to the song title NEWS Nippon.)
Final shot- the six guys have circled the wagons, so to speak- well, actually they’re standing more in an oval. Like the window on the space ship. But they’re a unified group, having gone through individual struggles and learning experiences as well as group ones, and (the pv implies) they’re stronger for it.
Looking back at NEWS Nippon through the lens of Hoshi wo Mezashite, what really stands out is the nonunified visuals- the four compass points, the random trip through space, the differently-costumed sets of three, the free-floating. The super-unified group dynamic in Hoshi wo Mezashite makes the prophetic elements in NEWS Nippon really evident as well, though the foreshadowing doesn’t depend on the later video but on actual events. Circles and spinning are shared elements in both videos. The set of seven hexagonal screens in NEWS Nippon suggests a screening process, if you will (though current NEWS + Uchi are never featured in the seven-group viewscreens, because that would be too scary). Hoshi wo Mezashite, in its emphasis on unity, trajectory, presence, necessarily also invokes NEWS Nippon and division, vagrancy, absence.
So... I don’t really have any further conclusions other than 1) visual intertextuality liek whoa, 2) terrifyingly prophetic omg, and 3) Masuda is the cutest thing ever. And Ryo is angsty.
...and now I’ve just watched the Weeek PV. Big mistake. Because the camera almost never moves, so most of the bouncing around takes place within a tiny square space that’s almost claustrophobic. And at the end they don’t come down to Earth- Earth is encompassed by their box-space.
...I have no idea what this means. I think I should stop analyzing things and go to bed.
Teacher Voiceover: "So, it was the start of a new semester at this crappy underachieving school. Brought my nail file along, stocked up on cup ramen, all hyped and ready for another year! (Not.) Wasn’t very impressed with the enthusiastic new teacher, even after he skydived out of a helicopter, but on plus side he did bring along these three tiny but cute badasses and their Irish jig Theme o’ Triumph music. So maybe he’ll turn out okay. We’ll see. ‘Scuse me now, gotta go slurp some noodles before they get all soggy. See you next week!"
It was while discussing Bad Fan Behavior with
snowqueenofhoth that I started talking about stalking underaged idols and the whole marketing overdose as a twisted, inverted commodification of labor. I realized that 1) maybe I understand Marxism better than I thought, and 2) even though I come up with stuff like that in our IM conversations all the time (see also the Unified Theory of Ryo’s Consumptive Attractiveness; the Pseudo-Marxist Signification Theory of Inappropriate Idol Stalking And Why It’s Wrong), Rachel is still friends with me. In that vein, and because I have new glasses that say "i are smart, seriuz grad student", I bring you "Videointertextuality: A Vaguely Structuralist Deconstruction (sort of) of Two JE PVs".
I’ve been watching the NEWS Nippon and Hoshi wo Mezashite PVs and spazzing like a mad spazzy thing. Apparently my crash course in post-structuralism has taken over my brain, because there’s a way to read these two in light of each other that relies on and emphasizes difference, visual traces, absence. ESPECIALLY absence, omg. I've mostly confined myself to the imagery, because analyzing the lyrics would take forever and also I don't speak Japanese.
NEWS Nippon is terrifyingly prophetic, I kid you not. You thought Hoshi wo Mezashite (the song) was subtle punishment? Take another long, long look at the visual elements...
So. NEWS Nippon first. Thematically, there's a whole lost-in-space thing going on- zooming around in a crazily spinning space ship with no real apparent destination, heading for a crash landing on Earth at the end. The three with the joysticks are clearly just playing around, not having an actual course. The three in white space suits are floating in freefall. (Chibi!space-suit!Masuda is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen, btw. He just about beats chibi!space-suit!Tegoshi.) The two of the three in silver space suits who look angsty are Ryo and Uchi. (I love how they appear to be sitting in Jefferies tubes.) They’re linked by the order of the shots, but they’re not in a two-shot together here. Yamapi’s all by himself. And, interestingly enough, each of the costumed groups of three loses one member.
The compass visual and verbal motif- "to north! to east! go west! go south!"- which way will they go? They’re scattered,
And the honeycomb viewscreens thing is the most terrifyingly prophetic bit of all. There are only seven active viewscreens and nine members, and they only count “one two three four five six seven” in the song. Only at the very end do all nine of them get to be in the viewscreens, which are hexagonal. There are nine now, but soon there will be seven, and then six.
The amount of visual intertextuality between NEWS Nippon and Hoshi wo Mezashite is stunning. In the first shot, the remaining reconstituted six are sitting on what appears to be an asteroid or something, floating in black space introduced by very pretty CG stars. In one of the greatest ironies of all time, suddenly they’re standing against a blue sky singing “is everybody here?” To which the answer is both obviously “yes” and screamingly “no!”
I’m not going to touch the part where they sing to their still, silent doubles. Except to note that the camera is again circling. (And Ryo looks like he’s illustrating where his heart has been torn out.)
And then the curtain flutters away and they’re sitting on... some kind of jeep. (Maybe they’ve exchanged their CG spaceship for very shiny Earth transport. Yeah, that’s it.) Koyama, formerly wielder of the undirected joystick, is in the driver’s seat. Ryo is in the back seat (no further comment on that score) with his arm stretched along the back of the seat as though it were supposed to be around somebody’s shoulders.
Not even going to address the looks on their faces. (But Massu is still the cutest thing ever.)
Aaaaand then they’re back on the asteroid, now with a starry background: “hoshi wo mezashite”- they have a goal, a destination: “let’s reach for the stars”. And then the sun comes up and they’re... not in space any more. They break up into sets of three, like in NEWS Nippon, but there are only two sets now in the sunrise. (The Japanese flag is the rising sun, isn't it? This could well be a reference to the song title NEWS Nippon.)
Final shot- the six guys have circled the wagons, so to speak- well, actually they’re standing more in an oval. Like the window on the space ship. But they’re a unified group, having gone through individual struggles and learning experiences as well as group ones, and (the pv implies) they’re stronger for it.
Looking back at NEWS Nippon through the lens of Hoshi wo Mezashite, what really stands out is the nonunified visuals- the four compass points, the random trip through space, the differently-costumed sets of three, the free-floating. The super-unified group dynamic in Hoshi wo Mezashite makes the prophetic elements in NEWS Nippon really evident as well, though the foreshadowing doesn’t depend on the later video but on actual events. Circles and spinning are shared elements in both videos. The set of seven hexagonal screens in NEWS Nippon suggests a screening process, if you will (though current NEWS + Uchi are never featured in the seven-group viewscreens, because that would be too scary). Hoshi wo Mezashite, in its emphasis on unity, trajectory, presence, necessarily also invokes NEWS Nippon and division, vagrancy, absence.
So... I don’t really have any further conclusions other than 1) visual intertextuality liek whoa, 2) terrifyingly prophetic omg, and 3) Masuda is the cutest thing ever. And Ryo is angsty.
...and now I’ve just watched the Weeek PV. Big mistake. Because the camera almost never moves, so most of the bouncing around takes place within a tiny square space that’s almost claustrophobic. And at the end they don’t come down to Earth- Earth is encompassed by their box-space.
...I have no idea what this means. I think I should stop analyzing things and go to bed.
