The Maou Post
Jul. 10th, 2009 12:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timerippleI've been a bit busy the past two weeks-- running around finding an apartment, delivering rants on cultural beauty standards while trying to buy a bathing suit (counterproductive), eating far too much Ben & Jerry's (also counterproductive), not drowning in the college pool, and watching MARS-- well, that takes its toll, you know. But I've got all these scattered notes on Maou, and I figure I should either post them or stop obsessing about the show. So. The Maou Post.
Plot summary: "Angel Lawyer" Naruse Ryo is secretly out to avenge his younger brother's tragic death ten years ago. Mostly he does this by sending people mysterious tarot cards and hanging around his darkroom staring intently at photos of Serizawa Naoto. (Oh, and also by getting people systematically killed off in a spiraling trainwreck of tragedy and angst.) Naoto (Tomaaaa!) is a police detective suffering from selective amnesia about the events of ten years ago. Shiori is a true angelic figure, who offers psychic help with the tarot cards and spiritual redemption all round. (She's actually kind of awesome.) Together, they are embroiled in a tangle of murder, revenge, redemption, and creepy picturebooks!
I started watching it last year-- I thought it was a fall drama but apparently it was a summer drama, now that I look it up-- and gave up a few episodes in because I was not in the mood. I kind of wish I’d watched it as it aired after all, though, because then I could have had other people to flail with in real time.
But then I would not have been able to tell you with absolute certainty that the Picturebook of Meaningful Themeness that they're always tossing around is The Tunnel by Anthony Browne (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1989), a fairly widely discussed picturebook often cited by Nikolajeva and Scott in their overassertive but nonetheless excellent How Picturebooks Work. In Maou, the tunnel serves as a metaphor for Naruse's revenge on several levels.
It is also kind of a creepy picturebook. I recall the endpapers being deeply gender-stereotyped, but the copy I’ve got at the moment has the flaps taped down so I can’t really tell. It had to do with devaluing feminine space, anyway. Actually the whole book is appallingly gender-stereotyped.
But Maou actually uses a pretty sophisticated interpretation of modality for Naruse’s alternate interpretation of why the tunnel’s scary. Shiori goes for the interpretation that the tunnel is scary, but the girl follows her brother to save him from what's at the other end. Naruse interprets it as scary because the brother’s disappearance is wish-fulfillment; the girl has to deal with both the darkness and the guilt of having wished her brother to disappear. That thematic thread gets dropped by the drama, but I give Maou points for bringing it up. Shiori's interpretation is more in line with her own actions vis a vis Naruse.
When the girl gets through the tunnel and escapes the dark forest, she finds her brother turned to stone. She grabs him in a backhug (made for jdrama, I tell you!) and cries on him, which turns him back into flesh and blood. “Her brother was there.” He says to her, “I knew you’d come”-- he wanted to be rescued. This is a pretty obvious parallel for Shiori’s interpretation of the Naruse/Tomoo identity. Shiori hopes her tears and backhug can melt Naruse and allow Tomoo (his real name and former self) to resurface, believing that Naruse wants to be stopped and to live as Tomoo. Rose and Jack go back through the tunnel and home, where their mother is setting the table.
I would just like to point out that the use of food as a metaphor for sex is fairly well established.
No such luck, Shiori.
I guess this means I should at least skim Mawang now. I’m curious to see whether the tunnel theme originated there, and whether it uses the picturebook.
...
Some other thoughts (spoilery! spoilery!) ...oh heck who am I kidding, FLAIL FLAIL FLAIL
By episode 7, it’s looking like the reason Naruse is trusted by wide-eyed psychic girls, little children, and blind wheelchair girls is because he does have the capacity to be an incredibly loving, tender person-- and it absolutely kills him that they can trust him so, while he’s doing what he’s doing out of love for his dead family. WAHHHH. *sobs*
Maou got to me on an emotional level that most shows don’t. Usually I get caught up in narrative glee and tend to squeal “Yes! More angst! Work that downfall! REVENGE REVENGE REVENGE!” With Maou, I was wibbling. I wanted Naruse to take his chance at redemption so badly.
Maybe it’s just because adorable, happy, cracked-out Ohno turning into a murderer would be the saddest thing ever. *shrug*
Episode 10: I laughed so hard when Naoto’s father didn’t keel over and die of shock like Naruse had obviously expected. His revenge is perfect! People just aren’t reacting right these days!
And they’re really, really not. His revenge is all about sympathy and compassion in the most literal sense, in the sense of feeling what he felt when his brother died. But people (namely Shiori and Naoto) are taking that too far and looking at what he’s feeling now, at what his revenge has made him do and what that’s doing to him.
*WIBBLE*
Finale: WAHHHHHH ooh hey this was kind of awesome. In an I’m-gently-sniffling-because-I-used-up-all-my-bawling-power-earlier-today kind of way. I was a little muddled about the final confrontation scene, and wondering how much of Naruse’s alleged plan was due to the fact that he was dying from stabz anyway. Maybe he would’ve been able to forgive himself and start a new life with Shiori. BUT WE’LL NEVER KNOW NOW WILL WE. D:
(Especially since I think a few key lines were missing in between segments. D: Don’t make me download it!)
It makes a lot of sense that this was based on a kdrama-- it feels very much as though it could fit into a tradition of big period dramas with lots of swordplay and pretty, flowing hair to go with the weeping and the epic angst.
Also the theme song is really good.
I LOVED IT. I’M NEVER WATCHING IT AGAIN.
Plot summary: "Angel Lawyer" Naruse Ryo is secretly out to avenge his younger brother's tragic death ten years ago. Mostly he does this by sending people mysterious tarot cards and hanging around his darkroom staring intently at photos of Serizawa Naoto. (Oh, and also by getting people systematically killed off in a spiraling trainwreck of tragedy and angst.) Naoto (Tomaaaa!) is a police detective suffering from selective amnesia about the events of ten years ago. Shiori is a true angelic figure, who offers psychic help with the tarot cards and spiritual redemption all round. (She's actually kind of awesome.) Together, they are embroiled in a tangle of murder, revenge, redemption, and creepy picturebooks!
I started watching it last year-- I thought it was a fall drama but apparently it was a summer drama, now that I look it up-- and gave up a few episodes in because I was not in the mood. I kind of wish I’d watched it as it aired after all, though, because then I could have had other people to flail with in real time.
But then I would not have been able to tell you with absolute certainty that the Picturebook of Meaningful Themeness that they're always tossing around is The Tunnel by Anthony Browne (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1989), a fairly widely discussed picturebook often cited by Nikolajeva and Scott in their overassertive but nonetheless excellent How Picturebooks Work. In Maou, the tunnel serves as a metaphor for Naruse's revenge on several levels.
It is also kind of a creepy picturebook. I recall the endpapers being deeply gender-stereotyped, but the copy I’ve got at the moment has the flaps taped down so I can’t really tell. It had to do with devaluing feminine space, anyway. Actually the whole book is appallingly gender-stereotyped.
But Maou actually uses a pretty sophisticated interpretation of modality for Naruse’s alternate interpretation of why the tunnel’s scary. Shiori goes for the interpretation that the tunnel is scary, but the girl follows her brother to save him from what's at the other end. Naruse interprets it as scary because the brother’s disappearance is wish-fulfillment; the girl has to deal with both the darkness and the guilt of having wished her brother to disappear. That thematic thread gets dropped by the drama, but I give Maou points for bringing it up. Shiori's interpretation is more in line with her own actions vis a vis Naruse.
When the girl gets through the tunnel and escapes the dark forest, she finds her brother turned to stone. She grabs him in a backhug (made for jdrama, I tell you!) and cries on him, which turns him back into flesh and blood. “Her brother was there.” He says to her, “I knew you’d come”-- he wanted to be rescued. This is a pretty obvious parallel for Shiori’s interpretation of the Naruse/Tomoo identity. Shiori hopes her tears and backhug can melt Naruse and allow Tomoo (his real name and former self) to resurface, believing that Naruse wants to be stopped and to live as Tomoo. Rose and Jack go back through the tunnel and home, where their mother is setting the table.
I would just like to point out that the use of food as a metaphor for sex is fairly well established.
No such luck, Shiori.
I guess this means I should at least skim Mawang now. I’m curious to see whether the tunnel theme originated there, and whether it uses the picturebook.
...
Some other thoughts (spoilery! spoilery!) ...oh heck who am I kidding, FLAIL FLAIL FLAIL
By episode 7, it’s looking like the reason Naruse is trusted by wide-eyed psychic girls, little children, and blind wheelchair girls is because he does have the capacity to be an incredibly loving, tender person-- and it absolutely kills him that they can trust him so, while he’s doing what he’s doing out of love for his dead family. WAHHHH. *sobs*
Maou got to me on an emotional level that most shows don’t. Usually I get caught up in narrative glee and tend to squeal “Yes! More angst! Work that downfall! REVENGE REVENGE REVENGE!” With Maou, I was wibbling. I wanted Naruse to take his chance at redemption so badly.
Maybe it’s just because adorable, happy, cracked-out Ohno turning into a murderer would be the saddest thing ever. *shrug*
Episode 10: I laughed so hard when Naoto’s father didn’t keel over and die of shock like Naruse had obviously expected. His revenge is perfect! People just aren’t reacting right these days!
And they’re really, really not. His revenge is all about sympathy and compassion in the most literal sense, in the sense of feeling what he felt when his brother died. But people (namely Shiori and Naoto) are taking that too far and looking at what he’s feeling now, at what his revenge has made him do and what that’s doing to him.
*WIBBLE*
Finale: WAHHHHHH ooh hey this was kind of awesome. In an I’m-gently-sniffling-because-I-used-up-all-my-bawling-power-earlier-today kind of way. I was a little muddled about the final confrontation scene, and wondering how much of Naruse’s alleged plan was due to the fact that he was dying from stabz anyway. Maybe he would’ve been able to forgive himself and start a new life with Shiori. BUT WE’LL NEVER KNOW NOW WILL WE. D:
(Especially since I think a few key lines were missing in between segments. D: Don’t make me download it!)
It makes a lot of sense that this was based on a kdrama-- it feels very much as though it could fit into a tradition of big period dramas with lots of swordplay and pretty, flowing hair to go with the weeping and the epic angst.
Also the theme song is really good.
I LOVED IT. I’M NEVER WATCHING IT AGAIN.
