It snowed on a sunny day again yesterday. Go get em, bunny girls!

So... don't ask me what I typed in my search bar, but somehow I managed to discover this url and... well.

http://www.rosebrides.com/

Ohmigod, guys. I just had a major revelation.

Operation: Mindcrime is the story of Professor Nemuro.

Anyone who's heard the album and knows the story will get this, but:

- At the beginning, Nikki (the protagonist of O:M) is in a hospital. He flashes back to 'how he got there' - placing this at Episode 22, Mikage's big flashback.

- Then, we cut back to the past, as our protagonist, once apathetic towards life, suddenly becomes revitalized by a charismatic revolutionary - yeah, Nikki=Nemuro and Dr. X=Akio.

- Their leader spurs our protagonist on to world-changing aspirations.

- However, our protagonist soon finds himself a chance for redemption in the form of love - in Nemuro's case, Tokiko; Nikki's case, with Sister Mary - the 'sister' association makes this clear.

- However, the protagonist is then ordered to do something unthinkable. He refuses, but the master manipulator forces him to act by holding something over his head - in Nemuro's case, Akio's relationship with Tokiko; in Nikki's case, his addiction to heroin.

- Then, the horrific act is committed, and our protagonist finds himself held responsible. He becomes a prisoner.

- Finally, the protagonist sees himself, and realizes that he has become a stranger. This is the transition from Nemuro to Mikage.

- And just to prove my point, the end of the album recalls the beginning track. Mikage can't get out.

So, yeah. This has added a whole new dimension to the album for me.

I was watching Nisemonogatari, and this just made me think of SKU so much. "Naturally middle schoolers are still kids, but the problem is they don't realize they're still kids" How much of Utena just wouldn't have happened if one of the cast members said, "Woah, I'm in a trippy ass place trying to cut a rose off another kid's chest with a real ass sword. Maybe I should go back to class or get high in the bathroom or something, I mean there's an upside down castle, this shit's out of my league"

That is the irony of it, isn't it. That they're so driven by the power they see before them, and can't realize they are in no position to actually make use of it. Or even question what it is. So driven to change or better the circumstances they're in now, that they don't even care what or who they have to step on to get it and if they really are capable of doing that when there are obviously shady more powerful forces surrounding them. End of The World doesn't sound like someone to mess around with. I just think of the student council meetings and think, these kids honestly don't even consider they're being suckered by somebody much more powerful than them, do they. Except Touga... maybe. How much he knows is pretty vague.

Technically, Nemuro's still a teenager...even though he is a professor.

To be honest, there are so many anime where children are placed in the position of having to save the world that I didn't dwell too much on it when the trope appeared in SKU.

Hmm...considering that the student council seems to function as a single entity for most of the series, is it possible that their intent was to revolutionize the world together? It'd make sense if they chose Saionji as the champion if they thought he'd be too stubborn to let anyone else get the Bride, so she would remain under their control.

Agree with much of what BlackBeforeRed just posted.

Atropos wrote:

Technically, Nemuro's still a teenager...even though he is a professor.

You know, this is the one “little thing” about SKU where I’m still unsure about to this date.  Yes, Nemuro, back in his right era, did tell a BR Boy that he “was not that much older than them (the translation on my copy”, thus they didn’t have to call him “Professor”.  So he should be older than the BR Boys, though the show never specified by how much. 

I myself noticed how Nemuro was drawn in a way where his eyes are higher/smaller/older looking than Mikage.  Also, Tokiko, at least in her early 20s to fill her position as the Inspector, has notable UST with him at her house.  My personal canon is that Nemuro was in his early 20s too, and only “regressed” to looking like a teenager after becoming Mikage, but I don’t know if that have solid proof.  Old! Tokiko saw the shadow play with the salaryman regressing into a schoolchild after seeing Mikage; she said he hadn’t aged a day . . . is that exclusive to the possibility that she noticed him also having “de-aged”?

Atropos wrote:

No, old!Tokiko saw the shadow play about the monkey-catching robot. emot-rofl

Oh my god you're right!  I've totally been mixing things up in those 2 Nemuro eps

As for his relationship with Tokiko, it's probably just the MILF factor at work.

Tokiko = MILF?  Oh my gawd . . .

Lurv wrote:

Does she actually have any kids, though? emot-tongue I don't think she'll be dethroning Mrs Ohtori.

CILF . . . (C for Cougar)?

Though the revelation that Tokiko is an older woman to Nemuro - can anyone confirm if that's really the case - really changes how I look at their dynamics.

HonorableShadow wrote:

I was always under the impression that Nemuro was around the same age as Tokiko, but then through magical de-aging/illusions/whatever, people just accepted him as a student when he was Mikage. He looks like an adult to me, but that's not saying much in Utena-land where 13 year olds look like college students.

*Nods*

More on topic, Eva 3.0 Q features an angel that bears 99% similarity in appearance to the Million Swords of Hate - further proof that the "film" really is really a fanfic disguised under animation

Atropos wrote:

How many other places have you noted the same 'world is an egg' metaphor? I saw it in Rahxephon, Jodorowsky's Dune pitch, and, of course, Demian.

Would "Lilith's Egg" in the original NGE + EoE counts?  The "Egg" does contain the GeoFront, one that's kinda like a world of its own . . .

Atropos wrote:

I saw it in Rahxephon, Jodorowsky's Dune pitch, and, of course, Demian.

I also used it in a Harry Potter fanfic, inspired (coughplagiarizedcough) by the aforementioned pitch.

gorgeousshutin wrote:

More on topic, Eva 3.0 Q features an angel that bears 99% similarity in appearance to the Million Swords of Hate - further proof that the "film" really is really a fanfic disguised under animation

Then you must have hated the original NGE too, considering that it had approximately 2.5 references per minute, not counting opening and ending sequences.

Last edited by Atropos (05-04-2013 06:32:10 PM)

Atropos wrote:

Then you must have hated the original NGE too, considering that it had approximately 2.5 references per minute, not counting opening and ending sequences. emot-tongue

The original NGE had blatant rip-offs of Utena too?  And in the opening credits?  I didn't know that
Reference is one thing, but blatant copy-and-paste rip-offs that require little creativity (or brain power) on the part of the creators is another.

Edited to add:

Decrescent Daytripper wrote:

Once there was a little girl. Her parents were dead. And she cried and cried. Then, a man came on a white horse and said, "I am a prince. You should stand tall and be a strong man."

A fairytale about a strange prince telling a little girl to be a strong man?  Could the kid telling the story be a fan of Seinen Kakumen (shameless self promote)?

Last edited by gorgeousshutin (05-19-2013 08:35:48 AM)