now and then here and there | Traveler on Revenge

I think I mentioned once that I was splurging on old anime. I wasn’t kidding. . .

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First in line is Now and Then, Here and There. Out of the three old series that I watched, this one is definitely the best. The implications of differences and similarities between what is happening currently and what will happen to the future is amazing. The subtlety of its symbolisms and the brute force of its actions make this series an easy standout. This isn’t just some story which was made to entertain. . . this is a story to raise awareness. You know the KONY video that’s going viral in the internet this past month. If people only watched this anime (which aired a decade ago), awareness could have been raised a long time ago. Then again, people are ignorant (myself included) and won’t watch things unless it becomes popular.

This isn’t an anime for the faint-hearted though; it depicts child slavery, torture, and rape in a very upfront way. I don’t want to go into too much detail on the anime but if you want to be blown away or become more aware of the world around you, then please go and indulge yourself with NTHT.

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Infinite Ryvius on the other hand is definitely for entertainment’s sake. By entertainment, I mean entertaining yourselves seeing kids slowly become crazy, episode by episode, inside the Ryvius. No, this anime is very grueling to watch. Nicknamed ‘Lord of the Flies in Space’, Infinite Ryvius is the perfect character study in anime. Every unique trait of a character turns into a flaw causing them to go insane, almost killing each other aboard the Ryvius. Teenagers try to create some sort of government to create peace and order, but this ultimately falls against them causing more unbalance as the episode count goes higher and higher.

It definitely reminds me of Neon Genesis Evangelion (another anime that punches you harder and harder each passing episode) and comparing the two, Ryvius stands out a lot more. I recommend it to those who loved Evangelion because of its painful character developments.

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Touch is an 80’s production, based on the manga by Adachi Mitsuru the creator of Cross Game. It runs a whooping 101 episodes and because of that, characters, more importantly Tatsuya and Minami, are fleshed out in a way that I already see them as real people. Their strengths and flaws are well recorded and even though the storyline does take a lot of twists and turns, its really surprising how believable the characters became.

It’s a bit unfair to compare this Cross Game since this is essentially longer so everything is more set up and while Touch is technically the better story out of the two (Adachi’s is much more rougher yet at the same time it feels like more effort is pulled in this) I still prefer Cross Game by a long shot. I guess its first come-first serve, but Cross Game did have better character interactions, something very important for both series. Touch did run for a bit too long and the ending felt a bit open-ended unlike Cross Game’s (it had one of the best scenes I’ve seen in anime history) ending.

Still Touch is essentially a masterpiece and I loved every bit of what I’ve watched. If you’re looking for a slice of life series (with a touch of baseball) which runs a lot more than how things are aired today then please do watch this 80’s classic.

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Now and Then, Here and There: 95/100

Infinite Ryvius: 91/100

Touch: 93/100

All made it to my recommended list (and I really will update that page later) so if you are venturing into Anime’s past, don’t forget to watch these ones.

disclaimer: This is less of a “KONY is evil” post and more of a “NTHT is a really good anime” kind of thing. Also you need to have watched a bit of Now and then, Here and there. Well I doubt much of the blogosphere have watched it and it is decades old, so my audience is quite low.

Please do watch Now and Then, Here and There. It’s easy to download it if you find hard enough (ohshit the cops will get me). I really think NTHT is one of the anime you need to watch before you die.

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Ever heard of an anime called “Now and Then, Here and There”? Produced in the very late 90’s, its definitely one of a kind anime. But why is it so? Because even after 10 Billion’s worth of time, this piece will still be relevant.

Just look at KONY and the Ugandan Army. I’m not exactly big on the details but the depiction of children killing other people and hurting many others is the information we get, but in NTHT we get to see the sight of this kids. More likely than not, this kids will never get back home. In NTHT, Hamdo (apparently the Hamdo in Fractal was modeled by him) promises these kids that they can go back to their hometowns when the war is over. The thing is, he blew up their villages right exactly after he’s able to get children recruits. Now let’s go to the side of the children. As they grow up, we can get someone like Nabuca who instilled in his mind that he can go home if he does his job. We also get someone like Tabool who instilled reality in his mind and just wants to do his job efficiently and reach higher ranks. The question is “why don’t these people try to escape?”. Besides the fact that they’ll get killed if they do, staying in the army is much better than going outside. Here the children can actually survive and some might even have better living conditions that back in their village.

Another question would be “why don’t these kids see that what they’re doing is terribly wrong?”. Well the main character is Shu and he was the one who asked this question. Then again who is Shu? Some asian boy from 10 Billion years past. He’s an outsider. These kids don’t actually see the problem. Shu is like us internet folks who go “STOP KONY, MAKE HIM FAMOUS!” and the like. We do know the problem but we do not know these kids problems.

(Oh yeah I only talked about the soldiers’ case. Don’t get me started on Sara because all I have there is despair and cries of “SOMEONE HELP THIS WOMAN” while watching NTHT. And guess what? Her plight is also happening in the Ugandan army!)

All I can say is that the world is cruel. NTHT is a brutal reminder of that.