The Killing Joke Overview
January 12th, 2010
(Recently I’ve written a stack of non-game related articles, but considering that very few people will read them, I’ve decided to post them here to fill the current gap in content. I hope you don’t mind.)
“I loved THE KILLING JOKE…It’s my favourite. It’s the first comic I’ve ever loved.”
-Tim Burton
I don’t think you could find a better recommendation to stick on the front of your comic book than Tim Burton’s advocation. The Killing Joke, for those not familiar, is an important piece of the Batman comic line for a few reasons. The Killing Joke reveals the Joker origin story and set the initial precedence for a more serious, psychological analysis of the Clown Prince and his counterpoise, The Dark Knight.
There are two main motifs throughout the story, one from either side of the see-saw. The first is Batman’s want to escape the suicide course that his dichotomy with The Joker has created. The second is Joker’s want to maintain this cycle. As far as Joker sees it, the only difference between Batman and himself is one bad day. One bad day, as the interludes of greyed out backstory depict, is what turned The Joker from an ordinary man into the Clown Prince, and what Joker attempts to re-enact on Commissioner Gordon.
The most impressive part of Moore’s interpretation of the Batman universe is the use of language and visuals to highlight continuity between characters, events and metaphors. The devices used to enter and exit The Joker’s flash back sequences are good examples. Such as how the issue of money is brought up when Joker is negotiating the purchase of the abandoned carnival and how this flows into the financial pressure burdening his former life where he earned little money as a comedian to support his wife. The flashback concludes with the former location pertaining a visual likeness to a scenery of the carnival.
This technique is thrown in more minutely too. The way the doors of a carnival ride become the doors of the bar where Joker was conned into committing his first criminal act, or the way Barbara clutching Batman’s cape inverts to Joker’s minions pulling Gordon by his open shirt.
On an initial read the book’s semblance is that of a typical Batman and Joker story, but a more astute reader will notice the way that the story-telling is calculated to represent the equilibrium of the forever-binding Batman-Joker relationship. It all culminates, to much irony, in a joke that both parties are in on in a way that invites the reader to further analyse the text.
The Killing Joke is an essential Batman comic, no doubt, however I’m inclined to agree with Moore’s own response to the book (“clumsy, misjudged and [devoid of] real human importance” ). The writing is solid but isn’t as polished as Moore’s other works in the way it presents deeper meaning. The Killing Joke still has an air of campiness to it that squashes it somewhat from making proper commentary of life outside the Batman universe. I don’t think that this should be taken as a real heavy criticism though, as this was the first time the Batman series had taken a more intellectual direction. In this regard,The Killing Joke only feels pedestrian to the more refined interpretations of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (movie) which attacked the psychological nature of the comics in a more apparent manner. The midgets wearing S&M gear or Joker’s hollow attempt of turning Gordon insane are prime example of what I’d infer as the obscure juvenility of the comic book medium making its way through. Maybe I’m still too much of a newbie to comment here, but weird hyper violence and bombastic dialogue throw me as examples of distasteful and senseless comic book ‘tude. The Killing Joke, thankfully, isn’t off the charts in either regard.
Conclusion: Killing Joke is a text worth exploring, but less masterful than one might expect.
Additional Readings
The Alan Moore Interview: The Killing Joke and Brought to Light
Trigun Animated Series Impressions
August 13th, 2009
The first DVD in the Trigun (1998) animated series comprises of five of the arguably best installments, kicking things off with an initial peak before settling comfortably into worthwhile. Trigun may appear misleading in this regard, warmly asserting the quality of writing and animation higher than it actually is, but I presume most animated series go through a wonky period where the producers are searching for a good balance of affordability and production. It’s just this one is a little more visible.
Trigun is compelling as it amalgamates a series of polar ideas together to create a familiar yet distinctively refreshing identity for itself. The main hero Vash, is dressed in a way which might have some viewers confuse him for the equally stylized Alucard from the (also popular) Hellsing manga/anime series. Both don the long red coats and wield guns with ultra long barrels, conducting themselves in a clam and sophisticated manner, but it’s here where Trigun diverges.
Vash is a pacifist gunman. Despite his ace marksmanship, he refuses to kill or even injure those who oppose him. When forced to play the reaper it burdens him to his emotional core. His personality has no vestige of hate; a pure soul who’s means (gun slinging) contradicts his ends (love and peace throughout the world). Vash only plays the ace gunslinger role when it is most appropriate though; when innocents are in danger. For the most part Vash’s personality switches between gentle, soft and caring, and self-deprecatingbuffoon with the most obscene laugh imaginable. His character is somewhat schizophrenic and colours the mood of the show, breaking up the serious action and drama from the comedic relief. He’s the device which achieves this, the one we all came here to see. When the two moods collide it also makes for interesting circumstances as Vash will hilariously attempt to avoid gun fire or shoot a round of lucky shots to cut himself a break. He’s skilled, no doubt, but his wacky natures subverts any perceived professionalism.
This latter point sets the scene for the series’ story. In recent times, a man known as Vash the Stampede has been causing a trail of destruction among townships on the dessert planet Gunsmoke. (As the name suggests, this series is steeped heavily in the wild west thematic). Originally Vash leveled the city of July. In response authorities placed a massive bounty over his head of 60,000,000,000$$ (sixty billion “double dollars”). As a run-off effect, bounty hunters begin searching the land in pursuit of Vash and the bounty on his head, themselves creating the destruction of which is believed to be the doing of Vash.
Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson, two insurance agents from The Bernardelli Insurance Society are instructed to also pursue the gunman, so that they can evaluate and report on the actual events, providing validity for the innumerous number of insurance claims filed due to Vash’s wave of destruction. Initially, after following the rumour vine they run into a man who fits the identity of Vash, yet due to this subverted professionalism, they’re unsure as to whether he is the Vash the Stampede. After continually running into Vash and the ensuing trail of destruction, the two come to much deliberation, before decided that he is the “Humanoid Typhoon”. Later a traveling Spike Spiegel-esque priest tags along as a support, making up the main cast.
The central casts have great dynamics among each other. Meryl and Milly for instance balance each other out. Meryl is short-tempered and always looking for affirmation, Milly is kind hearted and accepting of others, believing in reason.
Each episode follows the exploits which…follow Vash’s notorious reputation wherever he goes. The premise is very simple, Vash is travelling from town to town, the insurance girls try to inconspicuously follow him and trouble abounds. Usually a moral is attached to said trouble. The confrontations are always made interesting as each band of bounty hunters are elaborately designed to accentuate certain elements of their personality. The personality ties into the motives of the character and hence a different facet of the overriding moral of the Trigun series. It’s all very well executed with slick dialogue and an above average serving of cel animation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dEYxSVVJxQMost episodes are self-contained, but when necessary the show will open into a multi-episode format to tell a single narrative. The entire run is mostly smooth, although there are occasional dips where the story and bounty hunters feel too iterative, but it quickly changes gears entering the later half.
For the early part of the series, the gun fights are played out without much consideration to why Vash, the pacifist gunman whom refuses to harm anyone, has been accused of such terrible acts. A past is peeled away at, but it isn’t until later that it is revealed, which is where things get a little weird. Randomly one of the episodes is set in space, where Vash and his brother Knives are discovered as plant-form humans and raised by the crew of a ship housing humans cryogenically frozen and ready for dropping on another planet. (Yeah, we totally messed up with Earth.) Rei, a young lady on the ship is the care taker and defacto mother of the two boys. She defends the normality of the children against disagreeing members of the crew. I think she is voiced by the same actor who did Hinoto in X. Rei teaches passes down her philosophies of pacifism and resolution without harm to the two boys. Knives believes otherwise, thinking that sacrifice is a mandatory part of resolution and hence walks down the path of the villain while Vash adopts Rei’s ideals. This point of separation is the ideological conflict of the series; resolution with or without sacrifice.
The backstory continues with Knives killing the crew (Rei included) and landing on the deserted GunSmoke with Vash along with a series of pods with the preserved humans. Vash, distraught from the Knive’s action and newfound tyrannical attitude towards Vash, shoots the maniac in the leg with a gun he provides (the same one he uses in the series) and flees. Some hundred years later, where Vash is now an adult, he carries out the destruction of July.
As the series enters it’s later half and Vash is challenged by the Gung-Ho Guns, a group under Knives who seek to harm Vash by forcing him to hurt themselves and others. It’s a No More Heroes sort of set up, with Vash facing off against the radical personalities. The Gung-Ho Guns bring to surface Vash’s more recent past, forcing a recreation of the July city incident (which originally made Vash notorious) where Vash’s arm, against his own will turned into a super cannon which destroyed much of the area. The reoccurence of this event (albeit, in a different location) is seemingly conducted by Knives, but the story doesn’t make this too clear, besides that it is all unintentional of Vash’s behalf – still, very weird. Teamed with accidental killings and inflictions of harm, Vash is haunted, particularly during this later half of the show. It makes him ashamed of his own creation.
This aspect of Vash’s identity cast him as the misunderstood hero, again; a clash of polar logics. He uses guns to demote the use of violence. He is a pacifist who has destroyed the lives of many people. His personality switches from serious to light hearted on a whim. These complexities craft a genuinely deep character, despite the ludicrous logic that he’s a plant who can turn his arm into a mega proton cannon. This history, while in some regards emotionally pulling (ie. his long lasting sympathy of Rei), is definitely a detriment to the series as it simply leaps beyond logic, becoming entangled in its immodesty. I enjoyed the series more as the misadventures of Vash the Stampede rather than attempting to elaborate on something which didn’t have to be played up to begin with.
Knives continues to toy with Vash’s personal beliefs as he takes control of GunSmoke’s populace and forces them to commit suicide. Vash then travels through a lull period while he grapples with his past regrets, once this is over, the series steadfastly approaches its conclusion where Vash and Knives face off in the final episode. Overall Trigun is a fantastic anime series which I thoroughly enjoyed, besides the weird, unnecessary parts of course.
X Animated Series Impressions
July 17th, 2009
I’m going to try something new today and not write about video games. In it’s place I want to discuss an anime series that I recently watched to competition. I guess you can call me a fan of anime. I have far more anime than I have regular DVDs, although considering I rarely buy DVDs or Bluray movies, that’s not saying much. Years ago I snapped up a series of single-cased boxsets on the cheap including Cowboy Beebop, Hellsing, Trigun and other prominent animated franchises. Since all those years ago, I’ve still watched very little, so I’ve decided add them to my massive media binge. The first series up is the X animated series.
X is the animated series of manga and featured movie of the same name, produced by all female manga quartet CLAMP. It tells the story of Kamui Shiro, a boy returning to Tokyo to fulfill his role as a Dragon of Heaven in the forthcoming final battle between two Kamuis which shall decide the fate of the planet. On the other side of the fence are the Dragons of Earth who fight for a revolution; where all mankind is destroyed and life begins at zero. The Dragons of Heaven fight for the contrary; the survival of mankind. Each group contain six key members, a dream seer and a Kamui; the one who will fight in the final battle.
The series follows Kamui’s return to Tokyo, meeting up with childhood friends Fuma and Kotori, and battling the demons of his fate. The first half of the 6-DVD collection trace his transition from sourpuss to fairly likable hero, while meeting up with the other Dragons of Heaven and Hinoto, the dream seer and defacto group coordinator. As the members slowly happen upon each other, forming their growing union, minor confrontations with individual members of the Dragons of Earth take place. Many of these confrontations are related to the shingen, two swords, one for either Kamui, primed for the final battle, as well as Kamui’s integration into school life (which the series soon forgets). The first half of the series highlights Kamui’s troubled past and relations to his close friends, Fuma and Kotori, who he vows to protect.
Entering the latter half of the series, Fuma realizes his fate as the Kamui (is the protagonist’s name as well as their role, as such) for the Dragons of Earth. His voice deepens, eyes become red, transforming his persona. His transition is completely unfounded and random. Fuma attacks Kamui and murders a bounded Kotori in front of Kamui, declaring their twin destinies. Afterwards he goes off in search of Kanoe, the sister of Hinoto, a seductress who can peeping-tom her way into Hinoto’s dreams. With their alignment, the Dragons of Earth unite as one for the final battle.
Leading up to this illustrious final battle, the confrontations escalate as Fuma pursues the Dragons of Heaven. This leads into some mini-twists and then the final battle ensues.
The story isn’t particularly clear nor logical and only needs to be interpreted as the gatherings of two schools of thought, preparing for a battle which will decide their fate. The battles are cushioned by sequences dealing with abstract phenomena such as destiny, fate, dreams, wishes and the future. These scenes picturize the abstract dichotomy of good and evil, determined and undetermined futures, and humanity’s role on the earth as to whether we have sinned or not in our destruction of the planet. These scenes use feathers, cherry blossoms, ripples of water, angelic forms of Kamui and other reoccurring elements to paint these abstract enigmas in a mostly visually provocative manner. Many of the scenes don’t match the visual quality or level of cel animation of the animated movie but are interesting nonetheless.
The music, particularly the quiet piano and rich crescendo are well done, yet overall the music fails to encapsulate the dread of the feature film. Perhaps the weaker sound and visual design can be in some ways attributed to the PG rating which takes the chill off the haunting imagery from the movie. I guess this is also to be expected of the format too; being a series rather than a film. Either way, X hammers the PG rating pretty hard with plenty of blood, some bedroom scenes, abstract bondage and prostitute-client and minor-adult relationships too.
The characters are a range of anime tropes featuring a familiar cast of voices – just don’t ask me to name the actors, okay? Each episode focuses on a character’s history, linking the self-contained narrative elements of the episode to their past in a fashion not dissimilar to Lost. This is usually a trauma or bad memory of some type created by the Heaven/Earth member’s magical powers and the stigma it’s marked them with. Even though everyone has super natural powers, each distinct (that was a given, right?) the people themselves are normal citizens which harmonize their relations. Besides the air-headed babble about destiny, twin stars and the future, everyone bar Fuma is well grounded.
Overall, I haven’t much opinion on X. I probably wouldn’t greatly recommend it to anyone, the plot is nonsensical, Kamui is fairly emo before he evolves into an semi-likable hero and the animation and action sequences are pretty standard but never rip-snortingly so. Still, I personally have a thing for this series, despite its shortcomings which is worth something.
Additional Readings
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