Hahah same, I'm usually afraid of being annoying, but I do like discussing things! I usually find that if left to my own analysis of something, it's a lot more biased and less sound than if I talk about it. Conversation also stimulates thought, so get farther into the zone if I talk about it with someone...so thanks for getting me in the zone :D
Monster stories...well, I really liked Ghost Hunt, but that is, like the title suggests, about ghosts, although there's some parts where there's legitimate monsters there. One anime I recently got into is Shinsekai Yori/From the New World, and it has some pretty creepy monster-like characters (it's set 1000 years in the future). The monsters aren't as glamorous as the Shiki though, but are HUMANS THE REAL MONSTERS!? That's also an anime that gets philosophical. Anyway, if you've seen it, don't spoil it for me though, because I'm not done with it yet. Hellsing also has vampires, but I haven't watched it so I can't personally vouch for its quality.
For me, what really scares me is the unknown. That feeling of paranoia that's in the chapters where Atsushi, among other villagers, feels watched, that was my favorite horror element of all. Once everything's out in the open, it's still entertaining to me, though, just not in the same way. When you don't know what's out there, that's scary. When it's an open threat, it's still awesome because then you can expect action sequences.
Ohh, I see. I think maybe another thing about Seishin and Ozaki is that the two are similar, but they just go separate ways, if that makes sense. As children (nice analysis about the 'childhood friend'. It really does sound like he means that they USED to be friends; but maybe it also means that they were just carefree friends before, but now they're companions, still being weighed down by the village. 'Childhood' seems carefree, so maybe he just means that they used to be more carefree before. Either way, they were definitely 'childhood friends' before things went downhill) Seishin and Ozaki were probably similar. And at their cores, they still kind of are. Both are frustrated by their parents' expectations, and this is kind of inverted because even though Seishin's parents aren't as insistent as Takae, he still takes their wordless disapproval to heart...but he would have taken it to heart even more if they WERE like Takae. And Ozaki's mother is really insistent, but he doesn't seem bothered...which doesn't mean that he isn't, though. Although the book does has all kinds of textual support for why he kind of disregards her as a nuisance, I get the impression that all of her expectations and pressures have translated into his personality and Ozaki still holds himself to some pretty high standards. Even though Ozaki's father is dead, he still thinks of him often and even though he is determined to not be like him, the fact remains that he is a big influence on Ozaki's life and decisions.
So, again with the similarities: both of them are pressured by their parents, both have an important future ahead of them. Both also have inner strength; Ozaki's stares the reader in the face because of his determination and success in outing the Shiki. But you have to dig a little big deeper to see Seishin's inner strength. Just one example is the discipline he commands over himself which allows him to become the model priest, even if it stretches him to his emotional breaking point (do you think that without his side job as an author, he would have been even more depressed?) He is also steadfast in his beliefs, and although he never outwardly protests, say, the temple's intolerance of people with other religious beliefs, his surroundings never sway his moral compass or sense of justice.
Another difference between them is that Seishin is not the main player at the temple; okay, he's taking over for his father, but it's not like the temple would not exist without him. He has his mother, father, and volunteers for support, yet he is always feeling isolated and most of the work he does to research the disease for example, is done on his own.
Ozaki, on the other hand, is The Village Doctor. Unlike Seishin, if he didn't exist, then the hospital would not either, without a doctor. He has arguably more responsibility than Seishin, but he always confides in his nurses and staff, and considers their opinions when they discuss the outbreak. He doesn't tell them his suspicions about vampires obviously, but the point is that Ozaki has staff to lean on, and he does lean on them regularly. This can connect to the theme of the story, which could be, like, 'Don't try to do everything on your own' because as soon as Ozaki stops feeling like he can confide in his hospital cohorts, his easygoing temper starts declining until he does stuff like yell at Seishin and not notice when Nurse Yuki goes missing.
This isn't to say that you're not a real man if you don't rely on your friends; Seishin doesn't, but he's still a strong character in his own right. You can say he's a martyr (most of the suffering he goes through is actually inflicted through his own worldview and attitude) and that's what draws him to the church where he talks to Sunako.
Nice analysis about Seishin's engraving! I...can't even say anything better myself about it. It's like Seishin makes himself into a 'ghost', but fights against it himself inwardly by little actions such as these.
If you ship Ozaki and Seishin, you could say that the reason Seishin was so drawn to Sunako was because she does have something like Ozaki in her personality. They're both determined, desperate people--and both end up leaving a bunch of bodies in their wake. Sunako kills people to survive, and Ozaki ends up inciting a massacre of Shiki in order for the village to survive. Their motives are all the same; for such a philosophical book, it's interesting that what motivates most of the characters at their core is the need to survive, such a simple drive. The difference between Sunako and Ozaki is that Sunako possesses insight and patience enough to lift Seishin up out of his dark mindset. Ozaki has this potential too; during the Seishin-seme chapter, you can see that he recognizes Seishin's empty personality, and has seen it before, yet never acts on it.
Sunako maybe got all her views about life and death, the views that help her to understand Seishin, from a lifetime of thinking about her killing people. The aftermath of the events of the novel are never explicitly explained, but who knows what kind of transformation Ozaki would undergo. Would he perhaps later think about his argument with Seishin about what the latter said about Shiki being like humans too? Instead of thinking of it as 'getting rid of pests', maybe he'd start to think of it as 'murder' - as I'm sure many villagers will, as well. In time, perhaps Ozaki would get Suanko's patience and wisdom and would be capable of understanding Seishin as she did.
I like how the tables turn at the end of the book; I feel like Sunako kept coming back to Seishin and the church because of selfishness. She also didn't kill him when he asked dramatically, "Are you Shiki?", although her primary goal was to make Sotoba into a safe haven for the Shiki. This could have potentially offset her plan, but she felt like she needed Seishin to stick around. Even in the Kanemasa basement, she relied on his support to keep her going, and even cried in front of Seishin, a human--and she'd openly confessed to Tohru of her thinking of humans as cattle. And at the end, it's completely inverted as Seishin, who is now a bloodthirsty vampire (supposedly) and selfishly keeping someone alive (here, Sunako is presented as a human. She has none of her otherworldliness when she runs from the villagers, when threatened by Ohkawa, when she decides to burn along with the church. Here, she's just a frightened human girl) So their positions are flipped, and this time it's Seishin who whisks her away like a lighter, prettier Ozaki.
I think I'll wait for the translation on that part! I want the paranoia suspense. \._./
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Monster stories...well, I really liked Ghost Hunt, but that is, like the title suggests, about ghosts, although there's some parts where there's legitimate monsters there. One anime I recently got into is Shinsekai Yori/From the New World, and it has some pretty creepy monster-like characters (it's set 1000 years in the future). The monsters aren't as glamorous as the Shiki though, but are HUMANS THE REAL MONSTERS!? That's also an anime that gets philosophical. Anyway, if you've seen it, don't spoil it for me though, because I'm not done with it yet. Hellsing also has vampires, but I haven't watched it so I can't personally vouch for its quality.
For me, what really scares me is the unknown. That feeling of paranoia that's in the chapters where Atsushi, among other villagers, feels watched, that was my favorite horror element of all. Once everything's out in the open, it's still entertaining to me, though, just not in the same way. When you don't know what's out there, that's scary. When it's an open threat, it's still awesome because then you can expect action sequences.
Ohh, I see. I think maybe another thing about Seishin and Ozaki is that the two are similar, but they just go separate ways, if that makes sense. As children (nice analysis about the 'childhood friend'. It really does sound like he means that they USED to be friends; but maybe it also means that they were just carefree friends before, but now they're companions, still being weighed down by the village. 'Childhood' seems carefree, so maybe he just means that they used to be more carefree before. Either way, they were definitely 'childhood friends' before things went downhill) Seishin and Ozaki were probably similar. And at their cores, they still kind of are. Both are frustrated by their parents' expectations, and this is kind of inverted because even though Seishin's parents aren't as insistent as Takae, he still takes their wordless disapproval to heart...but he would have taken it to heart even more if they WERE like Takae. And Ozaki's mother is really insistent, but he doesn't seem bothered...which doesn't mean that he isn't, though. Although the book does has all kinds of textual support for why he kind of disregards her as a nuisance, I get the impression that all of her expectations and pressures have translated into his personality and Ozaki still holds himself to some pretty high standards. Even though Ozaki's father is dead, he still thinks of him often and even though he is determined to not be like him, the fact remains that he is a big influence on Ozaki's life and decisions.
So, again with the similarities: both of them are pressured by their parents, both have an important future ahead of them. Both also have inner strength; Ozaki's stares the reader in the face because of his determination and success in outing the Shiki. But you have to dig a little big deeper to see Seishin's inner strength. Just one example is the discipline he commands over himself which allows him to become the model priest, even if it stretches him to his emotional breaking point (do you think that without his side job as an author, he would have been even more depressed?) He is also steadfast in his beliefs, and although he never outwardly protests, say, the temple's intolerance of people with other religious beliefs, his surroundings never sway his moral compass or sense of justice.
Another difference between them is that Seishin is not the main player at the temple; okay, he's taking over for his father, but it's not like the temple would not exist without him. He has his mother, father, and volunteers for support, yet he is always feeling isolated and most of the work he does to research the disease for example, is done on his own.
Ozaki, on the other hand, is The Village Doctor. Unlike Seishin, if he didn't exist, then the hospital would not either, without a doctor. He has arguably more responsibility than Seishin, but he always confides in his nurses and staff, and considers their opinions when they discuss the outbreak. He doesn't tell them his suspicions about vampires obviously, but the point is that Ozaki has staff to lean on, and he does lean on them regularly. This can connect to the theme of the story, which could be, like, 'Don't try to do everything on your own' because as soon as Ozaki stops feeling like he can confide in his hospital cohorts, his easygoing temper starts declining until he does stuff like yell at Seishin and not notice when Nurse Yuki goes missing.
This isn't to say that you're not a real man if you don't rely on your friends; Seishin doesn't, but he's still a strong character in his own right. You can say he's a martyr (most of the suffering he goes through is actually inflicted through his own worldview and attitude) and that's what draws him to the church where he talks to Sunako.
Nice analysis about Seishin's engraving! I...can't even say anything better myself about it. It's like Seishin makes himself into a 'ghost', but fights against it himself inwardly by little actions such as these.
If you ship Ozaki and Seishin, you could say that the reason Seishin was so drawn to Sunako was because she does have something like Ozaki in her personality. They're both determined, desperate people--and both end up leaving a bunch of bodies in their wake. Sunako kills people to survive, and Ozaki ends up inciting a massacre of Shiki in order for the village to survive. Their motives are all the same; for such a philosophical book, it's interesting that what motivates most of the characters at their core is the need to survive, such a simple drive. The difference between Sunako and Ozaki is that Sunako possesses insight and patience enough to lift Seishin up out of his dark mindset. Ozaki has this potential too; during the Seishin-seme chapter, you can see that he recognizes Seishin's empty personality, and has seen it before, yet never acts on it.
Sunako maybe got all her views about life and death, the views that help her to understand Seishin, from a lifetime of thinking about her killing people. The aftermath of the events of the novel are never explicitly explained, but who knows what kind of transformation Ozaki would undergo. Would he perhaps later think about his argument with Seishin about what the latter said about Shiki being like humans too? Instead of thinking of it as 'getting rid of pests', maybe he'd start to think of it as 'murder' - as I'm sure many villagers will, as well. In time, perhaps Ozaki would get Suanko's patience and wisdom and would be capable of understanding Seishin as she did.
I like how the tables turn at the end of the book; I feel like Sunako kept coming back to Seishin and the church because of selfishness. She also didn't kill him when he asked dramatically, "Are you Shiki?", although her primary goal was to make Sotoba into a safe haven for the Shiki. This could have potentially offset her plan, but she felt like she needed Seishin to stick around. Even in the Kanemasa basement, she relied on his support to keep her going, and even cried in front of Seishin, a human--and she'd openly confessed to Tohru of her thinking of humans as cattle.
And at the end, it's completely inverted as Seishin, who is now a bloodthirsty vampire (supposedly) and selfishly keeping someone alive (here, Sunako is presented as a human. She has none of her otherworldliness when she runs from the villagers, when threatened by Ohkawa, when she decides to burn along with the church. Here, she's just a frightened human girl) So their positions are flipped, and this time it's Seishin who whisks her away like a lighter, prettier Ozaki.
I think I'll wait for the translation on that part! I want the paranoia suspense. \._./
(There's a method to every madness.)