Revisiting the anime

I'm really starting to develop this hate+love relationship with the anime, very much like how I simultaneously hate and love film adaptations of my favorite books. Most of my thoughts echo Sarah's very eloquently written rant here, which covers most of the issues that got left out in the anime.

Except that I still need to rant to keep my sanity and set the record straight. Trying to defend the character of Kagetora/Takaya can really drive me up the wall sometimes because of all the aspects that were left out of the anime.

It's understandable that such a complex story like Mirage can never be translated effectively to screen but they could've done a much better job with the characterizations. The fact that they completely left out Naoe's cruelty is maddening. And I'm not sure WHY they played down Takaya's fears of abandonment and left out his earnest attempts to fix things.

The thing about Naoe during the Mirror arc (Ep. 8-13) is that he's a complete ass to Takaya. The latter, so desperately trying to fix whatever went wrong between Kagetora and Naoe, is continuously being shut out the more he tries to reach into Naoe. Resulting in Takaya being so convinced that the person that Naoe wants is Kagetora and not him (Takaya) however paradoxical that may sound. Because Naoe won't let him (Takaya) help him, even when Takaya was willing to do anything to ease Naoe's suffering, well anything reasonable... not become a sex toy as Naoe so lewdly proposed.

Furthermore, Takaya is still looking at Naoe with 'Takaya eyes' at this point in time. He's not in love with him, well not in the way that Kagetora is, yet. He just wants this protectiveness that Naoe provides and that's why he tries so hard to rectify matters. More importantly, he doesn't want Naoe to hate him, which is why there's so much fear in him when he sees Naoe suddenly looking at him with such brutal coldness. In fact, after Chiaki blew up at him, he did try calling Naoe once to try and sort things out except that Naoe wasn't home (he was with Asaoka - the woman whose brother was attacked by the Tsutsuga beast and believe it or not, she actually fell in love with Naoe).

The fact that I can sympathize with Naoe at this point is really mostly because I already know what happens later on: his choice at the end, his pain in Books 11, 20 and etc. but what he really deserves here is a tight slap. Takaya is so hurt and miserable from his words and attitude. And worse still, Naoe is well-aware at this point that he's dealing with 17-year-old Takaya, not 400-year-old Kagetora. It's not that I'm angry when Naoe is being mean and cheer when Kagetora is being cruel. It's that they're not exactly fighting on level ground. OK, granted Kagetora does have an advantage over Naoe given his authority as leader but at least Kagetora has the ability to parry Naoe's blows, much more so than Takaya. It's like attacking someone who's unarmed, with a weapon. Takaya is completely vulnerable and at the same time opening himself to Naoe. Which makes me want to smack Naoe, hard, because what does he do? Attack where it hurts the most, thereby shooting himself in the foot and at the same time making me feel very VERY bad for Takaya.

One thing that I think all the characters in Mirage should make a sticky of in their heads is to never underestimate Kagetora. Bite him once and he'll give you hell (and I don't mean that Kagetora goes around exacting revenge on whoever's wronged him). Naoe basically gets this after Vol 9 (after the OVAs), to the point where he really wants to go to Hell, because the real Hell is probably less agonizing.

And Kagetora's 'bet' at the end of the OVAs also loses impact and meaning because of the omissions in the anime. To put it mildly, it goes something like this in the novels:

Naoe: (coldly)If you want to be comforted, let me use you like a woman.

Kagetora: Prove yourself to be better than me, then I'll let you hold me.

Kagetora is essentially throwing Naoe's words back at him and you really feel that "It's about time" after all the verbal abuse that Takaya put up with. And as much as their egos and stubbornness makes me want to bang their heads over, it's this aggression that makes this couple really engaging (to me anyway) - talking about chemistry here - and they seem to feed off from the mutual cruelty, even if it's destroying both of them emotionally. Furthermore, it probably isn't too far-fetched to infer from Naoe's brutality in Book 8, that for the last few centuries he has been attempting to corner Kagetora emotionally and using sexual aggression as a weapon, since this is probably the only thing where he has the upper-hand, with respect to their relationship. Except that there's no way Kagetora is going to submit/lose to him. The tension between them is really, for lack of a better word, intense. Both are deliberately with-holding from each other, waiting to see who will first succumb to need. The winner-loser complex is a major theme that runs from Volumes 5.5 to 11.

Except in the anime it's really more of :

Naoe: (passionately)I love you and have been suffering for your sake for 400 years, why don't you ever give me anything, let me hold you!

Kagetora: Prove yourself to be better than me, then I'll let you hold me.

Resulting in the overall view that Kagetora is a jerk. They took away Takaya's earnesty and Naoe's cruelty, leaving only Kagetora's coldness and Naoe's passion, projecting such a lopsided view of the relationship that it's not even funny.

And I really hope I don't come off sounding like I hate Naoe. I don't. In fact, I adore him. He can be such a sweetheart sometimes because he essentially thinks with his heart (which is why he can be prone to bouts of impulsiveness). Not that Kagetora is all mind and no heart, he just strikes a balance between the two. There're certain things that Naoe says and does that tugs at the heartstrings BUT at this point of the novels he is screwing up, big time. The point is that the anime left out one of the major reasons for Takaya's coldness at the end of the OVAs and that is Naoe himself. We're shown a part of Naoe's coldness and Takaya's hurt/confusion at the beginning of OVA2 but the general consensus among the anime-viewers seems to be that Naoe is so pitiful to have suffered for 400 years so a bit of coldness is forgiven, and that Kagetora needs to get over his pride/issues/'cruelty' and let Naoe hold him.

I still remember that on my first viewing of the anime, I was a bit miffed that little background was given on the character of Kagetora. I was pissed with Chiaki for a while for being judgemental and laying all the blame on Takaya. But what's more is that nobody stood up for him until Ujiteru stepped in. And what does he say? One line to Naoe suggesting that the latter had trampled over Kagetora's life. One line, as compared to Naoe's blatant accusations and Chiaki's rants. OK, I'll give Kousaka some credit for his taunts but I feel that he's only pushing all of Naoe's buttons out of contempt for him (reasons still unclear to me).

So, Takaya only gets one line of defense on his part. And that Kagetora apparition doesn't even count because that is a manifestation of Naoe's conscience that works more in Naoe's favor than Kagetora's. Notice how Kagetora's line of never forgiving him for the rest of eternity keeps echoing within him when the truth is, Kagetora did try to find ways to forgive Naoe -> hence suppression of memories. We get a sweet scene at the end, which again makes Naoe seem so, so caring and soft-hearted (vastly different in the novels) and then we're off the OVAs, which stays pretty true to the novels. But by then, everyone is more than ready to sympathize with Naoe because Kagetora is starting to show his claws, seemingly uncalled for.

I do wish that they would continue animating the series, except that whenever I think how much they bastardized the character of Kagetora, a part of me thinks it would be better if they didn't (unless they restarted the series). Because if they work on the Wadatsumi no Youkihi storyline, everyone is going to be cursing Kagetora for he is unapologetically cruel in this arc, and circumstances really leave Naoe so utterly defeated that he wants to die. And when he really does die at the end of Vol 11, I doubt people are going to sympathize with Kagetora's immense sadness as much as point a finger at him thinking "You deserved this".

The anime really pisses me off sometimes although I still love it. After all, if not for the anime I wouldn't have known about the novels.

Just so that any Naoe fan reading this doesn't go away being disappointed with how different he is in the novels (and to avoid any egg-throwing), there is a rather sweet bit about him that they didn't show in the anime and that is when he compares Takaya's personality to Kagetora's. Note that all three of them have never seen this side of Kagetora before ('young', naive and all) and have quite varied reactions. Nagahide is a bit thrown off his feet and annoyed with Kagetora's new self and Haruie just basically goes all motherly on him. Naoe is falling in love again :) ♥ He finds Takaya's naiveté and simplicity so endearing as opposed to the complicated Kagetora and the hate/love/envy complex that he has with the latter. There's this scene in 5.5 where Takaya is asleep in his room and Naoe comes in and thinks just how vulnerable he is in his purity and innocence. Naoe really loves every single layer of Kagetora's personality. :)