Texhnolyze and The Meaning of Life (Analysis)
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- Опубліковано 19 лис 2024
- Email: elijahkaivoice@gmail.com
Twitter: / elijahkaiva
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Music Used:
1: Danger in the Forest (Final Fantasy IX)
2: Hellbound Heart (Hellraiser)
3: Spirits of the Mist (Silent Hill 2)
4: Those Without the Will to Live (Chrono Trigger)
5: Scrabania (Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee)
6: Ruins of the Jedi Enclave (Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic II)
7: Cave Dweller Concert (Donkey Kong Country)
8: Haunted Panels (Portal 2)
9: Dawn (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)
10: Dirtmouth (Hollow Knight)
11: Through The Darkness (Twin Peaks Archive)
12: Leon With Claire (Resident Evil 2)
"Yoshi's art is death. He's about to paint his masterpiece."
"I think Texhnolyze is an important work because it's *against* nihilism."
I think I see the point you're trying to make here, but because of the wording I'll have to maybe disagree with this. Texhnolyze is about how humanity can choose meaning and what's important to them in spite of the undeniable emptiness of this ultimately meaningless existence, and that it's simply your choice to embrace the fact that the principals which we live by, the pillars that support the foundations of our beliefs are subjective. That objectively there is no meaning in this universe, but that doesn't mean we can't find happiness while embracing this reality in our minds. Let me explain.
The characters of Texhnolyze all strive towards their ideals and dreams for the future. Yoshii is a standout example of a character who was so driven by his goals that he even told Ran, a literal oracle, not to tell him how he'd die. He wanted to live by his pursuits and beliefs, and despite dying without fulfilling his goals, he goes out with a smile.
Ichise is another standout, and someone who I'd say is the other side of the coin. He is someone without a goal, no real ideal to believe in, he doesn't contemplate the meaning of life the way Yoshii does, and he doesn't actively hurt people if they haven't already hurt him first. His goal is primordial: wanting to live and not be killed. But he finds something to cling onto. For Yoshii it was this idea of progress and igniting a fire within Lux by kick-starting an all out war. But Ichise has always chosen something less high minded and more personal: his loved ones and the people he cares for. The memory of his mother (he clings to her cells and is devastated when he finds out that Doc threw them away), Onishi for giving him structure and treating him like a human being, and Ran for saving him from the sewers and showing him kindness. By the end of his life he is alone, but sees a projection of a flower, one that reminds him of Ran, someone who he became strongly bonded to. It's just a projection, however, and he ultimately dies; but he goes out with a smile. He reaches oblivion, and the memory of his time with Ran has no meaning in an objective sense as he still would have died with or without it, but he ultimately finds peace because of the comfort it brings to him.
This flower, this projection, is the whole point of the story: that what we feel, what we believe, has no objective meaning, but it still brings us joy, makes us capable of doing impossible things that shape the lives of ourselves and those around us. Yoshii and Ichise have seen the meaninglessness of this world and they managed to cling to something they believed in. Ideals might not be real in a tangible sense, and everybody dies in the end, but our feelings are real, our beliefs and what we project onto the world is what shapes our very lives and is what makes it worth living.
So Texhnolyze is absolutely about Nihilism, but it isn't about giving up because of it. Texhnolyze is both a warning against those who give up too easily, and a declaration of defiance against the void we were born in. What we feel, what we project, that's what matters. Ran and Ichise's relationship was a rare one, one that was located in a city where relationships between husband and wife, father and son, for examples, were twisted and disturbing. But Ran and Ichise had a familial bond between them that wanted to embrace the good that the other could share unselfishly and without a secret desire to stab the other in the back, and in this type of setting? That kind of love was sorely needed. And that's why it meant something, despite everything.
Excellent analysis
Good analysis. Something I’ve noticed about the many Texhnolyze analyses on UA-cam is that they distill and analyze the show on a philosophical basis. That’s why nihilism gets so shoehorned into every conversation and it basically boils down to another show with a very Nietzchean "how shall we derive our own meaning and not fall to nihilism" conclusion. I think it’s more interesting to view it as a critical transhumanist story of human evolution and technological integration. Where the individual human condition, relationships, and social/power structures are traditionally what gave humans meaning and drove our continued evolution. At some point this was hijacked by technological development in an attempt to avoid hardship and gain a competitive edge. But with technology, there comes a critical point where we erode what it means to be human and more generally a biological organism. We stop evolving and stagnate. We lose all drive and meaning. Whether it's by creation of a post-scarcity society through automation and bureaucracy (the surface world) or where we become subservient to the capabilities of our technology (Kanno's war in Lux), both of these result in the slow death of humanity. I look at the raffia flower as a symbol of harmonious existence with technology and that there is a balance that can be reached.
@@twisted.mentat757 I agree
i think both answers are correct, it's the way you personally view it
not sure about that buddy, i've seen an interview by the creator and he mentioned he designed ichise as what he himself thought a "true hero" might be, and in the show, its a character (ichise) who has arguably no meaning, who only fights for meaningless reasons at the beginning of the show, and mostly throughout it as well. Ichise is a prize fighter who fights for "money," which is quickly revealed in texhnolyze as functionally worthless as there are defined upper and lower classes, and then "loyalty" which also holds no value in texhnolyze's setting... So a person with no life, who fights for no reason, and is almost treated like a stray dog for the entirety of the first half and like a lapdog in the second half of the show is the most heroic of all the members of the cast.
You are right that the show is designed in a way, as you put it, frames ichise and yoshii as "two sides of the same coin," although in all objective senses, the character of yoshii is attacked and castigated by the author.
Most of the main characters SHARE THE SAME destiny, they die alone. how each one reacts to this revelation is explored heavily in texhnolyze, perhaps being the main focus of the show itself.
Yoshii and Ichise are different in two special ways. Their radically different origins and their reaction to Ran, who is a metaphor for a manifest destiny, that humanity will conquer itself. that humanity will transcend, but at what cost? Yoshi doesnt want to hear that he will die alone, he doesnt want to believe it and supposedly fights against that notion as he is laying dying with a smile. Ichise heard the prophecy about him causing great violence, ruin to Lux and dying alone, to which he laments and says he refuses. This is important because Ichise is framed as the "hero."
since Yoshi starts as a pseudo-nietzschean ubermensch minded character this makes sense for him, but through his decisions and the situations he finds himself involved in, we see he is revealed to be nothing more than an opportunist, a vulture in a time of chaos and war. yoshii is someone who started out with a "normal, boring, average" job/existence and was normally adjusted before going to Lux in search of a "crusade" where he ironically ends up dying all alone, only able to give a self satisfied smile where he thinks he alone is different. edit, while at the same time, sharing the same fate/destiny as the other ideological stand-in characters... just for clarity.
ichise on the other hand, had no formative ties, no background to recall, no reason to believe in anything, who is pretty much only used by others, develops "positive" relationships with others on his own accord. in texhnolyze, the "hero" fights for almost no discernable reason at all. just a vague feeling that this is what should be done. He doesn't' need a reason to try and do the right or wrong thing, he doesnt even really have a narrative, he's just a unwilling participant of experiments and fights... even this person doesn't want to be bad... he hears he will cause big problems and he is saddened by it, he goes through them, he is equally saddened and frustrated by it all. yet he keeps going on an uncertain path to a certainly terrible end. He also dies alone, but reminiscing about others, the few fleeting moments he was granted in life, since he promised Ran he wouldn't end up the way she says- a monster like yoshii- even after brutally murdering Kano with his own hands... Kano, who has strikingly similar philosophical views to a character like Yoshi, but even more of a extremeist/purist. Not a vulture, but one half of a twin headed black eagle, and all the symbology that comes with that.
And that is how Ichise wins against destiny... by fighting and finding change within himself, not others, not Ran, not the city of Lux, not the "upper world" but by confronting himself and his own ideology and destiny, which started and ended as Nothing. If nihilism is the notion that everything is meaningless, what does it say when even the MOST meaningless person in the WHOLE world (Ichise), finds his own meaning within it all? That is a strong anti-nihilism message, and i agree with the video creator, one of the strongest in all forms of media. sorry for the wall of text.
the show has such an insane bait and switch pay off when the main characters get to the surface. honestly, I keep thinking about that all the time since I last watched 2 years ago.
It’s been haunting me since I first saw it in 2004… it stays with you
One must imagine Sysiphus happy
-albert camus
I loved how texhnolyze is sometimes so dream like and other times so raw and real.
Chefs Kiss. Thanks for cooking this one up. Beautiful!
An underrated masterpiece. Chiaki Konaka's magnum opus
It’s more like lain
God's Truth
I also think the separation of good and evil is a strong point here.. both sides have dissolved without the other.. a good commentary on why our world continues to progress with both.. the over-sterilization or overly destructive paths are a sure fire way to end our reality. The natural balance is necessary for life to continue in this reality.
You describe the show's atmosphere perfectly.
Texhnolyze put me in a life crisis that I can’t get out of to this day
Thank you so so much for this video (and your other videos). Understanding deeper meanings behind a plot/characters has always been hard for me, but it's thanks to storytellers like you who can break down 20+ episodes that I can go back, rewatch, and try to have a different reaction. TY!
Finished this last night. Embodiment of bitter sweet.
The vagueness allows you to fill in the blanks in your head, or to rewatch it to compare and contast. There's a handful of very important "scenes" that only spand a few seconds, and if you're not fully engaged you will miss them even as you're watching.
Episodes 1-5 are brutally slow, 6-17 are normal paced, and 18-22 are where a lot of it all starts to make sense.
The music and artwork in the final stretch when they get to the village on the hill already sets the tone of what's to come before you acknowledge what's going to happen, at least for me it did.
Its hard to call this good or bad, they're both subjeive. If you want to watch something to be visually entertained then this is certainly not for you. If you want to watch something that has you questioning every scene and keeps you searching for the answer, this is likely what you're looking for. Its only as good as you allow it to be.
Perfectly said, I almost didn't get into it because I was scrolling on my phone, literally just finished it now didn't even realise the doc killed herself, what a show
Probably the best analysis I've ever watched, thank you so much for making this video.
Great overview video man. Texhnolyze is an absolutely bleak and brutal tragedy, and I appreciate you pointing out the qualities and archetypes of the different characters.
Thank you for this video. Texchonolyze is such an interesting anime
Great analysis, many of these went over my head, I guess I'm not really the smartest person and still need to experience and think about life a little more, either way, this video really heightened Texhnolyze for me, thank you!
This is a well thought out analysis, definitely got something out of that. There's other things about Texhnolyze that deserve to be explored in addition to this, such as Ran being revealed as "the voice of the city", or the whole story of why and how the founders of Lux were sent/came underground... A lot to think about! Cheers dude
Good job man. I gotta rewatch this some day
This was a really good video, thank you for this
Great analysis! I think this gets to some important elements of the show without over-reading or getting too abstract like some other analyses.
I've just finished it
i can't even rate it for it's complexity
Just finished the anime. It wasn't for me, but I want to understand it as much as I can before coming to a final conclusion. Hope this video helps
Paprika is more appealing to me!
@@eugeniosabater8449 yea I liked Paprika. Same with Paranoia Agent. I understand this anime more after this video but it still isnt for me. Stuff like this and Evangelion just aren't my thing. Though Ergo Proxy wasnt bad
I don’t think Ichise died at the end. It’s arguable that he later died from his injuries but he was still conscious and his wound was in a non-lethal area.
Amazing video, that was really interesting.
Most depressing Anime I’ve ever seen but for some strange reason I wanted to finish the whole show like it kept me interested in the next episode no matter how horrible the atmosphere & depressing it was
I was always annoyed that this show is depicted to people as depressing. This show was uplifting despite it's tragic ending. Yes it can be depressing but if that is all you take out of it then your clearly missing the main message. Human beings are so amazing because we always want to survive and move on and can find the will in all our own meanings.
Now i know it,makoto yuki literally ichise 2.0
Well it certainly is bleak as hell with little to no light hearted moments so i can see why some people will remember it as depressing. I guess you can say texhnolyze is much more pessimistic than nihilistic.
@@fountainfridge i do not thinking if texhbolyze is so extremely bleak(becauze it's still have an several usual moment who not so bleak)
finally a best analysis thank you ❤️
For some reason it puts me in mind that the writer of the series had read the book"The Outsider", think was a influence for Onishi
Yoooo I heard that hollow knight music
Greet video!
Thank you
I mean it.
Great video!
Amazing vid and ty.
Yo man, I don't know if you ever get this. But you sound a lot like Mike pondsmith (the creator of cyberpunk)
Never heard that one before, but thank you!
Finally sat down and watched it, damn it's gotta be the bleakest anime I've ever seen
Watching this anime made me question why some people pour milk before cereal
The cereal stays crispy longer that way
@@nobobonobo gross 🤮
You sum up the nihilism idea pretty well actually 17:20 , at least one aspect or interpretation.
Nice
Actually very nice 👍
this is one of those shows where I respect what it does well but didn't enjoy it at all. It tells a great story but not caring if the audience enjoys it isn't a virtue and overall makes it a far lesser experience. I don't have a problem with slow pacing as anime like monster have slow pacing but are told masterfully as their pacing is slow, but they don't waste a second of their time to develop their themes and characters while in texhnolyze it feels very much like it intentionally wastes your time mainly with the first third. The five or so episodes where the show has the breathing and panting arc really just felt like they were attempting to pretentiously make the show seem as if it were artistic and sophisticated by barely having any dialogue or significant plot progression. It's a shame as for the rest of the show it is great, but they waste so much time that by that point it's hard to care nearly as much as I would have otherwise
I disagree, the show takes its time to let the viewer grasp what's going on but nothing that is in the first third is a filler, stuff that will have an impact at the end starts as early as episode 3, for instance, the shots of the people doing nothing when Yoshii arrives are pointing to him seeing what happened in the surface is now happening in Lux, but it doesn't tell you directly. The show is asking you to pay attention so it makes sense in later episodes.
Just like the collapse of civilization, it happens painfully slow and with small warnings that people ignore or aren't aware of them.
As for the artistry, the surface is presented like that because is an exaggeration and idealization of what people believe a perfect world would look like (sunny, lots of nature, order, no violence, no imperfection) while being empty and dead in life.
Personally, I believe you have to rewatch it to see what was really going on the background
@@AlSeg as I stated I feel the writing is superb and that example highlights it but on an initial viewing nothing in the first third will make much sense or be very compelling to view and it isn’t until later in the series you actually grasp what’s happening. The first third isn’t filler it just feels as if it’s wasting the viewer’s time by being as slow as possible. I respect the show for what it is but for me it was an utterly miserable experience because it felt like such a slog. In a second viewing I would probably enjoy it much more and plan on doing it one day but my initial viewing just was not enjoyable at all
@@plugshirt1762I guess it just depends on how you digest media. If you aren’t really into analyzing a scene based on a small amount of information and depend on dialogue to be interested then I 100 percent agree this show would be miserable to get through. I don’t think saying it wastes the viewers time is fair though. The slow moments are 100 percent intentional and are why the atmosphere matches the themes so well. If it wasn’t slowly paced in the first episodes, the atmosphere would not be nearly as good as it was, so because of that I feel that these scenes are justified and don’t waste the viewers time. I do agree though that the panting can be a little much in the first few episodes, they probably could have toned that down a little.
I agree. Also, I just didn't find the characters likable. That's why I gave up and watched this recap lol
@@mar25947 lol I wish I did that but I’m so stubborn that once I started I had to finish and it took me literal weeks because I couldn’t stomach more than an episode or two at a time.
I think this is a great analysis on the whole so I don’t really want to give you too hard of a time, but I don’t think you really understand nihilism. Now to be fair most people do assume it means that there is no use in trying to live or do anything in life, but it’s rather the opposite in many ways. In the absence of god and therefore any divine or “objective” intrinsic meaning to life, it’s up to the individual to imbue life with their own meaning.
Also regarding nihilism, I feel like Yoshii in some ways represents an Übermensch type figure, doing what he feels is necessary regardless of traditional ethics. Whether he believes himself to be above them or simply disregards them in service of sadism, I feel like there could be something there either way perhaps.
Anyway great vid! Texhnolyze is definitely one of the most interesting anime to discuss and analyze that I’ve ever seen personally.
I recognize that Nihilism is a more complicated topic than I might have put forward in this video, but that's only because I can't cover the ins and outs of such a loaded topic.
But Texhnolyze is definitely against Nihilism in the sense of letting it hamper your life experience.
Also, Yoshii is certainly an Ubermensch figure. Thank You!
What you described at the top is Existentialism, not Nihilism. Nihilism holds that because there is no objectivity to life, there is no need to make an effort to find your own meaning, because that would imply something objective. The nihilist would just say that it’s absurd to do so.
Also I believe Übermensch is more of an existentialist idea, as Nietzsche was never really an advocate of nihilism.
I am more of it i an idea of nihilism that we are doomed to have free will and decide for ourself for il and good. And existencialism is finding that meaning in whatever, and ho absurd th world is. but nihilim does the same. Ask what you will doo in a world with no inherent meaning.
yoshi i not above that cycle and doe get there and could do well othr change that escalating th violence intentiona out of disapointment, while the main is differnt, he does chose his meaning out of care without being in th cycle. Which he does in the end. Yoshi cant look inward, and what humanity has he to be and pübermench, that is human, but beyond the cycle o despair, but till human, and yoshi is not human.