The Scorpion of Baldora Field

I’m not going to do a lot of the typing this post, this time I have a story. It’s a monolog from Night on the Galactic Railroad about the scorpion of Baldora Field:

Our father told us once about the scorpion of Baldora Field. The scorpion killed other bugs and ate them.

Then one day, a weasel found him. The scorpion fled, and fell into a deep well. He was trapped, and knew he'd die.Then, he thought to himself,"How often have l eaten other creatures? And now, the one time that l was the prey, l fled in utter terror. And look what came of that. I'll die in this well, alone."

"Life is filled with uncertainty. Why didn't l accept my fate? If l had freely given my life to the weasel, I would have given himanother day of life.But now my death will help no one. I am useless. Dear Lord, I beg of you, look into my heart and hear my prayer. In my next life, don't let me waste myself.Let me use my body for the truehappiness of everyone in the world."

And then the scorpion burst into flame: a brilliant crimson glow. And by the light of his burning body, he lit up the night forever.

How beautiful!

I always liked the story. “Put the others before yourself” is a very nice motto. Even if it has a subtle communist overtone. The world would probably be a better place if everyone thought that way. But like the story says, when death has you in its clutches, even the courageous falter.

There was a story a few months ago on 60 Minutes about the cost of end of life care to tax payers. It reminded me of this story. It’s easy for most to expect the old and sick to accept their fate and save the tax payers a few dollars, but it’s much harder to accept it when your time comes.

Minireviews 2: Electric Boogaloo

Wow, it’s been a while. I’ve been busy, trying to find a job and all that. Things are looking positive on that front and hopefully soon I can change that title on my twitter profile. But I haven’t forgotten about the blog. I actually have some posts ready to go, they just need some polish and I’ll be putting them up for you to enjoy. Anyway, enough with the meta, let’s get on to the meat of this post.

I enjoyed doing my last reviews of anime, so I thought I would do another. These won’t be as flattering as the last though.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Status: Finished (Retellings being produced)

The Plot: “At the age of 14 Shinji Ikari is summoned by his father to the city of Neo Tokyo-3 after several years of separation. There he unwillingly accepts the task of becoming the pilot of a giant robot by the name EVA01 and protect the world from the enigmatic invaders known as "angels." Even though he repeatedly questions why he has accepted this mission from his estranged and cold father, his doing so helps him to gradually accept himself. However, why exactly are the angels attacking and what are his father’s true intentions are yet to be unraveled.”

Your initial impression of Evangelion may to classify it under “Action”. You wouldn’t be entirely wrong. It has it’s fair share of mechs fighting giant monsters. But, Evangelion is as much an anime about mechs as Moby-Dick is a book about a whale. It had mechs in it, but it is not a series about them. That becomes very clear by the end of the anime.

Just looking at it as a mech alone, it's not terribly good. 17 battles in the entire series, most without any real action. Most of the sci-fi mysteries and questions were left unanswered in favor of a finale that revolved exclusively around the psychological state of the main characters. As a result, the plot is left unfinished in regard to the sci-fi aspects of Evangelion. Most of these plot holes are filled in by supplemental material: video games, pack-ins with DVDs, ect.

That’s not to say that it’s a bad story (psych student’s probably go wild over it). Personally, it left a bad taste in my mouth.

Toaru Majutsu no Index

Status: Halted(waiting for more source material)

The Plot: “Toaru Majutsu no Index is set in Academy City, a technologically advanced Academic city located at western Tokyo which studies scientifically advanced superhuman students with powers, but is also set in a world where magic is also real. Tōma Kamijō is a student in Academy City whose right hand, the Imagine Breaker, has the ability to negate all magic and psychic powers, but also his own luck. One day he finds a young girl hanging on his balcony railing named Index. She is a nun from Necessarius, the secret magic branch of the Church of England, and her mind has been implanted with the Index Librorum Prohibitorum—103,000 forbidden magical books the Church has removed from circulation.”

The plot seems to jump around a lot. 2 or 3 episodes will concentrate on one thing, and then in the next episode, something completely different. Although some of the plots are really intriguing at times, it robs the series of a centralized plot that seemed to be building in the first few episodes. Also, some of the design in the series is rather unoriginal: spiky haired protagonist, magicians, school uniforms, ect. This may have been the suber’s fault, the anime’s fault, the source material’s fault, or my own fault for not holding a degree in physics, but at times the language was a bit cumbersome. It felt like some conversations were just going right over my head.

So, in the end, it’s a series with a lot of potential that could be really good if they just got a solid plot going. I’m interested enough to watch the second season when I get the time, but not enough to watch its spin-off Toaru Kagaku no Railgu.

Ergo Proxy

Status: Finished

The Plot: “In a future where the world has been ravaged by a nuclear apocalyse, there exists salvation in a domed city named Romdo, where humans and their android servants, the AutoReiv, live in. Under the implementation of complete management control, it is a paradise where feelings are literally discarded, and the governing council dictates the way of life the citizens should live. But this utopian landscape is soon broken by a series of mystifying murders.”

This one is a depressing anime. The setting and plot take a huge deviation from what the plot I posted says, but you’ll find that out if you watch it for a few episodes. The art is rather bland and “brown”, but that serves the mood of the series.

Unfortunately, none of the characters are particularly dynamic. They all seem to be on a rather heavy dose of Ritalin. And the plot is rather odd. It has a good plot at points, and the writers created an intriguing backstory, but it feels like the writers decided to bury it for some reason. The backstory gets “explain” in one very odd episode and then never really brought up again. The ending was also kind of strange and left me utterly confused.

In the end, it left me disappointed and wanting to know more.

My Favorite Anime

I was going to post this a little later, but given current event this feels like the best time to post this. Here is a list of members of the Anime community that have checked in. Now, on to the post:

People have the incorrect assumption that anime is a genre. Even some people who consider themselves anime connoisseurs sometimes hold that anime is fundamentally better then other media. This is simply not true. Anime is a form of media, not genre.

I don’t like crime dramas, therefore I don’t watch the Ghost in the Shell series. Although I do like the movies.

Anyway, onto the minireviews.

One of my favorite pieces of media is FLCL. It is pretty mainstream and you will see pieces of it from time to time on Adult Swim. But, if you ever have time to sit down and marathon it all the way through, it is a totally different experience. One of the things that makes it so amazing is just how Gainax chose to animate the OVA. They chose to use FLCL as a kind of test bed for their animating techniques.

Studio Ghibli films are always amazing. I could list them all. The scenery is always amazing and the stories manage to hold their own. But my favorite would probably be Castle in the Sky. Nausicaa (made before the studio’s founding) is also great, and you can’t help seeing the similarity with Avatar after seeing it.

Next is Now and Then, Here and There. This one is extremely depressing anime. That’s not a bad thing; it tries to be depressing, and it succeeds at it. If you have any emotion in you, this will get to you. From what I recall, the art was very nice in this one. But I watched it years ago, so don’t take my word on that. This anime explores the horrors of war, it has some sci-fi aspects, but that’s not the focus of this anime.

If you are interested in anime I would suggest you check out Anime News Network’s anncast. Although they do have a habit of going off on long rants about piracy’s effect on Anime.

I could post some more reviews of anime, or any form of media, if you would like, just let me know.

What's in a Name?

I guess the first thing I want to post is to explain my name, Central Dogma.

The nerdy among you will recognize it from the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. Central Dogma is Nerv’s headquarters in the GeoFront. Neon Genesis Evangelion is an often misunderstood anime. People go in expecting an action packed mech adventure. And you do get some of that for the first few episodes, but the series is really about the mental state of people under mental stress. That’s why people come away unsatisfied after the last 2 episodes.

But that’s not why I chose Central Dogma. Anyone who’s taken a biology class will also know the term Central Dogma. It describes the transfer of genetic information from DNA to RNA to Protein and how DNA can be replicated.

I’ve always been interested in genetics and I could go on for pages about the intricacies of how the tiny little machines in each of our cells works and the neat probabilities they cause to occur. About how it fits together and “Just Works”.

And besides Central Dogma is probably the coolest name biologists came up with, well second coolest.