Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai! 2

My grandmother is dead.

This will be a serious post.

My original intent was to publish an article about the second episode of ‘In the Middle of Nowhere, the Horizon’. However, the tone used in my article summarizing the first episode does not fit the mood I wish to instil in my readers. Yet, strangely, I am still in my normal mood: the emotion of gently suppressed rush to publish this article before the clock strikes none. I am neither happy, nor am I sad. The first is obvious – for what reason have I to be happy? This episode has been mediocre, and offered nothing to lighten my mood. Nichijou and Yuru Yuri are both gone like my grandmother has – all three have raised my spirits in the past, and all three will not be forgotten for perhaps half a dozen years. What concerns me is my lack of unhappiness.

My grandmother’s husband departed this world several years before or after I came into it. I had never met him. He was nonexistent to me and he did not matter. His death was of no importance to me, as he was of no importance to me, as I had never met him. Why should he have been of any importance to me? He was not my father, he was my father’s father.

Ought we be sad at the loss of a kin simply because he is a blood-relative? Ought we be sad at the loss of a direct ancestor simply because we owe our birth to him? Yet, do reflect – if we were born to other parents, would we not still be alive? It is a criterion of being born that you are alive. Is this bond of blood that special, that we ought to be attached to one who did not raise us, who did not matter to us, and who could have been anybody else without a noticeable difference in our everyday lives?

We do owe our parents something, as they have fed, clothed, and fed up with us. We also owe our grandparents something, for raising our parents. Can such a large debt be repaid through condolences? Is is even a debt? We reward not individuals for paying their dues to their governors, for that is their duty as one that is governed. Ought we reward them for raising a child, even as it is a duty, the supreme duty of all mankind, to spread and disseminate our race far and wide?

Perhaps we ought be sad if our parents effect sadness onto us. That is certainly the case in many scenarios when an aunt or uncle is suddenly taken away. Yet, when my father dropped the bomb, his voice was not one of anguish or regret. He spoke as if a huge weight were lifted off of him – he was not irritated, agitated, or annoyed. He joked and spoke with a chuckle in his voice. When even our parents are not sad, ought we be?

Yet, the loss of a life is always…

No.

What is a body but a factory? My Chinese ancestors should understand such more than any. A body is merely a factory, a storage point for endlessly multiplying cells. Where does the body end and the mind begin? It is unknown. However, it is known that there is a body, and there is a mind, and they are thusly separate and independent of each other. A dead body is an abandoned factory, but as long as the soul continues on, in its endless journey to find what it is endlessly journeying to find…

Good luck, grandmother.

May God bless you on your path.

P.S. You must currently be watching me from heaven. I’m sure you’re very disappoint at the episode I have just finished playing. Do not fret – I am, too.

I shall be swift, and briefly list my large qualms over the situation:
– This is still a show that deals with a large gathering of girls around an awkward boy, as properly demonstrated by the OP and ED, which the producers were right in not including in the first episode;
– The voice actors’ voices may be professional, but they are not heart-felt. Neither do they sound halfway decent. I liken them as to a dying horse.
– ‘In the Middle of Nowhere, the Horizon’ is far more realistic in its depiction of humans and non-humans alike, whereas this fails to do either.
– The cartoon is created from an adult pornographic game. As such, it focuses on pornography.
– Not one aspect was dealt with satisfactorily. The comedy did not generate humour, the shadiness did not create mystery, the action was primarily still shots, the characters were not cute, and for a pornographic anime, there was actually no pornography.

In conclusion, I was expecting a serious episode to fit with the mood of my serious post. This did not happen. I must admit, I have chosen wisely on the three cartoons I will continue to write weekly articles on. Why? Well, the reason is obvious.

They suck.

P.S. My mother’s parents will be arriving in Canada in three days. I do not look forward to the day when they discover this stash of Korean cartoons in my computer.