'It's very Jungian ... in a sick, disgusting, screwed-up way.' by Kara
Monday, March 13, 2006 at 8:13 AM

Last night, I was alerted to the fact that Anime-Classic's sub of Early English with Doraemon was dumb and pointless. (There's some truth in that - it had maybe three lines of Japanese in it.) Still, for this, I will be punishing you all very soon. Because A-C is now putting out Take the X Train.

This is a 51-minute stand-alone piece from Madhouse, made in 1987 and directed by Rintaro. (Yeah, Metropolis Rintaro.) The animation is excellent, the pacing and composition are great ... et cetera. But there are three main reasons to fear it:

1. Nobody gets it.
2. Except me and my weird uncle.
3. And he used to teach college film studies.

If you want to learn about Jungian archetypes and like anime, then watch this, Adolescence of Utena, and FLCL. Not back-to-back, please. Take the X Train, for those who are into this sort of thing, is one of the most basic representations of the Shadow that I've ever seen ... second possibly only to frickin' Fight Club. I will let you know here when the fansub is released - I expect the reports on my desk within one week of its release.

What other webcomic offers you a crash course in film analysis? Huh? Mama loves ya.

On the other end of the spectrum, Eerie Queerie is dumb. Unless you're sixteen and feed on fluffy boy-love. Which I don't. I just get intrigued by it. Like a train wreck. A train wreck where the train is dressed like a maid.

Speaking of train wrecks, something about V for Vendetta makes me want to put in earplugs and just stare at it noncommitally for two hours.

If you have been, get some more.