Mnemosyne
I’ve been following, and quite enjoying, AT-X’s anniversary production Mnemosyne. It’s been billed as edgy, violent, gory, with copious amounts of nudity and S&M and sex. Eh, well yes to a certain degree, but not really bad at all I thought.
It’s true that the show is gratuitous - sex, blood, nudity, fetishism, violent death and nekkid women getting it on, more than you’d see on TV anime these days, and with the conspicuous absence of OVAs (*cough* ICE *cough*) it could be considered one of the more adult-oriented anime.
Bah, pish tosh. This is simply entertainment. There might be cause for complaint if it was truly exploitative, but you see, it’s all really rather tastefully done. Reminds me that anime also has its role in this sort of genre, unabashedly. I guess what I’m getting at is, this is quality entertainment, and fun.
I wondered why people might feel that this anime was a bit much. Then I realized that, possibly, these people never grew up with stuff like Akira and Ninja Scroll, which were staple fare when I was in college. Those two, and several other anime, were brutal. I actually felt queasy watching them, but watch them I did because they were considered the best of their genre. But I never enjoyed them, because victims were simply that, victims. They died horrible deaths or suffered terrible violations. And the hero went his merry way to fight the good fight. Mnemosyne is good because the victims are strong people who fought back, and beat the baddies. I love that kind of show.
Hmm, I wonder if this post will start getting a whole bunch of hits from Google… :P
