Things I Won: The Best Overall Performance Award

Today I woke up to the good news that I've won an award. Congrats! To me!

I now have the dubious honour of being presented with the 'Best Overall Performance' achievement, presumably awarded for contributions I made in lectures and generally being a cool bro during my masters degree course this past year. I'm guessing because they haven't explained what it means.

But I'm excited! It's the first thing I've won since being crowned Toe Punt King Penalty Champion at a primary school. It also means I'll receive a cheque for £100, which is the most important thing obviously. And no, I haven't decided what to spend it on. Coffee perhaps.

There's just one snag - I told them I wasn't going to be at the graduation ceremony where they intend to present it to me. I'll have to organise some way of picking up later because unfortunately the university doesn't open again until the new year.

Still... おめでとう (O-me-de-to-u)

//

Things I Read: Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under The Sea - Giant Squids and Long Descriptions of Aquamarine Life

I had what I thought would be a great idea recently when I decided to read books in the morning. 

I thought it'd be a reason to get up, start my day with something more edifying than an internet debate, and generally help achieve my never-ending goal to read all of the world’s classic novels. 

Unfortunately it didn't work very well. Turns out that I’m much too tired at that time of the morning but it did serve as my inspiration to buy and read Jules Verne’s classic tale of underwater adventure, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.

The novel was originally serialised and released in two parts, with the English translation arriving in 1872. The plot focuses on a mythic nautical submarine (the Nautilus) captained by one mister Captain Nemo. The main characters are the astute professor Aronnax, his loyal assistant Consul, and the ever-ready-with-a-harpoon Canadian Ned Land. 

The story focuses on their imprisonment aboard Nemo's submarine with the elliptical plot focusing on their many adventures across the seven seas. This includes them being attacked by giant squids in the Atlantic Ocean, through to their near-death by trapped ice caverns in the South Pole. It’s exceptionally well-detailed - almost encyclopedic - in its descriptions of the species and genus of underwater life. 

A very sexy thing if you want to be a Marine Biologist.

Personally this didn’t interest me much. My eyes tended to glaze over these sections simply because I haven’t the (Phileast) fog about science. Instead, I was taken aback by the whimsical nature of the narrative. It’s an extremely arresting book throughout, featuring a highly charismatic cast, especially the oft-heard-of-but-never-quite-understood Nemo. 

For me he’s the most interesting character in the book, both as a hero and villain. He leads staff aboard the Nautilus, being exiled from humanity; it's never fully clear what his motives are. In some ways he’s like an aqua-version of Robin Hood. Both work on the premise of extracting beautiful amounts of bounty for a greater good. Nemo’s intrepid adventures and inexhaustible knowledge of survival allow him to acquire no end of underwater, treasures, which he uses to finance both his life and share with impoverished folk across the world.

He's not quite this reverential all the time, though. He essentially imprisons Aronnax, Consul, and Ned Land much to their chagrin, who spend a great deal of the novel planning their escape (at least when they're not being wowed by Nemo's submarine).

Wiki suggests that the story has strong allusions to Homer’s Odyssey. It's been argued that the story reflects the ten years Odysseus was forced in torment to wander the seven seas. I can't say I know much about that myself but I did enjoy its moment of surprising tension.

It's a smart book, although not necessarily in terms of thematic ideas: a light, rip-roaring adventure through time and space water. 

It’s also a progenitor of the Steampunk genre apparently. 

//

Things I Watched: Sailor Moon S - Magical Girls and Maniacal Villains

Before I start this post I'd like to point out that I don't actually spend time watching a lot of anime. I've seen my fair share sure but it's not something I've done much over the past few years. I got into it quite late anyway. Around my second year of university IIRC. Sure I'd seen Yu-gi-oh and Digimon and Pokemon but that's hardly what I'd call pure-blooded Japanese animation. It's more like child's play. Quite fitting really considering I was indeed a child at the time.

I'm digressing from the point already. This post is about Sailor Moon S: a show I've spent the past two months watching. Yes that means all 38 episodes. Each episode is about 23 minutes long so, minus a minute or so of ending credits, that's almost 14 hours of magical school girl action. Judge me all you like but don't you dare say a bad word against Sailor Mars!

Sailor Moon S is the third season of the popular Sailor Moon series. It first aired in 1994 and came after the show's second season, suitably named Sailor Moon R. The R and S stand for 'Return' and 'Super' respectively. The head director for Sailor Moon S was Kunihiko Ikuhara who later worked on Revolutionary Girl Utena, as well as Mawaru Penguindrum. All three encompass his signature combination of magic, theatrics and melodrama.

Roughly speaking, Sailor Moon is a monster-of-the-week show. As you might imagine, that means a new monster appears each week prompting the Sailor team to band together to fight it off. They usually they do so fairly easily, although it's highly likely somebody will step into save the day after another character gets injured. The second half of every show is dedicated to this format with the first part establishing drama, including insights into individual characters and their relationships with one another.

It might sound boring but it works well. 38 episodes is a lot to fill so the show uses this format as a way to keep the overarching narrative flowing while avoiding the pitfalls of having episodes be about anything irrelevant. With five main sailor soldiers to consider, alongside another five secondary heroes, with a further handful of main villains, it's easy to imagine how time in the first half of each episode is spent.

The show features a lot of quirky enemies, which I think overall sums up the chaotic tone of the show. Where Sailor Moon S differs to other series of its type though is in its establishment of darker themes. The show begins as a typical lighthearted affair but retreats fairly often into using emotional content to shape characters motives.

The most obvious examples are Michiru (Sailor Uranus) and Haruko (Sailor Neptune), two newly-established members of the Sailor Team who emerge fresh for this season. Both are mysterious and offer a sombre and often serious attitude; almost aristocratic. They're joined by the tall and graceful Setsuna (Sailor Pluto) and he three form a triptych of mature, adult figures who contrast with the schoolgirlish charm of Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, and of course Chibiusa, the show's comic relief.

There are several points when it's obvious that the main Sailor team prove to be a hindrance to Pluto, Neptune and Uranus' attempts to save the world from succumbing to darkness (it's not not cliche in that regard). All of them are fighting on the same side but only over time do all overcome their differences. The series ends with betrayal, distrust but eventually mutually-earned respect between both sets of Sailor Senshi.

This tone won't come of surprise to anybody who's watched Revolutionary Girl Utena before as Sailor Moon S is very much the precursor to that show. Although The former retains a much darker approach and is probably nowhere near as fun but both are kindred spirits in taking tropes of a defined genre - the Magical Girl genre - and pushing them as far as they can, often seeking to establish much more personal themes than the show's obvious target demographic - teenage girls - would suggest.

Sailor Moon S succeeds in doing so largely due to a hugely charismatic cast, some kick ass moments and lots of brilliant music. The result is a surprisingly mature show about saving the world from a mad scientist. I personally love the interchange between both sets of sailor scouts and while I feel I might need to revoke my being an adult card by saying it, found the whole show endearing, sweet and just a whole heap of fun.

Here's a fitting kaomoji (ノ°∀°)ノ⌒･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*☆