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「空も星も越えていこう」 (Sora mo Hoshi mo Koe te Ikou)
“Go Beyond the Sky and the Stars”
How peculiar. An episode of Concrete Revolutio with hardly any flashbacks or flashforwards at all. Sure, there were bits of backstory for this week’s more potent electro-master (just, powers aside, a young man disillusioned with society and falls in with the wrong crowd; the 60s were rife with them, it seems), but even that was framed as Judas (not the most trustworthy kind of name) telling his tale in the present. The was still rocket speed, but it’s quite the straightforward piece coming from Concrete Revolutio.
The story itself is about, other than sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll (again, 60s), Earth-chan, simplest the cutest little sentient satellite ever. Also, apparently, Astro Boy; c’mon, just look at these people. Although Go Beyond the Sky and the Stars takes place before last week’s episode chronologically (even at its most coherent, Concrete Revolutio wants to be confusing), it builds upon those previous themes, and also those of episode 03 (y’know, the one with the robots and the detective and the robot detective). So, like the robots of An Iron Couple, Earth-chan has an absolute sense of morality. And unlike Mountain Horse of They Are Always Laughing, Earth-chan’s totally a big damn hero (nothing says ‘big’ quite like branded merchandise). So here we have an honest-to-goodness, unflinching hero and the question posed is whether such a thing can actually exist.
Earth-chan is a child. This is not just in her design or her mannerisms; arguably, only a child can sustain her worldview. She exists only to help others. She has straightforward solutions. She detests lying, for no other logic than that lying is bad. It’s a very undeveloped value system, to be sure, but that’s not really a mark against Earth-chan because compared to the cynical scheming the ‘adults’ do in Concrete Revolutio, a blunt instrument like Earth-chan is positively endearing. But even Earth-chan’s innocence, as we may call it, is called into question, such is the setting. Not only is good and evil a very grey matter much of the time, her moral core is also suspect. Some fairly sophisticated theories were actually raised by Concrete Revolutio, but as usual it only brushes over them. Firstly, there’s the notion that Earth-chan is not a hero because she does good, but rather that she’s a hero, so any cause she champions is by default good—it’s not so much a matter of morality as it is one of charisma. Authority defines morality, not vice versa. That’s fairly meta for superhero fiction, but one can’t deny how tempting a tool they have been for propaganda in real life. Then there’s the notion that Earth-chan is innately wired to respond to feelings of distress, and desires it. It feels good to do good, and therefore doing good is not altruism, but simply another form of rational selfishness. To compound that, the possibility is raised that because Earth-chan is empowered by the suffering of others, she was originally created for nefarious purpose, meant to be sustained by chaos she sows herself, Munchausens by proxy, yada yada.
The conclusion that Concrete Revolution draws, it seems, is that none of that really matter. Earth-chan believes in righteousness. She is genuinely happy when someone turns back from the dark side. Whatever grim origin story she has, or the academic points of moral philosophy, do not change that. Hence the little lies that Earth-chan learns to accept. In a world like Concrete Revolutio‘s (or if you’re feeling negative, the real world), the idealistic superhero just can’t make it without at least a bit of wilful ignorance. The idyllic life? Only in dreams.
Which is really why Earth-chan was doomed from the very beginning. No forthright defender of justice can survive into Concrete Revolutio‘s crapsack future. Too good for this sinful earth.
Looking ahead ~ burn the witch
Like Earth-chan, it seems that Kikko also has something sinister going on behind her magic girl gig; she’s apparently sourced from darker fare than Cardcaptor Sakura, which may mean the everything may not be alright. Poor Kikko. You live in a setting where bad things happen to good people. And it already seems good people is an endangered species. Maybe Jirou’s new Justice League will do something about it? Well, we still don’t know why anyone’s doing anything so let’s just leave those flashes of future to the future.
For now: super robots! I must say, it’s about time. Nothing says Japanese superheroes quite like super sentai mecha. Now for the Concrete Revolutio twist.
Preview
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Should I pick this show back up? I watched it up to the third episode, it seems quirky, but I wasn’t really engaged enough by it and felt I was just watching it “because it seems quirky”, rather than “because I actually enjoy watching this show”. lol.
Has it gotten any better?
I personally find it pretty enjoyable, but it does rely a fair bit on your knowledge and enjoyment of the genres it mashes together.
This is probably a confusing cluster f*ck of an anime for anyone who is either new to anime or only watched a single genre of anime. The enjoyment – and to certain extent, the logic – relies so much on the references to older-anime in multiple genre.
For someone who has been watching anime for the last 15 years and counting with a wide range of interest; however, this is absolutely awesome.
Earth-chan was cute. I couldn’t decide at first if I liked her or not because I can’t agree with the way she thinks, but towards the end I found myself enjoying her character. But what I’m the most curious about it what Kikko’s powers allow her to do. She doesn’t seem limited to an element or special power, so what can her magical girl powers do?
Something something help people something something souls something something gain power. I must confess that I wasn’t paying much attention to that part.
I think the way it works is a sort of unwitting deal with the devil, she saves them at the cost of their souls sort of thing.
This was one of the better episodes of the series, IMO.
I felt bad for Earth-chan. And as much as she hates lies, the fantasy of having a family gives her some peace in the end.
https://randomc.net/image/Concrete%20Revolutio%20Choujin%20Gensou/Concrete%20Revolutio%20Choujin%20Gensou%20-%2007%20-%20Large%2034.jpg
these children llike Jiro arent them??
could it be :
Earth-chan actually has connection to Jiro?
Jiro has twins?
considering Jiro was adopted son
Behold, Tezuka Osamu hair.
Haven’t seen this mentioned: The guy she’s fighting is Jaguar.
https://randomc.net/image/Concrete%20Revolutio%20Choujin%20Gensou/Concrete%20Revolutio%20Choujin%20Gensou%20-%2007%20-%20Large%2024.jpg
I think the part about doing good making Earth-chan feel good illustrates an important point about doing good and self interest. It puts the lie to the idea that to do good, one must do so selflessly. Selflessness and selfishness are not mutually exclusive. I think it is better that people feel good helping others, as it encourages people to do good. It would go against human nature to act utterly without self interest including feeling good about yourself. You can’t really expect people to be good doing robots, indifferently doing good, though even the good doing robot feels good when doing good. It’s good Earth-chan feels good doing good, despite the possibly nefarious purpose her creator intended it for.
I suppose a good deal of this rests on whether you believe that human nature is fundamentally good, or fundamentally douchey.
Episode 7: Starring Rebecca Miyamoto
Not going to lie; I couldn’t get Pani Poni Dash out of my head ever since they showed dream!Earth-chan.
This is one of the first cases in Concrete Revolution in which another character (Judas, oh the irony) overcomes Jiro’s and company’s attempts to deconstruct the hero of the week.
Earth-chan’s morality is black and white, but agents working for a shady organization full of lies, corruption, dark secrets, political interests, media manipulation, lack of accountability and general hypocrisy aren’t the best to start giving lessons about morality. Even her first rejection of the candies seems the right approach after overhearing that exchange between the mascot and the fox.
In a way, it’s clear she isn’t in the right but her very existence points out that the Bureau isn’t either. “Which is really why Earth-chan was doomed from the very beginning”. Very true.
I suppose the difference between Earth-chan and the Bureau was that Earth-chan was flawed out of naivete, whereas the Bureau was flawed out of abject cynicism. The two cannot really co-exist.
Good point. Also, Earth-chan is a living example of the failures of the Bureau.
Even when they imposed a media blackout on superhuman affairs (“for their own protection”, of course), people in the streets knew and loved Earth-chan. Now that their existence is public, she’s so popular that the Bureau can’t cross her openly. Their plan to manipulate her for politics (such a heroic thing to do, isn’t it?) failed miserably. And the conflict this week wasn’t solved by them, but by Judas’ words and actions. The only thing they accomplished was to make her addict to dream candies, which, judging by the doll’s words, could be bad for her in the long run.
“No forthright defender of justice can survive into Concrete Revolutio‘s crapsack future”. If the Bureau is behind it, it may be the opposite: the crapsack future couldn’t appear as long as she was around and couldn’t be manipulated (contrary to Kikko).