Dantalian no Shoka 10
draggle and confusedmuse have great posts on the -ehem- weak points in the episode and I concur with them in every possible way.
What can I add here? Well, there’s the quirky resemblance between Huey’s name and one of the protagonists in this episode: Dallaglio Hayward vs Huey Disward. I don’t think this means anything but it’s kinda cute. Christabel Sistine is a lovely name for an anime character, with an über-European ring to it…there’s a nice poem by Coleridge called Christabel, and a nice chapel by Michelangelo et al called Sistine 😉
Baldini, his art and its effect on people remind me of Richard Wagner. Baldini’s power is just a (slightly) exaggerated version of what Wagner’s could accomplish. Nietzsche wrote a whole tract against Wagner’s phantom books. For example:
“Wagner is a great corrupter of music. With it, he found the means of stimulating tired nerves,—and in this way he made music ill. In the art of spurring exhausted creatures back into activity, and of recalling half-corpses to life, the inventiveness he shows is of no mean order. He is the master of hypnotic trickery, and he fells the strongest like bullocks. Wagner’s success—his success with nerves, and therefore with women—converted the whole world of ambitious musicians into disciples of his secret art. And not only the ambitious, but also the shrewd.… Only with morbid music can money be made to-day; our big theatres live on Wagner.” (Niezsche Contra Wagner 5, tr. Anthony M. Ludovici)
The Sistine boss talks of making a revolution through art and taking over the world, a perversion of Wagner’s essay Art and Revolution. And so forth..
I guess next episode might be big? Hmm, I’m starting to think that this series is perfect for younger viewers. It looks gorgeous, has interesting situations and exciting happenings, and the fact that it doesn’t stand closer scrutiny might be because it’s not meant to! I would have adored this at age 12. I wouldn’t have minded the repetitiveness at all, and I would actually be on the edge of my seat to find out if and how baby Huey was going to succeed in getting the library girl out of the dream world and what not. I’d probably be debating possible outcomes in school with my friends. Some of us would argue the girl in the library was Dalian, others would dispute it adamantly, and we’d all have a blast. Ah, youth!
Kritik der Animationskraft 
Very cool, Nietzche’s description of Wagner seems to fit this week’s phantom book to a T.
This probably would be popular among a younger crowd (a very nerdy younger crowd, at least). Why did we have to grow up?
Exactly. I was in such a crowd, but not your typical science-nerdy or fantasy-nerdy…we were theologian-wannabe-nerdy.
I… wish they had that crowd at my school.
We had theological debates all the time. There were quite a few kids from various denomination, who were very interested in proving the supremacy of this or that dogmatic position 😀
Yeah, I can see how they got the idea for the Phantom Score now. Very interesting.
And I would have loved this when I was younger as well. I really do want to just enjoy the series for what it is, but that Gainax troll… Too bad that we’re older and jaded.
And the thing is the package deceived me. The show looked like something else, so I started watching it. If I had known it was going to be this kind of thing, I wouldn’t have watched it. But I’m happy. It’s a very pretty show, and who knows, it might have a great finale!