The Haunted Churchyard

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Web Diary Entry 3

Entry 3:

This weekend I am going out to a show for the first time in months. I’ve had a few false starts this year with getting back out into the world, a couple of very sick seeming shows I planned on attending but ultimately stayed home. The first was a show with local synth-rock and electro-industrial band The Children’s Crusade, Milwaukee harsh industrial band Insula Iscariot, and E.T., a synth-punk, digital hardcore and EBM band from Minneapolis. All excellent industrial-adjacent bands that I would theoretically love to see, and hopefully will someday, in a more social era of my life.

The second show I tragically missed was some very exciting goth and deathrock bands, all of whom are set to have an important place in the goth music scene of Chicago. Lilac Lament plays an atmospheric gothic rock with a captivating drone. The vocalist was formerly one of the singers of the band Nightsweat, and performed many of my favorite parts of their songs. So far, Lilac Lament only has one song released, but I'm looking forward to more. Unvirgin Mary are a classic sounding deathrock band with a side of horror camp, reminiscent of 45 Grave, though that observation feels too obvious. I hesitate to compare up and coming bands to founding pillars of a genre, but I mean that comparison as only flattering. 45 Grave were held back by recording equipment and production methods of the time, and so in some ways never reached their potential in the studio. Unvirgin Mary has yet to release anything, but they seem to have a lot of creative energy and I can see them being part of a deathrock resurgence soon. The last band I missed was Dammit!, a scrappy and energetic deathrock outfit with a punk attitude. They have a double single out on streaming and I’ve really been enjoying it lately. I hope they also stick around in the local scene. Anyway, I was itching to go to this show for weeks, but sadly I ran out of energy again and didn’t go. It’s unfortunate that I have to use all my social energy to go to work.

But this weekend, the show I’m going to see is my friends’ band, so I’ve got a bit more external motivation. I’m hoping I feel good enough about going out to this one that I’ll have a bit more confidence in getting out as the weather turns warmer. Barring a sudden and extreme change in circumstances of course. I won’t really be satisfied that I’m actually going until I do. By the time this is published, the day will have already come and gone, so I’ll make an addendum later depending on the outcome.

I wasn’t planning on talking about local shows or my crippling anxiety for so long. I originally sat down to write about the Second season of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. If you’re unaware, Frieren is a fantasy anime that builds a beautiful story out of simple elements. In an era of fantasy anime based largely on meta game mechanics and jumbled tropes from years of MMORPGs, Frieren was a breath of fresh air in its first season. There are certainly several other shows in this style, both before and in the wake of Frieren’s success, but few that captured audiences, especially me, in the same way. The show has been praised from every angle, and I’m not sure I have much original to say. I will say it nonetheless.

The characters are often simple in theory, but feel so real in their actions and subtle in their development. One of my favorite aspects of the show is the way it approaches the flaws of its cast. The characters’ faults feel neither tacked on nor too serious, but not inconsequential or too easily overcome. In general, the show has a somewhat naturalistic approach. Often slow and quiet, it both takes its time and rushes over months in a montage. Battles are usually over quickly, and every scenario is more interested in what it means for the characters than anything. It’s not a story of twists and reveals, and its “hype moments” are few and far between, but often more impactful because of this. Detractors have criticized this pacing, but its a particularly unconventional sort of story, so I think its only to be expected it would be paced unconventionally.

The show excels in its themes of loss, perspective, and found family, and the author is notable for writing women characters with respect and agency. Since most of the major cast is women, this is probably one of the show’s greatest strengths. The way the show covers multiple years in its initial handful of episodes, and still progresses steadily as it continues, really allow us to see the characters’ growth, especially with Fern and Stark, but even with Frieren, who learns slowly to really let people in and love them.

Unfortunately, due to the show’s European-flavored fantasy, and the pale skin of its cast, it has been appropriated by far-right cretins online. Some also suggest the show’s portrayal of demons is a xenophobic allegory for immigrants or people of other cultures. I absolutely understand the hesitance, but I think this argument is pretty weak if you actually dig into it, especially if you pay attention to the show and read the manga. In reality, Frieren’s demons are more analogous to people in our world who use their greater power to abuse and prey on those weaker them. They kill and eat humans wantonly, not because they need to as is eventually confirmed, but because they can. They are people with greater power, who use that imbalance to live off the lives and flesh of those who can’t rise up against them.

Another aspect of the series to consider when addressing the issue of this appropriation are its values. These are broadly contrary to the values of the far-right. In episode 2 of the 2nd season, Frieren says when talking about the sword demon, that demons value power, and can’t resist displaying that power by exerting it over others. The opposite is shown of Frieren’s heroes. Demons have no interest in empathy or compassion, which are central values of the show, as exhibited in figures like Himmel or Stark, who are intended to be examples of true goodness and strength. Even when we later meet demons who claim they want to coexist with humanity, in reality, they only want to study them as a curiosity before killing them, rather than a true desire to know them. In general the show has a strong emphasis on empathy, compassion, and selflessness even for people who are not your own. Care for those weaker than yourself is a major trait of the show’s heroes, while far-right ideology seeks to eliminate those they see as week. Community is also a major theme, always exemplified by mutual help and support among the group, and not by shared national or racial identity. The show is even kick-started by Frieren’s desire to learn to empathize with humans and their culture, ideas and lifestyles.

Anyway, most of the time, the nazis don’t seem to have much interest in the series past using its characters and images as a vehicle for hate, so I’m guessing the issue will be lessened as soon as the popularity of the series fades. The same happened for Bocchi the Rock, and most infamously K-On, and I’m sure it will happen to others soon. I do wish that the authors would add some diversity in the cast, and maybe finally put this matter to rest. The authors did join the outcry against their own publisher recently, when that company started running new manga from two convicted sexual predators. They pulled the series from the platform until the situation was rectified and the series cancelled, with an effort made toward investigating the publishers who hired them. This may seem a bit bare minimum, but in a country and industry where predators and sex offenders frequently get away with minimal punishments and few to no professional consequences its a lot more important when influential authors and artists work to change these practices.

Returning to the my experience with the second season, I will say it generally has been less impactful than the first. I think knowing that the season would only be 10 episodes as opposed to the first season’s 28, created more disappointment in the show’s weaknesses. Additionally the arcs of the manga which season 2 adapts is a bit of a lull in the overall story. There is a great deal of Frieren’s wonderful quieter moments, such as the hot springs, and Fern and Stark’s date. But there are other moments where “nothing happens” where that’s more a negative. The beauty in many of Frieren’s “boring” elements is usually the character moments. In season 2, we have the first episode where they have to run from a monster they can’t fight together, or when they learn about Frieren’s interaction with the Hero of the South for example. Nothing much “happens” in these episodes, but they are wonderful episodes nonetheless, because we see some truly meaningful interaction between the characters we have (probably) grown to love. If you’re not down with the characters then Frieren likely doesn’t or won’t click with you.

On the other hand, there are episodes like the fifth one, where not much happens, except that the things that do happen feel like they should be more important than they actually are, and the episode ends up feeling like a bit of a throwaway. The Fass story in the first half of the episode is a fun interlude as a chapter in the manga, but this is one occasion where I feel like it just didn’t work very well for adaptation. The anime’s lavish depiction of Frieren’s locator spell in this episode was definitely a highlight on the other hand, an excellent example of an adaptation adding flare to its source material that really takes advantage of its medium.

Overall, the second season lacks some of the pervasive melancholy that I think drew me into the first season so much. This is a small complaint, and applies to the manga as well. Ultimately the series continues to hold my affection, due to the relationship built up with its cast, and it does return to the well of melancholy again later. This is a good thing too, because I don’t think it would be in the spirit of the series to be too bittersweet.

The highlight of the entire season for me however, is the new opening. Song for song, I think I like “Sunny” by Yorushika better (opening 2 of the first season), but when taking the opening in totality, both the music and visuals, this one is my favorite by far. The direction of it all, and the symbolism in the imagery of the flower petals, and the crescendo of the song paired with the emotional climax of the visuals all combine to create a piece of art so moving that it stirs me every single time.

It is one of two pieces of art that has hit me with a particular feeling recently, sort of like my spirit is being briefly snatched from my body. Not just an out of body feeling, because there’s a sort of impact to it, like pitching forward when the vehicle you’re in stops. To be clear, I’ve seen this opening many more times than just in the course of watching the show, and it has yet to lose that impact. It is the perfect distillation of all the emotion that made me love the show so much when it first released, and I hope the series can continue to bring me the same kind of feeling as it goes.

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