Texhnolyze

Personally, what I have grown tired of are the constant opinions that this is a depressing anime that only leaves people feeling hopeless and cynical. This is what Texhnolyze can be if seen on the surface. For me, it's truer intentions are couched under this. It's more of a revolutionary call towards finding meaning in your humanity, and in others. The series gives a hint of this right away in the first 20 seconds during the opening sequence. It shows Ichise on the ground, slowly getting up, and then standing up, raising his artificial fist into the air, despite his setbacks and lack of a real flesh and blood limbs.

The characters, such as Ichise, left me feeling inspired. His drive to survive, and push forward through what he believes in absolutely motivated me. Even if he gets injured critically, or loses a limb, he doesn't give up. Regardless, he keeps going, as primal and stubborn as he can be, and grows. Other characters, some who meet unfortunate ends, die, but leave with a smile on their face. There was a sense of satisfaction that they lived to their fullest. Some characters like Oonishi and Yoshii, pushed with a revolutionary drive to prevent humans from their miserable and apathetic, downward spiral into extinction, at a time where mankind had reached a self-destructive all time low.

The underground city of Lux is decaying and drowning under violence and misery. The surface world has reached a disturbing type of surreal state where humans have lost the will to live meaningfully, despite that their living conditions appear to look adequate. The people have suffered a death of the spirit, as how too many of us do today. As a result, the only thing they are waiting for and looking forward to is a slow death, despite looking happy and living peacefully.

There was an experiment done several decades ago that some viewers eventually learn about because of this series. It's the "behavioral sink." In this study, a rat utopia was made. Despite that the rats were were given unlimited food, water, shelter, and safety, they eventually became self-destructive. Many began isolating themselves, cannibalism began appearing, they stopped mating dramatically, and the females began abandoning their babies. Ultimately, they went extinct. They died socially, and then physically.

Texhnolyze shows a clear influence of this experiment in it's depiction of human societies. It's a warning to our own. The focus on material possessions, social media, and people spending their lives watching other's lives, has all partly added to people suffering a death of the spirit. In the series, Ichise talks to people, and though they seem happy, they have an empty look on their face. There's nothing there, but a drone like existence, devoid of meaning and spirit, doing the same thing, day in, and out, until they expire. People are either unconscious or conscious in their state of mind.

It's not enough to have a brain. It should be constantly developed. Thinking should be done. Some people turn their brains off, and never turn them back on, or go on auto pilot, and never fully think for themselves. Almost no one on the surface level was questioning authority, or their miserable state. If someone never questions what deserves to be questioned, they'll come to accept anything. This leads to everyone thinking the same. If all the people in a society thought just alike and saw the world just alike, they thought no differently, one from the other, the society would be soon defeated because it would be uncreative, it would not be innovative; it would not be able to change its perspective of a problem in a way so they can solve it.

The character who first took a great offense to this is Kazuho Yoshii. He came from the surface world, after becoming tired of seeing the people there become like emotionless ghosts. Throughout history, people are born who are unique, and different from the rest. They see things clearer, and are able to say and do the things that many cannot put into words or do themselves. They inspire, and try to radicalize the people in order to advance them and help them find meaning. They teach the people who is the enemy, and what should be done. Yoshii is an anomaly who is one of these people.

Yoshii travels down below, and though the city of Lux has been stuck in an endless circle of gang warfare, he sees that they feel more human than the ones at the top. As result, he decided to try and channel this energy. He thought about who can become leaders, and instigated a great spectacle. His violent revolution was to destroy the order that was keeping the people down, and with enough organization, a better humanity could emerge from under the ashes.

At some point, he says, "True freedom can't lean on anything. It's transient, lonely, and arduous. You can't hope for security or reward beyond it." Freedom and peace only exist temporarily. What he is saying here I agree with. Freedom is always under the threat of corrupt authoritative forces that try to manipulate laws in their favor. This has been done historically where democracies become so corrupted, that they become disguised as fascism. Struggling for freedom can be a lonely journey. Historical figures are known for being attacked by the state's media, and vilified as demons and violent criminals. Lastly, it's difficult. There is no easy struggle. Those who believe revolutionary struggle is easy are not ready for it. The second sentence interests me because it reminds me of people who think being a revolutionary means that there is a reward at the end, like fame or fortune. That's not true at all. Having that state of mind as a so called revolutionary is reactionary. People like that tend to sell out easily to those in power. People struggle for others, not themselves, and many don't really get appreciated until after their passing or assassination.

Yoshi clearly shows that his character is inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's Ubermensch. He wants to enlighten the city of lux, a "sleeping people." He wants to show them the meaning of their existence, of their humanity, and to channel their energy into making them realize that they have power, and should learn how to use it for revolution against those that are holding them down, and causing their deplorable state. "You have to try to improve. You have to give more meaning to your meaningless life." Still, he does begin to let his fun start getting to his head, but he in his core is a man on mission. As the soundtrack calls him, "The Man Of Men."

Not only that, in addition to his revolutionary ideas, he understands the importance of power. He warns Shinji that to stand up against an organized force, it can't be done with a disorganized gang. They have to become seriously organized and trained to fight. Without organization, their gang will operate too sloppy and amateurishly, and be outclassed by the organized enemy force. Additionally, Yoshii also has the mindset that you must think differently from your enemy. There's a saying that "Whatever the enemy is for, you must be against. Whatever the enemy is against, you must be for." This is because if you don't think diametrically opposed to your enemy, you will think that their interests are your interests, confusing you.

Oonishi has a similar view point to Yoshii, though he feels much more tame. He works from within the order. Oonishi struggles to be a voice of reason and moral force. Sometimes it feels as if he is alone, as Yoshii stated earlier about struggle, and has the whole weight of Lux on his back. As I said earlier, he is also among the characters that have such a determined drive, that they struggle with all they can to be true to their principles and obligations towards the people.

After the set up, and fiery first half, the series begins to flesh out more characters and political drama (I personally find the middle the weaker part of this series). Then, towards the last few episodes, it turns into a surrealist nightmare. One of the most memorable and impactful experiences in anime for me, is the introduction of the surface world, and how unsettling it is, despite not appearing that way. The staff reference a lot of art, and managed to make such as scary world up on top, it almost frightened me at times. Alongside this, is the soundtrack. It's one of the series that makes the best use of it's music, even if I don't personally like the music as standalone content, because it's used well in execution.

The atmosphere in Texhnolyze, and world building is done so well that I felt I was down there personally living in Lux, and the surface world, during the time I watched the series. The staff did really well in teaching me the world of Texhnolyze, how it works, the inner politics, and really drove that horrid feel of Lux and the surface world into my mind. It's frighteningly and harshly immersive, to the extent, I have a map of several locations in my head. Despite the danger, I learned how to live and survive there.

The last part of Texhnolyze I want to talk about, is the ending, because it's very special to me. It's when the series decides to really break you. There is a sincerity to it though, if you really think about it. I came to really appreciate the struggle of the characters, and what their goals and aspirations really meant during those last moments. I broke down because the meaning behind the conclusion is painfully beautiful. It may be odd to admit, but I needed time to sit back, and let it sink in, because I felt drained and heavy. Texhnolyze is a series important as a study of mankind, that I think about it pretty often. Yoshii taught me a lot, and for me to try to do better myself, and to find as much a meaningful life as I can. It's a special case where an anime can really teach and speak to the viewer on a personal level. Don't feel so down at the end, because the series is shaking you to wake you up with it's real message. The feeling at the end of Texhnolyze, after some thought, felt to me like a text book example of the saying, "only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars."