We Appreciate Manga

Our Cyborg season continues as we cover 'Battle Angel Alita', also known by its original Japanese title 'Gunnm'. This manga would go on to inspire James Cameron to produce a Hollywood adaptation. Skip synopsis @ 4:32

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066: Battle Angel Alita vol. 1

Chapters 1 to 6,

'Rusty Angel' and 'Battle Angel'

By Yukito Kishiro

Translation by Stephen Paul

Lettering by Scott Brown

Dr Ido finds the broken body of a mechanical girl, he revives her, names her Alita and over time acquires new limbs for her,

Soon Alita begins to suspect that Ido is killing cyborg women and giving their mechanical parts to Alita, unsettled by this, she sneaks out during the night to find out that Ido is not a killer but in fact a part of a bounty hunter society, one that represents the justice system of their junkyard town. Their paths cross as they run into the vicious mutant, the true culprit of the killings. Alita is able to kill the mutant through her instinctual use of a martial art known as 'Panzer Kunst' and soon she decides to become a bounty hunter like Ido. Yet unknown to Alita, Ido himself is a vigilante killing for his own satisfaction.

Which is the case when he manages to kill a servant of Makaku, a giant cyborg who eats the brains of dogs and humans so to consume the Beta Endorphins within. Luckily one dog, Fang gets to live another day. But some humans, not so much.

It's not long until Alita faces a challenge in apprehending the vile Makaku, although Alita is able to cripple Makaku, his head is able to flee from the rest of his body akin to a worm. Due to the battle Ido manages to replace Alita's injured body with a humanoid war machine known as a Berseker. Meanwhile Makaku attacks the gladiator Kinuba, steals his body and claims his powers as his own, especially his retractable grind cutter claws.

Alita and Ido go to the Kansas bar to request help from bounty hunters, When Alita calls them out for their cowardice a fight breaks out, with Alita being the victorious one. Soon Makaku shows up looking for Alita and the two continue their fight,

Makaku takes a baby and breaks a hole through the floor of the bar, he goads Alita to chase him down into the sewer system. Dr Ido is afraid for Alita and Makaku threatens to cripple and wear Alita as his own personal screaming pendant.

Makaku refers to the sewers as his home and shows jealousy towards the baby. But Fang the dog comes to attack Makaku, and whilst disorientated Alita gets Fang to carry the baby and run to safety, then ready for battle, she dips her fingers in tar and makes war paint for her face.

Topics:

• James Cameron's history with the movie rights for Battle Angel Alita. Also, James Cameron Actually Made Alita: Battle Angel Twice (screenrant.com)well. kind of!
• Comparison to scenes in the movie, starring Rosa Salazar and directed by Robert Rodriquez.
• Violence in manga, and how violence can be used in creating manga stories.
• The archetypes of Alita, specifically the Pygmalion myth (Seen in movies such as My Fair Lady) and the David and Goliath inspired fight between Alita and Makaku.
• The mechanics of Makaku eating brains, possibly inspired by the movie 'Return of the Living Dead'. The human brain does secrete endorphins however a brain must be alive to do this and since this endorphin is a neuropeptide it binds itself to the central nervous system of the possessor of the brain. In theory the human digestive system can't absorb endorphins through the gut. The gut would just distinguish the brain proteins as simply that, protein, and maybe fatty acids. An exception is that Makaku does not have a human body and his gut maybe able to extract endorphins, this would make sense if you think of Makaku's base body as a killing machine. The implication that he maybe attracted to Alita would also imply that Makaku's brain can secrete its own endorphins, meaning his use for eating brains is simply born out of addiction. A codifier of such a trope may have been zombie movies but it would have been a particular episode of the Simpsons that would have given it popularity, according to this Gizmodo article here.

Trivia:

• The original Japanese title of Battle Angel Alita is Gunnm, pronounced 'Ganmu', it's a portmanteau of the words "Gun" and "Dream".
• Alita's name in the Japanese text is Gally.
• Makaku's name is derived from the word "Demon", he spells it using the Kanji.

Other references:

Hunt for Red October (1990) both the "caterpillar drive" in that movie and the Alita's body use a Magnetohydromic Drive or an MHD accelerator for short. This mechanic is a type of conductive liquid or gas that is used as a propellant.

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Will gives his short review of the latest Evangelion movie before we talk about the hefty themes of Chobits, we compare the anime to the manga as well as find time to to talk about our fave anime filler episodes (Dragonball Z makes that list). Skip plot synopsis @ 10:15

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065: Chobits vol. 8

Chapters 82 to 88

By CLAMP

Translation by Shirley Kubo

Lettering by John Clark

Synopsis:

Hideki discovers that the water main under the city has broken and the city is experiencing a mysterious blackout. He finds Chi floating in the air and she confesses her love to him. He does the same, Freya reveals that Chi is incapable of sexual intercourse since doing so would reset her, erasing her memories in the process. Hideki decides that this does not matter and will still stay with Chi. Freya then tells Hideki to take care of her sister and goes away. Chi awakens in his arms, happy to have finally found her soulmate. Zima and Dita later discuss Chi's unique ability to destroy the individual recognition programs on all persocoms, given to her to use if she failed in finding a soulmate.

Topics:

• Will's Evangelion rebuild review.
• What if Chi's programming affecting later Persecom models was used in a real-life application? Imagine that..
• What could have been better?
• Can there be true love between two people without sex?
• Filler episodes, from the onsen bath houses to Dragonball's villain detours and Full Metal Alchemist's divergent nexus point.

Differences in the Anime:

An article by Lesley Aeschliman provides a great list of differences in the anime adaptation. Such as:

• Shimbo and Hideki are neighbours.
• Chi does not buy Hideki a ring in the anime.
• Chi's programming at the end of the anime differs from the manga, and is allowed to run, thus affecting all the persocoms. Simply put; Manga: Freya will make persocom completely emotionless if Hideki does not love Chi. Anime: Freya will give persocom capacity to love if Hideki loves Chi.
• Hideki recognises that he is not talking to Chi when Freya speaks.

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Spoilers ahead as James and Will discuss the penultimate volume of the CLAMP manga, the one where we find out exactly who Chi a.k.a. Elda and her sister Chobit, Freya, really are.

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064: Chobits vol.7

Chapters 73 to 81

By CLAMP

Translation by Shirley Kubo

Lettering by John Clark

Synopsis:

Upset from the events of the previous volume, Minoru explains to Yuzuki that he loves her for herself and does not think of her as a replacement for his sister. Later, Chitose reveals to Hideki that Chi was originally named Elda, built alongside her identical sister, Freya. The two were the daughters that Chitose could never have and so she would act as their mother.

When Freya fell in love with her creator, Chitose's husband, the emotional stress destroyed her. Out of respect to her dying sister, Chi would take her sister's heart and reboot herself so that she would carry both her own and her Freya's soul. Chi herself would be able to find a soulmate, someone she can love but to avoid the mistake of falling in love with the wrong person again she would have no memory or contact with her creator and mother.

Chitose reveals that she wrote A City With No People to help Chi with her search for her soulmate. Hideki runs off to find Chi, while Chi decides that Hideki is her soulmate and activates her unique programming.

Topics:

• Should Yuzuki have died?
• Is Freya's love creepy?
• Was it really luck that Hideki just so happened to find Chi?

Other references:

• Angelic Layer

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Inspired by CLAMP's story of androids falling in love, Will and James talk about self-confidence, body positivity and the warm glow of love. Skip the plot summary @5:19

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063: Chobits vol.6

Chapters 61 to 72

By CLAMP

Translation by Shirley Kubo

Lettering by John Clark

Synopsis:

(Note: Characters that are Persecom androids will be referred to as PC for short)

When Chi starts work again at the Baker's she makes the mistake of wearing a uniform not meant for her. Yumi watches in from the street and is upset at seeing Chi in the uniform. Hideki chases after Yumi and takes her to his apartment. It becomes clear that Yumi and the Baker, Mr. Hiro Ueda were and still do have feelings for each other. And that the uniform was originally designed for Yumi. However, Yumi's inferiority complex towards PCs is the reason as to why she quit her job. What with Hiro having married a PC before meeting Yumi.

Chi manages to take Hiro to Hideki's apartment and reconciliate things between both Yumi and Hiro. Afterwards Chi decides that she wants to spend her wage on buying Hideki a gift. As a loving gesture she buys a ring and she can't help but feel a little disappointed when he chooses not to wear it correctly but instead put it on his key chain. Hideki explains to her that he won't lose it that way. And that is enough to make Chi happy.

But new mysterious and concerns are raised over Kotoko being around Chi and with the permission of Hideki, Dragonfly and Kokubunji team up in researching the origins behind her. They conclude that the last place they have looked is the National Data Bank and that by cracking open the bank they risk being arrested. Little do they know that the National Data Bank is inside Zima's mind, with the help of Dita, Zima tries to stop the two young men, resulting in a cyber-attack on Yuzuki, Kokubunji's own PC.

Topics:

• Yumi and her inferiority complex. For a quick body positive exercise James and Will recommend getting a pen and paper, making a list and jotting down good things people have said about you. Any type of compliment, if you struggle you can always ask your friends and loved ones. Also keep old love letters and text messages if they say nice things about you.
• Yumi is kind of a "bait and switch" for readers, since at the start she is introduced as a possible rival to the Chi and Hideki relationship, her presence is to create tension as Hideki dates her, cleverly, she is not written to be overtly romantic towards Hideki so there's a quick resolve to her story when her relationship to Hiroyuki Ueda is shown.
• Yuzuki and being a surrogate for Kokubunji's sister.
• Hideki falling in love, as shown in the dragonfly and kokubunji scene and eating dinner scene. (He wants to share his food with her).

Other references:

• Yurisa is a Korean model, singer and youtuber. Her Instagram handle is @risa.yu doesn't she have a striking resemblance to Chi?

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Chi finally stands up for herself, expressing the importance of consent! But the way CLAMP handles a more action heavy approach to these chapters gives our hosts a good opportunity to critique the story. Skip plot summary @ 1:55

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061: Chobits vol. 5

Chapters 49 to 58

By CLAMP

English translation by Shirley Kubo

Topics:

• Finding Chi
• The purpose of characters, especially Dragon-fly, Kotoko, Hiro, Zima and Dita.
• Is Kokubunji's arc over?
• Why wasn't this an engaging or exciting chapter for our hosts?

Synopsis:

Hideki acquires a clue in regards to the kidnapped Chi. With the help of Hideki's friend, Shimbo, and through the help of Yuzuki and Kokubunji they make cross references and by process of elimination they find Chi. They find her kidnapper, a young man known as "Dragon-fly" already apprehended by an entranced Chi. Dragon-fly was installing new software to Chi before she lashed out. Kotoko, Dragon-fly's persecom, was witness to a hidden voice emanating from Chi before she too fell into a trance.

Hideki takes Kotoko with him as evidence for the kidnapping, her programming allows her to always tell the truth, even at the cost of her master's wellbeing. Through the ordeal and unbeknownst to Dita, it is implied that Zima was the clue giver.

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061: Chobits vol. 4

Chapters 37 to 48

By CLAMP

English Translation by Shirley Kubo

Lettering by John Clark

Topics:

• Tony Robbin's interview with the robot Sophia

When asked if she (as a robot) has emotions; "Not in the same way, It's like how the moon reflects the light of the sun, the moon has no light of its own and yet we still say it shines, robots and AI reflect the values and the emotions of the people who make them"

• Isaak Asimov's laws of robotics

First Law

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

Second Law

A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

Third Law

A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

• What's Yumi's deal?
• Hiro being a reflection of Hideki, a mirror so to provide him enough resolve so that Hideki can get out of the second act doldrums. We get a lot of insight into Hideki's thoughts.
• Planned obsolescence.
• Real Talk: Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia, UK listeners go here if you want to fight this disease. Are you from the USA? Then this is the best site for you www.alz.org!

Synopsis:

The Mysterious Android Chi is affected by the books she reads and the conversations with an unknown entity. She turns to her boss, Hiroyuki Ueda (referred to as Hiro from here on out), for some counselling and to her owner, Hideki. It becomes clear that Chi expresses painful emotions, specifically loneliness and heartache. Hideki is confused by this, since Chi is a machine, he knows her emotions are merely programs but he can't help but feel for Chi.

Hideki is asked out by his work colleague Yuma, however when he tells her that he is picking up Chi from her workplace, a jealous streak of emotion overwhelms Yuma and she abruptly leaves. Soon after this Chi goes missing. When Hideki searches for clues he realizes that the books she reads are a commentary on his relationship with Chi and suspects kidnapping. There are many suspects but Minoru's Persecom android correctly deduces that it is someone from Minoru's message boards who is guilty. Unbeknownst to them it is a Persecom connoisseur named Yoshiyuki Kojima.

Chi's boss, Hiro, asks Hideki about her and out of concern decides to go look for Chi with Hideki. They do not realize that they are being watched from a distance by Yuma. Hideki learns that Hiro was once married, not to a human but to a Persecom named Chiroru. He tells Hideki that his marriage only lasted a year, Chiroru's hard drive became corrupted, her memory was diminishing and the tasks that she was programmed to do was becoming difficult for her. But Hiro could not update her because her technology was out of date and upgrading her would mean that she would lose all her memories.

Hiro would cling on to any moment where Chiroru would remember him or her marriage and such moments became far and seldom in between the struggle. Until one day, when out for a walk, Chiroru would push Hiro away to avoid being hit by a car and take the hit herself. It remains a mystery as to what went on in Chiroru's mind at that moment but by saving Hiro's life she was now beyond repair.

Hiro's story gives Hideki the resolve to find Chi, even if Chi could easily have her memory wiped of all her pain, suffering and loneliness. It would not erase the fact that Hideki is responsible for those feelings. And Hideki can't live with himself if harm was to happen Chi. Hideki must find Chi.

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We talk about true love in the context of cheating, extramarital affairs, hyper realism and simulations! And is there parallels between Pinnochio and Chi? Skip plot summary @3:22

060: Chobits vol. 3

Chapters 25 to 36

By CLAMP

Translation by Shirley Kubo

With Lettering by John Clark

We talk about true love in the context of cheating, extramarital affairs, hyper realism and simulations! And is there parallels between Pinnochio and Chi? Skip plot summary @3:22

Topics

• How CLAMP create a cerebral and intimate story but juggle mystery.
• The affair between Shimizu and Shimbo. Hideki's true love definition.
• "A City with no People" Simulation, Jean Baudrillard and finding your soul mate and being happy in a desert of simulation and loneliness.

Plot Summary

Hideki spends his morning watching Chi sleep and wondering what happened the night before. He still has Sumomo with him and when he tries to contact Sumomo's owner Shimbo, he finds that he has run off with his teacher to a romantic getaway. It becomes clear that their teacher is having an extra marital affair.

The teacher Takako Shimizu recalls Hideki's words about love and marriage, that you can't help who you fall in love with but if it is true love, they must be willing to live with the betrayal and guilt that comes from having an affair. It's not long after this that Shimbo gives ownership of Sumomo to Hideki.

And Hideki gets Chi a job giving away sample pastries. With the money she buys lewd magazines for Hideki and the new volumes of her favourite book "A city with no people"

But Hideki starts to question his feelings about not buying Chi gifts, after all Chi isn't human but like many Persecoms she is made to resemble one and Hideki wonders why they are made like this.

Meanwhile two mysterious characters leave behind them a path of destruction as they trace the steps of where Chi was, when Chi seems to have an emotional response they are able to pinpoint the position. It is unknown if these two characters, Zima and Dita, know they are being monitored by Hideki's Landlady Chitose. And when Hideki receives an anonymous grainy image containing what appears to be Chi and Chitose in a lab, Chi has no memory of this and Hideki starts to become concerned enough to ask Minoru Kokubunji for help. And so, a mystery regarding Persecoms and Chobits starts to brew.

Pop culture references/Product Placement:

• H.323 codec is used since late 1996 for broadcasting live video conferences and video calls,The most common standard is H.264 used by youtube, Netflix, amazon prime video and many more. But that's because its pre-recorded video.
• Dukylon café reveals a shared universe to another story, which ran from 1991 to 1993, it's called Clamp school defenders. Basically, Dukylon café is a cover for a heroic power ranger's base. P544 of the Darkhorse omnibus.

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Explicit content ahead, talk about peep shows and pin up models. Also expect James to mispronounce Yumi's name, a lot! Why is that even possible? Skip plot summary @4:29

059: Chobits vol. 2

Chapters 13 to 24

By CLAMP

Translation by Shirley Kubo

With Lettering by John Clark

Explicit content ahead, talk about peep shows and pin up models. Also expect James to mispronounce Yumi's name, a lot! Why is that even possible? Skip plot summary @4:29

Plot Summary

Shimizu leaves in the morning and Hideki's landlady, Chitose Hibiya, who had given Chi several outfits, takes Chi to her room. After giving Chi a dress that she claims was hers, Chitose tells her to find a person just for her. Meanwhile Hideki's coworker, Yumi Oumura, asks him on a date. After reading the next volume of A City With No People, Chi hears a voice calling her; inside her mind she sees a version of herself that echoes Chitose's words. Seeing that Hideki is broke, Chi sets out to find a job, only to be tricked into doing a peep show. The owner asks Chi to touch her vagina and Chi refuses, since that is the location of her reset switch. At the same time, Hideki learns that his friend Shimbo and Shimizu are in a romantic relationship, and that Chi is in a peep show. Hideki rushes over to find that Chi has fled and the persocoms of the city have disconnected. Chi topples into his arms

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Do Androids need love? Will and James return from the doldrums and kickstart the cyborg season with CLAMP's Chobits. Boy finds a discarded PC in the trash and falls in love with said PC. It's a story for the ages. But who is CLAMP and how did they make this manga?

Chobits vol. 1

By CLAMP

English translation by Shirley Kubo

Plot Summary

Set in a world where Personal Computers are beautiful doll like androids. It's in this world that we are introduced to Hideki Motosuwa, a 19-year-old student, who is doing his best working a job whilst cramming for exams.

Hideki finds what he at first thinks is a beautiful young woman but turns out to be a PC that has been thrown out in the trash. He takes this poor PC home and reboots her but finds that she has no Operating System, and lacks basic skills and talents. Hideki names her Chi, since it's the only word that she can speak. He gets his fellow student and friend, Shimbo to help him understand Chi. Shimbo uses his own PC, the laptop doll Sumomo, who ends up damaging herself by linking to Chi and making a diagnostic exam, Hideki then turns to the prodigious Minoru Kokubungi, who, despite his young age, is an expert on all things PC. Kokubungi, through his knowledge of message boards and forums, reveals that Chi maybe a Chobit, a state-of-the-art android.

Hideki grows fond of Chi and buys a children's book so to treat her, but Hideki is perturbed one night when his good-looking teacher, Takako Shimizu, visits him. She brings food and beer and takes advantage of Hideki's hospitality and kindness. She asks Hideki to go out and buy booze and he obliges, taking Chi with him. On their return home, Chi chooses to stay outside for a moment alone as Hideki goes inside to Shimizu.

Before we continue...

To clear up a discrepancy in the last episode, there were in fact 2 Uzumaki Games made for the Wonder-swan. The first was an interactive novel then a month later they released the curse simulator.

Who is CLAMP?

CLAMP originally started as twelve to ten students who made a fanzine. It was at least six them that would take the professional step of turning an open plan apartment into a studio and become the artists that we know them as of today, an all-girl group of Mangaka, However, since the late 90's the group has dwindled to just four members. With possibly seven members working on their professional debut manga, RG Veda, one member of which left during the production of RG Veda.

Two more members would have left due to the stress and wanting to do their own things. These two members, Akiyama and Leeza left before Chobits was published.

This means that CLAMP has, for the longest of time, consisted of one writer and three artists. The writer and main story teller is Ohkawa. Ohkawa always writes with the end of the plot already decided beforehand. The main artist is Mokona, she is responsible for the panels and composition, Nekoi and Igurashi act as assistants, Nekoi is good at drawing animals and does the toning and Igurashi does the inking. They all participate in character design and depending on the work, the role of art director is chosen by Ohkawa. Since they are a group, they do not hire assistants, because it would be a detriment to their finances and their established work flow. Solo mangaka would obviously hire assistants or "ghost staff" but this not the case with CLAMP.

The idea behind Chobits came from the women having trouble transitioning their work methods to computers. During that time computers seemed alien to them so that became the gateway into a boy's mind when it comes to having inexperience with women. This is a concept used many times, Neil Gaiman explores this theme in his short story, 'How to Talk to Girls at Parties'. As does the Manga Dears by Peach-Pit, which is heavily inspired by Chobits and is about a boy falling in love with an alien, it doesn't have to be an alien as in the case of Chobits. It's an android love interest that CLAMP uses to tell the story, but it could also be done with an Angel or a Mermaid. You can also flip the genders, the movies 'Edward Scissorhands' directed by Tim Burton and 'The Shape of Water' by Guilermo Del Toro are from the point of view from a woman, with the male representing the alien, outsider or the other.

Other References

Hideki's "Precious line" is a nod to Smeagol from 'Lord of the Rings', a popular movie at the time of the manga's release, based on the novels by Tolkien.

Component Video connecting to a TV. Is how Hideki is able to connect Chi to a monitor. They are also known as Y'PbPr or "Yipper" Cables for short. Component video consists of 3 cables, phono like RCA plugs, that are color coded green, red and blue. The colours are only used to identify the video signal that runs from one end to another, they do not refer to sound cables which are color coded white and red for stereo

Nattō is Fermented soy bean (Looks like "baby batter" due to its sticky and slimy texture, hence why Hideki is aroused when he sees Chi eat it and making a mess)

Sources for this information and further material can be found in the following website,

CLAMP Interviews | Chibi Yuuto's CHRoNiCLEs

and this video...

CLAMP TV interview 2005 - YouTube

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This episode has nothing to do with Naruto guys, instead Will Returns in time for a special Halloween where James shows evidence that the spiral is god's signature, as well as share some of his own personal and most frightening experiences in his life.

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057: Junji Ito's Uzumaki (a.k.a. Spiral)

By Junji Ito

English Translation by Yuji Oniki

Special thanks to @Nirakirameart for today's tribute illustration.

Topics:

• Reminiscent to 'Final Destination' where death is quantitative and systematic. What makes it frightening is how you can be aware of its workings yet still be powerless because of concepts like manifest destiny, divine fate and the fact that death is simply a universal force of nature. Or Lovecraft, where the enemy is invisible, the spiral too is a force of nature, it too is universal.
• The model/actor (a.k.a. star) system, Ito would use the likeness of Uzumaki's Kirie and Shuichi for Dissolving Classroom's Keiko and Azeri. (Osamu did this system first)
• Similarities to the horror of RL Stine and Hino's Horror manga. Only truly scary story is what happens to Shuichi's mother, because mental illness = frightening.
• Other media
• Videogame for wonderswan (Gunpei Yokoi, sold 3 mill units but only 8% market share.) Curse simulator, you play as an agent of the spiral curse. Gathering items and planting them.
• Film – directed by Higuchinsky and released in 2000, if you're interested then James recommends you see the movies directed by David Lynch, Shinya Tsukamoto and Hideo Nakata.
• Animated mini-series 2021 Colin Stetson does the score. (known for his work on Heredetary and Red Dead Redemption 2)

• Why the spiral? (The golden ratio / Fibonacci sequence) The Fibonacci sequence starts like this: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55 and so on forever. Each number is the sum of the two numbers that precede it. It's a simple pattern, but it appears to be a kind of built-in numbering system to the cosmos. It's the code that nature seems to abide to. And if God was a mathematician, they would favour this code.

Sources and Recommended Reading/Watch List:

• Junji Ito's Interview with Crunchyroll, talking about the 2021 anime adaptation of Uzumaki.
• For those interested in the WonderSwan videogame you can watch this video.
• Super Eyepatch Wolf's video critique and analysis of the animated 'Junji Ito Collection' can be found here.
• And an example of frame Interpolation is in this video here.
• 'The golden ratio and Fibonacci numbers' by Richard Dunlap can be purchased on Amazon.

Synopsis:

Set in the seaside town of Kurouzo Cho, Kirie Goshima and her boyfriend Shuichi Saito slowly witness a sinister force plague their town. At first Shuichi's father becomes obsessed about spirals. His obsession leads towards his death and afterwards Shuichi's mother is quick to succumb to what Shuichi refers to as "the curse of the spiral".

Shuichi Saito's father loved all things spiral related, his mother, starts to fear all things spiral related. Soon Shuichi is orphaned and becomes a recluse. Although as the spiral curse causes many episodes of horror Shuichi is still available when Kirie needs him most. These episodes include souls imprisoned within pottery, Kirie's spiralling hair having a parasitic mind of its own, schoolboys turning into snails as if they were infected with a virus and a deadly light house.

During these episodes, Shuichi protects Kirie from a sentient hurricane, however as part of the spiral curse the town becomes a magnet to hurricanes and sink holes, sending kurouzo Cho into a wasteland that isolates its residents. The residents are only safe inside the old row houses, which remain oddly immune to the malevolent elements. And when overcrowding becomes an issue, Kirie and Shuichi set out to escape. Unfortunately they become lost in the woods, when they spiral back into the town they planned to leave, they find that they have been in a time vortex and what seemed like a short time in the woods has been years past for Kurouzo Cho, on their return the row houses have become extended and formed into a spiral building. Essentially one long spiralling house, this leads into a well like chasm where the lake once existed but is now dried up. It's the centre of the spiral that Kirie and Shuichi find themselves drawn towards, and where ultimately their fate is sealed.

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