Earth Girl Arjuna
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Chikyuu Shōjo Arjuna | |
|---|---|
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| 地球少女アルジュナ (Earth Girl Arjuna) |
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| Genre | Supernatural, Shōjo, Adventure, Drama |
| TV anime | |
| Directed by | Shoji Kawamori |
| Studio | Bandai Visual |
| Network |  Animax, TV Tokyo
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| Original run | 9 January 2001 – 27 March 2001 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
Earth Girl Arjuna (地球少女アルジュナ Chikyū Shōjo Arjuna?) is a thirteen episode anime series created by Shoji Kawamori that was originally aired by TV Tokyo between 9 January 2001 and 27 March 2001. The series was also later completely broadcast by the anime satellite television network Animax.
Contents |
[edit] Premise
Arjuna is set in Kobe, Japan, where the protagonist, Juna, is attending high school. The story opens on her telling her boyfriend, Tokio, she feels too cramped in the city, and deciding to take a trip to the Sea of Japan. On the drive, they get in an accident, and Juna dies.
As her spirit leaves her body, Juna sees the Earth suffering, visualized by worm-like creatures, the Raaja, entwining the planet. A young boy, Chris, appears to her, and offers to save her life if she will help the planet. She agrees, and is resurrected. [1]
[edit] Characters
- Juna Ariyoshi
- Juna is a girl in the tenth grade, who is chosen by Chris to be the "Avatar of Time", to save the planet. Besides possessing powers due to her "Earth sympathy" [1], she is an ordinary teenage girl. She has a difficult time understanding her purpose, and is unsure how she is supposed to help the planet. Her personal life is also distressed, both with her mother and sister, and especially in her uncertain relationship with Tokio, whose thoughts she cannot figure out, and who similarly never manages to understand her feelings. While she attempts to succeed in her job, she cannot understand the message Chris is trying to explain until the very end, when she realizes the meaning of "becoming one with the target" that she repeats from the beginning of the series.
- Chris Hawken
- Chris is a powerful entity, who appears in the body of a young boy, crippled by expending his energy to revive Juna. He speaks only telepathically, and is able to leave his body at will, and often does so to help others. He is unerringly kind and patient to everyone, including Juna, despite her misunderstanding his words. He repeatedly admonishes her for trying to fight the Raaja, saying "Why do you kill?"[1], and claiming he never asked her to do so.
- Cindy Klein
- Cindy is a young orphan whom Chris rescues, leading to her unwavering devotion to him. She acts as his translator, since she is telepathic, and can read his (and others) thoughts. She comes across as cold and rude to everyone other than Chris, most of all Juna, his disciple, who she feels can never replace him. She admits having psychological issues, which she claims stem from being able to read her mother's thoughts before her own birth.[2]
- Tokio Oshima
- Tokio is a stereotypical teenage boy, who plays video games and is addicted to fast food. He is greatly concerned with Juna's safety, and tries to protect her, not realizing he is powerless against the force she is trying to fight. He considers himself in love with her, but has a distorted view of what love is. Despite never having even kissed his supposed girlfriend, he attempts to both propose to her, and later have sex with her, neither successfully.[3][2] Though he sees what Juna is doing, he understands her purpose even less than she does, and is quick to criticize her actions as needlessly obsessive. In his confusion, he ends up leading on their mutual friend, Saiyuri, leaving an uncomfortable love triangle.
- Saiyuri Shirakawa
- Saiyuri is a classmate and friend to both Juna and Tokio. She knows nothing of Juna's other life saving the planet, but tries to help her friend deal with what she sees as nothing more than emotions from her confusing personal life. While she at first tries to help Juna and Tokio remain together, it becomes clear she has feelings for Tokio herself, evidenced by actions such as her removing her glasses whenever she sees him, after he mentions that she looks better that way at one point.[4] When her family is destroyed in the "death of Japan", she and Tokio effectively become a family to look after her dying younger siblings.
- The Raaja
- The Raaja are most often portrayed as red, semi-transparent worm-like creatures. They vary in size, from microscopic bacteria to those encompassing the entire planet. Juna sees these creatures, along with the death of the planet, and believes they are the monsters responsible, and so fights them. It is hinted throughout that this is not an entirely correct view, due to Chris's complaints at her actions, but Juna dismisses these by refusing to see any other alternative. Further confusion in their purpose is planted by Chris's apparent alignment with the Raaja, first admitting to taking them into himself (then explained as his being kind to everyone, even the Raaja)[3], but then later claiming he actually is the Raaja, as they stand on the brink of destroying the planet. It is not until the last moments of the show that Juna realizes that Chris "is" the Raaja in the same manner that she is trying to become "one with the target", and instead of fighting, merges with them herself to pacify them. As the creatures die, the characters realize the Raaja were not the enemies of the Earth, but rather the Earth itself, attempting to cleanse itself.[5]
[edit] Themes
As is clear from the title, Arjuna, the series is highly influenced by Hinduism, as well as Indian culture in general. The story was inspired by the Bhagavad Gita, most notably in the character of Chris, who is modeled after Krishna.[6]
The setting for the show, Kobe, was chosen by creator Shoji Kawamori for his personal fondness of it,[6] and the city itself plays a prominent role, with famous buildings such as the Kobe Meriken Park Oriental Hotel and nearby Ferris wheel showing up as common backdrops. The idea of living in a city is a main theme, with both Juna and the Raaja rebelling against how removed from nature modern life is.[7]
An idea which Kawamori emphasized was natural farming. Not to be confused with the mere absence of chemicals that is often meant by "organic farming", natural farming involves letting nature grow as it will, not removing weeds or bugs, or using any fertilizer. The old man Juna encounters in episode four explains the need for this return to nature in order to sustain life in the long term, a sentiment directly from Kawamori himself.[8][6]
Another theme of the show is that of the disconnect between emotions, thoughts, words, and actions. In episode seven, "Invisible Words", Juna is able to read the words in the minds of everyone around her, yet still cannot understand their intentions. She sees in Tokio's mind that he has been asking Saiyuri about a ring, and assumes that he has been cheating on her, when in fact the ring had been for her.[3] Juna and Tokio's, feelings never reach each other successfully. In episode eight, while talking on the phone, Juna finds her spirit in the room with Tokio. But despite her even embracing him, he has no understanding when she tries to say that she with him. At the same time, Tokio actually says he loves Juna for the first time, even though he is at the same moment not feeling her love at all.[4] This idea is later visualized in episode 10, when Tokio is having an argument with his father. Juna is able to "see" their angered thoughts flying at each other, and entirely missing, neither of them hearing or understanding the other.[9]
[edit] Controversy
- The ninth episode of Arjuna, "Before Birth", was not aired during the series' original run in Japan across TV Tokyo. This episode contains numerous controversial subjects, as well as images that were deemed inappropriate for airing on TV. The most prominent of these are abortion (including "hearing" the voice of an unborn child), images of a fetus inside a mother as she is having sex, and the feelings of teen sexuality between Juna and Tokio. The episode, however, was later aired by the anime satellite television network Animax as well as included in Bandai Visual's DVD releases, and was also included on the series' later North American run on Comcast On Demand.
[edit] Episodes
| No. | English | Japanese | original Japanese |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Drop of Time | Toki no shizuku | 時のしずく |
| 2 | The Blue Light | Aoi hikari | 青い光 |
| 3 | Tears of the Forest | Mori no namida | 森の涙 |
| 4 | Transmigration | Tensei rinne | 転生輪廻 |
| 5 | The Small Voices | Chisaki mono no koe | 小さきものの声 |
| 6 | The First One | Hajime no hitori | はじめの一人 |
| 7 | The Invisible Words | Mienai kotoba | 見えない言葉 |
| 8 | The Distant Rain | Toi ame | とおい雨 |
| 9 | Before Birth | Umareru mae kara | 生れる前から |
| 10 | The Flickering Genes | Yuragu idenshi | ゆらぐ遺伝子 |
| 11 | The Day of No Return | Kaerazaru hibi | かえらざる日 |
| 12 | The Death of a Nation | Kuni horobite | 国ほろびて |
| 13 | The Here and Now | Ima | 今 |
[edit] Development
- Director: Shōji Kawamori
- Music: Yoko Kanno & Maaya Sakamoto
[edit] Music
The music and original soundtrack for Arjuna was composed by Yoko Kanno. Director Shoji Kawamori says he instructed Kanno that the music was supposed to sound feminine, despite some of its use in action scenes. Many tracks have Indian influences (such as chanting), matching those of the show, while others are more surreal. The vocals are done by Gabriela Robin, Maaya Sakamoto, and Chinatsu Yamamoto. The soundtrack was released on two CDs:
[edit] References
- ^ a b c "The Drop of Time." Earth Girl Arjuna. TV Tokyo. 2001-01-09.
- ^ a b "Before Birth." Earth Girl Arjuna.
- ^ a b c "Invisible Words." Earth Girl Arjuna.
- ^ a b "The Distant Rain." Earth Girl Arjuna.
- ^ "The Here and Now." Earth Girl Arjuna.
- ^ a b c Ken Iyadomi, producer, Interview with Shoji Kawamori, Bandai Entertainment, 2002.
- ^ "Tears of the Forest." Earth Girl Arjuna.
- ^ "Transmigration." Earth Girl Arjuna.
- ^ "The Flickering Genes." Earth Girl Arjuna.
