Now and Then, Here and There
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Now and Then, Here and There (Japanese title:今、そこにいる僕; Ima Soko ni iru Boku) is a 13-episode Japanese anime series that was broadcasted on Japanese TV from October 1999 to January 2000.
Even though the main characters are mostly all children, there is a fair amount of violence in this anime. This is not due to any overly expletive scenes, but rather to the fact that most acts of violence are committed amongst children. It is mostly non-comical; each episode has a very dark ambience, and the whole series portrays various acts of torture, brutal beatings, rape (later in the series, the shown rape proves to be purely procreational) and murder. It is directed by Akitaro Daichi, who took a serious break from his otherwise happy shows.
Now and Then, Here and There has been released in the United States by US Manga Corps as a region 1 DVD, consisting of a three disc set, containing all the episodes with Japanese and English audio tracks, subtitles and a few extras like storyboard clips. The DVD is rated for years 16 and up.
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Plot Summary
The story begins with the boy Shu coming home from kendo practice, whereupon he sees a girl sitting atop of some unused factory smokestacks. Climbing up, he tries to talk to her, but then they get attacked by two metallic serpents that seem to have appeared from out of nowhere; they were looking for the girl called Lalaru. Trying to defend her, Shu gets transported into another dimension, the dimension where the serpents and their commander, Abelia, as well as Lalaru, come from. In this dimension, the sun never sets, and the world is an endless desert wasteland.
After their arrival, Shu manages to evade capture for some time; as he is apprehended by a group of boy soldiers, lead by the youth Nabuka, he loses Lalaru's pendant, and is forced to serve in the army of the mad emperor Hando.
The army has some gigantic war machines, like very crude mecha, which seem to be stronger weapons than anybody else can wield against them, explaining the large success of Hando's Army. Additionally, there are no real states, but mostly village-based communities. When conquering a village, the usual methods seems to be to take all able bodies to serve in the army, abuse anyone who can be abused, and leave the rest to die.
Main Characters
- Shuzo 'Shu' Matsutani: he is the protagonist of the series; accidentally being teleported to the foreign dimension from his 'home', Tokyo, he ends up having to fight in Hamdo's army, where many soldiers are mere children that have been captured from villages the army conquered. With his outsider attitude, he stands out from the crowd, having an usual amount of kindness and manners in comparison to the other children. Despite being a kendo fighter he's extremely clumsy and overly enthusiasticand overtly optimistic which usually causes him trouble as he's often being tortured interrogated or otherwise getting in trouble. Even during his army days he refuses to do anything that is against his morals and gets in trouble for it. there is one particularly powerful moment when Shu is trying to find Lalaru in the end when he runs into Hamdo and goes psycho and starts beating the mad emperor until theres nothing left of his kendo stick.
- Lalaru: The revolving point of the whole story is the little girl that Shu encountered in the first episode; she has special water powers which can be invoked with her pendant, but does not want to be used by Hamdo for his deeds. She rarely talks, nor does she show any emotion. In the end she fades away while laying her head on Shu's shoulder
- Hamdo: The mad emperor, who craves for Lalaru in a kind of naive love, trying to care for her - when rejected by Lalaru, he goes into raving fits, screaming at her, destroying things in the vicinity, but never hurting Lalaru. Unless you count hair pulling as hurting She has special powers involving water which on the desert planet is something he craves for, to make him achieve his ultimate victory. He ultimately dies by Lalaru's Water ablities when the teleportation floods.
- Abelia: She's the commanding officer of Hamdo's army, and the only person admitted close to the emperor. He calls upon her for support and comfort, but also abuses her when she does not fill his needs, especially concerning the case Lalaru and military matters. She seems to be obsessed into helping him. It's Presumed because she loves him. however in the end when he's in the teleportation chamber as it fills with water he begs for her help and she looks away sadly as he drowns.
- Nabuka: He is one of the children that have been previously captured by Hamdo and forced to fight as soldiers. He is a good soldier and seems to be loyal in a mixed sense; he is hoping that when he has fulfilled his duty, Hamdo will free him as promise. He's the leader of the group of soldiers that Shu gets assigned to and one of his main 'contact' among them, although they often dispute about philosophical aspects and fight each other. He has a hatred for Shu because he was saved by him while they were fighting. Nabuka is killed by his his former friend Tabool in the final episode.
- Sara: She was captured accidentally as she had been mistaken for Lalaru; she meets Shu in a prison cell, being comforted by his ideas of everything working out all right in the end. Then, she gets abused and raped by some of the other (adult) soldiers and loses faith in what Shu said to her.Towards the end she finds out she's pregnant and intends to self abort by hitting her stomache with a rock. Shu finds out about this and stops her by putting his hand in front of her stomache and has it bashed several times before she stops and breaks down. Also several times in the series a guard named Kazam who tries to help her. The first time he hands her bandanna but she's too upset due to being raped recently. The second time when she's brought to his room he attempts to engage her in conversation. The third time he meets her is prior to the assault in the last few episodes. He warns her about Hamdo's forces approaching and asks for her to run away with him. She refuses and doesn't see him again till the fortress is being flooded and one of the children slips into the water which was a sure death sentence when suddenly he came out of the water holding the child he put the child up on the safe platform near Sara he smiled at her and then was swept to his death. It is highly debated among fans of the show whether he's really a good guy or really the father of Sara's baby In the final scene of Hellywood Sara is shown becoming a leader and offering Abelia to join them.
Differences from typical anime
Between Now and Then, Here and There and typical Science Fiction anime exist a great many differences: for one, it does not feature such comic reliefs as do Cowboy Bebop or Trigun; it is a very broody atmosphere, and nothing is quite at all happy. In the world Shu enters, everybody seems to be harsh and grinded and totally opposed to his kind, earthly concepts, resulting in escalations of violence not only due to general aggressivity but difference in ideas.
Also, there is a lot more realism in the series: there are no invincible super-heroes or overpowering protagonists. Shu does not fight like he has been doing it for a lifetime, and injuries he or others receive do not heal quickly. It is relatively safe to assume that someone who got shot or stabbed is, actually, dead. As mentioned before, it takes no heed from brutality, showing the evil side of humans, soldiers, and war in general: senseless slaughter, rape and general violence.
There are no show offs or clever punch lines delivered as one-liners in this series; the evil villain (where evil is hard to define) usually does not stop before death or maiming has been reached. There is no gloating, it is just naked survival. Suspense is created in most fights, as they are without fluff and thus fast-paced, and, even though clearly the main character won't be killed in the second episode yet, there is a great chance of him being seriously hurt and captured.
In short, it is a rather cruel display of brutality which does not carry an implicit moralistic undertone. Rather, it portrays the range of human characteristics and behavior in the most extreme and absurd of circumstances - hope, resignation, insanity, resilience.
External links
- Official Homepage (http://www.centralparkmedia.com/ntht)
- IMDb entry (http://imdb.com/title/tt0318898/)
- AnimeNFO page (http://animenfo.com/animetitle,211,bhveeu,ima__sokoni_iru.html)ja:今、そこにいる僕