Memories

The word is a powerful one. It’s an invocation. Of happiness, of sadness, of nostalgia, of fury, of fear.

Of sorrow.

On Saturday, officials zoomed on the road to get to the American Military Cemetery next to my home. In May, the time of remembrance comes, again and again. For people who do not know, who forget, they’re just a convoy of vehicles guarded by police in motorbike that open the road for them. They’re just an anomaly to watch as they drive past, braking to get a better look at them, endangering the traffic in the other lanes as they do so. To me, who once stole inside the great cemetery as a little kid to spy on the ceremonies held there, it’s a time and place for serenity.

A time and a place of green and white.

Of centuries-old trees, beautiful and strong.

Of snow-white crosses, spreading as far as a child’s eye can see.

So numerous the little girl I was couldn’t count them.

I could just tell that there were many of them. A great many of them.

And beneath them, I learnt, people were buried. Young and old, people from the US, who came to fight the evil of Hitler’s war in the second world war. People who came from their faraway land to battle it out against a terrible enemy. People who suffered, feared, bled. And died. For those, there was no careful plan, no well-thought out strategy aimed more at keeping the USSR out of Eruope than at liberating it from the German invasion, no delicate timing. These people were told they’d be fighting against evil, to help people win free, and have a chance at peace and democracy. And they came. And they gave their lives. And my grandparents, and my parents, were free.

Today, the sad melody of trumpets again resounded in the cool air of morning, as the dead were saluted. It had rained. As it had rained on Saturday, and as it always rains on that day. As if the sky itself were shedding tears.

At least, all those people didn’t die in vain. Freedom and peace exist in Europe. But elsewhere…

Memories is also an invocation of deep anger.

When Georges W Bush dares to speak for all those who died, as if he had any right to do so. When he dares to try and recuperate the deaths of all those he sent to be butchered in Iraq for nothing, and to weave their deaths with that of all those who fought during World War II. No, it’s not the same. No, the Iraq war isn’t a just war, one that led to peace and freedom, to democracy. The Iraq war is nothing but a vast fraud, a hijacking of purpose by the great economical interests of the US. It has brought nothing but pain and death and blood to the Iraqi people. It has destroyed anything they had. It has made their situation worse, and condemned them to darkness for many, many years without a single flame of hope.

And it has killed many young people from the US who believed the lie that they would be greeted as saviors and bringers of freedom. Instead, they have been nothing but bringers of chaos and grief, and they have died for nothing.

An invocation of refusal.

In Spain, the right has won the local elections, placing it in good position to win the legislative elections which will be held next year. Have people learnt nothing? Are theys o fickle that the smallest contrary breeze will push them back into the arms of the worst rigid religious extremists? Of populists with a not even hidden nostalgia for Franco? For fascism and dictatorship?

I watch the news, and I keep telling myself that this is just a nightmare gone wild. That it can’t be happening all at once.

Perhaps people are blind. Perhaps they are fools. Perhaps they are cowards who turn the way the wind blows the strongest. Perhaps their hearts are as weak and fickle as their minds are dull. Or perhaps, their memories keep failing them.

I do not know.

All I know is that when the heart-wrenching song of trumpets resounds in the air from beyond the high trees, I see all the white crosses in my mind. In my little girl’s memories.

And I remember.

And my heart doesn’t waver, no matter what populists or sirens may say.

True Lies

Behold, disbelieving world, the new French government is born! A new way of doing politics, of leading the country by uniting the best people from every political horizon!

Behold in awe and wonder, and thank the Blessed Great Leader Sarkozy for His Infinite Wisdom and Magnanimity!

Errr…no, really, who do they think they’re kidding?

Overture to the different horizons of French politics, overture and a hand held out to former foes in a oh so touching gathering of the best talents to “save the country” and “carry out the difficult reforms”? Yeah, sure. So, who do we have here?

Eric Besson, once Socialist (maybe still even has his membership in order), once co-writer of a long essay demonstrating how Nicolas Sarkozy represents a danger for France and Europe, turned new best friend of said Sarkozy after he realized his personal ambitions and views wouldn’t be all listened to and agreed to by Segolene Royal. Yes, Eric Besson, the man who knifed his candidate in the back in the middle of the campaign and started on demolition rampage, stomping on his own beliefs and spitting on the words honor and loyalty.

Why, yes, Eric Besson is certainly a great symbol of overture and gathering of talent. After all, betrayal and mediocrity are qualities which demand constant and hard work. In that regard, Eric Besson meets all the criteria set by the Blessed Leader to enter the new French government.

Bernard Kouchner, supposedly once Socialist (it’s unclear whether he truly ever had a correct membership in the Socialist party, even though he did profit immensely from said party’s help and assistance). The good old French doctor, co-founder of Doctor Without Broders, an icon in the French group mind, the image of generosity and willingness to act to right all of the world’s many wrongs, at last discards the last shreds of his mask of holiness.

Bernard Kouchner, the whining, egocentric, narcissistic and ambitious high society man who kept complaining that the Socialist party mistreated him and in short forced him to choose Sarkozy who suddenly became “the one person willing to listen and do something”. Never mind that during the campaign the same Kouchner denounced the danger that the Holy Father of the Nation represents, that Kouchner pointed out, correctly so, that Sarkozy is much more dangerous than Le Pen, because he uses all the far-right themes and populism, with the added bonus of a veneer of political correctness inherited from the old political party he has hijacked from its true reason for being.

Bernard Kouchner, the man the Socialist party so mistreated that he was a minister of François Mitterrand’s government for ten years! Bernard Kouchner, one of the high bourgeoisie, with all the wealth, estates and all that go with it. Boy, if only I could be mistreated like this, I’d beg to get more of the same! Bernard Kouchner, the man whose ideas have always lied to the right in social and economical matters, and who used the Socialist party until he saw it would no longer serve his own personal ambitions.

Bernard Kouchner, the man who loves the US at least as much as Sarkozy does, and who was in favor of the horrible fiasco also known as the Iraq War, which has plunged that poor country and its citizens down the abyss of a bloody civil war to which nobody can see any kind of end in sight—unless one counts prospering as a training ground for terrorists and maybe yet another new Islamic Republic that will stone women back into the age of barbarism.

Bernard Kouchner, the icon. Not of generosity and willingness to right the world’s wrongs, but the true icon of self-serving people who lead their lives with the sole obsession of furthering their own personal agendas. Well, at least it’s out in the open, and I, for one, believe it’s a good thing. And, again, Bernard Kouchner is indeed a very fitting choice for Sarkozy’s new government.

I will spare you the analysis of the rest of the great people part of the brand new government. There are other new Sarkozy-converts to name here, such as one who was among François Bayrou’s closest friends and who betrayed him four days ago for a position in the government.

So, what conclusion can we draw concerning this new government?

Overture? Sham and lie for the gullible.

Surprising? Not one bit.

This government is a gross assembling of Sarkozy’s all times faithfuls, of egocentric and ambitious personalities with a talent for betrayal and a total lack of honor or loyalty—qualities that Nicolas Sarkozy holds in high regard and has demonstrated all along his own political career. The much publicized “overture”, nothing more than a transparent maneuver to kill François Bayrou’s courageous attempt to build a new political movement at the center of the French political chessboard.

Make no mistake: this government’s self-proclaimed overture is nothing else than an attempt to annihilate anyone or anything that might stand in its way. In the short run, the aim is to impose Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP as the sole party on the right side of the political landscape. In the long run, it’s the very clear threat of building a party that would be the sole political organization to exist in what would no longer be a democracy.

Overture? No. A locking down and strangling maneuver to smother nuance and have the absolute control over France.

This is not fiction.

It’s reality.

Bad Trip

My head hurts, I feel sick, and I can both taste and feel bile rise up my throat. Yes, just like one does after a really bad hangover and rotten weed.

So Nicolas Sarkozy has been elected president. And the participation was a record. People voted en masse for this election. That is democracy. So much for the intelligence and the capacity of analysis of the average Joe and Jane.

I still feel as if this was a bad trip of sorts. As if somehow I was going to wake up and it had all been a nightmare. But...well, I know it's not.

Segolene Royal managed to gather more votes than any Socialist candidate before her, but she was defeated by the mobilisation of the right. The far-right eclectors massively voted for Sarkozy instead of abstaining as they usually do, as was to be expected. All the old, conservative people voted for Sarkozy, who managed to rally them with his simplistic arguments and solgans, and his grand speeches reminiscent of a dark past.

Some people on the left might be happy with this result. Mostly they will be those who believe in what is called "le grand soir", they believe in a revolution to come. A revolution, because in a possible scenario things will have become so bad, will have regressed so badly, that we'll have come back to the time, work and social conditions our forefathers knew in the 19th century. In that century where they were so enslaved, so mistreated that they had nothing more to lose, and found the strength to rise and revolt against those who oppressed them.

I do not wish for that. Revolutions are a messy business, full of noise, blood and chaos. I prefer smooth transitions, peaceful solutions. But it's true that with the likes of Nicolas Sarkozy, if he applies his campaign promises, he will bring us much quicker, and much closer to a point of no return, to the evening of that future revolution. Because there is only so much people can take. Because there is only so much people can lose.

And of course, Nicolas Sarkozy had a special place reserved in his grand victory speech for his pals in the US. If that doesn't tell you the kind of foreign policy he's gonna lead, fighting Tony Blair for the honor of being Georges W Bush's lapdog, I don't know what it means.

Ah well, looks like Sakorzy intends to keep his promises. You can't fault him for having been unclear on this. People elected him nonetheless.

Now they will have to assume their choice.

If I ever see or hear someone who voted for him whine that s/he's unhappy with things happening in France in the next five years, I will personnally skin that person alive. With a spoon.

Now it's time to say good bye for the day, and to prepare for the next hurdle: the legislative elections, both in France and in Belgium. Our darling moronic MR is ready to spring into Sarkozy's steps, cavorting around and yapping with overboard enthusiasm.

Now it's time to take a deep breath, and rise again.

Good night, and good luck.

And remember: "Never give up! Never surrender!"

Against All Odds

All French-able readers : read yesterday’s Le Monde’s editorial by Jean-Marie Colombani.

I don’t like bookmakers. I don’t like surveys. Both lie, both present a picture that is anything but the truth of what they claim to represent. Many surveys work on population samples that aren’t correctly balanced. Most surveys never, ever take into account people who do not have, say, a standard telephone line and only a mobile phone number. There are other examples. And of course, it’s well-known that people do not behave when answering to a survey’s questions, as they will when their time to really vote comes. The number of far-right voters are often underestimated because when questioned for a survey, they will not come out and say they intend to vote for a far-right party (yes, this kind of thing is fortunately still considered more than shameful in good old Europe).

So, when I look at the nice survey numbers that came out today and claim that Nicolas Sarkozy has reinforced his leadership position in the last days of the French presidential race, I sit back and smile. And I wait. I will wait until late at night Sunday, and the true results are released. Some people already rejoice. Some people already claim victory is won for the UMP and all is lost for the PS.

Let them.

They are wrong. Nothing is ever finished until the end line has been crossed. Nothing is ever won in advance. Nothing is ever certain, the more so when it comes to polls.

Nicolas Sarkozy is a liar. It has been demonstrated time and again. He lies when he claims that he will regulate the Euro rate and make it lower against the US dollar. He lies when he claims he has any kind of power over that. Nicolas Sarkozy lies when he spews out his simplistic slogan “Work more so you can earn more, and the jobless numbers will fall”. He plans to suppress all taxes on extra-hours and to get rid of all limitations on the number of extra-hours an employer can ask of his employees. This, he claims, will help companies and help the unemployment rate to drop.

Bullshit.

Suppress all taxes on extra-hours, and get rid of all limitations, and you’ll get a very mathematical, very logical consequence: you will simply encourage employers to “request” that their employees work more and more extra-hours instead of hiring new employees. And one wonders, how will that help the unemployment rate…or perhaps one misunderstood, and the aim is to have that number of unemployed people rise?

Add to that the other announcement by Nicolas Sarkozy that he will reform the laws applying to social and job matters: that he will create a single sort of work contract, in which it will be possible to fire anyone without reason, with greatly reduced notice and redundancy payment. This, he has announced. Now, please combine this measure with the one announcing the extra-hours taxes suppression, and you will catch another of Mr Sarkozy’s lies: that everyone will be free to choose. Of course, you will be free to refuse to work extra-hours. With a quasi absence of trade union presence in the small and middle-sized private companies, you will say “no” to your boss, as will be your right, and he will fire you and replace you with someone who will comply, as will be his right.

And I will spare you the rest of the demonstration, and how admitting and finding it normal that people do not earn enough to live with a full-time job will eventually lead to the same shitty situation as in the US or the UK, where people are forced to work several jobs in order to pay their bills, if they’re not lucky enough to have a well-paid job.

Mr Sarkozy has done nothing but oppose people, turn them into enemies or adversaries. This is perfectly logical: he represents the right, and the oh so very moral values of the ultra-liberalism. Mr Sarkozy doesn’t give a damn about Europe, but he gives a great deal of consideration to the US, and to their current president: Georges W Bush. So much so that his staff negotiated during months in order to allow him to be invited to the White House, and to have a stool so he could stand at the same height as W in the famous picture all the media published. Of course, all these negociations took place while he was still Minister of Interior, thus on the State’s budget and the tax payers’ money. But hey, after all, it’s much more useful to use the people’s money for one’s own selfish agenda and ambitions than for the good of all citizens, right?

Mr Sarkozy loves the US so much that he has made a public apology for what he has the gall to call France’s "arrogance", thus humiliating France, and usurping a place and rights that were not his. Who is he, who does he think he is, to belittle France that way? To make judgements that go against his own government? What does it say about what he believes France should be for the US? Oh, not an equal, not a partner who can voice a clear disagreement. A faithful dog, rather, as the UK has been in the whole Iraqi fiasco. Well, that's showing his true stature, and it's not one worthy of becoming the next president of France, for sure!

And there are many other things that give one pause when considering the candidacy of Mr Sarkozy: his American vision for the economical and social solutions in the sense that all his measures are in favour of the upper social classes and will undeniably lead to a deepening of the inequalities between people. Others are his constant attacks on May 68, sign of a clear desire for an ideological revanche. What disturbs people is also the way he has to oppose “those who work” to “those who cheat” and all his suimplistic rhethoric of “black and white”. Mr Sarkozy doesn’t seem to know what grey is. In this, he’s much like his idol Georges W Bush. What appals people is his hyper-repressive vision of society, his challenges of justice decisions, which show a blatant disrespect for the independence of the Judicial power. His ties with the high and mighty in the media world are also in question: how can you be sure of the media’s independence, when you know that Mr Sarkozy is the godfather of the kid of the most powerful TV channel in France? When you know that Mr Sarkozy is a close friend of all the big bosses of the great names of newspapers publication?

Nicolas Sarkozy is dangerous. He is at heart someone who will divide, who will oppose and who will bring chaos, in small or great measures. He’s someone who wants to destroy, to unmake. He's someone who's so bent on projecting the image of one who loves France, that he'll make references to Christianity and happily trample down all the essential priinciples of secularism that are the foundation of France. A Christian's values are higher than an Atheist or an agnosticist, according to Mr Sarkozy.

Even worse, and reminiscent of the dark years that led from 1930 to 1940, Mr Sarkozy is someone who believes that your destiny is determined at birth, by the genes you inherited. He believes that you are born a pedophile, and he plans to have 2 years old kids tested to check if they’re not going to become delinquents. The Brave New World of Aldous Huxley isn’t so far away.

Segolene Royal wants to unite people, to bring them together, to spark discussion and debate. To put all the problems on the table and discuss them with everyone, to find solutions that everyone will adhere to.

Segolene Royal wants dialogue. She wants change and movement, pushed and supported by the support of everyone.

If only because of this, we must reveal the opinion surveys for what they are: lies. Every single vote does count. So go vote on Sunday.

Dare.

Dare bet on Segolene Royal, on her project of reinventing France and a true dialogue between everyone so that all can benefit and go forward.

Dare. Vote.

Laugh in the face of the big media.

And remember, on the precipice of defeat, one gathers one's strength, and one defeats the enemy, even against impossible odds. Everything is possible, to the end.

On The Precipice of Defeat(*)

Here she stands: before her, the abyss. Behind her, the forever closed door of Past Time.

Here she stands, in the clear, without any other shield than the strength of her heart and mind. Vulnerable to betrayal and low blows below the belt…if she allows them to harm her.

They are many, those who would smash Segolene Royal into a million tiny and bloody pieces, for daring to be the Socialist party’s candidate, for being the one the members of the party chose in a fair and democratic primary election. For being a woman with a credible chance of winning. For refusing to be influenced and ruled by all the old clans that rot the Socialist party’s heart away.

I do not particularly like Segolene Royal. In fact, I really resent some of the things she has openly spoken out for, or against. Still, she is the Socialist party’s candidate, and any member of that party who has the tiniest bit of honor should have the decency to at least shut his trap if he doesn’t like her (note the use of the male pronoun, it’s no accident). But it seems that honor isn’t a worthy enough character trait for some of the old guard in the Socialist party, for those of that old guard who’ve always dreamed of an alliance with the center-right, because their opinions do not lean on the left side to begin with.

Michel Rocard was a well-known variable in that equation. His call for an alliance comes as no surprise, and also carries very little credibility with it. But another variable has at last decided to reveal its true nature: Bernard Kouchner.

Mr Kouchner, one of the best liked figures of France, and best liked among the French citizens, and also one of the top members of Segolene Royal’s campaign team. His aura of French Doctor, and co-founder of Doctors Without Borders has leant him a lot of credibility, and has given him the image of someone who cares. Someone who is unselfish, and has a heart big enough to enfold all the pain and suffering in the world. But that image is a sham, a lure. I have known this for quite a while, having heard the gentleman expose his opinions on social and economic matters a while back.

Oh, Mr. Kouchner is a French Doctor, all right, but he’s also a member of the upper class gentry, and his heart doesn’t lean left. His opinions on social and economic matters are more than strongly rooted in the right side of the political field. When you analyze his stated opinions, if you’re honest, you quickly come to the conclusion that you do not know why Mr Kouchner is a member of the Socialist party. He doesn’t belong there. He should at the very least belong to the UDF of Mr Bayrou. Once you know this, this morning’s call for an alliance with Mr Bayrou made by Mr Kouchner comes as no surprise either.

It’s perfectly logical. It’s perfectly natural and fits with his rightwing opinions. What’s more surprising is that he decided to step out of the woods and show his true colors…or maybe not.

Segolene Royal stands on the precipice of defeat. François Bayrou stands a chance of being in the second run after eliminating her. So now is the one chance, the one opportunity to realize a wonderful coup: to knife her in the back, to betray everything and everyone to push forward his own personal agenda. And this is exactly what Mr Kouchner is doing.

What’s loyalty when compared to the opportunity to knife the Socialist party in the back and perhaps damage it for a long time if Bayrou defeats Royal? What’s honor compared to the opportunity of furthering one’s little selfish agenda?

I can already guess the name of one of Bayrou’s ministers, if ever he becomes the president of France. Congratulations, Mr Kouchner, for betraying your own and knifing them in the back. You are all that I expected you to be.

Segolene Royal stands on the precipice of defeat. If that sentence has the ring of something you remember hearing, then you know what that means, and what must follow. And you’re familiar with what must be the best shounen manga title to be published in many years: Bleach.

When Kurosaki Ichigo stands on the precipice of defeat, when blows come from everywhere at once from much too powerful enemies, when betrayal threatens to annihilate everything he stands for, then comes the moment of truth. Of gathering to the center of oneself, to light up the flames in one’s heart. And to go all out. To fight to the end.

And to win.

And this must apply to Segolene Royal, and all those whose heart leans left. Make no mistake. Do not let yourselves be blinded by the aura of someone who is nothing more than a rightwing opportunist with an image of humanitarian. Stand firm, and let your hearts be still. Be steady. The endgame is upon us.

With this post, I leave every reader to weigh their own hearts, and I go off-line for two weeks, hoping that Segolene Royal will prevail. Because, even though I do not like her, she is the Socialist party’s candidate, and my heart beats in the left side of my chest.

Never give up! Never surrender! (**)

(*) On the Precipice of Defeat is of course one of the most famous tracks of the Bleach Original Soundtrack, and played at key moments such as the ones I’ve described above.

(**) From a movie that’s among my favorite: Galaxy Quest.

A Call To Arms

Get your butts out of your comfy chairs, get in gear and vote for Royal!

Time is running out. In the universe of the French presidential election, we’re fast getting to the last jump-point before hitting the Rim. Very fast. Time is slipping away from the candidates, from the media, and from the voters themselves. And yet, according to surveys, more than 40% of the French citizens do not yet know for whom they’re going to cast their votes on April 22nd. Like many journalists, and many politics analysts, here I am: sitting before my monitor, and wondering why. I wonder how this can be, how can people simply not know who they'll choose in less than two weeks, how people can be so undecisive.

Never in recent history has an election had such importance.

France has come to a crossroads. Every sign and portent we can grasp, feel, see and hear tells us that this time, these two particular Sundays of April and May will determine the future of France, with more than potential repercussions for Europe. It’s not a figure of speech, or an over-dramatization. We’re all standing at the edge of what could herald the true destruction of our way of life, of our social security system, to fall headlong into an Americanized society. Or perhaps the French people will choose to shrug off the lies of neo-liberalism and decide to elect someone who will defend who and what they are, and the values that define France.

Americanization. Such is the clear, unveiled promise of Nicolas Sarkozy, who spends his time cavorting around and spewing out the same arguments concerning “work more, you’ll earn more” and evoking the American Dream, this most persistent of lures. Anyone who has been to the US, outside of luxury hotels or resorts, who has truly seen what the US is about, and who knows how things truly stand there, knows that there is no American Dream, just an American Erised Mirror, and I’m being overly nice and kind when I say that.

A very gifted and extremely ambitious autocrat who’s in love with anything remotely resembling to power or a symbol of power—why else would he have negotiated for months in order to be received at the White House by Georges W. Bush, pictures with full special effects included (the stool trick allowing Sarkozy to be of the same height as Bush on that picture being probably the most ridiculous thing ever done by a pretender to the French presidency)?—Nicolas Sarkozy is also in love with almost anything coming from there. The catering to the great global corporations, the worship of unfettered free market coupled to the aim of breaking down social security and promoting individualism, deluding people into believing that “if you want and you work, you will get what you deserve and become rich”, the reduction of very grave and difficult problems to questions of genes, the unsubtle hints to religion and religious values being superior to secular values, the gross flirting with far-right and nationalist themes...all that is reminiscing of the W and his neo-con goons’ era.

Make no mistake, if France goes to Nicolas Sarkozy, he will carry out his promises, and he will destroy everything that makes France France. Culture will become a mere merchandise, unemployed people will be expelled from any kind of social security net and forced to accept underpaid jobs with worse and worse working conditions. Nicolas Sarkozy will institute the right for companies to fire employees without warning or reason, and will destroy all the rights our parents and grandparents fought so hard to obtain for all of us. Illegal immigrants will be cut off from all help, and thus be an ever tastier and easier prey for all the black market activities that nibble at our jobs and work conditions everyday. Tests will be performed at birth to detect if you’re not born a pedophile, or a depressive with suicidal tendencies at first, and then the tests will be run to determine whether you’re not a born delinquent, or a born homosexual, perhaps one day the tests will tell whether you’re a born socialist, or unionist… France will pledge eternal allegiance to the US, and will start a ferocious competition with the UK to see who the most faithful dog of the US administration is. And of course, France will also become the perfect heaven for global corporations, for financial hyenas and for all those big CEOs who get rewards that number in the tens of millions of Euros, whether they did a good job or not.

But then, Nicolas Sarkozy isn’t the only candidate who can pretend to win this election. There is a total of 12 candidates, most of whom are either buffoons or people who simply represent ideas and have no chance whatsoever to win. Only three among them stand a true chance to win: Nicolas Sarkozy, François Bayrou and Segolene Royal.

François Bayrou represents little else beyond himself, and vague promises that he will create a new party, and win a majority in the legislative elections that will follow the presidential one. While being a rather sympathetic, easily likeable character, Mr Bayrou doesn’t have much to offer. He tries to position himself as the anti-system candidate, the one who’s neither on the right, nor on the left. For his plans, he picks this from that side, and that from the other. In the end, it’s hard to say what he will do or not do, and it’s even harder to try and understand how he will be able to do it. Truth be told, there isn’t much credibility to his candidacy, but he does come from a centrist party and he does represent a sort of comfortable quietness while having a pretend rebellious attitude that people seem to like.

Among those who use the presidential campaign solely as a formidable tool to let their ideas known, to try and rise their political weight and to convince people in the long run, it’s likely there’s someone with whom you’ll find yourself in agreement, and whose ideas will feel more appealing than those of the “big three”. But voting for such a candidate in the first round of the election while making the bet that the one of the three you’ll fall back on will be there in the second round is tantamount to political suicide. We all know what happened when this same configuration of events first appeared.

April 21st, 2002, anyone?

No, I didn’t think so. Nobody in his/her right mind wants to relive the shame of having a far-right fascist, racist and nostalgic of the good old days of colonization be in position to become the elected president of France, and of having to go vote for someone whose ideas are opposite to yours in order to avoid the worst. No matter what everyone tries to tell people, about how outrageous it is to request that citizens focus on the “useful vote” as soon as the first round (meaning to vote for one of the three who has a true chance of winning), no matter how some small candidates cry out that it is an infringement on the right of citizens to truly choose who would represent them better, or how it is some kind of political terrorism to remind people of the past, casting a “useful” vote will be essential, unless one wants again to be faced with a choice between Charybde and Scylla.

In truth, those who claim that the Socialist party’s request toward voters to cast a useful vote is political terrorism are committing an act of political terrorism themselves: they are those who need the Socialist candidate, Segolene Royal, to win this election so that they can be in a bargaining position and perhaps get a ministry or other. If it’s not Segolene Royal, then Nicolas Sarkozy stands the most chance of winning it. And from thereon, bye bye, France.

For anyone who doesn’t want to see in power a fascist-leaning autocrat in love with anything American and who believes that destiny is written at birth and unchangeable, and who has a place in their heart for the well-being of people in the society as a whole, there is but one credible option: Segolene Royal.

Segolene Royal is the candidate of the Socialist party.

She’s a woman, the first woman in France’s history who’s candidate with a good, credible chance of winning, and boy does that rankle in some places!

She has been battered by petty criticism, by male chauvinism. Everything she has done has been deemed bad or wrong, or ignorant, when the same things done by her adversaries never even made it to the headline news because either it was no mistake, or because it was in truth insignificant. Segolene Royal HAS the competence. She has the knowledge. She has the best team (DSK is there, never doubt that). She has the resilience, she has the will, and she is a fighter, or she would have crumbled and withdrawn long ago. And what’s more, she has shown she can learn. She has shown a willingness to put herself at risk, she has gone to Lebanon, she has undertaken difficult trips abroad during the campaign, taking risks where the other candidates either remained safely home, or were trying to get the endorsement of their liege lord Georges W Bush where Nicolas Sarkozy is concerned.

Segolene Royal, contrary to what her oh so nice opponents have spent their time claiming, does know what she’s talking about. She does know about people, she does know about promises, she does know about listening to what people have to say. She does know that cohesion is of the essence of France is to go on, and grow deeper roots to sustain its model and its way of life. Segolene Royal recognizes the importance of strong trade union representation, of trade union presence within the companies to manage the social relationships, prevent conflicts and help with adaptations. She understands you need to help smaller entrepreneurs, while taking the wealth from where it’s oh so gently drowsing. She knows that if the state helps out corporations, then a return is expected from them: any corporation that receives money from the state and that wishes to leave France afterwards, to seek out greener and much cheaper pastures will have to give back all the money it got. She has a clear idea of where France should stand in the order of things, in the UNO, in Europe. Yes, she does have a project for France.

Yes, Segolene Royal is a promise of change, and of better days.

Segolene Royal is a chance, and a hope. The only one in this implacable race.

And we cannot afford to snub her, no matter that she doesn't like manga or anime.

PS: places to check out (in French):

• Le fil d'A.
  
• Avant qu'il ne soit trop tard
  
• Désirs d'avenir
  
• Skyblog officiel de Ségolène Royal

PPS: yes. Again. B5. Blame Straczinski for creating the most fantastic TV series ever aired.

Abandon All Hope, All Ye Who Are Born Here

This is the news message of the French TV media’s favorite candidate for the French presidential election. Yes, you heard me: not “I’m gonna give you a better place to live in,” not “I’ll solve all your problems in no time,” not “I’m the best of them all.” No.

Abandon all hope.

You are born with a destiny. With a fate you can only bow down to.

Pre-destination. It’s another word for determinism, an obsolete concept according to which we are born with flaws and qualities, with deficiencies, and that’s it. It claims that nothing we can do, nothing our parents, the society we live in can do, will change them. It claims that we cannot make our own choices, we are prey to the material that shaped us at birth. It claims that those of us who become criminals aren't shaped, even in part, by the events of their lives, by the family they were raised into, by the society they live in. It claims that everything is said and done at birth.

Genes.

Ah, genes. They’re everywhere these days. Gene therapy, hope. Genetic heirloom, threat. Eugenics, nostalgia of fascism and Nazism. It seems that Nicolas Sarkozy is well on the way to falling headlong into that particular pit. A few days ago, in an interview for a philosophy magazine, Mr. Sarkozy argued—twice—that in his opinion, pedophiles are born pedophiles. People with suicidal tendencies are born with suicidal tendencies. Several times he was asked to confirm that opinion, he was asked whether he didn’t think that society, family, the whole environment of the individual couldn’t account for a great part into people turning out the way they do.

But Mr. Sarkozy confirmed, time and again: pedophiles are born pedophiles. People with suicidal tendencies are born so.

This whole interview reveals something dreadful, beyond its message of hopelessness and deresponsibilisation, beyond the unbearable message that claims that we are not free to be who and what we want to be: the nauseating stench of eugenics, of the most repellant aspects of the far-right ideology. If people are born this way, then there is nothing to be done for them. No amount of education, of help, of discipline, of punishment will change what they are. “They cannot help the way they’re born.”

From thereon, the tune is well known. Since nothing can cure those who are born that way, the only thing you can do, at first, is to keep them away. Reject them. Wall them out of society. There’s no need to look for a cause, to question ourselves, to question the way we live, the society we live in, the society we’ve built. We aren’t part of the problem, nobody else but those people are part of the problem. They, and they alone. So, first off, wall the away. Then, really, when the healthy portion of society has had time to ponder the equation, get rid of the problem. Eradicate the defects. Eradicate them from the gene pool.

“They’re born that way.” How easy it is, to wipe difficult, terrible questions and problem away. How easy it is, to shy away from responsibility, from staring at the ugliness that humanity can spawn full in the face. Of course, it’s a very American thing to do. The American school of psychiatry aims to reduce everything to biological problems, to chemical unbalances, thereby turning a blind eye on all the outside elements that cause and trigger depression, and a great many mental health problems. Of course, it’s easy to understand why, when you take a look at the way the US’ society works. It’s easy to see why it’d be helpful to have “science” tell us that our problems stem from our genes, from our biology, thus denying all the harm society, our environment, the blows we take in our lives, the more so when we have no perspective, no social security net to sustain us when the weather gets stormy,

Far more than negating the most basic principles of self-determination and the ability for people to make and lead their own lives, far more than simply bowing down to the US’ way of thinking as is his wont, Nicolas Sarkozy is once again pitting people against each other.

Black and white.

Good and bad.

And this time, he’s telling us that the bad as born bad, and will stay that way. That there is no solution to be found, no question to be asked. That we can do nothing, but protect ourselves. Oh, he’s not there yet. No, no. First, he must rise in power. Be elected. But watch out for him. Once he’s there, the natural sequel of his reasoning will unfailingly follow: if people are born hideous criminals and monsters such as pedophiles, if there is nothing to do about this, then what other way out than to wall them away? What other way out than to build camps? To eradicate the threat, from the gene pool first, and then from society altogether?

But…Mr. Sarkozy, what is the gene that says someone is born a pedophile? What is the gene that says someone is born a delinquent? What is the gene that says someone is born depressive with suicidal tendencies?

Ah, you do not know.

But… Ah, it doesn’t matter, you are convinced that people are born pedophiles or heterosexual or depressive with suicidal tendencies.

And, tell us again, Mr. Sarkozy, what is the solution to those terrible problems, if that is so? Ah, you do not say. Yet.

Today, I’ve read at least ten times the interview where Nicolas Sarkozy happily spews out an argument that places him close to the worst of far-right leaders. Ten times, I’ve been wondering how a man who is making a bid for the French presidency has the gall to utter such heinous nonsense, and how he can get away with it. Had it been any other candidate, it would be all over the TV media, but as it is…nothing.

Nothing at all.

Not even a blink on French TV news. Oh, Belgian TV did mention the scandal, but the French TV networks are unexplainably keeping silent. Of course, the fact that Nicolas Sarkozy’s arm is a far-reaching one, and that he has ties with most of the owners of private TV channels, not to mention connections within public TV channels. If one wants to hear about this, one must get on the internet, read the newspapers, read blogs, and fish out the information the general media doesn’t want the people to see.

And again, Nicolas Sarkozy has shown his true colors: that of a dangerous, out of control autocrat who will stop at nothing, who will embrace far-right theories and more. he has shown that he isn’t worthy to become France’s president. Worse, that he’s not worthy to be a candidate in this election.

I can only hope, that people will hear of this latest derailing, and beware.

Ignorant Fools Should Grow Balls. Really.

Ah, I so love when I see basic anti-European editorialists spewing out the same crap, over and over again, like Mr Krauthammer in today’s edition of the Washington Post, for instance.

It’s always “impotent Europe this”, “impotent UNO that”, and “oh so powerful and benevolent and absolutely non-profit oriented US that saves the day”. An interesting analysis grid for the recent events, to be sure. I’m happy to report that the neo-cons and anti-multilateral institutions goons still cling to the same blindfolds and the same story-spinning and twisting to evangelize the world with their superior wisdom.

So it is that Europe and the UNO are now the ones humiliated by the whole farce between Iran and the UK. That’s weird. Last I checked, the UK was a fervently anti-European integration country, one adamantly opposed to any kind of political harmonisation. Last I checked, the UK was the most vocal and most powerful country to oppose any other voting rule within the UE than unanimity. And now it’s Europe’s lack of ability to unite politically which turned this whole thing into a humiliating route for itself? Uh, no, I really, really don’t think so.

Last I checked, in this hostage situation, it was the UK that was humiliated, along with the US that were forced to move and yield behind the scenes on prisoners and stuff they’re doing together in Iraq. Yeah, Iraq, remember, Mr. Krauthammer? You know, the country you’ve been happily destroying and dumping into long-lasting chaos and civil war? The country you went in to “free” (oil reserves and their exploitation by Haliburton included, batteries sold separately) where now you can even hear Shia people publicly regret the era of the tyrant Saddam Hussein?

Yes, Mr. Krauthammer, Iraq, the mess you caused, the US and the UK together, where Europe and the UNO wisely refused to get drowned along with you. So your allies get caught in a very predictable stage of the nice, unacknowledged cold war you’re busy entertaining with Iran, and it’s Europe’s fault for not getting them out? It’s Europe’s duty to get your allies out of the mess they decided to get in, and where Europe doesn’t want to go, refused to go from the start, and rightly so? It’s the UNO’s fault that your own folly is backfiring and exploding in your faces?

Give me a break, and get a life!

Those who humiliated themselves are the UK, which negotiated behind the scenes while trying to have everyone believe that they were the strong party and were ready to do anything to free their men, with the full option of warlike action hints. Even the UK press didn’t believe a word of that, and mocked the stupid attitude of Tony Blair’s government. Funny, I didn’t hear the English press mocking Europe or the UNO. But then, maybe, just maybe they’re not composed of brain-dead neo-cons and rabid anti-European fools.

Oh, and as to the US, which had to grumpily agree to assist the UK out of that whole nice mess, and had to step back on their own little warfare actions, allowing prisoners to be visited and the like, well, guess who’s looking like a fool? Ah, surprise, it’s your nice and oh-so wise government, Mr. Krauthammer, this paragon of intelligence and world vision that rules over the White House.

So, please continue spitting and foaming at the mouth. Please keep on spewing out ludicrous nonsense. I’m sure you’ll end up convincing yourself…one day. Still, if I mayt be so bold, one humble piece of advice: instead of projecting your own shame and humiliation on others, grow up and learn to shoulder them yourself. It will help you look a bit less like a total fool and ignorant.

As for me, I’ll continue being very, very happy that Europe stayed out of this mess, that we will keep out of this mess, and that it’ll keep being your responsibility, and yours alone. You wanted to dance, well now you’d better dance, and dance until the music dies out completely. I estimate at least a full generation, something like 20 years, before any semblance of order can come back to the ravaged country that you’ve turned Iraq into. So you’re stuck there for a while yet.

I hope you bought good dancing shoes, Mr. Krauthammer.

Good night, and good luck.

Religion’s True Face

“Gays are abnormal people. Abortion is evil, and just a convenient way for women to avoid giving birth. Euthanasia is a mistake. Condoms are porous, and those who encourage their use could well be brought to trial for advocating murder.”

When you read those sentences, you tend to think something along the lines of “ah, well, another fanatic,” or maybe “oh, it’s just a televangelist preaching brain-damaged fools living deep in the US’ infamous Bible Belt.” Or you think, “hmm, that one’s worthy of the true fascist and far-right parties, and to think of it, the Nazis would certainly have approved.” But those sentences aren’t ravings of a maniac, of a nazi nostalgic or a far-right extremist. Those sentences are part of an interview that was published today in a mainstream magazine here in Belgium. The interviewee being none other than a regular bishop of the regular Catholic Church, Mgr Leonard. Of course, Mgr Leonard is famous for his extremely conservative views. He was a fervent supporter of Joseph Ratzinger, our beloved Panzer Pope, and a member of the very powerful Congregation for the Preservation of the Doctrine and Faith (previously known as the “Holy Inquisition”, but for some reason they decided to change their name…). But still, Mgr Leonard is a bishop, and his message is supported by his hierarchy.

When you read those sentences, you think “obscenely backward.” And the message expressed in that interview definitely is. Just as it is also the message and the motto of the Catholic Church these days. You might think that the words are outrageous because the man and the institution behind him intend to spark a debate, and to have a serene discussion between people of different opinions.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. There is no debate to be had, there are only dogma and rules to be imposed on everyone. It goes so far as to challenge the basic principles of law. A law voted by the parliament will not bind the Church and those who bow down to its dictates. When one hears this kind of speech, one cannot help but wonder: aren’t the Church’s people as well as the “faithfuls” citizens of a country, thus bound by that country’s law? Or are they somehow above that, hence above respecting what applies to everyone, including the freedoms our laws offer when managing our lives? Nobody ever said that devout Christian women would have to undergo abortion. Nobody ever said that devout Christians would be forced to accept euthanasia!

When you attend a conference at which Mgr Leonard is invited, sooner or later, someone in the audience will ask him THE question. Someone will ask him about abortion. Being a very, very good Jesuit, he will answer you, as will all the men of the Church answer you: he will tell you about the value of life, about the unborn child, about its unborn soul. He will tell you about the joy and beauty of life. He will tell you about the unborn child’s father, he will tell you about the maternal womb, and all in all he will make a moving, extremely well built five-minute speech, in which there is but one flaw.

During five minutes, the man of the Church will talk about many things revolving around abortion, but he will forget to deal with one little element in the process, one tiny, tiny item involved in the whole thing: a woman. Five minutes on abortion, and no mention of the word “woman” except in a single, offhand sentence. And there, the very core of the Church’s problem is revealed. How can you start disserting on a subject such as abortion without discussing what women think, what women feel, what women experience, how women view themselves, and how they view their own right to self-determination and to rule their own bodies?

Simple.

You can skip the insignificant “woman” element if you start explaining that this insignificant element uses abortion as a simple convenience means to avoid giving birth. When you’ve said that, you’ve said everything. You’ve revealed everything, and forever unveiled the ugly face of Catholic Church, and all monotheistic religions: that of a misogynist. You have insulted women all over the world, you have negated their psychological distress and pain, the shocking and painful surgical procedure they must go through when resorting to abortion. You have denied their very existence as individual, and shackled them into the simple image of a womb. A tool destined to give birth, period.

Islam, Judaism and Christianity have more in common than just worshipping a single deity. They all harbour a very long-lasting hatred for women. Yes, those religions hate women, and it doesn’t take a lot of intelligence to find this out: every holy book contains its share of chapters devoted to how women are inferior, how they should be disciplined by men, how they are impure in this or that circumstance, on how they are temptresses, and they’re always the ones guilty for pushing the innocent men to sin. Never mind that “poor, innocent men” are considered as impotent children who can’t control their own urges, who shouldn’t even have to, when you think about it, since it’s always women’s fault. It seems that men who stick to those religions are content with that portraying of them, which may also be comprehensible: it’s so much more convenient. Who cares that biology teaches us that male behaviour is by far the aggressive part where sexuality is concerned? It’s not as if religion had to bow down to the hard truths of science. Everyone knows that religion is above that. By the way, how old is the earth these days? 5,000 years? Made over the course of 6 days by a grumpy old man with a white beard?

Say what you will, all the chauvinistic and misogynistic passages exist in this or that Scripture. And never has any true Church authority come forward to deny them, and to ask women for forgiveness, for all the crimes and the suffering they have endured for millennia at the hands of men acting in the name of those Scriptures and beliefs.

Changes and evolution in the last centuries almost managed to lull free-thinkers and women into complacence, into a sense of false security, but make no mistake: the Church is still there. It hasn’t changed, its core values are still there. It simply has learnt to wear a more pleasant, a more inviting mask. A quick fix to uncertainty, to insecurity, to loss, grief, fear, unhappiness and death, it is again on the road to seduce all the people rocked and unbalanced by the way our society is evolving and abandoning them on the way. Now the Church hides behind “universal values”, and slowly, slowly crawls back to the frontlines. Little by little, syllable by syllable, it challenges secular law, it demands its place in the temporal order of things. Patient, stubborn, it works at carving its way back toward the level of power it enjoyed before.

It would impose its dogma and its dictates to those who do not share its faith or its beliefs. And why not, since it claims to hold values that are “universal” and thus apply to anyone, no matter what they think or believe in? Why not, since anyway they’re out to save your soul, no matter whether you’re interested or not?

I must have said this a million times: faith deserves my and everyone’s infinite respect. Faith is a personal matter, one that belongs to the person experiencing it and nobody else. Faith belongs to your private life, and it’s your most absolute right. Religions, however, have time and again demonstrated that they are incapable of sticking to the domain of their faithfuls and to the private life domain. Time and again it tries to crawl back out of its closet to impose its views on everyone. Time and again it tries to seize the power it lost and to dominate our lives.

Religions belong to the past. They belong to obscurity and a feudal relationship of servant to master. We aim to live in democracy, in freedom. In such a world, there is no place for obsolete elements that refuse to acknowledge the reality that surrounds them. There is no place for obsolete elements that would impose their laws on others, and stubbornly refuse to understand that we now live in a secular society.

If religions cannot adapt to our secular world, then they must go.

And good riddance.

Sleeping in Light

It is now several weeks after the last two episodes of the Meikai-Hen Kosho were aired in Japan. Several weeks since I’ve watched those episodes, first raw, and then subtitled. That is quite a while, considering that for the first four episodes, I practically jumped on my keyboard and started writing a review on what I had just seen. This time—well, this time is a bit different.

If you read reviews out there, you may find a majority of furious fans raging about how these last two episodes were handled. You may also find people who enjoyed the episodes, and people who enjoyed them, with reservations. I belong to that last category.

Most of the people who simply enjoyed the episodes aren’t rabid Saint Seiya fans, who know all there is to know about their favorite universe, and have known that for fifteen years and more. Those are the ones who will never forgive the change of cast, the eviction of Yamauchi Shigeyasu, and the bone-headed attitude of Masami Kurumada. They are also those who will always measure everything they watch against the Juunikyuu Hen, and thus find mostly everything unworthy. In my opinion, that is just too bad for them, and I would advise them to stop watching any further episodes of The Hades Chapter when they materialize on SkyperfectTV in a year or two. They will never again find something they will enjoy, and they will only bring themselves more bitterness, frustration, and anger. Incidentally they’ll also be bringing those who have the gall to enjoy what’s been done so far and will hopefully be done next serious cases of headaches, and their constant complains and temper tantrums will severely try the rest of the fan universe’s patience. And the gods and the goddesses, named and unnamed, imaginary or real, know how little patience I have for this sort of thing. I am easily irritated, and it gets worse with old age.

But enough with me. Those who unconditionally enjoyed those last two episodes were casual fans of Saint Seiya. People who haven’t read the manga, didn’t know verbatim every line and image of what was supposed to happen, and also who don’t expect Saint Seiya episodes to be outstanding works of art.

And then, there are those who enjoyed them, with reservation, like your humble servant. What reservations? Well, easy enough: episode five features a “what’s been going on last” moment that lasts a full five minutes thirty-six seconds (roughly), OP excluded. This means that a good seven minutes out of the twenty-four minutes thirty seconds of the episode, OP and ED included, are gobbled up by a simple copy-paste of images and dialogues already known and aired. That is one hell of a lot: almost one third of the episode’s time completely wasted. Of course, this “what’s been going on before” moment is a common occurrence in TV episodes of long series. Take Bleach, for instance: these days, every episodes starts with around two minutes of summary. Two. Not five and a half, and those are TV episodes, not OVA episodes. One can only surmise what happened: lack of time, of means, of motivation, overall exhaustion…who can tell? But that’s not all. Episode five also features a truly horrible moment: the Gold Cloths’ call to each other. Whoever came up with the sound effect was under some bad weed’s influence. Either that, or s/he had way too much alcohol poisoning his or her bloodstream. To this day, I shudder whenever I hear that completely stupid, horrible and pathetic excuse for what should have been a beautiful, dramatic moment.

So that’s about it for the bad stuff. The musical selection was correct, but lacked the touch of class I had grown used to. Many repetitions in the chosen themes, but Saint Seiya music remains wonderful, whatever you do with it. Unlike many of the die-hard Saint Seiya fans, a category I thought I definitely belonged to, I really did enjoy the end of the confrontation between Kanon and Rhadamanthys. Yes, Kanon is powerless. Yes, Kanon is beaten and flung to the ground as easily as if he were an infant. Well, that is all rather natural: the Gemini Cloth just left him, and he is still confronted to the most powerful Judge of Hell. So, hey, what’s the problem with that? Hm, I think I know: the Greatest Caution isn’t as beautiful as it was in the Juunikyuu. Well, yeah, that’s true, but then again, it hasn’t been that way in the Zensho either. So why would it be now? Does it matter? It’s just an effect, just an attack. It really doesn’t matter so much how it’s portrayed. What goes on between the two opponents is much more important, if you ask me. The way those two interact is way more important. And I find it all rather well done. I was happy with how that ended. Kanon supporter that I am, I found myself satisfied, and gifted with a gorgeous image of Kanon leaving this life to go to whatever awaits beyond, serene and smiling. Beyond that, I was also happy with the small scenes from the Sanctuary, as well as the with the short flashback on the Poseidon chapter. So, yes, all in all I was satisfied with the episode, and happy with how the Kanon vs. Rhadamanthys matter was settled.

And then, there was episode six, and the sacrifice of the Gold Saints. Many people found it botched, found the moment didn’t manage to draw out the right emotions of heartrending loss. I disagree. There is no heartrending loss to be felt here. That took place before, in the Juunikyuu where Aries Mu, Leo Aioria, Taurus Aldebaran and Scorpio Milo are concerned. What takes place before the accursed Wall is nothing more than a repetition, a second ending and, what’s more, one which brings the possibility of hope, whereas the loss experienced in the Juunikyuu was full of impotent rage at watching such fantastic characters be slaughtered by an incredibly powerful opponent who was playing on his own turf, and not playing fair (remember, I go with the kekkai theory, and I will stick to it to the end). But still, even if we, as spectators, do not truly lose the Gold Saints there, the Bronze boys do. And the moment during which we see Seiya, Shiryu, Hyoga and Shun run in slow motion, past their elders who smile gently upon them, those they call friends and brothers, well that moment is well done, and does draw out the right emotions.

Of course, I admit to not have put as much stake in the Gold Saints sacrifice as many other people have likely done. In my opinion, the moment is anti-climatic. It is even, if you think about it, ridiculous scenario-wise. We know that the Gold Saints are powerful enough to trigger a mini Big Bang with the Athena Exclamation. And a mini Big Bang, no matter how mini, certainly DOES equate to the intensity of the sun’s rays. To pretend otherwise is, well, stupid. But plot holes are part of the original Saint Seiya manga story, and this one is no exception. I was mad at Masami Kurumada when I first read the manga, back in the early 1990s, I have gotten way madder at him recently, but I will not blame the anime adaptation for flaws that belong to the original. I may regret there was neither latitude, nor means to correct the flaws and shape a fantastic story (ask me to rewrite that Hades Chapter sometime, no crossover, I just may do it one day), but that’s all.

To tell you the whole truth, being definitely a true Andromeda Shun afficionada, well I didn’t focus so much on the Gold Saints’ individual farewells to the Bronze Boys they were particularly close to. Shun having always been kept away from such friendship and closeness, and thus being excluded from such farewells, I never did care so much about them. Still, it was a nice touch to have Pisces Aphrodite tell Shun he had to pull another miracle, the way the Andromeda Saint had when defeating him. It was also a nice touch to have Seiya go to Aldebaran while the two, long separated brothers could at last be reunited. And Shiryu’s tears after the deed is done are also rather moving. However, a special hilarious moment is dedicated to all the fans gifted with the ability to smile when stuff in their favorite work is badly botched: a longish race during which the Bronze Boys really, really look like awkward ducks trying to flap their wings to lift off from the ground. That, as the sound effect of the Gold Cloths calling out to each other, was outstandingly badly done.

And then there is the end of the episode, with the rather satisfying appearance of Minos, and most of all the non confrontation between Ikki and Pandora, who watches the Phoenix Saint from the shadows as he strides toward the now breached Wall. And, as she watches, memories rise and grip her soul. Tears well in her eyes, and start to run down her cheeks. As Ikki continues his walk, Pandora starts moving from behind the shadows. All along the Kosho episodes, she has been watching, pondering, wondering. And wavering. Little by little, she has gone from referring to Hades as “Hades-sama” to simply “Hades”. And the horror of events past is like a rising tide she cannot and may even not feel like fighting down. The last image we have of her and Ikki show her almost about to rush after him, or call out to him. It’s not the longest moment of the episode, but it’s definitely a very, very good one.

Eventually the episode ends with the Bronze Boys jumping into the hole in the Wall. They do not know what awaits. They do not know that Athena has been trapped. And we…we have to wait for long months before watching the conclusion to the Hades chapter. Fortunately in the meantime, we’ll still be getting our weekly shot of Saint Seiya thanks to Shiori Teshirogi and her Saint Seiya, the Lost Canvas, which to this day continues to be an excellent read.

I will not finish this series of reviews concerning the Meikai-Hen Kosho on an unhappy note. I am not unhappy, on the contrary. I am happy. These six OVAs provided me with four excellent episodes, moments of magic to be treasured. These six OVAs gave us two fantastic three-fold faceoffs: Shun, Ikki and Hades, and then Hades, Shaka and Athena. What is, in my humble opinion, one of the key moments of Saint Seiya kept all its promises. What’s more, as a bonus, we got to see a very, very good Shaka in episodes three and four. Now the Meikai-Hen Kosho is over, and we have bidden a final farewell to fantastic characters, to godlike figures, both gifted and cursed with humanity—with a heart and a soul. The Gold Saints are gone, a smile on their faces, gone to wait for the next turn of the wheel, sleeping in light. So, to hell with disappointment in the last two episodes, even though it may be warranted. Who cares? I am still happy they made them. And I want more. Let those who hate those episodes be coherent and stop even trying to watch further episodes. I want more. I will wait for more.

And so will a great many other people.

The EndGame is about to begin, and I will be there when it starts.

PS: as usual, you can find this review, illustrated with a selection of screencaps from episodes 5 & 6 here, in my web home.
PPS: yes, B5 titles. I know. :P

The Erised Lure

Look me in the eye, and I’ll tell you what you want to hear…or I’ll try to, anyway.

This sentence is a good description for quite a few things happening in the world these days.

In the French presidential election race, Mr Sarkozy and Mr Bayrou seem to be intent on a race to know which one will beat the other on that ground.

Mr Bayrou flings chimaeras at people everywhere such as promising a new form of government, a new grand alliance between all the “good” and “efficient” forces of the country, with this superb swindling of his: “if you elect me, I will unite left and right, and I will govern the country with everyone”. Of course, he casually forgets to mention that French law and constitution do not allow for this to happen. And, of course, he forgets to mention that both he and his party have always sided with the right, and that they are completely dependant on the UMP’s good will to win local elections as well as legislative elections to get into the National Assembly. With an apparently guileless smile, a gentle voice and a look of serenity about him, Mr Bayrou goes from interview to interview, spreading hints and promises that he will satisfy all sides of the French society. Right and left will work together for the good of all. Listen, and believe. Amen.

Mr Sarkozy promises that people will earn more, that they’ll have more freedom and more security if only they are allowed to work more, while in the same time vowing that more work time will be done only on a voluntary basis. Mr Sarkozy casually forgets to tell people that, once such a change is enacted, the norm will shift from a full time work with decent wage of 35 hours a week to whatever a majority of people will “choose” (when the renting rice of your appartment is as high as half of your income and you have kids at school, you will always “choose” to do more work to have more money, simply because you're screwed if you don't--Mr Sarkozy calls that “freedom”, I beg to differ). Maybe 40, or 45 hours. From then on, those who keep working a legal 35 hours a week full time will see their income decrease in a significant fashion. Not to mention what’ll happen to all the workers who are forced to accept part-time jobs. With a spring in his steps, Mr Sarkozy hails the holy value of “work”, worse, of “hard work”, reducing the lives of people and the inherent worth of people to their work, and how harsh their work life is. Blithely, he proposes to have people vote for someone who denies the existence and worth of a personal life, of a family life, of expression and self-development outside of the workplace. With sweet songs and lullabies and promises of more money, more responsibility, more flexibility, more security, Mr Sarkozy is busy dangling promises of sparkling tomorrows, using the over-abused and obsolete trick of the “American Dream”, a fraud only fools still believe in. But telling people they’ll earn more money, telling people they’ll be responsible for their own lives, lie though it may be, has a strong appeal if you’re not trained to think and analyze further. Just as Mr Sarkozy’s use of the deep fear of immigration in the French society, his promise of setting up a ministry of National Immigration and Identity appeals to people, no matter how reminiscing it is of the darkest hours of France’s Vichy past. Vote for him, and you’ll be rich, you’ll work more, more, more, and you’ll be happy, you’ll never see your kids and your spouse, you’ll no longer have time for holidays and your private life, but hey, does it matter when you know that you’ll have the means to have a guardian for your kid and someone to clean up your home for you? Nah. Listen, and believe. Amen.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Georges W Bush is embarked on a journey to try and regain the hearts and mind of the South American people lest they succumb to the horrors of the left. After having had a good taste of the gentle hand of unfettered liberalism, people there started electing left-wing Socialist governments in power. So, you can imagine the danger for poor W: it’s as if the cold war could start all over again, as if the commies were coming back! I swear, what were all those South American thinking, not liking being reduced to utter poverty and even famine while big worldwide American corporations were getting fat gobbling up their resources? Were they not “free”, hence “happy”? Fortunately, W is now back in business there (well, after being spanked in Iraq, he had to get busy with doing something…), bringing with him grand speeches (hey, he can even spew out two sentences in Spanish to talk to all his compadres, his comrades, all these modest, honest people like himself—I doubt all those people have dozens of millions of US dollars in the bank, but), a little bit of money to shower on the misery of the continent, and a boat with full medical equipment so that poor people can get medical attention and surgery for free! Isn’t that a fantastic proof of the US’s care for those people (now if only the US could start with its own population and its own total lack of a social security system, it might be interesting, first take care of your own misery, and then take care of others)? A boat! Can you imagine the enormity of that? Listen, and believe. Amen.

And then, there is the champion of all, but that champion isn’t a person. It’s a game. “Second Life” as it’s called, and “Sucking Out Your True Life” as it should be called. Fundamentally different from classical MMORPGs like Everquest, Second Life doesn’t give you a fantasy universe to play in, it doesn’t give you a science-fiction universe to play in. No, Second Life gives you a fake real-life universe. A virtual everyday, where you can be what you didn’t manage to be, do what you would never dare do. Where you can flee, where you can hide, and forget that there is a solid, tangible world in which you should be, act and react. Like many people, I know that temptation, and at times I have found it extremely hard to resist. Why not go and have fun there, realize my potential there, if I am dissatisfied with what I have or managed to have here? The answer is simple: because what happens there doesn’t matter, will never, ever have an impact on your life here. Because by luring people in such a universe, you give them an outlet, a way to vent out frustration, to spend their energy that redirects it away from real life. Away from getting involved in their real lives, from gathering the strength to push for changes, and to make this world a better place, however small individual inputs can be. The ocean is made of a myriad of drops. Every single one matters. But people forget that where reality is concerned. Once redirected toward a virtual universe, suddenly they start believing everything’s possible again. There are no dangerous stakes, no consequences, and so this oh so nice game channels energy and gobbles it up. A very neat black hole, it ensures that people’s attention will remain focused on an imaginary place, where ghosts of bits and bytes meet up, play at interacting, play at living out their lives while the real world watches and laughs.

Harry Potter almost drowned into the Mirror of Erised's lure twice, but at the last moment, he managed to step back. Can real people do as much?

When Facts Go Beyond Slogan

“Sarko Facho”. It’s a well-known label that was used against Nicolas Sarkozy, equating him with a fascist. This slogan was adamantly denied and fought by supporters of the authoritarian minister of interior, and as those things go, it wasn’t long before all those who used it were considered “extremists” or “intellectually dishonest” by a great majority of people.

Fascist isn’t a word to use lightly in Europe, and in France in particular. Fascist echoes memories of our darkest hours, of collaboration with the Nazis and the Hitler/Mussolini era. So using the adjective to qualify Nicolas Sarkozy kind of backfired at the time, no matter how authoritarian and how the minister of interior appeared to be flirting with the far-right on quite a few affairs.

But last week, an interesting piece of evidence appeared, which shed a rather unholy light on Nicolas Sarkozy’s true political alignment. Mr Sarkozy published a book (which he didn’t write, but that’s they way these things are done, be it by him or others) to gift the world with his vision of what France should be, how he saw things, and what he would do if elected president. There was nothing surprising in there, but.

But the book was published in Italy as well. And there, it was prefaced by a very special friend of Nicolas Sarkozy’s. An Italian friend, whose name didn’t appear in the preface of the French version of the book, safely prefaced by someone else. It’s likely Mr Sarkozy thought he’d get away with this little stunt, and that nobody would notice who he chooses to preface a book as important as the one describing his ideas and his vision for France, Europe and the world.

And that friend, that very special friend of Mr Sarkozy’s is none other than Gianfranco Fini, the infamous leader of the MSI – National Alliance party. This party is heir to the old Italian fascist tradition, one which proudly claimed to uphold the values and heritage of the dictator Mussolini, who was Adolf Hitler’s closest ally during World War II. The party used to be proud to have Alessandra Mussolini, Mussolini’s granddaughter among its members. It’s well known for its extremist positions against immigration, against homosexuality, and all the usual rhetoric of far-right parties.

Of course, brainwashed supporters of Nicolas Sarkozy will start yelling that this was a long time ago, that Gianfranco, poor Gianfranco, has changed, that he’s curbed his fascist views and has renounced his old demons. That is nothing more than a sham and a bad lure. Yes, Mr Fini’s party has softened its declarations, and has strived to appear more “respectable” and “normal”. But the facts, the declarations of its members give out the lie for what it is.

And what’s more, Mr Sarkozy can’t pretend this was all a mistake: his ities with darling Gianfranco are anything but new. Nobody can claim they don’t know what our nice Gianfranco is about.

The “Courrier International” depicts an “alliance of iron” between Italy’s far-right, fascist figures, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the English Tories. The newspaper calls this alliance “the new right”. It is a daunting, frightening prospect to envision such an alliance taking place and growing in Europe, slowly staining our freedoms and our social security systems, our ways of life—all the while luring people’s votes with promises of being the ones who’ll reward their labor, because they’ll lash out and punish all those who abuse the system (the weakest ones, those who have no power, no voice, no money, no status…hmm, why does this ring a very dark bell in my mind?)

And, amusingly enough (read: I am not amused—not amused at all), not a word of this appeared on the TV news. Not even a whisper. The only media which reported this oh so unimportant piece of news were the left-leaning newspapers, and that’s all.

Funny, when you think that all the TV news simply dashed to cover and give precious prime time to the hoax of a French humorist who managed to dupe Segolene Royal, Socialist candidate to the presidency. But then again, the fact that said humorist is a friend of Nicolas Sarkozy’s, and that the hoax would be used to discredit the Socialist candidate had nothing to do with the zeal and speed with which it was put in the headline news on TV.

Just as the fact that the TV network’s occulting the revelation of Mr Sarkozy’s ties and closeness of opinion and ideas with a man whose ideology stinks all the way to Pluto, Proxima Centauri and beyond has nothing to do with favoring the one candidate who has been known to claim that he owns the supposedly neutral media.

If there is one reason which should unite people and make them vote for anyone but Nicolas Sarkozy, regardless of their political views, it should be this one: Mr Sarkozy isn’t what he tries to sell to the voters. Mr Sarkozy’s friendship lies to the right. To the fascist far-right. And the danger he represents must be stopped.

Sources (in French):
Libération
Le Courrier International

No Surrender, No Retreat !

It’s a strange sensation, when you feel a shiver run up your spine, and when you feel your heartbeats speed up. Strange, and full of childlike wonder when the cause of these symptoms is your watching two episodes of the Meikai hen Kosho, raw (meaning unsubbed).

It’s a bit like electricity coursing your bones, and rewinding almighty Time to younger days, when you could still call yourself a kid and be completely into an anime series like Saint Seiya without having those close to you blink too openly at your weird behavior and taste…although, to be honest, it doesn’t matter much how old you grow, nothing prevents your from still enjoying and loving what you did when you were 18. Nobody can make you change what thrills you, nobody but yourself, and the truth is there is no age limit to enjoy oneself, unless you make it so.

So, back to the topic. Today, I watched both episodes 22 and 23 of the Hades Chapter, also known as OAVs 3 and 4 of the Meikai-hen Kosho or as OAVs 7 and 8 of the Meikai-hen as a whole. And the very good news is that I keep being lifted up on the wings of that series. The very, very good news, is that all the things that define Saint Seiya are present in these two episodes: fantastic characters, gorgeous art, incredible seiyuus, and what remains, in my humble opinion, the best part of the whole Saint Seiya story, except for the Twelve Houses race in the Sanctuary chapter.

Now, for some detailed comments:

In episode 22, the major change is the lengthening of the Valentine/Seiya fight. Not exactly needed, the more so since there were other things to develop further than what Kurumada did, but it was well done. Some good cuts and transitions, and a tad more fluidity in the motions, good! But what really won the day there was the confrontation Shaka/Hades/Athena. For the first time in the anime’s history, I enjoyed the performance of Virgo Shaka’s seiyuu. It was thrilling and moving at once. The reason for that is very simple: for the first time we are offered a Virgo Shaka with feelings and emotions. A human being, a man of flesh and blood, who goes through anguish when the Athena he loves above everything climbs up the stairs to confront Hades, who experiences anger and sorrow when evoking the fate of Shun, whom he believes forever lost. A Virgo Shaka who shudders and must make a visible effort to keep a shout of protestation and outrage from escaping his lips when Athena kneels down before Hades and pleads for humanity. A Virgo Shaka I’m glad to perceive at last as a man of flesh and blood, with a heart that beats inside his chest, a heart that hammers inside his ribcage while he watches Athena stride toward her arch-enemy weaponless.

Yes, Gold Saint though he may be, man closest to the divine though he may be, Virgo Shaka is and remains a human being. And it’s this ability to keep feeling that justifies the Gold Saints' status as protectors of humankind. Only those who can feel as ordinary people feel, those who can have a moment’s weakness or fragility, those who have had to struggle and fight to gain the strength of the soul that allows them to rise even against impossible odds can be entrusted with the safeguard of humanity. Of course, it’s true that I’d have loved to see Shaka react, to have seen him ignore the command of Athena at some point, but it couldn’t be: this sin’t the way Masami Kurumada wrote the character, and to change that would have meant a major change in this key scene of the episode. Given the restrictions put on the Saint Seiya anime adaptations since Mr Kurumada lost the little bit of brains and wits he ever had after the Tenkai-hen affair, there was no way the scenarists could have changed that in a good way while respecting constraints such as “no major changes and a strict respect of the manga”.

This episode also contains a very nice performance by Saori’s seiyuu, and a very good picturing of Hades’ soul.

And of course, I cannot help but regret that there was no development of Shun’s release by Hades, no showing of Shun fighting Hades’ hold once Athena’s blood has reawaken his spirit. We know it is happening, all the other characters explain what’s going on, but we do not see it. It’s a lack already present in the manga, and I must admit that I had hoped it would be filled by the anime adaptation, but once again, knowing how things stand with Mr Kurumada and intelligence and creativity these days…well, I couldn’t expect any miracle of the kind.

Still, all in all, a very good episode. A superb Virgo Shaka and a rather interesting Saori/Athena, so I for one am happy ^^

Episode 23. Here, I must start with another regret: when Seiya enters the Guidecca, he discovers a still unconscious Shun, who wears the Andromeda Cloth although we left him still wearing Hades’ full garb, his Cloth put away somewhere in the Guidecca’s many chambers after Hades’ taking over him. This is incoherent, as incoherent as it was in the manga, but contrary to scenes developing Shun’s struggle against Hades, it could have been easily fixed: take five seconds out of the totally useless and futile scene with Miho and the kids wondering at the unannounced eclipse in Japan, and you could patch that plot hole. But it wasn’t done. Ah well.

Again, Virgo Shaka is breathtaking. Those two episodes really favor him and help in giving more flesh, more stature and strength to this character who had appeared much too arrogant and aloof in all that went on before. I know I've said this just above already, but I really used to have a very hard time liking the voice of his seiyuu and imagining it fit with the character’s, but once you turn him into a real human beings, into a person with guts and a heart, both the character and his voice become absolutely fantastic! The scene of Virgo Shaka’s cosmo unfolding fully for the first time in the whole Saint Seiya story is simply fantastic.

And of course this episode features the reawakening of the three Gold Saints imprisoned in the eternal ice fields of the Cocyte. Aries Mu, Leo Aioria and Scorpio Milo are magnificent (ah, Aries Mu’s smile when he steals a glance toward the now empty spot where Ikki had been imprisoned as well). Their arrival before the unbreachable wall behind which Hades has retreated, taking Athena with him, in time to rejoin Dohko and Shaka (yes, Seiya and Shun are there, in the background, but they do not exactly matter here ^^), and Mu’s returning the rosary to Shaka are much awaited moments, and ones that keep their promises.

There is a lot of dialogue in that episode, and quite a few repetitions among them, but then who cares? The anime isn’t responsible for the manga’s flaws, and since there was no freedom to make real changes during the adaptation process, it’s futile to attribute to the anime what belongs to the manga and to Mr Kurumada. Still, if you try to think about it, the TV series was more than flawed as well, and yet a great many people loved it, and love it still. So my opinion remains that anyone who watches those OVAs in search of more than what they found in the TV series as a whole, bad episodes included, will always be disappointed, but I also believe that they’re looking for something that’s not there, and that’s never going to be there.

The episode ends with the gathering of all the Gold Saints that were still alive, and switches to a very nice view of the Sanctuary’s immediate vicinity in sunlight, where we see Marin dragging a very timid Seika along. Then comes the very nice ED song, and the preview of episode 24...and a very frustrating month-long wait for more.

After the revelation of the harsh, merciless truth of the nature of the wall standing before the Gold Saints, and of the only thing that can breach it, after despair’s bone-gnarled hand worming its way to enclose and crush the hearts and souls of Shaka, Mu, Aioria, Milo, Seiya, Shun and Dohko, we switch over to the sunlight. The only thing that can crack the wall shaped by the gods. And hope...hope is kindled, breathed back to life, blown into a bonfire from the embers and the ashes that the dark, very well done atmosphere of the wall’s vicinity had almost managed to annihilate for good.

No, no despair, no matter what.

No surrender, no retreat!

Onward…to the next, and last episodes of this Meikai-hen Kosho, and the heartrending sacrifice that is about to take place.

PS: As usual with Saint Seiya reviews, you can find this one with rather nice screencaps on my web home here.

PPS: yes, I know, I am way too fond of Babylon 5 episode titles! :P

The Caius Julius Temptation

Today is Nicolas Sarkozy’s big day. Today is DA day, when little Nicolas is crowned holy candidate of the UMP for the coming presidential election in France.

Nothing is too good to celebrate this auspicious day. No effort has been spared. 3,500,000 € have been lavished on Mr Sarkozy's enthronement show. Eight bullet trains have been chartered, and 520 coaches to bring in worshippers from all over France.

Mr Sarkozy is the one and only candidate for his party’s nomination. He is the sole, absolute ruler of an organization he’s been at the head of for years, an organization he very skillfully transformed into a tool for his own personal glory and to help his own devouring ambitions. The machine is now ready. Ready to hail its hero. With a luxury of means that more than borders on debauchery, the machine aims to send a message to France and the world.

What message, you ask?

That a man has managed to turn a collective group into a weapon that serves the interests of one individual. That Nicolas Sarkozy turned the UMP into something akin to what the communist party was in Romania in the times of Ceauscescu. He has turned a political party into an organization dedicated to his person.

A proof? A hint of this being true? Well, that’s easy: check the way things went in the Socialist party, and the bitter struggle between three would-be candidates for the nomination. With the UMP, nothing of the sort happened. Oh, there is dissent, among the “old guard” of the previous incarnation of the UMP, there are different voices, but strangely enough, none has stepped forward and declared they would battle Mr Sarkozy for the UMP nomination. Why do you think? Why, when you know that these personalities all have egos at least as big as Mr Sarkozy’s, and a huge experience of political battles and skirmishes?

Because all these people are no fools, and know they didn’t stand a chance. Because these people didn’t want to play the humiliating game of being Mr Sarkozy’s puppet opponent used to justify his own candidacy, his own triumph. Because the game was hacked from the start, and that everyone knew who the winner would be. The recipe is very simple, once you’re the head of a relatively new political party (the UMP was created on the ashes of the RPR) and you’re given free rein to organize it, structure it, and communicate as you wish with members and would-be members. As long as you have good professionals behind you who will be extremely careful that all messages you send to your members contain what is needed to cultivate the glory of the party’s leader, as long as you decide to put all efforts into the image of the “president”, this nice years-long brainwashing campaign will do the job: the members will vote for Mr Sarkozy, no matter who else is candidate for the UMP nomination.

Still, Mr Sarkozy would have loved to have at least one opponent, so he could show that his nomination was the “true” result of a democratic process where he had had to struggle and convince the party that he was the best candidate. Too bad for him, but none of his enemies within the UMP were stupid enough to oblige.

So instead, Mr Sarkozy compensates with a true Roman festival dedicated to his self-promotion. Mr Sarkozy organizes one hell of a big party where thousands of people are brought in to cheer him on and hail glory to him.

Americanization, mi amor…

Of course, the ideas, the projects, the policies, all that is secondary. All that shifts to the shadows, while Mr Sarkozy steps into the light, receives the expressions of fealty and admiration of the crowds.

For me, I don’t know how you can enjoy having crowds hail you on cue as happens in the worst TV shows. But then,, even though I certainly have a big ego, I must be lightyears away from Mr Sarkozy’s level.

Blinding people with the extravagance of his crowning show, Mr Sarkozy hopes to gain a legitimacy he was hoping to gain through a fake triumph over another candidate. He aims to focus people’s attention on images, on an empty show instead of on documents such as the very serious and frightening study of the Socialist party (in French here).

Mr Sarkozy is all empty self-display, and he uses the communication skills of his advisers so as not to have people dwell on who he is, what he wants, and what his true ideas and projects for France are.

Mr Sarkozy is a frightening figure, an authoritarian man with sharp intelligence and a formidable will and a headstrong attitude to match. Someone who cannot accept he could be wrong or could have to change his mind. A friend of the US neo-cons, an admirer of a culture that has nothing to do with Europe’s and France’s, he would use all his energy and power to transform France into what it is not. A firm believer in the superiority of religions over agnosticism or atheism, he would endanger the secularity of France.

Still, these are political ideas, and they have the right to be there, to exist and be debated, but they are not being debated. They’re being hidden behind a curtain of smoke, behind grand celebrations lavishing praise and applause on Mr Sarkozy himself.

What remains the most disturbing about him is the impossibly huge ego that transpires from everything he says or does. It’s how he has created and encouraged the transformation of a political party into a weapon solely dedicated to furthering his own glory and flattering his own ego.

He’s not the first to have this kind of personality. Many others before him went the way of self-admiration. Many others before him reshaped structures into tools that served only their own interests. In his manic quest to gather power around his person, Nicolas Sarkozy is going down the same path as the Bush Administration, where the White House frantically aims at pushing the executive’s power so far as to overwhelm the judicial and the legislative power. The process is the same.

And where it leads is not a place where we want to go.

Rome, 44 BC, when the Republic fell, and true tyranny started. Check your history books, it’s all explained there. Or, better, check out Rome, the HBO and BBC TV series, and you’ll see how Mr Nicolas Sarkozy and the US neo-cons are just recycled products of much brighter and stronger figures.

Our Last, Best Hope... for Saint Seiya !

One can reasonably surmise that Masami Kurumada, the much acclaimed [insert snicker here] author of Saint Seiya didn’t know what he was doing when he entrusted the young mangaka Teshirogi Shiori with the making of a prequel to the series. The young woman was after all at the beginning of her career, having only a two volumes series to her name.

Miss Teshirogi’s prequel was to run parallel to another prequel, one done by the “master” himself. The two prequels would tell the tale of the previous holy war between Athena and Hades, the one which had taken place in 1743. That prospect alone was rather disappointing, as fans were largely more interested in seeing more of the Heaven Chapter after the fantastic Overture movie directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi. But then, as Mr Kurumada had had a bit of a temper tantrum concerning the movie, loved by the fans but hated by him, a sequel was not to be. Instead, two prequels got underway.

Mr Kurumada's would be titled “Saint Seiya Next Dimension” and was published first. The result was an affront to the eye and to the mind. Art so ugly it hurt to look at it, dialogues about right for characters aged respectively 7 and 8 years old, and a scenario about as bad as what the worst 7 years old male fanfickers can do concerning Saint Seiya. So, quite logically, many among the fan community, myself included, were disgusted and more or less abandoned all hope concerning this new revival of Saint Seiya.

As it happens we were wrong.

By accident more than by design, Mr Kurumada gave a license to produce Saint Seiya material to a woman who not only loves the series, but what’s more shows a true understanding of what Saint Seiya is about, of what lies at its heart. And so, soon after the Next Dimension horror of Mr Kurumada came out, Miss Teshirogi’s Lost Canvas appeared, and charmed a great many Saint Seiya fans off their feet.

Miss Teshirogi enriches her characters touch by touch. With a single picture, she adds nuance and layers to her characters. Exit all the over-simplifications and the hasty, or inexistent backgrounds to explain a character’s personality. In little drops of jet black ink, Miss Teshirogi paints the characters, gives them a life, a soul, and draws the reader along with her vision of the story. Elegance, class, nobility, resourcefulness, razor-sharp depictions and good humor at unexpected times are the key elements that are sure to turn her vision of the 1743 war into a success.

Overall, the interactions between the characters feel natural, contrary to how forced they do when Mr Kurumada tries to use his lack of talent at dialogues. With Miss Teshirogi, there is no obvious rigidity in sentences and dialogues, no jarring sensation that send your teeth gritting in frustration. The flow of words is just right. The characters are true to themselves, instead of becoming mere parodies fit for a farce. The depth and coherence she brings, along with the charisma and class of the characters are a blessing.

Of course, this is Saint Seiya, and it will remain Saint Seiya. But miss Teshirogi has given it back its touch of class, she has re-infused it with subtlety and elegance, she has brought back coherence and depth. With a feathery brush of shoujo talent, she has revived a very much battered hope for the series. In spite of my initial lack of interest for a prequel of Saint Seiya, I now find myself eagerly waiting for each new chapter to be published. That, in itself, is undeniable evidence of miss Teshirogi’s talent and true understanding of the series. It’s both sad and apparently illogical to say, but she knows more concerning the heart and soul of Saint Seiya, than the one who created it in the first place. Mr Kurumada lost his way a long time ago, among too many packs of beer and wrestling matches.

Thankfully, be it fate or something else, Mr Kurumada’s path crossed miss Teshirogi’s. She is the right person at the right place, and in the right time. It’s a rare and precious enough chance to be noticed. And one wonders, if the gods haven’t decided to smile again.

A more detailed review, with a few pictures to show you I'm not kidding, is available in my Saint Seiya shrine: http://fuu-no-road.2ya.com/STSLC.html

Enjoy! ^^