2024-07-29: It Is Anime
- Log: It Is Anime
- Cast: Elan Ceres, Suletta Mercury
- Where: Asticassia ~ Library
- Date: 2024-07-29
- Summary: Anime ja?! Suletta proves to Elan that anime is real by showing him My Heart's A Net!, her favourite sports shoujo. Elan learns a lot about Suletta -- and what helped shape her -- in the process.
<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.
Life is not without its bright spots. Since that day that Elan first invited Suletta to eat lunch on the rooftop with him, it's become... not a regular occurrence, but something they do together occasionally. Not just something to tick off a list of things Suletta wants to do, but an experience they share together as friends.
Friendship is still a shaky concept for Elan, but the time he spends with Suletta is... calming, in a way. And stirring, in a way. It's both at once in a way he has thus far avoided questioning too deeply. It's pleasant. That's good enough.
It was on a sunny afternoon, on one of the last days of the semester, that they'd been sitting opposite one another, Elan's back blocking the artificial sunlight from blinding Suletta, like he had back on that first day they'd eaten together. (All the better for her to see his pretty face.) He'd been eating and listening to her talk about her recent transfer into Earth House, and how life there had and had not matched up with the anime that had so inspired her to attend school. He'd chewed, watching her with his usual lack of expression but unusually bright eyes. He'd swallowed.
"Suletta Mercury... there's something I've been meaning to ask you," he'd said. "Something I've meant to ask you for a long time..." He'd set down his fork on his lunch tray. He'd gazed deep into her blue eyes. His lips had parted--
"What... is anime?"
...Hopefully Suletta hadn't been hoping for something else.
Either way, that'd been just before school had let out for the summer. And now...!
<Pose Tracker> Suletta Mercury has posed.
If Suletta's heart fluttered, it was forgotten in an instant as she realised just how much trouble Elan was in.
"Anime? Anime is -- anime is--!!"
Anime isn't just something she can describe, though she certainly tried, spinning him a grand tale about a medium which captured both daily life and what people wished daily life was like. Eventually, she managed to stammer her way to asking whether Elan would like to see some anime when he got back for the next semester, and that led to...
The library is quiet, between semesters. Most students go home for the holidays; most students in Asticassia have much nicer Summer homes than this. There are still students who live here full-time, though, so the campus isn't closed -- just sleepy. It means it's easy to reserve a room with a television, chairs arranged around a table in front of it.
"This... this is anime!!" Suletta declares, as she puts on a slice-of-life sports anime, featuring a girl name Makoto who is trying her hardest to help her netball team achieve first place while struggling academically -- and with Honda, the boy she likes, but can't quite manage to confess to. The stakes in each episode are quite mundane, but the storytelling conveys the normal life of the protagonist exquisitely.
Suletta is, of course, enraptured.
<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.
"Anime is...?" Elan had prompted. He knew that Suletta's not always good with words, frequently stumbling over them in her attempts to communicate her thoughts, so he tried his best to understand. Even at the end of her description, though, his gaze remained blank. A combination of daily life and what people wished daily life was like...? He has trouble wrapping his mind around the concept.
But it's clear that Suletta is enamored with anime, and more importantly, that it's a huge influence on who she is. Therefore he wants to understand it--to understand why Suletta is who she is. ...to understand better about her relationship with her own perhaps-GUND Format Mobile Suit. So when she invited him to see anime next semester, he said that he wasn't leaving campus for summer, so they didn't need to wait that long.
And so here they are in the library. Elan's still in his school uniform, despite the sleepiness of the campus. School might be out, but CANON is year-round. He sits in a seat at the front row and watches, first Suletta as she puts on the show, then the show itself.
It's an animated story about a girl in school. Even while watching, Elan can't say he understands any better. But the more he watches, the more he sees its influence on Suletta herself. Chatting with friends, calling them nicknames, eating lunch on the roof... going on dates, or the desire thereof... It's a "real life" so far removed from Elan's experience as to be completely unreal.
When the credits for one of the episodes roll, his gaze goes from the screen to Suletta's profile. She looks very happy. His eyes can't help but linger on her.
When inevitably Suletta notices that he's watching her, he wonders, "Aerial showed you this show originally, didn't she? How long ago was that?"
<Pose Tracker> Suletta Mercury has posed.
Makoto tries so hard to be the best -- not only the winner, but winning the right way and being honourable to her opponents, even the snarky and unkind star player Natsuki from their sister-school's netball team -- and Suletta is clearly quite moved by it all.
My Heart's A Net! might be an extremely comfy show, a rosy view of real life, but it -- and shows like it -- have clearly had a huge impact on Suletta's desires. So many of the things she wants to try have their roots in anime, even if she's developed them in her head.
She blinks, though, when she feels herself being watched, and looks over to Elan. "The first time Aerial showed me this one...?" She asks, tilting her head up as she thinks. "I was... eight, maybe?" She brightens, as she adds: "It quickly became my favourite! I remember, when I was nine, I was crying about something, and I went to Aerial... I asked her what Earth was like, and she showed me the big menu where she keeps all her anime. I found My Heart's A Net right away! After just one episode, I was feeling better enough to make my sadness go away!"
It's kind of a strange way to put it -- but she's always been kind of a strange girl.
<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.
It's that honor in particular that stands out to Elan--not just as being an unusual trait for a student (at least by Asticassia's standards), but a trait that Suletta in particular exemplifies. Her mobile suit may give her overwhelming power when she pulls out the punches, but she doesn't play dirty like many other duelists would.
Yes, it really does give him a lot more insight into who she is and why. For someone who grew up in a hostile planet with no friends her own age surrounded by people who barely tolerate her--and only as long as she sacrifices her own safety to save the lives of others--he can understand the appeal.
There's a beautiful illusion in it all. Rosy, and, yes, comfy. As kind-hearted as Suletta is, it's easy to see how she would yearn for this.
As Suletta answers, he watches her for a moment. It's nice, seeing her happy and enthusiastic--not stumbling over herself in her efforts to please. He looks back at the screen. The next-episode preview is playing now. "So from that long ago... No wonder. I can see its influence in you. Makoto in particular reminds me of you. She has a similar forthrightness and strong sense of right and wrong." He pauses, gaze momentarily distant. "Do you think life on Earth actually is like that?"
It isn't a hypothetical or a gotcha. Elan means the question sincerely.
<Pose Tracker> Suletta Mercury has posed.
Suletta's face lights up, as Elan compares her to one of her favourite characters. "Wow, do you really think so, Mr. Elan?! That makes me so happy!" Even if it's an illusion, Suletta always believed this was life on Earth. That made her happy, too.
"Well, some anime is a little darker... but I like the ones like this," Suletta explains, her legs swinging a little, under the table. "Where you can overcome the problems in front of you, so long as you work hard and you're brave. And people will help you, if you ask them for help. I think... Earth is like that."
She pauses, looking over to the preview, narrated by Makoto's ever-enthusiastic best friend Anna, resident transfer student. "Even if some people are mean, here, there are a lot of kind people, too -- like Ms. Nika, and everyone else in Earth House." She includes Chuchu in that, despite how they met. She's nice once you get to know her! "A lot of people working together, and everyone wants to do their best. Maybe there are some people who don't act good, but even scary people have reasons for being like that, don't they?"
(She's thinking of Guel, of course.)
<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.
...Suletta really is brilliant in moments like this. As bright and warm as the Sun. Elan keeps his eyes on her, and so is blinded.
Yes... The more she talks about it, the more it--she--makes sense to him. This is a piece of media that externalizes the ideals Suletta holds in her heart--or maybe introduced them to her in the first place. A piece of art that soothed her suffering and brought her hope... Where one's trials can be overcome with hard work and guts. Where people will help you, if only you ask.
"I haven't really thought about what Earth is like before. I've never been there. It would be nice if it's as you say," he remarks softly.
He doesn't think it is. But she looks so happy. He wants to keep watching her smile. So he'll keep his pessimism to himself.
"The students of Earth House do seem different from most of the other students. Though I don't know them well," he muses. "It's good to hear they've been treating you well. It would have been nice if you could have joined Peil House, but..." He pauses a fraction of a second. "...I suspect it's better that you're there."
He knows exactly what kind of orders he would've received if she'd ended up accepting his invitation. It's inconvenient for him, but he can't be displeased about it.
"I suppose it depends on the person," Elan replies on the matter of scary people. "Having a reason doesn't make it right, though."
It might be a strange thing to say coming from someone who's so otherwise indifferent to the world at large. But he's actually a kind person, after all. Right, Suletta?
Elan looks back at the screen as the opening sequence for the next episode starts. Makoto going starry-eyed over Honda features prominently. "She's very smitten with him," he remarks. "I wonder why."
<Pose Tracker> Suletta Mercury has posed.
"The Earth Sphere is all like this to me," Suletta explains. "I guess everyone feels very different to each other, here... Chuchu-senpai and the others told me about what the people from Space do to them." She frowns, looking down to the table. "And that bothers me... but it's hard for me to understand, too. Because to me, everyone here is part of the Earth Sphere. Even if it's like this on Earth, the story isn't so different in Space. Like -- like in Galaxy Girls -- the idols in that anime all live around the Orbital Ring, but they have to deal with the same problems as there are in Japan."
Everyone might be divided, this close up... but they're all the same people, viewed as far away as Mercury.
"Earth House has been really nice to me and Aerial," she adds, smiling. "Ms. Nika and the others are great! Ah, not that I'm saying Peil House wouldn't have been good too, but..." She sighs, deflating, a little. "... sorry, but it's better if I'm with Earth House." She doesn't say why -- whose anger she's accommodating, keeping a step away from Peil -- but perhaps she doesn't have to.
Having a reason doesn't make it right, but...
She brightens, again, returning her attention to the anime. "It's because they're so different -- but they're actually a lot more similar than either of them think at first!" She enthuses, gesturing, animatedly. "Because Mr. Honda rides motorcycles and doesn't care about sports, Ms. Makoto didn't like him at first -- that's all in the manga that covers middle school," she explains, aside. "But when she discovers that he quit Kendo to have more time to race his motorcycles, she realises that he really loves to compete, he just wants to do it on his own terms! That's why she's always trying to figure out how to reach him, but... because he's kind of a loner in the school, no one really knows how to do that. Her best friend Ms. Anna always says he's way too standoffish, but Ms. Makoto knows that he's wonderful!" She sighs, with a big, goofy smile. "Later on, it turns out that he doesn't fit in because some sad things happened to him when he was younger... since his dad left his family when he was young. It's really nice how she's able to help him with all that."
<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.
"...That's true. The problems that everyone else has with each other all seem so far away," Elan muses quietly. But for him, that's not because he grew up on a distant planet like Mercury... though maybe he did, for all he knows.
(That much at least he can be certain didn't happen, though. Suletta remembers her time on her homeworld too well.)
He looks back at her. Is it because of "anime" that she's so thoughtful of others, despite having grown up with no one her own age? If he had watched "anime" while the experiments had been run on him, would things be different now?
It's impossible to say. There's no changing the past, and he no longer has a future.
"It's all right. I kno," he reassures her out loud. She definitely doesn't need to explain whose anger she's appeasing. Elan's memory isn't always the best, but he remembers how Miorine spoke to Suletta very well.
But he wonders about the main romance of My Heart's A Net!, and Suletta explains it to him. He hums quietly in thought. Suletta's a lot like Makoto; even talking about Honda's standoffishness brings a particularly broad smile to her lips. Leina had told him that Suletta said she finds light hair and skin attractive, but that's only a superficial appearance. When it comes to personality...
"I guess I find it hard to understand. Why does she want to reach out to someone whose heart is locked away like that in the first place?" He stares back at the screen without fully seeing it. "Is it just because of his face...?"
<Pose Tracker> Suletta Mercury has posed.
Anime, at least in Suletta's heart, is very real. Anime is real, because it was anime which Aerial used to comfort her when she was sad, to reassure her that life in the Earth Sphere was wonderful. Of course, it's her mom who taught her the most important lessons -- but there's a lot she learned from media, too. Even when she was six... playing shooting games with Aerial.
(When she was six, she beat mom's high score.)
Suletta shakes her head, though, when Elan wonders if the draw is superficial. "She does think he's very pretty," she says, "but it's not just that. He's kind to the natural world, even though he isn't too friendly with his classmates... like there's one episode where a crow is thirsty, so he empties out his miso bowl and fills it with water just so he can have a drink. Ms. Makoto sees him doing that, but he thinks he's all alone..."
She smiles, fondly. "And there's another episode where Ms. Anna's father is panicking because his wife is having another baby, but his car broke down, and he forgot the Japanese he'd need to ask a taxi to take him to the hospital. That's when we learn that Mr. Honda speaks English, too, and he takes him on his motorcycle to the hospital so he won't miss Ms. Anna's little brother being born. When Ms. Anna tells Ms. Makoto about that, her affection for him grows even stronger... that's when Ms. Anna comes around and supports her quest to win him over, too."
Suletta rubs a hand at the back of her head, grinning broadly. "Actually, it's when Ms. Makoto goes to talk to him about it that he shares with her that his father wasn't as good as Mr. Anna's. He was actually kind of jealous of him... but he still wanted their family to have a better time. When Ms. Makoto saw that he had those bleak feelings without letting them affect how he treated her friend's family, it was a big moment! It's really emotional how she wants to learn more about him after that... since she saw how there wasn't really anyone supporting him." She pauses, and adds: "Since his mother worked full-time to support them both after his father left, he's what Earth calls a latch-key kid. That's when your parents are very busy with work, and can't always be home to make you dinner, so you have to do it yourself."
Like a mom who can't always be there for her birthday...
<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.
The more Suletta explains, the more it makes sense to Elan that Makoto would fall for Honda. At the same time, the more it seems so distant to him. These are the trials and tribulations of 'normal' people. People with a past and a future--people who are loved and desired. 'Love' and 'romance'... ultimately, they belong to people who have someone else.
But...
Suletta didn't have anyone else at first, did she? And now... they have each other. They're the same... or Elan is reasonably sure.
He looks over at her. Honda's kindness, to animals and humans both; Honda's hidden pain; Honda's solitude... Suletta talks about them all so warmly. About how Makoto reaches through to discover them, and so comes to fall in love with him, and...
...wants him to love her too...
He stares down at his lap. His gloved hands are folded there. He criss-crosses his fingertips. There's a question he could ask: Is that the sort of person you want to go on dates with? But she got so flustered when it came up last time. He doesn't want to do that to her now. He'd rather just keep talking to her like they are now.
"I see. It really does sound very important to you." He looks back at Suletta. "...I'd like keep watching more."
To see if the story he sees is the same as what she describes--and to see if he can understand her even better in the process.
<Pose Tracker> Suletta Mercury has posed.
The beauty of anime is how it can show a normal life to someone who doesn't have one. Even if it seems far away -- it makes it all a little more accessible.
The person Suletta wants to go on a date with is...
Well, it's definitely less anxiety-provoking to talk about Ms. Makoto's dates.
"It is," she smiles, to Elan. "Would you?! Great! It gets really good, I hope you'll like it!" She reaches into her bag, and pulls out... a bag of snacks.
"Eating snacks while watching TV!" She explains, cheerfully, as she offers the lollies over to Elan. "That's something else you do with friends!"
And as Elan will learn, watching more episodes, anime taught her that one too -- when it shows Anna and Makoto munching popcorn while they're marathoning their favourite show. My Heart's A Net! is good at showing the entirety of her life like that -- not only her budding romance with Honda, or her competitive spirit in netball, but her connections with her friends and fellow students too.
Which is especially important when Makoto fails a test... as she often does. She's a talented netballer and a kind, honourable girl, but she's got flaws, too. School is hard... that's why she's sure to ask Anna for help. But the end of the season shows how Makoto's care for the people around her gives her the courage to run for student representative, to lead her class to victory in their daily lives, not just behind her net. Makoto has a bright future ahead of her, anyway...
<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.
Perhaps Elan will come to appreciate that in time. For now, it's as fantastical to him as an isekai anime would be.
And for now, Elan blinks at the offer of the snacks. "It is?" he wonders--not in doubt, but in wonder. He accepts one of the sweets, wrapped in a bright orange wrapper. He undoes it and inspects the taffy-like candy within. He nibbles it; it tastes of tangerines. He has a bit more. It's creamy in the center. He has the rest.
So this, too, is a part of friendship... He glances over at Suletta again. It's not bad at all.
As they continue to watch more episodes, he does come to get a better grasp of what 'friendship' is, too. Makoto and Anna have snacks together too--they have lunch together on the rooftop, and call each other nicknames, and so on. And Makoto continues to pursue Honda, even as she pursues victory at netball... and pursue, if not victory, then at least not failure at her tests. Anna is a supportive friend, too. But it stands out to him that there isn't really a 'just friendship' between boys and girls.
He wonders how far along Suletta is on her list of things she wants to do by now.
It's well into the afternoon that they at last reach the end of season one. Makoto has reached triumphs in her personal life as well as in her sports. Elan breathes out a faint sigh as he leans back in his chair, staring into space for a moment. Not everything Suletta described has come to pass--apparently there's a season two, maybe more?--but he has a better idea of not just the show but of Suletta herself.
Of why she would make a list based on what she's seen here. Everyone in there has troubles, but they overcome them and strive for a brighter future, something that's actually within their reach. Elan... can understand why someone like Suletta (him) would yearn for that.
Even if it isn't real...
"...Thank you for sharing that with me," he says as he gets up. He rests a hand on the back of his chair; he doesn't quite stretch, but it was good to stand. "I feel like I understand you much better now, Suletta Mercury. If you have other 'anime' you like, let's watch them together." He pauses in consideration. "Though... if there are other things on your list from 'anime'... I'd like to do those with you, too."
They can't very well spend all summer watching videos inside, can they? That would be a waste of their Youth.