Thingamagingyy

We all know about the repeats of the themes of how we have too much faith in our heroes - that they're imperfect, and how it questions Filipinos habit of just following orders, but to me, there is more to the story about that.

It's also about youth, and how it was taken away with the war.

Imagine an average man at the age of 23 today, maybe this would even be you or someone you know, and the last thing you can imagine for someone like that is to be a major war hero, but this is what he was like. People grew up too fast, and while people may say - history is repeating itself - it is, but not as much as people say. Most of us are living in peace, not always in happiness or in adequate wealth for basic needs, but yes in peace. And we take that for granted today - not just in the Philippines but around the world.

The Philippine-American war was rough, and that's the least I could put it. It's not just asking whether to question authority - many people by now know how to - but it's more in the lines of - even if we do question authority, what could we possibly do to it? I won't spoil the rest of the movie, but in the beggining - in a scene torturing a traitor for information, the traitor screamed at him. "You're not a soldier, haha. You're a dog!" he says. He leaves the scene emotionless, hiding any emotions he might have beneath the surface.

But really, it seemed to repeat how a lot of people around the world acts like. Maybe the boy general was a dog, but so was the traitor. I'm not saying there was some higher up he was being obedient to too, but it's his faith to believe in his own hatred and anger. The truth is there was no one who is obedient only to himself. We have to have faith in something - at least the faith that the whole world is real and we're not just brains in a reality simulator machine as modern proponents of Descartes might put it, but faith in what we really value. Whether that is religion, science, romance, money, family, country or more, we all dedicate ourselves to some kind of image.

The Philippines is not the only country in the world with infighting among them. We have the differences between Liberal and Republican Americans. The difference between the more famous northern Italy of the Renaissance and the less famous southern Italy wanting to catch up. The difference between the yellow shirts of Thailand who want to stay loyal to the conservative values of the king or the red shirts who are asking for democracy. We see how the Protestant and Catholic Irish have once fought, and so on and so on. But somehow history repeats itself.

In the end, this movie for me asks this question the most. "What is faith?" What is the nature of faith? Should we have faith? Does faith come from believing in something or letting go of the need to believe in something for sure? What's the difference between reasonable faith and blind faith? Are all types of having faith in something equal, and if not, what is worth believing in the most?

In the context of fighting for a country after all, we cannot fight together without our own cultural imagination. We don't know most people in our country and yet we we believe in them. We don't know whether what we're doing will actually work for sure in the world, and yet we believe in them. We don't know whether our values, whether with other values or alone, will bring us lasting happiness but yet we believe in them.

But somehow it is reasonable to have this faith, because even if we don't know this, we know for sure what will happen if we don't believe in them.

We can only have true faith in others if we have faith in ourselves. To not believe in anyone else's ability to change, means that you believe the same in yourself.

So can I ask again. Does history really repeat itself? Even if it does, just how much? What has changed in the Philippines and the world since then? The answer to progress might lie in adapting to that.

I don't usually watch slice of life shows, but the premise of this show seems so quirky I wanted to watch it anyway. Slice of life shows just seem to be completely lacking of much interest to me because who wants to see more of the everyday anyway?

Well, I'm glad to say that this show changed my mind. There's something about this show that makes the everyday fresh and exciting -- everyone has completely lovable personalites and quirks, and there's something humble about this show that's rare to see. We can all relate to the idea of being the average joe who just want to let things out more wildly in life -- like a red panda playing death metal to release stress.

By the way, death metal 10/10. I didn't listen to metal before, but now I do. I'll pray everyday to Red Panda Metal Queen for her musical genius. I want to go buy a plushie of Retsuko and create a video of that plushie playing hardcore death metal. But unfortunately, I'm too lazy.

Cuteness 100/10. My kokoro got hit 1000/10. Life is meaningless without Retsuko 10000/10.

Sirius the Jaeger shows a world of vampires and werewolves in the middle of historical Japan around the 1920s, and the culture in this story seems to ground the story into a sense of reality. Japan is out of its isolation with other countries -- allowing immigrants in -- some want peace with foreigners such as our main characters while others still distrust their presence in this land.

The first story already reverses expectations somewhat. You expect the usual casual villain as a first challenge, but you begin to realize that things aren't as clear cut as they seem. Not in the villains, but in how our characters act. They're all lovable characters -- the stoic guy who has a gentle side to him, the flamboyant yet mature action woman, the buff friendly guy who acts as the peacemaker, the tsundere kid who has some kind of violent history, and the intellectual professor who has both brains and balls. But there's more to them than you think.

While the action and the strategy pulls you in, what I love about about the show is its heart. It's a very character driven story, and the world shakes you into its foundations by placing classic wars with vampires and werewolves -- into something placed into an issue in history. On how the hatred between them isn't just out of the generic villanous reasons of power and taking over the world, but from a distrust of the outside world. The distrust of people who are different -- not because you just want to hate them for the sake of hating them -- out of anger -- but really, really about acting out of hatred from fear.

Other than the main crew, and some newer characters who come in later in the show, most of the other characters didn't get much emphasis on their development. This show wasn't supposed to be this short because there wasn't much to explore from the villains' perspective of this show, and often a good story needs much more fleshed out villains. It's a little disappointing on how it wasn't explored well enough.

But hey, still, it's a pretty good show. The characters and the worldbuilding are all deep and complex, and the shaking honesty to their emotions is a lovely sight to see.

Take a sip of this world, and maybe you'll find jewels in its majesty.