 |
In the manga, the light flash from the nuclear blast travels all the way to Manchuria and strikes the painter's mother, and in that instant, the hell painter is conceived in his mother's womb. Evil omens surround his birth: he is born laughing, with bloodstained hands, and on the long road home from Manchuria, where the Japanese are dying like flies from starvation, the baby crawls over to a corpse and licks its blood. The old midwife is horrified. "All I see is a vast, terrifying hell in this child's future!
Whether or not the additional scenes and characters are actually necessary or desirable is another story. Part of the appeal of Voices was how tight, uncomplicated, and beautifully-paced the story was in telling a grand tale of long-distance love in only 25 minutes of time. The manga loses little of the emotion of the original, however, so it's doubtful that fans of Voices will mind. What may be more of an issue are some changes towards the end. Mikako's time on Agharta plays out a bit differently, and the ending extends beyond where the anime does. Those who really wanted to know What Happens Next may be satisfied, and it's not a bad ending evaluated independently, but it pales in comparison to the lump-in-your-throat power of the original ending.
0 comments:
Post a Comment