Lack of Narrative Closure in Anime

Ho Lin, Brown University '92

Animage also has little sense of closure. True, each episode's major conflict is resolved at the climax, but there is always something unfinished, something that pushes us into the next episode. The Sabers might emerge victorious, but Genom still exists, always ready for the next round. With all the energy that is expended in each episode, equilibrium always retains itself in the end. It is a position which Sylia eloquently philosophizes about in episode 8: "The development of Boomers for military applications has also led to Boomers that have been useful to society. The world would be thrown into chaos if that balance was disturbed. Maybe the Knight Sabers are part of that balance" (it is only fitting that she speak those lines as she is apparently a half-Boomer as well).

We are also presented with questions that are never totally answered. For example, how did Knight Sabers form in the first place. Perhaps it is a sign of America's obsession with linear progression and "explanation" that often in movies we must have an "origin" story, as in the births of Superman and Batman). Is Sylia really a human or a half-Boomer; the episodes provide various tantalizing clues, but never a complete answer; or should we say that truth is never confronted?