Significance of Trains?

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rose4emily
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Significance of Trains?

Post by rose4emily » Wed Jun 23, 2004 10:56 pm

Odd question: is there any special reason that anime like End of Evangelion and Serial Experiments Lain have psyche-probing scenes on what appear to be subway trains, or is it - as Chiaki claims concerning the industrial imagery in Lain as compared with that in Anno's Evangelion - just a weird coincidence? For that matter, could there also be some relation (other than the creative involvement of Yoshitoshi ABe in both Lain and Haibane) to the Rakka's dream?

Maybe I'm just reading way too far between the lines and synthesizing accidental symbolism, but even an accidental recurrence of a similar visual theme corresponding to a state of mental turmoil and dissolusion would seem to me to be of artistic significance. While both Lain and Evangelion are heavily laden with appearently arbitrary allusions to religion, psychology, and some strange idea of technological mysticism, I have to imagine that at least some of it is there for a reason more profound than the provision of awe by way of confusion and unusual screen glitter.

Can anyone think of any other examples of this phenominon, or what may have posessed three different directors (albiet ones in what appears to be a 'small-world' industry) to use the same visual theme in similar psychological contexts as they occured in three very different stories?
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Otohiko
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Post by Otohiko » Wed Jun 23, 2004 11:01 pm

Sorry if this is somewhat off-topic, but to me - trains have a big symbolic significance since my only recurring nightmare features a train. (In that dream which I've seen at least 3 times in my life, I get killed by a train while trying to cross the tracks to reach a playground where children are playing, completely oblivious to my trying to reach out and tell them something important, for some reason)

Trains are a sign of progress, as they've always been. That may tie into it. There's always been a fear of trains for their unstoppability, too, I suppose.

That or I'm not the only one having recurring nightmares about them :roll:
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Harlock7876
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Post by Harlock7876 » Wed Jun 23, 2004 11:20 pm

This may seem like a silly answer, but the Japanese spend a lot of time on trains so it wouldn't surprise me if that would be their time to relax from their busy work day. That's when a lot of thinking time could occur. Perhaps if something like this were to take place in America the moment would be placed in a car instead since that is the preferred mode of transportation. Then again I'm sure that the American scene would end up being ultra-violent blood-spray from road rage.

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bum
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Post by bum » Wed Jun 23, 2004 11:23 pm

my guess is that trains (and the tracks, and all that) are reprasentive of a journey (posibly life). they specificaly could siginfy a point in the journey of one's life where a person is forced to make tough decision, and their not realy sure where thier choise may take them. you see, train tracks are one way, and when they split then two paths are created, two paths which will never meet. in the train scenes in the anime you mention, thier is allways a sence of discomfourt. in evangelion its a sence of ambiguity. in haibane its panic. in lain i would say that its a sence of alienation / lonelyness. this discomfourt may be somehow reprasented by the rocky and dirty tracks, and by the conectiong cariages of the train ricketing as it moves.

(i could probaly get alot more in depth into what i believe it means, but il just let this discusion develop a bit more first)

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J-0080
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Post by J-0080 » Wed Jun 23, 2004 11:37 pm

I think it means that the director really liked Train Tycoon.
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J-0080
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Post by J-0080 » Wed Jun 23, 2004 11:37 pm

Gah, ment Railroad Tycoon. :roll:
paizuri wrote:There's also no need for introductions because we're generally a friendly bunch and will welcome you with wide open arms anyway.

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Tsunami Jones
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Post by Tsunami Jones » Thu Jun 24, 2004 12:39 am

Like bum said, the trains could represent a journey. As people travel on them (and it's a major form of travel in Japan), they could represent a transitory stage between different stages or a large change in a person's life. And as times of great change are generally filled with turmoil dissolution, which could be why the characters in those three shows have those things happen to them in/involving a train.

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Post by TaranT » Thu Jun 24, 2004 12:39 am

Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933) was Japan's best loved children's writer and one of its three greatest modern poets.
That's from the introduction to an English translation of Miyazawa's novelette, Milky Way Railroad. Die-hard otaku will also recognize the name as that of the main character in the semi-biographical anime called Spring and Chaos.

The main subject of Milky Way Railroad was the Milky Way as a bridge, which in Japanese terms is a place where separated friends and lovers meet. (Seriously die-hard otaku will know this from an old Minky Momo OAV.) But the train - a galactic train - is the other element of Miyazawa's imagery that has found its place in several anime. It is a train that carries the dead to their final resting place - heaven, perhaps, although the Japanese were never big on the concepts of heaven and hell.

This type of train is best known from the anime, Galaxy Express 999. But there is also the anime, Night On the Galactic Railroad, that is the film version of Miyazawa's story. The Chinese director/producer, Tsui Hark, also used the death train in his animated version of A Chinese Ghost Story.

I have not seen the Haibane Renmei or Evangelion episodes, but I do know the Lain train scene. That was clearly death-related.

This doesn't mean that all train scenes have a morbid theme. Trains are common enough to be seen in many anime that have no death scenes; e.g. Kiki's Delivery Service, Moldiver, Only Yesterday, etc.

***********

Quick question: which episode of Haibane had the train scene ? I have the DVDs; haven't watched them all yet.

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Post by madbunny » Thu Jun 24, 2004 12:43 am

TaranT wrote: Quick question: which episode of Haibane had the train scene ? I have the DVDs; haven't watched them all yet.
The last, or next to last one. To talk about it is to issue some of the few spoilers for the series, so I'll leave it at that.
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Tsunami Jones
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Post by Tsunami Jones » Thu Jun 24, 2004 12:44 am

TaranT wrote:

Quick question: which episode of Haibane had the train scene ? I have the DVDs; haven't watched them all yet.

If I remember correctly, the main scene is like episode 11 or 12. it's toward the end of the series. (and yes, it is death related)

Also, speaking of another train involving death, there's Doom Train in final fantasy 6 which also carries the dead to the afterlife.

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