“I don’t want to do this. I have to do this.”

These are the kinds of words spoken in obsession, a state that’s easy to see from the outside, but incomprehensible from the inside. It’s a tale told in many stories, watching a character destroy their life through obsession. This anime video essay is about them.

There’s Homura in Gen Urobuchi’s anime Madoka Magica (PMMM), whose character development is explained through Madoka; one girl she loves provides Homura all the meaning in her life, easily explaining how obsessive she becomes.
The prohibition era anime 91 Days tells a more grounded story in the character of Avillio (Angelo), and his deep rivalry with Nero Vanetti. Having lost his family to the Vanettis at a young age, he now seeks to do the same to them, at the cost of his entire being. Making an analysis of his character all the more ironic; Avillio had a “brother,” Corteo, who loved him the entire time, but never noticed it in his blind obsession.
Of course, we always have some time to discuss Serial Experiments Lain (SEL), the story of a school girl who becomes god through technology. Rather than loss or gain, she obsesses over an unanswerable question; who am i? We watch her devolve as answering this question of “who am I?” defeats the purpose of ever asking to begin with, Lain’s obsession driving her to become less than human.

An anime analysis video essay explaining the depths of obsession in three animated series.

0:00 Introduction
2:08 Madoka Magica
15:32 91 Days
29:29 Serial Experiments Lain
37:13 Obsession

#anime #madokamagica #pmmm #serialexperimentslain #91days