---Sam <sbh24@student.canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
>
> That last (exhausting) post of mine brings me to a nice little metaphor I
> was forming with some friends last night to describe manga plotlines. The
> manga in question starts out at point A, and it's intended destination,
> whether for a single chapter or for the entire story, is at point B.
> 
> "You're Under Arrest" never leaves point A, merely stays there (no, it's
> YUA, it *bounces* up and down there, merrily) never even *intending* to
> head towards point B.
> 
> "Ah! My Goddess" heads in a straight line from point A to point B, though
> its passengers have no idea where point B is, or even what will happen
> there.
> 
> "Ranma 1/2" sets out from point A determined to reach point B.
> Unfortunately, it has the direction sense of Ryoga, and becomes hopelessly
> lost, eventually finding point B purely by accident some years later, with
> a bemused expression on its face.
> 
> Now I've made these openning examples, does anyone else want to have a go
> at putting any other series in terms of this metaphor?
> 
> Sam

As a long-time fanof Shirow Masamune, I'd like to try classify his works...

Appleseed : Seems to be heading from point A to point B, but the passengers
definitely do not know their destination, nor perhaps even the fact that they
are moving at all ! Also, it sometimes feels content just to bounce there, not
to move anywhere at all...

Ghost in the Shell : Clearly moving from point A to point B. At least one of
the passengers has some idea (somewhere halfway through) where the train is
heading. The path sure is convoluted...

Dominion (conflict 1), no more noise : Hmm... It seems to head off somewhere,
but I'm not sure it's point B. The path is quite dirext, but because the whole
story is only several days long, it is difficult to judge it's (final)
destination...

Orion : A definite path from A to B. The persons know well the path they have
to take, and do not stray from that very far. Lots of stuff is broken along
the way...

My two finnmarks,

Mahoujin
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Fan of Masamune !
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