So natural is it that it only occurred to me afterwards that no NAmerican cartoon could pull it off. Mind you, the naturalness might be peculiar to me: I grew up with the theme of 'this earth, this realm, this England' done straight (uhh- Kipling-Lewis-Masefield-Newbolt, and Susan Cooper in her fashion) so the basic notion isn't unfamiliar.
But still: us here in Johnny-come-lately land can hardly do the storied past and heart of an ancient nation thing, much less mourn that 'your land is crying out' from what's been done to it. Things have certainly been done to it, but any suggestion that it's our land makes me twitchy, since, fundamentally, it's only a bunch of papers says it is. Yes, I'm allowed my quirks: if Housman was still angsting about the Anglo-Saxon invasions nearly a millennium and a half after they happened, I see no reason to be recovered from our depredations after a mere three or four hundred years.
On another note: Kusanagi is the most likable male character I've come across in whatever genre of anime Blue Seed is (anime doesn't have genres, does it? well, the manga is presumably shounen.) Might be the low-keyness of Inoue Kazuhiko's performance, but the rude-crude came across as genial for once and not the man's major trait. Definitely the best kind of Japanese young-maleness here.
