On Najica (probably some spoilers) -- Anime Observer Forum

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Subject: On Najica (probably some spoilers)

Author:
Jerry

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Date Posted: 14:51:59 06/18/02 Tue

It's essentially true that Najica has nothing to do with feminism. Najica is not a female James Bond. To me, those were never goals of the anime, implied or presented.

The overall "point" I gathered from Najica was a question of the rights and the status of artificial intelligence. Is it right to make something that can think but make it so that it can only do what you tell it to do? Isn't that basically slavery?

That and to show enough panty shots to make you never want to open another Victoria Secret's catalog. Ugh...

Clearly, Najica thinks it is wrong to treat humalits as if they were objects or tools and not humans. Her actions and interactions with Lila -- telling her to think for herself and forcing her to make a decision at the end -- develop that part of the story.

However, there's a twist to this. Najica herself is essentially a humalit by choice. "The perfect agent always follows orders." It's an interesting paradox that Najica dislikes Lila's forced obedience and, at the same time, she imposes it on herself.

I would think that Najica is comfortable with her personal choice because she has faith that she herself would be able to draw the line should the situation arise. Lila at the beginning doesn't have that choice. I think she learns how to make the choice at the end.

It's a strange paradox to me that Najica the anime was presented this way. On the one hand, there's the AI story which I found compelling by itself and got me to watch the entire series. On the other hand, there's the endless panty shots that were neither titillating nor constructive towards the story and were constantly making me desperately wish that the ending would make me think I hadn't wasted 6 hours of my life.

For me, the AI story ultimately won out.

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Replies:

Subject	Author	Date
Re: On Najica (and what's your email address?)	Webmaster	12:36:05 06/23/02 Sun