Jintai is definitely amongst the top of this easy to outdo season – yet obligatory praise aside, it’s worth recognizing how the series has quite a morbid side, specifically within the horrifically exquisite ED.
Many significant details are present, a few more noticeable than others – and for our purposes of understanding this series, it’s quite critical to become acquainted with them all and then attempt to compare and consider. Upon the end sequence’s first second, one will see that the heroine looks to arise from the ground – at first, this may not seem to have much meaning, and one might assume she was sleeping or the likes, yet keep that in mind as the video continues on.
Our heroine moves fluidly through a straight path which flourishes with every step she takes – from nothing, the setting in which she exists becomes extravagant. At this point, we’ve only seen enough to welcome a single possible meaning – humanity may be declining, yet our heroine is doing enough to recover it ever gradually.
That prosperity however is no more than temporary – it’s not only cut short, but it’s completely annihilated.
Note how just a second past the minute mark, when it seemed all was at its pinnacle of splendor, our unfortunate heroine slips on a banana peel – strawberries go flying from out of her hand, although it’s questionable the splotches of red we see subsequently thereafter are simply squashed berries.
The scene to follow shows what looks to be a universe – yet let’s not assess items at face value. The heroine has fallen – and looking closely, just above the sphere of light, one can see her sky high with the banana peel right below. The interpretation can be taken a thousand routes, and of course each may see it differently – however, a fair stance on the matter is that perhaps the sight of the universe is intended to be all which is. The existence of everything is represented by the universe – and at that moment, the heroine is on the edge of it.
Then finally, the universe proves no more than a falsehood – the camera pans out from the heroine’s pupil, and a logical explanation on this is that it was no more than a dream. The heroine was seeing humanity come to life – yet humanity is declining in the world of Jintai, not much differently than our own third dimension, and thus, a thriving humanity simply cannot be. This is an aspect which also accounts for the tear of sadness escaping her eye.
Another item to note which backs this belief is the vignette effect – the edges during the walk sequence are blurry with whiteness, and such is a commonly utilized tact to exhibit recollections or mental images.
Following the teardrop, the heroine steadily lays on the ground – at which point, not much pondering is required to realize that she expires away. Flowers sprout thereafter, surrounding her lifeless corpse as time passes amidst a humanity no more.
Essentially, within the ED, one will see the heroine’s futile dream for a lively world – yet it’s seemingly inevitable that the end of the road will come bearing nothing of welcome or good tiding. She comes back to life each time the ED rolls every episode – it’s a recurring dream, and perhaps it’s intended to be a dream within a dream. Life itself could be viewed as no more than a dream due to its temporary nature – though no matter the meaning its attempting to express, one can definitely understand the basic element of humanity’s self-destruction.
Nature is bittersweet but beautiful – and the same can be said of Jintai’s ED.
Sep 24, 2012 @ 11:11 CDT
the ED pretty much sums up the history of humanity from it’s past accomplishments like walking the earth, building settlements, egypt’s pyramids, the tilted tower, taj mahal, statue of liberty, etc., to it’s eventual future, inevitably destruction as we know it, a pretty scary thought i suppose