Black-Box

Tsutomu Takahashi

Drive Into Night (2022)

スカイハイ(Sky High/Sukai Hai TV Drama Review)

ようこそ、怨みの門へ。」“Welcome to the Gate of Resentment.” This will be a review for the 2003 drama, “Sky High,” based on the manga created by Tsutomu Takahashi. Before we get into this, I would like to give a fair warning this review does contain spoilers, and my own personal commentary on the series which you can feel free to agree or disagree with. Furthermore, this review will mostly focus on the first episode which you will find out why later. Without further due, let’s get right into it.

In the first episode we are introduced to murder victim Noriko Sekikawa. She is found dead outside, she goes to her own funeral, confused and still without the knowledge of her own death. She meets Izuko (who was, at some point, Mina Saeki, this is revealed in the prequel movie). Izuko presents her with 3 choices: 1) Accept death, go to heaven, and wait to be reincarnated, or 2) Not accept death and wonder as a ghost or 3) Kill one person but in exchange you must pay the price and go to hell, never to return. I’ll just throw my two cents here, but the only good option here is the first one. I can’t understand why people in this show struggle so much between the choices, it’s not rocket science. Anyways, back to the story, so Noriko died while pregnant with her and her husband (Masaru)’s child. Noriko is unable to believe she had died and was killed by somebody, claiming that nobody would hate her enough to do such a thing.

Izuko helps her investigate the cause of her death and Noriko learns she was killed out of jealousy by her and Masaru’s friend, Misato. Noriko goes on to see Misato play “comfort the widower.” Misato starts coming over to their home all the time, going as far as seducing and getting Masaru to marry her. Noriko, unable to handle Misato taking her husband, chooses the option of cursing and killing Misato, but before we conclude here, Noriko, out of concern for her own unborn child, asks Izuko if her unborn baby will go to hell too. A year later, Misato ends up giving birth to Noriko’s unborn child, and right after giving birth, Noriko kills Misato. Noriko watches her baby sadly, wishing she could have watched the baby grow up. But the price of taking Misato’s life is Noriko going to hell forever. The episode ends with Izuko expressing sympathy for Noriko being unable to watch her child grow up. An unknown voice in the Gate of Resentment Realm assures Izuko it cannot be helped, it is her job to guide the souls to their destination, wherever it is they choose.

Now I would like to move onto my personal commentary and explain why the 3rd option is not only a bad choice, but an asinine one as well, both in general and in the context of this episode. Let’s start with explaining the general reasons and then apply it to the episode, because like in mathematics, you present the formula and then apply it to the problem. In the world of Sky High, if you kill someone, no matter how justified it is, (this includes self-defense, etc.), you will go to Hell. This has been revealed in the prequel movie. Now, what is hell in this universe like? Based on what we are given… (these facts are revealed both in the prequel movie and future episodes). Hell is a fiery place, when the gates opened, we are shown this. In hell there is no past or future, Izuko says this in episode 2. Hell is eternal, meaning there is no way out. (This was made clear since episode 1).

Now, does this sound like a place you want to spend for the rest of eternity? Do you need to get revenge so badly that in order to achieve it, you would subject yourself to a fate like this one? Let’s rewind back to fact no.1, killing someone instantly wins you a place in hell after you die, meaning the victim’s killer is going to hell is already guaranteed regardless of the victim’s choice at the Gate of Resentment. By choosing option 3 all you did was send your killer to hell sooner rather than later, at the price of sending yourself there, too. So, in the end, all you accomplished was screw yourself over in the most permanent, terrible way imaginable. And this is not your only option, you could have just not bothered with revenge, taking comfort that justice will be served someday, choose to go to heaven, and move on. I cannot stress this enough.

Next, we will apply this knowledge to Noriko and her situation. We know Noriko gets her life and happiness stolen by Misato. In fact, not only was Noriko the one to die, but Noriko’s baby died too. That’s how horrendous Misato’s crime is, by the way, she killed a pregnant woman. Noriko then sees Misato seduce her husband Masaru, and as she watches them have sex, she is upset and talks about how she will never have Masaru hold her again (in Japanese the word 「抱く」 “daku,” could mean embrace, but also to have sex). Now, that scene was one of the most disturbing scenes of the episode, as we see both Misato and Masaru betray Noriko. I say one of the most, because there is a scene that comes before this one that tops it. I think the most disturbing scene was when Misato takes the shoes meant for the unborn child out of Masaru’s hands, and tells him to, I will just summarize, she said forget about Noriko, stop grieving over his dead wife, and be with her instead, and Masaru does just that. And then they have sex. Now that is just super depressing (and disturbing) and we can also conclude Masaru is also a shallow and fickle man with little loyalty to his dead wife and child.

I can empathize with Noriko’s anger at this horrible betrayal done both by Misato (somebody whom she believed was her friend) and her husband, Masaru. I do not mean to downplay the injustice Noriko has to suffer in any way, as it is truly horrible. But Noriko still has to remind herself that she is dead now, and so is the baby. No matter how happy Misato may seem, consider Misato’s future: she will go to hell after she dies because she killed Noriko and her baby. This will happen regardless of which option Noriko chooses to do at the Gate of Resentment. We know Noriko ends up choosing to option 3 which just allowed Misato to go to hell only sooner I need to emphasize, because going to hell was inevitable for Misato anyways (because of the evil she had done), at the price of Noriko’s own eternity as well. Why would Noriko choose to do this when she could have chosen option 1? I know Noriko couldn’t handle the thought of Misato taking her husband, but from an eternal perspective, does that really matter? Especially when you consider how quickly Masaru moved on after Noriko’s death? Do you really want to throw yourself into hell for a man who doesn’t love you enough anyway and allowed himself to be seduced by another woman only a short while after you and your baby died? Doesn’t option 1 look even better after you see what a foolish and unfaithful man your husband was? Had Noriko chosen option 1, she could have gone to heaven, prayed to be reunited with her unborn child when she is reincarnated. I say this because in episode 2 it is revealed you can reunite with your loved ones in reincarnation, if you both want it badly enough. And wouldn’t Noriko’s unborn baby wish to be reunited with his mommy? Noriko could have forgotten all about Misato and Masaru, be born as a different person and potentially find happiness again someday. These “could haves” are really sad when you consider how Noriko chose option 3 in canon, and I hope I made it clear enough why her decision just doesn’t make any sense.

Last but not least, I will explain why I chose only to mainly focus this review on the first episode. This is because the things discussed in regards to this first episode can be applied to other subsequent episodes as well, and it would be simply redundant. The only exception to this is a future episode towards the end of season 1 about Mina/Izuko’s past. I would like to close this review saying I would rate this show 3 out of 5 stars. My reason being that the concept and scenery of the show is pretty cool. And even though I find the premise to be a bit weird, the story-telling was creative and can emotionally impact you—whether they bring negative or positive emotions. They make you feel something. But the way the characters in this show struggle to decide which option to choose when the correct one cannot be more obvious, without seeming to wrap their heads around the gravity of their situation is just too much for me. I hope I did not discourage you from this review, as everything, if Sky High has captured your interest in some way, I would like to be the first to encourage you to watch it, and form your own views/opinions about it. Thank you for taking the time to read this, I appreciate it very much!😊

Sources for images: 🌸🌸🌸 🌸🌸🌸

Black-Box T06 de Tsutomu Takahashi

✨J'ai lu Black-Box T06 de Tsutomu Takahashi / @pikaedition 🥊Au bout du compte, Black-Box est une bonne petite série sur l’univers de la boxe. C’était rapide et intense. J’ai bien aimé.

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Black-Box

Tsutomu Takahashi

Drive into Night 夜を走る (2022) Director: Dai Sako

Drive into Night    夜を走る 「Yoru o Hashiru」 Release Date: May 13th, 2022 Duration: 125 mins. Director: Dai Sako Writer: Dai Sako (Script),  Starring: Tomomitsu Adachi, Reo Tamaoki, Nahana, Shohei Uno, Yutaka Matsushige, Tsutomu Takahashi, Yota Kawase, Website    IMDB Drive into Night is one of a number of very specific films that sets out to examine the idea that Japan is on the decline and has a…

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Sky High (2002)

My rating: 4/10

This is one of those movies that might have worked as animation - it still wouldn't have been very good, mind, but at least the visual shortcomings may have been a bit less glaring. As it is, it's dull in both plot and production, and basically just another forgettable early 2000s fantasy/action drama.