Ask John: What is Arjuna?

Question:
What is Earth Girl Arujuna about and what are it’s chances of being licensed here in the US. All I know is that the guy or gal who created this created Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, Macross Plus and The Vision of Escaflowne. I would like to know how long it is and any other info about it.

Answer:
Chikyu Shoujo Arjuna, Earth Girl Arjuna, is a 12 episode TV series that aired from January to March 2001. Created by Shoji Kawamori, creator of Macross and Escaflowne, Arjuna also featured an excellent soundtrack from Yoko Kanno with Maaya Sakamoto, who collaborated with Shoji Kawamori on Escaflowne and alone on Macross Plus (Maaya Sakamoto was not involved in Macross Plus). Arjuna has been commonly panned by American fans that have seen some of it, largely for its overt message of ecological protection, but I personally consider it the best anime program of 2001 so far, and a landmark in television anime history.

Arjuna is a melding of magical girl, sci-fi, drama and adventure themes. The story is about a Japanese high-school girl who ostensibly dies in a motorcycle accident and is then revived as the “Avatar of Time” and charged with protecting the earth from the monsters born of pollution and unchecked human expansion and industrialization. Overtly the series does have a heavy handed “save the earth” theme early on, but viewers willing to concede that will find that this theme evolves and becomes much more philosophical and much more “Japanese” as the series progresses.

Arjuna is essentially a magical girl show created by an artist known for science fiction, and it shows. The characterizations in Arjuna are universally believable, contemporary, and inviting, and the magical girl transformation is handled in a mature, scientific way. Arjuna herself sees her body transformed, and computer scans register an unusual aura around her, but to others, she appears unchanged. Furthermore, only Arjuna and highly sensitive computers can “see” the monsters she battles because computers register their emanations, and only Arjuna is “in tune with nature” enough to be able to see what’s wrong with the world. This brings up the distinct Japanese flavor of Arjuna that many American fans either overlook or don’t recognize. The series is heavily steeped in Japanese tradition and Zen Buddhism. Arjuna herself practices Japanese Zen archery in school, an art in which the archer attempts to “become one” with the target instead of Western style archery, in which the archer attempts to aim at a target. As an expansion of this, Arjuna is asked to “become one” with nature and with the world and with herself. In order to heal the earth, Arjuna is first forced to break down her mental barriers between herself and nature, not just to consider herself no different from the plants or animals and even the monsters she faces, but to not even recognize distinctions between “herself” and “plants” and “monsters.” This is precisely the tenant of Zen meditation, and an intrinsic element of traditional Japanese “nature worship.”

On a technical rather than thematic level, Arjuna is one of, if not the most accomplished anime production ever broadcast on Japanese television. In fact, this can partially be guessed by the fact that it was broadcast on Japanese television in theatrical style widescreen format (as have other recent anime TV series productions including Soul Taker and Noir). Arjuna makes frequent use of digital animation and CG, but does so with a competency rare in even big budget theatrical anime. Digital animation is employed to make the animation quality smooth and natural, and is frequently used to create backgrounds and mechanical designs that could, at a brief glance, virtually be mistaken for live-action film. CG and digital animation is also used to create impressive 3D depth and transparency in the animation, when necessary. In short, there have been big budget major theatrical anime features released recently that don’t match the smooth, fluid animation and high detailed, sharp and clean animation of this television production. The three years of planning that went into Chikyu Shoujo Arjuna should be clear to any viewer willing to set aside their aversion to the show’s prominent ecological protection theme.

The first of 6 Japanese DVD volumes is available now, and the second volumes is due out in Japan at the end of the month. The DVD edition is an upgraded “director’s cut” edition of the series that will include a previously unbroadcast 13th episode. While not as universal or quite as accessible as Macross or Escaflowne, I can foresee Arjuna possibly becoming another classic on par with those two shows, and an equal fan favorite. Unfortunately, at the present time I haven’t heard of any plans for an American release of Earth Girl Arjuna.

Update: April 22, 2003
The Earth Girl Arjuna TV series is now available in America from Bandai Entertainment under the title “Arjuna.”