Urahara: The Concept of Creativity, Originality, and Copying (Spoilers Episode 7)
In many series, the protagonist(s) of the story will be forced to confront "truths" that they didn't have to deal with before. The newly established truths and the confirmed lies can be a bitter pill for any character to swallow. Especially when it comes at the worst possible time(s). It forces questions to be asked.
So we start off with Kotoko bringing up the idea that perhaps they are the ones to blame for their own lack of creativity and they can't just use the Scoopers as a scape goat as easy as such a solution might seem to us. A bad guy? Bad stuff happening? It's their fault. However let's move on now.
The subject of copying is brought up here and it's treated as a negative. In a sense, copying can be a negative although it doesn't have to be. Still for a group of girls that pride themselves on originality, the idea of copying from others can be admitting defeat.
Now we have Mari responding in defiance. She doesn't want to be in the same league as the Scoopers which makes any idea of her "taking" from others unacceptable. She doesn't want to be on their level so to speak.
Again, she's here to make it clear, they're different. Thus she's different. You can either see her as denying she takes from others or that her way of doing so is acceptable and more justified. Take your pick.
Heck sometimes we even seek out stuff in part due to being a copy. Let's face it, part of the reason I buy yet another of well anything is because I'm expecting some stuff I've experienced before to be mixed in there. Of course you can't just copy and do nothing else. One has to make it their own thing and Rito shows hope and confidence that it can be done. That despite copying, they can be creative too. Then of course this happens shortly after.
Mari brings up Rito's talent and how it gives her an advantage. It feels like Mari is trying to claim that in the worst case scenario, Rito can hide behind her drawing skills and still get attention even if she lacked originality. Or maybe I'm reading the wrong thing into this and other scenes.
Still for me, it feels like Urahara is trying to start up a dialog about concepts such as creativity, originality, copying, presentation and what they really mean. It's clear that the three have to do more than just "defeat" the Scoopers.
They need to be able to come to terms with the idea that creativity doesn't exist in a vacuum. That it's not a pure thing. Thus they need to accept they are influnced by the ideas others. That they too borrow from others. That at the end of the day what matters is how they use the information gathered by experience and research.
I'll be interested in seeing if during episode 8-End, the series is able to provide us with a solid answer. Obviously being a TV series, I doubt the answer can be anything too long winded. However I hope it has more substance than just "We suddenly decided to believe in ourselves, the end". That would be just ignoring the issue.
So yeah in conclusion episode 7 of Urahara is one of the best episodes I've seen this season and is a good reminder of why this is one of my favorite series. It's also a great set up for future episodes. I just hope they don't waste that potential.
Urahara is no stranger to this concept. We even get some of the classic reveals. An ally turns out to be an enemy. Their actions only served the "goal" of the very people they were fighting against. Plus it's a given the girls are questioning past decisions made. However what really got my attention was when they had a conversation about creativity. I'll note the following images here.
What's interesting here is that Rito doesn't try to deny the idea of copying from others, but instead focuses on the angle of whether or not it's a bad thing. This is a good question to ask. We like to think copying is always bad, but a lot of the things we enjoy are partially a result of copying from others. Sometimes it can be quite obvious and other times it's a bit more subtle. Either that or I'm ignorant on the obvious.
Heck sometimes we even seek out stuff in part due to being a copy. Let's face it, part of the reason I buy yet another of well anything is because I'm expecting some stuff I've experienced before to be mixed in there. Of course you can't just copy and do nothing else. One has to make it their own thing and Rito shows hope and confidence that it can be done. That despite copying, they can be creative too. Then of course this happens shortly after.
Still for me, it feels like Urahara is trying to start up a dialog about concepts such as creativity, originality, copying, presentation and what they really mean. It's clear that the three have to do more than just "defeat" the Scoopers.
They need to be able to come to terms with the idea that creativity doesn't exist in a vacuum. That it's not a pure thing. Thus they need to accept they are influnced by the ideas others. That they too borrow from others. That at the end of the day what matters is how they use the information gathered by experience and research.
I'll be interested in seeing if during episode 8-End, the series is able to provide us with a solid answer. Obviously being a TV series, I doubt the answer can be anything too long winded. However I hope it has more substance than just "We suddenly decided to believe in ourselves, the end". That would be just ignoring the issue.
So yeah in conclusion episode 7 of Urahara is one of the best episodes I've seen this season and is a good reminder of why this is one of my favorite series. It's also a great set up for future episodes. I just hope they don't waste that potential.
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