[macblo]

I just got done watching episode 31 of Liveman and, since I've been making an effort to pay more attention to subtle ways a Toku expresses its theme, I've decided to share my feelings about this episode, as well as the show as a whole to a lesser extent.

To start things off, I was aware of this episode long before I actually started the show. I found out about the episode while I was skimming through Green Sai's wiki page one day. Because of this, I was already expecting the episode when I finally started Liveman recently.

To be honest, the episode didn't weird me out nearly as much as it probably does for most people. Since I'm a slash shipper, MPreg is something that comes up every once in a while, so I was already used to the idea long before I had seen the episode.

Given the whole pregnancy thing, I naturally questioned why they would use a male character instead of a female character. While I'm sure it has something to do with how Japan views single parents, I've heard that they're frowned upon there, I actually think that choosing a male instead of a female helped to express Liveman's overall theme of Life and Death.

From the very first episode of the show, it is very clear that the journey the Liveman choose to embark on to stop Volt is one bathed in blood and decorated with death. No matter their plan, Volt never seems satisfied unless they've taken the lives of as many innocent people as they can. No matter where they go or what they do, death is sure to follow.

In their journey to stop Volt, Liveman are constantly reminded of the importance of life. While they were already aware of how important human life was at the start of their journey, there journey teaches them that their is more to life then just humans. Animals, Robots, Insects, and even nature, there is life in everything.

Not only that, but there also exists life within things that are, in a traditional sense, not alive at all. Hopes, Dreams, Friendships, Youth, all of that is the life that Liveman fight every single day to protect.

Given its theme, it isn't at all surprising that Liveman had an episode dedicated to pregnancy. When people think of creating Life, that's the first thing most people think of. In their journey though, Liveman proves that there are more ways to create life beside giving birth to a child. Achieving your dreams, forging a friendship, these are just a few of the ways that one can give birth to new life.

Using a method of creating life exclusive girls, Liveman shows that everyone is capable of creating new life, no matter who they are or what their gender is. Giving birth to an alien further proves that life exists within everything, even in an alien just recently born.

At least, those are my thoughts on the episode. While it might just be a weird episode with awkward premise, I like to think that there's a bit more to it then that. Do you guys have any comments on the episode? Any comments on the post? I'd love to hear them.