controlling things by brainwaves

[kirstymca]

I thought this was pretty cool.
www.brainfingers.com/

[Christian Soldier]

Neat! Hey, wasn't Clint Eastwood in a movie about a jet that had to be flown with one's thoughts? Not the same thing, I know, but fairly close. I think Clint had to think everything in Russian, though.

[torainfor]

Firefox. Man, haven't seen that movie since I was a kid.

[Andy]

Firefox!! I loved the ending where Eastwood has to shoot a missile to take down the other jetfighter but he can't remember the Russian word for "Fire".

Asimov delves into this concept of the mind controlling things, beginning with "Pebble in the Sky", his first novel.

[waldenwriter]

This topic reminds me of Angelic Layer, an anime I watched recently. In it, there is a kids' game called Angelic Layer, where kids fight each other on special flat high-tech battlefields called "layers" using customized "battle dolls" called Angels. The Angels are controlled by the mind of their user (or Deus) using a headset device wirelessly linked to the Angel. The game was created to allow its creator, Ichiro Mihara, to be able to conduct more research on making prosthetic limbs that could be controlled by the brain (just like real limbs are) after his initial research funding was cut off. He tests it throughout the series with the help of Shuko Suzuhara (the mother of the anime's main character Misaki Suzuhara), who is confined to a wheelchair by multiple sclerosis.

The anime tells the story of Misaki Suzuhara and her rise to stardom within the Angelic Layer competition circuit. Her surprising success from her first fight onward leads to her getting the nickname "Miracle Rookie." Her Angel is a small, fast red-haired Angel named Hikaru. Misaki and Hikaru manage to hold their own against some tough opponents, eventually winning the National Games against the reigning champion Shu (really Shuko, who aside from being Ichiro's assistant is also a Deus) and her angel Athena.

I personally found this anime interesting, and not only because it's based on a manga by CLAMP (a four-person manga writing/drawing group whose work I really like). The compete-with-dolls setup of it is reminiscient of Pokémon, my favorite anime, and also provides a nice structure to the story. Also, since the dolls can be customized however the Deus wishes, and the Layers also change between matches, you get to see a variety of Angels in various battle situations.

The series is also a prequel for CLAMP's series Chobits, which examines the relationship between humans and machines (as well as what it really means to be human). Set in the same world as Angelic Layer, it features android-like personal computers called persocoms, who are virtually indistinguishable from humans in appearance.

Anyway, both series are good and worth checking out. I also thought they worked with this topic.

[Andy]

What a cool concept! Thanks for the plug walden, I'll have to check that series out. Does the manga go by the same name, Angelic Layer?

[waldenwriter]

Aug 18, 2009 8:16:52 GMT -5 Andy said:

What a cool concept! Thanks for the plug walden, I'll have to check that series out. Does the manga go by the same name, Angelic Layer?

Yes it does. I have only read the first volume of it though (that's the only one I've been able to find in a bookstore). I think the story is pretty much the same, except the couplings at the end are different than the anime, and Shuko does not have MS and is not in a wheelchair in the manga; she's just really shy around those she loves. The manga is 5 volumes, I think.

For Chobits, it's the opposite: I have read the manga, but not seen the anime. It took me a while to read because the volumes I needed weren't always available when I wanted them. This series has 8 volumes. While it's good to read the whole series in order to get the whole story, the story really picks up pace about halfway through, with the last three volumes (6-8) having probably the most action and suspense. Also, since it is set in the same universe as Angelic Layer (although in time it is set a few years later), there are references to Angelic Layer in Chobits.

Also, in the manga at least, Misaki names her Angel Hikaru after Hikaru Shidou, one of the main characters in Magic Knight Rayearth, another CLAMP manga (in the anime, she names it after a doll she had as a kid).