So I guess I’m kind of surprised that this time, I think I liked it much, much better.

(This post contains no spoilers for any Harry Potter book or movie.)

More often than not, revisiting titles leads to a greater appreciation rather than the realization that it wasn’t quite as awesome as you once thought. Things you used to like, you’ll generally like more with time. Nostalgia is a strong factor for everyone, but there’s also heightened understanding that comes with maturation and age. Things you didn’t realize before become clearer: politics you didn’t understand in a story or some reference that you couldn’t appreciate at the time. Repeated viewings also help you spot things you might have missed before. Occasionally, you might realize that something actually isn’t that amazing while still understanding why you used to like it so much, but that’s different from suddenly thinking it’s terrible. I think it’s pretty rare for you to hate something you used to be fond of.

For things you used to dislike or were indifferent to, it’s most common to continue disliking or being indifferent to them. When that doesn’t happen though, I think it’s more likely that you’ll appreciate it more — not like it, necessarily, but at least appreciate it more — than dislike it more. Many of the same reasons apply: things become clearer, you catch references you missed, themes you missed, depth you missed. Any vehemence to the dislike also dissipates with time, and chances are if you’re revisiting something at all, you really didn’t hate it that much.

And so admittedly, I never hated Half-Blood Prince. I like the series too much on the whole to hate any part of it, whatever disagreements I might have with Rowling’s specific story decisions. So maybe it isn’t so surprisingly that I seem to have come to terms with these disagreements; perhaps it was inevitable. I still dislike a lot of things (certain things, perhaps it’s even a vehement dislike still), but this third or fourth time through, I feel like I understand a lot better why they’re there and what place those specifics have in the grander scheme of things. The book felt more poignant for it, and it’s kind of strange.

Is this newfound acceptance a mark of maturity on my part, a new understanding because of such, a noted phenomenon, or all of above? Are the subjects and themes within Harry Potter, particularly those explored in the particular book in question, relevant to the phenomenon? It applies to the entire series certainly, but Half-Blood Prince is very much a coming of age book, especially at the end. In it, Harry is sixteen. The book came out in July 2005. Then, I was seventeen. I think it’s kind of funny then, that I should understand the book so much more now for those themes than I did then. The upped appreciation is not a surprise — as I said, nostalgia also adds more appreciation — but is it the teenager that best understands and sympathizes with the teenager, or is it the twenty-something? The thirty-something? The forty-something and beyond? What age group does a coming of age book most affect?

On the other hand, and I just realized this, maybe I liked Half-Blood Prince so much more this time around because I’ve now read the final book. In the last several chapters especially, HBP does so much to prepare both the characters and the readers for the last book, and Deathly Hallows does so much to make you realize just how far everything has come since both the previous installment and the very beginning of the series. Finishing the last book is finishing a series more than a decade in the making and closing the back cover on the last chapter about a character you had grown up with, no matter what age you started the series at (everyone spends their whole life “growing up,” even if the teenage years are the most tumultuous times). Spread out over so many years, the seven book series is a tremendous journey. Knowing all of that now and having the complete frame of reference, the coming of age theme in Half-Blood Prince is that much more powerful. And I can see where the things I disliked connect to that theme (and various others), so thus, my quiet forgiveness.

I guess it’s one of a great many reasons why Harry Potter continues to have such a high readability value for me, and when I reread them, I’m rereading every chapter and every word, not just skimming. I don’t really doubt that will change even when the last two movie comes out and I won’t be able to use them as an excuse to reread a particular volume.

Anyway, I’ll be seeing the HBP movie on Saturday. A review will undoubtedly follow. It’ll probably be pleasantly snarky in that “I’m totally a purist, but not really a hater” sort of way.

And yet, even with all the lulz, it’s still so epic when it counts. I’m still enjoying this way too much. Treize takes over the world in seven episodes in one of the most awesome coup de’tats ever. There are so many political things I’m noticing and understanding now that I didn’t even notice the first time around, and it’s just a lot fun to revisit something while simultaneously gaining a whole new experience. Nostalgia and sentimentality is undoubtedly what’s allowing me to forgive all of the more blatant flaws — I’d never accept such huge logic and realism gaps in a recent show, as evidenced by my dislike of Gundam 00, but for Wing, it’s all right.

But I never feel as if the nostalgia factor blinds me. Forgiving the flaws isn’t the same as denying they’re there, and besides, most good things have their flaws. It’s just your perspective that determines whether the good outweighs the bad, or if the bad outweighs the good. I’m only seven episodes into the rewatch, but right now, I honestly still think this is a great show. Wing’s storyline is strong and clear, and has many interesting concepts. Its characters are varied and relatively engaging. I still think the music is amazing. I still think the mecha designs in this series are some of the best in the franchise. These are the things that won’t change with time, no matter how many years pass. Good stories are good stories. Good art is good art.

The art and animation are a bit aged now, yes, but they still suit the story. That compatibility is much more important than the fact that it’s not as shiny by today’s standards. Of course it isn’t as shiny; Gundam Wing debuted fourteen years ago. But that doesn’t matter, just like it doesn’t matter that Nosferatu is a black and white, silent, German film. The medium still fits the story, and the story is still good. In that sense, I think that most productions, whether movies or television shows or anime or manga, can be considered “timeless.” It doesn’t matter when it was made; if it had a good story and the medium suited it, then it can remain accessible to any subsequent generation.

But then, what about the things that don’t hold up? Does that imply that they were never good stories in the first place, if the stories aren’t as good now as supposedly used to be?

Actually, I can’t think of many examples of (once) good stories that don’t hold up against the test of time. Most of the stories I loved as a kid I either still love now or still appreciate as something aimed towards kids. Some stories with overt social or political commentary or controversy might be more popular in one century than another, but if there’s enough story to go along with the opinion, I don’t think it’d have trouble remaining accessible. Just look at The Sound of Music or the Watchmen comic or books like Number the Stars.

Stories grounded in a certain time period also aren’t at a particular disadvantage either. As long as people have an understanding of the surrounding history and perspective, it isn’t really a problem. Shakespeare remains timeless despite the fact that his plays are centuries old and in a dialect that died somewhere along the way. The language might turn some people off, but the core of the quality of the stories are unaffected by neither time nor anything else. Can the stories still appeal to people if the language was updated to something more modern? Probably. It’s the same as when a popular novel is translated into several different languages, isn’t it? The story is the same. The story is still good. Everything else is secondary.

It’s kind of interesting to note also that there are a lot more things that I like more the second or third time around than things that I dislike the second or third time around. Second and third experiences allow for better understanding of the story involved, and understanding is essential to many experiences.

Many of the best anime and manga I’ve encountered are neither socially or politically charged or grounded in a specific time period, which will probably help them a lot. Some of them depend heavily on cultural quirks and current fandom (Ouran High School Host Club), and some of them are concentrated on ideas in technology that may well change in the future (Planetes, Ghost in the Shell), but as long as the people in the year 2500 take the time to understand where these stories are coming from, they can enjoy them just as we have. I’m pretty sure I’m going to end up still liking Gundam Wing a lot this time around, and if that’s the case, I don’t think that will change in another decade or two, or three, or four. Similarly, I probably still won’t like Gundam 00 in however many years.

Final conclusion? All good stories are timeless.

Anyway, to make myself feel slightly better, I was looking for Gundam Wing episodes to rewatch for the lulz. Veoh seems to be complete fail and YouTube’s not much better, but I did manage to find most of the first two episodes. It occurred to me that I haven’t seen very much of the series subbed, but oh man. First of all, Wing’s age is really starting to show. The animation for the most part really isn’t so bad, but the people are hilarious. I sure as hell didn’t notice this ten years ago, but the G-boys’ proportions are… accurate. They’re fifteen year old kids! It’s awesome! The voices in Japanese are ridiculous different; in Heero’s case, it’s disturbingly… spunkier? Is that the right word? It’s kind of odd when it’s his wannabe badass English voice you remember the best.

Duo is awesome Japanese or English. And the Deathscythe such a badass. Come on! Wing falls into the ocean five minutes into its debut and idiot Heero is going to blow the damn thing up. Wow, what a way to destroy the series’ namesake?? Meanwhile, Deathscythe is kicking ass and taking names, and then he goes and kills all the dudes trying to salvage the Wing. And Duo tries to be a good guy. D’aw. No wonder this guy has like ten times the fangirls as Heero. And sure, we get a few shots of the rest of the dudes. Trowa is playing with lions, and Quatre is bringing his crazy house of servants everywhere. And Wufei is buying a truck full of explosives. 8D

The pacing in this series makes no sense either. It’s great. And characters (or maybe just Heero and Relena) just seem to zone out all the time for no reason. “Heero! What are you doing? Blah blah blah! I’m going to talk for a minute!” “…Huh? Relena?” But Heero’s not half as bad as Relena. Really, what the hell? The whole school worships her and she’s busy thinking about the random terrorist kid that 1) beat up all the ambulence dudes that went to save him, 2) embarassed her and threatened to kill her, and 3) is probably opposing her father! “Relena! Blow out your candles!” “…What? Oh, that’s right. Candles. You blow them.” God. Even in Japanese all of her dialogue is horrible. “Oh! Heero! You’re about to send those torpedoes off? GASP! I AM SO SURPRISED THAT YOU ARE POINTING A GUN AT ME! D8″ Ten years later, I still want to beat her face in. Oh, Duo, why’d you have to go and save her? She doesn’t like you anyway. :( I miss this show, as weird as it to watch it now. The opening theme is kind of strange feeling because they never aired it on Toonami, and has cuts of sound effects in it. The animation in the opening is pretty much like every other Gundam ever, lol. TWO-MIX also has an older feeling style of music, I guess. Techno oddities. The show itself seems to have a really prominent soundtrack, though that might be because I recognize it really easily because I love it~. Maybe one of these days, I’ll get off my ass and go buy the boxset or something, but I really wish they’d stream these somewhere or something. Oh, ANN would like you to know that TOEI has Digimon Adventures 02 available for purchaseable download though. That’s another series I need to rewatch sometime because I’m sure I missed tons the first time around.

Man, I’ll rewatch almost anything for nostalgia’s sake… I’m not old enough to be reminiscing about the good old days, am I? But I do miss me my oldschool Toonami. Remember when Moltar hosted? TOM? Rising Sun? Midnight Run? The plots we had on the Absolution? So awesome. What do kids these days get? Miguzi? Do they still have that piece of crap? Bah! I’m going to go watch all these awesome old Toonami commercials now, and then maybe watch some of my Batman: TAS before going to sleep crying about how I have to wait like TWELVE MORE HOURS before I can finally see Heath Ledger live it up as the Joker.

OH, WOE.

Edit - Aw, man. I MISS REBOOT!