Procedimiento

The interactions between beings and species throughout 7BN create spaces of conflict and resolution through an emotional interpretation of a science fictional presence, a concept that connects closely with that of “utopian space.” Fredric Jameson writes, “Utopian space is an imaginary enclave within real social space…. This pocket of stasis within the ferment and rushing forces of social change may be thought of as a kind of enclave within which Utopian fantasy can operate.”296

Although the spaces created and explored by the various characters within 7BN

do not carry the same exact function as the utopian enclave in that their functions also address the individual within a world rather than in a purely broader context, these science fictional spaces of conflict and resolution work in the narrative as areas where different ways of thinking are forced to confront each other, with the potential for change present on all sides. Unlike the Utopian enclave as “imagi- nary” and as a “pocket of stasis,” however, these spaces blur the line between real and imaginary, and can be said to “exist” if only in the mind of an individual, while also having the world and its influences bleed into that space.

The most prominent space of conflict and resolution in 7BN is Hikaru’s own mind. Needle and TEN possess a somewhat similar space, but whereas the interaction between Bob and the Hunter produces solutions based on logic and deduction, the equivalent interaction in 7BN is based strongly in Hikaru’s emo- tions and her desire to avoid communication with others as a result of the fear she had developed due to the death of her father. Horizon first occupies Hikaru’s mind and acts as a source of persistent dialogue between Hikaru and Horizon that prevents her from retreating mentally and emotionally, a space that eventu- ally also involves Maelstrom. This space persists throughout 7BN, transforming accordingly as the consequences of the actions of Hikaru and the symbionts become increasingly complex.

The next instance comes from the confrontation between Horizon and Maelstrom on the island where Hikaru had lived previously. The two symbionts choose to settle their conflict through Hikaru’s emotions by having the “battle” take place in a space based on the memories of the residents of the island, and making its outcome determinant upon whether or not Hikaru can overcome the fear and trauma she associates with her former home. The decision to have their

confrontation based around Hikaru’s emotions is to some extent arbitrary if con- sidering the story from a more logical or traditional science fiction perspective (the scene raises the question as to why it is specifically Hikaru’s emotional state which dictates success or failure), but its emotional significance is clear in that it revolves around Hikaru, the main catalyst for change in the symbionts. Additionally, when Hikaru resolves to save her aunt Maki by combining the symbionts’ abilities and separating her from the genetic subspecies inside her body, Hikaru becomes wit- ness to her aunt’s memories, particularly those concerning Hikaru herself. It is at this point that the past Hikaru shown in figure 5.9 appears, and thus her aunt’s memories become a space for Hikaru to better understand Maki’s own desires and worries. The fact that it is only accessible once Hikaru integrates more with the symbionts also shows the significance of Hikaru’s mind as a space of conflict and resolution that affects the symbionts as well.

Most significantly, the Moderator’s decision to reset life on Earth, which has at its basis Chika’s fear of losing her connection with others, is reflected within a space of conflict and resolution. In order to determine the course of the planet should the influence of the symbionts continue, the Moderator cre- ates an experimental space using Chika as one of the components due to her transformation. Chika, who is emotionally distraught, uses her Maelstrom-like abilities to absorb all other organisms in the experimental space such that she can never truly be alone, working in a manner somewhat similar to Hikaru and Horizon’s relationship. The Moderator concludes that this tendency towards absorption of other creatures would be an evolutionary dead end, as it would eventually lead to all life on Earth being comprised of a single combined organ- ism. Life would disappear should that organism perish, thus necessitating the decision that the planet must start over. Here within the narrative, a character literally creates an environment for a novum to play out and incorporates the presence and influence of emotion in its outcome. The decision to reset life also arises from the fact that, although Chika was a part of this space, she chooses to avoid conflict by forcefully integrating everything into herself. To support this,

7BN shows Horizon speculating that “The world as Chika wanted it must have existed inside of that mass.”297

Through these examples, the manga expresses the idea that spaces of conflict and resolution can take into account the psychology of the minds within them, and that even simple emotional ideas can be considered for their potential to shift

and transform such spaces. Emotions and psychology become part of the context of the world both inside and outside of those spaces, which ultimately transforms how 7BN presents its conclusion and the political ideas that can be derived from it.

In the climax of 7BN, the Moderator allows Hikaru the opportunity to try an alternate solution before it decides to reset all life. Hikaru, whose plan is to sim- ply ask Chika for her friendship, climbs onto the dome housing the Moderator’s experimental space and begins to absorb the genetic subspecies which com- prise a part of this space into herself, transforming a simulated world of buildings and streets into the vast “ocean” seen in figure 5.19. This two-page spread, a rare visual occurrence in 7BN, emphasizes how both characters are feeling at that moment (Hikaru is opening herself up to Chika, Chika is fearful of loneli- ness) while acting as the culmination of their experiences with the symbionts. During this time, Hikaru’s body has gone from looking mostly human to becom- ing increasingly covered in spines, tendrils, and various other growths, while the space of her mind, occupied already by Horizon and Maelstrom, is flooded with symbiont subspecies. In looking at the moment where Hikaru asks Chika to be her friend, the two occupy a wide space nearly devoid of visible structures. The most prominent objects are Hikaru and her increasingly alien appearance, Hikaru’s friend Saya whose body is absorbed into the environment, and Chika herself, who is hugging the structure surrounding Saya, while the background functions similarly to the one found in figure 4.7.

Figure 5.19. Using a dou- ble-page spread, the act of friendship is framed within the science fictional environment. Source: Tadano Nobuaki, 7 Billion Needles, vol. 4 (New York: Vertical, Inc. 2011), 110-111.

Chika agrees to be friends, and Hikaru absorbs the rest of the subspecies, but the load overwhelms Hikaru and she begins to transform uncontrollably. The symbionts, although reluctant, resolve to leave Hikaru’s body and take most of the genetic subspecies with them, sacrificing the relationship they have formed with Hikaru while showing one last example of the benefits they have gained from breaking free of their original programming and learning to coop- erate with each other. The Moderator departs without resetting life, remarking that, “I have learned many things… in particular that I am not always needed,”298

and the world remains along its evolutionary path. Hikaru and Chika remain friends, although Hikaru still retains some of the alien biology within her, rep- resented visually by a duck-like creature (visible in panel 7 of figure 5.13) that is the first symbiotic subspecies that Hikaru and the symbionts managed to absorb into her. This duck exists primarily in the same mental space inside of Hikaru occupied previously by Horizon and Maelstrom, with the duck serving the same basic function of being an internalized companion.

The ending of 7BN, which hinges upon the idea of offering friendship as a solution to the problems present in the story, is reminiscent of the criticism of young adult science fiction as focusing too much on “emotional satisfaction” at the expense of those “for whom … information was a source of desire and empow- erment,”299 _{or the tendency in young adult science fiction to have a “perceived}

need … to provide a clear moral structure and a hopeful, if not happy ending.”300

However, much like how the removal of Hikaru’s headphones in figure 5.7 is not merely about “girls becoming friends” but instead has its meaning altered by the interactions between Hikaru and Horizon prior, the context building up to the moment seen in figure 5.19 is important in understanding how friendship is used as part of its SF narrative. In regards to this scene between Hikaru and Chika, the previous events of the narrative involving Hikaru’s own psycholog- ical and physical transformations, along with the actual immediate image of Chika and Hikaru within the Moderator’s experimental space, makes it so that the situation involves more than simply the idea of loneliness. This, in turn, posi- tions that loneliness as an important factor that should not be trivialized.

298. Tadano, 7 Billion Needles, vol, 4, 144.

299. Mendlesohn, The Inter-Galactic Playground, 52.

300. Elaine Ostry, “‘Is He Still Human? Are You?’: Young Adult Science Fiction in the Posthuman Age,” The Lion and the Unicorn 28, no. 2(2004): 243, accessed June 24, 2013, http://muse. jhu.edu/journals/lion_and_the_unicorn/v028/28.2ostry.pdf.

The world returning essentially to normal after the massive changes caused by the appearance of the symbiotic subspecies also leaves 7BN potentially open to the criticism of young adult science fiction that in the end the protagonist simply returns “home.” Mendlesohn writes, “over and over again, the trajectory seems to be to go out in the world, learn something about the universe, and use this to have a reconciliation with the parental or familial unit.”301 _{It is clear, how-}

ever, that Hikaru is not the same as she once was, and that her psychological transformation is the product of her emotional self being placed into multiple spaces of conflict and resolution with the symbionts and even Chika and the Moderator. Rather than it being a return to how things “were,” implying a static existence, the ending shows how these various components continue to move. Significantly, the duck-like subspecies within Hikaru seen in figure 5.13 now appears sentient when it originally was not, hinting that its time with Hikaru has allowed it to exceed its own limitations as well.

Returning to Jameson’s analysis of Vonda McIntyre’s The Exile Waiting as referenced in Chapter 3, Jameson seeks to “determine whether there may not be something in the very nature of the structure of SF as a genre which ‘redeems’”302

the stereotypes commonly associated with narrative fiction, notably the “per- sonal problem … a 1950’s pop psychological American term that designated neurotic paralysis and the hangups that prevent people from functioning.”303

For The Exile Waiting, Jameson finds that those psychological traits of the char- acters, through the exploration of space within the narrative, become less about their qualities as personal problems and more about how “it is a spatial experi- ence which allows [McIntyre] to endow the dénouement of her narrative strands with a force and definition they might not otherwise have....”304 _{In the case of}

7BN, the narrative ties the emotional and psychological content so deeply into its exploration of the novum that the two develop jointly. As a fiction where the world and the psychological state of its characters move together, the similar- ities between 7BN and sekai-kei are quite strong, but the manga shows that, although Hikaru’s emotional development has an effect on the world around her, there is a clear process played out over a period of time through which Hikaru

301. Mendlesohn, The Inter-Galactic Playground, 102. 302. Fredric Jameson, Archaeologies of the Future, 299. 303. Fredric Jameson, Archaeologies of the Future, 297. 304. Fredric Jameson, Archaeologies of the Future, 312.

is able to influence the world through her emotions. Hikaru possesses the atti- tude of a sekai-kei character, but 7BN takes that as a means instead of an end in order to present the emotions and psychology of the characters as significant and prominent within a cognitive process.

In this sense, the narrative of 7BN stands as both a partial defiance and par- tial appropriation of the idea put forth by figures such as Jameson that science fiction shares a similar functionality as the dramatic theater of Bertolt Brecht, a “shocked renewal of our vision such that once again, and as though for the first time, we are able to perceive their historicity and their arbitrariness, their pro- found dependency on the accidents of man’s historical adventure.”305 _{Unlike the}

idea that SF is meant to show that what is assumed to be natural is in truth his- torical and therefore changeable, similar to how Brechtian theater is founded on the idea that concepts such as character identification and audience immersion harm a drama’s ability to convey this sense of historicity,306_{7BN defies one part}

of the Brecht-SF connection while affirming the other. Through Hikaru, those very shunned elements are heavily utilized as ways of revealing the temporal- ity of the seemingly natural or eternal by having the emotional characteristics of Hikaru work to not only provide a point of identification but to also operate as a nested novum within the narrative of the manga that induces change in the aliens and allows them to break free from their own historical cycles, to ultimately overcome the forces that control their existences which were once presumed to be inescapable.