FTL is not possible, but Dr. Jones proceeded to offer great insight with the words, 「だって、何もない世界には、なにも変えられないからね」, or “You see, there’s nothing I can do in a world that has nothing to it.”
I love that line, the idea that no matter what he does he is nothing more than an observer in this world, without meaning or purpose. We could all relate to that, right?
I finished reading the episode feeling really bad for the people and animals that he encounters, and I don’t think I was alone. The animals who are being brutally killed, the people who are homeless or trapped in unhappy relationships, that young boy who was looking for a real father… everyone is lost in a world that has no purpose and all it’s doing is destroying them.
With all the things that Dr. Jones could have been, he has a chance to make a difference when he discovers that he is the reincarnation of a person who was a soldier during World War II. I had no idea where we were headed with this. I was ready for my mind to be blown with the connection, but the episode ended without anything crazy happening, and I was left feeling empty.
Dr. Jones （落語の研究・戦争の協会）
I ended up reading Dr. Jones a little differently than most people did in the comments, but my thoughts are:
The ending for this episode is left up to interpretation, and a lot of people have written about what they think it is. The idea that Jones is the reincarnation of someone who died during World War II is incredibly interesting and a lot of people say they “love” that idea, but why the heck does he have a key chain from World War II in his pouch? I don’t understand the relationship between the two, and that’s a huge part of the problem that I had with the episode. There were a lot of great things about Dr. Jones, and I think a lot of those may be lost in the interpretation that he could be the reincarnation of a soldier during WWII.
I started to wonder about the rest of the characters that appeared in the episode. I got excited about the idea that the key chain might have held something important during the WWII, and I thought it was cool that it had a story behind it. One of the nurses that was in the hospital said that Dr. Jones’ grandmother was an author, and she said she wrote a book, 「小夜子の結界」, which loosely translated is “The Fate of Little Yoko.” Did anyone recognize that name? It reminded me of a manga or anime I read before, 「幽霊ハウス」. One of my professor’s friends had recommended I watch that, so I checked it out. In that manga the main characters are a pair of girls, one of whom is kind of an invisible ghost that inhabits the body of her human girl friend. She had a special ability to travel through different worlds, including that of the other girls, and they had to use that to fight off a corrupt politician who wanted to control the human world. The title reminded me of the name of the hospital where the story took place, 「小夜子の結界」, but it was the wrong name and no one was able to explain to me how it could be related to the story.
The story and context of the manga didn’t make sense, but one thing that did make sense was that the nurse who said it was something important about Dr. Jones, as the author of the book, and the mention of her family. I did some digging in 「小夜子の結界」, and found out that the author of the book is 「小夜子」, which is a feminine name and it sounds similar to the name of Dr. Jones’ granddaughter. Maybe there’s some connection between Dr. Jones and the author, 「小夜子」, but that’s all the information I was able to dig up about the manga, and it’s all a bit too vague to be useful. I’m at a loss about this one, and I could be reading too much into it. Maybe someone else out there reading this who has more knowledge of manga and anime will be able to add more information to the mix.
I hope some of the creators of anime and manga out there were able to come up with the 「小夜子」, and maybe some of you reading this have better luck with finding a connection to Dr. Jones. Dr. Jones is so much fun to look into, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to connect all of the pieces of the story together and make any sense of his identity, his history or his relationships. It might be the fact that I don’t know Japanese well enough to understand all of the cultural references to things, or maybe it’s because I find it difficult to put two and two together. Maybe Dr. Jones just doesn’t feel like he fits in with anything in the anime. Again, hopefully I’ll be able to make some more connections to Dr. Jones and his story, but right now I feel like I can’t connect the dots.
To those who are reading this, did you enjoy Dr. Jones? Are you confused about who he is and what he does? Can you make connections to other characters from Dr. Jones? Have any of you been able to find information about the key chain in his pouch, or the connection between Dr. Jones and his granddaughter? Would love to hear from you if you have more information about the story I’m talking about or the other manga and anime that I read.
And remember, any episode I do that has this note in it is guaranteed to be a Japan related episode, no matter how obscure. Just sayin’ :)
8 thoughts on “Dr. Jones （落語の研究・戦争の協会）”
I’m glad you wrote this, this episode of Oreimo really threw me for a loop. I’ve only seen the anime through the eyes of everyone else. And I couldn’t see the connection at all, I think, partly because I just couldn’t wrap my head around it, but also because no matter how I tried I couldn’t bring myself to imagine that sort of thing actually happening in a world where there was something else to compare it to. The idea that this character had this secret, that it really was a lie, it just felt weird. I can see how this manga is very popular but I haven’t felt the need to go and read it.
Yeah, I’ve tried watching the anime, and I’m afraid I couldn’t get through an episode. I can see why people were invested in this story, but to me, I couldn’t connect with any of the characters, and the whole anime feels like some sort of strange mystery wrapped in a story line. I did like the idea of the grandfather having some power that could help people in the hospital though. If we could somehow link that back to the key chain, I might be able to stomach the story a bit better.
The whole thing didn’t make much sense to me, but I think it’s worth trying to figure out for some people. I mean, it’s not like you need to read the manga or anything, but that’s kind of where I was left. It just didn’t really make sense to me.
I actually want to check out this manga. But, my biggest problem with this is how it’s based on a novel. I’m not really a novel person, but I do understand that they just don’t work for me. It just reminds me of a story, so there’s not really a sense of world building for me to draw on.
Yeah, maybe a lot of people would be interested, but the anime is very difficult to get through for me. I know that sounds strange, but that was really my reaction to it, so maybe there’s something in there that could connect everything for me. I’ve read that one before and I have to say that it was terrible, but I’ll keep an eye out for the anime.
The story is a bit silly in my opinion, but I still loved Dr. Jones. I thought the premise of the Japanese doctor traveling through another world, but not being able to communicate with
