And indeed, the otherworldly Hirohito Issey Ogataa) certainly does suggest a somewhat less cuddlesome E.T., both in his alienation from the quotidian world (the coddled emperor can barely dress himself) and in his relationship with his nominally more human protector, in this case General MacArthur Robert Dawsonn).
Watching the film, you come to the unsettling realization that Eli, this creature that feeds on blood simply realizes her aging human protector (procurer is more like it) simply isn't up to the task anymore.
Prayers of intercession to the divine are supported by mediatory minor gods or human protectors (alive or dead), marabouts (dervishes, or mystics, believed to have special powers) in Islam, or saints in Christianity, whose mediation ensures that the prayer will be efficacious.
People are splashed by the massive waves; families watch the trainers hold out fish for the whales to jump for; and generally, the company conveys a vision of happy, beautiful and immense mammals cohabiting entertainingly with what seem like their human protectors.
"We know she's not really the human rights protector that we thought, but we have no choice," he said.
They didn't sign up to be seen as racists; they want to be seen as human, as protectors in a perilous job.
The country's role as peacekeeper and protector of human rights – and its responsibilities as a provider of nuclear deterrence - he suggested, would only continue if they came with some form of economic benefit to the US.
Barbara Hannigan compellingly charts Agnès's growing self-awareness, and wraps her voice ravishingly around Benjamin's high-lying vocal lines; Christopher Purves manages to give a human dimension to the Protector's cruelty.
The fact is that even in 2013, when the president of the United States is facing economic and political difficulties and an isolationist public opinion, America is still the only potential protector of human rights in the international arena.
Still, an opportunity exists to transform the debate, to instill national pride in the country's young people by making Japan a protector of human rights and a defender of the disempowered on the global stage, and to take concrete steps so that problems of sexual servitude and rape in war actually do become issues of history.
We Americans like to think of our nation as the "shining city on a hill," as a protector of human rights, a beacon for the rest of the world.
