If you don't pay particularly close attention to the main page (I'm guessing that would be most of my readers) you may have missed the new link we added to our list of affiliated sites recently. Brainstorm! is the anime review blog of Christina Soe, who eschews the more common format of episodic commentary for frequent full-series reviews - how she finds the time to watch so many series to completion is truly a mystery to me, but very admirable.
She includes a good selection of screencaps with each of her reviews, and employs a rating system based on how much she would recommend a series to others.
So go ahead and check her blog out at Brainstorm! and be sure to leave her some comments if you like what you see.
So a few things have happened lately that have affected the timeliness of the reviews on the main site. Some of them are out of my hands and some of them are clearly my own issues and I figured I would outline some of them.
As far as the stuff that's out of my control, the main thing would be the review updates. There are some Summer series reviews that still haven't appeared. This can be attributed to Boris' laptop needing work and then an illness and what I assume is busy-ness with school (the time-consuming combination of work+school is something I definitely don't miss). It's also not his top priority, nor should it be, since it's mainly a repository for my own content and perhaps what one might call a vanity project, since I make no illusions of writing academic-level material here.
On my end, the fact that Summer has been left hanging has made my motivation to watch and write about the Fall season almost non-existent. That doesn't mean I haven't done any work; there are enough reviews finished to last for a few decent updates, but where I could normally crank out quite a few on an unoccupied weekend such as this, I've been very unable to focus and get enthusiastic about it. That doesn't mean I'm in an anime slump or anything; I've been watching plenty of shows and there are quite a few that I can enjoy, it's just getting to that next level and wanting to put words down that's getting to me. It's very frustrating.
Another issue that I've come across is that my obsessive following of the ANN Fall Preview Guide has left me feeling like I already know what to expect from most of the Fall's series, and when you already have an inkling that something's going to be pretty terrible, it's very tough to make yourself watch it. I think that reading other reviews is valuable in that you get a taste of other opinions and ways of approaching a particular subject, but I think from now on I'll try to keep my distance until more of my own work is completed.
In the meantime, I've been sort-of trying to keep this blog updated at least once a week with things, mostly links to AMVs but at least it's something. I don't honestly know how many visitors I have or how many people give a crap, but I like to believe that there are a few people who enjoy this stuff.
This video successfully combines scenes from the Silent Hill 4 video game with scenes and imagery from the Hellraiser film to create something that's creepy and a bit gory. I was never a huge fan of Silent Hill 4, but this video takes some of the creepier images from the game and uses them well.
A lot of the imagery in Berserk is rife with the frightening and terrible. This video uses illustrations from the manga to effectively create a horrific feeling in the viewer. Don't discount manga music videos, there are some really awesome ones like this one.
Not scary so much as dark and weird, this video uses some weird homebrew musical track and the bizarre experimental anime Angel's Egg to create a very unsettling mood.
This video creeps the shit out of me. Ghost Hunt was surprisingly creepy at times on its own, but coupled with the audio it really sends shivers down my spine.
An oldie-but-a-goodie, set to the anime Memories. From an era when editing was done using a couple of tape decks and was much more labor-intensive than now.
I'm not really a big fan of Gurren-Lagann, but I loved this video. Perhaps because it's one of the few that presents a clear character profile, progresses a story, and uses music that I like (Peter Gabriel!) rather than just stuffing a bunch of manic scenes into a blender. Very enjoyable and ambitious.
A game music video that manages to be very watchable in spite of the fact that the PS1 graphics are extremely dated, something which I consider to be a major accomplishment.
Call me soft, but I was really crying by the end of this video, if only because it features Carl Sagan talking about how important our world is to us. I bet you might be moved a bit also. Scientific reality can be very potent in its own way.
Going through my AMV backlog, I'm finding that I'm afraid to rec a lot of the AMVs that I enjoy because I know others who make/enjoy AMVs and live-action vids and are probably pickier than I am. Oh well, I shouldn't be ashamed of what I like. At least I wouldn't lead anyone astray into some Linkin Park/DBZ emo-fest ;)
Cute comedy video done to the song "Modern Major General" starring Roy Mustang from FMA. Nothing major to talk about, just an imperfect but very fun AMV.
A sentimental video done to what is maybe not the most unique short in the Genius Party anthology, but one of the most relatable, I think. It's the story of two high school kids playing hooky and spending some time together like they did in the old days, before one of them moves away.
So this was meant to be posted some days ago, but I came down with an illness and then my cat got really sick, so blog stuff fell to the wayside. Even though a lot of these shows have already started their broadcasts, I put a lot of work into cropping images so I'm posting this anyway ;)
***
Like just about any other anime blog out there, I decided to do a Fall Preview of the shows that are about to burst forth onto the scene. These previews aren't meant to be full-on judgments of these series - something which seems like it has a bad or unoriginal premise, or which has character designs that I might not really like, might end up to be a perfectly enjoyable series. Likewise, something that I anticipate to be interesting might turn out to be a miserable failure. Also, some of these series might not even end up getting fansubbed or otherwise released in English. But it's fun to get at least a little excited about series to come, especially since Fall is one of the big seasons and there are a lot of choices out there. Anyway, these are in Alphabetical order, based on info from Anime News Network:
Story: Ordinary high school boy gets transported to an alternate world called "Red Night," and must fight dark spirits and black knights in order to return to his own world.
Thoughts: Looks like another bland eroge adaptation that probably won't interest me. Unappealing character designs abound including dumb, impractical school uniforms. My prediction is that it'll fade into the background like most of these series do.
Story: Three sisters enjoy cosplaying different animals. One day they get their hands (paws?) on a magical compact that allows them to transform into real animals.
Thoughts: The cute, it buuurnssss ussss! Seriously, this looks like fluff, pure and simple. Might have the side effect of rotting one's teeth. Apparently this is also being billed as a comedy, so I wonder just how funny it could be, or what type of humor it'll have (I'm guessing 4-koma-style gags, but who knows?).
Story: A series consisting of six short arcs based on various volumes of Japanese literature. The character designs for the various stories are provided by high-profile manga artists, including Tite Kubo (Bleach) and Takeshi Obata (Death Note).
Thoughts: The idea behind this intrigued me right away after hearing of it. The quality of the end result will obviously depend on the quality of the story adaptations - no high-profile artist could rescue something ill-suited for TV animation, but I'm optimistic that this will be something interesting to watch.
Asura Cryin' 2
Story: A high school boy is haunted by the ghost of his childhood friend. His life gets flipped/turned upside down when he gets a suitcase from his brother and there's a robot in it.
Thoughts: A sequel to a show that didn't interest me in the slightest, which is, unfortunately, how it seems to work most of the time. I can't imagine this continuation would be sufficiently different that it would be any more interesting than season 1. Will be broadcast on Crunchyroll for those of you enjoy your anime being of the streamed variety.
Story: Takes place following the original series, where Hei and Yin travel to Russia and meet a mysterious girl names Suo.
Thoughts: The original series was something that most people I knew really enjoyed, but I was never that interested (never mind the fact that I stopped downloading it after it got licensed and everyone else I know kept watching it all the way through, so now I'd be watching it on my own if I decided to). It also doesn't look like the type of thing that one could jump into cold, but I'll see. If this seems promising I might go back and pick up the DVDs for season 1.
Story: The story of a girl who wants to be a mage and the boy she meets who happens to be one.
Thoughts: Apparently this is the next big shounen thing, which means it'll be about 50/50 whether I can stomach it at first, with my tolerance level going downhill the longer the show is drawn-out (I still haven't managed anything longer than 52 episodes, if that tells you anything). What might save it are the characters. If the hero is a d-bag, obnoxious shounen protagonist, then I'll be running for the hills really fast.
Story: The story of a twin sister and brother who have heartwarming encounters with the people they meet in Tokyo's lower-class neighborhoods.
Thoughts: Despite the girl's creepy forehead, this could be an interesting show depending on the quality of the humor and the stories. Don't know if anyone will sub this one, though (maybe Crunchyroll will grab it like they did Mainichi Kaasan?)
Himitsu Kessha Taka no Tsume Countdown
Story: I can't find info for this season, but Crunchyroll has the original and it's about an evil organization whose plans are continually foiled at the last minute by Deluxe Fighter, a meddling hero.
Thoughts: Sounds like a crappy version of Astro Fighter Sunred.
Story: The tale finally comes to a close as the end of the Inuyasha manga is at last animated.
Thoughts: Did I mention that I don't dig long series? That especially goes for stuff like this, which shamelessly repeats itself and doesn't go anywhere meaningful. It'll be nice to see the story put to rest, but from what I've heard of the manga ending, not a whole lot is resolved anyway. I can't imagine that I'll be watching more than an ep of this. Viz media will be broadcasting the series on Hulu and their Shounen Sunday website soon after the Japanese broadcast.
Story: Classmates experience bizarre encounters, and tell ghost stories. Based on a series of books.
Thoughts: I can't say how creepy it'll end up being, but it looks like kind of a cute little ghost story anthology series. Might be fun for Halloween, of course, someone would have to be lined up to fansub it first -_-
Story: A normal high school student is suddenly forced to become a Kampfer, someone who fights other Kampfers with guns, swords or magic, and who must have the body of a girl to utilize their powers.
Thoughts: So the main character is a trap, nice. The show looks completely goofy, by the way. It's series like this that make people lament the lack of quality in Japanese animation (I don't, personally, but it's difficult to look past such dumb premises sometimes).
Story: 50 years after the end of a conflict that decided the fate of the universe, it's again threatened and only two young girls, Ascoeur and Q-feuille, can defend it.
Thoughts:... and? And what? Seriously, what a dumb name for a sequel. In any case, this sequel was announced like two or three years ago and no one knew if it was actually coming out or if it had been canceled. I don't think I would have noticed if it had been canceled. Seems like a magical-girl premise with some sci-fi, but not a very interesting blend of either.
Story: Kuronuma Sawako often gets called "Sadako" because people find her odd and scary. She meets a guy named Kazehaya who becomes friends with her in spite of (or because of ) this.
Thoughts: Your average shoujo premise, though I've heard really good things about the manga and the adaptation is being animated by Production I.G. which means I'll probably be watching this.
Story: Kobato is a sweet girl, but naive about the world around her. She carries a bottle that she fills with the suffering in people's hearts so that she can go to the place she desires.
Thoughts: I'm extremely wary of anything CLAMP nowadays, especially since they forgot how to properly draw human anatomy (not that anime is especially accurate, but their style of bodily distortion has become highly unappealing). This looks like it could be cute, however.
Kotatsu Neko
Story: A series of five-minute shorts about a group of cats who live below a kotatsu (a table draped with a blanked with a heater underneath).
Thoughts: I seem to be kind of a sucker for these silly cat shows, so this might have some appeal to me if it gets subbed.
Story: Irabu Ichiro is a strange psychiatrist who puzzles his patients with his bizarre behavior.
Thoughts: This was originally an instant watch for me, since it brings back a lot of the Mononoke staff, it's a Noitamina show and it's an unusual-looking series. I've heard that there are live-action segments with an actress dressed up as the nurse character, and I'm not so sure about that. I'm still hoping that this features some good stories and I'm sure my worries are unfounded, but I don't know why that unusual choice was made.
Story: Gauche is a government employee who delivers any letter to its destination. He inspires a young boy to follow in his footsteps. Five years later, Lag is a letter bee, but now Gauche has gone missing.
Thoughts: This is the other big shounen series this season, but this one looks leaps and bounds more interesting to me than Fairy Tail. The only thing that might be a problem is the age of the protagonist. It's difficult to tell if he'll be more of the sweet kid type or a little shounen piece of crap. Crunchyroll has already snatched up this series.
Story: Stops on the Japanese Ouedo subway line are personified as young attractive men.
Thoughts: Man moe? No thanks. This series would have to be really good for me to watch much of it, but I have the distinct feeling that it's just a bunch of eye-candy.
Story: The second season of the show revolving around a young boy and his interaction with time travelers at his relative's cafe.
Thoughts: I seriously didn't like what I saw of season 1 of this show (which was two or three episodes) and in saying so managed to piss some people off (oh noes, a disagreement on the INTERNETS). This season doesn't look to be any better, it's major flaw being that the little d-bag protagonist is still present. Remove him and the show would be much easier for me to sit through.
Story: A guy who's allergic to cats has a crush on a girl who loves them. An unfortunate accident leaves the boy able to understand what cats are saying.
Thoughts: This show could go either way, I suppose. The premise is funny enough if not exactly cutting-edge. It'll depend on the characters and the comic timing.
Story: The continuation of Queen's Blade season 1, where the characters actually fight in the Queen's Blade tournament.
Thoughts: Ugh. You probably know that I suffered through the first season of this series, mostly out of morbid curiosity. Then I got to the end and they didn't even get to the tournament. Not that I'm interested in seeing how things play out this season; I'm done.
Story: Cecily is on a mission to find a blacksmith who can repair her father's sword. She meets a young man who can harness the Devil's Power - magic which has been banned since a great war. This is the beginning of her adventure.
Thoughts: Though the Manglobe studio's involvement promises some nice animation, the subject matter looks a little bit uninteresting to me. Standard fantasy stuff. Also the female characters are looking a bit too cutesy for my tastes.
Story: Murasame Sumika is popular but she harbors a secret - she's in love with her female classmate. And the feeling is mutual, though Kazama Ushio, the object of her affection, is nervous about confessing.
Thoughts: I've heard people say that this is a worthy successor to this Summer's yuri series Aoi Hana. Prove it. The premise seems way more goofy and juvenile to me, compared to Aoi Hana which had young characters but which didn't aim low.
Story: The student council at Hekiyo is chosen entirely by popularity vote, and only members may enter the sacred sanctuary of the council meeting room. Their daily meetings seem to devolve into conversations about their daily lives.
Thoughts: Wow, talk about a boring premise. I don't want to sound like an ass (some may say that's too late) but there's a limit to how "slice-of-life" my slice-of-life anime should be, and this goes over the line. I'm not against fully character-driven series, but this doesn't strike me as interesting in the least. Perhaps the final product will turn out to be more than just a string of conversations, who knows.
Story: The moe-licious re-imagining of Romance of the Three Kingdoms receives another anime incarnation that is supposedly more accurate to the game on which it's based.
Thoughts: Didn't like the first series because it was all about the boobies (there was a bath scene in the first episode - not a good sign for my enjoyment) and I honestly don't know what could be very different about this incarnation.
Story: A boy has strange dreams about a girl asking for help. Suddenly one day, a girl falls from the sky who happens to be an angel.
Thoughts: An angel with giant titties, of course. I'm not gonna pass my final judgment from one piece of artwork, but when the promo art has a crappy little male character getting tits in the face, you know there's probably something wrong.
Story: The souls of the dead are kept in books in the Bantorra Library, where anyone can read about the past. The library is guarded by armed librarians.
Thoughts: I've heard people make story comparisons to Library War because of the armed librarians, but it sounds like this series involves more magic and fantasy elements. I've been curious about it. Crunchyroll has this one.
Story: More quirky comedy involving the jaded superhero Sunred and his persistent adversaries, Florsheim.
Thoughts: I loved the first season, and if the second is able to maintain a similar pacing and comedy style, then I think this will be great as well. Looking forward to it.
Story: A story that takes place in Academy City, a location where most of the occupants are students, and starring a character from the To Aru Majutsu no Index.
Thoughts: I thought that To Aru Majutsu no Index was grossly overhyped; the first episode lost me when the main female character's clothing literally exploded from her body. I don't know if this will interest me any more, but it sounds like a completely different story so it's possible that it might be enjoyable (or at least different enough to distinguish itself).
Story: An anime based on the super-popular Korean Drama from several years ago, starring the original male lead reprising his role.
Thoughts: I'm sort of torn on this one. I enjoy romance stories, but I understand that Korean drama is somewhat more melodramatic than I might have the stomach for. I'm definitely curious about the choice to use the Korean actor for the male lead. Does he speak Japanese? I guess it remains to be seen (or I could just go look it up, but I'm lazy).
It's an Eden of the East video that looks at the relationship between the two main characters. I'm not quite sure exactly what I like about this video beyond the fact that it involves one of my favorite anime of the year, but it captures the epic feeling parts of the show have while also focusing on the main characters.
Purely an eye-candy piece as far as I'm concerned, since I'm not familiar with the source material (Blue Submarine Number 6 - is it a good OVA or is it just really pretty? Someone out there must know). I think that it accomplished something in that it made me curious about seeking out the DVD release of the show.
A sad romance video set to the anime NANA. I really loved this AMV, even having not read the manga or watched much of the anime (I know, shame on me). It's really good at portraying a particular emotion. The lip-sync at points is a little uncalled for, but I consider that a minor complaint.
Back when my husband and I lived in downtown Minneapolis, we loved to go to a restaurant called Kikugawa, which served authentic (and thus expensive) Japanese food, including tempura, sushi, various appetizers, and our favorite, sukiyaki. For those of you who aren't familiar with the dish, sukiyaki is one of various one-pot dishes that Japan has. Others are shabu-shabu and nabe. Essentially there's a hot plate in the middle of the table with a cast-iron pot, and people cook meat and various vegetables in a broth. At Kikugawa, diners had the option to cook their own sukiyaki at the table, and it was really fun. And expensive.
The other day it dawned on me that this favorite dish of ours could possibly be adapted to work in an electric fondue pot, of which we have two. Yesterday I picked up ingredients and tried it out, and it worked wonderfully. It might not be entirely authentic, but the taste was delicious, so I decided to share my success with you guys.
Here's what you'll need (This amt. of ingredients should serve about 4): 2C Beef Broth (either home-made or low-sodium from the store) 1C Soy Sauce (Make sure it's not some cheap brand! The taste is completely different. I used Kikkoman naturally brewed soy sauce). 1/2 C Granulated Sugar 1/4 C Sake or Mirin
Thinly-sliced steak (I bought two sirloin steaks and sliced them on a shallow angle very thinly) 1 package firm tofu, cubed 1 small can bamboo shoots, drained 1 yellow onion, peeled and sliced into strips 1/2 Chinese nappa cabbage, sliced into bite-sized pieces 1 package mushrooms of your choice (I used baby portabello mushrooms, I think traditionally black and enoki mushrooms are used but I didn't have them) Shirataki noodles (I didn't have these, so I cooked up some rice vermicelli and it worked pretty well)
Combine beef broth, soy sauce, sake/mirin and sugar in a medium sauce pan and heat until sugar is dissolved. Cool and set-aside until ready to use.
Prepare meat and vegetables according to instructions and arrange on a platter. When ready to eat, add sukiyaki broth to fondue pot (don't fill it too full, you can always reserve the extra and add it later on if it starts to run low). Bring the broth to a boil, and then turn the heat dial down to medium low. Add meat and vegetables and boil until they're cooked through and have absorbed the delicious sauce. Enjoy over bowls of Japanese rice.
This would be a great, easy meal in the Autumn when it starts to cool off (like the last couple of days here, coincidentally) or for a special day like a birthday.
Some of you probably know that my husband and I have some people over on Sunday nights to hang out, have dinner, and watch some anime. Lately we've been having a dilemma over what to watch, because almost all of us attend at least one other anime viewing group. Some of us are members of the U of MN Manga Anime Society, a couple others host a separate viewing at their own home during the week. Often times things that we want to watch conflict with one or the other of these groups, other times there aren't enough good, group-friendly series currently being released. For example, I recently finished watching Aoi Hana, a series which I really enjoyed but which I don't think would interest the group very much (that, and I have the sneaking suspicion that a couple of people attending have this idea in their head that gay people are only appropriate for comedy relief, and a series that has lesbian romantic elements might break their brains).
ZOMG LESBIAN ROMANCE THAT'S NOT PLAYED FOR HUMOR!
Anyway, this has caused us to delve a bit into series which are somewhat older so that we can have something to watch that multiple people haven't seen already or aren't already watching. We're currently watching Basilisk, which my husband and I bought for cheap at the last big Rightstuf sale. It's not my favorite thing, but it's fun and entertaining in kind of a goofy, guilty-pleasure sort of way. I'm finding that I can at least enjoy it for what it is as long as I don't try to over-analyze it or act like the characters or story are so deep and intricate you don't even know. Looking through my anime files I realized that I had a show that might have the potential to tickle some peoples' fancies (actually, that sounds sort of gross...).
The series is called Gokinjo Monogatari, and it's based on a manga by Yazawa Ai, the author of Paradise Kiss and NANA. It's actually the forerunner of Parakiss, and features some of the same locales and related characters. A fairly good pedigree, especially since many of my friends have enjoyed those later works. However, I predicted that they would have a few issues with it. The first issue is that the show is from 1995, and it shows very prominently in the animation. This is not something I have an issue with because I've watched things much older and I have a soft spot for traditional cel animation anyway. The other issue is that the story is quite a bit sillier than the author's latter stuff, at least from what I've read and seen of it on my own. I tried to anticipate peoples' reactions to it so that I wouldn't be too pissed off when they reacted negatively.
A scene from Gokinjo Monogatari
My husband, appropriately, was the most straightforward. He told me that it wasn't something he would pick for himself but that he wouldn't mind seeing more. The guy who sits off to the side and mostly just plays his DS made some snarky comment that I didn't bother to make note of (if someone doesn't respect the show enough to give it an honest try, his/her opinion is nothing to me). My MAS friends were pretty much "..." which, to their credit, was probably due to my known history of getting pissy when people don't agree with me (I've tried to deal with that, though - I don't think I'm nearly as bad anymore). My other friend referred to one of my earlier posts here and said that it was a show that probably wasn't good for a group to watch. Honestly, I'm somewhat flattered that she referred to something that I had written, but I felt like a romantic comedy was probably the closest thing to "universally-enjoyable" that I could have suggested, and the comment was a more diplomatic way of saying "this is from 1995 and I think it's kind of goofy and it looks old and busted."
Aaaaaaaaaand that's about how I figured it would go down. After the initial sting in my pride I decided that it was more a problem of people not getting what I was trying to go for with the series, rather than any major issue with the series itself. To explain, I might seem like an extremely picky person, and based on my reviews one would think that I barely watch anything at all, which actually isn't true. I watch lots of stuff that I think has major flaws, because I find redeeming value in some other aspect. For example, I watched the first episode of Maria Holic and hated the two main characters. I mean really hated them. I thought that they were both really horrible people, and Mariya especially was needlessly mean and manipulative (even though he was given some reasoning later on). But despite this aspect of the series, I was wowed once again by the visual direction used by Akiyuki Shinbo and SHAFT, and there was some honestly funny humor courtesy of some of the secondary characters, and those aspects made the series worth watching for me. Ditto with stuff like Antique Bakery, which is silly but which also has great characters who I wanted to see succeed, and Bakemonogatari, which is cool-looking with interesting characters, but which is also prone to showing a lot of skin.
In Maria Holic, God pities unfortunate things like the Virtual Boy.
In the particular case of Gokinjo Monogatari, what drew me to it was its creator, Yazawa Ai, who was also responsible for the more well-known manga series Paradise Kiss and NANA. I had seen a few episodes of this series a couple of years ago when another fansub group began releasing it, and knew how it compared in quality to those later series, but to me I find a sort of, I don't know, academic interest in seeing how a favorite artist has progressed and evolved during his/her career. To me, even though the story is cheesy and the art hasn't aged well, Gokinjo Monogatari is interesting because of what it is - it's the story from which the ultra-successful Paradise Kiss was spun-off and so there are lots of really neat little connections there, and it's also the earlier creation of a very successful artist.
I think the eventual compromise that was reached after I went to bed (I had to be up at an ungodly time the next morning, so I was in bed by 9pm) was that we would watch NANA instead, which makes some sense because I know some other people I know would like to watch it and it's from the same creator, but the solution seemed like kind of a cop-out and still doesn't quite sit right with me even though I went ahead and ordered the first DVD set anyway.
I suppose I might sound like a dick for saying this, but it's probably too much to ask for everyone I know to be able to take a step back and see secondary value in something that is not immediately excellent or entertaining. Most people are not going to think about the evolution of the artist or be wowed by what they see as archaic animation, and while that's unfortunate for me it's something that I just have to live with. And so the quest for anime to watch on Sunday nights continues, though with the new Fall season coming up I'm hoping that a couple of prospects I'm eying might pan-out.
Well, it's been quite a while since I last did one of these, probably because it's been this long since I've done a sweep of the new announcements on the AMV.org forums. I'll try to make this a more frequent thing, because I enjoy AMVs and I think it can sometimes be difficult for people to find the really good, unique ones. Here are a few recent ones (all links lead to entries on AMV.org - you'll need a free account there to access them):
FLCL is an extremely overused source, but I really enjoyed this video. Unlike so many others, it's low-key, has a definite focus on the relationship between two main characters, and doesn't resort to using many of the "tricks" I often see in FLCL amvs (namely the use of a lot of the manic action stuff and quirky visuals).
A Princess Tutu AMV set to Igor Stravinsky's "The Firebird." It might seem almost too obvious to set an anime already steeped in classical music pieces to an orchestral suite, but this works by taking elements from the anime and shifting the focus slightly, altering the story enough to make it feel fresh. It's quite lengthy at nearly ten minutes, but it's worth it.
This is a strange hybrid of Seirei no Moribito, The Lion King and Planet Earth, in which Chagum is portrayed as the Earth's savior. The concept seems a little bizarre, but it's executed well and very pretty to boot.
Gyah, watching these makes me really want to go and make some AMVs of my own!
I'm writing this having just finished watching Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 a few hours ago. When I wrote my review for the first episode, I felt like this was the series that would impress me the most during Summer Season '09. Even though there was some stiff competition from Aoi Hana, which I also loved, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 ended up being not only a very surprising series, but also much more emotionally-affecting than one might have expected from a disaster flick. Both the summary and my thoughts might contain major plot spoilers, so read at your own risk.
Series Summary The story revolves around Mirai, a middle-school student who is unhappy with the way her family interacts. Her mother works long hours and never seems to have time to spend with her, her father doesn't seem motivated to help out around the house, and her little brother, Yuuki, annoys her with his consistently naive and optimistic attitude. On the first day of her Summer vacation, Mirai's mother tasks her with taking Yuuki to a robot exhibition at Odaiba Island, something she considers a chore. While the two are there, the ground begins to tremble and a massive earthquake causes buildings to collapse.
Mirai, with the help of Mari, a motorcycle courier, finds her brother trapped inside a convenience store. When they make their way outside they find that cell phone communication is down and that, in order to make their way back to the mainland and home again, they'll have to go on foot. The two children and Mari, who becomes their caretaker, survive the collapse of the Rainbow Bridge and a harrowing ferry ride. They witness the fall of Tokyo Tower, which the children narrowly escape alive. As the aftershock tremors die down, they also experience the emotional aftermath of the event, including watching people mourning in makeshift areas for the dead.
In one of the series' set pieces, the Rainbow Bridge collapses after burning overnight, as Mirai, Yuuki and Mari escape on the ferry.
All three companions experience physical ailments along the way. Mirai gets blisters from her sandals and injures her leg. Mari collapses from anemia. And Yuuki collapses in the middle of the street while walking, and Mirai and Mari rush him to the nearest hospital. Mirai experiences nightmares of worst-case scenarios regarding her brother's condition, and though she isn't able to come to terms with the fact at first, reaching Yuuki's classroom and seeing his friend causes her to finally realize that Yuuki passed away, and that she must make the final walk home on her own to reunite with her family.
A month after the event, Mirai and her family are still attempting to return to a feeling of normalcy, even though Yuuki is no longer with them. Mari comes for a visit and returns Yuuki's backpack, along with the birthday present the two bought for their mother and Mirai's cell phone. When she checks her email, she finds one from Yuuki, written on Mari's phone during their journey. Mirai begins to take care of the plant Yuuki and his friend planted at their elementary school, maintaining her brother's memory.
The plant that Yuuki and his friend planted.
Thoughts - Very Spoilery Overall this series felt particularly well-constructed. There were certainly a couple of low points - Mari's collapse seemed contrived and ultimately that episode felt like it served no purpose, and their meeting with Kenta, a robot-otaku, also didn't seem to contribute anything to the story (well, other than an excuse to animate cute tachikoma-like rescue robots). But overall I felt that each episode, in addition to featuring some well-researched earthquake destruction, also contained a very real emotional element to it that connected with me, the second half especially.
Before I get into more of my specific reactions, I'd like to respond to a criticism I've been seeing in various internet locales. Many people seem to be stuck on the fact that the series creators have been emphasizing a commitment to research and realism, and yet Mirai's "hallucination" of her brother seems entirely unrealistic to them. I think this reflects a misunderstanding on the part of these viewers. Essentially, if I wanted an entirely sterile, factual account of an earthquake, I could probably watch any number of documentaries on the subject. Representing Mirai's inability to accept her brother's death by having her create an image of Yuuki to help herself cope seems like the best way to represent the situation in a visual medium like animation.
When Mirai can't come to terms with Yuuki's death, she copes by imagining him still alive.
I think the other purpose it serves is to increase the impact of his passing. While more observant viewers are presented with clues to the reality of the situation as early as episode 8, including Mari obtaining an unspecified "legal document" from the hospital and the fact that she doesn't speak directly to Yuuki at all from that point onward, more casual viewers might be more prone to be surprised by the "Sixth Sense" type reveal in episode 10. Either way, the situation is incredibly sad and surprising at the same time - normally one wouldn't expect a main character to get killed, let alone the youngest one.
All of this makes more sense, though, when you consider that this really isn't a series about a disaster at all; the shaking of Tokyo is really just a backdrop for the human drama taking place, specifically that of Mirai learning to appreciate what she has, including her imperfect family and the brother with whom she had trouble getting along. This series is a very good example of what I consider good character development. Whereas in a lot of shounen action type series, the hero can experience all sorts of life-altering situations including the deaths of other characters and other types of losses while almost never undergoing any sort of logical, permanent change in attitude or outlook, Mirai transforms from a sullen preteen to someone who is honestly able to express love for her brother and can eventually make peace with her family. In other words, over the course of 11 episodes she's able to mature in a more convincing way than many characters who exist in series much longer, and I see that as a triumph of this series. To those people who I saw complaining online about her "bitchy" and "selfish" attitude at the outset of the show, I would tell them to both try and remember themselves and their own awkwardness at the onset of puberty (and I assume that most anime fans have experienced that feeling being misunderstood and not belonging) and to watch the character's transformation from beginning to end. Personally, I saw a lot of my adolescent self in Mirai, and I connected with her story quite a bit.
Mirai can't tell if her brother's death is a nightmare or reality.
When I wrote my review, I commented on the maintenance of tension in the first episode, something which I think has carried through the series in various ways. In some ways this is done sort of cheaply; there are multiple instances where it appears that someone is lost or injured, but it's a fake-out and they're actually just fine. There are other times, however, where the feeling of tension is masterfully orchestrated. One scene that comes to mind is where the three main characters are trying to make their way to the ferry, and the mass of people begins to stampede. The confusion that arises, and the uncertainty about whether or not the three will be able to stay together and keep from being trampled made this scene one of the most frightening in the show for me. Though the latter half isn't populated with so many intense moments, I felt that waiting for Mirai to come to terms with her brother's death and what sort of aftermath would occur once she made the realization was enough to make a knot in my chest.
The crush of people rushing towards the ferry, one of the more tense and frightening moments in the series.
I think the only really minor overall criticism I could make at this point would be that the visuals suffer quite a bit in the middle portion of the show. While the character designs are pretty simplistic to begin with, there's a lot of inconsistency in the character animation at some points that is difficult to ignore. It also seems to be a growing trend for studios to use CG animation during crowd scenes, and there are a lot of scenes in this series with many CG background characters that stand out very obviously to me. I think the saving grace in this case is that this isn't a series reliant on flashy action animation for the most part. A lot of the very dramatically-animated portions are that of buildings collapsing, and those scenes are very convincing. Other than that, most of the subsequent parts of the series are more reliant upon the writing, and in that case I have very few complaints.
Needless to say, I recommend this series very highly. Though the "disaster movie" genre is done to death in Western live-action films, somehow the different setting and the focus on the characters rather than the special effects gives this series a certain freshness. For viewers who are scared off by series that are "too Japanese," there's nothing to fear here either - aside from discussion about a few Tokyo landmarks, there aren't too many cultural quirks to wrap one's head around. Noitamina has another excellent hit on its hands, and this is definitely one of the timeslot's better recent offerings.
Episode 3 - "Your Song" Minori and Ryuji make the best of being trapped inside the storage shed.
Ryuji's rice cooker breaks, so he and Taiga go to the local "Johnny's" family restaurant to eat. Minori works there as a waitress, one of the many part-time jobs she apparently holds. Another is at a liquor store, and Ryuji offers to help her out, dragging Taiga along unwillingly. Ryuji and Minori get locked in the storehouse, and while inside Ryuji learns a bit more about her.
Episode 4 - "That Moment's Expression" Ryuji finds out that Yusaku confessed his feelings to Taiga a year ago, and that she rejected him.
Ryuji finds Taiga's stash of blurry photographs of Yusaku, and offers to take some better ones for her to have. After getting her prizes, Ryuji offers to laminate the ones she likes the best, but she can't choose and leaves the photos with him. Yusaku finds out about them, and then reveals that he confessed his feelings to Taiga a year ago and was rejected.
Thoughts While episode 3 garnered a lot of cheap laughs from Taiga's inability to ride a bicycle, it was redeemed by its focus on Minori who, despite being a little bit wacky and extremely enthusiastic, seems to have some hidden reasoning behind her upbeat attitude and her multiple part-time jobs. What's going on there isn't quite clear at this point, but having established her as having something of a hidden side has boosted my interest in the series a bit.
Of course, it becomes even more clear in episode 4 why tsunderekko are annoying to me - Taiga's tsundere rage appears to have quashed any chance at a relationship she could have had with Yusaku right from the start, since she rejected his confession a year ago. Yes, again I realize that if things worked logically and people behaved themselves, then there wouldn't be enough conflict to fill a series of this length. But it still grates on me to see people behaving in immature ways that are counter-productive to their own happiness. Doubly-so because I think that the tsundere character type is very unrealistic. At least, I've never met anyone who was so standoffish, but perhaps I'm just lucky.
Looks like next week the last of the five main characters gets a proper introduction (she appeared briefly in episode 4), complicating matters even further.
As I mentioned, due to the show's popularity and my original disinterest in it, I've made it a task of mine to blog about the episodes of Toradora that the anime club I attend shows each week, and see if and/or how my opinion of the show changes. I'm slightly behind, so I'll post the first two weeks' reactions back-to-back in order to catch up.
Episode 1 - "Tiger and Dragon" Taiga surprises Ryuji at home in the middle of the night.
It's the first day of school and Ryuji, who unfortunately has the type of face that causes people to mistake him for a violent thug, meets up with Aisaka Taiga, the doll-like school spitfire. After a late day at school, Ryuji goes back to the classroom to retrieve his bag, only to find Taiga there. Later that night, he finds out why - Taiga's attempt to slip a love confession note to her crush, Kitamura Yusaku seems to have failed, since Ryuji now has it in his bookbag and the note isn't even in the envelope. Taiga confronts him in the middle of the night, and Ryuji, after convincing Taiga of his own patheticness (he nurses a major crush on Taiga's best friend, Minori), offers to help her do things correctly. They establish what they hope will be a mutually-beneficial relationship so that they both can achieve their romantic goals.
Episode 2 - "Ryuji and Taiga" The oft-mentioned lamp-post scene unfolds as the two leads vent their frustrations at being mistaken for things that they're not.
The unlikely duo begin setting their plans in motion. Unfortunately, their recent closeness gives their classmates the wrong idea about their relationship with each-other, a situation counteractive to their goals. Taiga attempts to set the record straight with Yusaku and even confesses her feelings to him before school, but he politely declines and wishes to remain friends.
Thoughts I had seen these two episodes before, back when everyone on the internet was singing the praises of the show. I watched episode 2 with anticipation, since I had been told that the "lamp post scene" was an example of how genuine the series was - how it conveyed the emotions of the characters and made them very relatable. At the time I was pretty underwhelmed, as I've stated before. What I had been told was "fresh" didn't feel as such, and I abandoned the series for other things that I found much more interesting.
One thing that has altered my perception a bit this time, however, is watching these episodes along with a fairly large audience; an audience which largely consists of people who just aren't very experienced in the fandom at all, or who don't have much viewing experience outside of R1 releases. They laugh at all the jokes I've heard a million times, and genuinely enjoy situations which I see as contrived, and it's difficult to sit in the same room with swells of laughter and not feel compelled to at least crack a smile. I may be extremely critical and I'm unapologetic about the fact that I probably wouldn't watch this series on my own, but I think that, given the environment, I can certainly keep along with it and possibly even enjoy it on some level, without fundamentally abandoning my opinion of it.
I think the one thing which may turn out to be a deal-breaker is the fact that the female lead is an obnoxious tsundere. I'm not a big fan of that character type and probably never will be except under very specific circumstances (I liked Kagami in Lucky Star, but since that series was so self-aware I see it as being a bit outside the norm anyway). Mostly, I just want to grab Taiga by the shoulders and tell her to quit acting like an obnoxious bitch all the time. But then, of course, the show would have no major conflict and it wouldn't take 26 episodes to untangle whatever misunderstandings are bound to happen. So we'll see if I'm able to put up with her the whole time.
So far, though, my feelings are fairly neutral. I have my annoying nitpicks about certain things, but so far the funny moments have kept those things in check. We'll see how this feeling changes as the weeks go on.
A friend of mine sent me a link to an amusing image the other day. It's the cover art for the first volume of the American release of the Moyashimon manga, which is, one might say, drastically different from the Japanese version. See if you can tell which one is the original and which one is the American version. You get just one guess:
Okay, fine, obviously the US version has the English on it. But you'll notice that the cover art is strikingly different as well. Like I told my husband, my first reaction to this was "WHUT," but I got over it pretty quickly and now I actually think it's kind of amusing and charming. And considering that the subject matter of the manga was such that I figured it would never gain a foothold in the US, I feel like Del Rey can pretty much do whatever they please to the superficial cover artwork, as long as the content inside remains faithful. I've just pre-ordered the book, by the way, and I can't wait to be able to read it (I own the first six volumes in Japanese and it's kind of a difficult read, what with all the biological terminology and such).
Ugh, so I spent the last couple of days moping around in the evenings feeling crappy, thus no updating. Well, whatever; I can't be on top of things every day.
So I was thinking today about how much my taste in entertainment has changed dramatically between about the time I entered college (9 years ago!) to the present time. I used to be an avid gamer, but now you'd have to pay me to pick up the JRPGs that I once drooled over (honestly I don't have 60 hours to spend watching some spikey-haired hero angst about his village burning down or being made into a glorified science experiment or whatever the vogue storyline is nowadays). I don't watch much domestic TV anymore, either. Sometimes I'll catch online re-runs of really good stuff like "The Office," but other than that I rarely watch much beyond the Food Network and HGTV, which is more like background noise. This change has extended to my entertainment medium of choice, anime, as well. As in, I used to watch anything and everything animated in Japan and loved it for the simple reason that it was Japanese, but now I've become just as picky about anime as I would be about films or television if my entertainment interests had skewed more in that direction.
Looking back on some of the things that we watched and that I enjoyed early on in anime club, I can say without a doubt that there are plenty of things that I would definitely not enjoy a second time. Stuff like Fushigi Yuugi, which was funny at the time in a sort of "let's make the same jokes over and over again and not progress the story in any meaningful way" kind of way, or Jungle wa Itsumo Hare Nochi Guu which suffered from the same problem. I even have so much baggage about CLAMP's more recent stuff that watching X would be a chore for me. Yes, I am very picky and not shy about it, your point being?
Of course, there are some things that I saw years ago and still have a fondness for. I think I could watch Azumanga Daioh many times over and still enjoy it, because even though the characters fit very cleanly into your average slice-of-life character archetypes, there was something about them that really made the show fun, and sometimes even kind of heartwarming. Revolutionary Girl Utena grabbed me by the collar and smacked my brain around the first time I ever attended MAS, and it hasn't let go since. I could watch that show 50 times and probably still get something new from it. Haibane Renmei has also been a perennial favorite of mine. I want to stick my neck out and make a comment regarding the difference between "flash-in-the-pan" and "enduring quality," but I'm afraid of getting reamed-out by any overly-passionate fans rolling through.
What I will say is that all the series that have remained amongst my favorites have connected with me in some way. Whether it's because they portray an experience that I wish I had been through or because they touch on themes that ring true for me in my life, it's interesting how enduring certain series can be even when the audience grows up and moves on in so many other areas of their lives. Sometimes nostalgia isn't about looking back towards better times; it might be just about re-living fond memories in addition to creating new ones.
Last Thursday was the first Fall meeting of the Manga Anime Society, the college anime club which I've been attending as a regular member since October 2001. The first meeting of the year is usually pretty interesting since there are a lot of new faces and it's difficult to guess whether they'll remain for the rest of the semester, or if they're just kind of testing the waters. This time, though, I felt some distinct differences from previous years, and I'm curious whether this might signal some greater shifts in the anime fandom at large.
One of the biggest changes I saw was how outgoing a lot of the new people were. Speaking from personal experience and also years of observation, there seems to be a tendency amongst anime fans to be a little shy, at least at first. This year, the minute I walked into the room, I was met with a new member who immediately introduced himself and struck up a conversation with me. As more people filtered in, many of them new and unacquainted with each-other, they sat down next to others, introduced themselves, and were almost immediately talking about anime, games, their classes and whatever else came to mind. In this case I found the change in attitudes to be overwhelmingly positive. The more friends people make, the likelier they are to stay for the long haul, to participate in club activities, and to eventually take over the reigns - essentially, the future success of the club is more assured the more people are enjoying themselves from the outset.
Another shift is something that wasn't necessarily a surprise to me due to me hanging around some public anime forums, but which still surprised a couple of my friends is the attitude shift towards English dubs of anime. While the issue is a moot point this semester since all the series we're watching are unlicensed and in fansub form, I did hear a couple of complaints from new people about MAS's policy of watching all series in the original Japanese with subtitles. I think originally the reason for the policy was that a lot of old dubs were kind of terrible, and the policy remained because, if watching it in its original language, we can configure the club as not only interested in foreign entertainment for entertainment's sake, but also as an entity focused on more cultural items (I mean, yes, we're watching Japanese cartoons and having a good time and that's the main focus, but we're also at the mercy of the U of MN and want to seem at least partially academic). Personally, I'm not averse to modern dubs because most of them range from passable to pretty good. But having taken over three years of the Japanese language in college, I prefer to hear the Japanese.
I think that the attitude shift here might be due to the newer generation of fans having had lots of anime available on television and on the DVD racks during their formative years as fans. Being able to see anime in their native language was the rule rather than the exception, whereas for many people my age, in order to see shows that weren't Sailor Moon or the few things that weren't on Cartoon Network, fansubs were the rule rather than the exception and we all got used to reading our dialog.
I think an extension of this is some confusion I noticed regarding things that are very tied to Japanese culture. The three main showings this semester are all pretty straightforward without much cultural baggage, but our pre-showing, Astro Fighter Sunred, not only references a very Japanese genre of entertainment (sentai/tokusatsu) but involves many references to Japanese foods, entertainment and day-to-day issues. It's not really esoteric by any means, but it is a bit quirky and even though much of the humor relies on the personalities of the main characters, there are situations where someone who is unfamiliar with Japan might not get the full impact of the joke. The one comment from my new friends that stuck with me was "well this is never coming to the US, is it?" to which I might reply, "does it have to?"
I think part of the reason that I watch anime in the first place is that I'm interested in the peculiarities of Japanese culture itself, and so little interjections here and there in the case of this gag comedy, or even complete immersions in it in the case of something like Mononoke, aren't off-putting to me. But I suppose to someone who's used to a more Westernized translation and who hasn't done any research into the culture behind the entertainment might be confused and even turned-away by something that they aren't familiar with and can't wrap their heads around. What I find interesting is that when I started getting heavily into the fandom it seemed like my fellows in MAS, many of whom were involved in various different academic focuses, enjoyed the Japan-specific series just as much or more as the more Western ones. A show just being different or quirky was enough for it to provide some modicum of entertainment, and there seemed to be some inherent pleasure in uncovering something weird. Perhaps the negative in that situation is that these series, like Azumanga Daioh or Abenobashi Magical Shopping Arcade, might only be enjoyed by some people because of their "foreign-ness," rather than because of their other positive aspects, but at the very least the fact that a Japanese animation from Japan wasn't avoided for being too Japanese.
My hope is that people will ease into the weirder, less-licensable stuff after they see a bit more of it and become accustomed to the different pacing and intent. But the fact that the unusual stuff was met with apprehension rather than somewhat-confused glee worries me a bit.
The other day, my friend emailed me a link to the trailer for Tokyopop's OEL (Original English Language) manga interpretation of the popular CSI television franchise. She asked what I thought of it. I'm not entirely certain what specific part, if any, she was referring to. She might have been fishing for my views on the legitimacy of OEL manga, or what I thought about an American TV franchise being translated from screen to graphic novel. Or perhaps she was curious what I thought about the trailer itself or whether or not the manga might actually be good. I think I'll try to address all those points.
A lot of people get really irate regarding the nomenclature of manga-influenced comics, OEL manga, world manga or whatever the popular term nowadays is. My husband even refuses to use the term "manga" in reference to any graphic novel or comic that isn't Japanese, referring to them as simply "black and white backwards comics." Joking aside, though, I'm not particularly picky about the use of the word "manga," since from what I understand the Japanese use the word in reference to any comics, including international ones. Alternately, when someone says "manga-influenced" or "manga-style" I get a pretty clear picture in my head of characters drawn in the typical manga style, with stories collected into paperback volumes printed in black-and-white. On one hand, it is a copycat style, but having had artistic aspirations of that nature myself at one point, I understand the urge to ape the style itself as a form of admiration. To that end I see nothing inherently wrong with manga-influenced comics, whatever name they're currently called.
Of all the TV franchises that I can think of (which is honestly not that many since most of my TV-watching time is devoted to anime), the CSI franchise seems like one of the better choices to adapt. While there's probably not a whole lot of crossover between CSI fans and manga fans, the show itself is very episodic, a trait which has led itself to be spun-off into related adaptations. I told my friend that I was reminded of Detective Conan, in that they both involve crime investigations and tend to be more episodic than not. So it seems to me that there's some precedent with that sort of story.
As for the trailer/manga being any good, I can't quite say. The use of younger interns as the main characters in the manga sounds like an attempt to appeal more towards the younger manga readership, and perhaps translate whatever success the manga has into higher ratings for the parent TV show as the readers graduate into full-fledged viewers. I personally have become a little wary of the "youthification" formula, because I feel like it's a process that might adversely deduct from the sophistication of the story, but I obviously haven't read the manga and don't know whether that's a problem or not. I certainly don't think that the manga is doomed to be inherently bad, though, despite being written and drawn by "gaijin" and being written in English, which, for a certain sub-set of anime and manga fans are inexcusable traits.
My conclusion about the matter: I don't really care too much, and congratulations if they manage to make a few bucks.
Recently some friends and I got in a heated debate over the necessity, quality and ethics of turning books into films. The trigger for the conversation was the trailer for the upcoming film adaptation for the children's picture book Where the Wild Things Are which I had seen in the theater with these friends before our viewing of Ponyo. At the time, I was immediately struck by the natural beauty of the trailer, the realistic yet fantastic look of the creatures, and the overall earthy feel to the production. What I didn't know until last night was that the friends I was with had an overall negative view of production.
These friends are of the "Book is God" school of thought - any adaptation of an author's work taints the story unless it's 100 percent faithful. Movie adaptations are a scheme to make money on the coattails of an author's well-known or beloved book unless they're a direct translation of the book to the screen. Authorial intent is the alpha and the omega.
Another friend of mine who was present for this debate is somewhere on the opposite end of the spectrum. She was an English and Cultural Studies major and has an avid interest in things like fan fiction and vidding, activities which, by their nature, use an original work as a jumping-off point to explore other aspects of the text. Authorial intent isn't important in this school of thought, because it's more about what the reader gets out of the text.
I'm somewhere in the middle.
Truth be told, I was originally on the more conservative side of the argument. When I first learned about fanfiction, my gut reaction was to make statements like "why don't fanfiction authors put their talent towards creating their own characters and worlds instead of just using someone else's?" That, of course, is a statement that ignores the human tendency to see something and be inspired and to connect on some level with fictional characters, which, spoken from personal experience, can be a very strong desire if the characters are developed well. I have since embraced the fannish side of things a little bit more, and while I'm not big on reading fanfiction, I've done my share of fan art and daydreaming and feel like I understand the desire to want to expand on an existing fiction, to "read between the lines" as my friend put it.
As an extension of that, I don't see any inherent problems in translation a text from one medium to another. A good book might be competently translated into a good movie, or graphic novel, or even a game. Each medium has its own strengths and weaknesses, and a knowledgeable creative mind who is sensitive to those strengths and weaknesses can formulate the story into something that will shine. That doesn't mean that every attempt will be good - I'm sure we all have examples of a favorite book turned into a mediocre movie, or perhaps a TV show from our childhood incompetently reversioned to try and reap a few dollars from nostalgia, while losing the spirit of what made the original entertaining. In my opinion, though, the very act of wanting to bring a favorite story to a new audience isn't in itself a crime, or even a misguided action.
Of course, the question that my friends repeatedly asked of us was "why?" Why even bother "reading between the lines," finding alternate meanings in an author's work? Why not just explore those meanings in a completely original context?
Before I get into attempting to answer that question (which is a very difficult one), I should probably mention why I'm even bringing this up here, on my anime blog, rather than on my personal journal. The reason is that all of us, including these skeptical friends of ours, are anime fans. We're fans of a medium that draws probably 95% of its output from other sources, be it manga, light novels, tabletop games, visual novels, eroge... heck, there's even a currently-running anime based on a popular line of pachinko games. And not all series that are based on other media are good just because of their source material - there are some anime that, for whatever reasons, outshine the manga on which they are based. Nodame Cantabile, while based on a manga that's very good, really feels complete once music is added (and in addtion to that, there's an also-great live-action version - there's a slightly different focus but it's still wonderful and worth seeing as a companion to the manga and anime). Revolutionary Girl Utena is an anime with so much more depth and richness that the manga pales in comparison. I've heard anectdotally that the anime versions of Ouran Host Club and S-cry-ed are much better than their respective mangas (I've only seen the anime versions of these two series). And we don't speak of the Le Chevalier d'Eon manga (even though the anime and manga are actually both based on a book).
In any case, anime is a medium populated almost entirely by "ripped-off" ideas, and yet amongst the cheaply-produced crud that's created solely to make money off of established properties, there are still creators who can take from those established properties the elements that work. In turn producing wonderful, enthralling examples of animation based on those elements, retaining the spirit of the originals while working with the strengths of an alternate medium and perhaps drawing out alternate interpretations of the source text that might engage a new audience.
Again, though, the million-dollar question is "why bother?" That's extremely difficult to answer, because when I think about it, it's something that I just know. I feel like I just innately understand the urge to reinterpret an author's work and why there's value in that act, but it's not easy to put into words. Sometimes it's honestly just to make money, and in those cases I'm really not interested. But that's not always the case. For example, why keep making Batman movies? Sure, if no one had bothered to "rip off" the Batman comic book franchise, there never would have been a tragedy like Batman and Robin (which obviously was trying to cash in on name recognition without trying to be sensitive to the things that make Batman entertaining). But we also would never have had triumphs like Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, arguably two of the best comic-book translations to film ever made. I think the existence of the latter two answer that tough question by their very existence.
An example that we actually discussed were the Lord of the Rings films, entities that our friends openly admitted to picking apart after viewing. Having read the books in middle school first and gotten a good feel for them, I also loved the movies. Why? To put it bluntly, Tolkien was an incredible world-builder, but his writing wasn't very good. The novels are difficult to understand, are rife with minutiae (that, while awesome in the context of a history book or encyclopedia, are TMI when sprinkled liberally into a story), aren't written in a way that clearly represents the passage of time and what things are happening when, and they end with an anti-climactic confrontation (when the hobbits return to the shire and Saruman has busted it up) that stands as just one example of how the pacing is weird and unnatural. And yet the film adaptation takes all these things and streamlines them, keeping the important details, leaving references to others for those who are looking, and creating a motion picture trilogy that feels like the best parts of the original while still being accessible to people who would never in their lives pick up and read a 1200 page tome. Leaving out Tom Bombadil or any number of the countless songs and poems Tolkien included in his original text are nitpicky complaints that represent a keen misunderstanding of what the most inspiring and beautiful parts of that story are - the multiple tales of people overcoming nearly impossible odds to accomplish great deeds of heroism. Or, at least, that's what I love about it - if you're into memorizing small details, piecing together chronology and poring over poems and songs, I apologize for your loss.
Finally, to put it simply, I would ask my own question. Assuming book-to-film and other adaptations are going to happen either way, why bother making the film a direct copy of the book? I've already read the book, so then why waste my time with the movie? The first two Harry Potter films were slavishly faithful to the books, whereas the most recent film left out a lot of items - yet the most recent film is probably what I would consider the best, or at least my favorite in the franchise. It had a lot of humor that, unexpectedly, just worked, and yet retained the gravity of the important scenes. As long as both versions work, why sweat the small things? How about just enjoying each version for what it is, and not immediately assuming the worst .
When I see the trailer for the film version of Where the Wild Things Are, I don't get that vibe of someone trying to cash in by making a cheap and quick version of a story beloved by so many people. I see an artist who probably read the book as a youngster and kept that with him through these years, his imagination running wild and expanding that world into a more complex narrative. Even if that scenario isn't quite true (and I may very well be applying some wishful-thinking to the situation), the trailer looks gorgeous and blends a sense of earthiness with that of childlike wonder, and, at least at this moment, I'm anticipating seeing more.
The characters of K-ON! a recent popular moe series.
Every once in a while a butthurt fanboy (there haven't been any fangirls that I know of, yet) will get on my case because I make it quite clear that I don't like moe. I'm not ashamed of that. I know it's sort of trendy to hate on moe these days, especially since it's become a genre in and of itself rather than an aspect of certain series. Honestly, though, I'm not trying to jump on some bandwagon just for the sake of slamming a certain (extremely vocal) section of the anime fan-base. I have my own good reasons.
For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about when I say "moe" (and no, I'm not talking about the barkeep on The Simpsons; the "e" is pronounced as well - mo-e), it's a Japanese term referring to the protective feeling one gets when presented with something small, cute and vulnerable. Like a little sister. At least, this is the traditional definition. As time went on, characters began to be boiled down to what traits made them moe. Things like cat ears (nekomimi), glasses (megane) and even personality traits (tsundere) were distinguished as being especially attractive.
Senjougahara defines her own personality with a common moe trait in a comedic moment.
The problem that I have now with moe is that, more often than not, characters are defined by their moe traits rather than actually undergoing character development, and just the idea of that completely grates on my nerves. Moe has become just a lazy shortcut to get people who are in love with a certain character type to watch the show and buy merch. I'm not going to fault a company for doing what it needs to do to make money, but on the other hand, I'm not going to congratulate an anime production or rate it highly for being artless and pandering and taking the lazy route as far as its characters are concerned.
Before I conclude the post, though, I will say that there are a few series that I would classify as "moe" that don't completely drive me insane. One is Lucky Star, which I enjoyed simply because it's very self-aware - Konata, the main character and otaku extraordinaire, sees the world (including her own friends) through moe-colored glasses and the humor comes from the fact that she's not really what one would call the "typical" moe fan. The venerable Azumanga Daioh, which many modern fans might not even classify as "moe" even though the main characters run the gamut of moe traits, still stands as one of the most charming and heartfelt slice-of-life comedies out there.
Lucky star, a comedic moe series that plays around with moe character types.
Unfortunately, most moe series remind me of that scene in Welcome to the NHK where Satou and his friend are trying to design a main character for their eroge and end up making her some sort of alien loli robot maid from the future - for the most part moe is an appeal to certain demographics for the purpose of attracting consumers, nothing more. And I don't have to be okay with it.
I wanted to say a few words about the recent "Endless 8" controversy, and now that the whole thing is complete and I've watched it all, I feel comfortable doing so. For those of you who aren't aware of what I'm talking about when I utter that phrase, the quick-and-dirty answer is that it was a recent story arc in the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya season 2/rebroadcast, and that it consisted of 8 full episodes - all of which covered the same events in the last two weeks of the S.O.S. Brigade's Summer vacation. The "time loop" was, of course, Haruhi's doing - she unconsciously felt that her Summer vacation was incomplete, and so the night before the first day back at school, time would reverse itself and the group would be back at August 17th all over again, to repeat themselves ad infinitum until a way out was discovered.
Many fans were quite unhappy with this set of episodes, to put things nicely.
To begin with, no one was sure (and still, no one really is sure) what this season's episodes would include, simply because no official schedule has really been posted. Once people realized that "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody," the first new episode to be broadcast, would be followed by more new episodes, speculation ran rampant and many speculative schedules appeared in forums across the internet. Most put the "Endless 8" story arc at one or two episodes - in the books, it was only a chapter long, so there was no reason to assume that it would consume so much air time. So when it went into a third and then a forth episode, fans began to get impatient, and then outright angry. Most of the internet chatter that resulted conveyed sentiments like, "Kyoto Animation is just pissing off the fans," or, "They're going to lose so much money over this." The same sort of "I-know-better-than-the-professionals" kind of chatter that tends to occur when ever a discussion arises about the state of the anime industry or the debate over subtitles versus dubs.
Honestly? I just sat back and enjoyed the show.
I'll admit right here: I was never a big fan of the original Haruhi series. I watched it after it had been hyped to me time and time again, and was particularly underwhelmed by it. I didn't like Haruhi as a main character, mostly because I don't find rude, bossy people very charming, and I especially didn't like the way she constantly molested Mikuru (especially since Mikuru would cry about it - victimization is hilarious, folks, especially when it's girl-on-girl! *eyeroll*). But I decided once I knew the second season was happening that it would be important for me to at least keep up on it, for the sake of keeping myself current on what was obviously going to be a huge hit. And while I witnessed the devotion of the pre-established fandom take a marked downturn, I actually found myself enjoying the story arc because of what it seemed to represent.
The clock ticks menacingly.
Ask John over at Animenation probably put this better already, but watching Endless 8 and the ensuing internet rage of its intended audience unfold, I got a sense that Kyoto Animation and Kadokawa were literally giving the fans exactly what they had begged for and harped about in the three years since the first season aired - more of the same. Imagine how frustrating it would be for a studio to release more series in the meantime, yet have the bulk of the fanbase whine about how the next season of Haruhi wasn't out yet. I'd certainly get fed up pretty darn fast, that's for sure. And, of course, things happened in an entirely predictable manner - having gotten what they had asked for, fans revolted on the studio, down-rated the series, and whined and cried online in protest.
Kyon surrenders to his fate.
I find it sort of funny how petty and ungrateful so many "fans" turn out to be when presented with what they want. I'm reminded of an anecdote told by Chris Ayers at Anime Detour last year. He mentioned how fans had been begging and pleading for anime DVDs to be released faster, and so when ADV released the DVDs, they released two episodes per disc for half the regular MSRP, so that the anime could come out more quickly. And "fans" pitched a fit, acting like the company was ripping them off somehow (the only issue I see would be shelf space, but big deal, right?). More recently, the licensing announcement of this Spring's Eden of the East had many people exclaiming that they wouldn't buy the series unless the theme song was kept intact, a matter which seems entirely petty and more like a shallow excuse to keep from spending the money on an otherwise great series.
Haruhi leaves the restaurant and Kyon stresses over the impending reset of the time loop.
So I wasn't too surprised to hear people rage on the internet about this. Unfortunately, their boorishness and short-sighted petty rage kept most of them from enjoying what was ultimately a pretty interesting experiment. Even though the events of the episodes were essentially the same, the tone underwent subtle changes each time. One episode put the focus more squarely on Yuki, who, unlike the others, was able to remember each and every time loop - this helped to create a lot of sympathy for the character. Others found different ways to highlight the direness of the characters' situations - eventually each scene where Haruhi left the restaurant for the last time became an exercise in the creation of mounting tension. One incarnation ended with a scene of Kyon's alarm clock ticking down to midnight on August 31st, each second a painful reminder that they hadn't solved the riddle of their dilemma yet. And when the cycle was finally broken, the sheer joy experienced by the characters (and the relief in myself, the viewer) was a feeling that simply couldn't have come about if the story arc had taken place over just a couple short episodes.
Yuki recounts the facts of the previous time loops in a particularly heavy moment.
Do I think that this method of storytelling was entirely necessary? No; I think that Endless 8 could have been perfectly serviceable, if forgettable, if it had just been another short story arc. But this is something that set the internet on fire and got people riled up, and I doubt that it will be forgotten very soon. And for me, personally, while I'm disappointed that so many people fell into the trap of acting like entitled brats, it was worth it for the entertainment value.
Every once-in-a-while I find myself pondering the differences between watching anime (or anything, really) in a group and watching it by myself. Even though the content of a show is exactly the same either way, I find that my own reaction might be more or less dramatic depending on how many other people are around and might even even be colored who those people are.
This is a good reason why I try to watch the anime I intend to review on my own first before talking about it or watching it with other people. This has turned out to be a good personal policy, since I've ended up watching multiple things that friends have seen one or two episodes of and hated. It might surprise some people to know that there are quite a few series to which I give the benefit of the doubt and end up watching alone to little fanfare, whether other people I know have enjoyed it, panned it, or paid it little or no attention. I'm willing to believe that there are good, watchable examples of any genre, and try to watch series that fall into ones that many people I know dislike. I certainly wouldn't be watching any harem series, shounen action series or straight-up mecha anime if I let my friends influence what I was watching.
Despite its sometimes corny and melodramatic moments, I watched - and enjoyed - all of Antique Bakery.
Of course, it becomes more and more difficult to recommend series to people, because many tend to shut themselves down if one undesirable thing happens in an early episode. I've certainly been guilty of this too; my recent review of Bakemonogatari is proof of this, though I've since established much more positive feelings towards the series as a whole. But if I have to say to someone "just ignore this panty shot because the story is really good" I've already colored their reaction to a show - letting them know that they're not going to like something creates another hurdle to them being able to connect to it, whereas if the offending item occurred later in the series after they had established some connection to it, it would be easier to overlook. It's been a lot tougher for me lately to make recommendations to people with whom I interact with on a regular basis, because I've gotten into a mindset that so many series require excuses and even though I feel like I'm familiar with my friends' tastes, it's often surprising to me what they're willing to overlook and what might become an instant deal-breaker. With my online reviews that mainly reach people who I don't know personally, this personal aspect of trying to formulate my recommendations to personal acquaintances and the stress therein isn't really a factor.
Senjougahara taunts Araragi in a scene from episode 2 of Bakemonogatari - would my sensitive friends be able to look past this and enjoy the show?
Most of you know that I attend and am an active member of an honest-to-goodness, real-life anime club at the University of Minnesota. Watching anime in a group like this with ages that range from freshman to middle-age is an entirely different experience. With a group that has such a large number of members (attendance ranges between 30-60 members depending on the semester and the popularity of the series), reactions to certain series and certain aspects of said series tend to be very different than what I experience watching things alone. This can be both a positive and negative thing.
On the positive side, watching comedies and action series is generally a more fulfilling experience, because excitement is something that tends to build on itself the more people that are there to experience it. I felt kind of lukewarm about the original Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei series because I felt that its jokes were a bit too Japanese-centric to connect with a Western audience, but when I watched it at anime club, I was proven wrong. The ability of the slapstick humor and quirkiness of the characters to override the Japanese cultural jokes was dramatic, and many people marked it as one of their favorites.
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei often contains humor that a Western audience may not fully understand or appreciate.
On the negative side, though, shows with dramatic, sexual or otherwise controversial content seem to bring out the immaturity in many people. I think in some cases, content that someone might find emotionally-moving when viewed by themselves becomes uncomfortable in a group, and since the viewer doesn't want to appear weak or vulnerable in front of their acquaintances they hide their reactions behind obnoxious giggles or some other inappropriate response. I remember a particular occasion right at the end of Kaze no Yojimbo, when a character was dying, and one girl couldn't stifle her giggles during that dramatic moment because "OMG THIS PART IS SO YAOI!!!11one." She essentially ruined for the rest of the audience what was supposed to be a very dramatic, almost tragic moment with her inappropriate verbal ejaculation. Likewise, as far is as episode 18 people were still giggling over the male-to-female transformation of the main character in Le Chevalier d'Eon, even though by that time it was both old hat and inextricably linked to the plot, and had long since left "gimmicky" territory. This isn't to say that a large group can't share in being emotionally-affected - in a rare moment of maturity, the whole of MAS was silent the day we watched Voices of a Distant Star. But on the whole, I think that any group, even a smaller group, might suffer from bouts of this.
D'eon becomes possessed by his sister's spirit, which causes him to look more like her.
So why watch stuff with other people, especially when there's the potential to ruin your own viewing experience if the other people are unable to act like grown-ups? I think the reason that I keep participating in various anime viewing groups is a combination of various factors. In the past, when I was just branching out into anime fansubs, being amongst people who were more experienced in acquiring unusual anime and seeing things in anime club I would have never found on my own was a big factor in wanting to be in a group. Nowadays I feel like I'm on the other end, and as irritating as it can be to share series with others and have them completely miss the point, there are those times when something that I love is just as loved by others, and that's a high that just can't be replicated over the internet.
I've touched on this before from time-to-time, but I think it's a subject that bears repeating as often as possible until I stop getting flak for it (which will never happen, unfortunately). The mission of my method of reviewing, that being grabbing the first episode of all available anime series and basing an opinion off of them, is to get a good cross-section of what's out there each season and to get a good idea of whether or not each series is worth bothering with. It's a subjective process, but reviews of any kind always are; an objective review would be a recitation of stats like "number of episodes" or "members of the production staff," and I don't think many people would consider that a review worth reading.
Shin Mazinger Shougeki Z-Hen - I have no idea what is going on here.
I think the first episode of a series is a darned near perfect place from which to construct a review, because its purpose is to accomplish a particular task - the episode should get the viewer excited to see the rest of the show either through its presentation of story elements, the flashiness of its animation, demonstrating why the characters are worth following, or cultivating an element of mystery that makes the viewer want to see what happens next. Many series are successful at this to some degree, and it's really more a matter of my own taste as to whether I'd like to follow along. Unfortunately there are some series lately that make what are, in my opinion, major missteps with their introductory episodes. Sometimes the episode takes place in the middle or end of the story rather than at the beginning, sometimes it's purposely deceptive in some way, and still other times it may be intended more as a shout-out to fans of the original story (whether it occurred in manga or novel form) and may leave the uninitiated in the dust.
Mikuru Asahina - Reluctant Battle Waitress
Episodes like this certainly don't doom a series, and there are a few examples of shows that open in an unorthodox manner and do it well - The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a good example. While episode 0 represented the finale of a story arc, the rest of which wasn't even animated until recently, it still managed to give a good feel for each of the main characters and was extremely funny due to its strikingly-accurate portrayal of a student film project. More often than not, however, shows that begin in the middle or end or contain too many fanservice-y in-jokes seem like attempts to cash-in on a trendy storytelling method and don't seem to have much thought put into whether this method actually makes sense for the series. The recent Shin-Mazinger Shougeki Z-Hen was a major offender, putting its last episode first and turning what would have been a climactic series-closer into a confusing train wreck of unintroduced characters and conflicts without context.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - Instead of the beginning, let's just start with something completely unrelated.
So why not just set these episodes aside and watch a few subsequent episodes to get a clearer picture of the show's actual content? My main reason is because that ignores the reason why I started this amateur reviewing project in the first place. With a day job, a husband, a couple of cats, and other hobbies to worry about, I don't have time to watch more than one, maybe two episodes of most series, and my reviews are meant for people who have even less time than that. I also believe that the first episode is where creators need to put their best foot forward and showcase a series' strengths. If they waste that opportunity and try to manipulate me into watching a second episode by being confusing or overly-secretive, that's just a turn-off. I'm not a hikkikomori, a lonely otaku or someone with no other hobbies - my time to devote to anime isn't infinite and if I feel my time has been wasted in some way I'm especially irritated.
Additionally, I'd like to mention that first episode reviews are above-and-beyond what I see from most anime blogs and review sites on the web, especially sites with only one main blogger or reviewer. I've noticed that many other reviewers tend to pre-judge using synopses and concept artwork, eliminating many series from their plate before even seeing any actual footage. At the very least, I'm providing every series an equal opportunity to impress me, and I've been both pleasantly and unpleasantly surprised more than once. It would be really helpful if naysayers would take that fact into account before slinging-mud in various other venues (of course, that's not the nature of internet discourse unfortunately).
Of course, this reasoning will never be enough for some people. Disagreement and complaints are inevitable with a public site such as this one, and I certainly don't expect complete agreement from everyone who stops by. It would be nice if everyone who had a snide remark also went to the lengths that I do to watch a bit of everything - I would be much more willing to listen, in that case.
Recently I had the opportunity to watch two anime movies. The first, Miyazaki's Ponyo, I saw in the movie theater with some friends. The other, Sword of the Stranger, was a Blu-ray that a friend loaned to my husband and I, which we watched at home with our Sunday evening group. The films were pretty much on the opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of content; Ponyo is steeped in the innocence of childhood and its message is very simple and fairy-tale-like, whereas Sword of the Stranger is very obviously for adults since it contains copious amounts of violence and its story is much darker.
With two films that are so vastly different from each-other, it might seem like an exercise in foolishness to compare them. Their strengths and weaknesses are generally in different areas, they're aimed at different audiences, and in terms of visual style they obviously come from different schools of thought. But stepping back I think there's one area in which they can easily be compared - one has soul and the ability to draw forth emotional response in the viewer, and the other is nothing but a string of pretty pictures. I'm sure there will be people that disagree with me on this one, but Ponyo, flawed narrative and all, was easily the more emotionally-triumphant of the two films, whereas Sword of the Stranger was beautiful but empty and left me feeling completely neutral afterward.
From a writing standpoint, Ponyo had issues. It was unclear from the get-go whether or not Ponyo's father was to be considered a genuine baddy or just a concerned parent (he seems genuinely potent at the beginning of the film when he's dabbling in evolutionary magic and plotting his future revenge on the human race, but once Ponyo's mother, Grand Mamare, shows up, he seems relegated to being a grumbling father figure with little actual power over his rebellious child). There are obvious allusions to one of Miyazaki's pet issues - environmentalism. The story begins when Ponyo escapes her father's watchful eye and then gets trapped in some garbage being dredged from the bottom of the bay. However, this issue falls to the background as the film progresses and doesn't ever really return in full-force. And then the movie just kind of comes to a stopping point - rather than building tension and then coming to an epic climax, the characters never seem to be under any real threat and the movie concludes without them having undergone any major trials and tribulations (the test of true love that the adult characters talk-up near the end of the film is essentially Grand Mamare asking Sousuke, the little boy, whether he would love Ponyo even if she looked like a fish, the answer to which the audience knew the entire time).
But you know what? Despite some logical fallacies and some odd construction, this movie has one thing that trumps so many other films - it has a soul. That might sound like a cheesy claim to make, but the strength of this film is in its ability to get the audience to feel something. The two child leads, Sousuke and Ponyo, are charming, energetic, and above all, innocent - especially in Ponyo's case. It's difficult not to at least get a laugh out of her complete and utter joy of discovery, and I found myself welling up with emotion multiple times. Another factor that I loved which some might disagree on is the film's use of traditional animation techniques. The film employs no 3D CG effects (though I'm assuming until I know otherwise that the drawings were colored digitally rather than painted) and has a natural, painterly quality that many modern animated series and movies lack. While CG animation is certainly impressive in its own right, it lacks the fundamental human touch that traditional animation has - part of the charm of traditional animation is that it isn't perfect. One key animator might draw a character slightly off-model, or another might specialize in a certain type of movement and traditional animation is more reflective of this, whereas full CG or CG-aided productions seem to clean up and remove these calling cards, removing the human element. Ponyo stands as a triumph of this older methodology and it's a treat to see just what's still possible with this technique.
Sword of the Stranger is a departure from Ponyo in nearly every way. The visuals are, overall, much darker and more "grown-up" to fit with its darker story. It employs every modern trick in the book, including CG-aided set pieces, choreographed battle sequences, and oodles of blood and bone-breaking violence. It oozes "cool" from every pore. Unfortunately the creators seem to have concentrated too much on looking cool and not enough on developing sympathetic characters, because despite the flash and impressiveness of the animation, I found myself not caring much about the actual story.
The film is about a young boy named Kotaro who is hunted by a group of Chinese warriors since he holds the key to an immortality medicine their emperor desires. Kotaro is aided by Nanashi ("no-name"), a wandering samurai with a tragic past. Amongst their Chinese pursuers are a Westerner named Rarou who is after nothing other than a worthy opponent in battle. Nanashi makes it his duty to rescue Kotaro from the Chinese in order to atone for sins he committed while serving in the military (he killed some kids).
The production contains lots of samurai-movie stock characters, the most obvious of which is Nanashi, the nameless samurai who finds himself in the middle of someone else's problem and, due to a soft spot, ends up helping out. The major issue is that hardly any of the characters are sympathetic. Kotaro is, honestly, a little douche-bag, something which became problematic to me as the viewer. I didn't really care if he was captured and killed because his attitude was so snotty throughout much of the first 3/4 of the film. It was much more emotionally-affecting when his dog was poisoned by an errant enemy weapon. Rarou is just another violent Westerner out for a fight; a one-dimensional, robotic characature in place so that an epic boss battle can occur at the climax of the film. The Chinese are all on performance-enhancing drugs that dull their pain response, so they in turn become weapon-wielding maniacs that exist to be mangled before finally meeting their end. Nanashi's backstory provides him with a little bit of depth, but in turn it almost feels forced and emotionally-manipulative towards the viewer (what's one of the most horrible things someone could possibly do? Oh yeah, kill some kids).
The story seems like little more than an opportunity for Nanashi to get into a string of fights, and in this respect this plays to the film's major strength - the impressiveness of its battle choreography. Studio Bones is no slouch when it comes to impressive animation - even most of its TV animation has moments of cinematic-level visual quality - and this film serves as a showcase of what they're capable of. Each battle is a visual treat, topped of by the final confrontation between Nanashi and Rurou which, while it ends predictably in Nanashi's victory, is gripping from beginning to end.
Before I'm accused of hating on action anime, I should be clear that I don't believe that cool visuals necessarily preclude a shallow story. Shows like Casshern SINS and Samurai Champloo are good examples of shows with a strong action focus that actually have sympathetic characters and some depth in the story. However, while many probably disagree with me on this, a few striking battle sequences and some pretty artwork aren't enough to culminate in a satisfying viewing experience, a mistake that I feel many modern anime, and especially action anime, productions are too prone to making. Sword of the Stranger goes through the motions competently, but just doesn't have much soul behind it. After watching it, I pretty much just shrugged my shoulders and moved on to something else without feeling the need to meditate on it very much.
Don't take my dismissal as a complete condemnation of the film, though. I think that the movie is definitely worthy of a rental, especially if you have the capability of viewing the Blu-ray version on an HD television. It's certainly not a waste of time to watch, either. But I do think that there are better animated films out there that strive to provide visual entertainment and quality storytelling without sacrificing one for the other.
You know what's kind of irritating? Having a song stuck in your head. It's even worse when the song isn't one that you really like all that much. I tend to get anime themes trapped in my mind, and they're often from series that I've seen maybe one episode of before dooming it to the recycle bin for all eternity. But this really takes the cake. My review for Taishou Yakyuu Musume hasn't been posted yet, but the first episode has an unexpected musical number in it that's been stuck in my head since I first watched it. It didn't help that I took the time to upload it to Youtube, and thus had to hear it more times while I was editing the video. So if you haven't heard it yet, here's the accursed thing for you. Share in my pain.
Naysayers... Just shut up and enjoy the glory of Akira's Johnny.
Saturday at Otakon, Funimation announced license acquisitions Casshern: Sins and Eden of the East, two titles that many people, including myself, have been anticipating. I immediately went into celebratory mode, but then made the poor decision to go read the ANN forum thread in connection with the news. It began innocently enough, with people being happy for the acquisition, and some people being happy that they could finally watch these shows (some people have much stricter ethics than I do regarding fansubs, which is fine - it just means they get to miss a lot of the cool stuff >:) ).
Of course, someone always has to piss on my parade.
There seems to be a small-but-vocal contingent of people who are more than willing to act like big fans of something, but when it comes time to pony up the cash, there's always some excuse as to why the American company ruined the release and they won't spend any money on it. This time around, the controversy is in regards to the opening theme, which is the song "Falling Down" by the British band Oasis. There are rumblings (not based on anything factual, mind you, just worried whispers based on a couple of past situations) that Funimation might not be able to secure rights to the opening song. I'm thinking to myself, "big deal, right?" I really like the opening song, but a minute-and-a-half of artful design elements coupled with an excerpt from a popular song is not enough to sway me one way or another in regards to a series that I already like. When I'm watching multiple episodes of a series at one time, I usually skip the theme songs anyway, no matter how much I like it.
Wow, they were right! Now that I've read this I totally understand the series! /sarcasm
Well, of course the thread blew up with people in agreement, with a few more rational people in between telling these people that they were being childish. One argument that really irritated me was that the opening theme was somehow integral to understanding the series itself. Hogwash, I say. While the opening pays lip service to a lot of the terms, concepts and ideas around which the series revolves, all of these things are explained within the context of the series itself. The opening is basically someone's very awesome graphic design project, but there's no reason anyone would need to watch it, and if these whiners were real fans of the series they would know better.
In case you were curious, here's a video of the show's opening:
Thanks to everyone who attended the Shiny New Anime panel at CONvergence 2009! Even though it was directly opposite one of the big Mystery Science Theater panels, there was still a great turnout and we got some great comments/feedback. Props to the nice lady out in Forest Lake - I hope you can get high-speed internet soon and you and your daughter can enjoy all these great shows more easily.
In any case, I have uploaded the handout for the panel to my webspace for those who are interested but didn't receive one (I have a constant problem with not making enough of them - I printed at least ten more than last year and there still weren't enough).
Anyway, the handout is here. It's in RTF format, which should be compatible for most people.
A friend requested that I upload clips to Youtube; we'll see if that's feasible. If so, I'll update this post later on with more links.
ETA: Okay, I uploaded both the CONvergence clips and the Anime Detour clips to Youtube. I have no idea whether or not they'll get taken down, but here are links to them until they disappear:
Hi, all. Just as a note, I will be attending CONvergence, a Science-Fiction and Fantasy convention, this weekend, Thursday-Sunday. I'll be a presenter in one panel, Shiny New Anime which is Friday from 3:30-4:30pm in the multimedia room. Stop by and say hi if you're around. If you attended the same panel at Anime Detour this year, the presentation will be about the same, though I'm aiming to have some new clips this time around. After I get home I'll post the handout for those of you who are interested but didn't get to attend.
I thought some people might be interested in my review process and some of the things that influence how I rate a show. And if no one is interested, well, tough. I'm bored and wanted something to write about, and this is what came to mind :)
First, a bit of history. I've been an anime fan since I was a youngster, though my first big obsession was with Sailor Moon, when it arrived on these shores chopped-up and dubbed-over. Then there was Ronin Warriors and various other scattered series. I was, unfortunately, one of those kids who didn't have access to Cartoon Network at the appropriate time to see Gundam Wing, Cowboy Bebop, and various other iconic series first run on American television, so my education in that area is still lacking somewhat. However, things didn't really start getting kicked into high gear until I entered college and subsequently joined the University of Minnesota Manga Anime Society, a student-run anime club on campus. It was there that I first encountered fan subs, both VHS and digital. The first series I ever downloaded was Azumanga Daioh, and it only went forward from there.
Of course like many fans, after a period of intense fandom, I gained experience with various types of anime series and began to get more critical. I went through numerous dry spells where I felt like there was just nothing good to be seen. Finally, in probably February or March of 2007, I decided that I would make it my goal to preview new episodes of anything I could find for the new Spring season coming up, and write about them on my Live Journal, so that my friends could read the reviews and save themselves some time. I think from that season I ended up watching, in whole or in significant part, a good 8 or 9 series, and began to realize just how many potentially good shows were flying under my radar. So each season since I've entered into with renewed enthusiasm, and I generally take away at least a couple of new series to enjoy.
Late in 2007, my friend Boris came to me with a proposal - he wanted to work on web design, and I wanted a better way to get my reviews out there, so he though we could team up and do a website. It's worked out well ever since. He's good at the coding part of the website, which he does all by hand in a text editor, and my output of writing is pretty consistent, so there's a good stream of new content.
As for my review process, it goes something like this. Each new anime season, beginning in January, April, July and October with some stragglers scattered throughout, I spend a week or a week-and-a-half amassing a collection of first episodes, generally though bittorrent (though with the advent of more streaming options, I feel like that might change in the future). When I have a decent backlog, I start my writing. I do a bit of research on the general genre and plot of the series before I watch it (that's where the links in the reviews come from), because some of them get confusing and I have trouble remembering character names otherwise. I watch the episode, summarizing each half at the time of the viewing, and take a screencap from each half to include with the review. After the viewing, I write down my thoughts, which may focus on any number of aspects, including the story, the animation, comparisons to similar series, etc. I sum up the more important thoughts in the Pros and Cons section. After editing (which I do to varying degrees based on how busy I am), I email a batch of reviews off to Boris so that he can upload them to the site and include them in the archives and whatnot.
I think here I'll comment on/defend certain aspects of my reviews. First of all, I don't include numerical ratings in my reviews, and never really have. I think numbers are too arbitrary and don't really say anything in the end. I feel like, even if I don't like a series, if I give reasons why I didn't like it, even someone who disagrees with me could read the review and know if the show might be something that they like. For example, if I said something like "this series is gross because all the girls have gigantic tits", someone who's into gigantic tits would know that it was something they might like. Saying "This show is a 3/10" doesn't really give that kind of feedback.
I think that there are a lot of people out there who might take issue with the fact that I base my opinion on 1 episode, because that doesn't take into account the entire story or any potential character development that might happen throughout the series. While I see where they're coming from, I am also well aware of the fact that introductory episodes are often what get a decent budget and the most attention from the staff, since they have to get people interested in the series somehow. I can think of very few series that change significantly in tone or content enough to completely change my opinion of them. I also don't have time to research or watch every series from beginning to end since I have a day job and only have evenings and weekends free (and I *gasp* do things other than just watch anime in my free time). So first impressions are key with me.
I don't tend to like or dislike any particular genre. Actually, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think that any genre can have good series and bad series. I haven't had particularly good luck with certain genres, including yaoi, harem and general fanservice series, but I'm making a solid attempt to at least try and find a couple series from each genre that I would feel comfortable recommending to a fan of that genre. I would like to be able to judge series more on how good they are as compared to the standards of their genre rather than my own personal objections to them, but I certainly won't stop pointing fingers at things that I think suck crap :)
I hope that provides some insight into what goes on around here. If anyone ever has any questions, feel free to email me (jessi at s1e1 dot com) and I would be happy to answer them here.
