From well-known documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock (you’ll probably know him best as the guy who did Super Size Me), comes a look into the biggest geek convention in the U.S., San Diego Comic-Con. A Fan’s Hope follows a few different people through the convention which wasn’t abundantly clear in the trailer I saw but now after seeing it, the title makes much more sense. There is a lot more of a personal journey to this documentary than a real focus on the con as a whole and its development and history. While that wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for, the film isn’t a disappointment but more an incomplete tale.

Unlike some other films, Morgan is only behind the camera for this one, which is a shame since he would have been the perfect person to give us tidbits of information and bring context to scenes. The people we do follow are generally interesting if not experts on the con. Two artists trying to go pro, a comic book dealer who hasn’t had a good year for profits, a costume sculptor wanting to show off her skills, a toy collector on the hunt, and a couple where the guy is going to pop the question make up our merry band.

Equal attention wasn’t given to everyone, sometimes this was good (the couple), sometimes this was bad (the artist from the military), but most of all it felt like they should have cut back on the group as a whole or make the film longer. Though the public proposal I could have done without altogether, it makes me so uncomfortable! And I had gotten a little worried about the guy since his girlfriend seemed attached to his hip. Interspersed between these stories are celebrities saying a line or two or telling a story about the convention and these were a lot of fun. Kevin Smith does an especially good job while telling a story about what would happen if his now self could travel back and visit his 11-year-old self.

This film is a celebration of fandom, it is not an expose, but it really needed to be a bit of both.

I did not realize that this was a Morgan Spurlock documentary until after I saw it. Or I should more precisely say that I did not realize Morgan Spurlock was also the same director as Super Size Me until after I watched the movie. As a long-term nerd I can’t say that I learned anything particularly shocking about Comic-Con as a whole. It is distinctly more of a celebration of Comic-Con and a look at how it affects certain people rather than an in-depth expose of the grand mechanisms behind the convention.

If you’re looking for parts on Twilight fanatics vs. Comic nerds or the sickly side of the cosplay community you won’t find it here. They do touch on the fact that the convention had become much more of a general media con than a solely comic focused event though the eyes of one of the oldest remaining comic sellers but even that is mostly played as a positive. The real meat of the documentary was the experiences of the people who attended the con. You had the collector, the cosplay girl, and the dealer among others. Their stories were all interesting. The Mass Effect cosplay group was undoubtedly skilled. That animatronic Krogan outfit was a marvel. You cannot see that outfit and not be impressed. (You can but your mostly just a jerk who likes to pat themselves on the back for how “worldly” they are).

But the most interesting stories were the two men trying to get professional jobs in the comics industry while attending Comic-Con. It was a good look at someone who makes it and someone who was clearly not ready. I wish they had focused a little more on the artist who got a job through the event. As a married man in the military I felt he really contrasted the image of the lonely super spaz you associate with comic fandom. He was clearly seriously into comics with the skills to back up that love but I felt he was a fascinating example of the diversity of the community. The gentleman who was rejected was also compelling. As someone who has never taken rejection well his story hit very close to home even if he dealt with his setbacks with a good amount of grace.

The real question this documentary answers is why do people go to Comic-Con. It is a wonderful examination of what makes people come back year after year and why the convention has become the phenomenon it has. I am coincidentally listening to the Freakonomics audio book. Since Spurlock worked on the film based on that book I might give that a look soon as well.

Kekkaishi vol. 30 sets us on the road to the finale. Yoshimori comes face to face with Karasumori and begins the training needed to seal him away. It has a very melancholy feel since getting to this goal means leaving other things behind. It is also really disappointing to imagine Tokine not appearing in this arc as pivitol character so I’m hoping that will change. While Yoshimori’s mother has appeared, we still know little about her, and if you thought Masamori was a suspicious character, their mother is even more so.

The Moon Moth is strange by the fact that how the book presents itself and how it reads are very different.

The book is billed as a science fiction murder mystery and none of this is incorrect per say. It takes places in a future with interplanetary travel and ray guns. There is an assassin and the protagonist has to discover who he is. But the book plays out much more like a fantasy book that is about a stranger in a strange land learning to play a very alien game of manners. The world building just has a vibe that is more consistent with a fantasy novel than science fiction. The masks, the games of manners, and the musical elements to conversations all feel more at home in a fantasy story than anything else.

It’s not that science fiction could not toy with any of these tools to tell a story but the presentation feels like something I would see from George R. R. Martin rather than Robert Heinlein. Also the story is much more the story of a foreigner making many mistakes with an extremely formalized culture where the wrong bit of social faux paux can lead to your death.

When Edwer Thissell discovers who the assassin is it has less to do with you solving it along with him and more to do with the story demonstrating how he is getting a hang of the complex rules of this Byzantine social hierarchy. It was a very odd story. I can’t say I loved it but I do feel it was an unusual read. I think the uneven pacing does hold the story back a bit as the engaging parts of the story sit in between slower parts that seem to spin their wheels. But it is a story that translates well into a comic and does not feel like a story you have read before.

That unusual flavor alone might be why you check it out. Just realize what sort of story it is.

I will admit to knowing nothing of the source material on which The Moth Moon is based. I agree with Hisui that the description of this book is rather misleading especially the mystery element. If you’re going to call it a mystery, I expect to be able to follow along and make some sort of at least mild deduction.

In the Moth Moon, all of Thissell’s research is done off page or in a montage without words so we don’t know what he learns. His big reveal is equally difficult to follow because despite his evidence we don’t get to know the characters or their masks much prior to it. Thissell himself has just come to this planet and is slowly learning its very foreign customs, but I really couldn’t tell you much about him. He is either a genius beyond measure or the luckiest man based on the final conclusion.

I talked about the bonus stories on the Fate/Zero Blu-Ray Box 1 last week but not the actual content of the show itself. The other big selling point of the box set was that each episode had unaired footage. I guess the real question is what does this new footage add. Well for one thing I can say that I almost always noticed the bits they added so it is not like additions were so inconsequential that if you blink you miss them. They definitely have substance.

They come in three types. The first are scenes they were edited for gore. Usually a scene where a kid was being murder was edited in the TV you can now see in full graphic detail. The second type was a bit of expanded dialog to certain scenes. The third were a few minor linking scenes.

The problem is they all feel like too much like the minor scenes. While they often add a bit of additional flavor or emphasis but none of them add any major revelations. You distinctly get the idea that all these scenes were cut to move things along. If you are one of those people who gets very angry whenever an adaptation removes even the smallest amount of nuance you will love these cut scenes. But at the same time if you already thought the show was a bit too talky than these scenes will only add to that feeling.

I liked them but I have a feeling for most people they are hardly something they need to hunt down with extreme prejudice.

The Ongoing Investigations are little peeks into what we are watching and reading outside of our main posts on the blog. We each pick three things that we were interested in a week and talk a bit about them. There is often not much rhyme or reason to what we pick. They are just the most interesting things we saw since the last Ongoing Investigation.

When they finally announced a SGFiguarts Sky High from Tiger & Bunny, I was poised and ready for that pre-order; I had been waiting none too patiently. It finally arrived last week.

This is my first Figuarts purchase and I’m very happy with what I see. This looks dead-on like Sky High, I’m a real stickler for that authenticity. The paint job is flawless without a bad seam to be found. Somewhat like a Revoltech you have many hand options and other little details such as jet pack blasts as well as number of points of articulation. The possibility is good, though I did have some trouble getting his shoulder armor to stay on, after I settled on a pose I was really able to keep it. This is also thanks to a sturdy stand.

Even though this figure is on the smaller side for me, the craftsmanship makes me really happy with my choice.

I watched Another with my roommate partially because he likes horror stuff and partially because someone recommended the series as a good mystery. In a way, the series is both a horror anime and a mystery so I can discuss how those parts work individually and together.

As a horror series the plot works much like a Final Destination movie with a classmate dying every episode in some gruesome manner with an absolute bloodbath in he final two episodes. Not everyone dies like a Final Destination movie but the body count is high, the deaths near the end are gruesome, and some serious sacrifices are made. In that regard, the series pretty much gives you what you want.

The mystery is decent. I have a feeling that some people are going to find the identity of the ghostly classmate as brilliant and others are going to pass it off as a bit of a cheat. I think parts of the reveal have clues pointing to them and other parts are pretty much a surprise. The show does not cheat by say making the extra student someone you never saw but it is a bit of a major misdirection. I was glad they brought up and then quickly disapproved most of the super common twists you would have expected about the extra student early on.

My only real complaint is that one person essentially has a ghost detector and does not mention it to anyone until the last possible second.  That was a plot convenient bit of withholding information.

Overall all it was an enjoyable little show. It is very much more a horror show than a mystery. The show revels in its deaths and mostly just plays in the detective aspect. Watch it for a horror show with a mystery element and not the other way around.

I watched the first of three documentary/commentary mash-ups of the original Star Wars trilogy, Star Wars Begins is obviously about A New Hope.

What is great about the format is that it plays like the actual first film so you are getting to watch that wonderful familiar story but interspersed are interesting tidbits, audio interviews snippets, alternate takes/audio, etc. taken from all over the place and from different stages of production and times in fandom. I learned quite a lot from the first film, for example for many drafts of the script even after they hired Sir Alec Guiness, Obi Wan was not going to be struck down by Darth.

It was a great watch so I’ll be starting on subsequent Star Wars films and I believe the guy is also working on Indiana Jones ones.

I finished the first half of Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne. I enjoyed it as a fluffy little show. I can’t say it was a great show but I also can’t hate it as much as other people seem to.

It delivered what it promised. Pretty girls getting in robots and fighting with some comedy and intrigue mixed in.

I am disappointed that it never delivered any more than that.Some of the intrigue with the human’s aliens allies being distinctly self-serving, the enemy being misguided but ruthless none the less, and some of the back story could have been expanded upon to give the series a wider appeal.

Instead they spend more time examining how cute Madoka, Lan, and Muginami are. They are cute. But I was fairly convinced of that fact early on. You did not have to spend so much time proving that. Also Array in the maid outfit was a joke that was worked the episode it was introduced. It sort of just becomes odd after that point.

I will probably watch the next season unless my schedule becomes really crazy. I just hope they focus a bit more on the solid bits of the plot now that they are past the half way mark. But I am not going to assume that will be the case.

I read the second issue of Justice League Dark this is one of the New 52 that has a supernatural/horror bent to it. These types of stories can easily go too far horror and then lose my interest which unfortunately I felt with Swamp Thing.

The second issue of JLD holds my attention though, it is toeing the line nicely. It also is pushing a character driven story so far which excites me. Our group has yet to form into the JLD but they are getting closer and closer to each other, I can feel the tension of it.

Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing is more tonally consistent than the original Last Exile but not anywhere near as innovative.

I think time has helped people forget the fact that the ending of Last Exile is slightly insane and somewhat out of nowhere.

What they do remember is the how different in execution the show was in general compared to anything that came before it.

Fam, the Silver Wing on the other hand takes this world and tells a much more conventionally standard anime story and uses the popular universe to couch that story. The problem not the Last Exile universe is not as shockingly unique anymore.

The show ends well if it does borrow a bit from the “Zero Requiem well” like anime does currently. The main problem is as much as other characters grow Fam is always Fam. So if you hate her then she is not going to do anything to win you over later on.

Much like Lagrange I enjoyed Fam, the Silver Wing but I felt like it could have been more. They had all the tools there to be better but they sadly did not use them. Also what is up with Claus permanently with absolutely no context to how that happened? I guess that has something to do with the Last Exile: Travelers From the Hourglass manga but it is a pretty big shock to drop in the show with no explanation.

The Ongoing Investigations are little peeks into what we are watching and reading outside of our main posts on the blog. We each pick three things that we were interested in a week and talk a bit about them. There is often not much rhyme or reason to what we pick. They are just the most interesting things we saw since the last Ongoing Investigation.

If I knew Fables started with a murder mystery, I’d have picked up vol. 1 ages ago! Seriously, why does no one try to sell me with the important things? Any way, now that I have read it I am ready for much more. The series is set in modern-day New York City which Fabletown lives within including having their own government. Everyone has been displaced from their fairytale homes by a mysterious figure we know only as The Adversary so far. Heading things up in their current home is Snow White serving as Deputy Mayor (King Cole is really just a figurehead as Mayor) and Bigby The Big Bad Wolf as acting Sheriff. Snow is sharp and cold and her relationship with Prince Charming, well let’s just say they aren’t together anymore. Bigby gruff and observant and is perfectly in the vein of noir detective. The series is a delight from the Fable world within our own to the rebranding of the characters we know so well. It is an adult version but not in a mocking way, it just pushes things to after the “happily ever after.” Certainly people would get divorced or have marital problems after being together for hundreds of years! Feuds, friendships, affairs, alliances it is all here with all of the fairytale characters which there looks to be no limit of. Fables is playful, smart, and has a great hook. I can’t wait to pick up more in the series.

Hayate the Combat Butler is finally back.  I really missed reading the manga when it was on break. It was a rough 6 weeks. I never did find out what Kenjiro Hata was doing when he took off. I wonder if and when he will reveal what he was doing on the hiatus. But while he was gone they at little mini articles about super rare Hayate merchandise. The bag looked super cute. I wish I could read the 4koma on it. It is just more things that I wish I had to money to track down. But Hayate is thankfully back up to steam with Hayate fighting illness and trying to get Yakiniku. I always sympathize with Hayate’s mixture of poverty and misfortune. Also I would love to eat some Yakiniku. My favorite part of the newest batch of chapters since the hiatus has been the stories of heart breaking disappointment. I did not realize that the Japanese were hit by the Sea Monkey craze as well. I had assumed it was an exclusively American phenomenon but apparently that was not the case. If nothing else I have noticed that Maria is much more active in the plot lately. This is always a good thing. I am glad to see Hayate is running at full speed again. It is always a high point of my week.

I checked out the first chapter of Dorohedoro. The art style I can only describe as that hyped-detailed ugly. This is a city of mutants, experiments, and the sorcerers who create them. In general everyone has a rather grotesque look about them. Our main character has a reptile head and another person inside of him, but Caiman has no memory of what happened to himself. When we first meet him he is eating a guy. His partner who looks visibly normal and he are hunting sorcerers and looking for a specific one. That is about all I learned from this first chapter, but I have to say I’m intrigued.

After reading the fifth Fate/Complete Material I decided to go back and look at the rest of the Fate/Complete Material artbooks. The first book is rather standard. It just focuses on the CG from the original Fate/Stay Night PC game. It is essentially a glossy print version of the CG gallery from the game. It was a nice trip down memory lane to look over all paths of Fate/Stay Night. It made me wonder if we would ever get an animated adaptation of Heaven’s Feel. It is the only path left that has not been adapted and it seems like it is only a matter of if more than when it will be done. There are also some promotional materials and additional art work. That is probably the freshest material in the books. Anyone who had looked for Type-Moon art has probably seen most of it but it is nice to have all in one place. Of the 5 released books this one is probably the least essential of all the books. It has the least amount of notes and the has the most easily found material outside of the book. It is on the other hand the only book with all the erotic scenes in it. Can’t have a Fate/Stay Night artbook without some Saber butt. I am sure some people would pick it up just for that. It is a nice book for die-hard fans but everyone else can skip onto the later books as they have a bit more meat.

I started reading another Brian K. Vaughan series, Ex Machina which blends politics and superhero (not plural since The Great Machine is the only one) leaning more towards politics in this first volume. Our superhero isn’t actually a superhero anymore, instead he is newly elected Mayor of New York City. We see flashbacks throughout of everything from his childhood to gaining his superpowers to his actions as a superhero. Michell has the ability to communicate with almost any type of machine; ha can hear them talking. He is currently trying to not use his power and go about helping the city in a non-vigilantly way. Ex Machina has some stunning alternate history thrown in since the current timeline of the story takes place in 2002. Again this is mostly a political story with Mitchell dealing with an impending snowstorm on the city, a killer on the loose, and a painting that is causing controversy. The combo is unexpected  but you get a decent amount of superhero fix with the looks to the past.

Time for more live action Josuke Higashikata! We are now a little past the half way mark with Kamen Rider Fourze. The biggest change has been the addition of Ryusei Sakuta who is the second Kamen Rider in the series. His Bruce Lee inspired fighting style and planet based attacks were obviously too cool alone for a secondary Rider so to prevent him from overshadowing Gentaro Kisaragi they made Ryusei a real jerk. He is a secretive agent that is working for the mysterious Tachibana.  He does bring an interesting dynamic to the group as he is the only one with his own agenda. With episode 27 it seems like Ryusei’s identity as Meteor will come out and he will formally join the team as himself and not as his facade. I was a little surprised when they had graduation half way through the series. They keep Shun and Miu in the series but I was still a little impressed they had important main characters graduate half way through the series. It does help give a distinct feeling that time is actually passing which is nice. I have noticed that they are playing with the identities of the Zodiarts a bit more. In the beginning it was obvious who the Zodiart was that week. But they have been mixing it up so there are more red herrings. Haruka Utsugi is a prime example of this. Still a fun series that is oddly addictive. It has an infectious energy and an earnest spirit that you have to love.  Come on, switch on!

The Ongoing Investigations are little peeks into what we are watching and reading outside of our main posts on the blog. We each pick three things that we were interested in a week and talk a bit about them. There is often not much rhyme or reason to what we pick. They are just the most interesting things we saw since the last Ongoing Investigation.

I remember hearing about Friends with Boys when I was listening to Manga Out Loud podcast and thinking it sounded interesting but I forgot to look into the title further. But when I remembered I could read the comic online as web comic as mentioned again on the 3 Chicks Review Comics podcast I set aside some time to read Friends with Boys. The first thing that stuck me was the art reminded me of the art of Chynna Clugston. Both women have a style that is clearly manga aware but is equally informed by a wide variety of comic traditions. Faith Erin Hicks will discuss Tezuka as quickly as Bone when she is commenting on a page of her comic. She has an expressive style that lends itself equally well to web comics as well as traditional print comics. The story itself has two main layers. The first is the story of how Maggie McKay has to deal with going to a public high school after being home schooled all her life. At the same time there is a supernatural element of Maggie being able to see ghosts. The highest praise I can give the story is that if you removed all of the supernatural parts I would have found the story equally enjoyable. Maggie learning to make friends outside of her brothers with the punk Lucy and her brother Alistair was perfectly wonderful. While the ghost story tied the mundane drama together it was never forced to pick up the slack on the story. If anything it felt slightly thrown it just to make the story stand out as more than a mundane tale of friendship and self discovery. It did not detract from the story but it was an unusual addition. I will mention that not every plot element is wrapped up. If you want answers to every question the story poses you will be disappointed. The main story arc is resolved satisfactorily but certain side elements are left to your imagination. I don’t think the story is purposefully written to be a ongoing series. A sequel could be written but nothing in the book demands it. I would read more about the life of Maggie McKay and her friends and family but do not feel cheated if I never got more. The story itself is only up as a web comic for a few more days if you want to sample it but you can buy the physical book right now as well. As a side note what has Chynna Clugston been up to recently?

Avatar the Last Airbender: The Lost Adventures is a collection of short comics with mini-stories that happened during each of the seasons of the TV series. The book is divided into sections based on the books in which each story takes place. It is a little disconcerting if only because you are somewhat forced to remember what was happening at that particular moment, but you get on board fairly quickly. There are lots of different artists and writers so some are more stand out than others. I particularly liked the stylization by Brian Ralph for Momo’s adventure and the youthfulness of Gurihiru’s art. The greatest and most hilarious moments include the return of Wang Fire. It is a fun collection of mostly humorous anecdotes but nothing that screams buy this!

With Mass Effect 3 coming out next week I decided to read some of my roommate’s Mass Effect comics to tide me over until then. So I flipped through Mass Effect: Redemption and Mass Effect: Evolution. Since on of the main selling points of the series is the fact that the main character  is totally customizable by the player the comics have to focus on the static side characters for stories in the Mass Effect universe. Redemption focuses on Liara and her trying to get her hands on Commander Shepherd’s corpse in between Mass Effect One and Two. Evolution is the origin story of the Illusive Man. I thought Redemption was the stronger of the two stories. It basically built itself around the already established story that Liara told you in Mass Effect 2. It takes the broad strokes of that story and fill in the little details. Evolution on the other hand has a bit of the old “Boba Fett effect” in play. Giving an origin story to a character that mostly works on being mysterious can be detrimental. While Evolution hardly ruins the character of the Illusive Man I think he works better as an enigma. Also the story has a bit of “Who knew all these people knew each other before hand” going on as well. They are both interesting little stories but hardly necessary. But such is the way with most tie in material. At least none of it was Deception level bad.

Just as I was told, and seemingly like everyone else on the internet, I have started watch Downton Abbey. I was quickly sold during the first episode as a fan of period drama and calculating internal politics. The Crawley family loses its heir at the beginning of the first episode which starts a lot of things in motion. Because Lord Crawley has only daughters, the estate will pass to an unknown cousin. But Lord Crawley’s wife and mother (played by the splendid Maggie Smith) have plans of their own. The three daughters are a mixed bag but we don’t learn too much about anyone besides Mary in the first three episodes. Meanwhile below house the servants have their own concerns about the heir as well as conflicts of their own. This is where the series really shines with new valet Bates who has a bum leg; to not too bright kitchen maid Daisy; the inner workings of this large house hold are compelling. The time of the series is actually an interesting one of transition where non-nobles are beginning to leave service to strike out on their own, including women, but there is still a very traditional atmosphere to contend with like ideas of being ungrateful or getting above yourself. The series perfectly moves between stories of the servants and stories of the lords and ladies of the house and captures the inevitable interactions between them. I can’t wait to watch more and catch up with everyone else!

Not too long ago Miki Yoshikawa finished up Yankee-kun and Megane-chan. Apparently the ending is the series is rather controversial but I will cross that bridge when I get to it. What I am interested in is her newest series Yamada and the Seven Witches since I do not bear the author any ill will. It is another high school romantic comedy but now there seems to be a bit of a supernatural twist. The main character, Ryu Yamada reminds me of Shinagawa Daichi as they are both abrasive and some what dopy punks who are honorable beneath it all. Urara Shiraishi is far more intelligent and aloof than Hana. The first chapter is a body swap story that is resolved by the end of the chapter. It is mostly there to introduce a supernatural element and get the main characters to interact with each other romantically. But so far none of seven witches have made a formal appearance. So far the story has been cute and reminded me of the best strengths of Yankee-kun and Megane-chan. It is clearly a story for guys but with many of the strengths of a well told shojo story as well. I am curious to see where Miki Yoshikawa is going to take this story.

In the latest volume of Twin Spica (vol. 11) we are still reeling from the events of the previous volume. The entire cast is in a bit of haze which permeates their actions, but the book does swing into melodrama from time to time rather that its normal quiet introspection. I was rather surprised to not see Asumi’s dad at all in this, too. Still the stakes have become so intense and the end is so near you can’t help but be desperate to get the next and final volume.

There was no way my apartment was not getting the Mass Effect 3 demo the day it came out. I will avoid spoilers but I am sure some people are going to be upset that I mention you fire guns and fight Reapers. That aside the demo lets you make a temp Shepard with the normal amount of customization and you even get to make a few key previous game choices. You play through the first mission that is a basically a tutorial and then it jumps ahead to the earlier E3 demo. The first part is very cinematic where the second half is a good sample of the new game play. Since the second half is further in the game they give you more weapons to play with and more power points to see how the new abilities feel. A few quick notes. The cool down for powers is extremely short in first part and terrifically slow in the second half. They clearly want you to experience the new combat shooting system with minimal power use in the second half. The new game plays is even more run and gun than the previous games. I think it is a bit harder but you still have the power wheel to pause the action and a story mode if the action is too frantic. I also noticed that you could not upgrade your weapons like you could in the E3 demo. I also have played a little with the Mass Effect multipalyer. The mode is thankfully cooperative. I would not want to step foot into a competitive version of the game. So far the gameplay revolves around  surviving waves of enemies with a few random mini missions to break things up. 11 waves of increasingly tough enemies is fairly grueling. But once you get the hang of it the game is fun if a bit brutal. Expect to fail missions a lot. They do give you a good amount of experience even if you fail. You use the money you earn in missions to essentially buy booster packs of upgrades and items. The items you get are random so you can expect to grind quite a bit. The only lame thing is to play as an aliens race you have to randomly unlock them buying the expensive version of the booster packs. Over all the demo made me look forward to the game in March and made be not worry about the multipalyer so it accomplished its mission.

I had the pleasure of seeing the premiere of Justice League: Doom at a special event held at the Paley Center here in NYC. The movie is based on a famous Justice League storyline from the comics known as The Tower of Babel in which Batman has contingency plans on how to take out each member of the JL stolen and then used against them. The basic premise remains the same, but the ways in which each member is neutralized as well as the ultimate villain are different in this new animated film. And it is executed fantastically. All of the stories are being told simultaneously which brings in a lot of tension as we switch from hero to hero. The writing is snappy and of course Batman has all of the greatest lines but it meshes well with the serious nature of the story. It gets very dark and what happens when Batman realizes what is going on as well as how the JL take that information is an excellent, thoughtful finish to the action packed story. This is a great addition to the DC animated library and a wonderful swansong for late great writer Dwayne McDuffie.

Much to the consternation of Tsukihime fans it seems that the Fate part of the Nasuverse is the part that always gets all spinoffs. Himuro no Tenchi Fate/School Life is not exception but it is one of the strangest spin-offs yet. It is a 4 koma comic all about the daily lives of some of the extremely minor characters at Shiro’s school. The comic most revolves around Himuro Kane, Makidera Kaede, and Saegusa Yukika but most of the school based main characters make guest appearances. Thankfully while the art is sort of crude and very gag manga based it is also wacky like a proper 4 koma. So that means punchy little jokes as opposed to more sedate Hidamari Sketch styled slice of life humor. That means Kinnikuman jokes, demonic family pikes, and some obscure historical references. But it is still wacky girls do wacky things without a hint of anything supernatural. Also did you know there is an Indonesian version of soccer played barefoot with a flaming ball? Thanks Fate/School Life! It is worth just reading the third and fourth chapters just to learn about all the odd sports they mention. Also Tchoukball is the most un-American sport ever.

I caught the first episode of Kevin Smith’s new reality series Comic Book Men which follows the clerks at Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. Smith is also part of the program as him and the guys talk in a podcast setting interspersed throughout the episode. I’m not a big Smith fan, but this seemed like worth checking out. It is unscripted but at the same time seems really scripted. One example is when another clerk asks a question like “What is Robin’s origin?” which I can hardly believe they don’t already know the answer to. I realize this is for the benefit of more casual viewers but they need to figure a way to integrate it better. Also the customers they deal with in the store were all selling, not buying, which felt unnatural. Maybe it is just too difficult to tape a regular time at the store, like new comic day, because of release forms? In any case it just made things seem really empty and slow. As for the personalities of our cast everyone is fine except Bryan who just comes off as a real asshole. The first episode is quite stiff and unsure of its formula, but this doesn’t surprise me with a reality show. I will probably give it at least another episode to see if it can get into a grove but it doesn’t seem promising.

I decided to check out Sekien No Inganock as it was recommended to me by a reader. It is a steampunk visual novel which caught my attention. While steampunk is the flavor of the week nerd obsession of late in the English language world I was curious to see the Japanese take on the subject. Otaku are hardly into steampunk as much as Americans but there are things like Gear Antique that prove that they are aware of the genre. I will warn anyone interested in the game that there are an unusually high amount of anthropomorphic characters in this game.  While I would be hesitant to call it a furry game I would preface it with the statement that if you can’t stand anything with furry content this will instantly turn you away. The main love interest is at cat girl named Ati so your mileage will vary on that fact alone. Other than that the game has an intriguing premise. The city of Inganock much like Paradigm City was a prosperous steam-powered city until an incident sealed away the area during a disaster everyone cannot remember. Now the majority of the population is mutating while being hunted by invincible mythical beasts. The protagonist is a doctor who has taken in a strange girl who seems unaffected by the affliction plaguing the cursed city. The game play is mostly your usual long stretches of reading with a few key choices to make but there is one twist. About half way through each chapter there will be a section where you get to hear the thoughts of all the major players in the chapter. Unlocking one characters thoughts will let you see more of what the other characters are thinking. It is a nice bit of interactivity but it can be argued it is just a very complex form of making you read a linear story. The art has a very pastel vibe that makes it feel unique and gives everything a dream like quality. This is a game with pornographic content but I have not run into any of that in what I have read of the first three chapters. There was an unexpected scene of toplessness fairly early on but since then everything has been tame. Things still have the ability to go downhill since I am hardly an expert of how Liar-soft constructs their games. The plot seems to be made of episodic chapters that are all building to reveal the grand mystery behind what happened to Inganock. It is a promising start so I am interested to see where it goes.

I finally read the science-fiction / detective mash-up The Caves of Steel. It takes a future where Earth’s relationship to robots and the rest of the universe known as the Spacer Worlds is a tumultuous one. The culture of Earth live in domes and their environment as well as their lives are very set out for them. Tensions are high as robots become more advanced changing people’s livelihoods. Elijah is a middle-aged detective who must work with advanced robot Daneel to solve the murder of an important figure in the changing policies between Earth and the Spacers. This is a fairly short novel that attempts to pose philosophical questions during this imagined future. We learn quite a bit about the world surrounding Elijah as he travels around investigating and his perspective changes as he interacts with Daneel. Some of it is engaging while some of it feels shoehorned or tangential. And if the novel shows its age anywhere, it is the dialogue which is very fond of the words like Jehoshaphat. The mystery itself is a good one which I could not pick out the culprit in despite not having very many suspects.

The premise of these reviews is simple: watch the first episode of a series and then immediately sit down to record a review mini-podcast. The reviews are five- to ten-minutes long and entirely off the cuff. As always we only review new shows (so no sequels or continuations) and try to avoid anything that just looks outright awful. These are the next three of the new season:

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Listen – Episode 1 of Inu x Boku SS from David Production with the opening “Nirvana” by MUCC and is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – Episode 1 of Thermae Romae from DLE Inc. with the ending ”Thermae Roman” by Chatmonchy.

Listen – Episode 1 of Deka Kurokawa Suzuki from NTV and is streaming on Crunchyroll.

It has been awhile since I saw Last Exile but overall I remember liking the series so I was eager to watch Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing. Right off the bat the series reminds you of one thing: Range Murata is definitely a lolicon. Any perusal of one of his Robot art books will remind you of that fact. So when Fam starts the series in her underwear and sleepwalking I am not exactly sure why people were SUPER surprised. It does set an odd precedent as the episodes I have seen since then never have that odd level of fan service again. Perhaps Gonzo thought this was putting their best foot forward but I think most people would disagree. Other than that poor choice it is mostly the Last Exile you remember. Apparently the prediction that moving to an abundant planet would stop the conflicts was optimistic thinking because it seems war had broken out again. But really without giant airship battles I don’t think people would be anywhere near as interested in Last Exile. Since the Guild is no more they don’t have the musket battles but in their place there are air pirates so you can get your Skies of Arcadia grove on. Fans of the original series will notice that Dio is alive and well. Still sort of loopy but definitely calmer. How exactly he survived after Last Exile has yet to be explained (if it will be explained at all.) After three episodes I have yet to make a firm decision on the series. It has a primarily female cast. While there are men the three main characters and primary focus are all young ladies. So that means no wading into harem territory like people accused the series of doing with Claus but it then does lend itself to the yuri subtext being in everything that the world of the pink ghetto casts. Fam and Giselle seem fine with Fam being the spunky one and Giselle being the quiet one. Millia is not only a princess but also a princess character and that means she can be a bit grating. The action has been pretty good so far and the plot has potential. But as far as I can tell the main villain’s problem seems to be that everyone is far too happy and he will not be having that which could lead to a very corny developments. I am interested enough to keep watching but still hesitant to give it a recommendation yet.

As many others did, when I got Sailor Moon vol. 1 I also got Codename Sailor V vol. 1. This was new to me, I knew about it of course and had looked at some of it, but never really got to read it. Having read Sailor Moon first of the two, it put me in the exact mood for the young girl fantasy that is Sailor V. The big difference between these two so far is that Sailor V is decidedly free of any serious romantic entanglements instead focusing on peppy Mina’s daily struggles with classes balanced with sometimes saving the world as a Sailor Guardian thanks to talking cat Artemis. Mina amuses me greatly in her slacker fashion which prefers video games and idols to studying and saving people. Since this is a primer for Sailor Moon you can obviously see a lot of Usagi in Mina but they are still different because Mina is very physically capable. This is also what makes her so fun as she loves kicking baddies once she is roped into caring. Sailor V also becomes something of a legendary icon as the story goes on getting her own video game, fan club, and even a police detective rival among other amusing things. Once she has been in action a while, Mina gets more serious and both her and readers start to wonder who is “the boss” and why Mina was chosen for this role. I am curious to see how this ties in swiftly to Sailor Moon.

 Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira 02 is better. Still not good but better. As a fan of the When They Cry series watching the first episode was actually a bit painful. This time Rika and Satoko get transported to a world where all the villainous characters of Higurashi are actually villains in a magical organization that have unlocked the magical powers of Hinamizawa. Rika is a magical girl who must fight torture related monsters with a magical hoe wand and a transformation sequence. The Hinamizawa School club is her back up. Mostly it is an excuse of have Takano Miyo dress in a skimpy outfit and have Hanyu be a little fairy. Some of the jokes work especially when they are centering around Rika’s contrasting cutesy magical girl persona and old soul Bernkastel mode. The rest of the episode is fine but not really the humorous highs from the previous funny arcs. Since the next episode focuses in Shion and her role as a Mion/Keiichi shipper I just might enjoy that episode but I don’t have much hope beyond that. The main problem seems to that the original Higurashi tied up most things nicely. They got some good material past that end point but now they seem to be trying to get blood from a stone.

I started watching ABC’s much-anticipated Once Upon a Time (eps. 1-2) which brings the fairytale world to the modern-day through an evil curse. Emma Swan is the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming but has no idea until her son Henry shows up on her doorstep encouraging her to come to Storybrooke, Maine and see for herself. But everyone in the town (allegedly) doesn’t remember they are really fairytale characters according to Henry. We also get the simultaneous story of how this curse brought everyone to Storybrooke thanks to the jealous Evil Queen (who is also Henry’s adopted mother) and that cunning Rumpelstiltskin (who seems to be the kingpin of Storybrooke). The story is fun and it certainly has its share of mysterious goings on, especially the whole “no one remembers” which I am dubious about. It comes off much like a soap opera, which I like, though I think they could push it a bit further. That being said, I find the acting is sub-par with poorly delivered dialogue and stiff interactions. Also hipster sheriff makes me laugh. I willing to go on a few more episodes to see if it gets better though since the premise is right up my alley.

I totally forgot I saw the last episode of Blood-C after hearing some “amazing” things about it. My best summary of the episode would be my theory how they should have ended the episode for maximum effect. Instead of having the big bad guy shoot Saya Kisaragi in the head so he can escape in a helicopter and set up an ending  movie they should have just had a simple exchange. Saya should run up to the helicopter and ask Fumito the name of this insane project. In return he should go down on one knee, throw out his hands, and just say, “The Aristocrats.” I say that because the whole last episode seem to be  excessively gory and spiteful to the point where it becomes a morbid joke of outrageous proportions. But like many versions of the The Aristocrats it is not funny per say as much as an experiment in how wildly you can tell a joke. The episode goes out of its way to show that all of Saya’s friends are still alive but completely and utterly horrible human beings and then just kills them again in the most gruesome ways possible. It then spends the rest of the episode trying to shock you alternatively with the idea that everything you know is wrong and with a monster rampage through the town as people are murdered in ways that are so over the top they are less horrific and more head scratching. It is like someone saw Elfen Lied and thought to themselves, “I could do better because I won’t hold back like a wuss.” But just like Elfen Lied is comes of like the super gory pictures drawn by an angsty teen in junior high. You know they think they are being profound and shocking but the truth of the matter is very different.

I finished up A Dance with Dragons which I’ve slowly been picking away at since its release, more because I think I was subconsciously loath to finish it and bearing waiting for more than lack of interest. I don’t think I really need to explain the premise of the 5th book in the Song of Ice and Fire so I’ll just get to my overall feelings. This book suffers from too many perspectives, and I thought this was bad in Feast for Crows, too. It is multiplied here since this books contains more voices than ever before. Many characters receive only one chapter with information that could have fit easily in another part of the story. For example the big event (being vague for no spoilers sake) at Meereen and the aftermath, I truly feel having only Daenerys’ perspective would have created mystery and more tension. We’re ending up with too much overlap in information in general which ends up feeling elongated. Then on the other hand, Bran who we’ve literally waited a decade to find out the fate of has very few chapters and information! That being said, this book had a great many surprises and I interpreted it as the climax for the series. All my speculations from early on seem to be completely on the wrong track but it feels like GRRM has a firm grasp on the final direction. I was also happily surprised to see certain characters names show up in this book which means we’ve caught up with book 4 and hopefully 6 will not be a divided cast. I felt mixed with this book but it was still engrossing as always.

I got to read Gen Manga volumes 3 & 4 back to back. Reading both volumes in succession makes me realize that the storytelling in Gen is somewhat compressed compared to your normal mainstream manga experience. While the storytelling still has a distinctly manga feel you don’t get the impression that the stories contained within are assuming they are going to run for 20+ books. They seems to be primed to end in a book or two but could run longer. Mainstream manga seems more designed to run for a long time but could be cut short if forced to. The individual chapters still have a more manga styled decompressed flow but chapter to chapter it seems more compressed. But all the compressed vs. decompressed storytelling talk from Ogiue Maniax might be why I am noticing it more. Vs Aliens is still my favorite story in the anthology. It has a very quirky story with some unusual twists every chapter. The only problem is that is quickly coming down to the big reveal of what is actually going on. If the final reveal is lame is going to really hurt the overall story. The boxing story is Wolf is still solid but I am not sure if I really care for the added element of the hyperactive flat chested girl vs the distant chesty girl love story. My feelings on KAMEN are still up in the air as I am interested in the story but not deeply invested. There is a promise of a big fight scene in the next chapter. How well the fight is pulled off I might help me solidify my feelings. I still don’t really like Souls. Volume three ends one arc and volume four starts a new arc. Volume three ended a bit lighter than I assumed it will but this genre has just never been my cup of tea. In volume 4 there is a one shot story called Sorako. This really feels like an American indy comic. It is the story of a small town girl who feels trapped in her small life under the backdrop of looking for her dog that ran away. It is slice of life in a way that really feels like an American comic more than a Japanese style of same formula. Gen is still an interesting experiment in the U.S. It has the feel of a doujinshi anthology but will a more consistent schedule. I am curious how well it will do here.

With great elation, I started the new season of anime by watching Bakuman S2. We start the season with Ashirogi Muto waiting for their editor to come to the studio to go over their contract for serialization. It is an exciting time and they are also invited to the Shonen Jack New Year’s bash. This episode is really about them getting acclimated with their new positions, getting assistants, and meeting some new people as well as getting to know others better. It is mostly a set-up for things to come and I can’t wait for those things!

With the new season here I started watching the first two episodes Squid Girl Season 2. It is pretty much more Squid Girl for better or for worse. I pretty much got right back into the swing of things. It is a simple series so the second you sit down if feels like you never left. That means if you were hungry for more than this will just hit the spot but if you were growing tired for the formula last season you might want to give yourself some distance before jumping back in. Squid Girl is still a lovable goof and terrible at taking over the earth. I was pleased to see that all the supporting cast got a good amount of time during the return. We don’t have any Hinagiku characters hogging the spotlight. The most amusing part so far was probably Squid Girl’s attempt to take over the elementary school but the little bit with Ayumi and the brass knuckles was fairly amusing.

Twin Spica vol. 9 introduces a few characters including a new freshman at the dorm, Asumi’s old friend from Yuigahama, and a reporter who is interested in Marika, plus the reintroduction of Dr. Sano. There are a lot of personal journeys in this volume even for Kei who finally admits to herself that she has feelings for Suzuki. But of course Marika fascinates me most as she starts putting herself out in the world, but things are really looming for her. The reporter has a connection and just when he is ready to give up he finds a clue so I’m not sure how it will playout. We end with the promise of a very intense training exercise coming. I also found Mr. Lion telling Asumi that compromise is the destroyer of dreams rather cynical and sad.

I don’t watch much tokusatsu but any overwhelming number of positive reviews and outright personal recommendations got me to watch the first 5 episodes of  Kamen Rider Fourze. While I have been mislead by such recommendations before I was pleasantly rewarded for my faith this time. With a 40 history the Kamen Rider has at least 23  distinct iterations with some major similarities but that also means a wide variety of differences like any long running series like Gundam or Star Trek. All the Kamen Riders series are about guy who transforms to protect the world from other transforming villains.  It just so happens that is a much goofier and lighthearted iteration of the series while still having plenty of macho action. In many ways it remind me of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part IV: Diamond is Unbreakable. Both have delinquent heroes with pompadours that are really good guys deep down. Both heroes  have special powers and fight people from their school and neighborhood that have similar powers. They also have the same gentler mood as compared to their more serious counterparts. And both series win you over with their bombastic but earnest charm. But the theme this season is  SPACE! to celebrate  the 30th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight into orbit. All of Fourze’s powers and enemies have a space theme and the good guys even have a base on the moon. As a geek the space theme has a unique and powerful pull.  I will admit for a second I was thinking how much this show seemed to borrow from the magical girl formula. Then I remembered. It is the other way around. Fighting magical girls borrow their formula from tokusatsu shows like this. Silly Hisui. It should be noted like most tokusatsu shows while the budget is decent there is a unmistake air of Limburger if you catch my drift. If you can’t handle cheesy acting and special effects than this is not the show for you but it does reenforce the tone of the show to its credit.

Terra Nova is FOX’s new science-fiction series that features . . . DINOSAURS! This understandably had me very excited but that doesn’t mean my expectations were high. The first double episode premiere was kinda lame but entertaining enough. The future is environmentally destroyed and over populated but scientists have come across a wormhole into another time stream. The newest pilgrimage is a family that is hiding a secret daughter and the dad who is an ex-cop, now fugitive but they make it through, just barely. Surprise, surprise the colony is not a utopia. The leader, Taylor, is a military-minded man and you can tell he has some secrets of his own which makes him the most interesting part. There is too much family drama in the show and not enough dinosaurs. I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking the death of the teenagers would be a wonderful addition to the story. The mom and dad who are useful and the little girl who makes friends with dinos can stay. This wasn’t going to be a great show, but the second episode was a really bad. They need to make more of the focus the world and less on family blah blah.

In my Tsukihime round-up I finally got around to the Tsukihime PLUS+DISC. Mostly a few little stories added to promote previous releases of Tsukihime and Kagetsu Tohya. The Alliance of Illusionary Eyes is the main meat of the content of the disc and is mostly from the point of view of Akira Seo and her first meeting with Tohno Shiki. Her appearances in Kagetsu Tohya make much more sense after reading this. The other three stories are much sillier but sometimes enlightening. Geccha 1 and 2 are little behind the scenes looks at unanswered questions, plot holes, and unused material in a Type-Moon told in a comedic manner. I wonder how many people ship Arcueid and Ciel as they fight like pair that would surely be hooked up in yaoi fanfiction. Sad Birthday Girl fans can see unused Satsuki’s path material. There is also the utterly weird Kinoko’s Masterpiece Experimental Theater. This is mostly weird to be weird. There is no hidden material here. Just uncle Nrvnqsr Chaos. There is nothing vital here other the Alliance but there is a lot to enjoy. Plus I can attest that you can read all of this in just one lunch break if you put your mind to it.

I was so pleased to find Trigun: Badlands Rumble showing at Otakon this year. The movie plays out like an extended TV episode. This is one last hurrah for the fans really so as such it isn’t the place to start for the unfamiliar. Badlands Rumble features Vash’s legendary good-nature as he tries to protect Amelia who is looking for revenge against notorious bandit Gasback who is rumored to be heading for Macca City. Meryl and Milly are dispatched to keep an eye on things since their insurance company has insured a statue in the city for $$5,000,000,00. Wolfwood gets in on the action too, but I won’t say exactly how. I must say it was wonderful to hear the cheers and claps when Wolfwood appeared for the first time. Everything comes together in a spectacular action-packed end. Beyond new animation, there is nothing to say this wasn’t just a part of the show. I saw it dubbed and it didn’t quite have enough force behind it so I’ll be curious to watch it again on DVD. Trigun: Badlands Rumble is good fun with characters that you love.

As I get closer to catching up with the monster that is Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure I just finished  Part 5: Vento Aureo. This is certainly a tighter story than the last part. Diamond is Unbreakable was really fun but it seemed to wander around at points until the main antagonist is revealed and even then it would still go off the rails on occasion. Vento Aureo seems much more focused all together. It is all about Giorno Giovanna quest to overthrow the evil head of the Passione group and become a proper Gangster Star. Giorno Giovanna just happens to be the son of Dio Brando who obviously is an apple that fell pretty darn far from that tree. Giorno quickly teams up with Bruno Buccellati and his gang to find and eliminate the evil head of the Passione group. Of course in proper Jojo’s tradition is starts with Bruno trying to kill Giorno but then they form an unshakable bond of manly friendship. For about 90% of the manga Bruno is the head of their little gang whereas the protagonist is usually the alpha dog in any group. But Bruno is often just as important as Giorno making him a very strong (and awesome) co-protagonist although Giorno is give many a chance to shine and show his true potential. But the powers and the fights are as cool as always and now Hirohiko Araki has a good idea of what to do with material past Stardust Crusaders. This part also has a good deal of cameos from characters from previous parts. Some of them are clearly more effective than others and some people get off much lighter than others.

Bunraku got its East Coast premiere at Otakon and truly I had no idea what to expect other than a role played by Gackt. In the world of Bunraku, the future is ruled by the sword as guns have been banned. The streets are controlled by The Woodcutter and his gang of Killers so needless to say they’ve made a few enemies through the years. One fateful day, Drifter and Yoshi’s paths cross as they set out for revenge. I was pleasantly surprised from Ron Pearlman as the villain to the graphic styling of the whole film. It seems like more and more movies are trying to be gritty in their action. Bunraku does the complete opposite, it is over the top, colorful, and evokes the feeling of a stage play without trying to hide it. The storyline is familiar, simple really, but it felt right. There were some too short plot threads however like Alexandra’s past and they speed through the Killers (who are numbered) too quickly when they would have done better to just have fewer overall. In spite of that, I had a great time watching this movie plus the way it is filmed might be reason alone to see it.

It was nice to revisit the HeartCatch PreCure! story line by watching the movie. It was an excellent little interlude story that fits seamlessly into the timeline without being required watching. It reenforces all the themes and feel of the TV series that thankfully help it from feeling like a waste of time. Plus being set in on a trip to Paris helps give it a theatrical feel. Baron Salamander is a good one-off villain who feels solid enough to make the movie engaging while still explaining why to only gets an off-handed mention in the TV series. If anything else it is best to think of it as a super high budget filler episode that is lots of fun. We also get to see generations of Pretty Cures and Desert Apostles which made it feel epic. Olivier is a good addition to the movie and his interactions with Tsubomi are adorable. You can watch the movie anytime after episode 38 but I watched it after the TV series at it was fine. It reminds me that Suite Pretty Cure is just not as awesome as HeartCatch but that is more because HeartCatch is just that amazing.

I got off track with the schedule, but I finally got to finish up Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated S1. It was full of surprises in an ending that did not disappoint one bit. In 24 we see the reappearance of a previous villain so this is when things start to reveal themselves. And in 25, we meet who we might call the foe of the series who is from the past and knows about the original Mystery Incorporated. I had some of it figured out, but at the same time the show did a great job of making me doubt my deductions. Also certain reveals were just not there for us to deduce, instead we hear it from the mouth of the villain creating plot threads for the next season. We do finally learn the secrets of Crystal Cove, sort of, but there is plenty of mysteries still left half answered. I can’t wait for S2!

Broken Blade‘s 5th movie really takes the series down a notch I am sad to say. The focus of the film is Girghe a lot, a character who as far as I’m concerned has no soul in their design. Perhaps this movie was trying to fix that impression, but it doesn’t work and the “reasoning” behind his past seemed like a cop-out full of holes. I just refuse to feel for the guy and I think they really wanted me to change my mind. While Girghe is acting crazy, Rygart isn’t helping the situation. They decide the best time for a vendetta fight (which they are having because why again?) is right in the middle of a major mission. Probably the only redeeming scene in the entire movie is the fight between Brocuse and Rygart, looks amazing, just try to forget why it is happening and why it ends the way it does. This is the problem with most of the film, it isn’t well put together and thus you start questioning why anything is happening the way it is.

Sadly since the defeat of Zess the Broken Blade series has not been nearly as strong as is started. Rygart just seems to lose a lot of strength as a lead character as he seems way too interested in dealing with Girghe but not nearly as invested in doing anything else as he should. And Girghe just comes off as an unrepentant and unlikeable psychopath despite them trying to soften him up during the movie. I think they want him to be the dark mirror to Rygart’s noble intentions but he just comes off as a big waste of time. Their last confrontation actually annoyed me. I don’t see why Rygart would waste time with his theatrics when everyone else is getting slaughtered. General Borcuse on the other hand as at least a little more subtle in his villainy. He sometimes twirls his mustachio but at least I can understand being a completely wretched human to your enemy on the battlefield. The dehumanizing effects of being a solider can do that to a man. Also his fight with Rygart was pretty good which was the highlight of the movie. Hodr and Sigyn mostly seem to show up in this movie to wishfully wonder how Rygart is doing. And Sigyn has to have more slumber part-time with the POW Cleo. I had such high hopes for Broken Blade. It started off so well but it seems to have sadly lost its focus.

Winnie the Pooh has made it back to the big screen and despite Disney’s lack of marketing push for it, is a real treasure. Delightful could probably sum up this movie. From the moment they show the real-life stuff animals to the final closing of the book, Winnie the Pooh is charming. Set in the Hundred Acre Wood (where else?) it is about Pooh and company’s adventure to find Eeyore a new tail, to trap a monster called a Bakson, and of course the pursuit of honey. Characters are spot on while adding new touches here and there along with a wide ranger of humor including things like an Indiana Jones reference. The animation created a lot of character in the film, but of course I’m completely bias to 2D. Winnie the Pooh’s latest on screen creation is classic but modern and while it has been said in almost every review I’ve read, it bears repeating that it really does remind you of childhood. Also nice ending credits that kept you watching all the way to the Easter egg at the very end.

Toradora! volume 2 continues to reinforce my overall feeling on the manga adaptation since volume 1. The book starts with Taiga going on a mini rampage to clear up the misunderstanding that Ryuji and her are going out. But then Taiga goes in a completely unexpected direction in a romantic comedy by confessing her romantic feelings to the person she cares for. While her confession to Yusaku does not goes 100% smoothly, it actually happens, which is so rare in a series like this. After the fall out of Taiga’s confession we get a bit of a breakthrough in the Taiga and Ryuji friendship with them becoming closer to equals. The volume ends with the introduction of fan favorite two-faced model Ami Kawashima as a spanner in the works. We don’t see that much of her but she makes a distinct impression. In the anime Ami starts out as a rather unlikable character but she slowly grows on the reviewer as she grows as a character. It is not an easy transition to make as I never fully liked Ami but I like the changes they made in her character. I wonder how well the manga can pull off that transformation of her character. After the second volume I did notice the manga is far better at adapting the emotional scenes than the comedic scenes. The comedic moments just don’t come off as strongly in the manga. It is still an enjoyable manga. Toradora is one of the best shonen romance series I can think of in modern memory. It just fails to reach the comedic highs of the anime.

Saw Captain America: The First Avenger today which was a great way to avoid 100 degree weather! I’ll start off by saying that I know very little about Cap besides his very basic origin; he is a character I’ve read about peripherally but have never picked up his solo comics. This movie takes us through Steve Roger’s days becoming and being Captain America during WWII then right up to his reappearance in the present day. While Steve is a super American soldier, his foes Hydra and their leader the Red Skull are basically super Nazis. They do a good job of cultivating the big heart that Steve has and how that makes him a great man and superhero. The rest of the cast is memorable as well, I personally enjoyed Howard Stark a great deal. There is tons of action plus explosions, a little humor, and a bit of romance; I even felt a bit teary-eyed near the end. Of course they drop some lines for the comic fans, like Bucky saying to Steve that he felt like he was in a nightmare where he was becoming him. I was surprised to see so many people leaving before the credits were over, come on people don’t you know the drill by now? All in all a fun and entertaining movie!

In my continuing journey with JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure I read through part 4 also know as Diamond is Unbreakable. I think it is slightly apparent that Hirohiko Araki had only seriously plotted out the first three parts of the series. With Dio finally defeated it would appear the story would be over. But Araki does a good job for continuing the series in a way that is still entertaining. Josuke Higashikata is a likeable enough chap as the new Jojo protagonist although Jotaro still appears enough to be a hook for fans of Part III. They spend most of their time running around fighting the random stand user of the week but the battles are still innovative and smart. The story only really comes into its own when Yoshikage Kira comes along as the main antagonist. Then it becomes much more of a thriller and a detective story so I was pleased. Rohan Kishibe was without a doubt the oddest character in this chapter. As a genius manga artist Rohan is clearly a bit of a Mary Sue. But at the same time he is enough of a total jerk to show that Araki has a sense of humor about himself.  The story wanders a bit more than it’s tighter predecessors but it is still fun, weird, and exciting.  I must say that the translation on this part is just plain AWFUL. The grammar is horrible, names change from chapter to chapter, whole panels are often are untranslated, and the clean up work is often nonexistent. Since Viz has seemingly given up on the series beyond Stardust Crusaders I would consider it a favor if any group would go back and redo those translations. Theoretically the best thing would be for someone to license the other parts of Jojo’s but I have a feeling Viz will never continue the series and at the same time not give the rights to anyone else.

I finished up Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig rather quickly after my mention of starting it last week. Because, yes, it was as stupendous an achievement as I was promised it would be. Almost every episode ties into the main plot so it has a lot of momentum as it unfolds. Since I was watching it quickly, things were able to connect in my head better than it probably would have otherwise. The ending was wonderfully set up and intense and I liked that we didn’t totally know for sure if Kuze was the man we thought he was till that final moment. The scene of Battou digging with that piece of steel that looked like a cross was nice too because while the symbol itself is obvious it made me ponder the idea of the Major being Battou’s cross-to-bear. And the main story ending story ending with the Major doing what she did, very satisfying. I also loved the couple of side stories, especially Saito telling the tale of how he met the Major. And of course the Tachikoma’s rocked it like always! Most people say this is the better season, and I loved it, but the first I still hold as the best.

If anyone remembers we did a little article about the Rough Guide to Anime awhile back so I decided to check out it’s companion piece the Rough Guide to Manga as well. They are clearly in the same line as the format of the books are almost identical. It starts with a brief history of manga, the influence and spread of manga in Asia and America, 50 recommended titles, a look at manga publishers, and books and websites to help you continue your journey, and a glossary. The thing is while both a great introduction to the material, especially for anyone just getting into the hobby, I know I was learning little things I did not know from the manga guide all the time. The history of manhwa and the myths of Osamu Tezuka stood out as particularly interesting.  Apparently the manhwa industry was so strictly regulated in the 60s that men and women could not be depicted in the same panels together. Craziness. The canon section is a fairly good mix. Nothing extremely obscure but that is not the point. A decent mixture of old and new with classics like Lupin III and To Terra along side Peach Girl and Vagabond and of course Akira and Naruto. Paradise Kiss was the only josei tittle but at least they had one although I myself would have wound a way to sneak in Nodame.  But it has Maison Ikkoku so I can’t complain too much. There was no individual manga-ka section but there were some important artists like CLAMP, Leiji Matsumoto, and Rumiko Takahashi mentioned in the canon section. The book it a little outdated especially with the recent shake ups as it still list Dr Master and Aurora Publishing as functioning companies. Still it is a great resource for anyone just getting into manga who needs a guide of where to start digging deeper or where to begin looking in the first place. More experienced fans can give it a look as well as even luminaries like Ed Chavez are occasionally learning something new about the complex world of manga.

Went to see the mostly panned Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, but I found it fun and amusing. Johnny Depp played Jack Sparrow as he should be played and that’s really what we all go to see anyway, don’t we? Some of his better moments include him discussing confusing a convent with a brothel, a great exchange between him and Angelica (Penélope Cruz) about lying by telling the truth, and getting very frustrated with some foliage. Biggest problem for me, and the same goes for the other iterations after the first, is that it was too long. No one cares about the side characters, no really we don’t, so the whole thing with the mermaid was groan-worthy. None of the other stories have lived up to the first film, but that can be said for most franchises. Still had a good time watching and I think I liked it better than the other sequels, but to be fair I don’t remember them too well.

I wanted to clarify when I said last week about [C]. In retrospect I felt that it might have come off as overly critical of the show. So far I have been really enjoying what I have seen of the first 6 episodes. They have had a good mixture of the financial battles in contrast to the charater and world building. The battles that long enough that you get some fights in every episode but not long enough that they dominate over the more thoughtful parts of the show that are far more important. I just have a feeling that the potential for this show to crash and burn horribly are just as likely as it to be a stellar success. Since the show gives you a little bit of how the Midas money works and the true effects of financial battles in real world every episode you never feel like the show is holding back from you. The narrative is always revealing just enough to keep you hooked. The problem is it still has not been enough for me to fully predict the ending so  the final reveals and confrontations could go in too many directions for me to give a thumbs up of thumbs down on this show until I have probably see the last episode. I am predicting that Souichirou Mikuni is Kimimaro Yoga’s father but his son cannot remember him as the cost of losing big in the financial district in the past. But I am pretty sure that is not that super surprising but I figured I would say it anyway. But overall I will hope for the best and plan for the worst with this series which is usually your best bet.

As I’ve been watching Ano Hana, I’ve started to get a funny feeling. Especially after episode 6 there are hints of a secret in Menma’s past with the mention of her calling everyone to get advice the day she died, a passing comment that her dad was mean, and finally Menma’s mom saying her father wanted her stuff packed away. And I’m growing more and more afraid this secret is abuse from her father or something equally disturbing and tragic. I didn’t really expect it to come to this, I thought and still hope this is a story about growing and moving on, not about more darkness heaped on. I want to be wrong. Maybe I’ve just read too many detective novels!

I wanted to discuss the first 6 episodes Blue Exorcist as apparently Narutaki and Mike Dent had the exact same reaction. The first episode makes you think that this series is going to be different with the teenage protagonist working for a living while fighting demons despite being the son of Satan at the same time. But the second episode ends up with Rin heading towards the True Cross Academy which means that this story looks like it will mostly revolve around school drama. That is sort of a shame because the setting of the first episode really felt different that most of your modern shonen fighting shows so when they go to school it loses a bit of vibrancy. Still the show feels like early Bleach with energy and emphasis on character development and the building of the mythology of the setting rather than monster of the week fighting. I do wonder how long this will last. I feel that they are working really hard in the beginning on all of this but they are going to inevitably fall into a fight of the week formula. My hope is that while they will surely increase the number of straight fighting episodes that they keep this level of  introspection in the characters and the world. When Bleach moved away from that it really began to lose its edge. I will comment that everyone so far has the super saddest past ever. I’m not saying everyone’s origin has to be rainbows and happy cakes but it is saying something that everyone has back stories that would make the cast of One Piece feel bad for them. And we have that impression from only 6 episodes.

Of course.

Gantz is a franchise that has always had a mixed reputation. The manga is always known to have very extreme reputation with a good deal of gore, violence, sex, and a pitch black outlook. This has earned it a fair share of fans as well as detractors. It also know many complaints have been levied at it loosing its way in its long run. The anime has a similar reputation but has a quick fix ending by Studio Gonzo that almost always gets a poor reaction. But Gantz fans are almost always fans of its unrelenting nature. So while Narutaki and I have been interested in this series neither or us has started it. When animemiz mentioned the premiere in New York I figured that we might want to check it out if for nothing else the fact that it was a simultaneous debut in American and Japan.

This was my first real introduction to Gantz. I have heard small details about it, and I even own some of the anime thanks to a very good sale but haven’t actually explored the series till this live action film. And going to see this movie was pretty much a last-minute whim. So while I wasn’t excited going in, I became excited as we waited for the show to begin. Gantz entertained me, Kenichi Matsuyama contributed to that greatly, while also making me curious to bust out those DVDs I have.

Kei Kurono is on his way to a job interview when he sees his childhood  friend Masaru Kato saving a man who fell on the tracks at a busy subway station. After hesitating to help his friend save the drunk but they are both killed by an on coming train. Instantly they find themselves in almost featureless room with a mysterious black ball and strangers from all walks of life who also died recently. The ball that pits them in horrific death matches with bizarre aliens who they must fight with unearthly technology. In the day the participants are returned to their normal lives but at night they must fight to survive. Can Kato and Kurono find any way to free themselves from this insane purgatory?

In this first film there is no real explanation of what is going on, yet. There are some things that the characters think are happening but really so far there are no answers; the who, what, why of it all stays hidden. Is it a game? Gods? The government? Even by the end anything we know is mostly guess-work. That being said, a decent job was done to make you want to find out those answers. The atmosphere made it feel J-horror to me so while the action scenes were there to liven things up, the most interesting pieces were the more psychological ones. The assumption is the second movie will reveal all, one hopes.

You could tell that there were some attractive young Japanese men starring in this movie because there was a clear female basis in the audience despite the fact that this is a violent action movie. So how were these guys the women came to see? Kei’s just this guy, you know? He goes from cowardly loser, then to gung-ho commando, and lastly to remorseful leader throughout the course of the movie.  The problem is he does all his transformation in the last 1/4 of the movie with almost no build up before hand. Kato is distinctly more likable as he has a distinctly nobler spirit and more background and motivation. But there are hints that his higher nature might not be real in a few key scenes. Joichiro Nishi on the other hand reluctantly teaches them the rules of the game and is probably the truest character to the nasty nature of the original.  Yuriko Yoshitaka as Kishimoto Kei mainly seem to be there to be nude when she is introduced, provide the bare bones of a love triangle, and generally prevent the movie from being a total sausage fest. But other than that she is totally there to be “the girl” and all that implies.  The girl who is in love with Kei who seems most put in because like Hollywood movies Gantz seems to think they need a love story even if it takes away time from more important parts. There are also a bunch of other cannon fodder characters but they are mostly memorable for their deaths more than anything else.

Kenichi Matsuyama made me really excited for this movie. I enjoyed him so much as the eccentric L that I sought him out in some of his other roles. But to be perfectly honest, I didn’t know he was in Gantz till I got to the showing. As the quiet but intense Kato he brings his same character acting that makes you believe he is this person and no one else. Kei is bit more of humorous character who is without a real direction in his life played by Kazuya Ninomiya. Kei begins to change both because of the Gantz missions (getting a bit cocky) and his friendship with Kato later as the story goes on. I’m not sure if I really bought into their friendship however, it is a bit uneven in execution. Then there was the lovely Kishimoto who is looking for some kindness and finds it in Kato. With Kato’s protective instincts and her past story, their coming together fit them. There is a broader cast with varying degrees of importance to missions and even a kinda strange girl in Kei’s classes who I jokingly said was surely Gantz. None of them stood out to me except perhaps for their bad dubs. I must point out that Gantz does that annoying horror movie thing where people make non-sense decisions at crucial moments. People were also constantly hesitating before shooting at dangerous things, since there was no mention of limited shots, this was a bit hard to swallow.

Before the movie began were greeted by Otaku USA’s Patrick Macias who introduced the movie  and the two stars Ninomiya and Matsuyama who came to the California premiere the Mann’s Chinese 6. Then after the movie Patrick ran a little Q&A with questions they had received online. The funniest part is while Ninomiya gave pretty good answers for a Japanese boy band member Matsuyama would answer his questions with long detailed answers. The problem was he once he started talking he would not stop talking until he answered the question in full. You could see the growing frustration on his translator’s face as he tried to remember half of what Matsuyama was saying in the 2 minute answers. The translator was able to cut him off once or twice but those times were a rare exception. The silliness of that was more entertaining than any of the questions for me. The laughter of the audience showed that I was not alone in this sentiment.

I wasn’t expecting the movie to be dubbed, and to be this poorly dubbed was a huge blow. The voices themselves were bad and the sync up just made it worse. We all know that dubbing live action is very difficult because of mouth movements, but Gantz seemed to not even be trying sometimes. So what you had was a series of disembodied voices which gave off a comical air at points when none should have existed. This made me doubt my interpretation of the events on screen as the audience continually laughed out loud. I’d really like to see again in Japanese (fingers crossed for it showing up at the NYAFF this year).

From what I understand the people who disliked the movie the most were people who were fans of the original manga or anime. Since the movie went out of its way to sanitize a good deal of the gore, tone down the sexual content, and clean up the main character I have seen a number of complaints about how the letter of the plot was often the same but the spirit was diminished. The movie was obviously toned down in hopes of getting a more mainstream audience especially considering its cast but I wonder if it will end up satisfying either camp. I myself having only heard snippets about the series I was nowhere nearly as disappointed. If nothing else I think I enjoyed the movie more going in with distinctly lowered expectations. I did feel the plot was a bit rushed as to adapt a good deal of material into a short space especially with the characterization. Also the characters seem to specifically make horrifically dumb moves and avoid using their weapons for plot convenience. In return the aliens seemed all too willing to literally stand around and do nothing when people had speeches to make. I thought it was a great movie for a fun rent with friends but I would not recommend buying it sight unseen.

It is pretty cool to have films opening in the U.S. on par with Japan so I hope we continue to see such events. Gantz probably wouldn’t have been everyone’s first choice for this but I think it suits the taste of an American audience. The movie isn’t enlightening, the story is ridiculous, but I had a good time watching it for the most part. And if nothing else it has gotten me to want to learn a little more about the franchise.

Since the 7th game of Umineko is so game changing I am going to try to just discuss the essence of the episode without giving away major spoilers especially for people who read the blog but are a few games behind. The two new characters seen in the portrait above are Willard H Wright and Lion Ushiromiya. Lion is a fascinating character that is essentially several huge reveals just by existing. Will is the Battler stand in for this chapter and I thought his big entrance was fairly entertaining and cool. Lion and Will’s interaction is playful although all the butt pinching going on has solidified that they will be shipped forever. When we get into the meat of the story we learn Kinzo’s back story, the identity of Beatrice, Battler’s sin, get some hits as to the solutions to some of the locked room mysteries, and the probable confirmation of one of the mostly hotly debated theories in the series. We also get some powerful scenes that I thought were quite moving. Also unless we are being misled there is some seriously twisted relationships in Umineko and the people involved do not realize are as twisted as they are.  It probably makes me a weenie but I found parts of the end of Requiem of the Golden Witch really hard to read. If you have come to love these characters the last chapter is brutal. Although how authentic how authentic that ending is has yet to be seen.  When the last game comes out I will probably do a total spoiler filled review of the series a whole but until then I just have to wait to see what answers 2011 finally gives us with Twilight of the Golden Witch.

I picked up How to Train Your Dragon in a Black Friday sale but didn’t get around to watching it till the Christmas holidays. The animation of the film really stands out, especially from some of the other Dreamworks properties, it was lush and gorgeous; the dragons were very animated and their designs were quirky; plus the flying scenes were breath-taking. The story is a simple one of trying to fit in to your dragon-killing village of vikings (we’ve all been there, right?) but Hiccup is much happier inventing things which often gets him into trouble. After one of his inventions actually works and takes down a rare dragon, their fates become intertwined when he realizes he can’t bring himself to hurt the creature. This story has a classic feel of acceptance, growing up, and having the bravery to do what is right. While I did find the relationships between Hiccup and the other kids a little too easier resolved, it was enough. I found it a very enjoyable ride! After seeing it, I do imagine it will be an Oscar contender this year.

The next chapter in Higurashi is Tsumihoroboshi-hen or the Atonement Chapter. Like the previous Eye Opening Chapter this chapter got cut in the anime and is much more effective in the visual novel. As always we are able to get to know the characters and see their mental break downs much clearer in the visual novel than in any other form. This chapter is a departure from the chapter it is answering but it still gives resolution and explanations to what happened in the Spirited Away by the Demon Chapter. In fact this chapter gives much more answers than the anime ever did. This chapter is downright mean because it throws out a lot of information that is actually vital for understand the greater story and then makes you think they were merely red herrings when Rena’s theories go into a layer of total insane paranoia. But as always the biggest trick is this chapter seems to have a somewhat happy ending until you read the afterward and find out despite the hard-won ending it turns out everyone dies anyway because the underlying causes of the tragedy of Showa 58 has still not been discovered. This was another chapter that was distinctly worth the money for anyone who is a fan of the series for the greater insights it gives you. I will say that the author’s afterward is this bizarre public service announcement that seems to come out of nowhere. So very odd.

I finished up Yumeiro Patissiere Professional TV. After the gang returns from their stint in New York City, they feel ready to take on the task of opening their own store. But before things can really start, alliances are changed and (new, new) Team Ichigo must revise their tactics. To make the stakes higher, Miya and Johnny make bets about dating Kashino and Ichigo respectively. Henri is notably absent in importance through these last episodes as well. Once again we aren’t privy to as much baking and creative endeavor with more of a concentration on business. As one would suspect things turn out for the best, sort of, but without any resolve to the love relationships going. This sequel really didn’t hold a candle to its predecessor.

After seeing a few intriguing ads for 999: 9 Hours, 9 People, 9 Doors I decided to pick it up because I am always interested in translated visual novels. 999 is the story of 9 people who were kidnapped and placed on an ocean liner as part of a mysterious revenge plot by a masked villain know only a Zero.  They have bombs in their bodies that can be triggered in a variety of ways so they are forced to solve puzzles in groups to survive. As they try to escape they also discover a murderer among them that is taking them out one by one. The game itself is hybrid visual novel puzzle game. You solve puzzles in an Myst style fashion to get to the next block of visual novel text and decision. Overall the game is entertaining but there are some really annoying things that way it down. First of all there are multiple endings depending on paths you take. To get the best ending you have to get a particular bad ending that unlocks the best ending. When you replay the game to get a new ending you can fast forward through text you have already read but that a still takes a bit of time. You have to replay all the puzzles you figured out which is really annoying since they are major time sinks. The puzzles are not that hard but the 5th time you have to do the puzzles in the first room are 3 times too many. If you don’t have a guide to do everything effectively it could be even a bigger pain. It is a fun game and the story is interesting but that repetition can be brutal enough to make some people walk away.

I was surprised to see the first live-action Nodame Cantabile movie available with English subtitles on my flight back from Europe. This is the first of two movies that will conclude the fairly lengthy romance story of aspiring conductor and accomplished pianist Chiaki and eccentric pianist Nodame plus the merry band of misfits they call friends. I have read a good portion of the manga so I had a decent understanding of what was going on, but this isn’t the place to start if you are new to the franchise; nothing is explained and this is the (beginning of the) final stunning conclusion to it all. However, this is the first time I’ve seen any of the live-action adaption. I was surprised by the cartoony additions like people getting bonked on the head and animated little things, which work fine in manga form but have potential to throw you out in live-action. But what I found most jarring was Chiaki’s personality portrayed as much more tame which only made Nodame seem annoying and petulant. I mean, Nodame is petulant, but when Chiaki is a crazy, controlling, ego-maniac it all balances out; that balance wasn’t happening. The music was quite a highlight though, as it should be, and was played in full for most sequences. I’m curious how the story ends but I’ll be picking up the manga to find that out rather than the films.

Two Birds. One Stone.

Daryl Surat went out of his way to recommend Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame to me, so the least I could do was check it out. It is an unusual hybrid martial arts mystery movie. Surprisingly enough it succeeds on both fronts quite well. The mystery is well executed and follows Knox’s rules to the letter expect for the 5th rule. But the story takes place in China there is no way to get around it. Also Knox’s 5th has always been very silly and is clearly a product of its time. I figured out most of the details of the mystery as the story went along but I felt the answers  were not glaringly obvious while still being solvable if you were playing attention. The fights were fairly cool and whenever they try to kill Detective Dee they do so with extreme prejudice. They don’t send an archer to assassinate him.  They send a legion of archers to cover ever inch of the house he is staying with arrows. I did find Dee’s choice if signature weapon unexpected but in a good way. His weapon actually says a lot about him as a man and a detective.  The only problem is that the special effects range from competent to horrifically cheesy. The effects never ruined the movie but they did make me chuckle on occasion. Dee himself has a gentle charm with just enough bite to mix it up. His Detective work is clean and he has a good mixture of scholarly knowledge, keen perception, and street smarts. His two assistants/rivals oscillated between being annoying and being cool especially when it came to the albino Shatuo (who I called the Chinese Malfoy.) I highly recommend it to anyone who likes martial arts movies, detective stories, or just wants something a little bit different. If they made a sequel I would definitely give it a look.

Despite my misgivings about Tangled‘s trailer, I went to see it over Thanksgiving weekend. I found myself pleasantly, and surprisingly, enchanted by the movie which I was giving the benefit of the doubt thanks to some articles I had read. The story is of course a familiar one, but it has its own additions like rouge thief Flynn and Rapunzel’s pet chameleon. Rapunzel is humorous and strong in her varying moods, and she is quite handy with her weapon of choice, a frying pan, which provides loads of laughs throughout the film. Though I will say that the humor is hit and miss especially when it comes to Flynn. While ignored in the trailer, the film does have musical numbers though they are integrated a little differently, such as Rapunzel’s introduction piece which for the most part doesn’t feature her visually signing. Actual on-screen singing is notably absent during the stunning boat scene between Flynn and Rapunzel, too. The songs themselves felt forced in the first half of the film, but really pulled together in the second part. In fact, the whole film is just much better in its later half. The visuals are the best I’ve seen in CG animated film and the scenes in town, the dancing, and the lights filled me with warmth and awe. The film rounds out with the right amount of magic and a happy ending. Also loved the ending credits with old-style story boarding. While Tangled won’t go down as my new favorite Disney film, if this is the level of quality that Disney will produce and make money, I’m more than pleased.

Since Steam had an amazingly cheap Black Friday sale with 5 games for 5 dollars I had no choice but to pick up these games. The fact that I have two people almost simultaneous jump on AIM telling me to buy Recettear helped quite a bit. Despite not being the game I bought the pack for I first played through Jolly Rover. The summation of the game is simple, Monkey Island but with dogs. The creators of the game are obviously paying homage to the adventures of Guybrush Threepwood with a few subtle winks and nods throughout.  I mean a silly pirate adventure in the Caribbean with voodoo, a corrupt governor,  a ghost pirate, and an effeminate protagonist with an awkward name all point to one source. The game is never as hysterical as a good Monkey Island but it was consistently amusing. The puzzles are never super hard which is good and bad. One one hand I beat the game in one day which means anyone who wants a  high level challenge will be disappointed but on the other hand I also never felt any of the puzzles were unfair with answers that come out of nowhere. It is a nice little time killer and fairly priced normally for 10 dollars. I am curious to go back and play the game with the creator commentary on just to see what they say. It would also give me a chance to go back and get all the unlockable content.

I don’t even really know how I came to have Wolverine Evolution, probably picked up in a random sale, so I finally got around to reading it. Jeph Loeb tells us a story about Logan’s past which he is having dreams about but can’t quite see a mysterious figure. As most are aware Wolvie has been alive quite a while but these memories are different to him. Other beasties appear in the series and it features Sabertooth quite prominently, no surprise. The artwork by Simone Bianchi is pretty unappealing throughout, minus some well-worked splash pages, proportions seem crazy and the expressions are equal to it plus the digital coloring is horrendous. In short, it wasn’t very good and utterly forgettable.

While I was on vacation I decided to head down to my local library and check out what manga they had and their copy of A Drifting Life caught my eye. Since I had a free evening I sat down to read the 840 page book in one go. As odd as it may sound I found Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s life story and his road to creating gekiga more intriguing than gekiga itself. It is the story of how Yoshihiro became a manga artists and how he was instrumental in the creation of a unique and influential style of comics in Japan. Along side his life story are little snippets of historical events to frame his story. This is a must read for anyone who wants to learn about the history of manga. The insights into how early manga magazines operated is fantastic. I knew vague details of what manga was like before and after Tezuka but this is a level of detail you can only get from someone who lived through the changes in the medium. It was also interesting to see what were the popular genres of the time and how the medium matured as the artists did as well. I know that Narutaki was amused that there was a time when mystery manga were kings. His personal relationships were as fascinating as his history in manga. He delves into his love/hate relationship with his brother who was also a manga artist,  his sketchy dad, and the colorful and somewhat insane people he has worked with. My biggest complaint was whenever he touched on his romantic relationships it seemed the most underdeveloped part of the story. He should have either went into greater depth about his relationships or just left them out all together. Also Tezuka is a rather prominent figure in the first third of the story. The insight into Tezuka and how other manga artists viewed him is invaluable by itself.

Finally got around to reading the first volume of Red River which has a Shogakukan Manga Award for shojo under its belt. It originally started in 1995 when transporting girls to mysterious land, where they play an important role, was at an all-time high. While I am not averse to such a scenario, it is hard to say that this book does it well or takes it further within just one volume. At the moment Yuri comes off as pig-headed but helpless which causes all kinds of trouble including some deaths already. The prince is such an almost-rapist that I have trouble imagining liking him. With such a long series I feel I should give it a chance to warm up to me, but this first volume did not inspire confidence.

I know I did not take about Type-Moon or Tsukihime but I feel like throwing Ciel some love:

Talk about words I never thought I’d hear on this show. This means that not just one, but two of the girls know what anime is; the girl who drew it, Ann (below, bottom), and the girl making the comment, Jane (below, top).

When thinking about what I’ve learned about these two over the course of the show, I am less surprised. Ann is a self-proclaimed shy nerd, who is slowly coming out of her shell, so I find it easy to believe she might be an anime fan. As for Jane, she is probably the most worldly of the bunch having attended Princeton, so again perhaps not too shocking that she has an idea of what anime is. But that it was brought up on a widely popular show, even for a brief moment, must say something.

So is this another instance of anime having come into the mainstream and making itself known, at least on a basic level? I’m not sure, but damned if that short moment between Ann and Jane didn’t surprise me.

After hearing several rave reviews Narutaki and I were interested in seeing the Sherlock preview at the New York Comic Con but since that was the weekend of missing out on things we never got the chance to watch it. When we did find it playing on public television we eagerly gave it a look. The show is modernization of the classic Sherlock Holmes mysteries. While we have all the classic characters like Sherlock, Watson, Mycroft, and Moriarty but at the same time Sherlock has iPhone, Watson has just returned home from the Afghanistan conflict, and everyone has a web page. The cases themselves are loose reimaginings of  some of the original Shelrock Holmes mysteries. Sherlock himself has the right mix of genius, charisma, and full on prat that defines the character and makes him so iconic. At the same time Sherlock and Watson have a fun dynamic that sells the show (and would have people running to the Internet to complain about fan girl bait if this were an anime.) I did notice a bit of a vibe that I see in House which I found highly amusing because it means the influence may have come full circle. House was heavily influenced by the original Sherlock Holmes and now it seems that influence has come home to roost. Like many British TV shows the first season is extremely short with only 3 ninety minute episodes. The 2nd episode was the weakest of the three but they were all very entertaining and had a good mixture of action, comedy, and most importantly sleuthing. The only real downside in the first season ends on a cliff hanger so if you watch this you are just going to be on the edge of your seat for the conclusion.

I just can’t help myself, I really must talk about the BBC Masterpiece Mystery 3-part Sherlock (2010) series. This a modern telling of the classic detective unlike any done before, and wow did they set the bar high. The production quality is wonderful and well-crafted. Turning Sherlock and Watson into characters who live in the 21st century is a smooth transition in this series. Sherlock still relies on his incredible memory and capacity for noticing the smallest details but he does use some modern science once in a while. The reaction to him by the police is also a nice touch with most afraid of him or thinking he is a sociopath. As for Watson his war trauma and not feeling right in society is perfectly suited, and as my dad said “Watson always carried his gun.” Oh and I love that he has a blog about the cases. The dynamic between these two is comical at times but more comfortable than anything else despite them only meeting for the first time in part 1, in this I feel you can see the House influence the most. Watson is exasperated by Sherlock but also gripped by his insight and the mysteries. The first mystery is wholly gratifying in its puzzle, climax, and ending. Pretty much perfect. The second’s mystery is a little less solid but nevertheless good, and it was nice to see the solution be a bit unexpected. The final case is very intense because of the cat and mouse angle. And as everyone has already said, the cliffhanger is a major one (on par with that darned Twin Peaks first season cliffhanger!). It is excitement for the series that makes it devastating to wait a year for more of this brilliant rendition.

Since it is only 20 dollars I decided to pick up a remake of the classic game Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions. I have been always eager to pick up the game since I have fond memories of the original plus the remake has some added features and a much cleaner translational. It has been giving me a good flood of nostalgia while reminding me why I liked the original as well. It also reawakened by love of unlocking classes and abilities even if that means crazy amount of unnecessary grinding. But that also means I have gotten to the point were the random battle are now insanely hard and the story battles are cake. The new cut scenes are pretty stylish with cel shaded animation with cross hatching. It gives the scene a very unique feeling. It is a great way to go back and visit an awesome and timeless game.

Gurren Lagann Parallel Works 2. Once again I have to wonder if the directors don’t know what a music video is or if they just plain ignore it, as the first installment made me ponder, too. Big Building and My XXX is the Best in the World (seriously don’t know what this title had to do with the video) were music videos just not very memorable ones. Kittan Zero with plenty of action and comedy and The Sense of Wonder which felt like an anime music video of a series I’d want to watch stood out as the better pieces, but there was nothing very amazing in this collection.

As my very soul demanded I watched Gundam Unicorn 2. Overall I think it kept up the good feelings and momentum from the first episode despite the fact that I saw a bunch of tweets that seem to indicate that people’s feelings had cooled a bit. I think they wisely waited to show the Unicorn verses the Kshatriya fight for this episode because there was a bit more talking and less action in this episode. Of course we get to see Full Frontal in full three times as fast glory inside of his mecha and outside. This had to be done considering you could feel the Gundam fans need to see him from the second the first OAV started. I was happy to see a little more of what sort of person Audrey Burn is and we get the first big reveal about her. The federation officers clearly show that the more things change in the Universal Century the more they stay the same. Other than that is did a lot of setting up for the rest of the series as is the standard of the second act of any Gundam series. I listened to the dub on my second watch through. Everyone seemed pretty solid. No one stood out as amazing to me but I was happy with everyone’s performance.  I would go into more detail but Narutaki has to yet to see this episode so I can’t say anymore than I look forward to episode three. The trailer for that is already out.

I read Bunny Drop vol. 2 and it continues to play me like a fiddle, I absolutely adore it. At the end of the first volume we saw Daikichi going through his grandfather’s house hoping to turn up some clues about Rin’s mother. That continues here and we even meet the woman, but I have to say who she is surprises me and it felt a little wacky and out of sync, but that might have just been my expectations. I also took an immediate dislike to her. I’m not actually sure how she will fit into the story just yet as it feels a little premature. It was nice to see Daikichi’s parents getting involved in Rin’s life and not treating her like a curse, too. Daikichi grows as a parent in this book quite a bit as Rin gets ready to start elementary school and you can see him transitioning from feeling sorry for her to truly loving her. As for Rin, she is making friends and coming out of her shell bit by bit but you can also see her trying to act more like a “big girl” and how that is affecting her relationship with Dai. So far the book has stayed rather positive, even with the monumental underlying issues at hand. I’m not sure where this journey will take Rin and Daikichi but I really hope he gets to stay by her side.

I had to dig through some truly awful Milky Holmes pictures to find this but it was worth it.

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Not fall fans of  Scott Pilgrim are this insane. I saw many a person who enjoyed the movie and then maybe urged some of their friends to see it as well. What I am talking about was this vocal minority in the fandom that seem to think that the fate of independent comics, comic book movies, and even entertainment in general was intimately linked to the how well this movie did. You were either for Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World or you were with the cultural barbarians trying to tear down the noble Camelot of free artistic achievement. I went to the movie and I even enjoyed the film quite a bit but I cannot see why this film would provoke such a fanatical response.

In my opinion Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World was doomed to be a cult classic from day one. It is one of those movies that bombs in theaters but goes on to do decently on DVD. It will be constantly talked about by fans  who recommend it to others with a zealot like glee to like-minded friends for years to come. The direction by Edgar Wright is spot on and plays up the quirks of the comic brilliantly earning a place in the hearts of many people who saw the movie. By the same token the movie wears its bizarre quirkiness on its sleeve in a way that does not allow anyone who was not predisposed to the movie to want to see it. Despite all the positive buzz it had it never had the legs to be the break out hit its fans wanted it to be. I cannot understand why fans thought otherwise.

The most important thing to take away from this is that no matter what happened the future of independent comics is generally unaffected by what happened to Scott Pilgrim. When Northrop Davis was on the ANNcast he mentioned that an anime movie bombing does not mean Hollywood will never look at anime for another movie to produce. When the Dragonball: Evolution failed it mostly means that Dragonball become radioactive but not all anime properties. So when Scott Pilgrim failed other independent comics still have the same chance they used to. We don’t have independent comics being snatched up left and right but they are far from untouchable. The cult of Scott Pilgrim has to sit back and gently sell the movie they love on its merits and not resort to bizarre scare tactics.

House of Five Leaves was a quietly compelling series that came full-circle in its story. Something about beginning and ending with the same gesture really gets to me in a good way. As Masa starts to connect to each member of The Five Leaves he is changed but through his gentle and honest (minus, you know, being part of a kidnapping ring) nature he genuinely surprises and moves the people around him. Yaichi remains a bit of an enigma throughout to the people around him, even Masa is still making the connection with him in the end but learning about his past allows him to be more of an open book atleast to the audience. It wasn’t immediately obvious from the first couple of episodes that this story would be more of a personal journey rather than about the crimes playing out. As the you begin to puzzle out the story it becomes gripping despite the languid pacing. House of Five Leaves has atmosphere and characters who tell you who they are with the slightest of actions. Beautiful and recommended, I am looking forward to picking up the manga as well.

I must say that the House of Five Leaves anime picked the perfect place to end. When adapting an ongoing manga it can be hard to decide where to end especially when the source material is very character and plot driven. But Tomomi Mochizuki ended at the point where you had insight into all the main characters and everyone had a good arc of character development. You got the impression that everyone had changed greatly since you had first met them and you had a decent idea of who they were. Masanosuke still has growing to do, Yaichi still has unfinished business, and we could have learned a bit more about Otake but overall if the manga had ended here I don’t think anyone would have felt cheated. I was sad to hear that this was got fairly low ratings for a noitaminA show in Japan. When something that is extremely experimental like Trapeze gets ratings like that I am not too surprised. But I would have assumed the mature quality would hook a noitaminA audience. That is a shame because this is a well done historical character piece that while not extremely fast in it’s execution is great at building up an atmosphere that draws you into a group of very unusual kidnappers and their stories. I hope to finish the story through the VIZ manga.

I finally got the chance to pick up Bunny Drop 1 which I had been eying in Japanese for a long while before the English version came out. We begin with the death of 30-something Daikichi’s grandfather and then a somewhat familiar scenario plays out. During the funeral ceremonies little Rin, the recently discovered illegitimate daughter of Daikichi’s grandfather, attaches herself to Daikichi who not only resembles his grandfather but seems to be the only adult not staring daggers at her. As Daikichi’s family coldly discusses what to do with Rin, Daikichi hotly proclaims he will become her guardian and raise her himself. Thus begins the winding road of discovery and adventure for young bachelor Dai and 6-year-old Rin. Dai’s inexperience but genuine affection for Rin gives us plenty of laughs and aww’s. What I liked best was that Dai internally and to a co-worker expresses the inconvenience of it all, he is forthright, but he also wants to bring solid ground to Rin’s life while believing that one day he won’t see it as a burden. As he comes to understand Rin better, he begins to appreciate the effort. It has a very tender quality to it. So despite the fun and sweet but not fully grounded premise, there are beautiful moments of wisdom interspersed among the comedy and drama. I am glad I pre-ordered the next volume!

When in preparation for AnimeNEXT 2010 I decided to watch the Minipato OVA to see Kenji Kamiyama’s debut as a full director. The first two shorts explain the design and theory that goes into the creation of the police mecha of the series including why they use the weapons they use and the various models of Patlabors. The third OAV is a secret report by Shinobu about the illicit actives of Division 2. While it is all played very straight all the OAVs have a distinctly comedic  tone to them. The first two OAV are distinctly reminiscent of the science lessons from Gunbuster. We start off with the generally dry lessons with sly jokes on the side in the first OAV building to the extremely seriously toned third OAV that is purposely patently ridiculous. I was impressed how the OAV captured the range of humor that the TV had with the third episode being very similar to several of the mini documentary episodes in the series. Most of the scenes use cardboard cuts out much like episode 19 of Kare Kano which emphases the comedic vibe. It’s an odd little collection of collection of shorts but distinctly entertaining assuming you have watched the TV series. Also you can tell how much of a mecha nerd you are by how many of the Patlabor “variations” you recognize in the second episode.

Was anyone not looking forward to Toy Story 3? In fact, it’s hard not to look forward to Pixar productions, luckily they rarely disappoint. With this third, and presume final, installment in the Toy Story narrative we have Andy getting ready to go away to college. As he begins packing his things he has to make a decision about what to do with his once precious toys that have sat dormant for many years now. Through a series of mix-ups our gang end up at a daycare center and must eventually make their way home before Andy leaves for good. As with the other two movies, this is all about the journey and the dangers it presents. Of the new toys they meet Ken (of Barbie fame), Crunk (a rock monster), and Twitch (a mantis-man) all gave me great laughs. There is a little predictability in this film but the way each thread of the story leads into the other is quite astounding. You can really see the care taken with each decision in the tale and nothing just happens, it all comes back around. As many will tell you there are some sad moments in the this film but of course it ends on a positive, if melancholic, note. Toy Story 3 is a perfect cap off to the series where we see the closing of a door and the opening of another.

Being a huge fan of the Yankee-kun to Megane-chan manga I was extremely eager to see the live action adaptation. When I saw the first episode I had distinctly mixed feelings. My main problem with the production is that I love the comedic styling of the manga so when they make the series have such a standard live action drama style of humor it sort of breaks my heart. I understand that there ratings will probably be much better because of this so I wish them only the best but I wanted a straighter adaption. For instance they Daichi comes from a family of doctors and has all this family drama. They have not brought up Seiun only dating extremely ugly girls which is always priceless.  Also Hana comes off as more annoying when she is in class president mode than really strange space-case like she does in the manga. Don’t get me wrong. Yankee-kun to Megane-chan live action is hardly a bad show. The fight scene at the end is hysterical. It is the fact that I was severed a well done meal but it was utterly not what I was in the mood for.  It tasted good but it did not stop the craving I had.  I’m hoping it’s popular enough to get them to produce an anime. That would tie up everything with a neat little bow.

There isn’t much Toy Story fan-art out there so this is the pic of the week!

Waking Sleeping Beauty is a fascinating documentary highlighting the renaissance of Disney animation from 1984 and 1994. It goes in depth on how the perfect storm cam together to create amazing Disney films like Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Aladdin, and the Little Mermaid after it seemed like Disney animation was dying. The studio went from putting out box-office bombs to having Beauty and the Beast nominated for Best Picture by the Academy Awards. The film shows how the triumvirate of Roy Disney, Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg were all so instrumental in the success of these movies and how the tensions between them would eventually kill the renaissance as easily as they built it. The film uses archival footage, sketches, and caricatures from the artists of the time to ground the documentary in the period to great effect. It goes to show how luck plays just as much of a part in the creation of a great film as hard work does. Amazingly insightful and extremely well-executed. I think parallels could be made with the most recent rise and fall of anime as well for a clever soul out there.

What struck me as very unique about the story of Waking Sleeping Beauty is the focus on the artists, directors, musicians, and all other manners of the creation process rather than the infamous infighting between Roy, Michael, and Jeffery that has already been well-documented. This documentary goes deeper and really shows the hard-work of all those people who rarely made it into the newspaper. The way that it is cut together with only old footage much of which is very off the cuff like home movies (the only things that are new are some of the voiceovers) really helps it to feel grounded in reality and not like some glossy corporate highlights reel. What I found truly incredible about this 10 year journey was the proof of fate, that sometimes the right people come together at the right time and it can never be duplicated because the factors were so diverse. That isn’t to say that hard-work and dedication isn’t the most important part of this project, it’s central to what these animators especially went through to perfect these films, but there is a little bit of magic in these people getting together and making it all happen. Waking Sleeping Beauty is insightful, funny, moving, and may make you believe in Disney magic.

It seems like Fate/Stay Night TV Reproduction is based on the Wikipedia summary of Fate/Stay Night more than the game itself. It plays out like someone constantly hitting the fast forward button on the plot. The story is compressed so much from the visual novel to a 26 episode TV series then to two hour long episodes that it is incomprehensible to anyone that has not experienced some previous iteration of the franchise. In fact as out of character as it might seem I don’t think I could recommend this to anyone. Unless you need a refresher of the series everything goes by so quickly that anything newly added goes by unnoticed. Heck it is so rushed they can’t even spare the time to do all of Archer’s Unlimited Blade Works speech. Your best bet is just to watch the new opening in HD which is pretty sweet and call it a day.

I watched the latest Lupin III Special, The Last Job. This hour and half of anime includes the following: big-bosomed ninjas, car chases, a roaming band of kittens, explosions, ancient laser beams, a dog that can use smoke bombs, a psychopath with a deadly yo-yo, the mafia, the “death” of major character, a mutant bird-man, and history. It was entertaining, amusing, and fun…do you really need anything else from Lupin III?

I can easily picture how Mobile Suit Gundam F91 was created. When Tomino was forced to turn his idea for a 50 episode Gundam series into a single movie I am sure he was amazingly frustrated. So I assume that he just took the show notes for the TV series and adapted them directly into a movie script without any alternations overnight. The he got drunk on sake seconds afterward. Because that is exactly how Gundam F91 feels. I just sense that Tomino had these high points that he had written out like certain people changing sides, dieing, or discovering things. But he had them set up to be revealed over the course of a full length TV series. Now they just come off as a jumbled mess. Even more so than Tomino’s normal crazy. I will say that F91 is beautiful and the fight scenes are pretty sweet. It is a delightful piece of mecha porn but the movie is sort of a train wreck. Also Cecily Fairchild proves Gundam knows how to create attractive red headed pilots. This is a very good thing. If you are a Gundam fan it’s worth a look but everyone else should stay far far away. I wonder how much I will understand everything better after I read the Crossbone Gundam manga that supposedly explains quite a bit even if it is set after the movie.

While waiting for more Blade of the Immortal manga, I grabbed the novel The Legend of the Sword Demon. As per the author’s note in the back, the story is supposed to be a retelling and therefore doesn’t have to fit into the actual storyline. The story isn’t too far off the beaten path of what you’d expect from Blade of the Immortal though. We start with Rin and Manji’s first meeting and then follow them through a story about a monster of a swordsman who keeps showing up when Manji is fighting Itto-ryu guys. The story is well-written with fights that are vivid and tense plus the author has the personalities of the cast down. The one problem that arises with this book thanks to this new adversary is making Manji look a bit like a punk, this monster just keeps getting in his business! It’s like hey this fight is just getting interesting, oh wait now it is interrupted by demon beast! Also the ending fight is much more a highlight of how awesome (and he is oh so awesome) Magatsu is rather than Manji. The new pieces of art by Hiroki Samura are a welcome edition but I was a bit disappointed that the only new character, the Sword Demon, isn’t fully featured in any of them. The Legend of the Sword Demon is a quick, light read but may just make you want to read the manga even more.

We don’t have nearly enough mecha pictures so here is the F91:

I had trouble putting into words how I felt about Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms. It was powerful yet quiet; whimsical yet jarring. This story involves people who lived through the atomic bombings of WWII and the generations that come after them. But instead of being about the bombings proper, it’s really about their lasting meaning and effects. These are personal anecdotes the first of which is a poignant and sad, while the second is about understanding and the future which is a nice way of contrasting them. It would almost seem patronizing to see the first story play out happily. However much these bombings bring a string of emotions to the surface, the stories are kept even by the drawing style which is charming. A beautiful and just a little thought provoking read.

I picked up Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms entirely on a whim while entering a raffle for a trip to Japan at Kinokuniya. This is definitely a prestige release that will win awards and praise from critics but will be avoid by mainstream readers. The manga is about two interconnected stories about how two generations deal with the bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A powerful story that deals not only with how the Japanese people had to rebuild but the stigma of the bombing as well. The first story is very melancholy while the second story is lighter but does not break the mood. Both stories go quickly. It only took me about half my train ride to finish the whole book. It was a solid mature story that looks at an important but ugly time in modern history without being preachy or depressing. This is first and foremost the story of the charters whose lives are touched by the bombing more than the bombing itself. But this is the best way to talk about such events. The art is very light and vibrant which helps keep the story refreshing despite the weighty material. A great read for anyone who wants something with a deeper message than your average manga.

I finally saw The Princess and the Frog this week and much as everyone told me, it was amazing. I’m not going to bother recounting the plot here, but I want to mention some stand out moments I noted about the film. First and foremost is the attention to the setting and how much life it had. From the clothing to the characters to the backgrounds to the music, especially the music, the whole of New Orleans was poured into this movie. And it really culminated in the soundtrack which lifts from the swinging jazz beats and ragtime music that found their life throughout the southern U.S. in the late 19th century. It was a Disney soundtrack, a Disney musical, and it was like fresh air. Tiana, our heroine, breaths just as much freshness into this fairy tale. The way she handles hardship seems very purposeful. Disney princess movies almost all have a moment where the heroine throws herself down somewhere sobbing, but this is absent from The Princess and the Frog. Tiana only sheds tears once in the film and it is over someone else’s circumstance, not her own. That isn’t to say she isn’t feeling heartache, she just chooses to handle it with a deep breath and a shake. Along with this is that Tiana’s struggles (and the Prince’s) are not fairytale ones minus the whole being turned into a frog thing, she is working hard, trying to make a living, and dreaming of opening her own restaurant in memory of her father. And the fairytale problems, well, Tiana tackles the villain on her own in the end while the prince is captured! Equally impressive was the chosen ending where both Tiana and Naveen make the decision to carve their own place in the world. Disney chose well a story they could play with and really create a heroine who was active with a modernity about her. I believe this movie can usher in a new age of Disney films, filled with the old magic and music, but with an eye on the future.

With the upcoming release of the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni sound novels by MangaGamer I decided to dig out my copy of the first Higurashi live action movie. Overall it is a decent adaptation I really have yet to like any of the adaptations as much as I have liked the anime but I have still have hope that sound novel will impress me. The movie is an adaption of the first chapter of the game series otherwise know as the Onikakushi-hen chapter. The plot is basically the same as we see Keiichi slowly get more paranoid and distrustful of his friends when he learns about the murders that have taken place in Hinamizawa. They make Keiichi more angst filled in the movie which I found an odd choice but made sense in the context of the film. They thankfully bumped up the ages of Satoko and Rika because if they were the ages they were in the game I am sure their performances would have been painful. I had a good time watching despite the lack of impact that earlier iterations had. If you really like the series it might be worth a watch but most other people are better off starting the franchise with either the anime or the manga.

Yu-Gi-Oh 5D’s is the story of Yusei whose best friend Jack betrays him, steals his duel-runner and best card, then heads off to New Domino City where he promptly becomes the champion card dueler! Then when Yusei confronts Jack . . . wait . . . who the hell cares? Yu-Gi-Oh 5D’s is as silly, or more, than you might imagine it is and yet I can’t stop watching it. I’m in the middle of the first tournament right now (about episode 20) and Yusei has pretty much made friends with everyone he has come in contact with up to this point. Unless of course they are pure evil. The dialogue is hilariously dramatic and this is made even better by Jack’s strange Aussie accent. I think they highlight so far has been when Yusei was in prison, but I’m sure it can still deliver. It is so terribly, terribly entertaining.

I was fortune enough to win the brand spanking new release of the 5 Deadly Venoms by Dragon Dynasty through a contest on R5 Central. When the master of the Poison Clan is about to die he gives his youngest student a dying request: he must track down the five senior students and see if they are using their training for good or evil. If they are using their martial arts for evil he must stop them. But he has not being given enough training to defeat any of the students by himself so he must try to find at least one good student to help him. The main problem is that all the students of the Poison Clan wear masks during training. All he knows is the details of their styles and that they are all in one city looking for the treasure of the Poison clan. This leads to the movie being half detective movie on top of being martial arts movie. I think this richer but still simple plot plot separates it from some of the great but very simplistic martial arts classics. I really enjoyed the mix of intrigue and kung fu. I admit I did find it funny that once the big fight scene ends the remaining cast  basically ties up all the lose ends with a few quick lines of dialog. But the movie knows once the climax is over you don’t need much more than reassure that everything will soon be wrapped up. By the way there is an excellent review of the 5 Deadly Venoms on the Greatest Moive EVER! podcast. It is filled with spoilers for those who care about such things but it is a great insight into what makes this a good film and some good overall discussion of martial arts films.

Because basically since I saw it I can’t stop talking about the movie:

I went to see the Japanese horror movie House (also known as Hausu) during Halloween. I say horror movie but what I really mean is 1970′s b-movie hilariously badly wonderful horror movie. Oh, did I mention the director let his 11-year-old daughter write the story? As you can imagine, things for the most part aren’t very scary at all. The basic premise is about 7 high school girls (are you ready for these names? Gorgeous, Fantasy, Melody, Sweet, Mac, Professor, and Kung-Fu) who visit a house in the country, but the house is evil! And one by one the house eats them up. There is also an evil cat(s?), a crazy aunt who is only randomly disabled, and a most spectacular array of bad special effects. As a person who doesn’t like horror movies, I highly recommend this one. It will leave you laughing!

And owning a PSP logically means that I would go out and get all the Type-Moon games I could. I got Fate/Tiger Colosseum in Japanese mostly because it’s a simple game to play even if you don’t understand Japanese. The game is mostly a simple Power Stone style fighting game. The main draw is the bizarrely humorous story mode where the characters run around being silly each in their own special way like with Saber beating people up because her food tasted bad and Rin and Rider involved in a story of cursed glasses. I oddly enough enjoy trying to figure out what the stories are despite the fact that I know a handful of Japanese words. I am pretty sure Soichiro Kuzuki story mode is the standard “We stole your woman! You must now fight through my minions to get her back” played totally straight for maximum comedic value. I also think that Archer’s story is about him beating the snot out of people to teach them not to solve their problems with violence. I can’t see how that would not be hysterical. Plus the game made me realize once again that Bazett is unfairly looked over despite her inherent sexiness. It also makes me want someone to translate Fate/Hollow Ataraxia as soon as possible.

Kimi ni Todoke was the show I practically named best show of the season in the fall review and having watched up through 5 has not altered my opinion one bit. It continues to bestow upon the viewers little treasures in each episode. Sawako is shy but in a way that isn’t tedious or annoying that some people feel towards such characters. Equally endearing is Kazehaya’s emotions that seem right on the surface but are continually misinterpreted. The focus has been more of Sawako’s overall emergence into friendships at school rather than being solely on the slow romance. Though truly I want to see that move along soon. The plot also has the uncanny ability to lull you into a sense of familiarity and then breaking it, then doing it all over again. Kimi ni Todoke is a grand ole time.

I also experimented with downloadable games when I got Fate/Unlimited Codes. Fate/Unlimited Codes is the much anticipated Fate/Stay Night fighting game. It has a good roster of characters and the game play seems solid. I did notice that some characters were notably absent but I am sure they left them to throw into sequels. The moves are easy enough to pull off but there is an obvious bit of complexity to the overall fighting system. Then again I have never played the arcade version and I am hardly any sort of expert of fighting games. I am mostly a button masher that admires fighting games from a distance. It has not and never will be released in stores but you can get a translated U.S. version of Fate/Unlimited Codes by downloading it to your memory card. Apparently this is the direction of purchase Sony is aiming for especially with the release of the PSPgo. I found it convenient but I much prefer the option of being able to buy disks as well as download games. The downloadable game is a great release option for niche titles but I think a dual release would be better for big name titles.

I finished up Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box the annoyances I mentioned in my previous post about it still hold true, and in fact were practically driving me nuts by the end. The first game doesn’t overestimate your intelligence, but the second one seems content to lead you by the hand from place to place. Also, upon completion I can safely say the puzzles were easier than the first game’s offerings and the final solutions to the game are far and way some of the most obvious riddles in the entire game making it a bit of a let down. The story itself wraps up in a most curious manner and I am still undecided on how much I like the truths behind the box and all the happenings. However, I still love Layton and Luke and the teaser picture for the next game had me excited so I can say without a doubt I can’t wait to pick up the third installment. Whenever that is.

It is the the all powerful master and and ever studious student of the Tiger Dojo:

The beginning of The Color of Heaven starts very somberly as Ehwa is separated from Duksam and knows not when he will return. The first two book build up to this point of falling truly in love, so the third has a lot of quiet moments of introspection and realization. Also about half of the book involves waiting and waiting. However, that isn’t to say it is boring, much to the credit of the author, the growth between mother and daughter is subtle and beautiful. Ehwa’s mother is a woman who knows through maturity the power of longing and waiting and she imparts many important lessons on Ehwa in this final volume. In fact, much of this concluding story seems to be as much about her mother as it is about Ehwa. But perhaps even more telling is Ehwa’s ability to understand these lessons while still maintaining a hint of her naivete when it comes to the relationships between man and woman unlike her moments in the first two book. What becomes increasingly obvious through various conversations with her friend and mother is Ehwa’s ability to emotionally understand herself and her love but not to physically understand the relationships between the sexes. The finally moments of the book play out between Ehwa and Duksam while being interspersed with her mother and the picture man and also a set of neighbors. And you feel her education while not complete has finally gotten to a new plateau. The Color series has been both artistically unique and calmly enthralling and as such is a series that needs to be read and experienced.

As I wait for the web episodes to finish up Bakemonogatari, I figured I would take some time to reflect on the TV broadcast. Bakemonogatari was a flawed work that I enjoyed. Just not as much as other people on the Internet proudly shouted they did. NISIOISIN is fine as an author as long as he keeps his characters in check and not yelling at the protagonist all the time. He can come up with some interesting stories and clever word play when he wants to. One of the best parts of the series is that they don’t pussy foot around about Koyomi and Hitagi’s relationship. They give it enough time to build and then they start dating. Her lack of appearance in certain parts of the series is odd but not detrimental. They make up for this by making sure that the last episode in the TV broadcast focused almost solely on Koyomi and Hitagi. I thought the art style and direction remained consistently innovative and pleasing through out the series. I know there was a lot of complaints about some of the lack of budget near the end but the studio wisely chose to use cost saving direction over poorly drawn animation. I look forward to seeing how the web episodes finish the series. I thought the TV series ended on a high note so I wonder if the ONAs will be anticlimactic.

Even though I rarely have time to fit them in, I try to check out live action manga/anime adaptions when I get a chance. I watched the first episode of the fairly new Otomen TV series. The story revolves around a few characters that all center around Asuka, a boy who appears to be the very picture of Japanese manliness, but really loves cute things, cooking, and sewing. In the first episode he meets a girl, Ryo, who is tough and actually has the desire to protect him. In between there is the playboy Juta who figures out Asuka’s secret, a gang that want to take Asuka down a notch, and a boy who wants nothing more than to be Asuka himself. It if wasn’t obvious, this is a school comedy with a touch of romance. It was fun and over-the-top appropriately. Also, I must say the footage running during the credits is really cool! 

I sprinted through the rest of GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class now that I have a PSP. The series does not have any sort of climax but it doesn’t absolutely needs one. It started out as an episodic look into the lives of art student and so it ended. The fact that the manga is still ongoing I am sure is partially responsible as well. I have to wonder why this series is not more popular with the Hidamari Sketch crowd. I have to say I liked this series much more than Hidamari because the characters in GA felt more lively. Also because when we are given the secondary cast they actually have boys in that group. The regular presence of males keeps the moe factor in check. While it will turn some people off I also liked that they went into the classwork aspects of the students in GA as well as their personal lives and goofing around. There is something unique about them just going into art theory through out the series. Miyabi Oomichi was my favorite part of the cast but I have a soft spot for well done deadpan characters.

A bunch of us finished up the Giant Robo OVA (episodes 5-7) plus the three Ginrei Specials over the weekend. There were some very wonderful and intense moments in these culminating episodes. The series does a good job of portraying things in dire straits and even when you know things won’t hold (like Robo being chained up) there is still a quality about it that makes you nervous. My major concern is the lack of motivation for Big Fire himself, I would really have liked to see more of him. Though the story proves itself to be merely an arc with its ending. Once again, the production quality is not to be understated. This was an enjoyable OVA but I don’t feel like I liked as much as the rest of the internet though truly you won’t forget Imagawa after watching it. As for the Ginrei Specials, the animation is pretty poor but the first two episodes were very funny but skip out on the last one.

A delightful little piece that captures the joy of creating art that GA tries to express:

As has been said many times, Miyazaki needed someone to stand up to him and keep him in check. This could have gone from an okay film to a Ghibli master work had someone had the bravery and power to make this film go through one or two more retoolings to tie everything together. The ending was extremely anticlimactic causing one to wonder if Miyazaki tired of the story and decided to just end it as soon as he could much like a Neal Stephenson novel. They made such a big deal that Ponyo’s parents wanted to test Sousuke and Ponyo’s love but in the end it comes down to a simple: Do you like Ponyo? Check yes, no, or maybe. The test did not need to be hard or dangerous, it just need to be one Sousuke could fail because that makes things not only dramatic but cathartic when they are overcome. Ponyo’s mother could have made duplicate Ponyo’s and see it Sousuke could tell the real one apart. Or maybe Sousuke could have to make some sort or moral judgment due to a test set up by Ponyo’s parents but was unaware he was being tested. Overall the movie looks great and is really fun at many points, like when the typhoon comes, but it does not work as a cohesive narrative film. The characters had a lot of potential that was partially realized but never truly developed. It’s worth a rent to take in the visuals but not worth buying.  Hopefully if Miyazaki makes another film he will let people help him cut out what is extraneous and focus on what is important.

I am very excited to present the latest piece of art we had commissioned at AnimeNEXT! It is by syun rii who does many different styles for her fanart. I really wanted something chibi so I think she was the perfect choice! You can check out her gallery, too.

I know that Detroit Metal City is one of those manga that I hear lots of people talking about but for one reason or another I have not personally got around to reading. When I found out that The ImaginAsian Theater was having a free showing of the live action movie I decide to check it out anyway. Detroit Metal City is the story of Soichi Negishi from the countryside who wants to be a pop star singing happy bubblegum songs about the great feelings you get when you find that perfect girl. The problem is he gets shanghaied into being, Johannes Krauser II, the front man of a satanic heavy metal band called Detriot Metal City where he sings about rape and murder. DMC is clearly based on KISS as well as being a general Metal parody. Negishi spends most of the movie trying to escape the fame of his alter ego while trying to woo his college sweetheart Yuri Aikawa. In the end Negishi must balance his life as Krauser and Negishi, his dreams and his reality, his light and his dark, and make them coexist and keep each side in check. Oh, and he has to defeat the Metal legend Jack ill Dark who is played by Gene Simmons in a battle of the bands. I could instantly tell they toned down some of the humor and added in more snappy scenes because that is how Japan adapts crazy manga to live action. I am sure that the funniest scenes were all from the manga but they were all quite amusing. The scene when Negishi convinces his brother that going to school and chores on the farm are actually training to make one the ultimate demonic metal anarchist overlord were quite hysterical. Also the battle at the end with Jack ill Dark was pretty crazy as well when it was not being sappy. Still the sappy never overwhelmed the movie and I came out of the theater smiling. I would have been happy paying full ticket price for the movie because it was rather enjoyable. If nothing else it distinctly made me want to go out and start reading the manga.

I finished up the 4 episode Dogs: Bullets and Carnage OVA which is almost a page by page animation of the manga. In fact, each episode is only 15 minutes long which is about the length of one chapter of manga in animated form proving they added basically nothing. Still, it was a lot of fun to see the characters and especially the shoot-outs and fights in animated form. My earlier review of the manga stands true for this as well.

Much like it took me forever to finally watch and enjoy Patlabor it took me a smaller forever to watch and enjoy Patlabor: The New Files. The OAVs are more of a last huzzah than a definitive conclusion to the series. One of the main reasons I watched was to see the ending to the Griffin storyline being one of the few ongoing stories in the Patlabor universe. While I enjoyed it I have to say it was nowhere near as intense as the events that led up to the ending of the TV series. After those 4 episodes on the first disc we get more character studies and a few comedy episodes in the last 12 episodes. Since comedy and character studies is where Patlabor excels it is a good choice for the final episodes. I found it interesting that they revisited two of what I assume were the more popular comedy episodes where they go exploring in the sewers of the Patlabor headquarters and the CLAT episode. My favorite was episode 9 because for some reason Kumagumi and Kanuka having a rivalry seems so right. Also episode 7 is worth a watch just for the obvious Golgo 13 parody character amid a bunch of other anime references and is called Black Trinity which makes another reference to the Black Tri Stars. The last episode is a good note to go out on as a lot happens yet nothing really happens. The main plot is the creation of a third Patlabor division which is mostly an excuse to see everyone one last time and then show that no matter what, life goes on. Over all although it is a bit dry, Patlabor proves it self to be the most real of almost any real robot show (even with a ghost episode). While not a show for everyone, anyone who cares about mecha anime should at least watch a few episodes to get a sense of how this is so different from all the others out there. My next step is go back and watch the original OAV series but I will save that for another time.

Even though I wasn’t crazy about Ponyo, I did like the some of the characters!

Last year I attended only one film, Dororo, at the New York Asian Film Festival. Though we did try to see L Change the WorLd, too, but it was sold out. In any case, this seemed like a big mistake in retrospect. There are tons of films from all different genres. Everything from pulpy mysteries to sex-centric surrealism to over-the-top samurai action to sweet romance was up for grabs at this year’s Asian Film Fest. Many of these films one might not have a chance to see otherwise. So with that in mind, and a little help from the NYAFF guide book, we set out to see some unique flicks.

I missed out on all the movies last year including Dororo but that is because if it were not for bad luck I would have no luck at all. On the other hand, Narutaki and I insisting on seeing the L movie no matter how many times life seemingly tried to let us dodge it is our own fault. But this year we are in it to win it and are hitting up a bunch of the movies playing. My priority number one was to see the 20th Century Boys movies not only because they are most relevant to the blog but also because I really enjoyed the manga. All the other movies are interesting experiments. I was not sure how many I would like but I was ready to be surprised.

For everyone who has not read the manga, 20th Century Boys, is a tale of a childhood fantasy of defending the world from evil turned into a real-life nightmare. Kenji Endo is a failed musician who works a dead end job at a convenience store while taking care of his sister’s baby. He slowly get involved in a global conspiracy involving a charismatic cult leader only known as Friend. He soon realizes that Friend’s plots mirror his childhood story that he made up with his friends in elementary school leading him to believe that one of his old friends must be behind this mad apocalyptic scheme. Kenji has to gather his old friends, his buried memories, and most importantly his old conviction to fight deadly assassins, horrific plagues, and a giant robot. We end with a little glimpse at the second arc but the majority of the film is the first. We see Kenji’s slow growth into a hero. We get Yukiji being awesome. There is a good mixture of humor, action, and mostly importantly, detective work. Sure Shogun had more chances to be bad arse in the manga but we captured all his crowning moments of awesome and that is awesome. Over all a fun movie with a huge explosive cliff hanger ending. It certainly leaves you on the edge of your seat waiting for the next film.

I went into the 20th Century Boys movies having only read a little bit of the manga. I was pleasantly surprised to find it very pulpy and a bit tongue-in-cheek at moments. Though it admittedly gave me chills in certain revealing moments of the mystery. The cast was nicely picked, atleast for the characters I knew, each one exuding their mannerisms and subtle characteristics from the series. Kenji is such a down to earth character, he is truly a very average guy caught in in the most out of the ordinary circumstances. As for the characters I didn’t know yet, I was thoroughly engrossed in them, especially the awesome Shogun! Just as the characters in the film are frustrated by the memory that is nagging at the back of their minds, so do you the audience feel as if the answer is right in front of you but you can’t quite make it out. This first film was a great ride with much twisting and turning, humor, and chilling mystery.

Part two takes off 15 years after after the disastrous Bloody New Year’s Eve. We find a teenage Kana living in a world where Friend is a hero and a major political force in the world. Just like her uncle before her, Kana is quickly embroiled in Friend’s latest horrifying plans. Can she stop Friend from assassinating the Pope before Friend’s numerous minions can kill her first? Can she learn who Friend is and what he actually wants? And what happened to everyone who stood up against Friend on that fateful night so many years ago? The addition of Detective Chouno is the sort of understanding but goofy character Urasawa likes to put in his manga. Also, I like Kyoko and her main purpose to be the overreaction girl. All and all both movies were an excellent adaptation of the 24 volume manga series thus far. I could nit-pick about what they decided to leave out or change but I felt that both movies captured the spirit of all the major events of the manga. With a series that long things will inevitably have to be cut, condensed, and changed. They frequently condensed several revelations that would come over the course of the series into one big revelation. The casting was exceptional; most of the characters were as if they jumped right from the page.

After that incredible cliff-hanger in the first film the second one couldn’t start soon enough! Since there is a jump in time the movie doesn’t give you all you need to know creating mounting suspense and speculation in your mind as the story continues with a relatively changed cast. Kana is quite different from her uncle Kenji if only because of the world she is currently growing up in but mostly because of her history. Her almost uncanny sharing of her past with the police officer Chouno rings quite false which really took me out of the film. But the actual character isn’t a bad addition considering his connections to the past as well. The ending once again has some startling implications that make waiting for the final film quite agonizing. The second installment of the 20th Century Boys trilogy feels very different from the first and also doesn’t really get its legs until about halfway through. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I didn’t like it, but I definitely found the first part to be superior in not only its story telling but also in the characters that it centered around.

We decided to see Be a Man! Samurai School on a whim, seriously with a title like that can you resist, and it turned out a bunch of people we knew had the same idea. We ended up in a theater with a bevy of bloggers from: Ogiue Maniax, Subatomic Brainfreeze, Anime Almanac, datacomp, and Omonomono. I was unaware until reading the program guide of its manga roots. Either way I was hoping for some ridiculous and funny fighting action and Otokojuku didn’t disappoint! The films starts off with Togashi being hit by a car while running through the woods. He is more distraught by the pretty girl driving the car than actually being hit because he can’t be late for Samurai School! The rest of the film moves between scenes like this with goofy moments and scenes of awesome fighting. One of the great things, boasted by the director before and after, is the lack of using special effects making some fights like the cliff scene even cooler. There is nothing to dislike about Be a Man! Samurai School it delivers exactly what it promises.

I was tempted to just make the review of this movie the kanji for man in a bold red font at 132 point type but decided instead to write an actual review. Be a Man! Samurai School is based on the Shonen Jump manga Sakigake!! Otokojuku. It is the story of private school that makes boys into TRUE JAPANESE MEN through the harshest male cheer-leading curriculum you will ever bear witness to. The movie follows the new freshman class as they deal with insane instructors, brutal upperclassmen, and demonic rivals bent on destroying the school and all of its students. Momotaro Tsurugi, Genji Togashi, and Ryuji Toramaru work on trying to be the manliest men ever where as Hidemaro Gokukouji slowly tries to transform himself from meek and mousy to self-confident and unbreakable. Apparently it is a brief overview of the highlights of the beginning of the manga done as well as anyone could dream. Everyone’s favorite part was without a doubt the scenes where Shigeru Chiba from Fist of the North Star narration fame (and to a lesser extent Hayate narration fame) would cry out and then explain any techniques used by characters and any special events in the movie. Overall this is a fun movie that mixes fun action with hysterical comedy. Before the movie were were treated to a awesome little mock sword duel by the director and one of the stunt men and they were gracious enough to do a little Q&A after the movie as well.

It was somewhat crazy getting in and out of Lala Pipo. Apparently there was the Heritage of Pride March and Parade before I got to the theater so the was a tremendous crowd surrounding it despite the fact that the parade was long over. Also it was Yani Mentzas’ (of Vertical Inc.) birthday I got to see the man of the hour himself, as well as Ed Chavez, super intern Ko, and Erin and Noah from the Ninja Consultants. The movie itself is a black comedic look at the lewd nightlife of Shibuya and a series of depraved failures. Lala Pipo is the Japanese Magnolia with two extra spoonfuls of perversion. We have everyone from a overweight freelance writer who talks to his penis, to a charming but sleazy sex trade recruiter, to a woman who falls in love with the sex trade recruiter, to a sexually charged wannabe Tokusatsu hero, to a house wife who does porno. All their lives are interconnected and yet extremely isolated and lonely by their own design or madness. Normally realistic fiction type movies like this don’t really interest me but the humor really makes it enjoyable despite its depressing and often brutal subject matter. There are some rather surreal scenes but they are always for laughs and almost always exceptionally funny. After the movie we went out from some drinks and pleasant conversation putting me home around 3AM but it was well worth it.

Cape No. 7 was the only non-Japanese film I went to see this year. It was the biggest film in Taiwan in 2008 actually becoming the highest grossing film of all time in the country. The film is a quirky music and romance dramady set in a small seaside town. There are many interconnected stories of love going on involving the eccentric townspeople. The main one surrounds Aga who has recently come home after failing to make a break in music in Taipei. After being roped into a job as a mailman he comes across a package with an undeliverable address. Instead of returning the box to the post office, he opens it and finds a series of old love letters. Simultaneously, Tomoko is working for an entertainment agency that insists she stay in the tiny town and help manage the local opening band for an upcoming summer concert. As their paths cross, it causes both of them to access their past failures, find positivity in the world, and of course learn about love. The entire cast is very entertaining and punctuated the slow main romance with silly and sweet love moments of their own. All of this culminates in a great musical performance. This movie ran a bit hot and cold for me. It was kind of a rollercoaster of how I would feel from one scene to the next. This happened less at about the halfway point when some issues were resolved. And the ending was one that I am such a sucker for: positive, happy, people coming together. Overall, it was a good experience.

Overall I enjoyed all four movies I saw so I consider my time at the New York Asian Film Festival as time very well spent. Also it once again gave me a chance to talk to some other anime bloggers and podcasters. Subatomic Brainfreeze also looked at some of the splatter house films that we did not go see if anyone was curious. As always his wright ups are fun looks into what ever he experiences. I am very much looking forward to seeing what selection of movies they have next year.

This year’s film fest was well run and seemingly went on without a hitch. We only attended screenings at the IFC so I can’t comment on the set up at the Japan Society. Each screening had a giveaway before hand often being administered by a very hyper, fast-talking man. I actually ended up winning a t-shirt at the screen of Cape No. 7. Also, I may look into getting some of their special screening passes next year if the selection is just as varied. Since an event like this is quite out of the norm, I couldn’t recommend it more. Take advantage of your location and go to the NYAFF next year if you didn’t attend this year!

Top 5 Anime/Manga I would like to see made into a live action movie
5. Any Macross Series
4. Dennou Coil
3. Hayate the Combat Butler!
2. Master Keaton
1. Turn A Gundam

Posted in Action, Comedy, Detectives, Drama, Events, Favored Topics, Live Action, Reviews, Romance, Science Fiction, Screenings Tagged: 20th Century Boys, Be a Man! Samurai School, Cape No. 7, Lala Pipo, New York Asian Film Festival, Taiwanese cinema ]]> http://reversethieves.com/2009/07/13/new-york-asian-film-festival-2009/feed/ 2 reversethieves http://reversethieves.com/2009/05/06/special-screening-l-change-the-world-a-12-year-olds-bad-fan-fiction/ http://reversethieves.com/2009/05/06/special-screening-l-change-the-world-a-12-year-olds-bad-fan-fiction/#comments Wed, 06 May 2009 11:03:18 +0000 reversethieves http://www.reversethieves.com/2009/05/06/special-screening-l-change-the-world-a-12-year-olds-bad-fan-fiction/ ]]>

SPOILERS, SPOILERS. TRUST ME YOU DON’T CARE.

Since it went over so well last time, we saw the film at the same place we watched the second Death Note movie. Once again not too crowded, though more so than when we went the other time. I didn’t go into this movie with many expectations, I had heard and read a bit about it before hand. Though frankly it would be hard for me NOT to go see a movie all about L. So with only mild hopes I braced myself for this film. Somehow the reviews didn’t do the movie justice. It was much worse than I could have imagined, it may have physically injured me at points. The only thing that prevented me from plain giving up on it was that I committed myself to writing this review! How dare you film, how dare you make me write a word against L!

W.C. Fields said, “Never work with animals or children.” L, or should I say Kenichi Matsuyama, should have listened to him. The fact an L movie was being made was hardly a surprise to anyone. He was clearly the most popular character hands down. They had the prefect place to add in one last hurrah before his ultimate end. When I first heard about the movie I was cautiously optimistic. L has to solve his last case against terrorists with a super plague having only a few days left to live. Sounds fine. Then I heard it was a stupid action movie. I was fine with that. Although L was almost always playing mental games in the manga, they also made a big deal that he was amazingly physically fit and even a martial arts master. I thought that people went into the movie expecting another mind game but got a cheesy action movie and were overly harsh. No they were overly generous. Everything that could make a movie bad was bad in this lemon of a movie. When my favorite original character was a vehicle you know you are in trouble. And before you ask it was not a cool talking car.

After catching Kira by writing his own name in the Death Note, L is only left with 23 days to live. L spends his remaining days solving all the unclosed cases he can. During this blaze of glory, a young girl and a small boy get L involved with a terrorist group that plan to cleanse the earth of wicked humans to save the environment with a super virus. L must protect the unnamed boy who survived the destruction of his village by the virus and the girl named Maki Nikaido whose father had developed the antidote. After her fathers destroys the only working antidote, the terrorists must get Maki for their plans to succeed.

I wasn’t looking for another Death Note like case, but I can imagine that some people were so they went with something world threatening again. This is where my understanding for choices in this film stops. The plot just keeps running along making no sense. It also doesn’t utilize L for any real reason, he uses almost no logic to solve things. Worse is that he does things and you wonder, “How in the hell did he know that?” which he does in the other works, but he explains how he knew. Here there is none of that. How did L know where Maki was when she ran away? Why did he build that small magnetic device? He is just psychic apparently. Also calling this an action movie is laughable. I too would have accepted, L Secret Agent, but that doesn’t happen either. I think Kenichi’s comment in the extras was rather telling of what was going on. He basically said they wanted him to be a different L than his vision of him in the first two films. So he did his best to compromise but keep L true to form. Kenichi was not the problem with this film, that is for sure. Throwing in the random action scenes didn’t help either. Especially when they make no sense, like in the first one where the helicopter just stops shooting for 5 minutes so the little boy can escape. Or in the final airplane scenes where the terrorists switch from gung-ho to timid and back again at the drop of a hat. P.S. How did L have a bag full of the anti-dote when but moments before he was asking the doctor to make as much as he can? It would have been better if they had given up on trying to make this plot work and just had L sitting in his lair. Possibly the best part, and most indicative of what I would want to see in the last 23 days of L, is when he solves a giant stack of cases from agencies all over the world in a day.

They couldn’t have tried harder to make a worse bunch of original characters. They team up L with kids for most of the movie. Making child characters enjoyable and authentic is obviously a challenge this movie was not up for. The little boy that falls into L’s care is mostly annoying or silent and never anywhere in between. Maki is slightly better since she is older but is sill irritating. They are mainly there to bond with L and bring out his humanity and other such sappiness. Go away. Then about half way through the film they introduce a random FBI agent, Hideaki Suruga, out of nowhere. He literally just bumps into them in a scene that is extremely out of place and then proceeds to do next to nothing. The crew of villains is a rouges gallery of mediocrity. Kira was a good villain if sometimes comically hammy. Misa Misa was at least fun to hate for being one of the most horrible female characters ever. These guys are not even worth the bile. I knew Daisuke Matoba that the guy with scarred eye was going to kill the professor that started the terrorist group because you never give a guy an eye scar like that and them not have him in the rest of the movie. Other than that he was mostly there to be angry and kick stuff like a petulant child when their plans were foiled. The other villain that is (not?) worth mentioning is, Hatsune Misawa, the ax crazy girl. While everyone else has guns, for some reason she insists on using knives to kill everyone. Theoretically this could lead to some cool action scenes but it comes off more comical than anything else. All the other terrorists are just lame and bland. The biggest crime of the cast is most of them are UTTERLY unimportant. You could have cut the cast by 3/4 by just combining characters together or eliminating them and been fine. The only likable new character was the Angel Crepe truck. Apparently L’s mobile office is a tricked out Crepe truck. It’s sad the truck has more character than the human cast.

For some reason we spend a good 50% of the time with other characters. If you’re making an L movie because he is so darn popular, put him in it more! None of these newbies are interesting, especially the kids. I would rather L have gotten an animal sidekick in this film! What they add to this film is awkward and annoying in equal amounts. The constant bonding scenes of L with these children are just plain weird, which possibly makes since because L is awkward. However, it’s the children that come off as the weirdos. Running around, screaming, crying, randomly doing things. L as Mister Mom was not exactly the movie I was hoping for. Other side characters include: some doctors, one of which is killed in a most hysterically cheesy horror movie death scene; a total Matsuda ripoff, and for the love of Gackt I can’t figure out why anyone would want to do that since Matsuda offers nothing either; and K, who if you couldn’t figure out from the opening credits was going to be the main villain because, that’s right, her initial is K. Let me just mention that they guy with the eye scar, I couldn’t look at him without thinking about the villain in Casino Royale.

Oh, what went wrong with this movie? There are blanket problems: huge plot holes, corny dialog, boring action scenes, bad pacing, poorly developed characters, and just plain irrational character decisions. Why does Maki’s dad know to destroy the antidote before the terrorists arrive? Why does L instantly trust the FBI guy for no adequately explained reason. Then they are just all the silly moments. The part where Daisuke Matoba decides to go into his apparent magic murder box a whips out a knife to kill his boss. Also Maki’s father finally dies after infecting himself with the virus when they hit the “Give him a Highlander style Quickening death” button. Also L’s two major actions scenes are major lame sauce. So they even messed up the one thing that could have saved the film from being an utter disaster.

At the end there are extras, these were probably the best extras of all three films which is kind of ironic. Though I wanted to smack the English voice actor for L as he tried to imitate L for some God forsaken reason. You sir are not Kenichi, just stop! Other than that they have a good amount of Kenichi talking about what its been like playing L. He rather touchingly says that L has been a big part of his life that he won’t ever forget. Also it has some behind the scenes footage and talking with the director. This movie didn’t have to be bad . . . terrible . . . painful. The biggest mistake was taking the focus off of L. Which seems like a stupid mistake considering the reason it was made was because everyone loves L. Essentially this film has all the oddities of L (like his posture, his eating habits, etc.) but lacks the inner spirit of L. It comes off as a caricature of L and not the authentic thing. It’s a rather tragic end to the live action movies as I think the other two are very, very good.

The funny thing is there is nothing wrong with any individual piece of the movie in theory. However, everything in the movie is so poorly executed it is a train wreck from start to finish. This movie fails on almost every level possible but I must go out of my way to mention its greatest crime is a crime of omission (which is quite an accomplishment considering how much they did wrong.) L hardly does any detective work and does not solve a single puzzle on his own. I would have easily accepted L running around being a ninja secret agent as long as they had him use his brain as much as his body. But he does next to nothing. He mostly stands around while things unfold around him. He very occasionally steers things toward the correct conclusion.  All the major puzzles are solved by other characters which is sort of against the general concept of L. They should have just animated the Death Note novel. That would have been worth watching. This is not even worth bringing up.

I saw some of the art from March on Earth at New York Comic Con and was instantly struck by its adorable quality. I resolved to pick it up instantly. The story follows Yuzu who is the sole guardian for her nephew after the untimely death of her sister (who had been caring for Yuzu after the death of their parents). So we aren’t starting out on the happiest of moments and the story is mostly a series of her trails through caring for a young child. Most of the comedy comes from the neighboring family who she often spends time with. The older son is hilariously in love with Yuzu and is constantly acting like a lovesick loon at an attempt to get her attention. It was a decent start but almost every chapter is about the same thing, the bond between her and her deceased sister, how she will stay strong, etc. and sometimes using the exact same dialogue and scenes to convey this. WE GET IT ALREADY. It comes off clunky and its most entertaining parts aren’t at the heart of the story.

I finished Tower of Druaga: The Sword of Uruk and came away with an overall positive reaction. I always enjoyed the comedy episodes more than the adventure ones but they were still well done. Certain aspects of the conclusion sort of came out of nowhere but maybe I was just not paying attention. Also I was never quite clear on what Succubus’ deal was. None of that is really super important though. They weren’t giant plot holes but I wish they had fleshed out more. I can’t say that any part of Tower of Druaga was especially unique but it was all entertaining. If you need a modern hit of fantasy adventure and did not mind some humor thrown into the mix this was the show to watch. It avoided the Gonzo curse of a horrible ending and that is what counts. I am definitely getting this Fatina figure because it is hot, plus it might help get me an Ahmey figure.

Picked up the third volume of Two Flowers for the Dragon and it continues to weave a wonderful story with romance, mystery, and action! I love the world they are creating and don’t expect for every piece of the story to have a conclusion. Some major plot threads are revealed however in this volume including as some of Lucien’s memories come to the surface and we find out some of what has been going on with Sakuya’s father. The love rivalry heats up as well though I feel the choice is obvious. Still they could surprise me I suppose. Another top notch volume in this series. Can’t wait for the final book in a couple of weeks!

Because I am a huge Rumiko Takahashi I have to comment on her newest series that is getting a simultaneous release in the U.S. and Japan, Rin-Ne. The simple one sentence summary is Rumiko Takahashi does Bleach. Sakura Mamiya can see ghosts after a incident as a child but has generally done everything she can to ignore this fact. One day a red-headed student named Rin-ne Rokudo comes who not only can see ghosts but can help them move on with his shinigami powers. He winds up exorcising a ghost that is harassing Sakura for an about $5.50 which he seems to think is a kings ransom. Overall I was amused and intrigued by the story. We only really meet the two main characters and in Takahashi manga the supporting cast is just as important as the main. Though no plot has been introduced, I doubt it’s going to be random school hijinks. I laughed at several of the jokes and that is all I ask from a Takahashi manga. One thing of note to Narutaki is that Sakura and Rin-ne seem to be cordial with each other. There is no Ranma/Akane or Inuyasha/Kagome fighting. They seem more perplexed with each other than anything else. The online viewer played fine for me, was easy to read, and seemed decently translated. If other companies do simultaneous releases of manga I hope they are done this well.

Saw the live action film Tokyo Sonata by director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. It is the tale of a seemingly typical Japanese family: salaryman father, stay-at-home mother, high school age son, and elementary age son. But as the preview suggests, they are really not so typical and kind of imply the idea that maybe everyone who seems normal isn’t. The film starts with the dad losing his job which starts the ball rolling as the family breaks apart, changes, and comes to an understanding over the course of two hours. There are moments of introspection and there are moments of dark comedy, it was interesting ride that I would recommend to others.

Since the whole point of the Picture of the Week is to cater to my fetishes I present:

I finally bought Rocket Girls, I have been contemplating it for a while. I have watched the first half of the show so far (six episodes) and couldn’t be happier! It is really a delightful little show with a good blend of comedy, space, and friendship. At one point I felt Yukari was getting annoyingly demanding but they reigned her in pretty quickly. It is great to see the two girls have their strengths and help one another on the mission. They have yet to really introduce the third girl, although we did glimpse her in the beginning. Sure the premise of taking high school girls and training them to be astronauts is out there, but who cares! It is fun. And I haven’t found the show to be fetishy. The animation is rather nicely done. Oh and it also has a great opening!

Tentai Senshi Sunred is still funny is it’s dry wit even on episode 13. The fact that Vamp is a considerably more likable and decent guy than Sunred is a delightful little detail. I also have been enjoying the other branch leader of Florsheim who is a porn fiend. The evil animal force is also usually really good whenever they show up. I have to say the odd mixture of the real wold and the sentai world is in the right proportions to make even very mundane things quite funny. I am curious if anyone who reads the blog has tried out any of Vamp’s recipes. They are rather simple so I might try one myself.

Read the conclusion to The Girl Who Ran Through Time manga, which was only 2 books long. It was certainly much different than her niece’s story in The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. This is a great thing since it makes both piece worth learning about, however the shortness of the manga really left some questions. Especially since the other time mover in the books has very different motives for his actions. I also didn’t find the semi-love-triangle in the manga as engaging as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time’s. A good read but left me wanting more, like the actual novel. Also made me want to watch The Girl Who Leapt Through Time again but that feeling probably would have manifested anyway.

I saw Nana Mizuki’s Live Fighter on Blue-Ray. It was a two day concert and the first day was the Blue concert and the second day was the Red concert. They both had similar song selections with a few differences on each day as well as different costumes. Nana Mizuki is definitely a cute woman with an attractive singing voice. I have to say that Japanese concerts can be extremely flashy with a good amount of production value. Nana flies through the air during her first song and is suspended in the air on a garden seat in the middle of the concert. In fact there is almost always something going on. There is a rock battle in the middle of the concert, a Blue Man Group style performance, and children acting as cheerleaders during one song. She also has a stage set up to walk into the crowd and perform. I liked her main Red outfit because her Blue one was this hideous blue and white sailor getup. There was also some behind the scene footage that would have meant much more to me if I understood Japanese. The concert didn’t turn me into a Ota-gei but I enjoyed it. I would like to thank Moy for letting me come over to his house and see the concert on his totally sweet set up. He is going to be running a contest so you can win the DVDs some time in the future so that is worth looking into.

I was initially attracted to Love Round!! because of the cute cover and back color artwork. Hinako Takanaga has a nice style that translates well from her color pieces to her line art. This BL story seems less typical that what I have encountered so far. Our two boys, Kubo and Kaoru, run into each other on the street. Kaoru knocks Kubo, who is training to be a boxer, out with one punch after he makes an off hand remark. Kubo eventually convinces Kaoru to join the same boxing gym as him, and thus love begins to blossom. Kaoru may have a pretty face but he is feisty and has a short temper thanks to constantly being teased for his looks. Kubo is hilariously blunt and naive despite being a powerhouse boxer. Their relationship is fraught with funny misunderstandings, a knockout meter, and moments of laugh out loud commentary. Not surprisingly boxing and the gym are merely back drops for the developing feelings between these two. This short one book is a lot of fun and has some really cute moments amidst the calamity. There is only one medium graphic sex scene to top off the ending. Love Round!! is the first BL manga that I am keeping for myself after reading it. There is a nice preview of it up, too!

And because it is so lushly animated I had to pick a Tentai Senshi Sunred picture this week. A scene of domestic bliss:

With the love-love that is nigh palpable from Narutaki, there was no way were going to miss the big screen showing of the second Death Note movie. Instead of going to the theater in Union Square we went to Clearview’s Chelsea which was significantly less crowded. If they continue to get anime movies at that theater, I think I will go there from now on. It was a nice place and they had an awesome waffle shop across the street. I myself had some good chai bubble tea. There was a closed shop called Burgers and Cupcakes which I am sure could have been saved by Narutaki if only he knew of its existence before.

Wow, what a big difference between two theaters that are just a few blocks from each other. Our experience at Union Square, while not sold out, was still packed and we were stuck with crummy seats. This was a whole other story, sadly there were only about 10 to 15 people besides us at the screening. However, compared to the number of people in total at this theater that night, that doesn’t seem like bad numbers. The theater was really nice and clean, I will definitely be picking this place over Union Square.

The first Death Note movie ended with L and Light meeting face to face for the first time. The second movie then takes the remaining books and and combines them into 1 movie. This means a whole bunch of extraneous characters, plot lines, and one very controversial plot point got the ax. We get a greater disparity between the movies and the manga than the first movie. I know this leads to some rather strong opinions towards either the manga or the movies.

While the first movie was different from the manga, it still kept some of the major plot lines and interwove them just a bit differently. The second movie starts pushing it in a very different direction. Where the manga stumbles through some of its shifting plot, the movie removes altogether. Afterall, there is only this one movie to wrap up the story so inevitably a lot of things will go missing. To create a solid ending for a series like this in just 2 hours was a challenge that was handled really well.

The movie begins with Misa Misa gaining her own Death Note and becoming the second Kira. L tries to prove that Light is in fact Kira while also trying to catch the second Kira. Light is as always trying to kill L and mold the world to his vision. The plot then follows the manga in a condensed manner up until the Yotsuba Arc. We get a thankfully short version of the arc and deals with one other new Kira. Of course, no Death Note adaptation would be complete without the most infamous line in the series, “exactly as planned.”

The cast carries over from the first film and that is much to its credit. These actors, especially Kenichi Matsuyama, really brought great things to these characters in the first film and continue at the same pace here. You read an in-depth view in our review of the first movie. But we have a few new additions to discuss, namely Misa Amane, Rem, and Kiyomi Takada. Misa starts off our tale and follows rather closesly to her path. Light proves how easily he can manipulate women though never to the misogynistic extent of the manga. Kiyomi is sort of a mish-mash of characters from the manga. She helps exhibit that desire for power present in Light but not seen in Misa. I thought she did an excellent job portraying how easily one can fall into it. The character also solidified my feelings that Light, while a genius, doesn’t have ideals that are new or even unique.

The original Kiyomi Takada from the manga was Light’s girlfriend in college that eventually becomes Kira’s mouth piece as a news announcer. In the movie she is an aspiring news anchor who is a closet Kira supporter. She eventually becomes more involved with the Death Note due to Light’s schemes. Kiyomi Takada works fine in her role. I can’t say that she was extraordinarily gripping but I don’t think she was supposed to be. She is supposed to be a person who feels she has grand designs but really just has very petty schemes especially compared to the machinations of Light and L. Misa Misa is now is now fully integrated into the movie so her full force of annoying is apparent but thankfully has a shortened appearance. Less Misa Misa is always better. Rem is generally the same as she was in the manga but they never make note that Rem is in fact female.

The dub as per the first film makes people giggle at inopportune times. Though Ryuk didn’t seem nearly as out of control. Once again we talked a bit about this in the first film review. Everyone basically stays on target. Though I always miss not hearing Kenichi’s voice just because I like him so much.

I don’t really think about dubs anymore being a subtitle person. I don’t hate them but I just don’t think I pay attention. Therefore someone has to stand out as being really good or really bad for me to notice. The Death Note dub did not have anyone standing out for better or worse. I, like Narutaki, did notice that people were sometimes laughing at the wrong times but it was not anything that negatively effected my viewing experience. Then again I wonder if I really notice anyone being anything other than extraordinary for better or worse in Japanese.

Well, thank goodness someone realized how crappy the extras for the first movie were. They certainly stepped it up a notch with this release and had the actors talking about their roles and working together. It also had some fun scenes of each one performing their final lines for the film and then being given flowers!

I also think the directors insights into the movie were a little more interesting because he was doing more than simply adapting the manga. He was making it his own. It was interesting to see what all the principal actors thought of their roles.

A lot of things about this shorter version appealed to me. Biggest of which was the intensity, the manga became so enormous that it couldn’t hold on to that edge. It started to become too sensational, but with the movie you stayed glued exactly as long as a person can. L also always stays a focus, as he should. He is the perfect foil to Kira and the only one suitable for this life or death game with Light. Plus, strangely, I don’t have enough time to hate Misa in the movie because she is never there for any exorbitant amount of time bumbling things. And if you couldn’t guess it has the ending as I always wanted it.

The Death Note movies are the definitive version of Death Note for me. The second movie takes the best of the middle and end of the manga and condenses it into a climatic ending. The director has the ability to use 20/20 hindsight and take the best while tossing away the chaff.  I felt the manga went on for far too long due to its popularity and lost much of its focus in the middle.  The movies also have the ending that I feel a majority of fans wanted from the start. I know it has the ending I much prefer. You could say they basically ended up in the same place but I feel both conclusions leave a different taste in your mouth.

Top 5 L quirks
5. No shoes
4. Great tennis player
3. How he holds a phone
2. Making pastry shish-kebabs
1. Crouched sitting position

Birdy the Mighty Decode

I have to say I was shocked to see Birdy the Mighty getting any sort of continuation. I remember the original OVA fondly though I would like to watch it again since that was ages ago. However, you don’t need to see that since this show starts at the beginning. Birdy is a butt-kicking agent for the Space Federation but when she comes to Earth she accidentally kills a human, Tsutomu. The only way to keep him alive is by combining their bodies. Tsutomu is calm and quite and Birdy is loud and out of control. The show is light space action, hinting at an overall plot, and comedy. It doesn’t seem overly perverted (which is very easily where a show like this could go) so I hope it stays that way. It is a fun show and entertaining but not by any stretch of the imagination an amazing new show.

The original Birdy the Mighty is a curiosity to me. I never saw it but it seemed like one of those shows that was always for rent at any video store with an anime section in it. So I have always been aware of the series but I have oddly enough never seen it. If nothing else this show is very 90s in it’s style. The animation is clearly modern but I feel the direction and the story is more a throw back to the 90s. I think this show is best for fans of the original or anyone who likes that time periods style of action anime. It’s definitely a fun show and I will continue to watch it is as a fun and light 90s action show with a slight nod to modern style aesthetics.

Yakushiji Ryoko no Kaiki Jikenbo

I did not realize that this was a supernatural detective series until I looked up the translation of the title shortly before I watched the anime. It seems like a police drama where the two detectives solve cases with a supernatural twist. Apparently Ryoko is the person to go to in the police department when you want a case solved that deals with the unexplainable. Ryoko and her partner Izumi seem to have master servant relationship with Ryoko clearly being in charge but I am glad to see that they both seem equally competent in detective work and being able to protect themselves. She also seems to have a rival on the force with a similar relationship to her partner. I think this is the show this season for people who want a more adult mystery anime.

This show melds detective with a mature, sexy woman. While I thought it had some pacing issues, it overall kept a quick transition. I liked how we are dropped into the story knowing that our duo have been working supernatural cases for a while. It does seem that the unknown is combined with hard evidence. Ryouko’s eccentricities are cause for humor and awe as she drags her faithful assistant around the city in search of clues and shopping!

Here is Greenwood (Live Action)

If you don’t love Here is Greenwood, then you haven’t haven’t read the manga or watched the OVA! And here it is in a new form, live action. I think this is a show that you will love if you already know the show, but I would recommend jumping in with the earlier renditions if you’ve never experienced it before. It has the antics and comedy prevalent in Greenwood. The show establishes the personalities of our four main guys quickly and efficiently. It also has a dorm full of cute guys! And this particular time slot in Japan touts half hour episodes.

I remember Here is Greenwood fondly for several reasons. Most important being it’s the first shojo anime I ever saw. This seems a particularly accurate and faithful live action adaptation of the manga. They have a good deal of the scenes that stand out in my mind including the first time with meet the motorcycle otaku carrying around his bike, or when we first meet Kazuya’s sister-in-law, or when we discover Shun’s secret. Speaking of Shun’s secret I know that it is hard to find a guy who can act and still pass for a woman when cross dressing and I think they do a satisfactory but flawed job in their casting. The actor they got was decent but it some scenes and looks like a girl but in other scenes he is quite obviously a man in drag. I am curious to see which storylines from the manga they adapt, to see how funny “Here is Devilwood” is, and to see the last story line’s adaptation.

Antique Bakery

Antique Bakery is a slice of life show about four men running a bakery. This show is a healing anime with a gay character in it but many people feel that this is very light BL show. I don’t think that just because a BL author writes something with a gay character in it’s not automatically BL. Gay characters are valid characters in shows outside of BL. Antique Bakery reminds me of The Bartender with a pastry shop instead of a bar. The basic formula seems to be that a customer comes into the shop and through interacting with the employees comes to solve some problem in their life. These types of shows are made for people who want to come home after a hard day of work and see an uplifting, calm tale with some pastry porn on the side. There seems to be an overarching plot about the owner’s kidnapping as a child but it is mainly meant to be an episodic show.

I really loved the way the opening was done, just something fun and different. It has an easy pace, could be very sitcom like. But overall it just didn’t grab me in any way. There is nothing innately wrong with it but it certainly doesn’t have a hook like normal shows. Everything seems to move in a subdued manner, but that seems to be the idea.

Chocolate Underground

Wow, so these episodes are short but not definite lengths, some were around 3 minutes while another was almost 5. But they have been able to make me curious is that short span. These two kids live in a crazy place where chocolate had been outlawed (along with anything else that is bad for you). But rumor has it there are chocolate bootleggers with secret stores of chocolate. That certainly peaked their interests and they set off to find it. I love the sense of adventure and mystery found in young adult literature! This series felt serious and fun at the same time. And look at those two boys. Aren’t they adorable? And their shared crush on the girl at the bakery is very cute, too. I will be watching.

Chocolate Underground is based on the British novel Bootleg by Alex Shearer. Chocolate Underground is an ONA that means it is an anime primarily released on the Internet. It’s not the first ONA but it is the first I have watched. Overall it’s rather cute. The episodes are rather well paced fro being so short. Each one feels like a chapter from a book. Which might actually be the case. I feel opening scene with the special forces team with the armored mech to bust a couple eating chocolate in their home is rather extreme. The whole chocolate ban is a deft social commentary in a rather sweet coating.

Slayers Revolution

This had to be the biggest surprise of the year! New Slayers? Don’t lie to me.I couldn’t believe it. Though I think there is a whole generation of fans that have not watched Slayers, so I wonder what their reaction to the series will be. The relationships between characters is already established so it could throw off first timers. However, I was delighted, everything was harkening back to the original. Even the way the title of the episode was introduced.

Look. It’s very simple. Give me more Zelgadis and Amelia in generous amounts and I am generally sold on your show. I’m sure that otaku are happy for the return of Megumi Hayashibara as Lina if nothing else. And I think that old school Slayers fans will be happy. This was not made for new viewers. There is little to no effort made to get people up to speed. You are assumed to know and love these characters and are just waiting to see what trouble they are going to find themselves in next. Overall it’s an excellent return to the Slayers formula. There is the trademark humor in full force and a decent amount of action as well. Everyone is in perfect form. As long as they don’t mess up like they did with the end of Slayers Try this should be fun.

Natsume Yuujinchou

The one line pitch for Natsume Yuujinchou would be XXXholic meets Mushishi. We have a young man who can see spirits but does not want to who is takes up the mantle of dealing with the wide variety of local spirits. Natsume’s relationship with his spirit cat friend seems slightly odd but interesting enough that I want to see how it develops. So far the spirits presented have not been too dangerous but there have been hints that this will not always be the case. The cat spirit has a powerful form reminiscent of Amaterasu from Oakmi so I assume he will be the muscle. I am curious if Natsume will ever get any combat power or will he continue to use his wits to solve his problems. Natsume’s grandmother reminds me of Tohru Honda’s mom which means she is the selling point for this series. ;-)

It seems like every season there is one show that emotionally hooks me in the first episode. This time around it was Natsume Yuujinchou. Sometimes I can’t quite put my finger on how they did it. All I know is that I was really sad to hear the story of that Ayakashi. I am curious to see how all the names made it into the book. And I also laughed a whole lot, the cat is too funny! And I love his voice. Enjoyable first episode and I will be getting the next as soon as possible.

Blade of the Immortal

It is dangerous to have high hopes sometimes. I have been a BotI fan since it first started coming out in English, I never thought it would ever become an anime. Hiroki Samura’s art style is very complex and sketchy so I wasn’t sure how it was going to translate on screen. But lo and behold everyone looks like themselves just super smooth. The first episode is basically faithful to the first chapter with the addition of showing a little of Ren and oddly adding in Hyakurin who doesn’t show up till much later. But I can appreciate them trying to get all the major players established considering the time restraints. The fight at the end was not anything special unfortunately, though I think it still serves the purpose of showing Maji is a crazy bad-ass. But I thought this could be a moment to shine and really show this series is full of messed up stuff and people getting chopped in two. They did have, what becomes sort of iconic in the manga, Manji carrying around his lost limbs though. The opening was also really adult and intense, very nice. That what the show needs to be. I think I’ll have to watch a few more to really decide if it is going in a good direction.

The manga of Blade of the Immortal has a very distinct art style. So much in fact that the rumor was that the author never let the series be animated before this because he never felt anyone could capture the unique artistry of his manga. The character designs are simplified from the manga but I don’t think that you could ever get the budget to animate Blade of the Immortal’s original character designs on a TV budget. They even go out of their way to reproduce the elaborate death portraits important characters get when they die from the original manga. It looks like they are going out of their way to capture the mature feeling of the manga which will definitely help sell this in the American market. Kagimura Habaki and Kagehisa Anotsu also appear earlier than they appear in the manga as well. It is an odd choice to have certain characters show up so early but I can’t really I really fault them for it. The choice that perplexed me the most was the random modern city imagery in the opening, closing, and eyes catches quite bizarre since the story takes place around 1782. I know people are going to take this show to town because it’s animated by Bee Train but other than the Bee Train signature of having an extremely in your face back background music score everything seems fine. I will reserve my final judgment for a few more episodes but so far it gets my thumbs up.

Shibatora (Live Action)

I was originally looking into this show because Koike Teppei is the star! If you have seen the Lovely Complex movie, you might recognize him. Anyway, I think he is a very cute and playful actor. This show is based on a manga by the same name, it combines comedy with drama and a bit of a sentimental element. Shibatora is working to be a detective but he has a naive and innocent face and sports some mad Kendo skills. It has a long list of wacky characters that add to Shibatora’s mostly serious personality. The show overall was fun and pulled me into the characters. Though there are moments that seemed off pace. Like during the dramatic climax there is a comedic moment but it was not seemlessly done, in fact I was laughing from it’s odd placement. And also Shibatora’s ability to sense when death is near seems frivolous and pointless, luckily this doesn’t come up too often. Lastly, the theme is done by Every Little Thing which is totally awesome!

Shibatora seems like a fun show in which the editor made the author throw in the supernatural part for no particular reason. It seems to be there to get him involved with the characters but he already has a reason to be trying to help people. He is a cop. It might be a good hook if Shibatora was not a detective but it just seems tacked on. I might also call it lazy story telling but Shibatora always has to do detective work after he gets a psychic insight. It’s never simply a case of deus ex machina. Other than that it is a fun Japanese cop drama. Shibatora and his friends at the clothing shop have a fun dynamic and Shibatora is a cute likeable character. I also really loved that his boss has a office in the middle of the basement. I want a secret base in the police department, too. They seem to really like to beat up poor Shibatora because he gets quite a bit of damage done to him during this episode.

World Destruction

This is an anime based on a video game (or rather they are both coming out at once) and therefore it stinks and therefore I am going to be snarky for the rest of this preview. Sufficed to say it’s not worth your time unless you are a furry. A furry with no taste. In a world where adorable looking beastmen rule over humans one boy heroically dons cheap cosplay cat ears to find work. In a world where one crazy psycho girl wants to destroy everyone and seems to have an all too easy time convincing other people to commit mass suicide with her and take along everyone else while they are at it. In a world where they attempt to make the love child of Snake Pliskin and Teddy Ruxpin a bad ass and noble hero. This is the world of World Destruction. I say they can’t destroy this world quick enough.

This show tried to cram every type of character we have seen in a RPG into one show and it was a big mess. It was obviously supposed to combine humor and drama but it seemed to not hit either. The funniest thing about the show was everything that was wrong with it, from the poor animation (this is the first episode people! We shouldn’t see the C team come in yet) to the badly thoughtout story. The dramatic scene that was supposed to bring us on board, to have the two characters start to understand each other, to get us intrigued…fell flat. In my opinion, nothing went right in this show. Oh, wait, I did like the closing song but maybe that was because I was so glad it was over.

Telepathy Shoujo Ran

Why are these people using their psychic powers will-nilly in school? This series was not very stimulating. I am having a hard time putting words to it. It was just there, it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t anything. I feel as though I will forget I have even watched it just as I kept forgetting the name of it the other day.

While it was certainly not my favorite show of the season, I think I certainly liked this one more than Narutaki. It sort of a standard magical girl show. Ran does not transform but she has broad array of psychic powers including telepathy. There is a transfer student who has the same powers she does and keeps trying to get her to use her power and convince her that they are monsters who no one else will accept. Midori, the transfer student seems like she will go from be an antagonist to an ally in the great shonen tradition despite the fact that this is a shoujo show. There also seems to be a greater band of evil people with psychic powers to be the big bad guys.

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu

Sometimes it takes a hero to jump on a live grenade to save the rest of the platoon. Other times it just takes a fool. Well, I jumped only to find out it was a dud. Narutaki and I were assuming this show was going to be deathly bad and I secretly hoped that it might be good. It turns out it’s really just plain. Yuto, an average guy finds out that Haruka, the most popular girl in school, is secretly an otaku. This leads to them becoming friends. If Yuto or Haruka were really interesting it might have sold me on this show but they are both very average. Yuto seems to have some fight in him to complain out loud but not enough to stop anyone from tormenting him. Haruka is just a princess girl that happens to like anime. She is hardly moe enough to dislike but not cool enough to love. I guess I was secretly hoping for a Nagi-like character. The only thing that stuck out that would be really bad is that he lives with his sister and one of his teachers from school. When Yuto is at home they bully him into serving them snacks and booze. They are clearly there for A. fan-service shots; B. “jokes”; and C. to make problems and misunderstandings between Yuto and Haruka later on.

Yasuko to Kenji (Live Action)

This show is a well done combo of comedy mixed with a sentimental first romance and family issues. Kenji is a ex-gang leader trying to raise his little sister, Yasuko, who is now in high school. The best way he found to do this was his talent for writing shojo manga! Kenji is now a well established manga-ka. His actual identity is a secret. If this isn’t a perfect combination for comedy gold, well then nothing is. This show is over the top funny as Yasuko butts heads with Kenji, who is super overprotective, and also starts to live out a bit of shojo manga herself with the new guy at school. Of course the show wouldn’t be complete with out some sort of gang fight!

This is the one live action show I truly regret not being able to watch subtitled. I’m sure this already hysterical show would be even better with me being able to fully understand the dialog. Kenji’s bad ass demeanor mixed with the scenes of him writing his ultra flowery shojo comics is just priceless. I also like Kenji and Yasuko’s back and forth battles for who is in charge of her life. I know that his two assistants were former members of his gang but I’m curious how they wound up working for him. I liked Yasuko’s love interest, Tsubaki, but his family is even better. Also the fight scenes were so manga styled. It was a nice adaptation. For some reason they really like to have poor Yasuko fall on her face. I’m not saying it’s not funny but you have to feel bad for the poor girl. I think I’m going to try to tract down the original manga because this looks like a winner but no one seems to be scanlating it. Hopefully a American manga company will pick this one up.

I would like to make two observations about Japanese live actions shows before we go. The first is cake is everywhere. In all the live action shows we watched someone always got cake whenever they went over to someone’s house. No wonder Tachibana went into the pastry business. According to Japanese drama people in Japan eat cake like three times a day. That and it seems to me that the background music is very noticeable in Japanese dramas. Is it just me or do any other our readers notice the same thing?

The cake industry in Japan must be booming! Any how, this is a rare season where I actually knew things about the upcoming shows (weather I’ve read the manga, know the actors, or know the previous series) and I had different expectations. This season is also full of surprises with series I never thought I would see made. It is quite exciting! And of course minus all the stuff I knew about, there are some great gems that I had no inkling what they were. Such is the great thing about plopping down and watching a whole ton of shows.

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Finally watched the last episode of Tower of Druaga. I have to say, this series turned out to be pretty good. Finally some decent fantasy anime. I was glad we didn’t get some huge information dump in this last episode, just the end of an arc. I am definitely looking forward to the next season. And it was a good experiment by Gonzo, the whole coming out at the same time as the Japanese. I was really happy with the results.

Watched the finale of Zettai Kareshi (Absolute Boyfriend). This live action comedy/drama is loosely based on the Yuu Watase work of the same name. With all the changes that were made to the story I was surprised, pleasantly, how close the ending came to the original as far as feelings. I was unhappy with a few of the middle episodes, but I liked the approach they took of showing Night becoming human (and Riko realizing it) slowly where in the manga I never really thought of him as anything but. Overall, it’s a cute series for women.

I watched the American live action Fist of the North Star movie. It is mostly a retelling of the first part of Hokuto no Ken, Kenshiro’s fight with Shin. It is definitely a silly movie but it really seems that it wants to reproduce what makes Hokuto no Ken such a popular franchise world wide. Lots of the story details are correct but it seems to miss the spirit overall. It does not help that when ever Kenshiro does his signature moves they come off more silly than fearsome. It’s oddly enough a fun movie if you just want a cheesy martial arts film but a blasphemy if you want the definitive live action Hokuto no Ken.

Also watched the last four episodes of Sexy Voice and Robo another live action comedy/drama. It is also loosely based on an unfinished seinen manga. I originally picked this up because Kenichi Matsuyama plays Robo, you may know him as L. Sexy Voice and Robo investigate weird occurrences but they always end up helping people. It was a lot of fun but also always had a little moral or something in it. It has a hopeful vibe and Niko (Sexy Voice) our 14-year-old protagonist can sometimes be profound.

I watched all of Karin recently. I was in the mood for a light romantic comedy and Karin fit the bill. It’s definitely a shonen romance series, but I can see why it has found a fan following among girls in the U.S. If you add in vampires to anything you have to go out of your way to turn off girls. It can be done but you have to try pretty hard. I am looking at you Rosario + Vampire. I liked Karin and Kenta and the rest of the side cast was amusing. Karin being a blood making vampire is certainly inventive as well. I like how vampires work in the Karin universe. The fact that vampires in Karin drain emotions along with blood is a novel approach to the vampire mythos while still being conducive for comedy. The only thing I have to bringing up is that the vampire hunter’s costumes in this series have to be the goofiest thing on Gackt Camui’s green earth. I know this is a comedy but seriously.

Read the first book of Goong, a very popular manhwa. A prince has to marry a commoner who his grandfather made a promise to. Neither of them are too happy with the idea. Can’t say I’m all that impressed as of yet but it has left me curious enough to pick up atleast the next volume. It has potential. Though no one really captured my attention. The art is only great on occasion, though I know it is long running so that can change. I have been on a shojo romance hiatus for a while so maybe I just wasn’t ready for another foray yet.

I just read book ten of Eden: It’s an Endless World! and Hiroki Endo is more than willing to kill off characters. Every time I think that a character can’t be killed, Hiroki Endo proves me wrong and murders them in epic fashion. Hiroki Endo is also a genius because he will often put a character in several near fatal situations and have them pull though before ultimately killing them. This means you never know if a character is just in a tight situation or they going to meet their maker. All too often you are not worried about characters because you have a good idea of who is going to live and who is going to die. Eden makes sure every book is tense because you have no guarantees anyone lives. I highly recommend everyone try this series because it’s not doing that well but it should be. It’s a gritty cyberpunk series with a good mix of action, sex, and gnostic symbolisms. It should be flying off the shelves.

Picked up Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced 2 and have barely put it down. I loved the original so I am glad to have more with a bit of an updated system, new races, and some new jobs. The laws don’t have the crazy consequences of the first and also as long as you play within the law your clan gets different bonuses. Oh and for anyone that thought the first game was too easy, this one has a difficulty setting. Haven’t gotten into the plot much yet, got sucked into the Ivalice world and am now looking for a mage to help me figure out how to get home. Not sure if I love the main character yet ( I love you Marche!) but I don’t by any means dislike him. And Adelle is nowhere near as cool as Ritz. I am hoping these characters grow on me.

That’s it for this week’s investigation. Look for new ongoing investigations every Friday!

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