Daughter of Twenty Faces, Watch, listen, and think for yourself.
November 30, 2009
Every year there is usually one show that goes slipping through the cracks. Daughter of Twenty Faces is not a show has gone totally ignored by anime bloggers and fans. I have found some reviews and a few single reports. But overall a show this good should be on everyone’s lips but it remains a hidden treasure only known to a few. I hope this review does a little to alleviate that fact. This review is actually a long time coming. If I remember our original plan was to post a review about this time last year but due to the last few episodes coming out very late you are only getting it now. However, this show proves that some things are worth the wait. But then again a steampunk detective/phantom thief show with an awesome heroine is always worth the wait.
When I checked Daughter of Twenty Faces out in the Spring 2008 review, I already knew it was something special. But I didn’t know if it would grow to be a great series or just an entertaining one. Either outcome was fine by me. But it just so happened that the show got better, more intriguing, and even harder to pin down as it went along. We even praised the series up and down almost a year ago on the Ani-Gamers podcast! Hisui is right, this has been a long time coming.
Chizuko Mikamo is a unfortunate young girl whose parents have passed away and left her with a sizable inheritance. While her aunt and uncle are taking care of her they are also poisoning her gain her fortune. Fortunately for her the infamous phantom thief Twenty Faces comes to steal her fortune but realizes the true treasure in her mansion is Chizuko and whisks her off to recruit her as a member of his gang. So she proves to be intelligent, resourceful, and cunning member of this rough and tumble family of thieves who take her in as one of their own. But Chizuko’s aunt wants her back to claim her fortune and Twenty Faces also has many a mysterious and dangerous skeleton in his closet as well.
Daughter of Twenty Faces has some wonderful twists and turns, especially in the beginning. The pace of the first episode is so runaway train there is no way the rest of the series would or should be that way. However, the show consistently has an up and down storytelling that gives you a breather only to take away your breath in the next episode. It is not quite clear till around episode 8 that there is more of a science and steampunk influence than was first garnered in the opening stories. This isn’t in detriment to the series but something that has to be accepted. The story pulls elements of both detective work and smooth theft to create a winning combo that is clearly a familiar with the tropes of both genres. But Daughter of Twenty Faces isn’t merely a mash up of such things, oh no, this show is fueled by mysteries of both the past and present and Chiko’s own cunning and curiosity about her mentor and father figure, Twenty Faces.
Eureka Seven: Surfing, Robots, Surfing Robots, and Young Love
October 12, 2009
Guest Review by Lothos
I went in to Eureka Seven knowing next to nothing about it. All I really knew is that it had aired on Cartoon Network and had something to do with a young guy, some girl, robots, and something like surfing. I was pleasantly surprised by the series; it just got better the more I watched. It’s brought to us by Studio Bones, the same group who did Fullmetal Alchemist, Sword of the Stranger, Wolf’s Rain, and Darker than Black. Eureka Seven, like the other shows I mentioned, takes a bit of a dark streak towards the end, which I was not expecting given that the overall tone of the story is rather light.
I will say that it shared quite a few similarities with Neon Genesis Evangelion. From characters to themes, you can easily draw comparisons between the two. Renton can easily be compared to Shinji, though much more likeable. Eureka of course to Rei. Holland is kinda like Kaji without the spy part, but just being a badass and awesome in general. Talho is very similar to Misato. Then you have the bridge bunnies; Gidget, Matthieu, Hap, etc. filling the roles of Maya, Hyuga, and Aoba. Mischa is a bit less sinister version of Ritsuko. Anemone I feel is a pretty close analog of Asuka. Dewey is a slightly more demented version of Gendo. The Council of the Sages is Selee. The Scub Coral can also be compared to the angels. You also have giant robots, with the Nirvash being pretty comparable to unit 01. Characters aside, there are also quite a few similar thematic elements and styles between Eureka Seven and Evangelion. Without giving away too much, the Scub Coral really are much like the angels in terms of their purpose in the series. There are some times of trippy introspection and metaphoric symbolism thrown in. There is also the theme, though definitely not unique to Evangelion, of a boy having to save the world with his robot. Things seem to get more tragic as the series progresses as well, with some characters falling into periods of deep depression to the point of being suicidal and hating their existence in general.
Despite all of these similarities, I still fell Eureka Seven is its own series and wasn’t trying to make itself like Evangelion for the sake of being like Evangelion. One might be tempted to think of Eureka Seven as Evangelion-Lite, I know I was at the start, but this would be doing the series an injustice as it really is great on its own. I just wanted to go ahead and get the Evangelion comparison out of the way since if you’ve seen it, you’ll likely see the same similarities I saw. I also wanted to stress that despite on the surface it having so many similarities it is not trying to be another Evangelion.
