After a full year Katanagatari comes to a close and it has been an interesting journey. Nisio Isin is still very obviously Nisio Isin no matter what he does. That means playing the with genre, winking at the audience, bizarre and sometimes immensely annoying characters, and metric tons of dialog. With 12 swords and 12 owners we have gotten a good deal variation in how the episodes felt. Some of the owners and swords were far more interesting than others but that is expected with having to create 12 pairs of antagonists and weapons. Also some of the later swords only count as swords because the author says so. I am going to assume that the episode that completely threw out the formula completely and had Nanami as the main charter was a highlight for most people.  The ending has parts that will either be very shocking or super obvious depending on who you are. It starts with a  speech that exemplifies the fact that characters do not stop talking no matter what happens. The final episode also has the prerequisite Boss Rush that seemed inevitable from the beginning. In the end everyone who had a plan involving the swords had an immensely elaborate Rube Goldberg styled plan that could have been simply solved without the swords in reflection. In fact there is some extremely sketchy logic that will probably annoy the daylights out of anyone not drawn in by the story. I enjoyed the story and like the Monogatari Series it proves he can write something I don’t utterly despise like the Zaregoto Series. But his style is still a hard pill to shallow and I can easily see why people would avoid his work like the plague.

I read Natsume’s Book of Friends vol. 1 which I was very excited about since I loved what I saw of the anime. This is the story of Natsume who can see yokai and who has felt isolation because of it. When he moves in with yet another set of relatives he starts to learn more about his long gone Grandmother who had the same power and used it to dominate the spirits. Things get hectic as spirit after spirit comes after Natsume to get back their “name, ” which his Grandmother had collected into a book. So far the stories have all been ones I watched on screen. Each has a little humor, a little nostalgia, and most times a very quiet and melancholy feel. Natsume is a really gentle soul and its wonderful to watch him listen to the stories of the yokai while also learning about his Grandmother. The artist’s lines are quite loose which adds the whimsy I am so found of to the stories. Though I have to say I enjoyed the anime just a bit more, the soft color palette and light music really added to the stories. Nevertheless, I want more Natsume and hope to find stories that weren’t animated in its pages.

A good deal of my recent vacation was spent playing Recettear. It is an unusual little indy Japanese game that was recently translated by Carpe Fulgur. In the game you run an item shop to pay off a loans your father left you when he ran off to be an adventurer. The fairy in charge of debt agrees to help you run the shop to pay off your debt. Half the game is you buying and selling items in town. The other half is teaming up with adventures to go into dungeons and get items to sell in your shop. Every week you have to pay an increasingly large payment. If you fail to pay off the debt than the game starts over from the beginning but lets you keep and levels and items you and the adventurers have gained. If fact the game almost encourages you to loop at least once.  The adventure game portions play like a Zelda style dungeon crawl. The maps are very simple and there is no puzzle elements. While the levels and the enemies change every 5 levels most of it is pallet swapping with some changes in the behaviors of the enemies. If you easily get bored by Diablo styled games you very well might be bored by the time the second dungeon is unlocked. Despite the game’s flaws its unique premise and length make if fulfilling while keeping it from wearing out its welcome. If after beating the game you want more there is still a good deal of alternate play modes and side quests that can be competed as well. Also most people probably used Louie most of the game but the other adventures play differently and are fun to try when the pressure of paying off your debt is gone. This was a fun experiment and I hope to see other doujin games like this imported. Capitalism Ho!

We finished up Banner of the Stars I this week (the people I’m watching with had already seen it) and as expected it was a good series. Lafiel and Jinto were already a solid pair that needed exploring, they are a treat to watch interact and see their slow but steady relationship grow. Each character added to the mix is a great addition and pretty much a joy to watch all around. Seeing a consistent crew to play off Jinto and Lafiel was fun, and it allowed them both to grow outside of each other. And the time they spent at the bar was quite memorable. I was glad we got to meet Dusanyu who is next in line for the throne and had only really been mentioned for a while. He has a very calm demeanor but his teasing of Kenesh and her past relationships was most amusing. Other great additions were the brothers Nereis and Nefee who were competent but good for a laugh and that rather sadistic Spoor. This series really excels at its characters, but the plot is not quite up to that standard. I never felt truly invested in the battles and we certainly don’t learn that much about who the Abh, as a society, really are, what they are fighting for or against, or even who their enemies are. Yes, we have seen the groups they are attacking, but for the most part they are pretty faceless. There are battles and they look nice, but the most interesting parts of the story are the relationships.

Watching Banner of the Stars I again with Narutaki reminded me why Lafiel is on MAL as one of my favorite characters but Banner of the Stars is not on my Top 5 anime list. That is not to say that Banner of the Stars is anything less than a 9/10 series that I would easily recommend to most anyone. Banner is a character based space opera that takes a very personal look at two characters caught in the crossfire of a galaxy at war. The focus on the extremely micro view of  Jinto and Lafiel gives the show a unique feeling. I felt the story was stronger than Naurtaki did but it does equal the epic levels of Legend of the Galactic Heroes. But it can be an easy trap to compare everything to Legend of the Galactic Heroes and then have it come up short.  It is easy to miss out on some great series that you would have otherwise enjoyed. I enjoyed seeing a simple love story that plays out over a grand background. The characters are extremely memorable in Banner and the banter can be delightful. Also it has hot space elves. That is a really shallow selling point but don’t doubt its strength.

I watched Sym-Bionic Titan episodes 5-11 (actually I watched them weekly thanks to Cartoon Networks website) which Wikipedia is calling the season finale, but it is unclear if that is a fact. It has been a nice ride with a lot of variety of episodes though of course almost all of them have a cool robot fight. Episode five hits us with a good deal of Fast and Furious references and also the racing guy’s voice just made me want to punch him; other more serious episodes occur like Shaman of Fear which was seriously scary; and great fights and secrets abound in episodes like Shadows of Youth and Fortress of Deception. I was glad to see progress being steadily made between Lance and Ilana, and even Octus gets some development, too. Ilana being able to accomplish more in the later episodes was nice though I still think she could use a serious infusion of capability, especially since Genndy says he wanted to create a strong female character. I know there was some serious questions about the future of this show, but I hope to see it continue in the New Year.

There truly needs to be more Lafiel fan art:

Detective Conan Movie 3: The Last Wizard of the Century was quite memorable thanks to a mystery that swirls into a full-blown historical conspiracy. And the appearance of that charming phantom thief Kaito Kid! When the Kid delivers his latest riddle about where he will strike of course everyone is in a uproar but Conan senses something different about this heist as Kid signs the message “The Last Wizard of the Century.” Once they decipher the target as the a recently discovered Fabergé egg belonging to Nicholas II of Russia, Conan is even more perplexed as the piece upon examination contains no jewels (Kid’s item of choice). And that is just the tip of the iceberg as Kid leads them on a chase into a mountain of clues and mysteries that come one after the other. And of course there is a murder afoot as well. Plus Heiji is also in tow as the game begins. Ah, they crammed everyone in this movie but it just makes it more fun and spectacular. The way it keeps leading you to the next mysterious piece of the puzzle is engrossing. This was a great ride!

I have always been distinctly aware of the Detective Conan franchise but never really watched any episodes before this movie. This was a good test of how accessible the movies are to someone who did not watch the TV series. I found that with my general knowledge of Conan and the little intro I was able to follow the story. I might not have understood all the nuances but I was never left scratching my head about anything. What starts as a simple case of stopping the legendary thief Kaito Kid becomes a series of murders surrounding the late Russian royal family. That of course means that Grigori Rasputin is also involved because you just can’t have a story about the fall of the Russian royalty without him. By law. I have to say that if nothing else the movie peeked my interest in watching the rest of the franchise as it seemed very enjoyable and fun. I did not realize what a utter putz Kogoro Mouri is. Also the detective kids seemed sort of tacked on because that is how movies based on TV series work. I will say as I have in the past if you want to see some lovely high budget animation got to the family friendly shows. They get the wide audience that lets them spend money as they will and it shows when they put on a theatrical piece. It was a fun romp with all the murder, action, and mystery you expect from the Conan series.

Since I don’t like NISIOISN I was a bit worried about watching Katanagatari, but something compelled me to do so anyway and I’m very glad I did. When the episode hit the ending credits, I turned to Hisui and said “I LOVED IT!” This is mostly owed to the fact that the characters really grew on me and didn’t drive me nuts and weren’t utter jerkfaces which is pretty much why I stay away from this writer. I really enjoy the simple-nature of Shichika that is dual to Togame’s attempts to be devious and “strategic.” And all the humor that goes along with them is charming. The styling of the show and its storytelling is this really lovely mixture of modern and flat but evokes a very fairytale or storybook feeling. I saw this especially in their use of music, such as the moment when Shichika and Togame meet for the first time. And I was happy to see that the fight was pretty cool despite the obvious animation saving tricks used in the beginning. The only real flaw with this episode was a load of story exposition that was dumped, but it lays everything out for you, and since the episode is 50 minutes long it didn’t come off as unbalanced as it could have otherwise. Katanagatari is like a familiar story that you can’t wait to watch even though you’ve heard it before.

I was wary going into Katanagatari. I both like and dislike NISIOISN as an author. The problem is that he has a good sense of how to make interesting stories but a penchant for making characters that get right on my nerves. The story is the standard fetch quest by way of beating highly skilled opponents with gimmick weapons.  This hardly dooms a show. It just means that how well the show does is reliant of two factors: how good the characters are and how cool the gimmick weapons are. So far I have greatly enjoyed Katanagatari because we have yet to encounter a “NISIOISN” style annoying jerk character especially as the one of the main characters. Togame and Shichika Yasuri seem very likable and have an easy comical chemistry between them. I’m sure they could add a new character I will want to strangle but so far this has not been the case. I am intrigued by the way the series is being released. It is being released on episode a month and each episode will tentatively be an hour long and based on one of the books in the series. So far great animation with a cool style, amusing characters with nice comedic timing, and the promise of some cool fights is keeping me watching.

I have had a copy of Swallowing the Earth for quite a while now, but just got around to reading it this week. We learn of a woman who is so beautiful that all men go mad with passion for her, Zephyrus is her name, and in her wake she leaves all men wanting even as she uses them up and throws them away. She is out for revenge on all mankind with their greed and vanity but we won’t know the full story till much later. The story loosely centers around Gohonmatsu who cares nothing about material possessions or women, the only thing cares about is alcohol (this is apparently very refreshing). He is of course the only man that isn’t seduced by Zephyrus so it’s up to him to save the world. Kind of, I think, the story is told in a wonky fashion sometimes going for chapters with out the main characters. The story doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously and certainly comes to be more satirical as it goes along. At times I often thought it might even be a satire of the Gekiga movement itself with all it’s darkness, greed, and sex but done so seemingly sarcastically. But even with that in mind it really never comes together, Gohonmatsu isn’t particularly root worthy and the story isn’t particularly intriguing. There is a nice foreword written by Fredrick Schodt which really enhances the read, in fact, it might be the only thing really saving this story because it gives it context. The real reason to read this, if you are so inclined, is to see Tezuka’s first shaky steps into more adult manga.

Since they were on sale from Right Stuf I picked up the DVDs of Genshiken 2. I never watched in fan-subs because it was so obviously going to get picked up. I do have to say I knew that it was a bit different than the first series and the manga but was shocked how much. I was both interested and dismayed by the changes. None of the changes are deal makers or breakers in my opinion but they are worth noting. The unavoidable truth is that the fan-service has been cranked up to 11 in Genshiken 2. Things that happen off camera distinctly happen on screen in sometimes a rather graphic manner. The porn kiss between Ohno and Tanaka was a little too much for me. On the other hand they did fill in events with more details like Sasahara’s job search which was nice. The series still does reach the conclusion that the manga did which is a shame but maybe we will get a third season to cap it all off.  It’s not a bad adaptation as the spirit of Genshiken is always there but it certainly is different.