Month: August 2008

Ongoing Investigations: Case #008

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So I finally got around to watching Lucky Star. It is the God emperor of slice of life shows for otaku. It’s like a super sugary snack for the the otaku pallet. It has almost no substance and negligible nutritional value but my goodness does it taste sweet. I enjoy it but I have two major criticisms. The first is that Lucky Star tends to drag at points. It’s never boring (to me at least) but it’s never fast paced and the speed of it’s motion can vary from scene to scene. The other critique is that where as SS Astro might pander to the audience at points. . . Lucky Star is pure pander. To it’s credit it never pretends to be anything but 100% crystallized pander. It’s made for otaku and you better want otaku friendly comedy or it’s going to be hell. In fact I could easily see why people would despise this show let alone not enjoy it. Oh and I can hardly tell when the director of Lucky Star changed. Some people make it out like the first 4 episodes are one show and the rest feel like another show. I noticed subtle differences but I wouldn’t have if the whole affair not been so publicized. I don’t think the episode 4 divide will ever win over haters or turn away fans of the first 4 episodes. They are basically two different brands of tofu. Some people will have a noticeable preference but not many.

Just finished reading New Avengers TP 7, it was in my queue of stuff to buy from Amazon and I finally placed that order. Bendis doesn’t disappoint in this lead up to the Secret Invasion (an arc I have yet to read since I wait for TP). I enjoy the witty dialogue along with the looming suspicions of our heroes (and our readers) about who is a Skrull and just how far they have infiltrated. As expected Tony Stark is weighing heavily on everyone’s minds though I am inclined to believe the worst in him. Civil War created some strange bedfellows but I have to say I haven’t enjoyed superhero comics this much in ages.

Your and My Secret 2 continues the trend of being a guilty pleasure. Good enough that I look forward to the next one but horrible enough that I don’t run around saying how much I love it. Nanako and Senbongi are monsters, the jokes can be downright lewd and crude, and the situation is absurd. But it comes together in a way to make it fun as long as you are not too uptight. We all know characters can be horrible human beings and still funny. In fact, sometimes it is better that way.

Birdy the Mighty continues to go along as its average pace though we do start to see the beginnings of a bond between Tsutomu and Birdy, which was what I have been waiting for. It still seems to be just riding the bar as far as goodness goes but it is entertaining if nothing else. Just came up that Birdy is getting a second season so others must be watching as well!

I keep getting this slightly retro anime feel from Birdy the Mighty which I totally dig. It’s certainly not old school but it has the I-was-a-fun-90s-OAV-only-on-TV-in-2008 thing going on. I like the characters but the plots are not super original however they are fun. The animation seems a little weak at times but it’s nothing too distracting. I have heard that episode 7 has really great animation compared to the first 6 but I did not notice that much of a difference. Episode 7 was much darker than others by far though. Birdy is just a fun show that you sit back, turn off your brain, and just enjoy. Japan seems to like it enough that they are giving it a second season but I wonder if it will catch on in the U.S. It seems 90s enough that new U.S. anime fans might not like it but it also seems too modern for old schoolers to automatically back it. Then again many it has just the right blend to draw fans from both demographics. Does anyone who reads this blog know what American fans generally think of Decode? BTW having the villain be named Shyamalan is genius. Take that M. Night.

Zaregoto, I really wanted to like you. I loved NISIOISIN’s Another Note. I like quirky or eccentric detectives just fine. But for me this book suffers from too many eccentric people that mostly make no sense. Ii-chan and Kungisa’s dynamic doesn’t work as well as it could (like in Gosick). It could be the stilted dialogue and internal thoughts of Ii-chan. The mystery itself was pretty good, is also has some classic misdirection and genre tropes such as a locked room mystery and a mansion on a deserted island. The dialogue was all over the place being incredibly philosophical and vague in some places and then being overly simple a-la Blue’s Clues in others. It really suffers from needing a better editor. I may pick up the next book just to see if the writing cleans up.

I feel that Blade of the Immortal episode 3 is the litmus test of if you can handle Blade of the Immortal. Sabato Kuroi is the person they are trying to kill in this episode and he is one freaky dude. I think he is freaky enough to turn some people right off the series. However, he very clearly sets the tone for the rest of the show. People are messed up in Blade of the Immortal so you better get used to it. Also, Sabato Kuroi is a Black Sabbath reference I did not catch that but I guess that is because I am not that metal.

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Yaoi Reading Day with a ninja!

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18+ Discussion

The Podcast

Erin from the Ninja Consultants was in a bit of a bind. She had a whole box of yaoi manga that needed to be reviewed and not nearly enough time to review it all. So she invited a good deal of people to come to her apartment, read some yaoi, eat some snacks, and give some brief reviews while talking a look at the yaoi phenomenon in general.

Into this mix comes your faithful dynamic duo of anime blogging, Reverse Thieves.

I think we brought a mixture of qualities to the gathering. We brought the only male to the active discussion of yaoi. We are both well versed in the lingo and concepts of yaoi but not well versed in reading it. Also I think we had a genuine interest in learning more about yaoi but did not want to go and spend money on such a risky expedition.

I have admittedly been curious about yaoi if for nothing else it seems to have really taken off at a running pace here in the U.S. But I had never really ventured into the sector for a number of reasons including the perceived graphic nature of the genre. Just as I don’t read hentai or most things with a lot of full-frontal sex in them straight or otherwise.

I like kissing, can we see more kissing? And not that creepy kind! So this was both an experiment but also an observational study!

Kohaku, Narutaki, and I made the treck down to Erin’s apartment without incident. When we arrived there was already one other guest who had arrived. We we given the grand tour and got to see Erin’s rather eclectic but fascinating doujinshi collection. There was a huge pile of books on the living room table so we had quite a few choices.

I was cowardly and basically read books that were handed to me by group selection. I started with something light and funny, Clan of the Nakagamis, and then dove into one of the more graphic works with Brother. I started to read Antique Bakery but a mixture of the heat, my own tiredness, and the fascinating ongoing conversations prevented me from getting too far into it.

I set one rule for myself once we started reading. I don’t read shota-con stuff, I don’t want to, and basically refuse to do so. I like young boy characters because I find them cute and adorable and have NO desire to see them molested, raped, or anything else sexual. I was actually surprised to see a few titles that were definitely this genre. I remember some company mentioning how they are trying to stay away from those types of titles because they don’t want to see a backlash. But I can’t remember who said that or when.

Anyway, I also let the group pick my first yaoi to read. It was Picnic, a short story collection, with varying degrees of sex. This made me notice how much of yaoi is either a group of stories like this or just one book. I then moved on to Soulege, a one book story, whose story just got weirder as it went on. I rounded my day out with Dear Myself, which I really liked, also a one book story but with no sex.

One thing I found really frustrating is there is really no way to tell how much sex or how graphic the sex is in any of the titles.

Erin mentioned that a pink strip on DMP manga usually means more tame whereas a purple strip would be more hardcore. But everything I read was pink and there was everything from sex to masturbation but you never actually saw a penis. So I guess that is “tame.”

Most yaoi is sealed at the store so you can’t look through it, I just found this to be problem. I would probably read some of these titles but I certainly wouldn’t be picking up a series blind.

In the end yaoi like any other genre of manga has a good deal of range. There are well written and intellectually stimulating stories that are a credit to the genre. There are apocalypticly awful things that are an insult to man and god that just happen to have two or more men having sex.

Most of it is in the middle with the majority having the same level of plot as harem or moe anime. There is a plot but it’s nothing special. It’s mostly there to move from fan-service scene to fan service scene while occasionally provoking an emotional response from the reader. They are not bad they’re just mostly written to service their limited audience. Women in general are going to avoid harem shows because they don’t have much for them and they don’t really try to cater to their tastes. The reverse is equally true for most yaoi. It never tries to offer men (atleast straight men) a reason for reading and does not care if they ever do.

I also found it be a credit that most of this stuff isn’t taken seriously by its own readers. They know it is ridiculous and silly most of the time. I mean we made sure to read aloud anything really over the top or silly at this little shindig. Once and a while you really do get an emotional connection but you can’t expect it.

Though if you aren’t interested in two boys kissing or further nothing seemed so good that you should just get over that so you could read an amazing story. Yaoi turns out to be just another one of the many guilty pleasures in the world.

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First Look: Moribito Guardian of the Spirit, Have spear will travel.

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I will start by saying that Moribito – Guardian of the Spirit presented a moral dilemma for us here at Reverse Thieves. We want try to review as much licensed material as possible in its licensed from. Media Blasters has not released the DVDs of Moribito but they are playing going to be playing it on Cartoon Network starting the 24th of this month. This is great because Moribito was based on a series of popular children’s novels but also has a solid mature feeling. It’s not the normal type of show for TV. And therein lies the dilemma. If no one talks about this show before it gets on TV there is a chance this will go under the radar and be taken off as quickly as it was placed on. So we decided to take a sneak peak at Moribito in hopes of getting people to watch this on TV. If this does well enough it will hopefully lead to a little more diversity of anime on American television.

So here we are towing the line, we are giving you our impressions of the first six episodes before they even air. It was already mentioned as one of the most overlooked shows in the recent seasons and that is a good enough reason for me to think this peek at it is necessary. But honestly I can’t wait to buy the DVDs of this show! It brings so many things that I love to the table, include a few that endeared me to Story of Saiunkoku. You really get that historical-esque feel, the world setting is very well done. We get some politics, danger, mystery, and some really great fighting sequences. And not to be overlooked a strong female character! But I’m getting ahead of us.

So, Moribito starts with Balsa a foreign bodyguard making her way into town to get some maintenance work done on her spear. While crossing the bridge into town she see a cart with a noble plunge into the river after the animal hitched to the cart goes berserk. Balsa throws herself into the river and saves the young noble who turns out to be Chagum, the Prince of the land. That night is approached by royal guards and is taken to the palace to be rewarded. She soon learns that she was not invited to the palace simply to get a reward for saving the Prince’s life. It seems that this incident on the bridge was not an accident but one of several attempts on the Prince’s life. The Empress asks Balsa to take Chagum, flee the palace, and protect him from the man trying to take his life, The Emperor.

Wow, if this woman keeps up the pace she has in the first six episodes she will be on my bad-ass list. Those fights in episode 3 were awesome. Balsa has a mysterious past but we do know she killed many people and is now trying to atone for it. She is a fierce fighter without killing anyone. She has a strong sense of duty and loyalty but she often pushes herself too hard. Balsa doesn’t come off as feminine but she certainly has a motherly quality about her. I look forward to seeing that develop more.

Balsa is at an interesting age. Being 30 she is old enough to be mature but still young enough to be on the top of her game. She is not the stereotypical teenage protagonist so she has had enough time to build a good amount of life and combat experience and a fearsome well earned reputation as a bodyguard. She is nowhere close to the most feminine character but there is a mother wolf nature to her protection of Chagum. She has a past filled with tragedy but she uses it to fuel her present as opposed to dwelling on or running from it. That is a refreshing change change of pace and makes her as strong a female character as her fighting ability does. She is an amazing fighter, a seasoned strategist, and an emotionally strong woman while still coming off as human with faults and vulnerabilities.

Chagum we are only scratching the surface of in these few episodes. We know he has supernatural abilities but he doesn’t control them and we know this is the reason for his persecution. He is certainly the child of royalty as the scene in which he doesn’t even realize the feeling in his stomach is hunger demonstrates well. But so far he hasn’t come off as a spoiled brat who’s demands must be met. He will be good to see grow and hopefully come into his own as he becomes more aware of the real world around him.

I enjoyed the fact that all of the characters have realistic motivations for their actions. There are no Snidely Whiplash villains. The Emperor has just as many good reason to kill the prince and he does feel remorse over doing what he thinks is right. When Shuga, the Star Diviner is brought into the conspiracy he is convinced in a realistic and plausible manner.

Many people get involved in this story, the cast is not vast (yet) but there are certainly a lot of players. This often happens with politically tied plots, so I only expect it to get more complex as we go along. Some of the most notable are Tanda a childhood friend of Balsa who is a healer; a shaman who has a grave prediction about the prince; a group of deadly hunters who are looking for Balsa and Chagum; and a young star diviner who is pulled into the plot against the prince.

The opening song is very catchy, it’s has a good deal of English lyrics, and it has nice accompanying animation. They would be very foolish to try to throw on a new opening.

I am a sucker for openings, even more so when the song is done by a band I love. L’arc en Ciel’s Shine has a great beat and sets a nice tone for the series. GREAT. OPENING. SONG. I assume this will be intact for the TV broadcast but I don’t know for sure. Everything from the opening to the fights looks great! The characters all have their own unique look and so we see a great variety.

I am firmly convinced that if you want to watch really good animation in a TV anime the shows to watch are the family friendly shows based on popular novels. Like Story of Saiunkoku this has lush well animated character designs. It obviously had a high budget and they never skimp on anything. Every episode so far has been a pleasure to watch. Production I.G. shines brightly once again. I did happen to notice that there is a wide variety of attractiveness in character designs. You have characters that range from very beautiful to very ugly and everywhere in between. In fact mostly in between. I feel all too often either everyone in a show look very good looking or extremely plain. It’s nice to see a show where the curve is closer to reality.

I recently read the novel that Seirei no Moribito as well. In an unexpected turn of events it seems that the anime is actually a more detailed telling of the story in the novel. The novel has a fast pace that while never rushed also never stops at any point either. It seems that the anime takes the plot of the novel and lets the story breath and grow more than it did in the novel. So far the anime has not taken any liberties that I think would infuriate fans of the novel. If anything I think fans of the novel will enjoy getting to spend more time with characters they loved.

Top 5 Historical-esque Series
5. Moribito Guardian of the Spirit
4. Rurouni Kenshin
3. Rose of Versailles
2. Story of Saiunkoku
1. Blade of the Immortal

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