Month: September 2008

Ongoing Investigations: Case #010

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I did not do much except play video games this week. Played through Professor Layton and the Curious Village. It was a distinctly enjoyable puzzle game. I had figured out most of the mystery about half way through the game so obviously it was not that difficult. The animated sequences were well done and Layton and Luke are fun characters if not particularly deep. You mostly come to professor Layton for the puzzles but you stay for the amusing characters. This game seems right up Narutaki’s alley with detectives and classic puzzles. I hope they continue to localize these games.

Watched the first four episodes of Toward the Terra. I loved the manga now I get to love the anime! It has this nice combination of old school and modern, the art is this nice meld of the two. The opening song is really great! It is done by UVERworld who I have been sort of neutral about, but this song made me have a little more hope for the upcoming Gundam 00 opening which I have heard only a snippet of. So far the show has been beautiful animated and the story spot on. Soldier Blue you’re the best! There is a nice bonus of an interview with Keiko Takemiya in which she speaks in depth. Makes me want her to be a guest at a convention.

Got around playing Final Fantasy A2. I think I am enjoying it more than Narutaki but mostly because I never played Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced so I don’t know what I’m missing story-wise. I’m mostly here for the real-time strategy which is extremely well done and I am blissfully ignoring the rather generic plot. I am totally playing just to level up jobs and see new missions. I am slightly annoyed that I sometime break the laws when my characters are charmed or confused. It’s a slight gripe but very annoying after following a pain in the butt rule for several rounds of combat just to have the rule broken at the end by a single status effect.

Picked up the first volume of Nightmare Inspector. Hiruko goes into your nightmares to help you dispel them, his payment is the eating of the nightmare. So far every story has had a little twist and isn’t as straight forward as it seems. It is a nice series of vignettes but that isn’t really my favorite thing without an over arching plot to jump at once and a while. However, the last story in the volume is continued in the next and in the preview they mention possibly learning about Hiruko’s past so I am atleast curious. Also had a funny litte extra at the end about the cane he carries.

I tried some Mugen no Frontier: Super Robot Wars OG Saga. It’s simple enough that I can play without knowing any Japanese. It’s a turn-based RPG with some action elements to break up the monotony. I was enjoying this game up until I got up to one boss in this playing card themed dungeon. I can’t get pass this little witch and I don’t feel like grinding enough to blast past her with sheer brute force. I wonder if I am missing something because I can’t read Japanese or if the game just kicked the difficulty level up quite a bit rather unexpectedly.

Started watching Ghost in the Shell S.A.C. I know everyone will be shocked, but I’ve never watched this show all the way through. I have seen an episode here and there but what can I say? I just take my own sweet time getting to shows. I liked what I’ve seen so far, the cop drama kind of feel it is great but with cooler weapons. The Laughing Man comes into the story right at the end of the first DVD and I sort of knew what that was. It certainly keeps the world elements of the original but we get a closer focus on character relationships and a fleshing out of personalities. Really don’t like the opening, but the song itself is really a wonderful, haunting melody. Motoko’s normal outfit cracks me up a bit, I know it is fan service but it just seems so out of place. I think they could have used her full body suit outfit which she wears in the second or third episode instead. Oh and I love the Tachicomas. Forever.

Having watched the Laughing Man arc quite a while ago it was fun to go back and see some of it again. I always liked the third episode with the Jeri androids that were malfunctioning. For some reason I feel that who ever wrote that episode totally wrote it for themselves and anyone else that happened to be a big film buff. Knowing enough about what a horrible pervert Masamune Shirow is I have to wonder if he insisted that Motoko’s outfit be horribly fan servicey outfit or is it just an accepted part of the franchise. Oh and I have always been tempted to buy on of those really nice Tachicoma statues but I have never been able to convince myself to splurge on one. Yet.

Was lucky enough to attend the New York Comic-Con ConFab. It was like a focus group type deal and they bought us lunch, plus we get a free weekend pass for the convention in 2009. They have some great ideas coming up, stuff that I feel no other con has done before. That makes it really exciting. They also had tons of questions for us, a lot about lines and tickets and then general what was bad. They were really enthusiastic about our ideas and it felt like someone was really listening. Looking forward to the coming convention.

I started playing some Touch Detective 2 ½ and it seems just a quirky as the last one. I really miss the point and click puzzle games back in their heyday on PC. I am glad to see someone picking up the torch again. I like the bizarrely dry humor and the unique character designs. It is clearly not a game that will win over new fans. It’s essentially more of the same without even an attempt to innovate or add new features. I don’t mind though because I just wanted more Mackenzie.

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Anime & Manga of the Month: September

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Anime of the Month
They Were 11 by Kitty Film

This a short (running just 91 minutes), perfect little self-contained space opera. While it was made in the 80’s it is adapted from a manga made in the 70’s and the character designs reflect that. Ten cadets are sent off on their final test of survival, which happens to be on an abandoned space ship, but when they board the ship there are 11 people in the group. Since the test is randomized no one has a clue as to who is the odd man out. Suspicion, sabotage, and mystery ensue as the cadets form factions and cope with a decomposing ship, rising temperatures, and a fatal disease that is spreading among the crew. They can end the test with a push of a button but then they all fail. All manner of species and personalities clash in this small group, which makes it a pleasure to watch it play out and almost impossible to figure out who the 11th man is.

Manga of the Month
Excel Saga by Koushi Rikudou

While Excel Saga the anime had it’s time in the sun, most people ignore the excellent manga it was based on which is a shame because while I love the anime, I love the manga even more. Where as the anime was a high energy gag a second parody of anime, the manga is a little more subtle with social satire mixed in with its parody of anime tropes. Also I really think Elgala is cute and she’s only in the manga.

Excel, Hyatt, and eventually Elgala are soldiers and agents for ACROSS, an organization bent on world domination. Ilpalazzo, the leader of ACROSS, has determined that he must first take over F city before he can take over the rest of the world. And so Excel spends most of her time going on bizarre missions in hopes of taking over the city and then the world. Ilpalazzo’s old nemesis, Dr. Kabapu, has organized the Department of City Security with his own agents to stop the plans of ACROSS. Technically both organizations are hunting each other but most of the time they are so incompetent that they spend more time fixing their own mistakes, dilemmas, and financial problems than fighting one another.

I must make note that the Viz translation is done my the famous Carl Gustav Horn so they are expertly translated and researched with amazing translation notes at the end. I think learn a little sometime every time I read a new book of Excel Saga. Sometimes the translation notes are as amusing as the comic itself. And that is high praise indeed.

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Super Dimensional Fortress Macross II, What only stars remember.

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While I do recall seeing some Robotech when I was younger, Macross II was actually my first leap into the franchise and actually sparked my interest in it. Which is kind of ironic since it isn’t in the timeline, it has been cast out!

It is the only Macross series not worked on by Studio Nue. So when Studio Nue started making Macross anime again they promptly went out of their way to state that Macross II was not canon and was to be promptly ignored by all future Macross anime. I am curious how much of it is rights issues and how much of it is bitterness on Studio Nue’s part after being left out of working on Macross II. It’s not like it was Highlander II for goodness sake.

But nevertheless I still appreciate it! It seems to hold onto the spirit of Macross. More so than some other renditions in the Macross franchise. I even have a lovely poster of Macross/Macross II hanging in my office!

Macross II deals with a love triangle including a pilot and a singer, the power of a love song, a clash of cultures, and an intergalactic war that threatens to wipe out humanity. All the hallmarks of the original Macross series. They are both extremely similar in theme and style. Compare that to say Macross 7 and Macross Zero which both wildly differ from their source on a variety of levels. So far only Macross Frontier has come as anywhere near as close to recapturing the original Macross spirit.

Macross II starts 80 after the end of the original Macross. Hibiki Kanzaki is a reporter who’s journalistic paradigm is radically altered after witnessing a battle between the UN forces and a mysterious fleet of Zentradi soldiers who are unaffected by the culture shock of music. During this battle Hibiki find a mysterious non-Zentradi woman named Ishtar on-board one of the enemy ships. He takes her back to earth in hopes of getting the scoop of the century. He gets his story and much more than he bargained for. Ishtar is the key to defeating an enemy that is seemingly unaffected by the music of Earth.

Hibiki isn’t a hot-headed pilot but he is a hot-headed news reporter! He funnily enough seems to have the opposite view that most young reports have, he wants sensationalism! Forget the truth you have to keep people entertained! But after he gets roped into helping the war correspondent for his company he starts to have a change of heart. When he realizes that his partner’s legacy, what he died for, was not going to be shown to the public Hibiki vows to get the biggest scoop he can about the current war. He is very determined and completely reckless, this is the reason Silvie and him spend so much time together! And even though he wants to make a story out of her, he does end up caring deeply for Ishtar.

Hibiki is a real jerk that is secretly a good guy when push comes to shove. I felt from the start Hibiki want to report the truth. It’s just that he is not above pandering to the masses to get his point across. Hibiki grows significantly in a short time while still staying true to the character he was at the beginning of the series. But he is a more mature hot-headed sensationalist reporter who looks at what he reports on differently. It was interesting change to the standard Macross love triangle to make one of them a reporter. Hibiki being a reporter gives us someone who is an outsider to the military but has good reasons to be involved with them. It is a refreshing change of perspective.

Ishtar is apart of the enemy, they are different from the Zentradi in many way including that they use music to make people want to fight. Outside of the singers the race is a warrior culture with a desire for war and destruction. So she is amazed to find a culture that does the opposite with song. Through Hibiki she starts to learn about Earth’s culture and eventually he takes her to a concert of the current pop idol, Wendy Ryder. So the combination of learning about love songs and actually falling in love with Hibiki pushes her to try and make peace between the two factions.

Ishtar and the rest of the Marduk in general have a Babylonian theme. Ishtar herself is sort of a tabula rasa when it comes to dealing with society. She is a priestess that is isolated from others except for her role as an emulator. She wants to learn about Earth culture because she believes that Earth may be the planet that is featured in a ancient prophecy about the future of her race. When she first encounters human culture it overwhelms her enough to cause her great discomfort. Hibiki slowly shows her the beauty of human culture and she begins to believe that humanity’s songs of peace and love may open the way for a better future for the Marduk.

Silvie is a tough as nails ace pilot who starts off with a vendetta against Hibiki after he catches her going to a hotel room with a high ranking office of UN Spacey. She starts off following Hibiki in hopes of getting him back for humiliating her. While spying on Hibiki she has to defend him and Ishtar from the Marduk who come to retrieve their most valuable emulator. She eventually falls in with Hibiki to protect Ishtar and becomes closer to both them. She definitely comes off as a strong female character with a feminine undercurrent.

It is nice to see our pilot in the triangle be an intelligent and capable woman. Actually she is the only one who is involved with the military, much to Hibiki’s chagrin. Though I find her overbearing for most of the first half of the show, she has moments when her rough exterior is broken and you see a real woman. Especially when she and Hibiki are searching for Ishtar in the enemy fleet. After that she really starts to grow.

In the original VHS copy I have of this show, huge portions of the last three OAVs are missing. Thankfully the DVD version has them in. It was like watching a new show! Especially since what was lost was mostly the space battles. They were good, well done, and added some much needed action and suspense. Seriously, Nexx rocks! He was saving the entire fleet, why wasn’t there more Nexx in this show?

Yeah, if it is military related then Nexx does it. Nexx does everything from taking out enemies in a Valkyrie to planning battle strategy to captaining a capital ship. All he does not do is take out Lord Emperor Ingues in a fist fight.

So how come in three different Macross series the mothership looks EXACTLY the same? Even though they are all different alien races? Well, anyway the main villain seems to have the same motivation as usual, destroy the Protoculture! It will contaminate us! But the enemy is different from the Zentradi in many ways including the fact that they are microns and their men and women cohabitate. Feff, who is a captain of one of the enemy ships is interesting because he shows their is emotion on their side, as he admits to “loving above his station.” He is also a bad-ass.

The Marduk are different enough that the initial Minmay attack does not work but similar enough that the themes of original Macross can be revisited. The Marduk never get more than the bare minimum in back story but they seem like an interesting race. I was slightly curious how the Marduk become involved in such a parasitic relationship with the Zentradi but unfortunately Macross II is not nearly long enough to be able to go into such stories and still finish the important plot points of the series.

This show cracks me up because the military has Teen Beat stars. The military is the celebrities of the day. They are who the tabloids write about and who people want autographs from. They do flashy stunts and participate in the big event the “Moon Festival.” Girls squeal about Nexx and guys say they want to marry Silvie.

I think that marriage is not necessarily the first things on guys minds when they see Silvie. If Hikaru from the original Macross lived in time of Macross II it might have been Minmay that was chasing him.

The music in Macross II is actually quite nice. No Minmay of course though they do make reference to her and what she did all those years ago. They even use the Minmay attack at one point, but replaced by another girl. The opening song is especially good and also the main song at the concert Hibiki and Ishtar attend is a highlight.

For a Macross series we don’t get that many songs and Ishtar does not sings that much for the character that is the singer of the love triangle. But every time she does sings it makes a big impact. We also get some Wendy Ryder songs and like any good Macross series the concert scenes are as lush and awesome as the final battles.

My major criticism of the show is that it seems to have wanted to be a 13 or 26 episode series but only got to be a 6 episode OVA. They just introduced what could have been rather epic story but then they have to settle it rather quickly. If Macross II had had some more time to stretch its legs it might have received a better reception. The premise is solid and enjoyable, the characters are good and easily likable, and the director and scriptwriters seemed competent.

I can see what you mean. It has all the trappings of the original series so it could have easily continues on with a longer show. But I thought the character development was there. The things that were missing a bit for me was the military point of view. We get it a bit, but since two of the main characters are uninvolved directly with UN Spacy their presences isn’t as felt. I would have liked to see more Nexx, as mentioned before, and also Silvie’s squadron. Also the love story does not get pushed as far as it needed.

The love triangle certainly suffers as a result of its time constraints. While Hibiki, Ishtar, and Silvie definitely got closer as the show went on, there was that much romance between any of the three of them. Did the three of them become friends? Yes. Did they change each other lives and how they view themselves and others? Yes. Did I sense romantic interest or sexual tension? Not really. They just never had enough time to build up a proper love triangle. The foundation was there. There are inklings of feelings but not enough to fully sell me. Who ends up with who mostly seems to be there for the convenience of the plot more than full character development. I am sure they could have had a great triangle.

Top 5 Favorite Macross Women
5. Mao Nome (Macross Zero)
4. Silvie Gena (Macross II)
3. Misa Hayase (Macross)
2. Ranka Lee (Macross Frontier)
1. Rex (Macross 7)

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