Category: Anime

Anime and Manga of the Month: July

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Manga of the Month
Living Game by Mochiru Hoshisato

Raizo Fuwa has his life turned upside down when the company he works for is going to change their offices. The building his office was going to move into collapses because of shoddy construction before they can move in. Raizo’s boss decides to temporarily move the whole office into Raizo’s apartment until they can find a new building to move into. To add to his problems his boss agrees to hire the 15 years old Izumi Hiyama as a favor to a friend. Since Izumi is a high school drop out she cannot get anyone to rent to her. This eventually leads to Izumi having to move into Raizo’s office/apartment with him. Raizo slowly finds himself falling in love with Izumi who has an enormous crush on him but his office workers and friends keep interfering with every aspect of his life. Living Game is the story of Raizo and Izumi trying to find somewhere to call home.

Living game takes the housing crisis of the time and uses it as a repeated plot device, as a tool for social commentary, and an allegory of the major theme of the manga as a whole. Everyone in the series is looking for somewhere to live but it is always a metaphor for their struggle to find their place in life and in society. I really like that three tiered approach.

Living game is not the greatest manga but it’s much different than a majority of the manga that you can read in the U.S. today. It is a sweet seinen romance with a good mixture of comedy and drama. I like that the pace is brisk but never feels rushed. Raizo and Izumi’s lives are always moving forward. They are constantly changing and growing. All too often romantic comedies will spin their wheels going nowhere to draw out the plot. Raizo and Izumi lives are always organic. They grow into themselves and grow together at a natural pace. I really recommend it to people who liked Maison Ikkoku and any other more adult romantic comedy.

Anime of the Month
Princess Tutu by Hal Film Maker Studio

This is one of those rare shows that was not adapted from a preexisting manga. A duck is transformed into a girl and hopes to fulfill her desire to protect the shattered pieces of a prince’s heart. Ahiru is awkward (as can be imagined) but full of energy, determination, and love. For once it is the prince who needs saving and that is the task set before her. Princess Tutu takes on the role that is traditionally male, but she is absolutely female. She accepts her fate willingly and has a sense of duty despite her personal feelings and the realization that once her role is played she will no longer exist. While love is one of the central themes to this series, what starts out seemingly simple becomes a complex and dark look into the hearts and minds of many characters. Princess Tutu is a perfect fairytale full of magic, love, and mystery. And true to form it is has the darkness that inhabited original fairytales.

Hayate the Combat Butler, There is only dirty otaku blood in our veins!

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Hayate no Gotoku is an otaku comedy for the whole family.

YAY! We are really excited about the next season of Hayate (especially since we weren’t sure it was going to get one). So we thought we would try to get as many people watching it as we could before it starts up again!

Nagi, Hayate, Butler, Otaku, Doujinshi

This is the story of the most unlucky boy in the world. Hayate Ayasaki has only ever known a life of hard work and sorrow. One day, he comes home to find that his parents have borrowed 156,804,000 yen from the Yakuza and that they have left him the responsibility of paying off this debt. Hayate decides to ransom a girl to get the money and the girl he first stumbles upon is Nagi Sanzenin. Due to an odd miscommunication that shall set the tone for the whole series, Hayate’s declaration that he is going to kidnap Nagi comes off as a love confession. And of course Nagi falls completely in love with him in that instant but it is a love built on a misunderstanding.

Nagi, Hayate, Butler, Otaku, Doujinshi

Poor Hayate never had a chance as his last pay check was given to his good for nothing parental units who promptly used it to gamble. But Hayate is innately good and even when he really, really tries to be bad he just ends up screwing it up. But I guess that is why he gets all the ladies.

Nagi, Hayate, Butler, Otaku, Destiny, Doujinshi

After Hayate saves Nagi several times instead of kidnapping her, he asks Nagi to find him a job. Nagi can immediately think of only one position for Hayate. Under her; as her combat butler (yes, that innuendo was intentional). And so through some shenanigans Nagi agrees to pay off Hayate’s debt and in return he will pay off the debt to her as her butler. The main problem as Maria, who is Nagi’s maid, quite succinctly put it is: there is a humongous bomb waiting to go off between Nagi and Hayate. Nagi believes that Hayate is head over heals in love with her and does everything for her due to their love. Hayate is eternally grateful to the woman who saved his life but is unaware of any feelings she has for him. Maria is quite aware that this is a problem waiting to happen so she does everything is her power to make sure this does not blow up in everyone’s face.

Nagi, Hayate, Butler, Otaku, Maria, Maid, Doujinshi

This is a recipe for pure comedy. The show is miscommunication after miscommunication between these two, then throw in: a beautiful maid who Hayate is crazy about; an odd old butler and a talking tiger; a jerky grandfather; Nagi’s “fiance” who is the owner of a video store; a wacky bunch of friends of Nagi; wackier students and teachers at her and Hayate’s school; gobs of girls in love with Hayate; a huge estate; unlimited amounts of money; robots; doujinishi; a crap load of otaku jokes; and a butler battling tournament. Oh but there is some randomness that resembles an actual plot thrown in also. You see, Nagi’s grandfather has promised his fortune to anyone who can do two things. One: Make Nagi cry. Two: Make Nagi apologize. So this adds money hungry ridiculous villains sometimes.

Nagi, Hayate, Butler, Otaku, Gundam, Doujinshi

The author of Hayate, Kenjiro Hata, is a rather interesting mangaka. He once was the assistant of Koji Kumeta who currently writes Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei. Like many modern mangaka he is as big an otaku as his readers. Apparently he is also very active on the internet, posting on his own blog and conversing with fans on 2channel. Also according to Tsunami Channel he started the manga in massive debt and was dependent on sales of the manga. I also really empathized with Kenjiro Hata when he said he started to cry in a family restaurant during the first year of writing Hayate as he thought it was going to be canceled.

Nagi, Hayate, Butler, Otaku, Conan, Doujinshi

Hayate is the story of a truth that grows out of a lie. Or that is what Narutaki and I like to believe. I think the things that will draw most people into this series is the two main characters. All too often you will have shows in which the main characters are super bland or annoying but the side characters are where it is at. I would be surprised if anyone who regularly reads this blog did not at least like one of the main characters. Hayate is handsome, strong, honest, amiable, charming, and a little bit goofy. Nagi is a spunky otaku girl with a sharp mind and a sweet side buried under a very blunt nature. Hayate and Nagi are great characters but they are even better characters together. They have an easy comedic interplay between them and they are also a cute couple even though they might not realize what is going on between them. It is all to easy to make characters who constantly misunderstand each other extremely annoying but Hayate and Nagi stay charming and make you honestly root for them.

Nagi, Hayate, Butler, Mecha, Robot, Otaku, Gundam, Doujinshi

Some people mistakenly call Nagi tsundere. This is absolutely not true, Nagi expounds on why Hayate is so great. And she does think he already knows she loves him as much as he loves her. So while she does get embarrassed or yell at him, it really stems from her anti-social behavior more than anything else. I’ll never forget an episode where Nagi is trying to think of a way to get Hayate out of the house for a few hours. Nagi simply lies to him yelling “I’m tired of seeing your face!” Hayate was visibly hurt. He is quite naive but sometimes I think he is actually amazingly shrewd. To put it another way, Hayate is a playa. For a guy who doesn’t have any romantic feelings for anyone, except Maria, he sure does get around. However, I too am in love with Hayate so what can I really say? I am the first to admit that while I love this show because it is funny, I am really attached to the growing relationship between Nagi and Hayate. A lot.

Nagi, Hayate, Butler, Otaku, Maria, Maid, Doujinshi

The hidden workhorse that keeps the series and the characters moving forward is Maria the maid. Maria is Hayate and Nagi’s greatest supporter. She troubleshoots many a disaster and often times work her hardest to keep Hayate and Nagi together and maybe even make them realize what the other one is feeling. The running gag is that everyone thinks that Maria is much older than her actually age of 17 but it’s mostly because she is the mature character in the series who has to reign things in when they get out of control. I will also admit for some reason I really like that little curly bang that hangs down from Maria’s face. It is impossibly cute.

Nagi, Hayate, Butler, Otaku, Wataru, Doujinshi

Maria is very important, I can’t imagine anyone actually making it a week without her. Even when they try to send her on vacation it just doesn’t work. Speaking of characters that are just great, how about I talk about Wataru? Dying to hear about him I know. Wataru is Nagi’s “fiance” and no matter how much they fight, they are actually very good friends. I see him and Nagi as having similar personalities. He is spikey but very sweet deep down, he is also small and adorable. He, Nagi, Sakuya (Nagi’s cousin), and Isumi (the only person that would willingly read Nagi’s ramblings) have all known each other a long time and their friendship is very fun. He also has this funny rivalry/friendship with Hayate. His family used to be wealthy but now their only asset is a video store which Wataru works at. Nagi is constantly renting things from him. Wataru is a super otaku of special effects (tokusatsu) and thanks to his moment of self-loathing we got the title for this article.

Nagi, Hayate, Butler, Otaku, Inu-Yasha, Wataru, Doujinshi

The one thing I really don’t understand about Hayate is why does Hinagiku has the fan following she does. I like Hinagiku. Narutaki likes Hinagiku. But neither of us is running out to buy Hinagiku love pillows for our Hinagiku decorated rooms where we write in our blogs about Hinagiku in which we state how Hinagiku should be the star of the manga. It seems like at times Narutaki and I are in the minority. I recently bought a Hayate art book and Hinagiku’s face was the largest face on the cover. Any Hayate merchandise is sure to either have Hinagiku on it or have a Hinagiku version. When the second season was announced on Anime News Network there there people cheering left and right for more Hinagiku. It still makes no sense to me. What magical appeal does this girl have that I am missing?

Hinagiku, Utena, Hayate, Butler, Doujinshi

I often want to write on messageboards: Hey, you guys know this story is about HAYATE, right? I really do think people don’t know. But we are letting that secret be known here! Hina is cool, I loved that time she dressed as Utena, but I certainly don’t need the Hina side story.

There are some differences between the anime and manga versions of Hayate. The overall story is very fast and loose so the anime changes when certain things happen and when certain characters are introduced. Of course they rush to give us Hinagiku as quickly as possible even thought she is not introduced until the manga until book four. They also tweak certain characters personalities. No one is massively different but I feel that Hayate is a little more mean-spirited in the manga and Maria manipulates events a little more openly.

Nagi, Hayate, Butler, Otaku, Gundam, Doujinshi

Despite the cute exterior and mundane non-otaku friendly veneer of Hayate, it is an insightful and hardcore otaku comedy. There is a constant barrage of anime and manga references. Look at the Anime News Network Trivia section for Hayate to see what I am talking about. Almost all the titles are anime references. My personal favorites are “A Power That Won’t Revolutionize the World” and “Many Kids Must Be in Trouble Since Train_Man Showed Their Parents What Comiket Is All About.” Nagi’s house has statues of Detective Conan and Inu-Yasha. I think the pinnacle of the otaku love is the manga Nagi writes called Magical Girl Destroy. Nagi’s comic is a bizarre mixture of Card Captor Sakura and Fist of the North Star. It is apparently incomprehensible to anyone but Nagi and Isumi. When the main character who looks like Kenshiro in drag shouts out “Sega Saturn Black!” for no identifiable reason you know you have comedy gold. The thing is that most of the otaku references are in the background and they never rely on them. If you took out every otaku reference I fell the show would still be hysterically.

Nagi, Hayate, Butler, Otaku, Magical Girl Destroy, Doujinshi

With Hayate there is just twice as much to love. You can love it as an otaku but also as a normal ole person. I mean, heck, even though I identify with the word otaku I only get 20% of the otaku-oriented jokes in Hayate. That isn’t the thing that makes me want to watch the show. It is the characters, the comedic timing, the randomness, and interactions. While clearly not a gripping and suspenseful show, it is hard not to get addicted to it.

Nagi, Hayate, Butler, Otaku, Conan, Gundam, Doujinshi

UPDATE: Hayate is now licensed by Bandai!

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Anime and Manga of the Month: June

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Manga of the Month
Dragon Eye by Kairi Fujiyama

Leila is a brand new recruit to VIUS, a large organization of people combating the mysterious D-Virus. Both the organization and the virus itself, which turns the infected into blood thirsty, destructive “Dracules,” we know little about. Through a series of events, some quite amusing, she ends up in the hands of Issa, Captain of Squad Zero. Issa is seemingly lackadaisical, which is probably why the squad only includes himself and now Leila. But he is probably brilliant and you soon learn that his past is filled with holes. The glimpses of his former life bring a lot of much needed tension to the story. This becomes of serious importance as the Dracules begin to move as an organized group rather than a bunch of unthinking monsters. His relationships with some characters are strained while others truly believe in him, as it becomes more clear that some know a bit more about him than others. The cast changes somewhat from story to story as Squad Zero is always borrowing help, this peppers the story with some fun team-ups. The art is well done and the weaponry and equipment is cool which adds to the well done fights. Dragon Eye is a shonen adventure series, but it uses its formula well and creates characters you wish to see through to the end.

Anime of the Month
Black Lagoon by Madhouse Studios

Normally we showcase less known series in the Anime and Manga of the Month but I decided to throw up a better know. title that is in an odd predicament. Geneon went under and so far no one has saved the license. The dub for both seasons is done because they played them both on Canadian Tech TV. I really want someone to pick up the second season there in the states. I think it’s a guaranteed seller with legs.

Black Lagoon is about being awesome and having Revy, the duel pistol wielding awesome goddess incarnate. Black Lagoon is essentially an animated action movie. The story revolves around Rokuro Okajima who gets kidnapped by the pirates of the Lagoon Company but ends up as part of the crew. The Lagoon Company crew is as follows. Rock whose role is to be the fish out of water who has some invaluable negation skill from his days as a salary man. Revy is the muscle. Dutch being the muscular African-American seems like he would be the tough of the group but he is the companies leader and tactician. Benny rounds out the group as the hacker.

The intensity of the series is always turned up to 11. Even in the quieter moments the show have an underlying ferocity. There is also a tendency to throw out realism in favor of style. Revy duel wields pistols not because it’s practical but because it looks awesome. PT boats take on helicopters with mini-guns. People fight with chainsaws, flamethrowers, or throwing knives on chains because it looks freaking awesome. Also the characters are almost always a mixture of fascinating and frightening. Roanapur is an amoral city in which only the crafty and strong make it through the day. Black Lagoon is a fun, gritty, action anime. Viz is going to start publishing the manga soon and I really hope someone will step up to the plate and re-license this series.