Category: Books/Novels/Light Novels

Ongoing Investigations: Case #013

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I read the first two volumes of Gakuen Alice and much like the anime I love, love, love it! It is really funny but with enough sentimentality and plot to balance it out. It kind of reminds of a not-quite-as-insane-version of Kodacha with superpowers. We have a plucky, not always very bright, heroine who sets out out reform her unruly elementary school class. She of course has a rivalry with the leader of the rebels but finds out he has a tragic life. Throw in a wide cast of side characters, some mystery, and a campus polluted with strange activity and you have yourself a recipe for fun times. Gakuen Alice is certainly a winner! I am also happy that Right Stuf picked up the anime which may just have to go on the next I Can’t Believe You Haven’t Seen This! panel.

I watched Urusei Yatsura Movie 5: The Final Chapter after I got started on the Anime of the Month. I have to say Urusei Yatsura always bring a smile to my face. Despite the fact that the entire cast besides Ryuunosuke are horrible human beings/aliens you find yourself rooting for them. I love this particular movie a lot. It gave me everything I wanted from the end of Urusei Yatsura. It gives us a full circle ending. It gives us lots of laughs and a little sentimentality. It ties in all the great characters and gives them all a little air time before the finale. I have to mention that I consider the ending of Urusei Yatsura 100% definitive. I’m not sure what people wanted. Did they need a marriage? Ataru and Lum making out with some heavy petting on the side? It’s not that type of manga. The ending is the only thing like a declaration of love we could have ever gotten. And that is good enough for me.

Del Rey’s novel line excited me at first, but I’ve read three so far and have not been impressed. Psychobusters does nothing to change that, in fact, it probably makes it worse since this is by far the worst one yet. The characters have no spark, they are not thought out in the least. The writing is very poor and extremely repetitive. It is hard to explain but it is written like a manga. However, writing a novel and writing a comic are two very different things. I do have the first manga sitting at home somewhere, so I will read that and let you know if indeed the writing lends itself to it.

I watched some more Shakugan no Shana. Ummmmm. Those twins are creepy. Kohaku had warned me to this fact but I feel somethings can only be understood fully when they are seen. Then again the incest twins are creepy enough that you might want to take my word for it. I feel like they want me to feel bad for them, maybe even root for Kazumi Yoshida but I can’t do it. She is just so uninteresting. She is just there to give Shana a romantic rival. I usually like the character who is a good, sweet person but have an unrequited love. For some reason I can’t see why you would want to date Kazumi. Wirhelmina Carmel can come back into the series anytime she wants. She is a character I can get behind. Her similarity to Hisui does not hurt.

Finally read Fruits Basket 20, not sure why I let this one linger on the shelf so long. It was fantastic as usual with the emotions turned up to 11 and I can only guess that the final books are going to stay at that level. I was happy, sad, furious, annoyed, and wistful! Only three left to go and I’m on pins and needles!

I finally finished the Welcome to the NHK manga. It was an enjoyable ride although it was definitely an acquired taste. Welcome to the NHK either clicks with you and you find it hysterical or it just comes off as horrible and mean spirited. I know Narutaki refuses to even try looking into the series and almost certainly with good reason. I find it interesting that the anime, manga, and light novel all start in the same place and then go in different directions and have different climaxes but all end generally the same. The light novels climax was slightly stronger but I enjoyed the manga more overall. Hopefully Funimation will release the last disk of the anime so I can compare it to the rest of the franchise.

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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Ongoing Investigations: Case #007

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Boogiepop at Dawn is the fourth book released by Seven Seas Entertainment in the Boogiepop series. Technically this is the sixth book in the Boogiepop series but it’s a good deal of prequel material so it doesn’t break the narrative. I wonder if they pushed this one ahead because of it’s greater ties to the anime. Boogiepop at Dawn is a god send for American Boogiepop fans because it finally clears up and explains several unexplained mysteries, characters, and events from the TV series. We finally get to see the Scarecrow; learn the story behind the constantly mentioned serials killings; learn the story behind the death of Nagi Kirima’s father; and the story of his novels. Boogiepop Phantom was not the easiest anime to wrap your head around in the first place. Not having the light novel background that many of the Japanese viewers had made it even worse. The novel claims to be the origin of Boogiepop but I feel it is more the origin of Nagi Kirima and how she met Boogiepop than Boogiepop’s origin.

Daughter of Twenty Faces 12 and 13 were exciting indeed! And knowing that the series was supposed to end here is not surprising. The show didn’t wrap up all of its mysteries by any means but it threw us a very climatic battle and meeting. And I could see it being over and knowing there is more to the story but you’ll have to read the manga to find out. Lucky for us we have 9 more episodes to go!

I finally got around to reading Vampire Hunter D volume 1 in preparation of seeing Hideyuki Kikuchi at New York Anime Festival. The first Vampire Hunter D movie is based on this book. The movie defers a good deal from the novel but it keeps all the high points. The major difference is Rei Ginsei is the head of his own little gang of bandits instead of being a servant of Count Lee. This lets him be a wild card that is constantly allying with various people to kill D. Other than that I feel we get a greater insight into certain characters, events, and background of the world. We see much more of Ramika and Greco. The framework of Vampire Hunter D is the standard western story of a mysterious stranger who rolls into town to save a beautiful woman and her farm from a corrupt big shot. He makes the story his own by adding elements of horror and post-apocalyptic literature and films to spice up the story. My only real complaint is Hideyuki Kikuchi is obsessed with constantly mentioning how beautiful D is all the time. Each chapter either the narrator or some character comments of how good looking D is.

Macross Frontier 18 made me realize a few things. First off, Brera is totally under-used. I thought he was going to be big but he has basically fallen to wayside as super cock-block and that is about it. I hope that changes. Secondly, I’m not sure where they are going with Sheryl, she was out of character in this episode but that isn’t surprising considering the news she got. The next few episodes will be really important for her character development. Lastly, maybe they have been doing it all along but this episode had a lot of very convenient moments, i.e. Sheryl shows up at the library and Sheryl calls a random person. The second one could actually have merit, we will see. Of course you must accept certain coincidences in anything. And since it was brought up in the last ongoing investigation. I’ll just clarify that I don’t give characters a free pass just because they had something bad happen to them. I don’t automatically erase malicious actions from my mind because they have had some trauma. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t forgive them if they showed some sort of change or remorse. All of that is yet to be seen. Oh, the new opening while I like the song a lot the animation sequence was pretty blah.

SS Astro is like Azumanga Daioh but the jokes are about the teachers instead of the students. Oh, and someone thought Kaorin should be main character and not minor side character. Also we have a lesbian substitute teacher than has a clear crush on the main gym teacher. It is definitely a seinen manga in humor and style. I really liked SS Astro but I have reservations about it. The characters are charming and amusing. I really liked the school nurse who was obsessed with people getting hurt so she could see blood. My only problem was there is this aura of pandering around the manga that I am not sure I am comfortable with. It’s not a deal breaker but if they turn up the pandering another notch or two it might get too much for me.

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