Category: Detectives

Unprecedented Game (aka Dazzle), It’s the pleasure of all men to be inconvenienced by beautiful women.

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This review is part on a little push I wanted to start on the blog. I wanted us to review more shojo anime. Not a lot of it gets made and I feel we hardly review it enough on the blog and I think all genres of anime and manga should be examined on the blog. How much this title counts is a matter of opinion. Unprecedented Game aka Hatenko Yugi aka Dazzle has an unusual history as a manga that makes classifying the anime a bit tricky. The manga started out in Square Enix’s shonen anthology GFantasy but after book 3 it switches to Ichijinsha’s shoujo magazine Comic Zero-Sum. But the most important thing we should get out of this is it is a story that can appeal to both genders quite well. It is a show with a nice mixture of seemingly hard to mix elements: action, romance, drama, comedy and horror. A pot luck that really blends well together.

Why is this called Dazzle in the TokyoPop release anyway? It gives absolutely no clue as to what the story might be. Maybe it refers to Rahzel’s magic powers? Baroqueheat’s tricks? Alzeid’s good looks? Well, whatever, still seems like a silly name. I also didn’t realize for a while that Dazzle and this anime were one in the same. I had watched a bit of this show sometime ago, found it amusing, and then promptly got distracted.

Rahzel’s life is turned upside down when her father throws her out of the house an declares that she must learn to fend for herself. Not long after leaving on her forced journey she meets a handsome albino named Alzeid. She vows that she will travel along side the dour man until she can inject some joy and adventure into his life. They are soon joined by Alzeid’s friend Baroqueheat from the military who falls in head over heals in lust with Rahzel.  They head out on the road using their spell casting and fighting skills to survive while taking odd jobs to make money. While most of their jobs start off simple they often take a sinister twist.

The format of the series is going to be love it or hate it with its episodic and roaming nature. Besides the first episode where characters meet, the order of the episodes is unimportant and could be random. However, the mystery solving slant of the show lends itself to the format and doesn’t feel particularly jarring. Though I had to laugh as a one point I realized it reminded me of Scooby-Doo, especially when they all of a sudden in a snowy area and have new winter outfits. The tone is more a mixture of Slayers and a little Kino’s Journey thrown in. There are plenty of laughs but ultimately they usually learn a sad secret or truth behind whatever it is they have stumbled upon.

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #072

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Ah, Tachikoma, how I longed to have you for my own for so long. Okay, so he is a little far from having the real deal, but I’ll take what I can get. He is die-cast metal, I was a bit worried there would be a balance issue what with that huge back end, but no problem! The articulation in his legs is good and his feet and hands are fully poseable. As you can see his crouching position is quite nice. However, his arms don’t fair as well. If I try to give him a sort of excited yatta Tachi pose, they don’t really reach high enough and tend to pop off. But overall he is a good size and detailed making him one of the best I’ve seen avaliable. He also comes with software that allows his to say phrases and light-up and move a little. Though the CD is for Japanese PC only (which of course you can get around).

I recently got a copy of Stolen Hearts by Miku Sakamoto from CMX. Shinobu Okuma is a super short girl who accidentally spills milk all over an expensive kimono that the frightening Koguma brought to school with him. He shames her into working at his grandmother’s kimono shop where she slowly sees that he’s a sensitive guy and not the wannabe Yakuza everyone thinks he is. It is a cute story. I was a bit surprised that by the end of the first chapter Shinobu and Koguma are a couple. Part of me wonders if this was supposed to just be a one shot story that was popular enough to get turned into a series. The first chapter could so easily be self-contained. The characters are solid and entertaining. Everything works really well when Shinobu and Koguma are interacting. My main problem is the story tends to lean on shojo tropes too much and whenever it does so it is at its weakest. The story really shines when its characters are doing something a little outside the mold. It’s a fun read but it is not going to win over any new fans to the genre. I did find the teen rating on the back quite curious. This manga is super chaste. Maybe it gets racier down the line but so far the most anyone does is some hand holding. The only fan service is traditional Japanese clothing service.

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #070

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I had trouble putting into words how I felt about Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms. It was powerful yet quiet; whimsical yet jarring. This story involves people who lived through the atomic bombings of WWII and the generations that come after them. But instead of being about the bombings proper, it’s really about their lasting meaning and effects. These are personal anecdotes the first of which is a poignant and sad, while the second is about understanding and the future which is a nice way of contrasting them. It would almost seem patronizing to see the first story play out happily. However much these bombings bring a string of emotions to the surface, the stories are kept even by the drawing style which is charming. A beautiful and just a little thought provoking read.

I picked up Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms entirely on a whim while entering a raffle for a trip to Japan at Kinokuniya. This is definitely a prestige release that will win awards and praise from critics but will be avoid by mainstream readers. The manga is about two interconnected stories about how two generations deal with the bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A powerful story that deals not only with how the Japanese people had to rebuild but the stigma of the bombing as well. The first story is very melancholy while the second story is lighter but does not break the mood. Both stories go quickly. It only took me about half my train ride to finish the whole book. It was a solid mature story that looks at an important but ugly time in modern history without being preachy or depressing. This is first and foremost the story of the charters whose lives are touched by the bombing more than the bombing itself. But this is the best way to talk about such events. The art is very light and vibrant which helps keep the story refreshing despite the weighty material. A great read for anyone who wants something with a deeper message than your average manga.

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