Category: Manga

Ongoing Investigations: Case #023

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Has anyone played the original Higurashi sound novel? I am curious what the fan-service levels are in the games. I ask this because I don’t remember the Higurashi anime being the fan service bonanza that the manga or the art books are. They really like the semi to fully lesbian fan-service shots in the artbooks. It’s like they were drawn by male fujoshi. Despite the abundance of fan-service in the Higurashi manga it is a pretty faithful adaptation. Yen Press went all out with color pages in the front and middle. The manga has yet to even give me close to the chill that anime did but it is still enjoyable. However, I don’t think it’s going to win any new fans to the franchise.

So I sort of did the Gurren Lagann suggestion made by our friends in their review, which was to watch the last 7 episodes and not worry about the rest. Well, I had already watched the first 9 but I did skip the next 12 and watched the end. I was entertained by its ridiculousness and was also able to grow fond of a couple of characters in that short span at the end. It goes full-throttle giant robot as robots start hurling entire universes. As for why I decided to skip so much, that would be a major spoiler. However, I can say that there is a missing piece of the puzzle and the show for me was incomplete without it. My overall feeling was the show was good, whereas the first 8 episodes were great. It was hilarity to the max.

I enjoyed Gurren Lagann for what is was, an over the top giant robot show about believing in courage and guts. I enjoyed it more than Boxingoctopus and Lothos because that is all the expectations I went into the show with. Therefore I never felt let down. I for one enjoyed the middle part of the series although not as much as the beginning or the end. Certain parts of Gurren Lagann seem like Gainax’s response to Evangelion. Simon is like Shinji Ikari in both of them spiral into the abyss but Simon is able to rise out of it where as one of the major points of Evangelion is Shinji’s inability to connect to others and find a way out. I can’t say for sure if it’s partially reactionary to their older work or it is less intentional and more the natural comparison by viewers despite any active agenda. I also really liked the very Japanese concept of circular belief. Circular belief being the idea that there is someone who you believe in that believes in you when you can’t do that yourself. I suppose I have always wanted someone like that myself. I also think the fact that Simon and Nia grew on me helped a considerable bit. They would never ever be as cool as Kamina or Yoko but then again who could be that cool.

Read Nightmare Inspector volumes 2 and 3, I am glad to see this series establishing little bit of a running narrative along with giving Hiruko and Mizuki some backstory. Though I just makes me want to know more since we’ve only gotten crumbs. They have also introduced a humorous tenant who moves into one of the rooms on the upper floor of the tea house. He isn’t in it too much so the somber and melancholic feel of the series stays in tact but he does throw a little spice in the mix now and then. This manga-ka always puts in some funny bonus stuff including a song written by Hiruko about how much he loves soda.

I have been playing Chrono Trigger for the DS. It stands up well in retrospect. The game play is solid, the story is still fresh, the amount of little changes you can make on the plot are still well done. Playing this reminded me of a conversation with my brother about Final Fantasy 7. We were discussing how flat characters in RPGs are today but they were even flatter back in the day. You were more willing to fill in the blanks in your mind back then. I remember the characters of Chrono Trigger being much deeper than they actually are. They aren’t bad characters if they were I would have never remembered them so well. It’s just the amount I had to fill in from what was implied had become actual fact. Still it’s great to be able to go back and play this again now only it’s portable. If I had a PSP I would be sorely tempted to play an emulated Chrono Cross on it like David Riley is going to do. Even though the prevailing logic is Chrono Cross is the devil’s spawn by most fans.

Finished the xxxHOLiC novel AnotherHOLiC. I have to say putting the first story in FAUST was a good move, not only did it make me interested in the novel but it was also the better story of the three and it doesn’t require me to know about the manga. The second story seemed too similar to the first, but also easier to figure out. And since those stories were back to back it made me wonder where Watanuki’s brain was. As for the third and final story, since I haven’t read the manga it didn’t help establish anything about Watanuki for me. I didn’t really understand his reasoning. Oh and the other guy in the story was super annoying.

I assumed this story happens early in the xxxHOLiC storyline but I can’t say for sure. Although it is never outright stated, one of the reasons Watanuki works at the store is Yuko is training him either as a her student or her outright successor. So it seems like the part of the story where she is no longer by his side on jobs but he has still not learned enough that she has taken of his training wheels. I thought that the first two stories bookend each other well enough so that they made a point when the third story came along. I just hated hated hated the eye theory guy in the last story. NISIOISIN is talented at making original characters that are annoying jackasses. This is not a compliment. He a good writer but he has to start cutting back on shrill, nasty characters in his work.

I made an entry for the Anime News Network 2008 Holiday Logo Contest. This is my first year entering. I had some extra time before my vacation so I thought, why not?

The best way to cap off Reverse Thieves completion of Gurren Lagann is with a piece of Gurren Lagann fan art:

Ongoing Investigations: Case #022

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For the 40th anniversary of Shonen Jump they released three new special anime episodes on their website subtitled in English. Romance Dawn was the One Piece addition to the line up. Romance Dawn is the name of one of several prototype manga that would influence One Piece. This anime take the version with Silk instead and modifies it to be a part of the current One Piece continuum. Luffy gets separated from the rest of the crew and has to save a village from the pirate Crescent-Moon Galley. It was an enjoyable little filler story. While not amazing, it is an effective little wink to any big fans of the series which I think all of these special episodes are supposed to be. If you already knew that Eiichiro Oda made three separate prototype manga named Romance Dawn then you should have already watched this if you already haven’t.

Read Monkey High! volumes 2 and 3 and it continues to be a sweet romantic comedy that doesn’t dwell on minor miscommunications. The second book has an epically long chapter that the manga-ka talks about at the end, apparently it was for a special issue. The kids participate in a quiz show to much laughter and antics but we also saw a little more of Haruna’s home life and her strained relationship with her father. Also in the second volume there is some hilarious commentary at the end by the manga-ka depicting her reactions to the many postcards she receives. She also goes on to say that she can’t believe girls think Masaru (the main love interest) is cute. Volume 3 deals with the ever popular Valentine’s Day and as usual with this series it results in minor drama and much laughter. Both these volumes have Haruna attempting to communicate that she likes Masaru as much as he likes her amidst their ever meddling classmates. I am looking forward to the next volume, it always puts me in a good mood!

Cobra The Animation: The Psychogun is over the top, pulp, science fiction fun. Cobra is one of those so-silly-it-is-good shows that thankfully never takes itself seriously. Cobra is part bounty hunter, part space Lupin, and part Inspector Gadget. After Cobra wastes three space pirates in the intro he decides to dress as a priest to steal some diamonds. During his flawless heist, pirates attack the museum he is robbing and that means it’s Psychogun time. He eventually saves the sexy archaeologist the pirates are after. He follows her to Mars partially to hit on her and partially to kill more space pirates. Seems fine enough but it’s all the details that are crazy. The archaeologist Dr. Utopia More I like to call Dr. Space Thong. Every woman in the series is dressed in either a bikini or skin tight spandex. That is height of women’s fashion in the future. There is also the pirate commander who is a sarcophagus with arms and legs, flying skeleton robots, and a super stereotypical Mexican space pirate with mustache, sombrero, and bandoleer. Cobra himself has a sexy female android, about a dozen gimmick cigars, and his uberhax Psychogun that puts Megaman’s blaster to shame. Oh and Cobra not only tosses women around he uses Newton’s law of universal gravitation as a pick up line. Good times. I can’t wait for the next one.

I always wait anxiously for the next book of Kekkaishi, so I was very happy to finally get volume 15. At the end of the last volume we saw a small girl and were unsure of her powers. In this book she proves to have a totally cool ability to make friends with inanimate objects and specifically rope in the story. She is then able to have it do things for her and even use it as a weapon. She totally needs to take the place of lame Sen. Along with her, enter some cool villains with the power to paint boxes and make them into walls, portals, etc. We also meet the librarian for the Urukai, lots of interesting characters showing up recently. We also see characters fight that we hadn’t had a chance to yet. In addition to all of that, Yoshimori starts to pull more power into his zekkai and Tokine starts developing more of her ability to manipulate space. They are growing and the questions about Karasumori are coming to surface as well.

The Bleach: SOULs Character Book is a very pretty book. The first part is some very nice colored art and stickers. The second part is detailed character write-ups of just about everyone, locations, items, and concepts in Bleach up to the end of the Soul Society arc with a preview of the Hecto Mundo Arc. There is also an interview with Tite Kubo and Masakazu Morita who plays Ichigo. We then have an original prelude comic and the prototype comic for Bleach. I was amused that Ichigo and Orhime had crushes on each other in the original draft of Bleach. It also has palm sized Rukia for most of the story which is either super silly or super awesome depending on who you ask.

My recent obsession with the Vocaloid phenomenon has sent me to many a great fan artist. I like this person’s overall style and they happened to do a few pictures of the series as well. So this is the pic of the week:

Byakuya isn’t the only one getting a piece of Renji’s ass.

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renji, bleach
Spoilers up to the current chapters of Bleach.

Guest editorial by Lothos

Based on the number of Rukia x Renji fan-sites/supporters on forums, plus his standing in  Bleach character popularity polls (consistently in the top 5 until recently), I had to stop and wonder why people like him so much. The more I thought about his character the more I found myself baffled. As far as I can surmise, he just serves as fodder to fill air time/page space to placate the fan-girls who think he’s hot. So he’s Rukia’s buddy from back when they were in Rokungai. Great. That’s apparently so inconsequential that it’s only touched on a couple times in the series. When she’s going to be executed he seems to be pretty much okay with it until Ichigo and friends storm the castle. The more I look back at Renji, the more and more pointless he seems to be and the only reason I can think of why people like him is because he has tattoos and a spiffy haircut. Lets take a look at what exactly he’s ever done throughout the series.

He has never won a fight that mattered, not even his very first fight with Ichigo! Byakuya has to step in to save his bum because Ichigo powers up and almost kills him. [Ch. 55] And that was an essentially untrained Ichigo. His Bankai is weak, it’s just a bigger version of his sword. And not even a bigger cooler version like Komamura has, where a giant samurai is wielding his now gigantic sword and he controls it like the kid in Giant Robo. Nope, it’s just a bigger version of his whip blade thing. He also sucks at Kidou and the only time in memory where he actually puts it to good use is when fighting one of the Espada. During his fight with Szayel Aporro Granz, Espada #8, after basically trying everything against him with no effect he manages to use his Shikai to bind himself to Szayel and sets off a pillar of fire around them. This essential does nothing to Szayel other than make him cough from the smoke, and set him up for Ishida to attack. [Ch. 275] He had to blow himself up in the process to do nothing to the guy but char his clothes. Also, his Shikai has a horrible flaw in that it has a set number of times he can whip it around and then it has to go back to being a (for the most part) normal sword, so against any worthwhile fighter it’s pretty useless. [Ch. 96]

He is the constant “set the stage” character for whoever he happens to be running around with. Be it Ichigo, Ishida, or whoever else. He is so useless that all he can do is try to distract the enemy so someone worthwhile can actually do something to them because his wet noodle of a Zanpakuto was ineffective.  He yells at Ichigo and everyone else all the time about how they’re so dumb or weak, [Ch.54, Ch.95, Ch.141, Ch.292, etc.] when in reality he’s never done anything useful except carry Rukia away AFTER Ichigo busted in to save the day and did some bad-ass shit like take out three vice captains bare-handed before they could even draw their swords. [Ch.152] I’m not a big fan of Ichigo either, but at least he gets stuff done and doesn’t fail at every endeavor.

I also blame Renji for the fact that Chad is constantly getting his butt handed to him. After all, Renji was Chad’s sparring partner. [Ch. 224] Which is unfortunate because Chad actually shows some promise and developed some pretty awesome powers. However, even though Chad tends to be on the losing end of fights (mostly because he seems to get matched up against someone way more powerful than those his friends fight) he does at least win some of the time on his own, so thus he’s better than Renji.

His captain, Byakuya, is also fan-girl fodder, but at least he is a bad-ass mofo who tends to beat the snot out of anyone who gets in his way and look good while doing it. What could Renji do against him? Pretty much nothing as we saw when he squared off against Byakuya during the Soul Society story arc. When Renji finally comes around and decides that Rukia shouldn’t be executed, he is confronted by Byakuya who intends to let the execution go through. Byakuya chides Renji saying he’s just an animal looking up at the moon, but just like that moon his fangs will never touch him. [Ch. 142] After a lot of failed attempts he managed to scrape Byakuya’s hand or something [Ch. 144] and that’s with Byakuya essentially going easy on him while Renji was going all out do or die style. Granted, Byakuya’s a captain and one of the more powerful ones at that, but still, Renji’s one of the few non-captains to have achieved Bankai and all he could manage was a scratch? Weak.

I guess that one thing Renji’s good at is taking a beating, but he’s not even among the best at that. Ichigo and Kenpachi take a hell of a lot more punishment than him and they keep on ticking (most of the time anyway). What I’d LOVE to see in the upcoming chapters is someone from soul society die at the hands of one of the Espada. It’d be great if it was a vice captain, and I think Renji would be a prime candidate. That could be the one thing he’d actually be useful for, breaking the hearts of fan girls everywhere while adding a bit of grittiness to the story. It would also show that Soul Society isn’t invincible. He’s a major enough character that it would have a lasting impact on readers and he is connected to enough characters in the story to push some development in them. C’mon Kubo, make me proud! Extra points if you have Gin/Tousen/Aizen do it.

renji, bleach, byakuya, BL, yaoi, doujinshi