Category: Ongoing Investigations

Ongoing Investigations: Case #031

1 Comment

I finished the last few Patlabor DVDs and so things just sort of end. Overall it was really enjoyable but isn’t a show for everyone. It has all the benefits and flaws of being a realistic robot show or at least as realistic as you can be in a show with building high police robots. It all depends on if you need your robots to be firing GETTER BEAM and HEARTBREAKER! I was a little surprised when Kanuka Clancy’s six month training was over she really went back to the U.S. She pops up again time to time but not excessively. I liked the writing of the show which is usually pretty smart but not going out of it’s way to be anything more than a procedural cop series.  The comedy episodes were pretty funny especially the episodes where they have to explore the sewers and where one of the mechanics transfers to the American division. I also found the inclusion of one or two supernatural episodes really odd considering the rest of the series is played totally realistic. They slowly built up the two overarching story lines about the Griffin and the Babylon Project well. Like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex they will have a storyline episode in between regular episodes. I wished they had wrapped them up in the TV show proper and not the OAVs which I don’t currently own. Did any of our readers read the original manga? Is it worth reading for 22 books? How much does it differ from the TV? Does it complete things better than the OAVs?

I finally bought Rocket Girls, I have been contemplating it for a while. I have watched the first half of the show so far (six episodes) and couldn’t be happier! It is really a delightful little show with a good blend of comedy, space, and friendship. At one point I felt Yukari was getting annoyingly demanding but they reigned her in pretty quickly. It is great to see the two girls have their strengths and help one another on the mission. They have yet to really introduce the third girl, although we did glimpse her in the beginning. Sure the premise of taking high school girls and training them to be astronauts is out there, but who cares! It is fun. And I haven’t found the show to be fetishy. The animation is rather nicely done. Oh and it also has a great opening!

Tentai Senshi Sunred is still funny is it’s dry wit even on episode 13. The fact that Vamp is a considerably more likable and decent guy than Sunred is a delightful little detail. I also have been enjoying the other branch leader of Florsheim who is a porn fiend. The evil animal force is also usually really good whenever they show up. I have to say the odd mixture of the real wold and the sentai world is in the right proportions to make even very mundane things quite funny. I am curious if anyone who reads the blog has tried out any of Vamp’s recipes. They are rather simple so I might try one myself.

Read the conclusion to The Girl Who Ran Through Time manga, which was only 2 books long. It was certainly much different than her niece’s story in The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. This is a great thing since it makes both piece worth learning about, however the shortness of the manga really left some questions. Especially since the other time mover in the books has very different motives for his actions. I also didn’t find the semi-love-triangle in the manga as engaging as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time’s. A good read but left me wanting more, like the actual novel. Also made me want to watch The Girl Who Leapt Through Time again but that feeling probably would have manifested anyway.

I saw Nana Mizuki’s Live Fighter on Blue-Ray. It was a two day concert and the first day was the Blue concert and the second day was the Red concert. They both had similar song selections with a few differences on each day as well as different costumes. Nana Mizuki is definitely a cute woman with an attractive singing voice. I have to say that Japanese concerts can be extremely flashy with a good amount of production value. Nana flies through the air during her first song and is suspended in the air on a garden seat in the middle of the concert. In fact there is almost always something going on. There is a rock battle in the middle of the concert, a Blue Man Group style performance, and children acting as cheerleaders during one song. She also has a stage set up to walk into the crowd and perform. I liked her main Red outfit because her Blue one was this hideous blue and white sailor getup. There was also some behind the scene footage that would have meant much more to me if I understood Japanese. The concert didn’t turn me into a Ota-gei but I enjoyed it. I would like to thank Moy for letting me come over to his house and see the concert on his totally sweet set up. He is going to be running a contest so you can win the DVDs some time in the future so that is worth looking into.

I was initially attracted to Love Round!! because of the cute cover and back color artwork. Hinako Takanaga has a nice style that translates well from her color pieces to her line art. This BL story seems less typical that what I have encountered so far. Our two boys, Kubo and Kaoru, run into each other on the street. Kaoru knocks Kubo, who is training to be a boxer, out with one punch after he makes an off hand remark. Kubo eventually convinces Kaoru to join the same boxing gym as him, and thus love begins to blossom. Kaoru may have a pretty face but he is feisty and has a short temper thanks to constantly being teased for his looks. Kubo is hilariously blunt and naive despite being a powerhouse boxer. Their relationship is fraught with funny misunderstandings, a knockout meter, and moments of laugh out loud commentary. Not surprisingly boxing and the gym are merely back drops for the developing feelings between these two. This short one book is a lot of fun and has some really cute moments amidst the calamity. There is only one medium graphic sex scene to top off the ending. Love Round!! is the first BL manga that I am keeping for myself after reading it. There is a nice preview of it up, too!

And because it is so lushly animated I had to pick a Tentai Senshi Sunred picture this week. A scene of domestic bliss:

Ongoing Investigations: Case #030

Leave a comment

I randomly downloaded the first two episodes of the BL OVA Kirepapa. Since the OVAs were released almost 11 months apart, I am unsure if there is more planned in the series. So the title basically translates to Beautiful Dad, but let me assure you I went to great pains to make sure there was not incest. So far so good. The story centers around Chisato who is an aspiring author and his son, Riju, who is he very protective of (like a Dad who is super protective of his lovely daughter). Chisato is convinced that everyone, including his son’s best friend Shunsuke, are trying to get close to him. But actually Shunsuke is in love with Chisato, and Chisato can’t keep his eyes off Shunsuke. Now let the games begin. The show is, in a word, hilarious. The comedy is over the top and the serious moments are sooo overly dramatic that it is entertainingly funny. The animation quality is passable but the show is littered with a ton of bishonen. When I say a ton, I mean that every character that appears in the show is a bishie, including the grandfather, Shunsuke’s dad, and Chisato’s boss. It was truly enjoyable and I recommend it to BL fans in need of a laugh.

I finally got the Genshiken Fan Book I had pre-ordered a while back. I found it entertaining overall but some parts of the book puzzled me. The book was obviously written before the end of the manga because several important scenes are never mentioned in the appropriate sections. It starts with your standard premise of the manga and character profiles, and relationship guides. There is also Madarame’s otaku commandments which is basically the best of Madarame’s hard core otaku moments. It then has a guide to Kujibiki Unbalanced with a complete script to the first OAV which I felt was completely unnecessary and just pads out the book. There is a totally original Fanzine from the original Genshiken members that acts as an amusing piece of nostalgia for any older fans. We then have an interview with the (in)famous Ken Akamatsu about doujinshi. I am always surprised that Ken Akamatsu while not stunningly good looking is not that unpleasant to look at. There is then some original fan-fiction stories written by professional authors which were some of the better original content. There is then a guide to being an otaku with a little conversation about gal games between Sasahara and Madarame. The book ends with Shimoku Kio showing what shows he was actually talking about when he wrote up the Genshiken club members profiles as omake in the manga. It finally let me know what shows I was right about and what shows I had no clue about. I was amused that he picked everyone’s birthday and blood type based on what Gundam it would make them in the Gundam fortune-telling book. The book has the odd habit of explaining anything that might be unfamiliar as if the reader was not any type of otaku which is slightly odd. You would assume most people picking this book up were already in deep. Over all I enjoyed the book as a look back on Genshiken and what a great series it was.

Since Natsume Yuujinchou has been officially put up on Crunchyroll I have been catching up with the first season. I watched episodes 5-13 and cannot praise this show enough. It has a slow pace that builds a kind of kinship between you and Natsume. Each piece is a beautiful little story with many a melancholy end. Also good to see some human conflict coming up with the appearance of exorcists as well as others who can see youkai. I really like his interactions with Tanuma their friendship is really nice and was fun to watch in episode 13. I am still looking forward to learning more about Madara since he has sort of taken a backseat in many of these episodes. Wonderful show worth checking out by all!

To steal blatantly from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Captain Harlock is about men who are real men, women who are real women, and small blue haired girls from cruel orphanages who are real small blue haired girls from cruel orphanages. Everyone else is a lazy bastard or corrupt. Harlock definitely has moments of epic space opera goodness but it also has scenes of Gatchaman level camp and some odd comedy. It is at its best when it deals with Harlock being a manly man with his own theme song doing manly things and whenever we deal with the main plot of the alien invasion. I always assumed that the whole series was serious business so I was not expecting Harlock looking after a little girl and the wacky antics of his crew. Also I did not realize there would be such a large divide between the character designs of people like Tadashi Daiba, Kei Yuki and the rest of the crew. Also any time a scientist gets killed in the series they make it almost as dramatic as someone important dying in Blade of the Immortal.

Read Here is Greenwood books four and five. It continues to be hilarious fun dorm life. I really enjoy when the characters talk to the manga-ka or she appears in the chapters. For example, at the beginning of the fourth book Shun and Hasukawa are pondering what Shinobu and Mitsuru were like as first years. There is then this hilarious exchange as the manga-ka laughs maniacally and tells them don’t they realize they just wrote themselves out of the story. Other such occurrences are frequent throughout the series. 

I decided to look at the first two episodes of Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger even though I never finished the first season. The only reason I never finished was I bought the series for my ex-roommate and he took it with him when he moved. Which reminds me I should pick up that series for myself. Since I had a good idea of who all the characters were from I had almost no problems settling in. They have a quick rather unobtrusive recap in the first episode to get anyone with a passing understand back up to speed. We have the standard Ippo has a HUGE penis jokes, Ippo’s slow moving relationship with his would-be girlfriend, and of course the real draw awesome boxing action. The boxing is a middle-ground between being ultra realistic and super move silliness. People have techniques and named moves proving Ippo is firmly shonen fighting but they are mostly grounded in reality with some pseudo-science to back up the rest. The series starts with the spotlight on Ippo’s rival fighting the Australian champ and his mysterious Blood Cross technique. Man oh man does this series lend itself to yaoi doujinshi. They even lampshade the homoerotic tension in the series between Ippo and Ichiro in a playful manner that is a trademark of the series.

Since I have been watching so much Natsume Yuujinchou, this is the pic of the week:

Ongoing Investigations: Case #029

Leave a comment

I have stayed up to date with Toradora! and I think it has been worth it so far. It has been continuing to mix comedy and drama while keeping the story entertaining. I think all the characters have grown on me and continue to impress me. The most impressive thing about Toradora! is how I have warmed up to Ami. At first I felt that she was the loud, bitchy girl who you are supposed to feel sympathy for after one bit of drama ala Sheryl from Macross Frontier. They have avoided this trap by slowly letting us see her complexity. By not trying to change our perception of her like a light switch it makes her a richer and more sympathetic character. I do not love her with the passion that others do but I actually now enjoy seeing her in the story. Minori has also revealed herself to be beyond that of a silly airhead especially when at Ami’s villa and during the school festival.

Finally picked up a copy of All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, the first hardcover collection. It is great to see Jim Lee doing Batman again, he is just incredibly, insanely talented period. And he has only gotten better as time has gone on. There are some really intense pieces which Scott Williams really enhances in this series including one where Batman is holding up little Dick Grayson, here is a scan. I wasn’t aware this series was starting with a Robin origin story, not that I am complaining, on the contrary it was a pleasant surprise. True to Frank Miller form he writes Batman as a borderline psycho which always keeps you guessing. And it certainly does boast an all-star cast, as the title implies, with appearances from the Joker, Bat-girl, and Cat-woman in just these first few issues. Oh, and Batman and Robin making fun of the Green Lantern, hilarious. Looking forward to more!

I am not quite certain why I keep reading Ken Akamatsu stuff. For some reason his books entertain me even if I can’t really say they are good. I just read Negima 19 and 20. Since the school festival arc is over it means they need a training arc before they move on. Ah, the staples of shonen fighting mixed with the staples of shonen romance. And I enjoy this why? Oh and because we did not have enough tsundere girls in the series we had to add Anya, Negi’s childhood friend. I did like her crazy boobie conspiracy theories though. I am always a little scared about how well researched the magic and Latin is in Negima. It’s like finding out that porn you just watched had a team of historical consultants.

Continuing reading of Switch, just finished the second book. It keeps itself moving between intense cop drama and humor pretty well. We wrapped up the story involving the famous model with some serious business. Kai and Hal are a good pair. Then we have a short bust with the help of the department’s analyst, Kuzui, she has a most hilarious crush on Kai. We end on another longer story, which continues into the next volume, involving a high school gang. I have to admit to enjoying seeing Hal and Kai having to infiltrate a high school to get a drug bust. Oh so 21 Jump Street! Though Hal is only posing as a teacher.

I watched the first 4 episodes of Turn A Gundam again. I had started watching a long time ago but then some computer trouble wiped out what I had downloaded so I stopped there vowing to watch it after I finished the original Gundam. Since we are currently watching First Gundam for the blog I decided to restart Turn A. It’s an unusual Gundam series even though it is directed Yoshiyuki Tomino. The initial steam-punk technology of Earth is strange and there are no colonies, only men from the Moon. Loran’s role as a double agent is definitely unique because he has best wishes for both sides. Sochie Heim is a likable character but so far she is getting kicked pretty hard by life and I don’t expect that to change. I will also say it’s amusing to see quite a bit of nudity of both sexes so far. I guess they really wanted to sell you on this 20th anniversary Gundam series.

I was so happy to see the Tower of Druaga second season start up. While I didn’t think the first series was the most incredible story ever written, I really enjoyed it and it left you on quite a cliffhanger! So getting back into it was fun. A little time has passed since the end and we start out with some interesting new mysteries. Fatina remains my favorite character and her interactions with Jil are nicely thoughtout. As with the first season, the opening is unrelated but very well done and a joy to watch. I really appreciate when the staff thinks about the placement of the text in an opening, as opposed to just slapping it over their beautiful animation.

And now my pic of the week (or Hisui reveals herself to be a Turn A Gundam shipper):