Category: Drama

Gunslinger Girl: IT IS SO SAD

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 2011 lulled me into a false sense of security. Metal Fighter Miku was far from the best anime I ever watched but it was not horrible. In fact we loved episode ten. And we actually had to CHOOSE between that and Rune Soldier. It was so nice to participate in secret Santa and not make it into Sophie’s Choice when we decide what to watch. This year sadly was a return to the normal grind we have with secret Santa.

Our choices were Kaiba, Mysterious Girlfriend X, and Gunslinger Girl. There was a palpable sense of dread between Narutaki and I when we were trying to pick which of the three shows to watch. Kaiba was out because it would have meant the Kickheart diehards would have won and that is like letting the terrorists win (also WE watched an episode of the series in the past and were colossally turned off). Narutaki could not watch Mysterious Girlfriend X partially for personal reasons and partially BECAUSE PEOPLE LICKING EACH OTHERS SPIT IS DISGUSTING. So all we were left with was Gunslinger Girl. We had already read the first three volumes of the manga so in a way we were going over territory we had already crossed. But this let us see if the anime did anything different that might let us enjoy it more. Also we had already been bitten by this snake so we hoped we would be slightly more immune to its poison.

I had read a bit of the manga for Gunslinger Girl a while ago so it wasn’t too big of a deal to retread the ground with the anime. But I didn’t enjoy the manga so I wasn’t very enthusiastic.

Everything I said about the manga ends up going for the anime as well: some politics and plots are interesting but isn’t the focus enough of the time; the girls lives are so so so sad that I stop caring almost immediately; and it has a tendency to be quite talkie.

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Time Traveler: It’s Cruel but It’s History

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I loved the Girl Who Leapt Through Time, who didn’t? That was a sequel to the original novel story The Girl Who Ran Through Time. This movie doesn’t really have any trigger like leaping or running so I’d call it the Girl Who Fell Through Time, maybe. It also only has one big movement through time as opposed to a bunch of little ones.

Well “The Girl who Drank a Magic Science Potion That Made Her Then Run Through a Weird Blue Screen Sequence to Go Back in Time” does not really roll off the tongue. It is possibly better than what I was going to name this article, “Time Travelers Never Do Nothing For No One” or just have a link to a certain anime song that I use whenever time travel comes up. But I guess that is why we trade-off writing the article names.

But in all seriousness Time Traveler: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is based on one of those stories like A Christmas Carol or Romeo and Juliet that is constantly remade and re-imagined. The original story The Girl Who Runs Through Time is a Japanese science fiction classic. It has been remade in several movies, TV series, and specials. This and the film by Mamoru Hosoda are both sequels that deal with younger relatives of the orignal protagonist. Thankfully you don’t need to have experience the orignal story to get into this movie. While familiarity with the original does add a bit of depth you might have otherwise missed it is not vital. The wink and the nod to the smell of lavender can be caught by fans of the original but are not necessary to anyone watching this as a stand alone experience.  This story stands well on its own as its own time traveling love story.

Akari Yoshiyama seems to have luck on her side. She just got into the school of choice and her life seems on track for a brilliant future. But when her mother is hit by a car it seems that her problems actually lie in the past. Before falling into a coma her mother asks Akari to go back in time and give a message to a young man. As ridiculous a request as that seems it appears her mother has a formula that can make it happen. But when Akari is two years off in her trip back in time she must team up with a young science fiction director to deliver her message. Can Akari find this mysterious man without permanently damaging the time space continuum?

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Manga of the Month: Black Jack

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 Black Jack (ブラック・ジャック) by Osamu Tezuka

Osamu Tezuka has an incredibly diverse body of work. There are his high-profile children’s works like Kimba the White Lion, Astro Boy, and Princess Knight. While they don’t talk down to their audience they are clearly for children. You then have his strictly seinen works like MW, Adolf, and Swallowing the Earth. They are clearly for an adult audience with mature themes. But Black Jack sits firmly in the middle of these two extremes. It ran in a shonen magazine but it reads more like a seinen title. It has a fine balance between that make in an extremely accessible but weighty classic.

Black Jack is not just a genius surgeon. He is the quintessence of a genius surgeon. When you have a medical issue that no one else can handle you go to Black Jack. There are only two catches. He is an unlicensed surgeon and therefore his services exist outside the law. The other is that he is astronomically expensive. He charges millions of dollars for his services. While he is not a complete bastard, as he often waves his fee for people honestly in need, he hardly advertises that fact. The manga is mostly episodic tales of Black Jack’s strange cases with everything from operating on terrorists in the sewers to dealing with ectoplasmic patients.

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