Category: Reviews

Broken Blade Movie 1: The Time of Awakening, Ancient Technology is Always Superior!

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hisuiconMecha fans are always looking for the next great show.  Whenever a new property comes out they rush to check it out and give their opinion on the matter. So when Narutaki and I realized that there were six planned movies based on the Broken Blade manga series we were mildly shocked that no one is talking about it. I vaguely remember Dave Cabrera talking about how unusual it was that CMX was releasing the manga but I did not know about the movies until I heard about them on the Decoration Disorder Disconnection Podcast. After watching the first two movies and discovering they were quite good we knew we had to get the word out about this series.

Break Blade, Broken Blade, whatever you call it, I only had a foggy recollection of CMX releasing the manga when Hisui mentioned the series to me. This is unique in itself as there are few mecha manga that don’t originate from an anime. So while I still haven’t picked up this oddity in print form, I dove headfirst into the movies. As there aren’t a ton of robot series coming out each year, the fact that Break Blade seems to have slipped under the radar is rather astonishing. And believe me, it isn’t because these movies aren’t any good. Quite the contrary.

hisuiconThe world of Broken Blade is  a medieval world with a major difference. In broken Blade quartz has supernatural properties that have led the creation of a wide variety of magical technology including mecha. A small percentage of people called un-sorcerers cannot manipulate quartz making them handicapped in society. Therefore when the un-sorcerer, Rygart Arrow is summoned by his old friend the king to pilot an ancient robot he is somewhat perplexed. But his homeland is being invaded and he is the only person capable of piloting the suit that may be the tide of the war. Unbeknownst to him the head of the task force sent to kidnap the royal family is also an old friend putting him between a rock and hard place.

As far as we know, even the lowliest people in the society are able to use magic and Rygart is the only one we’ve encountered thus far that can’t. So he is not only handicapped, people fear him for this abnormality and treat him with everything from pity to malice. Though the few friendships he’s made are solid and trusting. Rygart while seemingly aloof, understandably carries a lot of sorrow much of it stemming from his relationship with his father and his own guilt about not having power. Though we don’t yet know all about Rygart’s past, we do know he hasn’t had a solid life and when he returns to the kingdom things are strained between him and the royal family despite him being summoned specifically and the eagerness with which they greet him.

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AX Alternative Manga Vol. 1: Like Ramza Beoulve we are Heroic Heretics.

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hisuiconMy mother has a decent repertoire of meals she can make and not much beyond that. The problem was that my mom likes to try crazy new dishes in hopes of expanding her menu. On occasion we will get new meals everyone will enjoy but most of the time we get an inedible mess. This is the perfect analogy for the AX anthology. The main appeal of this book is that it is not a book of your standard Shonen Jump style manga. Some of the art has distinctly European and American influences, some of it looks like offbeat seinen and josei, and some of it is just plain ugly. The stories can often be extremely sexual and often throw out the idea of a conventional narrative. They push boundaries and try things no one has tried before for the better and for the worse. While this means when these comics work it can knock your socks off with how original they are it also means most of the time they are a mess.

This unique collection, the first of a presumed series, contains more than 30 very short manga approaching all subjects, genres, and art styles. More than anything AX allows its creators a large amount of freedom and encourages thinking outside the box. Anthologies like this are incredibly important to manga diversity. They showcase experimentation and go far beyond most of the manga one has access to in English. I hope to see collections like this continue to be made if only to further expand manga’s reputation and give people a place to try new things. All that being said, I didn’t like reading this nor did I think many of the stories succeeded.

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There were way too many baseball puns during our stint on the OSMcast.

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We did a guest spot talking about a certain baseball series with Basil of the OSMcast and Drew from Akihabara Renditions. No, we did not talk about the Homer at the Bat episode of the Simpsons. We talked about something even better (if you can imagine that), Mitsuru Adachi’s Cross Game manga and anime. Despite Adachi’s popularity in Japan he is relatively unknown in the U.S. We hope to begin correcting this error by talking about his recently completed series and hope to convince people to try this superb romantic baseball story that has a little bit for everyone. We also talk a bit about Sym-Bionic Titan and Star Driver as our moments of awesome in the beginning because much like the OSMcast crew we cannot help but talk about awesome.

OSMcast: Cross Game 11-8-2010