Category: Reviews

Secret Santa Project Review: Texhnolyze, What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.

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The roulette wheel of fortune is a fickle beast. It can choose to see you go home a winner or it can clean you out without remorse. We had to choose between Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase, Millennium Actress, and Texhnolyze. There was no force on Earth that was going to make Narutaki casually watch Moon Phase; Millennium Actress was a solid choice but we had seen enough Satoshi Kon to easily assume we’d like it so it would have been against the spirit of the project. We gambled on the generally unknown: Texhnolyze. I myself had avoided it because I had heard it was relentlessly grim and obtuse by design which are two things I generally do not care for. We would both learn that my guesses on what this show would be like was all too correct.

To fully embrace the project, I felt Texhnolyze was the only option. I had literally never even heard of the show before and thus I went in with no expectations, no prejudice, and no idea what was going on. This actually became a running theme of the series, the “not knowing what was going on” part that is. Most of Texhnolyze in fact remains an enigma to me even after watching the whole thing and writing this now. But then again, I have no real desire to discover its secrets after all this. In fact, the only thing I can say for sure that was good about this show was that a Gackt song was used for the ending theme!

In the city of Lux, Ichise is a prize fighter until one day he angers someone enough to have them cut of one of his arms and one of his legs off leaving him to die in the street. When he is found struggling to live by a woman name Doc he is given cybernetic limbs. He does not accept his new limbs at first but as tensions in Lux grow to a frenzied pitch he soon finds himself involved in a apocalyptic prophecy only truly known to a young girl named Ran who he seems linked with. I think that is what it is about but I would hardly bet money on that fact. I don’t mind being dropped into a strange world and then slowly learning about it but Texhnolyze takes it too far by not giving me enough pieces of the puzzle. Shows like Haibane Renmei and Xam’d:Lost Memories do similar things but they give you enough information about the main story that you feel you understand what happened but still leave the impression the world still has many secrets it never revealed.

He was a prize fighter!? I just thought he was some schmuck they threw in the ring to get beat on. The first episode has almost no talking so you are left to interpret what is going on, and though the talking increases in further episodes, the requirement to figure out what was going on with little explanation stays the same. I believe in storytelling that “shows not tells” but this was too extreme. Heck, it’s not even clear the city is underground till episode 20. But despite that, the setting is where I would give the most praise for Texhnolyze. It was fully realized and quickly established as a city full of people vying for power and survival, an overall quite unhappy place.

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Manga of the Month: December

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RG Veda by CLAMP

There are few CLAMP works that one could actually say go under appreciated so while RG Veda is certainly not wholly forgotten, CLAMP’s current and growing fan base may not have gone all the way back to the beginning. RG Veda involves many familiar, but well done, fantastical elements including a worn torn land, magic, desolated clans, gods, a mysterious prophecy, an orphaned child, and a group of warriors who come together to fight a great traitor. The setting is distinctly another time and place sufficiently ingrained in many mythologies of the world. The crux of the story centers around Yasha and Ashura, two beings that are destined to meet and cause great deeds and calamities in the world. Yasha is a great warrior who defies both Taishakuten the Emperor, what his clan wants him to do, and even fate itself to protect Ashura who is but a child at the beginning of the story. Once he does this, there is no turning back, his path is set and he has no choice but to see it through. Along their quest to free the world of Taishakuten’s wrathful rule they encounter allies and foes, sometimes having difficulty telling one from the other. There are very fatalistic themes presented so pick your favorites carefully because no one is safe and it’s never clear what paths all will take. While CLAMP reexplores this theme in X (possibly with more polish), RG Veda is still an engrossing fantasy tale with rich characters and a setting that shows off an ability to carve out a memorable tale in just 10 books.

Maison Ikkoku by Rumiko Takahashi

If I had to pick one manga as the only manga I could ever read again it would be a tough choice but I am almost certain I would pick Maison Ikkoku. While she is hardly the best manga-ka Rumiko Takahashi is my favorite manga-ka. And my favorite work she has ever done is Maison Ikkoku. It captures everything that is wonderful about Rumiko Takahasi’s ability to write comedy and romantic drama that pulls at the hearts string while simultaneously tickling the funny bone. Most importantly it has a solid and wonderful conclusion that lets it avoid some of the criticism of her other work.

Yusaku Godai is a ronin desperately studying to get into college but the people in his apartment building keep disrupting his studies. Finally reaching his breaking point he is about to move out when he discovers there is a young and beautiful new apartment manager named Kyoko Otonashi. Godai instantly decides to stay and try and win her affections but he faces some major obstacles. First he is perpetually broke and horrifically unlucky. If anything can go wrong for him it will go wrong for him in the worst possible way. Secondly he quickly gains a rival for her attentions in the form of the handsome, witty, and rich tennis coach, Shun Mitaka. And the most important obstacle is the fact that Kyoko is a widow who has not moved on from her the death of her husband.  Can Godai find happiness or is he doomed to remain a loser for the rest of his life?

I doubt most people are going to connect as personally to the story of Maison Ikkoku as I have. I so empathize with Godai. I understand how it feels to be continually a day late and a dollar short. I know how it feels to wonder if you seemed destined to fail no matter what you do. I know how it is the continually reach for a goal that always seems ever distant. To feel you will never measure up to those around you. I also understand perfectly Godai’s love for Kyoko. Kyoko has a dignified beautify and a refined grace. She is strong yet gentle. She can be stern and even stubborn when pushed but by default she generous and kind. She always pushes Godai forward believing that he can be a better man and do more. At the same time she never lets him get away with giving up or slacking off. More than anything else she feels real. She is a mixture of sadness and happiness and strength and weakness that makes her feel authentic. Their slow building relationship and their give and take is what sold me on the series. But make no mistake I think this series will resonate with anyone who reads it. The delightful mixture of comedy and romance is superbly balanced and draws you in. By taking the scenic route towards the conclusion it makes the overall trip much fun and ultimately rewarding. I could go no but what you should take away from this is that more than any other manga I suggest everyone go out an read at least the first book of Maison Ikkoku.

If anyone knows me well enough they know that I do not whip out Maison Ikkoku as anything but The Big Gun. And with that I announce that Manga on the Month is going on hiatus. This blog is always a work in progress so we decided to mix things up once again. We are replacing the manga of the month with the Speakeasy. Once a month Narutaki and I will pick something that is on our mind and give you a little dissertation on the subject. I think it will be a little more personal and should thought provoking and entertaining for both you the readers and us. See you next year!

Daughter of Twenty Faces, Watch, listen, and think for yourself.

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Every year there is usually one show that goes slipping through the cracks. Daughter of Twenty Faces is not a show has gone totally ignored by anime bloggers and fans. I have found some reviews and a few single reports. But overall a show this good should be on everyone’s lips but it remains a hidden treasure only known to a few. I hope this review does a little to alleviate that fact. This review is actually a long time coming. If I remember our original plan was to post a review about this time last year but due to the last few episodes coming out very late you are only getting it now. However, this show proves that some things are worth the wait. But then again a steampunk detective/phantom thief show with an awesome heroine is always worth the wait.

When I checked Daughter of Twenty Faces out in the Spring 2008 review, I already knew it was something special. But I didn’t know if it would grow to be a great series or just an entertaining one. Either outcome was fine by me. But it just so happened that the show got better, more intriguing, and even harder to pin down as it went along. We even praised the series up and down almost a year ago on the Ani-Gamers podcast! Hisui is right, this has been a long time coming.

Chizuko Mikamo is a unfortunate young girl whose parents have passed away and left her with a sizable inheritance. While her aunt and uncle are taking care of her they are also poisoning her gain her fortune. Fortunately for her the infamous phantom thief Twenty Faces comes to steal her fortune but realizes the true treasure in her mansion is Chizuko and whisks her off to recruit her as a member of his gang. So she proves to be intelligent, resourceful, and cunning member of this rough and tumble family of thieves who take her in as one of their own. But Chizuko’s aunt wants her back to claim her fortune and Twenty Faces also has many a mysterious and dangerous skeleton in his closet as well.

Daughter of Twenty Faces has some wonderful twists and turns, especially in the beginning. The pace of the first episode is so runaway train there is no way the rest of the series would or should be that way. However, the show consistently has an up and down storytelling that gives you a breather only to take away your breath in the next episode. It is not quite clear till around episode 8 that there is more of a science and steampunk influence than was first garnered in the opening stories. This isn’t in detriment to the series but something that has to be accepted. The story pulls elements of both detective work and smooth theft to create a winning combo that is clearly a familiar with the tropes of both genres. But Daughter of Twenty Faces isn’t merely a mash up of such things, oh no, this show is fueled by mysteries of both the past and present and Chiko’s own cunning and curiosity about her mentor and father figure, Twenty Faces.

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