Category: Reviews

Secret Santa Project Review: Millennium Actress – The Running Woman

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hisui_icon_4040_round 2016 gave me a fairly diverse series of Secret Santa titles: Electromagnetic Girlfriend, Millennial Actress, and Strike the Blood. This year I went with Millennial Actress. As always I will try to watch and review all three shows but I never make that promise. I have seen the price of hubris from previous participants and I learned to not over promise on what I can deliver especially around the holidays.

Theoretically, the risky choice is Strike the Blood. At the same time, Strike the Blood seems the most middle of the road show. I remember the show coming out but I have no real recollection of the anime beyond that. I can’t really think of anyone who really loves the show or hates it. I am curious what about the show made my Secret Santa think I would like it but I figured it would make a good third choice if I have the time.

Electromagnetic Girlfriend is a complete unknown to me. At first, I thought someone was asking me to watch Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl (aka Electromagnetic Wave Woman and Adolescent Man) but this turns out to be a different show. The mystery element is rather intriguing. I’m really going to try my hardest to also do a review of this one if I can.

I finally broke the seal on one of my safety movies. Since I started the Secret Santa Project I have deliberately not watched a few movies so that people have things to recommend me. I have owned Millennial Actress and Tokyo Godfathers but I have not watched them so I could hopefully watch them during a year where my choices were dire. As the years have gone by I built up a large list of titles I have not seen but probably should get around to watching. So I figured it was time to finally watch a masterpiece for once.  Continue reading →

Manga of the Month: Haikyu!!

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Haikyu!! by Haruichi Furudate

narutaki_icon_4040_round While Haikyu!! is not the first manga focusing on men’s volleyball, it’s probably the first most of us American fans have heard of. The current season of anime just wrapped up so it seemed a perfect time to re-experience the series from the beginning with the manga.

From the start Haruichi Furudate’s detailed art caught my attention. Sense of movement, strength, and atmosphere are well-composed to capture the intensity of volleyball; a sport that many may have not considered so intense prior. The facial expressions and humor get an equal amount of artistic love, plus the comedic timing is great whether it is breaking up a moment, showing the bonds between comrades, or creating a rapport with other teams.

But one of Haikyu!!’s biggest strengths lies where is should: with the main character. Hinata’s exuberance is infectious. His moment of epiphany towards volleyball happened years earlier, and he is now pursuing his dream. He is not a total novice, he doesn’t need to be taught the basics, but he hasn’t gotten to experience a full team. He is the little guy who jumps with wild abandon in a sport that often prioritizes height. His ego is in check. He simply glows so much when it comes to volleyball that you can’t help but smile. Perhaps best of all is how quickly his rivalry sputters out when his rival ends up being on the same team.

That rival, Kageyama, is as sour as Hinata is bright. Once nicknamed “The King of the Court,” Kageyama has fallen from grace because of his attitude towards his teammates. Hinata and him make an unlikely but essential duo if they hope to see their team gain glory on the court.

And you really, really want to see their team regain their former title. The emotional hooks of Haikyu!! are the strongest I’ve found for the recent crop of popular shonen sports series. This is in part because so many of the other teams we meet are just as interesting as our main group. Do I ultimately want to see Hinata and crew stand proudly at the top? Yes. But that doesn’t mean I won’t shed some tears for the other teams along the way.

Reading the manga has served as an excellent reminder that the series has been strong from the get-go.

~ kate

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin – The Fascinating Journey of Casval the Sociopath

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hisui_icon_4040_round I have said it once and I will say it again, “Streaming has changed everything about how people watch anime.” The ease and convenience have made it that watching things legally streaming has become so simple that shows that are not streaming pretty much disappear from the general consciousness. In the past , there used to be some notable exceptions. There were titles that were so popular that they retained a viewership despite the fact that they were hard to find through anything other than illicit means or importing. Now even titles with evergreen fandoms have become almost invisible when they are not streaming.

The prime examples are Macross Delta and Dragon Ball Super. Compare the conversation around Macross Frontier and Macross Delta. Macross Frontier was the talk of the town with anitwitter and Macross Delta was really only discussed by the hardcore of the hardcore Macross faithful. You could argue this has to do with something like a difference in quality between the shows but the general silence surrounding Macross Delta was present even before a single second of Delta had aired. Even the evergreen Dragon Ball series could not avoid this. Whenever anything Dragon Ball comes out through normal means the fans come out in legion beyond even the familiar faces of fandom. Just look at the turn out to the new Dragon Ball movies in theaters. So when something as monumental as the first new Dragon Ball TV series in 18 years (Dragon Ball Z Kai is not new material) comes out like a ghost in speaks volumes. It would have been the ONE series that I assumed this would not happen to but even Goku could not defeat the beast of invisibility that comes for a series without a streaming component.

In between the world of no streaming and shows with a footprint in fandom lies Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin anime. Much like a phasing card in Magic: The Gathering it seems that Gundam: The Origin spends parts of the time visible to fandom and then disappears for a time. Whenever a new episode of Gundam: The Origin comes out the previous episodes will stream for a month and the go back into Sunrise’s version of the Disney Vault. It means that Gundam: The Origin is not normally available to what you think of streaming anime but it also has a visible footprint.

If you have ever owned a Netflix account and used it actively you have probably put something in your queue and put off watching it until they day you realize it is not longer streaming through the service. It is VERY easy to put off until tomorrow what could easily be done today until it is too late. That is why we are talking about Gundam: The Origin today. With the release of the 4th episode, we wanted to muse on the OVA series while the iron is hot. In this current window of streaming in probably the best time to discuss the show. It lets everyone who might have otherwise overlooked the series a chance to sample it for free while also reminding people who have forgotten to watch it the last time it was available that they have a second chance.

narutaki_icon_4040_round Ahh, the Gundam 0079 story is the best with an incredible cast of characters. Trying to add to that narrative could be a dangerous tightrope walk but Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s storytelling is impeccable. The flashback arc that The Origin anime covers is so much less about robots than you would expect in a Gundam series, it is a dramatic, compelling story of the road to war.

Disclaimers:

  1. There may be spoilers for Gundam 0079 since this is a prequel story.
  2. To keep things from getting confusing: Casval will be the name used for the rest of the post no matter what phase of his identity he is in.

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