The Rough Guide to Anime, Hoofing it in the Anime Outback.

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As someone who writes for a blog that updates at least twice a week, it is extremely obvious that I have a passion about anime and manga. This lends itself to me taking an interest in books that examines anime as well. So when Narutaki was able to get the Rough Guide to Anime for an incredibly low price I was only too eager to review it. The Rough Guide series started as a series of travel guides for backpackers but in 1994 branched out into books that give overviews of various topics. In a way they a pretty much like For Dummies books but with a more rugged title. The book attempts to introduce the reader to what anime is and how unique and versatile it can be.

When I hear you say that, it makes me think about the people who are buying this book. How many of them are people who have a casual interest in anime and want to understand it better and how many are just bloggers, etc. who grabbed it to see if they find it sufficient. And of course every guide of every thing ever will have people divided on just how good it is and if they writer knows enough to call themselves an authority. But as luck would have it, Simon Richmond isn’t an entrenched otaku himself and so it’s almost a perfect look at what someone with a casual understanding of anime finds significant and interest grabbing.

We start with a brief history of anime going decade by decade to show how the medium started and then how it has changed over the years. The guide then runs down a list of 50 anime that everyone should see. The list is a mixture of TV series, OAVs, and movies with the main focus of being exceptional anime from through out the history of anime. The book then looks at the people who make anime with sections on studios, directors, voice actors, and musicians. It then segues into the various genres within anime with a few notable examples from each genre. The next section is how anime has mixed with other mediums such a live action dramas based on anime, video games crossovers, foreign co-productions, and various parts of anime fandom. The series finishes up with a glossary and a rather large section of links so you can learn more.

What is most important in a guide like this is accessibility, and I think Simon nails that. The breakdown of sections as well as the language therein are casual and without a feeling of bias or superiority. I found the myriad of sections of proper length and depth free for the most part of tangents but nice side notes and boxes for more information on some terminology or a specific incident or show. There is obviously a great deal of time dedicated to Tezuka, as is warranted, but I do feel others needed more focus overall. This is helped somewhat in the call-outs to important names but some times to confusion. For example, Go Nagai is certainly a name to know but why is he in the directors section? I think it would have been best to just have an overall section of influential people. This would have also made the seiyuu and music sections look less neglected.

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #075

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I continued my journey with Detective Conan in watching the 4th Movie, Captured in Her Eyes. This one clearly makes Ran the focus of the movie but by giving her amnesia after she witnesses a police woman being shot in front of her as part of a series of attacks against police officers. So most of the movie is Conan trying to get her to get her memories back so she can remember the shooting while trying to simultaneously to solve the case.  I got a better insight into every one’s relationships as they tried to explain to Ran who they were. The story is weaker the the last movie but I still found it enjoyable. The story starts off strong with some action and murder and sort of coasts in the middle. The end gets exciting again and has some great chase sequences with a solid finale. Everyone role in this movie was more organic integrated than the last movie which was nice to see. Not the first Detective Conan movie you should see but definitely not one you should skip over either.

Captured in Her Eyes is strangely able to show Ran at her weakest and show her kicking ass in a properly dramatic scene. At first you may think, Ran sees murders all the time as does anyone involved with Conan! However, this time around she was close to death and what’s more, she has seen the killer’s face. There is a much more personal element in this movie, even in the mystery itself as one of the officers targeted is a recurring character. This movie also showcases a little of Ran and Kudo’s connection, not that it isn’t obvious, but it’s not always central and in this case there is a desperation on Conan’s part. For better or for worse, those are the best parts of movie. The mystery itself is enticing for sure but the figuring of it out isn’t as intriguing. Though this is all saved by some really incredible animation sequences including one of Conan skateboarding down this giant ice slide thing and then almost immediately after a nice boat chase scene! Enjoyable of course, but Capture in Her Eyes is more memorable for the animation than anything else.

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Visual Novel Logos Part 3: Oh the drama.

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Round Three visual novel logo designs! In the last two posts we looked at the two most easily spotted designs for visual novels: crying girl games and bishoujo games. Our last article is about fantasy games, being that Fate/Stay Night is in this category I obviously have a good deal of interest in the topic. Fantasy visual novels usually have more complex and intricate plots than other visual novels. I will admit it was harder to get logos for this section compared to the 200+ logos I downloaded for the other two posts. I had to call upon twitter to get enough logos to feel comfortable about writing this. I would like to thank ClarissaG, Rainbowsphere, animeiscartoons, janaiblog, and wildarmsheero for all suggesting titles and saving me from having to pour through The Visual Novel Database for hours.

When comparing all three logo posts side by side, it becomes immediately obvious that each approach is very different. And that is what you want to have happen! Logos are meant to tell you something and give you an immediate feel to what you are going to be seeing (using, eating, whatever, etc.). Overall I saw a little more variety in the fantasy visual novel genre but you can see glean some common properties from them. There is a feeling of complexity to these logos that is composed of not only the many pieces involved by each piece having a flair of it’s own.

The first thing that stands out about fantasy game logos is they always have huge symbols in the background. They are usually ornate and just as important as the title as part of the logo. Where in other games any background symbol is usually merely an accent or a mascot the symbol in a fantasy game in an equal partner with the logo. The games usually have the title with bold and heave lettering with much smaller type for the subtitle. The gravity and darkness of the game is usually identifiable buy how dark the lettering on the logo is. This text usually appears on a straight line with only a minor bit of flair to the writing to make it stand out. Fate/Stay Night is a good example. The red and black command symbol in the background tells the reader that the game has a darkly mystical feel.  The letter of the text back this feeling up but mostly lets the symbol do the talking.

Color palette plays less of a role in these logos, you can see everything from pink to blue used, but there is a darkness creeping in to them. This move from dark to light can give a ominous feeling to the logos and establish that perhaps the story seems light or starts in a mild direction but opens up to something deeper. The type itself has a sharpness to it, either in the letters themselves or the formation they are in or both. Then there is the tell-tale symbol with the logo, in these cases that symbol usually represents something in the series rather than being an abstract object to establish feeling as seen in the previous visual novel posts. I see the complexity and layers of the logo as a representation of the story being told throughout the series.

I am always curious if other people agree with our observations or have other good examples to add to our case files. Other than that I leave the next part up to our readers. The 4th most obvious category for visual novels is horror games like Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Saya no Uta but I could not come up with a common design aesthetic for their logos. If anyone wants to try and find a common design I am curious what they find. Also if anyone can find logo similarities in other types of visual novels I would like to hear about that as well.

Visual Novel Logos: Part 1 Part 2