Tag: Macross Frontier

Ongoing Investigations: Case #007

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Boogiepop at Dawn is the fourth book released by Seven Seas Entertainment in the Boogiepop series. Technically this is the sixth book in the Boogiepop series but it’s a good deal of prequel material so it doesn’t break the narrative. I wonder if they pushed this one ahead because of it’s greater ties to the anime. Boogiepop at Dawn is a god send for American Boogiepop fans because it finally clears up and explains several unexplained mysteries, characters, and events from the TV series. We finally get to see the Scarecrow; learn the story behind the constantly mentioned serials killings; learn the story behind the death of Nagi Kirima’s father; and the story of his novels. Boogiepop Phantom was not the easiest anime to wrap your head around in the first place. Not having the light novel background that many of the Japanese viewers had made it even worse. The novel claims to be the origin of Boogiepop but I feel it is more the origin of Nagi Kirima and how she met Boogiepop than Boogiepop’s origin.

Daughter of Twenty Faces 12 and 13 were exciting indeed! And knowing that the series was supposed to end here is not surprising. The show didn’t wrap up all of its mysteries by any means but it threw us a very climatic battle and meeting. And I could see it being over and knowing there is more to the story but you’ll have to read the manga to find out. Lucky for us we have 9 more episodes to go!

I finally got around to reading Vampire Hunter D volume 1 in preparation of seeing Hideyuki Kikuchi at New York Anime Festival. The first Vampire Hunter D movie is based on this book. The movie defers a good deal from the novel but it keeps all the high points. The major difference is Rei Ginsei is the head of his own little gang of bandits instead of being a servant of Count Lee. This lets him be a wild card that is constantly allying with various people to kill D. Other than that I feel we get a greater insight into certain characters, events, and background of the world. We see much more of Ramika and Greco. The framework of Vampire Hunter D is the standard western story of a mysterious stranger who rolls into town to save a beautiful woman and her farm from a corrupt big shot. He makes the story his own by adding elements of horror and post-apocalyptic literature and films to spice up the story. My only real complaint is Hideyuki Kikuchi is obsessed with constantly mentioning how beautiful D is all the time. Each chapter either the narrator or some character comments of how good looking D is.

Macross Frontier 18 made me realize a few things. First off, Brera is totally under-used. I thought he was going to be big but he has basically fallen to wayside as super cock-block and that is about it. I hope that changes. Secondly, I’m not sure where they are going with Sheryl, she was out of character in this episode but that isn’t surprising considering the news she got. The next few episodes will be really important for her character development. Lastly, maybe they have been doing it all along but this episode had a lot of very convenient moments, i.e. Sheryl shows up at the library and Sheryl calls a random person. The second one could actually have merit, we will see. Of course you must accept certain coincidences in anything. And since it was brought up in the last ongoing investigation. I’ll just clarify that I don’t give characters a free pass just because they had something bad happen to them. I don’t automatically erase malicious actions from my mind because they have had some trauma. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t forgive them if they showed some sort of change or remorse. All of that is yet to be seen. Oh, the new opening while I like the song a lot the animation sequence was pretty blah.

SS Astro is like Azumanga Daioh but the jokes are about the teachers instead of the students. Oh, and someone thought Kaorin should be main character and not minor side character. Also we have a lesbian substitute teacher than has a clear crush on the main gym teacher. It is definitely a seinen manga in humor and style. I really liked SS Astro but I have reservations about it. The characters are charming and amusing. I really liked the school nurse who was obsessed with people getting hurt so she could see blood. My only problem was there is this aura of pandering around the manga that I am not sure I am comfortable with. It’s not a deal breaker but if they turn up the pandering another notch or two it might get too much for me.

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #006

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I read BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad volume 12 and I have a feeling it is going to get the ax with the way things are going at TokyoPop. It’s a shame because we are finally getting to the story past the anime. Everyone is getting ready to tour in America and saying their goodbyes in Japan. It’s is essentially a transition book but Harold Sakuishi keeps it entertaining. BECK is such an amazing manga I can’t see why people don’t care about it. I guess music manga falls in the same category as sports anime and manga. It is one of those genres that people love in Japan but won’t give a chance in the U.S.

Watched Macross Frontier episodes 15, 16, and 17. It has certainly become a show I don’t want to miss a moment of. Obviously we are getting closer and closer to the end and it still keeps me guessing. Still haven’t seen the person who is the main villain. For a few brief moments I thought the love triangle was on equal footing, but not so much now. Sheryl and Alto have to spend some more time together in the next couple of episodes or there is no way you could convince me he would end up with her. I’m inclined to believe he won’t anyway (good!). I have taken to laughing at the karma I feel is biting Sheryl in the butt. Speaking of love, Cathy and Ozma have to be my favorites to see on my screen! It is kind of like if you ever wondered what would have happened if Roy got together with Misa.

We might not necessarily know who the head honcho of the bad guys is but we do know who his two lieutenants are. Oh episode 17 was just awesome for so so many reasons. If you were not sure that Ozma was a Fire Bomber fan this episode all but shows you his Fire Bomber fan club card next to his Mylene wall scroll. I loved the repeated use of Try Again. Even if we never get that Basara cameo we all want this was more than good enough. I want to mention more reasons why 17 was awesome but that is spoiler country. Sufficed to say more love letters to the all the Macross franchise. Oh and take that Sheryl fans! Take that! Cry while you listen to Don’t Be Late!

Finally, finally, finally picked up the first book of Vagabond. I must have been saying I was going to for over six months. Ended up being pretty good, I wasn’t totally blown away by it but it was definitely good and good enough to pick up the second (hopefully in less than six months from now). Inoue’s style seems to lend itself to this story, gives it a more gritty and real look. Also was glad to see the color pages in tact!

I read volumes 6, 7, and 8 of Mobile Suit Gundam: Ecole du Ciel recently and I have to say it’s a pretty good series that is totally falling through the cracks. It’s a Gundam series with a female protagonist. I know that is heresy but they make it work and are not consumed by the vengeance of Red Comet-sama himself. Ecole du Ciel starts after the end of the original Gundam series and is currently in the middle of Zeta Gundam. At least I think they are up to Zeta Gundam. Feel free to slog through the Universal Century timeline to prove me wrong. There are side notes to get you up to speed about certain major events but I feel they are more reminders to people who have watched the original than explanations for neophytes. Don’t be discouraged by that. This is Asuna Elmarit’s story as she fights in the Universal Century. Major events from the TV series are referenced but Asuna’s story is always her own. Characters die left and right, named characters are clearly not safe. It is a character based story but it is still a war story. Another  series that is probably getting the ax now that Tokyopop is dropping stuff left and right. It’s a shame because there is not much out there like this.

Read books 28 and 29 of Samurai Deeper Kyo. After book 28 I was like, why am I reading this? After book 29 I was like, this is why! I am so tired of groups of villains randomly showing up, now we are onto the four elders. Oh wait the girl they fight in the beginning of 28 is a EX-four elder. SIGH. Then we have three crazy magicians. UH. Oh look an elder finally! He has 10 levels of speed. WHAT? I will be glad when we are actually at the last bad guys, but I’m sure we will have to make it through more groups of villains first. Who is next? The five mahrajs? Thank goodness for all the excitement and bloody battling in 29. Plus a critically injured Yuya, spoiler you say, I think not. I mean can the girl do anything except get hurt, kidnapped, or possessed? This series is a complete roller coaster from bad to good. It is far and away too long, but it’s a shonen fighting series so why I am so surprised? But I keep hanging on because I love Demon Eyes Kyo, can’t help it.

My Heavenly Hockey Club keeps reminding be of Ouran High School Host Club if it were written by Ai Morinaga. I like Ai Morinaga but damn. The similarities are too much to be coincidence. They both have poor girls going to a school of rich kids. They both have tomboyish, sarcastic main girls. They both have a girl who is blackmailed into joining an otherwise all boys club. They both have clueless club leaders that are in love with the main girl. They both have twins that no one can tell apart. There are definite differences in the humor and the writing but you can’t even pretend that My Heavenly Hockey Club is trying to be super original.

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #002

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I just watched the second Kara no Kyoukai movie so I might as well talk about the first and the second movie. There are going to be seven Kara no Yoko movies each based on a chapter of the original series. Each chapter is partially a self contained story but they also all build to a unified story. The first story is a ghost story with a bit of a flashy action sequence at the end. We are dropped in the middle of the story with a decent amount of time to develop who everyone is. The second is murder mystery with the origin of how the main characters met. I don’t know why Ask John was so harsh on the second film. It was clearly meant to be an unfinished story. It presents a mystery that makes you wonder what happened that is clearly only meant to be solved in the last film. I think it is clearly a series of movies for fans of Kinoko Nasu. It’s his first major work so I feel the story telling is not as polished as his later works but I still found it entertaining. The visuals are certainly theatrical quality so it is a pleasure to watch. As far as I can tell without ever reading the original stories the adaptation is fairly faithful unlike previous Type-Moon series.

Macross Frontier 13 was exactly what I wanted to see. It actually started with 12 and continued on into this one. Ranka singing and saving the world with it, Alto fighting like hell to keep her safe, secrets revealed, explosions, awesome robot fights, and a good cliffhanger! YES YES YES! Throw in some cute moments between Ranka and Alto (which they did) and I’m basically set for life. I felt as if I have been waiting for this and now my love for the series has really burst forth. I also found it funny that in original Macross I really started to love it about the same number of episodes in.

I am also pretty sure one character who “died” in this episode can’t be dead because they were just getting interesting. They went from seemingly unimportant minor side character with intriguing questions hanging around them, to major conspirator, to dead. I don’t think so. I’m usually not one to complain about the ability to kill off characters but this character was just coming into their own.

I watched a few more episodes of GaoGaiGar. It is distinctly formulaic but it is still fun. I am curious how it supposedly it goes from a by the numbers kids giant robot show to something beyond that but I’m still in the formula section. This show has made me come to the realization that giant robot shows are nothing more than magical girl shows for boys. They have many of the same tropes just in different guises. They both have similarly organized bad guy organizations; they usually have the same recycled transformation sequences; they both have recycled finishing moves; also the finishing moves is usually upgraded at the exact same rate in both types of shows.

I was really worried about not getting my Nosatsu Junkie volume 6. However, TokyoPop did not fail me. I was really pleased with this volume, there is a huge turning point and then a cliffhanger so we don’t know the results of said turning point till the next volume. We are also seeing Naka moving into the spotlight with her modeling career. This effects Umi is some interesting ways including making him jealous and making him worry about losing his top spot, but inevitably he loves Naka more. Their relationship continues to amuse me and I love watching their hilarious and sweet encounters. Can’t wait for the next volume!

I just read One Piece chapter 506 and wow did we get some major revelations. We finally learn a good deal about the capture and execution of Gold Roger. There was something that was never quite right about the whole deal and it is finally explained. One Piece has been making a good effort to get to explaining some of the mysteries of the series as of late. I know that Daryl Surat had complained that he stopped reading One Piece because he could not get over that they kept bringing up plot threads but never resolving them. I never really was too distressed at any unresolved plot threads. I never got the feeling that they would not be resolved but I can’t say I’m unhappy that they are starting to be tied up.

Read the latest chapter of NANA. I love Ai Yazawa with all my heart but I am a bit put off by the things going on in this story recently. It seems like the longer it goes on the less she knows where she is going with it. What with the forward flashes not seeming to connect with the current arc. And funnily enough that character I have been loving and care the most about currently is Reira. She is driving things to happen and she also seems to care about the people around her. I find myself wishing for a conclusion and soon. Oh and as usual I hate Yuri, FREE NOBU!

For some reason I see Narutaki flying to Japan and starting a sit in protest outside Ai Yazawa in the way one would start a free Tibet protest. That’s it for this week’s investigations! Look for a new case file every Friday!

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