Tag: One Piece

Ongoing Investigations: Case #022

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For the 40th anniversary of Shonen Jump they released three new special anime episodes on their website subtitled in English. Romance Dawn was the One Piece addition to the line up. Romance Dawn is the name of one of several prototype manga that would influence One Piece. This anime take the version with Silk instead and modifies it to be a part of the current One Piece continuum. Luffy gets separated from the rest of the crew and has to save a village from the pirate Crescent-Moon Galley. It was an enjoyable little filler story. While not amazing, it is an effective little wink to any big fans of the series which I think all of these special episodes are supposed to be. If you already knew that Eiichiro Oda made three separate prototype manga named Romance Dawn then you should have already watched this if you already haven’t.

Read Monkey High! volumes 2 and 3 and it continues to be a sweet romantic comedy that doesn’t dwell on minor miscommunications. The second book has an epically long chapter that the manga-ka talks about at the end, apparently it was for a special issue. The kids participate in a quiz show to much laughter and antics but we also saw a little more of Haruna’s home life and her strained relationship with her father. Also in the second volume there is some hilarious commentary at the end by the manga-ka depicting her reactions to the many postcards she receives. She also goes on to say that she can’t believe girls think Masaru (the main love interest) is cute. Volume 3 deals with the ever popular Valentine’s Day and as usual with this series it results in minor drama and much laughter. Both these volumes have Haruna attempting to communicate that she likes Masaru as much as he likes her amidst their ever meddling classmates. I am looking forward to the next volume, it always puts me in a good mood!

Cobra The Animation: The Psychogun is over the top, pulp, science fiction fun. Cobra is one of those so-silly-it-is-good shows that thankfully never takes itself seriously. Cobra is part bounty hunter, part space Lupin, and part Inspector Gadget. After Cobra wastes three space pirates in the intro he decides to dress as a priest to steal some diamonds. During his flawless heist, pirates attack the museum he is robbing and that means it’s Psychogun time. He eventually saves the sexy archaeologist the pirates are after. He follows her to Mars partially to hit on her and partially to kill more space pirates. Seems fine enough but it’s all the details that are crazy. The archaeologist Dr. Utopia More I like to call Dr. Space Thong. Every woman in the series is dressed in either a bikini or skin tight spandex. That is height of women’s fashion in the future. There is also the pirate commander who is a sarcophagus with arms and legs, flying skeleton robots, and a super stereotypical Mexican space pirate with mustache, sombrero, and bandoleer. Cobra himself has a sexy female android, about a dozen gimmick cigars, and his uberhax Psychogun that puts Megaman’s blaster to shame. Oh and Cobra not only tosses women around he uses Newton’s law of universal gravitation as a pick up line. Good times. I can’t wait for the next one.

I always wait anxiously for the next book of Kekkaishi, so I was very happy to finally get volume 15. At the end of the last volume we saw a small girl and were unsure of her powers. In this book she proves to have a totally cool ability to make friends with inanimate objects and specifically rope in the story. She is then able to have it do things for her and even use it as a weapon. She totally needs to take the place of lame Sen. Along with her, enter some cool villains with the power to paint boxes and make them into walls, portals, etc. We also meet the librarian for the Urukai, lots of interesting characters showing up recently. We also see characters fight that we hadn’t had a chance to yet. In addition to all of that, Yoshimori starts to pull more power into his zekkai and Tokine starts developing more of her ability to manipulate space. They are growing and the questions about Karasumori are coming to surface as well.

The Bleach: SOULs Character Book is a very pretty book. The first part is some very nice colored art and stickers. The second part is detailed character write-ups of just about everyone, locations, items, and concepts in Bleach up to the end of the Soul Society arc with a preview of the Hecto Mundo Arc. There is also an interview with Tite Kubo and Masakazu Morita who plays Ichigo. We then have an original prelude comic and the prototype comic for Bleach. I was amused that Ichigo and Orhime had crushes on each other in the original draft of Bleach. It also has palm sized Rukia for most of the story which is either super silly or super awesome depending on who you ask.

My recent obsession with the Vocaloid phenomenon has sent me to many a great fan artist. I like this person’s overall style and they happened to do a few pictures of the series as well. So this is the pic of the week:

Ongoing Investigations: Case #021

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I was interested in Chaos;Head because it was described as Welcome to the NHK mixed with Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Since I loved both series I figured this might be a great combination. This was not a lie. In fact it’s a good one line description. Unfortunately, Chaos;Head takes all my least favorite parts of both series and combines them into one utterly detestable show. I liked Keiichi as a character from Higurashi although I may be in the minority. Sato from Welcome to the NHK was not a likable character but he was enjoyable because he was the main character in a dark comedy. Takumi Nishijo is an even less likable character and he is the star of a paranoid supernatural murder mystery. I will forgive a character for being utterly unlikeable for comedy but not drama. Also I can’t imagine the world where, no matter how much magic is involved, any woman would watch to touch Takumi with a 10 foot pole. Also I found most of the female characters rather flat and uninteresting. If you can’t interest me in women with magical swords you are obviously doing something wrong. I am curious what is behind all the murder in Shibuya but not enough to keep watching. Chaos;Head plays with some good plot hooks but without good characters to back them up.

Got around to books 2 and 3 of Here is Greenwood. The guys of Greenwood never fail to crack me up with their antics from helping out pop idols to the fierce competition (and betting pool) at the sports festival. It remains a delightful, funny series about friendship and dorm life with the constant addition of over the top situations.

Armored Trooper Votoms ends like so many other anime with the main character killing God. This of course makes everyone think of Nietzsche so you can insert your own The Gay Science joke here. The plot quickly becomes all about Chirico as we entered part 4. God Planet Quent throws some major plot revelations that diminish poor Fyana’s significance which was sad because I liked her. They avoided the trap of making Fyana a useless girl character in a robot show but her importance to the plot rises and falls depending on the episode. Sometimes she has to be protected; others she does the protecting. She never fades away but I would have liked to see her be Chirico’s partner like she was in Part 3. I liked the ending but the the epilogue seemed sort of bizarre in Chirico and Fyana’s decision. Votoms was a good take on the real robot genre. The mecha in Votoms had many different variations but was utterly utilitarian and there was no uber mecha that rule over all other mecha. It was all about the pilots. I think I would like to see more series like that but I wonder if that effects the all important model kits sales.

I read the 07-Ghost preview courtesy of Go-Comi which I can’t ever recall buying any manga from as of yet (though I have been interested in Bogle which is about a theif). It has nice artwork and pretty boys running around in military school. So far there has been some supernatural abilities slightly displayed and there is an obvious secret agenda by the school. Since it was just a preview I didn’t get a sense of the world yet, however it has a nice fantasy or possibly alternate history feel to it. I also like the friendship between the two main guys. I may just pick up my first Go-Comi title with this one. Also has an anime on the way in Japan.

I finally picked up my two One Piece figures from my parents house. I love the Portrait of Pirates figures. They are nicely made and have been getting significantly more intricate as the series goes on. We start with the only figure that is two different figures in one because of course Usopp is a completely different person than his good friend Sogeking. Usopp comes with two different Sogeking masks, his toolbag, cape, and the Kabuto slingshot.

I like the Bon Clay figure but have to say it’s rather odd for them to make a figure of him. I know he distinctly has a following in Japan. Surpassing characters like Buggy, Sir Crocodile, Mihawk and the such. That is the way that Japan decides to make it’s crazy choices. Still there are very few one piece characters I would not buy a figure of so who am I to complain. Bon Clay comes with two different faces and you can attach his swans to his feet from maximum Okama Kenpo power.

Finally got to see the first episode of Tentai Senshi Sunred which is a limited animation production parodying tokusatsu shows. Would very much fit in the vein of Adult Swim productions and the animation is similar to it as well. Oh and it is just 15 minutes long. A pretty funny show that you really don’t have to know much about sentai shows to get. And it has a totally awesome opening song (keep an eye on those subtitles!) which is reason enough to see it.

Pic of the week:

Ongoing Investigations: Case #017

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Ai Morinaga saw a clearly untapped niche in the manga market and capitalized on it. Japan did not have (and needed) a manga about abusive homosexual human/frog relationships. The Gorgeous Life of Strawberry Chan fills this void as only it can. It has the standard Ai Morinaga fascination with mean-spirited comedy told with jerk-faced characters. For some reason she does it in a way that I enjoy. I think a good litmus test of your enjoyment of Strawberry Chan is the fact that Strawberry Chan’s owner sticks a straw up his butt and inflates him like a balloon to blow off stress. If you find this funny then try Strawberry Chan. If that makes you feel anything else you might want to go elsewhere.

I mentioned last week that I have been reading a lot of anthologies and a stand out one was X2. This series of shorts is done by the manga-ka of Monkey High! which I recently gave a glowing review of the first book. It captures the sweet and funny moments of new love. It was fun and hopeful and it gave the characters enough of a life that I could understand their feelings in a such a short amount of time. I also ready SOS which had a good range within its pages. We move from happy but dark underneath, to sweet and sad, to hopeful. But one deals with first love in its own way. I particularly enjoyed the last story involving a shooting star, but I am just a sucker for such things.

Maria-sama ga Miteru shows that your lesbian Catholic school fantasy is most probably not as interesting as you would think. I bought the first boxset due to Nozomi Entertainment getting some oddball shows which I encourage with my wallet. Also I have seen that it’s one of those super love it or totally hate it shows. I did periodically crack up with the thought of a roving band of bad girls that go through the school and jump girls to improperly tie their ties and get them in serious trouble. They would never physically hurt them. Heavens no! The disgrace of an off center tie would be worse than any physical pain. Other than that it always seems like it wants to be an over the top drama fest but never dares break the carefully constructed placid world. Slow and subtle are the watchwords for this show.

Man, this show. I grant it that the second episode was mildly better than the first but still it struck me as rather boring. Everyone is proper and quite and it made me crazy! I just wanted to leap through the TV and cause a ruckus! Even the most outspoken and wild girl is still whispering her wildness. It doesn’t move into comedy and it isn’t outlandish enough to be a over the top drama. I am kinda of curious to watch a little more just to see if they can actual get me to feel any sexual tension in this show which there wasn’t in the first two episodes.

Pani Poni Dash! is the exact opposite of Maria-sama ga Miteru. The show has no time to smell the roses because it has the next joke to get to. Pani Poni Dash can be subtle at times. In fact, it’s easy to miss the subtle humor because of the in your face kind going on. There is constant blackboard comedy in the background which is often non-sequitur but sometimes sets up jokes. All the various characters are rather amusing but I can’t say that I really have a strong love for anyone. The ADV pop up liner notes are really well done but are best watched after you have seen the episode once through without them on.

Kaichou wa Maid-sama is everything it should be. A ridiculous, over the top, shojo romance comedy. Misaki is the first female student body president of a recently made co-ed high school. She is an insane hard-ass who is trying to reform the guys. At the same time she is desperate for cash because of her family situation so she has a job at a Maid Cafe. Obviously she wants to keep this a secret but one day her biggest rival Usui happens to see her in uniform. Let the games begin! In only 8 chapters this is what I have learned about Usui, our male lead, he is of course really hot; he is the best student in school; he is also the most bad-ass fighter in the school and probably elsewhere; he is a master chess player; he can cook like an Iron Chef; he can jump off the roof of the school and only have scratches; and he can show up anywhere at anytime (they actual reference and make fun of this fact). I love that it doesn’t just go half way to insane, it is full-throttle!

One Piece came out with it’s newest popularity poll. Nami is back to were she belongs. She will never overtake the popularity monster that is Chopper or the immovable three but at least she is not the least popular of the Straw-Hat crew. I guess they had to remind everyone that she has nice tits and they all come back. Traitors! Your Nami love should be about more than that! I found it interesting that Brook has become popular so quickly but when you are a talking skeleton with an Afro then the only surprise involved was that I was surprised. I was also amused that Vivi was so high on the list because as far as I can tell many American fans still hate Vivi with an unfounded passion.

I wrote up a little blurb on 4chan for the Chunnel. I tried to stay about as neutral on 4chan as possible. I tried to mention both the good and the bad. I know there was so much more I could say but 4chan is big enough and strange enough that you could write a series on scholarly papers on it.