Tag: Yankee-kun to Megane-chan

Ongoing Investigations: Case #092

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House of Five Leaves was a quietly compelling series that came full-circle in its story. Something about beginning and ending with the same gesture really gets to me in a good way. As Masa starts to connect to each member of The Five Leaves he is changed but through his gentle and honest (minus, you know, being part of a kidnapping ring) nature he genuinely surprises and moves the people around him. Yaichi remains a bit of an enigma throughout to the people around him, even Masa is still making the connection with him in the end but learning about his past allows him to be more of an open book atleast to the audience. It wasn’t immediately obvious from the first couple of episodes that this story would be more of a personal journey rather than about the crimes playing out. As the you begin to puzzle out the story it becomes gripping despite the languid pacing. House of Five Leaves has atmosphere and characters who tell you who they are with the slightest of actions. Beautiful and recommended, I am looking forward to picking up the manga as well.

hisuiconI must say that the House of Five Leaves anime picked the perfect place to end. When adapting an ongoing manga it can be hard to decide where to end especially when the source material is very character and plot driven. But Tomomi Mochizuki ended at the point where you had insight into all the main characters and everyone had a good arc of character development. You got the impression that everyone had changed greatly since you had first met them and you had a decent idea of who they were. Masanosuke still has growing to do, Yaichi still has unfinished business, and we could have learned a bit more about Otake but overall if the manga had ended here I don’t think anyone would have felt cheated. I was sad to hear that this was got fairly low ratings for a noitaminA show in Japan. When something that is extremely experimental like Trapeze gets ratings like that I am not too surprised. But I would have assumed the mature quality would hook a noitaminA audience. That is a shame because this is a well done historical character piece that while not extremely fast in it’s execution is great at building up an atmosphere that draws you into a group of very unusual kidnappers and their stories. I hope to finish the story through the VIZ manga.

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Manga of the Month: February

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Saint Tail by Megumi Tachikawa

Saint Tail is a short, fun, and a little bit romantic magical girl series. Meimi, alter ego Saint Tail, and her friend Seira, a nun-in-training, spend their time much like wannabe Robin Hoods. Seira finds out what happened and Saint Tail steals back that which has been stolen from the practitioners. However, any good thief must have a rival desperate to catch them. Most of the city, and especially Asuka Jr., think Saint is a menacing phantom thief on the loose. Of course Asuka Jr. has no idea that his classmate, who maybe he is getting a crush on, and the famous thief, who he is also falling for, are the very same girl. Add in some great characters like Sawatari the school’s newspaper man, Asuka’s famous father, and Meimi’s off beat parents for spice. Megumi’s artwork is very charming and the very innocent romance playing out between Meimi and Asuka couldn’t be more appealing. Saint Tail is easily one of the best magical girls!

Yankee-kun to Megane-chan by Miki Yoshikawa

I was sold on Yankee-kun to Megane-chan by the name alone. And I was not disappointed. When I later learned that Miki Yoshikawa had been Mashima Hiro’s assistant it gave me some insight into style and tone of the manga while still retaining a distinct impression that this a unique work. If you like the style of Rave Master you will also enjoy Yankee-kun to Megane-chan’s art.

Shinagawa Daichi is famous for being one of the biggest delinquents at the school. One day Daichi is trying to have smoke on the toilet when his female class representative, Hana Adachi, bursts into the restroom forcing him on the school trip. Although Hana seems like a model class president it turns out she used to be an even bigger punk than Daichi and dumber than him to boot. As part of her new reformed image she is trying to be the ideal student president and solve her classmates’ problems. Soon Hana is dragging Daichi into her bizarre plans as well. Daichi begins to have a crush on Hana but can never figure out if she likes him or not.

The characters are quite charming and well suited for comedy. Daichi and Hana play off each other quite well. Daichi is the prefect straight man to Hana’s insane worldview. Miki Yoshikawa also has a very good grasp of just how long to build up a joke before setting off the punchline. The supporting characters are just as engaging, especially the ultra cute in a punk fashion, Rinka Himeji. I find Rinka intensely amusing and she has her own unique reality that complements Hana’s. There is also a cute little love story between Daichi and Hana that is somewhat slow to develop but that is sort of the nature of romantic comedies. Still Miki shows her ability to take the best of shojo and shonen and fuse them into something great.

Ongoing Investigations: Case #020

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Well, well, dare I curse us by saying that the experiment earlier in the week went well. We got some good comments and interesting feedback. A social experiment like this, and all experiments, can have surprising outcomes or they can turn out exactly as you hypothesized.

I think the most important thing was that we tried the experiment more than if we “succeeded,” “failed,” or learned some grand lesson. I guess that is my scientific education showing though. Also no one can accuse us of hating on Kodomo no Jikan without ever reading it. They can still hate on us but I can ignore them without guilt. I think we both tried our best to cast aside our prejudices and give our respective manga a fair shake. I know for one that I will continue to give new genres and controversial manga a chance.  If I had let the Internet dictate what series were about I would still think that Pretty Cure was a lesbian pedophilia show and not just a cute magical girl show.

I apologize for not doing much in the way or reading or watching this week. I have been wrapped up in a novel :)

I randomly found Yanki-kun to Megane-chan looking up what magazine Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei ran in. I thought it had a cute name so I decided to read a few chapters. I really like it. It is a good blend of shoujo and shonen. The author, Yoshikawa Miki, used to be the assistant of Mashima Hiro the author of Rave Master. The facial expressions and some of the comedic timing are clearly reminiscent of her old boss but she brings a lot of her own style to the manga. Daichi and Hana have a spastic but amusing friendship. For some reason Daichi’s constant obsession over whether or not Hana likes him while clearly ignoring his own feelings for her brings a smile to my face. As for Hana, I feel she is the Captain Tylor of class representatives. I have to say I am also really liking Rinka from what little I have seen of her. I would have crossed the line and payed the 100,000 yen fine if you know what I mean. I am really surprised I have not heard more people talking about this manga.

I never really thought I liked the band UVERworld, but in this past year I have heard three anime openings (Toward the Terra, Gundam 00 season 2, and Bleach’s 2nd opening) provided by them and I could no longer deny I had major love for their sound. So I decided to finally listen to some of their full length albums. Overall I think they are pretty decent and have an upbeat fun sound. Sometimes they throw in some rap with it which is only done semi-well. I will continue to follow them and see what they do next!

I recently watched To Aru Majutsu no Index up to episode seven. I was surprised they wiped Toma’s memories. It places him in the position where the majority of the cast and the audience now know much more than him. They keep teaming up Toma with Stiyl Magnus in a antagonistic fashion so I am sure they are insanely popular in yaoi. I really wanted to like Kaori Kanzaki because she is a magical swordswoman but she has to have the ugliest fashion sense I have ever seen in a anime character. Really? One legged Jeans with a crop top and cowboy boots? Really? That is such a hideous combination it hurts my eyes. On the other hand Index is still super cute. Yeah, Index! Also for such a popular character I have still not seen that much Mikoto Misaka which is a crying shame.

It is rather rare to find Sherlock Hound fan-art let alone good fan-art, that is why this is the Pic of the Week:

sherlock hound, holmes, fanart