Hand Maid May

Warning: In this review I "spoil" a plot point that saves the series from being dire tosh and makes it highly watchable. I think that it's okay to read this as it suggest that there's light if you don't like the first four episodes.

Every so often in anime, a new fad becomes popular and many titles are produced to reflect this. Unfortunately, these fads are generally based around fetishes. This is why, a few years back, there was an influx of anime about maids. Then it went one step further: robot maids. Hand Maid May "challenges" the genre further by making the robot maid ... one foot tall! Despite her diminutive stature, poor May still can't escape being objectified.
It's tough being the victim of a fad.

Kazuya is a university student who plans to create an intelligent robot. His arch nemesis and best friend, Nanbara, gives him a DVD which causes a virus to manifest on his computer that somehow leads to his ordering a 1/6th scale robot maid (a Cyber Doll, or CBD). Then, just when he wants to develop a relationship with this maid, more (human sized) CBD move in! And another CBD desperately wants to collect the $1.4 million payment owing on May!
The only party to these antics if Kasumi, Kazuya's landlady and unspoken love interest of several years.
Oh, how wacky it all is.

I was going to write this off after the first four episodes, but then with the fifth it gets ... better. Suddenly things start making sense, there's some genuine visual creativity, some of the weaker characters become somewhat substantial, and the fan service services without disturbing.
See, that's the thing; in the first four episodes, a twelve inch robot in maid clothing is just too kinky. It's not much of a spoiler to say that the series becomes much better when May is remodelled at a human size. Okay; so it is a spoiler, but as far as I'm concerned if it hadn't happened the whole thing wouldn't have been worth it at all. It's another series where, if it hadn't been planned all along, you get the impression that the writers realised that the direction they were taking wasn't working; where can one go with a 12 inch robot? Romance is impractical, so ...
The good thing is that it quickly dispenses with this romance. When you've got an army of robots and one human girl to choose from, I know which I'd choose. The fact that they try to present it so that Kasumi and May are competing for Kazuya's love was slightly disconcerting, so it becomes a tale of friendship and development of human characteristics, and completely abandons the basic conceit of the opening episodes.

So initially it's infuriating. Nanbara is annoying, May makes a horrible rattling sound every time she moves, the one character who can provide guilt free fan service wears terrible clothing that's both revealing and unappealing. You can miss the fact that the story becomes interesting very easily, however; the turning episode has lousy animation and all the characters are hideously off model.
So, Hand Maid May shed its skin and became something sweet. When the creative spirit within is unleashed, then it's something to enjoy and laugh at. Even the too fast, too high OP grows on you. There's even a hilarious drama that all of the CBDs are addicted to.
Of course, it's still not without problems; the DVDs have the most bizarre subtitling tactic ever. Mami is a character who occasionally spouts English dialogue. When this happens, the subtitles translate this English into romanji. It's generally not too hard to follow, but in anime you should always subtitle the English dialogue because it doesn't always sound like the English it represents. It was definitely an odd experience.

Hand Maid May is, indeed, something that has been done before. But it's done well here, so that doesn't matter. Only when something's been done before and this time around it's done poorly do you have a problem. Despite its abhorrent start, after "the change" Hand Maid May becomes watchable without leaving a horrible dirty feeling in the pit of your soul.

Geobreeders

Expect nothing! Get everything! Geobreeders is something that is, in my collection at least, very rare. It's a comedy that masquerades as a plot of drama and mystery. So don't go into it expecting high comedy, and don't go into it expecting high drama. Expect nothing and when you come out of it after three episodes you still won't quite know what you got, but you'll have the feeling that you enjoyed it.

Kagura Total Security is a company that hunts phantom cats. Not just any phantom cats, mind - these ones are made out of computer data and can control electronic devices! Kagura's rival is apparently a company called Hound, which also want to wipe out this phantom cat menace.
When these phantoms hijack a ship containing a nuclear missile, everyone's in trouble and it's Kagura's job to save the world and produce an invoice. Also somewhere along the way the phantom cat that works for Kagura is kidnapped (I still don't know by whom) and tortured by being dipped in a tub of (potentially boiled) water.

The first five minutes are completely serious and someone expecting raucousness might be confused. Then a tank comes bursting out of a nuclear facility, and it's being driven by twenty cats. Along the way there's a bit of fan service, but not quite enough for my liking (a lot of the time I feel like I'm suffering fan service deprivation, so when there is at least some I like there to be a lot). The way it plays itself straight without making too big a deal of the beleaguered male lead (constantly stifled by his all female workplace) makes it something unique.
Just a warning, so that people don't think the phantom cats are always in cat form: they have human manifestations as well. The first one is a woman who can't seem to keep her clothes on, but the rest are mostly men who are mercifully dressed for sea life.

Generally it's a nice looking series with good animation, but it's a disappointment that at the start of the third episode the character dialogue animation is replaced with cels of elaborate desserts. Sure, they're elaborate, but they're not the characters talking.
Finally, as always, Hisakawa Aya turns in a magnificent performance as "Crimson Shooting Star" ("Hell is my office").

Geobreeders explains nothing, but it's a base enjoyment. The mambo ED alone is worth the price of admission.

Hot dog night time mambo
Blue sky high flying jumbo ...

Cardcaptor Sakura - episodes 66 to 70

And it's a clean sweep to the very end of the series!

Initially there was some worry as to what was happening with Toya. But after one episode, he snapped out of it. I had expected that because as a human, he didn't lose anything that was vital to his existence. The cementing of his relationship with Yukito, which even Sakura picked up on for once, made for an exciting final run.
Not surprisingly, all five of these episodes were about feelings. Sakura was allowed to mature because Yukito was completely honest with her. This worked incredibly well, because the feelings of honesty made everything that much stronger. That Sakura didn't have to fear exposing herself, for one, lifted a lot of weight from her shoulders.

On the whole Eriol/Spinel Sun/Ruby Moon thing: it feels that at the start of this series they were trying to go in a different direction, with all three of them standing around in the background at each of the earlier incidents. But they didn't develop as villains and, as it was admitted towards the end, all along it's been about Sakura and her friends. Spinel and Ruby therefore seemed to be just red herrings to give an illusion of great evil afoot. Still, their screen time was a little disappointing. Spinel must have got about five scenes in 23 episodes.

It all worked out in the end, and on the way there were some interesting uses of the series' artwork. Sakura's journey into the past produced beautiful watercoloured backgrounds, and the increase in magic led to traditionally unwieldly giant visuals.
These characters are nothing like they were seventy episodes ago, and it was great to see them grow. There was no epilogue, but the time that it ended was the most fitting that there could be. Cardcaptor Sakura may have been children's anime, but it was one of the most well developed, lovingly crafted works that I have seen. It's true that other magical girl programs have been sophisticated, but none have transcended quite so much as this.
Ironic, considering that Sakura is one of the younger magical girls there is.

Cardcaptor Sakura is something that will live forever in the hearts of its fans, just as the cards lived in the heart of Sakura. It was a disarmingly genuine and heartfelt series, and its ending moment was truly, truly well done, although a slight miscalculation in DVD authoring (it should have faded to black, instead of going to Fruits Candy).

Cardcaptor Sakura - episodes 59 to 65

Cardcaptor Sakura really has proved to be a labour of love. It's going to be sad to see it go. That can be said of most series, but it's a very powerful feeling in this one.

The three member team for investigating the "strange occurrences" works well, and a nice side effect of Shaoran admitting to himself that he has feelings for Sakura is that it allows him to develop a friendship with Tomoyo. Again, Tomoyo proves herself as an emotional rock, but one has to wonder if it's going to cause her sorrow in later life.
This comes up when Meilin returns so that Shaoran can give her a very important message. The way that she takes it is great because she runs a full spectrum of emotions. When they culminate at Tomoyo's house, it's very, very strong. It was nice to see her back, and it's only in her return you realise that she's been gone for so long. Physically it's only been 17 episodes, but there was a season between them.
It was nice to see her again, but unless she's somehow worked into the final events, I don't think Meilin will return.

It's also nice to see the MIRROR card again, and again to see Toya treating it like a person and taking care of it. Toya has been at his peak in this season, because of his need to talk to Yukito and the fact that it's entirely clear that he knows about Kero-chan and everything. Perhaps not the explicit details, but enough. His scene with Yue was one of the most powerful there ever has been. There were true moments of beauty here, because it has been a very distressing time.

One of the funniest inventions of Cardcaptor Sakura as a whole was Yamazaki and his elaborate lies. This has reached another level because of the tag team lies with Eriol. Unrehearsed, yet still in perfect synch. They are truly hilarious scenes, and even Chiharu doesn't know what to do in the situation. When she's at a loss with Yamazaki, you know you're in trouble.
Kero-chan has been in a period of underuse yet again, but this time it is entirely excusable because Sakura has become sufficiently independent to credibly fight for herself. With only five episodes left, it's uncertain if anything will actually come of Spinel Sun, but the scenes with Eriol in his den have always been fun.

My one hope is that Cardcaptor Sakura will have some kind of epilogue. One wants to know what becomes of these characters when they're older!

Cardcaptor Sakura - episodes 51 to 58

It takes a while to realise it, but every episode in this season has furthered the plot somewhat. Well, except for The Calendar of Memories, which was one of the best character episodes since those early ones in the first season about Sakura's mother. In fact, as it progresses it becomes clear that these are the best episodes that Cardcaptor Sakura has ever had.
Of course, the climax of series two was outstanding, but that was a climax. The Sakura card series has consistently thrilled with its exploration of character and ambiguous undertones. Maintaining this high level of quality and suspense has seemingly been effortless.

The episodes don't even seem to be following much of a formula any more; Eriol causes some mischief sometimes, but the reasons why he does so become ever cloudier. Being who he is, he can't be evil. He's troublesome, no doubt. Then, when one of his tricks causes something good to happen to Sakura, it's even more confusing. The obvious nature of some of his plans, such as the fact that everything that has ever attacked Sakura has been something that he touched on the same day. Of course, as the Cheshire Cat Erriol said, "You and Li are so slow, it's too easy to play tricks on you".
On that note, it's probably a good chance to tackle Eriol's offsiders: Ruby Moon and Spinel Sun. As Akizuki (Na-ku-ru, as she would have Toya believe), it's clear that she's trying to keep Yukito and Toya apart. It's fortunate that it has already been established that Clow Reed's belief is "nothing in this world is coincidence", because otherwise it would be annoying that she pops up every time that Toya says "I ... you ..." to Yukito. As for Spinel Sun, who's clearly the Anti-Kero-chan, he's really too feminine. It's a big shock to hear him in his big form, because he (especially when voiced by Touma Yumi) is pretty prissy. And come on ... instead of the angelic wings of Yue and Kero-chan, they both have butterfly wings.
No wonder "Suppie" doesn't have a sense of humour.

One of the greatest episodes had nothing to do with Eriol at all, and only a tenuous link to the Sakura Cards. It was the first episode that was about Sakura's father in such a strong role. The scenes between Nadeshiko's grandfather and Fujitaka are not quite ... heart rending ... but there's a sadness about them. It has reinforced just how much Nadeshiko sacrificed to marry Fujitaka. Her only being 16 when they married, and him being her teacher, they clearly caused an uproar in her family. Of course, now that she's dead, they regret drifting apart. This episode also featured one of the funniest Kero-chan jokes ever, involving a VCR.

Yukito's existence is getting more tragic. 'No matter how much I eat, I never get full ...', he says, standing under a tree. It's just sad, when you wonder what's going to happen to him. As for his relationship with Toya, I like that CLAMP in creating gay or pseudo-gay characters don't use innuendo. Toya cares about Yukito deeply - as Mitsuki told him, he would be in love with someone else when they met again - but there's no suggestion of anything else. And of course it takes the fun out of the slash writers, because they've been given too much to go on.

There was a Shaoran episode in here as well, as the other running theme so far has been about his feelings for Sakura. Once again proving that Tomoyo is the smartest character of them all. When he finally called her Sakura and hugged her out of gratitude for her continued existence, it truly was a moment. Hopefully someday he'll be able to come clean. Or at least stop denying it to himself.
Other character moments were Yue's statement that he remembers everything. Acting as he does, it's hard to believe that he remembers humanity. It would have impaired his judgement, I'd have thought. He had said that the personalities were separate, but he's the one truly in control. It's a matter of some concern that should be tackled later on.

Now: Kero-chan's corner! These included Sakura in Wonderland, with big Kero-chan chasing after her saying "I am not Kero-chan ... call me your QUEEN!". This was followed by his lamentations as to Clow Reed's treatment of his handsome self, made all the better for Onosaka Masaya's performance. While I still hold that he and Hisakawa Aya are giving the same performance and that's what makes it great, I don't think she could have pulled it off quite the same. Big Kero-chan strikes one as the kind more likely to complain.

Great episodes all around. It's not one big tease; it's an adventure in development of plot and character. The series' evolution has been astounding, and pretty solid evidence to say that magical girl shows shouldn't always stop at one.

Cardcaptor Sakura - episodes 47 to 50

The third series of Cardcaptor Sakura is like one glorious aftermath. There aren't any cards left, so the story throws the exciting prospect of Sakura creating her own magic. What is known in the Discworld as "sourcery".
There is so much that's exciting about this season. It offers the prospect of Yue and Keroberos on tap - halving Hisakawa Aya's role, to be sure, but to see both forms work as if they're the same person, it's great that they're extensions of each other. The inverse can be said about Yue - two more different characters (still clearly "cut from the same cloth") there could never be.

The relationship between Yukito and Toya is one of the most ambiguous as Toya never lets on how much he knows or how much he has told. The highlight of the second season were the scenes that featured Toya, Mizuki and Yukito together, or just those with Mizuki and Yukito. Providing similar results is the new character Akizuki Nakuru, who always turns up just as Toya has something very important to say.
Now, these new characters; they're quite patently up to no good. Eriol looks bright and promising, with his placid blue eyes wide open. Then people turn their backs and his eyes narrow; pure ... not evil ... but certainly bad intent!
While it soon becomes apparent who these people are, it's still unclear quite why they act.

There aren't any more Clow Cards; and while the excitement of Sakura creating magic is palpable, the means by which she has to are somewhat questionable. Sakura and the Dangerous Piano, for instance. Just what is going on here? Every episode seems to flow into the next, which is very nice indeed, and the lurking characters are doing a good job of lurking. The fighting's not as arbitrary as it was with some of the Clow Cards; hopefully the writers are aiming to create a veneer of trust amongst the characters, to lead them into increasingly dangerous situations. That's got to be it.

Despite the uncertainty as to the direction that Cardcaptor Sakura has taken, with Tomoyo clearly being the smartest of all of the characters, the series definitely has more vitality than it had for a long time. The new ED, which is essentially "Tomoyo, Sakura and Kero-chan's baking adventure" is a marvellous use of colour and the OP (with heavenly vocal by Sakamoto Maaya) has some delicious hints of stuff to come. It's pure taste.

I no longer have "primary" and "secondary" programs, just an alternating title; so I'm sticking with Cardcaptor Sakura until the end! (with the exception of a series break between this and the second movie).

Legend of Crystania: The Chaos Ring

Directly after "The Motion Picture", everyone's names change and Pirotess acts once more to free her beloved Ashram while Redon befriends twins who have been unfairly treated by the gods of Crystania.

The Chaos Ring is essentially just a three OVA continuation of the film, with the existence of this sacred realm finally explained in the opening of each episode. It's a pretty funny reasoning, really. "The gods of Light and Dark were having a war, and all of the gods who didn't care went out and started their own country and closed it so the fighting gods couldn't get in".
It explains these things well, and the production values are a darn sight better than its predecessor - the characters actually having skin tone this time around.

As for the rest of it, random elements are brought in to spice to story - Beld, the ruler of Marmo until Ashram's succession, comes along for the ride. The capacity of his role seems to contradict history moreso than it already has been through the course of the Crystania offshoot. Narase and Guild (now known in the subtitles as Kwairde) have even less character than they did before. Irim and Kirim are traditional freaky twin children, and Orville (now Obiere) and Laifan (now Raifan) don't get enough screen time.
The council of the gods is a recurring scene now. The gods don't have physical forms and it's basically a collection of slightly transparent people vaguely resembling animals sitting about. Each time they talk, several closeups of their faces fly over the screen.

Thematically it's flawed, but in a highly traditional way. In anime, people's ancestors are always terrible. They seal away the great evil without destroying it, knowing full well that the seal will one day be broken and the great terror will return. What makes it even worse is that the seals affect the public consciousness, persuading them that the great evil never existed. This is counter productive, so the idea that the Villagers of the Seal exist is just ... bad. It's always the way it goes!

Ashram has been redesigned again and at times he looks like himself, and other times he does not. There are some very nice looking scenes in this, but parts of the chaos worlds are sometimes just collections of freakery. The twins and the old woman are also weird, and Aderishia has a different hairstyle, possibly to do with the seal.

Capped off by an ambiguous ending, Legend of Crystania: The Chaos Ring is a two hour confusion. The characters would have been likeable had they been given more to do, but they essentially sat through this and watched it happening. It's not terrible, but by neglecting the idea of El Djana, the travellers have very little to travel for.

Legend of Crystania - "The Motion Picture"

This was actually the second anime DVD I ever bought, four years ago. I watched it once.
It's another "motion picture" courtesy of ADV films. Legend of Crystania is actually an OVA that somehow fits into the Record of Lodoss War universe. How, it's not quite clear, as it chooses to focus on characters that were not only secondary in the original OVA, but also characters who were dead.
Despite that, it's pretty enjoyable and much easier to follow than the time jumping Record of Lodoss War.

Ashram, for reasons undisclosed, is sailing the seas with his people to look for a new place to settle. The voice of Barbas, aspiring King of the Gods of Crystania, offers to open the Gate of the Gods and let his people prosper if Ashram agrees to provide his body as a vessel.
Meanwhile, uh ... 300 years later ... the people of El Djana are being oppressed by the evil Chancellor. When the Chancellor murders the peace loving Haven, brother of the overthrown king, his son Redon swears revenge. Barbas opens the Gate of the Gods once more, offering Redon the awesome power to take revenge. Then they get involved in a civil war between the various beast tribes of Crystania.
Crystania is confusingly referred to as "the land of the Gods", despite having an entirely different belief system to the rest of the world. When the script upgrades it to "the sacred realm" - meaning a place that doesn't take kindly to strangers - it makes more sense. This was produced as one of the first few DVDs by ADV, so the production values aren't always at their highest.
So it makes no sense in the continuity. Let's just look at it as the jolly Crystania adventure!

The characters are less obviously a "party" than those of Lodoss War. There's no real hierarchy, except everyone looks up to the High Priestess Aderishia. Guild is perhaps the most incompetent warrior ever seen. He looks away from the person he's clashing swords with to observe Redon clashing swords with some other person (or lizard, as it may be). It's surprising that he wasn't killed a million times over. Redon stops being angry pretty soon which, despite his anger overpowering him supposed to be the theme of the piece, is well done. When you see what Barbas is doing as the King, it's no surprise that someone wouldn't want to strike a deal with him.
Nerese as the sorceror isn't much of a character, but the two most interesting are Orville and Laifan: the mercenary and the little girl who he travels with. Orville is the hardened warrior type, and his soft spot is unsurprisingly for Laifan, the girl with the strong powers for someone of her age. What little time they get together (and the time that they spend apart) are the most well written of all of the scenes.

The animation and design is at times appalling. The daytime scenes are where it is hit the worst as the animators saw fit to make the daytime sky white, and the sunlight makes all of the characters very pale as a result. The first ten minutes were animated with practically no colour in them at all. At night time, or in the afternoon, everything looks just fine. It's one of the worst decisions that could have been made. There are some well done action scenes, and it quickly becomes clear that El Djana and Crystania subscribe to the "half" approach to violence - that is, one swipe of a sword can cut a person in half, or amputate their hands. At one point, Orville impressively decapitates a horse and separates its rider's torso from his body in one strike.
The transformation sequences are similarly well done.
The characters generally look fine, if unimpressive. The only problem is that Pirotess and Ashram are featured in this outing and they look nothing like they used to. Ironically, when possessed, Ashram looks more like himself than when he is himself. It's heartening, on the other hand, that the two most interesting characters are those who look the nicest - that is, the duo of Orville and Laifan.

The music is actually impressive, particularly compared to the not always up to scratch animation. There's even an insert song, which was a pleasant surprise. It's not eldritch fantasy stuff, but it's more than good enough for what's on offer. The music panning over the credits shows that quite a bit of imagination went into the production, as well.
Voice acting is actually pretty good as well, especially as Kamiya Akira and Tamagawa Sakiko reprise their roles as Ashram and Pirotess (which they did not do for 1998's Chronicles of The Heroic Knight). Midorikawa Hikaru as Redon set a precedent for his sword fighting characters, and Nishimura Chinami is delightful as young Laifan.

It's followed by a three part OVA, The Chaos Ring. Then after that, the "alternate and yet the same continuity" TV series picks up Record of Lodoss War's story in the form of Chronicles of the Heroic Knight. Don't be discouraged by the DVD quality I have described - ADV have actually rereleased this under their Essential Anime line. It's not actually essential by any means, but it's much better than I remembered - despite its random production values.

Haunted Junction - episodes 7 to 12

Haunted Junction turned out to be, all in all, a high dosage of fun. Every episode had something funny to offer. The first lesson learned is that a lifelong desire to be smart can be destroyed through the discovery of pornography, so all students should take note. As each episode with the exception of the last two stands alone, it's hard to write about it as a whole.
That's part of the reason that I don't generally like episodic anime; but every episode was a comic ... not masterpiece or extravaganza ... enjoyment. Then the last two episodes did what I love; they took the comic premise and built on it to turn it into drama and then they took something from each of the ten episodes preceding and worked them into the big finale. It was a work of genius that gave Haunted Junction a highly satisfying ending.

As the episodes wore on, it became increasingly obvious that religion had nothing to do with it. Seeing a Minister dressed as a tanuki kind of suggests that the writers didn't bother looking into anything other the costuming and artifice of any religion; like so many other things in anime, it's just an excuse to look cool without coming off as gimmicky.
Now, the things that need to be mentioned: "Bones" and Sato's Cossack dance was hilarious each and every time. But to say much else would just end up being a listing of jokes; comedy is so hard to write for! However, the ending to episode eight was comedy genius/brilliance/gold. The writers ran out of story so they faded to a black screen and provided a skit.

The characterisation was consistent, the only bad thing being that of the seven spirits, some of them didn't get enough screen time. The Giant was just a pair of legs, and the Mirror Girl didn't get to do anything at all. Hanako-san is one of the best characters there is, though; it's so odd to see something from an era when fan service was so understated. There should have been more! More! More! The true fan service junkie can never get enough, except when they get too much.

Haunted Junction is out of print, but you can still rent it. Admittedly, the only reason I bought it was because I knew it was going out of print, but I'm glad I did. I bought Don't Leave Me Alone, Daisy for the same reason; but I'm kind of suspecting that wasn't quite so wise.
Hilarious comedy, then some drama; it was a good balanced program that preaches what I consider one of the most important you can learn from anime: there's a difference between cheap animation and bad animation. That's something very important that we should all remember.

Haunted Junction - episodes 1 to 6

Now this is low rent, late night anime. It's also rather funnier than all get out.

Haunted Junction is rather like sitcom anime; none of the episodes have anything to do with each other. It's about Saito High's "Holy Student Council", which consists of a Haruto, Minister's son, Kazumi, a Monk's son, and Mutsuki, a Shinto Priest's daughter. They are responsible for the spiritual activity in the school, and are led by the school's tiny chairman who is coincidentally some sort of spirit himself.
Every episode is an individual story involving the hard done by Haruto, the possession prone Kazumi and shouta con Mutsuki getting up to some sort of mischief with the spirits (the chief members being "the seven wonders of the school"). Mostly it's high comedy, but there's even some sentimentality thrown in occasionally.

Haunted Junction isn't anime that bothers much with character. If you know that Haruto resents his wacky high school life, that Kazumi is obsessed with the spirit that haunts the toilet and that Mutsuki has an unnatural attraction to boys 12 and under, that's really all you need to know. Every episode so far has been just an adventure in itself, from the time manga came to life, to the battle over which toilet spirit was the Queen of all spirits. Hanako-san had brand recognition, however, whereas Yamiko was forgotten because of her violent approach.
Everything about this series is very traditionally Japanese. It might help to do some research before you go into this, otherwise most of the cultural references will be lost; I wouldn't have known had I not read a book that obsessively refers to this particular series a couple of weeks ago. The following two sentences are therefore a crash course!
The two important spirits from Japanese culture are Hanako-san, the maiden who lives in the toilets. She's sexy and she offers paper to those in need. Sontoku Ninomiya was a boy who studied even as he was hauling heavy loads on his back and it's not unusual for his statue to be seen in Japanese schools. The rest of the series is just general Japanese "wackiness", if you can really dismiss it as that.
Really, it has nothing much to do with "real" religious practise at all, so it can't be treated as such. It's just a rollercoaster ride of laughter and love!

Nakama Yukie's performance as Mutsuki is rather flat, but with time you get used to it. This is apparently her only ever anime acting role, and the OP and ED prove that she is a much more talented singer than she is seiyuu. Otherwise, the actors are fairly good, particularly Okiayu Ryutaro as Red Mantle.
It's low budget in its animation, but low budget animation frequently gives rise to the most creative visuals devised in the attempt to save money. This works very well for comedy, mind ... not for drama. The random sight gags are marvels and there was one episode with this repetitive editing technique - the hilarious "Red Mantle wipe!" which announced itself each time it was employed. The other thing Haunted Junction has going for it is that it very rarely uses the same sort of joke twice, and almost every episode ends with Haruto screaming "OH MY GOD!"
In fact, the only thing that strikes one as "weird" about Haunted Junction is that the school doesn't seem to have any students outside of the Holy Student Council. There were four girls for one scene, and it doesn't feel like anyone else has been in it since.

Haunted Junction is cheap (so cheap, it's going out of print), hilarious anime. It can even get away with sentimentality every once in a while by balancing out with HOT HOMOSEXUAL FANTASY. oh crap I'm going to regret having said that next week

Record of Lodoss War - episodes 8 to 13

Apparently these episodes are set several years after episode seven. Not that you'd notice. Well, I didn't.
Ashram has taken over Marmo and apparently wants to launch an attack for domination of all the lands. But his high priest wants to claim power for himself! And then Karla sits around in the background wondering how she can scheme to make things go the way she sees fit.

Too much is implied in these episodes. The gap of some years gives the characters some leeway, but the relationship between Pirotess and Ashram is not really that powerful when it's summarised in one word as it is here. Similarly, Deedlit and Parn aren't so far developed as to be more than "just friends".
The plot doesn't really grow so much as it seems to just happen, which is sad. The characters are very rarely together, destroying the whole idea of a travelling party. There are two new characters introduced, Shiris and Orson, and they're quite interesting. Their design is attractive and seems to fit in Mizuno's Louie the Rune Soldier ideal. They're kind of amoral, but devoted to each other, and the idea of the traditional "berserker" is also explored here. Because they're entirely new characters, they are fresh as "age" has not wearied them - in this case the invisible gap.

Record of Lodoss War is the sort of thing that you'd watch again after you realise that some years have passed between episodes. But not now, as the TV series is said to be set after the seventh episode. In that respect, forgetting the (clearly more forgettable) second half is useful as there are anachronisms that come from having been written eight years after.
I'm kind of thinking I've missed something; but it seems that the writers confused "a lot of things happening" with "epic scale". It's not the same.

Cardcaptor Sakura - Episodes 42 to 46

Cardcaptor Sakura season two is the season for which Cardcaptor Sakura was made! Everything about this season - every episode - bore a carefully meted dose of information, drama and development that came to a head for the final judgement. CLAMP brought their best skills to the fore to create the cute apocalypse.

These episodes aren't "slow", by any means. The first season, which would go for huge stretches at a time with nothing happening but one question Clow Reed's sense of humour ... that was slow. The plot is there, and you know that it's there, and it's quite clear that the door will open.
There are two more Clow cards that can talk - the lesbian pair of light and darkness. Their ability to comfort Sakura is something and reinforces the idea of loyalty between Card and Master. And the reason that Sakura is so strong and attracts so many is revealed: that she can say "zettai daijoubu" (I will definitely be all right) with absolute conviction. The other great thing about this episode is the school's take on Sleeping Beauty - with Sakura as the prince and Shaoran as the princess. The casting for this is perfect, with the three "unimportant" friends as the three fairies, Yamazaki as the Queen and Meilin as the Evil Witch. She had complained about playing the villain before hand, but she played it to the hilt! Sakura's fight against the demons was so well orchestrated. I remember how this played out in the manga, with the cute kids working behind the scenes to move the stage about, but the "stage deaths" were marvellous. Sakura's costume was reminiscent of Tezuka Osamu's own Princess Knight, so it was a good tribute episode as well as a good revelation of character.
Meilin gets an episode all to herself about her return to Hong Kong. Perhaps this is to kick her out of the way for the sake of the judgement, but it's the best episode that there has been for the poor character. Her history of liking Shaoran was finally explained, and the reasonable nature of her engagement (it amounts to "until you find a girl you like more, you are betrothed to me!"). It's a sad goodbye, but you know she'll be back ... and finally she got along with Shaoran. It's not his fault that he's such a reserved child.

The final three episodes are entirely to do with the final card and the judgement. There is too much to like about these episodes. Kero-chan's true form finally manifests itself, and it's a relief to know that the voice is right. It could have been too serious, but Onosaka Masaya performs as a logical extension of Hisakawa Aya's Kero-chan. He can take a joke, and he cares about what's going on without being gruff. It was a small cause of worry, but just the right casting tackled something that could have made the whole thing sink. Similarly, Yue's casting was a masterstroke. The performance was spot on.
Then the cute apocalypse comes around and it's just too sad. Everything is revealed, including everyone's purpose.

What follows is a segment that can easily be seen as a "definite ending" or as a "we'll be back". It was a good cap for 46 episodes. It will be interesting to see if the "star" season that follows can live up to this. It may have taken more than 30 episodes to get there, but this judgement arc was pure gold, clearly the reason for which the whole series was made.

Cardcaptor Sakura - Episodes 36 to 41

This is the second season of Cardcaptor Sakura, and it's a season that lasts only 12 episodes. Everyone of them so far has had something to do with the story at large, so it's very easy to get excited again. As the first season had progressed, it was losing its charm by giving infuriatingly few hints at what was happening and offering boring episodes about sweets.
Not so here!

The colour is back in Sakura's cheeks as she receives a watch from her beloved Yukito. When the SNOW card causes her to lose it, she is incredibly angry; to the point of scaring the Hell out of Shaoran and Kero-chan, who can only stand by as she completely destroys the card. This is capped by Mizuki appearing after the sealing, to return Sakura's watch. Naturally, Shaoran's suspicion is peaked.
The same sort of thing happens over the next few episodes, with Mizuki being cryptic about everything that's happening, giving everyone the sense that she knows what's going to happen; because, of course, she does.

The highlight episode is the DREAM card episode. The dreams of Tomoyo, Shaoran and Sakura are shown. Tomoyo's dream sheds some much needed light on the character. Her dream involves seeing Sakura in all of the many costumes that Tomoyo so lovingly designed for her. Importantly, Sakura is enjoying wearing the costumes. This makes Tomoyo seem slightly less creepy; she just wants to be appreciated by her dearest friend.
Shaoran's dream is hilarious because it places himself and Sakura in a romance movie and his true heart is revealed even as he denies what he sees.
Sakura's dream isn't about what she wants; it's what will be. The dream that has been repeated periodically since episode one is the focus; Sakura observes the Tokyo Tower dream from within Tokyo Tower, and comes to understand that everything is okay. This segment also tackled one of the biggest problems with Cardcaptor Sakura: the streets are so sparsely populated most of the time. In Tokyo, the reason is that Sakura was in a dream, and as it was a dream that was trying to tell her something, it had to make sense most of the time. She cottoned on when Kero-chan said "Yo!" to Yukito.

The other good moment was the revelation that Toya knows pretty much what Sakura is doing; the MIRROR card comes into play again and he recognises that it is not Sakura. The MIRROR is a good card because it's the only card that can talk, so seeing it say something about its lot was definitely interesting. It is also reassuring to know that once they are in her possession they are completely faithful to her and maybe even ... love her.

Cardcaptor Sakura returns to form, perhaps stronger than ever before, with these episodes. When the Tokyo Tower confrontation (the judgement, if you will) finally arrives, it will be a true wonder to behold. Of all the scenes in all the episodes, Sakura's recurring dream is the most beautiful and haunting of them all. When the prophecy is fulfilled, the carnage will be something to look forward to!

Record of Lodoss War - episodes 1 to 7

Fantasy anime is something that seems a rarity; this is a pity as it's so much easier to watch fantasy than it is to read from a genre that's plagued by turns with prose too dry or flowery. 1990's Record of Lodoss War is one of the holy grails of fantasy anime; it's an undeniably romantic excursion.

Record of Lodoss War is an OVA series about a party of varying character types who are on a journey to save their accursed island of Lodoss from the forces of Marmo and the resurrection of the ancient gods of destruction. A woman called Karla, the Grey Witch, is manipulating the evil forces behind the scenes, to give the land what she calls "balance". As it turns out, she doesn't care about the "good" and "evil" forces at all.
It takes a while but Parn, the son of an heroic knight, decides that she must be stopped for the good of the land.

Every character is a member of a "class": Knight, Elvish Mage, Sorceror, Dwarfish Warrior, Thief, Priest. This is understandable as this fantasy anime literally comes from Dungeons & Dragons. Lodoss was created as a world to have adventures in, and Mizuno Ryo took it upon himself to create that folklore and make novels of it. Then the anime was made and good times were had by all.
The characters therefore conform to conventions but are enjoyable to watch as characters because of this very fact instead of despite it. It is odd to see in the first episode the Grey Witch and Wort talking to one another; him for the party and her against. It's like a sparring match between two Dungeon Masters who want the world to go different ways. But there are several "challenges" that the writers have added into the series that go against the grain of fantasy and make this anime all the more interesting.

The first step that Record of Lodoss War takes is that the first episode is an all action affair set sometime after the party has formed. It might seem inappropriate at first that this episode is titled "Prologue to the Legend", but upon further thought it essentially mean "action before we have to explain the real story", so everything is okay. Upon watching more it becomes clear that episode one actually takes place between episodes five and six. Fortunately the information that they ascertain at the end of the journey in episode one is revealed in episode six, because given an OVA's release schedule it would have been unwise to do anything different.
The next is that Parn shows potential but in action he's a pretty lousy swordsman who acts before thinking. Deedlit is at once the smartest and most naïve of all of the party members: a 160 year old elf, she sometimes acts like a wisened person who understands the horrors of war, and sometimes like someone a tenth her age.
There's traditional Elf and Dwarf infighting here, as well. The nice thing was that Ghim (the suspiciously named Dwarf) said "Only a Human would allow their feelings get in the way of admiring another's work!". Mutual respect ... the elder races truly are the smartest.
It's also subversive in that quite a few of the actors are cast against type: notably Wakamoto Norio, who brought us such timeless characters as "Coach" of Gunbuster and Cowboy Bebop's Vicious, as the comical thief character Woodchuck. Yamaguchi Kappei, one of the biggest hotheads in early nineties anime (Ranma and Inu Yasha bore him as the title characters, among others), plays the timid priest/cleric/whatever. Both of these actors do good jobs with what they've got. Tohma Yumi is slightly disappointing as Deedlit, however.
The dialogue (or, at least, the subtitles) are a fairly good adaptation, with phrases that wouldn't be used for an "American" translation. The only problem is the use of the phrase "God damn!" which never works when you're in an alternate religious world.

The animation and design is simply beautiful. A 13 episode OVA produced in 1990, it has aged well. The characters, designed by both Nobuteru Yuuki and Izubuchi Yutaka, are simply beautiful. There's a genuinely ancient feel about the scenery and it simply draws one in. Any scene wherein Deedlit gets to show her grace is a treat to watch.
Mizuno has created an interesting world; It's not quite clear how old this mythology is - Karla has been alive 500 years - but Lodoss definitely has a fine history seemingly built on holy wars. In the end (of this lot, at least), we learn something very important: it doesn't matter if there's a war going on, peace won't come until you kill the witch.

At once conventional and subversive, Record of Lodoss War is rare fantasy anime. Beautiful, enticing ... and always giving the sense that something bigger is afoot.

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - The "Motion Picture"

What? No. These are the only two words, in that order, that can spring from having seen Nadia: Secret of Blue Water: The Motion Picture - incontrovertible evidence that GAiNAX is evil. They're quite capable of making good anime, but that doesn't stop them from being evil.
"Motion picture" probably isn't an accurate description for this. ADV used to use that term to describe pretty much any one shot OVA back in the day, so I'll go with that. One of the biggest clues is the 4:3 ratio.

Two years after the series ended, Nadia and Jean are living apart as Nadia wants to prove that she can live independently. Nadia is working as an assistant reporter at a London newspaper (read: she gets the tea), and the big scoop is that prominent politicians and businessmen from all over the world are evaporating. Turns out that they're robots, despatched by some guy to replace the real aristocrats so that he can slowly take over the world!
Jean finds the daughter of the scientist responsible for the robots washed up on his beach. Her name is Fuzzy, which in Japanese sounds like "Fudgey". Then Nadia is brought into the "web of intrigue".

25 of the first 30 minutes of the film are all recaps of the series. Unfortunately, these repeated scenes are rarely framed by anything to give them context and they are all incredibly poorly chosen. They aren't even shown in chronological order, as something that happened in the 36th episode is shown before something from the 22nd. It's never clear what the writers hoped to achieve with this recap, as it doesn't give a sense of anything from the series.
Vague attempts are made to link the villain, Griegar, to Gargoyle. His organisation simply doesn't make any sense; these aren't really the remnants of Neo-Atlantis.

It gets worse, though; the characterisation is off. Grandis, Sanson & Hanson are money grubbing villains who betray Nadia and Jean. Essentially they have regressed to before the TV series even started. Nothing that they do here is in their characters at all. Nadia and Jean have come much further than this, too, which is why the general premise that they would separate irks. They can't really question their feelings for each other when what happened to them earlier had happened.
Griegar has no real motive, and the link to Gargoyle is non-existent. It's kind of like Gundam Wing's White Fang, but at least that could be explained. Having said all of this, though, the few seconds that the Doctor and Fuzzy get to interact provide the film's only light.

But hey, at least the OP and ED looked nice. The rest of the production is quite ugly, particularly the laziness of the new designs (not by Sadamoto of the series). Everything else about the film sticks in a really bad way; it's hard to believe that the seiyuu came back to record this. Despite the flawed nature of the TV series, overall it was something to be proud of. This ... this is nothing.

I can't consider this as part of the Nadia continuity. It played like a much worse for wear Secret of Mamo and the characterisation ruined it. There was nowhere for these characters to go once the series had been resolved, and thusly they don't go anywhere for the course of this film. Take the epilogue provided by the TV series and run with it. This "movie" never happened, folks ... just move along.

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - Episodes 37 to 39

Fortunately, the phrase "too little, too late" does not apply here.
The final battle with Gargoyle! Electra looking increasingly like Ritsuko ... and other incredibly spoiler laden things! The point is that everything was handled exceptionally well and completely satisfactorily. It's just sad that they couldn't have brought the conclusion around sooner.
Nothing really can be said about these episodes other than that they were full of high drama and capped off with a nice little prologue segment that wrapped up everything ... and one of the characters' fates translates from sweet to creepy dependent on cultural setting.
And Ayerton; who'd have thought. He was representative of what was wrong with Nadia though: that at one stage it had forgotten itself.

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water was a series that had some extremely bright and shining moments but was damaged by its success, with thirteen episodes or thereabouts seemingly inserted just to give a credible amount of time before the stunning finale for the wheels to be set in motion in the background.
With the epilogue provided at the end of the series, one wonders; is the Nadia follow up movie really necessary? Given that I find the basic idea of the plot offensive, I'll just have to go and find out.

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - Episodes 33 to 36

Upon saving King from crucifixion, and then an episode which is essentially a collection of music videos (and the few 'new' scenes made of cels from 20 episodes ago used against new backgrounds) that culminates in Jean performing a love song for Nadia that degenerates into his listing all of her faults ... the story comes back to stay. Thank God for that. As the increasingly put upon narrator said at the beginning of episode 33, "Cheer up, Nadia! You only have a few stories left!"

I've sounded like Nadia has been nothing but terror for about 13 episodes ... it's not been that painful, but it has not been the joy that was promised. Thirteen episodes of inconsequential activities that ultimately did nothing to further plot or characters; in fact there may well have been regressions just wears thin. Nadia could quite easily have been edited down to 26 episodes (not that I'd advocate such a thing, oh no!). Bear in mind that I'm one who loved the last ten episodes of Macross, so that might be indicative of your own tolerance.
What seemed like a four episode run of tolerable nothing became a six episode run, then ten, then thirteen - so one third of the series became essentially negligible. The music video episode wasn't actually bad, because it included footage from good times and the songs were also pretty amusing and tuneful. The editing itself was a mixture of the appropriate, the there for the sake of it, and the wildly inappropriate.

Anyway, the tour de force was the visit to Tartessos. GAiNAX used its dramatic black and white technique which is so effective that you don't realise that the animation is entirely in black and white with the exception of the Blue Water until about five minutes after its come into effect. Fifteen minutes worth of black and white animation is surprisingly (or perhaps not) much more dramatic. This was also helped along by the mostly absent music. When colour returns, it's blindingly bright. GAiNAX used this technique to great effect in the final episode of Gunbuster, which was both black and white and 16x9 (or at least "letterboxed").
The content of the episode itself was high drama, and the stuff that harkens back to the old days of high drama. Then at the end, when everyone bursts into "Happy Birthday to you" (which is dubbed as "It's your birthday today" because of the ancient laws against dubs using songs that are probably technically copyrighted), it's good will all over again.
Finally, Gargoyle reveals himself to be a bastard and some of the new character designs are confusing. Only three episodes left. There's no room for slack any more. This ending had better be damned good; and people had better not complain about the "given" events happening.

The wild ride of Nadia (oh, how long a week is in the world of anime ...) is almost at its end. Can it find ultimate meaning? And what is the secret of Blue Water? Ah, crap, we already know that one.

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - Episodes 29 to 32

Okay, so get this: Hanson and Sanson get into a fight, which they try to settle by racing robot Kings. Then Jean jumps into the ocean to save the batteries that he had installed in these robots, and everyone thinks he's dead. Realising that their foolish quarrels led to Jean's death, they apologise to each other. Then Jean reappears and everyone expresses their happiness at his continued existence.
Yeah; that's what Nadia's all about nowadays. Bring back the sea, damnit!
These episodes would be better if they hadn't brought back Ayerton. His time in episode three was just fine - in fact, he was a bright patch in the dull orientation period. His appearance in the teen episodes was also welcome for a spot of irony and the suggestion that he did care. Now he's just a blowhard and has disrupted the harmony of the six member and one lion alliance.
Thankfully, however, the writers did away with the "this island has weak gravity and you can run really fast and it has a desert as well as a snow area!" idea, treating the island forever after as just a tropical island. That makes it marginally more pallatable. The fact that Sanson has made a dishwasher and a vacuum cleaner - technological appliances he couldn't have hoped to have created on the Nautilus - really grates.

Then Nadia finds a secret cave and history is revealed - important history that is interesting to one and all and has something to do with the overbearing plot! It's odd that it took them four months to find these things. But hey, at least they did.
Then they land in Africa and are treated to a feast by an African tribe. Then a poacher steals King so that he may lay claim to the tribe's beloved treasure of a tin of food (!).
It's really depressing that Nadia became such a series of stops and starts. It's not that it's no good at all any more; it's that the story has fallen asleep. For the very short time that it pokes its head in, though, it's interesting. At the start of one of the episodes, the narrator (now played by Inoue Kikuko, the first narrator having disappeared [possibly because he saw the island coming]) asks "oh, and what is the secret of Nadia's Blue Water?" as if conceding that the preceding episodes have been largely irrelevant.

But there are only seven episodes left! Bring on the inevitable resurrections! Bring on the worthwhile! The island episodes (both islands) would have been okay, but stretching them to what amounts to more than a quarter of the series is definitely just that - pushing it. With the Nautilus, you knew where you stood. The battles were infrequent, but it just seemed that much more real.
One should just be glad that the concluding episodes are within reach ... these past two lots would have been a very sour note to have had to have waited on - this is anime which has a brief detour over broken glass in its journey.

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - Episodes 21 to 28

From the dramatically sublime to the inexplicably ridiculous in the space of eight episodes. That's Anno for you! Although to be known for wild inconsistencies in your work is probably not the greatest compliment you can be paid.

Initially, the Nautilus is in vast amounts of trouble. These vast amounts of trouble lead, not surprisingly, to vast amounts of drama. The way that this was directed was amazing and created some of the best scenes of the series so far. Inoue Kikuko's performance was really one of her highest points; Electra is a great character, with inbuilt tragedy not present in so many of her others. One thing leads to another, and ...
... Then come the episodes where the world let out a collective "What the Hell?" Nadia, Jean and Marie get stranded on an Island.

The infamous "island" episodes aren't the total write off they've been made out to be. There are some good moments of character interaction, but these are offset by moments of total bizarreness. Nadia, kicking her vegetarianism into overdrive, becomes at one point completely unsympathetic. Jean has to bear the brunt of the hard work and now Marie of all characters is the smartest of them all. Not to mention King, who suddenly becomes bipedal.
Generally these episodes are fine to watch because Jean has some good material and Nadia gets to do some good things out of "love". But there's still problems other than Nadia's occasional annoying stubbornness. One episode progresses really well until all of a sudden, Jean falls unconscious and there's an incredibly repetitive dream. It's the same animation and dialogue over and over for several minutes.
Then comes another island, where the laws of physics and nature don't apply. This was an unhappy turn of events because up until now Nadia had always been realistic, with simply the application of science to account for what happens. Ignoring the magic whale, of course. There's been mysticism, but it's always been explainable. What's happening here isn't.
Fortunately, it'll probably turn out to be a turtle or something.

The few opportunities for the other storylines to happen are the highlights. Gargoyle's few moments are much needed drama and the appearance of Grandis' gang for "Sanson's shark shooting adventure" is definitely appreciated.

These episodes aren't truly horrible, but at times the animation is. I'm not one who complains about lip synching in anime, but when a character speaks and their mouth doesn't move at all, it's disconcerting. Hopefully this is just symptomatic of saving big money for the spectacular finale that is inevitably going to follow.
Otherwise, Nadia up until now will have been a lie.

So these six island episodes don't destroy what Nadia was about before. They just take some time out from the rest of the series and feature some poorly judged directorial decisions, which may not have been Anno's fault. Let's just hope that there will be story again. Not just "it's evil to eat meat" and "Jean, I hate you!" moments.

Animation Runner Kuromi

After graduating Animation School, Oguru Mikiko is hired to work at Studio Petit. For perfectly good reasons, the head of production rechristens her "Kuromi-chan" and then transfers his job to her just in time to be admitted to hospital for a bleeding stomach ulcer.
With only one week left before Time Journeys 2 has to be shipped out for in-betweens by the overseas contract, Kuromi has to whip her lazy team of five workers (only two of which actually workin the studio) into shape to meet the deadline.

Animation Runner Kuromi is an admiring peek at the animation industry; in this digital age, they don't need to worry about painting cels, but it's still a tough job. It's not clear just how accurate this account is, but it's funny nonetheless. 312 cuts in one week ... why, an animator would have to work himself to the bone!
Through sheer determination, Kuromi races towards the goal.
This anime is very much a product of director Daichi Akitaro. On the Daichi-ness scale (where Jubei-chan is 100, Fruits Basket is 50 and Now and Then, Here and There is roughly 1), Kuromi rates about a 75. It's not quite so full of squiggly things, but the squid that pops up from time to time to explain things or make pithy remarks ... yeah, he's there.
There's some great work of homage here - Luis Monde III is quite obvious alone, but just look at his driver! Yet, oddly, there's not much in the way of reference for the rest of the time.

Naturally, any anime about an animation studio is going to produce a lot of in jokes and lovable characters. Every animator, it would seem, has to have some sort of personality quirk. Kuromi is hard done by, and despite flirting with resignation (as I'm sure all first timers have at one point. Cough), she is still fired up and ready to go. There's an old timer (also a woman - it's unclear about the gender ratio in the anime industry, but the 3:4 women to men given here doesn't seem quite right) who knows exactly how it all works ... and everything is set in to place for the premiere of Time Journeys 2.
The only bizarre thing about Kuromi's character is that she's not a big fan of anime. In high school, there was only one title that she actually liked - and her reason for becoming an animator is to create something that could inspire someone like that. The fact that she had closed the door to the rest of the scene was of some concern; but then, directors like Miyazaki aren't much for modern anime (and the general theatre going public don't consider his films anime). It's one thorn that takes away some of the project's sympathy (like those people who only like Cowboy Bebop and nothing else).

Miyuki-chan in Wonderland made me hate a continuous soundtrack. Masuda Toshio's music almost went that way, but fortunately it swerved off that course and changed into something more reasonable once past the set up.
The characters are cute, and sometimes they do go squiggly. Everyone is essentially a caricature. The flexibility of Daichi's characters is something that endears them to the audience.

Animation Runner Kuromi is a fun short OVA that is full of hilarities but a couple of stumbling blocks that you wouldn't expect from an "animation story" make it strike a few odd notes here and there.
And we never can tell who animated Time Journeys 3-5.

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - Episodes 13 to 20

One has to wonder if, when composing Nadia, Anno had any concept of thematic and emotional consistency. From episode to episode, the mood of the Nautilus crew members is totally different. When one episode is heavy on the dramatic punch and the next is just a standard "Jean does stuff with machines" episode, it's somewhat disconcerting. Ironically, when episodes jump from the comedic to the dramatic in the space of an instant, it's amazing.

The first of these episodes is one of those old anime standbys, the "big adventure" episode, in which a minor character (usually a mascot) goes off by themselves and does things without the main characters. In this case, it's our good friends Marie and King who go off by themselves to have fun. The exploration part is fun, but the real adventure comes when Sanson and Marie go on the run from one of Gargoyle's machines. This section had some really good animation and some great visual gags. Then came the conclusion, which was truly shocking.
For some reason, Marie and Nadia then contracted a fatal illness and Captain Nemo's heart was melted enough to go to Reef 64 to harvest the antidote ... but not before a run in with a prehistoric fish! The way that this episode was structured, however, doesn't make Nemo appear as caring as they would perhaps have liked to make him. That which spurs him into action is too contrived, and would have been better received had Nadia not been struck with an affliction.

The two stand outs were episodes 15 and 16, which contrasted incredibly strongly to the previous episode. A new character is introduced as an inspiration for Jean, setting him up for inevitable tragedy. This is one time that Nemo could not change his plans to save a life. As the chief engineer said, "This ship may be built on super science, but it can't perform miracles!" The direction was clearly notable here, and reminiscent of Evangelion's more introspective episodes - thus setting groundworks. Anno's taste for brief flashes of images is an effective way of getting messages across.
But what was truly great about this episode was that the three engineers caught in the room with the fatal gas were never shown after their fate was sealed by Nemo. Jean could only talk to them by the intercom. Something truly shocking happens thereafter, that really has to be seen. Hidaka Noriko's performance was at the height of strength here.
While the crew of the Nautilus may seem stoic, they really do care about lives lost. And stoicism can still betray someone in their final moments ...
In episode 16, Anno uses that technique which deserves a lot of respect - knowing when not to use the eyecatch music. Believe me when I say that at the half way point of this episode something happens that will make your blood run cold. It's a metaphorical death, made all the more powerful by the fantastic setting. Episode 16 was the series' highest point so far ... and so maybe it can fall from here.

I suppose that the Jean developments are the logical continuation of the events of episode 16, but it just doesn't seem quite right ... and one starts wishing that the "romance" between Nadia and Jean could be handled better. Better than Nadia coming up to Jean in the corridors and saying "I hate you!", at any rate. And then the secret base of the Nautilus stuff was a bit weird. (A 20,000 year old whale?)
Nemo is poised to reveal some secrets; one has to hope that he'll do it soon.
Finally, the Evil Trio are a really bad influence on Marie (whose purpose seems largely to create a reason for King not being with Nadia).

Still, Nadia is highly watchable. It's just at its best in high octane drama mode.

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - Episodes 6 to 12

Don't forget to try in mind!

And, as the first arc of the Neo Atlantis story line comes and goes, Nadia becomes blood pumping ultra fun anime! Hurrah for sea legs! Then all of our character related dreams come true.
First up: Nadia's run in with the Neo Atlantians leads to the discovery of her "weakness", if you can call pacifism that, and the forced revelation of information. (She's the kind of character who doesn't care if she's tortured, but torture her adopted child and her pet lion ...)
The secret base is great, both in appearance and animation. The conveyor belt that Nadia and Jean find themselves on is a marvel, but that's largely because a personal favourite technique of mine is when the background and foreground are simultaneously animated. Nadia's animation wasn't the peak of technical perfection at the time, but there were very impressive scenes, and this is one of them.
Unfortunately, there can be no surprises at times (one can't exactly be expected to cry "Oh my God! The TOWER OF BABEL was DESTROYED?!" - it's traditional anime shorthand that anything named after Babel will ultimately fall into ruin. It's been standard since the father of sci-fi, Metropolis), but that doesn't destroy the impact completely.
Finally Captain Nemo reveals himself to everyone and they start a new life, and story, aboard the Nautilus. Now we have a sense of the plot ahead.

The best thing about these episodes was the evolution of the Evil Trio. As bad guys, they're lousy. As vain good guys, however, they're shinily brilliant. It was poorly suggested in episode five that they cared about Nadia's well being (at the time, there was nothing really to justify it). Their initial motivation of stealing the Blue Water was never really explained, so in this new capacity as submarine workers they're much better.
It should be noted that this is not really in any way a spoiler, as the OP has all along shown the two groups of three (and King) getting along.
The initial escape, with Sanson powering through, was handled in such a way that it was genuinely exciting. Excitement that removed any doubts about Nadia's being worthwhile. But then Grandis' sudden change to that of a loving, passionate woman is also great and adds more depth. Her hardened attitude was caused, not surprisingly, by a man. It looks like the presence of another man might be healing her, even if nothing comes of it. Really, though, the trio are all heart.

The music is never inappropriate in this set of episodes, and there was some genuinely impressive animation aboard the submarine. Oddly enough, this great animation was used for domestic scenes, which is something of a rarity, as budgets are generally saved for "action". Heck, there's even Grandis fan service! And when you're as beauteous as Grandis, you deserve all the service that can be doled out.
The way that the script gets around the technology is highly amusing at times. Aboard the Nautilus, Hanson marvels "I can't believe a submarine like this has already been built!" and when Jean asks Nemo about the engine, he says "This engine is truly a wonder, that can not be duplicated in this century or the next."
It's best not to worry about any anachronisms in this sort of series, because that just takes the fun out of everything. If you're going to alter one thing, it can't hurt to change another ...


Nadia: Secret of Blue Water is generating so much good will that I don't see how it can possibly be hurt by the infamous "island" episodes. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - Episodes one to five

Going into Nadia, I expected the most romantic anime ever made. Not thematically romantic, but physically so; anime born of the era when GAiNAX was a young king of industry, when every project was a labour of love.
It's getting there.

In 1899, Jean Le Havre goes to a Parisian inventor's fair to showcase the aircraft that he built with his Uncle in order to win 20,000 francs and the acclaim of someone or other. Of course, his plans get scuttled when he sees the beautiful girl Nadia rides by on a bicycle, and he runs to meet her atop the Eiffel Tower. His introduction to Nadia, and her pet lion King, is interrupted with the entrance of the fiery red head Grandis ad her henchmen, Sanson and Hanson. They want the Blue Water pendant around Nadia's neck!
And so the chase begins. At one point, this "evil trio", as they are known, grab Nadia in the extended hands of their craft - and thus a precedent was set that Team Rocket were bound to honour eight years thereafter.

The first episodes of Nadia are fairly unremarkable. Grandis drives Nadia and Jean out of France, and then their plane crashes into the ocean. At the end of the second episode, I was actually heard to say "What a crappy cliffhanger". Things pick up somewhat when the American battleship saves them. The "sea monsters" offer a glimpse of what is yet to come. Something with lights that red can't be organic, and unsurprisingly, it's not. When Nadia and Jean board the Nautilus in the fourth episode, that's when it starts to get interesting. Start. Captain Nemo (a deliberate eponym, so don't complain) is scary, though, in that he looks exactly like Macross' Captain Global. It's like they're twins born 100 years apart!
Still, at this point Nadia and Jean are given direction, and when they arrive on the island after this, their party is complete. This episode, which would appear to be the start of a story arc, has some great scenes in it. Nadia and Jean's adoption of Marie was touching, as I was worrying that they wouldn't have the heart to tell the girl that her parents had been killed. It's sad that she's too young to understand the concept of death, and it was really hard for Nadia and Jean to explain that her parents, and her dog, were never going to come back.
The problem with these episodes is an over reliance on the Evil Trio, who are not Team Rocket. When they're at a point where they're part of the story but are not the story, it will be better, most definitely. When the cultists come in, it feels just that much more like it should be.

Nadia does have the production values, though. Yoshiyuki Sadamoto turned in some good work with the character designs; the Evil Trio look just like the comical villains that they are, Marie is a genki girl despite it all ... Jean is a bit of a nerd, and Nadia is just that little bit more exotic. The only problem is that Nadia's darker skin tone is frequently inconsistent with the light levels shown.
The crew of the Nautilus is great because they don't belong to any country, which means you can get things like Indians in tartan and what have you. They're only glimpsed at for now, but that truly is multiculture!
But King is just a bit weird, like he's ... there.
The scenery is detailed, and it feels very much like the late eighties series that it is. This would have been perfect for Australian television broadcast back in the day. It perfectly evokes the feel of both eras that it represents; also it is reminiscent of Ghibli productions and Sherlock Hound: half remembered patches of childhood. It is not, of course, strictly children's fare, but it has just the right ability to capture the imagination.
The music is by Sagisu Shiro and, not surprisingly, it's heavily reminiscent of his work on Evangelion. Of course, predating Evangelion by six years, they're future echoes. The music is at times heavily inspirational, but it seems that the onscreen events have not yet earned the grand music that they wear; that Sagisu has congratulated Jean and Nadia rather too soon. Sagisu wrote quite a wide variety of music for Nadia, and it is my sincerest hope that the content will come to live up to the masterpiece he composed in Bye Bye Blue Water.

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water is not bad at all; it, like one of Jean's planes, has just got to get itself off the ground and fly. The first four episodes are proof enough that a 39 episode series can't be judged on its first volume alone. The fifth is proof that the series is suggesting that it might go somewhere now.