Anime Pilgrimage

Anime Pilgrimage DX live!

2005-09-24T09:49:00.000+10:00

While it is still a work in progress, Anime Pilgrimage DX is now online at Batrock.net.

Now, blogger shall sleep once more.

Tide-Line Blue - episode 8

2005-09-18T13:40:00.000+10:00

"Reunion - Reunite"

Crises of conscience make for great drama! Teen! Aoi! The ostrich! (no, seriously, the ostrich).
Tide-Line Blue really is working hard to regain my trust. The set up of this episode is highly conducive to rocking.

Directly taking off from the previous episode, Joze takes Aoi hostage. Keel wants to save Aoi, and the ostrich doesn't want Teen to be shot, and then some varieties of Hell break loose.

What this means is that the new team of Keel, Joze and Teen is formed. The difference is that, over eight episodes, Joze is still an "icy bitch", but Teen has developed into something more akin to a person.

I'm actually sensing something of a role-reversal here, with Teen uncertain of himself and Keel being more commanding. Teen is naturally uncertain because his time in the New UN has shown him that problems can be resolved using something other than violence.
Teen, of course, now knows things that Keel does not: the map, and news of their father. This sense of context gives him much more to live for than he ever had before. I have to wonder if the twins had not, before the events of the first episode, seen each other for seven years.

The scenes that Aoi spends lamenting that she has never been able to balance her roles as "mother" for Keel and the General Secretary of the New UN was effective indeed, as seeing a character lose her composure for good reason always works. For whatever reason, the ostrich has become an object of sympathy and this works well against all odds. This is probably just an excuse for Chen Reishi to come across and talk to Aoi.

The final scenes of the episode showed the supreme difference in the attitudes of Joze and Keel. Joze seems far too distrusting and fatalistic, and I desperately wanted Keel to be right. What this series has shown, and quite well, is that the moral option is not always the most effective - that which is repugnant might get the job done far better. This is depressing, but all too true.

I have been meaning to mention the ED for a long time now, and as it turns out this is the perfect episode do so. The song itself is an excellent piece that just smacks of "pretty boys". Like so many things I love, I love it for all of the wrong reasons.
The animation itself changes every couple of episodes and in this capacity acts as a preview. The lyrics for this episode accompany what looks like some very good Teen and Keel cooperation and drama. It also implies that they'll get out of this current mess, but I've no idea how they plan to do so.

The last point before the conclusion is this: despite the fact that Teen and Keel are twins, how could you confuse one for the other? Keel is dressed in purple Gravitation clothes, while Teen sees fit to get sorted out as a military man. It's easy to decide which one to shoot.

All in all, an episode of excellence. Emotion lends weight to proceedings and makes everything eminently more watchable. Yet Joze's still a bitch, and I don't think that will change anytime soon.

Angel Heart preview

2005-09-15T01:49:00.000+10:00

Thanks to Garten, I procured the preview of Angel Heart, an anime that had me really upset one Friday night.. I had thought it was starting many months ago, but it's actually starting in October. The English internet fan reaction ... subdued ... to say the least, outright hostile to say the most. I really hope that someone will pick this up to sub it.

I was most surprised to see how closely the animation resembled that of City Hunter, considering both that it's fourteen years since the last City Hunter TV series and Hojo Tsukasa's aesthetic - at least his cover aesthetic - has vastly changed. Yet here we are again, with Kamiya Akira back in the saddle as Saeba Ryo. I can only hope that Genda Tessho has reprised his role as Umibozu, and that Ikura Kazue will be Kaori once more.
All of the important players from City Hunter still work in anime, so I can see no compelling reason for them not to converge here. Sure, Ikura may not have much of a role, but that's not the point.

At only 3mb, the trailer reveals very little, but it gave me a good deal of hope. Angel Heart is directed by Hirano Toshiki, who worked on quite a lot of iconic eighties anime, as well as teaming up with his wife for the superlative Vampire Princess Miyu. Hirano is a sensitive director when he wants to be, and Angel Heart is billed as a drama. From what I understand, Ryo is still something of a playboy, but more than ever that's a smoke screen and coping mechanism.

Please, friends of the internet: sub Angel Heart. I will thank you for it and shake you warmly by the hand.

Progress report: Batrock goes to the taffy pulling machine

2005-09-15T00:58:00.000+10:00

At the moment, I'm working on making the new and improved Batrock fit all of the images well. I'm going to keep the "one splash image" pattern I've been doing. Because I have to reupload every article I have written since the initial move to Batrock, I will hopefully be able to do this for every article along the way to create marvellous uniformity.
I'm far from King Code, though, so not quite sure how well it will go or how long it will take. I hope to just take a big chunk of time on the weekend and get through it.

Due to the whole different appearance of Bell-chan, I've actually edited things out of the finished Batrock versions, as of Honey and Clover 21. So there'll be more exclusive content on the proper Batrock when it comes around. I know, it's exciting.

Honey and Clover - episode twenty-one

2005-09-14T11:45:00.000+10:00

"When I was younger, I used to ride my blue bicycle and wonder how far I could ride without turning back ..."

Essentially, Takemoto gets a job. On the same day, the company goes bankrupt and he loses it. While this straight up sucks, you also have to consider that Takemoto has been looking for work for more than a year now.
This is so disheartening that he goes riding, trying to figure himself out. Shuu makes it clear that a soul-searching journey is not something that should be interrupted, as contact does not allow the searcher to find himself.

This episode is excellent and, as Garten says, quite reminiscent of the first. For the first time since then we are given the opportunity to bask in the watercolour scenery of Honey & Clover. So emotive were so many of the shots that I almost gave up and went for the twincest that featured as a pendulum of this episode.

Takemoto has always done the most narration, due largely to his introspective nature. Now that he is alone, everything that he does is internalised, a journey alone both on the ground and in the mind. Getting in touch with his inner feelings always makes Honey & Clover more personal, and personality is what I love about this series.
Compounding this sort of emotion is the reaction that the rest of the group has to Takemoto's departure. You may remember that, when Morita left for a year, Hagu-chan was quite amicable to this decision. Hearing about Takemoto, who has proven much less resilient than Morita, Hagu was genuinely concerned for his welfare. While I'm looking for signs wherever I can find them, I really think that Hagu and Takemoto are destined to be. Whether they'll be destined to be within five episodes remains to be seen.

On an entirely different note about this episode, Nomiya leaves. Although Yamada probably doesn't realise it, she is affected by this news. Since he stopped being a total bastard, Nomiya is quite nice. Mayama lowered his guard and made this storyline much easier. I can even begin to see the two together, although all of these characters should start looking for love that can be requited.

The Snow Queen - episode 3

2005-09-11T13:25:00.000+10:00

"Fragments of the mirror"

At last, The Snow Queen shows its literary roots.

The Snow Queen's mirror shatters and a fragment finds its way into Kay's eye. Historically, the fragments of the mirror corrupt the world, making those that they touch see everything as ugly and evil. As a result, Kay becomes something of a bastard.

Lamentably, The Snow Queen anime gives no context for the mirror, despite featuring both a narrator and a snow queen who could explain it. This will be made clear to the audience in the fullness of time, I should hope.

The Snow Queen is a sufficiently interesting character, represented here for the first time in an extended capacity. My personal Hans Christian Andersen collection credits the character as "the wicked Snow Queen", so it is nice to see her portrayed as someone who is trying, despite her heart of ice, to do something right. The fact that she ends up doing it entirely wrong is immaterial.
It will be good to see just how the Snow Queen and Kay interact over the coming episodes.

The sometimes dodgy quality of the animation makes very little sense considering the cinematic techniques that Dezaki frequently and gleefully applies. Moving scenery, zooming, animated establishing shots and frequent use of metaphorical perspective make for an interesting program, almost experimental considering the 7:30 AM time slot that it boasts. If only they could be more seamlessly executed.

The preview for the next episode looks quit egood: the journey of Gerda, the very basis of The Snow Queen, is about to begin. Now, if only I could understand the talking statuary, I'd be set.

Tide-Line Blue - episode 7

2005-09-09T21:34:00.000+10:00

What did I say about Keel being in his element? Well, with a trip to Tibet for some hard gambling, we are given an example of exactly that. This episode is pretty good for most of the characters involved; even the frequently insufferable Joze gets some good comedy and drama in.

In this episode Keel and Joze arrive in Tibet, just as Aoi, Teen and the ostrich do. While Keel and Joze need to gamble for fuel for their mini-sub, Aoi has important issues to discuss with Chen Reishi, an intense woman who wears robes, and has premonitions in an other worldly voice.
It’s all pretty good.

The best scene of the episode, and perhaps the series, was Angie and Keel on the docks. Their reminiscences of Sunshine was a fairly moving scene, acted perfectly by Daisuke Sakaguchi who has simultaneous laughter and tears down pat. It was a great example of a character temporarily falling apart while trying to "stay true" to themself - in that Keel probably would not want people to see that he has been affected. People that he considers friends, that is: around Gould and Joze, he wears his heart on his sleeve.

The other unknown quantity is Joze, a character I really hate. I think I'm supposed to, so that's okay. For once we get to see an air of vulnerability about her, but any sympathy this generates is very quickly disposed of. Joze is genuinely off-kilter, and much more of a "villain" and harder person than Gould ever has been. It will be interesting to see her with Teen, but it would be hard for her to be any more unlikeable than she has already been depicted as. Sure, she might have a reason for being a total bitchmonster, but there is something definitely off about her.

The funny thing about Tide-Line Blue is that I inherently understand that threatening to use nuclear weapons against people is an immoral idea. Problem is, Gould makes it seem stylish.

Honey and Clover - episode twenty

2005-09-07T23:27:00.000+10:00

I don’t normally include personal experiences in my reviews, but this episode of Honey and Clover almost made me fail a university test. Somehow, it was worth it.

It almost certainly was based on the strength of the impassioned Morita scenes alone. Nomiya has actually come around, and Mayama … oh, Mayama. Once more, Takemoto is a support character for Hagu, but this episode is packed as it is, so that’s okay.

Herein Nomiya realises that he has little chance with Yamada – he is older, so he can understand hopeless love better than she – and Mayama realises that he doesn’t really have that much against Nomiya, that the reason the two don’t get along is because each is very close to the other.
Meanwhile, Takemoto has been discussing the future with Hagu-chan, and her plans depress him. Morita decides to take action after Shuu has revealed his own history with university and it is realised that his attitude towards his niece is affected by that.

I really get the sense that Takemoto and Morita are brothers in a way, Morita being more unhinged and proactive, both of them caring deeply about the people around them but being too shy to really express this about themselves in a proper fashion. Since Morita came to understand that Takemoto cared about his departure, he seems to have gained courage. I really loved the scenes wherein Morita completely dropped his airy façade and became entirely serious and impassioned about what his friends are doing wrong.
He wasn’t even being judgemental; his actions were completely rational, and even admirable.

I can personally identify with Shuu, because he gives his reason for becoming a teacher in this episode. Shuu perfectly understands art theory, but he can not produce art to save himself. When he realised the joy that he got from helping Rika and Harada(?) understand concepts, he decided that he should become a teacher.
I was always good at theory myself, and this is not exactly depressing. Still, the expectations that Shuu places upon Hagu-chan are, without him even realising it. By the end of the episode, Hagu-chan is in a heartbreaking mess.
Don’t blame Shuu; blame the industry.

A wholly excellent episode, very little in the way of visual blarghs, although one does have to wonder why the screen had questions and thoughts written across it, ala Evangelion.
Still, never mind; doomed and ambiguous romances have never been this good.

Tide-Line Blue - episode 6

2005-09-04T23:13:00.000+10:00

"K2"

Easily the best episode since the first, Tide-Line Blue six is actually revealing things, giving proper characterisation and some actual emotion.

In this episode the Ulysses takes on the forces of the New UN. Clearly we don’t want either side to die, as Satoyama of the New UN works for Aoi and for some reason we think that Gould is generally a good guy.
In other parts, Joze goes looking for Keel, who is actually behaving in a sensible fashion, and Aoi reveals some huge truths to Teen.

For the first time we are given the opportunity to feel something for Teen as Aoi tells him about what is going on in the satellite orbiting the Earth. Teen has always been the more serious of the two brothers, even as a child. The childhood events of episode two are actually remarkably close to all that happens in this episode, with everything showing itself to be highly relevant. For once I got the sense that this program isn’t wasting its time.

Now I understand that Teen has feelings, it’s easier to be around him. To be fair to both of the twins, they have been out of their elements since the second half of the first episode and should be forgiven for their digressions. Giving Keel a taste of the normal life, working with the villagers, was also worthwhile.

To the action side of the episode: this worked very well because it was charged with emotion for once, rather than being people the audience doesn’t know shooting at each other in the vain hope that someone will die.
Gould was passionate in his defence of the Ulysses, and Satoyama’s animation and delivery was spot on. Satoyama is not a character that we have seen much of before, but his dedication to his job was admirable, which made him much easier to empathise with.

“K2” was an episode full of excitement, revelations and despair. If the writers can keep this level up rather than writing the annoying scenes that they have been up until now, Tide-Line Blue will not have been a waste after all.

Honey and Clover - episode nineteen

2005-09-01T21:26:00.000+10:00

"Time Begins to Move Again"

Booooo Nomiya. Down with everyone who is actively trying to make Yamada feel bad!

This episode is another angsty Yamada Mayama effort, but the Nomiya/Yamada/Mayama triangle is not a convincingly effective one. The problem is that Nomiya is a bastard, and Mayama is also a bastard – but one with feelings. At the end of the episode one might get the idea that Nomiya has some feelings.

On the other side of the fence, Takemoto is glad to have Morita back.

When Yamada is drunk, I don’t think that one should really take her actions to heart: Nomiya accuses her of using him, but this is probably just his unique way of making people feel bad. Mayama’s attitude towards Nomiya is actually rationally explained, which makes him seem a heck of a lot less selfish than previously: Mayama knows the flippant manner in which Nomiya disposes of women. While it is true that one could say Mayama is just thinking the worst, his “if only Nomiya could show a serious side” is perfectly justified.
Still, the balance isn't the same as Yamada/Mayama/Rika, and that throws the whole thing off.

I like Takemoto a heck of a lot more than the others at the moment, and his dinner with Morita "the housewife" was a good example. Morita almost never shows signs of seriousness, so it was nice to see his warmth. I think that Morita really can appreciate that Takemoto is a good friend, despite the fact that it seems that each time they do something for the other, they hurt themselves.
The one scene shared by Morita and Hagu showed that their relationship is on an artistic rivalry platform, but perhaps their adversarial nature is conducive to romance. I just don't know.

The other bad thing about this episode is that it, like the episode that introduced Nomiya, had some really off model shots. Yamada is always hit worst by that because she can look incredibly weird if drawn incorrectly. Extreme closeups that are out of shape are not good for setting moods.

The next episode seems to include a fight between Morita and Kaoru; that should be good. Better than Nomiya giving his "home truths" at any rate.

Progress report

2005-08-31T20:00:00.000+10:00

Seeing as everything's been thrown out of whack this week and MovableType offers the worst tech support ever (at least if you don't pay them), I'm going to go out a bit and digress from the straight up reviews that I do. Put some of the hated word "blog" back in the phrase "anime blog" and lose all of my readers.

I have completed a RahXephon review, but the edited version is lost in the ether and I couldn't be bothered re-editing my draft. You can get that in time, but here I'll editorialise and say that I think that Argentosoma, despite holding more flaws, was an altogether better series - at least on the sci-fi scale.

I've been watching complete fansubbed series on the trains, which strikes me as somewhat against the "spirit" of fansubbing - that is, watching it in instalments almost as if it's real TV. The two series I've watched, however, are so good that I could put that aside. I'm not sure if I'll write about them, though.

The first series was Beck, which had many little storylines I didn't like - such as a stupid bullying exposé - but which I really cared about. The characters were excellent and I wasn't as annoyed by the English as many of my anime compatriots were. Even the whole "Leon Sykes" story didn't annoy me, possibly because I was not watching on a weekly basis. I never found him much of a threat.

Monster is my current train series and, twenty episodes in, it is excellent. By the same team as Master Keaton, both anime and manga, it is just pure rock. It takes a few episodes to set itself up, but there's enough suspense and such great characters that it picks up momentum quickly. The shadow of Johan casts itself over the series and I think that Inspector Lunge's theory is too naff and convenient.
I might get to modern times, do a write up, and then pick it up weekly. Who knows, everything I say is always speculation.

Finally, the DVD series I just finished was A Tiny Snow Fairy Sugar. Entire series take a while to write up, so I'll get back to you on that. I tells ya, I teared up at the end.

I'll watch Honey & Clover 19 and write it up later.

How was that for an experiment?

The Snow Queen - episode 2

2005-08-31T19:14:00.000+10:00

“Aurora Town”

I would say that it took them long enough, but I’m in no position to talk. Perhaps there is a reason beyond control for everything.

In this episode, Gerda is making a living in the winter time by doing laundry, while her grandmother Matilde is working hard into the night making tapestries. In nineteenth century Denmark, it was vitally important to be able to pay for winter provisions, so Matilde overworks herself sick.
Meanwhile, the Snow Queen goes about her rounds, and Gerda has to find a cure for Matilde in a blizzard. The episode ends with the original story’s beginning … slightly altered to take care of the troll characters.

The story is presently in melodrama stage, setting the scene for Gerda's character. Her dedication is shown in her trips out into the snow; this will come in handy for later on, as the whole story of The Snow Queen is about facing hardship and having strong faith. I doubt that there will be quite a Christian moral as there was in the original story, but it's possible that I will be surprised.
The highlight for the episode, therefore, was seeing the Snow Queen get around. Suzukane Mayo's character is a woman of few words, but she exudes an air of sadness and her snow song was mesmerising.

While I like a lot of the techniques involved in this program, and that I think the Snow Queen is a semi tragic figure, the secondary character designs leave quite a lot to be desired. The washerwomen were hideous in this episode. Even in the normal characters the eyes seemed off, with Gerda occasionally looking at nothing.
The other factor is that the Red and Blue Trolls simply suck. They look like refugees from bad eighties’ American cartoons contracted to the Japanese for animation. When I was about five, I watched a hell of a lot of that sort of stuff - and it just doesn't cut it for me anymore.

The Snow Queen is good, but not good or fast enough to warrant having to wait two months between episodes. The sudden possession of Red Troll and Blue Troll suggests that there is something evil afoot here – which is important because the Snow Queen is by no means bad, she just doesn’t undersand.
By virtue of its basis in a short morality tale, this anime had to branch out somewhere. Next ~~week~~ episode, at least, appears to be the pivotal mirror fallout.

Tide-Line Blue - episode 5

2005-08-31T11:46:00.000+10:00

"Attack - Offense"

This is more like it.

Teen misbehaves with Aoi and Keel decides that he wants to "help" Gould again. Unfortunately everything that Gould does is vaguely militaristic, which clashes with Keel's pacifistic nature. Keel's a bit slow. The way that things work out, and the realisation that Keel comes to, however, are well worthwhile.

Gould is finally becoming the interesting character that he needs to be for this series to work: his methods may seem brutal, but they are effective. The sheer disappointment that Keel feels when he realises that Gould was right all along is fairly powerful, and all the moreso due to the fact that this episode uses very little in the way of SD shots for once.
That said, Joze is not very sympathetic at all: her grey hair and yellow eyes make her far from trustworthy, almost implying that she is ruthlessly behind everything.

I didn't much like the Teen scenes because that smug bastard look he carries on his face annoys me to no end. This time the Gould side has enough information to make me start caring about them, but the Aoi side is still too mysterious: unexplained contraband communications systems and all sorts of new characters aren't getting me going.

This is good enough, but nowhere near gripping; the characterisation is slightly annoying in Keel, and Teen takes too many notes from the book of Joze rather than Gould.

Honey and Clover - episode eighteen

2005-08-30T20:41:00.000+10:00

“He’s back”

I would say that this was the best episode yet but for two reasons: it’s likely to be surpassed and I didn’t really like the ending.
Honey and Clover is at its manic comedy best when it has Morita in the spotlight. It is no spoiler to say that he’s back, as the end of episode seventeen was blatantly obvious … and he was always going to come back, we just didn’t know when.

Basically this episode kicks off with the group watching Morita win a Mochademy Award for special effects in the hit movie “Space Titanic”. They watch his rambling speech with horror, then realise with more horror that he is in the hospital bed next to them.
What ensues is an excellent episode about graduation and Takemoto’s uncertainness about his relationship with Hagu.

For a minute there, I thought that Morita had really graduated, that he had learned. I can be forgiven for thinking this, as the “finally serious” Morita was very strong indeed, before he went all bowtie and first year.
I loved the sunset feel of the graduation scenes, which is why they were kind of ruined by the dawn feel of the new university year. I understand the necessity of first year Morita, especially after so long in the wilderness for him, and it’s not a ruiner – it just slightly cheapens the emotions.

I think that Yamada must work in the pottery department of the university, because she is still there despite graduating at the same time as Yamada. It is slightly confusing when these characters have to have their majors when Hagu-chan does such a wide variety of work: starting in pottery (where she met Yamada), working in sculpture (where Takemoto became surprised by her skill, and where she showed her desperation), but dedicating herself to painting as well (such as her giraffe experience).
Of course, this is the point of Hagu-chan: she is endlessly talented, but she needs to focus that talent or become distressed - which is Morita's problem and precisely why he's coming back. This is yet another thing to add to the list of comparisons between Takemoto and these two: directionlessness.
However, I could argue that this is common among students.

Overall a strong episode that had to work as it did, even if I didn't quite like the outcome.

Shameful return

2005-08-28T16:39:00.000+10:00

The reason I have not updated Batrock.net's Anime Pilgrimage for a week is because the MovableType system refuses to acknowledge my username.. I said that I would be back on Blogspot in the event of Batrock being hacked by terrorists, and this is close enough.

With my head bowed down low in regret, welcome back to Blogspot. I'm uploading all of my images in the event of a triumphant return to Batrock, but this layout can't really handle such large scale quality images at the low low prices I normally offer!

Batrock Emigration

2005-05-08T23:38:00.000+10:00

The new official home of Anime Pilgrimage is Batrock.net. Please upgrade your links to reflect this.

I will keep this blogspot up as a mirror (with smaller images), in case Batrock gets hacked by terrorists (seriously, that's what happened to my last website). This site will not be updated unless that happens.

Honey and Clover - episode one

2005-05-08T23:10:00.000+10:00

This fan sub lark is fun!
I have no idea what this anime is about. I love it, but I have no idea what it is about.
Honey and Clover begins as a story about a group of university students that live in a big old house. They get up to mischief. But then at the end a freaky little blonde girl who looks like she's four but is actually 18 comes to visit, and now I could not tell you what's going on.

This episode opens with first year student Takemoto talking about how, when he was young, he would ride his bike and see how far he could get without turning back. Now he is learning to be an artist at a university, and is constantly surprised by the new things that he learns about life.
In this episode, Takemoto is charged with the responsibility of waking housemate Morita in time for his lecture. Morita is a sixth year student who has had to repeat many times because of his poor attendance. Not wanting this on his head, Takemoto goes into a wild panic about being able to wake up his fellow man. Wild antics ensue.

As a university comedy, this is pretty hilarious. If only things were actually like this. Kuroda Yosuke, he of the multitude of supreme hits and low misses, is the script supervisor for this series and the randomness of his attitude shines through. The animation is superb, creating a small paradise for wild face fans.
Then at the end of the episode comes the incredibly short, mostly mute 18 year old girl "Hagu". This is where confusion comes in; Why is she so short? Why is she here? Why does Takemoto fall instantly in love with such a scary girl-woman?

Hopefully these questions will be answered, because I'm willing to hang around and find out.

Vandread The Second Stage

2005-05-07T22:59:00.000+10:00

Vandread The Second Stage takes place almost directly after the first series, with the increased danger of that conclusion looming. Where Vandread was a series about but one ship in space, The Second Stage is at once more vast and more personal.

The first major developments in The Second Stage are the birth of Ezra's baby, Kahlua-chan, and the discovery of Misty Cornwell, a teenaged who was frozen some sixty three years ago. She comes from a pre-separation society.

The introduction of Kahlua-chan is symbolic in its bringing together of men and women, but is more importantly an excellent comic foil. Pyoro, the robot who was underused in the first season, comes to the fore as Kahlua-chan's (or, as he calls her, Pyoro-2) father figure. Pyoro now becomes a star in his own right and earns reams of hilarious lines into the deal. The series is more fun than ever before as a result.

The issue with Misty is that she initially strikes the viewer as a victim of "second series needs a new character" syndrome. Misty is a very obvious wedge between Dita and Hibiki, and her charm is not helped by a bizarre little blob thing that projects itself from her earring.
In the first few episodes of the series, she is either bursting out with loudness or completely irrelevant. This is thankfully remedied by certain revelations that make her sympathetic - and understandable ones that are not in the least contrived, at that.
Misty never has a narrative purpose - she's not some convenient solution to all of the universe's problems, an integral part of the series that she might have otherwise been - but she does become a functioning member of the crew of the Nirvana and for that you can be grateful.

Hibiki grows exponentially during the series to the point that he is nothing like the character he was when he started. In fact, the whole cast goes through some massive changes in the name of plot and character development, which is one of the strengths of this series.
This second series is better than the first in that respect with Duero and Bart, the two underutilised men of the first, actually get some interesting material to work with.

The characters are good, with far more appearances of Ishizuka Unsho's Rabat than one might expect, but so too is the plot. To go into too much detail would be to spoil a perfectly good thing to open and discover, but there is a lot of excellent SF on display here, that culminates in one of the best penultimate episodes of anime I've ever seen. You can react to the events shown, and that is always a good thing (Eiken and the like aside). If you liked Vandread, it's more than likely you will enjoy The Second Stage even more. The OP and ED seem a bit dodgy at first, but by the end they're catchy with their hip beats and all.

Vandread and The Second Stage have some sort of stigma attached, but they don't deserve it. This is a Gonzo work of excellence, and much better than so many pedestrian series. A good work of science fiction, but also a good work of anime.

Emma - episode 4

2005-05-04T21:00:00.000+10:00

"Mudie's"

This episode left me in high spirits. Considering that I was preparing to murder the internet beforehand, this makes it a good outing. ~~The Adventures of William and Hakim~~ Emma is one entertaining series.

In this episode, Emma goes to Mudie's library, where Hakim and William are browsing the Victorian pornography. Emma escapes with a blush and a book about a servant falling in love with her master: it's all dreadfully romantic. After having been rejected by Emma, Hakim lets William know that the path is clear. This leads to the least painful William and Emma interaction so far!

This episode wasn't big on plot, being as it was about Hakim's displacement. Eleanor didn't have any reaction to Hakim's presence at all - but she did have a debriefing scene in front of her mirror, except that she has her maid to talk to. What was important here is Hakim's harem. They are pretty much funny in whatever scene they are in. Their immobile features grow on you the more immobile they become, and there's something inherently hilarious about one of them gunning a motorcar.

Also important in this episode is the inclusion of Arthur, William's younger brother. Arthur seems to be the embittered child who actually has to make something of himself. "You're inheriting the family business," says he to William, "I can't just loaf around like you."
It's true; William is the definition of a man of leisure. He has underpaid servants to do his work for him, so he can spend his days being awkward around the ladyfolk. If William did not have Hakim with him, this series would not be as fun because it would likely become apparent he's a bit of a jellyfish. If one is to be a cad, they must have the courage to do it properly!
Did anyone notice that Emma gets very little screen time indeed.

A nice, enjoyable episode with a satisfying ending. But what's up with the vehicles? They don't look near as sharp as anything else in the program.

City Hunter 2 - 46 to 63

2005-05-01T20:48:00.000+10:00

City Hunter has its diehard fans. I would almost count myself as one of them. While it may have taken 100 episodes to get there, there was one truly awesome moment: a moment that I felt.

"Goodbye, Hardboiled City", about a terrorist ring led by the mysterious "Sarah", is one of the best Ryo and Kaori relationship stories there has ever been. It is exactly as if the writers had set out to fashion a heart-pumping City Hunter extravaganza. The action, the music choice ... pure synergetic magic - and now certain things are out in the open, not drowned as in "Kaori has amnesia!".
Even the fact that Ryo disarms a nuclear bomb by shooting a wire and hoping for the best cannot detract from this episode; the status quo doesn't disappoint, either.

What is disappointing is that this is followed by City Hunter's first recap episode, Crystal Prophecy, in which a fortune teller tells Kaori that she always puts Ryo in danger. It's been a long time since I've seen one of these, and this one is pretty lame. The positive aspect is that most of the clips are from season one, so long ago I couldn't remember them, but City Hunter does not work based on action alone; also, the few comedy bits make entirely no sense out of context. Umibozu as Colonel Sanders, sure; but why? The new animation is way off model - particularly Reika - and they try to make up for it all with a sweet Kaori and Ryo moment at the end, but by then it's too late.
Of course, this episode can be summarised by my notebook: "What kind of crappy fortune teller tells the past?"

The issue of Kaori knowing herself emerges in "Reunion After 20 Years", wherein Kaori's elder sister appears. It had been so long, I had quite forgotten that Kaori and Makimura were not blood relatives. The moral of this story (which is not not that Kaori looks good in a dress) is strong: does Kaori know her own truth? Has she forged her own, with which she is happy? Ryo is not the only one with silencers on his heart. On the one hand, you want to scream at the characters for not coming clean to one another, but on the other you can forgive them. Ultimately, it is important to understand that Kaori lives in the underworld through her own choice, not that of Makimura or Ryo.

"Proposal from a 17 Year Old Girl" is another strong episode featuring old people. A girl is made heir to a vast fortune, and attracts many suitors, so she pretends to be engaged to Ryo. Three of her suitors hang around together, and plot murder. Sometimes, you have to wonder about these things; also about where yuppies got grenades from. Still, this episode has one of those heartwarming City Hunter episodes that we strive for; old people always have so much to atone for.

There's even an eighties dance spectacular episode, with some fanciful animation, an episode about Ryo teaching a boy prince what it is to be a man, and an episode in which Ryo protects a male-phobic by getting about in drag. The gay jokes in this series are so innocent and hilarious.

"Good Luck, My Sweeper" is the first City Hunter three parter. Contained within are the details of Ryo's childhood, and the question of trust. Does Ryo trust Kaori implicitly? Does "protecting" her from the truth actually detract from their relationship? It is a comfort to learn that he really can tell her anything, and she will be supportive; yet he still can't tell her what she needs to know. The series ends on a very nice note with this set of episodes.

The fact that Umibozu and Ryo were once enemies, something we have never witnessed (they were not friends before the commencement of the anime, but they had reached an understanding) emerges in conversation, proving once more that these characters have rich pasts.
Yet the question emerges along the way: why are Umibozu and Ryo the only sweepers on the market. Umibozu always turns up as Ryo's "surprise" adversary. This is one of the few things about the series that gets old. Silver Fox has been seen in the past, but no sweepers besides these two? Highly questionable! Not series breaking, though.

If you're the right sort of person, City Hunter rocks. City Hunter 2 is even better than its predecessor. There is a lack of Saeko in these episodes (and to think, what I used to complain about was a lack of Umi-chan), but the amount of character drama and relationship development is spot on. At this point, it is genuinely sad to think that there are only 26 episodes over two series left to watch.

DNA² TV & OVA

2005-05-01T18:16:00.000+10:00

Mixing genres is a favourite thing for anime directors to do. A lot of the time they get something fresh and daring. In the case of DNA², aiming for sci-fi comedy romance time travel drama, they get a mess.

One hundred years in the future, the Earth is in danger of over-population thanks to one man: the Mega-playboy, a man irresistable to women. Mega-playboy (or Mega-play, as the dialogue frequently shortens it to), one hundred years ago, had children to twenty women; each of these children turned out to be Mega-plays themselves, and they continued the cycle. The Mega-play DNA was clearly strong enough to have a 100% success rate.
This brings us to modern day, where pathetic loser nice guy Momonari Junta. Junta is a student who vomits bright pink whenever he comes close to anything vaguely sexual. The future "DNA Operator" Karin, however, is convinced that Junta is Mega-play and shoots him with a DNA bullet. To her horror she realises that she had the wrong bullet and could very well have injected Junta with the DNA that created the Mega-playboy!

This prospect sounds funny enough, but there is something off in the execution of the series. By the second episode, Junta as Mega-play has convinced popular girl Saeki to break up with her philandering boyfriend Ryuuji. Ryuuji, then, hires a gang of punks reminiscent of Fist of the North Star to rough Junta up. Not only do they beat Junta in a café, they then proceed to attempt to rape Saeki right there on the floor. What part of this is funny?! It is not even dramatic in the "plan goes horribly wrong"; it's just sour.

The mid-section of the series is dedicated to a ridiculous concept: Junta tries to cure Kotomi of her embarrassing ailment - she farts whenever in the presence of boys. It is handled almost sweetly, but this story has nothing to do with plot: this would be because Ami, Junta's next door neighbour and obvious silent crusher, is a character who does nothing but look dopey (a fault of design), bite her lip and say "damnit!".
There is entirely no chemistry in this relationship.

Basically what happens is that there is an overall idea and it is ignored; Mega-play is never a danger, and his comedy potential remains unmined. The drama that is introduced is along the lines of deep seated psychosis, and even then there is no threat in the form of Mega-play. Ami is needlessly mean to Junta, so there is no fear here! She will just slap him into place! There are some good what the hell is going on? moments, but they are nothing compared to the bad moments that provoke exactly the same feeling. A showdown in the biggest house in town, western in design, on top of a mountain, in the middle of an area of otherwise Japanese architecture? Talk about dark and contrived.

After the series proper, there's a follow up three part OVA (actually designed for TV, but never broadcast because the show wasn't popular enough). This OVA acts to clear up some parts of the series but, like a lot of OVA follow ups, it feels empty. The main new character is not very sympathetic or well developed and, really, by this time you get the feeling that Ryuuji has been through enough.

The characters overall are too "romance comedy", a genre that has, since Love Hina been widely pilloried and revered. Ami, for her part, is an infuriating character. A lot of these shows have girls who secretly love the main character, won't admit it to that character or themselves
Also, this is close to suffering the great anime disease: in Japanese high schools, there is only one boy that every girl wants. In this case there are only four girls after Junta, but honestly; one can only suspend disbelief about these love battles for so long. The writers can't even accurately balance the female characters adequately, with Tomoko getting far too little time for what she intends to do, and Kotomi forgotten about when her purpose is served.
Junta, at least, has some charisma; he is a nice guy. Unfortunately, Ami has next to no personality, except for liking Junta.
Magic User's Club had it more right than this; there was more than one boy, and very little competition.

Production wise, however, DNA² is largely beautiful. This is a project by Video Girl Ai's Masakazu Katsura, so the characters have his traditional pretty look. Based on the OP alone, one would expect something great from this anime. In action, the characters still look fine - although at times Ami's forehead is far too large, making her look sleepy.
There are little moments of excellent fluidity, and a heck of a lot of fan service for 1994. It would be no exaggeration to say that the greatest aspect of DNA² is its attention to panties. The best moments are those devoted to bra detail - but alas! This is not a panty festival.

The casting is pretty good, with Tominaga Miina as Karin and Koyasu Takehito as unbalanced pretty boy Ryuuji stand outs. Hayashibara Megumi plays against type as the manipulative half-nice Tomoko; she's a little shrill. Not really surprisingly, Kasahara Hiroko is as flat as her character Ami. The best audio experience of the program is definitely the OP and ED by L'Arc~enciel and Sharan Q respectively.

DNA² is entertaining from time to time, but is in no way cohesive. A lot of the comedy is lame, and the drama too out of place (and, honestly, doesn't make a lot of sense). With more focus, this could have been a much better series; as it is, DNA² is simply tragically beautiful and, like genetic modification, just that slightly morally ambiguous.

Berserk - episodes 14 to 25

2005-05-01T15:53:00.000+10:00

The final stretch of Berserk is excellent ... but then there is the matter of the ending.
It can not be denied that the characters and situations in Berserk are excellently realised; I have got a fair bit of mileage from regaling my friends with stories of the exploits of the series, so rich and colourful that people react in all the right spots ("This guy's a bastard!"). This is the sort of anime you could steal and adapt it to tell by the firelight at a hunting lodge or smithy deep in the mountains.

From the battlefield. where Guts and Caska reach an understanding, Berserk bleeds right into court drama. Moreso than on the battlefield, the nature of Griffith can be understood in this context. Griffith is not a nice person; his dream, as Guts realises, takes precedence over all else. One can understand Griffith's charisma, but the audience can see his determined eyes: they are huge and cold; piercing, like a hawk.

Guts, on the other hand, is not as cold as one might think: some of the best moments in this series are the conversations between Guts and Caska. Here it is revealed how well he knows his fellow band members, and that he genuinely cares for them. Guts may be gruff, and uncomfortable in fancy regalia, but he is very human indeed.

So, to the last two episodes: they deliver exactly what is promised in the first. What we get is Supernatural Berserk, which I did not really find enjoyable. Most of the program had nice moments, but the conclusion is completely bleak; it is from these two episodes that Berserk receives its reputation.
The change of gear is not the major issue, however: Berserk ends on the biggest cliffhange ever! Almost never has there been a louder shout from the director of "buy the manga!" than Berserk episode 25. This is very edgy indeed.

While the final episodes may produce nail-biting moments of tension, Berserk was wonderful at what it aimed to be: an account of Guts' life in the Band of the Hawk.

Argentosoma - episodes 15 to 25 and episode EX

2005-04-30T23:39:00.000+10:00

Sequel to this article from two months back.

Despite its clunky start, Argentosoma geared up in its second half to present a dynamic blend of intrigue, twists and drama.

Takuto realises that he is not exactly the nicest person to talk to, through the assistance of Hattie. Watching Hattie lash out and "not shut up" really opens his eyes; she also makes Takuto realise that she is not Maki, and he cannot treat her as such. Their resemblance and shared seiyuu are little more than anime-flavoured coincidence.

The questions of "what are we fighting for and against?" are answered more than satisfactorily, with at least one of the revelations being a true "anime shiver" moment - one where you can feel the impact in your spine (I have had this feeling only two other times that I can remember: once in Nadia, and the other in City Hunter 2). For this reason, Argentosoma graduated to something very special for me.
Adding another layer of excellence is the fact that after the conclusion there is an epilogue episode, set six years later. There is not only the relief of seeing a matured Hattie (she ends up fine, folks - her voice changes!), but also of seeing the growth of the rest of the cast (and Sue's inexplicable makeover).
This is not the kicker; the kicker is that by the end I had come to love Mr. X. In grand anime tradition, he managed to provoke a strong reaction with his final appearance.

After this is the budgeted but unbroadcast episode EX. It is chronologically implacable, occurring before key events in the series but relying on the viewer to have knowledge of revelations. This episode deals with giving Sue a depth of history and is quite good, if unessential. It is definitely odd to watch after the series proper, but is worthwhile for the hilarious Takehito Koyasu/Horie Yui omake ED.

If anything, Argentosoma exceeds expectations. Patience pays off, and the ED makes divine sense after all!

Emma - episode 3

2005-04-27T22:35:00.000+10:00

"Confession"

Warning: Meeting Emma may impair your social judgment!

In this episode, William's friend Hakim comes to visit from India. Hakim takes William on an elephant ride through the streets of London, but William gets sick and has to stop off at Emma's house. Emma meets Hakim, who is instantly taken by her; Hakim consults Emma as to her feelings for William, and then confesses his own feelings.

This appears to be the first episode of Emma to actually go for the laughs, with Hakim's tight-lipped harem following him everywhere; William's younger brother is particularly distressed by all of the foreign goings on. William himself is consistently dazed by what's happening around him but is pleased because "I got to see Emma". Nothing goes wrong in this episode, besides the obvious issue of another person vying for Emma's affections (please, people, she doesn't want your gifts!).

On the Emma front (as there is remarkably little Emma in Emma): Mrs. Stownar seems a bit mean to Emma, but I suppose that's what high class people do. Also, Emma does have a moment of reflection in her room, but it is mercifully not while she's combing her hair and looking into the mirror; the consideration scenes in this episode, both her own and William's, are well done.

All in all, a fine episode that even included some nice CG.

Next time: Hakim, Eleanor, Emma and William Battle Royale!

Vandread

2005-04-27T22:04:00.000+10:00

In the future, men and women have had a falling out ... to the point where they have split planets and are perpetually at war. The men live on Tarak and the women on Mejale. Tarak babies are produced in factories, and Mejale babies are produced internally by some scientific process with special words that probably make sense to someone.
This is not their story, but it is the context from which this story springs.

Vandread opens with the Tarak forces launching a new space station filled with new ships known as vanguards. Only moments after lift-off, they are set upon by pirates - female pirates! Realising that the old part of their station has been lost, the Tarak jettison it, leaving the pirates and three unfortunate male stow-aways on board. The Tarak blast the old station with a "Paksis" beam, which does not destroy it but rather fuses it with the pirates' ship. The Paksis also changes several key areas of the ship, including the engine and all of the mech units on board.
Escaping in their new ship, the Nirvana, the pirates keep the men prisoner but realise in time that the unique services offered by the trio are necessary for smooth running: Hibiki on vanguard, Bart as the helmsman, and Duero as doctor (women of the future can make children by themselves, but cannot perform medical checks without machines). They also realise that the new vanguards can combine with the women's dreads to form ultra powerful vandreads.
This is useful, because they also have the matter of attacks from unknown alien forces to contend with!

The story of Vandread is developed fairly well, with this thirteen episode series tightly directed and featuring a cute Christmas episode (beware SF anime with nice Christmas episodes!). The final three are quite dramatic and conclude fairly well, then do that classic "lead-in to a sequel" that everyone loves so much (Second Stage followed soon thereafter). The only point of contention is that the final dramatic push is set into motion on a fundamentally flawed premise that involves wild character irrationalities. Still, this amounts to less than half an episode and can be overlooked; the majority of Vandread is fun with a splash of intrigue simmering in the background.

Much is made of the fact that this is a war of the sexes; while there is tension on the ship, it is not to the extent that one might expect. The men and women featured in Vandread are all atypical of the society they live in: the women are pirates, and the men are all outcasts in Tarak. Standard Mejale and Tarak would kill each other on sight; naturally, this would not make for a great series.
Interestingly, in a society that would by default suggest all of its members are homosexual, there are only a few clearly defined lesbians. Men on Tarak have conversations along the lines of "When this is all over, what say we make a baby together?" "A baby with you? That sounds like a great idea!".

Despite the large cast of women, there are clearly defined important characters: the core Dread team of Jura, Dita and Meia; pirate captain and sole old woman Magno (more commonly referred to as "Old Hag"); and Hibiki. Duero and Bart have important roles as well, but they get significantly less screen time, as does ship mascot Pyoro.
Dita is the old-fashioned enthusiastic, dedicated-to-one-guy girl who cheers the ship with her endless vitality. She also has feelings and is not completely oblivious to those of Hibiki. Meia has her own past and Jura is an excellent comedy foil as well as sometime lesbian.
Hibiki is plagued by class-consciousness, an inferiority complex and an impatience when it comes to women. Yet somehow he manages to have a heart of gold and a stomach of cast iron. He is a character that has self doubts without being a whiney crybaby.

The OP and ED are perhaps too dramatic for their own good, with the ED sounding like the equivalent of an aural drowning. This is a Gonzo program, so it is packed with CG. The amazing thing is that the CG is actually quite good, as TV of this 2000 period really shouldn't have had much CG thrown into it. The action scenes look pretty damned nice; not much TV seems to do the CG kick lately (that I have seen, anyway), and in many cases it seems pretty ... lame ... but Vandread pulls it off elegantly due to its lack of attempts to blend: every scene is either all 2D or all CG. The characters are really quite attractive, and there's quite a bit of bounce going on. This is fan service at the high class level it was before the modern saturation point.

Vandread is the right sort of anime, created at a time before this sort of anime went bad. The level of fan service is just right, the characters are fun and the CG is surprisingly not bad at all. Add in a little bit of drama, and some excellenté discussions of the rights of orangutans in space and you've got a nice series to watch.

Emma - episode 2

2005-04-24T23:05:00.000+10:00

"Two worlds"

It sounds obvious, but one should not watch an episode of Emma with an hour between halves; it leaves one with misgivings and feelings of terror. This is because, despite William's affability, he is unable to understand his society. In some ways he is ahead of his time, and the problem with being ahead of your time is that it is inappropriate in regard to social mores.

In this episode, it is revealed that William actually does have a job, working for his father's company; he just never attends, the cad. This is not his father's issue; the problem is that William has not attended any balls in the latest Victorian social season. So William acquiesces and attends a ball, where he meets Eleanor. Eleanor is a blushing young girl who has one thing over Emma: she comes from the nobility, which the gentry aim to marry into.
Eleanor is a nice character; she is not scheming or vindictive. As a rival for William's affections, she is unobjectional, if ultimately (see the title) unsuccessful.

The problem with this episode is simple: parasol shopping. Never ask a woman what a good present for a woman is, and then buy the present in front of her, and then not give her the present in question. That's suicide, man!
Naturally, William intends this parasol for Emma. Yet, as a maid, Emma can't possily accept so many, and so expensive, gifts.
"Really, it's nothing," says William.
"It is for me," says Emma.
Somehow, by the end of the episode everything is resolved so neatly that one can't help but forgive the clueless young rogue and his painful social stumblings.

Other highlights of the episode include the introduction of William's siblings, attractive and nice people. The only problem with Emma is that scenes featuring Emma gazing into her mirror and combing her hair threaten to be rife.

Next episode: exotic foreigners, from foreign lands exotic!

Burn Up W

2005-04-24T17:23:00.000+10:00

Burn Up W was once considered extreme. By today's standards, it is practically tame. It is also one of the better OVA series from that interesting time in anime history, the mid-nineties.

In the future (2007, according to internal documentation), Tokyo's police force is centralised in a giant complex known as Police Town. Within the police force is a secret crack team known as Warrior, consisting of four cute women, a tough one, and a perverted man with a video camera.
The series opens with a terrorist attack on a hotel complex. The terrorists demand ridiculous things in exchange for their hostage's freedom. Things such as a naked bungee jump performed by their favourite idol. Unsurprisingly, this is a camouflage tactic. The true purpose of the hostage situation is for a syndicate to test its new "Virtual Drug" system.
As the episodes progress, the syndicate becomes increasingly sinister, right up to the realistic (if not crowd pleasing) conclusion.

From the first two episodes, one would be excused for thinking that they were watching two different programs simultaneously. The light and fluffiness of Team Warrior - with star member Rio and her Loan Hell - counteracts the dark violence of the syndicate and its mysterious red-head leader.
The last two episodes work because in the first two we gain insight into the lives and behaviours of the characters, and the antics they get up to with their large breasts and panty-selling to get out of debt. In fact, there are even tender moments allowed, adding just that bit more meaning to proceedings.
People freak out when Team Warrior and the syndicate finally clash head on half way through the third episode, yet this is actually one of the strenghts of Burn Up W. Few people can accept just how realistic this series is; for all of its virtual idols, slashed lingerie and giant robot parodies, Rio can't spend her entire life in the homicide division of the police and expect her worries to revolve solely around shopping debts forever.
The unspeakable tragedies that occure within the third episode are entirely within the realm of possibility. If these events did happen, Rio would react exactly as she does. People can go around leading comedy rich lives and be struck by sudden tragedy. It happens.

Burn Up W is arguably the first "big tit" anime (it's not, really, but it is a good example of the genre). The characters are attractive, unlike the ultimate in this line, Eiken. Besides which, Burn Up W has a story. The problem seems to be not so much with the fan service as it is the mingling of nudity and violence. Using my unique stance on these things, I argue that certain parts of this program are not service charged.
The most often cited example is Rio versus the knife fighter Wolfhead. To rob Rio of her power (and, more importantly, her pride), he makes her strip. The long pans of Rio's body as she sullenly removes her uniform may be accused as wholly inappropriate. While it is wrong to objectify Rio in this instance (although this may have been director Negishi's intent) it is clear that Wolfhead was doing so, an insight into his bastardry. This is exactly as rape in anime isn't always meant to titillate, and isn't as jarring as one might expect if they don't allow it to be.

The animation is pretty right on, the characters are attractive (on the sensible side of top-heaviness) and Imai Yuka is really cool as both comedy Rio and drama Rio - somehow dropping her trademark deep voice for this performance. The OP, "Flash Your Dream" endures in my mind as a classic anime song, and there's just a general AIC-ness about the whole thing that makes it great to watch.

Burn Up W is actually pretty good, if approached in the right way. The first two episodes are pretty good for comedy, and the last two have a natural progression into drama. Not everything can be expected in this life, and that is what this program tells us. For even more fan service and laughter, there is also the rockin' sequel Burn Up Excess a worthy and less worrisome successor to this crown.

Emma - episode 1

2005-04-20T23:04:00.000+10:00

"The Gift"

Victorian Romance Emma is the new big anime. So big, even Momotato is watching it. Heck, it's so big even I'm watching it, and I stick to DVDs.

Emma is refreshing, because less than two minutes into it you realise that it is maid anime without fetishising of any variety. Emma is a maid who works for the venerable old Kelly, a former governess. On the day that the series begins, Kelly is visited by William, a former pupil of hers.
William finds himself quite taken by Emma, and Emma rediscovers her shyness. When William accidentally leaves his gloves behind, Emma must find him! Inevitably, they meet again and go for a walk in the park, and William decides that he simply must buy Emma a present. Emma, quite naturally is flustered.
That's this episode. A quick reading would be "Well-to-do young man meets a maid, becomes enamoured, blushing ensues".

This is definitely slow, but there is a nice feeling about it all. Kelly is a nice old woman, despite her appearance of harshness and standing on manners. Emma is shy - perhaps painfully so - and William has just the right attitude. There is something about him that could have been pulled off very wrong: he is earnest, yet forthright enough to let everything proceed. Hopefully obvious feelings will not have to be hidden behind facades, as in so many of these "romance things".
Also refreshing: William does not have a harem of maids to choose from, nor is he without a personality. Judging by the preview, there will be a "rival" for his affection, but this series is very likely to stop at one.

Victorian England is a nice place. Quite why things need to be set there is an unanswerable question, but it definitely lends this series a sense of character, as well as being a good excuse to show men getting about with mutton chops! The music is songless, yet powerful and evocative.

Based on this first episode, Emma will be sweet.

Outlaw Star - episodes 14 to 26

2005-04-18T18:37:00.000+10:00

Outlaw Star generally maintains a high standard in the last stretch, but does fall into some dangerous territory along the way. Dangerous, arbitrary territory.

The MacDougall brothers, until the halfway point, were the main "villains" of the story. They were menacing and, in the case of Harry, borderline psychotic. This was some good material, but along the way the writers seem to realise that they were making these two characters a little too sympathetic, and need to inject a threat. The brothers' drama is great, but narratively they are seen as less important.

So along comes the the Anten Seven, Outlaw Star's equivalent of Rurouni Kenshin's Shinsengumi, Kyotogumi - just about any -gumi, really - and Trigun's Gung-Ho Guns. A group of seven warriors, among them a face copier, a straight up gunman, some sort of necromancer, and a mistress of using cats in space, the Anten Seven are also after the Galactic Leyline. For a while, it looks like the Anten Seven are going to infect the show and make it a countdown to inevitability. This, fortunately, does not eventuate.
This storyline does throw something for a loop. One might expect that an "expert with cats in space" would be a funny thing, especially when this deadly assassin is a twelve year old girl. Yet this episode turns out to be one of the more serious in the series, and has a truly unexpected outcome - the height of the storyline.

The final break before the home stretch is the episode titled "Hot Springs Planet Tenrei". It is exactly as it sounds, and is one of the best fan service and comedy extravaganzas ever. The fan service isn't ultra servicey, but it goes a long way to producing big laughs while also providing some history of the universe. Not an overall important episode - it was skipped in American TV broadcasts due to the simple issue of Aisha naked - but definitely entertaining to the max.

The final arc builds well, with plenty of drama and laughs. The sole problem is that it becomes extremely arbitrary at the very end, introducing the idea of making Hazanko, leader of the Anten Seven, centre of a big final confrontation piece. The journey had been fine, but this seemed like the wrong way to conclude it: with giant big growing things that should not ultimately have been as important as they were.

Outlaw Star was fun to watch, with one of the most shocking episodes and one of the best fan service episodes ever. The thing that makes this sort of series work is a great crew, and the Outlaw Star definitely had one of those.

Lightning Speed!

2005-04-11T22:09:00.000+10:00

I have decided that in the interest of expediency and me not having to draw at straws, for the second halves of series I'm no longer going to try giant explosive entries. Anime Pilgrimage's concept is not as it was when it began 13 months ago. There's not enough time to write each series as a journey.
This way, I will be able to banish Argentosoma and Outlaw Star with small, concise articles, and guiltlessly move onto something else.

In other news Steven Den Beste saw my article on Eiken, wrote about series that grossed him out, then cast judgement on me, saying I was crazy to watch the whole thing. But look at your front page, Steven! It is you who has gone Eiken mad!

UPDATE: False alarm, turns out Steven was on a holy quest to confirm the existence of perversely large boobs in manga. My mistake.
EDIT: HC made me realise that I was a bit ambiguous, so I've edited this to make my intent clearer.

Angel Heart – Love of City Hunter in the shadow of its sequel

2005-04-10T11:02:00.000+10:00

Note: Those who intend to take up City Hunter should not read this article until they are far, far, deeply immersed in the series - and only then if they're thick-skinned.

Angel voice, a new but nostalgic echo
--"Angel Night" OP for City Hunter 2

A post at Kakumei alerted me to the fact that a new anime called Angel Heart is to be part of the upcoming Spring season. The comment "what's that? City Hunter!" intrigued me, and I set out on a quest. Taking my readings somewhat further I found that, 14 years after City Hunter '91 comes a "sequel".
It is not pretty, and for this reason mangaka Tsukasa Houjo suggests that he has written an "alternate universe" for fear of upsetting City Hunter fans. And I am upset.

"Parallel universe" and "coincidentally the same characters" arguments don't cut it. City Hunter is a world where danger is supposed to lurk, and tragedy can strike. Think of Angel Heart as a bus stop: one might choose to get off at the end of City Hunter or to stay on, venturing to parts unknown. Double think and remove any knowledge of Angel Heart from your mind. Walk away!

Angel Heart is the story of the professional killer "Glass Heart" - a woman who feels remorse for the crimes she has committed. Glass Heart commits suicide, but is saved by surgeons by way of heart transplant. You can probably see where this is going ... (or not, seeing as this is nothing like what City Hunter has offered) the heart that Glass Heart receives is that of Kaori, hit by a car on the day of her wedding to Ryo.
Glass Heart eventually finds herself at Cat's Eye, where she meets Ryo. Ryo has given up the role of City Hunter but connects to Glass Heart through the shared link of Kaori.
So as not to weigh the series down completely, Ryo does learn to move on somewhat; that is, he still hits on the visions that pass by Shibuya. Saeko can see that Ryo is not completely reverted to "mokkori pervert" mode, but this is how the series has always worked: serious Ryo hiding underneath the outgoing Ryo.

The core issue presented to Ryo at the outset is impotence. The most dramatic moments in City Hunter occurred when Ryo was powerless to do anything to stop disaster. In this instance, Kaori is not claimed by a bullet, or by anything to do with the underworld, but rather as a result of her own kindness: saving a child from being hit.
The unstated reason that Ryo rarely let on to Kaori his feelings was because he wanted to shield her from that world. Time and time again he saved her, and now it seems that it was all for nought. Not even City Hunter can stop that sort of tragedy.

The idea of Angel Heart so upset me that I knew there was one thing that would stop me from ever watching it: Kamiya Akira. For a while now I have thought that I might be unable to watch Macross again because Kamiya is Ryo - and to see anyone else in the role would be criminal. At the moment I understand that Kamiya is reprising the role of Ryo (last played six years ago) one more time. Kamiya handles the role perfectly, and with the somewhat delicate material on offer here, this will definitely be necessary.

Thinking about this issue has made me realise how much I love City Hunter: Kaori, Ryo and everyone else. The series is written in a way to make the recurring characters as friends to the point that to see any one of them die, even Reika, is upsetting. Getting this news in the week I saw an episode of City Hunter 2 that truly moved me is an extreme coincidence.
The other odd aspect is that, in reality, Kaori has been dead for four years, Angel Heart's manga having debuted in 2001. Yet, due to chance, I found out just this week. Almost definitive proof that chance is indeed a harsh and fickle mistress - precisely the idea peddled in Angel Heart.

Angel Heart, whether or not I choose to watch it (indeed, if someone chooses to sub it), has done something important for me. In light of its announcement, I have realised how important City Hunter and its characters are to me. I will cherish the time I have left with Kaori and Ryo, and then perhaps move on, as Ryo inevitably will. Angel Heart is not just about its tragic base: from it, something new has to grow.
Undoubtedly, it would be interesting to see what that will be.

Eiken

2005-04-09T23:55:00.000+10:00

Again, extreme use of breast synonyms follows. Also I went overboard with text enhancers.

I recommend Eiken.

Wait, no I don't. In this world we have anime like Cosplay Complex and Love Hina that have very few redeeming features, but it is the anime like Eiken that receive the truly bad press. What I noticed when I removed the DVD from my player is that the logo is designed to read Eiken ….
Ultimately, "…" is the only appropriate response to this two episode, one hour tit festival.

What the hell is Eiken about? Nobody knows, not even those who have watched it. Especially not those who have watched it.
Mifune Densuke enrols himself at a school with 54,000 students. On his first day, he accidentally trips and fondles wunderkind Shinonome Chiharu's gigantic breasts. For reasons unknown, this means that he is qualified to join the Eiken Club. What the Eiken Club does is unclear; the only thing for sure is that all of its members except the lolis have ginormous boobs.
After about seventeen minutes of hilarious misunderstandings!!!! between Chiharu and Densuke, the school's annual competition kicks in. Who knows what the prize is? Who cares! Swimsuits!
The second episode continues the competition and introduces a rival for Chiharu's non-existent affections!

Yeah, I still don't know what it is about. What is plain to see is that Densuke has no personality. Also, Chiharu has no personality. Densuke even introduces himself as a "boring student". Chiharu gets no dialogue beyond her stuttering. The rest of the club are just as hideous and annoying, from their leader Kirika with her arbitray decisions to the pink haired girl who probably doesn't have a name and whose own boobs stick out well past her elbows. There's even a scientist loli who complains about everything … and a bear.

The designers of Eiken clearly have no sense of aesthetic. The mammaries on display are somehow made to look even more sick by the bright yellow colour of the school uniforms. Amazingly, the one time when the look is almost pulled off okay is when the characters are wearing school swim suits. Kirika is somehow contained, yet there is no hope for pink haired girl (after all, pink haired girl has no torso to speak of; really, she's just a host for two giant parasites).
Get the characters into normal swim suits and all hell breaks loose - they leak out the sides. To whom did this seem like a good idea? And why did it take a year to animate the second episode?

What is right about Eiken? Practically nothing. The only thing I can think of is the buttocks and panties; in the arena of fan service, miraculously they managed to get the lower half of the female body correct. The few moments when the camera focuses on anything other than massive tits are spent on the more realistically (and, importantly, more attractively) designed ... not-breasts.
It is pretty sad when the best thing about an anime program is its ass content.

The cast is made up of mercifully few popular seiyuu, but Kawakami Tomoko has added a rare blotch to her resumé. There are a few up and comers, but most of the cast stayed in junk like this. Oshiro Miwa is particularly bad as Chiharu. Chiharu has no personality to speak of, and here you can see it's not just the fault of the script!

Eiken is not good. Eiken does not make sense. The characters' obscene breasts are only barely made up for by the tasteful-by-comparison ass and panty shots. Still, this does not deserve to be the most pilloried anime release ever. It's not worse than so much other pointless, bad anime ... without the boobs, it is almost certain that no one would care.

Berserk - episodes 1 to 13

2005-04-03T10:35:00.000+10:00

It is a sad fact that many anime fans go on first impressions. If you were to do that with Berserk, you would be hit by a first episode that is entirely unrepresentative of the whole, and quite uninteresting at that.

In a medieval land, war constantly rages between the Midland folk and the Chuders. The Midland armies have a trump card: a group of mercenaries known as the Band of the Hawk. After three years working under the Midland monarchy, the Band of the Hawk are granted official regiment status and their leader, Griffith, is knighted.
This political context is that which surrounds the three main characters: Guts, a man forced into the Band of the Hawk; Caska, a woman who has spurred herself to victory by rejecting stoicism; and Griffith himself, ruthlessly in pursuit of his dream.
When the series begins, and you would be hard pressed to remember this, Griffith appears to have become the King of Midland, and Guts, going by the name "The Black Swordsman" is out to get him; Caska's whereabouts is unknown. The first episode cuts, in the last thirty seconds, to the distant past and chronicles Guts' entry into the Band of the Hawk and the band's subsequent rise to official status.
Dark glimpses of Griffith's mysterious "Egg of the King" pendant give suggestion to the future that awaits.

The first episode of Berserk is likely designed to give the viewer a feel for Guts' "bad ass" nature and the extreme violence that the series promises; it does not. The action in this episode is largely confined to Guts charging people, and the results of his violence are displayed as still images with animated blood spraying from them. This is hardly inspiring.
Repeat viewings, when one understands what is going on, might make the first episode a better prospect; as an introduction to the world of Berserk, it fails.

The strength of Berserk is in its characters; there is a political undercurrent, but for once it plays in the background to the development of the tricky relationships between Guts, Caska and Griffith. The characters take the story with them, rather than the story carrying them along - at least, from the second episode onwards.
While Griffith holds them together, it seems that on the whole this is about Guts and Caska's relationship. Caska is both jealous as a warrior and a woman; Griffith gives all of his praise and attention to Guts, and shows an interest in the princess of Midland. Caska's past led to her being a highly strung woman in the first place,
The only real criticism that can be levelled here is the writers' reliance on the "female warrior fails because she is on her period" device - firstly because Caska seems never to have had this problem in more than ten years of battling, and secondly because it is a contrived way to suggest that women have no place in melees and need Guts to look after them.
Around the pivot of Caska, the series is turning.

The casting is generally right on, but the Guts of three years' before the "modern past" period of the story is not suited to Hayashi Nobutoshi's voice; it may have worked better if there had been three different Guts actors for each stage of his development.
The highlight is Miyamura Yuko's turn as Caska, which gives her a chance to play her usual angry self but with a dramatic edge; she is definitely nice to watch.

On the other end of the production scale, the OP and ED are laughable. From the beginning of "Tell Me Why", the viewer is struck by the hilariously untuned instruments. Then the nonsensical lyrics kick in. There's a certain charm to the song that means one can keep going back to it and laughing. "Waiting So Long", on the other hand, is not actually very good at all. What does "spending my glass" even mean?
This is all a pity, because the song used for the next episode previews is excellent. "Forces" is reminiscent of the powerful music of Millennium Actress. This sort of music is very modern but manages to transcend ages; it is an inspirational battle song.

Berserk is less bleak than one might imagine; at times it has just the lightest touch of comedy while maintaining the characters' horrific pasts. Worth watching for the characters, and because every anime fan should listen to these superlative OP and ED at least once in their career.

City Hunter 2 - episodes 21 to 45

2005-03-30T20:42:00.000+10:00

In my convalescence, I reached an epiphany: City Hunter is pure. There is a comfort in the familiarity of the series; every episode works as one might expect, but frequently they offer new insight into Ryo's character or his feelings for Kaori. Several aspects of the series improve as they come along, with Umibozu becoming an increasingly excellent character.
For this reason, it is excellent to watch to get back into things.

There will always be questions about the nature of City Hunter. Why, if Ryo's identity must remain secret, are his services publicly advertised by Kaori? There are so few episodes that actually use the XYZ system that it borders on weird - especially as there is an episode about a photographer aiming to uncover City Hunter's identity and spread his good word throughout Japan. This makes no sense, a tactic that is usually engaged in City Hunter for laughs alone. This two parter is one of the biggest let-downs because its nonsensicality is treated seriously; the situation simply does not and should not work like it does.

OH DEAR LORD THE MAN WITH THE CYBERNETIC ARM - I normally edit out my notes, but I think this one should stay. Among these episodes is a particularly nice two parter about Makimura. Clever editing abounds, and nice character depth is shown; Kaori and Ryo both knew Makimura very well, but never each other until Makimura was gone. What marrs this episode is the inclusion of a villain who has a prosthetic arm - the sort that you can attach cannons and the like to. Considering that particular character's alleged origins, this could have been handled much better. City Hunter is still capable of darkness; it should have been used here, even if that villain was not the focus of the episode.
This is yet another episode that proves that City Hunter does rely overly on orphans, but that is not something to worry about.

Complaints out of the way, there are many good things going for this series. One quite funny episode is about ninja trying to live in a modern world; their breed is dying out as more and more become salarymen. The best thing about this is that the ninja want to become salarymen and fantasize about desk jobs. The conclusion of the episode completely ignores continuity, but all is worthwhile. City Hunter's comedy doesn't always have to make sense - which is why the hypnotism episode is so damned confusing.
The two parter "Ryo is the love thief" is based on the worst joke in City Hunter history, but that does not stop it from hilarity. The situations, judged by previews ("Ryo and the Esper Girl"), make the writers look like they are grasping at straws; however, the quality of execution seldom fails to disappoint.

The biggest highlight is Umibozu. The giant man is an excellent character, a more serious Ryo. However, upon meeting Miki (a character that left me befuddled in City Hunter: Magnum of Love and Destiny) in episode 40, a new side of his character is revealed. Tessho Genda gets a meatier role and more chance to work range. One might be surprised to see Umibozu bursting out laughing, but thanks to Miki this actually happens. Umibozu still has his own dark past, but has now found something good that has grown from that. This means that he is able to whisper threats to Ryo, rather than being permanently gruff. Umibozu comedy became a whole lot funnier as a result.
The examples of character depth given in these episodes prove that City Hunter can, indeed, be worthwhile.

The OP "Sarah", introduced around episode 27, is the best since the original "City Hunter". The animation gives a great sense of four of the main characters and, as usual, it is an outlet for Kaori and Ryo romance. The ED changes as well, to something by TM Revolution. This is a welcome change from "Super Girl" which, while a fine song, is not suitable for some of the bleeds between episode endings and the ED (the upbeat tones are not suitable for episodes in which Ryo is forced to kill an old friend, for example). TM Revolution's song works for both happy and sombre episodes, an excellent medium.

City Hunter 2 is reassuring anime that has some gems of laughs. The scenarios no longer impress with great frequency (the writers have done the "visiting princess at threat from own advisor" story at least six times now over both series), but there are still some great character revelations. It's hackneyed, yes, but Umibozu, Saeko, Reika, Ryo and Kaori are like old friends. Around halfway through the whole four seasons, I'm already starting to miss them.

Three week absence

2005-03-28T22:34:00.000+10:00

Due to a shift of gears and a desire to spend more time watching anime than writing about it, I have left the month of March pretty much bare on this site. Ever since The Big O II - indeed, since Pom Poko (seen at the start of January, written up in February) - I have had difficulty writing about anime.

I will endeavour to actually put stuff up, but somewhere along the way it stopped being about the journey; that was the point of the pilgrimage. This site was like my anime footsteps.

Anyway! I recommend that to keep track of my updates you use my handy feed. I will be back, and that little device will tell you when.

Dead Leaves

2005-03-05T23:45:00.000+11:00

“Nothing I see shocks me any more.”
Fifty minutes of liquid desensitisation is the perfect summary of Dead Leaves, a sure fire sign that Manga Entertainment throwing money at things can pay off sometimes.

In the middle of nowhere, a man and woman wake up naked. The man has an old-style television for a head, so he calls himself Retro; the woman a ring around one eye, making her name Pandy. Retro and Pandy have amnesia, so naturally the first thing they do is go on a violent crime spree.
Their actions catch up to them soon enough, and Retro and Pandy are imprisoned on the moon. The moon is home to genetic freaks like themselves, and is run by two sadistic wardens and an evil “princess”.
The two criminals break out of their strait jackets and lead the rest of the inmates on a wild escape. There are many casualties on both sides along the way. Retro and Pandy must take on the evil princess before they can fully take their leave.

Dead Leaves never stops moving. This means that it is incredibly fun to watch, but also that it would not do to give it too many repeat viewings. The mind actually boggles at how anyone could write this; Honda Takeichi (alias Imai Toonz) somehow managed to produce a script that represents fifty minutes of energy. The waves of the narrative are so major that to describe them would be to excise the "mystique".

As the anime itself is one big scene, there is little point in examining storytelling nuance. Dead Leaves is presented in the form of one big comic book most of the time, with the action actually divided into panels and sound effects animated across the top of the picture (language choice here is random).
The colour design is bold and the civilian and police designs simple. For this reason, watching secondary characters actually becomes enjoyable. They are uniform, and therefore unimportant. When the escaped moon prisoners die, it is much more gruesome as each one of them is unique - from the quack doctor to the man who has a drill for a penis (affectionately referred to by the production staff as "Dick Drill").

The designs themselves are slightly vulgar, but do not cross the line into full-fledged vulgarity until being animated; one character has testicles for his head, which looks bad but not too obvious. Then he starts moving, and white liquid starts spitting out of his top. Still, the action is too frenetic to dwell on any one sickness; each instance kind of mounts upon the next, causing an avalanche of so many things to freak viewers out that they cancel each other into negative space.

The one problem with the production is definition: the characters do not have bold lines to separate them from their environments, so some times this looks like a giant blend. It's not frequent enough to be a major issue, but it makes something that is barely coherent slightly less so. Dead Leaves is definitely not for the passive viewer; it practically demands wide, open eyes at all times.

A cast of veterans (and relative newcomer Honda Takako as Pandy) brings the OVA to life. Watching supplementary materials, it becomes apparent that the entire cast loved Dick Drill, and Takagi Wataru and Yamaguchi Kappei tried to quit their primary roles so they could take the character on. It is not even as if he says anything particularly memorable; he just has a drill.
Mizutani Yuko goes completely against type as Galactica, princess of the moon. Mizutani, normally known for bubbly, slightly grating types such as Tenchi Muyo’s Mihoshi, plays Galactica as a woman smouldering with hatred.
Watching an excerpt from the recording session, the dedication of the actors and the effort that they had to is readily apparent. How do you voice act decapitations? Mizutani's energy, Honda Takako's smooth anger and Yamaguchi Kappei's shrillness hold this all together.

Dead Leaves is fun. They don't make anime like this any more, and on the whole that is a good thing; if it were made at the start of the nineties, it would not garner a recommendation. There is nothing for it to float to the top of, and for this reason, the Dead Leaves stands alone.

Outlaw Star - episodes 1 to 13

2005-02-27T19:41:00.000+11:00

The work, which becomes a new genre itself, will be called ... Outlaw Star. Wait, no.
Outlaw Star is another in the seemingly endless line of sci-fi Westerns that were produced in the late nineties. Produced by SUNRISE, no less! This 26 episode series about a womaniser, his twelve year old side-kick, their frequently naked navigation android, their faithless computer system and the occasional drop-in woman assassin and cat-girl - in space! - is surprisingly fresh and amusing.

A universe with three factions: the Space Forces, on the side of good; pirates, on the side of wanton abuse of the law; and outlaws, people who can swing either way but are fiercely independent about it.
Gene Starwind and his assistant Jim Hawking run Starwind & Hawking Enterprises, a "problem solving" company. They are hired by a mysterious blonde woman as a bodyguard. When it is revealed that the horrible Kei pirates are after this blonde woman, she removes her mask to reveal that she is the notorious eye-patched outlaw, Hilda.

Hilda leads Gene and Jim to a naked android, Melfina, and then the fastest ship in the galaxy. Outrunning the pirates' Tao magic(!), Gene and Jim, along with Melfina inherit this ship and name it the Outlaw Star. The three of them now search to find the Galactic Leyline that Hilda told them of, and also to find the reason for the brutal death of Gene's father - all while trying to pay off their constantly increasing debts.

Exposition is handled in "cold opening" narrations; these never feel like they are forcing information upon the viewer, and are frequently quite funny in their presentation. The background information for the universe inhabited by Gene is actually quite deep and intriguing, even if some of the revelations are suspect (such as one of the six alien races being the "Sith").

The story starts taking a break around episode 13, but in this case it is just fine because the material is hilarious. The plot threads tie themselves together in unexpected ways, and the central idea is ingenius. If all alleged "filler" episodes were like this, the world would be a better place.

Gene himself is an interesting character: a blatant womaniser at first, but then curtailed by duty. Gene is a blatant "space cherry", terrified of voyaging beyond the stars since a horrible incident some years before. The Outlaw Star feels natural to him, and with his crack team he has no difficulty manning it. Gene is a very personable character, and his quest for the past is interesting, as well as the perfect reason for him to assist Melfina in her inquiries.

The rest of the characters are simply supporting acts at the moment, with Melfina being the traditional character who needs to discover an entire past, Jim being the voice of reason and the delightful Gilliam II (the Outlaw Star's computer) being plain delightful. There's even Fred Luo, a man in love with Gene who just so happens to be his sponsor, thrown in from time to time for good measure. The characters are clearly defined, purposeful beings that definitely populate the series; when the story's not in gear, it's simply fun to watch them.

Much loved in the world of anime is cross-genre pollenisation. Outlaw Star is an excellent result of this experimentation. The first episode is set on one of those traditional big cities that is surrounded by desert. There's an escape to an old castle, and then the characters move into space. The science looks ancient in style, with controls that look quite similar to mandalas - and, unlike a lot of Japanese SF, the displays are written out in giant characters rather than English.

Outlaw Star works well in space, with what one would assume is sound physics. Touching back down on Sentinel, the biggest genre jam is introduced: Suzuka, the lady assassin. Cowboys and samurai have always been an excellent match, just like pirates and ninja. While the cowboys have been modernised for Outlaw Star, Suzuka is traditionally Japanese. Not only can Suzuka cut buses in twain, she can also produce cups of tea out of nowhere for her drinking enjoyment.

Another level is added to the space combat with the inclusion of grappler arms, an idea that at least looks original. There are several classes of ship, and the most expensive to maintain are the grapplers. Grappler arms are essentially as they sound: grappler ships can lash out and grab onto other ships; two grappler ships in battle turns to hand to hand combat! So while there are machine guns and missiles, the grappler arms are a welcome change. They are not exactly genre changing, but they are definitely cool. That is the best word for them.

SUNRISE productions have a blessing and a curse: consistency. The scenery, colour design and, in many instances, supplementary characters look very similar from series to series. The El Dorado ship, for example, is an instant notification of this series' origins.
The characters themselves are a mixed bag, with Gene, Jim and the rest of the male characters looking fine. The women have extreme cases of "hash markings" under the eyes (a common complaint for Mike Toole) and generally their faces are too narrow and obscured by hair. Saito Takuya has made the series generally attractive, but he should have reined in Melfina somewhat.

The mechanical designs are at least partly done by the masterly Kawamori Shoji, which guarantees that the Outlaw Star itself is a beautiful sight to behold. The highlight of all the mechanisms are the Ctarl-Ctarl ships, which are shaped like fish and feature almost organic insides and waterfalls running throughout. Organic technology is a nice idea, although it is unlikely that this will get a look in; it's just pretty to look at.

The casting is exemplary. Shibuya Shigeru is just right as the nice, slightly arrogant guy Gene. Matsumoto Rika unsurprisingly is excellent as Jim; her trademark is pre-teen boys, and nigh on ten years of playing Satoshi (Ash Ketchum) has definitely helped this. Kawasumi Ayako is in one of her earlier roles as Melfina, and her meek voice suits the character; it is surprising that she sounds shy considering that she spends all of her ship operation time naked, but it still works.
Miyamura Yuko is always a joy to listen to when she plays pissed off characters, and that is precisely what Aisha is. Rounding out the main cast are Hashi Takaya as the excitable narrator and brilliant Gilliam, and Sayuri as Suzuka. Sayuri really has made a name for herself playing aloof, strong, women. She's just too damned good at it.

Outlaw Star offers not just an interesting story and characters, but more than a fair amount of comedy. While it does not play up the drama, this is definitely worthwhile.

Street Fighter II V - episodes 19 to 29

2005-02-24T10:35:00.000+11:00

Despite the realisation that the last fifteen-odd episodes of this series chronicle maybe two days, that episode 23 of 29 is no place for a recap and a constant fear of sliding into the void, Street Fighter II V manages somehow to barely pull it off.

There is perhaps too much focus on Vega here. The best moments in the latter part of the series are set in the real world, not in the fortress of doom off the coast of Barcelona. A particularly impressive episode is one that deals with two plotlines and three battles.
The fights in this series are interesting but not enough to sustain entire episodes. Creative editing is used to maximum effect, with punches flowing from one scene to the next.
One of the most entertaining battles is that between Cammy and Fei Long. It is difficult to understand why the narrator makes constant reference to Cammy’s green eye, but less so to see why almost every scene featuring her shows her lounging at a pool in a variety of swim suits.

The strength is that Guile comes back with his partner Nash – a character not in the games, and therefore totally expendable – to save Ken and Ryu. This is, of course, full circle, as it was Guile who inspired the two to take their street fighting world tour (which ended, quite disappointingly and without ceremony, here in Barcelona).

Guile fights against Zangief, and the presentation of the communist wrestler is interesting indeed. Perhaps because he’s big, or even because he comes from the U.S.S.R – despite the fact that the union had disbanded by the time Street Fighter II was published – Zangief is stupid, or the logical extension of such: innocent. Naturally, he works for Shadowlaw. Notice that, in the course of all the violence he commits, he never refers to killing. He has no concept of right and wrong, only of duty. Even as he tries to clothesline a man, he will refer to them as “my buddy”.
The idea of the “gentle giant” – as gentle as a man who will show someone the wall can be, anyway – is not new. One might expect Zangief to be tough, but he is not really. Zangief is just strong, and that is an important difference.

So, while quite a few interesting, even cool, things happen, there is an unsurprising problem: Vega. He is a giant megalomaniac. The power he wields is Psycho Power, of all things. However, he is slightly more efficient than your next leading world conqueror; he is more likely to explain his plans for world domination after brainwashing his captors rather than over a gourmet meal.
Come to that, his plot doesn’t even make sense. Shadowlaw is essentially a crackpot organization, and one never gets a feel for what it is they are after. Vega has no eyes and an insane smile; unlike the lust and pride motivating Balrog in their fight, or the cowardice behind all of Bison’s actions, all you get with Vega is a desire to see wrong done. Or something like that; his plans aren’t even convoluted, they just don’t make any sense.
In the context of what Street Fighter II V is trying to be, the character of Vega is out of place, here only because he is expected. When Vega is not inviting people around to fight each other so that he can claim control of the world's strongest, he's just an insane man in a suit - and it's not even red, here.

What you have to love about all of these sorts of programs, it has to be admitted, is the technological equipment. There are machines around to measure Ryu’s ki, a power unknown to Shadowlaw before they saw him on the beach. The readings are right off the scale, which suggests that they have not studied hard enough to even begin looking at this unknown quantity – but at least they have got a start!
Better even than that is the fact that Vega’s scientist – and really, he has only one actual employee – can perfect a mind-control chip overnight. This time frame pushes the limits of believability to the very edge, so it is best not to think about any of the events inside the fortress of doom. They’re a wash.

Basically Street Fighter II V was a series with an entertaining first half, that ended up mired in its own sense of "truth" to the Street Fighter universe. The balance that it attempts to strike between original and adapted material stumbles when it comes down to a key player, Vega. The ending is fitting enough for a Street Fighter property - and really they all end this way when it comes to Ryu - but even lines like "It's times like these I thank God that my old college room mate went on to become director of the CIA" can't elevate Street Fighter II V to its past glories.

Mezzo Forte

2005-02-23T22:04:00.000+11:00

Mezzo Forte is the spiritual successor to Umetsu Yasuomi's Kite, but also the thematic opposite. Mezzo Forte is a lot more enjoyable because it just goes for wild action comedy and doesn't try to grasp at anything. However, unlike Kite, the sex scenes are throwaway and these two episodes could do without them.

Mikawa is an agent of the DSA (Danger Service Agency - although the acronym is never actually explained in the series), a crack team of three people that take on dangerous jobs for those willing to pay the price.

This two-part story features an old man hiring the DSA to kidnap the manager of the awful Peach Twisters baseball team. Unfortunately, they did not reckon with the fact that Momomi, the manager's daughter, is a "psycho bitch" who arbitrarily kills people for her own amusement. A battle of the wills between Mikura and Momomi takes place - connected not only by their reddish/pinkish/orangey hair but also because they both happen to be inexplicably psychic.

Umetsu is, in the field of action comedy, practically a genius. He hits so many spots in the creation of this that it is almost impossible to not enjoy the vast bulk of the program. The DSA is a close-knit trio, led by Kurokawa. Kurokawa is an ex-policeman who wrote a tell-all book and used the profits to form the DSA. Harada and Mikura come from suspicious backgrounds. Mikura's is disclosed, Harada's doesn't really matter as he's here to have crazy, crazy hair.

Mezzo Forte is excellent fun. The subject matter is not serious, so there is no problem laughing at any of it. There are throwaway plot points that don't mean anything at all. This is what we call "false intrigue" - Umetsu has placed some red herrings so blatant into the mix that it is clear from their very mention that nothing more is going to become of them.

At heart, this is a caper OVA. The "jewel" that is being heisted just happens to be the manager of a baseball team. Harada and Mikura steal him from a toilet stall at a bowling alley and carry him around in a giant body bag through the ventilation ducts - which leads to an incredibly amusing (and surprisingly intricate) battle atop the bowling alley catwalks. You know how in these things, the thieves always lose their quarry disastrously at one point? Exactly.

Mezzo Forte is well animated for something that was funded by a hentai company. Umetsu has a unique style - and it is definitely his style as he amazingly wrote, directed, key animated and storyboarded all of it. Umetsu has to be a man who wants to take a hands-on approach to all of his work, and so Mezzo Forte is truly his. His direction is amazing, using the cool "title framing" technique with a baseball, excellent comic and action timing, and all sorts of cool tricks. Umetsu ensures that this is extremely fun to watch.
The cast is also fun, but being as this is a Green Bunny project, it's impossible to name any of its members. They seem too talented to be simply hentai actors - and could possibly be the same as Mezzo DSA.

Due to the lighthearted nature of this anime, the inclusion of two rape scenes is simply bizarre. The fact that rape turns people on is disturbing enough; inserting it amongst the action and general carnage of Mezzo Forte makes for some uncomfortable viewing. These rape scenes are shoe-horned in as Umetsu was still limited by his "X rated material" clause but did not want to intrude on the program itself.
There's a lot of integrated nudity, shower scenes, panty shots and naked exploding robots in the show proper, and that is cool. The sex is distinctly un-sexy, however, and this is one case where I would actually recommend the edited version over the uncut (provided it kept the nudity, panty shots, shower scenes and naked exploding robots).
~~EROTIC~~

Umetsu said that he would really have liked to make Mezzo Forte into a television series; in 2003 he managed to get the funds together for Mezzo DSA, and thusly this fun prospect lived on. Mezzo Forte is highly recommended; the version that you choose should depend on your personal tastes - losing the sex scenes does not affect the whole in the slightest. I would vouch it would make it even easier.

Magic User's Club TV - episodes 8 to 13

2005-02-15T21:04:00.000+11:00

Magic User's Club improves almost immeasurably for its second half. Unfortunately, a 13 episode series that boasts even an excellent second half still has that lacklustre beginning to slog through. There are still some ill-conveyed moments in this series, but generally the last six episodes are on a different wavelength.

Firstly, where is Jeff-kun in this series? The inspirational little bear of the OVA is gone, replaced by Micky, the mysterious (and inconsistently named) former member of the Magic User's Club with whom Sae exchanges letters all series. Micky is cool when she's around, but there's no dancing Jeff-kun to be seen, and I'm surprised the fans failed to demand blood over this.

Anyway, the reason these episodes pick up is the inclusion of Jinno, the mysterious tree spirit that turns out to be a very pretty boy. Gender confusion is at its peak here, as Jinno's first speaking role comes when he is dressed as Alice of Alice in Wonderland fame. His second is at the urinals next to Takakura, so you know there's something going on here.
Jinno is not a nice character - he's the sort that the viewer will spend a lot of time yelling at the screen over. However, he is much needed. Jinno spurs the other characters to realise what is that they want, and what they should do, and that they shouldn't be told what to do by a guy who looks very much like a girl. The final part of the series is quite good as a result, but also a little heavy handed.

Some parts of Magic User's Club are still handled with club fists. There is an episode wherein Akane is trying to go against her mother's wishes, but it is not even made clear that the woman in question is anyone's mother. This sort of vague writing lumbers several episodes of the series, and makes it less than it could have been. When the series finally finds its message, it tries to convey it subtly then starts hammering it in.

The best moment in the entire series comes, surprisingly from Miyama Mizuha and it's not even related to her boobs. This is the one instant in which Sato Junichi's considerable mastery is allowed to be demonstrated; the use of manga backgrounds, dialogue and music is the sole example of perfect synergy. The fact that we are supposed to feel sympathy for Miyama, and that in the end we do, is something quite impressive - the only few minutes of the entire series that comes without reservations.

The episodes become more enjoyable and so, while the animation quality does not improve, it becomes visually easier to watch. There are still some awful, awful shots of Abaratsubo - something looks wrong with his face - but for the most part it becomes a whole lot easier.

Magic User's Club is not excellent television. While it is true that it has a near-perfect OVA to live up to, there are too many faults beyond that to make it truly enjoyable. Fluff, for certain, but only passably entertaining fluff.

Argentosoma - episodes 1 to 14

2005-02-13T13:08:00.000+11:00

For some reason, I am eating Argentosoma. With a spoon. This is not a good thing, as the surgeon general warns against the ingestion of anime. From its ridiculously inappropriate ED to its young blonde girl with her giant black hat, Argentosoma somehow clicks.

In 2059, Takuto Kaneshiro (written onscreen as Takt, but subtitled as Takuto) studies metallurgy in university. Dr. Noguchi calls on Takuto and his girlfriend, Maki, to help him with his devious experiments. Noguchi has been collecting parts of aliens fallen from space and has fashioned them into a "tapestry" that he calls Frank. However, the experiment goes awry, with Frank killing Noguchi (who, frankly, had it coming) and Maki.
Takuto vows revenge against Frank and to that end enlists the aid of a man named "Mr. X", who may or may not be an hallucination. Mr. X gives Takuto the identity of Ryu Soma. Under this persona Takuto infiltrates the government agency Funeral, who employ Frank to take out the other aliens descending to Earth.
At the same time, Frank has been discovered by a thirteen year old girl named Hattie. Hattie thinks that Frank is an elf, and Funeral now uses her to control him in their battles.

Argentosoma never offers too many plot threads at once, but it has a rather complex set up. Allegedly loosely based on Frankenstein, Argentosoma may be too damned literate. Takuto's transformation to Ryu is a result of a Faustian deal - and this would not be such a problem were it not for Mr. X, a character that perpetually quotes Shakespeare and biblical verses. There's nothing good about his character, and this is compounded by the fact that it is not even clear if he is real.

Hattie seems, for thirteen years old, to be fairly dim. Sue at one point asks if she needs help reading, and this is something that seems weird for several episodes - that is, until it is revealed that Hattie was in a coma for five years. This makes the characterisation somewhat more believable, and I do not classify it as a spoiler because this knowledge makes Hattie less infuriating to be around. What makes less sense about her is that she reminds Takuto of Maki - only explainable when it is considered that they are both blonde and share the same voice actress in Japanese.

Takuto has moments of being a total bastard, represented by the disfigured Ryu side of his face, but sometimes regresses to his former self and becomes interested in his work. Takuto's attitude towards Frank is fairly random, and the "revenge" aspect of the series is ultimately not very interesting. Takuto is made up of too many conflicting emotions to be single-mindedly devoted to something as intense as revenge, so the idea of destroying Frank is only occasionally peddled out.

The other character who gets any sort of interesting coverage is Ines, the female commander of Funeral. Initially she's just another hard-nosed woman, but through Hattie she rediscovers her maternal instincts. The way that she begins to handle the base and operations becomes, as a result, quite interesting.

The way that the characters intercept is a large part of what makes Argentosoma interesting. All of the aliens look exactly the same, so the action is definitely not what is interesting. Watching the characters work together and forming an actual team rather than a group of people is one of the more rewarding aspects of the series. It is no surprise, then, that the weakest episode features only Ines and a group of talking heads. An episode consisting of twenty minutes of talking heads discussing politics and the social ramifications of the aliens is very difficult to watch. This is the only episode in the series that comes close to boring, a small mercy.

Argentosoma boasts a high-profile cast list: Kuwashima Houko does double duty as Maki and Hattie. Hattie is distinctly against Kuwashima's type as, since her debut in Nadesico, she has kept to the quieter characters. Hattie has a very high-pitched, squeaky voice. It is no surprise that in the English version she is voiced by Sandy Fox. Kuwashima fits the character, but the lack of meaningful dialogue she is given ("you're a liar and a bad person") does not make her particularly stand out as great. Hoshi Souichirou, who was fairly new to anime at this time, is good as Takuto. He is very angry, and while some of his anger gets tiresome quickly, he manages to sustain the passion.
There is a cavalcade of other greats of the nineties: Sayuri, Koyasu Takehito, Inoue Kikuko and even the darling of the late nineties, Horie Yui. They all do good jobs, with Sayuri allowed the most exploration of character as Ines so far.

The music for the series is generally good, with a particularly nice, haunting OP - Silent Wind is the sort of song not very common in anime any more, it would appear. The true highlight, however, is the ED. It is the greatest, least appropriate song ever. Horizon is a fast song about the joys of space travel, featuring pictures of grinning astronauts and the observation of space launches. This sort of stuff is nowhere to be seen in the series, so it's nice to see such incongruous material at the end of a particularly heavy episode of Argentosoma. The joy of DVD is that you can either skip the song or jam to it. I jam, without fail, every time.

The characters, courtesy of Murase Shukou, look weird. Straight on, they look like they have no noses. To look at them in profile and see that they do, in fact, have noses. The sense of perspective makes no sense, and can be quite distracting. A bigger problem related to this is that a lot of series have guest designers, and it appears that Argentosoma is no exception. Straight on, then, some extras have noses!
Frank himself is such a conglomerate of alien parts that he ultimately looks like nothing. He is a shape, and the design gives him little character. As Hattie is supposed to empathise with the creature, this distances him more than it should.
On more positive notes, the backgrounds and scenery are pure SUNRISE. The palette is mostly blues, oranges and yellows, creating a good desert-scape. The mixture of Ryu's face with Takuto's is a nice look, and leads to some of the series' best artistic direction. Argentosoma should also be noted for having the best English screen displays ever: the SARG's HUDs proudly bear the inscription "Rock On." There's some hope in this world yet.

Argentosoma is not exactly great, but for some reason it is extremely compelling. I want to keep watching, and while I'm not confused I want to know what's happening. That has to be some sort of praise.

Studio Ghibli Collection: Pom Poko

2005-02-06T15:25:00.000+11:00

Takahata Isao made Pom Poko at Miyazaki Hayao's insistence that Studio Ghibli's project following Porco Rosso should be about tanuki. Takahata had something else in mind, but made Pom Poko anyway and was quite successful with it. As a film, it's a little less successful due to its intense running time and repetition of key themes: in short, it runs out of steam.

Tanuki are Japanese raccoon dogs. While they're not the same as raccoons, they're close enough for that to be an acceptable translation. Raccoons in Japan hold a special significance as they share the same trait as the fox (kitsune) and some cats (neko): they can transform themselves. Generally this is thought to be with the aid of a leaf, but the truly talented can do this unaided.
Western children of the early to mid-eighties would be familiar with tanuki and their leaf transformations from Super Mario Bros. 3, wherein Mario could fly with the aid of a leaf that gave him a racoon ear and tail. Back before anime was widespread, Nintendo games were the best source to gain an understanding of Japanese culture, at least on a visual level.

Pom Poko is about a war between raccoons and humans. The raccoons lived peacefully with humans until developers decided to get rid of traditional Japanese housing (one with nature) and replace it with a community for people to live in (high rises, "concrete roads"). The destruction of their mountain causes a shortage of food, and the two tribes of the mountain fought a war. Eventually they realised that they would have to combine tribes in order to continue existing and unite against the common evil of the humans.
Two raccoons are sent to find the masters of transformation in Shikoku and Aikawa and the rest are trained in the arts of warfare - and three years

This movie bursts with promise, but it never realises this. It's an incredibly long series of failed attempts by the raccoons to rid themselves of the humans, obviously a futile attempt as humans still prevail. There are many scenes that re-iterate the raccoon's goals, and their plans are generally too tedious to write down.
The point where Takahata seems to have really lost the thread is at the very end when one of the raccoons directly addresses the camera to talk to the audience; it is distinctly not cool.

The most publicised part of Pom Poko is its testicle fixation. Many of the film’s funniest moments involve the raccoons’ testes, and there is no way to make it sound good; because of this feature many parents claim that Pom Poko is harmful to children. Like fun! Despite its Japanese cultural specifications, a lot of the material on offer in this movie is told in a universal language: the raccoons’ actions are funny by anyone’s standards and testicle jokes are especially funny to children – they choose to be delighted rather than horrified by the body.
Basically the only reason to be offended by this movie is if you’re a knee-jerk reactionary.

The production is, as expected from Studio Ghibli, quite attractive. The tanuki have three forms: raccoon dogs, tanuki and SD tanuki. That is: natural, anthropomorphised, and drunk anthropomorphic raccoons. The traditional parade to "scare" the humans is remarkably well done and practically drips with Japanese culture.
Direction is a bit sloppy; not only is the whole film drawn out, but there are several shots and "jokes" that last entirely too long for their own good.

Pom Poko definitely has its moments, its just that overall it has too many of them. When the movie brings itself to a logical conclusion, it comes back for more. This is a good film but would have done well to have less overall content or at least fewer occasions for Gonta to say "Kill all humans!" Pom Poko could have been a TV series or a shorter movie. While Pom Poko is not easy to recommend, it can't simply be dismissed.

Magic User's Club TV - episodes 1 to 7

2005-02-06T13:46:00.000+11:00

Seven episodes into Magic User's Club TV, I realised that the problems with it are not the series' fault itself: they are the fault of the OVA. Magic User's Club was close to perfection of the OVA form, so the follow up can't help but be underwhelming by comparison.

This TV series starts exactly where the OVA ended, despite being produced three years afterwards. The giant cherry tree chokes the city, raining its blossoms everywhere and causing a general nuisance. The Magic Users' Club bands together to remove the tree from harm's way - and apparently, when they successfully relocate the tree, they awaken some sort of spirit from within. That's just the first episode - and out of these seven, the only one that contributes to any major story.
The rest of the episodes are about the characters and various mischiefs they get up to, while the mysterious tree spirit hangs around in the background being infuriatingly unforthcoming about its meaning.

These episodes follow the various members of the club in their daily lives, not doing much really but allegedly learning big and important lessons. While there's a lot of boob-cam from Miyama to be appreciated, there is very little on offer. The first episode gives the impression that important things might happen, but from then on we're treated to clothed baths, and a disturbingly large amount of urination jokes. There's even an episode that shows the shape of dreams that seems to last forever - and this episode did have some nice moments in it that established a little bit of continuity. That, and Sae's distance from her sister are two of the best things about this series.

Magis User's Club TV was made three years after the OVA, and in the last half of the nineties a lot of things happened to the structure of the anime industry. The animation shifted from cellwork to digital, which is the biggest problem with this series. The OVA had beautifully rendered background detail and the characters gelled. The characters now look like they don't inhabit their world, but rather sit on top of it. The scenery is now mostly overly simple work, which makes this series nothing special to look at. The progress of four years may have made production cheaper, but in this case it certainly did not make it any better - about the only thing done totally right is that Miyama literally radiates boobs.

That said, this series boasts a stupidly catchy OP ("I wanna do more!") and its one concession to impressive visuals is the ED, which is animated entirely with clay. That is not the sort of thing you see very often, especially in Japanese programs.
The entire cast of the original returns but some of the members sound different. Iwao Junko's Akane sounds much more like her Tomoyo than she did in 1996, and Konishi Hiroko (before being drummed out of the industry) hasn't put quite so much thought into her role. Onosaka Masaya and Koyasu Takehito (who can even make breathing sound gay) are still excellent, however, as is Iizuka Mayumi.

The DVD is random, with only about half of the Japanese text translated, many, many spelling errors and some highly dubious translations, such as "I used to be a fan of The Smurfs" - admittedly, I don't know what the Japanese for Smurfs is, but it sounds wrong ... and there is also flat out the worst translation of sumimasen ever. It's not enough to destroy the series, but it is an unwelcome distraction on the whole.

Unfortunately, at the halfway point of Magic User's Club TV the series feels largely useless. The episodes are light, and there's no overall idea of what's going on. With only six episodes left, it will be interesting to see if this series has a goal or direction.

The Big O II - Acts 21 to 26

2005-01-31T21:07:00.000+11:00

My excuse for the lousiness of this entry is my inability to process the events it concerns. Also, after a while, I just want to kick writing out of my computer so I can do something good.

For years, I have watched "difficult" anime - serial experiments lain, Evangelion, FLCL - and understood them, or at least came to my own understanding of them. The Big O II, however, is confusing. This is practically unprecedented.

The Big O II is very different to the first series in that every episode is pertinent to the collective pasts of the main characters, which means that the days of negotiations are at an end. Roger Smith now negotiates not for the people of Paradigm City, but for his life!
The interesting thing that must be noted is that Big O II, being the second half of a series, has no time for any introductory guff. That's why, when you watch this, you get thirteen episodes of heaviness. It's hard enough watching this series three months after watching the last, so it must have been even worse to wait three years between series.

There are many excellent episodes on offer here, which add up to a confusing whole. The first confusion comes in the form of English that we probably weren't meant to understand: the film that shapes Dan Dastun's life shows up again, but this time there is a movie poster for it. The movie is promoted as "starring Dan Dastun", which makes no sense. It's possible that this was deliberately designed to confuse, to emphasise Dastun's crisis of identity. That was in itself a good story line, with Dastun fighting his conflicting emotions about the Big O doing all of his work and about the impotence of a police force under the thumb of Paradigm.

Dorothy is, sadly, thrown pretty much to the side as this second series is about Angel. Angel is the latest in a long line of tragic characters, and the largest source of confusion in the entire program. What is her origin? What is anyone's origin? What is Paradigm City? So many questions! People can make up their own answers, because there are very few here.
Angel's character, although not really in anyway explained, is shown as having a great deal of pain. Perhaps her past isn't that important, as her confusion adds to her drive to discover ... absolutely nothing.

The action sequences are excellent, and the fight between Roger and Alan Gabriel has an outstanding conclusion. The rest of it is well done, but it's hard to go into much more detail than has been already. It feels like these final six episodes are about obfuscation, so not a lot can be said. Roger - what is Roger? Why should we have to ask what Roger is? Argh!

The Big O, overall, is an entertaining series. There is a distinct difference between the two series: the first is largely about entertainment, and the second is about trying to solve a mystery of forty years. This would almost have happened were it not for the ultimately confusing finale. The Big O II is still recommended for its parts, but it does not have the same flawless lustre as its predecessor: what we're left with is a bigger mystery than that with which we began. Despite that, the note that it ends on is not conducive to a sequel. There are no plans, and nor do I think there should be, for The Big O III.

City Hunter 2 - episodes 14 to 20

2005-01-30T13:09:00.000+11:00

While this group of seven episodes starts with one of the stupidest in City Hunter history, the rest are pretty good. Four of the episodes are two parters, which are the way to go to make quality episodes of this series most consistently.

Episodes 15 & 16 are the excellently titled "Don't Die, Umibozu!". Umibozu episodes are among the best because Umibozu seems to be the only character who has a past. Short of the occasional mentions to Makimura, Ryo's origins remain a mystery. Umibozu is a gentle soul, not only because he is terrified of cats. This giant assassin cares a lot more than he would like to let on, but his constant blushing gives him right away.
Any failure of Umibozu's is going to come back to get him - but because of the kind of guy Umibozu is, his failure tends to be killing everyone but the most important person in a raid. This episode, littered with excellent names, features "Dandy Jack", who has trained the daughter of Umibozu's first and last partner to assassinate the man in green. Kaori gets some good material in about what it means to be a partner - and that does not mean sacrificing one's self for the sake of a mission, allowing the other to get off scot free.
Also of note is that Ryo and Umibozu actually kill people in this episode, and in the next, so some of the blood is coming back into City Hunter.

Episodes 17 & 18 are yet another "foreign beauty" episode, wherein a politically important woman from one of those made up countries. While this features the questionable plane hijacking weapon of the grenade, it also featured spies pretending to be gay lovers in the love hotel and the unorthodox plot of Ryo using service to distract his assailants rather than the other way around.
The idea of this episode is supposed to be about "Yamato Nadeshiko" (traditional Japanese woman), but what it really means in the end is that Ryo gets to kiss an octopus. It's a pretty good double, with one of the most credible examples of a client falling for Ryo yet seen.

The fan service quotient is definitely upping itself - episode 15 begins with Ryo chasing a giant woman in lingerie, who fondles her own breasts in anticipation of him. This may seem risque, but episode 17 features the best Saeko service ever! Ryo should shoot off people's tops more often, I say. While by today's standards this is tame material, this was very dangerous stuff for 1987.

There's an episode where Kaori takes the client that works in the way that all episodes in which Kaori goes it alone work. That is, Ryo silently assists her. The episode gets off to a bad start with a perverted old man, but he turns out to be a pretty nice guy, and the dynamic of Ryo and Kaori's relationship is stated subtly.

Most episodes give a good idea of their theme, but none have been so literal as episode 20: Kaori gets amnesia. It is surprising that the writers would have gone for such a clichéd plot device, but at least Kaori's line of work has a feasible way for her to lose her memory. This is a good relationship episode that allows Ryo to show more of his serious side, and also features the traditional "confession of something obscured by sound of explosion" technique.
This was a good episode, and allowed Ikura Kazue to use a normal voice (they claim that before Kaori met Ryo, she was a normal person. Considering that at their first meeting, Kaori was dressed as a man with a false moustache, I question this). It was interesting to see that with retrograde amnesia Kaori did not know that her brother had died. So much has happened to her since the amnesia that it would have been cruel to rebuild her memory.

City Hunter 2 is liberally sprinkled with two parters, and the extra time afforded for these stories allows it to work best. Among the one offs there are still some good materials, and it looks like the writers are gradually cutting out the "baby-sitting" jobs.

Street Fighter II V - episodes 8 to 18

2005-01-28T21:06:00.000+11:00

In many ways, this series rocks. Not least of these ways is its simplicity; there's not a lot of stuff like this out on the popular market. Street Fighter II V has, for a globe trotting anime, a distinct focus. The series has been set into story arcs, but they are logically connected. As in many good series, every episode contributes something to the whole while being able to almost - almost - stand for itself.

The writers again give major signals to show that this is not, in fact, strict Street Fighter II. This is in evidence when Ryu gets imprisoned in Thailand and goes to the same gaol as Sagat. Followers of the games will know that Ryu defeated Sagat in the (by all accounts horrible) Fighting Street, making them lifelong enemies.
Here, Sagat and Ryu earn each others' respect in the ring. Highly unorthodox, but definitely within the scope of this television series. Amazingly, Ryu's time in Thailand both plays up to and dispels stereotypes: Ryu falls victim to the country's harsh drug penalties and is beaten by the police after his arrest. However, the head of narcotics wants to help Ryu rehabilitate.
These Thailand episodes send so many mixed messages about society and foreign cultures, but there is some good character work involved. Not only is this story arc a good example of Street Fighter II V's independence, it's also a healthy reminder that the viewer has to be aware of the slight ridiculousness of many of its set ups.
Ryu's "it wasn't me, it was the man with the scar on his face!" is even worse than the old "one-armed man" excuse.

Because this is only a 29 episode series, and not the infinity of DragonBall Z (keeping in mind that one battle in that program lasted 33 episodes), events are pretty sharp and fast in their turnover. Ryu and Ken's visit to Dhalsim in India was good because it did not go the "cackling old man" route. Cackling old men treat their apprentices cruelly, only letting them know that it was all a test at the end. Dhalsim creates tests, but he's not a bastard about it. He's a very serious man, allowing Ryu and Ken to know that while he can take care of all situations, he would like to see them try.
Although the time when Ken and Ryu fought each other without realising it was quite stupid, this is somehow forgivable.

What looks like the final arc comes into place at 14. It probably won't be final, as much as looks like everything will very directly lead into everything else from this point. It is important to note that in between the Japanese and English versions, there are several name differences.

In Japan's Street Fighter II games the leader of Shadowlaw was named Vega, the masked cage-fighter Balrog and the boxer M Bison. This was a little too obvious, especially as Punch-Out! had to be re-issued, and to avoid legal hassles, there was a triangular movement. The dictator became M Bison, the cage-fighter Vega and the boxer Balrog. Somehow, this all seemed to work. In this, and any subsequent Street Fighter II V coverage, the characters will be referred to by their Japanese names. It should not be hard, from context, to sort all of this out.

Balrog is a deliciously insane opponent. He is the sort who, in preparation for a fight, licks his claws. He then licks his blood off the claws. Balrog could come across as a bit of a nancy, so they make him very masculine, deep voiced and in love with Chun Li. Love, amongst delusional cage-fighters in love with their own vanity, of course means drugging. Chun Li has an ethereal beauty while drugged, which is a strong warning sign.

The important part, not just the fact that Balrog's battle lasts some time, is the introduction of Vega. Vega in his present incarnation is far too bulky. He has the hugest chin ever. There is some unintentionally humour in his dialogue. When he is overtaken by his amazing "Psycho Power" and holds Chun Li until her body goes limp, he "wakes up" and says "Have I done it again?". Sure, it doesn't sound funny, but there's something about it that tickles the funny bone.
Vega, when he gets his red clothes on, will likely become the loveable general known all around the world.

Really, these are fairly compelling episodes of Street Fighter II V. The series is just so sincere you can't help but like it. Although there are about three minutes of wasted animation at the end of episode eighteen, involving an hypothetical assassination, Street Fighter II V is a highly enjoyable series.

I am kind of ashamed of myself for trying to come off as a Street Fighter II historian. I was never good at the game, but sometimes I'm a fan of important cultural history.

The Legend of Black Heaven

2005-01-27T18:10:00.000+11:00

"HARD ROCK save the SPACE" proclaims the English subtitle to The Legend of Black Heaven. Somehow, this is really all that needs to be said. Another late night anime of the "how did they get viewers" variety, Black Heaven is less sci-fi than it is an examination of domestic life, salary working and reviving lost dreams.

Oji is in his late thirties and works as the assistant head-manager at faceless firm of salary-men. It is never clear what his job is, but this scarcely matters. Oji's watershed moment is when he realises that his wife has thrown out his last guitar, which symbolises to him that his past is truly gone. On the very same day, Yuki Layla begins to work at the company. That night, Oji goes out to get drunk and is joined by this beautiful woman. She offers to take him to Heaven - which turns out to be the bridge of an alien spaceship. Her plan is to get Oji to play his guitar as he did fifteen years ago in his band Black Heaven, in order to defeat the aliens' enemies!
Oji puts it down as a dream, but soon enough he realises that he has been given the opportunity to play the guitar again - even if he initially thinks that he's just playing at an elaborately conceived live-house. Over time, Oji acts to reform the band to defeat the aliens, becomes closer to his son, has a rocky relationship with his wife and more all in the course of his metaphorical affair.

The Legend of Black Heaven (AKA Black Heaven, Japanese title Kacho Oji or "Assistant head-manager Oji") is an interesting series in that it is firstly about such an old and "boring" lead character. Characters who are thirty five plus are rare in primary roles, especially when all they do is work in an office. It may sound as if the whole "music to fight in space" idea is derivative of Macross, but science-fiction is not important. In a bold move, Oji is the most important part of the series. The war is so obviously a back drop that the preview for the final episode concedes that it is never explained who the villains are. They don't matter at all.

Oji is an excellent character, who becomes gradually revitalised and more enthusiastic about everything as he continues to play. Initially, his playing is selfish. One day he has to take care of his son, Gen. Watching Gen run to the park, Oji realises that he knows nothing about him. Oji is then called out to play his guitar, leaving Gen all alone. This is bad parenting! But when Gen gets into trouble, Oji realises that he can't think only of himself and through his actions begins to involve Gen - as well as getting involved in Gen's life as well. Perhaps more importantly, Oji feels like he has a purpose in life. His saving of Gen coincides with his realisation that he's fighting a war, and this empowers him further. It's a double hit of reality for him.

It is difficult to understand why Oji remains married to Yokko. Married people may understand the sacrifice involved, but over the years she has thrown out Oji's records, his amp, and all of his guitars. Out of necessity, she says. Yokko's actions are essentially what robbed Oji of his identity and made him into the gormless lump of the series' beginning. Their union does not make a lot of sense, anyway. She used to be a groupie, but you would never think it. With so little sympathy, and so much disappointment in her husband.
People likely have their own reasons for these things, though, but Yokko seems far too angry a character for anyone to stay with.

The other thing that Oji has to learn is that dreams can be shared, but not always acted upon by everyone. When he reforms the band to drink, he invites them to save the universe - but they can't leave their jobs and families just to do this made up thing. There is a difference between drunken bravado and reality, and when the band members think it would just be playing, they can't bring themselves to do it.
Dreams of grandeur becoming reality is a very confusing thing to deal with indeed.
It works the other way, too; the aliens use Oji at first only to utilise his groove. To encourage him, they pretend that they care about the music. Over time, they realise that the music is pretty rocking and become genuine fans. This idea hits Layla the hardest, and the metaphorical affair frequently comes dangerously close to being a real affair.
The affair is the weirdest part of the series; while one wants these characters to be happy, it should not come at the expense of others. As a result, the ending is definite and yet in some regards ambiguous.

The production smacks of AIC, and was their 1999 attempt at digital animation. Despite a couple of moments of click and drag, they had the whole process pretty much down-pat. The characters look like standard, if rather normalised, AIC fare. All of the Japanese people have brown or black hair, and Layla, who is transitionary normal is blonde. The three characters who make this most AIC, are the blue, purple and green haired characters who act as comic relief and present the previews. The series could have done without them, but it's for the look of the thing, you know?

The opening song is John Sykes' "Cautionary Warning", which is promoted on all of the packaging. The song is nice, and grows, but the opening animation is grotesque: it is rotoscoped footage of a John Sykes concert, and is quite freaky. People have been put off this anime on the OP animation alone. The ED is more generic bizarre J-Pop, more notable for the fact that it is accompanied by shots of the three girls sleeping naked.

The Legend of Black Heaven is recommended anime not only for middle-aged people but for anyone who is at a turning point in life - or has been. It may bore some, but the target audience is broad. It would be wise not to forget this.

Street Fighter II V - episodes 1 to 7

2005-01-23T13:36:00.000+11:00

"They go to meet the mighty". Often you can get a feeling for an anime series by the way the previews are signed off. Many, such as Rurouni Kenshin, have the generic "please look forward to it". Evangelion memorably had Mitsuishi Kotono promising "Next time, service service!" each week until that became grossly inappropriate for the series. City Hunter 2 has Kaori delivering a different threat each week: "don't watch it and get the hammer" eventually becomes "if you don't watch it, you'll get the death penalty!", and then "If you don't watch it, someone will look at your panties!".
So, when you finish an episode of Street Fighter II V and the legendary Ohtsuka Akio signs off with "They go to meet the mighty" in a serious passionate voice, you know you're in for something good. That simple phrase encapsulates the essence of this anime.

Street Fighter II V is a rare example of good fighting game anime. This is because it does not really treat itself as such: fighting game anime tend to have overblown and/or flatly ridiculous plots (Invisible dinosaurs, anyone?), but Street Fighter II V is really a buddy world-travelling anime, a quest for self-improvement in the form of martial arts.
Ryu works as a tree-feller on an island in Japan. One day he receives a letter from his old training partner Ken, containing money and air tickets and the message "Come to America". And so Ryu goes to America and reunites Ken, the best American who ever did live.
In a bar fight, Ryu is knocked out by Sergeant Guile. Ken goes to Guile's airbase, and is also knocked out. Realising that there are people in the world who are stronger than them, Ken and Ryu embark on a mission to travel the world and fight them. Their first stop is Hong Kong, where they meet Chun Li. It looks like their involvement with her is going to be important, as it has gained the attention of Ashura, the evillest of all drug-smuggling units in the Asian region. Foreshadowing at this point suggests that Ashura is working for a familiar organisation. Familiar, that is, to Street Fighter fans.

The adventures that Ryu and Ken get into are fun, and this is largely because they are such good friends. They never get too serious about become the ultimate fighters, as what they really want to do is have a good time. If that involves beating people up, so be it. Chun Li is not too ditzy, and the three of them have good times together. When the series gets a little serious, it doesn't take it too far. That makes all the difference. It could be forecast that there will be some sort of spiritual commentary involved later on, but Street Fighter II V is directed with a steady hand. This makes it difficult to be concerned about its future.

There are several key differences between Street Fighter II V and the video game that spawned it. The desire to not emphasise fidelity to its roots is something that liberates it from any doldrums. The first hint is that Ken has red hair rather than blonde. This is not a particularly revolutionary move, but it's important enough to note that all of the characters' backstories are not strictly the same as in the games - or that because the characters are only teenagers, they don't have to worry about some of the terrors that have befallen them in their pixellated forms.
While I am familiar with the ideas behind Street Fighter II (note: only II, I don't go in for all this "third impact" or "alpha" or "EX2" junk or whatever), I can't say if a hardcore fan would like this series: that's the beauty of it, there's no need to have any sort of familiarity with the core influence. The only real question is why someone would let their seventeen year old son tour the world to get into fights: Ken and Ryu probably should have been aged a year. This, however, is a quibble.

The production values are relatively good, with Ken and Ryu probably at their best ever in anime. There has been a lot of ugly Street Fighter anime through the years, and while their eyebrows might stick out a little too far from their head they still look just fine. Chun Li looks attractive for once, and is in no way disproportionate. The only problem is with a few of the one-shot characters who did not have much thought put into them, and there are a few times where Ryu and Ken fight twins - therefore magically halving the character design requirements for a scene! Despite budget constraints, most battle scenes are fluid and enjoyable.
The in-show music is excellent to the highest degree. That is not to say that these are quality compositions, but they are so full of energy and add to the program's enjoyment factor. The biggest disappointment comes not from CAPCOM's treatment of the series, but rather Manga Entertainment's. For a Manga Entertainment production, these DVDs are surprisingly good looking. What is unforgivable, however, is the fact that Manga saw fit to edit out both the OP and ED, replacing the OP with its own mixture of animation and set to some ultra-dramatic inappropriate composition by "Mike Egan and Critter". The music is not terrible, but it definitely does not fit with the light-hearted nature of these early episodes.

Street Fighter II V makes liberal use of shorthand, sometimes blatantly obvious and others so blatantly obvious that they go unnoticed. Take the character of Ken: Ken lives in a mansion, surrounded by acres and acres of rich forest. When Ryu arrives in San Francisco, Ken's parents are out to dinner with the President. Ken's mother is Japanese, and so when his parents return home in their private jet, his father is wearing a tuxedo and his mother a kimono. She's Japanese, you see.
The ridiculous nature of Ken's richness is compounded when he goes to a hotel and orders the $20,000 Penthouse, that has its own heli-pad. That seems kind of dangerous, and could lead to kidnappings, but in such instances sense is not needed, only implication.
In the episode featuring Fei Long and Ken in a ridiculous outfit, there is a director character. He is not introduced at any point as a director, and it takes a few minutes to realise that the reason that you recognise him as such is because he is short, wears a beret, vest and sunglasses, has half a moustache on either side of his nose and waves a megaphone. This is a simple technique, but it is subliminally effective.
Despite all this, somehow it manages to get away without any cultural stereotyping - other than the obvious and necessary idea of Ken living the life of the inexplicably rich American.

Street Fighter II V is rare: it's an enjoyable fighting game series. What this is is refreshing, possibly the definition of entertainment. You can't go far wrong with this anime if you want light fun.

The Big O II - Acts 14 to 20

2005-01-11T18:49:00.000+11:00

Acts 14 to 20, you say? The Big O II continues the numbering from the first series, because what The Big O is a 26 episode program that just so happened to take a three year break in production. The Big O II was made due to American fan demand, co-produced by Cartoon Network. This is one of the best actions that fandom has had on the industry, because this series really did not do well enough in Japan to justify SUNRISE making a continuation.
Some have accused the involvement of American companies as being a blight on the anime industry, an attempt to make anime more homogenised and evil! Some people just love to listen to the sound of their own complaints.

The Big O II is such a continuation of the The Big O that it picks up exactly where its predecessor left off. Concessions are made to the gap of three years, like an increase in flashes to past episodes. This is because the mystery of Paradigm City and the lost Memories are beginning to come together and all clues are alluded to once more.
This series is more of the same, but is also different in a way (and not in an "Americans have ruined anime!" way). This is due to the infusion of more money, the desire to reveal more secrets and also the need to bring back Beck and cause pain to viewers.

The 14th act of The Big O II sets a precedent for the series: the first episode to include "psycho-drama", the sort that seems to happen only in a character's mind. Roger's look into the pre-amnesia time of his psyche is interesting, not just because it features Mister Beck but because it also has creative cinematography. The use of a theatre is admittedly not original material, but it comes across well - as is presenting all of the characters in silhouette, at least facially.
The use of symbolism has also increased, and one has to wonder what the red balloon means. This sort of writing and presentation is delicious.

This series is following some of the examples set by the first, with Norman's concern for the state of dinner being well recognised. The butler also gets to come into his own, driving a motorbike that shoots missiles from the sidecar and a memorable use of a kitchen cupboard.
Angel, the character who was infuriatingly mysterious in the first series, is given a real opportunity to reveal herself. The scenes between her and Roger are among the best and most romantic. The moment of realisation at the beach is one of the best dramatic moments produced for either series. Unfortunately, this comes at the expense of the relationship of Roger and Dorothy, who get precious little shared screen time. Dorothy appears to want to act independently, which is good for her but takes away one of the more enjoyable dynamics of the series.

The rest of these episodes take a distinctly religious stance, such as in the case of people singing in church for comfort, and the coming of an angel down to Paradigm City. There are excellent episodes on human and robot equality, a subject that always makes the characters wonder how the two got along before amnesia. Whatever it was that hit Paradigm City got the androids, placing everyone on equal footing.

The only exception to the enjoyability is the totally random episode 18, which features a Japanese company. The Japanese businessmen are represented as short, bucktoothed and camera-happy. This sends a very mixed message. The whole episode is out of line with the rest of the series, using a bizarre mix of American and Japanese animated humour techniques. The episode begins with Roger's narration, then a "bouncy" effect to reveal that he is actually still in bed (the implication being that he is a lazy sod). Later on, Dorothy makes a joke in bad taste. This causes Roger to fall down! One wonders, what is going on here, exactly. It's capped off by a sentai fight - a parody of sixties designed robots (ie Big O) versus the seventies designed combining robots. This part is actually pretty funny, but this is not like an episode of The Big O. The fact that Japanese tradition continues in an American city (one of their banks is "Your Financial Institution, Anytown USA") boggles the mind entirely.

The Big O II's score is excellent; powerful, moving and dramatic. Whatever the occasion, the music matches the scene perfectly. This is particularly noticeable a lot of the time. The action sequences are excellently choreographed, and there is a lot of creative camera techniques involved. A dialogue between Norman and a guard told largely by their hands is fascinating to watch.

More money seems to have allowed The Big O II to have more colour than its predecessor, and this is really its only flaw; it is too bright. By 2002, most anime productions had moved into a completely digital world, and occasionally this series suffers from soft-focus as a result. It could be sharper, but overall this is still an attractive series - and somehow Dorothy looks cuter, so it's all good.

The Big O II is a worthy successor to The Big O, with its enlarging of themes and creation of themes anew. Apparently it gets deeper and more confusing here on out. Somehow, it all feels worth it.

City Hunter 2 - episodes 8 to 13

2005-01-10T21:16:00.000+11:00

City Hunter 2 continues to run the gamut of City Hunter-ness; the cool, the stupid, the funny and the pointless. One could say that this series has it all and they'd be just about right.

The biggest problem with this series is that too many episodes start with Kaori advertising Ryo's services. He's an underworld bodyguard, dangit! Keep him a damned secret! However, the shopping district always happens to be a good place to meet new clients. When Ryo acts as someone's fiancée after being picked out , this gives birth to hilarious police comedy involving Ryo borrowing a police car. It also shows that sometimes concerned fathers are just concerned parents and not trying to ruin their daughters' lives - and this episode also shows the only act of violence against a woman Ryo has ever committed (the other time it was technically against a transsexual).

In Ryo's other adventures he gets official police dispensation to grope an officer, we learn that it is every man's dream to "mokkori with a noble".
There is a country in this world where peeking is punishable by death, which is quite cool. This leads us to another "internationally flavoured" episode of City Hunter. Guests from overseas in City Hunter are inevitably princesses or prodigies from non-existent Middle-Eastern or Teutonic countries. Salina and Alma, in this case, are a princess in disguise as a lady-in-waiting and a ten year old lady-in-waiting with an IQ of 250 (this facet of her character is introduced quite an awkward fashion) pretending to be the aforementioned princess. This two parter, about noble aura preventing mokkori, proves that everyone comes to Japan in order to be targeted for death and saved from horrible fates. That's just the way it goes.
Despite any foregone conclusions that can be drawn, "Mokkori Killer" had a very sweet ending.

Kamiya Akira really can't be praised enough for his work in City Hunter. A lot of the dialogue is boring, but the way he delivers makes it funny. "Oh! Weapon Attack! No!" is only hilarious when you actually hear him saying it. Otherwise, it would simply be dull and flat. A lot of his work was likely hell on the throat, particularly with the extremes of smooth to un- in the space of a sentence.

Anyway, City Hunter 2 is pretty damned funny. Not just because of its corrupt business-men jumping from exploding boats and miraculously surviving: it is actually getting more daring in its visual representation of jokes. Although there are very few serious, or indeed actual clients any more, there's still enough entertainment here.

Cautionary Warning

2005-01-10T20:23:00.000+11:00

Hey guys. I don't normally talk much about the site but I'm saying now that it is going to become, for a while at least, imageless. This is because I appear to have violated some sort of terms of service of my image host, which they weren't actually nice enough to tell me and just put up the huge "picture unavailable" images all around.
You'll have to read my site for the sparkling wit and insight contained within, until I reach my own domain/hosting!
I'm doomed.

Studio Ghibli collection: The Cat Returns

2005-01-06T22:06:00.000+11:00

The 2002 Studio Ghibli film The Cat Returns is the first that is in no way related to Miyazaki Hayao or Takahata Isao. It looks, and feels, the least “Ghibli” of all of the efforts. Yet this is still an enjoyable adventure.

Based upon Hiiragi Aoi’s manga and using two of the characters introduced in Whisper of the Heart (in very different ways), The Cat Returns is about high-school student Haru. One day as Haru walks home from school, she sees a cat about to get hit by a truck. Running onto the road, she saves the cat with her lacrosse stick. The cat stands and thanks her, before running off.
That night, Haru is visited by a procession of cats. It turns out that the cat she saved was Prince Lune. The king of the Cat Kingdom wants to personally thank her for this, and gives her many rewards. When Haru learns that the king wishes to marry her off to Prince Lune, she seeks the aid of Muta and Baron of the Cat Business Office. Still, she is whisked off to the Cat Kingdom and begins to turn into a cat. In order to avoid succumbing, Haru must somehow find herself!

This is not an actual sequel as it simply shares two characters from Whisper of the Heart. As such, the cat is not returning from anything, and the title should be read as “The Cat Returns the Favour”. As a stand-alone feature, this film is flatly excellent. Of special note is that at 75 minutes it is the shortest Studio Ghibli film ever. At the sixty minute mark it runs clean out of material to use, but this is remedied by the fact that fifteen minutes is enough for an escape scene and a conclusion to Haru’s adventure.

The Cat Returns is a small film but frequently hilarious in a way that most Studio Ghibli productions are not. The time spent in the Cat Kingdom is essentially a large series of jokes, and really quite funny. The time when the cat king is trying to get Haru to cheer up is almost tear-inducingly good and not the sort of thing one would expect.

The only real problem with The Cat Returns is the need for Haru to have learned something from it all. There were no real difficulties in her life or about her character, short of waking up late, that needed to be remedied by a visit to a magical realm. The idea “to prevent becoming a cat, you must find yourself” seems to be contrived simply so there can be some variety of positive message sprung from this film. When Haru lists all of the things that she’s done as a learning experience, this grates with what is really a simple adventure film. Self-improvement is all well and good, but not strictly necessary in every instance.

This is a Studio Ghibli film that pays attention to the small stuff, such as Muta and Baron preparing whipped cream to eat with a cake, and then decorating it. Muta wielding a whisk and Baron using an icing pourer is simply excellent.
For those who have seen Whisper of the Heart, The Cat Returns may be difficult to watch. This is because Kondo Yoshifumi did not design it, and Baron’s design has been watered down a little bit to make him easier to animate. This is fair enough, and eventually one gets used to it.
The biggest failing in the design, then, is that Haru does not look like a Ghibli heroine. Studio Ghibli films have instantly recognisable characters thanks to Miyazaki and Kondo having the same aesthetic feel. Not so here, which differentiates the movie further from its studio roots. Studio Ghibli’s trademark simplistic charm is nowhere in evidence, and the characters look much rougher.

Still, the film is amazingly creative; the procession of cats initially looks awkward as they walk bipedally, but then the cooler cats come into play. The variety of cats is a large source of delight: the body guard and executioner cats are hilarious. Of particular note is that the Cat King's court is attended by cats of all cultures: Ancient Egyptian, middle eastern, and Tudors, of all things.
Nomi Yuji's score is not as memorable as his work on Whisper of the Heart, but the film ends on a soothingly bouncy song proving that all is right with the world.

The Cat Returns is unique fare; it’s not like anything Studio Ghibli has done before, and not really like anything that’s been placed on the market in the last decade. If it weren’t for its message, this would be the perfect brief adventure film.

Studio Ghibli Collection: Whisper of the Heart

2005-01-04T21:28:00.000+11:00

Excellence resides in the hearts of the animators at Studio Ghibli. Whisper of the Heart (literal title: If you listen closely) is the Studio Ghibli film not directed by Takahata Isao or Miyazaki Hayao. Kondo Yoshifumi took control of this project, and would have been likely to produce more excellent works had he not passed away three years after the completion of this one.

Whisper of the Heart is one of those brilliant films for which no description comes easily. Tsukishima Shizuku is about to enter high school. When she "should" be studying, she reads books. Shizuku notices that someone named Amasawa Seiji has borrowed many of the books she reads before her. In Shizuku's mind, Amasawa Seiji becomes an idealised model of dreaminess.
Shizuku comes to meet a boy who turns out to be Seiji but neglects to mention this fact for some time. Seiji is dedicated to the creation of violins, and wishes to go to Italy to apprentice and find if he has talent. This inspires Shizuku to write a story based upon Baron, a cat doll from the antique store owned by Seiji's grandfather.

Shizuku's struggle is likely to resonate with people who have attempted self-expression. She is an "unpolished precious stone", with the film revealing the encouraging message that not everything has to be perfect right out. Mastery can take years, and instead of frustration one should feel pride in their work. This is an important message, and encouraging. It is certainly better than telling children that they "ain't got nothin', so don't bother tryin'". It's not really moralising, so much as it is character building. While characters sometimes complain about their preaching, nothing really comes across as annoyingly preachy.
The film is capped by a ridiculous, overly ideal ending, but this does not matter. The point at which it leaves is quite beautiful, in a nice way. It is unbelievable, but this is in no way an issue. The joy that it instills in the heart of man is well worth it despite any impracticalities associated.

Miyazaki scripted Whisper of the Heart, but Kondo is given more than ample space to express himself. This feels like no other Studio Ghibli film, despite their uniform character design. Shizuku is a character that tries to throw herself into stories, such as following a stray cat in the hope that it will lead her to a new world. In a way, it does: she discovers the World Emporium, a shop that is practically overflowing with inspiration.

Kondo has no difficulty in letting big moments carry the viewer away; there is a whole segment devoted to singing the movie's theme that starts out uncertainly and grows and grows until there is some sort of magic in the air, and it's almost sad to see it end. This scene prospers due to a lack of editing and the characters' refusal to be shy. This is definitely a highlight of the film.

There is another point where-in the World Emporium owner fixes a "Porco Rosso" clock and takes the time to tell Shizuku the tale behind the clock - interesting stuff not related to the plot but somehow still an integral part of the film. Due to the focus on Shizuku at all times, this does not bear the burden of making the film too sprawling and hard to follow. If anything, it becomes more personal.

Kondo has some interesting visual ideas, particularly the best symbol of death ever that doesn't actually end with a death. The story that Shizuku writes based around Baron shows up in several scenes, and not only is it an interesting story but it is presented in an incredible way, like a sort of jewelled version of the film. As excerpts it works really well, not having much to do with the story at hand, but frequently giving Shizuku inspiration which is quite elating.

The film's theme is "Take Me Home, Country Roads". It gets the movie off to a bad start - Olivia Newton-John singing an anime theme, man! - But as Miyazaki transforms the song into Japanese, and the lyrics more appropriate to teenaged girls, it becomes personal and a huge part of the film's feel. There's also a cynical version of the song named "Concrete Roads" that seems quite funny coming out of the mouth of a teenaged girl but would sound really quite bad coming from Miyazaki himself. Times like these make one glad for ciphers. Nomi Yuji's score is practically never ending, and really quite inspirational every step of the way - a real companion for Shizuku.

Whisper of the Heart is an easy film that promotes a feeling in the end. It's very hard to come out of it not feeling good, due to its delightful resonance.

Studio Ghibli Collection playing at the Valhalla and Chauvel cinemas until January 16 2005.

X (the movie)

2005-01-03T19:17:00.000+11:00

This review kind of has spoilers in it, although it's hard to spoil an apocalypse anime.

This entire film can be summarised by its final line of dialogue: "Why?" For the uninitiated, X is a collection of scenes that don't appear to mean anything. There's very little dialogue and what little there is comes across as shoddily translated. Based on CLAMP's mega-popular manga, X is not without promise. It's just there's too much story and not enough anything actually conveyed.

Shiro Kamui's mother dies, so he returns to the home of his childhood friends Kotori and Fuma. However, the Dragons of Earth want Kamui to join them in their quest to destroy humanity - and the Dragons of Heaven want Kamui to join them in their quest to save humanity (which apparently implies the destruction of the natural environment).
Kotori is abducted by the Dragon of Earth leader Kanoe. Kamui is told by the Dragon of Heaven leader Hinoto that he must become a Dragon of Heaven leader to save Kotori from general destruction (this is illustrated by a record three different depictions of Kotori's decapitation), while Fuma is told by Kanoe that he must become the opposite of whatever Kamui will become in order to save Kotori from being killed by Kamui.
Fuma takes this on board, and then promptly forgets his character and goes around killing everyone.
The convolutions! They cause the brain to explode!

X has an extremely large amount of characters. The majority of these are introduced in seconds, are involved in fights and then die.
The Dragons of Heaven totally suck at fighting. They have to protect the gates of destruction from the Dragons of Earth, but they all end up dead - or, if they win individual battles, destroy the gate that they protect in the very process. Therefore all of the battles seem largely pointless, with foregone conclusions. Any deaths mean nothing as the characters are essentially strangers. There are several death monologues that might mean something, but without any back story really don't.
Any connection to Tokyo Babylon is extremely tenuous, as Kimeragi Subaru dies within the first five minutes. That's not even a spoiler, because Rintaro seems bent on killing everyone of these characters off in the constraints of the film's 100 minute time-frame.

X is a movie that's allegedly supposed to make up for its lack of sense with its unparalleled beauty courtesy of master-director Rintaro. However, Manga Entertainment has never been capable of making good DVDs of theatrical anime (a pity, as much of their catalogue are excellent movies along the lines of Wings of Honneamise and Perfect Blue).
On DVD, X looks positively dull and underwhelming. Frequently this film is visually confusing, with fatal battles played out but their outcome cloudy until a character states that one of the combatants is dead several minutes later. Other times, Rintaro is not creative at all. There are far too many instances of split screen shots that are simply dividers. The characters are based on CLAMP's originals, but they don't have that normal attractive quality to them. X is way too dark in appearance to be massively visually appealing, and the animated dragons are laughably low-tech.
The costume design is on the more ridiculous side, coming dangerously close to CLAMP's S & M catalogue. Kanoe looks like she could fall out of her top any time, which would be quite disastrous come the the end of the world.

The voice cast is impressive, but the characters don't get enough screen time or die too soon to actually say anything. Mitsuishi Kotono's character gets out all of three lines before she dies for reasons that are not actually specified. The whole cast reads as a who's who of seiyuu '96, which leads to much congestion.
The score is practically non-existent, and when it's there it sounds infuriatingly similar to a classical piece I simply can't put my finger on.

Still, at the end it's unclear whether X is a semi-beautiful film that is excellent to those who know the story inside-and-out and want to see choice parts animated, or whether it's just a bad movie. Either way, the TV series that followed four years after this is supposed to be uniformly awesome, perhaps by way of apology. A chance to see an example of Rintaro's undeniably excellent work lies in the marvellous Metropolis. When it comes to film making, coherence goes a long way.

Kite

2004-12-31T22:44:00.000+11:00

When the price of creative control is that you have to incorporate "X rated material", you come up with something like Kite.

Kite (named for the flying devices controlled by strings) is about Sawa, a young girl of indeterminate age (she goes to college, but that may be a symptom of this anime featuring sex). When Sawa was
younger still, she arrived home to find her parents dead. Akai, a crooked policeman, takes Sawa in and trains her to become a killer. He also promises to find the murderers. It doesn't take very long for Sawa to figure out that it was actually Akai who killed her parents, and so she plans her revenge over many years. Meeting Oburi, a fellow assassin, she sees her chance to avenge her parents and the sexual abuse that she has endured.

From that description, it's quite clear that Akai is not a nice person. Nor, for that matter, is his partner Kanie. Sawa's only real
personality trait is that burning desire for revenge, but she can have a couple of jokes at the expense of Oburi. Oburi has not had terrible things happen to him, short of being trained as a killer, but he is a directionless squatter. Apparently he lives only to do jobs for Akai, and to work in a convenience store. Unsurprisingly, he too would like to break free to a life of something more than squatting with cats. The two of them bond quite effectively, making for some of this two part OVA's nicer, warmer moments.

The ending of Kite is a little confusing as it sends extremely mixed messages; the final minute could be read two ways, and director Umetsu Yasuomi's interview suggests that something good happens but it is hard to see. Whatever the actual outcome, it is certainly abrupt.

The action in Kite, for this was produced as "ultra-violent pornography" (great for the image of anime, although Kite is never cited as a bad example), is hyper to the point of ridiculousness. The weapons that Sawa and Oburi use are not the sort that would be found on the police force. These guns boast delayed explosive shells that simply penetrate. Give them a few seconds and bam, they explode from the inside. What this amounts to is an excuse for a lot of blood. The violence does not feel particularly realistic, as skin probably should not move the way it does here. That said, a
lot of it is wince-inducing, such as a double stab to the foot. Some of the sequences are hilarious, probably intentionally, with the best falling pile-up ever animated on offer here. Certainly, Umetsu should be commended for the beginning of the second episode.

Umetsu has an interesting visual style; bleak, and dark. The violence is nowhere near believable, but his world has that special dull, real sheen about it that draws a viewer in. There are some nice touches, like the best ever fast food outlet name: Make Fat. Also of note is the fact that Oburi works at the convenience store "8". Not 7-11, just 8.
But the scenery is nothing compared to the character design. Sawa looks dead-eyed when she's killing, but there's something about her smile that infuses her with warmth. Similarly, Oburi looks like there's still some hope in his life. Unsurprisingly, Kanie and Akai look exactly like the evil bastards that they are. Kanie's eyes are literally dead, bugged out like a chameleon's. His facial features do not move at all.
In what is perhaps the most offensive aspect of Kite, even if unintentionally, Akai has the most sacrilegious character design ever (well, probably not ever, this is anime). The stretchy skin in the violence may be off-putting, but there's something right on about the character design that matches the characterisation right down to the ground.

The uncensored version of Kite may be released through Kitty Media, Media Blasters' hentai label but, despite its Green Bunny production, it is not hentai. There is some near-explicit sex, but these scenes total less than two minutes of the fifty minute running time. Also, while it may be true that some people get off on bad, depraved things (not that I'm editorialising, oh no), the sex is not in the slightest erotic to most sensible tastes. The sex is definitely unpleasant, but it is difficult to imagine Kite without it. That would be rather like missing the point. Without the harsh realities of Sawa's world, Kite falls apart into generic, silly action anime. The history of abuse is really what grounds this and makes all of the characters' actions more believable. Obviously this is with the exception of Akai and Kanie, but people who commit such horrible crimes are pretty well beyond explanation anyway.

Kite is good to watch, but it's about as sexy as Futurama's Zapp Brannigan. The fact that the promotional material shouts "EROTIC!" is about as accurate as that captain's claim. With the exception of the second episode's set piece, Kite is not enjoyable - it's a very human piece, with the few joys and all of the depravity that entails.

Lupin III: The Secret of Mamo

2004-12-26T23:05:00.000+11:00

Lupin III, the world's greatest thief, is an obnoxious, lascivious, lovable rogue. The Secret of Mamo captures the true essence of Lupin. This, the first and possibly most accurate, Lupin III movie is excellent as a result.

One must admire a film that is totally cool despite not even revealing its true plot until past half way through. This is because Lupin always has something to occupy his time. In a vampiric country, Lupin is executed. And yet, the master thief lives! Zenigata, the INTERPOL detective assigned to Lupin's Case, does not believe this for a second.
Meanwhile Fujiko, the object of Lupin's lust and another thief, uses the master to retrieve a series of obscure artefacts which leads to Lupin's partners, Jigen and Goemon, abandoning him in disgust.
Lupin is eventually kidnapped by the mysterious Mamo, an egocentric midget who claims to be immortal and to have had a hand in all of history's major events.
Lupin therefore must survive his predicament, rescue Fujiko from the seduction of eternal life and stop Mamo from ending the Cold War the hard way. All of this is punctuated by helicopter chases (in sewers, no less), run-ins with monster trucks, and a whip-fast tour through art history.

The Secret of Mamo is a fun movie because of its grasp on the absurd, emphasised by its chunky, cool-as-all-get out animation design.
The flow is amazing, never letting up. This film is literally packed, with Lupin heiling Hitler, Jigen being interrogated by a man who may as well be Henry Kissinger, and Goemon performing an amazing triple cut. Beneath this, there's a surprising amount of substance. The Secret of Mamo is actually quite literate, a philosophy film before philosophy in anime was fashionable. This ranges from the silly, such as an examination of Lupin's mind that reveals that his only thoughts are of naked women, Zenigata and orange candy, to the serious, like the idea that gods are created through the manipulation of history.

The film implores us to consider also the implications of friendship; Jigen and Goemon abandon Lupin for his remorseless, relentless womanising. They are a trio that should not be broken! The consequences are grievous, forcing the characters to renounce their loves of Marilyn Monroe and Humphrey Bogart.
Yes, indeed, a great deal of this film is random - frequently to the point of confusion. Fujiko's behaviour seems entirely inconsistent, but it is not if the viewer goes in knowing one thing about her character explicitly: she is permanently stringing Lupin along. Do not take any of her confessions of love seriously lest you want your head to explode!

The production is obviously not modern in the slightest. This sort of animation would not fly nowadays, yet it is some of the most ingenusly stylised animation there is. Lupin is thin and gangly, possibly for sneaking purposes. His insubstantial physique makes his seduction technique all the funnier. Also, for whatever reason, all of the men are incredibly hairy.
There's something earthy and organic about the animation, as if every little action has been considered. In the car chase scenes the cars may be rough but there is no illusion that the whole thing is moving.

The animators cheat with techniques along the lines of Fujiko's endless drive through the fields at sunset, and millions of other hard to describe shortcuts. The animation is smooth, no matter how rough the design, and one of the joys of the film is wondering what random event will be thrown in next: the sheer imagination utilised in conveying this film is epic in scale.

Back in the day, the Lupin III ensemble stayed static, but since then there have been many changes to the line-up. The Secret of Mamo boasts the original, traditional cast. Yamada Yasuo charms the pants off of his contemporaries as Lupin and sings the ending themesong - which has something to do with being a master thief and getting girls, but by this point I had switched to VHS and had no translation. It was quite jolly. The opening song is the excellent "Lupin III '77" (also known as "Dance Mix for Lupin") which, if you get really confused, sounds like "Eye of the Tiger".

The Secret of Mamo somehow manages to be a challenging, intellectual film and a base festival of crudities simultaneously. This masterful example of the animated form is a true delight.

No images this time around because I have a defective copy of this DVD that cuts out for the last ten minutes; I had to watch the finale on my old Manga Entertainment UK 1996 dub VHS. That version is a bit suss - Mamo's voice is ridiculous - but still fun.

Studio Ghibli Collection: Only Yesterday

2004-12-20T21:25:00.000+11:00

Takahata Isao made a very quiet film in 1991. It was called Only Yesterday, a flawed yet beautiful look at a sixties childhood and life thereafter.

Okajima Taeko takes time off from her office job to visit the countryside of Japan and work on a farm. She remembers the time that she last visited the country, at ten years old. This initial reminiscence leads to Taeko reflecting on how little she has achieved in her life. Interspersed with Taeko's growing understanding of her potential paths are further stand out events in her young life.
Taeko is concerned about her future. She feels that, at 27, in an office job and unmarried she has achieved very little in her life. She is invigorated by her visit to the countryside, and by her contact with Toshio, a boundlessly enthusiastic farmer. Perhaps the farm life would suit her best, but she feels like a fake to claim to love the country based on ten days there in a year.
The younger Taeko is an odd girl, who lives a family life where her older sisters are too old to accomodate her, her father is never around and her mother thinks that she's a bit "challenged". These segments are not linear at all, probably promoting the random nature of memory. Taeko is not trying to tell a story; she scarcely knows just why she has brought up the memories of her childhood and so there is no order. The film's comedy comes from these scenes, such as the bizarre "period" craze that overtook Taeko's school and her experiments with romance.

Only Yesterday is a strange beast indeed. A good deal of the time, it is unclear just how the past and the present of Taeko are linked. The device of 27 year old Taeko was Takahata's own idea, and the film's true story - the past is simple vignettes put together to show nostalgic feeling. Only occasionally does Takahata even attempt to bring the two together, and there are long stretches of film where one is uncertain as to where either the past or present has gone.
All is forgiven, however, at the end. Only Yesterday boasts one of the finest endings in an anime film. To watch it is just a little awe-inspiring. It's happy, but not in a tearful way, and really quite ingeniusly done. Somehow it brings the prior two hours into perfect focus and is a plum note to leave on.

Takahata's job of direction is generally excellent, with the present full of natural, earthy colours and the sixties muted and white. Almost no background is completely, fading to white around the edges. There is no blue sky, and the outdoor grounds are largely white as well. This is a nice visual trick to set the two eras apart. A lot of the time the ten year old Taeko spaces out into fantasy or terminally cheerful pragmatism, and these sequences are fun to behold. In other areas Takahata is slightly lacking - one conversation between Toshio and Taeko in a car is remarkably unimaginatively storyboarded, and there are two totally bizarre subliminal images: product placement and an E.T. reference that are purely what?.

Only Yesterday is a nostalgic film that is oddly paced, and a bit heavy on a environmental monologues. It would speak most to Japanese people who are now over the age of forty, but it's a kind of delayed "coming of age" story worthy of anyone with a little patience to watch.

City Hunter 2 - episodes 1 to 7

2004-12-19T20:23:00.000+11:00

City Hunter with a 2 on it is the same loveable City Hunter, but with new songs and sharper comedy.

The same deal of Saeba Ryo working as City Hunter, king of the underworld, remains. Because of his fondness for Kaori, he's still too soft to land himself some real jobs. However, danger still finds him, so now he does all sorts of call things like shooting people's fingers off! But only when they deserve it.

Ryo gets to do some more outlandish stuff, including one scene in which he sexually harrasses male punks in an alleyway, and Kamiya Akira truly makes this series. His performance in the pratfalling sequences is simply hilarious, and I suppose that he's cool when he's playing it smooth and straight. But that scarcely seems to matter. Of course, the truly great comedic moments are when he goes between the two in the space of a second. It seems hard to believe but Kamiya somehow manages to seriously accuse Kaori of "molesting men and stealing their underwear". Sometimes this series is pure farcical genius.

Some of the themes are amazingly pertinent even to this day: the first episode of the series is about a model whose company wants to turn her into an idol. Problem is, she can't sing. They record her anyway. Manufacturing idols is something even more controversial today, proof that some things never change and in fact are liable to get worse.
Ryo's greatest grace is that he refuses to do lolicon, because rightly so it freaks him out. Ryo may well be a pervert, but he's a very direct, unkinky pervert. That's the sort of thing people should be looking for in a man.
The other big issue covered is that of what is called the jiageya - people who put pressure on home-owners to sell their houses against their will. This is not particularly hard hitting, but it was topical back in 1988. City Hunter 2 was with the times, which is one of its appeals - almost all of the story lines were based on trends or scandals of the eighties.

The music is almost exactly the same as the first series, but with less repetition and at least one more new, cool Japanese insert song. The OP is way romantic - because they want to show some sort of niceness between Kaori and Ryo. Everyone knows that the two of them can never be together, so witness the tragedy! The ED is one of the greatest ever, largely due to its excellent English (including such phrases as "Faye Dunawaye" and "Diet Food"). It makes one want to dance, and truly that is what one wants from the songs of City Hunter.

Finally, there was an M&M's soft drink can featured prominently in a dramatic scene.
City Hunter is definitely back. With a 2. Watch it or you'll get the hammer!

The Irresponsible Captain Tylor TV

2004-12-16T20:46:00.000+11:00

The Irresponsible Captain Tylor shows the universe's most incompetent captain who is fortunate enough to have the devil's own luck. He may be a loveable fellow, but as a result of his antics this series is probably the worst space opera I've ever seen - a truly squandered effort.

Justy Ueki Tylor, age 20. Tylor joins the United Planets Space Force to live an easy life: free food, free clothes, free rent. Upon accidentally foiling a hostage situation, Tylor is instantly promoted from the pensions department to become captain of a ship, the Soyokaze. The reasoning behind this is that the generals hope Tylor will disgrace himself and earn a dishonorable discharge. His recklessness is too much of a liability to the whole war effort.
After the emperor of the Raalgon empire is assassinated a war breaks out, ostensibly endorsed by their new empress, Azalyn.
Due to sheer stupidity, Tylor becomes one of the most formidable captains in the force - despite not actually doing anything.

While enjoyable on a light level, The Irresponsible Captain Tylor ultimately seems a waste. Very soon into the series, the Soyokaze receives a demotion. this lasts several long episodes in which we learn that the last crew placed under such conditions committed suicide. This receives a definite "HMMM" from the audience, and the writers really should have known better. Loath as I am to make comparisons, an infinitely better space opera than this is Nadesico - which dedicated only one episode to long, uneventful space travel.

The interesting plot points are intermittent - space opera anime has great scope for giving the motives of the other side consideration. As such, the first two episodes feature extensive scenes with the Raalgon, their power struggle, and their all too "human" empress. This quickly falls to the wayside and we instead receive lazy antics aboard the Soyokaze - such as Tylor being such a great captain that he instructs his crew to mutiny!

The only real potential plot point granted in any significant capacity is the Raalgon spy Harumi, who gradually warms to Tylor. The plotting is so clumsy that, apropos of nothing, Haruka thinks to herself "I am an android, and can not understand their human feelings." This is a big moment of what? because until this time Harumi had only been established as a Raalgon. It wasn't even geared as a revelation, but rather simply tossed in as part of an internal monologue. Such club-footed plotting is really a huge black cloud over this series.

Part of the alleged "lore" of criticism is to analyse something by how well it exemplifies the genre it represents. Now, The Irresponsible Captain Tylor is a terrible space opera - with what amounts to two battles and incredibly befuddling politics. It doesn't even have the saving grace of being a subversive example of space opera. No, it's just a rather pointless example of whatever the heck it's supposed to be.
Quite simply, the war sucks. Azalyn quickly falls in love with Tylor, whom she infuriatingly refers to as "Paco-Paco". So, while it's clear why the UPSF is fighting a war, there's no real motives behind the Raalgon short of the fact that their prime minister is a bastard.
War anime should include at least some sort of comment on militarism, and there's a little of that here - presented in a way that you might expect to be interesting. Mifune and Fuji are the two characters representing the UPSF, and Mifune is seen everywhere with a katana. He always tries to use it against Tylor or anyone who crosses him. This is good. This should have been explored more! Yet these two characters are just angry ciphers. Their opposite number has no real reason for any of his actions other than, as Terry Pratchett might well say, the fact that he has "Grand Vizier" stamped all over him.

More's the pity, because the characters of this series are quite a likeable bunch. Tylor, despite the huge irritation factor, is actually quite likeable. With a touch more competence, he would be excellent. Thing is, Tylor has no clue about what's going on: at one point he is actually heard to remark "What's an asteroid?". The obtuseness of this character is quite frequently enough to make a perfectly sensible person bang their head against a wall. In the 23rd episode, Tylor displays a lot of guts; the 26th episode is, on the whole, a near masterstroke. Yet these two episodes which show all of the characters acting their best do not make up for the pointlessness of the other 24.

Not surprisingly, First Officer Yamamoto is disheartened by the captain who was promoted ahead of him; the totally excellent Sho Hayami plays against type as an insecure, out of control man who never seems to win. When Yamamoto sees the true genius of Tylor at work, some quite funny stuff is invoked. However, all too often, Yamamoto is overcome when he realises that Tylor has no idea what he's doing. His other true highlight is the time when he's allowed to show no tact (although, given other plot points at the time, it makes no sense that he would be able to say such things).
Lieutenant Yuriko Star is the third main member of the bridge crew. Her reasons for joining the military are actually quite interesting, although the phrase "stuck up" comes to mind far too often. The most disappointing part of the series comes when there is an episode where literally every woman aboard the Soyokaze comes to Tylor's quarters to confess their love. This was purely tasteless harem work, and not funny in the slightest.

The other important main character is Harumi. If it were not for the whole stupid "I'm an android!" thing just popping up, her development would have sat rather better. All of the support crew on the Soyokaze receive very little to do; the marines are despatched once, and what's the point of a ship that has only one fighter? It's expanded later on to three overall, but they don't do a thing! Not a thing in the course of a whole war!
Of the Raalgon, only Dom and Azalyn get any real screen time; Dom is admirable in his own way, and Azalyn does not understand what's going on around her. She's far too impressionable. And if you're friends with the enemy fleet, why have a war, huh?! Why have a war?! At this point, you really get the impression that The Irresponsible Captain Tylor should really be something else - like the corporate comedy it homages.

Production wise, The Irresponsible Captain Tylor was really ahead of the game for 1993. The character designs are generally high on the polish, although sometimes Yuriko looks a bit like a bird. Azalyn succumbs to the traditional headdress to suggest her alien nature, and for whatever reason the rest of the Raalgon don vaguely middle-Eastern garb. The animation would be impressive if it were that there was anything impressive to animate. As it is, it simply looks nice without much meaning. You would expect that a series beginning with fan service enticing people to join the army would be more enjoyable, but alas! The initial Macross feel is explained by the fact that this is a Big West and Tatsunoko production, but that mood fades very quickly.
The OP and ED are by Sasaki Mari. They're very nice songs that set a nicer tone for the series than what it it ended up with, even though for whatever bizarre reason Sasaki is actually digitised into the OP animation singing along. The body of the series' music is by Kawai Kenji, though you could hardly tell it. There's some good stuff here, particularly Yamamoto's theme, but it's largely unmemorable and not some of Kawai's better work.

The Irresponsible Captain Tylor isn't terrible anime, it just seems largely irrelevant. It does not work as either an episodic or serial program. It is inoffensive to watch but, dependent on your train of thought, it does not really stand up to criticism. There's enough here that would charm the heck out of many a viewer, but this was definitely not my style. My problem is largely that The Irresponsible Captain Tylor is not near that which it could have been - it simply does not add up.

Blue Gender

2004-12-13T09:15:00.000+11:00

The future is an awful, bleak and horrible place. That's what people who go to sleep learn upon waking up some years later. Unfortunately for them, they can't turn over and say "I couldn't eat another thing" and have to face up to reality. Kaido Yuji learns just that in the 2031 offered in Blue Gender.

In 2009, a new disease is starting to break out on Earth. Because this disease is incurable by modern scientific technology, those infected are put into stasis. In 2031, Kaido Yuji is accidentally wakened at his medical facility to find that horrible bug like creatures, known as blue, have taken over the planet. The blue can eat any matter, organic or inorganic and they roll humans up into green dumplings. Needless to say, Yuji isn't happy at this turn of events. The marines have come to take the "Sleepers" to Second Earth, the space station that is the only place truly safe from the blue.
Yuji accompanies Marlene Angel and a crew of largely expendable marines on their quest to get back into space - but he might not like what's waiting for him there either.

Blue Gender is, quite simply, brutal. Some of the time it's hard to believe that this was shown on Japanese television. The sheer amount of bloody deaths alone would never have made it past the censor in the good old days. The substantially high sexual content is also an eye opener - they showed nipples on TV, damnit! But Blue Gender is brutal in its story telling, as well. The characters who die, they're kind of important characters. With two obvious exceptions, anyone in Blue Gender can, and almost certainly will, not live until the end - so don't get too attached to them.

The attitude of the future, not surprisingly, stinks. When Yuji meets Marlene, she is cold, dedicated only to the mission. Yuji is a terrible soldier, because he does not want to put the people grounded on Earth in danger. However, they come to learn from their survival on a planet gone mad!™ that they need to rely on each other and that empathy is not a sign of weakness. The biggest problem in the series is when the couple seem to undergo a character transfusion, with Yuji becoming blood thirsty and Marlene becoming excessively gentle. This is an extremely frustrating problem but is satisfactorily explained by story developments. It just takes a while to get there, in which time hopefully the show has not lost viewers.

Never before has there been a series with such blunt, emotionless sexuality. The characters take an almost Brave New World type approach to sex, just as something to do. In the second episode, before their gruesome deaths, one of Marlene's unit is giving a report, when a male staff member comes up from behind, feels her up and starts undressing her. This, and further sexual activity on Earth, makes sense amongst the dead-eyed hopelessness of the environment. Then you get to space and there's what amounts to a "sex factory" - the pipe systems of Second Earth are literally infested with couples going at it. You would think this is a district, but then there's a lounge where people are publicly fornicating and popping small pills, like soma, to enhance the experience. For this reason it is very important to track the development of the relationship of Marlene and Yuji. This is the series' gentle point: hard romance is never emphasised, and the bond between the two develops almost naturally. While this series has an extensive amount of sexual content, there is no way it could be described as sexually charged. This is pure anti-service, and is actually quite commendable.

The suspense and thrill could have been saved more effectively had Blue Gender been given a 13 episode season - because it is Marlene and Yuji's time on Earth that makes it so captivating. Anything after that really can't hope to compare, but it remains eminently watchable regardless. Admittedly, the shift in storyline also leads to the inclusion of the stupidest looking creature ever, and that might have something to do with feelings of increased sourness.

This anime is from 1999, and is another early AIC foray into digital animation. While it is clear that they improved in the year since the near-unwatchable Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, this anime still suffers some weird off-model shots and a general lack of diversity in colour. The dull, uniform shades used for the blue give the project rather less of the gritty feel that everything else about this series gives off. Marlene is generally attractive, but ... look at Yuji's hair. He has monstrous sideburns, which must be because 2009 will have tasteless fashions. Otherwise, the series leans towards being attractive and the action frequently takes place at literally break-neck speeds.

Kuwashima Houko proves her excellent, diverse abilities once more in her performance as Marlene (suspiciously credited in the first six episodes as Kuwashima Norika). It is increasingly difficult to believe that Kuwashima began her career as the superbly bubbly Yurika in Nadesico. Somehow she has become shoe-horned into the sullen, untalkative girl role, but she can play so many different sorts of characters, and Marlene is a strong example.
Nojima Kenji performs well as the terrified Yuji of the early days, and less so as the arrogant bastard Yuji that springs up later. For obvious reasons, of course.
Kuwashima also performs the OP and ED, and what a rocking OP "Tokihanate!" turned out to be. It sets a perfect standard for the series, and just quietly, a perfect ending. "Tokihanate!" embodies the spirit of Blue Gender.

Blue Gender is strong anime that completely rocks in its initial story arc, and entertains consistently thereafter. The series is not so much about character as it is about human nature, and it tackles this issue very well. The digital animation may be dodgy at times, but the theory and execution are sound - and the ending is a killer. The graphic frankness of Blue Gender sets it apart from many others and makes it well worth watching.

FLCL

2004-12-12T17:22:00.000+11:00

Nowadays an OVA has to either be whacked out or part of an established franchise to make it in the world.

The seminal digital work of GAiNAX, FLCL is director Tsurumaki Kazuya's disturbed brain child. Naota lives in the small town of Mabase, where nothing ever happens. One quiet day Haruko, an alien on a vespa, hits him with a bass guitar, causing robots to spring forth from his head.
Despite Haruko moving in as his housekeeper, despite living with a robot named for the god of fire and destruction, despite having to destroy those loathsome robots ... Naota is still convinced that nothing ever happens in his town.

FLCL is guaranteed to make its audiences either cackle with glee or scream "Argh! My brain!"
Naota's family life is taken up largely by obscure cultural references, dialogue obtuse even for anime. Compared to the manic dining room sequences the rest of the series seems remarkably placid by comparison. That's really saying something.
Over six episodes, Naota plays baseball, cracks an arson mystery and resists portraying Puss in Boots while helping the class president come to terms with her parent's impending divorce. All the while, he grows up, and everything proceeds to wrap quickly in the last ten minutes.

Being as the stories could be said to not make a lot of sense on the whole, Tsurumaki has placed a lot of importance on character. The four leads are excellent characters, although Canti never speaks. Most of the other characters simply spout whatever comes to mind - with one of Naota's friends immortalised by his inane "chuu!" chatter - but the four leads are linked perfectly to one another.

Naota is about twelve years old, and underneath his blue parka it is revealed that his cynicism masks his insecurity: no mother; his brother gone to America - which may as well be another planet; and a weird as all get out father. Naota professes to be bored by all that befalls him, and annoyed by Haruko.
That's the thing about Haruko; behind that nasal voice she is immensely likeable. Detective Amarao warns that she is intensely selfish, but it is hard to hold this against her. The only real problem Haruko brings to Naota's life is her displacement of Mamimi.
Mamimi, allegedly the girlfriend of Naota's brother before his departure, turns to Naota because she has no one else. Mamimi is a drifter, a fire starter who worships the dark gods made popular by modern culture. She is what society might dub a "trouble teen". Mamimi is always looking for a way to fill the void in her life. More than Naota, more than the cat Takkun, she relies on Canti.
Canti is silent for the duration of FLCL, yet he has an incredible amount of character. Adding to this craftiness is the fact that he doesn't even have a face. The question is, is Cantido-sama a doll for the characters to project their desires onto or a compassionate, caring, understanding being? One needs only see the second episode to understand the Christ-like imagery he is endowed with - yet "real" religions never get a say in this series.

So, behind the artifice (of which there is quite a lot), FLCL is about human nature and the desire not to be left alone. The changes undergone by Naota are an excellent selling point for the series; the character he has become by episode five is particularly compelling: he has become more human, more caring, but he is still twelve years old and has some wrong ideas about what is right. Yet, despite all of Naota's development, very little seems to change around him. With the possible exception of Mamimi, everyone else retains character for a full six episodes.
People are fundamentally people (or aliens, who are the same as people but dress a little differently), and so they shall remain in FLCL.

The animation in FLCL is noteworthy because it takes the hallmarks of bad digital animation - inconsistent character models, dull and flat colours - and wears them as a badge of pride. Tsurumaki sometimes sees to it that he doesn't so uch animate as he creates a series of furiously moving scribbles.
The colour design matches Naota's mood: Mabase is rendered in muted shades of yellow by daylight, creating the illusion of a quiet town untouched by interesting events. The giant metal on the hill blends in perfectly, as if it would not be an unusual or unwelcome sight.
The characters are similarly designed. By rights Haruko really should have blazing pink hair, but she has a much softer shade than one might expect. Her pale yellow eyes are also quite reserved. Combine this with the very soft lines used to render the characters and you get something ethereal and not near as vibrant as should be the case.
The only vibrancy comes from the transformed Canti - it seems counter intuitive, but the washed out pallet of FLCL somehow works perfectly.

The music is another stand out aspect of the FLCL experience. All of it is taken from the band the pillows, who sing excellent songs about grungy hamsters. While some of their songs are overplayed ("Little Busters" springs immediately to mind), there are some true J-rock classics here. The "Hybrid Rainbow" sequence is good enough to send a shiver down anyone's spine.
The actors are almost uniformly from stage backgrounds, and are really quite subversive for anime. Mamimi and Haruko both boast incredibly nasal voices that you would never normally associate with Japanese animation. However, they do quite a good job of it. The cast may not be "classically trained" for voice acting, but they succeed in bringing their characters to life - especially with the speeds they sometimes have to accomplish these feats in.

FLCL is hard work, and one could not be blamed for expecting more drama, but it's well worth it.

Puni Puni Poemy

2004-12-04T11:17:00.000+11:00

Director Watanabe Shinichi, more commonly known as Nabeshin, created the ultimate mixed bag in 1999's Excel Saga. More often shrill than hilarious, it was a frequently wearying series. Two years afterwards, Nabeshin followed up on the threat that he made in the series and spun Excel Saga off into the two part OVA Puni Puni Poemy.
In some ways, he's more successful.

Aspiring seiyuu Watanabe Poemi, daughter of Excel Saga's Nabeshin and Kumikumi, returns from school one day to find her parents have been killed by aliens or something. She then throws herself on the mercy of the Aasu sisters, and through an amazing twist of fate (a man tuning a shamisen) Poemi is given a fish that can be gutted in order to transform herself into magical girl Puni Puni Poemy!
... right.

Puni Puni Poemy is full of randomness, but it generally makes some sort of sense. I believe that it works better than Excel Saga because it has focus and it doesn't have a main character who just says random things. Poemy does spout many things out of her mouth, but they almost always have to do with the situation at hand. Now, this style of show could not be kept up for 26 episodes - lord knows Nabeshin has tried before - but at a lean two there are very few problems. Kuroda and the characters acknowledge that they're not going for anything serious or with real meaning behind it.

In addition to the "subtle" lesbian subtext between Poemy and Futaba, there is an abundance of side characters who probably have something to do with some obsession but it's not entirely clear. The Aasu sisters are a family of seven, between the ages of 28 and three, and they have no parents to speak of.
The purpose of having seven support characters is made clear in the second episode, when they're all used for the purposes of exploiting pretty much every fetish prevalent in anime and hentai back in 2001. Of course, huge boobs are universal, but characters being too stupid to realise that they should wear a bra and button their shirt to relieve the pain caused is not.

Puni Puni Poemy is an ADV property, and they've done something quite similar to their treatment of Excel Saga. While generally there's little to complain about in regards to ADV, they sometimes have a tendency to go for overly crass translations, possibly in order to convey attitude. Some of the crudities and vulgarities that Poemy spouts courtesy of them are really too much and not even real words. Has anyone outside of Beavis & Butthead ever actually used the word "bunghole" in conversation? It is not a cool word to translate from ketsu, when there are so many other nicer, more acceptable words for the posterior. Stuff like this puts a little bit of a damper on the whole experience.

Perhaps some of Puni Puni Poemy's success is grounded in the work of screenwriter Kuroda Yosuke, who also wrote the totally excellent Pretty Sammy OVA and TV series. Writing magical girl parody clearly comes naturally to him, and he's got everything downpat, as well as throwing in some extraneous things for the hell of it.
Now, the cynic's corner: Masuda Toshio's music is entirely lifted from Excel Saga, with the exception of a new OP and ED and two sequences which directly cloned Macross' march of war and Star Wars' imperial death march. This comes across as incredibly lazy.

The second act of cynicism is that there's only one real reason to have so many damned characters: to bring in the seiyuu as drawcards. Poemy is played by Kobayashi Yumiko, who sang the OP & ED for Excel Saga, but the Aasu sisters are a galaxy of stars from Mitsuishi "Feel the pain" Kotono to Hisakawa "Why do I have an accent?" Aya. So the first cynical act is to save money and the second is to make money. At least it's not the sort of thing that Nabeshin would lie about; the characters frequently acknowledge the constant pandering of the camera.
Too bad, then, that the fan service sucks overall. It's a wasted opportunity for an OVA - mass bathing scenes wherein nothing is revealed. That sort of fan service is really losing its lustre in this day and age, wherein nipples are now visible on TV anime. What a strange and exotic world we live in.

Puni Puni Poemy is largely pointless, but it's also a bit of fun. Perhaps the reason it is more enjoyable than Excel Saga is simply because it's one thirteenth the length.

GTO - episodes 29 to 43

2004-12-02T13:46:00.000+11:00

GTO has the perfect ending; that is, one that makes you miss the series afterwards.

Onizuka is truly an amazing character in the degree that he cares for his students. Even when one extorts him, he simply will not have them punished but rather take responsibility and solve everything. Somehow, when this blonde 22 year old does it, it does not seem like stupid pride. Onizuka has luck on his side, but not dumb luck, and although he quite clearly does not know what he's doing a lot of the time he's good at pretending he does.
So, ultimately, Onizuka made the series. This sort of character can be frustrating, but remarkably the teacher was not. His refusal to sell out anyone, and to gain their trust was admirable. He was in many ways Fujisawa's antidote for the education system: tired teachers who resent their students.

As the students get closer to their trip to Okinawa, there's another abhorrent episode in which Fuyutsuki tries to make herself over and ends up ganguro. During it, and at the end, the only response it provokes is "why?". Normally I'd be all for an episode devoted almost exclusively to breasts, but not here.
Another episode that's silly, but still works, is the one in which Onizuka takes on the "yakuza". What makes it really funny, though, is that the contraband gold in this episode has "gold" written on it, and likewise the bomb. At the time I thought it was an over the top "realistic" episode, and I took the bait totally. GTO is probably custom made for these sorts of moments.

Uehara, the first female student to cause trouble for Onizuka, returns to the stories and at first she's so different that I didn't actually recognise her. When Miyabi does not go to Okinawa, it initially feels like the writers are disappointingly using Uehara as a substitute. Fortunately enough, she gets to come into herself, and Onizuka turns her heart. He's so damned good at that it's surprising that he doesn't have his own nude transformation sequence (surprising? Yes. Unfortunate? ... not in the slightest).

The character afforded the most growth, particularly by comparison to her late arrival, is Kanzaki. She teamed up with Kikuchi, and they made for a dynamic pair. Kanzaki is also notable because over the course of twenty episodes, she incited not one but two snakes to bite Onizuka's crotch. It's this sort of material that makes for big insane comedy, and it works because it is so very base. GTO aims for the higher brow some of the time, but it is quite happy at home among the jokes that get laughs based on universality.
Fujiyoshi, one of Murai's two friends, is actually allowed his own drama, which comes on very strong. For so long he had been just a fellow to talk to Onizuka and not do much else, but when he was involved in a plot he became much more engaging - one of the few characters to show their home life. Yoshikawa is also allowed back into the fold after many episodes wherein he was in the background, not quite shunned but no longer important. When Onizuka assembled his ultimate team of student friends, the dynamic was really quite enjoyable to watch.

And, while for the most part this anime deals with realistic if exaggerated situations (although Onizuka does survive a nuclear blast - "it's called an unexploded bomb because it doesn't explode), there's one episode which ends with total nonsense: damn near the funniest thing of the year. Finally, any anime that recreates, frame for frame, Sadako's video from Ring has to be a surefire winner.

The final story arc is told efficiently in two episodes, and Onizuka proves himself to be the greatest man alive - and even Uchiyamada begins to see the true values of teaching once more. The actual incident that the episode is based around is actually quite disturbing if you consider the ages of the characters involved, but the story doesn't dwell on it and so the viewer does not really get the chance either. It provides a nice close to the series, and lets Onizuka play it cool.

True, there's unfinished storylines; the stalker still has an obsession with Fuyutsuki, for instance - but Onizuka can't solve all of the world's problems. GTO was frequently hilarious, with only one real dud storyline and genuinely lovable characters. It's a beautiful journey, really.

Teacher ... banzai.

Magic User's Club OVA

2004-11-28T11:47:00.000+11:00

Nosebleeds and magic finally join forces to create 1996's six episode OVA Magic User's Club.

Magic User's Club is about a "Bell" that descends from space. Earth attacks it, so it decimates their forces. As long as Earth does nothing, the Bell will conquer the planet without hurting anyone. Things continue like this until Takakura Takeo, president of the Magic Users' Club at his high school, decides to take action. He's just blustering to impress the girls, but they take him seriously. However, because of the club's opening gambit, the agents of the Bell take an interest in magic and set out to analyse it. Therefore, the Magic Users' Club actually does have to stand up and face the alien threat. What is really surprising is the ability of director Sato Junichi to balance the plot perfectly with the characters.

The Bell threat is a definite source of confusion; these aliens don't say anything, and it is uncertain whether they are actual aliens because their designs are as far from organic as you can get. The silence that accompanies these creatures, whatever they may be, gives a different feel to the science fiction in which aliens discuss what they're doing to humans. Sato's approach is to sometimes show what the Bell's eyes see. While this shows their calculating way and provides some insight into what they are, it also gives a little bit of service because it strips the characters of the clothes. Basically, something for everyone.

As president, Takakura has to face up to many things; Miyama, the girl who made his life hell in childhood is president of the much more successful manga club, and has grown up to have ample cleavage and a team of servants. Try as he might, he is still under her thumb. Takakura's desire to make something of the club is almost certainly a direct result of all of Miyama's bullying, as is his lack of self esteem. However, Takakura refuses to live completely in her shadow and has an active fantasy life that is provoked by any little bit of service that he sees. Takakura is a very frequent nosebleeder, and is nowhere near as pathetic as he might sound. His dedication to the club and its members, and his gentle humour of Aburatsubo makes him a very nice character.

Sae is the true heroine of this anime, because it has always got to be a girl in these things. Sae has no self confidence, which is a great pity, because she is the most magically talented of all of the characters. This is just how these things go. One of the series highlights is watching Sae trying to come to terms with her ability and trying to rely less upon her magic bear, Jeff-kun. The sweetest moment comes at the end of the beach episode (because, yes, there is indeed a beach episode on offer here), which almost brought a tear to the eye.

Magic User's Club is anime that has a fair amount of focus, that doubles as a romance in which everyone except the club's ko-gal is in love with everyone else.
This romance would be fairly standard were it not for Aburatsubo. Aburatsubo is the club's vice president and only gay member. He has romantic designs on Takakura, who is aware of the advances but ignores them. Outside of yaoi, homosexual characters are relatively silent or make a couple of cute remarks about one of the other men and not much else. A large problem with writing homosexual characters is that their sexuality can come dangerously close to being their only personality trait. While this is something very strong in Aburatsubo, he is written with actual emotions. Some analyses of Japanese life see something tragic about the pursuit of yaoi, and while Aburatsubo does have a doomed love he is strong enough to overcome it. Consequently, Aburatsubo is more than just a cheap laugh and brings something fresh to a love story between two shy magicians.

The character design and general animation are very nice to look at, but this was made in 1995 and there are a few failed experiments in CG - this is some of the ugliest computer generated stuff ever included in anime. It takes up only the tiniest portion of screen time and so is forgiveable, but it's interesting to note that GONZO's Maeda Mahiro was behind the mechanical designs.
Impressively the space scene plays without any sound at at all; because this isn't anime crammed with dogfights, the scenes outside of the atmosphere can afford to be physically accurate. Of course, because it's unexpected and the first thing featured, viewers may fear that their sound equipment has imploded.
Voice acting is of a very high standard, with tragic beauty of the nineties Konishi Hiroko providing brilliant work as Sae and Onosaka Masaya putting in one of his marvellously flustered performances as Takakura. The support cast is also very strong, with Koyasu Takehito in the part he was born to play as Aburatsubo, and other sweet young things of the era Iizuka Mayumi and Iwao Junko lending their talents as Nanaka and Akane respectively.

This is a nice, sweet OVA. Despite its godawful CG, it has some very attractive cell work. Gently romantic, with many fantasy sequences, a little bit of fan service and a character whose boobs precede her, Magic User's Club is a lot of fun to watch.

Tokyo Babylon

2004-11-25T23:00:00.000+11:00

Tokyo Babylon is what I call "anime without a net". In Japan, these sorts of OVA are supported by long running manga, and fans need little or no explanation of who the characters are or just what's going on. The problem with this, of course, is that the related properties are not necessarily available in other countries. In the case of Tokyo Babylon, people who stick almost exclusively to anime can glean more from X - but it took eight years to get that far.

Sumeragi Subaru is a medium. Occasionally he is hired by people to "psychically investigate" various cases, be they helping widows come to terms with their loss or, in the case of these OVAs, working with the police to assist with their inquries.
In the first episode, Subaru is asked to look into a curse and if it is possible that a man could be blessed with such luck that he could deliberately insert himself into life threatening situations, leaving all but him dead. In the second, Subaru is witness to a murder on a train. Involved in the case is a post-cognitive woman who can see the past through touch. Feeling sympathy for her, he can't help coming to know her personally as well as professionally.

Tokyo Babylon has interesting ideas, post-cognition in particular, but it suffers through a lack of any real context. Subaru lives by himself, but he frequently visits his friend Seishiro another psychic who doubles as a vet. His sister, Hokuto, doesn't live with him but is always at his house. She doesn't get up to much other than wearing some creative clothes.
Who are these characters and what are they doing here? This stuff is probably great for a pre-existing fan base, but well, it's a void for those not in the know.
Subaru is one of those weak characters who equates misplaced mercy with strength. Someone who has killed so many people over a ten year period does not deserve to be attacked less than wholeheartedly, yet Subaru refuses to cut loose. The real reason that Seishiro is included appears to be to bail Subaru out through his use of amazing cryptic powers. Again, this is material that might make more sense in the context of X - perhaps seeing Subaru optimistic and relatively happy is good for contrasting. Only time will tell in this case.

On reflection, the stories are told in a rather disjointed fashion - seemingly unrelated scenes are simply thrown in so that later on they can be tied to the main plot. While in mysteries it's expected to turn minor points into integral parts of the whole, here they're inserted with very little coherence. When scenes are just laid upon scenes, it seems more than a little lazy. The way that these scenes here were integrated was also a "spoiler", which although obvious ruined a lot of potential tension.
However the theories are sound, despite the backgrounds and characters they are painted upon being less well realised.

This is a fairly drab production. The music is sparse, and there is a truly horrible Engrish song by Matsuoka Yoshiaki. Two, in fact, but they sound so terribly alike that there's no way to distinguish between them. Matsuoka, in an amazing coup, wrote, composed and sang both Kiss Kiss and Strawberry Kiss Kiss. Whatever there is good about this anime is almost cancelled out by this train wreck of a song, way out of date in 1994.
Takahashi Kumiko converted the character designs for animation, but not as successfully as she did later for Cardcaptor Sakura. Subaru looks almost exactly the same as Hokuto and wears some highly questionable tight clothes. In the second episode, two other characters are nearly indistinguishable, which becomes quite confusing.
That said, Tokyo Babylon is not entirely without visual flair. The showdown between Subaru and Nagumo in the first episode has some innovative action ideas, and the second is definitely more polished. The colour scheme is fairly uninspired, however, and it's not as nice to watch as it could be.
Yamaguchi Kappei is uncharacteristically placid as Subaru, Takehito Koyasu his usual smooth self as Seishiro and Itou Miki loud and embarrassing (accurately so) as Hokuto.

Tokyo Babylon by itself is cryptic on a not quite impenetrable level. Watching X might shed some light on this as an interesting character study, but this anime is not recommended as stand-alone viewing.

GTO - episodes 7 to 29

2004-11-23T18:30:00.000+11:00

Great Teacher Onizuka takes some decidedly interesting turns through these episodes. There are a few story arcs, and there's plenty of room for disturbances - and also quite a few abandonments of ideas.

The first important thing to note is that the majority of Onizuka's class don't mind him. In fact, once he gets the ones that matter onside, he doesn't mind anymore either. With the exception of Mitsuishi Kotono's insufferable genius character Kanzaki later on, Onizuka stops at winning over Murai, the blonde with a mother-complex.
Onizuka knows how to get along with his students because, as bed & breakfast owner Kizaki tells fellow teacher Fuyutsuki, he approaches them on their own level. This way of interaction is a large part of what makes the series so enjoyable, but sometimes Onizuka definitely overdoes it. There are so many times when he kind-of-but-not-really encourages people to give up living. Damn him and his reverse psychology!
This sometimes works cool, but other times works against him. With a forty strong class, Onizuka seems to have a rotating system of students who hang out with him. Murai is always about but his original friend, Yoshikawa, is largely relegated to the curb. It seems a little unfair.

There are events in episodes that don't always make sense, chief among them being the time when police with nets chased down Uchiyamada in a gorilla suit. This was a good dramatic scene, but it simply lacked coherence. Uchiyamada is such a tragic character. All of his problems clearly spring from his home life, where he is so outmoded in his treatment of his family that they refuse to respect or obey him. I hope that Onizuka's way will eventually reform the man, because he needs to become motivated in life and learn what it is to be a teacher. Uchiyamada must have had a reason to become an educator, but it appears that he has lost sight of just exactly what it was.

Among the best new characters is Kanzaki Urumi, the blonde genius with multicoloured eyes. She's voiced by Mitsuishi Kotono, a performance that is sometimes a bit too sharp but others right on. She probably should have aimed at her softer voice for this character. The scenes of her past were amongst the highest drama that GTO has produced so far, and her reform was Onizuka's most ambitious yet. This sort of character, being allowed to cut a bit loose, is the sort of inspirational stuff people like to see in anime. Better still is the way that Kanzaki stands up to the irredeemable bitches of the school.

They certainly are irredeemable, with Aizawa Miyabi (and her two sidekicks) featured prominently as the only students against Onizuka. In the episode where Onizuka believes he has cancer, pulled off well dramatically despite the knowledge that he obviously isn't cancerous, she laughs at his impending death. This seems really, really petty and mean and it's hard to believe that they could do that. You would have thought that from Onizuka's idol making efforts with Tomoko that Miyabi would have learned - because that was another well produced scene - but Fujisawa was probably being a little pragmatic and realised that not everyone could change their character.

The worst part of all of these episodes is undoubtedly the stalker storyline. This features a pyschotic maths teacher who is obsessed with Fuyutsuki, and is made to lick the feet of the student he tutors. The scenes here are not laughable at all - although that's dependent on who's watching. Four episodes of disturbance is what this amounts to. While it's funny that Onizuka attempts to steal the G3 that I had before this G4 I'm typing on, Teshigawara's rampage is decidedly not. Terrible taste in the mouth, and it's not helped by the fact that when Onizuka overcomes the challenges of this arc, no resolution is given to this maths teacher.

Artistically, there are moments when cheap digital animation is substituted for cels. These scenes are really quite ugly, and they crop up every few episodes. Five years ago, digital animation wasn't exactly inspired, and this really hurts GTO's real work appeal. The second OP is entirely digital and it doesn't look as cool as the first - Onizuka seeming slightly off model. This is unfortunate, as it's a nice sentiment expressed.

Still, GTO is highly watchable. I just wish they'd make Engrish teacher Sakurada shut up.

GTO - episodes 1 to 6

2004-11-16T18:34:00.000+11:00

Comedy is funny. This is the lesson that GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka teaches us. There are some other things that can be learned about society and schools, but comedy is the key.

Onizuka Eikichi, 22 years old, is an ex-biker who wishes to be a high-school teacher. After passing the student-teaching period, he goes on to win a place at a private school teaching the biggest problem class in its history. Over the course of these six episodes, Onizuka reacts to blackmail, foils two suicide attempts, uncovers a photoshopping circle and is called before the PTA. That's not even counting all of the Crestas he goes through.

GTO is a comedy about one man who wants to come good, and also to marry a sixteen year old at age forty. These two objectives seem to clash initially, and soon enough Onizuka realises that his second plan is not entirely practical. Thereafter he aims to make school fun, but not in any lousy patronising way: despite his class being full of delinquents, Onizuka takes it in his stride, and vows never to tell his students that they are no good. Basically Onizuka had a rough time of it in high school and does not want it to be the same for anyone else.
So while Onizuka has his comedic moments with night-time exorcisms and bathing in hallway sinks, he also deals with very serious issues such as bullying and sexual blackmail and Playstation games. Onizuka is an excellent character because he makes hilarious faces with great frequency, as well as knowing exactly what to do ... eventually.

Onizuka even has a nemesis, Vice Principal Uchiyamada - whom he met in a lecherous incident on the bus. Uchiyamada is a fantastic character for laughing at, and his constant failures are the source of much levity. However, the writers have made none of this cruel. Somehow, despite his homicidal wishes towards Onizuka's career, the Vice Principal is sympathetic. His home life is shown from time to time, and all of his actions can be seen to spring from there. This adds an extra depth to what would have been pretty damned funny itself gains another layer because it can be understood.

This series is full of vital social issues, and Onizuka is a reformed character who won't doubt the power of redemption. The problem here is that some of these characters do things so bad that they don't seem redeemable - perhaps this is proof that Onizuka is a better man than I. The school life is shown as a scene that does indeed have a darker side, including the rarely discussed notion of female bullies (as in girls that actually beat up guys). GTO is definitely interesting for anyone who has recently been through the school system. Or maybe it's always been like this and will have universal appeal. That's entirely possible. Whether funny or ponderous, this series is always worth watching.

The cast is great, with Takagi Wataru kicking total arse as Onizuka. The ultimate proof of this is his "Terror Shumai" story delivery, which shows beyond doubt that he is perfect for the role. Nagashima Yuichi is marvellous as the eternally-suffering Uchiyamada, bringing a boundless vitality and an unequalled energy for meaningless rambling. The rest of the cast is filled out by some fairly big names and some obscure ones as well, but they are all enjoying their work and bring Holy Forest Academy to life.
Onizuka refers to himself always in the third person: "Onizuka Eikichi, 22 years old". This is not quite translated in TOKYOPOP's subtitles, and the dub changes Uchiyamada's motives to something more selfish. It's a pity, but everything else is good.
The production is cheap, but not in a bad way. From 1999, GTO was made at the turning point from celwork to digital. The OP is digital with some CG thrown in along the way, but the body of the episodes is made up almost entirely of cels. The traditional money saving techniques of sweat drops and stupid faces are all over the place, and bring a lot of character to proceedings. The general energy of the production makes any poor animation unnoticeable and ultimately negligible.

GTO is great - it's episodic yet each episode leads into the next. It's one big story of excellent school life. Onizuka definitely makes school fun. By not actually seeing what he teaches, you can't judge him by his technique in that regard. But to make his students laugh with him and respect him Onizuka Eikichi, 22 years old, is doing a great job.

Kurogane Communication - episodes 17 to 24

2004-11-15T20:48:00.000+11:00

Kurogane Communication pulls it all off for the grand finale and even promotes a few tears.

These eight episodes feature with the other "only human left on Earth" at the fore. While Haruka is a good character, Kanato has had a much harder life. This makes it excellent for the two of them to interact. Kanato is not simply a character whose rude exterior hides a heart of gold, but rather a character who has had his heart of gold tarnished and needs to understand many things that have not been available to him due to his different, cold upbringing.
So the last third of the series is about their relationship and coming to some sort of agreement about choosing to accept others. There are some great cliffhangers, some good feelings of pain, and a couple more of the really creepy scenes driven by literal thinking.
To say much more would be spoiling, and that wouldn't be fun - this is a very well developed series that eventually got to use all of its characters and more.

The artistry involved in the making of this show was quite amazing. There are moments of fluidity where one might not have expected them, and there is some creative visualisation. Kanato's nightmare is particularly impressive, particularly with its contrasts to reality, and so too is one of the most emotional monologues in the series (delivered by Sakuma Rei) conveyed perfectly.
There are a few low-budget gags along the lines of sweatdrops, that are kind of out of place among the general straight nature of the rest of the material, but they do not detract from any enjoyment.

Kurogane Communication is a big surprise of an anime, and that is a huge part of its appeal - coming into it, it still feels like something you've not seen before, even if you think you know what to expect.

Kurogane Communication - episodes 9 to 16

2004-11-14T11:38:00.000+11:00

The best kind of anime is the sort that starts off nice but then, around the halfway point, starts kicking some serious arse. You may not have expected it, but Kurogane Communication does precisely that.

After the whole "holiday at the beach" thing has been exhausted, the robots learn that their area is in danger of being hit by a tsunami, while Haruka learns of her past. Regardless of any misgivings, they have to escape before disaster strikes, so they hijack an old warship and find new land.

The layers upon layers of drama here are fairly impressive. The ten minute episode thing makes for many surprise endings and, now that there's very little slice of life material, a cracking pace. Brevity is key in making Kurogane Communication compelling.
Haruka's character drama hits its peak when she learns the horrifying truth of her past. When it's foreshadowed, it's horrible enough - however, Haruka actually witnessed it and learns that perhaps there was a reason she didn't have a memory. These scenes were really quite distressing, and even provoked the "you're a robot, you wouldn't understand" argument. Considering how much Haruka loves her surrogate family, you would have to imagine that she's been pushed pretty horribly. The performances of Horie Yui and Ishikawa Hiromi in this episode were fantastic - although it is beginning to come clear that synch was sacrificed as a result.

Angela, the duelling robot reformed from hating humans, is clearly warming to Haruka - even to the point of bathing with her. Being the only female influence that Haruka has around, it's natural that she would want to be friendly. By opening her own heart to Angela, Haruka is making Angela more open and caring herself. Angela would even kill a man who threatens Haruka in any way, which is really saying quite a lot. Any of Angela's scenes are guaranteed to be interesting. Gruff characters can stay gruff forever, but Angela is not like that. She's even willing to be violent against Trigger for saying stupid things. The ultimate sign of her "humanity" as a robot is that she blushes. Fantastic.

The incredible theory of a warship that is sick of war, having seen its fellow warship brethren die for humanity, is seen here - and while robots with individual wills is nothing new, a sentient inorganic warship is certainly impressive. While such a life form may not want to hurt a human (being an "intelligence robot"), it certainly does not want to serve them. Humanity is to blame for a lot of things, but Haruka is an ultimately blameless character. What evil could a thirteen year old girl have possibly committed?

There's even a new cast of characters around, but Haruka does not really understand them yet. The dramatic meeting of Haruka and Kanato was well done, moreso because of the inclusion of rain - but Kanato is deliberately closed off and confusing in the messages that he sends. He lives with robots, yet he takes apart all others. It looks like Lillith and Alice are kind of comedy robot twins, and Sone and Honi are designed specifically for mystery. Ohtsuka Akio lends his voice to the chief of defence, so things are looking up.

The writers even have a grasp on robot humour: if it makes no sense, it's funnier. Take, for example, the scene where Trigger is stoking a fire by blowing through a tube. This robot has no mouth, yet breathing into the tube is making him dizzy. It's just like a king non-sequitur. There's not a lot of humour, since the service misunderstandings ended, but what there is is generally good.

Kurogane Communication is also remarkably visually rich. When Haruka gets a vision of war, it sends the blood cold. The action scenes, while sparing, are frequently amazing. To see Angela dodging lasers is genuinely exciting, and the new land is steeped in mysticism that is helped along by Kawai Kenji's growing score. Watching these episodes, it's clear that Kurogane Communication is not what it once was.

Kurogane Communication is an unassuming series that manages to be compelling and dramatic while trying to keep itself a secret. This anime offers a truly immersive world, and some great characters - and even a hot springs scene complete with actual nudity! Needless to say, Kurogane Communication has everything.

Innocence

2004-11-13T15:08:00.000+11:00

Nine years since the release of his hit film Ghost in the Shell, Oshii Mamoru follows with Innocence, which is close to the perfect sequel: it's the second half of a beautiful whole.

Three years after the events of Ghost in the Shell, Togusa has been assigned as Batou's partner. Despite Togusa's misgivings about working in Kusanagi's shadow, they're a strong pairing, and are placed exclusively on the case of a string of sexaroid cyborgs who have been malfunctioning, performing gruesome murders and then "committing suicide".
The case takes them far up north, where they discover a ghost hacker who has abandoned his body ...

Innocence is a mirror of Ghost in the Shell: it shows a different side of the world that is in many ways the opposite of the last. The infusion of technology into humanity and the blurring of the lines between artificial intelligence and genuine individuality was key to the first. Here it's the other way around: the infusion of humanity into lifeless figures.
While a large part of the film is Batou and Togusa driving around, exchanging increasingly unlikely philosophical quotes, there are some incredibly crowd-pleasing moments that never degenerate into simple pandering. Innocence is not a film of "highlights", nor is it one big highlight, but it has a couple of especially amazing scenes amongst all of the just standard great ones.

Despite the near total lack of Kusanagi, Innocence is more of a love film than the first - and because of that it strengthens the themes of its predecessor. Batou is an intensely lonely character. You can see this through his basset hound. The way that he dotes on the dog shows both his humanity and his lack of human contact. Togusa is the other character who is given depth. He fears that he can not live up to the high standards set by Major Kusanagi as Batou's new partner - but this is simply because he underestimates the man. While Togusa is mainly human and Batou is mainly cybernetic physically, they are both very human. The way they play off each other is one of the joys of the film. The ending provides a strong sense of camaraderie and a very different feel to the first. It's not a "buddy cop" movie, by any stretch of the imagination, but these partners are a great team - strengthened by the fact that they're onto a tangible case here.

Technology has been kind in the creation of Innocence: a large part of it is CG work, which plays off the organic nature of Ghost in the Shell versus the more artificial, manufactured world of this film. As with Ghost in the Shell, there is a sequence of pans over the city where Solus Locus is located set to Kawai Kenji's haunting score. The difference is that this sequence is quite clearly "faked". Ghost in the Shell showed real city life, whereas this segment is a festival of make up, masks and illusion.
This scene illustrates the point of the film perfectly: it's about forcing life into that which can only truly be described as humanoid. The characters remain true to their roots; perhaps too true, as Togusa's mullet does him no favours. A perfect coup of design is that the suicide robots are modelled after geisha - a profession that even for humans is about knowing illusion and deception. The blending of CG and hand drawn digital animation is generally well done and the movie is a delight to watch even for those who don't particularly enjoy computer generated work. It is uncertain whether Oshii would have used this much CG on the original film had the technology and budget existed, but it turned out to be very convenient in conveying the message.

Kawai Kenji's score is similarly moody and atmospheric, and the opening music is a sequel in itself - the opening credits are one of the chief examples of polarity: the ancient Japanese song plays over the construction of an android - from the inside. It is important to note that androids and cyborgs are two entirely different things - they are built for opposite reasons and meet in the middle. This is why everything in this film is a twisted version of the first, including the music. Kawai allows some action music to shine through, but he keeps his general moody atmosphere intact.

Such interplay of films, such a contrast of themes, like two anime singing to each other across the void of years: Innocence is a brilliant film. At times it may be as pretentious as that last sentence, but deliberately so - Oshii's characters are quite willing to make fun of themselves and their own eclectic knowledge. Despite one really trippy sequence, Innocence is a brilliant movie. Oshii used all of his skills in his production of this film, and it shows.

Images taken from GITS2, the official North American Innocence website.

Innocence Premiere Sydney

2004-11-07T23:51:00.000+11:00

Madman Director Tim Anderson with site author Alexander Doenau

Tonight at the Valhalla cinema in Glebe, there was a one night only showing of Innocence (Ghost in the Shell 2) at 7pm. This screening was presented by the Japan Foundation and Madman Entertainment, and introduced by director Oshii Mamoru and Production I.G. President Ishikawa Mitsuhisa.

Tim Anderson, director of Madman Entertainment, began by saying that Production I.G. had made many stunning anime that had brought the form to the fore in Australia and the world. While they are promoted chiefly as the animation studio that worked on Kill Bill, they have made many instantly recognisable landmark anime. Tim said that he was looking forward to seeing Innocence as he had yet to see it himself.

The director of the Japan Foundation came up yet and said that anime was a great way to spread awareness of "the contemporary way of Japanese thought" and hoped that the audience would find it enjoyable and a fine example of culture.

Oshii Mamoru himself came onto the stage, and with the aid of an interpreter told what he said the film was about. Oshii prefaced his speech by saying that he had planned to come to Australia around the Olympics in 2000, but his cat died and he could not come due to his sadness. For this he was truly sorry. However, the death of his pet was the catalyst for Innocence. When the cat died, he felt that a hole had opened in him, and that he had lost something. He still feels this way. It reminded Oshii of what his father had said when his mother died: that a hole had opened, and that he had lost half of himself. Oshii said that in Innocence, he wanted to portray a woman who has given much of herself to the net, to the point where she does not know what her "self" truly is. Oshii wished to show such loss in this film.
It had been suggested that animation was not the right form to tackle such issues as Oshii wished to take on. However, he felt that animation was an excellent form for his ideas as he could express them in as versatile a manner as he wished. Oshii feels that films are not to be "understood" or "interpreted", but that they should produce a "vague feeling" in oneself. He hoped that the audience would be able to appreciate the "vague feeling" and watch the film as many times as they needed in order to fully absorb the messages.
Oshii said that the film had taken him three years to make (compared to Ghost in the Shell's one), and while he was not sure if he would make another animation, he had used all of his skills and efforts into making Innocence. He sincerely hoped that the audience would enjoy it. Oshii was a soft spoken man, but the audience listened with great intent to his words.

Finally, Ishikawa came on and said that because he wished to live in Australia soon, he would give his speech in English and keep it brief. Ishikawa lamented that there was not enough time in the country and that it was largely a business trip, but he would go to shops and buy many gifts for his wife. With that, he hoped that we would enjoy the movie and left the stage.

As for the film itself ... it was excellent and well received by the audience. That will follow.

After the showing, Tim Anderson said that full licencing of Innocence was 90% done, and that Dreamworks was happy to licence out to them. If all goes to plan, a theatrical run can be expected around January or February, and a DVD release around the April mark. While this is conjecture on his part, it seems likely.

Look for more similar "Australian Anime News" articles when the opportunity arises.

Ghost in the Shell

2004-11-07T13:52:00.000+11:00

1995's Ghost in the Shell was a big film in anime history, and also symbolic of the time when Manga Entertainment held some swing. They co-produced this film and orchestrated close enough to a world premiere. And this was Manga Entertainment UK.

In the year 2029, human body parts are replaced with cybernetic components when necessary. Section 9 is part of the government that monitors technological crimes, particularly "ghost hacks" - hackers who break into the bodies of people and control their actions. One of the most charismatic members of Section 9 is the fully cybernetic Major Kusanagi Motoko, who is on the trail of the "Puppet Master" - a hacker who has been manipulating ghosts to his own ends. Government conspiracy abounds and, of course, so to do questions of what makes an individual.

Ghost in the Shell, at 82 minutes, is remarkably brief. Considering that for the past twenty years most of the "good" anime films have been at least 100 minutes (most tipping the scales at 120+), it's refreshing to see such a compact, effectively told story. The characters are easily recognisable even if the viewer is not familiar with the manga (although this was likely not the case in Japan, where Masamune Shirow's work is very popular), and the themes are easy to pick up because they're oft repeated in anime. Any fan of Blade Runner is likely to find Ghost in the Shell an enjoyable film.

Oshii Mamoru hit all of the right spots when he directed this film; he never goes for the supremely obvious. The showdown between Kusanagi and a tank is not accompanied by strong action tunes, but rather a slow suspense filled score. Oshii lets the film pan the streets of Hong Kong for minutes at a time while the haunting theme of the film plays; a move that would be seen as indulgent in many other directors, but Oshii shrugs it off. He did this movie his way, and because of this attitude it works. There's some graphic violence, but not a lot, and there's a bit of nudity, but there's not enough of this stuff to satiate those who came specifically to see those elements: people have to be interested in the brief moments that the characters spend waxing philosophical for this film to work.
It's only a little bit heavy, and not really overbearing. Those who can bear ten plus hours of this stuff will have no problems with the roughly ten minutes it occupies here. The only real aspect of this film that seems outdated is that, despite promoting a society in which all of humanity is connected, the technology is not as wired as it could be expected; that is, of course, one of the best things about science-fiction films: they provide a vision of the future consistent with the time of their production.

Ghost in the Shell is a beautiful film, and this is never more obvious than in its invisible knife fights in shallow canals. That may sound weird, but any melée that occurs over a water lined surface is just that much more exciting. Hong Kong is beautifully realised, and is not weirdly desolate: it's a largely bustling metropolis filled with the poor and the rich, and quite a bit of the action takes place during the day, which is nice and refreshing. Only in the last few minutes does Oshii resort to the cheap and static, which is a little disappointing but ultimately forgivable.
The use of early digital imagery is impressive, and the CG works are obvious yet functional: maps and such that would likely appear that way anyway.
For such an early application of the technology, Ghost in the Shell is surprisingly close to mastery.

The score is a large part of what makes the film, and is quite possibly the defining point of Kawai Kenji's career: the theme is written in an ancient Japanese dialect and eerily fits with the opening sequence depicting the construction of a cyborg body. Kawai never sweeps, but rather feels the atmosphere, and plods around the landscape of Hong Kong in the nicest possible way. The tension inherent in the movie works much better than any crash bang opera could possibly do.

Voice work is good, and the seiyuu continued to portray the characters into the two recent sequel properties. Tanaka Atsuko is an excellent Kusanagi, who does not betray her origins as a woman and in one remarkable scene demonstrates her control. Ohtsuka Akio, who frequently rocks out, is excellent as Batou, the Section 9 agent who is allegedly in love with Kusanagi. This is one of the least played parts of the film, but he does a good job of the concern necessary. Beyond that, the rest of the cast are good, but these two make their characters and the film.

Ghost in the Shell is a quiet, contemplative science fiction film. It handles itself deftly and is not afraid to take a few minutes out. In many ways, it represents the end of an era. In others, it represents the beginning. This is a film that is frequently quoted as a keen way to get into anime, and that's a fair analysis (although I hated it six years ago). Its appeal is a mystery: it's a combination of many things, but not one stands out quite enough for a clear definition. Ghost in the Shell is an excellent whole, a deceptively simple mastery.

Cosplay Complex

2004-11-07T13:42:00.000+11:00

Huh. If you take a group of cosplayers, add to them a magical transforming six inch-tall bunny girl and a pink owl, what do you get? You get the loli-fixated Cosplay Complex, a 2002 three-part OVA that resurrects the nineties OVA trademark of not actually ending.

Chako is a high school student and member of a cosplay club. Her dream is to compete in the Cosplay World Series because of all of the fun that the world of cosplay promises.
For reasons that fail to make any sense whatsoever, Chako is helped in her quest by a pink owl and a bunny girl from "the fairy world". Ikebukuro the owl can sew, and Delmo the bunny girl can transform herself into a costume in exchange for sweets.
In the first episode, marvel at an Italian exchange student challenging the club for the right to join it! In the second episode, gaze in awe as the club goes to the beach to wear swimsuits and learn the true art of cosplay! In the third episode, watch in puzzlement as the club is challenged by the nation's number one cosplay team in preparation for the World Series that are clearly never going to be!

Cosplay Complex is almost sub-standard fan service anime fare. It is not total dreck because it is capable of making fun of conventions in anime. The pep-talk given to Chako in the first episode about aiming for the ace is filled with great imagery and is made even better by the fact that practically anything the bald headed Gorou says is hilarious. The loli-con fascination is seen as hilarious by some, but for the most part it's simply annoying and a little disturbing. Fortunately the writers managed to come up with a largely hilarious solution, and that's where Cosplay Complex does its best: sometimes it throws something completely unexpected out.
For all of its pandering to fetishes (maids in swimsuits, nurses, wedding dresses), Cosplay Complex offers the occasional gem of true comedy that makes it somewhat worthwhile. The whole "mourning dress" thing is completely whacked, but is a prime example of this.
However, Ikebukuro and Delmo leave a bad taste in the mouth because what they do is awfully like cheating. However, the number one club in the country also does it, so ... does this mean that all of the best cosplayers in Japan have their own six inch bunny girl? I don't think so. They just want to go for the totally out there, when true cosplay anime should be about the real side of fandom, not this made up world with weird things in it: the random comedy always draws from something real, but these two are simply more pandering.

The fan service is of the weird "blank areas followed by frontal assault" variety, rather than a constant stream of dilligently spread images. It's all remarkably self-conscious; Jenny is an exchange student so that the other characters can marvel at her huge boobs, and having a magical tit-enhancing bunny girl on board is just plain weird. There aren't any panty shots that can be thought of as incidental - they're all the result of falling or changing or what have you - and there's one incredibly bizarre moment involving a tanuki. A lot of the time in Cosplay Complex when you're not laughing is occupied by "why the hell am I watching this?" time. This carries on even to the rare nudity, where the girls have nipples that are mysteriously flesh coloured.

Initially the music is horrible synth, but after the first five minutes I stopped paying attention. The OP and ED songs do not really require six vocalists, but that's what they've given us. On a design level, the characters are okay if a little standard. Chako's sharp haircut would be okay were it not for the white light streaks, which always seem to form a perfect circle - looking more unnatural than it already would be. Likewise, there's nothing very special about the voice acting, with Maria sounding particularly out of it.

Cosplay Complex is mildly entertaining and largely pointless anime. I wouldn't recommend picking it up, but if it somehow comes your way, go for it. It may make you laugh, and is unlikely to cause any explosions.

Kurogane Communication - episodes 1 to 8

2004-11-04T21:19:00.000+11:00

Kurogane Communication is a half length TV series about the alleged last human on Earth and the robots with which she lives. The band of five mechanoids looks after this young girl, Haruka, as if she was their daughter. In a way, they are a family despite their lack of blood ties or consistent appearances. In these first eight episodes various aspects of day to day life in a post-apocalyptic Japan are showcased, leaning towards more character development and some story progress in the latter half.

Each episode's content is roughly eleven and a half minutes, which makes for compact stories that convey their content with a minimum of waste. There's a two parter when needs be, which makes for an effective and tense break that wouldn't have worked in standard length anime.

The characters are interesting enough so far, with Haruka being an almost wastefully energetic character. She channels her energy into curiosity and an intense desire to assist, which naturally gets her into trouble. Haruka does not push it, however; too much of this sort of behaviour would make infuriating anime. The other character of interest is, naturally, Haruka's polar opposite Angela. Initially she hates humanity due to her dark and mysterious past, but that looks like it's on the path to change. The most emotional scenes among these eight episodes are those in which Angela is left alone to tend Haruka's fever. It becomes obvious here that the aim seems to be to make the audience feel good about things: these moments are deftly executed.
The other characters will probably be fleshed out over the next two thirds: gun-happy Trigger, stupid looking over-protective Spike, wise Cleric and the hilariously gay Reeves. As they stand, they're nice but don't do much other than support.

Of the seiyuu, only Horie Yui as Haruka and Fukami Rika as Angela seem to be the only real "name" seiyuu, and they do a good job: Horie gets roles that she's either suited to or she's not - Horie's characters have to be nice. Fukami is unexpected as the gruff Angela, so it's even better that she can pull it off.
The music is in tune with the whole Kurogane Communication ethos: Kawai Kenji's OP boasts considerable charm, and the score itself has a very laidback feel to it. The scenery is beautiful, and a very nice yet deserted world is presented. This leads to the art direction, which in episode six is simply amazing. The quick cuts employed make the already dramatic episode really quite gripping in a way that's not often seen. Kurogane Communication may have been designed as a fifteen minute segment in a "comic strip" on satellite TV, but it seems to have had some thought placed into it to create drama.
There's a little bit of fan service so far, but Haruka is really too young for it. Fortunately she's not exploited in any way, and any instance of service is brief and natural, and "hilarious misunderstandings" happen too infrequently to be annoying.

Soon Kurogane Communication may seem like the end of the world, but for now it promotes the excellent optimisim that has to take place after horrible catastrophe. It's how humans and, theoretically, robots manage to move on. If you were to use a Japanese phrase that ultimately seems to mean nothing when literally translated to describe this anime, it would simply be kimochi: Kurogane Communication promotes good feeling.

The Big O - Episodes 7 to 13

2004-10-31T22:48:00.000+11:00

Amongst the many anime that I have watched this year, The Big O turned out to be one of the most compelling, if not the most compulsive. It brags what is possibly the best/most infuriating ending ever, and it would be unforgivable were it not for the sequel funded by Cartoon Network.

The second half of The Big O is pretty much the same as the first, but in some undefinable way better. This is quite possibly because Roger and Dorothy become much deeper as characters, and their ambiguous relationship grows still more ambiguous. Roger even gets to take part in practical negotiations, rather than random jobs that bear little meaning to his vocation.

The theme of memory continues to be very important and quite interesting beyond the usual pale of base anime philosophy. There are many touching scenes in regards to this featuring Roger and Dorothy, chief among them the "someone can make their own memories. These are yours, and yours alone." Roger knows exactly what to say to Dorothy, and to him she really is a person. Some may see it as insensitive, but there comes a time when he forgets that she isn't human.
Dorothy is an amazingly well drawn character. Her meditations on loneliness are interesting, but the way that she is animated is perhaps more so. You can tell that she's happy or enjoying herself, even when there is no smile on her face. In some small way, it's incredible. She's one of the more sympathetic androids I have seen in my time.

The most excellent episode of the series deals not with Roger or Dorothy, but rather Dan Dastun, head of the military police. The way that Satou used cinematic techniques to frame the story and embraced the clichéd made for an emotional hit of an episode. This was not an original piece, but it was a very nice take on the whole idea of pretty traitors and doing the right thing. If you do the right thing, is that not what really matters? This episode was simply beautiful, and capable of promoting a slight physical response. This episode alone would be enough to recommend the series, were it not for all of the other things that make it rock out.

The question of Christianity is also brought into focus; without memory, man has created religion using the old rituals and places. This seems a naturally human thing to do, a good source of comfort. Paradigm City has recreated Christmas as "Heaven's Day", which is seen by Roger as a manufactured exercise in cynicism. The head of Paradigm, Alex Rosewater, is well aware of the meaning of the day, so it seems that he pays some respects.
The other thing is that the staff might be suggesting, in their own way, that Holy War may well have been the cause of amnesia - and of course, the idea of "man harnessing the power of God" is also trotted out. You just have to love anime when it gets like this.

There's also the rich and decadent. In a society that can't remember how it obtained its wealth, would this not create a greater rift between the rich and the poor? There is an upper class area, called the East Dome, which everyone hates based simply on the fact that it's full of the rich and criminally rich. There's corruption at the highest level in Paradigm, and this leads to some purely horrific scenes with burning people jumping out of buildings. It's not something one would expect and it's purely shocking.

The action scenes between hideous, hideous robots are actually some of the most entertaining and thrilling there are. They're designed to fight, and so fight they do. Roger brings a passion to his battles, now that he has something to fight for, that make them a joy to watch. There's something so very practical and yet unwieldly about them that makes it difficult to resist.
Incredible war footage is included, and Roger being hunted in the final episode is sure to get adrenaline running.
On the character design front, one of Beck's henchmen has the makeup and hair of The Joker, which is a little confusing. Also confusing is the way it rains inside a domed building. It probably makes sense if you look hard enough.

The Big O ends on a huge cliffhanger, and I pity the poor sods who had to wait three years for its continuation (something that almost didn't happen). This is one instance where American fandom proved good: another thirteen episodes of this outstanding, stylish series featuring really personable characters (even if one is a robot).

Steamboy

2004-10-27T18:42:00.000+10:00

Steam punk is one of anime's more interesting genres. The 1800s was a time of great creativity and diversity in inventions. Because there were so many people interested in inventing things, Japanese writers take this as a cue to create characters who can make whatever invention that they desire, simply saying that it was made possible by the awesome power of steam. Steam, it would appear, is the most powerful of all fuels. For the most part this involves very little suspension of disbelief, although the genre was pushed to the limits of good taste in Nadia. Steamboy is the latest, and perhaps greatest, example of the romance of this genre.

In 1866, young inventor Ray Steam is living in Manchester with his mother while his father and grandfather toil in America for the O'Hara foundation. One day, a package arrives for Ray, containing none other than the mysterious "steam ball", that contains and pressurises the strongest fuel known to man. Ray's grandfather, Lloyd, implores that he keeps the ball away from the O'Hara's cronies, lest they use it to wage war.
It's not long, however, before Ray is abducted by the O'Hara foundation and made party to their plans to build the greatest tower ~~of Babel~~ the world has ever known, and to design and sell weapons to fund it. What follows is a two hour examination of the meaning of science, the wages of progress and, of course, science as God. Steamboy is, in effect, a pastiche of several of the most popular anime stories - stories in general, for that matter - and it succeeds because director Otomo Katsuhiro loves his work.

Steamboy is an ambitious project and, as with practically everything, not for everyone. There are few who would deny that it is well crafted, but there are many who would argue that it plods or "disappoints". The first thing that must be noted in order to even begin to enjoy this film is that it is not Akira despite being written and directed by Otomo. Steamboy is so far removed from so much that has come before it that it has to be looked at based on its own merits.

The setting is initially boring - but then, so is Manchester. Otomo can not be blamed for accurately recreating the bland, brown weather of Britain in the 1800s and the very traditional architecture. This place is too steeped in tradition to accept the Steam family's creativity, and so Ray does not really fit there. When Ray cracks out his kettle powered wheel thing, all bets are off. The movie begins to touch on the ridiculous - a blimp with a crane clamping onto a train carriage, throwing a net onto an unsuspecting Ray (in the finest Team Rocket tradition) - and soars into the joyous area of uninhibited innovation.
London seems the perfect place to set the action, especially at this historical juncture: consider that the Crystal Palace is a chief location for the film's action. The Crystal Palace was symbolic of the British empire's decadence; Steam Tower, by comparison, is humanity's. These two places lead to some wonderfully designed action sequences and a chance to see large chunks of London destroyed.

Characterisation is admittedly not the deepest, but the three generations of Steam men are interesting in their portrayal. The older men are set in their ways, but Ray still has an open mind. His views are shaped by what the two men he looks up to believe, and because they contradict he has to find his own way. The innocence of childhood not realising the evil of weapons, the near-sighted practicality of those creating them for money: all angles are covered.
The idea of trust is also prominent - it's entirely predictable that prominent inventor Stephenson will tell Ray that science is for making people happy, but then suffacing it with the fact that sometimes it has to be used for destructive purposes. Power is a corruptor, but not in the hands of those who know what it can do, or have impossibly high moral standards, like that of a child who doesn't want people to explode. Ray isn't pointlessly optimistic, and he actually gets his chance to consider his options in the time given to him. The spoiled heiress of the O'Hara corporation, Scarlett(!), is allowed to become something more than an animal abuser and, while she doesn't change her core, she is adaptable - which is a good thing to ask for a character.
Interestingly, the promo material skews rather older than the characters. As in Metropolis (also scripted by Otomo), the hero and heroine are only about ten or twelve years of age. Many things about the campaign behind Steamboy ar misleading, which will make it either a surprise or a disappointment dependent on state of mind.

I am still not a fan of CG work, and the stuff in this film is obvious: but it appears that this will be lessened in impact when played on a television and will ultimately play smoother. That's my misgiving, though; it should work well for most others. The character designs are Otomo's normal style, although he has learned a bit about making his characters look aesthetically pleasing over sixteen years. The animation is always good, as you would expect from the traditional marketing line (I am refraining to go into that aspect as it detracts from enjoyment of the film). The production values are of the highest standard and make for an incredible visual delight - particularly with the use of moving fore and backgrounds.
The scoring was done by Americans and initially seems to be a bit too pat - making the first ten or so minutes of the film seem underwhelming and, admittedly, quite suitable to the boring Mancunian atmosphere. Afterwards it's simply steam powered fare that doesn't bother anyone but is not as memorable as some other big films.
Columbia Tristar has done an interesting job of the subtitles, going for some "Britticisms" along the lines of "cripes!" and the questionable use of "crikey!" for "sugoi". It's kind of authentic, but also kind of distracting.

Steamboy is a great film that addresses the questions that are, to so many anime fans, bread and butter. There are some interesting questions raised, and it doesn't really get mired in its own ideas of "importance". Watchers should note going into Steamboy that it features an hour long climax rather than the traditional ten or fifteen minutes. If you're cool with that, and you like the theme, you should be cool with Steamboy. This is a heavily traditional anime, told with flair and style. It's easy to dismiss, but surely it's far easier to enjoy.

The Big O - Episodes 1 to 6

2004-10-24T19:41:00.000+10:00

In the grand tradition of men calling on giant robots via radio watches, The Big O hit the screen in 1999. Perhaps too true to this grand tradition, the robots are as ugly as sin. However, they are furnished by short, effective noirish stories and surprisingly wry humour.

Forty years ago, the people of Paradigm City collectively developed amnesia. Citizens sometimes regain parts of their memories for reasons unknown, and to the older generation memories have become a precious commodity. Roger Smith is a negotiator, negotiating for abductions, memory smugglings and various other tasks that have little to do with actual negotiation but he is qualified to perform, anyway.
When negotiations "break down", as it were, Roger calls in one of the legacies of the pre-amnesia society, Big O. This giant robot tends to pummel its foes into submission, a successful outcome. Roger is joined by his loyal butler, and offisder android R. Dorothy Wayneright, who is surprisingly sarcastic for an otherwise traditional mechanoid. Occasionally he consults his commander from his days in the military police; they bear one of those grudgingly respectful relationships.
Each episode finds Roger in some sort of new "negotiation" situation, informal or not. Roger generally acts by himself, but his surrounding cast members can be relied upon to have something to say.

From the imaginative title song, with few lyrics other than "Big O!", The Big O proves itself as an interesting pastiche of all sorts of genres, visual styles and stories. Is it noir? Is it sci-fi? Is it an elaborate mystery that takes a few visual cues from Batman? As readers should know by now, when I ask a series of pointless questions, the answer tends to be "all of the above".

There are good themes running throughout, with some Blade Runner-esque philosophical theories abounding. Dorothy is not simply a token robotic character, she is quite complex and representative of androids all around. The idea of robots with parent complexes is something that impresses - "fake" children have been around in anime for an incredibly long time. These people don't have a lack of sympathy for their robotic offspring - and this fact makes for some poignant endings. Robots can grieve, and they will, because they are guaranteed to long outlive their creators. Couple all of the robot questions with a society that doesn't even remember how the mechanoids came to be, and you've got something well worth seeing.
The relationship between her and Roger is interesting as he does not see her as either human or android. To him she is a sort of ordered chaos with too sharp a tongue for his liking. He takes her to task for not being human, but when both of them are faced with a murderous mechanical unit on a rampage, he assures her that they are nothing alike. That he's frankly more freaked out by her occasional mechanical acts says a lot about the two of them.
One has to admire a society that relentlessly pursues the issues of ethics, morality and treatment of artificially intelligent constructs that don't yet exist.

There are, of course, other questions; What makes humanity? Why is it that some robots treasure their memories more than humans? Why does man create his own religion, and why is Big O quasi-holy? At least one of these can be answered. And, while we have the technology, and can rebuild robots, it's not quite the same. A robot's "brain" is truly what makes them, it turns out.

Miyamoto Mitsuru is a good, by turns serious and sarcastic, Roger. Unfortunately, he's not quite up to the comic English required to command Big O, but that's a quibble. Yajima Akiko is deliberately flat but manages to give R. Dorothy quite a bit of personality for what she is. The rest of the cast is also good, but these two are the ones who have to carry the show and they do it quite admirably.
The music is standard cool Jazz/Blues fare that was very popular with SUNRISE around this point in anime history. The OP, as mentioned before, is laughably simple yet hypnotic. The ED is an English duet, which probably doesn't make much sense, but it fits quite well with the hour glass motif.

The visual style, despite being entirely the work of Sato Keiichi, is remarkably slipshod. No two characters look similar, and the less important characters are afforded very little detail. The mechanical designs are, to put it delicately, hideous. However, all grotesqueries inherent in this anime seem planned and intentional. The sixties and seventies had classic, if not aesthetically pleasing, designs and The Big O pays tribute to them. The classic Giant Robo is another good example of this. It should be noted that robots are for fighting, not for looking pretty, and the action scenes are well choreographed because of this. Big O is despised by the police not for its tendency to show them up, but instead its tendency to rise from the ground, destroying entire buildings and streets.
There's a couple of moments of shoddy animation (that is, the scene in which Roger eats scrambled eggs), but there are some moments that show flair even among the most mundane actions - and the robot set pieces, of course, are terrific.

The Big O is shrouded in mystery, not quite showing if it's supposed to be dramatic or comedic. One thing is certain: it's full of surprises. Also that robots are capable of harbouring deep emotions, but that's two things.
It will be good to see where this series is going.

Love Hina: Notice of Intent

2004-10-23T11:03:00.000+10:00

On the advice that masochism benefits no one, I have decided to drop Love Hina as I couldn't be bothered. I have too much good anime to bother wasting time on the bad stuff. Seven episodes (and already with the knowledge that I utterly hate the eighth) is enough of a chance, I believe.

NieA under 7 - episodes 6 to 13

2004-10-19T18:41:00.000+10:00

Was NieA under 7 irrelevant? Does it matter? Overall, this turned out to be a summer in a rural Japanese town. That's all NieA under 7 was in the end but, despite turning decidedly sombre, it was worth it.

NieA gets less and less screen time as the theme becomes about Mayuko's social isolation and general awkwardness. Mayuko is handicapped both by her rural lifestyle (the sort that impresses UFOlogists) and her general poverty and humble nature. There's a segment which shows that it is very hard to tell the difference between sympathy and bitchiness amongst girls.

The relationship between NieA and Mayuko is important, but seemingly only when the two are apart or only one of them is conscious. It's the acts that they do for each other without letting on that show that they care, because when they're together they're at each other's throats. Any time that NieA levels the "discrimination king!" accusation at Mayuko, it causes laughter and defuses potentially serious scenes: the see-saw of tone gets a lot of working out this way. The comedy is extremely funny but peters out to melancholy and introspection very quickly, which is a very odd feeling to get when watching anime.
Mayuko's relationship with Genzo, the boy from her childhood, is limited as Genzo doesn't show up in Enohana very often. The time that he actually gets to talk to Mayuko for minutes at a time about something more than rice shows that they're both nice people; Mayuko also gets the classic feeling that she doesn't know what her ambitions are, but she did when she was seven. It's not the idea of a lost childhood innocence, but of a lost identity: as a seven year old, she was sure of herself, but as a cram student she is a transient being, stuck between drifting and doing something that might be the right thing to do economically speaking, but uncertain on a personal level.

The idea of alien rights and class are touched very lightly: Chada is not arrested on the grounds of his being an alien, but aliens below the class of "under five" officially do not exist. NieA's one comment on class in society was highly insightful and very welcome. NieA, having no antenna, is discriminated against by humans and aliens alike, so she knows exactly what it's like and is aware of the ignorance of others. The reason Mayuko is called "discrimination king" is actually because she frequently degrades NieA on her status as an "under seven". The most memorable is when NieA encourages Mayuko to throw off the shackles of society and become an under seven. Mayuko recoils in disgust and says she could never be like her room mate, that it would be worse than nothing.
Until people vocalise their prejudices, sometimes they simply don't realise that they have them.

There are some confusing scenes: it's hard to believe that none of the characters recognise a marijuana leaf, and there are some completely tasteless and shocking "American jokes". NieA's activities in the last four episodes will apparently forever remain a mystery, as is the fate of the mothership. Apparently this is not important, and you can take it as "simple beauty" if you so desire. That's probably the best course of action, so take it.

The atmospheric effects were strong as always, with the "hot music" notable and the transition to Spring bringing an end to the cicada calls. The foley on this show was amazing: the sounds of air actually came through at one point, making it seem all the more real. On the flip side, it was too over the top on the few occasions that American sound effects were used.

NieA under 7 was nice to watch, from its uproarious comedy to its quiet rural life. There's no real reason for the inclusion of the aliens or some of the events surrounding them, but that's okay. Taken as a summer in a quiet Japanese town, emphasising the importance of cherishing our time, it is a simple yet effective delight.

NieA under 7 - episodes 1 to 5

2004-10-14T22:14:00.000+10:00

NieA under 7: domestic poor @nimation is a wonderful slice of Japanese life anime. With aliens. But mainly it's about life in Japan. With man eating plants and pyromania. It's definitely the most accurate anime made in the last four years, at any rate.

Some time in the 21st century, cram student Mayuko lives in a bath house with a free loading alien, NieA. They work at making friends, making ends meet and making new business for the ailing public fixture. Each episode is a separate adventure, each with at least a bit of time spent at the bath house. It's a nice statement on domestic life, with bits of random comedy inserted. Seeing as the unexpected variety of comedy is frequently the best, this anime is capable of promoting some very loud laughs.

Mayuko initially seems mild mannered, but as it turns out she's quite capable of snapping. She's no pushover, and the fire that burns within her can be scary. Speaking of fire, the great standby of the bathhouse - the boiler man Yoshioka - is awed and enamored by the power of fire. The way that normally reserved characters can flip out is part of this show's charm. The one main character who never flips out, however, is NieA. This is because she is by default out there: eating other's food, building UFOs, and running through the countryside in a hilarious get up.
The characters are full of surprises, and are a large part of what makes this anime work so well.

Although the subtitle of the program is "domestic poor @nimation", this seems to pertain more to the theme rather than production values. Generally, everything is handsome - particularly the poor domesticity of urban Japan. The scenery is beautiful, and solemn. NieA_7 is not culturally obscure, but it is definitely Japanese. There is very little music, the background soundscape instead provided by cicadas, or an array of insects at night.
yoshitoshi ABe is the man behind the character designs, which translate very well to anime. For this project he was allowed to SD the characters and to generally do weird things such as make fake Indian and Chinese aliens. It's great to see these aliens try to fit in as parts of the culture: Karna's "I'm so Chinese and a valued member contributing to Earth society" is priceless. Performances are marvellous, with Miyamura Yuko's NieA delightfully crazed and Kawasumi Ayako her alternately humble and furious offsider, Mayuko. The Indian alien, Chada, is played by an authentic Indian actor, and so gives a genuinely accented Japanese performance. Ryo-ohki's seiyuu shows up as a cat, and the whole thing is generally nice to listen to.
SION's OP is not an instant pleaser, but it is one that grows quickly: unfortunately, people have been put off by its use as a trailer, but there's so much to like about this humble and mad anime.

This is a quiet favourite, and for once I don't care if there is an overarcing story; it's great as it is. The subtle overtures of Japanese society, the sometimes introspective look at life and business, and the frequently uproarious action are intriguing, but not for everyone. This, it must be taken into account, is infinitely preferable to anime that's not for anyone. Consider that.

City Hunter: Magnum of Love and Destiny

2004-10-10T15:49:00.000+10:00

Commercially released as .357 Magnum, this 90 TV movie is standard City Hunter fare, which is a good thing.

Nina, a young pianist, comes from West Galiera to play a series of concerts for charity, but she has another reason for her visit to Japan: she visits Ryo, after hearing from Umibozu's surrogate daughter (who attends the same musical school), that he is good at finding things. She hopes that Ryo will be able to help her find her father, but her grandfather Klaus must not know. Meanwhile, the East Galiera government wants to recover delicate information held by Klaus - which is, coincidentally, desired by Nogami Saeko and presumably the rest of the Japanese government.

This really is City Hunter; after the dramatic airport introduction, it heads straight into Kaori and Ryo not having any work. I maintain that Kaori has been really bad for business, but that's besides the point.

The story is solid, and the obvious "shock twist" comes in much sooner than one would expect - which is a good thing, because it's patently obvious. The character drama is also fairly strong, because it applies to the characters. Had it simply been on something like an "international" level, it couldn't have worked near as well. While Nina, Klaus and misunderstood villain Helzen obviously get a lot of screen time and development for their parts, the normal cast also gets their own.
A few things are added to the City Hunter canon: there are some great moments where Kaori expresses her feelings for Ryo, and where Ryo acknowledges those feelings (albeit to somebody else) and why he can never act on them. It's slightly different to my initial theory, but Ryo at heart has incredibly noble motives - and he doesn't seriously want his clients to fall for him. It's just a pity that Kaori has such image problems. Also, Ryo finally shows some real anger at the Nogami sisters, which is a nice change.
The only unfortunate part of Umibozu's section is that, despite apparently featuring chronologically after the first series of City Hunter, he inexplicably runs a café with someone called Miki (possibly the pickpocket of episode 46) in this installment. Hopefully that will make sense some time.

Initially, the show is overpowered by music - much more than the series ever features, and lots of it plain comedy pieces. It calms down, however, and makes for a fairly interesting piece of work. There's creative cinematography, such as Ryo showing his serious side, and the first confrontation between Colonel Helzen and Ryo has some fairly palpable tension.
On the domestic side, Kaori moves a lot more when she hammers Ryo to the ground, and Umibozu eats incredibly indelicately. On the service side, while it doesn't seem much more than the series, Ryo comes closer to mokkori than he has for years.
There's no M & M's this time around, but a Nestlé truck features in the memorable chase scene.

The dubbing made me kind of glad that the TV series didn't get the whole English treatment - this would have led to some of the beautiful clients getting the "ridiculous exotic accents" treatment. Ryo (here known as "Joe") is played fairly well by an Australian actor, and Kaori also seems okay - but they're no match for the dynamite team of Kamiya Akira and Ikira Kazue. The rest of the Japanese cast don't particularly stand out, but there's no noticeably poor or annoying performances.

There's one aspect of the ending that doesn't make any sense, but that's okay. The rest of it was pretty good, although not world alighting stuff: this was just like City Hunter, with a little bit of service and more animation of Kaori giving Ryo what for.

Magical Girl Pretty Sammy

2004-10-10T13:28:00.000+10:00

Magical Girl Pretty Sammy is probably the most "spun off" of the Tenchi Muyo! franchises because it bears so little resemblance to any of the others. For all of the alternate universes, the Tenchi story is pretty constant. Magical Girl Pretty Sammy is the second incarnation of the Pretty Sammy legend, and the first one that was developed beyond a throwaway joke. The best thing about the legends of the Pretty Sammy character is that they're satirical and subversive while remaining perfect magical girl fare.

In the magical world of Jurai-helm, the time has come to appoint a queen. The council of elders has decided that Tsunami would be most suitable, and she must pass the final test: to do this, she appoints Kawai Sasami of Earth to use her powers for good by becoming Pretty Sammy. The other candidate for queen, Ramiya, is not happy with this at all and creates a magical girl of her own: Pixy Misa, born of Sasami's best friend.

Oddly enough, Pretty Sammy works better if you've seen the alternate TV series Magical Project S: that goes somewhere, which gives this OVA licence to be a few short stories without having to really delve into Misao's sadness or her home life. It doesn't really try, and probably shouldn't have really made allusions to these things, because that's not what this is all about. It's about Ryoko and Ayeka fighting over Tenchi, Tenchi inexplicably not making a move on either of the two girls who are totally into him, Ayeka having a team of school girl servants (highly reminiscent of B-ko) and the power of Sasami's friendship.
It's not an emotional series; the third episode has some saddening moments, but primarily this is all about the laughter. Any scenes with Sasami's mother (different to the TV version; the Kawai family is here a single parent household) are guaranteed hilarity as she is obsessed with karaoke and takes every opportunity to sing subversive enka songs (the second ED is about a woman crying over losing her love to another man - the hook being "Gay love is making me sad").
The second episode's villain, Bif Standard, is hooked on the idea of standardising computers and software throughout the world. When criticised for the slowness of his system, he yells that speed must be sacrificed for stability. For some reason, his idea of stability is crashing the moon into the Earth, thus doing away with war and poverty. When he sees the error of his ways, it's that he hasn't aimed high enough - at which point Sammy asks if she can beat him up.

Matsumoto Rika is great as Kawai Chihiro, the woman who simply can not function without some karaoke in her life, and the rest of the traditional Tenchi Muyo! cast do their jobs and do them well. There's a little bit of fan service, only one real naked transformation sequence, and some very disturbing animation in the OP that Sasami has to block by laughing it off. Creator Hayashi Hiroki did a good job of integrating all of the elements to make a very Tenchified yet independent OVA series, and directors Hirokawa Kazuyuki and Kikuchi Yasuhito direct with finesse. Hit and miss writer Kuroda Yosuke (Okay, he's only had one real dud) is sharp and to the point, making for an ultimately very enjoyable comedy.

It may not be as "good" as Magical Project S, but because that TV series exists it doesn't have to be. Magical Girl Pretty Sammy is a frequently hilarious three episode OVA that comes highly recommended for all people who like this kind of stuff. Watching this makes one reflect on how unfortunate it was that Magical Project S wasn't dubbed; this Tenchi property could have conquered the world.

Tenchi Muyo! Galaxy Police Mihoshi's Space Adventure

2004-10-09T23:26:00.000+10:00

The Tenchi Muyo! franchise is something that anime people either love or hate. Allegedly it's one of the prime examples of the harem genre, but it's really just a wacky space adventure. With onsen here and there. Despite the original OVA not being about anything in particular, it was enjoyable. The "love triangle" was not explored very well, which was actually a mercy, and it puts a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.
Mihoshi's Space Adventure is a one shot OVA set loosely in the original universe. At 25 minutes, it's brief but enjoyable. The DVD is padded out by a two hour dosage of Pretty Sammy.

After waking from a day dream, Mihoshi wants to appear of some use to Tenchi and his group by telling them of a case she solved as a member of the Galaxy Police. She's not too clear of the details, however, and casts her friends in the roles ("to make it easier for you to follow" she explains to her audience). Space pirate Ryoko kidnaps Tenchi while stealing ultra energy something-or-other, and Mihoshi and beleaguered partner Kiyone are asked by desperate self proclaimed fiancée and "old woman" Ayeka to rescue him. Sasami and Ryo-Ohki go along for the ride too, to make tea.
Just how much of this is true is anyone's guess; I doubt that Mihoshi would deliberately represent herself as that stupid, and Kiyone actually does exist. It was a nice way of writing her into the Tenchi continuity and explaining her absence at once.

It's a simple OVA, which is mainly just about comedy. The story is coherent without being overly important, and the jokes are fast and never laboured. It also features what is probably the first documented appearance of Pretty Sammy, which makes three different Sammy continuities - and the way this one is just thrown in for the sake of it makes it more credible and hilarious as Mihoshi's story. Comedy stories are mainly made of jokes, when they don't have character development and overarcing stories to support them, so there's little point in going into more detail short of saying this is nice and sweet.

This has the standard OVA production qualities, and Mizutani Yuko does an excellent job of the faux-serious Mihoshi. The only thing that is freaky is Pretty Sammy's nude-transformation sequence, which is really par for magical girls. It's brief and unrevealing, but definitely weird. The OP is a great fairy tale dream sequence about Mihoshi and Ryo-ohki going on an eating adventure, and the ED is the genesis of a Pretty Sammy story with entirely different villains to the other two versions. It would probably have done better without the periodical real world interventions, but it's fine as it is.

Mihoshi's Space Adventure is humble Tenchi Muyo! fare, and recommended for any who liked the OVA series. Well, not really. Tenchi fans can be a bit crazy and inconsistent ... (rather like the franchise itself, allegedly). It's just a random bit of fun, and not harmful in the slightest.

Love Hina - episodes 5 to 7

2004-10-08T19:59:00.000+10:00

Because, quite bluntly, episode eight is the Devil, this progress report stops at episode seven: because Love Hina pulled off a three episode streak of okayness.

The first major improvement is that Keitaro manages to co-exist with his tenants, rather than being the butt of their cruel and incessant violence. This is most easily noticed due to the fact that there's barely any violence at all in this set. Keitaro must meet Naru's fist only two or three times, and Kaolla deals only one real kick to the head.
With Naru failing the Tokyo University entrance tests, it is hoped that she might become a bit more sympathetic to Keitaro. This Naru is a bit too hard, though, to conceivably soften all the way - but seeing her graduation and realising that she doesn't fit in or have a group at school is pretty sad and actually penetrates.

Romance comedy (that is, laboured, annoying romance comedy) works on the basis of "hilarious misunderstandings" and "bizarre coincidence". Love Hina throws some of the stupidest hilarious misunderstandings in the world at the characters. When Keitaro and Naru go on holiday to Kyoto separately, but end up together, they break each others' glasses and so can't see well enough to recognise one another. Why they don't recognise each other's voices is beyond me, and the fact that Naru wears glasses for studying and not for normal world activity suggests that she is actually near-sighted ... well, a trademark of bad examples of the genre is making no sense what so ever, so this passes that test.

There's an episode that introduces an ALL NEW character, Sakata Kentaro. This character was nowhere to be seen in the manga, and he seems to be an excuse for capers. His inclusion, however, does allow Keitaro to grow a little bit. Initially it is distressing to see that the man is weak even in his fantasies, but something actually comes of it. Sakata thinks he's the right man for Naru. This is because he's a stalker. When they take Naru on a fantasy date (something too pointless to elaborate on), the submissive woman on offer is nothing like the real Naru. A simulation can't take this into account, and Keitaro realises this. It is entirely wrong. What is offensive is that Sakata tells Keitaro that a woman can't be expected to offer a kiss, and that you have to force yourself onto them, even if they ask you not to.
There's no way of explaining how incredibly wrong this is, and it's no small mercy that we're not expected to like this character. This is one of the few times that Keitaro actually took a stand, and he was right about it.

Horie Yui plays drunk surprisingly well - but it's always a pleasure to hear seiyuu cut loose and be drunk (anyone remember Hisakawa Aya's drunken voice escapades?). The problem with Ueda Yuji and Keitaro remains - Keitaro should really be more argumentative for the crap that he has to put up with. He can yell at people, but mostly it's to apologise. Spineless wimp characters are really annoying (note: I don't find Evangelion's Shinji to be an annoying, spineless wimp) and Keitaro would be more likable if he could take part in verbal warfare.
The biggest hypocrisy comes up in the ping pong battle - why is it okay for Naru to mercilessly criticise Keitaro, yet not for him to retaliate? Admittedly the series is all about frustration, which is probably why it annoys on so many levels.

Some of the animation is of the horrible click and drag variety, that is allegedly used for comedic effect but isn't really very comedic. Anemia girl Mutsumi should be a really good source of slapstick, but just having her tip over seems to be the height of laziness. On another production note, whenever the "caper" music starts up, you know you're in a lot of trouble. It was kind of the director to have such obvious audio cues, to get the viewer prepared.

There's little faith in episode eight, but let's see how the rest of everything goes. These three episodes, at least, didn't leave me seething - but the idea that the hope offered will remain hope is going to be frustrating.

A-ko the Versus

2004-10-07T22:31:00.000+10:00

Project A-ko runs into a dead end with this, A-ko the Versus. A completely different universe OVA, with only the three -ko girls in common with its predecessors, this is one of those anime you may have been warned about: the pointless mini series.
Take Moriyama Yuji's name off the character design, writing, and direction teams (he still works in key animation) and you have Nishijima Katsuhiko's poor, lifeless cash-in.

On a distant planet, A-ko and B-ko work together to hunt and sell sand turtles. One day a ten year old heiress, C-ko, falls into their cargo. This C-ko has been abducted by two terrorists, Grash and Liza, to offer to their leader Gail - who in turn plans to call into the girl's body the spirit of the high priestess Xena, who is capable of resurrecting a giant three headed dragon, who will proceed to destroy this universe and replace it with another.
All because of a nun who died twenty years ago.

The Versus is a confusing mix of fantasci-fi - the plot itself is actually found in countless fantasy stories (Record of Lodoss War not least among them) - and the story is so sparsely populated that it is hard to believe that there is a universe for the villains to destroy. The story telling is clumsy, featuring awkward and sudden exposition along the lines of "What do you think of our boss's plan to revive the high priestess and summon the mighty dragon?"
I'm going to come right out with a spoiler here, just to illustrate the program's lack of sense. One of the big "dramatic pulls" of the program is that Gail kills B-ko with his psychic ability. The policeman Maruten tells A-ko that he will bring her back to life if she agrees to help. How this works is never explained, as all of his comrades have died and not returned - but B-ko is alive and well in the next scene.

This is very thick and hard to understand; it's not like the story is particularly difficult, it's that characterisation is not strong at all. The idea that no matter what universe, A-ko and B-ko will fight is proposed. But these aren't alternate universe versions of these characters. Fundamentally, this A-ko and B-ko are friends. It really seems that the A-ko title is just for brand recognition, because apart from a few second cameo from the Akagiyama missiles this bears little resemblance to the original continuity. Firstly, the characters are redesigned (for the uglier), secondly, C-ko is ten years old and thirdly it's set in a desolate wasteland.
A-ko and B-ko as friends on any level betrays everything, as does the idea of A-ko disliking C-ko. The triangle that held the OVAs together and is dissolved by B-ko's brief foray into loli-con. Also, making B-ko the nice one? That's stretching it really, really far.
The new characters are either underused or ill explained. The spirituality and Gail's motives really needed some sort of depth to them, because it was quite difficult to empathise with a doomed universe with nothing in it. B-ko's actions seemed rather arbitrarily placed to force the plot along.

There's a brief moment when everything picks right up - when the OVA becomes a dramatic romance story between A-ko and Kei: in other words, a continuation of the original series. However, it's all a joke, which is really quite disappointing. Seeing more of that sort of stuff, with the style of animation that they were using would have actually been interesting. When it returned to the desolate future, everything sank. It was almost as if Nishijima was asking if he had taken the wrong path.

A-ko the Versus is from a different production company to the previous; Pony Canyon no longer producing. The staff are much the same as previously, but Nishijima Katsuhiko takes the helm and redesigns the characters a little. They look simpler and uglier. The whole project does not look very nice at all, and the colours are disturbingly solid. One of the under-used villains has huge boobs, but is not appealing in any way. It's really quite disturbing when A-ko punches her right in the cleavage. The cel work is much simpler, and there's no fan service level detail in the mechanical designs.
Most surprising is the music, composed by big league musician Kawai Kenji. Because of the material it is being used on, it's largely forgettable. When one chooses to notice it, however, it's quite strong. The ED songs are pretty nice, but eminently unmemorable outside of the credits.
Michizawa Tomie as Xena was an unexpectedly high quality performance, that raised the whole thing just that little bit.

Nishijima Katsuhiko went on to direct Studio Fantasia's glossy, high class fan service extravaganzas (case in point: Aika). Here he suffers Moriyama's randomly inflicted illness, making an utterly pointless adventure with little to recommend about it. The original Project A-ko was a true anime classic. The following four productions were, without doubt, entirely non-essential.

Love Hina - episodes 1 to 4

2004-09-28T15:32:00.001+10:00

Warning: Extreme negativity ahead.

This might have come as a shock had I said it four years ago: I don't like Love Hina. Putting aside the excellent, attractive and hilarious manga, this is not good anime. For me, just as it was all those years ago, the Love Hina anime is the beginning of the end of everything.

Perpetual loser Keitaro made a promise to a girl when he was four years old: that they would, once grown, attend Tokyo University together. Problem is he's not smart enough to make the grade and is now a ronin training at a cram school. Kicked out by his parents, he goes to live at his Grandmother's inn - not realising both that his aunt has left him in charge and that it is, in fact, a girls' dormitory.
Let the beatings commence!
The girls who live in the dorm don't take kindly to Keitaro's presence and try to force him out, but for some reason they all love him too. Watch Keitaro as he struggles to study hard enough to get into Tokyo University, maintain a lodge and find the girl to whom he made that promise all those years ago.

This anime does not make a lot of sense. Lies upon lies are built and then, even if unintentional, when found out violence ensues. Keitaro trips over, and violence ensues. The first three episodes are reserved for annoying character introductions. It makes more sense for the Hinata Lodge to be already established as a fully functioning unit rather than recruiting its members as it goes along. It's harder to imagine a more hostile group of people than the woman populating the lodge. The only one who actually likes Keitaro without hurting him is as meek as all get out.
The second episode for whatever reason attempts hard hitting drama about the politics of divorce and the place of the child within. It's quite painful to watch, particularly with the whole "running away" aspect, and the typical portrayal of "cruel girls".

Love Hina is a great example of ugly digital animation; this is not, of course, helped by the fact that it is ugly in the first place. Uno Makoto's character designs are, not to put too fine a point on it, hideous. The characters boast a sort of "fat" look to their faces and there's something a bit off shape about them all. They look pasted on top of their backgrounds, and the fan service looks unnatural. Shinobu in profile boasts a head rather too large for her body.
Is anime the only place in the world where people go bathing in towels? It would seem very uncomfortable to do so.
There's just something artificial about the whole look that makes one ill at ease. Occasionally the animation is so bad that characters reach for entirely the wrong things.

The direction is incredibly weird, with cuts of "WHAT?!" followed immediately by the same character saying "whatever". The four episodes even feature their own sort of thematic gimmick - the first being laced with fantasy, the second with some horrible, horrible symbolism pertaining to "direction" (ironic, that), the third features an initially well scored "silent film" sequence, which has misjudged artificing and starts to drag. The fourth has a "diary" storytelling method. Each episode probably wants to set itself apart, but it comes across as gimmickry. The dialogue when each episode comes to its realisation also feels quite forced.
The problem with all of this violence is that it doesn't feel deserved. Keitaro is clumsy and frequently stumbles into the wrong situations, but that does not seem to be justification enough to beat him up. It's not like he's one of those anime protagonists who actively caresses the female characters or tries to peek up their dresses. Exaggerated violence isn't funny if there's no justification to it. Is there any real way that Keitaro can fall in love with someone who attempts to kill him at, literally, the drop of a hat?

Horie Yui was rocketed to stardom for her role as Narusegawa, but she's done much better out of nicer characters who aren't as shrewish. Naru wants to be nice, but she defaults to violence at the slightest provocation. She can't go a few seconds without giving Keitaro some sort of injury. Horie tries to make the most of it, but she's been given too much of an extreme to feel any real empathy at this point.
Ueda Yuji, who usually plays toughs or general nice guys, is incredibly weedy and weak as Keitaro. Again, this isn't his fault. He plays it as it is written - is it his fault that it's written wrong? Keitaro has no sense of anything and his adherence to the promise made fifteen years ago seems that he hasn't allowed himself to grow since then. His automatic reaction to everything is to run away.
Right now none of the other characters have done much yet, but Shinobu's weak nature doesn't show much room for change, Kaolla is a blow-through and Motoko's sword-happy nature is grating - even more so than Naru's own, and that's saying something.
At this point it's difficult to see how any of these characters' anime incarnations grew such fan followings. Hayashibara Megumi's Aunt Haruka is the program's highlight, but she's underused - which is probably a good thing, as it turns out.

The music is awful computer generated stuff that pierces the brain. The OP and ED are both sung by Hayashibara Megumi and are easily the greatest part of the program - the problem being that they're actually pretty poor edits of good songs.

There's nothing wrong with Love Hina's premise: it's been done, and done well, elsewhere (not naming any names, but the Love Hina manga is one such place ...). Here it's gimmicky, ugly and annoying. Yet I'm going to watch it through to the end - and even then, there's not going to be a resolution.

City Hunter - episodes 45 to 51

2004-09-26T19:11:00.000+10:00

Despite featuring one of the most pointless episodes in City Hunter history, there is also a grand return to and above form. The seedy side shows itself at the end; the bloody justice necessary for such a job as Ryo's shines. Also Ryo gets some of the best damn service out of Saeko that is humanly possible. Because really, when it all comes down to it, it's not about death and rough justice; it's about the mokkori.

There are two poor endings amongst the lot: the snow episode just stops, the pickpocket episode ends based on unrevealed information. The mokkori endings, however, are frequently hilarious. Mokkori, you see, has a miraculous restorative power. It is a power that can make women from pool sharks to nuns see the truth of their vocations.
The heroines are beginning to see right through Ryo, to the point that they are beginning the divine punishment themselves. Most clients are naïve, but put a pool cue in one of their hands and she'll dish out all that Ryo can take.

There's an episode about a widow, which brings up rare mention of good old Makimura. Kaori is a good example of mourning; not a day goes by when she doesn't remember her dear brother, but she barely ever feels the need to mention him. Ryo feels that it is important not to forget someone, but that it is unhealthy to let your memories consume you. We not only learn that, but also that combining Ryo with traps is a surefire recipe for hilarity. Saeko has a tab, and she finally uses her trademark knives.
The pool episode, when Ryo goes off to look for topless women, reminds one of the days when City Hunter did feature the topless on occasion. The third to last episode is a totally pointless exercise about a nun who gets drunk and loses her rosary. It has the memorable line "It is not my place to judge, Kaori, but men should not wear miniskirts", but not much else. There's something inherently wrong about Ryo hitting on a nun, and also with the background menu offering "Potato Cola". It was clearly an off week in preparation for the two part series finale, the best episodes of City Hunter yet.

The imagery that kicks off the final two episodes is excellent. The idea of Ryo as Makimura is the right way to look at things. Kaori takes it a bit farther than this, actually admitting jealousy. The line "I can be a beautiful woman, too" shows this. Ryo's problem is that out of respect for Makimura he can't let anything happen between himself and Kaori. It would just be too weird, as well.
The Lodos Mafia are the bad guys that Ryo is set against by the Nogami sisters. As it turns out, Makimura had been on their tail. Making Makimura a cop was a good idea because Saeko can bring unsolved cases to Ryo and spice some revenge into the deal. The Lodos Mafia look like they'll be back sometime later, but without one of their bosses (who looked exactly like the villain of Thunderball).
The episodes were great, not so much on a humour level as on a character and drama level; also to see Kaori in a tuxedo being chased by women. To see Ryo revert to his hardened self from before he met Kaori in order to save her was truly worthwhile. Ryo is by no means some "hitokiri battousai" or "Vash the Stampede". He chooses to operate in a world where people get killed. That he starts shooting without consciously trying not to kill was refreshing. Also, Umibozu pulled one of his flawless serious performances.

Even more bizarre than the M&M's Airplane is the ship owned by the Lodos Mafia, christened "Ys Falcom". It would be really interesting to know if this placement was actually paid for or if the animators just thought it would be fun. Maybe Falcom said "Hey, could you associate our game with drug smugglers in some way: perhaps a huge boat?"? It's possible.

Kamiya Akira's performance as Ryo has reached the point where it sounds out of place for him to make a smooth come on towards a woman. He's gone straight for the "Mokkori!" attack for so long now it is hard to even imagine him being reserved in his actions. Ikura Kazue's Kaori is so defined that she is able to do a spot on Ryo imitation. The two are really all about playing off each other, so this is a good thing.

City Hunter was a fine mokkori adventure with perhaps too few visits to the bloody side of being a sweeper. After this series, there's still much more to go. The final two episodes were the best cap you could ask for to the series, standing as two of the most well conceived, well balanced episodes of all - and not just about the mokkori. At the risk of openly contradicting myself within the space of one article, sometimes it's all about death and rough justice; not about the mokkori.

City Hunter - episodes 37 to 44

2004-09-21T20:38:00.000+10:00

City Hunter is not only the home of some happy mokkori and good two parters, it is also the home of M & M's. In this group of episodes there at least seven viewings of the branding, from Kaori's grocery bag, to a truck, to Ryo's toaster. His toaster, dangit!

The first two parter out of this set was about one of those old style, kimono wearing, yakuza warrior women. The scene where she goes to exact her revenge was poetic in its execution, and practically cried out for blood on the snow. City Hunter's weakest aspect is at its most obvious here: there is no sense of justice because, since Kaori came on to the scene, no one has been killed by Ryo. He lives in a section outside of the law where the only real way to teach a criminal is to kill him. It's not even as if he's taken an oath or anything, it's just sanitisation. Sometimes people whom Ryo has failed to put down have come back to get him in the same episode.
Consider that many criminals spend their time inside planning their next crime - consider that many are back in almost before they're out. Ryo's "stern admonition" approach to dealing with the underworld's ne'er do wells is highly ineffective.
This episode also highlights that sometimes it would be better if the hero or heroine could succeed without Ryo's intervention. It would be that much more effective if it could happen with just Ryo's guidance, not Ryo's "shooting direct into the barrel of the other guy's gun, thus making it explode" trick, which frankly wasn't that impressive all the other times.

The rest of the episodes had some great moments, including Ryo's way of showing up a gang of punk women (threatening to tell everyone in town the colour of their panties). Ryo is not only taken as a "baby-sitter", but sometimes as a vicarious boyfriend. These women, who invariably have not yet had a taste of the real world, for some reason look to this man as the ideal model of masculinity. On that note, only my mind could think that a woman could be cured of a grandfather-con by replacing it with shota-con.

The best episodes are always those which display the care and trust that Kaori and Ryo have for one another. That Ryo can make fun of Kaori while she's wielding a rocket launcher is proof that they are the best of friends. Their relationship is questionable though, because Kaori is always worrying about their lack of work. Is it due to lost credibility from Ryo going so soft? Somehow even the kids on the street know about City Hunter and play at being him; at least he's not instantly recognisable, which is a small mercy.
It's hoped that as the series progresses, Ryo will gain credibility, because he can't stay as he is. The OVAs look more like the serious side of City Hunter (or, depending on who you ask, the more creatively bankrupt).

Unsurprisingly, the specifically best episodes of this set were the two parter wherein justice was served. This episode tackled important questions such as "is it corruption if it's for a noble cause?" and "how do you fight corruption at the highest level?". This episode not only featured the major criminal getting what was coming to him, but also featured him killing one of his subordinates. I'll bring it up again, but the writers seem to think that killing someone is dehumanising. They have a point, but Ryo is too "human" for the profession. Softening is not good. The episode also does quite a job of answering its own improbabilities, which is something too infrequently dealt with all along the board. It also featured one of the best ending lines ever.

Ryo also works on his brilliant non-sequiturs: when everyone looks on him after he makes a mokkori move, he changes tact with "I say, waiter, what do you make of the latest developments in the Persian Gulf?" His abilities as "the man" are beyond doubt as he somehow manages to remove a bra without touching a woman.
Surprisingly for a program seventeen years old, only one thing seems out of date - the cultural reference to tanka: short poems. It just didn't seem to mean anything. It might still be in Japan, but it's not something that really has much cross over appeal and it seemed odd to base an episode around it in part. On the other hand, scissors paper rock baseball (featured in the same episode) is always fun, as is the smooth manner of Hayami Sho.

There was some great animation and design in the episode about the moon princess but, as always with City Hunter, this show is from a time when long shots weren't very good. Anything that's not a close up is low on detail and not that interesting. That's not to say that the whole thing is ugly - such shots are generally avoided - but it's not pleasant to watch those particular scenes.

City Hunter is undoubtedly enjoyable, but still feels like it needs more bite. Despite its seemingly high amount of fan service for the era, the violence seems less than was acceptable for the day. Not to say violence is cool, but it is necessary for the subject matter to mean something. Even though Ryo is the "good guy", he has to accept the way his world is. He can't tone it down on account of his partner who, coincidentally, has no problem with violence.

City Hunter - episodes 27 to 36

2004-09-19T17:13:00.000+10:00

City Hunter comes back from the enforced mid season break (due to the architecture of ADV's release) with a brand new OP! At first it's something that is no match for "Don't go away, my love", but "Go Go Heaven" grows on a person after a while. Sometimes it is played as an insert song, so it becomes quite enjoyable. The elegance of the Saeko animation is wortwhile, too. On the other hand, the "Get Wild" ED tradition increasingly demonstrates its limitations, with every episode ending on a freeze and pan. Some of them aren't even interesting freezes or pans, but rather arbitrarily chosen shots of not much.

Easily the best thing about these episodes is the increased role of Umibozu, the best comedy sweeper since Saeba Ryo. Well, not that that's saying much, but he's damned funny. Umibozu can take shots from a standard gun without sweating, and he's the best booby trapper in Japan - but he's terrified of kittens. When you get a situation where Umibozu wants to protect a girl, and Ryo wants to get to that girl, you have one of the greatest situations for comedy ever posed by City Hunter. Umibozu, like Ryo, also knows when and how to play it straight, so he's a perfectly flexible character. It's a crime that he is not included in the new OP, while Saeko is. Seventeen years on the statute of limitations is likely to have expired, and anyway it's something that is likely to have been fixed in the ensuing 100 plus episodes.
The point is that Umibozu is a great character, from the time he falls in love (because despite being the hardest man in Japan, he blushes in the presence of a beautiful woman) to the time that he referees a death match between Ryo and the underworld's most famous assassin. He's the sort of character who, when it is discovered he will be featured in an episode, you can't help but cheer.

The variety of situations Ryo is placed in are still pretty fresh but, as Umibozu remarks, "Ryo has been reduced to the level of a babysitter"; a lot of the times he just looks after women. The episodes with danger in them are the best because otherwise Ryo shows nothing but his soft side. The aforementioned Ryo versus Michael Gallant was a very high point and brought Umibozu and Saeko together, which is something to see.
The other interesting episode out of this was the biker gang, which showed that City Hunter can play around with genre, something admirable in anime. The scenery in this episode in particular showed a different side of the world, and not the underworld Kaori is used to ... although the "overworld" with the rich young girl was a bit generic. The fight scenes were great, and there was an ejnoyable resolution to be found.

City Hunter is a lot of fun to watch, and benefits from its sudden inclusion of two-parters. However, due to its lack of an underpinning story and, let's face it, the hardboiled gunfights and brazen killings of the earlier episodes, it's not straight out compelling and very infrequently gives that adrenalin rush that it needs to provoke.

Project A-Ko 4

2004-09-19T13:30:00.000+10:00

This is undoubtedly the best Project A-Ko since the first. What they appear to have done is taken Project A-Ko and turned it into a drama. That's right, a dramatic episode! Just what Moriyama was trying to do with his child is beyond me, but this entry works quite well - although, on closer examination, it might not actually make any sense.

Project A-ko 4 opens with a party of archaeologists digging in the ruins of Iraq (why Iraq is in ruins is anyone's guess, as this anime was made some time prior to the Gulf War) and discovering a tablet that prophesies the coming of an alien race to reclaim their Goddess. Their symbol is the Star of David - which of course raises the question "Jewish aliens?".
Coincidentally (or is it?!), Miss Ume - hard done by teacher of A-ko, B-ko and C-ko - wears a pendant around her neck that bears the very same Star of David (embellished with a heart in the middle). Further to this coincidence, an alien fleet is bearing down on Earth - their mother ship emblazoned with the Star of David!
These - of course, unrelated - events culminate in a story that involves Miss Ume's wedding to A-ko and B-ko's "true love", Kei, and C-ko's intense jealousy of all of A-ko's fun.
It doesn't take a lot of time to realise that in this case there isn't a whole lot of Judaism going on - this is anime, after all, and sometimes a symbol is just a symbol.

Project A-ko 4 isn't riotous, but it's well done. The archaeological dig scenes are presented in a mysterious fashion, the marriage interview is downright awkward, and its revealed that all of these characters actually have hearts. C-ko, world renowned for having the most piercing voice and no sense of what's happening around her, gets to show some depth. Her final scenes are actually, in some way, moving. A-ko and B-ko can actually cooperate when they see what is right, and really, everyone should be friends.
This also boasts the best animation out of the three followups.

So what Project A-ko boiled down to was the power of friendship. Nothing can match the original, but 4 was at least worth its while - with its unique atmosphere and interesting (and largely successful) attempts to lend depth to the characters. Moriyama was not attached to The Versus, so it still remains to be seen how that one went.

Tokyo Godfathers

2004-09-19T13:27:00.000+10:00

If enough coincidences converge, you end up with a narrative. Tokyo Godfathers is the ultimate in miracle movies, based almost entirely on the momentum of random events and chance encounters. The energy and free flowing nature of the story make for a truly enjoyable film.

On Christmas Eve, three homeless people - a middle aged man, a disgraced transvestite, and a run away teenage girl - find a baby as they fossick in the trash. Caught between taking "Kiyoko" to the police, keeping her or finding her parents themselves, they embark on a frequently hilarious and sometimes touching Christmas/New Year adventure.

The three homeless represent all walks of life (well, three), and have their own reasons for not having homes - mixtures of pride, shame and fear. Gin, Hana and Miyuki make an unlikely family unit, but that's exactly what they are: a family. Again, they all have their own reasons for being in this group, and for taking in the baby rather than going straight to the police. Their choice to search for Kiyoko's parents leads to a series of increasingly unlikely events and further transvestites.
Kon's way of story telling lends itself very strongly to the art of spoiler, so to say exactly what the three get up to would take a lot of the fun out of the movie. The unexpected nature of everything and how it all fits is just one part of the joy. The huge amount of divine intervention is guaranteed to make anyone happy.

Kon Satoshi seems adamant that he's not going to make the same anime twice; three completely different films make up his present cinematic ouevre, not counting the projects that he did production work on. Kon has not embarked on this film with his previous writing partner, Murai Sadayuki, instead joining chief Cowboy Bebop scenario writer Nobumoto Keiko in creating this significantly different, yet still warm, movie.
It would be very easy to be annoyed by the way everything happens: the proximity of such totally unlikely events can wear down one's patience in the wrong frame of mind. Two things must be remembered: this is how movies work, and there is a greater power in force. Laughs, joy and a few tears are wrung out of this system which is smooth and shows no signs of contrivance.
The film isn't entirely unrealistic: some of the obvious harsh sides of being homeless are shown, and there would be no emotional impact if the characters didn't have some sort of reason for being on the streets. The action packed finale deals with what is actually a quite serious issue.

Tokyo Godfathers is neat, but not entirely so. There are a few threads, but everything is looking up come the final scene. Ultimately, it's a film designed to raise a few questions but to mainly make the viewer feel good (and not in the horrible "I'm glad I'm not homeless" way). Whatever it is that Kon set out to do, he succeeded. It's hard to pin this movie down as any one thing: it's the ultimate friendship movie, it's the quintessential holiday movie, it's a rollicking action comedy, it's a brief foray into the world of organised crime. It's really a little bit of everything, a beautiful whole.

Visually, Tokyo Godfathers is what you'd expect of Kon, while being nothing like his previous works in presentation. Gin and Hana have been on the streets for years and look rough, but Miyuki looks like her health hasn't failed her yet - she's just become a lot skinnier. The world isn't divided along the lines of the beautiful and the ugly, the rose and its thorns. Everything makes up a part of the world without seeming out of place or set to too high a contrast. On a couple of occasions the lines blur when things seem just that little bit more unreal - there is a character who lives in squalor in his own home who isn't taking any sort of realistic approach to life, so he doesn't appear like a real person for the time when he doesn't have himself together. It's a very short part of the film, but it's really quite noticeable.
The rest of the film is filled with nice, easy to miss visual gags and interesting cuts (although, of course, not the free flow editing of eras present in Millennium Actress). Kon's films are again not just interesting on a story level: they're really quite fun to watch - the faces that the Tokyo Godfathers pull are excellent evidence of this.

Come December, if there really is a place for the "Christmas Movie", Tokyo Godfathers needs to hit big (the decision to release it on December 29 2003 in the US was decidedly odd). This movie is filled with "Christmas spirit", a spirit that has nothing to do with either Jesus or commercialism. It is a perfect "season" movie, capturing the true essence of good will towards men (and women, and transvestites).

Chance Pop Session - Episodes 6 to 13

2004-09-13T21:55:00.000+10:00

Chance Pop Session took a turn around episode seven. No longer content with being a look at people getting into the industry, it shed its single ambition and split into a highly, perhaps overly, dramatic story about characters and coincidence. The emphasis must be placed on coincidence because the series did indeed become very chancey. If the title didn't include the word "chance", then it would almost be unforgiveable.

The revelations start right from episode six; the three only just became a trio and already the chances start piling up. The biggest flaw with this is that those in question should really be more surprised; in fact, for so many different revelations to these characters, they take it all in their stride. There's enough variety that they can't be excused for being desensitized.
One of the biggest surprises is quite out of the ordinary for this series - that is, not "fate", or "destiny" guided it. It just happens, and actually quite believably so. The situation could have seemed contrived, but it was less so than it could have been. The rest of the secrets are on a scale of predictabilities that slowly builds into an avalanche of drama that has very little to do with song but quite a lot to do with character.
However, the trio of girls are surprisingly not the most developed characters. The duo of Reika and Kisaragi are the most interesting of all situations. The two are so like mother and daughter and their closeness is precisely why they hurt each other. They believe that they know best and so they attempt to grant independence. They're not like a manager and talent, they go beyond that. During the series Kisaragi and the girls don't get to reach that peak; they don't get to connect with many people rather than each other.
Nice other things include Otoki and Hikoza's attraction and the scenes with Nozomi's family - which are alternately infuriating, funny and sad. There's a slight tone of tragedy around the vaguely religious sheen of the series. As for the religion, it's not even very Christian as Akari has a small shrine to honour the dead in her bedroom next to a chapel.
All very interesting. Of note on the music front is that Nozomi suffers a 'wardrobe malfunction'.

The songs become more naturally integrated and also more varied. The trio really does come across as a group that gets along and would naturally perform together and maybe get hits. The presentation of most of their songs is interesting, although their flagship song is not all that it is hyped up to be: it's simply the OP inserted into the program. Ironically it makes it sound more manufactured than it already is; the overplaying makes it seem lacking in energy and the truly bizarre animation that accompanies their stage performances of this "Pure Blue" is a case for bewilderment; what's more is that for a group that is supposed to be about playing off each other, the song focuses on Akari's vocals (perhaps more accurately, Iizuka Mayumi) and detracts from the idea of R-3.
Still, the song production in general grows into a good mixture; "Love Forever" starts to pack an emotional punch, and it becomes clear just how clever Reika's song choice was.

It all started with a concert: a concert that would bond these women together for life. One Chance Pop Session, if you will, blossomed into this series of new and wonderful experiences for all involved. There are secrets, there are tragic pasts, and there are redemptions. The second half of this series was indeed different to the first, but definitely for the better.

Geobreeders Breakthrough

2004-09-04T15:23:00.000+10:00

After the original action packed Geobreeders comes its sequel, Geobreeders Breakthrough (real name Geobreeders 2). Director Moriyama Yuji, perhaps one of Japan's greatest producers of "hits and misses" (being responsible for both the genius Project A-ko and its lacklustre sequels), said that because he had four episodes this time he wanted to make a more complex story. How he thought he had done this is beyond me - because he patently hasn't.

Geobreeders Breakthrough begins with the folks of Kagura Total Security moving into their new offices. Umezaki, the Crimson Shooting Star, is targeted for assassination and the office is almost instantly destroyed. After this, the now homeless company goes off to find the person who has hired them for their latest job.
Unfortunately their car is destroyed at the end of the first episode, and they spend the following three wandering in the jungles of Japan looking for civilisation. Meanwhile the Phantom Cats have some sort of evil agenda and the government agency Hound tries to destroy them. This leads to some action scenes but not a whole lot of sense as there is no sense of character and the main characters are just wandering around.

Moriyama Yuji has created an almost entirely directionless four episode OVA. This was designed to be set after the Geobreeders manga, so it has to make a little bit of sense. It doesn't have the shield of being based on a preexisting story to fill in the gaps. The main part with the phantom cats seemed like nothing more than a flimsy backdrop for having a few action scenes which, while well executed, would be much more enjoyable with some context behind them. The wandering lent itself to some good comedy, but no story. And three episodes' worth of it wore. It wore thin quite quickly, and some of the characters got fewer than a couple of lines and didn't get to do anything.
The villain, as far as I know, didn't have a name and government agent Irie was as infuriatingly smug and cryptic as he was in the first OVA.

The fan service is a little lacking; there's two brief onsen scenes and a seemingly inserted shot of Himehagi's seatbelt. It's just put in rather than thought out, and there's not a lot of it. This was animated towards the start of the digital revolution and as a result bears a lot of the soft focus look that anime produced around that time had. It can appear a bit painful to the eyes because of this, but the character designs are slightly better than that of the original production. The best example of what this series looks like is Excel Saga, which was produced by Victor at the same time and promoted in tandem. The animation is by no means bad, it's just fuzzy. There's some noticeable CG that isn't ugly but isn't particularly useful, the OP is the same as the first OVA (which, for some reason, seems unforgiveable), and the ED doesn't make much sense but refers to a great Japanese comedy act of days long past.

Geobreeders Breakthrough makes one wonder what the point was at the end; what, exactly, happened. It's not offensive to watch and it's not bland to the point of nothingness; it's simply a directionless adventure with a few moments. Not exactly recommended, but not consigned to the bonfire.

Chance Pop Session - Episodes 1 to 5

2004-09-02T22:24:00.000+10:00

Chance Pop Session (AKA Chance Triangle Session) is sport anime. Except instead of sport, we're thrown into the bitchy, feel good, cut throat, exhilarating world of Japanese pop music! Everything, in the end, boils down to sport. The thing that I love about sport anime is the raw emotion and occasional over dramatics that go with it.

It is said that only those upon whom the Angel of Music smiles have the true star power to survive in an industry. Each year, young girls are lured into the light to see if they have what it takes to make it. Three such girls happen to meet at the concert of their idol, Reika. The three of them are inspired to sing for different reasons and they all decide to enrol in the singing school owned by Reika's manager as a result. Being a chance meeting, they don't make anything of it. But because it's all about chance, they're of course drawn together once more, eventually and inevitably at the school.

The three characters are from different backgrounds; Akari is the ward of a priest who doesn't approve of her following a pop career (unfortunately, all of the Footloose jokes have been expended), Nozomi the spoiled rich girl and Yuki the self made woman.
The first major refreshment is that all three of them don't actually get into the school. Yuki has her tuition money stolen on the way and instead builds a following as a member of a street band. The way that she chooses to stop her worrying and take action is somewhat inspirational rather than the self pitying or stoic paths she could have taken. The three aren't actually together until episode five of thirteen.
They're significantly different enough and have drives: Nozomi's is the most directionless as she only wants to be in the school to meet Reika, her true idol. In this ambition she is aided by Hikoza, her flat topped butler/personal assistant who brings much comedy to the program by his presence and unwavering loyalty. The images that are conjured as he makes his gambits are frequently memorable, and there's nothing suspicious about his frequent excursions to a school populated by bright young things. Akari wants to lift people's souls and Yuki ... just wants to make something of herself whatever way she can.

Chance Pop Session showcases the internal contradictions of the industry (always referred to literally as "this world", but subtitled as "this industry"), that works despite itself. At the same time, the music companies want to promote conformity among their talent while also trying to make them breakout artists. Yuki's independent streak is stifled as she is put into a uniform. There's nothing wrong with "unity", as such, and that is something good to go for in a band. But this series is about inspiration of young women, each whom are supposed to find their own voice. This idea of a production trio of singers makes even less sense in consideration of Kisaragi, who has set Reika free to manage her own career. While there's no doubt that these singers need someone to help shape them, Kisaragi is simply repeating herself.
This is not a criticism of the program so much as it is the industry itself, and this program is more realistic in some areas than others: the real problem most perceive is that the singing school is not just a scheme to make quick money from impressionable girls - some of these academies have to be genuine, and no one ever questioned a dance school. The most correct thing portrayed is the horrible, horrible bitches who work within the school. There's really no other word for them; if one was feeling charitable, they might be "ambitious". Jun isn't bitchy so much as singleminded, but there's a clique of three. You can tell they're no good because they're always scowling. It's the light and dark; every rose has its thorns, and so forth. They will probably be put in their place.
The uniquely Japanese part of the experience must also be taken into account: it's easy to get a sizeable fan following in such a densely packed population. Yuki had more than 85,000 hits on her fansite, and through this she got noticed. Of course, idols' flames burn bright, but that means they can fade into obscurity all the easier. This series therefore seems to offer a precarious balance between reality and fantasy; it shows the harsh possibilities without trying to scare off any young hopefuls, for this was also used as a kind of promotional material.

The visual style is interesting; the main characters have "frog mouths" that become unnoticeable after a while, there's a lack of black "definement" around characters, giving them a sort of brown finish, and some characters have double lined hair. Kisaragi is a decidedly harsh looking woman, almost always shown in profile. She was an idol in her youth, so this might be showing that beauty is fleeting. The effect given is like a minimalistic sixties' French fashion illustration: she's an image of almost grotesque glamour. The singing school in some regards makes no sense whatsoever: most of the girls just wear normal clothes but Akari seems to get around in a swimsuit and Nozomi in a leotard. It's not clear what possible purpose this could serve, and seems quite uncomfortable.
There are techniques involved that made me cry out with joy "Yes! I can't believe they did that!". The two most prominent examples are Jun, the selfish member of the S Class, suggesting something terrible and then highlighting her with lightning and later on Reika being revealed as standing in the shadows, in time for the rain to stop and bathe her in glorious light. I love a well employed visual technique; when used correctly, they're not cliché. There's more than a share of subtlety reserved for this program, however; particularly nice were some of the comments left on Yuki's site.

The music is good, as one would hope it should be, but those who don't like J-Pop need not apply. The only problem is that there's not enough of it. Reika has one song. An artist can't make themself successful on the strength of one song. Would you go to a Men At Work concert and expect them to play Down Under and then leave? Admittedly, you wouldn't be able to name any of their other songs, but you'd expect a bit more of a show. Of course, that can be left aside when it becomes obvious that Reika is at the History stage of her career: that is, she has worked long enough to be able to release a compilation album. The girls are asked by Kisaragi to sing a song, and it turns out to be the OP. That's cheap, that is. Or deep, not quite sure which. They'd better have some insert songs, however, or there will be disappointment.

The voice cast is peopled by those who can actually sing, which is quite handy. The darling Iizuka Mayumi plays a sweet Akari, the frequently unpopular Yamamoto Maria plays a deliberately annoying (but still good) Nozomi and the relatively unscathed Enomoto Atsuko plays a strong, empowered Yuki. Kouda Mariko is a nice Reika learning to perform for herself. She was Hanako-san, so she's just dandy. Kumai Motoko, probably best known for her role as Li Shaoran in Cardcaptor Sakura is completely unrecognisable in the role of Otoki, a nice old woman. There's not much to complain about on this front. The series may have aired at 1:30 AM, but that doesn't mean no effort went into it.

Chance Pop Session is easily on the road to inspiration. Unfortunately it hinges on something so subjective as music, so if you're not a big fan of J-Pop and have too realistic a view of the industry it might not work. Also, for a series about music it doesn't actually have very many songs. Hopefully the characters, and as a result their repertoires, will expand. It is almost undoubted that they will.

City Hunter - episodes 8 to 26

2004-08-31T21:12:00.000+10:00

One, two, mokkori. One, two, mokkori ...

City Hunter somewhere down the track seems to have lost a lot of its serious treatment. The blame can rest almost squarely on Kaori’s 10, 100 and 1000 ton hammers. With a woman beating Ryo up at every move he makes, the poor City Hunter’s chances for mokkori with any of the beautiful women in his clientele drastically fall.
The series also takes more turns into the surreal with a psychic gambler, a shrine maiden, a transvestite gangland boss and far, far too many instances of Ryo shooting right into the barrels of his opponent’s guns … from a block away ... than is strictly believable.
The most gritty realism comes from ... well, there is no gritty realism any more. While Ryo may be a good guy beneath all the lechery, he's not given much of a chance to show his caring side. He meets a kid from a war torn land and is charged with corrupting him, but the kid is really just a pervert at heart anyway. Of course, he's not entirely without his sensitive side; the movie episode and the romance course episode showcased some of his more tactful ways of dealing with women. It can only be hoped that the fact neither episode contains any real danger is simple coincidence.
There are instances when the episodes don’t make much sense: episodes where the bad guys were actually good, despite having earlier piloted an attack helicopter and made Ryo’s car explode.

The episodes offer some pretty good situations among the bizarre, such as the tried and true "Police and stalker pop idol" routine. This is mainly handled with the seriousness that it deserves, but also with the intensely odd notion of confusing a gift of brass knuckles with an engagement ring. There's not really that much more that can be said.

There’s a disappointing dearth of Umibozu scenes – so few as to the point of none - but there’s another recurring character who has been introduced. Nogami Saeko is a police officer and, to Ryo, is poison. No other woman knows how to manipulate Ryo in such a fashion as she. Saeko’s chief tactic is to offer sweet mokkori compensation for whatever task she wants the City Hunter to do. She’s just smart enough, however, to never give him anything. The cases that Saeko takes on are among the more interesting, particularly as she’s the dame for these episodes and no new character with some sort of hidden beauty has to be introduced.
Between Saeko and Kaori, however, it’s unclear if Ryo will ever get any mokkori ever again. Ryo’s failure to be totally emasculated by this pair probably says something about his strength of character. He’ll go on chasing the mokkori no matter how many hammers are thrown his way (and Kaori’s a pretty good shot). Also of note are the "Kaori is a man" jokes, which are becoming increasingly elaborate, hilarious and ludicrous. She was thrown out of a change room as a peeping tom!

Kamiya Akira has, in the time between seriousness, become a master of the pratfall. The sounds that he makes when he gets thrown out of windows or what have you are priceless and not so much accurate as appropriate.

City Hunter is very much a "just one more" series. It's easy to consume it in vast quantities because it calls to you. Each episode is surprisingly different, despite the constancy of Ryo's mokkori hunts and Kaori's hammerings. There's not a heck of a lot of growth, though, and so comedy continues to be the hardest genre to write for.

Project A-Ko 3

2004-08-30T22:23:00.000+10:00

This is better. It's not hilarious, but it's kind of nice to watch.
Project A-ko 3 is about A-ko taking a job in order to pay off C-ko's debts over the holidays, or something like that, and falling in love with a biker who actually loves C-ko. Of course, because A-ko loves this guy, Kei, B-ko has to have a piece of him, too. That's all this is about, but the key is that it doesn't aim too high.

Firstly, there's some stunning originality here: for the first time in what seems like forever, the burger place does not in any way look like McDonald's. The intro is a totally unexpected sepia toned pool tournament which turns out to be both quite stylish and also C-ko's ultimate fantasy. I suppose there's got to be something to the girl. There's also a funny but ultimately pointless mobilisation sequence. It's more than forgiveable by virtue of its coolness and the sapphic nudity encountered along the way (at this point, you may curse this DVD's uncappable nature). B-ko's mission makes some sense, and the treatment of her gang was actually pretty cool this time around. Hayashibara Megumi even gets a couple of grunts out of her role as fat girl Ume.
The true highlight is A-ko's fashion show, which shows some rare visual creativity.

The production values are significantly better than its predecessor, employing actual colours, and containing an insert song performed by the A-ko, B-ko and C-ko trio. The ED song (which might not be an ED at all, as it was set to footage of from Project A-ko 2) fares less well as it's an English language song by Bébe. Hot Hot Hurricane and so on. It doesn't make much sense and isn't very eighties. The rest of the music was mercifully recycled from Project A-ko or was simply not bad at all.
The translation isn't perfect, in one major regard that I could see. Firstly it translated "cola" as "coke". The important part was that it made a joke less funny, translating B-ko's "My first man" into "My first love". B-ko is at her most "sexual" in this OVA, which admittedly isn't very sexual but the strongest admission of her leanings you're ever likely to find.

After Project A-ko 3 came, unsurprisingly, Project A-ko 4 - but thereafter came Project A-ko the Versus: an alternate reality series about bounty hunters. Yes, this series quite clearly lasted forever. This effort may be light, but at least it's there.

Millennium Actress

2004-08-28T22:27:00.000+10:00

Millennium Actress is a film that proves that a story is sometimes not as important as the way it is told. This is a great story as it is, but Kon Satoshi's unique directing style raises it to a true work of genius.

On the event of the destruction of the influential film studio Ginei, an independent documentary maker manages to secure an interview with Fujiwara Chiyoko, their most prominent actress, who had become a recluse some thirty years earlier. The thing is that the director, Genya, is one of Chiyoko's biggest fans, and he has something very important to give her: the key that she wore around her neck in her youth, which sets her off on the story of her life.
Chiyoko is such a charismatic person, however, that she draws interviewer and camera man into her past. She doesn't just show them, they start to participate. She takes them from the day when she was sixteen and met the man who gave her the key, until the time she left the business forever, all the while hoping to find that man.

This is not straight flash back storytelling, and very little of it is narrated. Chiyoko tells her story as if it’s just happening, and the lines between fiction and reality blur very finely as her films seemed to be an extension of her journey and ambition.
Chiyoko never intended to go into films, she just saw them as the easiest way to find the Man with the Key. The films blend together seamlessly, with Chiyoko crossing from one period to another and taking the rest of the characters with her. There is even a scene that Genya remembers, despite it being taken from Chiyoko’s real life. Genya has been an expert student on her work for so long that he takes on the role of her protector.
The characters translate into the screen roles really well, even if they weren't actually in the films and were only vaguely in the timline. There are two 'natural' actresses - Chiyoko and Eiko - and the cameraman is one of nature's observers. This role is probably Onosaka Masaya's finest. His exasperation and growing interest are palpable.

Sometimes the fantasy wears off, and Genya is just a man playing with an old woman. At first this may seem to jar, but it somehow makes the whole thing seem more real in the long run - that the seventy year old Chiyoko has lived through all this and retained such vivid memories. It becomes both a true encouragement and also makes her story just that little sadder. While it's a generally joyous work, there are some truly heartrending moments. It's not tragic, however; Chiyoko was fulfilled by her neverending search. It gave her ambition and drive. The fact that she could not stand the drudgery of a stationary housebound marriage is proof that she's not just in need of "a man".
The multiple layers of the film aren’t truly realised until the end – the profundity of Genya’s role can’t be appreciated until it has all been taken in. He is too humble to admit the role that he has played in Chiyoko’s life, and his love for her is more than the simple idolisation that it can be initially taken for. There's so much energy that it's impossible not to enjoy.

Kon is a master of storytelling; this may be only his second film, but he worked very diligently on anime throughout the eighties and nineties. He is not just a narrative, but also a visual storyteller. This film is as rich in imagery as it is in plot, the two of them inextricably linked in such a way that there would not be any point in simply transcribing it. This is a film that must have been a true joy to create, to realise, as yet another vindication of the animated form. Anime is really an excellent medium, and Kon is one of the modern generation's best extollers of this very virtue. Of course, there's very little point in describing a painting. It simply has to be seen.

Millennium Actress is practically impossible to describe without giving it completely away. It's a beautiful tribute to Japanese film, and also to life. Quite apart from the blank thirty years, Chiyoko practically built a film studio - figuratively speaking, of course - despite her ultimately selfish goals, she gave a lot. It's a film too good and delicate to extrapolate on without ruining. Take the cliché to heart and experience this film.
I only use that one when I mean it.