I’ve been catching up on the English releases of the Blue Periodmanga, and I’ve come to a few realizations.
I Really Like Miki Kinemi
Miki first appears while Yatora is taking the Tokyo University of the Arts entrance exam, and her design stood out to me. Her stocky frame and soft features left a lasting impression on me, and I hoped she would become a recurring character. I’m glad my wish turned out to be true.
Miki’s positive personality and enthusiasm for painting, the way she wears her heart on her sleeve, and the way she tries to take on others’ burdens (sometimes to her own detriment) make for an endearing character. Her body type is also a rarity in manga, and I’m very impressed by the author, Yamaguchi Tsubasa, and her ability to draw Miki so well. I’m a real fan—of both Yamaguchi and Miki.
Actually, They’re All Really Attractive
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that pretty much all the characters in Blue Period are charming in their own way. Girls, guys, gender nonconforming, they all exhibit a real spark of life that is facilitated by their respective visual designs but also goes beyond their appearance. They’re not attractive simply because they have XYZ physical and personality features but because they feel very human—beautiful and ugly and trying to navigate the world with the tools they have. Some of those tools are the result of their own work, but some have been forced upon them.
When I see a character show up again, I can get a tingle in my spine.
When you get them to bounce off one another, it’s like magic. Or art. One of my favorite things in manga is seeing really deep and dynamic character interaction, and Blue Period has this in spades. The subject matter probably helps, as these artists (from veterans to beginners) are look within while also peering into the souls of others for the sake of their work, or they try to run away and inadvertently do so anyway.
Is Blue Period Now One of My Favorite Manga?
I’ve thought highly of it for a long time, but now I like it even more. So yes, probably.
Sound! Euphonium 3 concludes a nine-year journey that follows the students of the Kitauji High School Music Club through the drama of high school and band competition. Taken in isolation, this season feels like the end of an era. Factoring in the tragedies that the studio Kyoto Animation has gone through, it’s one of the greatest victories ever.
Euphonium player Oumae Kumiko and her friends are now the seniors, and have thus gone from newbies to leaders. For Kumiko, that’s more than literal; she’s now the president. They’ve seen the club go from recreational to competitive, and they have one more chance to earn what has eluded them the past two years: gold at nationals. But a few challenges lie ahead, like trying to guide the club as its veterans, and figuring out what their respective futures in music (if any) looks like. Kumiko also meets a transfer student named Mayu who’s a euphonium player herself, and she has to think about the degree to which this final year is meant to be her own time in the spotlight or Kitauiji’s.
Can the club hold together and win nationals, or will it fall apart before even making it back?
In preparation for this review, I read through my old posts about Sound! Euphonium. Seeing where Season 3 begins in comparison really highlights the fact that these characters have each gone on their own journeys while part of a greater overall adventure. Kumiko now sees herself as a euphonium player through and through, and her previous ambivalence about music has made way for a different type of ambivalence focused more on what comes next. Trumpeter Kousaka Reina has gone from upstart prodigy to the central pillar of the club, where her unmatched skill, no-nonsense attitude, and unwavering dedication to music positions her as an intimidating yet inspiring upperclassman. Kawashima “Midori” Sapphire has become the gentle but firm mentor to a fellow contrabass player. And Katou Hazuki, who had joined the club on a lark and with no musical experience, can now play the tuba with consistent confidence. They can all display genuine skill with their instruments now, despite how differently they began.
Being the veterans also means new obstacles. One is the fact that the first-years did not go through the fires of change with their teacher, Taki-sensei, and don’t understand why the older members revere him. Another is that Kumiko and the others have managed to rehabilitate the school’s reputation to the point that some students enroll specifically to join the music club, and so many already have entrenched ideas of what to expect. With the main cast as the seniors, they’re now in a place where they are the most mature people in the room.
At the same time, the third year of high school in Japan also traditionally marks the end of immaturity. Kumiko struggles with envisioning her future, which is made all the more difficult by the fact that Reina is ready to dedicate the rest of her life to reaching greater heights in music. The previous club leaders can seem like giants who had it all figured out, so why does it seem so different now? The transition from childhood to adulthood underlies this final season. It feels genuine, and I find myself reminiscing a bit about what it was like.
Five years have passed since I last watched any Sound! Euphonium, so it’s hard for me to directly compare this concluding season with the previous entries. Even so, I think it holds up to my memories of the anime and as a work unto itself. But when you’re aware of the catastrophes that Kyoto Animation faced—namely an arson attack that claimed the lives of over 30 people and injured dozens of others as well, and then COVID-19—Sound! Euphonium 3 is a true triumph for everyone involved. The fact that they had such devastating setbacks and managed to pull off a final season that looks and feels so satisfying really speaks to how great KyoAni is at spreading institutional knowledge and making sure it’s not just the veterans who hoard all the glory. When it comes to both the Kitauji High School Music Club and Kyoto Animation, understanding the importance of passing the torch is paramount.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba’s Hashira Training Arc has just finished, acting as the prelude to the end. There’s a controversy over its pacing (namely that it streeetches out what is a brief section of the manga despite relatively little source material), but I’d like to put that aside to talk about what I think is the most important moment from the season—one that highlights a core aspect of the main antagonist, Kibutsuji Muzan.
In the final episode of the Hashira Training Arc, Muzan confronts the head of the Demon Slayer Corps, Ubuyashiki Kagaya, who is bedridden and not long for the world. The eternally youthful Muzan mocks Ubuyashiki for his physical deterioration, only for Ubuyashiki to speak about Muzan’s obsession with his own immortality. The demon slayer leader juxtaposes this obsession with the driving animus of the Demon Slayer Corps: though it may consist of mortals, their collective will to defeat the demons lives on. In contrast, the demons rely entirely on Muzan for their continued existence. If he perishes, so too will they.
There lies the inherent opposition between the group structure of demon slayers vs. demons. Muzan has created a system where he alone holds all the cards, going beyond even the most tyrannical despot. And not only does he view his minions as property, he is unwilling to cede any degree of power to them if it is not under his full control. Whereas Ubuyashiki’s followers come to respect him for his compassion and determination, the demons cower in abject fear of Muzan because they are nothing without him. The Demon Slayer Corps legacy carries on, and not simply through childbirth. Instead, it is accomplished primarily through teaching and raising the next generation to be better.
The difference between Ubuyashiki and Muzan comes down to selfishness. It’s the boss who expects everyone to be at their beck and call, the narcissistic parental figure who demands their children listen to them just because, the political leader who passes laws to benefit themselves rather than their citizens. It didn’t have to be the case that toppling Muzan ends the demons, but the man set it up that way, mistakenly believing his weakness to be strength. As we now await the final movie trilogy to conclude Demon Slayer, I’m interested in seeing how this all plays out.
Things are looking dire in the United States because of the recent Supreme Court decision that grants presidents broad powers with few if any checks. I will admit that I’m very concerned about this, but all I will say is that those who think they’ll be safe from abuse of power are fooling themselves. Independence and freedom don’t just mean “I can do whatever the hell I want, even if others suffer for it.”
I hope that talking about anime will provide some comfort as I think about what to do next.
The summer anime season is officially upon us, and there’s lots of anime being remade and revived right now. The one I’m looking forward to most is Kinnikuman: Perfect Origin Arc, which is based on the 2011 continuation of the original Kinnikuman manga. Based on the promotional materials, I feel like it actually has a chance of getting some real traction with a modern audience. Might Kinnikuman be the next JoJo in the English-speaking market?
I hope so.
Thank you to the following Patreon supporters for the month:
This hololive VTuber has now been published in Hana to Yume magazine!
Kio Shimoku
He has an artbook coming out soon! He talks about this and more in his tweets.
Closing
A lot of hololive birthdays and concerts happened in June, but I think the ones I want to point out most are the Japanese 1st Generation’s 6th anniversary concert (featuring Haachama) and the Gawr Gura 2024 city-pop-themed birthday concert. Not only did La+ show up as a guest, but Gura actually threw in a reference to Legend of the Galactic Heroes!
Kio is going to have an artbook! (I wonder if this is why he’s been posting high-quality images of his old art over the past year or so.) More details here.
He wondered when would be the right time to release the book, and reflects on the fact that it’s been 30 years since he started his manga career.
Kio has a color illustration job deadline coming up, so he’s been plugging away at it little by little. He thinks he can finish in time. That said, he has a lot of other work due the week after. It also means he can’t work on his ero manga.
Terry and Mai from Fatal Fury will be in Street Fighter 6. Kio is surprised at the news. One commenter says they’re looking forward to seeing Sue in SF in 15 years, to which Kio says maybe in 30.
It turns out this drawing from last month is for the cover to the artbook! It’s one of his characters from an older work (I think the Yonensei/Gonensei series?).
Kio bought all of the original Oblivion Battery manga out, only to find out that it doesn’t progress as quickly as the anime. Now, he wishes he stuck with just the anime.
There’s a Yasuhiko Yoshikazu and Koizumi Yuu exhibit titled “Modern Japan and Russia/Soviet.” Kio couldn’t go the previous day but has decided to check it out.
While waiting for a Pre-DLC Elden Ring update to download, Kio works on his ero manga and gets a page done. He’s also wondering how the hell he’s listening to an audio book of Buddha’s Teachings while working on said 18+ comic,
Otomo Katushiro is releasing an album called Akira Remix. The Otomo recent cel exhibition was playing music from it, and Kio remembers going to the exhibition and hearing the music the whole time.
Kio Shimoku, author of Genshiken, recently announced that he’s going to be releasing an artbook collecting his work from across his 30-year career! It will also include an interview with him.
The book is titled Kio Shimoku Gashuu: Mata Ashita, Bushitsu de—Kio Shimoku Art Collection: See You Tomorrow in the Clubroom. It’s being released by Fukkan, a Japanese publisher that specializes in niche specialty books and reviving out-of-print titles.
While the book is available for pre-order on other Japanese sites, pre-ordering on Fukkan’s site will get you a set of A4-sized replica illustrations of Kio’s work. And if you do it by July 16 (JST), then you can enter to win an autograph from the man himself!
Unfortunately, Fukkan will only ship domestically, so if you live outside of Japan, you’ll need to use a third party. Just keep in mind that with the pre-order bonus, shipping might be pretty killer!
In a sports anime where relationships on the court are centrally important, the defining team rivalry of Haikyu! is undoubtedly Karasuno vs. Nekoma. In Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle, it all comes to a head as the two face off in the big inter-high tournament.
While the high-flying Hinata Shoyo is generally the star of the series, this movie feels like one where his friend and longest rival, Nekoma’s setter Kozume Kenma, is the actual main character. A significant amount of time is spent exploring his history and inner world, elaborating on how he started playing volleyball, and what has kept him in the sport despite his dislike of physical exertion. It’s because the film is basically an adaptation of a small chunk of the manga, but I appreciate that its story can be told in a way that really shines the spotlight on Kenma and adds a new perspective on his relationship with Hinata, as well as with Kenma’s own teammates.
The two schools are set up as equal but opposite forces. The Karasuno duo are the high-flying spiker Hinata and the technical setter Kageyama, while Nekoma’s main pair consists of the quietly analytical setter Kenma and the psychology-oriented Kuroo. Whereas Karasuno focuses on heavy aerial offense meant to overwhelm, Nekoma stays primarily grounded and defensive, strategically picking apart opponents. It’s a little on-the-nose, with the whole “ravens vs. cats” imagery, but there’s nothing wrong with that if it’s executed well.
What I especially like about this film is the fact that it’s all about a single match, and the majority of it is spent in competition. It reminds me of theGirls und Panzer films, which also take the time to depict long, drawn-out battles where two sides try to outwit and trap each other. Production I.G. goes out of its way to make the volleyball look amazing, even sometimes making it feel like you’re right there on the court.
Despite obviously being meant for people who have been watching Haikyu!! from the start, I actually think a non-fan could come into this pretty easily. They might assume that Kenma is the protagonist, and might not get all the running gags, but The Dumpster Battle is just a fine piece of sports fiction that just also happens to include lots of handsome dudes.
Ruth Stiles Gannett, author of the My Father’s Dragon trilogy, passed away on June 11 at the age of 100. I can’t overstate how important she was to my early childhood.
My elementary school was part of a program to encourage reading, and we could choose one book to take home. I was in first grade, and I decided on The Dragons of Blueland (the third in the trilogy after Elmer and the Dragon) despite the fact that it was meant for sixth graders—I think I wanted to show that I was smart enough to tackle a tougher book. It ended up being the very first novel I ever finished, as well as the first book I could truly call my own.
I probably would not have written about Gannett’s death for this blog, but I’ve come to learn that Gannett is actually quite beloved in Japan—possibly even more than in the United States, where she was born.
I actually first learned about Gannett’s passing because I was browsing Twitter and saw Gaogaigar director Yonetani Yoshitomo post an image of a large statue depicting the titular dragon, Boris. It was quoting another tweet mentioning the news. When I tried to look for a source, the only ones showing up were Japanese sites.
It turns out that My Father’s Dragon was published in Japan in 1963 as Elmer no Bouken (“Elmer’s Adventure”), 15 years after it was originally released in English. In 1966, it was adapted into a puppet play for the NHK show Ningyougeki(“Puppet Theater”), and then into an anime film in 1997. Yonetani’s photo above came from a My Father’s Dragonexhibit that’s been touring Japan. And just looking through Youtube, someone created and uploaded their own puppet show version in 2010, which has a lot of views for a very small channel.
As an aside, there’s also a 2022 Netflix film from the makers of The Secret of Kells. I haven’t see it, though.
When I was in first grade, I hadn’t yet developed a keen interest in Japanese culture. Looking back, I do find it funny that this author who made such a huge impact on my life would be so celebrated in a country whose media has literally changed my life. I haven’t gone back to The Dragons of Blueland or the other books in a very long time, but I might just take some time to revisit my childhood.
Thank you, Ruth. You were a big part of why I loved reading as a kid, and Dragons of Blueland introduced me to so many wonderful things (not least of which was Fig Newtons). I hope your books continue to inspire imagination in people young and old.
It’s been over two years since my last review of a Gundam Reconguista in G movie. In Part IV: The Love That Cries Out in Battle, the series continues to gain new life as a more cohesive work compared to the original TV series.
G-Reco is about a world centuries after the Universal Century era of the original Gundam. Humanity has crawled back from the brink of extinction, leading to a ban on the old UC technologies and a rationing of energy. However, conflicts still remain, and people are cut into various factions.
At the end of Part III, protagonist Bellri Zenam inadvertently activates the Crescent-Moon Ship, a space-faring vessel that’s meant to lead them to Venus Globe, where the batteries that are meant to provide power to Earth. However, right as Part IV begins, Bellri and those traveling with him are confronted by a group from the G-IT Laboratory, a technology research facility that views the war-prone Earth-born with disdain, and wants to take both the Crescent-Moon Ship and Bellri’s mobile suit, the G-Self, for their own. From there, the film continues and amplifies many of the trends of the previous film, like the importance of understanding individual characters’ motivations, as well as the ways that people’s environments can affect their views on society and civilization. It sees the furthest reaches of humankind before drawing the characters back towards Earth and juxtaposing all these different ways of thinking.
A recurring lesson emphasized throughout is that people can have different blindspots depending on their proximity to Earth and its issues:
The character Aida Surugan (newly discovered to be Bellri’s sister, to his chagrin) questions why energy has to be rationed when so many people suffer, but other characters point out that she’s been affected by “Amerian” indoctrination that fetishizes “freedom.”
The mobile suit pilots of the G-IT Laboratory are quick to judge those from Earth for their legacy of war and death, but they also imagine themselves as glorious fighters who just haven’t had the chance to really show their stuff, and they incorrectly assume that the weapons they wield indiscriminately won’t cause the same problems. (Their similarity to Gym Ghingham in Turn A Gundam is probably no coincidence).
The inhabitants of Venus Globe appear to live in peace while faithfully honoring the heights of Earth’s civilization, but they are largely ignorant of what happens on Earth, and their abundant luxury masks greater health issues that come with both living in space and seeing themselves as the far-off arbiters of Earth’s ability to sustain itself.
Capital Army leader Cumpa Rusita (the closest thing the series has to a main antagonist) is motivated by his disgust at the physical deterioration of the space-born, and this has led him into being a Social Darwinist who believes conflict is the key to restoring humanity’s greatness.
It’s as if the goal of G-Reco is to highlight how people often think that they now see the big picture, but their perspective is far more narrow than they realize. Or even if they don’t miss the forest for the trees, their failure to also account for the trees is in itself a flaw.
I think I give the impression that G-Reco and this film in particular are very serious with all the political and speculative philosophizing, but the series can also be refreshingly lighthearted at times. There are many scenes devoted to daily or mundane activities, like running to sweat out any toxins that come from space travel, or stepping on a robotic scale to check weight. Noredo Nug and Manny Ambassada have an almost “Scooby and Shaggy”-like presence with their antics that’s more understandable rather than annoying. All this actually adds a lot to conveying the idea that these are individuals with lives of their own, and adds a touch of joy to the worldbuilding of this series.
As for Bellri, he seems to embody both the silly and the serious, which might be why he’s the main character. In the same movie, you see him continuously calming his libido by remembering that the girl he’s into is actually his flesh-and-blood sister, and then showing incredible frustration at how many of the people he fights can’t see beyond their own nose. When he uses a new weapon to try and slow down conflict only to unleash a never-before-seen power that leaves all sides horrified and bewildered, Bellri immediately reacts with genuine disgust.
With the original G-Reco TV series, a good part of my overall positive review of the series had to do with how the last few episodes play out. The final film, Part V, is next—I get the feeling I’m going to enjoy this finale even more.
Taira Isao is a Japanese singer famous for his contribution to multiple anime songs. Famously, he can be heard in the openings to Space Runaway Ideon, Muteki Robo Daiohja, and Galactic Cyclone Braiger. And over the past three years, Taira’s also been running a small Youtube channel.
The channel is called Taira Isao’s Uta Uta Uta [that’s “song” written three different ways), and the man uploads his covers of old Japanese music. Taira’s stated goal is to share songs from history, and even give a little background on each one to spread knowledge.
Some examples:
“Momiji” (1911)
“Hana no Machi” (1947)
“Princess Mononoke” (1997, from the movie)
As of this post, Taira has less than 2,000 subscribers. It’s wild to me, the fact that this person with this ultra-recognizable voice from anime would have this humble Youtube presence at the age of 71.
It’d be great if he had more subscribers, but I kind of like that his channel is relatively small. There’s something charming about all this, especially because he’s trying to draw attention to great (non-anime) music from yesteryear.
OGIUE MANIAX 