Category Archives: anime

Bamboo Blade is its name, and Tama-chan is its star

Posted on by

I’ve been told that in any story there is always only one true protagonist as much as it would seem otherwise. It’s not necessarily the character who gets the most screen-time. It’s not the character who acts as narrator. It’s not even the one with the most prominent lines, but the character who moves the story along the most. Even when there seems to be multiple protagonists, in the writer’s mind there is only one.

I know I said otherwise previously, but I’ve come to realize that Isaac Dian is the main protagonist of Baccano! because he has by far the most influence on characters in the story. Even though Morikawa George, creator of Hajime no Ippo, has said that he treats his manga like every character is a main character, the mere fact that it’s titled “Hajime no Ippo” says otherwise. And in Bamboo Blade, of which I’ve watched the first seven episodes, Kawazoe Tamaki is the lead.

Tamaki has a clear purpose in the story, even if it’s the result of watching too much anime: protecting justice from evil. Even though she’s managed to repel evil, i.e. those two older boys in the club, it’s a never-ending battle, at least in her mind. Her actions, more than any other characters’, move the story along, as she is the one primarily responsible for transforming the ragtag Kendo Club into a workable team. As much time and emphasis that Koujirou gets, he acts more as a fairly passive narrator.

So with that in mind, I have to say that Tama-chan makes for a wonderful protagonist. I hope to see her speed-eating and kendo skills even more.

Hopefully it will involve ramen.

There’s plenty of water on Aqua: Watching Aria while having the flu

Posted on by

I finally started the Aria series today while I’m recuperating from the flu. It’s recommended that I get plenty of fluids. Does this count?

Watching them eat those baked potatoes, it’s almost as if I can feel the steam coming off of it.

It feels nice.

Yes! Pretty Cure 5 Go Go! appears to have a higher budget

Posted on by

Seriously, I’m watching this first episode and the animation during the transformation sequence is ridiculously good. It blows last season’s out of the water. Did the producers find a few dozen sacks of money? The youtube video doesn’t quite do it justice.

PS: If anyone can help me figure out how to get higher quality youtube videos, that’d really be great.

Persepolis and Japanese Animation

Posted on by

I saw the french animated film Persepolis today. Based off a comic book of the same name, Persepolis is the tale of a young girl named Marjane living in war-torn Iran and its religious transformation during the 1980s. We as the audience get to see Marjane grow from girl into woman, making mistakes along the way, and constantly re-evaluating what’s important in her life. It’s a really powerful film and I recommend anyone who has the opportunity to watch it to do so.

I came out of Persepolis with one prominent thought in my mind: It’s been a long long time since I’ve seen a Japanese animation like it.

Stylistically, there’s no anime like Persepolis, but that’s not what I’m focusing on (though I might in a later time. It’s really quite powerful visually). What I’m talking about is how Persepolis addresses the small scale issues regarding relationships and emotions, as well the large scale issues with the backdrop of warfare. Recent anime, when it’s good, tends to be very good at one or the other, but not both. On the occasions that it does manage to address both, it tends to add a certain fantastic element to it which pushes the whole animation slightly to the left of reality, as in the case of Gundam 00.

Now this is hardly the case for the history of anime. Japanese animation and manga rose out of World War II, and many people have tackled and re-tackled the setting. Grave of the Fireflies, Barefoot Gen, even more romantic series such as Rose of Versailles all manage to portray the large and small stuff with a great deal of poignancy.

So what’s happened? Has anime become too much of a comfort zone, perhaps?

Now, I realize that I’m comparing a ton of Japanese animation to just one French animation, and that Persepolis may very well be an exception to the rule even in French animation, but this is the feeling I got from seeing this movie as it pertains to the thing I love called anime.

5cm Per Second and Summer Days with Coo showing at the NY International Children’s Film Festival

Posted on by

On March 1st and March 8th respectively.  In Japanese. With subtitles. So I don’t want to hear any complaints about them being dubbed.

Check http://www.gkids.com for more information and to order tickets. If you’re going, I recommend you order now because when it came to The Girl Who Leapt Through Time the tickets sold out FAST.

I, of course, will be there.

And bouncing off my previous post about animation in general, they’re showing stuff from Korea, Spain, and other countries.

It is an international film festival, after all.

205 Days Left Until Earth’s Destruction: Space Battleship Yamato Episodes 9-14

Posted on by

“Why it was just different lighting all along!”

Another 6 episodes of Space Battleship Yamato and man, those slow episodes from early on seem like a thing of the past. The biggest step forward by far though is the introduction of Lord Desslar. I mean, he was introduced before in around episode 3 or 4, but at that point he was just Some Guy, and it’s not until episode 11 that I began to see why Desslar is so beloved, and why many consider him to be such a tremendously good villain. His plans to destroy the Yamato amount to more than just “totally shoot it until it blows up.” He has multiple contingencies and works to create situations where you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Also, watching him open up a trap door underneath an uncouth soldier with no respect for the enemy and saying, “We don’t need such barbaric thinking in the Gamilus Empire” defines his character so very well. Highly intelligent and ruthless, but with a sense of honor befitting his title as ruler of Gamilus.

Desslar is just smooth.

But this isn’t the Desslar fan club. This is a Yamato review. And there’s plenty of characters to talk about. Kodai and Okita in particular get some powerful development. The revelation of Okita’s (space) radiation sickness and the quiet loneliness of his existence begins to show the real depth of the Yamato captain. Knowing that Kodai used to hate fighting shows how much the death of his family at the hands of Gamilus has driven him to take revenge. Just seeing every character say good bye to their families before leaving the Solar System, and all of them feeling that the 5 minutes allotted to each person was simply not enough time, that episode was probably the one that affected me the most so far.

Keep at it Yamato. You are deserving your reputation.

PS: Why is Yuki the only girl on board. They did not think this through very well, aside from the possibility that they need to keep the women at home to give birth and raise children for the sake of humanity’s future.

Clarification on the Genshiken Novel title

Posted on by

There have been many translations and transliterations of the title, and it’s all been a bit confusing, so I’m going to clear this up.

The title is “Shoron Genshiken: Hairu Ranto no Yabou”

Hairu Ranto is the name of a character in the novel.  He is a young CEO who has transferred into Shiiou University for whatever reason.  He has a sister, Hairu Anna.

So the actual title is  “Genshiken the Light Novel: The Ambition of Hairu Ranto”

Got it?  Good.

I have begun work on an Ogiue “image collection”

Posted on by

Let’s just say it’ll be something.

Different shows for different mindsets

Posted on by

I’ve found that my mood and mental state affect how well I receive an anime.  I don’t just mean that I like certain shows when I’m happy, and other shows more when I’m sad.  What I mean is that I will sometimes notice flaws in animation or design that wouldn’t bother me at other times, or I will feel like something is terribly off about a show, like the pieces (characters, backgrounds, writing, music, etc) just aren’t fitting together properly.  But then I will rewatch them, and the visuals will bother me less, and something may or may not click.  For me, the most prominent example is Godannar, where upon watching the first episode for the first time, something about the animation was bothering me.  It’s as if somehow I was unconsciously focusing on all the moments used to save money instead of concentrating on the high quality action parts.  Thankfully, I watched it again and it’s become one of my favorite series.

If only I could figure out what conditions are best for which anime, I could devise some way to get the most of watching.  Or I could do the opposite and purposely sabotage myself so I would hate anime forever.

Oh, and no matter the mood, I still think Rosario + Vampire is a bad show.  But don’t let me stop you from enjoying it.

Genshiken Novel is probably an alternate universe

Posted on by

The setting is very unusual in regards to it not making complete sense given what we know of Genshiken.

Madarame is still chairman of Genshiken, so this story would be occurring prior to Ogiue arriving, except… Kuchiki is a member!

How can Kuchiki be a member of Genshiken during Madarame’s period as Chairman when he only joined officially after Madarame passed the position over to Sasahara?  Unless this takes place in that brief period where Kuchiki tried to become a member but didn’t, I think we can safely say that this story does not take place in the manga or anime timelines.