Category Archives: anime

The Secret Best Character: Kevin from Tiger Mask W

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Pictured Right: The Best Guy

Both anime and pro wrestling are larger-than-life fantasy worlds, so it’s inevitable that a wrestling-themed anime like Tiger Mask W would be populated with big, bombastic personalities… some even based on real-world wrestlers! Among these characters, there’s one that at first seems easily forgettable, but as the show has progressed reveals himself to be the best man around: Kevin Anderson.

Kevin is a wrestler for the dastardly Global Wrestling Monopoly, the largest wrestling federation in the world and front for the Tiger’s Den, a clandestine organization that trains evil wrestlers. He does not have any appellations, like “Hitman,” or “the Ace,” or “Bigfoot.” With generic tights and a generic look, Kevin’s just Kevin. At best, he’s the guy always next to the GWM’s hot new wrestler, Tiger the Dark.

But it’s in the background where Kevin shines. Through thick and thin, Kevin rises to the occasion, especially when helping out Tiger the Dark. He knows he’s not quite as strong a wrestler, especially compared to the top echelon of GWM big-shots, but he’s loyal to this friends and will lend a hand in times of need. Over and over again, Tiger Mask W makes it seem like Kevin is just going to fade away into irrelevance as the other characters grow in power and intensity, but Kevin’s actually never far behind. When others look out for themselves, Kevin has an eye for the bigger picture.

In the anime and manga Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun, there’s a scene where the characters are playing a dating sim and trying to genuinely find the right partner for the protagonist. As they go through all the girls, they find in every single one of them a deal breaker that makes them not good enough for their precious player character. Suddenly, it dawns on them: it’s the best friend, a guy who’s always there to help out, lend an ear, and even give a shoulder. Kevin is Dating Sim Best Friend.

Kevin Anderson is a seemingly milquetoast character who defies his own design. In doing so, he might just secretly be the greatest supporting character around.

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A New Release: Ogiue Maniax Status Update for April 2017

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Did you know that Kinomoto Sakura’s birthday is April 1st?
Upon learning this, I realized that major spoilers for Watanuki in XXXHolic were staring me right in the face all along (his name means “April 1st”).

Do any of my Patreon supporters have an April birthday? Whether they do or not, I’m still just as grateful for their support:

General:

Johnny Trovato

Ko Ransom

Alex

Diogo Prado

Viga

Yoshitake Rika fans:

Elliot Page

Hato Kenjirou fans:

Elizabeth

Yajima Mirei fans:

Machi-Kurada

Here are the post highlights for this month:

Part 2 of my Genshiken re-read is up, and it’s amazing to see how many characters come and go in the second volume.

March also saw the end of the New York International Children’s Film Festival. Here are all the Ogiue Maniax reviews from the event:

My Life as a Zucchini

Window Horses

Rudolf the Black Cat

Ancien and the Magic Tablet/Napping Princess

The runaway hit of the last season was definitely Kemono Friends. It was such a big deal I had to write about it twice… sort of.

I also got back on track on my chapter reviews of Kimi xxxru Koto Nakare. The series looks like it got delayed for a little while, but I hope it’s coming back. I really do think it’s an excellent series.

Lastly, it was a close call, but I wrote my thoughts on March Comes in like a Lion. I knew I’d like the show, but I’m even more impressed with how well the show makes its protagonist Rei relatable.

April means the end of the winter anime season and the start of some new shows. That means you’re likely going to see a bunch more reviews for anime that concluded this past season. Early on, I saw quite a few people online expressing their opinions that the winter was something of a disappointment. While this has turned around somewhat, thanks to the rising popularity of shows such as Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid and Kemono Friends, I feel like that idea still persists.

As for new shows, I’m looking forward to Love Rice a show about rice-themed idols. It’s as if Hanayo was allowed to make her own anime.

 

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[NYICFF 2017] Driven by Dreams: Ancien and the Magic Tablet / Napping Princess

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“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

There are few quotes in science fiction more famous than Arthur C. Clarke’s above. While the idea largely has to do with how science fiction extrapolates the possibilities that can be envisioned from scientific development, Kamiyama Kenji’s new animated film, Ancien and the Magic Tablet, plays with the notion in an interesting way, using a blend of dreams and reality to fuse technology and magic together throughout its narrative.

As a warning, while I’ve done my best to avoid spoilers, the fact that this film is full of surprises only five minutes in means I can’t avoid talking about at least a few of the twists.

Ancien and the Magic Tablet begins with the story of a princess of a kingdom, Ancien, who is trapped in a cage above the royal castle. Her kingdom, known as Heartland, is ruled by her wise father, who is responsible for spreading the use of automobiles throughout their land. The reason Ancien is locked away is because she has a mysterious power to bring inanimate objects to life, including dolls and cars, an ability that would turn all of Heartland upside down.

…Except that it’s all a dream and the actual story is about a girl named Morikawa Kokone, a perpetually sleepy Japanese high schooler living in Okuyama Prefecture in the “far flung” future year of 2020—shortly before the Tokyo Olympics. Living with her widowed father, who works as a mechanic and programs self-driving car AI for the elderly residents of their town, Kokone learns that her father (or rather his computer tablet) holds valuable secrets worth a lot to some very important people. Kokone ends up on an adventure to Tokyo to get to the bottom of all this, all while she keeps having dreams about Ancien and Heartland—a world based on stories her father told her as a child—that mysteriously play out in reality as well.

One of the main thrusts of Ancien and the Magic Tablet (known in Japan as Hirune Hime: Shiranai Watashi no Monogatari, or “Napping Princess: The Story of the Unknown Me”) is a treatise on the benefits of self-driving cars. Ancien and her tablet are overt parallels to the AI technology that Kokone’s father possesses, and it’s portrayed largely in terms of its benefits. In regards to this stance, the film impresses me because it doesn’t try to remain neutral or passive in terms of the beliefs it’s trying to convey on such a controversial topic.

Given the writer and director Kamiyama’s previous works (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Eden of the East), a certain level of love and faith in technology is expected. While Ancien could do more to address the repercussions self-driving cars could have on the global economy, I don’t hold it against the movie too much because it does emphasize certain benefits that don’t come up as often. For example, it can be argued that self-driving cars aren’t only about taking away control, they can be about ensuring safety because of loss of control or disability. A more nuanced approach would’ve been interesting in its own way, but I can live without it at least for one film.

Going back to Arthur C. Clarke, the dream world of Ancien, particularly the “magic tablet’s” ability to “bring things to life,” are basically a fairy tale metaphor for real-world technology. However, because the events in Ancien’s and Kokone’s sides of the story mirror each other and even seem to influence each other, it’s an ongoing mystery as to how the two narratives are related. Is it somehow possible that Kokone is tapping into an alternate reality? The film keeps you wondering right until the very end, and the ultimate explanation for the relationship between Ancien and Kokone’s worlds is actually very satisfying and makes absolute sense.

Ancien and the Magic Tablet feels like the start of a conversation rather than a definitive conclusion. I hope we continue to see its themes in future animated films.

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You’ve Finished Kemono Friends! What Next?

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So you’ve watched the last episode Kemono Friends, and found it to be an excellent conclusion to a surprisingly good anime. Its portrayal of friendship and its exploration of defines humanity has left you with lots of laughs and maybe a couple of tears. Now you’re looking for more, and you find that the studio behind Kemono Friends, YAOYOROZU, only has one other anime to its name. Its title is confusing and maybe even a little difficult to pronounce. Should you watch it? Is it as good as Kemono Friends?

The answer is yes, yes, YES.

Tesagure! Bukatsumono does not take place in a mysterious zoo/amusement park. Its characters are not animal-human hybrids. What it does have in common with Kemono Friends, however, is a keen sense of humor that uses both excellent timing and a kind of anti-timing to great effect. To begin to get an idea of what this show is all about, I recommend watching the opening with subtitles on:

Perpetually tongue-in-cheek, the self-aware and often aimless Tesagure! Bukatsumono revolves around four girls in the same club, whose main activity is trying to imagine what other clubs are like. As they all talk through their preconceived notions and try to make up their own “new and improved” versions of other school clubs, their answers become increasingly absurd, providing much of the humor of the series. The title of the anime roughly translates to “Let’s Find a Club!”

You might notice that something feels a little different about those “new and improved” suggestions that the girls of Tesagure! Bukatsumono make. The reason is that those sections are not scripted—they’re actually improv. The back-and-forth between the characters/actors is genuine, and any gaffes are kept in. If you enjoyed the next-episode previews of Kemono Friends with the penguin idol group PPP (or even their dedicated episode), Tesagure! Bukatsumono is that times ten.

Currently on Crunchyroll, each episode is roughly 13 minutes. Much like Kemono Friends, you’ll know if you enjoy the series after one or two episodes.

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The Genius Everyman: March Comes in like a Lion

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I thought it appropriate to talk about the anime March Comes in like a Lion on the very last day of March. Call me a sucker for that sort of thing.

Umino Chika is a creator who opened up my eyes to a new world of storytelling. In the past, another anime adaptation of one of her manga, Honey & Clover. Watching thathttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u6lyeC5jOo series, I could relate to both the art school antics (I was attending art school myself at the time), and the rush of emotions positive and negative that could come from seemingly simple interactions with people and the world. Now, over a decade later, I find her more recent work, March Comes in like a Lion, to carry a similar weight even though I’m further in age from its protagonist compared to Honey & Clover.

March Comes in like a Lion follows Kiriyama Rei, a young shogi prodigy with a difficult past who befriends three sisters that take care of him as he tries to get through his shogi career and life in general. The series swings heavily between darkly depressing and frenetically cheerful in ways that mirror Rei’s own internal struggles.

I find Rei to be a fascinating character. When it comes to anime protagonists, he’s somehow both the clever genius many wish they could be, but also highly relatable in terms of how he thinks and feels. Rei is intelligent beyond his years, but he’s also only in high school and thus inexperienced not only in the ways of the world but also in shogi itself. He’s prone to both self-deprecation and arrogance, both looking too far ahead and staring at his own feet. Whether someone is a hard worker who tries to make up for a lack of talent, a genius who can’t seem to muster the will to push further, or even both or neither, it feels as if anyone who understands both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, in formal competition and in life, can connect to Rei’s joys and frustrations. Even if he isn’t perfectly relatable to everyone, there’s bound to be a character that viewers can connect to.

The anime is produced by SHAFT, a studio that for the past decade and change has been known for highly stylized visuals that utilize odd camera angles, unorthodox color palettes, and emphasis on both the flatness of 2-D images and their ability to convey a sense of three-dimensionality. For many of their series, this works fairly well, but the subdued pace of March Comes in like a Lion means the SHAFT style at times risks being too over-the-top for its own good. Fortunately, the March Comes in like a Lion anime is relatively restrained in its approach, especially in the more dark and moody moments and in the shogi matches themselves, which tend to be a mix of cerebral strategizing and emotional ping pong. Sometimes the visuals can go too far, but for the most part any sort of traditional SHAFT antics are reserved for the more light-hearted scenes, especially those involving the Kawamoto sisters mentioned above.

This is not the first shogi-themed series I’ve really enjoyed, but it is almost the polar opposite of my favorite, 81 Diver. If that manga is like a stick of dynamite strapped to an apple pie, then March Comes in like a Lion is like a wool blanket, warm yet occasionally itchy. I’m not sure how those two things are opposites per se, but I’ll just say that they are and leave it at that.

You can watch March Comes in like a Lion on Crunchyroll.

10 Robots that Deserve to Be Soul of Chogokin Figures (Part 2)

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Here’s Part 2 of my list of cool super robots that I think should get that Chogokin Damashii treatment. Check it out, tell me which robos you’d love to see!

By the way, here’s Part 1.

Love Live + Yellow Magic Orchestra?!

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One of my favorite Love Live! songs is “Suki desu ga Suki desu ka?.” It’s a tune by Hanayo and Kotori with a kind of funk/disco flair. What I might have discovered recently, however, is a more specific reference to 70s music. Namely, the song might be taking cues or paying homage to the electronic music and techno pioneers known as Yellow Magic Orchestra.

At about 1 minute 13 seconds into “Suki desu ga Suki desu ka,” there’s a particular melody during the following lyrics:

Soshite watashi dake o (Oh yeah, oh yeah!)
Mitsumete hoshii no (watashi dake mitsumete)

If you listen to Yellow Magic Orchestra’s hit song Technopolis, there’s a similar combination of notes early on in the song, at about 42 seconds in. Have a listen below:

What do you think? Mere coincidence or an intentional nod to the masters of electronic music?

EUREKA IS BACK: Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution Preview

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When news came out that a new Eureka Seven movie trilogy was coming out, I reacted with a mix of excitement and trepidation. After all, the TV series is one of my favorite anime ever, but things haven’t exactly been pretty for E7 fans the last few times around. The first film to come out, Eureka Seven: Good Night, Sleep TIght, Young Lovers, was more an interesting experiment in how different a story you could tell with existing footage than anything else. Eureka Seven AO squandered so much of its potential and was so convoluted that it ended up a major disappointment. However, there’s a big X-Factor that gives me some initial confidence in these new Psalms of Planets Eureka Seven: Hi-Evolution Films—the return of writer Sato Dai to the team.

Sato was not on staff for Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers, and he left Eureka Seven AO early on, and it’s suspected to be for creative differences (AO was basically funded by a pachinko company). While an anime is more than just one person, the lack of Sato and what it meant for those productions stood out in those two works like a sore thumb. If you’ve seen what Sato is capable of in anime outside of Eureka Seven, such as the excellent Battle Spirits: Shounen Toppa Bashin, narrative cohesiveness resulting from excellent emotional character development is a hallmark of his writing style. Having Sato at the helm is the best sign that Hi-Evolution will live up to the Eureka Seven name.

The first new film, out in 2017, is going to be a prequel that covers the First Summer of Love, the pivotal event that defines the world of Eureka Seven. The other two films, in 2018 and 2019, promise to bring a new ending… perhaps even going beyond the events of the TV series? I can only hope.

One thing that piques my curiosity about this new project is the preview image showing Eureka, Anemone, and Renton. In it, Eureka and Renton have more concerned expressions, while Anemone’s is soft and loving. While Anemone ends up in a happy place by the end of the Eureka Seven TV series, I would have assumed that their faces would almost be the opposite. The fact that it’s showing Anemone with such a look implies to me that something will be different about her; not necessarily a different personality or anything, but maybe a new perspective on her life. I’ve known plenty of fans who considered Eureka Seven to be the “Anemone Show,” so maybe their day has come.

In any case, I’m willing to put my trust on the line for Eureka Seven: Hi-Evolution. I won’t let cynicism beat me just yet!

Tiger Mask W and the Significance of Global Wrestling Monopoly

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In Tiger Mask W, a young wrestler dons the mask of the legendary Tiger Mask in order to fight against the villainous wrestlers of the Tiger’s Den. Most frequently, this involves taking on a wrestling company that exists as the outward-facing image of the Tiger’s Den, a thinly veiled World Wrestling Entertainment parody called “Global Wrestling Monopoly,” or GWM for short. The GWM is actually a brand-new creation for Tiger Mask W, something I personally found curious given how much having the most evil force in wrestling also be the largest and most popular. Why didn’t something like the GWM exist in the original Tiger Mask?

Upon reading the original Tiger Mask manga, I realized something: it would have been impossible to reference anything like the WWE. Tiger Mask first began in 1969 and ended in 1971, a time when there was no such thing as an international wrestling organization on the scale of what would become World Wrestling Entertainment.

In 1969, the promotion that would eventually become the World Wrestling Federation and later World Wrestling Entertainment was still known as the World Wide Wrestling Federation. At the head was Vincent James McMahon, father of current owner Vincent Kennedy McMahon, who ran the WWWF as just one of many territorial wrestling promotions in the US; in the WWWF’s case, it covered the Northeast, especially the New York area. During this time, Bruno Sammartino, one of the greatest WWE champions of all time (if not the greatest), was in the middle of his historic nine-year reign as WWWF champion.

Tiger Mask vs. “Classy” Freddie Blassie

Tiger Mask came from a time long before what many people today think of as wrestling. This was the era before Wrestlemania took the WWF national with Hulkamania, before Ric Flair’s battles with Ricky Steamboat and Dusty Rhodes. Naturally, it’s long before the eras of The Rock, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, and John Cena. In addition to the Tiger’s Den wrestlers, Tiger Mask encounters real-world wrestlers of the time like all-time Japanese greats Antonio Inoki and Giant Baba. He wrestles against big names such as “Classy” Freddie Blassie (who would go on to train Triple H) and Angelo Poffo (father of “Macho Man” Randy Savage).

This is why the strategy used by the Tiger’s Den makes more sense for the period Tiger Mask came from. Unlike in Tiger Mask W, where they’re presented as employees of Global Wrestling Monopoly, the villainous secret organization would train heel wrestlers and send them around the world to various countries and territories in order to traumatize local wrestlers and take their money. Of course, in the world of Tiger Mask and Tiger Mask W, wrestling is 100% legitimate, so there’s no such thing as pre-planned matches or notions like kayfabe.

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[NYICFF 2017] Take a Look, It’s in a Book: Rudolf the Black Cat

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This film was shown as a part of the 2017 New York International Children’s Film Festival.

Japanese animation isn’t typically associated with talking animal movies, but Rudolf the Black Cat (Rudolph to Ippaiattena in Japanese)is an unabashed entry into that genre. Still, it has much to offer viewers, with an endearing cast and lessons that viewers of all ages can take to heart.

Rudolf is a house cat who has never gone beyond his yard. But when he gets lost far from home, Rudolph has to learn what it’s like to live on the streets. Luckily, he meets the best possible mentor: a tough-as-nails tiger-striped stray who has the ability to read human language. Rudolf mishears and believes the stray’s name to be “Gottalot” (Ippaiattena), because Gottalot goes by many names.

One of the core themes of the film is a straight-up educational lesson: reading expands your world. Gottalot does his LeVar Burton in Reading Rainbow act, explaining to Rudolf about how books can help you imagine things yet unseen, and teach you about how places you’ve never even heard of. Gottalot’s efforts to help Rudolf become crucial to the climax of the film, and it’s all thanks to Learning and Study (thanks books!).

Rudolf the Black Cat isn’t just focused on being didactic, however. While the film carries very clear moral and life lessons about loyalty and learning, it mostly does so through the friendship that forms between Rudolf and Gottalot. As a veteran of the streets, Gottalot is savvy, but he sees a bit of himself in Rudolf. This bond forms the foundation of the movie, and it’s enjoyable from beginning to end.

It’s also worth mentioning that this film, while mainly for kids, isn’t afraid to make them cry. There are numerous sad and difficult moments throughout Rudolf the Black Cat, and although it isn’t exactly a Grave of the Fireflies, there were definitely more than a few sniffles among the young audience. For kids unused to typical Japanese-style endings (which tend to come with just a spoonful of tragedy), it might pose some difficulty.

Rudolf the Black Cat is overall a decent film that is easily accessible to any audience. While it pitches underhanded at its target audience of young children, it also tosses plenty of few curve balls that result in an enjoyable film even under adult scrutiny.