Category Archives: review

New York Comic Con: An Incomplete Con Report Because I Will Probably Forget Most Things

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I went to my first New York Comic Con this past weekend. I normally prefer less city and commute-based conventions, but it was still a pleasant experience over all.

I’ll avoid the hanging out with friends talk, but I’ll just say I hung out with various friends and it was good times for all.

I saw the Lucky Star dub. Some voices were weaker than others, and Wendy Lee still sounds like Wendy Lee, but they tried very hard with this dub. I think the dialogue sounded a lot more natural than I was expecting, which was a big plus. Kogami Akira felt pretty spot on, Shiraishi Minoru not so much, and the pronunciation of Shiraishi was a little painful. Overall though, not a bad dub at all.

I got to meet the fine folks over at Ninja Consultant Podcast and got to be interviewed, which was a great experience. We talked about various topics, including but not limited to Ogiue. Keep up with their podcast, and you might just get to hear how incomprehensible I am when I speak. By the way, I’m a 35 year old balding man and my name is Gerald Rathkolb.

I saw Freedom. In unrelated news, I sure do want some Nissin Cup Noodles. I also attended Grant Morrison panels, and though I’m not really a huge fan of his work (just because I don’t read much of his work), his scottish talkings about made both panels very entertaining. Oh yeah, Seven Soldiers was awesome so I guess I am a Grant Morrison fan after all. I also attended a Tokyopop panel, and there as I watched the slides come on screen, I realized just how much Tokyopop gears towards shoujo and bl now. I feel like it snuck up on me without me realizing it, and now it’s too late.

I attended the Giant Robot Rumble panel, where I got to explain what an Absolute Terror Field actually is, as well as correcting the people who thought one robot was Aphrodai A when it was actually Dianan X. Thanks to this, I was considered a nerd even among nerds. Yes, I am that pathetic. PS Steve Yun please make me a judge next time. Sadly I had to leave early, so if someone can tell me who won, that’d be great.

By the way, Optimus Prime does not lose to Roy Focker/Fokker, at least not for the reasons given. Saying that Roy’s in a plane and Optimus’s mobility is limited is not an argument when Optimus REGULARLY FIGHTS ROBOTS WHO TRANSFORM INTO FIGHTER JETS.

I actually did not buy all that much, which is okay by me. I bought an autographed copy of David Lloyd (artist of V for Vendetta)’s new book, Kickback. The artwork is really up my alley. I took one look at it, and I was sold. The other thing I bought was a 20 minute backrub. It was actually worth it because it helped me take on the 90 minute TM Revolution concert.

And oh boy what a concert it was. TM Revolution has incredible stage presence, and his singing is solid. The most prominent feature of that concert though was the screaming. The loud, fangirl (and boy) screaming, which I partook in on a number of occasions. He covered all of the SEED songs and Heart of Sword, and a few others. By the way, my ears are still feeling the effects of that concert.

I was sitting behind TM Revolution’s Japanese fan club. Before the concert started, and as fans waved signs and hooped and hollered and asked TMR to marry them, I asked the Japanese fan club girls what they thought of America.

Needless to say, they were impressed.

Harsh Virtual Reality: Ressentiment Volumes 1-2

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I’ve made it a bit of a hobby within a hobby to pursue Otaku-themed anime, manga, and games. There’s the naive fantasy (Comic Party), the painfully cynical (Welcome to the NHK!), the awkwardly humorous (Otaku no Musume) and of course the cautiously optimistic (Genshiken), among others. But now there comes another player, Ressentiment, a story so drenched in ugliness and negativity that it is by far the most pessimistic of all the Otaku-themed works that I’ve seen.

…or is it?

Ressentiment takes place in the not-so-distant future. Takuro, a sad, pathetic, ugly 30 year old man living with his mom and working a dead-end job discovers the h-game. Except in this age of man, the h-game has reached unprecedented levels of realism, to the point that the girls in the games believe they actually exist within the context of their worlds.

Takuro purchases an artifical girl, Tsukiko, and expects what we all expect from these sorts of games: gratification be it instant or otherwise. Tsukiko, however, is an anomaly among virtual heroine-sex objects in that she already has someone she loves and spurns the advances of Takuro. An even bigger surprise is that when Tsukiko bites Takuro’s hand, the pain and effect transfer over to reality. This is Not Normal.

Takuro must deal with the fact that he has now been rejected by women not just in real life but also in what should have been a fantasy world. The truth of Tsukiko’s highly irregular programming is also slowly revealed.

The thing that keeps me from saying that Ressentiment is totally sad and depressing and a completely negative outlook on the otaku is that while much of the focus is on otaku trying to escape from their own sad lives, it’s not just otaku whose lives are ugly. Practically every character, even the attractive ones, have their own crippling issues to deal with. The characters have horrible personalities, horrible habits, and even horrible hygiene, but they all to varying degrees have to butt heads with reality in their own ways. While the otaku’s fantasy world is very plain to see, the other characters have their own ways of escaping their lives. In a sense, it’s easy to say that the otaku are pathetic, but everyone else is equally pathetic. And to be pathetic on some level is to be human. Those who try to deny this fact are given the harshest wake-up call of all.

To steal a quote from Kino’s Journey, “The world is not beautiful, therefore it is.”

It remains to be seen if the characters themselves ever realize this.

The Pre-Prequel: Eureka Seven: Gravity boys & Lifting girl

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While this site isn’t called Eureka Maniax, it would have been a close second. I really, really like Eureka Seven, and I’m always eager to get my hands on anything E7-related.

Eureka Seven: Gravity boys & Lifting girl is sort of an unusual title, in that it is part of the greater Eureka Seven canon, but its place in the timeline is as a prequel to the Eureka Seven PS2 games, New Wave and New Vision.

GB&LG takes place during a time of peace, before the Ref board was even considered for use on LFOs. Sumner Sturgeon, 14 years old and youngest son of the prestigious Sturgeon Family of military officers, has spent his whole life being spoon-fed through privilege, but he wishes to be known for more than just his last name. Ruri, also 14 years old, is a girl with an incredible talent for Ref-ing (or Lifting as it’s called in the English translations), but who has to disguise herself as a boy named “B.B.” as women aren’t allowed in competitions. An abrupt meeting between Sumner and Ruri sets both of them on their respective paths to adulthood as Sumner chases the images of B.B. and the girl and the independence they represent, not knowing both are the same person.

Volume 1 of GB&LG focuses primarily on their daily lives as 14 year olds in a time of relative peace. Volume 2 sees them grow to adulthood and  enter the military, setting up the beginning of New Wave. Renton was also 14 years old when he first met Eureka and joined Gekkostate, and this is a very deliberate move on the manga’s part.

Overall the manga has a very nice slice-of-life feel to it that the original anime is missing simply because of the context of the series and the utter importance Eureka and Renton have to fate of the world in the anime, where even fairly episodic chapters have much greater ramifications. Obviously, that also applies to GB&LG to some extent, especially because its events trigger the PS2 games which in turn influence the anime, but not much of that is seen. The focus is on mainly the characters and not the world around them.

In this respect, I like Volume 1 more than Volume 2, as Volume 2 feels rushed and disjointed, as if it’s racing to position all of the characters in time for New Wave. It gives no time for the events, big and small, to really sink in, as the reader is instantly whisked off to another place and possibly another time within a few pages. It’s something that I think would have been better served being split into two separate volumes.

That said, I do recommend it, and I like it more than the Eureka Seven manga adaptation. However, don’t expect the story to be as epic as either the main anime or manga, because it isn’t. Treat it like a normal story of school kids, who barely know of LFOs, trappar, or their true natures.

First is the Worst, Second is the Best: Tower of Druaga and GONZO’s Digital Distribution

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GONZO has thrown down the gauntlets and has enlisted the help of real live fansubber(s) to distribute its anime to the English-literate world with near-synchronized-with-Japanese-television releases of its new show, Tower of Druaga. As such, there are two important things to talk about: the possible benefits and consequences of this new distribution method, and the content of the show itself.

While GONZO would not exactly be my first choice as the pioneer company (such as Geneon), I applaud GONZO for doing this, though I think they should excise Crunchy Roll like a nasty boil. It’s not the kind of site that I think any animation studio should be associated with, and it may come back to bite them in the ass. As for the actual distribution method of Official Subs on Youtube and Other Places, I feel that even if I personally do not buy the show, I have been exposed to the series enough to begin making a decision, and that is very important to me as a consumer and as a fan. The other thing is that I really have no motivation to pursue higher quality fansubs when I am being provided episodes, translated, straight from the studio much faster than any speedsubber can manage. I don’t know how much of a loss GONZO is taking on this, but if their goal was to beat out the fansubbers, they’ve done so rather effectively. On top of that, the subs are actually quite good, and do not suffer at all from our fears of Engrish.

The actual show is surprisingly entertaining, as nothing in the show seems to quite make sense a la Haruhi Episode 1. While I suspect there’s going to be some shenanigans regarding what’s fantasy and what’s reality, the real highlight of this first episode is how terribly contrived the main character Gil’s idea of an epic tale is. It points out the main flaw in a lot of this sort of entertainment, as well as the fact that D&D games do not translate well to actually compelling stories because everyone will want their limelight in a D&D game, while in a story there should only be one protagonist at a time. It makes me wonder if GONZO is somehow also poking fun at itself and its reputation for plots which fall apart due to contradictions and hasty decisions.

TWO roads converged in a yellow wood: Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Season 1

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The first half of Gundam 00 has concluded, and in the show’s desire to stand on its own two feet despite its Gundam name it embodies the spirit and messages behind the original Mobile Suit Gundam far more than any other alternate universe Gundam series. Every Gundam series involves war (or at least a substitute for war on an Earth surrounded by energy ropes), and every series shows how fighting affects various people, but none since the original Gundam and Zeta Gundam have put the emphasis on how it affects everyone. More importantly, it’s easy to care about how war affects everyone on both personal and universal levels, and this is really a testament to how effective Gundam 00 has been.

When I first saw Gundam 00, I was a little worried about it. It had all the right pieces, but it would be so, so very easy to play them wrong, to create the ugliest chess match in existence. But it didn’t. Gundam 00 has defied the odds, and it manages this by wielding the most powerful but most easily abused and corrupted piece of all: Death.

Watching the final episode and seeing roughly half of Celestial Being die in a battle they could not win, it was a bit of a shock. For one thing, with Nena Trinity still out there it would be natural to assume that something would come in and save the day. Turns out, nothing did, except for the power and resolve of the pilots and crew. This applies to not just Celestial Being but also the side of the allied nations as well. Looking even further back, with the death of Louise’s parents, the death of Graham Acre’s friends and co-pilots, and even the death of Lockon Stratos and so many others, death has immediate and long-lasting impacts on both the viewer and the characters. In other words, in Gundam 00 death is significant. Compare this to SEED, Wing, X, or even 08th MS Team, and the approach to death is drastically different. The deaths are not telegraphed from episodes away, nor are they quick changes to the plot in order to get a cheap pop or to try and produce drama. The characters are already dramatic, which is why their deaths inherently produce drama, not the other way around.

Gundam 00 is at its halfway point, and though I know better to jump the gun (I said that there was no way Gundam SEED Destiny could fail prior to it airing), I dare to call Gundam 00 the second best alternate universe series after Turn-A Gundam. I like SEED characters more, and I like pretty much all of Gundam, but 00 planned and executed so superbly, from its plot to its characters to even its mecha and fight scenes, that there’s no denying that it has just been a Good Series.

Surprising to me was how well the main pilots turned out, despite the risk of being generic angsty bishounen. The Gundam Meisters can be easily misconstrued as generic, but peeling back the layers shows a great deal of depth and personality. Setsuna F. Seiei is most surprising of all, as I like him as the protagonist quite a bit. He’s not an innocent kid who happened upon a Gundam, he’s a boy who grew up with war. He killed his own parents as part of a religious crusade. But despite being drenched in the blood of warfare of his own volition, of being a person who only knows how to fight and destroy, Setsuna is the most emotional of all. He is a blind boy desperately trying to find his way through the world with his own two hands because they are the only things he has ever truly known.

Unlike so many series in the Gundam franchise, Gundam 00 does not concern itself with homages or references or trying to maintain Continuity like it’s more important than the message itself. And that message? War affects everyone.

The fact that Gundam 00 is willing to kill and maim its comic relief says it all. Seeing Patrick Colasour (peace be with him) (edit: almost) dying in a violent flash of white, I can think of nothing closer to the excitement of watching a Gundam series. I expect everyone to die, and I expect no one to die, and this has left me in the best kind of suspense I could hope for.

Turn A = Science, Z Gundam = Liberal Arts, G Gundam = Athletics: Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Episode 5

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I normally don’t discuss just individual episodes here, but there’s enough content in this episode for about two or three posts, so I think this is totally warranted.

Wow.

Zetsubou Sensei is probably the finest SHAFT/Shinbo show to date on every level and episode 5 goes a long way in showing why exactly they’ve stepped up their game.

You want to know how to make a reference-based joke funny? Zetsubou Sensei shows you how to do it. The timing of each joke is superb. The references are explicit without being overt, and don’t dominate the joke itself. The references, be they the above screenshot, the above title of the post, or Goku and Vegeta sillhouettes fighting each other as Zetsubou Sensei refers to the harsh physical requirements of athletic events are used to support the humor rather than act as the entire joke itself (something certain otaku comedians, especially ones who refer to themselves as such, need to learn).

More importantly, Zetsubou Sensei doesn’t even rely on reference-based jokes the way, say, Pani Poni Dash does. The absurdity of a cultural athletic festival is topped by the even more absurd athletic culture festival. Prior notions of tsundere are twisted and shattered. This is anime! This is Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei! The land of wild fantasies and desires! (In the theme of Zetsubou Sensei, this is actually a reference that most of you will not get).

As always, the show is visually rich and a plain joy to watch with its strong use of color and composition, reinforced by delightfully comedic characters with strong personalities to keep it all grounded. I don’t care who your favorite Zetsubou Sensei girl is, this episode just presented all of them so well I’m sure you’re pleased.

I know I am.

I would eat her curry anytime.

Shugo Chara!: No, Seriously, I Really Do Like It

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I’ve talked about Shugo Chara! here in the past, but I feel that I haven’t done a proper job of conveying how highly I think of the series, so I’m here to correct that. I’ve already summarized the basic premise Shugo Chara! in my first post on it, so I won’t really elaborate on that point.

Honestly, I’m almost surprised at how well Shugo Chara! has held up. It’s simply a joy to watch every episode, to see the interactions between the characters, to cheer for Hinamori Amu as she falls in love and teaches herself and others to never give up on their dreams. I mean, who doesn’t want to support a girl who more than anything wants to be herself, only to realize that the “herself” she wants to be has limitless potential? A person can never be too old to reach for the stars, especially when those stars are deep within one’s own heart.

The show is simply very strong on a variety of technical notes. It has a very bright and refreshing artwork with a heavy pink and plaid motif. The humor brings a smile to my face with its charming innocence. The theme songs are catchy and match the opening visuals quite well. The overarching plot is something to watch out for, but on a purely episodic level and everywhere in between Shugo Chara! keeps my attention.

And the characters! I won’t go too much into them, but I will say that it would have been so very, very easy to make a lot of the characters annoying and unbearable. Amu’s sister, fellow Shugo Chara owner Yaya, and especially the Shugo Charas themselves all had the potential to be deal breakers, but they are all very enjoyable characters. Especially Yaya.

Though I do find it odd that the person Yaya wishes to be is a baby. I wonder if she’s maybe an older sister who has to take care of her younger siblings, and she wishes she could live a more normal life at home. I’m probably reading too much into it.

I can safely say that Shugo Chara! is the best Peach Pit series I’ve seen. Yes, more than Rozen Maiden. And yes, especially more than DearS. Shugo Chara! is perhaps the finest modern mahou shoujo series I’ve seen since Cardcaptor Sakura.

Oh, and the best Shugo Chara? Miki, by far. I’m just saying.

My Kind of Moe: Ballad of a Shinigami

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A Mysterious Ancient Force dropped a book into my lap last week. It’s the first volume of “Ballad of a Shinigami,” possibly better known as Shinigami no Ballad, one of the premiere titles in Seven Seas Entertainment’s new line of light novels.

Ballad of a Shinigami is many small stories with one common theme: the arrival of an unusual shinigami named Momo. Unlike her dark and gloomy peers, Momo is a young girl clad in all white, save for a pair of red shoes. Accompanied by her servant, a talking winged cat named Daniel, Momo fulfills her duty of bringing souls into the afterlife, but not without bending the rules here and there along the way.

I have to admit that I was a little worried that it would be a little too cutesy. The dialogue, either by original script or translation or possibly both, is a little stilted and awkward. However, Ballad of a Shinigami turns out to be a very pleasant surprise. The central theme of the novel is change. The characters, no matter their afflictions, possess incredible heart and inner strength. If they don’t, then they have friends and certain other worldly white-clad individuals helping them to change, to accept their pasts while moving towards their ever uncertain futures with heads held high. By the end, I hardly noticed the writing’s awkwardness, as the emotion of it all took over.

It would be so easy for this to be a sweet, cathartic tale, but it isn’t and we’re all the better for it. Momo inspires the people she meets to grow and mature. As a shinigami she teaches people to accept death and pain, a small price to pay for growth and maturity.

When characters suffer and change and progress, it is my kind of moe.

Sexy Voice and Robo

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Ah, Kuroda Iou’s Sexy Voice and Robo. I must say, I love this manga. Not because of the characters, though they’re all really engaging and interesting to watch, and not because of the story, though it is very entertaining and its premise is unique. No, I love Sexy Voice and Robo because of the art.

It is so damn good that it makes me cry.

Before I get into all that, at least a basic introduction is in order. Sexy Voice and Robo is the tale of two unlikely partners. Hayashi Nico, codename: Sexy Voice, is a quick-witted junior high girl who makes money on the side as a telephone dating girl. Men call her up to talk to her about anything and everything, and she charges them for it. Nico has an uncanny talent with voices. Not only can she manipulate her own voice to sound like myriad individuals so as to fool her clients, but she can also figure out what a person looks like just by hearing them talk. She aspires to be either a detective or a fortuneteller, but she’s not really sure.

The other member of this duo is Sudo Iichiro, a hopeless loser of a man who is actually one of Nico’s most frequent unwitting clients. Often times, when he thinks he’s talking to a busty 20-something (he’s quite a breast man), it’s actually just Nico in disguise. Iichiro earns his nickname of Robo from his large toy collection featuring some of the most beloved non-copyright-infringing giant robots Japanese youth has ever known. He basically provides the muscle, though he doesn’t have all that much muscle to speak of.

Together, Sexy Voice and Robo solve crimes and mysteries, though neither is particularly altruistic. Nico is in it for the thrill, and Iichiro often has no idea what’s going on even at the very end.

Now then. The art.

Based on the image I posted above, I think you can tell that this is quite different from a lot of manga around. There’s a complete lack of screen tones. The brush strokes do not try to conform to some standard of organization. There is considerable skill behind the brush, but more importantly there is considerable freedom in it as well. It knows the rules but chooses not to follow them, and the result is one of the most visually engaging comics I have ever seen. Things that seem like mistakes and may very well count as mistakes don’t feel that way on the page.

Due to this heavy brush style, the characters and backgrounds blend together while remaining distinct. They are not actors on a stage. They are not figures in a story. They are a part of the comic.

Truth be told, one of the big reasons why I like this so much is that it resembles my own drawing style but much much better. Just looking at the pages inspires me to be something more than I already am, as daunting a task as that may be.

Sexy Voice and Robo. Not only is the work beautiful from an aesthetic standpoint, but every page makes me feel the flow of energy and creativity from person to paper. I can’t recommend this enough, if only for the eye candy, though eye candy may not be the right word for it.

How about this:

Sexy Voice and Robo: Eye Full Course Meal with Balanced Nutrition and Tons of Exquisite Flavor.

Oh, Exia! You had it in you all along!

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Step aside, Lacus Clyne. Your ridiculously powerful basement Gundams that you just happened to have lying around don’t belong here. It’s time for Gundam Exia to show how it’s done.

That is, by turning into Gundam F-91.

But in all seriousness, Gundam 00 continues to be remarkably clever and fresh. Rather than replacing a now inferior unit with a superior one, which usually ignores the fact that four to six months is certainly not enough time for any sort of significant research and development, or discovering yet another earlier prototype, Gundam 00 pulls a unique twist on an old hat of the giant robot genre: the mid-series upgrade. As of episode 22, the Gundams of Celestial Being have had their limiters removed, allowing them full access to the GN Drives’ true power. This only happens at the climax of episode 22, so it’s impossible to see the full extent of their potential, but it’s not a difficult guess that this will give Celestial Being a fighting chance against the hordes of counterfeit GN Drive-powered mobile suits being fielded by the world’s governments.

I have a lot of respect for Gundam 00 because of this development. The show presented what is probably a worst case scenario for Gundam pilots, to have their technological edge completely neutralized by giving everyone else a Gundam. Suddenly, mass-produced units are no longer the typical cannon fodder we all know and love, but a substantial threat. Nor do they have weaknesses such as a lack of human pilots in the case of the Mobile Dolls of Gundam W. To turn the standard armies into such significant threats, and to breathe life into them through introducing the viewer to just a handful of characters like Patrick and Soma, it gives the impression that maybe, just maybe, that every pilot has a story worth telling.

UNLOCKING FULL POTENTIAL is almost as old a concept as the mid-series upgrade in giant robot series. I can think as far back as Daimos as an example. But Gundam 00 is different, not necessarily in concept but in the fact that the air of conspiracy surrounds this development. We now have not one, not two, but THREE independent figures working towards the goals of celestial being from behind the scenes. Wang Liu-Mei, Alejandro Corner, and now Aeolia Schenberg have positioned themselves as complete wild cards, and so the upgrade simply for the sake of increasing power to fight the enemy is not so cut and dry. If Aeolia Schenberg’s true goal isn’t to eradicate war, if this is all a deception disguised as a charade masquerading as an untruth, then Schenberg’s objective I can only begin to imagine. Maybe some kind of survival of the fittest mentality, but determining it by whoever doesn’t blow themselves up.

Oh, and Aeolia Schenberg is one smooth bastard. Aeolia would perform a mental and strategic Tiger Driver on Lelouch and Light at the same time, from what I can tell.

All of this, and it isn’t even the season finale yet! Damn, Gundam Ooooh.