Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens

Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens (かんなぎ) is a 13 episode super natural romance series based on the manga of the same name by Takenashi Eri.  The series originally aired in the Fall of 2008.

    The story follows Mikuriya Jin, a self sufficient high school student. Jin joined the schools art club to find purpose in his life. In doing, so a fellow classmate, Daitetsu, gives him a portion of the local shrines sacred tree to use for an art festival. Daitetsu knew that Jin always liked going to the shrine as a child and took this opportunity to give him something nice from the soon to be demolished holy site. Jin lives alone in his family home. His father works away from home and leaves his lone son’s safety to his childhood friend Tsugumi. One day as he struggles to bring the carving he made to school it ends up breaking and a young girl who resembles the carving is in its place. The girl, calling herself Nagi, claims to be the resident god of the shrine and chooses to live with Jin, who has summoned her through the carving. Jin is dumbfounded but tentatively agrees to help the mysterious girl out. Once Nagi finds out that Jin is sensitive to the supernatural she enlists his help in banishing the impurities of the land. Jin tentatively agrees but once her existence can no longer be kept secret he scrambles to fabricate a lie about her identity. The first person to find her at his house, is Tsugumi, who is instantly suspicious and jealous due to her feelings for her childhood friend. Jin and Nagi convince her that they are long lost siblings and that she has been kicked out of her far off, posh house to live with her half brother.  Soon fighting impurities brings Nagi to Jin and Tsugumi’s school where she pretends to be a new student. With this opportunity she begins to build her power by getting people to worship her, in order to better fight the impurities. When Nagi’s sister, Zenge shows up, it becomes a sibling rivalry to amass the most followers. Jin now has to maintain his story about Nagi’s identity, help her fight impurities and fend off the unwanted advances from Zenge while trying to keep his relationship with Tsugumi intact. In the end the stress pushes him to his limits and he demands to understand the true nature of Nagi, her sister and their purpose.

 

    With this description you could formulate a couple of ideas about how this series rolls. At once you have the pathetic and over played mysterious magic girl coming from some odd beginnings to live with the hapless high school kid scenario. Then you have the magical being fighting the good fight with the help of the normal high school student. You also have the love triangle harem thing going on between all three main female characters. None of these definitions really tap into what this show is all about. Sure you have the non-human girl who comes from mysterious origins to live with the socially inept high school student who just so happens to live alone. Said supernatural girl does enlist the inept student into helping her with her supernatural duties. Yes there is some level of competition between the 3 main female characters for Jin’s attention. The series doesn’t linger on these ideas or even make them the main focus of the show.

 

    The best way to describe this series would be to call it a slice of life high school comedy fish out of water tale. Nagi, whose consciousness has been asleep for a while, at least a few decades, is unaccustomed to modern conveniences. She is quickly drawn to TV and convenience store food. The first thing she sees on TV is a magical girl anime, which instantly grabs her attention and she tries to use it as her identity for fighting impurities, right down to fashioning a magical wand and posing while purifying. The funniest example of her lack of modern knowledge is in the first time she answers a phone. Jin tells her not to answer the phone while he takes a bath. During his bath the phone rings and he runs out, naked, for fear of the consequences of a mysterious girl answering it. He finds her in the hallway staring at the receiver in her hand as his childhood friend is saying hello. He quickly grabs it and apologizes for the wait. To underscore her lack of understanding she questions what a the word phone even means.

 

    While Nagi’s mission is to fight the bug shaped impurities, she relies on Jin to pick them up so she can banish them, the act of hunting them and banishing them is a very minor part of the series. In about half of the episodes there are no impurities at all. They don’t even turn the purifying of them into a big ordeal, it’s just something they do, like hey look there’s one get it and I’ll whack it with my magical wand. Where the whole fighting impurities really comes into play is as a focal point for Jin questioning Nagi’s existence and the truth in her being a god. He questions why she fights them and what the purpose of doing so is.

 

 

    The harem aspect of the series is minimal at best. There is little in the terms of a sexual relationship between Nagi and Jin.  Nagi shows no interest in Jin other than using him as her assistant and house keeper.  Jin shows little in the way of sexual interest in her, aside from the idea of being with a girl all by himself in his pubescent ways. There is one episode that deals with his problems in Nagi working at a cosplay café.  Aside from that, it’s barely sexual in nature. The relationship with Tsugumi is one sided. They are childhood friends and she harbors deep and hidden platonic feelings for him. Her jealousy is held in check in front of Jin but manifests it’s self blatantly otherwise. She never confesses her feelings for him and mostly believes the story of Nagi and him being siblings. Zenge on the other hand is actively trying to seduce Jin, much to his horror. He finds her personality frightening and tries to fend off her aggressive tactics. Zenge’s true motives are never really explained but it seems she is more interested in stealing him from her sister than actually wanted him for himself. I always feared that the show would degrade into a harem story but the relationships between all of the characters never amounts to much more than what it was in the beginning.

 

    The story is good, not great, but enjoyable. The characters are odd, especially the members of the art club, which are social misfits and otaku. The head of the club is a tsundere lesbian and another member is nick named Akiba for obvious reasons. There was one particular episode that was painful and unnecessary. They spent the entire thing singing at a karaoke box. The episode did nothing aside from showing the battle between Zenge and Tsugumi for Jin’s attention. The episode where Nagi works at a cosplay café could also have been left out, but it did serve its purpose to build upon Jin’s feelings of wanting to protect Nagi as well as confusing everyone about his feelings for her, thus causing more tension. The funniest event is when Tsugumi accidentally thinks out loud that Jin may harbor homosexual feelings for Daitetsu, which becomes a wildfire of gossip in the school and even escalates to a 4 way bisexual struggle with Jin at the center.

  

    With all of its down falls, odd character designs and penchant for fan service shots, this series is actually enjoyable. It’s not the best in the world and nothing to get overly excited about, but it is still enjoyable none the less. With 13 episodes in total it is something nice to kick back and watch over a quiet weekend if you are in the mood for a moderately funny semi emotional story of adolescent friendship, mixed with a bit of supernatural flair and a blatant lack of adult supervision. While nothing new in any sense of the world the familiar themes of the series will be very comforting for fans of such titles as, Tona-Gura or Aa Megami-sama.

UPDATE: This series was licensed by Bandai and is available in North America.

2008 - Year in Review

    2008 brought a small amount of enjoyable anime, a large field of mediocre titles and plenty of horrible and uninspiring titles, at least in my own opinions. As with each year end here is a run down of some of the series that caught my attention, good or bad that began their run in 2008.

Best titles;

Out of half of the titles I selected for best of the year, half are either continuations of current running titles or revisits on old franchises. Yet nothing really grabbed me like series found in past years with the exception of Itazura Na Kiss. There was nothing to compete with the powerful titles in recent years like Ergo Proxy, Noein, Welcome to the NHK, Heroic Age or Denno Coil.

Zoku Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei – With the Zetsubo Sensei franchise the second series, Zoku, was welcomed whole heartedly as a way for us to enjoy more insane comedy and cut throat social satire. Too bad there won’t be much is anything beyond the 2 episode OAV set.

Code Geass R2 – This follow up to the 2006/2007 series is the best thing that Clamp has done since the X movie. While the ‘realism’ become pretty far fetched compared to the original series and it seemed the reinvent its self continuously the series ended this venerable title well. The end to this series and anime is probably one of the best and most satisfying endings I have ever seen.

Soul Eater – This spunky and hip supernatural shonen adventure series creates some memorable characters while also making fun of its genre.

Casshern Sins – This revisit to the decades old Casshern franchise is beautiful and haunting while also paying homage to the classical animation style of the original. This series is better then anything else in this title and it would be cool to see them revisit the original story in this manor.

Nodame Cantabile Paris – Is a short lead in to the 3^rd season of this fun and comfortable music based romantic comedy.

Macross Frontier – 25 years after the launch of the SDF-1 this brand new full season TV show captures the spirit of Macross, both the amazing battles and the annoying pop idol singing. The series leads up to a disappointing ending but is so strong up until then that it is still enjoyable.

Itazura Na Kiss – This fast paced anime of an old romantic manga is warm and enjoyable, if too short lived. This series calls back to the old romantic comedy stylings of Maison Ikkoku and Kimagure Orange Road. It is a familiar friend and a welcome change of pace to the current blend of romances. This title is my pick for best anime of the year.

Chi’s Sweet Home – This 2 min per episode short about the daily live of a stray kitten is endearing, funny and sweet. Made primarily for young children it is easily enjoyable for anyone who loves or lives with cats.

Worst Title;

There were plenty of horrible titles that I viewed in part through out this year, much of which was due to a lack of knowledge on many of the shows airing this year.

Persona – Game based horror super natural anime usually tend to be pretty crappy, this one was dry and uninventive to say the least. Where the game franchise is entertaining and enjoyable this ill thought anime was lifeless and throw away.

 

Yatterman – Not all classic series from your childhood need to be revisited, as this sloppy semi obscene super hero title originally from the 70’s proves. I’d rather watch a few episodes of the American dubbed Samurai Pizza Cats…and for some reason Takashi Mikee is making a live action of this…then again he also made Zebraman.

 

Bus Gamer – If you like pouty, hard ass loner bi-shonen you will love this pile of almost boy love from the mind that brought us Saiyuki.

 

Kamen no Maid Guy – If it wasn’t for the obnoxious and stupid ecchi this series might be entertaining, but when the plot line of an episode revolves around the main characters bust line I have to drawn the line between mildly entertaining crap and fucking garbage.

 

Amatsuki – This semi shonen-ai series about 2 kids from the future who get sucked into the past ala Ayakashi Ayashi, seemed entertaining in the least until I realized it was nothing new and followed annoying and blatant historical shonen tendencies.

 

Golgo 13 – Remaking a horrible title from the archives of anime greatness does not make for quality material, especially when it revels in everything that was wrong about the original. I can understand why Golgo 13 is in the pantheon of the original anime in America, and I’m pretty sure this was made with Americans in mind. Yet this proves that you can’t always turn crap into gold, unlike the remakes of Vampire Hunter D.

 

Hidamari Sketch 360 – While this title isn’t bad, it annoyed the piss out of me and was too dry for my tastes. While I love a great 4 character female high school student comedy slice of life series, this one is too plain and flighty to get me to watch it. In fact I didn’t even watch this second season but added it to this list since I watched half of the first season.

 

Yozakura Quartet – There will never be a shortage of horrible supernatural shonen titles with animal eared bimbo’s…unfortunately.

 

Hokuto no Ken Rao Gaiden: Ten no Haoh (Fist of the North Star) – This revisit of the ages old shonen adventure series proves that people still don’t have taste as we once again visit the land of disproportioned muscle bound maniacs.

 

Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka – This anime based off of a semi popular erotic dating game once again proves that the only people who can enjoy these titles are the lone otaku who play the games they are based on.

 

Tales of the Abyss - This anime based off of a semi popular fantasy rpg once again proves that the only people who can enjoy these titles are the lone otaku who play the games they are based on.

 

Linebarrels of Iron – Is a cheap and stereotype filled attempt to reignite the shonen mecha flare that died out when Evangelion ended.

 

Kemeko Deluxe – This zany cyborg/mecha comedy might be entertaining to some degree if it wasn’t a shameless harem anime.

 

Skip Beat – Is an oddly drawn and super deform abusing shojo series that was entertaining until it turned to shonen trappings and caved in under the weight of its nonsensical foolishness and bi-shonen sparkle.

 

Macademi Wasshoi – This looks like it might have been a series to capture the energy and insanity of the venerable Dragon Half anime only to instead be a sad and perverted harem series filled with your worst case eroge examples; loli-con and incest.

 

Ga Rei Zero – This horrible series has no redeeming qualities, the only way anyone can enjoy this title is if they are venomous Michael Bay fans.

 

Tytania – Is a dry and poorly drawn swashbuckler styled space opera.

 

Ok titles;

With the large amount of horrible titles both viewed and unviewed and the miniscule amount of great titles, there were still plenty of shows out there to take up my precious time.

 

Minami-ke – okawari – is the follow up to the original Minami-ke slice of life comedy. Where the first series was great, this series; by a different company; was only ok. The new production crew changed the style of the original series to be more episodic instead of sketch based.

 

Mission e – This anticipated follow up to the cool futuristic high school romance from last year, Code E was disappointing at best when it became a skin tight power suit super hero anime.

 

Blade of the Immortal – While this manga is one of my all time favorite titles, the anime did little more than make it move, plus with the advent of it being only 13 or so episodes long; while the manga is still running; is also depressing in the least. It’s good, but could have been better.

 

Toradora – This nice high school romantic comedy has memorable characters a new twist to an old idea but still isn’t anything to cancel dates over.

 

Hyakko – The newest in an increasingly long line of 4 cute funny high school girl’s slice of life comedies is fun and enjoyable. There have been better titles, but this is a fun ride and the characters are all entertaining.

 

Kannagi – While it bordered on harem, this funny slice of life, fish out of water type supernatural comedy series was nice and homey. The characters are agreeable and they kept from falling into many obvious genre traps.

 

Gundam 00 2 – Where the original series was entertaining, this second season reminds me that it is just a revamp of Gundam Wing. Every other episode was filled with hatred (from me) and unbearable emo anger (from the script). The only thing keeping me viewing it are the other episodes filled with destruction.

 

Stitch – This Japanese Stitch story was good enough, but not anywhere near as entertaining as its American counterpart…they tried to hard to clone the original.

 

To Aru Majutsu no index – I don’t like fantasy anime, I don’t like anime with magic users. This futuristic fantasy magic anime is actually entertaining and mildly original. It is mature and serious in much of its plot devices but is still held back by the genres trappings and oddly dressed characters.

Refused to even watch;

While this list is actually longer than what is physically presented here, these are the memorable ones.

Yes Precure 5 Go Go – While this is one of the most popular anime on TV in Japan, I refuse to watch any Maho Shojo titles.

 

Tower of Druaga – While this is one of two series that began the great experiment to bring anime to English audiences at roughly the same time as the Japanese I still hate fantasy anime.

 

Slayers Revolution – Slayers ranks as one of my top hates in the world of anime.

 

Strike witches – A year after the teaser clip came out for this weird maho shojo military series I still refuse to watch it. I have this thing against magical girls with animal ears, even if they carry anti aircraft weapons.

 

Clannad After Story – Didn’t we just have a remake of this series last year?

 

Jigoku Shojo Mitsuganae - I have been a hater of this supernatural revenge series since the original incarnation. It needs to end.

 

Ef – tale of melodies – Didn’t we just have a remake of this series last year?

One Outs – After being tricked into watching all of Overdrive I refuse to get anywhere near a shonen sports series.

 

Vampire Knight – I have never been a fan the tortured yet beautiful vampire titles.

 

Birdy the Mighty Decode – This is just a vehicle for selling wonderfully detailed panty clad garage kits right? I mean people can’t seriously enjoy a frivolous super hero story right?

Need to watch;

On top of all of these there are a number of titles that I have watched little of and want to watch more or have not watched at all but want to watch.

Titles I need to watch more of - True Tears, Shigofumi, Kure-nai, Real Drive, Library War’s, Maho Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora, Kuroshitsuji, Kurozuka, Chaos Head, Michiko to Hatchin, and Shikabane Hime.

Titles I have yet to watch but want to; Telepathy Shojo Ran, Natsume Yujin Cho, Aria, Gag Manga Biyori 3 and Moryo no Hako.

In conclusion this year kind of sucked for anime. 2009 isn’t looking much better based on the first blush. There are a few bright spots, such as the third Minami-ke series and the new Full Metal Alchemist series. Yet in a world were more and more titles, thankfully most I don’t want to watch, becoming easily available to the English speaking audience in legal venues at close to the same time they are available for Japanese audiences the world of the fansubbers is changing. 2009 will be an interesting year for the fansub community and I will have to find a new venue for Naruto Shippuuden in order to maintain my weekly viewing with a small group of friends. People will still sub for the reason that not everyone agrees with how the American companies translate things and I guarantee that Full Metal Alchemist will be hard to sub quietly.

Nodame Cantabile Paris Chapter

Nodame Cantabile Paris Chapter (のだめカンタービレ 巴里編) is an 11 episode follow up to the 2007 series Nodame Cantabile based on the manga of the same name by Ninomiya Tomoko.  The series originally aired during the Fall of 2008.

    The review of the original series can be found here.

     The Paris Chapter begins a bit after the end of the original series, Chiaki has overcome his fear of flying, with Nodame’s help, and both find them selves in Paris. Nodame has enrolled in a music conservatory in the city and Chiaki is planning on entering competitions to try and win the favor of his dream teacher, Franz von Stresemann. The couple, while admittedly in a relationship, are not officially together, at least not in the normal sense. They have adjoining rooms in Chiaki’s family estate in Paris, which is also a boarding house for other music students, yet Chiaki is still cold with Nodame. As this short series progresses we see Nodame struggling with the level of abilities found at the conservatory and she falls into a funk about her abilities. Chiaki on the other hand surprisingly wins a conductor contest and is forced into a contract with the company the evil Stresemann works for. At the same time Nodame and Chiaki’s relationship builds slowly and while it’s not to where Nodame wants it, Chiaki is more personal with her.

     This series was too short, which would be a detriment if there wasn’t going to be another series premiering in the next few months. The reason for the 11 episode series is unknown and a bit confusing. The series didn’t cover much in the way of story progression. It all seemed like build up for the next series, which will hopefully be longer. I was pleased when this series was announced, because I had enjoyed the original. While there is already a live action drama version of the series, I find the anime more entertaining. (Don’t get me wrong the drama is pretty good and well done). One thing I did miss were the zany side characters, of which are lacking in Paris. The side characters in this season seemed to be different sides of the same coin and I got confused as to who was who with a few of them. Part of this could be from the characters being based in reality, with normal hair colors and styles, making it hard to tell some of the characters from similar ethnic backgrounds apart from each other.

 

    Aside from there feelings it was a fun series to watch, as with the original it was fun to spend time with these lovable characters even if they didn’t do much. The series main focus seemed to be on Chiaki and his growing presence in the world of orchestra conducting. In the end we see his first successful concert with a ragtag Parisian orchestra.  And we see Nodame regain her confidence and make her own small impact on the European classical scene. The comedy was low key like it was in the original and the romance was low key as well, with one memorable moment were Nodame turns serious about her feelings and begins punishing Chiaki in Street Fighter fashion. One thing that stood out in this series was Nodame’s otaku tendencies. This might be deliberate in the writing to show that she is clinging more strongly to her national identity in a foreign land. It is also used as a way for her to more easily interact with some of the fellow students.

 

    All in all this series is worth viewing if you are a fan of the franchise, but it should mostly be viewed as a segue way into the next series, which will hopefully be more complete. There is a possibility that this series can also be used as an introduction into the story, as there are few references to the original series. For the most part you only need to know who Chiaki and Nodame are. Stresemann shows up rarely and after the first 2 episodes or so no one else from the original appears. They only touch lightly on Chiaki’s past problems and even less so on the events of the original series. The art style remains consistent with that of the original but there seems to be a lack of the orchestral suites played in part or whole as we found in the original series. Where the original took a lot of time showing the concerts this one only had a few moments. The CG generated hand movements of the orchestra members is also more noticeable in this series compared to the original. This may be due to less spending on that aspect than before, but it is more noticeable when they use motion capture effects to accurately portray the real use of the instruments, which is still cool that they take the time and consideration to show that.

Fall Preview 5

     Disney and I have a long-standing hatred. I think their works are piles of garbage and most of it is ripped off, sometimes out right pirated (Kimba the White Lion). Disney probably doesn’t like me because I don’t give them money, well much anyways. I do have children and they do like Disney, which I’m ok with. There is, however, one Disney title I really enjoy, the Lilo and Stitch franchise. When I found out that a purely Japanese production of said franchise was going to be airing in the fall in Japan it made me a bit happy. I could have my kids watch a kick ass Disney title that continued to expose them to Japanese. This we have Stitch. In this adventure the genetically created destruction machine is stranded on one of the islands in south end of Japan, presumably the Ryukyu Islands. His ravaging hunger brings his presence to the attention of everyone in the small town and soon a spunky young girl, Lilo’s replacement; named Yuna is hot on the mysterious, ravenous blue monster. When she catches up with him they spar like a kung fu movie and both end up in the water, Yuna ends up having to save Stitch, who can’t swim, and they end up calling a truce. Yuna chides him about being bad, which he flat out denies. Soon Yuna’s grandmother finds them. Typical of old wizened Japanese people, she is unmoved by the fact that a bizarre creature is talking with her. They soon pass a large sacred boulder and when Stitch asks about it they explain that it is a magical rock that can grant wishes to those who are god and virtuous. Stitch perks up to the ability to grant wishes and sets on his way to get home by being good.

     Ok, so it’s still Disney, it’s drawn like the other Stitch titles and has all the same basic ideals. The Japanese voices are pretty decent for the regular characters. Aside from that it is trying to replicate the formula from the Lilo and Stitch TV show. The spunky girl Yuna is somewhat of a lone wolf. Her father is away for work and she lives with her grandmother. She also runs a karate dojo, where she teaches the weaker, geeky kids how to stand up for them selves against the gang of bullies. The bullies are a bit annoying, especially the girl of the group, complete with blond hair, weird glasses and the personality of a nail. The show will have goofy fun but lessons to be had, usually light hearted ones. If you enjoy the other titles in this franchise you will probably enjoy this one. My kids have already watched episode 1 3 times.

     There seems to be no short supply of harem anime this season but Kemeko Deluxe, would probably be one of the weirdest of them. I think the best way to sum up this annoying series is by relating it to a harem version of Potemayo crossed with an obasan version of Nuku Nuku all written by a gaggle of untalented teenage otaku. Here's the quick premise, a weird, squat cherub like hyper robot, Kemeko, comes into atypical high school student Sanpeita’s life, saying that she is his fiancé. During school Kemeko has to fight off robotic attackers from the evil Mishima Corporation. After the battle Kemeko’s pilot, MM shows her self to reinforce that she is Sanpeita’s fiancée. So now all of a sudden a tall and beautiful girl is throwing herself at the atypical student. When she announces that she is moving in with him the other girls that are after him go crazy and the fight is on to get his affection. Oh yeah, MM with the assistance of Kemeko are protecting Sanpeita from the evil Mishima Corporation that is trying to get something from him.

     So this is really annoying, but there are some pretty funny parts as well. Kemeko is squat and goofy, like Potemayo, and there are a number of odd slap stick comedy routines that reminded me of the oddity of Potemayo, but those brief glimpses of entertainment are lorded over by the rest of the show. It actually doesn’t seem to be able to make up its mind about what kind of series it wants to be; mecha fighter, odd ball comedy, slice of life comedy or fan-service laden harem swill. The art is so-so, with Kemeko’s design being quite glaring. It’s like the evil kabuki doll version of Asuka if she were a short and fat old woman who works as a Mama-san in Kabuki-cho. All of the female characters fall into eroge categories. There is a fan base for this kind of show, it’s the same type that enjoys Negima and Kateyoshi Hitman Reborn, I don’t fit that category and will not b watching this show anymore then I’ve had to, to write this.     I am always on the look out for new and exciting space anime that have nothing to do with mecha, or at least little to do with them. Last year a great series aired that was just that, Heroic Age. This fall season brings us a new space anime that is devoid of mechs and full of battleship combat and political maneuvering. Unfortunately, the show, Tytania, is lacking in pretty much everything else. This epic space military series is based in a universe where the aristocratic authorities, resembling those of the renaissance era, wage battles for control with both their armadas and in person. I couldn’t get myself to watch enough of it to find out the plots and twists and who’s trying to backstab who and why but it’s a pretty familiar dramatic political intrigue series.

    My biggest problem with the show, aside for my distaste in the styles of the age of discovery, is the artwork it’s self. I am being picky this season with the quality of what I’m watching. There are plenty of moments were it seems the production staff cut down the number of frames per second to save on cost. This is especially noticeable when the characters are walking. The characters themselves are also lacking in the design area. They don’t really move too much and you mostly see them from two angles, straight on or profile…is that all the artists can draw? It’s a pretty shoddy production all around and very amateur. The space battles are pretty good on the other hand, the ship designs are unique and it reminded me of stuff you would see on Babylon 5. The most disturbing thing with the animation is how the ships come out of warp. At first it reminded me of warping in Heroic Age, with a swirling and sparkly portal that the ship exits from. The comparison ends and the uncomfortable feeling begins when the last bit of the ship pulls out of the vortex and snags a bit, flops around then finally breaks free. Honestly the first thing that popped into my head was that the universe was taking a crap and had to pinch of that last bit…it’s not a pleasant image to associate with a ship coming out of warp, but is pretty funny in a juvenile manner.

    So, in retrospect, this series is pretty unappealing to me, I’m super critical of its animation because it doesn’t have that good of a story, from what I could tell, to really bring me in and forget the bad art. While the actual space stuff is good and the ships are interesting it still doesn’t outweigh the rest of the series downfalls. The immovable characters talking endlessly about their plots. The standard dry political intrigue plots and glossed over policies and atrocities attributed to nations and empires that are barely seen outside of their rulers. You may only enjoy this series if you are a fan of the melodramatic and dry military maneuvering series’.

     Kurogane no Linebarrels is the newest in a long and recent line of uninspiring mecha anime. It’s always about the lone boy who comes from an unassuming background and is mystically chosen to save humanity with the biggest and best mech available. This is pretty much the case with this series, which takes place a little bit in the future of Earth. Since I was quickly turned off by this show while skimming through the first episode, I figured I would post the description form the English version of the series’ website.

     Fourteen-year-old Kouichi Hayase’s life has always been a mediocre one, if not dismal. However, those days of being bullied by classmates and escaping to a fantasy of being a hero are put to an end when a certain “accident” bestows on him a girl and a gigantic humanoid robot called “LINEBARREL”. The extraordinary power that Kouichi obtains puts him and everything around him on a sudden rollercoaster ride of battles, intrigues and friendship! During the course of his adventure, the boy starts to learn what life has to offer; he meets new friends, bids farewell to the old ones, but most of all he now has considerable responsibilities and is forced to confront the world around him.

    Ok, so there you have it, he activates Linebarrels by grabbing the girls, large, left breast and then proceeds to go kick ass. I’m sure everyone can tell my dripping annoyance with this show already, so I’ll get right to it. The animation looks like crap, they skimp, another one, on some of the in-between animation. It’s not as bad of a chop job as Tytania but it’s still pretty bad. The mechs, while somewhat unique, look pretty dumb and they cut corners with them as well. This all in all, seems like a rushed and budget tight attempt to animate something that will just add to the ever large collection of poor and mediocre anime that fill the bad timeslots and end up on in the used DVD bin quickly. I’d say pass on it unless you enjoy living your anime viewing live like its Groundhogs Day for 

    I’m usually not too entertained by bi-shonen romance comedies aimed at the female audience, in fact probably one of the only titles that fits this category that I enjoyed was Ouran High School Host Club. It I still to be determined is Skip Beat will follow the same fate, but it’s got some promise after the first episode. The story follows young Kyoko working 2 part time jobs, every single day, to support her self, only to attain for the dream of being an ugly duckling turned beautiful princess. She left Kyoto after middle school to move to Tokyo with her childhood friend Sho. Sho had a dream of becoming a popular musician and needed Kyoko’s support in attaining his goals. Kyoko works herself to death while Sho’s career begins to take off. Sho’s repayment to her, though, is coldness and distance. Kyoko gets into his record studio one day after work to spend time with him and over hears him talking with someone about how Kyoko is just a tool for him and that now that he can support himself he is going to throw her to the sidelines. In a fit of rage Kyoto attacks him and vows vengeance as she is being dragged off by security. He tempts her by becoming a musician herself and fighting him with popularity. She takes on his offer and completely changes her appearance, ready to meet the world stage in order to exact revenge upon her lost love.

     This is typical shojo romantic comedy. The characters are all thin and tall with pointed faces and luxurious locks. The female lead is self sufficient, street smart but slightly gullible. No mater what she has the undivided attention of the most beautiful and sought after men around her, all there for her to choose from as she sees fit. It’s essentially the jaded Japanese girls wet dream. One thing that I like about this series so far is its comedy. I’m a sucker for goofy anime slapstick and SD routines. If the comedy can keep up this series could be quite enjoyable. However, I feel that the first episode might have been a switch and bait. She was cute, endearing and bumbling but at the end of the episode when she blows 300 dollars on a cut and color, in an attempt to make her beautiful and fabulous, the tone seemed to change. I know that the plot of this series is going to be her rising to musical glory all the while competing with Sho and his rival Ren, while Ren falls for the beautiful girl and Sho begins to realize what he missed, even if he doesn’t admit it to him self. Then again, that’s just judging the book by its cover and I won’t really know until I watch more of the episodes.

     I don’t think there are any other titles that I really need to go over for the Fall Preview, so thanks for checking out the snapshots and wait for more complete reviews.

Macross Frontier

Macross Frontier (マクロスF(フロンティア) is the 25^th anniversary series and the first TV series of the franchise to come out since 1994’s Macross 7. This 25 episode mecha anime originally aired between the Spring and Summer of 2008.

     Frontier takes us further into the future of the franchise, humanity has spread far and wide through out space in roving colonies, searching for hospitable planets which mankind can thrive one. One such colony, on the far side of the galaxy, is suddenly attacked by a mysterious enemy, which ruthlessly proves the convoys defense units ineffective. The colonial government calls to action a private military force known as SMS to aid in the battle. Some of the enemy breach the main colony ship and begins attacking the city its self. The enemy attacks during a concert by the current galactic pop star, Sheryl Nome. Students from the colonies high school are working as part of the concerts special effects using personal glider suits to fly stunts for the concert. One of the students, Alto Saotome, ends up saving Cheryl during the attack.  Everyone flees the building and Alto chases after Cheryl to tell her off about being a coward when the people who came to see her are still trapped in the concert hall. In defiance he flies off and soon stumbles upon a fight between an SMS pilot and one of the aliens, who are as big as the Veritech fighters. The pilot is killed in the fight and Alto quickly jumps into the fighter, ready to protect a girl who he ran into before the concert, as the alien is about to attack her. As he desperately fights off the attacker, more SMS pilots arrive and quickly take over the situation. The commander of the bunch, Osama Lee, tells Alto to take the girl, who is actually Osama's sister Ranka, to safety while the real soldiers protect the city. In a dramatic sequence of events Alto saves Ranka from the aliens and they are at last driven off. The events bring Alto to SMS’s attention and he enlists as a pilot, attempting to secure his only dream of flying in the open sky. Before he can officially join, the enemy, known as the Vajra, returns to attack once again. As SMS is called to duty, Alto finds him self trapped in one of the colonies ships with Ranka and Cheryl. A love triangle develops between the two, with Ranka infatuated with Alto, Cheryl showing interest as well and Alto indifferent to both women.

     After the second attack the government explains what the Vajra are, a mysterious race of bio-soldiers who are bent on destroying humanity for some unknown reason. Many years previously another of the colonial convoys was destroyed by the creatures, first contact, the only surviving member of that colony was Ranka, who has suppressed all memories of the event. After Cheryl pushes Ranka to pursue her dream of being a singer the government discovers that a song sung by Ranka controls the Vajra. Using this knowledge a clandestine operation by members of the government is enacted to use the Vajra and Ranka for unknown gains, thus threatening the entire convoys existence.  Ranka must now decide if she truly wants to pursue her singing career and further aid the colonial government to manipulate the Vajra, even though her conscious is telling her that she is doing more harm than good. Alto must decide if he will continue his life as a fighter pilot or bend to his fathers request and return to the family business. Cheryl must come to terms with her slipping status as idol in the wake of Ranka’s rise to fame, as well her own humanity and secret past.

     Half a decade after the last Macross series, Macross Zero, we have a very slick and well animated 25 episode TV series in Frontier. Where Zero gave us some updated CG, it didn’t mesh well compared to today’s standard. Frontier more then makes up for that by bringing a very well animated series to the franchise. The character designs are typical of the current styles, not necessarily connected to past Macross endeavors. The Veritech fighters, however, are well done and the newest fighter is the best looking out of the entire franchise. Animation and design wise, it makes all that have come before look like crap. The story on the other hand is not as riveting as Plus or Zero, but it is still a good story, with more hidden agendas and secrets waiting to come out than you normally find in the franchise. The singing did get a bit grating, mainly with Cheryl Nome’s cosplay bent antics. The more palatable and even enjoyable tunes are those sung by Ranka’s character.

    This series took a more mystery based stance than some of the other ones, with there being a fair amount of shadowy deals and hidden agendas, which play into one of the popular themes in anime these days. One big disappointment was in the titles apparent lead role, Alto, being pretty much a whiney, emo, punk. Bluntly put, his character is as much of a bitch as he looks. He doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life and thinks the world needs to revolve around him. He constantly pouts and can’t even get through something without acting superior and privileged. In the end he doesn’t even really learn from his ways, because nothing truly happens to him to point out his pathetic behavior.  Yet somehow he brightens up, but we will never know if he truly changed. Instead, the entertaining characters are the other members of SMS, especially Osama Lee, who is this series’ Roy Fokker (Macross Zero version). Another annoying thing in the series is the way it ends, I was actually disappointed with the grand climactic end to the story plus a little embarrassed by it…I mean come on a sing out between the two idols…is this Macross Idol or something? Anyways, the show was good, even if it does end on a bit of a flat note and the male lead sucks, then again annoying male leads have been in vogue since Shinji from Evangelion. If you are a fan of the franchise, especially Macross 7 check this one out. If you are inexperienced with the series but enjoy space and/or mecha anime this is a good one as well. Not too much will be left out if you have no prior Macross knowledge, the majority of what you don’t understand will actually be explained and has no relation to any past series.

    As with almost everything Macross, Frontier is not and will not be available commercially in North America.  Following the series broadcast two theatrical movies were released in Japan.

Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem

Interstella 5555 is an anime that many people probably don’t know about. It was produced in the beginning of the decade by Toei animation, probably one of the most influential and important production companies in the industry. Founded in 1948 it has produced such titles as; Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999, Dragon Ball, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Mazinger Z. The reason why this movie may be unknown to many anime fans, even coming from such a power house, is the fact that it is actually a collection of music videos set to the band Daft Punks second album, Discovery.  

    The movie tells the story of an alien musical group that is abducted during a performance and brought to earth, altered to look human and forced to perform their songs in order to make an evil producer more money. One of their friends arrives on Earth and works to save them from their fate and bring them back home.

     One of two things can keep the typical anime fan from enjoying this cool movie, the first is that its actually an album length music video, the second is that it is done in the classic Toei style from the 70’s. Leiji Matsumoto, one of the directors, has a large and impressive list of productions he has worked on. The style is very similar to Galaxy Express 999, which Matsumoto is the original creator of. The art is clean and the colors are vivid. The story, while not spoken in any sense, tells an in-depth tale about one persons’ ruthless and far reaching pursuit for power and control and the way he uses anything in his path to get to his goal. It also tells the story of acceptance and understanding between cultures and the strength of friendship. Being a fan of the album already, I greatly enjoyed the entire movie, which I just watched in full for the first time. Originally it came out in bits and pieces as music videos for the selected singles from the album, first one being One More Time. Around that same time I ended up catching a string of them late one night on Toonami and found out there was more than just the first video. The DVD was released in 2003 along with action figures of the main characters, both of which are still available from retailers and Daft Punks website. If you are a fan of the band you already know about parts of the movie, if not all of it. If you are a fan of classic anime this is a nice thing to add to your collection. If you are a fan of fun loving electronic dance music this can also appeal to you. I would say if you have seen the One More Time video and didn’t care for it this movie is not for you. I enjoyed it, even though it took me for ever to watch it in its entirety. I might try and pick up some of the action figures, but the complete set is something like $100 US.

Fall Preview 4

    Taking place about 4 years after the end of Gundam 00 we have Gundam 00 Season 2, one of the titles I was highly anticipating for this season. The series picks up with the fallout from the destruction of the Celestial Beings. We find Setsuna F. Seiei alive, piloting Exia and all alone, on a mission to rescue prisoners in a prison colony. Unbeknownst to him is one of the prisoners is the Japanese kid he lived next to. He uses the cover of a conflict between the installation forces and a separate space borne military force to break into the installation. As the assaulters unleash unmanned killing drones into the installation, leaving everyone except for Setsuna’s old neighbor alive. Setsuna saves him from the drones and rescues him from the installation, only to reveal the fact that he was a Celestial Being. The kid’s European girlfriend lost her hand during an attack by the German Celestial Being siblings while her family was killed. It just so happens that the same girl is part of the force attacking the installation. She flips out when Exia starts to fight its way to freedom. The new Gundams are too much for the outdated equipment and Setsuna soon finds himself in peril when, he is saved at the last minute by Tierde, piloting a revamped Virtue. The true Celestial Beings are still operating and come to Setsuna’s rescue, there by strengthening their forces. Now they must rebuild their team and try to regain their goal of a world without war. 

    OK, so it’s season 2 and if you never watched the first season this isn’t going to mater to you. It’s Gundam, so there are a set of things that need to be covered, the mechs holding secret powers that come out at the bets time, moody male leads, lots of international political subterfuge and plenty of melodrama to fulfill the most hard core Emo kids. The animation is the same as the last season and we are being introduced to a whole new cast of shadowy world figures as well as catching up with people from the last season. If you liked Gundam 00 you are already watching this show. If you have not seen the first season and wish to watch this one then hop to it. For the most part people know if they like Gundam or not, but 00 is not a bad series to test the waters with.

     Chaos Head is a series that I know absolutely nothing about, and after watching the first episode I have only slightly grasped what its about. The first episode starts out like a male/female version of the end of the X movie. Then leads into the real world/present time where we meet our protagonist, a delusional otaku named Takumi, who resides in a corrugated metal shack on a building top in Shibuya. Takumi is a typical slacker, hikikomori otaku. He only prefers interaction with people if it’s digital or fictional all together. A number of times in the first episode he chants the otaku mantra of 2d girls are better then 3d ones. We find his illusionary version of his favorite anime heroine waking him up to go to school. He has taken his distaste for human interaction to the extreme in the fact that he has calculated and plotted out the minimum days he needs to attend school. In school he shuns contact with everyone and convinces himself that everyone around him finds him disgusting, which only helps him stick to his convictions about 2d over 3d. Through out the day he hears references to a series of bizarre and grizzly events that have taken place in Shibuya recently dubbed New Gen or New Generation. In the events people are killed or die in very grisly and message-laden ways. While online he also runs across a mysterious person who wants him to look at pictures related to New Gen. In a moment of hysteria he causes one of the images to open up and it shows the grisly image of a man crucified to a wall with dozens of daggers. 

    The next day he seeks refuge at an Internet café, in order to discreetly play his MMORPG. On his way home he stumbles upon the exact scene he saw in the image he opened up the previous night. This time he is witnessing the event happen as a number of cross shaped daggers are scattered around the ground as a blood soaked school girl has apparently just nailed the guy to the wall. She turns around and calls out to him, by his name, causing him to flee in terror. When he arrives home he finds that he still has one of the daggers in his hand and throws it into a corner. He breaks down some more and his imaginary idol convinces him it was an illusion. The day after that he is jittery and feels he is being followed and watched, only to find out it is somewhat true. A beautiful and timid schoolmate named Yua is actually following him, at least into school, but his over active imagination tells him otherwise. On his way home from school he runs into her again, dreams up something horrid and runs from her only to hurt him self in an alley. She comes to offer him assistance and takes him back to his house, all the while he is trying to convince himself that she is tricking him and this will end badly for him. In an awkward exchange he finds out she is somewhat of an otaku too. The events lead to a bit of embarrassment, some hallucinating and Taku filling himself, rationally or otherwise, with dread and fear. Yua leaves him be for the evening only for him to go to school the next day and find the girl who was crucifying the man to a wall sitting next to him in class. 

     So with the first episode this series didn’t know what to be. On one hand it was a typical high school harem leading anime and an expose on hardcore otaku. On the other hand it’s trying to be like a cross between Lain and Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. In the least the show is interesting and I’m generally intrigued and entertained by crazy mystery pseudo-horror titles like this. The art is mid range, typical of something based off of an eroge. After doing so research this is based off of a game series that actually began earlier this year and appears to be along the same lines as Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. I didn’t want to read too much into the game it’s self, for fear of ruining anything I will find out in the anime. So for now I will continue to watch this series and see where it leads.

     Ga Rei Zero is a poorly drawn, poorly written, stereotypical shonen supernatural series. This series fits in right along with Guyver, Blue Seed or Bubblegum Crisis. For those of you who don’t know what any of these series are, don’t worry they all suck pretty bad. I didn’t even watch the entire episode all the way through but skipped around a bit. In the first episode we find a group of supernatural/undead creatures attacking a freeway. The military is called in to handle them, but are ineffective and only when 2 mysterious people show up on a crotch rocket, do the creatures begin to get hurt. The man and woman are members of a crack assault squad designed specifically to take on these supernatural beings with the use of rune laden magical weapons. The man dual wields pistols loaded with rune-covered bullets and the woman’s bike has runes on it. They kick the creatures collective assess in a flashy end battle that would make John Woo blush. By the end of the episode though they run into humans who are in cahoots with the creatures and end up meeting their demise, apparently. 

    I skimmed even quicker through episode two and found that dealt with entirely different characters, maybe episode 1 was a prequel or actually the final episode and we were now going to see all the back story. Either way I’m not going to find out. As stated earlier the animation is pretty shoddy, the story paper thin, and very unoriginal. The believability flew out the door the very instant the chick began using the motorcycle in Kung fu type attacks on the creatures. Before that even happened I was questioning what kind of physics engine this anime ran on, since the guy was easily capable of standing up on the back of the cycle, firing both pistols as it maneuvered at high speeds. I just don’t have any patience or fondness for this kind of pathetic crap that is designed for one thing and one thing only; to push stupid action sequences with a vehicle of a thin and over played plot of a band of virtuous freedom fighters going against a secret world dominating conspiracy. It’s like a Michael Bay movie.

     Kurozuka on the other hand is an interesting, beautifully drawn sleeper hit. After waiting a while after watching the raw I was very pleased to see that a sub group picked up this show. After watching only the first episode I am still a little sketchy on the details. It takes place, if my history serves me correctly, during the timer when the first Tokugawa shogun was beginning to take control of Japan. A young prince is fleeing his land in fear of being killed. He and his skilled servant are running from a supernaturally powered enemy, who has followed them into a remote mountain range. In the woods of the mountain they seek refuge at a home. The only person who lives there is an aloof and distant, beautiful woman. When the young prince falls ill she gladly takes the men in and begins caring for the sick man, warning them that they must never look into her bedroom. 

    After a few days the servant leaves the house to get medicine only to never return. Soon, however, the prince comes to and finds himself alone in this remote location with this woman. He quickly grows fond for her and lives a blissful and removed existence with her. Soon, though, he grows impatient and on a stormy night he sneaks to her room and peers inside to find her licking blood off of a man hanging from her ceiling. She discovers him at once and begins to ask him why he broke his promise. Before anything else can happen the people who have been chasing him attack them outside of the house down. In the fight both are gravely wounded, the woman ends the fight and brings the dying prince to a tree in the forest were she offers to grant him everlasting life. Vampires are usually not a favorite genre of mine, I find them mostly boring and annoying, like Black Blood Brothers or Vampire Hunter D. This series on the other hand appears to hold some promise. 

    The first episode was entertaining and gruesome. I’m not sure were the story will go and if it ends up with them wandering the world in eternal life, going from one mini plot to the next, I will probably get bored. It could also become a vampire revenge story as he kills all the people that are out to kill him and his history unfolds to the viewer. Either way it could suck or be good. So far I have some semi high hopes for it. I am always on the look out for interesting historical series. There have been a handful lately or varying quality. This one also stands out for me because it reminds me of Ninja Scroll, the movie not the crap TV series. With this, though, only time will tell.

     Nodame Cantabile Paris Chapter is another of the series I have been highly anticipating. The story picks up a bit after the end of the first series and we find Nodame and Chiaki arriving in Paris as exchange students. If you have not seen the original series you might be a little out of the loop with this one, but you might not have to pick up the original to enjoy this series. So far they are introducing a new cast of characters along with our lead roles. Then again the original series was so entertaining that it doesn’t make sense not to watch it anyways. 

    What else can I say, the animation is the same, it’s all pretty much the same, we are just seeing more of the story that was already done in the manga and in the live action drama, which is also entertaining, why won’t someone sub more of that?? So if you liked any of the above variations of Nodame, watch this one too or if you like funny, silly slice of live romantic comedies, heavy on the comedy, then watch any and all you can. I recently also watched a DVD special from the original series that had a really funny side story about the characters road trip to the summer musical training camp they went to, find it if you can, it’s well worth it.

Chi's Sweet Home

In the beginning of summer a very sweet and endearing anime began airing called Chi’s Sweet Home. I thought this was perfect for my children, as I am always looking for good anime for them to watch. This 3 minute per episode series ran for 104 episodes and ended recently.

This anime follows the daily life of a kitten named Chi who, having gotten separated from her family, was adopted by a human family until they could find a place for her to live. The story follows all of the trials and tribulations cats and cat owners go through with the humans trying to figure out what the cat wants and the cat trying to figure out why the humans can’t understand what it wants. From things like visits to the vet, litter box training, scratching on the furniture, etc. Mundane things that cat owners go through every day. So you would think to your self with this vague description that this is a pretty boring show…woo, a show about a cat, which are lazy, doing normal things that cats do. I mean it doesn’t talk, it isn’t magical, it doesn’t go and fight demons or teach the young child of the family it lives with that he is the greatest martial artist in existence. The series is just about a cat and a family and them living together. Yet, after watching all 104 episodes, a number of them multiple times, I would have to say this is an entertaining show.

First off, Chi is pretty damn funny, as kittens tend to be. She does pretty stupid stuff and explores to her hearts content. She’s also pretty feisty and holds grudges. Out of the family, the father is the next most entertaining characters. He represents one of the typical Japanese male stereotypes; easy going, humble, apologetic, pathetic and not really in control of anything. The mother of the family is the one known for discipline and decision making. While the child, Yohei, is a 4 year old, doing what 4 year olds do. Chi runs the house and the humans try their best to contain her wild spirit as much as possible, especially since their lease forbids them to own any pets.

The animation is cheap, but works well with the premise and delivery. The story is mundane and the situations are all normal. What really works with this series is how they show the mundane and normal. Nothing is out of the ordinary but some typical anime techniques are used, like the blurry feet for speedy running. What really impressed me was the attention to detail about the every day life of a cat and the characters facial expressions, most notably with Chi. Chi’s dialog along with the way they drew her went perfectly well in expressing the situation and even emphasizing it.

If you have young children, are a cat owner or just like nice slice of life stories, this is a good one to get. With full episode length, including opening credits (which my kids sing to), the total running time for the series is a bit over 5 hours. I don’t see this series ever coming to America, or probably any where else, but a DS game was released recently…I’m, just glad my daughter doesn’t know about it or I would never hear the end of that. This was a fun series, I enjoyed it, my kids love it, I have recommended it to a number of people I know and I will still play it for me and the kids.

UPDATE: Both this series and the second series are currently streaming on Crunchyroll.