Colorful - the movie

Colorful (カラフル) is a theatrical drama with minor super natural elements.  The movie is based on the novel of the same name by Mori Eto and was initially released in 2010.

    The main character of the movie is a nameless spirit who has died and is chosen for the chance to live again.  He is returned to live in the body of a young boy, Makoto, who has committed suicide.  With the help of a super natural guide, Purapura, the spirit is given the chance at life and eventual rebirth.  The catch is, by living as Makoto he has to become aware of what he did wrong in his own life.

    He quickly finds out that his temporary return to the realm of the living is difficult.  The real Makoto decided on the path of death due to serious and world changing truths about the people around him and his own dejected life.  The new Makoto has to work from zero to fit into the role of his borrowed body while trying to figure out his own past transgressions.  It doesn't come easy and for the most part he refuses to play along, confronting some of the damaging truths he was informed of face on.  With no frame of reference his actions are abrupt and unnatural to those around him, further complicating his goal of self realization.

    I wasn't sure what to expect from this movie in the slightest and wasn't actually prepared for such a heavy drama.  I knew it was not related to the TV anime series of the same name from the turn of the century, but did anticipate a lighter atmosphere.  This is a thick and depressing movie with a strong message about self worth and understanding the nature of people, especially those close to you.  Those you may look at with tinted perceptions.  The story is all about the development and the revealing of the character of Makoto and the way those closest to him impact his world and viewpoint.  Makoto is a sullen and closed boy, who has chosen to live in his own reality to avoid the issues he has in real life.

    The movie clocks in at a little over 2 hours and does move slowly but the ending did seem more abrupt than it should have been.  It seemed sped up compared to the pacing of everything before it and the message may have suffered a little from that.  The message is obviously to live life no matter how hard it may seem.  The movie is a 2 hour suicide prevention PSA.  The artwork works really well for the movie.  Detailed beautiful backgrounds contrasted with the simple and 'ugly' character designs.  Aside from what felt like an abrupt ending, my only other complaint with this movie was the quality of the voice acting, it seemed amateurish.  Otherwise, this was a well done and enjoyed movie, it just may not be eagerly welcomed by all anime fans.  Its serious, brooding and slow...preachy in context but an important message and a pretty decent way to deliver said message.

    The movie is available streaming and on DVD in North America.

Beautiful Bones

Beautiful Bones: Sakurako's Investigation (櫻子さんの足下には死体が埋まっている) is a 12 episode mystery series based on the novel A Corpse Is Buried Under Sakurako's Feet by Ota Shiori.  The anime originally aired in the Fall of 2015.

    Tatewaki Shotaro is friends with an eccentric and brash woman named Kujo Sakurako.  The unique woman in her 20' is the heiress to a wealthy family and continues her deceased uncles passion for osteology, or the study of bones.  Shotaro finds himself her accomplice in all manner of death investigations as Sakurako's skill in deduction and compulsive behavior lead to them discovering corpses.  What appear to be a series of unrelated deaths begin to weave a common thread of a person who collects one particular skull fragment.  A person who haunted Sakurako's uncle and now shows his existence to her.  Shotaro, while unwitting being her accomplice and restraint mechanism, works to come to terms with his feelings for her and her unwillingness to return them.

    This is a semi cut and dry episodic mystery series that unravels a common theme over its course, resulting in the final climax in which Sakurako confronts a specter of her past in the bone collector, of which doesn't actually happen.  In that regard the entire series seemed like a prequel of sorts but it's hard to tell if there will be any more to this show.  It is very much Sherlock and Watson in regards to the characters interactions and adventures.  Sakurako is a genius who'se attention to detail is unmatched in the series.  She is also callus and speaks her mind with ease.  A handful of recouring characters are introduced through out the series including a classmate/friend of Shotaro's, a teacher and an inept police officer.  The stories in themselves are interesting and its entertaining to watch the truth be revealed.  Yet there is this persistent level of disbelief, particularly in how inept the police are presented and the lack of criminal accountability Sakurako faces for her meddling in apparent murder cases.

    The artwork is standard fair, with the exception of a CG sequence they continued to pull out in the first few seasons featuring a parade of animal skeletons as Sakurako was about to do the serious investigative work.  Thankfully they stopped repeating the scene as it was farcical at best.  Aside from that it was an enjoyable series but really nothing spectacular.  It paired with the other investigation drama, The Perfect Insider, made for an interesting dichotomy for the season.  On the one hand we have one unfolding mystery in the later and the episodic mystery in Beautiful Bones.  They could have really done with out the over arching mystery as there was a mystery unraveling with Sakurako's past that was also highly neglected and her reluctance towards any sort of emotional vestment in the lapdog Shotaro.

     On a side note, I feel the best episode was the second on in which the pair found themselves investigating a crime in process.  The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll and Sentai Filmworks holds the distribution license for it so expect some form of disc release.

The Perfect Insider

The Perfect Insider (すべてがFになる) is an 11 episode mystery series based on part of the novel series titled Everything Becomes F by Mori Hiroshi.  The anime adaptation aired in the fall of 2015.

    Nishinosono Moe is a prodigal genius and the only daughter of an affluent political family in southern Japan.  Since she was young she has been attracted to one of her deceased fathers students, now a professor, Saikawa Sohei.  The pair goes on a camping trip with Sohei's research lab to a remote island.  The intention for the trip is to meet a woman who has been exiled there for 15 years.  After she was cleared of the murder of her parents, Magata Shiki locked herself inside of a high tech research facility as a sort of self induced punishment.  From the facility on the island she used her genius to develop technology and code for businesses and other organizations around the world, earning herself praise and respect.

    Moe and Sohei trick their way into the facility, Moe using her prior meeting with Doctor Shiki as a pretense.  The staff welcomes them, knowing who each of them are due to their influence in certain academic circles.  Before they can have a meeting with the doctor the facility experiences a series of technical faults that lead to the discovery of the doctors dismembered corpse.  Not wanting to let an opportunity to test their mettle go to waste, Moe and Sohei work with the facilities staff to try and unravel the mystery of the murder before the authorities arrive.  They have to figure out how and why someone would enter the room that Dr. Shiki had been locked into for the past 15 years.  A room no one has entered or left in all that time.

    This was an interesting series that I had been waiting for since late 2014, but really didn't know anything about.  It is very dry and slow burning, too slow some people think.  From what I have heard the drama series moves at a more acceptable pace.  Personally I wasn't concerned with the pace but can see how it was stretched a bit longer than perhaps it should have been.  It is a classic locked room murder mystery with a few touches of techno-paranoia tossed in.  While the mystery of the murder is the primary purpose, the story also examines the psychological make up of the key characters.

    There is a strained one sided love between Moe and Sohei.  Moe is a jealous spoiled brat who's only saving grace is her extreme intelligence.  For the most part the intelligence doesn't come across and she appears to be rather dense and oblivious.  Sohei is ethereal in some rather over played ways, sometimes to the extent of annoyance.  The interesting character is Shiki and her sordid, monomaniacal past.  She is most certainly a sociopath.  The mystery unfolds in a conventional manner for this type of story, with a few twists and turns, but nothing outside of the realm of the reality it spins.  There are hints and clues and as the characters discover them they explain the process of understanding them for the sake of the viewer.  Somethings are explained that were probably unneccesary but over all the mystery was decent and the process was enjoyable.

    The show was OK, a nice change of pace from the normal anime standards but it wasn't anything spectacular or world changing.  I would like to hunt down the drama and do a comparison.  This story encompassed 2 episodes of the 10 episode drama

    The series was simulcast in Crunchyroll.  Sentai Filmworks picked up the license for the series so there will undoubtedly be a disc release in North America at some time.

One Punch Man

One Punch Man (ワンパンマン) is a 12 episode shonen battle series based on the manga of the same name, originally a web comic by the pseudonymous One.  The series aired in Japan during the fall of 2015.

    Saitama spent 3 years training to be a hero.  He trained so hard his hair fell out.   Why did he do this?  He really didn't have much else to do and though it would be fun.  The end result is that he can defeat any opponent with one punch and withstand any sort of physical attack.  After a particularly destructive battle with a mosquito woman Saitama gains an unwanted apprentice.  The apprentice, a powerful cyborg named Geno's, informs Saitama about the Hero Association and they sign up to become professional hero's.  Even though he is stronger than almost anyone else, poor test scores puts him in a low hero rank, while Geno's earns a high spot in the association.  That doesn't stop Saitama from carrying on his new hero duties.  His success comes into question when the masses believe he cheats for each of his victories where higher ranked hero's failed.  Saitama goes with it and decides to carry on not being important but relishing the search for a strong opponent.

    OPM ended up becoming the biggest anime this year.  I was excited for it when I heard the news of its release.  I had heard about the manga a year previously and it sounded fun.  It was fun, at least in the beginning.  In the beginning its a cynical tale of a man who has become bored with his power.  The strong point is that it sticks its tongue out at every other shonen battle manga that exists.  Everyone postures about their strength and brags about their abilities.  While Saitama stands by, bored, waiting to see if the person he's up against can withstand a hit from him.  Unlike something like One Piece of Dragon Ball Z, where a battle continues and there is much fan fair over the ever continuing almost defeat of people involved.  Saitama typically just ends it before it can turn into an exaggerated waste of time and money.  Sadly though, as the series progresses that spirit is lost and it begins to emulate what it originally satirized.  Bigger and stronger enemies arrive, show how powerful they are by destroying hero's ranked higher than him.  When Saitama finally has a crack at them and completely wipes them off of reality.  No posturing, no long speeches about justice, usually Saitama asking them if they are done talking.  He doesn't want to be rude. Then he hits them.

    The final arc was the one that disappointed me the most.  It was spread out over a few episodes and lacked much of the humor and snide attitude of the earlier episodes.  Instead it started to devolve into drawn out monologues and villains who wouldn't die without revealing hidden power.  Over all it was an entertaining series and confused the hell out of a lot of people.  Is it serious or a joke?  I take it as a joke that started to become serious.  It's probably for the best that the run only lasted 12 episodes.  But given the sudden and overwhelming popularity of it we may see another run in the future.  I believe the manga adaptation of the original short web comic is still going and the first two tankoubon in North America sold well enough.  While the internetz argue over who would beat who between Saitama and all of the Shonen Jump hero's I shake my head in disappointment for them missing the point.

    The series is what you make of it, I enjoyed the comedic and satirical aspects of it and became bored of the serious portions.  It was simulcast on Hulu and the manga is being released by Viz Media.

2015 Year In Review

2015 closes and there were some good things and some bad things.  Here's a run down of the best TV anime in 2015 as I see it.


    Your Lie In April: The bitter sweet tale of young love that struggles to survive.  Self rejected musical prodigy discovers a reason to live through a girl who grabs life by the horns, only to find out she has a terminal disease and feelings for another boy.  The ending of this one made everyone cry but it still ended on a positive and reflective note, a message of survival.

    Parasyte: A TV rendition of an older seinen horror manga.  Mysterious organisms invade the planet as a way to control the human population.  One high school student saves his head but looses his arm to one of them.  They team up  to survive and understand the meaning behind this sudden change in the earths ecosystem.  Skeptical at first due to my distaste of similar stories like Guyver and Genocyber, this one quickly gained my admiration as the main character is faced with impossible odds that he sometimes can't over come.

    Himoto Umaru-chan: The cute adventures of a spoiled nerd girl who appears the ideal woman to the outside world.  At times too saccharin, the story of the dual personality cute girl is fun and care free.  The series makes you warm inside and hope for more beyond its short initial run.

    My Love Story: One of the most entertaining anime in a long time.  A comedic romp featuring two incompatible people trying to learn how to be each others first love interest.  Ridiculous characters in normal situations and an innocence that is sometimes cringe worthy.  I haven't enjoyed an anime this much in a really long time.  So quality, much entertainment.  This one really is my top pick for best anime in 2015.

    Rin-ne: The long awaited return of Takahashi Rumiko to the ranks of TV anime.  Rin-ne is the worlds richest female manga artists 5th TV anime and returns to the comedic insanity of her earlier works like Ranma 1/2 and Urasei Yatsura.  The story deals with a broke part time death god and a girl who can see spirits having to put up with harassment from the living and the spiritual world.  Harassment in a purely comical way.  This series is a nice return to comedic form.  The show rarely takes its self seriously and in a land filled with too much drama is greatly welcomed.

    Durarara 2: Durarara returns for more doings in the fictionally fucked up Tokyo ward of Ikebukuro (the ward is real by the way).  The series continues to unfold an incredibly long and intertwined story of treachery, friendship and survival.  While most other stories collapse under the weight of a large cast Durarara continues to be engaging as more and more characters are introduced and their stories are woven into the fabric of the original series.  I enjoyed this 2nd season more the the original and eagerly await its 2016 continuation.

    One Punch Man: The TV anime adaption of a web based comic, re-purposed into a legitimate comic.  The story deals with bored hero for fun Saitama and his insane ability to resist all physical damage and cause incalculable damage with one punch.  The series begins as a mockery of typical shonen battle stories like DBZ and Naruto but as it progresses begins to become more serious and turn into a legitimate shonen battle story all its own...which is making me reconsider watching it.  Its original intention is highly welcomed by me, as I tire of the shonen trappings and their legions of fans.

    Not a lot of titles that really impressed me.  There were a few that were rather flat and disappointing.  Knights of Sidonia returned this year as well.  While it did not change from the original season, it didn't leave as big of an impression with me.  Time will tell if more will come out as the manga just concluded.

   The Melancholy of Nagato Yuki-chan is perhaps the most disappointing.  The series, which was not animated by the original crew, is little more than a pointless and poorly planned fan fiction set in the alternate universe of the Haruhi movie (which was my favorite segment from the original series).  So much disappointment in this one.

    Instead 2015 seemed to be the year of manga for me, not necessarily manga that came out this year but manga I consumed this year, from Gantz to Orange and many points in between.  Crunchyroll's manga service was a large contributor to this trend and I have consumed much of their catalog.  Sadly, this year taught me that sometimes the anime is better than the manga, particularly in the case of Your Lie in April.

    2016 see's the return of more Durarara, and the TV anime adaptions of Ajin and Koe no Katachi.  Ajin is mindless action but Koe no Katachi is one I will be eagerly awaiting.  The manga was fantastic and its great to see something like this attempt to grow its audience.  Plus, 2016 will see the American theatrical release of Mamoru Hosoda's latest film, Boy and the Beast!

Densha Otoko and the rise of the Otaku

Coined in the 1980's as a derogatory term for obsessive fandom, otaku has become synonymous with cool in Japan and around the world.  Following a 2005 paper by the Nomura Research Institute, the Japanese government decided to use the growing popularity of otaku culture as a way to expand its influence globally.

    In the early 2000's an area of Tokyo classically known for bleeding edge technology, Akihabara, shifted to being the otaku capital of the world.  A key player in the raise of the neighborhood as the otaku Mecca is a story born from the message boards of 2channel, Densha Otoko (電車男) or Train Man.  The story is about a 20-something otaku who comes out of his shell to help a woman being harassed by a drunk on a train.  The intervention blossoms into love between a nerd and a normal girl, giving all hapless fanatics a ray of hope in their love lives.

    The events unfolded on 2channel as the purported Train Man came to his online peers for advice dealing with the situation.  The mass of fellow otaku cheered him on in pursuing the difficult task of succeeding in establishing a 3D relationship.  The story gained momentum quickly and soon after the events played out transcriptions of the BBS threads were turned into a book.  The book gained wide popularity and eventually spawned a movie, TV series, play and manga, depicting the events and adding to the legend of the story.

    The legitimacy of the events and identity of the Train Man are uncertain.   The impact it had with highlighting the growing feelings about Akihabara and it's place in the popularization of nerd culture in Japan are unmistakable.  It helped to cement the otaku as a culture all of its own.  A culture that would soon be recognized, per the Nomura report, as carrying significant economic and societal clout.

    Prior to the 21st century otaku were viewed as loners, shut ins and socially maladjusted individuals.  The label was attached to a hand full of shocking murders in the 80's and 90's, including the Aum Sinrikyo sarin gas attack in 1995.  In the early 2000's it began to heavily invade pop culture and turned from something to be scorned into a hip thing to be associated with. 

    Since the recognition of otaku as a legitimate sub culture in Japan, the Japanese government has worked to promote it to the rest of the world as a way to gain influence and expand exports and tourism.  The movement has gone on for a decade with no sign of abating.  Otaku culture digs deeper into the global markets through growing accessibility and monetization.  The real influence that Cool Japan has to sway large amounts of capital and interest in Japan it's self is still difficult to determine.  Even if it's importance has been over stated Japan is continuing to pursue it for the time being and otaku world wide are reaping the greatest benefits.  Partially due to the help of a lonely man who gathered up his courage to save a woman from harassment or at least the legend of such an act.

Anime's Media Mix - book review

Anime's Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in Japan is a non-fiction book by Marc Steinberg, assistant professor of film studies at Concordia University.  The book was published through University of Minnesota Press in 2012.

    The book details the emergence of TV anime and companion product licensing through the firstTV anime series Astro Boy/Tetsuwan Atom.  Through financial constraints the shows creator, Tezuka Osamu, had to seek out additional revenue avenues beyond what Fuji TV agreed to pay for each episode.  He partnered with candy manufacturer Meiji Seika and the unanticipated success of the anime cemented how anime would be partnered with advertising moving forward.

    The merger of Atom's image with unrelated products for the express purpose of selling the product based on the popularity of Atom was not the first time character merchandising had happened.  Tezuka himself expressed his intent on following the character licensing model begun by Walt Disney in the 1930's.  It wasn't even a new concept in Japan.  Prior to the advent of TV anime, character merchandising and cross media exposure was already happening on radio programs and with candy manufacturers.  Following the Pacific War, manufacturers who targeted children had begun including prizes in their products as a way to woo them away from American imports.  Meiji Seika began to include stickers of Testsuwan Atom in the packages of their flagship product, Marble Chocolate, which pretty quickly saw an increase in sales.

    Tezuka took the success of the anime as far as he could and began licensing the characters to a number of different companies, leading to children being surrounded by things with the image of the anime.  This created as the author concludes, the first real media mix that anime and manga have become integral too in Japan.  The manga, TV anime, radio drama, sponsor character licensing amalgamation that allows for wide exposure for the original product, with the hopes of generating compounding revenue at all levels.  If the consumer is constantly reminded of a particular story they will become more involved in it.  Merchandise allows them to bring a TV show with them.  Action figures allow them to replay the stories shown and to create new adventures and stories involving the characters.  It forms play, continually reinforcing the fondness for the core product.

    Steinberg takes the groundwork laid out by Tezuka and points to it as establishing the industry standards that have persisted ever since.  He goes to discuss the real cementing of the media mix mentality through book publisher Kadokawa Shoten expanding into the movie production, magazine publishing, computer game and anime licensing world beginning in the 1970's.  The idea from the beginning was to push their intellectual properties into as many mediums as possible to grow revenue.  For all intent and purposes it became quite successful and forced many other organizations to follow suit.  The idea is that TV anime is one part of an overall marketing theory that is used to promote and capitalize on intellectual products over a wide variety of formats.

    This is an well written and detailed explanation and hypothesis into the origination of TV anime as part of a larger marketing platform.  The bulk of the book is devoted to the historical situations that lead to the emergence of TV anime and the directions its licensing partnerships took.  It focuses solely on Tetsuwan Atom but begins to dip into later franchises in brief in the final section of the book.  It is the product of an academic and is filled to the brim with academic thought references and research material.

    Aside from being an interesting piece about the evolution of marketing and mass media exposure in Japan it also dips into the history of modern manga and anime.  He points to the pre-war medium kamishibai as being a direct precursor to modern manga and anime.  A story telling form in existence since the 12th century, it found a resurgence beginning in the 1920's as a way for people to earn money.  It involved a series of detailed pictures that accompanied an oral story.  A sort of picture book that was designed to entertain groups of people.  The stories and artwork would be created then packaged together to be carried on the back of a bicycle.  Men would pedal around towns, gathering spectators and go through the story.  The medium lasted until the advent of the television rendered it obsolete.   A key to the kamishibai medium was the sale of candy to the children spectating.  Another key to it was serial story telling, building the desire in children to keep coming back to know more of a particular story.  These idea's translated into manga and then anime in solidifying its story telling template.  It was almost a given by the time Tezuka began work on the anime adaption of Testsuwan Atom that omake like merchandising tie in's would exist as well.

    The book hints at an unsettling idea in the reality of why anime it self exists.  This is an idea that is echoed from time to time in regards to the current state of late night anime.  The idea that anime is firstly considered an advertising and marketing product instead of a creative platform.  While this is not always the case and there are many original animations, it does ring with some truth in the grand scheme of things.  The less pessimistic view point is that anime it's self is one part of a larger whole that is purposely designed to intertwine.  This concept can still be hard to overcome as a western anime fan, given that anime is the largest sector of the whole that we are exposed to, where anime is not as significant in Japan.

    Anime is many ways, is a part of a larger picture of which a prime purpose for its existence is the sales of other products, usually the source material and related merchandise.  Tezuka's Curse established this through underselling his product, requiring him to form product agreements.  Tetsuwan Atom and Marble Chocolates saw a significant increase in popularity and sales with the TV series.  It did it's job and it did it incredibly well.  Tezuka set out to emulate the Disney animation and merchandising standards and what he did has endured for over 50 years and has gone on the shape what is turning out to be a strong import item for Japan.  At the end of the day, regardless of what anyone thinks, it's all about the Fukuzawa's.

Another

Another (アナザー) is a 12 episode psychological horror series based on the novel of the same name by Ayatsuji Akito.  It was originally broadcast in Japan in 2012.

    Sakakibara Koichi moves from Tokyo to a small rural town called Yomiyama.  He will be attending his final year of middle school in this remote town and living with his maternal grandparents while his father is working in India.  A collapsed lung causes him to miss the first month of school and when he is able to begin class he discovers something isn't right.  The entire class and faculty is ignoring the existence of one of the students, a moody and dark girl named Misaki Mei.  Bothered by the atmosphere of his classmates, Koichi decides to talk with Mei to find out whats going on.
 
  Their class has been cursed following an accidental death of a classmate 27 years earlier.  After the students death the classmates and teacher acted as if the student was still alive and part of the group.  The following year the class that occupied the room was struck with a series of accidental deaths.  Since then a number of rituals have been established in an attempt to ward off any such tragedy, with varying results.  Koichi's arrival coupled with his interactions with Mei cause everyone in the class to be on edge as they fearfully await the curse to strike their class.

    I am going to be really blunt with this one, it's not that good.  The character animation was pretty bad and the twists and plot hang ups were worn out and unoriginal.  The gotcha moments were partially due to muddled clues and work-around's more than deep and thoughtful puzzles and plot.  There was really only one shocking death and afterwards the show continued to set up scenario's where a character might die a la the horrible teen thriller series Final Destination.  The climax of the series was poorly executed and included elements that seemed out of place and were explained rather loosely and conveniently in the epilogue.

   Disappointingly, this series fell rather flat and did not really entertain as much as it could have.  It seemed the author decided to phone in some of the major plot points and what you end up with is a mix of Sixth Sense and Final Destination paired with galge moe aesthetics.  This was not my cup of tea and really dissapointed me.  It had the potential to be something deep and interesting, like Nijigahara Holograph, but ended up being fluff that relied to heavy on worn out idea's.

    The series is available commercially in North America, I streamed it on Crunchyroll.  The novel and manga adaptation are available from Yen Press.

Gants manga - Phase 3 - Katastrophy Phase

This is the third and final installment in the review of the long running sci-fi manga Gantz (ガンツ) by Oku Hiroya.  If you have not read Phase 1 or Phase 2 please go to them first before continuing.  Keep in mind that in order to properly review the series there are some plot spoilers.

    Phase 3, or Katastrophy, is the final installment of the Gantz manga.  It takes place between chapters 304 and 383.  Gantz is malfunctioning and it appears the game is over, but before anyone can celebrate their freedom huge ships appear around the world and begin reeking unparalleled devastation where ever they are.  First America is almost obliterated and before anyone can determine if it is real or not Tokyo is attacked by enormous mechs.  No place is safe as the entire city is a battleground.

    What at first appear to be mechs are battle suits as the alien invaders are gigantic humanoids.  The humans that are not killed are captured and flown to the aliens landing ship.  The attack begins while Kurano is in school and his primary concern is with Tae's safety.  He defeats two aliens that arrive at the school and flees, with a number of students and teachers following.  The refugees from school hide overnight in an abandoned hotel.  The alien attack resumes and as they flee Kurano is teleported away from Tae.

    This time he finds himself and many other black ball soldiers in a park.  A group of men have taken control of functioning balls and are forcing the people they summoned to invade the alien ship in order to do as much damage as possible.  Kurano and others find themselves in what looks like the aliens home world, surrounded by alien civilians, on a city street.

    Security forces arrive to suppress the human invaders and the teams face impossible odds.  The teams are transported out of the ship to prevent everyone from dying and then randomly teleported into various cities to await another round of attacks.  Kurano searches for Tae, but before he can reach her she is captured and sent off to the alien ship.  The entire thing driving Kurano forward is to save Tae.  He has little concern for the eraditcation of the invaders and takes every opportunity he has to find the only thing he cares for.  At the same time she works as hard as she can, against all odds, to survive in order to be reunited with him.

    Various battles are fought against the aliens by the teams who are the only ones that posses the firepower and experience to do anything against them.  As they struggle to prevent mankind's extinction they begin to understand the true nature of the black spheres.

    This final Phase really ties everything together and ratchets up the doom and destruction to incredible levels.  There is no safety and no time to rest.  In order to survive everyone must continue to struggle, hoping that their efforts will amount to something positive.  Reading it keeps you on the edge as the horrors of the invasion unfold, from the rampant destruction of the city to the harvesting of people for food.  The aliens see humans as nothing more than insects and pests.  There are some interesting moments when background powers come into play regarding the black balls.  Shadow groups have taken the chaos as an opportunity to vie for control of Earth once the victory they see possible takes hold.  In a strange portion the characters are summoned and directly explained the entire reason for the black spheres existences.  Honestly, it wasn't a bad secret either.  Its hard to tell is Oku-sensei had that idea in mind from the very beginning, but it worked out well.

    The artwork remains highly detailed and unfortunately some of that detail becomes muddied in the more action packed sequences.  There are a few portions where some was done via CG and it didn't mesh well with the hand drawn stuff, part of this may be due to the black and white format.  There are a few full color pages and those really make you want to see the entire thing in vivid color.  If the manga was in color it would be an incredible experience.  Oku's artwork is fantastic but so much is lost in the lack of color.  Regardless the mechanical designs in this Phase are excellent and really create a cyberpunk feel.  This Phase would make a fantastic movie, one Michael Bay would really enjoy making.

    It was hard to tell how the series would end and what type of answers would be given for the stories core mysteries.  The way it was executed was rather abrupt but worked.  The finale though seemed a bit rushed, there were segments of the time progression that were glossed over, import things.  You go from one extreme to the next with no real explanation for the shift.  The final issue as well was choppy in how the characters get from point a to point b.  Despite these plot inconsistencies the series wrapped up in a satisfying manner.  What was interesting was the direction Kurano's personality takes again.  His altruism recedes as he only cares about his own future with Tae and that drive propels him to fantastical survival mode.

    This was a long but quick series, quick due to much of the artwork being devoted to the battles.  There is not a lot of dialogue in the manga, considering its something like 3500 pages long.  It was worth the time and at the same point makes the anime unneeded.  The anime, which came out in 2004, only covers events for the first 8 tankoubon...thats 8 out of 37.  So really, once you read the manga watching the anime is rather pointless.  If you started with the anime, pick up the manga and have your need's satisfied, otherwise skip it.

    The series is licensed by Dark Horse comics in North America and all of the tankoubon are finally available in English.  A new Gantz series is set to begin at the end of 2015 with Oku writing and another person doing the artwork.  It will be hard to tell if it's good, as Oku's strong point really is his art.

Gantz manga - Phase 2 - Osaka Phase

This is the second part of the 3 part review of the sci-fi manga series Gantz (ガンツ) by Oku Hiroya.  The manga is divided into three parts, Phases, to read the review of Phase 1 go here.  Keep in mind that in order to properly review the series there are some plot spoilers.

    Phase 2, also known as the Osaka Phase, occurs between chapters 238 and 303.  It takes place with the team having failed to keep Kurano alive.  To their surprise two of the vampires end up in the room with Gantz, by hanging on to a team member during transfer.  Before they can deal with the uninvited guest's they find themselves on the streets of Osaka.  The reason they have been summoned as a sort of back up for the Osaka team is due to the alien targets immense power.  The local team looks at the new arrivals with disdain and exhibits an air of indifference unparalleled by anyone they have dealt with before.

   Un-phased by the mass of enemies and the quickly rising civilian death toll, the seasoned team takes their time with the mission.  Smoking joints, shooting heroin/amphetamines and getting on with what ever they can stick their dicks into in the process of eliminating the mass of targets.  Their cockiness seems to be earned as their weapons cause unparalleled damage.  Yet despite the amount of damage they do, the horde of aliens, who take after various yokai, soon prove to be more than a match for them.  The Tokyo team stands by in horror at the lackadaisical actions of the Osaka team, even as some of them begin to fall.  Kato particularly impresses one of the women on the Osaka team with his selflessness, something lacking with her compatriots.  Through her they learn that many of the Osaka players have reached 100 points many times, always opting for more powerful weapons, continuing to play the game.

    Yet even their experience and technical superiority begins to fall flat as the leaders of the horde enter the fray.  They begin to cut down the Osaka team one by one, as they foolishly approach them without caution.  Enough of the Osaka team die without doing much damage to the boss to convince the other members that they can't approach this battle in the way they normally do.  As things become desperate and the boss seems immortal the Tokyo and Osaka teams have to try and work together to survive.  The game no longer has a time limit and survival seems to be far from reality.

    When the mission finally ends the remaining members of the Tokyo team decide to revive Kurano, who does not remember anything after he chose to leave the game.  At this point they learn that everything they have been fighting for is coming to a close.  A counter on Gantz informs them that something known as the Katastrophe will take place in a matter of days.  Speculations about the timer is that it refers to the end of the human race, possibly through a nuclear war.

    Before the team can wait it out they are sent on another mission, this time as a taste for the impossible battle ahead.  They find themselves in Italy, fighting along a number of foreign teams against impossibly powerful aliens, who kill easily and can not be defeated.  Before the team suffers catastrophic loses Gantz returns them to the room to inform them the mission is over, with out any level of success.  The Phase ends with unknown black ships appearing all over the world, beginning with America.

    This Phase was interesting in that is expanded the characters and readers knowledge about the black balls.  Aside from the Tokyo teams' battle in Osaka, a side character, a reporter, digs into the people responsible for creating the black balls and learns some of their secrets.  Another thing that is explicitly shown in this Phase is the extreme personalities and attitudes of some of the people involved in the game.  There have always been people that arrive in the room with Gantz that are degenerates.  Plenty of times the buxom female team mates have had to protect themselves from inappropriate comments to down right rape attempts.  Many of the people chosen seem to be unscrupulous.  Yet nothing like the vile nature of many of the Osaka team.  In some ways its taken to comically extreme levels, like one who can't control his libido and fucks anything he can, including aliens.  The Osaka team makes the actions and motives of the Tokyo team stand out.  It makes them seem more honorable than they are.  This is especially key for them as attitudes have become slightly nihilistic following Kurano's death.

    The Osaka portion of the Phase occupies almost all of the story and drags on for longer than it should have.  The battle in Italy is over before you even know what is going on, but adds in interesting dichotomy.  For the first time they are pulled out of a mission before anything can really happen.  You get the feeling that Gantz is concerned for the teams safety.  But nothing can prepare them or the reader for whats about to happen in Phase 3.

Gantz manga - Phase 1

Gantz (ガンツ) is a sci-fi manga by Oku Hiroya.  The manga originally published in Japan between 2000 and 2013 in Weekly Young Jump.  The manga has been licensed and released in North America by Dark Horse.

    Gantz has been collected into 37 tankoubon, spanning 383 chapters.  It is broken into 3 story arcs, Phases, and for the purpose of reviewing it each phase will get its own review.  Phase 1 covers the majority of the manga as it goes from chapter 1 to chapter 237.

Beware: There are some broad spoilers in the review.

    Moody high school student Kurano Kei finds himself helping a childhood friend, Kato Masaru, rescue a drunk that fell onto train tracks.  Against his own selfish ideals he jumps down to help out to end up being killed by an oncoming express train.  Both boys find themselves suddenly in a room with a group of other people.  No one can leave the room, no one can contact the outside world, even though they can see Tokyo Tower from windows in the room.  An ominous black sphere occupies a portion of the space.  The sphere, dubbed Gantz, begins to play music and on the surface informs everyone in the room that they are dead and their new found lives are now the spheres property.  They are to hunt down an alien using weapons and equipment inside of the sphere.  Before everyone can comprehend what is happening they are teleported to a quiet suburban neighborhood, presumably to hunt down the target.

    Through a series of trials and errors they learn a few things; the are stuck in a small area of the city, if they leave it, a bomb in their heads explodes.  The weapons are more powerful and difficult to control than they appear and the fitted body suits they receive from Gantz will protect them for almost any attack.  They have a time limit in which to kill the target...sometimes there are dozens or hundreds of targets.  Once the targets are eliminated or the time is up, all surviving members will be transported back to Gantz with any damage taken being healed.  Once the mission is over they are free to leave the room and attempt to assume a normal life...until Gantz once again brings them into the room to kill more aliens.

    Kurano and Kato learn pretty quickly that the missions have high attrition rates.  Only a few people survive the first mission and the grim reality of their second chance on life sets in.  The only one from the group who knows whats going on is the dismissive and secretive middle school student Nishi Joichiro.  What they do learn is that they are given a set of three choices once they have achieved a score of 100.  At the end of each mission Gantz dispenses points based upon each persons actions and successes.  The survivors now have the 100 point goal a head of them and what ever it means.

    Kurano, being a sulky teenager has other things occupying his mind beyond his new role as forced soldier.  His sexual drive runs rampant and opportunities begin to present themselves to him amid the despair and desperation to live.  His life soon enough becomes consumed with fighting, fucking/wanting to fuck and the occasional stint at school dealing with being an outcast.  Again and again he is dragged into battles for his life, with people dying all around him.  He continues to survive, even when people he begins to form bonds with do not.  After one particularly brutal mission he finds himself all alone, surviving by a fluke.

    In life away from battles and lust a new transfer student, Izumi Shion, takes an interest in Kurano.  Much to his horror, the transfer seems to know a few things about Gantz.  Nishi had been stealthily running a blog talking about the missions.  Fearing that the bomb in his head would explode, he dodges the inquiry as much as possible.  At the same time he is being grilled by the impressive Izumi, Kurano is forced to date a quiet otaku in his class named Tae.

    Kurano fails a solo mission and has hits points wiped to zero.  To make things worse the alien he failed to kill tracks him down and fights him at school, outside of a Gantz mission.  Everyone in his class aside from Tae and Izumi end up dead and Kurano has to fight the alien in front of a large gathering of police.  Luckily he gets away with his actions and the government ends up wiping the unusual circumstances under the rug.  The attack though starts to build a bond between him and Tae.  Izumi shows his hand though as things start to calm down.

    Izumi had once been a part of Gantz and his wiped memories are trickling through, driving him to yearn for a return to the brutal killing game.  In a bid to return he stages a terrorist attack in Shinjuku, killing countless people before being killed himself.  The plan works and he, along with many of his victims, find themselves in the room with Gantz.  After many survive the first mission Kurano is unwittingly made the leader of the new group.  All the people he has lost in the previous month have been affecting his world view.  He know strives to prevent as many casualties in the missions as possible, further convincing some of the group that he is the leader of the Gantz team.

 

    As the team begins to coalesce, with few casualties, a new threat arrives.  Strange people who are able to see the Gantz team and are hunting them down.  This new threat is somewhat vampire in attitude and nature and they begin to cause problems for the team outside of missions.  The new threat makes the internal struggles, instigated by Izumi, more dangerous as well.  After unintentionally photographing one of the team mates while during a mission, Tae finds herself the next target by Gantz.  Izumi takes this as his cue and forces the rift he has been building wide open, telling those who support him the real target is Kurano and to kill both of them.

    Kurano fails to save Tae.  They learn that you can choose 3 things once you hit 100 points.  To leave the game, memories erased.  Gain a powerful new weapons or restore someone to life.  Kurano is driven more to hit 100 points to bring Tae back as well as continuing to fight in order to bring the other people lost over the months back.  The following mission is the most dangerous yet and the survivors are rewarded handsomely.  To show their respect for Kurano they each choose to revive people closest to Kurano.  They then force him to choose to leave the game.

    With Kurano now a 'civilian' with his mind wiped of the past months he spend fighting for Gantz, the team chooses the resurrected Kato as their leader and they continue to work as a well oiled machine, battling stronger and stronger aliens.  Their actions become visible as everyone around them can now see what is going on, much for the worse, as more normal people are being caught in the crossfire.  The battles become more severe and destructive.  This extremely long Phase ends with Kurano, still a civilian, being murdered by the vampires and the team in a strange battle field.

    OK, that's a lot to unpack and a lot of story and character development has been glossed over, as well as a few spoilers unleashed.  So lets dig in and critique this manga.

    The artwork and character designs are highly detailed and well done.  Mechanical designs are interesting and they used base layers of CG in the creation to help with some repeated effects in the panels.  The problem though is much is lost in scenes of high action, partially due to the lack of color and partially due to the denseness of the line work.  Many panels throughout the battles can become muddy and confusing.  But, the artwork is very detailed and ever without color there is a plethora of gore and visceral death with in it's pages.  There is also a very healthy dose of fan service and outright porn.  The women are large breasted and small framed and most of the men are small framed and free of bulky musculature.

    Story wise, its hard even at the end of Phase 1 to really get a feel for what is actually going on.  Little to no answers are given for the variety of questions and many of the semi-main characters die off sooner or later.  The purpose of Phase 1 seems to get the reader familiar with Gantz and what it means for the people that are trapped by it, continuously forced into these highly dangerous missions.  The aliens are unexplained as is Gantz it's self.  Instead there is focus on the bumpy and rather shallow psychological progression of Kurano.  He takes a rocky journey from nihilistic teenager to gaining a bit of compassion and humanity, but still being a moody bitch.

    In all the manga is engaging.  You keep coming back to see more and more as the characters continue to be thrown into impossible battles.  The story hits a snag though when it shifts to focus more than it probably should on normal Kurano and all of his self inflicted head games.  You eagerly await the next Gantz mission and a return to what this manga excels at...ultra violence.  And boobs...lots of boobs.

    This isn't for everyone, its definitely aimed at the teenage boy market.  It gives a 16 year old everything he could ever want from a manga.  An identifiable character who is alone and against the world.  Forced to fight fantastical monsters with alien weaponry in ultra horrific ways while big breasted naked/nubile women fling themselves at him.  It's the ultimate wet dream.  With it's flaws and its rampant fan service I was drawn to it as well and eagerly poured through each issue with reckless abandon.  I'm not sure there is any real re-readability with the story though as you really push through to see who survives and to find out the answers to the mysteries.  There are no answers in Phase 1...only death and sex, lots of both, but mostly death.

So there is a look at Phase 1, click here to move on to Phase 2.

Princess Jellyfish - anime

Princess Jellyfish (海月姫) is an 11 episode comedic romance based on the manga of the same name by Higashimura Akiko.  The anime originally aired in Japan in the Fall of 2010.

    Tsukimi is a frumpy nerd girl who moved to Tokyo after graduating high school and has been trying to work as an illustrator.  She lives in a boarding house called Amamizu-kan which is occupied by other otaku girls.  The 'nun's of Amamizu-kan have strict rules about their convent and shun popular things, freezing up when confronted by their natural fashion enemies and forbid men from entering.  Tsukimi is a jellyfish otaku.  One night while visiting a favorite jelly at a pet store she realizes its life is in danger.  The employee of the shop is a trendy man which trips Tsukimi's self defense mode and she has a hard time trying to convey the danger.  As her attempts fail a beautiful and fashionable woman steps in to help.  In the end the jellyfish named Clara and the strong willed beauty end up back at Amamizu-kan.

    Tsukimi's trouble begins when the fashionable woman turns out to be a cross dressing young man who just happens to take an interest in her.  The man, Kuranosuke, is the illegitimate younger son of a prominent politician.  Raised for the first few years of his life by his mother, a foreign performer, Kuronosuke is very effeminate.  He wishes that he was a woman even though he is heterosexual.  Fashionable, loved by all girls around him, he is confident and used to getting his way.  His inexplicable attraction to the otaku girl brings him to Amamizu-kan in regular intervals.  He see's a beautiful creature hidden in a nerd cocoon that is Tsukimi.  The problem is, he has to hide the fact he's a man from the other residents.

    His entertainment is in danger of disappearing due to a plan to renovate the entire neighborhood, including demolishing all of the current buildings.  He whips up the nerd girls into a frenzy to fight for the continuation of the convent.  As he spends more time with Tsukimi he begins to fall in love with her, which confesses her.  Instead she has unmistakably fallen for his older brother Shu, who is involved in a sticky blackmail situation with a predatory woman from the neighborhoods redevelopment company.  Kuronosuke hatches a scheme with Tsukimi to make high fashion dresses made to look like various jelly fish as a way to raise the money to try and save Amamizu-kan.

   This is a ugly duckling shojo story with heavy otaku comedy elements to it.  Its the story of a fashionable member of the upper echelon becoming entranced with someone living in the gutter of society.  Changing the frumpy duckling into yamato nadeshiko, the ideal woman.  Along the way though the person making the change falls in love with their subject, confusing them. 

    I got into the manga recently and fell in love with it pretty quickly, so once I got caught up with it, as it is slowly ongoing I turned to the anime.  The anime does the manga well, but ends rather poorly, given the incomplete state of the manga its self.  The animation does justice to the feeling and styles of the manga and the voice acting is some of the best I have heard in a long time, matching the characters rather well all around.  In short, the anime is a well done piece, but probably leaves a bad taste in your mouth if you don't read the manga.  The last episode goes off course at an attempt to 'wrap' up the story to some extent prior to the real ending actually existing.  It touches on some aspects that appear later in the manga but just flips in the last two minutes for a hasty ending.  An ending which reminded me of the dangers Shirobako warned about when it comes to making an anime for an incomplete manga.

   Either way, fantastically enjoyable shoujo comedy anime and an even better manga.  The pace of the anime was petty good and made some parts of the manga more bareable.  I really dislike the side character Mayaya and her antics seemed a bit toned down in the anime.  Plus, the opening theme is one of the best I have heard in a long time.

    The anime was licensed by FUNimation in North America and the DVD's for it are easy to come by.

   

Fallacy Friday no.01

Starting Friday November 6th, The Otaku Network will begin doing semi regular post's devoted to debunking false news and clarifying other items that pop up from time to time in the world of anime fandom.

Netflix making anime:

    This week an interview of Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, lead to a flurry of speculation about his very brief comment about producing quality anime in the future.  This was a statement at the very end of the half hour interview by Andrew Ross Sorkin discussing the financial state of the internet streaming company and some of their policies when compared with other major international companies.  In a response to a question from the CEO of Showtime, Mr. Hastings glibly detailed plans for Netflix to expand their range of original productions to take on a more global tone.  The success of the series Narcos in Germany opened their eyes to Netflix Original content being applicable in other markets than the United States.  He alluded to the idea of making Bollywood epics among other things.  Then very briefly said they would like to make quality anime among other ideas floating around.

    So a few things; Netflix is not a studio, they don't personally create things.  What they do is provide financial and broadcast support for productions that they then sign exclusivity agreements with.  So really shortly, this would mean that any anime they produce would mean its exclusively streamed on Netflix.  Netflix won't actually set up an animation studio, write their own story, make it, call it anime and sell it as such.  What this means is that Netflix is willing to, sometime in the future, to join production committee's for anime that are being produced.

    Production committee's are what get anime made these days.  An idea is spawned to make something into an anime, a number of companies agree to work together on the project, applying various things to it, spreading around the financial liability.  Typically a production committee is made of; original content rights holder, distribution company, music licensing company, broadcaster, advertising agencies, etc.  In some cases an animation studio isn't a core member of the production committee and are hired as a contractor.

    But what about Knights of Sidonia, which Netflix attached the confusing label of 'Netflix Original' to?  Well, here, according to Anime News Network, is who made up the production committee.

  Kodansha: Publisher, owns the rights for the original manga.
  Mainichi Broadcast System: TV and radio broadcasting company.
  Polygon Pictures: CG animation studio.
  Starchild Records: Record company.
  The Klockwerx Co., Ltd: Distribution company.
  KOS Production Committee: Unspecified entities, could just be the original creator.

    So, no, Netflix will not be making their own brand of anime, nor should we expect anything in the near future from them.  He was speculating about directions in the future the company is looking at doing to expand its original content, with a target of having 400 original programs a year, which is staggering.  So don't worry that Netflix is going to start making its own brand of anime that will 'poison' the well.


This weeks anime series that will NOT get a new season.

    Your Lie in April: This moody anime that ended on a depressing note WILL NOT have a new season.  The anime almost panel for panel covered the entire manga...to the point of making the manga useless.  There is a live action movie adaption of the story slated for release in Japan in 2016.  No matter how much everyone wishes, there really isn't any more story to be told.

    Elfen Leid: The bloody and mutilation filled cable anime series from early in the 21st century has no chance in hell coming back for a second season.  The anime was made before the manga was completed, leading as usual, to a divergence of how the two ended.  The closest you can get to a return would be to watch the anime version of another author by the same artists, Brynhilder in the Darkness.

Not Idle, Just Consuming.

Too busy watching Saitama nut-punch ninja's to write anything.  Also enjoying some Jelly Fish Dresses. 

つづく

Death Parade

Death Parade (デス・パレード) is a 13 episode psychological fantasy anime by Tachikawa Yuzuru and is based on a 2013 Madhouse short film titles Death Billiards.  It initially aired in Japan over the winter of 2015.

    Once people have died their souls end up in an intermediary location in order to be judged on whether they will be reincarnated or sent to hell.  The judgements are done by having two souls compete against each other in a randomly selected game and take place in a fashionable lounge like room, moderated by an Arbiter.  The series focuses on one arbiter specifically, an emotionless Lurch type character named Decim.  He reigns over the bar known as Quindecim and judges souls with machine-like precision.  One day his boss, a crafty woman whos' real age bellies her youthful appearance, brings him an assistant named Chiyuki.  Chiyuki is taught the judgement process, along with the audience, over a series of arbitrations.

    The newly dead find themselves stepping through elevator doors into the realm of Quindecim.  The memories of the death non-existent, so they believe they are still alive.  Decim confirms that they have no recollection of how the arrived at the bar and then proceeds to tell them they can not leave until they have a completed a randomly selected game.  The game is chosen and its rules are explained to the players.  As the begin playing it rules are expanded upon that are meant to force buried memories and emotions from the players to allow a for a correct judgement.  The players begin to have moments of catharsis during the games as the rules and stakes quickly turn lethal.  The process dredges up memories that lead to the players deaths and they realize what is happening to them.  Once that process is complete Decim can then pass judgement on their souls.

    Not everyone goes quietly though and Decim has to employ some supernatural abilities to reign in the newly dead that are resistant.  The process is also unsettling to Chiyuki who questions the way Decim forces people to have the 'required' catharsis.  Little do either realize but Chiyuki is there as an experiment to test Decim's capabilities as well as to correct issues in Chiyuki herself.

 

    On the surface and over the first few episodes, this series seems cut and dry and rather pointless.  Two souls show up, play a game and they are judged.  Once the basics are laid out for the audience the focus begins to shift on the realities of the arbiters existence and their world.  This is where the story becomes interesting as more characters are introduced that work as arbiters and the politics they deal with come into play.  The judgements and the stories behind some of the recently dead are interesting, but there is too much focus on twists an 'a ha' moments to really be quality.  In the end the mysteries surrounding Chiyuki and the politics at play with the arbiters is interesting and well done.  The story wraps it's self up rather nicely in many ways but I can see room for a shorter side story set in the same world.

    The artwork is interesting.  The background details are very well done but the character designs have a unique quality to them.  Almost like a blunted modern rendition of shojo in some regards.  The people are all beautiful in their own way, but as their agony surfaces their facial expressions contort in exagerated and grotesque ways.  There is also a large amount of body fluid present, particularly spit and snot.  It was interesting.

    The series was simulcast by FUNimation and an English dub is in the works.  The series has not yet been released in North America on disc though.