Tabimachi Lateshow

Tabimachi Lateshow (旅街レイトショー) is a 4 episode drama series by CoMix Wave Films.  The shorts aired on TV in Japan in January of 2016.

    Each episode is a self contained story, dealing with the main characters relating to loss and the acceptance of change.  The first episode, Recipe, deals with a young aspiring chef who is moving to Europe to improve his abilities.  He has to leave the woman he studied under who he has unrequited feelings for.  The second episode, Transistor Smartphone, deals with two woman who tried to connect as friends in school.  Their personalities prevented that from happening and they muse upon what was lost years later.

    The third episode, Summer Festival, deals with a young girl learning about the meaning of Obon Festival and her chance to reconnect with a lost friend during the celebration.  The fourth episode, Clover, deals with a grade school teacher reflecting on the countless lives she has seen in one year increments over her 37 year career.

    The animation is very simplistic and very limited, the series is more a picture story book than a cartoon.  The artwork appears to be water color pieces and are beautiful in their simplicity, perfectly fitting the tone and style of each story.  The stories themselves are simple, quaint and haunting at the same time.  Each tells an easy to understand tale of the principle characters, allowing enough background to bring across the underlying point of the stories.  Each story is mainly driven by the realistic dialogue, but the subtle hints in the animation add more power to the words and unspoken understanding.

    These shorts aren't for everyone, the animation is far from the standards people expect in today's TV anime, but what the series brings that is hard to come by is excellent story telling.  Powerful story telling within a limited amount of time.  Something that stands in stark contrast to hundred episode juggernauts, something to be deeply appreciated, something that showcases anime as a legitimate medium for story telling for mature audiences.

    I have little hope for this series seeing any sort of disc release in North America, but for now it is available streaming on Crunchyroll and is well worth the 25 or so minutes it will take to watch the entire thing.

Understanding TV Anime Release Schedules

Each year close to 150 new anime hit the airwaves in Japan between normal terrestrial stations, cable networks and satellite.  For the most part these releases follow an established schedule.  Here's a breakdown of how that works and the efforts the companies behind the shows go through to make sure it's viewers are aware of when to tune in.

    Japanese broadcast TV is split into quarterly portions called cours.  The word is directly taken from French for 'course'.  While this system is not universal it is the standard for anime.  A cours is a maximum of 13 weeks in length, equaling to 4 cours in the year.  Starting at the beginning of the year is the Winter cours, which begins the first week of January.  This is followed by the Spring cours which begins the first week of April.  The Summer cours begins the first week of July and is typically the least important one.  The year wraps up with the Fall cours, beginning the first week of October. 

    To begin a show outside of the first two weeks of the beginning of a cours can and will cause major scheduling problems for consecutive cours.  Generally a series will do everything it can to fit as many episodes as possible in a cours.  If a series will only take up a portion of it there will be a similar series waiting to fill in the slot, to run out the rest of the 13 week schedule (see Tabimachi Lateshow for a current example).  If the production of an anime is falling behind schedule the studio will piece together an episode mostly comprised of material already shown, typically a recap, to buy more time.  This can lead to a later episode unable to air on TV.  These are then typically packaged as bonus disc's on up coming video or manga releases.  So, if you see a recap episode odds are the artists or something else is falling behind schedule.

    Each anime airs one episode per week in a set time slot, as much of normal broadcast television does.  The time of day and even what day a show is broadcast in determines the target audience.  For any show that is looking to pick up as many viewers in the general public as possible the coveted air time is Sunday in the early evening hours.  Traditionally this is the one time each week that will have the highest viewership in the nation.  The longest running scripted television show in the world, the slice of life anime Sazae-san, has aired regularly at 6:30PM on Sundays since 1969.

    Shows aimed at children will typically air in the early morning hours and the adult orientated shows will air in what is known as the shinya time block.  This occurs between 1130PM and 430AM, when content restrictions are significantly loosened by the governmental censorship standards.  Prior to the mid 90's it was rare and deemed wasteful to have an anime air during the shinya block due to the minuscule viewership.  Neon Genesis Evangelion, released in 1995, proved that an anime shown in the middle of the night could be incredibly successful.  With the advent of programmable digital recording devices the time a show airs became less of a roadblock.  Currently a large portion of the anime aired on terrestrial TV is specifically crafted to be shinya anime.

    As anime is used as part of a larger package to generate revenue tied to someones creation the companies behind the shows do as much as they can to promote them.  Leading up to the start of a show the production committees will release commercials, publicly announce what voice actors and musical acts are involved and promote when and where everyone can view it, building hype.  They don't keep secret the details that are used as ways to boost interest in their product and fire up the per-existing fan base.  During the broadcast, sometimes even with in the first episode, the release dates for the pending disc volumes will be announced, to make sure the viewers know when they can purchase copies of the show for repeated home viewing.  They do every thing they can to promote the show through out its life span.

    And it works, rather well in some cases.  Typically DVD and blu-ray releases will see their highest sales numbers in the first week of availability.  The most eager fans, already aware of the release date due to constant reminder during the show and in related advertising, will line up to buy the volume as soon as its available.  Sales will be significantly slower in the weeks following its release until it drops off to a trickle and is no longer tracked by Oricon.  There is a great English resource that historically tracks anime DVD and blu-ray sales as reported by Oricon as well.

    So how does one keep on the same footing as the Japanese fans when the production committee's are solely focused on informing their home turf fan base?  The single greatest English language resource that exists is Anime News Network.  Generally if a press release or a news brief comes out in Japan, the staff at ANN will have it disseminated in English later that day.  The website has one of, if not THE, most in depth and voluminous encyclopedia for anime and manga around.  I have yet to find something comparable in Japanese.  Odd's are if the information does not exist on ANN its not true.  There are other fantastic English resources for news and release information as well such as Tokyo Otaku Mode and Otakureview.net.

    As for Japanese language resources, they are plentiful but here are a few that I use.  Otakomu.jp, otanew.jp and yusaani.com.  Though for both English and Japanese one of the greatest and easiest way's to say on top of the news about anime, manga and everything related is via Twitter.  Almost every production, distribution and animation company has active accounts that are more than willing to blast info to people who follow them.  Artists and other producers of manga and anime are also prevalent and easy to find.  This a typical morning on my Twitter feed.

    Its pretty easy to find out when and where stuff will be available.  Next time someone post's something online about a show you're eagerly awaiting check it out on the resources above to see if its legit or just horrible trolling.

Oda Nobunaga

The name Nobunaga filters through various anime and manga titles, mostly in a historical drama context.  Who is Nobunaga and why does the name appear in so many stories?

    Oda Nobunaga is one of the most important historical figures in Japan.  He was a feudal lord in the middle of the 16th century who almost unified all of the various portions of Japan under his control.  He succeeded in gaining political and military control over the largest landmass in the nation but was betrayed and died before he could see the end of his goal.  Two of his allies took up his efforts, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu.  The later established the hereditary Tokugawa Shogunate, which ruled the unified nation for over 250 years.

   Nobunaga's efforts and accomplishments were monumental and altered the fabric of the nation for centuries to come.  His rise and legacy signaled the end of the bloody feudal warring period known as the Sengoku Era.  During this 150 year period of almost constant warfare between the various lords the power of the Emperor, seated in Kyoto, was virtually ceremonial.  Instead the various clan leaders battled each other over resources and influence.  The constant fighting led to great suffering for the lower caste's who would attempt revolts from time to time.  In general it was a dangerous and chaotic period.

    Whether through tactics, luck, timing or all three, Nobunaga, the eldest son of a small clad leader, was able to stage a decades long effort to reign in the chaos, instilling allegiance to his power faction.  He did so through successful battles, strategic negotiations and his growing prestige, which had a hard time faltering even when he lost military campaigns.  Under his command numerous clans that opposed his power grab were defeated and subjugated.  In the end one of his generals, Akechi Mitsuhide, betrayed him as a new military campaign was underway, leading to his death.  Mitsuhide claimed control following the betrayal but was killed by Hideyoshi with in a month.

    Hideyoshi had risen, to be one of Nobunaga's most trusted generals, from a lowly beginning as a peasant.  In striking contrast Hideyoshi established the samurai law that would prohibit non-samurai from carrying swords and cement the title of samurai being hereditary only.  This maneuver established a block on social mobility in the country, preventing others from taking the same path he had taken.  The law would remain in effect until the dissolution of the samurai caste in the 1860's.

    Hideyoshi succeeded in unifying Japan, though the unification wasn't guaranteed.  He directed his attention to China, to continue Nobunaga's goals and to increase his own renown as he neared the end of his life.  His forces failed twice to push through Korea enroute to China and the Hideyoshi clan was left in a weaked position, making its control of the nation difficult.  Following his death Tokugawa stepped into the power vacuum to cement his own ambitions to rule the nation.  Establishing the Tokugawa Shogunate, setting up his seat of power in the small fishing village of Edo which would become Tokyo.  The Tokugawa clan ruled the unified country until pro-Emperor forces would over throw it during the 1860's Boshin War.  This change in power would also open the country completely to foreign influence for the first time in over two centuries.

    Aside from his roll in shaping modern Japan, Nobunaga is known to have cultivated a number of things that are now intrinsic in Japanese culture, such as the tea ceremony and kabuki.  But his place in history is not without controversy.  He is viewed by many to have been a harsh dictator and generaly unpleasant person.  Part of this negative light is due to the siege and eventual slaughter of a mountain fortress for anti-samurai monks, priests and peasants.  After years of besieging the fortress following a defeat by the warrior monks with in, the entire place was burned to the ground and all of its inhabitants slaughtered, including women and children.  There existed a rule that prohibited soldiers from attacking monks and priests. Nobunaga believed that if they choose to participate in war as soldiers they were exempt from this rule.

    While the subject of many history books in Japan, it is unfortunate that very little is available in English about the historical Oda Nobunaga.  The few books that do focus on him in depth are of the prohibitively expensive academic sort.  The best source for the casual reader interested in more detailed information on him would be A History of Japan, 1334-1615 by George Samson.

The Power of Promotion, The Cost of Anime

Much of the anime produced over the decades has had the dubious role of seeming to exist solely to boost sales of the original source material.  It's no secret that some of the most popular anime is derived from successful manga.  From the very beginning with Tetsuwan Atom.  The popularity of the TV anime saw a surge of interest in the original manga content, validating the risk of the new medium.

    In the modern industry, run by semi-official multi-corporation agreements known as production committee's, the most important thing seems to be using an anime as an extended commercial.  The purpose being to make the manga more profitable and to expand peripheral good sales.  At the most cynical conclusion this is very true indeed.  It's hard to dismiss this idea for even the most pessimistic of view points on a portion of the TV anime that exists currently.  But how successful is it really?

    This article talks about the seemingly correlated affect of One Piece author Oda Eiichiro praising the manga Your Lie in April on a podcast late December.  Almost overnight sales of the existing copies of the manga surged, requiring a new edition to be printed.  That's a sales pitch with some serious clot behind it, akin to Oprah Winfrey recommending a book.  The week following the broadcast of the final episode of the anime, March 2015, saw the newest volume of the manga to hit 15th on the weekly Oricon sales chart.  As of January 11th 2016 the first volume of the manga was 10th in the weekly sales rankings.  The series though, as a whole ranked, 23rd on the 2015 year in manga sales ranking with 1.2 million units sold.  It did not crack the top 30 best selling list for 2014, which would suggest some correlation in its raise in sales with the progression of the TV anime.  Which begs the question, does anime work well enough to boost the sales of its source material to offset the cost and energy it takes to produce?

    Anime can ignite interest in a manga, that is without doubt.  Yet most anime never see's more than 5% viewership on a weekly basis and disc releases see paltry sales, usually spiking on the week of release and sharply declining in consecutive weeks.  Many are lucky to sell more than 10,000 units per disc.  In 2015 the top selling anime blu ray ranked number 11 over all, the 7th volume of Love Live Season 2.  The disc sold over 70,000 copies alone.  That is around 80% of all Your Lie in April blu ray volume sales, which ranked 10th for total sales of an anime series over all that year, selling around 90,000 copies between all of its available volumes.  The top selling anime series on blu ray over all for the year was Uta no Prince-sama, moving over 214,000 copies of its available volumes.

    Anime blu ray sales tend to go to collectors and fans as opposed to the general populace, which still buys more DVD's.  The top selling DVD of 2015 was that years Yokai Watch film.  Over 133,000 copies were sold making it 8th top selling DVD of the year.  The runner up in DVD sales was The Last Naruto Movie, which sold 33,000 copies.  The Last Naruto Movie sold just under 32,000 blu ray copies.

    Lets do some generic and not entirerly accurate math, but it can give a vary basic look at how much an anime can be worth by comparing the cost of production against disc and manga sales related tied to the shows broadcast.

    By estimates the average cost to produce one episode of a TV anime can be $1 million.  A full cours series would then cost roughly $13 million to produce.  Lets say that series generates 6 volumes for both dvd and blu ray.  Each volume of the DVD costs $35 and 15,000 copies of each volume are sold, equaling 90,000 total, generating a gross revenue of $3,150,000.  Then lets assume the blu ray does better.  It moves 20,000 copies for each volume at a cost of $50 per volume.  That would generate $6,000,000 in gross revenue.  Disc sales alone would account for $9,150,000 of gross sales in this example.  $4 million short of breaking even with the cost to produce the anime in the first place.  In order for the manga to pick up the slack, over 900,000 single copies, selling for $4 each, would have to be sold.  Your Lie in April moved 1.2 million manga volumes in 2015.

    This is not really a realistic example but more of an easy draft to simply express the value of the anime product against the needed market return for goods sales.  This example takes liberties in using what may be an average cost per episode for the top production series' instead of the true average.  Those numbers are incredibly difficult to come by as the industry keeps a close lid on its profit and loss.  The other snag in this example which, realistically, would drastically reduce the revenue return, is how much profit the production committee actually makes on the sales of the discs and manga.  They obviously do not receive 100% of the sales.  Very likely they don't see 50% of the gross sales revenue.

    With this crude and somewhat unrealistic example we can see that anime has a difficult task of overcoming its production cost through the sales of peripheral items it generates.  it is difficult for the anime it's self to be the sole source of revenue generation.  This is the reasoning behind production committee's pursuing successful and already established franchises to turn into anime.  The risks appear to be lower based on historical data for them so in theory the increased awareness and interest in the title should result in further sales across different media types.  In this rare example of an impressed peer in the industry, who has the most successful manga in history, only needs to be impressed in order to propel sales of a different manga.  Praise that essentially cost nothing to produce, nothing but creativity and admiration.  I wonder how well sales of the novel Ichigo Domei, which inspired the manga, would fare if Oda had mentioned that instead?

    In conclusion this should serve as a wake up call to the anime industry that needs to examine its business model at a time when some of its most respected members question how long it can sustain its self as a whole.  Perhaps it needs to pull back a bit and focus on incubating creativity more and focusing on selling products less.  Perhaps we will see another original series appear that surpasses everyone's expectations and becomes a powerful brand all in its own right.

Special mention to onepiecepodcast.com which initially lead me to the article about Oda's comments and the boost in sales.

Kings Game Origin

Kings Game Origin (王様ゲーム 起源) is a horror manga prequel of the cellphone novel Kings Game by Kanazawa Nobuaki.  The manga was written by Kanazawa and drawn by J-Ta Yamada (Asatte no Houkou).  The 30 issue story began serialization in Japan in 2013.

    One day a mysterious note arrives in the remote mountain village of Kazunari.  The note says that everyone in the village is now part of the Kings Game.  Every child in the village must touch a corpse before the end of the day.  No one can quit the game and those who refuse or are unable to complete the challenge will die.  Most of the children in the small village participate, with only one refusing and another left out, thinking nothing of it.  In the morning the two children who did not complete the challenge are found dead.  When the shocked children find a second Kings note they continue keep it a secret from the adults and go about meeting its demands with seriousness fearing its punishment as being real.

  In the following morning more villagers are found dead and when the kids wonder what went wrong they discover their participation in the previous Kings Game challenge was incomplete.  Convinced of the power and reality of the Kings Game they bring it to the attention of the village adults.  This time the note that appears includes everyone.  When those that are unable to complete the challenge die exactly as the note detailed the following day the entire village is convinced of the authenticity and threat of the game.  Their only choice now is to keep playing, hoping for a solution that will save the village.

    Prior to starting this manga I was mildly aware of the original source material which was a successful enough novel to get a live action film treatment.  I only knew a little bit of the premise but dove into the manga when it became available on Crunchyroll due to needing more manga and J-Ta Yamada's involvement.  The artwork is decent, and somewhat similar to Asatte no Houkou.  The detailed visceral deaths of the villagers are the real selling point of this story of savagery.

  The plot was easy to understand and the 'reveal' was rather obvious, what was painfully stupid though was the government version of what was causing everything to happen, which was then molded into a more interesting super natural aspect that could have been more powerful.  While the actual driver of the Kings Game was rather weak and absurd in comparison to what it could have been, the dissolution of the characters personalities was pretty good.  Between the ever present specter of doom, feelings of helplessness and the constant gory obliteration of your closest friends and family, everyone in the village starts to lose their humanity.  Some of the characters were more believable than others and in the end the writing was marginal.  The best part of the story was the dark and sinister things each round of the Kings Game made the villagers do.  Once the round was in place the participants followed a script that has been done time and time again in stories that pit humanity against survival.

    In the end it was an OK series, nothing too spectacular but it did have some entertaining moments.  The end seemed to be rushed a bit and was ultimately not very climactic.  The best parts were once the entire village began to participate in the game.  But after a while, as the numbers were severely dwindled it turned into a few personalities using the game as a struggle for control and domination instead of survival.  The series is currently available on Crunchyroll with no word on a print edition in the future.

Nichijou: My Ordinary Life

Nichijou: My Ordinary Life (日常) is a 26 episode gag comedy series based on the manga of the same name by Arawai Keiichi.  The series originally aired in Japan in 2011.

    A collection of semi-related shorts focusing on a few off color characters in a small town, Nichijou takes classical gag comedy and applies it seamlessly to moe cuteness.  The main characters are 3 school girl friends, Yuko, Mai, Mio and their banal yet exceptional exploits.  The other main characters are the child genius inventor Professor and her robot caretaker Nano.  Beyond these 5 characters is a small cast of recurring secondary ones, mostly from the girls' school.  There is little in the way of plot progression in the show, focusing on series' of random shorts.  The shorts at times relate to each other or reference prior shorts but show very little progression of time.


    Absurd situation comedy mixed with unrealistic character responses at its best, this series is full of oddity, sight gags and bizarre humor.  It's like merging Azumanga Daioh with Gyagu Manga Biyori, inspired by Golden Age Loony Tunes.  Nonsensical, irrational at times and entirely humorous.  The series is at its best when the unexpected takes place, from the random gadgets mysteriously built into Nano, an obsession with daifuku, the scheming principle and the random pacing of a show aimed at toddlers.

    Art wise this may very well be Kyoto Animations best piece; the delivery and composition are impeccable and add so much to the over all delivery of the humor.  Simplistic, thick outlined characters that move with a fluidity KyoAni does so well.  While not having read the original manga, its hard to imagine the impact of the comedy not being so hard hitting with out the animation.  Though it wouldn't be as funny as it is with out the source material which rages from mundane inane to surreal psychosis.  The series tackles pressing subjects such as a teacher ineffective in her role as a moral leader, the young girls embarrassment in her BL manga obsession and a talking cat who is unable to instill elder respect when needed.

    Sadly, the license for North American distribution for My Ordinary Life expired when Bandai pulled out of the market.  There has been no word of anyone renewing it and the series' disc releases in Japan did pitifully bad in sales...shame, real damn shame.  For those of us that relish gag comedy this is one of the best out there.

Sweet Blue Flowers

Sweet Blue Flowers (青い花) is an 11 episode slice of life yuri drama based on the manga of the same name by Shimura Takako.  The series originally aired in Japan ion 2009.

    Manjome Fumi moves back to her hometown after years of being away.  She is a quiet bookish girl who is prone to crying.  The move means that her cousin, who she is in love with, will be further away from her, causing emotional stress.  Her cousin, while sharing intimate moments, is soon to be married so their relationship was soon to end regardless.  As a possible rebound she becomes enamored with an upper classmate in her new school, the tall and admired Sugimoto Yasuko.

    Fumi's childhood friend, Okudaira Akira, attends a prestigious catholic school and is part of the drama club.  The club ends up recruiting Yasuko for their upcoming rendition of Wuthering Heights.  Fumi begins to date Yasuko as she prepares to work on the play.  Are their feelings for each other legitimate or are they using each other as emotional crutches?  Yasuko had once attended the private school and had been in love with the teacher and adviser for the drama club.  He rejected the young girls feelings for him and she transferred as a way to heal.  Both girls are struggling with loosing their first loves and seek to fill that hole with each other. 

    The animation for this series is dream like as the other anime based on a Shimura-sensei manga, Hourou Musuko.  The artwork and color palate perfectly fit the slow moving story.  In the beginning I was not hooked on the show and considered to stop watching it after the 3rd episode.  The first handful of episodes are mostly setting and exposition.  I was uninterested in them as they did not quickly set up the over all theme and plot for the show.  In many ways I was concerned this was going to end up being a story about Fumi coming home and falling in love with her childhood friend, who would also turn out to be a lesbian.  In reality, thankfully, it is a story about two girls who are trying to use each other to heal from their recent heart break.  In honesty, Yasuko may not even have been a lesbian and may have been using Fumi as more of a crutch than she realized.

    While not as complex as Hourou Musuko this story again shows the authors ability to weave an excellent tale of emotions and self discovery.  The main characters are really Akira and Fumi but the supporting ones are developed well enough to make it natural.  After reading the synopses of the manga the anime seems to cover the first half of the story.  I guess I will have to track this one down to see what else happens.  The same as with Hourou Musuko.  With this second series Shimura is becoming a favorite author of mine and I will have to work at tracking down more of her stories.  If you are looking for a well done yuri story that is not a caricature or bawdy in delivery and nature this one is perfect.

    This anime has been released in North America by Rightstuf and is currently available for streaming on Crunchyroll.

Miyuki-chan in Wonderland

Miyuki-chan in Wonderland (不思議の国の美幸ちゃん) is a two part yuri fantasy OAV series based on the manga of the same name by CLAMP.  The OAV was originally released in 1995.

    Much like Alice in the classic tale of opium surrealism, Miyuki finds her self transported to mysterious lands of absurdity and decadence.  Miyuki navigates through the various landscapes and personalities that are after her sexually.  Are the places she travels part of a dream or an entirely different level of reality?

    Originally conceived as a one shot manga but continued due to fondness by the team of CLAMP, Miyuki-chan is a self satisfying and light romp for the legendary manga team.  The OAV covers the first two parts of the seven part manga.  It showcases the teams character designs and pay homage to their origins as a successful doujin circle.  Light and playful the story doesn't take its self seriously as Miyuki unwittingly travels from place to place unsure of how to react to all of the sexual attention from the cast of supporting female characters.

    This is an interesting piece to go back to given what CLAMP has been up to in the 20 years since its creation.  It was made at the time as their first TV anime success, Magic Knight Rayearth.  The artwork isn't bad for the time period.  The fanservice is mild by today's standards, but there's little substance in the actual story as it is just a creation to entertain mindlessly.  The anime was originally licensed by ADV in the 90's for release in North America, but with the collapse of that company it has fallen out of circulation and can only be found on the used market.

Area 88 the OAV

Area 88 (エリア88) is a 3 episode military drama OAV based on the manga of the same name by Shintani Kaoru.  The OAV series was originally released in Japan between 1985 and 1986.

    Kazama Shin, a promising pilot in training for Yamato Air Lines, is tricked into joining a foreign legion fighter squad by the man he thought was his closest friend.  Kazama unknowingly signed his life over to the combat pilots of Area 88 who are currently involved in a civil war in the fictional Middle Eastern nation Aslan.  There are only 3 ways to leave Area 88; survive 3 years of combat, earn $1.5 million in kills or desert.  Kazama's only interest is getting back to Japan as soon as possible in order to see his girl friend again and confront the man who betrayed him into the desert hell.  He must face surmounting odds and destroy his humanity in order to realize his goal.

    Area 88 is a forgotten classic of the first wave of OAV's.  Detailed and well directed aerial combat combined with horrible 70's Toei styled character animation.  It's both a gungho critique of the senselessness of war and fighter jet otaku fan service.   It's the anime version of Top Gun without the weirdness that is Tom Cruise.  Kazama is a likable character that elicits compassion from the viewer.  He struggles with the situation that is mostly out of his control.  Faced with having to murder people to secure his safety and freedom.  The believable character in Kazama is unfortunately countered in the villain of Kanzaki, the man who tricked him into his current situation.  Kanzaki is a sociopath who has way too many connections and money for a guy who grew up in an orphanage to really be believable.

    Area 88 is one of the better OAV series' from the 80's, a time when new frontiers in storytelling were being explored and exploited in the industry.  It shares commonalities with many of its peers.  The main character is stoic and at times mono dimensional, there is a host of side characters who are over the top caricatures in their own right.  The story if mature and serious, with some well done combat sequences that are in line with the amazing space battle montages from the 70's.  The soundtrack and background music is cringe worthy 80's studio fare with a pop hit of the week opening.

    This OAV series has seen a disastrous return to circulation following its original North American license expiring.  Central Park Media owned the original distribution rights, when they expired ADV picked it up.  Both companies no longer exist.  The ADV DVD release only included part 1 and part 3.  You can find them by looking for older copies of the VHS tapes or the LD's if you are really concerned with owning this series.  There was a 12 episode 2004 TV anime reboot as well that was released by ADV and can be found on the used market.

Garakowa - Restore the World

Garakowa - Restore the World (ガラスの花と壊す世界) is a sci-fi fantasy movie directed by Ishihama Masashi and written by Shimo Fumihiko.  The movie premiered worldwide January 2016.

    Two anthropomorphic anti-virus programs, Dual and Dorthy, dwell inside of a computer system called Box of Wisdom.  The system's function is to backup and store human memories and experiences.  They go about surveying the data packets of the memories and deleting any virus abnormalities that arise.  After deleting one infected memory Dual discovers that remnants of the memory seem to be affecting her own program.  Before they can explore this problem a new program appears named Remo.  The anti-virus programs, upon confirming Remo is not a virus or infected, welcome the bewildered girl into their 'lives'.

    Remo is clueless as to who or what she is and her purpose.  What she does is present the other two with concepts they have never dwelt on; emotions, experiences and how and why one interacts with the world around them.  The three explore the endless realities and worlds stored with in the system, building a bond of friendship and sisterhood.  The more they explore though, the more they discover the darker sides of humanity and they begin to wonder about their place in the scheme of their computer world.

    Its hard to tell what audience this movie is aimed at more; moe loving otaku or tween-age girls.  Both markets would be entertained with this interesting and strange tale of disassociation and attempts at immortality and tranquility.  I'm not sure myself how much I enjoyed the movie.  Some themes I liked, others I did not.  One theme I liked was the movies attempt to make the viewer question how we interact with out environment.  How much of the way we react to the world around us are guided by our tactile senses and how much are guided by what we are taught?

   In the middle of the movie as the three programs are establishing there bond there is a prolonged music video/montage that builds this sisterhood connection.  It seemed out of place created a weird break in the mood for me.  I half expected Hatsune Miku to show up...

    Art wise the character designs reminded me of softened late 90's CLAMP characters.  They had frequent costume changes and exuded a level of magical girl.  Remo looked like the digital remnants of Menma.  The background animation was fantastic and well imagined.  All in all the artwork was smooth and high quality.

    In the end my reaction to the film is in the middle, it was both good and bad.  I'm sure I am not the target audience but that doesn't mean its a horrible film.  It tells a simple story with some intriguing and deeper nuggets peppered through out, but it really doesn't get too deep into the world its self.  Instead it focuses on these 3 humanoid AI programs and a brief story of their reality and their personal interactions.  The story is tried and true dealing with friendship, acceptance and the realization of whats important due to the threat of loss.  Shimo previously wrote the screenplay for the amazing Haruhi movie and Ishihama directed the excellent Shin Sekai Yori.  The movie isn't really anything like either of those stories in its own right.

    Garakowa is currently available streaming on Crunchyroll with no word on any international theatrical or disc release.

Winter 2016 first blush - Ajin

The final new show of the season to be previewed is one that I anticipated the most.  Ajin, based on the manga of the same name animated by Polygon Pictures.

    Ajin is about a version of the modern world where randomly and rarely an individual will appear who does not remain dead.  16 years prior to the series the first Ajin was discovered in Africa and since dozens more have been located around the world.  The series protagonist is Kei, a studious teenage who questions the idea that Ajin are not humans.  Much to his horror he discovers he is one of them after being hit by a truck.  His death and resurrection don't go unnoticed and he decides to flee.  Unable to trust anyone for fear of being sold to the government for cruel testing he flees into the woods and calls his only true friend, a delinquent named Kaito.  The series is streaming on Netflix in Japan but there is no word yet on who will pick it up in North America...more than likely it will be Netflix as well.

    I started reading the manga for Ajin in the early fall when I heard it was going to be made into an anime and have enjoyed it for what it is.  The series isn't anything truly new or original but its entertaining is anything.  I don't expect much with the anime beyond recalling the manga.  The series is slatted to run for 13 episodes with a movie that was released in November and a second movie pending.  Having not seen the movie yet, there is a chance that the TV series may just be the movies cut into 20 minute segments.  The series focuses on the idea of what makes someone different and how those differences lead to social rejection.  In reality its a vehicle for some insane action and lots of combat.  As the story progresses the main antagonist, a man named Sato, activates a plan to carve out a nation for Ajin inside of Japan...through force and destruction.  The best part of the manga for me is seeing Sato's plans unfold and the lengths he goes to to terrorize.

    That said, the first episode doesn't give someone unfamiliar with the manga a good impression of what the story is really about.  Its a cat and mouse game between a few individuals who are unable to be killed and how they use their unique abilities to counter each other.  It's more akin to Death Note than it is to Attack on Titan.

    A lot of people will have problems with the animation which is wire frame cell shade CGI, Polygon Pictures specialty as exhibited in Knights of Sidonia and Ronia the Robbers Daughter.  Its unnatural at times and overly saturated with the light and shading techniques.  The biggest problem is the characters themselves and their as of yet smooth and fluid motion and facial expressions.  In time it will either become more natural or viewers will be used to it and it won't seem as jarring.  In the mean time though its a major flaw that is presented and can turn many viewers off.  What might be missed though is the high level of detail that exists in the animation, even if it isn't traditional cell shading.  The light and shadow work is fantastic as are the small details of the rough edges of daily life.

    Its good to see this decent manga getting an anime but I hold my breath for the impending hype and fandom.  Kei is a punk of a main character who struggles with his meaningless existence and his new fate as a hunted Ajin.  He's not likable but over time I have warmed up to him...we'll see how much story the anime actually covers in this ongoing manga.

Winter 2016 First Blush - part 2

Here is the 2nd batch of new shows for the Winter season of 2016 and my initial impressions.

Dagashi Kashi: Kokonotsu has his heart set on being a manga artist.  But everyone around him wants him to take over his fathers small town candy store. He faces a challenge from a woman who works for a major candy manufacturer that wants to recruit his dad.  Will he succumb to everyone pressuring him to continue the families small town store?

    This show really triggered nothing in my to want to continue to watch it.  I will give it one maybe two more episodes but I'm not holding my breath.

Bubuki Buranki: Twin siblings, Kaoruko and Azuma, live in a post apocalyptic world with their parents.  The world is filled with giant machina that sleep with foreboding doom.  When Kaoruko inadvertently awakes them their mother sends them away while she battles them.  Their escape is from their home, isolated high in the atmosphere, to the surface of Earth.  The story picks up 10 years later and Azuma is returning to Japan after being away for some time.  Security forces capture him with hopes of discovering an item of his families that can control the silent monsters.  A group of magic wielders come to his rescue.

    This series really had me for the first half of the show.  A cool, Miyazaki like natural world over the remains of a destroyed civilization.  The family with the ability to counter the sleeping giants of destruction.  Then it turns into a magic cyberpunk version of Kill la Kill.  I will give it a few more episodes but it quickly turned into something that doesn't interest me.  Characters with complicated costumes geared for cosplay repetition who follow strictly ingrained archetype personalities.  Disappointing, the show would be much more interesting if it didn't take place in an totalitarian near-future Earth.

Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash: A group of kids suddenly find themselves in an unknown fantasy world, with no memories of their past or how they got there.  Having no choice but to immerse themselves into this new reality they begin down the harrowing path or 'adventurers'.

    Normally I dislike fantasy anime and I really dislike the current crop of 'normal people sucked into MMORPGs'.  But for now, something about this series is OK and I am willing to give it 5 episodes to convince me either way.  There is some un-needed fanservice but I sense something in the background of the story that speaks of maturity and interest.  So for now, it sticks around.

Oya-san wa Shishunki: This is a short slice of life comedy about a middle school who works as a landlord for a small apartment building.  I really have no idea where it could go.  It seems like an insipid moe otaku thing.  It's super short so for know I'll watch a few more episodes but I don't see much coming out of the show.

Dimension W: Mabuchi Kyoma is a man resisting change in a world where unlimited power is available, but controlled by a less than friendly public/private corporation.  While resisting using the technology himself his job is to hunt down people who use and trade illegal energy technology.  On a routine job he ends up running into an robot girl who knocks him out and runs off with the tech before he can secure it.  He tracks her down but before anything can happen her creator unleashes a technology that destroys energy tech through out the city.  His employer revives the girl who asks to join their efforts in gathering the illegal tech.

    For some reason this show makes me think of a hybrid between Cowboy Bebop and Riding Bean.  So far its not bad, artwork that fits the style and interesting, off bat characters.  Time will tell how the series fares as the story progresses and the secrets unfold.

Tenchi Muyo! GXP

Tenchi Muyo! GXP (天地無用! GXP) is a 26 episode harem sci-fi comedy based in the world of Tenchi Muyo.  The series was directed by Nabeshin and originally aired in Japan in 2002.

    Yamada Seina lives in the same rural town as Masaki Tenchi.  Unlike the hero of the Tenchi Muyo universe, Seina is the most accident prone and least confident person in existence.  A series of misunderstandings lands Seina, unaware of the existence of live outside of Earth, as a new recruit for the Galaxy Police.  His uncanny accident prone abilities lead his name to become well known as he is initially taken to Galaxy Police head quarters.  His mistakes lead to the arrest of countless pirates and his recommendation.

    Once he overcomes the trials thrown at him and joins the GP his bad luck continues to cause grief to everyone around him.  Seeing a chance to benefit from his bad luck he is given command of a new space ship, with hopes of using him to lure more pirates into the GP's snare.  Through the course of his journey every female he runs into throws them self at him and he ends up being hunted by a pirate who looks like a reject from Dragon Ball GT. 


    It was painful to trudge through this series given how much blatant fan service is in it.  I struggled through it for my love of Nabeshin but it was a wasted effort.  At times it only seemed as Nabeshin was going through the motions to fulfill the ultimate fan approved non-cannon story in the Tenchi universe.  Suspend all belief as every single woman falls deeply in love with the witless Seina at first sight.  The plot bounces around between pointless inane antic's, reminiscent of The Wanderers.  At one point the real cast of Tenchi Muyo make an appearance  which seemed to be little more than an effort to throw in something cannon to appease everyone. 

    The show is a prime example of sub-par animation from the turn of the century.  The one redeeming quality is the character designs remaining the same as previous Tenchi series'.  Prior to watching this series Shin Tenchi was the more reviled out of the franchise.  With this one under my belt know the balance of good Tenchi and bad Tenchi has been tipped.  There are now more horrible and pointless Tenchi titles in existence than good and I am now and forever turning my back on it.  This truly was a waste of effort.

    If you really must waste your time with this horrible show it is readily available in North America, including the cringe worthy Pioneer dub.

Macross Delta - First Impression

The preview episode of Macross Delta aired in Japan January.  Given that it won't be reaching North America's the only choice is through the fansub network.  I will say the subgroup that did the copy I watched took a few liberties with their translation, but what ever.

    The series takes place as humanity has been expanding into the cosmo's for 50 years.  Current frontier pioneers are facing a new indisious enemy.  A infectious desease known as Vars.  Vars takes over a host body and drives them irrational and insane, think Space Bath Salts.  Luckily a weapon has been found to fight against the influence of Vars...songs sung by the military idol group Walkure.

    The story begins with a country bumpkin girl who has stowed away on a cargo ship in her bid to audition to join Walkure.  Unfortunately her ride stops at a different planet and she is discovered.  A recently fired dock worker decides to show pity on her and helps to get her on her way.  The attempt at continued travel is halted as an outbreak of Vars infects a Zentradi base, causing them to begin attacking the city.

    Fortunately for EVERYONE Wakure happened to be on site and instantly gears up for musical combat along with their veritech support crew, Delta Squad.  The members of Wakure deploy their voices and what can only be described as mechanical magical defenses to defend the innocent populace and suppress the Vars infection.  Things go well until an unknown enemy invades the planets air space and disrupts the efforts.  This unknown menace is focused on destrying the life saving pop idol group for unknown reasons.

    There was an amount of disappointment in this preview episode and bodes an ill omen for how Delta will pan out.  I have been mulling the things I dislike with Macross.  With every TV series I always start to loose interest in the story as it nears the ending in which the idol wins the day with her song.  I think the reason Plus and Zero are my favorite Macross titles is partially in their length and lack of fatigue.  In all of the TV series of this live long beloved anime I stop enjoying the last 20% of the story.

    Delta seems to cut to the chase and start out by being ultimately an idol story, which when it comes down to it, ever Macross is.  What makes it more disappointing to me is the presentation of the idols in Walkure as almost mechanical magical girls, complete with magical transformation sequences and 'spells'.  The Walkure, with the armored support of the Delta squadron blend classic and excellent fast paced mecha combat and the most noxious idol trends currently around.

    The episode ended with the idol crap being pushed to the side as a group of insurgents arrive with the goal of wiping them out.  I have deep rooted fears that this series will be as horrible for me as 7 was but there may be a saving grace with the new plot development at the very end.  Time will tell as the series begins in April.  I don't harbor high hopes for the series though and might not even watch it till the very painful ending.  I wonder if the shadow lords of Harmony Gold are laughing at this joke of a Macross series?

Winter 2016 First Blush - part 1

  January brings all new TV anime.  Here are the initial impressions on the handful of new series I thought looked interesting.

Active Raid: Kazari is a young and up coming civil servant.  She is assigned to a rogue police military division called Unit8 in order to help straighten them out.  Unit 8 is a rag tag group put together to combat increasing crimes using body augmentation systems called Willware.  Unit 8 uses unconventional methods and outright blackmail to proceed as they want to in apprehending criminals.  Their procedures lead to poor public opinion and large collateral damage.

    This series won't be in my cue for very long.  In truth it felt like a modern rendition of Patlabor.  I love Patlabor but its a thing of its time and this seems like the wrong era to recreate it.  But saying its a recreation of Patlabor is misleading.  Its like someone took the rough concept of Patlabor as the frame work then crammed the story full of every conceivable style and genre is currently popular based on market research.  Its Patlabor re-imagined as if designed by a marketing committee...and its a mess.

 Oji-san and Marshmallow: This is a short slice of life comedy about an over weight middle aged man named Hige-san and the young nubile 20-something office lady who torments him through marshmallows.  It appears Wakabayashi, the OL has a thing for middle aged men and wants Hige-san to give her a baby...she also appears to have a feeding fetish.  Time will tell, but the first episode didn't exactly deliver what I was anticipating...strange show.

Boku dake ga Inai Machi (Erased): Satoru is a 29 year old single man who works as a pizza delivery driver and is a failed manga artist.  He has an uncanny ability he calls revival in which he uncontrollably goes back in time a few minutes.  He has learned that the revival happens when he is presented with an opportunity to avert an accident around him, he just needs to notice the clues.  When a revival lands him in the hospital his estranged mother comes to nurse him back to health.  Her arrival stirs memories of a tragedy in his home town that seems to have far reaching implications.

    This first episode had me almost at the start, I greatly enjoy good time travel stories and I think this one is going to be one of the best series of the season.  Here's to a fantastic and engaging mystery series with a slight super natural twist.

Please Tell Me! Glako-chan: Glako is a big busted air-head who shows up late for class and doesn't take crap from her idiotic male classmates.  She and her friends spend their free time at school discussing personal problems and debunking idiotic sexual and bodily rumors.

    This one is odd and may just end up being a guilt pleasure.  Its crude, overly sexual and every bit realistic in how teenagers act and think, like idiots with too much knowledge for the own good and not enough experience to do anything with it.  It somewhat reminded me of the spirit of Colorful.