School Rumble - RePost

School Rumble is a 26 episode scatterbrained romantic comedy series that aired in Japan in 2004/2005 based on a long running manga by the same name. The basic premise for the series is a love triangle. What could be considered the main character is a Junior high school student named Tenma Tsukamoto. She isn't the brightest light in the pack; she's not bad in school, just dense. She is madly in love with a fellow classmate, Ooji Kurasuma. Kurasuma is the most bizarre character in the entire series. He sports a Moe-style bowl haircut, shows no outward emotions and rarely speaks. He has a tendency to sport a kappa costume every time it rains, complete with a large plastic leaf for an umbrella. Tenma is 100% head over heals completely obsessed, to the point of stalking, with Kurasuma. Whether Kurasuma realizes that she is so obsessed with him is unknown, Tenma is completely insecure and battles herself over confessing to him. Kurasuma isn't in the series as much as some of the other characters are, so I will call him a semi-main character.

    The other main, truly main, character is Kenji Harima, the class delinquent. He is the ultimate school thug; rides a motorcycle, has facial hair, a pony tail, doesn't show up to school and is unbeatable in fights. He is head over heals in love with, you guessed it, Tenma. He is as obsessed with her as she is with Kurasuma, maybe more so. His love for her drives him to come to school everyday…neglecting the fact that he didn't even graduate into the next grade level. He still shows up to class, and the faculty gives up telling him he didn't even pass last year. His time is spent mentally fighting himself over telling Tenma his true feelings. He is easily confused and misled, same with Tenma, and this makes his situation worse in some cases. Eventually he begins to vent his frustrations by drawing a manga that is his ideal version of his confrontations with Tenma. He tries his hardest to publish it and after being rejected by a publisher he ends up recruiting Tenma's younger sister to help him with the story. At one point he leaves school entirely after being pseudo-rejected by Tenma and joins a fishing boat. When the captain of the boat finds his manga he turns around to send Harima back on his course, telling him to succeed with manga where he had failed (the captain gives him a 'magical' fishbone pen to draw with).

    That is pretty much the plot for the series. There is an array of supporting characters that include, Tenma's friends, teachers, classmates, and rival classes. There is an abundance of foreign characters. The most notable is one of the girls from Tenma's group, Eri Sawachika, who is half British. The oddest foreigner is a character named Lala Gonzalez, the daughter of a lucha libre. She came to Japan for a better life in the world of wrestling, to carry in her father's footsteps. Due to stand-in (Tenma) in a wrestling match (not pro) she has a single minded task of destroying Tenma's classmate Ichijo. Screaming her name at the top of her lungs becomes Lala's trademark. Ichijo herself is a quiet, shy, loner of a character whose only quality is inhuman strength. She retains the anime slenderness but can lift refrigerators with a single hand effortlessly. She does nothing with her life except build her strength, because she can't think of anything else better to do. The reason she was not at the wrestling match against Tenma was to go on a date with a guy from their class. Tenma convinced her that she should go on the date and let her stand in for her. Tenma, thinking it was a pro wrestling match, dons a Lucha libre mask to conceal her identity. Lala easily beats her and is disgusted that a supposed tough opponent was so weak. After the match she sees someone wearing the same Lucha libre mask kicking the crap out of someone. Lala thinks it's still Ichijo (this time it is) and asks her why she insulted her ability at the match by not fighting, thus starting her obsession with her. There are a couple of other foreign students who play roles in the series  but I won't really get into them because this last example took to long to truly explain.

    The set of supporting characters that play important roles are Tenma's group of friends, one of the teachers, Tenma's younger sister Yakumo and some of the fellow classmates. Tenma's friends are, Sawachika, Mikoto Suou and Akira Takano. Sawachika is a spoiled rich kid whose parents are always absent. All the boys in school want her but she never gives them the time of day. Suou is a tomboy martial arts expert who is in love with a sempai that is now in college. Akira is quiet, calculating and the head of the school tea club. Yakumo is Tenma's younger sister and is everything Tenma is not. She is beautiful (Tenma is average and under developed) intelligent, graceful and talented. Yakumo does all the cooking, cleaning and keeps everything in their lives orderly. The class rep, Haruki Hanai, is madly in love with Yakumo. Hanai is serious and some what nerdy. His family owns the dojo that Akira belongs to. With Akira and Hanais' age old relationship everyone suspects them of being a couple.

    The animation is slightly above average. Each episode is made up of numerous sketches that are tied together in various degrees. Sometimes it is seamless between them and sometimes you can easily tell when one ends and another begins. This way of telling the story, along with the high school setting and goofy comedy, make this series very similar to Azumanga Daioh. In fact I would suggest that anyone who liked Azumanga Daioh to watch this series as well, it will fill the void left after you have finished Chiyo-chan's story.  The comedy is goofy and off the wall.

    My personal favorite character is Harima. At one point he leaves school and becomes a fortune teller. For whatever reason, he ends up being surrounded by an ark load of animals and starts acting like some sort of lesser deity. Even when he returns to school and takes off the Moses wig the animals are still hanging around him. He also ends up growing out his beard to the point of being a ZZ Top member in the span of about 2 days or so. The characters are goofy and highly animated, especially Tenma who is pretty much the ditzy comec relief of the series (even though she is the main character). Sometimes, the comedy takes a back seat and some of the story arc's are more dramatic. Yakumo's arcs especially, due to her quiet and composed nature. I would say the writing stays strong through the entire series, the comedy remains goofy, and it actually becomes more outrageous as the series goes on. Be careful though, there are many times when the end credits role early in an episode and there is still more afterwards. There is always an opening segment before the opening credits. This usually deals with the characters telling you not to sit close to the TV and watch it in a well lit room in odd ways (we can thank Pokemon for that little warning). If you enjoy stupid comedy filled with physical antics and goofy high school romances this is a great series for you to watch.

UPDATE: School Rumble was licensed and released on DVD in North America by FUNimation.

 

School Rumble Ni Gakki and OAV's - RePost

School Rumble Nigakki (2nd Term) is the title of the second series/season of School Rumble. Nigakki picks up where the original left off.   Harima has come back from a failed life at sea, unable to confess his feelings to Tenma or succeed with his manga. Tenma still has not confessed her feelings towards the odd Kurasuma. 

    There are 3 constants with Nigakki. 1. Some of the plot lines are more bizarre than with the original. 2. There is more drama. 3. Kurasuma is barely in it. There is more story continuity within episodes as it continues with the 2nd semester. There are the typical high school story lines; cultural festival, winter break, new years, all of course slightly twisted. There are many multi-episode story lines; my favorite is one in the beginning that involves the entire class playing war games in the school at night. Most of the second half of the series becomes more dramatic and less realistic. In one episode Harima is past deadline for his manga installment. He goes to show it to Tenma before he hands it in, thus making him later. All of a sudden the town is hit with a snowstorm, causing all public transportation to stop. Harima grabs a large dish sitting outside of Tenma's home; this is in fact a giant curry dish Tenma bought for Kurasuma. He rides the curry dish down the streets like it's a sled, avoiding obstacles like some kind of twisted snow boarding video game. The craziest part of this entire scene is the Gundam parody. At one point a semi carrying frozen tuna crashes and sends its cargo flying into the air. Now imagine the typical Gundam missile barrage attack scene…replace the mech being attacked with Harima riding the curry dish, and the salvo of missiles with the frozen tuna…it's really funny. 

 

    The class rep, Hanai, spends a handful of episodes strapped to a large kite drifting over the world near the end. There are only a few new characters introduced in the series, one of which being Ichijo's younger brother, who is obsessed with a Power Rangers type show in the series. One of the oddest is the editor at the manga publisher Harima is trying to get into. The man is something like 25 feet tall and quite imposing. Harima first meets him with Yakumo at his side, which is the only thing that saves his skin. While he was incredibly intimidated by the man, Yakumo easily approached him and asked why he always intimidates people on purpose. Kurasuma hangs up his kappa outfit in favor of a penguin suit. The relationship between Harima and Tenma takes a turn for the worse, as everyone thinks he and Yakumo are a couple. Her older sister abilities take over and she becomes increasingly critical of Harima.

    All in all, Nigakki is entertaining, I don't think it was as good as the first season/series, but it's still worth checking out. There are some pretty crazy moments in it, but there are a lot of mature serious moments as well, especially with Yakumo. Nigakki end's on an open note with the 3rd semester starting, which apparently was done as 2 OAV’s that have yet to be subtitled.

    School Rumble Ichigakki Hoshu is the title for the OAV's. There are 2 volumes and they came out in-between the first and second series/season. The OAV's deal with events in the original series, providing a behind the scenes look at some of the story arcs. The art is only slightly better then that of the TV series, which is a bit of a shock given the usual high quality of OAV art.

    The first OAV tells the story of the beginning of the school year from a few of the side characters view points, the process of selecting seats for the new school year and an expansion on the hot spring trip. The second OAV deals with Imadori trying to make Lala smile, a bizarre prehistoric sequence with all the characters and an in-depth view into Yakumo's personality/abilities. Much like Nigakki, the OAV's are more serious, seems like they set them up as a taste of what the second series/season was going to be like. It was cool to see some of the scenes from different angles and a little more in-depth. The prehistoric story was just utterly bizarre and had a horribly rendered CG fight sequence. If you really enjoy School Rumble then check it out, if you are a casual viewer you aren't missing anything by skipping the OAV's.

 

Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu

Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu (イリヤの空、UFOの夏)is a 6 episode sci-fi romance OAV series based on the light novel of the same name by Akiyama Mizuhito.  The series was released between 2001 and 2003.

 

 

    On the last night of summer vacation Asaba sneaks into the school to take a dip in the pool before going home. There at the edge of the pool is a mysterious girl, Iriya, timidly staring into the water. Asaba ends up frightening her and she falls in. Seeing that she can't swim he jump into the save her. After saving her he notices smooth metallic spheres embedded in her wrists. She shows them to him asking if he wants to lick them… saying they taste like electricity. Then the military arrive at the school and a mysterious man is on the roof. He tells Iriya to come with him, Asaba try's to stop her but the man tells him that he is her brother. The man, named Enomoto, takes Iriya away with the military and returns to the air force base on the outskirts of town. The next day in school Iriya shows up as a transfer student, wearing wristbands to hide her implants.

    Asaba is a member of the schools press club along with the chairman Kunihiro Suizenji and his classmate Akiho Sudou. Akiho only joined the club due to her one-sided love of Asaba. The chairman, Suizenji, is more a conspiracy freak than a news paper reporter, he and Asaba spent the entire summer trying to get into the 'secret' part of the towns air force base. The base is surrounded with rumors of UFOs and experimental government aircraft. Discovering that Iriya lives on base the chairman tries as hard as he can to get her to join the press club in order to glean insider info.

There are just a couple of problems with Iriya. She is prone to debilitating nose bleeds (and not the usual comedic ones), she is often absent from school, or leaves early (always after being called to the office for a phone call). Iriya is also of weak constitution…she is frail and soft spoken. In the first episode during a planned air raid drill, Iriya is making a phone call at the time and Asaba follows her. When the siren goes off Iriya reacts adversely, running into the hallway to see all the students 'ducking and covering' she tells Asaba that they are all dead. She drags him out side and into the large bomb shelter nearby. There she inputs command codes, locking the door and unleashing a weapon supply case. She hands Asaba a P90 and tells him to use it because they might get inside of the bunker. She tells him that there has been a war going on since 1947, between earth and aliens and that she is a pilot that fights against them at which point she has a seizure and passes out. Asaba picks up the emergency phone on the wall, Enomoto answers, Asaba tells him what is happening and how to save her. He has the epinephrine syringe ready to go and her shirt open when the blast doors open up and the military, headed by the new school nurse, arrive  to retrieve them. Asaba learns the truth that she is a pilot for the military using an experimental plane. Flying the plane is killing her and he wants to do what ever he can to save her. Now it is a flight from the military as war has finally come again to Japan, and Iriya's body and mind is being ravaged by her work in the air force.

 

    This series is good, the only really complaint I have with it is it's length. I feel is should have been a little longer. There were times when it felt rushed and the plot was becoming a little confusing. There were things that should have been understood but were never gone over. One example is during the 3rd episode. At one point pagers start going off on most of the festivals patrons, soldiers and what not, telling them something. I still am not sure why that happened or what it was supposed to mean, I feel it should have been explained. Another thing that I felt was lacking due to the length was empathy towards the characters. The ending would have been more emotional if you were able to spend more time becoming attached to the main players, 6 episodes just didn't provide that time. Hell by the end of it I was just starting to like Asaba, although I was rooting for him to hook up with Iriya through out it all.

    Being an OAV the artwork is above average quality, for the time it was produced. The character design is nothing new; some of the characters reminded me of designs from Cowboy Bebop and Neon Genesis Evangelion. The story was quite interesting, ff only they would have developed it more.  There were characters that were barely mentioned that could have played larger roles, like some of the military personnel and the chairman of the press club, but they may have had more time in the source material. No word, that I know of yet, on this series being licensed for western audiences, I thought it might have been able to get picked up when Innocent Venus came out, ride in that wave of slick, mature moody sci-fi dramas, but it never panned out. I don’t think Innocent Venus really took much hold as it was in the marketplace. I really enjoyed the series, I just wish there would have been a couple more episodes to draw the story out a little better.

UPDATE: As of October 2013 no one has licensed or released this series outside of Japan. 

 

UPDATE: As of September 2023 this series has yet to be licensed outside of Japan, given its age it will probably never see further releases.

Strawberry Marshmallow

Strawberry Marshmallow (苺ましまろ) is a 12 episode slice of live comedy based on the manga of the same name by Barasui.  The series originally aired during the Summer of 2005.

 

    Itou Chika and Matsuoka Miu are neighbors, classmates and best friends. Sakurai Matsuri and Anna Coppola are classmates and a year younger than the previous two. Itou Nobue is a college student and Chika's older sister. The series follows these five girls on mundane everyday encounters and events. Chika is the most adjusted of the characters, she is normal and average. Miu is rambunctious and a bit of an idiot. Matsuri is the glasses wearing, quiet, insecure one. Anna is a transfer student of English decent who has become more Japanese than she likes to admit; she has even forgotten English. Nobue is sarcastic, chain smokes, chain drinks, picks on everyone but looks after the girls and protects their general well being.

    There really isn't a general plot that the series follows. Each episode is all unto it's self with no real plot continuation beyond the passage of time. The only major event is the introduction of Anna. The series stretches from April of one year until April of the next year. Unlike most school anime this one does not have an episode dealing with New Years or any school festivals, which is a nice change, although there is the usual day at the beach and night at the festival episodes. Aside from the five girls the only characters that even make any kind of residual appearance are two teachers and an old man that runs a candy shop they go to. You don't even see anyone's parents, except for Anna's (which is rare). You get the feeling that the series was designed to feel like a candid look at these girls lives, left uninhibited by any parents or guardians. They don't talk about love or live expectations; they all just live in the moment. One episode finds Nobue and three of the girls busting their chops to try and keep Santa alive in Matsuri's eyes.

 

    The series is quite sweet and goofy at times, it is nice and relaxing. You just feel all of your tension melt away watching these cute characters amble about in their ways, paying no attention to the passage of time. Ah to be innocent and carefree again.  This series is well done, the animation fits the mood of the story and the music is all airy and soft. This series really does remind me of a softer, more laid back Azumanga Daioh. It's a nice thing to return to something that feels so comfortable. Unfortunately the series was only 12 episodes long, yet that was partially remedied when 3 OAV's were released. The OAV's don't really fall into any particular timeline in the series and don't change anything about the series. So they are just like lost episodes, aside from different OP and ED themes.

    I highly recommend this series if you enjoy nice, relaxing stories about school kids being their normal selves and going about their days experiencing life, but not being controlled by it.

UPDATE: This series was licensed by Geneon in North America and is available on DVD.

 

School Days

"Television Kanagawa has decided to cancel the final episode of the anime "School Days," which shows a high school girl acting violently, in response to the recent murder of a Kyoto Prefectural Police officer by his 16-year-old daughter.

The broadcaster made the decision to cut the final episode on Tuesday. The drama is also being aired by Chiba Television Broadcasting Corp. and Aichi Television Broadcasting Co. Those two stations also reportedly plan to halt broadcasts.

"School Days" depicts a love triangle between three high school students: Makoto Ito, Kotonoha Katsura and Sekai Saionji. Episodes have been screened on Television Kanagawa and other UHF stations since July this year. The computer love simulation game on which the anime was based has about 20 different endings and one shows a high school girl slashing a victim with a knife.

Television Kanagawa officials said that the last episode of the anime shows a schoolgirl acting violently. To tone down the scene, the victim's blood was made black instead of red, but after the killing in Kyoto on Tuesday, officials decided to cancel the episode.

"We ask viewers for their understanding," a station official said.

Officials at communications satellite broadcaster "AT-X," which airs anime restricted to viewers aged 15 or over, said they were still considering whether to screen the final episode.

The killing in Kyoto occurred in the predawn hours of Tuesday, when a police officer's 16-year-old daughter attacked her father with an ax. (Mainichi Shimbun, September 19, 2007)"

School Days (スクールデイズ) is a 12 episode slice of life romance based on the visual novel of the same name developed by Overflow.  The anime originally aired during the Summer of 2007.  

 

   Ito Makoto, is an easygoing high school student who lives by himself. Makoto has become mystified by a cute, quiet girl who rides the same train he does. He is always admiring her from afar and one day secretly takes a picture of her with his phone. According to the current lore at his school, if you take a picture of the person you like and put it as your phones background you will go out with that person if no one finds out about the background for a month. The day he takes it Makoto is admiring it in class when the girl who sits next to him, Saionji Sekai, notices it and asks if it is his girlfriend. When he shows defeat she realizes he was trying to use the cell phone wallpaper 'talisman'. When she finds out that the photo was taken that morning she feels guilty for destroying his chances at going out with her so quickly. Sekai, which knows who the girl is, Katsura Kotonoha. She tells Makoto that she will help make Kotonoha his girlfriend. Along with pushing Makoto to talk to her and to ask her to go out, Sekai also befriends Kotonoha and offers her advice, working both ends of the relationship. When she finds out that Kotonoha has the same feelings for Makoto, Sekai realizes she  also has feelings for him. She suppresses them and helps both become a couple while continuing to offer advice as they date, in order to make the relationship run smoothly and grow. 

    Things start to go wrong when Sekai gives Makoto a kiss as payment for hooking him up with Kotonoha. Makoto tries to grope Kotonoha and instigate sex with her, but is rejected. This causes him emotional distress and he continuously goes to Sekai for help in the matter. Sekai tries to help him achieve his goals with Kotonoha, but it soon turns to her letting him do the things he wants to do to Kotonoha on her. She comes up with excuses to justify their actions, saying she is just letting him practice on her so he can build up his confidence so he can do it with Kotonoha. The amount of 'practice' greatly increases, with Sekai spending the night at Makoto's apartment quite frequently. At the same time Makoto is still technically dating Kotonoha, yet having sex with Sekai. Sekai partially enjoys the relationship, because she has Makoto, even though not all of his heart is hers. Kotonoha, on the other hand, is being pushed more to the sideline by Makoto, wondering why he is trying to avoid her. The students around her are also talking about how Makoto and Sekai are a couple, yet Kotonoha greatly defends her position as his girlfriend. Kotonoha begins to find out about Sekai and her boyfriend but chooses to ignore it, after all Makoto is her boyfriend. 

 

    Things come to a head during the school festival. Sekai's best friend, Katsura Kokoro, thinks that Makoto is her boyfriend and that Kotonoha is trying to steal him from Sekai. She does everything she can to try and stop what she thinks are illicit advances on someone else's man. She even sets up Makoto's cell phone to block emails and calls from Kotonoha. Katsura is Sekai's closest friend as well as her emotional support. She is going to be moving to France and wants to make sure that Sekai has someone else she can lean on for support. Katsura sees Makoto as that person and is determined to make sure that he is faithful to her, even if they are not really a couple. She continuously talks with him about how he should finalize his break up with Kotonoha so she won't interfear with his relationship with Sekai. On the night before the festival Kotonoha comes across Katsura stealing a kiss from a passed out Makoto and thinks that the reason she has been so cold to her is because she loves him instead. Both Kotonoha and Sekai ask for Makoto to dance with them at the end of the festival to symbolize their relationship. Before that happens though, Makoto ends up having sex with a random friend from middle school who is in Kotonoha's class, Kato Otome. Makoto has not only cheated on Kotonoha with Sekai, but has now cheated on both of them with Kato. Kotonoha watches from the rooftop of the school as Makoto and Sekai lovingly dance with each other around the festivals ending bonfire. This pushes Kotonoha over the edge, into a sea of insanity and delusions. After finding it easy to cheat on Sekai, Makoto finds himself sleeping with a revolving group of classmates, daily. He even goes so far as to sleep with 3 girls from Kotonoha's class at the same time. Needless to say everything comes crashing down as Makoto's extra curricular activities become well known through out school.  Sekai reveals to him in school that she is pregnant and tries to capture Makoto's heart completely so they can raise their unborn child together. Makoto wants nothing to do with Sekai being pregnant. Kotonoha has completely lost touch with reality and is slipping into insanity. As everyone else keeps their distance from him, Makoto finds himself rejecting Sekai and yearning for everyone else. The series comes to a head, as the original love triangle comes to a resolution.

    This series starts off as a mundane high school romance but quickly changes into a non-graphic porno, as Makoto takes every waking available moment to screw Sekai. It also changes into a drama as the relationships are strained as the love triangle grows. You really start to feel sorry for Kotonoha who is being lied to and cheated on by Makoto, who himself is turning into a sex fueled beast of no remorse. The one troubling thing with the series is its tendency to have shots posed like those from ero dating sims. There are a numerous views of the characters through out each episode that are done in the odd ero-galge fashion...but given the titles origins this makes sense.  I don't remember there being a lot of fan-service for fan-services' sake in this show though.  

 

    The show is done through Makoto's eyes a lot of the time, much like the game is. At first I was on the fence about if I wanted to continue watching it, sure I needed a new romance series, but this one just seemed so mundane and a little annoying. As it became more serious I started to get into it, but not enough to really want to actively watch it. Then when I heard about the last episode being preempted I was quite interested to see how everything spiraled out of control to lead to a knife attack. So, after I had episode 12 I sat down and watched the last 5 episodes in a row…it was quite a roller coaster ride. For anyone who started off thinking Makoto was a likable character you will truly hate the demon he becomes in the end. You pity Kotonoha, but not too much, because she herself cannot accept the truth in front of her. Sekai...you could go either way, but in the end she was manipulative and sneaky. Near the end they have a brief Eva-esque moment in which Katsura realizes the evils she has done while watching an avant-garde play put on during the festival. They use the same scenario to examine Sekai's wrong doings. Oh yeah, Katsura even ends up sleeping with Makoto…pimp.

    Now you might say to yourself, that this series shows that men can get away with doing whatever they want and so on and so forth. Let me just say that this series has an ending that is furthest from a happy one. It is so far beyond the typical way a high school romance ends. Let’s just say the creators probably chose the worst possible ending for the game when writing this series. Sure, everything gets fun and you’re screwing all these cute girls, but that all crashes down and you have to pay for your sins in the end.  School Days is one of the more messed up series I have seen; along the lines of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. It's the dating sim version of Higurashi, yet without the Watanagashi festival or Oyashiro-sama.

    All in all, even if you do not particularly like romances, but you enjoy Higurashi no Naku Koro ni or similar savage titles, give School Days a shot, in the end you will be satisfied.

(There is also a 1-shot hentai oav that ends differently than the series)

 

Project A-ko

Project A-ko (プロジェクトA子) is an original satirical sci-fi comedy theatrical movie.  It was originally released in 1986.

 

   The story takes place in a fictional Japanese city called Graviton. An alien spaceship crashed into the city 15 years previously and since then humanity has built it’s self up around the crash site and scavenged some of the technology, ala Macross. We follow three main characters, all first year high school students. The titles name sake, A-ko, is a spunky and dimwitted red head, her best friend C-ko, is also spunky, dimwitted and childish. The third, B-ko, is smart, composed and rich. B-ko makes herself A-ko’s mortal foe and the two continuously battle each other over C-ko’s friendship. A-ko and C-ko have been friends since kindergarten, when A-ko defended her from the mean spirited and cruel B-ko. B-ko has not been in school with them since then and the two friends don’t realize who she was until B-ko explains the situation. Now, after all these years apart, B-ko has developed a lust for the whiny C-ko and sees A-ko as her competition in love. B-ko employees her father’s fortune and her own high intellect to devise a variety of mechanized attack's on the super naturally powered A-ko. A-ko, not wholly comprehending the attacks pummels the mechanized menaces until she confronts B-ko personally and demands an explanation for the continued attacks.

    To make matters worse an alien ship has crashed again on the city, balancing precariously on the remains of the previous alien ship. The new invaders kidnap B-ko and the other girls must make a truce, join forces and rescue their hapless friend. The aliens, all androgynous females, claim that B-ko is their long lost princess who was abandoned on earth when the original spaceship crashed 15 years previously. A-ko and B-ko succeed in rescuing C-ko as well as destroying the ships ability to take off from Earth. The stranded invaders decide it is in their best interest to make the most of their temporary stay in the city and everything returns to normal as much as possible. The girls resume school and the aliens turn their stranded ship into an amusement center and hotel, while retaining hope of reclaiming their lost princess and returning home.

    As mentioned earlier the series is a tongue in cheek lambast of the biggest anime of the time. Here are just a few of the references found in the series. The alien space ship crashing into the city is from Macross as well as the second alien ship. The second alien ship resembles Space Battleship Yamato. The alien captain resembles Captain Harlock. One of B-ko’s minions, Mari, resembles a character from Fist of the North Star. In the original movie/OAV A-ko and B-ko watch Harmageddon in the theater. A-ko is the child of Superman and Wonder Woman. The alien mother ship arrives in Close Encounters of the Third Kind fashion.

    While the story can be entertaining and the action sequences are typical of the time the best reason to watch the series if for the references, spotting them is half the fun. The story is entertaining, nothing shocking, nothing compelling, just entertaining and light hearted. The original was actually supposed to be part of the Cream Lemon hentai series, but due to resistance by the production firm and wanting to release it in the theaters it was changed to a story with more general appeal.   The only aspect that was kept was the scene of B-ko in her bathtub.  Thankfully they changed their ideas and cranked out this entertaining comedy. The original movie is from the early 80’s and the animation shows. While the 3 preceding OAV’s came a few years later the animation wasn’t improved upon much. That’s not to say it isn’t bad, it’s just an old style that many newer fans might not be able to get into.

    There was also a second OAV set called Gray vs. Blue and Blue vs. Gray. I didn't like it and haven't seen it in about 10 years so I don't remember much about it. The 2 OAV set uses the same characters as the original but has them all living in space. They all have the same relationships with each other, just slightly skewed. I thought it was crap and can't really recommend it personally…the original 4 volume set is all I ever needed anyways.

 

5 Centimeters per Second

5 Centimeters per Second (秒速5センチメートル) is an original slice of life romance feature film by  Shinkai Makoto.  The movie was originally released in March of 2007.

    The movie is separated into three vignettes following Tono Takaki. The first story titled Oukasho, begins before Takaki and his only friend, Shinohara Akari, start middle school and Akari is moving away from Tokyo. Both Takaki and Akari are used to transferring schools, both of their parents move frequently due to work.  They are both small, somewhat weak children who prefer reading to sports. This, along with their shared loneliness, is what brings them together in friendship and forges a strong bond between them. Even though they are not a couple their shared feelings intensify after Akari moves. Takaki receives the first letter from her 6 months after she moves and they stay in contact until it is Takaki's turn to move again. This time he is moving to the southern island of Japan and will be too far away from Akari to visit her. They plan a meeting right before he leaves. 

    The day of the meeting he heads out on a 3-hour train ride into the deep countryside to meet her at her new town. The day brings a nasty snowstorm that turns his train ride into a 7-hour trek through anticipation and sadness. He finally reaches her station, expecting her to be long gone, hours after their intended meeting, to find her huddled in front of the waiting rooms' heater. This meeting, what Takaki thinks is actually their last, leads to them sharing a love and friendship unparalleled by any other (no they didn't have sex). As he leaves the next morning they say good-bye to each other, somehow knowing the future in their hearts.

 

 

    The second part, titled Cosmonaut, finds Takaki at the end of his final year of high school, still living in a small town on the southern island. He has grown stronger and more mature but is always sad and lonely. A girl in his class named Kanae Sumita is completely in love with him but is always saddened by his distance from her and everyone else. They are friends at best but nothing more, even though she wishes for more. On one of the final days of school she gathers up her courage to confess her love for him but is interrupted and chooses to remain silent, knowing in her heart that he will always be distant from her, yearning for some far off thing that she can never provide him. In the end she chooses her own destiny and Takaki goes back to Tokyo to attend college.

    The third, final and shortest part, titled 5cm per Second, finds Takaki a sullen, depressed, lifeless man living in Tokyo, working an unsatisfying job. He is still reaching out for the lost love that he now knows will never come true.

    I was incredibly moved by the deep sadness in this film. I tend to get on the emotional side sometimes with films, hell I cried near the end of Tenchi in Love and every time I watch the first Gall Force movie I feel like I'm the last person on the face of the Earth. This movie is incredibly powerful and sad. In the 2nd part, when Takaki asks himself, how long have I been writing emails and not sending them, you realize that he has already lost the one thing he is living for. You never know who's to blame for the loss in communication, Takaki or Akari, but it is completely conveyed that distance and time has destroyed their connection with each other. The hardest part is in the final chapter when you see Akari sitting in a Tokyo bound train, happy and content, wearing an engagement ring, you know she is not engaged to Takaki. He, on the other hand, is almost an alcoholic, living in an unkempt apartment, chain smoking and forcing his self to show up to work every morning. In the end, he realizes his heart has gone hard with his loss. I almost thought the movie was going to end with him committing suicide. Yet the credits are bitter sweet, as cut scenes flash showing Takaki, Akari and Kanae. It shows them as children and as adults, the end of the credits is the continuation of the beginning of part three…the final contact between Takaki and Akari, as they unknowingly finalize their last promise together…that they would once again watch the cherry blossoms fall at 5cm per second in the same spot they watched long ago. This happens as they cross each other paths at a railway. Takaki realizes whom it was that he just passed and turns around to get a brief glimpse before 2 trains pass by. When the trains are gone so is the one thing in life he held dear. Yet, with the knowledge that she is gone he smiles to himself.

    I just can't explain how good this movie is, the animation is detailed and realistic, much like the directors other film, Voices of a Distant Star. The first part is the most beautiful and detailed, especially during Takaki's grueling train ride to meet Akari. The story is well written, amazingly powerful, yet minimal and haunting. Much of the tone is conveyed through the mood, the voice actor's tones, the minimal musical score and the sadness of the scenery. The backgrounds are beautiful, yet vast and lonely. I am not one to really remark on vocal talents, but I truly believe this is one of the finest examples of high quality voice work. The actor's emotions and connotations convey so much to the atmosphere of this movie and is done amazingly well. I do want to see it in English to see if the American voice actors can convey the same feelings. Even if you have read this post and know pretty much know what happens in this movie, I implore you to watch it. Sure, it's a love story, but this is the farthest thing from Love Hina you will ever find. I really think this is a piece of art and implore everyone to watch it, even if you don't think you will like it. I know people will end up hating this movie but I can guarantee that it will change them, even a little bit. It will definitely move them.

 

Higurashi: When They Cry

Higurashi: When They Cry (ひぐらしのなく頃に) is a  26 episode mystery horror based on the visual novel series of the same name created by 07th Expansion and Ryukishi07.  The anime originally aired during the Spring and Summer of 2006.

 

 

    Keiichi and his family have moved to Hinamizawa from Tokyo due to his parents work. He is a transfer student in the town school, which is so small that the classes contain multiple grade levels. There he befriends four odd girls who are members of a game-playing club. The members of the club are Sonozaki Mion, Ryuuga Rena, Houjou Satoko and Furude Rika. Mion and Rena are around Keiichi's age and Satoko and Rika are grade school aged. After the first day of club activities, Keiichi accompanies Rena on her way home, instead of gong home she takes him to the town dump. The dump is actually the abandoned construction sight for a defunct dam project. A few years previously the government was planning on damming the river that would result in the town being flooded, the citizens protested and after a grisly murder/dismemberment of one of the pro dam citizens the project was canceled. Keiichi discovers this information while in the dump after coming across an old newspaper. Just as he discovers the article on the mutilation Rena comes back wielding a large machete. When Keiichi questions her about the murder from a few years ago her expression changes instantly and she says she doesn't really know anything about the event. 

    The following day Keiichi is approached by an out of town police officer named Oishi Kuraudo. Oishi comes to the school and pulls Keiichi aside to talk with him in his car. He informs him that he is investigating the dam lynching incident and other events that may be related. Keiichi learns that since the lynching each year, during the summer town festival Watanagashi, one person is murdered and another disappears. Everyone in town says the murder/disappearances are the cause of a curse placed on the town by its patron demon/protector Oyashiro-sama. The people affected by the curse during the Watanagashi festival each year are people who were pro-dam or related to them. As Keiichi delves further into the mystery for Oishi he learns that his friends are not who they seem and they are all hiding secrets from him. Soon his own life is in danger with Watanagashi right around the corner. He needs to find the truth behind the murders/disappearances and how his friends, the three great houses of Hinamizawa and even the staff at his school are related to the yearly rampage of vengeance and secrecy.

    The series is split into a series of chapters, representing different play-thru's of the visual novel game.   The first four chapters represent different questions to establish the secrets of the village and the murders.  Each chapter is separated into multiple episode arcs which contain different narration paths for Keiichi and the other characters.  The chapters typically end with some or all of the main characters meeting a grizzly death and the truth of whats going on remaining just out of reach.  The last two chapters in the original series are known as answer chapters, that retell different narratives in the story, revealing some of the possible truths behind the murderous celebrations and the history of the town and its inhabitants. By the end of the series there is no actual resolution behind everything.  The series continues with the second series, When They Cry: Kai and further installments, all building to a greater truth that contains different conclusions and clues as to what is going on.

    This series is not for the faint of heart, it can be quite brutal and gory/disturbing. One of the most notable scenes involves one of the characters committing suicide by pounding her head into a butcher knife while the butt of it is against a wall. There is some disturbing subject mater as well. This is not for people who are suggestible to realistic fiction, such as small children. Along with the subject matter, the ambient soundtrack greatly enhances the mood of the series…cicada's chirping will never be the same again after this show.  I highly implore anyone who likes mysteries or horror to check out this series, it's a great roller coaster ride but can be confusing, so just sit back, enjoy and wait till you are done watching the entire thing to figure everything out. Don't let the initial goofy, fan service air fool you either; the typical mundane anime attitude is just a cover for the dark things that lurk beneath the surface in this show.

Higurashi has been available in dub and sub across a number of formats for many years now.

Here is Greenwood

Here is Greenwood (ここはグリーン・ウッド) is a 6 part comedy OAV series based on the manga of the same name by Nasu Yukie.  The series was originally release on home video between 1991 and 1993.

     

    The story follows a group of elite all boys private high school students and the peculiar dorm hall they reside in, nicknamed Greenwood.  Hasukawa Kazuya, through bad luck, is unable to begin the school year until a month later.  Kazuya is introduced to the president of the dorm, Ikeda Mitsuru, who shows the late first year around the campus and settles him into his room.  Unknown to him, Kazuya is rather infamous in the school and the student body has decided to play a series of pranks on him.  The first prank is his room mate, fellow first year student Kisaragi Shun.  Shun, by all appearances and mannerism is a girl, but due to her famillies particular habits, has been raised as a boy and enrolled in the school as a boy.  Rooming with a girl, living as a boy will prove to be quite complicated for the beleaguered Kazuya.  Kazuya and his older brother, Kazuhiro, lost there parents a number of years ago.  Kazuhiro is a number of years older and took it upon himself to raise his brother.  Everything was going well for the brothers until Kazuhiro mgets married to the first girl Kazuya fell in love with, his tutor Sumire.  In order to escape the torture of his brother enjoying the live of a newlywed with the woman he loves, he enrolls in the school his brother graduated from, Ryokuto Academy.  The decision was based partially on the ability to live on campus and to overcome his brothers academic abilities at his alma mater.

    Kazuya finds himself out of the fire and into the frying pan with a female room mate in an all boys school...except for the fact that Shun is really a boy who purposely looks like a girl.  Once he realizes the trick, Kazuya quickly understands the efforts the dorm has taken to mess with the student who missed the first month of school due to stomach issues.  Mitsuro also shows his true intentions, along with his reserved and cold roommate Tezuka Shinobu, to do as much as possible to pick on Kazuya.  Kazuya struggles to endure the loving pranks and traps set by Shun and the other members of Greenwood, pushing forward to avoid home as much as physically possible.  Avoiding his brother is harder as he works as the school nurse, partially in an attempt to keep and eye on his brother and join in on the teasing.  Its hard for him to move beyond his love for Sumire...his new sister-in-law and when that knowledge becomes known to the members of Greenwood his live becomes even harder.

 

    This strange comedy series first came to my attention in the mid nineties and instantly became a favorite of him, as should be somewhat obvious given the URL name of this blog.  The characters are well crafted over the course of this short series and the stories are memorable and well worth repeated viewings.  The humor is off beat and amusing.  This is an old anime based on an older manga so the character design and artwork is quite dated at this point.  Very classic shojo character designs, with tall willow men with long legs and beautiful features.

    The series has a bit of a long history for commercial release in America.  The original dub/sub releases were brought out by a company called Software Sculptors, an off shoot of the defunct Central Park Media.  In the mid 2000's the license was picked up by Media Blasters, who released a new dub and sub version on DVD.  Since then the license has expired and is currently no longer under the domain of any company in North America.  It will probably remain that way indefinitely.  The series was little known when it was originally released and never made any waves afterward.  I still have the original VHS copies from Software Sculpture, but should work on getting a copy of the DVD....unless it has some absurd collectors price attached to it.  The series is also not available anywhere for streaming, so good luck!!

 

Living for the Day After Tomorrow

Living for the Day After Tomorrow (あさっての方向) is a 12 episode super natural drama based on the manga of the same name by Yamada J-ta.  The anime originally aired during the Fall of 2006.

 

    Karada is an elementary school girl who is short of stature and fed up with not being able to be responsible like an adult. She lives alone with her adult brother, Hiro, who returned home to care of her after the death of their parents. Shoko has returned to Japan after going to college in America. She has chosen to move to a small and secluded town to start her life over after a bad end to a relationship. Karada and Shoko end up meeting each other at a small shrine on the outskirts of town. The shrine is a legend in the town because the stone inside of it are fabled to grant wishes. After they each play to the shrine Hiro arrives to get Karada. The siblings and their friends are going to the beach before the summer school session starts. Surprisingly, Hiro and Shoko know each other from college. Karada invites Shoko along to the beach, because she is her brothers' friend. Together the three of them meet up with Touko and Amino, to head off to the ocean. Touko is around the same age as Hiro and Shoko, she helps out at her families' café and has a mild attraction to Hiro but not enough to actively pursue him. Amino is Karada's classmate and has been in love with her for a long time.

 

    During the day at the beach the tension between Hiro and Shoko is thick and oppressive, at the end of the day she insults Karada. Hiro sends his sister back home ahead of him so he can talk with Shoko. Instead of going she stops at the shrine and begins to pray to grow up faster, so that her brother doesn't have to worry about her as much. Shoko comes across Karada praying at the shrine on her way home. In a moment forever lost to time the two share an intertwined fate as they are both affected by the shrines magic. In an instant Shoko, in her mid 20's, has the body of a grade schooler and Karada, around 11, has the body of an adult. They now share a powerful secret and head to Shoko's apartment to sort things out. Over time Hiro discovers the truth and all three end up living together. This period creates much tension as Hiro and Shoko's past relationship is revealed to Karada. Ultimately Karada runs away to make it on her own, even though she is internally the same person just now an adult on the outside. At the same time, Tetsumasa is searching for her. He is bothered by the excuses' dealing with where she is. He searches the town looking for her, confronting a quiet and brooding Hiro, who only gives vague answers.

 

    The story deals with four characters sorting out their individual feelings and their feelings for those around them. Shoko and Karada, once the truth sets in, are resigned to the fact that they cannot reverse the wish and are trying to sort out how to proceed with their lives. Shoko and Hiro are trying to sort out why their relationship went sour and how they can over come the past to make the future better. Karada and Hiro are trying to sort through their own hang-ups over each other, their own assumed guilt's. Tetsumasa and Karada are trying to confront and admit their mutual feelings in order to build a mutual trust between them.

    I really enjoyed this series; it's hard for me to find a problem with it aside from my own personal tastes. The artwork and character design fits well with the theme and feel of the story. The story is very mature and well written. I greatly enjoyed the fact that it has a super natural element which is the backbone of the plot but is handled in a realistic way and moves to the background. There is absolutely no comedy in this show, and normally when an anime has a body-switching plot the canned toilet/prepubescent sex humor drives the show. Not with this one. It was interesting that the main characters accepted their fate as best they could and strived to adjust their lives to the changes. The plot was not about them trying to reverse the effect; it was about them coming to terms with their problems before and after the change. They had to realize and understand why the change happened, not make up for it, but to try and make it better. I think the plot lines in this story are great real life lessons that everyone can learn from

 

    The background music fits the mood well, soft tinkling piano tracks and airy synth lines. The main characters are all memorable and well developed with personalities that grow throughout the series. The length of the series was fine, I think it would have been rushed if it was shorter and dragged out if it was longer. There are really no loose ends in the end of the series, the only thing I would yearn for would be to spend more time with these characters that I have become attached to. I have not read the manga but will probably pick it up now and see the differences between that and the anime. I really don't see there being anymore of this series, but hopefully the original creator will create another memorable, well written series after this.

UPDATE: This series was picked up by Sentai Film Works and is available on DVD and is currently available streaming on Anime News Network.
 

UPDATE: As of September 2023 the series is available for streaming on HiDive.