Arakawa Under the Bridge - the manga

Arakawa Under the Bridge (荒川アンダー ザ ブリッジ) is a romantic comedy, sci-fi manga by Nakamura Hikaru.  The series was published between 2004 and 2015, with 400 chapters compiled between 15 tankoubon.

    The series follows Ichinomiya Kou, the heir to a powerful business conglomerate who was raised by a twisted set of ideals.  His entire life the core principle of his family has been drilled into his consciousness, never be indebted to someone.  He does everything he can, going to extreme lengths, to not have anyone do him any favors.  His luck completely changes as he is assaulted by pants stealing hoodlums on a bridge over the Arakawa river.  A strange woman named Nino retrieves his pants, thus putting Kou in her debt.  Before he is able repay that debt she saves him from drowning in the river.  Nino tells him that he can repay her for saving his life by being her boyfriend.  Thus Kou becomes the newest resident of the Arakawa river basin.

    Life in the river is incredibly odd as the other residents are unique characters running away from one thing or another, though they all flatly refuse that fact.  Kou has to deal with the eccentirc neighbors in his effort to repay the strange girl who has suddenly become his girl friend.  Nino claims to be an alien from Venus.  The 'neighborhood' is run by a man wearing a kappa suit/claiming to be the famed yokai, named Mayor.  A man with a star head see's Kou as his romantic rival for Nino's favor.  A cross dressing mercenary known as Sister acts as the area's religious figure, his love interest is the sharp tongued farm owner Maria.  Two run away twins who claim to have psychic powers and are hiding from a research facility.  A throw back to the Edo era samurai barber.  A crazed gardener who is in love with the Mayor and a man who ran away from home due to his obsession with white lines.

    The series follows the crazed collection of personalities on their day to day antics of life under the bridge.  From celebrating Christmas, harvesting the crops, running a carnival for the kids, fighting an Amazon from up river, dealing with unrequited love, fending off the plots of a group run by a Mole man...you know, normal stuff.  At the core is the mystery of who Nino really is and what circumstances lead her to living under the bridge.  The entire time Kou has to deal with understanding why everyone has chosen to live there while at the same time retaining his own identity amid the craziness.

    One thing that stands out in the manga is the artwork, the character designs, particularly their range of facial expressions are good.  The story though doesn't seem to really congeal towards some sort of end goal until around the half way point.  Before then it is sporadic in nature with no real progression.  Hints are dropped along the way as to what the great reveal at the end of the series will be, yet the author may not have had that planned out until the series was already established.  At times the story arcs are a chore to get through but for the most part the manga is a rather enjoyable read.  Part of my issue with it may stem from watching the anime first.  The anime was made before the story was completed so it doesn't get into the ultimate reveal at all.  In then end it was worth the read but I was glad to be done with it.

    The series is currently available in hard-copy from Square Enix and is available electronically via Crunchroll.

Japan's Most Successful Manga

Manga is big business in Japan and is responsible for substantial economic and cultural influence.  Otaku fandom in America is the reverse of Japan where manga accounts for around four times more sales than anime.  Since the beginning of the 21st century though manga has steadily become as prominent in America as anime.  But with out a doubt, it is incredibly important in it's home country.  But who retains the title of the most successful manga in the history of modern manga?

    Really a product of the post war reality of Japan, the manga industry as it exists took root in the late 40's and early 50's.  A number of factors contributed to its growth and entrenchment in the nation psyche.  It provided an inexpensive way to entertain the general population.  The American occupation encouraged its expansion and the provisional Japanese government saw it as a great tool to integrate into the national education system.

    Almost all manga is first printed in large anthology publications, generally in weekly or monthly installments.  The anthologies are only a few dollars each and are printed on low quality paper, designed more as something to be discarded.  Readers are asked to participate in ranking the manga that appear in the anthology by listing their favorite titles and mailing that info to the magazine company.  Sometimes, especially in anthologies aimed at youth, entries are eligible to win prizes.  The successful manga continue to run and eventually get reprinted in higher quality stand alone books called tankoubon.  Manga that fall at the bottom of the rank for too long are usually cancelled.  The manga Bakuman by the creators of Death Note details this system quite well and is worth reading.

    So, what is the most successful manga?  There are a few ways to answer that so here are the top 10 lists for a few different criteria.  This data is directly taken from the Wikipedia article which lists the rankings and includes data taken from various Japanese sources and is indicative of sales figures in Japan only.

Top 10 manga series by number of overall tankoubon sold.

 1. One Piece: 380 million.  81 tankoubon.
 2. Golgo 13: 280 million.  177 tankoubon.
 3. Dragon Ball: 230 million.  42 tankoubon.
 4. Naruto: 220 million.  72 tankoubon.
 5. Black Jack: 176 million.  17 tankoubon.
 6. Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari: 198 million.  198 tankoubon.

 

  7. Case Closed: 150 million.  86 tankoubon.
 8. Oishinbo: 130 million.  111 tankoubon.
 9. Slam Dunk: 120 million.  31 tankoubon.
 10. Astro Boy: 100 million.  23 tankoubon.

    These number though are a little misleading.  A thing to take into consideration is the number of tankoubon that exist in a particular series.  While not exactly accurate, but perhaps a little more telling when it comes to a series actual popularity, is to see how the series compare when you reconsider the sales data as representing the number of people who have purchased all available tankoubon for each series.  By doing that, while not entirely accurate, we get a clearer view of a manga's actual popularity as opposed to its over all sales volume.

Top 10 manga series by estimating how many copies of each tankoubon sold.

 1. Black Jack: 10 million copies of each tankoubon.

  2. Dragon Ball: 5.4 million copies of each tankoubon.
 3. One Piece: 4.6 million copies of each tankoubon.
 4. Astro Boy: 4.3 million copies of each tankoubon.
 5. Slam Dunk: 3.8 million copies of each tankoubon.
 6. Touch: 3.8 million copies of each tankoubon.
 7. Fist of the North Star: 3.7 million copies of each tankoubon.
 8. Naruto: 3 million copies of each tankoubon.
 9. Attack on Titan: 2.7 million copies of each tankoubon.
 10. YuYu Hakusho: 2.6 million copies of each tankoubon.

   Some series in the list have the benefit of being around for decades while newer series have sold incredibly well in only a few years.  Here is the top 10 most successful manga based on the average number of tankoubon sold in a year.  The average is found by dividing the total sales by the total years since the first tankoubon of the series has been available.

 1. One Piece. 21 million per year on average.
 2. Naruto. 13.7 million per year on average.
 3. Attack on Titan. 8.75 million per year on average.
 4. Dragon Ball.  7.4 million per year on average.
 5. Case Closed. 7.1 million per year on average.
 6. Golgo 13. 6 million per year on average.
 7. Bleach. 5.8 million per year on average.
 8. Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari. 5 million per year on average.
 9. Vagabond. 4.8 million per year on average.

 10. Slam Dunk. 4.8 million per year on average.

    With all that said and done, based on the evidence of these 3 criteria here is what I determine to be the 3 most successful manga series in Japan. 

 1. One Piece. 380 million copies, between 81 volumes over 18 years.
 2. Dragon Ball. 230 million copies, between 42 volumes over 31 years.
 3. Naruto.  220 million copies, between 72 volumes over 16 years.

  One Piece is assumed to only be about half way through its story as well.  Dragon Ball was concluded in 1995 and Naruto ended in 2014.  By and far One Piece will remain the most successful manga in the history of manga, even if it suddenly losses all popularity and is cancelled in a few years.  So there you have it, some semi-empirical data to show what the most successful manga in Japan is.

Making Japanese Food at Home

A year and a half ago I did some writing on Japanese cuisine I make at home.  I wanted to revisit and expand on that.  All you really need are a few key ingredients and you can wing it for a large amount of Japanese food.

    To make a large assortment of Japanese food you need these ingredients; soy sauce, mirin/sake, wakame and instant dashi.  Wakame and dashi can be hard to find outside of Asian specialty grocery stores, but, thanks to the age of the internet, can be easily sourced online.  If a recipe calls for mirin and you only have sake you can add sugar to the sake.  An incredible amount of Japanese dishes require some or all of these ingredients as they are staples of washoku.

    While specialty rice is beneficial for making sushi and other recipes that require forming the rice, most any rice will do as an accompaniment with food you make.  Simple and delicious dishes can be crafted by making a simple broth with the basic Japanese ingredients (soy sauce, mirin/sake, dashi).  Just bring the ingredients to a boil in a few cups of water.  The measurements of the individual ingredients are more to taste than anything, but start off with small amounts.  A few table spoons of soy sauce and mirin at a time and teaspoons of dashi.  The dashi will dissolve as its cooked and everything will blend well together.  From there you can add all sorts of things to the broth, different vegetables, tofu, meat.  There is really no limit to what you can do in merging the tastes.  Hard boiled/soft boiled eggs work very well, potatoes, tofu blocks, green onions, garlic, corn, cabbage, etc.  Pour the resulting soup over a bowl of rice for an incredibly filling meal.

    Rice can be eaten with basic ingredients as well.  In Japan seasoning blends known as furikake exist to eat exclusively on rice.  If you want to spice it up you can also add the Japanese red pepper product called togarashi, which is commonly used in noodle/soup dishes and increases in heat when cooked.  Both are somewhat difficult to find outside of Asian grocers, but I have begun to see furikake in 'normal' grocers.  There is also the wonderful world of internet shopping to alleviate any issues finding these items.

    While not required, a rice cooker is one of the handiest things to own.  While I am a pretty good cook I have always had problems making rice on the stove.  The rice cooker I received as a present in 2000 has served me well and refuses to die...much to my annoyance as I really want to get an expensive, super fancy one.  Simple and incredibly easy to use.  The higher end ones has timer and warmer settings and different cook modes for different styles of rice and can even be set to produce entire dishes, not unlike a slow cooker.  There exists and entire recipe category in japan of meals that can be made in a rice cooker.  The unit I have been using for 16 years now only cost about $30 and just cooks rice, but it is amazing in that regard.  The nice rice cookers that start having all the bells and whistles begin at about $150 and can go up to $300 before hitting commercial restaurant grade models.

    When you have the basic ingredients there is little excuse to eat pre-made ramen in any format, particularly given how horrible it is for you.  While fresh ramen noodles are difficult to source outside of Asian grocers (look for lo mein noodles) you can easily substitute in rice noodles which are widely available.  Dehydrated soba and udon noodles are becoming increasingly easy to source and cost under three dollars for a package which contains a number of servings.  While you will be hard pressed to save more money making the ramen by scratch you can easily match the price of a single package of Maruchan when you figure out how much you are actually spending on the amount of each ingredient used for a bowl of home made ramen.  From there you can add all sorts of ingredients into it as well as more seasoning using spices readily available in the average American home.  If you're feeling especially motivated you can make your own noodles as well.  At a minimum you only need flour, salt, baking soda, a rolling pin and a knife.  Fresh noodles can be frozen for use later so its best to make a large batch of noodles at a time.

  If you have access to a Trader Joe's you can find a surprising number of specialty ingredients for Japanese cooking, particularly miso paste and various styles of tofu.  They also carry a good assortment of quality rice and frozen vegetables that work in all manor of Japanese dishes.  As a bonus...pick up some ice cream filled mochi for a delicious desert after your flavorful meal.

    For the more adventurous there is the entire world of pickled food, tsukemono.  Unlike western pickles, tsukemono are quicker to prepare and are designed to be eaten soon after making.  Easy food to use for making tsukemonno are; ginger, cabbage, egg plant, garlic cloves, cucumber, daikon radish, carrots, peppers, etc.  You would be hard pressed to find a common vegetable that does not have a tsukemono recipe.

    In general daily Japanese cooking is easy to do with a few basic ingredients always on hand and a small amount of preparation.  Sushi and the more fanciful restaurant dishes are usually specialty items that people don't eat on a daily basis.  Traditionally the core of washoku is rice, miso soup and tsukemono.  Remember that people in Japan make food by hand, from scratch just as much and just as easily as people in America, so there's no reason you can't do the same.  Adding some of these dishes and ideas to your diet aren't a bad thing either.  We all like variation and depending on what you are making, Japanese cuisine can be quite healthy.  Not all though...beef bowls and tonkatsu aren't any better for you than pizza and cheese burgers.  But Japanese cuisine can provide excellent ways to increase your vegetable intake if you are hard pressed to do so otherwise.

What Show's Have Survived the Cut for the Season

We are closing in on the halfway mark of the Spring 2016 season, so it's time to take a look at the series' I started watching in the beginning of the season and see whats remaining and why I have dropped the one's no longer in the cue.

What's sticking around.

  Haven't You heard? I'm Sakamoto: While the series isn't always 'on' when it comes to its comedy and delivery it is still fun to watch how smooth Sakamoto is and how ridiculous his response to any situation is.

  Tanaka-kun is Always Listless: Perhaps one of the best of the season...  A good example of how to make something mundane and boring enjoyable.

  Flying Witch: Not the greatest series of the season, but not bad.  Its quiet and hypnotic...but it has no general direction and weaves an over all story of mundane life with an apprentice witch over its episodic story telling.




  MS Gundam Unicorn: While this remake of the OAV series of the same name is a much welcomed return to a good Gundam it still reminds me I hate Gundam for usually casting an unassuming hero teenager as its lead.  When will Gundam Thunderbolt episode 4 drop?  That is a much better story with excellent artwork.  The head transforming on the Unicorn Gundam is really really stupid.  Have I ever mentioned I actually hate how Gundam's look and prefer Zaku?  Gundams are ugly and reinforce the notion that its based off of super sentai hero's, which I really dislike.

  Kuma Miko: Surprisingly funny series, even if its way of advancing the plot if rather boring.  This and almost all of the other series I am watching this season are relying too much on episodic story telling.  But, this series is enjoyable, cute and the main characters are really likeable.

  Rin-ne: While not as good as I would like, Rumiko Takahashi's latest super natural comedy series is still worth the time, even if the writing for this season isn't as strong as the first.

 
Still in danger of being dropped.


  And You Thought There is Never a Girl Online: Complete innocent fap fodder with horribly sexist character designs.  There is an underlying/overt idea behind the series relating to the dangers of people who have a difficult time distinguishing between reality and fantasy.  This series could become significantly better if it turned dark as it neared its run, who knows.

  Shonen Maid: The series is bumbling along with each episode as it's establishing the personalities of the main characters.  It's hard to tell if there will be an overall plot or if it will continue to be episodic and plod along with no clear goal.

  12-sai Chiccha na Mune no Tokimeki: This slice of life romance has become quite boring and uninteresting.  Its as boring as Isshukan Friends but doesn't have the overall goal that boring series had.  It just plods along with no real goal as it shows the boring everyday interactions of idiot school kids.  In fact, this has convince me to stop watching it.

  Big Order: This series is a strange amalgamation of a shonen super power action series, soft core ecchi and man kinds darkest desires.  The artwork, particularly the CG, is pretty bad.  Character types that are old and worn out and a story that isn't very original.  I think the thing that keeps me watching it is the fact that it keeps changing between each episode.  It's strange, not entirely original and boring in many aspects.  But through out are peppered moments of oddity or humor that keep me going...can't say for how long though.

  Space Patrol Luluco: The first series from the people behind the genesis of Trigger that hasn't quickly thrown me off.  I am still unsure if this will stick around as the story drifts pointlessly into obscure absurdity.


Dropped.

  Macross Delta: I have no love for how far Macross has gone to pander to the worst aspects of anime otaku with this series.  Any ideas anyone had that Macross was partially a labor of love and story telling are gone now with this seriously poorly planned money making scheme.

  The Lost Village:  It took 5 1/2 episode to put the nail in the coffin but this is an incredibly horrible and pointless story.  The idea of watching the worst personalities of people who 'live' online dying through their own stupidity was not enough to justify continuing to watch this mess of an attempt at suspense and mystery.  Horrible characters, horrible animation, horrible execution.

  Pan de Peace: The recent-ish trend for incredibly mundane slice of life series; such as Is the order a Rabbit, do little to entertain me and are more of a waste of my time.

  Neko Neko Nihonshi: This one was dropped due mostly to the difficulty of availability.  No one is translating it, legal or otherwise and raw copies are hard to come by,
 
 12-sai Chiccha na Mune no Tokimeki: See above.

  It's really kind of a dud of a season...unfortunately.  I don't see any of these shows being memorable years later.  I look forward to Summer and Fall as some shows of manga I am reading are hitting the air waves.

  

Dropping Macross Delta

The decision to drop Macross Delta didn't come with much difficulty.  It was really more a matter of confirming assumptions and understanding the qualities it possesses that bothers me.

    In a blunt statement, a series that had at one time been a pioneer in story telling and design has now reduced it self to being a clone of current trends in popular anime.  While the power of singing idols has been a cornerstone of the franchise since the very beginning the shows, with the exception of 7, have not focused on that aspect as much as Delta does.  On top of that the idols are a group of magical girl soldiers.  The enemy they are fighting is little more than a zombie infestation.  The series is having a really hard time trying to figure out what type of story it wants to be.  At once it is Love Live, Kancolle, Madoka Magica and The Walking Dead.

    On top of the haphazardly constructed genre's the animation is far below the standard that I would expect out of Macross.  The CG is some of the worst I have seen in a long time and is poorly integrated with the background animation.  The character designs are cheap, cosplay inspired, otaku fodder.  The personalities of some of the key characters differ little from ones you would find in a galge.  Over all the series seems to be poorly produced with a script compiled from suggestion box submissions of people who take walking tours of Akihabara.

Ajin - season 1

Ajin (亜人) is a 13 episode super natural action series based on the manga of the same name by Sakurai Gamon.  The series was produced by Polygon Pictures and released over the winter of 2016.

    Seventeen years prior to the start of the series the existence of humans who were unable to die became public knowledge.  The governments of the world began to seek these people out for various uses, and in many countries they were presented to the general public as monsters to be avoided and reported to the authorities.

    Nagai Kei is a normal high school student in Japan who discovers his identity as an Ajin after he is hit and killed by a truck.  Understanding that his freedom is in danger he immediately flees to avoid capture.  As he escapes into the mountains he makes contact with another Ajin hiding from the government, a man named Satou.  He meets Satou and a recently escaped Ajin named Tanaka, but is soon captured by the government.

    While in the governments hands continuous and merciless experiments are performed on him.  Satou facilitated Kei's capture as a way to mold his mind to his own will.  After a time he breaks Kei out of the government facility, ready to make him a soldier in his soon to begin war on normal humans.  Kei refuses his ideals and escapes.  In hiding he watches as Satou begin a campaign of terror and destruction in a bid to control all of Japan.  Kei must decide if he will continue to live in hiding or put a stop to Satou and his goal of genocide.

    Polygon Pictures does full CG animation using motion capture technology for the characters movements.  While still not as natural and fluid as traditional animation is, their level of detail is amazingly high.  A lot of people hate the animation Polygon does but I think we need to get past the fact its full CG, especially when so much of the animation out now is CG.  As they keep pouring money into the technology and techniques it will become more natural.  In recent years they have made a name for themselves for producing anime so they are seeing some success.  That said, the anime sticks closely to the look and feel of the manga, which is an import aspect.

    Ajin is an interesting take on the standard super human story.  Much of it deals with questioning societies biases and the rationality of humanity.  The rest is an over the top action vehicle with twists and turns at every corner.  Kei is a pretty weak leading character and not the reason I watched the anime or read the manga.  I could really care less for his plight.  Fortunately he isn't exactly the under dog hero that is typical in this type of story.  You're not going to see some Naruto type personalities or progress out of Kei.  Everything he does is for selfish reasons and he spends most of the anime avoiding conflict.

    Satou on the other hand is what makes this series enjoyable.  He is one of the best villains I have ever seen in an anime or manga.  Cunning, crafty and purely unsympathetic to everything but his own ideals.  The series boils down to how well either party can out think the other one.  Satou has no qualms and in fact revels in murder.  Everyone else is auxiliary to these two characters and only offer themselves as convenient tools.

    If you are reading the manga the anime does a decent job of following what has been written.  The most glaring alteration was how Satou attacks a pharmaceutical companies head quarters.  In the manga he hijacks a commercial jet and crashes it into the building.  I won't spoil how he does it in the anime, though I still like the manga version better.  The anime covers about the first 20 or so issues of the manga and ends with it wide open to be continued at some point.  They are probably waiting for the current major arc to be completed before starting work on a second series.  Polygon Pictures also released a movie version covering part of the TV series in November of 2015 and a second movie is releasing in Japan in May of 2016 and a third later in 2016.

    The anime is currently available on Netflix in North America.  The manga is available on Crunchyroll and in hard copy by Vertical.

Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju

Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju (昭和元禄落語心中) is a 13 episode historical slice of life drama based on the manga of the same name by Kumota Haruka.  The anime originally aired in the winter of 2016.

    Lowly yakuza underling Kyoji leaves prison with one goal in mind, to become an apprentice to the rakugo master Yakumo the 8th.  He tracks down and throws himself at the wary elderly man, but something causes him to consider allowing Kyoji to be his apprentice.  Something he has never done in the years since he has been a full fledged rakugo performer.  Rakugo is a one man story telling performance that saw a resurgence following World Was 2 but has almost faded in modern times.

    Yakumo the 8th see's in the energetic but dim witted Kyoji a chance to make reparations for a promise he was unable to keep to the man who grew up with him in the art form, a man who's daughter he adopted when she was young and raised as his own.  He decides to recount his life's story to Kyoji and his adopted daughter to explain how he became the person they know.  It is also a way for him to reflect and atone for his difficult life.

    After putting off the praises from all corners of the otaku interwebs I finally broke down near the end of its simulcast and started watching this series...I was sorry that I waited as long as I did, but grateful I came around.  This is an excellent drama that is driven by its characters and their lives.  The story spans decades of time and beyond the first episode and parts of the last, lives entirely in the past.  Yakumo the 8th recounts his life from when he was forced into rakugo apprenticeship after his prostitute mother abandoned him.  It details the struggles he encounters in his apprenticeship, his personal relationship with the man he apprenticed along side and the challenges the art form faced during and after the reconstruction.  It paints a vivid story of a handful of characters and how the drastically changing world affected them.

    The artwork isn't the greatest but it fits the story perfectly.  It reminded me of a cross between House of Five Leaves and Kids on the Slope honestly.  The character designs are simplistic, Yakumo the 8th is a little strange looking, but the backgrounds and directing are excellent.  What really drew me in was the rakugo performances themselves, of which each episode usually has segments of at least one performance.  I can only imagine how mesmerizing it is/was to see it in person with how entrancing it is in the anime.  The power of the story is through the performer being able to convey the different characters he is performing, separating out their personalities, as well as painting the scenery of the story through the dialogue and minute miming.  You can close your eyes, focusing on the words themselves and life with in the world that is being expressed.

    The anime handled the performances with grace, allowing the dialogue and the characters movements to paint most of the picture.  It would have been easy to drift off and fully animate the stories instead very little was done to enhance the words themselves, which added so much more to the performance in my mind.  If possible, I think the next time I am in Tokyo I may have to see if rakugo is done any longer, I would love to experience it at least once.

    Anyways, this was amazingly well done and it really sets its self apart from so many other anime out there, past or present.  It isn't for everyone though, as there is no action and a whole ton of well done dialogue.  It is a cut and dry drama about characters with unique and well developed personalities and the way they struggle with themselves and others.  It is a fascinating period piece about a unique art form and unique circumstances of Japan before the modern era and leading up to it.  I highly recommend this amazing series.

    It was simulcast on Crunchyroll and I believe Sentai will be releasing it on video at some point.  No word on the manga though, which is a shame.  However, there is fantastic news that a second season will be produced and aired at some point, this time telling more of Kyoji's tale.

First Look at the New Titles for the Spring of 2016

Space Patrol Luluco: Starting off with a 'bang' Space Patrol Luluco is a short gag comedy dealing with a perfectly normal middle school girl who is forced to work for the Space Patrol after her father was accidentally frozen.  When she took him to the Space patrol office where he works his boss, Over Justice, forces her to join the force to help pay for her fathers thawing and revival fee's.  She is being tasked to patrol her school, which is harboring new criminal activity.  Stepping back a little bit, her town is the epicenter of intergalactic commingling on earth, where aliens and earthlings coexist together as part of a greater galactic organization.

    This is shoddy in design, hectic in pacing and dialog and absolutely welcomed by me.  I love these off beat, idiotic comedy shorts that are becoming more and more common.  There is zero substance here, this is something to watch for the stupidity and absurdity.  In some ways it has a similar feel to aspects of Kill la Kill...which it should as its by the director of that series, Imaishi Hiroyuki.  I have never really enjoyed his other works, but the shorter time format may be just what is needed to get me to enjoy his brand of nonsense.

 

The Lost Village:Thirty people embark on a journey to a lost and mythical village where they hope to restart their lives for a variety of reasons.

    The first episode really introduces the premise of the show and does a brief introduction to all of the characters and a little more in depth introduction for a few as well as setting up some of the conflicts and suspense.  The animation is standard fare, nothing amazing.  The voice acting and character personalities range from idiotic to generic.  Everyone on the bus seems to personify the worst traits of netizens.  All of the characters introduce themselves with online handles and each have their own reason for wanting to disappear and start over.  Most of them seem like pampered kids who don't feel their life is the way they want it to be and are willing to throw everything away for this mystery trip based on nothing but net rumors and conspiracy theories.  It could be interesting to see how the mystery unfolds but i fear many of the characters disagreeable personalities may make the story unbearable.

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE:0096: A longer TV based retelling of the MS Gundam Unicorn OAV series from 2010.  The story takes place 96 years into the Universal Age and with Gundams deals with mobile suit based political intrigue and maneuvering.

    This is the most proper Gundam installment we have seen in a very long time.  Very happy to have this as part of the Spring line up.  Classic artwork, classic mobile suit designs, classic Gundam.  What more could you ask for?

Pan de Peace:  A short moe slice of life story about four high school girls who find friendship over obsessive fascinations of bread based products.  Honestly, not so sure about this one.  The artwork is rather boring and there is little draw for a series even at 3 minutes a pop.  I'll give it a few episodes to see if it actually developed into anything.  On a side note it reminds me a little of Yuyushiki for some reason.

Macross Delta: The preview episode back in January is the first episode of the series that aired this week.  So if you want a break down of my thoughts on it go here.  Yes, I know I called things by HG names, which was also on purpose.  HG deserves this Macross...  I am not amused with Macross really trying to tap into the Love Live market.  Even if idols have been a central plot point of all the prior series' it hasn't been this bad.

Kuma Miko: Kumade village is a remote hick town somewhere in the Tohoku region of Japan.  Village legend speaks of an ancient practice of sacrificing a maiden to the bears of the mountains to keep them from attacking.  One maiden was 'taken' by a bear and children were spawned who could speak human languages.  The decedents of that bear/human mating have gone on to maintaining the peace between the villagers and the bears.  Machi, a descendant of that family is the current shrine maiden.  It is her job to pray and bring offerings to appease the bear of the shrine, Natsu.  One day she approaches Natsu about attending high school in the nearest city, 2 hours away.  Natsu stoutly refuses, not wishing to have his shrine maiden leave him for the big unknown...Natsu speaks fluent Japanese and has a strange sense of humor. 

    There is some potential for an enjoyable comedy in this show.  Natsu is an entertaining character but Machi embodies some annoying moe/otaku girl character personality traits.  One bright spot with this is how it handles ecchi humor.  The ecchi isn't purposeless and isn't absurd.  It is a well integrated part of the comedy in this off beat slice of life super natural story.  In short, I think this one will be enjoyable and strange.

12-sai Chicchana mune no tokimeki: Hanabi is a normal 12 year old girl.  She struggles daily with boys flipping skirts, first kisses and the troubles of menstrual cycles.  She seems a bit less mature than most others around her and she has a hard time grasping the reality of a 6th grader.

    Not really sure about this one.  The animation is pretty bad, like Pokemon from the 90's bad.  Hanabi is a completely unlikable main character and some of the supporting characters aren't any better.  Her 'boyfriend' Takao seem's like some high school senior instead of a 6th grader as well.  The series seems to have a hard time trying to figure out what it wants to be, unless its trying to be some sort of anime health class primer for girls.  Something tells me my 12 year old daughter wouldn't even want to watch this one.  I'd probably be better of watching Kyo no Go no Ni.

 

Tanaka-kun is Always Listless: High school student Tanaka embodies the ultimate level of slack.  He goes through the day being as motionless as possible, even working on improving his physical structure and strength for better slacking abilities.  The show explores how the nearly motionless teenager deals with normal every day activities.

    There is no point to this show beyond some entertaining slice of life humor.  It's grounded in reality more than some of its peers but is no less ridiculous and entertaining.  While not continuously funny I had a grin on my face through most of the first episode.  This will be fun to watch.

Rin-ne Season 2: The return of Takahashi Rumiko's latest supernatural adventure comedy.  The first episode jumps right back into the fray with all of the shinigami antics and just in case you forgot who everyone was in the six month break, all of the main characters are re-introduction.

    The first episode of the second season though was a bit of a weak one, which doesn't detract from the series over all.  Rin-ne is one of those that will have some bad episodes but the product is over all worth the time if you are a fan of this style of humor. 

Flying Witch: Witch in training Kowata Makoto moves from her home in Yokohama to live with distant relatives in Aomori for high school.  The somewhat clueless and cheerful Makoto tries her best to integrate to life in northern Japan while she finished schooling and works to become a full fledged magic user.

    This is what you get if you mix Minami-ke with Maho Tsukai Tai.  The characters are very laid back and chill.  Makoto is almost aloof to the reality of her surroundings, frequently being picked on for getting lost.  She doesn't grasp the oddity of being able to use magic in normal life and she doesn't understand the confusion of those who are just meeting her.  She isn't coy with her abilities either.  This looks to be a chill and fun slice of life comedy that has some elements of Makoto being a fish out of water.

Neko Neko Nihonshi: This NHK anime uses cats to tell Japanese history aimed at small children.  The first episode of what is possibly the second season of this show, deals with the semi-mythological ruler Himiko and her efforts to quell social unrest, unify her kingdom and ward of foreign attacks.  The story doesn't stick with strict historical documentation, instead implementing cat-like problems into the history lesson.

    It's cute, its simple and it's pretty light when it comes to history.  No one is going to translate it so I will probably not really watch it, but it's fantastic that it exists!

Haven't you heard?  I'm Sakamoto: Sakamoto is the coolest person in school, earning the admiration and awe of his classmates.  Others in his class decide that his attitude and admiration pisses them off.  They plot to knock him down a few notches, but his cool over rides their attempts at every turn.

    This series reminds me a little of Cromartie High.  Mostly in the pacing and character designs.   WHil different than Cromartie, its still entertainingly ridiculous.  This could be a fun series but who knows how long the pacing and writing will last.

Shonen Maid: Grade school student Chihiro finds himself and orphan after the death of his mother.  Left to wonder what he will do moving forward an estranged uncle comes to tell him he will be living with him.  At first he doesn't want to live with his incredibly wealthy uncle.  He is convinced otherwise when the dirtiness of the mansion drives him insane and he begins to clean.  His uncle convinces him to stay with him in exchange for being the house keeper, something that appeals to the work ethic his mother ingrained in him.  The caveat...he has to do it while dressed as a maid.


    Its hard to get a feel for how this series will be with the first episode.  It has potential to be a comedy akin to the humorous segments of Toradora.  Or it could turn into something off track and somewhat genre confused like Hayate the Combat Butler.  Time will tell, I'm not holding my breath for it being anything amazing, but it may prove entertaining enough to stick around in my cue.

Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja nai to Omotta: Nishimura is an MMORPG otaku who falls in love with random 'female' players all the time.  When he found out the girl he proposed to in game was a MAN he decided that every female character in the game is a man in real life.  Now the female in his small guild wants to marry him he refuses her.  The members of the guild decide to meet in public and he learns the truth about his team mates.

    Not sure about this one either.  I like that its making fun of all the MMORPG anime out these days, but there's also some annoying shonen character tropes in it.  This could very quickly turn into a really annoying harem anime.

Big Order: Hoshimiya Eiji was given the ability to realize any wish.  The wish he chose was the destruction of the world.  Ten years later, the remnants of humanity carry on amidst the waste land.  Eiji wasn't the only one to gain his wishes, other people who receive the power appear and are labeled as Orders.  The general public views Order's as dangerous and aberrations.  Eiji, knowing that he caused this terrible world hides the fact he is an Order from everyone, trying to help his terminally injured sister.  His peaceful life comes to an end when a group of Order's begin to hunt him.  He is now faced with the power he was granted to survive and correct his mistakes.

    This is a straightforward super natural shonen action series.  The only new thing with it is the way the characters gained their powers, via their selfish wished being granted by a malevolent being.  On top of that Eiji is the epitome of current otaku self identification.  He struggles with his personal guilt and feels strongly that he must right his wrongs with only his own power.  He also has a crippled, semi-incestuous younger sister.  Eiji also suffers from chunibyo syndrome.  This one isn't going to last in my cue.  I will give it maybe 2 more episodes before axing it.

Durarara x2 The Third Arc

Durarara comes to a close with the final 12 episodes in the x2 series (デュラララ!!×2 結).  This is the continuation of the long running light novel series of the same name by Narita Ryogo and Yasuda Suzuhito.  The final part of the series aired originally in the winter of 2016.

    Picking up where Durarara x2 The Second Arc left off we find things coming to a boiling point in Ikebukuro.  The Dollars are collapsing around Mikado as he shifts his morals even further to attain his goals.  The best allies from the dying gang have huddled together to figure out what is going on and how to get out with their skins.  The darker and more powerful personalities that have been lurking in the shadows for all of x2 are beginning to operate in the public.  What began as a way to cure boredom on Mikado's part has unleashed forces way beyond his comprehension and control.  As everything comes to a close who will make it out with their lives and will their be any chance of returning to normalcy?

    I have enjoyed Durarara the entire time, but this final part of the series was a much welcomed end to the franchise.  It maintained a good grip on its ensemble cast but some of their motivations and actions became more opaque.  The final arc of x2 continues with a more solid detachment of semi-realism the show has maintained.  Even with it's super natural elements there has been a good level of control in the antics of the characters.  Now though, everything is out of the window as stress pushes the neighborhood strongest beings into action, whether they want to or not.  In reality the series as a whole boils down to 3 things.  Orihara meddling with everyone to entertain himself, filling himself with a misplaced sense of loneliness.  Mikado thinking he's more clever than he really is.  And everyone fighting for control of Celty's head.  So, it goes with out saying that Durarara can't call it quits until these three things are addressed.  The Third Arc closes the story on all three issues, but does leave a small window open to revisit this twisted landscape.

    Over all Durarara is enjoyable.  The artwork has always be rough, particularly the character designs.  Some of the characters themselves were less than believable but what draws you in is the diversity of the cast.  The levels of intrigue.  In the end though, the plot strained a little too hard to make everything connect and some aspects didn't fit very well, to the point where they had to keep introducing more characters in order to make those strained connections.  So much was going on in the end and the way the story telling differed so much from the original series that I began to loose focus on who was doing what for which reason part way through.  It seemed the writers may have picked up on this and decided they would need to walk the viewer through the more obscure details in plain fashion.

    The climax of the entire series encompasses most of the Third Arc and delivers a satisfying, if only slightly disappointing ending.  Over all Durarara has been a fantastically entertaining series, but the minor flaws in the end seemed to have diminished its hold on me and I don't regret saying good bye to these characters.  Though, I may pick up the light novels at some point down the road.  Either way, still a good series over all, if it started to get a little out of hand in the end.

    The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll and the simuldub is half a season behind.  The video release should be coming soon after as well.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans (機動戦士ガンダム 鉄血のオルフェンズ) is a 26 episode mecha war drama set in the Gundam franchise.  The series aired between 2015 and 2016.

    Set more than 300 years after the Calamity War, in which Earths power concentration is drastically changed.  The story deals with a group of unwanted child soldiers employed with a security firm on Mars known as CGS.  Mars is under control of factions on Earth and has limited wealth and resources.  The daughter of an aristocratic Martian family, Kudelia Aina Bernstein, decides to head to Earth and plead for Mars to become more independent. When the strongest faction on Earth, Gjallarhorn, decides to stop Bernstein from leaving Mars they attack CGS headquarters.  Many of the deaths in the successful defense come from the child soldiers 'employed' by CGS. 

    One of the older kids, Orga decides to start a coup in retaliation for the attitude towards the worth of his fellow soldiers.  Through determination and cunning they succeeded in taking control of the mercenary group and change its identity to solidify their emergence as a new operation.  Orga, now the leader of Tekkadan, takes over the task of escorting Bernstein to Earth, believing in her goal and the possibility of it being successful.  The members of Tekkadan are children who live on the margins of Martian society, despised as little more than sewer rats.  They see a chance at earning respect and taking control of their own destinies under Orga's leadership and enthusiastically throw their support to continue to job.

    From the start everything is stacked against the upstarts.  Gjallarhorn sends reinforcements to succeed where the provincial forces failed.  Tekkadan leaves Mars, fleeing their vastly superior enemies.  Once they understand the level of threat aimed at them they join with a powerful crime syndicate for patronage, support and protection.  The lone Tekkadon ship partners with a sister group in the syndicate to continue the treacherous journey.  Along the way they are constantly attacked by forces trying to prevent Bernstein from publicly addressing imperial oppression.  Tekkadan facing lose and a greater understanding of the difficulty of others, not just on Mars, further empowers them to push on towards their inevitable death on Earth.

    This was a much needed return to quality story telling in the Gundam universe, following a few less than stellar TV series.  The core ideals of the series deal with child soldiers and imperialism.  The series deals with these powerful things with bi-shonen Caucasian looking characters.  Somewhat lessening the impact of real world issues.  There is a lot of freedom when it comes to Tekkadan's abilities as well, most glaringly when it comes to space flight and operating space-faring ships.  How exactly do discarded, lowest tier child soldiers who are abused and used as little more than cannon fodder understand how to not only launch but successfully operate an orbital vehicle?  This is one of the glaring and obvious lapses of reality that go to lesson the impact of the real world messages the series is trying to deliver.

    The character designs are some of the oddest that that the Gundam franchise has seen since the 80's.  The mechanical designs as well are rather sub-par compared with other recent series'.  The bread and butter for the die hard Gundam fans is also mostly absent in the series.  As the story progresses we don't see the constant equipment upgrading that has become integral in the franchise.  There are long pauses in the story in which a mobile suit is almost non-existent.  Instead we get a decent attempt at a Gundam story that focuses more on the characters and their plight instead of spending undue time on the mechanical aspects of the show.

    With all of that said, I actually enjoyed the series and eagerly await its return, as eluded at the end of the final episode.  There were some serious levels of plot armor through out, but its no fuss straight forward story telling was welcomed.  As it neared the end it did begin to pick up some less than useful obligatory characters which didn't do much for the over all progress and appeal of the story.  They seemed more as throw ins for helping develop a plot arc that wasn't fully developed.  Yet with all of it's flaw's it was still enjoyable.

    The series is available streaming in North America currently, with a dub being produced.  This is also a signal that video releases are pending.  The second season of the show is slated to begin airing in the Fall of 2016.

Mr. Osomatsu

Mr. Osomatsu (おそ松さん) is the 25 episode return of the long running gag manga series Osomatsu-kun by Akatsuka Fujio.  The series aired between 2015 and 2016.

    Osomatsu-kun is a comedy manga from the 60's that focused on unlikely sextuplets and their mischief.  The brothers; Osomatsu, Jyushimatsu, Ichimatsu, Choromatsu, Karamatsu and Todomatsu, interact with other kids and people in their area in disruptive and underhanded ways.  The manga saw a 1960's anime and another anime in the late 1980's.

    The Matsuno sextuplets are portrayed in the new series as adults; lazy, perverted, hopeless NEET adults.  They spend their days screwing off in their house basking in the freedom of being cared for by their aging parents.  All of the primary supporting characters from the original series' appear in the new series, supporting similar roles to those they help in the past.  There is no general direction through out the series.  Each episode is comprised of vignettes that are generally unrelated.  The first episode was a troll episode as well.  Featuring current artistic and character design styles and poking fun at every major anime brand currently.  In the second episode and the majority of the rest the artwork 'regresses' to a more simplistic style indicative of the earlier versions.

    This is a prime example of idiotic, tongue-in-cheek, regressive humor that is the hallmark of gag comedy.  The show was about pushing boundaries of decency and public acceptance.  But the most controversial episode was the first one in which it laid waste to many of the top anime franchises now as it lambasted them to the point of ripping them off.  Enough financial threat was aimed at TV Tokyo that they eliminated the first episode from further broadcast and purged it from the video releases.  Once the dust settled though it did seem that the most outrageous attacks leveled by the show lessened, much to my disappointment.

    The artwork is classical in design and fits with the series origins very well.  The Matsuno brothers all look like someone from Garfield.  It was refreshing to have a less stylized, simplistically animated series.  It was massively refreshing to have a gag anime arrive that has taken Japan by storm, reinvigorating interest in this classic series.  Yet this isn't everyone's cup of tea in the West, where comedy and anime are viewed differently than in Japan.  For me the series filled a niche I enjoy and even though there were some bad episodes and bad segments, particularly the ones focusing on Iyami, the series overall was a joy to watch and lose some brain cells to.

    Its success and popularity has been astounding, a testament to the staying power of anime aimed at general audiences instead of filling niche otaku genre's.  It has even seen some decent exposure and interest in the west as well.  This will not be the last we see of these adult iterations and expect a video release in North America too.  This may raise enough interest in at least the 80's version to resurrect it for Western audiences.

    The series is currently available for streaming on Crunchyroll.

Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash

Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash ((灰と幻想のグリムガル) is a 12 episode fantasy series based on the light novels of the same name by Jumonji Ao and Eiri Shirai.  It originally aired over the winter of 2016.

    A group of people suddenly find themselves in an unknown land with no memory of how they got their or where they came from.  To survive they must turn to the world of hired monster killers.  The strongest band together to forge their way into the world and the six remaining 'weak' individuals left decide to join up as well.  Each person must join the guild of a profession that they determine will benefit their survival in this new, fantasy set, world.  Once they are accepted and go through basic training they regroup to begin hunting monsters outside of their village.

    The party ends up being led by Manato who has chosen the path of Cleric.  The small band of four guys and two women struggle to combat weak goblins in order to feed themselves.  Killing doesn't come naturally for them nor does forcing themselves into danger.  Driven by survival they push on, fighting more low level monsters, to the point where they become more comfortable with their situation.  They become to comfortable and the death of one of their party members forces them to question the situation they find themselves in.  They have to come to terms with the reality of their existence and what it will mean for their future.

    There are a few things that separate Grimgar from the other recent shows that deal with modern people finding themselves trapped in a fantasy world were they have to hunt goblins to survive.  The biggest is that the characters have no recollection of their lives prior to this new world.  The most important is that these characters are reluctant to kill.  They do so out of necessity instead of pride and fame.  They struggle with the morality of their chosen profession and are driven more by need than want.  The characters are not presented as heroes, they are ordinary people struggling to adapt to an unusual situation.  The series focuses on character development above everything else.

   That said there are a few moments of pointless fan-service, particularly with the trainer for the theif guild and her attire.  The series is well done but that one in particular seemed incredibly pointless and more of a distraction.  Yet, its few and afar between and nothing like the garbage that fills so many shonen fantasy series.  So as a 'prude' I can ignore it and move on.

    The artwork is beautiful and works well for the series.  Designed to look like water colors with a muted palate of hues and shadows through out.  The character designs are simple enough yet conforming to modern aesthetics enough to not look out of place.  Action sequences are easy enough to follow but the real strength is in the background pieces and the natural world.

    Yet another fantasy series entertained me, this is something like 3 or 4 now in the past few years when previously I abhorred pretty much anything in the anime world that resembled Dungeons and Dragons. I grew up a basement dwelling dice rolling nerd and mostly read fantasy novels as a kid, so I don't hate fantasy just anime depictions of it.  What really got me with Grimgar is that the characters are not bad ass over powered egotists.  They struggled through the entire story and had personal flaws that resonated.  Mainly the series followed Haruhiro who was the most fleshed out, but the rest fit their stereotypical roles well enough.  The series didn't dwell on the characters trying to remember of reclaim their past lives either.

    The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll and Hulu.  I'm sure it will see a video release in North America at some point.  The real question is, will we see a translation of the light novels?