Suicide Club (live action movie)

After reading the manga for Suicide Club (Jisatsu Circle) I decided that it might not be a bad thing to check out the movie that it’s based off of, which came out in the earlier part of the decade and has become a cult hit.

    On a spring evening 54 junior and senior high school students lined up on a platform in Tokyo’s Shinjuku station, as the express train neared they held hands, smiled and jumped in it’s path on the count of three. All 54 students died and the police began investigating it, trying to determine whether it was a bizarre mass suicide or if there was something sinister behind it. As they investigate more and more high profile suicides take place and soon people begin talking about the Suicide Club. The police receive a phone call from a girl referring to herself as The Bat who directs them to a website that tracks the suicides…but the tally increases right before the suicides happen. At the scene of the larger events the police have been finding handbags with rectangular sections of flesh sown together and wrapped in a coil. They determine each rectangle is most likely from different people and begin searching through corpses and live people to try and find any clues to the suicides. As they get closer to the truth the idea of a mastermind behind them starts to take shape.

    So this movie is really horrible. It’s typical cheesy B grade schlock, bad effects and bad acting. For the first hour or so of this hour and forty minute film it is standard fare horror/police thriller. The cops are investigating the incidents, people are committing suicide, lumps of sewn together flesh keep popping up, and the suicides are gruesome and bloody. Then, something happens and it shifts all of a sudden to a small Rocky Horror type song routine. From there it goes into some bizarre existential self questioning like something Anno would do. Then it just kind of ends. I’m not worried about spoiling this movie for anyone, because honestly, don’t waste your time with this movie. The Bat really has no pivotal role in the movie, yet all of a sudden her character ushers in the change by being kidnapped by a gang of Harajuku weirdo’s who take her to their bowling alley of doom and claim they are the ones behind the suicides. It gets even worse when the leader of them, decked in leather and platform boots grabs a guitar and rocks out in a droopy J-rock goth-ballad. Then, they switch over to a girl who had been questioned by the cops after her boyfriend accidentally landed on her when he tried to commit suicide. She starts wondering what happened and goes to his room to look for clues. She has an epiphany and connects his suicide to this pre-teen pop band and does some amazing numerology to confirm her suspicions. The moment she discovers this, the boyfriends phone rings, she picks it up and on the other end is a wheezy adolescent kid who had been leading the police on earlier and tells her to show up at a concert hall for the truth. At which point she does…then ends up on stage in front of a bunch of adolescent kids and she goes through an existential rebirth, then she’s lead to some large duct work where she is planed by a guy wearing a gimp mask while the kids watch…fucking bizarre.

    But it doesn’t end there. One of the cops on the case notices the swatch of skin taken out of the girl, from her tattoo, and hunts her down to try and stop her from committing suicide. As he stakes out the train station a large group of school girls arrive and he fears the worst. Upon spotting her he does his best, in a non-committal, non-confrontational Japanese way, to stop her from killing herself. He grabs her hand, pleads with her to stop, she sneers, jerks her hand away and boards the train. Staring back at him with a look that says both, 'like I'm not that stupid' and 'follow me I know what’s going on'. But as the Japanese a prone to do, he stares after her like a lost dog and the movie ends as her train pulls away.

    The first part was ok. Some scenes took way too long, like a huge segment dealing with two night nurses who end up dying, that just dragged and dragged and dragged and was like a throw back homage to classic 70’s suspense horror films. Aside from that, the movie flowed. The cops kept trying to break the case, one cops family gets hit as everything comes to a head and you think with their renewed effort it’s all going to climax…then The Bat gets kidnapped by the Harajuku version of Dr. Frankenfurter and it all really goes to hell from there.

    So, don’t watch this horrible movie…there is a follow up that deals with The Bat and I am half way through that one…it’s almost 3 fricking hours long. So, once I get done with that I’ll review it…but I highly implore you to not see this horrible movie. Just goes to show you that a cult classic does not mean it's above being a pile of schlock.

El Hazard

In the mid and late 90’s a number of series’ came out under the El Hazard banner, here is a review of the original 7 part OAV that started it all.

    El Hazard follows geeky high school student Makoto Mizuhara as he discovers a sleeping woman buried beneath his school. He inadvertently wakes the woman named Ifurita, who claims to know him and says that she has been searching for him for a long time. She tells him that he must travel to the world of El Hazard and save it from destruction. He then finds himself in an unknown forest with one of his teachers, alcoholic chain smoking Masamachi Fujisawa. Right away they hear screams of distress from near by and rush to find Makoto’s classmate Nanami Jinnai being attacked by a group of large bug like creatures. The trio is rescued by humans who are from a nearby kingdom. They are brought to the palace and Makoto, given the canniness of appearance, is asked to pretend to be the missing princess, who has been captured by the leader of the bug like creatures, the Bugrom. The misplaced trio must now travel with a royal envoy to ask three elemental priestesses if they will allow them to use an ancient relic of war to defeat the Bugrom once and for all. At the same time Nanami’s brother, Katsuhiko has arrived in El-Hazard and joins forces with the Bugrom in order to obtain world domination. While Katsuhiko is happy where he is the others are desperately trying to find a way to return home, and hope the priestesses, who control the ancient technologies scattered through out the land, will know of a way to return them. Before they can complete their mission they must face off against Katsuhiko and the Bugrom horde as he unleashes a lost weapon of devastating power, the demon Ifurita.

    This series coincides with Tenchi Muyo and was even worked on by some of the same people. The art is very similar and where Tenchi is heavy on the harem anime, this one is only slightly harem. Like Tenchi is still follows a typical, hapless high school student as he is thrust into incredible events that he ultimately is the only one which can succeed with. Makoto and Tenchi are very similar and both exude ultra human abilities even though they remain humble and unassuming. The formula is well worn, but El Hazard is one of its best gems, at least the original OAV set. The art is good for the period and the writing is moderate. The humor is what really draws you in and in the end the emotional attachment keeps you there. This is a series, like Tenchi, that is designed for the male viewer. There are plenty of adolescent fantasies and sticky situations, well endowed women in skimpy clothing and as always the power of the unassuming adolescent boy to become the hero of the day and get the girl, the hot one…not the next door neighbor one. Yes, it is a tiring genre and story line, but El Hazard is well worth the pain. It contains some pure gems of comedic sequence and the story is entertaining in general. Apparently it was entertaining enough to pull another Tenchi move and retell it again as a TV show. The TV show was ok, I’ll review that eventually, but luckily they came out with two more series’ to follow up the original OAV, which will be reviewed at some point in the future as well.

    However, the original El Hazard is still good, worth a view, even though it has faded into the misty halls of semi popular anime. If you are a fan of the Tenchi Muyo franchise, it is a must. If you enjoy such titles as Photon, The Third or 3x3 Eyes this one will do nicely in your collection.

 

Mermaids and Spirals

Yet again, I have read another extremely short manga in horror variety. This one is the blatantly titled School Mermaid.

    The story deals with two love struck high school girls who have decided to sneak into their school at night in order to catch a mermaid from the pool. They discovered a book that told them if they eat the flesh of such a mermaid they will get the love of their dreams. They arm themselves with a kitchen knife and a crowbar and sneak into the school. After they chant the spell to unleash the mermaids though things change as their preconceptions don’t hold true to form.

    At first I thought, yawn; it’s just like Mermaid Forest but with puppy love instead of immortality. I figured I’d stick it out for all 3 issues worth of the story but by the end of it I was pleased with what happened. I was satisfied with the way it ended and the last chapter is the best. The art is bland, there is little to no character development, honestly what do you expect with 60 or so pages to tell the story in. It is quick and to the point and might even make a good movie…but they would have to add some filler to it. The execution was well done too. I can’t really say much more to make this post longer then the actual manga, but it was a good read.

On the same note I started a somewhat longer manga after reading the mermaid flesh of love one titled Uzumaki. No, for those Narutards out there, it has nothing to do with Naruto aside from the fact his last name, Uzumaki, references the spiral on his belly…I guess.

    Uzumaki is an interesting horror mystery story set in modern times in a small sea side Japanese town, where things aren’t quite right. A girl by the name of Kirie tells the story of how everyone around her began slipping into madness due to the subliminal attraction of spiral shapes in everything around them. Her boyfriend, Shuichi, was the first to notice any problem as he commutes to school outside of town and notices the ill affects the town has after being away from it. The horror starts when Shuichi’s father becomes so obsessed with spirals that he dies turning himself into one. From there it just escalates and soon everything in the town seems to be pressing down on them with the ominous spirals.

    Uzumaki literally means spiral. This manga was published around the turn of the century and produced a live action film in 2002. After reading 4 issues I am hooked into its trance. I will try and find the movie after I finish the manga as well. The best way to describe the feel of the story is to read something by H.P. Lovecraft and I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if the mangaka responsible for it was influenced by the semi-respectable author of creepy insidious outer-worldly horror. But aside from that I will write no more until I have finished reading it.

Great Teacher Onizuka - Live Action Drama

This is a review on the 12 episode live action drama series that came out in 1998 based on the manga Great Teacher Onizuka.

    Eikichi Onizuka is an ex-motorcycle thug (bosozoku) who is pursuing his life long ambition of being a teacher. He applies for an open teaching position in a private high school but after attacking one of the teachers who is harassing a delinquent student he fears his chances have been eliminated. That is until the schools principle, which see’s a ray of hope in helping the school in Onizuka, hires him for the position. Onizuka isn’t off the hook so easily. He must prove to the principle that he is no longer the delinquent he was in his adolescent days and he must maintain professional and respectable relationships with the rest of the staff and the students. If he is to cause another incident of such magnitude he will be fired. On top of all of the challenges set before him the biggest is the home room he is given, the worst of the worst in the school. While not made up of delinquents, who Onizuka is capable of handling, his home room has the worst reputation out of the entire school and they have already dispatched a number of teachers. They are some of the smartest and more conniving students in the schools body. Onizuka must overcome their hatred for him and combat every plot and plan they put against him to maintain his position as teacher and to overcome his past.

    This was an incredibly popular TV drama in Japan, according to Wikipedia the final episode of the series held one of the highest viewer ratings ever in the country. This is probably one of the better done dramas out there from Japan, which tends to have horrid production abilities. GTO is also the best J-Drama I have ever seen and I was disappointed when it was over with (even though 2 movie length specials aired afterwards). The best thing about the show, aside from the fun story, is the actor who plays Onizuka. He is energetic and contorts his face in interesting ways. I couldn’t really get into the anime version due to the voice being different and the animation not tapping into the extent of what the live action version did…which is odd because the anime came out after the drama.

    Regardless of that, the live action is my favorite installment for this interesting high school juvenile delinquent manga. Onizuka in the drama isn’t as brutal or hard as he is in the anime and manga, but he still dispenses his own form of wisdom upon his good for nothing students. It’s like the Japanese version of Dangerous Minds but with genetic homogeneity and lack of firearms…and well a bunch of other stuff too. While everything falls into place nicely its fun to watch the events take place and you get that warm squishy feeling in the bottom of your stomach that says…it’s ok, there is hope for the lost nation of Japan…if only it had more resolute and strong willed independent thinkers like Eikichi Onizuka…then the final credits role and you remember that this was all just some mangakas’ imagination retranslated to work in 50 minute installments on network TV to bring in cash from car dealers and 24 hour convenience stores hawking their seasonal goods.

    While stuck in a glossy fairytale land it is a fun and enjoyable series to watch. The plots and schemes the shit head children cook up are interesting but what is more entertaining is how Onizuka overcomes them to not only save his face but to convert the haterz. This is a show that anyone can get into who is remotely a fan of Japanese TV, anime or otherwise. You don’t have to have any background knowledge in the manga or be a fan of anime in general to like this show…it’s a broad sweeper in the realm of Japan-o-files and well worth the 12 hours or so to watch it. The special and movie that followed are ok, but with all the changes (Onizuka goes off to a different school) it just isn’t the same story.

Suicide Club (manga)

In the search for yet more interesting and short manga I breezed through the 6 issue horror, current events shocker Suicide Club (Jisatsu Circle) based on the movie of the same name.

    During the evening commute a group of high school and middle school girls line up on the edge of a train platform in Tokyo’s Shinjuku station and with smiles on their faces, count to 3 and jump in front of the oncoming train in a mass suicide. One girl named Saya survives the incident and is miraculously mostly unharmed. Even before the incident Saya was shunned by people in school and lived a miserable life. Her only friend Kyoko tried to reconnect with her after the incident but is pushed aside by her. Kyoko hadn’t paid as much attention as she should have a few years earlier when Saya was having problems. After her father lost his job she started to sell her body and mutilate herself. When she felt alone at that time she discovered the love and wisdom of a seemingly enlightened student named Mitsuko. Saya along with other hurt and lost girls worshiped the words and wisdom of Mitsuko leading up to the mass suicide orchestrated by her. After the tragedy Kyoko soon notices that Saya behaves differently than before and girls are starting to flock around her like they did around Mitsuko.

    I have not seen the movie yet, did know about it, but will have to put it on my list now to watch. This was an interesting manga, at least in the plot or general concept. The delivery was a bit shoddy, the artwork was pretty bad (all of the characters looked like mutants) and there really wasn’t a lot of detail put into the backgrounds. You can tell it was cobbled together pretty quickly as it was commissioned by the creator of the movie and released around the same time. This would be like the manga version of the shoddy video game that coincide a movie release to bring in some more cash. The mangaka who penned it wanted to copy the movie exactly, but the original creator wanted him to take a different spin on the story. I’m not sure of all the similarities beyond the initial mass suicide at the train station but the manga has a supernatural side to it. When it comes to the dark side of Japan, I am increasingly desensitized. I’m used to the idea that there is a whole flock of teenage girls who sell themselves for as meaningless a thing as CD money. I’m used to the idea of bullying being incredibly problematic in Japanese schools and suicide and self mutilation a big teenage past time…just like it tends to be in America.

    On the other hand the supernatural aspect of the story seemed a little hokey. It wasn’t anything new and honestly it felt like a subplot from Vampire Princess Miyu minus the supernatural fight sequence and all. I know Japan is supposed to have this knack with horror but I have never really been bothered by any horror from Japan, and even love watching it, where I refuse to watch horror from America because it scares the crap out of me. It might just be a cultural thing, where different ideological mysteries affect people from different cultures differently (for lack of a better word). So, back on track here, it isn’t a shocking story or concept, to me anyways. It more seemed like a minor blip in the realm of Dark Asia that I have grown all too accustomed to.

   It wasn’t a bad read, after all it took me like 20 minutes, so it didn’t feel like I had wasted my time doing so and it offered me another review to do. I do want to watch the movie, as I had mostly forgotten about it and am now intrigued to see what happened in the movie.

     You would probably enjoy this if you watched the movie; I read that the manga makes more sense. You might also enjoy this is you enjoyed Hell Girl, Vampire Princess Miyu and Ghost Hunt. I think I need to watch more Moryo no Haku now and get some interesting super natural horror going again.

UPDATE: The movie was meh, I've seen less cheesy out of classic Hong Kong kung-fu theater time.

Manhole and Alive

After finishing the epic 20^th/21^st Century Boys manga, I needed to move on to some quicker titles. The first one I tackled was Manhole and the second one was Alive, both are similar in that they are seinen horror/mystery titles. For the sake of their brevity I decided to combine each manga’s review in one posting.

    Manhole is a 29 issue seinen police drama, horror story that takes place in modern Japan by little known mangaka Tetsuya Tsutsui. The story begins as a naked, disorientated and bleeding man crawls out of a sewer and begins shambling through a crowded shopping district before bumping into a college student, hitting his head in the resulting fall and dying. Upon investigating this bizarre event the local police discover it is more unusual than it first appeared.

    The ‘victim’ in the attack was a troubled man in his 20’s who had been sent to a reform clinic by his frightened parents. The clinic said they had a therapy for their son that would end his gambling and violent rages. As detectives investigate this ‘clinic’ the coroner discovers that what had really killed the man was a blood born parasite which had bored through his eye and had begun eating his brain, most notably the part associated with emotions. They widen their search for the college student because the ‘victim’ had spit blood on him and the authorities now fear an outbreak of this deadly and rare parasite. Soon though, they discover that the outbreak is exactly what the person who infected the ‘victim’ wanted. Now the police and the ministry of health must rush to contain the parasite and stop the madman from unleashing more of them on the city.

    This is an interesting concept and is well drawn and executed. I am unfamiliar with Tsutsui but he is very detailed, especially when it comes to anatomy. While short, you get a firm understanding of the story and a feel for the main characters. This manga could easily be made into an entertaining summer blockbuster movie. It has all the requirements for a live action film that would draw a modest crowd. Edit it a little bit so it flows better on film and you’re all set to go. While it does fit into that category I still enjoyed it, it reminded me more of 28 Days Later than Independence Day. It is a creepy story and it had me thinking the night after I finished it as I lay in bed, jumping at boogie men. Nature can really mess you up if you run into it in a foreign environment, or if someone purposely introduces it. While the story was well done I have a few issues with some of how it ended…it really is primed for Hollywood, but I would definitely watch the movie version. This is a semi-mature story dealing with some moderately adult content. There is a little bit of nudity and some well detailed bodily harm. Yet in some ways it also reminded me of the Saw franchise, which are not for the weak spirited or immature.

Alive is a very short horror seinen title by mangaka Takahashi Tsutomu, who I have never heard of, but has done the following as well; Tetsuwan Girl, Bakuon Retto and Blue Heaven.

    The story follows Yashiro Tenshu who is about to be executed for murdering 5 people, one of whom was his girlfriend. As he approaches the death chamber he is offered the chance to live by a secretive agency. He chooses to take their offer and is transported with another death row inmate to a secret underground facility. They are given two rules, they can have anything they request unless forbidden and they can not leave the room they are in. Yashiro questions whether he has truly earned a new lease on life as his roommate drinks the time away. One day they notice that one of the walls is partially open and on the other side is a beautiful naked woman. The roommate starts talking to her and she tells him that if he wants to get to her he has to kill Yashiro. As time goes on the tension between the two captives increases as they debate the truth behind her words. Yoshiro only cares about escaping this new prison and finding out the reason for being brought to the room with the other murderer.

    This is a pretty short manga, at 10 issues, and near the end I wasn’t sure if it would actually end and not just get cut off. It did end though, which was a relief. This is an ok manga, the art isn’t the best, reminded me of styles found in the early 90’s or late 80’s. Looked a bit like Crying Freeman at times. It was a quick read, just over 30 minutes total time, so don’t expect anything ground breaking or earth shattering. Yet this one incorporates a supernatural aspect into its story and once again we consider what happened when things are taken out of their natural inhabitants. The delivery wasn’t anything fresh or new, the characters didn’t grow or become better people and you only learned the minimum background information needed to get the whole picture. At one point I feared the story would take a shonen adventure turn, with Yashiro wandering the world as an assassin for the government, always running from his past. Honestly, for its length you’re really not going to regret reading it. If it were some 300 issue epic series, like something akin to Fist of the North Star I’d try and dissuade people from checking it out…but it’s only 200 some odd pages and a lot of them are filled with just art. So as with Manhole if you liked Elfen Lied or if you liked Crying Freeman check this extremely short story about humans lack of self restraint. This series really reminded me of all the old seinen titles from the 80’s…

Cromartie High the movie

In 2006 the live action theatrical release version of the bizarre and cult like comedy manga/anime Cromartie High was birthed upon the world.

    The live action movie, like the manga and the anime, follows first year high school student Takashi Kamiyama as he enrolls in Cromartie High School for Delinquents. While he is a modest and average student he enrolled in such a bottom of the barrel school to be with his only friend from grade school, who subsequently didn’t even pass the entrance exam for Cromartie. Stuck with no options now that he was enrolled Kamiyama does his best to blend in with Tokyo’s worst delinquents. He quickly makes friends in his class full of hoodlums and even gains their respect. While he is physically unimpressive and mild mannered everyone assumes he is the toughest thug around since no one that appears to be so timid would ever step foot in the school. He soon uses this newly acquired respect to try and shape up the school for the better. He soon gathers a small band of followers; his two real friends form the school and other classmates, one being a gorilla and another being a cross between Freddy Mercury and Hard Gay.

    His efforts are challenged though when a new student arrives and attempts to take over the school. No one pays any attention to him though and the schools stability and possible improvement arn’t put into jeopardy until a band of aliens straight out of Planet of the Apes show up with plans to turn all the students at Cromartie into their mindless slaves to use for world domination.

    This may be one of the funniest live action movies to come out of Japan, that is if you are a fan of childish slapstick and crude humor (which I am from time to time). The entire concept of Cromartie High is its ridiculousness. Every character in the school is a caricature of absurdity. The most notable characters are; Mechazawa, a robot that no one knows is a robot (with the exception of Kamiyama), Gorilla, the aforementioned gorilla and Freddy, the aforementioned Freddy Mercury leather boy clone. All of the other characters are colorful as well, such as the one that ends up eating all of Kamiyama’s pencils or the hijacker who stands in for the first years strongest student after he gets stranded but no one knows it’s the wrong guy because the hijacker always wears a luchadore mask. As stated previously the comedy is inane and childish, but is still incredibly funny. There is little to no coherency with the movie as the anime and manga are both vignette based. One segment flows into another with only a semblance of connectedness. The most important thing about the entire Cromartie story in any form is satire and twisted homage to many things from pop culture, most particularly 70’s rock and wrestling. The name of the school comes from the last name of an American pro baseball player who because famous while playing in Japan. When it comes to Japans movie production things are more often then not B-grade, that aspect helps this movie and it is faithful in reproducing the feel and look of the manga and anime, if not the exact story.

    This movie is perfect for anyone who already enjoys this series or for ones that like inane comedies and childish slapstick such as Ping Pong Club or Bobobo Bo Bo Bobo.

Lain

In the near future computers have become more invasive then they were in the late 90’s when Serial Experiments Lain came out and is still somewhat off in the future. This 13 episode series explores the world of being plugged into the web and how the internet could develop a consciousness of its own.

    Lain is a quiet, solitary and odd child. One day after a classmate commits suicide she gets a disturbing email from said dead girl, talking about how she is in a better place now. Lain is intrigued and bothered by the possibility of emails from the dead and begins investigating why she killed herself. Soon Lain finds her self deeper into the seedy digital underworld of Tokyo than she ever imagined existed as she traces a nanotech drug through a club the girl frequented. Mysterious wired men in suits are stalking her and she thinks the web is trying to communicate to her through any means necessary. Not afraid of the results Lain dives in with determination and soon opens her self up to the darkness’s the web has to offer, even converting her room into a massive processing unit. As she digs deeper into the mysteries surrounding the ‘drug’ and the idea of a consciousness in the net she starts to find that she might not be who she thinks she is.

    This is a very unique and daring series. Coming after Neon Genesis Evangelion helped to break up some of the barriers for anime on TV; Lain was able to push the boundaries with its technological art house style. There are many sequences in the series that are filled with nothing more then ambient background noises…such as power lines or distorted chatter on the train. Odd color washed scenes add to the surrealism of the series as well. The artwork is interesting and typical of anime from the late 90’s in terms of quality…ok but not as good as modern styles. The story is filled with red herrings and plenty of confusion until the end when only some of the conclusion makes sense. It seems more as if the viewer is being asked to connect the dots on their own and generate their own truth to the events that take place through out the course of the show. The soundtrack is reminiscent of computer games from the mid 90’s when they tried, horribly, to inject realism into the games. The opening theme song is one of the best opening anime themes I have ever heard, a nice acoustic song by a band named Boa titled Duvet. While this show sits fondly in my fandom as one of the ‘great’ series from the end of the 90’s it isn’t for everyone and has seemed to slip into obscurity amid today’s plethora of anime. It isn’t for the casual viewer as it can be difficult to watch at times due to the art house aspects of it and the confusing plot. The only thing that made even less sense was the game that came out for the Playstation…of which I am still uncertain what was going on.

    If you are a fan of cyberpunk anime and weird technologically related tales this is a great series for you to watch. Fans of the .hack and Overdrive series’ might enjoy this one as well.

Moyashimon

In the fall of 2007 an odd little 11 episode series named Moyashimon: Tales of Agriculture aired in Japan that was based on the manga of the same name.

    Moyashimon follows the adventures of Tadayasu Sawaki and his childhood friend Kei Yuki as they begin their collegiate careers at an agricultural university. Tadayasu comes from a family of sake brewers and Yukis’ family provides mold for the brewery. Tadayasu has only gone to the university on the suggestion of his grandfather who is friends with one of the professors there, Keizo Itsuki. Professor Itsuki is interested in Tadayasu’s unique ability to see micro organisms with the naked eye and to some extent interact with them. There are just a few problems; Tadayasu hates his ability as he finds it only causing him problems and the way he see’s micro organisms is completely different that anyone else does. Instead of being the typical odd cellular mass as seen through a microscope, he sees them as colorful, cartoon caricatures with personalities and odd quirks. Immediately he is subject to a series of rigorous tests to determine his abilities by Itsuki and his skeptical/sadistic assistant, Haruka Hasegawa. After finally proving what he sees to them he notices a large cloud of spoiled spores approaching. They track the source of the contamination to two undergraduate students named Kaoru Misato and Takuma Kawahama who have been trying to illegally brew sake to make quick cash. Instead of reporting them to the school administrators they are forced into servitude in Itsuki’s lab. This misfit group of academics is joined by another freshman, Hazuki Oikawa and the only other veteran member of the lab, Aoi Muto, as Tadayasu explores where he wants to go with his life and Kei decides how honest he wants to be with himself.

    This is an odd, quirky and light hearted comedy that I was happy to view. The art is simplistic but humorous. The characters are interesting and have definitive personalities. There really is no overall plot or conclusion for the series. It is mostly episodic with a vague sense of time passing. It just ends and that is it, which is unfortunate because it was a fun series. While the microbes are the quirky selling point of the show they are actually an added bonus because the story does not really focus on them. It isn’t The Adventures in Microbe Hunters or anything, so you’re not going to find episode plots where the members of the bacterial lab must fight an insidious and unknown spore that is killing students at the university. You don’t see Tadayasu training day and night to strengthen his body and mind so he can better commune and combat the various organisms only he can directly deal with. It’s actually a quirky fun slice of life story about college students and their problems with an odd sideline supernatural comedic element added to it.

    Even though the subject matter isn’t the same, fans of Genshiken will enjoy the antics and easy going story. You can also find something to enjoy with this series if you have enjoyed such shows as Honey and Clover, Azumanga Daioh or Ichigo Mashimaro. The anime is not being released in America that I know of but the manga is set to be. There is no word on additional episodes/seasons either…unfortunately.

UPDATE: A second TV series, Moyashimon Returns, aired in Japan in 2012.  Both series are available streaming through Crunchroll.

Minami-ke Okaeri

January of this year (2009) saw the 3^rd installment of the Minami-ke series, titled Minami-ke Okaeri.

    If you are unfamiliar with this series see my reviews of the previous series, Minami-ke and Minami-ke Okawari for in depth knowledge. The franchise revolves around three orphaned sisters who continue on in a blissful way. Each sister is eccentric in her own way and they gather their friends around them to help fill the void of family they may feel. The idea of what happened to their parents or what their feelings for about their absence is never mentioned though. Okaeri carries on where Okawari left off about a year or so in the future. Nothing new has happened and the characters go through their day to day slice of life antics and bizarre logic problems. The series ends with no real completion and everyone continues along their blissful pathways.

    This was both a good series and a bad one. I liked it above Okawari for the fact that they once again returned to the episodic vignette style of the original series. The character designs however stuck more closely with those done in the second series with the addition of prominent hairs framing the cheeks on almost every single character that looked like some kind of mandible…it was actually quite distracting. While the story telling style went back to my favored method they unfortunately ran out of interesting material to use it on. It took me a long time to get through the series just because it was pretty boring for most of it. They seemed to focus a lot on Toma and her older brothers as well as more antics with Mako/Makoto and his cross dressing habits. Yet it was still pretty dry.  To my disappointment Hosaka’s screen time was reduced as was his sweating chest. But all in all the writing seemed to lack the pizzazz that it had in the other series’. While there were gems of humor within it, it also dragged on and on and on. The stories around the sisters were barely entertaining which is really what the show should be all about. I have not read any of the manga so I am unsure if it suffers from the same leprosy but I do know the creator, Koharu Sakuraba (also of Today in Class 5-2) that at least his continual anime projects seem to be loosing some of their flare. Where originally Minami-ke was funny and fresh, with odd ball humor it has now turned into a repetitious exercise in time wasting futility.  They don’t really tread on old territory too much but it still seems stale non-the-less. Honestly, you can skip through a lot of this series, unless you feel like you need to spend more time with the sisters. It really didn’t get any better then the original show. There are two shorts that were released this year (2009) too, hopefully they are more entertaining.

    So, if you liked the rest of the series and feel you just can’t live without seeing all of the characters again, doing new and this time uninteresting things then watch this 3^rd and hopefully final installment of this slice of life comedy. If not, then you don’t really need to watch it, move on to something else and explore the world a bit more.

UPDATE: None of the Minami-ke titles have been licensed of released in North America. There was also a fourth and final TV series subtitled Tadaima which aired in early 2013.  Stay tuned for the eventual review of this series.

Roujin Z

Roujin Z is a theatric production by Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira) that originally premiered in Japan in 1991 which comes up with a solution of what to do with the, then, soon to be large elderly population.

    Tackling a problem that Japan is now beginning to face as the baby boomer generation is retiring; Roujin Z takes place in the 21^st century and centers around one of the government’s answers for how to effectively manage the growing healthcare problem with the elderly. In a world where there are more old people than young there are many who do not receive adequate enough care to maintain a comfortable existence. A group of scientists and heath care professionals have designed a robotic hospital bed that can automatically do all the things a nurse would do for a typical elderly patient. With this invention the aged can remain in the comforts of their home and live their lives as they want to without being cooped up in a nursing home or hospital. Kiyuro Takazawa is their unwitting test subject as he is an aged and dying widower with no other family members. The bed malfunctions and begins to transmit messages of suffering to the nursing student, Haruko, who cared for him before he was ‘volunteered’ to test out the bed. Soon the bed goes haywire and begins to develop a minor AI that thinks it is Takazawa’s dead wife. With the help of a band of geriatric hackers Haruka rushes to her old patients rescue before the military destroys the bed with him inside of it.

    This is a very light and comedic movie which becomes somber as it progresses. Otomo uses the comedic situations in the story to send a few messages to the audience; messages about abandoned elderly, relying too much on technology to replace humanity and the encroaching problem facing Japan as its population gets older and older. The character and mech designs are pure Otomo style. The characters are based on normal people, so you won’t find any huge eyes, small mouths and enlarged breasts. The story moves quickly and is self contained with only enough character development that is needed for the few major characters. It is what an anime movie should be. The only reason it is anime is because it is animated, it could easily be made live action with today’s technologies…but it doesn’t need to be. The animation is dated, but the story is not, especially now when Japan is beginning to face the problem of what to do with the large number of retired citizens and the rapidly decreasing youth population.

    This is a little remembered movie by one of the most respected people in the field. If you are a fan of Memories or A Girl who Leapt Through Time this is a movie that will fit in well with your tastes.

Photon

From the original creator of Tenchi Muyo the end of the 90’s saw arguably one of his best works in the 6 part OAV series Photon.

    Set in the distant future, the series finds a conniving galactic aristocrat Papacharino Nanadan chasing galactic criminal, Keyne Aqua, to the far reaches of space forcing her to crash on a destitute sandy planet. Papacha is after the knowledge left to Keyne by her deceased grandfather, knowledge of unlimited power. Papacha aspires to control the universe and see’s this knowledge as his best way of attaining his goals. As she plummets to the surface Keyne puts herself into an induced hibernation to await her ships self repair process. Meanwhile the daughter of a chief of a small village on the planet, Aun, has gone off chasing a troubadour in search of unrequited love. Aun’s protector, Photon chase after her to return her to the village. He is the only one who can counteract Aun’s ability to freeze time (including her self) and years earlier Aun’s older sister left Photon in charge of protecting her. Photon, who is whole heartedly in love with Aun’s older sister, does so with all of his will and life.

    Photon catches up with Aun as she is about to be attacked by vagabonds. She freezes time around her, including her attackers. The only thing that can stop her powers is for Photon to knock her unconscious. As he brings her back to the village she escapes from him. Chasing after her she freezes his vehicle as he traverses a deep ravine, sending him plummeting to its bottomless depths. In the ravine he discovers Keynes ship and soon discovers the sleeping Keyne. Photon inadvertently wakes her up by writing the Japanese word for idiot on her forehead, just as Aun had previously done to him. Unknown to him the galactic custom is to put ones own forehead crest on the person your going to marries forehead. Photon, being simple, doesn’t object when Keyne, who doesn’t know that Photon is clueless, talks about them being married. She accepts her fate and heads off to find Aun with her new husband as her ship continues to repair its self. They find Aun, who happens to be the hired guide for non-other than Papacha as he has landed on the planet to track Keyne and her ship down. Now Photon must do whatever it takes to not only protect Aun but also Keyne from anything Papacha throws at them, while Keyne tries to discover the secrets from her grandfather.

    This is classic light ecchi comedy from the creator of Tenchi Muyo. The character designs are very similar; in fact it could almost pass for existing in the same universe. The story is fast moving and chock full of gag comedy and physical slapstick. Photon is dimwitted, super humanly strong and suicidal loyalty. Aun is a firebrand foolish red head and Keyne is the mature and sexy adult. Papacha is by far the most bizarre character of the story. He is a conniving, sinister and downright vile bad guy who is dumber then he realizes. His actions are foolish and the events around him are larger then life. This is one of the funniest OAV sets out there. It’s quick at just around 3 hours of total viewing time. The story wanders a bit and the episodes are quite episodic but by the end of it you feel complete. It is easy to watch this series multiple times and still laugh at the childish jokes.

    This series was quickly release in America commercially and should be readily available on DVD. The art is standard late 90’s OAV, nice detail, cartoony and thick outlines. If you are a fan of Tenchi Muyo, El Hazard or the slapstick parts of Trigun you will love this series…hell as with other ones you will probably have already watched it. At a time it was a pretty well received set.

To Aru Majutsu no Index

Last fall (2008) aired the unusual series To Aru Majutsu no Index based on a series of light novels. This 24 episode super natural shonen series featured both tried and tired genre stereotypes and an intriguing story and storytelling.

    Set in a near future world where science has culminated to a level of enhancing human abilities, To Aru Majutsu no Index takes place in the fictitious Academy City, situated somewhere in Japan (naturally). The vast majority of the cities residents are students from grade school to postgraduate levels who are all hyper focusing on science, technology and technologically enhanced paranormal abilities. All of the residents exhibit some level of paranormal ability, all the way from Level 1 (barely anything) to level 5 (top of their game in a specific field). Our story finds one of the few Level 0 students in the city, Kamijo Toma, doing what he thinks is his civic duty by intervening in a conflict between a middle school girl and a group of hoodlums. Little do we know  he is trying to protect the hoodlums from the middle school girl, who happens to be one of six Level 5’s in the city named Mikoto Misaka. Misaka’s ability is to generate electricity. Misaka, upset that Toma tried to ruin her fun by warning the hoodlums about her, decides to take out some more aggression on him instead. She fires a coin at him as if she were a railgun only for Toma to stop the attack with his right hand. While he has no supernatural abilities, per say, his right hand negates and nullifies any type of supernatural ability upon contact.

    The next day Toma discovers a nun passed out dangling from the railing of his apartments’ balcony…about 13 floors up. The young non-Japanese girl wakes up and begins asking for food. Shocked at first that this young non-Japanese nun cosplayer is speaking fluent Japanese he doesn’t register what she is asking for. Once he overcomes the shock of the situation he feeds her and she begins to explain that she is a member of the Church of England’s magic user wing. She tells him that her name is Index (which he questions its validity) and that she is not magical herself but has been used to store 103,000 magical texts (grimore) for the church in her brain. She explains to him that two magicians from the church are hunting her for the knowledge she retains. Toma doesn’t believe any of it but offers to help the best he can due to his protective nature. She decides to continue on her own since he has to go to school but when Toma returns that night he finds her unconscious and gravely wounded at his front door. As he rushes to her a true to life magic user shows up to stop him from saving her. He now must fight against things he doesn’t believe in and outwit them using his ability negating hand. He manages to fend off the attacker and takes the dying Index to his teachers’ house to try and gather his thought and have someone help her while he fights off her attackers.

    During the battle with the magicians he finds out that they are her friends and have tracked her down in order to protect her while her memory is being reset. They explain that every year, due to the strain on her brain from all the grimore stored in her, her memory has to be erased for fear that she will reach her mental capacity and die. Every year they have to go through the same process as her memory is wiped and have to teach her over again who they are and who she is and what they are doing. This time she believes they are trying to kill her. Toma, skeptical, decides to try to help save Index’s memories so she can live a normal life, even though everyone fears she will die. He must find out why the Church of England has done to her what they have and whether or not the two mysterious mages are friend or foe.

    This is only the plot synopsis for the first story arc of the show. If I were to talk about more it would give away too much that shouldn’t be known right away. This series was both good and bad. The ideas presented in it are interesting and some of the plot lines are interesting as well. What I didn’t like about the show was when it pandered to the Akitaku. The most glaring of course is with Toma, who is the typical sad sack but persistent male lead. He isn’t very ambitious but doesn’t give up and has this super natural urge to protect those he feels need his protection…all the female characters. Because all girls, no matter how tough they are on the outside, are weak and incapable of taking care of them selves with out a strong male character. The other thing that bothers me is the standard Akitaku type character designs. You have characters in nonfunctional, primed for cosplay outfits, outrageous hair styles and bodies usually hard to come by without plastic surgery. Honestly, why does the large breasted Japanese chick walk around wearing tight jeans with only one leg cut off to make the pants half a pair of Daisy Dukes? So I chose to look the other way with these persistent annoyances because the story was entertaining. Some of developments in the series are interesting and little used, which was a bonus. Now while I’m never really a fan of the power character combat type shows (Shonen Onmyoji or Kekkaishi) I was incredibly relieved that they show didn’t devolve into this epic adventure where Toma is trying to save Index by fleeing her assailant and only he has to become stronger to defeat the ever increasingly powerful attackers. No, it actually didn’t turn out like that…in fact there really wasn’t any kind of central plot or goal of the show. It is made up of a few story arcs which show a progression of time and introduce some new characters and explain more about the city and a little about the other mage factions…but that’s about it. In fact the last story arc was kind of weak and a disappointment. There were some things that they had detailed that just never got explained or developed further. It seemed as if the series got cut short, or they might have planned to make another season sometime in the future. Either way it ended…semi abruptly and nothing really got accomplished, but the stories were entertaining and usually interesting to watch. There were two short OAV's that came out as well but I have not watched them yet, but I know it does not expand upon the story...they are moe like omake.

    So while it wasn’t a great series it was worth my time.  I recommend it to fans of shonen series’ who want something a little more creative then that usual fair. Fans of Darker than Black would be right at home watching this series, even though it’s a bit more otaku flavored.

    This series was licensed in North America by FUNimation and is available streaming on Hulu and FUNimation.  The follow up series, To Aru Majutsu no Index is not yet available in North America, but the spin-off, To Aru Kagako no Railgun, is available as well.

Maho Tsukai Tai (Magic User Club) OAV

In the world of high school stories, Maho Tsukai Tai is both a fan servicing and fan debasing. This 6 part OAV series by Gonzo came out in the mid 90’s and tells the story of a hapless group of high school wanna-be-witches who try and save the world from an invading alien species.

   The series follows main character Sae; a quiet, reserved and nervous high school student. She enrolls in the failing Magic User Club due to her obsession/interest in not only magic but the clubs president, Takeo. Sae and her childhood friends, Nanaka, timely arrival into the club not only helps to keep their doors open in the face of the powerful manga club, but also to bolster the ranks in the fight against the mysterious alien invader. Previous to the girls joining the club a mysterious bell shaped space craft descended on the world. The military sent out fighters to destroy it but were both unsuccessful and obliterated themselves (without killing any of the soldiers). Afterward the object sent swarms of mechanical probes to inspect the surrounding areas. After a while humanity came to accept the mysterious presence of the alien craft and its probes and continued on, not concern for their safety, since it had never been hostile. Takeo has decided that it is his and the magic clubs duty to get rid of the alien invaders once and for all. With the fresh recruits of Sae, Nanaka and Akane, the popular and brainless rich girl, the club is bolstered to 5 members strong, including Takeo and the vice president Aburatsubo. Now that the club is not in danger of being disbanded Takeo works quickly to whip the new recruits into shape to battle the alien bell.

    To the amazement and delight of Takeo, who also has a deep rooted crush on her, Sae is highly proficient at magic and takes to the lessons right away…even if the results aren’t always what was expected. With only a few lessons under their belt and the surprising attack on Akane by the aliens Takeo takes the magic users club against them to rescue Akane and remove the invaders from the planet.

    This is a funny and sweet series and one of my personal favorites. This is a series that was created before the advent of the Moe revolution and the obsession with fan service for fan service sake. Sure, there is plenty of fan service, plenty of classic otaku techniques and characterizations. You have the shy and quiet girl with her secret crush, the awkward boy with his secret crush; you have the tsundere type, the bimbo, the unnaturally large breasted evil woman, the pale gay guy, a semi-talking stuffed animal, nosebleedsalienstechnology…

    The show is still for otaku, but before the time when shows catered exclusively to them. When you had to search for the anime/manga/model stores in Akibahara and when the only anime most Americans had ever heard of was Sailor Moon. The story is cute, simple and filled with tried and true plot devices. You can classify it as a romantic comedy, magic girl/boy, sci-fi, slice of school life series. The humor and story is aimed at adolescent boys, with panty shots, gag comedy and slapstick. If you are a fan of such series as Photon, Tenchi Muyo, Ping Pong Club or All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku you would probably have watched this series already and enjoyed it. This is an old series and has been released commercially in America as well as it’s follow up TV series.

Full Metal Alchemist - Quick Compairison

It has been requested of me to compare Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood to the original 51 episode series of which I am more than happy to go through.

   The original series came out while the manga was still relatively young. I’m unsure about the circumstances revolving around the TV series genesis, but it ended up limited to 51 episodes and a follow up movie. So within that time frame the writers of the TV Series had to complete their story using the manga as a basis and template with the help of the original creator. Within that context they created a story revolving around the brothers, Ed and Al and their search for the secrets of the philosophers stone in the attempt to regain the bodies they lost while trying to bring their mother back to life. During their quest they become embroiled in an insidious plot by a group of alchemically created individuals known as the Homunculi. As Ed and Al discover the dark secrets behind the Philosophers Store, the war with Ishbal, and the Homunculi, they begin to discover that the government they work for has sinister plans and history has a way of repeating it’s self. There search also brings them to the truth about their own existence and their long lost fathers whereabouts.

The second series Brotherhood follows the original series exactly for a number of episodes, although quite rapidly.  Some small story arcs have been omitted and the pace of the show is dramatic. In about half the time they covered the basic events that comprised the first season of the original, which culminated in the death of Huges. At this point the new series begins its trajectory from the original product into the role of following the manga. The largest difference I have noticed so far, which I’m unsure as to my thought on, is the origin of the Homunculi. In the original they were all born from people trying to transmute a human and each of the 7 Homunculi were tied to a character in the story. One was the result of Ed and Al trying to bring their mother back, one was the result of their teacher trying to bring her stillborn child back, etc. They represented a physical and consistent reminder to the characters follies and flaws. The Homunculi were also near immortal beings whose only weakness was when part of their original body was brought into contact with them. If my memory serves me as well I believe the Homunculi followed a reoccurring pattern, there would always be seven of them at one time, then some event would happen and all or most of them would ‘die’ until they were all revived once again through human foolishness or maliciousness…although I may have hallucinated that aspect. Now the Homunculi are the product of one person and are all working in concert with each other, where as before they were the product of a few people and only some of them worked together. In the original series one of the coolest surprises was upon finding out that Bradley was a homunculus.  In Brotherhood they gave that secret up in a pretty quick and uneventful scene…boooo.

    Another major difference I have noticed that lends its self to enriching the series is how the world of the series has grown, originally you just stuck with the country that Ed and Al are a part of, Ishbal and minor references to countries to the north and south. Now they have included a large, China-like, country to the Far East and seem to be incorporating more participation from the surrounding lands as well. While the war with Ishbal has remained and the suffering of its people persists, they have not focused as heavily on it as they did originally. One of my favorite characters, Scar, has fallen, so far, to a minor character, but I don’t see that lasting long given recent developments in the series. One of the most interesting plot lines in the original was dealing with Scar and his abilities and reasons for wanting to destroy all State Alchemists.

    By far the biggest change that I have welcomed whole heartedly is the much more reduced presence of the annoying Winry. I hate her character and every otaku driven stereotype she represents. I cheered at the end of the original series when Ed left her to herself, which might still happen in this series. I am curious to see what the manga’s resolution might be, as it is currently still in production. In the original series Ed ended up being sucked into an alternate world (the real world) where he was reunited with his father and his arm/leg with no way to return home to Al and Winry. I don’t foresee this happening, but I have never read the manga so I can’t say for sure. My original thoughts about the new series was that they would run through what the first one did and pick up where the movie left off (which also put a nice lid on the original series).

    So far the Brotherhood series has begun to diverge from the original anime and the story telling has been quite rapid. There have been some changes that are somewhat disappointing, like the death of Greed (which was really the turning point in the original) and the speedy death of Huges. I remember being on the verge of tears during his funeral in the original because you had spent so many episodes getting to like his insane antics and adorable family. He really was my favorite character in the original series…but in the new one he barely seems to have made a blip on the radar. I like the character of Barry the Chopper and his expanded role in the new series. In the original he was around for maybe 4 or so episodes and then killed off. Now he continues to show up and aids the State Alchemists in their missions. While he is a convicted mass murderer his character is actually comical and his antics are entertaining.

    When I originally found out about the new series I figured it was just a remake of the original, unaware the manga still ran and that the original manga diverged quite a bit from it. Before that knowledge I was content with watching another remake, as the series is probably one of the best shonen adventure stories made. It was precise, to the point, not filled with much wasted story and had characters that were more than just prefabricated personality types as found in all shonen titles. Now that I know it is going to be a different story in general I am even more pleased, because we get to spend time with old friends in new ways. My only fear is that it will succumb to the shonen trap of eventually be drawn out, boring and utterly off key.  My only hope is that it continues to be a quality series, that they retain some of the powerful story sequences and continue with the odd ball humor to break up the weight and seriousness of the series.