Your Lie in April

Your Lie in April (四月は君の嘘) is a 22 episode slice of life romance series based on the manga of the same name by Arakawa Naoshi.  The series aired on TV in Japan between the Fall of 2014 and Spring of 2015.

    Arima Kosei was a piano prodigy when he was younger.  He has since abandoned the world of recitals and competition following the death of his mother.  His guilt and regret regarding her death has caused him to develop psychological issues blocking his ability to play the piano.  Considering his life meaningless he accepts his fate and continues living with little purpose.  His childhood friend and neighbor, Tsubaki, is determined to return Kosei to a world of color and hope.  Tsubaki convinces Arima to come with her and their friend Watari to see a violin recital.  He arrives earlier than his friends and stumbles upon a girl who changes his world.  The girl is a violinist who is competing in the event and the main reason Tsubaki is dragging her friends with.  Tsubaki is working on hooking up Watari and the girl, Miyazano Kaori.  Kaori confided in Tusbaki that she was interested in Watari.  Kosei is the first one to see her though and his reawakened emotions stir with conflict.  Kaori hits it off with all 3 of them but is technically inclined towards Watari.  She plays with the attention she sense from Kosei and begins to refer to him as 'Friend A', using him as a companion and sounding board.  She pushes him though and forces him to accompany her at a piano/violin recital.  The more time they spend together preparing for the performance the more feelings Kosei develops.  But his status of friend of possible boyfriend holds him back and he struggles to understand the level of attention she is giving him.  Kaori forces him into the role of pianist once more but half way through the recital it breaks down as the old trauma's return.  The performance is a failure but surprisingly Kaori couldn't be happier.  She demands that Kosei continue with his efforts to return to his former glory so that they can play together again on a stage.

    Kosei must battle the demons that haunt him before he can meet Kaori's expectations.  She forces him out of his shell and he begins to find reason and focus to heal his wounds.  Old rivals welcome his return to the competition circuit.  At the same time Watari continues as normal with Kaori being his almost girlfriend.  This brings unneeded stress on Kosei and Tsubaki alike.  Tsubaki harbors deep and hidden feelings for her childhood friend but she wants to help him recover as much as possible.  As Kosei progresses with returning to the world of joy he knew the horrors of his mother continue to haunt him.  Those horrors and feelings of loss intensify when he discovers that Kaori is sick, possibly terminally ill.  Regrets, conflicts of emotion and a strong desire to shut out the world for fear of more pain impede Kosei's progress.  He has to figure out if he will ever be able to overcome his regrets, childhood traumas and the fear of deep loss once again.

    Story-wise Kimi Uso is drenched in self hate, self affirmation and self esteem issues.  The main characters are tragic hero's who would just as easily commit suicide than continue their existence.  At one point the phrase, 'Will you commit double suicide with me' is uttered.  Kosei had a horribly abusive childhood and then had to deal with that never being accounted for on top of parental abandonment following his mother’s death.  His father works overseas, by the way.  Kaori comes from a loving and caring family with the entire world in front of her, but is being held back by an unknown and debilitating illness.  Kosei is an empty shell who decides to try and live once he meets Kaori.  Kaori plays hard to get and teases him the entire time, swinging through moods and emotions with some alarming frequency.  The side characters, particularly Tusbaki grumble in the wings about everyone’s lack of ability to communicate freely.  Tsubaki herself enters a vanilla self destructive mode when she tries to deny her feelings for Kosei.  Her eventual acceptance brings a well done breakdown confession.  Watari...well he's not much more than a puppet that is offered up as a roadblock to the stories completion.  Other peripheral characters come and go, mostly staying and popping up from time to time to change direction of the Kosei's dialog, but don't really offer much more than that.  There are a few moments of over the top shonen style competition between Kosei and a few other piano students, but those theatrics flatten out when Kosei ultimately doesn't care about everyone else's level of competitiveness with him.  Over all it was a bland and predictable story that did deliver some merit worthy emotional moments.  There did end up being too many distractions that seemed to be filler more than anything, even if they were used to show the main characters mental development process.

    Art-wise parts of the character designs were bothersome.  Overbites and large glassy eyes.  The animation was smooth and vivid in its color pallet.  This series really utilized the current trend of erasing portions of characters glasses when restricting the viewer’s ability to see their eyes.  Particularly since Kosei wears glasses.  I want to figure out when this trend really started to take place but I can guess it has something to do with the social issues in Japan with eye contact.  (It's extremely rude to talk to someone in person when they can’t see your eyes)  One thing that stands out is the show tries to break the tension by reverting to some comical art styles.  The young children in the show are shown in absurd and comical ways as well.  Over all the artwork is stronger than the story.  Some of the CG is clunky, particularly when showing the piano being played by a variety of characters.  It was nowhere as smooth or accurate as that from Nodame Cantabile

    Regardless of its flaws I did enjoy my time with Kimi Uso and wouldn't mind reading the manga to see what was left out of the anime.  It ended in a way I enjoyed and was handled beautifully.  It’s not full of fan service, the characters body types are realistic, if their hair isn't.  Little things like that make it more enjoyable.  There are plenty of segments of the story that could have been cut out and seemed to do little more than serve as filler and cheap plot tricks.  The parts dealing with Kosei, Kaori and Tsubaki's feelings for each other are the meat of the show and the best parts.  With its flaws this is still a good series in the ever growing romance anime list.  Worth the time.  This however, is not relatable to the highly enjoyable Nodame Cantabile.

  The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll in North America and is being distributed by Aniplex.  The manga is being released by Kodansha in North America.

Parasyte -the maxim-

Parasyte -the maxim- (寄生獣 セイの格率) is a 24 episode seinen action/horror anime based on the manga Parasyte by Iwaaki Hitoshi.  The series aired on TV in Japan from Fall 2014 until Spring of 2015.

  One night, creatures of unknown origin spread across the world.  These parasites devour the heads of their human host, morph to mimic the host, and use their body for mobility and life support.  One parasite failed in its attempt to devour its targets head, instead devouring the lower half of its right arm.  That human, Izumi Shinichi, discovers his unique problem and through the parasites coxing decides that the best course of action is cooperation.  In order to better understand his strange bedfellow, Shinichi dubs it Migi, which is the Japanese word for right.  Migi, ambivalent and alien with regards to human thought patterns, accepts the title and uses the tenuous relationship to better understand the world around it and it’s self.  Soon Migi is forcing Shinichi to approach other parasites in order to better understand himself and them.  Unfortunately his kind tends to not be receptive to discovery and almost immediately they have to fight the ones they come across.  The parasites are able to mold and manipulate their bodies in amazing ways.  They have heightened senses and incredibly amplified reflexes.  In their encounters with other parasites, Shinichi can do little nmore than stand in horror/amazement as Migi does what he can to protect himself and his host.  The battles tend to be life or death and Shinichi has to come to terms with the idea of participating in exterminating another life form. 

    The parasites primarily feed on humans, so Shinichi sees them as an evil that must be purged.  Migi, who is not human, counters Shinichi's human-centric reasoning as it being the natural order of things.  The series underlies the concept of human superiority and its special place in the world.  Are humans more important than other animals?  If not, then why is it wrong for the parasites to feed on them as humans do other 'lower' animals?  Migi and Shinichi's existence is a precarious one.  For fear of an unwelcomed outcome they have to keep their partnership hidden.  Due to the parasites ability to sense each other they find themselves continuously battling for their lives.  Soon they encounter parasites that have been able to move beyond base animal impulses.  A cabal seems to be working together to protect their existence and maintain their feeding habits.  Shinichi, with Migi, finds himself the lone person who understands the reality of the parasites and unwittingly becomes a protector of humanity.  Migi strives to understand what reasons may exist behind his kind’s existence while Shinichi is faced with altering his perception of morality and purpose.

  Generally I am not a fan of seinen monster horror titles that tend to mostly be about the ultra violence and gore with little in the way of thoughtful plot or interesting story development.  I have a long standing history of distaste with such seminal titles as Guyver and Genocyber.  I decided to give this series a fair shake and wait out the first 5 episodes.  I am glad I did, because the events of episode 5 and 6 really turned me into a fan of the show.  There is more to this show than death and destruction.  Almost immediately it brings up the idea of objective morality and the perception of human exceptionalism when compared with everything else in the anime kingdom.  It does at times get preachy in regards to this, referencing the parasites as a way to cull human over population to help restore the balance of nature.  That's not to say there aren't some pretty exciting and graphic fights though.  The parasites prefer to battle with elongated tentacles tipped and edged with blades, slicing and chopping at whim, leaving bloody dismembered corpses everywhere.  The initial broadcast, of course, was edited to a degree to meet Japanese broadcast standards.  I expect the DVD releases to be more graphic. 

  Shinichi is kind of a wet noodle hero.  He starts out as a timid book worm that eventually has to harden his heart towards the terror he witnesses and participates in.  Through everything he has to deal with he still end's up being wishy-washy.  Not only does he have to face the horrors by himself, the only one he can talk do about this is Migi, who offers little in the way of compassion and instead retorts with razor sharp rationality.  The progression of the story and Shinichi's personality is the definitive loss of innocence narrative..  It can also be used as a metaphor regarding the general peace and tranquility for Japan it's self.  A nation mostly isolated from the horrors and misery of many other parts of the world.  As stated earlier, the dialog between some of the characters can get a bit preachy, sometimes bordering on environmental zealotry.  Don't try to let it distract you too much from enjoying the show though.  Instead ponder the ideas Migi presents about the reality of humanities place in the animal kingdom and the justifications we fabricate to make ourselves feel better for the destruction we sow.

  The series sadly ended after 24 episodes.  It ended well though, even though for a minute it seemed like it was going to end in legendary fashion.  Unfortunately there was very little in the way of answers for the main deeply rooted questions.  Who are the parasites, where did they come from and for what purpose, if any?  Instead the story wraps up rather tidily and we move on.  I did enjoy it, surprisingly more than I ever would have imagined and recommend it.  Perhaps I should read the manga which spans 7 tankoubon.

  The show was simulcast on Crunchyroll and Right Stuf has acquired the distribution rights to it, so we should see disc releases in North America in the near future, which I'm sure will come with English dub variant as well.  Part one of a two part live action movie series came out last year in Japan as well.  The North American version of the manga is currently being released by Tokyopop.

Patema Inverted

Patema Inverted (サカサマのパテマ) is a sci-fi movie by Yoshiura Yasuhiro.  It was originally released in theaters in Japan in 2013 following the beginning portion of the film being released as 4 ONA's in 2012.

    Patema lives in a city build underground, where the inhabitants do not see the surface of their planet and scavenge the labrinthine tunnels and corridors for supplies.  Yet, for a group of long time underground dwellers they remain optimistic and healthy.  Patema dreams of the outside world, due in large part to a man she is very close to named Lagos.  Lagos would go on trips into forbidden regions of their underground warren and bring back gifts, images and stories of the surface world.  Patema decides to see that world for herself after Lagos has been missing for a few years.  Her guardians warn her of the dangers of following in her footsteps, trying to scare her with tales of batmen who walk on the ceiling and kidnap anyone they see.  She then encounters one of them and in her terror falls off of a catwalk into the abyss.  Much to her surprise and terror the hole she fell into leads to the surface world she has dreamed about.  Yet for unknown reasons her gravity is reversed from this world and the open blue sky holds nothing but a terror of oblivion and death.  She clings to a chain-link fence, faced with a fall into the nothingness of the sky, and is saved by a bewildered boy named Age who helps her to safety inside a nearby store room.  He wonders at her terror of the sky, not understanding the feeling of having nothing to stand on, as she clings to the top of the door jam peering into the blue depths.  Age promises that he will get her back to her people, the inverted, as he calls them.  Age lives in a totalitarian and technologically advanced city that preaches about people long ago who's gravity inverted being sinners punished for their crimes and were thrown into the sky.  The leader of the city discovers Patema's existence and does everything he can to destroy her and her people.

    I really enjoyed this movie.  It was fresh, inventive and well paced.  The concept while not original is well done and entertaining.  Not a lot of peripheral story is explained in the movie which clocks in at just over 90 minutes.  But you get a great picture of the motivations and personalities of all of the major characters so that's not a detriment.  Half of the fun of the story is to figure out what world is the correct one and who is right.  The other half is to see if our protagonists will overcome their adversity.  This is a classic anti-authority story that is easily recognizable.  English lit majors can pick all sorts of literary symbolism out of this story and not be disappointed with its by the book story telling.  This is an enjoyable, well done and engrossing film that is for all audiences.  Once again Yoshiura brings humanism to the generally sterile worlds of cyberpunk sci-fi.  This one is a bit more fantasy than cyberpunk though and has more action than any of his other stories.  He focuses less on human interactions as the main point of the story.  This proves he can make a blockbuster style feature film and should be doing more work of this scale.  My one complaint would be the character designs, they were a bit bland and not of the life like style that Yoshiura has gone with previously.    Maybe I enjoyed it as much as I did because it had some of the same feeling to it as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time did.

The film is available in North America on BluRay and DVD in both subtitled and dubbed format.