Colorful - the movie

Colorful (カラフル) is a theatrical drama with minor super natural elements.  The movie is based on the novel of the same name by Mori Eto and was initially released in 2010.

    The main character of the movie is a nameless spirit who has died and is chosen for the chance to live again.  He is returned to live in the body of a young boy, Makoto, who has committed suicide.  With the help of a super natural guide, Purapura, the spirit is given the chance at life and eventual rebirth.  The catch is, by living as Makoto he has to become aware of what he did wrong in his own life.

    He quickly finds out that his temporary return to the realm of the living is difficult.  The real Makoto decided on the path of death due to serious and world changing truths about the people around him and his own dejected life.  The new Makoto has to work from zero to fit into the role of his borrowed body while trying to figure out his own past transgressions.  It doesn't come easy and for the most part he refuses to play along, confronting some of the damaging truths he was informed of face on.  With no frame of reference his actions are abrupt and unnatural to those around him, further complicating his goal of self realization.

    I wasn't sure what to expect from this movie in the slightest and wasn't actually prepared for such a heavy drama.  I knew it was not related to the TV anime series of the same name from the turn of the century, but did anticipate a lighter atmosphere.  This is a thick and depressing movie with a strong message about self worth and understanding the nature of people, especially those close to you.  Those you may look at with tinted perceptions.  The story is all about the development and the revealing of the character of Makoto and the way those closest to him impact his world and viewpoint.  Makoto is a sullen and closed boy, who has chosen to live in his own reality to avoid the issues he has in real life.

    The movie clocks in at a little over 2 hours and does move slowly but the ending did seem more abrupt than it should have been.  It seemed sped up compared to the pacing of everything before it and the message may have suffered a little from that.  The message is obviously to live life no matter how hard it may seem.  The movie is a 2 hour suicide prevention PSA.  The artwork works really well for the movie.  Detailed beautiful backgrounds contrasted with the simple and 'ugly' character designs.  Aside from what felt like an abrupt ending, my only other complaint with this movie was the quality of the voice acting, it seemed amateurish.  Otherwise, this was a well done and enjoyed movie, it just may not be eagerly welcomed by all anime fans.  Its serious, brooding and slow...preachy in context but an important message and a pretty decent way to deliver said message.

    The movie is available streaming and on DVD in North America.

Beautiful Bones

Beautiful Bones: Sakurako's Investigation (櫻子さんの足下には死体が埋まっている) is a 12 episode mystery series based on the novel A Corpse Is Buried Under Sakurako's Feet by Ota Shiori.  The anime originally aired in the Fall of 2015.

    Tatewaki Shotaro is friends with an eccentric and brash woman named Kujo Sakurako.  The unique woman in her 20' is the heiress to a wealthy family and continues her deceased uncles passion for osteology, or the study of bones.  Shotaro finds himself her accomplice in all manner of death investigations as Sakurako's skill in deduction and compulsive behavior lead to them discovering corpses.  What appear to be a series of unrelated deaths begin to weave a common thread of a person who collects one particular skull fragment.  A person who haunted Sakurako's uncle and now shows his existence to her.  Shotaro, while unwitting being her accomplice and restraint mechanism, works to come to terms with his feelings for her and her unwillingness to return them.

    This is a semi cut and dry episodic mystery series that unravels a common theme over its course, resulting in the final climax in which Sakurako confronts a specter of her past in the bone collector, of which doesn't actually happen.  In that regard the entire series seemed like a prequel of sorts but it's hard to tell if there will be any more to this show.  It is very much Sherlock and Watson in regards to the characters interactions and adventures.  Sakurako is a genius who'se attention to detail is unmatched in the series.  She is also callus and speaks her mind with ease.  A handful of recouring characters are introduced through out the series including a classmate/friend of Shotaro's, a teacher and an inept police officer.  The stories in themselves are interesting and its entertaining to watch the truth be revealed.  Yet there is this persistent level of disbelief, particularly in how inept the police are presented and the lack of criminal accountability Sakurako faces for her meddling in apparent murder cases.

    The artwork is standard fair, with the exception of a CG sequence they continued to pull out in the first few seasons featuring a parade of animal skeletons as Sakurako was about to do the serious investigative work.  Thankfully they stopped repeating the scene as it was farcical at best.  Aside from that it was an enjoyable series but really nothing spectacular.  It paired with the other investigation drama, The Perfect Insider, made for an interesting dichotomy for the season.  On the one hand we have one unfolding mystery in the later and the episodic mystery in Beautiful Bones.  They could have really done with out the over arching mystery as there was a mystery unraveling with Sakurako's past that was also highly neglected and her reluctance towards any sort of emotional vestment in the lapdog Shotaro.

     On a side note, I feel the best episode was the second on in which the pair found themselves investigating a crime in process.  The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll and Sentai Filmworks holds the distribution license for it so expect some form of disc release.

The Perfect Insider

The Perfect Insider (すべてがFになる) is an 11 episode mystery series based on part of the novel series titled Everything Becomes F by Mori Hiroshi.  The anime adaptation aired in the fall of 2015.

    Nishinosono Moe is a prodigal genius and the only daughter of an affluent political family in southern Japan.  Since she was young she has been attracted to one of her deceased fathers students, now a professor, Saikawa Sohei.  The pair goes on a camping trip with Sohei's research lab to a remote island.  The intention for the trip is to meet a woman who has been exiled there for 15 years.  After she was cleared of the murder of her parents, Magata Shiki locked herself inside of a high tech research facility as a sort of self induced punishment.  From the facility on the island she used her genius to develop technology and code for businesses and other organizations around the world, earning herself praise and respect.

    Moe and Sohei trick their way into the facility, Moe using her prior meeting with Doctor Shiki as a pretense.  The staff welcomes them, knowing who each of them are due to their influence in certain academic circles.  Before they can have a meeting with the doctor the facility experiences a series of technical faults that lead to the discovery of the doctors dismembered corpse.  Not wanting to let an opportunity to test their mettle go to waste, Moe and Sohei work with the facilities staff to try and unravel the mystery of the murder before the authorities arrive.  They have to figure out how and why someone would enter the room that Dr. Shiki had been locked into for the past 15 years.  A room no one has entered or left in all that time.

    This was an interesting series that I had been waiting for since late 2014, but really didn't know anything about.  It is very dry and slow burning, too slow some people think.  From what I have heard the drama series moves at a more acceptable pace.  Personally I wasn't concerned with the pace but can see how it was stretched a bit longer than perhaps it should have been.  It is a classic locked room murder mystery with a few touches of techno-paranoia tossed in.  While the mystery of the murder is the primary purpose, the story also examines the psychological make up of the key characters.

    There is a strained one sided love between Moe and Sohei.  Moe is a jealous spoiled brat who's only saving grace is her extreme intelligence.  For the most part the intelligence doesn't come across and she appears to be rather dense and oblivious.  Sohei is ethereal in some rather over played ways, sometimes to the extent of annoyance.  The interesting character is Shiki and her sordid, monomaniacal past.  She is most certainly a sociopath.  The mystery unfolds in a conventional manner for this type of story, with a few twists and turns, but nothing outside of the realm of the reality it spins.  There are hints and clues and as the characters discover them they explain the process of understanding them for the sake of the viewer.  Somethings are explained that were probably unneccesary but over all the mystery was decent and the process was enjoyable.

    The show was OK, a nice change of pace from the normal anime standards but it wasn't anything spectacular or world changing.  I would like to hunt down the drama and do a comparison.  This story encompassed 2 episodes of the 10 episode drama

    The series was simulcast in Crunchyroll.  Sentai Filmworks picked up the license for the series so there will undoubtedly be a disc release in North America at some time.

One Punch Man

One Punch Man (ワンパンマン) is a 12 episode shonen battle series based on the manga of the same name, originally a web comic by the pseudonymous One.  The series aired in Japan during the fall of 2015.

    Saitama spent 3 years training to be a hero.  He trained so hard his hair fell out.   Why did he do this?  He really didn't have much else to do and though it would be fun.  The end result is that he can defeat any opponent with one punch and withstand any sort of physical attack.  After a particularly destructive battle with a mosquito woman Saitama gains an unwanted apprentice.  The apprentice, a powerful cyborg named Geno's, informs Saitama about the Hero Association and they sign up to become professional hero's.  Even though he is stronger than almost anyone else, poor test scores puts him in a low hero rank, while Geno's earns a high spot in the association.  That doesn't stop Saitama from carrying on his new hero duties.  His success comes into question when the masses believe he cheats for each of his victories where higher ranked hero's failed.  Saitama goes with it and decides to carry on not being important but relishing the search for a strong opponent.

    OPM ended up becoming the biggest anime this year.  I was excited for it when I heard the news of its release.  I had heard about the manga a year previously and it sounded fun.  It was fun, at least in the beginning.  In the beginning its a cynical tale of a man who has become bored with his power.  The strong point is that it sticks its tongue out at every other shonen battle manga that exists.  Everyone postures about their strength and brags about their abilities.  While Saitama stands by, bored, waiting to see if the person he's up against can withstand a hit from him.  Unlike something like One Piece of Dragon Ball Z, where a battle continues and there is much fan fair over the ever continuing almost defeat of people involved.  Saitama typically just ends it before it can turn into an exaggerated waste of time and money.  Sadly though, as the series progresses that spirit is lost and it begins to emulate what it originally satirized.  Bigger and stronger enemies arrive, show how powerful they are by destroying hero's ranked higher than him.  When Saitama finally has a crack at them and completely wipes them off of reality.  No posturing, no long speeches about justice, usually Saitama asking them if they are done talking.  He doesn't want to be rude. Then he hits them.

    The final arc was the one that disappointed me the most.  It was spread out over a few episodes and lacked much of the humor and snide attitude of the earlier episodes.  Instead it started to devolve into drawn out monologues and villains who wouldn't die without revealing hidden power.  Over all it was an entertaining series and confused the hell out of a lot of people.  Is it serious or a joke?  I take it as a joke that started to become serious.  It's probably for the best that the run only lasted 12 episodes.  But given the sudden and overwhelming popularity of it we may see another run in the future.  I believe the manga adaptation of the original short web comic is still going and the first two tankoubon in North America sold well enough.  While the internetz argue over who would beat who between Saitama and all of the Shonen Jump hero's I shake my head in disappointment for them missing the point.

    The series is what you make of it, I enjoyed the comedic and satirical aspects of it and became bored of the serious portions.  It was simulcast on Hulu and the manga is being released by Viz Media.

2015 Year In Review

2015 closes and there were some good things and some bad things.  Here's a run down of the best TV anime in 2015 as I see it.


    Your Lie In April: The bitter sweet tale of young love that struggles to survive.  Self rejected musical prodigy discovers a reason to live through a girl who grabs life by the horns, only to find out she has a terminal disease and feelings for another boy.  The ending of this one made everyone cry but it still ended on a positive and reflective note, a message of survival.

    Parasyte: A TV rendition of an older seinen horror manga.  Mysterious organisms invade the planet as a way to control the human population.  One high school student saves his head but looses his arm to one of them.  They team up  to survive and understand the meaning behind this sudden change in the earths ecosystem.  Skeptical at first due to my distaste of similar stories like Guyver and Genocyber, this one quickly gained my admiration as the main character is faced with impossible odds that he sometimes can't over come.

    Himoto Umaru-chan: The cute adventures of a spoiled nerd girl who appears the ideal woman to the outside world.  At times too saccharin, the story of the dual personality cute girl is fun and care free.  The series makes you warm inside and hope for more beyond its short initial run.

    My Love Story: One of the most entertaining anime in a long time.  A comedic romp featuring two incompatible people trying to learn how to be each others first love interest.  Ridiculous characters in normal situations and an innocence that is sometimes cringe worthy.  I haven't enjoyed an anime this much in a really long time.  So quality, much entertainment.  This one really is my top pick for best anime in 2015.

    Rin-ne: The long awaited return of Takahashi Rumiko to the ranks of TV anime.  Rin-ne is the worlds richest female manga artists 5th TV anime and returns to the comedic insanity of her earlier works like Ranma 1/2 and Urasei Yatsura.  The story deals with a broke part time death god and a girl who can see spirits having to put up with harassment from the living and the spiritual world.  Harassment in a purely comical way.  This series is a nice return to comedic form.  The show rarely takes its self seriously and in a land filled with too much drama is greatly welcomed.

    Durarara 2: Durarara returns for more doings in the fictionally fucked up Tokyo ward of Ikebukuro (the ward is real by the way).  The series continues to unfold an incredibly long and intertwined story of treachery, friendship and survival.  While most other stories collapse under the weight of a large cast Durarara continues to be engaging as more and more characters are introduced and their stories are woven into the fabric of the original series.  I enjoyed this 2nd season more the the original and eagerly await its 2016 continuation.

    One Punch Man: The TV anime adaption of a web based comic, re-purposed into a legitimate comic.  The story deals with bored hero for fun Saitama and his insane ability to resist all physical damage and cause incalculable damage with one punch.  The series begins as a mockery of typical shonen battle stories like DBZ and Naruto but as it progresses begins to become more serious and turn into a legitimate shonen battle story all its own...which is making me reconsider watching it.  Its original intention is highly welcomed by me, as I tire of the shonen trappings and their legions of fans.

    Not a lot of titles that really impressed me.  There were a few that were rather flat and disappointing.  Knights of Sidonia returned this year as well.  While it did not change from the original season, it didn't leave as big of an impression with me.  Time will tell if more will come out as the manga just concluded.

   The Melancholy of Nagato Yuki-chan is perhaps the most disappointing.  The series, which was not animated by the original crew, is little more than a pointless and poorly planned fan fiction set in the alternate universe of the Haruhi movie (which was my favorite segment from the original series).  So much disappointment in this one.

    Instead 2015 seemed to be the year of manga for me, not necessarily manga that came out this year but manga I consumed this year, from Gantz to Orange and many points in between.  Crunchyroll's manga service was a large contributor to this trend and I have consumed much of their catalog.  Sadly, this year taught me that sometimes the anime is better than the manga, particularly in the case of Your Lie in April.

    2016 see's the return of more Durarara, and the TV anime adaptions of Ajin and Koe no Katachi.  Ajin is mindless action but Koe no Katachi is one I will be eagerly awaiting.  The manga was fantastic and its great to see something like this attempt to grow its audience.  Plus, 2016 will see the American theatrical release of Mamoru Hosoda's latest film, Boy and the Beast!

Densha Otoko and the rise of the Otaku

Coined in the 1980's as a derogatory term for obsessive fandom, otaku has become synonymous with cool in Japan and around the world.  Following a 2005 paper by the Nomura Research Institute, the Japanese government decided to use the growing popularity of otaku culture as a way to expand its influence globally.

    In the early 2000's an area of Tokyo classically known for bleeding edge technology, Akihabara, shifted to being the otaku capital of the world.  A key player in the raise of the neighborhood as the otaku Mecca is a story born from the message boards of 2channel, Densha Otoko (電車男) or Train Man.  The story is about a 20-something otaku who comes out of his shell to help a woman being harassed by a drunk on a train.  The intervention blossoms into love between a nerd and a normal girl, giving all hapless fanatics a ray of hope in their love lives.

    The events unfolded on 2channel as the purported Train Man came to his online peers for advice dealing with the situation.  The mass of fellow otaku cheered him on in pursuing the difficult task of succeeding in establishing a 3D relationship.  The story gained momentum quickly and soon after the events played out transcriptions of the BBS threads were turned into a book.  The book gained wide popularity and eventually spawned a movie, TV series, play and manga, depicting the events and adding to the legend of the story.

    The legitimacy of the events and identity of the Train Man are uncertain.   The impact it had with highlighting the growing feelings about Akihabara and it's place in the popularization of nerd culture in Japan are unmistakable.  It helped to cement the otaku as a culture all of its own.  A culture that would soon be recognized, per the Nomura report, as carrying significant economic and societal clout.

    Prior to the 21st century otaku were viewed as loners, shut ins and socially maladjusted individuals.  The label was attached to a hand full of shocking murders in the 80's and 90's, including the Aum Sinrikyo sarin gas attack in 1995.  In the early 2000's it began to heavily invade pop culture and turned from something to be scorned into a hip thing to be associated with. 

    Since the recognition of otaku as a legitimate sub culture in Japan, the Japanese government has worked to promote it to the rest of the world as a way to gain influence and expand exports and tourism.  The movement has gone on for a decade with no sign of abating.  Otaku culture digs deeper into the global markets through growing accessibility and monetization.  The real influence that Cool Japan has to sway large amounts of capital and interest in Japan it's self is still difficult to determine.  Even if it's importance has been over stated Japan is continuing to pursue it for the time being and otaku world wide are reaping the greatest benefits.  Partially due to the help of a lonely man who gathered up his courage to save a woman from harassment or at least the legend of such an act.

Anime's Media Mix - book review

Anime's Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in Japan is a non-fiction book by Marc Steinberg, assistant professor of film studies at Concordia University.  The book was published through University of Minnesota Press in 2012.

    The book details the emergence of TV anime and companion product licensing through the firstTV anime series Astro Boy/Tetsuwan Atom.  Through financial constraints the shows creator, Tezuka Osamu, had to seek out additional revenue avenues beyond what Fuji TV agreed to pay for each episode.  He partnered with candy manufacturer Meiji Seika and the unanticipated success of the anime cemented how anime would be partnered with advertising moving forward.

    The merger of Atom's image with unrelated products for the express purpose of selling the product based on the popularity of Atom was not the first time character merchandising had happened.  Tezuka himself expressed his intent on following the character licensing model begun by Walt Disney in the 1930's.  It wasn't even a new concept in Japan.  Prior to the advent of TV anime, character merchandising and cross media exposure was already happening on radio programs and with candy manufacturers.  Following the Pacific War, manufacturers who targeted children had begun including prizes in their products as a way to woo them away from American imports.  Meiji Seika began to include stickers of Testsuwan Atom in the packages of their flagship product, Marble Chocolate, which pretty quickly saw an increase in sales.

    Tezuka took the success of the anime as far as he could and began licensing the characters to a number of different companies, leading to children being surrounded by things with the image of the anime.  This created as the author concludes, the first real media mix that anime and manga have become integral too in Japan.  The manga, TV anime, radio drama, sponsor character licensing amalgamation that allows for wide exposure for the original product, with the hopes of generating compounding revenue at all levels.  If the consumer is constantly reminded of a particular story they will become more involved in it.  Merchandise allows them to bring a TV show with them.  Action figures allow them to replay the stories shown and to create new adventures and stories involving the characters.  It forms play, continually reinforcing the fondness for the core product.

    Steinberg takes the groundwork laid out by Tezuka and points to it as establishing the industry standards that have persisted ever since.  He goes to discuss the real cementing of the media mix mentality through book publisher Kadokawa Shoten expanding into the movie production, magazine publishing, computer game and anime licensing world beginning in the 1970's.  The idea from the beginning was to push their intellectual properties into as many mediums as possible to grow revenue.  For all intent and purposes it became quite successful and forced many other organizations to follow suit.  The idea is that TV anime is one part of an overall marketing theory that is used to promote and capitalize on intellectual products over a wide variety of formats.

    This is an well written and detailed explanation and hypothesis into the origination of TV anime as part of a larger marketing platform.  The bulk of the book is devoted to the historical situations that lead to the emergence of TV anime and the directions its licensing partnerships took.  It focuses solely on Tetsuwan Atom but begins to dip into later franchises in brief in the final section of the book.  It is the product of an academic and is filled to the brim with academic thought references and research material.

    Aside from being an interesting piece about the evolution of marketing and mass media exposure in Japan it also dips into the history of modern manga and anime.  He points to the pre-war medium kamishibai as being a direct precursor to modern manga and anime.  A story telling form in existence since the 12th century, it found a resurgence beginning in the 1920's as a way for people to earn money.  It involved a series of detailed pictures that accompanied an oral story.  A sort of picture book that was designed to entertain groups of people.  The stories and artwork would be created then packaged together to be carried on the back of a bicycle.  Men would pedal around towns, gathering spectators and go through the story.  The medium lasted until the advent of the television rendered it obsolete.   A key to the kamishibai medium was the sale of candy to the children spectating.  Another key to it was serial story telling, building the desire in children to keep coming back to know more of a particular story.  These idea's translated into manga and then anime in solidifying its story telling template.  It was almost a given by the time Tezuka began work on the anime adaption of Testsuwan Atom that omake like merchandising tie in's would exist as well.

    The book hints at an unsettling idea in the reality of why anime it self exists.  This is an idea that is echoed from time to time in regards to the current state of late night anime.  The idea that anime is firstly considered an advertising and marketing product instead of a creative platform.  While this is not always the case and there are many original animations, it does ring with some truth in the grand scheme of things.  The less pessimistic view point is that anime it's self is one part of a larger whole that is purposely designed to intertwine.  This concept can still be hard to overcome as a western anime fan, given that anime is the largest sector of the whole that we are exposed to, where anime is not as significant in Japan.

    Anime is many ways, is a part of a larger picture of which a prime purpose for its existence is the sales of other products, usually the source material and related merchandise.  Tezuka's Curse established this through underselling his product, requiring him to form product agreements.  Tetsuwan Atom and Marble Chocolates saw a significant increase in popularity and sales with the TV series.  It did it's job and it did it incredibly well.  Tezuka set out to emulate the Disney animation and merchandising standards and what he did has endured for over 50 years and has gone on the shape what is turning out to be a strong import item for Japan.  At the end of the day, regardless of what anyone thinks, it's all about the Fukuzawa's.