Zom 100

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (ゾン100〜ゾンビになるまでにしたい100のこと〜) is a 12 episode horror action series based on the manga of the same name by Aso Haro.  The series originally ran during the Summer of 2023.

     Tendo Akira is a young salary-man working for a black corporation, draining the will to life from him as he trudges through days of abuse.  When the zombie apocalypse strikes he suddenly gains a new optimistic outlook on his life...he finally has the time to kick back and relax.  He turns the collapse of civilization and daily immanent/grisly death into his opportunity to life a fulfilling if someone shortened life.  After reconnecting with his best friend from college, Ryuzaki Kenichiro, the two team up with a goal to do everything they ever wanted to do before they fall prey to the zombie hordes.

    They begin to construct a bucket list and with Akira's desire to see is his parents are safe, they head off to the countryside.  Along the way the pick up fellow survivalist, Mikazuki Shizuka, to join them.  Shizuka is pragmatic and calculating.  She has easily transitioned her calculating resourcefulness to surviving the hellscape that is Tokyo with great success.  She however understands that staying in the maze like city reduces her chances of continued success and agrees to join them on their journey.  As they travel the country side they quickly learn that the living is more dangerous than the dead as bands of abusive  humans begin to interfere in their trip.  The collapse of civil society really can bring out the worst in some people can't it?

    This was a highly anticipated series at the time is premiered in 2023.  The production quality was rather high with excellent directing and a colorful palette.  However it fell victim to its own workload and the final three episodes were pushed back to the end of December.  This caused me to drop off from watching the series as it simulcast to not completing it to well over a year later.  But its production delays weren't the only thing keeping me from finishing it.  I rally fell in love with this fresh take on the zombie trope.  The survivors were fun and enjoyable as they enthusiastically took each day on with carefree abandon.  Akira and Ryu's go-lucky attitudes did a lot to make the series fun and funny.  There was a lot of over the top scenes where their survival was only gotten through the magic of fiction and I loved it!

    Then it fell prey to what every great zombie story falls prey to, the need to shift the dangers from the brainless undead masses to the darkness of human tendencies for control and domination.  The halfway point, where they encounter a trap on the freeway that is set by a band of slave-driving sycophants really turned me off and made me lose excitement with each new episode.  Humans as the real threat is a boring and worn-out trope in zombie films.  I understand the godfather of the genre, Night of the Living Dead set this principle, but we can also explore other narratives beyond that.  I really though Zom 100 was going to be different.  It was at first and it was fun and exciting and lovable.  But it fell back on the common garbage and lost its steam.  It lost its interest, it characters alone struggled to carry on the joy that was experiences in the first few episodes.  The final arc, the one that got delayed, was even less interesting and the story seemed to fall apart with no real goal in mind.  This story could have been so much more but fell into old routines and lost all the shine it had.  Sad...

The series is available on Crunchyroll and Netflix in both sub and dub formats.  There is also a live action version on Netflix.  

A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School

A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School (妖怪学校の先生はじめました!) is a 26 episode comedy series based on the manga of the same name by Tanaka Mai.  The series aired between the Fall of 2024 and the Winter of 2025.

     Abe Haruaki dreams of becoming a teacher, but his first experience as one leaves him less than encouraged.  Haruaki is easily intimidated and when attempts to scold delinquent students backfires he quits teaching.  He is encouraged to try again, this time at a school on a remote island.  Uneasy about the position, he is warmly welcomed by the administrator.  This new assignment isn't exactly what he expected it to be.  He has been contracted to be the only human at a school exclusively for yokai around the nation.  The school its self is located on an isolated island that is only populated by yokai as well.  Being a human among monsters is the least of his worries.  His class has zero respect for him, largely due to his flighty nature and concerning passion for women/girls uniforms.

    Haruaki decides to continue his job, even in the face of unusual circumstances and mortal danger.  As his tenure proceeds he begins to earn the respect of his rowdy class, often selflessly endangering himself to help them.  The reason he was chosen for this position is due to his paternal lineage.  He is the descendant of a powerful  Heian era onmyouji, Abe no Seimei.  He possess his ancestors ability to dispel yokai but he is unable to control that ability.  The schools administrators have knowingly brought a dangerous person in their midst in hopes of being able to keep track of him and prevent anything problematic from happening.  Fortunately for them, Haruaki is lovable, gullible and recklessly passive.

 

    Over all this was an amusing series that didn't fall into repetitive patterns.  The cast of goofy characters ws enjoyable and covered a wide breadth of yokai, complete with brief descriptions.   A lot of the charm with the series is the frequent shifting of character design to enhance the comedy.  In reality there isn't much of an over arching story that unfolds.  Over the course of the series you learn about the backgrounds and motivations for a number of the students, some of the other teachers and of course Haruaki.  It didn't dawn on my until I was done watching it but this is pretty much a yokai spin on Great Teacher Onizuka.  I did enjoy the series and was happy when it got extended into a second cour.  Halfway through the second cour I started to lose interest in the shows apparent meandering but was snapped back in when the final half dozen episodes coalesced into a plot.

    This was a fun and hectic comedy that just so happened to use the absurd backdrop of an all yokai school too add some extra flavour to its delivery.   Over the decades I have come to really appreciate manzai style comedy and this series offers that in excess.  Haruaki is the classic kind hearted idiot.  A lot of his students are serious and ruthless in their interactions with him.  Almost all of the cast being yokai does well to help explain away the absurdity throughout the show.  There was one episode in the second cour though that almost made me quit the series due its rather blatant and unfortunate racism towards people of Chinese decent.  It was...alarming, something one would expect from an older anime.  Its unfortunate that publishers and production teams are still accepting of that type of sentiment.

The series is available on Crunchyroll.

The Drifting Classroom

The Drifting Classroom (漂流教室) is a sci-fi horror manga by Umezu Kazuo.  The manga was originally published between 1972 and 1974.

    Takamatsu Sho's really bad day turns horribly worse when his entire school is transported suddenly to a distant future.  Everyone in the school appears to be the only remaining humans on the planet and the terror of their situation and impending doom causes many of them to become unhinged.  The teachers panic worse than the kids, leading to all of them dying.  Sho, with an uncanny sense of responsibility, works as hard as he can to maintain order with the surviving kids in their frightening new land.

    The struggle to survive is more difficult than they could ever imagine as tension causes problems between the students, who revert to primal savagery at the drop of a pin.  With food supplies low and no chance of being rescued what ope is there.  But something isn't right about their situation, incidents point to them running parallel with the world they knew and objects and creatures begin to appear as if by magic or stress induced manifestation.

    Full disclosure, I could only make it through 4 tankoubon before giving the story up.  There are many things about this manga that bother me and made it difficult to read.  I understand that some of these issues are do to when it was created but they also highlight issues that plagues manga in the past, issues that have been over come to varying degrees in the years since.  The panels many times are too detailed to bring a clear picture of what the world looks like.  Some of the characters movements in action sequences are unnatural and strange.

    However the biggest hole in the story would have to be the psychological make up of pretty much most of the characters.  In a matter of hours the teachers are ready to either commit suicide or murder each other.  Eight year old kids are ready to crucify and burn at the stake random students as a way of appeasing some instantly made up myth cycle.  The level of types of savagery are comical in some respects and embarrassing in others.  The spiral of aggression in Lord of the Flies at least took some time and made sense.  Most of the weirdness that goes on in The Drifting Classroom is inexplicable and poorly executed.  I understand this was created at the height of manga artists exploring story telling for adults/mature audiences but much of the exposition in this one is juvenile and exploitative.

    There is a lot of groundwork that was laid out in this manga and its influence on generations to come is very evident.  There are some hints of Lovecraftian influence in Umezu's story.  The works of Ito Junji are with out a doubt influenced by this story and his other works.  The anime Another as well took many many cues from this story.  In the end though the story is poorly executed, the artwork is too cluttered at times and it's not as mature and intelligent as it tries to be.

    Viz media printed the entire 11 tankoubon series and are readily available.

Kings Game Origin

Kings Game Origin (王様ゲーム 起源) is a horror manga prequel of the cellphone novel Kings Game by Kanazawa Nobuaki.  The manga was written by Kanazawa and drawn by J-Ta Yamada (Asatte no Houkou).  The 30 issue story began serialization in Japan in 2013.

    One day a mysterious note arrives in the remote mountain village of Kazunari.  The note says that everyone in the village is now part of the Kings Game.  Every child in the village must touch a corpse before the end of the day.  No one can quit the game and those who refuse or are unable to complete the challenge will die.  Most of the children in the small village participate, with only one refusing and another left out, thinking nothing of it.  In the morning the two children who did not complete the challenge are found dead.  When the shocked children find a second Kings note they continue keep it a secret from the adults and go about meeting its demands with seriousness fearing its punishment as being real.

  In the following morning more villagers are found dead and when the kids wonder what went wrong they discover their participation in the previous Kings Game challenge was incomplete.  Convinced of the power and reality of the Kings Game they bring it to the attention of the village adults.  This time the note that appears includes everyone.  When those that are unable to complete the challenge die exactly as the note detailed the following day the entire village is convinced of the authenticity and threat of the game.  Their only choice now is to keep playing, hoping for a solution that will save the village.

    Prior to starting this manga I was mildly aware of the original source material which was a successful enough novel to get a live action film treatment.  I only knew a little bit of the premise but dove into the manga when it became available on Crunchyroll due to needing more manga and J-Ta Yamada's involvement.  The artwork is decent, and somewhat similar to Asatte no Houkou.  The detailed visceral deaths of the villagers are the real selling point of this story of savagery.

  The plot was easy to understand and the 'reveal' was rather obvious, what was painfully stupid though was the government version of what was causing everything to happen, which was then molded into a more interesting super natural aspect that could have been more powerful.  While the actual driver of the Kings Game was rather weak and absurd in comparison to what it could have been, the dissolution of the characters personalities was pretty good.  Between the ever present specter of doom, feelings of helplessness and the constant gory obliteration of your closest friends and family, everyone in the village starts to lose their humanity.  Some of the characters were more believable than others and in the end the writing was marginal.  The best part of the story was the dark and sinister things each round of the Kings Game made the villagers do.  Once the round was in place the participants followed a script that has been done time and time again in stories that pit humanity against survival.

    In the end it was an OK series, nothing too spectacular but it did have some entertaining moments.  The end seemed to be rushed a bit and was ultimately not very climactic.  The best parts were once the entire village began to participate in the game.  But after a while, as the numbers were severely dwindled it turned into a few personalities using the game as a struggle for control and domination instead of survival.  The series is currently available on Crunchyroll with no word on a print edition in the future.

Another

Another (アナザー) is a 12 episode psychological horror series based on the novel of the same name by Ayatsuji Akito.  It was originally broadcast in Japan in 2012.

    Sakakibara Koichi moves from Tokyo to a small rural town called Yomiyama.  He will be attending his final year of middle school in this remote town and living with his maternal grandparents while his father is working in India.  A collapsed lung causes him to miss the first month of school and when he is able to begin class he discovers something isn't right.  The entire class and faculty is ignoring the existence of one of the students, a moody and dark girl named Misaki Mei.  Bothered by the atmosphere of his classmates, Koichi decides to talk with Mei to find out whats going on.
 
  Their class has been cursed following an accidental death of a classmate 27 years earlier.  After the students death the classmates and teacher acted as if the student was still alive and part of the group.  The following year the class that occupied the room was struck with a series of accidental deaths.  Since then a number of rituals have been established in an attempt to ward off any such tragedy, with varying results.  Koichi's arrival coupled with his interactions with Mei cause everyone in the class to be on edge as they fearfully await the curse to strike their class.

    I am going to be really blunt with this one, it's not that good.  The character animation was pretty bad and the twists and plot hang ups were worn out and unoriginal.  The gotcha moments were partially due to muddled clues and work-around's more than deep and thoughtful puzzles and plot.  There was really only one shocking death and afterwards the show continued to set up scenario's where a character might die a la the horrible teen thriller series Final Destination.  The climax of the series was poorly executed and included elements that seemed out of place and were explained rather loosely and conveniently in the epilogue.

   Disappointingly, this series fell rather flat and did not really entertain as much as it could have.  It seemed the author decided to phone in some of the major plot points and what you end up with is a mix of Sixth Sense and Final Destination paired with galge moe aesthetics.  This was not my cup of tea and really dissapointed me.  It had the potential to be something deep and interesting, like Nijigahara Holograph, but ended up being fluff that relied to heavy on worn out idea's.

    The series is available commercially in North America, I streamed it on Crunchyroll.  The novel and manga adaptation are available from Yen Press.

Gants manga - Phase 3 - Katastrophy Phase

This is the third and final installment in the review of the long running sci-fi manga Gantz (ガンツ) by Oku Hiroya.  If you have not read Phase 1 or Phase 2 please go to them first before continuing.  Keep in mind that in order to properly review the series there are some plot spoilers.

    Phase 3, or Katastrophy, is the final installment of the Gantz manga.  It takes place between chapters 304 and 383.  Gantz is malfunctioning and it appears the game is over, but before anyone can celebrate their freedom huge ships appear around the world and begin reeking unparalleled devastation where ever they are.  First America is almost obliterated and before anyone can determine if it is real or not Tokyo is attacked by enormous mechs.  No place is safe as the entire city is a battleground.

    What at first appear to be mechs are battle suits as the alien invaders are gigantic humanoids.  The humans that are not killed are captured and flown to the aliens landing ship.  The attack begins while Kurano is in school and his primary concern is with Tae's safety.  He defeats two aliens that arrive at the school and flees, with a number of students and teachers following.  The refugees from school hide overnight in an abandoned hotel.  The alien attack resumes and as they flee Kurano is teleported away from Tae.

    This time he finds himself and many other black ball soldiers in a park.  A group of men have taken control of functioning balls and are forcing the people they summoned to invade the alien ship in order to do as much damage as possible.  Kurano and others find themselves in what looks like the aliens home world, surrounded by alien civilians, on a city street.

    Security forces arrive to suppress the human invaders and the teams face impossible odds.  The teams are transported out of the ship to prevent everyone from dying and then randomly teleported into various cities to await another round of attacks.  Kurano searches for Tae, but before he can reach her she is captured and sent off to the alien ship.  The entire thing driving Kurano forward is to save Tae.  He has little concern for the eraditcation of the invaders and takes every opportunity he has to find the only thing he cares for.  At the same time she works as hard as she can, against all odds, to survive in order to be reunited with him.

    Various battles are fought against the aliens by the teams who are the only ones that posses the firepower and experience to do anything against them.  As they struggle to prevent mankind's extinction they begin to understand the true nature of the black spheres.

    This final Phase really ties everything together and ratchets up the doom and destruction to incredible levels.  There is no safety and no time to rest.  In order to survive everyone must continue to struggle, hoping that their efforts will amount to something positive.  Reading it keeps you on the edge as the horrors of the invasion unfold, from the rampant destruction of the city to the harvesting of people for food.  The aliens see humans as nothing more than insects and pests.  There are some interesting moments when background powers come into play regarding the black balls.  Shadow groups have taken the chaos as an opportunity to vie for control of Earth once the victory they see possible takes hold.  In a strange portion the characters are summoned and directly explained the entire reason for the black spheres existences.  Honestly, it wasn't a bad secret either.  Its hard to tell is Oku-sensei had that idea in mind from the very beginning, but it worked out well.

    The artwork remains highly detailed and unfortunately some of that detail becomes muddied in the more action packed sequences.  There are a few portions where some was done via CG and it didn't mesh well with the hand drawn stuff, part of this may be due to the black and white format.  There are a few full color pages and those really make you want to see the entire thing in vivid color.  If the manga was in color it would be an incredible experience.  Oku's artwork is fantastic but so much is lost in the lack of color.  Regardless the mechanical designs in this Phase are excellent and really create a cyberpunk feel.  This Phase would make a fantastic movie, one Michael Bay would really enjoy making.

    It was hard to tell how the series would end and what type of answers would be given for the stories core mysteries.  The way it was executed was rather abrupt but worked.  The finale though seemed a bit rushed, there were segments of the time progression that were glossed over, import things.  You go from one extreme to the next with no real explanation for the shift.  The final issue as well was choppy in how the characters get from point a to point b.  Despite these plot inconsistencies the series wrapped up in a satisfying manner.  What was interesting was the direction Kurano's personality takes again.  His altruism recedes as he only cares about his own future with Tae and that drive propels him to fantastical survival mode.

    This was a long but quick series, quick due to much of the artwork being devoted to the battles.  There is not a lot of dialogue in the manga, considering its something like 3500 pages long.  It was worth the time and at the same point makes the anime unneeded.  The anime, which came out in 2004, only covers events for the first 8 tankoubon...thats 8 out of 37.  So really, once you read the manga watching the anime is rather pointless.  If you started with the anime, pick up the manga and have your need's satisfied, otherwise skip it.

    The series is licensed by Dark Horse comics in North America and all of the tankoubon are finally available in English.  A new Gantz series is set to begin at the end of 2015 with Oku writing and another person doing the artwork.  It will be hard to tell if it's good, as Oku's strong point really is his art.

Gantz manga - Phase 2 - Osaka Phase

This is the second part of the 3 part review of the sci-fi manga series Gantz (ガンツ) by Oku Hiroya.  The manga is divided into three parts, Phases, to read the review of Phase 1 go here.  Keep in mind that in order to properly review the series there are some plot spoilers.

    Phase 2, also known as the Osaka Phase, occurs between chapters 238 and 303.  It takes place with the team having failed to keep Kurano alive.  To their surprise two of the vampires end up in the room with Gantz, by hanging on to a team member during transfer.  Before they can deal with the uninvited guest's they find themselves on the streets of Osaka.  The reason they have been summoned as a sort of back up for the Osaka team is due to the alien targets immense power.  The local team looks at the new arrivals with disdain and exhibits an air of indifference unparalleled by anyone they have dealt with before.

   Un-phased by the mass of enemies and the quickly rising civilian death toll, the seasoned team takes their time with the mission.  Smoking joints, shooting heroin/amphetamines and getting on with what ever they can stick their dicks into in the process of eliminating the mass of targets.  Their cockiness seems to be earned as their weapons cause unparalleled damage.  Yet despite the amount of damage they do, the horde of aliens, who take after various yokai, soon prove to be more than a match for them.  The Tokyo team stands by in horror at the lackadaisical actions of the Osaka team, even as some of them begin to fall.  Kato particularly impresses one of the women on the Osaka team with his selflessness, something lacking with her compatriots.  Through her they learn that many of the Osaka players have reached 100 points many times, always opting for more powerful weapons, continuing to play the game.

    Yet even their experience and technical superiority begins to fall flat as the leaders of the horde enter the fray.  They begin to cut down the Osaka team one by one, as they foolishly approach them without caution.  Enough of the Osaka team die without doing much damage to the boss to convince the other members that they can't approach this battle in the way they normally do.  As things become desperate and the boss seems immortal the Tokyo and Osaka teams have to try and work together to survive.  The game no longer has a time limit and survival seems to be far from reality.

    When the mission finally ends the remaining members of the Tokyo team decide to revive Kurano, who does not remember anything after he chose to leave the game.  At this point they learn that everything they have been fighting for is coming to a close.  A counter on Gantz informs them that something known as the Katastrophe will take place in a matter of days.  Speculations about the timer is that it refers to the end of the human race, possibly through a nuclear war.

    Before the team can wait it out they are sent on another mission, this time as a taste for the impossible battle ahead.  They find themselves in Italy, fighting along a number of foreign teams against impossibly powerful aliens, who kill easily and can not be defeated.  Before the team suffers catastrophic loses Gantz returns them to the room to inform them the mission is over, with out any level of success.  The Phase ends with unknown black ships appearing all over the world, beginning with America.

    This Phase was interesting in that is expanded the characters and readers knowledge about the black balls.  Aside from the Tokyo teams' battle in Osaka, a side character, a reporter, digs into the people responsible for creating the black balls and learns some of their secrets.  Another thing that is explicitly shown in this Phase is the extreme personalities and attitudes of some of the people involved in the game.  There have always been people that arrive in the room with Gantz that are degenerates.  Plenty of times the buxom female team mates have had to protect themselves from inappropriate comments to down right rape attempts.  Many of the people chosen seem to be unscrupulous.  Yet nothing like the vile nature of many of the Osaka team.  In some ways its taken to comically extreme levels, like one who can't control his libido and fucks anything he can, including aliens.  The Osaka team makes the actions and motives of the Tokyo team stand out.  It makes them seem more honorable than they are.  This is especially key for them as attitudes have become slightly nihilistic following Kurano's death.

    The Osaka portion of the Phase occupies almost all of the story and drags on for longer than it should have.  The battle in Italy is over before you even know what is going on, but adds in interesting dichotomy.  For the first time they are pulled out of a mission before anything can really happen.  You get the feeling that Gantz is concerned for the teams safety.  But nothing can prepare them or the reader for whats about to happen in Phase 3.

Gantz manga - Phase 1

Gantz (ガンツ) is a sci-fi manga by Oku Hiroya.  The manga originally published in Japan between 2000 and 2013 in Weekly Young Jump.  The manga has been licensed and released in North America by Dark Horse.

    Gantz has been collected into 37 tankoubon, spanning 383 chapters.  It is broken into 3 story arcs, Phases, and for the purpose of reviewing it each phase will get its own review.  Phase 1 covers the majority of the manga as it goes from chapter 1 to chapter 237.

Beware: There are some broad spoilers in the review.

    Moody high school student Kurano Kei finds himself helping a childhood friend, Kato Masaru, rescue a drunk that fell onto train tracks.  Against his own selfish ideals he jumps down to help out to end up being killed by an oncoming express train.  Both boys find themselves suddenly in a room with a group of other people.  No one can leave the room, no one can contact the outside world, even though they can see Tokyo Tower from windows in the room.  An ominous black sphere occupies a portion of the space.  The sphere, dubbed Gantz, begins to play music and on the surface informs everyone in the room that they are dead and their new found lives are now the spheres property.  They are to hunt down an alien using weapons and equipment inside of the sphere.  Before everyone can comprehend what is happening they are teleported to a quiet suburban neighborhood, presumably to hunt down the target.

    Through a series of trials and errors they learn a few things; the are stuck in a small area of the city, if they leave it, a bomb in their heads explodes.  The weapons are more powerful and difficult to control than they appear and the fitted body suits they receive from Gantz will protect them for almost any attack.  They have a time limit in which to kill the target...sometimes there are dozens or hundreds of targets.  Once the targets are eliminated or the time is up, all surviving members will be transported back to Gantz with any damage taken being healed.  Once the mission is over they are free to leave the room and attempt to assume a normal life...until Gantz once again brings them into the room to kill more aliens.

    Kurano and Kato learn pretty quickly that the missions have high attrition rates.  Only a few people survive the first mission and the grim reality of their second chance on life sets in.  The only one from the group who knows whats going on is the dismissive and secretive middle school student Nishi Joichiro.  What they do learn is that they are given a set of three choices once they have achieved a score of 100.  At the end of each mission Gantz dispenses points based upon each persons actions and successes.  The survivors now have the 100 point goal a head of them and what ever it means.

    Kurano, being a sulky teenager has other things occupying his mind beyond his new role as forced soldier.  His sexual drive runs rampant and opportunities begin to present themselves to him amid the despair and desperation to live.  His life soon enough becomes consumed with fighting, fucking/wanting to fuck and the occasional stint at school dealing with being an outcast.  Again and again he is dragged into battles for his life, with people dying all around him.  He continues to survive, even when people he begins to form bonds with do not.  After one particularly brutal mission he finds himself all alone, surviving by a fluke.

    In life away from battles and lust a new transfer student, Izumi Shion, takes an interest in Kurano.  Much to his horror, the transfer seems to know a few things about Gantz.  Nishi had been stealthily running a blog talking about the missions.  Fearing that the bomb in his head would explode, he dodges the inquiry as much as possible.  At the same time he is being grilled by the impressive Izumi, Kurano is forced to date a quiet otaku in his class named Tae.

    Kurano fails a solo mission and has hits points wiped to zero.  To make things worse the alien he failed to kill tracks him down and fights him at school, outside of a Gantz mission.  Everyone in his class aside from Tae and Izumi end up dead and Kurano has to fight the alien in front of a large gathering of police.  Luckily he gets away with his actions and the government ends up wiping the unusual circumstances under the rug.  The attack though starts to build a bond between him and Tae.  Izumi shows his hand though as things start to calm down.

    Izumi had once been a part of Gantz and his wiped memories are trickling through, driving him to yearn for a return to the brutal killing game.  In a bid to return he stages a terrorist attack in Shinjuku, killing countless people before being killed himself.  The plan works and he, along with many of his victims, find themselves in the room with Gantz.  After many survive the first mission Kurano is unwittingly made the leader of the new group.  All the people he has lost in the previous month have been affecting his world view.  He know strives to prevent as many casualties in the missions as possible, further convincing some of the group that he is the leader of the Gantz team.

 

    As the team begins to coalesce, with few casualties, a new threat arrives.  Strange people who are able to see the Gantz team and are hunting them down.  This new threat is somewhat vampire in attitude and nature and they begin to cause problems for the team outside of missions.  The new threat makes the internal struggles, instigated by Izumi, more dangerous as well.  After unintentionally photographing one of the team mates while during a mission, Tae finds herself the next target by Gantz.  Izumi takes this as his cue and forces the rift he has been building wide open, telling those who support him the real target is Kurano and to kill both of them.

    Kurano fails to save Tae.  They learn that you can choose 3 things once you hit 100 points.  To leave the game, memories erased.  Gain a powerful new weapons or restore someone to life.  Kurano is driven more to hit 100 points to bring Tae back as well as continuing to fight in order to bring the other people lost over the months back.  The following mission is the most dangerous yet and the survivors are rewarded handsomely.  To show their respect for Kurano they each choose to revive people closest to Kurano.  They then force him to choose to leave the game.

    With Kurano now a 'civilian' with his mind wiped of the past months he spend fighting for Gantz, the team chooses the resurrected Kato as their leader and they continue to work as a well oiled machine, battling stronger and stronger aliens.  Their actions become visible as everyone around them can now see what is going on, much for the worse, as more normal people are being caught in the crossfire.  The battles become more severe and destructive.  This extremely long Phase ends with Kurano, still a civilian, being murdered by the vampires and the team in a strange battle field.

    OK, that's a lot to unpack and a lot of story and character development has been glossed over, as well as a few spoilers unleashed.  So lets dig in and critique this manga.

    The artwork and character designs are highly detailed and well done.  Mechanical designs are interesting and they used base layers of CG in the creation to help with some repeated effects in the panels.  The problem though is much is lost in scenes of high action, partially due to the lack of color and partially due to the denseness of the line work.  Many panels throughout the battles can become muddy and confusing.  But, the artwork is very detailed and ever without color there is a plethora of gore and visceral death with in it's pages.  There is also a very healthy dose of fan service and outright porn.  The women are large breasted and small framed and most of the men are small framed and free of bulky musculature.

    Story wise, its hard even at the end of Phase 1 to really get a feel for what is actually going on.  Little to no answers are given for the variety of questions and many of the semi-main characters die off sooner or later.  The purpose of Phase 1 seems to get the reader familiar with Gantz and what it means for the people that are trapped by it, continuously forced into these highly dangerous missions.  The aliens are unexplained as is Gantz it's self.  Instead there is focus on the bumpy and rather shallow psychological progression of Kurano.  He takes a rocky journey from nihilistic teenager to gaining a bit of compassion and humanity, but still being a moody bitch.

    In all the manga is engaging.  You keep coming back to see more and more as the characters continue to be thrown into impossible battles.  The story hits a snag though when it shifts to focus more than it probably should on normal Kurano and all of his self inflicted head games.  You eagerly await the next Gantz mission and a return to what this manga excels at...ultra violence.  And boobs...lots of boobs.

    This isn't for everyone, its definitely aimed at the teenage boy market.  It gives a 16 year old everything he could ever want from a manga.  An identifiable character who is alone and against the world.  Forced to fight fantastical monsters with alien weaponry in ultra horrific ways while big breasted naked/nubile women fling themselves at him.  It's the ultimate wet dream.  With it's flaws and its rampant fan service I was drawn to it as well and eagerly poured through each issue with reckless abandon.  I'm not sure there is any real re-readability with the story though as you really push through to see who survives and to find out the answers to the mysteries.  There are no answers in Phase 1...only death and sex, lots of both, but mostly death.

So there is a look at Phase 1, click here to move on to Phase 2.

School-Live!

School-Live! (がっこうぐらし!) is a 12 episode moe/zombie series based on the manga of the same name by Kaiho Norimitsu and Chiba Sadoru.  The series aired in Japan during the summer of 2015.

    A small group of girls is holed up in their school following the zombie apocalypse.  The girls have formed the Stay At School club in which they camp out in their club room, cook food at school and go about their lives with in the confines of the building.  One member, Yuki, has mentally repressed the disrepair to the school and the hordes of zombies around every corner.  The other members do their best to protect the group and sooth Yuki's fractured mind.  As they dig into the reasons why the school is as well stocked as it is they sense something intentional behind the state of the world around them.  They limit their expeditions outside of the relative safety of the school building as much as possible, but realize they can't stay there indefinitely.  Are there other survivors?  Is the entire world ruined now?  How long will their haven really last?

    The series is essentially the moe version of The Walking Dead, yet it still manages to have better acting than its live action brethren.  The animation is pure moe.  Cute girls in cute uniforms doing moe stuff.  The fan-service is rather low level though and the show really focuses on the plight of the survivors.  The majority of the first episode doesn't even elude to the apocalypse already in action as we see it through the delusion of Yuki.  The way this was handled was amazingly well done and is only the first of some well executed surprises in the show.  The bulk of the episodes deal with about 80% moe fluff and 20% doomed reality.  The fluff makes the hammer blows of reality hit harder than they would normally.  In all honesty, the show was pretty well executed and was thoroughly enjoyable.  It wasn't anything like I was expecting and did well to keep me wanting more.  Hopefully the short segment at the end of the final episode will lead to another cours of the series.

    The anime simulcast on Crunchyroll and Sentai Filmworks has picked up the distribution license.  The manga is being published in English by Yen Press.

Moryo no Hako

Moryo no Haku (魍魎の匣) is a 13 episode mystery anime based on the novel of the same name by Kyogoku Natsuhiko.  The anime was originally broadcast on TV in Japan in the fall of 2008.

    Sekiguchi Tatsumi is a writer who finds himself wrapped up in an investigation of young girls being murdered and dismembered.  The murders eerily echo a story he is reviewing for an up and coming author.  Over a period of time body parts are discovered in ornate boxes.  Sekiguchi becomes involved through a number of associates, including a detective and an onmyouji.  The investigation begins when the detective, Kiba Shutaro, arrives at a crime scene by coincidence.  The scene involves a young girl who was pushed into the path of the train Kiba was on.  The girls friend is distraught and Kiba tries to help her and the initial investigation.  The girl says a mysterious man in black, wearing white gloves pushed her friend into the train tracks.  The victim is the younger sister of a famous actress and when the local hospital stabilizes her, the older sister transfers her to a private research hospital.  The man running the private hospital was part of a clandestine group in Manchuria during World War 2, working on medically creating super solders.  As the investigation unfolds the girl is kidnapped from the hospital and a few associated people are murdered.  As more body parts are discovered the locals begin talking about an apparition dressed in black, wearing white gloves.  The investigations into the dismemberment and the kidnapped girl share similarities and everyone soon works together to unravel the puzzle before more girls are murdered in what appears to be someones sick obsession with immortality.

    Almost seven years after it initially aired I was finally able to sit down and watch all of this series.  In 2008 I had watched the first two episodes and it perked my interest but for some reason I never followed through until now.  Art-wise this series is very shojo, the characters are classic in that regard.  The women have large and deep eyes, pointy chins and lean fashionable bodies.  Many of the male characters are feminine yet hansom.  The reason for this is very simple...the character designs were done by CLAMP.  The story its self is jumbled and can be hard to follow at times.  There are a number of key characters and from episode to episode perspective can switch between them.  At times the chronological sequence is out of order as well.  In the end though the threads come together in a two episode classic 'who-dun-in' resolution.  While the mystery isn't all that intriguing the character interactions and development are the driving for for the story and worth that time alone.

    This, now older, series is a welcome reprieve for the standard anime fare.  It overs some indepth dialogue and believable/realistic characters.   I'm ashamed it took me so long to finally get around to watching the entire thing.  The anime is based on one book out of a trilogy by Kyogoku, each revolving around the main character Chuzenji Akihiho, known as Kyogokudo, who is a faithless onmyouji and dabbler in detective work.  The first book in the trilogy, Summer of Ubume, is available in English...and on my shopping list currently.  Though the current going rate is $100...so that might be a while... A live action movie was released in 2007 as well. 

    Sadly, this anime was never released outside of Japan.  It would find popularity alongside the series Monster by Urasawa Naoki, but I assume no one is willing to take the chance on the series.

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.

Mokuyobi Post - Mermaid Forest

Mermaid Forest (人魚の森) is a super natural thriller by Rumiko Takihashi.  This OAV is part of her darker one shot titles and were branded as Rumik World in the United States.  It was originally released in Japan in 1991 and is based on part of the Mermaid Saga manga.

    Legend has it that if you eat the flesh of a mermaid you will become immortal.  Twin sisters Sawa and Towa live in a remote estate during the Showa era.  Towa is sick and near death her sister gives her mermaids blood in a bid to heal her illness but it doesn't go as planned.  Yuta, who at this point has been alive for 500 years after eating mermaid flesh, ends up at the sisters estate in modern times.  Yuta has been searching for another mermaid in a bid to undo the curse of immortality.  He discovers the families long and dark secret.

    In the 90's for those of us who were initially exposed to the humorously perverted comedies that Takahashi is legendary for the darker Rumik World titles were a bit sobering.  The story is dark and sinister.  I never actually got any more into the Mermaid Saga story beyond this initial OAV and going back to it now and doing a bit more research I think I should actually get into it more.  Hell, until researching for this post I never knew it was also spun off into a 13 episode TV series.  I think it's time to either pick up the manga and/or watch the TV series and finally get around to watching Mermaid Scar.  I'm a fan of Takahashi's.  Maison Ikkoku and Ranma 1/2 hold special places in my early fandom, but honestly I think her titles that were wrapped into the Rumik World series are the best.  While her romantic/action comedies tend to drag on it seems her shorter works were able to focus on quality story telling and interesting plot lines.

    The OAV was released pretty early in North America by Viz, but appears to have never gotten beyond the VHS copy...not sure why it appears to have never been released on DVD...

Side Note: I re-watched parts of this recently to brush up on it and noticed that Viz mistranslated the newspaper in the very beginning.  They have it marked down as PM Okuda dying, but when i did some research and looked at the kanji it was really supposed to be PM Okada who was supposedly murdered by rebel soldiers in a failed coup, only to be found alive a few weeks later.

Brynhildr in the Darkness

Brynhildr in the Darkness (極黒のブリュンヒルデ) is a 13 episode fantasy action series based on the manga of the same name by Lynn (Rin) Okamoto who also created Elfen Lied.  The series aired in Japan in the spring of 2014.

    Murakami Ryota is a senior in high school who hopes to work in the space industry.  He is carrying on the love of astronomy help by his deceased childhood friend, Kuroha Neko.  10 years earlier Neko had died trying to save Ryota and the burden of her death has weighed heavily on him since.  When a transfer student who resembles her shows up he does everything he can to make her remember him.  The transfer student, however, has no recollection of ever meeting Ryota.  In the evening of her arrival she visits the remote observation building where Ryota spends much of his time to warn him of his pending death.  Not wanting to believe her, he breaks his word and heads home only to be caught in a rock slide.  Moments before his life ends, the transfer student appears and, using mysterious power’s, obliterated the boulder about to crush them.  She confides in Ryota that she is a witch but to stay away from her if he wants to live.  Not satisfies, Ryota follows her home to discover a paraplegic girl and a lot of blood.  The transfer student shows up but Ryota is able to convince her to let him help.  They tell him they ran away from a secret project that is transforming girls into witches via an implant in their neck.  Their time is running out as the medicine that keeps them alive is almost gone.  Feeling drawn to the girl who looks like his lost best friend and his inherent nature to help others, Ryota decides he's going to help these girls stay alive and protect them from this shadow corporation.  Little does he know the danger he is getting himself into.

    It took a lot to actually watch all of this show, there was a bit of fan service and a ton of cosplay characters.  It was mildly a harem story, but not really.  What got me was the brutality and the mystery surrounding the witches.  But in the end, the mystery wasn't that good; in fact the last 1 and a half episodes were pretty weak.  All of a sudden this whole other faction of Catholic people show up and start wrecking shop out of nowhere and you get into weird proto-alien life and...yeah it got stupid pretty fast during the climax.  The anime was shoddy at best and really not worth the time.  There were a few moments of excitement and intelligence, but overall, a shoddy follow up to the excellent Elfen Lied.  Something tells me the manga had more information and they decided to pare it down with the anime but I don't care enough to read the manga to find out.  I should go watch Elfen Lied again...

    The series was simulcast via Crunchyroll in North America; I have no idea on any sort of disc release at the time.  The manga is not currently being published in North America.