Maho Tsukai Tai (Magic User Club) OAV

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

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

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

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

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

Full Metal Alchemist - Quick Compairison

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

20th Century Boys (the manga)

20^th Century Boys is the large scale undertaking by mangaka Naoki Urasawa (Monster and Pluto). It is a 249 issue science fiction/mystery/post apocalyptic story that revolves around events brought into motion during 1969 and 1970 between a group of friends and their ‘innocent’ games.

    The story starts out bouncing between 1969/1970 and the late 1990’s. The most prominent protagonist, Kenji, helps his mother run their family business while taking care of his older sisters' infant daughter, Kanna. His sister arrived home one day, begging for them to take care of the child indefinitely and with no explanation. Kenji, who feels guilty for everything his sister has gone through due to his own selfishness, agrees whole heartedly to care for his niece, much to his mother’s disapproval. A police investigation into the disappearance of a neighborhood family who regularly visits the store brings Kenji face to face with a mysterious symbol that evokes memories he can’t place his finger on. Soon after the sudden and tragic death of a childhood friend he discovers a letter from said friend that contains the same symbol and asks him if he remembers it from their childhood. During the funeral and the class reunion that follows he begins to question his other friends about the symbol. As they stew over it they begin retelling their childhood adventures in the summers of 1969 and 1970 as the youth revolution was taking place and a group of adolescent boys played in an abandoned field, planning future roles as saviors of mankind.

    As Kenji tries to dredge through he and his friends memories a mysterious cult is spreading. The leader of the cult is an enigmatic figure known only as ‘Friend’ who wears the symbol from Kenji’s childhood as a mask. Kenji digs deeper into the mystery of his past and discovers that the cult of Friend is more related to him than he expected. He finds disturbing evidence that the missing family and his friends’ death are linked to the cult. His friend’s collective memories help them to rediscover a buried time capsule from their childhood that confirms the symbol and alarming events that are unfolding in the world which could bring mankind to the brink of destruction. It is now up to Kenji and his childhood compatriots to come to the worlds rescue, just as they pretended in childhood games in their grass fort 30 years previously.

    I started reading the manga a few years ago and enjoyed it, but for unremembered reasons stopped reading it only to return to it once again recently due to my renewing interest in it’s author. Naoki Urasawa is fast becoming one of my favorite mangaka due to his well detailed art and excellent story telling. He is truly a master of his art and continues to produce riveting and engaging stories. He has distinct character designs which are simplistic in form but present a world full of normal looking people as opposed to biijin or standard manga fare. You can tell that someone is Asian or European in his character designs. Artistically, his best work is in backgrounds and mechanical designs, of which he devotes much of his detail too. Urasawa seems to belong to the same school as Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira, Steam Boy and Domu) as both artists have similar character designs and attention to background and mechanical details.

    While 20^th Century Boys is an incredibly well done and engaging series, it is relatively long. It is uncertain to me whether Urasawa had the rough outline of how the series would go from the start or if he continued it for as long as he thought would work. For a story that has a definite ending to it he was able to extend it to the length of an open ended series like Naruto or Lone Wolf and Cub. At times the length can contribute to some fatigue as you are just wanted to see a resolution to the story. The end of the story does also seem abrupt. The climax was long and well done but the final events fall flat just a little bit and don’t exactly explain everything, feeling as if the ending was rushed. This for the most part is alleviated by the short follow up series 21^st Century Boys. At times the large character base can also become confusion, especially with people being referred to with their actual names and their nicknames, which might partially be on purpose. This comes into play most notably in trying to figure out the identity of ‘Friend’.

    Aside from its faults this is an excellent series, something that can transcend the otaku barrier of most manga. The series doesn’t pander to any manga otaku standards or stereotypes but does pay homage to classic era comics, such as Tetsujin 28. The story is realistic, the characters, while larger than life, are ordinary and the suspense and mystery are of a trans-cultural style. The series has been made into a trilogy of live action films as well, which are to be released on disc in America in the fall of 2009 by Viz, and have also been appearing in numerous film festivals around the world to positive response. I’ll have to do a review of the first movie which I watched a few months ago.  This series is a great read for anyone who enjoys realistic, deeply involving mystery’s that aren’t of the Agatha Christi variety. It is both serious and humorous. The characters all have unique personalities, represented in their physical appearances, such as one friend nicknamed Keroyon, who looks frog like. The story deals both with the wistful memories of carefree childhoods and grim realities of human greed and animalistic tendencies. I highly recommend this quality series to anyone who wants something beyond the world of power ups, inadequate teenage love or life changing sports victories.

Pluto

In the continuing effort to stimulate my interest in fictional tales presented in a graphical format by the citizens of the island nation of Japan I read the professional fan fiction piece, Pluto.

    Pluto is drawn and written by Naoki Urasawa, who is fast becoming one of my favorite mangaka. Urasawa is responsible for both Monster and 20^th/21^st Century Boys which I have enjoyed. Pluto is a serious and mature psychological/sociological future thriller/police drama. It takes place in the world created by Osamu Tezuka (the god of manga) with his creation Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy) and deals with the mystery surrounded the murders of the worlds most powerful robots and scientists related to them. The main person traversing the world searching for clues is named Gesitch, a detective with the international police body, Europol. Gesitch has personal interest in the investigation as he is one of the 7 most powerful AI in the world and those being murdered are his friends.

    In this future world robots and humans live in semi peaceful and accepting harmony. Four years earlier it was embroiled in a destructive and costly war in which a theocratic Middle Eastern nation, Kingdom of Persia, suspected of trying to create robots of mass destruction and of crimes against AI life forms, was attacked in an allied campaign lead by the United States of Thracia (read USA). The war ended quickly with the help of 6 of the most powerful robots in existence, but not before a great price was paid. The Persian nation was left is desolation and misery and democracy was forcefully brought to its people and AI were granted their international rights. Yet out of the destruction and hatred a demon was borne whose sole purpose would be the destruction of human life.

    Not only does the story explore the internal mystery with the murders and the motivations behind them it also tackles the ideas of artificial intelligence and it’s relation to humanity. The classic Asimovian robotic law that one can not kill a human is a center piece in the story. The ideas of AI and emotions also play a prominent role. Hatred and fear do as well, as we see a KKK likened mystery group who plots to overturn the international robot bill of rights.

    The story is finely crafted yet relies solely on tried and true plot devices. Ideas such as the perfect machine not being so perfect after all and genius creating evil out of good intentions are just some of the themes. While such regurgitations can be seen as poor writing the author presents them in excellent form. The story builds and builds to the breaking point but begins to fall flat near the end where it ends in a solid yet some what disappointing tone. Where realism and psychology are the major forces behind the majority of the story in the end it degrades to a fast paced homage to its source material as we see giant, classic era robots fight it out over the fate of the world.

    Aside from the ending and the un-inventive plot devises the only other real issue I had with the series was in the seven greatest AI. All but 2 of them are human looking, which is odd but somewhat understandable. The AI can choose bodies of their own.  All they have to do is move their AI chip between them. Yet two of the seven are in classic age robot forms while the rest are in human forms. It is as if these 2 where actually created that way while the other 5 were created to look human. Then again they needed the main characters to be human so we could relate with them on a physical level but there probably couldn’t be much to say about 7 of the greatest robots looking nothing like robots. Either way it’s just me nit picking and has nothing to do with the outcome of the story…it was just odd.

    The series is good, excellently written and drawn. The idea that he ran with a small arc in Tetsuwan Atom and created a fantastic modern story is great. It would be very entertaining to see this series in a condensed live action movie form and it would translate well, especially given our special effect abilities now. This is a great read if you are a fan of mature action and mystery titles or if you are a fan of the Astro Boy world and want to see it made for adults. There is a great write up about this series at the following web site http://tezukainenglish.com/?q=node/147

Kimi no Iru Machi

While the spring and summer anime selection has left me in despair I have recently returned to the world of manga. After finding out that Kouji Seo, mangaka of Suzuka, has been releasing a new series I decided I needed to jump on it.  Since the manga for Suzuka ended I have had a void in the sloppy high school romance category and with my discovery of Kimi no iru Machi (A town where you live) it has been filled.

    Kimi Machi follows the day to day struggles of self sufficient first year rural Hiroshima high school student Haruto Kirishima. Just before the school year starts a freeloader interrupts his blissful existence. The daughter of a friend of his fathers has chosen to move from Tokyo to Hiroshima and live with them for unexplained reasons. The energetic, helpless and genuine Yuzuki Eba arrives and instantly grates on Haruto’s nerves. He is troubled by the uninvited appearance of a girl his age that he knows nothing about and will be sharing his home with. Immediately he attempts to hide her from his one sided love interest, classmate Nanami Kanzaki, which quickly backfires. Almost as quickly Haruto’s childhood friend, Takashi Yura, discovers her existence and falls for her. Takashi confides his feelings to Haruto and warns him he should quickly choose too between her and Nanami so he doesn’t get too attached. Haruto, off put by Yuzuki’s personality and sudden intrusion into his peaceful existence, has no interest in her.

    As time goes and they become closer he does develop feelings for her, not so much love, but a sense of protection. He fears that if left alone she is incapable of surviving. At the same time he is also becoming friendly with Nanami and when he confesses his feelings she shoots him down, only to come back later and ask him to wait for a proper answer. As he thinks his life is returning to normal and the girl of his dreams is within his grasp everything is thrown into confusion when he learns why Yuzuki moved away from home in the first place. Will Haruto’s sense of duty for the wayward Yuzuki jeopardize his opportunities with Nanami?

    Ok, so it’s a by-the-book high school romance filled with all sorts of push over characters who can’t express their own feelings and muddle through their affairs, shooting them selves in the feet along the way. The character designs look exactly like those found in Suzuka, especially Nanami, who looks very much like Suzuka herself. In fact the story is a bit of a crossover with the other one. Haruto’s older sister goes to college in Tokyo and bunks at the dormitory building that the Suzuka characters do. In one scene two of the side characters make an off screen appearance as well. While the details are different it is essentially the same story. While this can be seen as a bad thing I actually welcome it, it is nice and worn in, familiar and much missed. Since the manga for Suzuka ended I have only been able to partially fill the void left behind. This series, which is currently running and only on it’s 50^th issue, has been able to fill that hole nicely where other series only did so temporarily. I’m sure a lot of that has to do with the incredible similarity.

    While I do like the series and will continue to read it there are some things that are annoying. There is still an unnecessary plethora of shots of all the female characters bathing through out the series. I can understand the reason, this series, like its predecessor, is aimed at teenage boys who happen to like male geared romances. While not really a harem story, it still relies on the traditional idea of the weak and indecisive female love interests. Then again in today’s market any strong willed female character will get slotted into the tsundere category and make that idea a moot point, because all tsundere are afraid and in need of a mans direction on the inside anyways. Either that or she’s a dyke. So, while I can’t count on any strong and independent ‘normal’ female roles in Kimi Machi let alone anime/manga in general, it doesn’t mean that I still can’t enjoy the story. What it does mean, along with the self consciousness of the lead male, is that I want to reach through the pages and strangle every last damn character.

    So if you are enjoyed Suzuka or Miyuki this series will fit in nicely. There is no hint as to how long it will last and if there will ever be an anime adaption, but until then you can keep repeating the same thing over and over again by reading a rehash of a rehash of a re…

UPDATE: There was a 12 episode anime rendition released in 2013 and the manga is currently into the mid 200's issue count.  There is no word yet on the anime being licensed in North America, but the manga will soon be available online through a new service from Crunchyroll.

Attack of the New Season

The recent crops of anime that have been surfacing in Japan have increasingly swung over to the unholy land of fan service and regurgitation. The midterm summer season, which gaps the space between when the big important full season series that aired in October end and when the next new hyped shows begin, has usually been filled with less then inspiring titles. This year is the worst that I have witnessed in the number of years I have been faithfully following the Japanese season cycles, searching for the freshest newest series’. Usually I will view the mass majority of the new titles airing and offer up a few paragraphs for each, giving a short plot synopsis and my initial reactions to the shows. This year however, I don’t want to destroy that many brain cells and have resorted to fast forwarding through episodes to get a general feel for them. Out of the dozen or so shows, probably more really, I have settled on just 3 to watch, and what is really sad is that only one of them is new.

Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood is just a retell of the original series based on the on going manga, so no real new ground there, but definitely a welcomed and familiar story. The incredibly cute and kid friendly Chi’s Sweet Home was green lit with a second installation of the 3 minute slice of life series subtitled Chi’s New Home.

So while we see that two of the three brand new TV series I have decided to watch are continuations and rehashes of shows already aired one wonders out of the bounty of new shows what the third and new series is all about. Could it possibly the semi anticipated fantasy series based on the semi popular ero game filled with gratuitous nudity, ludicrous body fluid and fanservice, Queens Blade? Could it be the great American past time summer sizzler shonen sports romp Cross Game? Or possibly the attempts to tap into the highly lucrative fan base that gave us 2 seasons of the riveting mecha sports series Eureka Seven (also slated for a theatrical release soon) in the basketball mech series Basquash! While I was tempted to watch the bi-shonen Victorian supernatural thriller Pandora Hearts, I also knew I couldn’t forget about the apparent homage to over the top action video game titles with Sengoku Basara. I also passed up two titillating fantasy titles, Slap Up Party and Tears to Tiara. No, I finally made my choice and with bypassing the amazingly cleaver fanservice laden Asura Cryin’ and Valkyria Chronicles. I settled on Higepiyo.

Now you may say, but why settle for a 5 minute off the wall comedy about a bearded chicken that acts like an old Japanese man when you have such comedic gems as Charady’s Daily Joke or K-on. But no, I have to stand my ground and keep my self from being inundated with too many quality shows, even if it means I have to forsake watching the thrilling super natural mystery Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom.

Now I may find room for other series, as I am backlogging season two of Hayate the Combat Butler seeing as I have only watched 6 episodes from the original series and I have some mild interest in Shangri-La and Eden of the East. I have yet to get to these titles u to so much time being spent trudging through the pile of quality crap presented to me so far.

I think I’m beginning to hate fanservice.

Blade of the Immortal - anime

Blade of the Immortal (無限の住人) is a 13 episode historical action series based on manga of the same name by Samura Hiroaki.  It was originally broadcast on Japanese TV in 2008.

    Blade of the Immortal takes place in the shogunate era of Japan, where the samurai has become complacent and weak due to the relative lack of war that was seen in the previous era's. Instead of fighting all of the time these upper crust warriors occupy their time with debauchery and graft. One positive way the clans keep themselves out of trouble is through teaching their own unique fighting styles to anyone willing to pony up the cash. One ambitious dojo, which was spawned due to a schism from another dojo, has decided that it will unite all of the schools in Japan under its own banner and those that resist will be destroyed. On their path to redemption a hit squad from the dojo attacks the dojo which they originally broke away from, killing its members and leaving the teenage daughter of the head of the dojo alive. Young Rin vows vengeance for the senseless murder and rape of her parents and trains day and night to kill the men responsible for her misery.

    With the guidance of an old Buddhist nun she is introduced to a scruffy swordsman named Manji to hire as a bodyguard while she is on her path to redemption. Manji offers an advantage to her goal in the fact that he is nearly immortal. Years earlier Manji went on a rampage killing samurai responsible for the death and dishonor of his father. The 100^th and final samurai he fought was his sister’s husband. The killing blow was dealt in front of her, causing her to close up and revert mentally to a child. The old nun found Manji on his deathbed and fed him magical worms that spread through out his body, healing all of his wounds, restoring him to life. Manji, feeling guilt over the state his sister was in, decided to dedicate his life to caring for her, until one day when she was murdered by a group of bandits. After her death he vowed to the nun that he would repent for his sins of killing 100 good guys by killing 1000 bad guys. Once he reaches his goal she would have to remove the cursed worms from his body so that he may join his sister in death. Seeing an opportunity to help Manji she points Rin in his direction.

    Now, with an almost unstoppable killing machine by her side they set out on the path of vengeance against Rin’s parent’s killers. Along the way they both must face personal awakenings and physical danger as they immerse themselves into a plot much bigger then either imagines.

    So I have been a fan of the manga since the mid 90’s and right from the beginning had dreamed of an anime. At first I was hesitant when seeing the trailers as I wasn’t keen on the detail in the artwork. The manga is highly detailed. I overcame my objection with the art after watching the first episode understanding that it would be expensive to replicate the level of detail found in the manga.  The simplicity of the design in the anime worked well. The series was mostly faithful with the manga, they added in a few things that didn’t take place in the manga at specific points but it actually helped with the story. As the manga evolved, more and more elements were introduced, with the anime they began introducing them early on. In the manga it seems as if Samura didn’t have a set idea when he started and evolved it as he went. With the anime they could introduce those elements earlier, giving them more depth and understanding. The anime quickly pounds through the first few issues of the comic, covering the beginnings of the journey of growth and revenge, while touching the surface of the grander schemes being formulated in the shadows. Then, it ends. The anime is only 13 episodes that leave nothing resolved and more questions and plot lines in the wings, waiting. The end of the final episode points to more coming in the future, but with the fickle anime industry that is very questionable.

    While it was only 13 episodes long and barely scratched the surface of the story I was still quite happy with the result. I have no complaints with the anime aside form the soundtrack, which at first was cool but then got grating as the same music continued to be played, over and over and over again in each episode. The animation, while simple, fit well and was executed properly. The voices for the characters that I have only imagined for over a decade did not disappoint my hard core nerd aesthetics. The translation of the manga to anime was quite faithful and the things they changed were done for the better. All in all it was a very satisfying anime and even if more never gets made I don’t feel any loss. At least this was created and did justice to this long running and personal favorite manga. One question remains from the anime though, and that is the continued eluding to Manji being placed in modern times. In both the opening/ending credits and the eye catches between commercial breaks they show images and scenery of the modern word. Weird...

    The anime was licensed for release in North America by Media Blasters.  The entire manga, 31 volumes, is available through Dark Horse comic.

A Quick Look at the Spring 2009 anime season

It is the April and that means brand new anime for the spring/summer season. Unfortunately this season’s selection leaves a lot to be desired. Here are a few of the new series I have watched and/or skimmed through.

Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood the eagerly anticipated follow up to the immensely popular shonen adventure series from 2004 proved to be mysterious (at least to me) in what it was actually going to cover. The original series had wrapped up neatly once the movie was released and there seemed to be no room left to expand the story. Everyone wondered what this new series was going to give us, could it possibly life beyond the movie? Then as the previews started rolling out it became obvious that it was going to be a remake of the original series. This was only partially true. The new series is based on the manga, which apparently was based off of the original series. So in a way we are seeing a rehash of the original story, but the manga is still on going. So we have a completely different canon now with the series in the form of the Brotherhood TV show. This brings to mind two things, we have to go through some of the same boring parts that were slow in the original (like their origins and leaving their country life in search of salvation) and the fact that we pretty much know most of what is going on, at least if you can consider the story to be similar to the original anime. You know who all the bad guys are; you know the major twists, what else is there to find out? Know, not having read the manga, I’m not sure how different it is from the original anime, but to some extent I don’t see some things changing, like the identity of King Bradley and the location of the brothers missing body parts. On the other hand, I truly enjoyed the original anime and it will be nice to spend time once again with comfortable characters, especially the ones who died prematurely in the original anime. One question remains to be answered above all else; if this is based on the still running manga, how long with this anime last and when do the fillers start?

It is Full Metal Alchemist, the animation is the same, the people are the same, you know what’s going on, but it is still nice to return. It’s like rewatching the original and catching things you missed before and not actually rewatching the original. I will be happy to indulge until it becomes oppressive like Naruto and Bleach have become.

Higepiyo is one in a list of new, odd-ball comedy shorts that shows the slice of life day to day events of the plutonic Japanese family (mom, dad, and son) and their new adopted pet chicken. There is just one problem; the chicken has a beard and acts in every way shape or form like a surly unemployed old man. So for 500 yen the family has acquired a sake drinking, ass scratching, morning news watching chicken.

If you don’t think this is funny there is something wrong with your sense of humor. Sure if you don’t understand the subtle jokes about how the chicken behaves it could be due to inexperience with certain Japanese specific mannerisms. There is the danger that the show can get old quickly, you really only have so far you can go on the premise of the story. You can only introduce the odd poultry to new people so many times before it gets boring seeing new people over react about its human like tendencies. You can only show the foul acting like ji-chan so many times before enough is enough. What might really make the series carry on for a little longer is to find out that he’s a Yakuza chicken as well. It would be highly entertaining, for a while anyways, to see Higepiyo (literally bearded cheep) pullout some Yak moves. If he produces a chicken sized wakizashi I’ll be on the floor. I don’t foresee the mafia thing, but for now watching the chick act like a 70 year pensioner with no qualms about his attitude is fun. It also helps that the episodes are around 5 minutes long.

Chi’s New Address is the second series of the sweet, entertaining, kid friendly slice of life story about a lost kitten and her new human owners. The series picks up where the original one left off. Chi’s humans are faced with either moving form their apartment or getting rid of her, since they can’t have pets where they live. Now they must make the decision and life on from there.

Nothing has changed from the first series, the episodes are drawn the same, are still about 3 minutes in length and feature cute, funny and endearing adventures in this adorable kittens life…my kids are ecstatic with the shows return.

Basquash! is another title to ad to the ever growing cross genre of sports mecha anime. For me it pretty much stops there. The animation is sub par, although the mech designs are pretty cool, if only they were used for good as opposed to evil. The show is about basketball mechs. For some unholy reason crap like this gets very popular, see Eureka Seven, not only do these shows suck because its combining mechs with sports they really suck because the rely on every horrible shonen plot device in existence. A quick flip through the first episode proves that this show will not disappoint in the shonen suckyness area either.

Queens Blade is the epitome of televised fan service. This fantasy, in more way than one, is based on a semi popular ero video game and deals with a cast of scantly clad, obscenely well endowed women warriors as they do what ever it is they do to allow them to sleep better at night. While the show is on TV, I admit it must on cable, because it is semi graphic in the nudity department and sticks to its hentai roots by having anatomical weapons as part of its character offensive line up.

This show really stinks of bad mid 90’s hentai, and looks like it too. I hate fantasy anime to begin with, so make it look like something that came out 15 years ago, have it be directly from the ero empire and you really have yourself a steaming pile of celluloid garbage to fester on your hard drive. In fact the only reason I still haven’t deleted the damn thing is to mess with people with…but soon it will meet with its digital demise and I will try to repress any memories of what I have watched by watching Chi again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and aga

Xam'd Lost Memories

     Xam’d Lost Memories is a 26 episode sci-fi action anime that was released over Sony on the PSN network. The series is an original creation by design studio Bones and ‘aired’ from fall of 2008 until winter of 2009.

    In an alternate world there are two great nations in ever changing states of conflict, the Northern Government and the Southern Continent Free Zone. A small free zone island known as Sentan is caught in the middle of the currently brewing conflict after a mysterious white haired girl blows up a school bus leading to an invasion by Northern Government bio-weapons. In the bus explosion a high school student named Akiyuki is injured by a foreign object included in the bomb known as a Hiruko, the Hiruko embeds it’s self within his body. The Hiruko are symbiotic creatures cherished by a cult like sect in the Northern Government who wish to bring about world change by creating more Hiruko/human symbiotes known as Xam’d. As the bio-weapons rain on Sentan Island, Akiyuki transforms, against his will, into the Xam’d, a powerful mutant creature, and fights the invading weapons.
 

    An independent postal ship gets caught up in the action and one of it’s crew, a member of a disgraced Northern Continent tribe, named Nakiami, sense’s the Xam’d in the city, she rushes to stop him from going berserk. Nakiami’s people, the Tessikan, are experienced in the ways of the Xam’d and know how to control them. She quickly subdues Akiyuki and brings him aboard the postal ship leaving the military to continue defending the city. Akiyuki is now captive on the ship as Nakiami works to prevent him from being consumed by the Hiruko and turning to stone. He must find himself and what the Xam’d inside him seeks, trying to become one with the Hiruko in order to survive it.

    While Akiyuki is traveling the world, his home is under constant threat by the Northern Continent. The Southern Continent Free Zone military has moved to using the island as a staging ground for its renewed fight against the North. Akiyuki’s friends end up joining the military out of a sense of duty and become entangled with a secret experiment to create Xam’d for military use on the island. As the war progresses and everything is thrown into chaos Akiyuki and the rest of the crew of the postal ship find themselves in danger from both sides.   He must find his own path and discover the truth behind the Xam’d.

    This is probably the most original and engrossing anime since Ergo Proxy and the more I watched the more I enjoyed it. The series reminded me of a cross between Nausicaa and Last Exile. The animation is middle of the road compared to today’s standards. The character designs are cartoonish and simple as opposed to realistic. The animation is nice though and does well with the story which is funny, dramatic and lonely at the same time. A large theme with many of the characters is solitude. The story is large and complex with much of the background left to hints and whispers. You never get a sense of the whole picture and some of the details are never truly explained, especially in regards to the bio-weapons and the wars. You are thrown into the mix right away in the first episode and things are slowly explained as the series progresses, so at first many things are confusing. There are many characters, some of which are barely explained, but each is easily identified so there is little confusion about who is who. It would have been nice to know more about the history of the world.

    What might be interesting would be a movie or a short OAV set that tells about events from the previous war that are hinted at and touched upon in the series by Akiyuki’s father and others his age. There is much more potential in this world to expand and create spin-off’s. A nice side story dealing with a band of freedom fighters that show up near the end of the series would be entertaining as well. Whether that would be a good idea is up to debate, but it is unlikely there will ever be more of the series.

    My biggest complaint with the series is some of the unnecessary and rote sappiness as the climax unfolds. Love can only carry you so far, but to have that be a catalyst in the build up to the end seemed to be a bit cheap and lazy.  Considering the quality of the rest of the series up until that point, but it is what it is, it still ends up finishing strong.

Akitaku

In light of my growing disdain for the most rabid of otaku fan-boy’s I have recently coined a term that I feels best labels them when talking with other like minded individuals. This term is Aki-taku or Akitaku. By combining the, once derrogative, term otaku (essentially obsessive fan) with a condensed version of the name of their hallowed ground, Akihabara in Tokyo, I feel that I have sufficiently titled this particular member of the otaku group. This also is a poke at the otaku shortening of their haven, Akiba, which irks me to no end.

Time for a bit of a history lesson;

    Otaku traditionally means inside. I’m not sure at what point the term was utilized as an insult but I can definitely pinpoint it being widely used by the early 80’s. You may wonder why a word meaning inside, as in inside of ones house, came to be used to label obsessed fans. Until the 21^st century the true Otaku have been an incredibly anti social lot. They are known to spend much of their time indoors, in their rooms, locked away from everything else except for their obsession. Thus the term actually fits perfectly.

A few years ago I read a manifesto by a long time professed otaku and notable manga-ka (manga artist/writer) who assaulted the current flock of otaku who crowd the streets of Akihabara as being posers and dangerous pedophiles. Stating that any true otaku, her self included, would not be out in public, hanging out in maid cafes or street performances.  They would be locked away in their secret domains, because their obsession is the only thing that matters, everything else is useless and unnecessary. The traditional Otaku chooses their passion over contact with other human beings. Many traditional Otaku are also hikikomori (extreme anti-social shut-in, sometimes plain agoraphobics).

In western cultures otaku is a term associated with anime and manga, but otaku is a blanket reference to any one with a dangerously consuming hobby. Next to manga and anime otaku (manga otaku outweigh the anime ones) one of the next largest otaku tribes are military otaku. Another large faction are train otaku, who obsess about everything train related. A train otaku restaurant recently opened in Akihabara, amid concern that it would cause problems with the anime/manga otaku.

The common theme is for the otaku to be holed up in their tiny room surrounded by any and everything related to their hobby; to breathe it in, live it, dream of it and fantasize about it. The traditional otaku is socially defunct and extremely single minded as well. They usually tend to have poor social interaction skills due to not caring for anything other then their obsession and even tend to chafe each other when they meet. True otaku tendencies can be very dangerous if their obsession is something such as with idols. This can lead to very unhealthy and dangerous thoughts and actions towards the idols or facsimiles. What makes this extremely troubling is that many idols are underage girls. So an overly obsessed idol otaku could be prone to not only attacking the idol but other underage girls who could be used as a substitute. What has been troubling lately is that the idols are getting younger and younger, leading to more dangerous possibilities, let alone the exploitation factor. Now, this does not mean that all idol otaku will attack a young girl; I’m not implying that in the slightest. What I am stating, which has been stated many times before, for many different cases, is that when the sole, obsessive, focus of one individual is aimed at a minor, even in a socially acceptable format, there is a higher chance of it leading to some form of assault. It’s just common sense that any magnified obsession can be more prone to planting the seeds of action.

I, like most westerners, refer to otaku almost exclusively within the realm of anime, manga and everything associated with such. I feel that there are different levels of otaku as well. I will use the term in a non-offensive way, but I will also use it as an insult and will fight anyone who try’s to call me an otaku. Although by some definitions I am an otaku, I still refuse it. There are Law and Order otaku out there but no one points that out…there are different, American, terms for those people..

             In the modern, public, definition of the label otaku, images of poorly dressed, socially inept, single, virgin, males comes to mind. They fawn over characters from their favorite series, buy up every bit of specialized merchandise related to a particular title, obsess over things such as voice actor habits and schooling. A comparable western fan would be a Trekkie.

The anime and manga industries have also been heavily courting the otaku since they have emerged as a major economical force. This means that a larger percentage of titles produced are aimed more specifically at these niche groups, as opposed to broader audiences. To the industry they would rather target the otaku, who will spend all of their money on any merchandise related to a favorite title, than the average viewer, who will watch the show semi-regularly as it is broadcasting and maybe buy the DVD’s when they come out. The otaku, easily lured by phrases such as ‘limited edition’ will buy every single piece of trite merchandise, related to their fandom, possible. It is easy to repackage something, add a small amount of flare, call it special, charge double what the original cost and sell out 10 minutes after launch. Case in point; when Evangelion: You are not Alone was released into theaters. It did phenomenally well. Soon they will be issuing a different edit of the movie and re-releasing that into the theaters. I guarantee it will make more than half of what the first version made in the box office, even though probably little was changed in the movie, which is just a remake of the first few episodes of the original TV series.

          The current otaku awakening has also brought about the moe-revolution. Moe (pronounced 'Mo A') is a term of endearment said when something touches your heart or is just too damn cute to exist. One thing that moe represents is the otaku view of women. Most otaku men don’t have the confidence to talk with women, let alone other men, yet they have desires and urges like everyone else. More often then naught the otaku will depend on imagined women to fill his needs, as best as possible. This idea, which is as old as the otaku themselves, leads many of them to actually shun physical relationships with real women, preferring to sustain themselves on their fantasies, than deal with the troubles of reality. Moe can represent the ideal otaku woman, which can fall in a number of categories, depending on someone’s predilections.

It’s hard to say which came first, the dating sim or the female stereotypes that appear in them. One thing for certain though is that the dating sims have greatly enhanced the presence of very refined stereotypes. Through the many years and trials of the galge (erotic dating sim games, lit 'Gal/Girl Game') industry trends have been set into place and certain things have taken the main stage. Among the most universal type is the subservient girl, the one who will do everything in her abilities to please the man as much as possible. Gentle, shy, innocent to worldly evils, ready and willing, but not a flusey. She will, with the proper timing, consent to anything, but she must be courted in the proper fashion. This is a very general stereotype found in the sims that can be broken out into sub categories; the book worm, the transfer student, the childhood neighbor, etc. Another prominent type is the tough girl or tsundere. The tsundere will also consent in time, but first you must crack through the rough, tomboy exterior to reach the shy, timid woman inside. One thing that the female’s in galge all have in common is that ultimately they are weak and need a mans guidance and direction in life. This idea fits snuggly with the still held view of a woman’s role in Japan, that of the dutiful wife, the idealized woman, yamato nadeshiko. Things have been changing and there are some independent, powerful women in Japan, but the classic ideas still exist and women in many ways are still 2^nd class citizens.

Many of these stereotypes have derived from the otaku fear of confrontation. That is one of the reasons so many of them are as reserved as they are. It’s not just an otaku trait, Japan as a whole has issues with confrontation, making it ease for the alpha type personalities to take control in most situations. The typical Japanese person would rather bow down, beg forgiveness and pay retribution than cause any form of protest from mistreatment. This is one of the things that make’s the Yakuza so effective; it’s easier to cow the masses with intimidation and the threat of confrontation than to actually use violence, although violence is par for the course with the gangsters as well.

A woman that is on your computer who will, after a prescribed course of actions, that are usually predictable, give her self to you again and again, without any form of payment required, is the most desirable woman for the socially awkward otaku. Many of them are content enough with their emotional needs being satisfied by the game that they easily can shed off any outright want for the real thing. This is a sort of self perpetuating cycle that only digs the hole deeper.

           From this reliance on the dating sim games to meet their psychological needs, the industry noted the draw for comic and animation versions of the sim game experience to achieve the same result with little to no user input. A slacker way of satisfying your needs, by sitting back and just watching the show or reading the manga, putting yourself in the place of the main character who represents your personality; timid, unsure, unconfident, but with an incredible animal magnetism that draws your most desired woman to you and only you, forever. With this arose the harem genre of anime, in which a main male lead would be flocked by a number of female co-leads who all represented different stereotypes. The female characters would all fight for the leads attention, in the hopes that he would ultimately choose her over the others (akin to reality TV shows like the Bachelor). All the while the viewer/reader is both carrying out voyeuristic tendencies and vicarious living. The system feeds upon it’s self and continues to churn out more series that refine the details. Tenchi Muyo spawns an entire industry of it’s own that has taken off and come to categorize anime as a whole. You have more and more harem anime being produced that feed off of the galge dating sim structure due to the overwhelming customer demand, or supposed customer demand. As the popularity of this type of exhibition grows, so does the fan base, which fuels the flames and generates more series’.  In the need to express the feeling that the viewer gets from such a series they have latched onto the word moe, which, for a time, has become the otaku catchphrase.

           With the anime/manga otaku fan base becoming an economical force to be reckoned with in the 21^st century everyone has been trying to cash in. This has given rise to physical representations of the moe galge fantasy, the most prominent and recognizable being the maid café. Places where awkward otaku can have interactions with real life girls who are being paid to pretend to fit their stereotypical needs. You can go and have a conversation with Eri-chan, the quiet bookworm maid, for 1000 yen an hour. It is the otaku version of the hostess bar, where the salaryman goes to unwind after a rough day at the zaibatsu. A place where he can buy the kind of conversation with a woman he wants as opposed to dealing with his nag of a wife and unruly children. It is a non-sexual, at least physically sexual, real life fantasy, which brings in money hand over fist. The maid café has paved the way for all sorts of hostess club type establishments that cater to the inept otaku crowd, filling the most desired fantasies. The current hot trend in this scene is for the hostesses to be bandaged, as if they received grievous injuries(2009). This elicits the otaku urge to care for them; the girl exudes that image of helplessness that the otaku, and other Japanese men, feed off of, the void that only they, the strong lead, can fill.

           Akihabara is on the eastern side of Tokyo. Tokyo it’s self is divided into 26 wards, or ku, Akihabara is in one of the wards with in the central hub that is skirted by the Yamanote loop train line. Until the 21^st century Akihabara has been know for being the center for commercial electronic goods. Its nick name is Electric Town, and it has earned the title. The main areas are that around the train station and the main road way just a block away. In both of these areas the streets are lined with multi storied buildings crammed to the gills with stores selling anything and everything electronic. Everything from small street venders to mega retailers such as Loax, which run a number of highly visible buildings through out the area. You can find any thing you would ever want that is electronic…if it wasn’t there is probably didn’t exist.

         Through out the shopping district there have been a number of anime, manga and video game shops, but they tended to be in the minority. Some of the otaku geared businesses were little more than cramped retail spaces packed with merchandise, making maneuvering in them a practice in patience. Across the street from the Electric Town exit of the station there is (or was) a large and spacious manga/anime discount store that occupied the 4^th floor of a building. By and large the stores dealt with manga and related anime/manga merchandise. During the night, on specific days, many shops would set up street side stalls in which they could hawk more goods. Many of these stalls dealt in the ecchi (hentai, porno) and eroge titles. This was a prime spot to pick up homebrew ecchi game and low quality hentai on the cheap. With all of this Akihabara was mainly known for offering a stunning variety of electrical goods. Everywhere you turned you would run into computer stores or cell phone kiosks, the appliance stores would have all of their demo air conditioner units on full bore and the sales staff tried to show you the newest vacuum cleaner. The more upscale establishments offered the newest high def TV’s and the biggest names in laptop technology. Sony has a retail location here as well, but their multistoried demo building located in Ginza, further south on the Yamanote.

    Something changed in the beginning of the 21^st century, something I have not quite been able to pin down yet, but I can at least pin down an event that made it bigger. In 2001/2002 a supposed real life story spawned one of the biggest dramas of the year, Densha Otoko (Train Man). The story originally spawned on the massive BBS system 2 Ch., about a hapless otaku who went to the network of like minded otaku for advice on love after saving a beautiful, non-otaku, girl from being assaulted by a drunk on the train. The series of forums spawned by this love struck otakus' need for help ended up generating a massive online myth and a novel. The novel in turn spawned a movie which spawned a live action drama series. The Densha Otoko franchise pushed the quest of geek love into the main stream and opened up the chided otaku to the world (Japan). The franchise was so successful that it helped push the marketing brains to realizing the potential goldmine these awkward hobbyists represented. Overnight it was the IN thing to be an otaku, and Akihabara had become their holy land, their sacred ground, where they could be themselves in public and indulge in their desires. Pretty soon more and more businesses catering exclusively to the otaku were popping up all over the area, increasing the presence of the tribe. More and more people flocked to the otaku banner as the new hot thing to do, much to the chagrin of many 'traditional' and 'authentic' otaku.

Soon the streets of Akihabara were flooded with street performers and hawkers luring in the hordes of otaku, with Sunday’s being the most crowded when one of the streets ends up being restricted to anything but foot traffic and performancess. Now the Electric Town exit of the train station is flooded with people, including groups of scantly clad sign girls and the ravenous picture snapping otaku surrounding them. Most people don’t care what the girls are hawking; they just want to fill up their cell phones memory with pictures of their cleavage. Otaku is big business in Akihabara, which used to be known for the best place to get the newest TV in the world, now it is known as the anime and manga geek holy land, filled to the brim with maid cafés and cosplayers.

    The term Akitaku has thus come about by combining both the tribe and their vaunted Mecca. These ravenous hordes of perverted, self righteous otaku demonstrate the worst things about being an otaku. They help to perpetuate the acceptance of being a socially awkward introvert who views the world through a pinhole lens. It has helped in reverting the standards of women by praising and selling subservient attitudes. Above all it has helped to dilute the very genre that spawned them by churning more productions out to make some quick cash through recycled plots and over the top merchandising ploys.