Suicide Club (manga)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Manhole and Alive

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cromartie High the movie

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

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

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

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

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

Lain

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

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

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

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

Moyashimon

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

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

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

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

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

Minami-ke Okaeri

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

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

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

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

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

Roujin Z

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

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

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

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

Photon

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

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

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

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

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

To Aru Majutsu no Index

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Maho Tsukai Tai (Magic User Club) OAV

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

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

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

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

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

Full Metal Alchemist - Quick Compairison

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.