Only Yesterday

Only Yesterday (おもひでぽろぽろ) is a slice of life drama by Takahata Isao.  It is based on the manga Omohide Poro Poro by Okamoto Hotaru and Tone Yuko   The movie originally saw a theatrical release in Japan in 1991 and was brought to American theaters for its 25th anniversary in 2016.

    Taeko is approaching 30 and laments her city life as she is on her way over summer vacation to work at a farm.  She has never been satisfied with living in Tokyo and even in her youth yearned for an escape to the simpler world, away from the hustle and bustle.  As she embarks on her trip memories of her life as a fifth grader in the 60's overwhelm her.  She is the youngest of three daughters in an affluent family during the beginning of the economic boom in Japan.  Her only struggles were the hand me downs of her older sisters, math tests and the boys learning about menstrual cycles.  She became affixed momentarily with visiting 'family' in the country side, as many of her classmates were apt to do on vacation.  Much to her disappointment she doesn't have any family in the countryside.

    As an adult trapped in a seemingly pointless existence as a single office worker she begins her annual retreats as a way to capture some of that lost simplicity she never got to experience.  The memories of her childhood force her to question her intentions and conviction.  On her trip she meets an eager man named Toshio who has recently become an organic farmer.  When comparing her actions to his, she questions if she is being honest or just pretending.  The memories of ten year old Taeko's world remind her of the spoiled girl who only went along with the crowd instead of applying herself as an individual.  If she were given the opportunity to suddenly change her life would she be capable of doing it?

    I am ashamed to say that until the news of the films release in America with a current dub, I had never been aware of it.  Takahata may be my favorite director in Studio Ghibli and this movie is another hallmark of his excellent story crafting.  But there is a glaring issue with it that didn't make me enjoy the movie until more than halfway through it.  It is difficult to understand the ultimate direction of the film until at least the half way point.  The beginning is a confused mess of flashbacks mixed with current times as you are introduced to both versions of the main character, her family and the set up for her adult fascination with rural living.  Once you realize that the movie takes place in two different time lines it settles in to showing many of the mundane struggles that 10 year old Taeko encounters.  Around the half way point the story shifts more to showing 27 year old Taeko on her trip to the country and her participation in cultivating safflower.  At this point the flashbacks are mixed in to help underline her building mental battle.

    It is difficult to watch a movie that does not have an apparent end goal, it makes for an anxious viewing, distracting you from the context in search of the plot arc.  I wasn't able to calm down mentally until well over an hour into the film.  Now that I understand the direction the story was planning on taking I need to watch it again so I can more thoroughly enjoy the entire thing.  The first half, which heavily focused on the 10 year old's world was incredibly entertaining and sweet.  I would become annoyed though with the interspersed returns to the 27 year old world, not knowing what the point of her story was going to be.  It then shifted to focusing more on the 27 year old story with less and less interspersed antics of the 10 year old world.  By this point I understood the direction of the narrative enough to enjoy both world.  In the end the movie was enjoyable and well done if it was difficult to tell its ultimate direction, just like life its self.

    As with everything Ghibli the animation is impeccable.  Beautiful landscapes and city scenery.  The segments set in the 60's are filled with nostalgia and realism.  I was only able to catch some of the popular items showcased discretely in the 10 year old world; such as her eating Marble Chocolates at one point and holding a copy of Margarete magazine in another.  I'm quite sure there were many more items and things that anyone who grew up in Japan in that time period would fondly remember from their own childhood.  In the end this is a beautiful and well done film that plays on personal nostalgia and finding your place in the world. 

    The film is currently not available on disc in North America, but it will in time.  The English dub features the voice acting of Daisy Ridley and Dev Patel.  The version I saw in the theaters was actually the original Japanese language track with subtitles so I have yet to experience the English dub, that will be covered when I add the Bluray to my collection.

Garden of Words

Garden of Words (言の葉の庭) is a short slice of life romance movie by Shinkai Makoto.  The film was originally released in Japan in 2013.

    Two lonely souls find companionship while shirking their responsibilities on rainy days.  Akizuki has a habit of skipping the beginning of school on rainy days.  Instead he finds solace in Shinjuku's National Garden park were he can work on his dreams of being a shoe maker.  At the beginning of the rainy season he finds another person seeking their own peace, a young office lady named Yukino.

    Each rainy morning they find each other at the park and slowly develop a connection.  Much like Akizuki, Yukino is shirking responsibility in order to find herself and enjoy the peaceful rainy tranquility in the midst of Tokyo.  The pair, while dissimilar, latch onto each others loneliness and form a unique bond on their rainy mornings swapping idle chat and food.  Unfortunately their difference in age and position prohibits their kindred spirits from doing more then meeting.

    Like all of Shinkai's works this one deals with the weight of loneliness and the struggle to connecting with other humans.  Akizuki finds himself alone following his older brother moving out and his mother living with her boyfriend.  His entire focus is on his ideal career as a cobbler but struggles at school as he spends more and more time in the park with Yukino.  Yukino is struggling with her own issues at her job, which she is frequently absent from.  She finds comfort in the conversations with the boy almost half her age but fears for her future.  The writing and dialog between the main characters is superb and heart felt.  My only real complaint on that end is the effect added to the character monologues which make them sound like they are trapped in a tunnel.

    As with almost every other thing he has done,  the artwork is an amazing and a highly detailed love letter to the urban world.  Shinkai is proof positive that full computer generated animation can be as good as cell shade, if not better.  The character designs are simplistic though, which is a stark contrast with the vivid scenery and motion.  To me it seems to be a slight flaw in the movie but one that doesn't detract too much from the over all aesthetics of the film.  Even if it didn't have its breath takings artwork, the story and direction alone makes it worth watching.

    The film is available subtitled and dubbed in North America by Sentai Filmworks/Section23 Film.

The Boy and The Beast

The Boy and The Beast (バケモノの子) is a fantasy action film by Hosoda Mamoru that originally aired in theaters in Japan in 2015.

    Ren is a nine year old boy living on the streets of Shibuya following the death of his mother.  He refused to live with his relatives following her death, wanting to live with his estranged father instead.  While escaping police officers, Ren encounters two cloaked beast men.  The larger of the two, Kumatetsu, jokingly offers to make the scared boy his apprentice.  Intrigued by the creatures, Ren follows them through the busy streets.

    After navigating a series of alleys he finds himself in the land of beasts, Jutengai.  As he is about to be lead back to the human world, where he belongs, Kumatetsu arrives, surprised at the young boys presence.  The giant bear is desperate for an apprentice.  Kumatetsu at some point in the future will be dueling another beast man, Iozen, for the title of the next lord of Jutengai.  Iozen is respected, patient, well established and has many promising students.  Kumatetsu on the other hand is a gruff and shoddy loner who everone dismisses as an unkempt fool.

    With little options left to him Ren is dragged off to Kumatetsu's squalid house where he is to begin his training.  Both are similar in personality leading to difficulty in their relationship.  Kumatetsu is quick to anger and has a hard time explaining himself to Ren who is defiant and slow to give his teacher respect.  Ren refuses to tell Kumatetsu his name so he is given the name Kyuta.  The presence of the human boy brings concern within the beast world.  Humans are usually not allowed there due to darkness that can lurk in their hearts, making them terrible beings of destruction and hatred.  The current master of the land allows Kyuta/Ren to remain as Kumatetsu's pupil for reasons only he understands.

    As the dual to determine who will be the next lord looms both Kumatetsu and Kyuta/Ren must figure out how to coexist with each other.  Struggling to understand each others personalities and views of the orld around them.  When the land of humans begins to call to him, the boy who lives among the beasts must determine where he really belongs.

    The fourth original theatrical release by Hosoda Mamoru is just as beautiful as his previous films.  The backgrounds are the most detailed part and the worlds that are built between the crowded streets of Shibuya and the Arabian bazaar world of Jutengai are beautifully detailed.  There are a few segments where the camera rushes and pans through the scenery via CG that are a jarring and this technique/issue has been present in Hosoda's past films.  Most notably, the opening time travel segment from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.  The characters are simplistic and of the same design that has been the hallmark of his other films.

    What might cause issue with many die hard Hosoda fans, and anime fans in general, is the straightforward arc of the story.  It is very much in the style of western adventure animation features like one would expect from Disney and DreamWorks.  Kyuta/Ren's character follows a very familiar path of the hero's journey.  Lost and alone he is thrust into the tutelage of a mentor who shares his own vices and through their discordant relationship they make each other better than they were as individuals.  In the background a danger lurks that no one is aware of, threatening the idyllic existence.  As he matures and grows, Kyuta/Ren is given the ability to reclaim what was once lost to him.  He struggles to choose which path he wants to take and when the lurking threat surfaces he must use everything that he has endured to face the challenge head on.

    The plot is very easy to follow and for the most part there aren't any surprises in how the story unfolds and the advances.  The movie is really split into two halves.  The first is with Kyuta/Ren as a little boy, learning to adjust to his new reality.  The second half is Kyuta/Ren on the cusp of adulthood and his sudden re-connection with the human world.  That connection throws his desires into turmoil as he feels he needs to choose which world he will continue to live in and what it will mean for the years he spent away from humans.  The segueway between both time lines is a little abrupt and seemed a little forced.  There was the customary montage segment that lead up to it though and the movie would have been longer if more time was spent in the segueway.  So you get what you get.

    In the end this is a well done and enjoyable film that isn't as deep or complex as Hosoda's other works, but that doesn't mean it's bad.  It's formulaic and predictable with caricature personalities but on a deeper level this film is an excellent merging of classic Asiatic animism archetypes and western story telling.  If this movie was made, scene for scene, line for line, by an American animation company it would be a box office hit and possibly the winner of an academy award.  Yet, due to its origins being the vulgar and mysterious land of Japan...it will get little attention from the main stream populace in America.

    Perplexedly, another level limiting it from a larger audience is its PG-13 rating.  There is no more objectionable content in the film than Kung Fu panda has...and would indeed find cross movie popularity.  Many hardened otaku will shun the film for being simplistic and too western in nature but this could have been the product that truly opened the doors for more acceptance in the West.  If only it could reach a larger audience it could do well in America..

    Either way, excellent movie, not the best work by Hosoda, but still magnificent and enjoyable.  The North American disc release is pending upon this review but should be available following the end of its sparse theatrical run.

Winter will soon end.

I am 3 or 4 weeks behind on almost everything I am watching for the Winter season.

Except Erased and Grimgar.  Those I watch as soon as they drop and I struggle to wait another 7 days, or 168 hours, or 10,080 minutes or 604,800 seconds...

Between these two shows this has been one of the best seasons in a long time.  They are examples of excellent direction, well paced timing and engaging stories.  The rest of the year is going to have a hard time beating these two titles.

Straight From The Heart

Straight From The Heart: Gender, Intimacy and the Cultural Production of Shojo Manga is a study of the portion of the manga industry aimed at girls and young women, the world of shojo manga.  The book was researched and written by Jennifer S. Prough and was published by the University of Hawai'i Press in 2011.

    The core of the shojo manga world, according to Prough, is ningen kankei, human relations.  Through her interviews with artists, editors and academics the term was at the center of the purpose for and driver of the industry.  From the stories with their core of characters emotional relations with each other, the cooperative creative bonds between an artist and her editor and the topical input the readers are able to apply to the industry its self.

    The book is split into five over all chapters.  The first chapter provides an over view for the topics the book discusses and the path that lead the author to do her research.  The second chapter provdes a rough overview of the history of modern manga following its genesis in the post war recovery years. She provides a more detailed history into the rise in significance of the shojo genre from being half of the industry that aimed at girls to becoming a driving force behind post recovery consummrism and product character saturation.

    The third chapter details the relationship between the reader and the magazines.  Reationships that rely in participatory dialog between both parties.  This symbiosis has become integral in the health and continuation of the manga industry by providing consummer feedback that helps determine emerging trends and desires.  It also works to instill a sense of community between the faceless publisher and the audience, fostering brand loyalty.  Finally it works as the training ground for future generations of artists through its system of amateur manga competitions with the possibility of becoming an artists for that magazine.

    The fourth chapter delves into the mechanics of the industry its self and the reasons people enter it in the first place on the corporate side of things.  This chapter details the gender disparity that permeates Japan's businesses as a whole but see's a unique reality in shojo manga.  The reality that the ultimate decisions for the tone of the industry are dictated by middle aged men that rely on a revolving force of young women to help bridge the gap with their readers.  The women, typically unable to pursue managerial career paths, are anticipated and expected to remain with the company for a number of years before marrying and rearing children.

    The final chapter touches on the rise of sexualization in shojo manga.  It examines if the manga its self is a product of cultural changes or a catalyst.  Sexualization that emerged in the 1990's with the advent of enjo kosai, compensated dating, in which girls were renting themselves off too older men for dates, dinner or sex in order to fulfill their materialistic desires.  Beyond the increase of sexuality in shojo manga, could it also be considered pat of the increased materialism that helped to spawn enjo kosai through its continued exposure of consumerism to its readers?

    This was a well thought out and interesting read into the rise and modernity of shojo manga.  At close to 150 pages worth of information it doesn't dictate a detailed history of the industry.  It touches on key points in the shojo industry and manga over all.  Instead it focuses on the concept of ningen kankei. The efforts that drive the industry to connect on a personal level with its audience as a way to attract their attention and to determine how they will evolve.  The book focuses on the view point of the industry almost exclusively from the corporate side of things, with little information about the lives of the artists.  It focuses on how the industry works to increase its readers, develop the next generation of artists and plot its course for the future, predicting what will be popular in six months.

    That said at times the author became repetitive, constantly circling back to the original thesis and base idea's, working hard to underline them through all of her research and interviews.  The point was driven home quite thoroughly but it would have been nice to see some expansion on other aspects of the industry.  It would have been nice to have gone into the process of expanding a popular manga into a wider media mix of drama, anime, games, etc.  More details of interviews with artists would be nice as well, but she stated early on that it was difficult for her to have much meaningful contact with them.  Due in part to many of them having incredibly busy schedules and the active roll of editors in restricting public access to them.

    The biggest thing I came away from in the book was how the entire manga industry is a colossal enterprise with essentially one goal in mind, profit.  It has established creative and unique ways of fostering its continued viability and at the same time seemingly locking itself into ritual stagnation.  The industry as the whole seems to be unique in how it approaches and relies on direct interaction with and feedback from its audience, partially allowing the audience to determine its direction.  After decades of following the same procedures though, are the readers really determining the direction or are they acting based upon the patterns that have been established over the years?

Cat Soup

Cat Soup (ねこぢる草) is a surreal OAV based on the work of Nekojiru.  The film by Sato Tatsuo was originally released in 2001.

    As with Nekojiru Gekijou, the story follows cat sibling Nyako and Nyatta.  Nyako die's from a fever but Nyatta, who almost drowns in the bathtub, chases her spirit down and is able to retrieve a portion of it.  The spirit enters her corpse, reviving her to a semi brain dead state.  Nyatta goes on a journey through various realities in order to revive his sister completely.  They travel through realms of beauty and horror, encountering begins both malevolent, benevolent and indifferent to their existence and plight.

    The artwork in this short is amazing and very art house in style.  The story is all told through the visual content with the only dialog occurring in a handful of word bubbles.  It is an existential journey through horror and wonder that has no direction.  The siblings continue pushing forward through their strange and sometimes uncomfortable encounters, searching for an end to their dilemma.  Teeming with allegories and symbolism this isn't for everyone but I very much appreciate that it exists.  Particularly when compared to the horrible TV series that proceeded it.

    This isn't for everyone and enjoying it can mark you as an elitist.  But honestly it was a really enjoyable journey.  A strange combination of Pinocchio and the tale of Persephone.  It was made available in North America in 2003, but is out of print and difficult to come by these days.  If you can get your hands on it I highly recommend at least viewing it.  There's not much like it and its worth seeing.

Winter 2016 - Keep and Drop List

As its 5 weeks into the 2016 Winter season its time to go over which shows are sticking around and which have gotten dropped.

Keep List:

    Erased: This one goes with out saying.  It is the best anime of the season, excellent artwork, excellent direction with engaging story and character development.  This is one of those rare gems that keeps me searching for more anime of this caliber.

    Ajin: I'm up to date with the manga and I want to see how Polygon Studio unfolds this short run series.  It's only supposed to be 13 episodes long so I am very interested in how they end it.  It's an interesting mature story that swims deeply in the tried and true stories of super beings and ultra violence.  There isn't much substance but its visually excellent and Sato is one of the best villains in the world of manga.

    Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash: this one was a surprise for me, as I generally dislike fantasy and really despise the current trend of dropping people suddenly into MMORPG's.  But this one has a more natural and humanistic approach to it that is well done and enjoyable.  The characters are being developed slowly through time and the mild amount of fan service can be over looked for the realistic approach of learning how to survive in a new reality.

    Please Tell Me Galko-chan: Its crass, over the top and something about the perverted and immature topics are actually entertaining.  I like to think of this one as the female counter to Colorful.  Its entertaining and silly while being dirty and perverted.  Aside from Galko looking like an ecchi doujin rendition of  Tsukino Usagi the fan-service is actually non existent.  It's just a series of conversations typical of teenagers.

    Durarara x2 part 3: With out a doubt, what appears to be the final arc for this excellent example of how to tell an entertaining tale that's driven by an immense ensemble cast.

    Dimension W: This one is still on the fence.  It has moments of quality that remind me of both Cowboy Bebop and Riding Bean, but other moments of annoyance that remind me of countless other shows I skip.  The 4th episode was the weakest so far given that I dislike when shows emulate the Hounds of Baskerville in any fashion.

Drop List:

    Active Raid: Episode 5 confirmed that this show was pointless.  The type cast characters did nothing for me, the serial story telling served little purpose and the background over all plot seemed too generic to interest me.  The 5th episode with the poker card face of battle...put all the nails in the coffin for this one.  I should just re-watch Patlabor and be done with it.

    Ooya-san wa Shishuki: This series offers nothing beyond a repetitive joke about misunderstanding a single mans reactions to his underage landlord.

    Oji-san and Marshmellow: Its hard to tell what the point of this short series is.  Is it an expose of a young women with a middle aged man feeder fetish?  Or is a story of a pathetic and semi-coherent man that we are supposed to pity?

    Dagashi Kashi: This is one of the highly applauded series' for the season.  It did absolute nothing for me.  I don't think it has anything to do with my lacking nostalgia for dagashi.  It has to do with rote and uninteresting characters and a plot device that doesn't entertain me.  The main protagonist resembles too closely the character Anna from Shimoneta to cause revulsion for the pointless fan service lurking at the edges.

    Bubuki Buranki:  This was the biggest disappointment.  The first half of the first episode was really good, interesting Ghibli like post apocalypse world in which a small family works to contain weapons of a long lost war.  Then it turns into a pop cyber punk magical kids vs. enemies who only exist for cosplayers to emulate and a story that could have come from some fan made authoritarian volcaloid series they wiped up.  It had some real potential to be an interesting futuristic fantasy story but devolved into a bad mash up of Hamatora and Mekaku City Actors with some other shows of lower quality thrown in.

Carryover titles from the Fall/Beyond:

    Osomatsu-san: This revisit of a classic anime/manga continues to be hilarious mixed with episodes of boredom and some retrospection.  Its become insanely popular in Japan and hopefully it continues to renew for a few more seasons.

    MS Gundam Iron Blood Orphans: The most interesting and least annoying Gundam titles in a long time.  The character designs still annoy me, but the characters and the plot are well done and worthy of the title of Gundam.  An excellent apology for the mess of G Reco and the whiny garbage that was 00.

    Gintama: Can we please return to the comedy that this series does so well?

Everyone keeps talking about how amazing Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju is so I added it to the cue but have yet to watch it.  Period historical drama's tend to be hit or miss with me, but the writing for this one is supposed to be top notch.

Noblesse: Awakening

Noblesse: Awakening (노블레스) is an OAV based on the long running super natural action manhwa Noblesse by Jeho Son and Kwnagsu Lee.  The OAV was made available worldwide in February 2016 and was produced by Production I.G.

    History is filled with powerful being known as Nobles who guide humanity.  There is one among them that guides and controls the Nobles, the supremely powerful being known as Noblesse.  A powerful group known as The Organization is hunting for a coffin rumored to contain the Noblesse and retrieve it for their own purposes.  Before they are able to do so the group who found it are murdered and the person encased in it awakens.

   That person goes by the name of Cadis Etrama Di Raizel.  He searches the modern city he awakens in, having slept for centuries, looking for his loyal servant Frankenstein.  He finds him as the headmaster of a local high school.  In order to understand this drastically different world he enrolls as a new student in the school.  Doing so unknowingly endangers fellow classmates as The Organization seeks his whereabouts.  When three students are kidnapped Rai, as they call him, shows the power of the Noblesse in order to save the innocent by-standards.

    Until I saw the announcement from Crunchyroll that this existed I had been previously unaware of it.  In reality it's not my type of story.  I've never been a huge fan of vampires and this one is super shonen-ai in character design.  Interesting take on a well used supernatural story, but in the end it doesn't bring much innovation to the genre.  What is interesting to note is this is understandably a product of the past 30 years of manga and anime.  It has the feel and pace of a late 80's or 90's OAV.  The manga has run for a long time now and has a well established plot but this single OAV doesn't establish very much, nor does it really set its self up automatically for a continuation.  I doubt this will be the only thing we see of this project though and the future will probably hold more OAV's or a TV series.

    The artwork was a bit disappointing.  It didn't stick to the quality I would come to expect from Production I.G.  It was bland and lacked detail.  It looked like something that would have been made for TV ten or more years ago, not an OAV from now.  Generally OAV's are supposed to be higher quality artwork, but that wasn't the case with this one.  The art isn't bad but it just wasn't as high quality as one would expect.  While on the subject of artwork this series could easily be done as a TV drama with the whatever hot boy band is currently terring up the charts in Tokyo or Seoul.  This is very much fodder for that world.

    It was released 'worldwide' on Crunchyroll for both subscribers and non-subscribers.  The manhwa is available online for free at Webtoons as well.  So if you enjoy the OAV you can legally dig into the original product.  An earlier OAV was released by Korean producer Studio Animal in December 2015.

Kill Me Baby

Kill Me Baby (キルミーベイベー) is a 13 episode gag comedy based on the 4koma manga of the same name by Kaduho.  The anime originally aired in Japan in early 2012.

    The series follows a collection of unrelated comedic exploits of idiotic and energetic high school student Yasuna.  Her only friend or at least the person she interacts with the most, is the foreign girl Sonya, who claims to be an assassin.  Yasuna does all she can to prank Sonya while at the same time struggling for her friendship.  Sonya doesn't deal well with Yasuna's crap and routinely beats on her, foils her lame antics but generally goes along with her anyway.  Wrapping up the party of idiocy is the super stoned, super weird ninja girl Agiri.

    There is no real plot to this series that follows the time tested standards of 4koma gag comedy.  The characters have strong personalities, completely different from each other.  Part of the comedy is through the mixing of their personalities and world view on top of all of the sight gags, lame jokes and unexpected character actions.  Tried and true and honestly the series doesn't bring enough new material to this favorite genre of mine to be excited about.

    The animation works well for the series and the delivery.  J. C. Staff works well with the material and deliver a good product.  The writing is what falls flat at many times and I found myself going through the motions at some times just to get through an episode.  I didn't laugh out loud at many part either.  It just wasn't as funny as it should have been.  The only reason I even completed the series was due to its short length.  I wouldn't have continued if it were 26 episodes.  I will, however, take this any day of the week over the shonen pile of garbage that is Katekyo Hitman Reborn if I ever need an oddball assassin anime.

    The series has been licensed and made available by Sentai Filmworks and even has an English dub.  Honestly though it wasn't that good.

Fun Fact: The voice actor for Agiri, Takabe Ai, was arrested in October 2015 for possession of cocaine.  The arrest caused a flurry of commotion and all streaming services in Japan pulled Kill Me Baby, including Amazon.

Nekojiru Theater

Nekojiru Theater (ねこぢる劇場) is a short series based on the manga of Nekojiru.  The series, also loosly related to the surreal silent film Cat Soup, originally aired in Japan in 1999.

    The series deals with two misfit cat children, Nyako and Nyatta, who live as destitute brats in a world where anthropomorphic animals live along side humans.  The children are incredibly disrespectful, vile and murderous.  The series details short exploits of them being vile and crude to various animals and people they come into contact.  They are evil cat versions of Beavis & Butthead mixed with the worst aspects of Shinchan.  From killing their pig classmate for tonkatsu, robbing their fathers employer to stealing a truck and plowing through pedestrians with it.

    This is a very low brow and horrible series.  A pointless spectacle of abuse, disrespect and outright criminal behavior.  The artwork is quite simple, with very limited animation.  The voice acting is abysmal and the plot lines, even if they are brief are pretty horrible.  The entire series only serves to show how nasty and crude the cat children and ultimately their parents are.  This is something akin to what you would expect in the Spike and Mike Animation Festival or the worst products on Adult Swim.  I am rather surprised it actually exists and wonder what sort of audience it ever had in Japan.

    The original author, Hashiguchi Chiyomi, committed suicide for unknown reasons in 1998.   Following her death, Hijeme Yamano has continued her work under the name Nekojiru-y.

    Understandably this series does not exist in North America and most likely never will.

Kurayami Santa

Kurayami Santa (暗闇三太) is an original anime by Yoshikawa Choji.  The short series aired 13 episodes in the Summer of 2015.

    Demon lord Enma task's the demon Santa with traveling to the surface to help maintain the balance of souls sent to Hell.  He discovers Japan at the height of its post war boom, filled with a people being drastically westernized and urbanized.  The changes have caused a rift in general social awareness as more people than ever before are living in cramped and polluted cities.  He decides that he will have to understand the people more before he can be confident in judging them in these times of upheaval.  He travels the land, taking in all of the change, battling new spirits of ill intent caused by modernization and people who have lost their moral compass.

    This is an interesting and unique series in how it works diligently to recreate the feel of an anime from the 60's.  Everything about the artwork is an homage to the beginning of TV anime.  To help accentuate that it is inter-spliced and overlain on archival footage from the time period.  The content of each episode deals with a more modern view point on the struggles that society in Japan faced during the reconstruction and financial rebound after World War 2.  Issues with sacrificing and destroying objects of the past in favor of modernization and a construction industry on hyper-drive.  The issues of social positions being displaced after a few hundred years of being very narrowly defined.

    The artwork and framing is unique and enjoyable for what it accomplishes.  The stories themselves though are brief, preachy and at times difficult to follow in a concise manner.  The positive attribute for the series is how it tries to recreate a product of the pass, but the stories are lacking in real substance and originality.  It's an interesting specimen of artistic creativity and idea's, unfortunately it looses substance beyond its imagery.

    The series is not currently and probably never will see any official English version.

Bonus Fact: Santa and friends battle Godzilla in the last two episodes.  Yoshikawa has a long history of working on the Pokemon franchise which explains why 'Godzilla' looks like a legendary Pokemon.