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Entry tags:
- anime/manga,
- anime/manga: assate no houkou,
- anime/manga: ayakashi ayashi,
- anime/manga: azumanga daioh,
- anime/manga: baccano!,
- anime/manga: claymore,
- anime/manga: code geass,
- anime/manga: death note,
- anime/manga: dejiko is awesome,
- anime/manga: dennou coil,
- anime/manga: el cazador de la bruja,
- anime/manga: evangelion,
- anime/manga: gurren lagann,
- anime/manga: hataraki man,
- anime/manga: hayao miyazaki,
- anime/manga: hayate the combat butler,
- anime/manga: kamichama karin,
- anime/manga: kanon,
- anime/manga: kaze no stigma,
- anime/manga: lucky star,
- anime/manga: madlax,
- anime/manga: moonlight mile,
- anime/manga: mushi-uta,
- anime/manga: noir,
- anime/manga: red garden,
- anime/manga: romeo x juliet,
- anime/manga: sakura taisen,
- anime/manga: seirei no moribito,
- anime/manga: serial experiments lain,
- anime/manga: seto no hanayome,
- anime/manga: shakugan no shana,
- anime/manga: shoujo category,
- anime/manga: to terra,
- classical tv movies etc: mahabharata,
- classical: indopantheon,
- classical: shakespeare,
- comics,
- comics: x-men,
- gaming,
- gaming: sakura taisen,
- movies,
- movies: hayao miyazaki,
- television,
- television: heroes,
- television: x-files
The Giant Anime Post of Doom
Well, it's that time again. October means the start of new anime series in Japan, and everybody and their dog is throwing up a "fall preview" post on their blog or livejournal. I was thinking of doing that too, but first, I went back and looked at what shows I predicted I would watch last spring, and laughed a bit at myself. Then I started thinking and writing, looking back on a year of watching free anime in wonderful Japanland, and, well...
I guess it's the normal procedure to wait until December to do an "anime year in review" post, but I think that fall would actually be a better time for me to do so. First, in Japan as in the United States, fall is the nominal start of the Year in Television. Second, I arrived in Japan last fall, so if I wanted to write about a year's worth of anime, of course it cover the span of time from autumn to autumn!
So without further adieu, here is my year in anime.
Asatte no Houkou. What a lovely, bittersweet series. This is bishoujo the way that it's meant to be done: Story and characters first, emotion second, and incidental fanservice as an afterthought.
Ayakashi Ayashi. Have you ever had that feeling that you're watching what could potentially be a fantastic series, only the director is making a total incoherent mess out of what should have been a very simple, straightforward story? Yeah, that's Ayakashi Ayashi. So here's the premise: It's basically The X-Files set in Edo right before the start of the Meiji Restoration. The Edo government throws together a ragtag team of misfits to investigate supernatural incidents. This "team" consists of a cross-dressing priest, an indigenous mountain man, a girl who disguises herself as a guy in order to act on the Noh stage (which women were forbidden from doing), a guy who can generate magic powers by using the characters in a person's "true name," an Incan refugee who flew over the Pacific ocean on the back of a dragon-horse, and, of course, the stuffy Skinner-esque beauracrat in charge of them. From that setup alone we could have had a great series full of crazy supernatural adventures. But nooooooooooo. Again like The X-Files, Ayakashi Ayashi got so bogged down in a boring maybe-kinda-sorta-political conspiracy super-story that it turned into a giant mess. Also like The X-Files, it became very clear early in the series that the writers had NOT planned out their conspiracy super-story all the way, and were making shit up as they went along. NOT GOOD. This narrative was such a mess by the end of the series that it just sort of... argh. I dunno. Talk about wasted potential! This was such an awesome cast of characters. I really wish that these characters had just been in a better series than Ayakashi Ayashi.
Claymore. I didn't plan on watching this series, to be honest, because I tried to read the manga once and found it very much not to my taste. However, since a certain number of you kept gushing about it, I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did. This series is amazing, full of fascinating women, gory violence, plenty of emotional highs and lows, and lots of suspense. Now, I will say this: I still think that the art is fugly. Really, really fugly. The character designs look terrible. But the story and the characters are just so good that I can totally overlook the terrible artwork in this series.
Code Geass. This is the trainwreck to end all trainwrecks. This series is AWESOME, but definitely not in the way intended! I cannot freakin' wait for Season 2.
Death Note. The most drawn-out, over-the-top, ridiculous supernatural whodunnit in the history of literature. Not to mention, ridiculously sexist. And yet, like anybody else who happened to watch the first episode, I just couldn't stop watching. This is a series that redefines the notion of "suspense." I mean, my god... Potato chips. Potato chips! But for a freakin' potato chip the world was nearly lost! THIS SERIES DESTROYED MY BRAIN. I still haven't decided whether I liked it or not... I'm not even sure if I enjoyed it on any level. But I couldn't stop watching. And I couldn't stop biting my nails during the endless seven days between each weekly episode. (*sigh*) It was kind of a relief when it was over.
Dennou Coil. It's difficult for me to describe this series in words, other than to say that it was really, really fantastic. According to Wikipedia, the series took over a decade to develop, and it shows - the worldbuilding is incredible, the story is tightly-plotted, and the characters are deep, immediate, and real. The premise, however, is pretty hard to describe. So I'll let Wikipedia do it for me: "In 2026, eleven years after the introduction of internet-connected augmented reality eyeglasses and visors, Yūko Okonogi moves with her family to the city of Daikoku, the technological center of the emerging half-virtual world. Yūko joins her grandmother's 'detective agency' comprised of children equipped with virtual tools and metatags. As their research turns up mounting evidence of children who have been whisked away to the mysterious other side of reality, they find themselves entangled in a conspiracy to cover up the dangerous true nature and history of the new technology." So it sounds kind of like Lain, right? Except that it's actually much more like a Miyazaki movie. The way that the "augmented reality" world is represented visually is extremely Miyazaki-esque. Not to mention the adorable pet-creatures, the hijinks of the children, the overall warmth and optimisim of the series, and the recurring themes of courage, friendship, and coming-of-age trials... I can best describe this series as Ghibli meets hard science-fiction. And it's incredibly engrossing, from the very first episode. If you like hard science-fiction, awesome (mostly female) characters, and great stories about growing up and coming of age, then I can't recommend this series enough.
El Cazador de la Bruja. The third and final installment in Bee Train's "Girls With Guns" trilogy (the first two were Noir and Madlax), and in my opinion, the best. El Cazador managed to pull off something that neither Noir nor Madlax could ever do: it was funny. Genuinely funny. Wherease Noir and Madlax were so depressing that at the end of each episode you kind of hoped that the characters would just die already so that at least they couldn't suffer anymore, El Cazador took a different approach. The heroines Nadie and Ellis went on a journey together, and they had fun. Each episode was full of humor and more than a couple had heartwarming moments. And the ending, of course, was a happy one. I like that. This series made me feel good. Sure, there was danger and action and a big freakin' mystery to solve, but at the end of the series, El Cazador is all about having a damn good time. And that's pretty cool.
Hataraki Man. The world needs more anime based on josei manga. No, seriously. This story about the trials and tribulations of a woman journalist dealing with Stupid Sexism in the Japanese workplace was just too good to be ignored by English-speaking fandom the way that it was. There is no justice in the world.
Kanon. Whhhhhyyyyyy did I force myself to watch this all the way to the end? Whhhhhhhyyyyyyyyy?!?!
Lucky Star. Hit-or-miss stupid fun. Most episodes bored me, a few made me laugh out loud. Still a poor man's Azumanga Daioh, only with the addition of a gimmick girl!otaku character that fanboys can have wetdreams about. (*sigh*)
Moonlight Mile. I love space opera. Just saying. It was good to have another hard science fiction show on the menu this year, other than Dennou Coil. Moonlight Mile was just a beautiful, inspiring series.
Red Garden and Red Garden: Dead Girls. First, it was a musical. Then, it was a horror story about vampires. Then it was a science fiction story about giant robots set in the distant future. And somehow, this all fits together perfectly. That's kind of awesome.
Sakura Taisen OAV 5: New York, New York. This was so stupid and so fun. Exactly like I expected it to be. Yay!
Shakugan no Shana SP (OAV) and Shakugan no Shana: THE MOVIE! So I says to myself, I says, Nenena, Shakugan no Shana is already so perfect, what could possibly make it any better? Some hot guy-on-guy action, that's what. And then it was like, whoa, Studio Deen READ MY MIND you guys! Isn't that awesome?!
Seirei no Moribito/Guardian of the Sacred Spirit. First, this was hands-down the best series that I've watched all year. Second, where the hell is the fandom love for this amazing, incredible series? Words fail me here. I can't write a proper review of such a masterpiece (and I'm not using that word lightly) in a short paragraph, but I'm going to at least try to explain what I personally loved about this series. For one thing, it has one of the best damn cast of characters I've seen on TV in a long time. For another, the heroine is a "warrior woman" who busts apart so many "warrior woman" cliches that I can't help but love her. And finally, this series deeply reminds me of The Mahabharata, in that at first glance it seems to be a sweeping epic about the battle between good and evil... Except that when you look closer, you realize that there is no evil. There are NO villains in this series, just good people approaching a tragic situation in different ways.
Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann. I didn't plan on watching this series, at first. Why? Well, here's why. But, as with Claymore, the internets kept raving about it, so I had to check it out. And again, like Claymore, I'm so glad that I did. I'm not going to write out my thoughts about the series here, because Jason already said everything that there is to say about this series. This, even moreso than Evangelion, is Gainax's masterpiece.
To Terra. Haunting, beautiful, and addictive. This series kept suprising me with just how good every episode was. And there's one spot toward the middle where I was pissed off by some really sexist writing and the treatment of a certain female character, but then the series totally redeeemed itself about four episodes later by completely deconstructing and then reversing that sexist subplot. There's so much to love about this series. It's got great characters, a sweeping soap opera plot, tons of delicious moral ambiguity, and an adorable talking mouse. No, seriously.
Romeo x Juliet. Do I really need to bore you all by singing the praises of this series again? Do I really need to commit blasphemy by proclaiming this Juliet to be a thousand times better than Shakespeare's heroine ever was? Because I totally will. If you push me, I will.
Winter Garden. Well, that was two hours of my life that I'll never get back. Thank God it was only two hours, though.
Hayate the Combat Butler. How could a series with such an awesome name end up being so lame?
Kamichama Karin. It's not you, Karin, it's me. I just couldn't feel the magical girl love this season. Sorry.
Kaze no Stigma. I knew getting into this that it would be a Shana ripoff, but I thought that I wouldn't mind, because the world could always use more badass schoolgirls with swords... But YAWN. Not only was this series boring, but the male and female leads were completely unlikeable. I endured three episodes of just wanting to reach through the TV and smack them, and then finally decided to give up and save myself the trouble.
Seto no Hanayome. Not even a killer premise like "mermaid mafia," nor the utterly lovable heroine Seto San herself, could save this screechingly unfunny, mind-numbingly stupid series.
Baccano! I'm in for the long haul now. "The long haul" is only five more episodes, but whatever. This series is too crazy fun to resist.
Mushi-Uta. I watched this on a whim, not expecting to like it, and now I'm utterly hooked. The premise is killer. So apparently there are these "bugs" that have shown up in the world and started attaching themselves to human hosts. The (always unwitting) hosts are granted unique and special powers by the bugs... but at a cost. A terrible, terrible cost. This series reminds me very strongly of Heroes and, of course, The X-Men. You've got a group of (mostly teenage) protagonists who discover that they have freaky mutant powers, are suddenly being hunted down by a government agency that wants their existence kept a secret, and... Well, the twist here is that these superpowers aren't granted by a quirk of genetics, but rather by parasitic creatures that will eventually demand an unspeakable cost from their Hosts. And knowing that, suddenly the government agency trying to hunt down and contain the Hosts doesn't look quite so evil anymore. The narrative in the anime is pretty evenly divided between superpowered smackdown fights, and more quiet scenes of various characters struggling to lead normal (double) lives. The other reason that this series reminds me of Heroes is that each episode ends on an AAAAARGH!-inducing cliffhanger. Not good for my blood pressure!
And, to conclude this amazingly long post...
Level One: If you breathe air, you will probably like this series.
Seirei no Moribito/Guardian of the Sacred Spirit
Romeo x Juliet
Dennou Coil
Level Two: Recommended, but your mileage may vary.
Gurren Lagann (must love old-fashioned schlock done right)
Code Geass (must love old-fashioned schlock done horribly, horribly wrong)
Claymore (must be able to love a good story despite terrible art)
Hataraki Man (must not be grossed out by onscreen depictions of people eating natto)
Moonlight Mile (must have tolerance for slow pacing)
To Terra (must be able to love that old-school space opera)
So, if I had to sum up all of the above in one sentence, it would be this:
Everybody should watch Seirei no Moribito.
That is all.
I guess it's the normal procedure to wait until December to do an "anime year in review" post, but I think that fall would actually be a better time for me to do so. First, in Japan as in the United States, fall is the nominal start of the Year in Television. Second, I arrived in Japan last fall, so if I wanted to write about a year's worth of anime, of course it cover the span of time from autumn to autumn!
So without further adieu, here is my year in anime.
Series that I Watched
Asatte no Houkou. What a lovely, bittersweet series. This is bishoujo the way that it's meant to be done: Story and characters first, emotion second, and incidental fanservice as an afterthought.
Ayakashi Ayashi. Have you ever had that feeling that you're watching what could potentially be a fantastic series, only the director is making a total incoherent mess out of what should have been a very simple, straightforward story? Yeah, that's Ayakashi Ayashi. So here's the premise: It's basically The X-Files set in Edo right before the start of the Meiji Restoration. The Edo government throws together a ragtag team of misfits to investigate supernatural incidents. This "team" consists of a cross-dressing priest, an indigenous mountain man, a girl who disguises herself as a guy in order to act on the Noh stage (which women were forbidden from doing), a guy who can generate magic powers by using the characters in a person's "true name," an Incan refugee who flew over the Pacific ocean on the back of a dragon-horse, and, of course, the stuffy Skinner-esque beauracrat in charge of them. From that setup alone we could have had a great series full of crazy supernatural adventures. But nooooooooooo. Again like The X-Files, Ayakashi Ayashi got so bogged down in a boring maybe-kinda-sorta-political conspiracy super-story that it turned into a giant mess. Also like The X-Files, it became very clear early in the series that the writers had NOT planned out their conspiracy super-story all the way, and were making shit up as they went along. NOT GOOD. This narrative was such a mess by the end of the series that it just sort of... argh. I dunno. Talk about wasted potential! This was such an awesome cast of characters. I really wish that these characters had just been in a better series than Ayakashi Ayashi.
Claymore. I didn't plan on watching this series, to be honest, because I tried to read the manga once and found it very much not to my taste. However, since a certain number of you kept gushing about it, I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did. This series is amazing, full of fascinating women, gory violence, plenty of emotional highs and lows, and lots of suspense. Now, I will say this: I still think that the art is fugly. Really, really fugly. The character designs look terrible. But the story and the characters are just so good that I can totally overlook the terrible artwork in this series.
Code Geass. This is the trainwreck to end all trainwrecks. This series is AWESOME, but definitely not in the way intended! I cannot freakin' wait for Season 2.
Death Note. The most drawn-out, over-the-top, ridiculous supernatural whodunnit in the history of literature. Not to mention, ridiculously sexist. And yet, like anybody else who happened to watch the first episode, I just couldn't stop watching. This is a series that redefines the notion of "suspense." I mean, my god... Potato chips. Potato chips! But for a freakin' potato chip the world was nearly lost! THIS SERIES DESTROYED MY BRAIN. I still haven't decided whether I liked it or not... I'm not even sure if I enjoyed it on any level. But I couldn't stop watching. And I couldn't stop biting my nails during the endless seven days between each weekly episode. (*sigh*) It was kind of a relief when it was over.
Dennou Coil. It's difficult for me to describe this series in words, other than to say that it was really, really fantastic. According to Wikipedia, the series took over a decade to develop, and it shows - the worldbuilding is incredible, the story is tightly-plotted, and the characters are deep, immediate, and real. The premise, however, is pretty hard to describe. So I'll let Wikipedia do it for me: "In 2026, eleven years after the introduction of internet-connected augmented reality eyeglasses and visors, Yūko Okonogi moves with her family to the city of Daikoku, the technological center of the emerging half-virtual world. Yūko joins her grandmother's 'detective agency' comprised of children equipped with virtual tools and metatags. As their research turns up mounting evidence of children who have been whisked away to the mysterious other side of reality, they find themselves entangled in a conspiracy to cover up the dangerous true nature and history of the new technology." So it sounds kind of like Lain, right? Except that it's actually much more like a Miyazaki movie. The way that the "augmented reality" world is represented visually is extremely Miyazaki-esque. Not to mention the adorable pet-creatures, the hijinks of the children, the overall warmth and optimisim of the series, and the recurring themes of courage, friendship, and coming-of-age trials... I can best describe this series as Ghibli meets hard science-fiction. And it's incredibly engrossing, from the very first episode. If you like hard science-fiction, awesome (mostly female) characters, and great stories about growing up and coming of age, then I can't recommend this series enough.
El Cazador de la Bruja. The third and final installment in Bee Train's "Girls With Guns" trilogy (the first two were Noir and Madlax), and in my opinion, the best. El Cazador managed to pull off something that neither Noir nor Madlax could ever do: it was funny. Genuinely funny. Wherease Noir and Madlax were so depressing that at the end of each episode you kind of hoped that the characters would just die already so that at least they couldn't suffer anymore, El Cazador took a different approach. The heroines Nadie and Ellis went on a journey together, and they had fun. Each episode was full of humor and more than a couple had heartwarming moments. And the ending, of course, was a happy one. I like that. This series made me feel good. Sure, there was danger and action and a big freakin' mystery to solve, but at the end of the series, El Cazador is all about having a damn good time. And that's pretty cool.
Hataraki Man. The world needs more anime based on josei manga. No, seriously. This story about the trials and tribulations of a woman journalist dealing with Stupid Sexism in the Japanese workplace was just too good to be ignored by English-speaking fandom the way that it was. There is no justice in the world.
Kanon. Whhhhhyyyyyy did I force myself to watch this all the way to the end? Whhhhhhhyyyyyyyyy?!?!
Lucky Star. Hit-or-miss stupid fun. Most episodes bored me, a few made me laugh out loud. Still a poor man's Azumanga Daioh, only with the addition of a gimmick girl!otaku character that fanboys can have wetdreams about. (*sigh*)
Moonlight Mile. I love space opera. Just saying. It was good to have another hard science fiction show on the menu this year, other than Dennou Coil. Moonlight Mile was just a beautiful, inspiring series.
Red Garden and Red Garden: Dead Girls. First, it was a musical. Then, it was a horror story about vampires. Then it was a science fiction story about giant robots set in the distant future. And somehow, this all fits together perfectly. That's kind of awesome.
Sakura Taisen OAV 5: New York, New York. This was so stupid and so fun. Exactly like I expected it to be. Yay!
Shakugan no Shana SP (OAV) and Shakugan no Shana: THE MOVIE! So I says to myself, I says, Nenena, Shakugan no Shana is already so perfect, what could possibly make it any better? Some hot guy-on-guy action, that's what. And then it was like, whoa, Studio Deen READ MY MIND you guys! Isn't that awesome?!
Seirei no Moribito/Guardian of the Sacred Spirit. First, this was hands-down the best series that I've watched all year. Second, where the hell is the fandom love for this amazing, incredible series? Words fail me here. I can't write a proper review of such a masterpiece (and I'm not using that word lightly) in a short paragraph, but I'm going to at least try to explain what I personally loved about this series. For one thing, it has one of the best damn cast of characters I've seen on TV in a long time. For another, the heroine is a "warrior woman" who busts apart so many "warrior woman" cliches that I can't help but love her. And finally, this series deeply reminds me of The Mahabharata, in that at first glance it seems to be a sweeping epic about the battle between good and evil... Except that when you look closer, you realize that there is no evil. There are NO villains in this series, just good people approaching a tragic situation in different ways.
Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann. I didn't plan on watching this series, at first. Why? Well, here's why. But, as with Claymore, the internets kept raving about it, so I had to check it out. And again, like Claymore, I'm so glad that I did. I'm not going to write out my thoughts about the series here, because Jason already said everything that there is to say about this series. This, even moreso than Evangelion, is Gainax's masterpiece.
To Terra. Haunting, beautiful, and addictive. This series kept suprising me with just how good every episode was. And there's one spot toward the middle where I was pissed off by some really sexist writing and the treatment of a certain female character, but then the series totally redeeemed itself about four episodes later by completely deconstructing and then reversing that sexist subplot. There's so much to love about this series. It's got great characters, a sweeping soap opera plot, tons of delicious moral ambiguity, and an adorable talking mouse. No, seriously.
Romeo x Juliet. Do I really need to bore you all by singing the praises of this series again? Do I really need to commit blasphemy by proclaiming this Juliet to be a thousand times better than Shakespeare's heroine ever was? Because I totally will. If you push me, I will.
Winter Garden. Well, that was two hours of my life that I'll never get back. Thank God it was only two hours, though.
Series that I Tried to Watch, I Really Did
Hayate the Combat Butler. How could a series with such an awesome name end up being so lame?
Kamichama Karin. It's not you, Karin, it's me. I just couldn't feel the magical girl love this season. Sorry.
Kaze no Stigma. I knew getting into this that it would be a Shana ripoff, but I thought that I wouldn't mind, because the world could always use more badass schoolgirls with swords... But YAWN. Not only was this series boring, but the male and female leads were completely unlikeable. I endured three episodes of just wanting to reach through the TV and smack them, and then finally decided to give up and save myself the trouble.
Seto no Hanayome. Not even a killer premise like "mermaid mafia," nor the utterly lovable heroine Seto San herself, could save this screechingly unfunny, mind-numbingly stupid series.
Series that I'm Watching Right Now
Baccano! I'm in for the long haul now. "The long haul" is only five more episodes, but whatever. This series is too crazy fun to resist.
Mushi-Uta. I watched this on a whim, not expecting to like it, and now I'm utterly hooked. The premise is killer. So apparently there are these "bugs" that have shown up in the world and started attaching themselves to human hosts. The (always unwitting) hosts are granted unique and special powers by the bugs... but at a cost. A terrible, terrible cost. This series reminds me very strongly of Heroes and, of course, The X-Men. You've got a group of (mostly teenage) protagonists who discover that they have freaky mutant powers, are suddenly being hunted down by a government agency that wants their existence kept a secret, and... Well, the twist here is that these superpowers aren't granted by a quirk of genetics, but rather by parasitic creatures that will eventually demand an unspeakable cost from their Hosts. And knowing that, suddenly the government agency trying to hunt down and contain the Hosts doesn't look quite so evil anymore. The narrative in the anime is pretty evenly divided between superpowered smackdown fights, and more quiet scenes of various characters struggling to lead normal (double) lives. The other reason that this series reminds me of Heroes is that each episode ends on an AAAAARGH!-inducing cliffhanger. Not good for my blood pressure!
And, to conclude this amazingly long post...
Recommendations?
Level One: If you breathe air, you will probably like this series.
Seirei no Moribito/Guardian of the Sacred Spirit
Romeo x Juliet
Dennou Coil
Level Two: Recommended, but your mileage may vary.
Gurren Lagann (must love old-fashioned schlock done right)
Code Geass (must love old-fashioned schlock done horribly, horribly wrong)
Claymore (must be able to love a good story despite terrible art)
Hataraki Man (must not be grossed out by onscreen depictions of people eating natto)
Moonlight Mile (must have tolerance for slow pacing)
To Terra (must be able to love that old-school space opera)
So, if I had to sum up all of the above in one sentence, it would be this:
Everybody should watch Seirei no Moribito.
That is all.
no subject
You're right--where are the fans?! I only downloaded the show because I saw a screencap of Bulsa on a fansub site. No one seems to be geeking out over it at all. And where are the licenses? As a poor American fan, I would starve to share the DVDs with friends.
no subject
(*joins you in the love*) This series is just so, so good.
no subject
Then again I consider all broadcast medium effectively public goods.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2007-10-02 04:18 pm (UTC)(link)---Yumeka
http://animeyume.com
no subject
(Anonymous) 2007-10-03 05:07 pm (UTC)(link)---Yumeka
http://animeyume.com
no subject
Oh well. Next season looks to be a bit dry in terms of anime that I'm interested in, so maybe I'll be able to catch up on some not-quite-oldies this fall. ;)
no subject
TO TERRA FOR THE WIN.
I read the manga and REALLY want to buy the anime.
*runs in circles*
I got bored- randomly clicked through yer journals and decided to read this XD