Boogiepop Loosing the Mystery

Boogiepop Phantom was stylish, mysterious and confusing. However, the obfuscation helped to create a dense atmosphere. Much of that mask was torn away in Boogiepop at Dawn, which relied on heavy exposition and switched often to the oppositions' point of view, such as Mo Murder from the Towa Organisation or the monstrous psychiatrist Fear Ghoul.

Upon first read, I was upset by the loss of mystery. I had another go at it and chilled out a bit. No work is perfect, and I knew that Boogiepop was far from it. The franchise got about as far away from that as it could during the teenie-bopper flick Boogiepop & Others.

With adjusted expectations, the collection of stories in Boogiepop at Dawn did flesh out the many gaps in the story left by the other light novels and provided more back story to what happened four to five years before B. Phantom. The collection of stories also ended at a pretty cool scene that earned back points marked off previously, but I won't spoil it. I'll just say that it cemented coolness of Boogiepop. [1]

[1] Or rather, I should say as an engineer that it hydrated the cement.

Not Britannica

One of my friends told me that she'd met a dumb guy who thought that he was smart. He was denying liability for some event or another, but kept on saying:

"I'm not reliable."

This bimbo [1] was trying to impress my friend, but he persisted in stating his unreliablity after she corrected him. His attempt to impress ended in an epic fail.

That was the feeling that I got from watching the first episode of Code Geass: Lelouche the Revolution. When the Brits or many successful empires conquered nations, they often used locals to help carry out their bidding. During the heyday of the British Empire, they recognized Indian nobility, then used them to help administer the Jewel of the Empire.

Also, the honorary Britanicans should have been using at least riot gear (e.g. rubber truncheons, plastic restraints, etc.), so that they wouldn't be overpowered by the local populace. However, such details would have violated the characters' metrosexuality with its phallic cludginess. A mass slaughter of the locals would have also ignited a mass uprising in the Shinjuku slums. Afterall, this is only 7 years after the beginning of the occupation.

In the aftermath of WWII, MacArthur warned Washington: "give me bread or give me bullets." While he may have been exaggerating to get the materiel, he knew that he would have problems if he didn't feed the defeated Japanese. In Germany, groups of unrepantant Nazis called the Werewolves still fought against the Allies, despite years of war weariness.

But is it fair to fault a mecha anime for unrealism?

My criticism of the first episode lies in two lines:
1. The conceit has potential. The image of the Japanese living in their own downtown as a slum is striking. However, the first episode ham-handedly develops the world. This is disappointing considering the ambition & scope that the writers are pushing. In short, they hyped the hard-core, so they have to live up to it.
2. Lelouche's use of anime cliches hampers the development of the episode. High schoolers, dramatic idealism (Suzaku) juxtaposes discordantly with the genocidal slaughter at the end of the episode. So if you aren't dazzled by Samwise-Frodo intensity stares and girly-man gorgeous teens, this show may not be for you. In other words, this is more of a niche show, which is a legitimate business strategy, but moves away from the universal rule: "If it sounds good, it is good." And I doubt that this show is for me.

I may try episode 2 if the mood strikes me, but I have my doubts about that.

Usually I wouldn't bother to write a detailed negative review based one episode, but this Code Geass a pet peeve of mine, which I detail in criticism #1. To this day, I criticize the Segway for the same thing.

[1] Bimbo first applied to men in the '20s.

1000 Masks - End of the Line

I just finished watching episode 51 of Glass Mask. And I'm not sure what to think. I think that it was really good, but I'm not sure yet. I'm going to have to watch it again. But the series overall was excellent.

Aoi Hana the Animation II

Note: this post assumes knowledge of the Aoi Hana manga. [1]

This morning, while unable to sleep, the word "idyllic" came to me as my thoughts touched on Aoi Hana. Despite my railing against remakes, the Aoi Hana anime [2] has made a fan at me in 45 minutes. During my last post, I wrote about the light and the colors. Here are some samples, taken from Crunchyroll, of a scene with dappled light and the glare of a lamp beneath a curtain.

Dapples of light on the protagonist: Akira Okudaira.

Glow during the night.

Scenes from ordinary life are transformed into moving art. So far, the direction is nothing short of inspired. This is in contrast to jaded anime that take the otherworldly and make it utterly mundane.

The voice acting matches the characters well. I didn't like Akira's nasal voice too much during episode one, but it transitions well from the past to the present. It also matches her genki-ness. She also managed to pull off the emotional scene when Akira comforts Fumi.

Left - manga, Right - anime

This scene also serves as a good reference point between the manga and anime style. While much of the character designs are the same, there are differences. Akira's face is longer in the anime, making her look older. Her hand is also slimmer and her fingers are smaller. This makes her look more feminine rather than boyish. Typically males have a larger hand to body ratio. Kojita, the character designer of Someday's Dreamers, also used larger hands to emphasized a boyish energy and naivete. This is clearly shown in the picture culled from his website [3].

Note the hand size, which is prominent in this portrait of a tomboy.

Also, Shimura's usually leaves out the background. This economy boosts the impact of the character's closeness in this scene.

The two frames also show the two interpretations. The anime emphasizes Akira's facial expression, while the manga takes a more subtle approach. Note that Akira's hand sinks into Fumi's side with greater pressure, while her brows are unfurrowed, expressing more puzzlement than in the animated version.

This image also shows that both versions have a lot to recommend, and I look forward to their releases on this side of the Pacific.

= = =

[1] The early volumes of Shimura's work were scanlated by Kotonoha & Lillilicious. Lillilcious has been the sole scanlator lately. In another note, Lillilcious also fansubbed Maria-sama, which was the inspiration for this blog's name.
[2] Available thanks to Crunchyroll and thank you, thank you, thank you!
[3] Kojita site: http://www.tuchinoko.com/

Aoi Hana the Animation

I've seen episode 1 via crunchyroll, and it's a beauty. The character designs are a bit more grown up and detailed than most of Shimura's frames, but they manage to convey the characters and their atmospheres. The color palette combines liveliness, soft shades, and incredibly detailed lighting (like the dapples on Akira's skirt) to lend itself to the subtle layers of character growth and emotion that is the author's staple.

The animation style feels like a favorable recombination of Shinkai's background & the raging melodrama "Bokura ga Ita". I'm a fan. Onto episode 2!

I've been in an otaku-cave. Oofuri has been out in the US and I've only recently noticed. Also Kannagi has just been released. I'm just catching up with Clannad. I think that the lack of space has been slowing down my anime collection. Also, the unwatched series have piled up. Being an otaku can be demanding.

Ranma the Trouble-maker

After a long, long time, I finally got a season of the Ranma DVDs. They were $25 per season through Right Stuf. The episodes were just as funny as I remember. Just about the time, they introduced Shampoo, the series dropped most of its pretense of continuity and serious and began it's descent into slap-stick harem-dom. It's been a walk down memory lane, and it was as good as ever.

This morning, I wanted to burn a music CD for my commute, when the boxset took a flying front flip and crashed right into my open CD-R drive. I've had that drive for 4 years and haven't had trouble with it. Now it's dead. The caddy won't close. However, the DVD ROM (read only) opens and closes again, though now it won't read anything. Down from 1.5 drives to zero. Sigh. Ranma, what a trouble-maker.

I'm not too upset, though since it was time for an upgrade to a DVD-R drive. Also, I've got Yawara, the series that beat Ranma to its knees when they both first aired in Japan. It's the blood-bout, now across the Pacific!

More Vocabulary

More words to catch the eye & ear:

"abandominiums" = abandoned construction that is used by squatters. Portmanteau of "abandon" + condominium

Sporfe = spoon + fork + knife. Trade name = Splayd. Found on the Ragbag.

Also found on Ragbag:
fanon (sci-fi/fantasy fans): facts about the characters or worlds of a particular t.v. show, book, movie, etc. that are not part of the source material but originate in fan fiction (contrast with canon).

Addition 07-18-09:
Tertullian Heresy - the heretical belief that one of the joys of Heaven is watching the torment of those fallen to Hell.

Cel Fogey

With the advent of digital, I thought of a term for anime fans who cut their yellowed, Dew stained teeth before the internet became big and 3rd generation VHS cassettes were the order of the day: Cel Fogeys. The fogey-ism starts with "back in my day". And back in those days, anime was drawn on cells.

Epic, but accessible: a fogey rants

It's kind of like great taste, less filling. I've had a new copy of Escaflowne for a few months now (Vol 1 & 2 got microwaved from my collector's set), but I haven't watched them. I watched my old fan subs and my first DVD collection about six or seven times all together and certain scenes and episodes several times over, so its so firmly embedded in my memory that my eyes gloss over the screen and my mind wanders.

Still, the idea of the Earth in the sky as the Mystic Moon, empires clashing, magi-tech, an ancient civilization, and Sir Isaac Newton, makes for a true epic. Even with the breadth and scope, the entry point (Hitomi Kanzaki) and the flow of the story makes it accessible to the average viewer. Yet the accessibility did not translate into simplicity or shallowness, there was plenty of layers, mysteries, and character development to engage the audience.

Gaia was big enough to immerse the audience, but did not drown it.

Despite my limited exposure and criticisms of the franchise, Final Fantasy unabashedly offers both of these elements. However, they seem to be a prisoner of their own success. I accuse Square-Enix of crossing the fine line from storyboarding to formula. Here's a checklist:

• A conflict between magic & technology
• A race against time
• A female character of unusual power needs your support
• Girly men abound
  

Gainsay me if you will, if you can.

I believe that few anime in recent years have had the ambition to create a work of the scope of Escaflowne, fewer yet have suceeded in it.

The most popular series in recent years have been manga transplants: Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, and Inu Yasha. Let's not talk about the endless Inu Yasha, I don't consider it to be a story telling success. Bleach lost its characters in the multitude of battles. Death Note was intense in a different way. Naruto is a competition manga, which is an extension of the sports genre and is an illegitimate child of the murdered DBZ. While various serious works have tried to double down on the obfuscation that marked Evangelion. Even successful inheritors to Eva are markedly different from the sweeping adventure of Escaflowne.

That is not to say that there haven't been successful works. Ghost in the Shell, Haruhi, Gankutsou, & Mushi-shi readily come to mind. Yet these are not in the same vein. Dark cyberpunk, otaku madness, psychedelic remake, Twilight Zone avec les bugs are very different.

Though the tones were far different, 12 Kingdoms is a transfer story into another world. Last Exile hung a whole new world in the balance (in a race against time, of course). While I haven't watched much of it, the world of Full Metal Alchemist seems to be complete. So, there are a few big adventures spread over the years, but sometimes I sit at my computer and wonder when will the next Mystic Moon wax in the sky.

I feel like I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth. Square doesn't do it right, because it's become too much of the same. Yet this fogey complains that there isn't enough out there like the, now, venerable Escaflowne. But the gist of my argument is that the grand adventures seem to be missing, yet there must be enough new to make the trip worthwhile. Also heart is not an option. Without soul, there is no vigor, we might as well be watching Mahoromatic or Diamond Daydreams.

So I ask the anime makers: When will my Mystic Moon rise again?

Haruhi Season 2: Really Endless Eight

The arc Endless Eight will probably end in episode 5, but not before confounding (what I imagine) are most fans' expectations of a convenient end to the endless loop. Instead, there have been at least three iterations of the loop shown. For a show that began with episode 0, leapt through its own timeline, and then ninja ambushed the fans with the second season, there looping of the endless eight, should not be a surprise, yet it still surprised me.

Though the repeats jerks my chain with each rewind, I'm glad that Kyoto Ani isn't resting on their laurels. Sieg Kyon!

Update: Just watched 5, refusing to bow to rules or popularity pressure, Kyoto Ani continues Endless Eights for another week. I wonder if a mix up like season one would have worked better, but they strive to defy expectation.

Update 2: Episode 6 continues to loop the Endless Eights. Keep 'em guessing and stressing! I suppose that there's a good reason why there isn't a preview at the end of each episode. Keep 'em coming Kyoto Ani!

Update 3: I just watched the breaking of the loop at Episode 9. I was late to the game, but it was still a relief to see it end.