Robots, robots, and fake cats.

Honorable Mentions

Heat Guy J

I hated the first episode of Heat Guy J. I saw it at A-Kon when it came out on DVD and walked out of the video room immediately after the first episode. It was about some kid that looked like an anime Leonardo DiCaprio and some old robot dude that let off steam the way that balloon guy voiced by George Takei from that Chowder cartoon lets off noxious fumes.

Yeah, the red guy. Mr.  Fugu. He and J are the same character, except one has more muscles. Anyway, in that first episode they fought some other robot dude in a pretty boring way, then the episode ended. “Whatever,” I said, “I’m going back to the dealer room.”

A few months later I saw the first DVD on sale. “Whatever,” I said, “It’s cheap and I have cash, let me give this another try.” I skipped the first episode and started with the second. Yeah, it rocked. Thoroughly. Turns out that Heat Guy J is all about the inner workings of the mafia government conspiracies, weird alternate world politics, and cool action. Somehow, though, the creators decided to make a really crappy first episode despite the rest of the series rocking pretty hard. It’s almost like they were trying to chase off potential fans or something.

Heat Guy J essentially creates its own world. The world is divided into city-states. Crime and corruption is rampant. Technology is a blend of near-future sci-fi and steampunk goodness. The story plays like a buddy cop movie merged with film noir and has character designs that look like they came from a shoujo romance manga. It’s a weird combination, but it works just as good, if not better, than the series’ spiritual predecessor The Vision of Escaflowne. Escaflowne was another genre and stylistic mash-up and had much of the same creative staff, so if you dug Escaflowne you may like Heat Guy J.

And that’s what makes Heat Guy enjoyable. It merges several elements normally not seen in the same series and finds perfect harmony in those differing elements. It’s the same reason why Cowboy Bebop is so brilliant, although Heat Guy isn’t near the same level of blissful immersion a Bebop. That said, Heat Guy’s a prime example of the idea that anime should aspire to break genre boundaries rather than adhere to them, since many of the best series break said boundaries.

Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex

SAC is the ideal anime adaptation. By adaptation I mean something that takes the basic concept of a source material and creates a new, independent product. Instead of recreating the original manga, SAC takes the manga’s concept and crafts an entirely new storyline. As I’ve said in other posts, I feel that this is the route that anime should go. I fail to see the point of having every anime based upon a manga or novel or whatever be a direct translation of the source material. I want to see changes. I want to see interpretations. I want to see something different. That’s exactly what SAC provides.

I really enjoy SAC’s structure. Each season consists of an ongoing story, but there’s numerous “stand alone” episodes sprinkled throughout the series. These episodes allow for a great deal of world-building and development that isn’t always possible when the main story is the focus. We get to see the inner workings of this cyberpunk world, and by seeing these “everyday” occurences it makes the “complex” episodes have considerable more weight. Anyone that calls these episodes “filler” doesn’t get their intent.

Another change that makes SAC superior to the original manga is the relationship between Kusanagi and Batou. Their relationship plays out fairly subtly. There’s never any confession scene or inner monologues talking about how they feel about each other, but their dialogue shows that there’s something brewing under the surface. Sometimes they bicker like an old couple. Sometimes they slip in flirtations that some people observing might not catch. Their interactons make for some of the best character development I’ve seen in an anime, and they’re one of my favorite couples as well. The scene at the end of the second season where Batou is furiously searching for Kusanagi admist rubble, cumulating with a shot of Batou hoisting debris in such a way that he almost looks like Christ carrying the cross, is also one of my favorite scenes from an anime series. That scene brings all of the subtle hints about Kusangi and Batou’s relationship to a head, but thankfully leaves things unresolved. Quite frankly, their relationship works best as one that can never come to pass, and this scene does a great job of acknowledging this fact.

Best of the Year

Azumanga Daioh

Azumanga Daioh is sadistic. It’s a mean-spirited, nasty, evil series dressed up as an innocent, cute show about little girls doing nothing. Don’t be fooled by Chiyo-chan’s pigtails and Osaka’s vacant expressions, this is a vicious comedy that gets its humor from people being mean to each other.

Azumanga best compares to Seinfeld. Both series are about “nothing,” meaning there’s no real concept running through the series other than “normal-ish people doing what they do and doing that stuff just happens to be funny.” Both series also derive most of their humor from people being placed into various humiliating and painful situations. More often than not, Azumanga derives comedy from inflicting pain on Chiyo or Yukari abusing her students or Yomi bearing the brunt of Tomo’s selfish antics. The series is not kind to its characters and it’s all the more amusing because of this.

What other anime is going to intentionally joke about stabbing someone to death?

The above scene shows off Azumanga’s comedic timing. The scene allows things to slowly build up. There’s clearly something wrong with the situation, but they don’t rush to the punchline. That sense of timing is spot-on throughout the series. Jokes rarely overstay their welcome and most of the reoccurring gags (the biting black cat for example) find ways to remain relatively fresh until the end.

The series also gets downright weird and surreal at times.

The Chiyo’s Dad bits are used sparingly, making them all the more funny when they occur.

All in all, Azumanga is the best straight-forward anime comedy I’ve ever seen. It avoids parody and references and goes for situational comedy. It’s also deceptively nasty, and I love it all the more because of that. Shoving to the ground a girl in a penguin suit has never been more satisfying.

Also-Rans

Haibane Renmei, Getbackers, Full Metal Panic

Continuing my TL;DR of anime I have seen according to classic charts put out by the man himself, 2002 had some real gems for me, even if I wound up seeing them in 2003, I think. I’m pretty sure I jumped on Gundam SEED somewhat midway through it’s air.

Gonna warn you, there is a ton of shit in here I’ve seen, so you might want to get yourself a snack.

IN THE YEAR NINETY-FIVE NINETY-FIVE…

Full Metal Panic

This is probably one of my favorite slightly-related mecha series, in what probably paved the way for Code Geass to be moderately successful among the non-mecha crowd, FMP employed not only mostly real robot mechanics (save for the Lambda Driver) but had an array of awesome characters and managed to merge mecha and school-comedy into something awesome. Tessa is still one of my favorite characters to date, scene with the bloody nose and the “fuck you” face? Priceless.

tl;dr: It’s like Top Gun, The Hunt for Red October, Full Metal Jacket, and In the Army Now, made into an anime, and without Pauly Shore.

RahXephon

Many friends told me this would be some kinda mindfuckery ala Eva. Frankly, it is, but it isn’t. I don’t quite remember much considering I’ve only given it one run, which I should give it a second one of these days, but as I recall it was a lot of HEAD GAMES, YOU AND ME BABY between the kid and his mother. Oh, and some giant robots, and that hot chick with tits.

tl;dr: GREEN BLOODED

Kanon (2002)

Since I was still a Megatokyo nerd back then (Don’t ask. I was to anime like music nerds were to emo back then) I tried to watch all the shit Fred Gallagher liked. Sadly to this day everything he likes is shit with the exception of Mahoromatic. Kanon was so stagnant that I simply could not take it after awhile and sort of panned my whole way through. It’s not that I can’t watch that genre of anime, I can, but it failed to make anything interesting beyond some magic and a lot of “uguuu~” which seems just plain silly now. Considering they took this format and evolved it into basically Lucky Star et. all random comedy, at least the latter gives you something to watch.

tl;dr: Megatokyo post-Largo in a nutshell. At least when Rodney was in the comic, it played out more like Kanon + GTO, and GTO was badass.

Galaxy Angel Z

tl;dr: see Galaxy Angel

Tokyo Underground

This was one of those rare-gem series you never hear about anymore that was actually good. The premise is probably nothing exciting, in fact it’s probably been covered by other series like it, but it’s a guy with a sword and some magic ability teaming with a girl who can fight with magic and essentially a goddess, along with his random friend. Besides the OP song being catchy as hell, it was a pretty decent series to watch, and definitely in my recommendations for anyone looking for a classic series to watch.

tl;dr: You can’t go wrong when at least one of the character’s names is Ruri, right?

Chobits

Ergh. See, when Chobits first came out, I followed it on fansubs, it was cool, and then the fandom ruined it. Chobits was sort of the slightly-canon sequel to Angelic Layer, as far as the manga is concerned, where Icchan basically developed what became the Persocom series before some crazy accident or something. It was cute, it was risque (the on/off switch goes where?) but ultimately the story was kinda bland towards the end and fandom killed it by basically declaring their undying love for wanting to have sex with androids. Yep, anime fandom ruins everything good, this is why most of them need to be shot.

tl;dr: Sumomo. That is all.

Rizelmine

tl;dr: Android girl. Awkward teenage boy. Hillarity. Explosions. Sexual innuendos. Short but sweet.

Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi

fairly accurate representation

Like most GAINAX stuff, it is weird. Two kids traveling through parallel dimensions and time to basically understand how their home came to be and why they shouldn’t move away from either other or something, fuck, it doesn’t matter, JAPANESE AND AMERICAN POP-CULTURES FUCK YEAH!!!

tl;dr: Watch it. No seriously. All of it. Might even be better stoned though I’ll take your word for it.

..hack//SIGN

I’ve never played any of the .hack games, but I liked the music in SIGN and it was semi-interesting. However it got boring pretty quickly and I can’t recall anything relevant for this.

tl;dr: What happens to kids when they spend way too much time in World of Warcraft. Also, IT’S A TRAP.

Tenshi na Konamaki

I actually liked this one, though I haven’t finished it all quite yet, it’s gender-bending, but it’s fairly interesting and revolves around a kid who was turned into a girl by a curse and is trying to turn back, but ends up gaining a male fanclub around him/her instead. The animation is a bit dated in the beginning for some reason, but definitely worth a watch.

tl;dr: Tsundere. Seriously.

Pita-Ten

I loved Pita-Ten, though sadly these days it tends to remind me of my ex-girlfriend, so I don’t think of it much, but it was cute and cuddly and… oh fuck you, I like this sort of thing, don’t judge me! Besides, the manga author is Koge-Donbo, one of my favorites ~su.

tl;dr: an Angel, a Devil, a cat, and one poor soul. Story of my life.

Azumanga Daioh

It has been argued many times since 100 years ago last Thursday that Azumanga Daioh pretty much set the stage for what we call the “slice-of-life” genre in anime, the theme in which nearly everything is based off of now. All I know is Azumanga was awesome, Saki > Osaka > * and cats!

tl;dr: WHAT THE HELL?

Ai Yori Aoishi

Sadly when I think of this series now I tend to think of Hayate the Combat Butler, as if Aoishi reminds me of Isumi, except less lost. Still, it’s mixed-mode comedy and romance, though probably more comedy, which puts it along the lines of Hayate with a serious story.

tl;dr: You only wish you were Japanese like this.

Bandit King Jing

Every once and awhile one of those weird sort of edgy series comes along, and they’re always Wild West themed for some reason, so much like how Trigun sort of defined the genre, Jing comes along and takes weird to strange levels. Fortunately, it succeeds and is pretty badass.

tl;dr: KEEL ROYALE

Witch Hunter Robin

I ended up being kinda mixed on this one. On one hand it was pretty cool, pretty edgy, good characters, good story, but then it felt rather emo, like someone in Japan decided that they needed to make a series featuring a witch to the tune of Linkin Park. Regardless the series itself was pretty good, though I don’t recall seeing the end for some reason, I think I dropped it on the third from last episode, or something. Someday maybe I’ll have to rewatch it.

tl;dr: A duck.

Overman King Gainer

I actually just saw this series this past year, and while it was good, it lacked any real… coherency. I think I understood the story by the end of it, but it seemed so disjointed and out of place that by the end you weren’t sure exactly what they were doing, much like the beginning. It could have been because the subtitles I had were weird, but I’m pretty sure without them they were just as bad.

tl;dr: KIIIIIIIIIIING~ KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING~ KIIIIIIING GAAAAAAAINER, MEEEEET-AL OVERRRRR-MAN, KING GAINEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER~ /dance

Ghost in the Shell: The Stand Alone Complex

GitS was awesome. SAC was awesome. The Laughing Man is essentially Anonymous’ first form before the creation of 4chan. Tachikomas are awesome. Need I go on?

tl;dr: ~/o HOW, DOES SHE SO PERFECTLY SURF? (perfectly surf?) ~/o

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED

I’ll admit, SEED opened up a door of nearly infinite wonder in the Gundam universe for me, something that can never be closed. Argue all you want about how it was a remake of the original Gundam, how DESTINY sucked, or whatnot, but Jesus Fucking Yamato and Mary-Sue Clyne are still among my top-tier favorite characters in anime and Freedom Gundam is also one of my favorite mobile suits of all time. OF ALL TIME! Not to mention Cagalli before her character was raped in Destiny.

tl;dr: FUCK YES FREEDOM YOU ARE ALMOST THE BEST MOBILE SUIT EVER

Galaxy Angel A

tl;dr: see Galaxy Angel

Haibane Renmei

Like I’ve said before, ABe series are weird, Haibane is no exception. Pretty much based on angels in somewhere, it’s by no means AOTY or anything, but it’s probably the only ABe series you’ll actually understand with only one pass as opposed to Lain or Niea which took two or three.

tl;dr: Wat?

Wow that was a lot. This should beef up the tag list somemore. I didn’t list a few that I watched the first ep or so of but never completed, such as GXP, Tokyo Mew Mew, Getbackers, and Kiddy Grade.

Chart has a 2008 chart up, but I’ll wait until he does 03-07. I have a feeling those will take even longer than this one.

The Forgotten Place
Translated by; Kyokugen!

Credit if you want to use.

English

That place of hopes, it’s there
Running past the bend in the road
A maze of grass along the path
I look back

A violent wind is blowing
Scattering dazzling lights
Ah, the past is stirring

Romaji

soko ni atte hashiridashite
magarikado sugita
michi ni sotta kusa no meiro
furikaeru

hageshii kaze fuite
hikari ga mabushiku chirinagara mo
aa kako yurasu

koko wa motto utsukushikute
surechigattemitara
himitsu da tte waraigoe de
kurikaesu

mada inai
watashi no maboroshi
mada inai?
…inai yo

hora osoi
yakusoku shita yo ne
sugu mitai?
mitai mitai!

hageshii kaze fuita
hikari o mabushiku furimaite

mada hoshii
mukashi no kioku o
mada hoshii?
…hoshii yo

demo hayai
tokei wa fushizen
ima mitai?
mitai mitai!

soko ni atte koko ni nakute
magarikado nigeta
soko ni atte koko ni areba
furikaeru
HANE no machi
furikaeru

Kanji

そこにあって　走り出して
曲り角過ぎた
道にそった　草の迷路
ふりかえる

はげしい風吹いて
光がまぶしく散りながらも
あゝ　過去揺らす

ここはもっと　美しくて
すれ違ってみたら
秘密だって　笑い声で
くりかえす

まだいない
私のまぼろし
まだいない？
…いないよ

ほら遅い
約束したよね
すぐ見たい？
見たい　見たい！

はげしい風ふいた
光をまぶしくふりまいて

まだ欲しい
むかしの記憶を
まだ欲しい？
…欲しいよ

でも早い
時計は不自然
今見たい？
見たい　見たい！

そこにあって　ここになくて
曲り角逃げた
そこにあって　ここにあれば
ふりかえる
ハネの街
ふりかえる

Diesmal ein wenig verspätet.

Der Grund warum es den Wochenrückblick erst am Montag gibt? Ganz einfach ich bin seit gestern recht Stark erkältet. Was mal wieder typisch ist. Kaum habe ich eine Woche Urlaub werde ich auch direkt Krank.

Aber das wird mich nicht davon abhalten diesen Samstag zu der Spielwaren Messe in Essen zu fahren. Den endlich ist es soweit. Das Event worauf ich mich schon den ganzen Monat lang freue. Bin schon gespannt was ich diesmal wieder alles nach Hause schleppen werde.

News gibt es diese Woche keine.

Anime Rückblick

Also kommen wir doch gleich zu den Anime Titeln die ich mir letzte Woche angesehen habe.

Flag the Movie

Bei Love Film ausgeliehen. Recht Interessanter Film doch leider auch nichts besonderes.

Haibane Renmei

Habe ich mir jetzt auch endlich Komplett auf Animax angesehen. Auch ein recht Interessanter Anime. Konnte mich aber ebenfalls nicht richtig fesseln.

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou

Ein sehr ruhiger und nachdenklicher Anime. Aber etwas zu ruhig für meinen Geschmack. Dafür aber sehr schöne Zeichnungen.

Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu

Und dann habe ich mir den Pilot Film zu Heldensagen vom Kosmosinsel (Legend of the Galactic Heroes) angesehen. Ein wirklicher toller Anime. Besonders der Soundtrack weiß zu gefallen.

Endlich haben sich nämlich ein paar Tapfere Deutsche Fansubber gefunden die sich an diesen Epischen Sci Fi Anime ran trauen. Den dieser Anime hat es in sich mit über 110 OVAs. Auf diesen Weg vielen Dank von mir an die Tapferen Fansubber.

Manga Rückblick

Ein paar Manga habe ich mir letzte Woche auch endlich mal durch gelesen.

Shodow Lady Band 3

Leider wurde ich von Shadow Lady Band 3 sehr enttäuscht. Hat sich gegen ende von Band 2 eine Interessante und spannende Geschichte entwickelt. Wird sie in Band 3 einfach verheißt. Da spult man einfach mal die Story vor ohne das man es irgendwie wirklich mitbekommt. Klar jetzt könnte man sagen es sind ja nur 3 Bände da ist nicht gerade viel platzt für Story. Aber von mir aus hätten es ruhig 5 Bände sein können.

The voices of a distant star

Ein sehr schöner Manga. Der aber leider schon etwas langweilig wirkt wenn man den Film dazu schon kennt. Darüber hinaus gehört der Manga mit seiner Liebesgeschichte nicht gerade zu meinen Lieblings Genre.

Hiroki Endo Short Stories Band 1

Wie von Hiroki Endo nicht anders zu erwarten geht es in seinen kurz Geschichten mal wieder nur um das eine. Sex, Gewalt und Menschlicher Schwächen. Der erste Band mir jedenfalls schon mal sehr gut gefallen.

Videospiel Rückblick

Ansonsten habe ich letzte Woche nur mal wieder Halo 3 gespielt. Dafür habe ich jetzt auch fast alle Erfolge bei Halo 3. Den letzten Erfolg werde ich aber wohl nie bekommen. Aber man kann nun mal nicht alles haben.

Video der Woche

Seit langem mal wieder ein NGE AMV.

So das war es dann auch schon wieder. Jetzt muss ich erst mal meine Erkältung auskurieren. Man liest sich dann nächsten Sonntag mit einen (hoffentlich) großen Einkaufsspezial von der Messe.

oder auch: Schönen Grüß zurück an Klaus!

Deine Zögerlichkeit gegenüber Anime-Serien ist vollauf berechtigt, zu groß ist ganz einfach der Ausschuss. Aber du hast eine glückliche Hand mit der Wahl der Serien erwiesen, die du dir bislang doch zu Gemüte geführt hast – und mit Haibane Renmei machst du ganz sicherlich nichts falsch. Das ist eine der (leider recht wenigen) Serien, an die ich nicht nur den üblichen Maßstab anderer Anime anlege, sondern auch ohne Bedenken mit großer und größerer Filmkunst vergleiche. Und selbst da schneidet Haibane Renmei reichlich gut ab. Dafür sind so einige Dinge verantwortlich, etwa die ätherisch schöne, kontemplative, introspektive Stimmung, die der Anime schafft; die schon mythische Geschichte, die die Grundfesten der menschlichen Existenz berührt; oder der Soundtrack von Ôtani Kô, ganz ohne Übertreibung einer der besten, der je für einen Anime geschrieben worden ist.

Das liegt vor allen Dingen aber an ABé Yoshitoshi (kein Tippfehler, nur Exzentrik). Der Mann hat nicht nur Haibane Renmei entworfen, geschrieben und gezeichnet  – kurzum, es ist sein Werk -, sondern war mit Serial Experiments: Lain und Texhnolyze auch an zwei weiteren bemerkenswerten Anime beteiligt. Nicht ganz zufällig. Er hat das große Glück, in einer Branche, die nach DVD-Verkäufen bemessen und entsprechenden Anreize finanziert wird, sein eigenes Ding machen zu können. Wie der Manga hier beweist, in dem er – wunderschön unflätig – erstens den Boom der moé-Designs angeht und zweitens zu verstehen gibt, dass er sonstwas darauf gibt. Und auch geben darf. Dafür bin ich dankbar.

Natürlich ist ABé aber nicht der einzige Kreative der Branche, der mit seinem Schaffen herausragt. Da sind noch einige weitere zu nennen. Spannend wird es immer dann, wenn zwei oder mehr von ihnen zusammentreffen. Das war bei Serial Experiments: Lain der Fall, als ABé die Designs für ein Drehbuch von Konaka Chiaki J. und die Regie von Nakamura Ryutaro lieferte. Die drei laufen sich immer wieder über den Weg – zuletzt arbeiteten Konaka und Nakamura zusammen an Ghost Hound, Konaka und ABé waren an Texhnolyze maßgeblich beteiligt. Im nächsten Jahr aber wird sich exakt dieselbe Konstellation wie vor bald zwölf Jahren für Serial Experiments: Lain ergeben, und zwar für den neuen Anime Despera.

Darin soll es um ein Mädchen namens Ain (!) geben, dass sich in einer stark steampunkigen Fassung Tokios der taishô-Ära, ein Jahr vor dem verheerenden Kantô-Erdbeben von 1923, als Erfinderin versucht und Prototypen etwa für Computer baut (!). Also wohl nicht nur ein Nachfolger im Geiste für Serial Experiments: Lain, sondern sogar ein ganz handfester. Abseits der Ankündigungen und einigen – wunderschön anzuschauenden – Promo-Artikeln gibt es leider nicht sehr viel mehr Informationen, auch keine zum genauen Startdatum oder zum ausführenden Studio. Sicher ist nur, dass das Projekt kommen wird. Das reicht aber auch schon, um meine Vorfreude gegen unendlich laufen zu lassen.

H2O was getting too repetitive (get up, moe moe moe, bullying, hints of the past, eat, sleep, rinse and repeat). So I’ve been taking the time to go through some other stuff (yes, yes, I should have been using the time to translate G-senjou and draw sepia tears, I know, I know).

First up was Haibane reimei. I’ve only watched one episode, but it’s absolutely beautiful, so I’ll take it slowly and only watch an episode at a time. I think that maybe it has the most beautiful soundtrack I’ve ever heard in an anime though, I just can’t get tired of that opening song.

The other angel (?) is from Kobato. I’ve been feeling guilty about not really keeping up with it so I went through it all today (thankfully the chapters are short), and WOW. No matter what they do CLAMP just have that charm that tugs at you and for some reason you can’t stop once you start. Now, since the back story to everything is very, VERY vague and mysterious, here’s my conspiracy theory (it’s been a long time since I wrote one, isn’t it?).

Ioryogi fell in love with an angel, but just like what happened in Wish, falling for an angel has its problems. That eventually led to the war between the other world and heaven, with the other world losing. The angel, believing by accident that Ioryogi died, wished was to go the other world, the place where the person she loved had lived. Escaping through the bridge between heaven and hell, she ended up at Yuuko’s shop.

…actually, scratch that.That’s not right at all. If I continue along this path I won’t be able to explain why Kobato can’t fall in love. Just wait, I need to re-read Wish and then I’ll come up with a proper one. This one isn’t crazy enough.

But really, Kobato is an addicting read (despite being a slice of life), and our cute and clumsy main character is the cutest thing ever! Her relationship with Fujimoto is just too adorable~ Pretty much everyone agrees that she isn’t human, but right now I don’t think my theory will work so I’m putting my money on the fact that Kobato will be a demon, instead of an angel, like most people . You know CLAMP, they never use the plot twists that you expect.

And also, the debt collector definitely has other plans. I think he’s going to be a dragon.

(Source)

I should preface this by saying that I’m really not the philosophical type. This isn’t one of those self-proclaimed “intellectual” Anime blogs where I extrapolate a hidden meaning and make generalizations about the human condition. And I especially detest how it has become fashionable for pseudo-scholars to tout themselves as “nihilists” when they probably don’t understand the deeper implications that come with such a doctrine, or any other doctrine for that matter.

Think of this as an analysis of Reki from Haibane Renmei – possibly one of my favorite shows of all time, animated or otherwise – with ties to my half-baked interpretation of existentialism.

Major last episode spoilers.

I’ve always thought of beliefs of any kind as either an enabler or an inhibitor, something that was actually intangible that allowed for automated responses when need be. If you’re a Buddhist, you limit wanting and desire, believing it to be the crux of human suffering. If you’re a vegan and animal rights advocate, you refrain from eating meat, eggs and dairy products because you’re sympathetic to animals. If you’re an extreme Republican, you think President Obama is the Antichrist and that all liberals are doomed to the hottest pits of hell. All of this is pretty obvious, I realize. But these choices ultimately make up who we are – what we choose to do and not do shapes us as individuals. Maybe it’s just me, but I find that to be a powerful sentiment.

I believe that measuring self-worth isn’t so much about making a checklist of all of our relative virtues and vices in hopes that the former outweighs the latter. It’s more about what the person symbolizes in regards to the other people within his/her life, like a role model or icon or what have you. My skewed snapshot judgment of existentialism tells me that it’s a philosophy about the despair behind the choices we make. With choices come responsibility, and with responsibility comes fear of failure. In the long run, we’re tempted to just give in to how immaterial everything seems and how we lead fruitless lives.

But what most people fail to see is that there’s a real triumph that comes with upending that notion. As mawkish as it sounds, I’ll be so bold as to say that the choices we make do matter in the grand scheme of things. Not a single action or spoken word is wasted because everything you do sets an example for others. We should never dismiss ourselves so easily.

This idea is probably why I was so moved by the ending of Haibane Renmei. Bereft of any hope of salvation due to her Sin-bound nature, Reki thanklessly nurtures Rakka in hopes that she’ll be granted redemption. While her final hour draws near, Reki reveals to Rakka that she acted only out of her personal desire to attain her Day of Flight. Nevertheless, Rakka loves Reki too much to give up on her, believing her to be the good person she was through it all. She eventually reciprocates by “saving” Reki from being consumed by her cocoon dream.

Reki was the perpetually maternal figure within the series. The other Haibane knew she was someone they could rely on to help shoulder their own burdens. They naturally loved her as part of the family for everything she’d done for Old Home. By living vicariously through Reki’s example, they became better people. Reki herself admitted to acting out of want for her Day of Flight, but even she came out of the experience a better person. She chose to do the right thing in the presence of her peers, and Rakka followed her lead by saving her in the penultimate scene.

I should probably do a more comprehensive review on Haibane Renmei in a forthcoming post because I just love it so much. It’s just a real treat to see a show that doesn’t beat you over the head with exposition. It’s like an endless jigsaw puzzle with a few missing pieces.

________________________________________________________

In other news, I’ve been away from this blog because of a bout with the flu. It was probably a mild case of the H1N1 virus, or Pig AIDS as my friend likes to call it.
But it doesn’t matter now since I’ve made a full recovery. Hell, I felt so great this morning when I got out of bed that I let out a war cry and struck this pose:

Fuck yeah!

Title: Mechademia
Editor: Frenchy Lunning
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Publication Schedule: Annually
Pages: 300

The annual publication Mechademia is, as far as I can tell, the best source for scholarship on contemporary Japanese popular culture in English, even surpassing recent essay collections like Cinema Anime (2008, edited by Stephen T. Brown) and The Worlds of Japanese Popular Culture (2008, edited by Dolores Martinez), which are both fabulous. Each of the three volumes of Mechademia contains about fifteen 15-20 page articles on a specific topic, theme, or work. Although a wide range of authors, from academics to grad students to freelance writers, is represented, the editing is tight, and the essays are of uniformly high quality. These articles are well-illustrated with grayscale images, and the overall layout and design of each journal is visually attractive. Of course, the vibrant cover illustrations, taken from works by artists like Aoshima Chiho and Oksana Badrak, are quite eye-catching as well.

The subject matter of the various articles in Mechademia deals with broad cultural phenomena, such as fanfiction and the Gothic and Lolita subculture, important themes in Japanese pop culture, like shōjo and homoeroticism, and examinations of various anime, animated films, manga, and video games. Auteurs such as Miyazaki Hayao and Shinkai Makoto and famous manga-ka like Tezuka Osamu and Mizuki Shigeru are well-represented, as are controversial and provocative anime like Revolutionary Girl Utena and Neon Genesis Evangelion and canonical films such as Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence and Blood: The Last Vampire. Lesser known but still noteworthy works of Japanese animation, like Haibane Renmai, have also been included in the selection of articles.

The tone of the journal is predominantly scholarly, and the authors and editors assume that the reader is at least somewhat familiar with Japanese popular culture. In other words, Mechademia takes the value of its subject matter for granted; there are no essentializing explanations of what Japanese popular culture is and what makes it so great. The journal is not directed at “specialists,” however, as most of the articles are quite approachable by scholars who don’t know much about anime and anime fans who don’t know much about post-structuralist theory. There is very little geeking out going on on either the academic side or the otaku side, a facet of the editing which makes each volume of the journal quite readable while preserving an atmosphere of intellectual rigor.

An interesting feature is the “Review and Commentary” section at the end of each volume. This section presents several shorter articles that, as the section title suggests, take the form of reviews and commentary, often in the guise of semi-philosophical musings. Two of my favorite mini essays in this section are a piece by Trina Robbins, a former editor and localizer for the “Shojo Beat” line of manga from Viz Media, on the inner workings of an American manga publisher, and a very short introduction to the psychology of dolls in contemporary Japan by Susan Napier, the mother of “Anime Studies” in America. This “Review and Commentary” section reads like a high octane version of a monthly anime magazine and provides plenty of food for thought in bite-sized chunks.

Since Mechademia is so readable, and also since it’s such an attractive publication, I would recommend it to any serious fan of contemporary Japanese popular culture. Although the first volume was somewhat shaky on its feet, the two subsequent volumes have improved dramatically, and the new volume, “War/Time,” comes out on October 30.

Yoshitoshi ABe es un artista gráfico japonés que se ha destacado mayormente en la producción de trabajos artísticos para manga y anime. Se graduó de la Universidad Nacional de Bellas Artes y Música de Tokyo.

Sus trabajos se diferencian por poseer un estilo propio, que entre otras cosas se destaca por no hacer uso de reglas y parámetros utilizados usualmente en la mayoría de los trabajos artísticos estilo anime. El primer trabajo que lo hizo ganador de cierta fama y respeto en el medio, fue el anime experimental Serial Experiments Lain. ABe es también el responsable del concepto y el diseño de los personajes de la serie NieA under 7. Es también el creador del doujinshi Haibane Renmei, el cual fue adaptado a una serie de anime de 13 capítulos.

He quedado realmente fascinado por el trabajo de ABe con Gaisokyu, tanto en su calidad narrativa como gráfica. Me encantan las líneas que toman sus historias, pero particularmente su estilo gráfico definido, fluido, elegante y con un gran juego de luces y colores; esto se aprecia cuando vez su trabajo de cerca.

Dentro de sus mundos predominan los seres alados como los ángeles, entes tribales, criaturas reptil-volantes, sirenas, aliens, y humanos comunes (¿o no?). Todos dentro de escenas comunes o ajenas a la realidad, futuristicas, post-apocalípticas o más allá de la mente en sí.

Les dejo algunas imágenes que fueron las que más me gustaron:

Si quieren conocer más de la obra de ABe, les dejo estos links del grupo “ASDFers” donde pueden encontrar dos de sus trabajos:

• Haibane Renmei: http://asdfers.awardspace.com/t/proyectos-concluidos/haibanes-de-la-vieja-casa/
• White Rain:  http://asdfers.awardspace.com/t/proyectos-concluidos/white-rain/

Bueno, les dejo el artbook para que lo descarguen; las imagenes tienen una calidad excelente.

• Gaisokyu – Parte 1
• Gaisokyu – Parte 2
• Gaisokyu – Parte 3
• Gaisokyu – Parte 4
• Gaisokyu – Parte 5
• Gaisokyu – Parte 6

P.D. No me importa si ponen los links en alguna otra parte, pero supongo que me gustaría algo de crédito.

En abril Yoshitoshi Abe, conocido por su trabajo en Serial Experiments Lain y Haibane Renmei comentó que estaba trabajando en un nuevo proyecto que llevaría por título Despera.

El número de julio de la revista Animate confirma que efectivamente Despera ya se está desarrollando y añade nombres al proyecto: Ryutaro Nakamura en la dirección, Chiaki J.Konaka en el guión y Abe en el diseño de personajes, repitiendo los tres la colaboración que llevaron a cabo en 1998 con Serial Experiments Lain.

Despera, cuyo nombre deriva de un poema de Jun Tsuji, es una serie de ciencia ficción situada en 1922 durante la era Taisho.

En el número de julio de Animate, además, da inicio una serialización en forma de novela gráfica que durará un año, posteriormente se pondrá en marcha otro proyecto del que todavía no se han dado más detalles.

En la pasada Sakura-con de Washington, Yoshitoshi Abe confirmó que esta trabajando en un nuevo animé llamado Despera. El proyecto marca el regreso del mangaka y diseñador de personajes de series como Serial Experimental Lain y Haibane Renmei, luego de más 2 años de ausencia.

Pero tal como comentó Abe, el anuncio oficial de Despera aun estaba por llegar desde Japón y ahora sabemos que vendrá en las páginas de la revista Animage, en su edición de julio que sale a la venta el próximo miércoles, y donde, además, se estará celebrando el aniversario número 31 de la publicación. Aunque Abe ya había mencionado que casi todo el staff de Lain participaría en Despera, Chiaki Konaka (supervisor del guión de Lain) confirmó su colaboración en este animé, a través de su página web, en la cual aparece otra imagen del proyecto. Ryutaro Kanamura será el director de la serie.

Despera también tendrá manga, el cual empezará a serializarse en Animage, a partir de la próxima edición (10 de julio).

.

Fuentes: Moetron, AnimeNewsNetwork, La Ventana De Saori

Do you like argueing over which member of the Ouran High School Host Club is the cutest?  Or whether Goro Miyazaki should or shouldn’t have made Earthsea without his father’s approval?  Does the word Cosplay get you excited?

If so, then I’ll probably see you tomorrow at AnimeCon!  This weekend fans and artists alike will be swarming to the Toronto Metro Convention centre for the 2009 AnimeCon!  At a third of the cost of the classic Anime North conference (happening in May this year) and at a downtown location, this conference is great bang for your buck for those of you who are U & F.  For $15 you  get:

Cosplay Idol
Put on your best costume (bought or homemade) and flaunt it for the celebrity judges. They will comment and then the audience votes to decide who goes to the final round.  Lotsa fun, Lotsa prizes. Are you the next Cosplay Idol!?!

Professional Guests and Speakers
Celebrity guests, including (from the AnimeCon site):

VIC MIGNOGNA – Vic is best known for his award winning voice work as Edward Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist and Broly in Dragon Ball Z. He is super hot right now since taking the role of Tamaki Suou in Ouran High School Host Club, yet another impressive credit to add to his lengthy resume.

SONNY STRAIT – Sonny is a man of many talents, which is why is a fan favourite in many genres. As a voice actor is best know for his work as Krillin in Dragonball Z, Maes Hughes in Fullmetal Alchemist and Arsene Lupin III in Lupin III. He also worked as the ADR Director on these shows.

MIKE McFARLAND – His most memorable roles include Lupin III as Goemon Ishikawa; Dragon Ball Z as Master Roshi and Trinity Blood as Cain Nightroad. Mike also works as a Producer and Director on top of his excellent voice work credits.

and more!

BIG Exhibitor Room
Do you like shopping? Over 50 Anime Exhibitors, in one giant room. Find everything you’re looking for, including imported anime and manga that you normally cannot buy, all for a better price than your local shop, ebay, craigslist, or the Pacific Mall.  Very U&F indeed.

Free Autograph Sessions
The special guest speakers will be signing autographs during operating hours.  Bring your favourite anime and manga!

Q & A Session

Hall Cosplay
Cosplay stands for “Costume” + “Play”.  Dress up as your favourite character, and show off to the Toronto Anime Community.

Anime Theatre
Anime Theatre is running all weekend…woot woot!

Anime Name That Tune
Ever heard that memorable song or piece of music that just simply adds to your favorite anime? Think you can remember it if played right before you with prizes and pride at stake? Step up to the buzzer and guess that song!

Anime Win, Lose, or Draw!
This informal addition to the Con is exactly what it sounds like…Win or Lose as you draw guess various Anime characters or titles in 60 seconds and win a p p p prize!

Anime FLASH!
This is the AnimeCon’s newest game addition.  Anime Flash is essentially a memory game, with free prizes for all participants.  Yup, everyone!

And now I have to get back to my costume…It’s almost done.  I’m going as Reki from Haibane Renmei, with sin bound wings – how appropriate! ;P  Will update this post this weekend with photos.  Hope to see you there!

****UPDATE****

Photos!

Me in my Reki (from Haibane Renmei) cosplay outfit - Note the sin bound wings!

This was a pretty good Grimm Jow from Bleach

Vampire Knights duo

Toronto AnimeCon has lots to offer - including Free Hugs!

Synopsis: after you die you go to this place where you get three days to pick one memory to take with you to The Beyond or whateva, and then the people who work there have the rest of the week to make a movie of your chosen memory.

One really amazing aspect of this film is that they used real interviews (with old people) mixed in with the actors, talking about their entirely genuine pasts dancing and soldiering and picnicing. The real interviews are amazing, and the acting is decent, but the sincerity and reality of the 75+ year olds makes the acting seem dull and cloying in comparison. In the same way that Reincarnation failed at mixing their girlish, twitchy actors, I began to notice all the flaws of the film, and dislike it because of it.

Don’t get me wrong – I thought it was an entirely enjoyable film, and highly recommend it to anyone who can find a copy. But the discordance of the acting styles being confronted with real interviews made it hard to pay attention to the good aspects of the film, rather than the bad. For instance, I was entirely struck by the strange mixture of emotional values and contemporary technology. Why would there be an institution, as cool as it sounds, to FILM your experiences? A man orders in copies of tapes of his life, and it’s mailed to him as 72 VHS tapes, one for each year of his life. Isn’t the afterworld supposed to be transcendental? Why would contemporary technology make any difference to heaven or its offshoots at all?

It reminds me of a comedy piece by David Cross, where he rails on about how there was an article in the newspaper assuring people there would be angel driven buses in heaven. Technology just.. wouldn’t advance in the same way in heaven. The quaint 90s air of the film helped soothe my temper concerning technology, but it’s still something to think about.

The film, all in all, reminded me a lot of the anime Haibane Renmei – it shared lots of themes, such as institutionalization of the afterlife, togetherness, death, and a general 90s “look”. They came out in the same year, unsurprisingly. But the anime reminds me, in turn, of a Murakami book which covers almost the exact same themes, but on a simultaneously more and less mysterious scale. A man is trapped inside a walled city, such that even touching the walls will make one sick, and one must work for the sake of working (both of which are also true in Haibane Renmei).

The book is also heavily influenced by a Kafka book – and Megatokyo is heavily influenced by the anime. So in a sort of wave, Kafka has influenced writers and directors and artists, creating a distinctly visual style, rather than what you might expect from an author – a moral trend, or a trend based specifically around communication, rather than around angels and windmills, which he explicitly doesn’t mention. The things that get carried on by influence and time interest me.

This is one of my favorite things.

Haibane Renmei (灰羽連盟, Haibane Renmei^?), traducida por el autor como La Federación de las Plumas de Carbón. Se trata de un conjunto de dōjinshi escritos e ilustrados por Yoshitoshi ABe que fueron adaptados a una serie de animé de 13 episodios de duración.

Historia

Rakka es una haibane que nace en el primer capítulo de la serie. A pesar de que no recuerda absolutamente nada de su vida, sabe caminar, leer, escribir, andar en bicicleta, etc. Rakka obtuvo su nombre del sueño que tuvo antes de nacer de su capullo, en el que sueña que está cayendo del cielo (“Rakka” significa “Caer”). Tradicionalmente los nombres de cada haibane se asignan representando la idea del sueño que cada una tuvo. Cuando las demás haibane se reúnen con ella para entregarle su Aureola, descubren que por alguna razón ésta no se queda quieta en su posición y deben afirmarla con un trozo de alambre y tela. Después de recibir su Aureola, Rakka sufre el doloroso proceso de la aparición de sus alas, después del cual obtiene la apariencia tradicional de las haibane, similar a ángeles.

Desde este momento Rakka empieza a conocer el pueblo donde nació y empieza a preguntarse, ¿por qué esta ahí? ¿por qué tiene alas? y ¿qué se supone que debe hacer después de ese momento? y más importante aún, ¿quién era antes de esto? Sin respuestas a sus preguntas, Rakka decide seguir los pasos de las haibane, el cual es buscar un trabajo. En su recorrido por varios empleos que hay en la ciudad se da cuenta de varias cosas, como las enormes murallas que hay alrededor de toda la ciudad, o el hecho de que los únicos que pueden entrar y salir son los Toga, comerciantes, o finalmente que nadie puede hablar con ellas, salvo el “Washi” que es una especie de intérprete, y aparentemente también un Haibane.