“What happened to 2005″ you ask? 2005, in terms of anime, sucked ass. That year gave us the 00’s worst anime series, Eureka Seven (Yeah, I know I’ll get flack for that, but that’s how I feel.). The only worthwhile series I saw that year was Speed Grapher, and my love of that anime has more to do with the fact that it played out like an anime version of Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut than anything else. I kind of enjoyed Pani Poni Dash, but in retrospect it feels more like a dry run for the far superior Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (You’ll see that on my 2007 list.). I missed out on Mushishi, which I hear is good, but other than that the year was rife with mediocrity at best.

In comparison, 2006 feels as if God looked down upon the world and said “Sorry, my bad about last year being so crappy. Here’s a bunch of awesome anime to make up for me being such a fucking idiot.”

Many of the “also-rans” from 2006 would easily be “honorable mentions” or even “best of’s” if they aired in other years, particularly Ouran, Coyote Ragtime, and Red Garden. And Bartender has one of the best anime theme songs I’ve ever heard. But they have the “misfortune” of airing during what’s easily the best year of anime ever.

Honorable Mentions

Black Lagoon

Along with Kusanagi and Batou, the relationship between Rock and Revy is one of my favorites amongst anime characters. The scene early in the first season where they light up cigarettes in the back of a taxi is one of the most subtly romantic moments I’ve ever seen in an anime. That scene says more about their feelings towards one another than any number of inner monologues, shy glances, and any other bullshit that you get from your typical “romance” anime. The fact that this scene comes from an homage to action movies says a lot about the (lack of) quality in romance/relationship anime.

It’s these sorts of characterization moments that elevate Black Lagoon. Much like Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, and other similar series, Black Lagoon allows the characters’ actions and attitudes develop the characters. While we get a handful of flashbacks in the series, Black Lagoon doesn’t rely upon those sorts of narrative crutches that are over-utilized in anime. We learn more about Rock and the other characters by the way they react to situations, the way they behave, how they talk, and other elements that are worked into the overall plot. We don’t get a long string of details from a character’s past we get brief glimpses that say just as much, if not more, about the character than any expository scene would ever reveal. We see Dutch wiring money to an unknown account in another country. Is he sending money to relatives? Is he doing this mercenary business to help people he loves? Or is he just setting aside money so that when this little group inevitably breaks apart he can quietly escape and live off his plundered goods? It’s situations like that which make for interesting characterization.

Another key element to Black Lagoon’s success is time period. There’s several hints that the series takes place in the early 90’s. There’s a reference to a new Dracula movie coming out, and Coppola’s Dracula came out in 1992. Pretty sure the picture of the magazine that talks about this Dracula movie looks a lot like Gary Oldman’s version of Drac. The time period is important because the early 90’s were the last few years of the dominance of the sort of the action movies of which Black Lagoon is an homage. Stallone, Willis, and Schwarzenegger were still big box office draws and their breed of action movie was still favored by the public. This was before the likes of The Matrix, super hero movies, and Michael Bay flicks (Armageddon, etc) “ruined” this breed of movie. Placing Black Lagoon during the very time period where the Die Hard series, John Woo’s blood operas, and other big time action movies were still very relevant in the public eye is a brilliant stroke. It almost makes Black Lagoon nostalgic for this era, wishing we could go back to a “simpler” time when gunplay was about badasses shooting up shit and getting off on getting bloodied up.

Even when Black Lagoon allows modern tropes to seep into the mix, the series does this to subvert those tropes rather than celebrate them. Roberta is a perfect example of this. She appears to be a quiet, demure, subservient “maid” character. She’s polite has the whole glasses-girl thing going. She play up to several otaku fetishes. Then she turns around and goes El Mariachi on a group of South American thugs. Her umbrella, a device a cute girl will use to hide her face, is turned into a shotgun. It’s no longer a prop for someone’s moe fetish, it’s become a dealer of cold-blooded death. Her Rei Ayanami-like persona is subverted as well when her emotionless motions morph into something reminiscent of a T-1000 from Terminator 2. Even Rock can’t help but remark about how she seems to be like a character from a movie. Everything that would be a stereotype that would allure a certain facet of fandom is turned into an action movie stereotype, and in the process those otaku tropes are completely subverted, much to the pleasure of an action-loving fan such as myself.

All of this, coupled with numerous action scenes that would be beautifully executed in a normal live action movie, makes Black Lagoon one of the smartest action shows of all time. In that regard it’s the Die Hard of anime. That’s a very lofty comment as far as I’m concerned.

Welcome to the NHK

Welcome to the NHK is a perfect companion piece to Genshiken. Both series deal with the idea of “fandom,” but while Genshiken is a love letter to the positive aspects of being a fan, NHK deals with the negative aspects and the downward spiral one can be faced with when fandom and its associated vices become the sole focal point of one’s life.

Granted, Satou has mental problems from the get-go. He secludes himself from the world and becomes a hikikomori long before the fandom aspect seeps into his life, but it’s his introduction to the world of anime, games, and the like that sends him further into the abyss. It’s the willingness of NHK to confront these problems that makes it infinitely more interesting than the glut of “slice of life” anime series that focus upon fandom that have littered this decade.

While NHK is ultimately a tale of redemption, that redemption is decidedly bittersweet. Satou and Misaki, the girl who tries to “save” Satou, are both troubled individuals. Satou is essentially a paranoid schizophrenic and Misaki has intense problems with her home life. Neither one of them is particularly well in the head.

Satou needs her because she’s the only woman in his life that is “attainable.” His former classmate is married and he can’t bring himself to have an affair with her, and any other woman belongs to the very world that he believes is a part of the NHK ”conspiracy.” Even though he believes that Misaki is a part of this conspiracy as well, he has actual contact with her. She’s an enemy that he can see and touch and hear, and in his mind that’s as close as he’ll ever come to an ideal woman: an enemy that’s there at his side rather than lurking in the shadows.

Misaki needs Satou because he’s the lone person she’s met that’s “below” her. She’s lived a life where she’s never had control. Her parents were a mess, her mother committed suicide, her classmates mock her and ostracize her, and her relatives are borderline cultists who want to dominate every aspect of her life. With Satou she’s found the one person that she can control, and this is a feeling that she refuses to let go of regardless of how many times he may yell at her and insult her. Satou may be abusive, but she’s ultimately in control of the relationship. That position of power is what she’s wanted all of her life and she won’t give it up.

And in this they make a perfect couple. They’re in a mutually parasitic relationship, each of them leaching off of the other to maintain some semblance of sanity in a world that has rejected both of them.

But to get to this pathetically happy ending we have to witness Satou trudge through the depths of many hells. We watch him squander his last dollar buying anime paraphernalia. We see him venture into the world of doujin games, only to embarrass himself and his best friend in the process. We see him lose himself to online RPGs, where he develops a relationship not with the person behind his adventuring companion but the character herself. We watch as he nearly looses what little assets he possesses to a pyramid scheme. Satou loses every remaining link to reality as the series progresses. His best friend moves away to join the family business. His former classmate and former crush finds happiness in her marriage. Another former classmate who could have become a friend lures him into a borderline illegal business scheme in order to exploit him.

Many of his downfalls have their roots in fandom. He becomes obsessive with anime and games, but while he immerses himself in these worlds he looses sight of everything else around him. He’s obsessive about the details of creating the “perfect” game girl, but he can’t even push himself to write a basic script for a video game with his friend. He deludes himself into believing there’s money to be made selling imaginary goods in a MMORPG and deludes himself into believing that the relationship he has with a catgirl pixel is anything more than basic infatuation.

His experiences with fandom make his already fragile grasp on reality all the weaker. While many anime series will poke fun of the obsessive otaku type, they never address the side of that stereotype that’s ugly and dangerous. While only a handful of fans reach the level that Satou reaches, it’s a reality that’s never faced in any other series. For that NHK gets a lot of props.

Best of the Year

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

I deliberately used the second season’s opening. I dig it more than the first season’s.

The first episode of Melancholy, the one depicting their film for the cultural festival or whatever it was, is the single greatest episode of an anime series ever. There’s a few episodes that rank pretty close (Ballad of Fallen Angels from Cowboy Bebop, the first episode of the latest Mazinger series, the episode of Revolutionary Girl Utena where Nanami literally turns into a cow), but none of them are quite as all-encompassing as The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina.

The episode works on two levels. First, it does a brilliant job of essentially telling the entire story behind the series A) in one episode and B) without revealing to first-time viewers that they’re essentially having numerous plot elements spoiled long before some of them will become relevant. Not only does the episode reveal that Mikuru’s a time traveler, Itsuki’s an esper, and Yuki’s an alien, it reveals that there’s an undercurrent of animosity and distrust between the three of them that isn’t outright revealed until late in the second season. There’s also various tidbits tossed in, like the disparity between the cheesy special effects and the “realistic” effects Itsuki uses at the end of the movie and the talking cat. All of these seemingly insignificant points hint at things not being quite “normal” despite the seemingly average (if a bit quirky) high school setting.

But all of this hinting at things to come would be irrelevant if the episode aired chronologically, since by that time we’d know what’s going on and all of these oddball moments would be far too obvious to have any real meaning. Therefore, this episodes meaning is enhanced due to where it’s placed in viewing order. By having the movie air first, a definite sense of “what the hell is going on here” is built up in viewers. Despite the complaints that have been levied at the “tv order” during and after the fact, that feeling of “what’s this all about” created a desire in viewers to want to continue watching. Once people see this oddball student movie, complete with inept editing and camera angles, they want to know what this series is about. It’s a perfect hook to lure viewers in, regardless of any fan bitching that may occur.

It’s this sense of mystery that makes the first season of Melancholy interesting. By airing episodes out-of-order, there’s a deliberate disconnect between what the viewers know and what the viewers are watching. Bits of information are revealed to the audience in such a manner that makes dramatic sense, rather than chronological sense. Chronologically, the series “climaxes” with episode six, with the remaining episodes acting as a rather long denoeument and resulting in a lackluster finale.

By shuffling the order of the episodes, Melancholy creates tension both in the story and in the viewers. The story is building to a climax throughout the entire series, and with the way the episodes are laid out we actually get two episodes that work in conjecture as separate climaxes. The final episode, where Kyon rescues the world from one of Haruhi’s closed spaces, is an obvious conclusion, but the episode at the cultural festival where Haruhi and Yuki join the band and Kyon finds himself seeing a side of Haruhi he’d never seen before acts as a separate climax. Rescuing the world is a dramatic, narrative finish, but Kyon’s revelation is an emotional climax. By airing both episodes in relative proximity to one another, the series manages a finale with far more impact than the chronological order would allow.

The fact that the tv order created such a rabid fan following is proof that audiences don’t really care about narrative cohesiveness as much as they claim. Much is said about the chronological order making more sense, but if that’s the case would the tv version have created such a large fanbase? There’s something to be said about “how” a story is told is just as important as “what” the story is telling. Melancholy is proof that the “how” can entrance an audience just as much as the “what.”

Then again, the “how” can also turn fans off when it doesn’t quite pan out. The second season of Melancholy,which fills in several chronological holes that I felt didn’t really need to be filed in, attempted to pull a similar stunt with the narrative. While the episodes were aired chronologically, with new episodes airing when they’d appear in the timeline, we got the whole Endless Eight debacle.

I use the word “debacle” not because I think it was a bad move, but because the fanbase made an uproar. The series took a simple short story about time repeating itself during the last two weeks of summer vacation and turned it into Groundhog Day. The main problem with this is that it lasted eight episodes. The idea makes perfect sense. Endless Eight, eight episodes. BAM!

I rather like the concept. How else does one create a sense of repetition and ennui due to repeating a sequence of events over and over again except by having the viewers experience that repetition first-hand. The problem is that, despite the episodes acknowledging the fact that there were discrepancies in many of the “repeats,” we never really see these discrepancies. Yuki claims that there were times where they never went to the summer festival, times where they had different jobs, and other differences. Yet we see the same events in each episode, with only a change of costume and with each episode emphasizing certain events in different ways.

The series attempted to address this by using different art styles and imagery in each episode. I personally liked this, but I understand that these minute differences didn’t win over most fans. Only someone who really cares about the craft of animation is going to get into this stuff. Most fans are concerned with the narrative and characterization, so this sort of thing is going to turn them off. I can understand that, but I don’t agree with that assessment.

In the end, I’d have to call Endless Eight a bold failure. It tried to do something different and pretty much fell on its face. At the same time, I’d rather see a series strike out while wildly swinging, mainly because it was trying. And that’s Melancholy’s ultimate strength. The series is trying to do new things with a storyline that, honestly, isn’t all that interesting when viewed from a conventional standpoint. Had Melancholy been aired in a typical fashion, I doubt I’d have liked it nearly as much as I do. Without the narrative flourishes, it’s just a slightly better than average school anime with a few quirks to barely distinguish it from the pack.

Also-Rans

Ouran High School Host Club, Bartender, Coyote Ragtime Show, Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, Le Chevalier D’Eon, Flag, Nerima Daikon Brothers, Red Garden

Finally, I manage to update! ^^; Anyways, I added some of my old work, since I’m currently too busy to make anything new…soz…if you are going to blame some one…blame the person who invented school and homework!

It’s all under wallpaper. There is quite a few so I won’t bother to put up a little preview, I will just give you the link

Super Junior-Ryeowook

BigBang

That’s K-pop, now manga

Card Capture Sakura

Chobits

Le Chevalier D’eon

Shugo Chara

Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle

Vampire Knight

Since they are VERY old, some might actually be in wallpaper formate, but I will make sure the ones in the future will be

I will update the orignal version of the wallpaper when i finish my homework *sigh*, before that, please enjoy the previews ^^

x

Kpopmanga

Story By Tou Ubukata / Manga By Kiriko Yumeji – Del Rey – 2009 – 8+ volumes

I reviewed this volume for the weekly Manga Minis column at Manga Recon, so you can check out my review over there.

I said pretty much everything I want to say over at Manga Recon.  This is one of those series that I know is kind of crappy, but I like a lot anyway.  I keep wishing it did things a little differently, but that’s just not in its nature, and it would probably be a lot less cool if it went anything like how I imagined.

Also, I just looked up the Japanese volumes to post the volume number here.  I hadn’t really noticed, but I am very amused by the fact the breasts keep getting larger and larger on the covers of the recent volumes.  For 7 and 8, if I didn’t know any better, I would think it was an H manga.

She will have her revenge

Genre: Action – Drama – History – Mystery – Supernatural

Length: 24 episodes

Year: 2006

Studio: Production I.G.

Director: Furuhashi Kazuhiro

Script/Writer: Muto Yasuyuki, Ubukata Tow

Character Design: Ozaki Tomomi

Music: Oshima Michiru

Animation: [...] Asano Kyoji, Kubota Yasutaka [...]

Licensed by: FUNimation Entertainment

Based on: original story by Ukubata Tow

Characters: D’Eon de Beaumont (Tai Yuuki), Lia de Beaumont (Mizuno Risa), Robin (Matsumoto Megumi), Durrant (Narita Ken), Teillagory (Satou Harou), Maximilien Robespierre (Sakurai Takahiro), Belle (Fukuen Misato),  Anna (Kitamura Eri), Lorentzia (Nazuka Kaori), Duc de Broglie (Ishizumi Akihiko), The Earl of Sandwich (Umezu Hideyuki), Bernice (Hamada Kenji), Auguste (Suzuki Masami), Mary Shalott (Suzukaze Mayo), Cagliostro (Kobushi Nobuyuki), Orlean (Chijiwa Ryusaku), Marie (Kaida Yuki), Louis XV (Inada Tetsu) and Earl St. Germain (Matsumoto Yasunori).

Synopsis: In Paris 1742, a woman – Lia de Belmont – is found dead in the river, floating in a coffin with the words “Psalms” on the lid. Her brother D’Eon de Belmont, a knight at the service of the King Louis XV, decides to investigate her mysterious death and catch the culprit, to whom join three companions in order to help him.

But things get stranger as they discover other women have been similiarly murderer and their investigation being constantly interfered with movements. But although signals of conspiracy surge, things get even stranger when D’Eon discovers his sister is not totally death yet… Seems her soul is inside of him?!

Openings:

• BORN – Miwako Okuda

Endings:

• OVER NIGHT – Aya

Appreciation: Even though I haven’t seen it consecutively, I must say what a stunning of work it is. My congratulations to the studio. The creation of all the elementals is a serious challenge, specially in this one where the rococo style and also the gothic  prevail, and where the action takes place at such detailed places, such as Versailles. I also like the character design is more human-like but not too much. It’s ideal. Art and animation definitely can’t point a finger.

I believe it’s loyal to Tow Ukubata’s work and I also like the fact they didn’t try to adapt it to make it more appealing to a specific public and kept its seriousness. The plot is very well done too. The music is ok, I like the ending but not very keen of the opening.

For you to enjoy a historical anime like this one it depends essencially if you appreciate the type of plot and environment or not. The density of the personal environment and the beautiful quality of the art portray loyally the story in a marvelous way, which made me really pleased as I watched the progress of the plot.

If you are looking for a genuine and intriguing historical anime with faithful graphics, this will surely satisfy you.

Rate: Excellent

a.k.a. all of Tomino Yoshiyuki’s favorite shows.

Please be aware that this list is limited to shows which I myself have personally watched and isn’t in any particular order. Also: spoilers, duh.

Victory Gundam

Given that I started off with an image from Victory Gundam, I figure I should mention it first. While Tomino Yoshiyuki is known for killing off large parts of the casts of many of his shows, Victory Gundam seems to take this to a whole new level. This may have something to do with the fact that Tomino was apparently struggling with his heaviest bout of depression while directing the show; when Sunrise released it to boxset, the blurb he wrote for it essentially told people not to watch it.

Melody of Oblivion

In Melody of Oblivion, the entire cast didn’t die… but out of eight core cast members, six did. In the case of MoO, though, this really didn’t result in any impact, since the entire show had been pretty mediocre, and the way in which these cast members died was pretty stupid – basically, instead of bailing out of a crashing spaceship like any normal person would, they gazed passively out of the window while waiting to burn up in the atmosphere.

Additionally, a ninth cast member was demonstrated to not really have actually been alive during the show… or something like that. MoO was trying really hard to be mysterious on that point but just ended up looking stupid in that case, too.

Umineko no naku koro ni/Higurashi no naku koro ni

Everybody dies. Multiple times.

Darker than Black

In the final episodes of Darker than Black, a good chunk of the casts slips of their mortal coils, leaving about three members of the core cast alive. Another cast member is confirmed to have been dead throughout the entire show, which wasn’t clear up until that point. Its weird to say that Amber died, since she used her powers enough to have her renumeration result in her regressing to earlier than childbirth… which I suppose essentially means that she is dead.

Sadly, my favorite character, November 11, was one of the deceased. His death scene was pretty badass, though, as he had begun to smoke for his renumeration, but dropped the cigarette when he died. It then rolled into his blood and extinguished. I wish I knew why this guy doesn’t show up on any GAR lists.

Kuroshitsuji

This is one of those shows where I was thrilled when everyone died. I raged at Kuroshitsuji for being relentlessly mediocre… and then having a reallllly good final episode, which just exacerbated my irritation at its mediocrity. Ciel gets his soul eaten at the end, while the fates of his servants are intentionally ambiguous… although I myself am inclined toward thinking that they’ve died after the epic battle with the minions of the genderbender villain of the piece.

I do have to give kudos to the writers for the way it all ended, though – although I was quite honestly sick of the characters, they managed to make Ciel’s death moving. I also enjoyed his journey to the underworld prior to Sebastian consuming his soul; good art direction on that one.

Shigurui

Everybody dies… in the grossest way possible.

Terra e…

Thus far, I’ve confined myself to anime, but in this case I’m speaking of the manga, from which the TV series deviates quite a bit in the final stretch.

Terra e… is probably one of the most devastating manga I’ve ever read. The end is nothing short of tragic, as Earth is completely wiped out as a result of humanity’s shocking capacity for hatred and cruelty. Even the slightly positive epilogue comes across as sad, tainted as it is by the crimes of humanity as a whole. It is leagues better than the TV iteration.

Le Chevalier D’Eon

Le Chev is a bit of a weird show to use for this, because the show ultimately encompasses so much time that it’d be weird if the entire cast wasn’t dead by the end. At the same time, only one of our main characters dies a natural death… and at that point he’s been kicking around so long with his sister’s soul sharing his body that he can’t remember which is which any more.

Rose of Versailles

Well, if we’re talking about pre-Rev France, might as well mention Rose of Versailles. Half of this doesn’t even qualify as spoilers, because there are a lot of historical characters running around in this that anyone who knows even the slightest bit about the French Rev knows whose heads will (literally) roll by the end of it.

On the other hand, our resident gemale GAR, Oscar, is not based in reality. Nor is her buddy Andre. And they both die. Because they’re on the wrong side of history! Sorry, folks – if it makes you feel any better, it doesn’t really seem like anyone was on the right side of history when it comes to the French Revolution.

This list is far, far, far from a complete one – I didn’t include Space Runner Ideon, for instance, which is another one of Tomino’s kill fests.

I’m really glad I don’t have a dead, vengeful sibling trying to possess me, aren’t you?

With apologies to The Animanachronism for being so slow.

Le Chevalier D’Eon concerns the French nobleman, D’Eon du Beaumont, whose recently murdered sister is found in a floating coffin on the Seine. D’Eon is, understandably, upset, but soon finds himself being swept up into a web of intrigue and politics which he understands little of. At the same time, mysterious beings stalk the streets of Paris, controlled by chanting people known simply as ‘Poets’. When the king sends D’Eon and his new compatriots to Russia in pursuit of a book known as the Royal Psalms, D’Eon begins to slowly become aware of the role his sister really played in the Europe he thought he knew.

That’s not exactly a good summary, I’ll admit – I didn’t even mention D’Eon getting periodically possessed by his dead sister! – but Le Chev is hard to summarize without giving away massive plot-points, so I hope you’ll excuse that fact.

I have to admit that, ultimately, I feel very divided about Le Chev – on the one hand, it is well-constructed, and I did enjoy it in the end. But, on the other, I found the effort to generally be curiously lacking in soul. This became most apparent to me when a main character perished, and I did not feel in the slightest bothered by it, as I hadn’t ever truly connected with the character. Everyone was upset on-screen, but I just sort of felt like shrugging.

Oddly enough, I would have to say that this is one of those shows you watch for the final quarter of the show or so. I say this is odd because the early parts aren’t bad, per say; they’re just sort of… I don’t know, average? They have great production values, and some really good characters, but they aren’t terrifically engaging. I watched them because I did feel inclined to know what happened next, but I never felt like I would be greatly upset were I to have them taken away from me before completion – maybe I’d feel a bit annoyed, but the unknown factor wouldn’t've gnawed at me at all. On the other hand, if someone had taken my final two volumes and set them on fire, I would’ve been angry and demanded replacements, since by then the story had ratcheted into high gear and was really quite good.

So I feel pretty conflicted by the whole thing, because I’d like to recommend it, but feel pretty ambivalent about a good chunk of it. Given such, it seems that the potential viewer is a HUGE factor in whether I’d recommend it or not. The impatient? Skip it. Those who are willing to watch solid but unspectacular stuff for eighteen episodes to get to a great set of six final episodes? I’d say you might as well give it a whirl. And if you happen to like alternate history-type shows, I’d definitely tell you to watch.

I suppose this means that I’d deem it good overall, but fairly flawed in the sense that it lacks heart for the most part. This is honestly a bit of an irritating final assessment, since it doesn’t exactly answer the question a review is supposed to – should I watch this?

Watch with a grain of salt.

     Every so often, I try an anime that’s totally different from what I usually watch.  Like Le Chevalier D’Eon.  And what I’m watching right now, Ergo Proxy.  But the last anime I watched was a popular steampunk show called Last Exile.  In a world similar to Victorian England, except with stream and liquid powered airships and whatnot, everything is divided into two nations: Anatoray and Disith.  In Anatoray, which is ruled by a monarchy, two kids, named Claus Valca and Lavie Head, eke out a living making deliveries in their vanship, or a small, two person plane.  When someone else’s mission and a little girl named Alvis Hamilton, as well as a strange looking ship, drop on top of them, they are whisked away on a journey to the world’s most infamous ship, the Sylvana, entangling them in a mystery about the greatest power on their planet, Prestor, and a power struggle between the two nations.  Even worse is that they get tangled up with the Guild, a powerful organization that provides the two nations with the units that allow their ships to even function.  With Alex Row, captain of the Sylvana, Sophia Forrester, his first officer, Tatiana Wisla, one of the Sylvana’s top vanship pilots, Mullan Shetland, a former musketeer, Dio Eleclair, the younger brother of the head of the Guild, and many others, they try to fullfil their dream to make it through the Grand Stream, the powerful winds that separate the two countries, protect Alvis, and sort out their own feelings about each other and the sky itself.

     This is a show with some really great characters.  People like Alex Row, Tatiana Wisla, and Dio Eleclair don’t just fade from your mind.  Especially Dio.  He’s so ambiguously odd that he’s one of the most entertaining characters on the show.  The plot primarily follows the two threads of Claus, Lavie, and Alvis and the power struggle between Anatoray and Disith, as well as the resulting battle with the Guild.  The steampunk elements are really cool, even if I don’t quite get the aerodynamics of the vanship and airship designs.  That’s okay, since this is mostly about looking awesome rather than physics.  Otherwise, we’d get a better explanation as to what Claudia fluid actually is.  The characters are likable, the story is fun, though it strays a few times, and the villain, Maestro Delphine Eleclair, is deliciously evil.  She reminded me of someone a lot while I was watching the show, but I can’t remember who it is at the moment.  I’ll update this when I do.  The plot got a little silly when it got too concerned with the various women in Claus’ life, but that’s the only real shortcoming.  The music isn’t terribly notable, which is a minor shortcoming.  The animation is pretty, and it really gives a sort of Fullmetal Alchemist feel to it.  Lastly, I watched this show, once again, with English dubs, since Netflix only lets you watch them in English.  It’s got a great cast, and I particularly liked Michelle Ruff as Alvis and Tatiana, Julie Ann Taylor as Sophia, Crispin Freeman as Alex, and Karen Strassman as Maestro Delphine.  Joshua Seth makes a decent Dio, but he has a tendency to switch sometimes between being ambiguously creepy to sounding high.  The latter of those two is less than satisfying.  This is a pretty dang good show, though I won’t tell you that it’s one of the best.  It’s not.  But it’s well worth watching for most anime fans, as it can appeal to a lot of different kinds of people.

Story: 8.9      Artwork: 8.5      Soundtrack: 7.2      Acting: 8.8      Overall: 8.8

If you don’t like the Dango Daikazoku, you must be a commie.

Actually, if you think about it, one could potentially twist Dango Daikazoku into a communist song – not as much as, say, Communist Christmas, but it is a bit hard to beat that.

Many moons ago, I did a multi-part post on my favorite OP’s. Theoretically, I could update that, having seen a lot of anime in the interim I hadn’t viewed previously, but instead I figured I’d go with my favorite ED’s since I haven’t done that yet, and I think I probably have liked more ED’s for shows than OP’s.

Sans further ado…

Bleach ED 3

Bleach’s third ending, Houki Boshi, was actually pretty ambitious – the version I’ve linked to is only one of thirteen. Houki Boshi was the ED for a half season, thirteen episodes, and every single one of these episodes, the accompanying animation changed completely. How many other anime can you think of that have done something like that? I myself can’t, and I was especially impressed by the fact that a Shounen Jump show made such an effort, since they don’t tend to be known for their production values (admittedly, a bunch of the ‘animation’ consists of stills, but this was still more expensive than simply using the same sequence each time).

I can’t say I have a particular favorite amongst the thirteen, although I do like some more than others. I’ve linked to the one for the 3rd Division, since that was the one which popped up first on the Youtube search, although I do like the moment where Gin opens his eyes, revealing for all what a creepy fucker he is (as if we didn’t know!).

Clannad ED

Not liking Dango Daikazoku may not have any correlation with communism, but it is correlated with being a cold, mean bastard. This ED is heartwarming and melting, as it is undeniable that it is both adorable and endearing. The way it ties in with the show itself is a neat trick, too; I hope Nagisa was able to see this! It served to further establish the theme of family that Clannad had, and manages to do so in a way that, while obvious, is never obtrusive.

Inu-Yasha ED 1

Inu-Yasha was a pretty lackluster show, but it did possess a pretty good soundtrack, especially when it came to ending songs. But ‘My Will’ is easily my favorite of that batch – snow, ferris wheels, and trains? Its like they animated that thing for me! Of course, it does help that the song itself is good, having made its way onto my CD player years ago (y’know, back when everyone had clunky portable CD players instead of little mp3 devices). I also do like the symbolism in the form of Kikyo breaking the flower’s (red spider lily – symbolizes  abandonment or lost memories in Japan) stem. Buuut mostly I like the lit-up ferris wheel.

Le Chevalier D’Eon ED

Well, this essentially makes the list for having a really good song, but the animation here is a little bit of fun too (otherwise I couldn’t've included it), as it reveals which characters are historical and which are not – it also gives away which ones the show kills prematurely! Amusingly enough, D’Eon’s portrait doesn’t seem definitive on gender, reflecting the fact that the real life D’Eon spent the second half of his life claiming to have always been a woman (a post mortem revealed otherwise).

Maria-sama ga Miteru ED

Classical music befitting of the series itself. Its a bit rare for me to actually enjoy instrumental-only pieces when used for ED music, but here it not only works, but I like how it works. Despite meaning to multiple times, I never actually fast-forwaded through MariMite’s ED, watching it week in and week out because of a fondness for both music and animation. Maybe its because Yumi looks like she’s having fun. Maybe its because of the gingko leaves. Or maybe its because its one more reminder that the White Rose Family is an angst machine. Or, y’know, maybe its because of the fact that the artwork is pleasing to the eye period. Whatever the reason, I loved this ED the first time I saw it and still do.

Maze~The Megaburst of Space~ ED 1

‘Junk Boy’ is a catchy, if absurdly named, song (yes, they do use the phrase ‘Junk Boy’ in it, but the hell is a junk boy, anyway?). Of course, this would be neither here or there is the animation itself wasn’t AWESOME. And by AWESOME, I mean ridiculously 90’s, complete with flashing lights and excessive color bars. The dancing chibi forms of the cast are also quite cute, but it really is the datedness of some the animation techniques that makes the first Maze ED so much fun, something unsurprising considering that the show itself in many ways exemplifies anime of the mid-90’s.

Samurai meet Versailles?

I just wrapped up watching Le Chevalier D’Eon, and in viewing the final four episodes I’ve come to realize why it and Rose of Versailles are so incredibly different despite their similar settings, and in a way that goes beyond the fact that one is a high water mark for shoujo whereas the other takes more pains to depict gore and the supernatural. Essentially, Le Chevalier D’Eon, for all of its European trappings, is an intensely Japanese effort. Rose of Versailles, while setting the standard for many later shoujo works, does not hew nearly as closely to Japanese traditions and norms as does Le Chev. But I’m not terribly interested in dissecting RoV on this point – what is of note here is Le Chev.

I would say that, at its core, Le Chev is a samurai anime in French clothing. This is something which actually should be pretty obvious early on, since the title is ‘Le Chevalier D’Eon’ – not just ‘D’Eon de Beaumont’, but ‘Le Chevalier D’Eon’. The difference is fairly important, as the title de-emphasizes D’Eon himself in a way by leaving out his surname, something which would’ve been extremely important for the bloodline-conscious Versailles-era France. The stress here is on the fact that he was a chevalier, the French equivalent of a knight. What do we associate knights with? Feudal Europe. What do we associate samurai with? Feudal Japan. So the parallel is right there in front of us, even if we are too hung up on the setting itself to notice it (and that would be me).

Throughout the proceedings, characters continuously talk about honor and duty, specifically within the paradigm of knighthood. People do such and such because it is their duty as a knight, and as a direct relation, it is their duty to France and the royal family. There is the conflation of France with the royal family at this point, along with a constant reminder that the king is seen as having been selected for the position by God, something not entirely unfamiliar to the Japanese, who only began to not see the emperor as of heavenly descent in the 1950’s and 60’s (the emperor may’ve declared he was not divine at the close of World War II, but that isn’t the kind of change which occurs overnight, after all). Yes, the shogun was in charge during the feudal years, but the emperor did exist in the background and did retain the relation of divinity in the eyes of the people (for a comparison, consider the role of the British royal family in modern British society, sans the religious portion).

To return to the knight/samurai issue, I reiterate the importance of loyalty to the characters, a loyalty which is invested to the king, not necessarily to one’s everyday comrades. Characters are miserable by their pledged devotion as it forces them into bringing harm to those whom they care for, yet they persist in their role, stating that it is their duty to France. Those who do attempt to defy it only do so through ensuring their own ends, as that in and of itself prevents them from actively crossing their king and country.

In the end, those that win out are the same people who fly in the face of the knight ideal: a pair who have, throughout the show, spurned the notion of loyalty to anyone, and a young man who finds himself disgusted by both the actions of the king and his aides, and the intractable loyalty displayed by chevaliers even in the face of the rot at the soul of the monarchy. Yet even given that end, there is a melancholy feel to the proceedings, a sort of doomed romanticism for the knights themselves. It’s very reminiscent of the way samurai tend to be portrayed in anime depicting the dying days of feudal Japan, the sense that, yes, they’re protecting a Japan that is inevitably going to go by the wayside despite the fact that is clearly coming to an end, but that there’s something beautifully noble in their willingness to sacrifice themselves for what they believe in. Le Chev has much more in common in this manner with all those Shinsengumi shows than it does with Le Miserables: Shoujo Cossette or Rose of Versailles.

Now, one could point out that there did exist a devotion to France and king on the part of chevaliers, which would seem to invalidate the idea that Le Chev is a very Japanese show. However, even granting this (which is actually a bit of a stretch since the role of the chevalier wasn’t nearly as important by the reign of Louis XV as it is made out to be in Le Chev), it remains that one would simply not have gotten a show like this out of Europe, something which has everything to do with the manner in which the French view their past versus the Japanese on the count of knights and samurai.

Feudalism passed out of existence in Japan a scant one hundred and fifty years ago (give or take). Feudalism, and the heyday of knights, left Europe, for the most part, about six to seven hundred years ago. The knight does not capture the popular imagination in the West as do samurai in Japan because of this large gap we have between us and our feudal past. Think of it – when was the last time a movie about knights came out? I can’t even remember, and I’m sure that the last one concerned King Arthur and Avalon; as such, its existence has much more to do with the persistence of people’s romantic notions about Arthurian legend than is does about knights themselves (there is also the fact that anything to do with King Arthur is very much bound up in Christianity – “Hic iacet Arturus…”). So, yes, while Le Chev is informed by French history, it is still an extremely Japanese work.

With apologies to Les Mis.

Since I haven’t had the chance to watch its anime adaptation, although, in my defense, it hasn’t been fully subbed.

Recently I’ve been attempting to watch Rose of Versailles and Le Chevalier D’Eon concurrently – I say ‘attempting’ since the former has forty episode while the latter only possesses twenty-four, so its been a slightly uneven viewing. But I thought it would be interesting/fun to do so, and it has proved to be such, even if I am feeling a bit burnt out, having plowed through about forty-three episodes combined in the past three days.

First off, I would like to acknowledge that the two shows take place at different times in the 18th century, although both do begin prior to the revolution. Le Chev claims a start date of 1741, whereas Rose of Versailles begins with the engagement of Marie Antoinette to Louis-Auguste in 1766. However, they do share some characters, and they have essentially the same setting – the tumultuous (and dangerous) French court of the 1700’s.

Granted, the similarities end about there (although both do feature crossdressing!), as Le Chev is a supernatural affair concerning the fates of royal governments in Russia, England, and France, as hinge upon a powerful book known as the Royal Psalms. It also has zombie-like creatures known as ‘Gargoyles’. Rose of Versailles is much more concerned with the innards of palace intrigue, tracing Marie Antoinette’s arc from her arrival until her gruesome end in France, along with providing a decent dollop of social commentary on the shocking conditions of the impoverished French of the time.

Given that, it isn’t terribly surprising to find that Rose of Versailles is ultimately a more accurate portrayal of 18th century France. But I must confess that, going in, I wasn’t expecting that outcome – yes, Le Chev was going to have a lot of fiction in it, but I more or less anticipated that historical events themselves would be left intact, along with real people who were animated into the story. I was wrong, though, and it reveals a bias on my part, that being the assumption that shoujo won’t be realistic.

Ultimately, shoujo is actually the perfect vehicle for a story like Rose of Versailles; basically, Versailles itself operated as high schools do for modern day societies, in that everything is overly dramatic, reputation is everything, and everyone’s status hinges on who they know and are friends with. And most of the events of RoV are historically accurate, a sure treat for those familiar with the history. In fact, I was pretty surprised at how very accurate it is; historical inaccuracies which do exist are as a result of scholarship done in ensuing years since RoV originally appeared (1972 for the manga, 1979 for the anime) which has given us better illumination of the events in the latter half of the 1700’s in France.

RoV makes me happy because it doesn’t play willy-nilly with historical characters; yes, they’ve all been dead a very long time, but they were real people who lived and breathed and loved and laughed, so I’d prefer they be treated respectfully. Le Chev, on the other hand, takes historical characters and pretty recasts them wholescale – for example, Robespierre appears as a full grown man… in 1741. The real man wasn’t born until 1758 (in RoV he gives the speech for Louis XVI’s coronation, which is what he did in real life). D’Eon d’Beaumont is also a real person, although having him be possessed by his dead sister is a creative turn, since the real D’Eon spent the second half of his life as a woman, Lia, and claimed he’d always been one! (He wasn’t.)

I suppose, though, that what truly irritated me about Le Chev was the fact that Catherine the Great’s seizure of the Russian throne is made to occur a full twenty years before it did in real life. Catherine (Ekaterina) is also portrayed as  as fond of the Russian czarina (or tsarina, if you prefer) Elizaveta, something fun since the two hated each other in real life. But in referring to them as ‘Ekaterina’ and ‘Elizaveta’, I’m indirectly demonstrating the awesome fact that Le Chev kept people’s name intact, since Elizaveta is known more as the Anglicized ‘Elizabeth’, while no one recognizes ‘Ekaterina the Great’ but do know who ‘Catherine the Great’ is in an instant.

I do like both of the shows I’ve mentioned, though, regardless of how historically accurate they are. I just happen to find RoV’s adherence to the record to be fairly fascinating, since I was all ready for a tale that bore as much resemblance to reality as, say, Mulan did to the reality of the Chinese legend. I must also applaud RoV on making me actually feel for the characters, despite knowing many of their fates – since they’re sticking to the historical record with their real characters, its a bit hard to avoid the fact that everybody dies (Tomino Yoshiyuki would probably love this – can we have a Gundam Versailles, please?).

Ugh, I was going to say more, but my battery’s about to die…

For the month of January, we have picked Durand, from Le Chevalier d’Eon, a show loosely based on real citizens of France in the years before the Revolution, involving supernatural elements and cross-dressing for the sake of espionage.

Durand, a friend of the protagonist, d’Eon, wields both a rapier and parrying knife, which he uses with deadly accuracy. As a character, he starts off as not particularly exciting, but by the end of the show, there are several scenes revolving around him that will remain engraved in memory forever as some of the best moments in all animes.

He is a character both relatable and mysterious, and we absolutely love him.

Durand is voiced by seiyu Tsutomu (Ken) Narita, whose voice you may recognize as Jeremiah Gottwald’s from Code Geass.

Actually, even the tarot card nonsense they started in with last volume is starting to make sense.  It helped immensely to see a poet moved up to rank 7 and given the power, rather than having D’Alembert explain it at length as in last volume.  It says that there are only 22 people in history that have risen to rank 7, so I assume we’ll run across each, and they’ll all be assigned to a major arcana.

Apparently everyone rank 7 or higher also has an animal helper, be it the vitrol rats from last volume, or a crow, or a freaky mouth, or Nell.  And… apparently some poetic… thing is needed to manifest the animal helper, or to get the animal helper to manifest its power?  I really didn’t understand why each rank 7 poet had some sort of tagline that had a meaning that was dissected at length… or rather, what bearing that tagline has on the story.  I’m sure there’s some indepth explanation as to how it reflects on the poet, but apparently you need to involve the tagline in some sort of wordplay, or have the initials show up, or something, in order to get your animal helper’s powers… I guess?  That makes sense for now, at least.

Roble is still the boss of the poets, even after the heavy hints that Saint-Germain was somehow involved.  He is, and he’s got some freaky stuff going on, but for now, he seems to be hanging back to see what will happen.

This is mostly stylish fighting again, this time with a rank 7 Emperor poet.  Plus the Tower poet gets her powers.  Lia and d’Eon are hardly in it, unfortunately.  I’m still not really getting tired of the random battles in this series.  I’m actually inordinately fond of Le Chevalier d’Eon.  It’s got great art, a great premise, the battles are pretty fascinating given the fact they involve a lot of wordplay, the setting is excellent, the plot is moving along at an okay (well, maybe a little slow) pace, and now that all the confusing symbolism from last volume is slowly being made clear, there’s very little for me to complain about.  Its biggest flaw is probably that it has a lot more fighting than it should, but I wouldn’t really change that and exchange it for story.

It’s mostly style over substance, but it’s also a great read.  I think we’re caught up with Japan now, so I hope I don’t forget everything I’ve come to understand about the tarot cards/rank 7 poets in this volume.

El cierre de Magazine Z parece seguir dando de qué hablar ya que a raíz de este suceso nos llega la noticia de la conclusión de otro conocido manga: Le chevalier d’Eon, manga que fuera adaptado al anime por Production IG y editada en DVD por Selecta Visión, así como emitida por Animax. Desde su creación en 2005, el ambiente gótico del manga unido a sus dosis de misterio y gusto por lo sobrenatural atesoraron una legión de seguidores que ha permitido a las ilustraciones de Kiriko Yumeji y el guión de Tow Ubukata (Soukyû no Fafner, Chaos Legion) alcanzar la cifra de siete tomos recopilatorios saliendo el octavo y, último tomo, el 23 de febrero.

Le Chevalier D’Eon is the best anime I’ve seen and is the only one that I consider to be perfect in every aspect.

Theme
The theme is just great. It basically tries to discuss what is considered to be true loyalty: should you only be loyal to your king, or should you also be loyal to your country, or maybe even to your own conscience? The best part is how they delivered this great theme. The writers didn’t give out their interpretation right away. Instead, using almost every character, even the king himself, the show offers a variety of different interpretations of loyalty, and let the viewers decide which one is the true loyalty. It really shows that the writers do have a deep understanding of what they are trying to deliver.

Plot
The plot rivals that of A Prayer for Owen Meanie which is my favourite novel. It has some religious elements but never relies on them too much. It has a lot of government conspiracies and political conflicts but never forgets asking questions toward its theme. It tries to discuss a more or less philosophical question but the plot is full of twists and never becomes dull. The story also takes the viewers to different countries in Europe at that time which is very interesting to watch, especially to a person who has little knowledge in European history such as myself.

Characters
Simply perfect. They really did a great job developing the male lead who initally holds a strong sense of loyalty to his king but starts to question it as the story progresses. All the side characters are great too. All of them have some great backstories and none of them are truly good or evil. I think the best part is that most of them do actually have an air of true knight and noble chiasma, something you rarely see these days.

Music
The OP, ED, and BGM are all great.

Animation
You may be disappointed if you are looking for any basketball-sized eyes. Instead, this artists followed a more realistc style throughout the show, and I absolutely love it. The animation is gorgeous, especially in the combat scenes and the breathtaking background design.

I strongly recommend this show to anyone who is sick and tired of all the shounen crap these days. Not only does it let you really think about life, but it may also give you some pointers on writing.

Album: BORN single (Le Chevalier D’EonOP Theme)
Performed by: Okuda Miwako
Composed by: ???
Lyrics by: ???
View kana or translation?

namida ga ochita ato datte
kanashimi ga ieteku wake ja nai
kono mune ni sumitsuita
okubyou na jibun wo tada kanjiteku dake

dakedo shinjite ikitai
chiisana yume no hajimari wo
kokoro wa sukoshizutsu aruki hajimeteku
itami sae hikizurinagara

tomadoi de ashita ga mienakutemo
omoi wa mirai wo sagasu no deshou
nakitsukareta niji no hate
atarashiku umareta watashi ga iru

kono machi wa sou itsu datte
aimai na genjitsu miseru kedo
tatta hitotsu no negai wo kanjite ikeba ii
sou kanjireba ii

hito wa dareka to kurabete
jibun wo miushinau keredo
daiji na mono wa sou kokoro ni aru kara
yogosazu ni kagayakasetai

zubunure de amagumo hikisaitara
michibiku hikari ni deaeru no deshou
mizutamari ni yurete iru
taiyou ga watashi wo terashite yuku

shiawase toka yasashisa toka
me ni mienai mono wo
koboshinagara atsumenagara
itsuka afurete yuku made…

tomadoi de ashita ga mienakutemo
omoi wa mirai wo sagasu no deshou
nakitsukareta niji no hate
atarashiku umareta watashi ga iru

ima amagumo hikisaitara
michibiku hikari ni deaeru no deshou
mizutamari ni yurete iru
taiyou ga watashi wo terashite yuku

Album: BORN single (Le Chevalier D’Eon OP Theme)
Performed by: Okuda Miwako
Composed by: ???
Lyrics by: ???
View romaji or translation?

涙が落ちたあとだって
悲しみが癒えてくわけじゃない
この胸に住み着いた
臆病な自分をただ感じてくだけ

だけど信じていきたい
小さな夢のはじまりを
ココロは少しずつ歩き始めてく
痛みさえ引きずりながら

とまどいで明日が見えなくても
想いは未来を探すのでしょう
泣き疲れた虹の果て
新しく生まれた私がいる

この街はそういつだって
曖昧な現実見せるけど
たったひとつの願いを　感じていけばいい
そう感じればいい

人は誰かとくらべて
自分を見失うけれど
大事なものはそうココロにあるから
汚さずに輝かせたい

ずぶ濡れで雨雲引き裂いたら
みちびく光に出会えるのでしょう
水たまりに揺れている
太陽が私を照らしてゆく

しあわせとか優しさとか
目に見えないものを
こぼしながら集めながら
いつかあふれてゆくまで…

とまどいで明日が見えなくても
想いは未来を探すのでしょう
泣き疲れた虹の果て
新しく生まれた私がいる

いま雨雲引き裂いたら
みちびく光に出会えるのでしょう
水たまりに揺れている
太陽が私を照らしてゆく

For some reason, this has been sitting in my to-read pile FOREVER.  I actually like this series a lot, so it’s a shame I didn’t pick this up until recently.  I think this is the last volume for awhile though, so I guess… I was just making it last longer?

The beginning of this volume is sort of a good example of why this can never be a really great series.  We get a lot of really heavy-handed and overly ornate symbology that’s a bit difficult to wade through, and just some insane things that don’t make much sense. I have to admit I don’t mind the latter too much, but this series is a bit too serious to be able to pull it off 100%.

Anyway, the first thing that happens is there’s a long, drawn out and meaningful tarot reading done by a demon.  The demon is actually the cat that is normally around… you know, the one that turns into the sword.  d’Eon and d’Alembert are attacked during the reading by a poet.  This poet is actually relatively straightforward and just melts people with acid, where normally they all have some sort of philosophy about their craft that is actually kind of hard to figure out and may have something to do with the French->Japanese->English nature of the series, though the translation and the way the series is written is very much French->English… but the poet’s philosophies are still nearly incomprehensible, even with the generous and copious translation notes at the end. This series has the best end notes, both for historical context and for trying to explain what it is that the poets are doing.  I really appreciate them, but even those don’t help the poets much.

Despite the fact I’m usually not clear on the exact nature of the battles, I still think they’re cool as hell, and I also still really like the art.  Perhaps I’m just not putting as much thought as I should into figuring out exactly what each poet is about.  I appreciate the level of detail and the unusual wordplay that is involved with each of the battles, it’s unlike any other series I’m going to ever read, but it just doesn’t make much sense.  That’s fine by me, but I’m not sure where that leaves the series as far as… accessibility goes.

G.A.M.cast  – Gaming, Anime, Manga Cast/ Netcast/ Podcast/ Town Diner

A close friend of mine who lives in his basement, and rents movie every week because he is too poor to buy them, has decided to start his own Japanese Otaku podcast.In my divine wisdom I told him to paste it on my blog since too many people seem to be reading this and I need a way to get rid of them.

It’s not all that great considering his condenser mic isn’t arriving for another week, but it’d be nice to give this guy a chance. He’s at least trying, unlike you. Along side him are his two other chums who are too insignificant to mention further.

Today I went to my local DVD store/anime retailer/Pizza Place/Heaven and bought Le Chevalier D’Eon, Livre 1 and 2. A friend of mine reccomended it to me a while back, and seeing that I wasn’t broke at the time I bought it. I was apprehensive at first to even look at the title considering it was in French, which I hate. After watching it now I discovered that I really like the anime, and that I’m now broke.  I only watched the first eight episodes but they left me with quite an impression.

The general story is that in 1742 D’Eon, a member of the French secret police under King Louis XV, finds that his sister had been mercilessly killed and her body had been placed in a coffin in the Seine River. He soon discovers that for some reason her body has been filled with mercury, stopping it from rotting. He then takes it upon himself to find the people responsible and kill them. Of course the plot runs a lot deeper than that. The story does delve into far-fetched as it deals with using the bible Psalms to cast magic, but at no point does it seem too unrealistic. It’s just subtle enough that it’s almost immediately acceptable (unlike some other fiction where the magic feels like a game of Civilization played on God Mode).

As it is still beginning there has been nothing in terms of insane plot twists, only constant tension and intrigue. Every episode I watched was interesting in its own merit, and certainly kept me wondering what comes next. Livre 2 also ends on a good note, leaving you with enough suspense to want more but content enough to pause until you get your hands on the next one.

Even the Ceiling is accurate!

While the plot is definitely a highlight of the story, the thing that I enjoyed the most was the level of detail put into its production. Historically the setting is entirely correct. I did some research myself thinking that they probably made something up put it together added some European flair and called it France and I was shocked to find that this was not the case. The buildings, names, phrases, cities etc. are all decidedly French. The characters are not entirely accurate, but this is to be expected considering it is historical fiction. For example King Louis and his wife are relatively accurate in terms of characterization and appearance; on the other hand D’Eon is not even close to his historical counterpart bearing in mind that historically D’Eon was a cross-dressing spy.

Often in the show they quote the bible, seeing as it is 18th century France, where the King only lived because God said so. I even took out my dust covered bible to see if the lines they quote are actually in the bible. Amazingly enough, I actually found them in the Psalms.

In terms of the dub quality, I liked it much more than the Japanese Version. It’s not an all-star cast but it gets the job done in a way that couldn’t be achieved in Japanese. Really, I think that it has more to do that when they do slip in French words and phrases it sounds a lot smoother (and more understandable) in English. The similarities between English and French lend a hand in creating much more fluid dialogue, though I am pretty proud of how well the Japanese managed.

One last thing that caught my eye was the DVDs themselves. There are brief historical notes for those of you who don’t know what Wikipedia is (of course I didn’t find the Historical Notes until after several hours on Wikipedia). On top of that there are commentaries from the translators, the male voice actors, and the female voice actors.

Taken with a grain of salt, this is only the first few episodes. There are still sixteen more that I haven’t seen. For all I know there could be a horrible fatal flaw that comes along in the next episode. However from what I’ve seen I can’t wait to see what comes next.

Look at its almighty glow