Mistakes of Youth: The Blog (Powered by EXCELLENCE!)

It took me a while, but I finally got around to watching that BLACK★ROCK SHOOTER anime. Since it’s now a month or so after this thing was first released to the masses on a free insert DVD in Hobby Japan, complete with seven (!) subtitle tracks; this shit has been pirated to death, and I bet everyone has said what they’ve had to say, and I bet it was all very similar. But I haven’t read that stuff at all, so prepare yourself for something you’ve probably heard before!

After being overrun with fanart of the titular BLACK★ROCK SHOOTER and her presumed nemesis, the Dead Master, I was somewhat hyped up for the Miku-music-video-turned-full-length-anime project backed by visionary douchebag Yamamoto Yutaka. Amongst the flood of fanart, as well as official artwork, visages of girls who were neither B★RS or Dead Master passed before my eyes every now and again. Who were these girls, and how did they work their way into what seems to be a work concerned with a Gothic-styled world with a serious checkerboard fetish (SUP SHINBO) in which really pale girls fight against each other? Well, we have a handy-dandy English website that explains that all to us. With the amount of words devoted to the touching story of two girls in middle school versus the amount of words about girls with flaming blue eyes, I should have known that this OVA would focus more on the goings on of that last screencap as opposed to the top three.

If you haven’t figured it out yet–and you have, because you’ve seen this damn thing already–BLACK★ROCK SHOOTER isn’t really about BLACK★ROCK SHOOTER. But that’s not a bad thing.

You don’t need a story summary, right? I just linked to one written in charming Engrish right up there! So let’s get down to the dirty stuff. BLACK★ROCK SHOOTER mainly focuses on the relationship between Mato and Yomi. Both of them are forged from established molds, but rather than come off as used and abused tropes, their portrayals are subtle and thoughtful, with their interactions subdued and realistic. Come the girls’ second year of junior high, they’re put into different classes, which creates a degree of distance between them. The way this is handled is also realistic. Things don’t really devolve into a whole pile of drama, but rather into more realistic puddle of drama.

This stuff is great. I like it a lot. The scenes of Mato and Yomi slowly getting to know each other on their way to school, doing homework together, and doing other girlfriendy-things is plain fun to watch. Similarly, watching them come to terms with their feelings about being separated from each other is engaging and touching. But between these scenes–in fact, almost every other scene–we get thrown into the aforementioned world of broken down Gothic (I’m assuming Gothic, someone can correct me on this) castles and checkerboard patterns in which two girls fight for no apparent reason.

I know why they cut this stuff in so early and consistently–they don’t want you to forget that this is in fact a BLACK★ROCK SHOOTER anime between Mato and Yomi’s cute girltalk/drama–but it almost seems intrusive when a lot of the scenes don’t amount to much more than three seconds of B★RS walking silently while the camera is cocked at a dutch angle. After a while we get some fights, but the wispy and loose animation style, which works wonders in rendering the daily lives of our cute middle school protagonists, doesn’t really work when rendering fights. The few bits of action in the OVA are pretty loose, with lots of them being shot from far away. This wispy and loose animation style makes the fights seem somewhat insignificant. There’s no force behind the violence, and the danger doesn’t feel immediate or important. This may well be the feeling they were shooting for. In fact, I’m willing to bet that it was. But when I look for action, I like something more brutal and visceral, so this doesn’t really scratch my itch.

To their credit though, the scenes that do feature B★RS have some really wonderful backgrounds. The look and style of the world, which is realized extremely well by the background artwork, really captures the style of the intial BLACK★ROCK SHOOTER illustrations. They even put a little filter on top the animation to recreate the same sort of texture huke adorns his pictures with, and the use of color and shading is spot on.

Cute GAARUZU RAIFU scenes, as well as dark fight scenes, are both accompanied by a soundtrack composed by some fuckin’ guy called ryo. Once again, GAARUZU RAIFU comes back up on top in the music department, especially when things get dramatic. Scenes of clear pain in the characters’ tormented preteen hearts are backed by wonderful strings and piano pieces, whereas the fight scenes between B★RS and Dead Master get the generic rock treatment, which doesn’t inspire me in the least.

Near the end, the drama between Mato and Yomi is tied to the conflict between B★RS and Dead Master in the world of checkerboards. Things come together nicely, even if you saw it coming from a mile a way. But when all is said and done, I can’t help but wonder why this is a BLACK★ROCK SHOOTER anime. The short bits that actually have anything to do with the hurricane of fanart out there probably barely amount to 15 minutes (if that) of the OVA’s total run time, and the story could have worked just as well without cutaways to B★RS walking around quietly and looking unhappy. It seems as if they couldn’t think of anything to write around the established imagery, so instead copped out and wrote a youth drama. A damn fine youth drama, but with extraneous bits of pale girls looking at each other angrily. To be fair, the final frame of the OVA leaves things wide open for a sequel, where things may in fact be expanded upon.

But this is all we’ve got for now!

Even if they’re late in getting the word out, Otakon always manages to deliver something interesting at the last second. In the case of Otakon 2010, that something was the US premier of Welcome to the Space Show, an original movie by those wackos who brought us Read or Die and Kamichu!. I don’t really think I have the guts to deliver a full on review of this film, but I’ll try anyway!

Space Show follows the exploits of five kids, Natsuki, Amane, Noriko, Koji, and Kiyoshi. They’ve decided to make a retreat out into an old school house for one week during the summer to get their homework done, amongst other things. Other things including searching for Amane’s lost pet rabbit, who Natsuki accidentally set free during a lapse of stupidity. They end up finding an injured dog during their search, and decide to take him in. Upon awakening, the children are amazed to find that the dog can talk, and is in fact an alien.

Turns out this alien–hilariously named Pochi–came down to Earth on a recon mission, searching for a rare plant which is naturally occurring on Earth. In return for saving him, Pochi offers the kids a trip up to the dark side of the moon. However, upon reporting his findings about Earth, government authorities cut off all flights between the Earth and the moon. The rest of the film is devoted to the kids finding their way back home, and an underlying conspiracy revolving around the rare plant Pochi was after, and the galaxy’s most popular TV show–The Space Show.

I suppose what’s worth mentioning first and foremost is that Space Show truly is an original film. I mean original in the sense that there is no GENSAKU to RAPE. There is no Original Way to escape down. Space Show materialized completely on its own. This is pretty rare, since even a lot of anime classics like Ghost in the Shell and Akira are based on existing works, and that alone makes Space Show worth noting. The movie also seems to be part of a developing trend in making original anime movies, possibly starting with Shinkai Makoto’s works, and Hosoda’s Summer Wars.

Space Show is loaded with heart, creativity, and admittedly lots of lolicon service for weirdos like me.  The female characters, which are the main draw for me, are quite cute. While I don’t typically like the genki, sporty girl; Natsuki captured my heart as soon as her ass-hugging short-shorts filled the screen with all their glory, and as she moved deeper into the shot I fell further in love with her sexy, bare legs. I mean, she has a great personality, too. Childish, but not annoyingly so (Coming from a man who feels Index is the best character in her show.) and determined. Her younger sister, Amane, is a touch too serious for me, but she also has inspired moments of cuteness. Lastly, Noriko, provides an excellent, down to Earth, straightman. I suppose there are male characters, too.

Much like Kamichu!, there are strange creatures (In this case aliens, not kami.) that inhabit and bring life to the alien world the movie presents us. Okama delivers a varied compliment of strange and unusual designs that actually look like aliens from another planet.  There is only one design I don’t like, and it’s an obvious Totoro ripoff, but that’s balanced out by his cool personality. However, the rest of the designs are overflowing with creativity, and always find a moment to shine, even if it’s a split second in the background, doing something weird. This creativity can be extended to the world in which this all happens in as well, which I assume Okama also had a hand in.

There’s some serious production values at work here for a little movie that some kimoi otaku put together for mainstream consumption. The animation is generally very fluid, making everything in the film from the characters, aliens, and backgrounds living and breathing. Cuts of animation are inconsistent here and there, but that gives the movie more soul than anything else.

One of the main flaws of the movie is its plot. While a collection of interesting ideas, the main underlying story seems to be trying too hard to be a kids movie. Kids get whisked away from home, can’t go back, have to find a way back, and wind up needing to defeat an evil baddie by the end, too. This isn’t to say formulas like these don’t work, but given the movie’s somewhat amateurish plotting, it doesn’t really seem to know where things are going. Some aspects of the plot are just poorly explained, if explained at all. It kind of finds its footing after a particularly dramatic event, but after that it simply feels as if we’re just going through the motions. Things do come back together nicely for a wonderfully heartwarming ending, though. And if there’s anything this movie gets right, it’s heart.

Another issue with this movie is that it’s just a big ol’ otaku fest dressed as a kids movie. This isn’t an issue for me, obviously, but considering this is some big movie for normal people to watch, that’s not a good thing! Yeah, I love seeing Natsuki sprawled out on a bed with skimpy clothes on, too, but a normal person just thinks that’s creepy! But even on a more fundamental level, these girls are simply too sexy to be cute and approachable Miyazaki heroines. But perhaps I’m just projecting.

Anyway, if you’re down for a fun movie with lots of neat ideas, cute characters, and lots of heart–even if somewhat unfocused–I think you’re gonna dig Space Show. It probably helps if you’re a dirty lolicon, too, but that certainly isn’t a requirement.  I got a kick out of it, for the most part.

A long while back, the FYEs in the DC area were all closing down, and as a result their full-retail-price DVDs were knocked to near Amazon Marketplace prices after a 90% discount. I picked up a few things, and among them was something I had been meaning to see since my formidable years as an anime fan–El Hazard.

The first anime to really fascinate me with their inherent Japaneseness were the early incarnations of Tenchi Muyou. Scouring sites about Tenchi and related anime brought about mentions of El Hazard every now and again, and as a result I took something of a passing interest in the show.  It looked somewhat similar to Tenchi (not surprising, considering AIC was behind both,) and it had a lot of those unique Japanese elements I found fascinating about anime at the time. Of course, by unique Japanese elements I mean school kids in uniforms and said school kids having Japanese names. Sadly, my local Blockbuster did not stock El Hazard, and beyond that my resources were pretty limited as a kid, so I gave up.

So here we are, nearly 10 years later, and I just finished up the first El Hazard series. Upon watching it, I was overcome by a strong feeling of nostalgia. I get this every time I watch ’90s anime, but along with that, another thought struck me: “This would be way cooler if I was 13.”

But before I launch into bad mouthing the show, let me tell you about the parts I liked.

I’m something of a fantasy virgin. This is entirely because I’ve been turned off to the genre over the years, as I honestly don’t give a shit about wizards, dragons, dwarfs and stuff like that. I find I can only really enjoy such settings if they’re excuses for tits and ass, like Zero no Tsukaima. But El Hazard impresses me. I think it’s because the word draws less on the typical fantasy look of a Medieval England that never was, and instead draws from the east for inspiration. The architecture is very reminiscent of the middle east, with palaces topped with the sorts of domes you see on buildings like the Taj Mahal. Fleshing out the world even further, characters’ attire and hairstyles also draw from the same eastern aesthetic, but are at the same time infused with ’90s anime design elements, resulting in rather unique outfits. The various tribes at war with each other are all visually interesting as well, especially the goofy Bugrom.

Like a lot of OVAs of the period, the animation is extremely well done. It’s true to that mid-90s style seen in higher budget productions, with really exaggerated and cartoonish movement, and character designs adorned with all the visual quirks unique to the era. The animation actually gets better as the series progresses, with the first episode being a little un-even, and the last episodes being very smooth and crisp.

The first three episodes are tons of fun, delivering chuckle-worthy humour while also moving the story along at a good pace. Not all of the characters struck me as totally memorable, but I did take a liking to the hilariously irresponsible teacher Fujisawa,  clingy loli-lesbian Alielle, and neurotic genius Jinnai. Makoto, the main man, is a bit too much of a spineless harem lead for me, and his really girly-sounding Kansai accent doesn’t really do him many favours. Nanami, Jinnai’s sister, is a pretty funny gag character with her near super human ability to make money quickly, but sadly her character’s screentime gets reduced to just her arguing over who loves Makoto more with another one of the female characters in the show.

Pumped after those first three fairly well done episodes, I was excited for the plot to take a turn for the serious. Between all the joking around, the writers plant some intriguing seeds for future developments. And while these seeds all blossom, they don’t do so very beautifully. Half-way through episode four, I was actually feeling a little bored. I thought that this might change with the last two episodes, but it didn’t. The issue is that these final episodes seem to lack real urgency. Maybe it’s just due to my hilariously poor attention span, but I feel those last four episodes could have benefited from being an episode shorter. The events themselves aren’t too bad, if fairly standard. There were some good scenes as well, but I feel they could have been woven together in a more brisk and punchy manner.

As I alluded to earlier, there’s also a really half-hearted harem element that’s shoehorned in around half-way through the show. They try to create tension between Nanami and another female character, Shayla Shayla, but it doesn’t really have the same fire as the Ryoko and Ayeka confrontation. Ryoko and Ayeka’s rivalry is established early on in Tenchi, and has actual history. The rivalry between Nanami and Shayla seems thrown in as an afterthought.

In the end, like I said earlier, I probably would have been more impressed with this as an impressionable 13 year old anime virgin. It’s not bad, really. It’s fun, short, and not a bad way to spend some time. But presentation means a lot to me, so those last couple of episodes do bother me a fair bit. I hear there are other El Hazard series beyond this, including a sequel to this OVA and some TV series. I also hear the further series are bad, but I don’t know if people are referring to the other OVA, or the two TV series. Either way, I probably won’t be watching them. At least, not any time soon.

As some of you may remember, I was in Japan almost exactly one year ago! And you know what? I bought a ton of books over there! I’ve been meaning to review them for a good long while, but I never actually found the time or drive to sit down and write some real reviews. However, that all changes today with a Mistakes of Youth Exclusive review of the realer than real Gundam artbook, MS Era 0099– Mobile Suit Gundam 0001-0080.

Ever since the original Gundam aired back in 1979, its realistic approach to the horrors and nature of war caught the eyes of viewers who were far more mature than the show’s intended target audience. While the original Gundam TV series, and to some extent the subsequent compilation films, are candy-coloured cartoons meant to sell toys to little kids, fans were fascinated by their realism despite these outward appearances. Before Gundam came out, there was nothing in the way of “real” robot shows, so the idea of a robot being used as a military weapon was a completely new one, even if the robot was hilariously toyetic.

Over the years, a bunch of UC-centric Gundam media has pushed the real world angle hard where the original TV show did not. One such bit of media, which drives this idea home 110%, is MS Era 0099.

Considering this book came out in the 1990s, I can only assume that it was an idea thought up by guys who were taken in by Gundam during their high school years. This isn’t an easy-to-compile collection of artwork by hands who worked the original show. This is a book filled with images drawn especially for it. It is a love letter to UC Gundam if ever there was one.

0099 is a mock photo album, covering the supposed events of the One Year War. It’s a hardbound number, and it’s meant to evoke complete and total seriousness. As if it was a real book you could pick up if you lived in the Universal Century. Contained within are roughly 100 “photos” taken during the One Year War, matched with English captions and a running timeline–also in English–of the events between the first year of the Universal Century and the end of the One Year War, 0080. There is also an introduction to the book, which contextualizes it within the Gundam universe, along with brief biographies of the “photographers” at the back.

These illustrations aren’t meant to be flashy DVD cover material. Their compositions are very subdued, and at times mundane, with the intention of feeling like a real photo album. Drawings oftentimes err on the side of complete realism, while colours are deep, dark, and at times quite de-saturated. The illustrations are done on cels, giving them some honest texture in addition to a noise filter that seems to grace most–if not all–of the images in this book. In fact, a lot of filtering is used to add a degree of realism to these drawings, and strangely enough it doesn’t look contrived at all. Motion blurs, lens flares, monitor scan lines, along with sepia and monochrome toning give these illustrations lots of character, lending themselves more to this idea of realism.

The subject matter ranges between very powerful depictions of war-time acts, and quieter subjects that flesh out the UC world. Images of foot-soldiers attacking Zakus, GMs sniping in the forest, and mobile suits launching are amongst the more exciting images in the book. Depictions of astronauts working on the first space colonies, tests of prototype mobile suits, Zakus as they come off the assembly line, and a portrait of Dr. Minovsky make up a portion of the book that attempts to bring some degree of believability to the science and technology in Gundam.

The book is also filled with portraits of random people, adding the human element needed in any realistic depiction of war. Friends and relatives mourning over the death of a soldier, people left homeless after an attack on their city, and kids playing on the wreckage of mobile suits paint a rich image of civilian life, which is barely touched upon in any anime adaptation of Gundam. On the military side, we’re treated to soldiers playing cards, taking sips of coffee in the snow, and lighting up smokes.

Certain other illustrations in this book look like they could have been taken from newspapers, like a black and while photo of Gihren Zabi in a Hitler-esque pose during his famous speech after Garma’s death, or another black and white shot of General Revil returning to the Federation after being held captive.

Yes, there are some cameos of actual Gundam characters throughout this book, but since its focus is more around what the series never showed you, their presence is tastefully restrained. There are about two pictures of Char in this book, and in each one his face is only partly visible. Another illustration depicts a harbor in Ireland, where one can only just make out the top of the White Base poking out from behind a wall.

Every single illustration in this book is well done. There is no instance of anything looking strange or off model. One can thank the talented group of illustrators behind these drawings, of which one is Cowboy Bebop character designer and professed Gundam otaku Kawamoto Toshihiro.

I can’t say the same for the written portion of the book, however. Honestly, reading this book is a chore. Yes, it is bilingual, with the English at the forefront (English is the language of the future, after all.) and the Japanese relegated to odd corners throughout the book. Considering this book is made for a Japanese audience, the English is purely cosmetic. However, as an English speaker, this translation is hard to get through. It’s done by a westerner, but clearly someone who obviously had no interest in Gundam, and was paid the absolute minimum to translate this. It doesn’t read like a machine translation, but it is very stilted and has a few newbie translation errors. If the translation was better, it’d be easier to get immersed into the book, but as it is, it just takes you out of the experience. I can’t say much about the Japanese, but a quick glance brings to light random mojibake on one page. In short, it’s a lot more fun to look at this book than to read it, and maybe glance at the captions every now and again. That said, it should probably be read through at least once.

MS Era 0099 is one of the quirkier things I’ve seen come out of the Gundam merchandise machine. Despite some stupid technical issues, it truly is a lavish love letter to the UC universe, and I recommend it to any serious Gundam fan. As far as buying it goes, Google brings up a couple of sites that sell it. Don’t go for Amazon–it’s way too overpriced. Getting it second-hand at BeNippon is probably you best bet. This book originally retailed for 3500 yen, and I probably got it for around 1800 at Mandarake. It was a little beat up, but if anything that just adds more character to a book that’s already brimming with it.

Further Images

Between a somewhat vague plot synopsis and bizarre promotional artwork, the image I had in my head of Kuuchuu Buranko was a strange one. I had visions of a cartoon in which narrative and direction went out of their way to be confusing, visuals made no sense at all, and crazy Denki Groove music played without rest in the background. That turned out not to be the case.

For those not familiar with said vague plot synopsis, allow me to enlighten you. Kuuchuu Buranko (which means Trapeze, by the way) is a series of short stories that all revolve around people who have some kind of mental issue. Each episode begins with them consulting Irabu Ichirou–a psychiatrist at the Irabu General Hospital–about their issue. Irabu and his hot ‘n’ sexy assistant nurse Mayumi then proceed to rid the patient of their ailment using a host of unorthodox methods.

While initially disappointed by Kuuchuu Buranko’s relative normality outside of its visual style, as the series progressed I began to appreciate it a bit more. At first glance one may think the visual style is simply a flashy way to keep costs down, but with each passing episode one begins to notice a touch of cleverness.

The show has a set of motifs that remain consent across the eleven episodes, and motifs that are specific to each episode, which illustrate the various facets of each story in interesting ways. For instance, the show has a habit of rendering crowds of people as walking cardboard cutouts, and if one of these background characters becomes important, they’ll change into a traditionally drawn character. The faces of the main characters for each story also often shift between drawings and photographs (of their respective voice actor, hilariously). Irabu himself shifts between three different forms–one as a giant stuffed bear, one as a slightly effeminate younger man, and one as a child. Mayumi is generally portrayed in live action by an actor, or as a rotoscoped drawing.

There is a fair amount of the show’s visual styling that is merely cosmetic, such as the backgrounds which are no more than photos that have been altered so everything has polka-dots. However, due to this ever-present strangeness, the viewer loses track of what’s actually there and what’s just shown as symbolism. As such, when characters openly address something one assumed was just some symbolism, it’s rather surprising.

Despite having a very flashy aesthetic, the show is animated pretty cheaply. As I mentioned before, the aesthetic cuts down on costs a lot with its heavy use of photos and live action. The animation tends to be composed primarily out of still shots of characters, and the parts that are actually animated aren’t especially fluid, with few exceptions. This doesn’t hurt the show at all, since it’s first and foremost about talking heads matched with weird imagery. Things don’t need to move around much.

Being based off of a somewhat well-known collection of Japanese short fiction, Kuuchuu Buranko really proves itself in the story department. Even though it’s composed entirely of one-shot stories, each story tends to be a rather interesting look into whatever mental ailment is affecting the patient. It’s especially scary if one can relate to any of them. Given the country of origin, oftentimes these mental illnesses are products of Japanese society, so to that end the show works well as something of a social commentary as well. There is one episode that’s all about a kid who’s addicted to his cell phone, after all. One other interesting aspect of the series is how all of the stories take place at the same time. So as the series progresses, various aspects from other stories interact with each other, and at times explain plot points from past stories which felt a little strange out of context.

The stories would be nothing without their characters, who all strike a good balance between being realistic while also being hyperbolically goofy (usually when their mental illness kicks in). The characters–both the recurring Irabu and Mayumi as well as the patients that come and go really are the heart of the series, and cover a wide variety of personality types. My favourite was The Owner. He owned things, like baseball teams.

Visual weirdness aside, the show’s direction is generally quite normal. However, there are times when the atmosphere becomes very manic. Incidentally, this happens whenever the patient’s mental illness begins to manifest in some way. Musically, nothing stands out too much aside from the groovy opening and ending numbers by Denki Groove. The background tracks employ some Denki Groove at times, but they only serve to underline what’s going happening on-screen, not overtake. The show is more about the voice actors delivering their lines and atmospheric noise than anything else.

Between its strange visual style and unique premise, Kuuchuu Buranko is certainly an alternative title that may put off viewers who prefer shows that skew towards familiarity. However, if you’re one always on the lookout for something new, weird, and good I endorse Kuuchuu Buranko 100%. Irabu just may be able to help you with some issues you’ve been having, too!

Even though I was working on compiling some impressions about Darker Than Black 2, I felt a better way to launch this blog into the new decade was to review something a bit more classy. And of course, there is no series that embodies that adjective more than Sora no Otoshimono.

This setup isn’t anything you haven’t heard before–home-alone highschooler Sakurai Tomoki has recurring dreams about a blue-haired angel, and incidentally has a divine run-in with an angel or “Angeloid” called Ikaros. Ikaros addresses Tomoki as “master” and will grant any wish for Tomoki using her magical powers. Meanwhile, Tomoki’s senior Sugata Eishirou–a man convinced there a “new world” somewhere out there–has been noticing strange readings on his computer that show a strange hole floating over Japan. Putting aside those (rather unimportant, really) plot details, Tomoki has an allotment of haremettes besides Ikaros including his karate-trained childhood friend Mitsuki Sohara,  sadistic class president Satsukitane Mikako and another Angeloid called Nymph, who fills in the show’s much-needed Tsundere slot. The show does pay attention to the plot alluded to higher up in this paragraph, but each episode is mostly wacky high-jinx.

I enjoy anything that can indulge in pure silliness, and Sora no Otoshimono has moments where one may think the writers have a PhD in silliness. It does fire off some duds, but on the whole the show hits pretty hard. Tomoki is setup as a boring harem-lead–peace and quiet is his motto–but a lot of the humour revolves around him being absolutely ridiculous. Tomoki is a step up from the normal harem lead–he’s a harem lead who is fully aware of his situation and takes full advantage of it, not unlike Yoshitaka from He is My Master. As such, a lot of laughs come from his perverted escapades. But aside from that, this show generally has a knack for pushing things over-the-top. Whether it’s Tomoki running around naked, Mikako acting on her sadistic tendencies, Sohara beating the crap out of Tomoki, Ikaros doing something other-worldly, or Sugata experimenting with one of his inventions, the show does well to crank things up past 10 to 11.

The show’s over-the-top nature is supported by fairly top-notch production values. If the characters ever need to blow each other up with guns, or if the show needs a nice shot of an SR-71–all of those mechanics will be rendered with a fetishistic amount of detail, only serving to make the jokes funnier. Similarly, over-the-top actions as well as reactions will be lavished upon with surprising amounts of key frames. Ridiculous situations of all manner happen in this show, and they’re all handled with tender love and care, as well as lots of drawings. In the show’s mellower moments, the animation is pretty standard, and there is a habit to shift Tomoki and Ikaros into super deformed characters (probably in attempt to save money) but there are no striking moments of characters looking terribly off-model. There are some proportion issues at times, but it’s nothing major. The drawings are brought to life with a strong, saturated colour scheme which makes use of deep shadows and complex lighting effects when needed. In short, this show looks pretty good.

Between the humour that primarily drives the show, there is an underlying plot which does get addressed to some degree, and is used to close off the show nicely. However, since the source material isn’t done yet, there are understandably some loose ends. This doesn’t especially matter since the show is mostly about the jokes, but when things do shift to drama, how much you enjoy it is proportional how not-cynical you are. It’s pretty typical shounen-romance drama with hint of DO ROBOTS HAVE FEELINGS thrown in. It does well to help one connect with the characters, but it’s easy to see how it’d turn the more cynical viewer off. As far as characters go, they’re all entertaining in their own eccentric ways and are given plenty of time to shine. As mentioned before, the harem doesn’t cover a full range of fetishes, but there’s a pretty good shot you’ll have a thing for one of the girls.

Alongside the animation quality and writing, the show’s direction doesn’t miss a beat when comes to delivering humour. With the drama the direction is more sedate and cliche, but that isn’t even worth mentioning. The show’s opening number is typical anison fluff, but it boasts an ending song for each of its 13 episodes. Each of these songs also comes with their own animation, most of which are pure gold.

Sora no Otoshimono is a near perfect example of how to do a silly harem show. The fanservice is well rendered and plentiful, the jokes hit hard, and it never really feels like it’s trying too hard. Now, if only they could find a way to successfully integrate the drama in without it feeling shoe-horned and cliche, then the show really would be perfect!

No, really, they do. That’s part of the reason I could in some ways relate to the main guy in Nyan Koi!. The similarities end there, however.

But yes, aside from making an attempt to get back on the blogging horse, why am I writing about Nyan Koi!? Well, amongst the sea of harem love comedies out there, Nyan Koi! stands out just a bit with its unique gimmick and sense of humour. Just a little bit, however. But before we get into all that, I may as well try to summarize the, uh, “plot” of the show in the next paragraph… like a real review.

Nyan Koi! is the story of Kousaka Junpei, an extraordinarily unlucky young man who happens to knock the head off of a statue of the local cat god, and incurs its wrath in the form of a curse. That curse being, Kousaka gains the ability to understand cats and has to help 100 of them with their problems, or else he’ll eventually turn into a cat himself. Considering he’s allergic to cats, one can see how this fate would be less than ideal. And since this is a shounen romance, there’s a harem of beautiful girls all vying for Kousaka’s attention, and are they sometimes related to the cats he has to save. This harem includes the traditionally sweet and caring (and primary love interest) Mizuno Kaede, the tomboyish childhood friend Sumiyoshi Kanako, the Yakuza heiress Ichinose Nagi, the eternally lost postal worker Mochizuki Chizuru, and the shrine maiden sisters Kirishima Akari and Kotone one of which is a by-the-numbers tsundere, the other of which is a creepy sadist and stalker. In addition to all of them are a whole host of wacky side characters like Kousaka’s family, the shifty priest that owns the aforementioned cat statue, and all the cats that Kousaka runs into.

Shounen/otaku romance shows can skew in a few directions, and Nyan Koi! skews towards being tongue-in-cheek. The show doesn’t take itself or what’s going on it terribly seriously. In fact, what keeps the show afloat is its use of humour, most of which relies on a lot of loud overreactions to things and in general has a habit of shooting everything over the top. As veterans of comedy anime will know, this isn’t terribly original (what is?) but it’s pretty funny if you get into humour like that. The romance section of the series is strictly by the book, but is balanced out well by the humour, and is sometimes a subject of joking itself. Like I said, this show isn’t terribly serious.

Despite the show’s cat gimmick, the girls are the real reason anyone is watching the show. The focus on helping the cats more or less goes away about half-way through the show, but they pop in every now and again to crack some jokes at Kousaka’s expense. The structure of the show falls back on traditional episodic TV-writing, so there’s not much in the way of serious cliffhangers or a strong romance plot that underpins everything. Characters will refer to past events, and their feelings and thoughts change over time, but things are primarily started and resolved in the span of each 24 minute episode.  This does the show well, since it’s not meant to be that serious anyway.

The characters are somewhat interesting spins on established archetypes, with my personal favourites being the flamboyant Ichinose Nagi and the wonderfully creepy Kirishima Kotone. Perverted mail woman Chizuru is almost up there, too. Mizuno is pretty typical, but she’s very cute and inspired mental cries of “moe~” every now and again. Sumiyoshi is a typical overbearing tomboy with a sharp tsundere edge, but did make her grand entrance in Mamba makeup, so that’s worth noting. As is typical with these shows, the side characters are a bit more off kilter than the main players, and provide a great amount of humour with their own antics. The show could do better with its talking cats, but they manage to pull of some pretty funny personalities with them, as well. It’s pointless to note whether or not these characters break any new ground (of course they don’t) but they’re all fun have a good share of humourous lines.

Design wise, things keep within modern anime convention, but have something of a sharp shounen magazine edge to them. There’s nothing particularly noteworthy about the animation, but it’s all well executed and never really looks lazy. The show’s direction changes between being hyper for humour sections, and being sedate for when the show decides to take its romance seriously. The background music isn’t anything of note, and the opening and endings are typical anisong compositions.

In the end, Nyan Koi! is pretty standard, but has a fairly strong humour element that pushes it beyond the norm just a touch. As one who partakes of shounen romance quite a bit, there are definitely shows I enjoy more, but Nyan Koi! certainly was not a waste of time, and was a pretty fun way to spend 24 minutes each week. If you’re looking for something light and fairly well executed, Nyan Koi! fits the bill perfectly.

Of all the people to write something about a Pizzicato Five album, I am the least qualified. I am neither a music person, nor am I cool enough. However, I’m a sucker for the music enough to write something about it, so I figure I’ll try my hand at a CD review, despite knowing nothing of music, music history or the music industry. This will not turn out well.

Being a poor student living on the wrong side of the Pacific, the only Pizzicato Five albums I could really get my hands on were those put up on the internet by awful pirates like me  for awful pirates like me. These albums were–of course–the more well known records put out by the group (at that point a duo consisting only of Konishi Yasuharu and Nomiya Maki) and were rife with their cleaner, snappier, more streamlined sound.

I quickly grew to like P5′s music, as it owed a lot to old jazz, soul, funk and whatever else P5 found cool enough to latch on to. This mix of sounds and influences resonated in me particularly because I grew up around a lot of jazz (particularly Bossa Nova) soul and funk music growing up, and all of these mixed together, presented in a uniquely Japanese package, was in some ways the ultimate fusion of childhood nostalgia and my modern day tastes. My love for P5 transformed into a general interest in cool-guy Shibuya-kei music, but I haven’t had much opportunity to explore the genre outside of a few acts, most of which aren’t even “real” Shibuya-kei. But I digress.

Even though I really liked P5′s music, there was something missing. What was lacking was a good number of full on jazzy tracks. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of P5′s stuff is pretty groovy, but of the albums I “had” there were few straight up jazz-inspired compositions. Which is just fine by me, but with the few short flings P5 had with the pure jazzy songs in these albums, I yearned for more. I then caught wind of one of their older albums–Couples–and managed to pick it up at my local BookOff during my time in Japan. Between listening to that album a lot over there, and having just come back into contact with it here in the US, I have to say that Couples is the jazzy slice of heaven I was looking for.

Inspired primarily by Burt Bacharach’s sound (According to the CD insert, anyway. “A collection of some Bacharach-ish syncopations and AABA’s…”, it reads.) Couples is defined by its slow horns and seductive strings as they work together to produce some of the most chill chill-out music I’ve ever heard. The tracks aren’t all slow, though. Far from it. The album dances between laid back tracks like its opening cover of Magical Connection and more upbeat numbers like What Now Our Love.

While I enjoy all the tracks on this album, I find myself gravitating towards the slower ones. Cuts like Magical Connection, Serial Stories, The Apartment and Two Sleepy People are perfect to listen to while sitting down with a glass full of something expensive, perhaps while puffing on a pipe. A lot of the tracks that fall somewhere between slow and upbeat such as Summertime, Summertime, They All Laughed, Seven O’ Clock News, The Odd Couple And The Others, and My Blue Heaven are also quite cheerful to listen to, breaking into smooth extended instrumental sections more often than not. My least favourites are actually the most upbeat tracks like What Now Our Love and Every Time We Say Goodbye. There’s nothing wrong with them per se, but I feel the energy present in them is better suited for P5′s later style. There’s a singular instrumental track on the album–Party Joke–which is a playful interlude that comes in near the end of the album’s 12-track run.

All of the tracks do great to fantastic jobs of interweaving the horns, strings and percussion into both simple and complex compositions that shift in tone from relaxing, to seductive, to just plain fun. An ever-present reverb in the background makes the album feel as if it was recorded in the 1960s as opposed to the late 1980s, and suggests a dream-like atmosphere across the disc. This would probably sound great on vinyl.

The vocals are primary reserved and laid back. Female vocalist Sasaki Mamiko’s voice is certainly more fitting than Nomiya’s in this CD–while Nomiya’s vocals in later P5 albums are more deliberate and full bodied, Sasaki’s are airy and natural, fitting the tone of the instrumentals. They seem effortless in a good way–as if singing well is just easy for her. Kamomiya Ryo provides the album with a masculine voice which works well alongside Sasaki, but on his own his vocals aren’t as enchanting.

Couples is a nice blast from the past, especially if you’re interested in what one of the most prolific Shibuya-kei acts sounded like before they hit it big. Free of a lot of the precise production of later P5 albums, Couples is a more natural sounding record that’s better suited for a quiet time than a party. I highly recommend picking it up. Not like my musical taste is worth anything, though.

(To learn more about Shibuya-kei, I recommend reading Marxy’s old articles on the subject.)

Before I proceed with this review–and I hope it won’t be too long–I’d just like the readers to keep in mind that my Japanese comprehension is still pretty bad, and I had to pee like crazy half-way through the film which resulted in me paying more attention to finding a good moment to slip out than actually watching the movie proper. Anyways.

I hadn’t actually heard of Summer Wars until I landed in Japan–I guess it didn’t really get much press or something, because the first time I saw anything about it was on Moetron’s season listing some months back. I was immediately taken by the Sadamoto character designs, as well news that it’d be made by the same team that brought us Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo. As time went on, I noticed that the film would be using some really Murakami Takashi-esque imagery throughout, which kind of put me off, but didn’t make me hate it on sight. Upon seeing the film now, the Murakami imagery wasn’t a problem at all… but other things did hold it back from being awesome.

The thing that hurts this movie the most is the fact that Tokikake’s boots are kind of difficult to fill. Tokikake is an extremely emotionally charged film, and I don’t think Summer Wars really lives up to that. Not that it really tries to, but what it aims at just doesn’t seem to be what you should be aiming for if you’re the guys who made Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo. It does aim high, and I think they hit their mark, but it seems they kind of missed what made Tokikake such a charming film.

To put it simply, the movie is far too plot centric.  You can read all about that here. Where Tokikake put character interactions and the like first, Summer Wars sets up its plot as the most important part. That wouldn’t be a bad thing, but when your plot is “country hicks have to defeat the rogue AI before it takes over the internet” it does leave something to be desired. And it’s not as if these characters are bad–they’re all spunky, energetic, eccentric and fun in their own ways, but there’s just too many of them! Running at nearly two hours long, the movie still doesn’t have enough time to expand upon its cast to the point that we can really care about them. Heck, I can only remember three of character’s names. But it’s not a bad movie. It’s a fine race-against-the-clock, sci-fi sort of thing, but when you take into consideration the kinds of heights that Tokikake leapt for (pun intended), it leaves one with a profound feeling of “that’s it?”

The movie looks fine. The animation is nice, fluid, and has lots of life. The main thing that bothered me, though, was that the characters didn’t seem as solidly rendered as the characters in Tokikake. They seemed to take on more blob-like existences when we got into medium shots, and faces became less-detailed than I would have cared for. The Murakami-influenced stuff is decent. I liked it better than I thought I would, but it still stinks of Murakami. Once again, it’s not bad, it just doesn’t seem to live up its predecessor.

In the end, even though I did go in with slightly low expectations, the fact that Summer Wars met them was kind of disheartening. It isn’t a bad movie. It’s a fine movie. It’s just not as good as the other one those guys made.

Those familiar with most daring hero of Japanese animation Shinbo Akiyuki through his works with studio SHAFT such as Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei are probably unaware of his other, lesser known works. There’s a reason for this, and that’s simply because these lesser known works aren’t terribly great. They’re directed fabulously, but often times Shinbo’s older work is just held down by some bad writing. Le Portrait de Petite Cossette, or the The Portrait of Little Cossette, or コゼットの肖像 is of a slightly higher pedigree than, say, Shin Hurricane Polymar, but it still suffers from what I will for now on dub as the “Shinbo OVA Curse.”

Cossette aims high, and at a place that I like. It’s a twisted love story between an older man and little, but kind-of-sort-of-ALREADY-DEAD girl. Our main man, Kurahashi Eiri works in an antiques shop and is fascinated by one of the antique glasses in the store’s collection. Within the glass he can see a figure of a girl going about her daily life–the titular Cossette. Through a series of crazy SoulTaker-like imagery, our cute Cossette comes to life by the end of the first episode, which is where their tragic love story spirals into pits of despair. There’s also some other characters who are really concerned with our main man–as they should be–but they really don’t do much.

I’ll go ahead and get the bad stuff out of the way. This writing is pretty confused. In the end, the story makes perfect sense, but there’s too many diversions. I think–on some level–the core plot is fine, but what takes away from it is all the extra stuff. While character dialogue tends to make sense, they do have habit of pontificating upon things that don’t really mean anything. Another thing that distracts the story is the existence of characters other than Kurahashi and Cossette–they do well to illustrate how people close to him feel about this whole thing, but the degree to which they get involved feels a touch pointless. On this same vein, the show doesn’t get to expand much on our cast of characters in its three, round-about-45-minute episodes, so they don’t leave much of an impression. Had the story focused more squarely on Kurahashi and Cossette, I feel it would have been better.

However, I don’t think that hurts the piece too much, as what really makes this is Shinbo’s direction. This is dark Shinbo. This is SoulTaker, and sometimes-maybe-if-you’re-lucky Tsukuyomi -MOONPHASE- Shinbo. It revels in twisted storyboarding, the old-style Shinbo colour palette (which is making a reappearance in Bakemonogatari), hard black shadows, and striking lighting situations, all set to creepy background music. It’s over-the-top. It’s good. What also helps is fairly good animation work. It’s nothing really spectacular, but it certainly does remind one of the days when “OVA quality” kind of meant something. There is some iffy 3D work here and there, which does cheapen the piece a bit, especially when the Golgo 13 skulls make an appearance. The character designs aren’t particularly memorable, but I like the realist look they have about them. Cossette herself is rather cute, in a sort of creepy, porcelain doll way.

Even though the direction is great, the writing does hurt because of what it could have been. Had the staff thought through the script a bit more, this show would have been pretty good, if not fantastic. It sadly gets distracted by too many weird, unnecessary things along the way. As I say in most of my reviews for these old Shinbo OVAs–watch it if you like the man’s work, as it’s pretty good in that respect. However, unlike Hurricane Polymar, Cossette’s decent enough that I’d recommend it with caution to certain people who may be into its subject matter. It’s not bad, but it’s not great.