I have nothing witty to say here

I feel like talking a bit about anime:

I finished watching Makai Senki Disgaea today before I left for work. It is a fun little anime based on the PS2 game Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (I believe in Japan the video game is also called Makai Senki Disgaea). The anime is pretty amusing. It is also only 12 episodes long, which is just about the perfect length for this title (I wouldn’t have had a problem with one or two more episodes, but I think 26 episodes of Disgaea would have gotten old).

The anime opens with the apprentice angel Flonne in the Netherworld trying to track down Demon King Krichevskoy. She finds a coffin with his crest emblazoned on it, and tries to carry out her mission to assassinate the Demon King. She succeeds in only waking the coffin’s occupant who is the Demon Prince Laharl. They both quickly learn that King Krichevskoy is already dead. Former vassal of King Krichevskoy, the demon Etna, who apparently was searching for Laharl, arrives on the scene and for differing reasons the three of them set off together across the Netherworld. Laharl’s ambition is to claim the title of Demon King. Flonne follows him as a servant because she wishes to show him there is love and kindness in his heart. Etna’s reasons for following Laharl are kept secret (at least from Laharl and Flonne) for the first half of the anime, but appear to be because of her respect and loyalty to Laharl’s late father King Krichevskoy.

On the advice of my friend Dan (who hasn’t steered me wrong yet with an anime recommendation) I’ve started watching Hunter × Hunter. I have only watched the first five episodes, so I cannot say too much about this anime yet, but I have enjoyed what I’ve watched so far. The first two or so episodes were a little slow (although still interesting), but the action has been picking up. Thus far the anime seems to be about a young boy named Gon and his search for his father. In order to facilitate his search Gon has decided to become a hunter like his father before him (in the anime’s setting being a hunter seems to be quite a big deal, and confers a high level of respect and privilege).

In the last few days I’ve also managed to get current with both Busou Renkin (14 episodes fansubbed and watched), and Bleach (110 episodes fansubbed and watched). I’ve talked a bit about Busou Renkin, but haven’t really ever said anything about Bleach. Bleach, based on a manga by the same name, is about the adventures of Kurosaki Ichigo. Ichigo, a high school student, always had the ability to see spirits, but his life is significantly altered after he meets Kuchiki Rukia. Rukia is a shinigami, or death god (in the official English dub she is called a soul reaper). Rukia, and others like her, is responsible for shepherding wayward souls (ghosts and other spirits) into the afterlife (in Bleach called the Soul Society), and protecting both souls and humans alike from spirit creatures called hollows. Rukia meets Ichigo because she is tracking a hollow that is stalking Ichigo because his unusually strong spirit powers make him especially appetizing to hollows. During the hollow’s attack Rukia is wounded protecting Ichigo. In order to allow Ichigo a chance to defend himself and his family, Rukia grants Ichigo some of her power as a shinigami. She intends to only temporarily give him half her spirit power, but inexplicable Ichigo receives nearly all of it.

The early episodes of Bleach deal with Ichigo acting as a substitute shinigami with Rukia providing advice and support. The early episodes also introduce a number of Ichigo’s classmates several of whom either already have spirit powers, or have spirit powers awakened in them by exposure to Ichigo’s remarkably high spirit energy. This takes up the first 14 episodes of Bleach. Episode 15 serves as a bridge episode dealing with the consequences of the previous story arc, and setting up the next major arc. Episodes 16 and 17 deal with Rukia’s arrest by fellow shinigami (including her elder brother) for the crime of giving a human shinigami powers. Ichigo is unable to save her, and is very nearly killed by Rukia’s brother Byakuya. Episodes 18 – 20 deal with Ichigo’s recovery and the subsequent training he and his friends undertake in order to travel to the Soul Society to rescue Rukia who is scheduled to be executed for her actions in the mortal world.

The Soul Society arc then stretches from episode 21 until episode 63. Back in November when I started watching the Bleach fansubs over the course of one weekend I plowed through the Soul Society arc (plus the set up episodes) in basically two sittings. I recall I started on a Saturday night with episode 14, paused to watch Adult Swim (Trinity Blood, amusingly enough Bleach, and Eureka 7), and then started up again continuing until I think about 5am. I then slept until about 11am. I believe I even dreamed about Bleach. After waking up I fixed myself some food, and then returned to Bleach soldiering on until the end of the arc some time that evening (I likely paused again to make myself some more food at some point in there).

Episodes 64 – 109 were a filler arc unique to the anime. They deal with Ichigo and the Soul Society’s struggles against a race of immortal humans called the Bount. Bounts are the result of ancient experiments into eternal life conducted by the shinigami. They survive by consuming human souls, for most of their history they only ate the souls of the dead, however as the needs of plot would have it the Bounts have started targeting the souls of living humans. As filler arcs go this wasn’t horrible. There were a few times towards the end of the arc where I’d think to myself if this was the Bounts’ plan from the beginning then what of the point of their actions at the beginning of the arc. Ultimately the leader of the Bounts, Kariya Jin, proved to be a pretty interesting villain with some complex motivations it just took until the last few episodes in the arc for that to become apparent (which was far to long to wait for him to become interesting). Thankfully episode 110 is the start of a new arc that is once again based off the manga. Of course this means that after all those episodes the main characters are back to exactly the same state they were in at the end of episode 63. This is my main problem with filler arcs in general, if the animators plan on returning to the manga in the future, they cannot really make any changes to the characters.

Finally this last week I finished off a moderately amusing little ecchi comedy called Oku-sama wa Joshi Kousei (made up of 26 12-minute episodes) which translates into My Wife is a High School Girl. I actually have a small problem with this title the majority of this story is told from the point-of-view of Onohara Asami, the high school girl in question, so I think a more accurate title would have been something to the effect of My Husband is a High School Physics Teacher. However I concede that wouldn’t have been nearly as naughty sounding a name.

Asami a 17 year-old high school student (in her second-to-last year of high school) is secretly married to Ichimaru Kyousuke her 25 year-old physics teacher. The only way Asami’s father would allow the wedding was to make Ichimaru-sensei swear an oath to have no sexual contact with Asami until after she has graduated. I doubt anyone would be surprised to learn most of the comedy comes from their struggles to hide their relationship, and from the inevitable obstacles that pop up anytime it looks like that relationship might become intimate. The series starts out with Kyousuke and Asami already married, and for awhile I hoped their backgrounds might get a cursory exploration, but I eventually came to the conclusion that any depiction of their courtship would likely be very creepy. Ultimately this show made me groan a few times, chuckle a fair amount, and really laugh two or three times; considering that I started this show with basically no expectation of it being anything but pretty bad I’d say it turned out rather well.