Yesterday I finished watching Night Wizard. It is a thirteen episode action adventure anime based on a Japanese role playing game. The characters are interesting enough, I'd have preferred a few of them be just a little more fleshed out, but none of them were terribly two-dimensional. The plot is solid, nothing really cutting edge, your basic urban fantasy setting with demons attacking the Earth and a secret group of wizards charged with defending it. Add to that a quest to gather seven magic jewels, and a plot twist towards the end of the series that was adequately foreshadowed and follows the internal logic of the anime and I'd say it was worth my time watching.
There are a number of different ongoing anime series I've been following of late. Two of which have me extremely excited, but naturally I'm going to start off talking briefly about a third series I recently started. Taking advantage of the lapse of a North American license I started watching Futari wa Pretty Cure in December. I've made it through 32 of the 49 episodes. It is enjoyable magical girl fun. No real innovations going on, it is pretty much like watching Sailor Moon, but with much better animation, less annoying characters, and a better sense of continuity from episode to episode (although it is still pretty much a monster of the week show). If you like the magical girl genre, then you could do far worse than watch Pretty Cure. If you are interested in checking out some magical girl anime, then Pretty Cure would be an excellent start (although Card Captor Sakura would be better still).
Moving on to the two new series that really have me excited. The first of which is Shion no Ō. The series starts off introducing the eponymous character Yasuoka Shion an eleven year old girl on the cusp of becoming a professional shogi player. We quickly learn that when Shion was four she witnessed the brutal murder of her parents, the killer was never caught, and Shion hasn't spoken a word since that tragic night. The murder mystery is played against the backdrop of Shion's life as a professional shogi player, and I find the interplay between and the gradual revelation of connection between these two seemingly disparate things extremely fascinating. The characters are first rate - gloriously complex with numerous layers and facets. The episodes have been an interesting and enjoyable mix of unfolding mystery and suspense with each leaving me more anxious for the release of the next.
The other anime that has really caught my attention is Clannad. The anime is based on a visual novel developed by Key, and adapted for animation by Kyoto Animation (the studio also produced The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, so count me among their fans). Key and Kyoto Animation are also responsible for Kanon (Key the visual novel, and Kyoto Animation the anime) about which I had plenty of nice things to say back in April. The characters are the main draw for me here - I find them to be incredibly likable - the more I watch them, the more I want to learn about them. Thus far Clannad has be a bit lighter in tone than Kanon, a little less melodramatic, but the emotional impact of the developing plot has been every bit Kanon's equal. With few exceptions the episodes leave me feeling peaceful and content, juxtaposed with a growing desire to watch the next episode.
I stole the setting for my BESM campaign (a year old this month) from the comic book The Path (written by Ron Marz, penciled by Bart Sears) published by defunct CrossGen Comics. The comic takes place in the world of Han-Jinn in the feudal Japanese-esque island nation of Nayado. The comic revolves around a monk named Obo-san and his companions a female samurai named Aiko, and Wulf a foreign sailor (basically a Viking) swept onto Nayado’s shores by a storm. Obo-san has a lot on his plate: his Emperor starts the comic insane and quickly becomes a demon animated corpse, his country keeps getting invaded by Shinacea (think ancient China), his brother was killed by the gods, both his Emperor and the Emperor of Shinacea want the “weapon of heaven” left behind by the god that killed his brother, and Obo-san has come to the conclusion that the only way to save Nayado is to overthrow its Emperor. If you can find the two trade paperbacks containing this story I highly recommend picking them up.
cursed exorcist named Daigyo who pretty much owes his existence to the character of Miroku from InuYasha. The other NPC is a kitsune named Tomomeko who is pretty much a copy of a NPC kitsune in a BESM campaign Matt and I played in run by our friend Tim (who was last mentioned in this blog for all the anime he showed me).
I mentioned briefly in my last post that Christmas was good. I did receive a couple of nice presents I’m itching to tear into. One was Dashiell Hammett: Complete Novels: Red Harvest / The Dain Curse / The Maltese Falcon / The Glass Key / The Thin Man. As the title suggests this book contains all five Dashiell Hammett crime novels in one volume. I’ve started in on the The Thin Man which was adapted into a really good movie of the same name. The movie spawned a number of sequels the first two are also quite good, the others aren’t as good, but are still okay. I’m also excited about the trade paperback for Marvel 1602 Neil Gaiman’s very interesting re-envisioning of the Marvel universe in the late Elizabethan era. I’m also probably going to spend the next few days putting together the furniture that I got for Christmas (two new chairs that I thought I needed, and one end table that my mother thought I needed).
When you stop and think about it my solution to these “problems” is pretty illogical. In order to avoid having the anime end, or avoid having to wait for the next release I just stop watching it. Never-the-less I actually do this - it is going on three weeks since I watched episode nine of Busō Renkin, I was certainly enjoying the series, but I didn’t want to wait for the fansub of episode 11 so I haven’t watched episode 10. I’m doing the same thing with Avatar: The Last Airbender (not actually an anime, but the principle is the same) it has been at least a month since I watched episode 36, I’ve got episodes 37-40, but I don’t want to finish the second season and have to wait for the third season to air later this year. The only explanation I can think of is I’d rather stop watching an anime by choice then be forced to stop by reality. I’m not sure what that says about me, other than I’m apparently a very silly man.
Leaving behind any pretense of introspection, but sticking with anime I recently finished one series and started watching two more. The series I finished is ×××HOLiC, based on the manga of the same name by CLAMP. First let me say thank you wikipedia for finally telling me how to pronounce that ridiculous name (it’s just holic the ××× is ment to be a variable). I’ve been reading the manga since it first became available domestically through Del Rey, and I quite enjoy it. The anime (24 episodes) is pretty faithful, but slightly less dark in tone (also see below regarding Tsubasa Chronicle). It centers on Watanuki Kimihiro a high school student cursed by the ability to see spirits (and is constantly bothered by them). Fate however has Kimihiro cross paths with a witch named Ichihara Yūko, and for a price Yūko will grant people’s wishes. Kimihiro’s wish is to no longer be able to spirits; the price of this wish is becoming Yūko’s servant until such a time as he’s worked long enough to pay for his wish. I should point that contrary to how my brief description of the setup might read this isn’t a shōjo story nor is it a romantic comedy.
One of the series that I started watching is Samurai 7 which is based on the movie Seven Samurai directed by Akira Kurosawa (also edited and co-written by him). I’ve watched the first 14 episodes and I’m enjoying it. The setting has an interesting steampunk feel to it, and the juxtaposition of the highly mechanical bandits versus the mostly feudal Japan-esque samurai (the character of Kikuchiyo being one obvious exception) is quite interesting. Equally interesting are the contrasts between the obviously feudal political system, and the mostly sci-fi setting as well as the difference between the lifestyles of the peasants verses both the bandits and the residents of the cities. Thus far the anime has been pretty faithful to the movie. Not surprisingly some elements have expanded and others added, but that was basically a necessity the movie is just over 200 minutes long which would only give enough material for about 8 or 9 episodes (a far cry from the 26 episodes in the series). The anime has already got me thinking about watching the movie again, and if I do that (an easy thing to do since I do own Seven Samurai) I’ll probably get the urge to watch The Magnificent Seven again as well (that I don’t own so it will be a little harder to do).
The other anime I started is Tsubasa Chronicle which is based on the manga Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE by CLAMP (they seem to like odd capitalization). I’ve also been reading the Tsubasa manga since Del Rey started publishing the English language version. Thus far there are 52 episodes of Tsubasa Chronicle (two 26 episode seasons with a third on its way probably this spring). I’ve watched the first 12 episodes and I’ve enjoyed them so far. The story revolves mainly around Sakura and Syaoran, characters originally from Card Captor Sakura (although this Sakura and Syaoran are from a different world and thus not the same as the CCS characters). To greatly simplify the set up Sakura is the princess of the country of Clow. Her brother Tōya is the king, and Yukito is the high priest. Syaoran is her childhood friend, whom she is in love with. Through the machinations of an evil wizard looking to obtain the strange power Sakura possess, she loses her soul and her memories. In order to save her life and recover her soul and memories Yukito sends Sakura and Syaoran to a certain wish granting witch named Yūko. Yūko’s price from helping Syaoran restore Sakura’s memories is his relationship with Sakura. Syaoran may be able to restore her memories and soul, but Sakura will never recover her memories of Syaoran. Syaoran agrees to pay that price and Yūko grants him the ability to travel to other dimensions where he will be able to find Sakura’s memories manifested in the form of a feather. I’m skipping over two other characters who each have their own reasons for traveling the dimensions, and make there own sacrifices to Yūko and travel with Sakura and Syaoran, but that is the crux of the story. In both the manga and anime other characters from earlier CLAMP works continually show up (in slightly different versions of their original appearance), and Yūko continues to play a role (the connection to Tsubasa is almost completely removed in the ×××HOLiC anime, but does come up in the manga).I’m not really setting any limits on what I’ll write about here, but some topics are far more likely then others. I’m unlikely to ever post too much about work. The main reason is I don’t really care to talk about my job; its importance to me is pretty much limited to being the thing I do to get money to live. Plus I don’t hate my job (nor do I love it) so I cannot really work up a good rant about it. The other reason I won’t likely have too much to say about work is its just safer that way, I’d hate to mention something that ended up getting me fired. At the other end of the spectrum I envision using this blog to indulge in my geeky side. I hope to spend a great deal of time writing about comic books, webcomics, RPGs, HeroClix, manga, books in general, movies, anime, and any other similar topic I can think of.
So with that as I guideline I guess I can begin this little experiment.
