Michiko to Hatchin Episode 1

October 28th, 2008 by Brack

Hana Morenos is an orphan living with a cruel foster family who treat her like a slave.

Michiko Malandro, is a dangerous escaped convict.

On March 17th, Michiko turns up to claim Hana and take her away.

This is the new Manglobe show, directed by Sayo Yamamoto and written by Takashi Ujita (presumably the Kazuyoshi Kumakiri collaborator). And it’s probably the only wholly original show in the autumn anime season (not an adaptation, sequel or remake).

Some folks have found the cruelty that Hana suffers in this episode a bit too much. True the family she lives with are horrible Dahl/Grimm Brothers-esque gits, but it’s necessary for the fairy tale ending to the episode. Michiko is a violent, gun toting criminal, and yet by the end of the episode she’s clearly a preferable parental figure than the hypocritical Morenos family.

OK, that’s the story. It’s fine, but you know what’s great? The animation.

Fantastic shot composition that makes great use of the perspective of items in the background paintings. Really solid looking characters, highlighted by a scene early on that moves the camera around the cast as they sit down for breakfast. Light! Shadows! Evil characters whose evil is physically manifested in their character design. Characters with lips! Graffiti! Colour that doesn’t look over-saturated and covered in vaseline, as at a least two acclaimed shows this season have. If you think any show this season looks better than this, you are no longer allowed to have opinions on cartoons. Unless you say Superjail. In which case you’d be right.

Oh and that Shinichiro Watanabe feller is pretty good at picking music too.

Right now this is the only new anime show that I don’t feel like I have to work at to enjoy. Except One Outs. Which I hadn’t seen when I wrote that sentence. More on that soon.

Go watch!

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INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH CHI

October 22nd, 2008 by Brack

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Mouryou no Hako - Episode 1

October 17th, 2008 by Brack

Mononoke & Requiem From The Darkness have set the bar so high for folkloric horror that shows like Mouryou no Hako simply aren’t good enough anymore.

In terms of the story, it’s perfectly fine. However, this is a cartoon, and you need to bring more to the game than just a spooky story. The horror element needs to come through visually and this is where the show fails. The set piece scenes work to a certain extent, they are creepy, if not dazzling. What it fails to do is create a mood throughout the show.

Mononoke was unrelenting in it’s creation of unease in the viewer. I know people who stopped watching because it was creeping them out. Requiem From The Darkness was a bit more Grand Guignol in it’s approach, but the art direction and character design brought out the unpleasantness of the characters and world in the stories. There is the sense that these interpretations could only exist as cartoons.

Take away the supernatural events, and this episode of Mouryou no Hako could easily pass for a high school drama like Maria-sama ga Miteru. This is a workmanlike adaptation, anime as a mechanism for translating a book to tv rather than a work that justifies its existance as animation. Even the novelty of CLAMP character designs is smothered by Asako Nishida’s pedestrian interpretation of them.

As a way to simply enjoy the story, this is fine. And considering the novel isn’t available in English that’s a decent enough reason to watch. However, as a work of animation it’s a big disappointment.

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This just in from 1994!

October 16th, 2008 by Brack

Manga Mania, Issue 12, cover date July 1994. Still being published by Dark Horse, for now.

The editorial talks of two new companies entering the UK anime market - Animania & Anime UK. Animania would have a slightly brighter time of things than Anime UK, which went the way of Crusader - one appalling dubbed title and then death. It also mentions Virgin having plans to join the fray. As far as I know this never happened.

Article-wise there’s a Masamune Shirow article (w/ help from Toren Smith) on Dominion Tank Police’s hardware (the manga was starting this issue) and a Tezuka retrospective. There’s also a dimissive review of Gunbuster that seems hilariously out of touch next to gushing reviews for now forgotten titles like Wind of Amnesia, Galactic Pirates and Kamasutra.

And Wil Overton was trying to convince you that Ranma 1/2 - Hard Battle was a good game (8/10!).

UK NEWS

  • Animania were launching with “Guy, Awakening of the Devil“
  • Manga were releasing the first Devilman OAV, Monster City, Maris The Wondergirl, Roujin Z, the live action Gunhed and, of course, Guyver.
  • Cornerstone Communications released some Akira trading cards. My brother had some of these, got them from a local corner shop I seem to recall.
  • Anime UK were releasing KO Century Beast Warriors.
  • Kiseki were due to release Black Magic & Macross - Clash of the Bionoids
  • Western Connection were bringing Love City to an uncaring world.
  • Anime Projects made with the Genesis Survivor Gaiarth.
  • The first creeping in of Hong Kong action movie coverage began with noting the launch of the Made In Hong Kong video label with The Killer, God of Gamblers, The Barefoot Kid & Saviour of the Soul. Good times.

US NEWS

  • Rumiko Takahashi was due to appear at San Diego Comic Con.
  • CPM had Animated Classics Of Japanese Literature coming out.
  • Viz continued the deathly slow trickle of Ranma 1/2.
  • US Manga Corps had Iczer 3 and Project A-Ko 3.
  • AnimEigo had Urusei Yatsura: The Final Chapter.
  • Pioneer LDC had Green Legend Ran and more No Need For Tenchi!

JAPAN NEWS

Coming out on Laser Disc was:

  • Fortune Quest
  • Ah! My Goddess
  • Final Fantasy
  • VOTOMS
  • Dirty Pair Flash
  • Butt-Attack Punisher Girl Gotaman
  • Genocyber
  • The Hakkenden
  • All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku
  • Please Save My Earth
  • Angel Cop

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Demon Butler Vs. Fairy Doctor

October 14th, 2008 by Brack

There’s two shows out this autumn in Japan that overly-romanticise Victorian Britain with a touch of the supernatural, Kuroshitsuji and Earl & Fairy.

Kuroshitsuji is the tale of a rich little boy, his demon butler and the rest of his incompetent staff.

It is the technically better made of the two shows, but it left me cold. It’s an uneasy mix of unfunny comedy and sinister horror of the supernatural punisher variety. The manga has a touch of Kouta Hirano’s style to it, which has been lost a little in the the anime. Instead we have a cleaner look with a slightly stiff and stilted look to its poses, despite some fluid movement. It’s well made, but it isn’t for me.

Earl & Fairy is the story of a Scottish “Fairy Doctor” who finds herself coerced into helping the heir to the only family who have a position in both the British and Faerie courts prove his identity.

It has average animation and is full of shoujo romantic cliche, but it has a lot more charm to it than Kuroshitsuji. The representation of Britain feels more familiar, like a BBC costume drama rather than the somewhat alien interpretation Kuroshitsuji had. The supernatural elements also feel more distinctly British using as it does specific fairies like Brownies and Merrow, compared to Kuroshitsuji’s vague demonic overtones. The 25 minutes zoomed by for me, a frothy lightweight romantic adventure.

That cat though, when he stands upright with his paws on his haunches, it damn well freaks me out.

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Hyakko - Episode 2

October 13th, 2008 by Brack

Oh dear.

That’s certainly some episode 2 quality drop off.

Yikes.

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MAD MONDAYS - Masaaki Yuasa.

October 13th, 2008 by Brack

Turns out that apart from linking to one for my first MADstravaganza panel notes, I’ve not posted a Masaaki Yuasa video yet. Well here’s one I’d overlooked from this year, that mainly focuses on his earlier, funnier work.

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Kemeko Deluxe Episode 1

October 12th, 2008 by Brack

A dull boy finds the recipient of a rash promise made as a child return ten years later, to claim him as her husband.

No, it’s not Urusei Yatsura: Only You, it’s Kemeko Deluxe, the new series from Tsutomu Mizushima (Hare+Guu, xxxHolic, Big Windup!, Genshiken, Dokuro-chan), based on Masakazu Iwasaki’s manga.

This sort of home invasion comedy thing has been done to death, so you really better be bringing something good to the table if you’re going to add to this tired “genre”.

Well this does bring something to the table, and that is Mizushima.

The original manga is above standard fare, the Kemeko “character” being visually quite unlike most leads in this sort of thing, and it has a nice line in absurd mecha (somewhat reminiscent of Cat Girl Nuku Nuku - is the company name Mishima here a homage to that series?). So it has a head start on most these shows.

In addition to that strong basis, Mizushima has brought with him the blatant ribaldry of his own series Dokoro-chan & Dai Mahou Touge, and his excellent comedic timing. Equally at home with blue comedy, Raimi/Stooges slapstick and the comedy of embarrassment, he brings out the best in the source material. While Kemeko is not quite the genius creation that Guu was, she is still the best character he’s brought to life since that series. Chiwa Saito ably matches the animation performance with a vocal performance that really stretches her comedic range.

The weak point in all of this is the romantic element, Kemeko’s alter-ego Emuemu is somewhat disappointing compared to Kemeko, her stereotypical nature reinforced by the casting of Haruka Tomatsu fresh from playing the very similar Lala in the very average To Love-Ru. The good news is that, unlike the comedy, this element doesn’t get expanded upon in the script or direction.

Of special note should be the opening and ending, which are so dementedly perverse that you know you could only be watching a Mizushima show.

A promising start, and a show I’ll be following for now.

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Lupin III: GREEN VS RED

October 11th, 2008 by Brack

“Lupin III is smart and cool.”

Up until 2002 Lupin III films tended to be compared to Castle of Cagliostro, however modern Lupin III projects have been judged against Episode:0 First Contact, the high point of the Kurita Kanichi years. This fortieth anniversary OAV special doesn’t quite reach that film’s heights, but it’s got a lot to recommend it.

The special deals with a surfeit of Lupins and a private militia in possession of a deadly weapon. But more importantly it deals with the idea of a person or character as a meme. Monkey Punch has spoken in the past about wanting Lupin to exist forever, to become an immortal comic character like Batman or Spider-Man. This special deals with that idea, within the world of Lupin III itself.

The pre credit sequence deals with a cook, Yasuo who bears a close resemblence to our hero. Yasuo was of course the name of the original voice of Lupin III, the late Yasuo Yamada. In addition to this callback to the character’s past, the other “guest character” in this special is named Yukiko, after Yukiko Nikaido, the voice of the Fujiko in the 1971 Lupin III TV series.

Then after the opening credits we get Zenigata returning to Japan after chasing fake Lupin IIIs all around the world, before launching into the opening sequence proper (that I swiped those screenshots from here). I recognise enough of the faces from specific Lupin III projects that I’m guessing that they all do. This is one problem I had with watching the OAV, are some things poorly explained or are they assuming a familiarity with the character’s history I don’t have.

And then we are swamped in Lupins. A Lupin is caught shoplifting, and soon, across the world, Lupins are outraged that someone is impersonating them to commit such a minor offence. It’s not long before Tokyo is awash in Fiat 500s and red and green jackets.

Let’s deal with the main problem with this feature up front. It’s about 10-20 minutes too short. There’s 3-4 strands of plot running through the film and only one of them gets the time it deserves. The story of the two fake Lupins on the run (one of whom bears some resemblance to Nabeshin) gets particularly short shrift, and the story of the “Ice Cube” and its commentary on Japanese national paranoia comes to an abrupt halt.

Luckily the main thread about Yasuo is strong, and throughout there are some great animated set pieces and visual touches, the highlight being a rooftop duel between Fiat 500s, in a fully animated black and white recreation of Monkey Punch’s line work.

There’s loads of blink and you’ll miss it references in there. I know I missed the cameo that Detective Conan apparently makes. It definitely feels they made so much effort in including things for fans, that they didn’t leave enough room for all the story.

But don’t let that put you off, the theme of Lupin III being a state of mind rather than a person is a strong one and it’s perfect for a celebratory project such as this.

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Vince Collins - Life Is Flashing Before Your Eyes

October 9th, 2008 by Brack

B-B-Bonus:

Vince Collins - Sesame Street: It Depends On Your Perspective

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