Confession time before I continue. I love to watch shows that take place in other time periods and one of my favorite time periods is 19^th century England. I don’t really know why but it leads to watching shows that probably wouldn’t be nearly as interesting if they took place today. For example, I’ve watch A&E’s excellent Pride and Prejudice miniseries at least 5 times now and could be convinced to watch it many more times. I say all this because Earl and Fairy takes place in 19^th century England and this will put a positive spin on the show that other people might not have.

Final Series Score: 8/12 B+
Rewatchablity: low - med
Pros: fun cast of characters, well-done character interactions, charming time period and setting that’s somewhat unique in anime and showcased reasonably well here, good work done by voice actors
Cons: the early plot was overly rushed and overall wasn’t taken seriously, animation was only serviceable for the show, not enough was done with Lydia’s ability to see spirits

Awards given to this show by this blog

• Best Non-Human Character for Fall Season 2008
• Best Male Seiyuu for Hikaru Midorikawa as Edgar for Fall Season 2008

Story

Lydia has the ability to see spirits and uses this ability to work as a ‘Fairy Doctor’ – a person that helps people with spirit problems. In an increasing modern England, though, more and more people believe spirits don’t exist and thus Lydia doesn’t have much work.

On a boat trip to London she gets kidnapped but is saved by a mysterious stranger named Edgar. He requires her services to prove his claim of being the rightful heir to the title of Blue Knight Earl. She is reluctant to help Edgar even though he’s handsome, cultured, and suave because there’s a chance he’s a murderer from America and most likely not the rightful heir (the heir should be able to see spirits). And even if she doesn’t want to help, she might not have a choice because she’ll need someone’s protection against the group that tried to kidnap her.

Thoughts and impressions

The first thing that anyone who’s planning on watching this series has to take into account is Earl & Fairy can’t be taken seriously. If you do, you will dislike this show; instead watch it to enjoy the characters and how they interact with each other. At it’s best the plot is full of more holes then Swiss cheese and at it’s worst (episode 4) it’s so compressed and nonsensical that I almost stopped watching the show entirely. I did force myself to continue watching but with a decreased emphasis on the plot and an increased emphasis on the characters and within a couple of episodes I was back to enjoying this show. In the show’s defense, it was obvious that the relative small episode count forced the animators to move things along so they could get to of the later source material.

It is entirely possible to like this show just for the characters and how they interact with each other. The major characters include Lydia: a likeable, independent, head-strong woman who alternates between liking and despising Edgar. Her employer, Edgar, who oozes charm and does appear to sincerely like Lydia but his long history of being an impulsive lady’s man frequently means he does something that makes Lydia angry. Edgar’s butler and bodyguard is serious, reserved, and not human – the green glowing eye gives that away – he also looks good in a dress as we find out in one episode. Lydia has a pet cat that can talk, walk on it’s two back feet, and loves to drink alcohol and eat. She also has a shape changing spirit that decides that he wants to marry her and take her to live with him in fairy world.

Other then the plot, the only thing that really disappointed me was how Lydia’s ability to see spirits wasn’t used much by the series. In this aspect, I can compare this show to Natsume Yuujinchou or Kamichu because the main characters share the same type of ability. In Natsume and Kamichu, we see many spirits inhabiting the world, even if they’re just in the background but this isn’t the case in this show. The only time that Lydia’s ability to see spirits seems to come up is at convenient plot points which is a shame because so much could be done with this ability.

In conclusion, because the plot is handled so poorly, this show gets relegated to the status of “Enjoyable Fluff”. I’d recommend giving Earl and Fairy a watch for people looking for a show with good characters and interesting relationships or for someone wanting something a bit different in either setting and/or time period or someone that’s tired of the standard anime character types and clichés. And just remember, don’t let the really horrible episode 4 stop you watching the rest of the show; the rest of the show is okay.

Essential Information

• 12 episodes
• genre: fantasy, shoujo, romance
• animation studio: Artland
• director: Koichiro Sohtome
• OP: “FEELING” by AciD FLavoR
• ED: “my fairy” by Hikaru Midorikawa
• Seiyuus of note: Hikaru Midorikawa, Nana Mizuki, Tomokazu Sugita, Hiro Yuuki, Takehito Koyasu, Hiroshi Kamiya

Posted in anime, series review

Pushing this back a couple of days changed a couple of the winners and caused a few more categories to be added included one award that is my first award named after an anime - The Gurren Lagann Memorial Body-Count Award. I thought it was appropriate and I did make a comment a few weeks ago essentially promising to make this category.

Best Action

Winner: Soul Eater

Runner-up: Kurozuka, Ga-Rei: Zero

One of the problems with us humans is that we take so many things for granted when we shouldn’t. It happens in real life and it happens with our entertainment; in this case, after two cour (seasons) of Soul Eater – I was taking Soul Eater for granted and I feel bad that I was. I’d become complacent about the show and it took episodes 35 and 36 of Soul Eater to remind me that even Kurozuka and Ga-Rei: Zero can’t match this show in terms of action.

Best Comedy

Winner: Toradora

Runner-up: Clannad

The comedies of the season, like Kemeko DX and Kannagi, have not been nearly as funny as they should have been – Kemeko DX has been more weird then funny and Kannagi has suffered from the director’s desire to prove that he shouldn’t have been fired from doing Lucky Star. This allowed shows that aren’t true comedies like Toradora and Clannad, that only use comedy inside of a larger story, to sneak ahead. Of these two, Toradora’s humor has the slight edge because it’ll make me laugh when I least expect it and the humor has a broader range.

Best Story

Winner: Chaos;Head

This is one category that the slower paced release of subs for Mouryou no Hako makes me worried that I’m passing it over for a lesser anime. From what I’ve seen of Mouryou no Hako (5 episodes worth) it’s has a very intriguing story that still seems to have many mysteries left for us to uncover. But I got to use what I got and the story of Chaos;Head has been a very good one as well. I like a show that can create and maintain a sense of suspense about itself as Chaos;Head has done. I also like the idea of being able to use some sort of electromagnetic wave to make people see things that aren’t there. Throw in a strange string of deaths, strange earthquakes, and a main character with only a vague hold on sanity and Chaos;Head has one of most interesting stories of the year.

Most Interesting Setting

Winner: Michiko to Hatchin

Runner-up: Kurozuka

I’ve always been a fan of post-apocalyptic worlds for some reason but if you’ve seen one, you’ve pretty much seen them all. On the other hand Michiko to Hatchin takes place in a really unique and colorful place – Brazil. I’ve never had the chance to visit Brazil to know if the shows portrayal of the country is even close to reality but it does feel different from the standard Japanese setting. The colorful palette, the people that we’ve met, and the poverty and suffering that’s been seen all work to really set this world apart from other shows.

Best Seiyuu

Male: Hikaru Midorikawa as Lord Edgar from Earl and Fairy

Female: Yui Horie as Minorin and Rie Kugimiya as Taiga from Toradora

I was slightly surprised when I realized that I would give Hikaru Midorikawa best male seiyuu for his role as Lord Edgar from Earl and Fairy. I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve it, he does, but what surprised me when I started trying to separate the voice from the character was that I realized that if he had done a poor job voicing Lord Edgar, then the show wouldn’t be nearly as good as it is. The entire show hinges on Edgar being royalty and Hikaru Midorikawa does a very good job convincing us of this. He also does Yusuke Yoshino’s voice, the electrician from Clannad that Tomoya works with.

The absolute hardest decision of all my picks was deciding between Yui Horie and Rie Kugimiya for best female seiyuu. On one hand, Rie Kugimiya has been one of my favorite voice actors and yet her work as Taiga has easily surpassed all of her other works. She has been able to make Taiga’s wide range of emotions all sound authentic and believable and is one of the reasons why the show has been as good as it’s been. Then on the other hand, Yui Horie has been nothing short of god-like as Minorin. Every moment she’s been onscreen literally makes makes me giddy with pleasure. In the end, I decided that I couldn’t really separate the two so I should just give them both the award.

Best OP

Winner: Clannad

Runner-ups: Index, Michiko no Hatchin, Toradora

For all my liking of KyoAni’s adaptations of Key, I don’t normally like the OP/ED that much – AIR’s opening and Clannad’s first closing being the only ones I really liked. Imagine my surprise then as the opening for the second season of Clannad started and I found myself instantly liking it. The song is my favorite new opening song of the season and because I already know the characters, the animation has more impact for me. It beat out many other good openings including both shows from J.C. Staff (who almost always makes good OP/ED) and Michiko no Hatchin – who had the most visually interesting opening of the season.

Best ED

Winner: Kannagi

Runner-ups: Soul Eater, Chaos;Head

I’ll be honest, I find it harder to enjoy a slower paced song in a language I don’t know then an upbeat one. As a result, I find myself likeing more openings then closings since many anime shows follow the format of having an upbeat opening and a more relaxing ending. Sometimes, though, I find myself instantly liking a slower paced song and that happened with Kannagi’s ending. For all the clamor over it’s opening, there was a something ethereal about the ending that I felt fit the show perfectly.

If Chaos;Head’s ending song had made a little more sense – maybe the Japanese won’t understand how nonsensical it sounds but I do – I would have given this award to it. I like many aspects of the song but the lyrics just kill it. I know the artist that sang it has talent, Seira Kagami, because she also did Kaiba’s opening and closing so I’m going to fault the record people on this one.

Best Overall Music

Winner: Clannad

A show’s background music truly has to be spectacular for me to remember it. If it’s just mediocre, I probably won’t even remember it enough to think it was mediocre. In Clannad’s case, I remember the music clearly. It’s gotten to the point that for some songs all I need is to hear a few bars and I have to start fighting the tears back.

Best Animation

Winner: Mouryou no Hako

Runner-ups: Clannad and Michiko no Hatchin

Like I said earlier, I’ve only seen the first 5 episodes of Mouryou no Hako but even if the animation quality dips later, it would feel wrong to name another show as having the best animation. This show is just drop-dead gorgeous to look at and it needed to be to beat the stiff competition from Clannad and Michiko no Hatchin.

Top Animation Studio

Winner: Madhouse

This was one of the easiest awards to give out. Exhibit A is Mouryou no Hako, Exhibit B is Kurozuka, and Exhibit C is Chaos;Head – case closed.

The Gurren Lagann Memorial Body-Count Award

Winner: Ga-Rei: Zero

I won’t spoil who exactly dies in Gurren Lagann but there was more then one of the main and side characters that die in it over the course of the show. When I decided to give Ga-Rei: Zero an award for the sheer number of characters that they’ve killed off, I wanted to convey that the people killed were not just nobodies – cannon fodder – but real characters so I had the idea to link the popular Gurren Lagann with the award. So, Ga-Rei: Zero is the first seasonal winner of this award and it’s most deserving of it. Even if the show was a dud, it would still be memorial for this aspect.

Well, that’s it for now. I’m always interesting in comments so if you liked or disliked my picks, feel free to post your thoughts. In a week or two, I’ll be posting my top five shows of the fall season. My 2008 overall award posts will come out sometime in the middle to late January so I can have time to write my impression posts of the new season, catch a couple series I missed in 2008, and allow the slower sub releases to hopefully finish up the 2007 series so I can make an accurate list. (Any subbers reading this – I’m not complaining, I realize stuff happens that can slow you down – I just want to give my rationale for waiting since many blogs do theirs at the end of December.)

And to end on a sad note, the sheer number of anime blogs going on hiatus lately almost made me do a ‘Favorite Blog That’s Going on Hiatus Award’. You don’t have to worry about me but if I was paranoid, I might think some sort of conspiracy was afoot.

Posted in anime, awards      

While I still am hesitant to list my top five shows of the season, I realized that I was much more confident when it came to picking my other awards of the season. This first part deals mainly with the characters in the anime and the second part will focus on the entire show in general and the work done by the animators.

For some of the categories it was tough to determine the winner so for those, I included the runner-ups as well.

Best Female Main Character

Winner: Taiga from Toradora

On paper Taiga appears to be another in a long string of the tsundere character-type that has become so popular in recent years. Not that I have anything against tsunderes, some of my favorite characters – Kagami and Haruhi – are tsunderes but to be the top, I need a character that feels orginal, is remarkable in their actions, and makes me happy to see onscreen. Taiga has all three qualities in abundance and by the end of episode 2, made it impossible for me to consider anyone else. Tsundere’s are supposed to be unable to admit their feeling to anyone, much less themselves; but, Taiga knows her feelings, is able to act on those feelings, and is able to show her vulnerable side to her friend Ryuuji. Even when she gets angry, it seems to be genuine anger and not just acting according to a character-type. So, for example, when she’s kicking the telephone, she’s doing it not because she’s violent but because she’s frustrated at the world.

Best Male Main Character

Winner: Ryuuji from Toradora

Runner-up: Tomoya from Clannad

“Call no man an island,” as the saying goes and in Ryuuji’s case that’s a very appropriate observation. Ryuuji has always been a nice, caring guy even if his looks suggest otherwise but it wasn’t until meeting Taiga that he was able to show this side of him. Episode after episode we see Ryuuji’s loyalty, goodness, and desire to help others and the viewer can’t help but like him and hope he finds the happiness that he deserves. Tomoya has shown many of the same qualities as Ryuuji which makes it hard to pick one over the other but for this season I’ll give the slight edge to Ryuuji because Tomoya shouldn’t have made Nagisa worry as much as she did during the fight in episode 8. Since both series continue for the winter season, it’s quite possible I’ll be picking between the two again.

Best Supporting Character

Winner: Minorin from Toradora

If you permit me to devolve into internet speak, I just need to say Minorin = Win. She’s like a shot of Awesomeness everytime she’s on the screen.

Best Non-human Character

Winner: Kelpie from Earl and Fairy

This was a new category I thought to add this time and silly me, I thought it would be easy to pick a winner. I envisioned giving this award to someone like Buta from Clannad but I forgot there’s a lot of characters that aren’t really human. There’s Soul and the other weapons of Soul Eater, the Corpse Princesses in Shikabane Hime, the majority of the characters of Yozakura Quartet – to name just a few. Since this is an anime blog and not a philosophical blog I just decided to pick someone that’s obviously not human.

Kelpie is definitely not human and definitely a great character on Earl and Fairy. His pursuit of the Fairy Doctor Lydia is one of the funny sidestories of the show, so is his belief that human females are less abusive then female sea horse spirits. Now I wonder if he’d look as good in a dress as Raven, the butler, did.

Best Couple

Winner: Aisaka Taiga and Ryuuji from Toradora

Runner-up: Tomoya and Nagisa from Clannad

I know we’re supposed to at least entertain the thought that various other couples are possible like Ryuuji x Minorin or Taiga x Kitamura but by episode nine it’s obvious that Taiga and Ryuuji are the real couple. It’s just cool to see a guy and girl that can be themselves – with all their warts and faults – around each other. Clannad hasn’t really focused much on Tomoya and Nagisa yet but like I mentioned above, both of the these shows are going to be around for another season so there’s a good chance that we’ll see again next time.

Best Character Ability/Power

Winner: Takumi of Chaos;Head for his ability to make his delusions real

We’re far enough along into Chaos;Head that some of the mysteries surrounding the show has been revealed. One is that Takumi can take what he thinks of and can make it physically manifest. Very useful power but personally, I’d be using that power a lot more then Takumi is and for better things then making his favorite figurine come to life.

Best Cast of Characters

Winner: Toradora

With three characters already mentioned, it was going to hard for any other show to earn this award but when you factor in the Ami, Kitamura, a messed-up parrot and a mom that enjoys being an entertainer at a local bar – it becomes the de facto choice for the season.

Best Dressed Characters

Winner: Clannad

One of KyoAni’s strong points is that they’re sticklers about the small things in the show. Other shows will have their characters wear their one, maybe two different outfits over the course of an entire series but KyoAni will have their characters wear two, maybe three, different outfits each episode – and then never repeat the outfit again. I hate to admit that one of the reasons why I like to watch a KyoAni show is to see what the characters will be wearing next because you’ll never see a KyoAni character on the show ‘What Not to Wear’.

Best Villian

Winner: Fuwa Sho from Skip Beat

Some villains are the old type – actually evil, some are the new type – businesses, capitalists, and anti-environmentalists, some are misunderstood, and some are just plain jerks. Fuwa Sho falls into the last category. In a single episode, he was able to make me so completely hate him that I’d sit through a bad anime series just to see him get what he deserves. Luckily, Skip Beat has been a very enjoyable series so far.

That’s the end of part 1. I hope to have the second part up within a day and I can say that Toradora only wins two of the awards. Comments and feedback are always appreciated – I’d love to see what others would pick.

Posted in anime, awards      

Before anyone begins to think I can’t add probably, there is a reason why eight days are covered in this weekly anime review - I wanted to shift the start of the week by a day, from Sunday to Monday, and had to add that extra day somewhere. I hope this will improve my ability to write this column.

I also wanted to mention here that I decided to drop Hyakko in the end. I just couldn’t bring myself to get the next episode so I figured that meant it was dropped by default. I know some of the people out there are enjoying this show which makes me half wonder why I’m not. It should have been an easy sale on it’s part to get me to like it but it didn’t happen. Onto what I did watch this week.

The scores:

To Aru Majutsu no Index, episode 8 – 9/12 A-

Kannagi, episode 8 – 11/12 A+

Shikabane Hime: Aka, episode 6 – 11/12 A+

Kemeko DX, episode 8 – 10/12 A

Earl and Fairy, episode 6 – 10/12 A
Earl and Fairy, episode 7 – 10/12 A

Ga-Rei Zero, episode 7 – 10/12 A

Kurozuka, episode 7 – 11/12 A+

Chaos;Head, episode 7 – 12/12

Toradora!, episode 8 – 12+/12

Xam’D: Lost Memories, episode 16 – 12/12

Clannad S.2, episode 9 – 12+/12

Michiko to Hatchin, episode 5 – 12/12
Michiko to Hatchin, episode 6 – 12+/12

Yozakura Quartet, episode 8 – 9/12 A-

Mouryou no Hako, episode 5 – 10/12 A

Which shows have momentum this week

Up – Michiko to Hatchin : Even in this strong season, this show has managed to make itself feel unique

Down – nothing this week

Thoughts and Highlights

The first thing about Michiko to Hatchin that left the impression that this show could be something special and unique was it’s lush animation and it’s setting outside of Japan. The next thing I noticed was that the show seems focused on showing how the two main characters have lived difficult lives and how they where surrounded by other people living difficult lives. A look at the other shows I’m watching right now yields nothing that is similar. I don’t want to make it sound like I enjoy watching people suffer but I have noticed that I am more drawn into this show than I was for Samurai Champloo. I want to find out more about Michiko and Hatchin’s past, how they are related, what their tattoos mean, and will they end up having a happy ending.

Squeaking past episode 6 of Michiko and Clannad as this week’s best episode was episode 8 of Toradora. I think I’ve already said that Toradora is much better then it should be. It’s traveling down a road that’s been worn into a fairly wide boulevard so it shouldn’t feel different or new – yet it does. I think one way that makes it feel so different is that the characters display genuine intelligence at times and this episode has a great example of that. Taiga realized she didn’t have a real shot at winning the swimming contest but an opportunity presented itself. Her opponent, Ami, decided to wear a skimpy two-piece swimsuit – probably to show the superiority of her body against Taiga’s. So when the race started, Taiga tackles Ami underwater, takes Ami’s top and throws it as far away as she could. This allows Taiga to get a huge lead over Ami. My sister and I had a good laugh at this and it wasn’t until later that I started thinking how doing that would be a good idea in real life – if I happen to be in a similar situation – and marveled at Taiga’s flash of brilliance. I realize that I can’t expect anime characters to always act intelligent but it’s a nice change of pace.

Speaking of Clannad, I thought that even though we’re transitioning to the main story now, which will probably include lots of sad parts, the first episode after Yukine’s story would be safe from anything that would illicit tears. But I was wrong, we get smacked for a loop almost immediately. One event, however, made me angry. When Nagisa becomes ill again and misses the last half of her senior year, why couldn’t the school figure out some way to let her graduate instead of forcing her to redo her senior year again? It’s this general lack of caring for the individual student by the school administration that helps ensure that many students will not end up healthy, happy, and productive adults.

And finally, there’s a few brief comments I wanted to make:

• Earl and Fairy seems to have found it’s groove after the horrible end to the sword arc and while it won’t compete against the top shows of the season, it’s been enjoyable.
• I think it’s now safe to say that Kannagi is a good effort but isn’t the homerun it could have been.
• Chaos;Head continues to make the story compelling enough that I’m willing to forgive it for it’s harem elements.
• Xam’d continues to chug on it’s near perfect track. Sometimes it’s easy to forget how good of a show this has been.
• I have been enjoying Index even when I’m complaining about it but I positively hate when I’m watching something and a character does something really, really dumb. In this case, any half intelligent person would know, especially if that person was weak and their only defense was destroyed in episode 1, not to go into that building but Index does and gets captured.

I couldn’t pass up posting this from Earl and Fairy - one of the funniest things I saw this week.

Posted in anime, weekly anime review      

I believe this was one of the first of the season’s anime to air and one of the last to get fansubbed. That probably means something, but I don’t know what. This is another shoujo show but I enjoyed Skip Beat so I popped this one in with only a little trepidation.

Rating: 9/12 A-

Earl and Fairy showed it’s shoujo roots more then Skip Beat during this first episode. The gratuitous amount of eye and smile sparkly pron was absurd but wasn’t enough to really dampen my enjoyment of the episode.

The story takes place in the England during the 19th century. We are introduced to a young woman that has the ability to see fairies and she lives as a fairy doctor, a person that helps people with their fairy problems. This being the enlightened 19th century, not many people actually believe in fairies so she doesn’t get much work. She is on her way to London when she is tricked into following a devilishly handsome aristocrat. This aristocrat claims to be a descendent of the Earl that’s in charge of the fairy nation but needs a special sword to prove it so he needs her help to find it.

Before I go on, I should admit to something – I’ve seen A&E’s 5 hour version of Pride and Prejudice at least four times now and needless to say, really enjoy it. Therefore, I conclude that I might have a weakness to shows that take place during this time period. If that’s the case, your mileage my vary with this title but I found myself being drawn into the world and becoming interested with the characters. Also helping my enjoyment of the show was the talking cat, though I was a little disappointed that the cat didn’t sound like Cary Elwes (The Cat Returns, Princess Bride).

Posted in anime, first impressions