No joke.

Recently, two franchises with a combined history of 89 years released trailers for their respective upcoming series and watching them back-to-back left me with a pair of broken cheeks as a grin the size of the moon spread from ear to ear.

If you can guess which two franchises I’m referring too before looking below then give yourself a gold star because you’re a winner in my books.

The first franchise is an anime series that will be airing this spring season (in less then a week’s time now) and is currently celebrating it’s 40th anniversary.

That’s right, Lupin the Third finally returns as a series. The last time Lupin had a series Ronald Reagan was President of the United States, the Cold War seemed like it would go on forever, and CDs were on the cutting edge of technology. Since then fans of the franchise have had to make do with a yearly TV special/movie; and, quite frankly, these specials did not have the space to develop Lupin and the whole franchise has slowly stagnated over time as a result.

Which is a shame but it looks like Lupin may, finally, be getting the rebirth that it deserves. We’ve already had the chance to hear the newly refreshed seiyuu cast last year for the most recent Lupin special and I particularly liked Miyuki Sawashiro’s Fujiko. There’s a new director – Sayo Yamamoto – who is best known for directing Michiko to Hatchin and a new script writer – Dai Sato – who has written for series such as Cowboy Bebop, GiTS:SAC,  and Eureka 7. They’ve also brought in Takeshi Koike to be the animation director. Yes, that Takeshi Koike; the guy that made Redline. And I almost forgot, series composition will be handled by Mari Okada, whose previous writing credits include Anohana, Toradora, The Book of Bantorra, Hanasaku Iroha, Aquarion Evol, and Hourou Musuko.

This Lupin series apparently is going to use younger versions of the characters then the standard ages used up to now. I don’t know if that means a true reboot will occur or what, but, as a minimum, even people unfamiliar with the Lupin franchise should be able to dive right in.

The second franchise is a year shy of celebrating it’s 50th anniversary and scheduled to return for a new season this fall.

Doctor Who, for those that don’t know, is a British science fiction TV series that follows a space and time-traveling alien (who looks 100% human) as he and a sidekick go looking for adventures and normally only find trouble.

It’s almost mind-boggling how long this show has been around; the very first episode aired the day after President Kennedy was assassinated. Unlike Lupin, though, it’s spent most of those 50 years running full series. The key in having the show run this long with the same main character is that every so often the current “Doctor Who” finds himself in a situation that would kill him and has to use his ability to “regenerate” and when he does he takes on a new appearance and slightly different personality.

I wish I could say that like Lupin, it will be possible for new viewers to jump right in with this new season but there’s never been a reboot in Doctor Who – so even those shows from the 1960’s are part of the canon and continuity of the show. There is, however, little need to watch the really old seasons to understand what’s currently happening. The best place to start is the first season that Doctor Who returned to TV after an absence – a total of six seasons to catch up on – or the bare minimum would be to start when the Doctor regenerates into his latest incarnation  – a total of two seasons to watch. For myself, I’ve seen every episode of the last two seasons and most of the previous four seasons so it’s completely possible to like the show without seeing the older seasons.

One of the scenes in this trailer for Doctor Who reminded me of a scene that bothered me in Guilty Crown. In the trailer Amy keeps accidentally firing her gun because she has her finger on the trigger when it should be resting on the guard around the trigger or completely off the gun until she intends to shoot. This is probably the most important thing to remember when handling a gun safely and was thoroughly drilled into me before I was even allowed to hold a gun. This reminded me of Guilty Crown because there was a scene were the loser male main character is taken to a firing range to learn how to shoot and his trainer never once points out this very basic safety rule to him. By this point my opinion of Guilty Crown had imploded and I kept hoping he’d shoot his foot off but that wasn’t to be. Either Production I.G. didn’t realize their mistake – which is hard to believe – or for some reason they couldn’t be bothered with animating his finger being off the trigger until he was ready to fire – which makes Production I.G. look really lazy. See the screenshot below.

I apologize for bringing up Guilty Crown. I should now rename the title of this post to “This Post Contains Nearly 90 Years of Awesomeness and A Mention to One of the Worst Anime Series of All-Time”. Speaking of Production I.G., is there anyone else out there that is unhappy that they will adapt the latest visual novel, Robotic;Notes, from the people who created the Steins;Gate visual novel? Didn’t White Fox do a good enough job with the Steins;Gate anime that they earned the right to handle Robotic;Notes?

At the end of every anime season, when the new stuff hasn’t started and the old stuff has ended, there’s a short window of time where a person is often willing to try an older, unwatched anime that he/she wouldn’t otherwise try. Maybe it’s boredom or just the relief from the pressure of keeping up with the latest anime that causes this phenomenon.

Whatever the reason, I found myself drawn to finally watching a series that I’ve had in my possession for over three years – all the while gathering dust and broken promises of intended attention – Fantastic Children. The result of this decision was a mixture of elation that I discovered one of the great SF (science fiction) anime series of the last decade, peaceful contentment from watching an excellent series end well, and anger for letting Fantastic Children sit for so long unwatched.

Before I get to why Fantastic Children should be watched, I want to verbally kick myself a bit.

Even though I should have known better, I let the old-time, simplistic animation style convince me that Fantastic Children was ‘obviously’ lacking in the quality department. I’d forgotten that Kaiba, Cross Game, and Kemono no Soja Erin (to name a few) collectively proved that it was impossible to draw conclusions about an anime from it’s animation style.

My other failing was that, in the couple earlier attempts that I made to watch Fantastic Children, I made a snap decision about the show’s plot potential and decided that it didn’t offer a compelling reason to continue watching. This was the wrong decision as I found out this time because the beginning episodes which I thought were boring were, in reality, the building blocks to a compelling, truly epic SF/love story. To compute how far I undershot my guess about the plot/story of Fantastic Children in terms for someone who hasn’t seen Fantastic Children would understand, it would be like dropping Gurren Lagann after a couple of episodes after deciding nothing interesting, thrilling or epic was going to happen.

Okay, that’s enough self-flagellation .

I can just hear dozens of eyes at this point thinking, “I’m interested,  so tell me, what is Fantastic Children about?”

And I’d reply, Fantastic Children is an epic SF/love story set in the year 2012 and follows a group of white-haired, blue-eyed “children” that have appeared at various times for over 500 years in Europe and now in southeast Asia as they search for someone very important to them. They are named “Befort’s Children” after a town in Belgium where they made their first appearance, their otherworldly maturity and odd appearance has led some to call them devils and vampires. Their paths will cross with Thoma, a young man attempting to spirit two escaped orphans away from an abusive orphanage, and with a secret governmental agency (run by Dumas, who also happens to be white-haired and blue-eyed) that seeks to harness a completely new form of energy.

Saying anything more and I’d spoil too much.

I can now hear the eyes now thinking, “Seriously, what is up with the animation style and just how old is this series?”

And I’d chuckle, saying one shouldn’t judge an anime by how it’s styled (hoping these readers will have forgotten what I wrote a couple of paragraphs above) but to answer the question – Fantastic Children came out in the late 2004 which makes it a contemporary of the first Full Metal Alchemist series. It’s an original creation of the director, Takashi Nakamura, and is animated by Nippon Animation, best known for their longtime work animating series under the World Masterpiece Theater banner (Heidi, A Dog of Flanders, Anne of Green Gables,  etc.) and for employing Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata before they founded Studio Ghibli. (Which probably helps explain the animation style.)

The animation quality itself is pretty good with lots of fluid animation from the beginning of the series to the end and, surprisingly, there is the use of CG. (Never been a huge fan of CG myself but it didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the series which says something.) Truthfully, though, once you get sucked into the story of Fantastic Children, you’ll forget any misgivings about the animation style and will probably even like how the animation doesn’t intrude upon the story.

“I’m almost convinced,” says the eyes out there in the ether, “give me a couple more good reasons why I should watch Fantastic Children.”

Gaguri at Ha Neul Seom called it  “a dazzling concoction of adventure, mystery, sci-fi, romance and drama.” The Nihon Review said, “If even one anime per year had a plot as good as this one [Fantastic Children] I would consider myself a blessed individual.” Psgels at Star Crossed Anime Blog says, “Fantastic Children always kept you guessing at what was going to happen next,” while naming it the Best Story of the 2000-2009 decade and ranking it at #13 on his personal top 20. And finally, the hauntingly beautiful ending song to Fantastic Children was sung by Origa, who you might know from her work with Ghost in the Shell: SAC.

In closing, don’t make the same mistake I made in nearly passing over this hidden gem; watch Fantastic Children, you’ll be happy that you did.

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Yet another mystery of the this series, What is the meaning of this painting?

The non-Japan, non-school setting was different and refreshing.

The use of lighting effects helped keep the show from feeling old.

A still shot doesn't really do the animation quality justice .

So soon we’ll see the release of the 3rd episode of the massively (self) hyped work by Yutaka Yamamoto, Fractale. When the 1st episode came out, it receiveda a decidedly tepid response, and deservedly so. This was a Noitamina show. Yamamoto had staked his career on it. Yet there was pretty much nothing about it that was special. The 2nd episode only continued that trend. Indeed, this is a show we’ve already seen before.

By now, magical-girl-falls-into-boy’s-lap is a well established and rather overused genre in the world of anime. The girl isn’t always magical or even a real girl, and she doesn’t have to literally fall into the boy’s lap, of course, although she often does. But this is something that has gone way past being a mere trope and is a full-on cliche, not the good kind. And that’s exactly what Fractale is, with a dash of the bumbling-villain-trio for fun. The only thing that sets it apart is its interesting vision of the future, wherein people have all their needs taken care of and only interact through virtual avatars or surrogates of themselves from afar.

Or does it really set it apart? No, actually, it doesn’t, and not because the setting isn’t particularly original. In fact, the setting is quite compelling, if only for the fact that it’s one that’s unusual, even if it’s not new. The problem is, plenty of shows have already gone down this route. Anime, by its very nature of being animated, attracts settings that are fantastical. It’s no coincidence that the most popular franchises in anime – Evangelion, Gundam, Haruhi – are science fiction, or that fantasy is such an overrepresented genre in season after season of anime. You can make really cool, fascinating, compelling settings in anime.

But too often, these settings act as little more than backgrounds as the same interactions and stories that we’ve seen a thousand times before play out. At best, the settings serve as excuses to justify whatever magical powers the characters might have or encounter.

At least the official art lets us fantasize about what could have been...

For me, a recent perfect example of this problem is in the Index franchise. Academy City is a fascinating place, filled with neat bits of near futuristic technology and students studying and researching with academics the limits of supernatural power as set up in this science fiction world. The story, naturally, should play to the show’s unique strengths and explore this interesting concept, right?

No, the setting becomes an excuse to give people magical powers while Touma goes around shouting self righteous tripe while using his plothax fist against generic villains. Oh, and his superpower is to make everyone else normal. Throw in the magical-girl-falls-into-boy’s-lap cliche as well as a generic harem for good measure. The Railgun side show failed just as hard, except that it mainly consisted of a poorly conceived and executed story of friendship. These were just your typical harem and cute-girls-doing-cute-things shows, just with a neat science fiction fantasy setting behind them.

Why take this goldmine and insert the same old characters and cliches we’ve seen dozens of times before? Even in the same series, the MISAKA sisters and the Last Order arcs showed off that the show could be strong when it took its setting and ran with it. In those, the characters and their interactions weren’t just dropped in there but rather integral parts of the settings themselves. The plot actually went into some of the interesting details of the mechanics of the world and came out ahead thanks to it.

Why not make the protagonists a BADASS TOP LEVEL TELEKINETIC with a chip on his shoulder and a loli with (almost) 10,000 HIVEMIND SUPPORT instead of a boring self-righteous prick whose power is to make everyone else more boring, and a nun who's really good at remembering things and being hungry?

Another great example, perhaps a better one to which to compare Fractale due to their sharing the same studio as well as the type of setting, is last year’s Sora no Woto. The backdrop of the post-post-apocalyptic world, while not original, was certainly unusual, and provided plenty of potential for fun world building and exploration. Instead, what we got was cute girls doing cute things, punctuated by them saving nations from war through THE POWER OF LOVE AND MUSIC! Excuse me while I barf from merely remembering this horrible show.

Another example? Last year’s Ookami-san and Seven Companions. Funny and whimsical fantasy premise, torn down by being a typical boy-protects-tsundere story. While we’re piling on J.C. Staff, why not mention the 2nd season of Shakugan no Shana, which decided to eschew all the fun and exciting action from the 1st season and replace it with a typical run of the mill high school harem love comedy?

This is a problem that plagues even good shows. Katanagatari, for example, is a great show, the best of last year in the opinion of some, but the places where it faltered were those when Togame devolved into a typical tsundere moeblob, completely unfitting for the fantastical past setting. Thankfully, those times became less and less frequent as the show progressed, but when they happened, they distracted from the world of the show and reminded us of this stale, boring, and downright annoying character cliche that is so pervasive in anime today.

Here's a scifi/fantasy show that embraced its unique setting and built its story around it. It was pretty successful.

If I may anthropomorphize a bit, the way I see it is that these shows are not confident in themselves. They have these intriguing uncommon ideas, but they’re afraid of showing them off, lest they be rejected. So they put on their proverbial masks and instead of showing their true selves, they show what has been tried and true, dozens and dozens and dozens of times before ad nauseum, because that’s what people responded to in the past. Unfortunately, that’s how you create unoriginal, boring tripe like A Certain Magical Index or Sora no Woto.

A phrase I think of often is “ambitiously itself.” This refers to works that don’t fall into the traps mentioned above. They are confident about what they are, and, for better or for worse, they’ll go about doing their own thing without catering to what they think you want. Surely, this is a formula that can – and has, often – fail. It can create niche products that appeal to just a few. But it also has given rise to some of the greatest, most memorable works in anime. Look at a couple fairly recent huge science fiction successes The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya or Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. They each had a clear vision for what they wanted to do and executed on them, using their unique settings to full effect. That is how they ended up in such high stature, that is how they found success.

So, what am I trying to say here? Certainly, not every science fiction or fantasy work needs to fully exploit its setting. In fact, it can be a lot of fun to see an otherwise normal piece of work take place with something fantastical as the backdrop. What determines the work’s quality, then, is the execution of the narrative itself, regardless of the setting. And that’s something true for all works. Simply having a fascinating world such as the one in Fractale or A Certain Magical Index or Sora no Woto is not good enough. In fact, it’s nothing. The actual story that takes place within must be compelling as well, and for the setting not to go to waste, the story must use it to shine in a way other works can’t.

Don't even get me started on the militant-anti-pervert-girl cliche. How does that even make sense in this kind of world?

What is sure to lead to mediocrity is to shove cliches we’ve gotten sick of years ago into the setting and to call it a day. In the end, A Certain Magical Index is just another supernatural harem show despite the really cool city in which it takes place. Sora no Woto is just another cute-girls-doing-cute things show despite it taking place in a post-post-apocalyptic world. And so far, Fractale is just another (genki) magical-girl-falls-into-boy’s-lap show, despite the post-scarcity science fiction setting. I’ve seen this show before. So have you. And we both know that it’s not something worth watching again.

Why does even the best laid plans seem to get thrown out the window so quickly? Right now I had hoped to be working on my year end anime posts (after finishing the seasonal one I have partly up) but I made the mistake of picking up one of the books I got for Christmas. This lead me to a second book and then to rereading Blackout by Connie Willis before reading All Clear, also by her.

I couldn’t put Blackout/All Clear down (each book was really half of a single novel, like LOTR); so, because I haven’t written about SF in a long while and because I think this novel has a much greater chance for non-SF readers to enjoy it then normal, I’m going to write my review up – hoping to convince someone from my huge readership (all couple dozen of you) to give this excellent novel a chance.

Final Score: 12/12 – Perfect
Ending: 5/5 – Epic
Rereadablity: 4/5 – Medium High

Pros: engages the reader’s attention on multiple levels from page one and sustains it all the way through to the end – 1100+ pages later, great cast of characters where even the characters with small parts to play are given the depth and personality to feel like real people, easy to read and hard to put down, the use of Great Britian’s homefront during WWII as the main backdrop for this novel is a refreshingly different take on WWII and the author has done absurdly exhaustive research to make the time period feel authentic

Cons: Some readers (including newer readers) might find the scenes taking place in the future (England 2060 AD) unrealistic and off-putting because of the lack of cellphones and widespread internet usage

Story

The year is 2060 AD and time travel is settled science with Oxford University in England sending historians back in time for decades. Early on it was discovered that some process associated with time itself ensures that historians could not affect history. A would-be assassin of Hitler might pick a specific location and time (say the opening ceremony of the 1936 Olympics) but when he/she travels back that person will, inevitably, end up in the wrong year, 335 BC for example, or the wrong location, say in the middle of the Amazon rain forest, or both. This slippage (both in time and location) has proven fatal in the past for historians; so, with a healthy respect of the rules of time travel and every conceivable precaution in place, the historians travel back in time and normally nothing goes wrong. And sometimes things go horribly wrong.

In Blackout/All Clear we follow 3 historians sent back to observe different facets of WWII. One goes to witness the heroic actions of normal people who sailed their civilian boats across the English Channel to rescue Allied soldiers from mainland Europe as France was falling. Another goes to observe the people of London as they live through the Blitz and the third historian poses as a maid so she can observe the life of children sent from the cities to the country to get them away from the German bombing campaign. In each case, the historian discovers that their drop-site back to the future no longer works and no one from the future appears to be coming back to save them. Every possible explanation for this is really bad and if that wasn’t enough for our main characters, they have to contend with staying alive as England gets shelled, bombed, and rocketed by the Germans.

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Thoughts and impressions

It’s hardly a stretch to say that Connie Willis has been responsible for a significant percentage of the truly great SF that’s been written over the last 30 years. One could look at how many Hugo and Nebula awards she’s won and realize no other author has come close or one could just read one of her stories and realize the talent she has for proof. I’d suggest the second method, what do authors, critics and fans know about great works of literature? As for me, Connie Willis has been a constant favorite of mine since I was a grade school kid using every ounce of cunning and subterfuge I had in order to check books out from the adult section of the library when the librarians thought I should be reading books meant for my age group.

So, I expect a certain level of quality and to see the use of certain themes in a new novel by Connie Willis and I wasn’t let down by Blackout/All Clear. This novel is Connie Willis doing what Connie Willis does best at the level that has won Connie Willis all the awards she’s won. If you’re already a fan of hers then you won’t be disappointed with this book and if you don’t like her work then this novel isn’t going to convert you. With that being the case, I’m going to focus on the group of people that are the potential fans/anti-fans of Connie Willis who still have not formed an opinion on Blackout/All Clear and her work in general.

Probably the greatest surprise to a new reader of Connie Willis is the future in Blackout/All Clear seems a little antiquated even by the standards of 2011 and even more so when one assumes the next ~50 years will see moderate technological advancement. The reason for this is because this novel is set in a loosely tied universe that Connie Willis has been writing in since 1982. Back then no one could foresee a future that would involve the ubiquitous presence of cellphones, smartphones, internet connectivity, Wikipedia, GPS for the masses and social network websites that has so transformed society over the past decade. There’s no elegant and satisfying solution and I think Connie Willis did the right thing by not even trying because in reality it doesn’t matter if the tech of the future is a bit retro; she has bigger fish to fry. (It also helps that she sends very little of the book actually in the future.)

One of those fish is for Blackout/All Clear to be, in part, a meditation on true heroism. Not the shallow heroism that is so often trumpeted by the media and society but the type of heroism that is never easy and oftentimes involves risking one’s life. (One side effect from 9/11 that I liked was that I stopped hearing, at least for awhile, about how “heroic” athletes were as they earned millions of dollars.) For this she uses the home front of Great Britain during WWII and it was the perfect choice because it really was Britain’s finest hour, as one character says in the book. We meet weekend sailors that sailed their small civilian boats across the English Channel through German subs, dive bombers, and gunfire to rescue the entire British army before it was totally overwhelmed as France fell. We meet women who volunteered to drive ambulances even as German bombs and rockets continued to rain down around them. We meet those that volunteered to patrol the roof of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London to extinguish the incendiary bombs that the German’s would drop on it. We meet the people who endured night after night of German bombing in shelters that only promised slightly more safety then their homes provided, knowing that they couldn’t give into despair because if they did, the war was lost for sure. This study of heroism extends to the main characters as well, even if they were not looking to be heroes, because it’s impossible to be the disinterested, aloof observer when the world is going FUBAR around you. (I’ll have to pass on saying anything more about the main characters because that would provide too much in the spoiler department.)

Which I have to be careful about because another dimension to this book is that it is structured like a mystery and I don’t want to spill what Connie Willis very carefully hid (sometimes in plain sight) before she means for the reader to figure it out. Or it might be better to say that it’s a mystery on the meta-level with our primary task being to figure out how the handful of chapters which seem to stick out in the first book fit into the overall story. I’m not normally a mystery fan, picture the math teacher from Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru, but I found it hard to put this novel down when the next chapter might have the answer or, at least, give another clue. It seems fitting, then, that at least one of the time traveling historians bumps into Agatha Christie during the course of the novel.

Another reason I found it hard to put this novel down was how much you get to care about the main characters and those around them; I’d tell myself, “Just one more chapter,” and like playing Civilization, one more just wasn’t enough. They felt like real people and that dastardly Connie Willis would always switch the point-the-view right when the air raid sirens would go off or some other calamity was about to happen. One of my favorite side characters was an older Shakespearean actor, Sir Godfrey Kingsman, out of work because the theaters had closed during the Blitz. He used the same bomb shelter as one of the main characters and he would ooze charm, sophistication, and gravitas from the moment he’d enter a scene. A measure of his awesomeness was how after listening to (reading) his recitation of Shakespeare, he got me thinking maybe, just maybe, this Shakespeare guy is actually as good as people say.

Shocking, I know. I had English teachers lecture year after year about the importance of Shakespeare and it’s a SF writer writing a time-traveling story set during WWII that puts forth a more convincing argument about the importance of Shakespeare. It helps when she’s a pretty good writer herself and can make me feel like I’m in that bomb shelter, hearing the muffled explosions of Hitler trying to flatten London, not knowing if I’ll live through the night and desperate for something to get my mind off it all.

Before I finish this review, I wanted to answer the question I know people unfamiliar with the other works of Connie Willis but are interested in reading this will have. I mentioned earlier how this is set in a universe that Connie Willis previously has written in; so, the obvious question would be if one needed to read her earlier works before reading this. The answer is no. A couple of characters that appear in Blackout/All Clear have appeared in earlier works but Connie Willis mentions the pertinent parts here; each book and story has been pretty much completely self-contained. That’s not to say I would suggest skipping these books altogether because they’ve all been great reads. Firewatch, also set in WWII, was the first story written in this universe by Connie Willis and though it’s just a short story, it does a good job introducing what to expect with Blackout/All Clear. The next thing she wrote in this universe was a novel, Doomsday Book and it takes place in a particularly dark period of the Middle Ages. Lastly, was the much more light-hearted novel by the name of To Say Nothing of the Dog which took place during Victorian times.

I’d recommend for those unsure about committing the time to read a 1100+ page novel that starting with Firewatch might be the best course of action. For those that prefer to read things in order then definitely start from the beginning. For those that might read the other books then I’d recommend starting from the beginning because I’m not sure how enjoyable the earlier novels will be when they can’t match the size and scope of Blackout/All Clear.

In closing, I hope I adequately conveyed my love of this book and that I convinced at least one person to give this novel a shot. I wish I could promise more anime posts from this point onwards but I still have a stack of new books to read from Christmas (which includes Paolo Bacigalupi’s Ship Breaker and Charle Yu’s How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe). Though, if everything works out, I might just have a big surprise to unveil shortly that would ease the lack of posts on The Null Set.

Well, what do you know, looks like this show is going full on scifi fantasy. Last week, it was time travelers, this week, it’s aliens and ghosts. That’s not to say that this episode was driven by the scifi/fantasy elements. Rather, they were used mainly as convenient devices to facilitate the storytelling, much like in the previous episode.

That first half really didn’t have any business being as enjoyable as it was, but it was. I found it so funny because of my own incredulity at the situation being shown on screen. Hotori accidentally battling it out with aliens? Then Futaba bringing out a story of her own, with that fixing device? Was this show really going down this path? The things that happened weren’t actually all that funny, but they didn’t need to be. Just having Hotori really run into aliens was enough.

I’m reminded of the aliens in Pani Poni Dash! They were used as comic relief, shown to us only when convenient but rarely actually affecting anything in the main story. Similarly, if the aliens do show up again, I expect it to be in a similar context as in this episode, where they’re used for a gag instead of being drivers for the plot. Of course, there’s the issue that Futaba still has that alien fixing tool, which I hope will make some sort of appearance in the remaining episodes.

In most anime, this type of encounter, especially on a school rooftop, means only one thing. But this show isn't like most anime.

I’ve been noticing similarities between this show and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya due to the non-chronologically told high school romance, the culture festival concert, and the scifi/fantasy elements of the past 2 episodes, and Futaba was definitely giving Haruhi vibes with her desire for an extraordinary life. It was ironic that Hotori, who is always the one to go on about her fantastical desires, whether it be to date her math teacher or to become a high school detective, was so down that she actually ran into aliens. Not sure what the deal is with that – though it was funny to see Futaba jump immediately to her period as the cause – I suppose this is meant to show us that despite all her quirks, Hotori is someone who does have a firm grasp of reality.

As for the 2nd segment focusing on the ghost of the head maid’s late husband, I didn’t think much of it. It was boring, likely because this was an all new character whose life and times we’ve never been privy to before. I suppose it was meant to be sweet that the head maid still prays/talks to her husband and leaves an offering each night, which gives us a bit more insight into her character, but she’s still not that interesting. One thing I did like about the 2nd segment was that it allowed the gag involving Sanada’s prayer, letting us see it for a 2nd time (shot-for-shot, I believe, though I didn’t bother to check), but realizing that the ghost of that old man was there the whole time. I was hoping that he would make a more meaningful comment about the follies and joys of youth instead of basically repeating the narrator’s line that gods must have it tough to grant such wishes.

Shaft uses one of their favorite cinematographic techniques - reflection - to good effect here, showing us the cat seeing both Sanada and the ghost.

With this episode, I’m reminded of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, a show that was pretty explicit about its lack of continuity, often ending its half- or third-episodes with irreversible events such as killing key or all main characters or destroying the world. Yet the Town Keeps Going does have continuity, but it has shown us that it’s comfortable with throwing in anything it wants at any time it feels like it, and it will find a way to make sure that it doesn’t affect the continuity.

The show is really living up to its name – yet the town keeps going. It hasn’t spent enough time developing any of the main characters, instead jumping back and forth between the various goings on of the town, giving side characters or meaningless events a too much screen time. The show has been brilliant when developing the relationships between the main characters, but it has fallen into a rut the past few episodes of just going through the motions. There are only a couple of episodes left in this series, and if it returns to the character development, it still could finish strong. Next episode’s title, Kon’s Summer of Tears, makes me hopeful that it will.

I really liked the final drawing for this episode. If the show stayed with the theme of this picture, it could have been much better.

Here’s the short version: whatever you’ve heard about it is true; it’s really that good. The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya is an absolutely stunning film that succeeds on every level. It does not make up for the horrible second season, but if you liked the first season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and long for more of something of that caliber, this is a must-watch. You will not be disappointed.

If you actually want me to expand on those thoughts, proceed downward (note: like any proper review, this will contain no spoilers, although I will delve into story bits when necessary).

Let’s first make one thing clear: you must watch the TV show The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya in order to understand Disappearance. It is a sequel that depends on the first work, and there is just no getting around that. Of course, if you’re reading this, chances are high that you’ve already seen both seasons of the show. But in case you haven’t, make sure to watch it in the following order: 1. Season 1 in airing (not chronological) order, 2. Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody, 3. 1st and last episodes of Endless Eight, 4. The Sighs of Haruhi Suzumiya. Don’t make the mistake of watching all 8 episodes of Endless Eight.

As I write above, Disappearance is a direct sequel to the TV show, taking place in December of the protagonist Kyon’s first year at high school. The movie starts off with a brief set up to Kyon’s daily school life before he awakens one day to find that the entire world has changed around him, with him the only one aware of this. Haruhi Suzumiya has literally disappeared, and the one sitting behind him is, well, I won’t spoil that bit for you. Gone along with Haruhi is the should-be transfer student Koizumi Itsuki, and while Mikuru Asahina and Yuki Nagato are still at the school, the former doesn’t know him, and the latter is still the glasses-wearing girl, the sole member of the literature club whose room that Haruhi had taken over when starting the SOS Brigade in the show. That’s when the story really begins, as Kyon attempts to untangle the mystery of this sudden shift in timeline, to find the one responsible for it, and to figure out a way to go back.

Technically speaking, Disappearance follows Kyoto Animation’s tradition of being ridiculously well animated. It sometimes takes things a step too far, and the over-smoothness of some of the animations look unnatural, but all things considered, that’s a good problem to have. The cinematography is excellent throughout, reminiscent mostly of the anime original episode, Some Day in the Rain in its wide angle shots of rooms and long single-take cuts. The music is subtle and serves its purpose, though the use of new versions of the same tunes from the show will definitely please the fans. Unusual for a movie, it features an opening sequence, using the first season’s opening song, Bouken Desho Desho? – as if to help us forget about the epic failure that was the second season.

At the surface, the movie is just plain fun. It doesn’t lose the lighthearted sense of humor of the show. Most of the comedy is at the beginning, as Kyon first discovers the differences of this new world, leading to some very embarrassing situations. His run in with Mikuru involving the mention of her unique mole was particularly humorous. But the movie remains amusing throughout, revitalized when Haruhi finally makes her triumphant reappearance and acts in ways Haruhi only could. Throughout, Kyon’s narration is as dry and sarcastic as ever.

The scifi/mystery-thriller aspects are also well executed. The pacing is sublime, never lingering on any situation for too long, but also never feeling hurried or rushed. The movie keeps you hooked with its constant twists and turns, always leaving you in anticipation and maybe even a bit uncomfortable, but never frustrated. The fact that this movie is 163 minutes long may scare some away – it certainly scared me, though obviously not enough to keep me from watching it – but this is one that uses every bit of time it has to the fullest extent. There are some awesome OHSHI- moments as well, which would be criminal for me to spoil for you here.

But simple entertainment was never the hook for Melancholy. Though the show succeeded in that regard, what made it special was the subtle emotional and personal story taking place, specifically between Kyon and Haruhi. The show was ultimately a high school romance story of those two characters with the science fiction/fantasy comedy genre being used as a vehicle, and it was that layer that had made it, in my humble opinion, the best TV anime of this past decade. And Disappearance exploits that same method to be not just an enjoyable movie, but also a deeply meaningful and emotional one.

In that context, Disappearance is the story of a couple separating and realizing that they can’t go on without the other. It’s mainly told from one end, Kyon’s, but both parts are there. Perhaps for the first time ever, Kyon is actually honest to himself about his feelings regarding Haruhi and the SOS Brigade. Kyon performs far more introspection than he ever did in the show. Some of his internal scenes are reminiscent of the scene at the train crossing from the episode The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part 5, in which Haruhi explains to Kyon how she decided to be the way she was. Kyon’s inner struggles feel honest and heartfelt, and there is a powerful feeling of release and relief when he reaches epiphany.

But the movie takes things even a step further than the show and examines the relationship Kyon has with other members of the SOS brigade. Nagato is the one that receives the most focus. Perhaps the purpose of Endless Eight was to give us just a small taste of the pain that Nagato had to go through during the 15,000+ cycles she had to live through. And the conversation that Kyon has with Nagato at the very end of the movie simultaneously leaves us feeling ache and hope in the heart.

Indeed, one could interpret that the whole movie was about Nagato and designed to make us sympathize with a character whose physical manifestations of emotion have only been subtle up to this point. It makes us ponder, what issues face one who is effectively omnipotent, but at the same time is not allowed to make any decisions in how to use that power? How does she, quite literally a slave, deal with them? More than that, it makes us sympathize with her, to feel for her plight, and to want to fight for her. This is a somewhat common theme in the realm of science fiction, and Kyoto Animation presents it to us in a way that can only be presented in the world of Haruhi Suzumiya. I don’t consider that to be the main focus of the movie, but it is undoubtedly a key element of it that is integral to making it as powerful as it is.

The other members get their moments too, though they are mainly there for fanservice. An adult Asahina gets to spend some time alone with Kyon and reminisce about her fun days. And Koizumi, the one who has always seemed easygoing and bright shows us a small glimpse into the pain and heartbreak he must experience due to his position. Besides the members of the SOS Brigade, Kyon’s friends Taniguchi and Kunikida get plenty of the screen time they couldn’t get in the show.

All in all, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya is an amazing film. Don’t let its near 3-hour run time or the bad taste from season 2′s Endless Eight scare you off. If you are lucky enough to live near one of the places it is showing in theaters, go see it. Does it make up for the debacle of Endless Eight? No, but nothing can. This movie comes as close as possible, though, and reminds us of why we first fell in love with the world of Haruhi in the first place. In not only recapturing the magic of the first season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya but expanding upon it, Disappearance truly is a marvelous achievement.

I’m not much one for attaching numbers to reviews, but, for what it’s worth, I give it 5 out of 5 stars, a perfect 10/10, A+, etc. This is the best anime movie I’ve seen since… well, Evangelion 2.22, which I saw earlier this year. So that’s actually not saying much. But this is a movie that easily ranks right along with it, far above anything else in the past decade. Melancholy showed us that Kyoto Animation was capable of creating anime that was not just entertainment but also deeply emotional pieces of work. Disappearance proves to us that that wasn’t just a flash in the pan, and they are very capable of doing it again.

Now, to get them to stop adapting banal 4-koma or vapid visual novels and keep making anime based on award winning novels…

Notes

• I watched this film at its screening last Friday at the New York Anime Festival. I also made a post on the cosplay I saw at the festival.
• Disappearance was originally released to Japanese theaters on February 6, 2010. The DVD and Bluray of the film will be released in Japan on December 18, 2010. The film has been licensed by Bandai Entertainment and is currently set to be released on DVD and Bluray in the US sometime in spring 2011.
• Given the technical excellence of the film, I recommend that you avoid watching the camrip that is floating around and rather wait for the movie proper to be available.
• All art contained in this review are official art by Kyoto Animation from various sources.

Figures that mere hours after finishing my previous post about Occult Academy and Asobi ni Iku Yo! that I’d find something else I wanted to include.   I hemmed-and-hawed as to if I wanted to double post about Asobi ni Iku Yo! but I finally decided why not.

The ninth episode of Asobi ni Iku Yo! was a bit of a departure from previous episodes in terms of tone and pace and probably was used to cleanse the palette for the finale, if episode 10 was a proper indication of how the show will end. I liked it, though. I’ve already mentioned how I have the habit of finding odd things to enjoy about an anime. This time I had another personality quark scratched. From a young age I’ve tried to take the saying about putting yourself in someone else’s shoes to heart, even if it’s just a book or anime.

For episode 9 of Asobi ni Iku Yo! I imagined what it be like if I traveled across the universe to meet an alien race and discover that their culture could create something that resonated with me.  I’d like to think if/when we meet an alien culture that some things are universal (though, hopefully, blowing things up if one doesn’t understand them is not one of them). I also gave some serious thought about the Assistroids. The idea of making them incapable of speech and keeping them “simple” for their own happiness really struck me as wrong. I know I’m over thinking this but if I was Kio I think I’d be pushing for Assistroid emancipation. (There goes my American cultural superiority complex kicking in, thinking not only are these people wrong but it’s my duty to fix them. )

Becoming a willing participant in the future robot rebellion wasn’t the biggest reason why I enjoyed this episode. I loved the science fiction reference that permeated this episode and discovered a freaky coincidence. I knew who Captain Future was from a very memorable novella written by Allen Steele several years ago. What I didn’t know and was completely shocked about was the author of the Captain Future books, Edmond Hamilton, was born in Youngstown – my hometown.

I was flabbergasted at this connection. Here I was watching an anime in Ohio that referenced the late 1970’s anime (which ran for 53 episodes) that adapted the stories and novels of Captain Future written during the 1940’s and 50’s half-a-world away by a guy that born more than a hundred years ago in the same town I was born in and still consider my hometown.

I also found out that there’s a Captain Future Hollywood movie in the works. Seems the director grew up in Germany and loved the 1970’s Captain Future anime that had gotten dubbed and released there. If it does, in fact, get made I’ll probably go see it just to enjoy the string of events that led me to see a Captain Future movie.

There were a couple other same items that stuck out to me during this episode as well.

One of my favorite guilty pleasures - Armageddon

I love when animators have to change the name of a company and squeeze a joke out of it.

A&W Root Beer fresh from their restaurant is one of the most delicious things known to humanity.

Filed under: anime, episode review, general anime interst, science fiction

Both Occult Academy and Asobi ni Iku Yo! have been fairly enjoyable series, not classics, but, well-suited for the laid back summer season. For me, I’ve been finding some rather incidental (and not much tied to the story, plot, or characters) ways to enjoy these anime and now that I’ve done with the Spring season, I’d like to share.

One way that I’ve been enjoying Asobi ni Iku Yo! has been some of the word play and choice by the fansubbers.

In the screen shot above, I’d like to think the use of “dogmatist” was purposeful since the speaker was a member of the Dog-like aliens that are nominal villains of the show. I had to actually pause the show because I was laughing too much.

Next up:

Wench is one of those insults people hurl at women that just make me giggle uncontrollably. I don’t know why, I just do. Other terms that’ll get a laugh from me include “strumpet” and “saucy tart”.

The time-travel aspect to Occult Academy and the setting of 1999 made me think about technological advances society has made from 1999 and today. We’re only talking about slightly more then a decade but there’s been so much change that I start feeling nostalgic. I find my eyes often drawn to the background to seek out these once cutting edge pieces of technology.

Look at the computer in the corner

More old computer goodness

A 2fer here, look at exaggerated roundness style and the TV/VCR combo

Monochrome cell phones screens

CRT TVs that took up so much room

Of course with time travel, sometimes things get overlooked. In this first screen shot, it appears that there’s poster of Lebron James in the corner. I could be wrong about it being Lebron James, I’m not much of a fan for basketball, but it certainly looks like him.

In the next screen shot we see the future phone at work. It certainly wouldn’t look out-of-place in the near future but when it was brought back to 1999, it should have been the cause of much amazement and wonder to the people of 1999. Maya should be dumb-founded over this phone but she starts using it like it’s normal for the day. Which it isn’t, the first camera phone was also the first color screen phone and it wasn’t introduced until more then year later. It retailed for roughly $500 dollars and featured a 0.1 megapixel camera and a 256 color screen and even that phone would have looked primitive compared to the future phone.

Even finding these small mistakes is fun.

I’ve mentioned before how I was a fan of science fiction long before anime and I love it when an anime can speak to my SF side as well. It’s become obvious that the people behind Asobi ni Iku Yo! love science fiction on a fairly deep level. The references to Star Trek weren’t that hard-core:

I so want a holodeck.

Beam me up Scotty.

But then they mention Clarke’s Third Law:  Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

How can you argue with a show that quotes Arthur C. Clarke?

Just like how it’s impossible to not enjoy it when an anime like Occult Academy includes awesome, over-the-top faces.

Filed under: anime, general anime interst, science fiction

With the timing of Al Gore and the intelligence of Joe Biden, the recent rant by Bang Zoom’s President about the impending death of anime is so sad, it’s hilarious. If it was a well-written piece I might feel like I needed to write a rebuttal but it wasn’t, not by a long shot, which leads one to ask – “Why are you bringing up Mr. Sherman’s rambling rant?” Well, I’d answer, there are some things I wanted to mention related to issue at hand and this is as good of a time as any.

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Where I Blame Mr. Sherman and Bang Zoom For Being 35% of the Problem Facing Anime In America

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I bought an anime DVD the other day.

Not a big surprise; I, like many people can be enticed to buy something even if we have access to it for free. That goes for my copy of the latest Dresden Files book and it goes for this DVD. What is this mysterious anime DVD that I, as a member of the dark underbelly of the internet bought? The complete box set of Baccano.

The big surprise to this purchase is that I bought the complete box set of Baccano for it’s dub. That’s right, I bought an anime DVD for it’s dub. Crazy, I know. Even more crazy when you start listing all the awesome Japanese voice work done for this series but here I am, giddy in anticipation over watching an anime dub.

Someone well acquainted with the past dub quality in anime might ask what makes this dub different from the years and years of mediocre dubs that American fans have had to put up with? Simply put, Funimation used voice actors that sounded right for their role, had genuine talent, and the drive to give a performance on par with their Japanese counterparts. I wouldn’t think it was possible but Funimation did it and if you don’t believe me, you can go to their website to watch the dub episodes for free.

Fine, someone might now say, why does a sublime dub convince me to buy the DVD? Another simple question , Baccano’s dub gives the DVD a much higher value in my eyes then a sub-only DVD or a lousy dub DVD would. For instance, I can now watch Baccano even when it’s not possible to read subs all the time like while I’m cooking or cleaning or eating or, in the case of my sister, when she wants to do a bit of knitting. Also, most Americans don’t like to read subs so having a quality dub of Baccano means I have an anime to show those people when I want to convince them that anime can be awesome (without having to worry about the voice acting souring my chances with these potential converts).

I can hear the question coming at this point – what does Baccano’s dub have to do with Bang Zoom and the problems facing anime in America. At the time of reading Mr. Sherman’s rant I knew Bang Zoom was a dubbing studio but I didn’t know of what shows so I went to the ever informative Anime News Network. And according to ANN, Bang Zoom had nothing to do with the Baccano dub but they did do the Haruhi (my #1 top anime of 2006), Lucky Star (my #2 top anime of 2007), and Gurren Lagann (my #1 top anime of 2007) dubs.  A light bulb clicks on at this point. I have the limited edition Haruhi DVDs and found the dub just slightly better then mediocre; Haruhi’s English voice actor totally failed to make Haruhi as awesome as Aya Hirano was able too and the whole show comes off as a much lower quality show because of it. I saw the trailer to Lucky Star and was so turned off by the dub that I refused to even consider paying money for such an inferior product. In the case of Gurren Lagann, I watched it dubbed on the Sci-fi channel and was so infuriated when a poorly picked English voice for Kamina was able to completely change his character for the worse.

In all three shows I sensed a common theme – Bang Zoom pumping out a mediocre dub which might have saved a couple bucks but hurt the show in the long run. Consider what an anime DVD is worth if the dub track will never be listened to and watching it subbed means putting up with that ugly yellow font and poor handling of signs and watching it as a DVD means having to settle for the resolution a DVD offers? Even Mr. Sherman must know, in his heart-of-hearts, that an anime DVD like that isn’t worth very much. If, however, that same DVD offered a great dub then it’s worth would be much higher and as a result, more DVDs would be sold because the consumers would be able to get something they like in return for spending money that could have gone to a dozen different diversions and hobbies.

As I looked at it more the more I became convinced that Bang Zoom and Mr. Sherman have been more detrimental to anime in America then fansubs have ever been. Consider the anime companies Mr. Sherman mentions in his rant as having closed or suffered massive trouble. Two of those four companies (Bandai and Geneon/Pioneer) use/used Bang Zoom extensively to do their dubs – coincidence? Could it be, those market forces of capitalism that work in so many other industries to keep prices down and quality up have shown up here as well? Could it be, American consumers aren’t quiet the dumb sheep that people like Mr. Sherman think they are?

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Where I Show Mr. Sherman’s Statement That Japan Is “struggling to bring out quality titles” As Another Symptom of The Problem Facing Anime In America

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Assuming, of course, Mr. Sherman wasn’t lying through his teeth and he knows that Japan isn’t struggling to bring out quality titles. Which is a possibility but if one looks at what types of shows that generally get licensed and brought over then his statement fits into an idea I have.

I was looking at the those wonderful charts that chartfag has been putting together and I noticed something when I compared the 2008 chart with the 2001 chart. Here’s the charts, can you see it too?

If you look at the 2001 chart, it looks like the TV stations and animators where targeting young boys with the overwhelming majority shows being action shounen shows and the secondary market seemed to be young girls with the cute shoujo shows. Now look at the 2008 chart and something strange has happened. There’s still those action shounen shows and cute shoujo shows but there’s all these new types of shows: Aria, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Spice and Wolf, Natsume Yuujinchou, Hidemari Sketch, Clannad, Natsu no Sora, and Kaiba to name just a few.

It’s almost like the audience watching anime in Japan is diversifying and getting older; shocking, I know. A look at the American anime market shows that, for the most part, it’s still a 2001 mindset. It’s very slowly getting better (thanks in part to fans refusing to accept business as usual from the DVD companies) but there’s still a wide gulf between how shows like Bleach and Naruto are treated in America as opposed to how Natsume Yuujinchou, Clannad, or Aria are. What must American anime company people like Mr. Sherman think when they see shows like Bakemonogatari as being top DVD/Blu-Ray sellers in Japan? Their years and years of relying and pushing action shounen titles must make it so they can’t comprehend how a show that’s hyper-stylized and spends all it’s time showing characters talking could ever possibly sell in America.

So these American anime companies pass on shows like Bakemonogatari and wait for the next Naruto and complain that fansubs are killing anime because their waiting for the next Naruto obviously means something is wrong with anime. The funny thing is they might be right about the difficulty in their ability to sell shows like Bakemonogatari to America but let’s remember that it’s these same company executive’s limited mindset that has stunted the ability for the mainstream anime fandom in America to grow with their Japanese counterparts, causing a near incompatibility between the two.

To further compound this problem, American anime companies sticking to a 2001 mindset also cause yet more problems. People, including anime fans, get bored of watching the same type of shows over-and-over again; look at the cyclical nature to American prime-time television as a great example of this. So what do these bored anime fans do when they get tired of watching anime that bores them? Either become former anime fans or head to the dark, dangerous underbelly of the internet and find all the titles they’ve been missing out on. And even if you can find anime fans that don’t tire of watching the same type of show over-and-over, by watching only those action shounen titles targeted towards the younger audience it’s very probable that these anime fans will decide one day that they’ve “outgrown” anime because it’s meant for kids and, unless someone steps in and shows them the wider possibilities found in anime, they will stop being anime fans.

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Where I Mention Another Market That Alarmists Have Said Will Die “If Something Isn’t Done!”

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Print science fiction. Except in the case of print SF, people have prognosticated it’s immanent death since at least the early 1980’s. Hasn’t happened yet and it probably never will, provided great SF books/stories are still being written. So, I put little stock in any statement about the immanent death of anime as long as great anime is still being made and a quick look shows that plenty of quality anime is still getting made.

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Where I Remind Mr. Sherman the Easiest Way To Get Rid Fansubs Is To Put Out a Superior Product

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I asked earlier how much is a DVD worth if the dub track will never be listened to and watching it subbed means putting up with that ugly yellow font and poor handling of signs and watching it as a DVD means having to settle for the resolution a DVD offers. The answer is not very much and it looks even sadder when compared to the standard fansub I can find in the dark recesses of the internet put out by unpaid amateurs.

If anime companies in America can come up with a better way to give anime fans their anime then fansubs would go the way of the horse & buggy, the record/8-track players, the canals, the walkie-talkies and the elevator operators. Until that happens though, the anime companies in America will be the ones in danger of disappearing and not fansubs.

And will anime die if every single American anime company shuts down? To answer, I’ll first have to assume this scenario is possible because if anime is anything like print SF then as companies close down, new people with new ideas start new companies and pick up where the old companies left off and there’s never a point when somebody isn’t producing anime/manga/ print SF. So, assuming this worst case scenario, would anime die if every single American anime company shuts down? I’d have to say no, I don’t think so.

For all the bluster that Mr. Sherman displays in his rant – America don’t actually make the anime, we’re only a secondary market to Japan. If we were truly important to them then we’d be able to leverage better treatment from them. Remember how in the case of Haruhi the overwhelming amount of fans in America wanted the DVDs released in TV order and the Japanese license holder would only allow the TV order as an “extra” for the limited edition DVDs and only as a subtitled release. Or the continued reluctance of the Japanese rights holders in allowing us Americans to release anime Blu-ray discs. They couldn’t let the remote possibility of reverse importation mess-up their true cash cow even if that makes fansubs all the more enticing to everyone else.

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Where I Write a Conclusion and Hope Someone Has Read This Entire 2300+ Word Blog Entry and Derived Something Positive From It

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Let’s Recap: Mr. Sherman, President and CEO of the dubbing studio Bang Zoom writes a rant about the impending death of anime and I find it funny for being so out-of-touch with reality. It didn’t rate a response until I realized this was a chance to talk about how unexpectantly awesome the Baccano dub was (thanks Funimation!) and to snub Bang Zoom for screwing up three recent great anime shows by providing poor to slightly better then mediocre dubs and to talk about how the worth of an anime DVD changes drastically depending on the quality of it’s dub. I also realize that I can take this opportunity to voice my displeasure about the history of licensing only certain types of shows for America and to point out how these studio executives are too short-sighted and/or dumb to realize the consequences of their licensing patterns. And I realized I can mention what I think about all these Chicken Littles who want to make us believe the sky is falling and also to remind Mr. Sherman (who probably won’t actually ever read this post) that the surest way to get rid of a product is to produce a superior product and watch capitalism work it’s magic and let the inferior product disappear.

So after realizing all this, I got to writing this blog entry and here we are, a dozen hours of writing from me and 2300+ words written. I hope at least one person out there enjoyed this post and got something from it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some anime to watch.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while (read: years), you might remember that I watched a series for Himitsu for a short time.  First, thank you for reading us for such a long time.  Second, Animada finally finished subbing this series a few months ago, so over the last two weeks I’ve been watching it between this season’s episodes.  It has definitely been a long time coming, but now I can evaluate the entire series for you.

Himitsu’s basic premise is interesting and makes good fodder for ideas.  In the future, scientists have created a system to record and view people’s memories post-mortem.  The world has entrusted this unique computer system to Japan’s Public Security Section 9.  The men and women in this small department must examine the memories of murder victims to find the motive, means, and hopefully the assailant as well.  They not only bring people to justice who might normally escape their crimes unscathed, but also learn about the thought process that goes into committing the crime so in the future they can prevent them.  This mystery sandbox makes for some interesting cases and Himitsu does a good job of keeping the formula fresh as the series progresses.  Some episodes look at the memories of the killer, the blind, the insane or delusional, and even a mass murder that shows viewpoints from multiple perspectives.

The cast of characters can really help a series like this, and the main characters do not disappoint.  Aoki is the main character and plays the role of the everyman and the newbie in the show.  He knows how to read lips, which is an invaluable skill since the memories have no sound.  His thoughts and actions will likely mirror yours as you progress through the series, and he easily grows the most out of the cast.  Maki sits on the opposite side of the spectrum as the jaded boss of Section 9.  He has dealt with a lot in the past few years and drives his team to perform at the best of their abilities.  His specialty is a photographic memory and extreme attention to detail.  He also has an uncanny ability to appear exactly when needed.  The pairs’ abilities drive most case breakthroughs, fitting their role as core protagonists.  In addition, their interpersonal drama allows us to see the series from both extremes.

The rest of the characters, are more of a mixed bag.  Each character’s personality is decent, and all of them have at least one episode devoted to them.  Unfortunately, none of them fully develops.  Amaichi plays the heroine in this mystery drama and has the most development of the supporting cast.  She has a minor sixth sense that occasionally comes into play.  She also has a sizable crush on Aoki, though he’s too busy with his work to notice much.  Okabe is a married and experienced agent who has dealt with his fair share of difficulties and has a more experienced perspective.  Soga, to contrast, is a recent academy graduate who still has much to learn and needs to get his impulses under control.  Michiru and Onogida are the two technicians that program and maintain the machinery, and naturally, there’s a lot of interplay between them.  They round out the core cast.

While much of Himitsu is episodic in nature, an overarching plot does exist.  The main story focuses on a criminal named Kainuma.  His case sent ripples through the division and deeply affected Maki and his outlook on life.  Even after his death, he still manages to cause tremendous grief for Section 9.  On top of that, the source of his influence may not be what it first appears.  Toward the end of the series, this prompts a number of plot twists, some of which are genuinely surprising and moving.  Unfortunately, it feels like the directors pushed far too much into the last episodes.  It culminates in an ending largely based on convenience to tie the plot line together as quickly as possible.  While this weakens the series, it still doesn’t drive it into the ground.

Himitsu really shines in the moral drama that plays alongside the story.  Much of this deals with privacy.  After all, Section 9 views the memories of the victims, and some of these may be embarrassing or potentially incriminating for others.  The characters also have to come to grips with viewing the memories of those close to them.  The mind of someone you may interact with every day is far different from the mind of a complete stranger.  Finally, there’s the ever-present allure of using information gleamed from the videos to benefit oneself.  Beyond the obvious implications lie other problems.  The series probes religion, body modification, and other societal issues.  It does occasionally falter in this area, but overall the morality play is interesting and engaging.

The character designs are mature to match the subject material.  However, they also have a derivative feeling to them.  For the longest time I couldn’t tell the two supporting males apart.  Additionally, while I don’t expect the artists to put a lot of effort into the victims and other one-time characters, perhaps a little more imagination would have helped.  On the other hand, the background elements get their due attention, befitting a mystery series.  Much more effort goes into detail here than in the characters.  A variety of settings helps keep the artwork fresh and make sure the viewer doesn’t burn out on the urban core of the series.  However, it often feels like the setting is literally too dark, which might put a bit of strain on your eyes.

Himitsu’s vocal work is competent, and none of the characters are unduly grating.  The voices fit the characters well, though at times it does feel like the actors needed to put more feeling into the performance.  While the designs may have been uninspired, we do get a lot of variety in the voice work for the one-shots.  The background music does a tremendous amount to help the mood of the series.  In particular, the composer manages to drive the chilling feeling home when it’s required.  The opening and closing themes are relevant to the series’ premise and devoid of any unnecessary Jpop influences.

Despite its faults, Himitsu is a does have its high points and some unique devices going for it.  It’s probably the series from Spring 2008 that everyone missed. If you enjoy a good mystery or moral drama, take the time out and give it a shot.

Final Score: 8/10 MRIs