Ohh the glory!!!!!!!!!

I’m normally not one to watch the “popular shows“, but recently I’ve found myself watching One Piece. While I was never able to bring myself to watch it until now, the moment I started, I became hooked. I’m not sure what initially lured me into its utter randomness, but something did, and I am proud to say that I have watched a decent amount of episodes in the past few weeks. I believe this new found obsession is caused by three main reasons; the strength of the anime’s characters, the power of its message and the wonder of its lore.

Let’s begin with everyone’s favourite thing about anime: the characters.

Characters are figments of the author’s imagination that embody a form which everyone can relate to. While I do love a good story and tend to be drawn into the plot, this particular anime’s characters so firmly grabbed my interest that the plot was  was completely overwhelmed. Thinking on it now, this possibly stemmed from the fact that I am more able to relate to these characters than most other anime I’ve watched. (more…)

“Hyakka Ryōran: Samurai Bride” is actually the second season of this show, but it really didn’t matter to the telling of things. Sure, I probably should have watched season one, but I thought THIS was season one. Besides, they explain the characters well enough that I didn’t think it was necessary to watch “Samurai Girls” to get up to speed.

The series takes place in an alternate version of Japan called Great Japan, in an alternate timeline where an alternate Tokugawa shogunate remained active and has remained isolated from the rest of the world. The male lead, Muneakira Yagyu, has come back from training to find that the dojo is in such a bad financial state that the only way to save it is to turn it into a maid café. The crew of trainees/maids consists of, from left to right:

Hanzo Hattori, the one who already looks like a maid,
Yukimura Sanada, the one with the fan in her hand,
Mitsuyoshi Jubei Yagyu, red-head with the pan,
Matabei Goto, nearly pantsless,
Sen Tokugawa, brown hair at the end.
One who is missing from this line-up is Kanetsugu Naoe. (more…)

Life in Japan must be tough, as all kinds of weirdness happen to the point where the odd is the norm. We are in the future (same as it ever was) and for the past 30 years, there have been these ‘spacequakes’. The original one claimed the lives of at least 150 million people. Since then, smaller spacequakes plague the world on an irregular basis.

Shido Itsuka, a seemingly ordinary high schooler (the guy with the tie) comes across a mysterious girl at Ground Zero of a spacequake, Tohka Yatogami (purple at the far right) and learns she is one of the “Spirits” who are the real cause of these spacequakes that occur whenever they manifest themselves into the world. He also learns that his sister Kotori (the red demon at the left end) is the captain of the airship Fraxinus, crewed by the organization Ratatoskr, and is recruited to make use of his mysterious ability to seal the Spirits’ powers, thus stopping them from being a threat to mankind. However, there is a catch: to seal a Spirit, he must make her fall in love with him and kiss her. Not just any kiss, but the Kiss of True Love, Ariel….I mean….never mind. (more…)

This show certainly has the longest title I have encountered in a while: “Mondaiji-tachi Ga Isekai Kara Kuru Sou Desu Yo?” (“Problem Children are Coming from Another World, Aren’t They?”) and is also a short-run series, as it clocks in at 10 episodes, but, but, but…I get ahead of myself.

This is another of those alternate dimension tales, where people are taken from their world and plunked into another world and have to survive. Ahh, but there is a twist. Three ‘children’, (for wont of a better term, as they seem old to be mere children) Sakamaki Izayoi (the guy in the middle), Kudō Asuka (red at the far right), and Kasukabe Yō (the lady to Izayoi’s left), live dull lives because they possess unmatched psychic powers (which are hinted at but not initially explored). One day, they receive a mysterious envelope that transports them to Little Garden, a place of supernatural powers called “Gifts.”

There, they meet Black Rabbit (can you find her? It’s not Easter, but this hunt shouldn’t take too long) who explains things for them. Everyone here has these ‘gifts’ and they are used to play “Gift Games” for power and prestige. But don’t lose; for you not only lose prestige and power, you lose your identity. They are to come to the aid of Jun Russel (that monk-looking guy at the far left), who is the leader of the “No Names”, a group which now has nothing, not even a name, and has to strive to restore this group to former glory and honor. Jin is aided by Riri, that fox-like girl just above him, but lurking in the shadows is Shiroyasha (that loli-type) who is …take a deep breath…a senior official at Thousand Eyes, Floor Master on the East Side, Demon Lord of the White Night, Spirit of the Sun and White Night. (try getting all that on a business card). (more…)

This is part of what I call the ‘Semi-Colon Series”, as there are three shows with the same caliber of title and the same grammatically annoying way of presenting it. They are “Chaos;Head”, “Stein’s;Gate” and “Robotic;Notes”. Of the three series, the last one is the most accessible. The other two are beset with shifting realities and uncertainty as to what is truly going on. Now, they are fine shows and I would suggest you do check them out, but they do require more in the way of attention and commitment than a lot of people are willing and able to give, especially when they play the ‘What is Reality?” card.

“Robotic;Notes” is not as demanding, but you has best pay attention, especially since it has the jump-back. The Jump-Back (another of my annoying made-up terms), is when a particular episode ends on a cliff hanger. The next episode begins in beyond the point where the last stopped, setting up something, and THEN we jump back to see the cliff hanger and the results. It can get a bit aggravating when you want things to be a bit more linear.

Let’s start at the beginning: we are in the future (oh, really? Again with the ‘in the future’?) It is 2019 and we are on the island of Tanegashima. The school here has a robotics club with fitful membership. Yashio Kaito spends most of his time playing an on-line game called Kill-Ballad, where it is giant fighting robots (they have some marvelous tablet-pads to do this on). The other club member is Senomiya Akiho. Her older sister was in the club and left behind a giant robot that could not be finished in time, so it sits and sits and sits. And technology has so changed, it might be better to scrap it, get some cash for the metal and try again. (more…)

On the surface, this show, “Michiko e Hatchin” is just another ‘journey’ show, not much different than “Noir” or “El Cazador”, although potentially allied closer to “Samurai Champloo”, as least in attitude.

The tale takes place in ‘Alternative Brazil’; although it is never named, there is enough to imply that we are in South America. Michiko Malandro (that rather bounteous babe astride the scooter) is a felon, having run with Monstro Preto, a rather notorious gang, and has spent the last eight or so years in prison. Michiko is tormented endlessly, both physically and emotionally, by Atsuko Jackson, the police officer who arrested her. Here’s the odd thing: they grew up in the same orphanage, but obviously took different paths. By her telling Michiko that her daughter, Hana, is living with a foster family, Michiko breaks out of an ‘escape-proof’ prison to rescue Hana.

Hana (yes, that boy is really a girl; it’s just the presentation) is in a Cinderella-like situation, in that her foster family is those pretentious and insufferable religious types that we like making fun of. Dad is a priest who uses the position to feather his own nest, mom is a social climber and the kids are bratty beyond belief. Michiko steals the scooter, busts into the house, rescues Hana (whom she now calls Hatchin) and thus their journey begins to find dad, who Michiko knows is not dead, despite reports to the contrary. (more…)

The other half of the brother-and-sister series is this one, “A Certain Scientific Railgun”. We are still in Academy City, where people who want to get the best education (and have esper powers) go to. Our missy to the right, Mikoto Misaka, is a Level 5 Esper, of which there are only seven in the entire city, and, of this septet, is the most powerful, or at least, the most feared. She can conduct electricity and what she does is flip a 100-yen coin into the air. When it comes back down and it about to pass the ecliptic, she uses it to shoot her electric bolt out and cause some serious damage.

She attends Tokiwadai High School (an elite among elites) and people have heard of her. Her roommate Kuroki Shirai (the purple one in back) has a SERIOUS fetish for Mikoto and is constantly looking for ways or opportunities to be physically intimate with her (which never works; this is a big running gag) . She also works for Judgment, a public service group that maintains peace and order in the City. She is a Level 4 Telekineticist and uses nails to pin her perpetrators to the wall, as well as teleport in and out of situations.

Kazari Uiharu (flower headband, far left) attends Sakugawa Middle School, a rather ‘normal’ school. She works in Judgment with Shirai, but more as logistics. She is a Level 1 Heater, having the ability to keep things warm at a constant temperature. Our last lady is Ruiko Saten, who attends school with Uiharu. She is a Level 0, but annoys the stuffing out of Uiharu, as she will flip up her skirt to see her underwear and comment about the pattern of the day. (more…)

In the last few weeks I’ve noticed that due to my own set of values I have a serious problem with female characters that try to steal the male protagonist from their female counterpart .Ume Kumurizawa, (image above) is one of those characters. Hailing from the anime/manga Kimi Ni Todoke, she shows herself to be a “Kikyo” type character and if you saw my first post ever, you know about my intense dislike for her. Ume tends to have an “I’m the most perfect person in the world” attitude because of her beauty and is extremely irritating. She even stoops so low as to manipulate everyone into thinking she’s the perfect angel when she’s everything but that.

Now most anime characters are beautiful; it’s just a fact you have to accept. It’s when the character knows that they are beautiful, and unscrupulously uses it as a way to entice and deceive people that it gets on my nerves. While its true most characters who are aware of their beauty don’t so this (Tamaki Suoh from OHSHC, Kyohei Takano from The Wallflower, etc.) Often enough you get that particular character who uses their beauty as a weapon, and Ume is that character. For instance, she has convinced all of Kazehaya’s followers (Protagonist who she madly falls in love with) that he was made for everyone (i.e, share him), so that she could have a chance to get closer and clutch him into her grasps. It’s this type of manipulation places her at the top of my ‘anime characters i despise’ list. (more…)

This is half of what could be best called a brother-and-sister series. They are related in the fact they occur in the same town (Academy City) at about the same time and the characters do cross over and slightly interact, but that’s about it. They are independent of each other in what they wish to accomplish.

This one is “A Certain Magical Index”. Now, Academy City, a technologically advanced academic city located towards western Tokyo, which studies scientifically advanced superhuman students with powers, is also set in a world where magic is real. Our hero up there is Tōma Kamijō, a fairly average student but a flop when it comes to esper talents and abilities. In this town, your esper abilities determine much in your life and he is at the bottom, possessed with the worst luck ever.

The only thing he has going for him is his right hand, which he calls the Imagine Breaker, which has the amazing ability to negate magical and psychic powers. But since it is only considered an ability, he gets a Psychic Level of…..zero. He might as well be selling hot dogs from a street vendor wagon. (more…)