I was going to write about the new anime series for the new season that starts this month, but then I came upon this post by a fellow wordpress.com blogger JP Meyer on the buzz/hype that surrounds one of this season’s new series, The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱). He made some good points in his post and I think I’ll put in my cents as well. As for this season’s other new series, I’ll leave it to another post.

I’ll start off by saying that I’m in the “I just don’t get it” camp. For the 3 episodes that I have watched so far, I don’t see anything so special that justifies the buzz I’ve seen. The story isn’t particularly interesting. Episode 1 is just showing that amateur movie they made. There is some humor here and there, but overall it’s only mildly funny. If there were parodies of any kind, I didn’t see it nor get it. The first half of episodes 2 is to show what kind of a wacko Haruhi is and the second half and episode 3 are about how Haruhi bullies people into submission as she tries to get her SOS-dan going. A lot of the stuff isn’t funny, especially the scene where Haruhi blackmailed the computer club into letting her taking one of their computers. If there was anything that I found funny, it has to be the witty comments by Kyon. The comments he makes throughout these episodes are pretty funny and they make watching that loose cannon that is Haruhi tolerable. Storywise, at least for only 3 episodes, I’m simply not impressed.

There’s also this whole thing about the dance in the ED. I agree with JP (who actually likes the show a lot) that I don’t see why this is particularly good, as there are a number of shows that have their characters dance during OP/ED. The dance itself is very well animated, but it has more to do with the amazing job that Kyoto Animation has done. The fact that it is well animated doesn’t make the dance itself any “cuter” or “cooler” than the others I have seen. I think the ED is nice, and quite a bit better than some of the lazy crap (eg. Mai-Otome and Ergo Proxy) that I have seen lately. It’s just that I don’t think it’s as AWESOME as some people make it out to be.

The Dance During ED

Is there anything good to say about this show? Sure of course. The animation is top-notch, as expected from Kyoto Animation. The backgrounds look pretty and a lot of attention has be paid to the characters’ (more like only Haruhi’s) idiosyncrasies such as the way they walk. (In the OP Haruhi walks in a slightly different way.) The art is also very consistent that unlike some other shows where by episode 3 or 4 one would notice the way the characters are drawn doesn’t look the same anymore and the sloppiness shows. And as I said earlier, although I find a lot of the stuff not very funny, I really like Kyon’s witty comments. Sugita Tomokazu (杉田智和), the voice behind Kyon, has done a pretty good job here.

As to why the show is so popular, well, I’ll throw a few wild guesses out here, and see which ones stick:

• The first episode starts off in such an odd way that it gives viewers the impression that may be this is something different. Something so different from other shows that it has to be great.
• “Moe” factor: Haruhi, Mikuru, Yuki, bouncing breasts, glasses, and bunny suits.
• The show is funny. Laugh. Damn it.
• Superior art and animation.
• The Dance.
• Cute aliens? (Check out the end of episode 3.)
• Because other people say so.

Overall I personally find this show to be average. There are a number of new shows for this season that I enjoy watching more than Haruhi. I think I’m going to watch a couple of more episodes to see if the story would pick up a bit. As it is I think I would watch other shows instead.

Couple of friends of mine who went to Japan last month brought me this souvenir: a Kamichu! phone strap. It’s pretty nice but I had a hard time putting it on my phone. The hole to hang strap is too small and it took me a while to put it on. I’m not exactly a phone strap person because with the way I use the phone I probably would break that tiny string within 3 days. So instead of ruining this nice little gift I’m going to put it back into its original packaging (see below) and keep it somewhere safe.

Big thanks to JC and EC for getting me this from Japan.

Let’s check out the animes I’ve been following lately, some of them are pretty old, some of them are new:

Bleach: This anime show has been going on for quite some time. It’s pretty popular and I’m following the comic as well. Recently the TV series has finished the “Soul Society Arc” and the staff decided to “fork” the story becaue they are catching up to the comic. Sadly, this new story is simply craptastic. They spent 3 straight episodes to have us watch this hide and seek silliness and it is boring as hell. Instead of having us watch this spectacularly craptastic piece of dog poo I would rather see it takes a season off, wait until the comic has accumulated enough material and starts again. Another option: fire the person who wrote this new crap. Even someone with a quarter of brain can do better.

Blood+: One of my favorite from the list. Nice and relatively consistent art, decent story, and likable characters. Unfortunately I’m kind of stuck at episode 16 right now because the fansub version stopped releasing it. It’s starting to get on my nerves because the story was just getting exciting. If nothing is released soon, I’ll have to find alternatives. The show’s heroine Saya is one of my favorite heroines on this list. The design of her character doesn’t really standout, but once I started watching I found her to be very likable (must be her appetitite) and has lots of style, especially when she goes into her vampire mode.

Ergo Proxy: Not much I can say about this show for now because I’ve only watched 1 episode so far. I will only say the visual is stunning and the story seems to be promising.

Eureka Seven: Another good show by studio Bones. There’s a lot to like about this show, unfortunately as the story moves toward the climax it becomes so convoluted that I’m not sure what is going on anymore. I don’t know if it has to do with the quality of the translation, but it seems that a lot of things aren’t being explained at all which makes the already convoluted story even more difficult to understand. I hope it doesn’t follow the route of RahXephon, another Bones anime that nobody really understands the ending. (Well, at least RahXephon is little better than Neon Genesis Evangelion…)

Fate/Stay Night: New series for this season, it is based on the extremely popular 18+ visual novel by Type Moon. It is being hyped to no end since it was announced. I am expecting good things from this series but so far (9 episodes into it) it hasn’t lived up to the hype. The story is moving very slowly and when a fight breaks out it usually ends very quickly with both sides decide to retreat with nothing accomplished. I try to think since this series has 24 episodes, the story is going to get better. It’s just that my patience is starting to run out. By the way, can someone explain to me what the hell is “Fate/Stay Night”?

Glass Mask (ガラスの仮面): A remake of a well-known anime show which in turn is based on a well-known comic dated back to the 70s. It was decent at the beginning but now it is close to unbearable. I can never understand how the hell can Maya fall in love with a guy who played a major role in her mother’s death. It’s not like it was an accident either, the guy absolutely knew what he was doing. It’s so ridiculous it’s not funny. I can’t wait for this series to end.

Kage Kara Mamoru! (陰からマモル!): I don’t even know why I watch it. The story is kind of dumb and artwork is lazy at best. I guess it’s because some of the jokes are pretty funny, and hearing Nakaharai Mai (中原麻衣, the voice behind the heroine Konnyaku Yuna) trying to make herself sounds like a complete retard makes me giggle.

Karin (かりん): An average anime that’s lighthearted and pretty funny. Sometimes it would put too much emphasis on the heroine Karin’s oversized boo….ahem, bosom but it’s not over-the-top to become annoying.

Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~ (かしまし ～ガール・ミーツ・ガール～): The premise of the story is absolutely ridiculous: a guy name Hazumu got hit by an alien spaceship and died. The aliens revived him but screwed up during the process and made him into a woman. What’s good about the show is it does a good job in showing how Hatsumu’s friends deal with his “transformation.” Also, Hazumu’s voice actress, Ueda Kana (植田佳奈) is at her best here. She is a perfect fit for this type of character. Ueda’s performance makes Hazumu that much more likable.

Kyou Kara Maou! (今日からマ王!): A show that I can’t wait to see it ends. The story has dragged on for too long and it’s becoming unbearably corny. Please, please end my suffering now.

Mai-Otome (舞-乙HiME): My top 3 on this list. It is a sequel of Mai-HiME. I like Mai-HiME a bit more than Mai-Otome. Mai-Otome’s overall production value seems to be higher, as it shows with its extremely consistent artwork. Unfortunately the heroines (Arika and Nina) aren’t as strong as Mai-HiME’s (Mai, Natsuki, Mikoto, though these three are either a regular supporting character or would make an appearance later). The music takes a step backward as well. In terms of story, I like Mai-HiME’s a bit more but Mai-Otome has a much better setting. Overall it is still pretty darn good and really makes you looking forward to the next episode.

Monster: A very good thriller anime that unfortunately has dragged on for too long. About 3/4 of the way through it felt like the story started to lose its focus. I’m near the end of it and I’m just waiting for that particular group to get its act together and finish subbing it. I heard that some Hollywood studio bought its movie right and is making a movie out of it. It seems like it will be nothing like the anime nor the comic though.

Noein -Mo Hitori no Kimi e- (ノエイン -もうひとりの君へ-): One of the top 3 on this list. Good story, great music, and decent artwork. The story involves a lot of mumble jumble about quantum mechanics that most people wouldn’t understand, but it doesn’t affect one’s ability to understand the story. The translation has been going a little slow lately and I’m looking forward to more episodes, as the story is reaching its climax.

REC: This is a short series (9 episodes of 12 minutes each) about a rookie voice actress who is forced to live with a guy she just met because her apartment was burned down. It’s a pretty funny anime and gives the viewers a look at the world of voice acting. One interesting thing about it is the heroine Onda Aka is a big fan of Audrey Hepburn. Each episode’s subtitle is named after a Hepburn movie, and Aka always quotes a dialogue or two from it. The opening sequence also has Aka dresses as Hepburn in her movies and each episode adds a new look. I wish each episode is 24 minutes instead of 12, and 12 or 13 episodes instead of 9.

Yomigaeru Sora -Rescue Wings- (よみがえる空 -Rescue Wings-): An anime about a rescue squad within the Japanese military. One of the better anime series in this season but somehow it is not popular among the fansubbers. The cast of voice actors is a little weak, but they manage to have Noto Mamiko (能登麻美子) as the voice of the hero’s girlfriend. Her character is totally unimportant as this anime is dominated by men, but her Okayama accent is priceless. Ooen!

Shakugan no Shana (灼眼のシャナ): Looks promising when it was first announced. It turns out the story is pretty decent, but the characters are downright annoying. The heroine Shana is so annoying that it kind of ruins my interest for this show. Her “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” is just obnoxious. I also don’t like the character design. Let’s just say I’m not a fan of loli-style characters.

Solty Rei: I guess the only reason I watch this is because of the cast of voice actors. With studio Gonzo behind it, a crappy ending is almost guaranteed. One interesting thing about the characters: there’s a special force team that consists of 4 women, and each of women is named after a car from a major Japanese car manufacturer. They are Integra (Honda), Silvia (Nissan), Celica (Toyota), and Axela (Mazda).

Tactical Roar: Same reason as Solty Rei. Unfortunately its story is even worse and the “fan service” is just over-the-top. The artwork is lazy too.

One may ask if some of these animes are so bad, why don’t you just stop watching them? Well, it’s because once I get a little deep into a show I usually want to finish it. Also, I already gave up watching a quite a few shows because they are so crappy it’s not worth my time.

Spoiler Warning: Since this is about the series finale, it contains major-super-duper spoilers. Read at your own risk.

I just finished watching the final episode. Is it a happy ending? Yes and no. Do I like it? Oh yeah.

At the end of episode 5 Dr. Natsume made us to believe that the surgery didn’t go well. It turns out it was a success. But he doesn’t disclose any details to Yuuichi, saying Yuuichi isn’t a family member of Rika so he has no right to know. He also asks Akiko not to say anything. Later when Rika was released from ICU he tells Yuuichi that he is not allowed to see Rika and he is barred from the east wing of the hospital, where Rika is staying. Rika’s mother isn’t happy with Yuuichi that he brought Rika out of the hospital twice and Natsume uses it as the reason. Again, he purposely not telling Yuuichi anything, essentially saying that he should forget about Rika and disappear. Not knowing what is going on and worry about Rika, Yuuichi is frustrated.

One night Yuuichi happens to eavesdrop on a conversation between Natsume and Akiko. Here Natsume is telling Akiko a story about his friend and the friend’s wife. (Akiko, and probably just about anyone with half a brain, knows he’s talking about himself.) From the story Yuuichi finds out even though Rika’s surgery was a success, it doesn’t completely cure her condition. It only gave Rika a few more years to live. Natsume’s wife Sayako also suffered from heart disease that after one particularly bad attack she ended up in the same situation as Rika. Sayako lived for few more years before she died. At this point Natsume finally reveals the reason he’s not letting Yuuichi to see Rika: Natsume had a promising career in his field but with Sayako’s condition he had to choose between pursuing his career or to be with his wife. He chose the latter and Sayako died few years later. Natsume feels that the choice he made didn’t give him anything in return. He thinks that Yuuichi, who is now in the same situation, is better off leaving Rika behind and move on.

Meanwhile, after hearing what is happening with Rika Yuuichi decides to go see her no matter what. Since he is barred from going to the east wing going in from the front door is out of the question. He enlists his friends for help so he can climb down to Rika’s room from outside of the building. After quite a bit of struggle he made it to Rika’s room, just outside the window. When he knocks on the window he is greeted by Rika’s mother and she refuses to let him talk to her daughter. Rika intervenes and asks her mother to let him in. Once Yuuichi gets to see Rika everything is easily settled. Yuuichi makes it known to Rika that no matter how much time she has left or whatever he has to give up, he wants to be with her. Rika’s mother, who is upset at Yuuichi, sees how much he cares about Rika and apologizes to him later.

Basically it’s a bittersweet ending. It’s nice to see Rika survives and is able to be with Yuuichi at the end, but how much time she has left is unknown. I think this ending is pretty well done. (Kudos to the author of the novel.) It’s believable, touching but not over-the-top in trying to get the audience cry, and wraps up the story rather nicely. I’m pretty happy with how it ends.

Other random thoughts on the series:

For the characters, I think they are mostly likable, with the exception of Natsume. (More on that in a bit.) Yuuichi really gives me the impression of a pushover, though if he doesn’t have that kind of personality he probably won’t put up with Rika’s attitude. I still couldn’t believe Yuuichi didn’t get angry at Natsume with the nonsense he had to deal with. He was literally being kicked around by Natsume and etc. I guess a pushover is indeed the best description for him. Rika is moody and self-centered on the outside, but deep down she is pretty nice girl. I know it’s not a very good description, but it’s not like she is a really complex character. She is basically a girl who is very sick and her attitude has to do with her illness and lack of interaction with other people, especially those of the same age. (On the other hand, I just can’t say enough how I was touched by the passage in Les Thibaults that she wanted to show Yuuichi.) There are a few characters that deserve more details on their backgrouds though, Akiko and her “friend” Misako are good examples.

When it comes to Natsume, I have to say I despise this person. I think he’s a scumbag. (I just realize I like to call people I hate scumbags…) This guy takes his frustration out on Yuuichi, sends him mixed/cryptic messages to confuse him, and overall just makes things difficult. It’s regrettable that he lost his wife, but he has absolutely no right to decide what path Yuuichi should choose when it comes to Rika. He has no regard to how Rika and Yuuichi feel and simply forced his views upon them. As an adult and someone who had a similar experience in the past, he should instead let Yuuichi knows the different options he has and the possible consequences with these choices and let Yuuichi decides his own fate. It’s ridiculous that Natsume has to be told by Akiko just how wrong his views are. Even a 17 year old “damn kid” gets it yet he doesn’t. I’m not going to say he’s a downright bad guy. May be he is still devastated over his wife’s death, but it’s still no excuse for what he did to Yuuichi.

The cast of voice actors is only average. Some of them are well known, some I never even heard of. Sugimura Kenichi (鈴川健一, as Yuuichi) and Takahashi Mikako (高橋美佳子, as Rika) both did a good job as the main characters. With his performance in this series I think I can shake off the bad impression of Sugimura from Gundam Seed Destiny. (To be fair, it’s not really his fault…) I think Takahashi Mikako did a better job in Honey & Clover (will talk about it in the near future) but it’s probably unfair to compare to H&C because she put in her best performance of her career in that series. Others in the cast, such as Hirata Hiroaki (平田広明, as Natsume) and Kodaira Yuuki (小平有希, as Akiko. I have never heard of her before…) all did a respectable job. I guess I should give more credit to Hirata, if he mailed it in I may not hate his character as much…

There’s not much to say about the soundtrack. The soundtrack itself is nothing outstanding, but I like the opening and ending themes that I think they fit the mood of the series really well.

Overall I would recommend this series to someone who is interested in this genre. May be it’s a little short with only 6 episodes but everything is done quite well that I can’t find much to complain. I really enjoyed it.

Salvaging the missing posts from my other blog is almost done. Hopefully I can get it done soon and move on. I also hope that WordPress.com would be more reliable than my old host. One thing I’m missing here though is the ability to edit templates. Most of the templates have a content area that is too narrow for my taste, and unable to take out some sections in the sidebar is disappointing too. Because the content area is too narrow now I have to resize some images because they get cut off on the right side.

Anyway, I want to talk about this really short, six episodes anime I’ve been watching lately: 半分の月がのぼる空 – Looking Up At The Half-Moon. It is based on the 6-volume novel by Hashimoto Tsugumu (橋本紡). The story is pretty straight forward. The main character Ezaki Yuuichi, 2nd year in high school, is hospitalized with hepatitis A and during his hospital stay one of the nurses, Tanizaki Akiko, introduces him to Akiba Rika. Rika is a very pretty but moody and self-centered girl who is of same age as Yuuichi. Rika has been suffering from a serious heart condition (which seems to be hereditary as her father died with the same illness) since she was a child so she couldn’t go to school nor has any friends. Akiko hopes that Yuuichi would befriend Rika and makes her life a little less lonely, especially that Rika may not live very long.

As everyone would expect, Rika and Yuuichi quickly develop feelings for each other and Rika’s health becomes the biggest issue. This is why the story is straight forward (how about predictable?): it’s your typical tear-jerker type story. I’m not exactly a sucker or hater for this type of story. I think it comes down to being able to get the execution right, making it touching yet not over the top. I have watched 5 episodes and so far I think the staff has got it right. I especially like the way Hashimoto Tsugumu uses quotes from well-known novels to describe how Rika feels about the prospect of her health and how that changes with Yuuichi coming into her life. (Since Rika spends most of her time in the hospital, she has nothing to do but read. She lended a couple of books to Yuuichi and we get a glimpse of how Rika feels when Yuuichi reads through the books.) The part that I like the most is at the end of episode 5. Rika’s condition has worsen and if surgery is not being performed soon she may not have another chance. The surgery is high risk and the success rate is low. (Her father died during the same surgery.) Despite that Rika decides to do it anyway. The day before her surgery Rika tells Yuuichi that he can start reading the novel she lended him before, Les Thibaults by Roger Martin du Gard. Yuuichi starts reading the book while he waits outside the operating room. There’s a section where Rika left a bookmark in that catches Yuuichi’s attention, and I’ll paraphrase that particular part here. (The translation is probably crappy, but cut me some slack. I tried to get my hands on the novel, but to my surprise Amazon and Barnes and Nobles don’t carry it. Why the heck the best work of a Nobel Prize winner for literature is not widely available is beyond me.)

We do not want cowardly acts.
Face the storm and charge forward,
even if what it brings is death.
Our love is built on top of slander and intimidation.
Let us prove it!
I will become yours even if I have to risk my life.

J. R

The “J.” is from the novel. It was crossed out by Rika and she put a “R” there instead. After he read that part Yuuichi broke down in tears because he knows it is Rika’s heartfelt confession, that she is risking her life so that they could have a future. Call it corny or whatever you want. I love it and I find it very touching.

Episode 6 will air tomorrow in Japan and from the looks of it Rika is not going make it. One supporting “evidence” (I didn’t read the novel so I can only guess!) is the novel’s subtitle for volume 6: “life goes on.” It sounds like something along the line of “lives of those who survive go on.” On the other hand though, if Rika really doesn’t make it, then all the happy scenes they show during the ending credits become a bunch of crap. I wonder if the staff just put them in to tease the audience. Like I said in the Emma post, I don’t necessarily have to see a happy ending everytime. In this case though, I like Rika and Yuuichi a lot that I hope to see a happy ending. If it’s not I hope they would still make it a decent ending, even if it’s a sad one.

I’ll write a little more about it after I finished watching episode 6.

I decided to change gears after all these baseball stuff I have posted. I’m going to talk about my other favorite past time — anime. So here I go, this time I’m going to write about this series I finished watching last month — Victorian Romance Emma. Here’s a warning though, from here on 99% of the anime related posts that appears here WILL contain spoilers and I WILL comment on the endings. In any case, you are forewarned.

The story is set in the 19th century London. The main character William Jones is the eldest son of the wealthy Jones family. One day William pays a visit to Kelly, the governess for the Jones family during William’s childhood. He is greeted at the door by Emma, a young maid who lives with and works for Kelly. It is love at first sight for William as he is attracted by the beautiful maid’s gentle demeanor. Next day William starts to loiter around where she lives — usually at a shop that is on the route when Emma runs her errands — with the hope that he would be able to see her. Emma, on the other hand, has heard about William from Kelly. While timid and rarely shows her emotion, Emma seems happy to meet him. Emma also doesn’t seem to mind William always showing up out of nowhere to see her, unlike how she rejected other men who have been courting her. As time goes on their feelings for each other deepen and inevitably they fall in love.

There’s no story if everything goes smoothly for the two. Obviously there are obstacles that stand in the way to make things difficult. The first one is social status. William is from a wealthy family that is in the upper echelon of their society while Emma is a lowly commoner and a maid. By the conventional wisdom of that era they are not exactly the perfect match in terms of social status and background. The second obstacle is family pressure. Although the Jones family is wealthy but they are not in the ranks of the nobles. William’s father Richard would like to join the ranks through arranged marriage of his children. In fact Richard has arranged a marriage between William and Eleanor Campbell, the daughter of a Viscount. As a result Richard, along with William’s siblings, strongly disprove of his relationship with Emma. The truth is the simple act of William marrying a commoner would cause significant damage the family’s reputation. Finally, there is Hakim, a prince from India who came to England to visit his friend William and falls for Emma at first sight. (I guess there is a reason why they are friends…) Hakim doesn’t waste any time and proposes to Emma right away. On the other hand, Eleanor is in love with William and he knows it. May be it’s because of family pressure, the fear of hurting her feelings, the fact he has no idea about what to do with Emma, or a combination of them all, William never flat out rejects Eleanor nor tells her about Emma. (Eleanor eventually figures it out.) With seemingly the entire world going against them, the outlook of their relationship doesn’t look very optimistic at all.

Looking at the title of this post one can see that I’m not very high on this series. So what is the problem? To put it simply, the ending is poorly done and unsatisfying. Love stories like this has been done so many times that one can easily predict the outcome because there are only a few to choose from. Off the top of my head, there are four possible outcomes, may be with some minor variations for each:

1. Despite the opposition from his family, William insists to be with Emma and will deal with the consequences.
2. William abandons his wealth and status and elopes with Emma.
3. They commit suicide together.
4. Believing that their love will not come to fruition, they decide to break up and go their separate ways.

About 99% of the time it’s always outcome no. 1-3. No. 4 isn’t a popular choice and I believe it’s because this particular outcome isn’t what most viewers want to see. Unfortunately no. 4 is the one that the staff of this anime series chose. It isn’t that I only want to see a happy ending. My problem with this ending is that it makes this 12-episode series as a whole uninteresting and unsatisfying. Watching the main characters trying to overcome the obstacles given to them, regardless of result, is what makes a story memorable, at least from my point of view. Like I said earlier, if everything goes smoothly then what’s the point of watching to begin with? On the other hand, watching them give up without even trying is just as bad. And this is what’s happened here. Richard makes it known to William and Emma that he won’t allow their relationship to go on. Meanwhile Kelly has passed away leaving Emma by herself. Although it seems that Emma is only a maid who works for Kelly, in reality Emma was taken in by Kelly as a child after she escaped from a child kidnapper who wanted to sell her to a brothel. Besides giving Emma a place to stay, Kelly also taught her how to read and the skills she needs to survive. Kelly is more like a mother figure to Emma than simply her employer and she is devastated over Kelly’s death. William, being ignorant of what’s happening, stays home and has no idea what to do. By the time he makes up his mind — with Hakim’s advice — and wants to tell Emma how he feels it is already too late. Emma has decided to return to her hometown and William lets her go without giving much effort to ask her to stay. At the end, Emma left and William, stunned, still doesn’t seem to understand what happened.

As I finished watching the last scene I couldn’t help to ask “Is this a joke? That’s it? So they give up just like that?” What seemingly a promising story in the beginning — it’s true that the story is nothing new, but it’s not a big deal to me as long as it’s well written and executed — turns out to be such a huge disappointment in the end. I later found out the comic series this anime is based on is still being serialized in Japan and the story covered in the anime is only the first part of the story in the comics. This explains why the anime adaptation has such an ending because the staff probably wanted to follow the comics faithfully. While the staff’s intention is commendable unfortunately this has ruined the anime series. I believe a good anime series needs to have a decent ending that wraps up the story satisfactorily. In Emma’s case, I would rather see the staff modifying the original story to create a more satisfying ending, or simply not make the anime adaptation to begin with until there’s enough material to create a more “complete” story. I personally would choose the latter, because the former would be disrespectful to the creator the comic series.

While I’m being critical to the story, there are other elements that deserve praise. Ryo Kunihiko (梁邦彥), whose previous works include the music of Junni Kokuki (十二國記), composed an excellent soundtrack for Emma. To be honest I’m no expert on music so I’m not going to pretend I am and try to write some silly analysis of why the soundtrack is great. Let’s just say I really like the soundtrack, with the opening theme Silhouette of a Breeze my favorite. The series also has a decent cast of voice actors. Toma Yumi (冬馬由美, as Emma), Ueda Yuji (上田佑司, as Hakim), Kobayashi Sanae (小林沙苗, as Eleanor), and Ohara Sayaka (大原さやか, as William’s younger sister Grace) are all very well known and very talented voice actors. One thing that I couldn’t get used to is hearing Ms. Toma speaks with that soft, gentle voice. Ms. Toma is very well known for being Urd’s voice in the Ah! My Goddess series and Urd’s personality is pretty much the complete opposite of Emma’s. I couldn’t help but laugh whenever I heard Emma speaks because Urd immediately comes to mind. I think Ms. Toma has done a good job here as Emma’s voice. It’s just that whenever I think of Toma Yumi I think of Urd. I simply couldn’t help it.

In the end, would I recommend this series to someone? The answer is no. The disappointing ending simply ruined the series for me. The promising beginning, the excellent soundtrack, and the decent cast of voice actors could do nothing to salvage the series from such a poorly done ending.

Elfen Lied is one of the many new anime series I’ve been watching this season. It is also one of the most bloody and violent anime I’ve seen to date. The first 8 minutes or so of episode 1 has heads, limps, and various body parts flying everywhere and there is enough blood to fill a swimming pool. Things “settled” down during the second half of the episode but the sheer violence of that 8 minutes will probably be remembered as the “trademark” of this series. I have watched 3 episodes so far and also read the first 8 volumes of the manga. (The manga is still running in Japan and I don’t see it will end anytime soon.) To be honest, I think the manga is rather disappointing. It has everything that sells: violence, nudity/ecchi, and some very twisted plots. It seems that a lot of these elements are thrown in to satisfy a certain group of readers but they are done in such tasteless fashion that it undermines the potentially interesting story. What’s up with the girl who suffers urinary incontinence and needs to wear a diaper? How the hell did the author, Okamoto Rin, come up with such a sick idea? And please, as if Mayu’s background story isn’t bad enough, to introduce another lolicon sicko to attack their house and makes Mayu to be the victim again is a bit over the top. Come on Okamoto, you can do better than that.

Since the anime series will only have 13 episodes, I’m not sure how closely it will follow the manga. I hope they will avoid most of that sick stuff and concentrate more on the story, such as Nyu and Shouta’s relationship in the past and the “organization’s” motives for conducting experiments on Nyu and the diclonius race. It would be better to deviate from the manga a bit and have a self-contained story in 13 episodes. Yeah, it’s not easy but it can be done. Take a look at Midori no Hibi and Nanaka 6/17. Different genres but are still good examples.

By the way, Elfen Lied is German. It means “Elfen Song.”

Shame on Gainax for making such garbage of a series. They called this their studio’s 20th anniversary series and it is the biggest piece of junk coming out of their studio yet. This is basically a ripoff of Mahoromatic, which is another series that they have been milking forever by selling crappy ecchi merchandize. (Don’t even get me started on Evangelion, which Gainax is still milking with new merchandizes, after all these years.) Similar character designs, similar roles these characters play, and they even bring back the entire cast of Mahoromatic’s voice actors. The story has been non-existent so far and it seems like it will be a rip-a-thon of their older series. Seriously, just how lazy can they get?

I don’t understand why people worship this studio like god. They have been pumping out garbage after garbage for years. Alright, I’ll give them that Evangelion is a decent series if the spectacularly bad ending didn’t count. Since then only Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou and Mahoromatic (season 1 only, season 2 is very bad) are considered decent. It is ridiculous to hear people saying Kono Mini is great simply because it is produced by Gainax. The fanboyism some of these people exhibit is just scary.

If Gainax insisted on producing such garbage then I would like see them go bankrupt and fold. Good riddance and I won’t miss them a bit.

Four posts in a row! I guess that’s what happened when I didn’t update this blog since Tuesday. This is the obligatory anime related post. I finished watching the final episode of Planetes. (I’ve been writing it as “PlanetES” when the correct way to write it is “Planetes.” It turns out “planetes” means “wandering” in Greek.) Nothing surprising about the final episode because it is to wrap up what happened to all the major characters. Basically a happy ending. Overall this is one of my favorite series from last season, along with R.O.D. TV. I won’t go into details here because I sucked at doing series summaries. Let’s just say unless you are a pure action flick sucker you probably will like this series.

I’m on a roll here. I just finished watching the last episode of Kaleidostar. The ending is pretty good although I still think maboroshi no owaza is better than the tenshi no owaza that Sora performed at the end. The stake was higher when Sora and Layla were performing maboroshi no owaza, with the fate of the Kaleido Stage and their own lives on the line. There wasn’t this sense of urgency, the ‘do-or-die’ pressure when performing tenshi no ozawa. Because the stake was so high it makes the success of maboroshi no owaza more touching than tenshi no owaza. I’m not saying tenshi no ozawa isn’t good though. It is a very beautiful technique, just not as impressive as maboroshi no owaza.

Overall I love this series. The story is nothing new but the execution is good. Most characters are very likeable (the important word here is “most”) with good character developments. It’s a very entertaining and enjoyable show, although the EVA fanboys probably won’t like it as there are no religious references to make the story “deep” and “cool”. Hell, like I care whether those fanboys like it or not, I just love to take a few shots at them when I have a chance.

I’m looking forward to the DVD version. Unfortunately ADV is the company doing the localization. I don’t have any confidence in ADV at all. They have the dubious reputation of butchering a good series with horrendous translation. I heard they have improved over the years and I hope they will do a good job with Kaleidostar.