Video Backlog: Silent Mushi from Hades

"Hades Project Zeorymer"Publisher: U.S. Manga Corps (Central Park Media, USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 4 episodes x 29 minutes
Production Date: 1988 – 1990
Currently in Print (as of writing): No

Like a lot of Toshihiro Hirano OVA anime of the 1980’s, in this one there's robots and cute girls galore. I do prefer his earlier work such as the crazy sci fi reference filled “Iczer-1” and cool but rather flawed “Dangaio”. However this four part OVA is pretty darn good. Never mind the implausibility of the story (wouldn’t anyone notice the world’s largest electronics company was building eight giant robots piloted by genetically raised humans to take over the world?), it’s just a whole heap of fun. When you look at it closely, the story is pretty damn absurd. But whatever, most of the viewers are here for the robot battles. They’re exquisitely animated most of the time. I think it’s really sad that the OVA format is practically dead and buried. Let’s face it, a lot of anime series are just trash, however if they condensed some of those 12 or 13 episode series down to four or six episode OVAs, I think maybe we’d have a lot more palatable anime series out there, if not, much shorter high quality ones.

I didn’t realise the first time I watched this show some 15 years ago that it was based off a early 1980’s manga that was published in a hentai anthology. Toshihiro Hirano had nothing to do with the manga whatsoever, so it’s his take on it. Interestingly there is absolutely no sexual content in the OVA at all, except maybe just a hint of fan service from the lead girl Miku Himuro. If the character designs are familiar, that’s because they’re Kia Asamiya’s (working under his real name of Michitaka Kikuchi). There’s not much more I can say about this show really. It’s fun trash, but forgettable in a lot of ways. It looks great, but it’s fluff really. I note that this title got a DVD release in the early days of DVD in Japan and most recently got a Blu-ray release over there as well. So for some reason this short OVA series must have some sort of fan base over there. I’ll give it 6 out of 10.

"Silent Service"
Publisher: U.S. Manga Corps (Central Park Media, USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 100 minutes
Production Date: 1995
Currently in Print (as of writing): No

This is a TV special originally aired on TBS in late 1995, based on a late 1980’s manga and produced by Sunrise. As I’ve said before, there’s hardly a Sunrise show I dislike. Sure some are mediocre, but hardly anything from that studio really sucks. When I first saw this special about a decade ago (and I can’t remember if I borrowed someone’s tape or it got played at the local anime club, probably the former), I disliked it immensely. It felt quite dull most of the time. On my second (or is it third?) viewing I’ve come to appreciate it a lot more. The central core plot of a rogue nuclear submarine coupled with the action sequences makes for an exciting story. However the big negative here is how that story is framed. The original manga was probably intended for jaded salary men who remembered the time before the economic bubble burst and Japan was number one. There’s this absurd nationalism woven though the plot. Because as you know, everyone is against Japan and wants to bring them down, especially the US who wants to reoccupy the country just like after WWII. Uh huh. Yeah, sure I can understand the whole Self Defence Force thing versus the country actually having a defence force argument, especially back in the 1980’s, but at the time of the anime’s broadcast, Japan had taken part in at least a couple of peace keeping missions (and continues to do so today), so the argument is moot really.

Apart from the flag waving right wing nationalist rhetoric, the plot is pretty absurd. First you have the sub’s crew, who are playing dead as the whole nuclear sub thing is secret. You also have this tortured plot thread where the Japanese sub crew actually comes under the US military, not the JSDF. The actions that the loony captain of the nuclear sub takes are really quite strange (making the sub an independent nation for instance). It’s really hard at times to take any of it seriously as it seems so farfetched and out of character in terms of the foreign policy of Japan and the US. Because the designs and the realistic setting, you’re expecting the story and plot to be credible. However in the end it just comes off as a right wing nationalist’s wet dream. Kind of reminds me of something like rather laughable 1980’s movie “Red Dawn” in terms of its right wing paranoid outlook.

I’ve probably made this show sound a lot worse than it is. You can easily ignore all the nationalist nonsense and enjoy the action sequences and the hunt for the sub as the JSDF try to head off the US Navy. There’s also the relationship between the mutineer captain and the other submarine captain sent out to stop him. Both were in the same military academy together, and their personalities and roles become reversed. The big problem for English speakers though is that only one third of the anime has been released. The two concluding parts, both feature length OVAs, never made it to the English speaking world. This is a bit frustrating as the TV special just ends part way through the story with no real resolution or even an attempt at one. Overall, this one was pretty good. 6.5 out of 10.

"Mushi-shi"
Publisher: Funimation (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 26 episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 2005 - 2006
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Another title I got from Right Stuf’s bargain bin. It’s always a bit of a lottery, especially when you aren’t familiar with the title. I had heard some good stuff about this show, but it wasn’t hyped like some shows are. I had this incorrect assumption about the show that it would be rather gory or a bit like “Princess Vampire Miyu” or “Hell Girl” with a lot of mysticism and what not. The promotional material for the show threw me as well. The main character, Ginko, is seen in what looks like modern clothes, which also tricked me. What the show is in reality is an extremely well-produced and mature series. Yes it does contain mystical elements, but the Mushi are treated as everyday occurrences and aren’t shown as being malicious phenomena. And interestingly only some in the show believe in the existence of the Mushi. This works really well as it set in a time period which was full of local legends and myths.

The basic structure of the show is that Ginko is a wandering through rural Japan collecting items and stories related to Mushi and solving problems caused by the creatures. Partly this is to make a living and partly because he attracts Mushi and can’t live in the one place too long as it would cause problems. His philosophy is that humans and Mushi should exist side by side in peace. After all, they’re both only trying to live and survive. The series is episodic with no episodes which really carry on from one another. Some may not like this, but I thought it worked really well. There are also a couple of episodes dedicated to Ginko’s early days. While the basic plot of any episode has Ginko solving a Mushi related problem and moving on, not all episodes end on a happy note for either Mushi or humans. I thought this was quite refreshing. Also refreshing was the leisurely pace the story was told. It never seems to be any rush to come to any conclusion. The writers also leave a lot of time for codas rather than episode coming to a conclusion in the final seconds of the show. There are some tense and creepy moments, but these are few and far in between. The artwork is gorgeous, especially the rural backgrounds. The Mushi themselves range from the harmless and helpful to the horrifyingly deadly and seemingly malevolent. Their function and behaviour are also varied which makes each episode unique.

I did have a couple of minor problems with this show. The big one was the secondary character designs. A lot of the characters we meet seem very similar in design. I had a lot of trouble at times figuring out if characters had appeared previously in the series. Young women and men seem to be all the same in this world. Also some of stories were just a little hard to swallow, however this only related to a couple of episodes. Most of the time I could easily suspend disbelief. Back to praising the show a bit more, I also loved the opening theme which sounds very much like a José González impersonator. Overall this was a fantastic show. Definitely not what I was expecting at all. Funimation’s packaging (I got the single DVD releases) was fantastic. Probably one of the best shows I’ve seen in quite a while. I’m surprised that the fan buzz around this show isn’t all that big. 8.5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 23 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: “Welcome to the N.H.K.”

Publisher: ADV Films, Funimation (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 24 episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 2006
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Story Outline: Tatsuhiro Sato, a 22 year old university drop out who has become a recluse and hardly has any contact with the outside world. It’s a phenomena that Japanese society has termed hikikomori (shut ins). For four long years he pretty much stays in his apartment with his lifestyle paid for by an allowance by his parents. Sato develops a theory that his life has been reduced to its current pathetic state by an organisation called the N.H.K., Nihon Hikikomori Kyokai (Japanese Shut-in Association), who have conspired to turn young men into recluses unable to function in society and do so via anime and other otaku goods. One day a middle aged women spruiking for a religious group appears at the door accompanied a young woman whom he immediately takes an interest in. While he successfully manages to get rid of the pair of them, Sato meets the young woman, Misaki Nakahara, again after attempting to apply for a job. She makes Sato an offer to cure from his hikikomori ways. However this is easier said than done. Sato denies the fact he is a hikikomori and has lied so much to Misaki that he is in the process of creating a doujin game with his anime otaku neighbour. Naturally things don’t go to plan with the game and Sato ends up wallowing in his paranoid delusions about conspiracies and hallucinations of his electrical appliances advising him what to do. Misaki’s life line may be his only way out.

Mini Review: Due to the similarity of the shows, I’ve put as much space as possible between this show and “Genshiken 2”. This was a good idea I think, as while the shows deal with similar ideas and themes, they couldn’t be more different. It was odd that during the last decade we had so many anime shows dedicated to various aspects of fandom. The majority like “Cosplay Complex” and “Comic Party” celebrate otaku culture and are rather light hearted in nature. “N.H.K.” is the complete opposite of the vast majority of these shows.

What really struck me immediately with the first couple of episodes of this show is how practically every character is rather unlikable. The only one who seems rather normal and well adjusted is Misaki, though early on the impression given is that she is a God botherer, but I’m not going to hold that against her. As the story progresses in the first half of the show, the clear message seems to be that despite Sato being portrayed as a loser a lot of the cast have their own problems which seem just as worse. His upperclassman from high school, Hitomi, relies on a cocktail of prescription drugs to function normally. Sato’s neighbour, Yamazaki, is highly strung young man who is treated as a freak by his college classmates and also has a superiority complex. There’s a lot of psychological concepts touched upon here. First and foremost is the hikikomori, which seems a purely Japanese condition as it doesn’t fit into anything in western diagnostic psychological manuals. Stuff like asperger’s syndrome or other autism related conditions aren’t compatible. It’s more in the realm of obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety, but even then it’s not a comfortable fit. Sato also has delusions and hallucinations of talking appliances as well as a persecution complex in the form of his obsessions with conspiracies. Depression and suicide is also touched upon. Seriously, it’s almost exclusively a cast of broken characters in this show.

The first half of the show ends up on an emotional high. I actually came to like a lot of the characters at this point. It did feel it was going to teeter over the edge of sentimentality and sap at this point, though it manages to avoid this. Certainly all way through the series it treads a very fine line. It’s really dark and unforgiving. I wondered at times if I really wanted to watch these characters struggle. The overall feeling I got was the characters are very, very sad people. They seem to make little progress most of the time and it gives the impression they are continually stuck in a rut. While the show is pretty dark at times there is a lot of humour in the show, though some of it is pretty dark. However there was enough humour there for me to at least take the edge off the darkness.

After the emotional high of the climax of the first half of the show, I did feel really let down when little had changed for Sato at this point. It was like so much had advanced in terms of plot, then by the next episode it just retreats back to where it was a few episodes prior. This happens a couple times in the show. I suppose this is in line with how a person with a diagnosis of being a hikikomori would react, but it is a little frustrating in terms of the way the story is told. I’ve read a review or two of the show where the reviewers didn’t think much of the ending. For me, I accepted it and understood it. Without trying to give the ending away, I think because of the fragile state of two certain characters, it probably couldn’t end any other way. In fact I quite liked the ending and the enjoyed it’s realistic take, despite some of the strange elements in the show. Much has been made of some of the dodgy animation in this show. There are some cuts that have really, really awful off model animation, but these are few and far in between. Mostly the animation is good. The natural hair colour of the characters and colour palette added to the realism I thought.

I bought this show when ADV was having it’s issues with Sojitz and managed to get the box plus the first five volumes. Latter when Funimation got the series, they eventually relented and pressed up limited copies of the sixth and final volume of the show, otherwise I would have had to buy the entire second half of the show. Thank god Funimation did the right thing for those collecting single discs. ADV’s covers are, um how do I put this, “tarty” to say the least. ADV has this history of ramping up the “sex factor” in their promotion and public face of their titles, though I think the Japanese company is more to blame. These covers don’t really fit in with the content of the show (the above image is one side of ADV’s box for the series). Other than that, the adaptation is very good. Some liner notes on hikikomori and the real life NHK (Japan’s public broadcaster) wouldn’t have gone astray. To sum up, this show gave me a strange feeling between cringing, sadness and feeling pity for the characters a lot of the time. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way before watching any anime. So weird. Yet the show was really intriguing. The show is really a hard watch in many ways and not very rewarding as such, yet it’s enjoyable at the same time. Yes, I know that’s a weird way to sum up my feelings on the series, but that’s how I felt. Not a show to watch if you’re feeling depressed though. 7.5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 23 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: Puzzling Incas

“Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva”
Publisher: Panorama (Hong Kong)
Format: Region 3 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional Cantonese dub and English and Chinese Subtitles
Length: 97 minutes
Production Date: 2009
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

So I may have stated a few times before, I’m not a gamer. At all. For some reason I never got into it. Never even had a Commodore 64 as a child. Didn’t have a computer until I was 19 or so (family computer) and I didn’t buy one for myself until I was 25. But heck, we’re going back to a time before the internet was popular, as a such. Anyway, the film is based on a pretty successful series of puzzle games on the Nintendo DS and 3DS. It sounds like a terrible idea for a film, as a great deal of game adaptations are. Admittedly I didn’t have high hopes for this film. I just plunked it together in my last Hong Kong order along with “Haruhi”. It’s cheap, and I didn’t want to order the UK version of this film because the rough treatment (banged up and broken DVD cases and loose discs galore) and packaging of the last few orders I’d done through Amazon.co.uk.

After a very quick (less than a minute) introduction to the franchise, we are plunged into the first scene where Professor Layton and his young apprentice Luke Triton are at the tail end of a case. This sequence really shows off the unique character designs and great animation. Over the last few years, there has been numerous complaints from the Japanese animation industry about pay and working conditions as well as staff pissing off over to the more lucrative game industry. I suppose this film is like a return for at least a few of those former anime industry people. To a large degree the film is a breath of fresh air. It looks and feels really different from any anime out there at the moment. Besides the unusual character designs, like the games there is a sepia tone throughout the film. Visually it just looks fantastic.

In terms of plot, it doesn’t fare quite as well, however it is a pretty strong story and manages to overcome its game origins. It does feel more like a film rather than a game, which more than a lot of game adaptations can claim. Early on its origins do trip it up, as it looks like we’ll be treated to scene after scene of puzzle solving. Luckily we’re taken out of this pattern quite quickly. Some of plot feels rather silly and over the top. But if you just let it wash over you, it’s a really fun ride. I also really enjoyed the vintage British setting, though found Layton’s commentary on what British gentlemen should be like a bit silly and sort of showed the game maker’s ignorance of the UK. Ignore the game origins and film is a great little family film that looks nothing like any other anime film of recent times. I also have to make note of the subs on this disc. They’re fantastic and are a good size and font, something which has been lacking in a last few discs I’ve bought from Hong Kong. And may I remind you I’m talking about legit releases here, not bootlegs. No wonder some go the illegal route if that’s the standard of legit products. I’ll give it 7 out of 10 despite some of the leaps of logic the plot makes.

“Nazca”
Publisher: Pioneer (Geneon, USA)
Format: Region 1 and 4 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 12 episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 1998
Currently in Print (as of writing): No

A rather mediocre late night anime from the late 1990’s. It deals with a group of high school students who are mostly in a kendo club who discover they are reincarnations of Inca warriors. Naturally the main character’s master (also a reincarnated Inca warrior) wants to resurrect a plan from his previous life which involves purify the world (in other words wiping out every person on the planet) but also brought about the end of the Inca civilisation. Mystical bullshit and fight after fight ensues.

OK, maybe I’m being rather mean. There was a massive glut of late night anime in late 1990’s, which can be blamed on the success of “Evangelion”. Producers jammed as much anime as they could on TV which saw the birth of anime into the wee hours of the night and therefore more anime aimed at mature audiences. While this was all well and good, not every show was a success (and none as big of a success as “Evangelion”). There was a lot of trash. I suppose you could put “Nazca” in that category. There is a decent story at the core of this show, but we have seen it all before really. Some dodgy CG in the middle of the first episode really put me off the show when I first saw it about 12 years ago (via ye olde VHS fansub). I never expressed any desire to see the show again until Geneon left the US market and I bought a few more DVDs than I should of really have a coupe, years back. While the show does contain voice acting talents from Megumi Hayashibara (whom I think was just about in every successful anime in the 1990’s) and striking character designs from Hirotoshi Sano (of “Bounty Dog” and “Tekkaman Blade II” fame), I think in the end it’s not told in an interesting manner. There are a lot of fights (it becomes a bit of boring slug fest in some sections) and not much explanation as to why some events take place.

It’s not all bad though. I did enjoy it to a degree. I wasn’t bored by it, but it did feel really sub standard. One element they use sparingly (thankfully) is the CG. It looks dreadful, like it was from a PC game of the era. Compared to other shows of the time, it seems they really short changed this one in the CG effects department. During a bit of research on this show I found out that a couple short clips from the anime appear in the opening credits of “Malcolm in the Middle”. Yup. Why did they choose this show? I can only give this show 6 out of 10, which probably a lot more than what most people would give it.

Remaining Backlog: 23 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: At The Movies

“Summer Wars”
Publisher: Funimation (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 114 minutes
Production Date: 2009
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

I originally saw this film on it’s very, very limited Australian run as part of the “Reel Anime” mini film festival (which Madman puts on ever year) in the last quarter of 2010. Though the film was more widely distributed than some live action cinema releases. I think it got well over a dozen screenings in my city alone. Not bad for a subtitled anime film with practically no press and very few reviews. Then again the city had three anime clubs less than a half a decade ago (down to one now). Not bad for a population of about 340,000. Anyway, this is the second Madhouse feature from Mamoru Hosoda who directed “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time”. It looks like he’s kept a lot of the same staff including character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamato. There are a lot of fantastic elements in this film I loved. You have the hero of the piece who’s a scrawny but very likable nerd, an oddball extended family who were once big cheeses, but have come plummeting back down to the ground and the online work of OZ which is brilliantly realised.

While this movie is quite spectacular and shows off on occasion, especially in the world of OZ, Hosoda knows that the key to this film is its characters. It’s very much like a real family with its patriarch grandmother, a wonderful mix of relatives and the black sheep of the family. It feels so natural and real. The flipside of that, the online world of OZ, is amazing. You get it straight away. Best thing of all is that it’s pretty believable and in fact mirrors online community Second Life quite closely, including incidents such as the “flying penis” one in 2006. The “Love Machine” programme (terrible name you have to admit) is also done quite well. I felt that towards the end the actions and representations seems a little bit over the top, but the damage it causes is quite plausible, especially when you consider how much we rely on networks.

However there a couple of problems I had with the film. It does become extremely schmaltzy and sentimental at a couple of point in the movie. At one particular point it just felt so cheesy, which was such a shame as it was at a climatic point of the film. It’s a bit of a shame really. “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time” was complete devoid of this. Actually other than that, it’s a fantastic family film. I was relay surprised at the number of parents bringing their children (mostly early teens and some a bit lower in age) to the screening I was at. I think it’s really quite apparent that Studio Ghibli made a very bad decision in not trying to keep Mamoru Hosoda at the studio. The Japanese anime industry needs to keep making films like this one. They’re a great antidote to mass produced animated CG films that Hollywood is churning out at the moment (even Pixar is losing its lustre. Do we really need “Cars 2” or “Monsters Inc 2”?). Along with “Ponyo” and Madhouse’s other family feature “Mai Mai Miracle”, it seems that 2009 was a great year for animated family films in Japan. Overall this film wasn’t as great as Hosoda’s last feature, but very good anyway 8 out of 10.

“The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya”
Publisher: Intercontinental Video Limited (Hong Kong)
Format: Region 3 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English and Chinese Subtitles
Length: 163 minutes
Production Date: 2010
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Yep, Haruhi. Uh huh… Look, I never quite understood what the hell the fuss was about with the first series came out. Once the gimmick of the out of sequence episodes was done with, well it’s a pretty looking but ultimately an empty vessel. For me it was way too overhyped and perhaps that’s why I ultimately felt ripped off in the end. The first episode was hoot, and the ending animation was cool (but draining after a while), but, yeah… I despised the fact it referenced parts of a series of light novels that at the time of its original R1 release weren’t available in English (at least legitimately that is) and the R1 didn’t come with any sort of liner notes. There’s something really not quite right about that. It’s like this show was deliberately excluding those who weren’t hard core fans of the show. Apparently the second season was the “worst thing ever”, but I enjoyed it more than the first for some reason and found the “Endless Eight” episodes to be hardly as awful as people made them out to be (repetitive, annoyed at the lack of progress by Kyon, and wished more variety could and should have been included considering the time span? Hell yes!). Anyway, supposedly the movie is to make up for that ‘orrible second series. Yeah, well…

The cardinal sin of any film is that it should not be boring. I don’t know what Kyoto Animation has done, but they’ve had a fantastic crack at making this film as dull as dishwater. First problem is the runtime. Some may claim this film is the longest animated film ever, but unfortunately kids both versions of “Final Yamato” beat “Haruhi”. I think at least 20 or 30 minutes could be cut out of the film without any consequences. Some of it seems really pointless, unless there is some insignificant detail in those scenes which reference some freaking obscure detail in the novels, which I’m never going to read anyway… The animation is extraordinarily good, but seems wasted on rather insignificant things. Like a tight shot of Kyon walking through a doorway, animated at 24 frames per second. I mean, why? It’s not particularly tense or suspenseful. Coming up to the 25 minute mark, we get to the actual plot of this film. I think it’s a really good idea for a film. I loved a lot of the middle part of the film. Kyon is put into a strange and confusing situation and he does exactly what you think he would. He leaves no avenue unexplored. I was starting to really enjoy this film, but alas it wasn’t to last for long.

For a film devoted to ESPer, time travellers, alien cyborgs and a horribly unpleasant teenage girl with suspected ADHD who can change reality at will unconsciously, it does seem to be very unexciting and told in a very straight forward way. The colour palette is very muted (yes, I know its winter, but still…) and there are only a few select settings the film takes place in (pretty much the same as the first two series). There seems to be a few plot holes in the story as well. The big glaring one for me is why was Mikuru there? Oh what? Was there something in the fucking novel that I need to know about? You also have the big reveal as to who caused the problems in the first place. Wasn’t exactly too enthralled with that sequence. It requires a massive leap of logic and a great big helping of disbelief. If Yuki can change this much, isn’t just as much of a danger as Haruhi? (Yeah, I know this dealt with later on in the film, but still...) Why can Yuki just change Haruhi so she’s less of a threat in that case? These selectively applied rules to this world and lack of logic really shat me to tears. Yuki’s actions are just a deus ex machina for this film. Yet the fans seem to just lap this stuff up mindlessly and point to the light novels if anyone points out the gaping holes in the plot of the anime adaptation. Call me weird, but I kind of expect a film or a TV series to have all the information in it. I shouldn’t be expected to search out and read novels to understand it. If you can’t transfer the story from the novel into a film, than that’s a poor screenplay. Though this obfuscation is probably a deliberate attempt to make people seek out the novels. Yeah, I’m rather cynical, huh?

Most annoying part of the film is Kyon’s little post-Evangelion navel gazing sequence. Oh, that felt so damn tired and forced. It was like they were saying “Look! This film just isn’t a vapid, empty, overly long but extremely good looking film about the misadventures of some moe characters and a sarcastic boy. It’s intellectually stimulating and deep too!”. Yeah, uh huh… And then we get to the ending which is so very much a whimper rather than any sort of bang. Then some more sarcastic commentary narrated by Kyon, a mournful a Capella to drive you nuts during the end credits and some bizarre post script with Yuki in a public library which is meant to be cute or something. I just went; “What, that’s it?!”.

Like a lot of the Kyoto Animation stuff, I don’t get this one either. I’ve tried and can’t see what others see. The problem is with the characters that are pretty much the same stereotypes we’ve seen before, except they’ve given little tweaks and disguised a bit. The core story of this movie is a fantastic one, except it’s told in an extremely dull manner. Seriously, there’s ESPers, time travellers, alien cyborgs and an annoying girl who can change reality on a whim. This is the best they could do?! Seriously? Perhaps the problem is they boxed themselves in it terms of story. Its shoe horned in around events in the second series, and that series takes place with in the first series. Perhaps if they created a brand new original story set after these events, maybe we would have had a better film. The Hong Kong disc has some great subs, but has a couple of formatting problems (the translator/subtitler talks about it here on the Mania.com forum). It’s good enough for me, and I shall not be buying Bandai Entertainment’s release when they eventually set a release date (plus the usual constant rescheduling, delays and possible mono audio or disc fuck ups and eventual recall… etc, etc). It’s really not a bad film per se, but could have been a whole lot better. 6 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 23 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: Working on a tatami mat

"Working!! (Wagnaria!!)"
Publisher: NIS America (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Subtitles
Length: 13 Episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 2010
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

I always cringe when people describe anime as a “genre”. Animation is a medium and anime has a ton of genres. Still over a decade and a half of watching anime, I’m still surprised at what anime throws up as plots and situations. I mean a show about high school students taking up part time jobs in a family restaurant? I suppose it’s not the most bizarre plot line I’ve come across, but it does seem to be odd for a plot of an animated TV series. Like an increasing number of “slice of life” shows, its origins stem from a four panel manga. Luckily the show seems to flow well and isn’t jerky or feels fragmented. The first half of the series really impressed me, especially the first episode which was jam packed with introductions of the characters and tons of jokes. I was amazed at how well that was done and how it didn’t feel overwhelming.

The main problem I had with the show was Inami, the 17 year old high schooler who works at the restaurant as a waitress. She has androphobia (fear of men) and punches any man she sees, yet she’s timid as a mouse usually. Surely this kind of character has been done to death. I had horrible flashbacks to “Love Hina” where the lame lead was continually abused by his object of affection. It always confuses me as to why this situation is considered to be “funny”, while the reverse is always seen as abuse. Double standard for sure. While Inami isn’t like the female lead from “Love Hina” in terms of personality (thank god), and the fact her personality is quite pleasant, albeit rather submissive, she becomes the dominant figure in the series and her antics of involuntarily punching men become a bit tiresome.

However there is a lot more to this show than one girl who punches people. Like all (good) slice of life shows, the personalities and interactions between the characters is what makes the show work. Popura the extremely short and child-like and becomes the fall guy for a lot of the jokes in the show. Sota is the key to the whole show and ties the characters together makes the whole thing work, though his obsession with cute things (including Popura) is a bit overdone. There are also a number of great supporting characters such as the female ex gang leader who is the manager but does no actual work, the obsessive waitress who fawns over the manager and also the two male chiefs who provide a great deal of humor. I thought the inclusion of Sota’s overbearing sisters (one of whom also punches him, like Inami) was rather a pointless exercise.

NIS America’s release look brilliant, however there are some issues with the discs which the problems seem to vary between DVD players. Mine were fine until the closing animation of the very last episode. The disc paused a number of times. Seems to be the old Bandai Entertainment curse of a couple of years ago. It’s been put down to cheap crappy DVD replicators. The art box is also made in China, which just goes to show the length distributors will go to make their products as cost effective as possible. Just a sign of the times I guess. The US title of “Wagnaria!!” is actually the name of the restaurant in the show. Unsure why NIS decided to name the show that, probably having to do with “product differentiation” (all the credits and titles in the show say “Working!!” however). As a series it is pretty damn funny and I had a great time with it. However the whole man punching thing got old pretty quick (though they try to resolve it later in the show which I thought was good) and so were Sota’s sisters. I’ll give it a solid 7 out of 10.

"The Tatami Galaxy"
Publisher: Siren Visual (Australia)
Format: Region 4 DVD, PAL, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Subtitles
Length: 11 Episodes x 22 minutes
Production Date: 2010
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Siren’s second noitaminA title (Fuji Television’s block of anime programming to bring in an older audience). And while Madman may have got the more commercial titles from this block, Siren are releasing some interesting titles too. However they are of the more experimental type. I would guess that Siren hasn’t paid a great deal for these licences as they are sub only and I can only imagine how badly something like this would sell. The plot revolves around an unnamed young man who enters university with the hope of finding love in one of the many clubs on campus. However things go astray and over the next two years he is often led down the path of destruction by a demonic looking fellow student called Ozu. He also develops a sort of friendship with a younger female student named Akashi. Mix in a bunch of other odd ball characters and there you have it.

Well actually there’s a lot more to it than that, but that’s the general set up. The problem I had with this series is the execution of the ideas. What happens in the first two thirds of the show is that our hapless unnamed student begins as a first year, joins a club on his first day, over the course of two years finds it’s not all it’s cracked up to be, decides to get revenge on club or associated persons or gets himself in massive trouble, then everything rewinds and resets to repeat once again the next episode. Essentially it’s a Japanese animated version of “Groundhog Day”. Well, not quite, but there are a lot of similarities. I think the structure of the series makes the show unnecessarily repetitive. After the first couple of episodes you know how it’s going to begin, you know that the main character will hate his life in the club, you know that Ozu is going to do something bad and make the situation worse, you know that the main character will meet an old female fortune teller who will tell him to seise an opportunity and somehow that’s connected to a little figure that Akashi lost and now he owns etc etc. Sure, the guts of the story it different every time, but is structure is bit predictable and dull after a while.

The last third changes things up a little where over three episodes our hero chooses three different outcomes to the one storyline. The final two are the best of the series (and explain the series’ title). They’re a bit “Twilight Zone”, but it does explain a lot of what happens in earlier episodes. The resolution of the series is fantastic. The series is very clever and at points it is quite funny, however it does get bogged down in the way it’s told and presented. That’s the major problem with the show. No matter how good that ending is, I found it a little bit of a chore to get through. I also found parts of it just too odd or silly to get into. Frustration set in after a while. On the upside, the art style is unusual and quite interesting (but it’s a bit monochromatic and dull in parts), the OP and Ed songs were great and having a cowboy and his horse as visual representations of the lead’s libido was a fun idea. Unlike their last noitaminA title (“Welcome to Irabu’s Office”), Siren has added a ton of bonus material such as a “making of” featurette, clean opening and closings, promo and TV spots and three bonus mini episodes. Surprisingly all of these have English subs, but I was tired out from the show, so I’ve decided to skip these until the weekend. Overall a great package from Siren (and remember this is the first time the show has appeared in the world on home video in English), but the show isn’t all that great. I can see what they were trying to achieve and the concept is solid, but the execution is a little off and it didn’t work for me. There’s also the possibility that Westerners won’t know what the hell a tatami mat is and won’t get some of the references. I wanted to like this a lot more, but I can only give it 6 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 23 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: the Unbalanced Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture

Unfortunately life and broken formatting on Blogger is getting in the way of writing. I’ve watched a couple more shows than this, but this is all you’ll get for now. Thinking of packing it in and migrating to Wordpress…

“Kujibiki Unbalance”/”Genshiken” OVA
Publisher: AnimeWorks (Media Blasters, USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 12 Episodes x 24 minutes (Unbalance), 3 Episodes x 24 minutes (Genshiken OVA)
Production Date: 2006 - 2007
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Turning a incidental throwaway segment that forms part of a larger show into its own stand alone show rarely works out. In fact I can’t think of any which have worked. I remember the live action film “Space Travellers” having an OVA released which was made up mostly of the animated sections (an anime one of the characters was crazy about) made for the film (oddly the OVA made to the US, but not the film it came from, however there is a legit Hong Kong release of the movie which is subtitled). It was pretty dreadful. The original “Kujibiki Unbalance” OVAs that came with the video release of “Genshiken” were pretty darn forgettable. However with this remake TV series, somehow they’ve managed to make this show at least OK. It’s not the woeful piece of crap I was expecting.

While the show is sometimes comes with the subtitle “The Second Term”, it seems to have little to no relation to the OVA series that came with the video release of the original “Genshiken” TV series. The character designs, story and I think the voice cast are completely different. It’s all pretty shallow and there is only a threadbare plot until the last couple of episodes, but it still manages to entertain. Somewhat. It’s been a week or so since I’ve watched it, and I’ve forgotten most of the show. The TV series was coupled with three new “Genshiken” OVAs, which follow directly on from the TV series. Unfortunately if you hate “Unbalance” and you want to watch both seasons of “Genshiken”, you’re going to have to get this set (the marketers of this show are annoyingly sly). That’s because two new characters are introduced (one being very important to the second season’s plot) and Saki’s personality changes a bit. It was so long since I saw the original series, that it took an entire episode to get back into it. The three episodes presented here are a lot of fun and seem to build up to the one big punch line towards the end of the episode in almost all of them. The OVAs cover things like Madarame’s friendship with Saki and Ohno’s cosplay obsession and spitefulness (as well as more cosplay drama involving a new character). Overall though as a package (and as an average between the two shows), I’d give this a 6.5 out of 10. If it was “Genshiken” only, it’d rate a lot higher.

“Genshiken 2”
Publisher: AnimeWorks (Media Blasters, USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 12 Episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 2007
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Following on directly from the OVA series that came with “Unbalance”, this second season has a lot of the same sort of situations plus a few new changes. First up we have the two new characters; “Kucchi”, an over the top otaku who doesn’t really add much to the show, and more importantly Ogiue, a new female member passed on by the manga club who’s an introvert and declares she hates otaku and isn’t an otaku herself (of course she’s an otaku, just a closet one). At the beginning of the series and throughout the series various members graduate and leave college (it’s a university really, I’m just using the American terminology used in the translation) to find work, but some always manage to gravitate back to the club room. For the first two thirds of its length, it’s an extremely enjoyable and very witty and funny show. Painfully so at times. There are a lot of situations here that are horribly true to life, and yes maybe I’ve experienced similar situations or know similar people to the ones portrayed here.

The last third changes gear a bit. We have the introduction of two female American otaku, and dare I suggest that these characterisations (putting aside the fact the voices are done by Japanese actors, albeit who can almost convince they are native English speakers - if you can suspend a little disbelief that is) are chillingly close to the mark. The show also gets quite serious with Sasahara job hunting and coming up empty handed, eventually giving up for a while. But I guess that’s the point of this show. It’s not a fantasy, it’s a kind of reality that people deal with (presented as a satire of course). It sort of mirrors to a large degree the higher education and employment situation in Japan. It’s totally alien to a lot of people outside Japan. I look at this and think this can’t be really healthy; the need to conform, the pressure to perform at high school etc. No wonder people flip out or take up hobbies which send them into an alternate fantasy land, especially in College where life is a bit more relaxed. Places like Akihabara make sense when you view Japanese society as a whole and not down the prism of its pop culture and public face.

Back to the show; All the good stuff is at the front end of the show. In particular I enjoyed the awkward sexual tension developing between Ohno and Tanaka and it’s hilarious conclusion, the club trying to produce a doujin with infighting and general procrastination until the last possible moment, and Saki’s nightmares about where her relationship with Kohsaka might end up. Though that’s not to say the last part is bad. In particular I enjoyed Sasahara’s burgeoning relationship and how he gets out of rut. I thought this seriousness did put a dampener on things as it’s really a bit of a light hearted show. It’s interesting that despite the fact Sasahara becomes the club’s president and he was a key figure in the original series, for the first two thirds of the show he’s in the background, much like Kohsaka (who is barely noticeable in this series). The show for the most part revolves around Saki, Ohno, Ogiue and Madarame. And that’s not bad at all. Michiko Yokote who did the scripts on about a third of the “Patlabor” TV and follow up New OVA series was the screenwriter. She certainly knows how to write for this bunch of characters. The reason why this show works so well is because of these characters. In the end, this season isn’t quite as good as the first, mainly due to the seriousness of the last arc, but I couldn’t see them ending any other way. 8 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 23 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).