Confession Time: I Ran an Anime Club

Originally I was involved a lot more in anime fandom, but somewhere along the line (well actually about six or seven years ago), I sort of gave up on the social side of it. Not that I was all that social to begin with, but anyway... Once upon a time there were these things called anime clubs. Well OK, they still do exist, but you have to admit they’re pretty damn rare. Out of the four that existed where I live, only one remains active today, and there was a period where three where operating at the same time. I think that’s pretty good for a niche hobby in a city of just over 350,000.

I (re)discovered Japanese animation after seeing some rental tapes of “Star Blazers” in 1995, and I soon began renting some of the Manga Entertainment titles. Then I started buying them. A little soon after, I was told about the Canberra Anime Society (CAS) by a flatmate in 1996 or so. There were playing Patlabor TV episodes, and I liked the movies, so I went along. The club’s first screening was on 14 January 1995 in Green Room of Arscott House in University of Canberra (UC) (that screening had “Record of Lodoss War”, “Dirty Pair Flash”, the first “Silent Mobius” movie, a couple of “Kimagure Orange Road” OVAs and the seventh OVA of “Bubblegum Crisis”). Originally run by David Geeves, Bruce Buckham, and Peter Kirby, somewhere along the line there were enough people coming along to screenings that they had taken over a much larger venue, the small theatre in “the Hub” of UC. It wasn’t your typical uni club. In fact all three running the show had no affiliations with the uni as far as I was aware. The deal was there was no membership as such, you just paid your four dollars for about four and a half hours of screenings held every three weeks.

Initially I did find the club to be intimidating. Well, David at least. I remembered asking where I could buy fansubs and was flatly told that “You can’t buy them”. That was it, no explanation of how to obtain them or anything. Luckily those who went to the club were a lot friendlier and easy going than those who ran it. Over the next couple of years, things plugged along nicely at the club. Then Peter left. I got the feeling from what happened it wasn’t amicable. It seems that Peter was the main source of tapes and that was soon apparent as the quality of screenings became crappier and crappier. One screening included a dubbed version of one of the “Fatal Fury” OVAs which was mildly heckled at one point in the screening. Somewhere along the line, I managed to become chummy with Bruce and Dave by trading fansubs and tapes, and I ended up giving them stuff to play, out of complete pity at their worsening schedules.

But the writing was on the wall. By early 1998, a couple of former patrons, Matt Burke and Sam Wilson, had set up a rival club with the rather grandiose name of the ANU Otaku Council: the Asian Film Society. I knew the main aim of the two guys running the club was to put CAS out of business so to speak. As their club was an official Australian National University (ANU) club, they had free access to one of the small theatres there and charged an incredibly small fee of four dollars per term. Meanwhile Bruce and Dave had to deal with hiring out the theatre at UC which was getting close to $100 per screening. While I did help out the ANU club for a while, it soon became apparent to me that my tapes is all that they wanted. I bailed and subjected to some rather hurtful emails which really surprised me to be honest (I truly believe I did nothing wrong on my part, nor spat venom at them, like they did to me). One of my friends who went to the CAS screenings, Nathan, had been in contract with Bruce and Dave (he had specifically bought a lot of hentai tapes from the US so he could trade more mainstream stuff with them) and told me the guys were through with the club. Somehow myself and Nathan came up with the crazy idea of taking over the club.

So as of the 20 June 1998 screening, we took over running the club. I really don’t how I survived this period. At the time I had undiagnosed severe depression (which had begun three years earlier) and undiagnosed aspergers syndrome. While at times it was rather tense, I can’t say it wasn’t fun. I made a few friendships, but unfortunately most of those have dissolved over the years. Most of 1998 went pretty well. We were always in the black, mostly due to the fact the ANU club wasn’t playing anything of real note and we already had a following. Plus I’d managed to get some rare stuff through trades. We were always well in the black financially. Dave lent us his subbed copy of “Princess Momonoke” which went down a treat. It still hadn’t had any sort of commercial English release at that point. We continued on into 1999 with a screening of the two “Evangelion” films (we were the first club in Australia to play them), but Nathan had had enough and decided he’d had enough and left. He eventually studied Japanese and Cantonese and got a job in southern prefecture council in Japan translating stuff into English.

I kept the club going through 1999, but the screenings happened semi-regularly (about every 8 weeks) rather than at the usual three week intervals. I found it hard to find material that was good and we hadn’t played. Also Madman had appeared on the scene and ramped up their release schedule. After a drought of anime brought on by video company Siren’s mishandling of the Manga Entertainment label, suddenly anime was becoming more accessible. But there were several tipping points which made me rethink running the club. First, the time when I played “Perfect Blue” and one of the patrons laughed during the rape scene. I was also getting some minor complaints from some patrons who didn’t like some of the material I was playing. On the last screening in 1999, I got at least one complaint for every title I played, including “Cowboy Bebop”. At this point I really wondered why I was doing this. The final nail in the coffin was the fact that one of the last bills I got from the university had skyrocketed by 40%. I talked them down to the normal fee as I had absolutely no warning of the price hike, but it did shit me. Considering the fact the theatre was a little rough around the edges, to say the least.

A minority of the patrons shat me with their demands. That was probably the greatest annoyance with the club. Why bother if people don’t appreciate what you do? Fuck it, I didn’t have to do this. I joined the ANU Otaku Council: the Asian Film Society which had become the ANU Anime Society (ANUAS). I had met the new president at the last screening in 1999. I knew at least both Sam and Matt had moved on so it was rather civil meeting, though I did later reconcile with Sam. I thought Matt was a fucking twat. Eventually I helped them out with tapes. The last official CAS screening was in late 2000 which was a joint screening with ANUAS. It was the only CAS screening that year and I didn’t even attend it. I just held it in an attempt to steer former patrons of CAS to ANUAS. I know Dave was upset with me ending CAS (especially barely only after a year and a half), but I couldn’t give a shit. I needed my sanity back. The club was too difficult to run. I kept up my relationship with ANUAS, but kind of drifted away around 2005 or so. With the emergence of digital fansubs downloaded from the internet, I became a bit of a dinosaur (didn’t have broadband at the time). I tried to come back to the club a couple of years later, but just felt really out of it. The club members were a lot younger than me and I couldn’t really connect with them.

There were two other anime clubs operating in the early to mid ‘00’s; the ANU Magical Girl Club (yes, they mostly only played magical girl anime), and the rather schizophrenic UCU J-Pop Culture Club (University of Canberra club). The only one that is operating today is ANUAS. I guess the internet and the general availability of anime has killed off clubs to a great degree. Bit of a shame really. In the end I sort of enjoyed my period running a club and participating with other clubs. However a lot things really shat me, the politics that sometimes sprout out of these situations as well as some of the weirdness dealing with the public (some of those people are definitely on the fringes of society). It’s funny though, I probably wouldn’t say no to doing it again. But only if I was 20 again and it was 1995. I do think it’s a bit of a shame that lot of modern day anime fans (mostly in the younger generations) won’t get to experience anime clubs.

Video Backlog: Obliging Nobility Using a Mobile Phone

“Eden of the East”
Publisher: Funimation (USA)
Format: Region 1, 2 and 4 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles.
Length: 11 episodes x 22 minutes
Production Date: 2009
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

This is a very intriguing project by Kenji Kamiyama and Production I.G. The set up has a young Japanese woman named Saki Morimi who in front of the White House finds a young man with amnesia naked with a gun and a mobile phone. After a run in with the police, the young man, named Akira Takizawa, runs off only to have Saki hunt him down to his apartment. Akira discovers via the phone that he is one of 12 “Seleção”, and is part of a game where he can ring a concierge named Juiz who can provide him with almost anything or fulfil any wish. The aim of the game is that the 12 Seleção have been given ¥10 billion to “save Japan”. However if they use the money selfishly or run out of money before saving Japan, they will be eliminated. After the winner is decided all other players will be eliminated. Akira and Saki return to Japan, but soon discover that there has been a missile attack on Japan and Akira may be the culprit.

Due to the basic structure of the plot, some of the design elements, the style of the animation and possibly Kenji Kamiyama’s direction, this show does at times feels a lot like “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex”. Kenji Kawai’s score also adds to that feel, though it also makes it sound like a “Patlabor” movie (it’s Kawai of course) at times. However with character designs by Chika Umino of “Honey and Clover” fame, as well as little touches of rather sweet and cute humour, the series has this shoujo-esque feel running through it. While there is a darkness running though it, such as the seemingly sinister way the game has been set up, plus some murders early on in the show, the last two thirds especially have a undertone of lightness and good natured humour. It’s a really strange mix that seems to work exceptionally well for the majority of its length. Intertwined is a few elements and sequences of surrealism. Though mostly dreams or hallucinations for the most part, they oddly blend perfectly into the strange mix of genres and styles in this story.

It’s not as if this show doesn’t know if it wants to be, but I think at times the light hearted nature of parts of the show do take some of the edge off of the thriller aspects, which is the main focus of the show really. The major problem of the show is that certainly a great deal of the major incidents are rather hard to swallow. The missile attacks and cover ups of murders (undertaken mostly by police officers) were a little hard to take seriously. Also the explanation of the missing 20,000 NEETs was just a bit too convenient and not all that well thought out in terms of the plot. I really liked the technology concepts in the film such as the Eden of the East search engine (seriously I can see such a utility being developed in the near future) and of course the Juiz system. If you can suspend a little disbelief at a couple of places in the show, then this is a really great series. Intriguing plot and story with a bunch of really interesting characters and fantastic animation, designs and music score to boot. I even thought the ending to this part of the series wasn’t bad at all (despite the fact they had two movie sequels set up to go beforehand). Sure there’s a couple of lapses in logic in the show, but it’s still a pretty damn good show. 8 out of 10.

“Eden of the East the Movie I: The King of Eden”
Publisher: Funimation (USA)
Format: Region 1, 2 and 4 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles. Region A and B Blu-ray, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles.
Length: 81 minutes
Production Date: 2009
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

The first film is set six months after the events of the final TV episode. While the final moments of the TV series seem to indicate some sort of story reboot, luckily Kamiyama doesn’t resort to that. Again in this movie we have the suspense thriller playing heavily in this film, as well as the shoujo-like elements and a touch of romance. Also of interest in this film is the small group of lovable NEETs and Eden of the East system which they turn from a hobby project into full blown business a la Twitter. It soon becomes a popular utility on the web. However some with the group feel they have betrayed their NEET roots. Again there were some problems with this film. The most glaring was the fact that Akira was an incredibly famous man at this point, yet very few people in New York took notice of him. In fact only one acknowledges him. Wouldn’t the media be all over him? Of course this can be explained away by the whole Seleção/Juiz system, because as revealed in this film the person running the entire game has very close connections to the government. Apart from revealing more information about the game, the other thing which I liked in this film was the fact the Juiz can get rather narky and develop a set against the Seleção or even the opposite and have a deep bond with them. Like the TV series, this one has some lapses in logic, but god it’s a really fun ride. 8 out of 10.

“Eden of the East the Movie II: Paradise Lost”
Publisher: Funimation (USA)
Format: Region 1, 2 and 4 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles. Region A and B Blu-ray, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles.
Length: 91 minutes
Production Date: 2010
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

The concluding film pretty much has what you’d expect of it. The man behind Seleção/Juiz system, Mr Outside, is finally revealed. While I found the ending to be OK, others might be disappointed by it. The theme running though this film is the clash of values between those currently ruling Japan and those in business with the younger generation. While some have commented on the rather nationalistic right wing aspects of the show, really they are just the opinions of some of the characters in the film. Others have opposite views. And those which hold them are defiantly not portrayed as “the enemy” as such. Kamiyama is not arguing that “Japan has lost its way”, like those on the right seem to argue, but what I think he is doing is showing the culture clash between the old order and the new. Well at least that’s how I interpreted it all. Mr Outside’s reasoning behind the whole game is rather odd. Does he really believe that the individuals he has chosen will really change Japan, or is it just a daft game dreamt up by an old rich man with a lot of connections just to keep himself amused? One would think it was the latter the way it is presented here. Akira’s back story is explored quite well in this part. The mystery of who his parents really are keeps you on the edge of your seat. You’re just not quite sure of the truth until the very end. I think the film sort of ends quite realistically in terms of the fate of the NEETs. In the end the youth still feel disenfranchised and the old folk still think Japan is gonna be ruined. Just like real life. In keeping with the other two parts of the series, some lapses in logic, but really high quality entertainment all the same. 8 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 25 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: "Space Adventure Cobra"

Publisher: Madman Entertainment (Australia)
Format: Region 4 DVD, PAL, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles.
Length: 99 minutes
Production Date: 1982
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

By the 24th century, mankind had spread out over the galaxy. In the Seventh Galaxy, Bounty Hunter Jane Flower has just literally nabbed the head of a ruthless criminal. She heads to a bar to celebrate, where a man named Cobra takes an interest in her. Jane later leaves to claim the money for bounty, but Cobra follows her. Despite Jane taking pot shots at him, Cobra continues with the chase, but she becomes interested in him when he reveals he is the infamous Cobra, a space pirate and wanted felon with a 7 million beatle bounty on his head. She is sceptical at first, because Cobra supposedly died two years ago. But after troops from the Space Mafia Guild come to attack her and Cobra, he reveals his trademark while fighting them off, the Psychogun, which is hidden in his left arm. He explains to her that he has been hiding from the Guild and has changed his voice, face and even faked his own death to escape their clutches.

Completely convinced he is the real Cobra, she asks him and his android companion, Lady, to take her to the planet of Sido to rescue her sister Dominique from the notorious prison which floats endlessly above the planet. During the journey there Jane tells Cobra that she and her sister are actually triplets. They are from a legendary and powerful planet called Mirus, which has the power to move freely throughout the galaxy. It supposedly became uninhabitable one hundred years ago. The triplets are the last three survivors from that planet. Upon arrival at Sido, Jane helps Cobra to infiltrate the prison, but when his finally finds Dominique, she says that she doesn't want to leave. Worse is to come when Cobra's nemesis, the rather creepy looking Crystal Boy, who is one of higher-ups in the Guild, arrives on the scene and attempts to kill him. A tragedy soon occurs and Cobra discovers that Crystal Boy and the Guild want to use the triplets to control the Mirus so that he may destroy an entire Seventh Galaxy with it.

This film is the theatrical version of Buichi Terasawa's ("Kuboto", "Midnight Eye Goku") "Cobra" manga (partly released in English by Viz). Released a few months before the TV series (still unreleased in English unfortunately), it was directed by the very underappreciated and dearly departed Osamu Dezaki. I had a look at my previous review of this film and I must have been in a much forgiving state of mind when I last saw the film. The film has really aged badly. I think certainly it is a product of its time, but you have to remember that “Macross” was release the very same year. The plot of this film could be written on a serviette. However this doesn't mean it's a bad film. The plot is rather good, if somewhat cheesy at times. The main selling points of this film however are the incredible visuals and larger than life characters. But as I said before, they’re quite dated. Some of the earlier sequences and some of the action looks rather awkward and a little poorly animated. I was surprised at the mecha design. Yes, this is based on a manga from the 1970’s, but the mecha is certainly ugly and bulky looking.

I think either Terasawa or Dezaki had watched "Barbarella" and "Heavy Metal" a few too many times before watching this film. The visuals are very, very trippy at times and the designs are quite unusual and very "un-anime like" for the period. Whenever I watch the film for some reason I'm reminded of the animated French film "Fantastic Planet". Some of the dreamy visuals may be attributed to the fact that in the manga and anime TV series, a bored businessman named Johnson books a virtual holiday a la "Total Recall" and discovers he has memories of being the space pirate Cobra. Essentially the plot of this film is cut down from the manga and TV series, but all references to the Johnson character are omitted from the movie. Generally the film looks quite stunning and you can see that a lot of time, money and attention have been poured into this film. The animation is very fluid at times, but some of the action sequences involving combat can look awkward at times. The aged look of the film with its highly stylised surrealistic imagery coupled with its overly self-indulgent nature is threatens to make everything come crashing down in a heap at times. One scene has Lady playing an Emerson, Lake and Palmer-like 1970's prog-rock song on a massive pipe organ, as the rescued Cobra is reviving after an attempt by Crystal Boy to put him into stasis. In fact the visuals are so over the top at times, they practically overwhelm the story being told.

I bought this DVD almost four years ago, but have ignored it all this time. There are two major disappointments with this DVD release. First is that the film is letterboxed 4:3 rather than widescreen 16:9. The other problem for many is the lack of Manga Entertainment UK’s dub with the Yello (mid 1980’s Swiss dance band of "Oh Yeah" fame) soundtrack from their albums "Zebra" and "Baby". Yeah sure that’s not the original Japanese music, but it was pretty fun (Island owned manga, hence the inclusion of the Yello music). In its place we get the US dub directed by Carl Macek for Streamline, but not released because their parent company went broke (it first got released in 1998 by Urban Vision). Summing up it’s a fun film, but it is really too over the top. It’s aged pretty badly too. 6.5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 25 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs)

Video Backlog: "The Story of Saiunkoku"

Publisher: Geneon/Funimation (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles.
Length: 39 Episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 2006 – 2007
Currently in Print (as of writing): No

This title is one of the last Geneon managed to get out the door as they were crushed under the weight of their debts and their parent company finally pulled the plug. Certainly they released some great titles, but the commercial viability of some those would be rather questionable. So “The Story of Saiunkoku” would probably be in that same category as “Master Keaton” and “Hajime no Ippo (Fighting Spirit)”. I really doubt it would have been a big seller. Indeed Funimation haven’t renewed any of the Geneon titles they distributed under the deal. The anime is based on a light novel series of the same name (literally meaning of the series’ title is “Tale of the Land of Coloured Clouds”). While the series is often referred to as a fantasy story, it’s more like historical Chinese drama, albeit the empire of Saiunkoku is fictional and so are all of characters that inhabit it.

The plot centres on a young woman named Shurei Hong. While she is a descendent of a noble, the family has fallen on hard times and are now practically commoners, though her father works in the Imperial palace’s archives. Though she is practically a commoner, Shurei has dreams of passing the national exam and become a civil servant in the court. However women are barred from public office and she spends her days teaching children at a temple and doing odd jobs to help run her household. One day she receives a request from the Emperor's Grand Advisor imperial household for six months as the young Emperor's consort in an attempt to make him more like a leader of the country, instead of the lazy, nobleman chasing man he currently seems to be. Shurei accepts the offer because of the amount of compensation involved (500 gold coins), but soon realises she might have work cut out for her.

First, I think the comparisons of this show with “Fushigi Yuugi” are way off. Sure, it’s shoujo and it’s set in China, but that’s where the comparisons end. This show is much more straight laced as such, and more realistic than that show. Sure, there’s a bunch of bishonen boys and a bit of humour, but’s more of a straight drama as such, albeit a light hearted one. The story progresses quite quickly over the 39 episodes. The initial plot set up of Shurei trying to rein in a wayward young Emperor is soon transformed into the Emperor trying to get the court to agree to allow women to take the national exams. This quickly heads into another plot where Shurei is a trainee and eventually takes on her first posting. I think I was really expecting more of a straight romantic shoujo comedy/drama. While the series does contain these elements, certainly a greater emphasis is put upon Shurei’s relationships with her father and friends and comrades she meets on her journey. There’s also a large focus on the politics involved with the court and how the empire is ruled, in particular outside groups and their relationship with the court. While that may sound a bit dry, most of the time it is presented in a pretty light and easily digestible way.

The major problem I had with the show was trying to get my head around the relationships in the show. There’s lost brothers, people with secret pasts etc. It was a bit too much for me. I really needed a chart showing who was related to whom or to what faction or group. I was also really disappointed with the lack of romance in the show. I really wished there was more. Certainly by the last arc in the series it’s almost forgotten about. There’s also the believability of the actions of Shurei in the dhow. With a society that has deeply entrenched beliefs about a woman’s place in that society, I sort of had some difficulty with some of what she achieved. I also felt that some of the animation and backgrounds were a little mediocre at points. It’s rather disappointing as this is a Madhouse production and I’d expect better from them. Some the characters were also a bit predictably written or just a bit over the top. Overall, it was a decent show, but not overly outstanding. There were some really good moments, but quite a number of mediocre or flat out dull sections in the series. It’s not like this is a bad series or anything, I just didn’t get into it. There is a second 39 episode series of the show, but I don’t think I’d be too disappointed if it never showed up in any legit English language format. I can only give this show 6.5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 25 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: "Trigun: Badlands Rumble"

Publisher: Funimation (USA)
Format: Region 1 and 4 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles.
Length: 90 minutes
Production Date: 2010
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

It seems rather strange that 12 years after the end of the “Trigun” TV series that movie version comes out. And it’s not a reboot. It has the exact same designs and colour palette as the TV series. In fact it is set between a couple of TV episodes. Yasuhiro Nightow’s “Trigun Maximum” did only finish a couple of years beforehand, and they have been planning this film since at least 2005. Still the fact it is not a reboot is rather curious. Would the fans still be around 12 years later? I note that the movie’s premier was at AX in the US in 2010 and a fair chunk of extras on the disc deals with the US, so one would think the producers had their eyes on the English speaking market. The film didn’t do too badly at all in its home country. It managed to obtain the 14th spot upon opening in cinemas, on a pitiful 10 screens.

The film is pretty much a typical “Trigun” episode. Some 20 years ago Vash manages to stop a group of criminals from killing their boss, Gasback. In the present day, Gasback is out for revenge on his former cohorts. All of them have prospered in the intervening years, but one by one, Gasback has destroyed their livelihoods. The last of his former associates is Cain Kepler, who is now the mayor of Macca City. Cain is more than aware of his fate and has sent out a call for bounty hunters to claim the $$300 million double-dollar bounty on Gasback’s head. Naturally Vash steps in to sort things out. In the middle of this we have Milly Thompson and Meryl Stryfe turning up in the city to report on the risk of insuring Cain’s gigantic bronze statue of himself which is valued at $$5 billion double-dollars. Add in a female bounty hunter named Amelia who seemingly has a score to settle with Gasback, Nicholas D. Wolfwood as Gasback’s bodyguard and of course appearances by Kuroneko.

I really think if you ignore some of the more overt CG effects, you would be hard pressed to think this is a 2010 film. I mean it really, really looks no different to the 1998 series. The cast are the same; Masaya Onosaka (Vash), Hiromi Tsuru (Meryl), Satsuki Yukino (Milly) and Sho Hayami (Wolfwood). The studio is still Madhouse and the director is still Satoshi Nishimura. It even looks the same. You could swear it was cel animation with it’s very, very muted colour palette. I’ll readily admit I was hoping that not much had changed from the original TV series. I suppose most fans were too. Well they certainly got what they wanted. Certainly I was expecting the film to open with a bang. Certainly it does to a degree, though not much of a loud one. I really wish the opening was more exciting than the one presented here. I understand it was essential to the plot, but I sort of wonder why a bigger opening wasn’t created. The other thing which I noticed is how slowly the story seemed to creep up on you. There are lot of little subtle hints to the bigger story being told. It really looks like not much is going on, then wham, you realise you’ve up to your neck in plot all along. The other thing I really noticed with this film was that “GUN×SWORD” really, really ripped off this show something bad.

While many of the reviews of this movie are rather negative, I found my experience to be much more positive. Yep, most certainly this film is made with “Trigun” fans in mind, but seriously, does that matter? What matters to me is that there is a good plot and a ton of great action sequences (make that some really outrageously fun and well-choreographed action sequences). I didn’t really expect much else from it. I really think reviewers (mostly of the so called “professional” kind) are expecting way too much. For me it story of reminded me of how great some anime show where back in the 1990’s and why I got into anime (or maybe that’s just nostalgia creeping up). It most certainly isn’t the best movie released in the last couple of years, but it’s a whole heap of fun, and not a lot of anime made today seems to be about to be as free and loose and entertaining and fun as this film. I read one forum post on this movie which stated that “The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya” was much better feature. Would you really prefer to watch that bloated bore fest or this film? Seriously? Actually I think I might like this film a lot more after a repeat viewing, but for now I’m going to give it a rather respectable 7.5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 25 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: “Simoun”

Publisher: Anime Works (Media Blasters, USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Subtitles
Length: 26 Episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 2006
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

As I may have mentioned before, it was the rather trashy “Kannazuki no Miko” which piqued my interest in Yuri anime. What I particularly liked in that show was the rather intense relationship between the two main female characters. I’ve been trying to find a show which has the same sort of relationship dynamics, but alas, I’ve not come across anything similar. I thought “Simoun” might be what I was looking for. While a very interesting concept, it’s not what I was expecting.

The show’s plot is rather convoluted. The world of “Simoun” is in what I assume to be a parallel universe. Seemingly everyone on this world is born as a female and they choose their gender at around the age of 17 via some sort of ceremony. How this actually works is never explained in the show, but in the country where the bulk of the story takes place, it is overseen by some sort of high priestess. The central story revolves around a number of priestesses in a country called Simulacrum. This country uses a lost technology, the helical motor, which seems to operate through a kind of religious ceremony when two young female priestesses kiss together then kiss the orb on top of the machine. In this case it’s a flying machine named a Simoun. While normally this mostly a ceremonial duty, due to the destructive abilities of the machines, the order of the priestesses have slowly merged into the military, especially with a advent of a war with the neighbouring country Argentum.

While the priestesses are meant to leave the order on their 17th birthday, the war has given them a reprieve. Many have decided to stay on even though they are free to travel to the Spring, the place where the high priestess performs a “ceremony” so they can become a male or remain as a female. However the continuing attacks from Argentum are beginning to put more pressure on the priestesses and their craft. Not only that, but their enemy seems to be jumping leaps and bounds in their technological advances in the continuing war, especially when two enemy countries join forces. More problems arise with the true nature of the helical motor and Simouns are slowly revealed.

I think for the most part, this show had some excellent ideas, but was pretty scattershot in its aim. The other problem is that with all of these ideas; the relationships between the girls, the mysticism and religious belief system, the political drama messing what system, the true nature of the Simouns, the war etc., nothing seems to be adequately explained or explored. It’s all a bit half arsed. I almost gave up only a couple of episodes into the show. I think the main flaw here is that nearly the entire series takes place on the ship where the girls live for most the series. It’s really hard to get any sense of what the general situation is on this planet. We never really get to see anybody else’s view except from those aboard the ship. And because of that things like the war seem rather distant most of the time. There doesn’t seem to be any threat from this war to anyone really. Another thing I found rather curious was the mention in the show that men are still the dominant sex in that world, in particular the mention that they get the best jobs. With everyone on that planet being born female, well, that doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense really.

The most annoying element is the lack of any real drama or overt sexual tension in the girl’s relationships. I mean for god’s sake, it’s being marketed as a Yuri show. I was really expecting it be filled full of melodramatic shojo-esque moments and lot more overt declarations of love. Instead the show is more like a poor man’s “Last Exile” with a watered down “Maria-sama ga Miteru” laid over the top. Add some quite at time dodgy animation. The effect of water colour-like backgrounds and some rather awkward looking and at times poorly rendered CG ships and aircraft, is quite jarring. The music, especially in some of the earlier episodes can be rather inappropriate. Oddly the music is rather orchestral pieces during the initial episodes, but soon heads into cheap electronica. Also off-putting was the fact everyone, including all the males, were voiced by women. With the rather bishonen look on most of the males, it was hard to tell who was male or female at times. Also not helping was Media Blasters’ subtitling of the show. All the foreign countries had their own language (which just seems to be Japanese played backwards), but they have subtitled it as “Foreign” every time. Not even in brackets, just “Foreign” by itself in italics. For a while I didn’t realise why every single enemy combatant was saying the same single word. Why couldn’t they be arsed to sub it as “[Foreign Language]” or something similar? How hard could that be?

But despite all this, I did manage to connect with the show about a quarter the way into it. I was expecting some light sci-fi Yuri, but got a completely different show. While on the Yuri relationship side of things it really isn’t much to write home about, a lot of the mysteries and a bit of the political side of things drew me in and made the show rather enjoyable. I’ll give in 6.5 out of 10. I would have given it a lot more, but there are lot of unbalanced elements (some of these elements should have been pruned back or removed entirely) in the show which bring the score down.

Remaining Backlog: 25 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).