Anime 365 Challenge!

I have seen many takes on angels in both anime and manga, so when I began watching “Haibane Renmei” I wasn’t sure I would get to see anything new or different.  But this series surprised me.  It revolves around a group of angelic beings who live in a monastery like building as a type of family.  They must spend their whole lives as these beings confined within the walls of a small town where the monastery resides.  There is some mystery as to why they must stay within the walls of the city, and why they are born as angels in the first place.  The animation here is beautifully done, and the characters sweet and beguiling.  It is worth trying out the rest of the 13 episodes.   

“Ajimu Kaigen Monogatari” is another shojo romance anime series where a whole lot of nothing terribly exciting happens.  A teenage boy catches sight of a pretty teenage girl while waiting for the train one day, and immediately falls in love with her.  Thus begins a series of ridiculous situations (such as the boy accidentally brushing against the girl on the train and her calling him a “pervert”) that seem to permeate this type of show.  While the animation was nice to look at and the opening music wasn’t too bad, I don’t think I could sit through the rest of this four part show. 

“Ayakashi” was hard for me to find further information on because, as it turns out, there are two anime with the same name.  One is horror anime, centering around ghosts and samurai, while the other involves magical teenagers with super powers, and was released only on the Internet.  The “Ayakashi” that I stumbled upon is the second series.  And while I have nothing against samurai ghost stories, I’m glad I found the anime that I did.  There was ridiculous fighting, bizarre hair colors, obnoxious characters, and comedic moments that suddenly turned deadly serious without any warning.  All signs of a top notch shonen style series.  This show is only 12 episodes, but it makes the most of them.  

What would it be like to be a girl destined to destroy the world, so everyone inhabiting that world (pretty much) is out to kill you?  That is the basic story behind “Scrapped Princess.”  Here we have a spoiled but likable girl traveling with her adopted family while searching for a way to evade prophecy.  There is a nice mix here of action, magic, and comedy, without the story becoming too sentimental or silly.  This is another super short series, with only 12 episodes, and it packs alot of information into the small amount of time it is given so you have to pay attention. 

“Elfen Lied,” I realized very early on, is like no other anime series I have ever seen.  It has all the trappings of a shojo series: pink haired characters with large eyes and cutesy voices, adorable boy characters who find themselves living with an influx of women, and brightly colored scenes with sparkling beaches and sunny streets.  But to get to all this shojo goodness, you have to get past the opening first.  And what an intense, unexpected, and bloody mess that is!  The body count must be in the dozens at least during that first 10 minutes, and the carnage all stems from a pretty and very naked girl in a metal mask.  This girl is Lucy, the mutant character at the center of everything - good or bad - that occurs within “Elfen Lied’s” too-brief 13 episode + 1 OAV series.  Sometimes she is very, very bad, and sometimes she is very, very good, and it is always a toss up which version you will see in an episode.  And that is part of the charm of this series.  You never know what you will see next.   

“Boys Be” is on of those anime series that I’ve heard about alot, but never got around to watching.  And I’m not too sad about that now that I did try to sit through an episode.  I was actually so bored I had trouble paying attention to what was going on.  This is basically a high school romance anime series, with the storyline centering around male characters and their thoughts and feeling in regards to the girls they like (instead of doing it from the girls’ point of view as romance anime normally are).  To me it seemed like this anime didn’t go much of anywhere, it was just a bunch of kids talking and talking and talking.  Oh well, I guess I won’t be interested in every show I watch. 

“Agent Aika” was a nice change of pace.  Here we have a super-sexy, super-powered, deep-sea salvage worker who has a mysterious background that must include some kind of secret agent training because she sure knows how to handle a gun and martial arts moves.  This anime is fast and silly and has the most gratuitous use of panty-shots I have ever seen.  In fact when I looked up information about it after watching, I found a comment mentioning that there are over 200 panty-shots in just the first episode!  Luckily the characters are amusing and the storyline is interesting, so the show has more going for it than just fanservice. 

“B’t X” is an older series that doesn’t look its age nearly as much as “Saint Seiya,” which is made by the same people and has a very similar style.  This show centers around two brothers, one a super genius and the other - well - not so much. But what he lacks in brains he makes up for in muscle and bravado.  I liked what I saw of this series from the first episode.  The bad guys may talk about their ultimate plans a little too much, and the characters may overreact a little too much, but overall this was a very enjoyable anime. 

I was really excited to watch the first episode of “Tekkaman Blade.”  One of my favorite anime from years ago when I first began really watching was the OAV series, “Tekkaman Blade II.”  So to see where it all began has always been a dream of mine.  And while I was expecting the animation style to look a bit dated (it is from the 80’s, after all) I wasn’t expecting it to look quite as bad as it did.  The animation is very old school, and it doesn’t look like it has held up well in the decades since it first aired.  The story also didn’t make alot of sense.  Two humans find a wounded man on a barren planet and take him back to their science lab, only to have him wake up and start making demands on them.  And they seem surprised at this.  If I didn’t know details about what happens next in the story, after episode 1 which felt like it went on forever, I don’t know that I would have had any interest in this series at all. 

“Romeo x Juliet” is a much more recent series and so benefits from new techniques in animation as well as a clean, brightly colored style.  In this version of the popular story, Juliet’s family has been murdered by Romeo’s father, and as the last surviving Capulet she is in hiding as a boy.  But she is no sweet damsel in distress, waiting for someone to save her and restore her to her rightful throne.  This Juliet disguises herself as a vigilante for the people, trying to right the wrongs that the Montague family has done.  While I really enjoyed this new take on the old story, I don’t know that I could continue watching much further into the series because I’m pretty sure of how it all ends.  And the more I like the characters, the more it is going to upset me when that ending happens. 

I have heard of the game Go before, but I’ve never played it, so I wasn’t sure how much I would enjoy the series “Hikaru no Go.”  It centers around a young boy who becomes possessed by the spirit of a famous Go player from hundreds of years ago.  This spirit does not want to hurt or kill people, and is far from filled with the malice most anime ghosts contain.  Instead he just wants to play Go again.  This is a very sweet, very gentle anime series (so far) where nothing much happens except that a boy and his spirit pal play a game.  While it wasn’t the most exciting anime I’ve ever seen, it was kind of nice to just watch a series where nothing terrible or crazy happened.   

What do you get when you take a teenage boy, drown him in the ocean, and then have him get saved by a mermaid who is also part of a mafia family?  You get the shojo comedy “Seto no Hanayome.”  This is an extravaganza of hyper-distorted figures who scream and smack each other around and act completely ridiculous.  This anime series is loud and bizarre and follows its characters as they ramble off into yelling tangents about silly things.  I wasn’t terribly impressed with it, but I’m sure some anime viewers who love incredibly silly shows would like it for its bright colors and over-the-top characters. 

“Kyouran Kazoku Nikki” is another shojo anime that rests its story on the backs of very silly characters who run around doing very silly things.  Basically the premise is that a young government man is recruited as part of a secret operation to stop the Child of Enki from destroying the world.  In order to fulfill this mission he must marry one of the children of Enki and adopt the rest as his children.  This doesn’t really make sense when it is explained in the first episode, and I found the characters and the story too irritating to have any desire to watch further and see if it ever makes sense.  The main female character, especially, is very obnoxious and impossible to like.

Luckily I did find some anime that I could enjoy a bit in the last few days.  ”Macross Plus,” an OAV series that is somewhat a part of the larger “Macross” metaseries, revolves around three friends who were once close when they were younger, but have since grown apart since they reached adulthood.  One is a brash test pilot with too much bravura, another is a pilot who knows the right and wrong ways to do things, and the woman who has always been torn between them once had dreams of being a famous singer but has since let those dreams take a backseat to her new career as a manager for virtual pop sensation Sharon Apple.  There is much flying of planes and shooting at things and the re-animation once again of the giant Macross ship.  There is also some deeper stuff going on here, with lots of backstory and interesting twists revolving around Sharon.  But while the action is great for a while, the climax sees it just peter out.  I watched all four OAV episodes, and by the last one I just felt confused and disappointed.  This might be okay for hardcore Macross fans, but for other viewers it may be a bit of a letdown. 

Some magical girls morph into Sailor Soldiers of Justice.  Some change into Earth Elementals.  And some morph into cat girls, like the ones in “Tokyo Mew Mew.”  Here we have a group of middle school girls who become endowed with the strengths and abilities of several different endangered species.  They use these abilities to fight alien creatures that are out to cause trouble for all of the regular humans roaming around on Earth.   

The first time I saw “Tokyo Mew Mew” was during a Saturday morning cartoon block.  It was very bright and bubbly looking, with characters in pretty outfits and fighting with cutesy techniques, and reminded me alot of “Sailor Moon.”  In fact the storyline is incredibly similar to “Sailor Moon,” so much so that you have to wonder why the creators of this show even pretended they weren’t copying the older material.  The first episode I watched on American TV also fell victim to very poor dubbing (in my opinion) and I had no desire to watch anymore of it.  

With the Anime 365 Challenge! going on, I thought it might be time to give this show another try.  This time I found the first episode in Japanese with English subtitles, and this helped a little. But only a little.  The series, which is 52 episodes altogether, just feels too much like a “Sailor Moon” rip off.  It even has the main character being saved by a mysterious “knight” who turns out to be the object of her affections (much like in “Sailor Moon”).  I just couldn’t get passed that, and will not be watching more of this show if I can help it. 

Take one regular high school girl who dies suddenly, add in a resurrection that is only promised to her if she is willing to help save the world, and add in a few mystical and magical children that may or may not be good guys, and you have the basic premise of “Arjuna.”  This was a hard series to decide by only one episode if I liked it or not.  And with only 13 episodes altogether, it doesn’t give viewers a whole lot of time to make up their minds.  The animation for this series is of the sloppier variety, with thin, wavy lines and shapes that are not consistent from one scene to the next.  ”The Legend of Crystania” suffers from a similar animation style, which I’m not fond of and find hard to watch.  The story for “Arjuna” is also not what I would consider great or even unique.  It feels alot like other ‘magical girl’ anime I’ve watched.  Even the main character’s transformation sequence feels a bit done, and her new form is actually kind of silly.  While I feel there might be an interesting environmental message to this series, I’m not sure I could get passed the other stuff to find it. 

“Batman: Gotham Knight” is a interconnected group of short cartoons all set within the world of “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight.”  It is done in a way reminiscent of “The Animatrix,” with stories that are not only set in the world of Batman, but which connect to the two live-action movies and expand upon the stories they tell.  Each animated short is done by a different director and artists, so each has its own unique look and feel to it.  I really enjoyed this DVD.  The stories were well written and the animation superbly done.  I’m hoping more will be done in the future to fill out the Batman universe even more. 

“Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water” is an older animated TV series, with 39 episodes in total.  It centers around a young inventor who becomes entangled in the life of a mysterious circus performer while attending an exhibition in Paris.  The animation style here looks alot like that found in Miyazaki films, such as “Kiki’s Delivery Service” or “Spirited Away.”  The bad guys are more silly then evil, and the circumstances the main characters find themselves in are less dangerous then exciting, but the story is still pretty good.  This wouldn’t be the first thing I would watch if I was in the mood to view some anime, but it certainly wouldn’t be the last. 

“Ninja Scroll: the Series” has been around for a while now, but I never got around to watching it because someone told me once that it wasn’t anywhere near as good as the original animated movie “Ninja Scroll.”  And while this 13 episode series certainly looks different then the movie, and doesn’t have as dark and intense a feel to it, I really enjoyed watching the first episode.  Wandering ninja Jubei is just as non-commital and aloof as ever, even when asked by a village of warriors to protect their most precious commodity, a young warrior girl whose destiny has aroused the interest of some people with less than honorable intentions.  The animation is much crisper and cleaner than that from the movie, but the style hasn’t been changed so much that you can’t relate the series to the source material.  From what I’ve seen, this show is well done continuation of the film. 

I have read the first volume of the manga version of “xxxHolic,” but unlike most manga I’m not sure whether I liked it or not.  The artwork is trippy and strange, and the characters are a bit whiny and contemptible, so it is hard to tell if I could really get into the story of a boy who makes a wish in the wrong place at the wrong time and ends up bound to work for a woman with strange powers and an even stranger wardrobe.  This anime was not just an animated version of the manga, but a separate story that picked up somewhere in the future and concerned characters I had not seen before.  Obviously they are of some importance to the story and show up eventually in the original plot, as this anime didn’t feel the need to explain them at all.  While the animation was well done and the story for this episode somewhat intriguing, I’m not sure I enjoyed it enough to watch anymore of this series. 

“Vision of Escaflowne,” on the other hand, I loved form the start.  My introduction to the Escaflowne world began when I watched the motion picture several years ago and fell deeply in love with the story and the characters.  Then I began reading the manga, which is vastly different than the story presented in the film.  I was intrigued to learn that the anime series was also different then the manga, and different then the motion picture.  It stands alone as its own version of the Escaflowne tale, about a girl from our world who gets sucked into a world of warfare and mechas and rash young kings in high-powered armor.  This series has a little bit of everything, from action to adventure to romance to drama.  While I only watched the first two episodes, I will be making time to watch the remaining 24 as soon as I get a chance. 

High school can be hard enough when you are a normal girl, but when you go to a special school for both humans and vampires, and you are charged with keeping the peace between them, it can be even harder.  Especially when you are in love with one of the vampire students, your adopted brother hates vampires and may be one, and your father who is running the school spends most of his time crying and thinking himself ill. That is the basic premise for “Vampire Knight,” a surprisingly sophisticated shojo anime.  The TV series is short, only 13 episodes, but there are another 13 available in the second series, “Vampire Knight Guilty.”  The manga that this series was based on has some of the most stylish character drawings and clothing ideas I’ve ever seen, and they translate well into the anime format.  While there is more depth to the manga, the anime was smart, a little sexy, and actually pretty cool.  I’ll be watching more of this series…when I get the time.  

I picked “Demon Lord Dante” off the list of available titles on my On Demand service, and had to start with episode 2 since the first wasn’t available.  I don’t think I missed anything.  As far as I could figure, some Satanists were trying to rise up and bring forth some demon god, and a teenage boy with weird demon powers was out to stop them.  The animation style was done to look like old school shows from the late 70’s, early 80’s, but was too crisp and clean to mimic them properly.  And the story had a lot of shady build up that ultimately led nowhere. 

“Nana” was a refreshing change after the “Demon Lord Dante” debacle.  Two young women meet on a train and learn that they share the same name.  That seems to be about the only thing they have in common.  One Nana is sweet and conservative and longs only to make a life in the big city with her boyfriend, while the other is a cool and sexy rocker chick who longs to make it big in the music industry.  But eventually their different paths lead them to the same place and a friendship is born.   With highly stylized animation filled with pretty characters and gorgeous cloths, plus a storyline that managed to transcend the normal gooeyness found in most shojo anime.  I will be spending more time with “Nana” in the near future.