Gen X Otaku 1971: the OG blog

AMV that Moves Like Jagger ;-)

This Anime Music Video is really awesome and really, really NSFW because it's also very fanservice-y...

Currently watching (via Netflix Streaming)

I am watching a whole host of various Anime shows (even some non-Anime cartoons) via Netflix streaming.  I actually enjoy watching a lot of shows via my iPad2 with the Netflix "app".  Somehow I feel less guilty sneaking in a few more episodes past my bedtime, curled up with my iPad2 under the covers and finally, reluctantly, putting it on my nightstand and dozing off to la-la land once I'm completely exhausted.  I don't think the visual quality suffers much watching on the iPad2, and listening to the audio via headphones means I don't disturb my other family members sleeping downstairs.

Anyway, I am currently very deep into Season 3 of Avatar: The Last Airbender.  While actually a Western cartoon and not an Anime show, it shows very deep Anime influences.  I thoroughly love this show and its characters, and am very much emotionally attached to all of them now; it's even brought a tear or two to my eyes now and again, too.  I'm told I should view the live-action film for comparision; In fact, I'm told I should have probably watched it *before* I started the Nickelodeon cartoon series.  I had heard the movie wasn't very good, so that's why I went straight for the cartoon, but I will see about the live action film later this year or early next. 

I am also trying out the classic anime series Trigun, from the late 1990s, after having recently watched the Anime feature film Trigun: Badlands Rumble.  That was a good movie, but really, for me, it condenses the best of Trigun in a neat little package...having started the series it was based upon, it's okay and all, but I probably enjoyed the movie more having been completely unfamiliar with its original source material.  I'm in no hurry to finish Trigun and mainly use it as filler to watch when taking a break from more emotionally "heavy" shows like...

Shikabane Hime (Corpse Princess), for example.  Spoilers follow so you know the drill; skip to the next section, etc.

I positively LOVE this show, love its main characters, especially Makina Hoshimura (星村 眞姫那 Hoshimura Makina^?) [pictured above], voiced by the always lovely and talented Luci Christian.
Luci is a true veteran voice actress and this is probably one of the most emotionally intense roles I've ever seen her play.  If you are unfamiliar with the show and want to know what kind of character Makina is, imagine Luci's portrayal of Kaname Chidori from the Full Metal Panic franchise, only imagine a Kaname Chidori completely at the end of her tether, who has lost absolutely everything, including Souske...full of raw emotion and rage and consumed by revenge...that's a little taste of what Makina is like.

Makina has a very special relationship with her contracted Monk, Keisei Tagami (田神 景世 Tagami Keisei^?), whom she secretly loves more than life itself.  She first met Keisei Tagami (田神 景世 Tagami Keisei^?) [voiced by J. Michael Tatum] as a little girl and has been attached to him ever since.  Keisei Tagami (田神 景世 Tagami Keisei^?) is a very likable character, but his untimely death is heavily foreshadowed in the series and you'd have to be completely dense not to pick up on it very early on.  Makina's attachment to Keisei transcends the grave (his and hers) and initially causes difficulty in her forming a bond with Keisei's surviving (adopted) kid brother, Ouri Kagami (花神 旺里 Kagami Ōri^?), voiced by Aaron Dismuke.  But they continue to work through it and take a potential liabilty and make it a positive.  They both loved Keisei very much, and Ouri accepts that Makina will always love Keisei first and foremost and would sooner be destroyed than sever her bond with Keisei.  Makina slowly learns to befriend and accept Ouri Kagami (花神 旺里 Kagami Ōri^?) as her new earthly contracted monk, out of respect for Keisei's dying wish.

I'm pretty far into the series and it was very addictive at first, but this is one of those shows that I admit has become very emotionally "heavy" and impactful and I can now only handle it in limited doses before I need to turn to lighter fare.

I've also been enjoying the quirky FUNimation remake of the 1990s OVA series Birdy the Mighty, now titled Birdy the Mighty: Decode and available on Netflix streaming.  This I started watching based on a friend's recommendation.  I have not seen the original series and would probably have otherwise given this one a pass, but I'm several episodes deep into Birdy The Mighty: Decode and so far I really like what I see:

The heroine, Birdy Cephon Altera, the Space Federation Special Agent who on earth lives undercover as ditzy Japanese pop idol sensation Shion Arita, is voiced by Luci Christian, opposite male protagonist and accidental collateral damage victim of Birdy, Tsutomu Senkawa, voiced by Micah Solusod, better known to fans of Soul Eater as the voice of titular character Soul, partner of Maka Albarn (voiced by Laura Bailey).

Anyway, the series is mainly a sci-fi mystery but also has a lot of physical comedy as well as slice-of-life elements insofar as the male protagonist is an ordinary Japanese high school student.

Birdy and Tsutomu have a special relationship insofar as, well, to put it bluntly, Birdy accidentally kind of killed Tsutomu...she sliced his body in half with an energy ray and had to transfer his "soul" into her body so he could survive and so that Tsutomu's original body can be sent back to Birdy's Federation for repair.  They are two people sharing one body, namely Birdy's.  However, Birdy has the power to quasi-shape-shift at will.  Tsutomu can, with Birdy's permission, assert his will and transform Birdy's body into his own, complete with functional penis, presumably...and Birdy retreats into Tsutomu's mind as a second consciousness.  Tsutomu in this transformed state looks precisely like he did pre-mortem, only he now has perfect vision because so does Birdy.

Anyway, Birdy chases down dangerous intergalactic criminals, while Tsutomu does his best to try and get back to having a normal high school existence.  He has a crush on a girl but thinks she's out of his league, but actually she seems to like him a lot, too.  The love interest, Sayaka Nakasugi, is voiced by Brina Palencia.  She is depicted as being of frail health and hails from a very wealthy family.  She has a nearly fatal auto accident from which she experiences a miraculous recovery that seems out-of-this-world (and is).

It's a fun show and much more emotinally light than Shikabane Hime (Corpse Princess).

Birdy is kind of a ditzy airhead (and exaggeratedly so in her alter-ego identity as Shion Arita) but also hardworking and loveable.  She's kind and compassionate and feels deeply sorry for having nearly killed innocent bystander Tsutomu.  She is risking having her consciousness merge with Tsutomu and losing herself completely as a living being by sharing bodies with Tsutomu, but she feels its a risk she must endure as a means of making things up to Tsutomu whom she has wronged.

Another series I'm watching on Netflix, and yet another Luci Christian vehicle as I think about it, is the strange, bio-mechanoid based sci-fi adventure known as Xam'd: Lost Memories

Spoilers follow, so be warned, yada yada.

Luci plays Nakiami, a mysterious red-headed alien girl who is a lone-wolfish crew member of a Postal Delivery airship.  She flies the larger airship's forward scout/patrol ship.  The main female lead is actually played by Monica Rial, who, as Haru Nishimura (西村 ハル Nishimura Haru^?), is the human female love interest of main character Akiyuki Takehara (竹原 アキユキ Takehara Akiyuki^?) [pictured above, with Nakiami], voiced by Blake Shepard.

Shelley Calene-Black voices tough-as-nails Ishuu Benikawa (紅皮 伊舟 Benikawa Ishū^?), the captain of the International Postal ship Zanbani.  Akiyuki is the victim of a strange terrorist attack that leaves him not only wounded but transformed into a bio-mecha type creature known only as a Xam'd (prounced "Zammed", rhymes with damned).  He seems really effective at battling the so-called "Humanform" weapons, which are giant dinosaur-like creatures created by taking over human host bodies and transforming them, then unleashing them to cause havoc and destruction upon the earth.  The story launches without clear explanation of who is who and who is responsible for what and who is against whom.  It's the sort of thing I'm still piecing together about 8 episodes in.  Anyway, after Akiyuki's strange transformation into Xam'd, he is shanghai'ed by Nakiami and brought aboard the Zanbani to work involuntarily as a new crew member.  Nakiami tells Akiyuki that he can never go back to being fully human and must instead to learn about what it means to be Xam'd and then fulfill his destiny.  Captain Benikawa doesn't especially like having Akiyuki on board her ship but tolerates his presence.  She also frequently clashses with Nakiami and there is obvious tension between these two strong female characters.  Benikawa treats Nakiami like a rebellious, wayward adopted teen daughter.  Benikawa is much respected but also much feared by the crew of the Zanbani.  She is single-mindedly devoted to her mission of seeing the mail delievered no matter what.  Akiyuki is learning to fit in as a crewman and also misses Haru, whom he left behind on Sentan Island.  He is after many months finally able to get a letter posted back to Haru letting her and his parents also know that he is alive and well but unable to return to Sentan Island.  Haru resolves to join the military in the hopes the she will be posted to forward bases where she will be in closer contact to Akiyuki.  Haru is able to pull this off, and is overjoyed to reunite with Akiyuki during an ostensible training mission; however, the reunion is cut short and made bittersweet by circumstances beyond their control.

That's about where I'm at in this show now on Netflix streaming, with more twists and turns no doubt ahead.  I blew off Xam'd for the longest time as it just didn't look appealing to me but I've been pleasantly surprised by the show and rather like it and I'm glad I finally decided to give it a try.  I liked the opening theme song Shut up and explode so much I acquired a copy for my iPod as soon as I could.

Impressions of recent screenings.

I recently attended a few more screenings at Alamo Drafthouse, one from Sentai Filmworks, namely the rather strange, twisty Book of Bantorra and more recently, brand new from FUNimation Entertainment, the horror anime (with vampires), Shiki.

I like vampires in Anime quite alot.  However, I will admit that horror is not really my "thing", I'm more of an action man, and my taste in Anime featuring vampires probably reflects that (Dance in the Vampire Bund, Hellsing, Trinity Blood, MoonPhase, not to mention the vampire character Evangeline in Negima!?), so it's quite possible that I just don't "get" horror.  Some possible spoilers are going to follow so if you've not yet seen Shiki you'll probably want to skip the next section and go straight to my comments on Book of Bantorra.

So anyway, about Shiki...

Now, bear in mind, I'm only discussing the first four episodes, which is all I've seen, and because they were so underwhelming is probably all I'm going to see of this series, too.

This show suffers greatly from VERY SLOW pacing.  Seriously.  Episodes 1-3 are ALL backstory and set-up.  There are no fangs until the very end of Episode 4.  To my impatient, American mind, this is just bad story telling.  The whole set-up for this series could've been condensed into 2 episodes tops.  It did not need to drag out over 3, nearly 4 full episodes.  What we have here in the beginning is more of a dry "medical drama" as a team of doctors in rural Japan (yes, even Japan, tiny as it is, apparently has its own version of B.F.E., namely the setting of this story) try to scientifically analyze a string of mysterious deaths caused either by an unknown disease or darker forces...? (hint: yeah, it's darker forces)  This follows a long tradition of plague and disease being associated with vampires, from Braham Stoker's Dracula through the German Expressionist Nosferatu, etc.

I also understand that the Japanese take on horror is to creep their audiences out with eerie, creepy atmospheres and settings, or as a recent AWO podcast put it, beat their audiences over the head with it.  Shiki most definitely takes this approach, and mabye it works for the original Japanese audiences, but it falls flat this side of the Pacific, I'm sad to say.

Some may say the long set-up is necessary, but I disagree.  And I'm also not saying Japanese anime just isn't able to do horror right or do it justice, it can.  You want to see an example of what I consider to be a highly successful horror anime that is genuinely creepy?

Look no further than Ghost Hound

To my mind, even from episode 1, Ghost Hound succeeds in spades, develops slowly, but piques and holds my interest from the very start to the final episode.  Shiki fails in this, at least in episode 1-4.  Maybe it gets better later on; some assert as much and say I should hold on and not miss episode 6.  I dunno.  If FUNimation screens a continuation of the next 4 episodes at Alamo Drafthouse, I may consider it, but I'm not in any hurry to buy a copy of Shiki nor am I eager to catch it on streaming...I've got a lot of other shows to watch and Shiki is pretty far down on my list of priorities and certainly isn't a "must see" for me.

Anyway, though the vampires are alluded to in Episode 3, no fangs get bared until the final scenes of Episode 4.  There is also discussion of who tends to become a vampire after death, and some of the consensus in the fictional universe of Shiki are people who die with many regrets...sound familiar?  It should, since this was also a thematic element of how the Shikabane got created in the series Shikabane Hime a.k.a. Corpse Princess, also from FUNimation.  The Shikabane, if you recall, were ultraviolent zombies...reanimated corpses of dead people who refuse to die and persist in the world of the living through sheer force of will and blind rage or animosity, and can only be destroyed by the Shikabane Hime or Corpse Princesses, whose sole mission as powerful undead are to destroy all Shikabane and protect humankind from being preyed upon by them.

Again, Shikabane Hime is a fantastic series that has held my attention from episode 1 and continues to thrill me.  I'm pretty far into it but not finished yet with it on Netflix streaming.  But it's also definitely more of an "action" series than "horror", and once again, I fully admit that maybe I just don't "get" horror and that horror may simply not be for me.

One point I did consider is that perhaps Shiki is deliberately boring its audiences to death in the first four episodes so that we can more greatly empathize with the show's restless and bored teenage protagonists who are very moody, weltschmerzy, and eager to get the hell out of this po-dunk, backwater town.  But I don't think the writers of this show or the producers of this anime adaptation are that genuinely clever; it's just an ironic truism and a byproduct one notes upon reflection.

Earlier, I happened to attend a screening of Sentai Filmwork's Book of Bantorra.

I was especially keen on attending because it was also reported that ADR director Chris Ayres would be in attendance, along with a gaggle of other cast members, including Chris's equally famous brother Greg, and Josh Grelle and Tiffany Grant, among others.  Sadly not able to make it were Shelley Calene-Black and Luci Christian.

I have to admit, I really like it when Shelley Calene-Black plays really ballsy, tough women.  She was fantastic as the lead in the older ADV Films series Noir and I'm currently enjoying her role as the no-nonsense ship captain in the bizarre sci-fi series Xam'd that I'm currently enjoying on Netflix streaming.

Also, Book of Bantorra has a set of protagonist characters who call themselves Armed Librarians, so I had to go check and see what was up with that.

Lemme just say that after the first four episodes, I can mainly say that Book of Bantorra is a very, very strange place indeed.  It has bad guys facing down, at times, seemingly even WORSE guys.  Very few characters, save Greg Ayres' character Volken, seem to occupy any particular moral high ground.  Shelley Calene-Black voices the very busty, borderline psychotic Hamyuts Meseta (ハミュッツ＝メセタ Hamyuttsu Meseta^?), whom ADR director Chris Ayers in the Q&A afterward identified as one of the main characters of the show.  Meseta is a particularly frightening character, one of those persons of whom you'd say, "I'm glad you're on OUR side", or "sure, she's a bloodthirsty, crazy b*tch, but she's OUR bloodthirsty, crazy b*tch".

Unlike Shiki, you definitely can't accuse Book of Bantorra of not being solidly action-packed; it certainly is.  But it's definitely very weird and disorienting and even by the end of episode 4, it's not entirely clear what's going on; you may have a rough idea of whom the "good" and "bad" guys are, but everyone also seems to have their own private agendas and there are so many criss-crossed lines of fate and destiny at play. 

There are several turns of phrase in English relating to the intersection of books and life; "My life is an open book", or "I can read you like a book", or the biblical "book of life", the Logos, or Word in the Christian religious tradition, etc.  Book of Bantorra riffs on these ideas in a quasi-European looking setting and makes them concrete.  People literally are transformed into "books", actually into magical stone tablets, after they die.  These tablets are stored in perpetuity in the Library of Bantorra, watched over by the Armed Librarians, who serve, in effect, the role of guardian angels.  One can pick up these magical tablets and review a person's whole life as they saw it.  It plays out before your mind's eye like a movie.  This is a theme also touched on in Season 1 of Black Butler, coincidentally.  The Bantorra Library is opposed by the Shindeki Church, who seem, despite their religious moniker, to be highly Romantic, Nietzschean, hedonistic individualists who believe in living life to its fullest...they view themselves as the elect, the "Master Race" among the "Sheeple", so to speak, and they have a beef with the staid manner with which the Bantorra Library has been managing the affairs of this world and the next.

By episode 4 of Book of Bantorra, I was telling myself "yeah, this show is pretty weird; I don't think I'm going to buy it or bother watching it on streaming when it comes out.";  The Q&A with the ADR Director Chris Ayres and cast was kind of fun, if brief.  A few NEW cast members were introduced, some of whom this was their first Anime role ever, which was all kinda cool.  Then it came time for the free drawings and lo and behold, I *won* a copy of Volume 1 of Book of Bantorra, namely the first 13 episodes.  Well, the price was definitely right.

Again, wasn't a huge fan of the series, and I've got a lot of other shows in the queue to watch or finish watching before I finish Book of Bantorra.  Chris Ayres was very enthusiastic about it and hyped the plot twists and turns yet to come.  I remain skeptical but will give the rest of Book of Bantorra a fair hearing/viewing at a later, unspecified future date and I will update this blog with a full review of the first 13 episodes once I've had a chance to see them and think about them.

Anway, I'm looking forward to more Sentai and FUNimation screenings at Alamo Drafthouse, though I'm not all that excited by the June schedule for FUNimation.  I am looking forward to the special Sentai screening on Monday, 11 June 2012, however.  Until next time, Sayonara!