Gen X Otaku 1971: the OG blog

Last Exile: Fam of the Silver Wing (finished)

120216(2) - サーラ 〔莎娜，Sara Augusta〕 (Photo credit: ccsx)

Last night I finished up Season 2 of Last Exile, aka Last Exile: Fam of the Silver Wing via Roku streaming and via the full-service FUNimation application on my iPad.  One thing that struck me while watching these few remaining episodes, it feels as though the script was being devised by two competing script writers with very different worldviews & visions and understandings (or lack thereof) of how the politics of war play out.  At times the hippy-dippy "can't we just all get along!?" writing team is in the ascendency, handwaving past and papering over very legitimate differences between the warring factions.  This is usually when the writerly focus is on Fam herself, and the Augusta Sara.  The "peace conference" after the sudden truce was laughable.  The aggrieved parties state their cases and grievances very eloquently.  But all of this is waved aside and swept under the rug by an emotional outburst from Fam and the Augusta, a teen and a child emperor, who just want everyone to play nice.  I kept asking myself the whole series, why doesn't this brat of an Empress have a designated Regent who makes the actual decision and in whose hands the real power lays until the child reaches the age of majority.  The Premiere fills this role in a defacto sort of manner, but it's not officially recognized and accepted, and much blood is shed because adults take the commandments of a child as absolute law.

When you think about it, Glacia got completely screwed by the Peace Agreement.  It's no surprise that the Glaciens resort to assasination to seek justice for their country.  Though the attempt on the Premiere's life is thwarted, the Quisling monarch of Turan is assasinated, leading to Millia's succession as legitimate heir to the throne, after having previously abandoned her chance to instigate a coup d'etat in league with disgruntled Turan nobles and officers.  It's here that the more competent writing team takes over, the one that understands power politics and the hippy-dippy team is pushed to the sidelines again.

The ending is confusing and muddled.  It's a great battle, and there are callbacks to the original Last Exile cast of characters during and after the battle.  Fam gets her 2nd Grand Race and all is well, more or less, but not after a big Sound and Fury, signifying nothing, apparently.  This anime is all about incompetent writing and wasted potential.  It looks beautiful, but it's much dumber than its predecessor.  The coolest part for me are the Russian speaking Glaciens.  That and the cool aerial battles kept me watching, but the terrible writing had me gritting my teeth most of the way.  I can only weakly recommend this series, and only then if you're a hardcore fan of the original.  If you haven't seen the original, just watch that instead.

Manga Minute: On the naughty side

Original illustration by ゆーれー published on pixiv. For use to illustrate the characteristic drawing style and content of japanese cartoon pornography (hentai) common inside dojinshi. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So I will own up to owning a few random DVDs of some Hentai, including the infamous Bible Black,which in my humble opinion has WAY too much butt-sex for a show ostensibly aimed at heterosexual men.  I also own a few volumes of adult content manga that I keep securely away in drawers and off my actual bookshelf, away from prying eyes.  I do pull them out to flip through on occasion.  They're mostly kind of gross and misogynistic and that is often very distracting.  I also happen to keep my Hentai DVDs hidden in drawers as well. 

I've been playing around with graphic novels and manga on Kindle for my iPad and became curious if any such "blue" works were available for that platform.  It seems both Apple and Amazon Kindle have been rather skittish and internally censorious of such content in their stores.  They're trying to promote their ebook sales without raising any controversies to as wide a mainstream audience as possible.

While there are a few items in the Amazon Kindle store that include the name "Hentai" in the title or description, this is mostly misleading.  These works are at best very "Ecchi" in nature.  I purchased a few sample titles to look at.  The artwork is very attractive and titilating, but fall short of the kind of erotica I was shopping for.

I finally came upon an independent digital manga publisher, eManga, who in addition to mainstream manga, also sells Yaoi & Hentai works in multiple formats that are readable on multiple e-reader platforms.  Since they're a 3rd party seller, buyers can easily import this content for later reading on Kindle, iBooks, or other e-reader platforms.  I purchased a 3 volume series of a Hentai title which I was able to download to my hard drive in PDF format then add to my iBooks shelf on my iPad.  I could have alternatively sent the files as attachments to my Amazon Kindle app via email, but the iBooks route was faster and less cumbersome.  I pulled them up easily and am able to "zoom" in on the images, etc.  Works as well as many of my PDF documents current in my Kindle app shelf. 

Not only do I lack the drawer or shelf space to collect and own hentai titles in physical format, I feel more self-conscious and embarassed about owning them as physical volumes, while I have a (probably mostly irrational) increased sense of privacy keeping these as digital files on my iPad, where they can stay "for my eyes only", so long as I keep my iPad always close to me, usually on my night stand at bedtime.  I was very pleased by the ease of use of the emanga.com website.  I was able to create a profile, supply payment & billing info, and get the desired titles on my computer in only a matter of minutes.

I look forward to exploring the eManga.com site and may very well purchase more mainstream manga there in the future.  There's currently a dearth of manga on the Amazon Kindle store (especially while they are in dispute with Hachette/Yen Press).  I'm also leery of the proprietary limitations of the VIZ media app.  I think eManga.com is the wave of the future, or at least I hope so.  Multiple formats, DRM free.  This if anything will fill the demand for digital manga and give peoeple better access to desired content and keep people off the illegal scanillation sites.

What I'm Watching on Toonami

The main characters of Blue Exorcist Clockwise from center front: Rin, Yukio, Konekomaru, Shura, Izumo, Suguro, Mephisto, Renzo and Shiemi. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I'm currently following 2 series on Toonami, namely Blue Exorcist which I first began watching dubbed on Neon Alley before Neon Alley went to sh*t.  I'm still DVRing the episodes and keeping up that way.  The other show I'm also keeping track of on my DVR is of course Attack on Titan.  I have the first part of the first season on Pre-order from FUNimation via Amazon, along with Evangelion 3.0, I might add.  Both series feature Bryce Papenbrook in the lead role as the main protagonist; Rin, son of Satan for Blue Exorcist and Eren Jaeger for Attack on Titan.  I record them every Saturday night then watch them off the DVR the next night most of the time.  I'm really enjoying both shows very much.  Both shows are also currently streaming on Netflix, but in their sub-only original versions at this time.  I assume they're also still on Crunchyroll but it's been awhile since I last checked.  I prefer to watch these shows dubbed, but it's nice to know I can always rely on the sub-only version to get caught up if by some off chance my DVR fails to record the epsiode one Saturday night.

I'm looking forward to collecting Attack on Titan on physical media (DVD/Blu-Ray Combo) but will probably pass on Blue Exorcist in physical format, unless VIZ drastically reduces its price to a range where I'd consider it.  My favorite episode of Blue Exorcist is where the main female love interest/protagonist, voiced by Christine Marie Cabanos (Madoka Magica, Squid Girl), finally trades in her yukata for a regular Academy school uniform and all the guys notice that DAY-UM, she's actually quite busty and curvy in the hips/legs and looks great in her uniform shirt and really short skirts. ;-)

Anyway, I'm glad these shows are on Toonami, along with Black Lagoon.  I hope they serve as a "gateway drug" to turn some non-anime casual fans into actual Anime fans.

Finally finished: D.Gray Man (Season 1 & 2)

The cover of the first DVD compilation released by Aniplex of the first season (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I finally finished (via Netflix streaming) the plodding, slow fantasy alt history horror series known as D. Gray Man.  It only got 2 seasons from FUNimation, presumably because of low sales.  And the ending has a "fuck you go read the manga" non-ending to it; Only Trinity Blood feels more dissatisfying, though in that case also more forgivable as the original author died before he could bring that story to its conclusion.

D. Gray Man is not a bad show, it's just not terribly interesting.  It's formulaic and repetitive; its enemies, who are undead creatures known as Akuma, have far too little variation.  They're mostly floating gray balloon-like creatures festooned with energy cannons but the catch is they can't hit the broadside of a barn; they're sufficiently threatening to mortal humans, but against our protagonists, The Exorcists of The Black Order, they're seldom more than a nuisance, even in large numbers.  Very rarely an episode will present us with a new type of Akuma previously unseen that forces our heroes to think outside the box a little, and later on, we are introduced to a group of evil humans from a sect known mysteriously as the "Clan of Noah" (as in Noah from the Great Flood of the Bible) that are in league with the "Big Bad", aka the Millennium Earl, who is the creator of all Akuma.  The Earl preys on grieving humans and seeks to strike Faustian bargains with them.  Not unlike the taboo central to Fullmetal Alchemist, the Earl offers to bring the recently deceased back to life.  The catch is that the can only be brought back as Akuma under the Earl's control, and army of undead soldiers.  The Early usually forces the captured soul into a skeletal metal frame then orders the undead creature to kill the friend/family member who made the contract with the Earl, and then wear the skin of that person.  They are never able to recover and reinhabit their own body.  The Earl seems never to have any worry of running out of Akuma, as there are always weak willed humans he can prey upon who refuse to accept the finality of death.  The Exorcists seek to destroy the wordly undead Akuma and free the trapped human souls within, which can then pass on to the next world for final judgement.

The English voice acting is good, with Todd Haberkorn voicing the main protagonist, Allen Walker (pictured above).  Luci Christian voices Lenalee, who is Allen's faithful travel companion and fellow Exorcist.  Along the way, we meet other members of the Black Order; Other Exorcists, of course, like Kanda, the Japanese samurai Exorcist, voiced by Travis Willingham (of FMA fame), and other lesser Exorcists, as well as a limited number of high ranking Generals of the Black Order, who have all been targeted for assasination by the Earl, his minions, and the Clan of Noah.  There are also laymen assistants of the Black Order known as "Finders" who seem to be mainly communications and logistics experts.  For most missions, One Exorcist travels paired with one finder. 

Allen and Lenalee are exceptional in that regard as they are a pair of Exorcists without a finder for most missions.  Lenalee is the younger sister of the Head of Operations for the Black Order, voiced by J. Michael Tatum.  For most of the series, this character serves as comic relief.  He's eccentric and overprotective of Lenalee.  Perhaps he is able to seem more flattering in the manga, but the anime adaptation makes this character mostly a buffoon.

The series concludes on Netflix (and on FUNimation.com) with the end of Season 2, with our enlarged team of intrepid Exorcists continuing their Eastward trek across Asia and finally booking passage to the island of Japan, still in search of wayward Exorcist General Cross (voiced by Chris Sabat), Allen Walker's former harsh mentor, about whom Allen harbors mixed feelings.  General Cross is depicted as being a bit of a rogue and a womanizer and rather thoughtless and self centered.  Still, he's quite strong and vital to the war effort against the Earl being waged by the Black Order, though he seems to be pursuing his own agenda through most of the series, and we are still no closer to understanding Cross's agenda by series end than we were at the beginning.

The characters are likeable, and there are good individual episodes here and there, but so much of this series is boring and predictable and not remotely entertaining.  It tries to capture the same spirit of adventure and suspense as Fullmetal Alchemist, but mostly falls flat.  The series ends with the chief antagonists and protagonists basically at a stalemate.  There's no resolution, no clear indicator which way the war will turn out.  Both sides suffer significant losses but neither side is on the brink of defeat at any stage.  The endgame for the Earl is only remotely hinted at, and the Black Order's basic mission is to thwart the Earl and destroy as many Akuma as possible. 

I don't recommend trying to marathon this show.  It's just too boring.  It's the kind of show best watched a few episodes at a time.  Many times I watched an episode on my lunch break via my iPhone.  Not every day, but as the opportunity presented itself.  That's about the right pace.  You'll finish eventually this way.  With my finishing of D. Gray Man, I've reached the end of any new Anime (minus some Anime films) on Netflix worth watching.  The only regular animated TV feature I'm watching now on Netflix streaming is My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.  The other more recently added series to Netflix I've either already seen all the episodes for (Sword Art Online) or else own on physical media (My Bride is a Mermaid) already.

Finished Hero Tales on Netflix streaming.

Hero Tales (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I finally finished the epic anime Hero Tales via Netflix streaming.  Set in a fictional ancient China, the story follows the fate of a pair of adopted orphans who are raised as brother and sister, Taito and Laila.  Taito is marked by fate and the stars of Heaven to be the human avatar of the ancient God known as Alkaid, the eternal opponent of the Dark God Dubhe, embodied by ambitious General Keiro, who seeks to usurp the Imperial Throne and crown himself Emperor, then ascend to Godhood and purify the world of the scourge of the human race.  Only Alkaid, a.k.a. Taito, has the inner strength to stand against Dubhe and protect humanity from this dark monstrosity.  He is aided in this mission not only by his sister Laila but also his best friend, and a whole host of companions whom Taito meets and befriends on his way to the Capital to meet personally with the Emperor for an audience seeking a redress of grievances of the common people and their daily suffering and struggles for a better life within the Empire, and to seek justice against the rapacious General Keiro, a.k.a. Dubhe.  The anime is 26 episodes long and steeped in Chinese mythology and concepts, such as The Mandate of Heaven, the role of astrology & fate, etc.  The series itself is a bit of a slow burn and takes awhile to get interesting and exciting.  Taito is a bit insufferable and bratty in the beginning, and as with any shonen fighting series, he must learn to not only grow physically stronger but to mature mentally as a fuller person as well.  These tasks go hand in hand, and Taito does make progress, little by little, as the story moves from one adventure to the next.

The anime examines what, if anything to we as people owe to tradition, our roots, our prescribed roles in life.  Are we the masters of our own fate or is this merely an illusion?  Are we mere chesspieces moved at the whim of the gods, or fickle fate?  Is it our duty to accept our fate and play that role convicingly, or tear up the script and improvise from the heart?  Are we all just sinners in the hands of an angry god, or free human beings in charge of our own destiny?  These are the competing ideas that drive the onscreen clashes and drama of this anime.

The characters are likeable and seem to have good chemistry.  I watched this show only sporadically at first, taking in only a couple of episodes at a time, usually in the evening hours.  I wasn't really "sold" on the show until around Episode 15 or so.  Thereafter the action really picks up and the drama is racheted up to a tense level, and it's quite a thrill ride to the final episode of the series.  Until this apex is reached, the show would be difficult to marathon, but once it crests that tipping point, it would be hard NOT to marathon it.

The dub performances were all good, in my estimation.  Taito and Laila are both sometimes the most annoying characters, but they grow on the viewer with time.  I especially enjoyed the voice performances of the supporting cast, particularly J. Michael Tatum, Colleen Clinkenbeard, and Joel MacDonald as the Emperor and Taito's long lost twin brother, and Josh Grelle as Hosei (pronounced like Spanish "Jose" in the dub), one of Taito's first traveling companions and constant horn dog groveling for Laila's attention.  Monica Rial portrays the second in command of a ship of river pirates, a character who projects great confidence and courage, motivated by the death of her brother.  Stephanie Young voices a very sexy, sexy villianess in that special way only Stephanie Young can.

I also really liked the opening music theme, "Winterlong".  The lyrics are in English, and the song is catchy despite the sometimes clumsy wording put together by a non-native speaker.  It's a worthwhile series to watch, despite the slow burn it takes to get going.  Currently available streaming via Netflix, though this won't be available forever, so I'd watch this sooner rather than later.  It's definitely a title I'd rather rent than own.  It's pretty niche, being a Chinese historical fantasy drama.  It's a nice change of pace, different from more typical anime fare.

Resumed H.O.T.D.

The first DVD/Blu-ray volume of Highschool of the Dead released by Geneon Universal Entertainment on September 22, 2010. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I resumed watching High School of the Dead and am nearly done, only 2 more episodes to go until the end of Season 1.

The irony of Illich Guardiola playing a creepy teacher taking advantage of vulnerable teen girls like a vertitable Svengali did not escape me.  #lifeimitatesart

The more honest title for this Anime should of course be "Tits & Ass (and two Bros) vs. The Zombies".

 

So this fucking happened.

This story just makes me profoundly sad.  Such astonishing lack of judgement from one of my favorite voice talents from the ADV Films days of Anime.

Finally finished Accel World (Parts 1 & 2)

Kuroyukihime (Photo credit: pullip_junk)

So I finally finished the final few episodes of Accel World, which I started on Neon Alley ages ago.  I had to buy it on physical media to watch those last few episodes in English, but since the price had dropped by half, it was totally worth it.  Accel World is similar to .Hack and SAO, about a massive online VR social space and fighting simulation.  Those who play in the "accelerated world" call themselves "Burst Linkers".  Time in the "accelerated world" flows differently, more slowly than in the real world.  It even enables its users to invoke a kind of "Bullet time" in the real world, though this ability is used sparingly.  "Burst Linkers" form an elite and somewhat secretive society.  Those not involved with it know nothing of its existence.  Those who lose all their points in Accel World lose their ability to Burst Link and lose all memory of ever having been a part of that world.  Not quite as harsh as SAO, but still relatively high stakes.

Not unlike SAO, the anime series Accel World (アクセル・ワールド Akuseru Wārudo^?) is also a form of male power fantasy.  The protagonist, Haruyuki Arita (有田 春雪 Arita Haruyuki^?), is an overweight high school sophomore who uses a little pig character as his social avatar, a self mocking reflection of his own self esteem.  He finds an unlikely friend and champion in the person of Kuroyukihime (黒雪姫^?, lit. Black Snow Princess) a.k.a. Black Lotus (ブラック・ロータス Burakku Rōtasu^?) a.ka. The Black King.  Kuroyukihime is a very attractive, slender High School girl who is a senior in her last year of school.  She befriends, then falls in love with Haru.  Haru also loves her but shows his love through devotion to her in her battles as The Black King.

Haru has some other friends, Takumu Mayuzumi (黛 拓武 Mayuzumi Takumu^?), and his girlfriend (and Haru's childhood friend) Chiyuri Kurashima (倉嶋 千百合 Kurashima Chiyuri^?).  Both of them are also Burst Linkers.  Despite having a boyfriend, Chiyu still has some unresolved romantic longings for clueless Haru, who never noticed that she liked him and never responded to her hints and flirtations.  She relented to Takumu's overtures only after it was clear that Haru either didn't pick up on her liking him or wasn't interested in her.  At one point in the series in a moment of high drama and tension, Chiyu unbuttons her shirt to let Haru see her in her bra, offers to let him touch her, confesses she's always wanted it and always loved him.

Unfortunately for Chiyu, Haru only has eyes for his senpai, Kuroyukihime.

The ultimate goal the characters are striving for is to reach legendary Level 10 status and meet the creator of Accel World.  Black Lotus is Level 9 and almost there.  She is a "King", along with the few other Level 9 players in the game who rule their own guilds and territories.  She has a temporary truce with the Red King, who is a sweet, twin tailed redheaded Middle Schooler on the outside, but a foul mouthed Tsundere hot head in the accelerated world.  The main antagonist is the rather sociopathic Seiji Noumi (能美 征二 Nōmi Seiji^?) a.k.a. Dusk Taker (ダスク・テイカー Dasuku Teikā^?)

He's a freshman at the school who possesses strange abilities and who seems to cheat at Kendo, which Taku picks up on quickly.  Haru also notices that Noumi's strange abilities extend into the virtual world as well.  His name doesn't appear on the normal "match" lists; he seems incredibly formidable, overpowered for his ostensible age and level.  He's also very manipulative, crafty and vindicitive and utterly cynical.  He plans to gain enough power to wipe out all the Kings and upend the social heirarchy inside Accel World. 

The anime resolves around a chess-like battle of wits and skill between Haru and Noumi; they struggle for position and power inside the Accel World and also in real life.  Noumi makes it clear he has no qualms about playing dirty, and Haru's high minded morals let Noumi take advantage of Haru, who has to learn some hard lessons and overcome many setbacks.

It's a fun little series and I'm glad to have picked it up on DVD for a reasonable price.  The DVDs also include an Extra in Part 2, a small collection of short anime done in "Chibi" style using the main characters doing comical skits of mostly nonsense.  I do wonder why VIZ bothered to include this material in their release, since it's clearly aimed at a Japanese audience.  They also took the extra step of letting the English voice actors dub their character voices for the shorts as well, but again, one has to wonder why.  It's clear that much of the intended humor comes from puns and wordplay in Japanese, which to a native speaker are possibly hillarious, but the lame attempts to reproduce English equivalents mostly fall flat...like mixing up Panties with Pannini...really guys?  really?  Anyway, this bonus material can be skipped.  Watch it if you like, but sub-only is probably the way to go.  This material wasn't for us, i.e. the North American audience.  I can only speculate it was included at the insistence of the Japanese license holder.  The decision by VIZ to dub it seems pointless to me, but maybe it was a welcome and challenging exercise for the ADR script writers.  The shorts are only a few minutes long, so the total commitment time of the voice actors was probably minimal for these segments.

I do recommend this series, which can still be watched subtitled on the Neon Alley website.  It's also now surprisingly affordable on DVD if you feel strongly about watching it with the English dub.  You may note that the main protagonist Haru is voiced by the same voice actor as Alibaba in the anime series Magi.  Both characters follow the standard shonen fighting arc of being initially weak but having to get stronger to face new challenges, etc.  I have found that with these VIZ releases, it's best to wait until the title is no longer a brand new release but has been out for awhile.  They have tended to drop the price by as much has half fairly regularly, giving even deeper discounts than FUNimation and Sentai Filmworks titles for similar works that are not old but not bleeding edge new releases.  While I happen to like Magi even more than I like Accel World, Magi is an ANIPLEX show and as such is insanely expensive and costs way more than I'm willing to spend on it right now.