Gen X Otaku 1971: the OG blog

Yami to Bōshi to Hon no Tabibito (a review)

Per Wikipedia, Yami to Bōshi to Hon no Tabibito (ヤミと帽子と本の旅人?,
translated as Darkness, the Hat, and the Travelers of the Books), also known as
Yamibō/Yamibou for short, is a Japanese adult visual novel published in December 2002 by Root. A 13-episode
anime series produced Studio Deen aired between October and December 2003.[1] Although the characters and their relationships remain
basically the same in the game and anime, the storyline is quite different.
 
This anime adaptation was recently added by Hoopla Digital as part of their television anime offerings under the shortened title
Yamibo.
 
It involves a main heroine character, Hazuki Azuma (東 葉月 Azuma Hazuki⁾ engaging in a search across various dimensions for her lost younger sister, a mute girl named Hatsumi Azuma (東 初美 Azuma Hatsumi^?), who completely disappeared the night of her 16th birthday bathed in a mysterious green light!

The episodes are reminiscent of the old science fiction live action show Sliders. However, the younger sister’s own story is more like that of
Quantum Leap, for she is actually the biblical Eve, but assumes a new persona in each new “book world” she enters to engage with. The older sister is aided by Eve’s sister Lilith, who is, like Eve, depicted as a good witch wielding powerful magic.   The main character’s younger sister was but one of these assorted personae of eternal Eve.

It's basically a trans-dimensional "road movie" as the search continues across the dimensions of time & space, from Feudal Japan to a strange Science Fiction story.

Lilith and her companion cockatiel, Ken (ケン), especially are the comic relief of the show.  Hazuki eventually catches up with Eve, who is actually able to speak.  Eve explains she cannot go back to being Hazuki's little sister but when Hazuki threatens suicide from having a broken heart, Eve reluctantly agrees to be reborn as Hazuki's daughter in the future.  It's a strange relationship because Hazuki's feelings for Hatsumi are clearly overtly sexual and erotic and romantic.  Lilith seems bisexual and flirts with Hazuki in a teasing manner but Hazuki rebuffs Lilith's advances and stays focused on her beloved Hatsumi.   The various characters are redeemed by being granted  a "do over" at very critical decision points in their lives.  For her part, Hazuki uses her second chance to finally kiss her beloved Hatsumi, who reciprocates.  Hatsumi still disappears the night of her 16th birthday, just as in the first time continuity, but Hazuki is at peace with this because at least she finally got to kiss her beloved and show the depth of her feelings for her....and she hazily remembers the promise Eve made to be reborn to Hazuki as her daughter in the future, which Hazuki accepts and looks forward to.

It's a very entertaining series but also quite strange.  It is a sub-only show, no dub was ever produced, to my knowledge.

Fight Ippatsu! Jūden-chan!! completed, with review

Fight Ippatsu! Jūden-chan!! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have noticed that Hoopla Digital does periodically swap out its available anime content. As some shows are removed (most recently
Antique Bakery and Emma: A Victorian Romance) other shows are added to replace them, such as the
Vampire Princess Miyu OVAs, the very esoteric and mysterious Mononoke (not to be confused with
Princess Mononoke from Studio Ghibli) and the lewd and hilarious
Fight Ippatsu! Jūden-chan!! the English dub of which I just finished last week on Hoopla. To my mind, if you’re not watching the hilarious English dub of this show, you’re doing it wrong. This is an old Media Blasters title and has some familiar
names among the English cast, but some names that were new to me as well, especially the lead characters.
 
This is ostensibly a science fiction “action comedy” show but is very trope & fanservice heavy, with the usual expected boob and butt shots, but also a weird urination fetish.

The story focuses on main character Plug Cryostat (ぷらぐ・クライオスタット Puragu Kuraiosutatto^?), who is a "charger girl".  She exists in a parallel dimension to the regular human world.  It is the job of "charger girls" to find depressed people and give them a literal "energy boost" that translates into positive emotions in their target and restores their level of mental health to a safe(r) level.   Plug is a really good person with a warm heart, but she's shown to be kind of incompetent and a bit of a bungler or "Dojiko" (clumsy girl).  She's a lovable screw-up who is always failing to meet her daily quotas and always being forced to do lots of overtime to make up, but also having her pay docked for damaging equipment and other mistakes.  She has money problems and is whiny and complains about how hard her job is and how mean her bosses are to her.  But in spite of this, she genuinely cares about her targets, tries hard to understand them and the deeper causes of their misery.  This earns her rebukes from her superiors as it is going above and beyond what her job requirements actually are.  She runs afoul of highly ambitious Arresta Blanket (アレスタ・ブランケット Allesta Buranketto^?) who operates in the territory adjacent to Plug's and even starts "stealing" some of Plug's potential targets in her area of responsibility.  Arresta is very quick and efficient and has won employee of the month and is highly regarded by upper management for her impressive quota numbers.  Arresta takes pride in her work and exudes professionalism and a strict adherence to regulations.  She regards Plug as an incompetent Slacker who should just quit the profession of "Charger Girl" altogether.  Plug takes offense to this and tries to explain her work philosophy to Arresta, who will hear none of it.  Plug remains quietly convinced she's on to something with her more empathetic approach and only slowly does Arresta check Plug's work history and come to the realization that she's never ever had a repeat "charge" client.  Arresta may have more raw numbers, but many of her targets are repeaters, while Plug has NONE.

Still, Plug is lazy and likes to goof off and watch an ecchi anime series called "Miracle Witch Milly", which is an incredibly lewd, over the top, trope-y "magical girl" type show with lots of nudity and violence and strong language.  She runs into trouble when bumps into a human named Sento who, for reasons left unexplained, can actually see "Charger girls" like Plug and Arresta, even when they're in full "stealth mode".  Sento is short tempered and works out his frustrations by clobbering Plug and Arresta with his handy baseball bat.  This happens nearly every encounter with them and is humorous if only because it is as ridiculous as it is predictable.  Arresta is shown to be a bit of a closet Masochist, finding some sexual arousal in being struck by Sento's bat.  She's so uptight otherwise that it makes sense for her to have a secret weird kink like this.

For a completely ridiculous & lewd action comedy as this, the show has a lot of heart and tackles some deep themes in an unexpected way.  Plug is a warm and likeable character and it's impossible not to cheer for her.  She's fighting against long odds to reform the bureaucracy she works for, but in the end Plug's innovative methods end up saving the day when a real crisis hits.

The English dub of this show is laugh out loud funny; the ADR script probably took a lot of liberties but they pay off in spades.  It uses over the top "shock" humor, especially in terms of random expletives in the dialogue, etc.  I could do without the urination fetish, which is kinda gross, but still kind of funny at the same time.  Pretty sure the Hoopla version is the unedited version, because it didn't seem to hold anything back.  My only lament is that the Hoopla version doesn't have the bonus OVAs, which are apparently even crazier than the main story.  It would be almost worth tracking down the original Media Blaster's release to see them.  The OP and ED are both uplifting, catchy pieces of music.  I especially like the End Credits sequence which features a tired but determined Plug, running on a treadmill. 

I don't know if I would've enjoyed this ridiculous show nearly as much as I did if I'd only seen the original Japanese dub.  The wacky English dub really sells it, I think.