Gen X Otaku 1971: the OG blog

Finished Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So I devoted Saturday night to watching in full the Blu-Ray edition (from Bandai Entertainment) of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence.  I paid a hefty sum to acquire this Blu-Ray, and I'm happy to report it did NOT disappoint.  The visuals are simply stunning, with jaw-dropping detail, a carefully crafted blend of 2D animation and CGI 3D animation.  Definitely watch the "Special Features" included on this disc, they are well worth your time.

Of course I watched the English dub version, which utilizes the original television cast from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.  That said, this movie, according to Mamoru Oshii, is a direct sequel to the original Ghost in the Shell movie, which I own and have also seen.  Or more precisely I've seen Ghost in the Shell 2.0 which was a re-release by Oshii utilizing more CGI, with mixed results.  I saw this version on Hoopla Digital some time ago, but I also own a copy of the original Bandai release of the original Ghost in the Shell movie without the "2.o" edits.

Having just finished the movie Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society, which is set 2 years after the events of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, 2nd Gig, in my own "head canon", although the actual movie of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence was released before Solid State Society, and even though the movies and the television series are supposedly separate fictional universes, to my mind, and given the chronology of all the fictional iterations of the Ghost in the Shell multiverse, the events depicted in Innocence, in particular The Major's ongoing evolution into ever higher states of being, are logically consistent with the directions indicated by the conclusion of Solid State Society, such that Innocence is a perfectly plausible future for Solid State Society as well, besides serving as a sequel for the original movie...at least to my mind it is.  The only plot wrinkle that would need to be hand waved away is that Tohgusa is in a greater position of authority in Solid State Society than he appears to be in Innocence.  But in any case, the real stars of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence are actually Batou, Tohgusa, and Ishkawa, and to a lesser degree Chief Aramaki as well.  The Major serves more in the background as a "guardian angel" type figure, her ghost fully merged with the future internet without corporeal form, guiding the protagonists along but avoiding direct intervention until the very end.  This is a film about a series of murders by malfunctioning gynoid sex robots (a callback to Season 1 of Stand Alone Complex, incidentally) that points to a wider conspiracy.  Batou, Ishkawa, and Tohgusa must join forces yet again to unravel the mystery and stop the conspiracy, which seems to involve foreign threats emerging from the nearby Chinese mainland.  There is plenty of philosophical musings that are on par with the original movie as well as other anime shows like Serial Experiments Lain, which Innocence triggered many memories of, for me at least.  My words can't do justice to just how breathtakingly beautiful and complicated the visuals are in this movie.  I easily see myself watching it again and again for the visuals alone.  There's just so much there to take in that I doubt one sitting is enough to do it justice.  This should be enjoyed at home on a widescreen HD television off the Bandai Blu-Ray.  The music used is a callback to the original movie, with the score partly reused but also expanded for this film.  The special features are well worth watching in their own right, with extended interviews with Mamoru Oshii and his animation staff and also his Japanese voice cast.  The English television cast does a great job with their performances as well.  It sent chills down my spine the first time I heard Mary Elizabeth McGlynn's voice as The Major in Innocence.  It's a very short line and you can miss it if you're not paying attention, but I was and noticed immediately.  I recently watched the next Arise film and enjoyed it, and I understand why Mary Elizabeth McGlynn was not cast to voice the younger version of The Major for those prequels, but it is nice she was recast as a rival character to The Major, as a way to symbolically pass the baton, so to speak, by playing a slightly older and wiser "noble adversary" type character.  The third Arise film's concluding shot is a hat tip to the original opening of the original Ghost in  the Shell movie.  Watching Innocence fills a gaping hole in my knowledge of the Ghost in the Shell fictional multiverse.  I feel I belong to a special class of anime fan now, to have seen all these different iterations.  I have yet to read any of Shirow Masamune's original manga, however.  I hope to remedy that someday.

Gasaraki completed

 
So, I finally finished the 1990s Mecha series GASARAKI. It does a good job of trying to depict the combat robots realistically, the actual problems they would face on a real-world battlefield, and what would be needed to overcome the inherent
difficulties of the bipedal design. The series interweaves Japanese mythology and Medieval History with the present day, hints at reincarnation, etc., and even integrates cultural practices like ceremonial dancing in very awkward and unintentionally comedic
ways. I might react differently if I were Japanese with a better understanding of the social and historical context, but as an ignorant
Gajin, I can only point and laugh and snicker at some of the clunky dialogue. The ADV Films crew deliver their lines with sincerity, it’s not their fault that what they’re saying is at times patently ridiculous. 

 
The film is also very politics heavy and the greatest weakness by far is just how goddamn talky the story is; it really wrecks the pacing of the anime and there are many extended scenes of characters sitting across from each other giving
deeply thoughtful lectures to each other about the philosophical underpinnings of their project and their critical analysis of what’s wrong with contemporary Japan and how it can learn from the past to build a better future for itself.
 
The villains of the story are Japanese elites of a very traditionalist and nationalist mindset, very arch-conservative and right-wing, but the story lets them expound their views and seems to lend some tragic sympathy to their views. Indeed,
there is a possible segment of the audience who would view the villains as tragic heroes who fail rather than cheer for the ostensible young protagonists. The main antagonist, Mr. Nishida, wants to provoke a confrontation with the United States and also usher
in a period of economic devastation to Japan that he hopes will break the amoral, narrowly consumerist ambitions of contemporary Japanese and return them to a more noble, purposeful agrarian past that eschews technology altogether. However, he’s undermined
by an ally, the head of Gowa clan, for whom although they share a common goal to smash the existing Japanese state, and launch a coup’d’etat together, their ultimate goal is the advancement of their own power and absolute dominance, much in the manner of his
medieval ancestor. His ambitions are stopped by his brother, Yushiro, and a female mech pilot, Miharu, who have a special affinity beyond normal humans for piloting the robot mecha.
 
It seems in this version of Medieval Japan there were terrible Mecha-style monsters resembling Golems, known as the Gasaraki, that could also be piloted by a certain class of knights and were capable of wreaking great destruction upon the
land. These Gasaraki were sealed away deep underground, never to be used again, but the Gowa Corporation has uncovered their ancient burial grounds and brought these Gasaraki back into the modern world. The ancient, Golem-like Gasaraki are even more powerful
and terrifying than modern Mecha known as TAs, or Tactical Armors. There are a few flashback episodes of the Gasaraki operating in Medieval Japan, and we can see that Yushiro and Miharu lived in those times as well, their contemporary namesakes being reincarnations
of their ancestors. Yushiro is a civilian contractor and test pilot assigned to a JSDF mecha unit testing their TAs. He is more skilled than any of his military counterparts and the Gowa Corporation tries and fails to find a way to reproduce Yushiro’s special
abilities via drugs, with disastrous results for the unfortunate test pilots.
 
The Gasaraki re-enters the plot one final time, but more as a gateway to a mystical realm than as an actual combat unit. Mystical things happen and the heroes are judged worthy and returned to earth to live out their natural lives, while
the wicked are annihilated by divine judgement. 
 
It’s a really weird show and worth watching, I guess, but I only saw it because it’s available on Hoopla digital through my local library. I wouldn’t recommend going out of one’s way to acquire used copies of the original ADV Films DVD
release.

Black Bullet is da bomb

I really enjoyed the screening of the first 4 episodes of the anime series Black Bullet at Alamo Drafthouse Mason Park. Rather dark and grim, but with lots of action. Plus I'll always sit up and watch a show that has great veteran lead actors like Chris Patton and Luci Christian. Makes me harken back to my early anime fan days watching FMP: FUMOFFU and Second Raid (yes I did see the original FMP, too, but FUMOFFU & TSR are my faves of the franchise). At the very least I'll definitely stream the rest of this show on Anime Network and would consider adding it to my physical media collection on down the road.

This anime was good, but the character of Enju Aihara (藍原 延珠 Aihara Enju) was more than a little disturbing because of how sexually forward she is...despite being ostensibly only 10 years old.  I guess as a "Cursed Child" she understands she will not live long and certainly won't have anything like a "normal" life ever...and so feels a burning innate drive to experience all that life has to offer in as short a time as possible before it's too late for her, including her budding sexuality, and feels somewhat annoyed by her partner's "conventional" moral reservations and rebuffs.  It's a tension that definitely makes the viewer uncomfortable.  Though on another level, the anime does pull back on full realism, with the cursed children (all girls) being treated merely as pitiful Dickensian waifs...when the reality would be much darker (systemic prostitution and rape)....though getting summary executed by the police Brazil style is pretty damn dark already.

It makes me laugh a little because especially with the rise of all things "moe" in the 2000s, and especially in a post Madoka-Magica world, anime seems to have this need to shoehorn in cute little girl characters, no matter what the story line.  And for shows like this it can feel really...awkward.

Basically, a good way to think about the structure of Black Bullet is take the existing property Claymore but turn the female warriors into cute 10 year old girls with mysterious red eyes and change the setting from High Fantasy to dystopian future Sci-Fi and PRESTO you have the basic setup for Black Bullet.  Including the part where the girls are themselves half-monsters used to fight real monsters and feared by society around them.

The one twist being that the main character, Rentarō Satomi (里見 蓮太郎 Satomi Rentarō^?), voiced by Chris Patton, is something of a badass in his own right, whereas the Claymore protagonist was strictly a passive observer and Claire's effective "damsel".

Also, Black Bullet has a compelling villain & villainous sidekick that really make the show work.  The terrifying masked gentleman Kagetane Hiruko (蛭子 影胤 Hiruko Kagetane^?) and his psychopathic, dual-blade wielding "cursed" daughter Kohina Hiruko (蛭子 小比奈 Hiruko Kohina^?)...both are remorseless killers with a hidden agenda.

The first four episodes were very entertaining and emotionally engaging.  Hilary Haag voices one of the cursed girls and though her screen time is lamentably limited, Ms. Haag makes us care for this girl and her short, awful life.  The suffering endured by these children make the series especially gut wrenching at times.  It is definitely a product of a post-Madoka universe.

Coppelion Dub on Neon Alley

Coppelion (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I recently finished the Dub of the 13-episode sci-fi anime series Coppelion, set in a near future Tokyo that has been decimated by a nuclear catastrophe.  The ostensible heroes of the series are 3 genetically engineered female clones who have been genetically engineered to resist radiation and other environmental pollution and contamination.  It sounds promising, potentially, as a series, but the show is so badly written that it leaves one nearly exasperated thinking about the plot holes and obviously improbable situations with respect to logistics, how science works, etc.  I can suspend disbelief but Coppelion also gives us screwy character motivations that don't make sense, melodrama stretched to absurdity, and extremely preachy tirades to stand in for more substantive dialogue.  It makes my brain hurt to listen to.  The animation style is very unconventional and the girls themselves are drained of color, as if to emphasize their "doll-like" nature, which does make thematic sense.  The title of the anime is borrowed from a French opera about a Pygmalion-like artist who created a life-like doll.  The anime features a lot of earth tones and is dull and white, with only sparing use of color.  The girls spend much of their time apparently rescuing reluctant, delusional middle aged Libertarians who seem to be willing to put up with living in a Nuclear wasteland because hey, at least they don't gotta pay taxes anymore, amiright?!

The show is kind of dull until this crazy one shows up and her equally crazy sister.  The Uzo sisters are legitimately terrifying.

Like our 3 protagonists, the Uzo sisters are also Coppelion, but unlike the 3 protagonists, they've decided to "go rogue" and cause as much mayhem and destruction as they can, joining ranks with the abandoned First Division of the JSDF who now rule wasteland Tokyo as its defacto Warlords, who are plotting to spread nuclear and chemical environmental pollution to the rest of the globe out of spite, mainly.

However, the Uzo sisters are inconsistently written...they start out as remorseless psychopaths and are legitimately terrifying but by series end, they're like the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, and their hearts just needed to grow a bit and learn empathy and care about each other, yada yada yada.  That's not how psychopathy works in reality, but hey.  Also, the First Division gives up on its nihilism after the 3 good Coppelion still acknowledge their basic humanity despite their physical deformities from radiation and other environmental effects...though apparently their commander does still want to shoot the main character with a tank shell first.  Their commander later sacrifices himself so their final evacuation mission can succeed. 

At least the 2nd half of the series is action packed, which helps to redeem the bad writing somewhat.  It's best just not to think about it to hard and just enjoy the visuals and the characters and the feels.  The overall execution could've been so much better, but it's still worth a watch I guess, at least while it's still available on Neon Alley in dub format in advance of the DVD release from VIZ Media.

Eureka Seven AO summary

Neon Genesis Evangelion (video game) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So I hear that Eureka Seven AO gets a lot of hate in some quarters from fans of the original series who feel like it betrays or lessens the original series' message, impact, etc.  And I do get where that's coming from, to a certain extent.  Firstly, Eureka Seven Astral Ocean is *confusing*; it takes awhile to reconcile two undeniable facts.  Yes, Ao is Eureka's son and Renton is his father.  And yes, Ao lives on a near future Okinawa, which has only recently declared independence from Japan.  And all of this is in the distant PAST of Earth as we knew it in the original series timeline, which didn't reveal its taking place on Earth in the far flung future until very late in the series.  There's a lot of time travel and inter-dimensional jumping around that is rather hard to follow and takes awhile to sort out.  Add to that the fact that Ao comes to possess a special gun for his Nirvash that instead of destroying its target like a beam weapon, instead randomly jumps to a reset timeline somewhere else in the space/time continuum. 

Whereas the end of the original Eureka Seven left one hopeful that Humans and Coralians, i.e. Scub Coral would find a way to co-exist, in Eureka Seven AO, once the Scub Corals discover inter-dimensional travel, they resume their slow conquest of space-time, using this as a means to escape and evade the "Limitation of Questions" dilemma posed in the original series.  Eureka and Renton have made it their mission to stop the Scubs' plan of conquest across the dimensions, the result of which first sends Eureka hurtling back in time to the mid 21st century, where she gives birth to Ao.  She then gets stuck in a time loop that Ao and Renton have to find a way to fix somehow.

Our star-crossed family is reunited briefly in an emotionally rewarding moment...Mother Eureka, Father Renton, and son Ao.  Ao uses his special trans-dimension gun one last time to re-unite his parents and to send himself hurtling into yet another brand new reality on Earth where probably nobody remembers who he is; But he embraces this fate willingly and concludes the series ready for new adventures.  Eureka Seven Astral Ocean is markedly shorter and a bit more melancholy than Eureka Seven.  But it's a respectably good sci-fi action series in any case.  I suppose it could stand alone, but obviously you can't fully appreciate it without having seen the original Eureka Seven.  Do be sure to listen to the special features with the commentaries by Stephanie Sheh and Johnny Yong Bosch who reflect on coming back to reprise their roles as Eureka and Renton, as well as Micah Solusod reflecting on how he studied the original show to get a feel for how to play Ao, and the happy coincidence of the similarities between Johnny's voice performance and Micah's, which makes sense thematically for this father-and-son duo.  I'm glad I went back to re-watch Eureka Seven and I'm glad I followed that up by marathoning Eureka Seven Astral Ocean directly on the heels of re-watching the original show.  I felt so inspired I went out and acquired an Eureka figurine to celebrate.

The visuals are amazing, it is worth watching & owning on Blu-Ray, though it's even more painfully obvious in Eureka Seven Astral Ocean how much the series shamelessly steals from Neon Genesis Evangelion even more so than the original series did.

 

Finished Re-watch of Eureka Seven, started E7AO

Finished my re-watch of Eureka Seven via Netflix...I'd forgotten just how weird that show actually gets near the end. It was emotionally satisfying and not quite the bummer I'd vaguely remembered it to be. The ending is actually ambiguous and leaves room for hope.

**SPOILERS FOLLOW**

I'm just now starting Eureka Seven AO and trying to figure out its relationship to the original series. It definitely seems to involve a time-travel twist *backwards* in time...such that the events are actually kind of a "prequel" to the events of Eureka Seven proper. However, there seem to be certain characters who "remember" the alternate future timeline; Near as I can tell so far, Eureka was pregnant with her and Renton's son when she was flung backwards in time to 2020s Okinawa, which in this timeline recently declared independence from Japan. Eureka gave birth to her son Ao on the island of Okinawa. Her appearance on Okinawa was regarded by many as a bad omen; she seems to have disappeared some time not long before Ao reached his teen years, however, leaving Ao in the care of an senior Okinawan physician who took them both in. Ao has the eyes of a Coralian but his hair is ordinary brown at first. He has a crush on an Okinawan local girl named Naru. Lots of action happens and the end result is Ao finds himself in control of an early type FLO (KLF?) that loosely resembles Nirvash. And for whatever reason, he now has the teal blue hair of his mother and looks more fully like a human-form Coralian. It's....interesting and visually compelling, but also a little weird. No information whatsoever about Renton's fate; though at this point I'm assuming he's dead or had to ditch his physical body the way his father Adroc did before him.  Like father like son, Ao has "daddy issues" the same as Renton--both have the indignity of heroic but absentee fathers.

I remember saying once that the Eureka Seven movie ends happier than the series does...but that's arguable as well...yes, both Eureka and Renton are still physically alive at the end of the movie, still on the planet...but Eureka's mind has been wiped and she's basically a blank slate who will have to re-learn everything...I guess I'd assumed (probably incorrectly) that they both died at the end of the original series, but I no longer think that's true, given the canonicity of Eureka Seven AO.

I was also emotionally satisfied to see Anemone & Dominic hook up at the end of Eureka Seven (original series). They re-appear in the Eureka Seven movie as mature adults & life partners.

Stephanie Sheh does appear in the credits of Eureka Seven AO as Eureka, though she mainly appears in flashbacks in Ao's memory at first, with few spoken lines.  Ao's memories are unreliable, or history is more complex than we think.  Eureka is shown in Ao's memories with her teal blue hair, but in photographs she has brown hair (but Coralian eyes).  Perhaps she dyed her hair to better assimilate on Okinawa.

The humans of 2020 are aware of the Scub corals...the Corals themselves are a curiosity, but the real threat comes in the form of so-called "Secrets" or "G-monsters" that are giant alien spacecraft that are openly hostile and impervious to conventional Earth weapons.  They can only be destroyed by mecha like Nirvash and its variants.

We learn by Episode 6 (where I left off so far) that the "Mark I" is indeed somehow TypeZero Nirvash...it remembers Eureka, and it identifies Ao as her son through bio-markers and accepts commands from him as well.  No doubt there are also bio-markers from Renton, since Ao would have half of Renton's DNA besides Eureka's, and the two together allowed Nirvash to operate at maximal capacity.  Ao ought to be half Coralian, half Human.  It remains to be seen how this will play out in the series.

I've seen this series trashed by other Anime fans but from what I've viewed of Ep.1-5, I've enjoyed so far.  I'm not prepared to abandon this ship just quite yet.

Eureka Seven re-watch; a new perspective

Asuka, Shinji and Rei on the cover of Volume 1 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I realized upon continuing my re-watch of Eureka Seven...
...today that I finished this show before I ever got around to watching Neon Genesis Evangelion. I'd forgotten just how many "Shinji Ikari"-like moments Renton Thurston experiences in the show (i.e. where he flips the f*ck out)...Renton is probably based somewhat off Shinji, only a little more likeable and innocent, and certainly more eager to "get in the f*cking robot". That and Eureka herself is sweeter & more approachable than Rei Ayanami, while Talho is like a weird fusion of Asuka Soryu Langley & Misato Katsuragi, and Holland is sort of like Gendo only even more of a violent asshole.  In other words, Gendo was emotionally abusive to Shinji, while Holland is more physically abusive/bullying to Renton.  Now that I have NGE firmly under my belt, I'm looking at Eureka Seven with a fresh perspective I didn't have the first time through and I'm seeing these parallels now that I could not make the first time through.

The influence of NGE upon all anime that came after it is hard to overstate.  Eureka Seven is more of a Space Opera Romance that happens to feature some unique "surfing mecha", but it is not a "mecha" show, really.  NGE isn't really a "mech" show either, not least because the Eva units aren't wholly robotic but are bio-mechanoid.  Evangelion's its own mind-bendy thing that's hard to pigeonhole.  It's the 2001 A Space Odyssey of anime.   That said, Eureka Seven is pretty damn weird, too.  Maybe not NGE weird, but still pretty weird.  I'm watching it again in the vain hope I'll better understand it this time before I attempt to watch Eureka Seven AO.  I don't think I need to watch the Eureka Seven movie again, which I loved and was fantastic and I own it on Blu-Ray.

I'd forgotten just how LONG this series is, too.  Like, 50 episodes long.  That's FMA sized.  I'm just now reaching Episode 21, not even half-way done yet.  I mainly watch it at lunch if my usual friends are busy running errands at lunch and I'm eating alone, etc.  It's great to re-visit this series, and I was happy to get Stephanie Sheh to sign my Blu-Ray cover and insert at the most recent Anime Matsuri convention (2015) here in Houston.  It's hard to believe this series itself is turning 10 years old this year (it came out originally in 2005).

I'm re-watching also because I originally watched it on rental DVD from Hastings Books & Records in Denton, Texas and that store was lacking one of the later volumes, so I missed out on like 4 whole episodes, and they killed off one of the Gekko State members in those because that crew member never showed up again where I picked up to finish the show.

I hear Eureka Seven AO isn't very good, but maybe it's only for dedicated Eureka Seven franchise fans and nobody else.  I'm still looking forward to it regardless.

Expelled from Paradise

Just got back from a special screening of the anime feature film Expelled from Paradise which features 3DCG technology.  It looks very smooth, nearly like hand-drawn animation, but it is all CG and visually brilliant.  Think Knights of Sidonia, only even better with respect to its visuals.

This anime not only looks really good, but it's a solid sci-fi story to boot.  It's a bit of a slow burn leading to some high concept Sci Fi leading to plot complications, conflict, and good old Anime mech battle badassness. The trailer did NOT prepare me for what was to come.  The beginning reminds me of Sword Art Online, and it was disorienting as I hadn't expected such an opening.

I was very lucky to attend this screening, which is apparently a world-wide premiere taking place only shortly after this film's release in Japan, so of course this was a subtitled show, which I didn't mind.  In fact, there is so much if it that revolves around singing and music that I'd be very surprised indeed if this anime even gets considered for an English dub, as music rights is always a formidable hurdle, and they'd have to pick thematically appropriate songs, too.

The screenplay was by Gen Urobuchi and I was definitely pleased with the writing of this show.  It's got solid Sci Fi elements in it, and reminds me a bit of the Utopian/Dystopian visions of Psycho Pass, which Gen Urobuchi was associated with for season 1. He's also the creative mind behind Fate/Zero, the prequel to Fate/Stay Night.

It was also a nice night out to meet up with my friends and fellow Aspies, S.R. and F.M.  It was the first time in several months we've managed to all hang out together.  We even had some good discussion after the movie, too, and managed some catching up chit-chat before the film, too.  All in all, I give Expelled from Paradise a big thumbs up for story and for its visual appeal.  Definitely a worthy film.

Majestic Prince - unlikely heroes, unlikely hit!

130201(3) – 電視動畫版《銀河機攻隊 マジェスティックプリンス》（銀河機攻隊 Majestic Prince）鎖定4月開播，「Team Rabbit」聲優陣容出爐！ (Photo credit: ccsx)

Just got back from an advanced screening of the upcoming new release from Sentai Filmworks, the dub release of the first four episodes of Majestic Prince.  The odd title derives from a nickname given to a team of 5 (literal) space cadets thrown into battle to guard the retreat of Earth forces from a remote base.  Through a combination of bravery, recklessness and pure luck, they not only successfully cover the retreat, they push back against the enemy and cause them to withdraw, sparing the lives of scores of civilians who were otherwise destined to be abandoned owing to a lack of transport ships.  This heroic action wins the cadets actual military honors and instant celebrity status in Earth's media, along with the nickname "Majestic Princes", a backronym created from their official military designation, M.J.P.

These child soldiers are mecha pilots genetically engineered to fight the alien invasion.  They are superior in every way to ordinary humans and have an intimate connection to their mecha right to the level of their individual DNA.

If the character designs look reminiscent of 2007's Heroic Agedistributed in North America by FUNimation Entertainment, that's because Majestic Prince shares the same character designer, Hisashi Hirai.  Hirai's distinctive style carries over to 2014's Majestic Prince and its loveable cast of characters.  The tone of the anime is generally serious, but it has its lighthearted moments where the characters can look and act quite cartoony for the sake of comic relief.  They are still young teenagers at the end of the day, with all the insecurities and angst you'd expect from that age demographic.  Hisashi Hirai also did the character design for yet another Mecha show, 2005's Fafner, which was recently rescued & re-released by FUNimation Entertainment with its original dub cast.

I was definitely highly entertained by these first four episodes.  Hell, the English dub trailer alone was enough for me to throw down $$$ on a pre-order for this show on Blu-Ray over at Right Stuf! for their recent Sentai Filmworks 40% off sale.  The story, the characters are great, and this show is positively GORGEOUS.  I can't wait to watch the rest of it in full HD Blu-Ray quality on my flat screen TV.

We also had a surprise visit from the ADR cast & crew, who graciously answered audience questions during the Q&A period at the end.  I asked if the Alien language was simply the original audio or if it too was re-dubbed (which it was).  One of the newer Sentai Filmworks cast, who plays the "gun" otaku of the band is an aural dead ringer for Josh Grelle, so I was surprised to not see Josh's name in the credit roll.  I know Josh mainly works on FUNimation properties but he will sometimes come down to record for Sentai Filmworks, as Monical Rial did for this production, whose character is so lovely and adorable you just want to hug and squeeze her.

I also thought the more reserved girl was being voiced by Jessica Boone, but then saw it was actually Genevive  Simmons, who also voiced the titular main character of Mysterious Girlfriend X in the English dub of that show.  Incidentally, I was happy to hear Ms. Boone in Devil Survivor 2.

I give this series a big thumbs up so far and look forward to finishing it and to acquiring Part 2 when that gets released later on by Sentai Filmworks.

Finished LaGrange: Flower of Rin-ne (Seasons 1 & 2) - contains spoilers

120327(3) - 全新製作OVA《輪廻のラグランジェ -鴨川デイズ-》將搶先在TVA第二期之前特別上映！ (Photo credit: ccsx)

I finally got around to finishing up the VIZ release of their English dub of LaGrange: The Flower of Rin-ne.  It's superficially a "mecha" show, only with all female pilots who are in charge of special machines called VOX units, which they give pet names like "Midori", "Orca" and "Hupo".  The story centers around everday Japanese teen girl Madoka and her two friends who just happen to be aliens from other worlds, Lan of Le Garite and Muginami of De Metrio.  Madoka is an orphan who is being raised by her uncle and mentored by her older cousin who is a research scientist, Youko Nakaizumi (中泉 ようこ Nakaizumi Yōko^?).  Madoka always looked up to Youko, and it was admiration of Youko's positive energy and enthusiasm as a High School student that pulled Madoka from the depths of her depresssion at losing her mother at such a young age.  Madoka vowed to emulate Youko in every way possible and founded an extra curricular club she calls "The Jersey Club" for the Jersey track suit she wears constantly (just like her cousin before her).  Her mission is to provide assistance to other clubs, whenever and whereever the need is most.

Madoka soon ropes her alien friend Lan into joining Jersey Club, and not long after recruits Lan's rival, Muginami, to join as well.  Madoka's sheer force of personality enables Lan and Muginami to put aside their differences and live peacefully for a time on the Earth in Kamogawa, Japan.

Both alien girls are princesses in rival alien kingdoms that are on the brink of war due to their planets being on a collision course.  Only these aliens are actually ancient humans who fled planet Earth aeons ago to found new civilizations among the stars.  The kings of these two realms were once childhood friends but they have grown distant now that they have become adults.  Plus there are forces behind the scenes that very much want the war, for ulterior motives.  And the central mystery is all tied to an event that happened on earth, a near mass-extinction that allegedly happened 20,000 years in the past.

Madoka's simplistic worldview and naivite aren't nearly as annoying as Fam from Last Exile Season 2.  Madoka realizes she sometimes must fight in her VOX unit to protect the people she loves, though just like Fam she naively believes that all problems can be resolved simply by talking them out calmly and respectfully.  Luckily, too, Madoka seems to have the hands of Fate on her side, and a bit of divine luck to boot.

The series is reasonably entertaining but it's best not to overthink the underlying politics or world histories, etc.  They're background scenery, largely unimportant.  The major material conflict gets hand-waved away with a few lines in the last episode.  Front and center throughout is always the characters and their relationships with each other that is the focus of the show.  This is the major driver of all action and drama in this narrative.  The emotional states of the characters seem to literally have magical powers that make the VOX units work optimally, etc.

I don't pretend to understand the flower imagery or what it symbolizes, other than it must pertain to some deeper meanings in Japanese culture that completely escape me as a Western viewer.

I only own the DVDs of this series, and while I do think the resolution on Neon Alley (where I first started it) was somewhat superior, the DVDs are of presentable quality and the animation used in this show is still very beautiful.  If this were a stronger story I'd recommend getting this series on Blu-Ray rather than DVD, as it can be quite visually impressive at times.  But because the story seldom rises above lackluster, I can't recommend spending the extra $$$ on a Blu-Ray acquisition of this title.  Enjoy what you can see on DVD, which is perfectly adequate.

The voice performances are reasonably good, full of BangZoom! regulars that one expects on a VIZ release.

Season 1 feels complete unto itself, and if you find you don't particularly like the show, you can feel perfectly fine stopping there.  Season 2 is another arc, and it delves deeper into the backstory of the various characters and factions as well as advancing the plot forward.

I managed to pick up the series after the price dropped and it became a resonably priced purchase for me.  Plus I didn't get a chance to finish it in English on Neon Alley, which was an additional motivation for me.  There were too many other shows running concurrently, so I decided to drop LaGrange in favor of finishing it on physical media instead.  I'm glad I did so because it enabled me to fully enjoy shows like MAGI, for example.  I'm glad for the cool shows that Neon Alley introduced me to, especially the Aniplex shows but also native VIZ titles like this one.

I look forward to catching the English dub of Gargantia sometime later this year.  Hopefully it will premiere on Neon Alley as promised and I will wait a few months after the initial release, hoping for the price drop that will make it affordable as well.  Some of the visuals in LaGrange remind me of the visuals I saw of Gargantia episode 1 on Crunchyroll.  VIZ seems to have a habit lately of releasing visually stunning shows that are kind of weaksauce in terms of actual story, plot, characters, etc.  I found Kfrustrating for much the same reasons.  Visually amazing but confusing as f*ck in terms of character motivations, backstory, etc.  A lot of it just didn't make sense to me.  The Aniplex show Fate/Zero had the opposite problem...it tells too much, actually, but even still none of it makes a lick of sense.  It's all fast-talking gibberish to me.

LaGrange at least is easy to consume and fairly straightforward; Likeable, plucky Madoka goes out to save Kamogawa, her friends, her family, the Earth, and the Universe.  The series is definitely worth a look, worth staying with at least to the conclusion of Season 1.