Hunger, exercise, manga (Yakitate!! Japan)

Competitive bread-making.  I love every ridiculous minute of it.

I read a couple of volumes of manga during my exercise time (stair machine and stationary bike make this possible), and I have discovered once again why reading Yakitate Japan is so dangerous: it makes you really hungry.  Volume 20 made me crave pork cutlet sandwiches so bad I almost fell off the stair machine.  Mmmm.

Check out page 84 of volume 19.  It strongly reminded me of another post I made about one of the odder things that happens in professional Japanese baseball games.  It's just so . . . appropriate that it's Kawachi.  Again, I nearly fell off the stair machine.

NOTE TO SELF: In future, only read Yakitate Japan on the bike.

Along with getting a culinary education, you can learn important facts like the following:

"You all know that pandas are actually carnivores . . . right?. . .  Moreover, pandas sometimes attack people--they have the second highest rate of zookeeper attacks (in first place is the elephant).

"My goodness, I can't understand why everyone loves such a vicious animal.  If people can love this thing, I'd rather they love me instead."

Yep, very educational.


What manga or anime have you found to be educational as well as entertaining?

Yokai Doctor - heartwarming if you give it enough time to justify the crass

I'm reading a good argument for my three volume manga rule (maybe I should call it the three strikes rule), where I try to give a new series at least three volumes to win me over before I write it off.  Volume 3 of Yokai Doctor was pretty great. 

It's nice to see characters who seemed somewhat generic branch out a bit, and I like the depth each volume brings as it throws in new curve balls about the main character's past.  Who knew that what seemed like crass boob jokes could suddenly become somewhat warm-fuzzy inducing?  Certainly not me.

The point of view character even had a couple of moments that startled me, although she is still something of a stock character.  What the series needs to really make me a fan is to make her into a "real" person.  I'm definitely reading the next volume, though.  Thanks again, Del Rey, for picking up something unexpected and enjoyable.


Are there any series you like that require at least three volumes to hook the reader that you wish more people would read?

Gakuen Alice (Kodocha, Part II?)

If Nanoha A's is made out of pure, earnest, sincerity, then Gakuen Alice is made out of pure, earnest, sincere goofiness (and a dash of darkness).  This supernatural school comedy takes place at the Alice Academy where kids with special abilities are gathered.  Sometimes, this show's energy and sheer randomness makes me think it's channeling Kodocha.  (Sob.  Kodocha season II, I'm still waiting for you.  Weep.  I'll wait forever . . .  But until then, have some Gakuen Alice!)

Mikan, our heroine, doesn't know anything about this special ability school stuff.  She just knows that her aloof best friend Hotaru suddenly left without warning and then sent her only one postcard from her new school.  Being the headstrong, thoughtless, dedicated twit that she is, Mikan takes off to give Hotaru a piece of her mind, and finds out that only people with special abilities (Alices) are allowed on campus.

Luckily, it turns out Mikan has one.  She just has to figure out what it is.  And then figure out how to fit in with all the weirdos.  And make friends.  And get back at that terrible boy who calls her names based on the kind of panties she was wearing when they first met.  Chaos ensues.

I like this one because there's the goofy, and then there's the dark, and they intertwine the whole time. 

• There's a trouble-making, broody,  bratty boy who picks on Mikan, but his perpetual bad mood and penchant for driving people away might be because the school is making him use his particularly dangerous Alice to do their dirty work. 
• Yay!  Mikan has an Alice, so she can stay with her best friend Hotaru!  Oh, and she's also trapped in the school since it's a little like a roach motel for Alices. 
• It may be much safer to stay at the Academy (Alices are worth a premium on the human trafficking market), but Alices and their families are given no real choice in the matter of where to attend school once they find out they're Alice-users. 
• Some Alices are very powerful, but the users die young.
  
• One teacher is on Mikan's side, and another one gives her the lowest rank possible and won't let all the letters she faithfully writes to her grandfather go through the mail. 
• Fun and school hijinks abound, but there's this little plot to destroy the school organized by disgruntled former students and kidnapping and some scenes that would highly offend PETA. 

Then there's the axe-wielding stuffed teddy bear and the giant chick.  Did I mention Ruka's rabbit?  (Ruka has an Alice that lets him befriend all animals.)  Cute and creepy are holding hands a lot in this show.

The Alices are often hilarious and impractical.  Some kids have normal ones like teleportation and telepathy.  Others can make it rain in a small area or create a cloud of gold sparkles or make people laugh at their awful puns.  Some can transfer pain or control fire or invent ridiculous, amazing robots.

I got a huge kick out of this show's hyper humor, and I got sucked in to the touching bits.  In the end, I was slightly disappointed by the anime because a lot of the darkness was just waved away in a manner that seemed inconsistent with the whole show.  That may have been because they had to end it with one season, and it's not like there weren't really affecting moments in the final conflict, so I'm still pleased with the show as a whole.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading the manga to see where things diverge and what happens next.  Please, keep publishing this one, Tokyopop!  It's crazy fun!  And a big thanks to Right Stuf/Nozomi for bringing it over here.  It's a hoot.  :)


Have you seen Gakuen Alice?  Or Kodocha?  Any thoughts?  Can you recommend any other crazy comedies for younger audiences?

Baby & Me (how much cute can you take)

In honor of my adorable nephew (and his parents) visiting me just before my birthday, I thought I'd talk about a series with an adorable character.  Lots of adorable characters, actually, of many different ages. 

From reviews I've read of the series, Baby & Me seems to be a love it or hate it title.  I love it.  I find it refreshing and fun and sad and funny and incredibly cute (and sometimes surprisingly dark and tender). 

It's the story of a boy named Takuya who has to take a lot of responsibility for his much younger brother Minoru after their mother dies.  Tales spin off from their family to their friends, random people they encounter, neighbors, co-workers, and anyone else they come across.  Slice-of-life mixes with family drama and office/school comedy.

Even when it's making me cry, it just feels sort of pure and almost healing.  When I am having a bad week, it's usually Baby & Me (or Honey & Clover) that I really yearn to read.  Maybe I just like Ampersands.


Do you have any "comfort food" manga or anime suggestions?

Nanoha A's: the perfect antidote for Black Lagoon?

So what do you watch with Black Lagoon?  Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's!  I love alternating shows that make my brain hurt.  (That grinding sound and slight smell of burning is the gears in my head changing.)

Nanoha is one of the most earnest and sincere anime out there.  It is made of cute and trying hard.  There's a good bit of darkness here, but it can't overwhelm the sense of earnestness.  It drives all the curse words and ultra-violence of Black Lagoon away with the power of its purity, but I still find myself humming the Black Lagoon opening theme song (one of the best examples of Engrish available in the Western world, in my opinion).

Nanoha's back, and so are a lot of familiar faces.  If possible, this season's villains are even more pitiable than the last.  They are so not-evil that you just get all torn up inside.  I have one disc to go, and I'm going to be sure to have my tissues handy for the last one. 

I was actually surpised at the ground Nanoha A's covered in the second to the last disc.  It ended with the showdown and revelations I expected for the season finale, so now I've no idea what's in store in the last disc, but I'm wishing for some good, pure, unadulterated redemption!  Bring it.

Black Lagoon's Dutch

There was a bit of controversy when Black Lagoon kind of swept the "Dubbies" this year.  I had only seen the series in Japanese, but I decided to give it a try in English, and I have to say that I have rarely encountered such a perfect performance as the one Dean Redman turns in as Dutch.  It's impossibly good.  No matter how incredibly lame or melodramatic or ridiculous the line is, he OWNS it.  It's really astonishing.  Has he really not done any voiceover work before?  Just wow.


Have you heard it?  Any thoughts?

Five reasons I like Hunter x Hunter as an author

If you kind of like HxH but you hate the way anime always drags stuff out (30 episodes = about 38 chapters+ some original material), and you love to read, I'd recommend that you give the manga a chance.  Here are five reasons why I like it.

Short-term plotting (grabbing my interest)

From the beginning, we have a main character who has a short-term goal: be allowed to take the Hunter exam, pass the Hunter exam, and get a Hunter license.  He meets other people with the same short-term goal.  Action, mayhem, and brutality ensue.  I am invested in this short-term goal and am willing to stick with the manga long enough to see it through.

Long-term plotting (character development in trickles, getting me more invested in what might happen after the short-term goal is accomplished)

We meet each character and slowly get to know more about what makes them tick (in Hisoka's case, I'm guessing blood made of evil).  Our first impressions are changed as we spend time with people under pressure, and the relationships get a little deeper as people get more invested in each other's success.  So Leorio likes money and wants to be a doctor; why?  Kurapika wants impossible revenge.  How?  Killua was raised by assassins, but he kind of wants to try hanging out like a normal kid and having fun and making a friend and stuff and maybe kind of redeeming his soul even if he doesn't think about it like that because he's twelve.  Gon's dad?  Keep reading.  Killua's family?  Yeah, keep going.  Finding out what it means to really be a Hunter?  Yep, the exam isn't over yet.

Close adherence to source material

Countless times, there is a great manga, and then they make it into an anime, and you watch it and don't like it because things you liked from the manga seem to be missing for no discernable reason, replaced by repetitive romantic comedy or pointless quests or five minute fights that last five hours.  Not so in HxH.  It's actually kind of scary how closely they adhere to the source material.  I don't understand why people don't do it more often.  I mean, the dialogue is already written, the fight is already choreographed.  People liked it a lot.  Use the stuff!  What a great way to cut corners without ticking off viewers or the creator.

Decent original material

Wow.  It was a shocker to me, but, in the second collection Viz put out, there was another round added to the Hunter exam, and it was pretty good.  Not only were several characters given a bit more time to develop, but the group dynamic really grew (which made the part where they resumed the original story line and killed off a bunch of the people even more harsh).  And two very unexpected people saved the day in a really natural way.  If I hadn't known it was an anime-original arc, I wouldn't have known; it was that organic.  See, it can happen.

No crappy moral of the story inserted for the edification of younger viewers

We do learn about how friendship can be a good thing, but it's in the context of a lot of fighting to the death.  Yep, brutality, sometimes ambiguous motives and morals, murder, violence, more violence, and some stuff about friendship and trust and self-discovery and stuff.  I mean, even if your friend up and kills someone for no really good reason, that doesn't mean you should give up on the poor, little sociopath.  He really was manipulated/provoked, and you shouldn't hold it against him.  That's kind of the moral of the story where it left off with collection II.  There's so much violence, but what upsets Gon the most is that the sociopath in question's brother took him apart psychologically and reduced him to the killer he was trying so hard not to be and then didn't even feel bad about it.  Definitely not After-School Special territory.

Of course, I'm invested in this show from my manga reading, and I really hope it sells well enough that we at least get to see through the Auction and Greed Island (and maybe even, you know, until Gon and his dad meet up), so I may not be completely objective (hahaha), but I really get a kick out of this creation in both forms and hope that more people check it out and enjoy it like I do.

Don't fear the old school; love the old school.  Some day, the stuff you love will also seem horribly outdated and aesthetically awful and will need love, too.  Appreciating older stuff now is kind of like paying the love forward.  Or something.



Is there an older anime/manga you really wish people appreciated as much as you do?  Give it a little hug by sharing it with us, please.

DNA Angel (and Black Cat)

I'm watching DNAngel at the moment, and it's reminding me of Black Cat.  Not because they're that much alike, but because the anime are alike in their vague relationship to the manga source material.  Occasionally, things will happen, and I'll think, "Oh, I remember that!  It actually happened in the manga!"   This happens very, very rarely.

DNAngel is not irritating me nearly as much as Black Cat did probably because it's been a longer time since I read DNAngel, which has had a spotty and stretched out release schedule.  (It's related to how I refuse to read a book any time near when the movie is going to come out.  I don't want to know all the great stuff they're leaving out.  I just remember the source material in a hazy way, so I can enjoy the pared-down movie.)

Another reason it may not be bothering me as much is because it didn't mess with the established chronology as severely.  DNAngel kind of made its own way, not adhering too much to what actually happened because they knew from the beginning that they needed to craft a show that had an ending at episode 26.  As a result, DNAngel was more of a school comedy/romance than anything resembling the manga.

Black Cat took the same characters and a few similar plot lines and did its own thing, removing a lot of the things that made the manga work for me (such as the long time it took Train to adjust to his new life, develop his new philosophy, and become Sven's partner).  I think I was so irritated from the start that I just didn't watch it as its own show.  Or maybe I was just so disappointed that so much of my favorite stuff (like 80% of it) didn't make it into the anime because of the changes that I didn't give it a chance on its own.

Anyway, if I think of the DNAngel anime as a separate entity from the manga, it was pretty fun.  It was a tad repetitive, and I gained some authorial insight into why episodic material doesn't work in novels (we don't need the same scene repeated ad nauseum to reveal the same character trait). 

By the end, Kevin Corn's freak-out noise was starting to sound much more natural.  Also, Vic 's performance as Dark was way more enjoyable for me than the Japanese voice actor's.  (Then again, I tend to say that about whatever language I watch it in first.) 

Overall, I think I prefer Hunter X Hunter.  :)


Your thoughts on DNAngel, Black Cat, anime adaptations of manga that didn't/don't work?

Eat-Man: Eating Bizarre for Breakfast since (before) '98

Okay, Eat Man has one of the most ridiculous premises I've come across in manga/anime:  Man travels the world helping people, often by eating weapons piece by piece and producing them from his hand at just the right time to do damage.  I am not making this up.  So how come this show is so entertaining? 

It's certainly not the music, though there is something charming about the ending theme.  The animation quality varies.  I like most of the voice acting.  The plots are somewhat episodic and the characters not usually well-developed. Bolt Crank will really never be more than the strong, silent type. 

(Does anyone know if this was a shonen series?  It's different from the similar Immortal Rain, which has more of a shojo or modern cross-over shonen appeal . . .  But it also has the sort of character/world designs one tended to come across in titles for more mature audiences.)

I think what makes me watch is simple: there often comes a moment when someone is brandishing a deadly weapon in a menacing way, and Bolt just walks up and eats it.  You never know for sure when this is going to happen, but you want it to every time someone waves a gun or a knife at him.  I mean, the last thing a bully expects when he threatens someone with a weapon is for the guy to show absolutely no fear and instead to eat your weapon.  I mean, come ON.  It's so lame and hilarious that, when paired with the semi-serious sci-fi/fantasy drama world, I just can't help but like it.  And there's also a sort of fun tension that builds through the episode as he eats various nuts, bolts, bullets, etc.  Will he finish in time?   What will he produce this time?

And even though I know I'll never learn Bolt's backstory (even if I do learn Japanese), he's still a figure that makes me curious.  Ah, well.  Such is life.


Have you seen Eat-Man '98 or read the two or so volumes of the manga that came out years ago?  What are your thoughts?

Hunter X Hunter

"I tried to watch [HunterXHunter] once," a friend said.  She then made a face that is difficult to describe, but I translated it as, "That was way too old school animation for me."

How sweet it is, this old school animation. 

I don't really hold this comment against her because I know that she's an artist herself, into yaoi and pretty boys and the more recent aesthetics.  I'm not sure why I even thought she might have been into such an old shonen jewel like HxH. I'm the omnivore who loves shojo and shonen, old and new, equally, the one who rarely notices art and lives mostly for the story (and characters). 

I think I just wanted someone to confirm for me that Hisoka is possibly the creepiest shonen antagonist in the history of the world. 

I've been reading the HxH manga since Viz started releasing it all those years ago (and before that, Yu Yu Hakusho, also by Yoshihiro Togashi and also an excellent shonen title in both manga and anime form), and Hisoka creeped me out to an extreme degree from day one.  He's a total sociopath.

It's not like that character type is unfamiliar.  There are a lot of sociopaths in manga and anime; they make great antagonists and villains.  So I'm not sure exactly why Hisoka makes me so . . .  unsettled, I guess. 

I think it's not the uniqueness of the character type so much as the world and characters who surround him that makes him so effectively unsettling.  I liked HXH's world from the start because it's so unsentimental.  Sure, the main protagonist is kind of a cute-looking kid, but he's tough as nails, stubborn, unreasonable, and committed to his own code of ethics, and there's really nothing traditionally cute about him.  The cutest character is almost a soulless killer, for Pete's sake.

The world of HXH is violent and hard, sometimes almost unspeakably brutal (man, that fight with Hanzo was tough to watch).  The main characters are really aware of this, aware that sometimes there are no easy answers and sometimes no right answers at all.  They're all driven.  The pace can be unrelenting; the situations appalling. 

Gon's father left him to be raised by his aunt; Gon left her behind to go find his father.  Leorio lost a friend because they couldn't afford medical help.  Kurapika's whole clan was slaughtered for money.  Killua is an assassin-from-birth who's trying to get a conscience.  It's way more complicated and awful than that, but you have to read it or watch it to see the depth and scope of the whole thing. 

I might recommend starting with Viz's second box set where things get really out of control.  There's an original arc that's actually good, and there are some fights that are amazing and sometimes hard to watch, though they did take the manga's violence down a notch.  I think I'm glad because I remember that fight with Hanzo being even worse in the manga . . .

The thing that keeps me reading is that Gon is not a simple person; lots of people in the story make the mistake of thinking he is, and I bet many readers who didn't stick with the series thought so, too.  I stay with it because at least once a volume, Gon reacts in a way that I just don't expect.  Most of his interactions with Hisoka fall under this category.

I guess I must be expecting the cutesy good boy shonen response.  For some reason.  Still.  Sometimes I think I have Gon figured out, but then he throws me with a reaction I couldn't have predicted that is nonetheless completely consistent with his character.  A lot of Togashi's characters in this series are like that.  It's kind of realistic in a way. 

Since you don't know everything about a person (you learn more as you know them longer), you can't predict what they'll do or how they'll react.  You don't know a lot of the whys for their behavior, so they surprise you more at first the more you get to know them.  The extreme situations the HXH characters are in make it seem a bit exaggerated, but not completely unrealistic.

It's that juxtaposition of cute, young-but-not-naive-or-as-innocent-as-you-think-he-should-be main character and brutal world that makes this a Shonen Jump Advanced title (OT/16+), and it's the interaction of all the characters in this world with Gon that makes me keep coming back. 

Or maybe I just want to know what Hisoka's up to next.  Shiver.


Have you seen the manga or the anime?  Any thoughts?