Selections from What I Read in November: Digest Version, Part 2 of 4

Well, now that the class I unwisely taught this semester (on top of my real full time job) is over, and I have scraped myself off the floor, I can get back to writing. 

• b Crimson Hero 14: More angst and volleyball.  Some folks make dumb decisions; others make smart ones.  Expiation via volleyball?  Bring it on.
• b D.Gray-Man 11: I do love the gorgeous gothicness of it all.
• o Diamond Girl 1:  Erm, I do want to read the next volume to find some things out, but I liked Princess Nine better.  I would have bought this series if CMX had kept publishing it because I always give sports manga love in the hopes that they'll bring more over here.
• b From Eroica with Love 15: Le Sigh.  I miss you, CMX.  A goofy and stupid story to go out on, but it came after a dangerous and stressful one, and it ended sort of neatly, so it was as good a place to end as any I could have hoped for.
• b Lapis Lazuli Crown 2: Goofy, sweet fun.  A happy ending.
• b My Darling Miss Bancho 1: This one was a total hoot.  A good steel plate in the school bag can come in handy.  The cast was goofy and fun, like a better drawn and completely different Cromartie High with a girl main character.
• b My Girlfriend's a Geek novel 1: I read some reviews of this one, and one talked about reasons he doubted the writer was really who and what he claimed to be for some reasons.  The reasons he disbelieved weren't the ones that made me suspicious.  (The thing that made me suspicious was the way the author knew all of the references and jokes that he did.  If he was only a very casual anime viewer, there's just no way he could have known some of these.)  That same reviewer complained about how it had a short and repetetive format.  This puzzled me.  If the blog was called My Fujoshi Girlfriend, why would you complain that every blog entry was about how much of a fujoshi his girlfriend was?  Sheesh.  I enjoyed the book.  Full of awkward and embarrassing moments in short chunks and packed with in-jokes and references.  I don't care if it was fiction, semi-autobiographical, or totally autobiographical.  It was entertaining.
• b Skip Beat! 21: Oh, the goofy, cursed joy of it all, and the frustration that it comes out sooooo verrrrrryyyyy sloooooowwwwlllyyyyy.
• b Suihelibe 1: Just pure sugary, silly goodness.
• b xxxHolic 16: Oh, so heartbreaking!  So sad!  You can tell by the expression on Watanuki's face on the cover. I want it to keep going, but I also want resolution (really excellent, well-done, well-earned resolution).  The way all the characters are so careful around each other is painful, as are some of the choices they've made.  Oh, how I love this series. I think I may need to marathon Tsubasa to figure out what exactly, you know, happened, but everything is still nicely melancholy whether you understand exactly or not.

I have some catching up to do, so I'll be posting a bunch this month unless some new crisis arises.  Until next time . . .  Read anything good lately?

Only fifteen (manga and anime edition)?

Brought to you by my friend J who spent over a year with me in RetailPurgatory a lifetime ago.

Name fifteen fictional characters (anime and/or manga) who’ve influenced you or will always stick with you. List the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.

This one's hard for me because I'm an ensemble cast sort of person.  I often like whole casts of characters, and it's hard (sometimes impossible) to choose a favorite.  For this, let's say you can include an ensemble cast of a show or series if you want.

It's also hard because there's, oh, a couple hundred "favorites" I have to choose from, and no matter which ones I choose, I will feel inadequate for choosing them, and I will spend days stopping short at random places going, "Darg!  I should have said ____!"  But that's what comments are for.  :)

• Ash Lynx from Banana Fish
• The folks of Gundam
• Wolfwood from Trigun
• Folken from Escaflowne
• Harvey from the Kieli series
• The folks of Fruits Basket
• The folks of HunterxHunter
• The folks of Please Save My Earth
• The folks of Basara
• The folks of D.Gray-Man
• The folks of Cowboy Bebop
• The folks of Ghost in the Shell: Stand-Alone Complex
• The folks of Emma
• The folks of Figure 17
• The folks of  X/1999
  
• Pretty much anyone voiced by Crispin Freeman :)

Better stop before I get to one hundred . . .

What about you?

Selections from What I Read in November: Digest Version, Part 1 of 4

• b Alive 2-5: Still fascinated by this one.  Not sure exactly where it's going but curious to find out.  I always like the early parts of stories that may end up in earned redemption.  Or no redemption, but I don't think DelRey usually published that kind.
• b Hikaru no Go 21: Well, I didn't see THAT coming.  Thank you for it, weasel boy.
• b Hollow Fields 1: Pretty darned fun.  I am totally tracking down the other two volumes, and they will also be fun.  I want a talking professor box.
• b Kekkaishi 23: Oh how I love thee!  Action, characters I like and can keep separate, humor, danger, intrigue, politics, interpersonal awkwardness . . .  All I can say is, you better not turn your sights on the youngest bro, bad guys.  It will be your doom . . .
• b Key to the Kingdom 6 of 6: Excellent all the way through.  Such a bittersweet ending.  Oh, man.  I really loved this one, despite the sometimes awful cover art.  (I miss you, CMX!)
• b Othello 1: Ahhh.  I remember why I liked this one so much.  If only it hadn't fitzed out/been cancelled and ended too abruptly.  But that's several volumes away, so I just enjoyed this one again.
• b Otomen 8: This series is so bad for my asthma when I'm exercising.  Seriously.
• b Spiral 13: Yes, I DO like Case Closed/Detective Conan, too, thank you very much.  And, yes, I did cry.
• b Stolen Hearts 1: Adorable.  Sad that I may never read the second volume.  (I miss you, CMX!)
• b Venus Capriccio 4: Well, it was the last volume published here, but it wasn't really an ending.  Fun times while it lasted.  (I miss you, CMX!)

Good times last month.

Hayate what?!

I kind of can't comprehend this.  I mean, I love Hayate way more than the next person (how many volumes in one month?!), but, still, a live action version?  Really?

"Next week’s issue of Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine will formally announce the development of a feature film adaptation of Kenjiro Hata’s popular Hayate no Gotoku ~ Hayate the Combat Butler manga series. Manglobe (Samurai Champloo, KamiNomi) will animate with experienced Manglobe animation director Hideto Komori taking charge. The comedy has previously been adapted into two anime television series and three OVAs. A Taiwanese live action TV series adaptation is also presently in development."

For those of you who don't know what it is, I liked this reviewer's thoughts.

"Hayate is truly meta-anime. It is anime comedy for the advanced anime enthusiast. The show's better jokes don't stand on their own very well but hinge on the viewer's prerequisite knowledge of anime and manga series going back several decades. I am simultaneously impressed, depressed, and disgusted with myself when I get the jokes because oh my god I have watched so much anime. When I laugh, I'm never sure if I should feel proud or if I've wasted my life."

Um, pretty much true.  Especially now that I'm into the newer stuff, which has jokes I actually get too many of . . .

The worst thing about getting the shiny, newest volume in a series you love

The worst thing about getting
the shiny, newest volume in a series you
love is that, if you have no self-control
and read it
right away,
then you have to wait
even
longer
for the next one.  Why
can't I embrace
a little delayed
gratification?!
I have only myself to blame.
April 5th?  Seriously?! Four
long months to go . . .

But how do you really feel? (another anime I'll have to see, thanks to bloggers)

Came across this today while printing out the last rough drafts of the semester (!) and now have another anime to add to close to the top of my massive list.  I have been in my cave a lot lately, and I am so far behind on what's happening in anime and manga that I didn't even know of Rainbow's existence.  Thanks to the kind souls who brought it to my attention.  I hope it will still be easily available when I have my life back after this class ends, since there doesn't seem to be a DVD release planned.  That's unfortunate; I already know I want to own this and rewatch it.  A lot.

"There are many otaku who can appreciate wackiness and excess, but an unsettling majority that I’ve met transform into 'tvtropes academics' whenever they encounter anime that eschews the zany and is unapologetically dramatic.  You’ll know these people when you meet them because they call story elements they don’t like plot holes, think categorizing something is the same thing as understanding it, and are generally dismissive without being substantive."  

I like this blogger (and not just because I do know those people; note the excellent grammar, helpful explanation and analysis, and clear, intelligent writing).

And then, when I was testing the link above, I saw that he posted about my comment on Twitter.  "My blog post about the Rainbow anime is still getting hits. Thanks themooninautumn, you made my day."

Well, you made mine, too.  You and the Manga Curmudgeon who sent me your way.  Thanks to you both!

"Love is essentially a pretty creepy thing"

I came across this review of Yun Kouga's Crown of Love (a series that is actually coming out more frequently than Loveless and is actually finished), and I have to say I agree with Melinda's view.

"What this series ultimately succeeds at pointing out is that love is essentially a pretty creepy thing. And though I’m not sure that’s a philosophy I’d personally want to live by, it’s not exactly wrong, either. Despite its obvious emotional focus, this is a series that analyzes itself and its characters constantly, from the inside out. The fact that its conclusions are disturbing is pretty much undeniable. They’re also uncomfortably (and remarkably) true. :)

"This kind of psychologically-heavy romance won’t be for everyone, but despite the fact that it’s one of the least romantic romances I’ve ever read, it’s definitely for me. Normally, I’d spend a lot of my time with a series analyzing its characters and their personal motivations. Kouga does it for me, and in a surprisingly organic way. What more could I possibly ask?"

- Melinda Beasi

The thing about Yun Kouga, a thing I like, is that she makes people uncomfortable in ways they don't expect.  Loveless, Crown of Love, Earthian, and Gestalt are all creepy in their own special ways.  They don't start exactly where you expect, and they don't really end like you expect, either.  She has this knack for making readers squirm.  I wish I could describe how it works, but I really can't.

Since Melinda already said all that great stuff about Crown of Love, how about Loveless?  There are some really creepy and obvious places Ms. Kouga could have gone with this set-up, and many people think she goes there.  However, she really leaves that up to certain readers' imaginations (I mean, they're going to imagine it anyway) and instead focuses on the different bonds between people and the hold that "love" has over all different sorts of people.  She creates these agonizingly uncomfortable situations and relationships and these horribly broken, conflicted, and sometimes inscrutable characters and then turns the everybody loose to try to figure out how to stay sane.  It's brilliant at times.

Sure, you may be turned off it when you hear squeeing fangirls letting their imaginations run rampant (what they think is in there really isn't).  What is in there is definitely thought-provoking (if you can avoid falling into the trap of getting freaked out or imagining things that aren't really happening).  It will also make you really uncomfortable. 

If you aren't afraid to do some hard thinking and make emotional investments in emotionally damaged characters, it may be as fascinating for you as it is for me.  I'm almost okay with the fact that it may never be finished because unless the ending is brilliant, I'm fine with what I have to think over so far.  (I feel bad enough for these characters as things are . . .)

So when is the next volume coming out, anyway?

Give a writer a break, here (Kingyo Used Books)

I came across this bit of a review in one of the brief moments I was able to look at some other people's blogs in the last six months (I promise I'll be more faithful in December once my commitments for this semester end), and it made me think as a writer.

"For all the tears and shouting, however, Kingyo Used Books is dramatically unpersuasive. The stories are too literal, positing a simple, direct connection between the content of a book and a reader’s subsequent behavior; it’s as if I read Middlemarch then decided to dump my pedantic boyfriend — sure, it could happen, but literature tends to effect us in subtler, less obvious ways, influencing our perception of things, rather than what we do. "

While I don't disagree with these statements, I wonder if maybe we need to cut the author a little slack.  If the author didn't show that simple, direct connection that leads to action, these would be stories about people making not-really dramatic, not-exactly life-changing realizations about stuff.  Realizations do not make for riveting manga.  Characters who don't take action are considered the bane of novel and short story writers' existences.  It is a very rare author who can make people having a conversation interesting enough to be a single story, even rarer for people coming to mental conclusions or being subtly influenced by things they read.  Think of trying to do it lots of times as part of a series.  Yeah.  Difficult.

I suspect Kingyo's purpose is not pedantic, not, "You should read manga because it will change your life." 

It can change you, sure.  What we read can influence us and probably does in a lot of subtle, unconscious ways.  I remember when a friend of mine finally read books from my favorite series.  He said he saw a lot of similarities between me and the main character.  I never consciously tried to be like that main character (who is in the military, crippled, living in the future, and slightly psychotic), but the fact that I've read the books about him more than a dozen times has left a mark on who I am that someone else who knew me could connect and see.  Again, not the stuff of short-story length drama.

We've probably all read books that have influenced our behaviors and personalities and even changed us, and when I read Kingyo, that's what gives me the warm fuzzies.  People can make connections through books (to themselves, to others), and sometimes it's something they read (on top of all the other things that have been going on in their lives for years that we can't see) that allows them to change or shows them their need for change in a way that they can't exactly articulate, a way that's often quite sideways from what actually literally happened in the book.

The literalness in Kingyo may seen ham-handed, but it lets us get access to the information about obscure manga and see that people still believe in the power of books to change people literally and figuratively even in a different culture.  Kingyo may not change your life, but it might add to your reading list and your store of knowledge, something every bibliophile can appreciate.

Also, in that series of reviews was this awesome quote:  "I’m normally immune to whimsy."  Wouldn't Normally Immune to Whimsy be a great name for a rock band?

Selections from What I Read in October: Digest Version, Part 3 of 3

Hooray!  I'm caught up right now.  I will bask in the moment!

• b King of RPGS 1: This was awesomely silly.  I do not play RPGs and have never played collectible card games or anything, and I still got a kick out of this one.  It's one of the better east meets west attempts.  The over-the-top shonen bits made me look forward to a second volume that will probably never come.  Sadness.
• b Kingyo Used Books 2: Still best served one chapter at a time.  Reminds me of the power of books, even if it gets a bit clumsy about it sometimes.  I'll be writing more about that soon . . .
• b Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service 11: Oh, dear.  Light refraction suits and the nature of good and evil.  Also lots of corpses and a really creepy long story that is just really horrific.  Also those amazing notes.
• o Mail 1-3: Meh. There were times when this was genuinely creepy and disturbing, but I'm not a big fan of just creepy and disturbing.  I wonder what the authors could do with this if they gave it another run in 5 years.  I'll admit that the Pinoko-like assistant twist toward the end was weird and creepy.
• b Prince of Tennis 18-19: Ah, light, breezy, intense shonen action.  No romance, no corpses.  Stupid kids injuring themselves to (fail to) prove a point.  Then again, they are only 14 or 15, so it's not out of character for them to be a bit too narrowly focused.  (Like I should talk after all the injuries and illnesses I played through.)  And I know coaches in Japan are different and that their junior high and high school sports are way different from ours, but I can't believe the coach let that happen.  Seriously.  Coaches get fired for that here.  Fun times.  :)
• b Venus Capriccio 1-4: Gentle.  Nice.  Unfinished.  Drat.  Oh, CMX . . .  I like the ones that involve music, no matter how melodramatic they get.  VS is another one I'm trying to track down a few last volumes of, so I can finish that one.  Ah, Nodame, when are you coming out next?

While the last few months have been a bit lean, November, due to a couple of book binges, was pretty great.  Look forward to it.  :)

Selections from What I Read in October: Digest Version, Part 2of 3

• b D.Gray-Man 7: Yeah, I do really like this series.  I like all the characters.  I like the art.  I like the drama and the action and the suspense and the humor.  I even like one of the villains.  I hold on to this stupid hope that he's not, you know, completely evil.  He does his best to change my mind.  I hope I'm stuck on him not being a hopeless case because I have been picking up on subtle hints and clues and not just because he is attractive.
• b Flat Earth Exchange 1: Ah, the end makes more sense now.  I like books with good reread value.
• b From Eroica With Love 5-13: So, I went on a bit of a binge here.  It's stupid, ridiculous, over-the-top, and just plain silly sometimes.  The hair, the clothes, the flamboyance, the cold war, the personality clashes.  I like it anyway. 
• b Jihai 2-3: I still liked it this read-through.  There are all kinds of flaws and plot-holes and overly-dramatic silliness, but I guess I like the connections the characters make and break and the ways they lie to each other and themselves and the choices they make to trust and not to trust.
• b Kieli 3: Oh, Harvey.  Poor Harvey.  Poor Corporal.  Poor Kieli.  When is volume 4 coming out?

Selections from What I Read in October: Digest Version, Part 1 of 3

October was a busy, melt-down sort of month, but we soldiered on.

• b 20th Century Boys 10-11: Okay, when this is all over, I will marathon it, and I will enjoy my marathon immensely.  And it will all make sense.
• b Alive 1: You know, for its premise and activities, this could have been a lot gorier, and I'm glad it's not because I definitely couldn't read it then.
• b Bokurano Ours 1: That was just as, if not more, brutal the second time through.  Is this Nihilism in manga form?  Am I willing to put myself through an emotional meat grinder to find out if the end is as hopeless as the beginning?  Yes.
• b Broken Blade 2-3: I like this one.  I am sad I will never find out how it ends for the characters who are still alive.  Who's the real bad guy, and will any of these people ever have the chance to sit down and talk about things and clear up all the lies?  Or will they just keep killing each other and themselves out of ignorance?
• b Bunny Drop 2: Awwww.  If you read and at all liked Aishiteruze, Baby or Tramps Like Us I suspect you will like this.  You may like it even more because there's no sexual subtext crawling around (at least, not yet).

Look for parts 2 and 3 to come quickly (before December gets here, eek)!

Detroit Metal City Live Action

Dear Viz,

Thank you for listening!

Sincerely,
TMIA

Selections from What I Read in September: Digest Version, Part 2 of 2

September seems so far away now . . .

• b Boys Over Flowers 28-29: I will have to marathon this some day.  It might actually take three parts or so because I'm not sure I can put up with their ridiculousness for more than 10 volumes at a time . . .
• b Broken Blade 1: I got a kick out of the series. I'm fairly disappointed that I'll never get to find out what happens.
• o CLAMP School Detectives 3: I try to pretend that I'm not a completist.  I try hard. I fail.
• b From Eroica with Love 2-3: Just utterly ridiculous and fun.  Who knew NATO could be involved in such silliness?
• b Goong 7-9: it's funny that every time I get a volume of this series, for some reason I think it's going to be the last even though the series has some ridiculous number of volumes. I remember the same thing would happen with Fruits Basket and Hana Kimi.  For some reason, I can never accurately remember the number of volumes in a series.
• b House of Five Leaves 1: Okay, if I weren't a Ono fan before I read this, I would be now.  We really don't get enough serious samurai period drama manga over here for some reason.
• b Sand Chronicles 9: I wasn't sure how much value these exercise stories would add since the main story concluded already, but I'm really pleased.
• b Shaman King 30: I'm pretty sure I say this every single time, but how can I possibly forget how breathless the series makes me?  It's kind of funny that I forget, but I find myself doing about double time on the stair climber whenever I read this one while exercising.
• b Twin Spica 2-3: This is really an intriguing series. It might be a good series to show people the difference between manga aimed at younger teens and manga aimed at older people.  It's a school story, but it doesn't read at all like shojo or shonen.  It covers the same territory, but it does it with such a different tone and focus and execution that I'm not sure people the age of the protagonists would even find it interesting. I'd be curious to find out.  I love and hate every time the main story ends with a lot of pages left over. I whine every time, but I love those flashback stories . . .
• b We Were There 3: Yes, due to being poor, I'm way behind in this series.  I'm really liking the careful, sad brokenness this manga is not afraid to show.  People get screwed up pretty bad, and we stumble around hurting each other sometimes by accident and sometimes on purpose.  And sometimes, when it's happening to our friends and loved ones, we just have to watch it happen because there isn't anything we can do to fix them.  It's a sobering realization you don't see in much of the manga that makes it over here. Bring it on!

Next up, October, which looks kind of scant until you see that I sort of binged on a whole series . . .  Look forward to it!

Remember Immortal Rain?

Well, Jason Thompson sure likes it, and so do I.  I'm jealous to hear that Japan has three more volumes of this incredibly well-crafted story.  Beware of spoilers if you haven't read it, but if you have read it and are praying it gets rescued from licensing limbo soon, check out Jason's reminiscences here.

The art is clean and gorgeous.  The characters are fun, compelling, and sometimes tragic.  The world is amazing.  The story is full of knock you over twists.  Even the romance is sweet and understated.  It's really an all-around winner.

Your thoughts?

Elegy for Apothecarius Argentum 8

I just finished volume 8, and I am in mourning.  Not just for character X, whose death has been bumming me out every time I think of it all day (poor character X!!!!), but for the fact that I will NEVER FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS. 

Seriously, I'm going to go cry some more about the demise of CMX, the company who published this fine series with its slightly amateurish art and its startling ability to casually go where no manga I've read has gone before.  Euthanasia, abortion, slavery, prostitution: is this really a shojo manga (nothing at all like Banana Fish)? 

And two characters finally got to walk a bit holding hands, and then political chaos breaks out!  And this totally unexpected cliffhanger with a zillion converging loose ends leaves you wanting more NOW, and you can't have it because you are a good, law-abiding citizen (seriously contemplating breaking copyright law to find out what happens because you can't buy what happens next).  A sad, aborted "ending" for another fine series that deserved a full run.

Go read it now before even what we have is out of print.  Oh, my poor character X!  This sucks for us all!

Pastor of the Nerds

Okay, this was just kind of awesome. I think I should be friends with this person.

"A Comic-Con Recap from a 'Pastor of the Nerds'"
Tony Kim tries to build bridges between fandom and the kingdom.

Basically, he's a Christian who's a comics fan, and he doesn't see any need to separate the two.  My kind of person.  :)

Selections from What I Read in September: Digest Version, Part 1 of 2

Ah, September.  When suddenly I remember why I hate the short warm time we call summer up here that starts in June and ends in August.  Well, that's not true.  It reminds me why I hate the cold time that runs from September through May.  This is a temperate zone, right?  I've got my manga and exercise to keep me warm.

• b Chi's Sweet Home 1-2:  Totally adorable.  Seriously.  Warm fuzzies and short laughs as you follow a cute kitten and the family that takes her into their pet free apartment and has to hide her.  Also found out where her cute name came from and nearly had a spasm.
• b Jihai 1: I have read people tearing this one to shreds as boring and lame.  I like it.  I really do.  Those end-of-book cliffhangers were great the first time through, and I didn't think knowing how they resolved hurt the reread value for me (since I sort of forgot most everything).  I liked all the various characters with their tortured pasts, too, and I liked the somewhat nonstandard ways they dealt with redemption and atonement. 
• b Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service 9-10: I talked about these already.  Same acid dark humor.  Same fantastic notes at the end.  How to know if you'll be able to handle the horror within: Can you look closely at the cover and not throw up?
• b Maison Ikkoku 12: Just like with the real people bumbling around in romantic relationships in your life, you just want to shake these people sometimes, too.
• b Saturn Apartments 1: Totally great.  Seriously unusual.  Earnest, sweet, and sad.  The story of a future when Earth is uninhabitable, and everybody lives on a big ring around the earth.  Mainly follows the story of a young orphaned boy who chooses to be a window washer, a dangerous and sometimes thankless job (the job his father died doing).  Slice of life sci-fi.
• b Silver Diamond 3: Can the power of nice save the world?  Find out here.
• b A Tale of an Unknown Country 1-2: I'm pretty bummed there won't be more of this one.  It irked me a bit because it got my hopes up when it laid out a really serious, realistic sort of scenario in a broken relationship between brothers.  Then it shojo-powered through all the careful setup and tried to bulldoze on with the power of genki.  I shouldn't have let it get my hopes up, but situations like this particular one that break relationships between siblings are of interest to me, and I wanted to see how they dealt with it.  Now I'll never know if they redeem themselves by treating it seriously again.  Alas.
• b Tsubasa 27: I'll admit that I have no idea what that was all about.  I think some day when I marathon this series, it will make (more) sense.
• b Tuxedo Gin 1:  So he dies, but he gets to come back as a penguin, live out a penguin's natural lifespan, and then be returned to his body.  He picked a penguin for sentimental reasons.  I wouldn't picked the shortest living critter I knew about.  But that's because I'm not in love with someone who adores penguins.  Well, and there are other reasons such as reality . . .

 A lot of variety here this month.  Good month.

Dear Viz

Dear Viz,

I know it's unlikely, but could you please license the live action Bunny Drop?  You have a connection to it: the actor who played L in Deathnote (you licensed the live action movies of that) plays the main adult character in Bunny Drop.  If that does well for you, could you also license the live action Detroit Metal City?  Yeah, I know they're pretty much opposite ends of the spectrum, but that guy is one heck of an actor, and I'd like to legally see him in more roles.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
The Moon in Autumn

My comments on a top 10 best of the decade list

In honor of Anime Nation's Ask John's picks for best TV anime of the decade, here are some of my thoughts on his picks.

• 2001's Chikyu Shoujo Arjuna (Earth Girl Arjuna): Yeah, I really liked this one.  John didn't mention its absolutely stunning music or the excellent English dub, but those are really the things he's most looking for.  ST got a bit hung up by the ecological  bludgeoning here, but she did like the music and the VA work, too.
• 2001′s Noir: I got a big kick out of this one too.  I didn't mind the slow burn plotting, and I enjoyed all the things he mentioned.  ST liked this one a lot, too.
• Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: while it sometimes skirted the edge of what I could tolerate in terms of violence, this show was really excellent.  And ST agrees!
• 2004′s Mousou Dairinin (Paranoia Agent):  was it the ending theme song of this one that was just utterly ridiculous, or was it the opening theme song? I think this may be the only CD soundtrack I ever bought just to get a hold of a single song. I found the show creepy as all get out, and it was confusing and messed with my head and made watching and appreciating Millennium Actress and Paprika possible.
• 2005′s Mushishi: Just gorgeous.  I remember being hesitant when I heard it was an anime because the manga was just so stunning, but the anime was equally incredible.
• 2005′s Honey & Clover: Oh, so this is a romantic comedy. I was having the hardest time trying to figure out what genre it was.  If you ever wanted a good sampler of melodic, wistful, not annoying Japanese pop, the soundtrack would fit the bill perfectly.
• 2007′s Denno Coil: Not available in our region.  This means I should not have seen it, but my anime club watched it, and I totally adored it. I would buy it in a heartbeat if someone would license it, but somehow I don't think the combination of Miyazaki meets Ghost in the Shell is ever really going to fly in the US.  That's a huge pity because, oh my goodness, this show was awesome.
• 2007′s Seirei no Moribito: I am planning to watch this at some point over the next week while my students are experiencing fall break. However, realistically, I think I'm going to be grading most of the time. Now I'll have to decide if I want to do a Moribito marathon or a huge book binge.  I'm in agony here, folks. 
• 2007′s Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: I am getting a huge kick out of this show.  (I'm actually watching it now at a rate of one episode a week via Netflix.) It is so fun, just as fun as Melody of Oblivion without the added, repugnant perversity.  (I still can't believe John said that was one of his favorite underloved series in an earlier post.  It had its moments of brilliance, in my opinion, but then it would go and do something pointlessly fanboy, and the girls being milked like cows almost made me stop watching a couple episodes from the end. Yuck.)  Anyway, Gurren Lagann: way too fun.
• 2008′s Kaiba: Not available in our region.  Also, our anime club isn't that experimental, so even though people have suggested it, no one has taken them up on it and voted the show in.  Yet.

 I have to say that I am very impressed by how many of these have actually been released in the United States.I would've expected fewer of them to actually be legally available.Way to go, anime licensing companies!  (Whoever picks up the license for Denno Coil, I'll be your best friend forever!)

Selections from What I Read in August: Digest Version, Part 2 of 2

More good stuff from August. Some last books in a series, some new series coming out sooooo slooooooowly . . .

• b Natsume's Book of Friends 1: Still magical and melancholy with just the right tone and distance.  Beautiful.
• b Neon Genesis Evangelion 11: Oh, dear.  You know, that scene just couldn't really be replicated to have as much power in the manga, which is unfortunate, but Sadamoto gets around that by coming at things from a different angle so that the same conclusion means something very different.  What a sneaky man.  If only he could be inspired faster.
• b NG Life 3: Oh, I do love this story.  It's hilarious and thought-provoking and touching and has great re-read value. 
• b One Thousand and One Nights 11:  That ending was perfect.  Just perfect.  The stories within a story theme carried out to a somewhat hilarious and jarring conclusion.  Can I call it meta?
• b Ooku 4: Oh.  Oh, gosh.  Wow.  Just sad.  Has that air of inevitability, but you're kicking and screaming the whole way.  You want to believe they could have found happiness somehow, but sometimes things just don't work out the way you want them to.  It's devastating.
• b Otomen 7: The end of the music story was too snort-worthily hilarious.  And that last story.  Oh, that was so sad and sweet!  Dude, I thought of several ways to make it work out better, but I didn't care.
• b Ouran 14: Awkward!  Awesome!
• b Slam Dunk! 5-6: Dude, doesn't anyone ever think, "Hey, I should call the police who will come to our school and see that a biker gang of vicious thugs has illegally entered our property and is wailing on our basketball team, and NO WAY is anyone on our team going to get in trouble for fighting off the attackers?  Just asking.
• b Spiral 12:   Now that we might know who the Blade Children are (a journey we started how many years ago when Funimation licensed the TV series that failed to answer the question), things are so much worse.  It's great.  I love the veiled POV that means you know nobody's telling the whole truth, but you don't know who's telling what parts.  And those moral dilemmas!  Seriously!  Now I find out there's a sequel?!  Here I was thinking there'd be some resolution at the end of this one, and now I don't know.  I love the messed up places this series has twisted its way into.
• b Train*Train 1:  You know what?  The prairie dog was just as stupid/funny this time around. 
• b Whistle! 23-24: No way!!  That sucked.  It was perfect.  I am miffed about the "unexplained/unnamed injury for plot purposes" thing I always see in manga (though it was definitely earned in this case).  I want to know what it is, so I can know if it's really possible.  If it was just a blown ACL or something, it's not worth all the drama, but manga never seems to actually name the injury/disease/whatever.  I was thrilled when Flower of Life used a real diagnosis and actually seemed to deal with (some) of the real symptoms and fallout, but even that had some shady medicine.  Then again, maybe folks in Japan aren't as familiar with it as I am, so they don't want/need/wish to know.  Anyway, that was some really great shonen action, folks, right up to the bitter end.  Excellent series.  Next time the World Cup comes around, I know what I'm reading to psych myself up for it, and it ain't How Soccer Explains the World.

There were a decent number of re-reads that month, due to a conspiracy at the used book stores in my area.  :)

Selections from What I Read in August: Digest Version, Part 1 of 2

Yeah, August. I know you've been waiting with baited breath and all. Sorry. Ah, the joy of catching up because you're waiting for your linens to dry, so you can make your bed and fall into it.

• b Dazzle 7: You never know when this one is actually giving you the whole story via flashback (you're pretty sure it's not, but then it seems like it is, but it's not . . .). It's still kind of a glorious mess.
• b Fullmetal Alchemist 23: Oh, Roy. Oh, Roy. And Risa. Wow. Does anyone know if Brotherhood actually goes to the real end of the series? If so, I can't watch it until I've finished the manga. If you like FMA, read the manga!
• b GALS! 8-10: I dragged my feet so much on finishing this one because I didn't want it to be over!! Oh, the melodrama; oh, the humanity!  Fare thee well, my GAL pals. Next time I need a dose of hyper, I know who to call. (And finally, big bro and Miyu.)
• b Gente 1: Ah, so relaxing. A mixed bag of stories revolving around the waiters of Ristorante Paradiso. Same sketchy Ono artwork and tons of atmosphere.  Quite lovely.
• b Hayate the Combat Butler 10-13: More of the same random, goofy fun. The difference is, we're getting to the allusions I recognize firsthand now, and they do make things funnier.
• b Hikaru no Go 20: The shonen goodness keeps coming.  Things changed directions a bit, but I'm still having fun, though I do miss Sai a lot sometimes.
• b Kaze Hikaru 18: Oh, I love this series. I am afraid of how it will end, considering how history did end. I don't think I could bear to read these characters all the way to their unhappy endings. But the tension that known ending provides is undeniably necessary for the series to function as it does. It's just so great!
• b Kekkaishi 22: Oh, dear. Complications and maturing and really scary psycho bad guys. Oh my. I love the air of menace it builds up and then blows up and the unexpected turns it takes. I love the characters, the plot, the action, the intrigue, the shonen-adrenaline rush, the whole shebang.
• b Library Wars 2:  I love this series. Awww. So funny and so sweet. Good action/tension going for it, too, sometimes.

So maybe I didn't quite manage to get sunburned, as was my goal during a weekend in October where there was no rain, and the temps exceeded 80, but I did get to read part of Kieli 3 outside in the sun. Your promptness is appreciated, Yen Press, oh, so appreciated.

On corpses (their delivery services, anyway)

I was just reading volume 9 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, and I must once again say that the editor's notes at the end are pretty much worth the price of admission (if you can stomach the horror that leads to it).  Smart, funny, clear, and informative, they're like the best kind of extras on a DVD.  In this volume, we got some alien hand puppet awesomeness and a bit of history on two of the lesser known characters.  There was, of course, a lot of gross, but at least one story involved possessed dolls, so things in that one were less gruesome than usual.

Reading another volume made me once again think about Kurosagi as an anime.  I couldn't watch it.  I already have to be careful as it is not to think too hard about the content I'm reading or risk a stomach revolt, and nothing's even moving in full creepy splendor, let alone with sound effects.  It makes me once again grateful that I can't visualize (see pictures in my head); if I could, there's no way I could even read Kurosagi, and that would be a shame.  Sometimes you need your humor smart and acid black, and, if so, Kurosagi is the place to go.

Randomly, on my way to work I pass this business development called BlackTern, and their logo and name always make me think of Kurosagi, which may explain why I had the sudden urge to catch up a bit, despite my stomach's recent tetchyness.  :)

Something that makes me laugh

Okay, so do any other manga readers find the new Bud Light ad campaign and billboards unintentionally hilarious?  They're the ones that talk about BL: the good time lime.  I crack up every time I see them . . .

Where's my manga: radio edition

I would like someone to write a shonen manga about a boy with a burning passion for being a radio DJ and an unfortunate problem with burning chronic indigestion and acid reflux.  If you've ever worked in radio (or listened to it), you know how mortifying it is to not only have to pause (leaving dead air) but actually flub up by not covering or turning off the microphone quickly enough to smother the belch clawing its way up your throat.

(There is something wrong with me because I laugh so hard I cry every time I think about this.  Even at work, where I'm sure the cube-dweller next to me thinks I have lost my mind.)

So, would you read that gag manga if somebody wrote it?  (Couldn't resist.  Sorry.)

It's ALIVE!!!!

So, once again I dropped out of sight.  In honor of my first anniversary of blogging, my computer died.  Eventually a kind friend resuscitated it, and now I am almost caught up enough to get back to blogging.  So you'll likely hear from me for real this weekend.  Until then . . .

Selections from what I read in July: Digest Version, Part 2 of 2

Whoops.  I dropped out of sight again.  Sorry about that.  Picked up an online class, didn't get the materials I needed in advance, and am bumbling around like a person who remembers a time before the internet.

• b 20th Century Boys 9: The burdens of leadership often suck.
• b Hayate the Combat Butler 1-9: I wonder if I would have found this series quite so fun if I had not seen (yes, I will admit it) some great fansubs with lightning fast explanations for all the allusions?  And I'm pretty sure the answer is no.  So I'm really glad I saw them because now that it's being released here, and I'm buying it because I feel I have a moral obligation to, it's not nearly as fun.  This manga could really have used some of the TLC Del Rey gave Zetsubou-sensei, but I find it more than sufficiently amusing to keep reading it.
• b My Girlfriend's a Geek 1: Still funny.
• b Nana 21: Not funny at all.  Pour on the pathos.  Even though we sort of new this was coming, it sucks.  I agree that it's a good place to pause, though, because I'm not sure I could take any more right now.
• b Shaman King 29: This is now WAY different from the anime, and I am really hoping they license the good, complete ending, so I can read that because it's supposed to be amazing, according to this great essay.
• b Tarot Cafe 5: SOOOOO GOTHICCCCCCCC.  Yeah.
• b We Were There 2: Not Gothic at all.  Just kind of sweet and awkward and sad.
• b Yakitate! Japan 23: Also not Gothic in the least.  I suppose it is kind of melodramatic in an Iron Chef sort of way.  Who will win?!?!?!?  Brain bread.  Awesome.  Not only can it send you to heaven, it can also control your mind!!!  Yeah, I love this series.  Still.

Wow.  I'm looking at my pile of manga from August, and it's taller!  I exercised more!  Oh, wait, it's stacked on top of another pile.  Drat.

Have you seen Kekkaishi?

Has anyone seen Kekkaishi?  I adore the manga, but I don't really have TV, and it's on after my bed time, so I haven't seen how faithful the adaptation is.  ST wasn't very enthusiastic, but she's not really that into shonen.

An amusing quote from the Answerman at Anime News Network about the show.

"But whatever. A TV slot for Kekkaishi, late at night after an hour and a half of fart-related animated comedies is still better than no TV slot at all."

I hope so.  'Cause did I mention how much I love the manga?

Spreading the word about your favorite convention

I was at the Atlanta airport on my way to a friend's wedding this weekend, and I stopped at a restaurant to get a salad.

After telling me about the salads, the girl at the counter said, "You are wearing Edward Elric on your shirt, so I'm going to give you one of these."   She handed me a glossy flier for Anime Weekend Atlanta.

She gave me my salad and dressing and said, "Well, if you're in Atlanta on September 17th-19th, be sure to come on out.  I'll be dressed in Lolita!"  She grinned hugely and went to help someone at the other counter.

The man at the bar next to us looked at me questioningly over his martini.

"It's a really frilly style of costume," I finally explained.

"I thought she meant like the book," the man said, looking relieved.  I decided not to go into the history and nuances and evolution of the word as it's been adapted in Japanese pop culture today.

He expressed interest in the flier, which I showed him.  He looked confused.  "What's this all about?"

"It's a convention for fans of anime and manga and Japanese pop culture," I explained.

"Oh, so you knew what she was talking about before I butted in?" he asked. 

I nodded, took my salad, and left, chalking his disorientation up to one martini too many.  Some people cope with travel anxiety in strange ways.

So, anyway, I hope the good folks of Atlanta have a wonderful convention!  If they're as enthusiastic about advertising it as that young lady was, I'm sure it'll be full of fun.

Do you have any con recommendations?

What silent movies and anime have in common

I've been watching some silent movies lately, and it made me think about anime.

In silent movies, there's a lot of hamminess and overacting because the sounds of actual human interaction are absent.  All we have to tell the story is the visuals.  Sometimes, especially when I feel like I need about 75 more screens of dialogue to tell me what's being said and what, exactly, is going on, this doesn't work.  Sometimes the desperation of the actors to convey makes them into 2-dimensional caricatures.

I've noticed the same thing in some poor or not-very-well-done anime dubs.  When all you have to act with is your voice, it's very easy to overdo it, be hammy, and generally make me turn on the original language track.  (That's kind of odd considering many Japanese dubs seem way more hammy and overacted and melodramatic.  Maybe I'm just used to that as the standard, and I'm willing to be more forgiving as a result?)

In silent movies, I'm really running into this problem.  Right now I'm watching movies with Louise Brooks, and she is everything her essays and documentaries and critics have described.  She is luminous and rarely hammy. 

Brooks starred in two German films that are very different, but the thing that is most noticeable and consistent in both is that she is surrounded by actors who are used to being big and hammy, and she makes them look ridiculous.  She makes it look so natural and effortless, you don't even realize that she doesn't speak the same language as the actor and directors. 

I take that back, it looks like she is speaking another language they don't really know but are dazzled by, and that language isn't English.  It's quite stunning sometimes.  Some actors end up having amazingly subtle performances pulled out of them in certain scenes, like they're trying to be hammy, and she's exerting this anti-ham gravity or something, and they're being pulled into her orbit.  There's a dance scene in Pandora's Box that is even more incredible if you watch it and then read about what was going on behind the scenes (The collection Lulu in Hollywood has that essay; it's a really fun read).

Sometimes you'll get a similar effect in an anime dub.  It actually makes me kind of crazy when this happens, but there will be one or a few voice actors who are just transcendent, and you want to listen to their every word, and it's just too bad they're surrounded by mediocre or poor performances because you can't stand to watch the dub in that language because the bads are so bad (especially when compared with the luminous goods) that it's painful.  Sigh.

Voice acting for anime and silent movie acting both require people to convey a story using less the full range of their instruments.  It's rare to find someone who can shine even when crippled like that.  Now I kind of want to go read The Name of the Wind again . . .

Do you know what I mean, though?  Are there any dubs you love a few actors' perfomances in and loathe the rest? Any really good silent film actors or silent films you recommend?

Selections from What I Read in July: Digest Version, Part 1 of 2

Ahhhh.  I'm starting to get back in the swing of exercising again (much earlier in the morning courtesy of my new corporate job), and this means more manga!  Especially more GALS!  Unfortunately, soon I will be done with GALS!  This is sad.  There's a lot more manga to read, though, so that's not sad.

• b Bunny Drop 1: I love this series, as I've mentioned.  It's realistically awkward and funny.
• b Crimson Hero 13: WAAAARRRGGGHHH.  I really like this series.  Sports and drama and more drama.  And growing up.  Sigh.
• b Deka Kyoshi 2: Awwww.  This story of the plucky cop undercover as a teacher in an elementary school full of kids dealing with real life issues is full of excitement and hard to sell.  The issues the kids are dealing with are more realistic than what we like to let our kids read, so it has a teen rating, but I'm not so sure teens will be as interested in this stuff.  Oh, well.  There's a good mystery going on, and we had some great revelations this time around.  I can't remember if the rest of this series came out before the Great CMX Shutdown.  I do hope so because I want to know what really happened to the teacher who died.
• b GALS! 6-7: Seriously, there is no better pick-me-up than GALS.  This stuff is light-years ahead of Gossip Girl and other trashy teen novels.  The gals are kind of all about having fun, but they're not about being vicious and stabbing each other in the back.  And they help a lot of people along the way.  The balance between silly and serious is just spot on because different plot threads are developing simultaneously.  It's just kind of awesome.  Thank goodness the whole series made it in print.  Now I want to watch the anime again.
• b Library Wars 1: Okay.  So fun.  It's tough to communicate why this is so fun when the premise is that the state has set censorship laws, and the local governments are letting the libraries fight back, literally.  This is the story of one of the few women to get accepted for the library's combat arm and the CO she thinks is out to ruin her life (and how they fall in hilarious and awkward love).  There's a great supporting cast.  I really want the anime and the original novels over here.  Pretty please?
• b Musashi #9 17: Been there. Cried over that.  Farewell, #9, One-Niner, and Co.  I'll never know how the stupid rich kid adventure ends . . .
• b The Name of the Flower1: Sketchy and sweet.  Still.  And really tough to get ahold of unless you get lucky or are rich.
• b Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei 3: The darker side of funny.  Might be over the heads of the casual fan, but if you're a fan of biting satire and know a decent amount about Japanese culture, you will get a HUGE kick out of this.  The Power of Negative Thinking, indeed.

Let me know if you've read anything great lately.  See you next time.

What ST Read in June

These are "reviews" largely taken from text messages and brief follow-up emails.

bb PEACH GIRL

ST: More Peach Girl?

TMIA: I think I have the rest of it.

ST: Bring it.

TMIA: Kind of sucks you in, doesn't it?

ST: Yes.

bb FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST

ST: More FullMetal Alchemist? More? More? I finished 19. More? More?

TMIA: I have through 22.  Sucked to be Jean, eh?

ST: Meh. He's not dead yet. I loved in the extras of that volume where she was talking to her editor about how it was going to be a serious volume, so they should cut out the gags, but they both agreed the boob joke needed to stay in. I love her extras.

TMIA: They are always insightfully classy.  Fighting panties forever!

bb NODAME CANTABILE 

ST: Urk, I can't get over the translation - it's TERRIBLE. It feels very much like a Japanese person who speaks English translated it. The translation in the Japanese/English version I got in Japan is about on the same level as the version you bought here in America. Seriously, BAD translation. I hate Nodame anyways, and this translation doesn't make the side characters any more likable.

TMIA: It's funny that you'd say that because I've read some reviews that say the same thing.  I'm usually too caught up in the story to notice bad translation.  Unless it includes random German words.

ST: I think my brain has been trained to notice because I was in Japan so long and had to read/translate stuff like this.  Fullmetal Alchemist's translation was annoying as well because the either had different people as lead translator for each volume, or they just had a very forgetful lead translator. They aren't at all consistent with names and places (Dublith/Dubliss, Fury/Fuery, Mei Chan/May Chan/May Chang, etc.). It's distracting because sometimes the spelling translations are so different that unless you know the original Japanese, it sounds like they're talking about completely different people/places. 

Live Action Bunny Drop?!

So we know I like Bunny Drop. A lot. But a live action version? Eh . . .

A live action with Matsuyama in it? Okay, now I'm interested. I'm not sure why because it will likely never reach our shores. (Detroit Metal City, I'd love to see you, too.) Hope springs eternal? And with a resume consisting of characters from Deathnote, Detroit Metal City, and Gantz, how will Matsuyama be able to pull off an unattractive but somewhat loveable loser bachelor character who's several years older than Matsuyama is? Honestly, I do wish he pulls it off as well as those other roles. And that the child actress is good. I hope they're faithful to the manga; I'd hate it to be all schmoopey.

Hey, Viz Pictures, um, could I make a request . . . ?

Selections from what I read in June: digest version

Not the best manga month for me, but there were other perks, such as landing a job that pays a living wage (and then some) and finally exiting retail purgatory.  (Praise the Lord for His grace in all ways in all things in all situations.)  Also, there was some good manga.

• b Afterschool Charisma 1: Clones of famous dead people are all teenagers together at this highly-guarded school.  I am still slightly neutral about this series.  It has promise, but it could be so easily squandered, and I'm afraid to get heavily invested in case it chokes.  Very mysterious but not annoyingly so.  I like the fact that so much is made of the fact that clones are NOT copies.  I'm also rooting for it to succeed even after we figure out who the main character is a clone of . . .
• p Butterflies, Flowers 3:  As per my usual rule, three strikes, and you're out.  I really tried to give this one a chance, but it's too distasteful.  If the characters seemed real and I bought their love for each other as people, I would have put up with the creepy crap, but they're not, so I'm not even going to try.  I kid of want to wash my brain out with hydrogen peroxide after reading this.  (But how do I really feel?)  If it gets amazing and realistic later on, I hope someone lets me know when, and maybe I'll pick it up again then.  Maybe.  In retrospect, it probably wasn't a strategically good idea to read this right after the masterpiece that is Record of a Fallen Vampire . . .
• b Demon Diary 1-7: Sometimes, you just need to read that scene about the tomato dream again for the xth time.  And then, you know, it's been a while, and you don't really remember what happens next, and it's a quick read, and suddenly you read all 7 volumes.  Oops.  :)
• b Record of a Fallen Vampire 7-9:  That was awesome.  Just wow.  For more articulate musings, see these great reviews, but beware of spoilers.  Just go read the first three books.  Then the rest.  Then the reviews.  I want to read it again.
• b Shinobi Life 5: Still fun.  Still cute.  Still unexpected.  What more do you need?
• b WaqWaq 1: I really love that front cover.  I have no idea where this is going.  Maybe I should check out the author's other series, Hoshin Engi.
• b Zatch Bell! 14-15:  Okay, you have to find the DVD with the chair spinning guy on it.  Ridiculously hysterical and then WHAM serious.  So cracktastic.  Poor Zatch Bell; its real audience is 9, but I guess American 9-year-olds can't handle the idea of a 5-year-old running around without underpants even when they're painted in or the fact that people sacrifice themselves for others and sometimes die.  Anyway, I think this one is better to read if you've seen bits of the anime so you can get an idea of how hyper it is (and hear the excellent English dub). 

Yeah, that was really it.  July was better; I promise.

The Post Last Airbender Post: A Sort-of Tag-Team Review

ST: *sad face* it sucked. Horribly. HORRIBLY. A and her friends and I stood in the parking lot for over an hour after it was done at 2 am and ripped it apart. And we could have done it for longer. What an utter, utter piece of crap. Go to the cheapest theatre possible to see it. Crapity crap crap crap. I had faith in Shamalan and his directing ability - I wasn't a hater going into it. But he took something great and made it something not great.  And Iroh's name changed body parts. It's now pronounced "ear-roh". Apparently the old pronunciation of "eye-roh" wasn't good enough of a body part? Maybe in the next movie he'll be "nose-roh" or perhaps "mouth-roh"?  Stink. And I so wanted to like this movie.

TMIA: Since I had ST's less than positive review (above) combined with the movie's rather putrid score on rottentomatoes.com and my ability to read enough pathos into a commercial to make me cry, I thought that maybe my expectations were low enough that I wouldn't feel I had totally wasted my money, even though I had to pay more to (accidentally) see it in 3-D.  Right.  Well, I really enjoyed the music.  And I did get choked up a few times.  And . . .  Yeah, the movie was bad.  It was just misfiring on all cylinders.  What did you think about the acting?

ACTING

ST: WHAT acting? And yes, it was utter, utter crap. But it was fun to tear apart in the parking lot at 2 am. And if you were one of those idiot 12-year-olds in the parking lot complaining about the name pronunciations, then you are far behind the curve. That was just the tip of the crap iceberg (crapberg?).

The only character that I felt they captured the spirit of was Iroh; everyone else was so far removed from their character in the TV show that I was shocked. Seriously. We think that they spent so much on the special effects that they realized, "Oh, crap, we've only got $10 left for the script. Let's find the cheapest, worst screenwriter on the planet."

SCRIPT

TMIA: And the special effects left a lot to be desired, too.  You do realize that Shyamalan wrote it (along with producing and directing), right?

ST: Yes, I realize he wrote it. Perhaps he was wearing too many hates (Freudian slip? I meant hats) and so it all turned out badly? Also, he didn't write it all on his own. A script goes through many hands before it's finalized, and even then there's improv and changes made on the set.

It wasn’t just the script that stunk – lots of stuff did. It’s just the script is the most immediately easy thing to criticize. The sheer amount of information dumps in each segment of the movie was ridiculous. The dialogue was almost entirely a series of information dumps that would have been a challenge for even the most amazing of actors to deliver in a realistic manner.

I think one of my favorite amateur line was when they get to the Northern Water Tribe and Katara’s voice over information dump says, “And my brother and Princess Yue became good friends right away.”  As my friends and I discussed afterwards, that is a totally unnecessary line. You can either accomplish that in a 3 second shot where Yue and Sokka look meaningfully at each other (which I actually think they had, anyways) or you can just leave it alone and let the viewers see that, as there are scenes later where Yue and Sokka are together. They seem to have cut A LOT out of this movie, so why waste 20 seconds on a stupid line (and this wasn’t the only one. I think they wasted A LOT more time on stupid lines than should be legally allowed).

CHARACTERS

ST: Getting away from the script, I just hate how he had the children actors act. The script/directing/editing made them so that they were little adults, not children. Part of the charm of the cartoon is that Aang is twelve. He’s a kid. He realizes he has this immense task before him, but he gets sidetracked on fun quests quite easily. And Sokka is a dork. He’s a guy with a boomerang. They started him out in a promising manner – when he says Appa’s trying to eat him, when he dents a guy’s family jewels, etc.; but then it was like they thought, “No, what this movie about kids REALLY needs is a handsome, romantic lead.” So Sokka suddenly becomes this serious guy. And Katara lost her role as the wet blanket who always spurred Aang on. Suddenly, Aang was making the serious motivational speeches instead of Katara. Weird.

TMIA: It's true; there was a lot of ACTING in this movie, but I'd agree that they really didn't have anything to work with.  That's why I'm so impressed with the job Iroh's actor did. And my greatest fear wasn't realized: Aang didn't have a Texas accent.  Also, even if he looked different, Oppa was pretty great.  Momo was awful, as was Aang's interaction with him. (One of those scenes made me laugh so hard I cried a little.)  I actually thought Sokka did pretty well considering what he had, and he and Yue could have worked a bit better given more time. Literally and figuratively.

ST: Yeah, the whole scene with the fish in the spirit pond was crappy.  The fact that he's a firebender, and there's fire all around him, and he stabs it, and he's all stabby stabby, and I'm like, seriously? When you already have a script that's gold, why mess with it?  I wouldn't have minded if they changed lines or scenes, but when they change personalities, they're making different characters and a different story, and pretty soon . . .

TMIA: It's Avatar in name only.  Literally.

EFFECTS AND ACTION

ST: Do you remember all those scenes in the cartoon in the Fire Lord's throne room where it was fire and pillars and curtains of fire and scary doom?  Do you remember what it was like in the movie?  There were two lamps.

TMIA: And a nice embroidered pillow, I think.  So, what did you think of the other special effects?

ST: If the action sequences were better, it would have helped.  But they weren't.  That scene with the Blue Spirit in the ring of stones?  It made me nauseous. 

TMIA: What the heck was with all the slo-mo?  All the fight scenes lost their momentum because they kept being interrupted by slow-motion at utterly inappropriate times.  The pacing overall was terrible, but to have bad pacing in the action scenes is kind of inexplicable.  The action had no action.

ST: And the bending?! A and I were cracking up at really inappropriate moments.  The action . . . it was just pathetic.

TMIA: I don't know how they could possibly make bending not cool!

ST: It just blew my mind how horrible it was.  Zuko and Aang were always fighting hand to hand.  Why?!

TMIA: The bending took so long, I wouldn't want to wait to do it either.

SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT 

TMIA: So what would you have wanted the big S to do? 

ST: He could have done a 5-minute montage at the beginning that covered the whole first season.  The whole point of the first season is that he's a kid.  He gets side-tracked easily, and that's why there are all the side stories. 

TMIA: I'm a writer, and I think in stories when I'm getting serious about things. ST, who has seen the series many more times than I have, mentioned that the part at the end with the northern waterbending tribe was all of two episodes in the series.  We allowed it to have some shorthand in the cartoon because it had all the other episodes of character development backing it up.  This movie did not. 

If I were creating this movie, I think I would have talked to fans of all ages and asked them about their favorite scenes from earlier in the series.  Then I would have structured the whole movie to start when they arrived in the Northern tribe.  I would have expanded to include what happened in those two episodes that we didn't get to see in the series.  I would have tried to work as many of those fan favorite bits in as I could as flashbacks.  There would be an organic reason for compressed summaries/explanations/info dumps and short vignette scenes and voiceovers and cutting to the good parts of the conflicts/road trip moments.  Could you imagine the fun they could have had playing the scenes as Sokka described them to Yue with commentary by Aang and Katara?  But flashbacks are evil to real filmmakers, so this is why I am not a film-maker.  (One of the many reasons.)

Anyway, I figure this strategy would allow for the present development of Aang's water-bending troubles and Sokka's relationship with Yue (they were really the only two young actors who were competent--possibly because they had something to grab onto--and had some sort of chemistry) while giving viewers live action versions of scenes they loved/the best that the series had to offer without the whiplash.  It would have allowed Sokka and the others time to shine in humorous and other ways while avoiding the Cliff's Notes of a Road Trip movie syndrome. 

But the director wanted to make an epic.  I would just want to make it fun and good and hopefully profitable.

ST: It already was an epic.  All he had to do was make it shorter.

SILVER LINING?

TMIA:  It does make me want to watch the show again, if only to wipe the taste of the movie out of my brain. That's usually how I feel about movie adaptations of books, so I shouldn't be so disappointed except that I feel like they had even less of an excuse to suck because the plot and tons of great character development were already there for the taking, along with ready-made action scenes and an incredible fighting style.  And a child actor who could do the bending, for the love of Pete!

ST: It seems like his philosophy was if I don't have to spend money on it, and I can change it, I'm going to.

TMIA: I feel like I should say that the single actual child in the theater when I saw this enthusiastically thought the movie was cool.  Any closing comments?

ST: FART.  How's that for airbending?  And it didn't take me 20 minutes to ramp it up.

TMIA:  I still blame James Cameron.  If only we'd been allowed to have the real name, this never would have happened.  :)

Why do I torture myself? Musashi #9's last volume

I recently received my copy of the last volume of Musashi #9 that CMX will be publishing. Like a big idiot, I even read the last chapter, knowing that this book would continue the tradition of starting a new story arc with the last chapter of the graphic novel.  And now, unless an extremely unlikely license rescue occurs, I will never get to find out what happens in this story, let alone the overarching story.  I doubt they live happily ever after, and maybe it all ends in serious tragedy.  Maybe it's better to leave things here, with action and intrigue and hilariously awkward and sweet moments stolen between saving the world.  Maybe it's better not to know, but I still find this situation to be a serious bummer.

Musashi #9 has always struck me as a rather unique serious published in the United States. I'm not really sure what publishing category or demographic it was aimed at.  (And no, I haven't looked that information up.)  It definitely didn't feel shojo me (younger teen girl) for all its sparse, occasionally slightly melodramatic bits of romance. It almost felt more older shonen (younger boys 7-15) with the action and plotting and tactics and the way the story arcs resolved. It was a bit too something for seinen, despite the main point-of-view character's young adult maleness, lots of danger and explosions, and conspiracy-theory awesomeness.  I wouldn't really say josei, either, for all it had a mature, tail-kicking female heroine. Whatever it was, I thought it was great, and I really look forward to each irregular volume.

I think partly because it didn't really fit anywhere, I never really heard much buzz about it.  I kind of feel like I'm one of the only people who liked this series, which may explain a lot, but then again, CMX did manage to squeeze out an extra volume of this series and not others that I thought were much more popular.

Excuse me while I get a little teary-eyed once again over the tragedy of the death of CMX.

Thank you, CMX staff for some very excellent series.

Also, the great manga migration is mostly over, so we should be returning to our regularly scheduled posting at least every Sunday and Wednesday.  See you then.

World Cup and Anime (not what you think)

Ah, yes, the World Cup has come and gone once again, and while I was watching the U.S. win, lose, and tie, I thought once again about anime. I certainly thought about the Whistle! manga I love and things I'll never see legally translated and imported like Captain Tsubasa, but mostly I thought about G Gundam.

I remember months ago when people weren't even sure the World Cup would happen in Africa on account of people threatening to kill soccer players who came to the event. I thought of books like How Soccer Explains the World and others. I thought of wars and conflicts and death tolls of civilians and soldiers. Of course I started thinking of G Gundam.

Sometimes I wonder if the idea of having a tournament every X years to decide who'll be in charge for the next bit couldn't possibly be any crazier and more painful than what we have now. It would be like the World Cup meets the Olympics meets some huge holiday parade. With Gundams instead of floats. I am, of course, joking. (Mostly.)

I think I'll just settle for watching G Gundam again and waiting for the next World Cup. Who will triumph then?  Four years until we find out . . .