Yes, again with Darker Than Black

Well.  Wow.  The sudden ultraviolence means this title is definitely not for everyone.  The series in general keeps you off balance, and the early inclusion of several scenes of hideous and unexpected gore was definitely a successful part of that strategy, but, ewwwww. 

The problem is that unlike other shows, there isn't necessarily warning that things are about to get unbelievably gross, and sometimes, you can't look away because, you know, important plot is happening.


Other ways they keep you off balance:

• killing people who seem important
• inexplicably letting others live
• the most excellent two-episode story arc
• the way the inhabitants of this world don't have everything figured out

That last one is my favorite.  Ten years ago the world changed for these people.  Things they thought were givens (laws of science, common sense, etc.) got tossed out the window.  Or over the wall.  These people are trying to figure their world out on a fairly basic level, and there are a lot of guesses and lies running around.  Even stuff everybody who knows knows is wrong.  It's subtle and breathtaking.  Bravo! 


Because of all this, it feels much more immediate, engaging, and compelling, and you as the viewer must participate because they are not going to spell things out for you, and when they do, the truth may or may not be involved.  Monologues and info dumps can be "full of fail."  Pay attention, or else you miss all the great nuances, contradictions, and bunny trails that make this show a jaw-droppingly great ride.


Up through volume 4 where I am going to stop because I wish to own this series and meticulously pick apart each and every episode to analyze how the story-telling and world-building are so awesome.  I wouldn't want to know the ending and let that influence my obsessive re/watching.

I wonder if I should wait to read this tantalizing novel until after I'm done with the series . . .  Anyone heard anything about it?

I love being a nerd.

Are there any shows you stopped watching partway in so you could start over obsessively?

People talking about a manga I love: Banana Fish

I do love Banana Fish, so I direct you to the beginning of an ongoing round table at Manga Bookshelf in case any of the following apply to you:

• You like Banana Fish.
• You enjoy hearing different opinionated and intelligent people talk about something they enjoyed interacting with.
• You don't have any idea what Banana Fish is or if you would like to read it but are always looking.

If the first option above applies to you, and if you haven't read Shaenon Garrity’s Overlooked Manga Festival post about it, go do that now.  Someday, I shall marathon this series in all it's awesome 80s glory, and I will LOVE it again.

Dai-Guard: Giant Robot Stomping and Office Politics Galore

Whether you watch this one in English ("Office Workers Saving the World!") or Japanese ("Even a salaryman can protect the peace!"), you're in for an entertaining take on the giant-robot-with-pilots anime.  Dai-Guard is kind of like what would happen if Dilbert married Megas XLR and a child was born: a giant robot action office dramedy. 

I still seem to get a kick out of it after all these years.  Here is one review, and here is another.

Basically, this security company was building a giant robot to fight off these strange, deadly creatures, but then the strange, deadly creatures sort of stopped invading, so the company was left with a pointless giant robot.  They decided to use it for marketing.  Then the creatures came back, and the public relations team in charge of the robot was the front line of defense against creature invasion. 

The military tries to be in charge, but that really doesn't work out well.  Their straight-laced representative ends up sort of blitzed by the burning and somewhat ridiculously enthusiastic commitment to saving lives that comes from kids who watched too much anime growing up and trainging in PR and getting to pilot a giant robot. 

Also, I feel compelled to mention that there is seriously a robot name Kokuboga. 

The pilots are all just somewhat average office workers with complicated, slightly-more-dramatic-than-usual regular joe lives (one of them doesn't get along at all with her step-dad, one seems like a total ladies' man but is hiding a rather tender secret).  Their co-workers are often a hoot; their boss is pretty great, and the company president could take the Pointy-Haired Boss in a duel in about 2 seconds.  They hate trying to save the world on a tight budget, but them's the breaks. 

Office politics cause problems, as do military politics and even politics politics.  It's all just another day at the job, except they're robot-jockeys instead of desk-jockeys.  I wonder if my job would be different if that were the case for me.

One of the things that makes this an enjoyable background show for me is the rewrite for the English dub.  It plays fast and loose with literalness (okay, it really just sometimes dispenses with it altogether), and the acting isn't great (I think it was one of Monster Island's first), but it's fairly amusingly quotable with its referenences to cow squashing, monster wrassling, and getting dunked in heterodyne coffee.  If that doesn't appeal to you, there's always the Japanese dub, which is fun, too.

Some people complain that Dai-Guard gets too heavily dramatic sometimes.  I know exactly what they mean, but I don't really care.  :)  Yeah, I may want to smack a pilot now and then (this would have been a very different show with Bright Noah in charge), but the hystrionics just make it work better for me.  When we get to that last battle, I am fully invested in these people; I know what struggles they've gone through to get here, how they've struggled to relate to each other, and I care how things turn out.

So if you want some giant robot action that doesn't get deadly serious (it ain't Full Metal Panic) but isn't all fluff, and you're hankering after a comedy that stars adults every bit as annoying as your real co-workers (only funnier), Dai-Guard is your new best friend.

Have you seen this one?  Any thoughts?

Code Geass: Where everyone loses

One of the things I liked about Code Geass was how there wasn't really a hero.  (I know that's one of the things that turned a lot of people off it.)  I mean, the protagonist was definite anti-hero material, but the guy who looked likely to be the hero was, well, hardly spotless himself.  (I'm trying to avoid being a spoiler monkey here.) 

In fact, it's hard to really pick who's "right" in this situation because there's so darn much necessary evil being thrown around that you'd have to seriously redefine "right" to pick a winner.  You have two people who have the same goal, are going about it through different channels and are 100% committed to doing whatever it takes to reach that goal.  Needless to say, there's a lot of conflict in the show.  (And that's not even including the 60 gojillion other characters who have things at stake.)

Many people have mentioned how over-the-top and melodramatic this series is.  They mention the hilarity of some of the overblown dialogue. (I would probably argue that it's not unintentional, as many claim.)  They mention the swamp it makes of morality.  They also mention how a viewer can notice all these things and still be addicted to the show.  For all the near-camp content, it did win awards for a reason.  It's a glorious, flashy, attractive, sometimes even thought-provoking (if you can spare the time to think) mess.  Everyone loses, and I still watch it.


If you've seen Code Geass, do you dislike Lelouch and Suzaku equally, or do you harbor a soft spot for one of them?  Why?

Why I love Zipang

Who doesn't love a good historical drama disguised as a science fiction piece?  

Zipang is a tense, thrilling, moving action-drama about a Japanese Navy Self-Defense Force ship that suddenly finds itself 60 years in the past the day before the Battle of Midway.   Oh, yeah!  

It's really a bit of a niche piece because it helps to have a decent understanding of the JSDF mentality and the nonfiction sensibilities of the Japanese regarding war.   (That might sound dead-boring, but it's so not.)  It's done well enough that you can pick things up as you go if you're sensitive to context.   It would also help to have some understanding of military history, specifically of Japan's place in WWII, but I think a lot of that is also provided through context.   Anyway, the interactions between the past and the present are intriguing and fascinating, and I really want to hit this one guy . . .  

. . .   But I'll never get the chance because it just stops at the end of the first story arc from the manga which is untranslated and shall remain so forever.   Argggghhh!  

But it's a great ride up until then.   The show really goes into some great territory about how to live in a time when no one else shares your values.   They're committed to saving lives, and they know when and where lives will be lost, but they can't risk changing history, or something bad might happen (such as Japan winning) . . .   Thought-provoking and really well done.