Please Save My Earth (Post-Recording Random Notes not covered in the other posts)

Anime Dream Team

Well, I mean, now that someone is maybe animating Dengeki Daisy, maybe this is more possible.  (It's not.)

 

Anyway, I didn't have a ton of time to really think about this question between seeing it for the first time and recording, so I wanted to give it some more thought.  I do think Production IG did a really good job of many things at the time.  I find myself wondering if Madhouse could do some of the cloth magic that makes everything seem alive (per Frieren ssn 1) and a really great Paradise setting.  It might actually be kind of trippy if they had a completely different studio in charge of all the Paradise stuff, the Earth stuff, and the non-Paradise alien world stuff, so it would really feel like another world . . .

 

I stick by my Yoko Kanno music ask.

 

I might be curious what Nobuteru Yuki could do with character designs.

 

As for writers/directors, I kind of wonder what Mari Okada could do with this source material.  Between her very unflinchingly honest (and painfully hilarious) portrayals of complicated young women in O Maidens in Your Savage Season and her meditations on people raised in a kind of paradise crashing into the regular world a la Maquia, I'm curious.

 

The Telltale (?) Kiche

As for the meaning of the persistent kiche: I think it was a sign that Sarjalim still had work for her to do with her powers, even if she didn't want to do.  Mokuren is so complicated.  I don't always understand her, but I recognize her, and her flaws call to me. 

 

Sarjalim

Sarjalim is kind of a fascinating mystery to me.  When her chosen ones choose other people, she removes the responsibility / blessing from them, so they can go live with their beloveds.  But when she's down to her last believer and there are things that still need to be set straight, she won't let them escape that blessing / responsibility until things are set straight.  And there is still more to be redeemed by the end, when Alice said the kiche comes and goes. 

 

Ugh, Alice, Why?

In the end, I understand why Alice did what she did.  It is profoundly dissatisfying to me.  I don't like it, and I wish she hadn't for reasons that are mostly separate from the world of the story itself.  

I wanted better for Alice.  I hate seeing her potential (flaws and all) as Mokuren and then seeing her reduced to someone who's insecure and always worried her younger fiance will want someone else even though who could he possibly choose who understands what he's been through and still chose him?  It just feels gross and uncomfortable and like a waste of a life. Maybe because it's not something I can bring with me out of the work?  It's something so specific to the story that, even though it logically makes sense, feels wrong?

Then again, most of the hardest hitting literature I've read has had me agonizing over situations and decisions I hate.  I don't read to come away approving of everyone's life choices, and I'm not looking to literature to only provide me with situations and decisions I 100% agree with.  I don't feel like it was a waste of time to read or reread this very long redemption story that provokes some deep moral wrestling (along with suspense and entertainment).

But still, I wish it could have ended differently.

The thought that it really couldn't have is both gratifying and terrible.  The author did her work of world creation in a specific time and place well and solidly, and this is the logical and emotional outcome.  

Ick.  Especially because of the sequels.  I didn't know anything about them when I first read this, so I could imagine they lived platonically and chastely until Rin turned 20 or something.  I want that ignorance back.  : D

Please Save My Earth: Even More Post-Podcast Theology Edition Part 2: Shion and Mokuren

 One of the things we didn't talk about on the podcast much was those deeper religious/faith aspects of the story.  (We covered a lot of ground in the 6 hours of talking about it that we did, but there wasn't room for everything, and this was not a theology podcast.)  The reason why this story stuck with me since I first read it back in 200mumble was because of the questions it left me asking and contemplating.  

Recently, Beth at Pantsuit Politics was trying to articulate a similar question: How do I reconcile my concept of karma with my concept of grace?  I don't want to be judged forever for my worst day/act.  But how long is long enough to be punished?  How do we atone?  I want to take some time to think through this for a couple sets of characters.

(SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE SERIES AHOY!)

 

Shion raped Mokuren.  He lied to her, and she gave consent based on that lie, then she revoked consent when she realized he had lied to her, and then he raped her.  He knew exactly what he was doing (even if he didn't have the whole story about Mokuren and Gyokuran), and he chose to do it.  It was a vile act.  It was cruel and stupid and destructive and completely aligned with the scared/angry/traumatized/hurting/spiky person that he was.  It was an inexcusable, evil thing he did.  On his own, he realized that he harmed her and even started to regret it. 

 

(I'll have to check if he actually apologized for it. [Checked.  He didn't.  He came about as close as he probably could, but no I'm sorry and no please forgive me.  Beginning of volume 11 is intense, and it just feels more real and complicated and messy every time I read it.]) 

 

Then Mokuren said she forgave him, and that forgiveness changed him.  Further complicating this, he thought that she forgave him and saved him from exile and stayed with him even though/because (he thought) she really loved someone else.  Aside from the rage from the people in his community, it seemed he received no punishment at all for his heinous act.  He saw Mokuren's stated forgiveness as the miraculous and unearned gift that it was, and he turned his (very strange at that point) life around and started seeing the other people around him and not punching them all away at every opportunity.  As they all started dying one by one, now trapped on the moon base for the rest of their lives, he was able to act with kindness and compassion that he had never shown before in his craptastic life.  He was able to spend time alone with the woman he loved, even if he thought she was still just playing along for . . . ???  (I don't think anyone was particularly sane at that point, TBH, so I'm not going to try too hard to nail down that reason.)  Until she died, and he was the last one left.

 

And then he lived alone for 9 years, going fully insane until he died a natural death because he promised he wouldn't kill himself and take himself out of the cycle of reincarnation established in the world of the work.

 

When Shion was being a jerk (most of the moments he was breathing) whether we understood why or not, before the flashbacks and after, I wanted karma.  I wanted him to be punished for the pain he inflicted on others.  I wanted him to be punished for raping Mokuren and misunderstanding and hurting everyone around him. 

 

And then I wanted him to stop doing those things.  I wanted him to be a better version of himself, someone who could care for other people and SHOW it.  Someone who didn't always do the absolute worst thing in any situation, someone who wasn't always pushing people violently away while longing to connect with them.  Someone who wasn't sabotaging himself all the time.  Someone who could love and be loved and exist in community.

 

I wanted karma and then grace.  And because I didn't get the karma that felt right to me (Mokuren forgiving him for her own sake but then never having anything to do with him again), I felt . . . cheated? 

 

The grace felt too easy and cheap.  Even though it was so complicated by what was really going on with Mokuren inside in parallel. Even though the forgiveness wasn't even real, since she was only putting on an act to keep up her pride (even when everyone else was dead, which is just another heartbreak to add to the pile).  And even though I have seen real life young women put up with abuse and keep forgiving and going back

because they love him even if he doesn't love them back

because they need him or think they do

because being kind-of-wanted-sometimes seems better than never feeling wanted at all

because of all the complicated and heartbreaking reasons

so I know that this pattern is not unrealistic.

 

But, friends [ME], he lived alone for 9 years surround by the dead and locked inescapably away, watching the wars of the 60s and 70s ravage the Earth.  He suffered unimaginably.  He suffered MORE because he actually DID love her in the end (I think).  If he hadn't loved her, he could have killed himself in a heartbeat.  He wouldn't have made that promise to her, and he wouldn't have kept that promise to her.  If he hadn't promised to watch over the Earth for her, he wouldn't have had to see those things.  He watched and went mad because he loved her and he wanted desperately to see her again, maybe to have the opportunity to have her love him, too.  9 years alone with the dead and the wars and the power you couldn't use to save anyone or anything out of love and faith and a promise to someone he didn't even think actually loved him.  If that's not enough punishment to atone, what is?

 

Would I only be "satisfied" with the punishment of death?  Well, he did that.  With a slow, messy, torturous death?  Yeah, he had that.  He cause suffering, and he suffered.  Karma?

 

So why does it still feel "wrong" that in the end, when Mokuren realized that he did love her back for real, she really did forgive enough to want to go be the atmosphere and the clouds and the sky with him forever?  Didn't he "earn" a happy ending?  And that's not even a good question.  It was still, after all that punishment and atonement, a miracle of grace that she was willing and able to offer him forgiveness and love and togetherness.

 

And then there's Mokuren's guilt (mostly felt by Alice, who had a fuller picture in the end).  How do you live with and forgive yourself knowing you at least in some way caused someone you maybe loved sometimes to live alone for 9 years, slowly going insane, and then torturing his next incarnation because you two just couldn't really be honest with each other the first time around?  Mokuren was not responsible for her rape.  Mokuren may have been responsible for her (understandable hatred). Mokuren did not knowingly condemn Shion to that torturous fate.  Not that exact fate.  And when she realized the karma he suffered, she believed it was enough and that he HAD atoned, (and so did he) and they could be honest with each other, and they could both find grace together and leave behind hate and guilt and karma.  And there is something really beautiful about that.

 

But it still feels very uncomfortable.   And I think that's fine.  The good stuff, the stuff that lasts, challenges you and invites you to watch decisions you wouldn't make in situations you would never be in and come away feeling like the world is complicated and huge and contains multitudes and what it needs more from you, for you, always is grace.

Please Save My Earth Manga: Even More Theology Post-Podcast Edition Part 1: Shukaido and Shion (and Rin and Haru)

One of the things we didn't talk about on the podcast much was those deeper religious/faith aspects of the story.  (We covered a lot of ground in the 6 hours of talking about it that we did, but there wasn't room for everything, and this was not a theology podcast.)  The reason why this story stuck with me since I first read it back in 200mumble was because of the questions it left me asking and contemplating.  

Recently, Beth at Pantsuit Politics was trying to articulate a similar question: How do I reconcile my concept of karma with my concept of grace?  I want to take some time to think through this for a couple sets of characters.

(SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE SERIES AHOY!) 

 

Shion raped Mokuren, and then it seemed like she forgave him completely and they were going to live happily (virus-shortened lives) ever after.  People started dying, Shukaido figured out a vaccine that would delay the virus from taking hold but only had enough for one dose. 

 

I want to point out that I don't think anyone was doing their best thinking or making their best choices in this unimaginably horrible situation (your whole society had annihilated itself in nuclear war, and you were alone in the back end of the universe on an observational base you could not get out of for the rest of your lives).  There were SO MANY BETTER CHOICES he could have made.  But. 

 

A voice told him that he couldn't let all his work go to waste, and if the vaccine worked, he'd be choosing who would be the last to die.  And he knew that would be terrible.  And he chose to inflict that fate on Shion because of all their history together and what he'd done to Mokuren and how he had not had to suffer/pay for it.  He chose to take God's place and administer karma himself.

 

I don't think he EVER thought it would mean 9 years alone on the moon slowly going crazy.  But he still chose cruelty and punishment instead of just leaving that up to God.  And then he died, probably pleased that he had helped get revenge / bring about some sort of justice.  And then Haru had to live with remembering that.

 

And the consequences.  It was a vile act.  It was an intentional act.  It was an evil, unforgivable act.  And Shion could not forgive it for so long.  This is some sins of the fathers visited on the sons stuff here.  Haru didn't do it, but he sure suffered for it.  Shion made sure he suffered for it.  And I know "insane from being on the moon base alone for 9 years" Shion was in the mix here, but it's hard to watch him revenge so hard on someone who is essentially an innocent (Haru)for a thing someone else (Shukaido) did in the past when he (Shion) . . . didn't get punished the way he surely deserved when he did a terrible thing.  I don't know.  When the servant who was forgiven much won't forgive less, that’s hard to watch.  Especially when I know whose role I am often in (spoiler alert: it's the unforgiving servant who was forgiven much).  When you want grace for yourself but karma all the way down for others, that is . . .  Well, it's not good.

 

And maybe that's why, even though I recognize the monstrous and mostly unintended consequences of the choice of a dying man under terrible circumstances, I don't want Shion to come and take advantage of it and torture Haru over it.  How is Haru supposed to atone for a terrible thing Shukaido did?  Why does he feel like he has to atone for it?  What could possibly be done to repair / make reparations?  As long as insane Shion is driving the bus, definitely nothing.  But, honestly, if sane, changed Shion after Mokuren forgave him had been driving that bus, how could justice be served?

 

I think it's also complicated because Haru doesn't do bad things.  He doesn't try to manipulate people.  He isn't doing nefarious deeds for some mysterious purpose that only makes more sense when you realize insanity is a puzzle piece.  It's easy to root for Haru and against Shion. But in my own life, when someone has hurt me, aren't I sometimes more like Shion?  Don't I want karma for them, karma for a thousand years, karma all the way down?  Or, less dramatically, don't I feel like they deserve the harshest version of justice? 

 

However, when I have harmed other people, I want them to understand the full circumstances and complexity and my intentions, and I don't want to be held accountable, to face justice for the harms that are my responsibility, no matter the cause.  I want grace and forgiveness with no repair necessary.  I just want them to understand and absolve.  Or even just absolve because life is hard for everyone (me), and it's such a relief when someone extends grace, unmerited favor, forgiveness I do not deserve and have not and could not ever earn.  (Salvation.)

 

(But the insanity of Shion.  Yes, that makes everything more complicated because of how it overtakes Rin, overpowers him, and we watch this little boy doing these insane and hurtful things and can't help but want him to be punished, especially before we know about the insanity.  But then we do know more about the insanity and . . . It's so complicated.)

 

In the end, I think Haru did the best he could with his ancestral / incarnational bloodguilt for an action he did not take that harmed another whose descendant / reincarnation was put back into his path again later.  He tried his best to see that Rin, at least, could find some sort of forgiveness and salvation and maybe that the spirit / soul /consciousness of Shion could find some sort of peace being with the one he truly loved despite (waves hands in despair) everything.  The wrong was not precisely his, but he inherited it, took responsibility, and worked to repair and bring about some sort of flourishing shalom, as much as it was within his ability to try.  And I think it's important that what he could bring to help was other people who also were looking to bring about redemption and connection.

O Maidens In Your Savage Season vol. 1: I'm so glad I'm asexual

O Maidens In Your Savage Season is a brutally funny story that makes me incredibly grateful that I am asexual.  Holy cow.  If this is the kind of crap teens go through as they start to learn about and come to terms with sexuality, I would like to retroactively forgive of my peers for some of their erratic behavior in high school.  I mean, they clearly had a lot of different things on their minds.  Without all this crap distracting me, observing it all as an embedded anthropologist, I think my life was much calmer and likely less fraught.  (And it was fraught enough at that age.)

Stumbling from one painfully funny situation to another horribly awkward situation, from exaggerating for laughs to exaggerating for tears, this is a hormone-fueled roller coaster accident that is hard to look away from.  Starring a cast of bright, well-read teens who are very different from each other (with the possible current exception of the two who think that there is nothing outstanding about them), O Maidens looks at sexual awakening through the lenses of literature and varied personal experience.

For me, I think the snort giggle highlight was when one of the girls is on the train reading a book about how to be an understanding mother to a teenage boy after she accidentally walks in on her childhood best friend enjoying some porn in a participatory fashion.  Trying to come up with a less in-your-face euphamism for sex is painfully hilarious, too.

It's clearly not for everyone, but oh, if it's for you, you will be laughing and embarrassed and also maybe glad if you are not there anymore.  Or very glad you never were.

Good exercise manga

I can't tell if it's a good exercise manga or a bad one, but Genshiken Second Season sometimes leaves me giggling breathlessly at the tremendously awkward situation this cast of misfits find themselves in.  This is unlikely to be actually dangerous on the stair climber unless it makes me laugh hard enough to have an asthma attack, but my manga-reading antics on the exercise equipment have made other folks in the gym crack a smile.  If any of them ever ask me why I'm laughing, I have no idea what I could possibly say, and it's actually more likely that they'll act there because it's hard to keep up your air of reserve when you are leaning drunkenly on the handrails to keep you upright during a sudden fit of laughter when you are already out of breath.

I highly recommend manga as an exercise reward.  Some series are better than others.  Obviously action and shonen titles are good to get the blood pumping, but comedy is a good choice, too.  ANYTHING will work, honestly.  If you find a series you like and want to read but ONLY let yourself read on the stair climber or exercise bike (works with anime, too, if you can do all of this at home), you'll have a REALLY good reason to keep up with your fitness.  You will form a positive association between exercise and treats!  (Granted, you also need a certain amount of self-discipline/control and a regular exercise schedule to make this work.)

Give it a try!  Together, we can help establish manga and anime as part of a healthy lifestyle!


Some fun exercise manga:

• Red River
• From Far Away
• Dengeki Daisy
• Love*Com
• Crimson Hero
• Kaze Hikaru
• Shaman King
• Naruto
• Blue Exorcist
• One Piece
• D.Gray-Man
• HunterXHunter
• YuYu Hakusho
• Bleach
• Hikaru No Go
• Your suggestion here . . .

Buying a house pretty much eats your life - and your online anime and manga presence

Wow.  Looking at the barren wasteland of this blog for the past year, one might think I had dropped out of fandom.  I haven't.  I was just searching for and buying a home.  Lest you think home-improvement has crowded out my love for manga and anime, my house has a library for all my manga and anime.  An entire room just for that.  And I may have recently bought something at Aldi's because it appeared in a CLAMP manga, and I sort of never expected it to show up in Aldi's. 

I may try to do some updating in the way that Connie over at Slightly Biased Manga did, where I look back through the year and pick some of my favorites and then make up award categories for them because it's fun and I want to have at least some record of what I thought was outstanding.  Then I may be moving to a monthly format for something I have been brewing for a while to review series that, for one reason or another, are unfinished.  If I can nail the idea and format down, I may even pitch it to the folks at Manga Bookshelf. 

And I may start forcing myself to take some more time to catch up on what's current in online fandom writing.  I can't catch up on what I missed, but I can at least try to get back into the game and figure out what writing styles are appealing to my target audience these days.  See you in a bit. : )

Quotes of December 2013, Part 4

Jason Thompson on Banana Fish: "Yes, Banana Fish slips into the manga bad habit of having the side characters remind us how cool the main character he is.  OTOH, Akimi Yoshida gets a free pass because Ash really is that cool."

Connie C on Pretty Face: It turns out Rina has a long-lost twin sister named Yuna!  And Rina is so happy to have Yuna back!  And Rando can’t possibly explain what’s happened, and doesn’t have anyplace to go, so he feins amnesia and just goes along with it, living in the same house as his crush and pretending to be her twin sister.  He eventually finds a photo of himself, but when he realizes how crushed Rina would be to lose Yuna again, he decides to play along until he finds the real Yuna.  This is somehow simultaneously as creepy as it sounds and not nearly as creepy as it could be.. . . its ribaldry can be simultaneously entertaining as well as creepy.

Ash and Michelle Smith on Attack on Titan:
ASH: If Attack on Titan has one thing going for it, it’s the series’ intensity. And tragic deaths.
MICHELLE: I feel very wrong that “tragic deaths” has seriously made me consider Attack on Titan.
ANNA: I feel the same way. What is the ratio of tragic deaths to non-tragic deaths per volume?
MELINDA: I also would like to see some statistics on this. Yes.

Sean Gaffney on Are You Alice?: "Are You Alice? has a 2nd volume that may potentially have something comprehensible happen, which Vol. 1 lacked, in my opinion."

Movie Review: 'When the replicants learn the role they've been designed for, they do not rebel; they submit. This ostensible passivity may perplex some U.S. audiences even more than the humanoid plot twist. "It's not a very American theme, is it?" says Ishiguro. "It's antithetical to the American creed of how you should face setbacks — that if you fight back, love conquers all." No, it's more a Japanese creed, that accepting one's fate is a form of heroism.'

Shaenon K. Garrity on Phoenix: "Tezuka is getting into his groove here. All life on Earth is destroyed halfway through the story, and it just keeps going."

What I read in June 2013: Digest Version, part 3 of 3

b Loveless 1,3: I have very little self control.  When there is a Manga Moveable Feast, if I make the mistake of reading any of the posts, I always end up re-reading part of the topic.  And loving it.  And feeling guilty.  Oh, man, things were so simple in these early volumes even though they were incredible mysterious and complicated.  Soubi is a very puzzling character.  He can be very mature, he can be kind, he's ruthless enough to put himself through a lot of pain to beat the Zeroes, but then he takes them home and takes care of them.

b One Pound Gospel 1-4: This is the story of a boxer with promise but no self-discipline where food comes in and his quest to win the affection of a lovely neighborhood nun-in-training.  Yeah, it's a tad wacky, more Maison Ikkoku Lite than InuYasha, and it's not really a sports manga at all, but it was amusing.  Each fight has some weird constraint or bargain or lesson, and my favorite is probably the one where the opponent has a huge tattoo of the Virgin Mary on his chest, and Kosaku is told by the head nun that he's not allowed to punch the tattoo or else.

"You've taken my tacos from me.  Boxing is all I have left!"

b Saiyuki Reload 8:This is a tough but good volume, where the crew is split up, and a city of humans scheming to steal more from the youkai who lived there first uses some of them to their own ends.  It's pretty much sad the whole way through as powerful people manipulate the fear in people's hearts and inflame it into hatred, and horrors that cannot be taken back are committed, perpetuating a cycle of revenge that might only end when no one is left standing.  Poor Goku is helpless to stop things.

"It's not about human or youkai.  Or whose side I'm on.  This's about what's important to me."

b Skip Beat! 31: Oh, things are tense as Ren dives deep into his role as a psycho, so deep that he kind of nearly kills a co-star.  Kyoko talks him down and pacifies the director and tries to figure out what she's supposed to do to help him when he's in such obvious and (to her) inexplicable agony.

b Slam Dunk 9:Guess what?  There is some basketball in this volume.  There's a lot more drama off the court, though, as someone who once turned his back on the sport tries to get back in the groove and become part of the team he was somewhat responsible for beating the crap out of in recent volumes.  And it's tourney time!  Can their new line-up blow away the competition?

b W Juliet 10-11, 13: Summer camp brings Ito back in contact with a childhood bully, and he's crushing on her hard.  She has some trouble telling him she's already taken, and Makoto gets jealous.  On the home front, things come to a head with the weird American girl who's obsessed with Ryuya.  Can she manage to score a point off Papa Miura to avoid having to leave Ryuya and go back to America?

Then more trouble on the homefront as youngest Miura Tatsuyoshi has enough of being picked on and snaps.  Yuko and Akane have some rough moments, but they finally say what they need to say.  Makoto's oldest sister who eloped to get away from their father is in town, and Ito can't help meddling to try to get the family to reconcile.  Then there's a bit about how people always think Ito and her best friend Yoshiro are dating when Yoshiro has already publically confessed his love to Misaki.  Then it's costumes and cultural festivals and sabotage.  Then other stuff happens in volume 12, which I don't have.

In volume 13, Ito ends up spending some accidental quality time with Makoto's hated father.  She does her best to work her usual magic.  Graduation is coming up, and Makoto and Ito are auditioning to try to find employment once they graduate, but Ito gets really sick and has a terrible audition, but she impresses the scary director, and they both get in.  Then it's the big reveal as Ito gets in trouble, and Mako gets caught with his hair off by one of her brothers, and things start to fall apart.

"Manga is about being entertaining, not being realistic." 98

Good to know.

Quotes of December 2013, Part 3

Jason Thompson on Banana Fish: "When Ash has to kill people, he does: no Disney Villain Deaths here. ("What do you think I am? I'm a murderer, okay? I kill people!")

Melinda Beasi on Black Bird: 'I want to say “good riddance,” but… what will I have left to hate now? I feel bereft.'

Joseph Luster on Hare+Guu: "If the face of every moe character was merely a veil draped over a gaping, apocalyptic maw tunneling toward the infinite beyond, we'd all be living in Guu's surreal jungle, and we'd probably love every minute of it."

Sean Gaffney on Strobe Edge: "After the previous couple of volumes of Strobe Edge tried to hit maximum angstosity, this one seems to be more of a breather."

Jessi Silver: "[R]ealizing that bad anime exists and not every series is Cowboy Bebop-tier entertainment is just a part of being an anime fan past the honeymoon phase."

Jason Thompson on To Terra: 'The English edition's back cover copy reads "In space, no one can hear you cry," but don't worry; To Terra… has spaceships and rayguns, not just emo. In space, no one can hear you explode either.'

What I read in June 2013: Digest Version, part 2 of 3

b Dawn of the Arcana 10: By golly, yes, they did go there.  I sort of expected some kind of Loki-enabled intervention, but I forgot this is the series where they totally killed off a pretty major antagonist far earlier than I expected (and made it hurt the reader more than expected).  It turns out that she didn't make the decision, though, which makes me a bit glad because that would have been really hard for Nakaba.  And then everything falls apart.  Nakaba and Caesar return to their respective kingdoms where they divorce each other and start pursuing the same future even though they are separated: they want peace in their generation, and they will lie, scheme, and kill for it if they have to.  A dangerous game, and they're both growing up fast playing it.

b Grand Guignol Orchestra 5:of 5:  The end is nigh!  Hooray!  We'll maybe sort of find out at least part of what is going on, right?  Then again, this is Kaori Yuki; viva style over substance! More goth costumes, more zombies, more treachery and tragedy and sorrow and songs.  Maybe some folks even make it to the end alive?

b Kamisama Kiss 9:Our heroine is actually thinking for once, and she's realized that her loving Tomoe might not be good for Tomoe.  But then they end up on Tengu mountain, and wow.  Their tengu pop star acquaintance has had a visit from a little brother telling of bad times on the mountain.  He doesn't care, but Nanami does (and she's curious to know about his past).  The mountain (where women are kind of forbidden) isn't exactly welcoming, but Nanami is determined to figure out what's going on and help whether they want her to or not.

b Kieli: The Dead Sleep Eternally in the Wilderness, Part I: Oh, the end is nigh, and I'm thinking it won't be a particularly happy one for anyone involved.  Kieli meets her father and finds out a lot of very sad truths while things start to spin out of control in the capital.  Joachin continues to be something of an enigma with his seemingly random acts of strange kindness.  I think I may go through and re-read from the beginning when the last volume comes out, so I can remember everything, but that will require copious puddles of sunlight in the winter time, which might mean that I actually put it off until next summer, when I can bathe in sunlight while reading through all the horror and sadness again. 

"He was supposed to be the great wall of evil blocking her path.  It wasn't okay for him not to be.. . . [I]t wasn't okay  for the ringleader behind all kinds of unforgivable things, Kieli's most hated enemy, to be just an exhausted, normal man like that.  The people Kieli loved had been tormented all this time because of a stupid little enemy like this?" 144

"So normal human beings . . . Are allowed to let other people help them?  Oh.  Huh." 163

"Yup, I'm fighting a lot of losing battles right now, so I'm pretty pathetic." 207

b The Last Airbender Prequel: Zuko's Story: I am still slightly bitter about many things about the Last Airbender movie (especially the revamping of Uncle Iroh), but I do like additional bits of backstory.  It hurts the brain a little to try to reconcile both versions of the story, but at least one can see that although Iroh's appearance was changed in the movie, he's really still the same character.

Quotes of December 2013, Part 2

Anna N on Red River:"Yuri and Kail are a sympathetic couple, even if some of their issues would be solved if they were only able to sit down and have an honest conversation about their feelings. Fending off witchy evil stepmothers, dodging kidnappings, and dealing with bronze age military tactics do take up quite a bit of time."

Joseph Luster on Hakkaider movie:  "Now that sounds like a fun, roaring rampage of bloody revenge for the whole family, right?"

Melinda Beasi while discussing Banana Fish: 'Also, just in terms of the value of “innocence”… I think there’s an aspect of innocence that is overrated. I think we all have to do some wrong in the world in order to truly understand what’s *wrong* about it, if that makes sense. For instance, I don’t think it’s possible to understand the the consequences of hurting someone unless we’ve actually experienced it for ourselves. I think perfect innocence also requires a level of ignorance that isn’t ultimately a good thing in the world. I know that nobody here is suggesting otherwise, but I think that’s important when we’re thinking about Eiji as a real person and not just as a symbol for something.'

Jason Thompson on To Terra: "Keiko Takemiya's To Terra… (1977-1980) is one of the classic shojo manga, except that it isn't shojo. It was published in Asahi Sonorama's Manga Shonen, which must have been a hell of a magazine, since it published both this and Takemiya's Andromeda Stories (1980-1982)."

Carl Kimlinger on Hyperdimensional Neptunia: "You can make a positive statement about literally anything if you throw in enough qualifiers. So it doesn't really mean anything when I say that Hyperdimension Neptunia is pretty good for a video game adaptation that has no decent characters and a surplus of molesting slime-dogs and lolicon tongue-monsters. But I really do mean it. Neptunia may be about the least promising series to ever be barfed out by the anime-gaming complex, but once it gets its legs under it, it's a surprisingly engaging little adventure. Pointless and unimaginative, sure, and probably artificially elevated by our septic expectations, but engaging nonetheless. Damn. There I go with the qualifiers again."

What I read in June 2013: Digest Version, part 1 of 3

b 07Ghost 1-4: Holy unexpected license rescue, Batman!  This series is still kind of a sloppy mess, but the story underneath all the slop is compelling enough that I will support this license rescue and learn all the names again in this different translation.  Teito gets better acquainted with his inner Mikhail and then loses his Eye.  He decides to take the test to enter the clergy anyway, and he and his new friend (the nice Oak guy) train and team up and do their best.  Unfortunately, the church is attacked while the test is going on.  Will Teito even have time to pass the test before the church is blasted down around him?  You have to wait until the next volume to find out.

b Ai No Kusabi 8:So I read volume 7 and was told volume 8 was the last, and I was trying to figure out how it could possibly end that quickly with all the threads it had outstanding and without being some stupid, cop-out, fake-y happy ending.  Instead, it kept on its determined course, ignored lots of dangly bits, buckled down and focused, and continued to the end of its path, turned the tragedy on 150%.  This has always been a really dark series, with two protagonists who loved each other but were ill-equipped to realize it or do anything even remotely positive about it.  I wanted them to be happy, as I do all folks in love, but it just didn't seem in the cards.  In the end, I guess they sort of were as happy as it was possible for them to be.  Bitter, bittersweet ending.

"He could hope.  All I have to do is not quit."

"It might break your heart, but there's love that can only be expressed the way they lived it."

b Ai Ore! 4:Uh-oh!  The power-crazed student council president finds out the our heroine is dating a boy from a crappy school.  So what does she do?  Lock her up without pants, of course!  (I have no idea sometimes.)  When her boyfriend Akira finds out, he's on a mission to reform his school and prove that it's not completely full of total losers.  Except that it sort of is, and extreme measures have to be taken to make the place more respectable.  New character: Banbi is this huge, facially-scarred, quiet guy who turns out to be a really nice rich boy also tired of being judged by his thug-like appearance.  I am a big fan of Banbi because he has NO CREEPY INTENTIONS towards Akira, which is unfortunately refreshing . . .

b Boys Over Flowers 34-36 of 36: Yuki ends up in a unique position: she can give Sojiro another chance with the (only) girl he (ever) loved, which she does because she really loves him (and wants what's good for him even if it makes her miserable).  While it turns out that Sojiro doesn't love the girl any more, he still gets a proper chance at closure.  Then he decides to start being a player again, and Yuki is first in line . . .  Err . . .  I give up.  Anyway, Tsukasa's father collapses, and his one year grace period sort of evaporates.  He's  leaving, but he can't quite find the right moment to tell Tsukushi, so things are awkward as he keeps screwing up and she keeps freaking out.  He keeps asking her to marry him, and she keeps dodging the question, so when he makes the public announcement that he'll be moving to the United States for college, he promises he'll come back for her when he graduates.  They have one last day together, and maybe one last night, but Tsukushi ends up falling in a pool and getting a fever, and Tsukasa doesn't push it.  Then it's time for prom and graduation, and Tsukushi's parents lose their jobs again, so she might not get to go back for her senior year (not that she's terribly disappointed).  Her family moves on the day of the prom, and her dress gets ripped, so she shows up all sweaty and bruised from moving and in her civvies.  She gets one last dance with the guys, which is kind of a hoot.  Her family also decides to work their tails off to make sure she can keep going to Eitoku, and she decides the same thing because there are people waiting for her there.  To close things out, there's a lovely little short about Akira and some of the crap he's had to put up with keeping things in balance for the F4.  Oh, Rui Hanazawa, you are still pretty great, and I wish she'd chosen you.

"In four years from now, if you come back a good man, I could make you very happy!"

Quotes of December 2013, Part 1

Anna N on Red River: "While Yuri seems to have an unfortunate habit of getting kidnapped fairly often, she’s also extremely level-headed and pragmatic. Kail rescues her, but she also uses some quick thinking to rescue him a number of times."

Joseph Luster on Inazuman: "There's just as much imagination required of the viewer as there is exhibited, which is part of the fun. With the type of special effects employed for television, many managing to be both crude and ingenious, suspension of disbelief doesn't even begin to describe the experience. That should be a given, though, especially in situations where, for example, Goro outs a Neo-Human in disguise because he "has no shadow," when he clearly does. That's the beauty of it all, and everything is played out so matter-of-fact that you can't help but buy into the timeless fun on screen. "

Jason Thompson on Banana Fish: "But of course, concept is 5% and execution is 95%. Banana Fish has got the execution, and execution-style killings, too. "

Sean Gaffney on Vinland Saga: "This is not going to be a cheery romp – expect the majority of the cast to die – but it’s gripping stuff, and incredibly hard to put down. I really enjoyed Planetes, but you can see how Yukimura has evolved further here. The story carries you along effortlessly, makes you care about these people even as it then hurts them horribly, and is simply filled with badass men being badass. It was worth the long wait to get this."

Rebecca Silverman on the Daily Lives of High School Boys: "This theme continues successfully throughout the show, playing with the contradictions inherent in adolescence – the moments of maturity followed by the desire to do something truly stupid."

Carl Kimlinger: "GUNxSWORD ends well, seeding its final episodes with moments of honest excellence, plenty of Van screaming and chopping things up (it is what he does best)," . . . "Mind you, this unusually satisfying climax isn't the result of careful planning or the product of narrative focus and purpose. Rather, it's the result of very talented storytellers sifting instances of transcendental power from the detritus of a highly entertaining, but lethally uneven show . . ."

What I read in May 2013: Digest Version, part 4 of 4

b Strobe Edge 3-4: More young infatuation and love geometry as we get to know Ren's girlfriend a bit more and get a feel for their relationship.  Ren's friends notice that he acts differently around Ninako, but they're divided as to whether they should bring this fact to his attention.  And Ando is falling for Ninako more as she pines away for Ren while trying to keep a friendship going.  Uniquely, one of Ren's friends has a lot of good insight for another of his friends who wants to "help" by getting Ren to see he likes Ninako romantically.  And then there's Daiki (Ninako's childhood friend).  His parents have been divorced for a long time, and now one of them is getting remarried, which could mean a move just when he's found a girlfriend he really cares about.  He's always tried to support his dad, but should he stay where he is instead?  Kind of a realistic question for a lot of kids these days.  Overall, I really like this series.  It has lots of heart-pounding moments and some very sad moments that feel somewhat realistic.  For some reason, it just feels very refreshing, and very few people are painted as bad guys, and you just want everyone to be happy.
"But I guess I was wrong."
"Huh?  You're actually admitting you did something wrong?"
"Cherish the moment."

"My policy is to never replace anything unless it's well and truly broken beyond repair.  I won't let anything go until I'm 100% positive that it's kaput.  It's a combination of laziness and frugality."

b Until Death Do Us Part 2: More adrenaline-laced, violent adventures brought to you by a young teen who can see the future and the guardian she chose (a blind vigilante with a katana and the aid of technology to help him fight).  There are tactical ops; there is carnage.  There is a savvy police detective who's always barely on the edge of being fired because he's too flexible and competent to really fit in Japan.  There are really bad guys.
"I see.  So the future doesn'a always mean 'good things.'  There's always the possibility that your only choices range from 'bad' to 'worse.'  I guess I never really considered that seeing the future could be such a painful thing."

"Isn't preventing crime the entire point of this organization?"
"Th-that's right, but the most important part of that is making sure that it never happens again."
"Which is why I'm making sure to put the fear of ME into 'em.  I want them scared straight."

b The Wallflower 13:I can never get over how ugly the art is in this series.  It's just an aesthetic I do not subscribe to.  It's still pretty funny, though, in a sit-com way.  Sunako just wants to keep living in the darkness, and the boys just want free rent (which they can get if they turn her into a lady).  Her aunt (the landlady) shows up in this volume and is every bit as ridiculous and over the top as every other character.  She's a rich, fashionable, gorgeous woman who is absolutely nothing like Sunako.  It's pretty touching how much they really love each other despite that.  I enjoyed the cursed jewel gag (it sort of ends up afraid of/at odds with Sunako).

Quotes of November 2013, Part 9

Anna N on Red River: "The girl who is about to get stabbed on the cover of Red River is Yuri, a cheerful high school student who had just received her first kiss from her classmate Satoshi."

Lynzee Lamb on butlers: "Vanilla Ice (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) Were the previous entries too pretty for you? The long-haired, muscular Vanilla serves Dio without question, even going so far as decapitating himself to prove his loyalty. He doesn't stay dead very long. Dio resurrects his faithful manservant as a unitard-wearing vampire. I never thought I'd be talking about merits of Vanilla Ice's good looks, but the character doesn't resemble his namesake."

Joseph Luster on Inazuman: "As Goro Watari, Kikaida star Ban Daisuke proves himself a simultaneously endearing and ass-kicking protagonist once again."

Jason Thompson on Banana Fish: "Picture Cipher crossed with Grand Theft Auto. Speedlines and sexual tension and angry bishonen, back before this sort of thing became overdone and jumped the shark, before Fake and Yellow and Togainu no Chi."

Theron Martin on Sunday Without God: "One thing that does not make it special is the deeply moe nature of its central heroine Ai. Her moe appeal is so cynically calculated – small, delicate body; tiny hands grasping a cute shovel; a cute, cosplayable outfit improbable for the setting in which she is raised – that it almost ends up being a detriment instead, as the cutesiness is so completely at odds with the vastly more serious nature of the setting. That this could certainly drive away those averse to moe content on an initial impression is a shame, as the series has so much potential to offer that it does not need to resort to such base appeals."
[This is also how I feel about Sora no Woto.]

Justin Sevakis: "Hi there! Thank you for writing into Answerman. Please read on as I crush your dreams!"

What I read in May 2013: Digest Version, part 3 of 4

b Kimi ni Todoke 11-15: Oh, dear, well, once they're together, they get to experience all sorts of new and awkward problems.  It's meet the dad time, and Sawako's dad is hilarious (her mom is pretty great, too).  Kazehaya wants to do right by her, but it might be problematic to add on Sawako's father's desire to protect his daughter on top of Kazehaya 's already heavy sense of duty.  On the Chizu front, Ryu is playing the long game, and Chizu is, well, recovering from the loss of her first love and being generally dense about Ryu's feelings for her.   There's also a really adorable flashback about how Chizu and Ayane met and became friends (with hilarious guest appearance/help from Ryo).  Then it's back at Kazehaya as Sawako meets his parents and little brother.  His baseball nut dad and little brother and entire baseball team are a hoot.  Then it's time for the class trip, and the girls buy special underwear, and then Ayane teases Kazehaya about it.  Everyone is teasing Kazehaya about "how far they've gone" or want to go physically, and Kazehaya is pretty miffed.  Chizu finds out there's someone Ryu likes (but doesn't realize it's her).  Ayane goes out with a guy who ends up just being interested in her body, and she's really devastated when it ends, even though she didn't really like him and was just hoping that his affection would make her care about him.  She finds an unexpected shoulder to cry on.  Pin is like the bad-relationship-advice fairy throughout these trials.  Kazehaya tries to deal with his self-control (he's great at it but lousy at dealing with expectations and communicating with Sawako), and Sawako is really new to all of this.  As Kazehaya pulls away from her to protect her from himself, she doesn't understand what's happening and doesn't know what to do.  Yech.  Will all the threads be untangled?  Probably, eventually, yeah.  Looking forward to seeing how.

"If I were you, I would have done the same thing.  There aren't any right words to say."

"If you know the problem, you tend to look for someone else to blame."

"Your dad is really fatherly!!  He's different from my dad.  Your dad is more dignified."
"Dignified?! I guess you could call it that.  I thought my dad was just mean."

"People date other people because they like them.  I have never liked someone.  I have never dated someone because I liked them."

b Pandora Hearts 16:Oh, Pandora Hearts, again, you twist and turn and break my heart.  More mysteries, more betrayals, more reversals.  How much longer can Oz keep it together?  And what horrible truths will get thrown on him next?  Is there any way that there could be a happy ending for anyone at the end of all this? 

b Saturn Apartments 6-7 of 7: I held off on reading 6 until 7 came out because I couldn't bear the wait for the conclusions.  There were so many ways things could have gone . . .  And I can't spoil this, but I was more pleased than not with the ending.  It did feel a bit rushed, and people didn't always make the choices I thought they would, and there was some tragedy and triumph.  I liked the series, and I was glad that it ended on the notes it did.  If you like slice-of-life with an overarching plot and science fiction and coming-of-age stories, give it a try.  You might be pleased.

Quotes of November 2013, part 8

Sara K on The Celestial Zone: "In a world where gender justice was the default, it would not be remarkable if a fighting/action oriented comic book featured many female characters and consistently gave them as much substance as the male characters, where they feel like they are there for their own sake, not to accompany the male characters. We do not live in a world where gender justice is the default. Therefore it is remarkable that The Celestial Zone is a fighting/action oriented comic book with many female characters who feel like they are there for their own sake and not to accompany the male characters."

Bamboo Dong on Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars: "Everyone else does a reasonable job, though, and if you can turn off the little voice in your head that keep chiming in with, “Haha! Thanks Goofy!” you'll likely like the dub just fine."

Carl Kimlinger on Eastern Star: "After years of oddball licensing decisions and an increasingly ambitious spate of oddball anime releases they've become the go-to guys for old, forgotten, or plain weird and under-the-radar series. And bless them for it. Not because it's a kind thing to do for fans, especially the older ones—though it is—but because it has made this box set possible. Even if Discotek did nothing else, even if the rest of its catalog was garbage, even if it was run by Nazis, its existence would still be justified by the fact that it gave us Lovely Complex."

Jason Thompson on Kaoru Mori: "Kaoru Mori is such a good artist that I like to imagine that she'd drawn other historical-setting manga: how much better, say, Red River would be if it didn't look like each page had been whipped out in 15 minutes."

Carlo Santos: "After unearthing so many hidden treasures in the out-of-print/license-lapsed category, it's only right that I bring up certain things that deserve to stay out of print."

Lynzee Lamb on Black Butler: "Sebastian is the most handsome servant on the list, in my humble opinion, but his level of devotion is questionable since he's bound by a Faustian contract. In short, a demon butler can do almost anything a master wants but he's also after their immortal soul, which is sort of a downer."

What I read in May 2013: Digest Version, part 2 of 4

b Devil and Her Love Song 8:  We wrap up the Anna arc here, leaving burning wreckage in her wake but also a little honesty.  Maria's forthrightness and sincerity have once again, in their own special way, caused the emotional breakdown and the flood of cathartic communicated feelings.  One of the worst bits of fallout is that Shin knows some terrible things he didn't before and has vowed that he will never have a romantic relationship with Maria because of the pain it will cause her.  With her usual bad timing, Maria has come to realize that she does not just want to stay friends and that she does want a romantic relationship with Shin, who is suddenly pulling away hard and not explaining himself.  As with all fiction, a lot of the problems could be solved by getting all the involved people into a room to actually be honest with each other, but that doesn't happen in real life, either.  Alas.  And how can you be honest about things like the bomb Shin got dropped on him.  Yikes.  Hang in there, folks!  (Also, Shin, when you are swearing that the way you will show your undying love is by taking your beloved's secret to the grave, it is best not to also reveal the secret because, you know, duh.)

b Earl and the Fairy 1-4:  So, there is a good premise here, maybe, but the execution is really all over the place.  Maybe they tried to adapt too much of the books, leaving it feeling splintered and poorly paced, giving me that good old Cliff's Notes whiplash from thing that happened in the book to other thing that happened in the book while also making me think things were dragging in certain places because the missing information would have made them more poignant.  So Lydia is this girl who can talk to fairies, and there's this surly Earl guy who kind of kidnaps her and drags her around for his own (nefarious?) reasons as a fairy interface.  He does not really believe in fairies, he claims.  He has a super-sad, dark past, and a couple of very dedicated servants that were a part of it, and he's dark and broody and guild-ridden and kind of a jerk, but sometimes he does nice-ish things for Lydia.  Did I mention the smart-mouthed, talking fairy cat?  It's like a cuter, fluffier version of the one in Natsume Yujincho, so there is some silver lining in this cloud.

b Grand Guignol Orchestra 4:More zombies, more music, more plot twists and revelations of mysterious pasts better left buried, more crazy horror dressed in lots of gothic fashion, heavy eye makeup, and a visual Kei aesthetic.  It must be Kaori Yuki.  And it is.  There is angst, androgyny, and zombie killing as only she can present it.

Quotes of November 2013, Part 7

Luffy1545 in an Answerman column:
"
If I may throw out an outline for EVERY SINGLE EPISODE....
Pan yet another post-apocalyptic desert city. Pan slowly to Casshern. VERY slowly.
Casshern: I found a new city. Gosh, I wish I could remember who I am. That, and I hope that someone kills me once I find out. Oh wait, I'm immortal and can't die anyway. How tragic am I.
Random citizen-bots: Ruin ruin ruin ruin ruin.... we're all going to die, no hope left, blah blah blah. Isn't hope just grand? Citizens continue to mope for the next 20 minutes.
Bad robots: Look, you guys! It's Casshern! Apparently, if we eat him we can avoid ruin! Let's eat him!
Casshern: If that means you are going to kill me, then dig in, boys!
Robots attack Casshern. After a couple of punches to the face, his eyes glow some color, a mask appears and he mercilessly slaughters all the robots in question in a ten-second-long action sequence. If we are lucky. Casshern: Well, phooey. I guess I ruined all the robots who were trying to avoid ruin by ruining me.
Casshern turns and faces camera dead-on. Casshern: See kids? IRONY! BEAUTIFUL, TRAGIC IRONY!!!
Only a lot less-exciting.
"

Sean Gaffney: "These titles are classic modern CLAMP, being entertaining, filled with great art, and highly frustrating on a very personal level. "

Rebecca Silverman on Uta no Prince Sama 2: "Simply put it is just another reverse harem show which contrives to get one normal girl in a living situation with as many hot guys as possible so that at least one of them can fall in love with her. The gimmick here is that they are all aspiring idol singers, so each episode contains at least one song with mildly embarrassing lyrics."

"UtaPri 2 retains its manically bright color scheme where everyone looks as if a sugared-up toddler chose their coloring. Most baffling remains Haruka's terrifying eyes – Mountain Dew yellow with a laser green pupil. What the designer was thinking when this was chosen is anybody's guess, but it is a definite sour note, even among the deranged choices for other characters' hair, eyes, and clothes."

"The plot is lacking, the color scheme is insane, and there's enough cheese here to make nachos for a hundred, but despite all of that it is still an awful lot of fun."

Derek in an Answerman column: 'In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice I've been turning over in my mind ever since. “Whenever you feel like revisiting anime,” he told me “just remember that you used to be young and dumb.”'

What I read in May 2013: Digest Version, part 1 of 4

b Bride's Story 4: Two rambunctious twin girls do their best to steal the show a bit in this volume.  They are not particularly demure and sort of come as a set, so they aren't particularly marriageable, and they worry that their father (who is not wealthy) is not doing enough to find them husbands.  There's a cute and awkward set of quasi romances that end well.  Meanwhile, our sociologist POV character ends up getting pulled into their little dramas and then serving as a doctor all while he needs to be getting to the border before hostilities between his home country and the aggressive neighbors make him a target.  And the drama that played out in the first and second books when the original female lead's clan decided they wanted to take her back after marrying her off is coming back around and could lead to bloodshed or peace.  It's 100% sociological slice-of-life fiction set in a meticulously researched and rendered Asian setting.  I adore the art and the culture, and I will follow it wherever it meanders.

b Bunny Drop 8:The end is nigh, and there are choices that are becoming more and more clear.  I'm spoiled on the ending, so I may not be as horrified as some folks on the internet, and, of course, since I don't read trying to figure out what will happen, I don't get as cynical about certain kinds of plot points.  I just enjoy the cute, sweet story and wince as it unfolds with some of the awkwardness of reality.

b Cross Game 8 of 8: This volume really brings home the fact that this series is primarily a drama and only secondarily a sports story.  Facts and scores and stats and results that would be pretty vital in a sports story just don't matter.  Not that the games are boring or short-changed; it's just that they're the backdrop against which many dramas are playing out.  I love the tension and the understated nature of so much that happens here.  Plot advancement comes sideways through sometimes seemingly unrelated conversations, not through loud and clear declarations of intent.  The subtlety is really very refreshing.  I really wish I were able to read stories like Touch that I've heard about, but I am really pleased I was able to read (and own) another series by Mitsuru Adachi.  He's just good at telling stories that have sports in them but never lose focus on the human drama.

b Dengeki Daisy 12:The plan to rescue Rena is executed, and it is full of tension and hilarity.  Evil bad guy mastermind is, of course, just a pawn, but taking him down feels mighty good.  And maybe, just maybe, the mastermind makes an appearance?  Or is he just a higher level pawn?  We don't know, but Kurosaki is kind of a wreck after crossing paths with him.  Instead of freaking out and retreating into himself and doing something dumb and repeating the cycle, he brings it to the attention of the gang.