Recently in anime for grownups Category

With the new year just around the corner, I find myself mulling over anime I saw this year. Some were horrible, a few were excellent but most were entertaining enough.

I noticed many of the shows I watched had a supernatural or magical theme. I don't even remember seeing anything mecha-related. Sorry but giant robots leave me cold.

I have to feed the artsy fartsy side of moi now and then so I gravitate toward shows that look unique, tackle an unusual subject matter or tell a tale in a way I haven't seen before. "Mononoke", which deals with the adventures of an unusual medicine peddler, fit that bill. You should check out the show when you have the chance. I suppose you could say "Mononoke" was a spinoff of "Ayakashi" since the peddler was a character in one of the featured tales there.


Yes, I also saw my share of shonen anime from "Naruto Shippudden" to "D. Grayman" this year. The latter ended recently and was a letdown. Since the manga isn't finished, the animators decided to end the show just after the Black Order's headquarters get attacked. Lame. I hope they later come out with movies.

Do stay away from the mess that is "Le Chevalier D'eon". It is loosely based on a historical figure who was a spy for the king of France and who had a fondness for wearing women's clothing. In the anime, he dons dresses when the ghost of his murdered sister possesses him. The show is a mishmash of historical figures involved in conspiracies, secret societies and other arcane stuff. While the animation is beautiful, the plot is too convoluted and unbelievable. And anyone who loves history better steer clear of this anime which plays fast and loose with the facts.

I don't think I'll be getting much sleep from now on since there's a bunch of interesting shows that came out this fall in Japan. This includes "Kurozuka" which is based on a 10-volume manga by Takashi Noguchi that is not for kids at all. The manga is an adaptation of a novel.

I saw the first episode and was wowed by the animation, the CGI and intriguing storyline. The anime version also toned down the graphic content of the manga and I think the story still stands.

"Kurozuka" opens with Minamoto no Yoshitsune or Kurou being chased by armed warriors he thinks are minions of his older brother, Yoritomo, who wants him dead. His brother is the first shogun of Japan.

Kurou and his underling, Benkei, end up in the mountains where they stumble upon a cottage and a beautiful woman in red. Kuromitsu, as the woman is called, doesn't question their cover story that they are a monk and his assistant seeking shelter for the night. She allows them to stay as long as they want with the caveat they stay away from her room in the back.

She seems to be taken with Kurou and he certainly likes what he sees.

But there comes a time when he looks into the room and discovers Kuromitsu's secret. She is a vampire and an immortal. She offers him a chance to be with her for eternity. End of episode one.

The story spans a 1,000 years so we will see the characters in modern times in other episodes. I'm looking forward to the next installment.

In anime, the guy sometimes doesn't get the girl in the end and not everyone lives happily ever after. People get hurt or abandoned. Love doesn't conquer all. The hero dies. Some series end like it was just another day in the life of the characters.

When I was young I favored shows that had a happy outcome or at least promised some sort of happiness in the future for the protagonist. I'm not a kid anymore.

Life can be tragic, brief yet still beautiful.

"Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora" or as Wikipedia translates it "Things That are Precious to a Mage: Summer Skies" was one of two series shown in Japan this summer which caught my interest.

The animation is done in an unusual way as you can see from the three scenes I included here. It's as if someone drew on photographs. The characters are simply drawn but they move in a world that looks very realistic.

The short series focuses on Sora, a teen living in a small town who gets accepted to a summer internship program in Tokyo. She is a mage since her late father was also a magic user. Mages are part of this world. They get trained by the Bureau of Magic which sends them out to fulfill requests by ordinary folks.

This is not a world like Harry Potter's so don't expect to be awed by the effects or requests. It's all quite boring actually. Kinda like having the city repair the pothole in front of your house except the workers use magic to do it.

Sora is a country gal awed by the big city. One can imagine she'd be easy prey for any grifter. But she has plenty of magic powers and tries her best to make sure the clients are satisified with the job she's done.

She befriends several people from the program which include Gota, a teen who didn't realize he had magic powers until his father admitted he gave up being a mage. His mother left saying she could not live with a liar and Gota was thrust into a world he knew nothing about. His magical abilities seem close to nil until Sora helps him out.

They also fall in love but Sora carries a secret.

SPOILER ALERT. DON'T READ BEYOND THIS POINT IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE PLOT TWIST

She is dying which explains the sometimes extreme reaction she has when she feels she has failed or not lived up to the client's request.

Sora graduates with the rest of her class, returns home to Biel and dies after she fulfills a promise she made to her dead father.

Gota finally visits her town years later wearing as a necklace the stone Sora gave him. The viewer is shown how the others have fared as well.

Some folks might just groan at this series and find something else packed with action or fanservice. Consider the show a snapshot into a girl's short but memorable life. Sora made her brief existence count by helping others or making them happy, For her, it was enough.

Everyone has a list of their favorite anime shows. That's a given. But do you have a list of the anime you consider so pedestrian, lame or terrible you wouldn't show them to you ex ever?

Lemme share my lame list. It's not in any order by the way.

1. "Bartender" - Show about a mixologist who can ease your troubles with a drink. Each episode comes with a history or story behind the cocktail du jour. Employs fourth wall techniques. Verdict: bleah and just plain boring

2. "Boys Be" - Tales of boys at school and the way they drool, pine for and leer at girls and women. Contains fanservice which means scenes where female characters inadvertently end up showing their underwear. Verdict: sexist and dumb

3. "Diamond Daydreams" - Show about the lives and loves of several women who reside or work in the nothern part of Japan. At times seems like an ad for certain locations. The character designs are among the ugliest I have ever seen. Memo to the show's animators: Go back to art school and learn how to draw. Then smack yourself for producing what amounts to nothing more than a disguised travel brochure.

4."Haunted Junction" - Kids from different religious backgrounds attend a haunted school with well-known ghosts from Japanese popular culture. Well they focus mostly on spectres Japanese school kids yak about such as the girl who haunts toilets. Verdict: A big mess. Supposed to be funny but is excruciating to watch. Has disturbing characters like a teen-aged girl overly fond of little boys. Gag.

5. "Gregory Horror Show" - MIni episodes about a mouse the unseen protagonist encounters in a place full of "scary" characters. The segments are too short and choppy. The characters are NOT scary at all since they are drawn simply. Think of wooden blocks then imagine them with faces and stubby appendages. The premise isn't bad but the animators faltered in the execution.

6. "Oh My Goddess" OVA - The first installment in a series that should have been buried long long ago. Geek meets one of the Nordic goddesses of fate. She ends up keeping house for him and falling for this very common guy. This show is nothing more than wish fulfillment for the guy who cannot get a date and still lives in his mom's basement. This tripe is an insult to any woman who can think for herself.

7. "Onegai Teacher" or "Please Teacher" - Half-human/half-alien lands on Earth and pretends to be a teacher to gather data on humans. Circumstances force her to marry one of her students. She looks like a well-endowed woman in her mid-20s. He is actually 18 but looks 15 because he was in a coma-like state for several years. They keep their marriage a secret and eventually fall in love.

Skip this so-called romantic show. If you have the DVDs, burn them and fumigate the room where these were kept. I found the relationship between the main characters disturbing and just wrong. The creator of this show should be ashamed for producing this putrid excuse for an anime. He or she deserves a flogging.

8. "Rahxephon" - Show where giant statues ( actually just prettier looking giant robots) wreak havoc in a walled-off world. Hero is a teen with a murky past. There is also a mysterious girl and a woman who is more than what she seems. Great animation, nice CGIs and compelling storyline at first. But I found the plot too convoluted for my taste and the pace of the show can be glacial at times. I couldn't finish this out of frustration and boredom.

9. "School Rumble" - HIgh school anime about a clueless girl, the guy she likes, the bad boy who loves her and their classmates. Typical show where someone can't tell the object of their affection how they feel because of certain reasons and circumstances. (e.g. the person they love just doesn't get it). Some people like this show. I don't. I got tired of the main characters' inability to confess their love.

10. "R.O.D." the TV series - Three sisters with the unusual ability to manipulate paper. They solve cases and are called paper masters for a good reason. One can create paper animals that do her bidding while another can fashion weapons out of paper. This is the tv spinoff of the popular "Read or Die" OVA about a bookworm who is really a special agent for the British.

The television show buchers certain characters in the original movie much to its detriment. The plot is more complex and folks double cross each other out of the blue. The series also runs too long and gets bogged down by the different subplots. This is one sorry spinoff to a decent, original movie.

Here's the opening song to "Ghost Hound" which hands down wins the award for best production values out of the slew of anime shows aired in Japan this fall. Thanks to a YouTuber by the name of "explodedrunes", I am able to show you the quality of the animation used for the series.

For some weird reason, I feel the need to dress all in black and snap my fingers a la Beatnik whenever I hear this song. I also dig the two-toned ghostly cat that passes by the hero. Cool.

Although the series makes me want to scratch my head sometimes with its talk about the subconscious, out of body experiences and the mysteries of the human mind. I don't remember signing up for a psych class when I opted to watch this show.

A wronged wife. A God with no worshippers. A cat monster haunting a family.

Three tales make up "Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales" which viewers of fansubs knew as "Ayakashi. Japanese Classic Horror Tales." If you are a fan of old Japanese ghost stories, this 11-episode show just might be your cup of tea.

It actually reminds me of the Japanese tales of the supernatural collected and retold by writer Lafcadio Hearn. Try reading his "Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things" or watch the movie of the same name and you'll know what I mean.

This is the Japan found in folklore where samurais walked the dusty streets and fox spirits pretending to be beautiful women bewitch unwary men. The show re-tells the well-known play, "Yotsuya Kaidan".

Oiwa gets dumped by her faithless husband Iemon for a younger woman. Not only that, she becomes disfigured when she drinks the "medicine" sent over by her next door neighbor who happens to be the grandfather of the young hussy eyeing Iemon.

Iemon is a masterless samurai who killed his father-in-law after the old man accused him of stealing from his former lord and demanded he stay away from his daughter, Oiwa. This scum in samurai form then pretended someone else killed Oiwa's father and promised to help her find the killer. Duh. Look in the mirror, buddy. He tells himself he did it to remain with the woman he loves.

But he soon resents Oiwa when he ends up making umbrellas for a living. And when the granddaughter of a rich neighbor makes goo goo eyes at him, he decides to get rid of his current wife. He orders a servant to rape and kill her.

Now hideous and abandoned, Oiwa dies. In the show she accidentally cuts her throat on a sword Iemon gave the servant. Her faithless husband isn't satisfied with this but has another servant killed. He has Oiwa and this man's bodies nailed on both sides of a door which is then flung into the river.

Oiwa comes back from the grave to haunt Iemon which leads him to kill his new wife and father-in-law. This version also has lots of hungry rodents a la that '70s horror flick, "Ben."

I didn't much care for "Tenshu Monogatari" which features a fallen God's love affair with a human and the fallout from such a relationship. They're a doomed couple. He has a wife. Her species eats people in order to survive.
No one else supports their love. You know how that is going to end.

The final tale is apparently an original story. "Bake Neko" is about a monster cat killing a family with more than its share of skeletons in the closet. A mysterious medicine seller with an unusual sword unravels the secret. But the family pays a heavy price for a sin committed in the past.

Each of the story is told in a different style. I liked the animation used for "Bake Neko" the most because it appealed to my artsy snooty side. Hey, at least I'm honest about being a pretentious twit now and then.

Apparently, I'm not the only one who enjoyed "Bake Neko." The unnamed medicine seller got his own show this season called, "Mononoke." I'm currently watching that and so far, I'm enjoying it. No fanservice here folks.

OK I admit I've been a tad bit tardy in updating this blog. Life and work have been getting in the way of my anime watching and yapping about anime-related subjects lately. Sorry. My online boss is probably going to bean me soon with my old copy of "Oh My Goddess" which I sneakily gave away to a friend and somehow he palmed it off on her. Muwahahaha. I detest that lame show for reasons too numerous to list.

I enjoy reading Zac Bertschy's column, "Answerman" for Anime News Network because he is funny and sometimes has an acerbic take on the anime business and its fandom. Just today I learned a new term from him. Seems those people who hang around the manga section of bookstores reading for hours and blocking other people's access are called "manga cows." They graze there all day. Get it?

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/answerman/2007-08-17

Was wandering around Fry's Electronics in Industry last weekend in search of bargain compact discs when I saw that the first volume of "Shonen Onmyouji" and "Mushi-shi" are out. I liked these shows when I saw the fansubs so I am definitely saving moolah to buy the licensed copies. I reviewed "Shonen" on Dec. 21, 2006 while I talked about how much I liked "Mushi-shi" on Jan. 29, 2007.

I included images of the offiicial DVD covers for both. These shows are worth a look. "Shonen" is entertaining enough for a boy's action anime with a dash of romantic interest for the girls. "Mushi-shi" is a keeper. It's in a class by itself - an unusual anime that doesn't fit the traditional anime genres and comes with its own mythos.