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I need to watch it again to make sure that there aren’t any paradoxes left dangling and that the writers didn’t cheat at the end, but one thing is clear: it is every bit as good as it is said to be. I doubt that I’ll see a better movie this year. The story is interesting and the central characters are three-dimensional. The production may not be as glossy as a Studio Ghibli epic, but it’s more than adequate, and the script and the acting are first-rate. I will be astonished (and appalled) if TokiKake isn’t quickly licensed, and I hope that whoever does bring it over makes an effort to market it to all audiences, not just anime fans.

Wabi Sabi comments on some of the motifs here (spoilers).

Here’s a curiosity I noticed. I wonder if it was intentional.

Now would someone please translate the book.

*****

It turns out that TokiKake is not an adaptation of the novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui but is a “continuation” of it, set twenty years later. The protagonist of the novel appears in the movie as “Aunt Witch.”

Here’s Yasutaka Tsutsui’s site. It includes a profile that I hope is misleadingly pretentious and English translations of some of his short stories.

Bishoujo Celeb Panchanne is a live-action mahou shoujo spoof in which a former magical girl, now a happily married mother, is persuaded by a rather seedy kami-sama to wear the short skirt again. I’ve only seen the raw for the first episode, so I don’t know what the silly/stupid ratio is, but it looks quite cheesy, as Pixy observed. It’s also very low budget: the alien space ship looks curiously like the device I use to steam peas and corn. It does feature one element of realism missing from every other mahou shoujo show I’ve seen: we get to see Panchanne’s costume designed and constructed. ((Cardcaptor Sakura is a special case, and I don’t think we ever actually see Tomoyo sewing.)) (She still undergoes the usual magical transformation when it’s time to face the monster of the week.)

Very quick first impression: I just watched the first episode of Toward the Terra. It’s potentially first-rate, but I’m reminded strongly of RahXephon. This is not necessarily bad. The first half of RahXephon had some serious flaws ((The most annoying was the profound incuriosity of the protagonist, who never asked the obvious questions.)) but was quite watchable, even with the damned mecha. It did eventually collapse into pretentious twaddle, though. I hope the people behind Toward the Terra have thought their story through.

Wabi Sabi has begun a weblog devoted to Toward the Terra that might be a useful resource.

The closing song is just enough like Pachelbel’s “Canon” to be seriously irritating.

Some comments on what I’ve recently watched.

Claymore — The first episode features the grossest scene I’ve endured since the first Alien movie. There isn’t anything as grotesque in the second episode, but it’s no milder. Houko Kuwashima departs from her characteristic role as an emotionless girl by playing an emotionless woman (well, half-woman). ((Kuwashima is a versatile actress, but about half her roles are silent, withdrawn characters, notably Kirika Yuumura. She does them well, but I like her better when she plays vivacious women such as Shuurei in Saiunkoku Monogatari.)) Despite my distate for gore and horror, I’m curious to see what kind of story emerges in the series. I’ll continue watching as long as it doesn’t try too hard to gross me out.

El Cazador de la Bruja — Thus far, the most interesting show of the spring, and I definitely will be following it. The challenge for me will be to not constantly compare it to Noir. There are many similarities — it’s the third of Koichi Mashimo’s informal girls-with-guns trilogy — but Ryoe Tsukimura is not involved this time and I don’t expect the overwhelming intensity of the earlier series. What I do expect is a complicated plot involving conspiracies within conspiracies, and a lighter, occasionally humorous tone in this tale of Maxwell’s Demon in Latin America. I hope Mashimo can pull it off without too egregiously violating the laws of physics and probability.

Hayate no Gotoku, or Hayate, the Combat Butler — The English title is the best part of the show. The series itself is lightweight, formulaic comedy, entertaining and nothing more. It’s not good enough to pay money for should it be licensed, so I’ll probably skip the rest of it.

Kami-chama Karin — I think of Koge Donbo as the cheerful Japanese counterpart of Margaret Keane. Her art is off the scale on the kawaii meter. Unfortunately, she’s not as good a storyteller as she is an artist. Kami-chama Karin is her idea of a mahou shoujo story. The principals are cute, but I get very irritated with them. Novice goddess Karin doesn’t ask the questions she should, and Kazune, who should be her coach and mentor, is more likely to lose his temper than explain what she needs to know. If you need a kawaii fix, watch Sugar again instead.

Murder Princess is potentially good, lurid fun, and I’m impatiently waiting for the second episode. Monster Princess, on the other hand, is just trashy.

William Shakespeare:

Animal Yokocho

Naoko Takeuchi:

Hayate no Gotoku — also most financial institutions I’ve had to deal with

Addendum: Here’s the clip.

Kansas, according to L. Frank Baum:

When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothing but the great gray prairie on every side. Not a tree nor a house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached to the edge of the sky in all directions. The sun had baked the plowed land into a gray mass, with little cracks running through it. Even the grass was not green, for the sun had burned the tops of the long blades until they were the same gray color to be seen everywhere. Once the house had been painted, but the sun blistered the paint and the rains washed it away, and now the house was as dull and gray as everything else.

When Aunt Em came there to live she was a young, pretty wife. The sun and wind had changed her, too. They had taken the sparkle from her eyes and left them a sober gray; they had taken the red from her cheeks and lips, and they were gray also. She was thin and gaunt, and never smiled now. When Dorothy, who was an orphan, first came to her, Aunt Em had been so startled by the child’s laughter that she would scream and press her hand upon her heart whenever Dorothy’s merry voice reached her ears; and she still looked at the little girl with wonder that she could find anything to laugh at.

Uncle Henry never laughed. He worked hard from morning till night and did not know what joy was. He was gray also, from his long beard to his rough boots, and he looked stern and solemn, and rarely spoke.

Kansas, according to Oz no Mahou Tsukai:

I’ve lived in Kansas for the larger portion of my life, and I’ve never seen Baum’s grey Kansas. During tornado season (March through June), it’s mostly green. Although joyless grey people do exist in the plains states, they can be found anywhere. They’re not specifically prairie phenomena.

Here is a more representative Kansas farm couple:

Only the first episode of Oz no Mahou Tsukai (1986) has been subtitled. It’s watchable but not outstanding. If a group decides to fansub the remaining 51 episodes, I’ll probably download them for my nephews and nieces, but if they remain untranslated, it will be no great loss.

Between banging out old tunes on the dulcimer and fixing my bike, I did find time to watch a few odds and ends this week.

Because of Pete’s advocacy, I watched the first two episodes of Manabi Straight again. Maybe I will view the rest, after all. The girls still look way too young, but you become inured to that, and while they act younger than high school students should, so do most high school students. I don’t know that I will like the show as much as Pete does, but I can say that it is more genuinely funny than Lucky Star.

I came across a subtitled “screener” of Paprika. I hope it gets a proper theatrical release in America, because this is one movie you definitely want to see on the big screen if at all possible. It’s a spectacular trip. How good it is, I haven’t decided. My snap judgment is that it’s very good, but the whole is less than the sum of its parts. Some of those parts are amazing, though, and Paprika is never less than entertaining at any time.

Both Paprika and Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo are based on stories by Yasutaka Tsutsui. I’m curious about him, so my most recent Amazon.com order included Salmonella Men on Planet Porno. It will give me something to read while I’m waiting for the movies. (Nick will be pleased to learn that I also ordered The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow.)

I watched the second episode of Lucky Star. It was a little better than the first, but I’m still underwhelmed. I’ve never seen Seinfeld, so I don’t know how valid that comparison is, but it’s clearly inferior to Azumanga Daioh. AD gave us four memorable characters — Chiyo, Osaka, Sakaki and Yomi (six if you count Tomo and Yukari, but I’d like to forget them) — but Lucky Star features only one of any interest, Konata. One good character would be sufficient if the jokes were funny, and maybe they are, but for me they never rise above mildly amusing. Perhaps this is actually a brilliant show and I’m revealing one of my blind spots, but I probably won’t bother watching any more.

Classic Shakespearean wit

Romeo x Juliet may well be the most insane adaptation of Shakespeare ever made. I’d love to show this to an English literature class; it is so utterly wrong that anyone familiar with the play will be gasping for breath from laughing. I could list some of the more bizarre innovations and infelicities, but I don’t want to spoil anyone’s fun. Watch it and see if you can keep from snorting.

*****

I probably won’t post much for the rest of the week. Barry the flutist, Richard the bodhran player and I will be celebrating Shakespeare’s Birthday with English country dances and other old tunes this Saturday, and I need to practice. If you’re in the Wichita area, you can hear us at the Delano Book Company at 811 W. Douglas between 11 a.m. and noon.