A cure for insomnia

I watched the first episode of Tales of the Abyss to see if there was a good reason for eight different groups to subtitle it.

It starts off with some mythology, introducing a planet made of the seven “fonons.” After the opener, which features a whole bunch of people (you’ll probably need a scorecard to keep them all straight as the series progresses), there’s some more mythology, some history, and prophecies involving a boy with red hair. It’s all very portentous but not particularly memorable.

Then we meet a kid with red hair. He’s a prince named Luke who doesn’t remember anything before he was six. He evidently doesn’t remember much else, either, providing the writers opportunities to dump yet more lumps of exposition into the story in the form of lectures and flashbacks. I suspect that the viewer is supposed to see him as a spirited youth frustrated at not being permitted to leave the palace grounds, but he comes across more as an insensitive lout. He apparently has two belly-buttons.

There are other people, of course: the old gardener he thoughtlessly insults, his servant and keeper, his swordsmanship teacher, his parents, his fiancée — none of whom show much promise of being more than clichés. And then there is Tear, whom I wish would visit me late at night. I am a chronic insomniac, and she can sing people and monsters instantly to sleep. Tear magically arrives at the palace, where she attacks Luke’s teacher. Luke intervenes, and when their blades meet, some kind of supernatural resonance builds up and sends the pair flying out into the hinterlands. It seems that Luke and Tear are both “seventh fons” (is Luke the seventh fon of a seventh fon?). There are monsters out there, which they easily and bloodlessly dispatch, and —

The hell with it. What we have here is another fantasy RPG adaptation of no particular distinction. It’s not terrible, but there’s nothing of interest in it. I can see one or two groups subbing the series for the fans of the game, but eight? It’s squandered effort.

*****

A bit of good news: the second episode of Macademi Wasshoi has finally been translated. It’s as frenetically silly as the first episode, albeit raunchier.

Poll results, and a new poll

28% of the voting visitors to this page would most like to see Denno Coil licensed (my choice, too, but I don’t vote in my polls). Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei came in second with 19%, followed by Potemayo with 14% and, Banner of the Stars III with 10%. The other shows, in order of decreasing votes, were Sailor Stars, Oh! Edo Rocket, Dirty Pair TV, Animal Yokocho, Magipoka, Alfred J. Kwak and Aishiteruze Baby. I was disappointed that nobody voted for Mind Game, a movie that deserves much more attention than it’s received.

And now, the new poll: which mahou shoujo has the best costume? Note that I’m not asking who is your favorite or is from the best show. I just want to know who you think has the best designer. ((Who makes the magical girls’ outfits, anyway? What does a girl do if her costume needs alterations? What happens if she needs to transform while her costume is at the cleaners?)) Also, the inclusion of a particular girl is not a recommendation of the relevant show. Some of the series are very good, e.g., Princess Tutu, but others are not so good, e.g., Pretty Cure.

The astute will notice the conspicuous absence of Sakura Kinomoto. This is for two reasons. First, she is not a typical mahou shoujo; i.e., she doesn’t transform ((Toward the end of Cardcaptor Sakura she does sprout wings, which can be regarded as a transformation, but she still wears Tomoyo’s costumes, not proper magical clothing.)) Second, Tomoyo’s creations are worth a poll in themselves someday.

Marionettes and obsolete spaces

Halloween is approaching, so here’s another list.

Creepy, scary anime

1. Denno Coil, episode 19 — The series becomes darker and more intense in its second half. This episode, in which Yasako and Fumie are besieged by “illegals” while Kyoko’s cyberbody wanders in an obsolete space, is surprisingly scary for a show that began so playfully.

2. Mushishi, episode 4 — All of the stories in Mushishi are strange. A few are nightmarish, like this one about dreams.

3. Divergence Eve, episode 8 — The series is creepy from beginning to end, and I could reasonably pick any episode for this list. The eighth has perhaps the eeriest scene, in which Leblanc gives Misaki a tour of a room with unsettling specimens.

4. Vampire Princess Miyu OVA, episode 2 — Do you like dolls?

5. Serial Experiments Lain, episode 12 — Alice visits Lain’s home.

6. Hakaba Kitaro, episode 3 — Forget carnivorous plants. How about a vampire tree?

Where “nerd” is a job title

From the Icelandic film Astropia, here is a brief apologia for anime. Flóki is a clerk at the titular comics/DVD/RPG shop and Hildur is the innocent new employee.

Flóki: Here we have Japanese Anime.

Hildur: Why aren’t they in the Asian section?

Flóki: Because I say so. They’re special cartoons. Some people like anime, but never watch Asian cinema. And vice-versa. Here we have some great titles, like My Neighbor Totoro, Akira, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ghost in the Shell.

Hildur: And grown-ups watch this?

Flóki: — Oh yeah. You’re just thinking of the Disneyfication of animation. Anime has much more to offer.They’re not all family films, but they respect their audience. They’re open-ended and multi-layered.

Disney has bought and hidden away many of the jewels of Anime to keep them from western audiences. To make a buck off The Lion Kingdom of the Mouse House.

Astropia is available for the reasonable price of $18.10. Unfortunately, shipping from Iceland is $32.99, so I hope that the film soon finds an American distributer.

Bonus link: My familiar is a purple snow leopard. The election as a RPG campaign. (Via Naked Villainy.)

My Saturday feeling

An early appearance of the leek in anime (Keroro Gunsou, episode 4a (2004)). This antedates “leekspin” by two years.

The anime I’m interested in is generally very different from the shows I used to watch on Saturday mornings many years ago. Serial Experiments Lain, for instance, has nothing in common with, say, Yogi Bear beyond being animated. ((Unless you count Lain’s pyjamas.)) Sometimes I’m in the mood for something silly and trivial, though, which brings me to my next list:

Anime like Saturday morning cartoons

Ramen Fighter Miki
Animal Yokocho
Galaxy Angel A and Z
Keroro Gunsou
The Adventures of Mini-Goddess

All of these consist of short episodes with no long-term narrative once all the main characters have been introduced. (Galaxy Angel makes no pretense of continuity at all.) They’re generally okay for kids. They are best taken in small doses; trying to marathon any of them results in indigestion. None of them approach the level of the best of Chuck Jones or Tex Avery, but they all compare favorably with the typical Hanna-Barbera offering. (The writing in Animal Yokocho approaches Moose and Squirrel level.)

Bonus list: Outstanding anime battles

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, episode ten (broadcast order) — one of the very few alleged “crowning moments of awesome” that actually is just that.

Denno Coil, episode four — defines “pwned,” except that the term will be obsolete slang in Isako’s day.

Seirei no Moribito, episode three — one of the rare conventional battle scenes that holds my attention …

… because, in general, fight scenes bore me. That’s why this list has only three items. I could add the fifth episode of Crest of the Stars and the last third of Banner to make five, but I think I’ll leave it at three.

Let’s see …

… If I counted correctly, there are three groups subbing Clannad –After Story–, Chaos;Head, Shikabane Hime and Ga-Rei Zero. Four are working on Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka and Tytania, five on Yozokura Quartet, six on Toradora! and eight on Tales of the Abyss. But apparently no one cares about the rest of Macademi Wasshoi.

*****

Let’s test this new poll thingy WordPress plugin.

The score so far, and dorks and damsels

Thumbs tentatively up:
Kannagi — Hoping that Hideyuki Kurata writes consistently well this time.
To Aru Majutsu no Index

Thumbs emphatically down:
Hakushaku to Yousei (Earl and Fairy) — There’s a vast literature about the collision of the human and faerie realms, from “Tam Lin” to Jonathan Strange. This promises to be the one of the lamest examples.
Kuroshitsuji — It could have been a decent horror series, but the stupid comedy kills it.

Decision pending second episode:
Macademi Wasshoi
Kurozuka — This could be spellbinding, or it could be a bloody mess. ((Kurozuka features the protean Romi Paku in yet another role completely unlike anything else I’ve seen her in, as usual. I would never have guessed that Nayuta, O-Ise, Haraken and Kuromitsu were all voiced by the same actress if I hadn’t looked at the cast lists.))
Chaos;Head — The usual description is Welcome to the N.H.K. as done by Satoshi Kon, and that’s about right. It could be a good creepy show if it doesn’t fall apart. It also could degenerate into a bloody mess.

Waiting for subs:
Mouryou no Hako — currently downloading
Michiko to Hatchin

Thus far this fall, nothing has gripped me like the first episode of Denno Coil.

Update: Okay, so I watched an episode of Hyakko. It may be comedy gold, but I didn’t smile once.

*****

I almost never see movies in theaters. The last one was Persepolis (recommended) back in February. This is partly because it’s a blasted nuisance for me to get to the cinema and back, but mainly because few films that do make it to Wichita look even slightly interesting. Nevertheless, there are some out there that I would like to see. For instance, Astropia. Faintheart is another. Will they play in Wichita? I doubt it.

$230,000

Nick did a little research into the production costs of several movies. If his figures are accurate, what’s astonishing is not how much Princess Mononoke cost but how little Five Centimeters Per Second and Perfect Blue did.

*****

Since Amaenaideyo!! has been licensed, I dropped it from the poll at right. It makes little difference; it only received one vote of the seventy-one cast so far.