Reviewed this week: Aria the Origination 6, Clannad 17, Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino 5, Kaiji 17-18, Koutetsu Sangokushi 23-5, Minami-ke Okawari 6, Mnemosyne 1, Mokke 15, SaiMono II 35, Shigofumi 5, Shion no Ou 15, Sketchbook 12, Spice and Wolf 6

…and in manga: Loveless 9.3-5, Moyashimon 1, Shion no Ou 1-12, Spice and Wolf 5, Twin Spica 6-7

ANIME

CURRENT SERIES RANKINGS

1. Aria the Origination (1) – the Single life
2. Spice and Wolf (2) – wolf in the sewers
3. Kaiji (5) – ざわ, ざわ…
4. SaiMono II (4) – Ran clan
5. Shigofumi (3) – Schrödinger the cat
6. Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (6) – mind-altering drug
7. Persona Trinity Soul (8)- Mushi-Uta’s successor
8. Shion no Ou (12) – die, Satoru!
9. Minami-ke Okawari (7)- not quite the same
10. Gunslinger Girl- Il teatrino (10)- Marco
11. Clannad (11) – drop kick
12. Mokke (13)- rainy season

SLOW RANKINGS

1. Sketchbook ~full color’S~ (-) – lots of cats
2. Tetsuko no Tabi (1)- is this ever going to be subbed?
3. Sisters of Wellber (2) – predictable but fun
4. Himawari!! (3) – needs less plot
5. Shounen Onmyouji (4)- mediocre
6. Love GetChu! (5)- light entertainment
7. Koutetsu Sangokushi (6) – purely ridiculous <-complete!

Aria the Origination 6: How does the perfect Alicia-san deal with Akari’s mistakes and clumsiness? It’s a question that Alice wants to know the answer to, but will spying on the goddess of perfection give any clues? Whatever the case, the results make for entertaining and President Aria-filled viewing, although things continually going wrong for Akari at the beginning seemed a bit of a back step- over these last few episodes we’ve seen her start to mature and grow up, so to have her being all clumsy and ditzy is a bit disappointing.

“I’ll get you this time, Aria-shachou!”

Clannad 17: It’s a fusion of storylines this week as we switch from Kyou/Ryou to Tomoyo in the space of an episode, whilst Nagisa drops out for a while due to illness. Unfortunately, I’m at the stage where I only want to see Nagisa’s storyline, so this filler-ish episode didn’t really do much for me- it passes the time, but achieves little more.

Gunslinger Girl –Il Teatrino 5: This episode covers a manga chapter I read a while ago, in which Marco’s ex-girlfriend Patricia teams up with a reporter to find the truth behind the Social Welfare Agency. As you’ll have heard me say quite often by now, the manga already did it better, and the need to ‘recap’ Artland’s version of flashback scenes that Madhouse already did better didn’t really help the pacing at all.

Kaiji 17-18: After having to go without it for a bit, Kaiji and E-card are back with a vengeance, and our intrepid hero seems determined to risk his eardrum against the unflappable Tonegawa. Unfortunately, Kaiji can’t seem to gain the edge in this psychological battle, making for a white knuckle ride as that pin moves ever closer to his eardrum. Narrative convention says that Kaiji must ultimately triumph, but right now that seems a distant dream- and all we can do is wait impatiently to see what happens next.

*COMPLETE* Koutetsu Sangokushi 23-5: At last the HARD GAY nightmare has ended, with Lu Xun inevitably defeating both the Liu Bei dragon and the evil meteor that was about to destroy the world (no, I’m not getting my shows mixed up). Of course, by this point, no ridiculousness seemed too much, with the writers indulging their desires to write some sort of sentai/Otome style conclusion. All I can say is that I will enjoy reviewing this.

Minami-ke Okawari 6: It’s a snowy day in the Minami neighbourhood, which means the girls are stuck at home- not too bad a prospect, perhaps, if not for the fact that they have no electricity, no gas and only odds and ends to eat. Again, this episode doesn’t really inspire the love that the first season did, not least because of the focus on dull new character Fuyuki- let’s get back to the personalities that enlivened the first season.

*NEW* Mnemosyne 1: I’d like to post a fangirl alert here, because to my surprise, I totally fell in love with Mnemosyne after just one 45 minute episode. With everything from a fat cat to Alias style action, Mnemosyne would have been strong under any circumstances, but to cap it all off we have Asogi Rin, a lead with looks, attitude and invulnerability- I love her already. The animation is also so slick that you won’t even hear me complaining about fanservice and ‘evil’ nipples- just bring me episode two.

Mokke 15: It’s the rainy season, and Shizuru is feeling depressed because at this time of year she can see even more supernatural phenomena than ever. It’s this kind of miserable attitude that typifies the series as a whole, but at least by the end Shizuru learns to cheer up a little, and maybe we can hope that that’s a good sign for the future

Saiunkoku Monogatari II 35: The series picks up again in this episode, as we delve into Jyuusan-hime’s tragic past, meet another character in the form of the Ran province governor and see Ryuuki get depressed as he wonders if he is worthy enough to be king. With all these threads being woven in, it is rather sad to realise that there are only four episodes left, but without any new novel material until May, this is the way it has to be.

Ryuuren shows off this spring’s new fashions.

Shigofumi 5: In a rather bizarre turn of events, both Fumika and fellow mail carrier Chiaki are assigned to deliver a Shigofumi to a cat in this episode, something even I, as a cat lover, wouldn’t bother to do (like the cat even cares about you when you’re no longer able to feed it). I’m also a little weary of cats being named Schrödinger- trust me, once you’ve studied many-particle quantum mechanics, such jokes lose their sheen.

Anyway, light feline stories aside, the episode does provide more insights into Fumika’s Kanon-esque situation, leading to a solid episode if not one that can recapture that brilliant opening arc (can anything?).

Shion no Ou 15: This sort of shogi-filled episode is exactly why I’m watching Shion no Ou, and so I have no complaints about watching the tense match between Shion and her father. When the series focuses on shogi rather than the murder case, I find myself becoming addicted to it as I once did to Hikaru no Go, ensuring that I continue to crave more- and the icing on the cake this week was that Satoru actually got ‘pwned’ by Shion’s father, which always guarantees satisfaction.

Sketchbook ~full color’S 12: In the penultimate episode of the series Sora and her friends head into the city to buy art supplies, and whilst they all invest in new sketchbooks, Sora can’t help thinking about the dynamics of brother-sister relationships. Again, the series tries a little too hard to achieve what Aria can accomplish without any apparent effort, but this is the kind of inoffensively enjoyable episode that the word ‘nice’ was made for.

Spice and Wolf 6: When Horo and Lawrence reach a dead end in the sewers, there’s only one thing for our heroine to do- switch to her immense wolf form. Just as Horo craves apples, so do I crave more and more from this series, and whilst this wasn’t my favourite episode thus far, I still greatly enjoyed it. We can’t be halfway through already- I refuse to believe it.

MANGA

Loveless vol 9 chapters 3-5: After a couple of chapters of downtime in which Soubi and Ritsuka kick back and visit a shrine for the New Year, the latest chapter gets the main story back on track, revealing the names of the Septimal Moon members (not that it means much), and preparing the story to move ahead. Ritsuka wants to forgive Seimei and bring him home, but can everything his brother’s done really be erased that easily?

*NEW* Moyashimon 1: The time has come to pick up Moyashimon, although as I suspected, the first chapter of the manga is basically the same as what we saw in the first episode of the anime- albeit with rougher artwork (the hairstyles in particular seem oddly amateur). Even so, the temptation with this manga, as with so many others, is to eventually move past what we saw in this anime and breach original territory.

*CATCH-UP* Shion no Ou 1-12: As with Moyashimon above, the Shion no Ou manga has proven to be largely the same as the anime, with these first two volumes taking us up to Satoru’s introduction to the story. Nonetheless, whilst I am in the grip of my odd addiction to this series, having the manga to read will help with the cravings.

Spice and Wolf 5: The manga continues to follow the same course as the anime in this chapter, which covers the sale of the marten/ermine furs and the beginning of the silver coin investigation. Of course, with the beautiful artwork and some additional summary pages talking about the original novels, I have no intention of complaining about covering the same material again.

Twin Spica 6-7: Volume two continues apace as Asumi settles down in space school, only to attract the attention of the evil teacher ‘Beruze’- quite possibly my least favourite aspect of the series. We’re still deep within anime territory, but as it’s been a while since I watched it, that’s no big problem.

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A while ago I reviewed the Loveless anime, and whilst it undoubtedly had potential, something about it didn’t sit right with me- I wanted to spend long enough in the world of the series to explore both the setting and the characters, and twelve episodes just wasn’t long enough to do that. In the hopes of getting a better grasp on what the creator was trying to achieve, I decided to turn to the manga, and in due course, the first eight volumes had duly been devoured (in a non-literal sense, of course).

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Delving into the original version of the story, however, was to be an equally mixed experience, for whilst there was no doubt that I had enjoyed what I read, at the same time, it wasn’t enough- I needed more. The story has continued to gain momentum since what we saw at the end of the anime, but with the end still nowhere in sight, the series leaves the reader desperate to see how it is all going to turn out.

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A tale that explores both relationship dynamics and the power of words- sprinkled with a healthy dose of fantasy- Loveless never really bothers to explain why its world is the way it is, instead using its unique setting to better tell its story. This lack of explanation was one of the things that frustrated me when watching the anime, but now that the manga has enhanced my appreciation for the series, it seems less important- like Saikano, the explanation behind the setting is less important than the character interaction that takes place therein. And such interaction is truly what the series is about, with its portrayal of everything from pure-hearted, innocent love to dangerous, twisted obsessions. Is love about attaining someone’s unquestioning devotion, about moulding them into your ideal, or just accepting them as they are? The ‘right’ answers may seem obvious, but with so many different types of relationship employed in the series, it becomes fascinating to watch how they all evolve.

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As mentioned above, words are themselves a potent force in the series, a theme that is most noticeable in the spell battles where Fighters cast spells by picking the words, but one that permeates throughout. Obviously words are going to have a de facto degree of power in any story that relies on them as its medium, but Loveless elevates this to something more, once again providing something to think about as the series again and again demonstrates the power of even a simple phrase. As the characters themselves remark at times, a particular choice of words at a particular time can make all the difference to the outcome of a situation- and equally important is the intent behind those words. It’s a simple point, of course, but one that the series uses to great effect- especially as these days stock phrases tend to get bandied about in favour of words carefully chosen for maximum effect.

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Given that the series is all about relationships, it comes as no surprise that it succeeds or fails on the strength of its characters. At the centre of the story are Ritsuka and Soubi- one a sixth-grader who has lost both his memory and his brother, and who is in desperate need of the emotional support his abusive mother cannot give, the other an adult who seems suave and self-sufficient on the outside, but is equally needy within. Both they and the various supporting characters have issues to be dealt with over the course of the series, but somehow it never feels too much- rather than groaning at yet another tragic back story, a firm injection of lighter hearted material ensures that when the serious stuff comes along, you sympathise with those involved.

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In the anime, the visuals were Loveless’ strong point, and unsurprisingly the original manga is no different, showcasing Yun Kouga’s skill at creating attractive character designs. The use of animal ears and tail to indicate which characters retain their virginity may seem like an excuse to please the furries, but it actually proves to be an interesting device, with every extreme from an adult who has yet to lose hers to a child who lost his at far too young an age. In the real world, such things happen (or don’t happen, as the case may be) behind closed doors, but here the deed is effectively public knowledge.

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Final Thoughts\r\nAfter a degree of disappointment with the anime, the Loveless manga was just what I needed to rekindle my interest with the franchise. Much more than a boys’-love-fest, Loveless gives us an insight into relationships, loneliness and all the different types of love, whilst wrapping it up in some eye-catching artwork. It will be interesting to see where the mangaka takes the story from here.

Part I: Wu

Lu Xun: The main character, young, good-looking and virile. Having been taught by the great Zhuge Liang himself, he knows of many techniques, but he doesn’t seem to take the hint when approached by potential lovers.

Sun Ce: A rough and powerful lover, his skills are enhanced by the Lord’s Cube.

Sun Quan: A gentle, effeminate lover- prefers to be submissive.

Taishi Ci: Another rough and direct lover, prefers to use Axe. Not for those who prefer a man with a bit of finesse.

Ling Tong: An enthusiastic if not especially skilled partner, recommended only as a last resort if you can’t get anyone else.

Ling Cao: A solid and knowledgeable lover.

Lu Meng: Although he seems tentative and shy in the bedroom, Lu Meng shows some worthy Spear work once he loosens up. Beware when seducing him, as Taishi Ci considers himself to have first claim.

Zhang Zhao: An older advisor, experienced but not a particularly worthy lover.

Huang Gai: Another older lover; lack of action may have made him rusty, but with the right man his talents will blossom once again.

Gan Ning: Zhou Yu’s bitch; know for his tendency to devote himself to a single master. Show him some new techniques, and he will be putty in your hand.

Zhou Yu: One of the most HARD GAY men of the age, his Flute skills are second to none. Known for choosing his lovers carefully, he refuses to be anything other than dominant, and will not accept that there is anyone larger than him. Proceed with caution to avoid bruising his ego.

Zhou Tai: Quite possibly the long lost brother of Kanbe from Samurai 7; another older lover who is solid yet out of practice.

Zhuge Jin: A dominant lover who is skilled in the ways of Claw and Thread. Sleep with him if you wish, but be aware that he will manipulate his lovers in all sorts of way in return for Pleasure.

Lu Su: Although young and enthusiastic, Lu Su has only a Dagger and so may not prove the most satisfying experience in the bedroom. He also has the embarrassing tendency to shout out “Zhuge Liang!” no matter who he is sleeping with.

Join us next week for parts 2-3, covering Wei and Shu!

This Week in Anime

Forget Big Brother- Pizza Hut is always watching you.

“…HORSE!”

“Come to me, you big stallion!”

“Is this enough fruit for you?”

“Oh no, a yellow thing is kissing a grape!”

“Now let’s all eat some fruit!”

“Hey, when’s Akagi going to show up?”

“Fast food- you are hereby placed under arrest by the healthy fruit federation!”

“Now, Lu Xun, let me demonstrate the correct hold for the tango.”

Anime World Tour: Dennou Coil

Welcome to a future where virtual reality is literally everywhere! For a small investment in a pair of special glasses, you can see and interact with a virtual overlay of the real world. Invest in a cute cyber pet, send e-mails and phone calls to your friends and generally enjoy this next step of the internet, all for a reasonable price! Please note, however, use of illegal hacking items and encodes is strongly discouraged, whilst we would like to dispel any alarm caused by false rumours of dangerous obsolete spaces and virus programs. Rest assured that if you do see anything out of the ordinary, those in authority already know about it and will be working to correct the problem.

Mini-editorial: Recovering the spark of the early days

Veteran anime fans, join me for a moment in remembering the times when anime was new and exciting. In those times, just the sight of anime style designs was a noteworthy event, and there was something almost magical about the vast and largely unexplored world of anime- one which surely must contain the series we’d always hoped for and dreamed of in its depths.

Unfortunately, as time passes and one becomes more familiar with both anime and manga, that initial spark inevitably tends to wear away. Anime is commonplace, even overabundant, to the point where one becomes finicky, critical and less likely to try any old series that comes their way. Old series that were once cherished are now deleted or sold, and the excitement of the early days seems entirely absent. Now, I’ve already discussed the “evolution” of a fan’s relationship with anime in previous Tuesday Rumbles, but one thing I haven’t touched on is how to recover- however briefly- the feelings of embarking on something new and exciting. And since waiting for an ultimate series like Dennou Coil to come along and re-energise the old enthusiasm is something of a hit and miss venture, alternate methods must be found.

Perhaps the best way to briefly feel the magic once again is simply to try something new within the vast boundaries of one’s hobby. Visit blogs and take note of the writers’ favourite anime and manga- especially if they are titles you’ve barely heard of. If anime doesn’t inspire you, move onto manga, and if even that won’t do, try some Japanese RPGs. It may only be a temporary measure to appease a jaded palette, but even the briefest return to those simple times when you didn’t know enough to argue about the deeper symbolism of ef or analyse the characters of SaiMono must be a welcome respite.

Harem of the week: Aoyagi Ritsuka (Loveless)

He lost his memory and worried that he wasn’t the real Ritsuka, but that didn’t stop him inadvertently charming all those around him.

Harem

Aoyagi Seimei: Ritsuka’s apparently deceased brother; seemed rather close to his younger sibling and is quoted as saying he needs only a world with himself and Ritsuka.

Agatsuma Soubi: Seimei’s Fighter, now passed onto Ritsuka- the seductive older man.

Yuiko: The optimistic if none too bright classmate.

Osamu: A side story character and childhood friend.

Shoko: Ritsuka’s psychologist, wishes she was younger so that she could be closer to Ritsuka.

Rivals

Kio: Soubi’s friend- wishes Soubi would concentrate on him instead of chasing children.

Yayoi: Another classmate, he likes Yuiko even though she rejected him, and sees Ritsuka as a rival.

Amusing Search Terms

Nightmare Flames: Burn in heck!

FF7 Red XIII with tifa hentai: It disturbs me that I have a feeling I’ve seen something along these lines.

code geass hentai dougin: In the words of Google, “Did you mean code geass hentai doujin?”

how to keep yourself from being ideal in: I’m too perfect! Tell me how to act flawed!

manga diaper movie: This worries me.

how does harukanaru toki no naka de end?: Poorly.

friends forever(anime): We’ll be friends forever…wait, who are you?

blindfold anime episodes: Some episodes are better when watched whilst blindfolded, I find.

Amusing Spam

“Hello, my name is Gudvin, I like yours blog.”

Thank you, Gudvin.

“fsoft…

It can many times get wearisome to extract the acceptable grannycinema data from the poor….”

The idea of “grannycinema” both perplexes and scares me.

Aoyagi Ritsuka is a sixth-grader with more than his fair share of problems. His older brother is dead, he can’t remember anything from beyond two years ago, and thanks to the personality change caused by his amnesia, his own mother no longer thinks of him as the ‘real’ Ritsuka. Given the situation, he is understandably wary of making new friends- until a fateful meeting with an older man named Agatsuma Soubi. As a curious bond grows between the pair, Ritsuka finds himself dragged into a world where names are bonds, words are spells, and reality and fantasy are only a hair’s breadth apart…

Even though pretty much everyone else from yaoi fangirls to the casually interested seems to have watched Loveless by now, as a title I was eternally going to investigate later, it took a while to finally get around it- and when I did, it was something of a mixed experience. Yes, it had a certain visual flair and various intriguing elements, but when it came down to it- what exactly was going on?

Admittedly, the series was at a disadvantage in having to draw from an unfinished manga, but even so, it cannot help but feel like only being given the second book in the trilogy- you don’t really understand how things came to be as they are, and you never get to see a proper conclusion. And this is a world that certainly needs explanation, for whilst the fact that its members possess cat ears and a tail until they lose their virginity is something you just have to accept, there are many other things which are harder to swallow. For reasons which are never made clear, couples who usually share the same ‘true name’ are part of a battle system where one acts a Fighter, casting spells on their opponents with words, whilst the other is the Sacrifice, taking the damage inflicted on their Fighter. Aside from the disappointment of never really working out what the point of this whole system is or what the majority of its Fighters are actually trying to achieve, the battles themselves prove to be far less interesting than they sound, with simplistic animation and lacklustre execution. What exactly is this battle system anyway? How does one become a Fighter or Sacrifice? These are questions which are not even addressed, let alone answered.

Sadly, this is a pattern which is repeated for character development, in which we get glimpses of a character’s motivations and back story, and yet rarely receive the full explanations needed to make them seem more like properly developed personalities than arbitrary plot devices. Fortunately, in this area at least, we can start to uncover some of the true potential of the Loveless world, starting with Ritsuka himself. Thanks to his memory loss and subsequent personality change, Ritsuka believes that he is just a placeholder for his true self, and that ‘making memories’ is more about collecting physical evidence such as photographs than relying on unreliable and inconsistent memories- even if there is no feeling behind the content of those photographs. At home, his mother alternates between almost manically reaching out to her son to violently turning against him if he acts in a manner that the ‘real’ Ritsuka would not have done, and so it is only through his outside interactions with Soubi and classmates that Ritsuka is able to once again appreciate the value of building proper friendships. Even some of the less developed supporting characters give us something to think about, from the twenty-three year old teacher who has yet to lose her ears (an apt example of the consequences of having your first time essentially be public knowledge) to the various Fighter-Sacrifice partnerships and the relationships between them (an apt collection of HARD GAY and HARD YURI).

The one place where Loveless truly excels, however, is its visuals, with a range of beautiful character designs that are only accentuated by the frequent presence of cat ears and tail. Backgrounds are far more basic and unobtrusive, but this simply helps them not to overshadow the characters themselves.

Final Thoughts
Although it whetted my appetite with its superior character designs and story potential, in the end, Loveless’ appeal came more from what it could have delivered than what it actually gave us. Perhaps the manga can deliver a more satisfying version of the story.