Otakuism

Now you’re 3X more likely to be caught with child porn manga at customs. But, hey, at least your luggage will look cool while they drag you off. Official information here.

Well, not really.

So the Japanese Government has sent a request to the U.S. to help stop the distribution of fansubbed anime. While we’ve heard these kind of threats from companies before, never the government. Then again, since anime is the single thing Japan is bettting its future on, it is in their right to control their own copyright. I’ll just wait and see what comes of this, whether it will grow out of proportion like Odex or just die off like so many other threats of copyright enforcement. Knowing my dear government’s record on enforcing its own copyright, let’s just see how effectual they are at enforcing another country’s.

Story:

Seven Years ago a meteorite hit Shibuya, bringing with it the mysterious and deadly Worm — aliens who kill humans and assume their identities. To fight them ZECT was formed and armed with the Mask Rider System, humanities greatest weapon against the Worm. Tendou Souji is the self-proclaimed ruler of all and possessor of the Kabuto Zecter, even though he is not a part of ZECT. Kagami Arata is a lower member of ZECT with a burning passion to destory all Worm after one killed his little brother. Him and Tendou form a begrudging friendship and fight together to protect the world from the Worm, along with several other friends, Riders, and unlikely allies.

Impressions:

If you’ve ever wanted to start watching Kamen Rider, then Kabuto is a great place to start. It’s a fun and wild ride that rarely loses pace, which is a big thing for a 49 episode series. The characters are all interesting and each have their own little quirks to set them apart and make you care for them, whether it be Kagami’s reactions, Tendou’s arrogance, or Gon’s cuteness. The story is also pretty good, but starts to fall apart by the end. A few plotholes remain, some questions are given half-assed answers, and some developments just leave you saying “what?” Fortunately the characters are still there to help things along.

From a cinematic viewpoint Kabuto is perfect. Several episodes can reach a quality that makes you forget you’re watching just a tv show. There’s a liberal use of CG, but hardly ever obtrusive to take away from the viewing experience (unlike, say, recent efforts by Heroes to show foreign locations). The fight scenes are all choreographed to be dynamic and exciting to watch. While not as technical as GARO’s fights, they’re a step well above Den-O’s pathetic battles. Some great finishing attacks also help things. Tendou really does become overpowered by the end of the show, but things still look very cool.

In the end Kabuto is still a show made for kids, so the good bit of drama is often balanced by some really wacky humor. A lot of it is kind of “wtf? Why am I laughing at this?” but it’s still amusing in its own way. Kabuto should be a definite watch for any Kamen Rider or Tokusatsu fan, or those looking to get into the genre. It’s not deep but it doesn’t have to be; it’s a fun ride straight to the end. For some long term goals I’m now either going to watch Dancougar, the original one from the eighties, or the Gaiking remake, depening on if I can find Dancougar’s torrent. I’ll also be following TV-Nihon’s rerelease of Kamen Rider 555 for my KR fix. Loving it from episode 1 already.

First thought that comes to mind: how the hell can that thing fly? I know it’s wrong to ask realistic questions in gundam, but really, that’s beyond ridiculous. The Tieren vs. Exia battle was cool, though. It’s nice to see the more experienced pilots fight on almost even ground with Setsuna. Give them some better suits and I bet they could win. Speaking of technology, the Ptolemoais’ (know I spelled that wrong) is set up really stupid. Why have your mobile suit carrier only be useful when there are suits in it, thus limiting your mission operating manpower? Is it that hard to give the ship a damn GN drive? Apparently Aeolia Schenberg didn’t think of that back in the 21st century when he made all this sci-fi technology. Oh, and using your enemies orbital elevator to move your incredibly valuable mobile suit is brilliant. The brilliance just stuns me.

A lot more politicizing this episode with more highlights of current conflicts in the future. Most prominent is IRA terrorism in Northern Ireland. This one seemed a bit of a stretch seeing how IRA signed a peace treaty a while ago and there’s now a joint government in office. Though, this is the Real IRA so they could become a threat in the future. I imagine something like Britian dragging along Northen Ireland into the AEU and some people getting pissed at that. Actually, I’m still wondering how Britain itself joined the AEU. Must of been some huge energy crisis to get the Continent-hating Brits to join the EU. As for the Union, every British PM after Bush probably had to swear to never work with America again.

Then there’s the civil war in South Africa which hasn’t happened yet, but since this is Africa will probably happen at some point. Especially if the chaos from Zimbabwe spills over the border, which it kind of already has. And then there’s the fake county of Talivia, which in all likely cases is probably some derivative of Columbia or Bolivia. Bolivia would probably be dumb enough to have its entire drug production in a single area. You would have to nuke all of Columbia to get rid of its drug production. By the 24th century I would imagine we would of moved on from cocaine to virtual reality addiction and synthetic drugs delivered straight into the brain, but that’s just me.

Now it’s time for me to throw out some more crazy predictions. After all, what else is a blog good for? There was a lot of talk of space colony development this episode. so I’m betting by the second half of the series we’ll have a full fledge space colony operational, finally adding that gundam staple to the mix. Also, Tiera will quit Celestial Being and join with the space colonists or whatever terrorist organization they spawn. Cause, one, the guy loves space, and, two, despite the gay design his whole personality screams EVIL. Much like Aeolia Schernberg’s design. Hell, he’ll probably try to control the space colony for all I know. Now that’s enough conspiracy theorizing for this week.

Oh, and OH GOD WANG IS HAWT!

Reiji Nogi is one badass Worm. The guy oozes awesomeness. He carries a cane for no reason and beats people up with it. He defeats Gatack barehanded without even transforming, and he doesn’t even need to lift a finger to defeat Hyper Kabuto. He can stop time, too, which is always useful. And when you kill him, he just comes back in a stronger form and pissed as hell. The guy is also fashionable; manages to wear a trench coat and not look like a matrix reject. Plain badass.

Oh, right, it’s been a while since I last talked about Kamen Rider Kabuto. A long while actually. A lot has happened since then. KaGAmi became Gatack and got incredibly GAR all of a sudden. Tsurugi became a hilarious comedy character. Daisuke got framed for murder and killed his Worm lover, the whole while leaving me to wonder why he never uses his gun. Yaguruma reappeared as a Mad Max reject and was FUKAWESOME for one episode as Kick Hopper. Later episodes saw him team up with his gay lover Kageyama as Punch Hopper and things kind of went downhill from there. Now they spend their time fighting occasional worms and wallowing in their emoness. Turned out Hiyori was a worm, but the good kind of worm. She also got sent to the end of time, leaving Tendou sad he didn’t have a chance to rape his little sister. Speaking of Tendou, he got the Hyper Kabuto Zecter, so now he has mad time travel hax powers, which he uses every episode. He also got the Perfect Zecter that allows him to kill any worm instantaneously, which he also uses every episode.

The story has been good so far, mixing some seriously good drama with weird comedy. It hasn’t really felt like there’s been any overt fillers, unlike Den-O, and the fillers there were were pretty hilarious aka. the Iron Chef parody episodes. The characters have all managed to grow and be awesome in their own right, especially KaGAmi. Special mention also to Tadokoro for being the most awesome non-Rider character. The guy takes on an insane badass like Reiji just to protect his underlings. Just give the guy TheBee Zecter already. The only two complaints I have is that Tendou is way too overpowered. He uses Hyper Form every episode and the Perfect Zecter. We’re not even told where the Perfect Zecter came from! Yaguruma and Kageyama also annoy me. They were awesome when they first appeared, but now they’re just whiny distractions. The writers really have no idea what to do with them. Only have a little ways to go now to finish. I’ve heard the ending isn’t the best in the world, but I’ll probably enjoy it if it can provide some good action.

Genshiken 2’s OP is just flat out, awesomely perfect. The gundam references were great, I had to laugh at the comiket spaceship, and the Sasahara vs. Madarame bit was exciting. Sasahara was looking pretty manly there. Actually, Sasahara was cool this whole episode. The comiket arc really brings out the best in him. The music is also great, more so because it fits the images and sounds better than it would alone. Also had to love the incredibly sexy fanservice this episode. Shotacon is A-Ok when the President is that hawt. I think the OP and the sexy fanservice had the most budget out of both episodes so far, not that there’s anything wrong with that.