Otakuism

Only characters who wear sunglasses deserve gold mobile suits, not fabulous characters!

Now that half the cast is dead, it’s probably a good time to call it a wrap and wait until next fall for even more shit to hit the fan. If Sunrise starts making a habit of these season long cliff hangers I’m going to have to kill someone over there. Right, back to Gundam 00. Overall, I feel G00 has done a pretty good job for a gundam series; it’s not the best or most serious, but it’s proved very entertaining and fresh while still paying homage to Gundam. The first half was pretty slow, but after Trinity was introduced things really got rolling. The characters *gasp* actually matured in tiny increments throughout the show, to the point where I now find Setsuna an admirable protagonist and Tieria just misguided and not a complete bastard. The action was always cool and I absolutely love every single design in the show, even that Hyaku Shiki-wannabe Alvatore. I’m torn between wanting to conclude Code Geass and wanting more G00 right now. Once again, goddamn Sunrise. Now for some more specific thoughts on the final episode:

Merged Allelujah looks like more of a villain than any of the actual villains.

Allelujah finally gets his epic final battle, after being mostly shafted for the second half of the series. Seriously, I feel like he disappeared a lot. The idea of Allelujah just needing to flip his hair out of his face to merge his personalities and become a badass pilot is just ludicrously awesome. Sadly Hallelujah does die, taking the funner part of the personality with him. Allelujah may be dead, too, but hopefully not.

Thank god the Wild Bear lives.

Sergei x Soma ftw! There’s never been a better slightly creepy father/daughter relationship out there. There’s also the stunning revelation that Soma is actually named Marie and is somehow even more connected to Allelujah. Shocker there. We’ll probably have to wait all the way to episode 49 just to figure this one out.

RIBBONS!/RIBONZE!/LIBBONZE!/WHATEVER YOUR NAME IS!

Damn you Ribbons and your JUST AS PLANNED! I do enjoy Alejandro actually being dead but I just can’t take Ribbons seriously as a villain. He still feels too shota. With that harem of clones and new couch he may be going down the Alejandro FABULOUS route anyways. I’m really starting to think my earlier prediction of G00 becoming a conflict between androids and humans might actually come true. I, Robot, with Setsuna as Will Smith, anyone?

And as this episode makes clear, Graham loves Setsuna, because Graham loves Gundam.

FUCK YEAH GN-FLAG! FUCK NO TWO MINUTES OF SCREEN TIME! That basically sums up my feelings on that. Seeing GN-Flag and Exia completely trash each other is still good fun. As awesome as Graham is I really think now he’s not supposed to be another Char clone. If anything, he’s more similar to Anavel Gato: both obsessively loyal to their nation/military and driven to revenge. As the season has gone on Graham has actually become more and more obsessive, losing here whatever logic he had at the beginning where he freely admits all that matters is fighting. Of course, he still gets the mask four years later, which is one ugly mask. So hope they don’t keep that.

This is no Knightmare MAI BOY!

Finally, there’s the obligatory time skip with all the old favorites returning (why hello there Patrick) except for the main cast. I don’t think G00 has actually killed off all its main characters. Probably just Sunrise keeping us in suspense. Tieria coming back as a girl is a kind of want, though. And what better way to end the first season with a shot of the legendary mid-season upgrade Gundam 00. I think I know just how that suit will change the world. Two words: DG cells. Believe it.

Story:

Momo is an unusual shinigami. She wears all white, can’t remember who she was, always interferes in human life, and cries for every soul she takes. Her cat familiar Daniel can’t stand this, but loves Momo enough to stick with her. Together they perform their duty of guiding souls to the afterlife, providing comfort, care, and companionship when they can.

Impressions:

First, I would like to think Seven Seas for sending me a review copy of this book. This volume will be out on March 31st.

That being said, I’m glad I got this for free because that means I don’t actually have to waste money buying it. Ballad of a Shinigami was an absolute chore for me to read through, the worst thing any book can do in my opinion. I literally had to force myself to read it to do this review. The book is uninspired and meandering; a cliche-filled romp into overly sentimental melodrama.

First there’s the stories present in the book. BoaS is not so much a novel but a collection of four short stories, each one involving death, which is kind of the problem. Even the summary on the back says “First encounters with Momo always end in farewells.” So from the beginning there’s no doubt on how these stories will end, or at least what they involve, immediately cutting away any suspense the stories might of had. The trend is bucked in a couple places but overall they all read like a bad date: unpleasant, awkward, and the ending a foregone conclusion. The emotional lesson each story tries to tell is just laughable, artificially worked in and sounding more preachy than anything else.

The characters themselves don’t alleviate any of the problems of the narratives. They’re all cookie cutter at best, molded into what the story demands. Most of them are weighed down with all the troubles and unique situations that the story requires for emotional weight, rendering the characters that much more unbelievable. Momo, ostensibly the main character or at least the unifying one, is never given much depth, but maintains a mystery to the end. All we know is that she likes to meddle, cries, and has an annoying cat familiar named Daniel. I hated every interaction between Momo and Daniel, each one filled with awkward dialogue and Daniel always coming off more as an annoying kid to me.

Then there’s the author’s, K-Ske Hasegawa, writing style, which can only be called passable at best. He appears to ignore the old axiom of all creative writing “show not tell,” relying on constant narration by some omniscient narrator to drive the stories. He chooses to wrap up every story at the end with a summary of the events, laying out everything so there is no ambiguity on the reader’s part, rendering the stories creatively dull. Aside from the narration the rest of the style can be characterized as unexceptional and cliched, often trying to grasp at more complexity or meaning but failing.

The presentation of the book itself is a mixed bag. True to its word, Seven Seas is printing all of its new light novels exactly like they are in Japan, meaning they’re small, and by small I mean tiny - like those books of jokes one always see when checking out at Barnes and Noble. Overall it creates a jarring effect, as I had to get used to the size of the book before I can even read it, and now it just looks ugly standing next to all my regular sized light novels. I really think this plan is going to come around and bite Seven Seas on the butt, as these books would look very out of place on any manga bookshelf in stores. Maybe that’s the point, but I think it’s just going to lead to them lying around in some hidden part of the store. I will give Seven Seas points for the color inserts at the beginning of the novel, similar to what was done with Boogiepop. I wish Tokyopop would take up this practice. The actual art in the book, by Nanakusa, is clean and nice but ultimately forgettable and lacking of any true distinction.

I usually try to find something good in the light novels I read, since I know they’re not high art but just entertainment, but I cannot find anything that deserves to be called good in Ballad of a Shinigami. The whole work is mediocre, written by a novice who apparently is in dire need of a creative writing class. Wiki tells me there are eleven BoaS novels in Japan. Either K-Ske Hasegawa got really good starting at the second novel or the Japanese just tolerate bad writing a lot more. I’m not going to check the second novel to find out.

So, Clannad is indeed getting its sequel with the After Story being animated. Never doubt the power of fanboys and Kyoani. The format for the After Story is unknown right now, but a twelve to thirteen episode season is most likely. I enjoyed Clannad enough and everybody does say After Story is the best part, so I’ll have to check it out. What I’m wondering now is, when the hell is Kyoani going to do Haruhi 2? Was that ever confirmed for summer?

The Gurren-Lagann movie will be in September. Having just finished watching DVD episode 27 - no ghosting makes for fuckawesome animation - I’m very excited about this. Still no idea what the plot is. Could be sidestory, alternate universe, lovelove highschool romance, or all three knowing Gainax.

Madhouse will be doing a remake of the seventies series Casshern. I’m really starting to like Madhouse as a studio and am hoping they can reinvent Casshern into something incredibly badass, much like Bones’s reinvention of Skull Man.

Speaking of Bones, they unveiled their new mecha series, Bounen no Xamdou. Getting some very big Eureka 7 vibes here, along with some King Gainer vibes. I could never actually watch Eureka 7, started too slow and Renton is an annoying protagonist, but I’ll keep an eye on this when it comes out.

There was other TAF news today that isn’t relevant to my interests, so check out Moetron for more complete coverage.

Tomino may not be directing this show, but it certainly is starting to look like one of his gundams with all these random character deaths. Christina, Lichty, PATRICK!, and the doctor guy with sunglasses who I thought was a woman all bite the dust. While admittedly for minor characters none of them have quite the effect of Lockon, they were still done pretty nicely. I really liked the final moments between Christina and Lichty, and Christina’s emotional goodbye to Felt. Lichty’s cyborg implants are very random, but oddly enough with his few lines of dialogue this episode they’re justified. Thinking back on his character he’s always been both aloof and carefree, which fits his belief that he’s both “alive and dead.” Touche Sunrise, on actually getting me to care about a bit character in their last few seconds.

Patrick blasts off for a final time. I really thought he was meant for better things as a character, a lover not a fighter kind of guy who would both sympathize and hate Celestial Being’s ideals, but turns out he was cannon fodder from the beginning.

Once the Big Gold is mass produced the Earth Federation, I mean Celestial Being will be destroyed!

Watch out! Here come Alejandro in his big ol’ space-faring pimpmobile with seven fucking GN drives. Compensating much? I think he must be in some kind of contest with Goldfinger to see who can come up with the tackiest weapon. First the golden gun and now this. He really is over the edge now. I hope Setsuna kicks his ass next episode so we don’t have to deal with him as a major villain next season.

One really has to feel sorry for Felt now. Everyone she loves is dying around her. She was a sympathetic character to begin with (so moe), but now her life just sucks. Hopefully this is all paving the way for her to become a badass gundam pilot next season.

Finally, I hope they don’t leave that Haro there. Haro’s have feelings, too, you know.

Since, you know, there’s still actually two more episodes left, though how relevant those episodes will be is up to question. Way to shoot yourself in the foot with artificial episode counts Kyoani. I’m really starting to hate this increase in DVD only episodes, but I digress. So how does Clannad end? Sadly not with Dangoes but the most last minute love confession in history. Yes, Tomoya confesses to Nagisa with one minute left on the clock. It’s like Kyoani remembered there was suppose to be a relationship in there somewhere. For me, love confessions are not the end of a relationship; often it is what happens afterwards that is the most interesting, and which sadly most anime tend to ignore. I love how love confessions in anime dictate that the characters are going to be married for life when they haven’t even dated yet, but again I digress.

The best part of the ending was Nagisa’s play, and by play I mean the part where Akio comes in acting all manly. Nagisa does not pull off emo well, especially when the answer to her problem was so obvious. Everybody knows (good) parents care more about their kid’s dreams than their own. Just look at all the rabid soccer moms. Nagisa’s whole emotional breakdown appears forced when held up to common sense, and fortunately Akio saves the audience, both fictional and real, from more crying Nagisa with his fiery words. More shows need hot blooded dads; they save everyone from needless melodrama.

The most interesting things I noticed about Akio, however, was what play he was acting in in high school. From all the little evidence - mentioning of Thebes, the Sphinx’s riddle, Apollo, and the blood streaming down Akio’s face - I bet that’s Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex. A very interesting reference for Kyoani, since when looked at one way Oedipus Rex is all about the destruction of a family by lies and secrets. Similarly, Nagisa’s family, in her eyes, risks destruction from the the secrets of her parents. Fortunately familial love comes through to save the day and Nagisa doesn’t need to claw her eyes out.

For Clannad as a whole, I’ll give it credit for doing a few things right. The comedy was often excellent, whether low-key and sarcastic or pure slapstick. A lot of this strength came from the strong cast, with a lot of the comedy also coming from Sunohara; best male sidekick ever. Most of the characters fortunately managed to grow and change as the series when on, particularly Nagisa and Tomoya. Nagisa’s change from a waifish outcast to an inspiring leader makes her character all that much more endearing; indeed, she’s my favorite of the cast. Tomoya’s shift in cynic attitude was also handled well, I just wish the show would of showed his complete change. Which leads us to the main problem of Clannad: pacing. Even more so than AIR Clannad has terrible pacing. Between six to seven episodes were spent on Fuuko and Kotomi each, while Nagisa, Kyou, and Tomoyo probably got half that amount. I don’t care if Kyou and Tomoyo’s routes are incompatible with the larger plot, they still should of been worked in some way.

Then there’s the girl with the robot, which was never really developed at all. I get the connection to the play, but that’s such a tenuous connection at best. If the girl was so important, shouldn’t she of shown up more instead of disappearing and reappearing every few episodes? I know from spoilers that the girl really is a part of the After story, which of course isn’t in the show. It’s like the whole show is working up to this dramatic story at the end that doesn’t happen. Many people are hoping Kyoani will animate the After story, but I’m not holding my breath for that. What other ero-adaption, aside from Da Capo, has ever gotten a sequel to cover unanimated material? In the end I have to rate Clannad has one of Kyoani’s lesser works. I’m not sure how it compares to AIR, but I definitely know Kanon was done better. The characters and humor for Clannad are good, but when it comes to telling a good story the show just falls apart.

I’m going to miss these chibi’s.

H2O definitely has one of the more unique endings for any eroge adaption. I’m still trying to sort my feelings out on it, because it wraps everything up while at the same time leaving one thinking “what the hell just happened?” I’ll just go through things blow by blow (not that I encourage anymore beating of Hayami). Massive ending spoilers ahead.

WHY CAN’T YOU JUST DIE?!

After Hirose’s heroic save of Hayami, it is discovered that he has actually reverted to an infantile state and has latched on to Hayami as his mother. The freudian interpretations here are endless. The evil old geezer also gets arrested by the police. This is the only time I have ever seen the police be useful in an anime. EVER. Hirose leaves the village with Hayami to return to the apartment he lived in with his mother, in the hope that it will trigger a return of his memories. One day in the city Hayami decides it’s time to force Hirose back to normal and tells him his mother would never of abandoned him. Conveniently, at this time a little kid chases a ball into the path of an oncoming train, and Hayami runs after the kid to save him. This jogs Hirose’s memory and he realized that his mother didn’t kill herself, but that she was saving a kid that day, too. Oh, and Hayami dies.

~maki maki maki maki maki maki maki maki maki maki maki maki maki~

Hayami dying is the cruelest joke H2O could of played. This being anime I knew she couldn’t possibly be dead, but this being anime I knew she possibly could. So of course I’m confused the rest of the episode as everyone wears black but no one actually says she’s dead; and then there’s a time skip forward. Honata is the new elder, though she looks to hot to be any kind of elder. Hamaji married Maki, or at least I think that’s what was hinted at. Any way, the sexual relationship between a woman and a man who dresses like a woman is fun to think about. Hirose has returned to the village, become a bishounen, and is now building a windmill, cause we have to have one more windmill motif. Just as he finishes it a young girl called Otoha runs into him. Yes, it’s that Otoha, and she has a surprise for Hirose: Hayami revived from the dead! Yes, unlike most anime where the person you thought died was just healing for a long time, Hayami is physically resurrected. How appropriate that I watched this episode on Easter.

EILF

Hayami’s death is the most surprising point of the series, and it actually works really well. I didn’t realize how much I liked Hayami until a train hit her, so it solidifies my feelings for her and connects me that much more to the show. It works with the whole theme of the show, returning to the question of the first episode: when bad things happen where is God? This episode answers the question: God is always with you, you just have to believe. The death and resurrection of Hayami literally shows this, as she is revived for the faithful Hirose. One really has to wonder about all the religious undertones here, and again how ironic that it’s Easter. What I don’t like about Hayami’s death is that it’s exactly like Hirose’s mother. Of course, it drives the point home, but how many people get hit by trains in Japan? Is there some kind of national epidemic of rogue trains I should know about? So the death was good overall, I just don’t like the execution (no pun intended).

If only everyone could be resurrected that good looking.

H2O really surprised me as a series. It doesn’t have stellar animation and the characters have a “been there” feeling to them, but there’s still a gentle warmth to them and everything just comes together perfectly. There’s a tense sense of drama that drives the show, and it never lets up. It doesn’t get bogged down, like many eroge adaptions, in trying to tell the game’s story, but takes the essentials of a good story and builds the anime around it. It helps a lot that there’s only three girls stories to tell, but also that the focus was always on Hayami. H2O reminds me a lot of Gift, in that both are low-key works that maintain a good sense of drama. H2O might also be the first ero-adaption I’ve actually managed to finish watching since Gift. I’m sorry ef, but not all the pretty animation in the world could get me to care about Chihiro. H2O is probably destined to be one of the forgotten ero-adaptions, overshadowed by the Clannad’s of the world. However, that doesn’t make it a subpar work at all. It’s a good drama, familiar to any anime fan yet at the same time holding its own surprises. Can’t ask for much more, or at least I won’t from my romance.

P.S. a final comment on why time skips are awesome: damn, Hamaji’s sister filled out nicely.

Shooting down your enemy with a broken laser controlled by a hand held computer that looks like a gun is definitely one of the cooler last attacks. I really like how much more depth was added to Lockon in these last couple of episodes, showing the morally ambiguous, revenge-driven man under the happy-go-lucky Irishman exterior. Kind of wish they’d have focused on that more earlier, but you get what you get. My only hope now is that Lockon’s twin brother doesn’t show up second season with an identical Dynames. And knowing Gundam, he’d show up wearing a mask and calling himself Lockoff. But still, for all the mourning we can’t forget an even more tragic event this episode; the sad loss of…

DAARYYYYLLLLLL DOOOOOOOODDGGGGGEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!