Struggling to get back on track!! Monster, Mobile Suit Gundam, Shinryaku! Ika Musume

You'd think with the free time I have now I'd be able to do this better than ever. Out of sight, out of mind, I guess, but there really is no excuse for negligence in your own promises. Hopefully, this will make up for it a little bit. Now that the holidays are over, things should settle back down to a normal level of insanity. Anyways, let's get talking about anime!

---

Monster (70 Episodes)
Animation: 4/5
Story: 3/5
Music: 3/5
Overall: 3/5

I'm sure there are several of you wondering about those scores given Monster was made by the critically acclaimed Naoki Urasawa, but I've got my reasons, and no they don't stem from the fact that I watched the whole series on Syfy. While I certainly don't think this was a bad series, I don't know if it really should be lauded as much as other people say it should be.

The story takes place mostly in Germany, with some later episodes in the Czech Republic, and revolves around a Japanese doctor named Kenzo Tenma who is a genius of a brain surgeon. So much so, in fact, that he is the apple in the hospital director's eye and is willing to let him date his daughter. Things seem to be sailing smoothly for our foreigner when he is suddenly stopped one day by a woman while he is walking down the hall at the hospital. The woman demands that he give her dead husband back. Tenma knows nothing about the woman or her husband's case but when she says that someone of higher political position was given treatment over her husband and he died because of it. This ethical conundrum is enough to make Tenma pause and rethink his life and his work.

When a young boy with a bullet in his head is brought in, Tenma sets to work on him when the director decides to pull him away to treat another high society figure instead, despite the fact that he came in after the boy. Tenma decides to follow his heart and ignores the director, saving the boy's life in the process but letting the other man die at the hands of a less capable doctor. However, no good deed goes unpunished as Tenma's reputation tanks immediately. The director treats him like he's not there and the director's daughter dumps him, dropping the engagement ring onto the street in front of him. When he makes it back to the boy now recovering in the hospital, he rants about the injustice and politics of the hospital environment, wishing that the leaders would just die. Then those very men die soon afterword. Tenma is the immediate suspect, but he's innocent, not really knowing what happened. At the same time, the boy he saved disappeared.

The story then jumps to several years later and Tenma is still working in the hospital when one of his patients happens to be a criminal working for a serial killer that no one can find. When Tenma chases his patient, he runs into the grown version of the boy, Johan, he saved so many years ago. Realizing that he was the one who killed the director and his associates so many years ago, he is instantly crushed by tragedy and responsibility, compelling him to seek Johan out and kill him in order to atone for his mistake.

The story moves around a lot from there, taking its time to introduce many incidental characters and how their situations are related to Tenma and Johan. At about episode 20, the story then dumps another ten characters into your lap that run around this tragedy between the principle two. While it is nice to see that anime is capable of telling a dramatic thriller, it still begs the question as to why it needed to be animated. Sure, Madhouse does a great job and I understand that it is rigidly faithful to the original manga, but it started to get a little too long in the tooth towards the end and it got to the point that I basically stopped caring about the characters. I only wanted Johan to die, no matter who got the shot in.

Still, there were some interesting and well-developed characters, which does show that you don't need off-the-wall character design to make characters memorable and perhaps that's why people like it so much. It's not an anime filled with spiky-haired heroes, ridiculous supernatural powers, and epic space fleets, so it has to take its time to tell a story that can still engage an audience. As for the music, I found it to be mostly forgettable (thought I never did listen to the official ending song; I understand Viz Media couldn't get it, not that Syfy would show it anyway.).

Monster certainly stands as proof that anime can do different styles of story telling but I don't know if it deserves to be in anybody's top ten anime. I guess I generally like anime that is willing to use animation as a principle part of its storytelling and Monster's was stiff in this department, relying on a lot of talking-head dialogue to move the story. However, that does give credit to Monster's story because it was capable of carrying the series most of the way through.

---

Mobile Suit Gundam (43 Episodes)
Animation: 3/5
Story: 3/5
Music: 3/5
Overall: 3/5

I don't know if I ever said as much on this site, but I am on a personal quest to watch all of Gundam in production order, starting with this one. I've since finished Zeta Gundam (which I'll probably review next time), but I thought I would take some time to discuss the classic original series here.

Mobile Suit Gundam (also known as First Gundam) was a pretty big deal in the history of anime, but it certainly had it's share of struggles. Originally 50 episodes were planned, but lack of ratings pushed the count down to 39. However, the director, the now infamous Yoshiyuki Tomino, was able to extend it out to 43 and the series continued to be a mediocre success. That is, until Bandai came out with the Mobile Suit kits that let kids build the robots themselves which sold incredibly well. From there, Gundam has been an ever-present entity in the world of anime, coming out with series after series over their 30-year history with varying degrees of success and popularity. I became a huge fan with Gundam Wing when it was broadcast on Toonami, but I've never really watched the other series except Gundam 08th MS Team and Gundam 00, so I decided that if I'm going to be a proper mecha and Gundam fan, I had better watch this stuff.

The original Mobile Suit Gundam was made in 1979 to 1980 and it shows. It's filled with all sorts of stock footage and certainly takes it time to show off the various suits to ensure that kids will want their parents to buy them for them. However, it also sets up many of the traditions that Gundam has been known for all these years; a political war-is-hell drama, a villain wearing a mask hiding a scandalous identity, great characterization on both sides of the war which makes you a little uncomfortable to be rooting for the good guys, taking a romp around Earth's surface before having an epic battle in space, the rights of people living in space colonies as opposed to those living on earth, etc.

The first series revolves around Amuro Ray, a fourteen-year-old boy whose father has been working on a prototype Mobile Suit for the Earth Federation for the war against the rebellious Principality of Zeon. When Amuro's space colony gets caught up in a battle, he uses the confusion to take the Gundam and help the experimental warship White Base escape to space with several citizens aboard. As they go around space, and later Earth, trying to get the civilians to safety, Zeon's Char Aznable, also known as the Red Comet, chases after them, trying to take them down. Earth Federation bureaucracy doesn't help either as White Base is ping-ponged from battlefield to battlefield. While the series is extremely episodic in nature, it does hold to its subplots fairly well, even if they are the hormonal hysterics of our hero.

The music also deserves special mention here as it sticks to Gundam and general space opera tradition of having various melodic cues mean specific characters or forces. While the music itself isn't great, it's nice to see that they picked up on that style so shortly after Star Wars.

Mobile Suit Gundam is now a relic to be seen and discussed by old-anime fans and anime critics, so those are the only kinds of people who I can recommend it to, if they haven't seen it already. While I don't see myself ever really watching this series again, I'm certainly glad I saw it at least once so that I can truly enjoy the heritage it has left for its franchise and for anime as a whole.

---

Shinryaku! Ika Musume (12 Episodes)
Animation: 5/5
Story: 4/5
Music: 3/5
Overall: 5/5

I know I promised to talk about Evangelion, but I decided to hold off on that to talk about something new for a change. I've noticed that I don't talk about recent anime all that much so I thought I'd at least throw a bone in that direction. And it helps to talk about a series that I love.

Shinryaku! Ika Musume is the hilarious story of a humanoid squid dedicated to overthrowing the human race because of their negligence toward ocean waters. She decides to take on the polluting humanity by first attacking a seaside restaurant owned by the Aizawa family. However, when she succeeds in blowing a hole through one of the walls, Eiko Aizawa insists that she work it off and before she knows it, she's using her tentacle powers to serve customers at the beach.

When I first read the premise in the Fall Season previews around the web, I knew that I had to watch this series; it looked to ridiculous to ignore. And thankfully that hunch paid off in spades as this is one of the funniest anime series I've seen, putting it in the same company as FLCL and Kodocha (odd crowd . . .). Eiko works great as a demanding straight man, with the rest of the cast filling in around Ika Musume's life (her name really is "Squid Girl" in Japanese).

There really isn't much of an on-going story as each episode contains three mini-stories, but that works fine for this kind of punchy, Azumanga-Daioh-style comedy as we're introduced to the other denizens of the beach, ranging from lifeguards and other seaside restaurants to an adoring cosplay fetishist and a handful of creepy American scientists. The music isn't quite as memorable as the cast, though, even with a hyper, DDR-style opening, but one doesn't really expect hummable themes with a show like this.

It only takes one episode to fall in love with Ika Musume and only three to feel it's hooks deep in your body. If someone licenses this for US distribution, I'll definitely pick this one up. While I do prefer dubs, creating a comparable dub script might not be worth the trouble. Sub-only is probably the best I'll get with something like this anyway. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a light, fluffy comedy to ease them into pure bliss.

---

Well, it didn't take a year to get a new post on this blog, but I still have a lot of room to grow. I'm going to try to do better at this (and get back to anime watching; I'm falling behind in my other Fall 2010 series!) but I still can't make any concrete promises. Maybe next time, I'll talk about Zeta Gundam, as I said before, and the manga version of InuYasha that I finished (FINALLY!!!).

As for Winter 2011, I've decided to watch Level E, Infinite Stratos, and Fractale (what a debacle that's been lately). I don't see much else that I'm interested in, and I hope I'm not missing anything this time around. Except for Cardfight! Vanguard. There's no way I'm going to sit through a Yu-Gi-Oh! wannabe.

RIP Toonami

While this isn't as timely as the rest of the comments about this, I cannot say nothing. While I must admit that I haven't seriously watched Toonami for quite a long time now, to know that it has stopped for good is depressing. Toonami was a major part of my teenage years.

I started to watch it because of Voltron and Robotech, then, later, my friends got me into Dragon Ball Z, and I was addicted. Then they showed Gundam Wing and I was an anime fan for life. From there, it only got better: Tenchi, Outlaw Star, Big O, Blue Sub Six, and so on. I loved Toonami and all that they did.

Then I went away from Toonami (serving a 2-year LDS Mission didn't help) and when I came back, it just wasn't the same. They weren't trying new things anymore, not like they used to. And Naruto just wasn't enough to keep me coming back. So maybe, in the end, I didn't help Toonami continue; who knows. Still, it's sad to see such a good friend die. I mean, it's like the death of Mr. Rogers, except not so universal.

I can only hope that there will be other avenues for anime to reach mainstream culture. Adult Swim just isn't enough, and their treating their anime properties quite poorly. I've been doing more online, especially now that Funimation is really using their YouTube Channel, and more On Demand, through the Anime Network and Anime Selects (POST YOUR SCHEDULE!). The Sci-Fi Channel has picked up with Gurren Lagann and I am REALLY looking forward to Gundam 00 appearing on Ani-Monday's here in November. Maybe someone else will pick up the kind of legacy that Toonami left us with. I can only hope.

As for the guidepost, I apologize for not being more consistent in my writing. I've been watching anime quite regularly, thanks to the internet, On Demand, and my local library. I'm slowly powering through Naruto still, I'm looking forward to Tsubasa Season 2, and I've been enjoying Slayers and Code Geass online. I promise to do more with this site (especially if I can figure out how to get to the CSS for it) and I've got all sorts of titles to tell you about.

That is if I can get a job and keep myself from getting buried in schoolwork. Yeah, yeah, I know, the same old excuses, but life comes first, right?

What a week! Gundam Wing and The Place Promised In Our Early Days

Yowza. This week as been good for me and my anime watching. Or at least yesterday as I finished Gundam Wing and then watched Place Promised. Both of these shows are incredible, and I highly recommend them, as you will see.

Gundam Wing (49 Episodes)
Story: *****
Music: *****
Animation: ****
Overall: *****

Ever since I first watched Gundam Wing on Toonami, I have been a fan of mecha anime, and now that I've gone out of my way to own all of the DVDs, I decided to watch through them again.

And what a great series it is. The story is engaging, rolling all over the place. Governments change, people die, and major questions are asked. The greatest thing I think is that the bad guys really aren't bad guys. Both Miliardo and Treize have honorable agendas, even if their methods aren't pretty.

For those unfamiliar with it, the story goes as follows. The people of earth have built space colonies to send people to, but the Earth decides to invade the colonies for their own benefits. Enter the five Gundam Pilots, sent to Earth to take down the organization called OZ which is the Earth's source of military power. However, things get sticky from there, as OZ takes over the earth, then goes for space. I hate to go into more details because it would take several pages. The story moves quickly and quite often, if you miss an episode, you miss a lot.

The music is just as impressive. The whole orchestra-with-electric-guitars thing is awesome, and makes me think of bands like Kansas. And the themes by Two-Mix are just as good.

The reason why the animation is only 4 stars is because they reuse a number of frames for their battle sequences, which is reasonable. Trying to come up with new scenes with so many robots would be quite challenging. Nevertheless, the action is pretty awesome.

I guess I'm biased. I watched this show, knowing that I was going to love it and why I loved it. However, I believe this is one of the best Mecha shows out there, if not the best. (I still haven't finished Gundam Seed, so we'll see). The story, the characters, the music, the mecha, the whole nine yards deserves my 5 stars.

The Place Promised In Our Early Days
Story: ****
Music: ****
Animation: *****
Overall: *****

Be it known through the universe that Makoto Shinkai is a genius. This guy, who did Voices of a Distant Star BY HIMSELF, has created a masterpiece. While he had a lot of help this time, and it shows, this movie is spectacular.

The premise is simple. In an alternate Japan, two guys and a girl make a promise together, to fly to a far off tower on the northern island of Japan. However, war starts up and complicates their situations, separating them. The story is how the three come together and fulfill their promise to each other.

And then there's alternate dimensions.

It's a pretty crazy story, but it all fits together in a nice, warm-fuzzy kind of way.

The thing to watch here is the animation. The freaking backgrounds are gorgeous, and the use of color is almost unparalleled. It almost feels real, just by watching it. The characters blend into the environment so well, you sort of forget this is animation. My jaw just drops as I watch this. The art alone is reason enough to see this movie.

The music is also fitting. As flight is a major part of the film, the music captures that, especially at the end for the climax, which isn't intense, but definetily cinematic.

Again, I watched this show, knowing I was going to love it. But when my jaw still drops, even though I've seen it before, that's a sign. This show is awesome. The visuals are unreal. Go see this one if you haven't already. And if you have, see it again.

---

Well, this has been a good week. I doubt I'll ever have such a great lineup again. We'll have to see. For next week, I'll definetly get to Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, but what else, I don't know. You'll just have to wait and see.