Sorry about that. My issue was not to do with there being a lack of good Anime out there, and much more to do with the time I had to devote to it recently.
So lets jump back in the water shall we? I was recommended a few different shows that are currently airing in Japan and therefore airing on CrunchyRoll…
The first of those shows is the topic for today’s Anime Wednesday feature is SHIN SEKAI YORI (FROM THE NEW WORLD), which is based on a novel by Yusuke Kishi, that’s been adapted to Anime by A1 Pictures.
I don’t know if it’s evident from my enjoyment / championing of things like EVANGELION, STEINS;GATE, and SUMMER WARS but I like Anime that is twisty, brain-melty, and makes you think…and then makes you rethink what you thought from a different angle…and then beats that theory all to hell and presents you with something that makes your jaw drop and in hushed tones you whisper “Sweet gods…that is brilliant." before passing out in your fishsticks and custard.
SHIN SEKAI YORI (SSY) is a show that does that. In fact it does it from the very outset prologue. It begins in 2011 when people start appearing to have strong psychokinetic powers…but instead of being a good thing, what follows are shots of young people standing and the people around them being obliterated into smears of blood and goo. It appears that they can’t handle these powers and in some cases allow the darkest parts of their personalities to take over and commit horrible atrocities.
That was in the first 3 minutes.
I was agog…and hooked. What the hell was going on?
Then we jump forward in time 1000 years. In a secluded rural village, the young people (whose powers have awakened) are taught in school to control, and use those powers for benign goodness and to help in everyday life. They are closely watched and any behaviour of an offensive nature is quickly stamped out. This is evident in a game they play with clay dolls and constructs where they must move a giant ball from one end to the opponents end and try to score, but you cannot directly offensively attack the ball, and instead have to manipulate the clay constructs around the ball to try to defend your goal. It’s idyllic, or at least it seems idyllic.
Enter our various protagonists. Two girls and three boys. They are: Saki, Maria, Shun, Satoru, and Mamoru respectively. As we first look in on them, they range in age from 12-14. Slowly, and seemingly innocuously in the first episode, one of Saki’s friends who is shown to have weaker powers than her classmates disappears. But it’s not until the second episode (when a student is accused of cheating in the game) when another child disappears that the audience is hat-tipped to something “going on”.
Intrigued? Me too.
The key event that tempers their youth is a summer trip, which all students must take, up the river to a location where they must examine the natural world and write reports on it. But after a campfire-story about a creature called a Minoshiro (who won't let you past it and kills you) scares/intrigues them, they head out in search of one…but when they find one they realize that the creature is not what it seems to be and may not be natural at all. What follows is an absolutely ENTHRALLING episode in which the young, naïve children are told a large selection of the bloody, violent history of the last 1000 years that they knew nothing about. That’s about as far plotwise as I’ll go, since you need to watch this show yourself, but hell, aren't you curious?!
So, why should you watch SSY? Well, quite frankly the writing, though subtle, is delectable perfection. Every single time I thought I had a grasp on what the show was trying to tell me, or assumed I’d unraveled a mystery…it would spend the next episode throwing curve balls at me. The best feature of SSY is that you don’t know who to side with from episode to episode. Upon an initial watch of the first few eps you begin to think that the children of this peaceful town are obviously being manipulated by someone…but then you’ll get a few eps where they spin you around and you get a different angle where you almost side with whomever is manipulating things, and then you’ll get another episode from another angle entirely which flips your POV even more. It’s like the thought patterns of SSY are on a gyroscope and can turn and twist at any moment….but it never loses track of the tale it is telling in the process. It’s a difficult type of show (I am sure) to write, but it has nonetheless not yet faltered. There is a side story with these anthropomorphized Rat societies (some warlike, some slaves, and some peaceful) that seems like it’s not part of the main story, but the more they concentrated on it, the more I realized it actually IS part of the overall tale…their position on the game board just hasn’t been solidly established yet.
The show also time skips at episode eight forward two years, and we get the same tale being told, but this time it’s with hormonal teens as well, so you can add romance, jealousy, rebellion, and other teenage issues to the mix…which on another show might add an unwanted complication to the narrative, but here it actually works, since the ages of the characters are very important.
My single favourite thing about the show (other than finding out how humanity progressed after 2011’s gruesome beginnings), is the fact that we are actually being told the story from a further 40 years in the future by an aging Saki…and she is wont to pepper her narrative with nods, secrets and cryptic phrases that make you question even what you are watching and look at it harder.
As far as I am concerned this show is utter and complete genius so far (They are 16 episodes into what I assume will be a 26 ep season) and that if there was a short list of television that was airing in Japan that you OWE it to yourself to be watching, SHIN SEKAI YORI would be very near the top of that list (if not the very top).
Head on over to crunchyroll.com right now and check it out for yourself (streams with ads for free), you WON’T be disappointed!
Teaser Trailer:
Stay Tuned next time for an article about the other show I recently discovered there called BLAST OF TEMPEST!
You may have noticed two things about this post already.
1. This is the latest edition of Anime Wednesday, but you see it is an April edition.
2. There was no Anime Wednesday for March.
This is because of a few things. I’ve been so immersed in ONE PIECE that I’ve not been able to watch much other anime since beginning what one could only deem an epic-quest to catch up with all 541 episodes that currently exist (update: I am at episode 90). Secondly, I’ve been editing the latest edition of the Giggle Loop Podcast and it’s much longer and more chaotic than it normally is so it’s been devouring my time getting it right. Lastly, I knew I was going to be seeing a couple of Miyazaki / Studio Ghibli films at the retrospective in Toronto and that they would make a good column subject, but they weren’t screening until April.
Please excuse the lack of a March Edition.
So, this post is going to take you all back a bit, into anime history. I got a chance to see both KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE and MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO at the Film Fest theatre this past weekend. Both were the dubbed versions, since the subtitled screenings sold out in minutes and I missed out on those.
KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE
This film came out in 1989 in Japan (subsequently dubbed into English in 1997, done by Disney) to rave reviews and further solidified Miyazaki as a national treasure.
Basically the story of a 13-year old witch who must go out for a year on her own, hone her powers and learn to live her life. She travels to a nearby port city called Koriko, and through a random series of events ends up living in a bakery, helping the baker family to mind the store and creates a flying/broomstick delivery service which touts that she can get packages there faster.
Immediately jumping out at me within minutes of the film starting, as a big Miyazaki fan, is that this is probably his most Western-influenced film. One thing about his films is that no matter how far out there, or fantastical the storyline, you can always expect it to be very Japanese in tone and visuals. Names, signs, homes ect., basically all the cultural Japanese stuff is always present. KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE is a different beast as the port town looks like it could be a combo of turn-of-the-century Vienna and Monte Carlo. Even the signage on the storefronts or transit appear to be German-ish. The characters across the board look very western, by which I mean hair colour being bright blondes and browns (aside from Kiki herself), and clothing choices. This all doesn’t detract from the film mind you, just very noticeable if you are at all a fan of his work, this will aesthetically LOOK like the odd man out.
The film itself and the story therein, though simple, is wonderful and entertaining. It works both as a kid’s film, and one for adults. Kiki’s trials as a delivery service and her subsequent relationships with the various characters are what sing about the film. The most entertaining being her relationship with an idealistic young inventor boy named Tombo, as it is the one that truly grows over the course of the film. The voice actors in this one are virtually a who’s who of Hollywood Circa the late 1990’s, with Kirsten Dunst in the lead, Matthew Lawrence as Tombo and VERY strangely the late Phil Hartman as Jiji (Kiki’s black cat). That last casting I found VERY odd not just because Hartman doesn’t fit the character, but I know that in the original Japanese and the FIRST (read: Non-Disney) English translation the cat was female and voiced as such. They do an admirable job, though I’d truly like to watch the subbed version at some point to see the difference. That said, it’s a lovely little film that is sure to entertain if you are nostalgic about the roots of anime and just what went into the films back in the day.
MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO
This one will be a bit of a gush. It’s no secret that this is one of my all-time favourite Miyazaki films and was one of, if not the, best of his work. It was released in 1988 in Japan and subsequently dubbed into English, though Western audiences didn’t truly get to see it wide released until 2006 when Disney did a fresh English dub with a cast including Tim Daly, Frank Welker and both Dakota and Elle Fanning as the main character sisters Satsuki and Mei. Funnily enough, where I was a little off-kilter by the Disney dub voice actors in KIKI’S, the one they assembled here for TOTORO is absolutely stellar and not only captures the spirit of the film, but the voice actors weren’t just going through the paces for a paycheck, they (especially Daly and the Fanning sisters) thoroughly immerse themselves in their respective roles.
Again, the story begins simply enough. In 1958, Tatsuo Kusakabe (a university professor), his 10-year old daughter Satsuki and her little 4 year old sister Mei move to rural Japan to be closer to the hospital where their mother is suffering from an illness which keeps her hospital bound. The girls find that life in the countryside is idyllic, but that there appears to be some quite fantastical things in the forest beside their home, the least of which is a huge old camphor tree. Slowly sprites begin to appear, first in the form of dust sprites hiding in their old house, and then small to medium to eventual large Totoro’s (essentially trolls, but later termed “keepers of the forest”. The largest of which is a gigantic grey and white, rabbit eared Totoro who really only communicates in loud shouts and seemingly happy yells. After Satsuki discovers the creatures (who can only be seen if they wish to be seen, and can’t be seen by adults at all) the two girls begin to see how these docile creatures are not only helpful, but nearly detrimental to the way of life in the forest. This then begins to intermingle with the plotline of their ailing mother and how that illness affects both Satsuki (who tries her best to hold it together and not let Mei see her cry or be scared), and fearless Mei (who doesn’t understand really what’s happening and only wishes to see her mother well again). At that point you really begin to realize that you are watching something special, and that the charm just oozes off the screen in bundles. This is a wonderful kid’s movie, but it is also an incredible love letter for adults who want to remember what it was like to be young and dream of magic and adventure. Lastly, it’s a significantly brilliant piece on the environment (a feature of the majority of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli’s films) and how important our natural surroundings are to us as individual people and as a society.
By the time the credits roll on this film, you will have been completely entertained, and may have even gotten a bit emotional at certain moments. It’s hard to watch the film and not smile, or cry, or laugh. As a 35 year old, I can honestly say I did all three.
There is a reason that the image of Totoro is the logo for Studio Ghibli as a company. This film is very close to his masterpiece and the best bit about that is that it’s not say as epic as PRINCESS MONONOKE, or as altogether whimsical and award winning as SPIRITED AWAY, or even as quirky as PONYO, but it is the one everyone remembers best. There must be a reason for that. To me it’s because MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO is perfect in every single way.
Funny sidenote: Hellboy I & II, BLADE II, PAN'S LABYRINTH director Guillermo Del Toro was at my screening of MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO. He quietly came in and sat near the front with (I think) his daughter. He's in Toronto shooting his giant monster movie PACIFIC RIM and has turned parts of downtown Toronto into Tokyo.
Note from Scott: I have asked fellow blogger/anime fan Little Red Reviewer to write up a short piece for a bonus edition of our Anime Wednesday feature this month and she graciously obliged, and wrote the following piece. So, without further adieu our first proper guest post!
it’s not just another anime. . .
Due to health problems, Kouichi Sakakibara has transferred to a new Middle School out in the country. His father is travelling for business, so Kouichi stays with his grandparents and his Aunt. This is the town his mother grew up in, maybe his aunt can tell him more about the mother who died when he was born. His first few days in town are spent at the hospital, where he befriends a nurse and a quiet girl named Mei Misaki who wears an eyepatch and claims to be visiting someone in the morgue.
When Kouichi starts school a few days later he immediately notices Mei Misaki is in his class! She sits in the back row at an old beat up desk, and everyone ignores her. Sometimes she doesn’t even show up to class, or disappears half way through. Kouichi’s first few attempts at speaking to Mei are sabotaged in one way or another, and his classmates begin acting strangely towards him, telling him not to speak to people who don’t exist.
Don’t exist? Is Mei a ghost? can anyone else see her? If she is a ghost, what’s the harm in speaking to her? And if she isn’t a ghost, what is she?
The more Kouichi tries to find out about what is going on, the more dangerous his life becomes. He witnesses a fellow student tripping down the stairs and falling to her death, is on the phone with a friend when there is a fatal elevator crash, and classmates keep hinting about the curse of their class. A curse that’s been going on for nearly thirty years. Kouichi does his best to get information about what’s going on, he even asks his aunt if she remembers anything about when she was at that high school. But the only person who seems to know anything is Mei.
There is a curse, and Mei is at the center of it. As Kouichi spends more time with her, he finds himself isolated and ostracized by the rest of the class. This curse is a deadly phenomenon, how long can Kouichi survive? If his life is in danger, can he count on anyone beside Mei to save him?
A suspenseful horror thriller, Another will keep you on the edge of your seat. The first few episodes do a wonderful job of introducing important characters and setting the atmosphere of the show. Complete with horror movie music, the end of each episode comes way too soon. If at first the storyline seems a little confusing, give it a few more episodes. The curse is eventually completely explained, yet knowing what’s going on does soften the blows of the horrific things that happen.
Typical of horror thrillers that focus around teenagers, the adults are conspicuously missing. Teachers at the school don’t seem to care that there are many deaths involved with a specific class of students, and parents do not seem involved in their children’s lives. This is completely atypical of what life is really like in Japan, but I’ve seen a lot of horror shows that seem to have this dynamic.
If you enjoy suspense, Another is a show for you! There is very little in the way of “in jokes” that reference other shows or Japanese otaku culture, so the show is highly accessible to viewers new to anime.
This month (if all goes according to plan) you will be treated to more than one Anime Wednesday post. Today’s post will concentrate entirely on the anime I’ve been watching religiously for weeks, but next week there will be a Bonus Anime Wednesday post by fellow blogger and anime fan Little Red Reviewer, so stay tuned for that. Above and beyond all that, ARRIETTY has been released to theatre’s in North America and I will be getting out to see it hopefully this week. You will subsequently see a proper movie review on that one as well. So this month is going to go down as the most chock full for the genre we’ve done yet. The numbers on the monthly posts do quite well, so you can expect I’ll continue to keep my finger on the pulse and bring you what’s important, and what you should be watching.
Today’s post is going to concentrate on the anime known as ONE PIECE. This had been a little known show to me up till now, but seemingly occupies a space in fandom that can only be described as a “force of nature”. It is exceedingly popular and sits alongside other such shows like NARUTO, BLEACH, and FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST for long-running, multi-arc-ed, complexly character-driven narratives. I’ve heard that both NARUTO and BLEACH run out of steam and begin to be a bit repetitive (Ala DRAGONBALL) and all about the next “power up” to defeat the next random boss, but having not sat down with them I cannot comment. Strangely, this is apparently not at all true about ONE PIECE. The people I’ve talked to that are up to date with the series actually tell me it simply gets more and more complex as things go along and the world continues to open up into larger storylines and characters. This is especially telling when you consider that the series is 500+ episodes deep already, of a projected 1000! Add to that the fact that the manga, written and drawn by Eiichiro Oda, that it is based on which began in 1997 (in Japan) is still going strong today and is at something like 65 volumes. Add all that up and what you get it a extraordinary manga and anime series that has not only lasted for 10+ years, but apparently continues to be fresh.
Now, if you would have told me that a series that had crappy, late 90’s DBZ-style animation would be written very well and find itself compelling and interesting to a discerning anime-fan such as myself, I’d have called you nuts. I recall the first time it was mentioned to me and I checked out the first episode I was put right off by the animation immediately. I locked it away in the back of my head as “Don’t watch – Ridiculous” and forgot about it.
Until about a month ago.
I had been planning to watch FMA: BROTHERHOOD since I needed some fresh anime to watch and I was ready to get properly stuck into a full series. Sadly, looking it up on iTunes it looked to be $50 for 24 eps (which isn’t bad at all), but that ended up being too pricey for me at the moment. So I pondered giving ONE PIECE a go anew, since people I trust seemed to have such strong positive reactions to the show. Above and beyond this, Funimation (who are currently doing a proper and decent English dub of the series…which isn’t the butchered 4Kids version that came out a number of years back) has set up the episodes to stream (in both dubbed and subbed versions) on their official website for free. All that is required of me is to sit through 3 15-25 second commercials per episode, a fee I don’t mind paying at all!
So I sat down one Saturday morning and watched the first 6 eps, pushing my brain past the stigma about how crappy I thought the animation was and watched for story instead. And I was pleasantly surprised. Here was a show with a seemingly simple premise:
It follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, a 17-year-old boy who gains elastic abilities after inadvertently eating a supernatural fruit, and his diverse crew of pirates, named the Straw Hat Pirates. Luffy explores the ocean in search of the world's ultimate treasure known as the One Piece and to become the next Pirate King. Along his journey, Luffy makes several friends and battles a wide variety of villains, many of whom try to capture the Straw Hats.
It’s very simple, but rather early on (while Luffy is still gathering his initial pirate crew) I found that the show has a lot more depth than you could assume on the surface. The best way I can explain it is with the backstories of the various pirates Luffy gathers. I’ll use Usopp’s story for my example (though all the back stories are this well constructed). Usopp is from a small village where he seemingly is a nutter who tells wild tales about all the pirate adventures he’s been on to a local depressed noble girl who’s parents are dead to cheer her up. He also runs through the village everyday and shouts that “pirates are coming!” even though they clearly aren’t. He is the quintessential “boy who cried wolf” and the village mostly ignores him. As Luffy and Co. arrive and end up having to battle to save the same noble girl from her vicious guardian, Usopp (who considers himself Captain Usopp, and even has children play-acting as his pirate minions) joins in the fight to help save her to his own detriment as he is revealed as a teller of tales and not at all honest. Where this all came full circle and hit me in the chest was after the day is saved and Usopp is considering his future we get a flashback to his childhood. We find out that his mother was sick and dying, his father actually WAS a famous pirate who left with Captain Shanks (for the dangerous Grand Line) when he was little, and that his stories were a way of connecting himself with the father he never saw again…and running through the village shouting that pirates were coming was his way of HOPING that they would, and that his father would return and his mother would get well. Sadly, she dies and Usopp’s father never returns. I was floored by that. Here was a show that for all intents and purposes is about a band of heroes using special attacks to defeat various bosses while they look for treasure and infamy. And in a quiet moment Usopp’s story nearly reduced me to tears.
That was the moment I KNEW I was watching something special.
As the show goes on and Luffy picks up more people – the initial 4 are master swordsman Roronoa Zoro, Slingshot sniper Usopp, thief and navigator Nami, and lastly famed cook, cigarette smoking, martial arts master Sanji – and a ship called the Going Merry, the Straw Hat crew begin to experience more and more of the East Blue ocean before heading properly off to the insanely dangerous Grand Line. What I notice is that little portions of the narrative are seemingly innocuous points, but come into play later on in bigger ways. Bafflingly enough (with a story that is going to be 1000 episodes deep), Oda apparently has a plan. How on earth he can keep everything straight is a dedication you absolutely have to admire in the man.
Now I am about to utter some big words. Last night I rounded the 45th episode of the show (the tail end of the Arlong Arc) and even only being this far into the show I can say without much worry that ONE PIECE has fast become one of my favourite anime shows ever, if not THE best. Now, you might ask me why and I’ll simply say this. Story. Yes, the animation improves somewhere after the 30th episode, but the thing that keeps me coming back time and again is the story. There is a heart where I wasn’t expecting one, there is bravery of a blatant kind, bravery of a learning kind. There is heavy backstory that never intrudes too much on the pacing. The best way to describe this show is that it is inexorable. They will continue to tell this story to its conclusion and once you get stuck in, you won’t stop either. The introduction of new characters and how they fit into the narrative, the attention paid to older characters that I thought we were done with who show up with fresh story points, all add to the weave of the show and make the quilt larger, more complex and simply more impressive. And they haven’t even gotten to the Grand Line yet!
I’m on board. I don’t care how many episodes I have to catch up with; I will keep watching the show as long as it is made. I am fearful (like I was once I realized I liked Jim Butcher’s DRESDEN FILES books) that once I catch up I’ll salivate for the wait from week to week to see new episodes, but that’s a long way off as I still have about 500 eps to go before I am caught up, plus there have been 8 movies. This ought to keep me in deep for months and months.
Get past the lackluster animation you will initially see and probably dislike (trust me that it not only grows on you, but becomes an endearing facet of the show as well), and get through the first 10-15 eps where the main story is still building…for after you pass that section the show gets better, the ramp starts to tilt up, and the narrative will suck you right in and not let you go.
A note on the dubbing: After the 4Kids fiasco (see link above for explanation), FUNIMATION stepped in and bought the license, and have been really faithful to the actual Japanese scripts and (as far as I know) have not touched the animation or cuts scenes. The voice actors that are portraying the characters do a really good job, Colleen Clinkenbeard (Luffy) and Christopher Sabbat (Zoro) being the standouts, and even the lyrics to the opening theme song for Season 1, sung by Vic Mignogna, are a faithful English translation of the Japanese. If you wish to watch the English dub (It’s where I started) then you won’t be disappointed as it’s well crafted and executed. That said, I watch the show streaming on the Funimation Official ONE PIECE site and they rotate which eps are up in English dubs on a seemingly monthly basis, so one month the dubs for Ep1-29 might be up and the next month they might not. This is so that Funimation doesn’t lose the revenue from people buying the DVD’s (something I have since ordered) by streaming it all at once free. Instead they offer it up piecemeal as a taster. Have no fear though, they have a HUGE selection of the original Japanese subbed eps up as well. Now, after I caught up with the existing show order English dubs (they were up to roughly Ep 32 last I checked) I decided to wait until I had the DVD’s or the dubs for the next eps rotated up on the site.
I’m not made of stone. I could not wait.
After taking about 2 eps to re-adjust to the Japanese voice actors (they are quite different in some cases, like Luffy is more of a stoic crazy than a all-shouty crazy as played by Clinkenbeard in English, though both are good portrayals), I fell utterly in love with the original Japanese actors. The other note being that for some strange reason the dialogue and sequences that are emotional simply seem to resonate at a deeper level with the Japanese cast. I’m not sure why, but it seems that is the case with a lot of English dubs. I don’t want to take away from the English cast though as they do as stellar a job as I think I’ve seen on any Anime, it’s just something small I noticed and thought it warranted mentioning.
Oh, and the theme songs (opening and ending) are catchy as hell and you will find yourself either singing them (badly in Japanese if you are like me) or humming them at random. It’s just a fact you will have to accept.
I am so pleased I got over my initial first reaction of the show, and got into it properly. It makes for compelling watching, and fast moved up in my list of things to watch. I can now fully understand the ridiculously huge following the show seems to have garnered over the years, and I now count myself among them.
Ravenously funny, heartfelt, action-packed, and even quite thought-provoking ONE PIECE is (as I mentioned above) a literal force of nature that sweeps down from lofty pirate ship masts and grabs you by the scruff of the neck to whisk you away on an adventure the likes of which you weren’t expecting.
I leave you with the 2nd ending song that I can't get out of my head: Run! Run! Run!
Wednesday is a doldrums type day here at Iceberg Ink. I rarely finish a book on a Tuesday enabling me to construct a review on a Wednesday (I usually finish books on weekends), and unless there is some piece of news to impart Wednesday is fairly quiet.
So let’s start a new feature shall we?
Anime Wednesday! This will be a monthly entry and will be on a Wednesday each time. I hope you enjoy it.
I used to be into anime of all kinds, and in my late teens and early twenties I watched an awful lot of it with a friend who was also into it. I watched some decidedly powerful stuff, but I also watched some disastrously awful stuff, and even some blatantly offensive stuff. Anime is a craps shoot generally. Sometimes gorgeous animation doesn’t yield the best story, just as sometimes subpar animation can bring you an incredible story…and other times it’s completely the other way around. It really is like that. There is no definitive yardstick against which to measure anime and it mostly will come down to subjective choice. Though I keep telling folk that shun anime as childish or strange that there are diamonds in the rough that are not only works of art, but stunning pieces of storytelling. The problem is that for every Studio Ghibli film that comes out to wow us, there is also some ridiculous shows like (insert bad anime here) that tell awful stories and make you ashamed to have even put on the DVD. So it’s pretty much a minefield and sometimes you can’t tell just from a synopsis or covert art/screenshots/trailers what is good and what isn’t.
Today’s post will be two-fold.
One: I will make a list of anime that I feel is worthy of your time if you are new to the genre.
Two: I want to talk about the latest Miyazaki film from Studio Ghibli called ARRIETY.
So firstly, to the list. These are going to be either TV series or films that I feel are worthy of mention and I’ll give a short reason why. So, in no particular order:
NEON GENESIS EVANGELION (REBUILD): (Film series [4 total])
In the 21st century, humankind faces a threat from giant space creatures known as "Angels". To combat this threat, an organization known as Nerv is formed. They proceed to build giant robots called Evangelions and use 14 year-old children to pilot them.
Now those who know this series might ask why I say films and not the TV show (or the previous films). Well the show had a bad ending, and though the films that followed it sort of fixed that ending, it’s still a tall order to go back and watch all 26 episodes and two feature films in what is a rather incoherent and incomplete story. The Rebuild films that have been slowly coming out (the 3rd just hit theatres in Japan) are completely new animation, new story points and a much more cohesive and easy to understand narrative. I don’t need to tell you getting to see Eva in theatres is a treat and a half. You will not find a series more filled with historical/philosophical/mysterious/apocalyptic undertones in anime at large. It is everything you can think of in one show and at times can be utterly mesmerizing. You can find both the first film EVANGELION 1.0: YOU ARE (NOT) ALONE and the second EVANGELION 2.0: YOU CAN (NOT) ADVANCE on DVD and Blu Ray in North America now.
PRINCESS MONONOKE: (Film)
Inflicted with a deadly curse, a young warrior named Ashitaka sets out for the forests of the west in search of the cure that will save his life. Once there, he becomes inextricably entangled in a bitter battle that matches Lady Eboshi and a proud clan of humans against the forest's animal gods, who are led by the brave Princess Mononoke a young woman raised by wolves!
In what is probably my favourite Studio Ghibli film, the English language dub of MONONOKE has the voice talents of Claire Danes, Gillian Anderson, Minnie Driver and Billy Crudup. This is a very environmental story and literally jumps off the screen. It’s no wonder that this was the first of the Ghibli/Hayao Miyazaki films that was shown widely outside Japan and though it didn’t fare all that well over here (in Japan it won numerous awards) I am fully of the belief it alerted the worldwide populous to the skill that Myazaki was bringing to the animation table, paving the way for his next feature SPIRITED AWAY to not only meet universal acclaim but win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2002. I personally find that MONONOKE is the superior film, but don’t take my word for it, give it a watch.
THE MELANCHOLY OF HARHUI SUZUMIYA: (Series)
This show centers on the title character Haruhi Suzumiya a young high school girl, and her strange antics with her friends in a club she formed called the SOS Brigade, although it is told from the perspective of the male lead, Kyon in nonlinear narrative.
If you are looking for anime that will make you laugh, be totally ridiculous and clever as hell at the same time then this is for you. If you watch the show as they have aired it (starting at episode 00 not 01) then you will be party to the first major joke of the series and it’s hilarious. The main character of Haruhi is so scattershot and insane at time that she is endlessly entertaining even when she’s just babbling about Espers and Ghosts and Dimensions. Because the show is told VIA Kyon’s perspective there is an added level of WTF-ery that he adds to the proceedings as he reacts to her the way any sane person would leading to much fun and enjoyment. You can get the complete collection on DVD HERE.
GHOST IN THE SHELL: STAND ALONE COMPLEX (Series)
Stand Alone Complex takes place in the year 2030, where many people are cyborgs with prosthetic bodies. Primarily set in the fictional Japanese city of New Port, the series follows the members of Public Security Section 9, a special-operations task-force made up of former military officers and police detectives. The series presents individual cases that Section 9 investigates, along with an ongoing, more serious investigation into the complex Laughing Man incidents.
Now the two films for GitS are great and all, and groundbreaking ect. but the series that followed it added so much more meat and depth to the idea behind the story that it can’t help but be amazing. Lushly animated (when it started airing in 2002 it had the biggest animation budget on TV in Japan ever), and vividly told, the stories from episode to episode (including an overall narrative arc concerning The Laughing Man) are as close as you can come to a LOST or FRINGE style of connected season arc mystery in the anime world. Looking for a police procedural anime? Look no further; you will get no better than this. You can get the first complete collection on DVD HERE.
SUMMER WARS: (Film)
When timid eleventh-grader and math genius Kenji Koiso is asked by older student and secret crush Natsuki to come with her to her family’s Nagano home for a summer job, he agrees without hesitation. Natsuki’s family, the Jinnouchi clan, dates back to the Muromachi era, and they’ve all come together to celebrate the 90th birthday of the spunky matriarch of the family, Sakae. That’s when Kenji discovers his “summer job” is to pretend to be Natsuki’s fiancé and dance with her at the birthday celebration. As Kenji attempts to keep up with Natsuki’s act around her family, he receives a strange math problem on his cell phone which, being a math genius, he can’t resist solving. As it turns out, the solution to the mysterious equation causes a hijacking of the social networking site through which most of the world’s social and business traffic flows.
This actually is another one that got a small theatrical release over here, but it was the fact that it had a glorious Apple trailer that caught me. It sounded interesting and done by the people who did the amazingly heartfelt film THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME. Commenting on the current status of human machine connectivity (VIA the internet, Cell phones, digital accounts ect.) and how it could be detrimental, it also finds time to be a complex family drama with two young people thrown together in circumstances that will eventually lead to something more. It’s kind of a coming of age tale, mixed with an apocalyptic summer virus that wishes to destroy the world’s order. I don’t know how but this film manages to be utterly charming while being a cautionary tale at the same time. Well worth your time to watch! SUMMER WARS is available HERE.
THE TOWER OF DRUAGA: THE AEGIS OF URUK: (Series)
In a summer once every five years, demons in the mysterious Tower of Druaga lose their powers due to the magic spell cast by a god named "Anu". King Gilgamesh, ruler of the kingdom Uruk, uses the appearance of demons as an excuse to invade the tower and find out the construct's secrets. As 80 years passed, the Uruk army managed to fight back the demons and built a fortress city and safe haven on the very first floor of Druaga - Metz Kier. Thus begins the story of a warrior named Jil who, finding companions along the way, embarks on a quest for the fabled Blue Crystal Rod, a powerful artifact rumored to be in the highest floor of Druaga. However, other competitors, including the kingdom of Uruk itself, want the treasure, all for their own reasons.
Looking for anime Fantasy style? This is the best. At least the best I’ve seen. It has all the trappings of classic fantasy, but with the added depth only a mysterious and emotional anime story can provide. One thing that you can notice by watching this is that anime pulls no punches. While it is animation, it is sometimes stories for adults and DRUAGA is one of those that doesn’t shy away from the more adult themes of loss, betrayal and sadness. I have just not found any other anime that reminds me as much of the fantasy books I read. Stunning animation, amazing spells and weapons and a quest that could humble the greatest warrior. DRUAGA complete series is HERE.
So that’s today’s list. That not all my favourites, but it’s a few of the very best. I know, I know, I didn’t mention stuff like AKIRA, and COWBOY BEEBOP or SAMURAI CHAMPLOO, well those are more mainstream approachable stuff that I love, but I wanted to make a list of the more backstage stuff that casual viewers may not have heard of.
Now onto the Ghibli news. Hayao Miyazaki has been called the Walt Disney of Japanese animation. Most of his films are made for family viewing and you will more often than not find nothing in them that kids won’t like. I also feel like the messages in them are great for children as well as adults. Anime rarely talks down to children the way that Western animation can sometimes do. Miyazaki is all about the aspect of growing up and yet never stopping to believe in magic and wonder. A kid at heart (even for an old timer) I once heard him speak at a film screening at TIFF and he has this exuberance that can only be described as “childlike enthusiasm” and he brings that to his work. In a Studio Ghibli film, you can always expect the highest caliber of animation, the highest caliber of storytelling and most importantly the highest caliber of dazzling imagination.
His latest work is an adaptation of Mary Norton’s THE BORROWERS. Titled after the main character it is called ARRIETTY, and looks to be every bit the Miyazaki we have come to enjoy in the last decade. Strangely there is a different voice cast for the British release and the American release…and to be honest I hope we in Canada get the British one as it stars the likes of Saoirse Ronan, Tom Holland and Mark strong. While the American version is the less impressive cast of Bridget Mendler, Amy Poehler and Will Arnett (which are really odd choices). It sounds like another winner since the story of THE BORROWERS lends itself very well to the style of narrative Miyazaki is not only used to telling but usually nails perfectly. Hopefully ARRIETTY represents the same type of family friendly film that can be enjoyed across the board like MONONOKE, SPRITIED AWAY, and MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO before it. Even more odd, the film is coming out in the UK this summer, and the American dub isn’t lout till January of 2012…meaning they did the British dub first and whoever bought it to release it in America wanted their own voice cast to do dubbing, though I can’t understand why with thespians such as Ronan and Strong in the leads. At any rate this likely means the chances I’ll get to see the British cut are higher, since computer DVD players can play PAL region discs.
So that’s Anime Wednesday for July. Hope you all enjoyed and look forward to hearing about more in the future. Till the August installment, I leave you with the English language trailer for ARRIETTY.
