The guy who wants to eat Fugu has taken an enforced break from translating Tenjo Tenge (volume 10 isn’t in print yet, and who really wants to scan off the original serial? The paper sucks). Instead he is bringing us some love in the form of Vulgar Ghost DayDream, what he describes as a “Shounen Horror” manga. I think he has put it rather well: the plot revolves around a shapely female who starts the comic in a short skirt and thigh-high boots (hence the Shounen). Additionally this female, the main protagonist Misaki Saiki, happens to be a “necromancer.” From the first chapter, we can glean that a necromancer in this context is somebody who is able to see and converse with spirits, is qualified to perform exorcisms, and has crazy bondage gear on under her clothes that act as an impromptu bodyguard as the need arises.

If you are offended by references to people pissing on each other, or humor about panty-sniffing stalkers, stay clear of this series, as I’m sure that’s just the tip of the iceberg here. As always, when you use BitTorrent to download a copy, please leave your client on for a couple of hours to help with the distribution process.

In the long list of fansubs I’ve been exposing myself to lately, Green Green stands out as a remarkably unremarkable one. It has individual qualities that would make any other anime rather memorable. It has the reasonably stalwart male protagonist, a variety of unappealing male supporting cast (including the longhaired guy that thinks he’s God’s gift to the ladies, a truely pathetic compulsive masturbator, etc.), and a variety of female leads.

The execution is lacking something I just can’t indentify. I’ve read other reviews criticizing the animation quality, but for a television series it’s really rather good. The character designs, though a trifle heavy on the fanservice, are well-conceived. For each, the appearance matches the voiceacting which matches the general idiom of the character. The tough & cool girl looks appropriately iconoclastic without looking goofy, the Genki girl is appropriately bouncy, the Reserved girl is appropriately delicate, and so forth.

There is some intangible quality about how the characters come together with the premise of the first episode (quickly summarized: an all-boys school hosts a busload of students from an all-girls school in preparation for both schools eventually going co-ed). That intangible quality sucks the life out of an otherwise silly, fanservicey romp. After one episode, I’m giving this one a pessimistic C-. It has quite a ways to go to redeem itself for me.

File under “cute.” Sure, that’s what we do with everything by Ken Akamatsu, creator of such as Love Hina and Love Don’t Stop, makes a lot of cute work. Itsudatte My Santa is a mild departure in that this story, unlike many of the “harem manga” stories about the “lovable dolt” archetype, this story is concise, straightforward, and finite. That’s right, it has an ending, and ends when it makes sense for it to.

I found this particular manga with the aid of the fine folks at Manga-Jouhou, as translated by Akatsuki-Manga. You can purchase it if you like, the art is quite good.

It looks like Onegai Teacher has a sequel out. I saw it coming, care of anything-asian.net but wasn’t terribly excited about it. The original series was sweet but didn’t seem to lend itself well to a sequel (why make a sequel when the first series has a happy ending and no real loose ends to speak of?).

However the poorly-named “Onegai Twins” (they’re actually triplets, but let’s not get into that just now) is, like its parent series, quite well-done. Instead of continuing to follow the original plotline, we pick up at the same school, same time period, but with a new protagonist. He, contrary to recent anime convention, is actually a competent person with a strong personality and a modicum of composure. When faced with the unexpected appearance of his twin sister, he reacts as any reasonable person would: uncomfortably (but firmly). It is probably the firm personality of the main character that is setting this series aside for me so far.

In an age where the “harem anime” genre abounds (wherein the protagonist is invariably a lovable loser), it is nice to see somebody with a spine attached. Additionally, because we’re talking about siblings here, any fanservice is purely for the audience, and we need never ask questions like “Why doesn’t he just go for it, dammit?” Because that would be sick, that’s why. So far I highly recommend giving it a look.

After many hours mindlessly downloading from some promising Bit Torrents over the past week or so, I finally had a chance to sit down an watch a couple. My findings:

Scrapped Princess

Scrapped Princess, as translated by the fine folks at AnimeJunkies is one of the best new anime I’ve seen in quite a while. Brought to us by the same people who made Cowboy Bebop, this show demonstates what a made-for-television animated story can do. It has a dabbling of D&D genre cliches. There are dramatic (and well-excuted) fight scenes with swords, sorcery, and the occasional giant monster. There is a hint of romance. There is a healthy dose of comedy, which instead of overriding the story actually seems to help “ground” the protagonists in their comraderie.

The story follows three characters (each of whom is multidimensional without falling into the “woe is I” angst-trap) as they alternately flee and fight the oppressive forces around them. They are faced with a prophecy which fortells that Pacifica, a naive and goodhearted 15-year-old, will destroy the world. Her adoptive brother and sister protect and guide her on a journey to who-knows-what. As the story oscillates from the tragic to the absurd and back again, they face commoners, soldiers, and priests, almost all of whom simply want to do the right thing and save the world from its fated doom at Pacifica’s hands. Scrapped Princess is exceptionally well-crafted, never lingering upon a mood or specific plot mechanism long enough to become tiresome or heavy-handed. The voice acting suits the characters well (I am not fluent in Japanese, so take that as you will). The animation is outstanding for a television series, which makes me wonder if it was exceptionally well-funded, completely done before they aired the first episode, or if something is horribly wrong with the rest of the television animation industry.

Thus far, only 13 episodes have been released, 12 of which have already made it to the fansub-consuming public in English. So far, it is leaning towards “classic” status for me. Let’s see how far they go, shall we?

Narue no Sekai

Narue no Sekai has proven to be a cute, if not-terribly remarkable romantic comedy. If features a lovable loser and a cute alien high school girl. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. I went through a handful of episodes and skipped over to some other titles. Not bad, but I don’t think I’ll be buying the DVD.

Divergence Eve

Divergence Eve was something I spotted in a recent issue of Newtype, and it looked like a somewhat-promising sci-fi epic. Alas, it’s heavy on the melodrama, melodramatically heavy on the CG spaceships and space opera catchphrases, and morbidly overdone on the boobage. It displays an Amazing Nurse Nanako aptitude for placing gigantic hooters on any female in the story that’s over 12 years old, which would be over 3/4 of the cast. I’ve only seen the first episode, so it may yet improve. The closing credits (a somewhat masturbatory “dress up the female lead” sequence that clashed in mood horribly with the melodrama) were the high point of episode one. In light of what preceded it, the credits were hilarious.

Read or Die is a very nicely-done manga and a related 3-part OVA chronicling the adventures of Yomiko Readman, superpowered secret agent for the British government. Now don’t take this to mean that she’s one of those super-cool British secret agents with a “I’m a badass” attitude and cool technology and weapons. Nope, she’s a bookworm. A socially inept recluse that works for the government to enable her reading habits. Her superpower consists entirely of an affinity with paper, hence her codename “The Paper.” She can do just about anything with paper, able to use it as a weapon, shield, vehicle, and multipurpose powertool as need be. Rather neato.

The OVA is definitely of a far more mature and sober nature than the rather silly comic, with far more drama and much less comic relief, but I highly recommend both.

I’ve been reading the Read or Die manga, courtesy of the kind folks at mangaproject.cjb.net and I had the pleasure of seeing a fansub of the animated version.

Rely upon the fansub no longer, and support this super-plus-excellent work by buying the commercial DVD.

A little bit late in the game I picked up on a fansub project called Tenjo Tenge. It’s a scanslation, as opposed to the typical AVI/DIVX stuff that I will post about from time to time. Along with Pretty Face, I”s, Read or Die, and Love Hina, this is one of the few manga that I’ve really enjoyed grabbing off of neferious little scanslation sites. So far I’m reasonably impressed.

I grabbed my copy from the kind folks at mangatranslation.com, and I’d like to extend my appreciation for their hard work in bringing this kung-fu silliness to light. In subject matter, Tenjo Tenge is rather similar to Real Bout High School (a high school/academy where all the students rigorously study martial arts and kung-fu-fight each other all the time).

As with Real Bout High School there is an ample helping of fanservice in just about every issue, but unlike RBHS there’s a bit more deep of a background story, with issues of loyalty, love, betrayal, and fate all mixing together to create an enjoyable story. The extended flashback in which the backstory is revealed takes up over half of what I’ve read so far, and is definately more interesting than the muscle-flexing and predictable love-triangle (actually there are about six people involed, so it’s a love hexangle or somesuch).

Also unlike Real Bout High School, I’m pretty sure this title will never see the light of day in the US English commercial market due to some very adult (not just naughty, but actually “adult” in a sometimes disturbing way) content.

So far, I’d give it an B+. It would have done better, but the constant reliance upon fanservice and the unlikable “main character” just don’t impress me too much. Perhaps I’ll upgrade this after further reading. I have presently completed 47 chapters, and do not know how long the series runs.

With a recent bandwidth cap increase on my web server, evil little thoughts of putting up more stuff like my fftf, fftm, and star ocean ex galleries come to mind. Any requests from the hodgepodge of people that occasionally comment on this site?

I’ve been watching the first few episodes of Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu as translated by AnimeHaven lately. It is by far the most mellow, realistic show I’ve seen to date featuring a young witch (mage, sorceress, whatever) in training. With silly shows like Mahou Tsukai Tai out there on the US market already, I’m somewhat curious as to whether this show will ever see the light of day in the US commercial market.

The show’s lead character, Yume, is a bumkin from Japan’s back country that has just moved into Tokyo to study under a master mage. She lives with her sensei at his place, which in addition to being his home and office is also a salsa nightclub/bar. The challenges she faces are largely internal in nature as she comes to terms with how her magic affects the people around her and society’s sometimes grudging acceptance of the supernatural.

Kiddy Grade’s depth and breadth expand quite dramatically around Episode 8. My previous review was prior to the release of these later episodes. My viewing of the series is currently at episode 19 of 26 total, with episode 20 downloading as I type this.
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