The kind folks that brought us School Rumble, Manga Inc., are at it again, bringing the oddball nobody-else-would-translate-it wonderfulness. This time, it comes in the form of NHK ni Youkoso, a story based upon the premise that young japanese shut-ins are the unwitting pawns of a great conspiracy. Check it out, in all its might and glory. Don’t let my description of the premise scare you off: it is quite good.

I’m starting to get the feeling that deady- assassin- hot- chick- with- pre- pube- female- sidekick is starting to become a legitimate genre unto itself. I just hope we can find as handy of a monicker for it as harem-manga. Madlax is a story about a woman named Madlax. Much like Noir (a story about a woman codenamed Noir), and Najica Blitz Tactics (a story about a woman named Najica, though I don’t think Blitz Tactics was her last name and I wouldn’t put it past those folks), the main character is a death- on- wheels secret operative whose name strikes terror into the hearts of big manly men that are invariably killed off handily sometime during the show.

Deadly- assassin- hot- chick- with- pre- pube- female- sidekick anime shows must, as mandated by Japanese law, feature faceless code- named possibly- governmental- but- certainly- not- officially- recognized overlords for whom the deadly- assassin- hot- chick works. Madlax doesn’t let us down here. Deadly- assassin- hot- chick- with- pre- pube- female- sidekick shows must also feature mysterious discs with secret data, gunfights in which the heroine is wearing a skirt, and some indication that the protagonist is somehow deeply dissatisfied with her personal life.

Now to come up with a shorthand descriptive term for these shows that has less than 14 syllables… Perhaps an acronym is called for… MECHAS? It would never catch on. People would think I’m talking about Gundam or La Raza.

Anyhow, check it out it you’re into that particular kind of pain. Oh, and don’t let the superficial comparison to Najica fool you, there will be no surplus of panty shots for you in this one. I will diligently search for a translated copy of Samurai Champloo ep5 or Interlude ep2.

I was recently steered in the direction of several anime series that I hadn’t previously been exposed to, and two of them have turned out to be really quite good. Smash Hit is about as bad a series (judging from the first two episodes) as you could expect from the people who brought us CosPrayers. Do they even qualify as people anymore? I don’t understand why people keep translating that M.O.E. stuff. My only guess can be summed up by the following two words: “panties,” and “lolicon.” Sad, sad, sad, and sad.

But on to the stuff that’s worth watching!

Interlude was recommended to me by Killy in #mangainc before I went to New York. I had it waiting for me on my hard drive by the time I got back, thanks to the kind folks at the Triad. Only one episode is available in English at this time, to the best of my knowledge, so it is entirely possible that the apparent depth of the story is pretense to lure suckers like myself in. But deep it appears. The artwork is solid, the animation is high-quality, and lo! I actually sympathize with the protagonists. The basic premise is a school kid that starts seeing things around him. Creepy things, but not Boogypop-creepy. Some of these things nobody else sees, some others see but don’t remember. This might lead you to believe that he’s imagining things, but there are other odd occurances that everybody else sees, and everybody remembers the next day. We’ll see where this one goes.

Samurai Champloo, on the other hand, I’m definately sold on after two episodes. It follows Jin, a ronin, Mugen, a wandering swordsman from Okinawa or thereabouts, and Fuu, a waitress. It has what sounds like a Japanese man trying to rap in English for the opening song. This doesn’t sound very promising, and is why I waited as long as I did to take a look at it, but then I found out there there was some special sauce poured into the recipe: the director from Cowboy Bebop, Shinichiro Watanabe. As my film-geek friends have assured me time and again, don’t follow actors, follow directors. He makes the quest of a dango-peddling waitress to find a samurai that smells like sunflowers into something that is highly entertaining. The production values (aside from the Japanese rapper) is outstanding, the character designs are excellent, and I strongly suspect that the next several episodes will be every bit as good.

cha cha cha