As a bonus for you fans living in the D/FW area, FUNimation will be holding a screening of their new feature film Vexille on March 31 at the AFI Dallas Film Festival, and again on April 4 at the Northpark 7 theatre. More information can be found at this FUNimation press release.
Apologies for the delay! After three days, I have finally risen from the grav… gravy and meat-induced stupor; and the friends who visited discovered my room empty, with the giant chocolate egg at the entrance eaten clean through. And so I am able to appear before you once again with a new article.
And if there weren’t enough heretical Western references in that last paragraph, this week’s Plugging In should have me crucified by anime purists for sure. I present to you Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Central to the show’s cosmology are the balance and flow of the four elements — Earth, Air, Water, Fire — and how these forces have shaped the development of society and civilization. Living within the world are those who are can manipulate their respective element, known as Benders. Only one being, the Avatar, has the power to control all four elements.
Katara, the last known Waterbender of the Southern Water tribes, and her brother Sokka, a young and highly resourceful warrior, discover the young monk, Aang, who turns out to be the last known surviving Airbender in the world, suspended in a sphere of ice. The three leave on a journey to fulfill the destiny of the Avatar and to bring balance back to the world by stopping the Fire Nation’s destructive expansionist war. At first, they are accompanied by Aang’s animal companions, Appa the flying bison and Momo the winged lemur, and later joined by Toph, a blind, but extraordinarily skilled Earthbender.
This award-winning series from creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Brian Konietzko has been widely acclaimed, and with good reason. With its rare, serialized story format (at least as far as American-produced animated series go) and quirkily compelling characters, though the series was originally targeted to younger viewers, the story quickly adapts itself to mature audiences as well. They don’t shirk from topics controversial to many other American cartoons, namely death and violence. The world of Avatar is heavily influenced by Asian art, philosophy, and culture, and for the purists, the creators were also inspired by various anime, including FLCL, Samurai Champloo, and many of Miyazaki’s works.
In addition to the excellent storytelling and character growth, Avatar features exciting martial arts combat enhanced with the elemental effects of Bending. Each Bending technique features its own martial arts style — Ba Kua for Airbending, Tai Chi for Waterbending, Hung Gar for Earthbending, and Northern Long Fist for Firebending — with some variants tossed in to mix things up a little. So for fans of action, epic adventure, and characters that develop and grow, I recommend Avatar: The Last Airbender, available from Nickolodeon.
Howdy!
Before we get started, seeing as I’m the new kid on the block around here, let me introduce myself real quick. I’ve been involved in the anime and video game industries and communities in some shape, form, or fashion for far longer than I’d like to admit. I make my living as a writer — technical writing by day, freelance writer by night. You can find my by-lines in Beckett Massive Online Gamer and in Anime Insider magazines, and yes, I’m the goofball responsible for the Lineage II cheesecake review.
I watch a lot of anime, much more than what should be considered healthy, and yet I still have four or five shelves of DVDs that I still haven’t gotten around to. I love the medium and I believe that as a devout fan, I should never have a reason to nit-pick and criticize shows for their flaws. That’s why you’ll probably never see a review from me; my articles are geared towards the promotion of anime, regardless of its genre, and that’s what the primary focus of this column will be about.
Plugging In will be highlighting new series that will be released, or in the process of being released, in North America, and explaining why you should watch the show. If all goes well, I may be able to get hold of some special and exclusive features as well! For the record, I’m not being paid or sponsored by any anime company; this is just my meager contribution towards the growth of the industry.
And now, on with the show!
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Appleseed: Ex Machina is the action-packed collaboration between Hong Kong gun-fu cinematographer John Woo as producer and anime mecha-master Shinji Aramaki in the director’s chair. This sequel to the 2004 Appleseed movie takes CG action animation to a new level with explosive gun fights, furious kung-fu fighting action, and high-flying Matrix-inspired Guges Landmate dogfighting combat.
The world of Appleseed is a future post-apocalyptic earth devastated by an intense non-nuclear war that wiped out half of the world’s population. The lands were left barren by the massive amounts of ordinance used in the conflict and governments were left shattered and in disarray. As an experiment to prevent further disaster, a genetically engineered race of beings known as Bioroids were created — devoid of emotion, and with their lives strictly regulated and controlled, they were given responsibility for the governance and administration of a new city of hope, Olympus.
Deunan Knute is a strong-willed member of Olympus’ E.S.W.A.T. special forces peacekeeping team who stands out an exceptionally skilled human in a squad full of combat-enhanced cyborgs. Her partner, Briareos, is the only full-conversion cyborg in existence able to control the Hecatonchires cyborg frame. Toss a prototype combat Bioroid, Tereus, into the mix, and you get just over 100 minutes of intense, edge-of-your-seat action.
Those who enjoy action-oriented shows will have plenty to keep their adrenaline pumping. Fans of Shirow Masamune’s works won’t be disappointed with this animated adaptation of his manga either. Deunan serves up one piping-hot, strong female lead character, while Briareos’ gun-toting machismo would make Chow Yun Fat green with envy. The movie offers a plot, story, and some romance and drama as well, but they play second-fiddle to the main attraction of the film: stuff blowing up.
And yes, there are doves too.
Look for the DVD from Warner Bros.
I’ve gone into my Anime Wayback Machine and pulled the wondrous Giant Robo off of my shelf, and I can’t tell you how great this show was back in the ’90s. Not only did this show have old-school giant robot action, but it was full of wire fu and went so far over the top that it shot straight past Fun right to Glorious. Magic, martial arts, boxing, drinking contests, Giant Robo was full of Manly Men and Awesome Women. Come on, it has the Experts of Justice fighting against Big Fire, how can you hate that?
Of course, it was incredibly frustrating to follow, too - 3 years passed between the release of episodes 6 and 7. I wasn’t one of the people who had to wait for it (I got into Giant Robo late, long after the suffering), but people who followed The Pretender for a while can probably sympathize with those who had to wait years before seeing any kind of ending to their favorite series.
Anyway, try watching Giant Robo some time - you can find it on NetFlix pretty easily, and it’s a fast watch. Hell, if you’re willing to listen to the recommendation of a grumbly old-timer like me, you should be able to find the whole thing (including the wonderfully hilarious GinRei specials) for $40 or less.
It’s worth it. Trust me. Action, passion, comedy, and Robots! All the things that are best in life.
Dispense with the pleasantries! Bring more art! I’ll probably have a rant of sorts regarding the state of our image-consuming (read: .jpg DEVOURING) Internet culture next week. But there’s the distinct feeling of being kicked in the back. By a pro wrestler. Oww.
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!!! — uh..? huh? wha– Oooooooooh, it was LAST WEEK. Dang. Oh well, better late than never, right? I’d have had a good one, but lately the “love” shown by migraine headaches had me swooning.
I’ll spare long discussions in favor of random artwork. Everybody likes art!
Rediscovering old tools with new methods is exciting! (MS Paint)
[Demon Mage Tess, original character brought to you by Angry Viking Press]
And there’s nothing like that New Program Smell. (OpenCanvas)
[Casper, from a new arcade game, Deathsmiles] (c) 2007, CAVE/AMI.
But then, there’s always room for traditional fare.
[”Ciel“, a mage character class in the Disgaea series] (c)2005-2008, Nippon Ichi Software.
And that’s it for now. See ya next week!
It used to be that finding anime-influenced art on non-anime things was fairly rare. You might spot a bootleg anime picture on a bootleg product, but that was likely to be it. But these days, it’s become fairly common to find anime-influenced artwork in everyday items.
Case in point, I was at Best Buy a couple of weeks ago, and as I stood in line, I took a look at the “quick sale” racks, and noticed a couple of karaoke CDs that looked a bit unusual.
Upon inspection, the ‘Western Hits of the 90s’ karaoke CD had a distinctly cute anime girl on the cover (and without a cowboy hat or any kind of identifying ‘western’ apparel).I thought to myself, “This has to be a joke.” Then I looked around, and spotted a couple more CDs with similar covers. At first I wondered why they would be trying to sell karaoke CDs like that to kids, then I realized that the ‘kids’ I was thinking of were now in college most likely.
Since then, I’ve noticed anime style art on a variety of items, from clothing labels to snack packages (and again, not branded-items) to a bunch of other things. But still, the thing that struck me as the strangest was the karaoke CD.
So what kinds of things have you noticed in normal life that has anime-style art on it? What’s been the most unusual? The most “normal”?
As I just got this game in today (Monday, February 4, 2008), I figured I would play it for a bit and write down my first impressions.
Suzumiya Haruhi no Tomadoi (The Wonderment of Haruhi Suzumiya )for the Playstation 2 is a combination of a visual novel and a game creation simulator. The plot of the game is as such:
Haruhi has found out about a game creation contest, called “Game Garden”, and decides that the SOS Brigade is going to participate and win. Your job, as Kyon, is to set the schedule for the next four weeks and create a game that Haruhi will accept.
But it’s not as simple as that. Nothing involving Haruhi Suzumiya ever is. The initial attempt at making a game ends up being a ‘prologue’, and after the four weeks end, you get shot back to the first day again, to try all over again. Koizumi tells you on the second run of ‘Day One’ that the four weeks are likely to repeat themselves until the group is able to create a game that satisfies Haruhi. That said, there’s no knowing what will satisfy her until you make it.
The back of the game’s package states that there are several potential games, ranging from Dragon Warrior/Quest-esque RPGs to girl-raising simulators (like Princess Maker) to a parody of the Super Robot Wars series. It also states that all of these games are playable, though not to what degree. (I’m guessing a few levels/dungeons/stages each)
So far, I have seen the prologue, the opening animation (which is the same as the TV series), and one day of ‘game production’. I have learned, though the helpful, if a bit wordy, tutorials, that it will likely be necessary for me to go through the four week period a few times, in order to learn some of the tasks necessary to make a good game, like ‘finding story ideas’ or ‘creating the rough character designs’.
All in all, this is looking like it will be a rare thing – an actually enjoyable anime-based game. The writing is good, and the game play is easy to learn, yet requires a good amount of planning and strategy. I’ll talk more about the game play in more detail next time.
So, Haruhi fans (and those who are not), does a game like this interest you at all? What kind of Haruhi (or anime/manga) related games would you like to see? Do you even like anime-based games?
Raise your hand if you remember Kimi ga Nozomu Eien (KimiNozo), otherwise known as Rumbling Hearts. You know, the heartwarming story of a boy, his girlfriend who gets hit by a car, her best friend he’s in love with, and their years of mental breakdowns. When it came out in game and anime form, it became famous for its overwhelmingly depressing mood, which led to the creation of the term 鬱ゲー (utsu gee, or Angst Game) for it and its legion of imitators.
Now raise your hand if you managed to watch Akane Maniax (AkaMani), the pseudo-sequel to Rumbling Hearts - which is the heartwarming story of a brilliantly stupid anachronism and the romance/giant robot action series he keeps living out in his head. For the short version of how diametrically different this is from its predecessory, you just have to watch the openings of each: here’s KimiNozo, which starts out with a report on the victim of a hit and run, and here’s AkaMani, in all of its burning/sprouting wonder. It’s hard to believe that both games/anime came from the same studio, and that studio’s transformation from Angst Peddler to Creator of Glorious Stupidity is a funny story to follow.
The game company age (warning: not all links safe for work) released its first game, Kimi ga Ita Kisetsu, in 1998, but the game that really put it on the map was KimiNozo in 2001. The story and characters really connected with fans, in spite of (or because of) the story’s constant abuse of emotion - nothing good ever really happened to the characters, and many of the stories were spirals into depression, PTSD, and depression. It was so massively popular, it spawned a TV series, a couple of re-releases, and a bunch of fan discs that are worth a mint today if you can find them.
However, as a response to the overwhelmingly dark atmosphere of the original work, the age staff packed as much humor and stupidity into the KimiNozo omake discs. First, they made all of the theme songs parodies or outright ripoffs of old burning anime. Here’s the opening for one of the omake discs, Daikuuji Kiki Ippatsu! Please note the similarity to the classic Saint Seiya opening, Pegasus Fantasy. To add even more Fake Burning to their games, they contracted out a few JAM project singers to belt out their parody hits, striking up a strong relationship that continues to this day - a topic I’ll get to when I get to Muv-Luv in a few weeks.
Akane Maniax represents the peak of age’s period of pure silliness. It is filled with parodies of Tekkaman Blade and Gundam: Char’s Counterattack, most of which occur in the imagination of ’70s throwback Gouda Jouji. In the anime (I’ve never had the pleasure of playing the game), all things close to angst are resolved by mental battles with the evil robot King Irresoluter, piloted by a masked villain eerily similar to the main character of KimiNozo. It is, in short, the best thing ever.
After Akane Maniax, age has worked pretty much exclusively on its Muv-luv series, which straddles both burning and sprouting equally - which means you’ll see me talking about it a lot more in upcoming weeks.
Final tangent: age is part of the “Chiyoda Federation” (千代田連合, or ちよれん for short) along with two other companies with neighboring offices: 0verflow of School Days fame/infamy, and Nitroplus, who gave the world a similar dose of angst in Saya no Uta and also made up for it with giant robot cheese in Demonbane. This tells you all you need to know about the influence these companies have on each other.
Not Curly.
First, my apologies for the lack of posting recently. Holidays, being sick, and work all prevented me from having the time to think of a good post.
Then my fellow poster, Mr. Win-Myun Kim, gave me something to build on.
Tsundere is one of my favorite moe, as some of you may remember. But before tsundere became a standard moe, and heck, even before the idea of moe was unified, as it were, there was the idea of ‘takabi’.
Takabi, short for ‘takabisha’, is a term used for ‘princess types’. In anime, this would be the rich girls, the actual princesses, the women (and sometimes men) who were or felt that they were socially superior to you/the main character. (Some more uncouth people might call this archetype the ‘rich bitch’)
Good of examples of this kind of character are Kuriko Kazetsubaki from Maburaho, Mira Kagami from Tokimeki Memorial, and Aeka from the Tenchi Muyo series.
How is takabi a predecessor to tsundere? Here’s a comparison:
Tsundere
Takabi
Admittedly, there’s not much to the archetype. But still, that’s the kind of character that was prevalent in anime and such until the tsundere archetype came about.
So, do any of you like tsundere and/or takabi girls/boys? Who? And why do you like the archetype?
