Oreimo

                If you’re like me you might have problems with trying to keep up with all of the latest anime that’s coming out. This year in particular, has been a difficult one simply because there hasn’t actually been too much to really grab my attention. And then most of the cool anime that I do want to see don’t get a legal streaming service here in the states. But since October I have been eagerly watching every episode of the new otaku comedy Oreimo. Thanks to ANN I have been able to keep up with this fun and eventful show, all without having to pay a cent.

                The story of Oreimo at first sounds pretty generic and disappointing. It’s about a high school boy named Kyosuke Kosaka who lives in the shadow of his over achieving little sister named Kirino; who has seemed to avoid him for the past couple of years. Unlike him, she is athletic, intelligent, attractive, and popular. By contrast he is a completely average guy with nothing special really going for him. And although she seems happy and cheerful in front of everyone else, she constantly treats him like an unwanted puppy. So needless to say there is tension between the two. But this changes when one day he finds anime dvd case in the middle of the hallway, and when he opens it up he finds that it actually contains an adult ero game. After some quick detective work it is revealed that both the dvd and the game belong to Kirino. When he confronts her about the dvd she confesses that she is shamefully a closet otaku and that she needs his help keeping her hobby a secret. This starts off a series of events which revolve around Kyosuke helping his little sister discover her true self, and teaches her not to be ashamed of her hobby. It might also help to mention that Kirino has a particular obsession with magical girl anime and little sister ero games which both combined to make the situation very awkward for Kyosuke.

                Now I wouldn’t blame you if you read the full title of this anime and then pass it off, the full title is Ore no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai (My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute). Believe me, I know the title brings to mind images of a generic moe/incest/harem which would offer little to no entertainment value beyond fantasy material for otaku, but this show is actually nothing like that. Sure there is some moe aspect to it, but the majority of the anime focuses of otaku related comedy and delightful characters. And best of all; there’s actually no incest involved.

                I’d say that the strongest point of the anime is the comedy aspect which is build to entertain otaku. It’s best to describe it as a more recent Genshiken. Much like Genshiken, it’s filled with jokes that really only fellow Otaku would be able to fallow. Also, like Genshiken, it involves many different types of Otaku and showing how they interact in a modern fandom. But unlike Genshiken, it has a look which blends in perfectly with all of the other anime which have been made in the later half of the decade. Many of the jokes and plot points revolve around new and old issues of the otaku fandom in Japan and the different types of Otaku which exist. Also keep in mind that the story is shown through the eyes of a non-otaku (Kyosuke) so it will often show the culture shock that many average Japanese citizens face when interacting with otaku.

                Honestly the main characters of the series are nothing special. Kyosuke is your typical teenager with nothing special about him and who is absolutely normal in every way. And Kirino is your classic case tsundere which makes me question just how much of her character is just completely based off Haruhi. But what actually makes the series good is the colorful cast of secondary characters. It’s largely Kirino’s friends that make the show so enjoyable. They breathe much needed life into this otherwise iffy series. Unlike the 2 main characters, the side characters are quite unique and acted as fun and relatable parodies of people from the real world, while at the same time developing into full characters of their own. My 2 favorite characters of the series would have to be Kirino’s otaku friends Kuroneko and Saori. Kuroneko acts mainly as a stereotypical parody of a specific type of otaku. This kind of otaku is mainly obsessed with drama anime aimed at older teens (like Code Geass, Darker Than Black, ext.). She is also a loli cosplayer, and not just you occasional type, she cosplays everyday. Early in the series she is defined, by Kirino, as “post-evangelion bitter”, which I feel reflects a lot of anime fans today (including me). Saori is the leader of a girl otaku organization and is seen by her friends as being an old school otaku that dresses and acts as stereotypical as you can find. She’s an entertaining version of the otaku from the 90s and further back who still obsess over Gundam and were flannel shirts year round. In many ways she’s like a character pulled from Genshiken and thrown into this new series. There are some other fun characters that come up throughout the series, but non quite as entertaining or as relevant as these two. In the end, the only character I truly hated was Manami, who was Kyosuke childhood friend. She is the most generic, moe, fanservice character I have ever seen. Every part with her in it made me want to stop watching the anime. But luckily I toughed it out and made it to the end, and I’m quite happy I didn’t let her ruin the series for me.

                The staff was made up, of people who were well trained in the ways of anime. The director Hiroyuki Kanbe, is notable as an animator involved in Flame of Recca, Yu Yu Hakusho, Rurouni Kenshin, Evangelion, Cowboy Bebeop (movie), ext. and finally as a director in Viper’s Creed. The animation directors, Kana Ishida and Tetsuya Kawakami, are quite well seasoned. They’ve worked on enough big hits to make your head spin. For all of these staff members, Oreimo seems like a step out of the ordinary for them. Nothing these guys have worked on have been quite this comedy driven. And in the end the series felt like it should have been a Kyoto Animation project rather than AIC. But the most out there staff member for this anime has to be Hideyuki Kurata. For those of you not familiar with him, he is a very well established anime writer. He is famous for writing shows like Now and Then Here and There, R.O.D (OVA and series), Cloth Road, Hellsing Unlimited, ext. he even dates back to doing old school sci-fi anime like Android Ana Maico 2010. But he now does a series like Oreimo, it’s kind of shocking to see him adapting to each generation of anime fandom so well over the course of his career.

                Oreimo is based on a light novel series written by Tsukasa Fushimi which, from what I’ve heard, has been very successful over in Japan. The light novel series started in 2008 and in 2010 has already released it’s 7^th volume. It’s also adapted into a manga series in 2009 and has character design work by Hiro Kanzaki. Neither series has been licensed in North America as of yet, but if this anime series does well enough here we might see some volumes of the manga or novel make their U.S. debut soon.

                Over all it’s a fun and entertaining series, if you don’t mind a few annoyances. Anyone who is looking for a new otaku comedy should give it a shot. And what’s the harm in giving it a go? It’s free streaming thanks to the folks over at ANN. So don’t let the name fool you, just dive right in and try to enjoy what the show has to offer.

Best Anime of the Decade

Best Sci-fi: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

You just cant get any better than this masterpiece. It was a perfection of it’s era, painting a vivid and multi-layered world while juggling a complex array of stories and characters that came together to form a wonderful series. Everything from the writing, which was by Dai Sato, to the directing, provided by Kenji Kamiyama, was perfectly formed. The series was able to portray a whole new world to the viewer without being to blunt or apparent. It seemed to just instantly throw you into this complex new setting, but somehow, instead of turning away it encouraged people to keep watching. Some how the mystery of how this futuristic society worked seemed to make the viewer even more engrossed in the story. And when you finally get a grasp on the concept of this world you didn’t feel like you were watching a stereotypical futuristic world of plain robots and spaceships. Some how this world seemed like a real possibility of what could be to come; which made the stories that much more relevant and powerful. The characters in the series were masterly crafted as well. Not only showing depth and the ability to make fleshed out characters, they were even able to make icons. The Laughing Man has become an enduring figure to anyone who has watched the show and even became a bit of an internet icon. On top of all of this GITS also possessed the dub which many claim to be the best to date. Casting a long list of famous and highly skilled voice actors they were able to make a dub that even non-dub-fans had to enjoy.

Best Drama: Cowboy Bebop

This is an instant classic in my book. From start to finish this series created classic characters and stories that went on to become some of the best known and highly acclaimed of the decade. The characters and so fleshed out and likeable that while watching the series you find yourself becoming attached to them, which makes the emotional aspect of the stories that much more effective. From episode one it hits you with a power house collaboration of the all star staff which makes a notable impact on the psyche. And on top of the flawless action sense and powerful emotional aspects, it also has some of the best music ever used in an anime. This series mastered the art of using music to set the mood of the story in a way that few series have been able to match.

Best Fantasy: Mushi-shi

No matter how many times I watch this series it never fails to move me. The stories are so unique and powerful and the directing doesn't try to push action or anything. The series is a one of a kind that can never be replicated quite as good as it was. It puts you into this strange new world but you don’t feel lost in it, in fact you accept it. Each episode gives you an in depth look into the world in which mushi exist and the characters surrounding them. And the stories are quite modest but at the same time seem to hit you the hardest. The creatures that are called mushi throughout the series are some of the most imaginative and unique things I’ve ever heard of. Just the thought of them gives you the feeling of something magical that is unreal and yet surreal at the same time. It wins best fantasy hands down.

Best Mecha: Gurren Laggan

Its not just your run of the mill mecha series. There is always more to it beyond the jokingly stereotypical super robot story they hide a message of hope and encouragement. I think it's this message which gave the series life and made it such a big success. When you were done watching the series you were left with a feeling that if you try hard enough you can reach the starts. I think this spoke to allot of people and that’s why the catch phrases of the anime can all to often be heard shouted throughout the halls of any given anime con.

Best Comedy: Lucky Star

Sometimes this anime is seen as the bastard child of Kyoto Animation in between the two Haruhi seasons but in many ways I find Lucky Star to be better. The style of comedy is one that had never been seen in anime before and, I think, really broke the mold of your typical comedy anime. It's style of showing life-like events in a comedicly clumsy light makes it the type of comedy that makes you think "it's funny because it's true." And the use of everyday conversations gives it it's unique Seinfeld-esk feel. When your asking for best comedy there is really no other option, its Lucky Star hands down.

Best Adventure: Darker Than Black

Personally I found this series to be far superior to his companion Full Metal Alchemist for the main reason that it didn’t cheapen the drama or suspense. Darker Than Black was just an amazing show, period. I can think of few others that are able to balance drama, action, and a few cases of comedy in same way this adventure does. Sure they aren’t looking for treasure or something cliché like that but that doesn’t make this series any less of an adventure. The action scenes were very well done and the animation was a testament to how great Bones studio is. From start to finish this series kept me interested and watching as the plot thickened and the story unfolded. And you can bet that I have a back log of the new season just waiting to be watched. This series actually went above my expectations and blew its competitors out of the water.

Best Action: Samurai Champloo

Is it really that much of a surprise? When I first saw this series aired on Adult Swim I was blown away by the intensity and precision the action sequences were done. This anime mastered the genre in a way to no other has before, leaving the critics breathless. I find it hard to even fathom a discussion of anime action without Samurai Champloo quickly becoming a point of conversation. No other series can and, most likely, will be able to match the amazing fight scenes that were shown in this series. And on top of that it had some amazing music. Fallowing in the shoes of Watanaba’s previous works, this series incorporated music as a key aspect of the series. This was the first time most Americans had ever heard of the artist Nujabes and it definitely wouldn’t be the last.

Best Mystery: Ergo Proxy

Sure I would have liked to say Monster but I haven’t finished it yet so I don’t find that fair. And sure most people would say Death Note but I think I speak for everyone that half way through the series it has a major drop in quality of story. So there is only one real choice here today and that would be Ergo Proxy. This series was able to present a mystery that I think few can match. There are so many mysteries to solve in this series it’s enough to make your head spin. You basically start off completely in the dark about nearly everything, but as the story goes on you learn new things that make you see this world in a new light and bring you one step closer to solving everything. It’s the type of series that pulls you along taunting you to try and solve the riddle. And the setting is very interesting, a cyber punk/post-apocalyptic world that has a strong undertone of darkness.

Best Shonen: Soul Eater

Few shonen anime manage to entertain me but this one just blew me way. It had everything perfectly done great music, imaginative plot, unique setting, and some mind blowing action scenes. I honestly cant find anything to complain about with this series. Only a hand full of shonen series has managed to impress me but this one goes above and beyond and stole a special place in my heart. This is not only my favorite of the decade but my favorite shonen of all time. If you haven’t seen this series yet you should asap.

Best OVA: Now and Then, Here and There

This was a tough call for me to make, I love FLCL and Now and Then equally but I had to make a choice and it went to Now and Then. I figured enough people were already going to praise FLCL as it was and Now and Then need some love. This series is one of the best and most depressing things I have ever seen. In as few as 12 episodes it puts you through a whole story that is often enough to make you cry. It doesn’t let up from being depressing and power at the same time. It makes you get attached to the characters and you hate to see all the bad things they go through over the course of the series but some how that’s what is so great about it. It’s a beautiful masterpiece that everyone must watch.

Best Movie: Undecided

This was a category that I just couldn’t deice on. I was able to narrow it down to 5 choices though. I’d have to say that the 5 best movies this decade were Spirited Away, The Girl Who Lept Through Time, 5cm Per Second, Millennium Actress, and Paprika. These movies set the bar up higher than most creators can ever hope to reach and they’ve set the standard for excellence for years to come. I think few could argue with a list like this. Each of these movies mastered their craft and put forth their best effort in animation, story, characters, and entertainment. These will be the legends of this decade that future anime creators will strive to succeed.

Best of manga list still to come!

The Place Promised in our Early Days

Sorry for taking so long for the next on but I’ve been distracted by catching up with my summer reading and watching. I’ve knocked out quite a bit, but I still got allot to go. But I’ve finally decided to take the time to concentrate on doing this review.

As promised in my last post I’ll be reviewing the Makoto Shinkai classic, The Place Promised in Our Early Days. I’ve been looking forward to doing this review ever since I saw the movie. This was actually my first Shinkai experience and it is what got me hooked on his works. The reason why this movie caught my attention so much is because it’s such a unique anime. And the reason why it’s so unique is because of Shinkai’s unique directing, writing, and animation.

The Place Promised in our Early Days tells the story of a young group of friends who are captivated by a strange tower that dominates the sky line. The three friends (Hiroki Fujisawa, Takuya Shirakawa, and Sayuri Sawatari) share the same dream of one day flying to that tower. But this dream seems impossible because the world is split by countries preparing for war, and the tower lies on the other side of the battle lines. But this doesn’t stop them; they begin construction on an air plain that will take them to their promised place. But when Sayuri goes missing with out a word they lose focus and hope. Now 3 years later war is soon to begin and the secret of what happened to Sayuri is revealed. It’s truly an emotional story that pulls on the heart strings again and again. One of the interesting things about the story line is the pace at which it occurs. The story seems to just gradually progress with one event after another piling on top of each other. But then out of no where the story hits the climax like a brick wall and suddenly seems to validate all of those events at once. The suddenness of the climax seems to make the emotional aspect of the story that much more powerful.

Through out the cores of the movie we see stunning animation that seems to leave you breathless. Every piece of animation seems to flow together seamlessly and isn’t forced at all. The movements are so fluid and life like that it’s hard to not just lose your self staring at it. But of course this is to be expected from Shinkai. In the interview with Shinkai on the DVD he mentions that it’s because he was able to work with Ushio Tazawa, and Takumi Tanji that he was able to pull more out of his work. He also said that when Ushio Tazawa was working on character design he said that his job was to re-create the “Shinkai Style”. Ushio ended up using the basics of the character designs from Voices of a Distant Star to create the main characters for this movie.

Another interesting fact revealed in the interview with Shinkai is that he used the actor Hidetaka Yoshioka as a base inspiration for the character Hiroki. The ironic thing is that Hidetaka later ended up being the voice actor of Hiroki. The voice actor who played Takuya (Masato Hagiwara) also seems to be mainly a live action actor. The English cast is mostly made up of voice actors who don’t have allot of lead rolls under their belt, but they put out a quality dub non the less.

In the end I have to say that this is a very powerful and entertaining movie that can be appreciated by all anime fans. Makoto Shinkai has a way of making powerful movies that can manage to touch the hearts of even the most seasoned otakus. I highly recommend this movie to anyone and every one. Currently this movie is available at rightstuf.com for $22.49. This is a must see movie for all anime fans so I suggest that you go out and buy it now. But if you don’t feel like buying something you haven’t seen yet I would point out that it is available through many other legal sources such as Netflix, The Anime Network online, and Crunshyroll. So go out there and watch it already!

Next time I will not be continuing my Makoto Shinkai reviews. As a personal rule I try to only review things that I have a hard copy of (besides MxO). Unfortunately I don’t own 5 Cm Per Second or Voices of a Distant Star yet. So this means I’ll have to postpone those reviews for now. But in it’s place I’ll be talking about my favorite manga series ever, 20th Century Boys. So look forward to that.

s-CRY-ed

This week I’ve decided to do a review of s-CRY-ed. Many of you might know this from the Adult Swim air in 2005. This is actually were I first discovered the series, and it quickly grow on me. I recently bought the whole series in its full box set for about $30 on rightstuf.com. So after watching it again I thought that this would be the perfect series to do my first review on.

s-Cry-ed first aired in 2001 on TV Tokyo. After that it was picked up by Bandai in 2003. No that we got those things out of the way; it’s on to the interesting stuff.

s-CRY-ed is about the story of people who were effected by the “Grate Up Rising”. This was a mysteries event that happened prier to the series. After this event a large amount of land was thrown into chaos and became known as “the lost ground”. Since that event 5% of the people born in the lost ground, become what is known as “Alter Users”. “Alter” is the ability to brake down matter and reconstruct it into a new form. Because of this unique ability and the dismal situation, there is allot of fighting and war in the lost grounds. So the government created a police force known as HOLD to control the situations in the lost grounds. But this wasn’t enough to fix the problems; they also had to create a group made up of Alter Users to combat rouge Alter Users. This group is known as HOLY. This is just some of the background info that is important to the series.

The main character of the series is a man named Kazuma the Shell Bullet (no real last name). He is a bad ass who doesn’t seem to care about anyone but himself. He is one of the rouge Alter Users that HOLY is so dedicated to fighting. But Kazuma seems to have no intentions of backing down to them, or anyone for that matter. His Alter power gives him the ability to turn his arm into a destruction machine that seems half magic and half robotic. Using his Alter power his friend, Kunihiko Kimishima, and him take dangerous jobs and missions to get money. Although Kimishima is simply trying to get enough money to live on, Kazuma seems to have a bit more of a sentimental reason to get money. He’s trying to get money to support him and a young girl by the name of Kanami Yuta. Their relationship is never really explained or talked about much. It’s done in such a way that you understand that they are very close, but your not a hundred percent sure why. Kanami has a habit of calling Kazuma “Kazu-kun”, and seems to be the only person that he’ll listen to. An interesting aspect about Kanami is the fact that she always seems to have dreams of Kazuma while he’s fighting. This creates an interesting dialog for the character development of Kazuma.

Another important character is a man by the name of Ryuhou. He is a Alter User who work for HOLY and quickly becomes Kazuma’s rival. Ryuhou’s Alter takes the form of Zetsuei. This is a being that is separate from him and has a some what Human form to it. Ryuhou’s alter is known as being one of the strongest in HOLY. After an encounter with Kazuma, their hatred for each other seems to grow throughout the series. It leads to an interesting rivalry that gives the show a strong driving force behind it. But Ryuhou isn’t just a HOLY member, he is also a ‘player’ if you will. He has the love of two young ladies. One by the name of Mimori Kiryu, and the other by the name of Scheris Adjani. Mimori Kiryu is a girl from the mainland that came to the lost grounds to find Ryuhou and study Alter Users. And Scheris Adjani is a young Alter User who’s powers remain a mystery for a large portion of the series. She seems to have an infinity for Ryuhou for some reason, this is also not explained until later on.

Another character that I just have to bring up is Straight Cougar. This is my favorite character of the series. He is an Alter User for HOLY who seems to know more than he should, and he’s cocky as hell. His Alter ability is known as “Radical Good Speed”. As the title of it says, it involves speed, lots and lots of speed. He is part romantic, part fighter, part preacher, and part jester. He is a great character.

Now if you’re watching the series and start thinking “for some reason this seems to remind me of Code Geass.” Well you’re not alone; when I first watched Code Geass all I could think was that something about it reminded me of s-CRY-ed. So I looked into it, and found allot of reasons for them to be similar. First up is the director of s-CRY-ed. His name is Goro Taniguchi, but he is better known for his work with Code Geass. He was the original creator of Code Geass and the director. Another important, and obvious, similarity is that Kotaro Nakagawa did the music for both series (although I like the s-CRY-ed music better). I was quite relieved to see that I wasn’t just being paranoid and that my suspicions were confirmed.

The great thing about this series is the action in it. Every episode it’s up to Kazuma to fight another Alter User and beat the crap out of them. As the series goes on the powers just get crazier and crazier. It seems like the writers were just trying to one up each other to see who could create the most bad ass Alter Power out there. Some of the powers can be simple, like a giant gun. While others are more unique, like the ability to turn things into water. This large rang of powers makes the series that more interesting. You never know what kind of crazy fight there’s going to be next.

Other thing that’s so great about this series is all of the anime clichés that they use. One that I really enjoyed was the episode that was made to be a tribute to old super robot series. In this episode (trying not to spoil anything) an Alter User has the power to create a giant robot that is complete with transforming abilities and crazy finishing moves. Another kind of “wink wink, nudge nudge” in this series is that of harem. In the series on Alter User’s ability allows him to create living puppets to his liking. He creates 3 ladies who serve him no matter what, he seems to do this because of his lack of success with real women and his over sized ego. It might not have been an intentional reference to harem series but I saw it. It also seems like Goro Taniguchi might have got his ideas of how to portray Ashferd Academy from this series. One episode of the series completely takes place in HOLY. It starts to be allot like the Ashferd Academy scenes from Code Geass. It’s complete with mellow drama and cheesy comedy moments. Of course this is all for a reason, but I don’t want to explain that because it would be a spoiler. You’ll just have to watch it.

Another thing that I’d like to talk about is the dub used in this series. This had an amazing cast for the English dub. For Kazuma we had my favorite voice actor of all time Steven Jay Blum (Spike from Cowboy Bebop, Roger Smith from Big O, Kyoshiro Tohdoh from Code Geass, Marj Gueldoa from Macross Plus, ext.). Then we had Crispin Freeman (Togusa from Ghost in the Shell, Jeremiah Gottwald from Code Geass, Tabool from Now and Then Here and There, Alan Gabriel from Big O, ext. He also did allot of ADR scripting and directing.) playing Straight Cougar. Those alone make it a great dub for me, but there are plenty of other great voice actors who worked on this series.

Over all I’d say that I really enjoyed this series. I wouldn’t put it on my top 10 list or anything like that, but it’s a very entertaining series. It’s got good character development, good directing, good action, and a good story. I don’t see any reason not to watch s-CRY-ed. I have to say that it’s well worth the money to buy it. Right now there is an Anime Legends box set that runs for about $50. But I would say that the better deal is in the s-CRY-ed complete collection, which is being sold for about $30 at rightstuf.com. Now sure, if they wanted me to pay $60+ then I wouldn’t have even bothered. But after seeing that it was so cheap, I couldn’t help myself. I would suggest this series for anyone who is looking for a good, cheap, action series.

So there is my first review. I would really like some feed back form who ever might be reading this. Also, if you have any question please feel free to ask. I’d like to thank you for reading my first review, and I hope you continue to come back.