Pushing the Envelope…Right Out the Window!

In the past couple of years, I’ve railed against Japan for producing anime promising nudity, but never delivering. Well, they must have been listening! There have been a veritable slew of racy series that haven’t been afraid to push the boundaries of good taste—with nipples aplenty! Thanks to the miracle of satellite cable channels and a bad economy, anime producers have been desperate to make some quick bucks on raunchy shows that titillate like the old days of HBO and Cinemax.

Kanokon, Ikkitousen, Queen’s Blade, and many others feature overbuilt women who aren’t afraid to bare it all. This is a refreshing change from series like Eiken, where they showed every square millimeter of a woman’s breast EXCEPT the nipple. This season, there are two series that capture the viewer with excessive flashes of flesh. The first is Ladies vs. Butlers, a high-concept comedy/harem series set at an exclusive school. Prospective maids and butlers train alongside rich daughters of society. The aim is to get both groups used to the lives each will be leading upon graduation.

Obviously, there’s a clash of cultures, and our hero is a tough orphan determined to make something of himself. Unfortunately, he’s cursed with bad luck, and keeps happening upon sexy situations and misunderstandings. It’s really no different than the raunchy British sex comedies that were popular in the 1970s. Whether getting a crotch in the face from a clumsy maid, or accidentally seeing a Middle Eastern princess’ naked body, Akiharu has to extricate himself from one ticklish situation to another. Full nudity is common, and there are more than enough fetish types to keep even the most discriminating of perverts happy. It won’t win any Academy Awards, but Ladies vs. Butlers is a fun romp after a stressful day.

The other series is a bit more blatant about its fanservice. Seikon no Qwaser takes elements from shounen fighting series, supernatural thrillers, Basic Chemistry and the Russian Orthodox Church—if you can believe it. There are beings called Qwasers that have power over certain elements. To access their full power, they have to partake of soma, or life force. This takes the form of sucking the breast milk of certain virgins. Yes, you read that right. Qwasers need wet nurses at the ready to charge up before battle. Besides being a breast fetishist's dream, it also featured some ridiculously endowed girls.

Sasha is a 13-year-old Russian Qwaser on a mission to avenge the death of his friend. He lands at a Japanese academy where other Qwasers have been lurking. His power is the control of iron, and his helper is a nun, Sister Teresa. But he has his eye on another girl—the airheaded, but kind Tomo. She reminds him of the friend he wants to avenge. He wants to protect Tomo, since he couldn’t protect his friend. I guess his friend sported 38DDs, since Tomo flops around like a Playboy Bunny! It looks like the series will also feature an S&M loli, and killer robots. It’s almost too much to wrap your head around. I don’t like this series as much as Ladies vs. Butlers, but it’s a good trashy watch.

The next season promises more sexy fun. After a drought for most of the last decade, Japan looks like it’s opened the floodgates on boobs and butts. And it’s about time, too. I got into anime because it was by adults, and for adults. I’m not always up for a breast buffet, but I do like seeing a reflection of humanity and a dose of realism in the shows I watch. Occasionally, adults get naked for one reason or another. There’s still a great deal of immaturity in the way they handle sex and relationships. Note to Japan: there aren’t nearly as many lesbians walking around as you make it out to be. Also, boys and girls hook up. They don’t “confess their love”. They get naked and bump uglies. Any bizarre notions of purity should be shoveled right out the door. Boy asks girl out, girl says yes. They are boyfriend and girlfriend. With Japan’s plummeting birth rate, you should be encouraging boys and girls to hook up.

While some Puritans denounce the encroaching flesh parade, I celebrate it. It’s an evolution of the form to reflect a commonality between all of us: sexuality. We may not like to talk about it, but it’s there and it’s universal. Bravo, Japan. More tits for my men, and bring us more wine, I mean sake!

Japan’s Tragic Love Affair With Robots

I’ve written before on Japan’s fascination with robots, specifically androids. Anime has a long history of human-looking and acting androids that worm their way into your heart through their childlike exploration of the human world. It may be the ultimate expression of Isaac Asimov’s idea that robots will become so sophisticated that you won’t be able to distinguish them from humans. So sophisticated in fact, that they will spawn their own consciousness and become a new form of life. Asimov wrote his Three Laws of Robotics in anticipation of this event.

Japanese anime has taken robots past mere rigid automatons serving the will of mankind. They’ve imbued them with human emotions and curiosities. They are more like children: blank emotional sponges soaking up the wonders of this world we live. There are the actual children replacements, like Atom Boy and Cutie Honey—created to fill the void left by the early death of a son or daughter. There’s Chii from Chobits, an actual blank slate since she was reformatted and discarded when found by Hideki. The tragedy of that relationship is it can never be consummated, since Chii is not, how should we say, anatomically correct. Chachamaru from Negima poses the eternal question: can robots have a soul? In order to form a pact with Negi, she must have a soul. The manga answers the question. I won’t spoil it, but it turns out predictably.

In fact an android got me back into anime in 2001. Mahoro from Mahoromatic was such a lively and sweet character, that I instantly fell in love with her. It turns out she was the avatar for the ancient alien Matieu, and she lived vicariously through Mahoro, even falling in love and discovering the power of humanity. The problem of course was the ending. Mahoro sacrifices herself to protect her loved one, turning his life upside down. The cyberpunk ending still leaves it up in the air if she returned to Suguru and a reset ending, or was the angel guiding him to heaven. That’s the other theme about robots: they signal the fleeting nature of life and the idea that we all have a limited time on Earth, so we better make the most of it. At the beginning of Mahoromatic, Mahoro had about one year of energy left before she shut down. She decides to spend it serving the boy whose father she was responsible for killing. The countdown at the end of each episode was an ominous reminder that this will not end well.

Which brings me to the latest entry. In the fan-made OVA Kowarekake no Orgol, we are introduced to Flower, an abandoned servant robot. She’s found by Keiichiro, a withdrawn musician depressed over the death of his family in a car accident. They were coming to see him perform, and he’s wracked by guilt. So, a broken man finds a broken robot that reminds him of his sister. Since it’s a one-shot OVA, they have to lay the drama on thick. Of course, Flower isn’t completely broken, she’s just on the last bit of juice from her battery. Unbeknown to either of them, she will only be able to spend the Summer with Keiichiro, and of course inspire him to live once again before she shuts down. Flower does just that with her boundless enthusiasm and curiosity. When the end comes, it’s still a shock, but at least he’ll have his memories of the time she brightened his life.

I don’t know why this hit me so hard. (I’m tearing up now as I type this.) I think it’s because it pushes all my emotional buttons: fear of abandonment; fear of being useless; soul crushing loneliness; a bright joy introduced into your life only to be ripped away cruelly, etc. That this wide-eyed little android could stumble into a man’s life when he needed her the most touches me deeply. I only hope the producers can find the money to make a complete OVA so we can have more of this delightful, if tragic little story.

Why does Japan do this? I suppose it’s a way to deal with the rapidly evolving technology bringing incredible (and complicating) changes to life. A more cynical read might be that androids are easier to deal with that the complex relationships with other people. Technically, androids serve man. Man holds a superior position to them. If they displease the master, he can just pull the plug. In many of these stories, there is a sense of urgency, as the energy runs out on the robots battery. Mahoromatic and Kowarekake no Orgol deals with this most fully. The loss of battery is a metaphor for the end of life, or less dramatically, the end of a relationship. How the surviving human deals with the loss depends on their character. Suguru becomes a bounty hunter and spends the rest of his life avenging Mahoro. Keiichiro finds the courage to return to music. In both cases, the leads react strongly to the presence of objects that aren’t really alive, yet act completely human. A more serious moment in the otherwise silly Koharu Biyori is when android maid Yui spots her master walking with another woman. She is his servant, yet he treats her like a member of his own family. She can’t handle the thought of any other woman in his life, and shuts down. It’s resolved, but Yui acted with human emotion. Here is another case where it can’t end well. Yui is man-made, and if Murase decides to spend his life with her, he’s rejecting human companionship.

As you can see, Japan’s love of robots is very complex. In a society where men are becoming less interested in following their dads into an early grave from overwork, the last thing they want is to deal with the inherently messy and complex problems that relationships spawn. Japan’s birth rate is already declining, I suppose they hope robots will be able to pick up the slack in caring for an increasing aging population. Another option would be to adopt the U.S. model of increased immigration. That’s a very unappealing thought to the notoriously xenophobic Japanese. Perhaps androids and robots are the answer in the short run. For doing menial labor, they’re fine. For replacing human contact, they pose a bit of a problem.

I actually can’t see myself with a loli robot maid. Even if she is as cute and vibrant as Flower.

Winter Season 1st Impressions

Most of the new shows for the season have aired.  Here are my first impressions:

What I watched:  Hanamaru Kindergarten

What I expected:  Kodomo no Jikan—The Next Generation

What I got:  A surprisingly fun show, with allusions to Potemayo.

I came into this show prepared to hate it.  I mean, how much fun could an adult show about kindergarteners be?  Would there be uncomfortable references to pedophilia?  Actually, it’s more a slice-of-life show in the vein of Azumanga Daioh—and just as quirky.  Anzu is a fearless ball of fire, and she’s obviously the catalyst for all the action.  There’s nothing untoward about the show, and all the characters have their own charm.  I guess the telling tale will be if they focus on the antics of the children, or the romance of the teachers.  If they keep a balance, this may be the surprise of the Winter.

Chances I’ll keep watching:  Good.  This left me wanting more.

What I watched:  Seikon no Qwaser

What I expected:  Shounen fighting series with supernatural overtones

What I got:  Breast milk vampires and a whole lot of T&A

I thought I heard all of the ridiculous plot gimmicks in my years of watching anime, but sucking breast milk to charge up takes the cake.  First of all, don’t women have to be pregnant or recently pregnant to lactate?  Also, must every fighter have a wet nurse at the ready for a big battle?  Why not take out the wet nurse and exhaust your opponent’s power?  None of this makes a lick of sense.  Top it off with the most ridiculously endowed character designs since Queen’s Blade, and you have the recipe for suck—and I don’t mean breast milk, either.  This has the promise of going more over the top with each episode.  Add to the mix the fact that the series is heavily censored, so you don’t even get the payoff of gratuitous nudity.  The uncensored version airs in a couple of weeks, but I may not be able to last that long.

Chances I’ll keep watching:  Fair/poor.  I’ll give it a couple more episodes, and I’ll watch the uncensored version, but I’m not promising anything.

What I watched:  Hidamari Sketch Hoshimittsu

What I expected:  More of the same

What I got:  Nutbladder Armageddon with two new moe characters to obsess over!

Season three of Hidamari Sketch finally brings the timeline into a more standard phase.  I’ve never really liked the trick of non-linear storytelling, as it tends to dilute the narrative.  We start with Yuno and Miyako’s 2nd year at the Hidamari Sou.  That means they get Freshmen to look over to continue the tradition.  There’s not much to say about Nori and Nazuna, since they appeared briefly at the end of episode 1.  From the looks of it, Nazuna is shy and Nori is genki.  It;s the same old soup, but it hits the spot on cold Winter nights.

Chances I’ll keep watching:  Lock.  This is one of my favorite franchises.

What I watched:  Ookamikakushi

What I expected:  Dark, brooding VN style thriller

What I got:  New season of Higurashi no Naku Koroni Kai

This is more like a Stephen King novel than an anime series.  Boy moves to a town with single writer father and wheelchair-bound sister.  A neighbor girl claims him for her own, and everyone seems overly friendly.  There’s a mysterious old part of the city that he’s advised not to ever visit.  Add to that the story of a weird Wolf cult in the city, unexplained disappearances, and an historic harvest festival to honor the Wolf God protecting the city, and you have all the elements necessary for a ripping yarn.  The problem is everything feels really, really forced.  They packed a lot into the first episode, and you don’t really have time to catch up to it all.  The voice acting is pretty good, and so is the music—courtesy of Yuki Kajiura and FictionJuntion.  The computer 3D stuff kind of sticks out, but it’s better animated than most series.

Chances I’ll keep watching:  Fair.  I’ll give it a few more episodes to get into the main plot.

What I watched:  Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu

What I expected:  Misfits beat privileged class warfare tale

What I got:  This year’s Macademi Wasshoi!

It’s good to see that Japanese producers have stopped taking themselves so seriously and focused on entertainment.  A lot of promising series have been ruined by trying to make them all serious and deep.  This show doesn’t fall into that trap.  The tale of misfit magicians challenging more powerful classes and using their wits and strategy is a clever comment on class in Japanese society.  It’s also a time-honored trope in the vein of the Bad News Bears.  All the characters are charming or interesting, and there’s enough action to keep you involved.  I’m rooting for these underdogs already, and it’s just started.

Chances I’ll keep watching:  Good.  This one’s fun.

What I watched:  Ladies vs. Butlers

What I expected:  High school class struggle

What I got:  This season’s most outlandish jigglefest

Who green-lighted this?  Take Kanokon.  Suck out all the sexiness and fun.  Make it even more cliched.  Voila!  Ladies versus Butlers.  I guess the producers didn’t even try and pretend that this had a real story.  They’re just interested in selling DVDs.  The uncensored version had nipples aplenty, and the artwork is very reminiscent of Kanokon—take that for what it’s worth.  There are some interesting plotlines developing between the male lead and his childhood acquaintance.  I hesitate to say friend, since she’s a sadist who likes to pick on people.  There also seems to be a love triangle developing between those two and the drill-haired oujo-sama, voiced capably by Mai Nakahara.  Throw in a reverse-trap roommate and a clumsy maid who can’t help showing you her panties with every fall, and you have a naughty romp on your hands.  Time will tell if it’s worth the journey.

Chances I’ll keep watching:  Fair.  The voice cast is good enough to rescue this turkey.  I’m going to give them the chance.

What I watched:  Sora no Woto

What I expected:  K-ON! in the army

What I got:  Aria + Strike Witches with pants

Another incompetent underdog succeeds tale, Sora no Woto tell the story of Kanata, a bugler who enlisted in the army.  She’s assigned to an all-woman troop stationed in a mysterious village by the sea.  Kanata sucks, bust she’s full of wonder, and along with other characters in her battalion, she’ll learn her place and destiny in this world.  Heard this all before, right?  There’s no new ground in this slice-of-life series.  It combines Aria, with Strike Witches and the character designs of K-ON!  There are mysteries to follow, like what was that skeleton Kanata saw after falling into the ocean?  Chances are they’ll take their time telling a story that leads nowhere in particular.  After all, in slice-of-life stories it’s the journey, not the destination that’s important.

Chances I’ll keep watching:  Fair.  I have varying degrees of patience with series like this one.

What I watched:  Chuu Bra!!

What I expected:  Not sure.  I’ve never contemplated a show about middle-school girls obsessed with lingerie before

What I got:  School buddy light comedy…and panty shots.

There have been lots of series featuring odd ducks for lead characters.  Nayu is the oddest this season.  She’s been obsessed with adult lingerie since she was really little.  She’s been made fun of and ostracized because of it.  Lucky for her she ran into two girls with whom she can share this little obsession.  They form a club studying adult lingerie.  Yes.  This is pure pandering.  It’s an excuse to see young teenage girls in sexy underwear.  Got a problem with that?  I do.  The girls look like high school girls, and one is stereotypically overbuilt for her age.  It’s a series made for dirty old man.  Since I’m not that old, it didn’t really register with me.

Chances I’ll keep watching:  Meh.  Pass.

What I watched:  Omamori Himari

What I expected:  Nyan Koi! part 2

What I got:  More ecchi and less fighting

Japan is a land of many Gods and Demons.  The demon slayer is an accepted form of storytelling.  Yuuto is a descendant of famous demon slayers.  His grandma gave him a charm to protect him from demon attack, but it wore out on his 16th birthday.  Lucky for him, a ancient contract between his family and a cat demon gave him a protector in the form of sultry Himari.  Unlucky for him, since he’s allergic to cats.  Himari sticks close to him, much to the chagrin of his childhood friend Rinko, who has her designs on him.  This looks like a monster-of-the-week setup with a couple more demon girls on the way to add to the harem.  Like Nyan Koi!, there’s nothing really fresh or innovative about this.  I hope it picks up like Nyan Koi!, since it turned out to be an enjoyable watch.

Chances I’ll keep watching:  Fair.  I’ll give it a few more episodes.

What I watched:  Dance in the Vampire Bund

What I expected:  More supernatural SHAFT magic with Akiyuki Shinbo at the helm

What I got:  Possibly the slowest start to an action series I’ve ever watched

Based on the popular manga, Dance in the Vampire Bund tells the tale of Mina Tepes, the daughter of Dracula.  As the head of all vampires, she uses her vast wealth to pay off Japan’s debt and gain a homeland for her kind to live in peace.  But thre are those who oppose this.  Instead of hitting the ground running like usual, Shinbo crosses us up by setting the first episode as a game show.  I don’t know if he was trying to make a sly comment on the entertainment culture of Japan, but nothing really happened for 17 minutes.  When it did finally pick up, it was fast and furious.  However, I’m not hopeful for the future of this series.  They only have 13 episodes to go through a lot of the manga.  I don’t know if the pacing will keep up.  The artwork really isn’t that impressive.  There are those in the anime community that think SHAFT and Shinbo have over-extended themselves.  We still haven’t got the last episode of Bakemonogatari via the web as promised.  I hope the rest of the series resembles the last 6 minutes of the first episode, and not the talky first 17 minutes.

Chances I’ll keep watching:  Fair.  While I’ve been burned in the past, it’s foolish to bet against Shinbo.

There are more series, but I’ll stop there.  I’m already carrying over Railgun and Yumeiro Patissiere.  That’s plenty to watch this Winter.

Fall Season Wrap

The Fall Season has concluded, and Winter starts up this week.  Here are my reviews of the series I finished

What I Watched:  The Secret of Haruka Nogizaka:  Purity

What I Expected:  More sweet romance and comic misunderstandings.

What I Got:  Producers who took their eyes off the ball.

What made the first season so watchable wasn’t the secret (Haruka is an otaku).  What made it fun was the budding romance between two awkward, but noble people.  This season, it seems like the producers didn’t really have anywhere to take the story, and they weren’t in any hurry to take it anyplace.  So instead of focusing on the main couple, they wasted several episodes on side characters, and one outlandish drama plot near the end.  Despite the misfires, it was still a watchable series.  The introduction of loli maid Alice was a pleasant surprise.  She didn’t get in the way, and her featured episode was one of the more fun ones.  The other new characters were hit or miss.  Still the best romantic comedy, at least until Nodame Cantabile Season III debuts in about a week.  The Secret of Haruka Nogizaka:  Purity get 2 1/2 stars out of 5.

What I Watched:  Nyan Koi!

What I Expected:  Another lukewarm harem comedy.

What I Got:  An oddly endearing lukewarm harem comedy.

I have to admit, I nearly dropped this after the first episode.  It had everything I hated in anime:  hot headed screamer of a male lead; three too many tsundere characters; wacky supernatural angle; and a useless blob of a girl the lead guy is attracted to.  I’m glad I stuck with it, though.  It turned out to be kind of fun.  Junpei, the male lead wasn’t perpetually angry, or terminally whiny—so he gave you a chance to sympathize with his plight.  What he did have was blinders to the other girls angling for him.  He was laser-beamed focused on Kaede, much to the chagrin of superior girls all around him.  From the Amazon childhood friend to the psycho yakuza heiress, there were more fun and suitable girls for Junpei to be with.  Even the daft mailwoman Chizuru tried to endear herself to the terminally dense hero.  The ending was as outlandish as the beginning, and nothing was settled.  The curse remained, and Junpei is no closer to being with Kaede.  In fact, they all but announced a second season.  I might watch it.  Nyan Koi! gets 2 1/2 stars out of 5.

What I Watched:  Shin Koihime Musou

What I Expected:  More hijinks from our favorite moe-fied Chinese warlords.

What I Got:  All that, and a brand new character to ogle!

Why mess with a winning formula?  Take the hairy generals of China’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms era, and turn them into buxom women.  Instead of bloody conflicts to unite China into its first dynasty, have them do stupid shit and parody modern culture while you’re at it.  Oh yeah, make sure they are wearing as little as possible, too!  Brilliant!  The only possible trouble came in the form of a new character:  Ryuubi.  It’s strange that she’s now been portrayed twice as an airhead.  It this iteration and in Ikkitousen:  Dragon Destiny, Ryuubi Gendou was a “my pace” kind of girl stumbling her way through life.  Fortunately, she didn’t get in the way too much, and she was pretty as well.  If you’re expecting a history lesson from watching this, you’ve got the wrong idea.  Shin Koihime Musou is pure entertainment.  It isn’t challenging, and everything works out in the end.  This was the perfect cure for the Monday blahs.  Shin Koihime Musou gets 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

What I Watched:  Miracle Train

What I Expected:  Gay porn on a train.

What I Got:  A surprisingly fun anthology featuring straight men.

The concept is a little iffy.  Take the train stations of the Oedo line in Tokyo, and turn them into human bishies.  Have them ride around on a special train all day solving the troubles of cute women.  It shouldn’t work, but it does.  If you think about it, the concept really isn’t that new.  Fantasy Island did something similar 30 years ago.  The actors make the show.  They recruited a bunch of top male seiyuu to play the stations, and they gave each station its own personality reflecting the area it serves.  Tocho is the head of the line, and he is serious and calm.  Shinjuku is a fashionable ladies man and rogue.  Shiodome is the youngest station, and he is energetic in short pants, etc.  Like Fantasy Island, the problems the women face are varied.  From the frivolous to the heart-rending, each story is treated with care.  None of it made any sense, but this is entertainment.  The ending arc with Akari seemed a nice way to wind things up.  Since it’s an anthology, they could make another season or three.  I don’t know if I’d watch them, but this series is cotton candy:  fun while in process, forgettable 5 minutes after.  Miracle Train gets 3 out of 5 stars.

What I Watched:  Natsu no Arashi II

What I Expected:  Nothing.  I can’t believe I watched another season of this!

What I Got:  More of the same, with worse art and animation.

Every season I watch a series that I really shouldn’t.  It’s sort of like my penance for watching so much anime.  This is one of them.  A supernatural slice-of-life produced by SHAFT and Akiyuki Shinbo, this should be right up my alley.  But just like the first season, this failed to connect with me.  Unlike the first season, they toned down the juxtaposition of the horror of World War II to the wacky antics of the present day.  I think it made it more palatable to watch.  Now that the characters are set, they focused on character development.  I discovered something important about this franchise:  I don’t really care about any of them.  Arashi and the time jumpers are ghosts?  Are they stuck in between time?  I can’t really say that the mysteries the show presented really intrigued me.  In fact, the only character I really had any interest in was Jun.  She got some lead time, but it didn’t make any of the episodes better.  This was mediocrity in 24 minutes and 30 seconds.  I have a love/hate relationship with Shinbo’s work.  This one fell in the latter category.  Natsu no Arashi II get 2 stars out of 5.

What I Watched:  Sora no Otoshimono

What I Expected:  Chobits + Sekirei + a big mess

What I Got:  Just a big mess.

This is one of those series that everyone talks about, but you just don’t connect with.  There were some funny moments:  the flying pantsu was the scene of the year IMHO.  However, the series was brought down by one of the most loathsome heroes since Ataru in Uresai Yatsura.  Tomoki is an unrepentant pervert.  Several times in the series, he does things that would get you put on the Sex Offender Registry here in the U.S.  Ikaros needs a sensitive master to help her understand life on Earth.  Too bad she got Tomoki.  Tomoki’s childhood friend Sohara isn’t much better.  She’s a violent tsundere who beats up Tomoki at the slightest hint of perversion (which in this case is all the damn time).  Come to think of it, there really isn’t a character in the series I admire.  They all have flaws that would be deal breakers in normal situations.  The anime ended mid-arc from the manga, so I expect another season.  I won’t be watching it.  Sora no Otoshimono gets 2 out of 5 stars.

What I Watched:  Seitokai no Ichizon

What I Expected:  Another All-Powerful Student Council ruling a school

What I Got:  Pretty people sitting around a room doing next to nothing.

Here’s another series that’s universally praised online while it stinks on ice.  I watched the entire series, and managed only a couple of chuckles.  Those happened early on with parodies of Hell Girl and Haruhi.  The rest of the time, they wavered in between low comedy and high drama.  Neither of which really made me enjoy watching this 5am Farm Show of a series.  Paint drying would have been more fun.  The characters are pretty, but so what?  Ken is somewhat interesting as a hero, but he spends the majority of the series proving he belongs.  Even when he does, the boring girls just kind of grudgingly accept him.  Do I hate this series?  You have to care about something to hate it.  I just didn’t see the point of it all.  Seitokai no Ichizon gets 1 out of 5 stars.

After the stinkfest of Fall, the Winter Season beckons.  As usual, I’ll watch as many on the new series I can stand and do first impressions.

Series Review: Kämpfer

In a pretty average year for anime, one series stood out.  This series took some time-honored tropes (genderbending, fighting high school girls, lesbianism, plushie mascot characters,  etc.) and did a number on them.  Kämpfer didn’t look like a blockbuster going into it.  In fact, I was expecting the worst, since most series that require an entire paragraph to explain the premise stink on ice.

Kämpfer would’ve stunk on ice, if the producers had taken ANYTHING seriously.  Thank Heavens they didn’t.  Instead of being an insufferable fanservice vehicle featuring scantily-clad fighters aka Ikkitousen, Kämpfer turned out to be a blast from start to finish.

The premise really is outlandish.  Since ancient times, two supernatural forces have fought it out for supremacy.  They enlisted fighters, always female, to fight using three types of weapons:  guns, swords and magic.  Now right there, your BS meter is pegging the red.  But wait, it gets better.  Men can fight, too.  However, their fighter forms must always be female.  That’s the situation Natsuru Senou finds himself in.  He wakes up not as a studly guy, but an attractive, buxom female.  To top things off, the plushie doll given to him by his crush is talking to him.  It’s his advisor for the war he’s about to take part in.

Here’s where the genius comes in.  Instead of getting all serious and focusing on the fighting, the producers turn this into a harem comedy and farce.  There are those who like Natsuru in male form, and those who like him in female form.  I know you must be thinking Ranma Part II, right?  Not necessarily.

The mystery is rarely focused on, and instead slapstick and character interactions take the fore.  Particularly amusing are the mousy Akane, who turns into a foul-mouthed gunslinger, and the slippery as an eel Student Council President—who takes great pleasure in torturing Natsuru in either form.  Among the fourth wall breaking, seiyuu in-jokes and comical situations Natsuru faces as a girl (how does one pee in a skirt?) is a series that delights in doing the one thing most have forgotten how to do:  be entertaining.  Kämpfer has no other ambition than to make you laugh.  It does it quite successfully.

Anime fans are notorious for breaking down the many levels of a particular series.  Many were frustrated by Kämpfer.  There weren’t any deep or underlying meanings.  If you weren’t laughing, you weren’t getting it.  The capper came during the final battle when the plushie advisors cheered on the good guys by singing the Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in gloriously murdered German.  I can’t remember when I laughed so hard.  Something so simple referenced Sailor Moon, Power Rangers, Gamera films and about a dozen other Japanese pop culture references.

They even did a number on the bog-standard Christmas episode, by pulling a switcheroo.  The plushie dolls woke up in the bodies of their masters and vice versa.  The dolls merrily go about experiencing life as flesh and blood, while their bewildered masters have to try and figure out what happened.  The episode gets progressively weirder, until they end with them riding in Santa’s sleigh.  WTF?

The ending was left open to a sequel, and this is one instance where I hope the producers follow through.  Not to advance the plot, mind you.  I just want more wacky antics from this group of talented misfits.  If Ranma could get seven seasons, and Inuyasha could have over 140 episodes, surely Kämpfer could get by with one more deliriously delicious season.  This was the surprise of the year in my mind.

Kämpfer gets 4 stars out of 5.

Series Review: Queen’s Blade

Normally I do series reviews in batch form, since I watch so many.  However, this season two series stood out from the rest, and I’ll review them separately.

The first is Queen’s Blade I and II.  When it started last Spring, this series had literally nothing to indicate that it would be anything other than a fanservice extravaganza for fanboys to spank their monkeys to.  It had all the hallmarks of stink:  scantily-clad overbuilt women fighting in a faux-medieval setting; a tournament-style fight setup like a video game; and RPG-style storytelling.  Then something amazing happened.  Since the source material was flimsy to begin with, producers decided to create a story from the given framework.  Liberated from the shackles of an already set storyline from a manga or videogame, they spun a tale of a spoiled, sheltered princess journeying to find her purpose in life.  The people she met were also given rich back stories and personalities.  In short, they did something that hasn’t been seen in quite a while:  they used their imagination.

Reina, the protagonist, starts out as a rebellious runaway determined to find her own way and escape a pre-arranged marriage.  As the favored daughter of the Duke, she was expected to take her place as a political chess piece.  Instead, she chose her mother’s route of entering the Queen’s Blade tournament.  But she needed help to escape.  Help came in the form of Risty, an Amazon red-headed bounty hunter and thief.  She was vibrant, athletic and had a purpose in life:  to win the Queen’s Blade tournament to rebuild the orphanage that saved her.  Reina tailed after her like a little puppy.

The relationship between Risty and Reina was somewhat complicated, like a big/little sister dynamic.  Reina wanted someone to look up to.  Risty liked Reina, but knew that she would eventually have to fight her in the tournament.  Several times in the series, Risty gave Reina tough love.  Eventually, she ditched Reina so she could learn hard lessons in life from Echidna—a fellow bounty hunter and first-class tease.  That’s just the setup from season one.  Two brings additional development for all the characters, even giving the bad guys a decent amount of work.

That’s the real miracle of Queen’s Blade.  There wasn’t a weak character in the bunch.  Without otaku intervention to complain, the producers fleshed out each character and gave them believable motivations.  Elf Trainer Alleyne was imperious, but dignified in her dealings with the halfling Nowa.  Although sporting the most outlandishly exaggerated body proportions, Cattleya was a good mother and decent person.  The puffed-up dwarf princess, Ymir was only looking for respect and a wider distribution and promotion of Dwarvish weaponry.  Miko Warrior Tomoe and Ninja Bodyguard Shizuka were looking for revenge against Queen Aldra.  Clumsy angel Nanael served as comic relief, yet she also had a touching story.  Because one of her wings was deformed, she’s always struggled to catch up to the others.  She found a soul mate in Wandering Warrior Reina.

Yes, there were nipples galore, full frontal nudity, even sexual situations dealt out by a bullying Echidna.  However, something amazing happened by the third episode.  You stopped noticing it.  The story and characters were strong enough to make you overlook the flesh parade as just so much wallpaper in the background.  Queen’s Blade made you care about the characters, and that’s the sign of good writing and acting.

Even Queen Echida was made somewhat more sympathetic at the end.  Reina’s whole “purifying one’s soul through a good ass-kicking” act got a little tiresome, but the story wound up where you thought it might.  Despite the rather formulaic ending, nothing seemed forced or phony.  If anything, it could’ve used one more episode to tie up loose ends.  It was a bit rushed at the end, and I would have liked more explanation on what transpired after Reina became Queen.  Did Risty get to rebuild the orphanage?  Did Tomoe win special status and protection for her country?  Did Aldra ever find her sister?  I guess we’ll have to wait for OAVs and specials to clear things up.

The mark of a good series is wanting it never to end.  In that respect, Queen’s Blade passes with flying colors.  It’s my top anime from 2009.  Queen’s Blade gets 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

My Decade with Anime: 2000s

In the holiday rush, I nearly forgot that we’re closing out the decade.  It’s been an eventful one, with many changes and an uncertain future just over the horizon.  Many blogs are rolling out their top series of the decade review.  They’re fun to read, but ultimately useless.  Everyone has their own tastes and attitudes as to what makes a great series.  So instead of doing that, I thought I would walk through the decade:  my first as a full-blown anime fan.

2001:  As I was trawling through Usenet, I came upon a group:  alt.binaries.multimedia.anime.  Many years prior, I had a brief flirtation with anime in the 1980s.  So, out of curiosity, I went into the newsgroup.  There I found many intense discussions about one particular series or another.  I took a chance and downloaded Mahoromatic, and my life changed forever.  Here was a series that was funny, slapstick, sexy, dramatic and thoroughly fresh to me.  It was cartoons made by adults, for adults.  Not porn, mind you (no that came later!), but nothing kiddie about it.  After that, I downloaded anything and everything as I became obsessed with the form.  Other notable series included Sister Princess and Battle of the Stars.

2002:  As I became more fluent in anime, I began to branch out and explore the various subgenres.  I learned about harem anime, dramedies, shoujo and shounen.  Big mecha, space opera, kidvid, sci-fi and many, many more graced my computer screen.  My favorite series of all time was produced this year:  RahXephon.  It was mysterious, dense, and brooding.  It completely absorbed me.  Other series of note this year were Full Metal Panic, Chobits, Witch Hunter Robin and Pita Ten.

2003:  Science fiction really made strides in this year.  Big O debuted, and was subsequently picked up by Cartoon Network.  They even financed the second season.  This was the watershed year for anime, as many U.S. cable networks began running regular series imported from the Land of the Rising Sun.  Ghost in the Shell:  Stand Alone Complex, Divergence Eve and Licensed by Royalty all made this year a fun one for anime.

2004:  This was a strange year, in that I discovered message boards about anime.  I became a regular at 4Chan, Animesuki and Hongfire.  It was at this point I realized there was no turning back.  This was also the year I discovered Bittorrent—the downloading protocol that allowed users to share a wider variety of things at rapid speeds.  Suddenly, the limited selection of Usenet newsgroups seemed paltry.  2004 also marked the arrival of one of the most visceral series I ever watched.  Elfen Lied took a science fiction/horror story and turned it into something higher.  It was violent, sexy, and deeply dramatic.  Other memorable series from this year were Maria-sama ga Miteru, Yumeria and Tsukuyomi Moon Phase—my first exposure to SHAFT Animation and director Akiyuki Shinbo.

2005:  A slew of great series hit the pipeline in this year.  The first Negima series brought the exploits of Japan’s answer to Harry Potter.  Pani Poni Dash!, another SHAFT/Shinbo creation,  remains one of my favorite comedies.  My all time favorite guilty pleasure is Koi Koi 7, a wicked parody of Sailor Moon and the Power Rangers.  Other series of note this year:  Ichigo 100% (harem anime extraordinaire), Mahoraba and the sci-fi Solty Rei.  2005 probably marks the peak of the anime boom this decade.

2006:  This was another banner year for great series.  The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya debuted, and started a million internet slap fights.  Rozen Maiden, about dolls coming to life to fight to become “Alice” hit around this time, too.  The relaxing Aria also paddled its way into our hearts in 2006.  Who knew that a series about female gondoliers on Mars would become so addictive?  The second (and better IMHO) Negima series showed up, as well as the action-packed Utawarerumono.

2007:  One curious fetish revealed by anime otaku are maids.  There are maid cafes, maid cosplay, and just about anything else related to a subservient women who call you “Goshuujin-sama”.  What was missing was equal time for the ladies.  So, along comes Hayate the Combat Butler.  While it doesn’t totally even things up, it’s a fun series to watch.  Also arriving, the nutbladder-destroying cuteness of Hidamari Sketch, which set off a number of other series about high school girls in art school.  This was also the year we were introduced to the world’s most negative teacher in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.

2008:  I’m starting to burn out a bit on anime, so I cut back viewing to only 2 hours a night.  While I am more discriminating, I enjoy a fun romp.  That’s exactly what Macademi Wasshoi delivered in spades.  I was kind of light on romance series, until I stumbled on a hidden gem—The Secret of Haruka Nogizaka.  Another hidden gem was Real Drive.  From the maker of Ghost in the Shell, I was expecting a cyberpunk series about divers.  What I got was a May/December romance, a plucky heroine, and a dense story that you had to peel back the layers of like an onion.  Good stuff this year.

2009:  Which brings me to the present.  To see my top picks from this year, refer to my previous post.  To sum up, I’m just as excited about each new season as I was when I took that fateful chance back in 2001.  Thanks to Sturgeon’s Law, I’ve watched a lot of crap from Japan over the past decade.  But I’ve also seen a lot of memorable and fun series as well.  I’m also stretching out my fandom to the world of seiyuu and idols.  This year marks the first time I got an account on Nico Nico Douga—Japan’s answer to YouTube.  While I don’t understand the half of it, it sure is a fun ride.  And that’s how I would describe the past decade with anime:  a fun ride.

Here’s hoping the teens bring even more fun in the decade ahead.  Happy watching!