Entries Tagged as 'Anime'

Persona 4: The Animation

January 16, 2012

One of the anime series I've been watching via Hulu recently is Persona 4.  It is an adaptation of the hit PS2 game, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, released by Atlus back in 2008. I love that game, only slightly less than Persona 3.  The anime closely follows the game's story, opening with high schooler Yu Narukami moving to Inaba to live with his uncle and young cousin after his parents go to work overseas. His first day at his new school, a dead body is found near campus, left displayed in a gruesome and unusual fashion. The victim appeared on a phantom TV channel, the Midnight Channel, the night before. Together with classmates Chie, Yosuke, and Yukiko, Narukami discovers a secret world inside TVs that they are able to enter. There they meet Teddie, who explains that someone is throwing people into the TV to be killed.  While battling the Shadows that infest the TV world, the gang must confront their own inner demons to save themselves and future victims, while searching for the serial killer throwing people into Teddie's world.

The opening of the series is fairly straight forward from the game, with the introduction of Narukami, his new family, and his new school.  I thought the way they handled the personas was well done, and I really liked that they kept Narukami's unique aspect of being able to use multiple personas as well as combo them into attacks.  While many of the scenes are basically animations of the games, for me the story is so good that I'm glad the show didn't muck around with it too much and risk ruining a good thing. 

The anime, of course, lacks some of the more annoying elements of the game (like the 5 million battles, 100+ hours of game play, and side quests with the school and relationships, etc). However, it does manage to honor some of those elements in nice ways, such as the school trip and the mysterious bowl of unfinishable noodles they characters share in one scene.  The addition of the ramen that can be delivered anywhere is hilarious and helps add a light hearted side to a series that could easily get drowned in the darkness of its general story.

The animation is great, a perfect blend to the game imagery with some nice touch up. Not surprising as the art director from the game also did this series. The same voice actors from the game also stepped back into their roles, which explains why it all sounds good. :-) On the whole I'm quite enjoying this series and look forward to watching more. The series is still running in Japan, with Sentai Filmworks doing the Hulu simulcast for those of us in North America.  As of this writing, 13 episodes are available, with new ones being released every week or so. The first DVD releases are expected sometime this year, but no definitive date has been set yet.

If you're a fan of the game and the story, then the anime is a great way to revisit the story without the 100+ hours of game play required to get through the game. If you've never played the game, there are some parts of the series that may seem confusing, as it really is a fairly straight adaption, just without as many battles with shadows. The Velvet Room scenes, for example, and the whole thing with the Arcana make more sense if you're familiar with the game. However, the story as a whole is still compelling, so its worth giving it a shot.

Rating: B+

P.S. If you watch it, make sure to watch the bits after the end credits or sometimes the start of the next episode will make no sense!!

Spice and Wolf & Tears to Tiara: Quick Views

November 30, 2010

Took a break from NaNoing to take a peek at some of the anime offers available through Hulu and to check out some new to me series earlier this week. In both cases I watched the subtitled versions only.

Spice and Wolf - Released in the US by Funimation, this series is set in a time frame similar to Europe in the Middle Ages when the Church was starting to frown on "pagan" religions. A peddler named Craft Lawrence travels from town to town in his horse drawn carriage, and seems like a generally friendly fellow. While visiting one town, Pasroe, he encounters Holo, the wolf "God" who long ago made a deal with the village to give them good harvests of wheat. The humans, however, no longer respect nor rely on her, feeling she is to "capricious" because she sometimes lets them have bad crops to keep the land fertile. As they no longer want her, she sneaks into Lawrence's wagon where he first meets her. She has a human-like form, with tails and ears, but shows him her true form to convince him that she is really THE Holo. She asks him to take her back to her homeland and he reluctantly agrees, so long as she helps earn her keep.

I ended up watching all of the available episodes (all of the first season, first four of season two as of the time of this post). The build up in the relationship between Holo and Lawrence is nicely paced. As time passes a growing sense that their journey north will not be nearly as easy as it might first appear. Both seasons underscore the light-hearted comedy and frequent back-and-forth barbs between our duo, with the more serious overall storyline including their having to deal with betrayals that nearly cost Lawrence everything, and is own clumsy actions that leave Holo heartsick. Definitely recommend this one. Funimation's original Season 1 DVD set is available now, or you can grab the lower cost Viridian Collection on December 7th. The anime is based on a sixteen volume light novel series, which in turn has a short manga adaptation. Both are being concurrently published by Yen Press, with the first two of six solicitied light novel volumes and all three manga volumes available now. I plan to get both so will let you know how well Yen Press did with each.

Rating: A

Tears to Tiara - a psycho "priest" named Drwc kidnaps a girl named Riannon of the Gael who is said to be the ancestor of an Elf and can see the future. This guy is like demented! To make her obey, the threatens to rip the fingers off two children one by one. His goal is to awaken Arawn, the Demon King who is supposed to bring destruction to the world, with Riannon as the living sacrifice. Things don't quite go as planned though, as Arawn frees Riannon from Drwc's spell and kills Drwc instead. Great opening sequence, and a very interesting story that moves at a good pace and seems to have the makings for a dark, exciting drama as the entire Gael clan revolts against the Empire to protect Riannon and Arawn, an Empire that has its own internal issues to deal with. It also seems like it will have plenty of humor here as Arawn has a fun attitude and Riannon's brother does not like the early romantic connection between Riannon and Awarn. Watched the first two eps and will be watching more. The subtitles are good, though the whole things appears a bit too dark and impossible to see in some parts on the stream (I suspect it may just be the system I watching on though). Will still keep watching though :-)

The series itself is based on a Japanese tactical RPG game that I've personally never played. In the first few eps I've watched so far, though, I didn't get that "OMG this is a video game" feel like you do with some other adaptations. The English release was done by Section 23, which has released the entire series as a 4-disc DVD set and a 2-disc Blu-Ray set.

Rating: B

Ponyo On The Cliff

August 12, 2010

From Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, how may very well be the most famous anime maker in the world at this point, Ponyo On A Cliff was released in Japan in 2008, where it quickly became the #1 film of the year, earning over ¥14.9 billion (over $155 million US) and becoming Japan's 8th highest grossing film. No surprise at all that Walt Disney snapped it up, calling it simply Ponyo. Ponyo is a fantasy story that some say is very loosely based on Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid (didn't see much of that myself). Of course the focus is on the titular character, Ponyo, a little sea creature called a "goldfish", who is one of the many daughters of the sorcerer Fujimoto, who was apparently once human, and the sea goddess Gran Mamare. Fujimoto, who hates humans, is apparently is in charge of raising their many children. He keeps them in a house under the sea in a bubble, taking them for "walks" of a sort. The oldest of the kids, is a curious sort, though, and wants more freedom, so one day she "escapes".

She eventually finds herself near a coast line where she meets a human boy, Sosuke, and becomes his "pet". He names her Ponyo, carries her around in a bucket, feeds her ham (which she apparently loves), and grows quite fond of her. He also realizes she has some unusual powers, such as healing a cut on his finger. Eventually her frantic father retrieves her, but Ponyo wants to stay with Sosuke. Through her determination and with her sisters' help, she escapes again, but her power's go a bit heywire. While she is making her way back to Sosuke, she manages to turn herself into a human, but unknowningly causes a massive storm at sea that eventually causes a lot of damage and threatens Sosuke's home city. Once her mother calms the storm, Ponyo and Sosuke go searching the aftermath for his missing mother (or possibly stepmother...it is never really clear to me).

Disney's DVD release, titled simply Ponyo, includes the original Japanese audio track with subtitles, and an all star English dub cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Cloris Leachman, Tina Fey, Betty White, and Liam Neeson. I have only watched it with the original Japanese, so I can't comment much on the English dub other than to say that the clips I've seen seemed pretty high quality and well-acted. As for how close the dub is actual original script, I would expect it to have mostly minor variations though I would be curious to know how they handled the innocent romance aspect. In general, I'd recommend watching both, if you can, as the English dub cast does do their own spins on the characters. For example, in the original Japanese, Fujimoto is often frantic and seemingly half-insane, while Liam Neeson gives him a calmer, more tiredly cynical air.

Of course, beying a Miyazaki work, the animation is fantastic and the original music is good. The scene of Ponyo running on the waves as she tries to rejoin Sosuke is particularly awesome. Ponyo and Sosuke are fairly simple characters, with the latter being a 5 year old child, and Ponyo seeming to have the same basic mentality. The adult characters are, to me, quite interesting and very complex, but alas they are largely left unexplored. Fujimoto initially comes across as a cruel father, but as the story progresses, it becomes clear he is a good man who is simply trying to do what he thinks it best to protect his unusual children from the world. It is clear that there is some interesting back story to this man, but due to the focus and target audience, it is totally unexplored. We never find out what negative experiences made him turn from humanity and feel he needed to shield his children from ever knowing them, or how he met and apparently made kids with a goddess. And Sosuke's mother seems to have a love/hate thing with her husband, who apparently is gone for long stretches at sea and has a habit of saying he'll be home then not arriving.

Ponyo is very clearly aimed at younger viewers, with the story skipping over some of the more complex elements it could explore, such as the seemingly odd relationship between Fujimoto and Gran Mamare, why Sosuke calls his parents by their first names, Ponyo's seemingly random mix of powers, etc. Though the storm is shown as very serious, no one seems to actually die or really suffer beyond having to relocate for a short time. The main focus seems to be Ponyo's learning to be human and her reactions to new experiences. While the ending attempts to throw out a bit of seriousness, it is definately kept fully in the level appropriate for younger kids, and it is resolved in a very basic, lets leave out any real explanations, fashion one might expect from a story with such a focus. To be sure, it is more complex than we'd see with, say an American film aimed at the same audience, but adult viewers will likely find themselves left with more questions than answers on the story elements.  If you have kids, it is a great one for introducing them anime, but otherwise, at most I'd rate it a rental. While I enjoyed it, it isn't one I'm inclined to watch again.

Rating: B (for adults), A (for kids)

Hell Girl, the First Season and its Manga

March 2, 2010

I don't remember where I first heard about the anime series Hell Girl, probably the site formerly known as AnimeOnDVD. I watched it via Netflix back in June 2009, and will be picking it up on DVD soon. The 26 episode series aired back in 2005-2006 in Japan, and they have since made a second and third season. The second season was just licensed by Sentai Filmworks, and will start shipping in May. No word yet on the third season. There are also two manga adaptations for this series, the first spanning nine volumes which is currently being released by Del Rey manga (which has released six volumes so far), and a second which was slated to being in 2008 but I could find little else about it other than it seems to revolve around the events of the second season. So for our purposes, I'll be looking at the first season of the anime, and the first five volumes of the manga.

Both the anime and its manga adaptation follow the same basic premise: if you have a grudge against someone, you can access the Hell Correspondence web site at midnight and enter their name to request they be sent down to hell. If she is willing to hear the request, the Hell Girl, Ai Enma, will appear and offer to avenge you, warning though that the deal is a double edged soul. If you accept the contract, the object of your grudge will be immediately sent down to hell, but in exchange when you die, your soul will also go to hell to suffer eternal torment. In most cases, the requestor is given time to think about the request and given a straw doll with a ribbon. If they decide to accept, they pull the ribbon and the grudge will be carried out. Ai is added in her work by three companions: Wanyūdō, an old man who becomes the straw dolls as well as Ai's carriage; Ren Ichimoku, a seemingly handsome young man who can see anywhere by sending his large eye to the location; and Hone Onna, a sultry woman in a half-falling off kimono.

The first half or so of the series is fairly episodic, featuring a new case of someone wanting to send someone to hell. As the series progresses, two new characters are introduced, Tsugumi Shibata and her father Hajime. Tsugumi meets Ai one day, after which she begins going into trances and seeing Ai performing the contractual offers to her various "clients". Hajime is a reporter who has begun investigating the Hell Girl phenomenon. Hajime makes use of Tsugumi's abilities to try to track down Ai's clients so he can attempt to convince them not to seek revenge, but Tsugumi isn't sure if utilizing Ai's service is all that wrong. I think this is really a core theme and one of the best aspects of this series, beyond its beautiful animation and music. Each story leaves the viewer questioning whether seeking vengeance is right or wrong, if this method of revenge is acceptable in the circumstances, and if the price to pay makes it worth it. Some of the cases are truly horrible circumstances, such a victim of stalking whose stalker is ready to kill her, a young man seeking vengeance for his friend's murder, and a girl enslaved by a murderously disturbed woman after claiming the girl's dogs "bit" her. All of Ai's clients are not "victims" though, as is the case where one simply wants to remove a rival for the spotlight.

As the manga adaptation ran in the shojo magazine Nakayoshi, which is targeted at elementary and middle school readers, it has a somewhat different feel from the anime. It is not as dark as the anime, using primarily original stories rather than the more disturbing originals, but it is still considered to be one of the darkest, most serious series to run in the magazine. It adds in a few stories of more everyday occurrences that inspire folks to seek revenge, which I think really make the question of whether using Ai was the only option or the right choice a tougher one to answer. Some of its stories include a girl being bullied by a classmate under threat of losing her reputation and place in a good high school, a student being sexually harassed by her teacher, a high school girl used and hurt by a boy she liked after she surpasses him in test scores, and a seeming best friend betraying the trust of another out of jealousy. It does also include a four or five stories from the anime, though they each have some significant changes, however the entire subplot around the Shibatas is gone (per an author note, it would have been to dark to try to adapt to the manga without ruining its purpose). While it is certainly enjoyable, it is also almost entirely episodic for the first five volumes, with Ai and her companions having less personality and back story. Where the anime frequently shows them at their "headquarters" and interacting, the manga reduces them almost entirely to just appearing when needing and performing the sendings to hell. However, I have seen brief summaries of volume 6 that indicates that it does start exploring the personalities and backgrounds of Ai's companions, and volume three does present a slightly toned down version of how Ai became the Hell Girl. The artwork is well done, with artist Miyuki Eto doing a particularly nice job of incorporating Ai's floral motif into the series and in having a good varied appearance to the characters in each story.

On the whole, I'd have to say that I would highly recommend the original anime. The stories are thought provoking, if sometimes disturbing, and the thread with the Shibatas is well handled. As I mentioned earlier, the animation is just plain gorgeous, and the healthy production budget is easy to detect. The voice characters all handle their respective roles well, especially Ai's voice actress who states the line "Do you want to see what hell looks like" with the absolute perfect inflection. I hope the second season was able to keep the same cast. If you don't mind the more episodic nature, I also do recommend picking up the manga. The original stories are also well written and in keeping with the general idea of Hell Girl, even if they are somewhat tamer.

Anime Rating: A

Manga Rating: B+

Skip Beat!

June 29, 2009

Another anime series I recently tried via CrunchyRoll is Skip Beat!. Based on the on-going manga series by Yoshiki Nakamura (currently being released by Viz Media), the 25 episode anime series ran in Japan from October 2008 through March 2009 and appears to cover only the first twelve volumes of the manga (which is currently up to 23). Like the manga, it focuses on teenager Kyoko Mogami, who forgoes high school to move to Tokyo with her childhood friend Shotaro after he asks her to support him in becoming a star. She lives frugally and works to maintain an expensive apartment, while he works to become a big star. However, when she learns that he only asked her to have her continue acting as his maid and that he doesn't care anything about her, Kyoko undergoes a transformation from a mousy pseudo-housewife to a woman-scorned hell-bent on revenge. She joins the agency of his top rival determined to become an actress and a bigger star than him, but his betrayal left her unable to love anybody, a major problem for any actress who must be able to love her fans.

On the whole, I liked the premise of the series as it seemed pretty promising. I'd been curious about the manga and seeing the anime was available on the Crunchyroll, I decided to give it a whirl. Unfortunately, I was sadly disappointed. The animation is top notch at times and the English subtitles had no glaringly obvious issues that I noticed. Kyoko is a great character. I particularly like that she doesn't do the stereotypical crying of rivers over Sho's betrayal and instead goes a little nuts. Her losing her ability to love was a great twist, and well played as she is otherwise an okay girl with a few twisted quirks. However, the series as a whole is fairly predictable and it emphasizes the comedy too much for my taste, to the detriment of the story. A lot of otherwise great scenes are ruined by chibi animation, exaggerated physical gags and facial expressions, screaming, and just plain silliness. This just does not suit me at all, and I found it quickly turned me off to the series.

I also found the series quite predictable, to the point I only watched the first 4 episodes, scanned two middling episodes, then skipped to episode 25, and wasn't lost at all. It because pretty easy to guess how Kyoko would react to situations quickly, such as her stalking of the agency representative, and his coming to grudgingly admiring her (while fearing her) enough to support her efforts. Ren Tsuruga, Sho's rival whom Kyoko is seen cursing early in the series, was the obvious one to become her real love interest (and presumably true love by the series end). Though really, his attraction is hard to understand since he seems to have as much personality as a blade of grass. The childhood connection that is eventually revealed between them was an interesting twice I didn't expect, but left unexplored by the end of the series and largely unknown to them. The anime itself also doesn't really end at all. It stops right in the middle of an actual bit of trouble then just leaves it there without resolution. It also leaves Kyoko and Ren's romance largely up in the air, which is a secondary annoyance.

All in all, if you like over the top romantic comedy with a lot of gags and exaggerations, you'll probably like this series. If you actually want a romance with a little comedy that has the right amount of drama and good story that would go with the stated premise, look elsewhere. From reading reviews of the manga, it seems the same problem exists there regarding the comedic element, so while it appears to have a more fleshed out story-line (and Sho actually remains a rival for Kyoko's affections), I think I'll be skipping it as well.

Rating: C-