Various short stories (part I)

Hello everyone! Sorry to keep you waiting for so long but I have two rough years in front of me and things just started to gather and cramp my schedule. To be completely honest, I’ve been thinking for a while about what to write but nothing seems to fit my mood. In the end I suppose a short story or two is in order. They were in the plan some time ago but the idea of putting more that one story in a post never did appeal to me. So let’s get cracking...archives.

I cam across a pack of mangas and there were a few that really stuck with me.

White Clouds

White Clouds definitely is something apart from what you regularly see on the market today. Unless you know about it or have read something else by its author, you’re not going to give it the light of day let along your precious 3 minutes. The amazingly low number of pages is a general source of distrust but I can’t say anyone tackled more sentiment and philosophy than Hisae Iwaoka.

The story has a somewhat peculiar narrator, an old dog named Shiro (needless to say, the first page gave me some She and Her Cat flashbacks). Shiro is 14 years old and reminisces a bit about his life with his owner, Grandma. Unfortunately she passed away from old age so it’s just the dog and Grandpa now. The two treasure an old plastic bottle that Grandma used to use when she got sick...Read it for the ending!

Sincerely I cannot applaud it enough for how emotionally touching it is. Iwaoka sensei can bring you to tears in little under 20 pages. If that’s not talent I don know what is. However, don’t go expecting a world of lavish colors or sharp faced characters. The simple story is very beautifully accompanied by simple art and minimalistic backgrounds. In the end, I think her choice of lines was very effective as the little old lady and her spouse look every bit the good natured people they are.

White Clouds is a wonderful story with a twisty (happy) ending that makes you wonder just how much feeling goes into everyday life.

Bunnies

Let not the title mislead you, this is not a fluffy animal story! But when has that ever discouraged me?

Testu Kasabe’s short story starts out pretty interesting and even though the climax isn’t that hard to guess the last few panels deliver a well received comedic effect.
The very first page sets a horror mood with a haunted looking house and a somewhat gooey writing informing us of the title. And then our three characters make an appearance and possibly winning the World Record for cultural references per 5 pages. The first character, whom ends up being the unsuspecting victim, is a reporter, much to my surprise – at the sight of his hat I immediately thought of the famous mister Holmes. The second character it the Professor, a short, bald man with pointy ears who is the spitting image of Nosferatu and just happens to be an evil genius. And to complete the picture, in comes to butler, Franken. Really, do I need to say more?

The Professor invites the reporter over for a little innocent chit chat about one of his projects – a machine that can allow someone to see his future. After spiking Reporters drink he tests this concoction on him and allows him to see his last moments as an old man, surrounded by Bunny Girls. The reporter is hyped about the success but it seems the machine might not work as well as planned.

As you already know, I am a big fan of horror manga and this one doesn’t really fall short of my expectations. It has important characters, eerie setting, an unlikely plot and at 16 pages it delivers enough of anything to prevent you from feeling ripped off at the very end.



Until next time, this is L signing off.

SaiKano: The Las Love Song On This Little Planet

Hello people! I still have about an hour before my friends comes and drags me to the gym so let’s get cracking… and hopefully finish in time.

Saikano (Saishū Heiki Kanojo, lit. She, the Ultimate Weapon but translated as My Girlfriend, the Ultimate Weapon), ah this brings back the good old days. This was one of the first anime I ever saw and (somewhat ashamed to say) the most emotionally disturbing. Although I loved it to the maximum level possible, it’s not something I will be re-watching any time soon. Few anime had such an impact on me but then again at that time I was young and impressionable. Even so, I wasn’t the only one touched by it. This is the first and only anime that I have ever watched in which the fansub team that had take on the project, left their otherwise very objective stand on things and put out a warning at the end of episode 10. It was something along the lines of “If you want to believe in happy endings stop here, don’t watch the rest.” But when did I ever take any warnings seriously hehehe.

Saikano is a manga, anime and OVA series created by Shin Takahashi. The manga spans for 7 volumes, the anime has 13 episodes and the OVA had 2. I didn’t read the manga but I did see both the anime and the OVA – Saikano: Another Love Song. Since we’ll be speaking about the anime I’m just going to come right out and say it: after you’re done with the anime you absolutely have to watch the OVA. At that particular point it won’t really seem so appealing but trust me, it’s worth it.

The narrator of this story is Shuji, a high school student from Hokkaido, who also happens to be the male lead. For the most part, the anime consists of Shuji’s flashbacks and so the tale starts to unravel. One day a fellow class mate of his, Chise, declares her love. She’s really very shy and builds up a lot of courage to say the words but Shuji is rather insensitive, going all tsundere. Both are unsure how to express their feelings but after a few bumps in the road they get together. Unfortunately their happiness doesn’t last long. As Shuji was shopping in Sapporo one day, the city gets attacked by bombers and the war starts. In the midst of it all, he sees a small red light that destroys the foreign planes. Later on he finds out that the red dot in the sky was actually his girlfriend Chise who, without notice or consent, was turned into a weapon of mass destruction by the Japan Self-Defence Forces. As the cyborg implants eat away at Chise, the two must figure out how to cope with change, war, love and chaos.

If there is one thing that sets Saikano apart from other anime then it obviously means we’re not talking about the same anime because there are a lot of things that make Takahashi’s work stand out from the heard. The most impressive part is without the shadow of a doubt the characters. They are indeed a rare treat in the sea of Xeroxed anime protagonists. Unlike most of their siblings in the industry, they actually break free from stereotypes and adjust their actions and attitudes to what is currently going on. Yes people, there you have it, an anime with 100% believable, lifelike characters – never thought you’d see it, huh? And on these perfect canvases, the author paints a wide variety of feelings, much to my delight. All states of heart and mind are so incredibly portrait that, at times, the heart-wrenching feelings grab you by the gut and make Saikano almost painful to watch. The level of empathy is sky high!

Another absolutely wonderful thing is how Takahashi-sensei managed to pull of something that, at first glance, might see a bucket o’cliché but is actually one of the most original of them all. Sincerely, I had tremendous good luck I got to watch it when I was still at the beginning of anime devouring. If I would have heard about it now I probably wouldn’t have picked it up. Most people just don’t want another “guy meets girl + mecha” anime. If I had to guess, I think the fact that this is a character driven story saves it from the shameless pit of cliché, as it doesn’t become just another tournament style war flick…that and the truthful depiction of feelings.

Another thing that I just simply have to mention is the fact that Saikano goes the extra mile to show just what war does to people. It is credible and lifelike to the point of being as terrifying as the real thing. I can name only one other anime that manages to do that, a masterpiece delivered by Studio Ghibli under the careful guide of Isao Takahata.

But let us not forget the artistic side of this anime that, in my opinion, doesn’t fall short of its great story. It’s most definitely not the style you see in contemporary anime, if anything it’s like a manga sketch. The whole anime seems like a watercolor slide show with a warm, fuzzy and romantic feel to it. All this contrasts with the computer generated graphics of war machinery and the cold hard truth about the reality out young couple lives in. The author didn’t cheap out on character design either. They might not be the big eyed sharp chin type but they all look individualistic without chipping at their normality. On a different side, the voice acting is out of this world! The biggest mistake you can ever make is watch Saikano dubbed. Trust me; you don’t want to do that! Every time I remember Chise going “Shuu-chan” a cold shiver goes down my spine. Hauntingly good, one might be tempted to say.

All in all, Saikano is an emotional, heart-wrenching ride; an authentic look into the hearts of young people facing extreme events; something that, if it isn’t already, will very soon become a classic piece in the anime industry.

Don’t forget to watch it along with the OVA as well. It’s crucial!



Until next time, this is L singing off.

Guess who’s back? – Miscellaneous

Hello there! I’m hopefully back. First of all I think apologies are in order for my very long and unannounced leave of absence.

Other than personal matters, there is another thing has kept me away from writing: nothing good pops up in front of me. Just lately (no more than 3 days ago) I found a very promising anime and hopefully I will finish watching it by this weekend (though I do have kitchen duties to attend to) and you’ll be seeing a post on it. But as far as manga goes, the selection is quite weak, and apart from a couple of ongoing titles nothing very fresh can be found. That being said, anyone who reads this and knows of some good manga, please leave a comment with the title. If you’ve been reading the blog, you know the kind of stuff I go for.

That’s about it. See you ... probably in a few minutes.

L

Misc all the way

As the tile suggests this post won’t be related to manga or anime, it’ll just be some miscellaneous things I feel like writing about. 

First of all I have to say I’m in a pretty bummed out state and nothing seems appealing anymore. I’ve pretty much locked myself in the house and haven’t left for a while. Now the cause for my recent transformation into a hermit is the heat: 38 degrees in the shade T_T...so not much activity here.

In my idleness I decided to take up an RPG again. Now since my bandwidth is shared I generally avoid client based MMORPG and go for the browser based kinds. Back in highschool I started playing Legend of the Green Dragon (LoGD) on this really cool server which I can’t find anymore. So I looked it up again only to find that most servers are really not interesting. But fear not, I found one that is pretty close to the original one I played on (aside from a few annoying things) however... not a lot of players are on it...not a lot as in 2 other active beside me. That being said, if you have nothing better to do, can read English and like the magic wonderland type of games then come on over to [spam] http://www.rpdragon.com/home.php? [/spam]. Yeah. You can Ye Old Mail me or something. I’m Skoll.

On another note I’m pretty pissed off with Blogger for having a faulty quick link service. As in for the last couple of posts I can’t seem to be able to put links where I want them. For some reason the Publish Post button obliterates any and all links that were inserted. This sucks. Maybe it’s just a browser related glitch cause since I started Opera a lot of things don’t work like they should (not even Y!Mail for Christ sake). I’ll know more after firing up Firefox. Heh that’s pretty funny.

Ok that’s all. See ya.



L

ES - Eternal Sabbath

Hello everyone! Without any further delay and babble about how I have the current weather and want to move to the North Pole let’s get right to it.

So I found an 8 volume manga by Fuyumi Soryo called ES - Eternal Sabbath. To be truthful, before I actually began to read it I circled around the title for quite some time but refused to pick it up because I thought it was going to be some mindless romantic nonsense. Afterwards, I circled around writing about it, like a cat around a fish bowl, because I was afraid I wouldn’t do it justice. Eventually, gathering courage and finishing all the Criminal Minds episodes, there could be no more beating around the bush. Perhaps if I had read something about Soryo-sensei, I wouldn’t have hesitated so much since she did win the Shogakukan Manga Award for a shoujo manga, Boyfriend...I was to busy eating grapefruit to do that...yeah.

The whole things starts when a bunch of scientists research ways to become immortal. Eventually, they stubble across the ES gene, which provides 200 years worth of life span and immunity against all viruses. Little did they know but along with the incredible life span came mind-control abilities and the power to alter one’s memory. But, we find this out a little later, after meeting Kujo Mine, a neurological specialist from a physiology research institute from the U.S. She’s smart and beautiful if you look closely but doesn’t have any boyfriends and constantly scares her omiai partners with fun biological facts, like fish mating habits. [Really, I can’t tell why they were so freaked out but whatever.] She meets Ryosuke Akiba who proves to be carrier of the ES gene. When he realizes that he’s been found, Akiba tries to alter Mine’s memory but is unable to do so since she is one of those “dense people” (read as someone who’s minds is not easily altered). So he enrolls in her research departments and spills the beans on his true nature. Akiba’s real name is ES00 or "Shuro", named after the palm leaves in the bible. In Catholicism, a cross applied to the forehead with the ashes of shuro leaves a sign of repentance. He broke out of the lab where he was born after a great fire. Shuro doesn’t really care for people and can barely tell what is right or wrong. But, needless to say, all of that will chance after he enters the influence of out female lead. The real Akiba Ryosuke was a kid that died in a car accident leaving his grandfather grieving. ES00 decided it would be easy to assume his identity for his own purpose. Now Shuro was brought up by the scientists as a regular kid or so they thought. Since he could read their mind, he knew that they didn’t really care for him and only wanted to study him. Thus his altered perception of worth and love. And since ES00 was so perfect, the National Hygienic Laboratory couldn’t risk anything happening to their perfect sample and decided to clone Shuro and dissect the clone to see what makes it tick. After several attempts, nearly 10 years after the original ES was made; they finally obtained ES01 or Izaku. His name too comes from the Bible: in the Old Testament, Abraham offers his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice to God and like his namesake Izaku too was born to be sacrificed. Izaku wasn’t meant to come in contact with the world outside the mechanical womb that held him in order to avoid the "rise of sentience" but again, he read the minds of all the scientists. When he managed to escape, he started a killing spree and eventually went into the world applying a childish sense of justice. Now it’s up to Mine and Akiba to stop him before he kills everyone.

Good God, where should I start with the praise?!

Well, as good as place as any is the ABSOLUTE THRILL you will get from reading this. Heck I was on the edge of my chair and – although I am somewhat ashamed to say it – had to stop for a breather from time to time. The way some minds work is just so creepy. Not to mention that Soryo portrays the amorality of children in a terrifying way: when explained, Izaku’s crimes seem almost justified and his reasoning almost without fault. Combine that with the strength of his power and you’ve got one of those killers that make you seem helpless and utterly terrified. The tension is almost always on, which I must admit is sometimes tiring, but you’ll definitely get a chill down your spine when you recollect what you’ve read. Still, the author’s greatest achievement is scaring the life out of the readers not by supernatural happenings, but by regular events and reasoning.

Make no mistake – you have to be into thinking type manga to fully enjoy ES since it’s psychological almost to the core (except those few moments of full fledged gore). Both protagonists are well rounded highly, intelligent and a little dense in their own way. The dialogs are a joy to read: smart ideas without any sense of over thinking, short lines that go straight to the point and accessible language. No silliness what so ever. In my connoisseurs’ experience few authors can do this level of intricacy without bombarding the reader with enormously tiresome paragraphs that leave us, the fans, wondering if we really get what’s going on. Not to mention that this makes everything so dynamic. 

The art is pretty ok: clean lines, no weird paneling. The thing I liked best about it was the subtle show of emotion Soryo gives her character – absolute genius! These guys express emotion just like every other person in the world, not over the board but full of feeling. However, sometimes, the characters seem to have a blank expression that can be quite puzzling but you’ll learn to love it. You get to enjoy most events in this manga without having your intelligence insulted by an abundance of weird sound effects that would have only crowded the page. Thus enjoinment is based solely on your perception of things and what your own feelings are on the subject.

Truly, the only thing that still surprises me is the lack of a serious, raging fan base. C’mon people, stories this good don’t come along every day, ya know?

Therefore go get it this instant because if not, you’re going to miss out on one of the best manga out there. ES doesn’t have busty gorgeous women, no epic battles of tensioned romance j-dorama style; just a pack of chilly thrills and intellectually refined dialogs. It definitely gives most titles out there a run for their money. 
My only advice on the subject is to get all the volumes at once because if not, you’re going to give yourself a kick in the behind for not spending a little extra in order to be able to enjoy such a great story.

At one point I didn’t think I’d ever read a manga that I would enjoy more than Death Note but now I know better.

Until next time, this is L signing off.

P.S Did I mention that the characters are absolutely gorgeous? Well they are. 

Great Teacher Onizuka

Hello everyone! Exams are over and though I had a slight 0.4 drop from my straight A average I won’t be going to reassessments. That means I’m officially free for the summer.

Given the recent release from school duties I figured it would be only suitable to take a peak at Great Teacher Onizuka [“officially abbreviated GTO”] the (only) acclaimed work of Tooru Fujisawa. Contrary to my latest practices GTO is 25 volumes long and spanning a mind boggling 200 chapters. I don’t really read such long manga anymore but i kept on going and got through this one. 

The main character, around which all revolve, is Eikichi Onizuka, graduate of a fifth-rate university, bleach haired, former bōsōzoku, 22 years old and still a virgin. I’m just going to say it out right, he’s an exaggerated kind of character but a kind hearted one. Initially he had nothing better to do that look up girls’ skirts at a mall when he kind of gets picked up by a high school student. When they reach a love hotel her boyfriend pops up and he’s also her teacher. However he’s short, bald, wears glasses and whatnot so in comparison to Onizuka he’s not really a catch. But he has such a power over this girl that she jumps out the window even though they were at the second story (I think). And that’s how Onizuka decides he’s going to become the world’s greatest teacher. He’s aiming at high school but he ends up teaching middle school. The story really kicks in when he’s assign as the home room teacher of class 3-4 at the Holy Forest Academy, kids who seem nice and all but drove 3 teachers to insanity through bullying. Up to the end Onizuka helps them, one by one, to solve their problems and wins them over with his straight forward attitude. 

Now, to the praise of Fujisawa-sensei, all the students in the class are individualized. They each have their specific problems and complexes and are, almost each of them, treated to at least two chapters of one on one interaction with their home room teacher. Eventually, after most of the issues between the students are solved you get those classic school tales of festivals and trips Onizuka style. Due to the multitude of interesting characters present among said students, i’m not going into each and every one of them because if I do we’re never going to finish. Now don’t get me wrong, the students aren’t the only ones that are worth noticing. The other staff members at Holy Forest Academy are quite out of the ordinary, ranging from calm and calculated to down right perverted, used for comedic relief or just to creep you out.

Basically, up until now, the only reason (other than its length) why Ikind of avoided this series is because it sounds like the male version of Gokusen...or maybe Gokusen is the female version of GTO, Ireally don’t know. I can’t really comment on how Gokusen the manga is but I saw 3 seasons of the j-dorama so compared to those, GTO’s unchanging students are refreshing. I think at one point the author had doubts as to where to take the plot but I think he made the right decision. The first few chapters gave me the impression it was going to be just as segmented as the afore mentioned drama and it almost made me stop reading. But in the end I kept to it and I can’t really say I regret it.

Now when talking about this manga one word definitely pops up every second thought: exaggerated. For one, Eikichi’s entire character is exaggerated with a capital E. For one he’s ridiculously strong and is really REALLY die hard. I mean he makes Bruce Willis look like a kitty. Also, the fact that he manages to keep his job is amazing. Even if the director wanted someone to reach out and tame class 3-4 it’s not likely she would put up with all the things he does. The students don’t really fall short of exaggeration, making me go “C’MON!!” more often than I would have liked. I think Fujisawa’s the biggest mistake, credibility wise, is the fact that he made everyone a middle school student. Should they have been in high school it would have been a lot better. Kids that age wouldn’t have the knowledge, means or acquaintances these kids do. So, it’s a little far fetched.  

The art is ok, nothing spectacular really. Pretty clean cut lines and every other panel is without a background but other than that Idoubt there’s much worth mentioning.

All in all, GTO is a sort of must read. After you’re done with it you’ll know how every other generic “ambitious teacher vs. bad students” series goes. It’s bit long but entertaining enough to keep you going if you can digest the pile of bratty attitude. Plenty of fan service (read as nudity and hits of S&M) to be had in these 200 chapters and I think I can say with some level of certainty that it’s mainly directed at boys. 


Until next time, this is L signing off.

Mail

Hello everyone! To be perfectly honest I wasn’t really planning on posting anything until the middle of June but it just so happens I have a little spare time and decided to do some typing...that and my back is absolutely killing me. I really have to figure out another way of learning, other than sitting on the floor.

That being said, I would like to bring to your attention Hosui Yamazaki’s Mail. Now mister Yamazaki is no stranger to our little blog since he has been previously mentioned when I wrote about The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (KCDS) by Otsuka-sensei. Even though he now works on illustrating Otsuka’s manga, before that he wrote and drew a short series called Mail. Currently it’s published by Dark Horse Comics, the same company that publishes KCDS. 

The leading man here is Renji Akiba who seems to be your average trench wearing detective. Then again, looks just might be deceiving since Akiba only investigates the dead. This mister has a theory about nearly all those weird moments we experience in life, all of said theories involving at least one dead person. So, when people unwillingly encounter a ghost, Akiba comes to the rescue and, using his special dead killing gun Kagutsuchi (“the tool between God and earth”), fights off any malevolent spirit while chanting a custom prayer. Of course, he’s a complete gentleman and always calls or writes first so the innocent protagonists, as in the ones that are still alive, get their fair share of horror and despair while waiting for Renji Akiba in shining armor.  

This manga is unfortunately made out of chapter long stories. Really, it’s just our detective solving unnatural phenomenon caused by vengeful ghosts. Aside from him, I think we can put together the collective character of regular people that just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Most of them seem like genuinely normal, down to earth people who, a little to my delight, are skeptic about what’s happening until they get dragged into a wall or possessed or...well you get the picture. 

The story, being so fragmented, may not be everyone’s cup of tea. I wouldn’t exactly call it a weakness though. I mean it’s a good short read, which is what I think Yamazaki-sensei intended, so all you have to do is finish the chapter and then mind the stuff you should be doing, without something itching in the back of your brain asking you to pick it up again. Hmm...Maybe that didn’t really come out right. It’s not that it’s not interesting, but rather it’s just something that can wait until your work is done. 

Still, if you take every short story by itself, there’s great value in all of them. Sometimes you get the feeling that you’ve seen the setting and the “regular turning macabre” somewhere before but every little page still manages to send shivers down your spine. If there is one thing that Yamazaki knows best, that’s pacing. All the tension peaks at exactly the right moment and that’s mister Akiba’s queue to swoosh in and coolly deliver his holy bullet and catchphrase. Therefore, it’s no understatement that the grim psychology gets you coming back for more even with all the familiar surroundings.

Other than some pretty nifty storytelling, you also get the wonderful art, all in one package. I’ve been a fan of his drawing style ever since I picked up KCDS: nothing like a good, clean cut line to make a child look really spooky. Also worth the mention is the killer perspective Hosui pulls out of his hat! Absolutely amazing! It doesn’t matter if it’s one page or a full fledged two page spread, the perspective adds so much to the story and the atmosphere it’s almost crazy.

Since both KDCS and Mail are published by Dark Horse their external package also looks the same: the anti-glossy cardboard cover, rugged pages and shrink wrap cause, you know, too much violence for little kids. What does differ is the cover art, which in my opinion isn’t worth the money. When you see it you really don’t want to pick it up. So yeah, Dark Horse could have gone with some more appealing art.

All in all, a quick chilly read, perfect for those who want quality macabre on the go.


Until next time, whenever that might be, this is L signing off.