Comic Review: Off*beat (volume two)

Well I had a rather charming surprise at my new local library, they have quite a bit of manga! I'm starting to think that my local library was a bit crap for having so little (that or it was so throughly spread out between the branch libraries I never got a chance to see what they really had) and this library not only has manga but it has quite a few longer running series that I had always wanted to try and some older books like this one. I didn't think I'd have a chance to read this one any time soon since, to the best of my knowledge, Chromatic Press hasn't started selling new copies yet and I'd have to wait for those to trickle down into the libraries. I will note however that for some reason this particular book was missing some pages, I don't think I missed anything terribly important story wise, I wouldn't be reviewing it if I had, but if it seems like I did feel free to chime in in the comments!

Off*beat (volume two) by Jen Lee Quick

Summary: Tory continues to try and get closer to his neighbor and classmate Colin in order to figure out what exactly is going on in Colin's sometimes mysterious life.

The Good: In the effort of full disclosure, I'm having a bit of trouble remembering where volume one ended and volume two began which in one way is a good thing, it shows just how cleanly this story flows, but does mean this is going to be a shorter review. I'll admit that I liked this volume a bit less since it felt more like build-up, being able to read chapters from volume 3 immediately afterwards was a relief especially since it showed that Quick really does have a well plotted out story in mind. One thing I do remember liking a lot about this volume is how even though Tory is absolutely convinced that Colin is part of a secret government project the story presents it in such a way that as a reader I was never sure if he was right or completely crazy. I think that presentation was on purpose and that's something that's quite tricky to pull off correctly and I thought it gave the story an extra level of interest. 

The Bad: I'm so happy I don't have to say "and then it ends forever so we have no conclusion!" since that would be a pretty big negative against the series. The third series is already being serialized in Sparkler Monthly and picks up immediately from where the second volume ends and honestly that takes care of both my biggest problem with the series and that also starts rounding out the characters a bit more which was my other large complaint about the series. People will probably disagree with me but I just found Tory and Colin a bit too flat, Colin spent the first volume barely interacting so it was hard to see what his actual personality was (other than "quiet" and "a bit sullen") and Tory is so obsessive with his stalking that it's as if that one quirk defines his entire personality. Like I said, the third volume is definitely the start of the final act so both of those problems start to fade and that leaves me with no real issues with the series at the moment.

The Art: No big changes here from the first volume, Quick continues to draw in a style that looks a little rough but grew on me over time. I also feel a bit weird critiquing it since I started out reading her later work (Witch's Quarry) so I know that all the problems I have with this work (faces are a bit too similar, backgrounds can get rather simplistic and overly reliant on screentones) are improved upon in her other works yet I hope the art for the last volume isn't too different since a radical style change would be even worse. And, in writing this review, I just realized that the CP editions have new covers and just wanted to quickly mention that I like the new ones (with new logo) better than the old TokyoPop ones, much more focused composition.

So, if you enjoyed the first volume of Off*Beat you'll enjoy this one even more and then should run over to Sparkler Monthly to read the rest. Otherwise, if you're a fan of lite-BL stories where the relationship isn't the main focus then you should give this series a shot, I was pleasently surprised to see that it was as good as I had been told anyway.

Anime Review: RahXephon

Earlier in the year one of the people in my local anime club brought this in to show for Fantasy Night (yes I know, we have a very hard time figuring out what genre things belong to) which we ended up watching and I enjoyed the first three episodes so I asked if I could borrow it some time and he loaned to to me right there. Awesome, I tried out NGE earlier in the year but wasn't so keen on it so I was really curious about how much I would like this series, I've often heard it described as "Eva but with music and happy" which sounded like an interesting change and even three episodes in it had proven to be way more symbolism heavy than Eva ever was.

RahXephon

Summary: As far as Ayato Kamina knows, it's 2015 and Tokyo is the only part of the world that's still around after a mysterious barrier surrounded the city and enclosed it years ago. This isn't the case however and as he escapes to the outside world Ayato realizes just how much of his life has been a fabrication.

The Good: I was disappointed when Neon Genesis Evangelion did not have as much symbolism and such as I was lead to believe and I was happily surprised to see just how much RahXephon did have. I love it when a scene has multiple meanings for me to puzzle over and there were many things in this show that were only shown or implied instead of outright told and I liked that, it worked well with the series. The ending also surprisingly worked well, if it hadn't had the very last scene I would have been really unhappy with it but the writers took pity on the fans and threw in that extra scene. Overall I found the writing to be really good, I nice mix of everyday life and of the important matters going on behind the scenes and the story seemed to explain all of it's background without the need for extra media so kudos to the writers for this one.

The Bad: I felt like things started becoming a bit too complex by the end of the story and at points it was hard to tell what was going on. In addition, several characters either reappear or have their backstory fleshed out and I was skeptical at just how much they had changed in that time which bothered me. Unless a story spends a lot of time following a character and fleshing them out this often bothers me but it did bother me regardless. It was also a bit hard at times to keep dates and character relations (as in, who is related to whom) straight but I suspect that that was deliberate on the anime's part.

The Audio: For a show that uses music as a major theme I didn't really notice much music (either as background or produced by the characters) until very late in the show and I was listening very carefully for it. Once the musical symbolism gets going it's there all the time but I do wish it had been incorporated a little more heavily into the early parts. Didn't really care for the ending theme but I loved the opening theme, both the melody and the lyrics and now it's probably one of my favorite OPs.

The Visuals: The show is nearly a decade old so the colors aren't as vivid as something produced today but honestly that doesn't detract from the series, there's plenty of strange imagery on screen and interesting designs to make the series visually interesting. It's not so much the artistic talent that went into the show but just what was on the screen that was so interesting, lots and lots of symbolism that wouldn't work quite so well in an all print (or all audio) medium. It's a show where it makes sense that it was produced as a show and that does mean the show has succeeded on at least one level.

So the next time someone tells me that NGE is filled with symbolism and it's soooo deep I'm going to make them watch this series instead (or Utena but that comparison doesn't work quite as well). I plan on getting the series someday, it does sell really cheaply everywhere online but I'm less than thrilled that it's in two stack pack sets. Not quite as bad as my Moribito set but I guess I'll also have to make plans to deal with that when I get the set.

Anime Review: Deadman Wonderland

People who aren't fans of gore should probably avoid this series or not go looking for the BR/DVD rips of it (especially since it's on crunchyroll) because this is one of the bloodier and disturbing series I've seen in the past few seasons. That may be because I'm not a big fan of blood and gore shows but something about the plot drew me into this one, even if I had to close my eyes during some of the more disturbing scenes.

Deadman Wonderland

Summary: Igarashi Ganta was enjoying a normal life and excited for his upcoming class field trip to Japan's only private prison, Deadman Wonderland where the prisoners put on shows for the tourists, when his classmates are brutally killed before his eyes by "The Red Man", he's framed for the murder and he ends up going to Deadman Wonderland as a criminal instead. As brutal as the prison is there's an even darker side to it lurking underground, one that is connected to a little gift that The Red Man gave Ganta.

The Good: The pacing may be fast in this work, not surprising considering the staff had the daunting task of animating 21 chapters in 12 episodes (the first arc), but it's consistent and it appears that everything important was kept in. The story balances the action scenes with the downtime well, the downtime never felt like it went on too long or like it was happening when the characters need to go and do something important. The show has a good sized cast, although a few were cut for the anime, and many of the important characters get some backstory, quite a few characters actually considering the show is only 12 episodes long.      

The Bad: The ending of this series screams "hey there's more, you can't just see this part and not wonder about the rest of the story!" which means that if the viewer doesn't get a second season or tries out the manga they haven't seen a full story. It's impossible for every adaptation to tell the original story completely (at least in the first installment) but it should provide some sense of closure, the ending here simply felt like even more things were about to get going. Also, it appears that anime gave away a major spoiler much earlier than the manga (or at least made it more obvious) which isn't exactly a good thing. 

The Audio: The opening song is interesting since it's done by a Japanese band with an American singer so the English lyrics sound great (in fact, if you didn't know this was the theme song to an anime most people would just think it's from an American rock song) and the song is actually a cover of this song. The lyrics are completely different but there's no question that the instrumental parts are the same which is all rather interesting, I've never seen an anime use a cover that doesn't use the same lyrics as the original song. The ending song is much less interesting, a slow song (which accompanies images of the cast from before they ended up in Deadman Wonderland) which feels strangely out of place with the rest of the series.

The Visuals: This series is a rather gory one, gory enough to have some censorship and in some places the censorship just feels dumb, especially when it doesn't work. In the first episode, after The Red Man has gone on his killing spree in Ganta's classroom, the entire scene is darkened so the details can't be made out as well, there the censorship works but later in the series a character gets an arm partially chopped off and the area where it was chopped off is blurred. It's still completely obvious what happened and makes the blur feel just stupid, it's not hiding anything. All of that will be removed for the DVD/BR release eventually in any case and as for the rest of the show it looks fairly good. There are plenty of fighting and action scenes which all look good (and usually pretty cool due to the nature of the fights) and the designs for the many characters all seem to stay consistent.


This show recently got licensed by Funimation (when they went and licensed almost a dozen recent shows that had already been streaming) and I honestly don't think I want to see the uncensored version of this show. If there is a second season I'll watch that (and the show seems to hint strongly that there will be one) but I just don't know if I want to rewatch this. I am curious about checking out the manga however it was published by Tokyopop so it's now out of print (it is still running in Japan however) so that means it's less likely I'll follow up on that urge.  

Spring Anime 2011 Reviews, part one!

And for something a bit different again, going to give my thoughts on all the new anime from this past spring season that I've tried (so, if anyone really wants to know what I'll be reviewing in three or six months, consider this a sneak peek). Since I tried out eight different series this spring I'm going to split this into two parts and I'll put the second part up tomorrow, once I write in anyway.

AnoHana (Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai. or We Still Do Not Know the Name of the Flower We Saw That Day.)

One of the two new noitaminA shows premiering this season, it's an anime original story about a group of friends who grew apart after one of them died when they were kids and are starting to reconnect almost ten years later. The reason they're starting to re-connect is because Jintan, originally the leader of the group and now a hikkimori, has started being visited by Menma (the girl who died) and is trying to grant her wish so she'll leave him alone again, although even Menma isn't sure what her wish is. It's a surprisingly touching show and, while it is paced fast (it's going to be only 11 episodes long so it has to move fast) everything feels like it's progressing at a natural pace, can't wait to see where it goes!

Sadly this one does not have a simulcast and makes it my one fansub of the season, I'd forgotten how annoying it is to wait around for fansubs too.

Blue Exorcist (Ao no Exorcist)

Taking over Star Driver's timeslot this is a shonen series based on the manga by the same name (now being published in the US by Viz) and so far I like it a bit. The premise is that Rin is the son of Satan (while his twin brother Yukio is not) and after the events of a second episode spoiler has sworn to kill Satan by becoming an exorcist. While teenage rebellion isn't a new thing in anime (or any media) this is a different take on it and Rin is a pretty likable protagonist. I'll confess that after the first episode I read ahead in the manga (I didn't mean to! It just sorta-kinda, well, happened!) so if the pacing stays consistent this should be a pretty fun ride.

Blue Exorcist is being simulcast by Aniplex and streaming on crunchyroll.com, hulu.com and animenewsnetwork.com not 100% sure what the restrictions are on it but everyone in the US and Canada should be able to see it. Also, I am torn between laughing or being embarrassed on behalf of the ending sequence (animation and song), keep an eye on the tv screens to see what I mean.  

[C]-CONTROL-The Money and Soul of Possibility
FYI, this is another title that has a lot of alternate spellings, I'm fond of calling it C(ontrol) myself but C-Control seems to be the most widely used one*. The other noitaminA show, also anime original, C deals with a Japan a little in the future where everything seems the same except for a mysterious alternate world called the Financial District where people engage in "deals" (battles) with other people's "assets" (anthropomorphic representation of their futures), putting their own futures on the line for riches. Kimimaro Yoga is a full time college student holding down two part time jobs who just wants a stable, normal government job and wouldn't like to be involved in any of this, no thank you, but he's our protagonist and like it or not he's got to continue in these deals now, and maybe he'll learn something about his family in the process.
C is being streamed for US and Canadian residents on Funimation's website (which, now that they changed their video player, let's Canadians watch the videos now) as well as on hulu and youtube. I think that it's also being streamed on ANN for Australia or the UK but I'm not positive. 

Deadman Wonderland
 It used to be that when people in the US thought of "anime" they thought of much darker and gritter cartoons than produced in the US and Deadman would certainly fit that description. Within the first episode our main character Ganta has watched all his classmates be brutally murdered in front of him, been convicted with the murder of them due to some faked footage of him confessing, sent to the only private prison/amusement park in Japan (Deadman Wonderland) which makes all the prisoners put on shows for the customers in order to raise money to re-build Tokyo. Oh, and some of the people there want to kill Ganta before his execution date, if the poison seeping out of his (and everyone else's) collars doesn't kill him first, is that enough action for you yet? I'm a little worried since fans of the manga say that there is no way you can tell the story properly in just 13 episodes and there's a rumor that the series is only planned to be 13 episodes, as long as the story has enough episodes we should be fun.
This one is streaming on crunchyroll.com I can't seem to find out what regions at this time, and it's streaming on Anime on Demand for anyone in the UK. Final note, this one has my favorite opening song of the series so far, the Engrish was so good I had to double check to make sure they hadn't gotten an English speaking band instead.   




Whew, wrote up most of that between exams (gah, I hate double exam Saturdays) and I'll get the other four reviews up tomorrow sometime. Don't have much else to say (except that I have discovered an amusing number of similarities between Blue Exorcist and The Demon's Lexicon^) so see you then!

*actually, when it was first announced it was just announced as "C" prompting a joke or two that AnoHana stole it's other letters. 

^No seriously, in both series we have a set of brothers, one of whom is actually a demon (Rin and Nick) and the other brother (Yukio and Alan) has A) known about this for years and B) is desperate to keep them safe. Add in the fact that both demon's use swords (although sadly Rin does not keep his under a leaky sink in the bathroom) and both of the other brothers use guns, plus even their "allies" would rather use the pairs than help them. So it's not surprising that my mind made that jump, although I am sad that Mae and Jamie (from The Demon's Lexicon) don't have Blue Exorcist compatriots as well, stories need more pink-haired, totally normal yet still awesome girls/boys and more witty gay boys/girls!   

Webcomic Review: Head Trip and Haru-Sari

Only two comics again today and technically I should put Head Trip in the unusual updates page but I really didn't want to review just one webcomic again. So oh well, two short reviews for ya!

Haru-Sari
A comic that's been underway for a while, the archives even show how many more chapters it has until the end, Haru-Sari is set in either the future or another world where the government has mucked around with genetic tailoring and created elves, piete people who can wield magic yet usually go mad and die before they're 30. The story starts with June, a human who has some cat-like features (which is common, apparently the different people like that are supposed to represent different races) being treated for a kind of nervous system disease and whose new doctor is Huang, an elf who is notable for being the only elf doctor. The story focuses more on Huang however as he gets tangled up in secrets and conspiracies revolving around elves and I find it an interesting read. The update schedule has become a pretty wonky lately (the creator got sick a lot last year and had some family circumstances I believe) but hopefully the updates will get more regular again soon, they were very regular beforehand so it seems likely!


Head Trip
 Despite the fact that the schedule updates for this one have been screwy for a while now, Head Trip2 has a good sized archive of sarcastic and crosses-the-line humor. Mal, the red-haired main character, is not supposed to be an author avatar but, having read Shinga's livejournal, some of the stuff in the comic comes from her life, but you really can't tell since it's all got the same dark humor. Most pages are unconnected gags but there are a couple of storylines in there, all following a group of really odd and sarcastic superheroes and, unlike 2 Gamerz, I actually like these strips just as well, probably because those strips also have a gag a page (ie, even though it's a continuous storyline it doesn't suddenly get serious). So if you can take the occasional dead baby joke or two check it out!

 Hmm, taking a day off reviewing didn't seem to help me get more of my paper done at all, damn. Oh well, tomorrow is brought to you by the letter J, hope to see you then!