Anime Review: Rose of Versailles

When I first started hearing about this show I of course heard about how great it was, how much of an influence it had on later shows, about the Tarazuka performances but one other thing I heard was that even fansubs were apparently hard to find, hence why I never looked around for the show itself. So when Nozomi announced last year that they had licensed the show (a feat that took them literally ten years, holy hell how do you have the dedication to do that?!) and that they were streaming it I figured this was a pretty good sign that I should watch it. Started watching the streams a bit after they started but once I got a few episodes into the show I found that I was enjoying it quite a bit for a show that was over 10 years older than I was, making it by far the oldest bit of anime I've seen and also a rather unique one in some ways.


Rose of Versailles

Summary: When his fifth daughter is born General Jarjayes of France decides that if he and his wife can't seen to conceive a son then he'll just have to raise one of his daughters as one and christens his last child Oscar and raises her as his heir. Her gender is fairly well known, and she seems quite comfortable not having to deal with the petty squabbles of 1700s French court women, although with the French Revolution building that inane life might have been a safer one for you.

The Good: I was a bit worried when the story started with Oscar being just 14, no offense to 14 year olds but you guys just aren't the best main characters for epic stories, so I was pleased to see that this story takes place over years and years with a good sized cast coming in and out of the story. The show is also surprisingly faithful in regards to real history, you can look up just about any of the major events in a book (or wikipedia) and see just how similar it all was. The story takes bigger liberties with it's characters, certainly there was no one like Oscar around and several characters had their backstories changed or expanded upon, although ultimately none of these changes were enough to influence the history which is exactly what I hope for in good historical fiction, a very solid and well-researched setting with characters who are influenced by it but still have their own problems and goals.

The Bad: My biggest gripe here is how hard it is to figure out how much time has passed from episode to episode. As far as I can tell the show starts when Oscar is about 14 and ends sometime in her late 20s/early 30s, if I had really and throughly studied French history I could have picked up more clues in context and figured out her age but I haven't and the voice actors remain the same for all the characters, plus some of the characters look young/old for their age, so it was a bit frustrating to try and keep track of that.

The Audio: The show uses the same voice actors for each character regardless of age (which certainly didn't help me with keep track of Oscar's age but I can see why they did it) and the music didn't change much over the course of the show either. It kept it's opening and ending theme throughout and it's most distinctive themes should be quite familiar to the viewers by the end of the show. Everything sounded fine, the music was a bit overly dramatic at points but that's just a matter of taste and the acting was certainly fine, no problems here!

The Visuals: This is a show that's been around longer than I have so obviously it's not going to look as pretty as a show produced in the last two or three years and very stylistically different from a show produced in the last decade or two. The show uses a lot of still images for dramatic effect (usually with the camera moving out or in to dramatic music) yet at the same time it doesn't shy away from having quite a few sword fights between characters which are fully animated (I'm sure some people who know more about animation than me can say if they're as fluid as fights in more recently shows, they didn't seem quite a fluid to me but regardless my point is that even though the show cut corners in some places they went all out in others). There wasn't as much shaking as I expected (or maybe I just got used to it, in the past shows I've seen from the mid-90s earlier had so much shake it was like they decided to scan in the frames during an earthquake) and again the colors aren't quite as vibrant as something painted digitally but given the setting of the show that's perfectly fine. A lot of the characters look alike (to be perfectly frank, I'm still not 100% sure who a few of the characters in the above image are) and a lot of the, apparently, lavish outfits of the cast look plain to me, probably because the coloring is a bit flat so a peasant's outfit seems to be made out of the same fabric as Marie-Antoinette's (which might sound weird to some people yet after years of cosplaying I can figure out the texture of an outfit in a show from looking at it for just a few minutes, here I really couldn't do that). So yes, the art is dated and animation is limited from a modern viewers perspective but I could just as easily pull out a show from the past few years and show where RoV surpasses it in both departments, whether you can get used to the art or not is going to be a matter of how willing you are to give it a shot and try to overlook or understand it's shortcomings.


So I'm giving the show a solid 3.5 out of 5 stars and recommending it to anyone whose ever been even vaguely curious about it or who really enjoys modern day shojo, it never hurts to see how the genre has progressed over the years and all 40 episodes are streaming for free on Viki (Nozomi will be releasing it in two sets sometime this year). Heck, after seeing this I really want to pull out of my Revolutionary Girl Utena sets and rewatch that show now that I can see where Utena must have gotten a lot of it's influences (I'm told that both of them were influenced by Princess Knight and I'll probably watch that someday too, just with a bit of a ranty write-up based on what I know about it....). Also feel like rewatching Le Chevalier D'Eon for comparison's sake too, which now that I think about it must have been at least partially inspired by RoV. In any case, will I buy this? I don't know, I liked it quite a bit but I just don't know if I want to rewatch it and I only buy stuff that I want to rewatch. Hopefully Nozomi will have the sets for sale for a while so I'll be able to think more about it, I'm sure my wallet will be happier for that too.   

Manga Review: Ooku: The Inner Chambers (volumes 1-4)

I believe I reviewed the first volume of this quite a while ago, I know I've at least read it before (which reminds me, I need to tell the librarians that this series should be in the nonfiction/adult comic section, not next to all the kiddie comics) and while it didn't grab me enough to go out and buy the other volumes un-read it did grab me enough to track down the other volumes my library system had. According to the Japanese Wikipedia there are seven (out of a projected ten) volumes out in Japan right now (and I'm guessing another one should come out soon) and according to The Right Stuf volume 7 will be out in the US in about two weeks. So four volumes covers a good chunk of the series so far and I think it gave me a pretty good feeling for it.

Ooku: The Inner Chambers by Fumi Yoshinaga

 

Summary: In an alternate Japan, a plauge has struck that spans decades and by it's end the male population of Japan is reduced down to just one-fourth of the female population. Desperate times call for desperate measures with women assuming almost all the major roles of society, from the lowly peasant farmer all the way up to shogun and the shogun's Inner Chambers are now staffed with dozens of young men instead of women. But this was hardly a smooth transition nor a speedy one and everything still feels rather delicate, as if a single action could shatter everything that has been rebuilt. 

The Good: While it can be hard to tell some of the characters apart with such a large cast, by and large all of the major characters are each era are quite well fleshed out and grow as well. The characters are the main draw of the series but I also enjoyed the well-thought out politics and the tiny bit of musing on gender roles the series provided me with (namely that gender roles are more nurture than nature but even with the reversal of men and women that people, usually the guys, will still act in certain ways). Overall it was an interesting, satisfying read, although it did have one huge problem with it.

The Bad: The story starts in one time period (which we are led to believe is present time) and then spends three volumes in a flashback chronicling how Japan went from a male dominated society to a female led one and, while interesting, I would like to get back to the “present” time soon. There is still more to go, I would think at least a volume (going by how enormus the character list on the Japanese wiki is, and while I can see why the story was framed as it was (I can’t deny that it’s much more interesting this way), multi-volume flashbacks just get a bit tedious after a while and I wish that they had either been shorter or somehow connected back to/interspersed with scenes from the present day. Also, as I mentioned just above, since there are so many characters to keep track of I would suggest reading these volumes in quick succession of each other, I think it would be much harder to follow based on it's one-volume-a-year publishing schedule. And finally, a problem that seems to be unique to the US translation, the idea of using psuedo-Shakespeare speak to mimic the old-fashioned Japanese which does not work in the slightest. There were literally pages where I could not understand what the characters were talking about and had to skim until I could again. This isn't a minor problem either, when I first heard about this I thought fans were over-reacting but no, the books are nigh un-readable at parts and that makes it very hard to recommend them.

The Art: Yoshinaga seems to have gotten a bit better at drawing character’s faces since Antique Bakery (ie, she can draw more, distinct faces than she could before, see only six faces syndrome) and while I did have to rely on hair style at times, the cast is so large it’s unsurprising that there is some overlap still, it never looked like she was recycling designs. She also uses chibi faces less, which is more to my tastes, and everything was nicely detailed. I believe these, SigIkki, volumes are a little larger than normal and I also really liked their size and presentation.

So, while I would read more of the series, and there's already only a small pool of people I'd recommend it to, that translation job really prevents me from wanting to re-read the show and is a pretty huge caveat as well. I would just love to know if that was an idea on the part of the American translation staff or if this was some weird request the Japanese publishers made. 

  

Booke Review: I Am J

Yaaaaawn, since this is going up close to midnight for me, Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it and for those who don't, happy Sunday. I've been to too many family gatherings to think of much to say so I will just say that this book came well recommended and I was surprised that the local library already had a copy of it.

I Am J by Cris Beam

Having a cover for a book about a transgender teen is a tough thing to think of (since that would be really hard to show in a single image of a person and you really need to have the person on a cover of a book like this) and I think this is a great image for it. The cover is a bit ambiguous about the character's gender (I would have assumed a guy but I'm sure some people thought otherwise) and one of the first things J is able to do for himself is make a binder to tie down his chest. Plus there is all the symbolism about hiding under the jacket and such, I just think it's a great idea for a bit of a tough concept.

Summary: J is transgender, born in a female body but identifies as a man which understandably causes him quite a bit of grief. J has to deal the strain that this puts on his life and all the normal problems that come with teenaged life as well.

The Good: I had been a bit worried that it would be hard to sympathize with J, not because of their gender but because of the urban, more gritty setting (which has given me trouble empathizing with characters before) but that turned out to be a non-issue. J was so well written that it was very easy to sympathize with his problems, despite how little we have in common. The story managed to flesh out its entire cast and really show that there is more to a person than their gender. The plot was also complicated enough to be believable and not everything was neatly resolved but it managed to feel realistic, happy, and satisfying which is rather hard to pull off.

The Bad: We're taught that life isn't always good so it's actually a little hard to believe that J does manage to have a happy life by the end, it's realism that doesn't seem realistic which isn't bad but is odd to think about. That aside, I really didn't have many problems with the book. It did take me some time to get into the groove with it, partially since I was in the odd position of knowing a little more about transgender people than J did, but once the story got going it moved along very well. 

In short, the book is not only a much needed book (try counting the number of other prominent transgender character in YA books, I can only come up with two) but it's also an excellently written book that I would suggest to anyone who likes realistic fiction. I'll certainly be keeping an eye out to see if the author writes anymore since I would love to see what else they can cover.

 

Anime Review: Wandering Son

Wow, sorry for not posting yesterday, was traveling yesterday and didn't realize just how long that was going to take so I didn't have anytime to write up a review. Also, I was planning on reviewing the films I saw at the Banff Mountain Film Festival but I forgot to bring along my flyer which said which films were playing (I only saw five of them). So this week the schedule is going to be a little strange, I'll get that review up Monday and then the next film review Tuesday to get back on track, please just bear with the weirdness, it's almost exam time so everything is about to get weird for me.

So, the anime I'm reviewing today (which, funny enough, should have gone up today anyway) is the other noitaminA show this season, Horou Musko/Wandering Son based on the manga of the same name. I've never read the manga (it should be released here soon so I've held off) but I squeed when I heard this was being animated because honestly there are times when I look at a lot of the anime coming out in Japan today (male, otaku oriented with a weak plot, suspiciously similar character designs, and large amounts of fanservice which just don’t interest me) and I moan and lament about what anime has become. And then I come across titles like this and go “wait, a story about transsexual kids, a topic that is barely touched upon in ANY  literature*, in my favorite timeslot (noitaminA) PLUS by the same manga-ka (Takako Shimura) who did Aoi Hana/Sweet Blue Flowers, one of my favorite series? …okay, you had me at ‘transsexual middle school kids,’ Western literature, WHY ARE YOU NOT THIS AWESOME?!?”  

Wandering Son

Summary: Nitorin and Yoshina are entering middle school but they aren’t your "normal" middle school kids, Nitorin is a boy who wants to be a girl and Yoshina is a girl who wants to be a boy (ie, they’re both transsexual). Middle school is hard enough on it’s own so add in that, romantic and friendship problems and you’re left with a story that is all emotion and character–driven drama, one that will tug at most people’s heartstrings.

The Good: Middle school is tough enough if you're cisgender so there is plenty of natural-feeling drama to start with and the story is very careful to avoid going overboard with the melodrama. The characters have their triumphs and their failures, people who support them and people who mock them, and the story feels very real because of all of that variety. Even though this show is dealing with big issues, it doesn't need big problems to elicit an emotional response from the audience. By the end of the series, even the hint of the character going through even more trouble will draw the viewer in for another episode.

The Bad: One problem with the story, that can’t be changed easily because of the way that the story goes, is that all the kids are much more mature about the issue of transsexuality than many adults are (although some adults today could stand to be more mature and accepting of the matter). While all the emotion and drama in the series are real there are times when the characters are too calm, too understanding of the world around them which disrupts the flow, in some areas the kids are just too perfect to be kids. 

The Art: The art has a rather distinctive style to it where everything seems slightly washed out with watercolor like colors. The art evokes a gentle feeling in the story, perhaps to contrast with the more mature themes going on (however, since the art is based off of the manga art and Aoi Hana had similar art as well this may just be the manga-ka’s style with no deep reasoning behind it). The backgrounds are surprisingly realistic looking but again, everything is slightly overexposed and washed out so the focus remains more on the characters, not the physical world surrounding them.

The Music: The opening and ending aren't translated on crunchyroll but the little bits of Engrish in the ending theme are perfect for the series. “I wanna cry for you….I wanna dream for you….” In a sense it sounds like the song is the watcher or the friends of the main characters singing about the series, how they want to help them get through all these situations and not shoulder these burdens alone, it’s a very sweet song. The opening is more upbeat but, without a translation, I don't have anything else to say about it.

In a nutshell, THIS is what I expect out of noitaminA, shows that would never get shown on other channels because of their mature-thinking content, not because of gore or porn but because most audience would hate to even think about transsexuality. The anime actually starts 33 chapters into the series (skipping the entire elementary school arc) so I'm even more excited for the manga coming out so I can see just what we missed, although I doubt the anime will ever come out in the US (I will buy it in a heartbeat if it is though). Oh, also, "episode 10" on crunchyroll.com (where this is streaming) is actually a compilation of episodes 10 and 11 and "episode 11"  is actually episode 12, noitaminA is only a 11 episode timeslot, which wasn't going to be enough to tell the story, so the producers had to play around a little to show the whole story, can't wait to see the full versions of 10 and 11 when they come out on DVD in the fall.

*in all my reading, not counting anime, I can think of two, maybe three transsexual characters, one in one of Tamora Pierce’s books (Bloodhound) and one I barely remember (it wasn’t until years later that I understood that the character wasn’t just a crossdresser but actually transsexual, I think I read this is early high school which would explain it, I knew very little about non man/woman relationships at that point and even less about people do deviate from societies’ two gender standard) Luna by Julie Anne Peters. Ironically enough, I can think of a few other anime that featured prominent transsexual characters (Tokyo Godfathers and Shangri-La being the first two to come to mind) but this is the first anime I’ve seen where these characters are The Main Characters and this is very much their story.