Anime Review: The Third: Girl With the Blue Eye

Recently Nozomi has been putting up some of their older titles on their youtube channel for streaming (dubbed only sadly) so I've been trying out a few things but the only show I've finished so far is this one, partially because of said dubs. I've seen this series for sale on TRSI's site a few times (the box art is rather pretty, although it looks like it uses art from the original novel instead of the anime) and was wondering if the show was as good as it's packaging.

The Third: Girl With The Blue Eye

Summary: Honoka is a jack of all trades who lives and works by a great desert in Earth's future, a future where much of the planet was destroyed by war and advanced technology is strictly controlled by The Third. Most of the time this doesn't affect her life but sometimes her odd jobs take her to some very interesting people and places. 

The Good: While it's easy to see that the series is based off a light novel series (with how separate each adventure feels) and none of the individual stories were something so original I hadn't seen them before a lot of them were alright or even good. The series isn't a drag to watch either one a weekly basis or when marathoning the episodes and the desert setting is less common in anime than it is in say Western science-fiction* so that makes for a nice change.

The Bad: It seems that this story tried to create a myth arc in the end to connect a lot of the other stories in the series but it just doesn't quite work. For one reason or another it just feels silly and didn't logically work for me and it was frustrating to see the show not end on it's highest note. There's nothing really bad about this show per-say but in the end it just doesn't do anything that I haven't seen before and would recommend people to watch it for. Perhaps there was something in the original books that made this a really special series but here it just doesn't really stand out.  

The Audio: For some reason this show decided that it needed a voice over to explain what Honoka is thinking IN EVERY SCENE and every time this happened I had the urge to throw something at my screen. Thankfully this mysterious narrator shows up less as the show goes on but it's still an utterly bizarre and pointless choice, internal narration works well in the printed word and plays but almost never in television. As mentioned earlier, I saw the dub and it seems to be one of Nozomi's better dubs, possibly their best one, but it's not a great dub. To their credit, the voice actors do better as the show goes on but the early episodes sound just so awkward. I really can't recommend watching the dub at all and, from a quick look around, it seems like the sub was fine. One final note is that while the show uses the same openers and closers as the Japanese version did, the ending songs play over the image up top (with the credits scrolling in English) instead of the more sketchy pictures of the characters used in the Japanese version. It's an odd change (maybe they couldn't get a clean version of the closers?) but since the songs are subtitled it's not really a problem.

The Visuals: As Erin Finnegan said on Shelf Life once, the character designs in this show just aren't that interesting most of the time and sometimes are downright strange (such as one characters huge breasts and a wolf with tentacles). The designs aren't bad per-say, it's just obvious that this is from a light novel instead of a manga where the outfits would have more detail and the art style would look less generic. There is at least one, possibly two episodes where everyone is drawn off model (for the entire episode, not just a few scenes) and there just weren't any really high-budget fight scenes elsewhere in the series to justify why those episodes looked so crappy.


In short, this series just felt average and, well, why watch something average when you could be watching something great? Maybe someone who hasn't spent their entire summer watching/reading science fiction *cough* would like this more, or maybe someone who just hasn't seen as much anime would also enjoy this a lot but I don't feel the need to buy this or rewatch the series, guess the box art really was better than the show itself.


*although at times it did remind me of one of Yen Press's light novel/manga series, Kieli. 

TV Series Review: Doctor Who (Genesis of the Daleks)

In case people were wondering, no I got sidetracked and haven't done my write-up about the author event yet, honestly I'm just not sure how interesting it would be to most people. Of course, I'm not sure how many people are interested in seeing me explore even more Classic Doctor Who but I suspect that it's at least a few more people. This time around I tried out one of the Fourth Doctor's adventures (with Sarah Jane and Harry as companions, Sarah Jane should be familiar to fans of the new series since she's appeared in a few episodes, got a spin-off show and her actress, Elizabeth Sladen, died this past spring), one that dealt with the origins of the Dalek's themselves. Russel T. Davis has said that this is where the Time War that would eventually wipe out the Time Lords started (ie, the meddling in the Dalek's creation) and even without knowing that it's a rather depressing episode, clearly the Dalek's are still around in the current series so it's everyone knows how this is all going to end.

Doctor Who- The Genesis of the Daleks

Summary: The Doctor and company have been pulled from the Tardis mid-flight to undertake a secret mission from the Time Lords, go back in time to Sakro and either manipulate the newly created Dalek's so they become a more peaceful race or destroy one of the universes' greatest menaces at their birth.

The Good: Despite the serial's foregone conclusion this story has a pretty tight plot, good pacing and suspense, exactly what it needs to hold people's attention for six, half-hour episodes. Once again the companions prove that they're perfectly capable of getting in and out of trouble all by themselves (although Sarah Jane isn't quite as capable as she was in NuWho) and it's interesting to see that the Doctor doesn't worry quite as much when his companions go missing, compared to NuWho anyway, and simply seems confident that they'll do alright. Tom Baker plays an interesting Doctor where it's always easy to remember that he is an alien, not human, which is something other actors sometimes seem to forget. There's just something about the way he acts that makes him seem different, it's no wonder that for so many people Tom Baker is "their Doctor."

The Bad: If you hadn't already guessed that Daleks were supposed to be alien Nazis then this serial really beats you over the head with the idea. Barely any of the characters other than the Doctor, Sarah Jane and Harry are remotely likable which gets a little frustrating, the war on Sakro that starts everything also seems to have Black and Black Mortality, really it's a wonder that the Time Lords didn't tell the Doctor to blow up everything from the start. Sometimes it seems like the characters are too trusting of Davros or not doing enough to prevent his plans but honestly, wouldn't the viewers have felt the same way the characters did if they didn't already know how the Daleks acted?

The Audio: The opening theme seems to have changed a little bit again and other than that there isn't a lot of memorable music from the serial. One interesting bit however, and I don't know if this was on purpose or not (I suspect it probably was), was seeing how similar the Daleks' voices were to Davros' own voice, as if he tried to make the Daleks in his image. It's not obvious every time he speaks but when he gets angry and starts yelling or drawing out his words like the Daleks do his voice becomes more and more synthesized which I thought was a rather clever little detail.

The Visuals: When the show doesn't have to rely on crazy special effects it's a lot easier to take the story seriously and thankfully this serial doesn't need a lot of special effects. By this point any Doctor Who fan is going to be used to the design of the Daleks, although Davros looks a little different from his later appearances, and combine that with rather generic looking sets (wastelands, small rooms that could have any number of purposes, a sanitary looking lab) and there's nothing to distract the viewer or to draw them out of the viewing experience.

I enjoyed this serial quite a bit as well and I really like having stories were there is more than one companion in the Tardis, for some reason it just seems that having three or more people means that the characters get to develop and act more as they bounce off of each other and it's a pleasent change from NuWho where the majority of the time it's one girl and the Doctor in the Tardis (and yes this means that I love having Amy and Rory together in the Tardis and Jack or River Song appearing for a few episodes always seemed to make things more interesting as well).

Book Review: Dust of 100 Dogs

Aka, the book my mom kept trying to steal from me when we were on vacation, no idea why she found this book so interesting based on the blurb on it's back cover. Then again, I don't know why I was interested by this book either, I remember coming across it in a bookstore years ago, thought it looked interesting and just now found it at my local library. I suppose part of the interest for me was because the blurb seems to give away the entire plot of the book so I was wondering what was left to tell.

Dust of a Thousand Dogs by A.S. King

Part of the reason I was initially attracted to this book (in the bookstore) was because of it's cool design. It's only three colors, very graphic and really fits the book well, plus that's a pretty neat font used for the title (also a little unusual to see the title placed in the lower right hand corner of the cover, usually it's right at the top). So the cover itself is eye-grabbing and really stands out compared to other YA titles.

Summary: Emer was originally born in Ireland at the time of Cromwell and saw her family home destroyed while she escaped and eventually became a pirate terrorizing the Caribbean. However, right after burying some treasure, she was killed and cursed to live the lives of 100 dogs before being reborn again as a human. It’s now the 1970s and she has finally been reborn as a human (named Saffron) who remembering every single life she’s had before and determined to escape her deadbeat family and reclaim her treasure.

The Good: It seems that the book gives away it’s entire plot on the back cover but proves that knowing what happened (the facts) isn’t the same as knowing how it happened (the reason), in a way it shows that you can still enjoy a story even if you know almost all of what is going to happen. The book uses a lot of flashbacks to tell the story and, in an unexpected twist, shows that Emer and Saffron are not the same person unlike most stories where a reincarnated person is exactly the same. Emer is certainly a part of Saffron but they are still two separate people, Saffron doesn’t mind her visitor/former self living with her and seems to have simply accepted that she knows all the things that Emer does. Because of all the flasbacks this story is more of a historical fiction work which covers two very different time periods, 17th century Ireland and the Caribbean and 1970s through early 1990s America which is an unusual combination for a book written only a few years ago*. Emer and Saffron carry the story so well that book is a really interesting and engaging read.

The Bad: A few things about the ending seem unexpected or just a bit too convenient for some of the characters (almost an inverse deus ex machina since it makes things harder for Saffron/Emer ). It also provides a much needed climax for the story since in the current timeline the story is already in the 1990s and most of Saffron's problems have been (at least temporarily) taken care of yet something still needs to happen at the end to wrap everything up. It’s not a plot heavy book, it’s very much a character book instead and at times it feels more like a very strange slice of life story. The interludes the include dog training advice/snippets from Emer's 100 lives as various dogs sometimes felt rather strange and out of place, the story would have functioned perfectly without them. 

I ended up liking this book more than I thought I would (just because I had no idea how much I would like it) and wouldn't mind buying a copy of it someday for an e-reader or such. Makes me wish I had more historical fiction to read as well, for some reason that genre just isn't as popular in young adult (or if it is it's something more along the lines of ROMANCE, INTRIGUE.... in the 1800s!), although it is entirely possible that in my years of wandering through bookstores and libraries that I've just missed all the historical fiction they have.

*by which I mean, it's rare to see what is technically historical fiction books that are only set a few decades ago (instead of some more "romantic" era).

 

Manga Review: Paradise Kiss (volume 1, reread)

Very sorry for not posting yesterday after all, it was a stressful day and I was really tired when I got back home after the author visit (which was lovely, the author in question was Maggie Stiefvater) and I just didn't feel up to writing a review when I got home. Obviously this means that I've got a book review going up on Thursday instead (which should be on time) an I'll probably post about the visit on my LJ on Friday if anyone is dying to hear about it/see the really strange bathroom the bookstore had.

Anyway, I've read some of Paradise Kiss before back in high school and then a few chapters that were scanned (not scanlated but someone literally scanned the TokyoPop pages) online but I never got around to finishing it since I felt so bad about those scanned pages. I was thinking about this series back in the winter because some people found out that many of Funimation's Genon license-rescue titles were going out of print and I really regretted that I didn't have the money at the time to buy up some of the titles including this one. And now that TokyoPop has gone under that makes the manga an out of print title as well, glad that I've got at least one volume of it so let's see how well it holds up since the last time I read it.

Paradise Kiss by Ai Yazawa

Summary: Yukari wants nothing more than to be done with high school and in college just so all the pressure about getting into college is gone, even thought she has no idea what she wants to do in her life. So she's in awe of the designers who make up Paradise Kiss, people who have a goal and want her to help them by being the model for their school's fashion show.

The Good: Paradise Kiss is actually a sequel of sorts to one of Yazawa's earlier works (Neighborhood Story or Gokinjo Monogatari) but no prior knowledge of that series is needed to enjoy this one (which is very good because that series has never been released in the US). Paradise Kiss itself is more of a character-driven story than a plot driven one and all of the cast members are interesting and many are relatable as well (such as Yukari's desire to get into college just so she doesn't have to worry about it anymore and Miwako's trouble that comes from being in love with two people at once, very normal high school problems). The other not quite as relatable characters are also interesting people and you want to learn more about them and see if they can all pull off the dress for the fashion show in time.

The Bad: Unfortunately not as much happened in this volume as I remembered, which is understandable, and, even though all the major characters were introduced and the setting was established, not much else was. It was an okay first volume but if you only have the first volume on hand to read it might be hard to see why you need to put in the effort to find and read more*. The side cast hints that the story might become something greater but Yukari's change over the volume, especially as she finds herself falling for George, seems rather average.

The Art: It's no secret that part of Yakawa's reason for making this manga was to draw as many fancy outfits as she could and they all look great. You can really imagine some of the outfits in the comic as real, haute coutre outfits (or at least real outfits made by talent yet amateur students) and being able to show not tell that the characters are good at this is a great thing. The characters are fairly distinctive (everyone has their own clothing style which helps) and everything is consistently drawn. 

So, yet another volume where I now need to track down the rest before they get really expensive, bit worried since volume 2 seems nigh impossible to find, anyone got any leads?







*especially since it seems that volume 2 is the hardest to find, which is strange since generally it's the later books that have a smaller print run which makes them more expensive in the end.

Anime Review: Cowboy Bebop

If you're an anime fan and happen to live in the US then you've probably heard of this show and there's a good chance that you've watched it. The show almost didn't get shown in Japan (due to it's depiction of "graphic violence," clearly the definition has changed between 1998 and now) but in the US it was one of the first shows shown on Cartoon Network's [adult swim] block where it gained a huge following for how different it was (in both art style and plot) from the other cartoons on American tv at the time. It's also considered to be one of (if not the first) anime to have a dub that is superior to the original Japanese dub, even anti-dub fans will usually list it as one of the dubs they like. Despite all of these things, many fans haven't seen this show (personally I was too young/didn't have cable when [as] started airing the show) and I had quite a few friends berate me for only now getting to the show when I mentioned I was watching it. Also, this show is distributed by Bandai and they have fewer legal streams of their show than other companies (especially for their older shows, the ones that people really need to see) so I had to wait to watch this until I had enough time to get them all out from the local college library (and notice them there first). But better late than ever and I hope that even more people try this show out.

Cowboy Bebop

Summary: In 2071 Mars has become the new center for humanity (Earth was partially destroyed in an accident involving one of the space travel gates) and life continues on as it always has been.  There are the the rich and the poor, the good and the bad and every shade of character in-between including cowboys or bounty hunters. Two of these cowboys are Spike and Jet who operate out of their ship called The Bebop and they travel all over the solar system just trying to find someone to take down in order to pay for their next meal. 

The Good: This is a very satisfying show to watch because of how well everything in the show comes together, it feels like a very well produced and cohesive show. The characters, who carry the show, are interesting, complicated, grow at least a little and their interactions are often the highlights of the episode (and their backstories provide the show with the underlying plot threads it needs to be cohesive). The setting is well thought out and established, it never seems like the creators based any of the locations off of a couple of cliches and left it there, even if the technology is a bit retro. But even when something, such as the retro technology, feels a little off it still feels a right, the creators managed to capture so many of the little details of life that it makes sense that people still have tape players in 2071 that you have to hit to make work. That really sums up this show, it just has so many little details in it that the show can't help but feel life like and that's always a huge accomplishment.

The Bad: Some of the later episodes, 20 through 23 in particular, just seem rather pointless and not as tightly written as the other episodes. Part of the problem is their placement, by this point the cast has received almost all their character development so it's clear that something will happen soon and then there are filler episodes that don't do anything new (and, since this is a 26 episode show, two could have been cut easily and it still would have been a full two-cour). While the show doesn't follow the "first half episodic, second half plot heavy" formula, it remains an episodic show to the end, it is frustrating to see so many unconnected episodes that late in the show. Ed's ending was also a bit unsatisfactory, although necessary, and Jet didn't really get a good ending either, his character had the most unresolved ending but again, there wasn't much else that the story could do that wouldn't feel out of place. 

The Audio: As mentioned earlier, this is considered one of the first really good dubs in the US and it's just as good as the good dubs today. The characters sound a bit stiff when they start out (except for Ed who starts off good) but by the end of the show all of the characters, even the more minor ones, sound incredibly natural and there really isn't any reason for an English speaker to watch the Japanese dub instead. The music is also equally praise-worthy, if you tried to tell most people that jazz and blues would work perfectly for a space western and that the show wouldn't be complete without it they would probably think you're crazy. Now if you told an anime fan this and mentioned that it was composed by the legendary Yoko Kanno then they would probably understand, even though you still need to really hear the show just to see how incredibly well it works. Kanno composed all the music for the show (including the mostly instrumental opening and the ending, which is thankfully sung by a woman who has a great rang for the song) and it's hard to describe how amazing everything is unless you actually hear it, it's a shame that she hasn't done as much work lately.

The Visuals: These DVDs were some of the Remix DVDss so the show actually looks incridbly good for being over 10 years old (I would put the quality between the super-nice Utena upscales and the not always impressive Evangelion DVDs). The show is entirely hand-animated except for a single space station in one episode (where the CGI is jarringly obvious) and everything in the show, from the backgrounds to the character designs, has a nice level detail which helps it feel like a well produced show.

In case you guys need any more reason to check out this show, this show created Studio BONES. Yes Cowboy Bebop was produced by Sunrise and some of the staff went on to create it's spiritual successor, Samurai Champloo, but the rest of the staff worked so well together that they went on to create Wolf's Rain (which also had Kanno composing) and it's really rare to see people get along that much that they stick together and make another project. The only other example I can think of like that is how the group that made Tokyo Godfathers under Satoshi Kon got along so well that they created Paranoia Agent and then worked on that. So yeah, just go watch this show already, it's on my to-buy list for sure. 

TOMORROW AND WEDNESDAY'S REVIEWS WILL BE UP LATE! I'm going to see a visiting author tomorrow (who is actually visiting over an hour away from me, sadly that's still pretty close)  and then I've got family visiting on Wednesday so my post might go up around a normal time or it might not, just giving everyone a heads up!