Book Review: The Last Unicorn

Originally I was going to just watch The Last Unicorn movie since I had found it at the local college library but when I looked up the call number I discovered they had the original book as well and decided to read it first. I’ve wanted to read the book for years, just because I’ve heard so much about it over the years but my public library didn’t have a copy (I believe I read something else by Beagle back in middle school though). I was surprised at how old the book is, I knew the movie was old but I still expected the book to be a decade or two younger (it was published in 1968) so I was surprised by how the book had more of an older fantasy flavor instead of a new fantasy feel.

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

My copy of the book didn't actually have a cover, just a plain blue binding but, since people like images, here's what the 40th anniversity edition should look like. 

 

Summary: After the unicorn hears that she is the last of her kind she leaves her forest for the first time in centuries to find out if this is really true. Along the way she will see what has become of the world, meet some interesting people and learn what it means to be mortal.

The Good: The book feels more mature than fantasy does so readers who want a deeper, less light-hearted fantasy would enjoy this tale. The book is also written in an older style* so people who simply aren't as fond of how modern day fantasy is told or how characterization is done will probably like this as well, it does appeal to a good-sized audience in that respect. The characters are all well-developed (with the Unicorn and Prince Lir getting the most) and the story wraps up without any loose ends, it's a well thought out and planned story.

The Bad: At times it feels like this story isn’t sure just when or where it’s setting is which is a bit annoying. It’s entirely possible that the setting is meant to be an anarchism stew of sorts but otherwise it just feels sloppy for parts of a kingdom being stuck in the middle ages when other parts have more modern features (such as talking about wandering poets recording songs while eating tacos). The pacing in the book is a bit odd, the whole book is a quest but, while the first half of the book is spent rapidly traveling from place to place, the second half is set in one place and the story really slows down which I'll admit I disliked. 

I'm still not entirely sure what I thought about this story, and it's been a good week since I read it, since it was just so different from what I normally read but I don't think I liked it. I had a hard time sympathizing/empathizing/understanding the characters (although I did like Molly a lot by the end), the setting bothered me (I'm always picky about settings though) and I didn't understand the romance (and again, romance, not my favorite thing in a book). It was a well-written book and again, it might just be because I'm used to young adult fantasy instead of adult fantasy, but I just didn't enjoy reading this book in the end.  

Also, I'll post the first part of my summer anime overview tomorrow (not waiting any longer for Funi's simulcast for Baka to Test 2) but it's going up a bit late since I'm helping out a photographer all day tomorrow. The whole thing is already written, don't worry about that, it's more a matter of when I'll be at my computer to actually post the silly thing, my best guess is at 7pm EST. 


*it's a little hard to explain but, there is definitely a difference between the fantasy written now and the fantasy written even 20 years ago, I really need to write a whole post on it to explain what I mean.  

Manga Review: Variante (volume 1)

I had a bit of an odd conversation with a librarian lately when I was being checked out, I think it was when I was checking out this book, that I thought might be interesting to share. It was an older woman who I hadn’t seen around a lot (and believe me, after almost five years of volunteering, I recognize a lot of the librarians) who was taking an extra-long time to check me out and mentioned that one of the books I had on hold wasn’t in the library after all, the AX manga anthology. I was a little surprised; all I remembered about the anthology was that I got the recommendation from it off of ANN, but apparently the library thought it had sexual material that was unsuitable for teenagers and didn’t simply shelve it in the adult fiction instead. That said, then she had no trouble with checking out this comic which I found in the teen comic section that has a big label on it saying PARENTAL ADVISORY and a cover promising gore to come. Now I’m really curious to see if the AX manga had sex that was somehow worse than all the gore in this one….

Variante by Igura Sugimoto

Summary: One night, for an unknown reason, Hosho Aiko and her family are killed by a monster but Aiko wakes up three days later in a morgue seemingly fine. However, one of the arms of the monster has grafted onto her body, replacing one of her own, and seems to have a life of it's own at times. Because of these strange things there are several government agencies who are interested in her, those who are devoted to eliminating monsters like the one that attached itself to her. 

The Good: While this is a fairly gory story, there’s no denying that, none of it is the kind that will leave a reader disturbed for days on end (it reminded me of what little I’ve seen of Six Billion Needles and Guyver, both pretty gory but not without some reason). The government organizations here are portrayed as fairly capable and fairly logical (some sections are cold-hearted bastards but they’re cold-hearted bastards who know how to do their jobs) and the choice they offer Aiko is a surprisingly nice one, a chance to fight with them and discover the secret behind her parent’s death instead of simply being dissected for her abnormality. Finally, this is a dark story and the manga-ka isn’t afraid to prove it by showing a lot of characters dying, and not simply background characters, so kudos for that.

The Bad: It’s really hard to get a feeling for how good this story will be from the first volume. It’s a solid start to the story but it’s treading familiar territory, can it do anything really different that will make it stand out? It does show promise but the premise is built upon tropes and, while it plays those tropes well so far, it just hasn't done anything new with them. 

The Art: The art is fairly detailed which is a good thing, the more detailed a monster it is the easier it is to show just how disturbing they are. The monsters (and the gore) are suitably scary and grotesque looking and everything else is well-detailed as well. So there is certainly no problem with the artwork and it does it's part in the story quite well.

So, I was interested by the series but just don't really want to make an effort to find the rest of the volumes. It was published by CMX but they managed to publish all four volumes and all of them can still be found for a good price (come to think of it, the only CMX manga I've found that has an engorged price is Two Flowers for the Dragon, I wonder if that was one of their bestsellers) so anyone who is interested in the series should go right ahead and check it out!

Anime Review: Sekaiichi Hatsukoi

I don't watch much BL but I actually do like a number of BL stories, I just don't find many of them (same goes for GL but not straight romances oddly enough). So I was interested when this show was announced for the spring season and, after first checking that there wouldn't be any sex scenes in it (I don't like hentai of any kind, no matter what genders are involved), tried it and was pleased that I actually liked it, despite having some issues with parts of it.

Sekaiichi Hatsukoi (World's Greatest First Love)

Summary: Ritsu Onodera is a jaded 25 year old who, after getting his heart broken in high school, wants nothing whatsoever to do with love and doesn't really have time for it anyway. He's busy switching to another publishing company (after becoming annoyed at all the rumors that he was only successful at his old job because his father was the company owner) where, to his horror, he realizes that he is now an editor for shojo manga instead of being placed in the company's literature department. And, as if his problems couldn't get any worse, then he realizes that his new boss is his ex-boyfriend from high school and the one who broke his heart in the first place.*

The Good: Surprisingly enough, the story does not drop the manga maing aspect from the story as soon as Ristu and Takano's conflict is set up (it takes up at least half of the story overall) which is nice since the story does go into a lot of detail about how manga gets made. People who hate BL but want to know how a manga is made probably won't like this (they should give Bakuman a try instead) but for people who don't mind the BL it's a surprisingly informative story. As for the characters, most of them are likable (or at least sympathetic) and it's nice to see older characters in a story. Another plus is that, while most of the characters fall under the if it's you it's okay trope, one of the characters is gay and is perfectly okay with the fact he's gay which is (sadly) unusual in BL manga aimed at female readers. Finally, that two of the three couples manage to figure things out and be happy together in a very short amount of time, which is again unusual, which sadly leads us to the problem of the first couple.  

The Bad: It's very common to have one (or both) people in a romance hate each other at first and slowly grow closer which is what the story is aiming to do with Ritsu and Takano but, even taking all the misunderstanding between the two of them into account, it's just very hard to root for a couple where one member (Takano) doesn't know the meaning of the word no and harasses Ritsu on a fairly regular basis (Ritsu does give off mixed signals but no still means no regardless of circumstances). Takano is even shown to be a fairly good guy but sexual harassment isn't a good thing at all and Hatori (from the second couple) also comes off as a controlling boyfriend which again, isn't a good thing. The anime actually cut out (or at least made it much less obvious) that there are two rape=love instances (one for each of those couples) and it's really hard to justify recommending a series that has such big problems such as these.

The Audio: There's nothing really special about the opening or closing themes here, they are catchy but they also only focus on the first couple instead of all three. The voice acting is also fairly average, solid but nothing special, except for the episode preview after the credits. At that point Ritsu starts reading off definitions for words in the publishing industry and does so so quickly that the subtitles can barely keep up, it must've taken a number of takes each time to get all of that in one breath (even if he usually gets cut off before he's done). So make sure to watch the previews twice, once for the images and once to actually read all the text.

The Visuals: This anime was produced by Studio Deen who, to put it nicely, is not know for their artistic skill. There isn't a ton of action in the show to start with but many other shows take advantage of that to put more budget into detailed scenery (such as AnoHana), the backgrounds here are a bit bland as well. There are only two faces for the guys (I have nicknamed them "the seme face" and "the uke face"^) but that problem comes from the original manga, not the anime staff as much (the rare female characters also tend to look a lot alike). 


When I was double checking how to spell names for this series I was reading though the character page on tvtropes and was amazed at just how many misunderstanding there were between Ritsu and Takano and got rather annoyed when I realized that their relationship could have gone completely differently then. Why couldn't the manga-ka have written a story where the guys have a healthier relationship and fall in love, then I could easily recommend this story to people! I do really like the third couple (even though neither the second or third couple get nearly as much screen time as the first) and that couple even shows that the manga-ka can write outside of the normal stereotypes, I want more of the please!

Currently the show is streaming on crunchyroll.com (for those who want to try it) and I think it stands a fair chance of getting picked up my RightStuf/Nozomi since they already licensed both series of the manga-ka's other work, Junjo Romance (which I haven't seen since I know it has sex scenes, which was also the whole reason why I asked about that in the first place). The manga was set to be published by Tokyopop under their BLU imprint but Tokyopop fell before the first volume could be released, although I have heard that DMP is looking at the series to see if they could bring it over instead (final note, tvtropes has also informed me that, while the first and third couple are in the manga, the second couple is from a series of light novels by another author based on the series, sounds like there are no fan translations of said series at this time).





*Since I'm going to mention all three couples I'll list them here, Ritsu and Takano (the main couple, both manga editors), Chikai and Hatori (the first is a manga-ka, the second is another editor) and Kisa and Yukina (the first is yet another manga editor, they're all in the same department, and the second is a bookseller).
 ^because, even when the couple is of the same gender, one character (apparently) must look more masculine while being more forward/aggressive and the other must look more feminine and be more emotional and passive. 

Movie Review: Trigun: Badlands Rumble

Readers in the US may be aware that Trigun has just hit some theaters across the country (thanks Funimation!) and somehow my theater got one of the first showings and I saw it opening night last Friday. Between friends and other people coming to see the movie we managed to fill up the tiny screening room (the same one from Summer Wars actually, not that this is very impressive since just 17 people made the room pretty full) and generally had a good time. Oh, but I'm still annoyed that regular drinks at the theater were $4.25 while beer was only $1.50, heck I didn't even know movie theaters sold alcohol in the South!

Trigun: Badlands Rumble

Summary: Playing out much like an extended episode, 20 years ago Vash helped a criminal go free (a robber named Gasback whose gang was trying to kill him after they robbed a bank) and it's come to bite him in the ass in the present day. Vash ends up in the town that holds Gasback's next target and does his best to resolve the conflict without bloodshed.

The Good: Even for people who aren't familiar with the series the movie is fairly straightforward to follow* (it really does play out like an extra long, extra high budget episode from the series). It's a film with a lot of action in it and, true to the series, most of the action has a fair bit of humor in it (such as Vash's way of keeping a bar fight from getting out of hand, the audience started applauding at that point). It's a fun, action-filled Space Western film that happens to be animated and not have much to do with space at all.

The Bad: While the movie is easy to get into it's recommended that you have an idea of what the series is about and who all the characters are/their motivations. Some of the newer characters come off as a bit flat (of course, most of the one shot villains in the series feel rather flat too) and Amelia's motivation for wanting to kill Gasback is a bit hazy and illogical. There also seemed to be a few complaints (seen around the internet, not from the other theater attendees) that the movie wasn't a continuation/reboot of the tv series (having not finished it yet I don't have any comment to add to this).

The Audio: This theater was showing the subbed version of the movie and the original voice actors for the four reoccurring characters as the same as their tv counterparts (the same can't be said for the English version where, due to various circumstances, only Vash returns). Milly and Meryl are both more high pitched than their American counterparts but all the voices seem like a good fit for the characters. That applies to all the new characters as well and the music works nicely, no weak spots here! 

The Visuals: As one might suspect, the visuals in this movie are much better than the ones in the show (partially because the tv show is almost 13 years old now and partially because it's a 13 year old show that didn't age as well as some others have). It seems as if there's a fight scene every 15 minutes in the movie and all of them look very good, the budget must have been enormous. All the designs look the same as their TV counterparts and the new characters fit the look of the series as well.


There's not a ton else to say, there was a plot to the movie that worked but it was more of a really fun popcorn flick. I'm happy I saw it, even happier that I saw it with friends, and I think that in a day or two I'll get back to the tv series, especially since I just finished up another space western anime series..... 



*my brother hasn't seen the series at all and didn't have much trouble following it after I gave him a basic synposis and I haven't seen much of the series either. Heck, I hadn't even seen the episode where Wolfwood first shows up!

And now for something different, the continuing spring anime

Don't expect me to do this every season, especially since the current trend is for more and more one cour shows, but when I started looking at summer shows I noticed that I had a few shows carrying over from the spring season as well. So why not write about why I'm continuing them (especially since I'm trying out a grand total of 10 new shows plus one or two older shows, I've got pleeeenty to watch right now) and hopefully convince some people to try out shows that they might have heard of but never checked out. Onto the post!

Blue Exorcist:

If my watching schedule becomes too full and I have to drop something, sorry Blue Exorcist but you’ll one of the first to go. That said, BE isn’t bad at all but it is fairly average shonen series and I like shows that go beyond the average and break as many tropes as they can get their hands on (and I knew this going in, I’ve read through the first major arc in the manga which is probably where this season will end). Rin is more genre-savvy than your average shonen protagonist (he’s even lampshaded what he’s SUPPOSED to do at a few points) and there is a good sized main cast (but not so big you can’t remember all of them), those of who have gotten character development in the manga are decent enough characters. The show looks good (A-1 is becoming a rather strong studio aren't they?), even if the ending sequence looks weird and the opening is a bit uneven, the closing song is really weird (well, from the Engrish in it, neither songs are translated) but the background music works. So, if you like shonen, watch this, it’s got a better than average plot and great visuals, it’s solid entertainment (and I have no idea why Aniplex is releasing this without a dub in the US, it would work pretty well with the other shows airing on Adult Swim right now).

Steins;Gate:

The first few episodes were a bit slow and I almost dropped it but around episode 4 something changed for me and I got really interested in the characters and then episode 12 (the half-way point), whooooa. The show is surprisingly quotable (I’ve actually seen more memes based on audio clips from the show than images which is a first), quite a few of the characters have already gotten some character development and everyone is sure to get more in the later episodes and the plot here seems really solid. I’ve heard a lot of people say that this is one of the best visual novels out there (in terms of plots) and that the second half doesn’t disappoint and, after seeing episode 13 (which is firmly in the second half of the season), I’m hyped for the second half! Funimation picked up the license for this one just last weekend, although I’m betting it won’t get a release before the later half of 2012, so right now this one is firmly on my to-buy list!

Tiger and Bunny:

As I said in my spring review, I wasn't planning on watching this at all until I heard great reviews for it and this is one of my favorite shows of the spring season. I was expecting the show to be really episodic (criminal-of-the-week) but very early on it introduced a more central plotline (Bunny tracking down his parent’s killers) and the character development for Tiger and Bunny (more for Bunny because he needs it more) also showed up way earlier than I expected. Heck, half the heroes have had a focus episode already (it looks like the episode for this week will be another one as well) and hopefully everyone will keep appearing often and developing. The CGI isn’t as distracting as you would expect (unlike [C] the traditionally drawn characters are always traditionally drawn and the CGI stuff is always done in CGI, this really helps) and the music seems to work well. Sounds like this was a surprise hit for Sunrise (neeeever underestimate the buying power of the fujoshi!*) so here’s to hoping the plot for the second half is as solid as the first!

For those interested, I'll do my summer anime roundup the same way I've done the past two but, since only half the shows I'm interested in have aired, it's going to a bit. I should have the first post up late next week (yeah, it's going to be multiple posts again, like I said, 10 shows, that's just too many to put up at once @_@).

*Hell, there’s so much slash fanart that some of my friends were half-convinced it was a BL show, pretty funny thing to see first thing in the morning on your facebook