JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure… lives up to the name

The manga has always appeared too daunting to start, because it hit 100 volumes with 8 major arcs (including two taking place in a rebooted universe) long before I heard about it. An anime series covering the first few arcs? A far more manageable proposition, especially once the anime series popped up on Crunchyroll.

It starts out in a somewhat understated way with the conflict between Jonathon Joestar (the titular JoJo, though each arc actually has a different main character using that nickname) and his adopted brother Dio Brando. It quickly escalates with the introduction of a magic mask, vampires, zombies, and mystical powers. Of all the big, dumb, over-the-top action animes I’ve ever watched, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is the biggest and dumbest. With lots of big, beefy warriors who, flamboyant outfits aside, look like something out of Fist of the North Star. Minor and downright ridiculous occurrences gets treated as if they’re the most dramatic, earth-shattering events to happen to anyone ever. The writing is as goofy as you’d expect, but the voice actors somehow manage to deliver their lines completely straight, which makes the whole package all the more silly and entertaining. The show contains numerous nods to classic rock/metal, for people into such music (such as myself). I’m not sure I’d call the series good, but if it is bad, it is bad in a highly enjoyable way.

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. Watch it. Love it.

On a whim, I threw Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 in the Blu-Ray player while the roommate was in the living room. We ended up watching the entire series in two sessions, largely at her prompting. Not that I minded. It was my favorite anime series when it originally aired five years ago, and it holds up incredibly well, even when you know all the little twists and turns. The show is about a teenager (Mirai) and her younger brother (Yuki) who get caught away from home when a massive earthquake hits Tokyo. A motorcycle courier (Mari) trying to get home to her daughter decides to accompany the two since her destination is near theirs. Mirai behaves like your typical jaded teenager who resents, well, nearly everything, but especially being forced to take her sometimes overly positive/naive little brother places. Mari wants nothing more than to hurry home, but refuses to leave Mirai and Yuki alone. And… I can’t really say much more without giving away things best not spoiled for the first-time viewer. It’s a fantastic show that has not received nearly the attention it deserves (I mean, it took four years for it to get a North American publisher). The right mix of touching and sweet and dramatic, with the relationship between Mirai and Yuki as the focus.

Spoiler-y discussion beyond the “Read More” tag. For the love of all that is good and right in the universe, do not ready further if you haven’t already watched the series, unless you feel absolutely certainty that you will never watch it.

 

 

Current Media: April 2014 Edition

Playing

Dark Souls 2 – Dark Souls 2 is the game I kind of wish Dark Souls 1 had been. The series remains hard in a completely fair way, but the second game does a better job of introducing the controls and mechanics for newer players, and the difficulty curve doesn’t hit the stratosphere as quickly after the starting area. Making fast travel available from the start also allows for more expansive areas, since everything doesn’t have to interconnect the way it did in the first game. Purely a matter of preference, but I like the more open, sprawling level design. From Software did eliminate invincibility frames from certain defensive maneuvers, so I am having to totally re-learn the melee game for my Knight; I’m having more luck with my Sorceror in the early areas. Also, the mixture of enemies almost forces you to diversify your abilities in a way you didn’t have to in the first game. Going all melee or all ranged or all magic is a good way to get killed when you come across the one enemy type in an area resistant to whatever you’re rolling with. Fantastic game as long as you don’t get frustrated easily.

Watching

Kill la Kill – I finally forced my way through the rest of the show after stalling out months ago. It is a reunion of the writer/director team behind Gurren Lagann, and I loved Gurren Lagann enough to give it another chance. I like the main character and her sidekick. And thus ends the only positive statement I can come up with about the show. Like Highschool of the Dead, the creepy, extreme levels of fanservice distract from the few interesting aspects of the series. Kill la Kill tries to pass itself off as a parody of fanservice-heavy shows, but so much of the time it plays everything just a little too straight for the parody explanation to hold up. Beautifully animated, but otherwise completely forgettable and kind of awful in a lot of ways.

Gurren Lagann – I recently rewatched it with the roommate (who was seeing it for the first time), and it is still an extremely fun show. Possibly my favorite mecha anime of all time. You do have to meet the show halfway and just accept its ridiculous logic to enjoy the show though. Applying everyday logic just gets in the way of the experience. I mean, one of the early catchphrases is literally “Kick logic out and do the impossible!”, which kind of establishes the tone for everything that follows. Gurren Lagann manages to be so far over-the-top Pacific Rim seems subdued in comparison.  I’m left wondering how the same writer/director combo went so wrong with Kill la Kill.

What a bizarre anime/manga

So, I recently finished watching Jormungand (which is based on a manga) about a week ago. Even after turning it over in my mind quite a bit, I’m still not sure what to make of it. The show kicks of with a child soldier who hate weapons and arms dealers for the effect they’ve had on his life becoming part of an arms dealer’s team of bodyguards. The arms dealer and the child soldier end up being fairly close, or as close as two people can be in that situation, and the child soldier becomes something of a moral compass for the arms dealer. By her own admission, she doesn’t have much of a sense of right and wrong and counts on her bodyguards, who she views and treats as her family, to reign her in when she starts to go too far (though only one of the other guards speaks up regularly). In the second season, you find out the arms dealer has a plot that puts the plots of some comic super villains to shame. Her intention is to help people in her way, but a not-insignificant number of people will inevitably die in the process.

I will say I like the visual style and the pacing. The action sequences are very well done. It just seems like Jormungand has something it really wants to say about the world, but it never quite gets it out in an intelligible manner. It gives you villainous protagonists like, say, Black Lagoon, but lacking Black Lagoon’s sense of self-awareness. Overall enjoyable for the action, but not something I imagine I’d go out of my way to watch again. Even if you don’t subscribe to Funimation’s streaming service, the first four episode are freely available to non-subscribers. I’d say the show is worth trying out, at least. It doesn’t do much for me, but I imagine a lot of people will like it based on the action alone.

Code Geass really wanted to be the next Evangelion, didn’t it?

I’ve plowed through most of the series over the course of a couple of weeks. First time I’ve watched it since it originally aired, other than a couple of episodes to try the dub once it became available. I love the show overall, especially the first season. The clumsy parallels to Neon Genesis Evangelion seeded in the first season get really hard to ignore in the second season though. You have the son estranged from his Machiavellian father, rebelling in the ways he is capable (though Lelouch rebelled much bigger, since he is more his father’s son than Shinji is), every new mech design looks more and more like mini-Evas and/or Angels, and the Machiavellian father is working towards Ragnarok. As described, Ragnarok seems more or less identical in concept to Human Instrumentality/Third Impact. The second season works well enough when it focuses on the battles and political maneuverings (much as the first season did), but the few episodes that focus on Lelouch’s father and Ragnarok nearly drag everything down. They seem silly, nonsensical, and just plain out of place. It detracts from everything the show gets right. Fortunately, that subplot gets resolved several episodes before the ending, and the ending to the storylines that matter is actually pretty decent. All in all, I’m enjoying the series nearly as much as I did the first time around, which I don’t say very often. Hell, the dub has even grown on me. I still think the Japanese Lelouch fits far better, but I like the way Johnny Yong Bosch differentiates his Lelouch and Zero voices.

Time travel fiction always gives me a headache.

Even when I like it, as with Steins;Gate. I watched the first two episodes a couple of years ago and never followed up. I finally got back to it recently, and I’m actually glad I did. The show starts out real slow, but once I powered past the first four or so episodes, I couldn’t stop watching. The set-up phase of the show drags out so long for a good reason, and the payoff ends up being worth it. Once the story really kicks off, a lot of stuff happens so quickly it’s possible to get lost without the benefit of the seemingly extraneous material stuffed in first few episodes. I like the show for the characters more than anything though. Okabe’s mad scientist act, Daru’s over-the-top otaku tendencies, Makise’s ability to take the craziness mostly in-stride, etc. I don’t think I’ve liked the characters in an anime so much in a long time. And I’m not just talking about one or two, though I naturally have my favorites (Makise). The whole cast appeals to me in some way, even the minor characters. My appreciation for the characters allows me to overlook perceived flaws in the story. Most minor, but some do approach the level where I’d usually throw up my hands and give up on a series. Not terribly surprising, since it’s a show based on a visual novel with multiple story paths. Never an easy thing to adapt.

The part of Steins;Gate that gives me the headache is Okabe’s ability to remember the events of prior timelines. It’s never explained to any degree despite the series clearly stating several times that everyone’s memories change to match the current timeline. Though later developments soften the rule a bit by implying others were also capable of remembering rewritten memories under the right circumstances. His ability even almost makes sense in light of a later invention, but events change with his memories inexplicably retained before said invention ever gets used. Introducing such a hard and fast rule and then offering no attempt at explaining the rule-breaker just bugs me, even when time travel isn’t involved.

Current Media: October 2013 Edition

Watching

Sankarea – A boy with a zombie fetish meets a pretty rich girl with severe family problems while he’s experimenting with a zombification potion found in an old family journal in an attempt bring his beloved cat back. Through an unfortunate series of events, she ends up as a zombie herself. Despite the odd setup, the series focuses on this sweet little love story between the two leads as she tries to live as normal girls do once seemingly freed of her familial obligations/expectations. Oh, and her body still decays, albeit slowly, despite the reanimation process, and the boy constantly seeks ways to stop or at least further slow the process. I really enjoyed it, though it ends without really finishing the story (show based on an ongoing manga). I know a few OVAs have been made since, but I haven’t had a chance to watch them yet.

Guilty Crown – It reminds me a lot of Code Geass. A boy meets a mysterious girl and ends up gaining a mysterious power. He starts using the mysterious power to help a rebel organization fighting the oppressive government occupying Japan. The boy constantly struggles with the conflict between his morals and what (he feels) he has to do. I think it reminded the creators of Code Geass too, because the show desperately tries to change gears in a big way starting at around episode 17 (of 22), and falls apart almost completely in the process. The first 2/3 of the show in which it isn’t self-conscious of the similarities to Code Geass is really good though.

Casshern Sins – Note a pattern with all the anime lately? I kind of subscribed to Funimation’s streaming service recently, so I’ve been trying all kinds of series. Despite all the positive word-of-mouth on this one, I didn’t care for it. I can’t get past the dissonance between the serious, almost grimdark story/setting and the goofy 70s-era costume/robot designs (the show is a reboot of sorts for the 1973 show Casshan). It’s a shame, because I quite like everything else about that series. I just can’t get past the one issue.

American Horror Story: Coven – The previous seasons haven’t quite jived with my taste in horror, but I feel the new one was made for me. In addition to bringing back many of the amazing actors from previous seasons, they’ve combined witches (one of my favorite bits of superstitious folklore) with elements of real history. So far, it has all come together nicely. The wait between episodes is killing me.

SeaNanners – A new YouTube video game person I’ve recently started watching. As one of his friends said in a video, he’s got the YouTube thing on-lock. He mostly records multiplayer games played with friends also on mics (who often record the sessions for their own channels), and he cuts up most of his recordings into 3 to 5 minutes of the absolute choicest material. Plus he always laughs and has fun even while losing. Watching someone who has as much fun losing as winning has a certain appeal to it, I’m finding.

Playing

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed – I’ll specifically state that I bought the Wii U version, since I know not all the versions were created equal. I’m just going to come out and say it; I had more fun with this game than any Mario Kart game I’ve ever played. Mario Kart is basically a party game in which skill factors in only tangentially and anyone can win depending on their luck with the item pickups. And if you’re not playing with friends, Mario Kart uses cheap methods like rubber band AI to keep pressure on you. Sonic & All-Stars plays more like a proper racer. Fire-able items must be aimed and homing items are few/nonexistent, the tracks sometimes change between laps to shake people who use track memory to their advantage, and if you’re good enough, you can leave the AI in the dust. The game actually rewards skill in a way Mario Kart doesn’t, but manages to remain simple enough for newcomers to pick up.

AWA 2013

This year was Anime Weekend Atlanta 19. I first attended AWA back in 2003 (AWA 9). I started staffing in 2008. So, with this year, I have officially worked VAT (Video Art Track) more than I’ve gone as a regular attendee. Some of the changes over the past year definitely impacted the feel of the convention. Not good or bad, just different.

I did like the idea of having North American premieres of stuff. I actually got to see the Evangelion 3.0 premiere while on the clock, since they showed it in VAT while the rest of VAT moved over to Main Events for the awards ceremony. I’m still not sure how I feel about it. A lot of things sure happened in that movie, but very little of it seemed coherent. I should probably go back and watch the first two Evangelion Rebuild movies again to be fair, since I haven’t seen them in quite some time. Other than the Evangelion premiere, I didn’t experience much outside of my department. It was just one of those years in which most of what interested me happened in the VAT.

I spent all of $20 in the Dealer’s Room. $20 which may have led to a flurry of online purchases to fill in gaps left by buying clearance-priced half-season boxsets from the Sentai Filmworks table. Plus extra purchasing to meet free shipping thresholds. Yeah.

Breakdown went more or less smoothly again, but responsibility for the Dead Dog Party shifted to new hands this year, and it got started way later than usual. Minor quibble, though you wouldn’t know it by how angry my stomach got by the time food arrived. I’m sure they’ll be able to adjust as needed for next year. I said my goodbyes, drove home, crashed hard, and slept the sleep of the righteous. Another successful AWA. I look forward to working with my VAT comrades again next year (other than the ones I’ll be working with at MomoCon in May).

Current Media: September 2013 Edition

Watching

Future Diary – One of several series put on my radar by the AMV judging over the weekend. The show is not at all what I expected based on the official summary, so I wasn’t really interested until some AMVs clued me in to the darker aspects. So far, I really like it. The show starts with the simple premise that some manner of cosmic entity gives a normal high school boy a diary with entries from the future. Omitting the fact he gave other people the same boon and puts the lot of them in last-man standing competition. And the other diary holders mostly seem to be hardened psychos and/or killers.

Fringe – Netflix finally got the last season. So far, I’m not a fan of the massive swerve the show took at the end of the previous season. It’s not bad; it just doesn’t feel like the Fringe I knew and loved for three-and-a-half seasons. I’m giving it a chance though. It doesn’t take a huge time investment to watch the shortened final season, even if I end up not digging it.

Listening

f(x) – A Korean group. Much like Future Diary, I discovered them through the AMV judging. Lately I’ve discovered I like K-pop more than a lot of other forms of pop music. Even if you don’t understand the words, the music itself is super catchy in its own right. An example for you.

Gloria Estefan – One of my favorite singers growing up, but I didn’t listen to her for years for some strange reason. After the Game Grumps talked about her in a couple of episodes, I felt compelled to buy Epic’s The Essential Gloria Estefan. I’ve been listening to it more or less non-stop while in the car the last few days.

Playing

Diablo III – I still think Torchlight II is a better game, but the console version of Diablo III fixes the majority of my issues with the PC version. No Battle.net/constant connection requirement, no auction house, and a loot generation system that works because it wasn’t balanced in such a way to force people to use the auction house. The controls and interface had been streamlined for the new game anyway, so Blizzard managed to make the game feel quite good on a console controller. Playing co-op is the same room is a blast as well.

Current Media: August 2013 Edition

Watching

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – I decided to start re-watching it to tide me over until Arise. Funny how you pick up on all kinds of little details missed or not appreciated when watching some shows a second time. Like I didn’t realize back in 2005 that the year the series is set in (2030) wasn’t arbitrarily chosen. That year also happened to be one of the common predictions for when humanity would hit the technology singularity (at the time; I believe it has slid another decade or so into the future at this point). I still kind of dislike how the Tachikomas mostly get pushed into the background during the second season. Their development into true, self-aware AIs is one of the major arcs of the first season, and their return in the second season is such a wonderful moment. And then they’re just kind of around for the rest of the show.

The Hunger Games – The new roommate made me watch it shortly after moving in. Maybe I need to read the books to appreciate it more, but it struck me as merely okay. It had some cool moments and a couple of great performances (Jennifer Lawrence and Woody Harrelson), but a lot of stuff made little sense based on only the information presented in the movie. And the roommate even commented on the emphasis placed on certain events in the book that the movie thoroughly glosses over.

Ratatouille – Another one the roommate made me watch. Though I appreciated Ratatouille a lot more than The Hunger Games. Not my favorite Pixar movie by a long shot, but I can appreciate that it is probably one of the most well-made of the bunch.

Listening

New Constellation – The new album Toad the Wet Sprocket just Kickstarted. I really like it. It’s a lot like their pre-fame albums (Pale, Bread & Circus) in that all the songs tie together into this wonderful whole, but no particular song stands out on its own.

Playing

Persona 3 Portable – As a big fan of Persona 3, I had to grab the portable version the second I got my Vita. So far, I’m enjoying it. I like how the new protagonist option changes things just enough to make the experience fresh again. I especially like that they tried to give her a personality. Silent protagonists are usually written as reserved so the player can make of them what they will, but the dialogue choices for the new protagonist and NPC reactions to them make her seem more open and cheerful. Well, as much as such things can be conveyed via silent protagonist. And making a lot of the non-combat elements menu-driven cuts way down on the amount of time eaten up by the after school/sim-like portions of the game. Those segments are no less important or robust than before; you just spend less time running around mostly empty areas while you figure out what to do. It cuts the game time down by a third or better, but in a way that ensures nothing of value is lost.