I'm getting closer to "on time" (Blast of Tempest / The Civilization Blaster)

So, this happened.

Yes. That is a picture Celty sent me of a hole where a sign used to be. No, I did not get arrested. Yes, there is the possibility someone may have been hurt. No, sadly it wasn't Izaya. That is all I'm going to say about that.

So this time I'm talking about an anime called "Blast of Tempest", or sometimes "The Civilization Blaster" or just "Zetsuen no Tenpestuo". Shakespeare references, ahoy.

This is a really recent one by Bones, with US licensing by Aniplex, and it only finished at the end of March. It's set in an interesting alternate near-future Japan, and features two not-so-friendly friends, Yoshino (Yoshino Takigawa) and Mahiro (Mahiro Fuwa), who reconnect after about a year's absence in front of Mahiro's family grave. Why is Yoshino visiting the Fuwa family grave? Now there's a good question (I won't tell you the answer to because: spoilers).

So it's a magic-is-real, maybe-aliens, end-of-the-world-with-possible-redemption anime, that tries to balance itself between Shakespeare's The Tempest and Hamlet. Through the whole thing, the main characters want to know which one it's all going to end like: is everyone going to get away miraculously fine, like they do in the Tempest, or is everyone going to drop dead like they do in Hamlet. Yeah, I know that was a spoiler for Hamlet, but I swear to god, if I can't talk about the ending of a 400-year-old play then we've taken this whole spoiler thing too damned far.

Now, you know me. I love a good love story. I also hate a bad love story. So Hamlet's right up there in my conflicted zone. He's such an a$$hole in the way he treats Ophelia that she offs herself, but he does the right, you know, "poetic" thing in the end I guess. So the whole time you're watching this you're going: "am I going to want to break the TV?" I won't tell you if I had to get a new TV.

It also does some clever things with time travel. Again, because of spoilers I can't tell you what they are, but it's pretty clever, and I'm fairly impressed by it. But I'm not some genius, so don't ask me if it actually makes sense. They sell it well, and that's all I care about.

Anyway, this is Yoshino (I don't get the stitches in his hair).

This is Mahiro (I like his hair).

This is Hakaze Kusaribe, head of the Kusaribe clan (and the only folks who can use magic... supposedly). She's what you'd call "trouble".

And this is Aika Fuwa. Notice the family name. Notice Hamlet. Notice the family name again. Enough said. Also Trouble.

Oh, and this pervert is Junichirou Hoshimura. He's pretty funny, and I'd love to know his self defense secrets.

The whole thing revolves around the struggle between two "trees" (gods? alien beings? WMDs?) called the Tree of Genesis and the Tree of Exodus. Somebody wants the Tree of Genesis out of the way, and tried to revive the Tree of Exodus, but to do that they need Hakaze out of the way, since she's the "Mage of Genesis" and is pretty much unstoppable. She ropes in Yoshino and Mahiro to help her out, and mayhem ensues.

Overall it's clever, at times cute, and because of Junichirou, pretty funny. It goes from emotional to slapstick at the drop of a hat, and aside from being pretty predictable at times (maybe I've read Hamlet too often) it's a lot of fun. I didn't like it as much as Eden of the East or The Future Diary, but I wouldn't have watched the whole thing if it weren't worth it. I'll give it 3 and a half weird little coconut dolls out of five.