Five Anime with Sweet Tunes

I thought rather than reviewing anything specific today, I'd just share some of my favourite music from anime I've seen.

1. Samurai Champloo

I've already talked about this one. It's pretty badass. The two songs I've got here are the opening theme and one of the closing tunes. They're both off  "Samurai Champloo Music Record: Departure". The record was produced by Nujabes and Fat Jon in 2004, with one track by MINMI.

Here's the first (which you've seen before): "Battlecry" by Nujabes.

And the second (which you haven't): "Shiki No Uta" by MINMI:

2. Deadman Wonderland

I haven't talked about this one yet, so I'll save any comments about the show itself for later. But the opening theme is pretty good.

The song's called "One Reason" and it's by a specifically put together group calling themselves the Deadman Wonder Band, though they're featuring Fade.

3. Ergo Proxy

Maybe it's because of when I was born, but my favourite music has always been alt-rock, so when I heard the opening theme to Ergo Proxy, a song called "Kiri" by Monoral, off their 2008 album Turbulence, I was pretty impressed.

4. Shakugan no Shana

SnS brings us to the world of Supercell, an 11-member Japanese supergroup that's about as hard to nail down as Jello, so I'll talk about individual members of the band as the folks making the music, but forgive me if I screw it up royally.

The opening theme to Shakugan no Shana is called "Light My Fire", and it's written by Ryo (the head of the band's revolving door of performers) and sung by Kotoko. It was released as a single by Kotoko in November 2011.

5. Guilty Crown

I'll get to all of these anime eventually, and I really enjoyed this one, but there are two more Supercell songs from this one to introduce, written by, well, Supercell in general I think, but I have no idea who within that, maybe the singers, maybe Ryo. First is "My Dearest", sung by Koeda. (To get an idea of how they got vocalists Koeda and Chelly, read this bit of the Supercell Wikipedia Page, it's a little nuts.)

The other one is sung by Chelly, performed under the name Egoist, after a band in the anime (which is a little meta, but still cool), and served as the second opening theme for the series. We'll end there, with "The Everlasting Guilty Crown".

I might do another of these posts eventually, when I've heard enough good stuff to put together a second collection. That's all for now.

What is this I don't even...? (Vividred Operation... the first thirty seconds)

Sometimes, I don't know what to think. I don't. There is some great anime out there. I know, because I've seen it. But this one I just tried to watch, well. 

The name of the anime is "Vividred Operation", and I really couldn't tell you if it's any good or not. That's because when all I see for the first thirty seconds of an anime is shiny vinyl booty shots of twelve-year-olds, I get squicked out *very damned quickly*.

Let's do a little "opening shot" comparison, shall we?

Here's Sword Art Online:

Guy in his room. Quiet. 

And Blast of Tempest:

Friends on a hot summer afternoon. Ephemeral.

And Vividred Operation:

 A twelve-year-old with paint-for-panties riding a motorcycle.

Sword Art Online:

Sweeping vista of a digital world.

Blast of Tempest:

Metaphorical shot of rose window and moody characters.

Vividred Operation.

A crotch sunrise from behind a twelve-year-old in booty shorts.

I can't even rate it, because I didn't want to watch it. If you have, or if you like booty shots of twelve year old girls, drop a note in the comments and defend it. I can't figure it out, myself.

Zero booty shots out of a lamentably-seen two, I guess.

Fullmetal Alchemist

Okay, where do I even start with this one? This is one of the few anime series I've watched dubbed -- and from what I've heard (*IN PASSING*) from Erika and Walker (*WE DEFINITELY DO NOT GET TOGETHER TO TALK ABOUT ANIME*) is that some people really, really don't like the voice acting in the Funimation dubs. Okay let me back up here.

There are two Fullmetal Alchemist anime series.

Both were produced by Bones and Aniplex, and dubbed and released in English by Funimation. But the first one doesn't follow the books, and the second one (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood) does. I haven't watched the second one yet. Sue me. I watched it a while ago.

So the two are known as "Fullmetal Alchemist" which ends with a film called "Conqueror of Shamballa", and "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood" which has a film after it called "The Sacred Star of Milos".

What's really going to bake your noodle is that a *lot* of the events are similar. At least to start with. So when I say I haven't watched the second one, I mean I watched the first episode and thought I had seen it and stopped. But apparently I haven't seen it. So I guess I will. I'm going to need a drink by the end of this post.

So to basic plot is this: there's a crazy-as-hell world where the "science" of "alchemy" is real. If you know how to do it, you draw a fancy circle thing with squiggles and you can rearrange pretty much anything into anything else, if the first thing has all the composite parts of the second. So you can turn a broken radio into a fixed radio. Or a pile of iron filings and a pinch of charcoal into a steel knife. There's one catch: no doing this with living things. It gets very icky, very fast. Now take two strangely-gifted little boys with an absent father and a recently-dead mother, and the results are predictable.

The way that turns out isn't though. Predictable, I mean. Apparently the reason you don't try this crap with living people is that things go badly. So the way it seems to end up is these two brothers, Edward (the older brother) and Alphonse (the younger brother), the Elric brothers, end up giving a lot more than they get for the trade. Edward loses an arm and a leg, and the only reason any piece of Alphonse survives is that Edward grabs his soul and sticks it to a suit of armour that's lying around. And what they get in return is a smoking, writhing mess of almost-living certainly-not-human mess.

This is not a family-friendly series.

In fact, it's so not family friendly that Cartoon Network stuck it in the Adult Swim timeblock, because it fits in well with the level of maturity needed for Aqua Team Hunger Force and Harvey Birdman.

HA!ha... Gold On Gold...

Actually, maybe it needs more maturity.

Basically over the course of the series, the writers do everything in their power to emotionally scar and otherwise f*#k up Ed and Al and pretty much everybody else they meet, too. The moral depravity involved in any serious quest for power is definitely the point, but Jesus. Not. A. Kids'. Show.

So this is Ed and Al.

Ed on the left, Al is the suit of armor with the little kid's voice. That alone is creepy.

And they've got a pretty sweet kickass mechanic named Winry.

She's tough.

This guy bosses them around a lot.

Military man and alpha male Roy Mustang: the flame alchemist.

And this guy... he's pretty into his own muscles.

Alex Louis Armstrong: the strong arm alchemist

Oh, and there are villains. You see, the brothers metallic are looking for something called the philosopher's stone, which is supposedly able to do these magic tricks (called "transmutations") without obeying the first law: that whole, you get what you give thing. And that kind of power (they want it to get Al's body back) is something pretty much everybody wants.

So there are these not-quite-human things called Homunculi, which are powerful as heck and also looking for the stone, and then there's this guy.

Appropriately named: scar.

Scar here is an Ishbalan. He's from Ishbal. Ishbal was the site of a state-sanctioned campaign of ethnic cleansing a few years back, and nobody seems to know about it. Or at least, they all seem willing to forget. This is a dark as hell anime.

Scar has a fancy tattoo on his arm that lets him do "half-way" alchemy: he can take things apart, but not put them back together. And he (maybe rightly?) blames state alchemists for the genocide in his homeland, and wants to see them all die horribly.

So that's the major players and the background. It's messed up, and dark, and overall a well-told story. It's a lot longer than the others I've talked about here, clocking in at something like 51 episodes and a movie, but it's worth it. I'll give it four funny alchemy circle things out of five.

Now I'm going to have that drink.

Or not. Tanaka just called. Guess that's that.

Verdict: Badass (Samurai Champloo)

First, listen to this, and then tell me this isn't likely to be the most badass anime you've ever seen.

Right?

So this is the first anime directed by Shinichiro Watanabe since Cowboy Bebop, and it's pretty damned stylish. Which is good, because it's pretty shallow in terms of plot.

Basically, you have this girl, Fuu. Hold on, I'll get a picture.

Yeah that's a pretty common expression of hers.

She's a kinda gangly fifteen year old with some kind of personality disorder (I think they call it being a teenager, actually). Anyway, she's working as a waitress in a crappy place with abusive customers, when she's saved by not one, but two guys.

One's a reckless, violent ex-con named Mugen.

Mugen needs a shave most of the time.

And the other's a restrained, violent ronin named Jin.

He only wears glasses some of the time.

The majority of the series is spent on a quest to find the "Samurai Who Smells Like Sunflowers". For the most part, you're left wondering if such a guy even exists, or if it's something Fuu's come up with to give her pals something to do to keep their minds of killing one another. Did I mention they want to kill one another?

From the manga, I think.

Yeah, they want to kill one another.

So basically, the show's about how they can go from town to town, making the world a better place by going against their worse natures, and/or how a slightly annoying but well-meaning fifteen-year-old girl can make two sociopaths useful to society.

"Society?"

Whatever. Deep down, beneath the rage issues and body count, they're decent guys. It's a pretty cool show.

Verdict: Badass. Also: three and a half Samurai Champloo vinyls out of five.

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.

                          

Goddamnit Tanaka (The Future Diary)

I swear, I've shaken down so many pieces of lovesick sharkbait¹ this last week that it's interfering with my life. Tanaka pays overtime though. I guess that's pretty decent of him.

So anyway this is late.

This post is about an anime called The Future Diary. I decided to continue with the magic cellphone theme from the last post and go with actually magical cellphones.

Look: key art.

Alright. This one is even more like Battle Royale, but crazier because it adds in a whole "god of space and time" element. Oh and a crazy stalker love affair and demigods. With cellphones.

It starts with this middle school loner (yeah, I know they all do) named Yukiteru Amano -- from here on I'll call him "Yuki". Yuki's such a loner that he's created an imaginary world in his head complete with crazy looking "people" he talks to -- Deus Ex Machina, and Muru Muru (Murmur). Hold on, I'll get screen grabs.

This is Yuki, looking terrfied. As he does.

This is Yuno (she with the crazy eyes).

This is Deus Ex Machina (I know, right? What is he even? Is that his skull?)

 And this pipsqueak is Murmur.

So the basic plot is that these imaginary folks are actually real (which is a bit of a relief, honestly, because you'd think sitting under your sheets and talking to imaginary people would be a bad sign otherwise). Deus Ex gives Yuki a cellphone that tells him his future. Just his own. And he's playing a game (read: battle to the death) with eleven other cellphone users, each of whose cellphones tell them different things. Whoever lives gets to be the new Deus Ex, ruler of space and time. They have to destroy the other cellphones -- and when they do their users bite it.

Now, going around killing people isn't really a middle-schooler's normal cup of oolong, if you get my drift. But don't worry, Deus Ex has rigged the game a little, and given our brave little pacifist a claws-out, knife-in-the-brainpan girlfriend.

Oh yeah, she's totally sane.

Did I mention he doesn't know she's his girlfriend? I don't really know much about the stalker trope, but man these anime seem to get a kick out of it. Anyway. She's, uh, special. And she wants to protect her Yuki (play ominous music here).

So it's a blood-soaked, nutty ride through the magical world of love and ultra-violence, and it's strangely touching at times. It also has some pretty awesome time-travel-recursive-parallel-universe-stuff that's a little mind-blowing. I may have exercised twice as long to watch the last two episodes together.

A little less original than Eden of the East, and a lot more violent, but overall a fun ride. I give it four crazy eyes out of five.

Next time I'll really post on Sunday.



1. loanshark customers doing it because their women -- the women they wish were their women, that is -- love money and they don't have any

Eden of the East (II)

Right. I remember now. Nextflix and Hulu Plus both have it. That's fine. Netflix always goes with the subbed versions, which makes me die a little inside when the voice acting is bad. A couple of TVs have gone out the window because of that, so I don't watch them subbed much anymore.

So it's like a cross between Battle Royale and the Bourne Identity, with a little bit of romantic comedy thrown in for seasoning. A lot of that rom-com is in the music.

Anyway, it starts with these two:

The girl on the right, that's Saki Morimi. She's a 22-year old, finishing up her last year of college, and on a trip to Washington D.C.. That's where she meets the clown on the left, Akira Takazawa. She's about to get in trouble with some cops for tossing something at the White House, when he shows up naked, with nothing but a fancy cellphone, a gun, and a hole in his head where his memories used to be. Since he distracts the cops (and since he's, you know, bare ass to the wind) she gives him her hat, scarf, and pretty pink coat, which he runs off in, looking like a flasher with a terrible fashion sense.

Of course Saki's passport is in her coat, so she runs off in search of him.

Basically, he's part of a game. There's twelve "seleçāo" -- that's Portuguese for "selection," and they're playing this "game" set up by one "Mr. Outside". Each one was given ¥10-billion, and a cellphone that connects them to "Juiz" -- a helper who can make anything happen, for a price. They're trying to be the first to "save Japan," in whatever way they can.

But there are some catches. If they use the money selfishly, or if they run out of money, a guy named "The Supporter" will find them, and kill them.

It's an interesting series. Akira's a great liar, but he always seems to use it for a good cause, even if it makes you worry that he's really some terrorist or something. Saki's kind of hopeless, but endearing enough, always looking for her prince charming. Her friends are pretty cool. They start this social networking site for NEETs (Not in Employment, Education, or Training) called "Eden of the East" -- one of them kind of reminds me of this kid I know in Ikebukuro, but whatever -- and it becomes pretty important in the way things turn out.

I don't want to ruin it though, so go watch it yourself. I give it four and a half naked Akira Takazawas out of five.