thoughts on anime and manga @lmfsilva / @longafloat watches. Updates on Mondays with a classic and Thursdays with a more recent one, with images and music often in between, occasionally some videogame adaptations. Weekly posts about ongoing shows on Sundays.
Plot: Film production company Ginei has decided to demolish their outdated studios, and to celebrate the occasion, documentarian Genya Tachibana does an interview with Chiyoko Fujiwara, once the brightest star of the company but retired and living in seclusion for the last 30 years. A big fan of hers, he brings her a key, which becomes the starting point of the retelling of her memories.
Thoughts: And finally, it's time to close this joint's dive into Satoshi Kon's work, regrettably as It's one that should have taken a lot longer, but happy to have completed it. It's the one I'm rewatching remembering less of the plot, so it's probably much closer to a first watch than any of the others, although I did remember bits of it here and there.
Chiyoko's story is one of a shy girl from a moderately well-off family during the era of increased military adventurism across East Asia of the early Hirohito reign. After her mother turned down an invitation for her to become an actress, she comes across a man on the run holding a painting, send his chasers the other way and shelters him. The main visual device is putting Genya and his cameraman Kyoji in the middle of her retelling of her story, making them like crew on a film, and during these moments it's never clear how much is Chiyoko's retelling parts of her life or her roles, as they move quickly from one movie to another, or if there's even any meaningful difference: how much did Chiyoko put of herself in her roles? Was her rise to stardom influenced by her ability to channel the sense of loss and holding on to hope she shared with a country recovering from political struggles and then obliteration, where I'm sure it could be years to discover if someone you knew was alive or dead, if ever? Up to a point, it's really not important to know if she really did chase him on a train platform or it was just a scene from a movie, the feeling was there all the same, and the only reason she accepted to do movies was so that she could blindly follow him to Manchuria, and becoming a star was maybe just in service of making herself as visible as possible so he could see her face and find her. Genya isn't a reliable indicator either, as he's both well versed enough to remember the lines as Chiyoko re-enacts moments of her acting career, but is also aware of her personal life, and as we learn even later, was even closer to her than he let on, having working as a directors' assistant in productions where she took part. Still, like Perfect Blue, all this blending of what may be fiction and reality is never confusing, which is something that many directors who try these sorts of stories often look track of, and as I've mentioned, end up doing the “it hurts itself in it’s confusion” thing where the viewer is left more confused than the characters. Of course she was never a princess in feudal Japan, but I feel the temptation for many would be to repeat the train platform sequence over and over again, because "yesssss let's show how deep this is by making it extra confusing". The movie doesn't try to be either, ultimately it's a story of finding purpose in life.
As the years went by, she still held to the key he gave her as a reminder on the promise she made to guess what was the key is for, to the point Junichi, one of the directors in the studio and who wanted to marry Chiyoko, conspires with Eiko to make the key disappear, knowing the reason Chiyoko abandoned her first production to chase the painter into Northern Manchuria after being tipped by a fortune-teller was nothing more than a plan to get rid of her, knowing the potential she had to overtake her as the brightest star in the studio. She later discovers the key hidden away by him, at the point she gets one final tip, a letter from the painter from the hands of the policeman who chased the painter, now a decrepit old man atoning for his wrongs. She gives chase to Hokkaido once again, but it was fruitless, as the man confides to young Genya he tortured him to death. Chiyoko returns to acting and during an earthquake she is saved by Genya, but on the reflection of the helmet she sees the old lady who has been haunting her, maybe no more than her subconscious realising she's not the same teen girl who helped a dissident escape from the police and who he painted on the walls of her now destroyed home, she loses the key one final time, kept by Genya, and retires. Back to the modern world, the earthquakes take a toll on her fragile health and she collapses, still having time to tell Genya on her death bed her final realisation: even if she was not reunited with the painter, she loved to chase him.
Visually, it's graded on a midpoint between the ramped up OVA of Perfect Blue and Tokyo Godfathers; the character design is an unmistakably a Satoshi Kon work, and while they might lack some technical detail, they are extremely expressive and given the nature of his works, it's not a bad trade-off. I do wish I was more knowledgeable of Japanese cinema, because sure, I think everyone picks up the reference to Toshiro Mifune sequence in Throne of Blood as Kyoji is bombarded by arrows and the Godzilla-type film, but I'm sure there's a few more clues here and there (I just know I've see that shot where Chiyoko's character is pointing a short sword at her own throat, although it might just be one of those visual clichés with hundreds of years of history). In terms of music, this was the first step of his partnership with Susumu Hirasawa, being a fan of him and at this point with a couple of credits under his belt, with the Detonator Orgun OVA I've looked at last week and Berserk. As mentioned before, it's a match made in heaven, and he's the perfect person to put to music the otherworldly visuals and oneiric plots Kon committed himself to.
At the end of this trip, there's a part of me who thinks all the big guys who want to make shows and movies for recap obsessed people that are MINDFUCKS full of PLOT TWISTS purely to make bland stories look more interesting by turning them into conversation fodder should all be rounded up and thrown into an active volcano in an attempt to bring Satoshi Kon and David Lynch back from the dead.
Plus:
Another extremely touching story by Satoshi Kon
Minus:
Visually it could be better here and there on a technical level
Well, a couple of shows are about to end, but I've decided it's best to wait two weeks so they can go together on the season ending block.
(last week)
What was on?
Witch Hat Atelier
(ep 10) Turns out Coco is fine, just overworked herself, and while Qifrey is looking out for her, his water skills are needed as a fire broke out in the city. He reluctantly leaves her as they go to the scene, assured by Coco's words she was doing better. Which was a lie, as Tartah comes back desperately trying to find his witch hat that serves as a ticket to the ferry back home, she's burning up, and with nobody else around, he tries to help her, but the medicine tray is not labelled and seeing everything in silver tones means he can't tell anything apart, and if he has the right idea of using the vapor bubble to reduce each the infusions on each flask to just what is on them, but if it's just dust he's stomped, so Coco draws a reverse version of the spell to turn rocks into dust that allows the dust to briefly regain the original form, but in her condition she can't do much. With that knowledge, he draws his first spell and tries to find it, the moment he's caught by the only person still working on the hospital who prepares and gives the medicine to Coco. Oh, that question about the light flash he wanted to ask Qifrey? What flash, he asks. Truly a man who knows how to lie. The decision to not label medicine in this world seems a bit weird as a narrative device, but I feel that (and how the witches are completely non-accommodating to people with his condition) kinda has to be understood with the knowledge Japan is still notoriously bad when it comes to dealing with disabilities, and this might be a comment from the author in that. Three episodes to go, meaning it's time for a end of season arc. A
The Ramparts of Ice
(ep 10) It's spring break and Miki got the other three to go on a theme park visit, where they have fun and we learn a lot about the characters, how Miki and Minato are scared on haunted houses and Koyuki and Minato aren't great with thrill rides, and Minato is great at carnival games and won Koyuki a late birthday present. Back at school it's a new semester and everyone is on the same class, including Tsukiko, who's welcomed into the group instantly, and Minato gets instantly jealous of seeing Miki's younger brother, Tsuikiko notices there's something going on between Minato and Koyuki and faces the tough decision of being a third wheel or a letting them alone, and curiosity end up getting the best of her. Because you can't do Ramparts of Ice without a cliffhanger, Koyuki also notices someone has moved in to the same school... the younger sister of the girl who bullied her. A very fun episode where they continue to explore the existing dynamics between inside the group, and now Minato is getting as a big mess around Koyuki as Youta is around Miki. I don't think this is getting sorted in two episodes, but I do hope it also gets a second season down the line, or just runs through the Summer as well. A lot chibis this week (because everyone is having fun), and the animators decided to put some extra work in animating the scene Youta takes Koyuki to see the mascot. Didn't have to do that, it's fine they look like IM stickers, but glad they did. A
Ascendance of a Bookworm
(ep 9) Wilfried is still jealous of Rosemyne thinking she has it too easy, so she offers to trade places with him for a day knowing most of it is boring clerical (HAH!) work and being lightly bullied by Ferdinand into doing it right. He gets his ass beat playing cards by the orphans, is baffled by a book and can't learn the prayers because he's set on the life of a failson, and while Sylvester surely doesn't see anything wrong with his son, Ferdinand is like "throw his ass out, I don't care, he's an embarrassment". While for Rosemyne this is mostly just a way to get him off her back (and just go read for a full day), Ferdinand makes it veeeeeery clear if Wilfried continues on the path he might become the next archduke, but he's becoming his problem. Fun fun episode, with a dose of scary Ferdinand. B
Mao
(ep 10) Nanoka: "I'M SCARED DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE" (two minutes later) "I AM THE VANQUISHER OF FROGS". Yes, truly a frail girl. Meanwhile, Mao and Hyaka come up with a plan to trap whoever is out for him (and only him), the big revelation being that indeed, the person responsible was another acquaintance of Mao, a helper who was obsessed with learning spells and was responsible for creating the Byouki. As the giant talking cat's head said, both of them were framed, and by whom is the main mystery of the show. Solid episode, and although the CGI was a bit evident in parts, excellent visuals in the water monster, with the details of having fish swimming inside it being quite a nice touch. B
The Food Diary of Miss Maid
(ep 11) Nana sees Suzume talking on the street with someone she doesn't recognize and doesn't know an appropriate way to approach her, until they notice her and Nana recognizes Anzu as their neighbour, and all three go to Suzume's place to try the stollen she bought, as it's getting closer to Christmas. Second story, she walks in on her grandfather writing in advance his New Year's cards, and after telling him she passed by "christmas tree with an orange star", he tells her that was a persimmon tree, and someone happens to have given him a bunch. Then winter solstice night, and she's taking a yuzu bath, but the fragance is too much for her and she ends up getting a yuzu flavoured ice cream, then it's Christmas Eve proper, but with Ricotta out to spend it with her family, her parents and neighbours are busy and she's visiting her grandparents next day and has no plans, but Ricotta decided to stay to keep her company, waiting for her in an absolutely incredible kimono - maid apron - thick jacket combo and some Christmas cake, a staple of Christmas themed episodes, the best Christmas gift Suzume ever got. It's ending next week, and it has been such a fun way to end writing these posts, not the last time I'll talk of it as Suzume and Ricotta are for sure making an appearance in the best girls and gremlins of this year, and this episode probably sorted out the "Merry Christmas" post of this year. B This week's delicacies: Stollen, Persimmon, Yuzu and Christmas cake.
Gals Can’t Be Kind to Otaku!?
(ep 9) We all seen on the first episode how Seo met Ijichi and Amane, but how did the gals become friends? Of course Amane looked at Ijichi and noticed right away how much she looks like Micchi from Glittermon, making her extremely awkward around Ijichi and making her think she dislikes her, and knwoing her Sayu clocked Amane's lies on how she has a lot of friends right away because she knows the truth that she might be pretty, but still an otaku. Ijichi then messes up by inviting her to hang out at the arcade, and then half the class including boys, making Amane really mad at her initially, and then reassessing the situation feeling really bad about it, particularly after learning Ijichi had a complete plan to make her feel welcome. They made up, and next, we get the eraser scene from Amane's otaku point of view. This is a reminder there has to be a cosplay episode down the line, but also that Ijichi and Amane are very different people, and them coming together was not just some "the two popular gals just decided to team up" moment but Ijichi actually putting in the work so that Amane would have at least her as a friend. A
Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms When Drunk
(ep 9) Happy Pride month, and for that, this show has gone gay gay. No teasing here, but first things first, Gujou finally gets her wish of drinking with Ibuki, joined by the resident gremlin Chang. Who likes watching expensive cars crashing at Nurbugring. Well, you can too, go wild. She's the best, you can bet she also sometimes stays up until 4pm watching the most random shit on youtube. Ibuki is still a bit anxious about drinking with other people, but just did that thing you imagine everyone naked. Well, it's usually the people in the room, not Botan, but whatever works, Ibuki. It doesn't quite work for Gujou, who realises her love is going to be unrequited. Second story, Ibuki and Botan go on another stargazing trip, this time real ones, but something is bothering Botan: should she confess? Or should she just stay quiet and enjoy their time together? As this happens, Gujou and Chang are also on a trip of their own, but Chang's mouth really is faster than her brain, a feat for someone struggling with the language. Gujou knows she's defeated because Botan managed to reach out to Ibuki and make her feel comfortable with her, and with herself. And now both also know it. Another show with some excellent direction, but that's almost a given at this point. It's one of those shows I often complain that is on a different level in terms of direction, but because it's a quite slow show with some artwork that occasionally is more stylised than concerned with showing all the extra frames they added in the animations it's probably going to be completely ignored by flashier, more popular action shows. I was expecting this would happen a lot closer to the end, if not the actual finale, so let's see where the last three episodes go. S
Fist of the North Star
(ep 11) Kenshiro returns, and discovers from Rin and Bat they found out a village that will take the kids in exchange for him to deal with some troublemakers. Not just a village, but one that seems closer to sustainability thanks to a spring fountain. There, Kenshiro meets Rei, master of Nanto Suichouken, who has a score to settle with the man of the seven scars on his chest, and Mamiya, the village leader, who looks like Yuria and more than capable of holding her own in a fight with the deadliest weapon someone could imagine in the 1980s: yo-yo's. Ok, hers have blades, but if you ever hit your head (or someone's head) with one, you know how the good ones can really ruin your day. The village is under threat, and Rei had actually partnered up with the bandits, but after seeing Kenshiro doing an impromptu looksmaxxing clinic on a guy realises who has the upperhand here and joins him in protecting the village. The bandits do have one more ace in the sleeve in the form of Mamiya's younger brother, but as usual, only makes Kenshiro angrier and more willing to explode their skeleton off. Kinda curious to know if this is ending next week or the week after (although, strange to have people in the OP that only stay for a couple of episodes, and I don't think there's time in one episode to solve the beef Rei has with Kenshiro and also this area's boss), but weirdly for a show that is probably getting a high D, would I welcome a second season or taking this into the Summer? Oddly, yes. This episode felt like it had better animation overall even in the slower moments and as I've mentioned before, the moment you realise you don't have to take it seriously you can just have fun with it. C
Pardon the Intrusion, I’m Home!
(ep 9) So, the show has now shifted attention into what's exactly Akito up to. Usada thinks he's a horror writer, which isn't great for Akito's relatioship with Meiko who's very squeamish, then he brings up Meiko's favourite non-manga author as he gets pissed at Usada, making him think he really is the author, and gets Usada's mid racing about exposing him, but none of them end up playing well for him... and Akito isn't him, anyway. Well, at least they just flirted with the idea Akito was the author instead of running with it which would have been predictable as fuck (do hope this isn't some fakeout), but it remains kinda weird why he's so defensive about his pen name. C
Ichijouma Mankitsu Gurashi!
(ep 9) Ah, the thing I always dislike with these shows, the last minute character introduction with two or three episodes to go. As I always say, this is an adaptation, unless there's some plot order to be followed, you can have them on the first episode if you want. She's a streaming rival of Marika, and her popularity is harming the pantless gremlins' numbers, but first things first, it's storage room clean up time, and between a box with Mariko's dark past, Rie forgot she bought a purikura booth for Hedgehog because she of course did. Then someone kidnaps Mariko, and the girls combine their powers, including Michika who can somehow catch her scent, and they track her to her streaming rival who lives in a palace in, the Middle East (or a very elaborate theme park), who kidnapped her because she looks a lot like Sailor Kirakira Moon, a character from a manga, but has since became a complete slob from working in Hedgehog and so she wants her to stop working there and stay with her. But cute Mariko is a flop, straight to the top of unsubs because people want to see the panty-flashing slob, so she lets her go back, but sends her maid to keep an eye on her. It may do the thing I don't like, but that doesn't mean I don't like the result, a very fast paced episode that keeps adding to the previous joke. B
Dropkick on my Devil!
(ch 294) Jashin-chan is stuck in her Perfect Form, which brings several problems: first, she must dress up, one thing is a snakewoman with lady godiva hair other is on an actual woman, and then, how much of the whole thing is she trying to dropkick Yurine with her snake tail? Is Perfect Form Jashin-chan still Jashin-chan? Can you keep doing Dropkick on my Devil! if she's just a regular gremlin? If the videoclip that got me to watch the show featured just a blonde gremlin jumping from behind a wall to steal and overpay for a leek, would I still be on the "hell yeah I must watch this" camp? Much to think about.
Monochrome Days
(ch 41) Barazono continues her quest to give Ai Kinjika, her first writing partner, something to look for and drag her out of the darkness, by giving Fudou and Wakaba a tough assignment where she leads the characters into the pits of hell and they must bring them back, and one of the days Wakaba works towards that is reminding Fudou of his motto: instead of just drawing what feels right for the story, he should draw what he loves. Another great chapter with plenty of Wakaba faces. Still, it's a shame we're rushing out the story and getting just monthly updates.
Comedy yuri by TYO Animations (2015), Lay-duce, W-Toon Studio (2018)
Based on a manga by Namori
Season 3, OVA, ONA
Length: 12 episodes,
Aired: 2015 (fall), 2018
Rating: B
Plot: More adventures of the Amusement Club and the Student Council.
Thoughts: And we're back. Well, a month for you, for me it's a couple of days after I finished writing my thoughts on the first two seasons produced by Doga Kobo and scheduled the posts, and now I'm heading into the TYO adaptations, which all were released in 2015, and also the 2019 OVA .
I'm doing it chronologically, so let's start with Nachuyachumi! a 60 minute OVA that starts with a hot day at the Tea Room, Chinatsu spiling tea on herself, Yui thinking she wet herself then helping her change, at the moment Kyouko walks in and witnesses what she thought was some sort of perversion she wanted to take part in. After finding a tent, they decide go on a short adventure camping for their Shummer vacashions, starting on a trip on a Mirakurun train, then the student council joining them in and doing the mistake of trusting Sakurako with buying food preparation stuff, and then a test of courage at night in the woods which ends up with Kyouko and Ayano seeing a bloodied head, which you can guess what it was at this time. It's overall nothing spectacular, and feels more of a refresher of the characters and the kind of hijinks they get up up, bringing back some of the recurring bits, like Kyouko's animal pajamas, their sisters, or Nana never being too far away from exploding something. It would be probably something that felt a lot better after two and a half years since the last episode of the adaptation, but it's still something quite fun to spend an hour with (B). It got two extra TV length episodes, the first had the girls on the Amusement Club playing catch with water balloons until Kyouko had a better idea, Sakurako swearing she saw the ghosts of four girls stumbling in the night, Kyouko taking her camera to the club, and after taking some new photos they reminisce with photos of their camping trip, and in the second Sakurako (who for some reason leaves has a Christmas tree on her bedroom all year long) decides to do something for Ayano since she's always sharing her pudding (well, not willingly) and Himawari suggests inviting them to dinner, while Kyouko goes to Yui's to finish homework but they end up playing videogames with Akari and Chinatsu, while they try to tire her out to they can get a photo of her sleeping, since she did the same to all of them. Fundamental viewing? Probably not, but still fun (B). After these re-introductions to the characters we got to the main course, the third season of the show, where I feel it tried to be more "cute" and rely less on bits, or at least in repeating most of the recurring jokes from the first two seasons. It has, however, one of my favourite stories of the whole show, where Rise arrives and starts helping everyone in the cast one by one with something the previous character gave them before as thanks. It has no dialogue, only music like a silent film. They did remove Akarin's introductions, can't say I approve of that, but it's still a quite entertaining show (B).
Visually, for all three 2015 releases it feels they just looked at the original adaptation and said "don't change a thing", and if I don't know why Doga Kobo were not on board, although in 2015 they had their hands full with Himouto! Umaru-Chan (so they were too busy with the Umaruuuun to get back to Akariiiiin), TYO Animations did a good job on making the transition between studios feel seamless. There's maybe a moment here and there you might have felt Doga Kobo would put something a bit more, but nothing really worth mentioning, beyond a really weird scaling error where Sakurako seems to have a giant head (or Ayano a really small hand) and some occasional animation slip-ups.
Then, another four years down the line in celebration of the 10th year of serialization it got a crowd-sourced new 30 minute OVA, this time by Lay-duce. It starts with the Amusement Club playing cavemen, because they wanted to reminisce about the last 10 years but gone too far, then decide to hold a big party with food and games. And wigs. It's another fun episode to add to the series at a point I think everyone realised it was very much a fans only thing, around the same level as most the the 2015 releases (B), and leading to it to promote it, also got a collection of four web shorts, Mini Yuri, with the characters in their chibi forms from W-Toon Studio. First has Kyouko making a very wrong presentation of the characters, second has the amusement club becoming YuriTubers, third Kyouko decides to organize the Yurilympics, and finally a murder mystery. I'm all for making omake cuts with cute versions of the characters, but it's strange when the original version are already that cute. It's just a bit of fun (that even has the VAs of Kyouko and Yui cosplaying as the characters) so let's just leave it at that (-). From here, while the manga keeps going there's no new adaptations since, but there's still two movies left based on the spinoff about Sakurako and her sisters that I'm sure I'll get to in another time.
Wouldn't be a show with a Susumu Hirasawa soundtrack without a post with one of his tracks, in this case, Bandiria Ryokodan, the closer for the first episode of Detonator Orgun.
Mecha by AIC / Artmic
Original story by Hideki Kakinuma, directed by Masami Obari
Length: 3 episodes (around 50 min)
Released: 1991
Rating: D
Plot: Orgun is an all powerful alien robot who crashes down to Earth after defecting from the Evoluders, a powerful civilization who leaves a trail of destruction in their path after learning Earth is next. He has a strange bond with Tomoru, just a guy who's living lis life, experimenting with a device that records his dreams, growing more and more extreme.
Thoughts: Well, I'm sure I gave plenty of weird reasons why I've watched things, from "I saw a 90 second clip on YouTube" or "I wanted to write about the game" to "I remembered a bit from a tvshow clip in the 90s", but here's a new one: it's the only show I'm missing from this Manga Entertainment leaflet that came with my copy of MechCommander (all mecha anime, as you can imagine, and if you are curious about what I said about them, click here, keeping in mind some are kinda basic entries one day I might revisit). This is a roughly two and an half hour OVA split across 3 episodes that you can just search on YouTube and watch the dub, because nobody cares.
And oh boy, I can see why that is the case. I haven't gone back to Bubblegum Crisis, a show that shares some staff with this, because I found it to be a terminal case of style over substance (same reason I haven't given much thought about Gall Force so far), but I'll give it one thing, it had style. Orgun, meanwhile, made two big robots fighting inside a town and some ancient aliens adjacent shit look boring. This is a mostly generic alien invasion story with nothing much to it, and the big reveal the aliens are just humans from a past space mission that experienced time dilation in the millions of years, evolving into robotic lifeforms to allow them to survive in space is an interesting one, but while Gunbuster did something exploring that concept of time dilation, Orgun seems happy with just settling with it as why Orgun deserted to protect Earth and why are some humans have a link with the Evoluder, like him and Tomoru. When I've looked at Armitage III a few weeks ago I mentioned this era was rife with production companies investing in the booming OVA market, but very often with very little purpose other than trying to cash in, and Orgun feels a good example of something that had a couple of good ideas stretched to 150 minutes, but a decent enough budget to not make it a complete shitshow, yet feeling hollow.
Visually, I know I'm not watching from a good quality source so I'll excuse myself from commenting on the more technical details, but I can say it looks competently drawn and animated, some interesting design here and there, but at the same time everything looks boring and lifeless, and how someone must have just learned how to do underlighting because every two minutes it just decides to throw a cut that is trying to blind you. A good reason to watch it, however, is the Susumu Hirasawa soundtrack, a few years before working on the Berserk soundtrack and his partnership with Satoshi Kon. Not as iconic as something like Forces or The Girl in Byakkoya, but certainly good enough to turn some heads about his potential, always ready to bring some bombastic qualities with his mix of electronic and symphonic soundscapes.
While I always try to find something good in anything I end up putting here, I take more attention with these sort of shows because I know a lot of them are someone's favourite because it was the first anime they saw either on some late night TV animation block, got a VHS on clearance or a tape was circulating around and they must have something special, but let me tell you: this was hard. Other than the music, everything felt aggressively under-average and couldn't even provide some cheap thrills. Disappointing all around.
