Month: February 2007

Amish Otaku, Comics

Lost Gems: Some Comics You May Have Missed the First Time

Shade

Peter Milligan and Chris Bachalo took the Steve Ditko character, completely twisted him around and came up with something totally new, brilliant and original … for the first 50 issues, at least, and then it went down the tubes.

Rac Shade is sent to Earth from the planet Meta in order to track down and fight Madness, which has invaded America as the Scream. Shade used his Vest, which allows him to turn thoughts into reality, to take over the body of Troy Grenzer, a murderer in the electric chair. But the only one he has a chance to convince to help him is Kathy, the daughter of the couple Grenzer killed. In a beautiful twist of type at which Milligan excels, when Kathy finds her parents freshly murdered, her boyfriend Roger wrestles Grenzer and is killed by the police because he’s black and the cops automatically assumed he was the criminal. Continue reading “Lost Gems: Some Comics You May Have Missed the First Time”

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ADV, Amish Otaku, Anime

Utawarerumono: Wait, Excuse Me, He’s Not the Father . . .

 
 

Just in case you’re wondering, it’s Ooh-tah-wah-ray-roo-mo-no. Utawarerumono. Like many of the words in this show, it’s something you’ll have to learn a bit about via outside sources, thanks in no small part to our friends at ADV films.

But I get ahead of myself. For those of you who watched this show on fansub, you’ll know that it has an interesting plot that develops gradually, with characters ranging from unique to tediously archetypical. It’s got attractive, if at times generic, art and the character designs are actually fairly interesting.
For those of you who didn’t… Well, the art is the same, at least. The plot is largely unchanged as well. However, the ADV subtitlers have (in the first volume) managed to severely damage any credibility they may have built up over the years (or at least, this subtitling team has). Continue reading “Utawarerumono: Wait, Excuse Me, He’s Not the Father . . .”

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ADV, Amish Otaku, Anime

Le Chevalier D’Eon: Extravagant and Overrated

 
 

I was given the chance to watch the first episode of Le Chevalier D’Eon before its US release. A 24-episode series based on Tow Ubukata’s historical fantasy novel of the same title, D’Eon was produced by Production I.G., licensed by ADV Films, and previously serialized as a manga.

Unfortunately, unless you like Louis XV, Versailles, and France in general, D’Eon seems bound to disappoint. Aside from the Japanese fascination with all things French (which is inexplicable to me), the first episode has too much voice-over and too little everything else. The title character, D’Eon, is a French noble who joins the king’s secret police after his sister is killed. Her body was filled with mercury so that it wouldn’t decompose, which forced the (Catholic) Church to deny her a proper burial—which, in turn, forced her spirit to wander and periodically overtake D’Eon’s body for her own vengeance. If you don’t understand all that, it’s all right—I don’t really get it either. Continue reading “Le Chevalier D’Eon: Extravagant and Overrated”

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Amish Otaku, Anime, Geneon

Fate/Stay Night: Another Way to Look at Things

It’s a story you’ve seen countless times before: Five powerful individuals are called together to battle for a magical object that will grant them incredible power. With such a “creative” plot, and promises of action, magic and a forgettable protagonist, the overall prognosis for Fate/Stay Night would seem rather dim.

And, to be fair, if you absolutely detest fighting anime, it will probably remain so. If there’s more than one episode that doesn’t include at least one fairly major battle between two or more of the magicians and their “servants” (summoned spirits that take the form of heroes and villains from various mythologie), I can’t recall it. Continue reading “Fate/Stay Night: Another Way to Look at Things”

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Amish Otaku, Anime, Bandai

Code Geass: Rue Britannia

 
 

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Revolution is the first series in quite a while that has left me at the edge of my seat after every episode. Indeed, it’s gotten to the point where I eagerly await every new installment, and curse the fact that the show only airs once a week in Japan.

But let’s start at the beginning. The Empire of Britannia, a nation dominated by a social Darwinist philosophy—complete with an aristocracy and imperial family—has conquered a third of the world, stripping fallen nations of their identities and replacing them with district numbers. The most recent addition to the empire is Sector 11, formerly known as Japan. Continue reading “Code Geass: Rue Britannia”

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Amish Otaku, Anime, FUNimation, Gonzo

Basilisk: To My Beloved: Please Die

 
 

This anime is so hot it can’t be shown on standard cable. Based on the 1958 novel The Kouga Ninja Scrolls by Futaro Yumada, Basilisk is the latest from Studio Gonzo and it shines like little else before it.

The action in Basilisk is reminiscent of Ninja Scroll, but the story is unlike anything else out there. Gennosuke is next in line for leadership of the Kouga ninja clan. Oboro is next in line for the Iga ninja. The two clans are the bitterest of enemies—with a feud going back over 400 years—yet Gennosuke and Oboro are all but betrothed. Peace is about to come to the long-feuding clans. Continue reading “Basilisk: To My Beloved: Please Die”

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Amish Otaku, Anime, FUNimation

Afro Samurai: The Hunt for Number One

 
 

The hottest anime on American TV right now is undoubtedly Afro Samurai. The entire show is based on an action figure seen by Eric Calderon and created by Takashi Okazaki. Though the story of Afro Samurai spans just his life, Okazaki’s original idea spanned a timeline of 1,000 years!

As a boy Afro watched his father killed by Justice, voiced by Ron Perlman, for the right to be called the number one fighter in the world. Left with only his father’s severed head, young Afro is left in the wilderness. He is eventually taken in by a sword-master, where he learns the way of the samurai. Continue reading “Afro Samurai: The Hunt for Number One”

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Amish Otaku, Manga, Tokyopop

Trinity Blood

Most of you anime otaku will be familiar with the story of Trinity Blood by now. It centers around a Catholic priest named Abel Nightroad, a crusnik (a vampire that feeds off of other vampires), Tres Equis, a super cyborg controlled by the church and designed for combat, and Sister Esther, a (mostly) innocent young nun caught up in the sweep of world affairs.

In the U.S. the anime has been out since September 26, but the manga was released five weeks later on November 7. Although the stories are similar, there are some key differences between the two that make the manga superior. Continue reading “Trinity Blood”

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Amish Otaku, Manga, Viz

Deathnote: The Good and The Bad

The Good

This week, I take you into the world of Deathnote. Here in our Western culture, we have our personification of death in the “Grim Reaper,” that famous guy dressed in black and with a scythe.

For those of you unfamiliar with traditional Japanese culture, their icons for death are gods (plural) of death, called Shinigami. Just as there are many different vampire legends in the West, so too are there different views of Shinigami in the East. In Deathnote, the Shinigami live in a world separate from ours, on a different plane of existence, watching our actions and—every once in a while—coming to our world … to collect. Continue reading “Deathnote: The Good and The Bad”

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Amish Otaku, Bargain Reviews, Features, Video Games

Bargain Review: Mario and Luigi, Partners in Time

If you read my review of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars for the Super Nintendo, you might have guessed that I would enjoy the other games in the series as well. I honestly could not tell you. I was so turned off by the series’ sudden change in direction with the Paper Mario games that I didn’t bother to purchase them. It was only recently that I stumbled across a used copy of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga at the local GameStop for a cheaper than usual price. Lured by nearly unanimous good reviews and the promise of a non-Paper Mario adventure, I picked up the game and plugged it into the Silver Taco (my nickname for my old-style Gameboy Advance). Could this game revive my interest in the series and, dare I say it, give me the same warm and fuzzy feelings that the original did? Continue reading “Bargain Review: Mario and Luigi, Partners in Time”

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