The Addicts discuss the characters that they hate! Also, discussion the new Spring 2010 anime lineup.
Reviews: Fushigi Yuugi, .hack//Legend of the Twilight
Impressions: Arakawa Under the Bridge, Kiss x Sis, Hetalia World Series, Ookiku Furikabutte, Heroman
Is Doujinshi all porn? We answer that question and talk about one of the largest Doujinshi conventions in the world: Comiket. As well as the importance of Doujinshi to the anime world.
Reviews: NANA, Sailor Moon Stars, Black Lagoon: The Second Raid and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Impressions: Winter Sonata and Miracle Train
Happy Halloween anime world! We show you how you can keep your addiction going right through the holiday. Discussions on our 5 top horror anime to watch this season.
Reviews: Higurashi no naku koro ni, Elfen Lied, and Iria: Zeiram the Animation
Impressions: Sora no Otoshimono, A Certian Scientific Railgun, and Queen’s Blade: Gyokuza no Tsugumono
I know its been a couple of months since I have posted anything on this site, so I apologize about that. To sum up (if anyone cares), I have been busting my butt to finish everything up in order to get my Certificate in Digital Rendering and Game Design from my local Community College this summer. Of course I am not done with school since I am staying for another year to get my Associate Degree in General Tech., which is just another full year of school. Then after that, I might do more school, who knows, except me. The point is I have a break between now and the fall semester which will kick off in a couple of weeks which gets me some time to do something quick for you guys.
This time, I have no anime to talk about, but I’ll kick that off in the next review I do. I am going to post about something that a lot of people either used to read these or heard about in the ages of the 90’s where many of us never had the internet, but for a few bucks, you could get your anime knowledge once a month in the form of print publishing from “so called” experts. I wanna talk a little bit about anime magazines from the late 80’s/ 90’s and so forth.
Like I said, “back in the day” (goes to show how old I am getting), when it came to information on media that Generation X/Y was into, we would work up saving our allowances to get the hottest information on what we wanted to know about in the form of letters on glossy magazines that let us know of upcoming video games, movies, comic books and for the other brand of nerds, Japanese cartoons. Our only source of this information came from people who would have contacts with other people and companies across the pacific to let us know when Japan will release Mononoke in theaters, or the opinion of a badly dumb 90’s fanservicy show, or who would win in a fight with one Capcom character vs. another SNK fellow, the convention coverage that made Otakon look like a gathering of American otaku at a Suncoast, that paying 20 bucks for a Manga Ent. Dub copy of Mad Bull 34 was the best deal you were ever going to get, and how you can score Crystal Triangle on Laserdisc for 100 bucks was totally worth all the money you saved working at your fathers dealership polishing Dodge Durago’s during that summer. Yes, this is the truth that anime fans back in “those days” had to look forward too, and it was kickass.
I have become a bit of an up-and-coming aficionado of these publications of yesteryear, since I have this fascination with learning the past and what were some titles that never made it over to the states. Here is one publication for starters that covered anime series that either never came over to the states, or came over 15 years later:
Animag:
Animag seems to come off as a fanzine of sorts, but it is something I consider to be the prototype of what Animerica came to be. Animag had the credit list of two main people that have done a lot in the anime industry back in the 90’s, Toshifumi Yoshida as translator/assist editor/all around cool guy and his current wife/editor/early VA, Trish Ledoux. These two have credits in early Viz titles from the 90’s, and Toshi has been on manga-to-comic adaptations credited as the translator for titles such as Genocyber and about a dozens others. They are both on the US Renditions VHS cover for Giant Robo as “Consultants” just to throw out an anime title that they have both been apart of. I have had the pleasure meeting the two of them back at Animazment ’09 and I met Trish again at AZ ’10, basically to say “I have more stuff I want you to sign, is that cool,” and we talk about anime and other stuff for a few minutes. Trish is a cool gal, and if she is at any convention in the near future, you should talk to her or go see a panel she would be hosting, or something.
Now that I have quelled my fanboyner, I will talk about the magazine a bit. Remember just a paragraph above I mentioned about how a certain anime publication printed reviews and covers on series that either never saw the light of day in the states or did a decade and a half later, that would be Animag. Animag did episode synopsis for the well known Zeta Gundam series that aired a few years earlier, because people at that time wanted to know more about Gundam before Gundam ever got any popularity about a decade or so later. The only thing that came out about the time of those issues is the Frederik L. Schodt translations of Tomino’s Gundam novels (which were re-released back in April if you guys want a copy). These magazines also had ads for stores that sold Gunpla at the time of whatever the current Gundam series was out in Japan at the time that you could conveniently buy though money order or over the phone. And if you wanted to buy Gundam/anime soundtracks/laserdiscs, there was Laser Perceptions.
Speaking other anime series that never got released in the states (although it came close about 10 years ago which Tim Eldred worked on) was Blue Comet SPT Layzner (now available on /m/ subs). Animag did a whole cover/episode synopsis of the series which had character bios, suit designs/details and episode summeries in detail. There is something I want to point out about these summeries, they may or may not be as accurate as they might be. I bring that up because I had the chance to talk to Trish the first time at AZ and mentioned how her and her staff know about the anime they were doing reviews on. She pretty much told me that they translated “the best they could.” when the people would watch the episodes. So chances are, the episode summeries they wrote about might not be all that “accurate” to begin with. But hey, this was the late 80’s / early 90’s, people were learning this stuff as they went. And who would complain, its not like someone else out there had the same information as they did.
I am going to move on to what became of Animag in the future:
Animerica:
Animerica had a really good run as an anime publication that lasted through the 90’s and part of the new millenium. The first issue was officially released in March of 1993 (which I was in first grade at the time) that carried over some of the staff from Animag, particularly Trish Ledoux. Animerica had more to say and cover as time went on, and even did high profile interviews with people in the industry such as Ryouske Takahashi, Mamoru Oshii, Toshimichi Suzuki, Masamune Shirow and dozens more. They even did manga chapters in the magazines to promote to the consumers (kinda what they did in Newtype USA with its manga) before it hit shelves. And when it came to ads, it was mostly covered by anime company distributors on some contest to win MD Geist stuff or something, but there was ground for the smaller ads as well. Animerica now has been defunct as of 2005 (due to Viz involvement of course), which if you can get a hold of some of these issues for yourself, they are worth looking at, especially if you like to collect older series stuff such as me.
Here is another smaller publication that seems to still exist:
Protoculture Addicts:
I only have issues 7 and 14 of this magazine publication, but this is another one of these magazines that has lasted a good while, lets say 20 years. As a matter of fact, they still exist today, just not in the distributing way. Issue one came out in 1988 and really only put out issues when they were able too. The title came from, well, you Robotech fans know, so this might appeal to you guys. This magazine seemed to have started out as a way for Robotech fans to talk about Robotech stuff, but that seemed to lead on to more and more as time went on, kinda glad really.
It seemed that I got into collecting these magazines when I found an issue of Animerica with Priss from BGC on the cover, which kinda spiraled into my blogspot site that I run and post content on occasionally. With those three anime publications posted plus the links added, I think you get the idea. The only anime publication out there now that seems to do really well is Otaku USA, which its writers are just internet celebs/podcasters that talk about the same thing they talk about on their podcast/blogs. As debatable as the reviewers might be, they do know what they are talking about, to some extent. Just goes to show what podcast/internet fame can get you in life, and for the rest of us, it seems nothing is out of our grasp.
Well, I think that is going to wrap things up for this post, and thanks for reading/checking this out. If you care to share your thoughts, just comment below. And make sure to check out my new podcast over at The CyberNauts Cast, we just did 2 months of Gundam UC coverage, so that should wet your apatite for you Gundam fans out there. See you next time, hopefully not as sober.
So, those fools over at the ANNCast think they can just make up their own top 10 list and leave it at that, when we all know darn well any monkey in front of a computer with DSL internet can do the same. Regan from the Anime 82 Podcast wanted to go ahead and do a “Top 20” list just to one up them ( I would imagine that would be his reason, but I could be wrong), which where does that leave me you say? Well, getting back from hitting up the rec room while burning some calories off (but now finding thats pointless since a box of M&M’s is near me, darn it) and listening to those so called “experts” at the ANNCast ramble on (I wouldn’t say ramble, it was pretty good, but I didn’t finish the episode FYI) about their list of anime, I decided to put together a list of my own, IN A SOBER MOOD FOR ONCE!!
This took about maybe an hour I would say between thinking of what I have, looking at what I have, and cheating by looking up my Anime-Planet account to see what I have again, I was able to compile a list of my “notable” top 10 that I think most people can agree with. So with this, ill state the anime and give a brief piece of dialogue about the show. So, where we go!!
#10:
Macross: Do You Remember Love
I am not much of a Macross fan, I mean I like it an all, but it has never really been a big fascination for me. But, I do enjoy this movie quite alot, even after seeing both versions of it (The Japanese version and the “Celebrity JUST FOR KIDS ENGRISH HACK DUB of it” aka “Macross: Clash of the Bionoids”). I’ve only seen half of the original TV series (the Robotech version) so I knew the characters and the setting, but the movie is a retelling of the TV series, in which I have to say it did a really good job of it. The action, battles, soundtrack and characters are enjoyable to see, and this movie gets all the praise it receives from fans over the years. This was also directed by Noboru Ishiguro, who recently passed away, but will not be forgotten. Speaking of Ishiguro’s works…
#9
Megazone 23 OVA’s
With the passing of Noburo Ishiguro, this is one series (0ther than Macross) that fans have come to know and love over the years, especially fans that saw this in the Regan era. It is without question that of the 3 OVA’s made, part 3 is the black sheep of the series, and the other 2 are REALLY GOOD!! Part One is the classic for me, its enjoyable, entertaining, and overly 80’s in its own right. Part Two I have to say is probably my most favorite, but by a hair. It is more 80’s (no doubt) than the first one, but has that same energy as the first one in terms of story, characters, you name it. This does however tie to the first OVA and completes the story in a pretty good way I should say. So, lets move on to number 8…
#8
Gall Force Series
If you are familiar with 1980’s sci-fi anime as much as I am, this is something I could count as an “essential” to see. The Gall Force series is pretty much 3 movies-OVA’s-ish, followed by more OVA’s in separate series that depict a world where women fight aliens trying to destroy them in some galactic battle, and its totally kick-ass to see!! They each got their own character traits, problems, female bickering, you know, how girls really are, but all included in space with robots and aliens and stuff. I found this out by starting out as a Kenichi Sonoda fanboy (still am today) and I am glad I did. So, let’s move on to number 7…
#7
Project A-ko
Originally to be part of the Cream Lemon hentai series, this stood out as one big entertainment-fest of high action animation into 90 minutes of your time. With little inside jokes to anime series and movies along with giant robots, your typical cat-fight around a city wide Humans vs Aliens battle, it has everything you need to enjoy this piece of 80’s treasure to your hearts content. It is so wacky and crazy I just don’t want to spoil anything about it for you, just check it out yourself.
#6
Crying Freeman
There is no other anime I have seen so far that has made me cry in sadness over an almost naked assassin and his almost naked assassin “to be” wife fighting other assassin clans in this 6 part OVA series (based off the manga). When I finished this OVA, I wanted to cry out of sadness into a pair of boobs because this OVA taught me to cry when killing your foe when you really don’t want too. The animation and story changes per OVA (some of which has great animation and others kinda “ehh”) but my god, I felt so sad watching this, and it felt so great. You may take this as a depressing anime, when in reality its like every other action anime out there with knives and blood, only this time, you can feel ok to let your manly tears roll down your cheeks when seeing Freeman decapitate some guys head off, because he was doing it already. Not to spoil this, but go see it. Ok, so what do we got for our number 5…
#5
Goku: Midnight Eye
You know, in my last review, I have already stated my love of this OVA. To be honest, I only have this on here because I want to represent Kawajiri somewhere on this list. Sure, I could have added something else, but you know what, I didn’t want to. If you read my last review, you know already know about this and how great it is. But for those of you who didn’t, this has CYBERNETIC-MOUTH-LASER-SHOOTING-MOTORCYCLE-HANDLEBAR-PINKHAIRED-EXOTIC-DANCERS!! Oh yea, and tons more stuff, that I kinda forgot, because the girl is all I can think about at this time. OOOOKAY, number 4 is…
#4
Gunbuster
Without a doubt, this has to be Gainax’s best OVA/possibly anime ever made. This was a project that Anno worked on, but guess what, it was not like Evangelion at all!! This is however, more of a somewhat prototype of what Evangelion would be one day, which some characters you see in this do resemble the personalities of Shinji and Asuka. But this ain’t Eva, because its in space, and with giant robots, and people find the courage to get their butt’s in gear and make a difference in their lives to save the freakin galaxy!! And there’s some nice boob bounces in this, just FYI. Yea, go see this, its 6 episodes, you can’t go wrong there. So whats for number 3…
#3
Golgo 13: The Professional
This is the man that should have won that stupid character battle that AAA podcast made up, heck, every list forever as matter of fact. It is said that if Golgo isn’t killing someone, he is having sex with tons of ladies, and if isn’t having sex with tons of ladies, he is killing someone. He is the man that make James Bond look like a pussy to the world (and with Roger Moore, more like an newborn at an infant ward), the man that has been involved in every major event in history from the past 40 years, and then man that can re-populate the earth after he killed everyone on it if he got paid too, of course with dozens of women ready to take his “special weapon” with glee. But none of that happens in this movie, when its about him taking down a bizillionare oil tycoon dude. So, number 2 is…
#2
Fist of the North Star: The Movie
Fist of the North Star can be debated as probably the second best story ever told (or maybe the best, who knows). This is really about a guy who was out to take revenge when his douchebag “karate master best friend” took his girl and left him for dead in the post-apocalyptic wastelands of the future year of 199x. The movie turns out to beso much more when our hero Ken”Mad (as hell) Max”Shiro has to fight his fellow brothers in arms of Hokto-Shinken to get his woman back (its totally different in the series). But if you want an introduction to the series, this movie is it. Its an hour and a half or so of your time well spent. So, were down to number 1, and I wonder what that could be…
#1
Bubblegum Crisis
I am not going to lie, this is my favorite anime series as of now and hope to be down the road. Call it favortism (shoot, it totally is) but this has had a soft spot in my heart to rock me to the grave. When the Japanese made this in the 1980’s, they thought the future would have betamax tapes, engrish letters on signs, and robots running amok in this cyberpunk future. Despite this series flaws (yes it has them ill admit), It is my true love, and I cannot hide that fact from anyone. The music, characters, fans, people, toys, other side series (that all depends really) has made this OVA series unique for me in many ways. I will get around to reviewing this on here one day, but that will come at a special time.
There are some honorable mentions, because this was a hard list. So here they are:
Zeta Gundam: It seems to be getting hate now, but it took me a long time to watch/collect/finish this series, and I was pleased how it ended. But truth be told, the 0080 OVA is the best Gundam out there (well until Unicorn finishes).
Armored Trooper Votoms: This is a great series and good OVA side stories to add with it to keep the series very engaging. I wanted to add Armored Hunter Mellowlink to this list, but it does belong with Votoms IMO, even though it has such great potential to be more well known.
Akira:”HOLD ON NOW, WHY DIDN’T YOU ADD THIS ANIME ON YOUR LIST ITS THE BEST ANIME EVER ARE YOU INSANE OR SOMETHING YOURNOTANANIMEFANBLALLKASSDLFHALSKDJFOALSSDFLWEUIRYUOIWQWHR,BNXV,HBHIUAYKJQBWERIUJ!!!!”
– My expected response from today’s anime fan.
If you are one of these people, shut up ok. Akira is something that is on everyones list, forever, till its forgotten about or till the world blows up. I like Akira, shoot I have the movie on BluRay and on VHS (from Pioneer) and have seen it a few times in the past decade or so. But this is my list, and adding Akira just seems so generic these days when it comes to “BESTAHNIMEZEVAR” list. But, the manga is better, so read that instead.
MD Geist: … its not that bad, honestly. If you have heard my comments on the bloggers review podcast I do on this site, then you know where I stand on this. I like MD Geist, I enjoy how bad it is, and I enjoy the entertainment I get from it. And there is nothing wrong with that in my book, because it’s not hurting you or anyone else.
Riding Bean: This is one of my favorite OVA’s out there when it comes showing people anime. I feel I could show this to people who don’t know to much about anime or think they can’t get into it to see that this isn’t any different from any other movie they have seen 1098798079876 times over. Its 45 minutes of an animated “exploitation” movie, that is all that it is. If Bean Bandit was black, it wouldn’t change anything other than the name to “Chocolate Bean Brown: Mutha of a Bandit”.
Dirty Pair: I haven’t finished this series, but this is something that is essential to anime fans from that time. From what I have seen, pretty good, its all about 2 girls that destroy more than what they can save while working for a company that hasn’t fired them yet. Hey, it makes the show even better, so check it out.
So that is my list, and I feel pretty good about it, and I got something in this month so that is always good…kinda. See yea guys next time!!
On April 1st, 2012 [ADULT SWIM] aired a prank talking about bringing back Toonami for a single night. This “prank,” may have actually been a test to see how many viewers would tune in to see it. See
this video will explain what I am talking about.
http://youtu.be/RePsyrx5aJs
Currently, There are many fan site such as Neotoonami, which was brought up on a past episode of AAA, trying to get many old fans to help get Cartoon Network to bring it back. You can even go it http://www.toonamiaftermath.com/ and watch a Ustream that airs anime that used to be on Toonami for FREE!
look at this as well:
![[adult swim]](https://a0.twimg.com/profile_images/1634362280/AS-icon-300x300_normal.jpg){kind=icon}
#BringBackToonami We’ve heard you. Thank you for your passion and interest – stay tuned.
P.S. Remember to tweet #BringBackToonami !!
http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/feedback/index.html
http://www.adultswim.com/footer/contact/index.html
http://www.facebook.com/CartoonNetwork
http://www.facebook.com/adultswim
http://twitter.com/cartoonnetwork
http://twitter.com/adultswim
Recently a trailer for a new short series by both Toyota and Studio 4°C, who are known for there work on such projects like The Animatrix and Berserk, was released online. The new short series is entitled PES: Peace Eco Smile and will be about a group of aliens who come to earth and learn about family, love and other subject matter. It looks to be a somewhat comedic series, but i’ll let you judge from the video posted online:
http://youtu.be/vacFhRyL_QA
This is a quote from the Anime New Network article about the series:
The comical shorts center around PES, a traveller from space, and NaSuBi, a mysterious life-form who is enamored by the charm of Earth. They immerse themselves in the Tokyo neighborhood of Kichijōji and learn about kindness to people, the value of loving, and the importance of the little happinesses in life. [1]
The series looks to be very well animated with an semi-abstract art style. Still, I looked at the video and saw that a lot of the clips looked the same, as in that they might be recycling clips in the short. Also, the series to me looks like it is just a large advert for Toyota. The trailer seems to revolve around the car raither than any sort of plot in my mind, which kind of pulled me out of it. The soundtrack was really good though, and if we leave aside the Toyota influence this might be a good series. only time till tell my friends so look out for this short in the near future!
~~Z-ComiX
LINKS:
[1]ANN Article: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2012-03-23/studio-4c-toyota-web-anime-trailer-streamed
Disclaimer: Today’s post is based on a true event. Arguments and point-of-view in this article should first and foremost be understood as political satire. The writers’ mask set is that of parody and does not necessarily represent Z-ComiX’s views on the topic at hand. Z-ComiX is a writer for AAAPocast, but this does not mean that his views are the same as those of AAAPodcast as a whole. All products, articles and images belong to their respective owners. Please understand this and enjoy this article for its satire.
It was announced that VIZ and Warner Brothers, after once again shelving the idea of making a live action “AKIRA” movie (see previous article) have found a new project to work on. Have you, dear reader, ever wanted to see an anime with inhumanly fast warriors, super unrealistic swords and monsters that will most likely be CGI turned into a live action movie made inAmerica? Well guess what, the anime that we all know and love “Bleach” will be making an appearance on the silver screen in all goes according to plans this time!
Yes, soon viewers will be able to see Bleach in the real world with all its super fast paced action scenes and sword-fighting! And don’t worry, thanks to CGI we are sure to see all your favorite scenes, hollows and zanpakutos created to the best of the movies budget. I’m sure that they will be pouring in as much money as they can to get this project right! I mean look, their trying to get Peter Segal to direct! He directed movies such as “The Longest Yard” “Get Smart” and “The Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps” (personal favorite of mine, and was the best of the franchise by far). He’s so perfect to direct this movie, even if his last film was in 2008.
Of course the film could turn out like this horrible fan film made by Going Nowhere Show
http://youtu.be/hhCDGAfD924
I mean look at how bad it is, how little effort was put into it. The Hollow looks like it was drawn in paint! This could be the quality that theHollywoodvision of “Bleach” could be.
Fan of anime have been waiting for a well made live-action adaptation of something like this and it looks like there prayers have been answered. I’m sure that this movie will be given the up most priority just like “Dragonball: Evolution” was when it came out. So, lets all get ready because there is no way this project will end up like “ALBERT!”
Sarcastically Yours,
~~Z-ComiX
[LINKS]
Articles:
Going Nowhere Show
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/goingnowhereshow
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/goingnowhereshow
Recently I was looking for news topics on anime for my next post when something caught my eye. A post by Shubhajit Roy over at India Express, although unassuming in nature, caught my eyes and my heart when I read the title. The post was entitled “Japan Pushes Anime for Indian Kids”[1] and being half Indian and an anime addict I was quick to jump on the post… 9 days after it was posted.
In his article, Roy speaks about how both the Japanese and Indian Prime Ministers were in talks to “strengthening of cooperation in creative industries… animation and manga.” Roy also writes that when addressing the good people of Delhi(no not a meat shop, the capital of India folks), Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Nado stated this:
“Adults may be unaware of it, but I understand that Japanese Anime is quite popular here.”
To me this was a surprise, as I have never actually met any Middle Eastern people who like manga or anime, except for the occasional Deviant Art artist. In fact, Roy cites that India is actually a growing market of anime and Japanese products, having 40 to 70 Japanese animations exported fromJapantoIndiaevery year! vice secretary general of the Association of Japanese Animation, Eiji Takahashi, has been working on relations with India as is working with companies such as Toei Animation to bring anime to India. Older readers may remember Toei Animation as the guys who brought us Sailor Moon and Dragonball Z, two shows that helped pave the way for many anime fans inAmerica. That said, having done this before, Toei Animation is the best choice if we want to see anime take root in India. Takahashi has also gone on record, saying that anime exported toIndiawill have good dubbing, a problem that turns off many viewers to this day. It is also should be noted that even though India has not put any restrictions up, Japanese companies will be exporting cleaned up versions of shows such as the removal of guns and sexual scenes. Being Indian myself I can see that this was a smart move for Japan as those things can and would be very offensive and cause many problems for anime in India.
Now, one of my complaints about anime is the representation of, or the lack thereof, races and religions that are not the standard set withinJapan. Of course, in my teenage mind this only pertains to Indians or really anyone from theMiddle East. I’ve seen “stereotypes” from the man with a grey beard, white clothes and a turban to a little girl with an accent, red don’t on her forehead and makes weird robotics or some sort of, what I guess is “Hindi voodoo.” I am however able to forgive these caricatures of people of my race since Japan isn’t Indi aand therefore really has no reason to insert individuals whom they do not necessarily understand into their media. Even so, I still yearn for good Indian characters in anime. That is why when I heard in a recent article thatJapanis working on a cricket anime for India based off of hit manga Koyjin no Hoshi I was ecstatic.
Apparently, as seen in Catherine Makino’s article “Anime Baseball Hero Transforms into Cricket Champion”[2] on Majirox News, Japan plans to release a 26 to 52 episode anime based on the hit manga in the form of cricket in the Fall season of this year. The following is an excerpt that explains the premise of the anime:
“The Indian version will be called Rising Star. The hero, who has tentatively been given the name of Salaji, is a young, left-handed southpaw cricketer who wants to follow in the footsteps of his cricket player father and make it in the big leagues.”
The success of this show, Makino points out, will be on how well they can reskin the manga’s ideas around cricket. Cricket is a very complex sport and is difficult to learn, let alone play. A game of cricket can take days to complete, as opposed to baseball where it is for 9 innings. Also, India has grown up on mostly American animation and comics, and not the newer kind. We’re talking Golden Age, CaptainAmericavs Nazis, Superman leaping over buildings in a single bound, Smiling Batman comics. The idea of a non-super-powered protagonist may not appeal to the Indian audience even if cricket does. It’s going to be tough to hook people, but I’m hopeful that his will be a gateway for more!
The export of anime toIndiais great for both sides as it opens a new frontier forJapanto make money and gives India new form of media that may be better than anythingAmericaputs out inIndia. I personally am looking forward to all this and will watch the first episode of Rising Star when it airs, although not in Hindi since I only know Urdu. Keep your eyes open because if What happened in America and in Japan when Anime was brought over happens to India we may see some awesome new animes that may even feature an Indian protagonist too!
Until next time!
~~Z-ComiX
[1] http://www.indianexpress.com/news/japan-pushes-anime-for-indian-kids/894690/2
[2] http://www.majiroxnews.com/2012/01/10/anime-baseball-hero-transforms-into-cricket-champion/
Romance is a genre or sub genre that I have come to appreciate over time, probably because it is the easiest way for me to connect to a character or characters emotionally and also because I love my drama. Drama in most anime tends to be a little over the top or melodramatic and while this may seem annoying at first, if done right it can be very moving.
As we all know by now Anime is a medium and most of its series are a mish-mash of all sorts of sub genres and if you are lucky you will get one with a good romantic sub plot. I wrote this article in order to examine and scrutinise how romance is portrayed in different kinds of anime and to possibly find out why some of them will bring you to tears and cripple you emotionally and why the others are just complete garbage. Just to make sure the views expressed are not completely subjective to my myself, I decided to bring three more opinions on board, 1 male and 2 female. I interviewed them all and they all had very interesting views on the subject.
The Chase or The Meal
That’s probably a horrible analogy for dating and being in an on-going relationship but bear with me. Most romance anime tends to tackle the dating or courtship aspect rather than the relationship building part. Personally, from a guys perspective, this is the most interesting and dramatic part of a relationship. Its easier for anime creators to carry the viewer along the protagonists story of trying to get to know the love interest and gradually befriending him/her before finally getting together, usually very dramatically at the end.
Super Korelle agrees with me, she said” I like stories about both courtship and about a relationship. With both you get to see the trails and errors the characters go through to be with each other and make what ever they have work. I find courtship to make for a better story line. Watching a character trying to get the person they like/love makes you (or at least me) more invested in the anime, praying and hoping they get them in the end.”
Kuuki also had a similar point of view, she said “I usually like the courtship better. Especially if the show is divided in two parts. I think it gives a greater liberty to the story to develop around the couple, the usual awkwardness and shyness of beginning romances. An established couple in a show centered exclusively around romance often becomes boring.”
Lvlln has a more apathetic view on the subject, he thinks “No preference. The vast majority are about courtship, though, so I’d like to see more good ones about an on-going relationship. That said, the reason the majority are about courtship is because courtship tends to be more fun to watch.”
So what is it exactly about the courtship route that keeps us coming back for more? The template is certainly over-used but the creators have found various ways to mix it up and make it refreshing for the viewers such as;
The Female Perspective
Take Kimi Ni Todoke for example, it’s a story about a socially awkward girl that slowly falls in love with the most popular boy at school. Sawako (the female lead) not only has to overcome her shyness but also find a suitable way to interact with Kazehaya (the popular boy) in order for him to regard her as a potential love interest. Needless to say it takes 2 full seasons to get some sort of final…closure but still the most interesting part of the story is trying to see just how Sawako will finally get to say she loves Kazehaya.
The female perspective may not necessarily be a groundbreaking form of story telling seeing as most shoujo titles are made this way. It’s the fact that Kimi Ni Todoke took ‘the chase’ approach rather than the relationship building one, Sawako never has a boyfriend in the entirety of the series, she doesn’t have to deal with commitment issues or anything of that sort, well not in the traditional way atleast.
The Love Web
This has got to be my favourite aspect of romance in anime, rather than having the same old cliché love triangle some writers have decided to go all out and have created love webs. The best examples being Toradora! and Ano Hi Mita Hana No Namae Wo Boku Tach Wa Mada Shiranai (AKA Ano Hana)
I’ve talked about Toradora! and why I love it countless times so I’ll focus on Ano Hana on this article. In Ano Hana this group of friends has finally been reunited after drifting apart over the years because of the loss of Menma (The Loli lead) The reunion is not a sweet one because all these characters have gradually changed over time and some still hold grudges over things of the past. However, with the continuous passage of time and them spending more time with each other, old emotions buried deep within them start to come to the fold and drama ensues.
I think the fact that all these characters are friends makes the situation that little bit more dramatic, also add the fact that they have to overcome their old feelings of animosity towards each other before they could even come close to initiating a romantic conversation and you have Drama Gold. Again the main focus in this show was not the relationship building but watching as each character tries to woe the other, the chase.
Demographics
The courtship route is certainly interesting but it also has some glaring flaws, the most obvious being the age group it centers on. Dating or trying to get a boyfriend/girlfriend is a really big deal for adolescent teenagers and the idea of being in one is fantastically drawn out of proportion in their young minds (I know this because I was a victim of this terrible lie.) Writers capitalise on this and target most of their romance work to this demographic, which is why you get a lot of successful romance novels, like Twilight for example. The biggest problem that this trend brings is the fact that most romance stories will rarely focus upon on-going relationships or they will make them out to be a heavenly utopia which is not the case at all( shoujo is the worst offender when it comes to anime). It also means we rarely get to see romance stories focusing on grown adults.
“Teenage romance is interesting, but it’s very heavily represented in anime, so I’d like to see more of 20s-40s, prime ages when romance is a big deal.”
Romance is certainly a big deal after you lose those silly raging hormones, when you get older the whole dating thing gets old and you just wanna find your perfect match as quickly as possible so you can settle down.
“I would like romance anime to focus on the age group of 18-30 years old. I find a lot of anime to be with middle school or high school aged people. I am in the age group of 18-30 and would like to see more adult romance portrayed in anime. I have nothing against middle/high school romance anime, I would prefer to watch someone close to my age bracket going through the trails of love”
Most of those trials would deal with subjects young teenage minds might find hard to comprehend at first but are extremely vital, such as dealing with love after divorce or death of a spouse or having to quit your career in order to be a stay at home parent or even how to deal with relationships as a single parent.
“OLDER PEOPLE! I mean, I want less blooming high schoolers and more kickass older people. More stuff like Nana, more stuff like Usagi Drop. Please.”
Kuuki highlights some very good examples of anime that portray adult romance or atleast show it in a mature format. Both titles she mentioned are categorised as Josei, Josei is anime or manga meant to appeal to an older female audience, the adult version of Shoujo.
Josei
The romance side of things in Usagi Drop (the anime) is never in the foreground. However, it is executed so well that it engrains itself in the viewers minds. Daikichi the lead character is a 30 year old bachelor that decided to raise his 6 year old Aunt (watch the show its a long story) He is forced to demote himself at work in order to free up some time to care for Rin and also has to learn how to care for a child on the fly. His love interest is Rins’ best friends Mom Yukari, who is a 30 year old divorced single parent trying to raise a naughty 6 year old boy by herslf. Daikichis’ feelings are torn between trying to care for his adopted child and loving Yukari, he doesn’t know whether pursuing Yukari would be the right thing for him, Rin or Yukaris son. He has to gauge how each person involved would feel on top of that he is not even sure if the relationship would work out seeing as they are both strapped for time.
The amount of layers involved in that one relationship is so immense and you can see the struggle in both their eyes when they interact. Its love at its purest form, bittersweet.
Nana (which is my favourite manga by the way, you should all read it) deals with a college aged spunky female called Nana Komatsu. Nana decided to leave her parents home in order to live with her boyfriend in Tokyo. Nana starts off as a naive character with childish hopes and aspirations for her life such as being the perfect housewife for her future husband. Reality kicks in pretty quick as soon as she gets to Tokyo though, her boyfriend is still not capable of caring for her and she ends up having to live n her own and making ends meet.
The romance side of things get interesting when you realise that as a high schooler Nana was having an affair with a married man. Being young and naive she thought she had found true love when in truth she was only being used for body. This past continuously haunts Nana and how she perceives men in general. She believes that all men are as fickle as the wind and as long as she doesn’t satisfy any of their needs she will be left alone again just like that married man she was having an affair with did. And thats only half of what Nana deals with!
Harems
Whether you love them or love to hate them Harem anime will continue to be popular and will always remain a firm part of the anime industry. Some of the classics are harem titles like Tenchi Muyo and Love Hina for example. There have been some (and thats very few) exceptional Harems that have portrayed romance well but I think we can all agree that most of them are a horrible source for a sweet love story.
Kuuki had a lot to say on the subject.
” Hakuouki, which is a reverse harem anime suffers from the disease of the genre (the same reason why I can’t watch many harem anime), I can never believe how so many people fall in love or at the very least care that much for such a dull main character, so yeah it ruins the show. Its really hard for me to be able to believe in such a story if the main character is dull, sometimes we’re also presented with a harem where no real romantic conclusion is reached and we get the feeling everyone is in love with everyone.”
She gave examples of some of the Harem titles that just get to her.
“Kore wa Zombie desu ka? It’s the typical “everyone falls in love with the main character” type of story (and one of the rare I have finished) and while it is implied said main character is mostly in love with Yuu, it never is clearly established. In that aspect it wasn’t exactly representative of romance, but it had plot and it was funny so I managed to finish it.
As for others, I’d say MajiKoi? I’ve only watched a few episodes but it was boring and the main character was oblivious to everyone apart from his sister, very weak on the romance part, very heavy on the fanservice. Not exactly my cup of tea either.”
Surprisingly, there were some good examples.
“The romance between Hitagi and Koyomi made for one of the greatest single episodes of all time, but the show overall was not about their romance. There was a considerable amount of character growth for Hitagi, we saw her open up her softer side, using the romance to help her get over the traumatic experience during middle school of almost getting raped. For Koyomi, it was learning what it means to be a lover, that is, that there is nothing special in it, it’s enough just to be yourself and to be there for her.”
“Not necessarily, if it doesn’t feel forced (well, fanservice feels mostly forced but accidents happen) Take Bakuman for example, it has a few examples of fanservice but it doesn’t hurt the sweetness of the romance backstory the slightest bit (and that is helped by the presence of two couples too). And to be honest, romance or not, a normal human would look at the person he’s in love with, he’d look for the fanservice opportunities. We can’t really avoid it. I’d rather have fanservice in a romance anime where it would look more or less natural than random fanservice in the middle of something that has nothing to do with it (case in hand : Guilty Crown)” “In my opinion fanservice does hurt a sweet romantic story for me. One moment the characters are having a sweet moment together and next thing you know pantie shot or the girl loses their swim top in the pool. Sweet moment ruined in a matter of seconds. Don’t get me wrong fanservice is good, just not in a sweet romantic story.” “I haven’t seen any romance anime with distasteful fanservice yet. B Gata H Kei had fanservice in spades, but it only made the series better.”On the topic of fanservice, I always wondered why it was always rare to see sex scenes in most romantic anime. I mean even day time soap operas have them. I liked how Nana dealt with their scenes, it made sense to have them shown and was certainly not just inserted (no pun intended) for fanservice purposes. It would be great to see more titles adopt this formula.
“Yes. Handled in a mature, realistic fashion as in Tsukihime. No need for porn-type sex scenes as in Yosuga no Sora.”
“Yes I would like to see more. It doesn’t have to be shown them going to climax, maybe just the beginnings of sex and move on to them waking up the next morning. I would also like it to be tasteful done and not full of fanservice.”
“Mmmh yes? Then again, I’m a huge perv so I guess it’s only natural. Now you mention it, it’s true it’s rare, it often happens or is heavily suggested in BL anime, there was a few in Paradise Kiss but it’s a very rare occurence.”
Paradise Kiss being another Aii Yazawa (Nana) manga which I should get to reading soon.
Boys Love
Kuuki brings up the topic of Boys Love to mind, I’m certainly not an expert on Yaoi but its pretty obvious that most of them deal with romance. I recall a huge uproar in the fandom last season when two titles aired concurrently, those titles were Yuru Yuri and No.6. Yuru Yuri was a show that was clearly meant to have Yuri it said so in the title, fans rejoiced, who doesn’t like watching lesbians right? But the response for No.6 which was a sci-fi show with implied yaoi got mixed reactions. I recall a tweet I saw on twitter stating ” You wouldn’t like Yuru Yuri so much if it was called Yuru Yaoi” and unfortunately I had to agree with that.
I had preconceived conceptions of Boys Love anime, being about men, I thought they would tackle the difficulties of being homosexual in an environment that still isn’t fully accepting of that while trying to deal with their romantic emotions for each other. Also the fact that BL is targeted at females I always thought they were a little more mature in their execution.
The sad truth is they are the exact opposite, characters fall in love with each other for no real reason whatsoever and the amount of times characters are quite honestly raped is almost comical. I asked the girls whether they thought this was natural or fantasy.
“I don’t know if you can call it natural, nor fantastical either, I think it depends on the author. While it can feel forced, and just plain unrealistic (well, it’s not like some shojo are much more realistic either so I guess I can forgive them) there are also some very good pieces. The thing with BL is that most manga are really short, it gives less time to develop a story and characters and most authors have to deal with that, it doesn’t always work very well, especially when you work with characters very different from each other. “I have only watched one Boys Love anime and they portrayed romance in a bit of a natural but leaning towards the fantastical, if that makes any sense.” “I don’t read many BL (to be honest I don’t even like the genre) and BL anime is rare, a good one is even rarer, but I’ll answer anyway. When talking about manga I’ll say Acid Town, because, while the BL is present it’s really toned down (for now at least) it’s mostly a story about criminals in a dangerous city and such. As for anime, I think I’ll say Antique Bakery because it’s sweet (in a lot of ways), and not only about love stories either.” “I have only watched one Boys Love anime,that is Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi. I like how it is not two main characters that are being shown. They have a few characters going through different story lines. It just doesn’t focus on romance it has some comedic moments with characters, which is a nice balance with the romance.” Lvlln chose;
Super Korelle picked;
Kuuki chose;
And my pick, heh well I think you should all get to watch;
