Manga

On funny stuff that lasts

Kaijuu — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 20:14:00 GMT

Japan churns out a lot of anime and manga each year; on anime alone, over 30 series are started annually.
Most of it is outright bad, just fluff or just mildly interesting; only a very few of them are worth their salt to see again.

A couple of weeks ago, I watched a few episodes of Azumanga Daioh again with a friend of mine while we were waiting for the ferry to arrive. It then occurred to me that Azumanga Daioh is one of those series that seemingly never bores me, no matter how many times I see it.

But why?

AD isn't very elaborate; it's just a slice-of-life series showing a group of six girls making their way through three years of high school.

The emphasis lies in the funny aspect of those three years; no overt drama, love triangles or sad girls in snow here.
AD does not have great jokes either; many of them are announcing themselves light years ahead and you'll need to have a good grasp of Japanese language and culture to catch them all (though there are translator notes available if you don't).

However, for a series based on a yonkoma-type of comic (yonkoma is a four-panel type of comic, like in the newspapers), they really managed to make it into a nice flowing anime, which makes you laugh almost instantly due to the sheer bizarre-ness of it.
The music helps as well; a light-hearted soundtrack with up-tempo tracks as well as slower ones.

The cast is a well-balanced group, consisting of the six aforementioned protagonists, some schoolmates from different classes and three teachers with very different personalities.
It would be wrong to say that the cast is representing real people, but that doesn't really matter; they're just there make you laugh and it's therefore a great stress reliever.

There are only a few series that really stick, but Azumanga Daioh is without a doubt one of the best purchases I ever did, both in manga and anime.

Cheers, K.

On Dragon Childs and the end of the world as we know it

Kaijuu — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 20:41:00 GMT

Yesterday, I finished the manga Mukuro Naru Hoshi Tama Taru Ko, also known as NaruTaru.
The story starts out lightly, with protagonist Tamai Shiina finding a starfish-like creature that turns out to be a Dragon Child, which she names Hoshimaru.
Soon, Shiina finds out that there are more Dragon Childs and that there is more to them than it seems.
So much even; the world will never be the same again.

NaruTaru is not for the faint of heart, due to the gruesome material that appears as the plot progresses. Despite the young main characters and cute monster designs, the story quickly takes on a much darker and more disturbing tone, with later volumes involving some graphic depictions of gore and sexual violence.

The version of the manga released by Dark Horse has many edited scenes; entire pages even were removed from the seventh volume.
Despite that, this version of NaruTaru is a riveting story, well-written and correctly paced.

The only way to the manga is through the 'net, these days, which is a mix of the US Dark Horse-release and fan-translations, but some things do get lost in translation.
All in all a good read, albeit not for everyone.

Cheers, K.

On Twin Spica

Kaijuu — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:44:00 GMT

Twin Spica tells the story of Asumi Kamogawa, and her dream of becoming an astronaut (or rocker driver, as the then 5 year-old Asumi tells her class during Parent Day). She has to endure many hardships, not in the least beause she's kind of reluctant to share that dream with her father, who became a widower after is wife died in an unfortunate accident involving a Japanese space rocket gone haywire and crashing onto the village they lived in.
Obvously, there is more to this, but that will be revealed in later volumes.

It's finally translated into English, so I picked up a copy of this manga yesterday, and it's beautiful. The drama hits a sensitive snare, and instantly reminded me of the also highly recommended Futatsu no Spica anime, which also nearly brought me to tears because of the wonderful story that's being told.
Seeing that the manga came first, it's remarkable how well the animation studio managed to translate the drama into the anime.

Unfortunately, I never succeeded in collecting the fourth DVD, so I have to make do with the fansubs I picked up years ago; if someone manages to find the 4th volume or the box set, please please please let me know.

Every once in a while, something truly remarkable hits the shelves; Twin Spica really hits the spot.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to pop the series' soundtrack into the player.

Cheers, K.

On getting back into the swing of things

Kaijuu — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 17:40:00 GMT

It's kind of echo-y in here, don't you think?
That's right, I had to abandon some things a couple of weeks ago to avoid going south, and this was one of them.

So I'm going to get back to the regular things, odds and sods, which also means writing down some of my rants down in here.

I guess you could say the past month was really something else; along with my job, my side of the preparations for Anime 2010 took a little more time and effort than last year, due to me doing the technical check for the AMV-competition, subbing some video, keeping the technical bits in check (projectors, audio equipment; stuff like that) and keeping myself in check by relaxing a bit.
The result of all that hard work was a great festival; people had a good time and really like to return to Almelo for Anime 2011.

The city of Almelo came along with a camera in order to get some footage for their promotional video. That's right; our festival will be part of a vid meant to promote the City of Almelo as a cultural hub in that area; how cool is that? :)

We also had a little something at Stripdagen Haarlem; a manga and anime-corner, together with a couple of dealers, the lovely people from MangaKissa and crews from MangaFique, Ani Nation, Yaoi and Yuri-Con and Abunai.
I have never been to the Stripdagen; I must say it's a fun weekend, despite the inevitable "collectors" who are bent on European and American comics, regarding Japanese comics as inferior and without substance.
Luckily, we also spoke quite a lot of people who are more open-minded and are willing to see beyond their own horizons.

I'm going to try and get some pictures online soon, and see whether this blog has any right of existance any more. :)

Cheers, K.

Ticket Booth for Anime 2009 opens!

Kaijuu — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:54:00 GMT

Yesterday, we officially opened the ticket booth for Anime 2009, so that we can sell some stuff to raise the money needed for Anime 2009: Mental Maniacs.
This will be our eleventh festival, and it's going to be fun. :)
Now go and buy tickets.

Cheers, K.

Why Japan?

Kaijuu — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:08:00 GMT

A question that people ask me when I answer their question on where I spend my vacations, is "why". Why do I travel 10.000km to the east, to a country that's said to be the most expensive places to be, where they have all these weird TV-shows and singers with high-pitched voices. Why don't I just book a flight to Spain, like everyone else, get drunk and bang a few chicks?

Well, the last part, because that's not my style, and as for the first reasons; Japan isn't that expensive if you just know where to go, and those silly shows are just the icing on the cake. ;)

Essentially, you could say I can blame it all on my mum, as she is a librarian and an avid promoter of reading. ;)
I reckon I was about 7 years old, when I got my hands on a comic book featuring a Japanese heroin called Yoko Tsuno (check out this web site; it's awesome. I used to e-mail frequently with Ilse a few years ago, but apparently, we ran out of things to talk about and lost contact since), by Roger Leloup. I believe it was the 1977 album "The Border of Life", an album about a wartime drama, artificial blood, a medical experiment lasting over 30 years and the connection between them.

Leloup is a fabulous artist, and draws as faithfully to the original as possible (well, save for the extraterrestrial décors, of course), most often working from photo's, films and mock-ups.
While "The Border of Life" is set in Rothenburg, Germany, and not Japan, I wanted to read more.

I also wanted to read more about Yoko's home country, so I tried to get some, but failed at the time.
Also in those years, Dutch television showed a multitude of cartoons, all dubbed in Dutch, but with a particular drawing style as a common point.
I loved watching Swiss Family Robinson, Heidi of the Alps, Quack the Duck, Nils Holgersson and even Candy Candy.
A few years later, I discovered that they all came from the Land of the Rising Sun.
Due to various things going on in my life, Japan dropped off of my radar as I had some serious matter to attend to.

We skip a few years. I still read the Yoko Tsuno-comics regularly at that time and my fascination for Japan was rekindled by discovering some video games and a book with Japanese fairy tales (but for the life of me, I can't remember the name of the book.
It was dormant until somewhere in 1995, where I got my hands on a game called Cobra Mission, translated from Japanese to English.
With those cartoons in the back of my mind, I wondered whether there would be more of this, and where. Well, I came up with next to nothing, and I wasn't very rich either, so I had to put it to bed once more, as the only things I could find were rather shoddy GIF-files on the internet.
However, I did find stuff about Japan on the 'net, so my interest rose once again.

Again, we skip a year or two to 1997, when I bought a few VHS video tapes containing Project A-Ko and Megazone 23.
Horribly expensive and dubbed in English with Dutch subtitles, but I managed to get myself some anime! I still have them, although I play those titles from DVD nowadays.

That was basically the start of my anime addiction.

Unfortunately, I was a bit slow on the ball, as for instance I didn't know that a small trip to Amsterdam could accelerate the hobby, or that a Japanese popular culture festival was held right here in the Netherlands but hey, all water under the bridge now. ;)
I also got more information about Japan itself, and somewhere in 1999, I decided that I wanted to go to Japan in the future.
Still piss-poor at the time, so I had to keep it a wish at that time.

Again, we skip a couple of years; I landed myself a job where I could save a bit of money as well as pay the rent, so in 2001, I decided that I would travel to Japan in either 2003 or 2004.
Due to my job, I was unable to join Niels in 2003, but in June 2004, I finally managed to tag along.
I was bitten by the Japan-bug right then and there, and we all know that lead to a grand total of 6 trips in three-and-a-half years, with 120.000 kilometres in the air and I don't know how many kilometres by metro, railway, bus and foot.

So much to see, and so little time to see it all, so I jump at every opportunity I get. :)

I simply love the country, the people, the architecture, Japan's landscape and the way they do things over there.
While I haven't visited that many countries (apart from Japan, that would be Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy, Greece and Belgium), I can say that I feel very safe and comfortable in Japan.
My understanding a bit of the Japanese language helps closing the language gap a little, I'm an avid fan of some of their major export products and I can't help at times comparing Japanese efficiency with Dutch inadequacy.

Now, I know very well that Japan has its own share of problems (including trying to solve them in a Japanese way, however bent that way might be) and that it's not the paradise some people believe it is, but I can't help but love the country, and I hope to visit Japan for many years to come.

Cheers, K.

J-popcon 2007

Kaijuu — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 22:41:00 GMT

Well, as I wrote on Thursday, I went to Denmark this weekend to attend J-popcon in Valby (pronounced as Walbu).
I had fun; the atmosphere was quite good and I even helped out as acting tech, photographer, roadie, and panel attendee.

The convention itself felt a bit disorganised, however; a long waiting line of con-goers which ran for several hours (according to a gopher) and the location itself felt a bit ad-hoc.

But other things ran quite well, and I take my hat off to Kai and the Strawberry AV-guys for doing a splendid job once again.

Another group of people I really like to compliment are the Danish cosplayers. It was a real joy to watch them do their skit. Great outfits, nice acts and being _really_ in character added to the fun that a Cosplay Compo is. I had serious trouble in keeping myself from laughing at some of the funny bits, and since I had a spot at the right side of the stage, the cosplayers must have heard me laugh, but they didn't drop out of character for a second.

Serious kudo's to the girl whose cd broke down; she sang the entire song (Japanese and English) a cappella. I saw her knees trembling, and as soon as the song finished, she rushed off stage to her friends.
I really liked her singing.
One thing though; the whole event took around three hours, from start to judgment. This is too long, but Adrian (the staffer who invited us) admitted that they just had too much acts, which were taking too much time.

Another fun thing; they gave Niels and me a Arrangør-badge.

For those of you who don't speak Danish; that's a Staff-badge. Now, my first name is a Scandinavian one, so over the day, several people started directing their questions about the convention towards me, in Danish!.
Since my Danish is pretty much nonexistent, I had to ask them to repeat the question in English. ;)
I did pick up a few words though.

I had a brief chat with the Japanese Ambassador in Denmark, who happens to be a total cosplay nut, and we exchanged business cards.

Denmark itself is an interesting country, with nice people and high prices.
I was kind of surprised at its size; Denmark is small. It took us only 5 minutes to get from Kopenhagen Central Station to Valby by train, and when Kai drove me to the hotel last night after the Cosplay Compo, it wasn't a really long drive either. When you look at a map of Denmark it seems quite large, but I was a bit fooled by the scale, I guess.

I also went shopping today; took some weird candy and spices back home to experiment with, and a couple of cans of Julebryg; the special Christmas beer which went on sale last Friday.

That's about it for now; I took a load of pictures at the convention and during the cosplay; I'll try and share those with you at a later date.

Cheers, K.

Manga: Ai Yori Aoshi

Kaijuu — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 21:18:00 GMT

Last week, I finished the manga of Ai Yori Aoshi. A well-told story about Aoi Sakuraba, heir to the massive Sakuraba fortune; and Kaoru Hanabishi, a college student in Tokyo.
When he was younger, Aoi became his betrothed, but when Kaoru left his family for good, he figured it would be all over.
However, Aoi is set on marrying him, and when she finds him and asks him to return to the Hanabishi, Kaoru won't have any of it.

As they spend some time together, Kaoru realises that she's for real. But at that moment, Aoi's family finds her and after a brief talk, they are allowed to live together under the strict supervision of Aoi's keeper; Miyabi.

WHile the anime was nice, it kind of stayed at the surface of the story. Light fluff, with an occasional more serious problem.
The manga is different; it goes deeper into the matter, has more eye for detail and provides more insight in Japanese tradition.

Aoi and Kaoru are lovable characters, albeit sometimes a bit too mushy.

The side characters are more predictable though, as they basically display some stereotypes. But that isn't really doing them justice; Tina, for instance, is your basic blonde busty American girl, but because of her living in Japan for so long, she is as much a foreigner in her own country as she is in Japan.
Another girl who seems to be characteristic at first but has a deeper side, is Mayu. Mayu is the daughter of an upper-class man and woman who are travelling most of the time, and Mayu acts like a spoiled brat; always trying to get Kaoru's attention. Later in the series, we see that Mayu's character has more than you would give her credit for.

Ai Yori Aoshi isn't what you call a harem-show, despite the large number of girls in it. It's more like a slice-of-life kind of story, and I really like those.
This one is no exception.

Cheers, K.

Anime: Love Hina

Kaijuu — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 23:01:00 GMT

Despite my rather large backlog, I tend to go back to old shows. Some things need to be re-watched once in a while; movies like The China Syndrome, Die Hard and both sequels and The Fifth Element; series like Fawlty Towers and ER; and naturally the complete works of Monty Python. And some anime-series deserve to be re-watched sometimes as well, like Love Hina.

Most anime-fans tend to dismiss this show as a crummy harem-show, with a spineless protagonist and a dragging plot, and I can't say I disagree entirely. :)
However, it is a show that set the tone for quite a few new shows, has more than a few enjoyable episodes and the overall story is actually quite entertaining.

Keitaro is our spineless protagonist who wants to get into Tokyo University more than anything, because of a promise he made 15 years earlier with a girl on a playground near his grandmother's ryokan. Point is; he flunked the entrance exam two times already and his parents get tired of having to support him, so he basically gets kicked out.
Keitaro decides to ask his grandmother for a job, but when he arrives at the ryokan, she's not there. When he decides to take a bath in the ryokan's hot spring bath, he finds out very quickly that the hotel has become an all-girl's dormitory. ;)

Long story short; thanks to a little miscommunication and his aunt who runs the dorm, he gets to be the dorm's caretaker.

It's quite nice to see the whole story again and to re-discover that there actually more is to Love Hina than most people think, and that alone should be enough to to give the show a spin. :)

Love Hina is based on a manga by Akamatsu Ken, which, compared to the anime, is certainly better at some points and some things are different in a positive way in the anime. Anyway, both of them have their pros and cons and are worth a shot.

Cheers, K.

Manga: Chobits

Kaijuu — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 22:30:00 GMT

It's been a while, but I decided to read Chobits manga again, which, compared to its animated version is an absolute masterpiece.

Several decennia from now, the world looks quite the same as it does today; people in Japan still go to cram schools to get into university; there are bars, bakeries, book shops; sex still sells and people still use computers. Only thing is, the computers of that time don't look anything like the computers we use today; they look human instead, and the life-sized models look absolutely stunning.
Enter Motosuwa Hideki; an innocent countryboy who's desperate to get into university, lives in Tokyo and needs to juggle cram school and a job to feed himself, since his parents cut him off his allowance. Poor guy has barely enough to buy food, let alone a personal computer (persocom), but since he knows next to nothing about them, it's not a great loss.

One night however, Hideki happens to find himself a life-sized persocom, apparently tossed in the trash, with the appearance of a 16 year old girl.
He takes her to his apartment, spends hours to find out where here ON-switch is and finally gets the thing to start up.

Since the only thing in her vocabulary seems to be Chii, he names her Chii, and now begins the wonderful task of learning her the do's and don'ts of the real world. However, Chii is one very special persocom, and as the story progresses, Hideki finds out that he gets a little bit more than he'd bargained for.

As said; Chobits manga is a very well-told story by CLAMP, the four-women manga team who brought us CardCaptor Sakura and other great stories.
The anime is a whole different game; the production team made Hideki a lot more stupid in the anime, and the ending is also very different. Tanaka Rie's voicing of Chii annoyed the hell out of me as well, despite her beautifully singing the endings of the show.
Chobits manga is simply beautiful and something to read more than once.

Cheers, K.