Monthly Archives: April 2006

Anime Review: The Place Promised in Our Early Days - Score: 90%

Sunday, April 30, 2006 – 2:52 am

The Essentials

The Place Promised in our Early DaysName: The Place Promised in Our Early Days; Beyond the Clouds, The Promised Place; Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Episodes: N/A
Released: November 20, 2004
Director: Makoto Shinkai
Produced By: CoMix Wave
US Distribution By: ADV Films

Major Japanese Cast

Hiroki Fujisawa: Hidetaka Yoshioka
Takuya Shirakawa: Masato Hagiwara
Sayuri Sawatari: Yuuka Nanri
Okabe: Unshou Ishizuka
Tomizawa: Kazuhiko Inoue
Maki Kasahara: Risa Mizuno

Major English Cast

Hiroki Fujisawa: Chris Patton
Takuya Shirakawa: Kalob Martinez
Sayuri Sawatari: Jessica Boone
Okabe: John Swasey
Tomizawa: Andy McAvin
Maki Kasahara: Kira Vincent-Davis

Scores

Animation: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Story: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Music: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Coherency/Story Arc: N/A
English Dubs: 9/10 (x 1 = 9 pts)
Gut Score: 9/10 (x 5 = 45 pts)

Total: 162/180 (90%)

Review

The Place Promised in Our Early Days is a movie by aspiring director Makoto Shinkai, and is about a trio of friends in northern Japan in an alternate 1990s where Hokkaido has been controlled by “The Union” since 1974 and the United States and Japan share a very strong military alliance. On the island of Hokkaido, which has been renamed to Ezo, The Union has built an extremely tall, yet narrow white tower that can be seen all the way from Tokyo on a clear day. Two of the friends - Hiroki and Takuya - are building an airplane called the Bella Ciela to fly across the Tsugaru Strait to the tower. Later they invite their friend Sayuri to fly with them.

However, suddenly one day Sayuri disappears. Her disappearence so shocked Hiroki and Takuya that they suspended the construction of their plane, and eventually went their seperate ways. Hiroki goes to high school, but lives largely as a loner while Takuya does research into parallel universes. This research is in reaction to what the Japanese-US alliance believes the purpose of the Union Tower is - to tap into neighboring alternate universes and to “copy” them onto their dimension. However, the tower stopped operating mysteriously and has remained dormant for years.

We soon learn that the belief is that the tower, which was designed by Sayuri’s grandfather, is, instead of feeding it’s information about alternate realities and writing it onto the earth, is sending them into Sayuri’s dreams, which has resulted in her remaining in a coma for 3 years. It is believed that if she awakens, the tower will completely destroy the earth by covering it with a copy of another dimension.

Many themes are strongly portrayed in this movie. Separation is probably the primary theme. The group of terrorists which take actions against Union targets, including the Union Tower, in hopes of reuniting Hokkaido with the rest of the Japan are largely driven by a desire to reunite themselves with the rest of their families which live on Hokkaido. Also, Sayuri in her dream and Hiroki feel alone from being separated by Sayuri’s coma.

Many parts of this movie seem a mystery when you first start watching. First off, you’re thrown in an alternate semi-present day where Japan has been split into two, one half previously occupied and now aligned with the United States, and the other half occupied by “the Union” (I’m guessing the Soviet Union…or this timeline’s version of it).

Also, many of the facts in the movie basically get one pass, and then it is assumed you get it. As a result, it may take two or three viewings to catch everything, and, I guess not surprisingly, one has a better grip of the entire story when you’ve noticed all the major points.

One note about this movie - if you’re looking for an ending that wraps everything up neatly, you won’t find it. The very beginning of the movie, which takes place after the events of the rest of the movie, paints an uncertain picture of what the future holds for Sayuri and Hiroki. One doesn’t see Sayuri at the start of the movie, which suggests the possibility that Sayuri has left Hiroki - possibly because Sayuri ultimately forgets everything from when she was in a coma - or that she and the tower were so connected that she dies when the tower is destroyed, despite being woken from her coma.

Nevertheless, The Place Promised is a moving movie experience which mixes love and separation with sci-fi and alternate universes.

The animation is sharp for the most part, though in some scenes I don’t think the characters blend in well with their background. The music is done very well, with a soundtrack mostly based on violin music. The English dubs are also pretty good.

First Watched: April, 2006
Do I Own: Yes
Do I Recommend: Yes

By Josh | Posted in Anime Reviews | Tagged | Comments (0)

Anime Review: Chobits - Score: 95.5%

Tuesday, April 18, 2006 – 1:21 am

The Essentials

ChobitsName: Chobits
Genre:: Comedy, Romance, Science Fiction
Episodes: 28 (24 regular tv episodes, 3 recap episodes, 1 special)
Released: TV: April 2, 2002 - September 24, 2002
Based On: Chobits manga by CLAMP
Director: Morio Asaka
Produced By: TBS, Pioneer
US Distribution By: Pioneer/Geneon

Major Japanese Cast

Hideki Motosuwa: Tomokazu Sugita
Chi: Rie Tanaka
Hiromu Shinbo: Tomokazu Seki
Minoru Kokobunji: Houko Kuwashima
Chitose Hibiya: Kikuko Inoue
Yumi Ohmura: Megumi Toyoguchi
Takako Shimizu: Ryoka Yuzuki
Sumomo: Motoko Kumai
Yuzuki: Fumiko Orikasa
Kotoko: Yukana Nogami
Hiroyuki Ueda: Yuji Ueda

Major English Cast

Hideki Motosuwa: Crispin Freeman
Chi: Michelle Ruff
Hiromu Shinbo: Tony Oliver
Minoru Kokobunji: Mona Marshall
Chitose Hibiya: Ellen Wilkinson
Yumi Ohmura: Julie Maddalena
Takako Shimizu: Wendee Lee
Sumomo: Sandy Fox
Yuzuki: Karen Strassman
Kotoko: Kay Jensen
Hiroyuki Ueda: David Lucas

Scores

Animation: 10/10 (x 4 = 40 pts)
Story: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Music: 10/10 (x 4 = 40 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 8/10 (x 2 = 16 pts)
English Dubs: 9/10 (x 1 = 9 pts)
Gut Score: 10/10 (x 5 = 50 pts)

Total: 191/200 (95.5%)

Review

Chobits is a story about Hideki Motosuwa - a guy who failed his first attempt at getting into college and has thus moved to Tokyo to enter prep school. Once he moves there, he is introduced the persocoms - computers which look like humans. Hideki wants one (despite his lack of computer knowledge) but is depressed over their high costs. However, one day he finds a cute female Persocom in the trash and salvages it. This persocom, which Hideki names Chi, doesn’t seem to have memories of anything, however, and so Hideki must teach Chi just about everything, even the most basic of things.

This is one of those stories, other than being entertaining otherwise, is also a make-you-think story. Over the course of the story, some questions are posed, either directly or indirectly, such as What exactly are emotions?, What are memories?, and What makes a person a person?

As Chi grows and learns more things, the more complex her and Hideki’s relationship becomes. However, behind Chi’s seemingly innocent manner may lie a more sinister purpose. Chi’s uniqueness is apparent right away, but just how deep this uniqueness goes becomes more and more apparently throughout the series.

The supporting cast also illistrate several examples of how people may react in a society with human shaped - and human behaving - computers, from a characters who fell in love with persocoms, to characters who have inferiority complexes over them due to their view that persocoms are the ideal woman.

Chobits spans several genres, from sci-fi to romance to comedy to philosphical and hits them all perfectly, having enough of each to make the story intriging, but not so much of any that it alienates fans who may not be fans of one of those particular genres.

Chobits also crosses over with the anime series Angelic Layer, though you may need a sharp eye to see where they cross.

The animation is excellent in the series, being sharp and smooth. There is some minor CG additions, but they all fit in smoothly. The music is also excellent, with various types of musical scores that hit all of the genre-specific moments right on. The Dub is pretty good as well. Coherence is good, though there are a few filler episodes as well.

First Watched: October, 2005
Do I Own: Yes
Do I Recommend: Yes

By Josh | Posted in Anime Reviews | Tagged | Comments (0)

Not a Review, just general blather

Thursday, April 13, 2006 – 5:12 pm

I’m starting to wonder if the entire cast of The World of Narue was bummed off of His and Her Circumstances (and whether HHC was influence at all by DNA2).

First, all three lead English voice actors from DNA2 are in His and Her Circumstances:

Liam O’Brien (Junta in DNA2): Asaba in HHC
Jessica Calvello (Karin in DNA2): Tsukino (one of Yukino’s younger sisters) in HHC
Rachael Lillis (Ami in DNA2); Miyako (Yukino’s mother) & Aya Sawada

[UPDATE]:
I found another DNA2 to HHC voice actor:
Michael Alston Baley a.k.a. David Brimmer, who did the voice of Mori in DNA2, does the voice of the Narrator on HHC.
[/UPDATE]

On the other hand, there is a plethora of people who were in HHC who showed up in Narue:

Rachael Lillis (Miyako and Aya in HHC): Kanaka in Narue
Jessica Calvello (Tsukino in HHC): Narumi and Rin in Narue
Veronica Taylor (Yukino in HHC): Narue in Narue
Carol Jacobanis (Maho in HHC): Bathyscaphe in Narue
Lisa Ortiz (Tsubasa in HHC): Magical Girl #4 in Narue
Debora Rabbai (Sena Rika in HHC): Haruna in Narue

I just find it interesting how two anime series can share large numbers of cast members.

By Josh | Posted in Various | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Manga Review: Video Girl Ai - Score: 83%

Wednesday, April 12, 2006 – 5:34 pm

The Essentials

Video Girl AiName: Video Girl Ai

Genre: Romance, Science Fiction
Tankoubon: 15
Serialized In: Shonen Jump Japan, Animerica Extra (US)
Released: 1989 - 1992
Story & Art: Masakazu Katsura
Published By (Japan): Shueisha
Published By (US): Viz Media

Scores

Story: 8/10 (x3 = 24pts)
Art: 9/10 (x3 = 27pts)
Gut Score: 8/10 (x4 = 32 pts)

Total: 83/100 (83%)

Review

Video Girl Ai is an interesting science-fiction/romance story that kept me guessing about what will end up happening next. If you also like complex love triangles (or quadrangles or moreangles), Katsura usually doesn’t disappoint, and Video Girl Ai is no exception. The main character, Yota, is in love with his hot high school classmate Moemi. The problem is that Moemi loves Yota’s best friend Takashi. Just as Yota is ready to confess his love to Moemi, she confides in him her love for Takashi. Yota, being of kind heart, tries to pursuade Moemi to pursue her love of Takashi despite his own feelings. However, Takashi turns her down.

On his way home, Yota runs into a video store called Gokuraku, which can only be seen by the pure of heart. Yota qualified as being pure of heart because of his actions earlier in the day. This store appears to have some interesting titles for people who are supposedly to be “pure of heart” including some rather risque looking titles. Yota ends up renting a video of a girl named Ai Amano and tries playing it in his VCR, which broke when he accidentally dumped it on the floor earlier in the day.

Yota soon finds out that this video is no ordinary video. The video girls in the Gokuraku videos come to life - quite literally - coming out of the TV set and into the viewer’s living room. However, instead of being a loveless super-hot girl who fulfills men’s fantasies, Yota’s broken VCR turns Ai into still attractive, though perhaps not as much so, tomboy who can feel emotions. However, Ai can only exist in the real world until the timer on her tape runs out.

What occurs over the first 13 volumes of the series are the trial and tribulations of Yota, Ai, Moemi, Takashi, as well as several other characters. Yota and Ai fall in love with each other, but Ai’s timer is running out. Yota still loves Moemi as well and is unsure how to handle his dual love interests. Moemi relentlessly pursues Takashi, despite his obvious disinterest in her while Takashi tries to pursuade Moemi that it is Yota who she really loves. On top of this, Ai’s creater decides that she should be erased since she has become defective after being messed up by Yota’s VCR - most especially because of the fact that Ai can fall in love now.

You’ll also probably want to swing a heavy, blunt objects towards the heads of pretty much all of the main characters multiple times through this series because, since one reads the series from a 3rd person point of view, the reader sees that many of the conflicts can be resolved much easier than the characters think they can, with the character’s indecision making things worse or with characters failing to see what is obvious from the reader’s point of view. Of course, if the characters acted just as the reader think they should, that wouldn’t necessarily make for a compelling series either.

Also, look for the Batman references throughout the series (Katsura is a huge Batman fan) including when Yota watches a movie called “Batman” (as in, a superhero who uses bats - as in long blunt weapons - not the animals).

The final two volumes of this series (volumes 14 and 15) are actually a quasi-sequal which was originally called Video Girl Len (it’s called Video Girl Ai: Len’s Story in the American release). Also, the final chapter of volume 15 is, again, it’s own story with a different video girl. These are interesting stories on their own, but they don’t necessarily add to the story as told in the first 13 volumes.

Given that this is a Katura manga, the art is very well done with excellent (if not dated by today’s standards) character designs. The story is also above average in my opinion, keeping the reader on your toes, as well as keeping the reader interested to see if the characters will ever actually see the light.

First Read: November, 2005 - April 2006
Do I Own: Yes
Do I recommend: Yes

By Josh | Posted in Manga Reviews | Tagged | Comments (0)

I’m still alive

Wednesday, April 12, 2006 – 5:11 pm

Well, putting up manga and anime releases lasted a long time. With reviews, I can do it whenever I have time. With that, ideally I’d put it up at the same day each time.

So what happens when I become busy for a week? Well, I don’t post anything for a week is what happens.

Thus, unless I get unbusy sometime, I’ll probably stop posting the releases.

However, whenever I have a second, I will try to post more reviews.

By Josh | Posted in General Blather | Comments (0)

Added US Release Information to reviews + some general news

Sunday, April 2, 2006 – 8:10 pm

I added the US release information to the review links on the left (but not to the scrolling blog entries below). This includes who released the DVDs in the US for anime, and who published manga.

Just a small update, but I thought I might as well throw on who released them in the US too.

Some general news which has probably already been out there for a while, but I thought I would post here.

First, it appears that AnimEigo is going to re-release the Oh! My Goddess OVAs sometime in 2006.

Second, Kimi ga Nozomu Eien a.k.a. KimiNozo a.k.a. Rumbling Hearts is apparently going to be a 3-DVD monthly release by FUNimation starting in October, meaning that, if FUNimation remains on schedule, the series will be completed in it’s release in December.

Also, while the official title is “Rumbling Hearts” because thats how Media Factory (the Japanese distributor of it) wishes it to be referred to in the US, apparently FUNimation will be adding the full Japanese name as a subtitle to make people aware of what it is.

By Josh | Posted in Anime Reviews, Manga Reviews, Various | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)