Josh’s Anime Blog Podcast Episode #21 is now online! In this podcast, I re-review the anime series World of Narue.
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Name: The World of Narue, Narue no Sekai
Genre:: Romance, Comedy, Sci-fi
Episodes: 12
Released: April 5, 2003 - June 28, 2003
Based On: Manga The World of Narue by Tomohiro Marukawa
Director: Nobuaki Nakanishi
Produced By: BeSTACK, Imagica, Media Factory
US Distribution By: U.S. Manga Corp
Narue Nanase: Mamiko Noto
Kazuto Izuka: Daisuke Sakaguchi
Kanaka Nanase: Junko Minagawa
Bathyscaphe: Mami Kosuge
Masaki Maruo: Jun Fukuyama
Hajime Yagi: Saeko Chiba
Tadashi Nanase: Junichi Sugawara
Tail Messa: Tomomichi Nishimura
Rin Asakura: Oma Ichimura
Narue Nanase: Veronica Taylor
Kazuto Izuka: Jamie McGonnigal
Kanaka Nanase: Rachael Lillis
Bathyscaphe: Carol Jacobanis
Masaki Maruo: Jimmy Zoppi
Hajime Yagi: Michele Knotz
Tadashi Nanase: Dan Green
Tail Messa: Tristan Goddard
Rin Asakura: Jessica Calvello
Animation: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Story: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Music: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 8/10 (x 2 = 16 pts)
English Dubs: 9/10 (x 1 = 9 pts)
Gut Score: 8/10 (x 5 = 40 pts)
Total: 169/200 (84.5%)
The World of Narue is a Slice-of-Life Romance Comedy where Kazuto falls for a girl, Narue after she saves him from a weird creature with her bat. Kazuto asks Narue out on a date and she asks him if he’s ok with her being an alien. He says yeah, though he is, obviously, rather surprised about the news. Narue is thrilled, however, that someone appeared to accept her alien heritage so easily.
Narue’s life on Earth isn’t totally peaceful, however. Her father was observing Earth for the Galaxy Federation when he fell in love with a human woman. When the Galaxy Federation asked Narue’s father to leave Earth due to a resolution passed by the Galaxy Federation demanding non-interference of Earth’s civilization, he refused, choosing to stay. This in turn prompted alien terrorists who oppose any Galaxy Federation presence on Earth of any kind to try to attack Narue and her father.
The terrorism plotline only really shows up in a couple episodes, and there are also attempts by the Galaxy Federation to coax Narue and her father to leave the planet, especially since Narue’s mother has since died, though the Galaxy Federation is prohibited from forcibly removing them.
All of this activity constantly reminds Narue of her alien heritage, even though she longs to be accepted by everyone as also being half-human and living her life peacefully on Earth.
Of course, drama and action isn’t the only thing in this anime. In fact, they’re really not the primary genre, though they do provide the backstory. There is also quite a bit of humor, from Kazuto’s obsession with anime to Yagi’s obsession with space aliens and her determination to prove that Narue isn’t really an alien, because she doesn’t fit into Yagi’s preconceived notion of what an alien should be.
The only really minus I have to say about this series is that it does contain some needless fan service. It’s not gratuitous - mainly things like panty or bra shots, but it’s still a little bit annoying.
Overall, this series is just a lot of fun and enjoyable to watch, with several memorable characters. Some people may find the lack of any heavy plot boring, but I think others will find it entertaining.
I thought the animation was pretty good along with the music. The dubs seem to actually mix with the animation, and don’t sound or feel like a vocal track that’s just plopped on top of the show.
First Watched: February - March 2006
Do I Own: Yes
Do I Recommend: Yes
On August 6, 2005, I popped Volume 1 of DNA2 into my DVD player. That disk was the first one I watched after starting renting from Blockbuster online, and is the first time that I voluntarily chose to watch an anime series while realizing that it was an anime series. It was, by most accounts, the start of my anime viewing.
So, how far have I gotten in 1 year? I’ve rated 17 anime series or movies (of course, this site has only been up for the last 6 of those 12 months). I’ve completed 14 others, and I’m currently watching 9 more.
If my counting is correct, in the past year I have watched 503 anime episodes or movies for a total of something around 200 to 215 hours of shows (or between 8 and 9 days).
I own 9 anime series and part of another as well as 2 movies:
- Ah! My Goddess: The Movie
- Ai Yori Aoshi / Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi
- Angelic Layer
- Cardcaptor Sakura - Clow Book (Season 1)
- Chobits
- DNA2
- Fruits Basket
- Koi Kaze
- The Place Promised in our Early Days
- Please! Twins
- Last Exile
- The World of Narue
There are also several shows on my to-get list:
Not finished, but I know I’ll buy it
Cardcaptor Sakura - Sakura Book
I”s Pure
It’s either still too expensive or I just haven’t gotten around to buying it
Howl’s Moving Castle
Princess Mononoke
Spirited Away
Licenced but not released
Rumbling Hearts (Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien)
Not licenced yet
I”s Pure
Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Back on March 19th, I made a list of anime I had left to review. Lets look at that list:
- Ai Yori Aoshi
- Castle in the Sky
- Chobits
- DearS
- Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventures
- Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien
- Koi Kaze
- Love Hina
- Nausicca of the Valley of the Wind
- Onegai Twins
- Princess Mononoke
- Video Girl Ai
- World of Narue, The
Well…i’ve done well. I’ve reviewed…well…Chobits and Dual! it looks like (though I have reviewed some others that I have watched since then). Here is my now updated list:
Soo…take off the two I did, and add two new anime (Porco Rosso and Evangelion) and two I had forgotten about before (Spirited Away, Akane Maniax) with I”s Pure and the rest of Cardcaptor Sakura coming around the corner (assuming I’m not forgetting anything). And, as I said in a previous post, I own four of these series. Not much of an excuse there to not review them lol.
UPDATE: I decided to add a page listing Anime and Manga to be rated.
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.
I went back and looked at when the anime that I have purchased, or in the process of buying, were first released in the US to see if they were relatively spread out or bunched together.
Well, it appears they are bunched together. The anime I purchased, at least in their original releases, totaled 45 DVDs, here is the list:
Ai Yori Aoshi (8)
Angelic Layer (7) [I bought the 5-disc re-release]
Chobits (6) [I bought the 8-disc thinpack release]
DNA2 (5)
Fruits Basket (4)
Koi Kaze (3)
Last Exile (7)
Please Twins (4)
World of Narue (1 - they dont sell the 4 DVDs individually)
= 45 discs
So, how many of those were released, by year?
2002 - 1
2003 - 21
2004 - 17
2005 - 6
Also, as many as 4 series were being released at the same time, with Fruits Basket, DNA2, Ai Yori Aoshi, and Chobits all being released at the same time between March 2003 and May 2003; as well as on October 14, 2003, when 2 series ended and one series began, thus having DNA2, Ai Yori Aoshi, Chobits, and Angelic Layer briefly being released at the same time.
The biggest individual day? October 14, 2003, which saw the release of DNA2 #5 (and the box set), Ai Yori Aoshi #5 (also ending the release of the first season), and Angelic Layer #1.
The only other month which saw 3 releases was November 2003, with Chobits #5 (11th), Last Exile #1 (18th), and Angelic Layer #2 (25th).
I suppose the most “modern” anime I’ve been watching are Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, which is scheduled to begin it’s US release in October 2006, and I”s Pure, which isn’t even licensed yet.
Alright, now we’re talking. The other package may be small enough to fit in my mailbox, which I haven’t checked yet, but I did get the other package at my door this morning (usually the mail doesn’t come until after I leave for work. They must have been eager to get it to me today).
This package included the thinpack Last Exile collection as well as The World of Narue collection which, while it’s not a thinpack, is still packaged to save space.
So thats complete series #6 and #7 in my anime collection.
I’m also going for a set of 5 Ai Yori Aoshi DVDs which are on ebay for pretty cheap. Now they’re set up, the shipping will end up being a little much (it’s full price for first item, and 50% off other items, which means if I get all five, shipping will still be around $20), but given how cheap it looks like the actual DVDs will go for (2 already had bids, but the other three I got with Buy It Now for $4.95 each). Unless bidding on the other two DVDs go insane, I should still save more money than most auctions over the 5 discs together.
I also got Neon Genesis Evangelion Platinum volume 4 and Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventures volume 3 from blockbuster over the weekend. Why Volumes 4 of NGE had only 3 episodes, I’m not sure, but I suppose there is a logical reason somewhere.
That means I now only have 2 volumes of NGE left and 1 volume of Dual! left. Neon Genesis Evangelion #5 was sent out by Blockbuster Thursday, so I should get it in another day. Blockbuster should send the next movie on the list to me next, which should be Dual! Volume 4, which will finish that series up.
Some other notes:
I was (finally) able to find an (English) subbed version of I”s Pure episode 2 (thank you c1anime!). They said episode 3 should be out soon, so, hopefully they’re right about that.
I haven’t really decided what anime to start watching after Dual! and NGE. After the last volume of Dual! is shipped, then the last volume of NGE will ship. Other than Volume 3 of Cowboy Bebop, which has been sitting in the #1 slot of my queue with an availability of “Long Wait” for months, I need to select 2 or 3 more series to watch.
One already on the list (just stuck below NGE and Dual!) is Cardcaptor Sakura, since it’s CLAMP. The biggest problem with this series is that it’s 16 volumes long, which means that it’ll probably take something like 4 months to start watching it.
Other series on my short list to add to the top of the queue include: Fushigi Yugi, His and Her Circumstances, Ah! My Goddess! the TV series, and Kaleido Star.
Another option that I’m thinking is to re-rent some anime which I’ve already seen but haven’t heard the English dub to (either because I didn’t listen to it when I rented before, or I downloaded a fansub which didn’t have English on it). This list would include, out of anime I’ve finished, Dears, and anime I haven’t finished, Girls Bravo.
The only thing left to say is that there is no anime review today (duh!) and tomorrow is Tuesday, thus it is the big anime DVD/manga release date of the week, so I’ll list the major releases for that. The next review may come on the 15th.
