Opinions -- OneManga Closing

I'll be sorting my posts more and more, instead of just labeling everything "anime" like I used to. This "opinion" label will be just that, opinions on things going on in the anime world. I thought of having a "news" label, but a dedicated news site like ANN would be a much better place for you to get your anime news. I'll just offer my opinion when I have one.

Popular scanlation website OneManga announced last Thursday that it will close this week. For once, I think the fan reaction means nothing. Whether fans like it or not, OneManga is over. The importance of this is in the industry. I admit, I read Naruto, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Eyeshield 21 all on OneManga. I also buy all of those titles, which doesn't make what I did any less wrong, but it makes me feel better. Now, I will still finish buying those titles.

What does this mean to all the people who only read things online and did not pay? Theoretically, it will help the manga industry. There are other manga scan websites, though. Mangafox, for one, which has no notice of closing. Some people will shift to other websites, and some people will try to buy. There will always be somewhere online to find these things. But it's possible that OneManga closing might trigger some peoples' consciences, and they'll feel bad about not paying for the manga. I certainly do. I don't have the money to spend more than I already do, so I'll order more manga from the public library.

The industry's response should be to put manga online, but I don't know if it will happen as readily as it did for streaming anime. People are used to getting manga online, and they will want to continue. I hope some will be free, and some will be paid-only. For example, 3 chapters free, pay to download the rest of the volume or series.

This shakes up the industry all the way to Japan, though. Manga is printed. It's always been printed. Putting it online takes away the point of printing it. It hurts the printers, too. Anime has TV, DVD, and internet, but manga has only printing and internet. People like to own hard copies, but print is not as suited to download-to-own as video. It will be interesting to see if the manga companies offer download-to-own or not, and how well it does. Ad-based revenue might start to crop up to allow people to read manga online.

It's good of OneManga to step down. Now we wait and see what Viz, Tokyopop, Del Rey, and the like do with their new opportunity to reach the internet manga readers. I'm not too optimistic. Images are harder to control than video. More sites will pop up. Manga is harder to stick ad-based revenue on. I think that someone else will replace OneManga, and publishers will only have single chapters or the like available to read on their sites. I want to be optimistic because of how great FUNi has been about posting shows for free on youtube and its website, but I just don't see online manga taking off right now. A lot of people, myself included, like having a book in their hands. I'm glad their closing, and I hope this means that more titles get printed, not that another website takes over.

First Impressions -- Ultimate Venus

Ultimate Venus is one of the worst messes of a shojo I've ever seen. Yuzu's mom is dead, she's about to become heir to an extremely wealthy family, and there's at least 3 cute boys fighting for her right now. Not to mention she likes to wear glasses but looks much prettier without them, the main boy wants to protect her and has some mysterious connection to her past, she gets into ridiculous situations that the boys have to save her from, and she just started attending high school. There's so many cliches, I wouldn't be surprised if someone turned into an animal when hugged. I won't be reading this series any longer. I grabbed it from the library just because I wanted something to read, and it was awful. I could barely finish the first volume. The only positive thing I have to say is that the artwork is clear and easy to understand, even if it looks like every other shojo artist under the sun.

First and Last impressions rating: D

Review -- Eureka Seven: Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers

Fun fact! The original title of this movie was Eureka Seven: Pocketful of Rainbow. I have no idea why they changed the title. If anyone knows, can they let me know?

I actually went to see the movie in theaters. It was a supreme disappointment. I had just finished about the last 30 episodes of the series in just a few weeks, and I was psyched for the movie. Ew.

On rewatch, though, it was much better. My expectations were much lower, and I knew how it was going to differ from the series. As a stand-alone movie, it's not too bad. As a representation of the series, it's awful. Characterizations for the crew of the Gekko are way off. Dialogue's not so great. Animation is good, but could use a more oomph for a movie. Missed all the great music from the series. Fight scenes could have been better. Confusing as heck. Ending is weird. About the only really good thing is the romance.

Renton, son of scientists, and Eureka, a girl who can't live under the sun, are raised together when very young and become very attached to each other. One day, Eureka is taken away. Powerless at the time, Renton vows to rescue her. He enters the military and is soon assigned to the Independent Youths Unit 303 of the First Mobile Forces thanks to his exceptional performance alongside his Nirvash, a bio-mechanical armor/control system. Unknown to Renton, lies a plot to extinguish the alien invasion that is currently happening. It involves not only him, but Eureka too.

Eureka and Renton grew up together in the town of Warsawa. One day, army men took Eureka to experiment on her because when she is exposed to sunlight, her skin burns. Many years later, Renton is a military pilot and part of a mercenary regiment made up of members of the Gekko. Their mission is to capture Eureka, who has some connection to the EIZO, Corallian-like aliens. Renton brings Eureka back to the Gekko, overjoyed to be reunited, only to discover that the Gekko are a crew of rebels and are going to use Eureka for a mysterious, dark purpose.

Meanwhile, Coda Lovell is sent to investigate the murder of Dewey Sorenstram. Braya Mattingly is in charge of the Hammer of God, which will destroy the EIZO, but also most of the world and humanity.

Fans of the series will recognize that this is a complete reimagining of the series. Basic relationships are the same, characterizations are... sort of the same, but everything else is turned upside-down. It's a nice way to do a movie, instead of the typical side-story or summary of the series. I like the concept. A side-story wouldn't work so well in E7 because of the meticulously planned character development throughout the series. Straightforward fighting shonen series like Bleach, Naruto, Inuyasha, etc. have no problem cranking out as many movies as they can because of the nature of their shows. It was a good move for E7 to re-do the series.

The execution, though, was not as smooth as fans would like. The movie spends far too much time on exposition, and in the end, things still don't make sense. The crew of the Gekko are rough and unlikable. They need to use Eureka as they did in the original, but to different ends. Their reasons aren't that great, and I don't really care about any of them, not even with the plot twist that fans of the series can see coming.

I did like the shift from Dewy to Coda and Braya. Coda was a pretty cool character, and it's too bad that she's stuck discover so much exposition and can't do more cool things. I also liked the idea of reusing shots from the series, but in different ways. Usually shout-outs are in the form of cameos. This way still called out to fans of the series, but it didn't make non-fans feel like they were missing something. Cameos were still there, though, such as Dewey, Dr. Bear, Maria, and I believe William B. Baxter. Ray and Charles are notably missing, but I think their mechas make an appearance.

The best thing about re-doing E7 in 2 hours is that we get to skip straight to Eureka and Renton being a couple. If you cut the movie down to just cute moments between Eureka and Renton, it's worth just as much to the fans, and possibly less confusing. My favorite line of the movie is, without a doubt, "We're going on a date." Their back-and-forth "I'm going to die so you can live", "no I'M going to die so YOU can live!" gets old, but at least it's straightforward, unlike the rest of the plot.

Animation is good, but not movie-quality. The fight scenes are better than in the show, but few and far between, and still not as nice as they should be. Poor Holland spends all of his fight scenes dramatically shouting a line while the camera zooms in on his face. Every single fight scene.

Voice acting is superb. Crispin Freeman puts on a much more gravelly voice for villainous!Holland, Stephanie Sheh has a much more outgoing Eureka, and Johnny Bosch is much more comfortable with his Renton than he was in early episodes of the show. Kari Walhgren voices young and extremely old Anemone, with a completely different personality, and nails it. I have no complaints about any of the voice acting in the dub. I didn't get around to the sub yet.

Eureka Seven: Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers, is an interesting alternate take on the events in Eureka Seven, but falls short of its series. Too much exposition, stilted dialogue, bad characterization of everyone on board the Gekko, and a confusing ending are too much for a good romance and an interesting concept to overcome. Not even mascot!Nirvash is cute enough to redeem this movie. It's not so bad if you go into with with abysmal exceptions, which is what I did the second time around. It's still enjoyable, and I think fans should give it a look. It's only 2 hours. If it was between watching this movie and reading the graphic novels, I'd watch the movie because it's a different take on the series.

Rating: C+

+Focuses on interesting lesser characters like Coda and Braya. Renton and Eureka get to skip development and jump right into the relationship. Voice acting is really good

-Confusing plot, confusing ending, bad characterization for the Gekko crew

First Impressions -- Durarara!!

Durarara!! comes from the same light novelist, director, and studio that brought you Baccano!, and as such, I've been meaning to watch it for a long time now. The first episode focuses on a couple of kids, but like Carol and the Vice President, I don't think they're the real "main" characters. Episode 2 switched over to a minor character from the first episode, and the motorcycle rider that seems the most likely candidate for main character.
Animation is good, especially the few fight scenes that I've seen so far. At the same time, they have simple sequences of internet chat rooms that must save them so much money. Opening theme is amazing animation, but I'm not as sold on the music as I was for Baccano! Story is beyond interesting. It's addicting. I really want to see more.
But is it good? For anime can certainly keep you watching without being good. It's hard to say at this point. Characters are pretty cool so far, and the animation is good... but it's confusing as heck, and I feel like I'm biased because I love Baccano! so much.
Biased or not, my impression is that it will be a very good series. Better than my impression of Shakugan no Shanna, at least, and I've heard good things about both series.
First Impression Rating: A

Review -- Chrono Crusade

I'm going to try to review more often, to catch up with the amount of anime and manga I've actually seen and read.

To go with Baccano!, here's another Prohibition-era piece, and one of my old favorites. Chrono Crusade is the story of Rosette Christopher, an exorcist in the Magdalene Order, and her demon partner, Chrono. In 1920s New York, they fight demons and search for Rosette's long-lost brother Joshua. Chrono's former demon comrade Aion becomes part of the picture, and Chrono has to settle his old score while Rosette tries to save Joshua.

The longer one watches Chrono Crusade, the worse it gets, mostly because it deviates from the manga and gets very confusing. Early Chrono Crusade is some pretty darn good anime, though, and is the perfect example of "don't just a book by its cover". Rosette is part of a religious order... sort of, because Japan doesn't fully understand western religion, and so while the order uses Protestant terms, the exorcists' outfits are more like Catholic sisters and nuns... and she fights with guns. Nuns-with-guns, right? But the point isn't to exploit girls in nun costumes, it's all about Rosette and her quest to find her brother, and her relationship with Chrono.

Rosette, to quote the review on ANN, is a "female Ed Elric". Brash, stubborn, hot-headed, and loud, Rosette charges into fights, gets into tight spots, miraculously gets out of them, then has to face the wrath of Sister Kate for destroying yet another car. Chrono is sensitive, composed, and thinks things through. When Rosette runs in, Chrono calls for backup, sets a barrier to trap whatever they're hunting, and gets the weapons from the car. They compliment each other perfectly. The only catch is that Chrono is a demon. He and Rosette have a contract. She gives him power, and he serves her. The two aren't master-and-servant, though, but best friends, and more if you feel like shipping it. Demons normally take their power through their horns, but Chrono's horns are gone, so he can only live by contracting with a human and feeding off its life energy. The pocket watch Rosette wears around her neck allows Chrono to do just that. Rosette is more than willing to let Chrono shorten her lifespan, though, both to find her brother and keep Chrono alive.

I've both seen the anime and read the manga, and for the most part, I prefer the manga. The anime actually runs around in circles a little bit at the end because it breaks off and doesn't know where to go. The manga plotline makes more sense overall, so I recommend that one over the anime.

Because of the awkward ending to the series, the strongest parts of the anime--as a whole--are the characters and the setting. About the fist half of the series, the story is still really good. Rosette is stubborn and loud-mouthed, but she's compassionate and loving. Even if you can't stand the way she jumps in without thinking, you can't help liking her for trying to find Joshua and being a big sister figure for Azmaria. Chrono has a huge guilty burden which isn't fully revealed until late in the series, but instead of radiating angst, he's a pretty cheerful guy. He cracks jokes and tries to keep everyone in good spirits. Rosette doesn't let him get away with trying to act cheerful when he's not. Azmaria is adorable and awesome all at the same time, because she beats demons and heals people by singing at them. Satella is awesome because she's the Cool Big Sis and I generally love that character type. (...I also just spent half an hour poking around TV Tropes after finding that link.)

Fight scenes are another plus. There's plenty of them, and the main character's a girl, so we're spared from the usual shonen tropes. Animation is very good, and the combination of setting and characters designs make for a very distinctive look. There's no problems confusing Rosette or Chrono for any character in any other anime. The rest of the cast isn't always so lucky, but are decent. Music is not bad, but not distinctive. The opening theme is a nice song, and well-done, but it doesn't really stand out. The ending theme is the more distinctive of the two.

Voice acting is good. Rosette's dub voice actress is hit-or-miss, but I like her. Some people complain that she grates at times, but that's the character. Chrono sounds young, but as Greg Ayres himself commented on my livejournal when I first saw the show, that's because he has a full-demon form with a deeper voice. And besides the timbre, there's no fault to be found with Ayres' Chrono. Tiffany Grant does an excellent job with Satella, and I am very glad I went to get her autograph even though at the time I had no idea who she was. Azmaria, Sister Kate, and Father/Minister Remington are all solid as well, in both languages.

Overall, a nice series. It offers a variety of genres, and so can appeal to a wide audience. The manga makes much more sense, but the anime isn't bad either.

Rating: B

+ Likable characters, unique setting, wide variety of genres, solid animation

- Anime ending just doesn't do it for me. Manga ending is better, but the series is better suited to animation. The two balance each other out and have the same score.

First Impressions -- Shakugan no Shanna

I'm starting a new set of reviews called "first impressions". There's a bunch of series I've been meaning to start, so I'm going to go through and watch 1 or 2 episodes of each of them, and pick what I want to watch from there. Those 1 or 2 episodes, I'll post a short review on.

Shakugan no Shanna started off like any ordinary high-school-plus-magical-powers-shonen series. It cut in with a really interesting monster attack, then cut back to boring high school. If it had started straight in with the fighting and skipped the pointless "I was just entering high school. I'm going to say general things about myself that really don't define my character at all. It was a nice day outside. Don't you wish this was more interesting?" It's not necessary. The monster design was cool enough that the contrast between the two worked, but I still would prefer less pointless high school.

The fight was also pretty ordinary. Time stops, mysterious girl fights giant monster, boy asks questions and nearly gets killed. The flames made me think of Soul Eater, the monsters and girl with a sword made me think of Bleach, and the monster reporting to its master made me think of Sailor Moon.

The most interesting premise was saved until the very end, and for that I will watch another episode, but my first impression is a solid standard-shonen C.

Check it out at FUNi's youtube channel!

Review -- Baccano!

I spent the entire day thinking "I wanted to do some writing on my day off. What was it I wanted to write?" Oh, yeah.

Baccano! is one of the best anime series I have ever seen. It's one of my new favorites, jostling with Fullmetal Alchemist for the coveted title of my favorite anime, and with Eureka/Renton and Ed/Winry for second-favorite anime pairing.

Baccano! is very hard to describe, not only because it is so wild, convoluted, confusing, entertaining, and well-done, but because most descriptions spoil things that are better left unspoiled. The back of the DVD case tells you exactly how things came to be. I was much happier not knowing and waiting until episode 7. I recommend you do just that.

What I can tell you is that it takes place in Prohibition-era New York and Chicago. There's a whopping main cast of almost 20 characters, not counting all the minor players. The main two are Isaac and Miria, eccentric yet kind-hearted thieves. Their antics tie everyone together, "everyone" including at least 4 New York gangs, 2 Chicago gangs, a newspaper reporter, an assassin, a scarily mature child, and a crazy old man and his assistant. In 1930, in New York, under Maiza's tutelage, Firo is trying to join the Martillo gang. Luck, Keith, and Berga Gandor have a conflict with Dallas Geonard, whom Eve Geonard and the Runorata family, want to find. Aboard the Flying Pussyfoot, Jacuzzi, Nice, and their gang just want to go to New York, while Ladd Russo wants to have some fun. Chane LaForet has some unknown purpose with the men in the black suits, and Rachel, who saves half the train, doesn't even get to be in the theme song. Issac and Miria pop up in every timeline and with every character. That only glosses over the many timelines, plots, and characters that Baccano! covers in just 13 short episodes. (plus 3 OVA episodes)

While it jumps between multiple timelines in 3 different years, nothing is ever so confusing that you can't enjoy yourself. The show gives enough answers to keep everything straight, but doesn't explain it all until they very end. The non-linear timeline is masterfully done, unmatched by any other non-linear anime I've ever seen. Something's always going on to keep the audience interested, jumping from comic relief to graphic violence in a matter of seconds.

Boy, is it violent. Rated MA, youtube verifies a user is over 18 before allowing that user to watch. Violence isn't the norm, but you better be able to handle it before you start this show. Someone loses fingers, someone's forearm is no more than a bloody bone. Bullets, beatings, torture, blood, and more are seen in most episodes. The show is about gangsters, after all. If you can stand the violence, it's a heck of a show to see.

Character designs were a little confusing for me at first, but are spot-on for the time period. After time, I was able to distinguish characters without any trouble at all. The designs are all different in noticeable ways, but the shifting timeline and similarly colored suits threw me off. The rest of the artwork is great, too. The Flying Pussyfoot, the train coming into New York, is both the most impressive and weakest part of the animation. The sets are gorgeous, but there's a few instances of obvious, bad CG. These are excusable due to the quality of the rest of the show. The whole feel of the show is not of anime, probably due to the controlled colors, instead of the typical over-the-top anime coloring. Even slice-of-life shows feel brighter than Baccano!, and that's not a bad thing. It's stylish in its own... mostly... realistic way.

The music is yet another high point of Baccano!. "Guns and Roses", which I mentioned in my theme song post, is destined to become a classic anime theme song. The catchiest jazz theme song since Tank!, it also is a handy character guide. The music for the rest of the show keeps the jazz going.

The dub is excellent, and I prefer it to the Japanese if only because my favorite character is Jacuzzi, and the Japanese don't have a sound for "zi". His name comes out "Ja-cu-ji". After watching the whole series in English, I couldn't bear to hear poor Jacuzzi's name mispronounced like that. A few characters have questionable accents, but for the most part, everyone's great, and they add authenticity that Japanese voice actors cannot match. I recommend the dub, even if it means reading the back of the DVD box and spoiling episode 7.

Overall: A+

+ Fun, story, characters and character designs, juggling timelines, animation

- Confusing, lots of violence

Check out 2 dub and all 16 sub episodes on FUNimation's youtube channel!

Reviews--+Anima

This review has been sitting in my list of blogs for a couple years now. I realized that my Soul Eater. Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, and Romeo x Juliet entries were massive, so here's a nice short review for you.

+Anima was a fun little series I picked up because my local library owned it. The series revolves around a group of children who all are "anima", people with animal powers. Their situation is much like that of Marvel Comics' X-Men. Cooro, the main character, is a crow anima, and pretty straight-forward happy-go-lucky-doesn't-care-what-happens-to-him-values-friendship-above-all-else character. See also, Vash the Stampede, Yoh Asakura... and more I can't think of at the moment. He helps everyone he can, and winds up traveling with three other Anima. These children--and one quiet teenager--travel, learning the truth about what anima are, how they came to be, and what the various governments of the world plan to do with them.

+Anima doesn't win any points for plot originality, but that's okay. It's your typical there's-a-main-character-who-gathers-others-to-him that is typical of the character type. Husky, Nana, and Senri all have interesting stories, though no one's is incredibly surprising. The world is well-developed, and is the best part of the series. The social structure with the anima, the different regions, and the different anima themselves are all well done. The characterizations are tried-and-true tactics, so even though they're all characters we've seen before, they are developed well enough. It gets the point across, even if it would be more interesting to have more original back stories to read about.

That being said, the setting isn't even that great. The military and governments are confusing, as are their goals, and the scientists. The ending isn't really hinted at past "nasty scientists doing experiments on children!" The individual story arcs were pretty cool, but the overall plot wasn't that clear, nor did it conclude the series. The last chapter of the series was about Cooro. His story was very interesting, and explained the character very well, but it was revealed too late. The story could have benefited from more goverment-military-world plot line, and moving Cooro's backstory to the 8th or 9th volume instead of the last.

Overall, fun, well-illustrated series. I enjoyed reading it, but I don't plan on buying it or even rereading it any time soon.

Rating: C+

+ Anima powers, illustrations and character designs, the setting, some good characterizations

- Stereotypical characters make for boring back stories, confusing and not satisfying "main" plot, too long to get Cooro's back story when he's the main character