adult protagonists – Page 7

Monster

(74 episodes, 2004-2005)

My previous exposure
Well, it’s an adaptation of a critically-acclaimed manga, so I’d at least heard of the basic premise well before coming close to it. I’ve mostly avoided spoilers, although I did hear of a particular thing Johan does in Prague, which thus didn’t surprise me when I reached it.

I actually watched the first 20 episodes of this way back in 2009, and only went back to it very recently. The reasons why should become clear below.

What’s it about ?

In the late 80s, Dr Kenzo Tenma was a promising up-and-coming Japanese brain surgeon in Germany… until he decided to save the life of a 11-year-old boy called Johan who got mysteriously shot in the head, instead of the mayor he was supposed to operate on. This basically cripples his career… for a few days, until the top management get mysteriously poisoned and the new management give him his status back. Meanwhile, Johan has disappeared…

Flash forward to 9 years later, when Johan re-enters Tenma’s life by shooting one of the doctor’s patients right in front of his eyes. (The man was an agent of Johan’s who was getting a bit too talkative.) It turns out that Johan is a charismatic monster, leaving a bloody trail behind himself, and he’s very thankful of Dr Tenma for saving his life. Did the doctor do the wrong thing by saving the not-so-innocent child ?

Dr Tenma soon finds himself accused of the various aforementioned murders, and is on the run from the cold but very clever Inspector Runge (who thinks Johan doesn’t exist and is an alternate personality of Tenma’s). Can the fugitive stop whatever Johan’s up to before it’s too late ? And is the good doctor really going to kill Johan, however much of a monster he is ?

Secondary threads of the series follow Nina, Johan’s twin sister (who shot him in the first place), who tried to forget it all before Johan suddenly killed her adoptive family ; and Eva, Tenma’s former fiancée who entered a self-destructive spiral after she dumped him during his short disgrace. Another big question involves the investigation of Johan’s past : how exactly does such a monster come into existence ? Who’s responsible ? It’s not an easy question, especially considering how Johan is now being quite thorough in his quest to eliminate everyone linked to his past in any way…

What did I think of it ?

It’s certainly a very strong story… but I don’t think the anime version really does it justice. It’s a flawed adaptation that I had trouble to keep watching because of how much it tries to play it safe. It’s obviously trying to stick as close to the source material as possible, including every single detour despite how inconsequential some of them may be. The pacing is sluggish, with some very obvious padding techniques carrying the series from cliffhanger to cliffhanger (despite not much really happening between them). That kind of thing isn’t suspenseful, it’s just irritating. A third of the anime’s length could probably have been cut without losing much.

I got the impression that this really wanted to be a live-action series, with all the lack of creative use of the medium this implies. The realization is very pedestrian, bringing absolutely nothing in to make the story visually compelling. I’m not asking for Death Note-style flourishes, but at least something should have been done to keep the series from being so boring (which surely a story like this has no right to be !). Compounding the problem is the general grey-and-brown palette, especially for people ; the bland colors dull the strikingness of Urasawa’s angular character designs. Those are not characters with realistic appearances, however much the anime tries to hide that. As a result, the series loses a lot of impact and immediacy.

Which is not to say that I didn’t enjoy watching the series ; but there’s a lot of tediousness in between the good parts. While I didn’t particularly care for Tenma and Johan remained an enigma till the end, there were lots of fascinating side characters that helped carry the story along the rough patches (ah, Grimmer…). The questions the show asks about human nature and how can evil be born are poignant ones, and the eventual denouement is quite clever. The coincidence level is a bit too high (I raised an eyebrow at the background of Tenma’s lawyer, which is a bit too conveniently connected to the rest of the story), but it mostly works out. Still, I’m not sure the series completely delivers on explaining Johan’s evil (the final crucial part of his background doesn’t feel like much of an explanation to me), and there are large parts of his behavior that I don’t really understand (for example, why did he protect Grimmer in Prague ?).

But what this series really lacks is energy, as well as writers daring enough to cut the chaff out and make the plot much tighter. That’s what prevents it from being the masterpiece of storytelling it could have been.

via [LTTP/WIW] Various anime from the 00s and beyond.

Appleseed XIII

(13 episodes, distributed on streaming and as OVAs)

What’s it about ?

The adventures of a SWAT squad in the future, fighting terrorists and conspiracies.

Characters

Deunan, our protagonist. Trained to survived in the wilderness by her father since her early childhood, she’s the gung-ho rookie of the squad. I’ll give this to Maaya Sakamoto : she’s got enough charisma to pull off her character whining non-stop for the full duration of the episode and still not have her be too annoying. Although she comes very close here.

Briareos, her BFF since forever (or maybe more ?). After a bad accident, he had to be turned into a cyborg to survive. He’s still following her devotedly to protect her (especially from her own reckless behavior).

Dia, an innocent bystander who turns out to be a special cyborg or something, and will presumably be important to the plot later on.

The plot of the week involves a bunch of terrorists (“the Argonauts”) storming the ~~Russian~~ Poseidon embassy to retrieve one of their agents. (Did I mention there’s a heavy Greek Mythology theme permeating everything ?)

Production Values

This is a full CGI series, with some degree of cell-shading when people are involved. To be frank, it looks terrible. The character designs for people don’t quite work, and most importantly the body language looks awfully off. It’s not a problem when everyone on screen is in power suits, but the humans move like creepy ragdolls, pushing them deep into the uncanny valley. It looks like cheap videogame cutscenes (you know, the ones that aren’t pre-rendered), which is all kinds of disappointing.

The backgrounds and the scenes without humans look much more impressive, but that’s only a fraction of the overall screentime.

Overall Impression

Ouch. I don’t know anything about the Appleseed franchise, but this is a decidedly underwhelming offering. The artstyle is a complete failure, and Deunan is obnoxious beyond belief. I think there may a decent story beyond those roadblocks… and then I realize I’ve seen this kind of story done much better with Ghost in the Shell – Stand Alone Complex. Which had the advantage of not making my eyes bleed.

I’ll give it another episode to check whether the heroine gets less annoying and I can enjoy it for the plot, but I’m not optimistic.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2011 – Page 11.

Blade

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

It’s a straightforward vampire-hunter show.

Characters

Eric “Blade” Brooks, our protagonist. His mother got bitten (and killed) while pregnant, and thus he’s a half-vampire “Daywalker”. Obviously he’s got something of a grudge, and goes around killing vampires by the dozen with his silver-bladed weapons.

Makoto, a young vampire-hunter who makes a team with her veteran father (so of course he’s doomed to die before the first episode ends). She gets three minutes of badassitude before getting way over her head and spending most of her screentime in distress. Hopefully she’ll snap out of it before she gets on my nerves too much.

Deacon Frost, the Big Bad Vampire, who’s recognizable as the one who bit Blade’s mother because of his characteristic 4 fangs. Obviously he makes short work of Blade at this point, although he leaves him alive for some reason (maybe because the “Daywalker” blood samples he extracts may not be enough ?).

Production Values

Decent. For once, the rough artstyle of the Marvel/Madhouse coproductions fits the tone of the series instead of working against it. The music score is better than average (this may be the first OP among those projects where the instrumental tune works perfectly with the visuals), and there’s some decent use of colour to set the mood here and there. On the other hand, I’m not fond of the frequent use of freeze frames in the action sequences (it always looks cheap to me), and the dissolving effect when vampires get dispatched looks quite weird.

Overall Impression

Well, I didn’t fall asleep, which is better than I expected (despite being a Marvel fanboy, I have absolutely zero interest in Blade as a character). It works quite well as a action piece (apart from some stylistic mistakes detailed above), and Makoto shows some potential as an action girl if she gets a clue quickly (Maaya Sakamoto’s charisma strikes again !).

Can it sustain itself over 12 episodes without becoming repetitive ? I have my doubts. But it’s earned itself a second episode, which is more than I’d thought beforehand.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2011.

Hyouge Mono

(39 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Japan’s Warring States era from the perspective of an tea-obsessed esthete.

Characters

Sasuke Furuta, our main character. He’s technically an elite messenger/diplomat for Nobunaga Oda, although he doesn’t really get to display any skill at it in this episode. On the contrary, he easily gets distracted by irrelevant stuff around him (such as other attendees at a meeting’s poor fashion sense), leading to him not paying attention when important people are talking to him.

Nobunaga Oda, the warlord. This series depicts him as quite a bit of a thug, to be honest. I think he tolerates Sasuke because he thinks he’s funny.

Hideyoshi Hashiba, one of Oda’s major vassals and all-around snake. He completely bungles Sasuke’s mission by barging in with his soldiers at the least opportune moment. I can’t exactly see why he’d do that, apart to mess with him.

Our mission of the week involves Sasuke trying to arrange a rebel vassal’s reddition and pardon in exchange of a prized teapot the rebel owns (since he’s an esthete who’d probably like owning the teapot too, this may have been a test on Sasuke’s loyalties). I’d probably take the dude more seriously if he wasn’t wearing that terrible wig that just makes him look ridiculous.

Production Values

Fairly good ; this looks like a decent feudal Japan drama (if you don’t pay attention to what’s actually happening).

Overal Impression

Well, this is certainly a thing. A very weird and homoerotic thing. (The OP and ED being love songs don’t help.) The historical figures in this are barely more in character than in Sengoku Otome. I’m probably missing a lot of references due to knowing fuck all about feudal Japan. And still…

I found this absolutely hilarious. The disconnect between the “serious” artstyle and the characters’ ridiculous behaviour works perfectly. I’m not sure if the joke can sustain itself for 39 (!) episodes, but so far it’s a riot.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2011 – Page 12.

Yondemasu yo, Azazel-san

(?? half-length episodes)

What’s it about ?

A detective agency routinely summons a demon to solve their clients’ problems. But since he never stops long enough to hear his orders, hilarity ensues.

Characters

Azazel, the titular demon. A rude womanizer… who’s less than two feet tall. He would really like to get out of this contract, but he’s consistently outwitted by…

Akutabe, the head of the detective agency who summoned Azazel. A complete jerk, but he’s so marvellously deadpan !

Sakuma, Akutabe’s part-time assistant. Our point-of-view character, as Akutabe judges she’s just got enough experience to learn how the agency really works. She spends most of the episode bemused by the whole thing, but then you’d be too.

Our client of the week is a classic ugly cheated wife. The various “solutions” offered to her problems get more and more bizarre as the episode goes.

Production Values

Low but adequate, I guess. It does the job.

Overall Impression

This is very low-brow humour indeed, but it works. It’s got very good comedic timing, the character play well off each other, and I liked the punchline. Stupid but fun.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2011 – Page 8.

Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi – World’s Greatest First Love

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Yaoi romance comedy in a shoujo manga publishing house. Oh, the irony !

Characters

Onodera, who fled the Onodera publishing house because his co-workers suspected him of only getting his job out of nepotism. He’s trying a new job elsewhere to get acknowledged on his own merits. He thought he’d be working as a literature editor, but somehow ended up assigned to the shoujo manga department. He’s a bitter and cynical narrator who’s bemused by the bizarre quirks of his new co-workers… but at the core he’s still a hard worker who loves books.

Takano, his new boss. He’s quite rough and brutal indeed (sexual harassment on the first day for the new guy !), but also a genius who revitalized the shoujo department since he got the job.

Neither of them really recognize each other, but they had a hot and steamy fling, way back in high school. It’s been 10 years since…

Oh, and we briefly see the three other (male) editors in the department, but they don’t show too much personality yet.

Production Values

Barely adequate. Ah, Deen…

Overall Impression

You know, I was all set to hate this : yaoi doesn’t tickle my fancy, and the prequel OAV really rubbed me the wrong way (it’s 20 minutes of really cliché high school yaoi romance). But this actually ain’t half bad… at least as far as the office comedy is concerned.

I have my reservations about the yaoi romance subplot, but as long as it stays in the background it doesn’t bother me too much. When it takes center stage, though, I’m out.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2011 – Page 6.

Zone of the Enders – Dolores, I

(26 episodes)

What’s it about ?

A space trucker finds out that the dodgy shipment he’s carrying back to Earth is a hotly sought-after experimental mecha.

Characters

James, our protagonist. A war veteran (or so he claims) stuck into a dead-end space-trucker job, he’s at least well into his forties and got a not-so-loving family waiting for him back on Earth (at the very least, his teenage daughter wants nothing to do with him, and his son doesn’t even return his calls). The series goes out of its way to depict him as a washed-out loser, miserably failing at flirting with girls half his age, and drowning himself in booze. He does get some sort of epiphany halfway through the first episode, although given that his idea of reconnecting with his family involves purchasing an overpriced cat for his daughter and burying himself into self-help books (with his cabin increasingly looking like a pigsty as he does so), I’m not too optimistic on his chances of success.

Laia, James’s up-to-no-good contact who sets him up with his shipment. It’s hard to look more shifty than this dude, and James has enough history with him to know better than taking the gig. But overpriced cats cost money, so he eventually relents. (It helps that Laia’s backup trucker wound up mysteriously shot dead mere hours after taking the job – although Laia’s not telling this to James, of course…)

Dolores, the cargo. A fifty-foot-tall mecha that behaves and speaks like a teenage girl. No, seriously, she’s even shy about having a man “down there” (into the cockpit).

There are of course some shady people looking into taking hold of Dolores, with enough connections to infiltrate the UN space patrols.

Production Values

Perfectly watchable, and there’s been a lot of care put into background details to make the setup feel grounded in reality. The score is a bit dated and MIDI-ish, but it does the job.

Overall Impression

Wow, that was fun. I don’t know if it’s the novelty of having a “mature” dude as a protagonist, but I really enjoyed this. It’s not exactly deep or subtle, but this looks like a madcap romp in a relatively grounded space sci-fi setting. Despite being a loser, James is a compelling protagonist, and he’s already got lots of chemistry with Dolores.

Google tells me this is a sequel to an OVA that itself spun off a videogame franchise, but it seems to stand perfectly well on its own.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2001 – Page 7.

Health and Physical Eduction for 30-year-olds (30-sai no Hoken Taiiku)

(13-minute-long episodes)

What’s it about ?

A thirty-year-old virgin gets visited by an annoying sex god who’ll educate him so that he can finally pop his cherry.

Characters

Imagawa, our male lead, exactly as pathetic as you’d expect (and voiced by Hiro Shimono, of course). The kind who borrows the 600,000-yen blow-up doll from one of his co-workers. Very annoyed by the sex god’s intrusion : he’d like to take his time, thanks (but then that’s his whole problem…).

Daigorou, the sex god. Very, very annoying, and impossible to get rid of. He can only go away when his mission’s accomplished ; to his credit, he does offer Imagawa the easy way out to get done with it (but Imagawa doesn’t want to even think about it).

Andou, the female lead, barely makes an appearance in this first episode, but the OP & ED suggest she’s getting a pair of sex gods too.

Production Values

Dire. It doesn’t help that there’s some very heavy censorship that hides anything vaguely risqué (we don’t even see one bit of the blow-up doll) and blips through half of the dialogue.

Overall Impression

I didn’t think it was possible : this is making me long for B Gata H Kei. There’s an art to the raunchy, ecchi comedy with protagonists raring to get it on, and this series completely fails at it. It’s not funny, and the heavy censorship kinda defeats the point.

Since this reportedly adapts a PhysEd book, it does sneak in some helpful tips (Wash it appropriately to get rid of bacteria ! Don’t squeeze too much on them !), but they’re drowned by the tedious attempts at whimsical humour by walking clichés calling themselves characters.

Avoid.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2011 – Page 6.

Tiger & Bunny

(24-ish episodes)

What’s it about ?

In the future, there are super-powered people called “NEXT”. The most prominent ones are garish, megacorp-sponsored superheroes who fight crime in a Reality-TV show.

Characters

Kotetsu “Wild Tiger” Kaburagi, our protagonist. He’s a veteran superhero who is definitely past his prime (he rates barely above the joke who never does anything, and no self-respecting kid buys his trading cards). He’s in it because he believes in making good (and he needs the money for his wife and kid), but he’s kinda bitter with the whole thing, obviously. It doesn’t help that his sponsor just got bought out, and the new guys want a format change. Which includes teaming up with…

Barnaby Brooks Jr, who somehow has the same powers as Wild Tiger (flying brick for 5 minutes). The dude shows out of nowhere in the “season finale” to hog the spotlight, and makes it clear he’s a “new breed” of superhero, unafraid of showing his true identity to the world. Incidentally, he does less collateral damage than Wild Tiger, which probably endears him to the higher-ups even more.

There are six other super-heroes competing in the show : Blue Rose, the current superstar with impressive ice powers but who’s a bit of a coward ; Rock Bison, the only one Kotetsu could call a friend ; Origami Cyclone, who never does anything but stay in the background for product placement ; Fire Emblem, flaming gay stereotype ; and two others who don’t matter at this stage.

The supporting cast is rounded off by Agnes Joubert, the TV show’s producer, who only cares about ratings, and certainly not civilian lives. (“Nice cliffhanger entrance, Wild Tiger ! Can you just do nothing for 30 seconds while we run some commercials ?”)

Oh, and there’s our threats for the week : a group of bankrobbers who are ridiculously underpowered to face superheroes, but manage to run around for most of the episodes thanks to the latter’s incompetence.

Production Values

Superbly fluid animation for the action sequences (which comprise half of the episode) : this show’s got budget and ain’t afraid to show it. It’s also very good at spoofing Reality-TV shows, including the utterly obnoxious product placement on the superheroes’ character designs.

Overall Impression

Wow, this is AWESOME ! I grinned like a madman from start to end while watching this : it’s very, very funny indeed. Combining superheroes with Reality-TV works beautifully, and there’s a nice balance between enough cynicism to keep things grounded and still some idealism to keep it from being too depressing. It’s a very stupid series, but it’s got enough energy to pull it off.

The preview I’d seen didn’t look very promising, so this is a very nice surprise.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2011.

Rune Soldier Louie (Mahou Senshi Louie)

(24 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Comedic heroic-fantasy. Three female adventurers are looking for a magician to complete their party. A female one if possible, but the only one they find is a classic male lech who ain’t even much good at it.

Characters

The party is currenly comprised of Merril, the quick-tempered short Thief ; Genie, the amazon Warrior ; and Melissa, the not-that-pure Cleric (Kikuko Inoue in yet another of those self-parody roles – at this point I’m not even sure I remember her ever playing the perfect-woman type straight).

Presumably shortly joining them is Louie, our title character. He ain’t much good at magic (he apparently got into the Magic Academy through nepotism, and doesn’t pay attention to the lectures), and spends his time drinking in towns and leering at any girl he sees. His “accidental pervert” tendencies don’t help : he spends most of the episode either on the run or in jail.

There’s also Ila, his fellow student who’d like to be a bit more, wink wink nudge nudge (he’s totally oblivious). She’s prominently featured in the ED, so presumably the writers’ll find a way to keep her around despite her explicitly stating she has no interest in adventuring (much to the distress of the trio, who’d rather have her than Louie).

Production Values

It does the job, but just that. I’ll also note the rather high fanservice level (it’s mostly the “all in good fun” kind rather than anything skeevy, though).

Overall Impression

Hello, Slayers clone !

Okay, that’s a bit harsh. Especially as I find it quite funnier than its predecessor (mostly because I like the main characters more). Still, this looks like a bog-standard heroic-fantasy comedy… including the vague hints that it’ll get more serious once the real plot shows up.

I’m actually a bit curious on how it goes on : it looks like decent popcorn watching.

There's a perfectly rational explanation why Louie has barged into Melissa's "religious ceremony" and looks like he's about to rape her. Really. — There’s a perfectly rational explanation why Louie has barged into Melissa’s “religious ceremony” and looks like he’s about to rape her. Really.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2001 – Page 3.