Finished Airing | 12 | Jan 10, 2003 |- MyAnimeList
Yume Kikuchi, a girl who can use magic, goes to Tokyo to be an apprentice mage to the handsome Masami Oyamada (a professional mage). In Tokyo, Yume learns about magic, helping people, and various other things on her way to being a mage. But she soon also finds out that even just magic alone isn’t enough to make someone truly happy…
Recently, vampires have been all the rage. With thematic appearances in popular media, such as the Twilight movies and True Blood, vampires have become the latest hot trend in entertainment. Similarly, anime has several vampire-related materials in recent months, first with a live-action movie adaptation of Blood: The Last Vampire and later Dance in the Vampire Bund.
Vampirism in entertainment is usually portrayed in one of two ways. Some treat vampires simply as supernatural beings above the realms of physics and biology. Heavily based on the mythological basis established by Dracula, these portray the more awesome aspects of vampires, immortality, flight, and magic. Many anime, including Vampire Bund, fall under this supernatural approach. Others explain vampirism as “scientific” phenomena. A common favorite is often an unlikely virus that causes superhuman vampiric behavior and characteristics. While rarer in anime, this approach tends to draw my interest. I always love reading about the various bases for mythologies. While most explanations I see are rather dubious, a few do seem plausible. In fact, one such condition already exists that could potentially describe vampirism.
Porphyria is a rare condition involving a disorder in heme synthesis. Heme has important function in red blood cells and a failure of enzymes can lead to an accumulation of porphyrin, which will have several consequences. Most notable of these symptoms are neurological problems and photosensitivity. As a blood disorder, porphyria is sometimes treated with involve blood transfusion in certain cases. Furthermore, like the royal disease hemophilia, porphyria is also a genetic blood disorder more common among Scandinavians that also tends to run in European royalties. The insane King George III and the brutal Vlad the Impaler (Dracula) both suffer from this condition. Blood, light sensitivity, and royalty… These certainly start to sound a bit familiar.
With such a convenient condition for rationalizing vampires, the lack of a biomolecular approach to vampirism in vampire anime is curious. The few that do attempt to have a scientific justification often use barely believable science. It is not much of a surprise though because most reasonable condition would preclude the fearsome aspects of vampires. Indeed, porphyria can be rather “uncool”. Seizures, anemia and dying skin pale in comparison to immortality and magic. Nonetheless, a believable “vampiric condition” similar to porphyria has been done beautifully in the horror romance anime/ manga, Hitsuji no Uta (Lament of the Lamb).
In Hitsuji no Uta, Chizuna is afflicted with a hereditary vampiric condition. The disorder causes Chizuna to have extremely poor health and a severe craving for blood (which is likely psychological according to Chizuna). She has no super powers; in fact, she cannot do anything physically demanding. Indeed, a lamb with a wolf’s hunger. Compared to Mina Tepes from Dance in the Vampire Bund, this portrayal is vastly different. Although I do not mind how vampirism is set in an anime, I like to imagine a world with vampires. Given the likely biological candidates, if vampires do exist in real life, they would mostly likely be closest to Hitsuji no Uta’s presentation.
Anyways, as a fan of vampires, I have wanted to write a related post for a long time, but I had no good idea and this post was brushed to the side. However, a few days ago I picked up Dance in the Vampire Bund. On the same day in a lecture on biochemistry, my professor referred to the heme pathway. The next day my brother in medical school mentions porphyria. Around this same time, I also talked to a friend about my favorite manga. (As an aside, the friend pointed out that my favorite manga are all incestuous… Angel Sanctuary and Lament of the Lamb). So, with some thought, all these coincidences all happily tie into this rather long entry.
*Before I get hate comments about the validity of this post, I should qualify some points. Porphyria in King George III and Vlad III are diagnosed retrospectively and are subjects to debate. Also, while treatments for porphyria do include blood transfusion, blood sucking does nothing. However, some have tried to associate that blood sucking to the neurological disorders that often come with severe porphyria. Further, many characteristics of vampires I used in this post to connect to porphyria are modern inventions of Dracula and other fictions and have little to do with the original vampiric folklore. Still, I think this is hopefully a fun exploration of believable scientific bases for vampires in anime.
You know what this means? It means I actually guessed that Niou would be singing this year’s Valentine Kiss! O_o
And without any further ado, here we have the cover picture of our beloved petenshi. >_<
So this time it’s orange, ahn?
(Whoops, too much MottoGakuPuri…)
Link to where to DL…will follow. xD
[insert]
Oh yes, I managed to finish my Atobe and Oshitari routes. Atobe is pure, epic win. =D And Oshitari…is so sweet. >_< His Kansai accent can surely seduce the whole nation. 83 Not to mention that he calls the main character as ‘milady’. Gaah~~
Well, Atobe’s storyline’s still the best for me IMO (and I’m being biased). =D
Up next is either Hiyoshi or Ootori. The Rikkai routes don’t thrill me that much, but if I do complete them, I get Yukimura in exchange…Hmm…
I often hear from parents that summer has changed and they just don’t understand the difference. Well, it has, and in interesting ways. The bigger question is how to adapt so that our kids have great summer memories even if they are not the memories that we would have shared.
With that thought in mind, what were your favorite summer memories? Baseball, picnics, playing in the neighborhood with friends, laying on the lawn suntanning? The problems starts with the loss of tight-knit neighborhoods where everyone knew everyone and the kids played together, went to school together and grew up with all of the parents involoved in all of the kids. As a member of the 50 and up age group, summers have changed dramatically. No longer do kids play in the neighborhood, moms are working so no one is usually there to supervise and as a parent, you can only let so many hours of television and sleep go on without some kind of mental stimulation.
If you are lucky and have a sports driven kid or a reader it is easy to organize summer but what happens when you have a very bright, high-ability student who wants challenges but no stress? Or what happens if you have a very bright kid who has an area of weakness you want to strengthen but you’d rather not have them think they had to “work” all summer? That is why Todd academy, Inc. designed our series of fun summer camps that let all the kids play games they love, create with art, photography and ceramics, or write and draw or a myriad of other things while strengthening the skills they use the rest of the academic year. Check us out at: www.toddacademy.com and take a look at our great summer camps.
With summer camp titles like: Robotics, D&D – Beginner to Advanced, Web Design, Creative Writing, Anime, Digital Photography, and Ceramics, who couldn’t have fun? The twist for parents is the hidden learning. Each camp is taught with learning goals entwined in the fun. Maybe summer can be fun again, it just has a new twist.
Okay, this is going to be a somewhat short post, just to get my whole head out of my current fandom. Yes, I know, after my hiatus I come back and it’s with 1) and anime and 2) a shounen at the very least. But it is very good, or else I wouldn’t be writing this, now would I? And yes, I will be following this, when a new episode is subbed.
Okay, to start off this is an novel, manga, and anime. It began as a novel and progressed from that. Of course, the novel is not published in English, which is quite evil, but you can’t get everything you want, now can you? The setting takes place in modern day Ikebukuro, and is much like the actual place.
The characters are laugh out loud hilarious, from the new guy Mikado to the human loving Izaya. Each characters has its own unique personality that will leave you begging to learn much more about the past of each of them as you watch more and more episodes. Each episode is told in a different characters point of view, which is quite refreshing.
As you may have guessed, this is an anime by the creaters of Baccano! Some have said similarities, some have not. I personally have not watched that anime, so I will not be giving you any insight on that. c’: Okay, the soundtrack. It’s subtle, not overbearing and like “Where the fuck did that come from?” and such. It’s wonderful background noise and really helps the mood, especially in serious or fighting scenes.
Ah, and probably the last thing. Art. Yes, the art is pretty good. Not outrageous but definitely not horrible. The art is good enough that you won’t be staring at the characters going “Wahhhh” and stuff. It’s detailed when it needs to, but definitely not detailed on the people on the street. But there not important anyway, but sometimes they gray would throw me off, but then again that’s just me.
I definitely recommend this show. Whether your looking for something funny, supernatural, and has in depth plot. This is the anime for you. Just for some warning, the manga is a bit different from the anime, so if you choose to read both at the same time, you have been warned.
I had took part in trying out the Tokyo Realtime: Akihabara last sunday. Found out that Joseph Tame is asking people to help trying out their new product and giving some feedback through Facebook. I think it will be a good chance for me to get more about Akihabara. So I contacted him and took part in it.
This is the package you will got if you order it. A very cute Maid to at the cover.
Joseph Tame is from White Rabbit Press, publishers of the world’s No.1 selling kanji flash cards, the A0 kanji poster and Tokyo RealTime audio tours. He is also responsible for marketing, and assisting in the research for and production of new products to add to our catalogue.
The Glasses store where a guy used to Rapping + Promoting there often, had now closed down and moved to the other side.
I reached Akihabara at about 11.30 AM and waited there for few minutes. As soon as Joseph reached Akihabara, he gave me a call and we met up. Alongside, I see Johny Li and Pebi is already been there too. Heard Steve Nagata is coming too but didn’t met up with him that day.
The Waterproof Map, Booklet and a CD.
After Joseph handed us the Akihabara Tour package which included a Waterproof map, CD and a booklet, we decided to start our journey. We had been sent link to download the Mp3 version of the audio guide and had already imported it into our iPhone/iPod. Here, I would like to talk about few famous spot which I found Interested through the Tour:
The Radio Center
Firstly, we went to the Radio Center which have collection of Radio since ages ago~ The great thing about the tour is that alongside with the tour, you can listen to the introduction about the History of the places and some terms such as “Moe” and different kind of “Otaku” there are.
The Waterproof Map.
Volks Store ~Dollfies~
Then it’s up to Radio Kaikan 4th and 6th floor. I never went there before even though I had been to Akihabara for about 20 times now. But then as the Audio guided me, I found out about Volks store there.. Was a delight to see so many Dollfies so close up with my real eyes ^^ The Cheapest Super Dollfie is gonna cost you 34K Yen. Saw Aoi-chan there too which you are familiar with if you are constant Danny Choo Reader.
Rental Showcase Shop
Then it bring us to the Rental Showcase Shop which located behind Kotobukiya Shop. It’s place for people to sell their figures using some locker service provided there. Johny Li told me that some seller sell some of their self customized figures there, such as carving off the Bikini of some female figures and re-paint it again so that it looked like it’s fully naked now. Hmm.. Heard they make some money through this.
Retro Gaming Shop – Super Potato
Rockman!!! Played my first Rockman during kindergarden. How about you guys?
Another interested place to visit to is the Super Potato, Which is a Retro Gaming Shop. I personally found out it to be really nostalgic where I can see my Super Mario, Rockman Series and Famicom machines everywhere. ^^ They also have some games for you to try out for free. Will visit and playing Mario there again sometimes~
Super Mario World! My favourite version of Mario Series. If my Nintendo Super 64 still working I should still be playing it.
More Rockman Gaming Tapes.
Some guys playing Mario Bros. there. I’m sure I can play better than him. ^^
Canned Oden Vending machine
Also been guided to the Famous Canned Oden vending machine near Mandarake. The oden is for sell at about 300 yen each. We didn’t bought one but instead, watched some Japanese bought one and find that it didn’t provide a fork or chopsticks to eat with ^^ It’s good to buy it as souvenier for your friends too.
Photo of the Oden Vending Machines.. They got Soup & Pasta for sell Vend too
@Home Cafe
Has also been introduced to @Home Cafe. Wandered outside of the shop for few minutes listening to the introduction from the audio. Too bad it didn’t bring us in^^ Would be more happy if they have included special service in the Tour, like taking photos together with the maids for free.
Toranoana
A shop which sell mostly Books, Doujinshi (Fan made books/art works), and some figures too ^^. Was introduced Doujinshi with some girl screaming “ah~ ah~ ah~” background audio. LOL. Think this Tour is not safe for those under 18 ^^ Saw lots of Touhou Doujinshi there too. Seemed like there are having some sale since that day is also the Famous Annual Touhou Reitaisai at Tokyo Big Sight.(Too bad I couldn’t be there… )
Gachapon Kaikan
A Shop which is full of nothing but Gachapon Machines~ Inside there you can find almost every type of figures to be vending through the Gachapon Machines. Not really a fans of this Gachapon thingys.
The trip ended when you got to the Gachapon Kaikan. Then we were interview by some staff from White Rabbit Press. They asked us kinda like ” what do you think about this tour?” or “Which place impressed you the most?”. I’m the 3rd to finished the Tour. Found out that My English Speaking skill had totally gone rusty… Never speak english so badly before… =.=”
There it is Johny Li there smiling and Max Hodges, The mic holder inside the photo. And another Cameraman from White Rabbit Press.
In the nutshell, Personally think it was a Fun, yet very informative Tour. It bring you around Akihabara, Introducing you all the Must-See spots in Akihabara, and teach you a little bits about the history, and some Terms and Words which you will come across with, with your visit to Akihabara. Think it’s really suitable for those who want to know more about Akihabara and also those who had been to Akihabara for a couples of times and missed somethings important.
You can get this Akihabara Tour Package for $18.00 through their website. They also have another Tour package which bring you to The Famous Adult Paradise, Kabuchicho too.
Had lunch with Johny Li too afterward and having some chat about Tokyo Japan times and some life inspiration.. etc. Was a good conversation with him. Learnt lots of things through chatting with him.
Well, Eye Sedso is in a rapid state of decline. I’m not sure if this is because of the economy, my crappy posts, my decline in post output, or whatever, but I’ve been averaging like….120 hits per day and falling. Oh well, I really don’t care much about hits.
Anyway, Spring is coming, and even though every freakin’ blogger on the planet has already done one of these posts months ago, no ISSSs have posted any, and seeing as I’m like….the only one that’s anime related, I guess that task is left up to me and my penis (not really sure how my penis plays into this, but whatever). I realized that I haven’t done one of these in ages, and decided, “Hey, why not do one?” Therefore, I’m going to give it a go again, tell you my picks, etc. Not only that, but I’m going to include TRAILERS OF EVERYTHING*. The picture is of course, from chartfag.
Oh, whoops….wrong picture….uhhhhh……okay here we go:
Can you read those? I don’t care. Am I going to go over EVERY SINGLE SHOW? Hellllllllll no. Let me start with the shows that interest me, and that I plan on watching:
Ironman:
Yea, I’m gonna give it a shot, mainly because I love Ironman, and the animation looks Gyod Dayum Nyastay:
That’s the shit right there.
Arakawa Under the Bridge:
It’s SHAFT, so I’m going to be watching it. I also kind of like the premise of “beautiful girl living under bridge”. In real life, beautiful girls will never love under a bridge (I mean, beautiful girls pretty much have life made, they’re beatiful, and if worse comes to worse, they can become strippers or something, which would still give them enough money for an apartment somewhere). If you’re a girl, and you’re living under a bridge, then I’m sorry, but you’re probably not only poor, but also hideous. I just hope this is better than Bakemonogatari, which I might just drop, but I’m going to try and finish it.
Angel Beats:
Hmmm. I just decided right now that this interests me due to several key factors, the main one being REVENGE. The whole thing seems to be based on REVENGE, which is one of the most awesome things ever. Not only that, but it involves death of some sort, and I like that. Although at the same time, the trailer makes it seem completely different, although the animation looks great.
B Gata H Kei:
So many people are quick to throw this away as a typical fanservice anime. Well not me. Frankly, I love the plot:
Girl aspires to become the world’s biggest whore have 100 casual sex partners…
I am looking forward to this the most. More than anything on this list. I actually can’t wait for it. I see opportunity for comedy gold. I mean, you could have actual comedy, where jokes are written for the show, or stupid comedy, where everything is so retardedly absurd that it’s funny. I even like the story! It’s original and interesting! Anyone who dismisses this show right away is out of their minds.
In fact, I am going to review every episode of this (so it better not be bad….actually, my reviews of it would probably be more enjoyable if it turns out being bad).
Kaicho wa Maid-sama
Hmmm. I don’t know if I’m going to give this a try or not. I’m kind of on the fence. I don’t particularly like maid shows, because they tend to be a lot of blatant fanservice that isn’t funny, but it’s J.C. Staff, and I like them. At least that’s what I thought, until I read this post and remembered all of the awesome maids (Black Lagoon, Hayate no Gotoku, Hanaukyo Maid Team (1st series)….I even like He is My Master….now that I think of it, there aren’t many shows with maids that I disliked….in fact….are there any?). I’m watching this show, but befre that I need to watch Ladies vs Butlers.
Black Star SHOOTER:
Well come on…I HAVE to see this. I mean, I’m sure everyone is going to watch it no matter how they feel about it. I look forward to it because it looks sick. However, the characters better not have vocaloid voices (the voice of the singing in the trailer, which is literally a computer singing), those are annoying as fuck, and I will drop this shit like a rock if they use those shits.
Here are some shows that will SUCKKKKKK
K-On: If I find out that a continuous plot is added, and they all stop eating cake/dressing up, then I may watch this, but since it will remain a piece of moe shit, I will instead just say that this is going to be fucking retarded, and I’m not going to pretend that this doesn’t exist at all.
Kiss X Sis: I read the manga (up to date). It’s not too bad. I wouldn’t say that it’s good. Sometimes it’s funny. Sometimes it’s retarded as fuck (oh wait, that’s why it’s funny). I watched the OVA. I tore off my left arm in rage at the supreme amount of shit that I just saw. It’s not funny at all. It’s not even blatant fanservice, it’s BLATANT, INCEST, FANSERVICE. This might become the worst show ever made.
So that’s that. Those are what interest me. I may watch all of them, I may not watch all of them. I will also most likely pick up any show that gets awesome reviews. Well, for not doing one of these posts in a while, I must say I actually enjoyed writing this. Maybe I’ll do one for summer.
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You know how there’s supposed to be an extended anime piece for the “final” version of Kill Bill? You know how it was supposed to be about O-Ren and shit?
It was all a lie. Working!! is that secret, magical missing piece of Kill Bill everyone’s been clamoring to see.
This is completely 100% factual, and the proof is right here:
In the Kill Bill universe it is completely legal for someone to go around wearing a katana on their belt. They have sword holsters on planes! The Kill Billverse is awesome like that. And what do we see in Working!!? We see a chick working in a crappy Denny’sesque restaurant wearing a katana at her side. The only logical conclusion one can make based on this observation is that Working! is a top secret Tarantino dream project; that project being to create a cheesy anime comedy set in the world of Kill Bill.
This makes the fact that the assistant manager of the restaurant has mob contacts. No one in a regular anime slice of life comedy has mob contacts. They either pretend to have crap like that, sort of like how Konata pulls crap on her life partner Kagami, or they’re actual yakuza bosses like that dude in Hanamaru Kindergarten or the entire cast of Gokusen. Because of this, it is impossible for the assistant manager to have mob contacts unless someone outside of the mainstream anime industry is pulling the strings. It just works that way. It’s one of those laws that everyone knows but never gets written down. Like all those lost commandments in Moral Orel.
Also, the concept of the “lolicon” is a sacrament that cannot be tarnished in modern anime society. Such a “lifestyle choice” must be presented as respectable and normal. No one in their right mind would dare risk alienating every single otaku everywhere in the multiverse by mocking dudes that dig little girls. Working! has the guts to do this by having the main dude’s fetish warped into a “minicon” fetish. He doesn’t dig little girls, he digs little things that are completely defenseless. To him, a shrimpy high school senior is no different than shrimpy shrimp. Or is that a plankton? Or lice? Or an eldrich horror from beyond the threshold and colors in space that just happens to be a speck about the size of Mickey Rooney. Regardless, this dude digs this size-impaired shit regardless of its nature. That’s just fucking messed up, and no one but Quentin Tarantino would have the guts to pull off such a stunt when the audience is expecting such a lifestyle to be revered.
There’s also the fact that I have reliable sources telling me that the opening theme song to Working!! will be Workin’ for a Livin’ by Huey Lewis and the News. I know it isn’t an obscure 70’s track or an instrumental from a Sergio Leone movie, but doesn’t it make some sort of insane sense? And wouldn’t that insanity only seem to be able to spawn from a certain dude that used fucking Zamfir in a modern day samurai spaghetti western?
The answer to that question is yes. Be sure to remember it when you’re tested on this at the end of term.
Seriously, people, Working!! is a decent little comedy based on the one episode that’s been released. It plays up clichés and all that nonsense, and the man-fearing girl is pretty lame, but there’s some genuinely good gags here. Can you really say Baka to Test or Seitokai no Ichizon or whatever other comedies people fawn over are vastly superior? They all milk stereotypes and shit for gags, and I’m not seeing how Working! is any worse. Yeah, if you abhor the whole genre I can see you loathing Working!!, but it doesn’t make sense to see people praising Baka to Test’s Hideyoshi gags and Seitokai’s insistence on referencing crappy anime series no one in their right mind actually likes only to bash this series because it does the same thing.
Hell, if I had to make a judgment based on one episode (And I love making rash, irrational decisions like this.), I’d say that Working!! is superior to every anime comedy to debut since Astro Fighter Sunred. Sunred came out in 2008. That’s two years worth of lame comedies that Working!! towers over. It ain’t as good as other comedies like Sunred. Or Zetsubou. Or Azumanga. Or Cromartie. Or Death Note. It’s fluff. Amusing fluff that’ll be deposed of soon after use, but that’s more than I can say about the vast majority of anime comedy series.
Then again, comedy is a fickle beast that’d just as much bite your head off and suck your brains out as make you a latté. It doesn’t make much damn sense and trying to make sense of it just makes you look like someone that wants their mind juices sucked dry.
Latest updates in on the Pizza Hut invasion into Otaku-land.
Pizza Hut, a well-known international pizza franchise, has been aggressively taking over various popular anime series in recent years. As you should have known by now, their most prominent trophy of all time is definitely Code Geass, in which the awesome C.C. is almost never seen without a slice of pizza, or Pizza Hut’s minion Cheese-kun. They have also been making frequent attacks on Darker than Black and Maria-sama ga Miteru, and To Aru Kagaku no Railgun is their latest target… until now.
Pizza Hut has just announced its plans to expand into No Man’s Land found within So・Ra・No・Wo・To. Further details can be found on their website, but I must say…
Good thing I don’t live in Japan. I’ll be fat and broke if Pizza Hut’s battle plans persists.
I recently bought the first two volumes, and re-watching it isn’t quite the same…
I first watched this anime series about six or seven years ago with my SO based on a recommendation from my brother. When I first watched it, I thought it was fun and entertaining, and have always fondly remembered it. I’m sure you’ll even find me referencing it here at some point as ‘good anime’.
So about two weeks ago when I was shopping for DVDs, I noticed in the anime section and thought why the heck not, and picked up what they had in stock, which was the first two volumes. My SO was excited to be watching it again, and we were eagerly watching episode after episode most nights for the past fortnight.
We are up to the second last episode at this point, and let me give you a run down of what the last twelve episodes have been like.
Recap of what happened in the last episode
Recap of the scene where Kenshin left for Tokyo and Kaoru is sad
Sojiro quoting Shishio saying ‘If you’re strong you live, if you’re weak you die’
Sojiro quoting Shishio saying ‘If you’re strong you live, if you’re weak you die’
Sojiro quoting Shishio saying ‘If you’re strong you live, if you’re weak you die’
Tiny bit of actually fighting
Then finally when Kenshin beat the snot out of Sojiro, he finally fought Shishio and the battle went:
Recap of what happened in the last episode
Recap of the scene where Kenshin left for Tokyo and Kaoru is sad
Shishio saying ‘If you’re strong you live, if you’re weak you die’
Shishio saying ‘If you’re strong you live, if you’re weak you die’
Shishio saying ‘If you’re strong you live, if you’re weak you die’
Shishio kicking everyone’s ass really unfairly in a stupid ‘Jim the Giant Eagle who was almost as strong as God’ kind of way.
Finally Kenshin’s won, but now he’s half dead, and if I hear that stupid half-baked misunderstood Darwinism one more time I’ll be heard half way down the street swearing!
It’s really not as good as I remembered, and it feels very silly at times, and not in a good way like at other points in the series. The first meeting between Misao and Kenshin is hilarious, though.
It’s an alright introduction to anime, but Cowboy Bebop is much better!
Of all the general themes in anime, one of the most thoroughly overdone ones is the “with friends, we shall prevail” motif. In these, the protagonist can only overcome some seemingly insurmountable task with the help of his or her group of friends. Even those who haven’t seen much anime can probably name at least one series that does this; they’re literally everywhere.
One trait that sets Shinichiro Watanabe’s work apart is his refusal to accept this Japanese conformity. In his anime, all of the characters define themselves by their individuality, fighting for themselves and ONLY themselves in a vast and lonely world. In Cowboy Bebop , the characters were thrown together by chance and stayed together only as long as convenience allowed. Although the anime was for the most part an action comedy, even the hilarious moments were subdued by this profoundly forlorn undercurrent of internal solitude.
Samurai Champloo has a very similar feel; in the series, three misfits who would otherwise have nothing to do with each other are thrown together by coincidental events. The characters then proceed to engage in a variety of episodic escapades, finally culminating in a suitably climactic and suspenseful conclusion. This basic plot structure, combined with Watanabe’s trademark freeform style, makes it easy to draw comparisons between the two works, despite the radically different settings. However, something that most people have not mentioned is that the anime are also subtly different. In the end of Cowboy Bebop, the characters all drew even more inward than they were in the beginning, as the ephemeral nature of life swept them into their own personal dreams. As their desire for money became more and more faint, so did their need to interact with the rest of the crew.
In Samurai Champloo, however, the characters are clearly not together for mere convenience; on the contrary, they almost constantly complain about the troubles incurred by staying together. Rather, they travel together for almost no reason at all, and find themselves continuing to do so despite each of them repeatedly threatening to leave. At the end, the reason for continuing to travel together becomes apparent; no matter how individualistic a person is, each and every one can reach out and actually recognize someone as a fellow human being. Each character eventually does exactly this, respecting each other as fellow humans and perhaps even friends.
I first thought that this contradicted the general message in Watanabe’s previous work, but after some thought I’ve decided that Samurai Champloo philosophically builds on the groundwork laid by its predecessor. The characters in SC, even as they gradually begin to trust one another, remain fiercely independent to the bitter end. However, by being forced to interact and actually understand their fellow comrades, they are able to gain a deeper wisdom together than they would ever obtain alone. Where the characters of CB were all trapped in their personal realities, the three travelers of SC are able to look beyond their own lives.
Unfortunately, while SC is more mature than CB in this respect, in many other ways it can be considered a step down from Watanabe’s (admittedly amazing) previous work. The entire series is, for one thing, a lot less tightly wound than CB in terms of storyline. SC uses an ample amount of recap, which is absurd when you consider that each episode is practically self-contained. More importantly, some of the episodes drag a bit, and the wry, sardonic humor that I loved in Bebop has been replaced with slapstick and overblown melodrama.
In Summary this anime is another worth watching anime from Shinichiro Watanabe, Fans of Cowboy Bebop like myself may find it lacking but standing alone it was thoroughly enjoyable to watch and i found myself needing to watch the episodes “back to back” which is always a good indication of an animes quality.
Long time not blogging, man, since I’m busy at work. I’ll give you a hint though, I’m on a project of making an RPG game using RPGMaker VX. Remember the last RPGMaker project using RPGMaker XP? Now I’m going to enhanced the project using RPGMaker VX. The graphic will be better with wicked combo chain skill that you will be excited. Anyway, I’ll post that project in a separate topic, but keep anticipating, okay?
Anyway, today’s beat of the day will be Uragiri no Yuuyake from Durarara!! opening song. This tune has a country rock style into it and I’m liking the vocalist voice since he got a very rocking voice. The anime itself is pretty cool and I like Izaya demeanor very much.
The song itself is very much compatible to the current theme of the anime and make a pretty good song to listen to. However, as usual the video clip is as boring as ever (Man, Japan music industry has to put some more creativity in their music video. Make a story out of the music or something, you get my point).
Romaji Lyrics
uragiri no yuuyake
yakkai ni karamitsuku ase o
kirisaku you ni shite
MASHIN wa sakebu utau you ni
blow up louder
mukuchi na yousei wa soko ni iru
blow up louder
tsugunai wa kudaketa ai no kakera
aa asahi wa noboru
BIRU no tanima
ima shinjireba kawaru no sa
muimi ja nai ano yume o
tabibito wa mou inai
DEJAVU no you na mainichi o
tokihanatsu you ni
MASHIN ga kakenukeru yoake
fairyride
AKUSERU yousei wa fumikonda
fairyride
nuguenai namida o nagasenai mama
aa asahi wa noboru
yami o nukete
ima kanjireba mieru no sa
muimi ja nai ano ashita
aa asahi wa noboru
suiheisen
ima shinjireba kawaru no sa
muimi ja nai ano hikari
aa oretachi ni wa mieteru mono ga aru
kitto dare ni mo ubawarenai mono ga aru hazu sa
imi ga nai to omoeru koto ga aru
kitto demo ito wa soko ni kanarazu aru
muimi ja nai ano ito ga
oo asahi wa noboru
yami o nukete
ima kanjireba mieru no sa
muimi ja nai ano ashita
aa asahi wa noboru
suiheisen
ima shinjireba kawaru no sa
muimi ja nai ano hikari
English Translation
As the treacherous sunset
Cuts through
The annoying beads of sweat,
The machine shouts like it’s singing out.
Blow up louder!
The quiet fairy is over there.
Blow up louder!
Atonement is a shard of broken love.
Ah, the morning sun rises, yeah!
There, right between the buildings!
If you believe now, you can change.
That dream of yours isn’t meaningless.
There are no more travelers here.
As through releasing
All of these days that give off déjà vu,
The machine runs through into the dawn.
Fairyride!
The fairy stepped on the acceleration.
Fairyride!
She doesn’t let the tears that she can’t wipe away flow down.
Ah, the morning sun rises, yeah!
It comes out of the darkness!
If you feel it now, you’ll be able to see it.
That tomorrow won’t be meaningless.
Ah, the morning sun rises, yeah!
Over the water horizon!
If you believe now, you can change.
That light isn’t meaningless.
Ah, there’s something that only we can see.
I’m sure it’s something that no one in the world can take from us.
We could think that it has no meaning,
But even so, I’m sure our goal must lie over there.
That goal isn’t meaningless!
Oh, the morning sun rises, yeah!
It comes out of the darkness!
If you feel it now, you’ll be able to see it.
That tomorrow won’t be meaningless.
Ah, the morning sun rises, yeah!
Over the water horizon!
If you believe now, you can change.
That light isn’t meaningless.
Yes, I know, after my hiatus I come back and it’s with 1) and anime and 2) a shounen at the very least. But it is very good, or else I wouldn’t be writing this, now would I? And yes, I will be following this, when a new episode is subbed.
Long time not blogging, man, since I’m busy at work. I’ll give you a hint though, I’m on a project of making an RPG game using RPGMaker VX. Remember the last RPGMaker project using RPGMaker XP? Now I’m going to enhanced the project using RPGMaker VX. The graphic will be better with wicked combo chain skill that you will be excited. Anyway, I’ll post that project in a separate topic, but keep anticipating, okay?
