Hige vs. Otaku

Summary
We open with Deidara and Akatsuki newbie Tobi confronting the aquatic behemoth Sanbi, also known as the three-tailed Bijū. Tobi shows trepidation over tackling it, suggesting Deidara should do the honours, but Deidara commands Tobi to prove his worth. Rather than take the opportunity to do so Tobi runs for his life exclaiming that Kisame should be dealing with water-types. A mounted Deidara labels this pathetic and readies a fish-like explosive clay model. It dives down to meet the face of the Sanbi and Deidara detonates, causing a massive spike of water that sends Tobi flying. We cut away to find Yamato meditating surrounded by nine torched idols and three piles of indiscernible powder. He pushes out his left hand to reveal the kanji ‘Za’ (‘gathering’, ‘position’) written on his palm. Kakashi enquires about how well the Kyūbi chakra suppression is going, calling Yamato by the name ‘Tenzou’. Yamato replies in the affirmative but requests that Kakashi calls him by the name Yamato rather than Tenzou. Meanwhile, Naruto and his numerous clones continue their training, attempting to split leaves and bickering amongst themselves over their varying success; one clone in particular is doing well with a leaf almost split entirely in two. Naruto asks Kakashi if anyone else in Konoha is able to alter the nature of wind and Kakashi confirms there is, but he’s probably busy playing Shougi (Japanese chess). We cut away to Shikamaru checkmating Asuma, deciding on his reward of a free meal after the next mission. Naruto rowdily appears and enquires about some assistance and Asuma decides Naruto’s payment will have to be a meal of Yakiniku after their next mission. Shikamaru exclaims annoyance at this and Naruto agrees regardless. Asuma pulls out two short-bladed weapons and reveals them as his chakra blades, which are forged from special metal that can channel the user’s chakra. He hands one to Naruto and asks him to do so and an aura of chakra appears around it. Naruto notes that it looks different from Asuma’s. Asuma continues the lesson by explaining that wind alteration involves splitting chakra in two and grinding them together to form a fine, sharp shape. Naruto disputes the merits of doing this to an already-sharp weapon like the blades and Asuma produces a practical example by telling Naruto to throw it at a nearby tree. He does so and Asuma throws his, with Naruto’s blade becoming lodged in the trunk and Asuma’s cutting through it neatly and causing a sizable crater of damage in a rock behind. Asuma explains that he limits his chakra use for safety and if he didn’t the blade could have easily gone through the rock. He continues to explain that in a fight with bladed weapons, the sharpest usually wins. He notes the wind affinity is a rare trait and explains that if Naruto requires any further assistance it will cost him a meal of Yakiniku for Team 10 each time. Naruto disappears to teach the troops his new insight and Asuma comments guiltily on the membership of Chouji in his team, to which Shakamaru shows irritated disdain. We conclude with Tsunade receiving bad news about the fallen Bijū and the presence of Akatsuki in the Fire Country. Tsunade demands they will not leave the country and calls for the dispatch of the new 20th Legion.

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Is anyone else getting heavy deja vu of Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood from the Shuuji/Rika/Harada triangle? The likeness to Norwegian Wood is uncanny and the novel was a huge success in Japan, so it stands to reason it may have influenced Honey & Clover’s mangaka. It’s certainly not a bad thing – if anything, I get added bouts of nostalgia to complement an already touching part of the series. It’d interesting to hear from the source, though. You know what those Japs are like. Cultural prism you say? Smells like THEFT to me. :D

Shuu’s dream sequence in the beginning of this episode was terrifying – especially after reading some comments on other blogs predicting Rika’s imminent suicide. And after Shuu’s prophetic dream I was certain it was happening this episode. Instead, we get a Mayama x Rika jaunt that’s eerily similar to Yamada x Nomiya’s adventures last week. Only obviously neither of them wanted to die. This week’s episode was much more serious (considering the characters it makes perfect sense) and actually quite dark. There’s a very brief suggestion of Rika’s troubled home life, with memories suggesting that her father was quite the bastard and of a reliable pooch that kept Rika company through the harder times.

Mayama decides to take on the role of Harada and eventually manages to bag Rika, only to catch her sneaking away to Spain without him. After confronting her, demanding she can’t abandon him, Mayama does the unthinkable and starts to cry. Mayama hatred reduced to zero. Then he gets self-conscious and commands Rika to go have some tea while he pulls himself together, confiscating her handbag for reassurance. Mayama hatred fully restored with additional grr. The guy was clearly a prick for mistreating Yamada in the first place, but being in a relationship with him suddenly means living in a police state? Total cock. The unicorns need to appear and beat the crap out of him before he defects to Spain with his fancy woman.

The animation quality this week seemed especially beautiful with all the landscapes and sprawling ocean shots. The colour scheme is always perfect and beautiful in the show, but apply it to the natural beauty of Japanese country-side and you get something special. Who needs reality when you’ve got Honey & Clover.

Conclusion
A heavy, emotionally exhaustive episode. Each scene felt loaded with meaning and it seemed out of character for Honey & Clover to be this serious for an extended period of time. Regardless, it was a brilliant episode and it demonstrated there’s still bucketloads of stuff to explore and resolve. I miss the days when all the characters interacted with each other, but rather this than it boring repetition.

Okay, so this is a strange occurrence. I actually quite like NHK’s OP music. I actually quite like all the music in NHK (bar the awful anime parody which we’re meant to hate). It’s odd because I find most anime music inherently horrendous. My indie inclinations usually act as a direct antithesis to anime OST, with the squeaky j-pop ballads driving me insane, but the use of guitar music here strikes the right balance between respectability and emotional impact.

In a lot of ways my opinions of NHK are changing for the better. The uninformed expectations from the first episode have disappeared and I’m starting to appreciate the understated melancholy that runs throughout the show. It’s not constantly hilarious (although there are a lot of nice subtle touches), but it reflects the human condition fantastically. I think to appreciate NHK properly it’ll take a change in perception. This is obviously going to be a lot harder for people who’ve read/loved the manga than for those who haven’t (like me), but I can see myself liking it as a ’serious’ show.

Still, it seems the coming episodes will have more opportunity for comedy now Satou and Yamazaki have started their crusade to make the ultimate h-game. At least then it won’t reach Evangelion levels of self-pity (as much as I condone such activity *misanthropic high five*).

It was interesting to get a few flashbacks to Satou’s time in high school, although there’s still no definitive explanation to why he became a hihikomori. The introduction of Hitomi Kashiwa and Kaoru Yamazaki brought some welcome variety to the fairly limited cast of Satou and Misaki. Hitomi seems especially enigmatic and I’m curious to know how her constant conspiracy theorising may have affected Satou’s young, impressible mind. Yamazaki’s role as hardcore otaku and fledgling misogynist is both amusing and disturbing. He underlines a lot of the astuteness I like about NHK, and how the show couples the tragic realities with subtle, mocking humour. He acted as a nice comparison to Satou, too; demonstrating Satou is actually quite cool when you remove him from the destructive hermit lifestyle he’s imposed on himself.

Conclusion
It’s still hard to predict where NHK is heading, but the mystery is a good incentive to keep watching. The show is starting to really grow on me and the introduction of more cast members has removed the claustrophobia that bothered me about episode one. Production values are being maintained, with this episode’s visuals seeming more attractive to me for reasons I can’t quite explain. The music is great and the ED still scares the shit out of me. Overall I’m developing a more positive outlook for the series and a growing curiosity where it’s heading. Roll on episode three.

He is Yo Himomura, deadly assassin for the 108 Dragons, the Chinese
Mafia. But to the criminal underworld who fear him, he is known as
Crying Freeman, the killer who sheds tears at the fate of his victims.
Young, handsome, sensitive, an artist, Yo has been hypnotically
programmed by his Dragon masters to kill on command: he cannot resist
his masters’commands to kill, his masters cannot stop his tears of
remorse.

It was quite a surprise to discover that Kazuo Koike wrote Crying Freeman. Before reading my experience with the title barely stretched beyond its ubiquity in the manga sphere and the fairly dire anime version from days of yore. After reading I feel that touch more confident in exclaiming The Manga is [generally] Better, as is the case eight times out of ten. Obviously not confident enough to remove the parenthesis and the additional disclaimer, there’s too many exceptions to the rule, but in this case it’s a dead cert. This is seminal work.

Kazuo Koike, for those who don’t know, is best known for writing Lone Wolf and Cub; one of the most critically lauded and beloved mangas ever. For me, this adoration is based on cold hard fact. The twenty-eight volume epic offered countless examples of Koike’s writing chops and mixed an acute degree of intelligence and knowledge with a mastery of dramatic tension. Conversely, my experiences with Ryoichi Ikegami, Crying Freeman’s artist, are non-existent. Regardless, this first volume speaks more than enough of Ikegami’s abilities as an artist. His depiction of anatomy is outstanding, and the manga makes brilliant use of this anatomical dynamism with breathtaking effect. There’s little criticism to be had when considering the prowess of both men’s technical abilities and this is what makes Crying Freeman a work of seminal quality.

Story-wise, Crying Freeman deviates greatly from the staunchly historical tone of Lone Wolf and offers something more character driven and modern (in an 1980s sense, at least). There’s still mythology surrounding its characters, but the story of one man forced into dark practices and his consequential guilt is its main thrust. Generally speaking the characters in Crying Freeman don’t deviate massively from the standard archetypes of fiction. The virtuous maid; the insidious, cavalier bad guy; the tragic hero. Much is accounted for and it goes a way in undermining the unpredictability of the story. This is less of an issue when you’re dealing with a fantastic writer such as Koike, however, and the entire book remains utterly compelling from cover to cover. The plotting is mature and complex and its artwork reflects this effortlessly. Sometimes it can feel slightly campy, with its design and style betraying the time period it was written in, but this compliments the pulpy feel of the manga rather than undermining it.

The issue of graphic content is important when considering this title. The shrink-wrapping and parental advisory sticker speaks honestly of the manga’s content rather than being a bloated attempt to look cool. There are a lot of pornographic scenes and the violence is brutal and detailed, but both cases rarely feel pointlessly gratuitous. They compliment the mature themes and strengthen the distinctly adult nature of the book. This is not written for kids and the 18+ rating is particularly justified in acting as a guideline.

Dark Horse have done their usual bang-up job of presentation and translation. Print quality is excellent, the original cover art is used, it reads from right to left. Everything manga aficionados want from their books is accounted for and done well.

Conclusion
As a first volume Crying Freeman doesn’t fall prey to many introductory conventions. We get a strong love story that compliments the main plot thread rather than straining to add humanity to its explicit violence. Even the violence is seeped with guilt and remorse, removing much of the numbing mindlessness of it. Characterisation perhaps doesn’t push the boat out much, but as an entire package it reeks of quality and sophistication. I’d eagerly recommend this to anyone who enjoys ‘adult’ manga and especially to those who adored Lone Wolf and Cub. If this kind of pacing and character development is maintained, there’s no question that Crying Freeman will justify its elevated position of love and respect.

Just a few brief comments because I’m so late and everyone has already blogged everything of merit.

Firstly: Unicorns. Scenes like this are what make Honey & Clover fundamentally funnier than most TV shows (let alone anime). The fact that it’s so expertly interwoven with the serious aspects of the episode make it all the more brilliant. I decree that they must be a recurring theme and [pipe dream] kick the shit out of Mayama at some point.

Secondly: Nomiya humanity. Smells like Yamada plot development to me~~!

Thirdly: Opening theme/animation. It’s seriously growing on me. I didn’t have any negative feelings toward it to start with, but now I pretty much love it. It allows for ridiculous screaming during the chorus and is catchy as hell. Today’s homework: write a short analysis of what the opening animation could represent. Extra credit for flagrant use of unicorns. 

Forthly: No Takemoto. Aw. Still, if we had to sacrifice him for the sake of some proper Yamada development then so be it. There’s always next week.

Fifthly: Perhaps more importantly, no Morita. Takemoto is easy to predict the future of, but Morita is still cloaked in mystery. I’m not too sure about the prospect of Morita becoming a legitimately serious character with all this family business . . . but still, more screen times equates more chance for comedy genius.

Conclusion
A very robust episode, with all the things I heart about the series. The whole snow globe analogy had me worried of a minute, but thankfully it wasn’t over-used and we got to hear Yadama say ’snow dome-u’. Snigger. Looks like Honey & Clover is really keeping up the quality with its second series, and as a massive fan there’s not much more I can ask for!

Summary

Kakashi finally reveals the plan to achieve his goal of rapid training Naruto. He explains that because shadow clones are actual physical entities of the user, they have the ability to act independently and bring back whatever they’ve learnt to the original once the jutsu has been released. Proving that it should, in fact, be a ‘D’ on his head-guard,  Naruto still doesn’t quite understand. Kakashi demonstrates with a simple game of rocks-paper-scissors. After creating a shadow clone of themselves, Kakashi and Naruto run off into the forest together and do the deed while the originals look on. They release the jutsu, Kakashi asks what they were doing and Naruto, surprised, confirms they were playing a game. Sadly, poor Nar doesn’t quite understand how this translates into beneficial training and Kakashi explains further. Due to the capability of relying information from the clone to the original, and Naruto’s immense stamina that can produce a thousand clones, the time taken to train will be massively reduced – from twenty years to just a week, in fact. Kakashi reveals this is possible for Naruto and not himself because Naruto’s chakra is twice as much as his own. And if Yamato can control the Nine-tails it could be over a hundred times more. Enter our lovely assistant Yamato. Kakashi continues the lecture by describing the five basic types of chakra: wind, water, fire, earth and lightning. Yamato adds that every person’s chakra leans to a particular element and Naruto reviews Sasuke’s affinity with both fire and lightning. Naruto’s inclination is still unknown and Kakashi proposes a test, using a special kind of paper taken from the bark of a tree fed and nurtured by chakra for a prolonged time. When chakra is channelled with it in-hand, the paper reacts in a appropriate fashion (bursts into flames, turns into water etc) depending on the person’s affinity. Naruto takes the paper and, after a dramatic pause, reveals that the paper has split in two. He’s all about the wind.

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I’ve been mulling over this topic for a while now – partly out surprise for my resilience for keeping this up as long as I have and partly to honour the on-going theme of this site. That being, as the site name suggests, my attempts to accurately define why I enjoy all this Japanese crap so much. Hopeless‘ recent post about ‘how to blog’ spurred me on a fair bit too; if only to enforce the belief that most of what he said is plain common sense.

My blog ethos relates to the simple idea of doing it for yourself. Being stubborn and naturally contentious makes it easier for me to say this, as well as helping to avoid a lot of anime blog trends, but ultimately I just want a platform to write my opinions. It’s purely egotistical in that sense, but there are a lot of finer points to consider and collectively they play a massive, massive role in explaining why I blog. So for the sake of clarity I’m going to bullet point these MFers. Roll on.

• Writing – first and foremost, I do this as a means to practise writing. It’s actually got to the stage where I’m aware of my writing mojo – how naturally/unnaturally I’m expressing myself, when’s the best time to write, (which typically is stupid o’clock in the morning), what kind of syntax is most effective etc. etc. All these things are incredibly useful to know, and, assuming I get my shit together enough to make it happen, will be beneficial when I inflict myself on the world of journalism. Just the act of writing about something as varied as anime and manga this often means your reviewing technique gets a decent work out and it becomes much easier to write on command.
• Community - considering we’re all meant to be a bunch of socially inept, fap-happy fools, the anime blogging community is least elitist, most intelligent, social bunch I’ve come across on the Internet. Perhaps the niche nature of it means there’s less opportunity for idiocy, or maybe my deluded naivety had blinded me from drama that’s happening elsewhere (that graph nonsense doesn’t count), but for me you guys fucking rock. The #animenano irc channel, all the blog aggregators, the people listed to the right – they’re all juicy vats of knowledgeable, articulate spiffiness with interesting views and high degrees of awesomeness. If the shameless desire for self-improvement is the number one reason for me doing this then the community is the number one-point-five reason. I wouldn’t have half the motivation to do all this if it weren’t you guys. OMG I LOVE YOU ALL, SERIOUSLY. BUMSECKS PLZ.
• Fun – it probably goes without saying, but doing all this is great fun. I get to talk shit about stuff I’d watch and talk shit about anyway, and all with the added bonus of feedback from people who know more than I do. I don’t get Memento or Sea Slugs levels of comments, but when I do they’re usually interesting/discussion-fostering and I love it. Getting to be flippant about Naruto or needlessly pretentious about Ergo Proxy is a lot of fun for me. Perhaps that says a lot about my personality, but ya know, so does the mindless adoration of FLCL. I’m kinda weird.

I dunno. The more I write about this, the more it becomes blatantly obvious why I blog. Manga and anime are both things I consider to be a hobby, and I’ve always been the kind to yammer on mindlessly about things I enjoy. Having a solid community to act as a soapbox for such behaviour just encourages me further.

It’ll be interesting to see how the anime blogging community develops from this point onwards. It seems to be steadily growing and I wonder how many will survive. As with most things, the resilient fuckers are usually the best. How a nexus-like IRC channel like #animenano will effect things is also an interesting point to consider. I’m hoping drama by the boatloads. It’s going to rock.

Speaking of which, here’s a nugget wisdom from #animenano’s own digiwombat. I think someone should start a blog with this as the tagline and rant about how much they hate anime. OH WAIT.

<digiwombat> BUT FUCK THOSE SLOTTY EYED MURDERERS!

Lawwwl.

P.S. Because I’m clearly on the pulse of all this community stuff, Anime Nano have a new podcast and it’s great. You should all listen.

Expectations are strange. Fundamentally, I had no idea what NHK was about before viewing. I read a lot about it on other blogs and liked the vague impression I was developing, but it never amounted to more than ‘obsessive otaku and random weird shit’. Funny how nothing’s changed 25 minutes on, ain’t it. After a particularly bizarre first ten minutes and a pretty awkward second half, I still have no concrete opinion on what the fuck I just watched.

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I’m back in Glasgow now, returning to finer Mac-related pastures after using the prehistoric XP for the past week or so… and evidently returning to latent Apple elitist tendencies, it would seem. It’s good to be back! *strokes iBook seductively*

The summer season is in full swing with the beloved Honey & Clover making its fairly triumphant return. Lots of awesome blogs here and here offer their opinions on the first two episodes, so I’ll start blogging it with episode three, but both episodes so far haven’t disappointed me and I can feel the moderate swell of adoration in my loins once again.

Episode one gets infinite points for having the funniest moment perhaps in anything ever – that being when Morita & Hagu kiss and consequential hilarity that follows. I’d completely forgotten about the beauty of that moment and I crippled myself laughing (my right knee still has the bruise) at it again. Episode two brought about the official start to the new season and I appreciated the new dynamic of Yamada and Miyama’s relationship (i.e. the presence of Rika in their shared working environment) but part of me hoped JC Staff & co would’ve moved beyond that now. It sustained the latter part of the first series well enough, but I grew bored of it eventually. One of my biggest wishes for season two is that Yamada gets a grip and kicks some arse. A reintroduction of the scissor-kick would be a good start, I feel.

One aspect of episode two I thoroughly enjoyed, however, was the maturity of Hagu and Takemoto’s relationship. As much as I love Morita, Takemoto was made specifically to take care of Hagu and they simply have to be together. It’s one of those ‘inevitable relationships’ all good shows have. Plus Takemoto, much in the same way as Yamada, is one of those underdog characters I have a great affection for. They aren’t the jokers or the lolis but they’re the bread and butter and so lovable for it. But really, I adore the entire cast so ultimately it’s a mute point. How Shuuji develops in this series will be another interesting point. Although the /y/ in me is suspicious and/or hopeful, how he clashes with Mayama over the affections of Rika and his attempts to usurp Shuu-chan’s role as the father figure might lead to some interesting drama.

The other shows from the summer season that are on the watch list are: NHK, because it looks wonderfully fucked up and hopefully it will vindicate my comparatively mild otaku behaviour; Flag, assuming it actually gets picked up by a fansub group; Kemonozume Sakaba for the same reason as Hopeless. And that’s about it. There’s a few other series that potentially could be great, but my pickiness with anime and a general lack of bandwidth means a high degree of selectiveness for the time being. Plus, Ergo Proxy is still tooting along and combined with a healthy manga consumption I don’t want to burn myself out.

Anyhow, NHK has finished torrenting and I’m desperate to see it. I’m going to power-blog over the next week before I swan off to see more family on the 25th. I’ll be gone for another week but internets on this machine might be available, so another mini-hiatus should be avoidable. Ima gon’ rinse my pop’s bandwidth gooood!

No summary (in the traditional sense) this week due to home-ness and time saving measures. I’ve got a connection here but not on the maptop, so transferring data from one to the other is pretty laborious. My poor wee iPod shuffle is being worked to death with the Honey & Clover II episodes alone. I’d do it all on the connected laptop but it doesn’t have the software I need and it doesn’t belong to me, so I’d rather avoid annoying the owner and deal with the hassle.

So, another decent chapter this week. Hidan and Kazuku continue their crusade for Jinchūriki in the Fire Country and come across a monastery full of ninja monks. Weirdly, the character development this chapter switches to a stronger focus on Kazuku, who turns out to be a raging capitalist pig. Hidan, conversely, comes across as even more genuine in his religious beliefs and less of an obnoxious cock. It’s refreshing to see a reversal in tone like this and it goes a long way in undermining the initial criticism over their flimsy characterisation, even if it is a little confusing. They’ve certainly grown into something more than I was cynically expecting and it fleshes them out nicely. I still don’t like them, though. I think their role as ‘destructive force’ lacks the subtly I love from Itachi’s ‘implied menace’. They serve their purpose and all that, but it’s just not what I want from a bad guy. That and we still don’t bloody see the pair in action! We get yet another cut-away as they storm into battle with the head monk without the slightest hint of their actual powers. Again, this is probably Kishimoto being economical with his time and I suppose in the long run it will make their inevitable battle with Konoha/Naruto all the more special. It’s an infuriatingly massive tease, though, and I’m sure if I saw some uber l33t move0rz etc. it’d be easier to appreciate them and their over-arching bad-assness.

Meanwhile, we get a typically drawn out introduction from Kakashi on this spangly new move he intends to teach Naruto. No new information is given other than it involves two techniques, both of which entail chakra manipulation of nature and shape. Kakashi likens it to creating the electric-like Chidori in methodology but suggests nothing of how or what. It’s not massively disappointing, because immediately after we get a genuinely surprising and touching moment from Asuma as he visits the Hokage memorial site.

It turns out the 3rd (Sandaime) was Asuma’s pops! The scallywag. I literally had no idea and I hope that was the point, rather than some blatant ignorance on my part. How this will effect future plot developments? It’s hard to say. Perhaps the conflict between the new Akatsuki will cause unrest in the Konoha ranks and result in some dramatic revelations and exciting reshuffles. Asuma may even whip out some hidden bloodline techniques and live up to the awesomeness we’ve known he’s had all along. It’s actually quite tricky to reasonable predict what Kishimoto is up to with this. It’s certainly intriguing, nonetheless. Plus: more Asuma~~ He just better not die. It is quite suspicious, isn’t it?

We come back to the now-standard scene of total destruction and appropriate body count, and seemingly no Jinchūriki. Kazuku enforces his greed for money by scooping the fallen monk with the intention of collecting the bounty on his head and Hidan does his ritual thing again, exclaiming disgust at Kazuku’s hypocritical time-keeping standards. A lone surviving monk hides in the wreckage with the intention of informing Konoha and the chapter comes to a close. I wonder how much time Konoha will get to prepare now Kazuku wants to make a few bucks on the side? And will it even matter? Part of me likes to think Konoha are special and will put up a better fight than the previous targets, but Kishimoto has always been eager to underpin the general equality of power between the villages. Also, we haven’t actually seen the Ataksuki face an entire village before – just to the Bijū, who had no support. And reason suggests that with hindsight, Tsunade will pre-empt any kind of infiltration of the village by sending out a team to intercept. Perhaps this is where Asuma will factor in? Lots of interesting potential, as usual. Hopefully Kishimoto won’t drag it out too painfully. All in all: another meaty, highly enjoyable chapter.