G Gundam

When I first learned the concept of G Gundam I was skeptical to say the least. Yet since I first learned of it, my interest grew, thanks in no small part to the wonders of the internet's ability to spread knowledge like wildfire and giving a means for people to shout out opinions. I was swayed enough to give G a chance. Finally, I got around to watching the whole series and not only had my expectations met, they were exceeded.

There are many scenes within G Gundam that have so much emotion behind them. Following the story from start to finish, the characters are very easy to get attached to. (And if you don't think Wong is an asshole by the end of things, something is seriously wrong with you) I don't want to spoil things, but the episodes that deal with the Battle Royale at the end of the tournament are particularly moving.

While I must admit, G is not without some flaws. Aside from main characters and a few others, Okawara Kunio's mechanical designs are basically playing cultural dress-up with the same basic Gundam design. Perhaps the worst sin against G is its English language release. In a time where I personally thought drastically altering names/context was nearing a true decline in America, the incredibly high amount of changes made was a tough pill to swallow. Bandai's only saving grace is that the subtitles for the Japanese audio on the region one DVDs are made to follow the Japanese names. I try and avoid telling people to whether or not to choose English dub or Japanese subtitle tracks as it is a matter of preference, however, because of all the name changes, I cannot help but want to tell more people to watch G subtitled.

G certainly has some glaring shortcomings, and avenues that make it different from so many other Gundam titles, that's all it is; different. I think people are too prone to overlooking the fact that G Gundam is the first time an alternate universe storyline had been made for Gundam. What made me like G was the very thing that makes many others detest its very existence, the fact that it is very different from what people have grown to define as "Gundam". Without a doubt, the genre shift from more of a war story into a fighting tale is tough to accept. Yet the shift is not so great that one should declassify G as a Gundam title. At its core, the story comes down to what every Gundam story does well, demonstarting that it's not the machines, but the people inside them that are the most important thing. G Gundam doesn't forget its roots, (as can be seen by many split-second cameos of Gundams from other more "classic" Gundam titles, and even one from the then yet-to-be-released Gundam Wing), it simply moves away from what was the norm until then. A prodigal son of Gundam.

Rating (8.5/10)

"This hand of mine is burning red! Its loud roar tells me to grasp victory!"

Linda Linda Linda

As I decided when I began this blog, I'd try to write about more than simply anime and manga. That being the case, I now have a new film that I just came back from seeing not too long ago. One of the stops on the very limited run of the film Linda Linda Linda is the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Sq. On a whim I learned about the screening, but very quickly did my homework by reading the synopsis on the Brattle's homepage, as well as the English site for the film. Within a matter of moments I resigned myself to taking a trip down the Red Line to go see it. I was not disappointed at all.

Linda Linda Linda opens up with a shot of a random Japanese school girl filming a small documentary about the high school festival. She declares that these students will never grow up, and they will never forget themselves at this time. It's an opening that puts the rest of the film into perspective. For those of us who have lived through high school and moved past it, we already know how easily so much of it is left behind us, we want to tell the girl the harsh truth, but at the same time, know that we will either not believed, or will only crush spirits.

The film follows four high school girls who want to play a few songs in the rock festival portion of their high school's annual festival. With the loss of two members, Kyoko, Kei, and Nozomi are forced to re-organize their plans for performance and end up asking a Korean exchange student, Son, to join them as their vocalist. Hilarity ensues as the four attempt to learn to perform three songs by the group, The Blue Hearts, a group sometimes referred to as "the Japanese Ramones". (One of the best tongue-in-cheek moments of the film is a quick shot of the Ramones themselves.) Among the songs chosen is the song "Linda Linda" from which the film gets its name. Take it from me, it's a song that gets stuck in your head very easily, but you're quite glad it's there.

Some of the most amusing moments come from Son's interaction with people as she struggles to communicate. As a person who's spent time in Japan with little Japanese language ability, these scenes are particularly amusing. Son's dealing with one boy, Macky, as he struggles to profess love for her in Korean as she tries to politely decline in Japanese is one of best scenes of the film. The awkwardness of the spontaneous and somewhat inappropriate situation is made even more comical by the language barriers.

For only three days of plot, the story of Linda Linda Linda unfolds incredibly well. The pace is neither rushed, not stagnant. In some way, the declaration that these students will never grow up is true. The life ahead of them barely matters (if at all) , what is important is the right-now and the festival.

I cannot help but amused to some extent by this film in a different way. The 12th episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya heavily parodies, the plot from Linda Linda Linda. Seeing the source now, I have a greater appreciation for both. I need to sit down and re-watch the episode now.
For those of you in the Boston area, do yourself a favor. If you can fit it into your schedule; sometime between now and its last show at the Brattle on Jan. 18th, go see Linda Linda Linda and give yourself a good laugh.

Saikano

In my anime fandom, I try and avoid the absolute of labeling a title as one that everyone should see. (The one exception to this rule is probably Grave of the Fireflies, which posses the most uncanny type of story in that it grabs people in a way that no other movie/series I've seen prior or since can even remotely attempt to emulate.) While I work to avoid the absolute, I do have a list that I will highly recommend to others that have caught me in a very strong way. Yet it's sometimes tough to see a title that one so strongly enjoyed, get a less than impressed reaction from someone else. There is perhaps no better example of this in my experience of watching anime over the years than Saikano.

Having known of the existence of the anime since the summer of 2003, I hadn't watched a single episode, or read a single page of the manga until a spring 2006, when I finally borrowed the anime from someone. Very quickly I found out why so many people used Saikano as their trump card for sad titles. Yet the sadness never became a chore, the lives of Chise and Shuji, as well as the others that fill in the events of Saikano's story draw us closer. We want to know what happens next, we want to know how things will turn out. And even as the world is ending, we want to think of some last glimmer of hope to shine through.

Yet even if it is not glorious, radiant hope shining down, but pure unadulterated despair that comes through, Takahashi Shin makes a story that grabs us. Without trying to spoil too much, the final scene with Akemi is one of the most bittersweet I've ever seen in an anime title. It's still funny to think that something this potent started off as a dating sim.

After finishing the Saikano anime, I found myself seeking out the first volume of manga as soon as I had the cash to spare. Come Anime Boston 2006 in May, I was grabbing three volumes to keep going. The following weekend I was rushing to the mall to grab the final volumes. I consider myself relatively well exposed to a lot of different anime and manga titles, but I still remember reading Akemi's final scene in the manga, and for the first time I can remember, I had to stop reading a volume of manga, sit back, and simply say "whoa".

It is practically a cliché to declare "Oh, the manga was so much better than the anime" yet Saikano falls into this category well. Perhaps what makes things so well is Takahashi's knowledge of how to use text. There are pages vacant of any words, leaving us with nothing but a landscape or an intimate scene to take in, as well as pages that are covered with almost nothing but conversation and narration. Takahashi balances these two extremes so well, and each has its proper moment.

Saikano's tag line is "The Last Love Song on This Little Planet". Its fantastic plot make take the audience or reader away from a normal realm by adding an unusual Sci-fi element, and its core, the story is a love story about two people, barely out of their childhood, finding and understanding what true love is, even as the world around them is slowly falling to pieces.

As I said when I began this entry that I cannot say Saikano is something that everyone should read or watch. That being said, it does get my highest suggestion. The manga gets top billing, followed by the anime. (But shy away from the live action movie)

Top Ten Happy Anime

And of course, to even things out, here's my top ten Happy Anime Titles
1) My Neighbor Totoro
2) FLCL
3) Excel Saga
4) The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
5) Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu
6) Lupin III
7) Ranma 1/2
8) Cromartie High School
9) Keroro Gunsou
10) Azumanga Daioh

Top Ten Sad Anime

Once again following a good idea from Andrew's Cinevistramascope, and listing a top ten, this time for sad Anime titles. Some familiar tiles from my overall top ten of course make an appearence or two here too. Expect a happy list sometime soon. (I hope)

1) Grave of the Fireflies
2) Saikano*
3) Rurouni Kenshin: Reminiscence
4) Neon Genesis Evangelion
5) Zeta Gundam
6) Jin-Roh
7) Trigun
8) X
9) My HiME
10) Mobile Suit Gundam 0080, War in the Pocket

*The Manga of Saikano is even more moving than the anime. It gets high points in my book as the first Manga story I read that brought me to the brink of tears.

Believing in the Sign of Zeta...

For those of you who didn't know, over Columbus Day weekend, I took advantage of a large buildup of frequent flyer miles I had amassed with Northwest Airlines via my travels to and from China and Japan in 2005 and went to Chicago. (It's still weird to think of both of those not only in the past tense, but a whole separate year now, Japan especially). The primary purpose of this trip, aside from a weekend away, was to attend the first Anime Focus portion of the Chicago International Film Festival. As a special treat, the event would be the American premiere of the Zeta Gundam movie trilogy. But even more of a treat was who came stateside along with the movies, none other than the creator of Gundam himself, Tomino Yoshiyuki*.

Before each film, Tomino gave a little bit of input about his feelings regarding each film and the project of converting the twenty year old 50 episode television series into a set of three films at large, re-envisioning some parts of the story, updating others, and mixing old and new animation. Following the completion of the third film, Tomino fielded questions from the audience (including one from yours truly) and received a lifetime achievement award by the organizers of the festival.
As for the films, all three are a worthwhile expierence, especially for fans of the original series, the second film, Lovers, holds a particularly fond place in my heart as it which of the three I got to see while in Japan myself. But what of the movies themselves? How do they hold up compared to the Zeta Gundam that so many know? Truth be told, the movies are far from flawless. The difference between old and new footage is one of the most glaring aspect of the film experience that detracts from everything else, often times sticking out like a sore thumb, especially when the newer animation looks incredibly good.

[SPOILER WARNING FOR THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH]

As far as the story goes; personally, I am torn. Omitted aspects of the story sometimes are tough to call. While the new animation of Ben Wooder's actions in the final moments of the Sudori, definitely does a great job of making me loathe the man even more, it also adds quicker finality to the story of quite possibly my favorite of the entire Zeta Gundam story, Four Murasame. Omissions of the events like the battle of Kilimanjaro, and Char's speech at Dakar, create an air that makes the audience question how well Tomino is in touch with his original story. Things recover a bit better by the third film Love is the Pulse of the Stars, but the ending throws several curveballs, most glaringly, the alteration that gives Kamille a much happier ending, and makes the foundation for Gundam ZZ, a little shaky. Yet personally, while the films are a mixed bag, they cannot be viewed as completely bad. What is difficult for the minds of fans to wrap around is that the changes made a very different story, but not necessarily a worthless one.

[END SPOILERS]

In short, the movies are worthwhile, just to see the classic, and in the minds of many Gundam fans, best, series revived and given a new perspective on matters. In the end it is ultimately up to the individual fan to take what he or she wants from the films and weigh it accordingly. Tomino himself is an interesting fellow to view, perhaps not realizing the impact he has stateside, but also having difficulty understanding the sometimes very different mindset of American fans. While it made me sigh a little bit to hear foolish questions being asked of someone who is a rarity to talk to; I think nearly all in the Thorne Auditorium that Saturday were entirely grateful. It is wonderful to know that a standing ovation is transcends the barrier of language.

A final kudos goes to the Chicago International Film Festival for putting on a well organized event, for making an enjoyable expierence. I hope they continue their anime focus event and find ways to continue to make the event successful. I most certainly will be keeping my eyes peeled for what they plan on for next year.

Until next time, Sieg Zeon!

*I am in the habit of using the Japanese way of saying names, with the family name first followed by the given name.

Akira

So this has been past due for awhile now, but I figured it was time to start working on my thoughts on some oh my thoughts on something from Japan. Continuing on the trend of the dominating theme of this blog, I'd like to talk a little bit about a small film many of you might know as Akira. Otomo's manga adapted into an anime feature length film is breathtaking in every sense of the word. From a score that is anything but predictible for cinema, to breathtaking scenery, and high passed action, mystery, and drama. However, what bothers me about Akira is the fact that it seems too many people know this film as a film that really helped anime become popular among America/Western audiences, but so few of the audience memebers seem to grasp on to anything that makes them understand why this film is amazing. All that is known is that it is far from their norm and has a large following, but that is it. (Ghost in the Shell seems to share a similar fate). I will not feign that even I truly get everything that makes Akira the film that it is, but it definitely warrants multiple viewings, to catch what one doesn't catch the first time.

For me, what caught my eye the most recent time I sat down and watched the film was Otomo's motiff of close calls. The near misses in the lives of Kaneda and Tetsuo, among other characters, are countless. Survival in Neo-Tokyo seems to be taken for granted despite clear evidence of death visible all around. Those we see tempt the reaper time and again. Kaneda and Tetsuo start off on the same path of survival, but ultimately end up splitting different ways, with Kaneda learning the value of his own life and seeking to protect it more, and Tetsuo finding an imagined invincibility that is ultimately his undoing. Yet despite these things, and constant reminders of how fragile life is, counteracting these events are reminders of despite the grim displays of insignifigance, there are reminders all around of how much impact one life can have.

"It has already begun..."