Animania

I recently rented the first volume of Texhnolyze from Netflix as part of my "watch the proclaimed anime greats" effort. Over a week later, I'm still trying to figure out just what the heck I saw and why anyone would think this was an "awesome" series. The first volume contains the first four episodes. The first episode seems ridiculously shortly, likely because so little happens in it. Some guy, Ichise according to the label, does some fighting, goes and stands alone in a dark room with a sink awhile, then some woman comes up, they apparently have sex though he doesn't seem particularly interested, and then they have sex in front of someone, or something. Then he gets pissed cause she tries to stab him in the eye and he dumps her off him, so someone cuts off one of his arms and one of his legs as payback? Then some blond woman hears about him struggling to get around (yes, he lived despite a lack of medical care), fucks him literally and figuratively, and...oh, end of volume. Beyond that, about all you learn is there some kind of war between the people who run the city, Orugano, and a rebel group who apparently dislike the Texhnolyze technology (basically melding machine parts into the human body).

This series apparently has an excessive love of long scenes where characters just sit and stare, either at themselves in mirrors, into space, or at each other, and somehow you're supposed to know what important events just transpired. Sorry, but give me dialog, give me a voice over, give me action, but don't expect me to magically guess why some guy whose name I didn't even know was so into looking at himself two minutes into the series! The series producers also apparently like a lot of dark scenes (as in actual dark, dark colors, low light, etc), though in some ways it works for what little bit of story you can get from things.

Most of the characters felt very flat. Only Ichise and the blond doctor/mad scientist, appear to have any motivation, personality, etc. And even then, Ichise is seriously lacking in the personality department. He obviously has a strong will to live and loved his mother who died, and he maybe has conflicting feelings about his father who apparently was hanged by a mob. The doctor likes experimenting and improving her work, has some seriously mental defects, and likes sexually molesting her patients. That's about it. The rest of the characters seemed almost background, even Ran who is supposedly an important character for the series. Psychic girl should be interesting, but instead barely speaks and does that damn staring thing. It doesn't help that most of the character designs are also rather ugly. Ran is cute in a freaky sort of way, but that's about it.

I supposed some folks will say I'm just not "existential" or "intelligent" enough to appreciate such a "deep" series. Maybe its true, who knows. But bottom line is, I doubt most people would enjoy this series, and I didn't find it worth even bothering to attempt to finish watching all 22 episodes. I have better things to do with my times, like clean my house and count the hairs falling off my shedding dog.

Rating: F, its only good points are the soundtrack and some nice visuals

I regularly talk about the manga I read or the anime I watch, enough so that most people know I love both. However, most folks may not know that I also enjoy reading Japanese light novels (translated of course), or even had much experience with a light novel. I've posted several reviews on them so far, but many readers may be wondering, what exactly IS a light novel? According to Wikipedia, its basically a Japanese novel primarily aimed at teens and young adults, often serialized in magazines, and regularly adapted into anime or manga series, or visa versa. However, this doesn't really work well, for me, because the main reasons they are considered to be aimed at the demographic is not because of the lack of substance, but because they use furigana rather than kanji. In Japan, furigana is used for those who may not have a strong grasp of kanji yet, so basically furigana is what people learn first, then graduate into kanji. Light novels also tend to be more dialog driven, with shorter paragraphs than mainstream Japanese novels. In a way, they are an equivalent to a novella, often with manga style illustrations peppered through them.

What are some of the ones I'm reading or have read? Well, current series I'm reading include Ballad of a Shinigami, Blood+, Trinity Blood, Chibi Vampire, and Kino no Tabi, as well as the single volume Calling You. On the whole, I find them very interesting reads, and enjoy them as much or more than other novels. Occasionally some, particularly the yaoi stuff from DMP like Ai No Kusabi, suffers from such a hideous translation that its nearly unreadable. However, except for that Ai No Kusabi, all of the ones I've read have been pretty well done. In particular, Ballad of a Shinigami, published by Seven Seas, has been beautifully treated here. Most companies that bring over novels print them in the traditional paperback format, and convert all images to black and white except the cover. However, Seven Seas is releasing their novels in the original light novel format with all of the color pages include, and on higher quality paper, making for a gorgeous release. The only real draw back of light novels is that sometimes the English printers cancel series mid-release, as Tokyopop has done with Chibi Vampire and Kino no Tabi, leaving you without the entire series, which can be very frustrating. Still, I don't think that should deter you too much, as the more people who get into reading them, the more likely the companies are to keep printing rather than stopping.

So, would you consider reading a Japanese light novel? I hope so! Much like anime and manga, it runs the gamut of genres, story lines, etc. If you'd like to give a light novel a try, you can read a free seventeen page sample of Ballad of a Shinigami: Momo the Girl God of Death here (PDF), courtesy of Seven Seas. If you like what you read, the first two volumes are available for purchase at most major book stores or online. You can also check out my reviews of some of the first volumes of light novel series I've read, including Ballad of a Shinigami, by going on the "light novels" category.

Can you believe I didn't buy a single volume of manga at all in October? Finances have been a bit tight, but even still...eww! Light month here with Christmas shopping starting. NaNo is done, so hopefully I'll get back to reviewing as well.

Love Mode, Volume 11 (11/08/2008)

Nana, Volume 13 (11/08/2008)

Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning, Volume 05 (11/08/2008)

Blood+ Volume 3: Boy Meets Girl (11/28/2008)

Chibi Vampire, Volume 11 (11/28/2008)

Fruits Basket, Volume 21 (11/28/2008)

Still on something of a review hiatus, but certainly still buying lots!

Blood+, Volume 03 (09/20/2008)

Love Mode, Volume 10 (09/20/2008)

Bleach, Volume 24 (09/25/2008)

Chibi Vampire, Volume 10 (09/25/2008)

Nana, Volume 12 (09/25/2008)

Rave Master, Volume 30 (09/25/2008)

Bleach, Volume 23 (09/29/2008)

Immoral Darkness (09/29/2008)

Loveless, Volume 08 (09/29/2008)

Thanks to an eBay auction, I picked up some anime too.

UltraManiac, Volume 1: Magical Girl (09/15/2008)

UltraManiac, Volume 2: Magical Friends (09/15/2008)

UltraManiac, Volume 3: Magical Stone (09/15/2008)

UltraManiac, Volume 4: Magical Feelings (09/15/2008)

UltraManiac, Volume 5: Magical Transformations (09/15/2008)

UltraManiac, Volume 6: Magical Love (09/15/2008)

UltraManiac, Volume 7: Magical Ending (09/15/2008)

I read all 23 volumes of Bleach available via my local library. I liked it so much, that when I got the chance to snag the first 22 volumes from eBay for under $127, I took it.

Bleach, Volume 01 (08/29/2008)

Bleach, Volume 02 (08/29/2008)

Bleach, Volume 03 (08/29/2008)

Bleach, Volume 04 (08/29/2008)

Bleach, Volume 05 (08/29/2008)

Bleach, Volume 06 (08/29/2008)

Bleach, Volume 07 (08/29/2008)

Bleach, Volume 08 (08/29/2008)

Bleach, Volume 09 (08/29/2008)

Bleach, Volume 10 (08/29/2008)

Bleach, Volume 11 (08/29/2008)

Bleach, Volume 12 (08/29/2008)

Bleach, Volume 13 (08/29/2008)

Bleach, Volume 14 (08/29/2008)

Bleach, Volume 15 (08/29/2008)

Bleach, Volume 16 (08/29/2008)

Bleach, Volume 17 (08/29/2008)

Bleach, Volume 18 (08/29/2008)

Bleach, Volume 19 (08/29/2008)

Bleach, Volume 20 (08/29/2008)

Bleach, Volume 21 (08/29/2008)

Bleach, Volume 22 (08/29/2008)