Random Rambling Blog Thingy

This is a production that manages to somehow combine a number truly disparate elements into a vaguely cohesive whole. First, it's a period piece set in Louis XV's court. In most respects it does a pretty good job of this. In anime, extras and sets are cheap, so there are some inspired backgrounds and lots of little details to keep us grounded in the 16th century Europe.

In addition to Louis , there's a cast of historical personages that play strongly into the story lines, including Louis' wife, Maria Leszczyńska, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, Madame de Pompadour, Elizabeth of Russia, and the Comte de Saint-Germain.

Saint-Germain is a clue to one of the other forces at work here, mystical cabals with working magick. The characters, setting, and politics actually don't seem to require the occult elements. Though it does provide some nice story shortcuts and a little spice. The level of flash is subdued by the apparent desire of the story to stay in our universe and not some alternate sorcery laden one.

Well, there are some zombie critters, but the common folk are blissfully unaware. Here, again, bribed guards or other villain types would work just as well. Taken as a whole, the magic doesn't drive the story as much as the people, which makes it seem extra. If even more subdued, the more historically minded might have enjoyed this more. Well, maybe.

For a certain kind of anime, it's got the basics, power politics and some kind of fantasy. Round that all off with gender bending and you have a Japanese triumvirate. For some reason, gender confusion is an excessively common theme in anime, from complete magical transformation to more mundane questionable wardrobe choices. The number of examples of this probably make it the number two anime fetish, right after the undisputed number one; school girls. A quick search turned up this list.

The title character is also an historical figure; the wikipedia entry says it all: Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d'Éon de Beaumont (October 5, 1728 - May 21, 1810), usually known as the Chevalier d'Éon was a French diplomat, spy, soldier and Freemason who lived the first half of his life as a man and the second half as a woman.

D'Eon latter life gender role is uncertain, whether he really was a woman or merely asserted his belief he was. In the anime, his alternate lifestyle is brought on the channeling of the soul of his dead sister, who he's the spitting image of. The dead female sibling of course has all the answers, was a much better with the sword, and knew alchemy. You can pretty much see where this is going.

While not great, I can't heartily endorse it, on the whole it's good enough to be amusing. There's royal intrigue and a lot of musketeer style cloak and dagger. Lots of little historical tidbits and the expected liberties. With this caveat, the last few episodes are pretty awful, with the finale being absolutely horrid. Most of the loose ends do get tied up and you'll want to watch the end if you got that far. Just be aware that the final boat back to France heralds some kind of anime writer's strike for the show.

Mushi are things, entities of subtle substance that few people can even perceive. They are the often unseen catalyst for many of natural or supernatural phenomena. To those who can see them, they often look like little walking viruses, strands, amoeba, etc. Mushi can mean bug or insect.

Ginko is a Mushi-shi, or Mushi master, which led to a very unfortunate translation of the series into English as "bugmaster". Each episode stands on its own, a story of people touched by supernatural or inexplicable circumstance. Ginko, the only constant in the series, is our guide; offering solutions or advice for dealing with the mysterious Mushi.

This is, of all things, a gentle anime. At times frightening or disturbing, the tone soft, the visuals engaging, the stories often melancholy though generally affirmative. While not a swift moving, action packed affair, the stories are told well. It lack those long, useless, brooding pauses that plague most "psychological" anime. Or, rather, such pauses make sense rather than dissonance.

One curiosity of the show is the time and place. While taking place in latter day, feudal Japan, the when and where are never real specific. Almost all the players wear basic working kimono, with pattern and such showing up for emphasis. Ginko is the single anachronism, wearing wester style garb, shoes, pants, a collared shirt.

The first episode is out of time, a child in the woods, living away from cities, Ginko notes his (Meiji?) period house is very old. One gets the sense it's nearer modern times, maybe post WWII, but it's never confirmed. Ginko has white hair and a green eyes. I suspected he was supposed to be German; anime favors Germanic occultists. However, we later learn he once looked like all the other Japanese kids, until that Mushi... We never do learn were he got his shoes.

On a stranger note, many Mushi look a lot like floaters. This had struck me, I used to stare at the things for hours as a child. (Yes, I was easily amused. ) The wiki entry for the series even notes this, so it's not just me.

I don't want to reveal anymore. Please see this one. It's really the best anime series I've seen in years. It is poignant, insightful, and never looses it's way. Like the best of any genre, it's more about the people than action or effects. It will haunt you, in a good way.

Like phases of the moon, I seem to run into vampire based entertainment. The modern vampire myth is simple, superhuman powers and an addiction to the always fashionable red stuff that runs through people's veins. Those are the only rules, really. Note, in the context of "good" vampires, blood is usually a little like spinach to Popeye.

As cheesy as all that innately is, I'm still a sucker for it. (Yeah, puns are mandatory.) First, the stupid. One of the stupidest vampire movies ever, based on a video game, is BloodRayne. Well, that's what I thought until I saw BloodRayne II: Deliverance. Note the cast in the original, a lot of recognizable names in there. With that, a scene very close to X rated, an off screen tryst between the two female leads, actresses later seen in Lost and Painkiller Jane, and a Meatloaf cameo, BloodRayne is a really entertaining bad movie. The "sequel" is bizarre, a basic spaghetti Western with vampires, very bad but nothing particularly redeeming.

In anime, the very short movie Blood: The Last Vampire is a stand out. Atmospheric, creepy, it runs against the all too real background of a US military base in Okinawa. It spawned a series that I'm currently watching, Blood +. While containing many anime cliches I'm not fond of, I still can't turn away. I'm on episode 40 or so. It's good, in spite of my reservations.

And now, the other night, on CBS, was Moonlight. It's been done, many times. One reviewer likened it to Angel, but he was wrong. This show is a near identical reprisal of Forever Knight. The pilot for which stared Rick "I love the 80's" Springfield.

I enjoyed Forever Knight and expected to hate Moonlight, but I didn't. The lead actually has a Rick Springfield thing going on. His voice is melodious and suited to the little Sam Spade style voice overs the pilot favors. There is a blond woman who "knows" his secret and an old friend (LaCroix?) who chides his mortal sensitivities. It's not inspired or original, but I'll probably watch the next installment.

Perfect Blue is the first feature film from Satoshi Kon. The original production was supposed to be live action, but found it's way to the animation studio instead. There is a strange irony here, since the plot revolves around a live action TV show production and partially with the blurring of realties in front of and behind the camera.

Mima Kirigoe is a pop idol who has quit the band to embark on a career as an actor. Mima quickly acquires a stalker and possibly a psychotic break. Being a novice actor prejudged by a pop career is stressful. Mima seems unsure of here choices. Bad things start to happen to the staff. She starts to talk to herself; we think.

Reality is constantly juggled for us as Mima tries to sort out what's happening around her. She seems to have blackouts. She's not sure how the tragedies surrounding her life involve her. We are constantly challenged to discern what is real. It's a balancing act that risks loosing us in the confusion, but always seems to adeptly draw us back.

On the sex and violence meter, this is a little high, about as much as most modern thrillers. Japanese are far more comfortable, way too comfortable, with rape on film. Our budding actress is asked to do the equivalent of a nude scene. You are warned.

Perfect Blue is a solid thriller that redefines the scope of storytelling that can be done with animation. It demands attention; intelligent and tense all the way.

After watching the first episode of "Desu Nōto", I thought it was a very cleaver premise, but not really complex or open enough to allow for a compelling storyline. The story device, in short, if a person's name is written on the death note by someone holding that person's face in mind, that person will die. The death note is, of course, found a by a high school kid.

By the end of the pilot, our hero, Light Yagami, has killed a few people, met the death god who dropped the note, resolved to rid the world of the wicked and then rule over the remaining population as a god. I'm afraid I didn't have much hope after this, but continued watching to see where they'd go.

Turns out, Light is a true genius. We watch his brain tick and can't help but admire him in his megalomaniacal mechanizations. Just when the series starts to loose momentum, the plot twists. The base story changes many times over the run, while still functioning as a single continuous narrative.

While mass murder is a driving force, there's little gore; heart attack is the default method of demise. All the characters are fascinating. Many characters have active internal dialogs and we get to share their thoughts, plots and plans. It is engrossing, intelligent, thought provoking, and just really damn good. Early on I thought of Dexter watching this, but this is actually better.

I've seen twenty-five of the twenty-nine episodes aired in Japan; all good. Thirty-nine episodes are planned. This one is so well done that even those with anime aversion might be convinced to watch.

You remember all those crime solving shows of the 80's? The ones featuring couples in varying degrees of sexual tension and relationship? On the light side, even though there's almost always a body? They're coming to me now like a flashback; Moonlighting, Hart to Hart, Remington Steele, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, probably more...

The reason for this embarrassing mental breakdown; anime. I read reviews and many liked Fake. While it has one element that's completely foreign to American entertainment, I felt very strongly I was watching the pilot for the next Moonlighting.

The crime mystery is basic and not overly important. The main point is our couple, who are partners on the police force, attracted to each other, and never quite make the commitment. It's silly and generally amusing. There is murder and blood, probably more so than a Remington Steele, though tame my anime standards.

This is the basic, formulaic, TV Land framework into which this anime seems to fit, with a notable exception. Our couple are both men. This inevitably distracts every reviewer and causes wildly inaccurate assertions. like calling this the "The Gay Lethal Weapon." Also, the relationship between the main characters is focus of the story and downplaying it, as some do, is probably just homophobic.

Needless to say, if you're homophobic, this one ain't for you. If you're just uncomfortable with the idea of seeing it, it's all basically prime time TV clean; well, if one of them were a woman. While not "The Gay Lethal Weapon", it's definitely different in a "I'm pretty sure this was an 80s TV pilot" kind of way.

Silly anime. Actually, I blame h3salthea for this, if not for recommending, then at least for pointing me in the direction.

The anime, FLCL. Yeah, that's really the name. Pronounced "furi kuri" or "fooly cooly". What's it about? About two hours if you don't watch all the credits; it's a six episode mini series. What's is really about? Well, as Seinfeld put it, it's a show about nothing.

Instead of a bunch of frustrated, bitching New Yorkers, you have a bunch of frustrated. desperate, anime archetypes. There is a light plot line that runs through the series of scenes, but it's probably easier to think of it as a subtext rather than the point of the thing.

Without context, FLCL is basically nonsensical, particularly to a non Japanese. There are countless anime homage scenes, to the point of changing the base animation style to emphasize the reference. In addition to the fairly obvious South Park, I caught Evangelion, Akira, Haibane Renmei, and more. There were more I didn't catch, to be sure. There are a ton of pop culture references, Japanese, American, other.

Overall, I enjoyed it. While a good example of a mess of classic anime elements, I don't think I'd recommend it to someone who wasn't into the stuff.

A couple weeks ago, I happened upon the article Evangelion Special: Genesis of a major manga. I'd never seen it, perhaps never heard of it, so...

The full English name of the show is Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's an awkward name and through the 24 episodes and subsequent episodes 25 and 26, I considered numerous alternatives. I'm quite fond of Oedipus Mechs as a title, though simply Mommy! isn't bad.

At first glance this is really not my thing. There are big honking robots that defend the earth against some malevolent alien force. Here we go again, bring out the techo proxy phallus, mech smash! The first episode sets the stage with an insecure boy (our hero, Shinji), his awkward father (Commander Gendo) relationship, a couple of female interests, a robot (Evangelion Unit 01, or simply "Eva") that only he can control, and impending mortal doom. Yes, it seems all very formula.

However, as Hamlet took the basic revenge play and turned it into a strange rumination of conscience, religion, and lack of commitment, so Eva does for the battle mech. The first dozen or so episodes seem pretty straight forward, not that much fighting, but a lot of Japanese sulking, sexual tension, high school stress. At this point it is notable for the lengths it goes to analyze it's cast.

Then, something happens. The show takes a slow, circling the drain movement toward total mental breakdown. The last two aired episodes caused both fandom adulation and death threats. The ending is so over the top that a movie was made with an alternate or extended ending. This is not to be confused with another movie that was made the same year that's basically a summary of the whole show.

There are couple of dominating aspects that make the show different. One is the very heavy use of Christian symbology, as well as any possible related symbols. There's occult, masonic, Babylonian, kabbalistic, and probably other stuff I didn't catch. Indeed, it was the use of two Tree of Life symbols in the opening credits that kept me watching through the first few episodes. The same symbol is also stenciled on the commander's ceiling, among other places. It doesn't make a real appearance in the show, but pops up again in the movie; albeit pointing the wrong way. That could be intentional, who knows.

The second force in the show, and strongest, is Freud. With the plethora of symbols I'd also say there's a little Jung, but mostly Ziggy. Actually, there's a whole lot of German philosophical, Existential stuff going on. For example, episode 16, about where you know the shark wasn't just jumped but is now sushi, was called Sickness Unto Death; shout out to Kierkegaard. Probably some Sartre floating around there too.

But mostly Freud. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, has mother issues. All of the Eva pilots are children who've lost mommy. It's implied, though never specifically outed, that their semi organic mechs have some of mom's genetic material mixed in. The way the pilots mount their Eva's is also heavy with metaphor. They're inserted via a cigar shaped plug, but inside the plug they're suspended in what amounts to amniotic fluid; so they can strengthen their connection to their particular unit.

The only character that lacks any kind of humanity is Gendo, who is also the only bearded character, ala Freud. Hideaki Anno, writer, director, driving personality, is said to have had his share of psychotherapy, but from various stories still sounds a little cranky.

This is a very different and odd anime. It predates things like Lain and obviously influences them. The thing I like most about anime is that the product can be purely driven by a single individual's vision. This is Anno's. For his sake, let's hope he's had more therapy.

I'll end with this little jewel I found on IMDB: For the version of "Fly Me To The Moon" used in the final episode, director Hideaki Anno reportedly asked singer Megumi Hayashibara (who also voices Rei Ayanami, Yui Ikari, and Pen-Pen in the show) to perform the song while imagining herself "strangling a little cat with a big smile on [her] face."

Finished watching Lain yesterday, finished watching Hellsing today.

Lain was almost toon noir. Perhaps I'm not a sophisticated enough watcher, but I was mildly annoyed by all the questions left unanswered. It seemed messy and amateurish somehow. Also, way too much brooding despondency. Some anime seems to feature that, just nice long silences where you're supposed to believe the character is somehow deeper than the writer has managed to convey.

Still, Lain is a good example of it's style. The theme of humanity versus machine is often visited. In this cause, often body versus spirit and conciousness. It's said that the brothers responsible for the Matrix wrote it after being exposed to anime. There's debate as to what particular piece was the catalyst. Lain is probably a contender.

Hellsing is pure, brutal, fun. Vampire Hunter D meets Trigun, with style from a few others. There are trench coats, lots of bad guy banter, and simple macho moments. It's well written and I really, really wish there was more of it.

The version I watched was well dubbed by Brits, which was perfect. I quite enjoyed the choice of accents. Our cute female sidekick has a vaguely East End accent, like the current female sidekick for Doctor Who; it really seems to work. At one point, our hero, Alucard faces off in his first meeting with a big bad guy. When asked his name, he reply Incognito. My dub has Alucard say his name is enigmatic as well, but my translation specifically said anagram. I don't usually catch anagrams, but Alucard is pretty damn obvious. There's also a Tepesh moment at the end.

Yes, I watch dubs with subtitles running as well. You sometimes catch an interesting dichotomy of interpretation that can be fun. The subtitles often seem closer to the intent. The infamous Oriental L-R confusion struck me twice here. There is a Lain character that's dubbed as Alice but is really Arisu; I kinda like that. In my Hellsing credits, Alucard is listed as Arucard; I laughed.

I actually got to see an Hayao Miyazaki film in a theatre. Ok, it was kind of a dinky theatre and half the folks didn't seem to know why they were there, but I had fun.

Strangely, I got subs, not dubs. That is to say, this was a subtitled version I could have ripped off the internet six months ago. I'm not subtitle junky when it comes to anime; I actually prefer the voice over so I can just watch and not miss anything. Oh well, still nice to see on a biggish screen.

Christian Bale was supposed to do Howl in the real Disney release and Lauren Bacall as a witch would has also been fun to hear. However, when it comes to anime, "Disney release" seems an oxymoron. They spend all their cash on expensive actors to do voice overs, then bury the thing in small venues and hope it dies.

( Short Review, no real spoiler, though. )