Review | Movie | Tokyo Godfathers

TOKYO GODFATHERS : While dumpster diving in Tokyo, three homeless people,
ex-cyclist Gin, transvestite Hana, and teenage runaway Miyuki, discover an
abandoned newborn baby. Hana is convinced it is a Christmas miracle, as she has
always wanted to be a mother, but could never be because she was born male.
Finally, Gin and Miyuki convince Hana that the child must be turned in, and Hana
concludes that, with their help, she will locate the baby's mother and find
out why she abandoned her child.

After becoming enthralled with anime masterpiece Millennium Actress, I decided to look into other Satoshi Kon creations, and happened upon Tokyo Godfathers. Though the simple storyline didn't quite capture me at first, Kon has once again amazed me with another incredible film.

The overall plot is a very simple one at that: Three homeless people find an abandoned baby and plot to turn it in. Adding onto the details, these homeless people have rather interesting backgrounds: Gin is a middle-aged alcoholic who worked as a professional cyclist in his youth, but thanks to "a get-rich-quick scheme" from a rival, he lost a race that would fund bills for his critically-ill daughter, who consequentially died, his wife following soon after. Next in line is Hana, a transvestite who worked as a performer at a gay bar, but fled after attacking a drunk customer for calling her an "old fart". The last, and perhaps the most mysterious of the quirky group, is Miyuki, a teenager afraid to return home. The details of why she is afraid to return are unclear at first, though before the spoilers come in, we do manage to collect that she stabbed her own father when her cat went missing, implying that Miyuki suspected her father got rid of her beloved cat Angel. Her father being a policeman, Miyuki fled out of shame, and possibly to escape severe punishment. The wacky threesome are a comedy troupe all on their own, and it doesn't take long for us to start laughing at their perks.

Being homeless, they make their livings through selling objects they find in the trash, and one night, as Christmas approaches, they stumble upon a newborn baby girl, wrapped in blankets and a key in its person, laying amongst the trash. Hana, overcome with delusions of being a mother, is thrilled, and calls it a "Christmas miracle", that God has brought her a child. Miyuki and Gin, however, try to convince Hana that the child does not belong to her and that it should be turned into the police, in which Hana revolts, telling them that if the mother wanted the child, she would not have abandoned in. After much pressure from Miyuki and Gin, Hana does at last come to terms with the fact that the baby needs its real mother, and decides that instead of merely turning the baby into the police, she will find the baby's mother on her own, so she can ask the mother face-to-face why she abandoned her baby. Using information found in a locker opened with the baby's key, the three set out across Tokyo searching for the parents of "Kiyoko" (a name Hana gave to the child), encountering many hilarious obstacles along the way.

I was extremely impressed at how much comedy and overall enjoyment could come out of such a simple storyline. I was hooked from the minute Hana took up Kiyoko, which is clearly not an unusual side effect from picking up a Satoshi Kon film. Hana is a blast to watch in the film for dishing out the humor at the perfect moments, though all-in-all they are truly The Three Stooges: Individually, they're funny, but together, they're hilarious, and together they make each other shine their brightest.

This film holds a PG-13 rating for "thematic elements, violent images, language and some sexual material", and the sexual material is probably derived from the slight nudity in the film (though this nudity is not depicted sexually.) We see a woman breastfeeding two children (breasts are obvious) and a woman attempts to breastfeed a child but the child does not (the woman's breast and nipple are evident, and furthermore taking up most of the screen.) A transvestite male asks another if his boyfriend died from AIDS. Characters curse throughout the movie, and a transvestite male is called several derogatory names (queer, homo, fa**ot, etc.) We hear a girl stabbed her father, and a woman attempts to commit suicide twice (once while holding a baby), and two homeless men are beaten up by a group of younger men. A man is shot (we later hear he survived) and the shooter hostages a teenage girl and a baby to get away.

Tokyo Godfathers is inches from being slapstick in its comedy, and is a complete pleasure to watch from beginning to end. Anyone who enjoyed Kon's amazing Millennium Actress will not want to miss out on Tokyo Godfathers. I'll definitely be adding this DVD to my collection, and you may very well decide to add it to yours.

Overall Rating:
/ 5

Preview | Anime | Heart no Kuni no Alice

HEART NO KUNI NO ALICE

Heart No Kuni No Alice is a retelling of Lewis
Carroll's Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, adapted from the game of the same
title.

Unfortunately, this anime has been indefinitely delayed as of November 2008, so there is no word yet on its release. Even its MyAnimeList page is barren with no official word on its airing. We'll be sure to keep you posted once things are official.

Preview:

Review | Anime | Shigofumi

SHIGOFUMI : Fumika and her talking staff Kanaka work shifts in Japan delivering
Shigofumis, posthumous letters from the dead, to loved ones left behind.
However, there is mystery behind Fumika: Unlike other Shigofumi mail carriers,
she ages with time, meaning that even though she is not living, she is
not dead either. Who exactly is Fumika?

Shigofumi is one of those animes I stumble upon completely accidentally while exploring the darkest corners of MyAnimeList, and is also one of those that I'm not really sure how to review exactly, so I'll do my best. While it was not a bad anime, it was actually quite good, I'm not really writhing on the floor from its illumination either.

We begin the story with a simple idea: A mail carrier from a different world delivers letters from those who have died as last words to those who are still living. It could be perhaps a thank-you for being a kind person, or a curse for being a terrible person. Delivering these letters will be a girl in a mail carrier's uniform - in our case, Fumika - that plays no part except to deliver the letters. Whether the letter is read, thrown away, or forgotten, is not the mail carrier's decision or concern. So how will humans react from a letter out of nowhere written by a dead loved one or acquaintance? Sounds like an interesting story up ahead.

Then again, there are only 12 episodes and an OVA. It takes a talented writer to fit a storyline, character profiles, and proper pace into 12-13 episodes. In the end, we're a little bit starved of Shigofumi deliveries, as we find out once we begin the show that the show isn't centered around the delivery of the Shigofumis at all; Actually, the Shigofumis are a bit of a side note. The actual center of the story is the mystery of Fumika and how she is able to age as time passes, despite Shigofumi mail carriers being dead. So for 12 episodes and an OVA, we're just following Fumika's life and job, rather than watching a show about Shigofumis. The actual Shigofumis are the stars of the show only for the first few episodes, before Kaname Nojima, a random high school student, suddenly recognizes Fumika from her old life. After that, it's entirely Fumika's playing ground, and the show title technically goes from being "Shigofumi" to "Fumika And Why She Exists".

Despite the composition being rather poor in that context, the show itself was very good. The show's theme song has a very steampunk aura to it, which on its own is fun and jumpy to listen to. The anime, however, has a dark and deathly feeling to it, so don't let them theme song fool you.

I don't think children would enjoy this show very much simply because of how complex and foggy it can be at times, but I'd definitely look into it first. Sihgofumis are messages from the dead, and the dead certainly don't cease to appear. Several characters, mostly high school students, commit suicide (one is shown jumping from a roof) and one character is stabbed and buried; his assailant is later shown stabbing the ground, implying he is buried underneath and his killer is compressing the body. We learn that a man makes money by forcing his middle/high school daughter to pose nude for pornographers, in one scene we see this taking place; the girl is obviously insecure and frightened as she poses on a bed surrounded by photographers who viciously snap pictures of her (no private regions are ever shown). We later hear the father intends to force his elementary school daughter to pose as well, but he is stopped before he carries this out. There are several cases throughout the series of child abuse; in one case, a child is nude with only a sheet covering her as her father paints slander onto her body (he is directing anger towards his ex-wife for leaving him). The paintbrush the father uses is made entirely of glass, and it is implied that at some points during his fits of rage he painted too hard and the glass cut into her skin. A Shigofumi mail carrier taunts another mail carrier by calling her "flat", and the latter adds that she will someday have "a nice body" because she is able to age. We hear two cases where an abused child attacks their father, and in one of the cases, the father dies.

Overall, this is a pretty good anime as far as constant death and mystery, but if you just want to watch for the Shigofumis, you may be slightly disappointed. In the end, I recommend this anime only for the mystery, not for the Shigofumis.

Overall Rating:
/ 5

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Review | Anime | Ghost Hound

GHOST HOUND : Three junior high school boys, Tarou, Masayuki, and Makoto, have each suffered a terrible tragedy in their life that traumatized their
well-being. After meeting each other and learning of what they have in common,
they finally harness the ability to have Out-Of-Body experiences and slip into
the Unseen World - the world where ghosts roam. Eventually, they begin to notice
elements of the Unseen World seeping into their own world, and, with the help of
the local priest's daughter Miyako, the boys have to find a way to stop these
changes from overtaking the town.

I read the word "ghost" in the title, and it captured me. All I can say upon finishing this anime is, "Wow. I can't believe what I've seen."

The anime begins in a small Japanese town called Suiten, a town that has it heroes, its kooks, and its dark pasts. The story begins centered around 14-year-old Tarou Komori, who was kidnapped 11 years prior to the story, along with his older sister Mizuka, who did not survive the event. Because of this, Tarou has night terrors about his sister and lives a somewhat awkward life with his parents, who have taken bad turns for themselves thanks to the death of Mizuka. Every day after school, Tarou meets with a psychiatrist to help pinpoint the source of his nightmares, and help him rediscover the memories he lost through the trauma of his kidnapping.

Along the way, he meets Tokyo transfer student Masayuki Nakajima, who transferred as a way of escaping his own cataclysm: Masayuki bullied another student to the point where he committed suicide by jumping off the roof of his school in Tokyo, but not before he varnished the classroom chalkboard with curses at Masayuki. Masayuki's intentions were not to drive the student to suicide, however, he refers to himself as a murderer. This event made Masayuki fearful of heights.

In opposition to Masayuki's annoyingly sunny personality is Tarou's silent yet cynical cousin, Makoto Oogami. Because of his relation to Taro amd Mizuka, his family took a great part in solving the kidnapping case. Shortly afterwards, Makoto's father mysteriously committed suicide, leading toddler Makoto to discover his bloody corpse. This event became Makoto's trauma, in addition to his constant attempts to uncover the meaning behind the death of his father, only to have his family hide the details from him. Makoto lives with his grandmother, the founder of a local religion, whom he detests. This is partly because of his grandmother's constant attempts to make him the successor of the religion, which Makoto couldn't care less about.

Masayuki's interest in the kidnapping case (which is a famous case around the town) and how Makoto and Tarou are somehow both connected is ultimately what brought the group together, albeit hesitantly. Masayuki uses this knowledge to convince Tarou and Makoto to journey into an abandoned hospital with him, which is the same location where Taro and his sister were held captive - the same location where Tarou watched his sister die. While inside, the three lose consciousness following an accident, and suddenly find themselves able to project their souls out of their bodies, and through the series, they become able to do this at will. They enter the Unseen World, a world parallel to the "Apparent World", where spirits travel. The variety of spirits is a list that goes on: prehistoric animals and insects, strange surreal birds, and, to Tarou's terror, towering blackened figures that wander wherever Tarou happens to be. One of these figures plays the role of the kidnapper in Tarou's night terrors about his kidnapping, as Tarou does not remember what the man looked like as the time of his kidnapping.

No one can see the boys as they roam the town in their out-Of-Body experiences, except one girl named Miyako, the daughter of a priest, who, curiously enough, can see spirits, and even become possessed by them. Intrigued by this girl, and by their "OBEs", the boys begin to use their ability to spirit travel to unearth the mysteries behind Tarou's kidnapping and the death of Makoto's father.

I was a little unimpressed upon watching the first few episodes, as the series is very slowly paced. That'll be my first warning - if you intend to watch this anime, you have to be very patient with it, as it likes to wander off-course a lot. On top of that, it was unlike anything I'd ever seen. This intimidated me a bit, and I took a long break from it.

In the end, I'm glad I gave it another chance. This anime is genuinely unlike anything I've ever seen. I can hardly describe it in a way that will give it justice. The whole arrangement of the anime is extremely bizarre; you feel like you're in a nightmare. In many ways, the anime narrates the actual traumatic events that befell the three protagonists in the style of a nightmare. As you watch, you realize your nightmares - and your dreams - are composed in a very similar manner as the anime makes it appear; it really makes you go, "Hey! My dreams are like that too!" This includes, but is not limited to, blurred-out faces of the individuals in the dreams, jet blackened figures that play the roles of unfamiliar characters - usually villainous ones - that appear threatening, and the constant skipping between scenes like a movie instead of playing out gradually, like in reality.

As a horror fan - and critic - that is not easily scared, I can certainly commend this anime for its fear factor. I have never felt fearful or become startled at any frightening scenes in a horror movie, and I didn't expect anything different from Ghost Hound (after all, as I've stated before, how scary can an anime be?). However, to my surprise, Ghost Hound became the first horror, in my long history of watching and judging horror, to cause me to feel the need to scream. Eventually, I would not watch Ghost Hound at night or in a poorly-lit atmosphere. There were two instances I especially remember that I had to hold my mouth and curse myself to keep from screaming. This is what earned Ghost Hound an extra star from me.

If a child were to express interest in watching this anime, as you can probably guess already, I would probably keep them away from this one. Even if a child can take the fear of Ghost Hound, it's also a very slowly-paced series that probably would not hold their attention very long (it didn't hold mine in the beginning). There are several frightening and violent scenes throughout the anime, and threats are constantly made towards family members. There are frequent scenes of dead bodies and distorted bodies, and a few scenes with excessive blood. A female character has a very exaggerated bust size which attracts obvious attention from many male characters. It is implied that one teenage boy takes a liking to this woman as well; we later hear he has used his OBE ability several times to spy on her undressing. It is unclear whether the woman develops an attraction for the boy, but it is loosely implied.

My only complaint about this anime, besides the awful pacing, is the way the series ended. We begin the series with ghosts but we end the series with mutants and gods. It's an incredibly strange transition that didn't serve the overall story as well as it could have. Actually, from what I saw, the conclusion really didn't play a part in solving the mysteries at all. The mysteries becoming solved were not climactic at all, they were turned into back-burner conclusions. Instead, the climactic moment was the one that made no sense. The series' ending was basically an add-on to the story rather than the conclusion of the entire story we've been clutching to. As we near the end, we start talking about, "embryos", and "biooids", and "man-made mutants", and "dragon gods", and earfuls more of incomprehensible babble that doesn't, and never did, serve the story in the slightest. That remains my only major complaint.

While you probably have to be a horror fan, and a very patient person, to check this anime out, I think if you're at least the latter, you'll be a big fan of Ghost Hound.

Overall Rating:
/ 5

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Review | Anime | Ichigo Mashimaro

ICHIGO MASHIMARO : Ichigo Mashimaro follows the lives of 20-year-old Nobue
Itoh, her sister Chika, and Chika's three school friends Ana, Matsuri and Miu
and we join them in the hilarious adventures of their everyday lives.

MAL is a truly magical thing; this recommendation was made for me based on my high rating of the Azumanga Daioh series, and Ichigo Mashimaro is almost exactly like it. Even the music sounds the same. Ichigo Mashimaro is one of the rare occasions I will laugh out loud while watching funny instances in an anime, and I must say I'm not only impressed, but satisfied as well.

Accompanied by 2 sets of OVAs and an "episode 0", Ichigo Mashimaro plays out the everyday life of Nobue Itoh, whose everyday life includes going to her college classes, drinking, smoking, more smoking, riding her moped, even more smoking, and acting as a chaperon, transporter, and general onlooker of her little sister Chika and her fellow grade-school friends. Chika is one of the more mature of the group, willingly doing her studies while her friends are terrorized by Chika's obnoxious, dirty-minded childhood friend Miu. The victims of the latter are calm-spirited (and irresistibly adorable) Matsuri, who still looks forward to Santa-san every Christmas, and England native Ana, who has lived in Japan for so long, she has almost forgotten how to speak English. All four are constantly at war with Miu's perks, whether it be playing a role in an unrealistic fantasy, blatantly pointing out embarrassing facts, or receiving cell phone texts with cryptic messages, such as the word "ribcage" bombarded by a sea of hearts.

Despite the simplicity of the anime and its plotless storyline, Ichigo Mashimaro was lots of fun to watch. There was never a dull moment, and from the very first episode, I was hooked. I took a liking almost immediately to soft-spoken Matsuri Sakuragi, whose every cute whim from chasing her pet ferret to wishing Santa-san good luck on his travels drew me in and kept me that much more attached to the show.

With a name like "Strawberry Marshmallow", this is without doubt a show that would come across as appealing to young girls, but do take precautions. Miu and Nobue have their quirks. Nobue is a chain smoker and drinker, and borrows money from her little sister several times in the show to buy cigarettes, and is also seen drinking beer and appears buzzed in one scene. Miu is, for lack of a more appropriate term, "knowledgeable" for her age. She talks about becoming a bikini model, and in one scene talks about how "sexy" she looks in her two-piece bathing suit. Nobue mocks Miu by calling her "flat-chested", and in a dream sequence she wishes for "breasts that hop up and down." In one scene Miu goes through Ana's closet and examines her clothing, and later feels Ana breasts to confirm their size. She later lifts up Ana's dress and asks if she's wearing underwear. I'll keep it short by mentioning Miu does appear to have some infatuation with breasts, due to the fact she apparently has none.

Other than Miu's array of oddities, I thoroughly enjoyed Ichigo Mashimaro. This show is a great joy to watch, and if you're looking to laugh, you've found the right anime.

Overall Rating:
/ 5

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Review | Anime | Ghost Hunt

GHOST HUNT : Mai Taniyama is a 16-year-old high school student who enjoys
telling ghost stories with her friends as a pastime. Soon, she discovers
that a 17-year-old schoolmate, Shibuya Kazuya, is actually a professional
ghost hunter, and has enrolled at her school for the purpose of tracking
spirits. Along the way, Mai accidentally injures Shibuya's assistant, and in
consequence he demands Mai become his assistant at Shibuya Psychic
Research.

"How scary can an anime be?" was my first thought upon deciding to watch this anime. I had heard from various sources that this was a very disturbing series, and I was very skeptical. I mean, it's animated. You can only do so much with animation...right?

Finally, however, I refused to watch any episodes of the series at night.

Everyone loves a good ghost story. That's why Mai Taniyama and her friends sneak off to a dark room between classes to tell stories about ghosts in the school. Namely, that an old school building on campus is haunted. As a ghost story is being told, in walks their 17-year-old schoolmate, the handsome, mysterious Shibuya Kazuya. Mai's friends are instantly smitten by Shibuya's charm, and are thrilled when Shibuya offers to join their next ghost story session. Mai doesn't think much of him at first, and later thinks even less when she converses with him personally and discovers that he is a complete narcissist.

At the end of the day, Mai is caught in the way of a falling bookshelf and is pushed out of the way by a strange man, who in turn is injured instead. The man is not too proud of himself for saving Mai's life; instead he is furious with her and accuses her of being careless. How convenient that he happens to be the assistant of the self-absorbed Shibuya - whom Mai has nicknamed "Naru", short for narcissist - who is actually a professional ghost hunter, investigating the strange happenings in the school building that is supposedly haunted. Naturally, "Naru" is not too happy that Mai has injured his assistant. Naru therefore demands that Mai takes the place of his injured assistant, Lin, and aid him in his hunts until his assistant recovers. Now Mai is no longer just the storyteller: she's the story.

At first the show lags quite a bit towards the beginning. A lot of unnecessary talking is done, and, as I had predicted, nothing is scary. However, as the show proceeds, the stories get better and better, and though cheesy at times, interesting and factual in the fields of ghost hunting. Even as a child, I've been interested in studies of the paranormal, and I was very surprised at the logic used to solve the cases and how they use very true information rather than random facts that make the conclusions ridiculous. Combined with this, and the atmosphere cleverly given to the story, the show actually becomes rather disturbing, which ultimately stopped me from watching it at night.

If a child happens to express interest in watching this anime, there is no adult material at all throughout the series. Again, it is a very gruesome show and will probably disturb children, and one case near the completion of the series focuses on a man who bathes in the blood of young humans in order to live forever. This case is especially disturbing, and there are several scenes with large amounts of blood on floors and in a bathtub. Human bones, demons, and of course ghosts, are seen throughout the show. Characters get possessed several times.

I believe any fellow fan of the supernatural will want to pick up Ghost Hunt, and if the episodes don't succeed at first in getting you into the spirit of a good old fashion investigation, composer Toshio Masuda's eerie opening and closing themes of the show are bound to pull you closer to the action. If you're not careful, they may get stuck in your head as easily as they get stuck in mine (it's actually stuck right now). Ghost Hunt is a series I stumbled upon accidentally while doing a routine once-over of MyAnimeList's supernatural category, and I must say I'm not disappointed. This show was a pleasure to watch, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Overall Rating:
/ 5

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Review | Anime | Kuroshitsuji

KUROSHITSUJI : Ciel Phantomhive, the 12-year-old orphaned son of a wealthy monarch,
strikes a deal with the Devil to exact punishment on those who plotted the
downfall of his parents: His own soul in exchange for revenge. His plead is
heard and a contract is formed. His new partner, demon butler Sebastian
Michealis, assists Ciel with solving strange cases for the Queen of England, as
well as unraveling the mystery of the fall of the Phantomhive household.
Sebastian proves not only to be a fierce opponent in battle, but a seemingly
flawless assistant, explained only by his self-title as "one 'hell' of a
butler."

Kuroshitsuji is another one of those anime that draw you in by physical appearance alone. Even I personally became curious about the Kodona-garbed boy with an eye patch and nice hair. i am certainly glad I looked into it; I found plenty of charm, comedy and drama in such a simply assembled series.

Kuroshitsuji is perfect for anyone who is a fan of comedy and drama anime; there is plenty of both within it. You can definitely expect both kinds of tears by the time you finish. Up first ready to dish out the laughter are the members of Ciel's hapless mansion staff; Finnian the gardener with inhuman super strength, Meilin the clumsy maid with a blatant crush on Sebastian, Bardroy the imaginative cook who uses explosives for cooking, and Tanaka the steward, whose enigmatic personality just plain speaks for itself. They all suspect a hint of mystery surrounding the immaculate and unusually tolerant Sebastian, which only makes him that much more attractive to women, namely Meilin, but also Grelle Sutcliffe, the non-female butler of Ciel's aunt Madam Red, who conceals a secret of his own. Grelle is the first to bring the tears to the table with his hilarious mishaps all over the Phantomhive mansion, which includes trimming the bushes surrounding the mansion, only to be distracted and later discovering he has accidentally trimmed them all in the shapes of skulls. Grelle's nervous personality (on the surface...) makes Meilin's clumsiness inferior in comparison, and he becomes infatuated with Sebastian's ability to do positively anything without leaving so much as a blemish.

I would be surprised if children expressed interest in watching this anime, but I would definitely accompany them if you plan on letting one do so. there is bloody violent throughout the anime (particularly near the end of the series) and violent references. There is also innuendo involved, usually without warning; a death god is intoxicated with Sebastian and daydreams out loud about being physically involved with him. Ciel Phantomhive later persuades the same death god to temporarily act as his bodyguard, offering him Sebastian in return, to "do whatever he wants with him." The death god later dotes upon his intentions to "kiss Sebastian, with the tongue." Ciel and Sebastian sneak into the sect of a corrupt religious cult, and Sebastian stops a nun and requests information. She hesitates at first, Sebastian backs her into a wall and she blushes as he insists. The scene cuts to Ciel and Grelle Sutcliffe standing outside of a small barn with Sebastian and the nun inside; we hear her moaning loudly and telling Sebastian "she will become impure." Grelle stands outside and bites at his clothes in a fit of jealousy. Ciel is clearly uncomfortable. An acquaintance of Ciel's is frequently seen with a woman who sits on him suggestively; he is later seen with several women.

If you're willing to guide yourself around the perks of Grelle and, occasionally, Sebastian, I believe you'll get a lot of enjoyment out of this anime. Be ready to gawk at Sebastian in the manner Ciel's companions do, as his perfection shows not only in his housework, but apparently in his duty of Ciel's outfits as well, as Ciel emerges from his vast property to solve cases for the Queen in outfits so sublime, a common boy would not be caught dead in them.

With plenty of darkness, humor, and darkness and humor put together, Kuroshitsuji is bound to take you for a ride. I highly recommend this anime to any fans of the supernatural, unnaturally pretty boys, and of course, butlers.

Overall Rating:
/ 5

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