Anime Ramblings

FlashMan here.

Our regular Saturday columnist, Carda, is being held up by technical difficulties (his laptop’s power cord, like mine, is damaged). I decided, hey, it’s been a while since I wrote something, and I imagined he could use the break anyway.

Props to NetRaptor and Carda both for a continuous stream of fantastic articles for Eye Lazor Beams. I am extremely thankful to have such talented writers on staff; if you haven’t read any of their fiction, I can’t plug them enough.

On the news front; Break and I are coming off of hiatus soon so you can expect new content to trickle back in. We haven’t forgotten about the project we teased way back last year on National Dreamcast/Ice Fairy Day, we haven’t forgotten about the audio columns, and most important of all we haven’t forgotten about you, our faithful followers.

That said, here’s a few disjointed ramblings on anime series I’ve watched recently. Spoilers abound, you have been warned. More after the jump!

Right off the bat I want to rant about Umineko no Naku Koro ni first. Being a huge fan of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, I naturally wanted to see its spiritual successor. My reaction was mixed.

At the onset, Umineko seemed like it was going to run in the same style of Higurashi; a murder mystery series with multiple arcs involving the same characters. However, unlike Higurashi in which the characters are (mostly) unaware of the circumstances they’re in, Umineko practically goes crazy with the idea. The characters are all fully aware of dying and being reborn over and over again (although this is subverted somewhat later) and accept that they’re all pieces in a sick game.

The timeframe is a few years after the events of Higurashi and is seemingly unrelated (though there are a few Expies here and there in the form of Bernkastel and Lambdadelta, and even Battler seems fairly reminiscent of Keiichi). The setting is a private family island belonging to the wealthy Ushiromiya family, and the general idea is that this large family heads out to this island to settle the affairs of Kinzo Ushiromiya as he is particularly ill and doesn’t have long to live.

Unfortunately he also happens to be a black magician. He summons a particularly powerful witch (as in the species, ala Patchouli Knowledge and Alice Margatroid from Touhou) named Beatrice, who sets about slaughtering his family using her magic (he wants this, since it’s part of a game to determine if any of his descendants are worthy of inheriting his billions in gold bars, as well as the leadership of the prestigious family).

As was Keiichi in Higurashi, Battler is introduced with the impression of being the series’ protagonist. He quickly discerns something nasty is going on behind the scenes of the murders and ends up taking part in a game against Beatrice trying to disprove that she even exists. There’s a bit– okay, a lot– of Fridge Logic going on at times, but for the most part, it’s almost like watching a Phoenix Wright-styled chess game as Battler and Beatrice match wits.

Like Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, Umineko is very much a “you can’t always trust everything you see” (pronounced “Mind Screw”) series. There are a lot of twists and turns and it’s highly entertaining while it lasts, but ultimately towards the end of the series it really starts to fall flat. In addition, the anime is only based on the first four of the six visual novels, so the answer arc is (at least for now) not present as a point of reference, giving us a huge cliffhanger ending.

The characters are fairly likable (Bernkastel was particularly entertaining to watch, as I was a huge fan of Rika in Higurashi). The music, particularly both the opening and ending themes as well as the actual soundtrack are definite ear candy (the opening theme is REALLY good in true Higurashi style), and the animation is top notch as always (I expect nothing less from Studio Deen).

Unfortunately, I think the biggest problem the series has is that it’s trying so hard to distinguish itself from Higurashi while still using so many of the gimmicks the first series employed that as a result, it comes off kind of confusing and lopsided. Not being familiar with the original visual novels (I’ve only played portions of Higurashi) I really can’t say I have much to go off of when trying to compare it as an adaptation, so I find myself wanting to go back to Higurashi as a standard to compare it to. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing per se, but after finishing Umineko and comparing it to Higurashi I just feel like it’s missing the unique charm the first series had.

There’s a lot of symbolism and dark imagery and concepts in the series (I wasn’t all that thrilled with the Seven Stakes of Purgatory no matter how cute they tried to make them), and it’s particularly gory as well, even moreso than Higurashi was in some spots (one particularly grisly scene has several members of the family gathered at a dinner table, their stomachs having been ripped open and stuffed to overflowing with candy).

Overall the concept is interesting and if you don’t mind some horror aspects it’s a very entertaining watch, but I’d recommend Higurashi ten times over simply due to the fact that I think it’s honestly the better of the two. It’s not so much an example of First Installment Wins as it is an example of one series simply being more approachable than its spinoff.

Next, I want to mention Monster briefly. I picked this one up a bit ago and started watching it, fell off after a few episodes, bought the first box set at Best Buy, and just now finished that recently. I haven’t seen the entirety of the series so understand my opinion is a WIP, but my initial reaction is that I’m exceptionally impressed.

Monster tells the story of an up-and-coming surgeon at a hospital in Germany. This is the guy who has it all: great job, promising future, exceptional talent and skill at his work, and a fiancee who also just happens to be the director’s daughter. After a series of high-profile patients come in forcing him to turn his attention away from the lower members of society with more serious problems, Dr. Tenma finally chooses to ignore a more prestigious patient, and instead operate on a boy who was a victim in an assassination attempt (his parents were killed, leaving only himself and his twin sister). This turns out to be a huge mistake; the other patient dies in the hands of incompetent doctors and he ends up being demoted, his fiancee leaves him, and his career ends up taking a huge dive.

However, just when it looks like it can’t get any worse, his superiors at the hospital are all mysteriously murdered. He’s suddenly forced to the top as only he can fill the roles that are now conveniently vacated.

Several years later, his job has steadied out and he’s still working at the same hospital when a new patient comes in, a very important material witness in a string of recent serial murders. The patient escapes to the garage only to be killed by the “monster”– who turns out to be the boy Dr. Tenma saved years prior.

In a very Death Note-like cat-and-mouse game, Tenma realizes he must find and kill Johan, the serial killer whose life he once fought to save, in order to stop him from killing any more innocent people.

Monster is a great example of what I look for in a good seinen; the characters are very interesting to watch, the plot is intriguing, the story is complex and well-written, it’s just long enough to be enjoyable without being too long, the animation is excellent, and the soundtrack is very atmospheric. The dub has great voice acting, as well– Funimation has greatly improved since I first started watching series localized by them years ago. The fact it was produced by Madhouse just adds fuel to the fire (a studio that has put out a lot of anime BreakMan and I enjoyed such as Death Note, Gunslinger Girl, Kaiji, Trigun, and X).

I highly recommend Monster if you haven’t seen it yet. Be ready for a 70+ episode run, but I honestly think it’ll be worth it. From what I’ve seen so far, it’s like a really good book you can’t put down.

Lastly, I’ll take a moment to mention that if you haven’t seen it yet, Sgt. Frog‘s dub is out in stores, and I have to say I’m actually impressed! When the initial test video was shown on YouTube a while back, I was disgusted with many of the changes (they heavily Americanized the character names and dumbed down the humor in the show). After reading the comments submitted as feedback on the video, I figured the dub would end up being dropped altogether (we really dodged a bullet, too, ADV had the license before it got shifted to Funimation). Most of the input was highly negative, and to be honest I can’t fault the reviewers: the test vid was terrible.

Apparently Funi took the criticism to heart and redid the dub, retaining the Japanese character names almost perfectly (some mildly screwy stuff like Kululu instead of Kururu did occur, but they started calling him that in the manga as well so I don’t really mind). While it is a Gag Dub of almost the highest proportions, it’s just crazy enough in its own right that it’s highly entertaining. There are a ton of anime and pop culture references (“It’s hotter than Robert Downey Jr. in here!” etc. not being some of their better material), but given a few episodes I actually found myself enjoying the dub far, far more than I enjoyed the original; it was almost like watching an entirely different show. All of the characters sound pretty much on-par. Keroro does sound slightly off, but his voice isn’t terrible by any means, and after a while the cocky, geeky frog grows on you. They did retain the Japanese soundtrack, even the OP and ED (thankfully they didn’t try to dub that though if the show itself is anything to go off of, it may not have turned out badly), so fans of Afro Gunsou will be delighted.

That wraps it up for me this week; I’m off to go slam back a few more episodes of Baccano!. Enjoy your weekend, and if you’re watching the big game tomorrow have a hot dog or two on my behalf.