Recent Viewings (November 2010).

As typical of this time of year, I’ve been crunching anime into my hectic and unorganized school schedule, but I have managed to enjoy a few things here and there.

---Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt- So with this we again have Imaishi directing as his unrestrained self. As much as I like Gurren Lagann, if you compare it to Dead Leaves, you can see that he’s holding back. Not in terms of the quality of the animation, but in terms of being absolutely crass and, frankly, immature. Lagann was clearly aimed at younger audience, so he couldn’t have the same kind of sex and poop jokes that he placed in Dead Leaves. The closest he ever came to that level was the uncut version of episode 6 directed by Shin Itagaki.

But that isn’t the case here. If you couldn’t tell from the trailer, then this show will make it clear as to what it’s about fairly soon. Right from they get go, you have a joke about “morning wood”, the huge sound effects that go across the screen (something that Imaishi also used in Dead Leaves) and the kind of visual set-up and organization that makes Imaishi’s work such a joy to watch. For the people that can get pass the ill-advised notion of anime should look like, the biggest complaint I’ve seen aimed at this show is that it’s the same joke over again. After watching 10 episodes (or 5 if you must), I can’t say that at all. While the characters have stayed consistent since the first episode, the way the “Geek Fleet” has handled and placed them in a number of various situations still remain interesting. From the fat monster to the booger monster, while they tend to involve some nasty or crass subject, the way they look at the boundary of what’s the norm for anime and go right past it is commendable.

The soldiers episode is one of the highlights in the early going of “Pansuto”, with the war sections all animated by Hirokazu Kojima and the script by Shigeto Koyama. Taking a firmly tongue-in-cheek approach to this hilariously dramatic struggle totally caught me off-guard. But the biggest thing so far in terms of blindsiding the viewer is without a doubt Osamu Kobayashi’s episode 10/5b. In large part by changing the art style to give off a more realistic tone, Kobayashi and Takashi Mukouda managed to inject convincing social commentary in this escapist show. Kobayashi’s previous endeavor on an Imaishi show (Gurren Lagann episode 4) generally left the viewers in an uproar, but I believe that the people who would have complained about the art and animation taking such a drastic turn already left show at episode 1. Imaishi clearly doesn’t care about the negative feedback the production got from that episode since he knows what he got. Bringing Kobayashi back to his next show and allowing him to go ahead with this scenario is the kind of bold accommodation of strongly distinct and individual styles that make Imaishi one of the few directors whose work I always look forward to. Needless to say, I’m looking forward whatever comes next (apparently people like Kazuya Tsurumaki, Masayuki, and Ryo-timo are working on future episodes)

---Naruto Shippuden (up to ep. 181)-Well, things are looking up for this show even with its current break into filler. Episode 178 featured Hiroyuki Yamashita, whom I’ve talked about before, making his debut as an animation director. He only worked on the second half, but what a half it was! It starts out animation by Yamashita himself and the rest of the episode, while not completely matching Yamashita idiosyncrasies since there’s only so much one man can do, did manage to retain a good deal of his sense of timing and visual flair. It’s been noted by others that Yamashita has been influenced by Hirofumi Suzuki due to the lip-synch on display on the episode and it’s hard to argue against that. Working on Shippuden has allowed him to be among some very talented people like Norio Matsumoto (who probably got him to work on Keiichi Hara’s Colorful), Suzuki, et all so it’s only natural to take in some of that experience.

Yamashita also directed the delightful new ED (#15), featuring Shingo Yamashita, Kenichi Kutsuna, Tatsuya Koyangai, Shingo Tamaki, Yoshimichi Kameda, 甲田秀人 (couldn't get a reading) and Yamashita himself as animators. Hiroyuki did the Naruto vs. Neji part which is easily identifiable and Kameda did the Rock Lee vs. Naruto part. The new OP is a slow piece with no action, but it still is another solid delivery from the Toshiyuki Tsuru/ Hirofumi Suzuki duo. Tokuyuki Matsutake leads the animator list (presumably he did the part where Naruto is blasted out of the water and he’s spinning around).

These new OP/ED debuted on ep. 180 and this episode also marked the debut of Gorou Sessha as an episode director on the series and Masayuki Kouda’s as an animation director (another Pierrot animator). Sessha (rumored to be the pen name of ex-Kyoto Animation animator, Seiji Watanabe) has been one of the bright spots in this series, being the animation director for eps. 26 and 143 (among others), and the chief animation director for episode 135. While Atsushi Wakabayashi was absent from Shippuden until his return in ep. 167, Sessha and episode director Atsushi Nigorikawa were trying to fill the considerable void that Wakabayashi left behind. Their best effort by far is episode 143, which features sole great swordplay courtesy of Hiroyuki Yamashita right after the opening credits and the pacing and framing throughout exhibits the kind of ambition that you would find in Wakabayashi’s episodes, though I would not exactly equate the two. Not that it fails, on the contrary, but Wakabayashi is simply on another level.

Episode 26 marks the duo first real effort to break through and give the audience a high quality episode. You can clearly see their grandiose intent, but it ultimately falls short. It’s not bad for their first effort, however. Episode 135 is a retelling of the Uchiha massacre which contains some more striking imagery and a very nice fight between Itachi and Sasuke—I still don’t know who’s responsible for it.

Going back to ep. 180, this one features some neat smoke effects, particularly towards the end. I believe it was the work of Gen’ichirou Abe, the Shaft animator they got to work on this episode, who was responsible for this. I’ve never seen anything like it in the series. There are also some nice smoke effects when Sasuke kicks Naruto in the face that, as others have noted, feels very much in line with Kishimoto’s smoke effects. As a side note, Shigeki Kawai was the animation director for the first half half of ep. 181. Nothing great in comparison to his previous effort, but it’s safe to say that ep. 180 must have taken quite a bit of that budget from 181.

Looking forward, Chiyuki Tanaka was set to be the episode director and animation director for episode 184, but she ended up as only the animation director instead. Hiroyuki Yamashita is set to be the animation director for ep. 186 and maybe this time he’ll be the only AD on board this time. Perhaps he’ll be a workhorse like One Piece’s Naoki Tate after all. I wonder if the being an AD gets easier as you go on or do you just get worn down after having to correct so many subpar drawings.

---Street Fighter Alpha Generations- I went and rewatched Ikuo Kuwana’s directorial debut after reading Ben Ettinger’s post about it. If you thought that this movie was boring when you first saw it, I highly recommend giving it another shot. I thought so too at first, but after revisiting it I came away with a different impression. The biggest problem this movie faces, aside from being spearheaded by a novice director, is the “Street Fighter” tag that comes with a load of expectations. You automatically expect every notable character from the game to show up ala Gisaborou Sugii’s Street Fighter movie and for it to be overblown like the video game.

This movie would have been more at home in the 80s, where you saw these kinds of one-shot OAVS that were largely self-contained. The overall tone is very low-key and Kuwana lets the storyboarding and animation tell the story, much as you would expect from an animator who’s been given the task of directing. At the start of the movie, you’re not given a clear definition of where the current story is taking place in terms of the timelime; but it’s still able to move forward and backward without being too confusing and manages to be effective by avoiding the typical pitfalls of that “flashback sequences” fall in.

The line work on the old men’s faces on this one really bring out some expressive features, though there are notable shots throughout the movie where you can tell they had to sacrifice in order to pay attention to others. I could only tell Hiroyuki Imashi’s part on this one and they stands out, per usual—it’s the fight with the old man and Ryu and his part ends when the old man starts laughing after launching Ryu through the wall. The part after that looks a bit too smooth for Imaishi.

And that’s that. I typed a bit too much so I’ll leave stop right here.

Finished Monster (no spoilers).

I finished watching Monster on Sci-Fi yesterday and I have to say that was one of the more satisfying conclusions I’ve seen recently. It remained faithful to the rest of the show while still wrapping what needed to be wrapped up and leaving just enough room to spark discussion. To be honest, after a while I kinda forgotten what had happened in certain parts. It became too intricate-- almost to the point where Urasawa seemed to be adding more dimensions and stretching out the story just for the fun of it.

I’ve heard the Monster manga is going out of print and I saw that my local Borders had the rest of what I needed to complete my collection. But I decided not to pick any of it up because I realized that I much prefer the anime over the manga, which Viz hasn't released past box set 1. Urasawa might be very good at what he does, but he has some tendencies that get quite tiresome after a while. Every revelation has to be super important and these have to be accompanied by close-ups of character's faces that he telegraphs from a mile away. He can get rather preachy too and his characters start to resemble each other after a while (thanks in part that he designs so many of them). But I find these flaws much easier to forgive in the anime. Aside from the elements of sound, the overall visual design and execution of the anime is superb for such a long running show. The animation and background art quality are remarkably consistent for its 74 episode run. There's a really solid staff with people like former Ghibli animator Hiroyuki Morita, Hiroshi Shimizu, Yoshiaki Tsubata, and Kunihiko Hamada, among others.

For the last stretch of episodes, the one that stood out for me was episode 71. This episode was written by Masahiro Hayashi, directed by Ryousuke Nakamura, with Junichi Takaoka as the animation director. While the realistic style of animation for Monster is consistent, you can tell right from the very first scene that they were aiming a bit higher on this episode. A slightly higher frame rate that leads to richer movement easily makes this episode stand out, even among the climax that spans across 6 episodes. My favorite scene here is when Lunge enters the hotel lobby with his rifle and the scene that occurs. Really nice timing and framing.

If you live in the US, then you can watch all of Monster on Hulu, or you can buy it all off of iTunes.... And none of these options are what I want. Viz needs to actually release the rest of this show on DVD, even if it's one cheap, slimpack DVD collection.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Review

In a world of so many long-running series (Shonen Jump adaptations and otherwise), it’s very rare for a shorter show to make a long-lasting impression on the anime world. There are a few examples obviously, like Fooly Cooly and the original Tenchi Muyo! OVAs (though this one defaults a little bit due to having longer-running spin-off titles), but essentially most, no matter how big the fan base, just don’t seem to have lasting power over the years when compared to the ‘big boys’ of Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Naruto.

That’s where Haruhi Suzumiya comes in. Few fan-bases for a show are so rabid and so powerful than this one, so much so that you’ll hear about this little gem just as much as you will Naruto. It’s that big.

Also known to just about everyone is that Haruhi Suzumiya started off not as a manga like most anime adaptations, but as a light novel, written by Nagaru Tanigawa with illustrations by Noizi Ito. There’s a total of nine books so far, with a tenth due out this year or the next.

Like with most huge titles though, I’m late into it. After hearing about it from just about all of my friends and reading about it online, I finally picked up the first book about a year or so ago, and I really enjoyed it. Only recently was I able to get a copy of the first ‘season’ as released here by Bandai however, which is what I’m reviewing now.

TMHS, as it’s abbreviated, is the story of Kyon as he enters his high school years, with a cynical mind-set. As a kid, he apparently found the normal world boring, and was much more inclined to read or watch stories involving secret organizations, alien conspiracies, and people with super-powers than he was to enjoy the real world. Growing up though, he’s realized that none of that stuff is possible in the real world, and is ready to slog his way through the mundane journey that is life - much like the rest of us.

That’s where things take a turn for the ‘worse’ for our hero. In the seat just behind him in homeroom, sit’s a girl who is about to change his entire world - Haruhi Suzumiya. Hyper, demanding, self-centered, and incredibly eccentric, she stuns Kyon and the rest of the class by her opening statement that if there are any time travelers, aliens, or ESPers (think psychics), they should come to her. That’s where the entire story begins, as an off-hand comment made by Kyon soon after causes her to make the S.O.S. Brigade (Saving the World by Overloading it with Fun Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade), bringing in three other people who are soon revealed to be more than they seem. Yuki Nagato, a quiet girl who loves to read, who is also an alien (of sorts); Mikuru Asahina, a timid, well-endowed beauty, who is also a time traveler from the future; and Itsuki Koizumi, a mysterious and seemingly always smiling boy, who is also an ESPer.

And thus, as they say, chaos and hilarity ensues. From saving the world from the ‘Godly’ side-effects of Haruhi’s temper, to playing baseball, to ocean cruises, to even normal things like a school festival, and all the way back, Haruhi is one surreal experience of a show. It’s that surreal feeling that makes this show so good I think. I mean, let’s face it - the entire concept, maybe not exactly like this, has sort-of been done before. The idea itself is nothing revolutionary. Any other author could have come up with this and it would have been an okay story, but at an episode count of 14 (speaking only of the first ‘season’ of course as that’s all I’ve seen), it would have been quickly forgotten in the realm of other, newer titles. No, what saves Haruhi from falling to the way-side is incredibly good writing as well as some of the most interesting characters ever seen in this kind of a story.

Speaking of the characters, this is definitely a character-driven story, so let’s talk about the individual members of the S.O.S. Brigade a bit. Starting with Haruhi herself, I have mixed feelings on her. At first, I (much like my girlfriend) absolutely hated the character. She’s bossy, downright female-dog like more often than not, and she pretty much shows no concern for her friends who are forced to put up with her in the hopes that the end of the world doesn’t reign down upon them. As the series goes on, she does become a lot more bearable, as she does learn to care a bit more about her friends, and her eccentricity becomes more funny than annoying. In the end though, she is definitely my least-favorite character in the series.

Moving onto Kyon, there’s not a whole heck of a lot to say. He’s the real main character of the story, as everything is told directly from his narrative, so you’re supposed to like him a little bit. Still, I find his cynicism a bit much at times, given that he’s now living exactly the things he once wished for. Would it kill him to crack a smile sometimes?

Yuki Nagato is another one that I’m not really sure how to feel about. A friend of mine is a huge fan of her, but to me she’s kind of just there in the background. She’s a lot like Mori from Ouran to me, a ‘couch’ of a character - they don’t say a whole heck of a lot, but the show just wouldn’t be right without them. Truth be told, Yuki does have one of the most badass moments in the show though, when she bare-handily takes down one of her own kind after Kyon’s life, but in the end I just can’t say I like her or dislike her really.

Now Mikuru…ahh…there’s my favorite character. In fact, I’ll admit it right now - I have a huge fan-boy crush on the character. I mean, look at her!










Can you blame me? Didn’t think so.

She’s absolutely adorable, full of cute little charms, and I’m sure a lot of people hate her on principle as pretty much a human incarnation of all that is ‘moe’, but you know what? If it’s done well, I think moe can be an endearing trait. Chalk me in with Haruhi and Konata in that regard!

The final member of the brigade, Itsuki, I think almost would have made a better lead than Kyon, personality wise. He’s a lot more my speed for a lead character, cracking little jokes from time to time, generally happy, and he seems to be an all-around nice guy. Well, with the exception of annoxing Kyon for fun anyway. When I think about it now, it wouldn’t work with him as the lead since Kyon’s anti-Haruhi nature is needed to make her character bearable at all, whereas Itsuki thinks she’s a God and also finds all those annoying traits of hers ‘charming.’

The animation won’t disappoint either. I’m not lying when I say this is one of the most beautifully animated TV anime I’ve ever seen. Maybe it was because of the popularity of the novels, maybe it was due to how short the original episode count was, or perhaps a mixture of both - either way, this show is absolutely gorgeous.

So in closing, Haruhi Suzumiya is one hell of an anime ride, unlike any other. Is it a must-see title? I wouldn’t go so far as to put it up there with some others I consider must-see (like the first Fullmetal Alchemist, Air, and Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart), but it’s certainly a show that I think everyone should at least check into. It’s definitely one that you have to see to believe. So with that in mind, I bring this review to a close. It was a long one, but hey, it’s been a while.

I give The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, a 4 out of 5. It's not 'best ever' level for me, but it is one of the best shows I've seen a long, long while. Check it out!

- Gyt Kaliba

P.S. - Look, more pretty Mikuru!

A update on Hiroyuki Yamashita.

I wrote a bit before about Hiroyuki Yamashita and his distintive style in the Naruto Shippuuden series. However, Yamashita has been risen a bit more within the ranks on this project since then. He was credited with doing some Puppet Designs for Naruto Shippuden: The Lost Tower-- which is directed by Masahiko Murata who's done quite a bit of notable episodes on the series himself. And now it's been confirmed that he's going to actually be an animation director on the actual show.

Episode 178 preview:



The traits from Yamashita sans the triangle swords are all here to marvel at. Look at the mouths of Iruka and those three ninja. The shape and snappy timing of their lips flapping seems like they're drawn by Yamashita himself (perhaps he did or maybe he corrected a great deal of this scene). Naruto's arm while he's resting on Iruka is more squarish and flatter. In the same shot you can see that Kakashi's face is more slimmer than usual and the timing to his mouth movement is very similar to the previous scene I mentioned.

The only shots that can contain animation in this preview that don't look like the were corrected by Yamashita is the shot of Choji and Shikamauru and the latter one of the candle and Jugo talking. Yasuhiko Kanezuka is the co-animation director along with Yamashita--he's not too shabby himself, just not exactly doing exciting animation like Yamashita seems destined to do. Once the episode comes out it'll be interesting to see just how much of an influence Yamashita will have in his debut as an animation director.

Panty and Stocking Promotional Video.

Well, the PV is out and everybody has their thoughts made up already. The funny thing I'm hearing is how it looks too American. Kinda funny how it points out how fans are so allergic to anything new or different from the typical anime tropes in animation. The mixture of different animation styles from other countries that results in new styles is something that should be celebrated and not be the victim of knee-jerk vilifications.

People might be familiar with the staff since they worked on Gurren Lagann, but here's a hastily-put-together refresher for the main parts.

Director: Hiroyuki Imaishi- Needs no formal introduction. A great animator before he decided to direct and still is. However, he's brought his kinetic vision that's inspired in most part by Yoshinori Kanada as a director too. Panty & Stocking marks a return to the crude humor of Dead Leaves with more overt American influences that makes it stand out even more among the mass number of boring art styles currently being offered.

Character Design: Atsushi Nishigori- character designer for TTGL. I honestly haven't dedicated myself to knowing much about his career aside that he seems to have started at Gainax as an in-betweener on FLCL. Good place to start if I ever saw one with the myriad of talented animators they got on there (Tetsuya Nishio, Keisuke Watabe, Hideaki Anno, Masayuki, etc.)

Co-Director: Masahiko Ohtsuka- while he's been at Gainax for over 15 years, he's only been a series director once (Petite Princess Yucie). Started out at Ghibli as an assistant director for Pom Poko and Yoshifumi Kondô's Whisper of the Heart, along with being an episode director on Eva.

Concept Art: Yoh Yoshinari- Brother of animator Kou Yoshinari. It would take way too long to list every one of his memorable works, but on Gurren Lagann (spoilers ahead) he animated the sequence in the 1st OP where Gurren Lagann pins down the gunmen with its drills and the subsequent zoom-out and explosion. The opening scene in episode 1 where we see the future Simon and the zoom-out revealing the entire ship. And the last fight sequence in ep. 27 where Viral throws Lagann. Again, those are just a few of his memorable works.

Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt will air on October 1st. Any R1 company with a brain and the money to do it has to pick this one up ASAP.