My Bride Is a Mermaid: Season One, Part One

July 15, 2010 — Zack Davisson

 
4.0 out of 5 stars The Bride of Seto
 

My Bride Is a Mermaid: Season One, Part One

If Jr. High School student Nagasumi Michishio watched as much anime as I do, it should have come as no surprise to him that a seemingly harmless family vacation to the Seto Inland Sea would result in an engagement to a beautiful, sweet girl whose family is made up of the local yakuza clan all of which who happen to be merfolk. I mean, this kind of stuff happens all the time, right?

So yeah, “My Bride is a Mermaid” (Japanese title “Seto no Hanayome” or “The Bride of Seto”) is one of those kinds of anime. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t good. When working in an established genre, it is really a question of how good they do the genre, and this series does a great job.

The Magical Girl/Harem combo can be done for romance (Ah! My Goddess or an overdose of fan service (Eiken) or for straight-out comedy which is what “My Bride is a Mermaid” goes for. Based on the manga of the same name by Tahiko Kimura., this series is almost a parody of the genre and delivers some good laughs with the many bizarre situations Nagasumi finds himself in. The undersea humor reminded me a lot of One Piece more than anything else, with the romantic element thrown in. “My Bride is a Mermaid” is pretty much a fan service -free anime, with maybe just the slightest hint of it here or there if you squint your eyes, but that is about it.

The story is basic: Nagasumi and his family go for vacation to the Seto Inland Sea, where Nagasumi almost drowns and finds himself rescued by a beautiful mermaid. No one believes his story until that same mermaid, named Seto and with legs this time, shows up at his doorstep and begs for Nagasumi to accept her as his fiancé. The merfolk have a code, it seems, of killing any human that sees them in their nautical form, and the only way around it is for Nagasumi to take Seto as his bride. Marry the beautiful girl or be killed. Of course, to complicate matters Seto’s family is also the local yakuza clan, and Seto’s father would much rather see Nagasumi dead than give away his precious daughter.

Nagasumi and Seto are only engaged, not married, so they spend time going on dates and Seto eventually returns with Nagasumi to his hometown of Saitama to attend school with him and get to know him in preparation for their future. Seto’s family isn’t going to let her go off alone, however, and they soon show up to wreck havoc on Nagasumi’s school life. Of course, there are some human girls back at school that fancy Nagasumi as well, and a rival mermaid shows up to give Seto a battle for Nagasumi, who she wants to take as her manservant. Hijinks ensue.

There is all sorts of good comedy packed into this series. Seto has legs only so long as her feet don’t get wet, which means that water is flying everywhere during the series. Seto’s bodyguard Maki is a tiny little elf-girl that lives in a spiral shell but comes out sword a swinging every time she thinks Nagasumi is over-stepping his bounds. The series relies a lot on running gags and playing around with the genre tropes, such as Nagasumi getting his “first kiss” stolen by male yakuza member Masa so Nagasumi is rendered as a “bishonen” -type whenever Masa shows up. When Seto gets serious, she is suddenly shrouded in darkness and accompanied by falling cherry blossoms, which leads the other characters to wonder where all the blossoms are coming from. There are two transformed-animal yakuza members, Shark Fujishiro and Octopus Nakajima who are exactly what their names sound like.

The only complaint I have with “My Bride is a Mermaid” is with the subtitles. Japanese is a language with many regional dialects, and too often translators feel compelled to use various English accents or way of speaking to capture this. It doesn’t work. Even though Sun and her family speak perfectly polite Japanese using the dialect local to Seto, the subtitles have them speaking like a bunch of hillbillies saying things like “yer gonna get it” or other ridiculous phrases. When Sun says “Watashi was Nagasumi no tsuma ni naru” the subtitles says “I’m yer future wife” which is not at all correct. She doesn’t speak like an uneducated country bumbkin. I don’t mind it if this kind of translations is used when done for effect, like when the tiny Maki talks in her “yakuza voice” when trying to be intimidating but then switches back to normal Japanese, but putting those words in Sun’s mouth all the time just doesn’t work.

This release by Funimation has the first 13 episodes of the 26-episode series originally released in 2007. The series is continued in My Bride Is a Mermaid: Season One, Part Two. Although the boxsets say “Season One,” there actually is no “Season Two” following up this anime There were two OVA releases in 2008 and 2009, although I don’t know if there are plans to release these as well, but it is possible they would be released as a limited “Season Two,” but they would be very short and non-continuous.
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Initial D: Fourth Stage, Part 2

July 14, 2010 — Zack Davisson

3.0 out of 5 stars Fast cars and slow people (the animation that is)

Initial D: Fourth Stage, Part 2

This is the follow up to Initial D: Fourth Stage, Part 1, and continues Funimation’s re-dub of the popular series. Like with One Piece, “Initial D” was dealt with poorly by editors hoping to “Americanize” the series and re-package it to catch the wave of films like Tokyo Drift that brought Street Racing to the popular consciousness. Funimation’s “Initial D: Fourth Stage, Part 2″ restores the original soundtrack and has created a more authentic dub and subtitle track. This box set contains episodes 13-24, and is the last of the “Initial D” television series released so far.

In these episodes, Takumi and Project D have established their reputations as serious competitors, bringing new rivals to the scene. Takumi continues to struggle with his Eight-Six, the rain giving him trouble against a rival Impreza’s 4WD capability. The Lan Evo team is pulling out dirty tricks to win in the Hillclimb Challenge as well, but Project D is pulling through. Into the picture comes two mystery cars, known as the Purple Shadows driven by the legendary Godhand and Godfoot who aim to show that they are still the kings of the road. Takumi still has a lot to learn if he is going to win against these two, and so the serious training begins.

“Initial D” is a totally fetishist anime. You are either a car fiend or you are not. If you are, then this is your heaven, but if you are not then there isn’t too much story here to keep you interested. Even the animation is focused solely on the cars. The cars themselves are rendered lovingly in 3D computer animation, while the human characters are poorly drawn.

Personally, I am not enough of a car freak to dig this series. I love the racing scenes, but the human animation is so badly done I can’t get past it. The frame rates are slower than anything I have seen in a modern animation, leaving jerky characters and stagnant images that only have the mouths awkwardly moving up and down while the rest might as well be statues. This is Clutch Cargo-era animation, not something I would expect to see on my DVD player nowadays. I am really shocked to see animation this bad.

But if you are enough of a car freak, and already love the “Initial D” series, then here is another box of goodness for you.

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Last Exile: The Complete Series Box Set

March 1, 2010 — Zack Davisson

4.0 out of 5 stars Steam Punk Fantasy

Anything with the name Range Murata attached to it is an instant lure for me. One of the most talented people working in the world of Japanese manga, his art-magazine series Robot is always full of the most stunning and unique images. His work in anime is rare and always worth checking out.

“Last Exile” reunites Range Murata with the four-episode OVA Blue Submarine, No. 6 team of Studio Gonzo and director Koichi Chigira (Brave Story). “Blue Submarine No. 6″ was hailed as Japan’s first “CG Anime” although more truthfully it blended both 3-D computer graphics with traditional technology. Whereas “Blue Submarine No. 6″ was adapted from a 1967 manga series by Satoru Ozawa, “Last Exile” is an original story created as a celebration of Studio Gonzo’s tenth anniversary.

The world of Prester sits in the Golden Age of Aviation, where swift two-seater Vanships flit their way in and out of the spaces left between the mighty flying battleships that pound each other with cannon broadsides. The two nations Anatoray and Disith face off in eternal conflict obeying rules of chivalrous combat laid down and enforced by the technologically advanced Guild.

Two vanship couriers, Lavie Head and Claus Valca, get caught up in this world when they accept the job to deliver a message to Duke Mad-thane of Anatoray’s military. Escaping from the battle, the two discover a small child named Alvis E. Hamilton who they take charge of. Alivis is being hunted by everyone, and so the three are forced to take refuge in the undefeated rouge vessel of outlaw Alex Row. Row himself is a mystery, at first appearing to be little more than a successful pirate but soon revealed to be tracking down the rumored four Mysteria where are said to be keys to the greater mystery of something known only as Exile.

It took me awhile to get into “Last Exile.” The first several episodes are pure set-up, leading us into the world of Prester, of vanships and air battles. The focus is heavily on Claus and Lavie, touching little on the politics that will later come to dominate the series. It is not until the third episode, when Alvis E. Hamilton makes her appearance, that the story starts to deepen, and several more episodes while I was fully hooked. The first mention of the “Exile” that the series takes its name from does not even appear until around episode ten, well into the second disk in the series.

From the box cover and synopsis, I was expecting something along the lines of Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky, but instead I got an updated world of Matsumoto Leiji’s dramatic space opera universe of Captain Harlock. This is not a bad thing, as I love political space opera, but “Last Exile” is definitely not the light and fluffy series I was expecting.

Like “Blue Submarine No. 6,” “Last Exile” merges computer animated 3D with traditional 2D animation. This also reminded me of Matsumoto Leiji, who uses a similar tactic of 3D animation for his ships and 2D for his characters. I always find this combination jarring unless it is down flawlessly, and it is not flawless here. But fortunately this style settles down after the first few episodes.

Aside from the slow start, once “Last Exile” gets going it is a fantastic series. Range Murata’s unique designs are brought to life beautifully, and it is clear that he spent quite a bit of time on the detail of each character. Some of the Steam Punk influences are incredible, like the musketeers lining the deck of the flying battleships and using steam-powered muskets while fighting and dying in strict formation. The vanships themselves take a bit of getting used to, as no such vehicle could every truly fly, but their speed and sleekness soon takes over any awkwardness of design.

Funimation’s collection of “Last Exile” is perfect, with the entire twenty-six episode series put on four disks packed in two slimline cases. This release is not part of their Viridian Collection, but offers the same value for an affordable price.

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Skull Man: Complete Collection

February 4, 2010 — Zack Davisson

5.0 out of 5 stars The Skull-faced Phantom

“Skull Man” is a series with an interesting legacy. Created in 1970 by legendary Ishinomori Shotaro, “Skull Man” was Japan’s first anti-hero, a dark crusader who didn’t mind if a few innocents got killed on his quest for vengeance. The one-shot story appeared in Shonen Magazine, and was an instant hit. Ishinomori was asked to re-develop the character in a lighter and less gruesome style for a kid’s television program, and the masked hero Kamen Rider was born. More than thirty years later “Kamen Rider” is still on the air, while character who gave birth to him, “Skull Man,” had faded to obscurity.

In the late 90s, a dying Ishinomori contacted manga artist Shinamoto Kazuhiko with his last wish: Ishinomori wanted Shinamoto to finish the story of “Skull Man” started so many years ago. Ishinomori faxed Shinamoto his plot and story notes, then Shinamoto took it from there. Skull Man was revived in 1998 to great success. In 2007, Studio Bones (Rahxephon, Wolf’s Rain) updated and adapted “Skull Man” for a thirteen-episode Fuji TV series, which has finally been released in the US.

The setting for “Skull Man” is a divided Japan, split into North and South sections which are guarded by an armed border. On the Northern side, there are urban legends of a mysterious skull-faced killer stalking the streets. On the Southern side, newbie reporter Mikogami Hayato thinks that this “Skull Man” might just be the big break he needs to catapult him to fame, and convinces his editor to send him over to the North to find the truth behind the rumors. Hayato was raised in an orphanage in the Northern Otomo city and has contacts on the Northern side in the form of Kuroshiro Gozo, a powerful businessman.

At the border, Hayato meets Mamiya Kiriko, a young girl who dreams of becoming a Pulitzer-winning photojournalist. The two strike up an uneasy partnership, and go on a hunt for leads to the Skull Man. Their path quickly leads them to the White Bell Society, a new and powerful religious sect in Otomo city, and onto the trail of Kagura Tatsuo, a man killed ten years ago in an arson case but who Hayato tags as the leading suspect for the identity of the Skull Man. As the investigation progresses, it seems that everyone, from the innocent Kiriko to Hayato’s powerful ally Gozo, is hiding some secret connecting them to the White Bell Society and the mysterious and dangerous Skull Man.

With the “Skull Man” anime, Studio Bones decided to keep mainly the heart of Ishinomori’s original characters and to re-imagine almost everything else. The series has a 1930s Noir-ish detective feel, juxtaposed with Lon Chaney’s The Phantom of the Opera and Wagner’s Tannhauser opera. Ishinomori’s typical futuristic bucket-headed hero has been redesigned as a gothic menace with a close-fitting skull mask and a long black coat wielding a German Luger P08 pistol and a shotgun. By contrast however, Hayato and Kiriko are almost typical old-school anime characters thrust into a darker world than they were prepared for. Instead of the urban legend he was hunting for, Hayato finds himself surrounded with dog-headed monsters and beautiful movie actresses transforming into flying monsters.

The mixture of an updated and modern anime retaining some of the style and flair of its original creator reminded me quite a bit of the Osamu Tezuka adaptation Metropolis. Some of the character designs (especially Hayato and Kiriko’s hairdos) and plot twists might seem dated and in fact they are, but this was a deliberate choice that I think works well. It keeps that “nostalgic but modern” effect that I think is a strength of “The Skull Man.”

The animation is beautiful, with some flawless CGI enhanced scenes. The series ends on a somewhat ambiguous note, either as a set up for a sequel or just as an artistic choice by the director. Either way, the series stands completely on its own. It must also be noted that “The Skull Man” has one of the best covers I have ever seen on an anime DVD.

This set has the entire thirteen-episode series on two DVDs, with six episodes on the first disk and seven on the second disk. There is no dubbed soundtrack, being available only in Japanese with optional English subtitles, and that is just fine with me. The only real extras are some previews for other Section 23 releases. What I feel is really missing from the release is the live-action “The Skull Man Episode Zero” that was released as a prequel to this series, but these live-action anime adaptations almost never make it to the US, which is a shame. They would make excellent bonus features.

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Samurai Champloo: The Complete Collection

February 2, 2010 — Zack Davisson

Samurai Champloo: The Complete Collection

 
5.0 out of 5 stars A spicy dish served up hot
 
It has been several years (five to be exact) since I watched “Samurai Champloo,” and while I always knew it as good I somehow forgot that it is in fact one of the greatest anime series ever produced.

“Champloo” is an Okinawan word (more properly pronounced champuru) meaning “mix” or “blend,” and is most often applied to traditional food dishes such as “Goya Champloo” or “Stir-fried Champloo.” It’s basically a mixed stir-fry with a seemly infinite number of potential ingredient, and a very fitting description of Watanabe Shinichiro’s “Samurai Champloo.”

An eclectic blend of ancient and modern, hip-hop and koto, and pretty much everything else thrown into the mix, this is a Japan where a wild swordfighter uses capoeira moves to slice and dice with a fury, an enormous man known as the Oni smashes skulls with his massive club, and two twin brothers compete in a match to graffiti Himeji castle. Watanabe is a heck of a chef, and manages to balance all these seemingly dissonant elements into a tasty dish that might even top his previous concoction Cowboy Bebop.

The story features a bookish but deadly ronin (Jin), a wild sword-swinging roustabout (Mugen) and a kooky but determined waitress (Fuu). The trio is pushed into an unhappy alliance, several times attempting to split up, yet always finding their destinies inexorably intertwined. Fuu leads them on a quest for the “Samurai who smells of Sunflowers,” providing the McGuffin that keeps the story moving. Each episode changes in tone and character, moving effortlessly between comedy and drama, tragedy and action.

Each ingredient supports the flavor of the other perfectly, creating a variety of story possibilities that couldn’t be found by following just one personality. Categorize “Samurai Champloo” as “hip-hop samurai” is too much of an easy dismissal; the series goes much deeper than that. Along with hip-hop music and culture, the series features Japanese history like the hidden Christian sects, and samurai movie mythology such as Miyomoto Musashi and the female ninjas kunoichi. Every episode is a surprise, and every episode had be glued to the screen in anticipation of what would come next.

Watanabe’s trademark style is on fine display, with some of the most fluid animation you will ever see and a quick and flowing story punctuated with quiet moments of reflection. The story builds at a good pace, allowing all the characters to develop in time. With twenty-six episodes, there is plenty of time to build characterization and identity, and while Jin, Mugen and Fuu appear at first to be mere stereotypical genre characters, they deepen with each telling.

This boxset is a pretty sweet package for this amazing series. Produced by Geneon and released by Funimation, it has all twenty-six episodes on seven disks, each with its own slim case. There are four episodes per disk, meaning that no quality has been lost by squishing too many episodes on a single disk to save space. Inside each case is an essay or comments by one of the people who worked on the series, giving insight into how it was created and what goes into such a collaboration.

The only possibly thing I would have wished for this box set is that Funimation had double-packed the DVDs into the slim cases, as they have with most of their other series. With as many DVDs as I own, space can be a premium at my house and so the smaller the packaging the better.
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School Rumble: 2nd Semester – The Complete Collection

November 25, 2009 — Zack Davisson

 
5.0 out of 5 stars Let’s Fighting Love!

“School Rumble,” both the manga and the anime, is probably my favorite modern series. Something about its surreal, over-the-top comedy played totally straight just cracks me up every time. I like a big ensemble cast, and “School Rumble” is a series with no losers. An episode can center on any character and I am as happy as can be.

This second DVD set continues pretty much right were season one left off. The anime series pretty much follows the manga as well, with the infamous after-hours battle to decide what class 2-C will do for the School Festival. This action-packed storyline was one of my favorites in the manga, and comes off even better in the anime. Things are heating up on the romance side as well as rumors of Harima and Yakumo being a couple continue to spread, something which isn’t helped at all by Yakumo’s sister Tenma (the object of Harima’s affection) being in full support of the match. Ah, poor Harima’s heart is breaking! After the hijinks of the school festival, there is a camping trip, a girl’s basketball team, an ocean voyage and Karasuma’s secret revealed!

The second season maintains the tone and craziness that we have come to expect from “School Rumble.” I love the fact that this series is neither a straight-forward romance, nor a comedy, nor an action/adventure. It is almost like the series gets to reinvent itself with every episode, being exactly what the story dictates at any given time. Things like entering a “Hyper Super-Size Magma Curry, Cosmos-Size” eating contest slide in easily next to tender moments between characters and the tangled, twisted web of love that gives the series momentum and continuity.

The only negative I can possibly think of about this second series is that I’m not a big fan of the new theme song. Season one’s theme was catchy and stuck in my head long after the episode was over, but Season Two’s theme song just doesn’t have that same punch. Funimation’s packaging of this season is the same as Season One, with the nice slimcase disks that don’t take up so much room on your shelf. I love those.

The real bad news is that this is it for animated “School Rumble.” While the manga continues, there are only Season One and Season Two for the anime, along with the Extra Class OVA that was produced mainly for the fans. Funimation offers both seasons and the OVA in a School Rumble: The Complete Series as well, which is a nice set if you are already a confirmed fan of the series.

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When They Cry: Complete Box Set

November 18, 2009 — Zack Davisson

5.0 out of 5 stars Innovative murder mystery series with a real twist

“When They Cry” (“Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni” or “When the Cicadas Cry,” a colorful term meaning the summertime in Japan when the cicada’s cry can be almost deafening) is one of the most unique adaptations I have seen of the Japanese computer game-type known as a visual novel.

Visual novels (although in the case of “Higurashi no Naku Koro” it was called a “sound novel” due to its use of mood-setting music and sound effects) are kind of like “Choose your own adventure” books for the computer. Players get a standard plotline that can be resolved in different ways based on conversations they have with other characters and choices they make in the game. In the case of “When They Cry,” the game was a murder-mystery where the killer and victims could be any number of people depending on how the game was played. The anime for “When They Cry” replicated this by making a series of story arcs, each which resolves the main story in a different style.

The basic set-up is always the same. Five friends live in the small village of Hinamizawa home of the summer festival known as Watanagashi where bits of cotton are floated down the stream to do away with bad memories. Keiichi is a young boy who has recently moved to the village, where he quickly befriends a group of four girls, Rena, Mion, Satoko, and Rika. Things start out innocently enough, but slowly Keiichi learns of a local legend of a village curse by someone named Oyashiro, and that every year on the Watanagashi festival someone is murdered and someone disappears forever.

The twenty-six episode box set has six story arcs, “Spirited Away by Demons, “Cotton Drifting,” “Curse Killing,” “Time Killing,” “Eye Opening (Actually “Cotton Drifting” told from a different point of view) and “Attonment.” Each story arc starts on a sunny day on the way to school, and ends with bloody murder. The plots can vary quite wildly, with only a few elements linking together each of the story arcs.

When you first watch “When They Cry,” this can be somewhat disconcerting. At the end of one episode all of the main characters are thrown down wells or chopped up into pieces, only to have them whole and healthy at the beginning of the next story arc with no mention of what you have just watched. Once you get into the rhythm of the series, this cycle becomes comfortable and it is fun wondering who will be the killer and who will be killed this time around. There is even a little meta-joke in the series, as the friends are members of a club who play a game like Clue, trying to guess who the killer, location and weapon will be in the game.

There is a sharp contrast between the cutesy character designs and the foul play that eventually ends the story arcs. With the first episode, I was almost annoyed at the characters because they seemed like every fluffy bunny stereotype of anime girls you could possibly imagine. This only made it more fun however when the baseball bats started swinging and the blood started flowing. The series really took me by surprise when it made its dark turn.

The story arcs aren’t entirely separate. Each one introduces some new elements of the characters that might be carried over into the next story arc, like Mion’s twin sister, Shion who appears to complicate the situation. Even if the story doesn’t flow, the character development does.

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Case Closed: Season 1 Set

November 10, 2009 — Zack Davisson

case closed

5.0 out of 5 stars Famous Detective Conan

“Case Closed” (“Metaintei Conan” or “Famous Detective Conan”) was a series that was hugely popular when I lived in Japan, on the same level as Naruto and One Piece, but one that I just never got around to viewing. There was no particular reason for this, and I always wanted to check it out, but…I didn’t. (Strange too, because I am a huge fan of the two authors Conan takes his name from, Edogawa Rampo and Arthur Conan Doyle.)

When I finally go this Funimation release of “Case Closed Series One,” I popped in the first DVD to expecting to give it a quick watch and that was the end of my Saturday. I got sucked in and spent the next several hours watching episode after episode until I had almost watched the entire box set in a single day. I polished off the rest of the set the next day!

Obviously, “Case Closed” is a lot of fun, and a great anime series. There is a reason it is as popular as it is. Telling the story of teenage detective Kudo Shinichi, a popular and handsome high school student who is also a famous detective, Shinichi finds himself caught up in a case featuring black-coated members of a secret crime organization who poison Shinichi to keep him off their tails. Instead of killing him, the poison shrinks Shinichi down to a child-sized body while keeping his intellect intact. Realizing he is better off playing dead for the moment until he can find a cure for the poison, Shinichi adopts the alias of Edogawa Conan after two of his favorite mystery writers and continues on solving mysteries.

“Case Closed” is only about half “boy Sherlock Holmes” with the other half being “boy James Bond.” Conan’s ally Professor Agasa serves as Conan’s “Q,” setting him up with high-tech gadgets to help Conan compensate for his childlike body and to add some action to the series. The episodes are pretty evenly split between mystery-orientated showing off Conan’s detective skills and full on action/adventure.

There is a big ensemble cast to help along, like Mori Ran, Conan’s lady interest back when he was the full sized Kudo Shinichi, but who now treats him like an Elementary school student, and Ran’s father Mori Kogoro, a bumbling detective who manages to take the credit for all of Conan’s discoveries. Conan also gets himself a little gang of “junior detectives” made up of his elementary school classmates who help out from time-to-time.

The big laughs of “Case Closed” comes from Conan having to deal with being trapped in a kid’s body. Here is someone with a genius IQ being sent back to elementary school and being given rabbit-shaped balloons from girls when he would rather get a kiss. The series does a lot of good with this rather odd plot point, especially when dealing with Ran and her “babying” of Conan all the while longing for Shinichi, never realizing they are one and the same.

The only real drawback of the series is a nitpicky minor one. I realize that there are some legal entanglements from using the name “Conan” here in the West, due to its association with Conan the Cimmerian rather than Arthur Conan Doyle, but I am not a fan of the new title “Case Closed.” Also, when doing the English-language track Funimation did more than just dub the series but gave it a whole “Western overall.” Kudo Shinichi became Jimmy Kudo. Mori Ran became Rachel Moore. I didn’t like this when it was done with the series Card Captor Sakura (Daidoji Tomoyo becoming “Madison Taylor”) and I don’t like it here either. Fortunately, with a quick swipe of the remote control button, the Japanese-language soundtrack can be selected and all such worries fall away.

I am definitely a Conan fan and will be picking up the rest of the series!

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Ponyo

October 9, 2009 — Zack Davisson

ponyo

5.0 out of 5 stars A world of pure imagination

The mother Lisa has the most poignant line in “Ponyo,” saying the equivalent of “When you find yourself surrounded by magic and wonder, you don’t try and understand it you just enjoy it.”

To me, that is the theme and lesson of “Ponyo” (“Gake no Ue no Ponyou” or “Ponyo on the Cliffs”). After dabbling in darker themes and more adult-orientated fare like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, Miyazaki has returned to the lighter, simpler themes of the magic and mystery of childhood as found in his groundbreaking My Neighbor Totoro. One can always tell the target audience for a Miyazaki film by the age of the main character: “Spirited Away” was made for 10-year olds, “Princess Mononoke” was made for teenagers. The lead characters in “Ponyo” are 5 years old.

Like “My Neighbor Totoro,” “Ponyo” is a film based on a childlike sense of joy and imagination. There is no need for a “villain” or some arbitrary conflict or threat for the children to overcome. Like Satsuki and Mei, Sosuke and Ponyo are pure at heart, and open to exploring the wonders around them. They feel their emotions without cynicism or thought, instead living in the moment and experiencing its joys, sorrows and fears.

Which is not to say there is no depth here. In “Ponyo,” Miyazaki has blended two unlikely sources; Richard Wagner’s pounding opera Die Walkure from Der Ring Des Nibelungen and Hans Christian Anderson’s melancholy fairy tale The Little Mermaid. The essential set-up comes from “Die Walkure,” where the god Wotan holds the goddess Freia captive, and is also the possessor of the Rhinegold Ring which grants vast magical powers so long as one gives up all possibility of love. As a nod to this, the name Ponyo is giving by her father is Brünnhilde, one of the Valkyrie who feels the power of the Ring and must make the choice between love and paradise. This story is skillfully blended with Anderson’s “Little Mermaid,” about a sea creature who must win the love of a human or be reduced to soulless sea foam.

Miyazaki essentially presents two movies. The front film is basic, colorful and easy to understand for children. The animation in “Ponyo” is some of the best that I have ever seen, with Miyazaki personally drawing much of the underwater and ocean scenes, utilizing the influence of classic Japanese ukiyo-e pictures. Miyazaki has said that “Ponyo” is his most technically complicated film, using more unique images than any previous film.

The second, deeper story is something that can only be assembled from fragments and snatches of conversation. For example, the wizard Fujimoto, Ponyo’s father, was a human being who fell in love with the ocean goddess Gran Mammare, and struggled for centuries to burn away his humanity and become consort and protector for the entity he loved. More than anyone, he understands the sacrifices and struggles awaiting Ponyo when she loves someone not of her world. These story/sub-story elements are one of the things I love so much about Japanese film, where more expectations are put on the audience to read between the lines and to give thought to the unspoken as well as the spoken

I am not sure how much of this deeper story survived the translation into English, as I watched the film in Japanese. There are some nuances that probably went missing, and I am curious as to how some of the scenes were handled, such as when Lisa sings Sosuke a part of the theme song to “My Neighbor Totoro” to cheer him up when his father is not home. Some other things, such as the significance of tunnels in Japanese folklore (considered the realm of female Mountain Gods who are prone to jealousy, it is assumed that the tunnel would not take kindly to a water deity passing through. However, outside the tunnel is a statue of Jizo, the protector of children, which sends a visual clue to the audience that Sosuke and Ponyo are going to be alright.) also might pass unnoticed or appear confusing to Western audiences, although every Japanese person would inately understand this without needing to be told.

Miyazaki proved in “Ponyo” that he is still the greatest director of animated films alive. I am so thrilled to have seen this movie, and I know I will watch it again and again.

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Satoshi Kon’s Paranoia Agent: Complete Collection

September 28, 2009 — Zack Davisson

paranoia

5.0 out of 5 stars Head-bending series in true Kon Satoshi style

I am a Kon Satoshi devotee. I never know quite where he is going to take me, and I rarely understand what happened even when I reach that destination, but it is always a hell of a ride.

“Paranoia Agent” is Kon’s first attempt at an ongoing series. The plot was stitched together out of left-over ideas he had from his feature films, like Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, and Tokyo Godfathers, ideas that he liked but couldn’t figure out how to fit them into the various movies. Working with the extended length of a television series, Kon was able to explore and expand on all of these ideas, fitting them into an over-arching plot.

The series has an ensemble cast, each with a complete story arc. Sagi Tsukiko is a young female character designer who has created the wildly popular character Maromi. An introspective and lonely girl, Sagi is the first to encounter the phenomenon known as Shonen Bat, a roller-skating punk with a crocked golden baseball bat who strikes those who have come to a desperate point in their lives. Detectives Ikari Keiichi and Maniwa Mitsuhiro try to hunt down the attacker, but find themselves drawn into a mysterious world beyond understanding.

“Paranoia Agent” is very much a Kon Satoshi series, and if you like his stuff then you are going to love this. All of his favorite themes are on display such as duality (Chono Harumi is a girl with a split personality. One a nice, sweet office lady, the other an aggressive and sexy prostitute.), identity (Detective Maniwa gets drawn so far into the plot he loses himself to become the super-hero Radar Man), real vs. unreal (the character Maromi seems innocent enough at first…). It is nice that Kon had the extra length to play with all of these themes, and while some of the episodes seem like interludes every single second of screen time is worth watching.

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