Best anime openings for holiday insanity (part four)

In case you're wondering, I was going to publish the entire anime openings list before the new year. Then my XBOX 360 machine distracted me and I lost my focus.

This time, I'm back for good. I've written everything down before the new year, so let's start with the most disturbing one on the list:

10. Paranoia Agent opening
I'm amazed at how director Satoshi Kon took people through a mind trip with this one. All the people in this video are laughing, even when they're about to die a horrible death.

Paranoia Agent's opening is a remarkable satirical video that symbolizes how the post-modern Japanese workers and children are trying to make the best out of a hopeless environment. It visually represents of a whole range of social problems, all arising from forces that even the protagonists cannot even control.

The opening song, "Dream Island Obsessional Park," is almost as alarming to listen to. The techno drum machine, the barking choir and the synthesizer combine in a disturbing explosion of loud, polyphonic sound. The composition was designed to make people as uncomfortable as possible, to hit them with all these stunning cultural issues.

Honestly, it's almost too difficult to describe this masterpiece with all its computer enhancements and visual tricks. For the record, let's just settle this by posting it at number 10. I'm still waiting for an anime publisher to re-release this series.

9. Eureka Seven - Second opening
Unlike the Paranoia Agent video, this one gels together because it makes people feel good. This isn't any ordinary montage of characters standing in place with a heavy wind blowing across their face. This is a video that easily summarizes the beauty of wonder of this series in one-and-a-half minutes.

Everything in this opening is bursting with color and movement. From the cool surfing robots to the large headshots of the women, everything looks eclectic. The song from Home Made Kazoku is really the foundation of this entire music video. Somehow, these rappers arranged an entire rap that explains the entire philosophy of the ideal shonen anime hero. More importantly, they made this anime incredibly hip.

8. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, 2nd Gig opening
Ghost in the Shell was one of those unique action shows that somehow mixed together philosophical and political messages, without ever looking boring. The second season, however, really took the show to a whole new level with a political struggle that impacted every viewer who saw it.

The opening sequence is a powerful sequence. The shadowy montage of the main characters sets the mood for anime viewers to enter a tense world of governmental upheavals and mass destruction. Yet, the lineup of the characters against a white background is really what catches everyone's attention. The director was literally asking for us to pay attention to these tough policemen in the video who are taking a stand against political oppression.

7. Revolutionary Girl Utena
After watching all the old shoujo anime openings again, Utena is probably the only one that bowled me over. This is still one of the best displays of hand-drawn animation I've ever seen in an anime show. This one-and-a-half minute clip somehow makes single cels look like Victorian masterpieces in a twisted fantasy tale.

In the opening montage, the still shots of the girls rotate against a background of a rose, as if to show that someone was trying to spin them into a romance that is too good to be true. Then all the characters show off their bravado by making their flashiest-looking sword slash with quick, fluid animation that jumps out of the screen. By the time people reach the upside-down castle and the girls on flying horses, anyone will want to watch the show just to make sense of it all.

This is another one of those shows that still needs a re-release. Shoujo fans still love watching this series, so anime publishers should at least look into re-releasing it someday. Otherwise, the price for the entire series is going to stay at $300 on ebay.com, which isn't very enticing at all.

6. Gundam Wing, first opening
It opens with a simple montage of shots with the protagonist, Heero Yui, with his hand outstretched towards the camera. After a few measures of the thumping dance beat, the camera zooms out to show the massive Gundam robot. Once the opening title appears with the awesome old-fashioned anime cha-ching sound, robot fans know that they're in for a treat.

Sure, the teenage boy pilots look classy and sexy. However, we're really watching this to see those awesome robots blow stuff up. This sequence has tons of marvelous explosions and battle sequences to please the fans of robot fighting. The vocals from Namie Amuro sound amazing as well.

Look forward to the final part of my best anime openings list in a week or so.

Images courtesy of photobucket.com

DVD Classics: Ghost in the Shell boots up for a 2nd Gig

"Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex: 2nd Gig" is long overdue for a re-release, but thankfully Bandai has set up an Anime Classics release of the entire box set in September.

GitS: SAC 2nd Gig is the excellent second season of the GitS: SAC, with a compelling political plot on terrorism and the oppression of refugees.

Although GitS: SAC has always been known for complicated dialogue and complex idological conversation, 2nd Gig makes for a far more dramatic season. The new enemy faction in this season, the Individual Eleven, attacks the Japanese embassy in the first episode of 2nd Gig and holds the emissaries there hostage. Although Section 9 returns to save the day, the Prime Minister reinstates them in a haphazard fashion, ordering them to save the hostages in only 15 minutes.

This is a much more violent and intense season, focusing more on the plight of Japanese refugees, impoverished in the aftermath of two more World Wars. The devastation of these military attacks has left some cities of Kyushu nearly devastated.

Out of these attacks, an independent militarist group of terrorists, named the Individual Eleven, have manipulated information networks within the government. They have managed to use Section 9 as a tool for their own purposes, even going so far as to transport illegal weaponry, such as nuclear fuel rods. They've already attempted to assassinate the new Prime Minister. At this rate, terrorism in Japan can only get worse.

Although GitS 2nd Gig almost gets a little too wrapped up in conspiracies and meandering plotlines, the second season is far better than the first. Certainly, we're not used to seeing Section 9 fail in their missions. As saddening and infuriating as it gets, anime fans will deeply sympathize more with this group as they try desperately to do the right thing, while the Individual Eleven finds more and more ways to cover their tracks. Despite what other people might think, there's nothing more beautiful than watching Section 9 fight military battles in an already devastated landscape, with sunken buildings and crumbling freeways. The music is incredibly chaotic, with fantastically dissonant string sections, all arranged by the female superstar composer Yoko Kanno.

Best of all, there's far more momentum in this second season. The first season had more of a fake egotistical coolness in all of Section 9's operations, especially in the stand-alone episodes. However, this season is filled with some of the most creative plotlines and twists. Episode two literally takes place in the mind of a military veteran, who confuses the audience with his own bizarre fantasies of killing his employers. Episode seven and eight are mind-bending episodes of Section 9's attempt to capture Kazundo Gouda, the shrewd head of the Cabinet Intelligence Service who always manages to stay one step ahead of them by dispersing misleading information to cover up his tracks.

Anyone who ever doubted that "Stand Alone Complex" would end up too complicated for its own good will be proved wrong with "GitS SAC: 2nd Gig." This is another must-have series, available in September.

Image courtesy of espvisuals.blogspot.com

DVD Review: Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex

This is old news by now, but the complete collection of "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Season One" was rereleased in a cheaper box set in October of last year. Unlike the previous DVD of merely the Laughing Man story arc, this set features all the complete episodes.

And if anyone hasn't seen "Ghost in the Shell" before, it's a dizzy spectacle of robot military action, deep philosophizing and complex dialogue.

The main character, Motoko Kusanagi, is the operations leader of the secret special ops group named Section 9. They specialize in policing all forms of heavy-duty cyber crime, such as drug and organ smuggling.

However, this is very dangerous work. Some of these groups deal in heavy-duty machine guns, and some of them possess cybernetic body parts. Thus, almost all the members of Section 9 have complete cyborg bodies. Well, all of them except for the former police investigator, Togusa. He's flesh and blood, but he possesses cybernetic gizmos in his body.

The cyborg bodies allow all the Section 9 members the ability to communicate wirelessly without moving their lips. Their eyes are equipped with night vision. And they all can read bar code data for information. They also have spider tanks called Tachikomas.

Although the machinery and cyber-punk technology alone makes this one of the coolest anime series, there is also a much more complex storyline which starts in episode four. Togusa gets a tip from a former coworker at the police department about Interceptors, optical implants which allow hackers to see video through other people's eyes. Togusa discovers his first shocking conspiracy--that police are illegally installing Interceptors in all their officers to find the Laughing Man, a professional hacker.

However, the hacker is also a professional muckraker. Although he doesn't show his face too often, the Laughing Man is also trying to lead Section 9 to uncover a hideous plot involving corporate blackmailing on the scale of billions of yen.

It's a complex anime to say the least. "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex" is an epic masterpiece, involving government conspiracies and military warfare. It almost suffers from too much fancy shmancy dialogue about hacking, Internet communications and existential conversations. However it all holds together to make an awesome first season that is hard to beat.

The series is now available for $40 in stores. If anyone hasn't seen any "Ghost in the Shell" anime, they have to check out the movie. "Ghost in the Shell" is deservedly one of the best action anime around, even if Motoko tends to show a little too much skin.

Images courtesy of grumpfactory.wordpress.com