Emma: A Victorian Flop

The anime "Emma: A Victorian Romance" is a real-life maid series, that counteracts the current trend in Japan of the oversexualized maid cafes. However, from what I saw in the first DVD, the series just isn't exciting enough to catch my interest.

The plot is very simple. Set in 19th century England, Emma is a maid for her mistress, Kelly Stowner. Kelly used to be a governess to William Jones, a gentleman who works with his father to trade with India. William falls in love with Emma and buys her flowers and lace gloves.

However, at a ball, a 19-year-old named Elanor Campbell falls in love with William in episode 2. Although there's some confusion when Emma spots him shopping for a gift with Elanor nearby, William showed up at Emma's house later to give her the gift, a lace umbrella.

The story throws a curve ball in the third episode when William's friend in India, Hakim, arrives with his lady friends and his elephants. And William rides with Hakim on an elephant to Emma's, Hakim falls in love too. Hakim immediately tells her that he loves her, and buys her an expensive gift. However, Emma is not really fond of expensive attire.

While all this Japanese gift-giving etiquette in 19th century England is fine for a few episodes, it almost consumes what could have been a great Jane Austen-style romance. The characters spend so much time thinking about what gifts are best that they forget to develop strong, emotional relationships. The anime integrates visuals very well, with crazy elephant rides and beautiful outfits. However, Emma lacks the memorable dialogue to back it up. Supposedly, there's a conflict in which Emma cannot marry William because she's a common maid, but I haven't seen it yet.

See Anime News Network's review of the "Emma" box set.

Image courtesy of anime.mikomi.org and batrock.net

Let's Get English

Next blog, I'll review "Emma: A Victorian Romance." Yes, this is an anime series set in Victorian England. The box set came out this month, so stay tuned for a review on it.

Time sure slows down a lot during the summer, but I'm still reviewing.

DVD Review - Vexille brings technological apocalypse to Japan

Although one computer-generated robot film was already released this year, "Vexille" is more thoughtful and exciting than "Appleseed: Ex Machina." Despite the slow pace of the film, I loved watching this new prediction of an apocalyptic future of Japan.

At first, the film seems to go in the same direction as "Appleseed: Ex Machina," with intense robot battles and fast action. However, this movie decides to take a much different approach--this time, the robot force is investigating the use of cyborg technology in Japan.

According to the film, Japan isolated itself from the world in the year 2067. The entire island was secluded, and no foreigners could come in or out of the area. In fact, the movie shows that there is a flashing electronic security network called R.A.C.E. between Japan and the rest of the world.

The film centers around Vexille, a member of S.W.O.R.D., which is a military group that specializes in fighting in robot suits. Ten years later, her husband, Leon, found a messenger in San Pedro, California, who said that Maria needed him, and that Daiwa Industries is meeting at Mt. Fila on Christmas Day to discuss admission of their cyborg technology. Saito of Daiwa Industries escaped on an airplane. Although Vexille hung on to his leg, Saito chopped the leg off!

Later, some scientists explained that this was actually a cyborg leg, which is illegal under the United Nations restrictions. Eventually, the head of S.W.O.R.D. operations decides to act without United States authorization to investigate the nation of Japan.

Unfortunately, the mission doesn't go well. Leon's robot suit gets hit by a rocket, and Vexille's other members are killed. Vexille wakes up in a shocking new world of Japan. Tokyo has turned into a shantytown.

Vexille also meets Maria, who was Leon's ex-girlfriend in Japan. Maria was a U.N. investigator in Japan, but after regulations by Daiwa, Maria could not move out of Japan. Leon left for the United States, but Maria explains that Daiwa also did something else to Japan--they turned all the people into cyborgs.

According to Maria, after Daiwa Industries took governmental control over Japan, they gave all the people vaccinations. Unfortunately, these vaccinations were special chemicals that turned all their genes into robotic parts. While they are all human, when their eyes turn black, they will all turn into empty cyborgs who are forced to work for Daiwa.

And Japan is a wasteland. That's right, after Daiwa took over, they used up its natural resources. Now it has no mountains or rivers or greenery--it is all flat. This is sure one heck of a message to convert to environment-friendly energy sources, but it works very well. The depiction is incredible--I really loved the desolate world of Japan, with desert expanses and huge robotic worms made of scrap metal.

Vexille is a brilliant film from start to finish. The Japanese voices are incredibly compelling, and the computer-generated graphics are just as awesome. I saw many complaints that the graphics are not as good as, say, "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within." However, the director chose a style that used more cell-shaded graphics, to make it somewhat more cartoony. The images were probably rendered in this way to offer a sense of comic relief from the dark apocalyptic story.

But it's clear that "Vexille" offers excellent images and a brilliant story that paints a desolate future for Japan. Let's just hope that Japan doesn't get this messed up 60 or 70 years from now.

Images courtesy of seaslugteam.com

DVD Review - Pumpkin Scissors continues investigating conspiracies

Pumpkin Scissors is a very good anime series, even if the story spends too much time away from the main storyline. The characters' dialogue is fantastic, raising the tension through episodes five to 12.

As mentioned previously, Pumpkin Scissors, the third section of the Imperial Army State of the Royal Empire, is devoted to war relief. The first volume focused on Pumpkin Scissors' new recruit, the tall, unstoppable Randel Oland. While the Pumpkin Scissors is investigating the Invisible 9, the anti-tank regiment which Oland fought in, they are also fighting in side missions. The second and third volumes of the series follow these side stories.

After Oland recovered in the hospital, he found a baby dropped off by the Imperial Army's headquarters. Oland brings the baby to Pumpkin Scissors' office, and they spent the episode searching for the mother. The group also searched for missing supplies while Alice went out with her fiancee. Warrant Officer Oreldo also helped a prostitute who is still longing for her husband, who died in battle.

The last two episodes of volume three were devoted to Pumpkin Scissors continuing investigation into the Invisible 9. The Pumpkin Scissors leader, Second Lieutenant Alice, was kidnapped by a woman, who claimed that her brother was killed for writing a report revealing that the army was experimenting on the Invisible 9 soldiers, who destroyed her hometown. Unfortunately, her two comrades knocked her out to sell her report to a journalist. Assassins soon shot the journalist and the woman's two comrades, and the newspaper publishers lost the report. Oddly enough, the man who invented tanks was also killed. The episode ends with Alice's fiancee, Lionel Taylor, secretly talking with a stranger in a dark room about the recent events, as if they were plotting something.

Although the series spent lots of time with side stories, the dialogue is very good in this series. Unlike the war anime series "Fullmetal Alchemist," this series is heavily reliant on dialogue and hilarious mishaps. For example, in episode eight, the regiment was stuck in an abandoned lodge after their truck was attacked by snowboarding bandits. In a freezing lodge in the winter, a fire in the lodge would attract the bandits' attention, so Oreldo made the embarassing suggestion to Oland that one of them could sleep in the same blanket as Alice to stay warm.

However, the last two episodes revealed that the military is really doing a lot to hide their secrets. In the middle of searching for the report on Invisible 9, Alice and Oland are attacked by an assassin with two swords. Although it's really weird to have an assassin dressed like an Englishman who fights like a ninja, it really proves how much the Imperial State Army wants to hide their scientific experimentation on soldiers.

"Pumpkin Scissors" has a very good story going for it right now. Although the series gets a little sidetracked from the main story, the dialogue for the series is excellent. Hopefully, the series will continue with more revelations to come.

Image courtesy of randomc.animeblogger.net

Crayon Shin Chan - An American Travesty

I like Shin Chan. Even though some of the jokes are a little inappropriate for an American audience, it had a cute sense of humor.

However, I will not forgive Funimation for turning Shin Chan into total crap. I hate to say it, but the English dub is such a false and misleading translation that it turns the entire series into a travesty.

Let me give some examples. The first episode, "Pee Strike," was supposed to be a cute show about a kid who went on a pee strike, because his mom wouldn't give him a bigger allowance. Simple and cute episode. The dub turns Shin Chan into some stupid whiny jerk. Even worse, his upright, strict mother starts talking about syphillis in front of this kid! Syphillis!

Everyone knows that no Japanese mother would ever talk about this type of subject in front of their kids.

It gets worse and worse. The school principal (who looks Okinawan) becomes a Latino guy, Action Man becomes Action Bastard and the Action Man theme song includes the words "Honor and a penis." I kid you not.

How the hell could a simple kid show dub go completely wrong? Well, Funimation wanted to gear this release for adults. I read in "Anime Insider" magazine that Crayon Shin-Chan was similar to Bart Simpson in the United States. But why on Earth did the English dubbers add so much crap in this dub? I mean, there are clear cultural differences between Shin Chan and Bart Simpson. But why are the kids talking about European schools and Britney Spears?

The dub is hideous. Awful. Inexcusable. The animation is still the same, but that's besides the point. The Texas dubbers involved with Shin Chan really screwed up with this. And they're working on the second season as well. Let's just hope that they don't mess up other Japanese shows.

Image courtesy of myhaven.wordpress.com

Jet Lagann

Remember two months ago, when I said that I would review Gurren Lagann? Turns out the American publisher, ADV, lost the rights to the series. Now Bandai is releasing "Gurren Lagann" next month.

Talk about weird. I was so ready two months ago to watch goofy robots with drills duke it out. Ah well, at least I can look forward to "Gurren" next month.

I'm not looking forward to reviewing "Shin Chan." I have the DVDs, but they all have bad American dub voices. There are other problems too, but I'll jot those down in my review.

Image courtesy of iamotaku.wordpress.com

DVD Review - xxxHolic continues wish-giving spree

The second DVD of xxxHolic is the best anime to arrive in my mailbox so far. Even though the characters are still unbelievably tall, the mystical beauty of the series still stands strong.

If you don't know the storyline, high schooler Kimihiro Watanuki is a part-time worker at Yuko Ichihara's house. Yuko is a professional fortune-teller and wish-giver. She often assigns Watanuki to difficult chores, such as purging the school of ghosts and offering comforting words to people tormented by demons. He's hoping that Yuko will grant his wish to stop seeing demons.

The second DVD continues Watanuki's life as a part-time worker. This time, Watanuki returns two birds to a fox and his kid, helps Yuko purge a woman of her addiction to the Internet and saves a cursed hydrangea. The chore for the fox in episode five is the lighter of the four episodes. On Watanuki's walk back to Yuko's, he discovers a food cart owned by a fox and his kid. They serve Watanuki the best oden (a Japanese stew) he's ever tasted, and Watanuki brings Yuko some oden. In return, Yuko asks Watanuki to bring back the fox's two ghost-birds the next night. Of course, since there was a full moon that night, demons attacked Watanuki, so Yuko gives Mokona to Watanuki. And while he's chased by demons, Mokona plays a game with Watanuki called shiritori, in order to repel the demons. Mokona says a word aloud and Watanuki has to say a word with starting with the last syllable of Mokona's word. I loved watching Watanuki struggle to think of words to say aloud.

The next three episodes are grim, to say the least. In episode six, "Indulgence," Watanuki and Yuko returns to the woman with the ring, who cheated on her husband. Yuko and the woman are now friends on the Internet who post on the magical girls bulletin board (I guess there's something for everyone in the Internet). This time, she has another addiction--an addiction to using the Internet obsessively as a diversion. Yuko and Watanuki solve her problems by fixing her computer. And Yuko bought a baseball bat for just this occasion.

In the seventh episode, Watanuki helps out a water sprite with an unspecified chore. Watanuki and Doumeki ask for Himawari's hair ribbons. The water sprite asks Watanuki and Doumeki to go to a humongous hydrangea. However, the hydrangea wraps up Watanuki and pulls him into the plant. He wakes up in a grey world to find a girl who wants to get out of the void they are in. Thankfully, Doumeki saves him again. Unfortunately, the girl wasn't saved--the girl was already dead.

The eighth episode is the most disturbing one yet. In this episode, a practicing teacher at Watanuki finds a pencil-shaped metal container at Yuko's yard sale. Yuko lets her have the container, but warns her not to open it. However, when she does open it, she finds an artifact called the monkey's paw. Whenever she makes a wish, one of the monkey's fingers break. But as the episode continues, the teacher discovers that not all wishes come true. In fact, her college professor calls her on the phone to tell her that her thesis was a work of plagiarism. She accidentally makes a wish for a subway train accident, and a person next to her dies in it at the subway. Eventually, she dies an awful death by monkey paw.

xxxHolic continues its spiritual theme of contentfulness. Yuko continues to remind us that its better for people not to wish for so much, because we are fine the way we are. Of course, some people wish for more, and Yuko continues to grant them their wishes for things in return. This is a difficult business for Yuko, but in Japan, someone has to teach people to tame their inner beast. Yuko is just the person to do the job.

This is starting to become a dark and grim anime series, but it still remains very insightful. This is one of the best anime series this year. I'm looking forward to watching more.

Image courtesy of anime.mikomi.org