Happy Dragon Quest XI Eve

Tomorrow marks the release of Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age for the North American and European markets. To help celebrate this launch I decided I should write a little something Dragon Quest related on my blog. It’s no secret to those that know me that I am a huge fan of the franchise, and that Dragon Quest XI is easily one of my most anticipated game releases in years—after all we have not had a chance to sit down with a new entry in this franchise since Dragon Quest IX back in 2010. That eight year wait was thoroughly killing me inside but I persevered and made it this far! So let’s talk some Dragon Quest.

Now Dragon Quest is an monumental franchise that helped to establish not just role-playing games in Japan but around the whole world. The original release was a game that many thought simply could not be done, as at the time role-playing games were only ever released for a very dedicated niche PC market. Taking an RPG from a computer with complex command prompts and a full keyboard and mouse interface and converting it for a video game console with a controller that just had an A and B button, start and select, and a directional-pad was thought to be ludicrous, but then came Dragon Quest.

The early NES (or Famicom if that’s more your style) Dragon Quest games are far from perfect in their game design, but they mark the first real RPG video game experience a casual audience could enjoy, and soon other RPGs would follow in their footsteps and the genre became a mainstay for gaming everywhere and not just stuck on the PC. A large part of this had to do with a strong marketing push, using popular magazine publications to essentially hold the hands of the newly introduced whom had no idea how to navigate an RPG; very much akin to the role Nintendo Power would play for us in America during the late-80's and early 90's. It’s because of this (among other reasons) that the series has always had a very strong media presence in its home country and Dragon Quest enjoys dipping its fingers into everything from comics, to toys, to cartoons. Which leads us to what I really wanted to talk about today, the 1996 animated film: Dragon Quest Saga: The Emblem of Roto.

Emblem of Roto started life as a manga created by Chiaki Kawamata, Junji Koyanagi, and Kamui Fujiwara in 1991 running for 21 volumes until its completion in 1997. It is among the many, many, many other Dragon Quest manga out there. It’s not a very well known manga series in English speaking circles and unlike Dai no Daibouken it isn’t fully translated into English either. I first encountered Emblem of Roto a little over a decade ago when I was in my Dragon Quest frenzy stage and could not get enough of the series (I still can’t, really!). Back then I would buy up anything on eBay even remotely close to Dragon Quest and ended up owning a lot of Dragon Quest related crap. In my huge pile of Dragon Quest books in Japanese that I can’t even read laid a couple manga volumes and even an art book for this series. I remember flipping through these pages and being fascinated by it, hoping to one day find some stuff for Emblem of Roto in English. That turned out to be very hard to do.

I really love the art work for Emblem of Roto too, if I can just talk about that for a minute. It has a very 90’s-esque anime style to it that I am quite fond of, but also has a hint of Akira Toriyama’s unique style mixed in too. Series that have had Toriyama as lead artist always have a very fascinating art evolution to me as he developed a super distinct and identifiable style of his own over his 15 years as a manga artist in Shonen Jump writing Dr Slump and Dragon Ball. So when I see how anime studios and other artists have to take that style of his and adapt as well as change it for works like Beet the Vandel Buster, Blue Dragon, and Emblem of Roto, it’s always fun. Where does Toriyama begin and these many other artists end, so to say.

Getting back on track, however, it wasn't until recently I learned of this Emblem of Roto movie, and it wasn't until a few days ago that I actually got around to watching it! Imagine my surprise that there was a movie adaptation all this time and that somebody actually went and fansubbed it to boot! However, adaptation may be a pretty forgiving word, as far as I can tell skimming the few scans that exist online, and flipping through the volumes I have, this film more or less does its own thing and only takes the characters very loosely from the manga. So then just what is this movie even about? We should probably be getting to the meat and potatoes by this point now after all.

Well the gist of its short 45 minute run time is that Arus, our protagonist, happens to be the village crybaby. The boy is known for being a coward and doesn't seem to get along with the other kids his age nor able to stand up for himself. The other kids bully him, and he doesn't seem to have friends. Arus is terrible at fighting and can’t keep up with the others training his swordsmanship or his magic. The elders of the village all seem quite worried over how weak and sensitive he is, especially in this uncertain time with monsters roaming everywhere outside the village.

After some mischief with the town bully, Kira, Arus is dared into adventuring into the forest at night to prove his manhood. The two boys, Arus and Kira, stumble their way through the monster populated forest trying to find an old shrine, that the village used to worship at but can no longer go to because of the monsters. The shrine is the only location that the lily of the valley blooms in. First boy to bring back one of these lilies as proof that they entered the shrine is the winner. Arus fumbles around like a klutz and just when he’s about to break down and cry he ends up falling into a den where fairies live. The fairies are initially terrified that a human has invaded their home but soon turn amazed that Arus can actually understand their sacred language and decide to instead ask him for help. Arus agrees to help them kill a monstrous flower that started to bloom near the shrine. The flower gives off deadly poison that is killing all living things plant and animal alike near it. However the flower slumbers at night giving Arus an easy chance to cut it down before the sun rises thus becoming a hero.

After heading back home to procure a sword and chomping the flower down just in time before sunrise Arus explores the shrine only to find that the monster is not dead—in fact its roots have taken over the entire shrine acting as creepy tentacle like tendons that capture everything that moves within. After some temple running (literately) and dodging the deadly roots in a chase scene, it’s round 2 of fighting, and this time Arus is able to muster all his strength and kills the evil plant for good—even saving Kira in the process whom was captured by the tentacle roots earlier in the film. It’s then in the heart of the shrine that Arus learns of his origins as a descendant of the legendary hero Roto (or Erdirk) and the two boys go home as friends as the credits roll.

The movie is a pretty straight forward affair, given its shorter run time that is to be expected—but you’d assume it would move pretty briskly like most 45 minute anime films do, however, it’s actually somewhat slow at the beginning. The movie really takes its time to establish Arus as a weak and bullied kid before finally having the “call to action” occur at about 20 minutes in—almost half way through. Once the movie does start going though it’s quite fun and chock-full of some really impressive animated sequences that I did not expect for such a humble and overlooked kid’s film. This was never brought to blu-ray, hell it was never even brought to DVD. The copy I was watching is an old VHS recording. So it’s somewhat heart breaking in the end seeing how gorgeous this little feature ended up being.

It’s all the little things that make Emblem of Roto a wonderful looking film. I love the gorgeous hand painted backgrounds with birds and other animals always flying around. There’s constant movement in this film actually. The way the wind blows during scenes outside in nature; how clothes move; how there’s always something moving in the background—it’s fantastic. I love that the character designs are super flexible and move smoothly, and that characters have fully developed faces that show lots of emotions. I love that Arus’ sword is almost twice the size of his body. That was something I especially loved actually. Arus is just a kid after all, and the way the animators handled him sheathing and unsheathing this unwieldy adult sized sword just made for some fantastic little animated moments. The whole thing is over in less than an hour, and all these small things really add up to make the short run time go by even faster. Honestly the animation alone can really sell a movie like this.

And just like that Emblem of Roto was over before I know it. It is kind of fitting in a way when I think about it. Emblem of Roto is probably not gonna get any more attention in English speaking circles any time soon. It’s very easy to overlook and though dedicated as the English DQ fan community is, there probably isn’t enough interest in a lot of these multimedia tie-ins to get translated. Hell, thanks to the MMO nature of Dragon Quest X we’re back to not even having every mainline Dragon Quest game released outside of Japan again—so we don’t even have all the games released any more, I'd say the chances that an older manga getting released are even slimmer. But what we do have of Emblem of Roto in English is fun, easy to watch, and great to boot. I really recommend checking it out for yourself if any of my rambling sounded interesting to you. And I hope tomorrow’s release of Dragon Quest XI will be a great day for all of you.

Nintendo’s Virtual Console: The End of an Era

The Nintendo Wii is more than a decade old now; it’s been a long time since 2006, yet it feels like it all has gone by with a blink of an eye. Sometimes I wonder if today’s gamers still remember what the Wii launch meant. It’s easy nowadays in 2018 to look back at the dark days of the console when Nintendo just left it to wither away with their focus elsewhere, fans had to beg for certain games to even be released for it, and the shovelware. Oh the shovelware! If there was ever any cheap-shot to take in gaming, it would be to mention the sheer amount of shovelware that came with the Wii and dismiss the console as nothing but. However when the Wii first came out everything about it seemed to define what Nintendo would be for a time. The Miis, the new game-play mechanics (or gimmicks depending how jaded you are), great background music for apps/online shops (with awesome fan remixes), and the Virtual Console. All of these things were kept at the forefront of Nintendo’s future consoles since then with the Nintendo 3DS and eventually the failed follow-up: the Nintendo Wii U.

This changed though when Nintendo launched their new Switch console on March 3 last year and ever since then all the old Wii era branding has slowly faded away. Sure Miis are still here, and you can even transfer your old Miis over to the Switch (I know I did), but gone is the day where setting up a Mii is one of the first steps you take when turning on your brand new console straight out of the box. Mii Maker? Not here. For a time if you wanted to make yourself a Mii you would need a smart-phone, but even that has gone on to pass since Miitomo is dead now too. At least Nintendo just recently created an online website for Mii creation but the writing is definitely on the wall for these little guys.

That’s not all either, like what about the background music? There’s none. The Nintendo Switch is as silent and cold as library in the middle of a snowstorm. Where is the fun and exciting music? Where are the themes that were introduced with the Nintendo 3DS? Why are the games silent when you click on them? No longer is there an exciting voice yelling out the title of the game, or a nice little 3 second jingle playing when you select something on the OS. No, instead when I turn on the console I’m just left with cold silence, as I stare into the abyss that is the barren Switch OS until a game finally loads.

The eShop isn’t much better. The Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DSi, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo Wii U all had fantastic music playing while accessing their digital shops. It felt like an experience—like you just entered a Nintendo super store. Now it’s just another boring app store. Cold, hard to navigate, older stuff easily becomes lost, and so, so, so quiet! Then there is the Virtual Console. Forget not evening getting to swing the bat, the VC never even got a chance to show up to the ballpark. A whole year passed for the Nintendo Switch with nothing and finally as of May 8 we learned why: Nintendo is no longer supporting the Virtual Console. Another old staple of the Wii era dead.

Does it sound like I’m harshing on the Nintendo Switch too much? If so, I really am sorry. I love the Switch, and my excitement for its release was palpable; I even got mine the day it came out at the midnight launch (my first and probably my only considering how awful that experience was but that’s a story for another time). Between the Nintendo Switch and my 3DS I barley played anything else last year. I put nearly 150 hours into XenoBlade Chronicles 2 alone (and I’m scared at how hight the number would be if I added Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild to that too. Needless to say: probably too much). But just because I love it doesn’t mean I can’t start to feel a bit disappointed at some of the console’s shortcomings. And yes, I’m sure there’s better, more reasonable shortcomings to address: like the limited hard-drive space, the short battery life, and game cartridges being so expensive leading to some shady developers only putting half a game on a cartridge and forcing large downloads on their consumers instead of just paying for bigger cartridges, but well, people are talking about that to death already. You know? And maybe it’s just my nostalgia for the simpler and easier time of time of 2006, but seeing all the old Wii stuff finally die has been a real experience for me. I wanted to talk about this.

The death of the Nintendo Wii Shop struck me hard back in March 26 of this year. It’s still around until January 2019, but only as an abandoned ghost-town. You can’t add any more points to buy anything so this is essentially just a grace period for people to redownload old stuff. Before the Wii Shop went the way of K-Marts all across the nation, though, I made sure to buy up all the great Virtual Console games I could as well as a few WiiWare titles to boot. I honestly probably spent an upwards of couple hundred dollars on this like a complete and total idiot. Was it sane to burn away a whole paycheck like that? No, no it was not. But that was just how much nostalgia I had for the console and its digital storefront. I needed the last few VC titles I really wanted and that have yet to resurface on any other digital platform, and all those WiiWare titles that aren’t anywhere but the Wii shop: I had to have them too!

You see, the Wii shop was my first ever experience for digital game purchases, and at the time was mind blowing to me. I couldn’t believe all the great stuff I could get on my Wii through the internet. Back in 2006 the Virtual Console was actually a major selling point of the entire Wii system for me. And the great hits kept coming, and coming, and coming. The support for the Wii’s VC was simply phenomenal, and I experienced some consoles for the first time through it, like the wonderful and often over looked TurboGrafx-16.You see, the Wii shop was my first ever experience for digital game purchases, and at the time was mind blowing to me. I couldn’t believe all the great stuff I could get on my Wii through the internet. Back in 2006 the Virtual Console was actually a major selling point of the entire Wii system for me. And the great hits kept coming, and coming, and coming. The support for the Wii’s VC was simply phenomenal, and I experienced some consoles for the first time through it, like the wonderful and often over looked TurboGrafx-16.

The support sadly is something that got worse and worse through the ages, however. The Nintendo 3DS VC was an exciting prospect for me since I always wanted GB and GBC games to come to the Wii VC (The GCN’s GameBoy Player spoiled me back then), so finally getting Nintendo to dig into their old backlog as well as Sega’s GameGear backlog, not to mention the 3D Classics, had me over the moon. There was a laundry list of classic GB and GBC games I just had to have on my 3DS, and things sounded great near the launch of the console’s eShop. Then sadly it took awhile for the 3DS VC to really get going, and games trickled out a lot slower than back on the Wii. We got some huge games early enough like Link’s Awakening, but some other games that should have been an easy given took years. We had to wait until 2016 to get Pokémon Red, Blue/Green, and Yellow for Arceus’ sake! And Pokémon Crystal (the one retro Pokémon I wanted to revisit the most) didn’t trickle out until 2018! The Nintendo Switch was already a year old by then. If you count all the way back to the Wii when I wanted GB support, I waited 12 years for Crystal, what the heck?!

The Nintendo Wii U’s Virtual Console was another exciting prospect at first that really just fizzled out, probably even worse than the 3DS’. I still have fond memories of coming home from some University summer courses to the Nintendo Direct that revealed Earthbound will finally get a rerelease for the first time in 18 years! Only on the Wii U Virtual Console! “Immediate purchase” I said to myself that day, and sure enough I was there day-1. And a few years later Earthbound Beginnings (aka Mother 1) came out as well for the first time … well ever. What a nice surprise, getting a previously canceled game from 1990 is what stuff like the VC is all about. And then of course Mother 3 finally — ha ha ha … if only. The two Earthbound releases were more the exception and not the norm, sadly, and things soon got pretty stagnant on the Wii U in general, even outside of the eShop and Virtual Console.

Nintendo seemed desperate for a while to give the Wii U something though and the GBA games were a nice surprise even though I have to admit it felt off getting these on a home console instead of the 3DS. Thankfully the wizs at M2 at least had some great emulations for their GBA releases so they didn’t look gross on a modern big screen TVs. Not all of the GBA games would be so lucky on the Wii U VC, though, so it can be kind of awkward every now and again when you stumble on a GBA game that just looks pretty bad on the Wii U. The Nintendo DS came later and was an even weirder add for the Wii U’s VC and honestly I’m not even sure why Nintendo did that. I’m a bit of two minds on it still. On one hand this will probably be the only system to properly emulate these games given the Wii U’s unique two screen set up, but on the other hand, should we really try to stretch out Nintendo DS games on modern big screen TVs? Even GBA games were worrying enough. Sure I wanted the Wii to play GB and GBC games back in the day, but TVs weren’t nearly as big. Nowadays the 25 inch TV I played my Wii on would be considered a child’s play thing. Well, regardless they were here, and Nintedno did manage to release quite a few DS games on the Wii U, even getting both Zelda Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks out there.

But besides some weird portable console pick-ups the Wii U’s VC was super slow and barley had much of anything release for it. Third party support wasn’t absent and there were companies like Natsume who really kept at it for a while but it was once again no where near the level of support the Wii had. I still manged to make the most of it and I’m glad rarer N64 games finally got a rerelease like Harvest Moon 64 and Ogre Battle 64 (Swearing Simulator 64), but overall, I felt I barley got a chance to use the poor thing. What better way to sum up the Wii U though? I barley got a chance to do anything on it.

When it comes to both the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Wii U, they were such a far cry from the Wii’s glory days when you could just cycle through the plethora of retro games for hours trying to decide what to play next. Seeing how much the Virtual Console degraded over the past 12 years is honestly kind of heart breaking, I had so much admiration and really bought into the hype when it was first launched only for it to end up like this more than a decade later. It makes sense why Nintendo decided to finally move on. It’s always sad to lose some sort of branding you really enjoyed, after all you made it a part of your life and have such found memories of it. I would surf the Wii Shop on Friday nights for hours as a teen trying to find what cool looking retro game to try out next. Between that, and Twilight Princess, my high school weekends were all set. So seeing how the VC died with such a quiet and weak whimper instead of a bang, really hits me right in my nostalgia. A part of my youth felt like it would be gone forever when the Wii Shop closure was announced. I knew it wouldn’t last forever but all the same, it was hard to finally admit it will be gone.

But then something really special happened. When it came closer and closer to Nintendo shutting down the Wii Shop I saw so many people share their memories about it. I wasn’t alone in my love! Lots of great stories from Nintendo fans got passed around and of course recommendations on what to get before it was all gone. This really put a smile on my face, 12 years later and we were all talking about the old Wii Shop just like I was a teenager again. So many passionate videos and articles resurfaced with people reminiscing about the glory days of the VC and all the fun and interesting experimental titles that used to be part of digital game stores. If Nintendo themselves would stay silent then it was up to us to be the ones to raise our voices and say the final eulogy. So yeah, maybe Nintendo will never say anything about this 12 year old branding or a digital storefront on a dead system that is two game generations old now, but us fans will keep talking about it, because whether or not anyone realized it at the time, Nintendo created an unique shopping experience we’ll never forget.

While the Wii and many of its fun branding and concepts are gone now, they will never truly be forgotten and live on in a generation of Nintendo fans. Nintendo won’t ever truly ax off the Virtual Console either. The branding is dead now, but rereleasing older game ROMs is too lucrative a business to ignore. Someday soon I’m sure we’ll see Nintendo take another swing at giving us these older games. The Switch’s eShop is already full of classic games from SNK who took it upon themselves to release their backlog, VC or not. Then we have the NES and SNES Classics, which are just such fun little toys that I really can’t get enough of. Even when I’m not playing them I just like looking at these adorable reproductions of childhood consoles. So I guess all that’s left now is to ask what are some of your favorite WiiWare and Wii Virtual Consoles releases? Are you excited for an N64 Classic? I know I am. Even though I’ll never forget the fun times I had with the Virtual Console, I think we should all just keep enjoying the classic games we love, no matter what they are called.

Seven Christmas Episodes to Wrap Up This Year With

Merry Christmas … er … Eve, everyone. To help celebrate the season and really kick off the end of this year’s blogging I thought what better way than to write about some Christmas related anime episodes. Now of course—as many big anime fans may already know, Christmas in Japan is a bit different from how the West celebrates it, with New Year’s being the bigger, more family oriented holiday and Christmas being a somewhat more intimate holiday for love. Because of that, anime has a lot of great romance related Christmas episodes, but they aren’t all about couples either, so don’t worry. 

Now usually people do “top tens” or “best [blank] of all time” when they make lists, but honestly those are kind of dumb, if I can be so bold. So instead of saying my list is ”the” best, I think I’m just gonna say this is a list of some great episodes, and there's tons more out there as well. Who knows, maybe next year if it goes well I can do another.

So Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Have a great New Year’s, and without further ado, and in no particular order, let’s take a look at—

Seven Great Christmas Episodes!

Toradora! (episodes: 17 - 19)

Toradora! is a J.C. Staff anime from 2008 and in certain circles is considered one of the quintessential romance animes of its decade; and for good reason, as the show is an incredible ride to sit through. The basic premise follows its' cast and their tangled polygonal web of romances. Some end up well, while most seem to always fall apart, but that is true of first love for most people, huh? Ryuji Takasu a good hearted kid who is always mistaken for a delinquent because of his almost yakuza looks and Taiga Aisaka, the biggest bad ass in the school who just so happens to also be pint-sized and not look the part, are the characters at the forefront of the show. Together the two mismatched and misunderstood individuals end up in a bevy of drama, and perhaps the most well known of it all is none other than their Christmas themed story arc.

Honestly, because of that I don’t really want to delve too much into talking about it though, as it no doubt still makes people’s anime Christmas list every year since it aired. What finally accumulates in episode 19: Christmas Eve Party during the school’s … well, Christmas Eve party, is both incredibly touching and incredibly heart wrenching, and the emotions the characters go through will no doubt resonate with younger audiences. 

There’s nothing else more to say, though, other than: if you haven’t seen Toradora! already, get on it. 

Lupin the 3rd Part II/Red Jacket (episode: 64) 

You can’t get anymore classic than Lupin, one of the original animated TV shows meant for an adult audience. The Lupin franchise has had quite a run on Japanese televisions over the last 4 and a half decades with a TV Special (made for TV movie) made every year since 1989, 5 TV shows, 7 movies, and 3 OVAs. It’s pretty easy to say people love this goofy womanizer who also happens to be a world class master thief, and his motley crew. 

And in the second Lupin TV series’ 64th episode: Christmas at Tiffany’s, we finally get to see Lupin and company pull off a heist on Christmas. Being more or less coerced into it by the titular Jewelry Store owner and News-reporter Tiffany, Lupin and crew hafta rob a New York City Jeweler on live television. Can the greatest thief in the world pull off such a heist, or will all the cameras and broadcast finally be what Inspector Zenigata needs to catch him? 

While Christmas at Tiffany’s is more or less an average episode of Lupin at best, that’s still makes it quite a good watch. With a clever trick to beat the cameras, and a good change of pace from the typical Christmas fare, this episode makes for a much needed break from the usual fluff this time of year. Besides when else do we get to see Lupin namedrop Jesus Christ?

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in Pocket (All 6 episodes) 

The original Tonami Promo in 2002 with voice-over narration by Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime. 

Nowadays the Gundam franchise is no stranger to OVAs (Original Video Animation) but back in 1989 this was the first time it dabbled into this medium and simply knocked it out of the park here. I could really write an entire blog entry just on Gundam 0080 alone and still have things to say about it—it’s without a doubt one of the greatest OVAs in the series and also manages to be incredibly easy for new comers to get into; being one of the few Gundams that manages to make the intimidating Universal Century (or UC for short) timeline of the franchise new-comer friendly. Throw-in stellar animation, and fights that will just make your gut churn with dread and excitement at the same time, and you got yourself an absolutely fantastic 3 hours of material to watch.

As for the story, Gundam 0080 takes the focus away from the current frontline battles being fought and instead examines the everyday life of the people living during these times. The story is set near the very end of the One Year War, and thus is during Christmas season, making it almost Die Hard like. Beneath the exterior involves a plot that almost destroys an entire space colony, one of the first real positive looks the franchise has on a Zeon pilot, and an ending that is guaranteed to make anyone—even the coldest of hearts—cry. 

Gundam 0080 should not be missed, and having the voice of Metal Gear Solid’s Snake as one of the main characters in the English dub is just an added bonus.

Himouto! Umaru-chan (episode: 8)

This was not a show I thought I would like as much as I did, but this year’s (2015) Himouto! Umaru-chan really won me over for much the same reason that it seems to have won over everyone else this year; its relaxed, slower pace made it easy-going viewing—almost completely stress-free, and adorable to boot. There’s just something real sincere about this story of an older brother trying to take care of his younger sister who acts like a model student in public but is in actuality a huge pop culture referencing spoiled brat, and in episode 8: Umaru and Christmas and New Year’s sees our dysfunctional family and friends trying to get through the holidays. 

Different from most Christmas themed episodes however, this is a far more realistic and humble look at the holidays, as it involves coming home late from working overtime and just trying to make the best of what is left in the day. It’s a sweet look at a less than fortunate group of people who manage to somehow still make it all work, and is enough make you wanna say “d’aaahhh”.

Super Dimension Fortress: Macross (episodes: 35 - 36) 

The original Super Dimension Fortress Macross from 1982 is a classic mecha love story, that’s just ridiculous enough to work. These last two episodes see the love triangle at the center of the characters’ relationships is finally put to an end as main character Hikaru has to asks himself this holiday season if he really wants to settle for illusions of a past forgotten, or if he wants to try something else. As the finale to the original Macross, these two episodes bring about equal amounts of action and emotions. By this point it becomes increasingly clear that the characters will never have their fairy tale endings, but that’s what makes it so great—the harsh, more realistic representation of broken relationships, and wanting to just go back to how things were again—even as impossible as it is—is something anyone can relate to. This was a great way to end a famous mecha show. 

Magic Kaitou 1412 (episode: 12) 

The Kaitou Kid series started humbly in 1987 before manga-ka (comic writer) Gosho Aoyoma had his first hit with Yaiba the following year, and then became a household name with his mega-franchise Detective Conan/Case Closed in 1994, which more or less took over his life, and probably prevents him from going back to writing more Kaitou Kid stories. Nowadays the Kid is best known for being a regular returning character in Detective Conan, and one of Conan’s greatest rivals—a genius compromise Aoyoma figured out so that he can work on both at the same time. But in 2014, Kaitou was able to somewhat break-free from just being a regular in Conan with his own TV show Magic Kaitou 1412 that sought to adapt (yet again) Kaitou’s standalone stories from his own manga, as well as mixing in some earlier seen cross-over cases from Detective Conan but this time told from Kaitou’s perspective, as a way to raise up the episode count. 

The result is a pretty satisfying show for both old fans of Detective Conan and people who have no familiarity with the series, and in episode 12: Holy Night: Two Kaitou Kids! the show tackles … you guessed it, a Christmas episode. Much again like the Lupin the 3rd episode, this episode is more or less a standard Kaitou caper but told with some added Christmas flare. It’s a cute heist, with some nice Christmas season love between Kaitou and Inspector Nakamori, the man who has been itching to arrest Kaitou this whole time. What’s more not to love? 

Maison Ikkoku (episodes: 39 - 40) 

Maison Ikkoku is another hugely popular series from famous author Rumiko Takahashi (Urusei Yatsura, InuYasha), and while she has tackled many romance series before what sets this apart from a lot of her usual fare is that Maison Ikkoku happens to skewer a little bit older (being a seinen manga). This is a series that resonated a lot with me when I first saw it, and now happens to be one of my favorite romance animes, so I may be a bit bias when I say these two episodes might also be one of my favorite Christmas stories too. 

These episodes follow Godai while he’s still attending University. Christmas is coming around the corner and so he ends up working himself to the bone doing multiple odd jobs in order to obtain presents for everyone, with big plans to surprise Kyoko that evening at their Apartment's get-together. This beginning is pretty typical, but a few lost belongings later, and things really start to get going. Earlier that day Godai tried to have a stone Kyoko owned identified by someone at his University. As it turns out the stone was the first and only present Kyoko got from her now deceased husband (a former geology teacher), and through some bad luck on the train line, Godai loses it. Already bummed out from being reminded of her previous love, Godai now has to deal with such an important item being missing, and ends up wasting almost the entire Christmas eve night trying to search every train he can that goes through the station for it.

As the Christmas hours dwindle away, and the snow keeps piling up on him outside, Godai finds himself exhausted, and through a series of misfortunate happenings all his hard work even blows up in his face when his present for Kyoko ends up missing as well. Eventually Godai finds himself asking what even is the point of any of this anymore, as Kyoko waits more and more at their get-together, worried about him. Although the night eventually improves, it was never the perfect day Godai wanted it to be, and worked so hard for. It’s an endeavor I think almost anyone can really relate to. Maison Ikkoku always had a great mix of melancholic lows and sincerely sweet highs for its awkward couple, and these two episodes really managed to have both all at once. 

’Tis the season for Yokai

This year on November 30 we lost one of the quintessential founders of the modern manga—one Shigeru Mizuki; the creator of the mega franchise GeGeGe no Kitaro (2 Live Action Movies, 6 television animes, 2 iterations as a manga, its own tourist trap, and still going with rustlings of yet another TV anime to come). The Kitaro series was and still is a huge cultural touchstone in Japan, so much so that Mizuki is actually considered one of the leading experts on traditional Japanese folklore because of it. Besides his work on the supernatural, Mizuki was also a World War II veteran—even losing his arm in the war—and was an established story teller for mature adult comic readers as well because of this—with hit manga such as Shigeru Mizuki's Hitler, Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, and Showa 1926-1939: A History of Japan. Basically, Mizuki was a rare talent that could balance both young and mature readers alike, all because he wrote what he knew, and he knew the changes Japan went through from war, the horrors of war itself, and of course, he knew Japanese folklore—he knew it better than anyone else. 

To rewind for a moment and help better frame the context of his life, Mizuki lived a long fruitful life and passed away at age 93. Remember, he was a solider during World War II more than 70 years ago now. When he eventually returned to Japan he actually started as a Kamishibai (紙芝居, or "paper theater”), a now antiquated Japanese form of entertainment. The Kamishibai was somewhat akin to a traveling puppet show but done with paper slides instead and had a serialized story, meaning it was done in episodes. The Kamishibai would travel from town to town with their cart, sell treats to the children, and entertain them with their stories. After they leave for the next few towns they would eventually come back to the previous ones with the next episode in their story. Kamishibai were cheap and easily accessible, which helped them during the postwar era of Japan, and can be seen somewhat as a precursor to manga, but when television did become more and more accessible to the Japanese it all but died out. Today Kamishibai is mostly a memory from a simpler time, being at best seen as a forgotten art form, and referenced in entertainment. Most recently a series of animated horror shorts called Yamishibai (or Dark Theater) was created in a similar fashion to the slides used in Kamishibai for the TV Tokyo Network. It has been streamed on Crunchyroll and was just picked up for domestic home video release by Sentai Filmworks.

Mizuki’s early work as a Kamishibai saw him telling the story of Hakaba Kitaro (or Kitaro of the Graveyard), written originally by Masami Itou in 1933. Mizuki was asked by his Kamishibai employers in 1954 to continue this story and so he did. Mizuki rendition of the classic serial was supposedly popular, but the Kamishibai industry itself was quickly on its way out, and Mizuki began work as a Rental Manga creator, at first struggling, until eventually he caught a break with turning Hakaba Kitaro into a manga series in 1960. For the uninitiated, Rental Manga was a concept of its time, since many people in postwar Japan could still not easily afford luxuries; much of their entertainment was actually rented, and not bought, so after paying a very small amount of yen to read a manga you would return it to the store, sort of similar to the library system.It was under a system like this that a lot of famous manga got their early starts. 

GeGeGe no Kitaro circa 1968. The first time Kitaro and friends
made it onto television.

Of course, Rental Manga eventually became an antiquated thing of the past too, and as times changed, Mizuki more or less, kept the serialization going for Kitaro through different publishers and into the more modern concept of manga to be purchased. Throughout those years Hakaba Kitaro would transform into GeGeGe no Kitaro (i.e. Crickity Creak Kitaro or Spooooky~ Kitaro - with GeGeGe (ゲゲゲ) being a Japanese Onomatopoeia meant for scary locations) to better differentiate Mizuki’s rendition of the stories and accent other changes made during that time to the characters and tone of the manga. The name change in 1967 was solidified with the first TV anime in the following year, and the concept of the series from Kitaro being an indifferent observer of yokai and human alike into a full blown hero, and protector of humans from yokai; whose dream is for the peaceful coexistence of the two—made the series more action driven, and children loved it for that. 

But what about Kitaro himself, I’ve written at length about some background info, but some of you may be scratching your head at just what Kitaro is. Well the gist of the story more or less is that it follows a one eyed ghost boy named Kitaro, whom was birthed in a graveyard, and is the sole remaining member of the yurei zoku (or Ghost Tribe). Kitaro is accompanied by Medama-oyaji (or Daddy Eyeball) aka what is left of his father: once a full ghost man (mummy?) himself now all that remains of this spirit is his eyeball, albeit, it is anthropomorphic, at least. 

The two try their best to keep the delicate order of peace between the supernatural yokai (creatures of traditional Japanese folklore) and humans, while making sure the Ghost Tribe doesn't die out. Kitaro is able to fight back when needed through some moderate powers of his own such as shooting his own hair out like projectiles but he mostly gets by through clever gadgets he has. Together they encounter many returning characters such as Kitaro’s best friend and worst enemy Nezumi Otoko (or Rat-man), and others in their large ensemble cast of folklore creatures spanning not just from Japan, but even China, Europe, and America. It becomes a who’s-who of supernatural stories each week, and it’s easy to see how such a simple premise can carry a long way, especially with such rich detail on the folklore and all the creatures present in the series. 

Promotional artwork for the 2008 noitaminA television anime: Hakaba Kitaro. This adaptation
 showed the original, more darker version of the story that had not yet been brought to television.

It’s a bit unsettling, maybe even a bit creepy, but Mizuki’s writing remains a perfect balance of playful yet morbid all at the same time—with a fun sense of humor that never detracted from the overall tone. Perhaps more importantly though, is that Mizuki never shied away from being real in his work. Death obviously plays a huge role in every culture's folklore and Mizuki didn’t try to sugarcoat it, instead he embraced it in his stories. Death was a part of life, and the catchy Kitaro theme song that’s been on TV and in karaoke bars since the late 1960’s joyously boasts about how the characters never have to take tests or quiz, and how they never get sick again. Mizuki's depiction of the undead weren’t in pain, or unhappy, quite the contrary, the afterlife was a never ending party. Even the depictions of the afterlife as well, while true to the classic decor that one might expect out of hell: dark, eerie, otherworldly, and forbidding—wasn't all despair. No, instead the afterlife seemed to stick very close to being just another phase of life; and while we miss those who are separated from us, we all will eventually go there.

I always felt that death wasn’t something Mizuki wanted people to fear—in fact, fear in general seemed oddly missing from his Kitaro series. While it did indeed incorporate horror elements, especially that of American horror comics, and definitely may have spooked younger audiences, the take-away may not be what it seems on the surface, as it was actually the yokai, other supernatural entities, and folklore creatures who were on the end of extinction, not us humans. It was modernity that had weakened them and taken away their homes. Mizuki was the one who famously said that electricity did in the yokai more than anything else, as they can’t stand the bright city lights. This interestingly mirrors real life in a lot of ways as Mizuki watched on to see his country transform to become more western, and more “modern.” The folklore that he loved and grew up with was almost lost entirely to Japan, as it was thought to be more akin to their old, rustic ways of living, maybe even a bit hick-ish, actually. In a very literal sense modernity had all but wiped away the yokai, if not for Mizuki’s love and encyclopedic knowledge of the almost forgotten folklore, and how he brought it back into everyone’s homes with his manga, who knows what culture might have been lost otherwise.

Ushio & Tora, a 1990 manga with a currently (2015) airing anime. One of the many Yokai
anime and manga franchises that follows Mizuki's basic framework.

GeGeGe no Kitaro’s success lead to a boom in horror and yokai related stories in the mainstream media of Japan from then on, and many, many imitators came out riding its coattails in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Some of these imitators were rather good, being fondly remembered even today and have had their own reboots and sequels throughout the years, while others … are probably best left in the past anyways. Even more noticeable however is not the boom in horror/yokai themes that were created back then but the direct effect that Mizuki had left on that genre in total. Even to this day the basic backbone of every modern-day setting yokai story can be traced back to what Mizuki had written. Manga and anime like Kekkaishi, Natsume’s Book of Friends, Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, Ushio & Tora, and Yo-Kai Watch, just to name a few examples—all follow in Mizuki’s footsteps that modernity has taken away the yokai’s strength and their homes, that humans have overpopulated and almost wiped away their presence, and that even worse, we choose to not believe in them anymore.  

It’s hard to cry when the man who taught you not to fear death passes away; especially when he lived a fascinating and full 93 years, and will no doubt be remembered through his work for generations. Yet I was sad all the same when I did learn of his passing, and ever since then it gnaws at me that I haven’t seen any mainstream English anime or manga site really even do anything about it. There exist some great blog posts dedicated to Shigeru Mizuki for those who wish to read them, but sadly it seems his passing was all about ignored the next day by most. This really is what got me to write about him today, even if it’s the middle of December and doesn’t fit well with the Holiday Season. I do promise that next week will see something a bit more chipper and inline with the season, but for today, let's just remember what Mizuki has done, and be thankful for how much he helped to shape anime and manga, and maybe even a bit of Japanese culture, himself by keeping those old rustic stories alive. I know that while I'm playing my Yo-Kai Watch game in the coming weeks that I’ll feel a bit different knowing that they guy who debatably started it all is no longer with us. May he himself now party on for all eternity, in the afterlife he told us so many times before not to fear. 

Turn A Appreciation

Earlier this month, Right Stuf Inc. released the two feature length Turn A Gundam films, thus completing Turn A Gundam in its entirety, and finally bringing this series to North American shores almost a mere 17 years after it was originally released in Japan. The release of Turn A once seemed nigh impossible when Bandai originally passed up on the series and many others during their original major media outlet push of the Gundam franchise in North America circa Spring 2000. Turn A like many other older, and harder to market, entries became a skipped-over; thought to just be lost to time as Bandai continued to pick and choose other, newer, more marketable entries instead. That, of course, was until 2010 when Bandai finally announced they would release the series in 2011 ……. aaaaaaaaaaaaand then promptly canceled it in 2012 announcing that they will cease operations as of March 1, 2013.

The original trailer we got in 2011 for the then canceled Bandai Entertainment (USA) release of Turn A Gundam.

Sadly the cancellation was not much of a surprise to many of us, as the writing that Bandai Entertainment (USA) would go under had been on the wall for quite some time, but this continued the curse of Turn A, as well as the greater part of the Gundam backlog yet brought over. It seemed likely by then that all these forgotten entries in the pivotal mecha franchise that was Gundam, both great and admittedly not so great, were truly cursed to stay in Japan forever and never touch down on any other shore again. However this doom and gloom was not forever, and we’re now in the biggest resurgence of Gundam releases since the very early marketing push that truly got the franchise out here in full force all those 15 years ago, and North America is finally able to get official releases for all these once thought missed out releases.

I’ll come right out and say it, Right Stuf and Sunrise’s partnership to release Gundam titles is not only great for Gundam fans, but is also equally great for science-fiction anime fans in general. Yeah, it is a bit of a bold statement, but just go along with me, and let me talk about one of my personal favorite science fiction writers, and what his work on Turn A Gundam means. 

Yoshiyuki Tomino, a man with quite the reputation—the father of Gundam, and one of the pioneers of real robot mecha anime. He’s been in the industry since the earliest days; working in Mushi Pro, even brushing shoulders with the like of Osamu Tezuka. He’s seen everything the industry has to offer, and no doubt in my mind, played a major role in it, especially during his heyday of the late 70’s and 80’s. There’s a lot to say about the man, but perhaps all that it comes down to is this: crazy; for a lack of a better word, Tomino is crazy. Maybe even bat shit insane, actually. A real kook, if you will. And not just crazy like him being the classic “get off my lawn, you damn kids” grump nowadays that we all know and love, nor his classic disdain and general dismal of otaku and other Gundam projects he’s not affiliated with, a la Hideaki Anno. No, Tomino’s crazy was always present in his works; from having the entire universe explode, to classic high “kill ‘em all” body counts, to whatever goofy psychedelic thing this is suppose to be—Tomino’s works always fluctuated like this. It’s bizarre; it’s other worldly; and most importantly: always a spectacle. 

Whether he succeeded and created a masterpiece, or failed miserably with everything about his anime ending up in horrible flames, Tomino put on a show. The amount of depth, passion, and creativity was that always present in his works is admirable, and while his work fluctuated in quality just like it fluctuated in craziness, you could always tell, this is a man that isn’t afraid to fling around ideas, regardless of what might happen. Space Opera, Hard Science, The Evolution of Man, High Fantasy, Psychedelic Mysticisms, James Bond-esque Adventures, Goofy Written Song Lyrics, these are the sort of things Tomino brought to the table. He was the kind of man that took a regular toy ad and decided to transform it into an epic realistic war story, full of grim realties such as death, psychological issues, and pyrrhic victories. When a normal man would have handed in a by-the-numbers production, Tomino reeved up a big “screw-you” to his toy sponsors and instead made their product into an expansive space opera that skewed way out of the initial demographic.

Ultimately Gundam will always be greater than the sum of any thing else Tomino will ever do though, but it’s because of this and not in spite of this—that makes Turn A Gundam so special. It’s everything about Gundam’s, and even Tomino’s past wrapped up into one, but yet told in such a refreshing and different light, with a new, more positive outlook on life that Tomino had gained through his ups and downs. 

Now what makes it so unique you might ask. Well, let’s see, tell me if you’ve heard this one before in anime: In the far off future of mankind, after we’ve obtained the technology to travel space and terraform the moon, a catastrophic war happens destroying the entire Earth and restarting the human civilization still dwelling on the planet from the ground-up. The majority of the people still living on Earth—Earthers, are cut-off from ever really knowing of the technological feats they once accomplished; just seeing the old war stories as legends, and have no clue about human life existing outside of the Earth. After rebuilding their society and mother Earth, the best they can, Earthers have reached about the technological level of early 20th century Europe, think start of World War I. 

But now out of nowhere, the space dwelling people from the Moon—the Moonrace, have decided they wish to return to life on Earth again and begin their invasion with superior, (and in the eyes of the Earthers) futuristic technology. What ensues is a battle between early tanks, automobiles, and biplanes against space ships and mobile suits. Standing no chance at first it seems all the Earthers can do is negotiate their surrender. That is until they begin to unearth ancient technology of their own; buried deep within the Earth from a time before the catastrophe: ancient mobile suits (all of which are actually cleverly mobile suits seen in previous entries in the franchise such as the famous Zaku II) are found, and among all these mobile suits of ancient times is their biggest weapon against the Moonrace: the Turn A Gundam. 

It’s easy to see how different from the rest of the series Turn A Gundam is, but perhaps the most fascinating thing about it is how it disguises traditional Gundam story tropes because of its clever setting. At the core of the story’s premise is the classic “Earthnoid vs Spacenoid” conflict and the terrible cost of war that most Gundam stories have centered on since the very original. “Who has the right to own space?”, “Who has the right to own Earth?”, none of this has changed, but now it has had its lungs filled with a breath of fresh air given the set-up and its characters, who take the war in a very different direction from the usual Gundam cast, with the protagonist Loran Cehack never losing his pacifist ways. On top of that there’s countless comparisons to past Gundam and Tomino works that could be made, be it simple shots that completely recreate past famous scenes from other Gundam shows frame-by-frame, or the fact that the titular Turn A Gundam bears a mystic and mysterious dark past, as well as planet destroying power like another famous Tomino robot. Throw-in one of the villains being entirely self-aware of classic mecha tropes (along with his voice actor being a reportedly huge Gundam otaku) and what you end up with is a celebration of the past two decades of Gundam (the Turn A itself (∀ ) being a mathematical symbol meaning “for all in a set” ) and one hell of a fun science-fiction premise.  

Turn A Gundam is also noticeable for its many visual aspects having the titular Gundam as well as a few other mobile suits designed by “visual futurist” Syd Mead, best known for his work on the famous 1982 Ridley Scott film, Blade Runner. The mecha in Turn A Gundam are all vastly different from the norm in the franchise because of this, and have a more harder science feel to them. But visual prowess doesn’t stop there either, Turn A is the last Gundam show to be made with traditional hand painted cells, and what a show to end that era on. Funny enough, while being the last traditionally animated show of the franchise, it is also one of the first shows in the franchise to use computer generated images (CGI) as well, although that rarely shows up in the actual show, and is most noticeable in the eye-catches. While the animation budget itself is modest, Tomino brought his A-game, and through solid directing creates some really beautiful almost movie quality scenes for the show, going above and beyond in the detail depicted on the screen. Lots of richly drawn machinery is on display here with every intricate part of the mecha getting its close-up at one point or another, and the backgrounds, especially the rich environments such as the mountains, forests, jungles, and ocean, are all beautifully painted—Turn A’s animation really shows craftsmanship of a now mostly bygone era.  

Music is also wholly different from what you might expect out of a Gundam, with Yoko Kanno as the main composer for the series, and she really brings home an incredibly rich soundtrack with some truly chilling songs that will stay with you for years to come after you finish the show. Honestly between the stellar hand painted visuals, the rich orchestral and otherworld soundtracks of Yoko Kanno, the beautiful character designs from Capcom/Street Fighter veteran Akira Yasuda, and the early 20th century aesthetics of the series in general, it’s very easy to feel like Turn A was a product of another era; that it is much older than it lets on, but it really is from the turn of the century, being a product of Gundam’s 20th anniversary back in 1999, making it actually younger than the likes of the more robust and paint-by-number appearances used in entries in the series like Mobile Suit Gundam Wing and After War Gundam X. Turn A Gundam represents the best of the best for its time, and brings that “classic” feel despite this later release date, making for a show unlike the many other entries during the decade. Turn A isn’t stuck in the 90’s and remains aesthetically pleasing to this day, and will remain that way forever, escaping the many visual trappings and dated looks that 90’s animes are famous, nay… sorta infamous for.

Honestly, I can talk all day about Turn A Gundam, and praise it until you’d think my head is firmly wedged up my behind. The overused word of the day is unique, and no, you don’t need to go back and double check, I’ll admit I’ve said it a lot in this post, but that’s because I have never quite experienced something like Turn A Gundam before or since. It’s a must watch show for anyone who likes science-fiction, even if you are not into mecha. It’s an easy entry point that only gets better the more familiar you become with Gundam and Tomino’s past work, and never finds a way to overstay its welcome or gets old. Whether you’re an old fan or a new one, I truly think you owe it to yourself to check out Turn A Gundam, and I’m forever grateful for Right Stuf to finally give many people the opportunity to take this dive.

Turn A Gundam is just truly a unique piece of science-fiction animation by a creator who is just crazy enough to really make you see the genre in a whole new way.