Monthly Archives: April 2010

Arakawa Under The Bridge is my kind of weird

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9

I’m not an Akiyuki Shinbo completist as I am with some other directors. As dazzled as I was by Petite Cossette and Bakemonogatari I was never tempted to watch Maria+Holic or Dance in the Vampire Bund for instance but his signature style has led me to respect him enormously. Following the two seasons of ef, in which his influence crept in quite noticeably, I realised how those wonderful ‘Shinbo-isms’ are as immediately recognisable as the trademark quirks of Hideaki Anno.

Arakawa Under The Bridge is very much in Shinbo’s comfort zone: it reminds me a lot of Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei with its pun-riddled wordplay, sketch-based storyline, zany characters and of course that artistic obsession with colours, composition and geometry. The source material of the two shows doesn’t share the same writer so I wonder whether the production team are being selective with the projects they take on. The similarities go even further, and mostly in a good way too.

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Reading stats: 1063 words, 4 images; estimated reading time 4:15 mins

Careful with that axe, Yui

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23

As difficult as it is, I have to admit that I’m enjoying K-On. Not because it’s intelligent, thought-provoking, original or a work of art. I’m enjoying it despite it not really being any of these things, mainly because something that’s so intentionally dumb is undemanding and therefore the perfect thing for unwinding with at the end of a long day.

Yes, it’s shallow, commercialised and derivative but truthfully as long as it makes you smile, who the heck cares? I’ve done at least three drafts of this post before wiping the whole lot off the screen and starting over; this is by its very nature a show that’s difficult to write about because there’s not much to it beyond the obvious observation that it’s cute, undemanding fun. That was before my word count began to mushroom…

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Reading stats: 1045 words, 3 images; estimated reading time 4:11 mins

Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms

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8

I’ve been interested in twentieth-century history for as long as I can remember – before my fascination with Japanese popular culture even began I was drawn to the issues surrounding the atomic bombings of 1945. Fumiyo Kouno is one of many writers and artists who have taken on the subject but her approach is one that conveys the human cost of the events in an unusual way. Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms is a short, surprisingly sweet but nevertheless powerful work.

Her graphic novel is not an historical document. The whimsical slice-of-life angle doesn’t prevent it being meaningful though: fundamentally, history is about people and the relevance today of the events that occured then. This story is therefore very relevant even though the individual stories of this event are fictional; it also manages to convey hard-hitting subject matter with subtlety and restraint.

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Reading stats: 1016 words, 1 image; estimated reading time 4:04 mins

The Wings of Honneamise: still reaching for the stars after twenty-three years

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10

I guess films are like the studios that create them: some are still going strong year after year, some enjoy a resurgence in popularity long after their big break, some fade into obscurity while others try to last out on reputation alone. Although I’m a Gainax fanboy I wondered how the their debut production, Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise, had stood the test of time.

Is its reputation deserved? Old-school fans can be fiercely loyal to the stuff they hold dear after all, especially when it’s seen through the soft-focus rose tint of nostalgia. Some titles are popular for popularity’s sake but others, such as this one, are enduring simply because they’re good.

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Reading stats: 1004 words, 4 images; estimated reading time 4:01 mins

Kalafina: Red Moon

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2

I first heard the songwriting of Yuki Kajiura through the soundtrack to Koichi Mashimo’s Noir but for me her style became intrinsically linked to a certain visual aesthetic after the haunting Portrait de Petit Cossette. Kalafina, her current project, is best known as the vocal group behind the soundtrack to the Kara no Kyoukai films; my love for that series aside, the ‘Kalafina sound’ is instantly recognisable yet hard to categorise.

The fact that so many of their tracks are tie-ins to films and TV shows does carry an associated burden if you want to appreciate them on their own: the first LP, Seventh Heaven, is and always will be the Kara no Kyoukai vocal album to me but Red Moon follows a mere year behind with more album-only numbers in comparison. While it doesn’t quite scale the heights of, say, Oblivious or Aria, it’s still Kalafina. And these three girls can still sure as hell sing.

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Reading stats: 1433 words, 1 image; estimated reading time 5:44 mins

Sora no Woto: goodbye blue sky

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12

If I said that the opening theme tune to Sora no Woto wasn’t part of the reason I watched it, I’d be lying. I recall that I started watching ef -a Tale of Memories because of the music too, so it’s hardly the first time. I’ll admit part of me just wanted to see the K-on! comparisons crash and burn in front of the fandumb’s eyes but more than anything the premise was one of the best I’ve read in ages.

As I read down the staff list I realised that none of the K-On! staff were involved in this at all; hell, it’s not even a KyoAni production! I stand firmly corrected on that point then. The background artwork was still stunning though – even when not much was happening there was always something nice to look at and let my imagination fill the gaps in the narrative. I still got a sense though that the series was suffering from some sort of identity crisis.

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Reading stats: 1144 words, 3 images; estimated reading time 4:35 mins