Bishōnen In Space: Tytania

One clan thinks they own the universe.

One rebel is proving them wrong.

At long last, Tytania, the epically epic space opera anime that I’ve been watching for several months, came to a close. I’ve been watching it for so long that I’m just not sure what to think without my weekly dose of intergalactic drama. There are lots of little details scattered throughout this expansive galaxy of political intrigue and space battles, but the main story can be reduced down to a basic good(ish) versus evil(ish) struggle for power.

No one even has the courage to tell the clan lord of Tytania that those pants give him saddlebag thighs.

As I mentioned in greater detail in my First Impressions post about this series, Tytania is the all-powerful ruling clan of the universe. They know it, and everyone else knows it, too. Some of them try to rule fairly, while a few others believe that maintaining power is at all costs is more important. It’s not so much that Tytania is well-loved, but it’s more like people are afraid to mess with them, so most of the galaxy just deals with it as best as they can. Enter one Fan Hyulick, a young cocky solider who gets a promotion to Admiral of Euria strictly for the purpose of losing a big battle against Tytania. The problem is that no one told Fan that he was supposed to lose, and so he wins using an out-of-the-box strategy. This pretty much blows everyone’s socks off.

Fan Hyulick partying. Or possibly a Hardee's commercial.

Tytania wants their hands on this guy pretty badly, and since Fan gets kicked off of Euria for winning that battle, it should be easy to capture him. However, an anti-Tytania faction finds him first and keeps him safely hidden away. When they get compromised, Fan gets handed off to the pirate ship The Honest Old Man where he makes his home for the rest of the series. Tytania keeps having close run-ins with Fan, and even though they discuss inviting him to join Tytania at first, the longer that they can’t find him, the more his legend grows, and the more dangerous of a figure he becomes. Despite the fact that Fan is very easygoing and jovial in person, he has become a hero to the anti-Tytania factions around the galaxy, and that gives the rebels more courage to fight back. You can see how Tytania wouldn’t be pleased with this. The rest of the series is basically a game of cat and mouse between Tytania and Fan Hyulick, with lots of political intrigue going on within the walls of Tytania itself.

Cute but useless, that's meeeee!

There are several pros and cons that I found in this anime. Getting the negative out of the way first, this series is basically a sausage fest. There are only a couple of female characters of note, one being a loli princess (Lydia) who is supposed to play some big role in the future of Tytania. Don’t get your hopes up, though, because you never find out what that is. She just runs around the garden in puffy shorts and thigh-highs and says innocently deep things about the events happening. Basically, she was annoying. Kind of cute at times, but mostly annoying. Another minus would be the episodes in which little to nothing happens, drawing out storylines and battles which definitely did not need to be so drawn out. The three episodes before the finale were especially guilty of this, because only one thing of note would happen in twenty-six minutes of animation. This was a shame, because when it was good, it was brilliant, but when it was boring, well, it was boring. On top of that, I noticed that a lot of the story arcs were becoming the same thing in the second half of the series: Fan gets caught by someone then almost captured by Zarlish, the battle-hungry duke of Tytania, then he gets away. Again and again and again this same scenario played out. It seemed rather unimaginative, given that there is an entire universe of planets and characters to play with here.

Miranda, slingin' back a few beers before battle.

Having said all of that, there was a lot of good stuff in this series, too. The first half was quite engaging, more so than the second half, which was kind of new since most of the anime series I’ve seen start off weak and grow stronger. It’s the Kobato effect: the first half is filler, while the second half is actual plot. But this time, even though the formula was the same, I actually enjoyed the filler episodes more than the repetitive stretched-out plot of the second half, especially the political battles happening within the walls of Tytania. I liked the detailed animation, and the end theme song, “Lost In Space,” by Psychic Lover, is killer. Some of the characters were clichéd, but I still enjoyed watching them. Fan is like a more easygoing Han Solo, which is great. It’s like Star Wars without that pansy Luke getting in the way. (I tease, of course. And to be fair, I’m more of a Trekkie anyway.) Though the XX chromosome set was few and far between, I really loved Miranda, the commander of The Honest Old Man. She began the series as bold and outspoken, then showed more layers as the series progressed. And she wasn’t the typical waif-like anime girl, either. Miranda was built like a brick house and knew how to kick ass!

Rebel, rebel, you tore your dress. Rebel, rebel, your face is a mess.

This anime introduced many more questions than it could answer, which is understandable because the manga is still ongoing and, well, it is anime. As far as anime endings go, this one is more frustrating than some other series that provide definitive answers to their stories such as Angel Beats or Black Butler. Yet it’s not anywhere near as frustrating as those series that don’t answer major plot points at all such as Guin Saga or Black Blood Brothers. Basically, if you like space operas, you’ll probably like this, unless you think it’s an aristocratic ripoff of Star Wars. (But then, what space opera isn’t compared to Star Wars? George Lucas really branded that genre.) Personally, I enjoyed the political intrigue, the non-cutesy detailed artwork, and I really liked the ragtag group of rebels as well as several members of Tytania. Not knowing exactly whose side I’m on is what makes me enjoy an anime even more, and Tytania had all that and more.

Rating: ★★★✰ I could see owning this one day, but the rewatch value is still questionable.

Fried My Little Brains: Mardock Scramble, The First Compression

Even after death she looks for a purpose.

When in doubt, seek vengeance.

I feel like I keep hearing about Mardock Scramble, and I was intrigued enough by the preview to jump on the chance to watch it when it came around On Demand. Now…well, I’ve seen it.

Not even a magical mouse named Ufcock can make Balot smile.

Here’s the gist: Balot is a fifteen year-old prostitute who gets murdered by maniacal Shell, the man who springs her out of jail. Actually, he attempts to murder her in a fire, but a quirky guy named Dr. Easter manages to snag her body and revive her as a cyborg using a program known as the Mardock Scramble. Balot tries to learn about her new body and come to terms with her life via the help of Ufcock, a weapon who usually takes the form of a golden mouse. Dr. Easter wants Balot to testify against Shell, who is a notorious gambler and heinous criminal. Because of this Shell sends his henchmen to get rid of her. Will Balot master her new powers well enough to stay alive?

Finally she gets a gun! She might not have pants, but dammit, she has a gun.

Honestly, I don’t even know the answer to that. The movie ends very, and I mean very, abruptly. Since I didn’t realize that it was a trilogy at the time, I was quite taken aback. I’ve come to expect less than tidy endings from anime, but this was just ridiculous. However, it seems that the next two movies will pick up where this one left off. As for part one, I have to say that I’m quite torn as to what I think about it. This is one of those rare anime offerings that is clearly of the highest quality production-wise, and yet, I never want to watch it again. I consider myself pretty open-minded when it comes to violence and sex in film (some of my favourites have both) but this one was over the top for me. There was just so much horribly sad and disturbing sex/borderline rape. I thought that maybe the first part would be the worst, but then there was more in the middle, so finally when it came to the gang of criminals obsessed with body parts (most notably a fellow who liked to surgically add women’s privates onto his hand) I was past being affected. I understood from the previews alone that this would be a very disturbing tale, but I have to wonder if it was necessary to have all that was shown. And trust me, it was a lot. Then again, I did watch the director’s cut, so maybe that accounts for the excess of sex and violence. Though I imagine that the original cut of the film is still incredibly dark (and not in a good way).

Let's see that cute little mouse again! Gosh, he's adorable! Almost adorable enough to blot out the horrific violence in the rest of the film. Almost.

There were some aspects that did impress me, such as the astounding artwork, which was really top-notch. I liked some of the sci-fi details, such as being able to take memories out of a person’s head and save them onto a computer disc. And Ufcock was awesome, definitely my favourite character. Other than that, there wasn’t a lot for me here. The music was fine but unmemorable. The characters were pretty much all stereotypical: bad guys who are super evil just because, a kooky doctor who likes to experiment, self-righteous lawmakers, etc. Maybe they become more defined in further films. Most of the backstory was spent on Balot, who was an okay protagonist. I did feel sympathy for her, but little else, seeing as how most of her screen time involves her getting f**ked over, literally. I can see how her vengeance will be very satisfying, especially considering how crappy her life had been, but they barely scratched the surface of her mastering her power and becoming a true badass by the time the credits rolled. Overall, I found the whole thing to be very unsatisfying. Mardock Scramble: The First Compression seemed to be an endless parade of graphic images with an interesting story to thread them together, but personally, I’m not sure that the story was intriguing enough to put up with all of the details exploited on the screen. I might attempt to watch the other two films in the trilogy, or I might just google the story to see how it all ends and be done with it.

Rating: ★★✰ The animation quality is outstanding, and if you love sci-fi anime, this would probably be worth your time. For me, it wasn’t.

First Impressions: FLCL

When a boy bemoans boredom,

an alien girl turns life upside down.

How fitting that just after I finish Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, I catch episode one of another odd little Gainax series. I think that the former helped prepare me a bit for the wackiness of FLCL. (The acronym stands for Furi Kuri, or Fooly Cooly in English.)

Naota's head, meet Haruko's guitar.

The episode begins with a boy named Naota sitting by a river with his friend (and brother’s girlfriend) Mamimi. She nuzzles his neck, claiming that she’ll overflow if she doesn’t, presumably because Naota’s brother is in America and Mamimi is missing him. The pair walk up to the bridge above, when suddenly a pink-haired girl on a Vespa appears and runs over Naota. He seems unconscious, but the girl manages to revive him with CPR. As soon as Naota is on his feet again, the pink-haired girl grabs her guitar and smacks him upside the head. When nothing comes out, she leaves. Later on Naota is pushing at the spot on his forehead where she smacked him. A strange shape has begun to emerge from his skull, but he can keep it down if he puts a bandage on the spot.

That just looks... wrong.

The next day Naota hears rumors about the pink-haired girl at school, then decides to go to the hospital to have the spot on his head examined. Instead of a doctor, the pink-haired girl is waiting. Naota escapes and runs home only to find that she’s eating dinner with his father and grandpa. Her name is Haruko, and she’s been hired as a housekeeper by his family. Later on Haruko says that she’s an alien and insists on sleeping in Naota’s bed, so he goes downstairs and learns that Mamimi was just at his house buying day-old bread from their bakery. Naota runs outside and finds her smoking on a bridge. There’s some drama when Mamimi learns that Naoto’s brother has a new girlfriend in America, then a robot and a giant robotic arm emerge from Naota’s head. There’s a battle, Haruko shows up, and the robot arm is defeated. Flash forward to the next day, and Naoto is talking once again about how nothing ever happens. We see the robot from his head kneading dough in the bakery with Haruko, and Naota and Mamimi hang out by the river.

There's mecha? Annnnd I'm out.

This episode was interesting, if odd. The art was very comic book-esque, and reminded me somewhat of Tank Girl. In fact, the dinner scene at Naota’s home is shown through black-and-white comic book panels. It worked well with the madcap feel of the story. As for sound, I liked the English vocal cast, and all of the voices seemed to work well with the characters, though I found the music to be unmemorable save for the ending song played over the credits. I’m not really sure where the story will go after this. The first episode of FLCL felt very complete to me, as though it were a short film instead of a series. Sure, there are many questions left unanswered, but that just adds to the quirkiness. Overall, I’m not itching to watch episode two, but that’s just because I’m not into a lot of mecha. But it was a fun twenty-four minutes and forty-two seconds, and if I get the chance to watch the next episode at some point, I just might.

Milk, Eggs, & Fabric Softener: Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi

One place, two kids, endless universes.

Let the adventure begin.

Well, despite my initial misgivings about Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi (as mentioned in my First Impressions post) I went ahead and finished this series. Things certainly took a turn for the bizarre after episode one, but then fell into place after the next couple of episodes outlined the direction of the series as a whole.

Sasshi and Arumi try to get home... for the billionth time in a row.

Sasshi and Arumi are two kids (and best friends) who live in the Abenobashi area of Osaka. Arumi’s grandfather has an accident and falls off of a building, landing him in the hospital. Directly afterward, Sasshi and Arumi find themselves in a sort of medieval video game version of the Abenobashi shopping arcade. They meet their family members and neighbors as characters in this strange land, and finally set out in order to defeat a feared monster. Turns out they need a goblin to transport them back to their version of the shopping arcade. However, something goes wrong, and they end up in yet another version of their home, this one in outer space. Sasshi and Arumi bounce from one version of Abenobashi to the next, each with a particular theme: film noir, dating sim, fairy tale, war movie, etc. However, as their journey continues, Sasshi discovers his ties to a mystical and mysterious man named Eutus, and the kids gradually understand what’s preventing them from returning to their world.

Sasshi matures in more ways than one.

This anime surprised me. It began as drab and rather depressing, quite off-putting if you ask me. Then suddenly it’s loud and colourful and zany. It becomes rather formulaic a few episodes in: here’s this wild world! What is this place? There’s my family doing something embarrassing! We need to find that goblin and get back to our world! Oh no, here we go again! However, just as you get used to the system, things begin to change. Gradually layers of science fiction are introduced and theories of parallel universes emerge on a more intricate level than just “it’s our world, but different.” Not only that, but the characters, who initially seem to act merely as conduits for wacky comedic capers, actually develop emotionally. Arumi is already the more mature one of the pair, but Sasshi definitely grows and matures plenty himself throughout thirteen episodes, which is kind of an impressive feat in such a madcap comedy.

Mune-Mune in one of her more conservative outfits.

Perhaps “madcap” is the incorrect word to use. I’d say that this anime perfectly exemplifies a raunchy comedy to a “T.” There’s fan service coming from all sides, mostly from a bespectacled, buxom gal named Mune-Mune who appears in every Abenobashi universe. (It only gets more pervy when you discover who she really is.) Then there’s the episode in space in which a key plot point involves a goblin that steals Arumi’s underwear. It’s definitely crude humor, and yet, despite my preference for highbrow laughter, I did find myself chuckling here and there. The art is okay; it’s not my favourite, but it gets the job done. The music was mostly unmemorable, save for the cute opening theme “Treat or Goblins.” Oh, and it turns out that the Southern accents used in the English dub were for a reason, and truthfully, after episode two it stopped bothering me. I suppose I just had to get used to it. Overall, this anime was a bit much for me to crave a rewatch, but I am rather glad that I went ahead and finished the series. The ideas presented were interesting, and it got surprisingly deep as the show progressed, yet it managed to keep the jokes coming. In the end, it turns out that Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi is a lewd comedy on the outside, a sci-fi story on the inside, and deep down at its heart, it’s about learning to grow up.

More Than Meets The Eye: Glass Maiden

Fragile as glass, strong as a woman.

Shards of a darker tale to tell.

Just as when I was unable to find a shoujo anime that could be considered on par with Ouran High School Host Club several months after I first watched it, I have had similar difficulty in finding a detective noir series that could hold a candle to Darker Than Black. Even after I began finding shoujo that I could love just as much as Ouran (Special A, Glass Mask, and La Corda d’Oro all come to mind) I just couldn’t enjoy any action anime as much as Darker Than Black. That was the lay of the land until I found Glass Maiden.

Hangin’ out with the S&A crew.

This tale revolves around the exploits of the S&A Detective Agency. Shu is the disaffected leader of the group, but headquarters is usually run by his brother Akira, especially since Shu tends to disappear among the beds of his various female friends. Manami and Ayaka are two young detectives just beginning to learn the ropes, and Lil’ Q is the office dog. Porilyn is a male transvestite who unofficially runs the city via the use of an elaborate camera surveillance system, and he calls on the agency frequently to carry out various tasks. One day Manami and Ayaka stumble into a situation where they discover one of the fabled glass maidens (for more info on that, please see my First Impressions entry about Glass Maiden), and thanks to the help of Shu they rescue her and take her back to their place. Luckily a clinic shares the same building as the detective agency, so the doctor and nurse who work there manage to care for the glass maiden’s health. Since she can’t seem to recall her name, Manami dubs the maiden “Sara.”

Yeah, I dunno how we’re gonna explain this down at the station…

The rest of the series gradually explores the mystery of the glass maiden phenomenon and uncovers a plot that goes deep within the city (literally). Sara’s own background isn’t revealed in great detail, but she is the catalyst for most of the action as the bad guys she escaped from want her returned to them. There’s several sci-fi elements at work, and lots of car-chasing, gun-shooting action, but this series also goes into character detail and emotional drama. Yet everything is balanced so that no one element overwhelms the others.

Don’t call your boyfriend and tell him everything you had to eat today! This is supposed to be mildly feminist, dammit!

Overall, I really enjoyed this anime. The art and music were good, if nothing special. Still, both were very fitting to the story and genre. Since there are “glass maidens” involved, there is a goodly amount of fan service, but as I mentioned in my First Impressions post, there’s male and female nudity, and on top of that, nothing is ever shown in great detail. In fact, I saw many feminist elements in this series, from the all-women gang of mercenaries to the strength of Sara’s character. Also notable was a brief side story about Ayaka’s past mental health issues, which was treated with respect and dignity.

Shu and Akira, the brothers handsome. And we get to see both in compromising situations, bonus!

I found all of the main characters to be very likable, and I wanted to return to them week after week to see what would happen next. The storyline could get a little convoluted at times, but that could have been due to being limited to watching only one episode per week. If watched as a series on DVD, I think that it would be easier to follow the plot. Having said that, everything is still illuminated in the end. Basically, this was a very enjoyable adventure to go on. While Darker Than Black still remains my favourite anime in this genre, I was thrilled to find another series that I could enjoy on the same level. From the intricate plot to the kinky doctor and nurse, this is an anime for the older set, and as a non-teenage anime fan I appreciate quality series aimed at my demographic. And Glass Maiden is just that: exciting, dark, and well worth a watch.

Rating: ★★★★✰ The world of anime could use more sci-fi action series like this one.

One Deer Little OVA: Coicent

A girl in peril, a boy on a field trip.

Adventure awaits them.

Today’s short but sweet entry is about short but sweet OVA called Coicent. It’s a little romantic, a little adventurous, a little fantasy, a little sci-fi, a little of just about everything.

Oh deer! (I can’t pass up a pun.)

We open with a boy named Shinichi on a school field trip to Nara in the year 2710. While wandering around the city a white stag grabs his backpack with its antlers and takes off with it. In his pursuit, Shinichi ends up saving a girl named Toto from a couple of thuggish guys and a freaky old lady who are chasing after her. They’re in pursuit because she’s a… robot-hologram-android-thing made from DNA that’s thousands of years old… or something. Whatever the case, freaky old lady thinks this means that she owns Toto, but poor Toto just wants to catch some fresh air and sunshine. It’s understandable why she’d run.

Welcome to Nara of the future! Sorry, still no flying cars.

Toto and Shinichi have a fun romp through the city, and Toto occasionally whispers dreamy statements about how she’s never seen the ocean. This apparently really floats Shinichi’s boat, because he gets a crush on her but good. Everything is all fun and romantic until freaky old lady and the two thugs (who are her sons) catch up to them. You can probably guess what happens from here, as there’s nothing particularly new or groundbreaking about this anime.

I have nothing snarky to say here. I just really like this picture.

That said, I quite enjoyed watching it. The art was obviously heavy with computer animation, but it was so bright and colourful that it avoided the usual trenches of dark and gritty mecha sci-fi (which I tend to dislike greatly). Toto was typically sweet, and Shinichi was typically bumbling and comedic, but the vocal work of English power seiyuus Luci Christian and Vic Mignogna made the characters really come alive. The music was quite enjoyable, from the opening theme to the lovely tune that Toto sings. The plot was fairly predictable, but given its short running time of twenty-six minutes, the anime does a good job of conveying a full story in such a brief span of time. It didn’t feel as epic as other OVAs I’ve watched such as Coffee Samurai, but I enjoyed watching this one far more than that one, so it was a fair trade-off, in my opinion. Overall, I don’t know that I would watch this anime again and again and again, but I’d be tempted to watch it at least one more time through just for the beautiful artwork in the parade scenes alone. You could do far worse than spend half an hour with Coicent.

Rating: ★★★★ A lovely little tale, one that I wouldn’t mind watching again.

First Impressions: To Love-Ru (Plus a Brief Discourse on Shoujo vs. Shounen)

Get ready for a naughty alien invasion!

If that’s your thing.

I saw a preview for this series on a Sentai DVD I received for my birthday, so I knew from the get-go that this probably wouldn’t be my cup of tea. But I went ahead and watched the first episode anyway, because I am nothing if not open-minded. As limited as my experiences with shounen anime are, To Love-Ru seems to be fairly typical for this genre.

Only an alien could pull off that hat.

We begin with a schoolboy, Rito Yuuki, trying to summon up the nerve to confess his love for a girl in his class. (Another Yuuki! “Yuuki” must be the “Smith” of Japan.) Turns out that he was falsely accused of ruining a school garden once and this girl was the only one who believed in him. Just as Rito finally decides to take the plunge, a giant meteor-ship-thing falls from space and practically lands in his crotch. Shaken, Rito goes home and takes a bath. All of a sudden a light starts emanating from the general area of his junk, and a moment later a totally naked girl is standing in the bathtub with him. He gets all flustered (as you do) and listens to her story once both are in his bedroom. This girl is an alien named Lala (like the magazine?) and she’s on the run. Lala’s robot invention teleports to her during her story, but unfortunately that leads the guys chasing her straight to the bedroom. Rito grabs Lala and proceeds to take part in a farcical chase across the rooftops and into the park, ending with Lala summoning a giant vacuum to suck up the guys chasing her. In the process Rito learns that Lala is actually running away from her father and a looming arranged marriage. Flash forward to the next day: Rito sees the gal he likes once more and this time he actually manages to confess his love. However, he does so with his eyes closed, and Lala has appeared in the midst of his outburst. Thrilled, Lala proclaims that she and Rito are now engaged. Ha ha, silly alien, what will happen next?

No, I won't keep my clothes on, you can't make me!

I can tell you what will happen next. There will be entire episodes based around girls losing their clothing while Rito gets red-faced and flustered. Nine times out of ten he’ll end up with his face mistakenly buried in their breasts or their nether-regions. This will happen again and again and again. I get it: traditional shounen isn’t my bag, just like traditional shoujo isn’t some other people’s. I hate how shounen and shoujo series tend to break everything down into gendered stereotypes: this is for boys, so there will be naked breasts and a flustered, bland protagonist. This is for girls, so there will be a spunky heroine and rich guys in love with her. Yet personally I can’t deny the appeal of shoujo, because hell, I’d love to have a bunch of rich, cute, sensitive guys fawn all over me! (Or just one, that would be okay, too.) It’s a fantasy, if unoriginal and indulgent, but one that I enjoy immersing myself in nonetheless, so who am I to denigrate the polar opposite fantasy of a hapless guy surrounded by short skirts and boobs? My enjoyment of traditional shoujo doesn’t mean that I don’t also enjoy a wide range of other anime genres and stories, and I’m sure the same can be said for many shounen fans.

Presumably Rito's harem. The pics in this post are literally the only ones I could find from this series that didn't have nudity. If you're looking for something more ecchi, just google "To Love-Ru" and have at it.

That said, traditional shounen of this sort just isn’t for me. I was ready to tune out as soon as the naked girl from space appears to be coming out of the main guy’s crotch. Then there’s her weird Barbie-meets-Power Rangers outfit that she gets through a crazy robot bondage transformation scene. And at the end, of course Lala and Rito are engaged to be married, so she’ll have to move in with him and pave the way for a billion awkward and/or accidental naked scenes. “Oops, you mean I’m not supposed to be nude while making breakfast? How would I know, I’m just a bouncy, well-endowed alien girl!” Good heavens, it’s too much for me. (I’m getting flashbacks of Mahoromatic. *Shudder*) I do like the “sweetheart” undertone of Rito already being in love with a girl from his class (with a normal chest size). That gives a shounen series slightly more credit in my book, just as shoujo does the same by having the spunky heroine (usually) HATE the guy with money, both forcing him to woo her romantically and showing that she couldn’t care less about his dineros. The money is only a bonus, just as big boobs are the bonus that hapless shounen heroes get for having a good heart. I don’t judge those who enjoy shounen series like To Love-Ru, but for me personally, I’ve seen more than I wanted to of this clichéd tale.

Editor’s Note: You may or may not have noticed, dear reader, that I have suddenly added the extra “u” to both “shoujo” and “shounen.” While technically speaking both English forms are considered correct, I do realize that the romanized version is typically the preferred spelling for anime and manga enthusiasts. Truth be told, I would have switched to adding the extra “u” long ago, but I didn’t want to have to go back and re-edit all of my previous entries. So my compromise is that I won’t re-edit, but from here on out, “shoujo” and “shounen” it will be.

First Impressions: Gintama

Aliens in feudal Japan, samurai everywhere,

then there’s Gin.

Gintama is another of those epically long shows that I’d heard of before watching, though I had nary a clue as to what it was about. I figured it would be wacky from the description of aliens in feudal Edo-era Japan, but I wasn’t prepared for how wacky it got. Not as trippy as Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, but still odd. Perhaps it’s just to be expected with a purely comedic anime series, which this one seems to be.

Welcome to the world of "Gintama." Let the crazy begin!

The scene opens with Gin running away from some scary guys. He’s witty and sarcastic and silver-haired, so I was diggin’ it. Then he meets up with a girl in the street who works with him. They make their escape thanks to a giant cat-thing, and we meet Gin’s ragtag team. Turns out that Gin runs a “do anything” agency, where he and his pals will, you guessed it, do anything for a fee. Earlier Gin was looking for a lost cat, which is why the guys were chasing him after he trespassed. Gin finds the cat and gets the guys off of his back, then has a new customer: a sad little man who needs… something. (I apologize; I watched this episode a while ago and have forgotten a few details). Gin and pals take him around town, meet a dominatrix who lusts after Gin, and finally the sad dude changes his mind and wants to learn how to fight. Gin’s cohorts try to teach him fighting skills while Gin himself has a run-in with a samurai. Oh, and there’s some sort of conspiracy going on with some aliens and the law.

What do you mean you won't be back for episode two?!?

Honestly, I know it’s difficult to judge such a huge series on the first episode alone, but I thought that this introduction was completely unmemorable. I liked the character of Gin, but no one else really intrigued me, save perhaps for his masochistic dominatrix would-be girlfriend. I liked the samurai, didn’t care for the aliens, and was disturbed by the blood trickling down the faces of those who ended up in the mouth of the giant cat-thing. The art was too bright and cartoony for my taste, and the music… I can’t recall the music in the slightest. Everyone talked fast, and almost everything moved fast. Too fast for my taste. Like Maria Holic: Alive, there were several little notes meant to help understand certain Japanese words, celebrity references, or phrases, but they literally flashed onscreen for a second. One second. So that meant a lot of rewinding and pausing in order to read everything. I HATE having to do that. It gives me a headache. The opening narrator mentioned “the story so far,” which confused me. Is this actually season one? It did seem to blaze past any story or character introductions, which gave it a second or third season feeling, but maybe that’s just how Gintama is.

Open mouth, insert head. Just add blood, and voilà!

Overall, I can see the appeal of this show, I honestly can. However, Gintama is just too wacky for me. I have stacks of anime piling up just waiting to be watched, and I would rather spend my time with a series that I’m excited about rather than one that I watch with detached, if fascinated, confusion. And a series with over two hundred episodes is intimidating enough for a newbie without being confusing to boot.

First Impressions: Tytania

Bishōnen in space!

Drinking tea, waging war!

This series could be good.

I saw the title of this one and thought that perhaps it was an anime take on A Midsummer Night’s Dream. (Y’know, Tytania, Titania, it’s pretty close.) Turns out I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The nobles of Tytania. So far, all jerks.

Tytania, it seems, is a straight-up space opera right from the start. Literally. Operatic vocals belt out a lovely classical-style opening tune as visions of serious guys and their ships flash by in outer space. Not even Star Wars, the mother of all space operas, does that! Once the episode truly begins, we see a space battle about to take place between the overly confident Tytania fleet and a wee rebel force headed by a no-name, recently promoted admiral Fan Hyulick. The head Tytania commander drinks tea and sits idly by in what looks like a throne room but is actually the helm of the ship. He and his fancily-dressed cronies are clearly unconcerned about the fleet lying in wait before them, waiting to strike, and they’re simply taking their time and watching in amusement before wiping the unimposing force out. Indeed, they talk about what a shame it is that the other side didn’t surrender and spare all those soon-to-be casualties.

Now fire the cannons! That should make 'em soil their britches with all that fancy tea they drink.

This battle is the main focus of the first episode. We also get glimpses of four Tytania nobles bullying the ruler of “The Empire,” proving to all who are present who is really in charge (in the process we learn that Tytania is the most powerful clan in the galaxy), and we see a girl pricking her finger on a rose in a lavish garden. (Said girl is the only female shown in the opening credits, so I assume she’ll be back and feature more prominently throughout the series.) By the end of the episode everyone is watching the battle being broadcast throughout the galaxy by Tytania (another cocky move to prove their power to all watching). However, Fan Hyulick, who has been as unconcerned about Tytania as they are with his fleet, has a few tricks up his sleeve. He lures the opposing force in by providing a weak show of opposition, then suddenly unleashes a brigade of crazy space cannons with hugely destructive properties. This shocks the s**t out of everyone in Tytania, both watching and fighting. They quickly kill the broadcast feed, and in the midst of everyone freaking out the oldest Tytania dude murmurs, “Now Tytania will be safe for another hundred years,” or something close to that effect. Because this unheard of battle strategy has now been heard of, see, so they can defend against it in the next battle. And that’s it for episode one.

Blam blam, motherf***er!

I don’t usually go in for anime based on battles (I like badass fight scenes, but that’s different). However, this one I found to be strangely compelling. I don’t know if it was the underlying drama emerging, or the excellent animation, or the fancy guys in fancy space outfits drinking tea. Hello, space bishōnen! Whatever the case, even though episode one was a bit confusing at the start (I didn’t catch any of Tytania’s nobles’ names) I find myself eager to watch the second episode and find out the aftermath of the big battle. Plus as the episode progresses the dynamics of this highly political space world become clearer. There’s an abundance of computer-animated spaceships blasting their space lasers, which doesn’t really appeal to me, but as long as the political intrigue outweighs the drawn-out battles, I’m all for this series. I definitely see potential here, and I’m curious to learn more about this seemingly evil entity known as Tytania.

First Impressions: Guilty Crown

When one boy decides to fight back,

he unleashes a mighty power.

All the anime blogs I’ve seen over the weekend have been buzzing about Funimation’s premiere of Guilty Crown at New York Comic Con, so I thought I’d check it out myself (though I’d heard nothing about this show prior to seeing it mentioned by Funimation on Facebook).

Shu: loner, do-gooder, pop music enthusiast.

Shu is a loner type of guy who’s “different,” or at least he feels that way from his boisterous high school classmates. He goes to an abandoned building to eat some onigiri, and there he finds an injured girl whom he recognizes as Inori, the lead singer of a band called Egoist. She offers him a cat’s cradle or some sort of yarn thing, but before he can take it a bunch of mean guys with guns come in and take Inori away. After they leave Shu admonishes himself for not doing anything to help her, but the little robot that was with Inori interupts his melancholy by drawing up a map and encouraging Shu to follow it. Shu remembers that Inori said something about “get this to Gai,” so he figures it’s the least he can do. He takes the robot (and somewhere along the way slips the vial that the robot was carrying into his coat pocket) and sets out to find Gai.

Yarn makes you brave... or something.

Once Shu arrives at the location a random gang of thugs tries to take the robot from him, but Gai makes a badass entrance and beats the hell out of them. He’s barely had time for introductions before the mean guys who took Inori show up in full attack mode, looking for the genome that Shu has brought to Gai (the vial in his pocket). Gai tells him to look after it (isn’t that putting a lot of trust into a high school kid that you just met?) and Shu takes off at a run. He rounds a corner and sees Inori, who has just escaped from an overturned trailer where she was being held hostage. However, she stands in a daze right in front of an enemy’s giant scary robot thing.

Exterminate, annihilate, destroy!

Shu decides to do something not like himself and runs up to her, grabbing Inori just as the robot fires a gun at him. The bullet hits the vial in his coat pocket and it shatters. Suddenly he and Inori are in a strange circular ball of light and she’s floating in front of him with a glowing cavity in her chest, telling Shu to “use” her. Then, in what is probably the most overtly sexual non-sex scene I’ve ever seen in anime, Shu plunges his hand into her half-naked chest, and, while crouching over her, pulls the biggest, most phallic object EVER out of her body. The mean guys’ science team is like, “Whoa!” while Shu uses his crazy-long sword-thing to deflect missiles and finally slash the robot in half like a hot knife cutting through butter. In the end, Shu stands in the street amidst the fire and the chaos, looking destructive.

Shu 2.0: pulling swords out of chests and shoving them up bad guys' asses.

I’ve got to say, I was fairly impressed with what I’ve seen of this series so far. The artwork is stunning, just really crisp and detailed and lovely. The music is excellent and very fitting, especially when the badass fight scenes take place. I was worried when I saw all the fighter robots (and still a bit worried for future episodes) given that I don’t care for mecha anime in general, but as long as the human story doesn’t get lost and they retain the balance that they created in episode one I’ll have no complaints. The story seems pretty clear-cut this far in, though obviously all the cards have not been shown yet, and I’m intrigued enough by the characters to want to know more about them. Overall I’m quite glad that I hopped on the bandwagon and checked Guilty Crown out, and I’ll definitely be looking for more episodes as soon as possible.