Anime review: "Shingeki no Kyojin"

Well, this hasn't happened in a long time: that I finished an anime season in a day. I watched first two episodes at Friday evening, and spent whole Saturday watching until I finished all 25 episodes!

"Shingeki no Kyojin" (or officially "Attack on Titan", which doesn't make sense) is a shounen action anime. The story places as in future, where humanity has been reduced to medieval level by appearance of non-sentient, human-eating humanoid giants called Titans (imagine giant nude zombies). Humanity is currently behind tall walls place in several concentric rings, enjoying relative safety for last hundred years. It all changes with appearance of a Colossal Titan and an Armored Titan, that together are able to penetrate the walls at one place and release other Titans at people. During this fatal defeat, we are focused Eren, Mikasa and Armin, three kids living in town where the breach happens. After managing to stay alive, but witnessing Eren's mother being eaten alive, Eren vows to slay all the Titans. This brings the three of them to join the training for the Survey Corps, only people that still fight against Titans on their own territory...

My first impression was that good, because I like vivid and strong colors in anime. Next I thought how the anime was a bit over the top with imagination and not very consistent (flesh-eating giants, 100 years of solitude). I was especially off-put with the claim about walls being set in circle with 250km diameter, when you could obviously see the other side of the wall! But then things started to unravel slowly, and I was hooked.

So, even though "Shingeki no Kyojin" is primary an action anime, it has a large dose of mystery. And not the type where character finds solutions which no one would ever realize, they solve them gradually by getting more information. Also, the setting reveals very gradually (there are some info-dumps, but not too clumsy), so almost every episode you learn something new. There was a few surprising reveals (especially the last one!), but they were done nicely and consistently. What I did dislike were too long intros and recaps of last episode at the start of each.

There is really a bunch of characters and you will sometimes have trouble to know who is who. They are typically shounen, so don't expect miracles, but they are pretty solid and interesting. The good thing is that they grow much during the show. I really liked how the author was not afraid to kill them.

And this brings us to the atmosphere of "Shingeki no Kyojin", which is the best part of it. This is a very brutal anime, with lots of tragedy, death and sorrow. I didn't expect so much pain in shounen anime. There are nice changes between fast action pace and slow reminiscence and melancholy. It is compared much to "Claymore" - I agree with this comparison, even though the anime is original enough. Action is pretty good, if you can suspend your sense of mechanic. There is even some comedy, and pretty good one (I really liked Sasha).

I've read some comments about this show having horrible design and animation, but I disagree. I admit that it is simple and not beautiful, but I think it goes great with the atmosphere. I really like the discrepancy between Titan's look and behavior. Voice acting and sound were OK, but OPs were terrible. I didn't even try to listen EDs.

All in all, I really enjoyed "Shingeki no Kyojin". It simple enough for shounen fans, but with enough details for other to enjoy, with great dark and violent atmosphere and lots of mystery. I can't wait for the next season.

Anime review: "Beck"

Although "Beck" is an older anime (2005.) that I would have usually watched without any second thoughts (daily life, great rates, classic, compared to "Nana", etc.) for some reason I long resisted it. I am happy that I have rectified this mistake now.

"Beck" is anime telling a story of members of the band with a same name, during several (two or three) years of life of Yukio Tanaka, nicknamed Koyuki. At the start of anime, Koyukio is 14 and still in his middle-school, without any goals or talents in life. After accidental encounter with Minami Ryuusuke, a few years older guitarist who spent childhood in USA, Koyuki enters the world of music and rock, and we follow them and their personal life as they try to establish themselves...

I have always liked anime that depict daily-life of characters, shounen seined and josei. "Beck" is such combination that plays on the line between shounen and seinen. In this respect it is similar to "Bakuman" (or vice versa), and I think that fans of "Bakuman" will also like "Beck". By this, I mean that even though they are focused on shounen audience, the anime doesn't follows a typical maxim "if you just want something really hard, you can do it" that is, for me, the most distinctive trait of shounen anime. On the other hand, "Beck" has some ridiculous premises, which are strongest evident in later stages: their decision to stick with Chiba is totally illogical and impractical; also, wouldn't a band need to have more than three songs. One more thing I liked about this show is that it doesn't idealize teens - they are spiteful, promiscuous, drinkers, they swear (there is a lot of English curses)... There are some usual shounen characters like a bully or spoiled rich kid that compete with main characters, but there's more than that, also.

"Beck" has a very slow start - for first two episodes you have no idea what is happening. Plot goes very slowly, but the show has a really great build-up of characters. Most focus is put on Koyuki, and his relationships with other characters, but Ryussuke also gets his almost individual sub-plot. I noticed that plot sometimes get a bit rough - maybe they had to skip some elements from manga to fit it into 26-episodes anime. Curiously, anime incorporates lots of characters from out of Japan, but not in a way of the usual transfer-student. There is a lot of humor here, including some slapstick, but most of it is light and intelligent.

What I don't understand is how a music-manga can be successful. It surely can: "Beck", "Nana", "Nodame Cantabile" are all great anime, and they wouldn't get an anime adaptation without being a popular manga first. I will really have to try to read one such manga. I am not really into music, and I don't stick with any particular genres or band/performers, and I can't discuss the musical side of the anime, but I found music fine and catchy. There is a lot references and influence by real-life rock bands and famous performers.

My favorite part of anime was the stop-and-go romance between Koyuki and Maho, Ryussuke's younger sisters. I am glad that anime didn't put too much focus on it and left it on us to imagine the result. Best part of anime for me was at the end when Koyuki enters the stage alone. This is a typical shounen ending - a miracle. But that is the reason why we watch shounen anime... After that, the last two episodes almost ruined this anime for me with degrading resolution, and I started wishing it ended immediately after festival, but the actual ending wrapped things very fine.

From visual side, "Beck" is not very inspiring. Especially after watching "Nekomonogatari", animation and colors are pretty drab. Characters mostly look ugly, even when they should be good-looking. On the other side, there is a lot of attention put to details, like clothes, posters, instruments... As I said, music is very good, and so was voice-acting.

I am very glad that I finally watched "Beck" and would recommend it to anybody who like real-life anime and don't require action in it (except in case they don't like music). Even though it is not perfect, "Beck" definitely deserves it high grades with its interesting story and great characters.

Manga review: "School Rumble"

After some two weeks of reading, I have finished with "School Rumble" manga. I have watched the anime adaptation several years ago - it was one of the first anime I watched, and I still consider it as one of my favorite anime. This actually applies for the first two seasons - third one was composed of two episodes and left a bad aftertaste. So I had some great expectations from this manga, but at the same time I was dreading it would leave prove my memories false and diminish my experience of "School Rumble".

I can't say that "School Rumble" has any real plot. It is a love-polygon slapstick comedy following member of one class during their second high-school year. Two main characters are Tsukamoto Tenma and Harima Kenji: Tenma is a childish, clueless and not so good looking girl, while Harima is notorious and one of the toughest delinquents around - and he is hopelessly in love in Tenma. But Tenma herself is in love with Karasuma, a strange and expressionless boy from their class. He lead us to the second level of main-characters, which include him, Suou (one of three Tenma's best friend, beautiful and popular), Sawachika (another of Tenma's best friends, half-Japanese, blonde and also beautiful), Takano (yet another of Tenma's best friends, capable and elegant), Hanai (class leader, all proper and strict, but altogether a good guy) and Yakumo (Tenma's younger sister, one of the most popular girls in school, shy and capable). I won't list more characters because I would need several pages to mention all few dozen of recurring characters...

Main topic of the first several volumes are Harima's efforts while he try to express his love to Tenmna, while Tenma tries the same to Karasuma. Later focus changes more to the Tenma's misunderstanding (and she is full of those) where she belives Harima in love with Suou, Sawachika, Yakumo, Itoko (their teacher but at the same time Harima's cousin), Tae (a girl Harima meet during one of his frequent giving ups of life). All, all this is crisscrossed with love-problems of other girls (which may or may not include Harima) and other characters, and with short gags. Structure of the manga is such that every now and then there is a longer arc which describe a typical event like trip to beach (where Sawachika will see Harima naked), school sport festival (where Sawachika and Harima will save the reputation of their class), school culture festival (where Harima will be found in bed with Yakumo) and so on....

As for characters, there is really bunch of them. Since this is a shounen slapstick comedy, one cannot expect any real depth and complexity of them, but you can expect much hilarity. They usually have few distinctive characteristics that are used to draw laughter: Imadori like breast and Dojibiron (something like Power Rangers); Hanai is proper but can be challenged to extreme actions; Tougo is all extreme, Sawachika is a typical rich Princess, but has a surprising gentle side, and so on.

Appeal of "School Rumble" is coming from play between rooting that a guy finally gets a girl and rooting against him because you know that it's funny and if he ever catches it, then everything is over. The trick is in doing this but keep the originality and not irritating the reader - and it can't be said that "School Rumble" always succeeds in this. There are irritating parts (for me, most of the Tenma-Karasuma thing was irritating), but I liked most of it. I didn't like "trip to England" arc and found it really not funny. Also, I kept hoping for a different ending - I would be more satisfied if mange ended one or few chapters earlier. There are lots of slapstick jokes, misunderstandings, puns - I would usually snort at least once during the better chapters. And Harima can always cause an outright laugh ("Miko-chan...").

The art in manga is not really impressive, and the color covers were especially poor. But for such manga where its strength is in gags and dialog this is not so important. Dialog is often nonsensical and plot inconsistent, but they are hilarious. I had few occasions that I really couldn't follow the plot, like there were pages missing, but they are not often. Also, I noticed few differences from anime: like missing the explanation why Harima is in love with Tenma, although there is one in anime.

I really liked "School Rumble" mange and had a very good time with it. But all in all, I wouldn't recommend it - I would recommend the anime adaptation, and only first two seasons ("School Rumble" and "School Rumble: Nii Gakki"). Anime perfectly filters only the best parts of mange (the most it), it has a better art and it gives characters voices. But if you have watched anime and now are wondering what mange is like - it is good.

Anime review: "Daily Lives of High School Boys"

I am a little bit late with this post, for it was almost two weeks now since I have watched it. But I had a three-day trip to Germany, few days were spent on field, and so the time passed. It started to fade a bit, but good thing I have made notes.

Anyway, "Daily Lives of High School Boys" was a pleasant surprise. I didn't have any particular wish for watching this anime, but since there was not much out there to choose from and it had a fairly nice rating, I gave it a chance. It turns out that "Daily Lives of High School Boys" is a gag anime with no particular plot. Instead, it consists of several unconnected short "stories" in each episode, between four and eight. There is some timeline to it, but it is not relevant in any case. These short stories revolve around students of one class of all-boys high-school, plus several other boys and girls from other schools (so it is not solely about boys, contrary to the title). The cast is so pretty big, but the names are not really important, since it has different cast for most of the stories.

So, there is no plot, characters are unimportant, why would anybody watch this anime? Because if you are or ever were young, and especially if you are male, you will be able to relate with this anime and find yourself somewhere in it. This anime perfectly depict the mental state of high-schoolers: empty and sarcastic talk, worries about being cool, stupid ideas and wrong facts... But presented in such funny and lovable way. And jokes are just perfect: I watched this anime alone in my room, but kept giggling most of the time, and sometimes even laughing out loud. In spirit, this anime reminded me on "School Rumble", but without the romance part - there is absolutely no drama or angst in this anime. Another anime it reminded me of was "Lucky Star", just that this concentrate on boys and there is no moe.

Unfortunately, there are only 12 episodes. There is a mention of second season in anime, but no information about it on AniDB. Visuals are pretty good, voice acting great, and there is even some catchy music in it.

"Daily Lives of High School Boys" is probably the best gag anime I watched so far, and it is especially good for quick watch - stories last for few minutes each and you can stop whenever you want. If you have any fond memories of high school and like to watch comedies, just try watching the first episode. And remember, later ones are even better!

Anime review: "Bakuman", second season

So, quite fast after fighting against and then succumbing to the first season, I watched the second season of "Bakuman". The good news is that third season (last one, I think) is following this fall. I am looking forward to it. Only thing I can object about it is that is was so good that I watched 20 episodes in one day (Sunday), which resulted in 4 hours of sleep that night and a very sleepy morning at work next day.

As I wrote in my review of the first season, "Bakuman" is a shounen anime flirting with seinen. This is even more notable than in first season. Mashiro "Saiko" Moritaka and Takagi Akito continue struggling to fulfill their dream of becoming the first-rate manga-ka for Shounen Jack, so Saiko can marry Miho (whom he had seen one or twice since their middle school). I know: a typical senseless shounen plot. But for some reason, it works great. In this season even their relationship become a bit more realistic (but still a far away from normal).

In the first season the duo succeeded in getting a serialization of their manga. This made their goal seem quite reachable, but it also brought one shortfall - instead their genius editor Hattori, they are now transferred to a junior editor Miura. Will the new editor be show good enough to support them? And more important, will they first manga prove to be enough to get an anime adaptation?

This biggest plot starts at the beginning, and is resolved toward the end, but there are few side-roads taken around the middle. This is a good thing, because this side plots are used to evolve the characters (I almost used the word setting, but this is a character-centered anime, setting is irrelevant), the new one and the old one. Cast is widened so much that it would be a trouble to remember everybody, if they were not so unique and unforgettable. I didn't expect such evolution of what I thought to be side-characters - there is much character development in this anime. Characters are also more mature. I think that focus of this season is removed from creation of manga toward relationship between them, although manga stay the center that everything revolves. All in all, I think that this season was composed nicely - nice pace, not too slow, but neither too fast; and always interesting.

I read some comments that anime adaptation rushes through the manga, which means that there is probably more material there. This series is completed, so I would like to read the manga original, although after the fiasco with "Black Lagoon", I am somewhat weary. I will keep this one on mind, but not for the close future. Anyway, this season takes around three or four years (in anime time)!

The humor is simply great. There are lots of gags, and it kept me smiling most of the time. But the funniest character of the series so far was Hiaimaru. And to believe that he was introduced so sinister in the first season... I think that I laughed in every scene featuring him. Otters...

There is not much to say about audio or visual side - they are mostly mediocre. I wanted to said that unique design of characters follows more from authors' (Obha Tsugumi  and Obata Takeshi) weak skill that from intention. But I then checked Wikipedia and saw that they are responsible for "Death Note", which was drawn much better, so maybe I am wrong. There are 25 episodes, again.

For conclusion, I think that it is enough to say that second season of "Bakuman" is even better than the first. A nice catch for those who like slice-of-life or comedy anime. Special recommendation for the fans of "Genshiken".

Anime review: "Ayakashi - Japanese Classic Horror"

I stumbled across this anime few times before, but first time I seriously considered watching it was after watching "Mononoke". AniDB article about it claimed it shared one of the characters. It is relatively short (11 episodes), so I watched it last week, between "Daggerspell" and "Stonewielder" (post about it will be next).

"Ayakashi - Japanese Classic Horror" is 2006 anime adapting three Japanese classic horror stories. The three are completely different in setting and style, even in animation, so I will describe each of them separately.

"Yotsuya Ghost Story" is based on "Yotsuya Kaidan", Japanese most famous ghost story (at least according to Wikipedia). It is a tragical story about Iemon and Oiwa. Iemon is a ronin who wants to marry Oiwa, despite opposition from her father. He slays him and then uses his death as a mortar for his marriage, claiming he will help Oiwa as a husband to revenge her father. Everything is well for some time, but slowly Iemon's true face starts to show. He finally abandons Oiwa for richer and younger woman, who poisons Oiwa. This is the start of tragedy where everyone connected to two of them will end dead. Iemon refuses to admit any guilt and slowly sinks into madness, seeing Oiwa everywhere. There is also a parallel tragic story, about Osuda and Yomoschichi, which is interwoven with the first plot.

Story is interesting but not especially original. Probably you even saw it or parts of it, since it was adapted and partly used numerous times. It is not really scary also. Animation is decent, although looking older than 2006. Most interesting details it the way it is represented: story is narrated by the "original" author of the story, who claims he was inspired by Oiwa's ghost to write it. He also claims that the story is cursed and everybody who takes part in screening, acting or writing it ends dead.

"The Legend of Tenshu" is completely different kind of story. It is a love story between Himekawa Zusho-no-Suke, a young falconer, and Tomi-Hime, ruler of Forgoten Gods, kind of powerful and scary demons that feed with human flesh. This a complete mini-anime and I am wondering why is haven't been expanded to full-sized anime. It even has comedy-relief characters. Story is interesting and tense; there is action, comedy, romance... Again, animation is a bit weak, and design of characters could have been more original. But story is definitely good.

Last, "Bakeneko" is a star of this collection. It features the medicine-seller from "Mononoke" in one more exorcism adventure. Or better to say, this is the original story, that was later extended to whole series. It has original animation, original characters and great story. I loved it. This was only really scary story; not in visuals, but in setting and style. For those who didn't watch "Mononoke"; don't be put off by seemingly archaic animation. Definitely a recommendation!

My next post will be about "Stonewielder" by Ian C. Esslemont.

Manga review: Naruto

Wow, this took me longer that I thought it will, almost three weeks! On the other hand, it has more than 500 chapters for now (505th was the last I've read so far), most of them 16 pages or more, it's no wonder. Include with that the fact that I've read it on-line (Narutofan.com), so it takes time to load it...

I have a special attachment to "Naruto". It is the first anime I watched when I started regularly followin anime several years ago. Before that, I watched only "Dragon Ball" (original and Z), "Sailor Moon" and "Hellsing" randomly and on TV (except "Hellsing", I got that on DVD). I really got into anime after getting "flat" (unlimited monthly bandwidth) and discovering wonderful world of torrents.

I don't really remember why I picked "Naruto", but it showed as a good decision. Unlike "Bleach", which I liked for first 50 episodes and later it became repetitive and boring, I find "Naruto" still interesting and watch it regularly. After original 135 episodes of "Naruto", I actually watched some 30 episodes, before really understanding what "filler" means. And then came "Naruto Shippuuden" with its super-slow episodes; I'll  always remember the fight with Sasori, which took some 6 or 7 episodes. But now I really like this anime, and judging by manga, there will be some really interesting stuff in future.

Let's get back to the review. First, "Naruto" is shounen action manga (and anime) about ninjas. Author of the manga, Kishimoto Masashi, is a fan of Toriyama Akira, author of "Dragon Ball", so I think that those who liked "DB" will like "Naruto", also (at least, that was the case with me). Manga features an imagined world, consisting of several countries, where each (or at least the bigger ones) has a ninja village. Ninjas perform various tasks (missions), for their sovereign lords, citizens of their own country, or even for foreigners. In case of war, they serve as army. Series is not based on real ninjas; you can expect "magical" skills, talking animals, super-strength and super-speed, etc. As this is shounen manga, it doesn't encumber with "smaller" details: existence of electricity, uncommon political situation or other things like that. Instead, this series focus on interesting fights (and unique skills of characters) and passionate and emotive relationships; primary, the friendship between two main characters, Naruto and Sasuke.

Main character of this anime is Uzumaki Naruto. At the beginning of the show, he is some 12 years old student in ninja academy. His main interests are making pranks on teachers and creating troubles; also, he's poor at ninja skills and has no friends. Reason for him being alone is that at the day of his birth, his village (Konohagakure) was attacked by super-strong demon fox. To prevent destruction of the village, Naruto's parents sacrificed themselves and sealed the fox inside him. For some "reasons", this is kept as secret from Naruto and kids his age and younger. Of course, all the adults know the truth (at least partially) and they ostracize Naruto because of fear, anger or grief. Naturally, kids take after their parents, so Naruto is left friendless (except his teacher Iruka).

But Naruto is not too depressed with his fate; instead, he dreams of becoming a Hokage (leader of his village and strongest ninja there). That was, all villagers will be forced "to acknowledge" him (I stress this because this is the main theme of first part of series). In the meantime, he uses his pranks as a way of getting attention. Soon after the graduation at academy, he will be joined in team with two of his classmates: Sasuke and Sakura. Sasuke is a boy from renowned ninja-family of Uchiha, best student of the year (two of them are joined because the school tries to make balanced teams - Naruto is the worst one). Sakura is a normal girl, excelling in theory of ninja skills, but unremarkable in practicing them. She is also infatuated with Sasuke (as every other girl in class); in same time, she is Naruto's love interest. Even though three of them don't have much in common, after first mission they will develop bonds that will form their later lives.

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I always find hard to review a long-running manga. And "Naruto" is really long-running. With five hundred chapters it's the longest manga I ever read. In anime adaptation, it has around 250 original episodes and some 100 filler episodes, and anime has quite a lot to catch up with manga. My meaning is that it's hard to write about story because I can't write only about beginning of the story which is only an introduction (that would be meaningless because story changes after a while), but also I can't write about later stages that are important (at least, not without revealing spoilers). So, I will just say that "Naruto" actually HAS a story, as opposed to "Bleach" and "Dragon Ball". I am mentioning these two again for two reasons: I watched them; and they would be "Naruto's" direct competitors. As I understand it, there is also "One Piece", but I haven't watched or read it. "Dragon Ball" doesn't have an overall story - it just a "new opponent-new training-new fight" pattern. "Bleach" has some kind of story, but I think it's just a cover for same patter as in DB. Again: "Naruto" has a story. It is not a masterpiece of storytelling, but it is there. It is a story about friendship between Naruto and Sasuke; about picking the hard choices and not relenting. I also has many other motives and themes, but you will have to read it (or watch it) for yourself.

On the other hand, "Naruto" IS a shounen action series about ninjas. As I mentioned before, the world is nicely imagined, with no irritating flaws. There are lots of characters, but they are divided in groups (check "Cast Herd"), so it's not hard to follow who is who. Each character will have its own unique powers and skills and they are quite original. Meaning, they are not just a fifth variation of the same power - each have its place and rules. Characters are mostly well done (no one irritated me or made me lose faith in author's taste) and unique. Series has a lot of funny moments and inside-jokes; it made me laugh often. Fights are very good, dynamic and intense. They are not like second World Martial Arts Tournament in DB (which almost made me cry) or Goku vs. Freeza fight, but "Naruto" has its moments.

As I read manga after I watched anime, I noticed that I actually like anime version better. Despite the fillers, anime takes time to broaden and elaborate situations, without inserting unnecessary elements (if you ignore fillers). That was mostly evident after I passed events that are serialized in anime. Manga brings distilled events and skeleton of the story, but I think I will enjoy it in full really after watching the anime. But I will have to wait awhile for that.

And now, the final conclusion. In my opinion, if you are in search for long-running fighting shounen series and have even remote interest in ninja, I think you will like "Naruto". If you watched and liked "Dragon Ball", you will like "Naruto" (maybe even more; I did). If you are reading manga, then it's OK. But if you start watching anime and you don't become a fan (as me), I would advise you to find out which episodes are fillers, if you don't want to completely lose interest in series. For original episodes, fillers start after 135th episode. And for "Shippuuden", check this.

Also, allow me to recommend an anime that I found better that both "Naruto" and "Bleach". It's "Kekkaishi", a shounen action anime about young boy exorcising evil spirits. Unfortunately, it has only 52 episodes, but series is still ongoing, so I hope for more.

Manga review: xxxHolic

I always find it hard to review manga, because all those manga I have read were longer ones. It is much easier to review a single anime season or a single book as a part of series. In longer runs, books/anime/manga introduce new elements to the story, new characters and so on...Then you have to either summarize the plot too much or reveal spoilers.

For example, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" TV series. It has been quite long ago that I watched it, but if I remember correctly, first season or two consist mostly of single episodes (with no connection to others). It is only in later seasons that we are introduced to longer stories, encompassing multiple episodes or even seasons.

Why am I talking about this? Because "xxxHolic" is similar to "Buffy" (or "Angel" and any number of other action series) in that way. Story follows Watanuki Kimihiro, a high-school boy who is living alone, because his parents are dead. And why he is so special that he deserves a manga? Because he is able to see ayakashi, yokai and other paranormal beings that most people are unaware of. More so, he somehow draws these creatures to himself and is often forced to flee from them. This is about to change when he "accidentally" runs into shop run by mysterious Yuuko. She explains him that she is a witch who grants wishes and that only those with a wish are able to come into her shop. More, she is willing to grant him his wish to release him from curse of drawing ghosts to him. As a pay, he will work part-time in her shop after school, as a cleaner and a cook, until he pays of his debt.

His life won't get much peaceful after that. From one side, he will have his hands full with chores at the shop. On the other side, he will often be forced to help Yuuko with granting the wishes, which are mostly paranormal and mystical in nature. Connection with Yuuko and his abilities will also make him something of a "celebrity" in the spirit-world.

In his adventures, he will often be joined with Doumeki Shizuka from his school. Their relationship is quite complicated (and is often used as a source of comical relief). Watanuki can't stand Doumeki from the time of their first encounter and at the sight of him (encouraged by Doumeki's superior attitude toward him) becomes irritated (in comical way), but for some reason, other people think they are best friends. He will have to accept Doumeki as a part of his life when he finds out that Doumeki, even though can't see spirits, have an ability to exorcise them. One of people who think that Watanuki and Doumenki are great friends is Himawari Kunogi. She goes to the same school as the two of them and is also Watanuki's (not-so) secret love. She will also be drawn in Watanuki's supernatural adventures.

As I said, story at first consist of unconnected "episodes", where Watanuki helps Yuuko to grant various customer's wishes, mostly in detective-style, trying to find the source of their misfortune. He (and Doumeki, and in minor way Himawari) will learn more about the spirit world, its strange inhabitants and even more stranger rules. In later episodes, the true story will begin to unravel. And this story is really epic in its scope.

Unfortunately, reader will never learn it complete. That is, if he/she doesn't read "Tsubasa Chronicle". This manga (also adapted to anime as "xxxHolic") is connected with this in some smaller part of the story. But it is actually this minor part that is crucial for understanding events in later parts of the series. It turns out that main characters of "Tsubasa" are "important customers" of Yuuko; even more, main male character from "Tsubasa" has a complicated connection to Watanuki.

All in all, although it sounds confusing (and it is, unless you read both manga), this is actually very nice manga. "Cases" they solve (or wishes they grant) are mysterious and often based on human psychology. This is also very funny manga. Most jokes are based on Watanuki's character and his relationship with Doumeki. Also, it has very complex and detailed world, based on Japanese mythology (though I can't be sure how much of that is "real" mythology and have much have authors imagined themselves). Also, almost every chapter features some original Japanese dish, for those who like food reference (I do).

Main characters, especially Watanuki and Doumeki are great. They are much idealized, but they also have their own weaknesses. Yuuko is very intriguing character; she is also mean sometimes, especially toward Watanuki, which is always funny. Himawari is one of the main characterc, but mostly passive, occasionally giving advice to Watanuki's or serving as his object of love. There is also a lot of side characters, most of them from the spirit world.

Design of characters is unique CLAMP's, meaning unnaturally tall and elongated characters. Everybody looks nice, even the occasional bad guys.

As bad side of series, I would single sometimes confusing dialogs: conversations often wander into metaphysical discussions and have many jumps. And also, separating the stories between two series ("xxxHolic" and "Tsubasa") means you have to read both manga. And if you don't like "Tsubasa" (like I don't), you have a choice to be unaware of some important parts of the plot or to force yourself to read something you don't really like.

In short, very nice manga appropriate for both younger and older audience, also for readers of both genders. It has nice story and funny jokes, interesting world and complex characters. Sometimes a bit confusing, but a good choice if you are looking for intelligent, non-action manga.

Bounen no Xamdou - anime review

I decided to watch this anime because I think it's good to make a change sometimes. I usually watch seinen action series, romance comedies, slice-of-life anime, josei... This one is a shounen action series, with good rating on AniDB and it features some boy transforming to giant monster and fighting for justice (judging from quick look of its profile on AniDB).

After watching first two episodes I started fearing that I made a mistake. It started with the world mixing alchemy and magic with SF technology. First scenes show some old woman with some green liquids and strange seeds and then next few introduce flying ships and army with armor-suits. Characters had an uninspired design and colors were bland, so I thought I will be watching some bad combination of "Last Exile" (flying ships), "Casshern Sins" (almighty monsters/robots) and "Bleach" (powering up whenever there is a stronger opponent).

To my great surprise, I was very wrong and this is one of the best action anime I watched. Even though world has some strange mixes (I one scene a guy has handcuffs made of wooden board with holes while he is surrounded by soldiers armored with laser guns), it is very interesting. It is nothing especially unique: North and South hemispheres are in long lasting war, North has magic monsters inherited from some lost civilization, while South has flying ships and lasers, but wants monsters too... But what is good that this is all we get about it. It doesn't have some know-all character that explains it to main characters so that viewers can understand it too, nor there is a narrator. Characters know history of their world, while viewers have to be watchful and pick things every few episodes to make a whole picture. Even last episode doesn't bring a full explanation. I know it sounds irritating or stupid, but it actually works very well.

Main characters are also well knows: a boy Akiyuki gets the special ability of monster-transforming and has to leave his home-island with Northern girl Nakiami who will help him to master it. And his friend/girlfriend Haru and friend/rival Furuichi join the Southern army to do their share of growing/powering up. Others include a young and ambitious army officer, Akiyuki's father doctor with murky background, possibly-mad scientist.... And crew of the ship Akiyuki leaves his island on has its share of quirky characters: female-general in hiding, old woman/prophet, ect. But best thing is that they don't act stereotypically. Akiyuki doesn't transform whenever they meet a strong opponent (I think that he transforms only three or four times in whole anime) nor he spends fifteen episodes feeling sorry for himself and being irritating.

So, characters are good and world is great, what's left? Plot is interesting and there are no boring episodes. It follows few different sets of characters until the expected great confrontation at the end. And it features one really sad happy ending.

Except of unexpected mixes of magic and technology, there is two more things I noticed. First, two main female characters and some less important had a notably big breasts. While this is not unexpected in anime (quite the contrary), there is usually either "boing" effect or there are some jokes about it. But here there they are just unnecessary large. Secondly, what happens with clothes of characters that can transform when they do it? I'm pretty sure that one there was a ripping of clothes when one started to change, but later the clothes was whole. These little details do matter!

As I said, design of characters is somewhat bland and so were the colors, but not enough to make an obstacle for watching. Opening song was very good and I thing that voice-acting and rest of SFX are nice, too.

Anyway, "Bounen no Xamdou" is a really good anime that I can recommend to everybody. And that coming from a guy who doesn't like classic shounen action series with giant monsters and transformation.

Next I will be reading a new book series. It starts with "The Briar King" and judging from first 50 pages I will like it very much!