20th Century Boys

I just spent the last three days reading this series. It's quite long at 22 volumes, no wonder it took me three days. It hasn't been released in the US yet, but you can find scanlations online from various sources. I believe it is going to be released after the completion of Monster, which is one of my all-time favorites you absolutely have to read/watch. I'll post about Monster at some point in the future. Monster and 20th Century Boys are created by Naoki Urasawa, one of my favorite mangaka. After reading and watching Monster, there's certainly a similar art style. Monster was started first and the two were written during an overlapping two years. Due to this 20th Century Boys has a slightly different art style than Monster.

The manga covers three specific times. The first covers the childhoods of a group of friends in the late 60's-early 70's. Music is a big part of the manga and is named after 20th Century Boy by T-Rex. CCR, Woodstock and other music groups are mentioned throughout the series. The boys (and one girl), are shown doing typical childhood things, creating a fort, drawing pictures, listening to music and being bullied. Kenji is the main character and with his friends they create a story where the world is in grave danger and only they can stop disaster.

Sprint ahead 15 years or so and all the kids are all grown up. Kenji is working in his families store taking care of his niece Kanna who was left by her mother, Kenji's sister. Then things start happening bringing Kenji and his old friends back together. It seems the story or prophecy they wrote as kids is starting to happen. However, as usually happens, most of their memories are not as clear as they used to be and they can't remember what they wrote. They finally start to figure things out and then comes the Bloody New Years.

Skip ahead another 15 years or so and Kanna is grown up, the group has been separated. Who's alive? I won't tell. The story after that point gets much more complicated and detailed and I can't say anything about it without spoiling anything. I'll say this though, there's a lot of emotion. Avenge, lost hope, desperation, giving up, power of friends and great fear.

The characters are fantastic especially Kenji. Every day, regular kids who grow up with boring, uninspiring lives who are the only hope for the world. And the bad buy, is he ever a bad guy. Going by the name of "Friend" with a logo but not group name, he is twisted, bizarre and the reader is completely unable to figure out his motives or intentions. And then when you do, it's so simple. There is a definite similarity between "Friend" and Johann from Monster. But they are also much different.

This was one of the best manga series I've read. Nearly every chapter is relevant and important. There is no needless stories or characters. Everyone serves a purpose and if it's not to advance the story then it's to portray the emotion of the people in the story. The art is great, the way Donkey is drawn with a runny nose to the three versions of each person from each point in time is fantastic. And the story is the best of all, a long, complicated, surprising, twisted ride that is well worth it.

Here's a YouTube clip of the T-Rex song with clips from the manga.

Ergo Proxy

I was anticipating this show hoping it would be quite good, especially since the ending theme song is Paranoid Android by Radiohead. This show used some high tech graphics with regular animation coupled with 3d computer graphics. It's quite fancy. The opening credits are incredibly gorgeous. This all added to the anticipation as I started watching this show. And at the beginning it lived up to my expectations. However, the story soon began to deteriorate to not much of anything, the characters became very boring and it became a fight of the week show for awhile.

What is it about? Citizens live in a giant bubble called Romodo where they are lazy and rely on the AutoReivs to do everything. There are immigrants who aren't real citizens who do all the hard work just to get to stay in Romodo. The outside world is full of pollutants and without the giant bubble everyone would likely die, so they all stay inside and are subjected to the rules of Romodo.

Our main characters are Re-l Mayer and Vincent Law. Re-l is the granddaughter of the overseer of Romodo and some sort of law enforcement personnel. Vincent Law is an immigrant who keeps turning up in the same place as Re-l. A string of incidents involving AutoReivs gone bad, or infected with the cognito virus leads Re-l into....well basically the creation of Romodo.

Introduced are monsters called Proxy's who are these super beings. We find out about them later.

Vincent is chased out of Romodo and Re-l follows and together with Pino, an AutoReiv infected with the virus, they travel outside to learn the truth about Vincent and Romodo. I'll tell you now, the truth really isn't all that exciting.

The story is this: there are three characters in a giant bubble, they leave, go search the world, fight off other Proxy, don't learn anything until the end, come back to Romodo in a matter of seconds and then there's the final showdown. Yeah, that's about it.

I think the first disc and maybe even into the second was pretty good. After that it gets rather repetitive and boring. The characters don't evolve at all and are pretty typical: the icy, defiant woman, the quiet loner guy with a secret past, and the perky, upbeat kid. I think this recipe has been done more times than I can count, on with something new!

For all it's fancy graphics, of which they are quite nice, it's not enough to save a boring story and characters.

Black Lagoon

If you like Cowboy Bebop, you'll probably like Black Lagoon. It has much of the same feel with the action, strong characters and the questionable jobs. Black Lagoon is not about bounty hunting but instead it's about a group of people who run a 'delivery' business. The items they deliver certainly aren't the same as what UPS delivers. Unfortunately it's very short, only 12 episodes long. Most stories only last an episode or maybe up to three, but they're all pretty much independent.

I just read that there are more episodes after the first 12, but the release of them is uncertain at this point. They were originally scheduled to be released this month, but the company has cut back it's releases in North America affecting the second round of Black Lagoon episodes.

There are four main characters and a couple recurring minor characters. The first main character is Dutch who is the captain and boss of the boat, Black Lagoon. He's a pretty typical character and very much like Jet from Cowboy Bebop. Tough, in charge, a good negotiator, takes care of his crew.

Next is Benny who is the tech guy, driver of the boat and the car driver when they're on land. I found him rather boring and really only there to man the boat when everyone else was out.

Revy is the tough muscle of the crew. She's the typical tough girl with guns and has the nick name 'Two-Hands' because she always shoots with a gun in each hand. She has an awesome voice and I was surprised to find that the same voice actor is Winry in Fullmetal Alchemist. Completely different characters and voices, I never would have known had I not looked it up. She also voices a character in Innocent Venus that sounds much more like Revy. The character is a bit shallow, but very consistent in her actions. There's a bit of hidden depth that surfaces when she's around Rock.

Rock is the last character that the story starts out with and ends up joining the crew. A typical businessman in Japan he's sucked into a situation that lands him with no job and in danger and he just decides to hang on with the crew. He is completely out of place with the rest especially wearing his dress clothes and tie. I found him the most interesting and funny character however and he has a lot of depth not being another tough guy. There's one part I found particularly funny after he joins the crew they're doing something illegal, I can't remember the specifics, and he's wearing his tie. When Revy makes fun of him and he explains why he's wearing what he's wearing by saying "I'm at work". That's his attitude about his new job, treat it like he's in an office in Japan and ignore the guns and mobsters. It works really well. He ends up being a wimp at times, but he's always entertaining as a character.

All in all there's not a lot of depth to the story or the show as a whole, but it's quite fun and always entertaining. The characters are a bit unoriginal with the exception of Rock and that's the major downside in my opinion.

Hotel Tomo - San Francisco

Ever want to stay in a j-pop/manga/anime themed hotel? Now you can in San Francisco's Japantown. An old Best Western has been converted into a Japanese themed hotel. All of the rooms have giant murals painted on one wall, iPod docking at the nightstands, WiFi and an LCD screen. Upgrade to the gaming suite and you'll get an HDTV with a PS3 as well as a Wii.

The lobby has a ceiling mural, giant, funky couch and a panel of flat screens playing Japanese movies.

The room styles are also based off of Japanese design including the headboards, lamps and other furniture.

It's not even all that expensive, starting at just over $100/night and upwards to $500/night for the gaming suite.

San Francisco really does have some of the coolest hotels.

Link to a New York Times review.
Link to the official Best Western website.
Link to a Wired article.

Upcoming

There's a lot I'm currently watching that is wrapping up soon. I'm waiting for the last disc of Ergo Proxy as well as the final disc of Black Lagoon both from Netflix. Black Lagoon is the top of the queue, so hopefully it'll be coming soon. The sixth and final disc of Ergo Proxy is released next week so that will be up at the top of the queue as well. The last disc took me several weeks to get so I'm guessing it'll take awhile again this time.

I've been watching two shows that are currently airing in Japan; Claymore and Heroic Age. The last episode of Claymore airs next week and Heroic Age has two more episodes.

Expect posts about all four of these shows in the next few weeks as they finish and/or I get the discs. Most of them are very good and I look forward to telling you about them.

Fullmetal Alchemist

There is so much to say about this manga/anime. From the moment I watched the first episode I've been utterly addicted to this story. I watched the anime first, all 51 episodes in a matter of about a week. When I found out the manga was still ongoing in Japan, I quickly started to read that as well, and am still reading it now. The anime diverges from the manga somewhere around volume seven of the manga. It then goes on to tell a completely different story than the manga. Apparently the creator and artist wanted the anime to have a completely different ending than the manga. What makes FMA so incredible? And successful? The two main elements that makes everything good, a fantastic story and incredible characters. I'll tell you now, I like the manga a hundred times better than the anime, and the anime is in my top ten list of favorites.

The story first: Edward and Alphonse Elric try to bring back their recently deceased mother with alchemy, a big taboo in the world of alchemists. They fail miserably and as a result Ed loses his arm and Al loses his body. As Ed tries to rescue Al, he is able to attach his soul to a suit of armor that happens to be in the room but in turn must pay with his leg. As a result, Al is a walking suit of empty armor with a 10 year old voice and Ed ends up with an automail arm and leg.

Roy Mustang, a colonel in the military who happens to be a state alchemist with the name of 'Flame Alchemist', happens along and offers Ed a chance to take the test to become a state alchemist after seeing his incredible talent with alchemy. Although Ed is not of the proper age, he passes the test and becomes 'Fullmetal Alchemist'. All state alchemists have these names.

Ed's goal from the moment he and his brother lost their bodies was to reclaim them no matter what. He quickly learns of a rumor about the philosophers stone which grants immortality to the user and Ed and Al think they can use this to restore their bodies to normal.

The rest of the story is their search for the stone. There are however, many hindrances along the way in the form of the homonculus, the military, Scar, and the inescapable fact of what the philosophers stone is made of.

The story is solid and much more in-depth and detailed in the manga version. The anime version just can't compare when it comes to the storyline. At no point during the manga did it feel like the author had lost track of the goal, or ventured off into some experimental storyline. There's no side stories that I remember, everything that happens is connected and related in a way that is not always apparent at the time.

The homonculus in the anime are the result of failed human transmutations, when somebody tries to bring back the dead with alchemy. In the manga, they're quite different, not being a result of transmutation, but instead being created by 'Father'. However, the characters are mostly the same.

The characters are incredible, they each have strong personalities and characteristics. There are no flaws in their creation, they are without a doubt individual people who practically write the story themselves. If you read a lot you've surely come across stories where they characters exist for the story and they change their personalities to fit into the story. I always hate when a character does something completely uncharacteristic just to fit things together. These characters are not like that one bit. They are always themselves, they don't do things that don't fit with their personalities. That's what makes them so strong.

Ed is the main character and is without a doubt the strongest personality. He is only 12 when he obtains the state alchemist title and in the few years the story follows his personality develops a lot. He is one of my very favorite characters I've ever met in any story.

The second character that really enjoy is Roy Mustang. He is another who does things, but when he does, you know based on his character that there's always an underlying reason for it. He's incredibly smart, playing the political game in the military while trying to advance himself and help Edward at the same time.

The art is another feature that I think ranks this anime/manga up at the top. It is fantastic, I absolutely love how Edward is drawn. The outfits they wear, especially Ed, are great designs. The colors are great, the drawing is first class and the character designs original.

One more feature I liked about the anime was the music. There's a series of three soundtracks that have the intro and ending music, but also all of the instrumental music as well. As I listened to them the first time I was instantly taken into the story just with the music. I hadn't noticed it that much as I watched it originally, but once over the music stayed in my mind and when I played it again out of context I could remember certain parts of the story.

I can't recommend this anime and manga enough. Watch the anime first, I think it's all out on DVD now. The manga has been released to volume 14 now but you can always find the rest online with scanlation groups. Chapter 75 just came out in Japan.

There's also been a movie released, the Conqueror of Shamballa which was okay, but I wasn't all that thrilled with it.

If you like games there's at least two available for the PS2 and one for the Nintendo DS. I've played one on the PS2 and one on the DS, I'll write about them another time.

New Look

It certainly doesn't seem like this blog has existed for a year now, but the numbers don't lie. Of course the post count is rather embarrassing considering that fact. Oh well, a new year of posting is on the way and with that comes a new look. There's also a new banner featuring one of my very favorite anime and manga, Mushishi. I'm all set for year two now and I hope that brings a whole lot of new posts.