Brief I

I'm going to start a series of briefs where I can just post blurbs about anime rather than a few paragraphs, like I usually do. And since I've been swamped this week with homework and work and watching anime, it's time for Brief I!

The plural of "anime" is "anime." I frequently say "animes" when speaking, but never in text. So, for future reference, it's "anime," not "animes."

Shonen Jump Alpha and Manga Stream

I’m going to do this again. I’m going to talk anime industry again. And I wanted to challenge myself with some Japanese pop culture instead. But no.

Anyway, Manga Stream (an illegal manga viewing site) just shut down every Viz translation they had up on their site. Which means One Piece, Naruto, and BLEACH, most notably, are now off their site. I know this because, up until now, I had been using their site to read those three manga because I was A. cheap, B. poor, and C. too lazy to get a Shonen Jump Alpha subscription. Well, the first two haven’t really changed, but I can always find enough money for anime or manga in my wallet. And the laziness changed when Viz shut down the Viz manga from Manga Stream.

I’m going to first talk about Manga Stream, then move on to Shonen Jump Alpha, as I have problems with both of them.

First, Manga Stream, when I started reading it back when One Manga was still a thing, was in support of legal translations. They had a banner on their archive page (which went back about four weeks) that said they only had the last four weeks because they encouraged buying the manga. Now what do they have? “Manga Stream translations are spoilers, we don't archive any older chapters.” I have no idea when they changed their “mission statement,” but it’s clear they don’t care about legal translations anymore.

This is the latest volume of Shonen Jump Alpha. Its comments have exploded with people complaining about Manga Stream’s Viz titles being shut down. One comment in particular has both greatly amused and annoyed me.

“What the crap is this? i paid 26 bucks for a 1 year membership only because Vis decided to be turds toward the fan-based scanlation sites, only to find out that the current issue is the one i read 3 weeks ago? and not only is it 3 weeks behind what the fan sites already did, the translations are crap and the site is nowhere near my definition of user friendly.... your company is putting out a shoddy product and (as a paying customer), I'm unhappy.”

Wow. Really? All of this information was clearly defined when they had the press release for Shonen Jump Alpha months ago. So you just said to yourself, “Hey. No more Manga Stream, better buy it then. Jesus…Oh? What the hell is this? This is outrageous! Blaraaaaaaarg.” If I didn’t know anything about Shonen Jump Alpha, I would do a bit of research before dropping 26 bucks on it. Fortunately, I dropped 26 bucks on it having done lots of research.

One comment by username “Vizsucks” simply says, get this, “Viz sucks”. That entertains my greatly. But before I talk about their business model, I’ll complain a little about Viz myself.

A trend in the anime industry in general is their apparently love over Apple products. I am not one of the swooners. I have a Windows PC, a Zune HD, a Samsung Mesmerize, and a 1st Gen iPod Shuffle. Very little Apple stuff in there. Yet Viz is appealing to, granted, their biggest audience by having their mobile apps only on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. I have absolutely no problem with this, but I have also heard no word from Viz that they’re planning on releasing non-Apple app equivalent for us non-Apple users. I do have a problem with that, if it turns out to be true (which I am hard pressed to believe). I would gladly pay a few bucks for it, if they wanted it. Preferably free, but that’s really how all of us are. And I would buy the hell out of manga if I could get it right to my phone.

Of course I see what Viz is trying to do here. Shonen Jump Alpha is a huge step toward stomping out manga piracy, and nothing up until Shonen Jump Alpha had really been done to stop it or slow it down. You can call shutting down One Manga a step in the right direction, but more sites can just pop up.

But until you get to the point where you’re getting the release same week as Japan and your service is just as good or better than the scanlation sites, you’re still running behind. Someone like me that wants to support the industry will buy the subscription, but the run-in-the-mill anime fan wants their stuff for free and they want it now. The best and easiest way to get that is undoubtedly the scanlation sites.

Science Fiction Anime

Science fiction anime is kind of a peculiarity. I’ve watched tons of anime that I would classify as science fiction, like Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop, and Appleseed. But there’s a distinct difference between what is classified as an anime sci fi and what’s classified as an American sci fi. American sci fi tends to focus more on the science. That is, what is considered the good sci fi in America is science fiction. What’s considered good sci fi in Japan is science fiction. The classification is taken from Nancy Kress, whose husband believed in science fiction whereas she believed in science fiction.

I am a stout believer in science fiction, as my background in anime and my short description might suggest.

Think back to something like Star Trek. It’s something I’m not very familiar with, but I have it on four Trekkie’s authorities that Star Trek is about science fiction. I have absolutely nothing wrong with this. The episode where Data is under trial for being considered property of the Federation or a new species was absolutely amazing.

However something like the Doctor Who episode “The Girl in the Fireplace” is also a great testament to sci fi, even though it had tons and tons of science and really no explanation. And as much as Russell T Davies isn’t as good as Steven Moffat, this Moffat-penned episode is just as brilliant as that Star Trek episode for putting the fiction in the science.

My point being that Star Trek is science fiction while Doctor Who, like anime, is science fiction.

What separates anime is that it has some subgenres that are acceptable to the greater anime watching culture. GitS is cyberpunk, Bebop is a space western, and Appleseed is utopia/dystopia. But to the general populace, I would bet that they would clump them all into the science fiction genre.

So what anime does, in its science fiction-yness, is focus on those subgenres. GitS doesn’t make me question whether androids and cyborgs deserve equal rights; rather, it makes me question whether I have free will. Way to turn things around on me Puppet Master.

Bebop focuses on the great characters of Spike and Jet, and later Faye and Ed and Ein, and their grand adventures of being forever broke.

Appleseed focuses on the politics. It questions whether there can be a perfect society and how that perfect society would be structured if it did exist. And how people in power become corrupt.

What these three anime have in common is they’re science fiction. They’re not focusing on the logistics of a fully cybernetic body, Section 9’s communication system, the Bebop’s inner workings or any of the other ships inner workings, anything about Red Eye, how a hovercar would work, how a cyborg would work, or how any of their machines work. They focus on their story and their character without cluttering itself with lengthy explanations of the science behind the fiction.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s very important to explain the science behind the fiction. But when it’s such an integrated part of society as it is in these shows, it’s hard to bring it up naturally and, in my opinion, not worth sacrificing the flow of the show just to give science nerds their needed explanations.

Wandering Son Graphic Novel Volume 2 Review

Last week, I reviewed Wandering Son volume 1. I have equally high praise for volume 2. Spoilers ahead, as I'm assuming that, by now, you have read both volume 1 and volume 2 of the great series that is Wandering Son.

In volume 2, I realize that the pacing of this series is incredibly slow. I didn't really realize this in the last volume or while watching the anime since I blasted through the anime at breakneck speed and reading the manga didn't really give me enough material to work with to make that conclusion. I'm not saying that the pacing of the series is bad. In fact, I praise it for being paced so slowly and keeping my interest like it's Fairy Tail or One Piece (which seem to go by really quickly when I'm watching or reading them).

Volume 2 does introduce a few new characters. Nakazawa-sensei, Nitori-kun and Takatsuki-san's 6th grade teacher. And it finally gets into Yuki-san and Shii-chan's story.

First, Nakazawa-sensei. You didn't get much of a look of her in the volume, but you can tell she's a little innocent and she's new at this teaching thing. She provides a good role model figure to contrast with Yuki-san, who is very relateable for Nitori-kun and Takatsuki-san, but maybe not the best role model. Past that, I can't really give much of a judgment on the character given how much screen time she had in the volume. I'm looking forward to seeing how she works into the rest of the story.

And, again, we finally get a look into Yuki-san. She is one of the best characters for Shimura-sensei to put into the manga. Yuki-san is a transgendered person who was born a male and had surgery to become a female. It's a little far-fetched at how they met Yuki-san (or, more accurately, how Takatsuki-san met Yuki-san), but go with it. Chance encounters and all.

What it does for both Nitori-kun and Takatsuki-san is give them someone who is going through the same or a similar thing as they're going through right now. Their parents can't really help them and the only people they have is each other. Yuki-san provides the teacher-figure for them in the story (or really the cool but weird aunt). It's really important for these kids to have someone like that that they can look up to when they're going through not only puberty, but gender confusion.

Now for the main characters. Chiba-san and the newly named Sasa-san realize they're kind of being ousted by Nitori-kun and Takatsuki-san. And Maho has found a new love.

But they're trouble in paradise, her new love has a crush on (wait for it)...you guessed it, Nitori-kun, who was dressed as a girl at the time. This is kind of a brilliant move on the part of Shimura-sensei. It shows that Maho is kind of dense (or at least slow on the uptake) and that Nitori-kun really does look like a girl when he's all doidled up. It also provides a little look into how shallow Maho can be at times.

But Maho isn't the only shallow character. Chiba-san has her own dark side. And she's a little peppy when it comes to defending herself and her friends. She dropped a tray of food on a guy for calling Nitori-kun a faggot. Granted, he called Nitori-kun a faggot. Still, what a waste of food. Sanji would be disappointed.

This volume also provides a little insight into Sasa-san. She's an innocent little girl, and a little scatterbrained. Not much is known about her yet, but from my recollection of the anime, she gets deeper and more interesting. Just wait for it, or watch the anime like I did.

But the main characters. Oh the main characters. It's been barely a few months and it feels like they're growing up so fast. Both Nitori-kun and Takatsuki-san are getting into the roles of girl and boy respectively so well. And they even made an adult friend in Yuki-san, who was fooled by their disguises and thought they really were a girl and a boy respectively. Oh, how the fleeting lives of youth do go.

What this, of course, breaks down to is a character study of gender roles and gender confusion, not only in Japan, but throughout the world. And specifically a character study of Nitori-kun and of Takatsuki-san. It's written beautifully and the content is still as fresh as it ever was. It's eye opening and amazing to be able to read about something this deep and this sophisticated in a manga format. It continues to touch on the subject of gender roles in a touching and innocent fashion while keeping a childhood naiveté and incorporating a little bit of puberty all the while. All of it is woven together into a beautiful narrative that I will continue to highly suggest to anyone willing to read or watch it.

To reiterate, Amazon and Right Stuf have the first volume for sale while Crunchyroll has the series subbed on its website. Check it out.

Wandering Son Graphic Novel Volume 1 Review

I've previously reviewed Wandering Son in my Top 15 Anime column. In it, I called it the 8th best anime that I have ever seen, only being beaten out by Ryohgo Narita, Ghost in the Shell, and Neon Genesis Evangelion, among others. My praise for the graphic novel is no different. And though I have read far fewer manga than I have watched anime (62-273), I am stunned to look through my list of manga I've read and find that no other manga has been better, in my opinion.

I'll give my own plot summary of Wandering Son through one volume. SPOILERS AHEAD, people. But after the summary, I'll try to keep is spoiler free.
Wandering Son starts off with Nitori-kun and his family moving somewhere else. The point being, there's a new kid in town and his name is Nitori-kun. And his sister's teacher actually mistakes Nitori-kun for his sister, Maho.

[Editor's note: If you start reading left to right (aka, the American way), you'll find a quite long essay written by the translator about honorifics and personal pronouns in Japanese. This essay takes up almost three pages of the back of the volume. This is astounding for a manga. I have not read another manga that does this. But the essay is written like a true pro and anyone unfamiliar with the Japanese language should definitely read it before starting to read the first volume. I did not. I wish I had. Fortunately, I have taken a semester of Japanese and have watched all too much anime.]

He's placed next to our female protagonist, Takatsuki-san, when seated in his new 5th grade class. The story grows from here. We learn that Nitori wishes he was really a girl and Takatsuki wishes she was really a boy. This begins to escalate when Chiba-san (a popular and pretty girl in their class who has a crush on Nitori-kun) suggests they do a gender-bender play for the 6th grade sendoff assembly. I'm sure this is normal in Japan, to send of 6th graders in grand fashion. Well, grand compared to what we do, which is nothing. It culminates with Nitori-kun and Takatsuki-san taking the train a very long way away for their home (it's never defined where, but far enough that they wouldn't be seen by any of their friends) dressed as a girl and a boy respectively. The first time Takatsuki-san did this (which she did alone), she was even mistaken for a boy.

I'll try to keep it spoiler free from here on out. Aka, END SPOILER.
What makes Wandering Son so good is that it tackles things that I have never seen any other manga or anime do before. This is a manga about a 5th grade boy who wants to be a girl and a 5th grade girl who wants to be a boy. How sophisticated is that?

But it's not just about that. There's Maho who finds his cross dressing deplorable. And there's Chiba-san who has a crush on Nitori-kun and thinks he looks cute in girls' clothing. But not just that, there's Takatsuki-san, who is going through puberty while relating more to being a male.

Think about that. If any girls read this, think back to when you were (and excuse my rudeness) having your first period. Likely, you were frightened. Takatsuki-san appeared to have been informed by her mother about the goings on of that, but it's so complex. She's trying so hard to make herself more relatable to being a male when her body is going through something like that, which is inherently female.

The one criticism I find with this manga in general (which the author Simura Takako admits to) is that the characters look very similar. I had a hard time distinguishing between Chiba-san and Takatsuki-san and Maho and Nitori-kun and all the other characters. The translation, however, is done brilliantly. It makes sorting through these characters much easier by giving each of them a distinctive voice without the use of the multitude of personal pronouns that the Japanese language has.

Despite this setback, the charm of this series really is its characters. In the anime, Kosuke Hatakeyama and Asami Seto bring Nitori-kun and Takatsuki-san to life (as do the rest of the cast). I realize now that it's the writing of the dialogue that really brings the words to life on the page and the actors made it that much better. The point being, the dialogue is brilliantly done and this manga touches on a very sensitive topic in both Japanese and American cultures.

This first volume really just scratches the surface of what's going to happen in the manga as a whole, but it provides a look straight into Nitori-kun and Takatsuki-san hearts and souls, about what both characters want as people and as a male and female. It's a beautiful commentary on gender confusion in people, and especially in teenagers (who are going through some of the hardest and most confusing times of their lives). Having watched the anime, I'm looking forward to seeing how far the story goes through volume two.

If you have the chance to read the series or watch the series, I highly suggest doing so. Amazon and Right Stuf have the first volume for sale while Crunchyroll has the series subbed on its website. Again, this is in the Top 10 of the anime I've watched and the manga I've read. It comes with high praise in my book.

State of the Industry, January 19

This week, let’s take a look at the anime industry.

Just last year (2011), Tokyopop shut its doors. In 2009, ADV split off into various separate entities. Also in 2009, Central Park Media shut down. In 2007, Geneon shut down.

And now, to start off our year, we hear from Bandai Entertainment. And it’s not good news. Bandai is going to continue to distribute its currently licensed shows until those respective licenses expire. Ok, good news. But they’re not going to license anything else and they’re not going to release new sets (like the Anime Legends line) of any of the shows they currently own. Bad news. And more bad news, the licenses for Gosick and Nichijou (both could be potential cash cows for some other company) have reverted to their respective Japanese owners.

What is the cause of all these closures in the anime industry? Well, a lot of things could be argued. My personal argument is that, while anime fandom has grown, there’s not a big name show like Dragonball Z or Sailor Moon around anymore. They opened people up to anime back in the 90s. Now anime depends on word of mouth between high schoolers and college kids, like myself, to tell their friends.

What’s the cause that a lot of people talk about? Fansubbing. That’s what I’m going to try to focus on here (but everyone knows my focus goes everywhere).

First, I’m going to paraphrase what Greg or Chris Ayres (I don’t remember which) said earlier in the year, around the time that Bandai announced its eventual closure. They said that fansubbing is basically the only thing that we as fans can do to help the industry.

We can’t license the shows we want with the snap of our fingers. We can’t stop the net from distributing anime illegally. What we can do is stop downloading it ourselves.

I have (regrettably, in some ways) a subscription to Crunchyroll.

I’ll tell you why it’s regrettable: Crunchyroll started as a fansubbing group that SOLD anime to the people that wanted it. It wasn’t until 2009 that they turned legal and now Crunchyroll is the biggest streaming video service that brings anime straight to your home within hours of the Japanese air date. Why it’s regrettable is that they were selling illegal material to people who wanted high quality subs, then used that profit to turn themselves into a legitimate company.

But the point is that Crunchyroll has tons of streaming anime and I want it in “720p.” So I pay for a subscription for that service.

And what are fansubbers doing now? They’re subbing shows purely out of the want to release these shows illegally. They have their “reason,” but most of them are flimsy at best. One of the best is that they don’t like Crunchyroll’s subs are up to their standards. My response would be: Well who the hell made you the standard king? Crunchyroll’s subs get the job done, and it’s legal, and that’s really all you need to know.

I mean, between all the legal simulcast options, there are very few shows this anime season that aren’t being streamed by Crunchyroll, Funimation, or some other company. Crunchyroll holds the monopoly on simulcasts, Funico picks up the ones Funimation is interested in, and the rest go to whoever wants them. This season, the only show that falls under the latter category is Phi Brain.

So there really is no need to download fansubs unless you’re a videophile that will only watch it in true 720p. There are so many legal options, even if it means watching it in SD with commercials a week later. Boo freakin’ hoo. At least you can get anime. Ten years ago, even five years ago, we weren’t this lucky.

Dragonball Evolution Review

In my infinite wisdom, I have decided to sit through an hour and a half of Dragonball. That normally wouldn’t sound so bad. Until you add Evolution to the end of the title. There’s going to be heavy spoilers throughout the review, but it’s not like anyone cares anyway. But just so you know.

And I’m going to have to do this review in increments. Through the first ten minutes, through the first plot point, through the second plot point, and then the final section. Otherwise my brain would explode from my childhood being destroyed.

Through the first ten minutes, I have a lot of complains. First off, I’m pretty sure there was CG sweat coming off of Goku’s brow. Ok, George Lucas, throw some CG gophers into Indiana Jones. I’m not going to care. But CG sweat? Even if it wasn’t there, it just looked really dumb.

Second: really? Piccolo controlled the Oozaru to destroy the Earth? No. Fucking no. Frieza and the Saiyans had an agreement that the Saiyans would help annihilate an entire populace off of the planet and in exchange, Frieza wouldn’t kill everyone (and we all know how well that worked out). The purpose of the agreement was to sell the planet to the highest bidder, of course. But no. This incarnation (if we even want to call it that) has Piccolo, a Namekian, controlling the apparently only “Oozaru” (not Saiyan) to destroy the Earth for god knows what reason.

Third: Gohan knew nothing about the Dragonballs. He didn’t know it would grant wishes. He didn’t know there were seven others (though I would assume he guessed there were at least three others). Also he wasn’t GODDAMN ALIVE when Dragonball started.

Speaking of people in general, Goku wasn’t 18 years old at the start of Dragonball. He was 11. Though he thought he was 14 because he had trouble counting. So he certainly couldn’t be in high school. Which he is in the movie.

One last thing. Really? They called him Pee-ccolo in the opening explanation thing. Thank god Gohan called him Piccolo later. Like a normal goddamn person. And now they have Master Roshi calling Gohan Go-haan. A long a sound. It’s horrible.

One thing I have to commend the movie for is Goku’s pacifism. It wasn’t in Dragonball of course (since Saiyans were more destroy everything and revel in the fight type of people), but I like it. That said, it’s the only thing I’ve liked through the first 30 minutes.

And in the first 30 minutes we meet Bulma. The girl who wants to find the Prometheus Orb, which has five stars. But wait! They aren’t Prometheus Orbs, they’re Dragonballs. The girl who knew all about them in the anime doesn’t know a goddamn thing about them in the movie. But who does? Gohan and Roshi through some nursery rhyme and unknown prophecy, neither of which existed in the anime.

But wait, there’s more! Bulma wants to harness the energy of the Dragonballs to do something good for the world: create an infinite supply of energy. Not get a boyfriend. What happened to the cowardly, self-centered woman I knew? I miss her. And her capsules don’t open with a comical, Adam West Batman-esque poof. It transformers open.

If anything, at least they kept Goku’s awkwardness. Even if they changed what kind of awkward he is. And Roshi’s pervy-ness.

Chi-Chi. Her father is the Ox King. The feared man of Fire Mountain. And trained by Master Roshi himself. He is not a man that would frown on fighting. Yet apparently no one in Chi-Chi’s family would understand that she’s a fighter training for the World Martial Arts Tournament.

Then we learn that Aang – er, Goku – has to master all four – er, three – elements in order to defeat Fire Lord Ozai – er, Demon King Piccolo. Really, Hollywood? That’s the best you can think up? Copying off of Avatar is the best you can do? You’re already copying off of a source material that continues to sell like hot cakes for FUNimation, yet you want to change nearly everything about it.

And literally everything else that happens up to the second plot point can by summarized by: Yamcha is a douche and Goku learns to be the next Avatar.

Then, then, get this, Master Roshi uses a Kamehameha Wave to revive Goku. Revive him. Not by the Dragonballs, which was done later in Z, but with an energy wave of great destruction.

And apparently the Dragonballs will revive Shenlong. Not summon him. Revive him. I had no idea Shenlong was dead. Or that Piccolo had to pray to revive him. Piccolo is one half of the man who created the damn things, you think he could summon – er, revive – it pretty easily.

Hollywood. This was your chance. The Oozaru and Shenlong were both huge. Gigantic. They were amazing creatures that you dwarfed in the movie. Both the Oozaru and Shenlong were significantly smaller than they were in the anime. Magnitudes smaller. Exponentially smaller.

I do like how Goku was wearing his signature uniform. But no one knows why he’s wearing that because it’s never explained. It’s also never explained why Goku has to become the Avatar.

Looking past the fact that Dragonball Evolution absolutely destroyed my childhood from the inside out, it’s just a bad movie. I mean, it’s fancy looking and the fighting was ok at best, but there are so many things that I would like to know. Like who created the Dragonballs? Or where did the Dragonballs go? It’s clear to me that their target audience was fans of the manga and anime series. But they changed it so much that no one who likes movies can like this and no one who liked the original series can either.