1001 Nights, Anime/Manga Style

Last night I finished reading a very good book, Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed.  It's a fantasy, but instead of set in a typical European-like place, the novel took place in a Middle Eastern themed world.  Since this is a rather unusual setting for a fantasy novel, it got me thinking about anime, and how most fantasy series are either Asian based or European based.  Oodles of series take place in deserts, but very few use the diverse cultures of the Middle East as a backdrop.

One such series is Magi, a manga written by Shinobu Ohtaka.  Magi is one of two of her series to be licensed in the US, the other being Sumomo mo Momo mo.  It is hard to believe that both series come from the same mangaka.  Sumomo is a frantic martial arts comedy, with utterly absurd fights and characters a la Ranma 1/2.  Magi, on the other hand, is a serious fantasy story with rather dark undertones.  The manga touches on slavery, governmental corruption, and fate.  Comedy is not absent, however, as the characters devolve into blushing chibis on a regular basis.

One of the main characters, Alibaba

 The manga is still running in Japan, and there is currently a second cours of the anime airing, which Crunchyroll is streaming.

Viz published the second volume of manga this month, with the 3rd volume slated for December.  Viz can't print them fast enough for me, but once every two months is a heck of a lot better than the twice a year schedule they have for some series (Sakura hime for example).

Aladdin, the titular Magi of the series

Another similarly set series is Otogibanashi wo Anata ni: Tsukiyo no Maihime by Shiina Ayumi.  Published in 2006 in Ribon magazine, it is unavailable outside of Japan.  Even though Shiina's art is very beautiful, none of her works have been licensed for release in the States.  It clocks in at only 3 chapters, but in 143 pages we are treated to a female phantom thief, a variety of highly intricate costumes, a prince disguised as a commoner (of course), a tragic romance, and a full-on coup.  While the plot may not be entirely original, it gets points for choosing a rare setting as its backdrop.  Unfortunately this manga may be difficult to find, as even when it was in print I had a hard time tracking it down.

The cover of Tsukiyo no Maihime

Last season's anime series Free! had a very interesting ending song.  Basically in less than two minutes it tells a story of a desert kingdom whose water supply is controlled by a greedy prince.  It deserves mention mainly because the costumes, setting, and characters are all reminiscent of the One Thousand and One Nights.  Below are some stills of the ending animation.

Free! itself has absolutely nothing to do with deserts, sultans, or traveling vagabonds, but for those who have watched the show it makes perfect sense why these images were chosen.  You can watch Free! in all its exclamation marked glory on Crunchyroll.

 There are probably some other manga series out there that employ a Middle Eastern setting, but certainly none of them are as wildly popular as Magi presently seems to be.  

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

I've been playing Koei's Dynasty Warriors franchise ever since Dynasty Warriors 4.  The games are a very loose adaptation on the great Chinese classic novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms.  The novel was written almost 700 years ago about events that occurred 1800 years ago, and the story has been retold many, many times since.  Anyway, the games piqued my curiosity; after all, are not adaptations almost always inferior to the original work?  And if I loved the adaptations (i.e. the games) so much it only stands to reason that I would love the novel.

And I do.

I managed to find a copy of RotTK in Powell's not too long ago.  It's a behemoth of a book: two volumes of about 700 pages each.  The translation I have is by C.H. Brewitt-Taylor, which is a little disappointing because I really wanted the one by Moss Roberts.  The drawback of Brewitt-Taylor is that he uses the Wade-Giles system of romanizing Chinese names, whereas the DW franchise uses Pinyin.  There is a bit of a learning curve as far as figuring out who everyone is.  Cao Ren is Ts'ao Jen in Wade-Giles, Taishi Ci is T'aishih Tzu, Jia Xu is Chia Hsu, and Diao Chan is Sable Cicada.  Oddly enough, Yuan Shao remains Yuan Shao.

Another surprise was the death of Sun Jian.  He dies in the first few chapters, even before Dong Zuo is deposed.  Contrast this to many of the games in which he is the leader of the Shu forces for a significant portion of the story-line (I feel that after nearly 2 millennia a spoiler warning is unnecessary).

While RotTK is one of the four great classical Chinese novels, that hasn't stopped folks in Japan from using it as the backdrop for many anime and manga series.  Tenjo Tenge features the famous heroes reincarnated as high school students, many of whom are female, and Koihime Musou turns every warrior into a moe girl.

Reading RotTK adds context to many works of Asian origin.  The heroes and heroines of the tale have been immortalized in manga, video games, and anime series.  It's a darn good story, and it would have to be in order for it to be adapted as many times as it has.

Penguindrum Conundrum

On the back cover of Penguindrum's second Blu-Ray release, a bold sentence states, "The trippy surrealistic smash sequel to the year's most talked about anime!"  NO.  Penguindrum originally aired all 24 episodes in the series uninterrupted.  There was no "sequel."  The entire show is one complete story.  The person who came up with this tagline either was unfamiliar with the show or is willfully misleading buyers.

But I guess that "The second half of the show you already shelled out $70 for" wouldn't convince many too take the plunge....

Books in Japan

Last month I got to go to the Kinokuniya in Beaverton, OR.  It is a very small store, but it is also the only Kinokuniya branch within 500 miles of where I live, so I take what I can get.  Anyway, I was on the prowl for light novels, but this branch didn't have that great of a selection.  All they really had were the newest volumes of established series, and OCD prevents me from purchasing volume 4 without having first purchased volumes 1 through 3.  What I stumbled across instead was a translation of a fantasy book originally written in English: Green Rider by Kristen Britain.  I read Green Rider many years ago when it first came out, in 1998, and it has been a favorite fantasy book of mine.  The cover art for the Japanese edition was so different that it took me a few seconds to realized just what I was looking at.

Both parts make one continuous picture.

Moreover, instead of coming in one paperback volume, the Japanese publisher split it into two volumes.  That is one thing that is nice about the American publishing industry: we buy the entire book in one go.  Each part was about the cost of what the entire paperback book costs here in the states, so I can't help but think that the Japanese publisher is gouging fans....

Unfortunately there are no illustrations inside the novel, which is a bit of a bummer because I really like the art style of the cover illustrator.  Karrigan never looked so cute!

Osoi! Psycho-Pass

I picked up the May 2013 of Animage primarily because it featured an article on the anime Psycho-Pass.  This got me thinking about the delays between when an anime airs and when it is released on DVD etc. here in the West.

Psycho-Pass began airing in October of 2012, and finished its run sometime in April 2013.  Funimation simulcasted the show and plans to release it on the nebulous date of "Spring 2014."  Assuming that there will be no delays as there were with Fam the Silver Wing, this means that Psycho-Pass will be available to own roughly a year after it aired.

Now, my first reaction was, "That's such a long time!" but then I remembered how years would pass between an anime's Japanese air date and a DVD release.  Take Shadow Skill, for an example.  Its broadcast was in 1998, and yet it didn't hit our shores until the ill-fated ADV released it sometime in 2005.  That's a difference of 7 years!

After looking at the delays this way, I am less likely inclined to whine about Funimation "taking too long," but I can't promise I will quit whining altogether.  There is, of course, a direct correlation between my level of impatience and the amount of enjoyment I got from viewing the anime, after all.

Kimi ni Todoke ~ From Me to You

At Sakura Con 2012 I went to the NIS America panel, where I drooled over their luscious limited editions of Katanagatari and Kimi ni Todoke.  The panel dealt more with new acquisitions and their criteria for selecting a series for distribution than it did going over the packaging of their releases, so I shall endeavor to do the latter for you.

I was very excited when I ordered the first box set of KimiTodo, and it felt like it took forever to get here.  Most of the excitement was due to it being the first NISA title I had purchased, rather than the content of the show itself.  Right out of the gate it's obvious that these boxsets are made for the serious collector.  Both the price point and the odd format (more on that later) reinforce this.

The set contains 4 discs: 2 DVDs and 2 Blu-Ray discs.  This first set (of three) covers episodes one through twelve.  Each disc has a cute plaid pattern on it, except for one which has Argyle for some reason.  I swear I can hear the maniacal cackling of the crazed design team who deliberately tried to irritate us OCD types.  But I digress....The bonus features are the standard clean opening and clean closing, which look breathtaking in 1080p.  I could see the roughness of the pencil/pastel lines so clearly that it is almost as though my TV had transformed into a gigantic sketchpad.  It is import to note that this release was Japanese with subtitles only.  There is no dub.

The first thing to notice about the packaging is the size.  The face of the chipboard box is 8 in x 11 in but only 1 inch thick.  Other box sets are dwarfed by comparison.  Right away the problem is where the heck is it going to go on my shelves?  My shelves are not tall enough to set it upright, and if it lays on its side it juts out from the shelf by over 5 inches!  As someone who prefers a semblance of uniformity in a collection, this does not fly.  Basically my options are to set all NISA sets on a shelf designed especially for them (which would completely throw off my alphabetization scheme!  ;_;) or try to deal with dangling dics.....  Neither option is attractive.

But what is attractive is the set itself.  The behemoth box has very attractive artwork (see below)

Side One of the box

Side Two of the box

 I will let these pictures speak for themselves.  Overall, the artwork on the packaging is consistent, in that NISA did not mix images of the anime with images from the manga the way that Geneon was wont to do.  Everything is brightly colored and there are no artifacts or flaws to be had.  The box itself is pretty heavy duty and everything fits neatly inside.

The main reason the size of the box is so large is that it has to accommodate a rather large artbook.  I am never one to complain about artbooks, but why NISA couldn't have made it similar in size to a standard DVD case escapes me.  At any rate, the artbook is hardcover (squee!) and features full color stills from the anime, as well as some background art and character art.

This is just one example of the beauty of
KimiTodo's ephemeral backgrounds.

The format of the book follows a sort of picture diary with notes from Sawako sprinkled among stills from the anime series.  That's all well and good, but I would have preferred more of the series' background images and character models to those.  The artbook clocks in at 28 pages.  It's printed on thick glossy paper and each image is crisp and clear.  Really, my scanner doesn't do it justice.  It is probably the highest quality artbook that came with a show in my entire anime colllection.

An example of a character bio.

If this set is indicative of the quality that NISA strives for in their releases, I will most definitely throw more of my paycheck at them in the future.  Every aspect of the packaging is of the highest quality.  As the price point is rather steep ($5.83 per episode at the full MSRP) I can really only recommend it to collectors or to die-hard KimiTodo fans.  For the casual collector it's a bit much.  The only major drawback is the size, and I have a feeling that most people are normal enough to be able to shrug that off.  Now I shall bid you farewell, as I have some shelves to rearrange.......

Ghibli at Costco

In Costco the other day I spotted a veritable smorgasbord of Ghibli DVDs.  Better yet, they were all priced at $12.99, considerably cheaper than for what they are going on Amazon.  I picked up Porco Rosso and Whisper of the Heart (which I have never seen).  Tales of Earthsea (a.k.a. Gedo Senki) was also there, and I thought about buying it so I could complete my Ghibli collection, but I decided not to.  That film was a disappointment.  The only redeeming thing about it is Therru's song.  But I digress....

I saw Porco Rosso 12 years ago at my college's anime club.  It was a fansub on VHS and was incredibly grainy, but since it hadn't been licensed yet that was the only way to view it.  So I squealed with delight as I made my way to the checkout line with Porco in hand.  Maybe someday someone will release it on Blu-Ray, but until then at least I have the DVD.

The other titles they had were Howl's Moving Castle  and Spirited Away, but only on DVD.

If you have a Costco nearby you may want to check and see if they are stilling carrying Ghibli movies.  I doubt that they would be cheaper anywhere else.

On a side note, there is a very interesting analysis of Porco Rosso in volume 2 of Mechademia.  Anyone who is interested in looking at anime through the lens of academia should pick up a copy.

Sweet Blue Flowers, a.k.a Aoi Hana

Aoi Hana never really made a big splash in the either the American or Japanse anime market. This is a shame, because the show is one of the few series that depicts realistic homosexual relationships, instead of just being fanservice.

So I was delighted when RightStuf announced that they were licensing the title.  RightStuf has a history of publishing very high quality box sets (The Emma, Utena, and Maria-sama box sets, to name a few) with the serious collector in mind.  Aoi Hana, however, is released under their Lucky Penny imprint.  Series that may not sell very well are released under this imprint, where there are no spiffy chipboard boxes or 100 page pamphlets with liner notes.  Although, isn't that better than not having the series available at all?  In any case, I expected something along the line of a bare bones Sentai release......

There are a total of 3 DVDs in a standard sized DVD case.  Each disc has a lovely sketch of one of the backgrounds used in the anime, and each disc has a different sketch.  The picture is printed in a light blue, giving the artwork an ephemeral quality, and the quality of the printing is remarkable.  There are no weird hexagons or color seepage, each sketch is crystal clear.

The outside of the case has a nice picture of A-chan and Fumi on both the front and the back.  Nothing special there.

I ordered my set from RightStuf's website, so I got a bonus artbook thrown in.  It's also very nice, but it's about a quarter inch bigger than the DVD case, so I can't put it in there for safe-keeping.  The artbook is only about 12 pages of heavy cardstock, and the pictures go from muted watercolor paintings reminiscent of the manga to production stills from the anime.  The artbook is listed as "while supplies last" so if you want one, order quickly!

For the price I paid, I could have done a lot worse.    This release does not seem cheap in any way.  Kudos to Nozomi / RightStuf for publishing a budget release that doesn't feel like a budget release.  I am looking forward to more overlooked series getting a treatment in this fashion.

Rozen Maiden

Rozen Maiden is a license rescue from Geneon's back catalog.  I never did get my hands on it when it first came out, so I was thrilled when Sentai Filmworks planned to distribute it here in the U.S.  Even better, Sentai released both Rozen Maiden (12 episodes), Rozen Maiden Traumend (12 episodes), and Rozen Maiden Ouverture (2 episodes) all in one set!  The icing on the cake was when I was able to snap up a copy from Right Stuf for less than half off the original price!  I had only ever ordered Angel Beats from Sentai, so I wasn't sure what to expect with this set.  Unfortunately, I am wholly disappointed. 

The series comes in a clamshell case the width of two regular DVD cases.  Not my favorite way to package anime, but it gets the job done.  Upon opening said case, I found all 5 DVDs stacked on top of one another on a single spindle on the right side of the case.  On the left side where inserts (or more discs) usually go, is a piece of Styrofoam.....Huh....  After some grumbling, I decided to take a look at the DVDs themselves.  Let me say that getting the first one off of the spindle required quite the effort.  The DVD came perilously close to breaking because the little nubs on the spindle would not let go.  In the end, I finally got the first one out but with my fingerprints all over the disc.  Then, to my horror, I saw this:

The image is corrupted, as if the device that printed the picture was misaligned or running out of ink or both.  The other discs are fine, but this one is of very poor quality, the kind of thing you expect to see from Chinese bootleg movies.

So not only are the discs impossible to remove from the case, but the discs themselves aren't that great.  I can only imagine my anger would be that much greater had I paid the full MSRP of $50 for this collection.  I don't even know if I will be able to watch this show without breaking the discs when I try to wrestle them out of the case.

If this release is indicative of the quality of Sentai's other repackaging, then I will refrain from purchasing any anime licensed by them, unless it's a must-have series and is on sale. 

Tenchi Muyo - OAV Collection

Recently I came into possession of the Blu-Ray Tenchi Muyo OAV collection.  It has all episodes from the first two OAVs, plus some omake.  The set also includes DVDs too.  The Blu-Ray discs and DVDs each have their own cases, each being the size of a standard DVD case.  Each case has different artwork on both the front and the back, though one of the art pieces looks like it comes from the disastrous Tenchi in Tokyo TV series.  Also, the disc cases have reversible covers with different artwork.  Both cases fit inside a chipboard artbox.  It thrills me to no end that none of the art on either the artbox or the cases is reused, and some of the art I hadn't seen before; at least, it wasn't art featured on the original Geneon DVDs that I bought aeons ago.

But the really cool thing is a mini artbook that fits in between the two disc cases.  It's paperback and a little smaller than a DVD case, but it contains the cast members in various poses; my favorite being the one mimicking the Return of the Jedi theatrical poster.

My husband found his copy of the Star Wars poster, and the Tenchi cast is in the exact same positions as the Star Wars cast.  One day I'd love to have both posters hanging side by side.

As for the quality of the Blu-Ray..... I have a sneaking suspicion that they are merely upscales of the DVDs and not native 1080p.  While the colors are eye-poppingly bright, the lines are not as crisp as one would expect a Blu-Ray to be.  I cannot say for certain, as the box lacks a technical grid, but Funimation has been called on upscale releases before.

All in all, it's a great set, and if you have any interest whatsoever in Tenchi Muyo, you owe it to yourself to get this boxset.

Spice is Nice

My copy of the 7th Spice and Wolf book arrived today, and I was thrilled to see that Yen Press has finally ditched those awful original covers with poorly photoshopped wolf ears on a skinny blond model.  Of course, now this means that the books won't match on the shelf, but that irritates me less than those stupid covers.

I have been meaning to review the packaging of several anime series that I got for Christmas, but I keep putting it off.  I will get to it eventually, though.