Episode 2: Mysterious Bond

Ink: Even after a month of going out, Tsubaki and Urabe have not done anything physical aside from their daily unidirectional saliva-dosing ritual. This episode is all about Tsubaki attempting to break that rut. Since even holding hands seems irrelevant to Urabe, Tsubaki seeks advice by questioning his friend, Ueno, and consequently ends up asking Urabe about her hobbies. In answer, she produces scissors from on her person and demonstrates a unique skill. This does not lead to any physical intimacy. Urabe does, however, end up inadvertently flashing her underwear in front of Tsubaki and later sanctions the appropriateness of said glimpse. In the following days, a spontaneous hug from Tsubaki draws a furious reaction from Urabe, Tsubaki confronts Urabe about not acting like a couple, and Urabe proves her feelings by putting Tsubaki through an intimate test of trust. Tsubaki’s passing performance is rewarded with confirmation of his bond to Urabe via her specially conjured, emotionally conductive drool. Later, Urabe swipes a finger of drool from Tsubaki’s mouth and steals a dream he was withholding from her, revealing spit as a two-way river that conveys emotion and images — exact images, unfortunately for Tsubaki — between both parties.

Phillip: This episode is interesting for me because of the frustration Tsubaki feels at going so slow with Urabe. It reminds me of The Longest Time in that Tsubaki is prepared to “wait” after he passes the aforementioned trust test. That is an interesting scene to view from an outsider's perspective. And wherever this relationship goes, we at least know that Urabe places a lot of trust in him and Tsubaki isn't the type to abuse that trust. The dream Tsubaki “shares” with Urabe also demonstrate the great sorting house that is the mind. Tsubaki can’t articulate his feeling that the relationship seems to be going nowhere, but through the metaphoric connection with the drool Urabe understands Tsubaki better and puts his mind at rest.

Episode 3: Mysterious Test Tube

Phillip: Tsubaki witnesses his friend Ueno kissing Oka, a girl in their class. This triggers a reaction in Tsubaki: he too wants to kiss his girlfriend. I mean, it’s only natural. But Urabe’s reply is to give Tsubaki a test tube with her saliva in it. He goes home, tastes it and then has a dream where he decides after Urabe sneaks a kiss from him that they should wait until they are emotionally connected. Is this Urabe subconsciously trying to show Tsubaki her way of thinking? It would be interesting and would lend credence to the idea that Urabe is the one dictating the pace of the relationship. But while Tsubaki is worrying about kisses and such, Urabe has to decide whether or not she should accept Ogata’s request to go out with him. In this we see what I can only imagine is a reference to periods, with Urabe telling Tsubaki that she wanted to wait a day to answer Ogata since she could have an “abnormal reaction.” If there were no reaction from Ogata, he would not and could not ever connect with Urabe. This goes back to Tsubaki’s dream reference to emotionally connecting. I don’t want to step into an area I know little about, but it seems to state that girls only go out with guys they know are compatible with them (Urabe and Tsubaki), while guys go out with girls they think will be compatible with them (Ogata and Urabe). Weird dreams are nowhere to be seen in this episode, but it’s relatable to see Tsubaki worry about not being “worthy” enough to date Urabe. But in the end, like most blokes who stay true to their girl, he really doesn’t have anything to worry about.

Ink: I’ll wholeheartedly agree about how natural the need to compare one’s own romantic “progress” to that of your close friends. This naturalness is also represented in the bashful way Ueno and Oka keep themselves a secret. Tsubaki and Urabe are keeping the same secret, but there’s a little less of a bashful sense of it than there is one of unknowing tinged with that inescapable sense of shame that comes from outgrowing one’s youth and desiring what one once thought of as disgusting. Isn’t that what this series is all about, trying to make the unfamiliar and disgusting somewhat appealing? With this episode, especially via the titular mysterious test tube and its mixed tidings as first kiss and passive-aggressive admonishment of the same, the series does an excellent job of getting into the bewildered mindset of a newly sexually awakened youth (in this case, one that longs for a simple kiss against time which seems an eternity).

Episode 4: Mysterious Girl Meets Girl

Ink: This episode reminds me of Marie Howe’s, “Practicing.” Oka decides to befriend Urabe via the lure of home cooking (handfed nonetheless) after casually coming upon hers and Tsubaki’s afterschool spit swapping ritual. The pair of females unwittingly (at first) hold an experiment in the privacy of a dark, deserted nurse’s office via a shared bottle of soda. Urabe doesn’t entertain the notion that her own drool can affect another girl, so sharing a drink with Oka doesn’t pose any cause for caution. The consequences, however, reveal a deeper connection between the two girls that manifests in two ways: Urabe develops a taste for Oka’s cooking, mentioning at one point that her “body rhythm changed,” and it is revealed that not only can Urabe’s spit transfer emotions and mental images but physical wounds as well (skinned knee from a track accident and self-inflicted cut on her hand). Though both girls have boyfriends, they’re very interested in the bond itself and experimenting with it. The magic realism, already offered via transfer of emotions, thoughts, and dreams, gets a welcome physical manifestation, but this whole episode seems an excuse to fettishize the drool exchange by exploiting such themes as lesbianism, cutting, and cosplay (gym clothes).

Phillip: There’s an element of voyeurism to Oka observing Tsubaki and Urabe and not saying anything. I’m not saying that it doesn’t contain themes as mentioned above, but for me the most interesting angle is that Oka could blab to the whole school about Urabe and Tsubaki, but she doesn’t. She wants to keep Urabe’s “uniqueness” to herself. Why does she want to talk with Urabe alone? She says it was because she didn’t want to cause trouble for Tsubaki by approaching him but still, she completely focuses on Urabe. And in the nurse’s office, she drinks cider, an alcoholic drink traditionally, which would lower her inhibitions. What the hell is that scene about? Personally, the mix of two girls, booze and secrets makes it more confessional in nature than anything else, in my mind. Urabe needs Oka to be more human as it were, and Oka with her weird voyeur tendencies needs Urabe to be normal. If you can believe that.

Episode 5: Mysterious First Date

Phillip: After seeing Urabe in her swimsuit in school, Tsubaki decides to invite Urabe to the beach because on a unconscious level he wants to see her on his own in a swimsuit. But like most guys in a relationship, he gets more than he bargained for when, after waiting weeks for the chance to see her, they go to the beach with her sporting a tan after spending time with her family (who curiously we don’t meet or see) and him wanting to see what her whole body looks like. Now most other shows would have him wanting a peek at her undressing, but they don’t do that. Instead we see her untying her bikini skirt to reveal her wearing bikini ends and a tan line where her panty scissors should be. Also, I can’t help but feel the shows producers and writers are trying to show Tsubaki is a good kid, because early on in the episode, the guys are practising goals in school with the teacher but deliberately kicking the ball over the hedge so they can peek at the girls practising swimming. Tsubaki is the one to try and check out Urabe but when he sees her through the hedge he slips and doesn’t kick the ball. Is that Tsubaki self-sabotaging his “shot” at Urabe? It stands to reason, in his mind at least, he doesn’t need to do that because his relationship with Urabe is his and his alone. And before you ask, Ueno sneaks a peek at Oka, so it’s not about Tsubaki having a girlfriend that he doesn’t do it.

Ink: The approach used to introduce the poolside peeping at the beginning was impressively subtle for such a brazen show; winks and smiles, no-one in gym being able to properly kick a soccer ball/football, and the earnestly delivered compliments (instead of jeers) for such, all let viewers know something is not what it appears to be. Unlike Phillip, I’d argue that the only thing sabotaging Tsubaki’s shot at Urabe here is his respect for her, which is genuinely nice to see. Tsubaki’s embarrassment at spying Urabe through the trees, when they lock eyes for a moment, throws Tsubaki off, causing him to miss the ball. I’d like to think his botched peep was a combination of that unspoken warning from Urabe and an inner voice that realized the truth behind her glance. Aside from a couple really well-written and timed jokes towards its end, I think the episode falls apart from there. Don’t let Philip mislead you. Although Tsubaki indeed does not try to catch Urabe undressing, he does swim underwater to watch her body very closely ... only to be saved by a horribly flimsy excuse and an overly accommodating Urabe. Or is that a very forward hint?

Mysterious Girlfriend X is now streaming on Crunchyroll.

The series follows the (mis)adventures of Sergeants Miyuki Kobayakawa and Natsumi Tsujimoto who work at the traffic division of the district police station in (fictional) Bokuto, (real) Sumida Ward in Tokyo. Natsumi has just transferred to the station, and after a series of initial mishaps she and Miyuki become partners and fast friends. Add to this the somewhat stoic station Chief (whose real name spells out the Japanese word for chief), grizzled detective Tokuno, ace motorcycle cop Ken Nakajima, worrywart and station snoop Yoriko, mysterious girl Aoi Futaba, crazy traffic violators, newly acquired family members, nutty bombers and costumed, mustachioed superheroes and this is a fluffy show where not a lot actually happens. I think the appeal of the series comes from the fact that in real life, the traffic division of a modern metropolitan police department would never be this exciting. Miyuki is a no-frills straight-lace officer (though she can bend the rules on occasion) who has Natsumi, with her gung-ho attitude, superhuman strength and unlimited appetite, as her foil. They really do complement each other well. But these girls are still crazy as anything, I suppose.  If it’s not Miyuki hitting the nitro boost on her heavily modified Honda Today then it’s Natsumi sticking her feet out of the car to act as an artificial brake. I’m going to talk in a bit about other aspects of the series but I have to stress that the core relationship between the girls defines the series in more ways than just their roles as partners. They go through the usual pulls and draws that friends go through and they survive the worst that life throws at them. It’s nice to see maturity beneath the fluff.

Another interesting thing, for me at least, is to view YUA through the microscope of Japan coming through its economic bubble. The first season came out in 1996-97, the second in 2001 and the latest one was shown in 2007-08, so we see Japan go through prosperity and a waning economy. Bokuto Station isn’t real but we see how technology and society change as crime and punishment morph through a decade. For most of Season One’s run of 52 episodes, the station mostly deals with speeders and drunken idiots, but occasionally things get sophisticated when a high-speed train chase has Natsumi leaping from one train to another, when Natsumi ends up in Edo-era Japan after getting a bump on the noggin, or when three cops use police-marked cars and motorbikes to injure members of the public while letting Bokuto station take the heat. Tonally speaking, Fujishima’s manga is slightly different from Junji Nishimura and Kazuhiro Furuhashi’s vision for the anime. The manga has action elements but has more slapstick parts to it. So with this many episodes and only seven volumes of the manga ever written, the show's producers have done an excellent job salvaging a show out of a limited amount of material.

The most interesting aspect of this series is the development of the characters and their relationships. From the outset, it’s blatantly obvious that Nakajima, nicknamed the "White Hawk of Bokuto" because of his success chasing down criminals, likes Miyuki, but the big dolt is so boneheaded and Miyuki is so timid that theirs is a slow-burning relationship. However, whenever one is in danger, the other leaps in action to help or avenge them. It’s pretty much a done deal, barring something major, that they’ll end up together.

Natsumi, on the other hand, has a more straightforward relationship with special lieutenant Shōji Tokairin. Tokairin and Natsumi take forever to get together with him only being introduced in the 34th episode of the season. Theirs is a more organic relationship with their abnormal strength, massive appetites, and tendency to throw themselves into danger. I’m happy to spoil things for you and say that as of the second season, they are still together despite the fact that both of them are constantly being reassigned to different places. They have fun, but they are, just like Nakajima and Miyuki, there for each other.

The third character I mentioned who goes through a change, character-wise, is Aoi. Aoi, who joins the station after the series starts, is anatomically a man but who acts, dresses and feels like a woman. Initially the girls at the station want Aoi to get changed in the men’s locker room, something Aoi doesn’t want to do, but over time as she reveals more of her personality they happily accept her as one of the girls. Aoi has a question hanging over her as to whether she likes guys or girls and the station engages in gossip as to the answer. But we get a slight answer in one episode where Aoi has to give a reply to an admirer. It’s not a conclusive answer but it’s interesting that the show’s producers run as much with Aoi’s backstory as they do.

Speaking in animation terms, the first four episodes in the season are actually OVAs so the quality is quite high. Going into the double digits on the episode count, the style and quality do fluctuate somewhat, as if there were another studio handling the animation on some weeks, but it's nothing terribly egregious. One interesting note: the dub for this series is quite good and AnimEigo did an amazing job matching their English VAs to the Japanese cast. I was very impressed.

This is the first title in the Trap Door column that is most assuredly out of print. AnimEigo announced late last year that at the end of January 2012, YUA would go out of print. At the moment, it’s relatively easy to buy copies from Amazon, Rightstuf, and AnimEigo themselves but I had difficulty in obtaining a copy of volume 11 even on eBay (I got it in the end). The reason I’m saying this is that You’re Under Arrest: Season One is a series worth investigating and possibly saving from the Trap Door. It’s fluff, sure, but at least it’s competent and a curious window into the culture in Japan in the mid 1990s.

Last thing: I’ve already selected my next title for the column, but I would like your help selecting the one after that. Is there a title that you think should not escape the trap door and is better left forgotten? Email me at phillipo [AT] anigamers.com or send me a tweet to @eeeperschoice with your suggestions. Only rules are that it can’t be too expensive to acquire and it had to be in print and licensed in North America or the UK at some point.

Unsurprisingly, F/Z Part II episode 1 is not perfect, but it's as direct a follow-up as one could have hoped for. As if the Winter season never happened, viewers are dropped right back where Part I teasingly ended on. This episode's glorious aerial combat sequence alone features more spectacle than any scene in Part I. ufotable continue to raise the standards of TV anime with stunning lighting and great camerawork in each scene, making most shows this season look impoverished.

If the first episode is anything to go by, Part II aims to please a restless crowd disappointed by the non-existent body count of Part I. Time is running short, both in the F/Z universe and in the show’s episode count, leaving little excuse for characters to sit around and talk for episodes at a time. At the cost of all the characterization and philosophy from Gen Urobuchi’s original F/Z light novel, the story will at least begin to move now, if only out of simple necessity. I’m not convinced that F/Z will be my most anticipated weekly release, especially as it's the sole Crunchyroll delaycast among the six other shows I’m watching, but there are still 12 more opportunities to make the wait worth it.

 — David

Dusk Maiden of Amnesia

Studio: Silver Link
Director: Shin Ounuma
Now Streaming on Crunchyroll

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia (Dusk Maiden of Amnesia) centers on activities of the paranormal investigations club at Seikyoy Private Academy. Rumors about paranormal activity haunt this school, and the club members — Kanoe, Niiya, Kanoe, and Okonogi — task themselves with investigating the more substantial reports they receive. The twist is that not all of the club’s members are, shall we say, on the class attendance list.

I was wary of this show based on its premise, which sounded like something akin to a mash-up of Sket Dance, Ghost Hunt, and Another. To my surprise, however, the humorous first moments of the show defused my standoffishness. The first half introduces Okonogi, who is so obsessed with trying to sort out which mysteries to investigate that she remains completely oblivious to the attention-seeking antics of a local poltergeist. This ghost turns out to be the club’s omnipresent president, who can be seen by all the members except Okonogi and is responsible for at least some of the recent paranormal events reported by students.

Playful humor is the key here. But as much as the first 10 minutes are strikingly tongue-in-cheek, the rest of the show is 98% mired in the usual adolescent anxiety yuks. The remaining 2% is comprised of scenes where the club president does things just to make Okonogi freak out (which alone are charming and make the first episode worth the view). Not what I was expecting, and pleasantly so, this show has at least hooked me in for a few more episodes to see where it wants to go and how it’s going to take its audience there.

— Ink

Concert

Ito's concert was scheduled on Friday just before Haruko Momoi's concert. I was under the impression that Ito would headline, considering the broader appeal of her music, but it's no use questioning the convention's decision now. I placed all of my hopes of being able to attend in my press badge after seeing the city block-length line for the show, and luckily I ended up being led in first to one of the best front row seats in the auditorium. This hour alone was enough reason to make the trip to Boston, and I did not come out disappointed in the slightest. Even without her full backing band, Ito came out and commanded the stage on her own the moment "Hacking to the Gate" dropped. The Steins;Gate anime opening earned her the biggest reaction from the crowd.  No one builds a career on the success of a single song, however, so the momentum from this one would have to pull Ito through the rest of her set list. I half-expected her to simply run through all of her S;G songs, but that was actually the only one she sang that night.

Half the concert was a learning experience, since I'm mostly unfamiliar with Nitro+'s collection of untranslated games. The accompanying video on the screen behind her set the tone for each song of the performance and demonstrated the wide selection of Nitro+ games. Ito claimed (in charmingly prepared English) that she sings lots of sad songs, yet the concert was anything but a complete downer. She kept up the pace after her energetic opener with "Kinkakuji" from Axanael. Ito did get around to playing a truly sad song during her acoustic section for "Shoes of Glass" from Saya no Uta, one of the few Nitro+ games with a fan translation available. Saya no Uta was my introduction to both Ito Kanako and Nitro+, so arriving in Boston years later and hearing her solo guitar performance of "Shoes of Glass" was the highlight of the entire con for me.

Ito played a few more songs, including "STILL" from Boys Love visual novel Togainu no Chi, and debuted "Lost Control", the opening song for the upcoming Guilty Crown visual novel. She closed the concert with an acoustic rendition of an original song titled "Niji ga deru made," from her latest album, spark! After sweetly asking the audience if she could play one of her own songs, Ito revealed that she wrote the song for everyone affected by last year's natural disaster in Japan. Despite making her name singing for eroge, Ito has a true passion for music regardless of the source. Admittedly, Ito brightens up a bit more when playing her own music. In fact, she was very excited when I had her sign a copy of spark! during the autograph session the day after the concert. Ito still had a lot of spirit left over at the end of her set, but unfortunately she was only booked for a single, all-too-short hour.

Guest Panel

Ito's Q&A panel the day after the concert was one of the most loosely presented guest panels I've attended. The audience was simply given the microphone from the start. There weren't many of us in the room beyond perhaps 80 Ito fans, so we kept a steady flow of questions coming in. I would argue close to half the questions were worth asking and the rest were either lost in translation or just not all that intelligent. Questions about her feelings on Nitro+'s eroge titles were met with a stiffness that she must have rehearsed over the last decade. It's understandable, since no one should really expect someone as joyful as Ito to play visual novels or watch late-night anime, but it didn't stop people from asking on the off-chance she would reveal a hidden otaku side. To Ito's credit, she tried to give a good answer, though it couldn't carry through her giggles and embarassment about blanking on the catalog of Nitro+ games. A man rushed in with the actual Nitro+ catalog for Ito and her translator. We soon found out that this was the president of Nitro+, Takaki Digitarou Kosaka, which naturally caused a stir among the crowd of Nitro+ fans.

It says a lot about us that we mostly kept our focus on Ito for the rest of the Q&A after receiving that information. Ito's responses lacked the kind of depth to really satiate me, considering the distance we've both travelled to arrive at the convention, but my expectations might be better suited towards a surly animation industry veteran rather than a female vocalist at the height of her career. Ito gave her backstory: how she sang from a young age, playing in a cover band before being introduced to Nitro+ through a musician friend working there. Most if not all of her Nitro+ repertoire is written by someone else during the game's development, which explains why the lyrics are often rife with spoilers.

I didn't know Ito could play the guitar before the concert, so when I asked her about the unique live arrangement of "Shoes of Glass," she explained that some songs are rearranged for her to play alone. When I followed up with a question about about her animated gestures and dancing during her performances, she grew mildly flustered, telling everyone that she doesn't think about anything when she is on stage. Ito thinks she is a "weird person" and hopes to stop moving around so much when she performs. She also recognized the challenge of having most of her material in games unreleased in America, so she was impressed by the reaction from the concert. She has performed before in arena-sized concerts but prefers smaller venues in order to be closer to the fans. Because of her experience with covers of American songs, she developed a clear accent in English, though singing properly in French was purely an excercise in memorization. Ito also commented on how Japanese artists take inspiration mostly from Western music, but she takes inspiration from late '80s Japanese pop band Rebecca, particularly career of the band's early lead singer Nokko.

The most interesting response came from a question about Robotics;Notes, 5pb/Nitro+'s next visual novel. Ito couldn't confirm directly if she would be involved in the music for the game, but her comically mumbled response is as good a confirmation as any. At the end of the panel, Ito slipped out through the side with her entourage waving goodbye while the crowd was distracted with a full preview of the new opening for the S;G Playstation 3 port. The president of Nitro+, who had been sitting at the opposite side of the exit, was not quite as skillful in evading the swarm of fans requesting autographs and photos. He took the attention in stride and didn't seem bothered at the impromptu interaction with fans.

While not as packed with Japanese industry guests as any of the conventions on the West Coast, Anime Boston came through solely with the inclusion of Ito Kanako. Even without that level of name recognition required of many Japanese musical guests to reach these shores, Ito is the most interesting guest I've seen. Now that a VN theme performer has reached top-billing at an American anime convention, it will be very interesting to see Nitro+'s next move in the West. If Anime Boston's next guest can match the bar set by Ito, I will be sure to return next year.

Click here for more coverage of Anime Boston 2012.

How to describe Space Brothers? How’s this: I never bothered with the thematically similar Moonlight Mile, so when Space Brothers was announced, I wasn’t too interested. But, much to my surprise, it’s a pretty good series. Hibito is the kind of person I’d like to be: determined, energetic and fun. However, Mutta is the person I’ll probably end up being: down on his luck, unmotivated, and a killjoy. But there’s hope for Mutta. Being fired from his job means that his promise that he and Hibito made to become astronauts has suddenly become a real goal for him to strive towards, however impossible the task is. This first episode has the beginnings of a good story of the greatest of adventures happening to the most ordinary of blokes, and the deadpan humor nicely complements the serious bits. The animation isn’t particularly impressive, but at least it’s competent. I like the leads and I’m looking forward to watching them grow over the course of the series.

Hey I just realized how to describe the series! Moonlight Mile is an anime set in space for people who liked Apollo 13 as kids. Space Brothers is an anime set in space for people who liked SpaceCamp as kids. So there!

— Phillip

Mysterious Girlfriend X

Studio: Hoods Entertainment
Director: Ayumu Watanabe
Now Streaming on Crunchyroll

(EDITOR'S NOTE: That's not a typo. Watanabe and Hoods Entertainment are producing both Space Brothers AND Mysterious Girlfriend X.)

You knew we were going to have to talk about this show eventually. Akira Tsubaki is a typical teenager. He meets a weird girl, Mikoto Urabe, who transfers to his school. One day he finds her asleep at the end of school classes at her desk. After she leaves, he sticks his finger into the pile of drool she left behind on her desk and puts it in his mouth. He gets sick afterwards and she visits him at home to explain that he’s suffering from love-sickness and only her drool will cure him. So he and she become boyfriend and girlfriend.

There, I said it.

Mysterious Girlfriend X is a weird series, from its circus organ score to the insane nature of Akira and Mikoto’s relationship. I mean, she tells him that a little voice told her he would be her first sex partner! There’s a glacial pace to the first episode. Nothing happens with any kind of speed (other than the fundamental ways that Akira’s life changes once Mikoto comes into it). Akira's dream sequences are well animated and they are excellent next to the relative normality to his real life. Plus the character designs are quirky. Unlike some reviews that bash the fanbase for liking something like this, I prefer to simply marvel that something like this exists. We’re usually treated to Japanese school kids having nice, safe relationships, and this is definitely different. It’s both repellent and fascinating and I’m compelled in a strange way to see how this all falls into place. Just don’t ask me to talk about it in anything but relative terms.

— Phillip

Kids on the Slope

Studio: Tezuka Productions, Mappa
Director: Shinichiro Watanabe
Now Streaming on Crunchyroll

In 1998, director Shinichiro Watanabe created one of anime's enduring classics, the jazz-infused space western series Cowboy Bebop, and in 2004 he came back for more genre-bending antics with Samurai Champloo, a hip-hop samurai adventure. Now Watanabe returns to the director's chair for yet another musical number, but this time it's a little different. Kids on the Slope (Sakamichi no Apollon), based on a josei (women's) manga by Yuuki Kodama, isn't exactly a slice-of-life to the tune of jazz music — it's a slice-of-life about jazz music.

Kaoru has been moving from school to school for his whole life, and after years of meeting new people and getting rejected by local cliques, he's developed an acute case of what appears to be social anxiety. Despite a less-than-warm welcome from his classmates, however, within the first few hours of school Kaoru finds himself in the company of not only the pretty class representative Ritsuko, but the intimidating delinquent Sentaro. Kaoru plays classical piano and Sentaro plays jazz drums, so while their decidedly Boys Love-friendly personalities clash left and right, they're clearly destined to play some sweet jazz music together, thanks in part to some prodding from Ritsuko.

Watanabe's deft touch is already on full display in Kids on the Slope, with excellent pacing, beautiful, slightly shaky camera work, and some expertly placed musical cues. Nobuteru Yuki's character designs retain their angular charm without his conspicious noses, and the animators at Tezuka Productions make great use of soft, watercolor-esque shading to give the show a distinct painterly quality. Realistic, heartwarming, and funny (in an "awww, awkward teenagers" sort of way), Kids on the Slope should be at the top of your list of must-watch shows this season.

— Evan

FUNimation's Lupin III license comes on the heels of widespread fan disappointment over its unlicensed status. Lupin III is a franchise with a lot of name recognition, but fans worried that the new series' racy content could scare away North American distributors. I'm really happy to see the series, which features character designs by Redline director Takeshi Koike, get official English distribution, in part because our site policies don't let us write about it until it gets licensed. And boy oh boy, are we excited to write about it!

Thanks to Scott Green of AICN Anime for his timely tweets about the announcements, as both David and I were not at the FUNimation panel when the announcements were made.

Click here for more coverage of Anime Boston 2012.

They also reassured fans that the dub for the Persona 4 anime would maintain the English actors from the game.

As for simulcasting, Sentai also picked up Shinichiro Watanabe's Kids on the Slope (Sakamichi no Apollon) and the romantic comedy Mysterious Girlfriend X (Nazo no Kanojo). Kids on the Slope's first episode premieres on April 12. Mysterious Girlfriend X premieres on April 8.

In the question and answer session, they also mentioned that High School of the Dead is their highest selling title, since "nothing beats boobs and zombies."

Click here for more coverage of Anime Boston 2012.

Paradise Kiss follows a teenage girl's interest in the world of fashion, while Limit focuses on high school bullying. The first volume of both titles will hit stores as paperbacks in September 2012. Paradise Kiss volume 1 will cost $16.95 and Limit's first book will cost $10.95.

I'm really happy to see Vertical branching out to more shoujo and josei manga, though neither of the new titles is anything I'm particularly excited for. Their classic and seinen catalog is one of the best in the industry, but they have always been very male-centric. It'll be really interesting to see their keen sense of quality and style turned toward a whole different demographic of fans. Hopefully they'll provide a good catalyst for me to finally get into more modern shoujo manga!

Click here for more coverage of Anime Boston 2012.

Friday

• Analyzing Anime 101 (10am, Panel 202)
• I am woman! The Evolution of Female Characters in Anime (10am, Panel 208)
• The Legend of Zelda or: How I Learned to Tolerate OOT's Fandom (10am, Panel A)
• Building Mecha Model Kits: A Total Beginner's Guide (11:45am, Panel 208)
• Romance Anime: Affecting the hearts of us all (2pm, Panel 306)
• Vertical 2012 (5pm, Panel 202)
• The Meiji Era: A Japanese Industrial Revolution (6:45pm, Panel 107)
• LGBT Manga and Anime (9pm, Panel 309)
• Introduction to Japanese Fairy Tales (9:30pm, Panel 206)
• Unusual Manga Genres (18+, 10:30pm, Panel 202)
• Totally Subversive Toons (18+, 11:15pm, Panel 208)

Saturday

• Anime Happiness (10am, Panel 206)
• Sentai Filmworks (2:30pm, Panel A)
• FUNimation Industry Panel (4pm, Panel A)
• Tokusatsu: Heroes and Monsters of Japanese Television (6pm, Panel A)
• Seinen Up: Manly Manga...for Manly Men and the Manga-Reading Women that Love Them (6:45pm, Panel 306)
• Anime Hell (9:30pm, Panel 306)

Sunday

• Judaism and Anime (10am, Panel 309)
• We Con, Therefore We Are: A Critical Look at the Modern Congoer (12:45pm, Panel 206)
• Anime Forever! Movie Screening (1:30pm, Panel 302/304)*

* I'd like to point out this event in particular. Stephen is a friend of mine who has been diligently putting together this documentary for years now, and I'm really excited to see it completed. I saw a number of versions of the film as Stephen worked on it, and it's a really honest, heartfelt portrait of the modern American anime fan. If you can get to this event, please do!

While the art’s origins are debatable, “suminagashi” is the oldest known form of paper marbling — decorating paper by laying it atop a shallow bed of water laced with inks and can be traced as far back as 12th century Japan.  As explained to me by the aforementioned panelist, the process of letting paper absorb the patterns of ink was used by monks to help extend the lifetime of handwritten scrolls so they would not need to be as frequently copied due to threat of deterioration.  Reading up more on the matter, suminagashi emerged as an art form that involved gently blowing, fanning, or using a single human hair on the ink to create intricate patterns and spread worldwide in myriad fashion and form.

Most of the people at the workshop did not seem to be taking as much care with their projects (of course this was only an hour workshop). Instead, they randomly added ink spots here and there in their shallow pans of water and used a small paintbrush to make large strokes and patterns like so much modern art. Even though this produced naught but colorful Rorschach tests and tie-dyed shirts for paper dolls, the results were always quite fetching. Watching the process of con-goers-turned-painters trying to bring their own visions of patterns to life made me, after reading about the skills employed in eras gone by, nostalgic for the image of the lone artisan matching wits against the will of water, the ink's surface tension, and his or her own skilled hand.

Suminagashi seems an enviable art of patience and skill equally open to abstract painter and hobbyist. If you'd like to try your own hand at suminagashi, there's a detailed how-to here, and of course the Wikipedia page has tons more info than I've relayed here. Just wanted to wet your appetite!

If you're heading to the con for the weekend, make sure to attend "Satoshi Kon Tribute: Truth from Fiction" (Workshop 2) on Saturday at 11 AM and "Fandom & Criticism: The Art of Active Viewing" (Panel 4) on Saturday at noon. Yep, they're back to back — two straight hours of more IN YOUR FACE ANI-GAMERS ACTION than ever before. Oh, and Hisui from the Reverse Thieves will be joining Ink and me for Fandom & Criticism. If you need to brush up on your discussion points, why not listen to Ani-Gamers Podcast #032, which is a recording of last year's panel?

Our buddy DJ Ranma S from Anime Jam Session will also be running "Anime Incorrect," an 18+ panel based loosely on Bill Maher's late night show "Politically Incorrect" that will bring together four or five different members of the anime community — including yours truly and the aforementioned Mr. VonSchilling — to talk about topics of his choosing. Sounds fun to me! That's 10 PM Friday night, so you'll have to skip out on the second half of the must-see 18+ Anime Dating Game.

That's about it. We don't have our schedules prepared yet, but we might add them to this post later. Before then, however, feel free to let us know what you want us to cover in the comments section! Any questions you want us to ask the guests or staff?

The video game room (an area I usually neglect due to all my press work) was massive, leading to amusing wide spaces between the different play areas (see this post's image). I managed to sneak in a game of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, as I've never gotten a chance to play it, though I got handily beaten by a guy who had just started playing today!

Then it was off to Sam Kusek, Ken Haley, and Mike Ferreira's "From East to West: the Superheroes of Japan & America." Like Sam's previous panel ("Super-Flat"), it was very fast-paced, to-the-point, and well researched, and the three hosts bounced off each other well. Plus, I learned a lot about the history and influences of Japanese tokusatsu (special effects) shows, as well as some classic American comics like Superman and Captain America, all of which are topics I am woefully uneducated on.

Afterward I checked out the Dealer's Room again, this time with Sam and his buddies. After vacillating over the purchase of some old-school imported Japanese magazines at the Comicopia booth, I ended up buying a $2 Japanese children's book "Heidi, Girl of the Alps," featuring anime-style art but apparently having nothing to do with the Isao Takahata anime TV series of the same name. Naturally, this was from the same dealer (Mugen Toys) who sold me the Kosaku Shima books the day before! Then Sam, his friends, and I grabbed some great Asian food at a nearby Teriyaki restaurant, and I headed back to the hotel to catch our bus back to RPI.

My experience at Anime Boston was honestly one of the better ones I've ever had at a con, despite a few frustrating setbacks along the way. The wide range of panels and panelists opened up some great avenues of discussion, and I was able to cram in a wide breadth of events (panels and otherwise) in my time at the con. I'll write more about my specific high and low points in my upcoming con report, but let's just say that my long-awaited reunion with the city of Boston and its resident anime con was a very positive one.

Click here for more of our Anime Boston 2011 coverage

I stopped in for a bit at Anime World Order's Gerald and Clarissa's "Tezuka 101," which was an appropriately introductory panel that followed much of the information provided in Helen McCarthy's excellent The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga. There wasn't really anything for an amateur Tezuka scholar like myself to learn, but it was quite in-depth for people new to the artist.

"It's a Rumic World," a presumably informative panel about Rumiko Takahashi, was basically just a fan-gushing session, not too appropriate for people trying to learn about the prolific manga artist. Soon after, I checked out "The State of the Industry," which featured ONLY Adam and Rojas from FUNimation. In fact, the Anime Boston-designated moderator never showed up, so Gia Manry (of Anime News Network) served as moderator for what ended up being a pregame FUNimation panel, albeit with more industry insight and less blatant marketing. (I recorded the whole thing, and may post it up.)

One of the highlights of my day was "Remembering Satoshi Kon," Daryl Surat's panel about the late director, which I served as co-panelist on. We packed the room, and after some tripping over each other's feet, we developed a pretty good rapport.

Sam Kusek and Eric Shorey ran a fantastic panel called "'What is Super-Flat': Where Anime fits in Post-Modern Culture," which was a very academic look at post-modernism with nods to Japanese artists like Murakami and anime like Paranoia Agent. I'm considering doing a write-up of the panel, as it brought up a lot of interesting ideas.

Gerald Rathkolb's "The Sane Fan's Guide to Mecha Anime" was a pretty thorough yet basic introduction to mecha, though he occasionally lapsed into more in-depth stuff before reeling it back. Proving his point that mecha fans can be totally obnoxious, some guys in Legend of the Galactic Heroes costumes ran into the room and screamed "Sig Zeon!" (a reference to original Gundam).

After grabbing a quick dinner, I headed over to the absurd clipshow that is Anime Hell, hosted by Mike Toole, Daryl Surat, and Mike Horne. It featured a lot of Daryl's clips from his Genericon presentation of "The Panel of Doom," so I had already seen a lot of it, and Daryl's laptop had a bunch of technical problems, but it was still a hilarious night.

And during a quick trip to the dealer's room, I managed to find some Kodansha Bilingual Comics Editions of volumes 1, 2, and 3 of business manga Section Chief Kosaku Shima, which I bought for $2 each at the Mugen Toys booth! Quite a find, apparently, though I didn't realize just how rare they were when I bought them.

Click here for more of our Anime Boston 2011 coverage

"Fanthropologies," a panel run by the indomitable Charles Dunbar and featuring Alex Leavitt and Jennifer Fu as guests, was ostensibly about the study of fandom, both in terms of anime and other media, but it quickly turned into a much more broad discussion about copyright and fan ethics. I'm considering writing a full post on it, as a lot of the ideas that they brought up were really very enlightening.

Right after that, I had to rush to my Greg Ayres interview, only to be held up by a string of staff confusions and rescheduling that resulted in at least 45 minutes of idle time. Nevertheless, once the valiant Press Relations guy Jamison got Greg into the room with me, we had a great interview, talking over his views on the current state of fansubs and the industry.

After a trip to the oddly empty Dealer's Room with Anime World Order's Daryl Surat, I headed to Experts of Fan Controversy, which looked like it was going to be a fiery debate between some of the smartest minds in the industry, moderated by panelist extraordinaire Alex Leavitt. Instead it ended up being a totally respectful, insightful discussion between the panelists (which included AnimeOnDVD's Chris Beveridge, Vertical's Ed Chavez, MIT's Jennifer Fuu, Anime World Order's Clarissa Graffeo, and Tezuka In English's Ada Palmer), punctuated by some funny moments and Alex's wacky scoring system. I recorded the panel in its entirety, so you might hear that in podcast form very soon.

Then... not much, con-wise. We had a sort of "State of the Manga Industry" dinner that ended up being more of an informal night at a local Indian restaurant, and I was denied entry (again) to Daryl's "Anime's Craziest Deaths" panel since it was already jam-packed. (I'll save my full-length misgivings about this situation for the con report.)

Finally, I ended up just bouncing around to a couple of video rooms, settling on Golgo 13 TV, where I met two teenage girls who were loving the show. I recommended they check out the 1983 movie, the OAV, and the manga (and pointed out that most of them are available in the Dealer's Room at the con). It was one of the stand-out moments of my day — they seemed so excited, filled with the kind of exploratory attitude that we need more of as a fandom. Plus, who would've thought that teenage girls would be enjoying Golgo 13 that much? The show is for Japanese salarymen!

Click here for more of our Anime Boston 2011 coverage

EDIT 1: Modified my list a little after realizing that I missed a few panels.

	: "Hmm, I want to watch both Eden of the East and Baccano! - what to do?"
	: "Hey, Hey Elliot!"
	: "What's that?"
	: "Hey there!"
	: "What the?"
	: "Hey there, Elliot, we think you should watch Baccano!. That would be for the best."
	: "Why?"
	: "Well, look how happy we are! Don't you want to find out why we are happy, and be happy yourself?"
	: "I guess..."
	: "Do it!"
	: "Agh! Okay, okay."
	: "Excellent....."

It went something like that. What I present here is more something of a trip report than a full review.

Now onto the show itself. Having watched the main 13 episode series, I have come to regard Baccano! as a series of victories and small wonders, furnishing the viewer with a massively entertaining show that manages to satisfy without outstaying its welcome or stretching too far.

I will admit that until sitting down and watching it I have avoided all discussion or reviews of Baccano! (Including the Ani-Gamers review) as whenever someone has mentioned the show they have taken pains to point out that almost anything is a spoiler when it comes to the shows twisting plotline. I even avoided reading the synopsis on the back of the DVD set before watching. (I'm glad I didn't—whoever wrote the one on the Manga UK DVD set appears to have been drunk.)

To outline the show: set primarily in the early 1930s, Baccano! follows the exploits of a wide range of characters in both Manhattan and the transcontinental express train "The Flying Pussyfoot" as they all go about their personal business. The narrative jumps between different time periods and different characters with such frequency that the show's creators saw fit to make much of the first episode a primer for what is to follow. For most of this episode, Norio Wakamoto (with full R-rolling in effect) and his assistant prepare the viewer by discussing in a broad sense the different time periods, settings and characters that you are going to spend the following 12 episodes with, as well as showing the viewer some juicy snippets of what is to come.

This initially flummoxing first episode nearly turned me off of the show. It felt like a warning, telling me "Hey, if you aren't down with whatâs going on now maybe you should just give up and put this back on your shelf. Oh, here is a quick cut of a young boy getting shot in the head. Bet you're interested now, eh?" Then, at the end of the episode something awesome happens (that I won't spoil) and I was hooked.

To cut to the chase, the plotting works marvelously. The highest praise I can lavish on Baccano! is that even with all the switching of character, time period and setting, the entire plotline comes together into a coherent whole that is massively satisfying, like watching a good detective story. The timing and placement of character and time zone transitions feels meticulously thought out and perfectly judged to maintain viewer interest without causing confusion or irritation. When transitioning between different time periods the show will throw up a black static image with the year that the following events take place in - the genius of these cuts are that they act as welcome breathing spaces in the action, heightening tension. The presentation reminds me an awful lot of the Guy Ritchie film Snatch (2000), which also uses multiple viewpoints to weave together a coherent and thrilling tale. I was worried towards the end that Baccano! would contract a fatal case of "Dumb Anime Ending" syndrome, but I was proven completely and wonderfully wrong. The ending was not bombastic or laden with sudden twists, but was immensely satisfying and ties the disparate plotlines up wonderfully.

The characters themselves also do a lot of the lifting when it comes to drawing you into the story, in part because there are so damn many of them but also because they are genuinely interesting. One particular character is called Jacuzzi Splot, and when I first saw him, i hated his guts. He had a dumb tattoo, a whiny voice, and a melancholy outlook on life. His one redeeming feature was that listening to Japanese voice actors try and pronounce "Jacuzzi" was endlessly amusing. But after a few appearances I began to root for the guy as his development on screen was so engaging and interesting to watch. This happens a lot with the characters â you might not like them, but you come to understand them through their actions. I can honestly say that Baccano! is one of the few shows that have had me rooting for a mass murderer. Multiple mass murderers, in fact.

Not only are the characters interesting because of their actions, but they also look great. Everyone is stylishly drawn and with a great deal of care, something that really helps out not only in learning names but also in deciphering expressions and intentions of the cast and helping you connect with them. This ability to empathize with the characters really pulls you in, and I feel is best outlined by two of its best characters, Isaac and Miria. I love these two, so very much. Isaac and Miria are a pair of loud, boisterous, idiotic and immensely lucky thieves and the fact that they feel like believable characters while acting in such an absurd manner for their entire time on screen is a credit to the series. They are used just the right amount â too little and they would become a throwaway gimmick, too much and they would take over the show and ruin the magic.

I mentioned that the characters were stylish before. In fact the whole series is damn stylish. Every character, backdrop and action has style in spades. What makes this work is that the style is completely cohesive and well thought out to work as a single whole experience: no sudden SHAFT-style insanity, no winks at the camera, no snickering to itself behind the stage curtains. Every element presented on screen has a purpose and it was put there to contribute directly towards viewer enjoyment, drawing you into a coherent world that has a tangible feeling of authenticity to it.

To sum up my thoughts on Baccano!, after the end of the 13th episode in my third non-stop viewing session, I stood up to retrieve the DVD from the disc tray and thought to myself: "Wow. That was really enjoyable. I wish more things were made this well." I only regret I waited until I had to be pushed by Santa to actually sit down and watch it!

[Highly Recommended]

This review is based on the Manga UK DVD box set, purchased by the reviewer.

In the future, human society has been forced underground by environmental destruction. Archeologists have now dedicated themselves to archiving and researching photos and other documentation from the surfacebound past. Photographs of a green, living earth captivate the protagonist of the story, while everyone else is questioning the necessity of the historical discovery and feel as if it is better if humanity doesn't know what it was once like. Despite his female friend encouraging him to abandon his work, the protagonist discovers an old music video that compels him to seek the truth about the human race's previous life.

My issues with the plot are largely irrelevant since the entire OAV is a technical demonstration, but as a vessel for displaying Yoshiura and the studio's animation talent it succeeds quite well. The animation is gorgeously detailed with intriguing cinematography. The aesthetic is built around, well, technology looking cool, and as such it features lots of detailed shots of wires, pulsing light towers, computer desktop screens, and related. Naturally, it is impossible not to make the obvious Serial Experiments Lain (1998) comparison with its technical, cyber-cool focus. Interesting camera angles and panning may serve as animation shortcuts at times, but are effective stylistic choices at others. Aside from the amateurish character designs, Pale Cocoon is a strong demonstration of atmospheric, technological animation.

It is easy to compare it to Makoto Shinkai's Voices of a Distant Star (2002), as both are these are short works that showcase the director's budding talent. However, since Pale Cocoon is a studio production, it features better quality animation that Shinkai's home made effort, but there is a similar spirit between the two. In fact, both manage to pull off a "Macross" by using cheesy pop music to reinforce a climactic scene. Voices of a Distant Star, however, executes a very effective character drama built around strong SF themes, whereas Pale Cocoon's plot comes off as mere structure to show off pretty graphics.

If not for the Secret Santa recommendation, I would not have even bothered to review Pale Cocoon. I see it as a piece of experimental filming, used as practice for the director's "real" debut. Reviewing it seems equal to browsing through an accomplished director's early archives and giving criticism on their practice projects. I can understand commenting on it when it was first released, but now it should be left alone and treated only as historical documentation. Where Pale Cocoon succeeds is in whetting the appetite for future projects from the director.

Despite its flaws, Pale Cocoon has attracted a surprising amount of enthusiastic viewers. With its short length and ease of access through Crunchyroll streaming, it requires no significant commitment. I believe that it also represents anime fandom's interest in good science fiction anime, and people watch it in hopes of filling a void. Thankfully, Yoshiura went on to release Time of Eve (2008) that uses even better animation with similar elements and overall vibe. Time of Eve is a strong science fiction series that has the appeal that Pale Cocoon only hints at. I would recommend skipping out on Pale Cocoon, and diving straight into Time of Eve. Pale Cocoon could then viewed as a piece of historical interest to fans interested in the director's developing ideas.

[Bad]

This review is based on the Crunchyroll stream of the series, provided by Studio Rikka.

The show begins in a vaguely steampunk era in which giant airships have become the primary tool of war. Our heroes are two young pilots who make their living as couriers on the wings of their small fighter plane-esque craft called a "vanship." Claus Valca is a quiet, kindly pilot with a penchant for finishing everything he starts, while Lavie is his hot-headed, impetuous, and intelligent navigator. As the guy piloting the vanship, Claus is naturally the hero GONZO chooses to focus on, while Lavie serves simultaneously as his childhood friend, romantic interest, and moral compass.

These two couriers are living a simple life in the shadows of their legendary fathers (couriers who flew together until their untimely deaths) when they find themselves tasked with transporting a young girl named Alvis to the "Kill 'Em All" Silvana, a notorious mercenary airship thought to suck the souls out of anyone who comes aboard. After narrowly escaping attacks from the Guild, a shadowy organization that exerts subtle control over all the world's militaries and governments, the two vanship operators end up joining the Silvana's not-so-scary crew in a mysterious mission to strike the very heart of the Guild.

On paper, Last Exile seems like an exhilarating modern military tale, set in the skies of a unique world bound by strange rules — and it almost is, too. Unfortunately, GONZO's execution is painfully uneven, to the point that I often wondered if the writers knew where they were going when they created the original concept. The story is roughly split into three acts: 1) introduction of major cast and factions, 2) the Silvana wanders around doing things and battling some people, and 3) final confrontation with the Guild. As you might be able to guess, the second act features no central narrative or even an attempt at a formula (which would have made it much easier to follow). Instead the characters just meet a few unrelated challenges and overcome them, all the while developing ever so slightly as both individual characters and as a team.

Unfortunately, that individual development often leads to dead ends, as with two of the show's seemingly important romantic threads that simply die out before the introduction of the third act. The overall development of the cast, however, is one of the Last Exile's defining characteristics. The sense of cohesion between the Silvana's crew might not be apparent at first, but the motley crew of pilots, mechanics, and bridge personnel really start to feel like one big team by the end of the series. The most apt comparison that comes to my mind is original Gundam (1979), though Last Exile certainly doesn't pull it off quite that well.

Despite the compelling sense of overall camaraderie, some of the individual characters can get truly grating after 26 episodes. Let's start with Claus: his personality is so meek and boring that he is effectively the same as any of the cookie-cutter protagonists in harem anime. Underscoring this unfortunate truth is his harem of girls, including Lavie, Alvis, the cold-hearted pilot Tatiana, and even the strong-willed Vice Captain Sophia. To make matters worse, Tatiana turns into a mushy little lovestruck schoolgirl when Claus so much as lends her his jacket, and Sophia's romantic encounter comes from so far in left field that you'll likely be throwing things at your screen in frustration. To be honest, by episode 15 I was convinced that Last Exile was a harem show in disguise.

Meanwhile, there are a few characters who really shine despite their disappointing company. Alex Row, the stoic captain of the Silvana, rocks all kinds of socks with his grumpy demeanor and tortured past, but cracks begin to show in his emotional armor as we learn more about his history and see him lose control near the end of the show. Dio (no, not that one) and Lucciola, two runaways from the Guild who join up with the Silvana, and Mullin Shetland, a musketeer-turned-mechanic, provide an interesting counterpoint to the rest of the crew as outsiders coping with the stress of turning away from their previous loyalties. On the bad guy's side, the sinister Guild leader Maestro Delphine comes off as a poisonously sweet version of Gundam's Haman Karn.

But as far as I'm concerned, the real star of Last Exile is Lavie Head, Claus's energetic navigator. Originally she seems like nothing more than an obligatory bossy love interest, but by episode 8 or so it is clear that her personality reaches depths far beyond those of her lame childhood friend. Even when she decides that she doesn't want to be Claus's navigator as long as he is flying in combat (a brave and unexpected decision that throws a fascinating wrench in the works), she remains one of the most well-developed members of the crew. Lavie feels with a magnitude that nobody else in the show does, careening between nurturing love for Alvis, passionate concern for Claus, and unexpected bravery in the face of danger. Through it all, she manages to be both completely admirable and believably flawed, a feat that I'm frankly surprised GONZO managed to pull off so well.

While Japanese voice actor Chiwa Saito's performance as Lavie certainly gets the job done, Kari Wahlgren truly makes the role her own. Especially compared to Johnny Yong Bosch's typically overwrought Claus, Wahlgren's Lavie is always believable, no matter where she is on the emotional spectrum. In terms of the rest of the English cast, despite some clunky deliveries they mostly stack up well, especially thanks to spot-on Japanese-to-English voice matching by Bang Zoom.

Nearly all of the technology in the show (intricately researched and designed by character designer Range Murata and Gankutsuou's Mahiro Maeda) is animated using GONZO's notorious CG style, which only rarely blends with the two-dimensional character animation used throughout. Movement is also irritatingly choppy during the fight scenes, undercutting the clear quality of the original concepts. The skilled 2-D animators who realized Murata and Maeda's beautiful character and costume designs likely could have transformed most of the storyboards for the battle scenes into thrilling dogfights, but as it stands the 3-D fights are merely passable (though GONZO gets points for including ZERO Gundam-style monologues or pilot-to-pilot arguments during fights).

While I don't usually comment on such things, Last Exile's sound design is actually one of its greatest strengths. The sound effects used to represent the creaking and turning of machinery and the movements of the wind are far more visceral (and frequent) than the effects used in most other anime. This, combined with Maeda and Murata's unique and complex designs for clothing and machinery, makes for a lot of fascinating world-building potential. Unfortunately, spotty explanations of the factions and technologies often make it difficult to understand who is fighting whom and for what reasons. By the time the series reaches its exciting finale, it might still take a Wikipedia visit or two to understand just what was going on in the skies of Claus and Lavie's world.

Last Exile, like many GONZO series before it, is a valuable lesson in wasted potential. It's clear that the concept designers put a lot of work into the series during pre-production, and the animators' love for their material shines through in rare moments that belie Last Exile's most glaring flaw, which is that it doesn't really say or do very much with its own material. In the end, the exquisite presentation, the attempts at world-building, and the moments of genuine humanity come together to produce a work that is nothing more than the sum of its parts. We are left with a vaporous story about people in airships who fight each other.

[Passable]

This review is based on the Hulu streams (both dub and sub) of the series, provided by FUNimation.

While the overall presentation of said story is awash with harem elements, the main conflict of the story, pacifism in the midst of battle, is aptly personified via the assignment of Saber to ShirÅ. Furthermore, implications are deepened via the introduction of ShirÅ's inability, caused by his lack of study in magic, to make Saber properly materialize. Thus Emiya and Saber, respectively as magus and servant, portray two incomplete parts that leverage each other to form a whole in the hopes of competently fighting against multiple pairs of complementary wholes. This setup is rife for conflicts, and the execution does right by exploring the main theme of action vs. inaction. However, the weaving of romantic tension turns too many scenes into boring and (for the most part) inconsequential harem tropes.

That's not to say that romantic tension doesn't serve some purpose. Rather, the execution of its repeated influence only weakens the story. I'd maintain there are two instances of romantic tension aptly serving the story: that of Emiya's falling for Saber and Rin's unexplainable interest in Emiya. While the latter only serves as a reason why a fellow magus would not kill, and instead might even protect, a competitor, Emiya's falling for Saber further lends credence to why he constantly puts his life on the line for what he views as his responsibility. Really, there's an essay waiting to be written on Emiya and Saber, and that fact alone makes the anime a worthwhile watch, but other aspects deserved to be touched upon as well. Art in Fate/Stay Night is standard fare but of above average quality (budget). Really, its only fault would be the showcasing of CG alchemic circles, the animation of which seems a little too out of place. Fight scenes are well orchestrated and, for the most part, fully animated, and the overall ambience is set rather perfectly. Deep hues of night, the only time during which combat is permitted, are foreboding and bloodthirsty, while days offer a palate more complimentary to the harem walls and the associated tension break. Character designs are also quite Romantic, especially concerning the servants' attire/armor.

Writing is a tad overly dramatic, except, surprisingly, for the harem aspects. Instead, I found myself actually liking how statements by the majority of the female characters never (or rarely) said anything directly. In retrospect, I also greatly enjoyed the underlying and understated theme of regret that manifests not only within the warriors throughout the series but which also resonates as the drive behind the warriors â each a mythical figure of ancient origin.

If you have time to kill, there are far worse anime to help you pull the trigger. It's pretty, the pacing of the main plot is quick, and general subtext is nothing that requires much thought. There is even decent potential as fodder for analysis, which is surprising given the series' origin as an âerogeâ (erotic game). What I can only guess to be a successful anime translation (best to ask Elliot Page) manages to eliminate all hentai aspects, save the annoyingly omnipresent harem elements (beware the first half of the date episode!!!), and deliver an enjoyable watch akin to a more grown-up Zatch Bell (2003).

[Recommended]

This review is based on rental copies obtained via the reviewer's personal Netflix account.