First Look! "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" Blu-ray/DVD Combo Review

風の谷のナウシカ
Kaze no Tani no Naushika

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind <-- BUY FROM RIGHTSTUF!

*Mild Spoilers!*

The story of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, in brief, takes place on a post-apocalyptic world some one thousand years after the "Seven Days of Fire," an event which saw enormous, humanoid, biomechanical creations known as "Giant Warriors" all but destroy humanity.  Sometime afterward, these Giant Warriors ceased to function and became petrified while a polluted Earth is now being overtaken by the Sea of Decay ("Toxic Jungle" in the English dub) and the monstrous, giant insect creatures living within. 

Nausicaä is a princess of the Valley of the Wind country who is skilled at flying and fighting, but who is also a bit of a scientist. After "Lord Yupa" (Yupa-sama in the Japanese) returns from his expedition, the people of the valley get caught up in a squabble between the Pejite, who've just uncovered a surviving but undeveloped Giant Warrior, and powerful military country of Tolmekia, who've decided to steal the Giant Warrior to beat back the Sea of Decay and the giant insects that come with it.   Nausicaä must not only find a way to save her people from being slaughtered by the Tolmekia when they come calling, but must also protect everyone from the Pejite plan to use enraged insects to level the Tolmekian and the Valley people.

I first saw this movie in Japan back in 1989 and it was the first anime title I purchased.  Back then, the English dub on VHS was licensed by New World Pictures and was heavily edited (over 30-minutes of film removed) and rewritten and was called Warriors of the Wind.  Fortunately, Disney license-rescued the Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind movie and in 2005, released it unedited on DVD.  On March 8, 2001, Disney re-releases this Miyazaki-sensei classic with a combination Blu-ray/DVD set.

Visually, Miyazaki-sensei's mid-80's anime film stands the test of time.  However, there was no difference in how the movie looked on Blu-ray or DVD on my 46" HDTV.  I know the movie was remastered for a 2010 Blu-ray release in Japan but I don't think that this U.S. Blu-ray release is from that remastering.  None of the materials sent to me said anything about remastering but simply touted the high definition aspect of Blu-ray.  I've seen a couple of anime titles in Blu-ray which looked vibrant as they were made for high definition.  That's not the case here, though the movie still looks good even if it isn't high def.  For those watching in Japanese with subtitles, the Blu-ray subtitles look better than the DVD subtitles. 

Audio-wise, at times, I felt the incidental sound effects were muffled somewhat at times on the English dub. I didn't notice the same muffling on the Japanese audio track, though as usual, we only get the 2-channel stereo Japanese audio.

Because Disney gets A-list Hollywood actors to perform their anime dubs, it is only natural that their dubs are quite good.  I made sure to watch the dub first because I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to after I watched this again in Japanese.  While I have seen the movie in Japanese back when Disney first released this movie on DVD in 2005, I haven't watched it since and so wasn't to "polluted" with memories of the Japanese voices.  However, while I felt that the voice actors did a fine job, some voices were too recognizable to not be a bit of a distraction, especially when they first appear.

For starters, there's Patrick Stewart, who plays Lord Yupa.  The man's voice is very distinctive but I just couldn't help but think, "Captain Picard (Star Trek: The Next Generation) is speaking!"  Then there's Shia LaBeouf who is the voice of Asbel.  When he started speaking, I couldn't get the image of him from the live-action Transformers movie out of my head.  Chris Sarandon is the voice for the Tolmekian military second in command, Kurotowa.  Chris is well known for playing the role of Prince Humperdinck in fantasy classic, The Princess Bride.  Since Kurotowa looks very similar to Prince Humperdinck and they are both played by the same actor, well naturally one just sorta expects Kurotowa to spout something about the Fire Swamp or the like. ^_~

On the other hand, there are some actors who do quite well at disguising their voices to one degree or other.  Uma Thurman (Kill Bill) is the voice of the Tolmekian military leader Kushana.  Because Uma has studied Japanese, I felt she did a good job at taking what she could from SAKAKIBARA Yoshiko's take on the role in the Japanese original and thus wasn't readily recognized by me.  Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica) voices Mito but I never once thought, "There's Admiral Adama speaking!" as Edward does a good job not sounding himself.  Mark Hamil (Star Wars) voices the role of the Mayor of Pejite, but I doubt anyone but hardcore fans of his would recognize him (he does a lot of voice acting and is quite good at it).  Certainly, he doesn't sound like his infamous Luke Skywalker role.

As is normal for nearly all anime adaptations into English, the English dub takes quite a number of small liberties with the original Japanese script.  I watched the English dub first and then immediately rewatched the film in Japanese with subtitles.  In doing so, one is made keenly aware of those changes.  Some are as simple as changing the "Sea of Decay" to the "Toxic Jungle" which doesn't really affect things story-wise either way (though "Sea of Decay" is much more accurate since there is an actual sea there).  There was a scene where Nausicaä and Asbel are discussing the nuts she brought.  In the English dub, a joke is made about how come it is that things that are good for you taste nasty.  In the Japanese, Asbel's remark is that even though these nuts taste nasty, he's hungry enough to eat a ton of them.

Others are a bit more complex in nature and actually give small changes in tone.  Miyazaki-sensei's script clearly contains an environmentalist theme, an anti-technology theme, an anti-war theme, and one could say an anti-nuclear theme too with the Giant Warriors taking the role of a nuclear weapon.  Those things are clear in the Japanese version without being too "in your face."  In the English dub, it is as if the writers wanted to emphasize those themes because they are a lot more "in your face" at times.  Indeed, while the Japanese version at one point has Nausicaä simply trying to prevent things from escalating out of control, the English dub makes this an appeal to end all killing.  Miyazaki-sensei's script is indeed having Nausicaä try to prevent people from being killed, but it is subtle vs. the English script's overt way of putting it.

Even if you aren't someone who watched anime in Japanese with subtitles, I would encourage you to give the Japanese version a look-see and experience the movie in two different ways.  I think you might be more than a little surprised at times, especially when a scene in the Japanese ends up making more sense than it did in the English dub.

One thing that I found interesting was the decision to use the Japanese term "Obaba" for the old, blind, female seer in both the English dub and subtitles.  English-speaking audiences will simply assume this is her name rather than a term for an old woman (grandmother), but it is clear based on the Japanese audio that she has no name mentioned, but is simply and very respectfully addressed as "Obaba-sama."  So, if "Yupa-sama" becomes "Lord Yupa," why doesn't "Obaba-sama" become "Lady Obaba?"  Just another reason why I like Japanese honorifics retained in the subtitles, which of course they are NOT in this release.

The Blu-ray and the DVD contain different extras.  The Blu-ray has a documentary called "Behind the Studio" which has interviews with Miyazaki-sensei and other Japanese people as well as some American folk.  When Japanese people are interviewed, those are done in subtitles.  It was pretty interesting to me to hear Miyazaki-sensei speak.

The next extra is "Enter the Lands" which is basically little more than very clever advertising on Disney's part for other Studiop Ghibli films they've licensed (in other words, don't expect to see Lupin III lurking here).  The next extra, for those interested, has the entire movie shown via the original Japanese storyboards.  I'm guessing this will be mostly of interest to those looking into getting into animation.

On the DVD side, there's an interesting feature "Behind the Microphone" which interviews the English voice actors (Shia LaBeouf is just a mere young teen here).  There's a lengthy documentary called "The Birth of Studio Ghibli" which has English voice-overs when Miyazaki-sensei or other Japanese people speak.  I was disappointed with that.

One final thing I was disappointed in was how many people in the extras call  Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" Miyazaki-sensei's first work or first feature film.  Every time this happened, I wanted to shout, "What about Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro?!"   That was Miyazaki-sensei's first feature film and before that, he worked on the Lupin III TV series.

If you don't already own this classic work by Miyazaki-sensei, I highly recommend buying it.  There's no doubt that Miyazaki-sensei knows how to write a good story and make it visually beautiful as well. 

Manga Sales Suck! (It's Stu Levy's Fault and May Be the Cause of Border's Bankruptcy )

Several days ago, Toonleap had a repost of an article taking information from Japanese sources talking about the collapse of the manga markets in France and in the U.S.  Completely absent from the quoted piece is anything about the general book market so I did some looking.  Overall U.S. book sales (including e-books) for 2010 were up 3.6% vs. 2009.  However, U.S. hardback book sales were down 5.1%; U.S. (trade) paperback book sales were down 2%; and U.S. mass market book sales were down 6.3% vs. 2009. (source) For the record, manga books generally fall into the trade paperback category, at least as I understand it (I could use some confirmation on this).

Now had this been all there was to the piece, I could have just written an article about how the manga industry needs to get e-books going because e-book sales were up a staggering 164.4%!  Further to that, the recent Border's bankruptcy was attributed to that company not getting with the e-book craze.  I didn't notice anything about falling manga sales being cited as a reason for Borders going south.

At the end of the quoted article, I read this bit from the piece bemoaning the dropping manga sales.

Translator Frederik L.Schodt criticized that Levy’s “Authentic manga (printed right-to-left)” policy has isolated manga from the general public although it did appealed to core manga fans.

Oh!  How silly of me!  While physical book sales are off this year versus last year and manga sales in Japan have been falling down, the fact that Stu Levy (TokyoPop's CEO who's also known as D.J. Milky) had a cost-cutting maneuver that also appealed to hardcore manga fans by printing manga Japanese style is really the root of the manga sales problem.  Yeah, that's the ticket.

Sorry, but while Stu can be attacked on quite a few dumb ideas (Princess Ai anyone?), deciding to print manga authentic isn't one of them.  Indeed, I've often praised "D.J. Milky" on this.

OK, so Mr. Schodt didn't exactly blame Stu for falling sales, but his remark on how manga is currently printed keeps it isolated from the general population is something I have to say "bull" to.  After all, TokyoPop's biggest manga title was Fruits Basket, which was not only printed authentically, but also had an adaptation which retained Japanese honorifics.  Despite these two major elements that should keep the masses at bay, somehow, U.S. schoolgirls (and others) back then flocked to that manga title in droves and we aren't talking "nerd girls" either.  In my mind, that alone is enough to flush the argument that unflipped manga keeps the general population at bay.

What this does bring up is (1) why did girls flock to Fruits Basket in the first place when it was printed in that scary backwards form and (2) why didn't they move on to other manga once Fruits Basket had come to an end, specifically josei titles?  I wish I had an answer there.

Amongst my circle of friends, I'm the only anime/manga fan.  Taco's Rule watched anime back in the 80's and so is down for classic titles he watched in his youth but neither he nor his wife are interested in modern anime nor manga.  I did get Savage Piper hooked on Ah! My Goddess and he had no problems reading it backwards when Dark Horse began re-releasing that series. However, he just borrows my manga when I get it and has no interest in buying his own copies and really isn't interested in trying any other manga nor anime nor is his wife nor kids.  My friend Hermione is a massive Harry Potter fan and to her husband's chagrin, I got her hooked on Negima! to the point that she buys it regularly EVEN THOUGH IT IS FLIPPED!  She loves it.  However, she's not really interested in trying any other manga and really wasn't interested in trying the Negima! anime series.

I have other friends whom I have gotten to either read a manga title or watch an anime series and even though every instance has them liking the title/series in question, none of them have any desire to explore other manga or anime titles.  I never could understand why but I think I now understand.  I'll get to that in a bit.

Since Mr. Schodt was quoted in the "manga is dead" article and is a well-known translator (though I don't think I've read anything he's ever done), I decided to hit up one of the translators I've communed with over the years.  The lucky person was Mr. William Flanagan, who's translated titles like Fairy Tail, xxxHOLiC, Kobato, and many more titles.  Mr. Flanagan lives in Japan so I thought his perspective might be more interesting.  Here's what he had to say when I posed the question to him about whether flipped manga hurts sales in the U.S.

If it does, it doesn't hurt sales as much a flopping (reversing the pages) would in today's market. Fans are overwhelmingly in favor of right-to-left. So the question is, do you pick up possible readers while losing definite readers? No. You go with your base.

But a little over a decade ago, the answer would have been different. Viz published Eva both ways, and the L-to-R outsold the other 5-to-1.  After TokyoPop went entirely unflopped in 2002, that number pretty much reversed.

By the way, I wouldn't discount [Mr. Schodt's] theory. Flopping might bring in some mainstream readers. But it's still comic books.  I think that "comic books" is far more off-putting to the mainstream than the "backwards" reading is.

Comic books. 

When I read that, I was figuratively slapping myself in the back of the head because I'd simply forgotten something I've argued for a long time on the anime front -- the cartoon arts are considered kiddy stuff, period!

Prior to the late 1950's and Hanna-Barbera, cartoons were not things done for kids.  They were adult fare shown at the movie theater before the movie started (I guess this was in lieu of all the commercials shown before movies today).  Comic books I think always were considered kid fare with the superhero stuff and even things like Dick Tracy, but comic strips were not done with a mind at the kid audience but at an adult audience.  Today, anything cartoon is considered kid stuff, comic books are kid stuff, and even though some comic strips are targeted at adults (Dilbert springs to mind), I think that even there, the general notion is that they are kid stuff.

This takes me back to my friends.  I first asked Savage Piper about why he wasn't really interested in anime/manga.

It isn't the "comic" aspect that puts me off it [anime/manga].  Remember, I'm a big fan of Batman and I own lots of comic books and graphic novels.  The [Ah! My Goddess] manga you lent me was OK.  The artwork was good and the story interesting but I didn't care for the character designs.  I can't stand the big eyes.  It is very kiddy to me.  I see the big eyes and I just can't get passed that.  Even as I read the manga, I often felt distracted by the big eyes.  There certain art styles that I just can't stand and the big eye look is one of them.

Reading the manga backwards wasn't a problem for me.  It made sense in a weird sort of way and I didn't even think about it after the first couple of pages.  

I then asked Hermione similar questions.

I didn't mind it [Negima!] being a comic.  I don't read comics but Pippin [her husband] did growing up. He no longer does.  He looked over the [Negima!] books but he just isn't interested in little Negi like me. I'm don't keep up as current as I used to though. 

I do think that these [manga] look like stuff for kids though I won't be letting my girls read little Negi's adventures until they are older.

It wasn't that hard to read backwards. It was kinda fun to multi-task that way!

While the above is just anecdotal, I did find it interesting to see their perspective. One does like comics but thinks manga looks kiddy no matter how adult they attempt to make it.  The other just isn't into comic arts.

So, why do I think manga sales are down?  That friends is fodder for another article.  ^_^

TokyoPop Explains Why Series Go On Hiatus

TokyoPop LillianDP has an interesting article describing the manga sales process of getting it from the publisher to the retailer.  It really is a good piece and I encourage you all to read this.

That said, I did want to address one aspect of the article, that being the issue of people waiting to see if a series gets dropped or not.

What happens if only 5 copies sell, though? Maybe 25 people were thinking of buying the title, but decided to wait and see if it gets “dropped.” Now the stores (and us) are thinking, “Well, I guess we made a mistake with this series—looks like one wants it after all.”

The real question is (and the article doesn't address this) is why people would get the balmy notion that a manga series might get dropped?

There's the idiom, "once bitten, twice shy."  Many manga fans (and anime fans too) have experienced this first hand.  For me, it was TokyoPop's treatment of the Slayers light novels (I don't count the Scrapped Princess light novels because I gave up on that about the same time TokyoPop did).  The main storyline for Slayers has only two arcs with the first one taking place in volumes one through eight.  Unfortunately, TokyoPop decided only to license the first six novels and then dropped the series, leaving a lot of angry fans hanging in the wind.

Now to be fair, TokyoPop did listen to their customer base and did license the final two novels in the arc but have not seen fit to license any of the Slayers novels from the 2nd arc, nor any of the prequel novels featuring Lina and Naga (or the side novels for that matter).  However, when a consumer of a product who has been buying a manga title right from the start (as TokyoPop suggests in their article) gets slapped with a "sorry Charlie but we are dropping this title and you won't get to legally read how the story goes from here," the "once bitten, twice shy" idiom comes sharply into focus.  Said consumer now sees the newest offering from TokyoPop and what's the first thing that they think of now?  Could it be, "I wonder if TokyoPop will see this title to the end?"

So while I understand TokyoPop's statement encouraging fans to go ahead and buy volume 1 of a title they like rather than take a wait and see attitude, TokyoPop can't just expect fans who've had their hands burned on previous occasions to just happily put said hands out there again. 

Hopefully, the transition to digital manga (both online and through e-manga) will make the dropping of a licensed title a thing of the past.  In addition, going digital should allow classics like Love Hina to hang around for new batches of readers. ^_^

Wolverine - 06

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: 

Cyclops arrives in the modified SR-71 and picks up Logan and Yukio, sarcastically commenting on Logan's selfish summonings as if Cyclops were a taxi driver. Their bickering makes Yukio wonder about them, but Logan claims they are best friends, something Cyclops finds surprising.  He agrees to fly them to Madripoor and makes mention that he noted a plane flying in that direction.  Further, he has heard there is supposed to be a major wedding there, something that angers Logan.  Dropping them off on the east side of the island nation near the Lowtown slums, Cyclops promises to return if they survive.  After he leaves, some local thugs snare Logan and Yukio in nets.  They easily cut themselves free and begin slaughtering the thugs. Logan tells Yukio to handle this since he doesn't have time to deal with them and takes off.

Logan swims to a dock where he's beset upon by thug locals.  After slaughtering the first batch, a new batch arrives with two on a motorcycle who snag Logan by the leg with a chain and drag him through parts of Lowtown.  After stringing him up on a poll,, the two thugs flee when Logan shows his claws and cuts himself free.  Taking their bike, Logan travels deeper into town and he is spotted by an older man who sends a young girl named Min out to meet him.  Logan is not amused by more thugs being on his case but he's also not impressed with the assistance Min gives him. Min talks of how Hideki rules and how there are some opposed to him.  She shows Logan the part of Hightown where Hideki lives in the very modern and tall Dragon Palace.  Meanwhile, Hideki has been notified of Logans presence and dispatches a giant named Vadhaka to deal with him.

Thoughts/Review:

Well, I have to say that I am disappointed that Cyclops got little more than an extended cameo but at the same time, I guess I'm not surprised.  After all, this anime is about Wolverine not Wolverine and Cyclops.  Still, I loved how the anime managed to capture their relationship with Scott verbally showing his displeasure and Logan pushing Scott's buttons.  I couldn't help but chuckle at Logan's remarks to Yukio about Scott being his best friend and Scott's reaction to that remark.  Anyway, I guess we'll see Scott/Cyclops and the SR-71 again based on Scott's remark about coming back.  I wouldn't mind it if Cyclops got involved in the action, even if to just allow Logan to escape the island with Mariko and Yukio. 

While Madripoor has been mentioned often in this series, I liked how the writers took time to explain this small island nation.  I'm not well versed in it but they did lay out the two cities of Lowtown and Hightown as well as the ultra criminal aspect of this.  I didn't hear any name dropping of super villains from Marvel who might reside there.

Speaking of Madripoor, I chuckled at how the thugs looked like they came from the Mad Max series.  *lol* Well, I guess nut jobs with mohawk haircuts are universally known as very bad people. ^_~

When Hideki went to dispatch "something" to take care of Logan, I briefly thought that we might see a Sentinel come into play.  After all, it was a giant and its eyes lit up.  Sadly, that was not to be.  Not sure what Vadhaka is, but I think that like Kikyo, this is an anime-only character who's not appeared in the Marvel comics anywhere.  So now Logan gets to fight a giant warrior of some kind.

Finally, who is Min and who sent her to Logan?

I gotta say that Wolverine is a rather enjoyable anime series that has managed to keep the character very much rooted in his Marvel Comics origins while throwing in a bit of new things (Kikyo and Vadhaka).

Wolverine - 05

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: 

Things seem almost over for Logan until he kicks a piece of shattered glass at Omega Red, hitting him in the face and distracting him enough for Logan to attack. Their fight goes down to the streets below when a device on Omega Red's suit goes off. Yukio throws her chakram at Omega Red, which he deflects, causing it to wedge in the wall. She then yells to Logan to hurry it up, so he takes advantage of the weakening Omega Red first embed her chakram into Omega Red's arm before slamming it into the wall repeatedly so that the arm is severed. Logan then destroys the device on Omega Red, leaving him almost dead.  Before Logan and Yukio can leave, Hideki's thug grabs Logan's leg and says that it is too late before dying. Realizing that Mariko is in trouble, Yukio and Logan race to the Yashida estate.

Meanwhile, Asano's cops race to the Yashida estate to take down the Kuzuryu and learn the truth that Logan did not kill Asano and .  Logan and Yukio arrive first where they take out the yakuza there but find Shigen and Hideki have fled with Mariko.  Logan senses Kikyo and confronts him, demanding to know if he killed the cop Asano. Kikyo doesn't deny killing Asano but apparently didn't know he was a cop. The two battle while Asano's group arrives and begins rounding up yakuza.  Logan flees the estate with Kikyo in pursuit until they reach the helicopter pad on an office building. Their fight continues until Omega Red returns, having been retrieved by unknown forces and given new makeshift carbonadium synthesizers. 

Omega Red demands that Kikyo step aside so that he can kill Logan.  Kikyo initially refuses but then backs down to allow Omega Red to fight Logan.  It isn't a long fight as Logan manages to pin one of Omega Red's tentacles down and destroy his synthesizers before apparently killing him despite Logan taking a massive chest wound.  Logan faces Kikyo who refuses to fight Logan, citing his code of honor which won't allow him to fight those who've been weakened by others.  He leaves the field of battle as a modified Blackbird aircraft uncloaks.  Logan is pleased to see it as the pilot is none other than his teammate, Cyclops, better known as Scott Summers. 

Thoughts/Review: 

WHOA!  I totally didn't expect for Cyclops to show up and now I'm pretty excited to watch the next episode!  When Logan used the device with the "X" on it, I figured he was calling for help to deal with what I thought might be the dead Omega Red.  When a plane decloaked, I initially thought that this might be the people Logan summoned but when that turned out to not be true, I kinda forgot about it in the frantic, almost non-stop pace of the episode.  The second I saw the modified SR-71 decloak at the end of the episode, I thought, "COOL! We are going to see a member of X-Men" and sure enough, seeing Cyclops was happy times.  He's always been one of my favorite characters from X-Men so hopefully he'll be in on some of the action.  ^_^

Going back to the fight between Omega Red and Logan, I liked how Logan used the glass shard to causes just enough of a distraction to battle his way back to a stalemate though with time on his side as Omega Red's device was alarming.  I get the feeling that Yukio purposefully threw in her chakram so that Omega Red would deflect it into the wall for Logan to use.  Pretty cool if true.  Yukio hasn't been of much help lately with the non-stop fighting going on, but one helps where one can I suppose.  Anyway, after the second encounter with Omega Red, I hope that this time, the Insane Clown Posse reject is dead for good.  Considering how he was brought back before, I won't venture a guess on if he'll be back again or not.

Kikyo playing the role of honorable samurai seemed to suggest to me that he is in fact taking the place of Silver Samurai, who also had a code of honor and for whom I believe Wolverine came to trust in the comics.  With both Kikyo and Logan having similar abilities and adamantium bladed weapons, one wonders how this fight will be ultimately resolved.

With Shigen and Hideki having apparently taken Mariko to Madripoor, I guess it is an easy call to say that Cyclops will take them there so they can find Mariko.  I haven't watched the preview to avoid spoilers for the next chapter but I am looking forward to seeing more. As I said, hopefully Cyclops gets in on the action!

Wolverine - 04

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

As Omega Red has Logan secured in his carbonadium tentacles, Yukio can do nothing but continue to lob molotov cocktails down while Asano's team takes down the yakuza and attempts to secure some of the cargo as evidence.  Meanwhile, Logan manages to kick open a door on the ship to cause a backdraft which allows him to get free of Omega Red.  He recalls sometime earlier in his life when he was briefed on the Soviet's Super Soldier project and the product of their research, Arkady Rossovich, aka: Omega Red.  Wolverine was given the mission to enter the Soviet Union and steal a device called the carbonadium synthesizer since Omega Red needed it to properly function.  Wolverine does steal the device but has to fight Omega Red. He manages to defeat him but loses the device to the Arctic Ocean.

Back in the present, Shigen receives word of the fight at the docks and is not happy.  Meanwhile, Logan's fight with Omega Red enters one of the cargo holds where Yukio causes just enough of a distraction for Logan to use a chemical canister which explodes when Omega Red stabs it with his tentacle. This causes a series of explosions and allows Logan and Yukio to escape, though they are tailed by one of Hideki's men.  Returning to Yukio's apartment, she attempts to treat Logan, who isn't healing very well thanks to Omega Red's power-draining ability.  Hideki's man lobs a bomb at the apartment but not before Logan manages to sniff him out and save Yukio.  Logan easily takes care of the thug but Omega Red appears and is going to make sure that Wolverine dies this time for sure.

Thoughts/Review:

As I mentioned last episode, I'd not heard of Omega Red although in the Marvel Comics universe, he is a villain character and has Japanese connections.  Since Omega Red is likely not known too much in Japan either, the writers of this episode do a pretty decent job of working in Omega Red's creation, powers, and his first encounter with Logan during the Cold War.  They conveyed a ton of information, which if not done properly, could have been rather dry and tedious exposition.  Thankfully, that was not the case and things were kept moving along while bringing the audience up to speed on everything they needed to know about Omega Red.  So kudos to the production team and the director for this feat.  ^_^

The fight between Wolverine and Omega Red would seem to belong to Omega Red.  To be honest, there was no reason for Omega Red to ever release Logan once he had initially snagged him.  Omega Red could have continued to hold Logan, slam him around (as he is doing when the episode ends), drain Logan of his powers as Wolverine, and then kill him.  However, Omega Red has to continuously let Logan go when he doesn't have to.  If there is a reason that Omega Red has to release Logan from time to time, that wasn't made clear to me unless it is somehow tied up in the loss of the carbonadium synthesizer.  Since we can't have the hero taken out, then we have to release him to give him a chance. Kinda like what happens in pro wrestling. ^_~

Anyway, Omega Red is slamming Logan around again before strangling him when the episode is over but obviously, Logan survives somehow.  Either Omega Red is going to let Logan go again which will allow Logan to do the needful or there's going to be some new outside influence to allow Logan to break free and do the needful.  It will be interesting to see where it goes.

So another episode comes to an end and I have to say that I continue to like what I'm seeing here.  I'm rather surprised this hasn't already been licensed, though I'm not sure it is material for Saturday morning cartoons. ^_~

Skydance Productions (and others) Wants "Star Blazers," Apparenly Not "Space Battleship Yamato"

I was reading what AICN reported about the attempts by Skydance Productions and possibly even Lucasfilm going after the rights to do a Star Blazers live-action film rather than a Hollywood treatment of Space Battleship Yamato.  Well, you guys know my negative feelings about Hollywood adaptations of anything anime.  For those who don't know, I'm generally opposed because Hollywood has proven themselves rather unreliable in the adaptation department (at least of stuff that might interest me), especially in the anime adaptation department. 

Now, IF all the licensing stuff concludes and a Star Blazers movie is the result, I'm out.  I've zero interest in seeing an adaptation of an American rewrite of a Japanese classic anime series.  I say this as one who was a kid when Star Blazers was on TV.  Once I saw the original anime series, unedited, there's no way I can watch the sanitized American rewrite much the same as I can't with Robotech (the rewrite of SDF Macross and other titles).

People will argue that if a proper adaptation of Space Battleship Yamato is done, it won't be accessible to the general population.  This is the same argument used for why subtitles shouldn't be faithful translations to Japanese audio, why Japanese honorifics can't be used in subtitles, why Japanese manga should be flipped and printed American style, etc.  As such, I reject the argument because if you have a good script, good acting, and a good director, the people will come.

Were I to be the one who scored the magic license, I would have a 3-movie deal created.  The first movie cover not only the initial attacks on Earth, but also delve into Kodai's shift from anti-military to fighting for what's left of his home planet.  The movie would end with the destruction of the Gamilus base on Pluto with Yamato escaping the solar system.  Movie two would have the Yamato crew dealing with the stress of their mission as well as well as giving the audience more of a perspective of the Gamilus side and would end with the climactic battle over Domel's forces.  Movie three would obviously have Yamato's fight on Gamilus, the arrival at Iscandar, and the return home.

I'd also have more women in the crew.  I'm not sure I'd make Sado a woman like they did in the Japanese live-action version, but Yuki wouldn't be the lone babe of the ship doing every stinking job under the sun.  Maybe I'd have Yuki have a twin sister name Yuri (or something) so that you could keep the blonde babe in sickbay and the blonde babe on the bridge at the same time and have it make sense. ^_~ 

Well, talk is talk and there has been talk of a Space Battleship Yamato live-action adaptation before, only it was to feature the U.S.S. Arizona rather than Yamato.  I was opposed to that and I'm opposed to a Star Blazers adaptation.  However, if Hollywood builds it correctly, I and others will come and spend our money.  ^_^

In the meantime, how about some company licensing the Japanese Space Battleship Yamato live-action movie and give it some accurate subtitles?  Sounds like a good title for FUNimation to try to snag. ^_~

Here are some clips of the Japanese live-action movie from a Japanese TV show promoting the film.

(CLAMP) Gate 7 Manga Chapter 01 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Chikahito is getting to do what he'd always dreamed of -- move to Kyoto and attend high school there.  He's looking for an apartment that will allow minors to live in them unsupervised which are also in his price range -- not an easy task. He remembers his first trip to Kyoto and his adventure then with the girl Hana and her two male companions.  Deciding to take a lunch break to try nishin soba, Chikahito discovers Hana and her two companions already there. Hana takes Chikahito by the hand and leads him to their table, where a waiter brings out four bowls of nishin soba.  Chikahito is given one of Hana's bowls and the light-haired male, Sakura, orders a replacement for Hana.

After the meal, the foursome walk out where Chikahito reveals he'll be living in Kyoto now.  Upon hearing the circumstances that so convienently made it possible for Chikahito to come to Kyoto, Hana's dark-haired male companion, Tachibana, realizes Hana might be behind this.  The foursome heads to a shrine that Chikahito has heard about and has now made his first trip to. Hana asks him if he's glad he came and he is. Sakura asks him to take a look at the wishes posted in the shelter for such things.  Reading the wish tags hung there, Chikahito discovers the wishes are negatively targeted at people (and even a ghost). Sakura explains that this kind of thing is what they are here to take care of, which Chikahito understands to be the monster that Hana had to fight on her previous visit.

Sakura raises a barrier but despite trying to keep Chikahito out, he's within it just the same. A spirit creature, formed like an Asian lion, appears and roars.  Having analyzed it as a lunar creature, Tachibana creates three-bladed shuriken for Hana to use.  Sakura explains to Chikahito that based on the creature they fight, they have to create the appropriate weapon. As this lion-creature is lunar, Tachibana has to create a weapon with his solar magic but in the previous encounter, the creature was solar based and thus Sakura had to create a weapon with lunar magic.

Chikahito is worried for Hana but restrained by her companions as she infuses the weapons with her own fire magic and quickly dispatches the beast.  She leaps the distance back Chikahito and tells him that he can live with them. This confirms to Tachibana and Sakura that Hana used her modoridori technique when she kissed Chikahito on his previous visit to Kyoto. That meant that things would immediately work out so that the person kissed would return to the person doing the kissing, which is what happened with Chikahito. Hana asks if this is a bad thing but since it is not, she's eager to have Chikahito live with them. Sakura says that since Chikahito can cook, he'll be a help to them as Tachibana resigns to Hana's wishes. As such, Chikahito finds himself with new companions in Kyoto.

Thoughts/Review:

This chapter, combined with the preview chapter, is rather how I saw xxxHOLiC going after it shifted to a shounen title. I envisioned wishes coming into Watanuki, some of which would be like the time he and Doumeki went to the school where the kids had been playing Tenshi-san and drudged up some nastiness or when Watanuki went to rescue Zashiki-Warashi.  Doumeki and Kohane-chan would then be Watanuki's hands-and-feet with Doumeki having that ring weapon that can turn into a spirit bow.  So I could see them doing missions like we've seen Hana, Tachibana, and Sakura do.  Alas, that was not to be.

So instead, we have new characters to do these things.  Instead of having someone make a wish, the trio (or maybe just Hana) senses where the trouble in Kyoto is going to be and off they go to do some purging.  Add to the mix someone with apparently no special abilities or magical powers but is someone able to be within their barriers (which are very much like the Fuzetsu from Shakugan no Shana), see what they see, and who's memory cannot be modified by the magic of Tachibana/Sakura.  So there is some interest here, more so for me in the potential relationship between Hana and Chikahito.

CLAMP is clearly using some elements from xxxHOLiC in Gate 7, but I noticed other things as well. The concept of moon and sun magic was a major part of Cardcaptor Sakura but really wasn't touched on heavily in xxxHOLiC (I don't recall it being a major part of Tsubasa either).  The relationship between Chikahito and Hana has a certain level of familiarity coming from Chobits with the relationship between Hideki and Chi.  That was really highlighted when Hana leaped back to Chikahito and took his hands while appearing to float down to the ground.  Chi did that with Hideki more than once as I recall it.

Through two chapters, CLAMP prove once again that they know how to start a manga and make interesting characters. While they haven't established Hana's age, they keep her appearance pure and wholesome but at times she comes off as more mature and other times as a kid.  The combination works well which makes her very likable. 

In the first chapter, CLAMP's color art was more like what they did with other titles like Chobits or Clover.  This time, they've continued the art style established in xxxHOLiC and Tsubasa, where the characters are super pale and the color scheme used is "sparse" (for lack of a better term).  I'm hoping they don't continue just using this style but also use the beautiful art style as seen in Chobits and Clover.

So while I have no real feel for where Gate 7 is going (unlike xxxHOLiC where you knew it was about Watanuki's problem or Tsubasa where it was about getting Sakura's memories), I will continue reading just the same.

Haiyoru! Nyaru-ani: Remember My Mr. Lovecraft - 09

Haiyoru! Nyaruani: Remember My Love (Craft-sensei) episode 09
這いよる！ニャルアニ リメンバー・マイ・ラブ（クラフト先生）

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Mihiro finds himself literally within the confines of an RPG.

That's because an hour earlier, Nyarlko asked him to play an RPG that Atoko had picked up, which Atako calls a Virtual Reality game.

So he agrees to play and now he's just about out of hit points in the game but has a ton of magic points which he doesn't know how to use. 

He then encounters a monster who asks if he wants power.

He does and receives a flask that boinks him on the head as it falls.

He's not pleased about it and vows never to play an RPG with them again.

Fourteen days until the cube comes to Earth.

Thoughts/Review

Well, it wasn't funny but as a long-time player of RPG's, going back to the days of Rogue (which I still play to this day on occasion -- good thing that this old color, ASCII graphic game doesn't require an install), I did appreciate this little parody about playing RPG games. Man, how many "pure," fantasy, computer RPG's have I played in my life?  A ton to be sure with games like NetHack, Bard's Tale, Ultima I - IV (with Ultima III being the first multi-character RPG), Pool of Radiance (the first D&D computer RPG), the various Might and Magic titles, Dungeon Siege (and DSII), and more that I can't remember.  I think the last one I bought was Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and I never finished it for some reason.  I just don't have the time for games any more. :-(

I believe the game the girls had was a Final Fantasy game (or parody thereof).  Never played those.

So, an OK parody for what it was worth.

CLAMP's Gate 7 Prelude Chapter (Manga Review)

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: 

TAKAMATO Chikahito finally gets to take a trip to Kyoto and visit the Kitano Tenmanguu shrine. While exploring, he finds himself no longer where he was. Two adult males stand in trees while a pretty  teen girl dressed in miko attire drops to the "ground" which ripples like water.  The dark-haired male chastises the light-haired male for allowing a normal person in but the later male protests his innocence.  A creature of lower rank than a mizuchi appears and the light-haired male uses magic to create a sword for the miko, named Hana, to use.  With great flair, Hana dispatches these snake-like spirit creatures and then appears to target Chikahito.  However, she was actually targeting the creature that had slipped in behind him.  Chikahito is overwhelmed by this side of Kyoto which is didn't want to see and passes out.

Chikahito awakens in a futon with Hana's head on his chest, asleep.  The light-haired male announces the tabeyaki udon is ready which has her instantly at the table and eager.  The dark-haired male joins them and they invite Chikahito over to eat with them.  He's surprised that they know his name, but since he passed through their barrier so easily, they wonder if he's an assassin or from another hanamachi.  After the meal, the dark-haired male recites a great deal of personal information about Chikahito and asks if he's made any mistakes.  This shocks Chikahito, but the dark-haired male says that the Internet and the hanamachi information network are responsible.

After Chikahito learns that the place they are at is the hanamachi known as Kamishichiken, located next to the Kitano Tenmanguu shrine, it is decided that since Chikahito doesn't have any powers or special abilities, they will get rid of some of his memories to protect Hana and her two male companions.  The light-haired male, Sakura, grabs Chikahito while the dark-haired male attempts to grill his memories.  However, the procedure fails, leading Hana to grab Chikahito by the arm and run out with him.  After showing him the outside of the place and saying this is where she lives, she begins to glow and kisses Chikahito on the lips. As Chikahito faints again, Hana tells him that she is here and waiting.

Thoughts/Review: 

"Oops!

... I did it again.

I read a manga

That CLAMP has started

How stupid am I?

Oops!

...I must be insane

To think that they'll change

And end this manga right.

(Sung to the tune of Briney Spears "Oops!...I Did It Again")

I suppose I could end the review of this one-shot chapter right there.  After all, CLAMP has become rather notorious for either not completing a manga title they start (X, Clover, Legal Drug) or just running out of ideas and just slapping an ending together and calling it quits (Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, xxxHOLiC).  They are already 4+ volumes into their monthly Kobato manga series and now are starting a new monthly shounen manga series, Gate 7.  So, what are the odds CLAMP will either properly finish either title?  ^_~

Still, I am a sucker for CLAMP I suppose, having enjoyed several of their works.  So even though I'm expecting the worst, I will bravely move forward!

Because of her hairstyle, Hana reminded me somewhat of SUZUHARA Misaki (Angelic Layer) only with Yuuko-san's eyes (xxxHOLiC).  So, apparently she's a miko warrior and can kick arse. Does her kiss of Chikahito mean anything romantic?  And speaking of Chikahito, if he's so "normal," why was he able to resist having his memories erased?

CLAMP's art style is more to my liking here than it was with Tsubasa or xxxHOLiC. Certainly, CLAMP doesn't have much problem getting a story started and immediately grabbing the reader's interest.  But can they go the distance is still the ongoing question?  ^_^;

As I see it now, I'm going to predict that Hana is the reincarnation of Yuuko-san and that Chikahito is in fact Watanuki from alternate universe 2,412,343 when Syaoran Clone #6 declares, "I am not a number! I am a free man!" before spawning Chikahito (instead of Watanuki) and ensuring that no traces of where he came from remain, thus preventing the black-haired dude in this chapter to not detect any traces of anything special.  *nods*  (By the way, if you don't get that quote reference, look it up. ^_~ )

Since this is a monthly title, I'll go ahead and read it for the heck of it.  We'll see how things go.

Wolverine - 03

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Kikyo drops from the roof to the parking lot and he and Logan begin to battle.  The fight goes to the street before Logan chases Kikyo to the top of another building where it continues.  The fight is pretty even but Kikyo shows he can do long distance wind attacks with his blade.  Logan shows he can defend against it and is annoyed with these magic tricks that Kikyo and Shigen use.  Yukio attacks Kikyo with one of her chakram, causing Logan to tell her to keep out of the fight.  Logan again presses the attack as riot police gather below.  Kikyo forces Logan off the building twice and the second time, Logan is forced to leap to the building across the street, crashing through an office window. With the police there, Yukio creates a distraction as she and Logan are forced to flee, Logan understanding that Kikyo killed Asano.  Kikyo also flees to hide in the shadow.

Hideki is displeased to hear that Logan escaped even with Kikyo sent after him but tells Mariko that after his delivery from Madripoor arrives, all that will be left is his marriage to Mariko.  Meanwhile, Yukio has Asano's pocket computer and knows of the shipment coming from Madripoor, which she believes to be drugs. The two of them set off to the harbor while Asano's team and Hideki with a group of yakuza do the same.  As the suitcases are being unloaded, Logan hurls molotov cocktails down, causing fire on the ship.  Asano's team arrives and a firefight breaks out between the police and the yakuza.  Hideki spots Logan and attempts to flee in his limo but is stopped.  However, before Logan can deal with him, two metal tentacles emerge from the ship and snare Logan, coming from a person known as Omega Red.

Thoughts/review: 

Last episode, the fights were rather sparse on the animation front and now I know why.  The production team saved up their money for the fight between Logan and Kikyo, which lasted quite some time.  Fight scenes that aren't properly done can quickly become boring but here, I wasn't bored at all.  There was a nice sense of balance in the fighting with Logan and Kikyo with Kikyo having a bit of an advantage in terms of reach and his ranged attack but then Logan made up for his weaknesses there.  I liked how the fight came to an end in a realistic manner.  After all, Logan has been framed as a cop killer and needs to get away but now that Kikyo has been seen by the police, he too has to make tracks.  So, I'm sure these two will fight again down the road (hard prediction, eh?).

I almost fell out of my chair when I saw the two tentacles emerge from the fire on the ship and grab Logan.  My first thought was, "they are bringing Doctor Octopus into this?  No way!"  Well, it wasn't Doctor Octopus but someone I hadn't heard of -- Omega Red.  He was introduced about the time I started getting out of comic books in 1992.  I may have the X-Men that Omega Red first appeared in, but that would require me heading to the basement and going through boxes of comic books, which I don't have time to do.  Regardless, I did do a bit of research and Omega Red does have a Japanese connection.  At that point I stopped reading lest something come up to spoil the anime.

It looks like Hideki was the one to send Kikyo to attack Logan.  I had asked that last episode because it seemed to me that Shigen might punt on doing something like this for honor's sake and allow Hideki to do the dirty work for him.  Too bad that Logan wasted time dealing with Hideki before Omega Red came, eh?  Still, that came off as very Wolverine-like from when I used to read the comic book complete with the two claws on either side of the face/neck and the potential for the middle claw to really ruin one's day. 

Through three episodes, I have to say that the Japanese are doing Wolverine right.  The mannerisms and fighting style shown here are exactly what I expect and that's all good.  I'm rather looking forward to seeing more.

xxxHOLiC (Rou) Manga Chapter 213 Review (finale)

xxxHOLiC (xxxHOLiC Rou) Manga Chapter 213

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Watanuki discusses the dream he had with the butterfly and Yuuko-san with Doumeki.  It is the first time Watanuki has dreamed of Yuuko-san and he'll have to use all of his abilities in order to see the complete dream.

Again, Watanuki returns to the dream and captures the butterfly there but it easily escapes. That means that what he is viewing is the dream of someone more powerful than himself.  The butterfly flutters off to where Yuuko-san is waiting. Yuuko-san says nothing and Watanuki can't move even as this dream world falls apart. Yuuki-san produces a bird cage with a bird in it.  After she sets the bird free, Watanuki begins to understand considering how much time has passed.

In the real world, Watanuki is talking with DOUMEKI Shizuka's grandson, who looks like Shizuka.  Watanuki explains the dream was a final message from Yuuko-san and that even though it has been over one hundred years since he inherited the store and that he is no longer bound to the store, Watanuki will continue to maintain the store and wait.  Doumeki's grandson asks if Watanuki wants to forget about Yuuko-san so that he can move on. Watanuki does not so Doumeki's grandson goes off to get them some drinks.  Looking at the egg left him from his grandfather, Doumeki's grandson decides it isn't time to use this since Watanuki forgetting about Yuuko-san would be too painful.

Thoughts/Review:

For crying out loud, CLAMP.  I know the ladies were well known for not being able to complete a manga properly these days but I have to say that for me, this ending elevates you to the "notorious" status.

Basically, as I see it, CLAMP simply got tired of xxxHOLiC and since it is more interesting starting something new (Gate 7), lets dump xxxHOLiC.  So, let's look at this final chapter.

Did I expect for Yuuko-san to ever return?  Not really but then CLAMP could have brought her back.  So seeing that Watanuki had accepted that he'd never see the real Yuuko-san again was not a surprise. If I had to guess, I'd say that when CLAMP created xxxHOLiC/Tsubasa, they hadn't planned for Yuuko-san to actually be dead but trapped in a time lock (or some such nonsense).  Having decided she was dead and allowing her to go ahead and complete that process, CLAMP had to stay on their theme from Tsubasa's end that once dead, always dead.  However, I had hoped that what might happen is that Watanuki might be able to communicate with Yuuko-san but oh well.

So then CLAMP makes time leap ahead again.  This time leaping forward one hundred years.  Sadly, I know nothing of the Yume Juuya story beyond it is a published work of ten dreams supposedly had by the author NATSUME Sōseki (oddly enough, his name is given Japanese style all over on the web).  So I don't know how much CLAMP pulled from those works when they began introducing the dreamscape stuff into xxxHOLiC.

That aside, jumping forward that much in time and having Doumeki's grandson be there at Watanuki's side is just such a cop out in my opinion to allow CLAMP to just end the manga.  Forget about Doumeki, Himawari, Kohane, Moro, Maru, Mokona, Zashiki-Warashi, etc.  Nothing matters and xxxHOLiC has been reduced to nothing because of CLAMP's not knowing where they were going or what they were doing with the series.

This brings me to the egg and the final cop out.  Everyone kept expecting it to be used and it never was.  So, CLAMP just punts by reaching for something they felt was plausible -- have the egg be something that causes Watanuki to forget about Yuuko-san.  *rolls eyes*  Whatever.

So, a very disappointing chapter and a disappointing end to the manga without even a look at the characters fans have come to know and love.  Nope, this is just a "flush the toilet as fast as possible" chapter so that CLAMP can go onto something they haven't painted themselves into a corner over.

I will write a review (and rant) of the entire xxxHOLiC series down the road a bit.  I plan to keep buying the manga from Del Rey because there are still some gems that I want to have on my bookshelf.  At this point, I want to reread the manga from scratch before writing that piece though because I'd like to analyze where I think CLAMP failed and where I think CLAMP should have gone to make xxxHOLiC a success.

Fairy Tail Manga Volume 05 Review

フェアリーテイル

Fairy Tail Volume 05 --> BUY FROM RIGHTSTUF! ^_^

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Lucy has Virgo dig a pit and cover it to trap Sherry and company but only ends up snaring a still frozen Natsu, who's ice covering shatters.  Sherry and company arrive on top of the giant rat Angelica, who is flying with her tail.  They dump a corrosive agent over the entire village but Natsu disperses enough of it to spare the villagers at the cost of their village.  Natsu goes after Toby and Yuuka to fight while Lucy grabs hold of the fleeing Angelica and brings the rat down by tickling her.  Natsu doesn't take long to defeat Yuuka and defeats Toby by outwitting him.

Meanwhile, Sherry is upset at letting down Lyon and Angelica getting hurt. She reveals she is a doll wizard by manipulating a large tree to "come to life" and attack Lucy.  Lucy summons Taurus, who fells the tree.  However, since Sherry's magic allows her to control anything not human, she quickly takes control of Taurus to have him strip Lucy.  He does this while telling Lucy he isn't in control and Lucy does something nearly impossible -- a forced gate closure which sends Taurus back.  In order to trick Sherry, Lucy summons Plue, who's immediately controlled but with no attack power, Lucy is safe and thus brings out her whip to use on Sherry.

After Sherry releases Plue, she manipulates rocks and boulders to form a rock beast.  Lucy flees to the beach but then decides to summon Aquarius.  Sherry takes control over Aquarius and orders her to attack Lucy.  Aquarius is irritated and says she was going to do that anyway.  As per normal. Aquarius's attack not only hits Lucy but takes Sherry as well. Aquarius leaves and a dizzy Lucy is able to overcome a dizzy Sherry before Sherry can recover enough to use her doll magic. 

Erza arrives and her first prisoner is Lucy (after saving her from an attack by Angelica), quickly followed by Happy.  Elsewhere, Gray wakes up at the refugee camp, having been rescued and his wounds tended to, and quickly discovers Erza along with Lucy and Happy in a large tent.  Erza has been briefed by Lucy and Happy and isn't interested in the mission but only in returning the wayward team to Fairy Tail for punishment. Gray will not back down even for Erza and tells her she'll have to stab him as he's not leaving until things are taken care of.  Hearing this, Erza changes her mind and frees Lucy and Happy, stating that they'll complete the mission and then there will be punishment.

As the group heads to the temple ruins, Gray recounts how he and Lyon as children trained under a powerful ice wizard named Ur.  Gray had been found by Ur and Lyon after Deliora destroyed Gray's village and left him an orphan. While Ur's training isn't what Gray expected, he does the work but when word reaches him of a new Deliora attack he angrily leaves Ur and Lyon.  Ur, who'd lost her daughter. goes after him and ends up sacrificing herself to seal Deliora in unmeltable ice.  Lyon was devastated that his hero had been bested by a demon.  However, Ur is still alive as the ice thus if Gray melts it with Moon Drip, then he does in fact kill Ur. 

Meanwhile, Natsu has caused damage to the temple ruins so that the are now tilted more than enough to prevent the Moon Drip ceremony from being completed.  Gray confronts Lyon and plans to use Iced Shell to seal Lyon but is stopped by Natsu.  Lyon's cheeky assistant Zalty is then somehow able to restore the ruins to their proper angle, forcing Natsu to give chase while Gray again squares off against Lyon.  Gray tells Lyon that Ur is still alive, but Ur already knows and simply stabs Gray with a sword.

Thoughts/Review:

An interesting volume to be sure.  ^_^

So, Lucy gets her first real fight and scores a cheap win.  *lol*  Well, I do have to give her credit for thinking on the fly when she summoned Aquarius, knowing Aquarius is an equal opportunity fighter.  Lucy also gets credit for somehow doing the unthinkable and that is to force Taurus back to his universe and without using a key either.  Sherry's reaction to this strongly suggests this is not something a celestial wizard should be able to do.  Even Aquarius, despite her sarcasm, seemed impressed with what Lucy did before she exited the stage. 

Speaking of thinking on the fly, I laughed at Natsu's resolution to the fight with Toby.  What Natsu did is an old trick, but I didn't expect Natsu to do it and that's what made it funny and clever.  I mean, why bother with battling someone when you can get them to take themselves off the playing field?  ^_^

Erza's arrival was pretty awesome.  She takes out Angelica (is that rat finally dead now?) and then has Lucy understand a tiny bit of why Gray and Natsu obey her.  I laughed when Happy tried to escape but failed.  I liked how Erza didn't allow Lucy's pleas to affect her but did allow Gray's attitude of "kill me then 'cause I ain't stopping" attitude to change her mind about helping the villagers.  I'm sure Erza respects Gray's conviction in this matter as he's willing to die for the cause. 

Gray's backstory is interesting although the stuff with Lyon is a cliche.  That's why I still can't get into the whole Gray vs. Lyon fight stuff very much.

On the Del Rey side, I noticed "tidal wave" used incorrectly again.  I don't know how old Mr. Flanagan is, but I'd be he's close to my age because he uses "tidal wave" still in this volume and in the translator notes section, his translated title for Uchuu Senkan Yamato is Space Cruiser Yamato.  I know that back in the day, non-Japanese fans used "Space Cruiser Yamato" though why is more of a mystery to me seeing as how the series was based off of the World War II battleship, Yamato. ^_^;;;  Today, the official Japanese title in English is Space Battleship Yamato and apparently has been for some time.  This is more of an observation than a complaint though.  ^_^;

I do have a complaint about the columns in "Explain Mysteries of Fairy Tail" section of the extras.  Gah!  I hate it when publishers of manga in English go through the trouble of publishing manga unflipped so that we read it Japanese style but when the English text comes out, suddenly we have to go Western.   By the time I get to this page, I've been reading 186 pages right column then left column and then suddenly I'm supposed to reverse the flow and for a single page, read left column-right column.  That just irritates me to no end but at least it wasn't a two-page jack-up.  *_*

So, another volume comes to an end.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this one is resolved as I expect the demon to be freed.  So, how they defeat it should be most interesting.

Wolverine - 02

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

The poisoned Logan manages to remove the now emptied dart from his back and launches an attack and launches an attack at Shigen, destroying the man's boken.  However, before Logan can make the kill, the toxins within him prove too much and he falls unconscious.  Shigen sends his daughter out of the dojo and mildly chastises Hideki for his interference in the fight but hands Logan over to him to do with as he pleases.  Hideki pays a brief visit to Mariko in her room where he tells her that Logan is returning to America and he will personally see that Logan gets to the airport safely, after which Mariko can focus only on Hideki whether she wants to or not.

Asano and his police team see Logan being taken to a limo and dumped in the trunk. Asano doesn't believe Logan is dead and tells the others he's going after Logan but that the other cops should remain at their posts.  Tracking Hideki's limo, Asano spots the car stopping on a lonely stretch of road where some yakuza place Logan's body on nearby railroad tracks.  After pouring a bottle of liquor on him and then placing the bottle in Logan's hands, Asano is ready to take on these yakuza but is knocked down instead.  His attacker kills the two yakuza and a frightened Hideki flees to the limo where it takes off.  Asano's attacker grabs Logan just as a train came up, leaving Asano alone until the two cops from the surveillance van arrive to assist.  Hideki returns to Shigen and makes his report of Logan's escape, which relieves Mariko.

Asano returns home and attempts to contact Logan via a mini computer device but fails.  Before he can do much else, he is assassinated.  Meanwhile, Logan's rescuer has taken him to her apartment and notes his rapid healing. When he comes to, he briefly mistakes his savior for Mariko but is then immediately on his guard. After some explanations, the woman, Yukio, says they have a common goal -- take down Shigen and his yakuza group. Yukio's mother had been an assassin for Shigen and for failing in a single task had been slain by him.  As such, Yukio wants revenge. She gives Logan his mini-computing device to attempt to contact Asano. Failing to make contact, Logan asks Yukio to show him where the GPS location of Asano was.

Arriving at Asano's apartment, Logan smells blood and breaks the lock on the door.  Logan soon spots Asano, sitting in his chair with a large stab wound in the chest.  As he rushes in to check on his friend, a couple of cops arrive, having been tipped off that Asano was murdered and Logan was the suspect.  Realizing the frame situation, Yukio and Logan take out the cops but are careful not to kill them.  When a large group of yakuza arrive, the claws come out and Yukio's circle-bladed weapons.  They slaughter the yakuza with ease and quickly make their way out the building, leaping down to a parking lot below where Logan destroys a police car.  However, on the roof is a samurai assassin of Shigen's named MIKAGE Kikyo, who extracts a katana from inside the palm of his hand.

Thoughts/Review:

I had wondered how the fight might go from episode 1.  I knew that honor was the scheme that Shigen used in the original comic book to bring down the poisoned Logan.  Here, Logan goes for the claws and destroys Shigen's boken as well as coming very close to killing the man was an interesting change.  However, even more interesting to me was the fact that honor was still brought into the scene.  Shigen may be a deadly criminal, but he still has his own code of honor apparently, based on how he got onto Hideki for his interference and how he didn't kill Logan when he had the chance.  So, now that Shigen knows that Logan is still alive, what will his next move be? Did he send Kikyo or was that Hideki attempting to rectify his previous mistake?

Speaking of Kikyo, he's a new character.  If I had to guess, he will replace the Silver Samurai from the comic book, which if true, will be a bit of a disappointment.  In the comic, Silver Samurai is the half-brother of Mariko and that would have provided another element to the equation here, even if cliched (the protective brother over his sister).  On the other hand, despite Shigen being the head of the Kuzuryu, the anime isn't playing this up as a family enterprise.  In the comic book, Shigen is the head of the Yashida Clan (protecting their current family name of Harada); Kuzuryu isn't a clan.  Therefore, matters of the family aren't coming into play which may be why Silver Samurai isn't here.  However, I do hope he shows up before the series is over.

Yukio has changed some from the original comic.  When I was introduced to her in X-Men, she was a lighthearted thief/samurai-type who was an ally of Wolverine/Logan.  Indeed, it was Yukio who teamed up with Storm in Japan and who taught Storm to find joy in new areas, which lead to Storm having a mohawk hairdo for a long time afterward. As I understand it, in the Wolverine series, Yukio worked for Shigen but had a change of heart after failing in her mission to take down Wolverine. I don't mind the changes here to have Yukio avenge her mother because it works to have her realistically team up with Logan.  Hopefully, her thief skills come into play.

BTW, what are those circle-bladed weapons she has?  I wasted WAY too much time looking for them as I've seen them before but alas, I couldn't really come up with anything similar (other than apparently these were used in the new Tron movie).  I know I've seen them in other anime or manga before, but I can't remember which titles.  Realistically, they don't seem like proper weapons since the wielder should take major hand damage simply by using them.

So far, I'm really liking what I see and can't wait to see more. ^_^

Happy Valentine's Day, "Maison Ikkoku" Style ^_^

For those of you with significant others, I hope you didn't forget that today is Valentine's Day.  ^_~  In the spirit of the day, here's one of my favorite, romantic images from Takahashi-sensei's best manga work, Maison Ikkoku, featuring Godai embracing the lovely Kyoko-san.

I really wish Viz would re-release this series complete with new translations and the inclusion of Japanese honorifics and translator notes.  I'd double-dip that in a flash were they to do so.  ^_^

Negima! Manga Vol 35 Ch 317 Review

魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 35 Chapter 317 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 317

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

"Poyo" and Mana pause their fight, both sensing Negi's revival though "Poyo" figures it might be too late.

Elsewhere, Takahata and Kurt are still in a desperate fight with hoards of summoned monsters when the first reports of powerful mana storms arrive, turning everything they touch into dust.  All over the magic world, massive storms with tornadoes destroy everything in their path and reveal the true Martian landscape beneath. 

As this is happening, Setsuna is still in a desperate fight while Ku Fei, Chisame, Chamo, Ako, Akira, Konoka, and Shiori all race on, boosted by a shot by Ako's artifact when Anya launches an attack to stop them, fearing they would race passed her.  She complains that Kotaro and company treated her like a kid and left her behind but has bad news as she reports about what happened with the others and so they have to go help them, especially since Konoka is a healer.

Top-side, Fate arrives just as Shirabe revives. Fate orders her to take Asuna to the designated place as she ponders what happened while she was out, seeing the bound Natsumi and Nodoka.  Fate has taken their pactio cards and is amazed that such rare artifact cards have been produced but that the game is over.  Nodoka claims to know what Fate is thinking even without her card -- he has Negi constantly on his mind.  Nodoka cites Negi's remarks about wanting to be friends with Fate, which she finds to be a good thing.  She doesn't think Fate's group are bad people and invites Fate to come to Mahora to have coffee at a good shop she knows.

Her remarks are interrupted by a slap from Fate, but she just smiles back.  Fate is irritated but before he can do anything, Negi arrives on top of Great Paru-sama.  Negi glares at Fate who simply responds that he had grown tired of waiting for him.

Thoughts/Review:

I know some of you guys think this is bad of me, but I'm hoping that "Poyo" turns out to be mostly right in that it is just about too late to save the world.  If this is the case, then everything remains on target for Chao to go back in time to try to change history and complete the circle.  I kinda tend to suspect that Negi may be able to save all the people, but that the world won't be the same as it was and living will be tough.

Looks like Setsuna is getting beaten but for all we know, she just won the fight and is just in bad shape herself.

Then, there's Anya.  She suddenly shows up just in time to stop the fleeing girls.  I'm still highly suspicious of Anya.  While Kotaro's group has to use Natsumi's artifact to slip in undetected, Anya is able to "watch the show" as it were without being noticed?  I'm just not buying it at this point.  If she is working with Fate and company, then there's a specific reason to alter their course.  If not, then it is simply to gather their fallen comrades.  We'll see.

I wonder what the significance of Negi's harem having rare pactio cards is.

You have to hand it to Nodoka, eh?  I know that Paru slapping or otherwise being show to beat Nodoka (whether as a joke or not) has toughened her up a bit, combined with her time with Ala Alba both on Earth and the Magic World.  However, Negi's arrival means that at long last, we may actually bring the Magic World arc to an end and a fight between Fate and Negi begin.  Then again, Akamatsu-sensei may have some evil twist planned for us.  ^_~

So, not really a lot to comment on.  As there's a break this week, Negima! chapter 318 is scheduled to be released on Feb 23.  I'll be keeping an eye open for spoiler images, should they appear.

Haiyoru! Nyaru-ani: Remember My Mr. Lovecraft - 08

Haiyoru! Nyaruani: Remember My Love (Craft-sensei) episode 8 review
這いよる！ニャルアニ リメンバー・マイ・ラブ（クラフト先生）

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Nyarle apologizes profusely to Mahiro for something she's done.

But understands if Mahiro doesn't want to hear her excuses but hopes he will just the same.

Since Nyarlko and the others were out (in Kyoto)...

...she was trying to protect him from "Night-Gaunts" as this is her job.

That's because "Mahiro-san" is a special person...Nyarle means any special person of Nyarlko is special to her.

Not that  Nyarle doesn't find Mahiro-san attractive but...ooops, she said too much.

Nyarle's not herself and hasn't slept well.

So she freaks out...

...but Mahiro just wants wants her to fix "it."

 

She blows up instead, leaving Mahiro with the aftermath of her actions.

Twenty-one days until something happens.

Thoughts/Review

Its the old apology joke taken to the extreme.  Its supposed to be funny and I'm sure some people laughed but I would not be amongst their numbers.  Therefore, I shall now go to bed, safe in the knowledge that there are no Night-Gaunts about.  *nods*