Clichés make a show boring. The more clichéd a story is, the less interesting and enjoyable it becomes. But my theory is that this relationship only holds true until you hit a certain magical event horizon where the laws of the universe break apart, one gets divided by zero and clichés become art.

How people react when I tell them I enjoyed IS

Infinite Stratos was my guilty pleasure from last season. I actually caught the last episode in Japan last month and have since read volumes 4-6 of the light novels, picking up from where the anime leaves off. Hence, I speak on good authority when I say that IS is one huge clichéfest. But for some reason, it’s enjoyable.

Only in anime: girls fight to feed you food

The basic premise of IS is one of the oldest stories ever told by anime: some lucky bastard ends up in a situation where he is constantly surrounded by sex-deprived girls who lust for the first man they bump into in the hallway. The inclusion of fighting mecha is initially reminiscent of Sakura Wars, but the storytelling is closer to Tenchi Muyo.

Hey wasn’t this from Gundam 00?

The Chosen One

In the story, IS are personalized powered armour suits, equipped with insanely powerful weapons ripped straight from the Gundam multiverse that — for very feebly conceived reasons — are not used for warfare but given to teenagers for unspecified purposes that no one really bothers explaining. They can only be piloted by girls, except for the one single exception, chosen by the almighty plot device, that is the main character, Ichika Orimura. As a science fiction, IS is pretty terrible, so it’s a good thing that the author is not trying too hard to make it one.

Spot the tsundere

The cool part about the character interactions is the fact that almost all the heroines are tsundere! Okay, it sounds lame when I articulate it in words, but really it is an impressive feat. Probably.

Of the five female IS pilots chasing after Ichika, only one can be categorically excluded from the tsundere classification, while each of the remaining four represents a different sub-division of tsundere. I am pretty sure making 80% of the characters tsundere violates some kind of international convention governing harem anime. This is either a work of madness or genius.

How people react to IS‘ storytelling

Just to be clear, the story is absolutely terrible. But the story is really not that important when it comes to having a good time with IS. You must enjoy the characters and relish the ridiculous situations they create when they get together. It’s one of those shows.

Of course, such a formula only works well for some quick laughs. The lack of an engaging story is definitely unsustainable in the long run.

Tatenashi Sarashiki is introduced in Vol. 5

The light novels injected life into the post-anime story by introducing a new character, Tatenashi Sarashiki (the playful but capable head of the student council), into the mix, hence covering the previously unoccupied teasing-senpai (i.e. Tama-nee) spot, but it is clear that constantly introducing new characters is not a viable long-term solution to generate interest. The author does take a huge step in advancing the overarching story in Volume 6, but so far it has failed to impress.

Beach episode: the forward pass of harem anime

But for the length of 12 episodes, the formula works just fine. In fact, the anime’s excellent pacing is almost sublime in its execution, like the well-timed punchlines of a skilful comedian. I was particularly impressed by episode 9, the fan-service episode, where the writer has somehow managed to fit an unbelievable amount of character and visual fan-service into one tight 20-minute package. That is truly the work of artisans.

So much armour and yet so little is covered

The animation and art quality is also surprisingly decent and consistent across the 12 episodes, all things considered, especially when you compare it to the typical cookie-cutter low-budget adapted-from-game titles found in great abundance in the same genre. Okay, maybe my bar was just set very low.

Ultimately, it takes a particular kind of mindset to get into IS. In my case, I started with very low, almost non-existent, overall expectations and found myself liking the characters, hence a good story was never within my range of considerations and its absence was not disconcerting. It also helps a great deal if you love tsundere, because the show is full of them… XD

More screencaps

Ichika’s teacher/sister is kind of tsundere

As IS technology advances, the skin exposure increases

The kendo-girl childhood-friend tsundere

The twin-tail childhood-friend Chinese tsundere

The twin-drill refined-lady British tsundere

The stoic tough-yet-naive flat-chested German tsundere

Three tsundere caught in an infinite loop of mutual contempt

Tsundere rule: smiles like this are usually followed by swift violence

Possibly the boss character of some fantasy RPG

Floating shoulders, how do they work?

This is a job for Admiral Ackbar’s brother

Some kind of futuristic mating ritual

I think this is what people call a reach around?

Okay so this is my favourite character in the show…

●__◎

Unlimited?! That’s over 9000!

Okay not twin drill. More like quad drill. It’s the future

Bunny ears…

How people react when I told them I was going to Tokyo last month

Eye-patch moé?

Mecha designs in the IS universe are often suspiciously convenient…

tl;dr version: Infinite Stratos is for people who appreciate the finer subtleties of tsundere.

Level E is an amazing underhyped show. It’s Men in Black with Japanese comedy and self parody. You have to wonder why it took them 15 years to adapt the original into anime.

The first three episodes of Level E do a good job of concealing its true nature. But don’t be misled; finish the third episode and be amazed. Episode four follows up with a complete wtf turnabout with a thoughtful twist and episode five is just pure parody gold.

Now this may all seem incredibly vague, but it’s hard to talk about Level E without spoiling the surprise that makes it great. In fact, I can’t really think of how to review it.

Instead I’ll just talk about episode 5. If my vague praises have already sold you on the series, then stop reading now and go watch it yourself.

In episode 5, the main character, an alien prince from the planet Dogura, is bored and decides to kidnap five school kids to turn them into sentai heroes to fight against their alien homeroom teacher, who is secretly an intergalactic assassin.

Unlike the 2-bit protagonists in most sentai stories, these kids are unwilling (except for the dorky one) to fight for what appears to be a pervert dressed in tights, but reluctantly agree because the prince threatens to hold them hostage.

The helpful instruction manual

The prince dubs them “Colour Change Rangers”. Their transformation devices (which are really toys bought on the intergalactic equivalent of the Home Shopping Network) grant them minuscule powers like lighting a small fire.

They have to wear their silly costumes in order to “level up” and gain better powers, while the prince gets to speak directly into their minds through the devices and annoy them endlessly with his self-composed Colour Change Rangers theme song.

Really, what if Zordon were just a bored alien prince who wanted to make some human kids dress up in silly costumes and shout embarrassing slogans? Epic trolling.

Even alien assassins have dreams

Come to think of it, Level E itself is one huge troll.

If anime were a religion, magical girls would be one of its Five Pillars, along with shounen battle, love comedy, mecha and sports. Friendship, courage and cuteness are the fundamentals of the classic mahou shoujo. Implied yuri and teenage angst come optional in contemporary interpretations.

It’s a genre that is really easy to understand and that’s why I’ve never really been a huge fan of it. It’s like watching the latest Hollywood adaptation of yet another Marvel superhero — mildly entertaining with few surprises.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is different. I am not ready to declare it the best show this season after three episodes, but I will say that it definitely stands out.

Story

Madoka Magica has a typical story. Madoka Kaname, a normal and klutzy heroine who is not very confident about herself, finds herself caught in the midst of a supernatural battle between “Puellae Magi” (magical girls) and “Witches”.

Stare into its eyes…

Kyubey, the obligatory magical mascot creature, wants to recruit Madoka to fight the Witches and offers to grant her a single wish of her choice in return.

Homura Akemi, a transfer student with an unfriendly demeanour who turns out to be a Puella Magi herself, cryptically warns Madoka not to get involved.

Mami Tomoe, a Puella Magi fighting for Kyubey, gives Madoka some friendly advice and teaches her what being a Puella Magi entails.

Thoughts

Madoka Magica’s art style instantly stands out. The background illustrations, whether indoors or outdoors, are expansive and untamed, very unlike the claustrophobic Japanesque settings usually found in anime. Every scene in the anime feels surreal and somehow magical for reasons I can’t quite put into words.

Classroom without desks

Such rooftops have never been seen on an anime school building

The railings are straight but the street lights are caught in a fish-eye lens

The fight scenes take place in some kind of alternate dimension created by the Witches. The background animation in this alternate dimension features a cut-out visual style I can only describe as “Monty Python”. There is something mildly disturbing about the little creatures(?) scurrying around this alternate dimension. I would describe these sequences as visual manifestations of nightmares.

What is this I don’t even

The stuff dreams are made of

Maybe this is just a cunning plan to cut animation budget

The start of the first episode is somewhat reminiscent of Black Rock Shooter.

The score composed by Yuki Kajiura and the ending song by Kalafina are amazing as usual and Kajiura’s style is really a perfect match for the animation. The combination sends chills down my spine.

Okay, I realize I am just writing in random disjointed sentences. This show is really messing up my mind. Let me try to collect my thoughts…

*Deep breath*

I think the most enjoyable part of Madoka Magica is the way it manages to capture exactly what I think magical girls should feel like.

Beneath the cutesy surface, there is an unspoken air of uncertainty, paranoia and even fear. There is a subtle hint that something dark and horrible lies just out of sight and things are not as simple as they appear to be. Refuge from the unknown is only temporary and peace can at any moment be replaced by chaos. The music and the otherworldly art style bring that message home perfectly.

You can frame this and hang it on a wall

Imagine, a weird talking creature appears one day to tell you to risk your life fighting unknown monsters. There is nothing magical or happy about that picture. Unlike most titles of the genre, Madoka Magica tells it as it is. I really, really like that.

Penetrating stare…

The fact is that magical girls in anime are never truly in danger. Fear and despair always come across as a transparent performance seeking to accentuate the ultimate triumph of love, hope and all things pure and good. The presentation in these shows never matches the supposed gravity of the situation — little girls fighting for their lives against great evil. The heroine may be torn and tattered, but the audience is never really forced to leave our comfort zone.

Madoka Magica on the other hand makes me feel very uncomfortable. It feels like there are no safe assumptions to be made and everything can and will fall apart at a moment’s notice. I have no idea where the story is going and I am dying to find out. This is a good thing.

Step 1 to fighting Witches

Own, like, a billion guns

For example, Kyubey looks like a stereotypical magical companion, but I find his unchanging expression, adorable as it may be, rather disturbing. When he offers Madoka a wish in return for her becoming a Puella Magi, the first thing that came to my mind was that it sounds like a deal with the devil. The fact that Homura appears to be very bitter about being a Puella Magi and wants to stop Madoka from becoming one further foreshadows the nature of this Faustian bargain.

Kyubey’s eternally frozen :3 expression looks downright unhinging if you pay attention. It cannot be unseen.

Your soul in exchange for anything you wish and powers beyond your imagination

Similarly, there is thus far no real explanation for why Puellae Magi are fighting the Witches. Interestingly, Witches drop a “Seed” when they die, which can then be used by a Puella Magi to recharge her magical powers. This frankly sounds like a predator-prey relationship more than a fight for love or justice. It seems to hint at something darker and more sinister about the unexplained relationship between the two.

Of course, it is possible that I am over-thinking this whole thing. Perhaps it will turn out to be nothing more than a completely generic mahou shoujo story with funkier art.

But the fact that the show makes me wonder at all is probably testament to its uniqueness.

Usually I only spend one post on every show I blog about, either a first impression or a full review. I think this may turn out to be one of the few exceptions. We shall see.

More screencaps

Madoka’s mother is, dare I say, a MILF

This is totally getting banned in Tokyo

This supporting character reminds me of someone but I cannot quite come up with a name

I guess Homura is Fate to Madoka’s Nanoha…

Sayaka is Madoka’s good friend

She’s kind of a main character but seems redundant

Weird structure on top of the school building

Classy

It’s some kind of monster chicken

Someone should introduce Mami to guns that can hold more than one round

Or I guess one huge round would do…

The hidden camera view…

Sweet dreams are made of this

I am suddenly reminded of this.

There is no way my post title is so long. Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai, or OreImo as it is commonly abbreviated, is an interesting twist of the quintessential tsundere anime genre popularized by titles such as Shakugan no Shana and Zero no Tsukaima.

And beyond that, it, like Genshiken, is a testament to the subculture that has sprung up around bishoujo anime and games.

Despite its suspicious title (“There is no way my sister is this cute”), OreImo, at least the anime adaptation, is not about incest. There is certainly some suggestive tension between Kyousuke Kousaka and his tsundere sister Kirino Kousaka that does not usually exist between siblings, but arguably the masterful execution keeps it within tastefully platonic limits.

This can be disappointing if you walk into it hoping for another Koi Kaze, but on some level the setup is oddly appropriate given the personalities of the two main characters and the theme of the story. Nevertheless, the show does contain enough emotionally-charged moments to make the viewer blush excitedly like a giddy school girl.

Kirino Kousaka is a typical teenage girl who hates her brother Kyousuke Kousaka. But one day, Kyousuke accidentally discovers that Kirino is actually a huge closet otaku who has a pile of eroge tall enough to touch the ceiling hidden in her otaku closet and an ironic fetish for little sisters. Kirino, who has thus far kept her double life secret from even her closest friend, is initially horrified but slowly realizes that having someone share her secret may not be such a bad thing. With Kyousuke’s help, Kirino gradually overcomes her self-loathing and decides to be more honest with her passions (perhaps in more than one way). Of course, with Kyousuke around to help her buy 18+ eroge, she also descends farther into oblivion… めでたしめでたし。

That stack of games cost a few thousand dollars

As with any anime dealing with otaku, things get really meta. There are many allusions and references to real-life anime and game titles and Kirino’s many dilemmas (usually, which girl to kouryaku first) probably strike a chord with many of the show’s viewers. Every commercial break eyecatch contains a imouto-themed parody of an actual anime or game and every episode has a unique ED song along with a unique illustration provided by a well-known doujin or eroge artist. As with Genshiken, it gives you a very warm and fuzzy feeling inside to know that this perverted little niche has grown to become a substantial subcultural force of its own.

Eyecatch

Kirino practising sexual grooming on virtual lolis

In a way, OreImo is really just Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu, except that Haruhi is Kyon’s little sister and she likes to play pornographic games about little sisters instead of searching for UFOs or aliens. Haruhi herself has some maniac tendencies (e.g. making Mikuru dress up as a bunny girl to provide fan service) that endear her to the audience’s inner selves. Kirino takes that concept one step further by being a full-blown closet otaku. And like Kyon, Kyousuke gets to clean up her mess afterwards behind the scenes.

@_@

To be honest, while combining Haruhi and Genshiken does make for an interesting concept as it is, the real draw of OreImo for me is the complicated relationship between Kyousuke and Kirino. There’s a popular saying in Japanese, tomodachi ijou koibito miman 友達以上恋人未満 (more than friends, less than lovers), which on a side note actually has an eroge named after it. You can probably call Kyousuke and Kirino kyoudai ijou koibito miman 兄妹以上恋人未満 (more than siblings, less than lovers).

Kirino cries knowing that she can never be with her brother…

Even though Kirino fits the typical tsundere heroine archetype that has proliferated throughout the industry over the years as part of its moétification, and even though Kyousuke is more or less an exact replica of Kyon, the fact that they are siblings serves as an insurmountable absolute barrier against potential developments. All tsundere characters have their barriers (e.g. the master-servant relationship seen in Zero no Tsukaima) to prevent the relationship from escalating beyond the status quo until the season finale, but the one between Kirino and Kyousuke is real and indestructible. There isn’t even the usual wriggle room of “siblings unrelated by blood”.

There is no way my family has so many different hair colours

Having not read the novels, I spent most of the 12 episodes wondering how the show intends to give a satisfactory ending to the web that it has weaved. An actual incestuous ending would be, in my opinion, oddly out of place — too straightforward and simple for a story that so carefully dances around the issue. And yet, a tsundere setup without a teredere ending just feels wrong. This sense of dilemma, I feel, is where OreImo truly differentiates itself. Wherein most works of similar genre a happy ending is predictable and welcomed, in OreImo it is uncertain and emotionally complicated.

Indeed, I personally find that OreImo’s “Good Ending” is the non-controversial compromise that is decent but somewhat hollow. Perhaps this is why OreImo will have 4 extra DVD episodes that will form 2 alternate endings to the series. Will I be condemned if I say that I am looking forward to the “True Ending”?

^_^

>:(

Ahh… Toranoana at Akiba. Nostalgic.

Kirino’s awesomely psychotic best friend

There is no way my otaku meta-anime doesn’t feature a Comiket episode

This proves it. Kirino is Konata!

Kuroneko, cat-eared dweller of the eternal darkness

Mutually-Assured Tsundere

KIRA☆

Also looking forward to the OreImo PSP game… >_>

I’ve been following Kadokawa Shoten CEO Shinichirou Inoue’s Twitter feed for a while mainly due to Bill 156. Today, he posted a tweet saying that a huge announcement for Suzumiya Haruhi will be published in the next issue of Kadokawa’s The Sneaker magazine (the bi-monthly that the original light novels are serialized in) coming out on Dec 27th.

Given the complete lack of information, I am just going to make a completely baseless guess and call it now: live action movie adaptation of the original Yuuutsu story arc! (No, not this one.) Remember you heard it here first.

Well, at the very least, I think we can be sure that it won’t be a new special rip-off remastered edition of the DVDs, since the Blu-ray box only just came out.

One a upon a time, in an oriental archipelago far far away, a wise sensei of the literary arts told his students, “Foreshadowing can be used to masterfully hint at the future direction of your story and make the experience more interesting for your readers. This is an ancient technique passed down through the centuries and it has the power to either advance the human condition when used for good or destroy all life on Earth if it should ever fall into the wrong hands.”

Unfortunately, his lesson was soon forgotten. The Dark Side is too strong and the temptation too great. Forged by the twisted nethers of teenage angst and the passionate flames of homoeroticism, The Legend of the Legendary Heroes is a massive black hole of pure foreshadowing, unrestrained by such mundane limiters as climax or resolution.

Yes, “The Legend of the Legendary Heroes” (Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu) is guilty of more crimes against humanity than just its ultra-camp title.

The 24-episode anime is an adaptation of a long-running epic fantasy light novel series written by Takaya Kagami. There are dozens of books published and maybe they are all great books. I haven’t read any of them so I wouldn’t know.

Despite its title, LotLH is not a parody as I had initially hoped. The story, set in a fantasy world, starts off light-hearted with the main character Ryner Lute and his partner Ferris Eris travelling through foreign lands in search of fantastical weapons of mass destruction — powerful relics left by ancient legendary heroes who fought apocalyptic wars against mythical monsters and, probably, one another.

Ryner and Ferris were sent on this quest by the newly-crowned king of their country, who supposedly wants to locate all the forgotten relics out of a magnanimous and selfless desire to “create a peaceful world where there is no war.” Presumably he plans to do this by either nuking or conquering everyone else using the relics’ devastating powers. Most of it doesn’t make sense and no one really bothers to explain the details. This is true of almost everything any of the characters ever do.

Ferris and Ryner

Ryner can be best described by the Obfuscating Stupidity trope. He is lazy and hates the mission that he has been forced to carry out, but it is hinted that he possesses some kind of secret talent and is highly capable despite spending all his free time taking naps. Ferris is a violent tsundere swordswoman sent by the king to whip Ryner into doing his job but claims to be his bodyguard. Hilarious Japanese light novel-style comedy hijinks ensue.

Over the course of the series, as we learn more about the king, Sion Astal, and his history with Ryner, the story takes rapid descent into emo-town and eventually becomes a charcoal-grey canvas of forgotten dreams and lost hopes. There is plenty of laughter and the occasional punchline, but everything is interlaced with betrayals, broken promises and utter despair. Every character in the show carries a dark secret but hides it behind his/her friendly exterior. The sole except is the dreary Miran Froaude who is gloomy all the time.

Behind that smile, he is thinking about slitting his wrist

As a fantasy epic, The Legend of the Legendary Heroes is probably quite decent. The story is driven more by passion and emo than by logic, but it has all the fundamental bases covered: friendship and camaraderie, betrayal and vengeance, epic battles and medieval-style diplomacy, etc. Its meandering rambles on war and peace can even be occasionally thoughtful. As the story progresses and conflicts between characters and factions play out, we get the sense that a larger underlying story exists somewhere beneath all that entangled relationships that will be gradually revealed over time.

Unfortunately, what I described is as true for episode 24 as it is for episode 2. Right until the final scene of the last episode, the audience never truly gets to understand what exactly is the ultimate truth that we seek. I imagine this is what it would feel like if Scrapped Princess or Utawarerumono had ended without revealing the “catch” of their respective universe. All that is left is a handful of meaningless proper nouns and unexplained character motivations. Disappointing.

Shining Finger!

To be fair, the novel that it is based on is a pretty long series that certainly cannot be distilled into just 24 episodes. But still, I find it hard to accept the fact that LotLH, a 24-episode series, can have no discernible climax or story resolution that can stand on its own merits, especially since a second season does not appear to be a certainty. That’s 24 episodes worth of emotional investment stuck in limbo. 24 episodes of nothing but foreshadowing. I call it a crime against humanity.

And LotLH is really quite a charming show. The characters are lovable in their imperfections and the conflicts are full of moral dilemmas. Foreshadowing of a massive conspiracy at work is always a delight, but sadly in this case it never amounts to anything concrete. In fact, I did not realize that episode 24 is meant to be the final episode until 15 minutes into it.

Sion shares my feelings over the direction of the story

Sure, a second season may eventually be made to finish the story. But then again it may not. Regardless, it would have been nice to have a proper self-contained sub-plot that could be resolved within the span of the season to give the audience a sense of closure and still leave the larger story open for future sequels. Even the Harry Potter books managed to accomplish that much.

Towards the end of the series, I realized that, having lost hope that the story was going to arrive at any meaningful resolution, I continued to press on mostly in the pursue of more Ferris fanservice. Ryner, just kiss her damn it!

Ferris can hit me with her giant claymore any day, if you know what I mean. :3

Here is an appropriate video to end my post.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is set to pass new legislation restricting the sales of manga depicting certain sexual acts to minors under eighteen.

Contrary to what certain easily-excitable individuals may proclaim, this is not a ban and this is not the end of the anime. But it will certainly pose a huge problem to the industry.

Background

The proposed law has been working its way around the bureaucracy for months and started off as an anti-lolicon bill. A detailed guideline to classifying paedophilic content in manga was drafted by the person in charge, but this proposal was shot down for being too vague.

In the guideline, the author attempted to justify why certain scenes of nudity featuring minors (such as Doraemon‘s Shizuka Minamoto who loves to take baths) will fall outside the definition of child porn, but this was deemed to be too arbitrary by the committee who probably possessed enough mental capacity in their old age to realize that enforcing age restrictions against drawn cartoon characters is insane. The bill failed to muster enough support.

Months later, it was resurrected and rewritten to target depiction or glorification of sex acts that are illegal (e.g. rape) or immoral (e.g. incest which is not illegal in Japan), a criterion which was deemed to be much more enforceable and objective. This has the unfortunate side effect of making the law even more draconian than its original intention.

Yesterday, the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly’s General Affairs Committee approved the bill by a large majority after a last-minute compromise between the conservative LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) proponents led by Tokyo Governor Shintarou Ishihara (who famously cracked down on Kabukichou) and the DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan, the less conservative national ruling party) assemblymen. The compromise requested by the DPJ was to include a clause giving exceptions to works that demonstrates “artistic merits”.

The LDP, DPJ and Komeito voted for the bill and only the Seikatsusha Network Mirai and the Japanese Communist Party (i.e. pretty fringe oppositions) voted against it over technical disagreements rather than principled ones. Having passed the General Affairs Committee, the bill is expected to be passed by the main assembly tomorrow, 15 Dec 10, despite uncharacteristically intense protests from the industry.

Her name is Reon Kadena

Tokyo Anime Fair

Due to Governor Ishihara’s uncompromising attitude against the anime and manga industry, he is perceived by some to be carrying out a personal vendetta by pushing for this bill.

In protest of this, ten major publishing companies led by Kadokawa, including Kodansha, Shueisha, Shogakukan, have withdrawn their participation from the upcoming Tokyo Anime Fair taking place in March next year. Collectively, they own the rights to a large portion of the popular current titles. Unless this boycott is called off, Tokyo Anime Fair 2011 will likely be cancelled or at least totally lame and pointless.

When asked for his opinions regarding the boycott by a reporter, Governor Isihhara (who is technically the chairperson of the TAF organising committee but seems to be totally disinterested in it) responded angrily and effectively told the companies to fuck off and do whatever they want.

And late last night, Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who is not involved in this prefecture-level legislation, included a short postscript in his blog post describing this as an issue concerning the “Japan Brand”. He covered his base by saying that protecting the youth is important, but goes on to emphasise that promoting anime is also important as part of Japan’s soft power. He appeals for the parties involved to ensure that it will be possible for Tokyo Anime Fair to continue to thrive in Tokyo. This is interpreted by some as a warning to Ishihara not to push the issue too far.

Saaya Irie

The Law

Information on the proposed ordinance itself is scant online because Japan as a nation is terrified of the Internet and refuses to post any useful information online. If someone can find the full Japanese text of the bill, please link me. (UPDATE: Refer to the bottom of the entry for the relevant text extracted from the actual bill.)

But from what I have gleamed from Japanese new sources, the proposed law seeks to restrict sales of anime and manga titles depicting or glorifying sex acts that are illegal or immoral. The two examples given by all the newspapers were rape and incest, but presumably this is not an exhaustive list.

It is interesting that the law specifically targets anime and manga instead of generic creative works. This lends credit to the suggestions of certain conservative agenda at work. Or perhaps otaku were simply deemed to be harmless weaklings who would not be able to resist, giving an easy brownie point for the moral crusaders.

Please also note that this is a Tokyo Metropolis bill being passed by the Tokyo Metropolitan (i.e. prefecture) government and not the Japanese national government situated in Tokyo, so if passed it will affect only the Tokyo area.

Effective Ban

This ordinance does not ban anything. Hardcore pornographic manga will still be legal as they have always been, because they already comply with the proposed 18+ restrictions.

However, there are many manga titles targeted at working adults that will be affected by the proposed law. Off the top of my head, I imagine titles such as Kiss x Sis, Gantz, Berserk and various yuri/yaoi titles will be faced with a dilemma.

The problem is that being classified as “18+” is a commercial kiss of death similar to the AO games rating in the US. Book stores will either not stock the books or place them in a corner designated for pornography. This will be a huge distribution, retail and advertising disadvantage for titles that are not porn but contain select scenes that fall under the new law.

Yes, hardcore ero-manga has its lucrative niche in the market. But if Berserk has to be sold next to actual porn in a hidden corner of the shop, then how can it hope to attract the attention of its intended audience: adults looking for edgy seinen manga? In the long run, this results in a chilling effect on the creative freedom in storytelling, since publishers will be unwilling to fund such works given the risk of being branded 18+ by the Tokyo government.

There are existing retail ordinance regulating the sales of porn and 18+ materials. I am not familiar with the exact intricacies, but I suspect that restricted advertising and physical isolation are probably among the guidelines.

Additionally, there are online speculations about whether titles like Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai and Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt will be affected, but my feeling is that it won’t be that drastic, so don’t get your panties in a bunch just yet. Yosuga no Sora on the other hand…

Aki Hoshino

Opinion — Doujinshi

The enforcement of the law will presumably entail government bureaucrats spending all day reading manga and watching anime in order to decide which titles should be 18+ restricted.

This brings into question how doujinshi, being non-commercial and unfunded in nature, will be treated by the system. If right holders must submit their works for approval for an administrative fee, then this barrier of entry may effectively prevent doujinshi from being sold in retail stores in Tokyo.

This also makes me wonder about Comiket. From my experience, Comiket tries to group works of similar nature together (i.e. smut with smut) but this is not enforced strictly and in general the individual stalls lack any indication of whether their products are 18+ in nature (at least the ones where this is not immediately obvious).

I presume that Comiket has long been in violation of some kind of Tokyo ordinance governing sales of porn and the government was just sort of turning a blind eye on it. I was actually under 18 during my first trip to Comiket and there was no age limit of any kind being enforced. If the Tokyo government chooses to tighten its enforcement, I wonder what will happen.

Certainly, it will be extremely costly and difficult for the organising committee to implement any effective screening for doujinshi sold during Comiket, especially since many of them are finalized literally days before the event. At the same time, enforcing an age limit for half a million visitors will not be any less insane.

I wonder if there exist any venues outside of Tokyo with infrastructure capable of hosting Comiket should it come to that.

Saaya Irie

Opinion — Age Limit

I am a free speech guy. In general where possible, I prefer unrestrained expression and have argued this before. However, I agree that age restrictions can be necessary and effective. In this case, the problem does not lie so much with the intention the law, but rather in the implementation.

As adults, I think we can all agree that we want a level of entertainment that exists between teenage-oriented shounen titles and hardcore pornography. The problem with a 18+ or nothing rating system is that it makes it difficult to market such a product. Market it as 18+ and be relegated to obscurity or market it as all ages and get blamed when children buy it.

This problem is not new and the industry has always tried to side-step it through its own system of genre classifications. But there is no uniform guideline that informs consumers if a seinen title is unsuitable for the youth. This problem has long been solved by movies and video games, so it puzzles me why it continues to be a problem here despite being often brought up.

I suspect that this has something to do with the industry not wishing to spend more money on working out a age classification system. But I think it’s also because such age restrictions were never deemed necessary for novels and you can easily find explicit pornographic novels prominently displayed in any major Japanese book stores with no restrictions on them.

So, I think a more comprehensive gradient of age classifications will help to alleviate some of the political pressure being exerted on the industry. You can argue that children still get to play violent video games, but the point is for the industry to demonstrate that it has done its part.

Branding your own product 18+ is commercial suicide. But if a sensible classification system exists that allows adult-oriented entertainment to thrive while differentiating them from both shounen and porn titles, content owners may be more willing to classify their works properly, reducing the need for a clumsy bureaucracy to step in.

Yukie Kawamura

Opinion — Enforcement

I think one interesting food-for-thought for me personally is the enforcement process.

Manga is just drawn pictures. How do you prove that illegal or immoral acts are being portrayed or glorified? I’m sure it will be clear cut in many situations, but I can think of a lot of potential loopholes.

For example, you can prove incest in real-life through DNA test, but how will you do that in manga? What if the characters involved turn out to be not related by blood? What if they are not depicted as siblings at all, but the girl just likes to call the guy “onii-san”?

The other example used, rape, is similarly mind-boggling. How can fictional characters give consent? What constitutes manga rape? I can see plenty of room for contention if someone chooses to dispute a specific ruling.

Furthermore, are non-explicit yuri and yaoi manga “glorifying” immoral sexual behaviours? And, for that matter, will homosexuality be considered immoral? There are a lot of unanswered questions over which I cannot opine without a copy of the original legislative text. (Refer to UPDATE below for further information.)

Conclusion

This law will not be the end of manga and anime because Bleach, Naruto and One Piece will survive like how cockroaches will survive the nuclear holocaust. But it will probably make manga and anime a lot duller than they have to be, in the absence of a more sensible content classification guideline.

Given the number of manga titles being produced on a regular basis and the amount of bureaucracy that will probably be required to assess them using these highly subjective criteria, this law will inevitably add an invisible tax to an industry that is not exactly in its best days.

The most likely outcome is that future titles deemed to be pushing the vague lines drawn by the law will be canned by the publishers because of the undetermined risks involved. There will be a huge financial incentive for companies to self censor and err on the safe side. This will most probably achieve the conservatives’ intended effect of reining in the industry’s growing dependency on sexual titillation, but one wonders at what cost.

As the Papa Bear puts it, this fucking thing sucks.

P.S. I think my favourite comment on this whole situation comes from Diemeow23 in Sankaku Complex’s blog comments:

If this does get implemented then I’m glad I saw anime and manga at its most shining brilliance however perverted the light was

Update

I was linked to the legislative text in question (so Japan does do some things right :P). The relevant portion of the text that defines works targeted by the law:

第八条第一項第二号の東京都規則で定める基準　漫画、アニメーションその他の画像（実å†ã‚’é¤ãã€‚）で、刑罰法規に触れる性交若しくは性交類似行為又は婚姻を禁止されている近親者間における性交若しくは性交類似行為を、不当に賛美し又は誇張ãã‚‹ã‚ˆã†ã«ã€æå†ã—又は表現ãã‚‹ã“とにより、青少年の性に関ãã‚‹å¥å…¨ãªåˆ¤æ–­èƒ½åŠ›ã®å½¢æˆã‚’妨げ、青少年の健全な成長を阻害ãã‚‹ãŠãã‚ŒãŒã‚るもの

The criterion as defined by Rule 2, Paragraph 1, Article 8 of the Tokyo Metropolitan Law: Comics, animation and other images (excluding photographs) that improperly glorify or exaggerate, through their depiction or presentation of, acts of sexual intercourse that violate penal laws or sexual conducts or acts of sexual intercourse between close relatives who are legally prohibited from marriage, and as a result may be harmful to the wholesome development of young people and impede their ability to form healthy impressions about sex.

It appears that the law is not as far-reaching as suggested by initial reports. Since homosexuality is perfectly legal in Japan, this means that yuri and yaoi are safe for now. It’s funny how they have to propose a roundabout definition of incest since it is not actually an illegal act in Japan.

This explains why news outlets reported the law as targeting illegal and immoral sex acts — incest is technically not illegal. But it also means that other forms of “immoral” sex acts are not actually covered by the law so long as they are legal in themselves by the standards of the penal code. But it’s still amusing to have to judge the legality of actions committed by fictional drawings.

So, all in all, this issue seems to be worthy of protest and improvement but it is nowhere close to an end-game scenario for the industry, since most ecchi fanservice and softcore porn depicted in anime and manga are neither illegal (especially since the age of consent in Tokyo is 13, well below the age of most anime characters) nor incestuous.

An extremely short trailer for Makoto Shinkai’s latest project “Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo” has been released on the official site. The length and amount of plot details contained are about the same as the Byousoku 5cm trailer.

It looks like he is actually moving out of his comfort zone into more adventurous fantasy territory. There’s a really strong Ghibli vibe in this one, both in terms of design and setting, but since the character designer is still Takayo Nishimura as in 5cm, I suppose this is more of a deliberate homage and probably doesn’t actually have any Ghibli involvement.

Judging by the trailer, this seems to be one of those girl-falls-into-the-well fantasy stories with a slight edge. Other than the mecha fight in Hoshi no Koe, I can’t recall any other scenes of violence in Shinkai’s past works so this seems new. Hmmm. But I’m sure unrequited bittersweet adolescent love will find its way in somehow.

The Japanese title translates to “Children Who Chase Stars”, but the English subtitle in the official art says “Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below”. I suppose this is like one of those kanji with unconventional reading situation where the writer tries to imply a plot connection between the mismatching versions of the title. But really, let’s just pray that it won’t turn out to be the official English title because it sucks Pokéballs.

Still, more Shinkai is always welcome. At least until he jumps the shark.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present you the final evolution of Gainax. The transformational journey from Gunbuster to Evangelion to FLCL to Diebuster to Gurren Lagann has finally ended with the release of the first epsiode of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. With their latest creation, Gainax has worked three times as hard to extract the pristine essence of ridiculous comedy untainted by unnecessarily impurities like plot or character development. Imagine Gurren Lagann without all the preachy manly life lessons or Diebuster without the touching character dynamics, but with way more funk and screen-shattering action. This is it. And, it’s inexplicably incredible.

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt is about two fallen angels called Panty and Stocking working for a black African-American afro-wearing priest called Garterbelt to exterminate evil Ghosts that plague the city of Daten. Panty is a blonde girl whose magical panties can turn into a ghost-slaying gun while Stocking is a long-haired goth whose stocking can transform into a long sword. Panty is also a nymphomaniac while Stocking is addicted to sweet deserts, so you can roughly guess what cardinal sins they were expelled from heaven for.

They also have a pet… dog(?) called Chuck who looks remarkably similar to Gir.

Stocking

The series is animated in a super deformed stylized presentation that bears some similarity to American cartoons like Powerpuff Girls and Invader Zim, and the art style is heavily influenced by graffiti aesthetics. This may be an immediate turn-off for some regular anime viewers, but it actually works quite well once you get used to it. The quality of animation is actually quite decent and all the fast-paced camera movements and fancy text overlays actually require a lot more effort to animate than the typical cookie-cutter anime series.

Panty

It’s hard to describe what exactly is appealing about Panty & Stocking (sorry Garterbelt, the title is long enough as it is), but it is oddly so. It’s just ridiculous to the point of being funny. Things happen so fast that there’s no time for the viewer to stop and think just how ridiculous the whole thing is. It captures some of the ridiculous charm of the American cartoons it borrows from, but at the same time mixes in some of Gainax’s own brand of ridiculousness, which it developed over the course of FLCL to Gurren Lagann.

Now normally this is where I start to deconstruct the story and examine the writer’s perspectives, but there’s none of that here. The most I can say is that Daten City is definitely meant to be American (there’s an allusion to President Carter at the end of the episode and the cop cars are distinctly American), but I am not at all sure how that Americanness brings anything significant to the table beyond the graffiti and hip-hop visual motifs — it doesn’t. Also Garterbelt’s huge afro. Anyway, there’s really no meaning to be found at all. It’s really pure distilled ridiculousness.

In Afro we trust

In each episode, the two angels encounter a new Ghost who fills some kind of special monster niche (e.g. toilet monster) like those monsters in Powerpuff Girls and fight them with their panties and stocking. When they defeat the Ghost, a holy bell sounds out from heaven and they receive a few Heaven Coins, which I suppose they have to collect to redeem themselves, much like a crack addict fishes out coins from a drain to pay for his next fix. Either that or Garterbelt uses the coins to trade for blings. I really don’t know. He does keep them in this box, though.

I guess you could say that Garterbelt is like the pimp and Panty and Stocking turn tricks figuratively (and literally in Panty’s case) for spare change. Maybe the whole show is a social commentary of the American sex industry? I DON’T KNOW BUT IT’S AWESOME.

Typical pigs amirite?

Each story is so short and straight to the point that it’s only 10 minutes. So each episode is really two mini episodes. It’s like watching Powerpuff Girls again, except that Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup are all grown up, violent and vulgar. Shit, maybe this is a show about innocent lost? That’s, like, so deep man.

This almost looks like the city of Townsville

Oh and there’s this awesome part in episode 1 that’s sort of like the equivalent of a mahou shoujo “transformation” scene where Gainax shows off the pretty art style that fans are more familiar with. (I suspect for the benefits of any potential merchandising opportunities.)

O_o

o_O

Wrong show?

Panty & Stocking is probably a love-it-or-hate-it thing. I loved the first episode, but I do wonder if the Gainax can keep the formula fresh for the rest of the 26 episodes. Still, a surprising and refreshing hit to say the least.

What is this I don’t even-

P.S. The ending theme “Fallen Angel” by Aimee B is pretty decent English.

Highschool of the Dead (HOTD) is a surprising winner once you get pass the campy title reminiscent of last-century B-grade horror movies. Despite a story set-up that is pretty generic in the zombie apocalypse genre, the series manages to mix in enough anime-unique tropes to create an entertaining blend of two vastly different subcultures.

Zombie survival is a relatively modern literary genre that traces its roots to American storywriters inspired by accounts of real-life “zombies” in Haiti, who were basically slaves tricked into believing that they were brought back from the dead after given a blend of tetrodotoxin (the same toxin found in puffer fish) and undergoing a state of near-death.

Hence, most zombie-related movies and novels are of American origin and have over the years evolved a well-documented style of story-telling that is quite far removed from the conditions that cultivated the anime subculture. Though the concept itself is not completely new to Japanese pop culture (e.g. Resident Evil, House of the Dead), I am hard-pressed to name offhand any other anime series that actually features traditional American-style zombies. So HOTD is kind of breaking new ground, I think.

Though zombies differ from story to story, they typically share a few trademark attributes. The zombies featured in HOTD follow the conventional archetype:

• Infectious bite that raises dead victims as zombies
• Slow-moving
• Respond to sound but not sight
• Non-intelligent
• The brain/head is the sole weak spot

This is what happens when you let the undead run the city. Vote human next time

The infectious nature of zombie is typically responsible for a great portion of story tension, because it is difficult for people to accept that their bitten loved ones will soon turn into mindless brain-eating automatons, hence creating a chink in any fool-proof defences that can be conceived by humans with emotions (except maybe some kind of automated killer robot that kills anyone it detects to have been bitten).

Typically, this set-up benefits the sociopaths in a life-and-death situation because they can run away without a second thought, but their advantage is somewhat offset in the long-term by the fact that they eventually need to become part of a sufficiently large community of able-bodied humans in order to survive and defend territories.

The rest of the attributes are basically there to give humans a fighting chance so that they don’t get wiped out instantly (which makes for very boring storytelling). Really, why does the undead have to be slow or unintelligent? See: Sylvannas Windrunner.

The midnight commute is a pain

HOTD is probably not going to break any new grounds in the story mechanics of zombie horror, but what it does is to apply the tried-and-true formula to a bunch of anime stereotypes not typically found in zombie movies. It’s quite common to see losers who (surprise!) turn out to be heroes when confronted by the flesh-eating undead, but it’s a whole different can of entertaining when these losers consist of an angst-ridden shounen protagonist, a loud-mouthed tsunderekko, a textbook otaku and a ditzy fanservice school nurse (who probably saves the day unexpectedly in the end).

It’s almost as if HOTD has somehow managed to craft something unique and creative by combining two ultimate examples of cliché.

Wait…what.

There’s an incredible amount of fanservice in HOTD, which, for the zombie genre, is probably the equivalent of inserting dinosaurs into the Bible. I mean, zombie survival stories thrive on dramatic tension between the characters and well-choreographed horror scenes, both of which should in theory be greatly denatured by having the female characters running everywhere with their panties exposed. The juxtaposition is often almost comedic saved for the fact that the protagonist is about to get her neck bitten off.

What you don’t see is her head falling off the other side

Surprisingly, this odd combination works out far better than it sounds. It flips the whole genre upside down, whereby you start to wonder when the next fanservice shot will interrupt the shambling undead doing their job, and this inversion of viewer expectation can be oddly enjoyable. It’s kind of like Shaun of the Dead except with lingerie. Both the horror and fanservice scenes also benefit greatly from HOTD’s high animation quality.

That said, HOTD does the typical zombie stuff quite well too. The author is clearly well-versed in the relevant literature and has created a scenario that goes deeper than just “omg zombies/monsters/aliens, run for ya lives.” There are some thoughtful discussions on the societal response to a zombie outbreak and the survival techniques needed, which are generally believable and interesting.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he had read and was partially inspired by World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks. (WWZ in particular is probably the most thorough and serious thought experiment ever written about the macro social and political effects of a hypothetical global zombie outbreak. Highly recommended.)

Time Square is the Tokyo Tower of New York: frequent victim of the supernatural and extraterrestrial

And while the main characters are a hodgepodge of anime clichés, it can be quite interesting to watch them work.

For example, in American zombie movies, you always have these anarchistic gun-loving rednecks (I believe the politically-correct term is Tea Partier), whose crazy beliefs have finally been vindicated by the zombie apocalypse and who are insanely well-prepared for it with a huge stockpile of ammunition and canned food. Hollywood common sense tells us that these people usually end up dying in a grandiose last stand against hordes of undead, thus buying time for the main character to run off like a little girl. But replace them with a high school otaku living in urban Tokyo who has never touched an actual gun before, and who knows what will happen? Hilarity ensues, probably.

Gimmicks aside, the core of any zombie apocalypse story is ultimately the character interaction.

Some survivors become overcome by grief or hopelessness and give up, some who are better prepared see it as an opportunity to profit or seize power, some continue to naively believe in the safeguards of society and government to rescue them from their predicaments, some fight because they are trained and disciplined and some fight because they accept the reality of the situation and are left with no other options.

The range of emotional responses, and the cascading effect they have on other characters and society at large (or what remains of it anyway), is ultimately what makes such a survival story so compelling. (Did I mention that World War Z is a great book for this?)

And by that measure, HOTD is actually a pretty decent and thoughtful piece of work. One of the most memorable moments in the show for me so far as of episode 5 (warning: slight spoilers ahead) was when a bunch of high school delinquents jumped a police barricade (which kept out potentially-infected people until they can be screened at checkpoint). They taunted and laughed at the riot police whom they naively believed were unable to do anything to them due to their legal status as juveniles.

The unflinching police officers responded with ruthless efficiency by firing the water cannon, blasting two of the delinquents off the bridge and into the river below. The remaining teenagers quickly realized that the nature of society they lived in had been irrevocably changed and that the social safety nets they had come to take for granted no longer exist when the entire country and its institutions are on the verge of collapse.

Moments like this make the show far more than just zombies and fanservice. I like that.

A scene familiar to any porn aficionado, except for the spew of blood (or not?)

Conclusion

Veteran fans of zombie movies can find something unique in HOTD as it simultaneously celebrates and desecrates the genre without skipping a beat. Newcomers can enjoy it for its zany fanservice, nice story pacing and pretty animation, and hopefully absorb enough basic knowledge along the way to survive the inevitable undead uprising caused by nanobots gone wild. Perhaps even pick up a few protips on how to organize and rule your own post-apocalyptic band of wandering scavengers.

Or you can just look at the frequently-exposed undergarments. There’s something in it for everyone. :)

I’m not sure what’s happening here