Blood Lad: Shonen Action Done Right

 Video review available on my YouTube channel.

     Blood Lad is the story of a vampire named Staz.  He is an otaku that is obsessed with the human world, specifically Japan.  Everything he knows about Japan he learned from watching anime, reading manga, and playing video games.  One of his dreams is to meet a person from Japan.  Lucky for Staz (unlucky for her), Fuyumi Yanagi somehow manages to accidentally cross over from the human world to the demon world.  Staz rescues her from the gang of demons that are on the verge of eating her, he takes her back to his home and immediately starts grilling her about Japan.  He gets called away briefly and when he returns he is shocked to find out that she has been eaten by a carnivorous plant in his absence.  She becomes a ghost since she died in the demon world and Staz vows to resurrect her physical body and return her to normal.

      What makes this show special is that it manages to take a lot of the elements that make fighting anime fun and exciting and condense them into ten solid, well-paced episodes.  There is plenty of fanservice but it's not as excessive as similar shows.  The characters are developed well for being such a brief series and the action scenes are short but intense.  Brains Base (Penguindrum, Baccano!) provides the animation, everything is consistent from start to finish and the world they created is filled with many vibrant colors.  If Blood Lad  is on the TV you can't help but be drawn to it, it is very eye-catching.  The music is well crafted also, it fits the mood of the show and gets your heart pumping when super powered demons are trading blows with one another.  If you're a fan of shows like Dragon Ball Z, Hunter X Hunter, YuYu Hakusho, etc. then you definitely owe it to yourself to giver Blood Lad a shot.  My only complaint is that another season has yet to be announced.

The manga is available from Yen Press in physical and digital formats.  Viz Media licensed the anime which is currently streaming on Hulu.  A date for the home video release has not been announced as of this writing.

Sunday Without God: A Memorable Premise with Forgettable Execution

     Decided to watch Sunday Without God this weekend. Two words came to mind near the end of the show, squandered potential. The show has a captivating premise; God has abandoned the world he/she/it created, in doing so the remaining humans are no longer capable of dying or reproducing. God's last act of mercy was to bestow upon the earth beings known as Gravekeepers, they are the only things that can lay the undead to rest.

      Interesting premise right? Unfortunately the show never goes as deep into this concept as I would have liked it too. Another minor issue for me is the heavy moe character designs. Given the premise of the show, the fact that most of the characters look so cute and happy really takes me out of the story. I was fascinated by the world created in the first half of the series then disheartened when the second half devolved into a weird-crap-of-the-week format.

      The series concludes with the possibility of a second season, though one has not yet been announced. Should a season two be made I will give the show another shot. The highs and lows of Sunday Without God average out to it being a mediocre title at best. The concept had to potential to make this a show that could have been debated for years to come. Sadly, it was not executed well enough to make that a reality.

Check it out on Crunchyroll and judge for yourself!

Oreimo: Keeping Incest En Vogue

     After three years and 32 episodes Ore no Imōto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai (more commonly abbreviated to Oreimo) has come to an end.  This series continues a couple different trends currently seen in anime.  One: using an entire sentence for the title.  And two: incest.  The title translates to My Little Sister Can't be this Cute.  It is the story of an older brother, Kyosuke Kosaka, and his younger sister, Kirino Kosaka.  They have been estranged for several years when we are introduced to them and have a very tense relationship.  All this is changed one day when Kyosuke discovers an eroge (erotic/porn game) laying on the floor after a literal run-in with his sister.  He picks it up and takes it to his room so his parents don't find it and lay blame on him for possessing such filth.  That night Kirino goes looking for the lost game and ultimately reveals to her brother that she is an otaku whose primary obsession is imouto (little sister) eroge.  This secret reignites the bonds between the two siblings and they embark on a journey of personal growth while dealing with the taboo feelings that are slowly developing between them.

     When I first heard the name of this show I was already mentally preparing for the worst.  I'm not a fan of anime whose main story trope is incest, it's not a fetish that I'm into.  That's who these types of shows generally cater to, it's not my thing but "to each their own."  Surprisingly, after the first few episodes I was hooked!  I was enamored with the perspective they chose to take with Kirino's 'affliction' of being an otaku and how her brother decides to help her instead of shunning her.  I could relate to her on a few levels and that drew me in.  Over the course of the first season we see Kirino's social life blossom as she comes to be more open with her new otaku friends thanks to the aide from her brother.  We also see the bond between Kousaka and Kirino strengthen, even if their love for one another does take a turn that will make some uncomfortable.

     Season two focuses almost entirely on the evolving relationship between Kirino and her brother.  We also learn the back-stories of most of the supporting cast, an aspect of this season that I really enjoyed.  I'll do my best not to spoil anything so fret not!  They actually do a great job of exploring the love the siblings have for one another in a fairly tasteful way.  Things certainly do get uncomfortable and a bit creepy at times but it never really crosses any taboo boundaries.  When it's all said and done, both Kirino and Kyosuke come out of the experience as better people.  While I didn't enjoy season two as much as season one I really liked the series overall.  I would definitely recommend this show to people provided they can stomach a bit of incest.

     Now to address the real question: What's with all the stories involving incest in anime and manga?  The answer is more simplistic than one might think.  Real-life incest is just as taboo and illegal in Japan as it is here in the U.S.  The difference is that the Japanese seem to be superior when it comes to separating fantasy and reality.  There are so many stories involving incest because they accept it for what it is, a story and nothing more.  If the same story was played out in a news article most would find it disgusting, but when it is in the form of anime, manga, and/or eroge it is simply viewed as a sub-genre of entertainment and barely given a second thought.  Incest-centric titles may never be as popular with American otaku as they are with their Japanese counterparts but I hope this explanation makes the concept a little easier to swallow.  Cultural differences play a huge role in how topics are viewed.  What is taboo in one culture may be commonplace in another.  I try to keep an open mind but my cultural schemata makes accepting things like incest very difficult.  That's why I'll be keeping my family in the friend zone!

Main characters Kirino and Kyosuke (background).

Ninja Scroll: My Otaku Origin Story

This is my final essay project for my East Asian Cultures class.  I know, I'm being lazy and posting something old instead of writing something new, bad Tristan!!  Fret not!  I will have a completely new post soon!  This month marks my 20th anniversary of being an otaku so I felt it was appropriate to share this story with all of you.  I decided to re-watch and talk about Ninja Scroll since, up to this point, I had never done so publicly.  As the title implies, this is the anime that started it all for me.  My life was forever changed...

    Nearly two decades ago my older friend approached me with a question, “Wanna watch a cartoon with blood, guts, and nudity?”  How could I refuse?!  He rented Ninja Scroll from our local Blockbuster Video and my passion for anime was ignited.  I was captivated by what seemed to be a beautifully violent painting brought to life.  If one were to take a brief survey of what comes to mind when someone hears the name Japan, you would likely get one of two responses: sushi or ninja.  And this movie has all the ninjas a person could ask for.

    Watching this movie again after several years I found myself just as entertained by it as I was all those years ago.  After a brief opening scene in which the main protagonist Jubei dispatches some would-be assassins, I am treated to one of my favorite bloodbaths of all time.  A ninja squad is jumping from tree-to-tree and suddenly come under attack by a group of demon-ninja.  An enormous bladed weapon flies through the air, separating heads from shoulders and torsos from legs.  Body parts and blood rained down on the ground below.  I remember when I first saw this at the age of twelve, I didn’t blink.  I was shocked and amazed.  I never imagined a cartoon could look this pretty yet be so insanely brutal.  Nowadays it really does not faze me.  I just sit back and enjoy the carnage.

    In the next scene we see that one of the demons has captured the lone female ninja that was traveling with the squad he had just eradicated.  He quickly proceeds to rip her clothes off and sexually assault her.  This was the first animated nudity I ever saw.  As a kid I was excited and fearful.  Excited because I was witnessing naked breasts, yet fearful of the consequences I might face if my parents were to find out what I was watching.  These days the nudity holds my attention just as much as it did when I was a child, minus the paranoia.  I still laugh a bit at this scene because the stone demon is so large that when he kisses the ninja he engulfs large portions of her body.  At one point he seems as if he is going to swallow an entire breast.  It’s a ridiculous scene.

    The movie never actually states outright whether the demon-ninja are truly demons or just humans with extraordinary powers.  Whatever the case may be, they are referred to as the “Demons of Kimon”.  I don’t know if the creator/director was inspired by yokai when he thought these villains up, but I feel that would be a safe assumption.  The main goal of the evil ninja is to amass enough wealth and power so they can shore up their ranks and overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate and replace it with those loyal to Toyotomi.

    Later in the film Jubei happens upon a Buddhist temple where he finds a nun praying alone in the candle light.  After a brief conversation she begins convulsing violently and then hundreds of snakes erupt from her body.  Jubei comes under attack by another demon-ninja, a snake woman.  Things seem hopeless until Kagero, the female ninja from earlier in the film, sneaks up on the demon and puts a knife to her throat.  What ensues is one of the most memorable and disgusting scenes I have seen.  A poisonous snake slithers out of her vagina and bites Kagero on the thigh.  It still turns my stomach just as much today as it did eighteen years ago.  The idea of something like that actually happening horrifies me.

    Something else that both amuses and irks me is the completely unrealistic and savage beatings that Jubei receives.  No human could survive what he goes through, yet somehow he perseveres.  He gets punched in the face and stomach multiple times by the stone demon but is nowhere near as injured as he should be.  In the following scenes he is perfectly fine, as if nothing ever happened.  I know realism was not the intent of this movie, but a little more would have been beneficial.  I find myself losing interest in a character when they are practically perfect and impervious to injury.

    Upon viewing Ninja Scroll for the purpose of this assignment, I came to notice something I had never caught before.  The main heroes and villains have more in common with samurai than with ninja.  Ninja are known for being stealthy assassins.  That could not be further from the truth for most of the protagonists and antagonists in Ninja Scroll.  None of the main characters wear anything that is commonly associated with ninja and most of the battles are fought out in the open instead of under the cover of shadows.  It really made me question the logic behind the title.  Whenever I think about ninjas, this movie never comes to mind.

    Despite the issues I have with this movie, it is still a classic in my eyes.  I get very nostalgic when I watch it.  This movie is my otaku origin story.  It also appeals to my morbid curiosity.  I am always interested in seeing how creative a movie can be in slaughtering its cast members.  The more inventive, the more I enjoy it.  Ninja Scroll is like a beautifully animated train wreck.  No matter how disturbing it is, you find yourself unable to look away.

DVD cover.

How to Spot Illegal Anime and Manga Websites

     I decided to write this up in light of recent events.  It seems that almost every person I have chatted with recently has been unaware that they were utilizing illegal anime sites in one way or another.  I don’t blame them for not being aware, it’s a common issue nowadays.  It doesn’t help that if a person Googles “anime streaming” (or something similar) that the first several results are illegal sites.  So I decided to make this handy guide to help my fellow anime/manga lovers out! I hope you find it useful.

Manga Websites

     These are actually the easiest to spot.  If more than the first chapter, or on very rare occasions the first volume, are free then it is an illegal website.  There should be prices on almost every one of the titles listed.  For further confirmation check out the very bottom of the homepage.  Look for either a link labeled "Legal" or  the "copyright" info that may be listed in very small text.  If it is something that talks about the site not hosting any of the files themselves and/or stating that they cannot be held liable for any illicit activities then that raises a massive red flag.  Example (Illegal Site): None of the video content of this website is hosted on our servers or on servers of our staff, family members or otherwise related in any way whatsoever.

     If it was a legal site they would not have to post anything like that since they would have a legal license to host the products.  Example (Legal Site): All materials on this Site, including, but not limited to characters, images, illustrations, audio clips, video clips, and compilations are protected by copyrights, trademarks, and other intellectual property rights which are owned and controlled by FUNimation Productions, Ltd. and its affiliates (collectively, "FUNimation") or by other parties that have licensed their material to FUNimation. Materials on FUNimation.com and related sites are solely for your personal, non-commercial use.

     This is just part of their copyright info, it was followed by a list of every single title they have a license for (200+).

Anime Websites

    Checking out the copyright stuff works for anime streaming sites as well.  No legal site offers free downloads of episodes.  Licensing a title is very expensive, especially if a dub is produced for the show, so the companies need to get every dollar they possibly can in order to (hopefully) make a profit.

Indications the streaming site is illegal:

• Episodes are broken into two or more parts.  This is most common with movies.
• Additional credits added to the opening and/or ending of a show that promotes the fansub group that subtitled it.
• Fancy subtitle font.
• No commercials.  Aside from Hulu, the only way to legally stream commercial free anime is through subscribing to a legal site.

    I hope that helps!  If I think of anything to add later I will update this document.  I think I covered all the basics pretty well though.  Spread the word!  Support the industry so they can continue to supply us with the entertainment we love!