Why I like Shakugan no Shana (even though I probably shouldn't,)

(Okay, I'm done writing about heavy stuff for a while. I'm going to actually write about anime.)

To be fair, I thought about titling this "Why Not Shana?" but Shana isn't a title that should be in anyone's top ten. And it never was a contender for my number nine spot even from the point when I popped in the first disk. Or even after I saw the first episode at Otakon.

Really, there's nothing about this series that really shines. The artwork is all right. It isn't anything horrid, but the character designs aren't all that surprising. And the inclusion of Willemena (or rather her maid outfit) sent shudders up my spine as soon as I saw it. The story is pretty much sucked straight out of it's predecessors. It's just the current spiritual sucessor to shows like 3X3 Eyes, Chrono Crusade and Blue Seed. Right down to the bombastic, big breasted, exorcist or should I say flame haze or whatever this iteration is calling it.

But all that said, I really like this show. And a lot of it has to do with Shana and Yuji Sakai. Now sure, you could toss Shana into the tsundere basket and say that she's just another character. But I think that's doing the show a disservice. What I actually find compelling is that the creators decided to make Shana a woman at all.

When I compare it to Blue Seed, the roles are completely reversed. The tough competent lead in that one is a guy, who treats the female lead like a obligatory nuisance. In Shana, it's the female lead who treats the male lead as an obligatory nuisance.

And the male lead, isn't the normal milquetoast, "Oh does she love me or hate me?" character. He actually has morals and values and compassion for his fellow man. He actually does stuff (which is always a big thing for me and protagonists). He tries to understand Shana, and yes, he does try to change her. But for the most part, he remains a thoroughly interesting a compelling hero.

Topping all of that off, there was something about this series that actually elicited an emotional reaction. For instance, I was actually concerned that he might actually fade away even though I knew that there was another four disks in the series and they weren't going to kill off the main character. I'm not sure if it had to do with killing a character off so early, or if it had to do with a well-used soundtrack. But to be honest, to get any kind of emotional reaction out of me when it comes to a series like this is like squeezing blood from a stone.

So while, it might just be more of the same. It was definitely a good "more of the same".

Why not Now and Then, Here and There?

Sometimes there are just shows that push the boundaries of what anime can and can't do. And I don't mean in a technical aspect, but in a storytelling aspect.

Now and Then, Here and There is one of those shows. There are plenty of those types of shows in the history of American television - NYPD Blue comes to mind - that do things that make the average viewer squirm. They take a subject throw it in the viewer's face and say, "Now deal with it because this is real and if you can't deal with real then you're living in a fantasy land."

Now and Then, Here and There does that. It takes all the horrors of war and men and mashes it into 13 episodes. Much like El-Hazard or Escaflowne, the show follows the story of a boy named Shu who is transported far into the future into the middle of a war. Initially he's trying to save the life of this mysterious girl named Lala-ru, but he ends up getting imprisoned, conscripted, beaten and otherwise abused. All through it, he mantains his optimism that somehow, tomorrow will be better.

This show is brutal, really brutal. It's so brutal it makes Elfen Lied looks like corn syrup with red food coloring. It makes 24 look like a walk through Main street, USA. And that's what makes it good. It doesn't shy away from the violence, from what people might call the "reality of the scene".

So why not? I like shows that take risks. I like shows that take the expected and twist it around and give me something bleak and horrible and yet hopeful. This does all of that.

Except that Shu simply falls flat. Yes, his optimism is what pulls the story along, but it feels forced, like someone in the planning stages said "Wait, if we have a character who's dark here in this really dark world then people are going to tune out."

And they're right. Most reviews I've read have touted Shu's optimism as one of the reasons that they kept watching. But over the course of 13 episodes it doesn't change. He never waivers. Never has a crisis of conscience. Let's face it, the guy gets hung outside for three days, and he doesn't feel bitter about it. He's given a choice between killing to stay alive and not killing, and he chooses not to kill. The guy has absolutely no moral gray area.

This doesn't just mean I have to suspend disbelief. No I have to take it out back and shoot it in the head. Because no one who goes through what he goes through and could come out saying, "Yes give me another."

And not only that, but he ends up just being a catalyst. Essentially because all of the other characters give into bitterness and despair, he's the one who's there to provide conflict. He's the one who's there to tell their stories. And having a main character who's not really the main character, while an interesting device, doesn't make for the most involving storytelling.

And no amount of blood and guts can fix that.

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Agree or disagree? Leave a comment or e-mail iniksbane@gmail.com

Why Not Fullmetal Alchemist?

So I've been trying to figure out why Fullmetal Alchemist isn't my number nine. I mean it has everything I could ever want in an anime. It has a multi-layered plot, a great cast of characters (many of whom are pretty morally gray) and an actual Western style fantasy world that doesn't suck.

And to be fair, it's taken me two weeks to come to an answer. It pretty much boils down to two things. First the hype. Oh god, was there hype. I couldn't throw a stone without hitting someone yelling about how stupederrific the show was. And how I was missing out on the Second Coming by not owning it RIGHT NOW. Now I'm a contrarian by nature. If someone tells me I'm going to love something, I'm automatically skeptical. And the more they tell me I'm going to love it, the more skeptical I am.

Then I watched it. And it was good. But, something bugged me about the series and it wasn't the ending, or rather it was the expectation of what the ending should have been. Which leads me down the twisting road to the second thing that bugs me about Fullmetal Alchemist.

Now this second part may have some spoilers. If you haven't seen the show, I'd recommend watching it, just so you know what the hell people are talking about when they bring this series up.

On Edward Elric

So, it all starts with the fact that I read a lot of fantasy novels. I've read all of the new classics and some of the old classics, and in general there are a lot of similarities between the classic shounen hero and the classic fantasy hero. Basically, your classic fantasy hero is usually a young person, who has either some extraordinary power or destiny which will alter the course of the world as we know it. For example, Frodo has the ring which he must destroy to save Middle Earth. Another example would be Arthur and pulling the sword from the stone.

Basically Edward Elric by all accounts appears to be another case of young hero/big destiny. He's got all the traits, he's idealistic, he can perform alchemy without a circle and all the powers that be want him to dance to their tune or want to kill him, whichever is more convenient. In fact, he goes through all the steps of the classic epic fantasy. He finds out the secrets of the world, after being involved in major battles and ends up taking on the big evil of the world.

And wins... kind of.

Wait. That's not right. Middle Earth was saved. Sure Frodo had to leave but that was an afterthought. The long history of classic fantasy heroes like Shea Ohmsford, Garion, Pug, Erik von Darkmoor, etc never ended up losing. Sure things might get dark for them, but could you imagine Luke Skywalker getting banished from the galaxy at the end of Star Wars? Of course not.

So, there has to be something else going on there. Why would Edward just get banished at the end? It had to be on purpose. Why else would a very well constructed story risk losing the viewer at the end? Then it dawned on me. Edward Elric isn't a classic hero at all. He's a tragic hero. And when I say tragic hero, I mean in the Greek sense.

Something that always bugged me about the series was that in cast of morally gray characters ranging from Mustang to Scar, why were the only morally pure characters Ed and Al? Sure they'd attempted a human transmutation, but it wasn't out of an act of malice or greed, but an act of love. Now if Ed was a classic fantasy hero, it'd make sense because he would be the moral pole everyone would flock to.

But as a tragic character, that same idealism turns into his fatal flaw. He didn't just attempt human transmutation out of love, but out of a belief that he could make things right. And again, even after being punished for his hubris, he sets out to make things right by finding the Philosopher's Stone. When he finds out that his search is being manipulated, he sets out to make the world right. And ends up losing his brother in the process. And in a final act of hubris, he makes one final attempt to set things right and ends up banishing himself from the world entirely.

So while ostensibly his quest is for the Philosopher's Stone, really his quest is to find a way to set things right.

On the nature of Fullmetal Alchemist

All of that lays the foundation for what my real problem with the series is because in the end Fullmetal Alchemist is social commentary. And fantasy has a long history of good social commentary. The parallels are pretty obvious. Alchemy is science. The State is America. Ishbal and Lior are the Middle East.

So the question becomes what does Fullmetal Alchemist say, in this case, about what is wrong with the world. The quest starts with alchemy. Now the series pretty quickly dismisses alchemy itself as bad. It's merely a tool it can be used for good or evil. It's how people decide to use it. So does the root of the world's suffering simply come from the darkness of man's heart. Well sort of, but it goes deeper than that.

The biggest type of suffering there is in Fullmetal-land comes from war. So of goes our intrepid hero, like Antigone to her brother, he must find the cause of war. At first, he questions the soldiers, finding out that while they did commit the acts they were under orders to do so. And they did not feel any joy in following those orders.

So down the rabbit hole we go. If it isn't the soldiers that cause the problems, then it has to be the government. After all it is they people in charge sent those troops. But the government is controlled by soulless puppets who serve another master. So who's in control of the government? Why someone with a different agenda entirely. In fact, it seems the root of the war is someone who wants to accumulate more power for herself.

Now we get to the crux of the matter. After all this searching and all this digging, what do I get at the end of it all. That people in power have an agenda that isn't in the nation's best interest? What the hell? With all the gray, all the multiple layers I have to peel away to get at the center, I find a truism that sounds like it came from a Ralph Nader ad.

Not only that, but the central message is: Sure you can challenge the powers that be, but you'll end up with nothing but pain and loneliness.

That's what bugs me about Fullmetal Alchemist. That behind all the smoke and mirrors, what we get is a blanket theme that has no gray in it.

And another one for the pile.

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Agree or disagree? Leave a comment or e-mail iniksbane@gmail.com.

Why not EVA?

Take one dead equine, take one stick, apply pressure to the carcass through repeated blows and you have the discussion that has surrounded Neon Genesis Evangelion since it first came out.

But here I am anyway, taking my swing at it.

It's easy to find things to hate about Eva. Let's face it, I can give the basic run down in four basic options: A) Whiny boy pilot B) Obscure (bordering on strange) references to Kabbalah that make almost no sense. C) Giant Robots (because really the world needs another giant robot show like I need a hole in the head). D) And ending that is just plain strange.

Although that hole in the head might be nice. It would definitely give me something to show off at parties.

But wait a second here, I'm going to say something that is going to send up a scream across the desert that is the Internet. I like Shinji. Or rather, I like anti-heroes in general and I don't find Shinji to be horribly annoying. In fact in comparison to a Thomas Covenant or a FitzChivalry Farseer, he's pretty warm and cuddly.

On top of that, I like the bizarre references to Kabbalah - the whole tree of life thing does actually make sense, even if it was probably just slapped in there by a lunatic director. And the mecha designs for Eva are really interesting. In fact, I'd say they're one of the highlights of the series.

No where the real problem with Eva lies is at about episode 20 (and yes does include the ending, but not the ending itself), when Anno evidently forgot all of the conventions of telling an effective anti-hero story. He decided to make EVERYBODY anti-heroes. And if they couldn't bend to his whim, he killed them off (alas poor Kaji, I knew him well).

It starts with Asuka, I mean she's too likable and chipper, so now she has to have some sort of screwed up childhood. And three...two...one... it comes to the surface and she's off to mope around in a bathtub for most of the rest of the series. Score one for Anno. Score zero for the viewers.

Oh wait there might be some pay off with Kaji, and we might get to figure out what's going on. So we get traded a long monologue about the history of NERV, for the ONE likable character dying. Score two for Anno. Score one for the viewers.

And then, oh wait, I forgot about Misato. I mean we can't have her running around being funny and irresponsible, so lets give her some daddy issues too, and kill off her lover. Yep, now she's just as mopey and sullen as the rest of them. Score three for Anno. Score one for the viewers.

In the end, the only character I can root for is the character with NO PERSONALITY. That's right, we're left with Rei. But of course, she's too likable so we have to kill her off and bring her back as even more distant. You get the point now, Anno has decided to beat his viewers over the head with his ideas, and forget why he's making the series at all.

To tell a story, to entertain his viewers. Instead the last six episodes are one extended screw you to the viewers, so that he can maintain his "artistic vision" for the series.

Well Mr. Anno, right back at ya. Because no matter how much people may debate this piece of work they never get past the very basic principles. The interesting discussion about identity and how it's defined, is lost. The pertinent observations about people's need to belong are scrapped. The fact is that there is a lot of interesting things that go on in the series, but we'll never get to them, because we're always going to be too busy with the basic problem.

Whether we like the series or not.

Why not FLCL?

Wow, I don't post for a week and now I'm going to do my third post. Although my last couple were under the influence of a lack of sleep and caffiene. Oh who am I kidding, this one is too.

So, I recently exchanged a couple of emails with animesophist and he mentioned Fooly Cooly to take my number nine spot. (Go read his review, it's about as good of a review of the series that you're going to find.) But that said it raises an interesting point. Why not FLCL? I mean it has everything a discerning anime viewer like me could want: Robots, a fast moving and crazy plot, robots, a crazy interstellar traveller riding a Vespa, more robots, amazing visuals and well... stuff coming out of people's heads. Thought I was going to say robots, didn't you?

But it's really tough for me because FLCL is a good show, but...

Does anyone really understand what's going on? Because if anyone does could they explain it to me. The problem with shows like FLCL and Lain and Texnolyze is that they get stuck in their own merry-go-round of crazy themes that they really forget simple things like plots. Or rather the plot gets buried under so much other junk that it forgets what the point of a story is.

And that's to entertain. And to entertain, I have to at least have a basic grasp of the rules of the world. Even in a show like RahXephon (which I finished watching after being up for 24 hours) I understood what was happening at least on a basic level. All of the other connections and conspiracies were icing on the proverbial cake.

On top of that, while animesophist is right, it is a show that defies categorization. It's also a show that uses and twists all of those categories it touches on. Sometimes it takes it right up to the level of a farce, sometimes it stops just short of it. So it's hard to take it seriously as a drama. It's hard to take it as light as a comedy. In fact it just muddles up all of them into one gooey mess, so that when I finished it I knew I'd experienced something. I just wasn't sure what.

And that's what lies at the heart of my problem with this kind of show. I can't connect with it. It's a good show and an interesting experience, but walking away from it doesn't leave me wanting to watch it again.

It ends up leaving me looking for something to wash my mouth out with.

Why not Record of Lodoss War OVA?

Up and to now most of these Why Not segments have focused on anime that I like, and that except for the flaws in them really aren't that bad of shows. But this time I'm going after a show I hate: Record of Lodoss War OVA.

Seriously, why does anyone like this show? It's horrible. It breaks almost every rule of good fantasy. First, it's based on a D&D campaign. Granted, I might be able to forgive it for that. I mean the Dragonlance Chronicles was based on a D&D campaign and that was actually pretty good. But it was based on the old, old D&D - the one where Elves were a character class, and there was almost no originality needed to create a character besides the ability to add die rolls. And to top it off all of the characters are the stereotypes for their character class. The wizard is an academic. The fighter is brash and impulsive. The Elf is attuned with nature. The Dwarf is a Dwarf. And so on and so forth.

That right there is enough to make me want to cry into my pillow, while screaming, "Please no more." But add to that the second sin of modern fantasy. It has Elves. Come on people. Elves went out of vogue with Terry Brooks. The only writer who is allowed to use Elves right now is Tad Williams and no one else. Even Margaret Wies and Tracey Hickman have their Elf priviledges revoked after the monstrosity that is The Death Gate Cycle.

That's it. Right here and now, I'm declaring war against anything with Elves. Nothing good ever came of them and they are filled with suck. Even if they're hot Elves wearing revealing outfits. Nope, they die too.

To top it off the OVA has the worst, hackneyed, uneven and generally incomprehenible plot ever. It starts off bad and only gets worse. It glides so quickly through anything with any kind of meat to it that I find myself searching for a rope to hang myself with.

This show causes genocidal urges and suicidal tendencies, that's how bad it is.

Please, if you like your friends and want to keep them don't show them Record of Lodoss War OVA. Show them anything else. Hell, show them La Blue Girl. At least then they would think you're just a pervert and not someone who enjoys horrible, horrible shows.

Seriously. It's that bad.

Why not Cowboy Bebop?

Okay, so I can hear the collective gasp of the masses going up now. All of them saying "He isn't." And me saying, "Oh yes I am, so suck it."

But to be fair, there's a lot about Cowboy Bebop that is good. Honestly, it's the most accesible anime to an American fanbase out there. If there's a quintessential starter anime then Cowboy Bebop is it. For those people who managed to trip onto this site, let me give you a run down of what the series is all about.

Basically Cowboy Bebop follows the story of three (and later four) bounty hunters as they journey across the solar system hunting bounties. It's done in a very neo-noir style, complete with a jazz opener and soundtrack, seedy bars, bright neon signs and stories that make you wonder whether there really is a good guy in all this. The characters for the most part are fairly accesible and generally cover all of the stereotypical noir type characters: the repentant criminal, the disillusioned cop and the femme fatale. With a child computer genius and a really smart dog thrown in there for comic relief.

For the most part the episodes stand alone and can be watched in any order (and are probably better if you don't watch them in the original broadcast order, but that's up to you).

So what's not to like, right?

Well lets start with the fact that it's episodic. Really, I'm going to throw something out there that will probably tick off a few more people. Anime can't do episodic well. Granted Bebop does it better than say Revolutionary Girl Utena (I'm still trying to forget that heaping pile of crap), but the episodes are way too uneven to really be enjoyable.

For instance there are some great episodes - A Waltz for Venus or Ganymede Elegy come to mind - that hit on all cylinders and really do all of the things that noir does well. And then there are episodes - Toys in the Attic - that after the first time you watch them you might as well never watch them again because you simply won't enjoy them as much. All in all, it leads to a series that is enjoyable about half the time.

Add to that, a kind of overarching plot that spans oh, five episodes that is good, but never seems to reflect back on the series.

And now let's talk about characters. They don't change. They occasionally grow, but only when it's convienent for the episode that they're in. In fact, they remain static enough that it makes them a bit uninteresting. I want my main characters to struggle, to change, to learn to adapt to new surroundings, to DO something other than serve the plot. Which is all the characters in Cowboy Bebop do.

Seriously, in comparision to similiar American TV series' , it holds it own against something like Cold Case Files, but just barely. And that's what makes it sad, because it is a great idea. But in the end, it's emminently forgettable.

Well except for the next time you're at a party and you happen to mention that you watch anime. And some guy (or girl) wants to be cool, or relate and says, "Oh, I've watched Cowboy Bebop."

And if you're like me, you pause for a moment, bite back that comment, and say, "Oh gee. That's nice."

Why Not Trigun?

So recently, I started rewatching Trigun and it reminded me of something - this show is pretty good. Now it has been a good two years since the last time I sat down to watch the adventures of Vash the Stampede, so I’ve had some distance between the last time and this time.

Not to mention that I finally replaced my lousy bootleg copy of the series with the actual Pioneer release version, so the funny green dots I got about three quarters through the series went away.

There isn’t much to dislike about Trigun. Yashiro Nightow created an excellent character in Vash. He’s alternately funny, cowardly, heroic, modest and vain. Okay, so most people know this already, because this series has been out since Christ was a corporal.

Although I do want to mention the weapons designs in this are some of the most inventive I’ve seen in anime to date. I want Wolfwood’s cross. And I still get a bit of a chuckle out of the line, “That’s because it’s so full of mercy.” every time I hear it.

But seriously, I really want Wolfwood’s cross - badly. If anyone knows how I can combine a half dozen handguns, a machine gun and a rocket launcher into a metallic contraption, I will pay for it. Okay, so I might not pay for it. I would trade sexual favors. Okay, so I might not do that either. But I would show some serious appreciation for it.

But this blog isn’t titled, “Why Trigun is my Number Nine, so I can stop writing.” It’s titled, “Why not Trigun?”

The next part’s going to have some spoilers. If you’re one of the two anime fans who hasn’t watched this series, I suggest you find yourself a copy and watch it so that I won’t ruin your viewing experience. Okay, so is there anyone left? Good. Now onto business.

For the most part, Trigun is a good series, but the show is largely carried by two characters - Vash and Wolfwood. And as much as Vash is an interesting character, after a while he becomes tedious. How many times can a guy stare wistfully off into the horizon thinking, “Oh gee, I’ve got to kill my brother, but I don’t want to kill him. I want to save him. Oh poor pitiful me.”

This mopiness only gets worse when he takes a chunk out of the moon. Now I don’t have any problems with a series having a black moment, when everything seems lost and the odds are so insurmountable that there doesn’t seem to be any hope that the hero could possibly win. But Trigun has an black third of the series.

And let’s face it, it should. Knives is a badass, right down to his Darwinistic approach to survival on the desert planet. He kidnaps entire towns, he forces Vash to commit murder and he kills Wolfwood. I mean he’s more badass than Legato Bluesummer and that’s really something. It’s like Knives managed to find a well of badass and drink straight from the tap and when he was done, he gave his leftovers to a bunch of other badasses.

Which leads me to my real major problem with this series. So on one side, we have the whiny, mopey, how-can-I-do-the-right-thing Vash the Stampede. On the other, we have the devil-may-care, I-will-rule-the-world-no-matter-how-many-pawns-I-have-to-spend-doing-it Knives. They finally have their big confrontation, and how does it end.

Vash shoots Knives four times and the world is saved.

What…the…hell. Let me repeat that so it will sink in.

Vash shoots Knives four times and the world is saved.

It’s like the creators had painted themselves into a corner and needed some suitably vague way of making sure that the hero won. So they invented a completely Deus Ex Machina ending that answers absolutely no questions as to why Knives would ever change his ways. To top it off, they don’t conclude the series in any type of fulfilling way. They leave the watcher to assume that Vash and Meryl hook up, that Knives is rehabilitated and life continues on the planet as it should.

Frankly, I call bullshit. Shooting Knives four times is not going to wipe away a hundred some odd years of festering hatred. It just wouldn’t happen.

The ending would have been far more tragic and more satisfying if Vash had been forced to kill Knives. This is what made Gungrave such a great series and what could have made Trigun a great series.

But instead it just lands on top of a whole bunch of series’ in a heaping pile of anime mediocrity.