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Anime Spotlight: Aquarion: Season 1, Part 1 Released by FUNimation

Aquarion's alloy of the fiery passion of 70's giant robots and the introspectiveness of the late 90's variety is frequently laughable, but, even taken straight, it's far from meritless; neither unenjoyable nor uninteresting. While too much of it works too reasonably well to call it an audacious failure, it is strikingly less effective than might be suggested from the sum of its component parts. The outline of great anime can be seen in Aquarion. Yet, frustratingly, whether it is because creator Shoji Kawamori has again let his ideas run away from his ability to tell a cohesive story, or because the original concept translated into a flawed narrative, the actual series does not bear out that promise. FUNimation is releasing the first half of Aquarion in a 3 DVD, 13 episode set with an SRP of $59.98, and getting a considerable dose of an anime with marks of greatness at an attractive price should go a ways to assuaging some of the series' flaws. There are creators in anime who have produced works that audiences love. There are creators in anime who have produced works that audiences hate. There are creators who have produced works that some audiences love and some audiences hate. And then there is Shoji Kawamori, who has produced work that audiences love and revere, such as Macross/Robotech, its follow-ups like Macross Plus and well regarded Alice-in-Mecha-Wonderland series Vision of Escaflowne and works that are hated. There is a lot to admire in his heavy handed environmentalist title Earth Girl Arjuna, but, its defenders, such as myself, are just that, on the defensive. In this body of work, Kawamori has demonstrated the ability to leverage his engineering background to design fantastic machines the capture the imagination, as well as the ability to script human drama with genuine depth and resonance, and the ability to integrate Yoko Kanno's music into anime in a fashion equal to Cowboy Bebop's Shinichiro Watanabe. And he's also demonstrated a propensity to get caught up in a concept to the exclusion of maintaining a coherent narrative. Worryingly for fans of his action/mecha work, over the years this has become progressively tied to his interest in mysticism and spiritual environmentalism. He might have recently been pimping convenience store cream-puffs branded for the new Macross F, but it's hard to forget Kawamori promoting his macrobiotic diet in the interviews for Arjuna. If Kawamori is launching a new Macross work (and he is doing that currently with Macross F), the reaction for a Macross lover is likely to be between hope and trepidation. Otherwise, for a non-Macross fan or concerning a non-Macross work, the general approach is curiosity. Is it going to be a captivating experience like Escaflowne, something divisive like Arjuna or something forgettable like The Daichis - Earth's Defense Family? Kawamori seems like a serious, quirky guy. It is implausible to imagine him going to his studio, Satelight, and bombastically announcing, "let's throw together the best of everything!" And yet, Aquarion looks like he went to the anime cupboard and started grabbing at the highest regarded ingredients. Start with modern 3D CGI objects and intricately rendered backgrounds. Getter Robo is a perennial favorite of the old school super robot fans, so how about a trio of planes that can combine into three different robots? Combining planes from the father of the Valkyrie?!? How about a psychological framework for the mecha that could have been produced in the immediate wake of Evangelion a-la Dual or Brain Powered? Pitch taboo breaking melodrama as in Revolutionary Girl Utena... Yoko Kanno music... Spiritual elements such as prana, chakra, a stone and wires creature turning into a floral Tree of Life... Aquarion's most unadulterated success will be for those who appreciate it ironically. There hasn't been a 20+ episode anime more likely to kill the irreverent since Gilgamesh. On top of all of the conflated excess of Evangelion, Utena, residual Go Nagai, and Kawamori new-age, there are bold examples of genre conceits. On the robot side, you have a mech with an extending punch that keeps pounding on a foe until it has left the atmosphere and landed on the moon. On the human side, you have a commander/mentor with rhetoric that tops Gunbuster's Coach and GaoGaiGar's Gutsy Geoid Guard president Koutaro Taiga. He hasn't taken on a giant mech single-handedly the way that G Gundam's Master Asia or grab a sword and do it sans mech like Escaflowne's Balgas Ganesha. If he does it later, it will not be entirely unexpected. There's a swing for the fences sensibility in all the character creation, whether it is the moe, paraplegic, blind vampire, the incestuous down on their luck nobility siblings, the incestuous fraternal twins or the pan-ethnic future mix and match archetype scramble. That last one produces something akin to one of those children flip books where you get the head of one person/creature, the torso of another and the legs of a third. Results include Pierre Vieira, a soccar playing would-be Don Juan, Tsugumi Rosenmeier, a neurotic, hero worship to that almost-romantic peak, gear head, Hong Lihua aka Reika, bipolar between composed and morbidly superstitious. These soaped-up modernized throwbacks are something for fans to appreciate, and at the same time, they border on laughable. Then there's the pièce de résistance. The first character yells "heshin!" (change) A second yells "gattai!" (combine) a third yells the name of the transformation's output... and in combining... the teenage pilots orgasm. Nothing of what Aquarion presents is so confusing or ambiguous that the series turns perplexing. Yet, it offers such a hyperbolic mix that it would be incredible to imagine a second person entirely on the same page as its creator. Reception is aided in that unlike Arjuna, the series is never so somber, self satisfied or humorless that it becomes abrasively pretentious. It is so far reaching in its outlandishness and oblivious to grounding itself that the two chief options are watching with resigned acceptance or MST3K. For example, as an extension of the idea that there is something sexual about gattai combinations (look at Gurren Lagann), the notion of pilots orgasming during the action makes some sense. To build something substantial off this, the anime needed to establish a solid, if possible mundane, millstone to weigh it down, Instead with a bit of at face value tittering, it treads on Sleeper territory. From there, Aquarion is kindof like a yoga class. You can be oblivious to the spirituality, reign in some of the higher expectations and enjoy specific exercises. As a collection of experiences, distinguished bits and pieces, from the tarot card meets Magic: The Gathering monstrous compendium of villains to the Mori Motonari (of Ran fan) three arrows principle behind the mecha, there is fun to be had mentally engaging the series, inspecting what was brought in and trying to piece together what, if anything the tarot of symbolism amounts to. What the CG animation of the fights lacks in the powerful simplicity of robots who threw fists and colorful beams is replaced by the inclusion of the unexpected. The central robot is always doing something different. Without being a GaoGaiGar hodgepodge of disparate machinery, there are too many pieces to get a complete picture in a simple glance. Factor in its three different combinations, the arsenal of weapons and attacks, the range of motion that the animators put machine through, and the central robot of Aquarion establishes itself as a mech that derives excitement from surprises rather than ritual. Beyond the CG spectacles, the anime boasts some unusually dynamic character animation from Satoru Utsunomiya, (Paranoia Agent episode 8, the Beyond segment of the AniMatrix) who later directs episode 19. With the parties involved, small opportunities are explored and elevated. Not all of them yield brilliant results, but Aquarion's flaws are seldom, if ever, a function of being short on effort or on creativity. When taking the anime seriously, Aquarion loses effectiveness as a serial anime adventure in that it does not plant a foot before throwing its punches, and it does not chain and build on events the way that anime serials favorites do. The anime opens with a dervish of sensation. While it boils down to the hero discovering that he's special and being recruited to pilot a transforming robot, these standard tropes manifest themselves in such a complex, rapidly changing cascade that, for a while, the anime defies focus. Eventually, the premise and players resolve into discernable order. However, the anime does not compensate for the distance created by that initial confusion. With a feral orphan male lead looking to rescue his best friend from entirely alien beings, and a female lead that is the reincarnation of his lover, drawn to her own brother, unlike Macross Plus or Escaflowne, there is no simple core to act as a handle by which the viewer can grasp the characters. Consequence and the emotional bonds between characters are weakened when the anime wavers on how closely it wants to tie itself to the more carefree era super robot anime. Characters grouse and grief on their way to scenes of mass destruction. Even if it is partially due to the use of Kouji Kabuto hot heads rather than Shinj Ikari neurotics, the overwhelming ego on display, and how it feeds into giant robot formula conceits, distances the viewer from events that are meant to be handled with some seriousness. The continuity from episode to episode is unmistakable, yet, building excitement is tempered by a pattern of presenting a moral an episode. The cast is stationary, being instructed, waiting to be deployed to a hot spot to fight off enemy incursion. That might tie the fundamental mode of the series back to the earliest piloted super robot, Mazinger Z, but as a post Evangelion anime, with dynamic characters and dynamic circumstances, the expectation is that each episode will build on the last. The collected half season ends with the antagonist assaulting the heroes' home base. Unfortunately, the narrative does not arrive at the confrontation with momentum. As titanic as the fight should be, it feels no more desperate or important than the previous fight. Considering how the tight, episode to episode relay of Escaflowne and the tight, powerfully personal connection between the principals of Macross Plus were keys in the success of those series, the attempt to recreate the patterns of old school giant robot anime might be what hampers Aquarion. The good, interesting bits, haven't amounted to a surpised yet. While no creator is contributing a less than expected effort, not having seen Utsunomiya's episode 19, so far, some of the anime's best work has simply been what one would hope for from the attached creators. For example, Kanno's music is Kanno's music. Again, her work serves as a reliable tent pole for establishing the gravity of the series. Always eclectic and provoking a range of emotions from mournfulness to energized excitement; it labors to establish the subconscious impression that the events of the anime are meaningful actions in a complex, realized world. Yet, it is not surprising. Who isn't going to get up for trumpets and chants, but having heard Escaflowne, Brainpowerd and so on, this is Yoko Kanno music that sounds like Yoko Kanno music. New directions are hard to spot, and it feels like she has less to work with than other notable projects. Forgetting the Cowboy Bebops and Macross Pluses of her body of work, there does not seem to be the interesting niches that even a work like Arjuna provided. There's a catchy Yuho Iwasato opening, there's a catchy "Gabriela Robin" ending, and Kanno reaffirms why anime fans love her work, but, unfortunately, the most memorable music in the series are the syrupy tracks than unfortunately stick in the head.

Blade of the Immortal Anime Confirmed

Anime News Network reports that Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon manga anthology has confirmed that a television anime version of Hiroaki Samura's Blade of the Immortal manga will premiere this summer in Japan. Koichi Mashimo (Eat-Man, Sorcerer Hunters, Noir, The Irresponsible Captain Tylor) will direct the Bee Train (.Hack, Noir) production. Hiroyuki Kawasaki (The Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Sorcerer Hunters) will oversee the scripts, and Yoshimitsu Yamashita (Murder Princess, Samurai Champloo animation director) will design the characters. Ko Otani (Ayakashi Ayashi, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing) will compose the music. Cast includes Tomokazu Seki (Escaflowne's Van, Gungrave's Beyond the Grave) as immortal swordaman Manji, Rina Satou (Negima!'s Negi, Bamboo Blade's Satori) as Rin, Hirofumi Nojima (Kagehisa Anotsu), Kazuya Nakai (Taito Magatsu), Masashi Ebara (Sabato Kurui), Katsuyuki Konishi (Eiku Shizuma), Daisuke Namikawa (Araya Kawakami), Mamiko Noto (Makie), Megumi Toyoguchi (Hyakurin), Toshiyuki Morikawa (Giichi), Shinichiro Miki (Shira), and Maaya Sakamoto (Machi).

Licensing/Distribution Updates

Upcoming Geneon Entertainment titles include Rocket Girls, Ayakashi Ayashi Divine Comedy, the follow-up to Ghost Slayers Ayashi, which premieres in June, and My Otome Zwei OVA series. Bandai will be overseeing a limited theatrical release of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, preceding a fall DVD release. A DVD release of Toward the Terra is scheduled for this summer. In addition to releasing Negima!?, FUNimation will be releasing the Negima!? Spring and Summer OVAs. Anime News Network announced at Anime Boston that the company will be distributing Madhouse Studios's action anime Kiba for Upper Deck. The company alsp threw some cold water on the notion that they will distributing anime formerly released by Geneon USA. Producer David Williams indicated that the more time passes, the more difficult continuing the halted Geneon titles becomes.

Japan to Get Highlander Director's Cut

AnimeNation reports that Yoshiaki Kawajiri's director's cut of the Highlander: Search for Vengeance anime movie will be released in Japan this summer, including a Japanese langauge dub staring Shun Oguri (Shinichi Kudo in the live action Detective Conan, Rui Hanazawa in the live action Hana Yori Dango). While Highlander: The Search for Vengeance was released in America last year, the film has not yet been released in Japan.

Emma Box Art Revealed

Anime producer and distributor Right Stuf, Inc. and Nozomi Entertainment have reveal preliminary box art and announce additional extras for the EMMA: A Victorian Romance – Season 1 DVD Collection, which is scheduled for release on June 24, 2008 for $49.99. In addition to the previously announced 96-page “Victorian Gazette” book, the EMMA – Season 1 DVD Collection will include character biographies, the series’ textless opening and textless closing, a Japanese promotional commercial, Japanese TV spots promoting the series, the Japanese commercials for the DVDs, the U.S. Season One and Season Two trailers and Right Stuf/Nozomi Entertainment trailers. A historical drama set in late 19th-century London, the series chronicles the love story – and the complications that result – when Emma, an honest and hardworking young maid, and William, an earnest suitor and member of the “gentry” class, fall for each other. Spanning a total of 24 episodes between the two seasons, this anime adaptation of Kaoru Mori’s manga features direction by Tsuneo Kobayashi (The Twelve Kingdoms, Glass Mask OAV, Super GALS!) and scripting by Mamiko Ikeda (Sgt. Frog, Fruits Basket, Princess Tutu). The original manga was honored with an Excellence Prize at the 2005 Japan Media Arts Festival and is available to North American readers via DC Comics’ CMX Manga imprint. As previously announced, EMMA will be released as two “season” box sets with Japanese audio and English-language subtitles. EMMA: A VICTORIAN ROMANCE © Kaoru Mori • ENTERBRAIN, INC./Emma Production Committee. PIANO: THE MELODY OF A YOUNG GIRL’S HEART © Animate Film / Pioneer LDC / Kids’ Station. Right Stuf, Inc. and Nozomi Entertainment also announced that announce all three volumes of PIANO: THE MELODY OF A YOUNG GIRL’S HEART will be re-released, by Norihiko Sudo (Comic Party, To Heart 2), character designs by Kosuke Fujishima (creator, Oh My Goddess! and You’re Under Arrest) and art direction by Junichi Higashi (Midori Days, Super GALS!), at a new, lower price of $9.99 per volume on June 24, 2008. Miu Nomura once loved to play the piano. As a little girl, the music made her heart soar, and she eagerly shared her songs with all of those around her. Now an introverted teenager, Miu has become too shy to express her feelings – even through her music. Her playing has suffered, and her piano teacher, the moody Mr. Shirakawa, has become impatient with her inability to reach the next level. When Miu develops a crush on upperclassman Takahashi, her best friend Yuuki is the first to notice. Unfortunately, Yuuki's too distracted with her own emotional troubles: She's fallen hard for third-year track star Takizawa! However, Mr. Shirakawa has also noticed something... a sudden and remarkable change in Miu's playing. Can he help her rediscover the joy of the piano and find the courage to share her heart and music once more? PIANO: THE MELODY OF A YOUNG GIRL’S HEART © Animate Film / Pioneer LDC / Kids’ Station.

Upcoming Shout! Factory Releases

Oban Star Racers – Volume One: The Always Cycle To be released APRIL 22, 2008 for $19.99 13 Uncut Episodes in 5.1 Surround Sound, It’s 2082. Ten thousand years have passed since the last great race on the remote planet of Oban. Now the time has come for the pilots of the galaxy to compete in a new race, and Earth is more than ready with its spectacular Whizzing Arrow star-racer. Built and maintained by racing legend Don Wei’s team of engineers and mechanics, the Whizzing Arrow has become the Earth’s only hope against annihilation by the greatest foe the world has ever seen—the menacing Crog Imperium. There’s just one problem: Once he arrives on the distant planet of Alwas for the competition, Wei’s top pilot is forced into early retirement, and the controls of the Whizzing Arrow are placed into the inexperienced hands of “Molly,” a 15-year-old racing prodigy! Bonus Features include 30-min. Behind-the-Scenes Featurette Interview With Creator Savin Yeatman-Eiffel Star-Racer Profiles Rare, Original Concept Art Trailers Sneak Peek at Oban Star-Racers Vol. 2 Hiya Kids: A 50’S Saturday Morning To be released MAY 06, 2008 for $34.99 Exclusive 4-DVD Box Set Featuring Your Perfect Saturday Morning Lineup of Television Classics Including including Kukla, Fran And Ollie, Howdy Doody, Lassie, Annie Oakley, Flash Gordon, Time for Beany, The Paul Winchell Show, The Roy Rogers Show, Captain Z-RO, The Rootie Kazootie Club, Winky Dink And You, Super Circus, Andy’s Gang, The Cisco Kid, Sky King, The Magic Clown, Kids And Company, Junvenile Jury, The Pinky Lee Show, and Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. Greg the Bunny: Best of the film parodies volume 2 To be released MAY 06, 2008 for $19.99 Arrives on DVD May 5th, 2008 from Shout! Factory Bonus Features include “Fur On The Asphalt”– The Greg The Bunny Reunion Special featuring Sarah Silverman, Seth Green, Adam Goldberg, Jon Favreau and more! Deleted Scenes & Outtakes GTB Music Video: “Plush” – 1999 Interviews with Greg The Bunny & Warren The Ape from ComicCon 2006 Never-before-seen clips from Greg The Bunny’s early days on public access TV Greg The Bunny Webisodes Commentary by Series Creators Gag Reel Behind-The-Scenes Photo Gallery

Upcoming in Japan

A web site is up for Takashi Miike's live action Yatterman A trailer for the Madhouse adapation of Keiichi Sigsawa's (Kino's Journey) Allison & Lillia can be seen here The upcoming fourth season of fantasy action/comedy The Slayers will be called "Slayers Revolution." After parting company with Comic Birz, Peach-Pit's Rozen Maiden manga will re-commence in Young Jump starting in the year's 20th issue. This follows the anthology's publication of Rozen Maiden one-shot "Shojo no Tsukuri-kata."

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D Scheduled For US

ICV2 reports 4Kids Entertainment CEO Al Kahn revealed that the company plans to begin airing Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's in the U.S. this fall. This new Yu-Gi-Oh! series is premiering on Japanese television in April.

North American Movie Efforts

Anime News Network points out a Hollywood Reporter piece concerning the efforts by TOKYOPOP's Stu Lvy to turn Kei Toume's Lament of the Lamb manga into the world's first teen-psychological-horror 3D movie. Takahiko Akiyama (Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within's visual effects art director, Hinokio director) has been attached to the project, tentatively being called Love Like Blood. Levy says the twin challenges is making a movie that is different from the existing 3D movie spectacles and doing it for less than US$6 million. The plans call for a Japanese actress in the lead female role. The newspaper describes the movie's plot, with key differences from the original manga, by saying, "…the goth-flavored tale revolves around a slightly anemic high-school boy named Blake Edwards, who meets a beautiful girl called Jira. Their relationship becomes increasingly intense — and gory — before a final twist." A geek by any other name notes a MarketSaw article that casting and script work is still underway for James Cameron's Battle Angel Alita adaptation.

Worth Checking Out

About.com:Manga interviews Hollow Fields creator Madeleine Rosca PopCultureShock spoke to RE:Play's Christy Lijewski Comics212 spoke to Viz's Alvin Lu about Cat Eyed Boy ICv2 interviews Appleseed: Ex Machina producer Joseph Chou For Tax Reasons' new My Steampunk Papercraft Commodore 64 MMORPG Identity Crisis A pointed out by Majoria's News, check out Gainax's site before it changes on Friday to see Gurren Lagann's cast dressed as Nadia's. Sakura Taisen: Kimi Aru Tameni pictures Evil Drifting Classroom spoilers Iwa ni Hana-Art-house Animation: Commentary and Analysis (and occasional off-topic posts on cinema, manga, literature and other aspects of culture) has been trying to cemment a aposition in the Anime Blog Awards with a Best of list and new articles Is Japan the place of romance in Chinese shoujo light novels? Just as Europe was the place of romance in Japanese old-school shoujo manga? Ghost in the Shell: Subversiveness, The Definition of Masculine Strength and Love in a Cybernetic World Very nice Shonen Sunday t-shirts let's anime on SPACE FANZINE YAMATO: THE UNTOLD STORY A site has launched for new anime distributor AnimeWho Revoltech does Macross and Macross shot glasses A Gundam statue in Sunrise's home town of Kamiigusa AltJapan's Where Diecast Robots Come From and the site looks at Tamashii Nation 2008 More here Speaking on robot figures, CollectionDX has launched a YouTube channel. Via The Beat, the first ever professional wrestling match for the Kitty World Order (KWO) features Hello Kitty versus Kuromi. Same Hat! Same Hat! remembers Professor Miriam Silverberg

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