Ouran High School Host Club

This delightful show is easily one of my favorites. A shojo romantic comedy that pokes fun of shojo romantic comedies, Ouran High School Host Club is a fantastic riot that should have you crying with laughter. FUNimation has released the series in two box sets, each containing 2 discs, splitting the 26 episodes into sets of 13. The show is based on the ongoing manga of the same name by Bisco Hatori (Millennium Snow), which is published in America by Viz Media.

Commoner Haruhi Fujioka has been accepted to the prestigious Ouran Academy on an honor's scholarship. While searching for a quiet place to study, Haruhi comes across what should be an empty music room...but turns out to be the home to Ouran's famous Host Club. Flabbergasted by a room filled with beautiful, extremely forward, superficial rich boys, Haruhi stumbles backwards into a very expensive vase and smashes it into pieces. The tone of the host club immediately changes, and Haruhi is roped into working as their errand boy to pay off the enormous debt that breaking the vase has created (8 million yen, or 80 thousand dollars). Oddly enough, the seemingly nerdy Haruhi is a natural at talking to the girls and keeping them interested, much to the surprise of the other members of the club. But there's something the frumpy dressed, ambiguous Haruhi forgot to mention - this seemingly male student is really a girl!

The Host Club is comprised of 6 extremely handsome high school students, each representing a specific type of male character to cater to their clients: third-years Mitsukuni "Honey" Haninozuka (boy lolita) and Takashi "Mori" Morinozuka (strong, silent type), second-years Kyoya Otori (a cool megane, and my personal favorite) and Tamaki Suoh (the princely leader), and first-year twins Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin (little devil type). Throw in Haruhi as the "natural" type and you have quite harem. Of course since Haruhi is really a female, this makes Ouran a reverse harem.

The anime follows the club through an average school year, exploring culture festivals, holidays, summer vacation, character relationships, and various commoner activities as well. The members of the club (particularly Tamaki and the twins) are obsessed with the aspects of a commoner's life...specifically Haruhi's life, which causes her unending frustration. The boys of the club are fairly stereotypical (though there's certainly nothing "average" about them), but also pretty overboard, which somehow makes them interesting and unique. Mori has almost no lines at all, Honey is cute almost 24/7, Kyoya is constantly cool and calculating, the twins are always mischievous, and Tamaki is always an idiot (though a kind and intuitive idiot). Haruhi however is about as far from the stereotypical female heroine as she can be, which is the entire point. In fact, she's about as uncooperative a heroine as you'll ever see. It's hard to have a romantic comedy when your heroine shows absolutely no interest in furthering the plot in any interesting ways. But that's what makes the show so great, and the characters themselves recognize her eccentricities and do their best to work with them.

It's hard for me to describe just how entertaining this show is. I laugh out loud every time I watch it, and I've seen it through several times. I love the art style and character designs (which are based on Bisco's art). The manga is hilarious too, but I prefer the way things flow in the anime, and the way the jokes play out. The manga is actually a mess as far as a timeline goes, with chapters drawn based on when they came out in LaLa magazine rather than a set time frame for the story (which is a bit problematic since Honey and Mori basically never graduate so they can stay in the club...which is a bit of a joke in itself); the anime streamlines everything and puts the chapters it uses from the manga into sequential order based on the anime's timeline. It creates its own ending (using some events from the manga, and creating others), but leaves it open in a way. Basically, the major issues are resolved, but there's no reason the story can't continue.

I was worried about the English dubbing at first, because it contains two of my least favorite voice actors - Greg Ayres as Kaoru, and Todd Haberkorn as Hikaru. I was also rather skeptical at Vic Mignogna's ability to hit Tamaki properly. In the end, I was rather impressed. Caitlin Glass voices an amazing Haruhi (the difficult to replace Maaya Sakamoto is the Japanese voice), and did an excellent job directing the entire cast. J. Michael Tatum is lovely as Kyoya (oh, be still my heart!), and both Travis Willingham and Luci Christian are great as Mori and Honey (respectively). Ayres and Haberkorn didn't bother me as much as I thought they would. Only Mignogna felt off somehow, using the same voice he uses to voice Fay in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. It's not that he was bad; he's a very good voice actor. There was just something off about him that is difficult for me to put into words. If, like me, you dislike English do-overs of theme songs, you'll definitely want to switch to the Japanese dub during the credits. I was not at all pleased with the English versions, but the Japanese versions are good songs on their own.

DVD extras include limited commentary, clean credits, English voice over outtakes, manga previews, and clear cases with double sided sleeves showcasing individual characters (so you can put your favorites on the outside).

Yu Yu Hakusho Season 2

Several months ago I reviewed the first season box set of Yu Yu Hakusho, which covered episodes 1 through 28. This second season release from FUNimation covers episodes 29 through 56.

The first season introduced us to the main characters, and included a tournament segment to decide who would be the heir to Genkai's special technique. It left off on the introduction to the Dark Tournament, a tournament for teams of demons (or the rare highly skilled humans) to compete against each other for a grand prize. This second season follows this tournament, but does not conclude it; you'll need to buy season 3 for that. It covers most of it, and ends at the beginning of Yusuke's team's final round against Team Toguro.

Due to the season's focus on this tournament saga, there's not a whole lot of (over arching) story or character development. Each of our heroes grow in power, but there's not a whole lot of individual character progression. The exception here is Genkai, who has her big moment within the season; we learn about her past and why she chose to disguise herself to attend the tournament. We also say farewell to the aging master, as her past comes back to haunt her.

Yusuke's growth is mostly dependent on Genkai. In the last season, he went through intense training to get ready for the tournament, which gave him the ability to use his spirit gun more than once per day (he also developed some new ways to use it). This season he goes through yet another training period with Genkai to learn her special technique, and finally hatches his spirit egg (from the beginning of season 1). Kuwabara gets some help from Kurama and learns new ways to use his spirit sword. Kurama's biggest secret is revealed, as is his true power (and his incredibly sexy true form). Hiei struggles to control his Jagan Eye and the overwhelmingly powerful hell fire he can summon. The girls take a back seat, almost literally, as simple spectators of the tournament. Keiko, Kuwabara's sister and Botan all travel to the arena to watch Team Urameshi, providing some commentary and proving that it's not just the contestants in the tournament whose lives are in danger. Koenma also attends, as the "owner" of the team.

Things are a bit more serious this time around (though the fantastic cheese and comedy still abounds). The gang truly struggles with mastering their individual power, and fighting in a tournament that is continually stacked against them. It takes a lot of hard work and some self sacrificing to get to the final round of the tournament. Along the way we're introduced to all sorts of combatants, and several of them make return appearances later in the tournament, and will return again during other sagas in the other seasons.

DVD extras once again include season appropriate character profiles and clean credits. DVD sleeves are reversible (with tinted sketches instead of color pictures on the reverse side) for the box's 2 cases (which contain 4 DVDs).

Scrapped Princess

Finally got to finish this one, and it was worth the wait. Scrapped Princess is based on a light novel series by Ichiro Sakaki (published in America by Tokyopop, along with a short manga interpretation). It was made into an anime by Studio Bones (Cowboy Bebop, Full Metal Alchemist), and is licensed in America by Bandai Entertainment. It's available in an Anime Legends complete collection, individual limited edition boxes (with figures), and as individual discs.

The series has some great English voice talent, including Kari Wahlgren as the title character (FLCL, Samurai Champloo, Witch Hunter Robin), the lovely Crispin Freeman as her brother Shannon (Witch Hunter Robin, Last Exile, Hellsing), Bridget Hoffman as her magical sister Raquel (Serial Experiments Lain); and a host of others including Michelle Ruff, Liam O'Brien, Wendee Lee, and Steve Blum.

At first glance, Scrapped Princess appears to be a fantasy show set in the Middle Ages, like Lodoss War. For the first disc, the story maintains this setting. It becomes clear fairly quickly however that things are not what they seem in this world.

The same goes for the Scrapped Princess herself. A prophecy of Grendel, read before the princess was born, predicts that a child will be born that will become the "poison that will destroy the world" by her 16th birthday. As a result her father, the King, ordered her killed shortly after she (and a twin brother) was born. But Pacifica survives, and is adopted by the Casull family. After the death of their parents, Pacifica and her adopted brother and sister, Shannon (a stellar swordsman) and Raquel (a powerful wizard), embark on a journey to escape those who wish to kill the Scrapped Princess, and find somewhere safe to live.

Looking at Pacifica, and given her friendly personality, you wouldn't think that this was the person who is meant to destroy the world. You may have, as I did immediately, reservations about just what exactly she is meant to destroy. The Church of Mauser maintains that the Scrapped Princess must be killed for the preservation of the world, but frankly the Church of Mauser is a little suspect. The way they basically rule everything, force their faith on people, and treat those who think differently doesn't exactly present them as saintly people. It's clear very early on that something about this whole mess is off somehow, but it's going to take a good portion of the 24 episodes to find out just what exactly is going on behind the scenes.

If that all sounds rather serious and depressing, well...it is. Fortunately comic relief is frequently provided (not only by Pacifica) by a wandering apprentice knight named Leopold. Earnest but rather clumsy, Leopold falls in love with Pacifica at first sight, and joins them on much of their journey to help protect her. The show can be very light and goofy, but there's always a lingering shadow over everything.

The cast is full of interesting, complicated characters. Shannon and Raquel aren't just side kicks, along for the ride - they're fully fleshed out and have their own problems, particularly Shannon. Pacifica is a strong heroine for the most part. She is a little whiny, but most of it is just "Wouldn't everyone be happier if I were dead?" or "I don't want people to die because of me." It's good that she recognizes this, but she does say it a bit too often (though in her defense, the whole world hates her and is out to kill her because they think she's going to destroy them). The upside is her strong desire to live despite her depressing thoughts. Otherwise she's very cheerful and just wants to be friends with everyone they meet. Even their enemies, the god-like Peacemakers and the elite army unit Obstinate Arrow, are more than simple antagonists.

The show is very well made, with good animation, an excellent opening and closing, good music, good story, and good voice acting. DVD extras include...not much. Clean credits, and nothing else that I can recall. But the figures that come with the limited edition boxes (I personally own two of them, a large Pacifica and a smaller Shannon) are pretty nice.

Image (left to right, top to bottom): Leopold and Winia, Zephiris and Christopher, Shannon and Raquel, and Pacifica.

Oh! By the way, I'm working for a website called ComicAttack.net now! The majority is American comic books, if that interests you. If not, as well as co-editing the site, I'm also writing a weekly column called Bento Bako Weekly about all things anime and manga. I plan to make it a bit different from what I do here, which is just straight, individual reviews; and instead explore things from a wider angle. It starts this Monday (which, er, is today)!

Mushi-Shi Live Action

Still having trouble with Scrapped Princess deliveries, I bumped up the Mushi-Shi live action DVD. FUNimation has also titled it as Bugmaster, which is a pretty literal translation, though not exactly accurate. As I (think I) mentioned before in my anime review, the mushi are not strictly insects even though they often take on an insect-like appearance; they are life spirits. The film is directed by Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira, Metropolis, Steamboy), which should say a lot about its quality.

The handsome Jo Odagiri (Shinobi: Heart Under Blade) stars are Ginko, a traveling Mushi Master. The basic plot does not differ from the anime (I can't speak for the manga, but I would assume the same, for the basics at least), and indeed a few instances are woven into the film, including the sound eating mushi, the man trying to capture a rainbow, and the young girl who seals an ancient mushi by writing down the stories told to her by traveling Mushi Masters. The film also explores Ginko's past, so keep that in mind before you decide to watch it. His past, and the circumstances surrounding it, make up a good portion of the film; but Ginko's origin isn't explored in the anime until episode 12, and the girl who writes about mushi appears in episode 20. The film goes beyond what is in the anime however, and Ginko's past comes full circle. It's a fairly complete story from beginning to end (as opposed to just being a random chunk of the story as a whole).

The movie is very well made. There's almost an old fashioned look to it, like a thin film laid across the screen. The costumes and scenery are lovely. Everything fits, and the special effects are well done. The Ginko in the film is a bit different from anime Ginko. Anime Ginko is pretty laid back; live action Ginko is more quiet and very traditional and respectful in his mannerisms. Not to say it's a totally different character, or that anime Ginko is loud and rude; I just think anime Ginko is a little bit more lively. Regardless, Odagiri does an excellent job. Though I do miss the constant cigarette hanging from his lips. Live action Ginko smokes a pipe every now and then, though it's never explained what it is that he's smoking (if you remember from my previous review, it's a special herb that helps keep mushi away).

The film is good about explaining what the mushi are, what they're doing, and how Ginko is handling them. At least until the end when he starts dealing with things that aren't really explained, and some questionable character motivations (from other characters). Overall it's a fantastic transfer into a live action medium.

Now, I can't make a lot of comments on FUNimation's English voice over for the film, because I never watch live action movies in anything other than their original language. It just feels ridiculous and unnatural. I did listen to enough of it (meaning I skipped to a scene where he talked a lot and listened for a couple minutes) to notice that they brought in Travis Willingham to voice Ginko again, which is helpful. In the little bit of the English voice over that I listened to, I got the distinct impression that they were doing animation voice over, not live action voice over. Maybe to some people there isn't a difference, but when I'm watching real people and hearing anime styled voices...that just doesn't work for me, and frankly it was a little silly.

Anyway, watch it, it's a lovely movie.

Tokyopop Dismay

I had hoped to have Scrapped Princess ready to review today, but due to some very annoying shipping issues, it's very slow going. It's the same issue I had the first time I tried to watch the series, but I got one disc further along this time. Here's hoping that "short wait" tag on my Netflix list will go away quickly so I can finish it up.

I DID get the live action version of Mushi-Shi in the mail, but haven't watched it yet. I'll probably watch it later today, and may review it for next week.

So today will just be a rant day. Though I am seeking some advice. I got some extra birthday money in, and I'm looking at the purchase of one of the following three things. I can get them all for about the same price ($35), so that's not an issue. Which is the problem. Here are my options: Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino box set, which is out right now. Nostalgia for the DS, which comes out at the end of October. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 for the DS, which comes out at the end of September. I'm leaning towards Gunslinger Girl right now because it's easier for me to buy that for myself (though I will be ordering it, so I'll have to pay shipping too, which will make it run about $40) than to ask for it as a gift later on. The DS games are ideal Christmas gifts since they're lower in price and easier to find, though I am a little concerned about the availability of a smaller title like Nostalgia by the time Christmas comes around. Decisions, decisions.

Moving on.... I've been very disappointed with the quality of Tokyopop's manga lately. It's completely unacceptable to be asked to pay $11 for something filled with so many careless errors. Fortunately the only TP manga titles I read now are Natsuki Takaya books (they seem to have a monopoly on her works). Both series are short, and nearly over. Other than Return to Labyrinth (which isn't very good, but I got suckered in by my love for the film), which has one volume left, and the novels for Twelve Kingdoms, I won't be reading any other TP titles. They have nothing I'm interested in. Viz has better titles, better quality, and is still a dollar or two cheaper (depending on the title) than TP books. Yen press has been getting some good titles too. Tokyopop used to be a monster in the manga publishing business, but they seem to really be struggling now, and it's not just the economy.

I'll wrap up with a nice little rant to Tokyopop, which covers why I, and many others, are so frustrated with them lately.

Dear Tokyopop,
Why is your editing department one of the worst I've ever seen? Spliced frames and dialog, backward pages, poor grammar, misspellings, mixed dialog, incorrect names. The mistakes are far too frequent. You raised your prices across the board, but you lowered the quality of your paper (to some see-through crap [TP has recently stated they found some new, better paper, but they have not used it yet so we'll see later if this improves the quality...or raises the price]), and the quality of your work has gotten worse. This is not how business works. Yes, the economy is bad, yes everyone is struggling to make money. But lowering quality and raising prices do not go together. It's a slap in the face to the people who spend money on your books. They don't have to; it's so easy to find this stuff for free. But we decide to spend the money on professional quality, and support the industry.

So where is our professional quality? Why is every volume I pick up riddled with mistakes? The recent volume of Tsubasa: Those With Wings is an excellent example. See-through paper, a misplaced page, inconsistent spelling of character names and locations (both between volumes and within the same volume), dialog bubbles spoken by incorrect characters, poor sentence structure. These are not 1,000 page novels here. Is it too much to ask for some simple proof reading? My eyes catch every mistake, and every mistake breaks the flow of the story - every poorly structured sentence that I have to re-write in my head, and every incorrect bubble that I have to study in confusion to figure out which character the dialog actually belongs to. A few is acceptable, and even expected. When it's all over every volume you publish, that's a problem.

~ Your Frustrated Consumers


Oh yeah, in other news, Disney has purchased Marvel Comics. I haven't decided how I feel about this yet. The "thing" to say right now is "Oh, there will be Marvel characters in the next Kingdom Hearts!" But...I don't really want that, to be honest. Hopefully the only thing they'll bother to do with the company is fire Joey Q, and then keep their mitts off everything else.

Gokusen Live Action

Time for some J-Drama! My previous J-drama watching experiences have been few (alright, only two others - Nodame Cantabile and Zettai Kareshi), but they're well worth looking into. This time it's the Gokusen live action series. Given the nature of these things, there's really only a couple of ways to view them. You can import the DVDs, torrent the episodes from fansubbers, or (if you're, or rather, I suppose, the show, very lucky) watch them on a streaming site like Crunchyroll.com (where they are not hosted), or here, where I did find them.

I was able to watch all three seasons and the season 3 special via torrent, though they did not have the season 1 graduation special (the linked streaming site does, and I'll watch it later). Nor have I seen the new movie that came out this summer (it's not out on DVD just yet). As I reviewed the anime version of this just last week, please refer to that review for a basic summary. The live action has the same basic story. The only major difference is that while the anime (and manga) follow a single class, the live action show follows a different class at a different school each season.

The adorable and talented Yukie Nakama is spot on as Kumiko "Yankumi" in each season. A young veteran actress who also stared in the Basilisk live action film (called Shinobi: Heart Under Blade...it seems I didn't review it when I saw it, but Jay-san talked about it in one of his posts). The hilarious Namase Katsuhisa plays the head teacher/vice principal in all three seasons as well, and he and Yukie-san play great off each other. It's easy to tell he's a natural comedic actor. Several of the actors in the series have been together before in other shows, including Zettai Kareshi, Trick, Kamen Rider, and Boys Over Flowers. Several of the lead male students are also members of music groups.

The only recurring characters are Kumiko (obviously), the yakuza gang members (her grandfather and the four live-in members, like Tetsu and Minoru), the head teacher/VP, the coach from the second season (he also teaches in season 3), and Kuma from the season 1 class (who makes a surprisingly large number of appearances in seasons 2 and 3). She goes to a new school each season (about 7-8 years of time within the story pass within the three of them), with a whole new class, new teachers, and a new love interest (it's Shinohara as a detective in S1, a neighboring teacher in S2, and a doctor in S3).

It's very well done, and the comedy is excellent. One of my favorite bits is how Yankumi just sort of appears randomly in the middle of her students, while they're having a discussion. They hear her voice out of nowhere, and she's just THERE all of a sudden, and it's hilarious. Yankumi's total disregard for any male other than the one she's in love with is highly amusing as well, especially when she ignores the coach's obvious advances in seasons 2 and 3.

I only had one real issue with the first season. They're always zooming in on Shin's face for reactions, but he's always got the same damn look on his face, so I'm not sure why they bother. He's only got 3 real expressions - bored, amused but still bored, and angry in a bored sort of way. It's hard to know what he's supposed to be thinking, though I guess if you want to explain it away technically, part of his character is that people never know what's he's thinking.

I didn't like the third season as much as the others. The characters were not as interesting (or as cute!), and the formula was starting to get a little dull. What I mean by that is, basically the same thing happens in every single episode (in all 3 seasons). They just change some characters around. Yankumi goes to school, one or more students is having some kind of personal problem, Yankumi tries to figure it out, the student or students in question get into some form of trouble, Yankumi has to go to the school or police station to straighten it out, student(s) mouths off, Yankumi talks with her grandfather for advice, the shit hits the fan, the boys get into a fight and get their asses kicked, Yankumi shows up to rescue them, everyone learns a lesson. That's the basic plot of every single episode. As amusing as some of the situations can be, I just don't think it holds for 3 seasons. If you don't mind formulaic stuff like that, or if you're a Bernard Cornwell fan, then this should be fine for you. But I'm not much of a fan of sitting through the same story over and over again. Fortunately the comedy remains consistent and funny.

I was also a little bothered in the third season by how no one really bothered to find out why Yankumi was the way she is. In the first two seasons the kids find out pretty early on that she's yakuza; either by complete accident, or because they're actively trying to find out. And eventually EVERYONE finds out and Yankumi has to resign (again, same basic story element in seasons 1 and 2). But in season 3, they don't really seem to care. They make one early comment about her strength, then they let it drop for most of the season, but attempt to find out about it near the end (kind of randomly). The main boys find out, and then it's never mentioned again. I know I was just complaining about how formulaic everything is, but if you're going to do it, then do it all the way. Deal with her identity completely, or just don't bother.

The show is great fun, Yukie-san is fantastic, and most of the time the students are great as well. Finding a large group of talented young men who have such great chemistry together can't be easy. There is one final thing I was curious about; in each season the classroom and the desks have different designs (like graffiti, etc). I wondered if a production crew did this, or if the actors got to customize their own desks and room, to give it their own personality (or what they felt was the personality of their character). I'm not sure how one would go about finding that out, but if anyone knows, that would be some interesting trivia.

Members of the season 1 cast above.

Gokusen

This is really a delightful little show. And at just 13 episodes (on 3 discs), it doesn't require a huge investment of time. It's silly, cute, charming and hilarious. For some reason I seem to have a sort of romantic fascination with the yakuza (thanks to Yoshiki Nakamura's Tokyo Crazy Paradise), so I may be a little biased toward a show like this. I should note now that the show does contain some language, and that tends to turn some people off. But it is about the yakuza after all, so what did you expect?

Well, alright, it's not strictly about the yakuza. Gokusen (based on the manga by Kozueko Morimoto) follows 23-year-old Oedo clan heir, granddaughter of the current Kumicho, Kumiko Yamaguchi. Her dream in life is to become a teacher, so with her grandfather's blessing, Kumiko heads off to Shirokin High School to teach her very first students - the troubled delinquent outcasts of class 3-D. Though her desire is to become a teacher and not the clan heir, and she hides her family from the school, her previous life has made her remarkably well prepared for dealing with such a class. Fortunately her students aren't as bad as their reputation. Though they talk and act tough, deep down they're caring and loyal. Unfortunately, they don't trust adults, especially teachers. So Kumiko must prove to them that she truly cares for the well being of each of her students, a challenge her background has made her apt for. It's especially challenging when vice principal Sawatari is doing everything in his power to to find a way to shut down the school.

The show focuses not only on Yankumi (the nickname given her by her class), but the students themselves. A core group of them in particular - quiet and cool Shin, quick to fight Minami, purple haired Uchiyama, large and tough Kumai, and Noda. Kumiko is seen most often pulling them out of trouble and teaching them various lessons. Though poor Shin, who develops a very cute little crush on Kumiko, is always being rescued by her, even when he tries to be the hero instead. Off to the side is Kumiko's yakuza family - Kumiko's grandfather Kuroda (the Kumicho), tough-looking Kyo, the enthusiastic Minoru and Tetsu, Kumiko's dog Fuji (who will sometimes provide a sort of narration for the series), and the family's lawyer Shinohara (who Kumiko has a crush on).

I really loved Kumiko's yakuza group. Tetsu and Minoru are great comedic relief, and their devotion to Kumiko is hilarious and sweet (as is Kyo's). I also thought it was great that Kumiko's students sort of become her own mini-yakuza group. The best parts of the show of course are the moments when Kumiko gets really fired up about something and forgets herself, slipping into gangster speak or becoming violent, right in front of everybody. And then does a complete 180, returning to her sweet and cheerful self like it never happened in an attempt to cover up her actions.

There's a 3 season Japanese live action drama to amuse yourself with as well, although only the first season focuses on the students from the manga/anime, and she gets a whole new class after that. There was also a theatrical LA movie that came out this July. I currently have plans to talk about the drama at a later date, when/if I get around to the second and third seasons (I recently completed the first, but as the other two are about different students, I don't have much interest at the moment).

Media Blasters released the Gokusen anime on DVD in America. Extras included clean credits and English voice actor outtakes. I watched the show in English (I think I watched 1 episode in Japanese, for comparison), and was pleased with the dubbing (though there's nothing wrong with the Japanese dub either).

In other news, FUNimation is releasing the live action Mushi-Shi on DVD at the end of the month! Hooray! I was so disappointed I couldn't go see it at the film festival last month, and thought I'd never get to see it. So thank you FUNi!