Shameful Otaku Secret!

Now 100% less spoilery, more vague

Kaiba, eh?. Well, I’ve already hyped this thing a lot, so let me round out Kaiba’s awesome elements before I review:

Cute animals!

Crazy outfits!

Funny old people!

So cute!

Fanservice!

And it was all made by one of Crayon Shin-chan’s writer-directors, so you know it has to be fun!

I was really going to do the whole post that way, but I wussed out.

Where’s the plot, fuckhead?

I didn’t blog Kaiba episodically, so that makes me at least in one way similar to everyone else in the world. It seemed too easy to spoil something that really relied on not knowing what the plot was in advance. But here you go: Kaiba (or is he Warp?) wakes up with no memories, only a locket containing a blurry picture of a girl he’s pretty sure he may have been in love with. His journey to find her and figure out his own identity, is what Kaiba is about. So you really have to learn as you go, just as the protagonist does. The first time through, it’s very much about uncovering lost memories, hidden conspiracies, and other obscured plot elements. The story is not laid out in advance. Fair warning.

Characters

In the futuristic world of Kaiba, peoples’ memories are stored on chips and transferred around between bodies or stored for periods of time. Whole or partial collections of memories can be erased, distorted, and manipulated. As a result, the very nature of peoples’ personalities gets all mixed up. This is a great theme for the show, but it leaves little that viewers can identify with as far as the characters go. Characters really only further the plot, and sometimes add to that plot’s somewhat-confusing nature.

Animation

As Korasoff says, you’ll either love it or hate it, though I really haven’t talked to anyone who outright hated it. The rounded, bouncy and fluid art style really does belie the very adult nature of the series, which makes everything a little more surreal than it already was. But it’s always consistent, with a little computer enhancement that never gets in the way (think Soul Eater), and no major drop-offs in quality from episode to episode.

It was hard to organize my thoughts, because there’s plenty to say about Kaiba but it all ends up sounding vague because I don’t want to give away the story. I also want to stay away from hyperboles and superlatives. So I’ll go back to the old dangers/benefits system:

Dangers of watching

• Relative inability to identify with the characters – thanks to their mutable personalties and the fact that nearly everyone was working with misplaced motivations.
• Often-confusing storyline – clones abound, bodies are switched, and just keeping track of who’s who is a little tough, but then the conspiracies start coming out and it gets even worse.
• Hazy feel – it’s great for atmospherics, but started to hurt the show when climactic plot points came around and the surrealistic feel overpowered the excitement I should have been feeling.
• Adult themes – lots of sex early on and some uncomfortable glimpses of realism in this weird world make it neither kids’ stuff nor light watching.

Benefits of watching

• Excellent music – not much more to say there, it captures the feel of the show perfectly, and in turn helps define the feel.
• Great animation – it goes with the great atmosphere and music. Aesthetically, this is the total package.
• Intellectual stimulation – if you like philosophizing with classic sci-fi themes, you’ll find plenty to chew on.
• Emotional stimulation – I know I said it’s hard to identify with the characters, at least up until the end, but somehow Kaiba manages to wring a great deal of emotional appeal out of its strange setting. The whole thing has a lonely, mournful feel that grabs you early on — and is infinitely more rewarding than the crying haremette scenario.

Time’s up — make your point.

Ultimately, Kaiba was really ambitious and didn’t always succeed. But I do think we should reward even marginally successful ambition with our praise, lest we get no more of it and instead suffer through endless variations on Strike Witches and To Love-Ru. And you shouldn’t let that ambition turn you off from the show — ambition and pretentiousness are not the same thing, and Kaiba is never pretentious, always understated.

At its heart, it uses the most basic of Frankensteinesque sci-fi premises, which is to answer the question: What are the implications of a particular piece of world-altering technology? So fans of JG Ballard, Masumune Shirow, etc. should really be able to get behind that. The questions of memory and how much memory defines us have been pondered before in plenty of media, but never so deeply in anime.

And speaking of memory, Kaiba will stick in mine long after the next couple seasons are over. Unlike last season’s other highly-lauded show starting with a K, I have every intent of watching this again and I think it’ll continue to look good with time. It was a great watching experience, I’d do it again, and I think you should give it a shot too.

tldr? Could’ve been great, managed to be good.

I’m hoping not to be the last person to wrap up Kure-nai — quite a few people already have — but I needed a little time to collect my thoughts about one of the most interesting series of Spring ‘08, a pretty good season.

Story

Kure-nai has a fairly simple, though inherently odd, storyline. Shinkurou Kurenai is a high-school student who has a part-time job as a “dispute mediator,” working for the tough and somewhat mysterious Benika. His duties include kicking a lot of ass in some fairly brutal sequences, and… that’s about it. But one day Benika has a job for him: protecting rich little kid Murasaki, who’s been forcibly removed from her family, the Kuhoins.

Characters

I often lump “story and characters” into the same little section in my reviews, but characters are way too important to Kure-nai for that, especially Shinkurou and Murasaki.

The main thrust of the series is Shinkurou’s development as a character; he starts off as a kid who admits his own weakness. He’s had a demonic bone-sword installed in his arm by high school haremette Yuno’s assassin family to compensate for his weakness, but he spends most of the show trying very hard not to use it. Murasaki of course makes the typical transition from spoiled rich girl to a regular kid who’s able to enjoy simpler things, to a child with a head full of crazy ideas implanted by Shinkurou’s bizarre neighbor women, and to something much more by the end.

Genre

Not an issue you usually have to discuss much, but Kure-nai seems to defy easy categorization. The fight scenes, though sporadic, are especially brutal and simple, far unlike the stylized Ninja or Chinese martial arts normally found in anime. But a big portion of the series was spent on simple slice-of-life non-events. Yes, between Shinkurou’s job, the freaky neighbors, and the very nature of the situation, these were really weird slices of life. But they could very easily be touching, cute, sad, or laugh-out-loud funny. So I have to hand one the best compliments I can think of to Kure-nai: It doesn’t live too simply in any one genre.

Plausibility

I’ll cover this issue more fully sometime (put it on that big list of Someday Posts), but certain bloggers seemed to be really cheesed off by certain aspects of the plot. I can definitely speak specifically to that issue, and maybe even said blogger understands now that that particular point was fully explained in later episodes. Either way, Kure-nai does in fact make a weird situation seem somehow plausible, despite what the dinosaur says. I think that’s achieved by the creation of what basically amounts to a fantasy world, even though it resembles the real world. A high school “dispute moderator?” Female friends who are an information gatherer and the heiress to a family of assassins? Incestious imprisoners of female family members? A musical episode? It all works. How?

Anachronism and other contrasts

Kure-nai seems obsessed with the idea of strange centuries-old traditions (and equally dated career paths) living comfortably alongside the modern society that the rest of us think is hunky dory. There’s an air of mysticism that subtly presents itself time and again, even when nothing strange is really happening and the series is focusing on thoroughly modern stuff.

That contrast and duality is not the only one — obviously you have Shinkurou’s high school life and dangerous job, or his deadly serious task and the goofy antics he gets into with his friends and neighbors. Even the execution of Kure-nai is about contrasts. The show itself seems far more serious than the throwaway pop OP would lead you to believe (especially in the first episode, which starts pretty violently), and the similarly useless ED carries us away to happy-land right before the “next episode” preview halts all action and demands your attention with a captivating, minimal shamisen tune and silenced dialog.

Animation and execution

Some of the character designs really weirded me out, and anatomically just didn’t jive. Especially Benika’s. If you add it all up, two and two don’t equal four and the ears shouldn’t be coming from there. But Shinkurou and Murasaki were very appealing designs, and the animation (by Brains Base) was overall one of the show’s highlights.

So?

The ending didn’t do it for me. Perhaps the writers needed just a little more time that they didn’t take in other places, but the end took that plausibility and threw it out the window. I think the believable-factor really only happened the way it did because of the characters. They acted, overall, in a way that you didn’t have to stretch to much to imagine real people doing. Many times that was in the little details, like bored bodyguard Yayoi’s obsession with some game on her cellphone. Sometimes it was in the overall character arc, like Shinkurou himself. But for those of you who have seen it: Murasaki’s behavior at the end provides a convenient way to tie up the show without going in one totally obvious way or another, but is it right?

Bottom line, even with that ending, Kure-nai managed to be that one show that comes along every once in a while and elevates itself just a little bit above the typical TV anime fare. Not really even as much as last season’s True Tears, but enough that I can recommend it. The story was decent, the animation quality was a notch above standard, and I think it actually stands a reasonably good chance of being licensed somewhere in the future.

Is there proof in Gonzo’s pudding?

The experiment that animation studio Gonzo underwent in realtime, worldwide distribution of quick-subbed anime along with their channels — YouTube, Bost TV, and CrunchyRoll — was innovative, timely and all around a great idea. Maybe it’s not totally about “beating” the modern fansubbers, but it certainly didn’t hurt to take advantage of their primary tools (digital formats and online distribution) to basically make history. Thing is, the experiment is doomed to fail if you’re missing one key part: the show.

So was Druaga the right choice?

Background & Story

The Tower of Druaga is an old-as-the-hills RPG video game that I’ve never played, but that had to be a strike against the anime to begin with. I can’t think of a good fantasy-RPG-turned-anime, although there probably is one out there somewhere. Anyone? In the story, every year a bunch of treasure-seekers form parties in order to climb to the top of the titular Tower and stop a horde of monsters from plaguing humanity. Nothing too revolutionary.

So the story ingredients — focus on small-fry would-be hero, develop a rag-tag party, and defeat the big bad guy while beating smaller bad guys along the way — form more of a white bread than tasty cake. Pepper it with a romantic subtext (if not really a romantic sub plot), some familial issues, and a couple twists, you’ve got the makings for a potentially fun but not exactly engrossing series. Fortunately, Gonzo and co. didn’t stop there.

Despite being based on a typical foundation, Druaga seemed to refuse to be normal. The first episode was a total joke, more about parodying its genre of games than establishing a story (although it did get that done too). The joke was a little weird and out-of-context to start a series with, and it wasn’t 100% funny either. But if you stuck with it you got the chance to see more and more game reference and other weird parodiess: 8-bit sequences, cryptic joystick movements (back back left right left right), and hint books.

While the overall story arc may not be anything special, the way the writers weave seriousness, cute charm, and all-out parody with one another is, with few exceptions, consistently entertaining. A problem with consistency is one of the calling cards of any good Gonzo-bashing, so ease off. Besides, Gonzo bashing isn’t even cool anymore. It’s been cool for quite a while now to act indignant while defending Gonzo, haven’t you heard? I can’t really feel strongly enough to get indignant though, sorry.

I’m not sure I was totally prepared for the end. I guess that’s another bump for the skillful writing. Nothing about the end came out of the blue, as we got plenty of foreshadowing and hinting, but there was a real strength in execution that put viewers in the place of the dumbfounded characters. Not to mention, a small part of the OP that I called the best of the season finally made its way into story, but turned completely on its head. I don’t want to spoil, but suffice to say: the end is not really the end. A second series is promoted as coming in 2009, and that won’t come soon enough.

Animation & Music

Like I said, the OP was one of the best of the season for its fun-turning-to-dramatic tune, mysterious alternate-reality premise, and really clever way of displaying the credits. Incidental music is a little more typical of the genre though it’s sprinkled with game sounds. It’s nothing to write home about but enhances the show well enough and never gets in the way.

Some character designs are a little samey for my tastes, but they’re appealing. The main characters all have decent personality in their designs, especially cute female lead Kaaya and disgraced aristocrat magician Melt, with his perpetual stubble and pre-morning-coffee attitude. Just like the writing, the animation was very consistent. Then again, a 12-episode series really shouldn’t have any consistency problems. The one unfortunate thing is the computer-animated big boss monster in the final few episodes. Boy is it awful. The other show in Gonzo’s experiment, Blassreiter, suffers from the same wretched CG. It’s just terrible. I don’t know if I can say enough bad stuff about it. For a company that made some decent early forays into CG, Gonzo has not progressed much since. But overall, this is highly capable work from the studio, on par with some of their better stuff like Full Metal Panic!

The verdict

I actually plan on writing a whole post about the Druaga experience, so I don’t want to get into the Crunchyroll nonsense yet, I just want to talk about the show — because like I said, the experience and thus the experiment don’t matter for shit unless the show is decent. I’d have to say I’m impressed. For a series that started with a joke, it ended with real maturity (and a whopping cliffhanger). Gonzo haters looking for stuff to pick on will find it, I’m sure. Look no further than the CG. But Druaga stands on its own very well, and capably next to the studio’s successes like FMP! and Speed Grapher. Besides, if you take the YouTube route, you really have nothing to lose by checking it out. That goes for non-fans of fantasy, as well.

Bottom line, The Tower of Druaga will never be top-shelf anime, but it’s entertaining enough to recommend with few reservations.