Shameful Otaku Secret!

Remote Island Syndrome

Movie time! Chiko, her aunt, and Tame trek to a secluded island under the guise of seeing a movie shoot, each with her own ulterior motives. See if you can match the goal to the character, kids!

• Find the jewel and see if it leads to Twenty Faces‘ whereabouts
• Kill Chiko
• Stop Chiko from being killed

There they run into Eye-Patch, aka Ken, aka Akito Tenkawa from Nadesico after he comes back all dark and broody in Prince of Darkness. He ain’t happy.

But it’s a funtime family reunion when it comes down to saving each others’ lives. Little do either of them know, Twenty Faces may have been working on a project during the war to turn ordinary humans into rubber Mazinger Z dolls. And one of them lured Chiko to the island using the jewel.

Chiko graduates

The highlight for me was the scene from one of the nifty action sequences in the show’s OP. That’s pretty neat to finally see in itself, but in this scene Chiko goes from spunky thief-girl to ultimate badass. Ken and the humonculus (or whatever she is) both notice how much like Twenty Faces she suddenly looks. And they’re both scared by it.

What’s next?

OGT has been speculating on the nature of the second half the series; his thoughts are that either Chiko’s going to get increasingly bitter and angry as she finds out more about Twenty Faces’ seedy past experimenting with Frakenstein-esque human hax, or she’s going to find out she’s been punked. I lean more toward the former, possibly because I just hope it’s not the other. For Twenty Faces to pop out at the end and say… “You passed!” reeks too much of the old “it was all a dream” trick.

No matter what, the Twenty Faces continues to be super-fun, and I’ll bet you anything that the first season ends with a bitching cliffhanger.

I’ll leave you dirty, dirty, fanboys with a bonus.

Cooking with Otou-san

I love to cook. Oh, boy, do I. Not much of a baker though. I can get the job done, but if you want your treats made with love then look elsewhere, sweetness, because mine are made with wall-punching and fuckwords.

However! In honor of Ranka’s inaugural attempt at baking, here’s my recipe for Moe Sugar cookies. Pardon me, my friends outside the U.S. and rural U.K., these are in English units.

Side note: Is it just me, or was Sheryl’s weekly hoe-bag outfit just a tauntingly slutty version of the overall-and-halter getup that you Ranka fans have probably been loving the past few weeks? She doesn’t play nice, that Sheryl.

Side note 2: I’m sure Lucky Star probably answered this question and I forgot, but is it more moe to cook or to fail at cooking? I’m gonna vote “fail at cooking.” But cooking doesn’t make me think of Moe, it makes me think of this:

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.