Shameful Otaku Secret!

In which I start down a bad path

Ever wonder what pure execution looks like?

People talked a lot last season about the obvious highlight, True Tears, being a victory for execution over brilliant ideas. And it’s true: believable characters, subtle interactions, and emphasis on mood and atmosphere made it more than a typical anime romance, even if the story was basically unremarkable. But what happens when the Shonen/action genre is executed with that kind of skill? Well, obviously subtle and believable are not the words you’d still want to be using.

Substance will make a drama work, but action needs Style. And hypothetically, I’d require a ton because I hate action shows. I swear to god my wife watches more InuYasha than I do, and she’s a fairly normal person when it comes to TV (not to mention has never fallen into the Shonen demographic — I hope — and is neither fat nor crushing on Richard Cox. But I digress, as the thought of InuYasha always makes me do). I have tried so many times to enjoy Bleach (why?), only to realize that half-hour could be better spent waxing my nipples.

So why am I so stoked? You’ve probably heard by now, but BONES’s Soul Eater (based on the manga) is so fat with style (and with no small amount of RAD) that it’s threatening to pop out of its drawers.

Story

Shibusen University or something to that effect was founded by Shinigami-sama to create death weapons to stop the world from falling out of balance and being devoured by diabolical demon thingies called Kishin. Each weapon must feed on souls to gain its power, and travels with a human partner. Soul Eater is such a weapon in training, and Maka is his human partner. In order to become a full fledged Death Scythe, Soul Eater must eat 100 messed-up souls, but the final one must be a witch’s.

Shinigami-sama watches on as they make their attempt at number 100, alongside Maka’s dad, a Death Scythe himself who’s in the process of becoming estranged from his wife and daughter (he’s got a cheatin’ heart).

Thoughts

This thing is fucking wild! As is typical of the genre, there’s a very simple premise and a series of systems and rules for making things needlessly and superficially complicated. Also, people talk at each other a lot during fights. But there’s that execution. Of course I love BONES, they might be my favorites in fact, but here they’re attempting to outdo themselves. They’ve forsaken any concessions to reality in favor of a highly stylized and over-the-top version of their unmistakable look. Traditional animation is mixed with CG, but just to make 3D cartoons — it’s a billion years removed from Macross Frontier’s high-tech slickness or Blassreiter’s awful awful awful video game outtakes.

Comedy-wise, it’s a lot less successful. It remains to be seen how strongly they’ll rely on visuals, since jokes aren’t very good and only sight gags seemed to really pull off well.

The previously mentioned subs were actually not far off from my minimum requirements, I’m guessing speed was on their minds more than proofing. But beggars and choosers, all that.

All in all, it’s dumb as hell but it’s dumb fun — I’m happy to have seen it, and I officially want more.

Kirameki

As much as I went and talked up the anthology factor of Shigofumi last episode, I’m also really digging the character developments that happened here.

Recap

We begin with a Kasai Haruno, a young would-be editor who’s apparently deemed useless by her publishing company; unexpectedly, she’s given her first real job after three years — editing for Mikawa Kirameki. Coincidentally, her younger sister Natsuka is the same girl that Kaname called when he saw the phantom Fumiko on the roof.

Sorry, dear. This is anime. You just can’t compete with a comatose girl.

Natsuka digs the nerdy type, and though she knows all Kaname really wants is to grill her about Fumiko, she is excited to have him over.

Let the stone throwing commence.

When Haruno forgets her map on the first day to her new job and Kaname helps Natsuka scan and email it to her, Kaname’s obsession brings him and Natsuka to the bizarre glass Mikawa complex as well. But that’s not all: Mikawa Kirameki is the recipient of a Shigofumi, and guess whose job it is to deliver it? Fumiko, of course. And Kirameki seems to roll with it, for some unknown reason.

So the end of the episode is a pretty unexpected turn of events as all the characters converge on Mikawa’s remote glass castle thingy.

What We’ve Learned

Fumiko did indeed shoot her dad back in the day, though obviously he still lives. She is well aware of her sleeping body in the hospital, which she calls her “other half.” And Kirameki is even more “eccentric” and cold-hearted than we’ve been shown in previous clips.

Thoughts

Kaname’s obsession with finding answers is pretty hardcore, but it’s getting to be a plot contrivance. Natsuka is a shy girl, so maybe she wouldn’t have really stopped him, but it seems like bad form to follow your sister to work on her first day, especially when she works for The Fucked-Up Poet (isn’t that another Shakugan No Shana character?). At any case, we’re made to accept that in order to get all the recurring characters together in on place at the same time. I suppose I’m OK with it, because it’s still a fine show, and the merger of anthology-style and recurring characters in this episode is pretty interesting.

Looks like next week is the flashback to Fumiko shooting Kirameki that a lot of people are probably pining for at this point. Seems early to lay those cards on the table, so hopefully there is a lot more planned for the rest of this season’s episodes.

Scream

I often justify my habit by saying that I love a good serial: I can even call my favorite live-action American show, Lost, a pretty good time for all its faults. But in truth, I like a good anthology as well. It’s just regular-episode television that bores me. Whether comedy or drama, sticking the same characters into various situations with only a vague semblance of progressing story is wasted opportunity if you ask me. At any rate, Shigofumi is turning out to be a great anthology.

Story

Bad news

While Episode 5’s delivery to a cat was largely an excuse to develop Fumiko’s back story, this time it’s a more strict anthology route. A meek kid named Kikukawa is bullied mercilessly at school and another kid, Morishita, sells him out to protect his own ass, even though he snoops on internet message boards and sees how horrible things are for Kikukawa. Eventually, Kikukawa tops himself and Morishita finds himself the recipient not only of the bullies’ torture, but a vengefully-written Shigofumi from his dead classmate.

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor your sorry ass…

Tying things together, Fumiko’s former classmate is still exploring the mystery of what happened to her. His detective dad worked the case of her father’s shooting, and he confirms she’s been in the hospital for three years. So… as I feared, she is indeed a Fuko. Sigh.

Welcome. You’ve got mail.

Thoughts

I think one of the reasons why the anthology route works for me is the ability to change tone and vary the stories without jacking up the flow. Compare this to the sweetly sad episode with the tennis player, and it’s obvious you couldn’t do those same two types of episodes in a standard show. This one was dark as hell, and it made me wonder at the realism level of the psychologically brutal bullying. Is it really that bad? I suppose it’s probably not too far-fetched.

The Show

This is the first I’ve written on Shigofumi, another series you can chalk up to my flu. Now I’m up to my eyeballs in weekly anime, and though I’d still drop them all just for True Tears, I’m really enjoying this odd beast. Again, the anthology factor is a change of pace, Fumiko’s deadpan delivery is fun, and overall it’s just a slightly less conventional kind of enjoyment. It’s that change of pace that also sets it apart from perhaps its nearest comparison in recent memory, the repetitive Hell Girl. It was created by Ichiro Okouchi, the writer behind Code Geass, and Martian Successor Nadesico director Tatsuo Sato. I suppose the Ruri comparisons probably aren’t just in my head.

JC Staff (Shakugan No Shana, Azumanga Daioh and a ton more) does their typically capable job of animating, with the same dash of computer assistance you see in Shana.

Music is a pretty decent part of Shigofumi; incidentals are often suspenseful and kind of eerie. The OP (by Ali Project) is just odd, kind of makes me weirdly nervous in a way that makes a suitable prep for the show.

I’m looking forward to watching more, and though it’s not as rad as that other show about death and uh, notes, it’s a pretty good break from harems or action shows with no action.