Yes, I know this is the french cover.

Rather than this being something I like, I consider it legitimately amazing.

Mamoru Oshii is best known for directing Ghost in the Shell (released in 1995); four years later Jin-Roh was released, part of the “Kerberos Saga”, which was his own creation (dating back to 1987).

What is the Kerberos Saga?

The Kerberos Saga has one of the most complicated plots I’ve read about. Jin-Roh (which I finished last week) is the only actual part of the saga I’ve seen.

The general story of the saga goes as such. Japan loses a very different version of World War II (they lose to Germany). After Japan recovers it is met with internal conflict and terrorism that threatens to destabilize the nation. To combat this, the nation’s police force is restructured to separate the Self-Police (regular police) from a Capital Metropolitan Police Division which holds control over the “Special Unit” (aka Kerberos Unit).

The Kerberos Unit becomes well-known for using awesome skill, heavy technology, and brutally efficient tactics to combat terrorism. For reasons never fully explained, they become disliked by the Self-Police and are put under pressure by the government that created them. As such, the Kerberos Saga focuses on the turmoil of the Unit as it becomes increasingly hard for them to survive.

The Opening of Jin-Roh

Jin-Roh sets the mood instantly by showing us that there is no real “good” in the conflict. The Self-Police not once use brutal tactics against a riot (full of napalm filled molotov cocktails) and are instead blown half to smithereens by a satchel charge.

The Kerberos Unit, without permission from the Self-Police authority, run into the sewer and confronts the terrorists. There are maybe eight terrorist, and at least fifteen Kerberos.

Here we see the how the unit inflicts fear on the terrorists, the red eyes and gas-mask show no humanity. These are “good” guys, though they are brutal, they are just as brutal as the terrorists they fight.The Unit gives one warning. There is a long pause right before one terrorist panics and the Unit then responds by opening fire with their MG42s and killing everything.

As a young female terrorist tries to escape, she is met with one Kerberos who orders her to stop. She refuses and begins to pull the bomb on her satchel charge. The Kerberos, despite shouts from his nearby comrades, refuses to shoot her, and instead asks “Why….?” The bomb goes off, yet the Unit is unharmed.

The remainder of the film focuses on the aftermath of this incident, which is used to try and bury the Unit for “incompetence.” Our protagonist becomes the Kerberos from above, Fuse Kazuki, I’m tempted to say more, but since it’s such a great film I recommend you see it yourself.

Themes

The core theme of Jin-Roh is the question of humanity, Fuse is emotionless for most of the film, and when asked why he joined the Unit, he replies with “I just felt comfortable there.” His existence as a “wolf” remains resolute, though throughout the film he has many opportunities to just leave the military/police and become “human” once again.

What is… and yet isn’t touched upon much, is the nature of how the terrorists are treated in terms of humanity. There is clear implication that they aren’t treated as human. The warning that the Unit gives the terrorists in the opening is thrown into question when it was revealed the soldiers were given orders to eliminate the terrorists, showing that perhaps they knew the terrorists wouldn’t surrender.

I really love how the film does not take sides, of course we are intended to root for the Kerberos (I do at least), but since it is never made clear what the terrorists are fighting for, we can not judge the righteousness of their cause.

Concluding Thoughts

The atmosphere of this film is thoroughly depressing and dark, but if you can bear that, it serves as an excellent introduction to the Kerberos Saga. I’ve been trying to find anime that can be considered more artistic, and I am happy to add this to my collection.

Love this anime or hate it. You have to admit it’s has a presentation that many anime do not. The original light novel is by Nisio Isin, also the creator of Bakemonogatari. The similarity is apparent from the use of wordplay, crazy characters, self-referencial humor, and lots of conversation. I’m not gonna post a summary, cause that’s easy to find anywhere.

Katanagatari uses a plot that many would describe as “shounen-esque”, as it has a “We have to collect all A of the B” type story (A is number, B is a special artifact). In this case, the main characters must collect all 12 of Shikizaki Kiki’s deviant blades.

However, this shounen feeling is kind of overshadowed by the philosophies introduced in each chapter as well as the general seriousness of the story that is reflected by the violence of post-Sengoku era Japan.

Presentation

A lot of people have a problem with the amount of talking in the series. Whilst I understand that, I rather like the talking because it separates the it from other action anime. When the fighting does happen, it is well animated.

The story features a narrator to comment on some aspects of the story, though this generally does break the flow in any way.

Characters

The relationship between Togame and Shichika is probably the most intriguing part of the story in terms of character dynamics.

Togame is surprisingly open with her feelings most of the time, but other times she hides them when factoring logic into her strategies (best seen in episode five). Shichika is dense, but not dense to people’s feelings which is a funny twist on his character type.

The fact that they are working together despite knowledge of their ancestry (Shichika’s father killed Togame’s father) demonstrates a attractive bond, or perhaps rather intentional ignorance on their part. Either way it shows that they don’t care about the past when confronting their enemies and continue to move forward.

Other than Shichika and Togame who make the main cast. Each chapter features a character wielding one of the twelve blades as well as the Maniwa Corps. Almost none of these characters are portrayed as 100% villainous.

Episode 1 has Maniwa Koumori who is arguably the most “evil” character shown, but he does nothing evil enough to be hated. He rather just serves as an introductory antagonist.

Episode 2′s Ginkaku is shown as reasonably angry for the lack of support that the Shogunate shows to his land.

The Maniwa Ninja here (Shirasagi) is killed off so fast that we don’t get to know anything about him except that he talks backwards.

Episode 3′s Meisai is the first good natured blade-wielder, as she is using her blades to help heal orphaned girls. Her death is most chilling, because it shows us that while Shichika can be good natured, he feels almost nothing when killing Meisai.

The Maniwa Ninja here (Kuizame) is once again killed off fast, but remains likeable because of his shark teeth and willingness to enjoy the nickname that Shichika has given the Maniwani. Though earlier he is shown killing indiscriminate people without hesitation.

Episode 4 does not show us the battle with the blade wielder, but everything we know about Sabi Hakuhei shows that he would be a reasonably badass stoic protagonist (SPINOFF NOVEL PLEASE)

The three Maniwa (Kamakiri, Chouchou, and Mitsubachi) are more sympathetic than Nanami who slaughters them like…..bugs (they’re named after bugs after all).

Episode 5′s Kanara is likeable and has a tragic background. Hell, I was praying for him to survive this episode (which he does). His novel illustration is above.

No Maniwa are killed here. But we are introduced to their de facto leader Houou who manages to be most polite, funny, and morbidly obsessed with agreements.

Episode 6 has Konayuki who is just plain adorable and ends up being saved by Shichika after killing perhaps the only remaining unlikeable Maniwani. Houou is still morbidly obsessed with agreements and kills off another Maniwani in order to settle an agreement (much to Togame’s horror)

Music

The music is funny. Part of it can be quite anachronistic, featuring slow beat rap style songs. This is actually rather fitting with the style of the series which features similar anachronisms such as cigaretts or puns that wouldn’t make sense in the feudal time period. Other times the music shifts between being simply dramatic or actually fitting the time period.

My favorite track is Bahasa Palus which is composed of chanting and rap, though I think I prefer thetrailer version of the song. You can find samples here.

Concluding thoughts

Despite being skeptical about Nisio Isin because I had only heard of his Death Note and xxxHOLiC novels (both are series I feel are lacking). The anime of Bakemonogatari and Katanagatari have increased my desire to read his works (though to date I have read exactly none so far).

I will see Katanagatari through to the end. I have been given a few spoilers, but the presentation will likely still surprise me.

P.S.

I graduated from Highschool today. Woot.

Learn history!

Production I.G. has always been a relatively fine studio to me. They make high-quality material, most notably: Ghost in the Shell SAC, however I failed to be massively impressed. Eden of the East, however was very intriguing and I hope to watch the movie sequels soon so I can review it accordingly. They also made Blood+ which I haven’t seen, but apparently is considered one of their best.

Back in early 2009, they made an anime adaptation of the game series Sengoku BASARA which is apparently a tongue-in-cheek depiction of the Warring States era. Filled with power-levels, battle aura, mecha, GARness, and screaming people’s names. This manages to be quite entertaining.

The story has no clear main character (this is the Warring States era after-all), but of course features Oda Nobunaga as the most imposing war-leader. The story primarily focuses on the OH MY GOD, LOOK AT HIS STRENGTH-relationship between Date Masamune (a favorite of mine, because his army could crush anything in Sengoku Rance) and Sanada Yukimura (whom I hadn’t heard of until now)

Admittedly, I have only started watching this now. But when I first heard of it I was intrigued by the idea of Production I.G. doing a half-action-comedy series, and the result is quite pleasing.

Characters

Yukimura is voiced by everyone’s favorite battle-screaming seiyuu, Souichiro Hoshi. Most notable for voicing Keiichi in Higurashi and Kira in Gundam SEED. Which makes him perfect for acting out a naive but loyal character.

Masamune is voiced Kazuya Nakai, someone I haven’t heard often. But his voice is badass and makes perfect engrish (yes, they spoke engrish in feudal Japan, BASARA DOES NOT LIE) and reflects the lax and powerful traits of the character.

So from these characters we can grasp something. Whilst Sengoku BASARA may not be an amazing show, it is a show that generates it’s generic (but funny and cool) character archetypes better than other shows. Need more examples? Norio FUCKING Wakamoto voices Nobunaga!?!? You do need no other example than that.

In addition to the large male cast. There are some female characters of note: such as Kasuga (voiced by Natsuko Kuwatani whom I was 100% sure was Ayako Kawasumi at first), Oichi (voiced by Mamiko Not), and Nohime (Yurika Hino).

Then there’s Uesugi Kenshin, who is voiced by a woman and is given an ambiguous gender. Historically Kenshin is known as a man, but there is a legend (backed up by a few sources) that he was a woman. So BASARA gives him an effeminate face, soft armor that hides his gender, and the voice of Pakku Romi. His/her relationship with Kasuga has also been noted by others…. (hint read the the title of the blog).

General Hilarity

Name one anime where you can see:

1. A one-eyed man riding his horse with no hands like stunt biker and saying to a group of ragtag soldiers “HEY BOYS ARE YOU READY TO PARTY?”

2. Seeing a famous general ride his horse VERTICALLY up a wall

3. Japan getting hit by explosions nearly four-hundred years before World War II

Other Thoughts

A sequel season to this is coming soon. So I’m doing my best to finish up the first season. I’m usually not a fan of streaming shows, but for the sake of convenience I’ve been using FUnimations subbed version on Youtube.

Anyway, any fan of mindless action should check this out. It’s not too bad.

B Gata H Kei

Avisch:
Back when I was watching Katanagatari, there was a small voice that said “Damn. Why can’t Yukari Tamura star in more shows with her character acting cute all the time?” So apparently this was the answer that was given to me. Yukarin voices Yamada, who is desperately into the hobby of the love battlefield. It relies on gag humor most of the time, but with the good voice cast and Yukarin I will stick with it.

manga:
A anime where it´s actually the girl who wants to jump and fuck around with guys? I´m not sure if my head can comprehend this kind of show. Being in love, finding love, getting to love someone is ok, but setting a goal to find 100 fuck buddies?

Hell no! Give me back my innocent views of the anime girls and I pray to God that there are no real life girls that are like this or think like this.

For bonus points: Good comedy and “cherries” taste good I´ve heard. If I can get over my “no way not these kind of girls in my anime” period I´ll probably enjoy this.

Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou

Avisch:
The plot sounded interesting, though as most light novel adaptations go…I wasn’t expecting much. But the first episode was not half-bad. It was like a mix of Kampfer and Asura Cryin’ (both mediocre but semi-entertaining shows), so I guess I liked it. The voice work is relatively impressive, I felt the female lead’s voice was attractive and unique (despite her character-type, I love the righteous-loyal characters).

manga:
I don´t know where you got Asura Cryin’ from Avisch nor Kämpfer but I can say that the show is a load of fun.

I love seeing a guy getting missunderstood when it ends up with ecchi in some shows. This is one of the few shows that I can enjoy without feeling guilty. Maybe I should call this the guilty pleasure of the season?

A must watch. I need to know what the weird mark/scar under his eyes are. This I need to know NOW!!

Heroman

Avisch:
I don’t like BONEs much as a studio. Everything by them that I’ve watched has fallen short. Animation wise they are fine, but story/writing wise I find them horrible (as per my opinion of Xam’d, Eureka 7, and DtB, crucify me if you want). However their first episodes have managed to rope me in a number of times, and this was no different. So the first episode was cool, but if subsequent episodes fail, I won’t be surprised. Then there’s the topic of Joey, who nearly manages to out-moe the female lead. Is s/he a boy…..or a very nice looking reverse trap. “HIIIRO MAN!!!!”

Update: After watching episode 2 This show isn’t worth talking about anymore. It’s nothing more than bad comic.

manga:
So boy is treated like shit, spoiled idiots that treat the boy as shit trashes a much expensive toy. Misstreated boy fixes the expensive toy, lightning strikes and love and behold the toy is expanded, bigger, badder and can only be controlled by a weird device that attached itself to the wimpy boys arm?

And the earth is soon to be invaded by insects wanting to harvest the natural resources?

As a bonus: Hideyoshi from Baka Test was a sure giveaway that he has no gender. This boy named Joey Jones looks and acts like a girl but is supposedly a guy? Oh lord.

Dropped, and can´t be dropped fast enough. Cute love interest sure but that alone doesn´t make the story or the telling interesting.

Angel Beats

Avisch:
After being disappointed by CANAAN (also by PA works) I did not expect much from this. The first episode wasn’t bad, but it didn’t really make much sense to me. The second episode actually managed to impress me with a good opening theme and some comedic moments. I can’t really tell if this will do well. Animation is good (it’s PA works….what did you expect), voice work is fine, and the Haruhi comparisons throughout the internet will make anyone lol.

manga:
Key visual novel is a must see. And I don´t know why, but getting killed, experiencing the pain and the resurrecting doesn´t sound that bad to me. I´d like to at least experience it sometime.

Cute girls, great soundtrack from the band playing in the first episode and lulz for getting stabbed 100 times with a spear and covering the whole floor with blood.

Yes I have a sadistic part in me. That few shows allow me to enjoy. Lately there has only been Hellsing Ultimate and that´s it.

Choice of voice acting could have been better to make it less Haruhi compared but still. A good show and I´ll follow it.

Mayoi Neko Overrun!

Avisch: This at first looks like the usual “boy and his female childhood friend get a new addition (ie. eccentric girl) to their lives”, but this oddly enough is able to break some of the cliches. Sure the Fumino (the childhood friend) is tsundere, yet I can’t help but feel her TSUN TSUN is downplayed. Usually in shows like this all the focus is drawn towards the eccentric girl (Nozomi), but here she’s just another character. What I like about the show is the rich loli Chise who infact does not consider herself above others and simply is used as a parody of the usual rich female characters.

It’s not a brilliant show. But for what it’s worth, it’s entertaining. Though Hiroyuki Yoshino (voicing Ieyasu) really shouldn’t have taken the role of the otaku.

manga:
Wow, we start of with panties, the classic shimapan. Then comes the usual grudge holding against the guy. Even though the girl herself showed him…

A girl that only lies unless she is really angry and truthful and the guy who made her that way by encouraging her when they were younger. Yes childhood friends. Flag raised.

Mix in with a kendo training guy, a 2d maniac and we got ourselves a pretty fun bunch to be around. Yes there is a loli in it as well.

The main attraction for me enters at the very last minute of the first episode, a catgirl

Need to have at least one catgirl in the shows that I watch so this is obviously on my must watch list.

One has got to love anime for some reasons. One you can see above.

I don´t know in what games or how one should do what Sai Akuto has succeeded in doing. He is claimed to be the next Demon Lord and throw the world into chaos. At the same time he has succeeded in making the defender of justice fall for him and just keeps adding girls to his harem.

All while still making good grades and retaining his human side that doesn´t want to hurt people or throw the world into chaos. Instead he wants to be the next High Priest.

Getting to have a personal warlock, a android, a master swordswoman all females and as a bonus a girl that can turn invincible as well as getting a bad ass dragon as a pet?

Sounds just great and I can´t see what´s so bad about it.

So where do I sign up

Bah, just an awesome pic and I wanted to rant about it. Sounds great and looks great.

I just can´t seem to pin this show down. Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao is great in so many ways. Sai seems to have a split personality, on one side he´s the nicest guy around. But he can just as easily shift into his evil ways and be brutal and even torture people without a second thought.

As if that wasn´t enough his ability to “save” and “understand” just about every female that actually has the guts to speak with him is also a great ability. Keep building that harem Sai!!

I´d vote Sai for President but it´s kinda hard :p But what an awesome president he would be. Canceling nukes with one hand while charming his way to peace trough those puppy eyes just seem so nice.

Yeah, I´m babbling, blame it on my slight slight fever along with nothing better to do.

Sorry if this isn´t what you wanted. But just watch the show and be amazed. I just can´t wait for the next episode.

Continuing from last week.

I will now explain elements create a perfect show for me.

0. Basics
Have good animation, music, etc. Otherwise correct your mistakes on the DVD

1. Good Pacing
This might not seem important to many, but I feel that a good show needs good pacing. After each episodes airs, I want to be able to say “hey something cool happened this week.” Shows by studio BONES (Eureka 7, Darker than Black, Xam’d) lack this element, thus they drive me crazy. However BONES has a significant fanbase, so apparently this is not a big deal for everyone. A better example would probably be Nanoha StrikerS, which managed to annoy everyone with episodes that consistently were focused on training.

And yet......ANN can't get it right either.

Took her three episodes to confess her love. For others it takes three whole seasons.

3. Don’t end your show like Evangelion
And here’s where the Gainax fans will be like “NO, BUT LOVE EVA.” I read a book called Anime Classics Zettai that argued that Evangelion’s confusing ending should not detract from the fact that many of the other episodes were well made and had good direction.
That may be true, but I think in another perspective. If you watched a whole series only for it to end with a mindscrew ending, you’re left thinking “what was the point then”. I’m sure I’m not the only one who wants to watch 12 or 24 episodes and have an ending that is either sad/depressing/awesome as long as it gives a a nice finishing touch.

4. Don’t try too hard
This is more subjective than any of the above. But shows should definitely not go over top with following:
-Popular culture references
This isn’t always bad, Hayate no Gotoku does it all the time. But when you have Lucky Star feature the Hare Hare Yukai dance, you’ve gone from “clever” to “fanservice”
-Famous philosophers and locales
Ergo Proxy had an entire array of robots named after philosophers, and an entire episode based around an obscure Japanese book store.
-Symbolism
I dare you to watch Melody of Oblivion without getting bored.
-Whatever the hell Ghost in the Shell SAC was talking about