Anime Review: Parasyte -the maxim-

written by Laurie Tom

Though I have a lot of affection for Parasyte, my experience is colored by having been a huge fan of the manga for years. I recognize that adaptations need to make changes and that doesn’t bother me. There are some things that I think were improved by having done so, but at the same time, there are others that absolutely did not bother me in the manga that just felt flat when translated into the animated medium.

Parasyte is the story of Shinichi Izumi, a high school senior who is the victim of a failed attempt by a parasyte organism to take over his brain. Instead of burrowing into his brain, the parasyte landed in his hand and matured partially up his arm. The result is that he and Migi, the parasyte, are two sentient beings that share one body, with Migi controlling Shinichi’s right hand and arm while he is awake.

Normally parasytes gain self-awareness when they take over and mature in their host’s brain, and at that time they gain the urge to feed on their host’s species as prey. Needless to say, when the parasytes first appear, it looks like there’s a rabid ax murderer on the loose leaving body parts all over the place, but with time the parasytes learn to clean up their act to avoid drawing attention to themselves and their feeding grounds.

The parasytes are every bit as intelligent as humans without being entirely human themselves. They do not have emotions, relying on what is practical and what is instinct, and they are able to distort the parts of the body they assimilate into a living weapon (so when parasytes fight it looks like the formerly human heads of their hosts turn into bladed tentacles). But despite being powerful predators of humanity, they have a great deal of difficulty in understanding how human behavior works, which is a debilitating weakness for creatures who rely on disguise to avoid attention.

This is the crazy reality that Shinichi finds himself grappling with when everyone else in Japan doesn’t have the slightest idea that there are real monsters going around eating people. The only reason he knows is because of Migi, who is both friend and foil. Though Migi possesses the cold logic of parasytes, he also understands that if he is to survive, he must convince his human host to work alongside him, which results in Migi having a better understanding of how humans tick. At the same time, Shinichi teaches Migi about compassion and how complicated humans are when emotions and practicality intersect.

It’s an interesting play between them, with Migi being willing to give Shinichi possibly false reassurances simply because he knows it will make him feel better, and Shinichi explaining to Migi why using a wall of people as a shield against another parasyte is an unethical tactic. Arguably the relationship between Shinichi and Migi is really what makes the show, as both of them gain the understanding and empathy for each other’s kind.

The themes in parasyte are thoughtful; about humanity’s place in the world, about each species’ right to exist, about the nature of coexistence and who gets to set the rules.

But the pacing is off, and this is where I don’t like the anime so much.

Parasyte follows the manga surprisingly closely, with many shots being drawn from the same angles as the original panels. Its devotion to following the source material even results in episodes where the biggest moment happens in the middle of the episode, or shortly after the beginning, and I can’t help feeling that part of the reason is a lack of desire to trim or expand the original story.

This problem will likely be mitigated for future viewers who can watch as many episodes as they like in one sitting, but waiting a week between simulcasts made the pacing annoying.

I also think that Parasyte loses a bit of its edge from the sanitization needed to get it on TV. The first episode is fairly faithful to the manga and left quite a bit in (though with minimal blood), but after that point most of the gore is off-screen with characters reacting to it.

While I’m rarely a fan of gore, I’d argue that it’s important in Parayste because one of the key points is how much of what makes us human doesn’t make sense, and our sensitivity to what a predator instinctively does in nature is a part of that. The gore isn’t created because the parasytes are sick bastards. The gore is created because the parasytes are going about their business and doing what’s most practical (for them). By not showing this, the anime’s impact is blunted in its ability to widen the gap between what the audience tells itself it believes, and what the audience actually believes.

But there are good parts to the adaptation too.

There weren’t a whole lot of changes made, but when the anime did deviate from the manga, the show was noticeably stronger. Yuko was promoted from a one-off character to an actual member of the supporting cast, which paid off in the Shimada arc since the viewer had additional emotional investment in her survival. And the anime made Kana much more sympathetic, taking a character I really didn’t care for and making her someone worth worrying about.

The manga was written in the late 80s/early 90s in the pre-cell phone era, but Parasyte for the most part makes the transition to modern day well. School uniforms and hair styles are updated and a scene where camera film needed to be destroyed was easily revised to where the camera itself was taken apart. The only part that really didn’t work and too easily telegraphed that something bad was going to happen was when a character forgot her cell phone, whereas there was no cell phone to worry about in the original.

I think the anime has less to offer those already familiar with the manga, but for those who have never experienced the manga in the first place, it’s a good entry point with substantially less gore for those sensitive about on screen violence. There really isn’t anything else quite like it, particularly if one does not mind mulling over the nature of existence in the same series as human-chomping monsters.

Number of Episodes: 24

Pluses: faithful to the original award-winning manga, poses interesting questions about the nature of human morality, Shinichi/Migi dynamic owns the series

Minuses: strange episode pacing with oddly chosen cliffhangers, in a couple cases the update from the 80s to present day results in characters being stupid in order for plot to happen, music score is uneven with some scenes have emotionally jarring musical selections

Parasyte -the maxim- is currently streaming at Crunchyroll and is available subtitled. Sentai Filmworks has licensed this for eventual retail distribution in the US.

laurietom Laurie Tom is a fantasy and science fiction writer based in southern California. Since she was a kid she has considered books, video games, and anime in roughly equal portions to be her primary source of entertainment. Laurie is a previous grand prize winner of Writers of the Future and since then her work has been published in Galaxy’s Edge, Strange Horizons, and Crossed Genres.

Anime Review: Death Parade

written by Laurie Tom

deathparade

The concept of Death Parade is nothing new. Stories of people being judged after death goes back to the earliest religions. But what makes it special is watching the various souls who pass through for judgment and how the judgment process itself is potentially unfair.

Death Parade has some manic customers, but the series itself is understated, letting peoples’ lives, and deaths, unfold for the audience at the same time as it does for the mysterious woman who is Decim’s assistant; Decim being the arbiter who decides the fate of the people being judged.

The woman without a name has no memories and serves as the audience’s surrogate because she does not know what she is doing in this purgatory world where the staff look like elevator attendants and barkeeps, and the souls of the deceased come to be judged.

All the inhabitants there are neither alive nor dead, having been created specifically for the purposes they carry out. Decim is an arbiter who works in a bar called Quindecim (Latin for “fifteen”) where he periodically receives two souls that died at the same time, which means they will be judged together.

While this sometimes means they died in the same event, other times it’s just coincidence and they do not know each other at all.

The memories of the dead are partially suppressed, leaving them unaware of being dead and how they died. Once in the bar, they are convinced to play a game with their freedom and their lives at stake. The game is typically competitive, designed to bring out the worst in the players as all their regrets return and they come to realize that their lives are already over.

But still, people are complicated. Death doesn’t change that, and even after death there are surprises.

The first episode is a whopper of plot twists and revelations, focusing on a married couple, their history together, and how they ended up dying. But the real stinger comes in the second episode, which shows the same story from the perspective of Decim’s assistant and turns everything on its head once more.

Though there is a certain episodic-ness to the story, with new characters constantly coming and going for judgment, there is an larger overarching storyline. I don’t really care for the higher level scheming, because I think it raises too many questions about how the whole afterlife system works and who put it there in the first place, but I do like the friendship between Decim and his unnamed assistant.

It takes some time to grow during the early episodes, but it becomes clear that the inhuman Decim is being changed by his amnesiac companion, who clearly wasn’t created in the same fashion he was. Her history and her beliefs become the emotional core around which the rest of the series revolves as she becomes increasingly disillusioned with the idea that it’s possible to judge a person without having really known them.

Death Parade surprised me, largely because the woman’s progression is so gradual I didn’t think too much about it until the last few episodes. When I started this show, I did not think I would end up needing a tissue in the end, but I think anyone’s who has experienced the loss of a loved one will be able to relate.

I highly recommend this series. It does get a little lost in the middle, but it’s short and packs a powerful punch.

Number of Episodes: 12

Pluses: judgment games are interesting to watch, facial animations are top notch and really drive home the emotions spilling out of the characters

Minuses: meanders a bit in the middle, worldbuilding outside of Decim’s bar isn’t really that interesting and not well addressed

Death Parade is currently streaming at Funimation and Hulu and is available both subtitled and dubbed (though dub requires a Funimation subscription). Funimation has licensed this for eventual retail distribution in the US.

Anime Review: Magic Kaito 1412

written by Laurie Tom

magickaito Magic Kaito 1412 is a largely episodic series centered around the adventures of Kaito Kuroba, a high school junior who moonlights as a gentleman thief to thwart the people responsible for the death of his father, the original Kid the Phantom Thief.

The source manga was started in the 1980s and only went three volumes before Gosho Aoyama launched the much more successful Detective Conan (known in the US as Case Closed), and despite efforts to modernize the setting, there are still plot sensibilities that feel much more at home in the 80s than modern day, such how easily and quickly Kaito becomes the new Kid the Phantom Thief. In a play on words, Kaito the protagonist’s name and “kaitou” the word for “phantom thief” are pronounced almost the same. It’s that kind of show.

Magic Kaito 1412 quickly runs through the origin story of the second Kid the Phantom Thief and from there mostly follows a stand-alone format, featuring a new heist or personal adventure of Kaito’s each episode (barring multi-parters). Sometimes characters are introduced and come back in a later episode. Sometimes they are never seen again. But this isn’t a particularly deep show, or a realistic one. It’s all about having a good time as Kaito tries to deal with the thefts and his double life.

As a gentleman thief, Kid always sends advance warning that he’s going to steal something, and then proceeds to do. Nothing stops him; not traps, not guards, not even a date with his not-really-girlfriend (though he does have to get creative with the last one). And because he’s the son of both a magician and a thief, many of his thefts involve a high degree of showmanship, making use of misdirects, disguises, props, and other tricks to help him set up the theft and get away.

A lot of what he does is not humanly possible, but are the kinds of things that the kid in us wishes we could do. Kaito is cocky, hyper-competent, and gets away with almost everything.

Then, because Kaito is only stealing things to stay one step ahead of the crime organization that killed his father, he returns the stolen gems afterwards when they turn out to be different from the one he and his enemies are looking for. (I guess it’s understood that if Kid gives it back, it’s obviously not the right gem, because we don’t hear about those gems being stolen again later.)

Despite the fact the premise is structured around his father’s death and thwarting a crime organization in search of immortality, Magic Kaito is generally a light-hearted show that’s eager to please. Most times, the reason why Kaito is constantly stealing things isn’t even brought up, and he doesn’t wallow in the negative emotions behind his motivation (though the two-part finale does raise the question about how he really feels about what he’s doing). And while Kaito’s double life is not a new topic in storytelling, I love that it’s more often a source of comedy than the drama it could have been.

The episodic nature of Magic Kaito also makes this series lovely when time commitment is a problem, since there’s little need to remember storylines from one episode to the next, but it does have a flaw that has nothing to do with how individual stories are presented.

Detective Conan and Magic Kaito are conveniently set in the same world, and Aoyama never forgot his earlier creation. Kaito in his Kid persona has made several appearances in Detective Conan, which is a franchise juggernaut with more TV episodes than The Simpsons. By the time this review is posted, the 19th Detective Conan movie will have released in theaters featuring a face off between Detective Conan and Kid, who takes up as much space on the movie poster as Detective Conan himself. Awareness of Kid is huge among the Japanese fanbase.

This leads to the problem where Magic Kaito 1412 just can’t cut the apron strings to its more famous brother. The first time Shinichi Kudo shows up in Magic Kaito (before his transformation into Conan) it’s a fun nod to the genius teen detective and a real pain in the butt for Kaito, when he realizes just what he’s up against. It’s definitely one of the better episodes because Kaito has to work so much harder for his win.

But someone must have decided that the show needed more Conan, so there are subsequent crossovers which directly correlate to episodes of Detective Conan that were never licensed in the US. While it’s nice seeing Kid match wits with Conan, the handling could have been a lot better, leaving me feeling like I had missed something because there was a Conan version of the story that the episode assumes I’ve already seen.

It’s particularly egregious that the episode where Kid and Conan first meet face to face is not in Magic Kaito 1412, leaving newcomers to assume they had met at some point before. Fortunately, in this case, interested Americans can watch episodes 78-79 of Case Closed streaming on Funimation to get up to speed (they fit in right after episode 6 of Magic Kaito 1412).

All said and done, I really liked Magic Kaito 1412 to the point I can safely say it’s my favorite show to have come out of 2014. It’s not perfect, but it’s the sort of thing where you know exactly what you’re going to get and it delivers. Watching Kaito steal things as Kid and parade around friends and enemies rarely fails to put a smile on my face. He really sells the show and everything that comes along with it.

I can see why Kid is a perennial favorite among Conan fans, and the show seems to have done well in the TV ratings, so I’m hoping that it will return sometime in the future, though there is very little manga material left to work with.

But if there is next time, please, more Kid and less Conan.

Number of Episodes: 24

Pluses: doesn’t take itself too seriously without being completely preposterous, Kaito in his Kid persona is really fun to watch, almost as much focus on Kaito’s life out of costume as in it

Minuses: no definitive ending since the manga is unfinished, Kaito is so skilled a protagonist he’s rarely in substantial danger, crossover episodes with Detective Conan/Case Closed are not newcomer friendly

Magic Kaito 1412 is currently streaming at Crunchyroll and is available subtitled.

Anime Review: Aldnoah.Zero

written by Laurie Tom

Aldnoah.Zero got off to a spectacular start, being the only show of 2014 that left me completely mindblown by the end of the first episode, and for its first half it was my favorite thing that year. But it takes an unexpected direction after the halfway point and I don’t think it was for the better.

In an alternate present day, Mars has been colonized thanks to the 1972 discovery of a warp gate on the moon by the Apollo 17 mission. But Mars was still an inhospitable world and one of its early settlers discovered the remnants of an alien technology called Aldnoah. Aldnoah bound itself to his genetic material so that no one other than him and his descendants could activate it and he declared himself emperor of the new Vers Empire on Mars. Those who served him became known as knights.

In 1999, war broke out between Earth and Mars over sharing resources which resulted in the shattering of the moon’s warp gate, much of the moon itself, and stranding large chunks of the Martian military in the resulting satellite belt. Though the war ended with the breaking of the moon, it was not a decisive win for either side. Now in 2014, the Martian princess, Asseylum, granddaughter of the man who was first bound to Aldnoah, wishes to visit Earth in an overture of peace.

The story in Aldnoah.Zero really needs to be spoken about in two halves, partially because there is a time skip at the halfway point. The first half centers around the apparent assassination of Princess Asseylum by Terran terrorists (actually Martian terrorists who want to overthrow the royals, but when Martians and Terrans are both humans it’s not easy to tell them apart). Technologically superior Mars declares war and underequipped Earth is quickly invaded.

We see the war largely through the eyes of two characters; Inaho Kaizuka and Slaine Troyard. Though both are Terrans, Inaho has always lived on Earth and Slaine crash landed on Mars as a child and grew up as a servant of the Martian royal family.

The first half of the series is stuffed with fantastic underdog battles where Inaho takes out enemy pilots in superior mecha by outthinking them. Each Martian mecha is different, with unique powers and weaknesses due to the Aldnoah technology, making their defeat a puzzle to be solved. As a result, no two battles are the same.

As Inaho is trying to protect the princess, who didn’t actually die in the terrorist attack, Slaine is trying to rescue her and foil the plans of those who would have her killed. The two teenagers repeatedly come into contact with each other on opposite sides of the battlefield. Even though both of them fear for the princess’s safety and want her returned to stop the war, Slaine is afraid the Terrans will manipulate her and Inaho fears the same about the Martians, especially knowing that it was other Martians who originally tried to kill her.

This conflict comes to a head in the mid-series finale, which was amazing… except then the time skip happened.

How well the time skip is received likely depends on which male protagonist the viewer related to the most and how much they care about Slaine, who has proven to be a divisive character.

The second half takes time to get going with some strange plot concessions that range from improbable to head-scratching that ends up undoing much of the shock that happened in the mid-series finale and the plot is clearly restructured as a fight between Inaho and Slaine and what kind of future they want to bring about. Despite the fact they both love the princess doesn’t mean that they’re on the same page about protecting her.

The puzzle battles largely disappear, replaced by political intrigue and more general skirmishes as if to remind the viewers there’s still a war going on. The rest of the cast is still here, but largely fade into the background, leaving several of their personal stories unresolved.

As for the princess herself, while she is active and trying to stop the war in the first half, she is sadly fridged for a good portion of the second (almost literally) because otherwise things wouldn’t have gotten out of hand to the degree they did. She’s not a bad character, and once she’s active again she makes it clear that she is not a prize to be won and chooses her own path, but it would have been nice if she hadn’t spent so much of the second half as a figurehead.

I have mixed feelings about the second half largely because it wasn’t what I expected after the first, and I don’t think enough was done to explain the change in Slaine over the timeskip. While he doesn’t come across as a drastically different person, it’s clear that something about him is off and doesn’t entirely jive with who he was before.

And that’s the problem. The second half rides almost entirely on Slaine, whether or not the viewer buys his actions and the motivations behind them, and it’s a bit strange considering how powerless he was in the first.

Aldnoah.Zero could easily have run into another season if a different decision in the final episode had been made, but it manages to wrap up all the major plot threads in a satisfactory manner, as well as the fates of the three main characters of Inaho, Slaine, and Asseylum.

Overall, I would still recommend Aldnoah.Zero to people who aren’t otherwise inclined to watch mecha shows, because it focuses so much on interpersonal relationships and how communication (or lack there of) drives so much of what happens between people. There may be giant robots, but they are hardly the focus. The battles are well thought out, particularly in the first half, and I never felt like someone pulled an instant-win card to get them out of a tough strait.

But if one finds that they cannot stand Slaine in the first half of the show, it’s probably not a good idea to continue as it’s unlikely any opinion on him will improve.

Though I rarely comment on music, composer Hiroyuki Sawano has done a fantastic job with Aldnoah.Zero, creating memorable tracks such as “No Differences,” an anti-war theme that only plays during combat scenes, as if Princess Asseylum herself is there to remind the soldiers of Earth and Mars of why she had come in peace in the first place.

Number of Episodes: 24

Pluses: mecha combat where tactics matter, first half is full of unexpected and awesome plot twists, distinctive and memorable music score

Minuses: Slaine’s murky change in morality in the second half, second half is substantially weaker as a whole than the first, Martian side of war isn’t as fleshed out as its Terran counterpart making them harder to sympathize with

Aldnoah.Zero is currently streaming on Crunchyroll, Daisuki, and Hulu and is available subtitled.

Spring 2015 Anime First Impressions

written by Laurie Tom

Spring looks to be a slower season than the packed viewing schedule I held in winter. It helps that this time Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works is the only returning series that I was already watching and it won’t have to fight much for my viewing time. Last winter’s Fafner: Exodus will not air its second cour until later in the year.

Depending on how things shake out in spring, it’s possible I’ll go back and finish one or two of the shows I left behind in winter, but right now I’m just looking for two more series to watch alongside Fate/stay night.

Here are my thoughts on the first episodes of some of the new spring shows.

Blood Blockade Battlefront

blood blockade battlefront

Why I Watched It: New York City has become a battleground for the supernatural, cut off from the rest of the world by a bubble that keeps the craziness, and the New Yorkers, contained inside. I had heard favorable comparisons to the cult hit Baccano.

What I Thought: The first episode is pretty frantic with very little explained other than the basic worldbuilding that enables a world where otherworldly creatures existing openly on the streets along with normal humans. The combat is a little over the top, and I’m not sure I like the snooty demon who seems to be getting set up as the antagonist, but I love the mix of mundane and supernatural where the humans don’t see anything unusual about living with their new neighbors.

Verdict: I will be watching. Leonardo seems an unusual choice in protagonist in that his powers are decidedly non-combative in a very combat-oriented anime, but it might mean an interesting change of pace.

Where to find stream: Funimation and Hulu

Gunslinger Stratos: The Animation

gunslingerstratos

Why I Watched It: Parallel worlds where the main character’s other self is the villain, paired with gravity-defying gun-fu combat scenes? It didn’t need much else to sell itself. It’s also based on the Gunslinger Stratos arcade game which never came to the US.

What I Thought: It’s not as light on story as I thought it would be (but that’s not saying it’s deep either). Tohru isn’t much different from most anime protagonists in that he’s a reserved young man who wants to do the right thing, but he’s a pretty good shot, likely only hampered because he’s such a nice guy, which is of course a problem his antagonistic alter ego doesn’t seem to have. Literally falling into a parallel world where crazy gun battles are commonplace is kind of contrived, but I’m willing to give this a benefit of a doubt just to get to the good stuff.

Verdict: I’ll be watching. Based off the first episodes I’ve seen, it’s surprisingly the one I want to watch the most out of this season’s premieres.

Where to find stream: Crunchyroll

The Heroic Legend of Arslan

arslan senki

Why I Watched It: Arslan Senki is a venerable novel series set in a fictional world inspired by historical Persia. It was adapted as a direct to video anime before in the 1990s, but was never finished. Considering its pedigree, I wanted to check it out.

What I Thought: The first episode didn’t impress me too much at first. Eleven-year-old Prince Arslan is woefully naive and mostly ignored by his royal parents. It’s a road that’s been trod before. But when he meets a prisoner-of-war his own age who’s destined for the slave market, he’s baffled that anyone would choose to die rather than be guaranteed food each day. Clearly the series is setting up for some shattering event that will throw Arslan into a war that challenges the beliefs he grew up with. And the people of the opposing country are not saints either, since they’re invading to kill the heathens who do not share their beliefs.

Verdict: I might be watching, but it’ll probably depend on what happens to Arslan and how quickly he matures (or if a more interesting cast member gets introduced). While he ages to fourteen in the next episode, I’m not sure how much more of his naivete I can take.

Where to find stream: Funimation and Hulu

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?

is it wrong to pick up girls

Why I Watched It: That title says it all. It sounds like a comedy about someone whose life is essentially a role-playing game. I had to give it a shot no matter how bad it might be.

What I Thought: Main character Bell is surprisingly not trying to pick up every girl in sight, but rather wants to impress a single lady who saved his life (though his reason for going into the dungeon in the first place was to meet one). Believing that she’s totally out of his league, Bell embarks on a quest to become stronger in his strangely RPG-style world, which means level grinding to improve his stats and getting money to help grow the Familia, or adventurer’s guild, of his goddess patron. There’s some annoying fanservice courtesy of the goddess who has a crush of her own on Bell, but I like that Bell seems pretty set on who he wants.

Verdict: I’m probably going to pass. It was funny, but living in a RPG world feels really overdone right now, with both Sword Art Online and Log Horizon still in recent memory. I don’t think Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls brings anything new to the table.

Where to find stream: Crunchyroll

My Love Story!

mylovestory

Why I Watched It: Based on a girls’ comic, My Love Story! breaks popular convention in that the main character is a big, stocky guy with a heart of gold but the face of a thug. All the girls want his good-looking best friend instead, until he gets a chance to be someone’s hero.

What I Thought: It’s incredibly rare to see a romance from the male point of view, especially from the guy who is typically the wingman and has yet to discover he’s actually the protagonist in his own love story. Takeo is sweet, but a bit broken down since every single girl he’s ever had a crush on has instead confessed their affection to his conventionally handsome best friend (who then shoots them down). So when a girl crushes on Takeo for real he decides she must also be interested in his best friend and he should do whatever he can to help them hook up.

Verdict: I might be watching. While the setup is a nice change of pace, I’m not entirely sold on it. Being a non-action piece, a lot is going to rely on the characters, and other than Takeo himself I haven’t found anyone else engaging.

Where to find stream: Crunchyroll

Rin-ne

rinne

Why I Watched It: The latest from manga creator Rumiko Takahashi, best known for Ranma ½ and Inuyasha (though my favorite of her work is Maison Ikkoku). My tastes have changed since I was originally introduced to her work and I don’t think I’ll like it as much anymore, but I’ll still check the latest out.

What I Thought: It definitely feels like a Takahashi series with her unique art style and brand of comedy, though I’m surprised the whole first episode went by without a single lewd joke. Instead much fun is made of male protagonist Rinne’s stinginess to the point that he believes main character Sakura’s 1500 yen ($12.61 US) is a small fortune. Most stories involving a girl who can see ghosts and a boy tasked with guiding restless spirits back to the wheel of reincarnation would probably take itself seriously, but Takahashi’s absurdist rendition of ghostbusting has Rinne paying a few yen every time he needs to operate/purchase the tools for his job and features a lonely ghost finally agreeing to go to the wheel of reincarnation because there are girls over there.

Verdict: I might come back and watch later. I was really surprised. If I liked comedy more I think this would have ranked higher.

Where to find stream: Crunchyroll

Seraph of the End

seraphoftheend

Why I Watched It: Honestly, I didn’t really want to watch another show with vampires, no matter how nice the promo art looks, but Hiroyuki Sawano is one of my favorite composers ever and he’s scoring this one so I figured I’d at least listen.

What I Thought: Better than expected. When all humans above age 13 die to a mysterious virus, vampires take children under their “protection” and provide them with food and clothing in exchange for being livestock. Most of the first episode is story setup, showing main character Yuichiro and his best friend Mikaela as children as they deal with their new reality and try to escape the underground city the vampires are keeping them in, so it’s hard to see how the rest of the show will play out. The vampires are pretty ruthless though and I was surprised to see how high the underage body count was. The episode ends with a time skip bringing Yuichiro to sixteen and no information as to what happened in the intervening years.

Verdict: I might be watching. It’s piqued my interest, but I’ll have to see how it stacks up against the rest of the season. If it avoids having angsty vampires it’ll stand a better chance.

Where to find stream: Funimation and Hulu

Conspicuously missing:

Digimon Adventure tri – The much anticipated 15th anniversary series for the Digimon franchise seems to have been delayed. After the hype train that has been running since last year, it’s a little bit of a disappointment, but hopefully this means the series will have a chance to fix any production problems it might have been having.

Sushi and Beyond – Based on a British journalist’s book about how he and his family took a 100-day trip to Japan to try out a wide variety of local foods. It seems that it’s being broadcast in some local Japanese TV stations in the US in partnership with NHK World, but there has been no simulcast arrangement.

laurietom
Laurie Tom is a fantasy and science fiction writer based in southern California. Since she was a kid she has considered books, video games, and anime in roughly equal portions to be her primary source of entertainment. Laurie is a previous grand prize winner of Writers of the Future and since then her work has been published in Galaxy’s Edge, Strange Horizons, and Crossed Genres.

Anime Movie Review: Lupin the 3rd vs Detective Conan: The Movie

Lupin vs Conan

I was very surprised to see the Lupin the 3rd vs Detective Conan: The Movie go up on Hulu since it had been a couple years since the movie came out and the release in February was done with little to no fanfare. There is no English language DVD or Blu-ray release and it was not put out by the US licensees of Lupin III or Detective Conan (Case Closed in the US). Instead, the original Japanese production company was the one who posted it to Hulu.

I never watched any of the Lupin III series before largely because I’m not fond of the older art style (Lupin III started in the 1960s and doesn’t look like what we typically consider anime) and because I’m not really in the target demographic for his hijinks. Lupin is a womanizing thief who is constantly trying to get into the pants of various women, particularly a busty femme fatale who he both adores and is constantly being crossed by.

But Detective Conan was one of my favorite anime series when I was in college. I never saw the whole thing (it’s still running new episodes even today!), but Conan as a character is a nice mix of smartass and brilliant detective that it’s fun to watch him solve a case. He also has a bit of a problem in that he’s actually a teenager, but a mysterious drug that people used to try to kill him had the unexpected effect of de-aging him by about ten years instead, making him look like a first grader. Most people aren’t aware he’s really Shinichi Kudo and Conan Edogawa is just the alias he’s using while hiding his survival.

After the cold open, the movie helpfully gives the background of both the Lupin III and Detective Conan characters for those new to either one, but I think someone who has never seen either would have a more difficult time getting into the movie. Having never seen Lupin III I was only vaguely familiar with his crew of helpers and whenever one of them showed up and did something amazing it was all right, I could follow the story, but some of what they did felt out of character for a Conan movie. I imagine that fans in the reverse situation felt the same.

The mix of art and storytelling styles felt very jarring. Conan debuted in the 1990s, and while the art style is distinctive, it’s much closer to modern anime than Lupin III. When you put the characters together, they don’t look like they should be on screen at the same time. Lupin III’s art leans towards very thin individuals, particularly in the legs, with more realistically proportioned facial features. Conan’s male adults are bulkier and everyone has larger eyes. Conan also doesn’t do busty, but Lupin III’s Fujiko has a gigantic chest.

As far as the storytelling styles go, crossing Detective Conan and Lupin III is probably best likened to doing a James Bond and Encyclopedia Brown crossover. That’s a rather extreme comparison, but the target demographics are probably similar between countries. Lupin III is aimed at young men, older teenagers and adults. Hanky-panky is okay and expected. Detective Conan is aimed at children and families (though due to differing cultural standards, Conan routinely deals with murder and on screen blood and it’s okay since the criminals are caught in the end).

Which leaves me wondering: Who is this movie aimed at?

While Detective Conan has plenty of adult-aged fans, it’s still feels out of character to see Lupin trying to get frisky with Fujiko when that’s not something a fan has come to expect when watching Conan.

Moving past the rough style merge, the movie does all right. It’s a sequel to the Lupin the 3rd vs Detective Conan TV special that was not translated into English, but it’s possible to get by without having seen it. I haven’t.

It only really serves to explain the villain’s motivation in the end, but being a crossover movie I think most viewers are here to watch Lupin and Conan do their things, and they do them well. Conan not only solves a couple different mysteries at the same time, but manipulates multiple parties so when a big confrontation happens, no one gets hurt. And Lupin manages to pull off some fanciful getaways.

I’m not likely to track down any Lupin III material, but he’s scene stealer. I can see why he’s been such an enduring character, I’m a little surprised by how often he gets himself handcuffed only to escape later considering how Detective Conan’s own recurring thief character never gets that close to arrest.

And speaking of said thief… While he does appear in the movie, it’s not for very long, but he does get the last laugh. Kid fans should be pleased.

Overall, I’d say fans of one or the other franchise would be fine giving this movie a shot. It’s not as impenetrable to understand as I thought it would be, and better than I expected, but definitely has some rough edges.

Lupin the 3rd vs Detective Conan: The Movie is currently streaming subtitled on Hulu.

laurietom Laurie Tom is a fantasy and science fiction writer based in southern California. Since she was a kid she has considered books, video games, and anime in roughly equal portions to be her primary source of entertainment. Laurie is a previous grand prize winner of Writers of the Future and since then her work has been published inGalaxy’s Edge, Strange Horizons, and Crossed Genres.

My Nebula Ballot 2015

written by David Steffen

The Nebula awards are nominated and voted by members of SFWA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. I have been a member of SFWA in the past, but have chosen not to maintain my membership dues so I am not currently a member. So I can’t actually vote. But I do still follow the Nebula awards, and so I thought it worth posting my ballot as if I had the right to vote. The Nebula ballot has only 5 categories, four of them for lengths of written fiction and one for the Ray Bradbury Award for film. Unlike the Hugos, its voting system only allows you to vote for one thing, rather than rank-ordering all of them and doing instant runoff votes like the Hugos, so I will structure my post accordingly. You can find the full list of nominees here.

Because I don’t tend to read many novellas, because the Nebula voting period is so short, and because I was spent some of the Nebula voting period reading books for short-term review deadlines, I didn’t read any of the novella nominees this year.

Best Novel

Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

Ancillary Sword is the sequel to Ancillary Justice. I reviewed Ancillary Justice here. I gave Ancillary Sword a more lengthy review here. The story picks up shortly after the evens of Ancillary Justice. Breq the body-bound ship AI is now in the employ of Anaander Miaanai, the many-bodied emperor that rules over most of the colonized universe, albeit with a schism that has divided herself into a civil war. With the shutdown of the gate system that most ships depend on for transport between the stars, the empire has been thrown into disarray. Miaanai orders Breq to visit Athoek Station. This is the only assignment Breq would have accepted from the emperor, because she owes a debt to the sister of Lieutenant Awn, one of her former crew members who had died in her service.

It’s hard to match the novelty of Ancillary Justice, especially since one of the things I loved about that first book were the flashback sequences in the many-bodied ship AI with ancillary system. But this was a solid entry in its own right. I thought it felt rather incomplete, like the first half of a book rather than a whole book, to be concluded with Ancillary Mercy, but was still a good book, worthy of an award.

Best Novelette

“The Magician and Laplace’s Demon,” Tom Crosshill (Clarkesworld 12/14)

(this review was part of my Nebula Novelette review, where I review the 3 nominated novelettes I found time to read)

The protagonist of the story is an every expanding near-omniscient near-omnipotent AI. It thinks it has everything under control, but it discovers a new threat, an inscrutable impossible unprovable threat–magic. The alteration of probability which only manifests when it can’t be proved. Alteration of probability isn’t inherently provable because there’s always a chance it could’ve turned out that way anyway, but when the same person can twist it in their favor time and time again, even if it’s not provable.

This story was great on so many levels. The outcome was never certain because the two sides are so powerful, but differently powerful. I love a great mix of science fiction and fantasy like this. Epic, fun, exciting.

Best Short Story

“The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye,” Matthew Kressel (Clarkesworld 5/14)

(this is an excerpt of my Nebula Short Story Review, where I review all 7 nominated short stories)

Humanity has been gone for eons, and there’s not much of interest going on anymore so the Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye have a lot of time just to talk. Until they find the DNA encoding of a human named Beth in a pod and recreate her. She is terribly ill and she only has time to hint at a secret that even the All-Seeing Eye doesn’t know before she dies from her illness. The Eye cannot allow this, and sets out to recreate Beth again and again and again, but each time they can’t keep her alive long enough.

I really enjoyed this story. The tone seems light at the beginning, like an intergalactic buddy road trip between the Meeker and the Eye, but as the Eye seeks Beth’s secret’s relentlessly it gets much darker. Solidly entertaining, far future SF.

Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation

Edge of Tomorrow, Screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie and Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth (Warner Bros. Pictures)

(this is an excerpt of my Ray Bradbury Award Review, where I review the 5 nominated films that I could find rentals for)

Earth is under attack from an alien force known only as mimics, viciously deadly enemies that humans have only one battle against. Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) works in PR for the US military and has been ordered to the frontier of the war in France. The general in charge of the war effort orders Cage to go to the front lines to cover the war. When Cage attempts to blackmail his way out of the mission, he is taken under arrest and dropped at the front with the claim that he had tried to go AWOL and so is quickly forced into service, given only the most passing training in the mechsuits that are standard issue, and dropped into battle with everyone else. This area was supposed to be fairly quiet, but the battle here is intense. Cage manages to kill one of the mimics, but dies in the act, only to wake up earlier in the day when he’d woken on the base in handcuffs after the general had him arrested. He dies again, and again, and again. No one else has any memory of reliving the day except for Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), the super-soldier nicknamed “Full Metal Bitch” after she wreaked havoc against the mimics in the only battle against the mimics that the humans have won. She confides that she had won that battle because she had gone through the same thing he had–as long as he dies he will always restart at the same time and place.

I avoided this movie in theaters, because I haven’t really gone to any Tom Cruise movies since he kindof went publicly nuts. But I rented this one since it was nominated. I thought Tom Cruise was back to old form in it, and even if you don’t like it, well you get to see him die literally dozens of times. I thought Emily Blunt was especially good in her role as Rita, powerful but still affected by the PTSD of dying over and over and seeing so many die around her over. The looping-after-death element makes for a cool dynamic when well-plotted and when placed against large enough obstacles, which was well done here. Good spec FX, good casting all around, solidly entertaining.

Ray Bradbury Award Nominees 2015

written by David Steffen

The Ray Bradbury Award is not a Nebula, but nominations and voting and announcement are all tied up with the Nebula Awards, so its easy to bundle it in. The Ray Bradbury award is for science fiction and fantasy movies and is voted on by the members of SFWA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. There is often some overlap with the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form but because of the difference in the voting groups this one seems to veer a bit more toward movies that are heavy on craft while the Hugo tends to lean toward fun popcorn movies.

I tried to watch all the movies before the Nebula voting deadline on end of day March 31st, but I acquire them by renting from Redbox and the release date on Redbox for one of the nominees (Interstellar) isn’t until March 31st. So that’s not enough time in my schedule to rent the movie and watch it. I’ll watch that movie later and give it a separate review.

1. Edge of Tomorrow, Screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie and Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth (Warner Bros. Pictures)

2. The Lego Movie, Screenplay by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Emmett Brickowski is just a regular guy, pretty much the poster child for averageness in a world of Legos. He does everything exactly the way he’s supposed to do, but no one pays much attention to him. He meets a strange woman name WyldStyle who tells him he is the subject of a prophecy, the most interesting person in the world and the one who will save everyone from President Business who rules over all of Brickburg. WyldStyle is a master builder, a rare class of lego person who can take random Lego parts and turn them into a variety of imaginative things. She is part of an organized rebellion of master builders, and Emmett joins them in their fight.

I enjoyed this story thoroughly from beginning to end. The voice acting is great all around (particularly that of Chris Pratt as Emmett, Nick Offerson as Metal Beard, Will Arnett as Batman, and Liam Neeson as Good Cop/Bad Cop). Lots of fun, weird imagination, and as they see out of the worlds they travel and into the real world there’s actually a relatable real life story tied into it. Great stuff all around.

3. Guardians of the Galaxy, Written by James Gunn and Nicole Perlman (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

I hadn’t heard of this Marvel franchise until this movie came out, one of the more obscure ones. In 1988 a young Peter Quill is abducted by aliens by a band of space pirates and is raised as one of them. In the present day he has his own ship and has grown up to be a bounty hunter (Starlord by name), taking whatever odd jobs he can find for money. After taking what seems to be a pretty straightforward job to find and deliver an orb, he’s suddenly the focus of attention from the assassin Gamora as well as the bounty hunters Groot (a tree person) and Rocket (a one-of-a-kind genetically modified raccoon) who are all after the orb. In the scuffle for the orb, they are all arrested and locked in a prison. Gamora tells them of her adoptive father Thanos who wants the orb for nefarious plans. They decide their only chance of escape is to work together, with help from another prisoner Drax the Destroyer, and stop Thanos.

Solidly fun, another Chris Pratt work, probably my favorite role that I have seen him in. Great casting all around, with Bradley Cooper memorably voicing Rocket. Action-packed, solidly fun popcorn movie. Lots of memorable lines, memorable fights, really no complaints all around.

4. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Written by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. & Armando Bo (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

The actor Riggan Thompson (Michael Keaton) is best known in his role as Birdman in multiple films in the early 90s, one of the earliest widely successful superhero franchises, but after that he has fallen into obscurity, not finding many widely acclaimed roles (sound familiar?). He is taking his chance, putting everything on the line for one final chance at popularity again by writing and acting in a Broadway adaptation of Raymond Carver’s Short Story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”. The play is produced by his friend and lawyer Jake (Zach Galifianakis), stars Riggan’s girlfriend (Andrea Riseborough) and first-time Broadway actress Lesley (Naomi Watts). His daughter, fresh out of rehab, is his assistant. After an accident takes out the other actor, Ralph, Riggan replaces him at the last minute with talented but unpredictable Mike Shiner (Edward Norton). Opening night is fast approaching, there are two preview nights to get through before that, and Broadway’s toughest critic has it out for the production. To make it all worse, Riggan hears Birdman in his head, voicing the thoughts he doesn’t dare voice.

Generally I liked it. Riggan was relatable, flaws and all. The casting was solid (Emma Stone in particular I have yet to see play a role unconvincingly). The situation was full of all kinds of tension. Even though I generally don’t know a lot of things about filmmaking, I did notice that many of the scenes would’ve been very challenging because there were very long uncut segments which often included an actor walking from one room of the theater to another and then having a conversation–Sometimes they pass through a dark area that would’ve allowed a quick film cut, but there would still be very long segments that would be challenging to complete without making any mistake. This movie did win the Oscar for Best Picture in 2014. I found it very interesting that it got the Ray Bradbury nomination too, often there’s not a lot of overlap because the two awards. In the end I thought it was great in a lot of ways, but as I often find with more artsy films, I thought that it didn’t really tie everything together very well in the end–there were a lot of components that while adding flavor, in retrospect seemed to just add length to the movie that it didn’t need. We at least find out how the main thread of “how did the premier go?” happens, but there are a lot of momentous moments that seem to start their own major subplot and then are never mentioned again.

5. Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

Two years after the Battle of New York (depicted in The Avengers), Captain Steve Rogers aka Captain America (Chris Evans) is working for Nick Fury at SHIELD, and trying to adjust to modern society. SHIELD is on the brink of completing one of its most ambitious projects, a set of three helicarriers that fly in low orbit and link to a network of spy satellites that are meant to find and kill threats to society all over the globe. Not long before the project comes to fruition, Nick Fury is hit with a large scale and no-holds-barred attack led by a mysterious assassin known only as the Winter Soldier. Despite all of Fury’s security measures, he barely escapes with his life to warn Rogers that SHIELD is compromised. Rogers works together with Natalia Romanoff aka the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) to get to the bottom of it.

This was one of my least favorite Marvel movies in the recent years of the franchise, which almost always produces movies I enjoy. There was certainly a lot going on, but the movie was quite long and it seemed like the fight scenes were drawn out way way too long, as if the director thought the movie needed to be padded. Neither the fight scenes nor the non-fight scenes did a lot to hold my attention. It might just be because I’m more interested in the superheroes with more fun powers instead of just the shield. For me the highlight of the movie was the platonic friendship between Rogers and Romanoff–a fun dynamic there.

Nebula Novelette Review 2015

written by David Steffen

The Nebulas are voted for by the members of SFWA, the Science Fiction/Fantasy Writers of America, based on all the published stories from 2014. The Novelette category covers stories between 7500 and 17500 words.

I have only had time to read three of the six stories before the SFWA voting deadline. It’s Ferrett Steinmetz’s fault, really. His first novel FLEX released the first week of March and my reading time was all occupied with reading his book.

1. “The Magician and Laplace’s Demon,” Tom Crosshill (Clarkesworld 12/14)
The protagonist of the story is an every expanding near-omniscient near-omnipotent AI. It thinks it has everything under control, but it discovers a new threat, an inscrutable impossible unprovable threat–magic. The alteration of probability which only manifests when it can’t be proved. Alteration of probability isn’t inherently provable because there’s always a chance it could’ve turned out that way anyway, but when the same person can twist it in their favor time and time again, even if it’s not provable.

2. “We Are the Cloud,” Sam J. Miller (Lightspeed 9/14)
In the not-so-distant future, computer-brain interfaces are common. The obious use of these devices is for people to surf the Internet just with their brain, but the focus of the story is a much different and much more scary use–farming out processing power from people’s brains. It’s a voluntary contract, one which only someone desperate for the money would do, because it’s literally repurposing portions of your brain to aid with web searches and other processing that is in demand from the general. Of course there’s never any shortage of people hard for money, especially if arranging for them to stay that way is profitable. This story is about the people who have farmed out their brainpower in this way, one in particular who is discovering that there is more to this interface than anyone understands.

This story was scarily plausible. In my opinion, the only thing missing is the technology. There will always be organizations, legal and otherwise, that take advantage of the desperate, exploiting them for profitability, and I have no doubt that this would happen if this kind of brain-farming were currently possible. If you have to make the choice between your children starving and farming out part of your brain it’s a straightforard if horrible choice. This is the story of that exploitation, and also of the starting steps of revolution that build from it.

3. “A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i,” Alaya Dawn Johnson (F&SF 7-8/14)
Key is a human in a rare position of power in a vampire-dominated world. She works as a facilitator in the Mauna Kea food production facility in the Hawai’i. The Mauna Kea is a lower grade facility, where the humans are only kept at subsistence levels, fed nutritional but bland food bricks but never offered any real pleasure. She is asked to travel to the Oahu Grade Gold production facility to sort out the murder of one of the humans kept there. Emotions and other experiences affect the taste of the blood, so if humans are treated as though they live at a resort. When she was younger she had longed to be made into a vampire by the vampire Tetsuo, and he had refused to ever turn her, or to ever feed from her. Now she is being reunited with him at the Oahu facility.

Great worldbuilding, very interesting characters. If vampires existed, I think something like this is probably the most plausible outcome. Even though she keeps her job by maintaining a gruesome status quo, she is doing her job as best she can (and it’s not like she has a lot of other options)–interesting point of view where she is often more sympathetic to the vampires than to her own kind. Very good story.

The stories I didn’t have time to read:

“Sleep Walking Now and Then,” Richard Bowes (Tor.com 7/9/14)

“The Husband Stitch,” Carmen Maria Machado (Granta #129)

“The Devil in America,” Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com 4/2/14)

Anime Movie Review: Fafner: Dead Aggressor: Heaven and Earth

written by Laurie Tom

Fafner: Dead Aggressor: Heaven and Earth is the movie sequel to the TV series Fafner: Dead Aggressor. Having been animated six years later, 2010’s Heaven and Earth is able to take advantage of improvements in CG animation (the alien Festum really benefited) and a bigger budget as everything looks much, much better.

Unfortunate the story is not as strong. Being constrained to an hour and a half, the movie reveals that the Festum were not defeated so much as divided by the destruction at the end of Fafner: Dead Aggressor, though the people of Tatsumiyajima Island have been able to enjoy what appears to have been two or three years of peace.

The eighth graders who were not pulled into service at the end of the TV series are now older and active pilots, though without combat experience, and the survivors of the original series are now veterans, though not without scars.

Though it hasn’t been as long for me between seeing these characters, it was still pleasant seeing how they have matured and moved on. Kazuki and Maya might be a non-starting relationship, but I really like how Kenji and Sakura were still together, even after everything that’s happened.

Very little effort is made to bring anyone up to speed with the TV series. Characters come and go with little explanation of who they are and what they do. Most of the new pilots had previously appeared in the series as potential back-ups so it helped that they did not come out of the blue, with one exception. Akira seems to have been included because someone could not resist having a single mecha piloted by twins.

I realize this is a mecha anime so I can buy into neural-controlled mecha without much issue. Pilot thinks and robot moves. Simple enough. But what happens when you have two pilots and one robot?

No time is spent on how this works or why it is an advantage, and the fraternal twins of different genders, who have problems understanding each other (and don’t have the plot time to figure things out), are tossed in the mecha and they pilot it like it’s no big deal, which I had some trouble buying into. I suspect there was originally a subplot here, since it’s mentioned that their parents were the original pilots of the two-person Fafner, but if that’s the case, the two-person mecha should have been pulled along with it.

All of that is secondary to the fact the Festum have changed due to the events at the end of the TV series. Due to the influence of humans on their psyche, the Festum are trying to annihilate the island (and then presumably the rest of humanity) in greater numbers than before. There is also some creepy weirdness in that not all of the Festum are united anymore. While we saw the beginnings of that kind of schism in the TV series, it’s much worse in Heaven and Earth.

The movie is fine for revisiting characters a couple years down the road and for the visually impressive combat scenes, but otherwise feels more like a light snack than a satisfying meal. Because of the time constraints, the story just can’t play to the strengths of the TV series and its large cast works against it.

It does end on a positive note, pointing towards a possible peace between humans and that which was previously incomprehensible.

The new 2015 TV series Fafner: Dead Aggressor: Exodus is supposed to be set two years after the movie, which is why I watched Heaven and Earth (and the original TV series), but it feels very skippable to me, and if the new series does a good job it should bring newcomers up to speed.

Fafner: Dead Aggressor: Heaven and Earth is currently streaming both subbed and dubbed on Hulu. The subtitled version was watched for this review.

Laurie Tom is a fantasy and science fiction writer based in southern California. Since she was a kid she has considered books, video games, and anime in roughly equal portions to be her primary source of entertainment. Laurie is a previous grand prize winner of Writers of the Future and since then her work has been published inGalaxy’s Edge, Penumbra, and Solaris Rising: The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction.