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Saturday, November 14, 2009 ( 11/14/2009 08:22:00 AM ) Bill S.  “HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF EVERYONE TURNED THEIR BACKS ON YOU?” As a regular reader of Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto (I’m a few volumes behind, but don’t tell anyone!) manga, I’ve long been curious about the anime based on this popular ninja series. Caught a few episodes here and there on the Cartoon Network -- usually mid-story -- but it wasn’t until Viz announced its release of the teleseries’ first half of Season One as an “uncut” box set that I saw the opportunity to immerse myself in the anime from its beginnings. (Viz has released smaller uncut sets from the series in the past, but with 25 episodes going for what previously was the price of one-fourth of Season One, this is the better bargain.) Twenty-five episodes featuring our favorite “#1 Hyperactive Knucklehead Ninja”? Pass me the Ritalin -- I’ll sit and watch!Volume One encompasses the first five books of Kishimoto’s manga, and contains three basic arcs. The first establishes our core cast: Uzumaki Naruto, an impulsive and mischievous would-be ninja who doesn’t know he has the spirit of a fox demon imprisoned within him; Sasuke, the most promising student in Naruto’s class; Sakura, the smart girl with a hidden temper and a thing for Sasuke; plus the trio’s two teachers, Iruka and Kakashi. Of the two teachers, Iruka appears the more empathetic toward Naruto’s plight. Though the kid doesn’t know he has a nine-tailed demon inside him, all the adults in the Village of the Hidden Leaves do. “When the people reject someone’s very existence and look at that person,” Iruka says, “their eyes become cold. . .” It’s this outcast status which fuels our hero’s desire to become the Greatest Ninja Ever. The second story arc revolves around a “Class C” mission that our threesome embark on under Kakashi’s watchful eye: the transportation of an elderly bridgemaker back to his village -- a mission that, of course, proves to be much more dangerous than anyone anticipated. This introduces the series’ first memorable antagonists: the rogue ninja Zabuza and his young and deadly companion Haku. The duo shares a multi-layered master/servant relationship that proves surprisingly poignant, even when we think that Haku has successfully managed to slay Sasuke. Arc three concerns the opening rounds of the Chunen Exams, a series of test and competitions that all three students must pass as a part of their ninja training. The Exams, which take up the manga series through volume thirteen, only make it through the written tests by the end of Volume One, so one assumes that the rest of the first season is also devoted to this competition. In this set, we meet a variety of other would-be ninjas from neighboring villages, each with their own way of manipulating chakra, “the elemental life energy used to perform jutsu” in battle. The number of fresh faces tossed into the story mix at this point can be a bit daunting, though from the manga I already knew which figures would become more prominent in the series, so I just let it all flow over me. The anime adaptation proves largely faithful to its source -- though a few comic scenes are extended to prolong the slapstick -- and the characters are believably voiced in both their English and Japanese versions. Maile Flanagan’s Naruto (yet another case of a middle-aged actress voicing a young boy in cartoon work) is the star here. She amusingly captures the boy’s pugnacious boastfulness along with his moments of comic distress and dismay. Punctuating each pronouncement with a “Be-LIEVE it!” which manages to sound both assertive and uncertain at the same time, she adds the necessary leavening to a character who could come across as just plain obnoxious if handled wrong. Great voice work. As for the “uncut” aspect of this set: far as I can tell, the additions primarily consist of a few obscenities, Farrelly Bros.’ style bathroom humor and some gouts of blood. One of the early gags in both the manga and anime relates to Naruto’s ability to use his chakra to create a “sexy jutsu,” transforming into a naked full-breasted babe who creates instant arousal in his unprepared students. Per comic manga tradition, this excitement is visually depicted with large spurts of blood from the victim’s nose. We get to see this physiological syndrome more than once: the Japanese equivalent of Tex Avery’s horny Wolfie. Viz’s DVD box packs a lot of discs in the set, but the bonuses are primarily limited to two brief sections comparing storyboards to finished scenes from Episodes One and 22, plus the usual promos for other Naruto and Shonen Jump product. Both Japanese and American versions are offered on the discs, and, as I’ve done with other Viz sets, I watched most of the episodes in English with the subtitles on, just so I could spot the difference between the Americanized dialog and the original. Caught one funny flub in the subtitles, too: wherein the gangster responsible for hiring the bridgemaker’s assassins says, “I hired rouge ninjas," which instantly brought up images of Naruto and friends having to fight an army of chakra-wielding drag queens. Per tv anime standards, the movement on Naruto can be overly limited at times, though the chakra-riffic fight scenes are visually striking. If I still tend to favor the manga version of this series, it’s because I find Kishimoto’s art (abetted by his assistants, of course) so appealing in its black-and-white line work. Still, whenever I read any further books in the series, I just know I’m gonna have Maile Flanagan’s voice in the back of my mind, inserting the occasional “Be-LIEVE it!” into the word balloons whether it’s there or not. And I can understand the anime’s popular appeal: in either manga or cartoon format, the title lead and his story remain engaging. Izumaki Naruto: Hero to Hyperactive Knuckleheads, everywhere . . . Labels: anime # |Saturday, August 22, 2009 ( 8/22/2009 01:52:00 PM ) Bill S.  "I'VE GOTTA PUSH AS HARD AS I CAN!" Though three of our four primary heroes passed their Hunter finals at the end of the second Hunter X Hunter (Viz/Shonen Jump) anime DVD box set, the tests and trials continue. The first six of set three's sixteen episodes follow our trio of newly licensed Hunters -- impetuous village boy Gon, vengeance seeking Kirapika, and over-reactive "grown-up" Leorio -- as they struggle to reconnect with the fourth member of their group, Killua, scion to a family of assassins. Getting into the Zoldyck Estate, where Killua is being held and punished by his harsh family, proves a daunting task as the estate is a fortress designed to keep out bounty hunters and similar avaricious visitors. Thus, our heroes are once more made to undergo a series of puzzles and endurance tests before they can even see Killua, who we're first shown hanging from a wall as he's whipped by his brother. Central protagonist Gon is put to another grueling physical test, this time by an unyielding girl guard who knocks him back every time he tries to pass her. All three need to figure out how to pass a monstrous hungry guard dog and beat the estate's sinister butler in a life-or-death game of coin toss. The lads may have become Hunters, but their world remains one giant proving ground. In fact, though Gon and friends have received their licenses, it turns out the Hunter Exam isn't fully finished either. There's a Secret Hunter Exam, the nature of which is kept secret through most of this set (though the moderately attentive will figure out what it entails long before it's revealed). Each of us is tested in small ways throughout our entire lives, Hunter creator Yoshihiro Togashi seems to be saying: not an unusual theme for stories of this ilk. After our gang hooks up with Killua (you never doubted that they would, did you?), they separate -- Gon and Killua heading to Heaven's Arena to build a stake in a series of one-on-one fights against a series of colorful opponents; Kirapika seeking out a mysterious agency for a job; and Leorio using his license to sign up for medical school and begin his training to become a doctor -- with the focus primarily staying fixed on Gon and Killua. The two friends learn about "Nen," the ability to control at will the life energy contained with your body's aura. The concept seems an awful lot like the use of "Chi" in the Naruto series, though here it's filled with a series of complicated stages and categories that frankly lost this viewer midway into every lecture delivered on the topic. The main thing you pull from all this is that each Nen master has a specialty attuned to their personality, though even here the distinctions get a bit murky. Of more immediate dramatic interest is the return of the effeminately affected, psychotic clown Hisoka, who defeated and humiliated Gon in an exam competition back in the second set. Hisoka also has a mysterious connection to the Phantom Troupe, the gang responsible for the death of Kirapika's family, though his attitude toward that band of brigands seems pretty off-handed. What this all means will most likely be revealed when Gon and his buds arrive at a mysterious auction held in Yorknew City, though that particular moment is saved for a future set. Instead, we're introduced to two new characters: Zushi, a martial arts student who makes even Gon look old, and Master Wing, the teacher who instructs Gon and Killua in the principles of Nen. If the world is a never-ending series of tests, Hunter X Hunter says, there also is a supply of teachers in it who can give us the tools to pass these tests. The trick is to keep an eye out for 'em. While the third set of Hunter X Hunter loses some story thrust at the start with the seeming completion of the Hunter Exam, by now most viewers have become invested enough in its appealing leads to follow 'em through the series' more meandering moments. Gon remains his engagingly openhearted and resolute self; the little scraper decidedly takes a lickin' more than once in this series, only to get back up and re-enter the fray. Killua, who initially was portrayed as a somewhat amoral cold fish, is provided several moments of boyish insecurity during this part of the story, which opens him up significantly to the audience. The only one shortchanged this time out (even Kirapika gets an episode-long solo flashback) is Leorio, who's stuck cracking the books, away from the action. The third set concludes on an unexpected note as Gon and Killua return to Whale Island and the sad-eyed aunt who raised Gon. The episode, wherein Killua is provided a glimpse of a family life markedly different from the sociopathic Zoldycks, has a surprisingly sweet tone that even the intrusion of a band of thuggish poachers can't spoil. Every episode of the Hunter X Hunter teleseries has concluded with a closing credits sequence showing Aunt Mita steadfastly waiting at home for the boy she raised as her son as a melancholy ballad is sung in the background. Nice to see the woman wasn't waiting in vain. Labels: anime # |Sunday, August 16, 2009 ( 8/16/2009 08:20:00 AM ) Bill S.  "EVEN TODAY, I CANNOT DENY MY OWN STARTING POINT." Timed in the U.S. to ride on the release of his newest feature Ponyo, Hayao Miyazaki's Starting Point: 1979-1996 (Viz Media) is a hefty 461-page collection of essays, lectures and interviews that focuses on the first part of the anime master's career. As such, the book ends just before the animator broke through to Western audiences with Princess Mononoke, giving us a look at the aesthetic growth and philosophical principles that have led to such later works as Mononoke, Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle.A strong-willed workaholic with a clear set of opinions, Miyazaki makes for an engaging reading companion. He can be harsh about the failings of both his peers and himself, blistering when it comes to describing what he considers wrongheaded storytelling. He calls, for example, the popular trend toward mecha focusing on giant fighting machinery representative of an "infantile infatuation with power" and is scornful of anime that's adapted from printed manga. "Although it may be good training," he states early in the volume, "I think it is worth bearing in mind that animating an original manga is unrewarding, even if the result is popular with the general public." He even is withering about the term "anime," stating he frankly despises "the truncated word 'anime' because to me it only symbolizes the current desolation of our industry." Miyazaki's ferociously opinionated personality has undoubtedly helped to keep him from being ground down by the Japanese animation factory system. He's not afraid to buck the prevailing trends, making movies that remain accessible to a younger age audience even as many studios have honed in an older audience. "The future of animation," he states in a 1984 piece, "is threatened by the fact that for most films being planned today, the target age is gradually creeping upward." Yet Miyazaki approaches the continued creation of his lushly inventive all-ages fantasies with a missionary zeal. At times, when discussing the makings of some of his earliest works, Starting Point can get obscure to those non-cognoscenti unfamiliar with works like Lupin III, Porco Rosso, or Go Panda Go. But his insights on the psychology of his young characters remain fascinating even when you're not fully versed in the early cartoons being discussed. He even carries his critical acumen into discussion of other cinematic children's works, noting of the dragon in The Neverending Story, for instance, that "the more we humans anthropomorphize something and make it an easy target for empathy, the less interesting it becomes." Starting Point also provides a heady look into the recurring themes in Miyazaki's work, particularly his ongoing sensitivity to ecological concerns. Though his movies celebrate the natural, they do so without any condescending sentimentality. "It's not enough to just go around saying how wonderful nature is;" he notes, "we also need to explain what sort of inconveniences and even harm nature can bring us." It's this ability to convey the complexities of such subjects into works being marketed as children's entertainment that makes such Miyazaki epics as Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Mononoke so compelling. Starting Point contains a few pages of Miyazaki artwork: an amusing eight-page color comic on the history of in-flight meals done for Japan Airlines in-flight magazine back in 1994, a series of black-and-white scrapbook pages representing the artist's fascination with planes and land vehicles, plus a charming two-page boyhood reminiscence of a garden featuring dinosaur statuary. These tantalizing pages make the reader yearn for more of Miyazaki's penwork. But for that I guess we have to look back at reprints of his seven-volume manga masterwork, Nausicaa -- and look forward to the next full-bodied book of provocative thoughts and reminiscence from the still vital career of this animation genius. Labels: anime # |Saturday, May 16, 2009 ( 5/16/2009 10:46:00 AM ) Bill S.  "HE BROKE THROUGH THE WALLS THAT EXIST INSIDE OUR MINDS." The Hunter Exam continues in the second boxed set of Hunter X Hunter. When we last left lead protagonist Gon Freecss and his would-be Hunter friends, they were still in the midst of matching wits and strength with a gang of hardened criminals charged with keeping them from climbing down a tower within a prescribed deadline. At the start of the set, blowhard Leorio is pitted against a game-playing mistress of psychological manipulation, while kid assassin Killua (featured in the die-cut center of the second set's front cover) next faces off against the "Meanest Mass Murderer in the History of Zabin City." (When we're shown a flashback of his misdeeds, one of the bodies has a toe tag labeled "Jean Luc-Picard.") It's not giving away too much to indicate that our central foursome ultimately makes it down the tower, though the Exam is far from over.In fact, Gen and company's participation in the grueling Hunter Exam comprises the whole of Set Two's fifteen episodes, though -- unlike the first set -- this 'un doesn't cut off mid-exam. Following their completion of the third test, the remaining candidates are flown via air ship to a small island surrounded by shipwrecks. All the wreckages provide a clue as to the nature of their next big test, though the first thing all our candidates need to do is find a way to pay for their prohibitively expensive stay at the "White Palace on the Ocean." During this initial part of the fourth test, we learn something about Kurapika, the third member of Gon's trio of friends: the eyes of his people, the Kurta Clan, become red with intense emotions. It's in the next two tests that the competition between the Hunter candidates intensifies, though. In the first test, the candidates, who've all been assigned a number, are charged with stealing another's badge as they continue to hold onto their own. Our scrappy hero Gon is assigned the badge of one of the most menacing candidates, the sinister magician Hisoka. His participation in this test plunges our hero into a profound existential crisis, though we never really doubt the indefatigable Gon won't ultimately snap out of it. Good thing he does, since the final test is one of face-to-face combat with another candidate. This proves even more punishing for the lad since his first contest is against the chatty ninja ("You sure talk a lot for a ninja," more than one character observes) Tonpah. The resulting fight sequence is plenty brutal within the parameters of "Older Teen"-rated teevee anime. Though it provides plenty of fight sequences, the focus of this series still point remains on problem solving and psych-out mind games. Our young boy Gon proves particularly adept at thinking outside the box, though he's not the only one forced to use his little grey cells. In one particularly engaging trial, for instance, we're treated to an amusing discussion of the psychological nuances of rock/paper/scissors. At times, the second set's fifteen episodes get so focused on the characters' participation in the Hunter Exams that it has to momentarily halt proceedings and remind us of each major character's back-story. In the nether world of the long-running Hunter Exam, it's easy for our heroes and us to lose track of the outside world. Set Two concludes the Hunter Exam, though the ongoing testing of our callow foursome will doubtless continue into the next set's story arc. As with the first Viz Media boxed set, extras are limited to promos for other Viz product and a few selected storyboards. The set does include English and Japanese versions of the story, as well as subtitles where we once again can ponder the difference between the words written onscreen and the dialog read by English-speaking actors. Since the first set was released, Hunter X Hunter has found its way to American cable television via the recently launched Funimation Channel, though at this writing that particular channel appears to be available only in small pockets of the country. For now the prime outlet for admirers of this engaging boyish manga-turned-anime series remains the Viz Media DVD sets. Reportedly, there are two more sets of teleseries material available for eventual release (Set Three is already announced for August). If the anime series doesn't resolve any of the four main characters' personal quests by then, the truly hooked can always turn to Viz's book packaging of Yoshihiro (Yuyu Hakusho) Togashi's still ongoing manga series (currently up to Volume 25 in Viz's Shonen Jump series) to learn, for instance, what happens when Gon finally uncovers his absent Hunter father. I know I wanna know. # | Monday, March 09, 2009 ( 3/09/2009 05:54:00 PM ) Bill S.  "IF YOU DON'T MOVE, NOTHING WILL CHANGE." For those who mainly think of anime as a vehicle for boyish action fantasy and/or children's adventures, the upcoming DVD release of I"s could prove a revelation. Adapted from a 15-volume manga series by Masakazu Katsura, I"s is a "Mature"-rated romantic serial devoted to a teenage love triangle. The American DVD release, courtesy of Viz Media, contains two OVA (original video animation) features, From I"s and Pure I"s. The first is a two-episode original story featuring I"s characters: the second is a six-episode adaptation/summation of Katsura's original fifteen-volume manga.The set-up of the series is fairly basic. Ichitaka Seto (English voice: Darrel Guilbeau) is a wishy-washy high school senior with a major crush on Iori Hazuki (Erika Weinstein), a would-be actress and model. Ichitaki struggles to reveal his feelings for his classmate, but his own uncertainties and a series of complications and misunderstandings keep delaying that moment. Adding to the confusion: his perky childhood friend Itsuki Akiba (Carrie Savage), who clearly has feelings for Ichi herself. The six-episode Pure I"s tells much of its story through flashbacks -- as Ichi and his bespectacled chum Teratani window shop on Christmas Eve and our man thinks back to all the opportunities he's missed. We see how our hero first hooks up with Iori, exposing a voyeuristic fellow student who's been videotaping the young actress as she changes for a photo shoot, then watch the comic complications that arise when Itsuki temporarily stays at Ichi's place after a fire has rendered her homeless. Our hero, feeling an understandable attraction towards his shapely childhood friend, ping-pongs between Iori and Itsuki, much to Teratini's comic irritation. Being unfamiliar with the source manga, I wasn't certain which girl Ichitaki would ultimately gravitate toward, though there are times in the series when you can't help thinking that the big dope doesn't deserve either one of 'em. Pure's final third discards flashbacks to the present where Ichi is a high school grad struggling to get into college and Iori's acting career is on the verge of blossoming. The actress is being stalked by a not-so-mysterious figure named the "Marionette King," while Ichi comes up against a hostile agent and theatrical producer, who see the boy as a pernicious influence on their property's acting career. The final episode pulls in some seriously melodramatic moments -- a fight between hero and stalker, a hospital coma scene -- that I suspect were more successfully presented in the original manga. Forced to collapse the events of fifteen tankobon into six thirty-minute cartoons, Pure I"s can come across scattered in it storytelling, a little too sketchy. On more than one occasion I also found myself getting more befuddled by flashbacks than I suspect the storytellers intended. More effective is the hour-long feature From I"s, which is subtitled "Another Summer Day." Set in the middle of the series' continuity, it depicts a perilous day in the country wherein Itsuki is menaced by a murderous gang of bikers and Iori nearly drowns on a flooded island during a torrential rainfall. Ichi arrives on both scenes, of course, to aid both damsels in distress, though one of their friends (unseen, as far as I can tell, in Pure I"s) isn't so lucky. Viz Media's two-disc set is frills-free: just the two series, which you can watch in English or Japanese, with or without subtitles. Though the set is packaged to present the two-episode side story first, I'd recommend that newcomers follow the fuller six-episode Pure first, since the shorter tale works best if you already know its back-story. First time I played From I"s, I initially thought my cranky DVD player was acting wonky. The opening moments, which are meant to cue familiar fans where we are in the continuity, are dialog-free, just music and background sounds -- so I half wondered whether the disc was missing an overlay. Once the dialog proper started up, though, my worries were banished. Both I"S features contain a few bloody moments, but what earns the DVD set its "Mature" rating is the series' relative boldness regarding teenaged horniness. The anime regularly provides lingering looks at both Iori and Itsuka's curvy bodies and even features some hints of nudity (most notably in a bath house scene). At the end of Pure I"s' first five episodes, there's even an appended feature entitled "Ichitaka's Delusional Diary," comprised of one-minute depictions of the adolescent's sexual fantasies. Though clearly comic in tone, they also display a level of frankness that some newcomers may find disconcerting. We're a long way from Pokemon here, folks . . . # | Sunday, February 08, 2009 ( 2/08/2009 11:13:00 AM ) Bill S.  ALCHEMY SKIRTS The first question for any newcomer to Nobuhiro Watsuki's manga and anime is "Who the heck is Buso Renkin, anyway?" Turns out the eponymous subject of this popular shonen series is a magical device, a catch-all name for a series of tactical weapons powered by a paranormal alloy containing the "concentrated essence of alchemy." Said alloy, called the kakugane, takes the possessor's "fighting spirit" and manifests it into a personal weapon.Our entry into the world of Buso Renkin -- where alchemist warriors battle evil creatures known as homunculi -- is a high school sophomore named Kazuki Muto (English voice: Steve Staley). Kazuki is temporarily killed by a homunculus in the "haunted factory" (shades of Scooby Doo!) near his school. He's rescued and brought back to life by a female warrior named Tokiko Tsumura (Tara Platt), who revives our hero by inserting a kakugane into the teen's lifeless body. Because the device is in sync with his fighting spirit, Kazuki is reborn into a new life as a warrior trainee. His Buso Renkin weapon: a giant Kirby-esque lance that he ultimately calls Sunlight Heart. Tokiko -- a tough dame with a red scar across her face and a predilection for spitting out the phrase, "I'll splatter your . . . guts!" in the heat of combat -- feels responsible for our hero, so she takes charge of training him. Decked in a schoolgirl outfit, she shows up at Ginsei Academy, where Kazuki, his giggly freshman sister Mahiro and three goofball friends live and study. The concentration of young spirits in the Ginsei dorms, we're told, proves an irresistible lure for the homunculi, who get their strength from devouring human energy. Tokiko, who would otherwise be a high school senior, is devoted to killing the monstrous creatures, so she's clearly in the right place to ply her trade. One of the students, a sickly rich kid named Koshaku Chono (Spike Spencer), has himself been experimenting with creating homunculi from various animals. Chono hopes to become a homunculus, so that he can live forever. Theatrically, he christens himself "Papillon" and wears a butterfly mask, sending out his creations in search of his own kakugane. With this, he believes, he can achieve immortality. Much fighting follows, natch, with Matsuki and Tokiko shouting out their Buso Renkin battle cries before charging against their monstrous enemies. The woman warrior's weapon is a "Valkyrie Skirt," a series of robotic limbs that sprout from her thighs and good work, well, splattering the enemy's guts. Midway into Viz Media's 13-episode box set, a third alchemist warrior enters the fray, the comically deep-voiced Warrior Chief, who both takes on the role of house parent and the responsibility for further training Matsuki. The homunculi prove to be arresting visual creations. Born of both animals and humans, they can take on a variety of both monstrous and amusing forms, their original host heads periodically popping out of their bodies for horrific/comic effect. The monsters are created when an embryo attaches itself to a host body; when they attack the brain, the transmutation is nearly instantaneous, but if they connect anywhere else, the process takes more time. We see the latter occur when Tokiko gets attacked by one of the slithery embryos in the second episode, setting up a race against time as Matsuki attempts to find the hidden Papillon and retrieve the antidote. Buso Renkin's animation is limited in the familiar TV style. With the exception of one character's outlandish pompadour, it's fairly straightfaced, though it can turn more brazenly cartoony when any of its characters do a comic reaction take. While the first box set hides its rating on the bottom of the box, the series is aimed at "Older Teen," which makes some sense. In addition to some mildly graphic violence, there's a sexual dynamic to the series that may be inappropriate for some younger viewers. Early on, we're given a scene where Matsuki ogles short-skirted Tokiko's thighs and ass, while, even more strikingly, we're later shown a bath house sequence where boy and girl students compare each other's (unseen) "size." This leads to several follow-up jokes that I suspect might throw some parents. Too, there's a subtext of sexual outlandishness to the series' major villains that more than once got me recalling the old movie version of Diamonds Are Forever. Main nemesis Papillon is as flamingly campy as you can get (at one point, one character even calls him a "pervert"), while a moon-faced homunculus baddie speaks, in the actor's words, "like Julie Child telling you how to cook a pot roast." In the latter half of the set, we're introduced to a "married" brother and sister team who themselves wish to become homunculi, though the English language version at least dilutes the incestuous undertones once we're provided the characters' history. Viz's DVD set provides both dubbed and subtitled versions of the thirteen episodes plus audio commentaries by the team responsible for Americanizing the cartoons. Play the English language version with closed captioning, incidentally, and you can see the difference between dialog that more closely reflects the original and the colloquialized dubs. There's also a documentary in the final disc, "Behind the Scenes of Buso Renkin," which interviews many of the American actors and shows the process of producing the dubbed series. It's a definite kick to see actress Platt talk about and deliver Tokiko's signature line, though Kazuki's hero voice is conspicuously absent from this feature. If nothing else, the feature depicts how much fun it can be working with this stuff. As an anime series, Buso Renkin may lack the emotional resonance of another boyish fantasy anime like Hunter X Hunter -- on more than one occasion the elaboration of story mythology comes at the expense of the storytelling -- but it has its high points. In Episode Eight, "A Night in the Dorm," for instance, one of Papillon's homunculus henchbeasts attacks the school dorm with a sound wave that turns Kazuki and Tomiko's classmates into shuffling living zombies. The resulting zombie sequences are enjoyably mounted, with more than one visual nod to classic horror movies. In the box set's cliffhanger episode, an army of homunculi that ultimately merge together into one giant Homunculus Super Adult Form attacks the school. Just that name got me chuckling. Adults: they spoil everything! # | Sunday, January 04, 2009 ( 1/04/2009 06:30:00 PM ) Bill S.  "DAD, I'M COMIN' TO SEE YOU!" To begin with the "x" in Hunter x Hunter does not appear to be spoken aloud -- as either "ex" or as "times," which is how I first read it. But from the way, the voice artist playing Gon reads each "x"-strewn chapter ("Encounter x Hesitation x Departure," for instance) on the first boxed set of HxH's anime series, the letter in the title of Yoshihiro Togashi's manga-turned-anime series is just a place marker between the two "Hunters."So now that we've gotten that important matter out of the way, let's take a look at the boxed set collecting the first fifteen episodes of the ten-year-old anime series based on Toshihiro Togashi's still-ongoing manga series. Released by Viz Media, the three-disc set is primarily devoted to introducing the quartet of characters who take up the opening credits. The central figure, the one peering out at us through the die-cut "x" on the front of the box set, is a young village boy named Gon Freecss. A skillful fisherman with a pole and line capable of supporting his own body weight, Gon also possesses a preternatural affinity with the creatures of the woods, particularly the large hybrid creatures called fox/bears. Gon lives with his sad-eyed Aunt Mita and believes he is an orphan, but, none-too-surprisingly, it turns out that his father Ging really is alive. Gon's old man is a Hunter, perhaps the "greatest Hunter in the entire world;" true to his profession, he travels the world in pursuit of "mysteries and hidden treasures." Once Gon learns that his father is out in the world plying his dangerous trade, he vows to find him. Best way to do that, he figures, is to himself become a Hunter. The primary story path of the first fifteen eps, then, is of young Gon making his way from his isolated village to Dulle Island, where the Hunter Exam is conducted, and beginning the grueling series of tests designed to weed out unworthy applicants. Along the way, he hooks up with three other would-be Hunters, each with his own reason for wanting to pass the exam: Leorio, the oldest, claims to only be in it for the money, though this mercenary claim later proves to be untrue; blond Kurapika wishes to become a Hunter so he can avenge the death of his family at the hands of bandits called the Phantom Troupe; while lavender-haired skater-boi Killua is striving to make up for the misdeeds of his own family of professional assassins. Of the four, the most dynamic character proves to be hot-tempered Leorio, who frequently is used as comic relief in the series. Both Kurapika and Killua come across as equally grim, though the former does get off an occasional wisecrack at Leorio's expense. Our hero Gon is open and altruistic, if more than a bit boyishly reckless: his ability to commune with "magical beasts" is a sign that he has it in him to become prime Hunter. "More than anything," we're told, "a good Hunter is loved by animals." The quartet's examination begins before they even reach Dulle Island, but, once there, they meet many of the competing applicants. Foremost among these are Hisoka the magician, a kill-crazy Joker type who wields a deadly deck of playing cards, and Tonpa, a perpetual candidate who delights in undermining his fellow contestants. The candidates are subjected to a series of grueling and mind-taxing tests (in the most lighthearted one, they're told to make sushi, a dish only one of them has even seen). The first boxed set concludes with our heroes still in the midst of Phase Three of the exam, matching wits with a group of hardened criminals who've been charged with preventing them from climbing down a tower within a prescribed time limit. At some point, presumably, our foursome will be complete their exams, though since we're never told how many phases there are, the testing could continue through a whole other set. Hunter X Hunter's animation -- as is typical for teleseries anime -- is limited, though some of the imagery can be quite evocative. Though its characters are rendered fairly seriously, in a few instances you can see manga visual conventions sneaking into the work -- as when Leoria gets a softball-sized lump on his head or angry Kurapika temporarily becomes more cartoonish. As with most Western dubs of Japanese 'toons, the young boys in the series are primarily dubbed by actresses (Gon, for instance, is done by Elinor Holt), though blustery Leorio is amusingly vocalized by Jonathan Love. As a series lead, Gon is a mite bland, particularly when placed against his more colorful peers. If he's meant to be a gateway for younger viewers, the Viz set rates the series as suitable for "Older Teens," though I've gotta admit that nothing in the first fifteen episodes struck me as too intense for a PG-13 viewership. Viz's boxed set doesn't offer much in the way of extras: a few promos for their upcoming DVD sets, an ad for Shonen Jump magazine and their line of paperbacks, plus a series of storyboards that didn't show up all that well on my twentieth century 26-inch teevee screen. No explanation anywhere on how that "x" got in the title, though. I guess if you have to ask, you don't deserve knowing . . . # | |
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