Tegami Bachi and Reverse

This post is about two seasons of a series called Tegami Bachi. The first season is simply called Tegami Bachi and the second is Tegami Bachi - Reverse, and I just finished watching Reverse.

"Tegami Bachi" means "Letter Bee" and in simple terms the series is about postal carriers called Letter Bees. This series is set in a unique world called Amberground. The world is dark, with one artificial sun supplying direct light to a very small segment of the population living in the city of Akatuski and also providing some limited light to everyone else. However without the artificial sun, the world would be in total darkness. Besides people, the world is also populated by giachuu, enormous bug-like creatures who drain people's "heart", leaving them living husks who usually don't survive for very long. "Heart" is composed of the living feelings of a person, a form of energy that everyone has. Gaichuu are attracted to "heart" and the letters that are delivered by the Letter Bees carry people's "heart".

In this setting, the job of tegami bachi to deliver letters between distant places is dangerous. Gaichuu are everywhere. Each tegami bachi is accompanied by a "dingo", a personal protector/helper, and the dingos come in all forms and sizes. Add to that, each Letter Bee has the capability of firing "shindan", powerful energy beams composed of their own hearts and focused through "sprirt amber".

Spoiler alert! As usual, I'll be giving the details of the series here.

The series main character is a boy named Lag Seeing, shown in the first picture holding a letter out. Lag is posted as a letter and the series begins with Lag being delivered by a Letter Bee known as Gauche Suede, the guy in the background of the first picture. In the course of the delivery, Lag and Gauche become friends, and Lag forms a serious case of hero worship and vows to become a tegami bachi when he grows up some.

After a time lapse, Lag leaves for Yuusari Central to become a Letter Bee and on the way he gains his dingo, Nichi, and a sidekick, Steak. Nichi is the small blond girl in the picture above and Steak is riding on her head. Nichi's small, but she happens to be a "Child of Maka", a demon, so she's more than capable of performing the tasks of a dingo. Upon arriving in Central, Lag discovers that Gauche has gone to Akatsuki in keeping with his decision to become Head Bee, but has disappeared from there and has been missing for a long time. Lag becomes a Letter Bee and moves in with Gauche's sister, Sylvette, who is shown in the wheel chair in the next picture. Lag promises her that he will find Gauche and return him.

The entire first series moves very slowly. Lag meets many people, including his fellow Letter Bee's. Primary among this group are Zazie (the letter bee in this picture), Connor, and Jiggy Pepper. The main staff at the Yuusari Central Bee Hive include Largo Lloyd, the head of the Hive (far left character), Aria Link the second in command (standing behind Sylvette), and a weird Doctor named Thunderland (guy with eye patch). Lag spends most of the first series meeting and forming relationships with these people, meeting a lot of minor characters who all have roles to play in the grand scheme of things, and crying. Lag is a cry-baby, to put it mildly, and he doesn't miss an opportunity to cry at the drop of a hat. Unfortunately, a LOT of 'hats' are dropped. At times it gets irritating. I don't think a single episode goes by where Lag isn't crying over something. Still, this is one of the few down-sides to this series.

All throughout the first series Lag is hunting for clues about Gauche, and finding mostly nothing. Much of the first series is composed of his deliveries and the people he encounters, to the point of causing one to think that that's all the series is: just Lag delivering letters and helping people and never finding Gauche. Then in true cliff-hanger fashion, Gauche shows up in the last episode of the first series, but he's no longer Gauche, doesn't recognize Lag and shoots him.

I will say that that ending of the first season was really cruel. The second season didn't begin for another 6 months!

Bottom line plot of second season: "Reverse" is the name of a subversive group that has set out to destroy the Amberground government and bring down the artificial sun. Gauche has lost his 'heart' while in Akatsuki and has become a person named Noir, who has no heart and works as a marauder for Reverse. His Noir persona is seen in the bottom picture, along with his new dingo, named Roda after the dingo he had as a Bee. Reverse is stealing and destroying letters as part of their plotting, as well as helping to create giant heart-sucking gaichuu. This puts then in direct opposition with Lag and the letter bees, who end up fighting for their letters, and to keep the government whole and to protect the artificial sun.

In the middle of all this, Lag is convinced that if he can shoot the proper shindan into Gauche/Noir, he can restore Gauche's 'heart' and bring him home to Sylvette.

The series is well-done here from the perspective of plot. Reverse is correct about some things, but is sacrificing people to achieve their goals. The Amberground government is also doing things to people for which they deserve to be brought down, and yet they are preserving the only source of light for the planet. It's very difficult for the series watcher to decide who the bad guys and good guys are, let alone for Lag-tachi.

There is significant story line here that is never resolved, or even well-explained. It turns out the artificial sun requires "heart" to keep burning, so people are continually sacrificed to that cause by the government. Things left hanging include: 1) What is the artificial sun? 2) Lag's mother seems to be part of the artificial sun. 3) Gauche gave his heart willingly to her and that sun before becoming Noir. 4) Nichi's Maka (demon) mother refers to Lag as "hikari" (light). Lag has one eye that is spirit amber, and is himself capable of burning as brightly as the artificial sun. Why? So they leave a lot of back story unresolved.

However, nobody dies! Reverse's plot to destroy the artificial sun is stopped. Gauche survives as Noir, and goes to live with and protect all the misfits created and discarded by the Ambergound government. Gauche's lost 'heart' cannot be restored so he has none of his previous memories, but he essentially gains a new 'heart' as Noir. Dr. Thunderland continues his research and work to help those people who have lost 'heart'. Lag and the Letter Bees go back to delivering letters. It's not a deeply satisfying ending, but it's not a disaster either. And nobody dies!

All in all I enjoyed this series quite a bit. The plot and setting was unique. Style was pretty, music was good. I could have wished for a little more resolution, but since 'resolution' is often equated with character death, I'll be satisfied with living characters. There's certainly enough left hanging to do another season if anyone was so inclined, and because of that I wouldn't call it a great series.

Still. All in all I'd call it a good series and recommend it.

Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy Bebop is WAY up there on my all time favorite anime series list. That's interesting when you consider that it breaks one of my cardinal rules for a good anime series. My favorite character doesn't survive the series. Given that, it's fairly weird that I even like it, let alone consider it one of my all time favorites. Even so, it's an awesome series. This first picture has the cast dressed in retro clothes. This isn't even close to the style of the series, but I've always liked this picture. Most of the pictures in this post come from an artbook of mine.

One of the things that makes this series extraordinary: Cowboy Bebop has music to die for. Yoko Kanno is the composer, of course. I consider the music for this series as one of her more spectacular efforts. There are so many good songs, I pretty much love all the Bebop soundtracks, including the movie soundtrack. Among my favorite songs are "Real Folk Blues", "Rain", "Tank", "Space Lion", "Green Bird", "Gotta Knock a Little Harder" which comes from the movie, and of course "Blue". "Blue" is one of my all time favorite songs, not just from this series. So the music is one of the big pluses of the series.

Another plus is the plot. This series definitely falls into the unique plot category. "Bebop" is the name of a somewhat beat up space ship whose crew includes two guys named Jet and Spike. In the picture at the top Jet is the balding guy standing to the right and Spike is the fuzzy-headed guy in the middle. Spike and Jet are bounty hunters, and in the universe of this series, bounty hunters are collectively known as "cowboys". And there you have the series name. Jet and Spike make their living collecting and bringing in fugitives from justice for the money in order to keep the bebop stocked and fueled. It's a pretty bare subsistence-level existence, but the guys are mostly content with that. However, as the series progresses, they manage to collect some passengers on bebop as well.

The first addition to their group is Faye who is shown with Spike in the picture above. Faye is a con-woman and a bounty hunter, who also happens to have a really bad gambling habit. She bounty hunts to support her gambling habit, and staying on Bebop is an ideal situation for her since she can do it without paying any rent and the ship is continuously changing locations. Next they pick up an experimental (and extremely intelligent) Welsh Corgy in the course of a bounty hunt who they name Ein. Lastly they are joined, entirely against their wills, by a pre-teen, wacky computer genius named Ed. Ed and Ein are shown in the picture to the right. In each case, Spike is completely against adding to their crew, but the additions occur anyway. Part of the attraction of the series is the interactions between the characters. The character style itself in fun. This is not a series with gorgeous characters, but they seem real and their interactions are priceless. Besides the Bebop, Spike and Faye have their own small ships in which they come and go from the Bebop. At the bottom of the post, Spike is shown with his small ship, the Swordfish.

Most of the series is ostensibly about the various bounty hunts the group undertakes and their many antics, but along the way, background on the characters is slowly explained, and a deep plot becomes evident. Each of the characters has at least one episode devoted to their past and at least partial resolution of their issues. The deep plot revolves around Spike. Spike was originally a member of an organized crime syndicate called the Red Dragon and had a partner named Vicious, whose name turns out to be particularly apt. Spike and Vicious during their Red Dragon days together are shown in the picture to the right. Spike fell in love with a member of the gang named Julia, and tried to get himself and Julia out of the organization. Julia wouldn't go with him and he left. During the course of the series, Spike finds out Julia was ordered to kill him, and is on the run from the organization for refusing that order. Vicious finds out Spike is still alive about the time Vicious stages a bloody coup in the organization and takes over. Vicious sends people to kill Julia and Spike, just about the time they find each other again. Julia is killed by them, and Spike goes after Vicious in the last episode. As he tells Faye, he's not doing it because he wants to die. He's doing it in order to live. Spike kills Vicious, but them dies himself from the wounds he receives.

The series pluses even outweigh the death of the main character (who happens to be my favorite character!) in the last episode. It's tragic as hell, but it's got so many good points and interesting points, so many life lessons and great characters, and it's so funny and poignant and bittersweet . . . I simply have to suspend the rules for this one. And maybe that's what makes a series great anyway.

Blood+

Since I'm currently watching so few series, I'm just randomly going back and picking old series and talking about them now. This week it turned out to be Blood+.

There are things I really like about this series and things I hate, but I liked the series enough to buy the DVD, so I guess the likes won out. The series begins with an apparently normal teenage girl, Saya, who cannot remember any of her life prior to the last year. She's been adopted by George who also has two adopted sons, Kai and Riku. Along with her loss of memory, Saya also requires periodic blood transfusions and is monitored by a government-type guy, David. Other than that, things are pretty normal until a tall, dark and handsome man playing a cello shows up and about the same time a creature makes it's appearance and begins killing people. The cello player's name is Haji, and he turns out to be Saya's protector, friend and confidant. In this picture are Saya with her sword, Haji carrying his cello case and Saya's brother, Kai.

One of the things I dislike about the series is how slowly the plot develops and how long it takes to figure out the back-story, as they feed it to you tiny pieces at a time. To cut to the chase: Saya is not human. She was one of twin cocoons found inside a dead monster. The man who found them raised Saya as his beloved daughter and raised her twin, Diva, in a cage with only sustenance - no human contact other than the assistant who leaves her food. Say and Diva discover each other when Saya is a teenager. Saya naively releases Diva from her cage and Diva wreaks retribution on everyone within reach. As it turns out, the twin girl's blood is deadly to each other, and to each other's creations. Thus Saya carries a special sword with channels for her blood to run so that when she's fighting Diva's monster creations her blood will kill them. Saya and Diva also have the ability to create "chevalier", men who drink either Saya or Diva's blood and become almost-impossible-to-kill henchmen. Haji is Saya's only Chevalier for most of the series, and she created him accidentally. Diva on the other hand has 5 chevalier.

This picture shows Saya with a red rose and Diva with her signature blue rose. The series is a basic good vs evil series, with some best-friend/best-enemy thrown in. Diva and her Chevaliers set out to create an army of creatures to take over the world, leaving enough humans around for food. Saya-tachi are out to stop them. Saya and Haji are supported by Red Shield, a government agency created to fight Diva-tachi and led by David. Along the way, Saya's brothers Kai and Riku join the fight.

Saya and Diva have some weird physical quirks, besides the fact that their blood is deadly to each other. They age very slowly, and they are only awake for about three years at a time, then they must sleep for 30 years. Their Chevaliers stay awake to protect them while they are sleeping. Also, to continue their species (whatever it may be), they can get pregnant by each other's Chevaliers. So Diva wants to trap Haji, and Saya would only be able to get pregnant by Diva's Chevaliers who refer to her as their "Bride".

All of this comes out incredibly slowly during the series. Another thing that I dislike about the series is Saya's personality for almost the first half. She is a whiny crybaby who refuses to fight until forced to, thus allowing a lot of people to die in her place along the way, starting with her adoptive father, George. The series has a lot of character death, which is another thing I dislike.

Among the characters who die are an entire cohort of young people known as the Schiff. These kids are created by Diva's side as warriors, but they escape to live their own lives. The picture to the right shows some of the Schiff, with their leader Moses in the center. Their personal tragedy is that their created lives are incredibly short. They start out as enemies, because they hope Saya's blood can save them. Once she freely offers her blood and they discover it cannot help them, they eventually agree to work with Saya-tachi. And like all bad guys who turn to the good side, they all die tragically.

The most tragic deaths of Blood+ are Riku and Solomon. Solomon is another bad guy gone good. He is one of Diva's Chevaliers who falls in love with Saya and comes over to her side, rescuing her a couple of times. He is accidentally scratched by her sword and her blood kills him. Solomon is shown in the picture to the left below. Riku's death is the most tragic in the series. Riku is nearly killed by Diva and to save him, Saya turns him into a Chevalier. Just as he's getting used to that, Diva comes back, uses him to get pregnant and kills him. Saya and Kai are consumed with guilt over his death of course.

The series ends with Saya's side triumphing over Diva's side. Saya kills Diva, but lets Diva's twin daughters live. Haji dies (or does he?) while finishing off Diva's Chevaliers. Kai puts Saya in a safe place to sleep another thirty years and is left with the twin girls to raise.

The things I dislike about the series are: 1) the main character deaths, including the unnecessary deaths of Solomon and Riku, 2) Saya's whiny character for so long, and 3) the incredibly slow plot development. So why do I like the series? AWESOME music. I mean just really nice. Also, the plot when it does develop is pretty unique. The story was developed from a movie called Blood, the Last Vampire, but about the only thing it takes from the movie are Saya and David's characters, and the ability of Saya's blood to kill the vampire creatures. The back-story and plot is really clever, even if it does take them a long time to expose it. The series also has some really nice characters, even if most of them die. The animation and character style is good. And they do a good job of tying up loose ends, although I will admit to being intrigued by the thought of how Kai is going to raise those twins and explain to them that that can't let their blood touch each other. Sounds like a good plot for another series. The other loose end is one of Diva's Chevaliers, who actually seems to have been one of Saya and Diva's mother's chevaliers! So a few intentional loose ends, but mostly things are fairly neatly at a stopping point.

Overall it was a good series. The things I didn't like kept it from being a great series, but I'm glad I watched it.

Jyu Oh Sei

This is one of those series that you seriously wish was longer. Jyu Oh Sei is only 11 episodes, and even though they manage to do it well in 11 episodes, there is sooooooo much potential here for them to have done a longer series, that it almost makes you cry to have them pack it into so short a series. Other series that I feel this way about include Canaan and Mahoutsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto. In all three cases they made short series and successfully ended them in the time they had, but the series were so good,and had so much potential for longer series, that I hated to see them end when they did. Jyu Oh Sei especially they rushed things they could have spent more time on in order to end in 11 episodes

Jyu Oh Sei falls into my favorite series group, which is a little strange because it doesn't really meet all my criteria for a good series. They kill major characters (including my favorite character!), and not all those character deaths were really necessary to the plot. Still. The music was outstanding, the plot line was original and interesting, the character style and settings were pretty, and the ending tied things up while leaving room to continue. So even though I wish fewer people had died, it was a good series. The story line is as follows:

Jyu Oh Sei follows the life of Thor Klein, the silver-haired kid in the first picture. Thor and his twin brother Rai are raised on a colony space station called Juno in a solar system known as the Balkan system until they're 11 years old. Then their parents are killed and they are dumped on the planet Chimera, a prison planet known only to the Juno government types. Thor vows to leave Chimera and discover who did this to them and why.

Unfortunately Chimera is known as the planet of the beast king (Jyu Oh Sei) for a reason. Humans must become 'beasts' to survive there. The plant life on the planet is sentient and carnivorous and loves to munch down on humans. The 'day' is 180 days long with a hot, wet tropical climate, and the 'night' is 180 days long with a frigid, snow-filled arctic climate. Humans on the planet are living in enclaves known as "Rings", with the ring divisions based essentially on skin color. Each Ring is ruled by a "Top", who's deputies are known as "Second" and "Third". Women live separately in their own Ring, also run by a "Top". Women choose mates at a specific time of year, and their selection and their lives are sacred. A person becomes a "Top" by defeating, and usually killing, the current Top. The strongest and usually most ruthless person in a Ring is it's Top.

Thor and Rai struggle to survive on Chimera. They get some help from a guy named Zagi who is running a group of loose "wild kids" separate from the Rings. For various reasons they run from Zagi-tachi and Thor kills the 'second' of Ochre Ring while trying to escape them also. In the process he loses Rai to the plants and is rescued by Tiz, a girl who is "second" of the woman's Ring. Thor joins the Ochre Ring on sufferance from their Top because Tiz chooses him as her next mate. Along the way he meets Ochre Ring's Third. Tiz and Thor are in the picture to the left and Tiz, Third and Zagi are shown with Thor in the first picture at the top of the blog.

Thor soon discovers that the only way off Chimera is via the "Dragon Pagoda" and that you must be the "Beast King" in order to access it. You must stand at the Top of all the Tops, essentially become the Top of a Ring and beat the Tops of all the other Rings. At 11 years old he is manipulated by Third into fighting and beating Ochre Ring's Top, although he nearly looses his life in the process.

These actions cover the first half of the series. In the second half, four+ years have passed and Thor is almost 16. He has been Ochre Ring's Top during this time and has been improving Ochre Ring's living conditions. He's so adored by the people he rules that they refer to him as Thor-sama-sama. As the story resumes, it's 'night' and an unknown person has become the Top of Blanku Ring and  is killing off the other Tops, starting with the Top of Night Ring. Thor agrees to meet with the Top of Sun Ring to discuss this unknown Top. At the meeting the Unknown shows up and kills Sun Ring's Top. The unknown turns out to be Zagi. Zagi and Thor meet, and Thor falls in love with Zagi's 'second', a woman named Karimu. Zagi tells Thor that if Thor becomes Beast King, he will be killed by the Colony people. Zagi was sent to Chimera because he saw what he wasn't supposed to . . . all the previous beast kings frozen in storage. Thor agrees to work with Zagi, but then is once again manipulated by Third. This time, Third kills Karimu and makes it look like Zagi has done it to get Thor to beat Zagi and stand as Beast King.

It works. Thor leaves Zagi mortally wounded and as Beast King accesses the Dragon Pagoda with Tiz and Third, as shown in the picture to the right. What he finds out is this:

He (Thor) is the end product of a long line of experiments. Humans cannot survive in the Balkan system, can no longer reproduce naturally and need help to stay alive even 50 years. He was created with a drive to survive and all the natural advantages they could gene-engineer into him, and placed into his "mother's" womb with her regular child, Rai. He was meant to be sent to Chimera as a final test to see if he could survive there. When his "parents" wouldn't allow it, they were killed and he and Rai were dumped on Chimera . . . which happens to be the only planet in the system where children are being born naturally. The Juno government has done all this because they are frantic for humans to survive. The big secret they've hidden from everyone is that Earth no longer exists. Humans cannot go back there, but must figure out how to survive in the Balkan system. Thor also discovers that Third has been working for the Juno Colony the whole time, making sure Thor survived and then making him Top and then Beast King.

At this point, the Colony government types start their plan to make Chimera the next "Earth", which involves changing it's rotation so that it has normal day/night cycles rather than 180-day days and nights. They are not concerned that this change will likely kill all the people currently on the planet. Thor sends Tiz to warn/help on the planet and he and Third set out to stop the Colony people. Unknown to them, the sentient plants have accessed the station and also take this opportunity to destroy the Colony systems.

Thor and Third are successful in stopping the plot to change Chimera however a lot is destroyed by the plants in the process. Thor survives to return to Chimera, Third does not. Tiz is killed on the surface of Chimera while defending the wounded Zagi, who also ends up dying trying to save her. So in the end, humans survive on Chimera, at constant war with the plants, but coping. Thor is the only main character to survive, although a couple on minor characters also survive with him.

The main theme, human drive to survive no matter what the conditions, is played out nicely in Jyu Oh Sei. This picture to the left shows Third in his two forms on the left with Thor on the right. This is Third as he looks on Chimera and as he looks at his final betrayal of Thor. The series is fairly tragic, and one of the reasons is Third. Third betrays Thor over and over because he's been told if he does all this he will get to go to Earth, which has been his lifelong dream. When he finds out Earth no longer exists and all his betrayals have been for nothing, he no longer cares to live and he doesn't. Another tragedy is Tiz. Tiz spends the whole series wanting to bear Thor's child. He finally realizes he loves her and agrees to the child right before he sends her back to the planet, where she dies. But Thor and his super genes, and the human race, will survive on Chimera in the Balkan system.

Given the number of character deaths, it's surprising I like this series. It's really well done though. The character deaths and the short length-rushing make it fall short of a great series, but it's a really good one.

Shiki

I just finished this anime series, so I thought I'd post about it. It's been a while since a series left me feeling so ambivalent about it. Usually I can classify them when they're done. Either I love it, I like it okay, it's so-so, I don't like it, or I despise it. Pretty straight-forward classifications. Shiki: I just can't decide how it left me feeling. So here goes, and as usual: massive spoilers ahead!

I began watching this anime for a number of reasons. For one, it's about vampires. For another, the story is done by Ono Fuyumi, who wrote Juuni Kokki. And I admit to being a little intrigued by the animation style which is a little different, with just bizarre hair styles. Natsuno's in the picture to the left is one of the more 'normal' looking hair styles.

Okay, beginning at the beginning. Shiki is a vampire anime, although they don't call them 'vampires'. They call them "Risen" - okiagare. The story takes place in a small village which is mostly separated from the rest of the world. The main characters include: two high schoolers Yuuki Natsuno (guy in the main blog picture above) and Shimizu Megumi, the village doctor Ozaki Toshio, the village junior monk, Muroi Seishin and the main vampire Kirishiki Sunako.

Natsuno's family has moved to the village from the big city and as he's adjusting to a small town he makes friends with a guy named Tooru. Megumi would do anything to get out of the village and has a crush on Natsuno. The three of them are shown below and to the right here. This is where the series starts, and then the Kirishiki 'family' moves into the deserted mansion on the hill. Apparently in small villages people don't know that when strangers move in at night and you only see them after dark, you should be worried.

Soon after the arrival of the Kirishiki's, people start to die. The series starts slowly with a character dying in every episode for the first 12-13 episodes. Megumi is the first main character to die (first episode!). She then Rises and begins killing others, including Natsuno's friend, Tooru. The first part of this anime follows the slow decline of each individual death du jour, as they experience blood loss, eventually enough to kill them. Intertwined with each demise, the series follows the slow realization of what's happening by Natsuno and a couple of kids. During this time, Toshio is battling the 'epidemic' and Seishin is becoming friends with the main vampire, Sunako, who is a little girl in appearance. More than halfway through the series, Toshio finally figures out what's happening, Natsuno is killed by Tooru, and Seishin turns down Toshio's plea for help against the vampires and sides with Sunako-tachi. The picture below shows Toshio on the left and Seishin on the right with Sunako between them.

Also about this time, the series finally explains the "Risen". (I told you it started slow) Sunako was afflicted with a disease/curse a long time ago and has to kill in order to live, so she is the core of the plot and the series. When a person is drained/killed by a "Risen" they either truly die or Rise themselves, to become a Risen who needs blood to survive. And you can rise as the typical vampire Risen, or as a 'werewolf'. The advantage to werewolves is that they can move about during the day, unlike the regular Risen. Sunako's original group includes some Risen, a human who has sided with them, and Tatsumi, a werewolf. Tatsumi's task is to dig up the buried 'dead' people and figure out who will Rise. It takes 3 days for a corpse to Rise, so he has time. He places those who will rise in a room with a person who is a living sacrifice. The Rising person drains the sacrifice, insuring that the new Risen will adhere to the Risen life style and probably creating another Risen in the process.

The first 3/4 of the series, everything goes for the vampires. I found myself really irritable with the series at times, first because everyone kept dying, and secondly because it took Toshio so long to figure out what was going on. The way he goes about that is beyond gross, so I won't go into it here. Let's just say, be glad you're not his ex-wife. And then the series makes you briefly think that Toshio is claimed by the vamps, and the whole town will succumb and the story is about the vampires after all.

Along the way Natsuno has been killed by Tooru, however his parents ship him to the big city, he Rises there as a werewolf, and decides to destroy the Kirishikis for what they've done. The tide begins to turn against the vampires. Toshio manages, with Natsuno's help, to get clear of the vamps and convince the remaining townspeople of the vampire's existence. The ensuing bloodbath makes the vampires look tame by comparison. The townspeople go on a multi-day rampage destroying all the Risen they can locate during the day, and also killing any living people who might be helping or have helped a Risen. They make no distinctions and take no prisoners, slaying everyone even vaguely questionable. As the townspeople close in on Sunako and Seishin, a fire gets out of control and eventually destroys everything, including the town that Toshio-tachi were trying so hard to protect.

Although this series starts so slowly, it ends a little fast - has the feel that they're rushing the ending. Survivors after the massive body count: Toshio, Seishin and Sunako probably, maybe Natsuno and Tatsumi. Megumi (to the right) is the first villager to Rise and she's quite happy to be a Risen. She's also the last one to be killed by the villagers, *winces* and very horribly killed at that.

I guess the series is basically an investigation into the nature of good and evil. Is Sunako evil for wanting to survive? Are the villagers any less evil than the vampires? They certainly don't hold back once they start killing everyone in sight. Granted, they never would have started killing without the vampires actions in the first place. The point is, pretty much EVERYONE will kill in order to survive. Only one character in the entire series Rises and then refuses to drain the living sacrifice. She's eventually killed by the villagers during the rampage, so there's no way to know if she could have held out - if she would have eventually really died, gone insane, or started killing others.

So the series left me feeling ambivalent. I don't know if I'm happy that Sunako probably survived or wish she had been killed. Natsuno and Toshio were my favorite characters, but Natsuno died. Now that he's Risen, even as a werewolf, he'll have to have blood to survive. Of course, his survival isn't certain. He didn't intend to survive and may not have. Toshio survived, but considering some of the things he did along the way, he's probably no longer my favorite. Still, he definitely was the one person who was the most single-minded of purpose, with the strength and skills to keep the whole village from being Risen. It's just that by that point, I found myself thinking: would it be so bad to have a whole village of Risen? See, totally divided feelings about the series.

All that being said, I think I consider this a pretty decent series. The body count is much higher than I like, but it certainly makes you think. The plot had definite twists so that you weren't sure where it was going to go, after they got past the death-an-episode thing. And I do like anime series that keep me guessing. And I like the music - hopefully they'll put out a soundtrack. I seriously doubt I'll watch it again, but you never know. Sometimes my subconscious changes my mind when I'm not looking.

Update

It's been quite some time since I talked about the series I'm currently watching or those I've recently watched, so I thought I'd better do an update. There doesn't seem to be any really outstanding series out right now, but there are a few that keep me relatively entertained. They include:

Tegami Bachi Reverse: This is the second series, followup of Tegami Bachi, which you may recall me mentioning, ended in a cliffhanger. In Reverse, the series picks up right at that cliffhanger and moves on. Gauche Suede, the character that Lag Seeing spent the entire first season searching for, has become a character named Noir. Essentially, Gauche lost his 'heart', and all his memories, and is now working for/with the bad guys. After a less than ideal meeting, Lag follows all hints of Gauche's whereabouts and is convinced that he can return Gauche's heart and bring him back to his sister. The series hints along the way that the 'bad guys' are not really the bad guys, and I'll be interested to see whether Lag will redeem gauche/Noir, or we'll discover that the 'reverse' is true . . . that the Letter Bees are really working for a basically rotten government. This season is moving much faster than the first season, keeping the plot pace moving along nicely, and there significantly less constant Lag crying than there was in the first season. There's still Lag crying of course. Lag is Lag. It's just less. I'll be interested to see how they end this season.

Star Driver - Kagayaki no Takuto: This series is a surprise, in that I didn't expect to still be following it after 13 episodes now. It definitely started out on the right foot with me, despite being a mecha series, because the main character, Takuto, is also known as the Ginga Bishonen (Galactic Pretty Boy). This just tickled my funny bone. Anyone who's nickname is Galactic Pretty Boy can't be all bad. I've stayed around because I like the character style, I like the music, I like the interactions between the characters and the plot is different enough to keep me interested (I'm actually still figuring out what's going on). The only major downside to it is the transformations. Every episode has Takuto transforming into his mecha, Tauburn, and into Galactic Pretty Boy, and I get tired of watching the transformation over and over and over. Despite that, I'll keep watching it and see where this series goes. It's fun to watch.

Nurarihyon no Mago: This is another one of those surprise series. I didn't expect to like this one and certainly didn't expect it to keep me interested, but both happened. Nura Rikuo is a half demon/half human kid who lives with the demons but tries to be a normal human. At night he becomes a demon who looks like his grandfather, Nurarihyon, who was the leader of 100 demons. Or perhaps at times it's almost as if he channels his grandfather. Rikuo's two main tasks in life are: 1) to prove to the demons that he's worthy to take over his grandfather's position and, 2) to keep his human friends from getting caught in demon politics and mayhem. Again I like this one for the animation and character style (although I still wish the demon form's white hair didn't stick straight out of his head), I like the music, especially the two ED theme songs and the way they're animated, and the plot is keeping me entertained. I'm almost done with this one. I've downloaded the end but not watched it yet. Hopefully the ending won't ruin what's been a pretty decent series.

Shiki: This is a really different series. I felt compelled to watch it because it's a vampire series. I at least try out almost all of the vampire series. This one is about what happens to a small rural town when a vampire family moves into the big house on the hill. As expected, a lot of villager death ensues. This is another series that I have the whole thing and haven't finished watching it yet. Hey, I've been busy. With this one, I spent the first 15-ish episodes fretting that one of the main characters, Yuuki, was going to get killed by the vampires, which he did, and that another main character, Toshio the village doctor, couldn't figure out that this wasn't an epidemic happening, which he finally did realize. About 3/4 of the village has been killed by the vampires and many of them (including Yuuki) have now 'risen' as vamps. Despite that, both Yuuki and Toshio separately are working to destroy the vampire family who has done all this. The series is bloody and depressing in that so far all the actions against the vampire family have been totally futile, and it has a strange character design style with jagged hair. The music is good though, and I'm far enough into it to watch it through to see how they end it.

World God Only Knows: This series is funny! It's about a totally nerdy geek in glasses who spends every waking moment (including during school) playing dating sim games. He's known in the gaming world as the 'capturing god' because he ALWAYS gets the girl in the game. By an accident, he signs a contract with the devil which requires him to 'capture' real girls. Basically he must make them fall in love with him in order to free them from wandering evil spirits that have possessed them. It's funny because this socially inept guy who hates the real world is forced to win over real world girls. If he doesn't he'll break the contract and lose his head, along with the head of the demon girl who's sent to help him. This is a short series (12 eps) and is entertaining enough to be worth watching, although they could have stopped at ep 11. 12 wasn't really necessary and was a waste of time. The OP is a great song though, and the series music is really nice.

Togainu no Chi: Bloody. Violent. Depressing. And part of the 'depressing' on this one is that it looked like it was going to be really interesting with some nice plot twists and they just rushed the ending and made it a 12 ep series with no resolution, death of a main character, ... just incredibly frustrating because it could have been a decent series. The premise is a guy who is set up to take the fall for a murder and then he's given an out if he goes to a ruined city, takes part in a fight-to-the-death game, and helps destroy a drug syndicate working out of there. The plot had interesting twists, there were interesting characters (I'm always attracted to enigmatic guys in black with sharp katanas), music was decent. It was disappointing that they screwed up the non-ending so badly. Maybe they'll do another season and redeem it.

Anyhow, that's the latest update. Of course Bleach goes on, although I'm about 6 eps behind on that series right now. Hard to believe that series is on its 301 episode. I should really catch up and see what's going on, although I expect they're going to have to do another filler arc any time now.

Ja.

Winter Sonata

This series is one of the more unusual series I've watched in a long time, and it took a long time to watch it. That's only partly because the subbers were slow. It's also because I had to steel myself to watch new episodes. This series isn't just tragic. It's TRAGIC . I judge this 27 episode series to be about a 10 kleenex box series, a new personal best over the front-running Tegami Bachi, two-kleenex box series. Seriously, I am totally amazed that they can twist people's lives to the extent they did, and pack that much tragedy into one series, and it essentially all stemmed from one lie.

Let's see, where to start.

First of all the series takes some getting used to. I've mentioned this in an earlier blog, but the voices are in Korean with the roles being reprised by the original live action Korean actors. There are both Japanese and English subtitles and the sound of the language takes a while to get used to. Once you get past that though, and can see through your tears, the animation style is good and the music is outstanding. The plot goes like this:

The main characters are a girl named Yuujin and a boy named JunSang. They meet in high school and fall in love. Another boy in their class named SangHyuk is also in love with Yuujin. JunSang's mother is a famous concert pianist, but she's never married and won't say who JunSang's father is, so JunSang is trying to figure out and find his father. One day JunSang finds out that Yuujin's father is also his father and he agrees to leave Korea with his mother. At the last minute he decides to run back and speak with Yuujin one last time rather than leave her without saying anything, and he's hit by a truck and dies. Yuujin is devastated and tries to go on, eventually agreeing to marry SangHyuk.

In the meantime we find out JunSang didn't die but has a bad head injury and is tormented by thoughts of Yuujin. His mother arranges to have his memory erased through hypnosis and he leads another life as MinHyung. Years later, on the night of her pre-wedding dinner with SangHyuk, Yuujin sees MinHyung on the street and freaks out. She is sure he's JunSang, but he has no memory of her or of JunSang. Yuujin says she cannot marry SangHyuk and she goes to work for/with MinHyung. They get into trouble on a snowy jobsite, he has another head injury, almost dies and begins to remember Yuujin and that he loves her. He finds out his mother had his memory erased as pieces of it begin to return. He asks Yuujin to marry him and then discovers/remembers that they are brother and sister. He also finds out that unless he has an operation the head injury will kill him. He goes though with the wedding and then leaves her without telling her why. He intends to let the head injury kill him rather than having an operation that may cause him to lose his sight, and he doesn't tell Yuujin ANY of it.

Yuujin looks for him and finally finds out from SangHyuk's mother that Yuujin and JunSang/MinHyung are brother and sister. She gives up looking for him and goes to Paris to study architecture. In the meantime JunSang is dying in New York. He finds out that he's NOT related to Yuujin, that SangHyuk's father is his father, not Yuujin's. However he's gotten so bad that he won't go back to her because he's dying. Eventually he gets so bad that he collapses and they operate on him. His life is mostly spared but his sight is only barely there. He's basically blind, and he goes back to Korea. Yuujin works in France for quite some time and finally realizes that she needs to speak to JunSang one more time, so she traces him to New York. There she meets a woman who knows him who asks her why she stayed away after finding out they were not related. Yuujin's devastated again to know that they could have been together all this time. She eventually traces him back to Korea and they meet again, get married and live happily ever after.

So did you follow all that? It's twisty, I admit. I also admit that I was amazed that this anime ended happily. In fact I would have bet my life that it wouldn't have, but it did. It's so massively tragic all the way through that a happy ending is just hard to believe. Plus they tie everything up, which seems impossible given all the twists the plot takes. But they do it. Another unusual aspect of the series besides the Korean language is that the final episode is live action. The Korean actors perform the final episode and their characters are easily recognizable from the anime characters. The story really sucked me in and kept me coming back to watch more, even when I was crying and surrounded by piles of tissues. One of the things that irritated me about the series along the way was how everyone kept Yuujin in the dark about everything, for her own good. She was the last to know about JunSang being her brother, and then the last to know that he was not. And I was irritated by JunSang's mother telling one lie, about who JunSang's father was, and twisting everyone's lives so much.

Overall, since it had a good ending, I'd have to say that I'm glad I watched it. I'm not sure if I'll watch it again though. Can't afford that many kleenex.