Animania

I've never seen the anime series Karin, but a while back I stumbled on its manga series at my local library. For its English release, Tokyopop renamed the manga to Chibi Vampire to avoid having the series confused with another of their titles, Kamichama Karin. I picked up the first four volumes from my library on a whim and because I was bored and wanted new manga to read. I figured it would be something silly, full of dub gags and fan service, and nothing I'd like that much. I'm glad to say, I was mostly wrong, and have since picked up the all seven volumes of the manga that are currently available. While this review is mostly for volume 1, I do touch on some of the over all story lines that are explored more in volume 2. In Japan, fourteen volumes have been released as of this month. There is also a nine volume light novel series, which I'll be reviewing soon, and an anime adaptation that was being released by Geneon as Karin, but that is now in hiatus due to the company's shut down.

Chibi Vampire puts a new twist on the vampire in a human world story usually seen in manga series. Its not a dark series, though there are some serious overtones, and primary Karin Maaka is not your typical vampire. Instead of sucking blood, she has to regularly give blood to others or she becomes too full of blood and has a nose-bleed of epic proportions. Her family, all normal vampires, consider her defective and regularly let her know, yet despite how it sounds its pretty obvious her family loves her greatly and are very concerned about her condition and its toll on her body (well, maybe except her brother Ren :P). Karin finds her life becoming even more hectic and strained when a new classmate joins her class, the scowlingly handsome Kenta, who discovers her secret because he is Karin's preferred blood type and sends her excess blood production into overdrive. To stop the affect, Karin figures out that she must somehow make the unhappy Kenta happy, but first she has to figure out why he is unhappy all the time.

Chibi Vampire is a great series so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes. Yuna Kagesaki, the writer of the series, has done a wonderful job in creating a varied cast of characters with multiple facets to their personalities. The artwork is well done, and despite the rename, Tokyopop seems to have done a faithful and well done translation within. While the series certainly offers plenty of laughs, and a mild bit of fan service, there are some nice underlying undertones in the growing feelings between Karin and Kenta, the drama of Kenta's home life, and the potential ramifications and the seemingly hidden seriousness of Karin's condition. My only complaint about the series? That I have to wait four months between volumes!

Rating: A+

Of course, any one who regularly reads Animania knows I do love my yaoi. I must admit, I've found myself sometimes getting bored, though, as a lot of stories, particularly one-shots and two-shots, seem to follow a basic formula and use cookie-cutter characters. After reading a good review of it on AnimeOnDVD, I decided to pick up the two-volume Vanilla series written by Riyu Yamakami. The review gave some indications that this one might be a bit of a break from the "same old same old." It was originally released in 1998, which may explain why its a bit different from some of the stuff coming out today, but on to the review.

Vanilla introduces seventeen year old high school student Ichiru Morio who finds him world turned a bit upside down as he comes to realize that he is homosexual through his strangely growing love for his teacher Yoshitaka Saeki. Saeki is like the worse person for a first love in that he is very cold and somewhat cruel. Ichiru accidentally finds himself hiding behind a desk while Saeki has sec with another male student. Saeki sees him, but is unbothered and toys with Saeki after the other student leaves. Ichiru finds himself confused, hurting, and lonely as Saeki blows hot and cold. Even when Ichiru's feelings finally seem to get through, he can't be sure if Saeki truly feels anything back or if Saeki is just indulging in another one of his strange whims.

I really enjoyed this two volume series and it certainly met my hopes for being different. I like that Ichiru doesn't just quickly jump into the "okay, I love a guy, let's get it on" bandwagon that is often seen in these series. He genuinely struggles with his feelings and his growing realization that he's "different" and even then needs someone to help point it out before he finally comes to see he is gay and to accept it. His reactions to Saeki's hot/cold mannerisms may seem over the top, but certainly is in keeping with the way some might feel when they are so hurt and torn and feeling lost. I think Yamakami did a great job of crafting Saeki's complex character and balancing between having him be seem like a total jackass and being an emotionally awkward and thrown for a look by his reactions to Ichiru. The second volume is a little weaker than the first in that it focuses a bit much on Yajima, Saeki's butler, and Kazuki, the student Saeki was having sex with that Ichiru saw. It wasn't too bad, though, and Yajima is a very interesting character, though I'd rather those two have been given their own volume so it could be better developed. DMP's release is beautiful, as always, and Yamakami's art is well-done with distinctive characters, good details, and a great job showing Saeki's often subtle emotions.

Rating: A-

Voices of a Distant Star actually started life as a single episode anime OVA that was created entirely by Makoto Shinkai on his Mac computer, with his wife helping in do the voice dubbing. When it was released to DVD in February 2002, it was redubbed using professional voice actors. I've the OVA once, which ADV released here, and thought it was okay, but I vaguely remember not liking the ending. A novelization was also created in Japan, or so Wikipedia says, but its unlicensed. Mizu Sahara wrote a manga adaptation as well, which Tokyopop released here in 2006. I decided to pick it up and give it a go. Alas, I don't remember the OVA well enough to compare how much it follows it, but I know Sahara extended the story further than the anime went.

In Voices of a Distant Star teenage high school student Mikako is recruited into a research team to explore space and deal with recent contact between the humans and an alien race that there appears to be conflict with. The alien conflict is only touched on as needed, however, as the primary focus is on Mikako and her classmate Noboru, who realize they love each other after she's left and spend years communicating through cell phone text messages. As Mikako goes further out in space, however, it takes longer and longer for the message to arrive and while she's still the same age, Noboru is becoming an adult and wondering if he should move on with his life. The original anime ending occurs roughly in the middle of the manga, and it then moves on to continue the story, providing a clearer ending to the series.

As a whole, from what I remember of the OVA, I like the manga more. It expands more into both Mikako and Noboru's lives, including friends and their more routine lives along with Mikako's work in space. I also like that it finishes up the story in a more conclusive, and to me satisfying, way than the anime did. ADV's release of this single volume title is also quite nice, including a soft pastel cover, and all four double-sided color pages from the original release. I highly recommend this title for a short, but sweet and gentle story of long-distance love and faith.

Rating: A

When browsing my manga shelves, the primary companies represented are, of course, the two biggest: Tokyopop and Viz. In the last year or two, a few others have also appeared, such as ADV and CMX. With Blood+, Dark Horse Comics made their debut. Go! Comi one of the youngest companies has, thus far, only had one slot in my shelf with Crossroad. However, I recently discovered and picked up a second title from Go! Comi, Night of the Beasts by Chika Shiomi Like Crossroad, Night Of The Beasts is a relatively short series, with six volumes. It seems to have been a relatively obscure title in Japan, originally released from 1996 through 1999 by publisher Akita Shoten.

In Night of the Beasts we meet Aria, a tall, tough as nails girl who is the enemy of aggressive and rude males, but also an overall kind person. One day a stranger named Sakura appears, stealing her first kiss then claiming that he is possessed by a demon and that only she can save him. Now with a premise set up like that, all kinds of stereotypical scenarios come to mind, and I was worried it would be some lame key to the whole "saving" thing. However, I found the series managed to put a fresh twist on the idea. Sakura's inner demon wants to slaughter 4,000 people, hence his wanting to stop it, but Sakura isn't strong enough to keep the monster at bay for long. Aria, though willing to help, is fairly powerless to prevent several tragic events, and unwittingly becomes a pawn for Sakura's blood relatives (i.e. those 4,000 people slated to die). As the story progresses, the mystery of how Aria was able to do anything for Sakura, and why she is the one who is being called on to save all the other people becomes clearer, and the reason for the demon's unmitigating hatred of the entire family.

Shiomi's artwork is very good for the series with a slightly hard edge in the drawings in keeping with the underlying story. She forgoes background in many scenes to focus on well-designed and easily recognizable characters, but in scenes where backgrounds are included, they are well drawn with attention to scale and detail. In particularly, I think Shiomi does an awesome job of visually differentiating between Sakura when he's himself and when he's been taken over by the demon. The main characters of the series, as well as some of the major supporting ones, re all unique with distinctive appearances, personalities, and roles. The villains are skillfully portrayed in such a way that one finds it hard to hate them for what they do, and to even sympathize with them to some degree while still not condoning their actions. The ending is well done, with a few last minute twists and an almost expected, for manga, tinge of sadness.

As with Go! Comi's other series, Night of the Beasts, carries a higher price point of $10.99 a volume, with slightly better quality covers, but no color pages or anything else to really justify it. As such, while I do think this is a great short series for anyone liking drama mixed with touches of horror, romance, and comedy, I also recommend waiting to buy until you can get it on sale.

Series Grade: B+

Going back in time a little, this week I decided to finally watch .hack//SIGN, an anime series that was first released in the US back in 2003. It was produced by well known animation company Bee Train with Bandai Visual, and first aired in Japan back in April 2002. Now .hack isn't a standalone title, but part of a very large franchise that includes several other anime series, some manga series, and video games. Unlike Blood+, however, .hack's various related media are not adaptations or retellings, but sequels and prequels. So I've also hesitated in watching in due to the total confusion about where to jump in to be at the start of the story (a minor thing I tend to be anal about). I finally just decided to go with .hack//SIGN's anime, because it was the first title released here, so I rented all six volumes from Hastings.

.hack//SIGN is unusual in that it is set almost entirely within an online massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORG) virtual reality game called "The World." The World doesn't seem to have a ton of rules, though some things appear to be frowned on (like running around and killing other players for fun). Within this game, a character named Tsukasa awakens to find he doesn't remember how he got where he was. Through reluctant interactions with another character, Mimiru, we discover that Tsukasa is different from other players. He is unable to log out from the game and he is not sitting in front of a terminal so he can't escape by resetting. He has been inside the game for weeks, and can actually feel pain that others can't when hurt. Tsukasa tends to be a loner, and when he first meets Mimiru he rudely transports away without saying a word. Tsukasa was lead to a hidden area of the game by a cat character named Macha. There, a sleeping girl floats above a bed and a female voice constantly tries to keep Tsukasa from forming relationships with other players. However, Tsukasa eventually realizes that he doesn't want to be alone anymore and defies the voice, resulting in serious retribution. Mimiru aims to help Tsukasa figure out why he is locked there and how he can log out. Along the way, Tsukasa finds himself hunted by the Crimson Knights, a group of players that strives to keep people playing within the rules. During the series, they are aided, and sometimes betrayed, by several other players: Bear, an older man who regularly offers advice to the younger players, and sometimes lectures; BT, a female character who plays both sides of the fence; Sora, a "player killer" who betrays anyone friend or foe; Subaru, the female leader of the Crimson Knights; Crim, the former founder of the Crimson Knights and close friend of Subaru; and Silver Knight, the second in command of the Crimson Knights. As the story progresses, this group learns more about both Tsukasa, secrets about the game, and must confront their own inner demons.

Its hard to say I like .hack//SIGN or that I didn't like it. In several major elements, it both excelled and failed. Spanning twenty-six episodes, .hack//SIGN is a very slow placed series, often too slow. Quite a few times I felt two episodes could have become one just by hacking out the long pauses that may have been intended to be dramatic pauses, but eventually just got annoying. The story premise itself is very intriguing, however a lot of questions seemed to be left unanswered at the end, pretty much requiring you to continue with the series to learn more (or go read Wikipedia LOL). There are also several parts introduced in the story that seemed to just disappear. For example, early on Macha tells Tsukasa to mark Mimiru with his colors, but that is never explained and after two episodes, never mentioned again. I did love how snippets of each characters real-life personas are reveals through both interactions with other characters and gray toned scenes that appeared to be television screens. Tsukasa gets the most of those scenes as he is the most developed character, despite him having the fewest lines. The rest only get one or two, with Crim getting none at all that I can remember. The series does a mixed job on character development as well. Tsukasa, as mentioned, gets the most and Subaru also gets decent character development, though she felt a bit shallow to me. Bear gets fairly decent development, particularly in his dealings with Tsukasa. Mimiru, BT, Sora, and Crim feel shafted, despite Mimiru being the first to meet Tsukasa and the closest to him (and potential love interest) until he meets Subaru. With the slow pacing, you'd think we'd have good development on them all.

I will say, .hack//SIGN, does feature quite a bit of nice music. The opening theme's lyrics make little sense, but the song is catchy. At times the background overwhelms the voices, but that's okay because most of it is beautiful stuff and fits the moods so so well. As a whole, it certainly wasn't a waste of my time to watch .hack//SIGN. Despite the slow pace, it has some good character moments and covers some interesting themes, particularly those involving Tsukasa and his interactions with Bear and Subaru. Just be ready to pay attention, and maybe have to do some outside reading and/or rewatching to get some of the subtleties and be ready to be missing quite a bit of the story, unless you are willing to follow through with the rest of the series. I would recommend as a rental, though for buying, I'd say only after renting first. The Anime Legends version is down to $45, and you can get that cheaper in a sale, but I probably won't be buying it as I don't see it having a lot of rewatch value. Being the RPG lover that I am, I will probably pick up the four .hack video games as they have been highly recommended to me before, so I will get to some follow through. .hack//Zero, however, is the novel that actually follows up with Tsukasa and other characters and it is currently unlicensed.

Series Grade: B