Tegami Bachi

A land where a man-made sun shines only on the capital, and where delivering letters can be a hazardous occupation. A young boy who’s determined to become a great Letter Bee and find his kidnapped mother. A mysterious day that seems to affect those born on it. These are the premises of Asada Hiroyuki’s latest manga, Tegami Bachi/Letter Bee, serialized monthly in Jump Square.

Lag Seeing meets a Letter Bee – an official letter-carrier in the land of Amberground – for the first time at the age of seven. Motivated by the courage and friendship shown by the Bee, he’s determined to become a Letter Bee himself. Fast-forward five years, and Lag is off to take the Letter Bee exam. On the way he meets Niche, a silent, fierce girl who’s said to be the daughter of a flesh-eating she-creature. From then on, Lag’s journey becomes even more colorful.

Asada isn’t that great on maintaining a tight plot (and his sense of humor still makes me eyeroll every time, being rather dubious), but his artwork, which has always been pretty, has gotten prettier and more detailed in TB. The two main characters are ridiculously adorable, and the older characters are interesting. Expect lots of eye-candy, a looming mystery in the background, and character development.

You can read the scanlations at Onemanga. More raws and scanlations can be found at the LJ community. I bought two of the tankoubon, and may buy more. Lovely books, although the covers can do with shades other than those of blue.

Apology to anyone who is reading this journal regularly (there seems to be one person who does, at least) – at the moment I’m crazily addicted to Death Note (manga, anime, movie), so you’ll see plenty of DN entries here. (Actually, I’m just crazy, period).

Death Note 25

Madhouse, realizing full well that anime is in many ways a different medium from manga, decided not to merely carbon-copy L’s death from the manga. They employ visual gags instead – flashbacks, scenes ending in silence, and blurry, seen-through-handheld-cameras images. L’s final thought (“So I wasn’t wrong…”) is erased, as if to maintain that he, too, ends his life in silence, without the chance to articulate his discovery about Kira even to himself. Watari’s death is one of the creepiest parts in the episode, what with Rem fading into the background and the music. The blackout before L falls out of his seat is another fitting visual gag.

On another note, if Mamo keeps screaming like this, they’d encourage him to be the next Seki Tomokazu.

Romeo x Juliet 1

Gonzo does a completely retold version of the love story that Shakespeare has made popular, that of Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. According to Gonzo, Montague gets hold of the Capulet house in a bloody takeover. The Capulets’ young daughter, Juliet, escapes from the massacre with the help of faithful retainers. Fast-forward fourteen years, and we see an older, self-assured Juliet. She puts on a boy’s clothes, goes around by the name of Odin and keeps the Neo Verona soldiers from bullying the ordinary citizens too much. During one of her adventures, she falls off a tall building, and gets saved by Romeo, son of the same Montague who murdered her family way back when. One night, mistaken for her friend, Juliet gets whisked into a ball at what used to be the Capulet house. Overwhelmed with memories and shaken at seeing Montague, she runs out and stops near a fountain. Romeo spots her and they stare at each other, captivated.

I want to like this series, I honestly do. The first episode, unfortunately, makes me hesitate. There’s a lot of eye-candy, and the animation is good without being obtrusively so. However, there’s a certain missing logic that grates sorely on me, and it has to do with the titular characters. When Juliet sees Romeo again at the fountain, does she remember that this is the same guy who rescued her earlier, and whom she acted so brusquely to? If she does, why the sudden blushing, change of attitude, and fascination? If she doesn’t remember, how come? It’s not like he’s dressed differently or wearing some sort of a mask. Is it because he looks different by night than he does by day (…?), or because she hasn’t gotten a good look at her savior? Well, Gonzo?

All right, so that may have been nitpicking on my part. However, since the story is, I assume, will be mainly about romance, the audience has the right to see a romance that develops in a believable manner. Love at first sight is fine and dandy, but preceding circumstances also have to be taken into account. When they don’t fit together, the audience may spend more time than necessary puzzling over said love at first sight.

So here I sit, waiting for someone to come along and convince me Romeo x Juliet is worth watching for other than the visual aspects (and I’m not being sarcastic). O, anime industry, wherefore art thou industry?

This is part of my Effort to Use This Journal For Something.

Darker than Black 1-10

From ANN:

“In Tokyo, an impenetrable field known as “Hell’s Gate” appeared ten years ago. At the same time, psychics who wield paranormal powers at the cost of their conscience also emerged. Hei is one of the most powerful of these psychic agents, and along with his blind associate, Yin, works for one of the many rival agencies vying to unlock the mysteries of Hell’s Gate.”

The action/spy movie aspect is pretty cool, although the babe-of-the-week idea feels rather out of date to me. (It’s so…1978 ) Animation-wise, BONES pays close attention to details, one of the things I like about them. For example, in a scene where a grown woman is walking together with a young boy, his legs move faster than hers because a child has shorter legs and therefore walking faster is only logical. Stuff like that. The colors are bright, bordering – just a little – on bold.

The worldbuilding unfolds at a rather brisk pace, and we’re left wanting to learn more details. Most if not all of the characters are stereotypes fashioned in new and interesting ways, a trick that the anime/manga industry excels at. The series does a pretty good job at keeping the viewers’ attention on the main character without keeping him on the spotlight longer than necessary. The sidekicks are intriguing, as well, even Huang. (Why does he seem to dislike Contractors? Has one of them ever done something personally or professionally harmful to him?) Mao is amusing to watch in the perfume company casefile.

Would I recommend the series? I would, with a small warning that babes in distress may not appeal to everyone. Other than that, it’s a fun ride.

(I could have watched more episodes if they weren’t .mkv files, for which I have SO MUCH H8 right now, roar)