Madoka Magica

The magical girl show has been a well-defined genre of anime since the mid-1960s and Mahou-tsukai Sally. The conventions of mahou shoujo anime--a young girl is given supernatural powers by a mascot animal from another world, in order to fight supervillains and protect her home town--have become so thoroughly ossified that hardly anyone thought to question the implications. Aren't magical girls child soldiers? Could a plan to grant moody adolescents with amazing power and life-or-death responsibilities really end well? What are those inscrutable, beady-eyed magical pets thinking? Nobody thought about these sorts of questions very much, except apparently Akiyuki Shinbo and the gang at production studio Shaft, who have come up with the new anime of the season, and maybe the year: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica ~ Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

Madoka Magica starts with a bog-standard magical girl plot, with young protagonists fighting a righteous battle for peace and friendship, but the story quickly winds up in some ugly places. There are early hints that not everything is going to be bunnies and rainbows--what does the mysterious Homura Akemi have against mascot character Kyubei, and why is she so opposed to our heroine, Madoka Kaname, becoming a magical girl?--and episode by episode, events spiral out of control and the characters are dragged into a world of confusion and despair.

Madoka Magica is instantly recognizable as a Shaft production, with it's heavy use of bold, experimental visual techniques. The surreal alternate realities of the witches--one inhabited by animated photo collages of desserts and medical equipment, another consisting solely of color-coded silhouettes--practically scream "Shinbo." The look of Madoka's real world is comparatively tame, though the squashed-frog moe character designs, courtesy of Ume Aoki (Hidamari Sketch) are not exactly mainstream.

Previous Shaft projects have excelled as quirky works of art, but sometimes come up short as entertainment. Madoka Magica has achieved a better balance. The stories and characters are engaging on their own, not just as excuses for metaphysical monologues and psychadelic animation. The cliffhangers are gripping, and the plights of our heroines are affectingly tragic. It may be melodrama, but it's convincing, craftily paced melodrama.


Madoka Magica seems to be aiming at being the Evangelion of magical girl anime: the show that takes the conventions of an established genre, smashes them, and rebuilds the genre from the ground up into something that becomes the new standard. It's hard to tell how well it will succeed: Madoka Magica is powerful and compelling entertainment that has attracted a dedicated following, but it may be too narrowly targeted at an otaku audience to ever have much of a cultural impact (witness the chipper, fan service-y opening). We'll see how reaction to the show plays out at the end of this month; the finale, delayed by the Tohoku earthquake, and probably, sensitivity about scenes of ruined and flooded cities in episode 10, is scheduled for broadcast on April 22.

Ghibli Museum Films in Manhattan

Ghibli Forest Films

This past weekend, Carnegie Hall held a special screening of two of the eight short films that play in rotation at the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, near Tokyo, as part of the JapanNYC cultural festival. Normally, the only way to see these shorts is to go to the Ghibli Museum in person, so a trip to New York was clearly in order. The flier includes a rather stern indication that the Museum will not be able to entertain requests for more showings outside of Japan.

Carnegie's Zankel Hall.

Before the films started, John Lasseter of Pixar gave an introduction, talking about the small ways in which Ghibli has been trying to help with the aftermath of the Great Tohoku Earthquake, including showings of their movies at evacuation centers. The short films are apparently created in between motion picture projects, as a way for Hayao Miyazaki and crew to experiment with new techniques and concepts, which might or might not find their way into feature films.

JapanNYC program and earthquake addendum.

The films were excellent, as you might expect. First was the shorter Yado-sagashi (House Hunting), which was really experimental, with a simple visual style, and all sound and music done acapella by two voice actors, accompanied by manga-style sound effects moving around the screen. The story follows a city girl who takes a trip to the country, leaving offerings to appease the many nature spirits which she runs into along the way, including what looks a lot like a grizzled old Totoro.

Information on the films.

The second, and slightly longer at 15 minutes, film was Mizugumo Monmon (Mon Mon the Water Spider). This was more traditional Ghibli, with amazingly fluid animation and a fairly straightforward visual and narrative style. There's a silly but amusing story of a mopey water spider falling in love with a sleek water strider, but what stood out for me were the detailed tableux of microscopic living things in a pristine Japanese pond. Mon Mon is a really a beautifully-filmed nature special, in anime form.

Earthquake

Akira Toriyama urges disaster victims to hang tough (via ANN).

The reports from regions affected by the March 11 earthquake seem to be getting more catastrophically horrible by the hour, with news of damaged nuclear plants on the verge of meltdown, and coastal towns where the majority of the population is "missing." Send money to the usual disaster relief organizations, or directly to the Japanese Red Cross (English-language Google Crisis Response link).

Moe Day 2010

It's International Moe Day once again, and while I've been slacking off a bit on new anime viewing, I have managed to watch all of K-On!!, the recently concluded sequel to 2009's high-end moe musical school comedy, K-On! The transition between the two series was essentially invisible: designs, animation, music and voice acting all carried over seamlessly. Bandai Entertainment is in the process of bringing over the first series, with Blu-ray and DVD versions, and special editions available for each. I'm hoping we'll see an announcement for official K-On!! sometime soon.

Among new or upcoming moe shows, Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai (My Little Sister Can't Be this Cute; A.K.A. OreImo) seems to be the one to keep an eye on for the fall season. The premise--stylish and popular Kirino suddenly finds herself indebted to her painfully ordinary brother Kyousuke, when he discovers her secret otaku hobbies--seems awfully familiar, but the anime adaptation is easy on the eyes, and appears to be staying pretty classy in spite of a multitude of available failure modes. OreImo can be viewed as a legitimate stream from Anime News Network, and is ANN's first attempt at a simulcast.

Japan '08: Finale

It's taken quite a while to get through my Japan travelogue. I'm tempted to chalk up the delays to wistful feelings about the trip never truly ending until I finish writing about it, but the real fault is more plain laziness.

On the final day, my group left Hongou by taxi, with one of us riding in a second cab that was filled with luggage. From Tokyo Station we took the express train to Narita Airport. We touched down in Detroit half an hour before we left Narita. A couple of days later I came down with a bug undoubtedly picked up on the plane, which persisted for a week. It was the sickest I had been in years, a particularly awful combination of virus and jet lag that I couldn't shake because I was lying in bed all day. It was so bad, I literally lost all interest in moe anime, which was a strange and disturbing effect. Eventually, I recovered.


I'd like to get back to Japan, but it will probably be a year before I could be ready for another vacation like that. It's tricky to organize the time and the money, but even if it wasn't for practical concerns, I don't think I would enjoy traveling overseas on a regular basis. The trip was a huge amount of fun, but it also took a lot out of me, mentally and physically. Japan is about as foreign a place as a New Englander can visit (at least counting destinations with paved roads and indoor plumbing), and while it is invigorating to be forced out of behavioral ruts for a time, it also exacts a toll. Sooner or later, though, I will return.

U-Con at UConn

There's a small anime/sci-fi/gaming convention going on in my neck of the woods this weekend: U-Con @ UConn. It's being put on by the good ol' University of Connecticut Japanese Animation Society, among other campus organizations. I stopped in briefly last night, and it looked like people were having fun; if you're in the area, stop in. It's free!