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!

Japan '08: Loot

Kara no Kyoukai Special Edition DVDs.

My Japan trip wasn't all poking around old temples and hanging out in Maid Cafes with NTV film crews; there was also spending large amounts of money at dubious otaku shops in Akihabara. The photos below document a good chunk of what I hauled back to The States, though quite a few souvenirs were given away as presents before I thought to photograph them. Some other stuff not shown here just wasn't immediately available for photography (like back issues of Megami Magazine that got filed away somewhere).

Miscellaneous knickknacks, including omamori (charms) from Washinomiya Shrine, ofuda (the paper ward), and a fake charm from Furude Jinja, the fictional shrine in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.

More DVDs: Da Capo II, Kore ga Watashi no Goshujin-sama, Lucky Star OVA (Gamers Special Edition), Gedo Senki - Tales from Earthsea, Higurashi Kai. It was something of a struggle to find all of Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight, but eventually I tracked it down, though I payed full price for most of the volumes.

Loads of used PS2 soft: some Simple 2000 series odds 'n' ends, an igo game that mostly kicks my ass, Shikigami no Shiro, Ku-on, a Gundam Vs. series entry, the Lucky Star adventure game and the all-ages version of Demon Bane. I'll have to find my Dreamcast some day and play Kanon.

Suzumiya Haruhi green tea (cleverly--I thought--punctured on the bottom for drinking while still in Japan. I would have bought a case of these, but Kotobukiya was down to the last couple of cans and nobody else was offering it.), a 20th Century Boys t-shirt, and a beer bottle from the Ghibli Museum.

I don't buy figures (well, hardly ever), but Konata and the Hiiragi twins in Petit Nendoroid form called to me.

I also have very little interest in doujinshi, though somehow I did wind up with a Higurashi and a Kara no Kyoukai book, strategically obscured by Koisuru Camera, a photography + moe book from artist Siro.

Teacup set from a ceramics shop with Kiyomizu-style wares, with instant sweetened green tea with gold leaf flakes from Kinkaku-ji.

In total, the Japan trip cost around $4,000, with about half going to lodging and transportation to and from Connecticut and within Nihon. Food was in the neighborhood of $500, including a few meals at fancy restaurants. The remaining $1,500 or so was spending money, for the goods, movie and museum tickets, and other miscellaneous expenses. That is not the sort of outlay I could make on a regular basis, but it wasn't too bad for a two week trip to an expensive country on the other side of the world filled with shops hawking pricey gewgaws that I needed to purchase.

Japan '08: Kyoto II

Canal next to Tetsugaku no Michi, the Path of Philosophy.

At this point in our Japan adventure, my group left western and central Kyoto and headed towards the Higashiyama (Eastern Mountain) district, by way of Tetsugaku no Michi (the Path of Philosophy) and city bus. Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion, is located at one terminus of Tetsugaku no Michi. Ginkaku-ji was established in 1482 as a retirement home for Yoshimasa Ashikaga, and became a center for Higashiyama culture, which was the forerunner to modern Japanese civilization.

The approach to Ginkakuji; persimmon tree with fruit at right.

We had some fried fish cake type thingies from a stand along the street leading up to Ginkaku-ji. That was a pretty decent lunch, but again, I regret not getting to a real restaurant for some more serious Kyoto food.

Looking west towards Kyoto over Ginkaku-ji. Kannonden at left, and roof of Tougudou at lower right.

The Silver Pavilion itself, technically called Kannonden but normally referred to as Ginkaku-ji, was under renovation when I was there, and covered up with scaffolding. It's not actually covered in precious metal, unlike Kinkaku-ji, and "silver" seems to refer to the white sand sculptures on the grounds.

Gardens at Ginkaku-ji.

The gardens at Ginkaku-ji were probably the most beautiful that I have seen in Japan; the trees, rocks, streams and ponds form an understated work of art around the temple buildings.

Ginkaku-ji moss display.

The moss gardens at Ginkaku-ji are especially fine, and there is funny little display of the local species in one corner of the grounds, divided up into special mosses that are carefully encouraged, and ordinary mosses that form the background or are weeded out as needed. There were several gardeners actively tending the moss, wearing slippers. We had to call one of these guys for help when my friend Ray managed to drop his camera memory card off the path and down a steep slope.

Outen-mon, the Heian Shrine main gate.

A bit south and west of Ginkaku-ji, more out in the city, is Heian-jingu, one of the largest Shinto shrines in Kyoto. It is actually a scale replica constructed in 1894 of Chodo-in, a building that existed in the Heian Era in Kyoto, about 1200 years ago.

Naka Shin'en (Middle Garden), behind the main Heian-jingu shrine buildings.

For a small fee, you can tour the gardens that surround the main shrine plaza and buildings. The gardens are in the Meiji Era style of the late nineteenth century. Heian Shrine is right in the middle of a busy part of Kyoto, but the gardens seemed isolated and peaceful.

Heian-jingu gardens at sunset, Taihei-kaku bridge at right.

My camera batteries gave out right after getting the above photo, looking west over the Heian-jingu gardens towards the shrine buildings.

Kiyomizu Temple entryway, early morning.

For the final day in Kyoto, the only activity was to see Kiyomizu-dera, which was just up the street from our ryokan. Kiyomizu is a Buddhist temple founded in 780 CE around a spring on the site (the name means "clear water"). Many of the current buildings date to 1633. We got any early start, though we weren't exactly waiting at the gates when the monks opened up at 6:00 AM.

Kiyomizu Dera.

It is probably a good idea to get to Kiyomizu early in the day, in order to get relatively uncluttered photos of Japan's most famous view.

Iron sandals and staves on the Kiyomizu deck.

There is a display of training equipment for the monks at Kiyomizu Temple, with iron sandals and two staves which visitors can attempt to lift. I couldn't budge the larger staff; did the monks really walk around with that?

Otowa no Taki, the waterfalls from the Kiyomizu spring.

I braved the line at the Kiyomizu spring to sample the water, which is supposed to have beneficial effects, depending upon which stream you drink from. You take a cup with a long handle from a UV sterilizer in order to retrieve some water; I'm not sure if I got the health, longevity or wisdom water. Maybe there's a spring that grants the strength to lift a staff that contains more metal than a Ford Explorer.

Tea house on the Kiyomizu grounds.

We stopped for refreshments at a tea house at Kiyomizu. I had zenzai, which is a sweet soup involving red beans and a chunk of mochi (rice cake); it's a cool-weather food.

Jishu-jinja gate.

Jishu-jinja is a Shinto shrine located within the Kiyomizu Buddhist temple complex; there wasn't any obvious way to even reach it without walking through Kiyomizu.

"Love fortune-telling stone" in Jishu-jinja.

The main attraction at Jishu Shrine is a pair of stones set into the pavement, a fair distance apart. These are labeled koi uranai no ishi (love fortune-telling stones); if you can walk from one to the other with your eyes closed, your romantic hopes will become reality, apparently. That sounds like an anime plot device, and the love stones have indeed turned up in a few shows.

Pagoda on hill south of Kiyomizu-dera.

After a short walk to the ridge to the south you can visit a small pagoda, which is prominently visible in the view from the Kiyomizu deck.

Ferns on the Higashiyama forest floor.

It was nice to get out into the woods for a little while, though the old cedars had been thinned out quite a bit to make way for new plantings of cherry trees, since the last time I was at Kiyomizu, back in the '90s. There were lots of interesting ferns in the forest understory, including the ones here, probably a Gleichenia at upper left and maybe (?) Asplenium at center.

Kyoto Station bentou box.

After Kiyomizu, we gathered up our stuff at the Ryokan, and headed to Kyoto Station to catch the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) back to Tokyo. I grabbed a tasty Kyoto-style autumn box lunch on the way to the train. Some of the assorted Tokyo sightseeing that I wrote about in earlier installments actually happened after the return from Kyoto, but there was only one full day left in the trip by this point, and it felt like my time in Japan was rapidly vanishing.

Shinkansen arriving at Kyoto Station.

Autumn 2009 Anime: Moe Edition

Mikoto "Railgun" Misaka does not play well with others.

October 10 is (International?) Moe Day, a perfect excuse to get back to writing about the 2D world. This year’s autumn season offers a healthy selection of new, more or less moe shows. I haven’t checked out a couple of obvious bishoujo (pretty girl) offerings that are sequels to titles where I never followed the originals (Asura Cryin’ 2, the new Queen’s Blade), and I haven’t quite felt inspired to check out Sora no Otoshimono, descriptions of which sound… unhealthy. Here are three moe series that I do intend to follow.

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu: Purezza
(The Secret of Haruka Nogizaka: Purity)
Genres: School Comedy, Otaku
Rank: B+

The original Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu anime was one of the pleasant surprises of 2008, and Purezza is looking to be at least a little above average for this sort of thing. In the sequel, average guy Yuuto Ayase and perfect honor student Haruka Nogizaka continue to s-l-o-w-l-y develop a romantic relationship while trying to hide the fact that Haruka is a secret anime otaku. Yes, that’s an improbable premise on several counts, but last year's version of Nogizaka Haruka had a certain sweet restraint that won me over.

One of the appealing aspects of the 2008 incarnation of Nogizaka Haruka was the show’s high technical standards. These seem to have slipped with Purezza, though the show itself still looks decent, and the opening is outstandingly well animated. The action exhibits signs of trending towards the unpleasantly frantic, unfortunately. The character designs remain lovely and distinctive, sort of midway between mainstream moe and the decadent excesses of 1980s shoujo manga.

Seitokai no Ichizon
(At the Discretion of the Student Council)
Genres: School Comedy, Slice of Life, Otaku
Rank: B-

Kurimu Sakurano is president of the student council at prestigious Hekiyou Academy, and has surrounded herself with officers of outstanding talent and beauty… with the exception of her vice president, the creepy and unnecessarily straightforward ero-game otaku Ken Sugisaki, who announces that he worked to get top grades and the vice presidency for the sole purpose of forcing his company upon the cute girls of the student council. Seitokai no Ichizon follows Ken’s delusional attempts to make the student council into his harem, and the student council’s attempts to ignore, or at least refrain from strangling, Ken.

Setokai no Ichizon seems like it will be saddled with unrealistic cookie-cutter character development (Ken, self-centered jerk with a concealed heart of gold, is a particularly egregious offender), and the production values of the show look cheap. High-moe character designs and a constant stream of anime in-jokes are enough to keep me watching for the time being, but Setokai no Ichizon has essentially zero chance of dethroning Lucky Star as the reigning king of all slacker otaku anime.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun
(A Certain Railgun of Science)
Genres: Science Fiction, Supernatural Fighting
Rank: A

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun is a side story spinoff of Toaru Majutsu no Index (A Certain Magical Index), which received an excellent anime adaptation last fall. Railgun focuses on a group of second stringers from Index—some of whom didn’t actually appear in the anime except in the OP—centered around Mikoto Misaka, one of the most powerful Level 5 ESPers in Academy City.

As with Index, Railgun mixes shounen-fighting action with bishoujo characters, in a parallel world overflowing with clever sci-fi and supernatural elements. Character designs from the manga are from the clean, simple, relatively naturalistic strain of moe, and the anime has done a beautiful job of transferring them. The animation in Railgun looks downright slick, even better than the already quality work done on Index. I’m really looking forward to seeing what director Tatsuyuki Nagai, of Toradora! fame, does with this material. Toaru Kagaku no Railgun is looking like one of the best of 2009, though it will have a difficult time measuring up to the finale of Kara no Kyoukai and two juggernauts from Kyoto Animation.

Japan '08: Kyoto I

Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion. Mac OS X includes a nearly identical shot as a desktop image.

We arrived in Kyoto from Nara in the early evening, and after hunting around for a place to eat for a fair amount of time, settled on a Chinese restaurant near Kyoto Tower, across the street from the station. It was OK-ish: one of my few regrets from the trip was that we never got to sample much in the way of genuine Kansai cuisine, which seems to be generally regarded as superior to the vittles available in the Tokyo area. After supper, we got a cab to our ryokan in the Higashiyama (Eastern Mountains) part of town.

Kyoto Tower from Kyoto Station.

The next morning, we took a cab back to the center of the city, and dropped in at the tourist office in Kyoto Station. The available guided tours looked a bit rushed and limited, so we opted for all-day bus passes, a bargain at 500 yen. Actually, just hailing cabs would have been a convenient and reasonably cost-effective way to get around Kyoto too, split three ways. It was easy enough to navigate using buses and the bilingual map from the tourist office, though. There are even three lines that specialize in covering the major sightseeing areas, called Raku Buses.

On the bus in Kyoto.

Kara-mon gate at Nijo Castle.

Our first major stop was Nijou-jou (Nijou Castle), which was constructed over the period of 1601 to 1626 by the early Tokugawa Shoguns. It's in the center of town, north of Kyoto Station. One can tour the outer palace, Ninomaru (visible behind me in the photo above), and contemplate its ancient wall paintings, but photography was prohibited indoors. Ninomaru Palace has uguisu-bari, or nightingale floors, which are designed to squeak when trod upon, as a security measure.

Chrysanthemum exhibit at Nijou Castle.

Cycas revoluta (Sago Palm) in the Nijou Castle gardens.

The Ninomaru Palace gardens are nice, with impressive ponds and rock features. It's warm enough in Kyoto for Sago Palms to survive outdoors.

Inner walls of Nijou Castle.

Nijou Castle has a second ring of moats and walls inside of it, surrounding a smaller complex of buildings, Honmaru Palace. You can't tour inside of Honmaru.

Nijou's Honmaru Palace, from the top of the inner walls.

The Japanese Maples (Acer palmatum) were just starting to change color, in mid-October, but it had been an unusually warm autumn. A few seeds managed to find their way into my luggage somehow, and I have some nice little Nijou-jou maple seedlings coming along now, back in the US.

Road to Kinkaku-ji

After refreshing ourselves with Fanta melon soda from one of those old vending machines that mix soda water and syrup in a paper cup, it was back to the bus stop to catch a ride to the northwestern corner of the city, and Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion. The Buddhist temple complex and the pavilion are officially called Rokuon-ji, but everyone seems to refer to the place as Kinkaku-ji. The original version of the temple dates to 1397, but it has been rebuilt after fires several times, most recently in 1950. The gardens surrounding Kinkaku-ji have remained more or less intact over the centuries.

Gardens outside of the Kinkaku-ji abbot's chamber.

The landscapes around temples and shrines look naturalistic, but they require heroic efforts to maintain. There were gardeners working everywhere at the places I visited in Kyoto. Note the guy pruning the pine in the photo above.

Kinkaku-ji, from across Kyouko-chi pond.

Kinkaku-ji is pretty much the most photogenic object ever created by human hands, and the crowds jockeying for position at good vantage points were overwhelming. It took a fair amount of patience and effort to get photographs like these, without dozens of people in them, though the gardens are arranged to mostly conceal visitors on the other side of the pavilion.

Next time, I'll write about some of the sights in eastern Kyoto.