M.J. Japan Adventure

Matt at the gate of Washinomiya Shrine in Saitama.

Moetic Justice is now reporting live from Japan. I’ve been here five days, and a lot has happened--too much to waste time in Nihon blogging about--but it has been a superb trip so far, and there is a lot left to do. I am in Tokyo right now, and my friends and I have been spending time in Shinjuku, Nakano, the Ghibli Museum, and of course Akihabara, the Vatican City of nerds. Later this week we head to Kyoto and Nara for some legitimate Japanese Culture. More later, though any kind of systematic account is going to have to wait until after I return. おたのしもいに！

Summer 2008 Anime Rundown

There are something in the neighborhood of 25 new anime starting up this summer [via Moetron]. The summer season is traditionally a bit slow, but there is a good range of material out there this year, and a couple of really strong new shows. I'll cover four that have attracted my attention, and briefly mention some others that I've seen. Ratings are based on the first two or three episodes.

Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~Natsu no Sora~
(Important Things for a Mage - Summer Sky / Someday's Dreamers - Summer Sky)
Genre: supernatural, slice of life
Overall Rank: A-
MJ Rank: A

Natsu no Sora is set in the same mildly alternate Japan as the original Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto (2003) and has the same basic premise, but involves a new cast of characters. Sora Suzuki has the innate ability to use magic, and so is required to leave her agricultural hometown in Hokkaido in order to train with the Bureau of Magic in Tokyo. Sora has great potential as a mage, but experiences an awkward first day of class. She arrives late and then gets snubbed by one of her classmates, surfer-dude Gouta Midorikawa, who is strong and silent, but apparently unsure of whether he deserves to be at the Bureau.
Staff-wise, Natsu no Sora is in good hands with long time director and occasional voice actor Osamu Kobayashi, who is possibly most famous for his work on seminal '80s romantic comedy TV series Kimagure Orange Road. Visually, it's the most interesting of this seasons offerings, with ridiculously detailed backgrounds that seem to be a mixture of retouched photographs, hyper-realistic paintings, and CG. The characters designs are quite simple, and sometimes clash in funky ways with the scenery, though generally everything is well integrated. Story-wise, Natsu no Sora is going to be too slow for some tastes, though it strikes me as an ideal entertainment for lazy summer evenings.

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Other slice-of-life anime for the summer include Telepathy Shoujo Ran (Telepathy Girl Ran), this year's new NHK (Japanese public TV) anime. As is typical for NHK fair, Ran is a classy production, faintly old-fashioned and wholesome. In the shoujo-anime subcategory, there is Antique Bakery, a cooking show with boy's love undertones. Well, not even undertones, really; the shounen-ai themes are hot and heavy.


Natsume Yuujinchou
(Natsume's Book of Friends)
Genre: supernatural, shoujo
Overall Rank: A-
MJ Rank: A-

Takashi Natsume has always gotten into trouble because he can see yokai (traditional Japanese monsters) that are invisible to normal people. But his situation takes a turn for the worse when he moves to the country hamlet where his grandmother, Reiko, grew up, and yokai start to actively hunt him down. It seems that Reiko, who died young, really kicked ass--in the spiritual sense--and had gained dominion over the local yokai by collecting their names in her Book of Friends. Now, spirits who have gone bad, who are lonely without Reiko, or who want control over other yokai, are after Takashi and the book. Assisting Takashi in his quest to return the names to their rightful owners and not get killed in the process is Madara, A.K.A. Nyanko-sensei ("Master Kitty"), a cat spirit who is indebted to the boy.
The bonds and complex motivations that govern the interactions between Takashi and the yokai form the heart of Natsume Yuujinchou, and everything is influenced by Reiko's short but intense life, which is gradually revealed in flashbacks. In spite of a slightly cartoony look (which does grow on you), Natsume Yuujinchou is a serious and emotionally powerful drama.


Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu
(Haruka Nogizaka's Secret)
Genre: comedy, romance, otaku
Overall Rank: B
MJ Rank: A-

Haruka Nogizaka is the quintessential school idol: talented and intelligent; a formal and demure girl from the best sort of family. She would be a true Yamato nadeshiko (traditional Japanese beauty), if it wasn't for a dark secret: she's really an otaku who loves goony fanservice anime. Our hero, ordinary schmoe Yuuto Ayase, runs into Haruka while she's guiltily borrowing back issues of an anime magazine from the library, and promises to protect her secret. Naturally, the two grow closer in spite of the social divide between them.
Haruka Nogizaka no Himitsu is looking like a fairly predictable example of the anime-about-anime-fans genre, and presents an idealized fantasy version of fandom (a la Comic Party), but so far it has been executed with enthusiasm and a sense of humor.


Slayers Revolution
Genre: comedy, sword and sorcery
Overall Rank: B+
MJ Rank: B+

Slayers returns to the airwaves, after more than a ten year hiatus since its last television incarnation, Slayers Try. Over-powered and quick tempered sorceress Lina Inverse--as always, voiced by omnipresent 1990s voice actress Megumi Hayashibara--has concerns about declining numbers of her usual bandit prey, and decides to head to sea to incinerate pirates while the bandit population recovers. She's joined by the old gang--Gaurry, Amelia and Zelgadiss--and comic mayhem ensues.
There are more than the usual number of revivals of older franchises out there right now (e.g. Macross Frontier, Birdy the Mighty Decode), but Slayers Revolution has the strongest lost-can-of-film-melts-out-of-glacier vibe going on. There's hardly any way to tell that it wasn't broadcast in 1996, apart from the aspect ratio and animation that is somewhat brighter and steadier than could be achieved with cels. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on individual taste, though Slayers Revolution clearly isn't going to break much new ground. Back in the mid-90s, ironically, Slayers really was revolutionary, with designs that were modern or even fringe for the time. It was also one of the first TV anime, if not the first, to be based on a light novel.

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Other current fantasy anime include: Koihime Musou (恋姫 無双 ...I know all those kanji, but can't imagine what they're supposed to mean in that combination. I'm not even going to try: everything I come up with sounds incredibly stupid. For what it's worth, Google Language Tools--and I emphasize that this is Google talking, not me--renders it as "Princess Love no Twin"), which is set in feudal China. The character designs are pretty, but they're shackled to a somewhat uninspired plot. World Destruction: Sekai Bokumetsu no Rokunin (The Six World Destroyers) is from the RPG-esque end of the fantasy anime spectrum. It takes place in a world where beast-men rule, humans are a despised minority, and some destruction is apparently in order.

Anime Mop Up - First Half 2008

The Garden of Sinners

Here are notes on a few additional current or recently finished anime that I've been neglecting. I've been thinking of going back even further to write up some of the winter shows, as well, but most of the worthy ones have been licensed for release in the U.S., and I might as well hold off until I've had a chance to check them out on DVD. For me, the highlights from the January crop were Shigofumi - Letters from the Departed (voyeuristic and unsettling urban horror), Spice and Wolf (cheap-looking but charming Renaissance road story) and True Tears (taut, sharply-animated school romance).

Kara no Kyoukai - The Garden of Sinners
(The Edge of Emptyness - The Garden of Sinners)
Genre: modern horror, action
Overall Rank: A
MJ Rank: A+

ufotable is a relatively young production studio that is rapidly making a name for itself: they don't have a lot of throughput, but they do interesting, quality work. Their first original production, from 2006, was Coyote Ragtime Show, a messy pastiche of various space adventure anime from the '80s and '90s, that in spite of some glaring flaws managed to look great and entertain consistently. The studio first made a serious impression on me with another original story, last year's Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight!, a slice of life story that wasn't anything particularly weighty, but stood out with an engaging sense for character development, as well as rich and innovative visuals.

Starting late last year, ufotable began releasing what will eventually be a cycle of seven theatrical films: Kara no Kyoukai - The Garden of Sinners, based on novels created by Type-Moon, of Fate/stay night fame. Four installments have appeared so far, with a fifth premiering this month.

Kara no Kyoukai chronicles the life of Shiki Ryougi, a young woman with a mysterious past, whose worldly possessions consist of a kimono, a leather jacket, and a really vicious looking knife. She uses the knife to dismember dangerous supernatural entities, and possibly, the occasional human, too. In the first movie Shiki is working for a spiritual detective agency, trying to stop a string of suicides associated with an abandoned building. The next few movies in the cycle examine Shiki's earlier years, when she was, if possible, even more disquietingly eccentric than she is in the first installment.

In Manabi Straight, ufotable used obsessively detailed animation with a rich, dark color scheme to set a comfortable, homey tone; in Kara no Kyoukai they turn the style up a few notches to produce a remarkably moody, uneasy atmosphere. The characters and dialogue have the same sort of feel as the animation, if that makes sense: not exactly pleasant, but completely engrossing. The music is outstanding as well, and some sequences may even achieve that hairs-on-back-of-neck-standing-up effect. Kara no Kyoukai is probably the best new anime that I've seen this year; it gets my highest recommendation, and I hope someone brings it out in the U.S. before I decide to blow the rent on import DVDs.

Kurenai
Genre: slice of life, martial arts
Overall Rank: A-
MJ Rank: A-

Shinkurou Kurenai is a high school student living in an old-fashioned boarding house a la Maison Ikkoku (complete with overpowering but, probably, well-meaning housemates), with a part time job as a mediator for conflicts of the type that involve guys with tattooed backs and missing pinkies. His most difficult assignment yet comes in the form of Murasaki Kuhouin, young daughter of a rigidly traditional and absurdly wealthy clan, who has been taken from the Kuhouin inner sanctum, and will be using Shinkurou's rundown apartment as a safe house.

Kurenai is a funny mix--part fighting anime and part understated, old school harem anime--that manages to work far better than it ought to. It looks absolutely gorgeous for TV animation, for one thing, and the martial arts sequences flow with the choreographed grace of the better Hong Kong action movies. This meshes so seamlessly with a thoughtful, humanistic story that even its strangest conceits (such as the Kuhouin bodyguard who does all of her fighting in stiletto heels and Clintonesque pantsuit) seem natural and unaffected. Kurenai is arguably the best TV anime of the spring season.


Soul Eater
Genre: shounen fighting
Overall Rank: B+
MJ Rank: B

Maka Alban and her pals Death The Kid and Black Star are training to be Weapon Meisters, who use partners who can transform into blades or guns to hunt down those humans whose souls have become corrupted, and are in danger of becoming legendary monsters called Kishin.

Soul Eater is studio BONES' 10th anniversary project, and comes six years after RahXephon, the original production that first brought the studio to the attention of many fans (time flies...). Soul Eater is the first foray by BONES into the world of lengthy shounen fighting manga adaptations, but one expects them to handle it with their trademark combination of workmanlike consistency and above-average craftsmanship. The show oozes style, with quirky designs and settings, fluid motion and much use of exaggerated perspective. I'm pretty burned out on the genre, but Soul Eater has piqued my interest, and even if I probably won't follow it for long myself, it's clearly going to be a moderately big deal, and it would not surprise me at all if it showed up in slightly sanitized form on Cartoon Network next year.

Upcoming Anime: Kannagi

I suspect that I'm not the only one who was forced to buy the Kannagi manga after a random encounter with the cover of volume 1 in a Japanese bookstore. Really, I'm basically an anime fan, and I hardly pick up any manga at all, but good god. Artist Eri Takenashi hits the moe sweet spot dead on, with clean, well proportioned designs and an excellent sense of perspective and color.

As a bonus, the actual contents of the two volumes that I've read are pretty sweet, too. The outline of the story is bishoujo boilerplate, with ordinary student Jin carving a statue out of wood from a sacred tree, and the statue cracking open to reveal Shinto goddess Nagi, who decides to hang around. But, the execution of Kannagi is well above average, with carefully fleshed out and appealing characters, gentle slice-of-life pacing, and a light, restrained approach to the supernatural aspects of the setting.

The ordinary lives of the characters in Kannagi are the focus for Takenashi, which is always a good sign in this genre. There are malevolent supernatural entities--called Kegare--in the Kannagi world, and Nagi even fights them once in a while, but these never seem like much of a threat, and mostly just lurk in the background like the creepy little pitch black insects in Ed Gorey illustrations. Relationship elements are similarly subtle: Nagi and Jin get along fairly well, but the tensions between them are only romantic in small part.

An interesting feature of the manga is that each volume includes a foldout pinup illustration by a famous visual novel creator. Volume 2 features Nagi and her menacing sister Zange, in a distinctly Higurashi-esque situation, courtesy of Ryuukishi 07. Too funny!

Kannagi is coming to television later this year (nothing definite has been announced, but one assumes fall season), and Megami Magazine has an enthusiastic blurb in the June 2008 Character Catch Up section. The director will be Yutaka Yamamoto, an episode director for Kyoto Animation who also helmed Lucky Star for the first four episodes, before getting demoted and subsequently quitting. So, at bare minimum, we can expect the anime to have an insanely good opening animation. The screenplay is being written by Hideyuki Kurata, who wrote Kamichu! (RIP, Geneon USA *sob*) and Bamboo Blade (which I really need to sit down and watch). With that kind of resume, Kurata would seem to be just about ideal for adapting a story like Kannagi's. Production will be by Aniplex, with assistance by Ordet, the company recently founded by Yamamoto. I'm eagerly awaiting further information; Kannagi is shaping up to be an obvious early contender for best new TV anime of the second half of the year.

Finally, for all of you with fancy-schmancy monitors in need of new wallpaper...
I might be persuaded to come up with desktop images in other resolutions, if anyone is interested.

Spring 2008 Anime Rundown, Part II

Nabari no Ou (The King of Nabari)
Genre: ninja, action
Overall Rank: B+
MJ Rank: C+

A struggle is brewing to determine who will rule Nabari, the hidden society of ninja. One important player turns out to be Miharu Rokujou, who is heir not only to his family's okonomiyaki restaurant, but also to a dangerous sealed power. Classmate Kouichi Irie is aware of Miharu's potential, and sets about recruiting him for a school club that is a front for the local ninja organization. Nabari no Ou borrows a lot from Naruto, or at least makes use of the same underlying mythos, but is aimed at an older audience. Action sequences are slick in Nabari, and the impressionistic watercolor backgrounds stand out. It's unlikely that Miharu will replace He of the Orange Windbreaker in the imagination of fans, though, which is a bit of a shame.

RD Sennou Chousashitsu (Real Drive - Occult Brain Research Office)
Genre: science fiction
Overall Rank: A
MJ Rank: A-

The year is 2061, and Masamichi Haru is living in a nursing home on an artificial island, after emerging from a 50 year coma. The coma was caused by an accident during a psychological experiment, that for some reason involved free diving at great depths in the ocean. Haru and his volunteer assistant Minamo Aoi start noticing phenomena similar to what occured during the incident, and there is trouble on the island. The phenomena may be related to the Metal--a virtual simulation world created by cybernetic implants--or they may be part of the simulation, or it could be that something else entirely is going on.

Real Drive is of the school of science fiction storytelling that throws the viewer headfirst into a sea of jargon (thank you, original creator Masamune Shirow) and mysterious events, and hopes he or she learns to tread water, fast. This technique is often abused, but my initial impression of RD is that the story has been thought out, and that everything will fall into place, eventually. RD's animation--courtesy of Production I.G and veteran director Kazuhiro Furuhashi (Rurouni Kenshin, Chevalier D'Eon, etc.)--is impeccable. This is definitely the serious anime choice of the spring.

Special A
genre: comedy, romance, shoujo
Overall Rank: B+
MJ Rank: B-

Hikari Hanazono excels at everything she does, and is ranked second in the hothouse environment (literally) of the elite Special A class at her private academy. However, she always seems to be outdone by the dashing Kei Takishima, who has no qualms about rubbing it in. The romantic tension between Kei and Hikari is thick, and their good natured sparring looks like it will be a lot of fun. Special A is shaping up to be the superior shoujo anime option for the season.

To Love-Ru - Trouble -
Genre: science fiction, comedy, fanservice
Overall Rank: C+
MJ Rank: B

Rito Yuuki can never manage to confess his love to girl-next-door Haruna Sairenji, but through various fanservicey circumstances, he manages to get engaged to fugitive alien princess Lala. Vast swaths of the modern anime scene consist of fifth generation Urusei Yatsura clones, but To Love-Ru is one of the more straightforward attempts to reverse engineer Rumiko Takahashi's classic that I've seen recently. The differences are telling: gone is UY's adolescent swamp of hormones, jealous rage and topless nudity. In its place, we get pretty characters who are politely accommodating, and a lot of artful concealment of naughty bits. Times have changed in the bishoujo anime world. I'm still struggling to wrap my head around the fact that the To Love-Ru manga runs in Shounen Jump, where the times are apparently also a-changing.

Vampire Kishi (Vampire Knight)
Genre: supernatural, shoujo
Overall Rank: B
MJ Rank: C

Yuki Cross attends a boarding school with ordinary day classes, as well as a special night class, which consists of vampires who are theoretically learning to get along with humans. As a Guardian, Yuki attempts to keep the peace between the day and night classes, and prevent the norms from learning too much about their nocturnal school mates. Attending night class is Kurau Kaname, the gothically handsome vampire who saved Yuuki's life when she was a child. Vampire Knight is not at all my sort of thing, but it's well done, with a lighter touch than I would have expected from something in this genre.

Wagaya no Oinari-sama (Our Home's Harvest/Fox God)
Genre: supernatural, fighting, kitsune
Overall Rank: B
MJ Rank: B+

Tooru Takagami is being targeted by evil spirits, so his brother, Noboru, titular head of the Mizuchi clan of Shinto priests, is asked to unseal the guardian of the Mizuchi lands. Fox spirit Kuugen "Kuu-chan" Tenko defeats one of Tooru's supernatural tormentors, with some help from the shrine maiden Kou, but the boy is still in danger, and Kuu-chan follows the brothers back to their home in the city. On a technical level, Oinari-sama is not overly impressive, and I worry that it is going to settle into a monster-of-the-week rut, but the interplay between the Takagami brothers and the haughty Kuugen is zingy enough to convince me to keep watching, for at least a few more episodes.

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That's it for me so far, though I still need to check out a few more new shows, notably Soul Eater and Code Geass R2. I'll probably hold off on Code Geass and wait for the Bandai Entertainment DVDs... I haven't seen much of the first series yet, and I just recently worked my way through the stack of Gundam Seed DVDs that had been sitting in a corner gathering dust. So, I have the sense that I've done my civic duty watching Sunrise scifi melodramas for the time being.

From the current crop, I'll be following Maid Guy, Kyouran Kazoku Nikki, Real Drive, and maybe a few others. I've seen some more of Kyouran Kazoku since writing my review, and I'd probably bump my assessment up to an A- now: the proceedings have been leavened with a healthy shot of drama and character development, while maintaining a suitably high level of crazy. The Op is catchy, too.

Spring 2008 Anime Rundown, Part I

It's kind of a slow spring, anime wise. There are 46 new shows premiering, which is, admittedly, too many for any normal human to follow. But, that's down by a third from spring seasons a few years ago. There are a couple of big deal, big budget projects, such as Macross Frontier and Code Geass R2, but as spinoffs from popular franchises, these smell like safe choices for production companies shell shocked by broad economic woes as well as the corrosive effects of illegal downloading. While I'd say there are no truly outstanding new anime this season, a fair number of solid shows are coming out, and most viewers should be able to find at least a few items of interest.

Rankings are based on the first episode or two and range from S down to F (with B- or C+ being about average). I give an attempt at an objective rating, then provide a wildly subjective Moetic Justice rank.

Bus Gamer
Genre: Action, Fighting, Shoujo
Overall Rank: B-
MJ Rank: C

Three mismatched hip urban pretty boys respond to a seriously suspicious piece of junk mail, and wind up entering an underground tournament called Biz Game, where teams representing corporations fight it out for trade secrets, using whatever means they think are necessary. Once you get past the improbable premise, Bus Gamer doesn't look half bad, and promises some interesting tactical machinations, as well as the possibility of good red-in-tooth-and-claw fight sequences.

Druaga no To - The Aegis of Uruk (The Tower of Druaga)
Genre: Sword and Sorcery
Overall Rank: B+
MJ Rank: B+

Tower of Druaga is based on an RPG, and follows newbie adventurer Jil, whose seemingly impossible quest is to reach the top of the eponymous tower, and defeat the eponymous evil god. Normally, a description like that is my cue to find something else to watch, but Druaga has a couple of factors working in its favor: studio Gonzo has apparently decided that this is a show where they are going to spend the money needed to make it look good, for one thing. Druaga also has a much needed sense of humor about itself. The opening sequence alone, which features the cast of characters mysteriously transposed to Tokyo, is worth the price of admission, and handily wins the Op of the season award. Druaga is notable for being available for legitimate download, subtitled, at Crunchyroll.

Itazura na Kiss (Mischievous Kiss)
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Shoujo
Overall Rank: C
MJ Rank: C-

Kotoko Aihara is a plain girl who has a crush on the cool, wealthy and smart Naoki Irie. Kotoko asks Naoki out, and is shot down. To add insult to injury, her family's new home collapses in a minor earthquake, and the Aiharas are forced to impose on an old friend, who turns out to be--you guessed it--Naoki's father. There's nothing new here, if you've seen the superior Marmalade Boy, or any of a dozen similar shoujo romps, and the Itazura na Kiss take on the genre looks to be thoroughly mediocre.

Kamen no Maid Guy (Masked Maid Guy)
Genre: Comedy, Fanservice
Overall Rank: C+
MJ Rank: A-

Naeka Fujiwara and her brother, whose parents are missing, are doing their best to survive on their own, but wind up living in squalor. Their grandfather, worried about the family reputation and the fact that someone seems to be killing off his heirs, decides to provide a pair of maids to clean up Naeka's act and protect her. One of the new hires, Fubuki, is pretty much what you'd expect from a maid show heroine, though handier with a nail-studded baseball bat than most. The other is the Maid Guy of the title, Kogarashi, who closely resembles a Hokuto no Ken villain in drag. Senseless violence and abundant fanservice (surprisingly explicit for a modern TV anime) ensue. Kamen no Maid Guy is morally reprehensible, but immensely entertaining.

Kanokon
Genre: bishoujo, kitsune
Overall Rank: B
MJ Rank: B+

It isn't clear yet if it's a trend or random chance, but fox maidens and cat girls seem to be all over the place this season. In Kanokon, the kitsune (fox spirit) turned busty human is Chizuru Minamoto. For reasons that are unclear as of this writing, Chizuru is constantly draping herself over inadequate-looking high school freshman Kouta Oyamada. Well, Kouta may be a late bloomer, but as the screencap demonstrates, he does have a nigh heroic capacity for maintaining eye contact. The character designs in Kanokon, based on illustrations by Koin for the original light novel, are clearly the main draw. The visuals in the anime are on the simple side, but consistent and relatively fluid.

Kyouran Kazoku Nikki (Diary of the Frenzied Family)
Genre: temporal lobe epilepsy simulation
Overall Rank: ??
MJ Rank: B+

Within five minutes of the Op sequence in Kyouran Kazoku Nikki, we meet the perpetually smirking Kyouka, who claims to be age 20, and is apparently the daughter of the legendary monster Enka. Befuddled government paranormal investigator Ouka Midarezaki brings Kyouka to his HQ, where the two are summarily married, and instructed to adopt the remaining children of Enka, with the hope that family life will mellow them. Or at least give Midarezaki the opportunity to keep an eye on the Hell spawn, and kill any that show inclinations towards destroying the world. For the remainder of the episode, the newlyweds track down the other children, who turn out to be a little girl, a jellyfish, a lion, an armored biological weapon, and a metrosexual guy who may have the hots for Midarezaki. This could easily degenerate into tedious weirdness for the sake of weirdness, but I'm watching closely for now.

Macross Frontier
Genre: robots, idol music
Overall Rank: A-
MJ Rank: B

Back in the day, the rule of thumb was that every other Macross sequel was worth watching, starting with Macross: Ai Oboeteimasu ka?, which is the most perfect possible earthly expression of the Platonic ideal of the franchise. By my reckoning, we're due for something good this time around, though it depends on how you count all the fiddly little Macross 7 offshoots.

Alto Saotome is an impetuous rebel without a cause who dreams of being a military pilot. In the chaos of an alien attack on the Macross Frontier space colony fleet, he crosses paths with galactic idol Sheryl Nome, and stumbles onto a Valkyrie transforming robot whose pilot has been killed. Parts of this may sound familiar: Macross F incorporates bits and pieces of characters, visuals, and plots from previous Macross series, with an emphasis on Macross 7 and Macross Plus. It's looking really solid so far, though, with my only technical complaint being the detailed but rather poorly integrated 3D CG sequences.

Mnemosyne no Musume-tachi (Daughters of Mnemosyne)
Genre: science fiction, action
Overall Rank: B
MJ Rank: D

Rin Asougi and her assistant Mimi are freelance troubleshooters--a la Gunsmith Cats--in an alternate 1990's world. Rin seems to be immortal, which comes in handy, because she's always running afoul of people who want to do terrible, terrible things to her. Mnemosyne is a not exactly congenial mix of female buddy anime and survival horror elements, but what really drags it down into the "actively avoiding" category is the show's pervasive recreational sadism. It's disconcerting to see fairly mainstream anime creators sipping the same torture porn Kool Aid that's all the rage in Hollywood lately, and I hope it's not a sign of things to come.

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That's all for now; reviews for Nabari no Ou through Wagaya no Oinari-sama will be coming shortly!