【Novel】精霊の守り人 (Seirei no Moribito) / Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit

Changed the layout around a bit since WordPress gave this layout more customization options. Sucks that the banner isn’t linked to the homepage, though.

Title: 精霊の守り人 (Seirei no Moribito) / Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit
Author: 上橋菜穂子 (UEHASHI Nahoko)
English Translator: Cathy Hirano
Illustrator: 二木真希子 (NIKI Mayuko;JPN ver), 清水裕子 (SHIMIZU Yuko;ENG ver)
Volumes: 10
Genre: Children (Fantasy, Adventure)
Status: Completed. Volumes 1 and 2 published in North America by Scholastic Inc.
My Rating: 8.8/10

Description: 精霊の守り人 (Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit) is the first book in the Moribito fantasy novel series written by UEHASHI Nahoko. There are ten volumes in all and the series is aimed at children, but there are also a lot of teenage and adult fans. Scholastic Inc. in North America has licensed the series and has published two volumes of Moribito books at the time of writing. The English versions are translated by Cathy Hirano, and features artwork by SHIMIZU Yuko. (Instead of NIKI Mayuko’s artwork, who was the illustrator for the original Japanese version) The novels have been adapted into an anime (Seirei no Moribito) and manga.

Summary: Balsa is an extremely skilled bodyguard who is a master of the spear, and is willing to risk her life to protect the people she was paid to protect. However, due to some interesting turn of events, her latest client is a queen who wants to protect her son Chagum, the Second Prince. Not only are the people pursuing Chagum powerful and deadly, an otherworldly monster is also chasing after something within Chagum…

No summary will ever do this book justice, so if it doesn’t seem like the summary I provided was intriguing, please read the book anyways for full details. It’s that good.

Review and pictures under the cut.

【Lyrics】ココロノコリと浮遊 (Regret and Float)

The only newish Vocaloid song I’ve been continually listening to this past month. Recommended by 古川P (FurukawaP).

This post consists of three parts:
1. Original lyrics
2. Transliteration
3. Translation

ココロノコリと浮遊 (KOKORONOKORI to Fuyuu / Regret and Float)

Lyrics: ぽわぽわＰ（仁王立ち） (PowapowaP aka Niou Tachi)
Compose: ぽわぽわＰ（仁王立ち）
Arrange: ぽわぽわＰ（仁王立ち）
Vocals: Hatsune Miku

Nico | Youtube
MP3 | MP3 (Luka ver.)

仁王立ちさんのコメント：
(ピアプロから）
死別曲です。いちどやってみたかった。
かつて恐れてた事が起きてしまったって感じの曲です。

Niou Tachi’s Comment:
(From Piapro)
This is a bereavement song. Trying it out just this one time.
It’s a song with a feeling of suddenly remembering something you used to be afraid of.

Artwork used in the video for the song. Click to enlarge. (Illust: つりざお@Piapro)

Descrption: A requiem with a peaceful electronic twist and simple atmosphere. Great song to loop while reading or doing homework. Vocal tuning is good, but the whole mood of the song is quite moving and is the most notable. I recommend the Luka version over the Miku version.

【Anime】CANAAN

Old news anime…

Click to enarlge. (Illust: 関口可奈味)

Title: CANAAN
Studio: P.A. Works
Original Scenario: 奈須きのこ (NASU Kinoko)
Character Designs: 武内崇（TAKEUCHI Takashi)
Episodes: 13
Genre: Seinen (Action)
Status: Completed, not licensed.
My Rating: 7.8/10

OOSAWA Maria is an aspiring camerawoman who travels to Shanghai with her co-worker, reporter MINORIKAWA Minoru, in hopes of getting a big scoop. While they’re on the job, they get caught up in terrorist-related activities which have to do with a lethal virus called the Ua virus and its victims. The anime is based on a bonus scenario written by NASU Kinoko for the game 428.

To be honest, I’ve never really read/seen any of Nasu’s works before (5 paragraphs of Tsukihime doesn’t count!), so I’m not sure if CANAAN is the regular, awesome Nasu affair, but CANAAN’s story was pretty great, in my opinion. I wanted to watch this for four reasons:

1. 428 got 40/40 from Famitsu.
2. Alphard reminded me of Revy from Black Lagoon, who is awesome, and is voiced by Sakamoto Maaya
3. The OP sequence’s ranking as interpreted by Baka-Raptor.
4. The ED theme was sung by Annabel, one of my favourite doujin artists.

There was a lot of progression each episode, and the sequence for how they revealed everything (from the initial individual encounters to the reasons behind the whole grand plan), was done really coherently, and the best thing was that after everything was revealed, they went back to the characters and developed them a little more so that at the end they didn’t seem shallow at all. There weren’t a lot of plotholes that I noticed either, and even the silly mascot helmets were explained. Unfortunately, I thought the actual concept itself was pretty over-the-top. A superstrong virus, world government leaders, fighter planes, synethesia to this extent…It’s good to try and incorporate some real world stuff into elaborate stories like these, but here it just seemed a little out of place, especially when the whole thing is centered around relatively unserious large-eyed characters.

I should also note that the animation was seriously impeccable. After seeing a certain slideshow anime, I forgot that anime was supposed to immerse the audience with animation, but CANAAN reminded me with every second I watched. GJ P.A. Works!

The characters were in general awesome, but with a large, important exception: Maria. Maria is absolutely useless. She cannot take pictures, she cannot fight, and her most outstanding skill seems to be getting kidnapped so people can get a certain character to fight with them. I really felt that she was just there to act as a plot device to develop other characters and trigger events, and other than that, she didn’t seem at all like a character. Her voice is also not sugoi. Other than Maria, though, the rest were almost more than awesome, and I could say that the entire main cast (except Maria) was above average in terms of likeability. Here’s my ranking:

1. Hakko - Mute, beautiful, slightly deadly woman who stole every scene she was in despite not talking. So awesome.
2. Alphard - More like 1.02, because she’s equivalent to Hakko in coolness, but she really didn’t have enough scenes in the series, and if she appeared more often, she’d be my absolute favourite. At first she reminded me of Revy from Black Lagoon (Tattoo, ponytail, shorts, nonexistent fashion sense), but she is more composed and slick. She’s also voiced by Sakamoto Maaya, whom we all love.
3. Canaan - So unemotional and strong she is awesome. Although it seems like she likes Maria in a really yuri way to most people, it seemed to me that she just loved Maria since Canaan doesn’t really have anybody else to love. Crazy fighting style and pretty eyes, too, but just how old is she anyways?
4. Liang Qi - Psycho, sadistic villian who would’ve been my top favourite if she fit in with the rest of the too-chill cast. She is very entertaining to watch, and her dialogue is so incredibly interesting, but is far too exaggerated and insane. I couldn’t believe she was voiced by Tanaka Rie. Must’ve been a mistake in the credits…or not.

Overall, CANAAN was a really satisfying series to watch, especially because the fights were so well choreographed and animated. Great characters and a coherent plot that doesn’t make you think TOO much makes this series above average, but the existence of Maria pulls it down a bit, and the themes are not life-changingly deep. (Actually, it is slightly shallow.) Recommended if you want a quick, beautiful action fix with an awesome cast.

【Artbook】Robot Super Color Comic Vol.2

Let’s try this again…The post about Vol.1 (which I suggest as a starting point) was done in a pretty terrible way, so I’m trying to improve on that. I’m sorry that I am an amateur. I’ll try to do improve on this next time. Hover over each image to see a caption, and click to enlarge.

This post consists of three (general) parts:
1. List of Works
2. Opinion
3. Packaging

Robot Vol.2 Cover. Click to enlarge. (Illust: Range Murata)

This is volume 2 of 10 volumes, 5 of which have been translated and distributed in North America. Vol.2 is published by Digital Manga Publishing.

List of Works + respective artists in Vol.2:
(by English translated titles and in order of appearance)

1. Dragon Fly Ch.2 – MAESHIMA Shigeki (22 page manga)
2. Ebony & Ivory Ch.2 – YASUDA Suzuhito (10 page manga)
3. There Goes Suzume Robo!! – Sabe (4 page manga)
4. Wasteland Ch.3 – YOSHITOSHI ABe (18 page manga)
5. Flowers – MAEDA Hirotaka (8 page manga)
6. Stars and Blue – Miggy (7 pages of themed illustrations)
7. Pez & Dekosuke – ASADA Hiroyuki (1 short comic and illustration fold-out)
8. “Velvet” Monochrome Version – TAJIMA Sho-U (1 spread illustration)
9. Sedouka Ch.2 – NAGASAWA Shin (10 page manga)
10. Delicious Adventures – YUG (4 page manga)
11. House of Fish – Teikoku Shounen (3 page manga, 1 spread illustration)
12. The Depths of November – MIURA Yasuto (8 page manga)
13. Eventyr -What The Diamond Discovered- – HACCAN (9 page story w/ inset illustrations)
14. The Oni Smiles When You Mention Next Year – NEKOI Mie (6 page manga)
15. Witch’s Stipulation – DOWMANSAYMAN (8 page manga)
16. Within The Mirror – SANBE Kei
17. [Untitled] – MURATA Range (2 illustrations; landing page and exit page)

Opinion: This volume is probably one of my favourites out of the 5 volumes I got, because of the substantial amounts of content from all the artists I like the most, those artists being Maeshima Shigeki, Yoshitoshi ABe, Teikoku Shounen, and HACCAN. However, I personally thought that much of the other ones were a little less than stellar, especially Tajima’s black and white illustration and Sanbe’s manga. I also also still unable to like Miura’s odd style and story.

【Artbook】Robot Super Color Comic Vol.1

First time doing an artbook(?) review(??), please go easy on me. Also this post is really long. 1276 words of terribility.

Robot Vol.1 Cover. Click to enlarge.(Illust: Range Murata)

Robot Super Color Comic is a colour manga anthology series with 10 volumes in total and consists of illustrators and manga artists selected by Range Murata, who illustrates all the covers for the series. The first 3 volumes have been translated and published in English by Digital Manga Publishing, and volumes 4 and 5 have been published by Udon Entertainment.

Although it’s billed as a colour comic book, it’s more accurate to describe it as an artbook due to the focus on art and also for how it’s “packaged”: it’s printed in an oversized book format with thick, heavy paper and a jacket around the actual book. Despite being printed in China (Not that I have anything against China), this localized release is high quality, especially in terms of printing and material, and most likely does justice to the original Japanese release. This first volume weighs in at more than 700 grams, with 164 pages in total.

A list of comics in the book by their corresponding artist is listed below, by their English translated titles and in order of appearance:

1. Groundpass Drive – MURATA Range (4 themed illustrations)
2. Picnic – NARUCO Hanaharu (8 page manga)
3. Pez & Hot Strawberry – ASADA Hiroyuki (11 page manga)
4. Angels at the Planetarium – TAJIMA Sho-U (12 page B&W manga + 1 illustration)
5. Carogna – ITOU Mami (4 page manga)
6. Wasteland – YOSHITOSHI ABe (8 page manga)
7. There Goes Suzume Robo!! – Sabe (4 page manga)
8. Hemohemo – Yug (6 page manga)
9. Oputon – OKAMA (4 page manga)
10. Dragon Fly – MAESHIMA Shigeki (12 page manga)
11. Dream of the Empty Cage – Miggy (4 themed illustartions)
12. Biting Summer Play – MIURA Yasuto (8 page manga)
13. Sedouka – NAGASAWA Shin (8 page manga)
14. Ebony & Ivory – YASUDA Suzuhito (8 page manga)
15. Primary Color Book – HAKUA Ugetsu (4 illustrations)
16. Eventyr – HACCAN (11 page story w/ inset illustrations)
17. Dragon’s Heaven – KOBAYASHI Makoto (4 page manga)
18. Angels – KINUTANI Yu (8 page manga)
19. Clash!-Revenge of Hunk Kung Fu vs Ugly Kung Fu-Find a Groom! – NEKOI Mie (8 page manga)
20. Moonlight – SANBE Kei (8 page manga)

Opinion: Awesome anthology. More than half of the stories in this are to my liking, and for the ones I really liked, I really, really liked. Since all the artists featured in the book were given free reign to do whatever they wanted, the result was that everything was creative and experimental, which is something I love.

My favourite story was definitely HACCAN’s “Eventyr”, though. Thank you to HACCAN for exceeding all of my expectations. Not only are the illustrations beautiful and colourful, the story is one of the most (truly!) innocent ones I’ve read in a long time. The gist is that in a fantasy world, the only two surviving witches left in the world decide to go out into the human world for the first time, and to their joy, they’re accepted and praised by the humans, who used to fear and hate witches. However, something happens and the humans hate them again. The witches are portrayed as a pair of bright-eyed, curious youths (a boy and a girl), and one could really feel the innocent and sincere tone of the whole story, further emphasized by the artwork because they’re smiling in 98% of them! Best thing ever!

【Manga】放浪息子 / Hourou Musuko

Found out about this slightly overlooked manga thanks to Enthousiaste on Twitter. Thank you!

NITORI Shuuichi (short-haired boy), who is the protagonist, and his elementary school friend CHIBA Saori (black-haired girl). (Illust: 志村貴子)

Title: 放浪息子 (Hourou Musuko/Transient Son)
Author: 志村貴子 (SHIMURA Takako)
Volumes: 9+ (78 chapters at the time of posting)
Genre: Seinen (Drama, Slice of Life, Gender Bender)
Status: Ongoing, scanlated by Kotonoha (Ch.1-34) and anonymous (35+)
My Rating: 7.7/10

Fifth-grader NITORI Shuuichi is a very girly boy, and his friend TAKATSUKI Yoshino happens to be a very boyish girl. Nitori wishes he was born a girl, and Takatsuki wishes she was born as a boy. They soon find out about each others’ odd wishes, and throughout the course of growing up together, they’re made to question their genuine wishes of becoming the opposite gender.

Despite being based on the theme of transgenderism, this manga felt more to me like a regular life drama/growing up story than anything else. We have a relatively large, memorable, and diverse cast, and the character interactions are usually developed through childhood classmates or crushes, which makes the manga pretty easy to relate to. There’s also a lot of internal agonizing about personal issues and friendship problems too. The instances of actually showing them doing something kind of controversial things (cross-dressing, befriending a transvestite) are pretty few and far between, and mostly come off as trivial or even not-as-ordinary child’s play. I do enjoy seeing the issue addressed, and to do it this subtly makes it seem more realistic and accessible, but on the other hand, it just seems so insignificant at times. I’ll admit that it made me very curious about non-fiction Japanese crossdressers, though.

As for the cast of characters, they are all unique and impressionable, but I wholly failed to develop any real attachment to any of them, even after reading 78 chapters. I also found myself hating about 80% of all the characters in the manga (especially the secondary classmate characters, who are almost all absolutely detestable.), and if I didn’t hate a character, I was indifferent to them, save for two or three. The only character who I can say I actually like seeing was the gorgeous CHIBA Saori, whom I despised at first, but after seeing some much-needed character development (and fashion), she became my favourite. Having a slightly despotic and weird personality helps as well. A close second is Yuki, who steals almost every scene she appears in, and a distant third is Takatsuki, who looks awesome, but lacks a definable personality for the most part.

The artwork looks exactly like it’s from a children’s storybook, with round faces and eyes on all the characters (even for the teenagers and adults!), lots of white space and clean lines, as well as a watercolour-like colouring style for the covers. (Those familiar with Shimura’s other work, like Aoi Hana/Sweet Blue Flowers, would not be surprised about this.) The art is incredibly fitting and impeccable, and Shimura’s lovely fashion sense along with the simple but recognizable character designs also makes (mostly) everyone look attractive and recognizable.

Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hōrō_Musuko
Scanlation at Onemanga: http://www.onemanga.com/Hourou_Musuko/

RE:Kimi ni Todoke 4

I swear I’m not obsessed with this series.

Does that look like the face of a terrible mastermind to you!!

Another superb episode titled “Rumours” that follows chapter 4 of the manga exactly, with select modified scenes from Chapter 5 and about two anime-original scenes. Unlike the last episode, episode 4’s tone was quite heavy, with only three or four humourous scenes, but being the high quality shoujo that Kimi ni Todoke is, it’s not overly dramatic or silly at all, and is pretty easy to relate to. The internal agonies of the four main characters here are slightly heartwrenching(?), and the episode might make one break out in a few tears if one is highly sensitive to the plights of our dear characters. If I remember correctly, the manga version of this arc drove me insane with grief or whatever it was for a few minutes.

Gist(?) of the episode: Continuing from Episode 3, the drama being brought up here is that Sawako is supposedly spreading rumours about Sano and Yoshida, and that she’s also a terrible mastermind who commands Kazehaya with Sano and Yoshida backing her up. Obviously that’s not the case, and Sano and Yoshida don’t believe the rumours, but the two start to have their doubts after seeing a few things that test their confidence in the matter. Sano and Yoshida ask Sawako what she thinks of them, she half-replies that she “doesn’t like them, but…”, and the two just cut her off and assume that Sawako really doesn’t like them. Sawako notices that her friends look down, and after hearing the rumours about how she herself is supposedly making Sano, Yoshida, and Kazehaya miserable, she decides that the best action to take is to avoid her three friends so she doesn’t hurt them anymore. This avoidance technique makes the three sad and worsens the situation.

Production I.G. is so Incredibly Great that it looks nice even in crapres.

The next episode is called 決意 (Ketsui/Decision), which has the same title as Chapter 6 in the manga. Ketsui also happens to be the title of a very good shmup by CAVE, but that has nothing to do with this series (Unfortunately!).

On another note, the Kimi ni Todoke DS game (育てる思い/Sodateru Omoi/Nurturing Feelings) came out last week! I haven’t played it, but it basically puts you in Sawako’s shoes as you go through all the manga scenarios, with a few original scenes written especially for the game. The limited first press edition version comes with a cellphone strap with a Sawako charm on the end that changes colour depending on how much light it gets. (Termed as a UV strap)

【Touhou PV】 Bad Apple!! 影絵 (Bad Apple!! Shadow Art PV)

I try my best to avoid posting insubstantial material, but this is far too incredible.

Posted on October 27th, 2009 by an anonymous uploader (with an account name of あにら/anira), this is an entirely black and white PV with the silhouettes of moving 3D models choreographed to Alstroemeria Records’ Bad Apple!! Touhou vocal arrange song, sung by nomico. The PV maker used the storyboard drawn on MS Paint by someone called MMM, who posted his story board video in June 2008, and fully fleshed out the whole video, making incredible sense of a mostly poorly-drawn, vague plan. The video is currently 1st on the hourly rankings at the time of posting.

The fluidity of this PV is nothing short of impeccable, and might as well have been a professional work, though I guess that’s what Touhou seems to elicit a lot from its super large fanbase. I’ve watched this about 3 times now, and I will probably keep watching it a few more times. I’ve embedded a Youtube video on the bottom of this post, but don’t forget to take a look at the comparison as well if you have a niconico account. (Links below)

【東方】Bad Apple!!　ＰＶ【影絵】
Nico | Youtube
Original Storyboard | Comparison (Both are niconico only)