BTW, were the actual ancient Romans who the characters are based off of really this witty? How many of the good lines are actually historical?
Rome (season 2, eps 6-10)
Giant Robo (rewatch)
I’m in the middle of rewatching Giant Robo (which I watched for the first time a LONG time ago… it’s a pretty old OVA series.) It does stand up well on the rewatch, even after I’ve watched a ton more anime after seeing it. In some ways, you could say it’s kind of a mash-up and kind of nonsensical, but in a totally over the top comic book superhero way? Yes, actually, that makes sense, because it’s kind of a mix of science-fiction technology (especially the titular, creatively-named Giant Robo), people with magical or psionic powers, organizations which openly state their goal as “taking over the world,” etc. There’s a ton of fighting robot action, superpowered battles, and unabashed drama: it’s pretty plot driven and filler-free, with all the battles moving the story forward. The wikipedia page is actually pretty good and doesn’t have too many spoilers (I advise you not to spoil yourself, BTW).
I have only read one of Yokoyama Mitsuteru’s manga in full (Xiang Yu and Liu Bang) but I definitely would like to get around to reading more sometime. I’d also like to try and read the original Giant Robo manga and the Giant Robo: the day the earth burned manga.
Onmyouji Vol 9
The volumes are getting increasingly thicker. This volume contains three stories.
In the first, “Uri Sennin,” Hiromasa tells Seimei about an odd experience he had: he was traveling when an old man asked some men transporting melons if he could have some. They refused, but the old man took the melon seeds, planted them, and turned them into melon plants, which everyone ate. But then the men figured out that those were the melons they were carrying.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency up to ep 26 (anime)
I went and marathoned the last eps, which was pretty satisfying. I think they added onto a lot of the later parts, especially with the backstory of Lisa Lisa and Cars? (Or is that just my perception because I forgot a lot?) Anyway if I am correct, it does enhance the story, though, which proceeds at a breakneck pace. This is especially true about the origin of the “Pillar Men.” Anyway yep, I plan to marathon part 3 when it’s done. (Part 2 ends with the very beginning of part 3).
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency up to ep 18 (anime)
I just finished watching up to ep 18 of the first season of Jojo, which brings me up to around halfway through Battle Tendency (part 2). TBH this entry is going to assume that you have already read the entirety of the Jojo manga series and so will hint at spoilers and is mostly just a bunch of asides and notes.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood (anime)
I just finished watching the Phantom Blood anime, which is nine episodes long, and man, I have forgotten a lot of what happened in the first part of Jojo. Maybe that’s to be expected, since like most people, I consider it to be the weakest part of the series (honestly, I feel that you should start there in the manga anyway, as it’s only 5 vols, but I think where I differ from most people is that I find it more easy to pound through something written/drawn than animated/filmed, but YMMV). In any case the anime is still good (I like the conciseness of Part 1, really, as well as the unconventional ending: it’s like a movie whereas a lot of shounen is more like a sitcom series, with punching instead of today’s misunderstanding), but do also really wish I could see parts 4-7 animated as well.
One of the things I enjoyed about the anime is that they go into more detail and flesh out some things that I recall weren’t covered in as much depth in the manga, especially for future reference, and a lot of the emotional scenes were lengthened (IIRC).
(more rambling follows)
Onmyouji vol 8 (2/2)
When I last saved my game, Seimei (magic user) and Hiromasa (bard) were on the “summon rain” quest, which involves successfully placing six gourds in the correct locations. Hiromasa temporarily has the status IMPERIAL MESSENGER, and Seimei has one of his summons in the party. If they successfully complete the quest they will receive rain.
Housekeeping notes
I’ve added Disqus, so that people can comment on entries if they want to.
It’s also possible to subscribe to this blog via an RSS reader like Feedly or whatever RSS reader you use: http://notesonleaves.tumblr.com/rss. That means you can have updates appear in your RSS reader. Something like this can probably also have new entries emailed to you, if you don’t use RSS. (Haven’t used the service myself, but google “RSS to email” to find more)
Karei Naru Ichizoku
This 2007 TV series was based on a novel written during the early seventies, and is set in the late sixties. There was previously another dramatization of this back in the 70s as well. (BTW, I would advise you not to google around too much for this if you’re interested in seeing it, because Wikipedia spoils the ending, among other things.) Here’s a review that doesn’t give away too much in the way of spoilers.
So, the story: the time is the late 1960s, and in the Kansai area, there’s a large conglomerage (keiretsu? Not sure of the specifics) run by the Manpyou family. The main character is the eldest son of the family, Manpyou Teppei (played by Kimura Takuya), although I hear in the novel (which I plan to read sometime) the father, Manpyou Daisuke, is the main character (in some ways having Daisuke the main character makes more sense). The story revolves around the tense relationship between father and son, but also involves the blighted lives of the other family members, the insufferable mistress, Aiko, who has usurped the role of wife in the household, and the various members of the political and banking world.
As the first line of the drama tells us, both Teppei and Daisuke have great ambitions. Teppei wants to develop Japanese steelworking using his technology (there are a lot of speeches about how Japan must develop its industry to advance… that are honestly kind of repetitive), while Daisuke wants to prevent his bank from being taken over in the government-imposed financial restructuring (this part is much more interesting because of the politicking involved in bank mergers, and the dirty tricks used by Daisuke).
In some ways, the drama is not predictable (and I don’t think it’s because they were trying to surprise people, as it’s based off of a famous novel), but I suspect that if you watch it without spoilers, it’s hard to tell what’s going on next, and I’m not sure what that says about it. I suspect some of it might be in the change in focus between the book and the series.
Anyway, if you want to watch it, I found streaming video here. What follows is spoilers.
Onmyouji vol 8 (1/2)
This entire volume is one story, and I feel I don’t understand it. I guess I should go and track down what people are saying about it in Japanese. In fact, maybe you should ignore all the text in this entry, because I am not sure whether I’m making it up. Well, who knows? Strap yourself in and come along for the ride as Seimei and Hiromasa traipse around the countryside leaving around melons/gourds(uri)! (I’m not kidding here) This is all so that it will rain. Personally, I am not that into melons and wouldn’t give you anything for them, but the gods are, it seems.
Uryuudou Yumebanashi (vols 1-2)
I have no idea whether I romanized the title correctly. Anyway, this series has thirteen volumes, but seems so far largely episodic. The premise is that during… either the Meiji or Taisho eras, there’s an antique shop, and the grandson of the owner has the supernatural ability (for some reason, this isn’t really explained) to communicate with the spirits of objects, and the various stories mostly focus on the lives of people involved with the objects. [BTW the premise is totally cliched, I know. I have lost track of the number of episodic series involving a supernatural shopkeeper etc that are out there.]
The art is quite nice, and I enjoy the historical atmosphere. At the beginning, the stories are kind of predictable, but become somewhat less so (they feel more like the sort of plots associated with ladies’ more than shoujo), and are pretty enjoyable. So I’d say, if you like tsukumogami (I don’t think they’re explicitly defined as such, but they seem to be so) and Japanese-style supernaturalism, read it. Yet… I think this series is kind of the on the edge of whether I’m going to bother to read more in Japanese.
Saint Young Men (again), up to volume 8
I decided to read the non-translated volumes of Saint Young Men (up to vol 8), since I had enjoyed the first three. The next volumes are more in the same vein, with the deity duo enjoying daily life in Japan, various holidays, and of course, getting themselves into trouble. There’s also the supporting cast of various saints, mythic figures, and demons, as well as the ordinary people who they know (such as the gangster who believes Jesus is a yakuza heir, and the landlady).
I promised myself I wouldn’t discuss the actual content, because it would ruin the jokes, but I was surprised at how inadvertently educational the manga was (or maybe it just reveals my ignorance? Admittedly I am unable to remember all of the 12 disciples off of the top of my head, but it seems that some of them weren’t that notable.) I knew that I didn’t know much about Buddhism, but I also found myself looking up things about Christianity (such as the Disciple whom Christ loved (as someone I was chatting to about this said, that makes it sound like he didn’t like the other ones), and whether various Johns in the Bible are the same John). Also there are many critters associated with Buddha, and he had a disciple who previously wore a garland of severed human fingers around his neck.
Saint Young Men
Or Saint Oniisan.
Ok, usually I avoid episodic slice of life manga, but this one is more of a comedy/gag manga, and it’s pretty funny, so I enjoyed it. (So you know this must be especially amusing! It also won some awards) The premise is that basically, Jesus and Buddha are BFF who are vacationing from heaven on earth incognito, in a cheap apartment in Japan. They spend their time doing… nothing much, but they somehow end up getting into trouble a lot, especially when being especially holy by accident. The humor is kind of like observational humor of daily life in Japan, so maybe it’s more funny if you’re familiar with the specifics of Japan, but even if you’re not, I think it’s still funny. You also don’t have to know that much about Christianity or Buddhism (I especially don’t know a lot about Buddhism. I wasn’t even aware that Buddha had a kid, for example). The art is also nicer than you’d expect it to be.
A New History of Shinto
The basic thesis of this book is that Shinto is a construct that came into being much later than we think it did, sort of in the Edo period, but really in Meiji. Of course, this is to some extent a question of definition and semantics, but the main point (well, as far as I see it) is that the authors (John Breen and Mark Teeuwen) believe that what is commonly believed to be “Shinto” is in fact so discontinuous as a tradition and that so much of what is commonly thought to be old is actually new and influenced by the needs of the recent past, so much so, that “ancient Shinto” is better thought of as “pre-Shinto.”
Onmyouji (vol 7) 2/2
Finishing this one up. The thing is that this story is kind of confusing because I am not sure what is going on with some of the magic. I don’t know if anyone besides one or two of you is reading these, but I assure you, it only becomes MORE confusing, and I don’t think entirely all of it is because of language issues.
