anime

Yup, I'm making another post on the same subject. This is partially because my next entry may be late (as I've decided to make my posts on Saturday) because of JAFAX weekend and partially because I want to revisit my feelings on the Twelve Kingdoms.

There's all sorts of development in that series. Once you get to the second half and are introduced to Suzu and Shoukei you're introduced to two highly flawed female characters. You get to see what trials they've gone through to make them feel the way they do; to see why Suzu and Shoukei feel their lives are unfairly miserable, why Suzu has come to despair and see Yoko as her only hope and why Shoukei sees Yoko as someone to hate and envy. You get to sympathize with them even if at times their flaws glare at you and make you want to smack some sense into them because you know it's possible if you had went through hardships of the caliber they've gone through you may not have come out any better.

But what makes it memorable is you get to see them change in their travels, as they move beyond their personal hardships to see them face the world around them. You see them start to stop thinking only about what is unfair in their lives and look to what is unfair with the world. It's wonderful seeing them change for the better and reach out to make things around them better as well. It's something we who watch it can learn from, for how many of us actively seek to make things better in some way? Some make small donations to charity, but how much do they actually do? What good is it if we make paltry gestures if for the most part we don't do anything but go about our lives? We should at least seek out what we need to do to better ourselves and treat those about us fairly and kindly.

We may feel our lives are unfair and come to feel great pity for ourselves or hate those that seem more fortunate. We may be ignorant of the world around us and the trials faced by others and that ignorance may hobble us. We may decide in our heads that things are a certain way when they aren't and judge people by those false assumptions. But it's when we try to look beyond all that, when we grow as people who consciously or subconsciously seek to better ourselves and learn more about things we shine. When we reach out to understand how the world is, how we can better it, and how we can help those around us, even in only small ways, we polish ourselves. When we realize our actions can better ourselves and our world we have a chance to become something that helps our whole world shine.

Think about it. Reach out for whatever wisdom comes your way. The greatest gems lie not in the ground, but in our hearts if only we allow them to shine.

Y'know how sometimes even when there's something new to watch sometimes you really wanna go back and read an oldie but goody you've already seen, maybe even more than twice? Well, I've been slowly watching Twelve Kingdoms over the past several days AND reading the light novels that it was based on - or at least what has been translated so far by Tokyopop. I've also got the Slayers novels and anime in my upcoming lineup.

Now, I've seen some people criticize Twelve Kingdoms early on and give up on it because they felt Yoko was too weak, to pathetic. Personally, after seeing all of the series I have to say Yoko is one of the most likable, dynamic characters I've seen in anime. She starts off weak and pathetic but by the end of the series she's grown to a point you can't recognize her from the Yoko in the beginning of the series. Watching her grow and learning about the world of Twelve Kingdoms is a wonderful experience that when watching in the right frame of mind can actually help the watcher learn more about themself and how they can change for the better.

I'd highly encourage both the reading of the novels and the watching of the anime, especially to those who gave up on it early on. I feel one is really missing out if they're an anime fan or a fantasy novel fan and overlooks this series. It's a gem, even if it does have a few minor flaws, including the fact they never finished Taiki's story in the anime, it's a must watch and must read. If only the author of the novels hadn't put the series on hold, perhaps then they'd have finished Taiki's story. Hopefully sales of the novels will go well and Tokyopop will release all the novels, even the one finishing Taiki's story so fans can get some closure. It would also be nice if they picked up Massho no Ko (Demonic Child), a novel written before the Twelve Kingdoms series was started by the same author that became part of Taiki's backstory.

It's been a rough week since I set this up with not much new going on besides work and spending time with one of my nieces. Time online has been on short supply, as been time to check new stuff out. However, even if you don't intend to find something new sometimes it manages to find you.

 The first big thing is I managed to find fansubs of the first two OVAs for DOGS: Stray Dogs Howling in the Dark. I've been a fan of the manga since shortly after the manga was completely scanlated, before the continuation Bullets & Carnage was announced or even before the oneshot sidestory Hardcore Twins came out. I was quite spazzed about the news a while back that the original four storylines from SDHitD were getting animated, and finally finding them translated was even better.

What impressed me from the manga were the fight scenes, mostly utilizing gun battles with some bladework used as well. The action scenes really managed to portrey more action than many action manga pull off - they weren't just still images, they were dynamic action shots! The OVA managed to get some of that kickass action in as well, seeing Mihai and Ian put their differences aside in "Weepy Old Killer" to jointly pwn the assassin gunning for both of them kept most of its affect as did Badou snapping from nicotine withdrawl in "Gun Smoker" - the animation even added to that one a lot with him puffing his invisible cigarette before spouting out some Engrish and mowing the Mafia goons down at their shins with two automatics was wicked!

The plot isn't perfect, I won't pretend it is, it's got it's cliches but it manages to do what it sets out to do in a way that one can enjoy for what it is. More depth shows up in Bullets & Carnage flesh out the world and characters, but it's still primarily a fun action series. If you like that kind of stuff look out for the manga, which is being published by Viz in  North America, or keep an eye out for fansubs (and hopefully later an English language DVD release, or at least legal streams) of the anime.

On the opposite side of the spectrum I decided to look out for something fluffy and checked out the first volume of the shojo series Otomen. In case you don't know what an "otomen" is the word is a portmanteau of the Japanese word "otome" (maiden, young girl) and "men" - basically, guys with feminine interests like cooking, sewing, cute things, and sweets. They're not gay or trans or anything, they just tend towards a slightly more feminine bend than most guys. As someone with a little interest in the concept of how mental and emotional gender relates to one's physical gender and how they may not always sync up the concept of checking out a series focusing on one of these otomen sounded like it could be interesting.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was better than I had been expecting and rather than finding something simply novel it was something that had me at times laughing out loud and other times almost touched. Some of the "it's important to be yourself" thing was a bit overdone - or underdone - in parts, but where it shone was in the comedy of it. From Asuka, the closet otoman and protagonist of the series, Ryo, his romantic interest the not-so-girly girl who can't cook or sew but can kick butt and even save the day, and Juta, their friend, who is secretly a shojo mangaka who has based his female protagonist on our hero you have dynamics that manage to amuse you and even aww over.

The weak point so far seems to be the utter hard-headedness of Asuka and Ryo - Juta practically flings them together even when they seem focused on staying only friends. I'm not very romantically inclined and I'd have more sense than to turn a romantic Christmas Party For Two into a party for three whereas Ryo eagerly invited both Asuka and Juta. Granted it's her first real Christmas party and she wants to spend it with her two best friends, but Asuka didn't show as much dislike for a third wheel getting in on it as a guy seriously interested in a girl should. The end of the second volume ALMOST ended in a sour note with an overly done arranged fiancee story, but it managed to salvaged it with its own brand of humor and an amusing (if slightly predictable) end.

I'm eagerly awaiting getting my hands on more volumes of this series! While it could wind up in a rut in later volumes it could also wind up really shining.