Gunslinger Girl & Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino: Review

I stumbled randomly across Gunslinger Girl in my post Shigurui frustration with samurai/sword-slashing anime and ended up really enjoying this creepy and yet strangely fascinating anime about brainwashed little girls turned into cyborg assassins.

Plot

The two 13-episode seasons of this anime series are set in Italy, where the government-run Social Welfare Agency, under the guise of caring for young children, takes the hopeless cases, gives them cybernetic implants, and then brainwashes ("conditions") and trains them into killers to do the government's dirty work. Throughout the two seasons, the gov't fights and kills a whole bunch of terrorists and their various factions. The girls go on a bunch of missions and shoot up bad guys with different types of guns. But that part of the show was always the least interesting to me. The most interesting things in the show are character-driven.

Characters

The best part of the show for me was its characters and their relationships with each other. Each girl is paired with a male handler, and the pair form a fratelo, Italian for siblings. The girls are brainwashed to look up to and obey their handler and to protect their handler at all costs. It's a little creepy, but it's enormously interesting to watch. The first series focuses on 6 different girls and their handlers, and very different they are. Each pair's relationship has a completely different dynamic, and it is fascinating to watch all the characters interact while they are committing heinous acts of violence against terrorists.

The second series, Il Teatrino, also fleshes out some "bad guy" characters, including a pair of explosives experts and a boy assassin named Pinocchio. I love it when shows humanize the "bad guys" and feel that Il Teatrino does it extremely well. All that character work made the climactic fight at the end of series two all the more gripping, because I at least wasn't quite sure who I was cheering for...

Animation

I really enjoyed the coloring and animation of this show in its first season, which featured dark, subdued colors. In the second series, Il Teatrino, the show gets uncomfortably brighter and much more colorful, and the character designs get changed for the worse, which I'll discuss below. The action sequences were ... fine. I don't really have much of an opinion about that: for me, guns are a lot less interesting to watch than swords. Then again, the action scenes aren't what make this anime worth watching, so I didn't really care.

Series 1 v. Series 2 (Il Teatrino)

This review points out that some of my gripes with the second series of Gunslinger Girl. The brightened colors and redesigned characters really bothered me. For example, the redesigned Jose looked... just like the redesigned Hiltshire. (Why do all the male characters look and sound alike?) I also largely agree with that reviewer's complaint that the second series lost the beautiful nuance and subtlety of the first series. The viewer definitely got beaten over the head with the girls' affection for their handlers, and the affection definitely got creepier.

Another thing that bothered me was the return of Angelica, one of the cyborgs, in series two. I thought she had died at the end of series one (in a great and poignant final episode), though to be fair I guess the show left it ambiguous. Even if they didn't have to have her die, though, I thought they should have. The Angelica of series two was annoying and uninteresting, and I thought it would have been much more interesting if she had died. Apparently she does die in the manga; I'm very curious about the effect her death will have on both her handler and the other girls (and their handlers). Since the anime wasn't gutsy enough to explore this, though, I guess I'll have to actually read manga to find out...

Still, gripes aside, I thought the character work on Franco, Flanca, and Pinocchio (some of the so-called bad guys) in Il Teatrino was really excellent, so on the whole I still really enjoyed the season.

Overall

I was pleasantly surprised by this anime. The premise sounded uninteresting, not to mention kind of gross and amoral, and it seemed like it was just going to be a bang-bang shoot 'em up anime that exploited the little-girls-as-killers motif. But despite the random and not-that-compelling plot and political backdrop, the heavy emphasis on characterization and relationships really made this anime enjoyable.

There is still an OAV out there that is a follow-up to Il Teatrino that I have yet to watch, but I have it on my Netflix queue. This review is To Be Continued, I suppose!

Shigurui: Death Frenzy: Series Review

With a name like "Shigurui: Death Frenzy" and a cover image like the blood-spattered one to the right, I knew this was going to be a bloody one. As it turned out, this 12-episode series was . . . surprisingly boring and hard to finish. As in, I couldn't finish it. It was just too boring.

Storyline & Characters

The story is intriguing. Two master swordsmen are dueling at Sunpu Castle. One is a blind cripple; the other is a one-armed man. Theirs is a long, twisted, and violent history going back to their battle to become the successor of the Kogan sword style. It was an interesting premise, which was what drew me to the anime in the first place. Unfortunately, the storytelling style was impenetrably minimalistic. (See below...)

The characters were all abominable and disgusting human beings. There was nothing to like about any of them, really. Flawed characters can be fun to watch, but these characters were a little too flawed. For example, the Kogan sensei? Drooly, senile misogynist rapist who slices off nipples and wants his daughter to conceive a successor in front of him and his men? Really? You couldn't have any more nuance than that? The anime had little to offer in the way of human characters, which meant I found myself not caring enough to want to know what happens next.

Animation

The animation in this anime was . . . minimalistic to say the least. A lot of still scenes, low frame rate, surprisingly little movement, extraordinarily slow pacing -- even in the action scenes. The anime was done in a certain style, trying to evoke beauty of some kind, but it really didn't work for me. I know what the director was trying to do, but he made it extraordinarily difficult to know what the hell was going on, and eventually I just lost patience. I like dark colors as much as any other gal, but this anime took dark and completely stripped it of color, which made everything extremely confusing.

First off, all the characters look very similar. Because of the lack of color, everything was gray, so it was hard to tell who was who. To make matters worse, the anime interlaces past scenes with distant past scenes. And everyone still looks the same. And the narrator, who at times is The Omniscient Narrator and at other times is one of the characters, sounds the same. So the viewer has pretty much no idea what is going on, who just chopped off whose head, etc.

I also did not care much for the fight scenes. There was no fluidity to them. I understood that, again, the scenes went with the atmosphere of the whole series. The action often ended after one or two moves. That's fine with me and is probably more realistic. But . . . at least show what happens. The over-art-ing of the action scenes was just . . . annoying after a while. Yeah, yeah, he draws his sword so fast that the top half of the woman's head falls off. Okay, yawn, whatever. Nothing to see here. Yawn.

Sound

There was no music in this anime, which is all well and good and goes with the minimalistic art style generally. But good golly, the lone drums, the cicada calls, and the random plucking of strings got extremely annoying after a while. With the extraordinarily slow pacing of the series, the anime could really have used some movement on the music end. Instead, we got slow minimalism all around, which really put me to sleep.

Gore & Nudity

Many reviews of this anime commented on the unnecessary gore. I like my samurai action flicks nice and bloody, and I don't mind gore, and yet I still tend to agree with others who have said the gore was unnecessary. Did we really need to see a retainer tear out his intestines in the 1st episode? Did we really need to see the assistant master eat a woman's sliced off nipple? How did that contribute at all to the story? The answer is "it didn't," which means it was pointless gore for the sake of being gory.

There were also a lot of pointless sex scenes, or implied sex scenes. Did we really have to see a random rape scene in the mill with the not-so-subtle mill-grinder-as-male-organ imagery? Did we really have to see the twin brothers butt-rape some random servant boys? Did we really have to see the Kogan sensei grope his own daughter's breasts? Again, what does it add? Everyone is already a deplorable human being. How much more deplorability actually adds to a character's characterization? While I appreciate that the women in this anime were not high-pitched annoying brats for once, the anime was showing breasts for the sake of showing breasts, and I just got fed up.

Overall

I was disappointed in this anime, which was recommended by several anime blogs I frequent for those who liked Ninja Scroll or Basilisk or samurai anime generally. Some reviews said it starts off slow, so give it a chance. Well, I forced myself to watch 6 of 12 episodes. I really did give it a chance, but I really can't see myself wasting another 120 minutes on the rest of this series. I just don't care enough.

And that's saying something. I hate leaving things unfinished. Even with Afro Samurai, I made myself finish before reviewing it and tearing it to shreds. But Shigurui and I really just did not mesh.

XY's Book Corner: The Windup Girl

Grade: B+/A-

I received The Windup Girl as an early Christmas Gift and breezed through it. I enjoyed both the pacing and the plot of the book. The setting is dark: industrial corporations have unleashed man-made plagues to attack food sources and to create demand for their plague resistant food supplies. The story follows an agent of one of these corporations looking for new genes from old/lost foods for the company to manipulate. His life intersects a number of other characters with different motives and purposes, including a "windup" genetically modified person. The book reminded me of Altered Carbon, which I thoroughly enjoyed. While the writing is immersive, I felt I could have used more background into the story world - Bacigalupi has written a number of short stories and in retrospect, I would have read those before reading The Windup Girl.

Basilisk: Series Review

Romeo & Juliet and dueling ninja clans--that's the 5 second description of Basilisk, my most recent animated series conquest. It took me a little while to get convinced, but overall I enjoyed the series.

The basic plot of Basilisk is that there are 2 great ninja clans, Kouga and Iga. They hate each other and would kill each other but for this non-hostilities pact, which promptly gets dissolved at the beginning of the series when the shogun decides he will pit the clans against each other to determine who will become the next shogun. Ten warriors from each clan will fight to the death, and whichever side the surviving clan represents will claim the shogun-ship. Sound stupid? Yeah, to me too, which is why it took me so long to get into this show and made me reluctant to start in the first place.

But once you get into it, the show is actually quite interesting, partly for the spectacularly fantastical and bloody fight scenes, but also for the character development and intrigue. What is this ninja's secret power? What is his/her back story? What motivates this ninja? Who is going to kill this ninja? How is he going to die?

And die he/she shall, because with 10 ninjas from each clan dueling it to the death, the body count is deliciously high. Some characters die off quicker than the rest, and with less development, but some characters get a lot of development, and it's great. I enjoyed that sometimes the show would go back and develop characters that had already been killed via flashbacks, etc. Very well done.

Strengths: I would say the show's greatest strengths were its storytelling and attempts at character work. The series kept you wanting to know more about these ninja, their abilities, histories, and their eventual demise. The character designs were great and, I thought, very creative. Each character had a unique personality, skill, etc. The animation and fight scenes were pretty good, but I did not find those to be the main draw of this anime. For fluid animation and fight scenes, I would go to Sword of the Stranger (though that's a movie) or Samurai Champloo.

Weaknesses: Weak female characters. This annoys me about anime generally, but ... the female characters in this series were really disappointing. In a flick about awesome kick-ass ninjas slaughtering each other, could you really not have more compelling female characters than these?

On the Kouga side, we had Kagouro, whose special power was related to her sexuality. Plus she was stupidly in love with Gennosuke. We also had Okoi, whose character design was very tomboy-ish, and yet HER special power was ALSO related to her sexuality.

On the Iga side, we had Grandma Ogen, who I suppose was a pretty good character. And Hotoburi or whatever her name was -- the girl with the snake and butterflies. She was pretty cool, except that she was a simpering lovergirl too. Then we had Akeginu, who was not bad, I suppose. But she was ALSO a lovergirl--just unrequited. And then we had the enormously annoying Oboro.

If the women on this show weren't showing their breasts, getting raped, or crying, it was a relief. Sure, they had scenes where the girls kicked some ass and killed people, whether using their special powers or just using their knife skills, etc. But while the girls are off whimpering about how they love so-and-so or whatever, the men are using their eyes to make people kill themselves, or shape-shifting, or just being all-around more awesome. Oboro's "superpower" was to neutralize other ninja special powers, for example. All right, I understood the narrative significance of that, but couldn't any of the women have a superpower that was OFFENSIVE and AWESOME and that didn't require men to fall for her sexuality? Geez.

So I did have beef with the depiction of women in this series, but that is by no means unique to this series. Japanese anime in general tends to have really annoying, simpering women. Weak, annoying female characters that have giant eyes, pretty hair, and high-pitched, soft voices. Ick. This is one of the reasons I love Avatar: The Last Airbender so much.

Anyway, I digress. Overall, the story was a strong one, if not all together very exciting. Again, I kept watching because I wanted to find out what everybody's powers were and how they would be killed (and by whom). Ultimately, the show satisfied on that front, so I enjoyed it. Definitely not the best or the worst series I've seen. Fairly short time commitment, so ... pretty worth the entertainment value.

Sword of the Stranger: Review

Sword of the Stranger is a samurai action movie, just as I like it: bloody, dark, and well-animated. I am definitely considering adding it to my DVD collection, although given my current financial state of affairs (and that I don't own Samurai Champloo yet either), I should probably hold off on the frivolous purchase.

Anyway, so, the movie.

Other reviews on the 'net have pointed out that there is nothing much original to this movie, and I would probably agree with that assessment. Nanashi seems to be a colder, bloodier version of Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin--i.e., he has a bloody past, killed one too many people, and refuses to kill now on principle. Except Nanashi is cooler because he isn't annoyingly cheery and actually unleashes the beast at the end, rewarding the audience with an incredibly awesome action sequence. So I guess Nanashi is a blend of Kenshin from the Samurai X OVAs and Kenshin from Ruruoni Kenshin. He combines the best parts, really. I would have liked to have seen more of the character's back story, but... oh well.

The other series that this movie reminds me of is Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit. Namely: Young child needs protection from an awful fate, and fate steps in by pairing the child up with an amazingly talented warrior. The two become close as they journey together. Talented warrior protects child with everything s/he's got. The end.

So in a way, I've seen it all before.

But I don't mind at all. The movie is still wildly entertaining, with some of the finest action sequences I have seen in anime--better than Samurai Champloo, I would say. That last fight sequence was simply breathtaking. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Bloody, well-animated, and awesome.

Plus, the movie did add a twist of its own. The bad guys were Chinese Ming as well as traitorous Japanese retainers. That was pretty cool.

Overall, an entertaining samurai flick. Even though it borrows heavily from other fare, it is worth watching just for the great action scenes.

ATLA Rant

I would just like to say... I resent that M. Night what's-his-face, his awful script, and the wooden kid cast (sorry, kids) ruined Avatar: The Last Airbender.

I rewatched a few choice episodes last night ("The Blind Bandit" and "The Beach," of course). And once again I marveled at how much I loved this show, even after watching these episodes for the umpteenth time. There is such good material here for a movie, but... it fell into incompetent hands, I guess. Sigh. Damn you, M. Night.

The New Elite

Great WaPo article about the new elite being out of touch with America.

... I largely agree with him. Guilty as accused, I suppose.

Building Walls

I really like this quote from Hiroshi Motomura's recent contribution to the NY Times:

Redlining citizenship to exclude millions of children who will grow up in America reflects a vanity that we can solve society’s complex problems if we only pass tougher laws or enforce them more harshly. A wall around citizenship reflects the same sort of false hope that responds to economic crisis in Mexico with higher border fences, or to drugs with more prisons, or to conflict with more troops.

I must admit that the whole birthright citizenship debate -- and the accompanying vitriol -- disgusts me. I actually feel physical revulsion, even hatred. Have I fallen so far off the deep end that I can no longer even engage in a discussion about the merits of an argument? Has the debate become so polarized?

Motomura's theme of building walls ties into something else I've been thinking about lately. I recently read the book, Forever War's projection of what future society could look like (homosex as the norm! human cloning!). That, and the divisive issues of the day have gotten me thinking about norms and definitions. What IS citizenship? What IS marriage? ... What does it mean to be human?

Academic Scholarship

... is intolerable.

Just reading it makes me want to vomit.

Attempting to write it makes me want to die. Key word: attempting.

Ground Zero Mosque

I have no position on the Ground Zero mosque. I can see why the opponents oppose it, and I recognize that the builders have a legal right to build it, but I do not really see a good reason for or against building it.

But I just took a poll on FoxNews asking the following question:

Would you be all right with the construction of a large religious center in your town?

Yes -- Everyone has a right to practice their religion.
No -- Some of these places go way beyond religion
I'm not sure.
I don't care.
Other (post a comment)

(Note that the poll neither specifies a religion nor limits the location to Ground Zero.) And I was shocked that out of 27,573 votes, only 9.2% answered"Yes - everyone has a right to practice their religion" while 82.8% said "No - some of these places go way beyond religion." Even for FoxNews, that's ridiculously skewed. So much for the First Amendment. Freedom of religion for everyone ... except Muslims!

Granted, the poll results are no doubt framed by the debate over the placement of a mosque at Ground Zero. Perhaps folks are unable to divorce themselves from the passions of that controversy and answer in the hypothetical. Nevertheless, the poll suggests what should already be obvious: that the Ground Zero Mosque controversy is NOT just about a mosque being built at or near Ground Zero, about being sensitive to the victims' families. I won't even go into the kinds of things found in the COMMENTS to the poll (one example: 'the only place mosques belong is 10,000 feet underwater').

A Wall Street Journal op-ed a few weeks back had claimed that the debate wasn't about religious intolerance, but about common sense and sensitivity to victims, etc. etc. The writer took offense to being called a bigot. Granted there are no doubt some that oppose the mosque solely because it is near Ground Zero and wouldn't care if a mosque were built elsewhere.

But clearly the controversy is not completely innocent of religious intolerance either. News about opposition to mosques being built around the country only confirms this. It's not just about Ground Zero. It's about Americans fearing Islam.

There's a debate to be had about whether Islam and the Koran tend to encourage violence more than other religions and religious texts. (Though there's no debate to be had that not all Muslims are violent or subscribe to that interpretation of Islam or its holy text.) But so far that debate has not been had out in the open because the controversy has been falsely framed as one about Ground Zero and some people are being afraid of being labeled "intolerant" or "bigoted."

Well, if you truly believe Islam is more apt to breed terrorists and murderers, then you should be proud to be labeled "intolerant" and argue for what you believe in. With real facts and arguments, not just baseless accusations in the Fox forum.

Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit: Series Review

I enjoyed this 26 episode series quite a lot. Although many who have reviewed it have complained that its pacing is slow and that the middle episodes are boring, I quite enjoyed the slow pacing--it gave me plenty to time to take in the beautifully rendered landscapes.

Story and Characters

The story is a very simple one, and the series is definitely not a plot-driven series where you are dying to know what happens next. In fact, you pretty much know what will happen. What was interesting to me was the relationship between Prince Chagum and Balsa the Spear-Wielder, the main characters. I felt that the series was done so that you could barely notice the changes in Chagum from beginning to end--as if you were watching a child grow. And yet, if you took a step back, you could see immediately how much Chagum developed over the course of 26 episodes. The Jiguro/Balsa/Chagum relationship was just endearing to watch unfold, no matter how slow the pacing and how "nonexistent" the story. Balsa's English voice actress was phenomenal. Finally, a woman in an anime who doesn't shriek or speak in high-pitched tones! Hers was a fierce, strong, and yet warm voice--an ALTO! YES!

Animation

The animation in this show was stunning. The backgrounds and backdrops were done beautifully and with painstaking care. Everywhere our heroes traveled, the trees, the grass, the sky, the water--everything was just beautifully drawn and beautifully colored. The colors are brighter than I tend to like, but they were so crisp and perfect that I didn't mind at all. There weren't many action scenes for much of the middle chunk of the series, but the action scenes that did happen were very well done. Spear-fighting scenes are very different from sword-fighting ones.

Music

The music was very fitting--contemplative, I thought, just like the series. I liked the Mikado's themes and the composer's use of gongs and airy flutes. I didn't care much for the opening theme, though it was quite catchy, but the ending theme was pretty good.

Overall

Overall, as I said, I enjoyed Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit. It's hard to compare it to shows like Samurai Champloo or Rurouni Kenshin because it is so different. My favorite thing about the show, of course, was Balsa. Finally, a strong woman in anime that kicks ass with her spear, isn't a clumsy klutz, and doesn't speak with a high-pitched squeal! Balsa is the best female character I have seen in an anime. I suppose I will leave it at that.

Get Ready... Society's Going to Fall Apart... Oh Wait, No It Ain't

A federal judge in CA struck down the prop 8 ban on gay marriage yesterday. If it goes up to SCOTUS, I doubt the Court will uphold the decision.

But in the meantime, if the judge doesn't grant the requested stay...

SOCIETY IS GOING TO FALL APART AT THE SEAMS. Heterosexual marriages will start to collapse. Children will fall into moral disrepair. Oh-em-gee, the world will END! Just like it did in Massachusetts when these abominable marriages were allowed to occur!....

Oh wait, Massachusetts is still here. Oh wait, so is society.

Putting all the legal arguments aside, I find the whole policy argument opposing gay marriage so . . . unconvincing. To say the least.

Avatar: Deux!!

This fangirl is both excited and worried that there will be a new Avatar series: this time titled "Legend of Korra." At the helm of the show are the same fellows that spearheaded Avatar: The Last Airbender. I hope the spinoff lives up to fan expectations...

OMG A NEW AVATAR SERIES!!!! I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!

Afro Samurai: Review

As much as I like (a) samurai; (b) swords; (c) bloody action scenes; (d) great animation sequences; and (e) Samuel L. Jackson, I must say that Afro Samurai was, well, absolute drivel. Nonsensical and near-retarded storyline. "Characters" who I would barely even call characters. Gratuitous gore and a random tasteless sex scene that might as well be anime porn. Lame-o boring "plot," if you can call it that.

I've already seen the whole anachronistic shtick. Cell phones and RPGs and guns and black people swinging Japanese swords to rap music. Yeah, yeah, yawn. Samurai Champloo did it, and did it MUCH BETTER.

Quite frankly, the action scenes got boring after a while. They were over stylized and overly unrealistic. It made me miss the Rurouni Kenshin OVAs, which had the most beautiful action scenes ever.

Well, I have nothing more to say about Afro Samurai other than . . . thank god it's over. I am stunned that this mini series actually got decent reviews when I scoured the great Internetz. C'mon, people, that was BAD. Really, really BAD! Netflix, send me the next volume of Moribito: Spirit of the Guardian!

Gankutsuou: Series Review

Gankutsuou gives Alexander Dumas's classic novel, The Count of Monte Cristo, the anime treatment. As the book is one of my favorites in all of literature, I was predisposed to liking the story. As it turned out, despite the very strange art style and the weird supernatural / sci-fi / fantasy elements thrown in, I ended up quite liking the anime as well.

ART

The art in this anime was really, really strange, and unlike anything I have ever seen before. Reviews I have read indicate that the disarming part is the static nature of the textiles--the clothes on the characters are superimposed effects, or something, so they do not move as the character moves. They also glitter in really strange ways.

Once I got used to it, though, I thought the show was actually very visually interesting. In addition to the strange static textiles, the show was set in the future--5000+ AD, with space travel and all, instead of 1800s France. I quite liked how the setting was done, though--it was futuristic, but with the 1800s France feel. Quite lovely.

PLOT

The plot varied a little bit from the book, but for the most part, it hewed closely to the storyline, although almost everything was told from Albert Morcerf's POV instead of the Count's. But still, The Count of Monte Cristo is one of the greatest revenge tales of all time, so naturally I loved the anime, which largely lifted that plot. There were changes, of course, but that will happen with any adaptation, and it was done well enough that I didn't need to take offense.

CHARACTERS

My favorite characters were the Count, Albert, Peppo, and Franz. Some of the female characters were rather uninteresting (e.g., Valentine, Eugenie). But I thought the character development was generally very solid. I wish the series had had more time to flesh out the side stories, like how Bertuccio came to be in the Count's service, but... I suppose 24 episodes is long enough.

OVERALL

I really liked this anime overall. I wished that Gankutsuou hadn't been ... some weird supernatural malevolent entity and that Edmond Dantes had been taught by Abbe Faria, as in the novel, and had at least remained human. But ultimately, the malevolent entity took the anime to a far darker place, and I sort of liked that. It meant the themes were kind of hammered over your head (revenge takes away your humanity! REVENGE TAKES AWAY YOUR HUMANITY!), but ... no complaints here, really. Overall, worth watching, even though I really shouldn't have wasted so much time...

As usual.

Collateral Murder

http://www.collateralmurder.com

The news break of the day is the video released by Wikileaks of U.S. army Apache helicopters gunning down what they believed to be insurgents in Iraq. (See link above.) Two Reuters reporters were killed in the incident, and 2 Iraqi civilian children were seriously wounded.

I've watched the video. I've also read some of the media reports of the video and the accompanying outraged comments. I think my reaction is somewhere in between the moral outrage of some and the cavalier "it's war; shit happens" attitude of others.

While I lament the loss of human life (particularly some that were clearly innocent civilians), I don't fault the army guys for firing on the group. It's clear from the video that although the individuals were not taking hostile positions, at least some were carrying weapons. And while the helicopter gunner mistakes the Reuters reporters' wide-angle camera for an RPG, it's easy to see why he did in the video. Taken in the context of the Iraq War in '07, I don't view this as a crime.

And I do hesitate to call the aftermath a cover-up. The military claimed that the helicopters had been actively engaged with hostile insurgents. That's not quite what the video shows. But it's not a complete lie either, given the context.

What I'm most disturbed by, I suppose, is the dialogue from the guys in the helicopter. They may not have violated the rules of engagement or the laws of war, but their attitude toward human life was ... disgusting. It's the kind of stuff people sometimes shout at the screen when shooting down aliens in a computer game.

When the helicopter gunners realized they had injured 2 children in the van, they said something along the lines of, well it's their fault for bringing their kids into a battle. When the tank that came to the scene afterwards rolled over something, one of the gunners said, haha, did they just roll over a dead body? Haha!

I suppose we need to demonize the enemy in order to kill them, in order to wage war. But... something about it is just very sad. And disturbing. A reminder of human nature, perhaps?

Afterword

I rewatched 2 episodes of Rurouni Kenshin (the series, not the OVA) after watching and reviewing Samurai Champloo. To be honest... the action sequences in Rurouni Kenshin are a little unsatisfying after watching some of the sword fights in Samurai Champloo. So many cutaway scenes! No fluidity!

Of course, Samurai Champloo doesn't have the epic storyline (I mean, you just don't get lines like "defeating Himura the Battousai is equal to conquering Japan itself!!!" in Samurai Champloo), but... I may like the visuals better! The Kenshin OVA is still my favorite, but in terms of the TV series, I think I may actually prefer Samurai Champloo!

Samurai Champloo: Series Review

I just finished the 26-episode series Samurai Champloo and, to my surprise, found it much to my liking. The series was directed by Shinichiro Watanabe of Cowboy Bebop fame (that anime is on my list but I have yet to watch it). The premise is a little bit of a screwy one: it is a "cross-genre" mix that employs a blend of Japan in the early Edo period (with a revisionist historical bent) with use of anachronistic elements of hip-hop, punk sub-culture, and modernism.

Sounds strange, I know. But the series was done with such style that I ended up quite liking it, despite the fact that the show was a bit uneven and, quite frankly, WEIRD at times.

ART, COLOR & DESIGN

I absolutely loved the action sequences in this anime -- superior to those of Rurouni Kenshin (the anime series, not the OVA) in the way the frames cleaved to the swordsplay without cutaway screens. The fights were deadly, fast, and bloody. Slash, slash, dead body + blood spraying. Instead of having people stand around talking about their special moves, these guys made quick work of their victims. Their motions were fluid and animated beautifully.

Colorwise, I was pleased. The colors in the show were not too bright, not too dull, and also quite varied. Impressive use of contrast. The episode featuring graffiti in particular employed color to good use.

As for character design, I have to admit at first I found it odd and jarring. The designs of Jin and Fuu adhere to traditional archetypes: cold, steely samurai and (yes, sigh) ditzy, cute anime girl (though Fuu was less annoying than most anime girls). But the design of the 3rd main character, Mugen, is clearly taken from street sub-culture, from the way he looks & talks to the way he fights. It was so weird. But the way the show unfolded, the design just seemed to FIT.

In short, the show had STYLE. Action sequences, character designs, animation... meshing with the irrelevant dialogue and hip-hop music. It all meshed together, and it was fun to watch!

PLOT & CHARACTERS

This anime was not a plot-driven one. In fact, its basic plot is, well, basic -- Fuu recruits Jin and Mugen to help her find the Samurai Who Smells of Sunflowers. That's it. Most of the episodes don't advance the plot at all. It's not one of those I-must-find-out-what-happens shows.

Which I appreciated. The episodes ended up being random, mostly unconnected, and, as such, had great range and variety. The show sampled a whole host of topics, with tidbits lifted from Japanese (and Western!) culture: beetle fights, ukiyo-e paintings, zombies!, baseball, graffiti, marijuana, the blind assassin, Musashi Miyamoto, Tale of the Genji... Sometimes the show got really weird (as in the zombies and baseball episodes), but ... I appreciated the breadth of things touched upon.

I guess I would call Samurai Champloo a character-driven show, although I wish the characters' backstories and pasts had been more fully fleshed out. The contrast between the wild, unruly Mugen and the aristocratic, traditional Jin was great, and unfolded in the way they dressed, talked, and fought. That was done really well, and really formed the heart of the show. But I wanted to know more about them. Fuu was boring, as most anime girls are, but I wanted to know more about her too. The director seemed more interested in developing the characters as a trio, in relation to one another.

OVERALL

Overall, I really liked the show. It was a novel and interesting concept that was executed well. There were some really fantastic episodes in there. Episodes of note: "Gamblers and Gallantry" (Ep. 11, where Jin falls in love with and rescues a whore-to-be), "Bogus Booty" (Ep. 15, where Jin and Mugen go to the counterfeiting brothel), "War of the Words" (Ep. 18 - the graffiti episode), "Elegy of Entrapment" (Eps. 20-21, with the kickass female blind assassin who kicks both Jin's and Mugen's asses), and of course the last 3 episodes ("Evanescent Encounter").

And again, as I said before, the show just had such kickass style that it made up for a simplistic plot and slightly underdeveloped characters. And, of course, the animation was really good. Samurai Champloo didn't have the epic, addictive quality of Rurouni Kenshin, but it was just ... really fun.

I can't really say which (Kenshin or Champloo) I like better, though. I think it would depend on my mood. :)

Passions, Movements, Choices

[repost from my other blog]

The halfway mark on my law school career has come and gone, and I am no closer to figuring out what to do with my life than I was at the beginning. As my more ambitious classmates prepare to kiss ass at their summer law firm cocktail receptions, to track down the professors for whom they are research assistants for clerkships recommendations, and to think about public interest fellowship applications, I am left wondering whether I ought to be bothering to do the same.
Of course, to do that would require knowing what, and why.

I came to law school, ostensibly, to find my passions. It's what I told myself, anyway, and that was what my personal essay claimed. I never really had much passion for anything academic or career-oriented before law school. In my personal essay, I wrote about performing the Debussy String Quartet by memory with Awesome in the Bedroom (Ariel, Anicia, and Jeremy) junior year. I wrote about laying out and winning the game-to-go to Regionals against BU senior year. I wrote about a spark of interest in the New Bedford immigration raids case that I had observed when I was a paralegal. I hoped to find passion in law school; it was a leap of faith.

Then I got here, and then-Dean Koh told us he hoped we'd come to find our moral compass, and I gulped, knowing I didn't have one. Next to some of my classmates, who'd spent college (and even high school) careers Involved in The Pursuit of Social Justice and Trying to Change the World, I was The Selfish Hedonist who had spent all my time playing music and frisbee and ignored the outside world. Had I really come to law school to find my passions? Or did I cave into my parents' bidding -- i.e., enter a financially stable profession that would pay the bills while I reproduced and popped out more selfish, hedonistic babies that cared only for their own well-being and the well-being of their progeny?

Spring of my first year, by gift of MW's draw, I found myself immersed in an immigrants' rights clinic. I continue to find the clinical experience the single best thing I have done in law school -- indeed, the only thing that I find enjoyable about law school. Clinic has been all-consuming, and yet when I'm not constantly consumed by it, I miss it and find my life worthless without it. In my end-of-clinic reflection, I wrote that it was my "lifeblood."

I've felt at once incredibly inspired by and alienated from my fellow clinic students and supervising professors. They seem to be part of a movement, a revolution, continuing what they have always seen themselves as doing: Involving Themselves in the Pursuit of Social Justice and Trying to Change the World. The rhetoric is everywhere: we are the clinic machine, working together to further the public interest. We eagerly employ the ever-appealing narrative of the hero. We, the underdogs, serve to protect and empower the weak and the marginalized against the crushing hand of the Antichrist and the Establishment, all the while forgoing the riches that our not-as-selfless classmates pursue! We are the unsung heroes.

It makes a great story. It makes us feel great pride. It makes all the blood and sweat feel worth it.

But for me, I am new to all of this. I am always conscious of how uncomfortable I feel trying to follow them. Partly because I am not yet convinced I am on board with where the "movement" is heading. Partly because I am not yet convinced that I like the self-aggrandizing smugness of the narrative of "movements" at all. Partly because I don't appreciate the implicit normative judgments upon others that underpin the whole "movement." I don't know that I share the vision.

Recently, following my clinic partner's and my appearance in federal court, the Nasty Internetz had the following to say about me: "These students will “do their time”, pad their resumes and move on to lucrative jobs with large law firms where they will represent major corporations screwing the American public. Great."

The commenter's criticism stings with the bite of reality.

I know my fellow WIRACers, who've always been revolutionaries, will continue as they always have: fighting what they see as the good fight, doing what they see as self-sacrificing, and winning incremental battles in what they see as their never-ending quest for social justice. And I applaud them. And I wish I were like them. I wish I had the courage of their convictions and their confidence in their correctness. I wish I could get swept up in that beautiful narrative.

But maybe the Nasty Internetz is right about me. As I am beginning to realize how behind I am in the elbows-out scramble for post-law school positions, I feel as if a crucial decision-point is approaching. What am I doing with this law degree, and why?

I have come to love my clinic, to love what I am doing, to love my fellow clinic students and my clinic professors. I have come to thrive on and to live for their respect and approval. I have been nearly completely swallowed up by the clinic culture and enchanted by the clinic narrative. I know I would feel deeply disappointed in myself if I did not continue along the path that clinic has set out before me. Worse yet, I would disappoint the professors and friends who have helped me find this lifeblood.

I feel I have found my passion in law school (but wonder whether it has been for the right reasons), and yet at the same time, I cannot shake my pragmatism. Passion doesn't pay the bills, after all, and houses don't buy themselves. I don't want to subscribe to the idea that the yearning to live a decent, comfortable, and ultimately uneventful life with a family that you love ought to be replaced by a hungry drive for revolution. I don't think the moral compass points in one direction or the other. It's a false dichotomy, and maybe the choice isn't so stark as it seems right now. Maybe, as MA likes to put it, it's just an issue of not being able to see around a bend.

Article on the Fat Cat bankers

Obama and the Fat Cat Bankers -- WSJ opinion from my bizorgs professor.

Book Review: Dreadnought

I've recently completed Robert K. Massie's Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War (1991).

This was a truly exceptional book covering the interesting naval buildup between Britain and Germany before World War 1. Massie covers the period with a series of character studies looking at key players in Britain and Germany. The result is a series of mini-biographies that reveal the interesting interplay of the various characters and provide a truly compelling story. The reader sees the events through the eyes of the various players and has a good sense of their motivation and intentions. This is one of the best books I've read and I'm looking forward to Castles of Steel (his follow-up book).

Intelligence Failure

I like this WSJ editorial regarding the mistake of applying 4th Am reasonable suspicion standards in intelligence gathering.

Peacemaker Kurogane: Series Review

I just finished watching all 24 episodes of Peacemaker Kurogane in a span of two days. What a strange, strange show. And not particularly good, either. Luckily, the anime is very short, so it wasn't TOO big of a time vortex. Once I'm done with this review, I can get back to studying...

There were a lot of things to dislike about the show:

First and foremost, its main character, Tetsu, was a short little red-haired brat that was really difficult to like. He's supposed to be a real historical figure, but in the show he was extremely annoying. So was the little personality-less mute girl that he had a crush on. (Yet another example of annoying anime females, sigh.)

Second, the plot was really weird and incomprehensible in the middle -- there was some weird stuff about esoteric encantations and this odd gay "Lord" Maro villain that just came out of nowhere. And actually, the overall the plot was not particularly interesting, since we all know what happens to the Choshu clan at Ikedaya Inn...

Third, there were no good evil characters. The main villain, Yoshida, ended up kind of being a disappointment. I suspect the manga takes Yoshida's page, Suzu, and makes HIM into a villain, but the anime ended before that happened, so I don't know if he turned out to be a good villain. But really, the show really lacked compelling evildoers.

But there were also some things to like:

I think I really enjoy anime set around the Bakumatsu and the Restoration. (Rurouni Kenshin, of course, is also set during this time, though that story is told from the POV of the Imperialists, whereas this one is told from the side of the Shinsengumi, who work for the shogunate.) I think the time period is fascinating, and I loved that the anime took time to explore the historical characters from the Shinsengumi. Maybe that's why I wasn't TOO bored when the show just spent episode after episode developing characters like Saitoh and Sano and Nagakura and Yamanami that really weren't important, plot-wise, but are all real historical figures. I just enjoyed "getting to know" one fictional version of the Shinsengumi.

The animation was all right. Not great, not terrible. I didn't like the design of a lot of the characters (e.g., Tetsu, Nagakura, Saya, Suzu), but others were interesting.

The ones I found most intriguing, actually, were the random gender-benders. Like Okita (pictured right)! He was such a fun character to watch. When he first appeared in the show, I thought he was a woman. That was on purpose, of course. Okita is one of several characters in the show that had effeminate features and displayed effeminate behaviors. (The cross-dressing spy, Susume, is another.)

What was also amusing was the gay subtext (or just text -- not so subtle, actually) all over the place, too. It made the show fun to watch. Will the demonic vice commander Hijikata admit his love for Okita before the latter dies of tuberculosis? Will Suzu ever stop carrying around the decapitated head of the master he's in love with?

In the end, this show lacked the narrative punch (and cool villains) that the Kyoto Arc of Rurouni Kenshin had. It also only had one or two cool sword fight scenes (though the ones it had were quite bloody, which I liked). And the characters weren't as compelling. But it was still fun to watch, if only because of the historical setting.

It's just funny to watch the show end after the Shinsengumi's big victory at Ikedaya Inn, because you know that eventually the shogunate loses. Haha.