[Anime] Mushishi Zoku Shou Review

Mushishi - 9.5/10
Mushishi Zoku Shou (sequel series) - 8.5/10

"Sitting quietly, doing nothing,
Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself." 

Mushishi holds a special place for me. It doesn't say what it's about, but is able to portray it beautifully. I went into the sequel series unsure if it would be able to maintain my high expectations, but I was gratified to see that it retained the unique quality that made the original so wondrous.

What makes Mushishi powerful is not an original premise, surprise twists, or a complex plot. In fact, it is startlingly simple in these regards. Instead Mushishi flourishes on its rendition of the world that exists. It does not says.

The most obvious aspect are the titular mushi. The thing about Mushishi is that unlike your usual monster-of-the-week series, the mushi don't have any special relationship to humans. They don't exist to help humans. They don't exist to hurt humans. They are not good. They are not evil. They came before humans. They will be here after human are gone. The world that Mushishi portrays is one not bounded by human experience; we occupy a small portion in time and space, but all around us the world moves to a rhythm we are scarcely aware of.

But this does not mean humans are insignificant. While they are small actors on a vast stage, they are still present. There is no grand narrative. Ginko's travels are a simple meandering, a series of coincidences and connections made with the people he meets. These people don't have to exist. They aren't necessary for some cosmic plan. However, they are not diminished by this. Every episode you are introduced to real characters who have their own needs and wants. In a sense, humans are just like the mushi: they need no justification to exist.

It is this balance that makes Mushishi so special. It never has to preach. It just weaves a beautiful tapestry and asks you to appreciate it.

The Good: The art, sound, and atmosphere that it creates. It is able to get across so many feelings and express this vision of nature without resorting to blunt exposition. Not much else to add here as I've already covered it above.

Ginko's personality is also a strength of the series. Ginko is human, nothing more or less. Sometimes he is successful, sometimes he is not. But he doesn't rage at the universe, swear to get stronger to protect what he loves, and set himself to overcome the world. Instead he moves in stride with what happens, doing his best. It's a very profound mentality despite its simplicity.

Finally, what I also appreciate is that Mushishi is not devoid of humor. I write about these grand themes but the series isn't somber like a church sermon. It has humorous moments and funny gags. I got a kick out of the episode where after helping the romantic girl with the mushi problem she immediately starts hitting on him. He has a priceless look on his face as he starts searching for the nearest exit. Mushishi is not a comedy, but it will make you smile a few times.

The Bad: The primary thing that keeps Mushishi from being my absolute favorite series is its unevenness of quality from episode to episode. I don't mean in production values but in its mismatched representation of mushi. Unfortunately the second series has continued this trend.

Mushishi is at its best when the interactions between humans and mushi are essentially accidental and the mushi are thoroughly inhuman. When the series dips into scenes where the mushi are treated more like supernatural beings it loses much of what makes it special. For instance, in the last episode of the second series Ginko confronts the master of the mountain. It understands his words and apparently is able to command the mushi to do its bidding. This doesn't fit at all with the ethos of the series.

Still, that said I find Mushishi to be a jewel that is both beautiful and profound.

AMVs:
A Little Less Gravity
Appropriately, this AMV is short and simple just like the series.  It really captures the drifting, mysterious, strange, and beautiful essence of Mushishi.

[Anime] Jormungand S1/S2 Review

Jormungand - 6/10
Jormungand: Perfect Order - 6.5/10 (second season)

World serpent devoured! This series took me longer to watch as I found myself disinterested in the first season. But as the second season geared up I was really sucked in and finished it within a few days. It was a nice change of pace to have a series get better as it went on, rather than following the tired pattern of "good premise -> bad conclusion."

The Good: Jormungand is a show about Koko and her team. While Koko is definitely the epicenter of everything, it's the interactions and behavior of the whole cast that give Jormungand much of its substance. While they do have a few "hero" moments, most of the show is dedicated to demonstrating that Koko's success relies heavily on the team that has surrounded her. It was enjoyable to me to see how every person was able to fit in and contribute to the plan. And the plans weren't always just smash-and-grab but involved support, misinformation, and outmaneuvering opponents. You get to further see this in their training sessions: the actions of the team are the result of long practice, not just a bunch of "genius" fighters. This is exemplified when they answer why Koko recruited Jonah. While he is good, it's not the same tired supersoldier routine that she wanted him for, and even recognizes that he has a lot to learn.

Speaking of the cast, expanding it beyond Koko's team made the series feel very international. Just off the top of my head, there are scenes in Japan, Indonesia, Russia, South Africa, northern Africa, Cuba, the US, and unnamed eastern European states. And each of these places has people associated with them, with their own histories and reasons for being. While some existed just to be defeated (looking at you Mr. Draganof) many others were good recurrent characters who had more depth to them than just their initial arc. Tojo's former boss and his whole story was particularly complex, and I was impressed with the effort invested in what was a relatively minor side character.

The Bad: My biggest irritation with the series was what I felt was its unstable atmosphere. This is a repetitive complaint of mine in any series that involves war and violence. For me, to treat the topic with too much levity is disconcerting. Jormungand has some horrible moments; the flashback with the girl being forced to walk through the minefield was really disturbing to me in particular because it's the kind of thing that truly has happened. But serving the necessity of the series, it backs off this and treats us to a degree of buffoonery on both sides, so as to at least make us not disapprove of the "our" loyal paid killers.

This applies doubly to Koko, who despite professing to hate war and arms dealing, keeps at what she does with great gusto. In an attempt to make her less reprehensible, she is given a "lighter" side which frequently comes out. So when needed she has her blue-eyed doom face to demonstrate how scary she is, but then this is immediately destroyed when she is rolling around on the table whining. This approach has never settled well with me, and in my eyes at least is a detriment to the show.

Finally, I want to voice a minor complaint concerning the over-used leer that every female in this series seems to wear by default. It's an open-mouthed sardonic-bemused gaze that is trying to show how they are cynically bored and amused at the same time. Just compare three of the characters: Chiquita, Hex, and Mildo. This just began to get on my nerves after a while, if at least because it made every female character a jaded psychopath at first glance.

And The Black Lagoon: So how does it compare to Black Lagoon? It was a question that was on my mind as I was watching. I finally came to the conclusion that Jormungand was smarter, but that Black Lagoon was more on target. Allow me to give an example:

Jormungand has a large and varied cast of characters, both within the team and outside of it. Black Lagoon is much more concentrated on just a few star characters. When they give some background to them, characters like Wilee or Lehm can shine as additions to the Jormungand team. But at the same time, I had nearly nothing on Mao, Tojo, and Hugo. I couldn't even pick R out before his arc either. They had backgrounds, but they were often flimsy and even by the end of the show I still hardly recognized them. Black Lagoon's main cast doesn't have as many "highs" as Jormungand but I felt their roles and personalities were much more significant.

So for me at least, they end up about on the same level. Jormungand aims higher but (imo) misses the mark a little. Black Lagoon is a shoot-'em-up, but it knows what its doing. And comparing Koko to Balalaika: Balalaika is Koko, she's just older and has lost her Jonah. Koko still has ideals, still hungers for the presence of people around her, and is still young in some regards. Balalaika went through the same thing: she lost her dreams of the Olympics in Afghanistan, ending up in a place she never wanted to be. But her heart died a long time ago. She has no ideals beyond loyalty to her comrades. She has no morals beyond what is expedient. So personally I find Balalaika scarier, but comparing them is is just apples to apple trees.

AMVs:
Project J
Best AMV of Jormungand I have found, it has superb editing and honestly makes the series appear darker than it actually is.

[Anime] Shiki Review

Shiki - 6/10

Shiki was a different viewing experience for me.  I selected the series wanting to go beyond my comfort zone and try something in the suspense/horror genre.  But as I discovered, Shiki is not in fact a suspense/horror series at its core, despite being billed as such.  The first few episodes make pretense of being scary, but it rapidly abandons this and moves into more action/drama.  This isn't necessarily bad, but it surprised me and I wanted to make note of it.

As to the actual plot, Shiki centers on a series of mysterious deaths in a mountain town.  As the epidemic of deaths spreads, it becomes apparent that many of the dead are returning, preying on the living inhabitants.  This continues until the townsfolk begin to catch on, figuring out the nature of the shiki (undead), and counter-purge and effectively burn the town down to end the scourge.  With atrocities on both sides, the series seeks to ask, "Who is the monster here?"

The Good: 

Shiki was able to generate powerful-and-disturbing scenes that I thought were well executed without requiring excess gore on the best of them (imagine waking up to find out you're buried "alive"). The biggest is when the doctor Ozaki "re-kills" his wife after she becomes a shiki (Warning: disturbing scene). It's the brutal torture of another being that is clearly exhibiting the most extreme signs of distress, but this is what makes it a good example of a moral quandary (see "The Bad" for more on that). The doctor does what he does out of his duty to save the remaining villagers, but he is scarred for the remainder of the series.  The darkness never leaves him.

I also thought some of the victims were also well represented.  Kaori Tanaka in particular is truly pitiful.  Overwhelmed by fear, she gives up all hope and begins to view herself as already dead.  To see her go to the shrine and ask for a posthumous name, after having already dug her own grave in preparation, was pathetic.  On the other end of the spectrum, Nao Yasumori was one of the few shiki that had an end that impacted me: disillusioned by failed promises that her family would live forever with her, she is captured and staked outside to die in the sun, ultimately put out of her misery by a sympathetic human.  (Strangely, this scene was removed from the version I watched; I only learned it of through other means.)

Finally, the slaughter that ensues at the end is far from glorious. It's not a happy romp where people merrily slaughter the monsters and call it a day. It's close-up, bloody work that is sustained by fear and rage. It is sickening, and rightly so.

The Bad:

In my opinion, the moral dilemma presented in the series is weak.  The goal of the series was to present the shiki as being "people" too, but tragically fated to require the blood of the living.  The series then tries to make the case that shiki have just as much right to live as normal people, especially as it approaches the end and paints the villagers in a brutal, vindictive light.  However, I was unconvinced simply because the writers painted themselves into a corner when they demonstrated how much suffering the shiki created.  This was not on accident either.  They weren't resisting, feeling the pull of their humanity against the need to eat, and eventually giving in.  They were deliberately involved in a premeditated plan to kill men, women, and children indiscriminately, with a side project of organizing kidnapping in both the town and beyond.  As penitent as they try to make a few of them seem, it just rings hollow.

I would argue that a series such as Shiki would do better to use its fictional setting to ask about the morality of specific actions rather than broad conundrums.  The problem with the general case is that by ignoring the details it removes any applicability.  Allow me to explain.  In Shiki the situation is meant to be clear: kill or be killed.  No other way about it, no subtleties, no alternate solutions.  But the real world is usually much more graded.  Maybe the shiki could survive off blood stores (like the Hellsing vampires) or even animals (like, well, humans).  But in order to make their moral quandary work, the writers simply ignore these possibilities or write them out of feasibility.  Because of this the story begins to lose the applicability a good moral dilemma should have, as the devil really is in the details.  When the series really delves into specific situations, such as when the doctor tortures his shiki-fied wife, it becomes far more potent.

Finally, while not as pressing of an issue, the transition between suspense/horror and action/drama was rocky.  In the beginning the shiki are ethereal and demonic, able to infiltrate the homes through some silent magic.  Then the series begins to shift and the shiki become mundane personalities, unable to generate fear.  At this point the series is neither scary or interesting, falls flat for several episodes while trying to reorient itself.

In conclusion, Shiki is a passable series.  I was drawn in enough to be interested in finishing it, but I was not impressed by its depth or majority of its execution.  It's an easy watch, but not one that I would particularly recommend.

[Anime] Welcome to the NHK Review

Welcome to the NHK - 9/10

"Welcome to the NHK" is a tragicomedy about the life and times of a certain Sato Tatsuhiro, a 22-year-old committed NEET who almost never leaves his apartment.  While there is an overarching plot of Sato facing his problems (slowly), the series essence is more contained in its collection of sub-plots as Sato is involved in the projects and machinations of others.

One recommendation I would also give: watch NHK in English.  The dub is superb.  The VAs for the characters had their personalities down pat.  Even the profanity seemed to fit better than it usually does.

The Good: The mundane psychology. When most shows try to do psychology, they go for the grandiose. Their characters have world-encompassing views, conflicting ideologies, and intricate explanations for their actions. NHK has none of that. Instead it captures the essence of a vulgar, mediocre, normal human. That might sound strange to say, since Sato isn't "normal," but that actually doesn't matter. Everybody has their own eccentricities and anxieties, and as humans we share a similar pool of responses. NHK nailed the "perfect unreasonableness" of a human being clinging to their own faults.

But what really makes the series shine is its mixture of seriousness and frivolity. On one hand, it shows the sad leavings of a culture of success. People's lives are "measured" and their value ascertained already. As lamentable as Sato's situation is, and the show pulls no punches in that regard, there's the terrifying reality waiting out there that "winning" doesn't mean happiness either. It was a rather candid look at the spiritual malaise in modern consumer culture, the heat death of the soul. Although the future is pretty sunny by the end for all of the characters, so it doesn't dig too deep of a depressing hole.

That said, it was hilarious while not being dismissive of the real sadness. I lost it when Sato finds himself in that farmhouse listening to the pyramid scheme's lame presentation and immediately thinks, "God I wish I were back on that island." It is such a dark sentiment, but also so appropriate to the series. There were several other moments like this that I thought were absolute gold, as well as many more subtle jabs. One of my favorites was near the beginning when Misaki is explaining to Sato the "revolutionary new approach" to helping him with his low self-esteem: by mentally bringing everybody else below you to justify it. And what gives the humor the extra kick is its verisimilitude to every day life; there are more than a few scenes that I could personally identify with.

Finally on a personal note, I really liked Misaki as a character. Perhaps it's because I once had a girlfriend like her down to the abusive history. I was continually amazed at the kindness that sprung from that dark place, and really admire it. It also caused me to want to rage at Sato when he raised his fist against her, because her traumatic response was all too obvious to me. Also it sounds a bit shallow after what I just said, but I found the combination of her character design and VA extraordinarily cute.

The Bad: Nothing major. At times the animation quality noticeably drops and I thought that some of the scenes were perhaps unnecessary, but I don't think the series is overly burdened by these. It can also be quite crude at times, but that's Sato so I can't really hold that against the series.

Overall, NHK is a great watch that provides many moments for self reflection along with others where you can't because you're laughing to hard.

[Anime] Trigun Review

Trigun - 7/10

"No one bites back as hard
On their anger
None of my pain and woe
Can show through

But my dreams
They aren't as empty
As my conscience seems to be"
-Behind Blue Eyes, The Who

Trigun is a two-faced series set on a desert planet with a wild west twist. On one hand, it is an action-comedy in which the main character Vash wanders around, getting himself into trouble, fighting his way back out (usually in a humorous manner), and generally proving that a red trench coat and yellow glasses can look good on non-vampires too. But underneath this there is a surprising core of weightiness to the series. The world is a lawless and violent place and Vash is a pacifist, dedicated to avoiding conflict and never killing. 

The Good: Vash and Wolfwood, the two main characters of the series. They are an odd couple, representing fundamentally different views on how life should be lived. As already mentioned, Vash abhors violence. He acts in self defense or to spare other people hurt, but never seeks to cause lasting harm to even his enemies. This being accentuated by the problem that he has caused massive devastation on accident, since he is a Plant rather than a human, capable of generating massive amounts of energy and wiping whole cities off the map.

Wolfwood on the other hand considers the only possible course of action to be to eliminate evil before it can do harm. Dressed as a preacher, the iconic cross he carries is a heavy weapons platform, housing handguns, a minigun, and a rocket launcher. As he tellingly says, it is a cross "heavy with mercy." Looking back on his life, violence has made him free in his view. Before violence he lived in fear of the man who raised him, and always at the whims of those who were more powerful. Nowadays he eliminates evil and uses the monetary proceeds to support an orphanage where children won't have to live through what he did.

The reason they must be mentioned together is that their contrast is what makes the series tick. Really, Wolfwood is a better "villain" than Knives ever is. Knives is the classic evil villain, out there plotting with his power to cause death and destruction. It's easy to disregard him. It's Wolfwood, serving and doing evil so as to accomplish good, that is Vash's true foil. Beyond this, there is also just the fun interactions the two have. They make a good duo on screen together.

It is also this dynamic that creates the two high points in the series. In Vash's case it is when he is presented with an unsolvable situation. Kill Legato or his two friends die. No subtleties. No other options. Does Vash really have the right to choose his non-violence when it isn't his life to choose? It's a brutal situation, and his final defeat in killing Legato is devastating. It's one of the few times where being the last one standing in a fight means failure.

For Wolfwood, his most incredible scene is also his death. It is easily one of the best in all of anime, being so laden with meaning. He finally came around to Vash's way of thinking, refusing to finish off his mentor, and is shot in the back for it. Sitting alone in that chapel, he looks back on his life and realizes just how much suffering he has caused. Sadly, there are no second chances and he dies wondering if he can ever be forgiven.
Link to scene in question.

The Bad: The utter inconsistency in tone is what really sinks this series. Vash is a "serious-goof" and flips between both ends of his personality in the blink of an eye. The problem is that much of the humor is shoe-horned in, being primarily slapstick or similarly childish antics. It makes it hard to take Vash as a character seriously, especially when there is so much riding on him.

This issue similarly affects the villains of the series, who are straight out of a comic book. They have their silly gimmicks and special tricks, their bad lines and maniacal laughs. They just want to destroy stuff and are utterly two-dimensional in most cases. The only one I can give much credit to is Legato; the rest of the Gung-Ho Gang is made up of outlandish and flamboyant characters who exist only to provide fight material. As I mentioned above, Wolfwood is the real "villain" in the series, being ideologically so close yet so far from Vash.

Finally, the series really peaks part way through. The scenes mentioned above for Vash and Wolfwood are really their defining moments. Actually having to face down Knives at the end is anti-climactic. I didn't even care about Knives that much. He was just the monster in the shadows, but our actual exposure to him is so limited that there isn't much to him other than being the "big bad."

So as a classic Trigun has some really good and profound themes hidden in it. Just at times these are overwhelmed by a sort of reflexive childishness on the part of the writers who can't seem to decide whether they want to write Vash as Jesus or one of the Three Stooges.

AMVs:
Vash Behind Blue Eyes
An oldie but a good one, and the inspiration for the quote that begins this post.

[Anime] Psycho-Pass S1 Review

Psycho-Pass - 8/10

"This loss (of freedom) means the fading from human life of values infinitely precious to it. There only remain ironbound conditions of employment and trivial amusements for leisure."
- A.N. Whitehead

As a science fiction series, Psycho-Pass creates a compelling world that undergirds the tension of its message. It is part Blade Runner, part Minority Report, and part CSI. And as a warning for anybody looking into it: it's both intense and graphic, so beware.

At the core of the series is the quandary of the Sibyl System, a collection of biometric scanners that are able to analyze and deduce a person's personality and future potential. It has created a society in which the greatest amount of good is conferred on the greatest number of people, but at the cost of crushing inequality for those that the system deems problematic. There is no recourse, for the system is always right. Using this world as a backdrop, the story follows the enforcement bureau as they deal with the cases that crop up in this brave new world.

The Good: 

The world that Psycho-Pass creates is engaging, striking a balance between the development of the plot and characters while also exploring the implications and realities of the Sibyl System. This made it eminently watchable as a series while also giving it depth. Not many series do this well in my experience, as often when an anime seeks to be deep it simply becomes convoluted and obscure. 

Building on this, the world of the Sibyl System is a unique world that at first appears dystopian, but has positive elements that cannot be ignored.  The problem is that the Sibyl System is right.  For all of its faults, and they are numerous, the Sibyl System is consistently superior to average humans when it comes to judgement.  This is brought up clearly when the nightclub dissenter is cornered.  He screams out that the Sibyl System has ruined his music career by dismissing his talent.  He is promptly rebuffed by the Enforcers that he should thank the Sibyl System, since it kept him from wasting his time.  Later on when Akane confronts the system directly, it/they are able to analyze and predict her perfectly.  Her sense of duty to society does override her revulsion, and she remains loyal even as she comes to loath it/them.  As much as it may gall us, the Sibyl System has transcended human capacity.

However, always being right has had a debatable impact on the rest of the world: nobody any longer feels personal responsibility when there is an easily-accessible and objectively correct arbiter in all things.  Kougami's old professor is out of a job because nobody feels the need to be insightful on their own.  Bystanders observe a murder passively, because if the biometric sensors don't respond then it must be okay.  Life degenerates to managing one's own hue, going about in a safe and unperturbed mindset.  It is a disturbing vision of the future for the individualist.

Last, I'd like to make special mention of Akane's character. I thought she was a fantastic lead because she was simply herself.  In my experience most female leads tend to fall into one of two traps: sex or badass (or both). But Akane wasn't particularly sexy; she wore nice holo-clothes when she was out, and was in uniform while on work. Similarly, they didn't try to make her "out-macho" the males to demonstrate how great she was. Instead the series allows us to watch her develop, and as it unfolds you see a truly impressive inner strength emerge as she is faced with so many difficulties, intellectual and emotional.  In the end she retains her humanity even as the "stronger" characters have broken down under Makishima's influence.  An admirable character all around.

The Bad: 

The name dropping.  When anime attempts to quote Western philosophical or religious works it almost always manages to mangle them beyond recognition.  Pyscho-Pass has some reasonable references at times, but still succumbs to the same tendency toward intellectual garnishing.  The references serve no purpose except to make the conversation sound more sophisticated, and at times manage to do the opposite.  The most egregious offender was the cyberspace impersonator, who in his final moments cites how his attempts at creating idealized avatars to replace the people he killed were like Plato's perfect forms.  No, I'm sorry.  This has nothing to do with Plato.  Try again.

Psycho-Pass also suffers from a degree of voyeurism toward its criminal subjects.  They do unspeakable things, and while some of them are tastefully avoided others are glorified for their shock value.  This is cheap, and especially darkens the first half of the series which tends to err on the side of vulgar attention-seeking to keep the audience engaged.  

Originally I was going to list the Sibyl System actually being disembodied humans as a negative element, but as the series progressed I found this was not an issue.  They were functionally the same as an advanced, sentient algorithm and never demonstrated bias. So while I was dismayed at that initial reveal, I actually found that they worked even better than anticipated. In fact, them having to deal with Akane's revulsion near the end was actually more interesting than it would have been if it had simply been a subroutine. I also liked their point they make back when Akane feels that justice should be done, noting that they do far more good for society in their present form than any punishment would have represented. They really weren't evil anymore.

GitS:SAC Evaluation: Throughout the series I found myself comparing Psycho-Pass closely to another series, in this case Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex. I often hold up GitS as an example of a great sci-fi anime series, but in some respects Psycho-Pass blew it out of the water.

Despite being billed as a philosophical series, GitS:SAC is not particularly philosophical. The original movie is weightier, but the subsequent series is rooted in the practical running of Section 9. Also its "philosophy" is more distributed into a vague question about what it means to be human. Psycho-Pass very neatly zeros in on a particular issue with the Sibyl System, and because of this focus was able to pursue its social and moral implications more extensively. Psycho-Pass's story was also lucid, compared to GitS:SAC's vague and meandering plot.

That said, GitS has much more substance to its history and politics. Psycho-Pass wasn't very clear until near the end whether the Sibyl System was world-wide or restricted to Japan (at least in the translation I watched, it seemed that "world" and "country" were used interchangeably). Everything occurred "in a bottle."

When it comes to main characters, Akane is far better than Motoko. As much as I love GitS, Motoko is one of the worst offenders for a female character that earns her laurels through being simultaneously sexy and tomboyish.  She has surprisingly little substance, and is salvaged by the company she keeps with more interesting characters such as Aramaki, Batou, and Togusa.

These aren't meant to be condemnations of either series as I think they're both great in their own respects.  If you enjoyed one I would strongly recommend the other  But it says something that Psycho-Pass was able to hold its own in comparison to a series that is often regarded as a classic.