Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra, originally called only Tatakau Shisho, and originally a light novel first seeing the light back in 2005, with eight novels now published. An anime adaption was announced and it has now aired. The studio in question is David Productions.

So far, I kind of like the feel of this, though I have only watched the first episode (I’m sure it’s only reached about two or three by now, though). I usually keep up, but my hands have been full, so I can only speak of what I actually have seen. I enjoy the concept I have been fed while watching the first episode. There seems to be disposable people called “Bombs”, which ironically have had bombs planted in them since I don’t know when. They’re treated worse than slaves and seem to be forced to listen to a recorded voice telling them to kill something of which I do not remember (even though it was repeated annoyingly often). They have to lay there alone in a sterile room an listen to that voice telling them their only purpose.

The story begins with a male person doing just so. We proceed to see a group of people on a small boat, trying to apporach a much larger one with a hostile intent. I’m sorry to say that their names have been forgotten, since it was a while since I watched this. You’ll have to overlook that error.

These so-called Bombs start to appear on the boat, loads of them, throwing themselves overboard à la Boston Tea Party. The group of people on the small boat are apparently there to save them, and the green-haired fellow with the nice name that I for some reason despite that can’t remember are frustrated when they do not seem to wish for salvation. And as usual in anime, people say and do things in the first episode that you won’t understand unless you keep watching. So there are plenty of things that I could keep telling you, but neither you nor I would get it. A woman with large breasts talks for a bit, the group previously on the little boat talk and explain things you want to know more of, and not really that much happens. You get to see the boy from the very beginning as he shows up in the streets even after sinking in the ocean. Huh. Fancy that.

Also, there appears to be some sort of stone tablets created after a persons death - a “book”. People become books, and these books tell of their tale from their very birth to their death. It’s like a tombstone with an engraved history. There are people who aspire to fill their books with many a pages by leading a life of greatness. Though they’re only stone tablets, so “pages” aren’t exactly correct.

To me, this sounds fairly intriguing, and I’d like to know more. What are the bad points? What are the good points? I’m actually looking forward to it. Finally, original concepts, well-made designs and BOMBS.

Cynical Anime Critic, looking forward to some Bantorra.

Shangri-La, written by Eiichi Ikegami and illustrated by Ken’Ichi Yoshida. As a light novel, the series are only two volumes long.  Makoto Bessho is the director for the anime, and Gonzo is the studio. For the anime, illustrations were made by well-known Range Murata.

Again, a bit late as I am aware. The reason has been stated in the post for Yokuwakaru Gendai Mahou, which you by the way might like to read.

Short summary:

In the mid-21st century, the international committee decided to forcefully reduce CO2 emission levels to mitigate the global warming crisis. As a result, the economic market was transferred mainly into the trade of carbon. A great earthquake destroys much of Japan, yet the carbon tax placed on the country is not lifted, so Tokyo is turned into the world’s largest “jungle-polis” that absorbs carbon dioxide. Project Atlas is commenced to plan the rebuilding of Tokyo and oversee the government organization, which the Metal Age group opposes due to its oppressive nature. However, Atlas is only built with enough room for 3,500,000 people and most people are not allowed to migrate into the city. The disparity between the elite within Atlas and the refugees living in the jungles outside of its walls set up the background of the story.

I have to be honest, it took me some time to actually get into the actual story. It seemed overly complicated, but everything was so original that I kept watching for the sake of enjoyment (for once). This series made me want to know more. To me it highly resembles Last Exile, also a Gonzo masterpiece with Murata as its illustrator. Not only because of that, but the villains in both series are practically one and the same. They even look alike. I wonder if their evilness can be measured at the same level.

As I previously stated, this anime revolves almost solely around carbon. And power. The protagonist can be a bit of a pain in the ass (and I would like for her to put some pants on for a change), but at the same time, she’s quite interesting. There are lots of unusual plot twists regarding her and the people around her, some of which I realized before they were made official, and some raising my eyebrows in surprise. But I’m not here to talk about the series itself. Kuniko has now created the people’s Shangri-La, and the question is, will there be a second season? So far, it hasn’t been announced.

SPOILERS AHEAD

The ending made me a tad disappointed. I had hoped to see something epic, but instead, people who should have died showed up again, and “died” again and showed up ONCE MORE. Kuniko confronts the Ryoko, Ryoko goes down Shit Creek, and peace is restored to Hyrule.

Well yeah, what I want to say is, it ended quite abrubtly. I expected something more, and so I was disappointed. All in all, a wonderful series with many good qualities as well as some bad ones. If you want to watch this, you should prepare for some thinking. If not, I was just so set on having to watch yet another anime cliché with a flat storyline that I got taken back enough not to pay attention. Hah. Who knows? I may have to watch it again.

Much cannot be said about this abrubt ending. It all just happened too quick. The last moment was cute, though. Nice music, and RIGHT THERE at the last phrase of the whole series, you get to find out why it’s called Shangri-La. Maybe I was stupid not to get it. But hey, I don’t expect the titles to have anything to do with the series. Either the title explains the whole storyline, or it’s completely irrelevant. That’s anime for you. So anyway, beautiful punchline at the end. I’m relieved enough to see Ryoko dead that the sudden ending almost went past me.

But ahhh, I’m getting ahead of myself. There wasn’t much to criticize since there wasn’t… much at all. Poof, the end. But look at the illustrations. Just look at it. All in all, great anime, well done without the ecchi this time, Gonzo. (And it involves TRANSVESTITES. Now that’s magic.) Hope to hear about whether there will be a continuation or not. Please don’t air another season.

Not-so-cynical-today Anime Critic - over and out.

Yokuwakaru Gendai Mahou (Comprehensible Modern-Day Magic), originally a light novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, with illustrations by Miki Miyashita. It began airing on on July 11, 2009 with the studio Nomad behind it.

I know this is a bit late, but my excuse is that my Internet stops working once every month - the thing is that this time it kept on failing for weeks. But it was my birthday this past Thursday, so I’m feeling obliged to post crap. And you know what the thing is? Yokuwakaru Gendai Mahou is crap.

I don’t know if you people watching it realize, but I had to sit on my  ass and wait for a story that never showed up. All in all, it was a typical anime cliché featuring annoying brats with annoying voices, stereotypical large-breasted women with complexes and utter randomness. I’m an intellectual person, and I didn’t understand shit. What just happened? Is someone going to explain that? Why is that happening? I’m just sitting there watching people go down Shit Creek and back up and I can just stare. Well… Let me give you a quick review in case you haven’t watched this.

The story revolves around Koyomi Morishita, a clumsy high school freshman girl who is often mistaken for a grade-schooler because of her shortness (OHH, we’ve never heard that one before). Koyomi becomes a disciple of Misa Anehara, a 25-year-old graduate student who happens to be one of the most powerful modern-day magicians.

Now, the story begins in a quite intriguing way. It starts right in the middle of an epic fight between a grown man and two children (argh), all of them performing magic. It takes about three or more episodes before you find out where they are and why they’re fighting, because you get taken back some hours earlier in order to get to know the characters involved in the fight. It takes one episode, and after that, you get to see one of the characters (that one being Koyomi Morishita, which was not seen as the protagonist in my eyes until it was obviously shown in the opening) a whole lot years later, she being the same age as in the first episode. You get to see the little girl she was protecting, all grown up into a woman. Obviously, some time travel had been involved. The thing is, it won’t be mentioned until some episodes later. In other words, the first episode was completely useless.

Koyomi tries to learn how to use modern-day magic referred to as Codes, which resides in every technological item and perhaps even in any kind of material. If you rewrite the Code, you can transform things, create things, remove things, and so on. It’s like magic, in other words, except you use things such as cellphones, computers etc. Anyway, during these episodes while we’re waiting for the story to get back to the interesting part in the beginning, everything feels like fillers even though they’re not. Koyomi’s high-pitched voice is shrieking through episodes of typical fanservice, shopping, turtle backpacks, bathing suits and random magic… stuff. It’s like an academy anime without the academy. And the students. There’s just one. And she’s annoying enough.

SPOILERS AHEAD

So anyway, I’m supposed to talk about the ending. Suddenly, after all this cutesy-shputesy washbin magic Lala Land and the explanation of the time travelling as well as the fighting events in the first episode, this chinese wannabe appears along with the man from the beginning, who is an old magician who specializes in normal magic (as we know it, I mean). He’s currently in another body called a Ghostscript. It’s basically like a ghost. People can’t see it unless it’s insanely strong, apparently. Well, to get to the point, these guys have plans to resurrect an old rampaging magician hag and they need Anehara Misa’s body for that. Shit goes down, she dies but she doesn’t really die, because she turned into a Ghostscript but she’s actually somewhere else watching TV (I’m not joking) and she’s just a little hurt, and the one who “killed” her is Koyomi’s friend whom she saved in the beginning, Yumiko Cristina Ichinose. Yikes. SUDDENLY, the show gets serious in… a bang. No one expected that, and I for one couldn’t take it seriously. After the flat, non-existing storyline, you expect me to believe you can perform something epic?

Something went wrong, so Yumiko gets the evil witch in her body and they synchronize. But she lets Koyomi live because she’s Yumiko’s friend. A big hole appears by Misa’s hand in order to drag her down into another dimension (oh no she didn’t…) but that way Yumiko would have to go too since it’s her body. Koyomi grabs hold of her with the help of Misa’s insignificant brother and the hole disappears. The power of her friendship and shrieking voice is so strong that the evil witch is kinda moved because she’s oh-so-lonely and the only reason for her rampaging was that she was bullied and had no friends. Touching. But no. So the witch leaves with a request that Koyomi should take care of Yumiko as a friend, and as Koyomi is an idealistic (or at least they tried to make her idealistic), naïve fool, she immediately considers the evil witch a friend too and will not forget her.

… Uh. Why?

… No one knows.

THE KINDA END.

… I have to say… Beautiful character design. I love the colours and the hair. Then again, there’s absolutely nothing original about it. But the seiyuus? Heard them. Heard their tactics, ways and skills. I need to be surprised, and most seiyuus have gone to seiyuu school which means they all have the same methods and tactics, because in Japan, voice acting is like a strategy meeting. I like the opening music, but that’s about it. The concept… meh. It’s fine, I guess. I like magic sometimes, if a good story is involved that doesn’t further destroy the art of magic itself.

Why did I keep watching this?

Because I’m the Cynical Anime Critic. That’s why.