Category: anime

Asagiri Rei in rehearsal

The 1st episode of Legendary Idol Eriko has recently been made available made available as a bittorrent.
This old TV anime is the story of  Tamura Eriko, daughter of Tamura Kousuke, a music production executive who is killed in a car crash in the first episode. Eriko becomes an idol singer, while her uncle, who wants to take control of the company, tries to block her career.
Actually, in the first episode, the most interesting character is Eriko’s rival, Asagiri Rei, who is seen at rehearsal belting out a song while wearing a tiny tight top and a skirt so short one can almost see her underwear. After giving Eriko a chilly look, she goes off clinging to the arm of Eriko’s father. Though she’s only 15, Rei is not an innocent-looking girl.
The opening credit song is sung by the *real* Tamura Eriko, an idol singer, while the rehearsal and end credit song are sung by Maiko Hashimoto, who on the limited evidence so far seems the better singer.  The “Unchained heart” song is really not bad.

Kaiba and creature

At last something really different in the new season! In an anime with a style somewhat reminiscent of the late Osamu Tezuka, a young man wakes in a totally strange-looking world. He has a large circular hole through his chest, and is wearing a medallion, and he can’t remember anything. In this world, memories can be separated from human bodies, and stored in pyramidal memory chips. They can also be traded and stolen. After some bewildering adventures in which he is variously helped and attacked, the main character, Kaiba, escapes in an aircraft.

This looks so different from the usual anime style that it’s fascinating to watch. I’ll follow this for a while to see how it turns out.

Punie wrestling with mascot

This parody of magical-girl anime is more like magical-princess anime on crack, as sweet-looking Magical Princess Punie from the Magic Kingdom joins a Japanese school for a year on Earth. She has to do this to prove herself worthy of becoming Queen. Punie, in a flashback to how she acquired her mascot, looks more like a brutal and evil witch.

A schoolgirl gang, a frightening collection of burly and well-armed freaks, take an instant dislike to Punie, but when they try to sort her out, she invokes her magic, with the call of “Magical Tokarev, kill them all”, and unleashes a swarm of fighting vegetables. In a later sequence, Punie, with her magic temporarily blocked, demonstrates wrestling skills which are equally dangerous.

It’s almost a shame to tell you all this, as if you watched it as I did with only the vaguest idea what to expect, you might almost fall out of your chair in surprise.

So, is it worth watching? Certainly the first pair of mini-episodes are a lot of fun, and I’ll probably follow it a bit longer to see how it develops.

Scene from Itazura no Kiss

Itazura na Kiss – traditional sort of school romance comedy where a girl from class “F”, the least able, has been for two years nursing a crush on Irie, a handsome boy from class “A”, and finally attempts to confess her love, only to find that he’s arrogant and hates stupid girls. Her father’s new house falls down, leaving them homeless. They are offered a place to stay by her father’s old buddy Irie who is none other than the father of Genius Boy Irie. She moves in, and finds that the boy isn’t at all friendly and even his rude kid brother is much smarter than her. Perhaps a bit early to say, but this looks like it could be a lot of fun.

Macross Frontier – same old tosh, but at least it’s superbly produced tosh.

Allison and Lillia – The politics look interesting, but it lost me when two of the main characters prang a motorcycle and sidecar combo, wrecking it, and then get up and run off to the next scene, and then “borrow” a light aircraft which just happens to be left in a hangar, unattended, fuelled up and with the keys in it.

xxxHOLiC Kei – a straight continuation of the previous and now licensed season of CLAMP’s comedy supernatural show. Lead character has a battle of obligations with his friend, and involving a vengeful spider. Looks good, worth watching.

Akazukin

a.k.a. “Fairy Musketeers“. A lesser-known anime in which a young boy, Souta, has disturbing dreams in which he is rescued from a monster by a small girl in a red hat. His mother has told him bed-time tales of twin worlds, one being ruled by science, the other by magic. All too soon the dream starts turning into reality, as Souta finds himself pursued in his own world as the key to a magical power struggle. A monster attacks him and he is rescued by Akazukin and her wolf-companion, Val.

Souta’s fiercely possessive would-be girlfriend, Ringo, is less than pleased by Akazukin’s arrival, and still less when another magical girl, Shirayuki-hime,appears.

Shirayuki-hime

The character names are ripped off from various European fairy tales, and in general bear little connection to the original characters. Akazukin, (= Red Riding Hood) is a warrior girl accompanied by a blue-furred wolf. Shirayuki-hime, (= Snow-White) here is one of the three fairy Musketeers, a skilled magic user, much more intellectual than Akazukin, if a bit full of herself.

On the side of evil are Cendrillon (= Cinderella) a young sorceress with long dark hair and a husky voice, and a fondness for mirrors, Randagio, (= Puss in Boots), a bad cat, and Hansel, a sinister young wizard.

It’s clearly intended for younger viewers, being both cute and wholesome, but I enjoyed the characterisations of the grumpy wolf, the rather ineffectual bad cat, and the delicious Shirayuki-hime. Ringo (curiously named, it means “apple”) is that anime stereotype, the possessive would-be girlfriend, who keeps calling round to make sure Souta gets up in time for school, and to bring him snacks. Souta himself is rather a nonentity, but the vividness of the other characters make up for it.

If you enjoy light anime in which small girls beat up monsters, you should like this one. And those little girls are really too cute.

This anime exists in two versions, an OVA from 2005, and a TV reworking (2006-2007). Character designs are identical.