#I found the name from the tale of Taro and Jiro

[retrosofa]

I started re-watching Mahou no Mako-chan from the beginning and I have so many things to talk about. Here’s my commentary for the first thirteen episodes.

Episode 1: This episode has been fansubbed for years, so I won’t get too into it. It’s a beautiful episode written by Masaki Tsuji and directed by Yugo Serikawa. They’ve included music from the Cinderella ballet, which gives the episode a strong Disney-vibe. 

Episode 2: This episode is so insane. Mako pretends to have amnesia after being found on the beach by an old zoologist named Mr. Urashima. A TV station does a report on her and a couple shows up claiming to be her real parents. Mako goes along with it since she has nowhere else to go. Surprise, surprise, her “parents” are actually criminals who are just after money.

The man accidentally “kills” Mako, Mako’s real father shows up, revives her, and gives her a gift from her mother: a magic pendant called the Mermaid’s Life. Mako reunites with Mr. Urashima, the criminals come back for Mako and the old man just lets them take her despite her cries for help. As they drive off with her, Mako uses her pendant to brutally murder them in a car crash. Mako goes back to Mr. Urashima like nothing happened, and he basically goes “I heard on the radio those two were actually con artists. Anyway, you can live with me but I’m very strict.” W-O-W. Spoiler: Mr. Urashima is absolutely awful and will continue to do shitty things.

This episode states that Mako’s mother also wanted to become human at some point but didn’t go through with it. I wish they would’ve elaborated on this more, especially since she barely appears in the series.

There’s a minor continuity error: the news report says Urashima found Mako the night before but in the first episode we see he found her in the morning. Also the place Mako was found is called the Sakurasaki Coast (A fictional place as far as I know) but it’s given a completely different name later on in the series.

This is the first episode to feature Shinya Takahashi as an animation director. It looks really nice, though not as good as the first episode.

Episode 3: Mako enrolls at Karatachi Academy, which covers elementary to high school. In this episode we meet her classmates Bancho, Senkichi, Haruko, etc. They all become a big part of the show from here on. The conflict of the episode is about the school’s rich girl, Tomiko Tomida, who brings her mother’s diamond ring to school and loses it. Mako’s new friend Haruko is accused of stealing it. Overall a pretty average episode.

Oh, you know Mako’s signature blue and white outfit? It used to belong to Urashima’s daughter who died at sea. Wowzers. 

Episode 4: The twins that live next door, Taro and Jiro, are fed up with their mother’s strict ways and decide to run away. Mako accompanies them, as does their uh... pet bear, Kumagoro. Things escalate when an armed Korean refugee takes Mako and the boys hostage. At one point Kumagoro (who’s usually depicted as sweet and cuddly) viciously mauls the refugee. The episode started out so lighthearted and then got really dark out of nowhere. Also the refugee guy constantly calls Mako a “bitch” which really took me back.

Episode 5: Tomiko has some weird hostility towards Mako and starts spreading rumors about her. During a school trip Tomiko gets so heated, she attempts to drive away in a car and ends up crashing off a cliff. Mako tries to use her pendant to save her but her father just up and blocks her powers. There’s a hilarious scene where Bancho taunts Tomiko as she’s crying, hopelessly stuck on the cliff. Mako ends up rescuing Tomiko thanks to the help of a random guy (who looks like a poorly drawn Akira) driving through.

This is the first episode handled by animation director Fumio Eto. He sucks so bad it’s not even funny. Not only is his drawing style so flat and hideous but his actual animation skills are totally laughable. In his defense, he does tries to do some interesting things but he just doesn’t have the talent for it. Unfortunately he ends up handling the last episode. Sigh.

Episode 6: Follow up to the first episode. The little girl from the cruise ship is suffering from PTSD and is afraid of the ocean. Her father hired Akira to help her feel better. For some reason they changed her name from “Kaoru” to “Naomi.” She’s called Kaoru twice in the first episode and she’s even referred to as Kaoru in the preview for this episode. It’s such a weird error and it really takes away from the episode.

Mako and Akira formally meet. He asks if they’ve met before but she denies it. Towards the end of the episode he directly asks her if she’s “the mermaid who saved his life.” I thought that was funny. In the end, Akira has a falling out with Kaoru’s father and leaves.

First episode to feature Fusahiro Nagaki as an animation director. He previously worked on Himitsu no Akko-chan. This episode looks fine but his art style gets really ugly later down the road.

Episode 7: Mako and Akira meet again. This time he’s working for Tomiko’s family. This episode makes it seem like the previous one didn’t happen? Akira doesn’t remember meeting Mako at all and this time she tries to tell him about what really happened during the shipwreck. It’s very bizarre.

Tomiko has a crush on Akira and gets jealous when he saves Mako from some yakuza guys. There’s this whole subplot about Mako helping a little girl sell flowers while her mother is sick at home. At the end of the episode the thugs come back with a freakin’ pro-boxer who kicks Akira’s ass. Mako saves Akira by using her pendant to uh... freeze the boxer guy. Akira runs off before the yakuza thugs come back and promises to write Mako.

By the way, Mako’s pendant only works if it’s in direct contact with sunlight or moonlight. Nobody ever explicitly tells her this, she just kind of figures it out on her own?

Another episode with Shinya Takahashi as the animation director. Visually, this episode looks great but there are some rough spots in the animation.

Episode 8: Christmas episode. Mako meets St. Nicholas, who believes mankind has lost faith. It's a very “true meaning of Christmas” type of story. There’s a very wild scene at the beginning of the episode where a smoking teenage girl hits on Mako’s father. 

Episode 9: This was the first episode I found totally unmemorable. A gang leader from another school writes a love letter to Mako. Bancho gets upset and starts shit with the other guy. Turns out the other gang leader is the son of a yazuka. For some reason Mako is blamed for all of this nonsense and Urashima slaps her for it. Yeah, fuck this episode.

Episode 10: Another stinker. Mako hates the cocky basketball star at her school. Nothing much else to say.

Episode 11: Mako meets a black man named Jim who is falsely accused of theft. This episode deals with racism, discrimination, and police brutality. While it’s far from perfect, it’s impressive an episode like this was produced in Japan around that time. There’s definitely a bit of a white savior narrative behind it, as Mako urges Jim to go to the police to clear his name. Jim refuses saying he doesn’t trust anyone and tells Mako how his innocent friends were all killed by the police. While it’s a bit flawed, it’s still remarkable they were discussing these issues.

There’s a nice scene where Jim and Mako are hanging out that features an instrumental version of Blue Light Yokohama.

Episode 12: Mako visits an old man at a fishing village that’s been horribly polluted by factories nearby.

Unfortunately this is another Fumio Eto episode and it looks especially awful. It’s such a shame because the direction in this episode is brilliant but Eto doesn’t have the skills to do it justice.

There’s a great sequence full of real-life photographs and news articles about the effects of pollution in Japan. I wonder if Hideaki Anno saw this episode growing up?

Episode 13: Mako’s father worries about what his daughter is up to, namely her sex life (I’m not making this up. He doesn’t outright say it but the implication is very clear.) This is a pretty cute episode where Mako and her father have a “date.” They go shopping, swimming and even clubbing.

Mako meets two boys in this episode named Dobin and Chabin. I think they’re named after types of tea kettles? I could be wrong. Amusingly they’re both voiced by actors who play Akira: Osamu Ichikawa and Isao Sakuma.

This is the second episode by the head screenwriter Masaki Tsuji.

Reviews on the next 13 episodes coming soon!

[claroquequiza]

McHanzo Week, Day 3: Downtime || Undercover

McCree falls in a ditch. Hanzo helps him out, and they make a new friend in the meantime.

“Hey, uh, Hanzo? Could I get a little help?”

Hanzo stopped dead on the narrow street, scanning his surroundings before he walked casually to sit on the concrete curb lining the gutter, bending over to hide his face and speak into the comm as he untied and retied the laces on the running shoes he wore over his prosthetic feet.

“Hanzo here. What is you status, McCree?”

The cowboy chuckled ruefully, “Ain’ that serious, Hanzo. I’m, uh, I’ve just fallen into a big ol’ ditch.”

Hanzo frowned. “A ditch?”

“Well, the drainage channel. Got a twisted ankle. I’m just by 6th Street.”

“I am en-route.” Hanzo did not ask for a further explanation, not right then anyway. If there was anything McCree was, it was professional, despite his getup and loud behavior. If the situation was serious, he would not beat around the bush, to borrow a phrase. Hanzo did hurry, however, breaking into a quick jog that was not out of keeping with his runner’s clothes, the long nylon pants and thin long-sleeved shirt disguising his prosthetics and tattoo. He had been doing an initial sweep of the area around the safehouse, familiarizing himself with the layout, just in case. McCree had expressed a desire to do the same right when Hanzo was heading out; he must have done so, but how he managed to fall into the enormous concrete chute that contained the Los Angeles River was anyone’s guess.

He arrived at the high chainlink fence that lined the channel in short order. He spared a quick look around him, but the oppressive heat of the day still clung to the early evening air, and there was nothing in this neighborhood to tempt anyone to endure it. He lightly sprung over the fence and crept to the edge of the enormous, slanted embankment of the channel. He spotted McCree immediately.

He was sitting next to a small pile of driftwood that was thoroughly matted with dried grass and dead branches, one leg stretched out and placed atop a small log he must have purloined from the pile, the other folded awkwardly in a kind of half-crossed legged position.

He had a dog with him.

It was a big dog, at least 20 or 25 kilos, and it had a smooth, yellow-and-white thin coat, perfect for the intense heat, with its tail curled and flopped over its back. It seemed to be inspecting McCree’s outstretched leg; it kept lowering its head to sniff it before pawing at it slightly and looking at McCree’s face, currently hidden from Hanzo by the baseball cap he wore that looked so wrong even from so far away.

“Arenas?” called Hanzo, using McCree’s pseudonym for the mission. “Are you--”

As soon as the dog spotted him, it started barking and yipping, running directly beneath Hanzo before whining and making false starts towards McCree before stopping dead and staring up at him. Hanzo could hear McCree’s pleased chuckles echo slightly off the hard concrete. “Hey there, Sakaguchi. My friend here’s ‘bout to have a heart attack, but he’s real friendly. Come on down.”

Hanzo carefully made his way down the embankment, the surface hot and surprisingly slick. No wonder McCree could not get up it in his condition. When he made it to the bottom, the dog whined and backed off, suddenly shy of the stranger. Hanzo merely nodded at him as he went over to McCree and crouched next to him. He reached out to inspect the injured ankle, finding it swollen and tender, as McCree attested with a hissing intake of breath. Hanzo shook his head. “Of all days not to wear those boots of yours,” he muttered. “They would have contained the swelling better than these.”

McCree laughed. “Yeah, but it’s probably cuz of them that my ankles have gotten so delicate. Rolled out right from under me when I was slidin’ down the wall there.”

“Were you trying to aid the dog?” asked Hanzo, looking over his shoulder. The dog was cautiously approaching, torn between his wariness of the stranger and his apparent concern for McCree. Hanzo knelt and reached out a hand for him to sniff. He tilted his head but came forward readily enough, inspecting Hanzo’s hand before wagging his curly tail and licking it. Fears assuaged, he came forward to sniff and lick at Hanzo’s face as well. He turned his head away to let him lap at his cheek, catching a blinding grin on McCree’s face that he immediately smoothed into a smile instead.

“Ayup, saw the poor guy tryin’ t’get up, but it’s too slick for him. No collar, so I figured nobody was missin’ him, so--”

Hanzo nodded. “I will get you both up, then.” He stood slowly, not wanting to spook the dog. He immediately started whining and pawing at McCree again, prompting a chuckle out of both men, though McCree’s was cut off almost immediately. He was looking up at Hanzo with marked surprise.

“Wouldn’ta marked ya for a dog person, Sakaguchi.”

Hanzo shrugged as he held out an arm for McCree to grasp. “Most do not. They assume I would like cats better.”

McCree groaned as Hanzo easily hoisted him to his feet. “Yep, includin’ me. So, not a cat person then?”

“They are fine creatures. They remind me of the dragons more often than not. However, cats are often aloof to strangers, while dogs are usually more--” he paused as he slung McCree’s arm over his broad shoulders. The dog was literally running circles around them, pausing to sniff concernedly at McCree’s legs as they moved towards the embankment. “--open, with their affections and camaraderie.”

“That they are,” said McCree, smiling at their companion. Hanzo set his foot on the embankment, but McCree hung back. “Actually, why don’ you take him up first? Don’ want him thinkin’ we’re abandonin’ him.”

Hanzo hummed. “Yes, the inability to explain our intentions is often quite distressing for them.” McCree looked at him with a strange expression before he eased himself down to the ground again. The dog took the opportunity to lick at his face, while Hanzo took the opportunity to gather him up in his arms. He stiffened but otherwise allowed it. “I wonder if he truly has no home,” he mused. “He is very friendly and well-behaved.”

McCree shrugged. “An awful lot of street dogs have people lookin’ out for ‘em. We can swing by a vet t’see if he’s chipped, though.” Hanzo nodded as he began making his way up the embankment, stepping carefully to avoid slipping. He made it up with little fanfare, letting the dog down to the ground gently. He circled in place a couple of times, pleased to be up and out, but then he went to the edge and barked down at McCree.

“Don’ worry none, sweetheart,” he called back up to him as Hanzo started down again. “He’s a-comin’ t’get me, don’ you worry.”

It was much more difficult to get McCree out. Hanzo was a solid support, but McCree was a big man, and they had to drop to their knees more than once to keep from sliding back down. Eventually they made it out, and Hanzo had the unenviable task of ferrying first the dog over the fence, throwing him over one shoulder and praying he would not try to scramble off at the wrong moment as he went up and over, and then perching on top of it as he more or less heaved McCree up and lowered him down to avoid jostling his ankle too much. But soon they were hobbling back to the safehouse, the dog leading by a few paces as he sniffed at random spots on the sidewalk. McCree watched him with a soft look.

“We should work him into the mission, somehow,” he murmured, as if he did not realize he was speaking.

Hanzo glanced at him, feeling his cheeks heat a little from the exertion of carrying McCree’s weight, but also from being so close to his face with his arm over his shoulders. “Pardon?”

“Y’know, since we’re gonna be here a while. He could be our pet that we’re takin’ for walks when we do our perimeter checks.”

Hanzo rolled his eyes. “And if we find ourselves in battle? If we take him in, we are responsible for him, and we cannot guarantee his safety. We should check if he has a chip, and take him to a shelter if he does not.”

McCree made a small noise. “Never liked shelters. No guarantee that someone will take him before--”

“There are no-kill shelters,” said Hanzo gently.

“Yeah, that’s true. But, we won’ be invitin’ trouble except when we’re actively bein’ guard dogs for that producer, y’know? He’d be safe enough with us in our downtime. Could be a great morale booster while we’re here, and then we could take him to the no-kill shelter before we go.”

Hanzo snorted. “After we have bonded with him. After he ingratiates himself to us more than he already has. Do you think Kim Hyun-ji will let him go after she meets him?” Until now, he would have expected Hana to be the biggest obstacle to letting a team pet go when a mission was over. Now he suspected it was already too late. McCree was silent, watching the dog wistfully.

Hanzo sighed. It really was too late. It was too late when McCree called on Hanzo to help, really. He was a dog person, after all.

“Keep in mind that we must still check for a chip, but if you wish to retain naming privileges, you should think of one before the rest see him.”

McCree’s eyes snapped to Hanzo’s. He stared for a few seconds, as if waiting for Hanzo to take back his words. Hanzo looked steadily back. A grin slowly spread over McCree’s lips. “Aw, darlin’.”

Hanzo jerked his gaze straight ahead at the pet name, but he could still see McCree beaming out of the corner of his eye. He searched desperately for something to say to ward off the warm feeling in his chest at the sight. “I passed a park before you called. If we have any more downtime, it might be a good place to take him for exercise.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said McCree cheerfully. “Lemme see here, a name, a name--Sage, maybe? Hmm.” McCree returned to watching the dog, murmuring under his breath as they continued down the sidewalk. Hanzo, for his part, watched McCree, the warmth in his chest continuing to rise. He was caught off-guard when McCree turned back to him and said, “Actually, what d’you think? You’re the one who rescued him. Rescued both of us, I might add.”

Hanzo flushed and looked away. “It was no trouble. You were the one who found him.”

“Yeah, and then I promptly fell on my ass,” laughed McCree. “Besides, you’ve been a good sport about it all. I was expectin’ a scoldin’.”

Hanzo looked back at him. “You were doing a good deed, and your injury was completely accidental. There was no need for censure.”

McCree grinned. “C’mon. What d’you think’d suit him?”

Hanzo considered. “Jiro.”

“Jiro,” McCree repeated. “Jiro. Here, Jiro! C’mon, Jiro! What d’you got in your mouth, Jiro? Y’know, I like it.”

Hanzo chuckled. “It will do for now. If another name suits him better, we can change it before he gets used to it.”

“Hey, Jiro!” McCree called out. The dog paused at the loud shout, looking back at McCree. When McCree smiled and beckoned, he wagged his tail and came trotting back, tongue lolling out in the heat. “Well there you go, he likes it, too.”

Hanzo shook his head, but he could not help smiling either.

[bicokun]

It's been awhile since I've been able to post any art, but I figured I'd take a bit of time to draw a sort of "cover art" for a very old Ranma 1/2 fanfic I reread recently. The original website is no longer around, but at the time of this post, it's hosted here. The basic premise is that the curse which turns its victims into whatever drowned last in the spring into which they fell also imbues them with a soul of that thing, so in Ranma's case, he actually has a conscious female side who he has secretly been in contact with after struggling for control for awhile. "Ranko" ends up being freed by some divine intervention and it's later revealed that she may actually be the soul of his stillborn twin sister. A later reveal is that Genma isn't actually their biological father because Nodoka had an affair with Ichiro Hibiki, Ryoga's father, and Ichiro apparently got around (not due to being lost as that's apparently from Ryoga's mother's side, but he is a traveling salesman), and he's also the father of Pantyhose Taro (who later gets his name changed to Jiro Hibiki), and a random girl who became a member of the Joketsuzoku... and also dated Pantyhose for awhile before they found out they were half siblings. Anyway, pictured is Ichiro with all his biological children that were revealed as of the last written chapter. It's too bad the fic never got past the reveal that two of the strippers at Ranma's bachelor party were Ryoga's mom and half sister (on his mom's side). Of course... it implies that his sister is 14 years old, so maybe it's best that it didn't go any further into it.