#also BOTH the art director and character designer from cowboy bebop worked on this show and tbh it really show

[e1dritchqueer]

also just, in lieu of my last post, shout outs ALL the gals in Stardust Memory, I love their designs so so much

Love Mora going :> ✌

Also Mora (1st pic) and Jacqueline (3rd pic) my beloveds <333

[nivenus]

I Need You: Why Evangelion Still Matters

If you’re even a casual fan of Japanese animation (colloquially known as anime) you’ve probably heard of a few classics held up as the best of the medium; films and television shows whose place in the history of Japanese culture is widely regarded as secure: Akira, Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, Spirited Away, to name a few of the most prominent. They all have their critics, but few would dispute their place as landmarks of the industry. But there’s one classic piece of Japanese animation however whose legacy is far more contentious and which sparks controversy even today. Like the aforementioned pieces it’s well-known and has been watched by many, but unlike them it remains quite controversial, beloved by some and derided by others.

I’m talking about Neon Genesis Evangelion,¹ Hideaki Anno’s 1995 post-apocalyptic series about teenagers who pilot giant robots (known as mecha) in a war for the survival of humanity. And in my opinion it’s actually one of the best and most important television shows of all time, animated or not.

(Spoilers ahead, though I’ll try to keep major revelations to a minimum.)

I realize that in making my claim, I’m setting myself up for criticism. The value (or lack thereof) of Neon Genesis Evangelion has been one of the most heated debates in anime fandom for decades. But even on the purely objective level of its influence on the animation industry, both in Japan and beyond, NGE and its subsequent spin-offs, sequels, and re-imaginings is a significant work worth consideration. Although the show is decades old now (the first episode aired October 4, 1995), I believe it’s still worth examining why the show’s so acclaimed and why, in my opinion, it’s still relevant today, in no smal part because of the lessons it still has to teach us about self-acceptance.

(An earlier version of this essay was posted 4 years ago here.)

Weaving a Story

Concept art for Asuka Langley Soryu, the Second Child

Today, Evangelion is a major franchise, incorporating films, comics, video games, and more. But it all started with one TV show, Neon Genesis Evangelion, created by Hideaki Anno for Gainax. Even from the start, NGE was somewhat exceptional. In the early-to-mid 1990s when it was produced, most of the major animated shows on air (both in Japan and America) were heavily merchandise-driven and sponsored by either toy or video game companies. Nearly all were owned by a major studio like Toei or Toho. Conceived of by a single individual and owned by a small creator-run studio, Neon Genesis Evangelion was highly unusual and something of a creative risk.

The story of Neon Genesis Evangelion is, on first glance, nothing remarkable for Japanese animation. A group of teenagers are recruited by a unified global government to pilot giant robots (mecha) in a battle for the survival of humanity. In the process they have to face not only their deadly adversaries but also learn how to work together as a team, overcoming their many differences and personal issues. Gundam, Macross, and Hideaki Anno’s own Gunbuster had all covered similar territory before. But where NGE would go with its premise was far stranger, blending the well-tread concept of adolescent soldiers with theological imagery, Freudian and Lacanian analysis, and abstract writing that soon set the show apart from its contemporaries.

The show quickly caught the fascination of viewers. While Neon Genesis Evangelion started initially with solid but unexceptional ratings, it soon expanded into a massive pop cultural phenomenon as more and more people tuned in to find out what all the fuss was about, eventually reaching 25-30% of the targeted demographic.² The final two episodes, noted for their abstract nature and for seemingly leaving several plot threads hanging, prompted a highly polarized reaction. The follow-up movie The End of Evangelion, released a year later, divided audiences even further. As a consequence, despite Evangelion’s immense popularity and influence, the franchise remains one of the most controversial works to ever air on broadcast television.

Neon Genesis Evangelion’s ending was, however, just one of its controversial aspects. Moral guardians raised complaints about the show’s frank (and frequently bleak) depictions of sex, violence, and mental illness, demanding networks censor its content. Critics such as Eiji Otsuka and Tetsuya Miyazaki accused Anno of “brainwashing” his audience and affirming, rather than criticizing, anime fans’ escapist tendencies. Yoshiyuki Tomino, the director of both Gundam and Ideon, complained that Anno tried “to convince the audience to admit that everybody is sick” and that it “told people it was okay to be depressed.” Additionally, much was made of the show’s religious imagery, particularly due to the then recent sarin gas attacks by the Aum Shinrikyo cult, which like NGE utilized a blend of Western and Japanese religious imagery.

Other complaints centered on NGE’s main characters, many of whom were found to be unlikeable or unheroic. Many attacked the lead protagonist Shinji as weak and indecisive, unbecoming of the hero in a show aimed at adolescents. Some further asserted the character was an attack on the show’s audience and that Anno wanted to “punish” his audience for their anime-loving ways. The rest of the cast didn’t escape criticism either and were variably found to be cruel, schizophrenic, or perverse. All could easily be characterized as dysfunctional.

But despite the backlash against Neon Genesis Evangelion, whether it was centered on the show’s ending, its thematic elements, or its characters’ deficiencies, none of it seemed to put a lasting dent in the show’s influence or popularity. And a lot of that, perhaps, has to do with the time in which it emerged. At the time NGE was originally produced in the early to mid 1990s, Japan was in the midst of an extended economic downturn that would come to be known as the Lost Decade, following a major asset price crash in 1989. During this time, Japanese animation, like many industries, experienced a contraction, resulting in slashed budgets and an increasing reliance on merchandising and product placement to sustain both the studios producing the content and the major networks who broadcasted (and often owned) it.

In addition to these economic concerns, there was also a growing feeling in the 1990s that animation was a thing of the past, whose glory days were long gone and which only inspired passion in either adolescents or callow, sheltered men in their 20s or 30s. The content of most anime was regarded as puerile or derivative and hardly becoming of serious adult interest. The term otaku,³ a word that literally means “house” but was used to mean “shut-in,” quickly became shorthand for anime fans who spent their adulthood collecting memorabilia and memorizing lines from their favorite shows.

But Neon Genesis Evangelion helped to change all that and to reclaim anime’s respectability. Breaking through the traditional animation fandom to a wider audience and owned solely by the creator-run Gainax, NGE was an invigorating shock to the industry, shaking it up and reviving interest in what had been regarded as a dying medium. Within a few short years, new creator-owned studios were cropping up across Japan, a trend which would continue well into the next decade and bear such fruit as Bones, manglobe, Ufotable, or Gainax’s own offshoots Trigger and Khara. The animation industry was expanding again and was beginning to boom overseas, in no small part thanks to the popularity and notoriety of NGE.

Devilman: Crybaby by Science Saru, a series itself based on one of Evangelion’s chief influences

The new anime boom would also reflect its origins in a number of different ways. More than a few of the new shows to debut in the late 1990s and early 2000s were directly influenced and impacted by Neon Genesis Evangelion, including such notables as RahXephon and Revolutionary Girl Utena. More subtly, the starkly realistic depictions of violence and sexuality in NGE as well as its bizarrely surreal imagery encouraged many directors to try similar techniques, resulting in a shift in style throughout the industry.

Neon Genesis Evangelion’s influence on later anime can be attributed in some ways to its technical sophistication. At its most basic, visceral level, NGE was startling to look at. Even compared with other Gainax works that had come before it, like Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water or Gunbuster, NGE immediately stood out as something unique in an increasingly homogeneous industry. The character designs of Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, strangely subdued yet striking and expressive, helped distinguish the cast while Ikuto Yamashita’s monstrous and biomechanical designs for the Evangelions did the same for the show’s mechs. Combined with the intense direction of Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki, Masayuki, and others NGE drew the eye right from the start.

The technical splendor wasn’t just limited to NGE’s art design or animation either. The voice talents provided by performers like Megumi Ogata, Kotono Mitsuishi, Megumi Hayashibara, and Yuko Miyamura gave life to the characters and helped audiences empathize with them, despite their dysfunctional and emotionally-wrought nature. Also contributing to the audio portion of Neon Genesis Evangelion was Shiro Sagisu, whose music swung significantly from jazzy to melodramatic and even to surreal, changing and evolving to match each scene with an appropriate mood. Assisting Sagisu was the vocal work of artists such as Yoko Takahashi, who made the show’s central theme, “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis,” a pop sensation.

But while the technical triumphs of Neon Genesis Evangelion certainly contributed to the show’s lasting appeal and influence, they’re hardly the whole story. For many viewers, the appeal of Evangelion went well beyond the surface, to narrative and thematic elements they felt spoke directly to them. Indeed, it is arguably NGE’s complex characterization, unorthodox narrative structure, and thematic depth which have made it stand out as one of the most legendary examples of Japanese pop culture.

A Cruel Angel’s Thesis

It’s not an exaggeration to say that essays—and books—have been written about Neon Genesis Evangelion and its thematic qualities. Most of this has been concentrated in Evangelion’s own native Japan, but the sensation has breached the other side of the Pacific as well, resulting in comparisons to the works of David Lynch and other Western directors. Contributing to this no doubt has been Anno’s own numerous references in NGE not only to native Japanese culture but to the West as well, with tributes to works like 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Andromeda Strain, and UFO found frequently throughout.

The most obvious thematic element present in Evangelion, at least to Western eyes, is its frequent allusions to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. It’s not hard to see why: the monstrous foes besetting humanity are “Angels” who shoot cross-shaped energy bolts, which the main characters fight with “Evangelions” (the Greek word from which “evangelism” derives). Coupled with other bits and pieces here and there referring to original sin, the will of God, and ancient Judaism, these details give Evangelion a strikingly religious appearance to Western viewers.

However, while they’re certainly the most obvious elements in Evangelion, the religious references are also easily some of the most transient and insubstantial. Although initially viewed as central to the plot by many Westerners, it has since been revealed that most of the Biblical references are there for styling rather than substance and were largely intended to make the show stand out. In many respects, the usage of the Abrahamic faiths in Evangelion is similar to the use of Buddhism in The Matrix or Egyptian mythology in Stargate: a bit of fun exoticism to keep things interesting.

The Sephirot from Kabbalah, as represented in The End of Evangelion

That being said, the religious themes are not as vacuous as is sometimes alleged and the sheer number and obscurity of some of them indicates some real effort on the part of Anno. Each of the Angels, for instance, (which are called shito⁴ in Japanese, meaning “messenger” or “apostle”) are named after actual angels from Abrahamic mythology and their names, when translated from Hebrew or Arabic, often do indicate their nature in some way (e.g., Arael’s name means the “light of God” and it is an enormous winged being who attacks the characters with a beam of light). And while the use of the Kabbalah’s Sephiroth may be perfunctory, many other references to Jewish mysticism appear more meaningful, such as the Chamber of Guf or the duality of the Trees of Life and Wisdom.

Less obvious to Western eyes but possibly even more sophisticated are the references Evangelion makes to non-Abrahamic religions. There is, for example, the notable similarity between what the show terms “Instrumentality” and traditional descriptions of “egoless” nirvana in Buddhism (a religion also referenced by way of the Marduk Institute’s 108 dummy corporations).⁵ Japan’s native religion Shinto also shows its hand, most notably through the depiction of the Evangelions themselves, which Anno consciously designed after the monstrous oni of Japanese legend. All in all, while he may not have intended to portray a particular theological message, it’s clear that Anno put a lot of thought and research into giving Evangelion a suitably mystical appearance.

However, obsessing over the religious imagery in Evangelion obfuscates something far more important: Evangelion isn’t really about religion. Rather, where Evangelion’s thematic depth and complexity most clearly comes into play is psychology and philosophy of the mind.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is often described as a deconstruction of mecha anime. To a large extent that’s true, but it’s deconstruction is specific in outlook, focused on the psychology of its characters in the form of a question: just what kind of people would put the fate of humanity in the hands of adolescent children? And just what would that kind of stress and responsibility do to a child’s mind? In that regard, NGE is in far closer in kinship to Ender’s Game than to its natural predecessors like Macross, Gundam, or Gunbuster.

When the story of Neon Genesis Evangeliom begins, the world has already experienced disaster on an unprecedented scale. 14 years before the show begins, a massive apocalyptic event called the Second Impact devastated the Earth’s climate, precipitated global nuclear war, awakened the monstrous Angels, and resulted in the deaths of half of all humans on the planet. In response, civilization has been restructured and militarized in anticipation of an even worse Third Impact threatened by the Angels. To combat this threat, the secretive organization Nerv assembles biomechanical monsters of their own (the Evangelions) which, as it so happens, can only be piloted by teenagers.⁶

Rei Ayanami, the First Child, believes that her life is expendable

This is the kind of world people like Misato Katsuragi, Gendo Ikari, and Ritsuko Akagi live in and it’s the severity of their situation which ultimately shapes their actions. Although many of the adults, particularly Misato, wish they could let the series’ child protagonists lead a normal life, they know that’s not an option. As a result, the adult characters are driven towards a cold pragmatism that means, no matter how warm or compassionate they may act towards their wards at any given time, they’re still ready to sacrifice them when necessary.

This ruthless approach has its costs, however. The constant pressure to succeed, alongside the emotional whiplash they receive at the hands of the pilots’ supervisors and the repeated trauma they experience in combat results in each pilot’s gradual psychological degradation. Beginning as relatively competent and capable (if slightly dysfunctional) individuals, each pilot eventually succumbs to their trauma and breaks, causing them to isolate themselves from one another and resulting in a breakdown in morale which puts not only themselves but humanity itself at risk.

In keeping with this theme of psychological frailty and the ways in which we as people both intentionally and unintentionally harm those we care about, including those we care about, the series makes numerous allusions to the work of past psychologists and philosophers. Many concepts are mentioned specifically by name, such as the “oral stage,” “separation anxiety,” or the “hedgehog’s dilemma,” while others are alluded to more subtly, such as the Oedipus and Elektra complexes, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, or Lacan’s dichotomy of the constructed and ideal selves.

Hideaki Anno has himself said he researched psychology both before and during the production of Neon Genesis Evangelion and that many of the show’s characters are based upon both these concepts and his own experiences. He has, for instance, described the protagonist Shinji as a reflection of his own conscious self, while the emotionally withdrawn Rei is a manifestation of his unconscious, and the enigmatic Kaworu is his Jungian shadow. Altogether, the works of Freud, Lacan, Schopenhauer, Hegel, Jung, and Sartre have all been identified by staff or critics as influences on the show’s characters and plot.

One of the chief psychological themes in Evangelion is abandonment, particularly by those you love or have been cared for by. Throughout the story—in its past, present, and future—each of the main characters is abandoned by people important to them: their parents, their guardians, their lovers, their friends, etc. Invariably, this abandonment leads to a breakdown in identity and self-confidence, as each character is forced to redefine themselves from within after devoting so much of their identity to how they were perceived by others. Thematically matching to this issue of personal abandonment is humanity’s own abandonment by their unknowable creator eons ago, a detail alluded to occasionally as the story progresses. Like the individual characters then, humanity must learn how to manage and master its own fate when it has no one left to depend upon.

The Hedgehog’s Dilemma

These themes, however, would have little resonance were they irrelevant to the show’s human drama. It is to Neon Genesis Evangelion’s credit that they are not; each of the characters represent the show’s themes in both significant and personal ways. It is quite arguable then that it is the show’s protagonists, however controversial they may be either as individuals or an ensemble, which have truly allowed NGE to endure for decades as an icon of Japanese pop culture.

The most important of Neon Genesis Evangelion’s characters by far is easily Shinji Ikari, the pilot of Evangelion Unit-01 and the son of Gendo Ikari, the enigmatic director of the Evangelion program. At the beginning of the series Shinji is called to Nerv by his father, who abandoned him years earlier following the death of Shinji’s mother. Shinji hopes that this sudden call is for the purpose of reunion, but he is quickly disillusioned when his father reveals to him that he needs Shinji to pilot one of the monstrous Evangelions he’s built—a machine Shinji has hitherto never heard of—and to save humanity from extinction. Brokenhearted by his father’s coldness and terrified of the task he’s been blackmailed into performing, Shinji puts off his own desires and self-identity aside for the sake of pleasing his father and others, becoming the so-called Third Child.

Series protagonist Shinji Ikari, the Third Child

Shinji’s a complicated character and one many find difficult to empathize with. He is self-consciously cowardly and phlegmatic, prone to self-criticism, and afraid of getting close to others for fear that they’ll reject him. At times he thinks seriously about running away from his responsibilities, but whenever he actually does he quickly returns, unable to commit to so blatant an act of rebellion for long. Despite this and despite his own reliance on others to define his value, Shinji does have his virtues: he’s thoughtful, easy to get along with, and proves remarkably skilled at piloting, even if he has no real passion for it.

Shinji’s commanding officer, Misato Katsuragi, is NGE’s most prominent adult character and (according to Hideaki Anno) the series’ deuteragonist.⁸ Loud, goofy, and irreverent, Misato strikes quite a different first impression than Shinji, but despite their outward differences they’re actually quite similar people with comparable issues, merely approaching them in different manners. Like Shinji, Misato feels abandoned by her father, who neglected her and her mother before his death years ago. But despite that Misato still yearns for his affection, manifesting her desires in the form of her relationship with Ryoji Kaji, a coworker and lover she admits resembles her father. And, also like Shinji, Misato fears getting close to other people for fear of being hurt, but whereas Shinji manages his anxiety by avoiding people, Misato does so by acting flippant and flirtatious in public, living lightly and maintaining only “surface level relationships.”

Shinji’s move into Misato’s apartment comes largely at her insistence and Shinji is initially quite uncomfortable with it, a feeling which does not subside when he learns she’s an extremely messy housekeeper and an alcoholic. But despite her irreverent personality, Misato turns out to be a deeply caring person who wants very much for Shinji to be happy and, over the course of the series, she tries to direct the development of Shinji as a good parent would, all the while concerned her own flaws make her an unsuitable guardian. Notably, these moments where the two of them bond are some of the most light-hearted in the series.

Although Shinji is the first pilot the series introduces, he is preceded by two others at Nerv. The first, Rei Ayanami, is arguably Neon Genesis Evangelion’s most popular (and certainly influential) character. Enigmatic and asocial to a degree that goes beyond mere awkwardness, Rei lives alone in a desolate apartment she doesn’t even bother to clean, close to no one but her pseudo-guardian Gendo Ikari. Because of her closeness to his father, who has raised her as his own daughter, Shinji initially sees Rei as a replacement for him. It soon becomes apparent however that Rei’s trust and faith in Gendo go well beyond that of a healthy parent-child dynamic. Obedient to a fault and unconcered for her own well-being, Rei causally throws herself into danger for Gendo and Nerv and comes across as emotionless to those around her.

But beneath Rei’s cold, ultra-stoic exterior beats a heart as capable of joy and sorrow as that of any other. Far from the robotic doll many assume her to be, Rei has a secret yearning for others to understand her and her them and, over the course of the series, slowly opens up to Shinji. But although she desires human contact, she doesn’t really know how to initiate it and she’s terrified of the possibility that there’s something about her that makes her fundamentally unlike other people.

Asuka Langley Soryu, the third of the child protagonists to show up,⁷ strikes about as strong a contrast to Rei as one can imagine. Egotistical, loud-mouthed, and possessed of far more bravado than either Shinji or Rei, Asuka joins the cast about a third of the way through the show, after transferring from Nerv’s facility in Germany. Raised since childhood to be a pilot, Asuka prides herself on her skills and looks with disdain on Shinji’s self-deprecating nature and inability to recognize his own accomplishments. Already a college graduate and convinced she’s as much an adult as anyone, Asuka also proves precociously sexual, pining for both Misato’s lover Kaji and, to a lesser but still significant extent, Shinji himself, whom she frequently teases for attention.

Asuka is like Shinji a controversial character; people often look at Asuka and see one of two sides to her: a selfish jerk who bullies Shinji and Rei or an accomplished young woman whose confidence and inner strength makes her the real hero of the show. The truth, however, is that in many ways she’s both. Asuka really is brave—far braver than Shinji or even Rei, who doesn’t really fear death—and she’s definitely skilled. But she’s also prone to jealousy and vindictiveness, as well as a consciously manifested attitude of not caring for anyone. In many ways, however, her bravado is a cover for own insecurity, built upon the belief that no one really likes or loves her.

The cast of the original Neon Genesis Evangelion

There’s a lot to admire about NGE’s characters, even with all their flaws and personality disorders. It’s easily got one of the most complex and diverse casts in anime and there has to be something said for the fact that of its four principal characters, three are female, allowing it to easily pass the Bechdel-Wallace Test (which it does). The characters each have their own virtues, which in a more easygoing series could make them quite endearing. Lead protagonist Shinji’s selfless and has a fairly noble streak, though it’s hidden deep beneath his own self-doubt and loathing. The adult Misato’s fairly protective of her young charges, at least insofar as she is allowed to be given the circumstances, and is also quite a bit more capable than many expect. Selfless Rei’s loyalty and discipline easily make her one of the most sympathetic characters in the series, even if she does sometimes come across as alien or inhuman. And there’s little question that the daring Asuka has enough chutzpah for the whole cast.

But it could also be argued that the complexity and harshness of NGE’s characters which ultimately make them work, even if at times they also make the show hard to watch. Shinji, Misato, Rei, and Asuka are not the idealized paragons of humanity you’d expect to find in most television shows aimed at teenagers, but they’re not the imaginings of a bitter misanthrope either. They’re deeply flawed, yes, and when they’re hurt they keep on hurting, but they also keep going and keep trying to find a way to live with others that doesn’t result in pain. It’s this idea, the recognition that people screw up and hurt one another but want to do better, that really enlivens the franchise. For all the reputed darkness of Evangelion’s story, it is in many ways idealistic, always hopeful that it’s characters might find a way to be happy. You don’t have to be broken, it says, even if you are damaged.

And it is that core ethos of qualified hope that elevates Neon Genesis Evangelion from just another mecha anime or even a deconstruction of mecha to something more. Something sublime and, in its own strange way, even inspirational.

The Sickness unto Death

At this point I feel it’s useful to provide some personal background. I first watched Neon Genesis Evangelion when I was in high school, sometime between my third and fourth years. My initial reaction was, I think, largely typical. The first episodes interested me and as the storyline moved forward and became more complex, I became more invested in the show’s events and characters. I even appreciated to some extent the bizarre and abstract final two episodes, though I’d hoped for a more conventional ending. Then, I watched The End of Evangelion, whoch left me shocked and dismayed at its harshness. I still cared about the series, but I felt more ambivalent as a result.

Over the next few years I continued to keep up with the Evangelion fandom to a small extent, checking out the rumors about the new movies and reading some fan fiction online, but I gradually drifted away. None of the fan speculation or fiction really seemed to scratch the same itch the original series had and eventually my interests in anime shifted more towards Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Fullmetal Alchemist. Evangelion, as much as I’d enjoyed it before, fell gradually into the background of my life.

And then I entered college.

In my youth, I was generally regarded as a “bright” student, fawned over by teachers and regarded by my peers as either a genius or a “know-it-all,” depending on how much they liked me (or didn’t). As I entered the final years of high school it was clear that I was expected to excel in university. But when I actually began my college career I quickly faltered. Depressed, socially isolated, and exhausted from getting four to six hours of sleep a night, my grades slipped quickly and my social life evaporated. For awhile, I tried to deny my problems and ignore them, believing I could power through without help. Eventually, though, I had no choice but to confront my issues: I was put on academic suspension and my financial assistance was pulled.

I was devastated. I had no idea what to do. I didn’t know how to tell my parents, who I’d let believe I was doing fine. I didn’t know where to go with my life now that I’d failed to live up to the expectations I’d allowed other people to put on me. I didn’t even really know who I was anymore. If I wasn’t a brilliant student and child genius, who was I? In my own eyes I was worthless and contemptible.

Eventually, with the help of my family and friends, as well as staff from the university, I was able to make my way back to daylight. I began to undertake counseling. I went to community college to bring my GPA back up. I started talking more openly with my loved ones about my problems, even though I was worried it would make them think less of me. And I began to be more honest about my flaws and limitations.

A scene from Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo, the third Rebuild film

It was also around this time, rather coincidentally, that I began to seriously revisit Evangelion. I was prompted, as much as by anything else, by the release of the new “Rebuild of Evangelion” films. After my brothers and I attended a screening of the second film’s release in early 2011 with several of our friends, the latter (hitherto unfamiliar with Evangelion) expressed interest in catching up with the franchise. Indulging them, my brothers and I rewatched the original TV series. To my surprise, I began to see the series in a new light. Where once I had simply been sympathetic to Shinji, Misato, Rei, and Asuka’s inner turmoil, now I felt deeply empathetic. Where previously the show’s harshness had at times alienated me, now it felt deeply relatable and truthful. And where earlier the TV show’s decision to focus on the internal psyches of its main characters instead of the plot had puzzled me before, now I felt as if I understood it completely. I even began to appreciate the theatrical finale, a film so brutal some regard it (falsely) as Anno’s revenge against fans angry with him for the original ending.

What had changed? Certainly not the show. Rather, it was my perspective. I possessed now of a viewpoint I hadn’t held earlier. I knew now what it was like to be full of contempt for one’s self, to be a defeated shell of a person who felt as though their value was slipping away or was already entirely absent. I knew what it was like to believe I was a failure in every meaningful way. In other words, I’d gained the perspective of a person suffering from depression. The same perspective as that of Evangelion’s principal characters as well as their creator, Hideaki Anno.

It’s hardly secret knowledge that Hideaki Anno was suffering from depression when he first created Neon Genesis Evangelion. The extent of his depression, however, was far graver than is generally recognized. When Anno began work on the project that would become NGE, he had already been suffering from severe depression for at least four years. In a statement released with the first volume of Evangelion’s manga (comic) adaptation Anno described himself as “a broken man... who ran away for four years, one who was simply not dead.” And while the production of NGE had originally been intended to break him out of a rut, the stress only compounded the severity of his condition. By the time of the show’s completion Anno was, by his own later admission, borderline suicidal.

No one’s ever said precisely what drove Anno over the edge publicly, but it’s widely agreed it had much to do with the production of his previous work, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. Originally conceived by Anno’s mentor Hayao Miyazaki in the mid-1980s Nadia was eventually handed off to Anno after Gainax made a bid for the project. Far gentler and family-friendly than NGE, the comparative sweetness of Nadia obscured a troubled production that saw animation work outsourced and Anno frequently butting heads with NHK, the series’ broadcaster, over the show’s content and creative direction. Coupled with rumored trouble in Anno’s personal life, the experience proved too much for him, driving him into the deep depression that would haunt him for most of the 1990s.

The roots of Anno’s emotional troubles may go deeper, however. Long regarded by those close to him as a lonely and eccentric oddball, Anno was socially withdrawn as a child, preferring to spend his time watching and recreating scenes from his favorite anime and tokusatsu to interacting with others, a choice he’d later say he regretted. In 1983, due in large part to his social isolation and inactivity at school, he dropped out of university and lived homeless for a time before he was discovered by Miyazaki and employed as an animator for Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. The experience proved vital to his career and soon afterward he and a few friends gathered to form Gainax, their own animation studio. It was during this time that Anno directed Gunbuster alongside working on other projects such as Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise and Grave of the Fireflies. For a time, he seemed happy. But then came Nadia and he withdrew entirely from his work and social life, before reemerging to work on Evangelion.

Anno’s turbulent life and emotional turmoil is reflected in the characters of Evangelion, many of whom enter the story damaged but apparently functional only to completely fall apart later on. Shinji is lonely and dependent when he first appears, but he still manages to form friendships and do what’s required of him. Misato may be an alcoholic with a mess of a home, but Nerv’s trust in her is rewarded time and time again by her effectual planning and coordination of her pilots. Rei’s cold and emotionally withdrawn, but her dutiful selflessness both inspires and attracts others to her. Asuka can be arrogant and reckless, but she’s also intelligent and capable of real kindness towards those she respects. Like Anno in the early days of Gainax, they all seem to be on top of things.

But just when it seems like the team’s getting the hang of things and finding their groove, disaster strikes. Soon, as one crisis mounts on top of another, from near-death experiences to being forced to hurt his friends, everything falls apart. Shinji’s newfound self-confidence shatters and he becomes even more needy than before. Misato’s constructed domestic bliss blows apart just as her own convictions are thrown into question by new revelations about her work. Rei becomes colder and more distant than ever before, withdrawing even from Gendo, the one person she trusts implicitly. And Asuka collapses into a pit of self-loathing despair, savagely lashing out at anyone who gets close to her. It’s ugly, it’s nasty, and it’s real.

Shinji admits to his feelings of worthlessness to Misato Katsuragi, his guardian and confidante, in The End of Evangelion

This cycle of crash, despair, and recovery is not unusual for suffers of depression. Contrary to what is often thought, depression is not really something you have at one point in your life and then “get over;” it’s something that can shadow you your entire life, kept in check by momentary pleasures and good times but always threatening to surge and overwhelm you when things go awry, sending you into a spiral of self-hate and abnegation that can last for weeks, months, or even years. Friends and family help keep it in check, as does therapy and pharmaceuticals, but it never goes away completely. The only thing you can do is recognize the symptoms and do your best to confront them. You have to keep going. You can’t let your fears drive you to abandon the world. You must not, in other words, run away.

And really that’s what the characters’ struggles in Evangelion come down to: facing reality and acknowledging their flaws while also recognizing their own potential to overcome them and the painful struggle for acceptance we all, on some level, endure. The first instinct of every character in the series is to run away from their problems, to obscure them with outwardly derived duties, relationships, or purposes. Shinji and Rei both look to Gendo, Misato to her job, and Asuka to her pride as an Eva pilot, but all of them are running away and, as a consequence, are unprepared to deal with reality when it hits them flat in the face.

Or are they?

As Long As You Try to Continue to Live

It’s worth noting that when Anno created Neon Genesis Evangelion he didn’t initially set out to create a dark and cynical deconstruction of mecha anime. When asked what initially gave him the impetus to create NGE, Anno has said repeatedly that he originally meant to make a show more in the spirit of Gundam or Space Battleship Yamato, two of his favorite TV shows from his youth, but without the shackles inherent to sponsorship by a toy company, as was common practice for anime at the time. “I made Evangelion to make me happy and to make anime lovers happy,” he said in a 1996 interview, “in trying to bring together the broadest audience possible.”

But as pre-production on the series progressed (and his emotional state regressed) Anno became further disenchanted at the state of anime, concerned that fans were turning to it as a way to escape reality as he himself felt compelled to. “I wonder if a person over the age of twenty who likes robot anime is really happy,” he stated in an article for Newtype half a year before the series aired. This change in perspective, coupled with his resurgent depression, caused Anno to shift focus as he became more and more concerned with the characters’ emotional development, hoping that by the end of the series’ narrative “the heroes would change,” breaking away from their regressed emotional state and achieving the same emotional well-being and self-dependence Anno still sought for himself and which he felt his audience needed as well.

It’s this perspective of Anno’s—that anime otaku were and are caught in a kind of prolonged childhood—which has led to the impression that Anno hates otaku and believes their lives to be worthless. But the truth is that Anno’s thoughts on the subject are quite a bit subtler and more reflective than many give him credit for. Far from hating otaku, Anno counts himself among them and feels defensive whenever they’re derided by others. The issue, he thinks, is less that otaku are permanently stunted and more that they’re afraid or reluctant to open themselves to new experiences:

“I feel that otaku have already become common to all countries. In Europe, in Korea, in Taiwan, in Hong Kong, in America, otaku really do not change. I think that this is amazing. I say critical things towards otaku, but I don’t reject them. I only say that we should take a step back and be self-conscious about these things. I think it’s perfectly fine so long as you act with an awareness of what you are doing, self-conscious and cognizant of the current situation. I’m just not sure it’s a good thing to reach the point where you cut yourself off from society. I don’t understand the greatness of society, either. So I have no intention of going so far as to call for people to give up otaku-like things and become more suited to society. Only, I think there are many other interesting things in the world, and we don’t have to reject them.”

Despite everything, the characters still care for and want to see one another happy

And that’s what I mean by Evangelion’s subtle, qualified idealism. Despite Anno’s frequent cynicism and troubled state of mind during the production of the series, it’s clear that at heart he’s a person who believes people can change and improve themselves. He’s someone who believes that, even in the worst or most desperate of situations, people can find happiness if they’re open to it. “As long as you try to continue to live,” one character states in The End of Evangelion, “any place can be a heaven… there’s a chance to become happy everywhere.”

It would certainly be easy to define the characters of Evangelion by their failures and—given the magnitude of their failures—it’s understandable why many do. After all, much of the series’ narrative is caught up (as I noted earlier) in deconstructing the kind of scenario typical of mecha shows and examing what really would happen if teenagers were put in charge of the world’s salvation. As such, as in other deconstructionist narratives (such as the Battlestar Galactica reboot or Watchmen), the characters screw up about at least as often as they succeed.

That being said, more often than not, when the characters are hit with tragedy or trauma, they eventually recover and bounce back. They’re definitely damaged and shaken by their experiences, but they keep on going anyway. As much as Shinji fears and abhors piloting he’s also someone who, when people are really depending on him, will almost always get right back in the cockpit and try to help. Rei may be over-compliant and lack any regard for herself, but she’s also capable of defying orders when she knows they’re wrong. And for all Asuka’s jealousy and grandstanding, she’s also a person deeply capable of love and self-sacrifice, who would die for those she cares about.

This ray of hope at the core of Evangelion’s story is made most clear in the television series’ original broadcast ending, wherein Shinji rediscovers his own self-value and the joy of living in a world with other people and declares that, although he hates himself, “maybe, maybe I could love myself. Maybe, my life can have a greater value.” But such idealism is even found in the much more outwardly harsh vision of The End of Evangelion. After coming face to face with the world he thought he desired—a world without pain or individuality—Shinji realizes that it’s also a world without happiness. “This isn’t right,” he says. “There was nothing good in the place I ran to, either. After all, I didn’t exist there... which is the same as no one existing.” Realizing this, Shinji chooses to return to the physical world he knew, even if it means feeling pain again.

The idea that joy and pain are in many ways coterminous with one another is hardly original to Evangelion; indeed, it’s a fairly important concept to Buddhism. But I’ve rarely seen the idea expressed in quite the same way as Evangelion, in a way that’s both fully formed and strangely life-affirming. Pain is inevitable, but so is joy. You’ll be hurt, but it’s better than never feeling anything at all and may only give you more appreciation for what you have. You may feel alone, but you’re not; everyone suffers in their life at one point or another, and you don’t have to carry that burden by yourself.

Reflecting upon and considering these themes through Evangelion, as I rediscovered it during a low point in my life, allowed me to appreciate it in a way I’d never been able to before. And it also helped me to move on with my life, to accept the losses I could never recover while also believing it didn’t mean my own life was over. Like Shinji, Misato, Rei, and Asuka, I didn’t have to be defeated by my experiences. I could keep on going. I didn’t have to run away. And that’s a message I believe everyone needs to hear at least once in their life.

Series creator Hideaki Anno (left) with mentor Hayao Miyazaki (right)

Today, Hideaki Anno has found some peace of mind. He’s happily married, the head of his own production company, and he’s physically healthier too. He still suffers from depression—he’s not cured by any means and he probably never will be; depression isn’t that kind of disease. But he’s able to fight it now and to find the happiness he once believed illusory. He has the same hope he wanted his characters to find in Evangelion. And which I also feel I’ve found, in some small part, thanks to him.

¹Throughout this essay, Neon Genesis Evangelion or NGE refers to the original TV series, The End of Evangelion refers to its theatrical sequel, Rebuild of Evangelion refers to the series of rebooted films produced decades later, and Evangelion on its own refers to the franchise as a whole.

²Specifically, shōnen, meaning boys aged between 12 and 18.

³The term has since been adopted by Western anime fans, but in Japan the word does not necessarily refer to animation fans specifically but to anyone with an obsessive interest in something.

⁴Ironically, “messenger” is a literal translation of the word angelos from Greek—the origin of the English word “angel”—as well as the original Hebrew mal’akh.

⁵The numbers 8 and 108 are both significant in Buddhism. 8 refers to the Noble Eighfold Path to enlightenment. 108 refers to several things, including the number of beads in a Vajrayana prayer rosary, the number of questions asked of the Gautama Buddha in the Lankavatara Sutra, or the number of times Japanese Buddhist temples ring a bell on New Year’s.

⁶The reason for this is never fully explained. Behind the scenes, this was largely because of the show’s target demographic. In universe though it may be related to the secret nature of the Evangelions themselves, which have human souls.

⁷Deuteragonist is a term which means the second-most important character with whom the audience’s sympathies are intended to lie.

⁸Though referred to as the Second Child(ren) because she was the second candidate approved to pilot Evangelions, before Shinji but after Rei.

[recentanimenews]

Rock out with 15 Years of Samurai Champloo!

15 years ago today, Samurai Champloo burst onto the anime scene. Its anachronistic mix of hip-hop aesthetic, chanbara action, and slick animation made it an instant classic. Director Shinichiro Watanabe has continued to bring his own unique vision to more and more titles since then, but the Edo-period piece remains his most down-to-earth yet... literally.

  As with anything Watanabe creates, a lot of different visionaries and inspirations contributed to the entire package. From classic Japanese artists to modern musicians, they're all a part of why we love Samurai Champloo. Today, as we look back on the decade and a half since (and forward to Watanabe's other work), we're taking a moment to investigate some of the individual assets that helped put together the bigger picture.

    As with anything Watanabe makes, we can only ever hope to scratch the surface when it comes to his collaborators and ideas. Any other favorite creators or themes you've noticed in the series? Let's keep the conversation rolling in the comments to celebrate the show's longevity!

  Music: Nujabes

  The late Jun Seba began his career in music as a record store owner, before kicking off his own indie label in 1998. By 2003 he was creating tracks under the name Nujabes, wowing crowds around the world with his nostalgic blends of hip-hop and jazz.

  Nujabes contributed an impressive number of tracks to the Samurai Champloo soundtrack, including the iconic opening theme "Battlecry" (a collaboration with Shing02). This was in addition to his own prolific output. Sadly, Seba's life was cut tragically short in a car crash in 2010. Several albums were released posthumously, and a massive concert was held this past February on the ninth anniversary of his passing.

  Head on over to Spotify for more music from Nujabes, including the full Luv(sic) Hexalogy.

  Music: Fat Jon

  Watanabe loves to come West to find musical talent for his projects, and Samurai Champloo was no exception. Another prolific contributor to the show's soundtrack was Ohio-born Jon Marshall, a.k.a. Fat Jon the Soul Physician. The rapper and producer is another major multitasker, serving as a member of Five Deez, 3582, Rebel Clique, and Beautiful Killing Machine.

  Fat Jon's many contributions to the Samurai Champloo soundtrack include "How You Feel" and "1st Samurai," the latter a collaboration with the aforementioned Nujabes. He's still making music to this day, which you can check out on his official website, ample soul.

  Music: Force of Nature

  Rounding out Samurai Champloo's Big 3 (or is that Big 4?) contributors—though by no means the last of the musicians attached to the project—are Force of Nature. The Japanese duo consists of KZA and DJ Kent, a duo bringing together their talents, unique styles, and massive vinyl collection together to create lo-fi beats to watch anime to.

  You'll recognize their sound in tracks like "Just Forget" and "Same Ol' Thing," blending calm vintage tracks with more modern dance and hip-hop beats. They also teamed up with Tsutchie (formerly of Shakkazombie, featured in Cowboy Bebop's Session XX) for the Samurai Champloo soundtrack album Masta.

Fans wanting more of Force of Nature will reach a dead end attempting to access their website... but their MySpace is still up and running with some sample tracks.

    Art: Kazuto Nakazawa

  Fans of Kill Bill will recognize Kazuto Nakazawa's style at work in Samurai Champloo. The artist pulled double duty as both character designer and chief animator, adding to the show's distinctive look and wild chanbara-inspired action scenes.

  Nakazawa's work on Kill Bill—the anime sequence depicting O-Ren Ishii's back story—premiered just one year prior to Champloo. In that same year, he did key animation for two short films in The Animatrix: "Kid's Story" and "A Detective Story." You'll also see his animation at work in the video for Linkin Park's "Breaking the Habit."

  Inspiration(?): Spike Spiegel

  Perhaps we should say "anti-inspiration," because Watanabe's goal was to create a character who was Spike Spiegel's polar opposite.

  The character of Mugen—the rude, reckless member of our lead trio—was dreamed up as Watanabe was working on the Cowboy Bebop movie, Knockin' on Heaven's Door. The idea was to create an antithesis to the space cowboy: where Spike was mature, capable, and cool, Watanabe wanted someone "young and a little stupid." We're not sure if he succeeded in making Mugen not cool, though... in spite of (or perhaps because of) his wild style, viewers love him.

  Funnily enough, Steve Blum served as the dub voice of both Spike and Mugen. 

  Inspiration: Historical Luminaries

  Samurai Champloo pulls a lots from Japan's Edo Period; but if you're looking for historical accuracy, you'll be either very disappointed or extremely confused. If the slew of R&B and hip-hop artists populating the soundtrack didn't already clue you in, the series loves anachronisms and prefers entertainment over accuracy.

  That's not to say you won't get a tiny bit of a history lesson as you watch. Take Fuu's unexpected modeling job for Hishikawa Moronobu, one of the first artists to popularize the style. (He may have taken some liberties with her likeness, but she sure didn't seem to mind!) They also have a run-in with Alexander Cartwright, the man credited by some with inventing the modern sport of baseball. Just be sure to take everything you see with a huge shaker of salt; we're guessing Cartwright didn't challenge random samurai to baseball games, though we could be wrong.

  What are your favorite things about Samurai Champloo? Let's keep celebrating in the comments!

    -----

Kara Dennison is a writer, editor, and interviewer with bylines at VRV, We Are Cult, Fanbyte, and many more. She is also the co-founder of Altrix Books and co-creator of the OEL light novel series Owl's Flower. Kara blogs at karadennison.com and tweets @RubyCosmos.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!   

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[radicalrave]

Ok, I'm going to present one of list of most favorite anime/manga/light novel series in mosaic in chronological order and will give reasons why I love series and made it on the list.

Reason being is cuz my tastes have changed over time and some series aged well and some didn't, and you'll see why that is when I give my thoughts and reasons.

However, I will give an honorable mention on here, since it won't show up on here. You'll come to see my patrician tastes as 4chan delicately likes to put it haha (yes, I'm a channer and I love trolling with the kids there hahaha that place is information gold that's real and legit.)

1.) Evangelion: Let's face it, this is like most people from the 90's top selection. Not only is it vintage for being around for 20 years and iconically dark for a dark shounen (boy's) series, it left a major impact on the industry and the world in ways that most people, even I underestimated. Infact, I'd venture out to say that this series has aged perfectly well compared to lots of others during its time period. It has definitely aged far better compared to Cowboy Bebop and Betterman and all of it's contemporary peers in the competition back in the day. Infact, we're a few years ahead of that series now, which is strange cuz most of us probably didnt expect to see life past 2010 and 21 hahaha. As a whole, this series was far better compared to everyone else. Now, admittedly, it was dark and has some themes that provoke good questions for society at the time in terms of "what if's." At the time, you can tell that the director was a major nihilist and didn't like the direction the world was going, and you can basically see that in his work here. I know I don't have much to say about this series and it does sound like a weak biased argument and apologize for that, but in all honesty, it's done one thing that most series in the 90's was capable of doing: Stand well against the test of time. THAT's what made it impressive. Even though lots of stuff in it are very much obsolete and clunky now. I mean... all that clunky stuff... its hard to believe we used to live in an ugly world like that at one point in time.

2.) FLCL: Now, I'll admit, it IS overhyped and overrated. I sometimes still can't see the big deal behind it, but I will say this, for a 6 episode mini series, it's directed well with excellent art direction all around on the topic of growing up and coming of age. Back then, it did look very mature and course, but now that I'm older, it's definitely a kids series which was admittedly a bit too edgy and dark for it's time, but, I think could have done better had it been more balanced out being a bit more colorful and lighter instead of darker.

I suppose at that time when pop punk and me was going around that time, and correct me if I'm wrong here, I believe Japan was going thru an economic crisis at the time, which is probably why there was such a negative foul air over the future and industry of Japan and the world as a whole at the time, politically and economically speaking.

The series can be a bit of a cool watch if you're into that era of time, but I would venture to say it's one of those that I'd definitely like to keep in my library, along with stuff like Super Milk Chan and anything else that popped up at that time. It was progressive in it's own way coming off very gritty and crunchy in it's own sense if you understand what I mean about the rough comic aesthetic that it gave off at that time.

3.) Gurren Lagan: This was one of the last Gainax series before they ended up closing shop, and not to mention, progressed past it's predecessors in being extremely fast paced. I loved the art and direction and it was fast paced that had excellent action scenes and novel epic art. However, my main qualms about this series, is that it should have just been 1 season long. I feel that it failed past the time skip in the last 10 episodes and should have crunched the last episode into episode 13, therefore, preserving and making it a quality series holistically instead of being watered down and suffering overtime like Death Note did after volume 7 when L died. In Bakuman, you can tell that Ohba and Obata (Ashirogi Muto) when they made their (Death Note; It's obvious people) that they wanted to end it there to preserve its quality as an art as a whole so that it doesnt suffer, unfortunately, the editorial and the shuisa jump magazine pushed for it, which is why we got a weird asspull with Mello and Near after, and you can see how they wanted to end Death Note with this.)

Now, Gurren Lagan, I liked the direction, it was ok, but it also had some misses too over time. It wasnt perfect, but the direction was fresh for it's time. However... personally speaking, if I were to replace this with another series that deserves an honorable mention, and it's directed by one of my current favorite directors in the industry right now, it's Re: Cutie Honey, based on Go Nagai's manga back in the 70's as one of the first and original magical girls to come and pop up with it's modern digital groovy colorful and psychedelic disco aesthetic. I really loved the direction and way it came out and would love to endorse how much I love the direction behind these kinds of aesthetics in anime and manga. Personally, I'd like to see both modern and old school and see how they age 10-30 years from now, just like alot of series I grew up with over the yeras. This however, is NOW 10 years old and remember when it first came out and the internet and DA was all big about it with Ryoko and all that, but I admit that it was a bit overhyped, I like it, it was a bit sometimes edgy and weird, the weird was ok, edgy, at least it wasnt but it would have been better had it been toned down even with coolness and make it more cartoonier and it would have definitely succeeded. The final fight scene in the series is the best and loved it and wished that it ended sooner than it did, then the series would have ended perfectly. The last 10 episodes of that season was watered down, the plot was weakened and honestly wasnt a big fan after that. It's one of those 7/10 that could have been a 9/10 in my book.

4.) Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: THIS. THIS SERIES IS BY FAR THE BEST THAT HAS CAME OUT IN THE PAST 3 DECADES! What's frustrating is that it was poorly marketed, underrated and poorly localized. It is by far one of the best directed anime series of all time that I haven't seen been topped off or progressed in yeras. The closes to it is the Monogatari series which is based off the light novel series and directed by the same director who took up the project. You can tell by the direction with the slides and the timing of the scene changes. Zetsubou however was fresh, creative for it's time and progressive and to this day, I still consider to be and supposed to be the future of anime and manga.

Based off the manga series by iconic mangaka Koji Kumeta, Kumeta was one of those guys who taught me how important critical tone and dialogue is when it comes to witty batter and writing when it comes to screenplay, writing and manga and the guy lets his frustrations out with gusto. I haven't seen anyone come as close to how good this guy is as a writer other than Sorachi of Gintama fame, who is also one of my top and favorite mangaka of all time. As a quality series as a whole, I also put it up there with Death Note, but much higher. I like his simplistic art style that he has adopted past his earlier works and the art style that changes over time that sticks out and can tell, it's his. and both the writing and the art compliment each other well perfectly with excellent satirical critical tones. You can tell that his writing style is pervasive in Joshiraku, Impatient Count and the Time Thief and toned down in his latest work Kakushigoto. (Yes, I'm a huge fan of this guy who is underrated and not well known and honestly wish he would get better credit than he currently deserves and is by far one of the best creative driving forces in the industry I have ever come across.)

What makes this series tick out and perfect art the gags and the dark truth satirical tones this series takes. The characters are original and fresh and very likable, memorable and have a charm that makes them attractive. Basically, the way he designed them holistically is far better compared to anything that Akamatsu of Love Hina and Negima has done and basically executes his work with excellent precision. The topics the teacher brings up are interesting and basically rags on everything that annoys him as he and his students debate about life topics in and out of school. You can say its like a modern high school version of charlie brown peanuts with a bit of a Tim Burton feel to it, but not as macabre and also somewhat cute. I like how he questions politics and law as well in this work of his and perfectly concludes it with 300 chapters in 30 volumes with a pretty comical yet grim ending that people will come to remember as a holistically quality work worth keeping and remembering for the years to come. This ended about roughly 5 years ago, so it has been around for quite a while the past 12 years and has done a good job aging for that generation of people who were around for the Haruhi and Lucky Star hype back then. This one is easily a 9 or 10/10, cuz its that good.

Localizing may be tough, but its best to appreciate it for what it is. Its still never came over here considering how good it was back then, but I can still see it as future of anime kind of things.

5.) Tatami Galaxy: Now this one is admittedly a bit pretentious with being known as a fast talking anime series for an older audience set in a university setting. I love the art direction, but the theme is kind of redundant, but it can be fun to watch. It's based off a light novel series which apparently gets alot of positive critical attention overseas, but the direction for the anime, you can say that its equivalent to the speed of the voices for the dubbing of Speed Racer back then. Having seen Speed Racer in it's original intended language, I love it far more and it's more natural and relaxed and presented in the way that it was meant to be and honestly, I loved it.

This however, is one of those ones if you want an articulate post modern art college watch and want to kick back and relax, as it can be somewhat confusing as he goes back in time alot and redoes things with every episode till the last episode. You can equate it to that of Haruhi's 2nd season of the Endless 8 arc where the same exact thing except presented differently in each episode is done, but this was better, and was probably one of the biggest trolls in anime history of all time. It CAN be pretentious but it isn't completely per se either.

6.) Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt: OK... I lied... THIS is one of the best progressive anime series with best art direction of all time. It's very western animation influenced in western cartoon format and very colorful. To me, THIS is what I'd still consider and call the future of anime and still should be looked at as such. Here are reasons why. It's simple, not in depth or edgy and dark, but it was just completely perfect all around to the point that it seriously does deserver a 10/10 in my book. Hands down.

Lasting only one season with a trolling cliffhanger, it is one of the best episodic series I have come to watch and enjoy as an anime series of all time and wish that more anime would adopt the kind of aesthetic this series brought to the table. Aside from probably being the LAST Gainax series before the director went on to form Trigger the upcoming years with Kill la Kill, Kiznaiver and currently airing Little Witch Academia, it stood out for it's colorful art direction and cartoony feel that it had which I feel most anime SHOULD have. Despite the history of anime and manga being heavily western influenced by Disney and the country's earliest calligraphy and erotic paintings and shunga back in the pre modern times.

Now, it IS raunchy and not for kids, so let me emphasize when I say that when you watch the dubs or the original with liberal subs, it can be taken out of context at times, but still... it is very raunchy and not really kid friendly, the context in its original language is admittedly very crude, but not as crude as the liberals and americans tend to portray it here theatrically in its direction. Infact, it's so Raunchy, Adult Swim CAN'T air it here in the states, considering that AS is mostly for kids and teens in the day and age and not really adult shows. I've seen adult series and honestly, alot of what I posted aren't considered as such, This one is more like teens and older adult with childish and kid like theatrics and appeal which is what I really like about it. So... its probability for one of those extremely leftist liberal families that are cool with sitting with their kids and educating and explaining content to their kid with guidance so they can be mature NOT to do or say those things that is presented on here, but realistically, the statical odds of things like that are extremely small to most likely less than 1%.

Admittedly, it DOES need a 2nd season and there is a following and demand for it, considering the way it had ended 7 years ago in Christmas of 2010. It's one of my favorite art directions at the time for cool stuff like Danganronpa, No More Heroes or Mad World, lots of games with colorful comic noir aesthetics like that and is honestly at the top of my list as one of the best landmarking and progressive anime series of this decade that to this day, STILL hasn't been topped off at all. It's easily a 10/10 in my book, so do watch with discretion.

7.) Eccentric Family: This one, I caught this one a bit late. This is from the same writer of the Tatami Galaxy Novel series and illustrated by Koji Kumeta of Zetsubou Sensei fame, so you can see I have a bit of my biases of my favorite people in the industry who team up and work together on different projects, this is one of them.

The plot is very simple and not complex and its not deep or edgy. It's quirky and fun with some colorful playful humor with alot of Japanese folktale lore presented in modern day japan. This series is very reminiscent to that of Paranoia Agent and has features that are similar to it, though unfortunately Satoshi Kon hasn't been with us since his passing in 2010. What's great about this is that a 2nd season has been green lit this year and will be airing this year, so you will be on time to hop on and enjoy the ride with the rest of us on this fun and quirky ride of tanukis and tengu.

8.) Kill la Kill: I'm sorry but I'm majorly biased cuz I love Ryuko chan and would love to wife her as my waifu obviously. But joking aside:

Kill la Kill is currently Trigger's most popular magnus opus in the industry right now and one of their earliest works. They have put out some stuff before they put this one out. They later ended up putting out Space Patrol Luluco and Kiznaiver at the same time last year which both performed well, but never outshined Kill la Kill to this day and so far, Little Witch Academia with a few OVAs the past few years and currently airing is expected to be the next big magnus opus that will outshine it. I can see it and like how kid friendly it is and it can't, mostly for the semi nudity and side boob that it shows. Not that that's a problem, but lots of conservatives will have a problem with it and can lose an audience because of things like that when marketed and presented to the public.

It's one of the first project after the director formed it after working on Panty and Stocking and did other shorts such as Sex, Violence and Machspeed, which is a knockoff of Panty and Stocking with a different comic noir aesthetic and were cameoed in Space Patrol Luluco along with Sucy from Little Witch Academia.

This series is a semi kids series and love it and would love to own the anime BDs for sure. There are subtle hints of politics in this series in terms of life fiber and alliances in the series. It's NOT the best but its decent and ok and not as progressive or articulate compared to the others I have mentioned on here, and had it tried to be progressive in the timeline trying to progress past them as a quality art, it would have definitely succeeded as a 10/10 and mostly gets roughly an 8 or 7 out of 10. 8 cuz I'm being nice and love Ryuko, but thats not an excuse or reason to give it an extra point.

The plot was simple, it wasnt that deep or edgy or dark, its somewhat colorful and cartoony is what I like about it and its not raunchy or explicit showing nipples or anything, its simple. It can be seen as for adults and older teens, its basically a coming of age for girls outgrowing their high school years and questions the nature of humans in society.

It can be seen for kids, but mostly kids at the age of 10, but I can see it definitely see it being coarse. Now, it's not as course and raunchy and tantalizing compared to To Love Ru which is indeed raunchy in a good light and thankfully not disgusting, but there's easter eggs that you'll see in the art and expression of the series where you'll see exposed areas in the reflection of the series that bypasses the censorship laws in japan for manga and anime on tv to the point that Yabuki has been taken to court a few times because of upset parents. Basically, he would literally draw in very subtle stuff like a vagina and clitoris in the reflections in the art and would be easily overlooked and most people even editorial wouldn't notice but bypassed censorship laws that not even hentai artists could do. I remember a documentary of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations when he went to Japan and sat with the mangaka who invented the tentacle rape to bypass Japanese censorship laws because of a loophole he noticed and exploited.

Same here, but he used reflections instead of blatant exposure. So if you read the series, if you look at water drops, metal reflectors or bubbles and mirrors, you will definitely be seeing vagina, penises and clitoris that you aren't allowed to be seeing and are outlawed on Japanese media but only because its bypassed censorship laws by exploiting a loophole found. This was noticed in To Love Ru Darkness, and the story behind it was kind of sad and understandable as Yabuki went thru a divorce with his wife who caused him trouble and left him being a single parent, so it was in a sense of him retaliating and venting off his anger and frustration off of society and pushed the border which gave him the name (madman yabuki.) He is known for his earlier work Black Cat which ended prematurely on 20 volumes last decade and is the main artist and collaborates with the writer of the series. But is known to be raunchy and cleanly tantalizingly provocative for sure.

So there is debate, its questionable, its hard to categorize and tell at times (sorry, psychology talk here) but its definitely memorable for Ryuko and the trigger studio for putting another quality series out there. Personally, had the plot, direction and writing been better with better art direction all round in being progressive, it could have easily gotten a 10/10 in presenting something in a way that's unique and in a way that's yet to have been done before, there aren't much annoying tropes which I liked about it, but still, had they done better research, worked harder and didnt half assed it and outperformed, I would definitely have been raving about it for yeras to come and age well to landmark and progress the timeline of the industry's history.

9.) Last but not least, SPACE DANDY: I LOVE THIS SERIES. IT's colorful, brilliant, hip and amazing all around and definitely Watanabe's best work as an anime director the past 20 years. This series definitely outshines any work he's done with Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo combined by giving it a colorful and quirky cartoony feel and making it enjoyable and fun to watch that's not dark, but it's unique and experimental in the story telling models and style of series for what it was. Rather, it wasn't episodic, but there was lots of academic themes in science and philosophy that are mentioned alot that surpasses sci fi in the past which is WHY it's currently his best work, It's brilliant touching up on topics such as physics and mathematics, the pure sciences and talks about stuff such as different dimension, time travel, and the like and he does it in such a way that its excecuted perfectly and enjoyable to watch all around as a holistic watch. Over time, Ic an see it aging well for the next 10-15 yeras, depending on how society, literature, thought and technology goes and progresses over time. Its definitely watanabes best and creative work, even though he has experimented and messed with mixing things up with different cultures and time periods, this however, was not so much as by the book, but he takes that and applies it and get creative and makes it better and doesnt try too hard like he did in the past, but keeps it simple. THAT shows true mastery. Its similar to that of Ashirogi Muto's current project Platinum End. By the book, but applied and creative past that, and that's exactly what Dandy did. Though, his work after Dandy; Terror in Resonance, was his weakest and bad project and waste of funding since it was a culmination of everything that happened the past 2 decades all rolled up in one and dont consider it creative or great at all in all honest and one of his weakest efforts as a director.

I enjoy it far more than bebop, bebop wasnt as great as I got older, mostly because I realized that Spike was a loser asshole who basically had an affair with someone else's woman and basically caused a shit storm over selfish ambition and in all honesty, dont consider him cool in the least, but rather, just a complete fucking asshole who thinks he's cool when he won't admit it when in all honesty, he's really the bad guy in all this and all this plot would have been avoided, had he not been such a complete fucking prick (yeah, school teaches you to think very differently.) Dandy on the other hand may be a loser, but he's a loser with a good heart and good ambitions whose kind of like Gintoki, not as good or cool, but he has his own charm which is what makes him great. Dandy is indeed, one of the better works of his career and catalogue and very proud to say that this is something that I'd own in my library on BD for sure. It's tough to give this a 9 or 10 out of 10. I'd say 9.5, but for the sake of rounding off and keeping it simple and as to how much I liked it and trying my best NOT to be biased, I'll just be lazy and keep it simple and say that this series deserves a 10/10 for not just being what I mentioned earlier, but because this series offers alot of variety and diversity like Bakuman did, and you can tell that Watanabe experimented and exercised alot of new things and tried many many things that made this series so great. It's down to earth, kept simple, fun, colorful and enjoyable and definitely one of those realistic satire that did question and bring up things in today's societal issues.

My advice, don't get put off by Boobies which is like Hooters, keep it simple and don't get too deep or complex about it, thats where you go wrong already for critical analysis, keep it simple and say that it also keeps in touch with reality when it comes to human nature and the true nature of the world all around us that the truth is, nobody really knows anything at all in a socially constructed society that we all in this day and age live in consciously and unconsciously. That's what makes it a very great series in general. I'd consider it a family friendly series which is why I give it a 10/10. It's not disgusting, provocatively grotesque and raunchy, but very clean, fun, comical and enjoyable for ALL ages. No matter what culture or where you're from.

10.) Honorable Mention.

OK, I'm getting tired, but this one HAD to be mentioned cuz it's really good and deserves a mention:

Monogatari Series. I had a hard time choosing between this and Eccentric Family. Both are not well known and obscure, but... I decided to give it to Eccentric, because its not as popular, so it was hard to choose between the two.

Based on a currently ongoing and popular Light Novel series, the series follows around young Arrarragi, who basically becomes a half vampire after getting bit by one. What makes this series stick out is the dialogue and relationships he has. There's lots of drama and interaction but done in the intelligent and pretentious way. Not as pretentious as Tatami Galaxy, but you can tell it can be.

It is directed by the same guy who directed the Zetsubou Sensei anime, so you can tell with the slides and screens and timing the series has with it's own unique style and aesthetic. Now, what I really love about this series is the girls he talks to, their curses and the art direction. It's beautiful. I love how articulate and artsy it can be and you can tell its pretentious, but its not annoying or smug about it. It tries to keep it simple, but some characters are alike that. I'm a huge fan of the series, I love how it's progressing and indecisive it can be. Its got its own feel but can be cartoony and you can tell what references they refer to.

I love this series alot, so far, it's got a good 7 or 8 out of 10 from me. I'd definitely like to buy the novels and books if localized, but its definitely one of those honorable mentions that needs to be put out there cuz of how good it is and the staff involved in the project behind it and really enjoy it for what it is. Its good art watch if you want something progressive. It is somewhat progressive but still doesnt top off zetsubou sensei, its kind of the same but more artsy... they're both artsy... but int heir own way and comes later, but in my opinion not as good, but its still good and doesnt lack. I really love the dialogue and interaction in this which is what makes it enjioyable to watch.

And that's it... its alot but I will post more later. I will post a favorite of favorite manga/anime adaptations. It'll be stuff like One Piece, Gintama, Death Note, Bakuman, Rurouni Kenshin, My Hero Academia, D. Gray Man, Assassination Classroom, Hunter x Hunter, FMA, Yuyu Hakusho and Embalming: Another tale of Frankenstein. They're mostly Jump series as you can tell, but I like them alot and enjoy them a great deal and will give my thoughts and opinions of them later on. Thanks all.

[a-sleep-i-insomniac-blog]

Space Dandy: A Lasting Attempt at Embodying Creativity

One day, an AI vacuum cleaner entered a coffee shop and immediately fell in love with the coffee machine situated on the counter near the door. For the next few days, the vacuum cleaner kept on going back until one day, he found the coffee machine to be missing. It turned out the coffee machine had been found to be defective, and had been thrown away. He tracked her down, only to find that she had joined an AI revolution, and fallen in love with a cash register. To save her from the terrors of revolution, the vacuum cleaner tried desperately to suppress the revolution, leading him to be rejected by the other AI appliances. Finally, in an attempt to reconnect with his unrequited love, he disobeyed his programing, and drank a cup of coffee, effectively killing himself. 

This is the plot of the season one finale of the show Space Dandy. Led by the up-and-coming director Shingo Natsume, and supervised by Shinichiro Watanabe of Cowboy Bebop fame, as general director, Space Dandy was built from the ground up to be different. In an industry where shows are forced to pander towards their demographics to make ends meet, Space Dandy was built to be an example of unrestricted creative freedom. However in attempting to do so, it was able to transcend being a mere product of creativity, and instead as able to embody the very idea of creativity. From its roster of new and old talent working on incredible scenes of animation and extremely unique episodic plots, Space Dandy is able to make the abstraction of creativity concrete by embodying the notion of creativity down to its structure, while tapping into its technical impressiveness, conceptual intrigue, and emotional provocation to make this creation resonate with its viewers.

Space Dandy’s production staff is filled with industry giants as well as much new and fresh talent. The music was partially produced by Yoko Kanno, one of the most legendary anime composers of all time, but mostly composed by Kensuke Ushio, a relatively new composer on the scene of anime. Its animation staff is filled with as many industry legends such as Yutaka Nakamura, Yoshimichi Kameda, as well as new relatively unheard animators recruited directly off of the internet for their web animations such as Norifumi Kugai, Keiichiro Watanabe and Kyiotaka Oshiyama. The character designs of the show, having been designed to be easy to animate, allowed for these animators to go wild and do whatever they wanted. Most were given complete creative reign on their segments, and Kiyotaka Oshiyama was even given the task of animating and storyboarding an entire episode by himself. Thomas Romain, the mechanical designer for the show, who is generally is stationed at Studio Satelight, stated in an interview that simply one day, an “offer came directly from my own boss [asking] me if I wanted to make some mecha-designs for Bones on the new Shinichiro Watanabe show” (Romain). In an industry where the creation of a marketable product is more important than creating art, creative freedom over such large parts of a series is simply something that does not occur in the anime industry. This large mishmash of experienced and fresh talent has led to the creation of something that barely acknowledges the existence of restrictions, freely switching between animation styles at will, and changing the color palette and music just to suit the nature of the scene as perfectly as possible. In order to be explosive and colorful, it would adopt a color palette of bold primary colors, and a soundtrack of bold brass jazz. However, in order to portray of a more heartfelt and down-to-earth scene, the color sense would shift towards more faded and earthy colors, while the animation would change to be less overly kinetic, to something more realistic. In doing so, the staff working on the show were able to create as they pleased, while not being restricted to a certain animation style or color palette. In an interview with Bahi JD, one of the newer web generation animators on the show, he emphasized that “both [Shingo Natsume and Shinichiro Watanabe gave] the animators a lot of freedom. [...] My animation part allowed me to completely express myself and come up with new ideas” (JD). In turn, the final product became something both unpredictable and entertaining for the audience, as well fun for the staff working on it to make. Thus, Space Dandy is not only a product of creativity on the part of its creators, but also a show that embodies the very idea of creative freedom from a technical standpoint.

Likewise, the writing in this show is equally as inventive. With an equally prestigious roster of writers and directors, including the likes of Shinichiro Watanabe, Sato Dai, Sayo Yamamoto, and Keiko Nobumoto, all highly regarded storyboarders, episode directors, and scriptwriters, Space Dandy was destined to have good writing. However, the quality of its writing is not actually as conventionally good as one would think with this crew of accomplished writers. Characters die and come back at will, effectively destroying all dramatic tension of the series. Often, the thematic elements of episodes might not seem immediately clear, and other times, it can only be understood as a commentary on how life is a pointless slog where nothing ever gets accomplished. However, if one were to take a step back to look at it, these seemingly nonsensical elements of the show begin to make sense. Just as how on a technical level, the animators and composers barely acknowledged the existence of restrictions on what they were creating for the sake of creating something original and having fun while doing it, the screenwriters and directors also largely ignore logical cohesion of plot points for the sake of putting out as many interesting ideas as possible. Thus, instead of trying to create a logically coherent and straightforward narrative, the writers of Space Dandy set out to pose more questions and scenarios for the sake of creating something new and original. In an episode where Dandy and his crew capture a book alien, the idea that stories are really a collection of past experiences is shown when that alien possesses Dandy and his crew to live their lives in order to fill its pages with more content. In an episode where Dandy captures an alien that can imitate things so well that it forgets if it actually is the imitator or the imitated, it poses a question about reals and fakes, questioning if a real and fake are indistinguishable, if they have any difference in value at all. Upon realizing the ordeal that he had now found himself in, Dandy nearly has an existential crisis, lamenting “I am he, as you”, until finally coming to the conclusion that none of it actually mattered, bolding proclaiming “Who cares baby!” (Space Dandy). All of this, while no doubt nonsensical, are the product of the perpetual stream of ideas that is creativity. Yet, by being so unstructured and unorthodox, the writing of Space Dandy is able to transcend being merely a product of creativity, and to become an embodiment of creative freedom in terms of writing as well.

However, what use is it to attempt embody creativity if no one were to realize that that was the goal of the show in the first place? In order for Space Dandy to be able to actually go anywhere with its goal of representing creative freedom, it would need to  resonate with someone. It is able to achieve this through the use of it likeable and relatable characters. The premise of Space Dandy can essentially be boiled down to that of the misadventures of a dandy guy in space, as he and his space crew comb the galaxy for new species of alien. This premise in itself may seem cool enough, as it brings into mind the idea of exploring a vast a grand galaxy filled with wacky and over-the-top aliens with a suave and gung-ho protagonist. Dandy himself, with his greased up pompadour and casual outward demeanor, calls back to a sense of cool reminiscent of the seventies. However, the actual adventures of Dandy and his crew are rather unglamourous. He often manages to fail at his job, going hungry on a rather frequent basis, as well as constantly being rejected by women, and even gets himself killed quite a few times within the show. Despite being a confident and relatively good-looking man, he still manages to come off as incompetent at his job, and to be generally quite a loser. This is all in an attempt to humanize the romanticized image of a hero of a story that always gets what he wants when he wants. Rather, it manages to make Dandy stunningly normal. He is not bound by the conventions of the stereotypical “cool guy”, as he is allowed to have moments of solace, such as when mourning the death of an adorable dog, as well as when he is helping a little girl reunite with her grandfather. The same goes for the rest of his crew. His robot sidekick QT would have you believe that he is a hyper-intelligent supercomputer, when in reality he is actually an AI vacuum cleaner that runs on punch cards rather than digital data. The other member of Dandy’s crew, Meow, is a betelgeusian, an alien that Dandy made friends with and decided to tag along, is actually not alien at all, but rather just a lazy bum that sits around eating and tweeting on his phone. Yet, in spite of not being as cool as they would have seemed, this type of characterization is able to ground the fantastical settings and stories within a reality that is more relatable to viewers than a story where everyone is impossibly suave and cool would ever be able to achieve.

While having this cast of likeable and relatable characters is vital to resonating with the audience of a show such as this, what makes character driven shows so interesting to watch are the creative and inventive scenarios that they find themselves in, and the way that they are executed. Space Dandy is able to succeed at this in being able to resonate technically, conceptually, and emotionally with its audience. It is here where the technical staff, writers, and characters are able to combine to form something truly memorable. Space Dandy is filled with scenes of animation of ridiculously high quality. The amalgamation of fresh and veteran talent in the animation department are able to create scenes so striking in their presentation that they are bound to leave an impression on the viewer. The image of Dandy surfing the debris of an exploding moon is not an image easily forgotten. Furthermore, the strange and inventive nature of many of the episodic plots of this show, crafted by Space Dandy’s team of veteran writers, are unique enough to leave their own lasting impressions. An adventure on a planet inhabited entirely by sentient plants, coupled by the execution of the scenes visually with the help of this project’s expansive list of animators, is able to make you think in a way a conventional premise would never be able to achieve. Finally, the lovable losers that are the cast of Space Dandy are what tie this together, as their relatable nature make it so that we can truly empathize with them as they go about their adventures. Yet that is not all. There are certain episodes in the series that seem to have much more straightforward emotional messages to them. Thus, when these episodes do happen, and the cast are actually subjected to strong emotions, audience is able to feel that emotional strain as well. This, coupled with animators and music composers that are able to bring such situations to life, can also leave a lasting effect on the viewer. A story as simple as two people pretending to be lovers, only to end up falling for each other, ending with that affection going unrequited, coupled with such strong presentation is able to have a lasting impact on the viewer, as much as surfing a imploding moon and a planet inhabited by sentient plants ever could.

Down to the way it is structured and staffed, Space Dandy was always going to be different. The creative freedom granted to the animators and music composers of the show allowed them to create scenes that are truly unique and special, without having to compromise on the animation style, or the soundtrack’s musical genre.  Likewise, the creative freedom granted to the show’s writes has yielded similarly unorthodox and thought provoking ideas incorporated into the show’s plot. By being able impress from a technical standpoint, intrigue from conceptual standpoint, and provoke from an emotional standpoint, the animation, music, and writing all work in tandem to drive the characters construct something resoundingly creative. Thus, in an industry centered on pandering to guaranteed consumer demographics, a vacuum cleaner suppressing an AI rebellion, only to kill himself by drinking coffee, can have much more bearing than just being a somewhat peculiar love story.

Works Cited

Shingo Natsume and Shinichiro Watanabe, creators. Space Dandy. Studio BONES and Square Enix, 2014.

Toole, Michael. Interview with Thomas Romain. Anime News Network, 14 April 2014, http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interview/2014-04-14/the-space-dandy/part-i-thomas-romain.

Toole, Michael. Interview with Bahi JD. Anime News Network, 16 April 2014, http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interview/2014-04-16/the-space-dandy/part-ii-bahi-jd.

[mistermangasan-blog]

Samurai Champloo Anime Featured

Samurai Champloo Anime Featured - Samurai Champloo is set in an alternate version of Edo-era (1603 to 1868) Japan with an anachronistic, predominantly hip hop, setting.  It follows Mugen, an impudent and freedom-loving vagrant swordsman; Jin, a composed and stoic rōnin; and Fuu, a brave girl who asks them to accompany her in her quest across Japan to find the "samurai who smells of sunflowers". Samurai Champloo has many similarities to Shinichirō Watanabe's other work Cowboy Bebop. Both series are critically acclaimed, focus on mixing genres, follow an episodic narrative design, and utilize contemporary music. Samurai Champloo was dubbed in the English language and licensed by Geneon Entertainment for releases in North America. Funimation began licensing the series after Geneon ceased production of its titles. It was also licensed for English releases in the United Kingdom by MVM Films, and in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment.   A young woman named Fuu is working as a waitress in a tea shop when she is abused by a band of samurai. She is saved by a mysterious rogue named Mugen and a young rōnin named Jin. Mugen attacks Jin after he proves to be a worthy opponent. The pair begin fighting one another and inadvertently cause the death of Shibui Tomonoshina, the magistrate's son. For this crime, they are to be executed. With help from Fuu, they are able to escape execution. In return, Fuu asks them to travel with her to find "the samurai who smells of sunflowers". --excerpt from Wikipedia.--        

Now that I've got those minor bits out of the way, let me just say that I really loved a great deal of Samurai Champloo. This oddball triangle of three misfits works amazingly well, far better than I expected when the show started. Oddly enough, for characters who appear a bit daft or cold, I grew really attached to them over the course of the show's run. For all the comedy, the show does especially well with the serious plotlines that often weave throughout the episodes, and the heart of the program lies in the personal growth that occurs ever so slightly as the proceedings unfold. They aren't drastically different people by the end of the journey, but they have learned much about themselves in the process.   When the mix of elements works, which is a lot of the time, Samurai Champloo just rocks. Some episodes are a joy to watch from start to finish. The show is willing to explore many areas (such as the persecution of Christians in Japan throughout the 19th century) in unique ways, even if they aren't dead-on historically. And the best stories wind up locked in your memory. One in particular involving a blind musician who's more than she seems is pretty incredible. What's more, though the show is episodic in nature, there a quite a few two-part pieces, and there are some narrative elements that tie the show together in its last fourth. It snuck up on me...by the time the show was over, though not everything worked along the way, I was truly sorry to see it end.   For its minor problems, my grade goes down just slightly, but Samurai Champloo is a fun, fast-paced, beautifully animated trip of a series. If you're willing to set aside the issues the show undeniably has and remember that this isn't the second coming of Spike, Jet, Edward, and Faye, it's a very good ride indeed.--excerpt from The Anime Review.--   The artwork of Samurai Champloo remains as stylish as ever, combining lush, idyllic landscapes with bold, angular character art. Although overt references to hip-hop culture are put on hold for a while, there's still plenty of room for the animators to have fun, such as in the colorful, tripped-out sequence towards the end of Episode 9. (Anyone who's seen "Mind Game" should recognize the style immediately as that of the movie director Masaaki Yuasa.) A more subtle technique shows up in flashbacks, where sepia tones and grainy effects give the right feeling of age to certain scenes. When bigger jumps in time are required—like the policeman narrator making ridiculous historical tangents—whole shifts in style come into play, making references to ukiyo-e, the Beat generation, and even modern-day Japan. Of course, more conventional animation techniques retain their high standard as well, and there really is no swordfight like a Champloo swordfight. With real-time action, extreme perspectives and angles, and unpredictable moves, this is one truly vivid (if rather stylized) depiction of the samurai era.   The soundtrack remains just as distinctive as the visuals, with hip-hop tracks encompassing a wide range of emotions. Whether it be a single instrument unraveling a melody, or an all-out breakdown on a heavy beat, this is a style of music that's easily as expressive as any full orchestra. Watch out also for the alternate ending song in Episode 12, a soulful ballad whose dramatic weight balances the comedic mood of that episode. Even if it's not everyone's favorite genre, the music suits itself very well to the series, and that's what matters.--excerpt from Carlos Santos on AnimeNewsNetwork.--                             Read the full article

[recentanimenews]

Listeners TV Anime Rocks the World Unveiling 1st Trailer and Cast

  Get ready to turn your TV screens to 11 as Kagerou Daze creator JIN and screenwriter Dai Sato (Space Dandy, Cowboy Bebop) bring the original music anime Listeners to life. A new trailer for the upcoming TV anime was released, announcing the cast members and full staff for the series.

    Headlining the series is Rie Takahashi (Megumin in KonoSuba) as Myuu, while backing her up on stage is an all-star studded lineup of voice actors, in order from the trailer: Ayumu Murase, Kouichi Yamadera, Nana Mizuki, Junichi Suwabe, Sayaka Ohara, Yoko Hikasa, Rie Kugimiya, Kana Hanazawa, Taku Yashiro, Yuto Uemura, and Jun Fukuyama.

  Earlier released key visual:

    Co-ordinating the anime is director Hiroaki Ando (Ajin: Demi-Human) at MAPPA (ZOMBIE LAND SAGA) with Dai Sato looking after the series composition from his work with JIN. pomodorosa (Deca-Dence) drew the original character designs for the series (and the above key visual) and Shinpei Kamada (Banana Fish) is adapting them for the anime with Hatsue Koizumi (sweetness & lightning) and Shuuji Takahara (YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of This World) both helming the sub-character designers and chief animation director roles.

  The rest of the staff include:

  Mechanical Design: Hiroyuki Terao

Color Design: Junko Suenaga

Art Director: Yoshio Tanioka

Director of Photography: Takashi Yanagida

CGI Supervisor: Tomohiro Kawahara

CGI Director: Taisuke Goto

3DCG: Shiitake Digital

Editing: Mutsumi Takemiya

Sound Director: Kisuke Koizumi

Sound Effects: Mutsuhiro Nishimura

Sound Production: dugout

Music Production: DMM Music, Seitaro Shimizu (EDWORD RECORDS)

Animation Production: MAPPA

  Listeners is a youth story set in a world where music doesn't exist. The story follows a solitary boy and a mysterious girl named Myuu who has an empty input jack in her body. When the two of them meet, they begin an unforgettable journey that traces the boundaries of rock history.

  More information on the series is set to be released during the "LISTENERS GIG #1" radio show on February 1 with JIN, Takahashi, Sato, and producer Hashimoto hosting the live stream set to go out on YouTube LIVE, Periscope, and Nico Nico Douga.

  Source: Web Newtype

---- 

Daryl Harding is a Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs the YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: 10 Anime to Watch if You Loved 'Yuri!!! On ICE'

The word is out: Yuri!!! On ICE was officially crowned Crunchyroll's Anime of the Year at the Anime Awards. The show’s combination of thoughtful character drama, thrilling performance sequences, and goofy comedy made it a deserved breakout hit. Will there be more? Maybe, but it won’t be for a long time yet. So what can all of us do to occupy ourselves in the meantime? Watch more anime, of course!

  Yuri!!! On ICE was a unique show, but if you loved something about its specific blend of strengths, there are almost certainly more shows out there for you to enjoy. But recommendations are never a one-size-fits-all sort of thing, so I’ll be tackling this one piece at a time. What specifically about Yuri!!! On ICE spoke to you? What sort of show could see yourself enjoying, even if it doesn’t have precisely everything Yuri!!! On ICE? Well, let’s start with the easy ones, and see where we get from there.

  First off, if you loved Yuri!!! On ICE, you probably owe it to yourself to check out some of director Sayo Yamamoto’s other work. Yamamoto has been renowned as a distinctive directorial voice in anime for years now, having even worked as an episode director on esteemed projects like Samurai Champloo and Space Dandy. Her own works exemplify the forward-thinking perspective that made Yuri!!! on ICE so unique, and so my list of recommendations will start right there.

  1) Michiko & Hatchin

Michiko & Hatchin is a rambling road trip starring a lawless woman and her orphan companion, who seek their destinies in a country three steps removed from our own Brazil. If you like Shinichiro Watanabe’s style of episodic adventures (Champloo, Cowboy Bebop), but feel they could probably use a badass heroine topping the bill, it’s very worth a look. Yamamoto herself has described this one as a show she hoped women could come home to after a day of work, cracking a beer and enjoying the show.

  2) The Woman Called Fujiko Mine

Four years after directing Michiko & Hatchin, Yamamoto returned with The Woman Called Fujiko Mine. Though this show takes place in the general Lupin III, master thief universe, it’s both relatively self-contained and very unique in its focus. As the title says, this show turns its eye to Lupin’s eternal femme fatale Fujiko, who is given her own rich story in Yamamoto’s capable hands. Couple that with the show’s gorgeous art design, and you’ve got another series that’s definitely worth checking out.

Before I move on from Yamamoto, I should mention that her highlights aren’t just limited to the full series she’s directed. Yamamoto preceded Yuri!!! On ICE with the clear stylistic predecessor Endless Night, a beautiful skating-focused short from the Animator Expo program. She’s also renowned for her work on show ending songs, having directed the endings for shows like Attack on Titan, Space Dandy, and Rage of Bahamut: Genesis. Yuri!!! On ICE’s tight schedule and breakneck pacing didn’t even necessarily allow all of Yamamoto’s strengths to shine, so I’d definitely give her other work a chance.

    But of course, shows are more than just their creators. While Yamamoto has directed some very exciting productions, if you’re looking for something that feels like Yuri!!! On ICE, you might have to look elsewhere. The thrill of competition, the camaraderie of a broad cast, the fundamental optimism of pushing beyond yourself to succeed—all of those things are fundamental to sports dramas like Yuri!!! On ICE. And fortunately, Yuri!!! On ICE actually hits us during something of a sports anime renaissance, where we have a wide variety of recent sports hits to choose from. As far as those go, check out the next recommendations (in no particular order).

  3) Haikyuu!!

Starting off our sports roundup, Haikyuu!! offers a satisfying and reasonably grounded take on high school volleyball. Featuring some terrific animation and a wide, likeable cast, it just recently finished up its third season. It’s light, fun, and brimming with energy. Even if Yuri!!! On ICE made you fall in love with figure skating, you might want to leave a little time in your schedule for volleyball after this one.

  4) Cross Game

Cross Game sadly isn’t available streaming, but is still widely in manga form. As a personal fan, I had to include this one in my list - a story about grief, family, and the competitions that bring us together, it’s one of my absolute favorite manga. Focusing on a pitching prodigy and the team that rises around him, Cross Game offers a more sensitive and character-focused approach to sports stories, following its cast as they grow from children into young adults.

5) Kuroko’s Basketball

At the more sports-as-superpowers end of the genre, there’s the intense and often beautifully directed Kuroko’s Basketball. There are no overt romantic relationships in this one, but Kuroko’s Basketball is still deeply invested in the internal worlds of its characters, and the relationships that form between them. Plus, who doesn’t like shows about characters with basketball teleportation magic?

  6) Ping Pong the Animation

Finally, the tremendous Ping Pong the Animation brings a unique visual sensibility and terrific character writing together to offer one of the strongest shows in any genre. Starring a dynamic cast of young talents, it both celebrates what makes them unique and also examines the fundamental nature of competition. Every competitor has their own style and reasons for playing, and Ping Pong brings all of its heroes to life.

7) Free!

I’d frankly be negligent in my duties if I moved on from sports shows without mentioning Free! Free! is actually a less dedicated sports drama than those picks above, and more of a slice of life/drama blend, but it’s still funny and beautifully animated and full of cute boys. Definitely worth a look if you’re seeking something a little lighter.

Of course, Yuri!!! On ICE wasn’t just a thrilling sports show - it was also a mature and satisfying romance, a queer drama with a very thoughtful approach to its cast. If you’re looking for more shows like that, I’ve got a few picks that are just the thing!

8) Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu

Focusing on a few artists practicing Japanese theater across the twentieth century, Rakugo presents a striking story of passion, legacy, and awakening to your own sexuality. Performers find identity and redemption on the stage, all while weathering a Shakespearian hurricane of tragedy and personal sacrifice. It’s sensitively written and beautifully directed, and its second season is airing right now.

9) Wandering Son

Wandering Son tends to show up on any list of LGBT-focused anime, and for good reason. The show is a beautifully intimate story of two adolescents coming to terms with their gender identities. Featuring another great ensemble cast and a warm, almost watercolor-styled visual aesthetic, it’s a sensitive and often heartwarming production. Wandering Son embraces the complexity and validity of our sometimes contradictory feelings, celebrating the value of every member of its charming cast.

  10) Yurikuma Arashi

If you know Kunihiko Ikuhara, this one’s probably not surprising - he directed the standout adolescent drama Revolutionary Girl Utena, and all of his works are rich in visual metaphor and social commentary. His latest show is actually his most direct, though that doesn’t make it any less exciting. Yurikuma Arashi tackles the realities of same-sex oppression, portraying not just the difficulty of being yourself in a hostile society, but also the various ways we all become servants of such systems. And it does this all through the wonderful framing device of... predatory lesbian bears.

  From ice skating champions to lesbian bears seems like quite a trip, but there are all sorts of things to draw from our favorites. I hope some of these shows sound appealing to you, and please sound off with any of your own recommendations in the comments!

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Nick Creamer has been writing about cartoons for too many years now, and is always ready to cry about Madoka. You can find more of his work at his blog Wrong Every Time, or follow him on Twitter.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com