Say a guy has not enjoyed the privilege of having a girlfriend in a long time; or perhaps ever. He will have at some point, whether told to him or an associate, heard the allusion that his right, (or left) hand is in fact his girlfriend. Usually, this is a humorous allusion to masturbation. However sometimes this refers to when a guy actually has a hand-sized girl magically grafted onto his arm. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you the premise of 2004’s Midori Days (yes I am being serious, does my deadpan tone not sound serious?).

Midori Days is an anime adaptation of the manga series by Kazurou Inoue (Ai Kora, Aoi Destruction) of the same name. The anime was directed by Tsuneo Kobayashi (both Emma: A Victorian Romance seasons and Kurokami the Animation).

Seiji Sawamura is the toughest badass around; mess with Seiji, and the last thing you’ll see is his right hand plummeting towards your face. As good as he is at fighting; his success with the ladies is inversely proportional. On a particularly bad day, Seiji exclaims out in the air, that he would take any girl who would have him. Enter Midori Kasugano, a girl full of energy and good cheer, who happens to have a huge crush on Seiji. Sounds like a perfect solution for Seiji’s companionship problems doesn’t it?  From then on the story centers around the antics of these two as they try to keep Midori a secret while dealing with the antics of a cast full of weirdos and otherwise eccentric characters. Including the straight-laced, tsundere(A character who dislikes showing feelings that would make them look soft in front of people, usually due to pride), Takako Ayase, the creeptastic Takamizawa Shuichi who lives off of doll and puppets, the perhaps too precocious little girl Tsukishima Shiori.

Certain Shonen romance series like Midori Days are often marked by a single unusual supernatural effect or circumstance that triggers the premise. Titles (Editor’s Note: These are all manga series but considering that Midori Days was based on a manga, this suits the same effect.) like Tuxedo Gin (dude gets turned into a penguin, protects girl he likes) Gacha Gacha Secret (dude has a crush on a girl, girl gets split personalities after a vacation, dude helps deal with the disorder) and Pretty Face (dude has a crush on a girl, he gets into an accident, is helped by a doctor who reconstructs his body into a girl identical to his crush, dude protects girl while looking like a girl) fit the same bill. Of course, everything sounds terrible when shortened to one sentence, but let us not pass judgments for now, for these type of series are usually known for a cast of crazy characters.

Bringing me to my second complaint that the secondary characters just don’t interact with each other, (the number of times two secondary characters met each other are twice in thirteen episodes). Furthermore, Seiji and Midori never deal with more than one of them at once, so they never work off each other’s kinks, which he feels very much like a waste. Because it is so episodic, no one episode is particularly important to the show itself In fact, other than the first and last two episodes, you wouldn’t be too badly off watching episodes at random.

While I tried to enjoy Midori Days, one thing really spoiled my fun, That being none other than our heroine Midori. You see, early on we learn that her real human-sized body is in fact off sleeping in Midori’s room, which also happens to be part of a large mansion. So Midori is filthy rich despite the fact that nothing about her demeanor would tell you that, but people can’t always fit into templates like that, which is a perfectly fine, even welcoming actually. But my beef with Midori is that she comes from a wealthy family that loves and supports her as well as some amazing friends, but we discover that the fact she can’t go back is because she doesn’t want to.

Allow me to put this in perspective. Not only is this girl pestering, and at the same time, impairing a boy she likes by taking away his use of his dominant hand, but she is also making an entire household and group of friends who care about her (what? Suffer, depressed, you left a part of the sentence out)over a crush, not only that but a one-sided crush. Call me a bitter realist, but this sounds ridiculously selfish in her part. If she had a horrible life at home, that Midori would at least be justified on preferring her escapism, and in fact would allow for great character development for her to face her problems at home. But no, she is merely acting like a selfish, spoiled brat.

Pros: An unusual taken on the formulaic harem genre. Funny characters with entertaining antics lead by a not so average male lead. Bring together a light-hearted, sometimes touching story about two persons that grow to love one another.

Cons: An episodic, isolated, cast of characters who could breathe great life in to this show but are squandered for simple filler. Midori as the heroine is not such a great person in hindsight, despite the innocence and kindness she is often depicted with. Put down a show that could have accomplished much, much more.

In conclusion, I believe that Midori Days is a show offering an unusual approach to the romance genres, but wastes this potential on under developed, episodic characters that bring little to the table. They may be funny sometimes, but are ultimately inconsequential. Now we used the Midori Days‘ box set cover released by Media Blasters for the review image, but our copy is a specific single box Handheld Edition that is cheaper and probably easier to find. So to put it in another way, mad dog Sawamura Seiji got into a brawl against the rest of the cast, and lost, badly, but that is to be expected when you are dragging along dead weight in the form of a clingy heroine, like Midori.

It has come to my attention that I have been writing film reviews for this site for over a year. During that time I have demonstrated a certain tone towards what I think I can write effectively. My history is filled with cult-gems, foreign films, and things that might go under “genre’ films. My Frankenstein’s Monster of a tongue provides an equally different and generally rounded appreciation for film which has continuously accounted for the flippancy that plasters this site. Yet I am always looking for something new, which might mean looking into film that occupies a completely different county then that of my wheelhouse. So tonight I decided to review a film with a cavalcade of awards around its neck and the word “biopic” often used in describing its content. It is an adaption of a famed American writer’s biography; truly so odd compared to my usual selection that it humorously turns 2005’s Capote into the odd-fellow at the cocktail party.

Capote was directed by Bennette Miller, director of the documentary The Cruise and of the recent film “about sports but about sports in an abstract way/setting instead of actually about playing the sport itself” Moneyball. Dan Flutterman adapted the screenplay from author Gerald Clarke’s original biogeography on writer Truman Capote entitled Capote.

The year is a late 1959, and a slimmed down Philip Seymour Hoffman portrays the late writer Truman Capote at a cocktail party; his fluttery (reminding me of one of my older female relatives) slightly mumbled voice, his seemingly inch thick glasses, his hands perpetually holding a cigarette in one and some liquor with lime in the other, and his haughty attitude encapsulate southern born Truman Capote’s presence. Capote is hovering high off his previous work Breakfast at Tiffany’s and engages his fellow cocktail goers in tune. This is truly a writer at the top of his fame. But as time goes on, Capote stumbles upon a Kansas area mass-murder in the paper involving the deaths of a family of four by shot-gun shots to the head. This heightens his interest and he decides to travel from his home in Chicago, Illinois to Holcomb. Kansas with fellow writer (of the soon to be written To Kill a Mocking Bird) Harper Lee (Catherine Keener) to investigate and to write up an article.

Shortly after Capote’s and Lee’s time investigating the people who knew the family, the two killers Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.) and Richard Hickcock (Mark Pellegrino) were apprehended in Vegas. Capote disembarks to see the two up close, and finds himself fascinated by Perry Smith’s actions. Smith demonstrates educated word usage and during the trial is shown to be drawing at an effective level. This convinces Capote that there is more to this case then meets his eyes, and as he tells his editor that he is turning this article into a book, you see the origin of his most successful novel In Cold Blood. From there, Capote spends the next few years interviewing and befriending the two killers (specifically Smith), treating them to an audience like set pieces, believing that all his hard work will pay off in creating a masterpiece of American literature.

While is sounds like a copout to say this, the acting is very effective in Capote. Phillip Seymour Hoffman has already been rightfully praised for role as Capote, with his accurate mannerisms and vanity. Yet as Hoffman was stealing the show, Catherine Keener impressed me in a different way. Harper Lee was one of Capote’s childhood friends and she is a calming foil for Capote’s over-the-top dramatics. She keeps him from floating out into the stratosphere. Clifton Collins Jr. was half of the reason why the Capote/Smith interviews where the best part of this film. He plays Smith as wounded and struggling one moment, then in the next his eyes grow ambitious and holds back anger just as evenly. Just watching his expressions make Capote.

Biopics can allow for detailed portrayals of historical figures, but in a League of Historical Superstars approach to world building. Let me explain; the early scenes where Harper Lee is assisting Truman Capote in a subtle way treated these authors like beautiful royalty. Most of Capote takes place during the early sixties, with all of the chain smoking and liquor drinking that that entails. These two are constantly at parties, living it up as successful writers in New York. It is all so grandiose and lightly overblown that it reminds me that this is an interpretation, an adaption if you will. Some very neat retelling of history can be told like this in film.

Pros: Houses some fantastic portrayals of historic figures that remind me of how effective a Biopic could be when done right. It is engaging and I found myself interested in even simple things like watching Capote write at his typewriter or pour alcohol into some mashed baby food. The care and almost motherly treatment that Capote shows towards Smith creates scenes that I want to see more often in film. It plays the romantic semi-period-piece in an honestly blatant show of wealth.

Cons: As a fellow writer did ascribe to this film’s DVD cover “That man is as white as salt” does denote, this film fits under what I like to call Rich White People’s Life Porn. Just like how Mad Man has its appeal, so does Capote remind me just how white centric a history based film must be to appeal to a drama audience. This is disheartening but rather true; this sixties’ look almost comes off like the decade equivalent of a harlequin novel for a certain lifestyle.

Capote was released by Sony Pictures Classics, the film copy that I reviewed for some reason was dirty and spotty at times; to the point that I was holding my breath for a cigarette mark. This is not acceptable for a release like Capote. It is just nice to see that I can appreciate and discern film on the same level for a work like Capote that I do with anything else, something that I have a hard time seeing in many other written or audio based film criticism. In the end you judge on merit, not on undesired or undignified themes or tones.

Comic creators have taken to the financial backing site Kickstarter in such a creative collaboration peak that I thank my lucky stars I live in the twenty-first century where such a thing is possible. Each creator has their own need to try this method of investment when it comes to the expensive printing process. Jason Thompson needed funding to rerelease his out-of-print H.P. Lovecraft comic The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath And Other Stories, while Carlton Hargro and Alex Woolfson both wanted to see their titles The African American Superhero Anthology and Artifice respectively demonstrate comic leads that they considered  unrepresented in the comic medium. Then there is the Kickstarter comic project whose economic funding rises almost as high as the internet famous “Detroit Needs A Statue of Robocop!”, otherwise known as the ten year side project Carbon Grey.

Carbon Grey is a collaboration work constructed of what you could call a squadron (I warned myself that reviewing a comic about war did not mean that military related jokes were any funnier) of writers and artists. To start, the group is led by original spearhead writer and artist Hoang Nguyen. Nguyen’s original illustration for the character Mathilde sparked story ideas that led to him assembling the Carbon Grey production team. From the top, Mike Kennedy writer of Ghost and various Star Wars comics for Dark Horse, writer Paul Gardener, writer Khari Evans who was the artist for the Marvel title Daughters of the Dragon, and finally Kinsoh Loh who has collaborated on famed Chinese comic (manhua) creator Ma Wing-shing‘s long running series Fung Wan (The Storm Riders). Now that the long introductions are over, can these cooks collaborate together to make something fantastic, or prove the old saying that too many cooks spoil the meal?

Steam-Punk World War I is upon us dear readers! Our fanciful European-esk continent is split each way into vaguely German (Axis?) and Britain (Ally?) style regions that are important only to those few referencing the included map in hopes of creating a setting for their Pathfinder or Burning Wheel game. His Majesty the Kaiser has been reportedly assassinated during a dirigible filled air raid (expectant of Steam-Punk), and many believe that the culprit is none other than one of His Majesties’ long held personal body-guards, Gisselle of the Sister’s Grey. Yes readers, our dear Kaiser has been murdered by one of his closest protectors. The hunt is on for those that have taken our God from us!

Theatrics aside, Carbon Grey is about the Sister’s Grey: Eva represents Wisdom, Anna represents Strength, and in an unprecedented upset are the twins Mathilde and Gisselle, one representing Grace and the other (to break this long chain) representing Rebirth. Since the days of the people’s hero Gottfaust, whose line of women has body guarded the Kaiser for generations. Gissele’s rumored killing of the Kaiser, effectively threw the country into cause. The hunt is on for all four sisters.  This hunt intertwines their lives with an over the top cast of characters like the odd pairing of seductive Ally spy Dina Cumming and snarky thief Elliot Pepper, the almost incapacitated Red Baron hot on the pairings tail, and finally the imposingly badass Wolf General. Amongst a continent spanning war, there is still time for monarchy power-struggles that Gisselle is but a component.

My first introduction to Carbon Grey was by way of the hardcover art book that they released, which should give you a good clue-in that the most talked about part of Carbon Grey is the gorgeous artwork. As Hoang Nguyen entails in his KickStarter video, each page goes through meticulous amounts of rework that leaves wonderful, if not taxing time and money wise, visuals. Aside from Hoang Nguyen’s focus towards character designs and full color spreads (reminding me of the work of artist David Ho but replace the macabre with military and gun fetishism and age the little girls up to full European built women). Khari Evans and Kinsoh Loh demonstrate excellent color and line work whose over demonstration of effort leave every panel open to a “framed on the wall” level of artistry.

Now, you might be expecting the story to suffer not only because the amount of writers but because the old saying “Pretty as a peacock, but as dumb a post” usually refers to comics with such a heavy focus on the art. But while the story does tend to run at a breakneck speed (I tend to reread/ rewatch whatever I review and this problem stood out both times), you still see what is going on here. The story is so thick and concentrated that it needs that “cutting biplanes in half with a katana while simultaneously-shooting fetishly detailed firearms” action so as not to be consumed. There are overtly well-worn concepts like special stone McGuffin and chosen-and-generally-silent protagonists sure, but you can see that the story is not completely shadowed by the artwork.

Pro: Combination of best in recent memory artwork and interesting world building leave such a recognizable world that might have only come from comic creator collaboration. Larger than life characters that while sharing the spotlight equally, make the pacing all the more enjoyable to follow. This highly concentrated level of excitement oozes grandiose and memorability.

Cons: Do not expect to be blown-away by the series main lead, almost as if the supporting cast is there to make up for Gisele’s quiet brooding nature. This read has rather distraught moments where the three more violence-prone Sisters each vizierate a key figure or bit character wasting the victims potential (this might be a commentary on the Sister’s because the meek Mathilde is a not counted under these situations). I found it hard to follow the action scenes and narrative on a first read through. Aforementioned concentration leaves only a less than one-hundred page, with extras I might add, trade.

All three issues of Carbon Grey were collected by Image Comics into the volume one trade. In the past I reviewed one of my current favorite comics Super Pro K.O. and wrote about how it was a labor of love of one Jarrett Williams whose epic world could only suffer from trying to pick up the universe in one fell swoop and keep it up. Carbon Grey is just like Super Pro K.O. in that it is so big, and there are these entire plot treats, and an over-the-top cast of characters that my one true fear is that these two comics will buckle under their own self-imposed creativity. In the same way that I wish Jarrett Williams the best of luck on Super Pro K.O., so do I wish the same for Hoang Nguyen and his team. Such labors of love are the reasons why I read comics.

Megazone23

Part 2 of Megazone23 starts a few months after the events of part 1. Shogo was defeated in his attempt at a final confrontation with BD (the military commander whom I affectionately call Blu-ray Disc). After his defeat, Shogo apparently went underground to lick his wounds, gathering some of the most varied assortment of lunatics out there in the world of anime (with the exception of maybe team Dai-Gurren) There is Guts, who is basically a bull in a biker’s get up and bad teeth. Lightning , Shogo’s best friend and second in command, who looks like a goofier Shogo with his multi-colored hair and an interesting attraction for Eve, which sort of made me think of an early parallel for Otaku’s obsessed, with their idols and/or waifus. With company like those two, Shogo lies in wait for an opportunity to strike back. Meanwhile, Yui, our heroine has been sitting around waiting for Shogo to appear, like a good woman of the 80’s is necessentially expected. And apparently she decided to get her hair dyed (which may not have been intentional on her part).

Megazone23 has a new character designer, Yasuomi Umetsu.  They appear to be going for a more mature look and feel, the faces look pointier and the hair has a narrower color spectrum overall, so very few people have any sort of unrealistic hair color. Art evolution is not necessarily a bad thing, but I will say that it can be annoying when the characters look just so different that it takes an extra few minutes to reconnect yourself with the story. Yui in particular takes a while to recognize, partly in thanks to the aforementioned dye job, a sharper looking face, and the overall physique of a cheerleader. Overall, every guy looks like a twenty-something Schwarzenegger in terms of muscle mass and size but are thankfully varied in overall looks, like Guts who is about as big as a hippopotamus and twice as round. Shogo, who has more lean muscle which makes him look well-rounded. Then, there is a psychotic, nerdy-looking dude with a lab coat and headphones on all the time, in charge of computer work, who I can’t quite recall if he was ever named.

The animation did not seem to fare quite as well this time; whenever backgrounds are involved the movie goes for photorealistic styles, the buildings actually look like they were made of concrete, plants are realistic shades of green such as in the hideout for Shogo’s gang, an old abandoned building with cracked walls, failing electric wiring and the like. All of this would be great, if it weren’t a different style than the one used when there are some characters involved. Take for instance the outlook of the biker gang’s “stronghold” then take a look at its insides and its inhabitants. It is simply inconsistent. Furthermore, during a rather bizarre scene of violent gore in which space bodies are splattered around like they were made out of plastic, filled with ketchup, and about as durable, followed by eyeballs shooting out with a disregard for the injuries themselves.

The story managed to stay consistent and kept the characterization of recurrent characters, adding some extra twists and symbolism (the name EVE comes to mind) my only problem is that I would get lost every now and then. The government is fighting it out with another ship, while they are apparently heading to Earth, though this isn’t mentioned. As is expected from his track-record in the first part, Shogo still didn’t get much accomplished this time around either. He gets kicked around, and the Garland is destroyed…again.

Though the fighting is looking a little better, it didn’t catch my attention, mid-sized robots shooting at each other, things explode, people get killed, the usual. It felt like the ending was progressing regardless of Shogo’s actual performance, he gets his ass kicked; he gets to have a conversation with Eve about the nature of the ship. The big bad has him surrounded and at his mercy? Oh they’ll go ahead and charge one last time against the enemy who was beating them, oh and you’re clear to get into the part of the spaceship that will survive the arrival on earth and get your Adam and Eve ending. Speaking of the ending, I was at least a little impressed that the producers had the sense of mind to include several sets of survivors for the whole Adam and Eve plot so as to avoid the unfortunate implications, add in some genetic diversity, as well as some scientific plausibility. But that’s neither here nor there.

Pros: Solid and varied character designs that add fun to the mix when the plot slows down. Characterization is well-kept allowing the story to move well between parts.

Cons: Mostly inconsistent and sometimes shoddy animation brings down the experience from what it could have been. Recognizing characters like Yui, Shogo and Lightning is difficult early on. The plot seems to not require the protagonists to move forward in terms of objectives.

Thus on the whole I conclude Megazone23 part 2 is a good and worthy sequel from its first part. It has a few chinks in its premise, but those are mostly inherited from the original, and were probably not fixable without retconning a large chunk of the first part.

Part 1

Part 3

Certain horror films live and die by the recognizability of their creatures and visuals, basing the elements in a distinct reality. Peter Jackson’s fantastic Dead Alive is known for the lively and innovated depiction of truly posing the human body by way of infection and a little bit of mysticism. Stuart Gordon’s Reanimator is known for basing its grey-skinned reanimations in science and logic, like maybe this could just be possible. Wes Craven’s Nightmare On Elm Street is known for bringing nightmares to life and making a distinct separation from what is real and what is a dream. But what about a horror film where its phantasmal creatures and visuals are never set in stone, if they exist or not, and if the “real” world the characters live in is just as undefined. Thus leading us to 1990’s Jacob’s Ladder, where I needed to fight to figure out what is real.

Jacob’s Ladder was directed by Adrian Lyne, whose subject for films is typically about the disparage and division between married couples, seen through film’s history with things like Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal, and Unfaithful. Basic fair “Romance Drama’s” is something that I usually stay far away from to protect my sanity. It is almost a blessing that he decided to mix the bottle of Drama with then substitute Horror in Jacob’s Ladder because it almost seems like a fluke. A fluke created by writer Bruce Joel Rubin, known for making the ghost story popular again in the often parodied but will never watch again film Ghost. Bruce Joel Rubin certainly plays heavily on what makes this film different.

During Vietnam of the seventies, private Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) barbs crass dick and masturbation jokes with the rest of his platoon. But suddenly as they sit under thatched roofs and suffer the country’s heat, the men start to feel the effect of an unknown affliction. Some scream out in pain as others convulse and hemorrhage on the hard ground. They are attacked, but they seem to be almost fighting themselves. Jacob breaks off into the forest where he is stabbed in the gut with a bayonet; Jacob then wakes up to find himself practically alone on a nighttime train. Once the train stops at the station, he starts to see quick, almost unreal, images cross his vision. These weird things only continue as he tries in vain to leave the station (all the exits are locked); he finally finds a way home by following the tracks home.

When he arrives home he finds himself met at the door by both his dog and partner Jezzie (Elizabeth Peña) who is concerned about why he was out so late. He explains what happened at the station and later falls asleep. The next day the viewer finds out that Jacob is living with Jezzie, divorced from his first wife and kids, they work at the post office, , and he regularly attends therapy sessions with his chiropractor Louis (Danny Aiello) (by this point certain things clue the viewer that the film takes place during 1975, not that this is extremely important). But as is to be expected, the station was not an isolated incident, and Jacob continues to see unworldly images flash before his eyes making him fear that his sanity is being tampered with one moment at a time.

Instead of discussing the religious and spiritual implications of Jacob’s Ladder, I believe that even my four years of mandatory High School Theology might not do justice to the deeper religious undertones; but my moderate knowledge of the Silent Hill videogames, who took cues from Jacob’s Ladder, might suffice. Scenes like the underground station at the beginning of the film and its locked doors is just like parts of Silent Hill III where protagonist Heather Morrison’s route is manipulated by locked doors in the same fashion as Jacob’s. The quick but unsettling shots and miniscule details from Silent Hill reflect Jacob’s perspective of weird-goings-on taken from just the leads’ perspective. Even visual elements like the focus on hospitals translate between the two works.

Jacob’s Ladder spends time jumping between what may or may not be reality. During the course of the film, Jacob will wake up during different times of his life. From the present with Jezzie, to the past where he is still with his wife and kids, then back again like one was a dream of the other. This form of narration is usually called an “unreliable narrator”, a narrative theme that I feel works in favor of this film. As the viewer, I was just as confused as Jacob as to what was going on, be it whether his world was real or just a delusionary dream.

Pros: Tim Robbins portrayal of Jacob is fantastic, bringing an unexpected child-like demeanor to a man who is slowly being tormented out of his mind. He takes it slow, which works because Jacob is an interesting lead who I found enjoyment from by just watching him go about his day. The visuals are self-contained and are there to unsettle, not frighten as opposition. It knows when to play the soundtrack and when to keep it utterly silent. Certain shots kept me rewinding over and over just so see how effective they were a second or third time.

Cons: Jacob’s Ladder is one of those films where it is hard to find faults to point out. There is one scene though that I call “Sex With Satan” where they used strobe lights to keep the depiction hard to see clearly; I personally hate the use of strobe lighting in the same way that I hate heavily darkly lit shots in that if I am incapable of seeing something or it hurts to see, then it is a waste of film. The surprise ending might ruin the rewatchability for certain viewers (something that I can picture but am not effected by).

The 2010 Lions Gate reprint that I have only differs from the original 1998 release in that the box sleeve is different. Everything else, from the early DVD menus and features (remember Cast & Crew and Production Notes on the main menu?), to the disc cover that translates over onto programs like Media Player still depict the films famous use of head shaking Jacob. I just found this interesting. Jacob’s Ladder is by all means a fantastic film, with a feel like no other and acting that cannot be matched, this is truly without a doubt a good film. I cannot convince you to seek this one out more enough. Like a quick flicker in your vision you could swear was not natural, Jacob’s Ladder is just a collection of experiences.

I have a conceptually unique subject to review tonight; a short-story collection of Shojo manga. Now, I am not talking about a collection of manga pilots called one shots, but real honest to goodness short stories. In the past, I used to think that this way of writing was uncommon in modern Shojo manga, and from what I could find, outside of the nominally Josei on the surface works of Moto Hagio’s A Drunken Dream and Other Stories and Yoshinga Fumi’s All My Darling Daughters, I cannot think of any other manga that fit the bill. When it comes to short stories I consider them  to be the norm in horror manga like Kazuo Umezu’s Scary Books, which now that I think about it was also written with a young girl audience in mind. I guess I will just have to add 2005’s Himeyuka & Rozione’s Story to this small list.

Himeyuka & Rozione’s Story contains four short stories written and drawn by Sumomo Yumeka. Sumomo Yumeka has a relatively heavy release footprint here in America, with companies like Digital Manga Publishing releasing her titles like the Day I Become A Butterfly and Same Cell Organism. What I found interesting was that she works under the name Mizu Sahara to draw Seinen manga, like the manga adaptions for two of cloud obsessed anime director Makoto Shinkai’s films, The Voices of a Distant Star and The Place Promised in Our Early Days.

This collection is broken up into four different parts. Himeyuka & Rozione’s Story is about seventeen year old Himeyuka, whose lives in an apartment alone after her parents’ job transfer. As she bemoans her mother on the phone about a box of old toys she used to play with, a young boy named Rozione stops by and overstays his welcome; the rest of the story is about how she struggles to rid him from the apartment. The Princess of Kikouya in District 1 centers around the few days before Yakuza clan heiress Ayano Koujigumi’s arranged marriage approaches, but all she wants to do is spend the time she has left with the boy she likes before her role as heiress truly takes over. My Very Own Shalala entails a half witch named Shalala whose pursuit for increased magical power requires the tears of a young man; which requires her to disguise herself as a high school student to reach her goal. The final story Robot is about a future world where everyone is a resurrected clone that is taken care of by robots and the day in the life of one of these makeshift families.

From what I could dig up, Sumomo Yumeka’s artwork seems to look the same be it for Shojo manga or Seinen manga. The long haired, pretty faced, and thin framed young adults are here aplenty in her artwork; only problem is that now I have to compare her work to other much better Shojo artists. That means that Himeyuka & Rozione’s Story needs to compete with things like Aya Kanno’s Otomen and Nanpei Yamada’s Orange Chocolate (at its best). Now here you do see some rather attractive hair from page to page and the character’s expressions reflect real emotion, the almost iris-less eyes swim around their faces like they have a mind of their own.  But it seems to fail and not be up to snuff.

I do consider, still an exclusively art related subject, I still believe that what I could find of Sumomo Yumeka’s use of color (be their covers or splash pages) deserves its own paragraph. In the entertainment seeking world that I do inhabit, one of the most important aspects of a product is the cover. To be honest Himeyuuka & Rosione’s Story’s cover and its use of what I believe to be watercolors makes it stand out. This trend towards beautiful watercolor covers seems to be a continuous trend in her work that reminds me of the work of Takako Simura. Earlier I brought up her connection to Makoto Shinkai’s films, whose use of watercolors might just be reflected in Sumomo Yumeka’s choice of color.

Pros: Tries to be whimsical like a fairy tale, but unlike in an odd comparison to American writer Serena Valentino and artist Camilla D’errico’s Nightmares & Fairytales, can be understated without going overboard. Now at times a little floaty in its story, there is enough of a sweet payoff at the end (like in The Princess of Kikouya in District 1). Just discovering the watercolor covers is enough to warrant mentioning.

Cons: Inconsistent artwork is a constant distraction. The short story Robot is completely nonsensical and confusing; this makes sense considering that she wrote in the back how Robot was just a separate collection of story ideas she had during a spell of writer’s block. Outside of the earlier mentioned sweetness, the story themselves do not stay significant for very long after you finish reading them.

We have our self another Yen Press title in Himeyuuka & Rosione’s Story. Nice at times but in the end this manga is as forgettable as those scribble-covered dreams denoted so on the back of the book. Fleeting quickly, leaving a little sweetness, but like all candy is just as wastefully un-filling.  In the end it was a nice introduction to what might be an interesting Seinen manga creator to look for, but only reminds me why I continue to move away from Shojo. Not irredeemable but the list of more interesting manga does not need to be so cluttered.

Anime has an interesting mixed history with the horror genre. Usually action based series that just happens to involve horror tropes like vampires in the case of Hellsing or werewolves in the case of Princess Resurrection, fit under this umbrella genre by happenstance. Even Japan’s live-action film and its distinctive horror style focus on tense atmospheres and unsettling moments rarely permeate horror anime, outside of say Hell Girl. What is generally the norm when it comes to horror anime is that it is like a snake coiled together with themes of the psychosocial, plain and simple psychological horror. Stand outs like Boogiepop Phantom and Requiem from the Darkness encompass the mental anguish tied to horror while working a mystery angle. The 2004 OVA, Le Portrait De Petite Cossette, fits my skewed definition for what constitutes psychological horror in my book.

Le Portrait De Petite Cossette is for one headed by anime director, Akiyuki Shinbo who I can without a doubt say has recent titles that readers will recognize. Outside of a ton of nineties OVAs that sit in the “I could swear that I have heard of this before but I forgot where exactly”, he directed Arakawa Under The Bridge, Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei, and everything under the Bakamonogatari sun. What surprised me the most is just how popular many of these titles are, and to top it off, he directed the heavily talked about anti-magical girl juggernaut Puella Magi Madoka Magica, whose artistic flourishes seem to be taking their first breath in tonight’s review. Interesting thing to note and thus stick in your head uncomfortably, the character designs where done by Hirofumi Suzuki, who with The Sky Crawlers character designer Tetsuyo Nishio represent every single T.V., film, and OVA related to Naruto (Shippuden); small world indeed.

So let the story begin, artist and university student Eiri Kurahashi has become distant from his friends as of late, keeping himself cooped up working in his uncle’s antique shop. Eiri’s days are spent in the regularly empty shop obsessing over a rainbow shaded glass cup that shows him depictions of a young blonde girl (whose dress changes by the minute) by the name of Cossette living in a country side mansion. As Eiri proclaims at one point, “Just like a documentary film, I see the life of a girl inside this glass.” His obsession reaches the point where Cossette appears to him as a ghost, whose spirit is tied to all of the objects she once owned that inhabit the shop. Through blood filled scenes, Cossette explains to Eiri that he is an embodiment of the late French portrait painter Marcelo Orlando, who as Cossette’s fiancé murdered her and her family as to keep her ageless, like the way he depicted her in his work. Like Marcelo before him, Eiri’s love for Cossette reveals itself in his drawings Eiri must fend for himself against the object’s vengeance and is shown as he malforms into a demon in an unearthly surreal realm. Eiri’s devotion to Cossette is pitted against the past murderer he once was in a previous life and for pain and suffering that await him in his future life.

Le Portrait De Petite Cossette looks like a testing ground for what would later blossom into Puella Magi Madoka Magica. The series has this frenetic motion where the camera jumps around abnormally, positioned underneath a table one moment, right under the character’s chin the next. The camera’s focus is often placed behind objects like railings and stain glass, giving an uneven depiction of the character and their interactions. Jump cuts to several movie posters give this show an apparent feeling of unease and unstableness. The world made by the Cossette infused objects is filled with floating eyes, clock gears, and giant sized skeleton bones; attention to style that makes Le Portrait De Petite Cossette simply interesting to look upon.

A moody and haunting visual should always be paired with an equally fitting soundtrack. This soundtrack composed by Yuki Kajiura (another connection to Puella Magi Madoka Magica) includes a mix of classical and almost operatic melodies which set the ears right where the viewer’s eyes are, setting the tone with violins and heavy drums. Back when the original distributor Geneon used to sell anime CD soundtracks, they released not only Le Portrait De Petite Cossette’s soundtrack, but a close parallel in feel to the dystopian show Ergo Proxy with its metallic gloom. I would suggest the soundtrack on its own merits.

Pros: Stylistically engaging without missing substance, two things that many others in the past have cow towed to either one or the other. Soundtrack will have me searching vendor tables for a copy. It sets out to make a horror based romance story that is actually engaging and fun to watch.

Cons: Eiri is but a vessel for the viewer, who is supported more by his artistic creation then his own ability to engage. Side characters are separated more by their professions and are not given enough time to stick in the viewers’ mind.  The show has a tendency to get wrapped up in its own feeling of self and ends up repeating certain scenes almost verbatim just because it felt that doubling something already cool exactly would work more than once.

Geonon released Le Portrait De Petite Cossette back in its hay day individually per episode, but the rerelease comes from the Sentai Filmworks catalog as one standalone set. This one skirts the line between “almost too oblique to be made but glad that it is” to “maybe it has an audience” to the point that astounds me. This is something that really shows what the OVA format is capable of, allowing for such a cool show to be funded, reminding me of this mediums creativity. Horror anime fans, you owe it to yourself to pick this up.

Crossed: Psychopath is all together a different beast than the original. Written by David Lapham and drawn by Raulo Caceres, familiar names in the Avatar Press catalog.  The story starts several years after the happening world is infested with crossed Marauding bands terrorizing the land and few humans remain living in perpetual motion. The climate is different, no big government gesture or act of spiritual power has thought the need to intervene, for the crossed are here to stay. Our cast of four non infected humans is introduced watching the crossed mutilate various vultures and a decomposing cow along a mountainous terrain. Tired of this total disregard for any human decency, they stumble upon a trapped man passed out in a deep ravine. They learn that the man is named Harold Lorre. He was chased by the crossed into the ravine and broke his leg. He was stuck there for days. His broken leg would limit the groups’ mobility; however, one of the group’s members Amanda pleads for the group’s humanity and Harold helps by selling himself as an excellent tracker and crossed behavior expert. The group decides to take Harold, not knowing that their constant threat of the crossed pales in comparison to what Harold personally has in store for them.

David Lapham flash-steps away from the survival angle of the first series to instead use the crossed as a device to allocate natural human emotions of violence and lust. In an attempt to not reveal too much, the lead Harold is by far more of an atrocity than anything that the cross have in store. He is a crossed-environment-beaten man who has only fermented with age, as he reminisces about his lost “love” Lori. David Lapham demonstrates straight-laced on the outside and unstable on the inside Harold as an apex of sexual frustration with quick erotic bursts of dominance and confidence in his own mind. His perch sitting judgments on the others comes quick and flips just as fast. Harold does what I feel many non-psychotic people do and by that I mean create hatred for others based solely on a few actions. Lapham created a demonstrative individual who slowly tears down his fellow-man like an anger embedded puppeteer. Harold’s dedication to premeditation makes him far more deplorable of a subject than anything the gore frolicking crossed could ever imagine. This shows what humans are capable of, parallel banded tribes who have already fallen off sanity’s edge.

Now you can thank/blame Lapham for thinking up the situations, but do not forget that Raulo Ceceres went as far as to depict them. Ceceres art excels at the one element that makes this part of Crossed so lodged-deep-in-your-brain-to-never-leave-you memorable, and that is of Harold’s delusions. One moment everything could be a quick breather between crossed confrontations, the next will be an abrupt mental depiction of Harold’s choosing. The panel borders will no longer be limited to uniform lines but depicted as golden brown flowing hair, furrows of blood, and connected human anatomy. Ceceres breaks things down to remove Harold’s mind from the real world, for it is just as important and horrible as the one he lives in. Crossed: Psychopath is more about human atrocity and its relevance to the human race.

Avatar Press’s catalog of comics has gotten its fair share of coverage on this site (and with good reason). As stated in Part 1, Avatar Press was a huge contributor to my present love for western comics, going as far as being the only company that, while I do this begrudgingly, buy their series by the issue in equal parts to the trade. As our history does indicate, we are dyed in the wool trade buyers, but Avatar Press’ releases are the only exceptions. Let me draw a comparison; as you might have noticed, I have accented this two-part special with Crossed and Crossed: Psychopath first issue cover variants. This notion that Avatar Press has for releasing half-a-dozen different issue covers has yours’ truly thinking of the collectors mentality that is a trait of western comics. Now, while I do like the platform this allows for different artists (like the talented Matt Martin) to explore these titles’ universes, I do think that as long as they are just going to be put in the trade, there is no real need in the long run. Unless Avatar Press decides to release one big blown out special collector’s edition of all the current covers release, then this draws to a moot point. Well these are just the thoughts of a comic fan who would like to safely bring in non-fans into the mix gradually by pressing away from fan created barriers. Ask yourself this readers, “Do you enjoy collecting a series because of the Auxiliary, Torture, or Wraparound cover variants, or because it succeeds in its medium as both an artistic and literal endeavor?”

Lost about what is going on? Well go check out the previous installment in Part 1.

During the time between Star Wars’ initial release in 1977 through the early eighties, there have been countless movies whose creation seemed to only try to cash in on the Star Wars’ success. Every one of these films would borrow/steal elements from Star Wars in ever increasing chunks. We have countless examples: like Disney’s attempt at live action science fiction in The Black Hole (which is genuinely awesome); Japan’s production Uchū kara no Messēji (Message From Space, which I have heard remakes certain scenes mimicking Star Wars (which should be awesome because of costume design and Sonny Chiba); and then there is Turkey’s Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam, who unabashedly used footage from Star Wars itself (which I doubt is anywhere near awesome). Star Wars changed the face of not only Science Fiction, but film itself; 1979 saw the release of a film that fits into the Message From Space category, that film, known as Star Crash is my focus tonight.

Originally a U.S. and Italian co-production, Star Crash was directed by Luigi Cozzi. Luigi Cozzi’s other works include Alien on a budget, Contamination, the Nosferatu the Vampyre sequel to Vampire in Venice, and Hercules (keeping up with the trend of Italy being home for all Sword and Sandal style fantasy films to be made). He has also written various films including Sinbad and the Seven Seas and Star Crash itself.

Our story centers on the tag-team smuggling duo of ace pilot/poster girl Stella Star (Caroline Munro) and pro navigator/inspiration for The Greatest American Hero, Akton (Marjoe Gortner). As luck would have it, this spunky tag-team is being hunted down by spaces’ coolest duel laser pistol wielding robot sheriff Elle, whose ability to express limited emotions will not stop him from taking these two away in handcuffs. While escaping Elle through space, Stella and Akton find an Imperial spaceship. Thinking that they have time to spare, Stella jumps on board to discover that the ship’s crew is all but dead. She finds one survivor who she brings back to Akton, who spouts eligible nonsense about being attacked by red monsters (by this I mean that the survivor speaks no dialog and Akton for some reason just picks up on the details of the attack). Elle finds Stella, Akton and successfully splits them up to work lives on prison planets.

But all is not lost since Stella Star is basically laser-proof. Stella successfully escapes her maybe six minute stint transporting reactor energy to an open system by starting a prison fight with the prisoners against the guards (no surprise there). She slips out the back while everyone is killing each other senselessly and finds an open spacecraft. But Elle waits for her arrival, gun in hand. He informs her that she and Akton were about to be let free to go on a mission for the Emperor (Christopher Plummer). Convinced, Stella and Elle release Akton from custody and team up to go about the Emperor’s mission. See, that ship they found earlier was attacked by the evil-for-no-discernible-reason Count Zarth, who was almost successful in eliminating the investigation team hounding him. But three escape pods where fired, and the Emperor believes that the ship’s commander, his son Simon, (David Hasselhoff) might be out there. Now Stella, Akton, and Elle must visit each one of these three planets, each filled with amazon warriors, dangerously cold climates, and crazed caveman.

As you would expect from a movie in anyway related to space, Star Crash is filled with special effects. The effects range from “pretty good” to “that might just be the fakest thing I have ever seen put to film”. Star Crash will feature some relatively janky, but otherwise cool Ray Harryhausen inspired stop animation for scenes involving creatures like Count Zarth’s hissing robot swordsman and the amazon’s giant robotic protector. Plastic looking spaceships so covered in glued on pieces that each one could constitute its own page in an I Spy book. Shots across black sheets with holes cut out with light shown through to create stars and planets fill this film to the brim. Lava lamps (actually filters applied by injecting colored dye into a container of water) like screens that reminded me of my favorite Godzilla movie Godzilla Vs. Hedorah and its liquid color scheme. To be honest though, these were the special effects that I quite enjoyed and considered positives of the film, but to list the ton of fake-looking shots would only besmirch what looked good in Star Crash.

I should have mentioned this earlier; one of the men behind Star Crash’s special effects was Armando Valcauda, who happened to also contribute costume and creature designs. So that cool red and black jumpsuit Akton wears, that menacing form that constitutes Elle, and the Emperor of the Galaxy’s gold chainmail might just have come from Armando Valcauda. Those awesome looking Count Zarth robot swordsman were also created by him, as well as the amazon’s warrior protector. Star Crash instills that hand crafted charm that is what I believe is missing from today’s GC world.

Pros: Sports a John Berry soundtrack heavy in brass that tries its hardest to make Star Crash epic. The concept that Elle who was originally hunting Stella and Akton, but then joins them and becomes a good companion with Stella is not only a cool concept, but allows for at least a little characterization. Certain stylistic choices and design elements are pleasant eye-candy, and this release has an in depth Armando Valcauda diary feature that I strongly suggest watching.

Cons: The acting is stilted and dreadful, to the point that I cringe whenever someone (usually Stella) delivers lines. It honestly broke me down, a person who usually believes that acting can only help a film. This relates to how I did not care to plug in a picture of Count Zarth (who is by far the first villain in quite some time that I have not rooted for instead of the protagonists). Like the acting stated earlier, he left no impression on me. Many of the special effects are far funnier than being actually engaging.

Star Crash broke me down and made me realize what type of reviewer that I am, one that often focuses on components and elements instead of the work as a whole. Star Crash is messy from start to finish, even including a drawn out space battle long after what I expected to be the films’ climax. I would suggest this film to anyone who appreciates those hands on special effects of yesteryear or someone looking for a good “friends get together and watch a goofy/campy flick”; anyone else would be wasting their time. Judges’ balancing stand thrown out in the case of technicality, I seemed to have appreciated this film more then I enjoyed it. This could be said about anything in Shout! Factory’s Roger Corman’s Cult Classics label. Star Crash can be truly a divisive film, consume at your own risk.

Review copy provided by  friend of CTBF Dan Goulde.