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TITLE: Saiunkoku Monogatari (The Story of Saiunkoku)

LIGHT NOVEL, ANIME: Saiunkoku Monogatari was originally a series of light novels written by Yui Sakino and illustrated by Kairi Yura. As of the time of this review, the series is still ongoing, with fourteen collected novels and three side story anthologies.

The anime adaptation of Saiunkoku Monogatari was directed by Jun Shishido (well-known for his work on Hajime no Ippou: New Challenger and as an episode director on Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad) and was produced by Studio Madhouse (well-known for their work on Death Note and Dennou Coil). It aired on Japanese TV from ... April 8th, 2006 until February 24th, 2007. It has been licensed Stateside, first by Geneon, who released it in individual DVDs before it went defunct, and then the license was picked up by FUNimation, who has released both the previously-released DVDs and new DVDs in box sets. The most recent box set to be released will be released on October 4th of this year, and will contain the complete series.

STORY: The new emperor of the country of Saiunkoku (a Japanese/Chinese-esque land divided into eight provinces under the rule of eight clans corresponding to different colors), Shi Ryuuki, has earned a reputation as being lazy, uninterested in the running of his country and of being completely uninterested in women. Meanwhile, Kou Shuurei, only child of the influential Kou clan, is having difficulties making ends meet for her family, and wants to work as an imperial official, which she unfortunately can’t, due to being a woman. Her life changes when the Emperor’s Grand Adviser comes to her household and offers a large amount of money, enough to keep her family in the black for quite some time, in return for her coming into the Imperial Household as a consort with her bodyguard, Shi Seiran (a young man who her father adopted into the household), for six months, and trying to make the Emperor a better ruler. The series details Shuurei’s triumphs and travails in the Palace and politics, along with her relationships with the men around her…

The premise sounds like a set-up for wacky reverse harem hijinx, right? Well, it’s actually a lot deeper than that. The wacky hijinx exist prominently for the first six episodes or so, but after that, mostly they take a backseat to the politics of Imperial life and running a country, and to Shuurei’s personal struggles, both to try and become an imperial official, and with her relationship to the two main men in her life – her bodyguard and the emperor.

Shuurei herself has to be one of the most well-characterized females I’ve seen in a series since Balsa in Seirei no Moribito. She is a woman, yes, but she is there first and foremost to do her job, be it making the Emperor into a better ruler or doing work in the Palace archives, and while she puts on a strong, bright, cheerful façade, she has her moments of weakness, which make her incredibly human.

There are also several major and minor characters in here, an incredibly large cast to keep track of in general, even over the space of thirty-nine episodes. However, each of them is given a distinctive character and enough screentime and basic development to for the audience to be able to recognize them when they’re on-screen.

The plot is incredibly well done in how it moves – each episode contributes some minute detail to intrigues in the Palace and the empire, and towards Shuurei’s larger goals of becoming an official, and almost every detail that one can think of is wrapped up by the end of the series. The detail of the world is also incredibly well-thought-out; the minutest details of governance are explored, even if they are pretty heavily based off of the Chinese/Japanese imperial systems.

However, the rate at which the plot moves can be so incredibly slow at times that it can drag along for several episodes, and can cause easily bored watchers to drop the series. I myself have a fairly high boredom threshold, but even I would have gaps of three to five days between episodes at times, because I simply didn’t want to watch it (mainly after eight to ten hour shifts at my workplace). Granted, staying with the series, even through the more boring parts, pays off in spades towards the end of it.

ART: The character design for this series is incredibly well-done. With such a large cast, each character has to be given a distinctive appearance, so that they don’t simply fade into the background. The design team does this quite well, in addition to producing well-drawn characters, and even had enough budget to give them all a few costume changes here and there.

Backgrounds obviously have a strong Chinese and Japanese influence on them, yet the background team manages to make them look reminiscent of existing styles, yet original enough for the backgrounds to stand on their own ground.

Very well done art, the kind of quality from a Madhouse production that I’ve come to expect.

MUSIC: The soundtrack for this series heavily features the erhu (or niko, depending on on whether you’re going by its Chinese or Japanese designation), a two-stringed instrument that the main character plays. Otherwise, the soundtrack is fairly Japanese-influenced, with a lot of native instruments, and pretty well done. It’s not anything I’m going to go out of my way to find, but it’s a solid soundtrack.

SEIYUU: The Japanese voice actors did a very solid job on this production; none of the voices were annoying, or seemed mismatched to a character. There weren’t any voices that particularly stood out, either, though.

LENGTH: At thirty-nine episodes, you do need to be able to be in for the long-haul on this. The length gives the plot room to breathe and for every character in the cast to get adequate development, but, as I said before, it can and will get boring at points, and if you have a low boredom threshold, you may find yourself wanting to drop it. However, I do recommend sticking with it, as it does pay off in the end.

OVERALL: A solid show with one of the best female characters I’ve seen in a long time, well-designed characters and backgrounds, solid soundtrack and Japanese voice actors, and a long length that allows for good character and plot development, but can, at times, get a bit boring.

STORY: 8/10
ART: 9/10
MUSIC: 8/10
SEIYUU: 8/10
LENGTH: 7/10

OVERALL: 40/50; 80% (B)

TITLE: Ponyo (on the Cliff by the Sea)

ANIME: Ponyo is the eighth animated feature done by Studio Ghibli (well-known for other films such as Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke) and the tenth animated feature for Hayao Miyazaki as a director (well-known for his directorial work on My Neighbor Totoro and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind). Ponyo was released in Japanese theatres on July 19th, 2008, and won Best Anime of the Year at the Tokyo Anime Awards and the Japanese Academy Prize for Best Animation of the Year. It was released dubbed in Stateside theatres just this last weekend, on August ... 14th, 2009, and, as of the time of this writing, is already in the number 9 position for box office profits in its opening weekend.

STORY: A young five-year-old boy, Sosuke, finds an odd-looking fish who he names Ponyo and vows to protect. What he doesn't know is that Ponyo is the daughter of a sea wizard and the goddess of the sea, and that she will soon use her magic to turn herself into a girl so that she can be with him. But, unawares to Ponyo, doing this causes a rip in fabric of reality that the two of them must right.

Ponyo's not so much about the broader plot, which has plenty tinges of the Little Mermaid in its story, and serves more as a way to move the movie forward and to frame the events that happen in the movie. It's more about the two kids, Ponyo and Sosuke, and the people around them and their interactions with each other.

Most of the movie is cenetered around the absolute adorableness of Ponyo and Sosuke interacting with each other, and with the people around them, like Sosuke's family and the residents of the Hiwamari Senior Living Center (not called as much in the movie, but its more or less what it is). It's far more a slice of life story than it is one of Miyazaki's previous epics, such as Nausicaa or Mononoke, and you know what? He does this just as well as he does his other films.

The only bad thing I have to say about this is that big threat of the world being unbalanced is very vaguely detailed, and seems like an attempt to throw in urgency in the plot, but it really doesn't end up being focused on at all, and to be frank, doesn't add that much to the plot. It could've just been left as a test of Sosuke and Ponyo, and the movie would've been none the poorer for it.

ART: The visuals in this, as with any Miyazaki movie, are beyond spectacular. If you have the chance to see this in theatres near you, I definitely recommend it; seeing the visuals for this on the big screen is an experience in and of itself.

There are two big things with this that I feel like pointing out:

-The ocean scenes are spectacular, just in terms of sheer imagination in all of the creatures and the detail that packs the screen, and will probably make your jaw drop. And anything to do with Fujimoto or the goddess of the seas' or even Ponyo's magic are definitely some of the more spectacular scenes in the movie.
-The backgrounds on this, I'm pretty sure, were done in watercolors, which add a delicacy to the entire movie.

MUSIC: Joe Hisaishi did the composing work on this, just as he did with all the other Ghibli works. This score has far more emphasis on orchestral and choral numbers, especially in the horns, just a really grand sound in general, and while relying on a few repeated themes, is a really solid score.

SEIYUU: The Japanese cast on this did an amazing job on their characters, especially the voice actors for Ponyo and Sosuke, whose first role this was. They do an amazing job of just being five year olds, which carries the whole production.

VOICE ACTORS: There's some good voice acting, too on the dub cast's part: Liam Neeson and Cate Blanchett feature as Ponyo's parents (one's a slightly wacky magician, the other one's the goddess of the sea), Tina Fey is the main boy's fairly feisty mom, and Sousuke and Ponyo are played by one of the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus' little siblings, respectively (that last point will probably appeal more to younger siblings, but they still do a solid job). I'd actually suggest the dub cast over the original Japanese cast, as I like it far more.

DUB: Whoever did the script for the dub actually got the nuances of the original Japanese language, so I'm beyond pleased that this was done so well. There's a bit more added to the characters' lines than in the Japanese version, but I think that has more to do with the timing of the voice actors and their characters' personalities. The only problem that I have with the dub is that it obscures some things with regards to the main plot; I watched the Japanese version later in the day after I got back from theatres seeing this, and there were several moments when I was going, oh, so that's why that was that way.

LENGTH: Ponyo does feel a bit long towards the end, but, at the same time, for most of the movie, its a fairly dreamy pace, so you don't mind it that much.

OVERALL: An amazing movie, in terms of visuals and the dub cast, fairly solid in the story, music, and original Japanese cast. If you have the chance to see this in theatres, definitely go do so, but be sure to follow it up with watching the Japanese version just so that you're clear on things.

STORY: 8/10
ART: 9/10
MUSIC: 8/10
SEIYUU: 8/10
VOICE ACTORS: 9/10
DUB: 8/10
LENGTH: 8/10

OVERALL: 58/70; 83% (B)

TITLE: Dennou Coil

ANIME: Dennou Coil was directed by Mitsuo Iso (well known for his key animation work on early Ghibli movies and Neon Genesis Evangelion) and was produced by Madhouse (well-known for their work on Death Note and Paranoia Agent). It ran on Japanese TV from May 12th, 2007 till December 1st, 2007 and, as of the time of this writing, has not been licensed Stateside.

STORY: The year is 2026, eleven years after the technology to turn the internet into augmented reality by the use of immersive "cyberglasses" was developed. Yuko "Yasako" Okonogi, a young girl in sixth grade, moves to Daikoku City, ... the center of the technology behind the glasses, and is strongarmed by her grandmother into joining her "investigation agency", composed of children with powerful illegal software codes and tools. On her first day in town, she runs into Yuko "Isako" Amasawa, a cold, aloof master hacker chasing a mystery in Daikoku City, that will soon involve both Yukos and their friends...

Dennou Coil is probably one of the best shows I've watched in a good long time. This show has been in development for about ten years, and with the incredible subtlety of this entire show, I can believe it. Every aspect of the technology, how the world works, and every tiny detail that one can think of for this blends together to make the world seem incredibly believable, if not possible in just a few years' time. It's just futuristic enough to seem amazing, yet grounded enough in reality to seem incredibly possible.

The plot and characters in this are incredibly well-constructed as well. Characters are slowly developed through various interactions and their relationships to others in episodes, and even though characters may not take a prominent role for a few episodes, they're always there in the background. And the plot itself is intricately woven; the smallest details from the earliest episodes, which seem like throwaways, come back to play in full force in the last half of the show. The first third of the show establishes the basics of the world and characters, then comes a brief filler arc that slowly brings things to the fore, and then the last third of the show takes everything that's come before and takes it into far darker places than everything up until this point would have you believe was possible. The final episodes of the show are probably some of the darkest I've seen in a show aimed towards a younger audience to date, but, regardless, resolve amazingly well.

ART: Dennou Coil has a bit simpler character design than other shows that Madhouse has done; the kids and adults are a bit more angular, and are a bit less intricately designed than, say, characters from Death Note. However, their traditional realism shows through in the interaction of the virtual environment and the real environment; incredible amounts of detail are put into the various software codes and tools that the children use, along with how they manifest (and yes, some will call similarities on some of the patterns that show in the hackers' codings and the arrays in Fullmetal Alchemist, but really, let's not be nitpicky here).

MUSIC: The background music for this series doesn't particularly stand out, but, regardless, is a well-done score, and worth a listen to. The OP and ED are done by the same singer, Ayako Ikeda, and are some of the best opening and ending songs I've heard in a long while, the OP and its eerieness in general especially.

SEIYUU: Fumiko Orikasa (well-known for her roles in Hellsing as Seras and in Saikano as Chise) takes a starring role in this as Yasako and does an incredible job in the role. Otherwise, all the other seiyuu in this production do a solid job.

LENGTH: Dennou Coil was meticulously planned, I think, to be just the right length; not too long, so that it wouldn't drag, but not too short, so that there wouldn't be information overload. No complaints here, in general, a wonderful job in planning - then again, ten years in development does that to a show.

OVERALL: One of the best shows that I've seen in a good long time, with incredible amounts of detail, and well-constructed plots and characters, and solid background music, art, and seiyuu.

An underappreciated gem of the 2007 season; watch it.

STORY: 10/10
ART: 9/10
MUSIC: 9/10
SEIYUU: 9/10
LENGTH: 10/10

OVERALL: 47/50; 94% (A)

Death Note Rewrite 2: L's Successors aired on Japanese TV on August 22nd, 2008, and was produced and directed by Madhouse and Tetsuro Araki, respectively.

L's Successors is more of what it was billed as: a rewrite of the second half of the series. The Mafia subplot from the second half of the series is cut out, thank god, and instead, we get new scenes that focus more on Near and Mello, along with more telling scenes about Light instead. A lot of the plot is still the same, though, which is confusing, as it's not explained where Light's father went off to, or ... where Mello got the scars on his face, so more attention to blending the new plot into the old would've been appreciated, instead of simply inserting new footage.

But, know that if you're going into this without having seen the series, you're probably going to be confused, mainly because of what I mentioned above, along with the seeming assumption that you've already seen the series as you're watching this.

Otherwise, sound and art is the same as it was in the show, so not going to reiterate it here.

Slightly better than the second half of the series, definitely worth a watch.

Death Note Rewrite: The Visualizing God aired on Japanese TV on August 31st, 2007, and was produced and directed by Madhouse and Testuro Araki, respectively.

Death Note Rewrite is pretty much a recap of the first twenty-five new episodes compressed into two hours, with an alternate ending and a few minutes of new footage in the Shinigami realm added.

How much value you'll get out of it really depends on whether or not you've watched the series previously before going into this. If you're like me, and have seen the entire series leading up to this, then you'll find this pretty useless, ... except for maybe ten minutes out of the total two hours that's new footage, which is a pretty shit percentage. However, if you haven't seen the series at all, and are looking to get through the first half of the series in two hours instead of a half a day's worth of episodes, then this would be worth a watch, if you can figure out what's going on, as the recap doesn't really explain much.

Everything is pretty much the same as in the series, so I don't feel the need to reiterate what I said in my review of the series proper. Whether or not you get any value out of this "rewrite" really depends on if you've seen the show or not.

Hopefully, though, the next Rewrite will live up to its name and include more new footage.

WARNING: Minor spoilers within.

TITLE: Death Note

MANGA/ANIME: Death Note was originally a manga authored by Tsugumi Ohba and with art done by Takeshi Obata (well-known for his work on the Hikaru no Go manga). It was serialized in Kadokawa's Weekly Shonen Jump from May 2003 until December of 2006, and was licensed Stateside by Viz Media, with all volumes currently available.

The anime version of Death Note was produced by Studio Madhouse (well-known for their work on Paranoia Agent and X) and was directed by Tetsuro Araki (Death Note was his first major work). It ran on Japanese TV from October 3rd, 2006 until June ... 26th, 2007, and was licensed Stateside by, again, Viz Media, and was released in various formats, including Download to Own/Rent and DVDs (with the complete series being available at the time of this writing), along with a run on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim from October 20th, 2007 til July 6th, 2008.

STORY: Light Yagami is an incredibly smart high school student who's bored out of his head. One day, he finds a notebook lying on the ground with instructions inside that claim that if the owner writes a name of a person while picturing their face, that person will die. Light is skeptical at first, and tests it out on a few subjects, confirming its powers, along with the previous owner of the notebook, the apple-addicted shinigami Ryuk, appearing to him. Light then decides to use the notebook's powers to rid the world of criminals, which, in turn, attracts the attention of the international police community and a mysterious detective named L.

The area where Death Note excels is in its plot, and how it's structured. For essentially being a shonen show, Death Note develops its mind games between Light and those pursuing him, L especially, amazingly well, with each relying on various gambits and bluffs to stay a few steps ahead of the other. And the tension and suspense builds incredibly well throughout the run; in the last few episodes, there were several points at which my heart was actually pounding as I watched what was happening on screen. And the fact that the writers didn't always make Light infallible, that he slips up at times and risks not being able to outbluff his opponents, is a definite plus in the shonen genre.

Death Note has two major flaws, however. One is centered in the structure of the series, which I'll discuss later in Length; the other is in character development. Throughout the course of the thirty-nine episodes, none of our three major characters undergoes any sort of character development. L remains eccentric and brillaint, Light remains brilliant and manipulative, except to develop a paranoid messiah complex and turn into even more of a jackass, and Misa remains blindly devotional and makes me want to trade in my uterus. And without any sort of development, it's hard to relate to any of these characters. Some of the more minor characters underwent minor character development, like growing a pair or getting even more crazy than they already were. Additionally, some characters are defined simply by their quirks, which is not characterization at all.

In terms of how accurate of an adaptation this is from the manga, I can only speak for the first three volumes or so, and vague knowledge of the rest of the manga. Based on what I know, this is a fairly faithful adaptation, with each episode covering one or two chapters of the manga or so.

ART: Madhouse does its normal attention to realism in character designs and background here, which is always good. There's also heavy emphasis on religious symbolism with the main trifecta of characters, and different primary color schemes for each of them when they go into internal monologues, especially in particularly dramatic moments. And this is all fine and well.

However, the one part where they lost me was their use of SLOOOOOW MOOOOTIOOON in particularly dramatic moments, which may cause moments of laughter where the director may not have intended. There's one particular moment early on in the series' run that best exemplifies this; Light is under surveillance by L and, in order to keep on killing criminals as Kira, he slips a portable TV and a slip of the Note into the potato chips package, seemingly studying and eating as he is actually killing off criminals. The animation during this sequence goes into incredibly slow motion, with the grease off the potato chips sparkling, and Light seemingly making DRAMATIC EATING MOTIONS. It's fairly ridiculous, and I was laughing out loud; pretty sure this was not what was intended. And this is used fairly often throughout the series, and just pushes things over into ridiculousness.

MUSIC: The background music for this is very heavy on the dramatic choral and orchestral arrangements, which kind of helps with pushing some of the more dramatic moments into the series into over-the-top ridiculousness.

The first OP and ED are fairly standard J-Rock numbers, don't stand out that much, but pretty good in and of themselves. The second OP and ED are speed metal numbers, and the OP's pretty catchy, good to use as an alarm. Aya Hirano's (Misa's seiyuu) also got an insert song in here as well, not anything particularly big, but decent in and of itself.

SEIYUU: Aya Hirano (famous for her role as Haruhi Suzumiya and Konata Izumi in Lucky Star) plays Misa Amane, and Maaya Sakamoto (famous for her roles as Hitmoi in Escaflowne and Aeris in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children) shows up as Takada Kiyomi. Everyone else does a fairly good job in their roles.

LENGTH: The biggest issue that I have with the series is in its length, and to go into this requires SPOILERS, so skip to the end of this section if you wish to avoid them. The first twenty-five episodes are all well and good. But after L dies, we essentially get what we saw in the last twenty five episodes recycled and compressed into twelve episodes, with a few new characters taking on the roles that L and Misa did during the first twenty-five episodes. And honestly... it worked the first time around, not so much the second.

OVERALL: This is a fairly solid show in the plot department, but it has its share of flaws, mainly with regards to characterization, dramatic moments turning ridiculous, and the plot after the first half of the series pretty much just being a recycling of what we saw before.

Definitely worth a watch, but not the ZOMG MASTERPIECE that everyone makes it out to be.

STORY: 8/10
ART: 7/10
MUSIC: 7/10
SEIYUU: 8/10
LENGTH: 7/10

OVERALL: 37/50; 74% (C)

TITLE: How's Moving Castle

NOVEL, ANIME: Howl's Moving Castle was originally a young-adult fantasy novel written by Diana Wynne Jones in 1986. It won a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award in 1987, and was also was designated an ALA Notable Book for children and young adults.

Howl's Moving Castle was produced by Studio Ghibli (Ponyo on the Cliff, Spirited Away), and directed by Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind). Howl was released in theatres in Japan on November 20th, 2004, and showed dubbed in theatres Stateside starting on June 10th, 2005, courtesy of Disney, and is available both subbed and dubbed ... on DVD.

STORY: Sophie Hatter is a young, self-conscious young woman who, after a chance encounter with the wizard Howl, is cursed with the body of a ninety-year-old by the spiteful Witch of the Waste, and is unable to tell anyone about the curse. She ends up going into the Waste, and, with the help of an animated turnip-headed scarecrow that she helps, ends up finding Howl's home; a legged, walking, amalgamation of a castle. In order to break her spell, she makes a deal with the fire demon who powers the castle, Calcifer; if she can break the spell on him and Howl - which he also can't tell anyone about - he will break hers.

Howl's Moving Castle isn't necessarily one of Ghibli's strongest movies, story-telling wise. There are a lot of disparate plot elements floating about, with not a lot of explanation given, or even development, for that matter; the movie kind of just drifts from scene to scene, as if it can't decide what plot element it wants to focus on. Probably the biggest example of this is Sophie's curse. There are times in the movie where she'll appear younger or older; it's hinted that this difference in physical appearance is tied to her self-confidence, but it's never explained, it just happens. The ending is kind of unsatisfying, as everything's quickly wrapped up in a neat package with even little to no explanation of sudden plot elements that end up popping up.

The characters themselves are all fairly well fleshed out, though, and are at least intriguing to watch; the moments in this movie that center around the characters alone are where it really shines, such as Sophie going through and cleaning the house, Markl going to market with Sophie, or Calcifer and Howl talking by the fire.

Taken in terms of the original novel, Howl is a nice retelling. The basic plot elements from the novel are mostly intact, though a great deal of the actual plot has been changed around. If you don't mind a looser retelling of the novel, then you should be fine with this; however, if you're looking for the novel translated exactly onto the screen, then you may not want to see this.

ART: As always with Studio Ghibli, the art for this is beyond beautiful, that goes without saying. There are three big things that stood out for me with the art, though:

-The castle. I can't say enough about how intricately this was done; just the design itself is amazingly thought out, and the animation of the movement and all the little parts moving and operating on their own and as a part of the larger whole is incredibly steampunk.
-Anything to do with magic being used. Incredibly created, especially in how it manifests from character to character, and with beautifully intricate detail.
-The war sequences. Incredibly realistic and devastating, though it should be noted that production on this was happening while the Iraq War and the bombings were just beginning.

MUSIC: Joe Hisaishi does the composing work on this, as he always does. While his music has most of the normal chords and progressions it normally does, the music here tends to be variations on several instruments of the main theme song, which, while not my favorite ever, is passable. Not the greatest soundtrack he's ever done, but still fairly solid.

SEIYUU: The cast for this is fairly new to voice work, but it doesn't show; there are some excellent performances in this, especially the voice actor for Calcifer. I actually like the sub and dub about equally, so I can't state preference here for any one cast. I do like that there is a single seiyuu for Sophie, whether she's young or old, as it just shows you the range of the seiyuu.

VOICE ACTORS: The English dub for this has some fairly big names for the performances; Christian Bale does a pretty good job (and even utilizes the Batman!growl) as Howl, Jean Simmons does an amazing job as the older version of Sophie (even though I don't really understand why there needs to be two separate voice actors here), Billie Crystal does a good job of being the comedic relief in Calcifer, Lauren Bacall is an amazing Witch of the Waste, and Crispin Freeman even shows up for a few lines. Overall, a solid performance.

DUB: I have absolutely no criticism whatsoever for the dubwork on this. Translations are done accurately, there's no intentional flubbing of the original meaning, and it's fairly well done.

LENGTH: The movie does tend to drag at times, especially with how the movie tends to float from scene to scene. The whole thing feels kinda dreamy, though, and you tend to not notice where the time's gone at the end of it.

OVERALL: Not Ghibli's best story or score, but still has wonderful characters, amazing animation, and a fairly solid dub, and cast in both languages. A dreamy sort of film, good for a rainy afternoon.

STORY: 7/10
ART: 9/10
MUSIC: 7/10
SEIYUU: 8/10
VOICE ACTORS: 8/10
DUB: 8/10
LENGTH: 8/10

OVERALL: 55/70; 79% (C+)

TITLE: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

MANGA, ANIME: Nausicaa was originally a manga with story and art done by Hayao Miyazaki (Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away) that, ironically enough, was only created so that the movie could eventually be made, as Toshio Suzuki, the producer, couldn't get money for a film that wasn't based on a manga. It was serialized in Animage magazine from February of 1982 to March of 1994, and was licensed Stateside by Viz Media, and consists of a total of seven collected volumes.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind was created before Studio Ghibli actually existed and distributed by ... Toei, but is considered to be the first of its movies, and was directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It was released theatrically in Japan on March 4th, 1984. It was first bought Stateside by New World Pictures in the 1980s as a horribly butchered version known as Warriors of the Wind, which caused Ghibli to add a no editing clause to all of its future licensing contracts. When Disney licensed the Ghibli movies, they rereleased the movie in its original uncut format and redid the dub track, coming to DVD on February 22nd, 2005.

STORY: A millenium after the "Seven Days of Fire" that destroyed the world as we knew it, forests of poisonous plants and fungi and giant bugs are spreading through the world, isolating and swallowing human settlements. Nausicaa is the humane princess of one of the few untouched human settlements known as the Valley of the Wind, known for its peaceful inhabitants. However, an airship that crashes in the Valley and its cargo will expose the Valley to the machinations of its larger, more powerful, warlike neighbors...

Nausicaa is considered to be Miyazaki's life's work in many circles of anime fans. And I can honestly believe that; the effort that went into the story in weaving together so many differing subplots into one coherent whole that merges at the story's end. There are, that I can remember off the top of my head, two political subplots, two involving the poisonous forests, two involving weapons to destroy the forest, and probably a few plot threads I'm missing somewhere in there.

The environmental themes can get a bit heavy handed at times, and the fairly black-and-white dichotomy of the characters seems a bit simplistic. Also, you can see Miyazaki archetypes developing in most of the characters; there's the kind, resourceful young heroine (Nausicaa), the older, mature woman who has lost her way but is redeemed in the end (Kushana), the plucky young male sidekick (Asbel), the older wise woman (Obaba) and man (Lord Yupa) mentor figures, and, unfortunately, they aren't characterized much beyond that.

ART: The Ghibli character design conventions are clearly being developed here; big hair, small noses, and a very specific eye style. However, the animation itself is still incredibly exquisite; the backgrounds, Ohmu herd scenes, and the jungle and its creatures are amazingly designed, and the animation sequences themselves are incredibly beautiful.

MUSIC: Joe Hisaishi did the work on the music for this, as he has on all of the Ghibli films since. However, this one is tinged with a little more of 80s influence; there are synthesizers that run rampant through the music, and while they're used to pretty decent effect and blend with the orchestral parts of the pieces, it dates the music.

SEIYUU: I haven't really watched the subbed version of this in quite some time, but, for the most part, from what I can remember, it was a pretty good job on the Japanese end of things, and I recognize some of the seiyuu from other productions (one was Ashitaka in Princess Mononoke, most notably).

VOICE ACTORS: I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm beyond pleased at the English voicework for Nausicaa. Some of the names on the production include Patrick Stewart (Star Trek), Uma Thurman (Kill Bill), Shia LeBeouf (Transformers), Mark Hamill (Star Wars), and Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica), and they all do an amazing job voicing their characters and not making them sound ridiculous or like their voicework doesn't fit the character.

DUB: Again, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I have absolutely no criticism whatsoever for the dubwork on this. Translations are done accurately, there's no intentional flubbing of the original meaning, and it's fairly well done. Yes, some of the expository dialogue and the dialogue that states what they're doing as the character does it (there's a name for it, I'm sure of it) is kind of annoying, but, really, it could be far, far worse.

LENGTH: The movie starts to drag about an hour and a half in, but the creators recognize it and pick up the pace at that time. The overall pacing is slow, but builds towards the climax of the film.

OVERALL: A slower-paced film with an excellent interweaving of subplots into a coherent whole with slightly archetypal Miyazaki characters, beautiful art and animation, if beginning to show the Ghibli character design archetypes, wonderful if slightly dated music, solid seiyuu, and amazing voice acting and dub work in English. Definitely worth a watch.

STORY: 8/10
ART: 8/10
MUSIC: 7/10
SEIYUU: 8/10
VOICE ACTORS: 9/10
DUB: 8/10
LENGTH: 8/10

OVERALL: 56/70; 80% (B)

Title: Akiko

Anime: Akiko is a two episode OVA that was produced by Triple X Studios (known for their work on the My Sexual Harassment OVA) and directed by Kaoru Toyouka. It was released in Japan in July of 1996, and was bought Stateside in August of 2003 by Soft Cel Pictures (with such luminares as Kandy Kanal and Rod O'Steel on production).

Story: The students at the prestigious Nobel Academy seem to be having uncontrollable sexual urges. After one female student spends the entire summer in her room masturbating, her father contacts the Central Genetic Research Institute to help. They send an undercover ... agent, code named Akiko, into the Academy to find out what's up. However, something far more sinister lurks beneath the school's exterior...

Honestly, as set up for a porn OVA, the story's not that bad. There's some holes in the plot, and characterization isn't fully fleshed out, but really, it could be far, far worse. And, for the most part, the sex scenes have decent transition into them, and aren't all that over the top ridiculous. Plus, there's a good balance between porn scenes and plot. All in all, the story's not that bad, but could be better.

Art: Typical 90s style; big hair, minimal nose, pretty decently animated in general. There's a distinct difference in quality between the normal scenes (which are pretty decently animated, but not the greatest) and anything involving sex and nudity (lovlingly rendered), but, again, given the focus of this OVA, this is not that surprising. It's not the greatest art, and it doesn't hold up well almost a decade later, but hey, it could be far worse.

Music: Didn't really notice it, as it didn't stand out all that much.

Seiyuu: Seiyuu for this did a pretty decent job, didn't sound ridiculous/exaggerated on the porn parts, all in all, pretty decent.

Length: The OVA's at the perfect length; not overly long and ridiculous, but not short enough that it doesn't make sense.

Overall: A pretty decent OVA that's a good balance between plot and porn, decently animated and voice acted, just the right length, and with music that doesn't stand out that much. Worth a watch.

Story: 8/10
Art: 7/10
Music: 6/10
Seiyuu: 7/10
Length: 8/10

Overall: 36/50; 72% (C)

Title: Seirei no Moribito

Novel, Anime: Seirei no Moribito is adapted from the first volume of the ten-volume Guardian series of the same name, and was written by Nahoko Uehashi and released in Japan in July of 1996. Scholastic has translated it as Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit and released the translated novel in June of 2008. The translation of the novel was honored with the Batchelder Award for outstanding translated work at the 2008 midwinter conference of the American Library Association.

Seirei no Moribito is a twenty-six episode anime directed by Kenji Kamiyama (who also directed everything in the Ghost in the Shell: Stand ... Alone Complex series, including the TV show, OAV, and movies) and produced by Production IG (known for their work on the Ghost in the Shell series and xxxHOLIC). Moribito aired on Japanese TV from April 7th to September 29th of 2007. It was originally licensed almost immediately after the production announcement by Geneon, who soon after went defunct. The license was picked up by Media Blasters, and was translated as Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, with the third volume due to be released on February 24th of this year. It also aired on Adult Swim in a fairly convoluted run, starting in the 12:30 AM (central time) slot starting on August 24th of 2008, but was then switched to the 4:30 AM (central time) slot in early September, with the first ten episodes being aired twice before being pulled from the schedule on January 16th of this year.

Story: Balsa, a spear-wielding wandering female bodyguard, is passing through the New Yogo Empire, and happens to save the second prince, Chagum, from drowning in the river. As she is saving him, she notices a bright blue light surrounding them both. That night, in the middle of the night, she is called to the palace by the Second Empress, who wishes for her to flee with and protect the life of Chagum, who the Emperor, his father, believes is possessed by a water demon that threatens to destroy the Empire, and is determined to kill at all costs. Balsa, who works as a bodyguard to atone for a past sin, agrees, and takes Chagum and flees. However, all is not what it seems...

Probably the most interesting thing about this show is the characters themselves. None of the characters are simply good or evil, even those who would pursue and kill Chagum; they're all fleshed out as human beings, with reasons behind their decisions. What's even more interesting is that when these characters make their decisions, they actually make sense, and are even smart, given the situation, which is something that is lacking among most main characters of anime these days. Take Balsa, for instance; none of her actions or decisions are superfluous or over the top or done to point out the fact that she is a woman and a bodyguard - she simply does her job, nothing more, nothing less. It's wonderful to see a female character of this sort.

It's also an incredibly well-built world. Various aspects of how the empire runs, culture, history, different ethnic groups, religion, city and country life, just about everything that could be thought of is fleshed over the course of this series. The level of detail in general is amazingly intricate, and it's here that it's very evident that the source material for this show was originally a novel.

Seirei no Moribito is one of the most solid stories I've seen of this type in a good long time. It has one of the most common threads of sci-fi and fantasy anime at the core of its story - protect the special child! - but the way that it actually executes the plot is well done. And, by my standards, I should really like this series.

But, here's the thing. I assumed, from the first episode on, that Seirei no Moribito would be a show of high standards; when it lived up to that, I wasn't that surprised. To some degree, though, I hoped that it would go beyond my expectations for it. And it didn't, which is probably why I'm not all that into this show.

It's a solid series with good plot, characters and a well-built world, yes, it just leaves me with a meh feeling. It probably works better as a novel, honestly.

Art: The art for this series is extremely high-quality. Backgrounds are intricately detailed, animation is well-done, and character designs aren't incongruous with who the characters actually are - Balsa looks like she's a bodyguard, Chagum looks like a prince in hiding, etc.

However, where this series really shines is in the action scenes.

Think of any animated action series you might've watched recently, or one you know really well, doesn't even have to be anime. Keep that series in your head, and go and look up Moribito fight scenes on YouTube. You will notice the differences instantly. There is no skimping on the details, or shortcuts; every moment of the fight is animated, from beginning to end. This series is probably going the standard on which I base all fight scenes on; there's no excuse for other shows not being able to get this level of detail in their fights.

Music: The music was very unobtrusive for the most part; I really only noticed it if it was going out of its way to be heard. There's a folk song towards the end of the series that ends up becoming integral to the resolution of the plot, and is a nice little song that I'll go out of my way to listen to here and there. The OP (done by L'Arc en Ciel) and ED (done by Chagum's VA) are nothing too special. Overall, decent music, but nothing outstanding or anything.

Seiyuu: There aren't any names I really know from any other productions in this series, but overall, the seiyuu do a wonderful job.

Length: I never felt that this series was too long or too short, in the end. It might've had more impact on me if it had been shortened by a few episodes, but, at the same time, we wouldn't have gotten information that we did otherwise.

Overall: Overall, this is a solid series with good plot and characters, a well-built world, beautiful art, and wonderfully done fight scenes, but, in the end, it doesn't leave you with anything more than a "meh" feeling. Maybe try looking at the novel instead?

Story: 8/10
Art: 9/10
Music: 8/10
Seiyuu: 8/10
Length: 7/10

[b]Overall[/b]: 40/50; 80% (B-)