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Junk Force, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi/comedy/adventure story with an eerily plausible premise (given the way our technology is advancing, I could see something like this actually happening one day. Hopefully long after I'm dead), follows a single boy, Louis, and his three beautiful female companions: Liza (who is actually the leader), Wooty (a big-busted babe with one hell of a kick) and Mill (the soft-spoken one who can't cook). In this future version of Earth, water is a treasure more precious than gold, and lead ingots are currency. Liza, Louis, Wooty and Mill, the titular Junk Force, travel this world in their armored trailer looking for ... scrap to use for parts and stuff to sell to get by.

Things get complicated when, during a visit to a town, Louis gets caught up in a woman's desperate flight from a bounty hunter. The hunter wants the woman's daughter, Mamet, a quiet girl with a major secret. Louis only meant to do a little shopping and not embarrass himself in front of Liza and Wooty, but before they know it, the Junk Force find themselves doing whatever they can to keep Mamet from being captured.

The chapters in the excellent second volume present an interesting balance of sorts, as the earlier chapters feature plenty of the series' trademark comedy and fan service, while the later chapters, which still feature these elements, bring in a much stronger line of dramatic events, making the story much more engaging. The Junk Force meet far more Martians this time around, something that does not bode well. It appears there's something more sinister going on than our heroes had any reason to suspect.

The earlier comedic chapters, whose gags revolve largely around nudity and gender stereotypes (or lack thereof in a couple of cases), present mostly for-fun plots, ranging from helping a crash survivor whom Wooty actually falls for to a hilarious fight that breaks out as a result of the trailer's engine overheating, requiring a shut-down of the air conditioner. One of these chapters, in which Liza meets a man with face just like someone important she once lost, features a nice twist I wasn't expecting and leads into territory Junk Force left largely unexplored in Volume One.

When the focus again turns to Mamet and how she's a wanted fugitive, Junk Force goes full-throttle and shows that it is just as capable of gripping drama as it is of screwball comedy. The importance of defending members of one's family comes to the forefront, and any doubt of the Junk Force members' loyalty to one another is wiped out. Sure, they may harass and fight with one another quite frequently, but when put to the test, their sense of family carries them through. Their encounters with a ruthless unit out to get Mamet leads to a twist that can be seen coming by attentive readers but is brilliant in spite of it.

As our heroes progress ever-closer to their goal, stranger and stranger obstacles stand in their way, including a forest of giants and a castle with a horrifying secret. However, there's a new face in the mix: a mysterious woman named Illian. She is a Martian who is apparently after the same thing the Junk Force is after, but for what reasons...?

The group's sense of family is tested again in Volume Three, though this time mainly through an act of carelessness on Mamet's part, and when Illian shows up good and ready to do her own thing, she is confronted by something she didn't count on. There also seems to be more than meets the eye between Illian and one of Earth's defenders that is unfortunately really only implied and not expanded upon. In fact, Illian as a whole is not developed as much as she should be, but she is given enough to be fascinating rather than flat.

The only real fault with the series -- mainly the final volume -- is the apparent hurry it's in to wrap things up once it crosses the halfway mark. I don't know if this was due to the authors being restricted to a certain number of pages, a too-heavy-to-manage workload or something else, but they really should have taken more time building towards the climax and pacing it a little more carefully. What ultimately happens is a combination of intense action, dramatic suspense, and slightly too convenient solutions. Some of the things that occur are almost dismissed as quickly as they're presented, severely reducing their impact. It doesn't kill the story, but it certainly hampers its overall effect.

Another minor gripe is the apparent lack of proofreading on ComicOne's part, since there are a few annoying spelling errors that pop up ("your" instead of "you're," for instance) that prove distracting.

Like any good series, Junk Force left me wanting more, and despite its weaknesses, it's a good series and very worth checking out. The elements of the story and comedy are very familiar and a bit predictable, but they're still a lot of fun, and the lively writing and great art certainly help. The characters get into some situations with rather interesting problems, and they way they ultimately arrive at their solutions is part of the series' charm. It's just too bad this was never adapted as an anime series, considering how perfectly suitable it would be. However, the series has been adapted into a series of light novels, showing that there is still some life left in it. Fans of post-apocalyptic and mecha manga should find this series quite entertaining. I know I did.

There have been numerous stories that take an unusual view of the war between Heaven and Hell and those who fight that war. Some are focused more on their interpretations of the Divine Mission, some more on action and some more on the supernatural.

The focus of Chrono Crusade is on its characters and the relationships they share. Of course there's action, too, and supernatural elements, and a touch of the Divine Mission... but mostly it's about its memorable characters. Rosette Christopher, a nun in the Magdalene Order, has a contract with a devil named Chrono, meaning his power comes from her very soul. The more ... he uses, the shorter her life becomes. But Chrono is a good devil (excuse the oxymoron) with a sad past who only entered into this contract because of extreme circumstances, and is actually doing everything he can not to use her soul up. The two have a long history together and are very close, though at times Rosette's somewhat abrasive personality gets the better of him, leading the two to argue. Whatever conflicts they have, however, they truly love one another, and it is this love and how slowly it comes to the forefront that serves as one of Chrono Crusade's great strengths.

The anime series, based on the manga series of the same title, starts off essentially the same as its source material, but partway in begins to deviate into an alternate storyline. Even in episodes where it takes inspiration from the manga by including certain locations or events, the anime does its own take, and leads us towards a very, very different ending; it is so different, in fact, that by the last episode it feels as though we've experienced an entirely different story, and in many ways, we have.

While I would say the manga has the superior story to tell, the anime series tells its own story very well. You would have to have a heart of stone to not come to care about Rosette, Chrono, Azmaria and Satella and the adventures they share. Other areas in which the anime excels are its animation, which is absolutely gorgeous; its music, which is also gorgeous (especially "Sayonara Solitaire," the closing theme); its voice acting (though I'm speaking of the Japanese cast; I have not watched the English dub); and its good balance of humor, action and plot. If the anime has any real weaknesses, they would be the fact that it reveals certain secrets way too soon, and that its final battle is surprisingly underwhelming (to be fair, however, the anime's intent in the final episodes is to focus on Rosette and Chrono's relationship rather than the battle they are fighting). The villains, especially Aion and Fiore, are very well-portrayed and behave exactly the way anyone familiar with the manga would expect them to. Their stories are, of course, also altered, as is Joshua Christopher's; his story ends up petering out towards the conclusion, whereas in the manga he remained important right up to the end. This isn't the jarring change you might expect, but it doesn't exactly carry as much weight, either.

As mentioned before, it's the love between Rosette and Chrono that really makes this series strong, and their most tender moments together are the series' most powerful. Episodes 18 and 24 in particular moved me greatly and brought tears to my eyes. Special praise should go to Tomoko Kawakami, who plays Rosette. She brings the character to life in ways that even the animation couldn't. There is not a single flaw anywhere in her performance. Whether she is expressing happiness, anger, sadness or any other emotion, we believe her completely.

Don't allow the religious imagery or elements keep you from giving this series a try. There is a lot here to recommend, from a good, moving story to beautiful, cinema-quality animation. Of course, I would also recommend reading the manga as well; the story, as I said, is different and the manga's ending is so powerful it is certain to bring a lump to the throat at the very least. I had to wait a long time to watch the anime, but I must say: the wait was worth it.

Mahoromatic is one of those series that's a little difficult to pin down. It's got fanservice, goofy humor, a lot of action, an underlying series story, a surprisingly depressing premise and eye-catching artwork. And I only really became interested in reading it after watching the anime on a friend's recommendation. The anime version was okay, but the inconsistency between the serious premise and story and the screwball animation was not very attractive (good music, though), and I absolutely hated the way the anime ended. Its final episode was incongruous. It was confusing, illogical and frustrating, and raised more questions than it answered. It didn't even ... allow us to know what had become of the supporting cast.

When I learned the ending was different from that of the manga, I decided to give the manga series a try. I found the same inconsistency between story and presentation, and some slightly uneven storytelling. The series started off well enough but dropped in quality with the third volume, and I began to think that, whether it was in manga or anime form, this just wasn't a series I was going to like that much.

Then I was greeted with a surprise in volume 7 as the humor began to drop off, and the storytelling took the same tone as the story itself, resulting in a much more solid read. I found this encouraging and, immediately after reading 7, picked up 8 to find out what happened.

It turned out that trudging through less-than-impressive volumes 3 through 6 had been worth it. With volume 8, things were finally coming to a head, and the cast, largely caricatures throughout the series, were finally developing into real characters. More to the point, I found I was sincerely starting to care about what happened to them.

It would be a disservice to describe volume 8's story, especially since it wouldn't make much sense to anyone who hadn't read the previous seven volumes. So rather than do that, I will instead confirm that the manga's ending is VERY different from that of the anime, and it makes a hell of a lot more sense, too. It also allows us to see what happens to all the major supporting characters, giving us the closure the anime never does.

I actually rather wish the whole series had been done like volume 8, as I likely would have enjoyed it a lot more. Volume 8 is a good, powerful read, and frequently made me teary-eyed, especially in its final pages. I like it when a book, be it a traditional literary work or a graphic novel, has this effect on me. Sometimes I want to laugh, sometimes I just want a thrill, but sometimes, I would prefer to be moved. And volume 8 moved me.

At the end of the day, Mahoromatic is a so-so series with flashes of brilliance, but for anyone who likes true romance, it's worth it to wade through the series and read the final volume. If what happens to Suguru and Mahoro doesn't move you even a little, you may as well be an android with no soul.

When one sees or hears the name Hideo Azuma, one either immediately thinks of lolita manga or simply asks, "who in the hell is that?" He's known as being the "father of lolicon," with many of his works being pornographic in some way. One would not expect this man to have much interest in drawing things outside of science fiction and lolicon, though he certainly has an impressive list of manga titles to his name.

So an award-winning book like Disappearance Diary comes as a bit of a surprise; it's neither pornographic nor science fiction, and is in fact an autobiography of sorts, told in a ... very humorous way.

Azuma features himself as a short, fat, goggle-eyed character in this recollection of his days as a hopeless alcoholic and as a homeless person. A story that would otherwise be painful, gut-wrenching and difficult to read is made entertaining and more pleasantly poignant through his use of humor and cartoony artwork. He isn't afraid to tell us the truth, and his sometimes frank presentation is almost as hilarious as his rather dry commentary.

At first we don't really learn what drives him to do this to himself. The book is not presented in chronological order and we are introduced to him when we are thrust into his first experience of being homeless. We do know that his homelessness is a choice rather than an unfortunate circumstance. We come to learn of his dependency on alcohol and cigarettes and his massive workload as an artist as the book progresses, as well as his rather pushover nature and the fact he even as a wife (largely unseen until the second half of the book).

The book is divided into three main sections, each dealing with a different time in his rather lengthy exile from the stresses of his life, and focus on the primary concerns he had during each period. In his first homeless experience, it was worrying about having enough to eat. In the second, it was dealing with certain individuals he worked with, and the ridiculous things he had to put up with from them ("YOU DIDN'T DRAW FEATHERS ON THE ARROWS!"). In another, it was his attempts to avoid difficult fellow patients in a hospital, along with the staff.

Azuma himself says that the manga "has a positive outlook on life, and so it has been made with as much realism removed as possible." It's very likely that some of the things he presents are indeed fictional, comedic twists on his experiences, but some appear to be very honest recollections, such as the threat of cirrhosis hanging over him like the Sword of Damocles, or his first capture by the police, who initially believe him to be the murder suspect they were after. His story is a fascinating one, and upon learning of his stressors and what he had to deal with as a professional artist, we can't really blame him for wanting out, even though his circumstances were largely his own fault. A person can put up with only so much, and it's easy to sympathize when he does everything he can to escape from what feels more and more like a prison to a life that, while certainly not easy, feels manageable by comparison. The dialogue is often as funny, if not funnier, than Azuma's stark narration (during a sequence in which Azuma has a severe coughing fit, a nurse says, "Oh, Doctor, there's blood!" to which the doctor simply responds, "THAT'S not good!"), and his cartoony visuals turn disgusting things into visions of hilarity (it's difficult to not laugh at his frequent vomiting, or the rather blunt depicition of him defecating in the forest). He even indicates that there was more, but that he'll save it for another time, leaving us to wonder if he might really provide a sequel, or if his parting words are another dose of his dry humor.

Disappearance Diary is an engaging, extremely funny manga, and a surprisingly quick read for a 200-page book. One doesn't have to be a fan of Azuma (or even familiar with him at all) to enjoy this story, but it may turn one into a fan before the final page is turned.

This is mainly a review of Volume 8.

After Volume 7 ended on one hell of a cliffhanger, I knew it was going to be difficult to wait until I had a chance to read the final volume, so I picked the very first opportunity I had. In an earlier review I listed Volume 6 as the best of all the series so far, and now I can say Volume 8 ranks right up there with it.

It would be kind of pointless to go over the story at this point; if you don't know what Chrno Crusade is all about, you need to go back and ... check out Volumes 1 and 2. Volume 8 is the end of the line, and in more than one sense.

With the world on the brink of chaos and her soul almost completely consumed, Rosette uses what little time she has left to track down her brother and convince him she really is who she says she is. Plenty stands in her way, including a major battle between Aion and Chrono, and of course, death itself looms close. It's kind of funny that a volume so packed with action could still have time for wonderful, emotional moments between characters (one reason why I ranked 7 lower than 6 and 8), but Volume 8 has enough of them, and by the time I arrived at this part of the story I cared so much about Rosette that every panel depicting her in tears made me all misty-eyed. Things don't really turn out the way she expected them to, and it's only through her sheer willpower that things take the turn they do. There's no cop-out here, though.

Without actually telling you what happens, all I will say is that the ending is the best possible ending this series could have had. Even in the epilogue there were a couple of surprises I did not see coming, which were effective enough, but the epilogue's overall presentation, showing the aftermath out of sequence and saving the most dramatic moment for the very last pages, effectively sucked me all the way in, made me teary-eyed, and left me in such a state that, even after I was done reading, a few minutes passed before I could even put the book down. I've read plenty of stories that go for the darkest possible ending and plenty of stories that cheat and go for an artificially happy ending, and even stories with endings that, while they made sense, were still disappointing in some way, either because they favored unhappy events or were just anti-climactic. Chrno Crusade's ending was none of the above. The ending was exactly what it should have been, a mixture of happy and sad, and was enormously effective and moving. The only thing I'm sorry about is that such a charming series is over.

I will very likely reread this in the not-to-distant future, and will probably choke up as much over the ending then as I did now. Rosette Christopher jumped right off those pages and into my heart, and she'll stay there evermore.

Osamu Tezuka truly is the god of manga. The attention to detail is simply staggering, and he produced his hundreds of thousands of pages of manga over the decades the long, hard way. Sometimes, when reading his work, one simply must stop and marvel at the art, even during the most engrossing of tales.

Apollo's Song, given to me by a friend, is quite epic, whether examined alone or alongside Tezuka's other works. It features, of course, Tezuka's unmistakable comic drawing style, combined with a dark, deep story about eternal punishment. The contrast in the story and its presentation is itself something truly amazing, and it ... must be seen to be fully appreciated.

What happens to a man who hates the very concept of love? What must he endure in order to open up to the idea that even a troubled, abused fellow such as he can learn to truly love someone? What happens to our tortured anti-hero is nothing short of brutal, and never-ending. How he wound up being the sort of person he became can't truly be blamed on him, yet he receives retribution everlasting for rejecting love itself.

Shogo's journey is at times sweet, at times violent, and at times even peppered with hope, but is always a struggle. This story is a tragedy on a truly epic scale, stretching from the past well into the future, with the only constants being his name, his appearance, his punishment... and the face of one specific woman. The remaining details all change, yet his travels are very much a spiral, leading him downward into the bottomless.

This manga was made during a time when sex education was no longer taboo in Japan, and is not hesitant to take advantage of the new freedom this allowed the medium. This isn't one of Tezuka's family-friendly works. There's blood, there's nudity and enough else you don't want the young 'uns seeing. It's filled with plenty of immensely unlikeable characters supporting two very flawed, but ultimately likable people whose sad story has backdrops as brutal as the Holocaust.

Apollo's Song isn't for everybody. But for those who like solid story and the inimitable crafting and style of Osamu Tezuka, it's a must-read.

Now that I've finally seen Shakugan No Shana: The Movie, I'm able to remark on it plus a few things about the series in general.

Let me start off by saying that, on the whole, I like this movie. I didn't get any opportunity to see it until after I'd already read the first light novel (which the movie takes much of its story from), read the first manga volume and seen all of the first season (and most of the second) of the TV series. So I'm afraid my opinion of the movie was shaped just as much by these things as it was by ... the movie itself, and in some ways this doesn't really work in the movie's favor. I'll explain below.

Let's begin with the negatives. I read somewhere (I don't remember where, but it might have been LJ) that someone felt that the movie does a much better job telling the story than the TV series. I very strongly disagree with this. The advantage of the TV series was that it had a full season of episodes to tell the story and it was able to move at a comfortable pace, giving us explanations at a satisfactory rate and developing the characters smoothly and nicely. The movie is only 86 minutes. The filmmakers barely gave themselves time to even tell a story (come on; 86 minutes ISN'T that much time), and consequently the movie, especially the first half, feels enormously rushed. We're whisked right through the opening scenes, barely given a sufficient explanation for what was going on (even the manga did a better job of this, and the manga is inferior to both the light novel and the TV series) and hardly given the amount or depth of character development the TV series allowed. If I had seen the movie before the TV series and before having read the light novel or the manga, I would have been somewhat puzzled. The fast pace and hurried explanations wouldn't have allowed me the understanding that I got from the TV series or the light novel. Streaking right through the plot is not an effective way to tell a story.

Secondly, the filmmakers tried to cram too much in there, which resulted in there not being enough. Sound contradictory? It might not once I elucidate: we're given Yuji's story, Hirai's story, Kazumi's story, Shana's story, Friagne and Marian's story and a bit of Ike's and Margery's story (more on Margery below) and, again, that 86 minute mark proves too little to effectively accommodate them all. We get enough for Yuji and Hirai, and BARELY enough for Shana, but not for any of the others. We really don't even get enough time for Shana's growing attachment to Yuji to make much sense, and we wonder why she really starts to care about him at all. In the TV series it's obvious why, but here it really isn't. Kazumi's story is especially disappointing because, after such a promising start, her story is abandoned halfway through the movie, and we don't even see her again. It's left on a low note, with her essentially giving up what she wanted to do, and that's what we take with us. With this being the case, it would have been just as well to leave her out of the movie altogether (or greatly reduce her role, with no specific plot line focused on her), since in the end she contributes nothing significant to the story.

I also had a problem with Wilhelmina's gratuitous cameos. I know why they were done, but it was too glaring (I mean that in more than one sense, too, for every time she appeared on screen, she'd turn and glare at the camera). They should have limited her to ONE cameo, and they should have kept her from looking towards us. Such a far less self-conscious cameo would have been much more of a treat than what we got. When she appeared again, doing just as she did before, I actually rolled my eyes. If I roll my eyes during a movie, this is a bad sign.

Now then: Margery Daw. WHAT THE HELL IS SHE DOING HERE? Yeah, yeah, I get it; she's here for the same reason Wilhelmina is: giving the fans what they want. But you know, when giving the fans what they want is detrimental to the story, it's a bad idea. Now, I have nothing against Margery as a character; she's fun to watch in the TV series, and Marcosius is always good for a laugh, but in the movie she's barely given any real significance in the grand scheme of things, and no real development. She participates in every battle once she shows up, and her participation does no good at all. She is, in a nutshell, in the movie to be in the movie. Margery and Marco weren't even in the first light novel at all, and when they were placed in the movie, Margery essentially got one of Shana's actions from the book, then stuck around like the fifth wheel that she was for the rest of the time, and making a largely unceremonious exit at the end. Margery and Marco were an intrusion. THEY DO NOT BELONG HERE.

I have one other gripe I want to address, because this very nearly ruined the film's climax for me. Let me get to it by explaining something. Alastor, Flame of Heaven, is a King of Guze, and exists in this world by inhabiting the body of Shana, his contractor. He speaks through the pendant she wears around her neck. In the TV series we never actually see what Alastor looks like; the one time Shana mentions summoning him, he's summoned but we don't get to see him. That was effective because it upheld the mystery of his character. In the light novel, when he is summoned during the climax, he is never really described, and we are left to imagine his appearance for ourselves. This, too, is effective. In the movie, however, we see Alastor's true form. Without revealing what he looks like, let me just say I was sorely disappointed. I know what the filmmakers were attempting to do, but they didn't quite get there. Instead of seeing a form majestic and kingly, we see something that looks evil and, worse, rather uninspired. Since Alastor is, really, a force for good since he fights to maintain the world's balance, giving him an evil appearance is far from suitable, even if the intent was install a bit of irony. Irony isn't ALWAYS effective, folks. It sure wasn't here. The better thing to do would have been to use a different, more awe-inspiring design, or to have kept him obscured in the flames so that we never truly got a good look at him. When I saw the design they chose for him, I groaned. Yes, I groaned. I couldn't believe it. (Yeah, I know; how many movies have I made, right? Well, I bet I could make a pretty good movie if you could lend me some money; I only need about $49 million. I'll pay you back if the movie is a hit, and I'll credit you as a producer, too. What do you say?)

Now, after having said all of this, you may be wondering how I could have said I like this movie. Well, now that I got the negatives out of the way, let's get to the positives.

First, the movie wisely chooses to stick to the story of the first light novel, and during the second half of the movie especially, does a fairly good job retelling it. Like I said, Margery gets in the way, and Kazumi's story is abandoned, but the plot is not too drastically changed. It's rushed, yes, and the filmmakers should have allowed themselves an extra twenty minutes to flesh things out a bit more, but the story is at least intact. We do miss characters like Oga-chan and some of the other classmates (who appeared in the light novel), but since the movie left no room for them, it was a good idea to leave them out instead of trying to squeeze them ineffectively in like they did with Margery.

Friagne the Hunter is done a great service here. He gets just about the right amount of screen time, and his relationship with Marian is nicely demonstrated. He also is presented as being more powerful here than he was in the TV series (where he was something of a "little guy" compared to the series' main villains, Bal Masque), and he uses his Hougu with splendid results. They even put in a tiny scene at the very beginning of the film depicting Friagne using Trigger Happy to kill an unnamed Flame Haze, finally showing us just how dangerous he's supposed to be. He puts up one hell of a fight during the final battle (easily holding off both Shana and Margery), just as a good villain should, and when Marian sacrifices herself for him, his reaction is perfect. A well-handled villain makes all the difference in a story, no matter what its medium. And they got the villain right.

The animation is breathtaking. It stands above the TV series animation-wise, just as a movie should, and while it looks like it stole a few shots here and there during the first half directly from the first couple of episodes (a cost-cutting move, most likely), most of the familiar scenes were obviously reanimated, given more dynamic camera movement and greater fluidity. The fight scenes were especially well done and were very exciting to watch, and the CGI was very smoothly used alongside the characters to great effect. Visually, the movie doesn't disappoint.

A few little things were added that were actually not used in the TV series, which is a bit surprising. Before her storyline is abandoned, we see more of Kazumi's home life, including a group picture of her class. In a particularly nice touch, we see the photograph suddenly alter itself right around the time Shana takes over Hirai's existence, which was a great idea. Hirai's disappearance from this world is handled with slightly more dramatic flair than the TV series, not necessarily making it more effective, but making it different enough to be fresh and interesting. (I suspect the movie's flair for the dramatic is one reason why some people feel the movie does a better job telling the story than the TV series. However, superficial drama does not a better story make.)

Speaking of heightened drama, the music is different here than in the TV series, and a very beautiful song is performed when Hirai is about to vanish. This was a good move on the filmmakers' part, since Hirai, even after she is gone, is important to the story, and having such effective music for her final scene helps us feel the distress and frustration Yuji experiences. Another very beautiful tune is played at the end of the film as we see Shana and Yuji standing together, finally sharing a friendly, trusting moment with one another (an effect nearly mired by Margery zipping around overhead). The music, really, is one of the best things about the movie.

Overall, the movie is enjoyable (if more on its own merits than compared to other versions of Shana), and any anime fan would likely enjoy watching it. Due to its flaws, I award it a 7/10, but I still regard it as recommended viewing. I hope, if they ever choose to make a second film, they're more careful in their approach to storytelling.