Showing posts with label anime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anime. Show all posts

Anime Review: Black Lagoon

By silentquill



There is always a standard mainstream in the whole movie/anime/books stories: good people - involving great looking men with great looking ladies as side kick (at the most) - working to do some good.
Well, I am happy to announce that this anime series break all the above mentioned standard!

Black Lagoon is the name of the boat owned by the group of outlaws called the Lagoon Company. The company has its base in the city of Roanapur. The group is hired for pretty  much anything: smuggling, delivering goods, translating for major criminals, etc. In doing their job, the members of the Lagoon Company is often face to face with hand to hand combat, battles - at sea and on land, racing, and other deadly situations.

The story begins when the Lagoon Company met (or accidentally taken hostage of ) Rock - a Japanese businessman. Instead of killing him, the company offered him a place since he turns out to be a great negotiator and translator.

Rock - unlike any hero in other stories - does not shoot a gun ( he won't even hold one), cannot punch, drive a boat, let alone do a hand to hand combat. So what does he do ? Well, like mentioned earlier, Rock becomes the group's negotiator and translator. He handles the accounting and save them if gunshooting turns futile.
Ok.. good for Rock... So what does the other do? Well, Dutch - a big dark skinned guy - is the owner of the company and he drives the boat. Benny is the mechanic and engineer.
Still.. ok.. so who does the hand to hand combat? Some bigger guy???


Well..... NO... the skillful gunman is a woman. And unlike in other stories where the gun holding woman is depicted boyish but with still possess a woman's natural beauty, Revy (the name of our gunman) does not. She wears shorts, T shirts, and pig tail. She likes to shoot. She enjoys the blood. She enjoys her work. She holds no value for human life. She killed her first victim when she was young. And she is never depcited graceful or having great natural womanly beatuy. She is simply deadly and great at what she does. She is nicknamed "Two Hand" since she is able to use her weapons on both hands simultaneously.

 
The Lagoon company is in close ties with the Hotel Moscow - a group of army turned fugitive led by a dangerous woman named Balalaika. Her subordinates calles her Kapitan since she used to be their captain when they were still in the army. She is the brain of the group.  She is also a great sniper. Half of her face is burnt in the war. She is well respected by her followers, relations, and enemies. She will destroy anything that disturbs her goal or her follower.

Eda, is a "nun" in the church of violence. She is a great gunman, quite a match for Revy. She sometime serves as Revy's partner and sometime crosses path with her.

One of the greatest guest character is Roberta. She is the servant of a boy who got accidentally end up with the Lagoon Company. Upon releasing him, she was involved in hand to hand combat with Revy. The scene when she and Revy was in combat is the best action scene in any movies I've watched. It is just so great watching two women battling each other using guns and fists (and being extremely great at it) instead of pulling out each other hair as usually depicted in women fighting scenes.
 
Overall, I really like this anime since it really actually shows strong women with level head, great minds, great battling skills, power, and muscle. They don't cry. They don't go overboard with their feelings. They don't have the "my prince charming will come and rescue me" syndrome. They act on their own strength. They rule their own lives. Yes, some of them is broken. Revy had such a difficult past that she became a gunman. But she didn't become enslaved by her destiny and she does not cry over the fact of what she has become. She face her life no matter how brutal and live with the terms.

In addition to the characters, I also like the story. The full anime series is divided into several different stories. The Lagoon Company and its allies deal with different issues. Each is filled with fast paced action. And in most cases, there is no good guy nor bad guy. There are just different sides, taking oppsite actions.

The best that I like aside from the ones involving Roberta is the series where members of the Hotel Moscow were being slain by a pair of twin children. The twins were mentally sick children. In their world, killing is justified and they do it as a hobby. However, in the series it was obvious that they were the victims. When the girl finally opened up to Rock and almost get away, she was eventually killed by one of Balalaika's contacts. So, there is no happy ending. Well, not in this anime, anyway.

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Anime Review: Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) Season II

By silentquill


Now, where was I? Oh yes...
Kuroshitsuji season I ended with Sebastian in the process of devouring Ciel's soul (http://quillicious.blogspot.com/2010/10/anime-review-kuroshitsuji-black-butler.html).

|Spoiler alert! I actually do not like to write the endings during review. However, I find the ending of this series as the best part of the entire story so I am going to write it down|

Kuroshitsuji season II opens with Sebastian entering Alois Trancy's maison to steal a ring that holds Ciel's soul. However, upon returning Ciel's soul into his body, Sebastian realized that Ciel's memory of the previous events is missing. Therefore, he does not realize that he is dead and that his contract with Sebastian has ended.

On the other hand, we are introduced to Alois Trancy. Alois is a frantic and somewhat insane child. His real name is Jim McCain and he used to have a brother named Luca. He was the old Trancy's mistress and  became the Trancy heir after the old Trancy died. He also has a black butler named Claude Faustus. Alois Trancy wishes for Ciel's soul in order to avenge his brother's death since he suspects that Sebastian consumed his brother's soul upon fulfilling his request. His contract with Claude is written in his tongue. Unlike Ciel who was independent of Sebastian, Alois is obsessed with Claude.

Claude is a perfectionist demon butler and is not as laid back as Sebastian. He stole Ciel's soul before being devoured. He wears eyeglasses and can take the shape of a spider, He has four demons followers: Hanna the maid and the triplets demon servants - Thompson (his fringe is swept to the right), Timber (his fringe falls directly to the center) and Canterbury (his fringe that is swept to the left). In the middle of the series, he becames entranced with Ciel's soul and determines to keep it for himself and compete with Sebastian to claim it. Alois becomes jealous and confessed his love for Claude. Upon doing so, Claude murdered him and kept Alois' soul in a ring.

Claude fused Ciel's and Alois' soul and make Ciel deny Sebastian. Hanna, the demon maid, manages to make Alois take over Ciel's body and form a contract with both Ciel and Alois. It turns out that she was the demon who devoured Luca's soul and since she was taken by Luca's goodness she becomes Claude's followers to protect Alois.  In the end, Alois makes Sebastian and Claude to fight each other. Sebastian wins and murder Claude. Alois' contract with Hanna ended and Alois died.  Hanna dumps Ciel's body into the ocean and die with Claude to join Alois. Sebastian jumped into the ocean to save Ciel.

In the end of the series, Ciel says good bye to his servants, friends, and fiancee. He left for a journey with Sebastian. The contract between Ciel and Sebastian remains. Sebastian is still his servant - for eternity since upon fullfiling the contract with Alois, Hanna turned Ciel into a demon. In the ending, Sebastian carried Ciel over a cliff and states that forever he would always says "Yes, My Lord".

I find that the second season not as good as the first. the fight between Sebastian and Claude is just too repetitive and thus boring. There are too many unrelated episodes. In addition, there is only half as many episodes as the first season making the storyline becomes too packed and confusing.

Some of the supporting characters from season one shows up briefly. However, Grell appears for several occasions and play an important role in aiding Sebastian find out the truth about Hanna.
So as I mentioned earlier, the best part of this season is the ending. I somewhat think that this is the perfect ending.

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Anime Review: Mushishi

By silentquill


Mushis are beings that is more basic and pure than any other form of life. They are ubiquitous and ethereal. Some of them are harmless but some may pose negative effects on humans. Most humans cannot see them. However, some can. And some becomes experts of the mushi. They are called MUSHISHI.

The story follows a mushishi named Ginko. He is a mushishi that helps villagers investigate peculiar  happenings.  He has white hair which cover one of his eyes. It is to hide the fact that the eye is missing. The color of his only eye is green. He has had this bizarre appearance ever since he was engulfed by a dark mushi when he was a child. The mushi also stole his memory and his name. He called himself Ginko since it was the only name he remembered when the mushi swallowed him.

Ginko is a laid back person. However, he performs his job seriously. He  solves mysterious cases related to the mushi like a detective solving a murder case. He analyzes the problem, figure out which mushi is responsible, and figure out a way to find out the best solution. He is always travelling since his presence has the tendency to draw mushi. Therefore, he tries not to get too attached to people and leave after staying for several weeks. But he is not without emotion even though most of his emotion is properly constrained. He also one of the mushishis that prefers not to kill the harmful mushis. He always tries to find ways to find win win solution for both mushis and humans.

He always has a wooden back pack with him. Inside he stores many useful things. One of them is a cocoon that can be used to relay messages. He is also a heavy smoker. He use the smoke to get rid of  all of the mushis that always appear around him.

Each episode in the anime follows different tales. Most of them contains philosophical insight. One of the most memorable tales was the man who wanted to catch the rainbow. His father caught a rainbow once and became insane. The man hated his father for that until the day his father died. He wanted to catch the rainbow as closure and to forgive himself and his father. Ginko showed him the way to the rainbow mushi. Upon finding it, the man managed to overcome his past and become the great engineer his father knew he would be.

The stories are usually simple and is told in detail. One scene follows another scene gracefully. There is no missing links between the scenes. The visualization is also profound. Every tree, snow, mist, people's expression is depicted so carefully and beautifully.

So overall, this anime has got everything an anime lover wanted. A great story with gist superbly told, a mix of detective and supernatural content, great picture (one of the most important essence for an anime), and strong characterization. The only question remained unanswered is how come Ginko wears modern clothing in old Japan? However, this is a small issue and does not change the fact that this is definately one of my favourites animes.


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Anime Review: Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) season I

By silentquill



The story revolves around a boy named Ciel Phantomhive and his butler – Sebastian Michaelis and takes place in London around the Victorian era. Ciel comes from a noble family. He inherited a large estate from his parents. He also works for her Majesty to solve mysterious cases. Everything appears to be ordinary except that Sebastian is not human. He is a demon butler bound by a contract to Ciel. The contract stipulates Sebastian to help Ciel to avenge his parents’ death. When the contract is fulfilled, Sebastian is free to consume Ciel’s soul. The pentacle is marked in Ciel's eye as a sign of the contract. That is the reason he always wears an eye patch.
I have fallen for this anime ever since the first series. The story is original and imaginative. Some of events depicted can be so funny that I would laugh non stop and some others are so bleak and dark (of course.... it  IS a story about a boy making arrangements with a demon). 

The characters are so compelling. Ciel, is depicted as an exceptionally smart, serious, vengeful, stubborn, mature, independent boy who is so transfixed in finding his parents killer. He is cruel to the villain and kind to those who are innocent. In the first episode, Ciel made the contract with Sebastian when he was being tortured. This dark past made him unable to smile and live as a child properly. He does not appreciate his own life and threw it away for revenge. In the last episodes, he met a dying police officer who told him that he should live fully. At that time, Ciel realized that it was too late.
Sebastian is a can do all butler. Unlike Ciel, he smiles a lot. His easy going attitude is by far contrast to his demonic nature. He would do anything to do Ciel's bidding since he has a contract with the child. However, sometimes, he is also violates Ciel's orders in order to protect him. In other times, he bothers and irriates Ciel. He is somewhat attached by Ciel but is not reluctant in consuming Ciel’s soul. His "weapons" are the silver knives and forks. He has dark eyes. But they turn red when his demonic aura appears. In his full demon form, it appears that he has wings. However, this form is never fully revealed. He can also takes form of a black crow.  Upon following Ciel's orders he always says the sentence "Yes, My Lord". He refers to himself as "One hell of a butler" . Inspite of his perfectionist nature and obidience to Ciel, he would be completely lost when he sees a cat. He would then abandon his job and Ciel (a demon - obsessed with cats).

The supporting characters are also interesting. The Phantomhive household has four other servants aside from Sebasitian. Bard is the cook who can’t cook who turns out to be an ex soldier. He was the only survivor from his platoon. Finnian the gardener who destroys the garden. He has supernatural strength due to experiments done to him before he was rescued by Sebastian. Mey-Rin is the maid who destroys things every time she tries to cleans up.  She turns out to be an ex gun man. Tanaka is the only servant who served for the former Master Phantomhive. He is usually described as deformed and senile therefore does not usually do any task. However, when he is healthy, he is a perfect butler.

Ciel met an eccentric grim reaper (those who reaps people's soul when they die) upon solving the Jack the Reaper case. His hair, eyeglasses, and clothes are red. His name is Grell. His schythe takes the form of a chainsaw. He sided with Jack the Reaper (who turned out to be Ciel's family - Madame Red). He is a psycho and just love using his schythe. Initially they became enemies and Sebastian nearly killed him. He was however saved by his boss - William. His scythe was taken away and was replaced with a pair of scissor as punishment.  In the end Grell was interested in Sebastian and became an unwanted ally to the butler. Sebastian knew this and used him for his own demonic good (he even stepped on Grell to get to higher grounds). All this Grell did happily in exchange for Sebastian's little attentien (e.g. smile) --- (stupid grim reaper in love).
In addition, there is the weird and mysterious undertaker. His hair is white and his clothes and hat are black. Simply put, he looks insane. However, he appears to know things. He becomes Ciel's informant. But he does not wish to be paid with money. Instead, he wants to hear funny jokes. In the ending episodes, he turns out to be a grim reaper just like Grell.

And then there’s Lau – the Chinese trader and the woman he is always with - Ranmau. They are opium sellers and have disagreement with Ciel and Sebastian. Prince Soma is a spoiled prince from India. After getting to understand his mistakes, he became friends with Ciel. He has a bodyguard named Agni. In addition, Ciel has a fiancée named Elizabeth. She is blond and spoiled. But she really loves Ciel. In one of the episodes, she got kidnapped. And the case gave Ciel a hint on who was responsible for his parents’ death.

In a visit to a village, Ciel, Sebastian,and the Phantomhive servants met Angela. She is a woman whose village is terrorized by a giant hound dog who breathes fire. The hound dog is tamed by Sebastian and is named Pluto. Ciel brought him to his estate and made him a pet. However, it is later found out that Angela is indeed a fallen angel. She has a female form and a male form called Ash. She is also the master of Pluto. In the end of the story she unleashed Pluto in London and created havoc. The Phantomhive servants tried to handle the situation and was separated from Sebastian and Ciel.  Angela also knows who killed Ciel’s parents. Sebastian battled her and won. Ciel managed to get his vengeance towards those who killed his parents and died. The contract between Ciel and Sebastian ended. In the last episode, Sebastian brought Ciel to his dwelling to consume his soul.
(Please do not be disappointed by this ending… the story continues to season II)



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