Don’t worry, she won’t bite. But a hard jab in the solar plexus can’t be ruled out entirely . . .

From Wolf Hurricane, our very best wishes to all in the new year.

Diego adds to the festive cheer by opening the covers of a splendid stocking stuffer: ARIA the Illustration – Avvenire, a compilation of artwork related to the ARIA anime series.

As with my previous artbook posts, only low-quality shots of selected pages are provided here. If these samples succeed in piquing your interest, please support the publishers by purchasing the artbook. (Don’t ask us to provide high-quality images or scans; we won’t do it.)

CONTENTS

Avvenire contains full-colour reproductions of cover and promotional art prepared for the ARIA anime series. All three seasons (and the OVA) are represented in various types of illustrations: DVD jackets, CD covers, magazine spreads, telephone cards and so forth. Although part of the broader ARIA franchise, Avvenire is not directly related to the 3-volume hardbound artbook series released in 2004-2006 (which featured art from Amano Kozue’s original manga series) as it is concerned specifically with the anime adaptation and consists almost entirely of anime-style illustrations prepared by other hands (rather than by Amano-sensei herself).

Here’s a small sample of the book’s contents.

MY THOUGHTS

As an avid follower of both the ARIA manga series and its anime adaptation, I’m pleased to see yet another artbook featuring Neo-Venezia in all its aquatic splendour – and even more so by the fact that this latest publication allows me to see the world of Amano-sensei’s undines from a somewhat different perspective. Avvenire offers more of the same in the sense that it features the same characters as its predecessors, but it also presents something new because the art possesses very different characteristics: brighter colours, a reduced reliance on shading, more sharply defined boundaries; in short, distinctly anime-style. While I personally prefer the dreamlike quality of Amano-sensei’s manga illustrations, I find the works collected in Avvenire – which were prepared by other artists (with the notable exception of the jacket art) – still quite pleasing to look at, though they will probably draw stronger accolades from fans of the anime series than from those who lean more towards the original manga art.

For a useful comparison, check out my earlier reviews of the three older artbooks collecting the art of Amano Kozue – Alpha, Stella, and Cielo.

THE LAST WORD

Highly recommended. A great collection of eye candy for ARIA enthusiasts (and especially for fans of the animated series).

Diego briefly escapes from the drudgery of the white-collar salt mines to bring you another review. Today, the spotlight falls on Cielo – the last in a three-volume series of hardbound books featuring the manga art of ARIA author and illustrator Amano Kozue.

As with my previous artbook posts, only low-quality shots of selected pages are provided here. If these samples succeed in piquing your interest, please support Amano-sensei and the publishers by purchasing the artbook. (Don’t ask us to provide high-quality images or scans; we just won’t do it.)

CONTENTS

Strictly speaking, Cielo isn’t an ARIA artbook – it’s more of a general portfolio covering several manga titles and an assortment of shorter works. On the other hand, there’s no hiding the fact that Amano-sensei’s most popular series gets star billing in this volume (as it did in the last two), and with the related series AQUA rounding out the collection it’s easy to see why this artbook will be of interest primarily to fans of the ARIA franchise.

Cielo contains 36 pages of colour art from ARIA, 8 from Roman Club, 8 from Crescent Noise, 8 from an assortment of shorter works, and 20 from ARIA’s sister series AQUA. 9 pages of monochrome art are also included.

Samples from the ARIA and AQUA sections are presented below.

MY THOUGHTS

There are few – if any – discernible stylistic differences between the art featured in Cielo and the works collected in its sister volumes, so I’ll start this section off with a lightly edited extract from my review of the first artbook:

Like the manga series and its anime adaptation, the art of ARIA and AQUA seems to have been designed specifically to induce a feeling of calm refreshment on the part of the viewer. Amano-sensei’s style favours a soft palette – including shades of blue and green, the colours of the sea – and employs a masterful use of shading to create vistas that are both strikingly beautiful and remarkably easy on the eyes. Human figures are usually drawn in poses that suggest not action, but relaxation: sitting serenely on the edge of a canal with the sea lapping at their feet; perched on a high spot gazing up at the azure sky, with the ocean’s gently rippled surface spreading out underneath; walking in an open arcade at sunset within sight of the sea-green harbour.

I can’t really pick a favourite out of the three volumes, even if pressed to do so. Amano-sensei’s art is consistently good from first to last, with each successor offering not so much a development in style but more of a broadening of scope, with the same artistic touch expressed in a wider variety of scenes. In other words, Cielo offers us more of the same – which in this case is an admirable thing.

Like its two predecessors, this hardbound volume comes in a transparent plastic slipcase – an inconspicuous protective feature that I’d like to see become standard-issue for artbooks. In the case of Cielo, the title of the artbook and the usual back cover details (price, barcode, etc.) are printed on the slipcase, leaving the actual covers of the book mostly unmarred by text.

At 3,130 yen (about US$34-35) a copy, Cielo isn’t exactly cheap, but for a dedicated admirer of Amano-sensei’s work in general – or of the ARIA series in particular – it’s an investment well worth making.

AVAILABILITY, COST, ETC.

Cielo was first released in 2006, but a reprint was issued in 2008 so availability shouldn’t be a major concern.

Here are the acquisition details for my copy (mostly from the original sales receipt):

Place acquired: Animate, Akihabara (Tokyo) branch
Date and time acquired: 26 March 2009, 8:46 PM
Acquisition cost: 3,130 yen (including tax)

In addition to Animate, I remember seeing all three Amano Kozue artbooks in the Akihabara branch of Comic Toranoana (artbook section, ground floor of the doujin wing). AsoBitCity, Mandarake and other stores – including major bookshops – should also have copies on stock, but I can’t attest to that personally.

If you’re based outside Japan, consider ordering the book from an online retailer. Amazon Japan, for one, is selling Cielo at the prevailing Akiba street price and will ship internationally, although the shipping costs can be ruinous: from 2,200 yen (including the per-item handling charge) for Asia to 4,700 yen – which exceeds the price of the book itself! – for South America. As always, poke around for the best deal (list price and postage) before buying.

THE LAST WORD

Must buy. A real treat for ARIA enthusiasts.

Reviews of the first two volumes in this artbook series are available here and here.

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, but I just haven’t been very motivated to write lately. Anyway, I actually hate Maria but couldn’t resist using that line for the title since it was from one of Umineko’s more memorable scenes. Halloween itself doesn’t have the same luster it used to when I was young, but it’s still a fun holiday in and of itself. My days of going house-to-house for free candy are gone, but the consolation is cheap bags of candy (and cavities!) the day after, so it’s not a bad trade off. At any rate It beats prowling the streets at night, getting the proverbial candy crap shoot. When will people learn that NO ONE likes the vile, nasty poison that is candy corn? That stuff is nastier than a sweaty otaku’s armpit in summer.

Anyway, I’m going to stay in and watch animu and stuff. If you have plans for today, be safe since people can go a bit crazy. Also, don’t follow any strange witches home. You might find yourself stuffed with candy… And not in the good way. Or maybe it is the good way if that’s what you want — I’m not one to judge.

PS: This goes against everything I stand for but… ううううううー！

Two episode impression

When the words ‘cat’ and ‘anime’ usually cross paths, the result is more often than not a cat girl of some sort. I’m the odd man out when I say they’ve always weirded me out, even before furry awareness hit our stream of consciousness. Ugh… Creepy… Disgusting… Cat girls. At any rate, anime do feature cats in some way or another with regularity, but very few have actually put them in a starring role. There’s Chi’s Sweet Home and Nyan Koi… And that’s it. Before I get distracted even more, let’s move on to the Nyan Koi impressions.

The premise of Nyan Koi is that a guy named Junpei that is allergic to cats. He breaks a statue of a local Cat God and subsequently falls under a curse that will turn him into a cat, and he must now grant the wishes of 100 cats to undo the curse. Do I smell an episodic series as Junpei gets into all sorts of hijinks and meets new friends, with early rumblings of a love triangle, while helping all those cats? I think I do! Not like that’s bad or anything. It’s a pretty safe (if transparent) set up, and it works well enough.

The characters are pretty interesting, human and feline alike. The humans and cats share the spotlight equally, and neither dominate all the screen time. Junpei is a sufficient stock male lead, and the supporting cast around him do their jobs. The runaway favorite character will no doubt be the bubbly airhead and main love interest, Kaede. She’s far too moe for her own good.

All in all, Nyan Koi looks to be an average to above-average show. Nothing about it is bad, but on that same note nothing about it is great either. Yeah, it’s predictable. Yeah, you can name the tropes as they come along. It’s pretty good regardless because it’s done well, with some really funny comedy acting as the initial draw. I guess I’ll go ahead and recommend this to everyone that likes romcoms with cats thrown into the equation. You don’t have to love cats to enjoy this, but it sure wouldn’t hurt.

Two episode impression

I’ve been craving a good reference-laden comedy for a while. Hayate S2 and Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei are still fresh in my memory, but neither really satisfied the craving. Hayate S2 had small flashes of reference-comedy but was otherwise a shadow of the first season with regards to referential humor. Zetsubou Sensei has been slipping since the second season and just doesn’t have the same impact it used to. Seitokai no Ichizon (The Student Council’s Judgment) bills itself as a reference-comedy series, but is it a contender or a pretender?

Reference jokes are certainly plentiful with jabs and parodies of popular shows like Haruhi, Higurashi, Lucky Star, Dragon Ball, Death Note and general eroge, but the jokes lack an intangible thing called punch. I’m not talking about punch lines here, but the jokes haven’t had much impact. They’ve been akin to flat soda — While it’s still soda, it’s flatter than a loli. Putting shameful loli jokes aside, Seitokai was really flat.

I’m willing to forgive comedic shortcomings if the slice-of-life can carry the slack, ala Hidamari Sketch, but none of the characters have much impact or presence. I could attribute this to the fact that the voices of all four female leads are rookies in their first roles. Actually that is a pretty big factor. I won’t fault the seiyuu for being rookies, but you can tell the main girls are rookies. The only girl I can remember is Mafuyu, and that’s only because she’s the token moe character with an oversized ribbon on her head. The rest of the characters don’t strike me as particularly interesting or memorable save for Sugisaki, if only because he’s the otaku character the (otaku) audience is supposed to love.

To be fair, a reference show by the name of Lucky Star also got off to a slow start. As almost everyone will attest, the first four episodes were sub-par before getting awesome. However, LS had the luxury of 24 episodes and could afford a slow start. On top of that all the characters were interesting (yes, even Miyuki too). As a 13 episode show, Seitokai doesn’t have the luxury of time and needed a strong start. It might get better if the jokes get punchier and as the inexperienced seiyuu adjust to their roles. Or it might not. Either way, it’s not like Seitokai is a bad show as is — It’s just not that funny. Seitokai, I am disappoint.

Two episode impression

I’ve never liked anything CLAMP, and it doesn’t look like Kobato is going to change that opinion.

So basically it’s about a naively annoying girl that has to heal the wounded hearts of others, so that her wish to go to an as-yet-unspecified place can be granted. You know what that means! Formulaic episodic setup where she helps a different person in each episode, ultimately leading up to healing the heart of the CLAMP “bad boy” with a dark past! Along the way she’ll learn things about the world, meet new people and change their lives. Yeah… That sounds about right. It would be more enjoyable if the titular Kobato wasn’t so annoying though.

I gave Kobato a chance, I really did. It’s not a bad show by any stretch, but it’s just not for me. It’s got above average production values all-around, and the voice acting is pretty good with an all-star supporting cast… Though most of the supporting cast have yet to make their appearance. The characters are all right and do what they’re supposed to do, but this all comes back to Kobato, and I frankly can’t stand the way she’s written. Kobato’s not as annoying as Fruits Baskets’ Tohru Honda (who is on a tier of her own), but she comes pretty damn close. Some people like those kinds of characters. I don’t, and seeing that Kobato is the focal point of this show and my apparent disdain for her, this is a resounding drop for me.

Don’t let my disdain for Kobato and all things CLAMP turn you away though. For some reason I’ve always been biased against their works, so my opinion of Kobato isn’t very fair. If it interests you, and if you liked prior CLAMP titles, it wouldn’t hurt to check this out. It’ll probably be an average-ish show in the long run.

Two episode impression

School-life romance shoujo aren’t my thing. I don’t know what compelled me to pick up Kimi ni Todoke, seeing as it falls precisely into that genre, but I’m glad I did because this is a bloody brilliant show. Wow, just wow.

Kimi ni Todoke is a genuinely heartwarming show with a *gasp* likable female lead. The thing that usually turns me off about shoujo is that female leads tend to be overly annoying and fickle, which makes them unlikable to me. I suppose they’re made that way because so real girls can more easily identify with them, but I’m not a girl. That possibility should never be completely ruled out though. I may fall into a cursed spring or become a Kampfer some day, which would actually be really cool. My subconscious desire to become a woman nonwithstanding, Sawako is the first shoujo female lead I’ve liked since… Ever. Well I did like Haruhi from Ouran, but she was always more male than female in my mind, but I’m going off on another tangent now.

KnT is brilliantly written and transitions effortlessly between being genuinely heartwarming to raucously funny without feeling forced. Like I said earlier, Sawako is a very likable and genuine character, and is excellently characterized by the writing and Mamiko Noto. Sure Noto is in typecast hell, but she does excel in these roles. Sawako’s many expressions (usually of gloom and despair) will elicit laughs but also make you feel bad for her plights at the same time. The rest of the cast thus far is pretty memorable as well, and I even like the male lead and main love interest, Kazehaya just as much as I like Sawako. Imagine me, liking characters in a shoujo romance. Huh.

Sawako is adorable… Just not in this picture.

Overall this is a quality show in every respect. Stellar animation from Production I.G., great writing, great characters (especially Sawako), good music, and a very nice mix of romance and comedy. This is my tentative pick for best show of fall next to Darker than Black 2, which I will assume is the number one pick of the huddled otaku masses.

Two episode impression

Umm, I wanted to write something about Seiken no Blacksmith (The Sacred Blacksmith), but Cecily’s boob armor distracted me and made me lose my train of thought. Boob armor. Boob armor. Boob armor…

SnB is actually a pretty decent fantasy show and has impressed me with sharp visuals, crisp action and a memorable cast of core characters. From what I’ve seen so far, the two leads are somewhat stock with Cecily, the heroine that blindly charges into danger to protect others while Luke plays the aloof, levelheaded, infinitely more talented foil. He also uses a katana, and this being an anime, that automatically makes him better than her in every way. They actually provide an explanation why katanas are better, but it still does little to cover up the rampant katana fanboyism (lol katana trolls). Hm, did I mention his Limited Blade Works where he can summon a kickass katana on the spot? He’s got that too. Moving on, my favorite character so far has to be Luke’s assistant and live-in loli, Lisa (voiced by none other than Aki Toyosaki), who is appropriately nicknamed Mugi Elf. The cute little thing even has the ED all to herself, just so she can be moe. Ugh. So moe I’m gonna die five times in a row. brb dying.

Mugi Elf! Boob armor! Nosebleeds!

Fantasy shows in pure fantasy settings are something anime seldom gets right. Fantasy anime usually end up being trite and riddled with cliches, so it’s nice when good fantasy shows crop up every so often. I can’t really say what it is about SnB that makes it different — It just feels like a more quality offering based on my first impression. Boob armor and Mugi Elf helped too. Seriously though, SnB looks to be a solid fantasy show. It’s hardly a must-watch, but you should have a lot of fun if you do pick it up.

Two episode impression

Oh Japan, you’re so silly with your various fascinations and strange fetishes, though the blatant obsession with all things German still mystifies me. I’m convinced everyone in Japan is a closet Germanophile at heart. In their defense, Germany is a pretty cool country though. Any country that can give us apple strudel and the most dangerous racetrack known to man gets a thumbs up in my book. This brings us to Kampfer, one of the latest anime to throw around German words like no one’s business without having anything else remotely German in it.

The premise is something like… Boy named Natsuru likes girl, girl is uninterested in boy, boy becomes Kampfer and turns into hot girl, girl likes genderbended boy, and boy now has to fight other Kampfers for reasons yet unexplained. Oh yeah, there are also talking, disemboweled stuffed animals. Any questions? In a nutshell Kampfer is pretty much this generation’s version of Ranma 1/2 except with heavy emphasis on shoujo-ai, girl-on-girl action (the non-sexual kind… maybe the sexual kind later), and plenty of fanservice. My sexuality hasn’t been this confused since I first saw Bridget… And I couldn’t be happier. Wut?

As a whole, Kampfer is wholly unremarkable. The voice acting and comedy are good, including some shamelessly self-aware seiyuu jokes concerning Yui Horie and Yukari Tamura, while everything else borders on average. The action sequences so far didn’t blow me out of my seat or anything, but they were satisfactory. I’m guessing this is going to be more of an action show than a comedy in the long run, so that’s just something to keep in mind. Kampfer falls somewhere into the average range but is enjoyable enough and short at 12 episodes. If genderbending and watching girls beat the crap out of each other turns you on, you may want to give this a go. I’m a sucker for both, so Kampfer gets to stay on my watchlist until it finishes or no longer amuses me, whichever comes first.