Father Geek here with the first regular issue of our Manga-Anime column for the new year... annnnnd its a good one chock full of cool news on everything related to the wide-worlds of Anime & Manga, sooo with no further delay here's...

AnimAICN...

by Scott Green

Anime Spotlights: Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi

Released by ADV Films

Given Gainax's history, it is easy to be disappointed when one of their work is merely entertaining. Even if in these post-Evangelion days, that psycho-religious opus has lost some of its luster, it is hard to deny that works like it, His and Her Circumstances,, Nadia, Wings of Honneamise, and Gunbuster weren't revolutionary. The studio simply has a reputation for exceptional work, and little of their output has fail to measure up to that bar (ie robot maid series Maharomatic has its strengths, but it is difficult to apply the label exceptional). And with that reputation you can't release your entry into the high energy parody craze and have it just be a fun, high spirited comedy.

Abenobashi is an ancient locale that has gone through numerous renovations in its history. The locale is imbued with a distinct spirit, and home to a small gods version of the four directional gods: Suzaku the phoenix of the south, Seiryuu, the dragon of the east, Byakko the tiger of the west, and Genbu, the turtle of the north (references to the four directional gods are seen in many anime and manga a series, most notably Fushigi Yugi, but also Yu Yu Hakusho, and the Kenshin manga).

In the forgotten days of the past Abenobashi was a hub of learning. Until recently it was a shopping district, and now it is being renovated again. Arumi returns home from camp to find his life in upheaval due to what mayors tend to call a local "renaissance". His old house, and his vast accumulations of geek knick knacks are gone in favor of a new cramped apartment. To make matters worse, he learns that his close friend Sasshi will be moving with her family to distant Hakido where her French trained father will serve as chef for a hotel.

In bed, Arumi mulls over what was happening to him, and wakes up the next morning in Abenobashi, the swords and sorcery video game version of Abenobashi. Arumi and Sasshi eventually determine that they are in genre free fall. They find themselves in a variant of Abenobashi (fantasy, sci-fi, and Hong Kong kung fu in this volume), where they must locate the goblin/oni at the center of the world's premise. The goblin then tries to send them home, and instead they find themselves in a new bent version of their home.

The parodies are filled with moments of the brilliant inspiration you get from talented geeks passionately lampooning their favorite works. Many of these need to be viewed in slow motion to catch all the jokes. They work with injoke humor, rewarding the too knowledgeable, while packaging it with enough inspired oddity as entertain those unfamiliar with the working of topics like Mazinger, or the console RPG alert screens. The fantasy episode will thrill players who know 16 bit animation and slimes too well, but the sci-fi is screams the creator's passion for the genre, packaging in a black whole density barrage of jokes. The kung fu episode didn't have quite the same depth. It fits in some nice references to 36th Chamber of Shaolin and the like, but it relied heavily on Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and generic humor. Still, the all the episodes rush forward, never allowing themselves to be bogged down, and reshifts episode premises rather than beat dead horses.

Madhouse was a perfect choice for the production company to animate the series. With other high speedy comedies like Carried by the Wind, Digi Charat, and Jubei-chan under their belts they are able to pack the screen with manic energy. The visuals are always crisp, and attractive. In addition to the visuals complexities of the parodies, they are able to fit in some very spectacular effects for the remainder of the story telling.

However much of the humor is operating outside the boundaries of genre parody. The mix of titillation and body humor includes breast jokes, a re-occurring transvestite, a little urination, and a little over drinking. Gainax's breast fetish, and "Gainax Bounce" are in full effect in Abenobashi, thanks to Mune-Mune, a distinctive looking woman (pink hair, large chest), who follows Arumi and Sasshi to the various Abenobashis, where she is insert edin genre templates. Yet, the sexual humor is unfortunately also extended to Sasshi who spends an episode trying to retrieve her panties and the like. While the character didn't need to be sexless, and a thread about her desire for a larger chest was a nice way of rounding a character who started off as too much the little philospher, here many ways to go wrong fanservice and risqué humor involving a preteen girl, and no ways to go right.

Based on Gainax's reputation, a full evaluation of Abenobashi may be premature after four episodes. The question is, to what end is Gainax traveling down this genre trip road. The leaps do seem to share a thematic tie in with the genre hop at the end of the Evangelion TV series.

It looks like wishful thinking to see the premise as an incision point to dissect genres, and lay them open for some forensic anthropology. At least it looks like a nice opening for a statement about homogeneous pop versus local culture.

Yet, because the series' energy is so often not focused on fully exploiting the strengths and weaknesses of the worlds it is visiting, genre may be a means to a different end. Though most the first volume feels like Gainax flavor Excel Saga it's easy to hazard a guess that the first episode of a tight 13 episode series wasn't expended establishing the characters just to use them as comedic vehicles. They may be the direction of the series, and not a meta-anaylsis of pop culture.

Anime Spotlight: Jojo's Bizare Adventure Volume 2

Released by Super Techno Arts

On a high concept level, the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime could be described as glam rock superheroes pitted against horror adversaries. It is a strange mix of excess, wildly outlandish taste, and intelligent action.

"Bizarre" is a good description for JoJo's heroes, who are over done, over muscled, and over accessorized variants on familiar templates, a bit like the offspring the Village People, Fist of the North Star and a video game cast. (The characters can be seen at www.jojo-ova.com/

Take for example the central protagonist of this volume, Jean Pierre Polnareff: a French gallant, build like a professional wrestler, with a giant blonde Kid n' Play flat top, skin fight one strapped muscle shirt, and hanging red earrings. There's also the series' naming puns, an indulgence a number of anime and manga series partake in. In this case it is music name (the real obvious ones so far are J Gail, and N-Yah, feel free to figure out the alternate spellings, others require more speculation).

Super heroics tend to be employed as an emotional enterprise rather than intellectual. Frequently they are journeys to emotional states. The hero defeats the villain when they are angry enough, righteous enough, or otherwise properly align their spirit. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure turns this on its head, using its own brand of witty violence where rash action leads to disaster, and cool deduction wins the day.

JoJo's confrontations share more in common with horror than most super-hero works. Typically the heroes are trapped in a situation with an adversary who employees his powers with blisteringly ruthless abandon. The heroes aren't able to use their own abilities to overwhelm their adversary with force, but must instead use their own powers as tools to exploit the functionality of the enemy's power against them. The results are frequently brutal, grotesque, and mesmeric.

The manga (comic) JoJo started with a duel between Victorian gentleman Jonathan Joestar, and his adopted brother Dio Brande. Dio would eventually become a vampire, and his feud with the Joestar family would continue through the generations. The JoJo's anime picks up the story on its third leg. The latest protagonist is Jotaro Kujo, a half Japanese juvenile delinquent who is the great grandson of Jonathan Joestar. By this point the conflict had reached soap opera complexity, but boils down to the situation that the Joestars, and various other people have developed super powered, tarot card inspired altered ego's known as Stands, and because of this Jotaro and his grandfather Indiana Jones style adventurer Joseph Joestar must hunt down and destroy Dio in order to save Holly, their mother/daughter.

The second volume, featuring episode 4 and 5, is missing much of the verve of the first volume. JoJo's works in states of rapid movement, perfect tension, and uncertainty. Otherwise it is encumbered by its own weight, and what could be strange and alluringly exotic become silly. Volume one established the premise with lightning speed, and quickly moved from a jail cell, through Japan, and onto the open sea. Volume two is an extended (such is the nature of the series, that two episodes can be classified as extended) confrontation between a pair of the Joestar's allies, and a pair of Dio's followers on the streets of India.

Aside from a very late shift to a female Joestar descendant as the protagonist, the JoJo franchise is extremely male dominated. Male bonding, male honor, male vendetta's and the like. The testerone drama simmers through most the volume, filling it with static motion (panicked running and bickering) and posturing, before, with their backs to the wall, the characters have to find a footing and take out the enemy. The problem is exacerbated by animation that isn't as good as early chapters, and it isn't just that it isn't as crisp, or fluid, but that character illustration has suffered to a degree where many unattractive shots creep in.

In the final showdown, the volume regains the needed tension. After mucking with ego and honor, the battle of wits is a satisfying payoff that redeems the proceedings. The rapid exchange of strategies, deduction, old fashion non super powered trickery exemplify the series' unique take on super hero action.

Manga Spotlight: Hot Gimmik By Miki Aihara

Released by Viz's Shoujo Line

Hatsumi is a teenage girl growing up in a corporate housing complex. These giant "rabbit hutch" buildings ferment their own microcosms. Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo used their claustrophobic enclosures to amply his horror Domu. Miki Aihara uses it construct to compelling relationship dilemmas. The pinnacle of Hatsumi's community is Mrs. Tachibana: wife of a prominent corporate officer and queen bee of the complex's gossip circle. In this closed environment Tachibana's brand of judgmental influence holds the power to make lives miserable. When her son Ryoki finds Hatsumi with a pregnancy test that she picked up for her sister, he uses the threat of his mother to make Hatsumi his "slave".

Though some of the results are uneven it worth watching the formation of one of the uncomfortable situation, as Hatsumi fall under the ways of an infuriating, and believable antagonist. At times Hot Gimmick invokes tremendous empathy, and at times it screams manufactured. There is a scene where, as children, Ryoki finds Hatsumi at the top of flight of stairs, and pushes her down because she is in his way. The depiction is the perfect invocation of a childhood trauma. Ryoki is an excellent romantic antagonist. Despite looks, wealth, and intelligence he is a social Neanderthal who wants to lose his virginity and legitimately thinks no means yes. Though he's a demented person, he is one that is certainly recognizable from common experiences. No matter how vile the situation he creates becomes, he never register's its effect of the victim. He's simply an overgrown version of the kid who mercilessly and non-stop teases another, then is genuinely dumbfounded that the other person didn't see the assault as a game.

Conversely there is one of Hatsumi's love interests, a handsome model who acts humbly, treats her compassionately and returns from abroad at the perfect moment. Drawn out, it could be Dickensian, but the alignment of stars happens too quickly. Instead, by being too ideal, it is a whack on the head, and scream in the ear "this is shoujo romance!". His presence throws cold way of on the frothing hatred that the reader can build towards the Tachibana regime. The life of a model seem to external to the apartment complex world.

The illustration is attractive, and successful as conveying the intended emotion. The incident of Hatsumi being pushed down the stairs in particular captures the spirit of a bad childhood memory. However though it convincing in how it has shapes Hatsumi's perspective, its framing as memory but it also leaves a bit of an impression that Hatsumi could be misremember events. However, stylistically often the illustration looks a little unrefined, or generic. At time the style could easily be mistaken for the work of a western illustrating using manga-style design.

A great duel of the slang is obtrusive. The lines that are cool-style painfully stick out. There's probably never been a young girl, petrified that she might be pregnant who has referred to herself as "preggo". Granted said girl turns out to be a little flighty, but it's a little questionable if any pregnant person has referred to herself as "preggo". poindexter geek.

This Week's Releases

Anime

• Aura Battler Dunbine - Return to Byston (Vol. 5)
• Dragon Ball GT - Calculations (Vol. 9)
• Dragon Ball GT - Revelations (Vol. 10)
• Dragon Ball GT - Revelations (Vol. 10)
• Legend of the Mystical Ninja Vol. 1

Manga

• Astro Boy Vol 22 Tp $9.95
• Blade Of The Immortal Vol 12 Autumn Frost Tp (Mr)
• Brain Powered Vol 4 Gn (Of 4)
• Btx Vol 1 Gn (Of 16)
• Chronicles Of The Cursed Sword Vol 4 Gn (Of 10)
• Cyborg 009 Vol 3 Gn (Of 8)
• Digimon Zero Two Vol 1 Gn (Of 2)
• Dragon Hunter Vol 4 Gn (Of 9)
• Erica Sakurazawas The Rules Of Love Gn (Mr)
• Escaflowne Vol 4 Gn (Of 8)
• Fake Vol 5 Gn (Of 7) (Mr) $9
• Forbidden Dance Vol 3 Gn (Of 4)
• Ghost In The Shell 2 Man Machine Interface #11 (Mr)
• Gto Vol 16 Gn (Of 25)
• Icaro Book 1 Gn (Of 2) (Mr
• Jing King Of Bandits Vol 4 Gn (Of 7)
• King Of Hell Vol 4 Gn (Of 6)
• Lupin Iii Vol 11 Gn (Of 14)
• Peach Girl Change Of Heart Vol 6 Tp (Of 11)
• Pet Shop Of Horrors Vol 4 Gn (Of 10)
• Priest Vol 10 Gn (Of 15)
• Ragnarok Vol 9 Gn (Of 10)
• Rising Stars Of Manga Vol 2 Gn (Of 4)
• Saber Marionette J Vol 4 Gn (Of 5)
• Vampire Game Vol 4 Gn (Of 12)
• Wild Act Vol 4 Gn (Of 10)

Howl's Moving Castle Delayed

Anime News Network reports that Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki's adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones' novel Howl's Moving Castle, has been delayed from its planned July release until November due to production falling behind schedule.

New Ghost in the Shell Game

Magic Box has images of Sony's Playstation 2 action shooter Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex game here. The game is scheduled to be released in March 2004 in Japan.

Gameboy Shaman King Screenshots

Magic Box has screen shots of the Shaman King Gameboy Advance game, which will be released in the US in summer 2004 here

New Gundam Seed Short

Bandai has announced that the 13th volume of the Japanese video release of Gundam Seed will contain an original five minute episode.

New Ghibli Commercials

Anime Nation reports that Yoshiyuki Momose will be directing Studio Ghibli's send set of two commercials for House Foods. The commerials, which will air on Japanese TV next month follow a set directed by Hayao Miyazaki.

NewType Volume 3, Issue 1 Prview

The first issue of NewType USA's third volume will feature the cover story "Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Truth After Ten Years", an in-depth look at the new PS2 game Evangelion 2 and the Eva Renewal Project, and an interview with Evangelion 2 mecha designer Ikuto Yamashita. Title coverage includes LAST EXILE, Happy Lesson, Avenger, Inu Yasha, Knights of the Zodiac and AIR MASTER.

Fantasy Game to Anime Adaptations

From Anime Nation Animate TV has officially announced a 4 episode long Tales of Phantasia OAV series based on Namco's popular Playstation RPG. Direction and animation character design based on Kousuke Fujishima's original character designs will be handled by Noriyuki Matsutake, animation director on Ah! Megami-sama OAVs 1-3. The first OAV will be available on a pay-per-view basis from December 22, 2003 until January 9, 2004.

Ragnarok Online, a predominately Asian massively multiplayers role-playing game will be adapted into a anime, co-funded by the game's creator Gravity.

February ADV Release

February 3

Happy Lesson: Mom-Ageddon

February 10:

Legend Of The Mystical Ninja: The Fight For Justice (Volume 2)

February 16

Angelic Layer: Faith, Hope & Love (forth volume) Full Metal Panic! Mission 07 (final volume) Pretear Volume 3

From the press release:

Happy Lesson: Mom-Ageddon, the first volume of the light-hearted, laugh-out-loud anime series that follows the beloved shounen tradition of Oh My Goddess! and Love Hina. Happy Lesson tells of Chitose, a teenager who suddenly finds himself surrounded by a bevy of beauties. But these ladies aren't vying for Chitose's romantic affection-they all want to be his mother!

What teenage boy wouldn't want to spend his days surrounded by a pack of beautiful women? Chitose, that's who! He just moved out of the orphanage and back into his deceased parents' house. But instead of lounging around the ultimate bachelor pad, he's dodging discipline from his five new mothers! His high school teachers have adopted him, and the only thing that overshadows their good looks is their near-psychotic maternal zeal.

Just look at what they've got in store for him. When Chitose starts failing his classes, Mutsuki dons a sexy tutor outfit and beats the knowledge into him. Then Yayoi detects a spirit of misfortune inside Chitose's body, and decides to remove it-by force. And of course, there are the contests in which his mothers compete to win Chitose like some kind of grand prize. How could any young guy hope to survive all this?

Happy Lesson was produced by KSS (Wedding Peach, Oh My Goddess!) and directed by Akira Suzuki (Blue Submarine #6, MAZE).

Full Metal Panic! Mission 07 seventh and concluding volume of Full Metal Panic!, the anime series that has astounded fans and critics alike with its intoxicating combination of side-spitting comedy and thrilling action, putting it on the fast track to becoming a modern classic. Full Metal Panic!, which was directed by Kouichi Chigara (Gate Keepers, Phantom Quest Corps) and produced by GONZO Digimation (Hellsing, Blue Sub No. 6), successfully mixes mecha combat, martial arts, international criminal intrigue, and high-school politics with a final dash of teen romance to make this series an irresistible treat that appeals to everyone.

Angelic Layer: Faith, Hope & Love fourth volume of the remarkable and completely original series Angelic Layer, a shonen anime created by all-female studio CLAMP (Chobits, Rayearth, Tokyo Babylon) and revolving around fighting action figures in tournament combat.

Upcoming Geneon Releases

Anime

3/9

Chobits - Chat Room (V. 7)

Sound Tracks

3/16

.hack//GAME MUSIC Best Collection Neon Genesis Evangelion - Original Soundtrack II Utena Original Soundtrack CD

.hack//GAME MUSIC Best Collection CD When it comes to smash-hit TV and OVA series, four spectacular PlayStation 2 role-playing video games, a collectible card game, a spin-off manga series, action figures and more, .hack (dot hack) has virtually taken The World by storm. Now add to all of this the release of .hack//GAME MUSIC Best Collection, featuring 31 of the most striking and creative instrumentals compiled from all four of the best-selling .hack PS2 games, and you truly have the best of all worlds. Produced by Keiichi Nozaki (.hack//SIGN, Witch Hunter Robin, Licensed by Royalty, I My Me! Strawberry Egg, Gundam Seed), this CD game soundtrack comes with an insert booklet containing an extensive and revealing English translated interview with the original music/sound composers!

Neon Genesis Evangelion - Original Soundtrack II

In addition to the instrumentals, there are seven great vocal songs, including 'A Cruel Angel's Thesis' (the TV size opening song), 'A Vision,' 'Fly Me to the Moon' (the TV size closing song), and four alternate versions of the ending song.

Utena Original Soundtrack

Filled to disc capacity with whimsical violin pieces, elegant, sad piano solos and dramatic dueling choruses, this is one eclectic CD, featuring 11 vocal tracks and 25 instrumentals including the unforgettably urgent opening theme song, "A Round Dance - Revolution" and the passionate ending song, "Truth."

Initial D 4th Stage

Anime Nation reports that Initial D 4th Stage, the latest incarnation fo the street racing manga/anime has officially been announced. The new TV series will premier as an 85 minute long movie titled "Initial D Soujyuuhen: Project D Mekete" , a recap of the first two TV series and motion picture. The movie will be available on SkyPerfect TV pay-per-view at a cost of 600 yen from December 27, 2003 through January 31, 2004. This movie will be the second anime, following the Ghost in the Shell TV series, to be broadcast in Japan as a pay-per-view digital TV offering.

The Initial D 4th Stage TV series will premier in April 2004. This time around, the cars will be animated with cel shaded computer graphics.

Trailers

The trailer for the upcoming fourth One Piece movie can be seen at here. (warning: a spoiler can be derived if you're familiar with the midway through the series, but not later)

AnimeNation points out the trailer fo the Hikaru no Go TV Special, set to air on Japanese TV January 3rd here

The trailer for the Mezzo TV series is online a href="http://mezzo-tv.net/datafile.html#movie">here

Sgt. Frog to Be Animated

Anime Nation reports that Kadokawa Publishing Mine Yoshizaki's manga series Keroro Gunso , to be released by TokyoPop as Sgt. Frog will be adapted into an anime series.