Fall Anime!!!!!

I have been scoping out the upcoming anime…basically to I can figure out what I should be looking for to download and watch…

Irst on my list is Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai! [Wanna be the Strongest in the World] an anime about Joshi Puroresu!  Sign me up!  This particular anime will have team behind Ikkitousen/Queen’s Blade working on it.  Being a big fan of Ikkitousen I feel that it is probably in good hands. I think the action of Ikkitousen and Queen’s Blade is very good…this would be true even if you removed all the fan service shots (of which both series are famous for) The one thing that really separates Ikkitousen from a lot of the other fighting girls anime is that Ikkitousen has a great story.  I haven’t read the manga that Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai! is based on so I don’t know how good the story is, but I hope it is awesome! 

Seeing how I am fan of Ikkitousen, it should come as no surprise that I am also interested in Kill La Kill series.  This is another entry into the fighting school girls genre of anime.  While this genre has  had some  real gems, it also has a lot of forgettable entries as well.  The PV for this anime looks really bad ass so I am hoping this will join the ranks of  Project A-Ko Tenjo Tenge and Ikkitousen.

While were on subject, this fall we will see the next installment of FREEZING. This season is called Freezing Vibration.  I liked the 1rst series so I am excited for this new one. 

Now I know Unbreakable Machine Doll is based on a manga…but I haven’t read it so I don’t know much about it.  The PV looks good but then again most trailers look good.  That is how they get to tune into the show.  Looks kind of like Pokémon but with Cute Girls… But I liked Sekirei so I might like this anime as well. 

O-K I think I have more then covered the Fighting Femmes portion of anime… what about Monster fighting and Giant Robots?  Well there is a new Gundam coming out…but I think that horse has been severally beaten enough..  There a few cookie-cutter shonen animes like  Gaist Crusher….They may be good…but they  look like something I have seen several times before and the little I have read about them hasn’t really piked my interest.  One I was kind of interested in before I read more about it was Seiyuu Sentai Boisutoumu 7. I thought it might be like Akibaranager but then I heard it was going to be a motion comic and I lost interest. Then there is Samurai Flamenco. The adds don’t give me enough to go on but it looks kind of Kamen Rider-esque so I will give it a shot. I don’t know enough about Neppuu Kairiku Bushi Road to be excited or nonplussed  about it. Infinite Stratos 2 will probably be very good…but I need to finish the original first.  I own it but for some reason I didn’t finish watching it… but I don ‘t think I stopped because I didn’t like it... 

Another upcoming anime that looks like it could be very good is Pupa.  I don’t know much about this one. It is a horror anime about cursed brother and sister….  Sounds like it could be very gory…. I want to see this but I fear it might be highly censored like Blood-C was.  I couldn’t watch the TV version of it because it was so edited…so I had to wait for the DVD/Blu ray release to come out…  I have a sneaky Suspicion that this anime will be another one of these….

Another upcoming show that looks promising is Coppelion.   Don’t know too much about this show. It is labeled as an action show and if you  The only thing I really know about the series (other than it is a post-apocalyptic anime) comes from this promo trailer.  The character designs and the backgrounds look quite nice… if you start at about the minute fourteen mark it gets kind action packed….  It could be good… Time will tell…

Strike the Blood could either be the most awesome thing ever or it could totally suck…  The PV looks good, well except for the fact that it looks like Vampires are walking around in the daylight.  Vampires in the daylight is a big pet peeve of mine in Vampire stories…  The lead character is supposed to be the world’s most powerful vampire, so maybe this is a special ability…  

GYO--- The Anime!

People have asked me from time to time, why do I like anime so much.  While I can’t speak for the entire Otaku Community, for me it is great stories.  It was that itself that attracted to me to anime back when I was a little boy and I didn’t what anime was.  I just knew that the TV shows had a continuing story arc, or the move had an epic feel that set it from other animated shows or movies.  Soon I noticed that these shows and movies I liked had a certain visual style so I kept my eyes out for that because if it had that “look” most likely it was going to be cool.  Back then there wasn’t much of it in America, so every anime I found was a treasure.

            Now Anime is plentiful, some of it great and some of it not so--- But every once and awhile there comes an anime that is so incredible, it just slaps in the face, grabs you by the collar and screams, “THIS IS WHY YOU BECAME A FAN OF ANIME IN THE FIRST PLACE!” Gyo is one of those anime. It is strange, horrific and captivating at the same time. 

            Gyo literally means “the fish” and the fish have risen from sea and are invading the land.  They can do this because they have bizarre mechanical legs attached to them. The fish are accompanied by revolting smell.  Kaori, the female lead, describes it as the stench of death.  It is an accurate description, because the fish are dead.  Makes sense, Fish have gills and can not breathe on dry land.  Although the fish are “hard wired” into their mechanical walkers, it doesn’t seem like they have a breathing apparatus.  Since the Fish are dead then why are they moving?

            Koari is on a trip with 2 of her girlfriends, when the fish epidemic starts.  She is worried about her Boyfriend Tadashi, who is still in Tokyo. Unfortunately, things are just as bad in the city as they are on the shoreline, Kaori soon discovers as she travels to Tokyo to find Tadashi.  The city is overrun.  The mechanized sea life is everywhere and come in all shapes and sizes, from tiny guppies to sharks. To make matters worse, there is a mysterious disease that is spread by contact with the fish. What is the secret behind the walking fish?  How do the walkers operate?  Will Kaori re-unite with Tadashi?  I could tell you but then I would be a horrible spoiler.

            First off, I want to say that the animation is truly beautiful (even if the subject matter is not).  I am pretty certain that is an example of digimation.  That is when you draw the characters but instead of animating them on film, you scan the drawings into a computer and animate it through the computer instead of using animation cells.   I haven’t read about the making of it so I could be wrong.  It also uses 3D CGI animation, and while many films have combined traditional animation with CGI, I think it works better in this film than any other.

            Now I knew this was going to be good because I had read the manga it was based on.  When I saw the anime, I thought, “Is that what I think it is? “ and it was.  Gyo is based on the manga of the same name and is written by Junji Ito.  Ito is one of my favorite Mangaka. His stories are always  very creepy and extremely bizarre.  He also has an amazing art style.   His stories are often gory and graphic. Several of his mangas, Like Tomie and Uzumaki have been made into live action films.  While I think Ito’s art style is incredible, I think this might be the first of his works to be adapted into an anime.

            Now, I could get on my fanboy soapbox and complain about the changes that were made from original manga to the anime adaptation, but I wont because I really enjoyed  the anime.  Whenever something is adapted from a book or comic there are often changes made along the way.  Some are flawless transitions and some are not.  For the most part, I think Japan does a better job of adapting books into movies than we do in the west. 

I knew there were changes.  The obvious one being that in the manga the main character was Tadashi not Kaori.  Their roles are somewhat reversed from manga to anime.  It was also updated.  A lot has changed from 2001, when the manga was released.  So it had to be updated to make it more contemporary.  Smart phones didn’t exist back then, nor was the internet such a major part of our lives.   There are several characters in this anime that didn’t exist in the original manga.

But the tone of the anime was the same as the manga.  Both are bleak.  All the key elements are there, from the invasion of the walking fish, to the breakdown of human society.  The secret behind the walking fish is the same in both..  Both versions have the ultra creepy Citrous Circus. But the changes didn’t bother me to point of not enjoying the movie.  In fact I enjoyed the movie so much I decided to re-read the manga . (Which I will be doing  as soon as I post this blog!)   Gyo is one of the best animes I have seen so far in 2012. It is available on Japanese Blu-Ray. While both Japan and the US are the same region code the Blu-Ray has no English subtitles.   I am hoping this film gets a English subtitled release because it is awesome! Check out the trailer below !: