Dougma (dŭg·mə) n.

I love anime. Not your normal anime. 99% of what hits the US and 99% of what ends up on US TV is utter crap. The exceptions are “Ghost in the Shell”, and some of the very old stuff from my childhood (Macross). I would say that 80% of what is shown on TV in even Japan is crap. So I become very excited when something great is announces or is comes out. The second season of “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya“ is one of those. It has quite the cult following.

I would not say that this is the best anime in the world, but it does hit all my buttons. There is a well trodden sub-genre in anime, the ‘school life/romance’. Every season there are at least 5 shows in this sub-genre. The target audience is usually kids in middle school. The rare show will appeal to both girls and boys, most being part of a main genre like Bishōjo or the ever popular Harem *shiver*.  To be honest I dispise these shows. Now imagine if Spider Robinson [wikipedia] were asked to write a show in this sub-genre. What you would get is something very close to “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya”.

If you are not familiar with the works of Spider Robinson, it is pulp-sci-fi unlike any other bodies of work. Most sci-fi centers around some technology or piece of science as the main character. Spider puts the people and characters as the center diving into the human aspects. Please take the time to check his work out, especially his “Callahan’s” series of work.

It is very hard to talk about Haruhi without spoilers, so here is the premise: “What if God were a teenage girl, and reality was what she wanted it to be, only she does not realize this.” That’s the best I can do to sum it up, and much better than the plot description on wikipedia. The shows are purposefully shown OUT OF ORDER. This isn’t some Firefly gaf, but done on purpose and adds to the enjoyability. It does not take its self seriously and behind the humor is more intelligent and thought provoking than you realize at first. I recommend first watching the episodes in their broadcast order (which is the official ordering of the episodes) and then if you feel like it watching it again in timeline order.

The style jumps around quite a bit exploring many of the classic and trite plot devices of it’s sub-genre in its own unique way. There is the classic ‘beach’ episode, the ‘school festival’ which ALL shows of this genre MUST have at least one episode devoted to (but for once is not painful), and the classic ‘exchange/transfer student’. Seriously, you would think that every year, in every class across japan there is at least one transfer student who arrives mid semester. Almost all school life anime has at least one! Haruhi makes it enjoyable and new; quite the feat. Then there is the ‘rock band’ episode. It is by far the best out there. It is better than the anime shows which are about rock! (but that is for a different rant on K-ON! and BECK.) Seriously, check it out.

My one complaint would be that in one of the episodes the ‘fanservice‘ goes a bit to far. Normally it is only used for humor, and does so well.

The first season is available from netflix, and I do recommend it. Oh and Live-eviL has just released the first episode of season 2, can’t wait to watch it even if the raws are low quality (With luck Ken is not heading up this project…)

I have been thinking about blogging about this show for quite some time, never expecting that a second season would actually arrive. It had been rumored off and on for the past three years. When I saw this come across my RSS reader.. well it made my week.

UPDATE: Season 2 Episode 1 (A.K.A. Episode 8) is fantastic, but seeing the first season first is a requirement. Starting with what will be the 8th episode in the end timeline is just par for the course, after all the first episode of the first season was actually a ‘special’ post episode We kick things off with a little discussion of the theory of relativity, what is ‘normal’ common sense,  some fun time travel, and the starts of a discussion on differences between time travel between two continuums and the same continuum (which looks like it will be a key plot device).

The first episode of season one is actually a ‘video’ the characters make in the anime and is ‘shown’ to classmates (but not you the viewer) in the last episode. This video is essentially the same story as the main show, but told as if it were produced as your standard magical-school-girl-in-school anime. Daring does not begin to cover it. For the second season its just as if you were dropped back into the shows universe with no 3 year break… it’s good to be home.

I should note that if you are a fan of ‘normal’ anime, this show most likely is not for you.

I was having a decent enough day until this came across my rss reader:

DreamWorks Acquires Rights for Ghost in the Shell

And another of my favorite franchises gets mutated, warped and ruined. “But it’s DreamWorks and Spielburg“, you say. Exactly. Not only do I get to see something I love destroyed, I get to watch DreamWorks produce a turkey. To be honest I do hope they can pull it off, but I really do not expect it to happen. Even the franchise creator Masamune Shirow botched it (GitS2: Innocence was utter crap). They plan on making ‘it’ a 3-D live action movie (I think I just threw up a little in my mouth), but are very vague on what exactly ‘it’ is. The origional film from 1995 was revolutionary. It brought cyberpunk to a new level which has not been matched sense; not even by the rest of the franchise.

When I first hear that a TV series, GitS: Standalone Complex, was going to be produced I was concerned; just having been betrayed by Innocence. I was dismayed when I saw the opening sequence. You see in anime, the opening and ending sequences say a lot about the show in an indirect manner. The opening is usually orders of magnitude better than the actual show. The GitS:SC opening, rendered on a Playstation2, was so bad that I wrote it off (don’t get me wrong the music is top notch). That is until I heard from friends what I was missing. It turned out to be a good solid anime, shot through with moments of brilliance. Then came the follow up 2nd season, appropriatly named GitS:SC 2nd Gig. The entire season was phenomenal. The opening actually lived up to the series (without surpassing the actual content of the show). The sub plots were all tied together superbly. There were a total of 2 ‘filler’ episodes and even those managed to move the other plots along (which again were part of a seamless whole). GitS:SC Solid State Society actually made up for Innocence wrapping up the story and ending the franchise on a high note.

And therein lies the problem. The story is done. The only way to do anything more with it is to take it to a different country where the majority of people know nothing about it and re-do it in some botched way (ala ‘The Ring’, ‘The Visitors’, ‘Dark Water’, I could go on for pages…) Go see the originals of those films, especially ‘Dark Water‘. No comparison.That movie gave me nightmares; I turned off the US remake because I was laughing.

What really scares me is that another Masamune Shirow’s works (and another of my favorite manga+anime’s) AppleSeed was recently redone in ‘live action based 3-D‘, and… well… I could not watch more than 15min of it. I wish I had never seen those 15min as they have laid a taint on my memory.  It was bad. I mean really really BAD. It’s Phantom Menace all over again (or at least Bubblegum Crisis 2040… why? The series was done… no need to ruin it!) [Yes I have the Priss Hurricane Video in origional japanese and Live Concert on import PAL VHS]

Postscript: What did we do before wikipedia and youtube!?!!?!?!?

It appears that the AZN cable channel will be going off the air. This is a little sad for me, as it was one of the few places I could find some of the movies friends have been recommending I see, with their original subtitles. The Anime they have is mixed at best (currently only Last Exile and Moon Phase), and the movies have been spotty. Guess its back to Netflix.

I must admit that I have spent a number of late evenings dancing with Sarah to the opening and ending music of Moon Phase and Last Exile. She prefers the former, I prefer the latter. I am a little ashamed to admit that I have seen all of Moon Phase in it’s subtitled form (way back when Josh was born no less so the full circle is kind of nice.) The dubbing is some of the worst I have heard in a long time (and I have heard some bad stuff.) The first time I saw Josh or Sarah smile were to that anime, so it grudgingly holds a place in my heart if for no other reason; well that and the neko mimi. Last Exile is decent enough with a great soundtrack, great writing, and above average animation.

The real loss are some of the movies that now I will just have to rent and plan for. I personally would rather stumble upon a movie that was recommended, but that has always been hit or miss anyway; more miss than hit really. I did get to spend some late nights working on PyCon-Tech, (or in one case, not working on it,) watching the channel. I tend to enjoy the surreal. Actually I revel in it. There is no better escape than a surreal movie or an on-stage farce. Soon after Sarah was born, the AZN channel aired Wool 100%, which came highly recommended from friends who share a similar affliction to mine. I spent the entire movie standing rocking Sarah. I was mesmerized from beginning to end. I missed the chance to see Kamikaze Girls again when they aired it, but it is another of those borderline surreal movies which scratch that itch; and I hate the entire goth-loli things; really, really hate it, all evidence in this post to the contrary. (Why Nana why!??! Your 2002 demo had so much promise!)

One of these days I will get around to making a list of good anime/manga. One of these days. Until then, go see Paprika! (seriously, go see it.)