Baccano! and the unfortunate paradox of innovative storytelling

I had planned to write about Chihayafuru for the next two weeks…but the last few chapters of the manga (specifically, 90-92) have thrown a spanner in those works…

Well, that’s one of the reasons I’m tackling Baccano! first – the other being that it’s been on my backlog for way too long. Baccano! had slipped under my radar until I watched the adaptation of creator Narita Ryougo’s other notable series, Durarara!!, whereupon almost everyone who’d seen the former lamented that the latter had not quite lived up to the high standards it had set. And now, more than two years later, I’ve finally sat down to find out why.

"You must throw it away, the illusion that a story must have a beginning and an end."

But where to begin? That is a brilliant question. And one that cannot be answered. As the Gustave Saint Germain intones in the final episode

Stories have no beginning, nor do they have an end. All they have are people connecting with each other, working with each other, affecting each other, and the expansion of those connections throughout the world. Stories must never have an end.

Similarly, there is no main protagonist. Or perhaps, you could say that everyone is potentially the main protagonist, for the perspective of any story changes depending on the the position one views it from.

But let’s give it a shot anyway.

Wit and subtlety in Shinrei Tantei Yakumo

One problem with labeling a title as part of a certain genre is that occasionally, the draw of such a title lies not in exemplary execution of said genre, but rather in supposedly peripheral ideas such as character development. Such is the curse – or blessing – that befalls Shinrei Tantei Yakumo. The general consensus of viewers who tried it for the mystery is one of disappointment. For those who look below the cover though, Yakumo offers much in the vein of, dare I say it, one of my favourite Western authors.

Ikebukuro: a town of cops, freaks, and DRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

(Say it like OnoD does on that Perfect Guide that was available on the website! (^_^))

Ikebukuro. Probably unknown to most casual anime fans until just over a year ago. Possibly debatable whether the more serious overseas fans of action, mecha and other varieties of spashy or intellectual titles knew of it – it’s Akihabara that they go to after all. Even I only found out how significant it was to a certain subset of otaku, the fujoshi, when a friend asked me about it after my second or third trip to the Animate there. But as of January of last year, it was probably added to the list of anime pilgrimages that fans will make when they hit Japan. All thanks to Durarara!!

We LOOOOOOOOOOOVE this town!!

Switch OVA: on the perils of having a voice fetish

And once again, the title of this post refers more to me than to the show itself… Though it wasn’t just the seiyuu I’m completely into that led to this particular impulse buy, it’s also the work of a manga group I like and had been following for a while and not to mention, this being the clincher for me: the included SCRIPT* (I’m a student of Japanese, after all!) But guess what? In the end, I haven’t even really had time to sit down and explore these OVAs properly. *sighs*

*LOL. Come to think of it, Japanese closed captions would have worked just as well…sadly, I’ve never seen them included on a DVD! And they’d be so useful for the Bakemonogatari commentaries! But let’s stop that thought here…

Switch brings viewers a glimpse of the drug underworld of Japan, as we follow two new investigators in the Narcotics Control Department (aka the “Matori”). In this OVA, the two (Hal and Kai) both go undercover in order to investigate the spread of a new drug, and the department finds itself chasing after vague shadows of a secretive but highly influential organisation…

Review: Ergo Proxy

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This series is a bit hard to describe. Hmm…one sentence summary: Ergo Proxy is a psychological science-fiction suspense anime. It’s built around many philosophical threads that I don’t understand, but nevertheless gave me great satisfaction in following the mysteries as they were unravelled, and left me with many things to think about. In other words, don’t watch this if all you’re looking is brainless entertainment.

Reviews: Ghost Hound and Shion no Ou

Since I was watching these two around the same time, I think I’ll attempt them together too. To be honest, I thought that this particular season (Autumn 2007) wasn’t particularly interesting, but I have to say that these two were actually pretty good for the most part – though I’ve kept one and not the other…