Manga Review: Snegurochka of the Spring Breeze

In the afterward to the Snegurochka of the Spring Breeze, Hiroaki Samura describes the origin of this one-shot manga:

'This all started from a breathless conversation with the editorial director about creating a story starring "a tsundere girl who's 95% tsun!"'

ME: DOKO GA??! 

How in the hell he goes from that conversation with an editor to a period piece mystery thriller, with not even a single ounce of Tsun, much less Dere, boggles my mind. Then again, this is the same guy who wrote Blade of the Immortal and Wave, Listen to Me. Sensei works in mysterious ways.

This book came plastic wrapped, with a couple pages you might consider to be a good reason for it. Hiroaki Samura's pretty well-known for drawing very graphic, violent, erotic material, but this is almost tame for him, especially when you put it side by side with something like Bradherly no Basha (another of his period pieces - it's really fucked up... you've been warned). If you're just looking for some pulp fiction, pick up Die Wergelder. That one felt like more compressed shock value in a refined form.

As far as this work goes...

The story - adventure? of Snegurochka was truly epic! With twists and turns I probably should have seen coming, but I was way to engrossed to think on a meta level. The art sucks you in with it's rough, but realistic style. I liked the main characters, but also thought the side characters were full of personality and character development of their own... especially THAT scumbag. When you read it, you'll know the one.

9/10!! - some of the pieces felt a bit forced, but ultimately I was super invested and enjoyed the hell out of this. It was a proper rollercoaster ride toward the end, but I actually reread this again today, just 24 hours after finishing it the first time. Gripping stuff!

I'd like to refrain from describing the story in any detail, since I think the mystery, and going in blind, were definitely factors that led to my enjoyment of the book. But, if you scroll down, past the cover art, there's a bit of a spoiler, in the form of an embedded YouTube music video. The ear worm wiggled its way into my head after I hit the big reveal.

So, final spoiler warning...

ANYWAY... 

MASSIVE SPOILER...

You've been warned...

Anime Review: "Land of the Lustrous" Season #1 (PLEASE GIVE ME A 2)

This was the first fully CGI series that I think looked better in CGI than I could have imagined it looking with traditional animation. ‘Duke of Death’ came close for me, but this really did it. Honestly, the only way I think the animation could have been done better would have been to take an entirely different approach to it, with a different director and studio – maybe gone the way of Masaaki Yuasa turning it into more of an artsy production. That said, I adored what studio Orange pulled off here. The music, voice acting, cinematography, action, animation – all of the things that make an anime adaptation were perfectly well done. The only problem I have with it is that it was so damn incomplete. You ended it there??? 12 episodes??? Season 2 when????? (I actually wonder now how much of the manga had been completed when this came out… perhaps I’ll need to compare publication and air dates.

When all is said and done. 10/10.

Wait… do I actually have to elaborate on what makes the series itself special? I can’t just assume everyone who’s seen this anime already read the manga? I waited to watch this series forever because I felt nothing could live up to the source material. I honestly figure a lot of people probably did the same. I kind of started reviewing this anime from the perspective of someone who’s already up to date on the manga, hanging on for dear life waiting for the next chapter release. Hiatus after hiatus, but I guess that’s not going to be the case for everyone.

Hmmm…. I suppose I can reuse this in my manga review later, so here it goes.

The setting for this is totally unique. Unique to the extreme. I’ve never experienced anything like this piece of fiction in my entire life. “Land of the Lustrous” is about a bunch of rock-people living on an island with a priest-looking-fellow; they’re constantly being attacked by aliens who try to kidnap them. Why??? It’s a mystery. [It’s a feeling I can understand. If given the opportunity I’d like to kidnap a couple of these gemstone girls to keep for myself, because they’re so damn cute and full of personality and they desperately are in need of protection. Like truly some of the best created characters in all of anime and manga. And they’re rocks.] There’s a lot of mystery to this series. I’d put mystery at the top of the genre tags list if it were up to me, but my guess is those get taken up by non-descript things like Fantasy, Drama, or Comedy.

Sorry – getting side tracked. It’s really hard to explain this series, and why I think it’s special. The manga is in my top 3, firmly entrenched, never to leave. Taking a step back to describe what I love about it is proving difficult.

The story, at least in the anime, is episodic, but things take a drastic turn, in the manga, right about where the anime ends – so to say that the story of Land of the Lustrous is excellent is a bit tricky. I think the story in the first half has its charm, but it’s certainly not as good as it gets (because it gets AMAZING).

I mentioned above how I’d like to kidnap the rock people. That was mostly a joke, but I want to again say, the Lustrous are some of the best characters ever created. One, the main one, Phos, specifically, should be in the list of greatest protagonists in any media. Ever. I’m not sure why I’ve not listed her in my personal favorites list; it’s an oversite I’m about to correct after writing this review. I became so invested in Phos’s journey through this series. It’s one hell of a ride.

I guess more than anything, this series made me feel things. Emotions. I felt genuine sadness for the Lustrous when they suffered (and there’s enough suffering in this to keep several therapists in business indefinitely). I felt joy when there was comedy. I empathized. That’s not something that happens to me very often because I’m about as jaded as jade is.

Anyway, if you watch this, I hope you find something special in it too. It’s beautiful, but bleak. There’s a lot there to digest (even more if you get into the source material). I don’t think it’s for everyone, since it seems like a pretty difficult nut to crack, but it’s worth it if you do.

Anime Review: "Nakaimo"

 

Nakaimo is basically as average as you can get. So average in fact, I forgot everything about it, including having already seen it, and watched it again. I had this marked as completed on MAL for who-knows-how-long, but could recall literally nothing about it, including the answer to the titular question, “who’s the MC’s little sister?”

This is a PLOT heavy show that is heavy on actual plot. The premise is that the main character’s father has passed away, and he’s soon to become the head honcho at his dad’s company, so he’s going to attend a new, elite school, where he’ll become a refined, adult, and find a wife… but, the catch is that his little sister, the illegitimate child of his father, also goes to the school; so, he’s gotta find a wife, and not ALSO bang his sister by accident in the process.

This is a fan-service loaded, echi, rom-com anime that can’t decide if it’s for the incest, or against it. Honestly, I’m not a big fan of little sister incest plots. They have a bad tendency to come off as really weird, and fetishist most of the time. This time, it was even weirder when they’re passing around literal DNA tests trying to determine who the MC’s related to by blood.

So, honestly, I question why I continued the show. I found that there were three reasons why I didn’t drop it and give it a 2 or a 3.

1. I was perplexed that I’d seen this and didn’t remember it at all, and didn’t want to admit that I’d checked it as complete without seeing it at all.

2. Once I started watching it, the plot actually did leave me guessing, because it seemed to be wrapping each question inside another question and leaving so many different flags, and red herrings that I couldn’t make heads or tails of what’s what.

And the last reason is probably the most critical…

3. The voice cast of this show is perplexingly loaded with all-star seiyuu on the Japanese side (no idea about the dub, I watched the sub).

Keep in mind this series came out in 2012, so for some of these people this was fairly early on in their career, for others, not so much.

The main character is played by Takahiro Sakurai (Reigan Arataka, Oshino Meme, Suzaku Kururugi), a VA legend, who’s been been in the business for a LONG time. He’s surrounded with female actresses who’ve also played some huge roles:

Koshimizu Ami (Kallen Satdtfeld, Holo, Matoi Ryuuko)

 Ayane Sakura (Uraraka Ochako, Nakano Yotsuba, Gabi Braun)

Kaori Ishihara (Souta from Dragon Maid, Aladdin from Magi, Murayama from DxD)

Rina Hidaka (Milim Nava, Last Order, Filo)

Ayana Taketatsu (Nino Nakano, Kirino Kousaka, Azusa from K-ON!)

So in the end, what kept me from dropping this show was the voice cast for the most part. It was so crazy loaded with talent that I couldn’t pull myself away and forced myself to finish it, even though I didn’t really get any satisfaction out of the ending or the plot.

So, I don’t really recommend watching this, unless you want to witness some VA’s in roles they’re DEFINITELY not known for. If you’re kind of a seiyuu nut, like I am, than watching this, and listening to their performances will leave you scratching your head, but will prove to be a moderately pleasurable experience. Hopefully I’ll remember I watched this series better now that I’ve written a review about it.