Denkyu: Anime Webzine

Recently I’ve been handed another turn in life that I wasn’t expecting. Soon I will have one more child into the mix that is my life, I have to get rid of my office and try to mesh it with my living room… some how. So that means I have to weed through all things anime in this room and living room and decide what to keep and what to get rid of. One of the things that I know I would eventually get rid of anyway was my massive collection of VHS tapes. VHS tapes that I haven’t even watched yet but have owned for years. So now it’s like a mission to see how many I can go through and watch in one day. My friend will be quite happy with this since he receives all that I watch and give away. While watching those lovely trailers of anime of days gone by, it made me wonder, just how many of these titles made it to DVD? Better yet, how many of the younger anime fans have ever heard of these titles? There are even some that I found that I haven’t even heard of, and ones I haven’t even watched yet. It makes me wonder if any of them are in that massive VHS collection sitting on my book shelves. I do know that some titles have been re-released on DVD since ADV has had me and a few other writers here at Denkyu review them.

So now I ask you, what old anime title have you found to be one of the best things you’ve ever watched that no one ever talks about anymore? Does anyone even know that it exists? And no, I’m not talking about titles that never made it to the US. Of course those are not going to be that well known.

While I have an adventure in front of me to dig through the ancient relics known as VHS tapes, maybe you should dig through any you have or older DVDs and see what pieces of gold you find.

Makes 8-10 Pieces ½ quantity freshly cooked sushi rice
2 tbsp Japanese mayonnaise
7oz/200g smoked salmon
½ cucumber, peeled and cut into very thin slices

To garnish
2 lemons, cut into wedges
Handful of mint sprigs

Oil an oshi waku or terrine pan (preferably with drop-down sides) and line it with a piece of plastic wrap so that the plastic wrap hangs over the edges. This is to help you pull the sushi out afterward. Pack the pan 1 ¼ inches/3 cm full with the rice. Arrange the smoked salmon and cucumber in diagonal strips on top of the rice, doubling up the smoked salmon layers if you have enough so that the topping is nice and thick. Cover the top of the rice with a strip of plastic wrap, put another terrine pan on top, and add something heavy, such as a couple of cans of tomatoes, to weight it down.

Let the sushi chill for 15 minutes, then take off the pan and weights and pull out the sushi. Cut the sushi into 8-10 pieces with a wet, sharp knife. Garnish with lemon wedges and mint sprigs.

Smoked salmon makes a good ingredient in sushi because of its texture. You can buy a piece of fillet and slice it yourself if you want thicker slices.

by tonyadpx

Let me get this out of the way now. Without FLCL, The Pillows wouldn’t be as popular as they now are. On the flip-side, without The Pillows, FLCL would be a chaotic mess of beautiful animation. The Pillows added the rock theme and guided the chaos from start to end. If you didn’t know this, now you do.

Now, to the album review!

The one negative thing about this album is that it’s too short. At only eleven tracks, My Foot leaves a lot for wanting. The entire disc only runs about forty minutes, which is a little more than half the average of most CDs. But what My Foot does have is Tony the Tiger “Greeeaaat!”; every track is as good as the one before and after. The sounds of every song, those being the drums (Shinichiro Sato) and two guitars (Sawao Yamanaka and Yoshiaki Manabe), have an upbeat garage-rock style. Some would consider the sound monotonous after awhile, but the vocals of each track add more than enough to make each one different. Not a single track on this short album is worth skipping.

The very first anime soundtrack I ever purchased happened to be the first FLCL CD, which I thought was awesome, so I fell right into My Foot knowing what should be expected. I wasn’t disappointed; The Pillows stay true to their style. Old fans, as well as new fans, will love this album for everything but its length. But don’t worry, you’ll quickly get over this. I did; My Foot has yet to leave my player since it was first put in.

Licenser: King Record Co.
Distributor: Geneon
Length: 11 Tracks/41mins
Retail: $14.99
Availability: Currently Out

by tonyadpx

Here is what the back cover summarizes Q-Ko-Chan as:

In the near-future on planet Earth, a world gone mad where never-ending war is a fact of life, Kirio is the coolest kid at school. Up in the sky, a giant robot is fighting a fleet of gunships, but the brilliant and distant Kirio is far from fazed—until the battling ‘bot makes an unexpected landing in Kirio’s front yard and rings the bell. But the worst threat for Kirio could be what stands on the other side of the door: the alien robot who has changed into an adorable girl.

And here is how I summarize Q-K-Chan:

A snotty boy suddenly meets a robot girl, “merges” with her, and fights some strange tripod alien-thing. Later, more people meet more robot girls and “merge” to join forces with said snotty boy. Along the way, some military group fights tripods with bucket-robots, and attempt to explain what has happened in the past. They don’t do a very good job. What is explained is that the story—or the jumble of mixed plot-lines and characters—takes place in what is now an anime cliché, the post-apocalyptic Earth.

Seriously, what’s going on in this manga? The story in Q-K-Chan just bounces around way too much for any one person to get into. There are more than a dozen characters introduced within the first two chapters, making it nearly impossible to get connected to the main character. To add to that, Kirio is a jerk, with no redeeming qualities. He acts as if he’s better than everyone, he hates his own sister, talks nasty to his mother, and he’s a bully. In truth, there were plenty of other characters in Q-Ko-Chan more interesting than him who play more minor roles. Without anything to allow a reader to connect with the lead character there really isn’t much of a reason to continue reading.

One plus I found in this entire volume, though, was the artwork. Made by the same person who created the FLCL manga, Ueda Hajime’s style makes even the most stereotypical character designs seem fresh and new. It’s very hard to describe. If I was forced to, I’d say it’s a lot like Powerpuff Girls with the manga-style thrown in to accentuate everything. Also, the simplistic robot and alien designs add a new variations on the giant-robot genre, opting instead to make the actions of the robot, rather than the interesting little quirks (like swords that pop out of the leg, or boob-guns), speak for it.

Is the artwork enough to make Q-Ko-Chan’s story better, or even bearable? No. Close, but not close enough. Maybe if Q-Ko-Chan didn’t rush to introduce every possible character within the first fifty pages it would have worked out better, but the way it is, the artwork just seems to get ignored for the overall picture, that picture being: Q-Ko-Chan is a chaotic mess. Whether or not this will be remedied in later volumes I can’t tell. For now, Q-Ko-Chan isn’t worth the effort it takes to sort through the mass of characters that bump into each other during the introductory chapters of the story.

Unless you absolutely loved the FLCL manga, I can’t recommend Q-Ko-Chan.

Licensor: Del Rey
Creator: Ueda Hajime

by tonyadpx

A man, imprisoned for a reason he does not know, is freed after ten years of watching TV, training his body, and preparing mentally for his moment of revenge. The sudden release leaves him stranded, and now he must not only attempt to make a life for himself, but also go about finding those responsible for his imprisonment. But he is not without means or help. Soon, he meets a woman named Eri, who takes him into her home and helps him relieve at least some of the ten years of aggression. In exchange for her kindness, he tells Eri his story, and she decides to help the man with no name in his search, no matter what dangers she may be in. Thus, his quest begins…

First question: is the Oldboy manga as good as the Oldboy movie? Answer: hard to tell this early on in the run. The Korean film is already an accepted masterpiece, and I personally rate it as one of my favorite movies ever. The story in the manga is painfully slow compared to the movie, and the back story has yet to make any kind of appearance, but all of this is understandable because it is a manga. It has more time to develop. Another note, the Oldboy movie was an adaptation on a manga that is still running in Japan, so the story will probably be different towards the later parts. The differences now are few, but apparent. For example, instead of fifteen years (like in the movie) the protagonist spends ten years within the prison. There are a few more, as well, but I’ll leave them out to prevent spoilers.

The Oldboy manga, while slow compared to the movie, still has a lot of tension, an essential part of any revenge story. The main character, who seems a little more withdrawn in this version of Oldboy, only speaks when words need to be spoken, thinking a lot to himself, which only adds to the tense atmosphere. The moment he decides to share his story is an exciting one, because you can’t wait to see the other person’s reaction. Beyond that moment, though, the panels in the manga are surprisingly devoid of dialog, making Oldboy a fast read. Oldboy uses a lot action and setting to tell it’s story, and after finishing the first volume for myself, I have to say that this wasn’t a very bad decision. With a setting fully developed, I expect for the story to ripen in later volumes.

In the end, the Oldboy manga was a fun read; a little early yet to say if it’s as good as the film of the same name, but definitely worth the effort if you enjoyed the movie. Oldboy will appeal to fans of darker manga like Berserk.

Licensor: Dark Horse
Creators: Garon Tsuchiya (story); Nobuaki Minegishi (art)