Anime Nevsky

No, Alexander Nevsky does not return as a magical girl

First Squad: the Moment of Truth is a Russian-written Studio 4C production.

Nazi sorcerors conjure the Teutonic Knights, bringing them back from the dead to reprise “the battle on the ice” in the service of Hitler’s push to the east, and Soviet Intelligence’s Psychic Squad (their most valued remaining agent: 17-year-old Nadya) scrambles to thwart their plan applying the immortal principles of Dialectical Immaterialism.

The film is presented as a quasi-documentary, alternating animated story flashbacks with interviews of live-action talking heads presenting Russian and German veterans, psychologists, and historians all talking about “The moment of truth” portrayed in the film.

No Heroine of the People is complete without her samurai sword nor her Young Pioneer bandana

All the dialogue is in Russian (except for some of the German veterans), all the animated dialogue (including the Germans) is in Russian.

Shuna’s Journey

After years of having the book on my shelf (and having a scanlation on my hard-drive), I finally read Hayao Miyazaki’s Shuna no tabi (Shuna’s Journey).

Shuna is the prototype for many Miyazaki heroes and heroines

It is the tale of a the prince of a small impoverished country. One day a traveller appears, and, dying, tells the story of a rich grain that grows in a land far to the West. In the weeks that follow, Shuna can think of nothing else but finding this grain and returning with it to benefit his people.

I have enjoyed my Time of Eve

Watch Aquatic Language now!

Time of Eve comes to an end (at least a temporary one) with a double-length broadcast centering not on Rikuo, Sammy, nor Nagi, but on Rikuo’s robot-averse friend Masaki.

Shaft despairs

A commenter over at Jason’s place pointed this out.

Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, episode 7, about 10:02

If the above doesn’t come out as an animated gif, try here.

Text slowed down a bit:

What. outta money after moving to a new office?!
Gotta cut corners to make a profit. huh!?
Your production costs are the same but other companies are selling a lot better!
You really can’t pull this off at the same time as Ghostory, can you!
The pictures aren’t moving! You can’t even call this animation!
The anime industry’s collapsing!

Update: And, two seconds into the much-maligned episode 10 of Bakemonogatari:

Bakemonogatariapology

Mushishinbougatari, pt. 2

Or maybe that should be “Araraginko”.

In the maligned episode 10 of Bakemonogatari, at about 7:57 in the episode, Mushishi fans can hear that familiar three chord descent on the piano, interweaved with a jazzy tune (Mushishi meets Brubeck’s Time Out), as they’re ascending the steps to the shrine once more.

I'd already been thinking that Araragi's one-eyed look reminded me of Ginko

Oshinbo may have the mushi-mastery, but Araragi is the one who keeps trying to solve people’s supernaturally-induced problems.

Mushishinbougatari

(Updated 9 Sep 2009, see below.)

Bakemonogatari 9 started and I thought I’d stumbled on a lost episode of Mushishi

I walked ten thousand miles, ten thousand miles to see you...

(sometimes that’s an animated gif of the opening few seconds of the episode, if not, here’s a link to something that might work better.)

This episode (the first of the Nadeko Snake arc) was a visual feast — from the bamboo as Araragi and Suruga climb to the shrine…

And every gasp of breath I grabbed at just to find you....

I climbed up every hill to get to you, I wondered ancient lands to hold just you.

…to the bibliophile-pandering bookstore porn

Bakezaregotari

Yummy Take cover art

When I first read the description of NisiOisin’s Zaregoto:

It’s the vacation of a lifetime, a trip to a remote island filled with geniuses – and murder.

On Wet Crow’s Feather Island, a tiny speck in the Sea of Japan, lives Akagami Iria, the exiled daughter of a powerful family. Born into great wealth, she was a princess of the highest pedigree – until she was cut off by the leader of the Akagami Foundation. For the last five years, she’s lived on Feather Island with her maids. But she hasn’t been alone. She has invited the best minds Japan has to offer to come and stay with her.

And so 19-year-old college student Ii-chan and his best friend, computer genius Kunagisa Tomo, find themselves as Iria’s guests at her elaborate mansion. Surrounded by fascinating women – a chef, a fortune-teller, a scholar, and an artist, not to mention his own friend Tomo – Ii-chan is feeling a little overmatched intellectually. But the sudden discovery of a grisly murder sends the island into shock. Ii-chan discovers that he does possess a bit of genius: the ability to discover what is real and what is fake… who is who they claim to be – and who is a killer.

I wasn’t particularly excited.  “Oh, a locked-room mystery on an isolated island, how uncontrived”.  Not even Andrew Cunningham clearly plumping for it and Omo being cryptic was enough to interest me.

But then I got hooked on NisiOisin’s Bakemonogatari with it’s odd characters and their odd monologues, and grew hungry for more.

Well, if you’re looking for a hit of that Bakemonogatari magic, this is a good place to look.  Once again you have your nebbish narrator surrounded by weird women with the ability to spin words into webs of fascination.  NisiOisin actually manages to make his characters’ supposed genius at least credible (even if they do take a bit long to seize on the post hoc).

And, hey, it’s a pretty decent mystery.  Even better: there’s a twist to the solution that even eludes the main character, delivered with the sort of punch fans of Bakemonogatari are accustomed to.

The only bad thing is that Del Rey doesn’t seem to plan to bring the second volume of the series out until June of next year.  Give them encouragement.  Go buy it.

Nomad’s Super Awesome Manga Review Part The Nth: Buckaroo Banzai

By Nomad(There! Evil PURE AND SIMPLE by way of the Eighth Dimension!)Otto

I have a series of papers to write to justify my continued suckling of the public teat. They are due very soon. They require data which I have not yet fully collected/analyzed. They are very important and need to be super awesome in order that I might avoid teaching in the future. This means that my room and desk at the office have been made very clean, a great deal of boozahol has been consumed, many sci-fi/gangster  movies have been watched and a great many used book and record stores have been visited. Moreover, it means that some of the manga that’s been sitting around unread is being/has been read.  This is a review, or, rather a series of reviews. I would have more words, but they are currently being pressed into the service of SCIENCE! and my future conquest of both my own sanity and the pitiful nations of man. The pictures have been stolen by pixel elves, and I have no time or desire to travel to their kingdom to get them back. Now, Son of Jor-El: KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!

I may have seen this movie a couple of times, yes.