Darker Than Black, a futuristic supernatural romp in a world shrouded in mystery. It doesn’t sound too original, but this 2007 anime from studio Bones is a cut above the rest.

Ten years before our story begins a powerful disaster wreaks havoc upon the world, altering the sky and the landscape. Not long after this event people start emerging with special abilities. These people are dubbed contractors and are known to be ruthless cold-blooded killers.

Fast forwarding to the beginning of Darker Than Black, our protagonist, a Chinese student named Hei, is an elite contractor who hunts down bloodthirsty contractors for an organisation with unknown ambitions. In fact Hei is so good at his job that other contractors have nicknamed The Black Reaper. As you would expect the long arm of the law are also hot on the tail of these nasty contractor folk. The Section-Chief of the Foreign Affairs Division 4, Misaki Kirihara speeds around town in her Porsche investigating reports of contractor thuggery. All this results in Hei and Division 4 facing off even though their goals are roughly the same.

The neo-noir setting and mystery shrouding past events are tantalising enough to keep things moving along. The most interesting part is that the main character, Hei is actually likable. His night and day personality prove to be a nice juxtaposition. By day he’s a likable and helpful student and by night he’s cleaning up the town of supernatural contractor scum. Other characters are hardly given the time of day on the first DVD. Maybe the lowest point of this anime is the fact that it all looks a bit dreary. Brighter colours are used sparingly, which is a shame because it makes the production feel flat overall. It’s not a huge detractor because the story and characterisation are strong enough to get it over the line. DVD extras are fair with a small array of commentary and cast auditions, not to mention the now obligatory art gallery and textless opening.

If you’re a committed this anime will reward but it takes time to draw you in. Once you’re down the rabbit-hole you’ll find it surprisingly enjoyable.

Overall: Buy

Starts slow but ends quick. Don’t blink!

Two things stand out from this series:
1. Japanese Hip-hop music is a good way to make ancient spirit battling contemporary
2. You really don’t want to have anything to do with the spirit world in Japan – there’s no casper the friendly ghost in the world of Japanese grotesqueries.

To read from the promotional material:

Bleach follows the lives of Ichigo Kurosaki, who is a high school student with the ability to see ghosts, and a shinigami (Soul Reaper or, literally, “death god”) named Rukia Kuchiki, who crosses paths with Ichigo while hunting an evil spirit known as a hollow. Rukia is wounded during the ensuing confrontation with the spirit and is left with no choice but to transfer her powers into Ichigo. Thus the adventures of Ichigo and Rukia begin. Together they search for hollows and perform soul burials on wayward souls, cleansing the spirits and sending them to Soul Society. The early parts of the story focus mainly on the characters and their pasts, rather than the actual occupation of the shinigami. As events unfold, the story begins to delve deeper into the world of these gods of death on the “other side” called Soul Society.

Bleach is a welcome addition to the gener of supernatural action, the evil spirits – Hollows – are suitably menacing and mysterious, seemingly driven by an overwhelming need to consume all lost soles and spiritual energy around them. Maybe we could read into the hollows desire for perpetual, meaningless consumption a subtle critique of consumer society or addiction – certainly there are destructive extremes to these problems.

The series has a typical infusion of that distinctive anime aesthetics where stylised action and violence sits alongside cute girls, a scene of tradgedy cuts to humour and high-school hijinks. Is Kusaki gong to date Rukia (the Soul Reaper instructing him)? Will Ichigo be able to battle the Hollows? The chain the links recently departed to their corpses.

An interesting aside was the main character Ichigo Kurosaki actually referring to his orange hair – yes, it turns out this was not a simple stylistic choice of the animators to designate him a fiery tempered youthful character, but he was born that way and suffered much bullying as a kid. So there you go – even in the world of anime there are occasions where different coloured hair is not a stylistic convention but a freakish twist of nature that makes you stand out.

Respect. It’s important for both Samurai and Hip Hop artists. And Afro Samurai shows respect from Japan towards HipHop and blaxploitation cinema and from the US towards anime and chambara cinema. This is not wrongheaded appropriation of the Last Samurai. While we could complain about what they get wrong (eg: a failure to show the internal divisions and contradictions within samurai communities), it’s better to see what they deem essential to get right.

In Afro we can see no chivalrous Samurai representations – only murderous or duty bound. Likewise, the HipHop is not about race politics but does speek to oppression through the drive for revenge. This is not simply Japanese or American. It’s hybrid with two parents: Chambara and hiphop.

Chambara:
There are a number of themes that occur in Samurai film plots. Afro deals with the roaming masterless samurai, and tales of clan loyalty and conflict. As with most chambara films, the main character is struggling with a conflict between giri (sense of duty) and ninjo (human feelings). Afro is trained in bushido (way of the warrior) but is haunted by moments of sympathy and loss (which comes in the form of his memories of childhood and love of a woman). And according to the conventions of a good chambara film, it ends with bloodshed and a duel between our anti-hero and an equal opponent. The chambara conventions are given a new twist through the use of technological gadgets (mobile phones) and the hi-tech cyborg opponents Afro faces, pushing this towards a techno-chambara fantasy. One that is furthered by the use of hip-hop and celebrity.

Hip-hop and African-American culture:
The American influences upon Afro, such as the use of hiphop and the branding of it around Samuel L Jackson ground this as an experiment showing us the intersecting forces that produce global anime.

Results:
The mixed heritage of this anime can offer a deepening appreciation of global anime and techno-chambara (with an American hip-hop beat). In a sign of things to come, the balance Afro tries to strike between chambara (Japan) and hip-hop (US) shows that US and Japanese pop culture will not replace or consume each other, but that both may grow in popularity together.

Type: Film
Length: 170
Rating: M

World War II is not an easy subject to tackle. Especially when you are presented with a tragic story like Barefoot Gen. But the topic of who was right or wrong when it came to the bombing of Hiroshima is not the core issue here. Despite the graphic depictions of suffering Barefoot Gen is drama about a young boy’s struggle of survival against insurmountable odds during the aftermath.

Barefoot Gen started its life out as a manga by Keiji Nakazawa in 1973. Soon after it was adapted into a little known live action movie in 1976 and in 1983 Madhouse brought us the first animated version of Barefoot Gen. The story focuses on the six year old boy Gen and his family in 1945 war torn Hiroshima. Gen’s family are considered unpatriotic and traitors because his father believes that Japan has lost the war and that the upper class are just being greedy by continuing to fight. Things are not looking so good for Gen’s family with another baby on the way and no food on the table. Finally the main event comes with America’s B-29 bombers flying in on August 6 to drop their nuclear bomb on Hiroshima while Gen walks to school. From then on Gen struggles against the odds to survive the aftermath.

As tragic and heart wrenching as the story sounds there is still a bit fun to be had. Gen is a very hyper young boy who is up to mischief much of the time with his younger brother Shinji. Even after the bomb is dropped he remains as cheeky as ever. The style and animation is quite good for an anime of its time. Madhouse clearly had high standards for the film. Anime purists will be pleased to hear that there is no English dub for both the Gen films. Do not be put off by this; the subtitles are top notch along with the original Japanese sound tracks.

I mentioned that there are two Barefoot Gen films. You get the original Barefoot Gen from 1983 and the sequel, predictably named Barefoot Gen 2. The second movie is set three years after the bombing and focuses on the continuing struggle of Gen and his family as Hiroshima recovers. There are no special features with these films but you do get both of them on one disc! As much as I think they are important films there is only so much post war Japan I could take before feeling a little odd inside. But that aside Barefoot Gen is a classic anime that should be seen. Three out of Five.

Here we are once again, traveling the road of darkness, fighting the very hell spawn we all know and love as vampires. The Hellsing story sure is getting the red carpet treatment of late. Those of you who are familiar with the original anime series will know that it is all blood and guts with a killer story to boot. But of course the anime series unpredictably split from the manga’s story line to end up in a totally different place. Thankfully someone has righted this travesty by pouring the contents of their wallet into the Hellsing Ultimate OVA collection, which follows the manga’s graphic story line much more closely. The result is an MA 15+ rated bloodlust romp into the very bowls of hell (South America).

OVA III concentrates on the aftermath of Hellsing’s headquarter invasion by the Valentine bothers. It seems the Vatican, Hellsing’s nemesis, knows more about what is happening in their little vampire world than their letting on. Of course we all know that good stories always manage to work in a crazy blonde haired, blue-eyed Nazi bad guy somewhere, and Hellsing is no different. Turns out the Vatican helped a Nazi group called Millennium escape to South America during World War 2 and now they are bit ashamed. Subsequently Alucard and Seras are sent to South America on a search and destroy mission to wipe the remaining remnants of Millennium, and let me tell you this is no fishing trip! Through all the blood and gore, they encounter a well-dressed man called The Dandy Man who has a certain fetish for playing 52 pickup.

Once again we have an example of what can be done when production values match the impact of the content. All the characters exude on screen personality and there’s one disturbing scene where Integra shows her real bloodthirsty colours when ordering Alucard to cut down all those who oppose Hellsing. I like to use the Hellsing OVA series, as a prime example of what English dubs should be like. The regular cast does a wonderful job even though most are clearly putting on fake accents. Both the Japanese and English tracks are in Dolby 5.1 and we are even given an English DTS 5.1 track to boot. The music is symphonic and perfectly matches to mood in every scene, no complaints there. Clearly there has been some time and money invested here. Even the glossy DVD packaging is something that will wow people who are easily distracted by bright colours. There’s the normal array of special features to be had. Voice cast interviews, art gallery and more interestingly a voice director commentary track for some more insight. If you live for blood and guts then you’ll love Hellsing OVA III. 4.5 buckets of blood soaked offal from me.

Japan is an endless saturation of manga that we in here in the west can only envy from afar. But everyone know that anything Japan can do the west will certainly have a go at doing ourselves. Original English-language manga or OEL Manga is the term given to graphic novels by westerners that are heavily influenced by Japanese manga. But as nice as OEL Manga sounds it has an uphill battle when it comes to competing with the translations of Japanese manga. But this has not deterred Christy Lijewski from thrusting the rock band inspired drama, romance OEL Manga into our hot little hands called RE:play.

RE:play tells the story of a band in a bit of a bind. Their bass player ED has walked out of the band and out of lead singer Cree’s heart. In a chance meeting Cree meets a busker named Izsak who is playing a song her mother wrote in a train station. Cree is immediately smitten by Izsak and asks him to be the bands new bass player on the spot. Izsak reluctantly agrees to help the band out despite his secret blood realted sickness. This doesn’t please the bands other guitar player Rail, who is weary of Izsak’s involvement. Meanwhile two strange characters shadow the bands every movement and occasionally shake things up with their unnatural powers.

The plot of RE:play sounds simple enough but for the most part it really shines as something unusual and interesting. Lijewski’s punk style illustrations, while not exceptionally detailed suit the rock nature of the story while maintaining a clear Japanese manga influence. The romance holds up really well without feeling at all forced or cheesy. But it is not all peaches and cream for RE:play. Something that really annoyed me was the size of the text used when the character said something under their breath. It’s just too small to read easily compared to the normal text. It is only a minor problem but it disturbs the flow somewhat.

So there we have it. Volume one of RE:play stands out for being very rock and roll and fun to read. The characters are interesting and the story is intriguing enough to make me want more. If Lijewski keep producing work like RE:play the manga motherland may have to finally sit up and more notice OEL Manga. Four needless drum solos!

If you’re keen to check out RE:play, publisher Tokyopop’s website lets you sample the first chapter from each of the current two volumes.

Type: TV series
Length: 26 episodes
Rating: M

They say revenge is a dish best served cold. But can that dish stay cold in hell? Revenge stories are as old as time itself. And lets face it, who doesn’t like a good old-fashioned revenge story? There are countless Hollywood movies that tackle the revenge theme in their own ways. Gladiator, Braveheart, Kill Bill, The Crow, and the classic French novel by Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo. Those are just a few revenge stories that western audiences would be familiar with. But now we’re turning out eyes eastwards towards Japan to find new tales of revenge. As you would expect manga and anime are no strangers to revenge with titles such as, Gungrave, Black Cat, Gun X Sword, and Afro Samurai to name just a few covering the topic in their own special way. Now something direct from the bowels of hell has stepped into the arena to give the theme of revenge a good old shake up.

The title, Hell Girl gives perhaps the biggest clue to what this anime is about. It is indeed about a girl from hell who does favors for tormented people who find their way to her website called the ‘Hell Correspondence.’ The tormented person enters the name of their grudge into the website and Hell Girl will appear before them to offer salvation. But as you would expect there is a price to pay for Hell Girl knocking someone off. The tormented person’s soul will go to hell when they die. But that is not the fun part. Hell Girl’s band of merry helpers get to have a little fun with the victim before Hell Girl finally ferries them off to hell. Sounds wonderfully cheery doesn’t it?

Do not get out of your comfy armchair yet. Fun as the concept might sound there is a real yawn factor to consider here. Each episode is a self-contained story on volume one. And they are at times about as interesting as a can of corn. I found myself holing out to just watch the end of each episode to see how Hell Girl torments her victims rather than being interested in the episode as a whole. Indeed the whole of volume one is just a tad mundane for my liking. Hell Girl and her offsiders are appropriately cast in voice acting terms but beyond them there was much to be desired. Music is barely noticeable. Maybe that’s a good thing? I’m undecided because the best thing about Hell Girl is the animation production. It is really top-notch stuff here. Nice and smooth with fluid character animation and no CG in sight.

I was less than impressed overall. I felt like there was more needed to woo me into enjoying Hell Girl beyond the regular array of DVD features. There must be a cheaper way to knock someone off without dooming your soul to hell. Two Stars.

-Al

The Warcraft franchise seems to be one overpowering juggernaut of media saturation nowadays. From its humble beginnings as a simple real time strategy computer game to the ever-expanding massive multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft, we see such things as dedicated television shows, novels, figurines, and now a manga. Warcraft has a rich history when it comes to the story, so it is not real surprise that a manga adaptation has been thrust upon the legions of adoring fans. Here we have the beginnings of The Sunwell Trilogy Vol. 1 – Dragon Hunt written by Richard Knaak, illustrated by Jae-Hwan Kim.

Dragon Hunt follows almost directly from the end of Warcraft III’s expansion pack ‘The Frozen Throne’, so if you are a fan of the computer games you’ll be right at home with the characters and events that are referred to in this The Sunwell Trilogy. But you aren’t you are left out in the cold. There is a brief history of Warcraft at the beginning of the manga to get you up to speed. The story itself follows the hunt of a shape-shifting dragon called Kalec that is trying to escape from the dragon hunters. He gets shot down and caught in a net, but luckily for him a girl named Anveena comes to his rescue. The manga follows these two as they try to escape the clutches of the dragon hunters and other shady figures that believe Kalec knows the whereabouts of the Sunwell.

While the story certainly seems like the strongest point about this manga there are weaknesses. There have been steps to make the story more accessible to those who have not played the computer games but it still requires more explanation. The use of chapters seems pointless, mostly because the story never really deviates. But the flow of the manga is really nice. Jae-Hwan Kim’s illustrations are wonderful but not eyepopingly gorgeous. Even if you read your mangas quite quick you wont feel like you might of missed something.

Overall Dragon Hunt felt derivative and wistful. It almost feels like an illustrated Followship of the Ring without really coming close to Tolken. Dragon Hunt is certainly more of a fan service rather than something new and exciting. For those unfamiliar with Warcraft it is only worth 2 orcs. For fans of Warcraft a solid 3.5 orcs.

Anime Review: Air Gear
Type: TV Series
Length: 26 Episodes

For some reason I have the romantic notion that all Japanese people become businessmen who toil their lives away in cubicles never to think of sport. But of course this is total rubbish. Japan is almost as obsessed with sport as we are here in Australia. One considers their obsession with Ian Thrope. But we all know that anything worth a grain of salt in Japan is immortalized in either manga or anime and sport is no exception. Everything from swimming, baseball, to motor racing has graced the airwaves and now we have extreme motorized inline skating to add to that illustrious list.

The anime Air Gear comes to us via Toei Animation studios and for the most part expectations are met and even exceeded in some areas. Air Gear follows the lives of Itsuki Minami “Ikki” and his friends as they tackle the latest extreme rebel sport. The early parts of the story carry out the introduction of characters that eventually join Ikki’s Air Treck team Kogarasumaru. The latter part half concentrates on the teams rise to fame and eventual attack on the Trophaeum Tower, where Ikki would be crowned the sky king.

As intriguing as the concept of these motorized inline stakes or ‘Air Trecks’, it is perhaps the weakest point of the anime overall. In fact there’s almost no time spent on explaining what Air Trecks really are. Instead we are presented with some very rich and interesting characters to tantalize the viewers to watch more. It is a little surprising to say the least when you get an outrageous concept that is painted with such a thick character brush. The main character Ikki is what you might describe as being arrogant but that seems to balance out with his overbearing sisters who treat him like an incompetent little boy most of the time.

The animation is standard here. It is almost a downfall one could say but it does not detract from the anime overall. What pops out is the high-energy hi-hop rock that litters the anime. It is very cool in places and suits the anime down to a tee. But as always, it seems that the music budget did not go far enough as there are tracks that are overused throughout. Air Gear turned out to be far better than I had ever hoped for. The complex characters and thumping soundtrack keep it from being anything but tiresome. Four Air Trecks!

It is not often that a sticker on a DVD package makes this reviewer excited. But somehow when I read, “Featuring ‘Chairman’ Takeshi Kaga of Iron Chef” on there made me want to review Death Note so badly. Lucid images filled my mind of a bloody cooking battle where a challenger does his or her best at killing the judges with their culinary skills. I am somewhat saddened to inform you that there will be no such cooking battles in Death Note. Instead today we will be looking at the live action variation of the Death Note franchise.

I have to be honest; I have not seen many live action adaptations that I have liked more than the anime. But the difference here is that I have not seen any of the Death Note anime series, so one could say I am working from a clean slate here. The plot of Death Note is intriguing and deep and the first movie follows the first nine episodes of the anime. University student Light Yagami despises the crime-ridden world that he lives in. But everything changes for Light when he discovers the mysterious notebook called Death Note. The instructions are clear. Write someone’s name in the notebook and in 40 seconds they will die of a heart attack. Soon Light uses the Death Note to deal out his own brand of justice on criminals and people he deems worthy of dying. The public dubs the murderer as ‘Kira’ and great debates rage about who is behind them. The police do not sit idly on their hands. They spring into action and are also hot on Light’s trail after asking the equally mysterious detective ‘L’, who communicates via a high-pitched computer voice to help with investigations.

The plot is somewhat complex but it is laid out nice and slowly and rewards the viewer with some interesting scenes later in the film. Performances are all of high standards here, although some characters like Light’s girlfriend Shiori Akino slightly frustrate with their mundane screen presence. Direction by Shūsuke Kaneko is solid but lacks the zest of a real Hollywood blockbuster. But one might consider larger production values detraction to the overall story. While I have tried my best to summarize Death Note in this short review there are things I have missed. As far as this particular movie goes there is no question that fans of the anime will love it. Newcomers such as myself will also find much to like about this film as the tug of war between Light and L begins. Sadly there will be no biting into capsicums here. Move along…Four Death Notes!