Greeting, this is genericindivdual, and welcome to my first ever post on this blog. Over the coming months, weeks and days (or until whenever it is I get bored) I’ll be producing blog posts on the subject of anime, manga, jpop, just like the million other anime blogs out there.

What makes us special here at Activecore, I hear you ask?

Swearing. Britishness. Cynicism. Abysmal grammar and spelling. All that and more.

But anyway. As we all settle into the new year of anime – relaxing into our favourite chairs to begin another 12 months of horrifically poor h-game conversions, criminally bland mecha nonsense and puerile harem comedies I wouldn’t urinate on if they were on fire and carrying children – there’s nothing better to do then reflect back on 2007.

So, ladies (optimistic, I know) and gentlemen, join me as we take a very brief look back over the year that was. Erm.. of anime.

Death Note

This superlative supernatural crime thriller was probably one of the most hotly anticipated shows of 2006, and it didn’t disappoint. Madhouse did a fantastic job here, marrying slickly expensive animation with a atmospheric music score to create a show that manages to achieve spine tingling tension through (basically) dozens of episodes of talking and writing things down in notebooks.

Certainly a show with several faults – it’s complex story begins to seriousley unravel in the final third, with absurdly comic books characters popping up left, right and centre while the show, struggling for ideas, sprints madly from plot twist to plot twist hoping that nobody spots the massive gaping plot holes in the road.

The whole show also suffers from a serious problem in keeping a consistent tone, with what initially seems to be a fairly low-key affair full of understated character performances descending continually into crazed, hammy over-acting and cringe inducing comedy. Indeed, one of the scenes right at the end of the show, in which Mamoru Miyano (as Light Yagami) and Masaya Matsukaze (as Mikami Teru) appear to be in a totally ludicrous battle to see who can over-act the most, probably ranks as one of my favourite comedy moments of anime in 2007.

Despite all that though, Death Note is a brilliant piece of work. Dark, unique and cleverly plotted, this deserves your attention.

Nodame Cantabile

A lovely romantic comedy from the creators of the awesome Honey & Clover, this show was a joy to watch. A fairly simple joy, mind – Nodame Cantabile seems content to play it almost totally for laughs, avoiding many of the darker themes that Honey & Clover dealt with so well. It was fun, cute, mildly amusing and full of classical music.

If anything puts a dampener on my enthusiasm for this show, its that it seemed to lack any real sense of pace. The show seemed to just calmly proceed through 24 episodes of the lives of the students at a musical college before… kinda stopping. While I can say for certain this show was almost totally absent in poor episodes, it was similarly absent in dramatic highs or memorable scenes. It just mumbled along. As I said, fun. cute. But, sadly, not much more.

The Skullman

Dreadfully disappointing action show, in which a couple of journalists hunt for a (skull)mask wearing assassin in an odd, alternate 1950’s world strangely full of monsters. Awesome animation, an addictive themetune and some beautifully choreographed action didn’t disguise that this was a real mess of a show.

The plot was told with an irritating lack of skill – lazy, constant foreshadowing in some ill-judged attempt to build “mystery” meant that half the show was simply full of men in suits talking in meaningless cirlces trying to sound enigmatic. The rest of the show consisted of frankly embarrasing attempts to be highbrow, with the names of great philisophers banded about with little real thought. Occasionally, a fight broke out.

Messy, confusing and deeply in love with itself, Skullman is a big let-down, saved only from total disaster by simply how gosh-darn expensive it looks.

Claymore

Stupid, stupid shonen fighting epic, in which Claire, one of a race of white-haired, demon fighting sword wielders known as Claymores, wonders around the countryside stabbing things in an attempt to get revenge on the creature that killed her (sort of) mother.

Claymore makes a great first impression, with a dark dirty fantasy world and vicious, bloody fight scenes that puts you in mind of Berserk more than it does the rest of the dross that is churned out by the Shonen Jump man-manga-machine.

But – christ – how quickly it all falls apart. The show rapidly becomes annoying, plunging into an endless cycle of pointless multi-episode story arcs that all turn out to be about nothing. The show also acquires Raki, a teenage boy who Claire takes on as her cook. He turns out to be one of the most annoying, whiney, punchable creations of modern television history, and drags the entire show down with him into a miasma of reused animation and even more reused dialogue.

Things reach a kind of glorious low towards the end, with some of the worst closing episodes i’ve had the pleasure to see in some time. Claire, now turning into a monster for reasons too dull to relate, storms about the battlefield, apparently reduced to only speaking in Shonen Jump catchphrases like “You… i’ll never forgive!” while Raki cries and continually declares that he will “become stronger… to protect his precious people!” over and over again like he has a mental illness.

And lets not even get started on the horrific Sunday school morality at the end when it comes to the matter of Claire’s final revenge… dreadful.

Darker Than Black

This is more like it. Stylish, violent and morally murky action show set in a near-future Japan in which the existense of a kind of reality-bending area of dead space causes the rise of individuals with super powers. Great animation, stunning fight scenes, a Bebop-esque cast of misfits with shady pasts and a jazzy Yoko Kanno soundtrack tells you all that you really need to know.

If anything fouls up Darker than Blacks intoxicating mix of stylish action, espionage and unexpectedly good comedy its probably it’s ending. Sadly DTB, like so many shows before it, slips into the old trap of having everything end via some needlessly cryptic, glowing, floating, inside-the-main-characters-mind thingy that leaves you feeling vaguely unsatisfied and kind of wishing it had just ended with the main character shooting everyone in the face. Sadly, it seems, that seems to be the curse of this post-Evangelion era of anime we live in.

It’s all about the bloody mystical bullshit.

Lovely Complex

LoveCom was a… curious romantic comedy revolving around the romantic problems that naturally occur when a tall girl fancies a short boy. Yes.

A show about very little that stretched itself out for 24 episodes by simply having the same events occur over and over, there really isn’t a great deal to say about LoveCom. The two main characters are likeable in their way, and large amounts of the show can be watched on auto-pilot without needing to think or engage your brain in any way.

Defeated by its own sheer genericness, LoveCom is a show that does nothing spectacularly wrong, mostly due to the fact that it does nothing at all. I much more highly recommend the live-action movie version of Lovely Complex, which zips through the entire minor-embarrasing-social-issue-blown-out-of-all-proportion in two hours, and is generally much funnier and to the point.

(Tune in soon for part 2 of our exciting 2007 postmortem, containing many exciting, carefully chosen words. Words like “despair”, “loli-fodder” and “chocolate cornet”)

Darker than BLACK – Let’s Run Away Together

- Tragedy, Traitors and Trains

In contrast to almost every other blog I have read, I enjoyed this episode significantly less than the first. I didn’t like the direction the show took, Hei’s performance with the doll and the eventual fight with the other contractors left me really cold. I’ve got no idea how my feelings about this show changed so much in one week, but I can barely muster the energy to write this post.

I’ll briefly explain what happened. Lee carries Haraguchi back to her flat only to discover that its been turned over, presumably by her close friend Jean. They rest in Lee’s flat for a while and Haraguchi explains her situation to him, Lee being the nice guy he is suggests that they run away together. Well the cops arrive and poke around her flat so they decide to make a quick exit. They end up in a dinner where Lee eats a ridiculous about of food (Goku?) and they discuss their plans to flee the area, unfortunately they are rudely interrupted by Jean’s friends who enjoy shooting bags of flour. After escaping they rest for a short while in a an underground walkway before heading to a train station to retrieve a book from a locker. I was rather bored by this stage. Somehow Jean and his friends track them down and follow them through the streets. Lee/Hei uses some of his contractor powers on Chiaki and she faints in the street by some cops. Lee starts to run and Jean and friends take chase. Eventually they corner Lee, now with his Hei coat on, in a quiet car park. A fight ensues and it turns out that Chiaki was actually a Chiaki doll (programmed with her memories) and the real Chiaki is actually dead. Well Hei shows off his fancy bullet proof coat (which folded out of his pocket) and kills two of the enemy contractors. The doll jumps in to save Hei from Jeans powers so Jean flees. Hei tracks him down and sends him to meet his friends. The episode ends with the police knocking on Lee’s door and asking him about Haraguchi, of course he knows nothing. I think I missed out the bit where Hei talks with his odd group of friends (an old man with a cap, a talking cat and a small loli girl who likes getting her feet wet).

Sorry if that didn’t seem very interesting, but for me it wasn’t.The entire first half of the show with the Chiaki doll felt like a waste of time by the end. I didn’t find the twist to be clever or intelligent, just annoying. The mystic and intrigue was completely missing for me this week, it didn’t feel like detective show or even an action show. Possibly I was hoping for to much or picking out elements from the first episode which were only accidental or minor to the show. I was expecting some plot and character development that frankly I didn’t get. All we learned was that ‘the goods’ have already been passed on to someone else and that Lee/Hei is very good at deceiving people.

Its entirely possible that I missed something quite important or possibly I just didn’t get the whole first half. Whatever it is I am now seriously doubting where this show is going and if it will remain interesting to me. I guess I was hoping for Gits:Sac with supernatural powers and instead I got a show that seemed confused about its identity. The ‘comedy’ section really threw me, it didn’t feel connected to the show at all, it ruined any mood or atmosphere that was previously set even if this itself was a farce. I’m really quite upset, the first episode was so promising and now my hopes feel dashed.

Here’s hoping that the third episode can dig deep and bring me back to the table.

On the production side, the art was maybe a little worse on the character consistency front but was still very good over all. The music seemed a bit better this week as well, I definitely noticed it more. In fact i’m going to go back over the show specifically to listen to the music, I don’t want to miss my Kanno fix.

Oh, briefly about the action scenes. They weren’t bad but perhaps a little hurried. If anything they actually felt realistic, i’m not sure if this is a good thing or not. I guess I would like to see more varied use of the contractor powers and possibly some explanation about them. But hey, I might not stick around long enough to see the action evolve.

If you agree with me at all on this episode or think I missed something important please do let me know. For now, a few screenshots.

Darker than BLACK – Just Howling In The Shadows!

- Contractors, Hell’s Gate and a Porsche

OP

Darker than BLACK OP

This is a very stylish OP, I instantly fell in love with it. From the panning of the brilliantly detailed backdrops to the moody character close ups and the vibrant silhouetted woman it was packed with quality and atmosphere. Already being familiar with the song (HOWLING by abingdon boys school) I felt that the heavy guitar riffs and spirited lyrics fitted the art really well. It embodied, for me, the darker action packed interior of the relatively calm and serious exterior. Some people might find the arrangement of the animation to be a little pretentious, however I think it fits the mood of the show perfectly, brooding and mysterious.

Introduction

The camera pans across the star filled night sky, we see a young girl standing in a clear blue lake surrounded by trees, the focus then shifts to a telescope while understated piano music whispers across the void.

A man (Louis) races across the city skyline leaping from rooftop to rooftop before the police finally corner him. As they draw their weapons the one man goes shooting upward in to the night sky before Louis quickly soars off away from harm. A call comes over the female detectives (Kirihara Misaki) radio, the target is a Contractor. As she speeds towards his estimated location it seems that somebody has beaten the police to. Louis is breaking his fingers (compensating) as a mysterious voice startles him. He turns to see a masked man (Hei) standing before him. Louis quickly throws Hei in to the sky with his powers (gravity manipulation) but Hei throws some kind of metal zip cord and anchors himself to a railing and then Louis’s neck. Hei then pins Louis down and interrogates him with a cool looking ’split’ knife. He is trying to find the whereabouts of a certain cargo that a woman is holding. Meanwhile Hei’s partner Yin (a Doll?) alerts him that the police are closing in. As Kirihara races towards the scene she informs us about the strange wall (Hell’s Gate) which looms over the city. Shortly after is arrival people with supernatural powers were revealed to exist. Hei disposes of Louis and leaves before the dumbfounded police arrive on the scene.

And breathe…..

They managed to pack so much in to this episode and that’s just the first five minutes. But more amazingly they didn’t actually explain much, there’s a great sense of mystique and the atmosphere is decidedly sinister. I loved every minute of it.

Apparently a woman by the name of Shinoda Chiaki has gone missing, she’s no ordinary chick. After gaining a physics Masters she went on to work for the National Research Institute (NRI) and studied Hell’s Gate. Two weeks ago she went missing with some confidential information from Pandora, some sort of body within the NRI. Apparently Louis, an undercover french agent, had been in contact with her before his death. It seems that the Police and Louis’s associates want to get in touch with Shinoda as soon as possibly.

Enter the Dragon Lee Shen Shun, a Chinese transfer student who bares a remarkable resemblance to Hei! Amongst his many talents are, TV repair, Kissing strange women and Falling on trains without being hurt. Lee moves in next door to a woman called Haraguchi, now she also bares a striking resemblance to Shinoda. Something is definitely going on here…

Well Haraguchi works at Club Pinky, just the sort of place that two off duty detectives like ro relax after work. Fortunately for them they also seem to be aware of Ms Haraguchi’s striking resemblance to Shinoda. A chase ensues. Shinoda ducks in to a park with the detectives in toe, luckily for her Lee happens to be indulging in a spot of late night Astronomy. He takes the chance to get Shinoda up against a tree, but don’t worry, it’s all a ploy to throw the cops off her trail. After an awkward moment she takes her leave and winds up in an alley where her lovely friend Jean finds her.

Jean is the sort of friend you need like a hole in the head. He drugs poor Shinoda and after a short scuffle with Lee (jumping out of solid objects his hardly fair!), he drags her back to he ‘lair’. Luckily for Shinoda, Jean and his friends aren’t too smart. Before they manage to question her she heads for the door, some entity seems to be helping her and unlocks the door. She flees in to the cold wet night, shoes in hand. But her luck hasn’t run out yet, she bumps in to Lee who takes her in his arms.

Impressions

Now this is my idea of a great show, that episode was everything I hoped it would be. From the outset there’s an air of mystery and intrigue that pulled me right in. The atmosphere created by the amazing high standard of the visuals and Kanno’s insightful score was just perfect. The characters felt instantly familiar, believable and interesting. It didn’t actually feel like a first episode, it was just another day in the lives of these people. The world and the story were just naturally evolving, nothing was for our benefit, we were simple observers. I also had a slight feeling that Bones watched Gits:Sac before making this, it defiantly had the same kind of feel at times, although generally more human and relaxed.

For once, the overall standard of the art was high throught the entire episode, aside from maybe one moment. The character art was really quite detailed, especially on the supporting characters. Lee reminded me slightly of a cross between Ginko (Mushishi) and Roy Mustang (FMA), while Yin was the spitting image of Ruri (Nadesico) and Primula (Shuffle!). Even when the camera panned out the characters were still well animated, although at these points the background animation took over in terms of quality. Now it might just be me, but all of the shows I have watched so far this season have breathtaking backdrops, but I think Darker than BLACK might just be leading the field. The images just look so realistic, I want to print them out and stick them on my walls…

The action was also enjoyable if a little tame, but hey its the first episode, Goku didn’t turn Super Saiyan right away. Although it may have been a little tame it defiantly fitted in with the show. Hei didn’t seem to release any powers when taking down Louis yet his skill and speed were more than enough to overpower him. Likewise when Jean knocked him off the bridge he didn’t seem eager to show he could win the fight. Hopefully the action will steadily build up as more people come in to play and more about the various powers are realised.

As far as the storyline goes, it seems suitable complex. There are many unanswered questions from this episode and many people who I have assumed to be other people,  who haven’t actually confirmed they are these people. If that makes sense. There are obviously several different groups at work all trying to recover the Pandora research information which I imagine sheds some light on what’s inside Hell’s Gate. Overall its to early for me to start hypothesising as I actually enjoying seeing the story unfold rather than reading 6 blogs which fill in the blanks for me. The only worrying factor is that ANN seems to suggest that its only 13 episodes long, I hope this isn’t true because I don’t want them rushing this show and turning it in to another Tokko. Not that Tokko has a patch on this show, but hopefully you get the idea.

Finally the music, for a Yoko Kanno produced show the music didn’t really jump out at me. However, when I was aware of the music it blended in with the situations and sounded really good. Actually as I am going back through the show theres more music than I realised, maybe the secret of great background music is that you don’t always conciously realise it’s there. Alot of the music had a very laid back jazzy feel to it, I enjoyed this very much. The other parts were more sinister and added to the atmosphere as I said before. The use of sound effects were also spot on, nothing to complain about at all.

Overall I am left with a very high opinion of the show, I enjoyed every second of it. I can’t wait for next weeks episode and I hope you feel the same! Oh and this show will be blogged regularly.

ED

While this ED isn’t exactly to my liking I can appreciate the intricate art work. The song (Tsukiakari by Rie Fu) isn’t bad, but there’s just something about her voice that I don’t like. That said, I can see my self watching the ED rather than skipping it like some of the awful ones. I’m not really sure if the animation has much to do with the show though.

Next Episode

Shinoda falls for lee?

Hei kicks ass?

And then, the star fell.