$4 billion potentially catastrophic dissapointments

(This article has been edited by Koubo.)

This makes all of us at TCO disappointed.

If you don't want to believe this information if it comes from just one location, believe three more sites, as that this is definitely not small news.

In a press conference on August 28, 2009, the aquisition was announced. The news is not small. Put a search into google and countless links pop up informing of the news. And if you read user comments on articles that are allowed to be posted on the appropriate sites, people end up either stating they hate it or fear that it will make marvel turn quite sour.

Regardless, the process should be done by the end of this year. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't want to see all of my beloved comic book characters become fodder for the monsters at Disney. I can just see the monstrosities now: "Hannah Montana meets Spider-man" or "The Jonas Brothers join the X-men".

While that seems very unlikely, it will now be a possibility.

While it may not be well-known, it is not hidden that Warner Bros. Entertainment bought out DC Comics in 1969. No noticeable effects have hit the media yet. and it is 40 years later. Disney is different than WB, that is for sure, but only time will tell if they will take the path that most people are fearing.

I can think of at least 20 other movie companies I'd rather see Marvel bought by. [At least]
the article(s) (do) state that all the current movie deals are going to stay the same. Spider-man 4 will still be done by Sony Pictures, X-men Origins: Magneto and X-men Origins Wolverine 2 will still be done by 20th Century Fox, etc. So, at least we still have that. But, for any future Marvel Comic movie adaptations, expect to see them sailing under the Jolly Roger of Disney.
What does everyone else think of this? Am I the only one who is dreading it?

World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm

The newest expansion for World of Warcraft was announced at Blizzcon. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. In this expansion the land of Azeroth has been decimated by a confrontation between two of the Dragon Aspects. The result is a completely changed map for the game.
There will be two new playable races introduced into the game. The Goblins and the Worgen. From what I've read, it seems that both races will be playable on either faction (Alliance and Horde). There will not be any new classes, but there will be races able to play classes that they couldn't previously. The level cap for players will be raised to 85. (I think it's 85, that's what I last heard.) There will be a new profession available: Archaeology.
Word is, even if you don't buy the expansion, the game will be changed anyway, which is to say, the map will still be altered, among other things. (Although, you will need to buy the expansion to play any of the new features. And you know you'll want to.)

What have the rest of you heard about the new expansion? Share what you know with us.

(Oh, and sorry for 2 posts today.)

Electroplankton

Today I'd like to take a minute to talk about a game that is one of the rare gems in my collection. It's called: Electroplankton.
This Nintendo DS title is not just rare in the sense that it is hard to find (which it is) but has a rare style of gameplay. This is one of the few games I've played that doesn't have a main goal. There is no beginning, middle, or end to the game and there's no way to beat the game. The game is just meant to be played for fun and not to unlock things or get a high score. In fact, there is no scoring system in the game at all and everything is unlocked when you first start playing.

Developed by Toshio Iwai, the whole purpose of the game is to create sounds and music. In the game, there are ten different types of plankton. Each type of plankton does different things when they are interacted with. All of them will make some kind of sound and will create beautiful designs on the screen. You can interact with them through both the touch screen and the microphone on the DS. One type of plankton will create designs on the screen when you make different sound into the microphone. Others will move about on a grid of arrows that point in the direction you choose, and will make different sounds depending on which arrows they land on. Another will record about 10 seconds of audio and will play it back, allowing you to alter it depending on what shape the plankton is.
Honestly, the game is meant to be fun, and it is. The different combinations of sound you can make with it are extremely entertaining. The replay value for the game is quite high. I've spent hours playing with it and still find myself pulling it out to play. If you can manage to find a copy of this game, I recommend picking it up. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

My score: Another 5 out of 5.

I've yet to find another game that is so simple, and yet so intruiging.

Archos: Competition For Apple?

Time for another technology blog. I haven't done one since the PSP Go post I did back in July. Today it's going to be about media players.
So, my iPod Touch is slowly but surely heading towards death. I've only had it for about a year, but apparently the 2nd Gen iPod Touch batteries don't last as long as the 1st Gen ones. I'm mostly to blame for it dying. I use it all the time and as such, I have to charge it almost every other night. But, now the battery doesn't want to hold a charge for more than a few hours. So, I'm thinking it's time for a replacement right about now. I thought about just buying another Touch, but I don't really want to have to keep replacing it every year, so I've been looking around at what my options are.
I want to stay with something that has a touch screen simply because they are usually easier to navigate through music and such than other players. I know that the Zune HD is coming out in the next month or so, and I really considered buying one. But, I'm a Mac user and I'm not sure how well a Microsoft player would work with a Mac. So, I tossed that idea out the window. There aren't a whole lot of huge media player brands out there. Microsoft and Apple have pretty much cornered the market on those.
So, I started looking around at what my other options are. After wading through the various smaller brands of media players, most of which did not have touch screens and had smaller hard drives than I was looking for, I came across the Archos 5 which met pretty much all of my requirements. It had a touch screen (bigger than the iPod Touch's), a large hard drive (250 gigs at it's biggest) and it supported more video and audio files than most other media players. It's also got an internet browser built in that allows viewing of Flash pages (Something the iPod Touch cannot do). There's even a built in PDF viewer. Granted, to be able to access the full range of the Archos 5's capabilities you have to download a few plugins, some of which cost some money (the ones that allow for more media types), which isn't really a problem to me. In the end, I decided to go with an Archos.

Now, the downside to buying something other than the iPod Touch is that I can't use all of those great apps that I downloaded during the course of owning a Touch. I mulled this over in my head and decided that I wasn't too worried about that. I have some great apps on my Touch, but it's gotten to the point that I don't use any of them anymore. Mostly, I use it for music, movies, and pictures, and with the Archos' huge hard drive, I shouldn't have any want for space for those.

My final say: I've owned an Archos before and was mightily pleased with it, but sold it for an iPod with a larger hard drive. I've been pleased with what I've seen about the Archos 5 (My friend has one that he let me fiddle around with for a while) and I'm very excited to buy one.

If you're looking for a large capacity media player and want to stick it to Apple and Microsoft, I definitely recommend the Archos line.

Feel The Magic XY-XX

Feel The Magic is one of the games that came out right around the same time that the original Nintendo DS came out all those years ago. (It really does seem like it's been a while since the DS first came out.) You've probably seen the game sitting in the used game section of your local video game store and never thought of buying it. But, I'm here to tell you, BUY IT! It's one of the most creative games I've seen for any system. It's a "mini-game" type of game and I know what you're thinking. "But, there are so many mini-game games for the DS and none of them are that fun, why should this one be any different?" Well, this article will tell you why it's different.
I was like you, I didn't think much of the game when I first saw it. But, at the time, there weren't many games out for the DS, so I ended up buying it just so I could have something to play other than Mario 64. After only a few minutes of playing I was hooked.

The story for Feel The Magic is classic. Boy meets girl, they fall in love, boy does crazy things to impress her, boy and girl get stranded on a desert island, girl gets kidnapped by different boy, and boy has to rescue girl. Ok, so maybe that's not a classic story, but it's still a good one.

The story is progressed by completing various mini games all of which are simple, yet complex at the same time. The games utilize all the features of the Original DS and the DS Lite. Sometimes you'll be blowing into the microphone to put out giant candles that are attacking, sometimes you'll be rubbing madly back and forth on the touch pad to fan a fire into life, while other times, you'll be using a more precise touch on the touch pad to guide yourself across a narrow beam between two buildings. All of the mini games are, in my opinion, addicting. You'll be graded on all of them and depending on how well you do, you can unlock things in the game. Mostly you'll be unlocking new outfits and hairstyles for the girl to wear (which sounds lame, but trust me, it's pretty fun), but you can also unlock things like a sound and music menu.

I won't give away the ending of the game, but I'll say this: It's one of the craziest boss fights I've ever been in. Seriously.

If what I've said doesn't strike your fancy, then try the game out just to see the unique art style used in it. It reminds me of iPod commercials. Also, the game is really quite funny. I laughed quite a bit while playing it.

This is honestly one of the Rare Gems in my video game collection. I highly recommend everyone picks it up and gives it a try.

My score: 5 out of 5.

This game is fun, inventive, and addicting and has great replay value. Even after all these years I still find myself pulling it out and playing it over and over again.

The Hidden World

The Hidden World is a sub-story that is shown throughout all of Clannad for small segments at a time. It is also referred to as the Illusionary World. It shows at least one segment during each of the main stories, and finished up alongside After Story.

The Hidden World is a sort-of world that Okazaki Tomoya has dreams about. It follows an interesting conciousness who narrates the scenes as they appear, explaining his views on the world, the situations, his emotions, and what he feels about the nameless girl whom he is fixated on.

The nameless girl is the only person living on the entire planet. She has a unique ability to fuse together junk to make objects. She is aware of the nameless conciousness, though she cannot see him; he is also aware of her, although they are unable to communicate. She decides fuses a body together for him out of junk, which looks like a small robot. She teaches him how to walk, and they become friends, making the girl happy that she is no longer alone.

The nameless girl from the Hidden World.

The conciousness, now in the world, spends his time with the girl. Although the robot cannot talk, he communicates through nods and jumps and other bodily expressions. They build various things to enjoy together, such as various playground objects.

The robot seems to have the perspective of a child, being curious about his surroundings. He comes to have the basic understanding of most things and how they work, except the stream of small orbs of light that are constantly floating around. A big deal is made of them; he tries to grab one, and it just passes through his hand. It makes no shadow, either. The girl asks if he is confused about it, and he nods yes; she then simply says that she finds it something she is familiar with.

The girl, the robot, and some sheep they found while wandering.

The world does experience seasons, just as earth does, and eventually winter starts approaching. The girl is becoming unable to move, and as winter slowly comes the amount of time she can move decreases. The robot has been recalling very vague memories of a better world, ones with more people, and wants the girl and him to go there, and to escape from this cold. During the times that the girl is able to move, she puts tries to put together a type of flying apparatus from the parts that the robot collects and brings to her.

The robot collecting materials for the flying machine.

Winter comes upon them in full force before the machine is completed, however, and the girl is now barely able to move at all. The desire from the robot to leave this lonely world and go to the better one he can barely remember is at this point at a peak, and he convinces the girl to muster up all of her strength so they can leave.

They stop several times before the girl collapses and becomes completely unable to move. At this point she becomes aware of the conciousness completely - even to the point of who he is. He wants her to keep moving, but she informs him that she cannot, since she is a keeper of sorts of the world.

She then proceeds to tell him about the lights, and how they are the hopes and dreams of people from the other world that the robot keeps wanting to go to. Then, to confuse the robot further, she tells him that unlike her he is connected through both worlds, but doesn't belong in this one. She wants him to return to his world, and wishes him goodbye, with the final word being, "father", and the world vanishes.

The girl, collapsed, and the robot next to her. At this happens, they are able to actually talk to each other.

The lights are a substory running throughout the main stories of Clannad and After Story, making only select appearances, a couple of which being seen by characters on certain occasion, and the story about what they are being told only once by a character in After Story.

During the game, however, the lights are much more prominent. After each gir's story was completed, a light appears. After a certain amount are collected, the option to play After Story appears. More lights can be obtained during After Story, and are required to see the true ending.

The orbs of light, as the explanation goes, are a manifestation of the hopes and dreams and/or happiness of the people of the town, and appear when a particularly happy moment in someone's life happens.

The story of the Hidden World makes little connection with the story of Clannad, and has little connection to most of After Story. It becomes apparent that the conciousness/robot is the manifestation of Tomoya.

the rest of the explanation for how it ties in will be explained in the article about After Story. That will be up soon.

~Koubo


The Clannad article list
Part one: Clannad
Part two: The Hidden World
Part three: Clannad ~After Story~

Clannad

Clannad is the title of the third game released by the company Key, and is arguably one of the most prominent visual novels for Visual Arts released in Japan, having repeatedly placed in top sales lists. Additionally, in a poll taken by japanese gamers as to "which game moved you to tears", Clannad placed second, above Final Fantasy VII and even the previous titles by Key.

As stated earlier, Clannad is also Key's second longest work. It is large enough that once the player unlocks all the alternate endings in the game, another game - titled After Story - unlocks, and continues on telling the story of the two main characters right where Clannad itself ends off. In addition, one of the paths in the game was so popular that a new game was made focusing on the continuation of that path, titled Tomoyo After: It's A Wonderful Life.

The anime is nowhere near small, either. Clannad was 49 episodes long, half covering the first part of the game, and the other half covering After Story, with two of the episodes giving alternate universes. The anime, with only a handful of exceptions, uses the same or remixed versions of the music used in the game.

This article will be about Clannad itself, and an article covering After Story will come at a later time. Clannad revolves around the high school life of each of the main characters.

Okazaki Tomoya, the main protagonist of the story.

The main focus of Clannad revolves around Okazaki Tomoya, who is in his third year of high school and has been labeled a delinquent by just about everyone who knows him, even the people who consider him a friend. He and his best friend, Sunohara Youhei, constantly ditch classes and/or show up late for classes, doing nothing but bum around Sunohara's dorm room.

Tomoya has a horrible relationship with his father, due to a fight they got in prior to him entering high school. The fight escalated to a point of grappling, and ended with Tomoya's shoulder becoming injured. It never healed properly, and resulted in Tomoya never being able to raise one of his arms above shoulder height again. Since their fight, his father has distanced himself, resulting in a separation of family connection; his father greets his own son now as if he were greeting an old aquaintance, and this impacts Tomoya obviously when the topic is touched upon.

However, although he occasionally dwells on this, it is not the center focus of his activities. It rarely even comes up in the game or anime itself, except at a small amount of critical moments.

At the very start, he is walking to school complaining about how he hates his life and the town he is in. As he arrives at the path to get to school, he stops and sees a girl standing there, Furukawa Nagisa, radiating obvious signs of lack of courage and emotional struggle. He hears her talking to herself about how she may never come to like school, due to at least one reason being, "nothing ever stays unchanged." Before she gets too far into depression, Tomoya stops her and tells her that although nothing remains unchanged, it is a good thing, and that she should find new things to be happy about. She took courage from that, and Tomoya took some strength from it too, and they walk up the path to school together.

Tomoya and Nagisa, at the bottom of the slope.

The focus of the entire series, both game and anime, ultimately ends up being on the relationship between Tomoya and Nagisa. Since the boost of courage, Nagisa begins changing from one without courage to someone who is capable of many things, despite a physical condition that makes her naturally and constantly weak. Throughout the story of Clannad she is trying to reestablish the theatre club, which was disbanded at the end of the previous year due to lack of members. She, like Tomoya, is also in her third year, although she has had to repeat it, thanks to her weakness ending up keeping her out of school for over nine months. Nagisa has not been alone, though; her parents are people who run a bakery from their home and make a living off of that to support their family. A recurring theme for Nagisa is the "Big Dango Family".

The focus does not, hovever, stay solely on them. There are four other main female characters, and each of these girls has a very intricate bacground. As usual for products made by Key, all of the characters are introduced within the first couple of episodes. Detailed information regarding their personalities and relationships with others is set pretty quickly, and it does not deviate.

One character, as is now expected, is experiencing a form of autoscopy. This situation is significantly different from the other two. The character's name is Ibuki Fuko. She is roughly the same age as Tomoya. During her first year, right after the entrance ceremony, she got into a horrible accident, and was hospitalized. Tomoya finds her carving a block of wood, which she claims is going to be a starfish. She intends to give one to each person of the student body as an invitation to her sister's wedding. Her autoscopic situation is different in that as time moves on people end up forgetting about her and that she even existed, this even eventually happening to Tomoya, who was the closest character to her.

The main females of the story. From left to right: Ibuki Fuko, Ichinose Kotomi, Fujibayashi Kyou, Furukawa Nagisa, and Sakagami Tomoyo.

The second girl who gets focused on is Ichinose Kotomi. She is a super genius, yet has a level of extreme social awkwarness. Tomoya finds her in the library reading some very advanced books about a Hidden World, which it turns out that her parents were studying the same topic in intense detail before they passed away. He originally asks her to help him and Nagisa, but then that plan changes into him trying to get her out of her shell and having lots of friends.

Sakagami Tomoyo is another story focus. She is trying for student council president. However, she has a past of being involved in gang and street fights, of which she has always easily and quickly won, and that becomes an obstacle for her goal more than once. Her first appearance is her ending up in a fight from some people who broke onto school grounds looking to make trouble. She gave that life up for family reasons, and has has made several personal focuses take its place.

Tomoyo is one of two girls that has an alternate universe revolve around her. The last episode in the set titled just "Clannad" is an episode focusing on her path in the game, and plays in the anime as a "what if" scenario. It covers the highlights of her story arc from the game, and although it rushes through her multi-hour story in a matter of 22 minutes, the point is crossed enough that one can understand what is going on.

After all these girls have their stories wrapped up, it focuses on the first major story of Nagisa and Tomoya. Nagisa has achieved at reinstating the theatre club, and is focusing on the play her and her friends intend to show at the founders festival. As the play completes and the festival is winding down, she and Tomoya, after all the pre-relationship awkwardness that typically fits in an anime like this wraps up, finally become a couple.

The only girl that didn't really have her story focused on in the bulk of either Clannad or After Story is Fujibayashi Kyou. It becomes obvious that she and her twin sister, Ryou, have quite strong romantic feelings for Tomoya, but that story regrettably does not get much light of day. Her story gets touched on at various times during the bulk of the series, but the only time it gets true focus is in the other alternate universe episode, which resides at the end, when After Story has finished. It focuses on Kyou specifically, and covers the end of her story arc in the game. Throughout the entire series, she is probably most noted for having a pet baby boar, whom she has lovingly named Botan.

Kyou's pet boar, Botan.

After Story is only obtainable in the game after completing every story arc in the main game. It will be introduced and explained in an article that will come later. The next article that will be posted is about the Hidden World, which is introduced in Clannad, but plays no part in the story until the main segment of After Story is in full force.

Clannad can stand as an anime by itself. It is a story that wraps up all of the parts it presents (except the story of the Hidden World). It is a very detailed and beautifully written story. The story completely wraps up in After Story, which is also where the reason for why it is considered to be one of the saddest stories out there resides.

The Big Dango Family, or Dango Daikazoku.

Enjoy the read. The next articles may end up being just as long.

~Koubo

The Clannad afticle list
Part one: Clannad
Part two: The Hidden World
Part three: Clannad ~After Story~

Lost In Translation & Becoming Too Real

My post for today is spawned by the comments in a couple of different posts.
First off, I just want to get some opinions from people about what gets lost in a manga or anime when it is translated from Japanese to English. I personally feel that you lose some of the humor in the jokes that are made. The jokes are funny to Japanese people who read it before it is translated, but after it had been translated to English, I just don't seem to get the joke. It seems that this is because of 1 of 2 things. Either I don't have as great of a sense of humor as I think I do and I just don't get why the Japanese find something funny, or the joke made more sense before translation. Am I the only one that feels this way? This is one of the reasons I tend to enjoy American graphic novels more than their Japanese counterparts. Nothing has been translated so I don't have to wonder what's funny when a joke is made.

This is how I feel sometimes when reading manga.


There is one American graphic novel that is a perfect example of this. It's called MegaTokyo. It's drawn to look like a Japanese manga, but the artist/writer, Fred Gallagher, is an American. Originally, MegaTokyo was just a web comic, but was eventually published into books. (Review on MegaTokyo to come later.)

This is not to say that I don't like Japanese manga, quite the contrary. Some of my favorite graphic novels are Japanese. But, as an american, I like to support "local" artists. (Local meaning American.) My Manga Monday recommendation for this week is a great example of why American graphic novels are just as good as the Japanese Manga. Johnny The Homicidal Maniac is a wonderfully captivating story with an amazing art style.

The other topic I'd like to discuss today is animation being too realistic. You see it in a lot of animes and mangas nowadays. The artists try to make the shows they animate seem so real that you forget that you're watching a cartoon. Which is great, but I feel that something is lost when a cartoon becomes too realistic. Cartoons of any kind are supposed to be able to stretch the limits of what is really possible and do things that can't be done in a live action show.

A prime example of anime being too realistic.

There are cases when a cartoon becomes too un-realistic, though. You tend to see this more in American TV shows rather than Japanese anime. (Although the japanese have come out with some animes that fit into this category, I'm sure.)

A prime example of a cartoon that is just poorly animated.

What does everyone else think? Do you prefer realistic looking animes or do you prefer to have your anime maintain the "cartoony" look? What about translation? Do you find that something is lost when an anime or manga is translated to English? Share your thoughts with us.

Air

Air is an anime based off of the visual novel Air. It is commonly referred to as Air TV. It ran for twelve episodes plus two OVA. Unlike both Kanon and Clannad, it does not completely follow the main male character. Additionally, unlike the other animes, it ends on a sad note and does not attempt to correct it. The game and series are made and owned by Key.

Although the game Air came out after the game Kanon, this anime was actually released before the second version of the Kanon anime.


It has two major stories, the first following Kamio Misuzu, who is the focus of the anime. It has two other girls, Tohno Minagi, and Kirishima Kano. While focus is directed towards Minagi and Kano during the telling of their particular stories, the major focus remains on Misuzu throughout.

The main male character, who is the primary person to have interaction for each of the girls, is Kunisaki Yukito. He is a traveling entertainer, who uses telekenesis to move his little doll around and entertain. He arrives in the town in hopes that he will make some money.

He is also looking for "A girl in the sky", who he claims to have wings. He is trying to find her because it is apparent that it is his family legacy, as that his mother was searching for this same girl, as well as his grandmother and great grandmother. The girl is distinguished by an illness, which causes her to have dreams that play in reverse sequential order, with the last part of the story being told first. Yukito comes to realize that the current incarnation of the girl is in fact Misuzu.

The girls of Air. Going clockwise from bottom left: Kamio Misuzu, Kirishima Kano, Tohno Minagi, and Michuru.

The first story to be focused on is Kano. She proclaims herself to be a member of "Planet Dilly-Dally", and meets Yukito after her friend, the towns' stray dog Potato steals Yukito's doll. She is distinguished easily by a yellow piece of cloth tied to her right wrist. She claims it is to keep her magic powers locked away until she is old enough to use them.

She does not actually have any powers; she is occasionally "posessed" by an unkown force, which is thanks to her touching a magical feather in the local shrine, which is later implicated to be a feather from "the girl in the sky". In an attempt to keep the posessing spirit away, Kano's older sister Hijiri tied the cloth around her sister's wrist and told her it was to keep the magic powers safe until she was of the right age, or she would lose them. This was told to Kano after she realized something was happening to her.

The second story follows Tohno Minagi. It is an important fact that she is an only child to have come from her biological parents. She was going to have a sister, but due to a miscarriage the baby was never born. The news crushed her mother so much that it led to the family falling apart, and the father moved away and has another family of his own.

This story includes the form of Autoscopy, although it is not in the same way as either Kanon or Clannad. The person who is in the state is Michiru, who is the unborn sister of Minagi. Minagi was also devistated by the miscarriage, and after time she created the autoscopic event herself, and Michiru was created. Both Michiru and Minagi know that Michiru is not real, and both know to some extent that Michiru is nothing but a "fragment of a dream".

Yukito is more of a bystander than anything else in this story. He realizes facts on his own, and tries to help bring Minagi and her mother closer together, which is something that was only partially achieved after the miscarriage; her mom calls her Michiru, and had completely forgotten about Minagi.

The third story follows Kamio Misuzu, who has had the majority of the focus throughout the entire series. She is the reincarnation of "the girl with wings", and has the reverse progressing dreams. She lives with her aunt, Haruko, which is due to her family forcing Misuzu on her when it was known that her parents themselves wouldn't take care of her after they split up. They have a mutual agreement to live their own lives and not dig too deeply into each others, even though they continue to live under the same roof. Yukito comes to live with them in the first episode, when Misuzu shows compassion to Yukito's lack of a living situation.

Thanks to Misuzu's dream progression, after each night she gets physically worse and worse, though only noticeable signs are presented when her story begins to take control of the series. Yukito feels connected to the situation, though he doesn't know how. He decides to leave after Misuzu has a very hard strike against her well-being, but comes back after he remembers his mother's words regarding how their family line is supposed to watch over those who are born with the curse Misuzu has, and that the doll he has is filled with the wishes and hopes of his predecessors, hoping that their wishes will be fulfilled and used when the "girl in the sky" is found. He arrives and tells Misuzu that he is not leaving again. He then adds his own wish to the doll, and vanishes.

Halfway through her story, it switches to an entirely different story, set one thousand years in the past, and follows the literal story of the girl with wings, who is named Kanna.

The characters in the past. From left to right: Ryuya, Kanna, and Uraha.

Kanna is a winged being, who are revered as messengers to the gods, and feared for the power they could potentially wield, and thus she is guarded. Unlike all the other winged beings referred to in the past, she is the only one who actually does not know how to fly.

The story begins with Ryuya being tackled by Kanna, who was trying to fly away. Ryuya is one of her guards, and is a center of focus for Kanna. Kanna and Ryuya become good friends shortly later.

Uraha is one of Kanna's servants. She and Ryuya love to joke and tease Kanna. Tension builds up fast for all three when they think that, for someone so revered to be a messenger to the gods, it is weird for the person to be locked away and restricted to small areas. Kanna has the desire to meet her mother, and Ryuya and Uraha want to get her away from the confinement, so with Ryuya's skills as a swordsman they are able to escape, and begin searching for Kanna's mother.

During the travels, they are blocked by monks, who are trying to rid the world of the winged beasts. Kanna tries to save Ryuya and Uraha by flying away (which after a moment of struggle she succeeds at), but is then bound and cursed into a cycle of reincarnation and suffering. Uraha and Ryuya decide to leave it to their decendants to find the reincarnations of Kanna, which leads to where the majority of the anime itself plays out between Yukito, who is a decendant of Ryuya, and Misuzu, who is the reincarnation of Kanna.

Upon the conclusion of their story, it returns to Misuzu's. The story does a quick recap of the events leading to the dissapearing of Yukito. There is one noticeable difference, in that a crow, who is a reincarnation of sorts of Yukito himself, is introduced and befriended by Misuzu. The focus of the remaining episodes is on Misuzu and Haruko.

Potato the dog, holding Yukito's doll in it's mouth.

The story of Ryuya, Kanna and Uraha is short in the initial anime. However, the two OVA's that followed the series's conclusion delve a little deeper into the story of the three. This littler side story has enough information and plot to have been made into an entire series in and of itself, but the four episodes given are well enough time to have covered what needed to be covered.

The story for the entire series leaves some things left to wonder, but those are not things that were vital to the story. It was a little rushed, but not enough for one to have to go back and watch the story over again to see why something was the way it was. It is a very worthwile story, and one that can fall into the collections of great animes in history.

~Koubo

Manga Monday: Johnny The Homicidal Maniac

Yes, I'm going to give a Manga Monday recommendation today. It's a little idea I stole from here My recommendation for today is not what most people would consider a manga, since it isn't from Japan. But, if you know what the word "manga" translates to, you'll agree that this counts. Today I am recommending Johnny The Homicidal Maniac by Jhonen Vasquez. You may recognize that name if you've ever watched Invader Zim. Johnny The Homicidal Maniac (JTHM) is another brilliant creation by Jhonen. I guess I should put a warning up here. In case you can't tell by the title, JTHM is not for young readers... or readers who get queasy at the sight of blood... or readers that are opposed to strong language. JTHM is one of the bloodiest graphic novels I've ever read. I don't think there's a single page in the whole book that doesn't have some kind of blood in one of the frames.

But, if you can look past the extremely violent surface of the book, you'll find a great story underneath with many, many amazing insights into the human psyche. In JTHM Jhonen disects a lot of the little quirks of the human mind. As violent and, well, psychopathic as Johnny is, he really is a very intelligent person with questions about the world that he wants answered.
The story is really quite serious, which is funny when you think about how funny some of Jhonen's other creations are, but it also has some... humor in it. Every so often in the book there is a Happy Noodle Boy comic thrown among the pages. Happy Noodle Boy is the comic drawn by Johnny and is funny, but in a very twisted, morbid sense.
I definitely recommend JTHM for people who think they are able to handle the graphic nature of this graphic novel.

My score: 5 out of 5.

I've yet to find a graphic novel that made me think like this one does. Also, the art style is very edgy and dark, which I really like.