Pani Poni Dash

Pani Poni Dash is a hard series to review, because a review requires you to string words together in a sensical order, and Pani Poni rejects any kind of sense whatsoever.

Half-Japanese/half-American M.I.T. graduate and all-around genius Rebecca Miyamoto returns to Japan to begin teaching at a local high school. Perhaps the most distinct part of this is that she's a child prodigy and 11 years old, making her younger than her students; and she's being watched by aliens as an unknowing sample in the study of the human race.

This isn't even the strangest part of this series. That would be Miss Ichijo.

The plot of Pani Poni, such as it is, relies heavily on parodying other anime and genre tropes, and Japanese culture in general, especially Internet forums. It doesn't have a specific plot arc and is mainly composed of standalone episodes driven by the characters; but if you suspend your sense of disbelief and reality, it is hilarious! Since it focuses on four first-year classes, homerooms 1-A through 1-D, with occasional outside characters (and the aliens, of course), there's too many people to really get into here--which is a shame, because there's no way to explain how rib-crackingly funny this series can get without laying out the characters. But even hearing about them isn't as good as seeing them! Luckily, we can help you with that.

The manga of Pani Poni is 17 volumes and ran from 2000-2011, and is unfortunately not translated into English. (The puns are probably the main hindrance, but you'd think if Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo could get translated, they could pull this off too.) The anime Pani Poni Dash is, however; it ran in 2005 for 26 episodes, and was licensed for English by--quelle surprise--Funimation. There's also an OVA that was released in 2009, but it--like the drama CDs (similar to an audiobook, only all the voice actors get together to voice their characters and there are generally sound effects, making it more like an audio production than the usual one-reader-audiobook) and the Internet radio shows--has not been translated to English either. The whole run of the anime is available in Evergreen Indiana, just down the road at Plainfield!

Darker than Black

Darker than Black is a scifi action thriller. It's a 25-episode series (arguably 24 eps, since the 25th is more of an omake, or side-story, set within the series after it's been completed--similar to episode 25 of the first xxxHolic anime) that's set in a slightly-futuristic Tokyo.

Ten years before the opening of the anime, a phenomena occurred in Tokyo and South America--two "gates," the Heaven and the Hell gate, suddenly appeared. These wrecked havoc on the natural order, putting out the stars and replacing them with fake stars, each of which indicated a 'contractor,' someone who is no longer human and who has special abilities, such as the ability to control gravity, the ability to turn their blood into explosives (seriously), or the ability to travel through time. The name comes from the fact that these people are tied to 'contracts'--they have to fulfill certain actions each time they use their powers, or they risk severe pain or potential death.

The story focuses on Hei, a Chinese contractor for a group known as the Syndicate, who's working in Tokyo along with his team: a fellow contractor, Mao--who has the ability to jump into animal bodies, but who lost his original, human form and is now predominantly in the body of a cat--Yin, a "doll" (another consequence of the gates--dolls are mediums who can do reconnaissance by sending out spirits via different methods. Yin's medium is water; others include glass and telephone lines), and the team's handler, Huang. While the team is initially stationed in Tokyo to carry out hits ordered by the Syndicate, they slowly get embroiled in a greater political struggle that's playing out between multiple governments and groups around them--a struggle that ultimately has ramifications not only on the team, but on the very existence of humans, contractors, and dolls.

The original anime ran in 2007, and was licensed for English by Funimation, while the two volume manga is translated by Yen Press. There are also a couple sequels--two OVAs (Original Video Animations, or three-episode standalone storylines) and a second anime--but I haven't seen those, so I can't say much about them!

Ouran High School Host Club, by Bisco Hatori

I mentioned my Strong Feelings toward the anime of this series in my last post, so I figured I ought to clarify.

I've been asked before to explain why I dislike the anime so much, when I really do like the manga. I cannot! Seriously. I can't put a finger on what drives me so nuts about the anime, aside from the occasional sloppy animation and changes from the original--but honestly, if those things got to me that bad, I'd never be able to watch any anime based on manga. This is not to say the anime is bad, or even that it doesn't have its good points; it's just not for me. Ymmv.

Ouran is a shoujo reverse-harem high school (obviously) romantic comedy set in a contemporary, if fictional, Tokyo. I don't know if "reverse-harem" is the technical term per se, but considering the set-up similarity to Negima or Maison Ikkoku, only here with one girl and a plethora of guys, I think it's apt.

The star of the series, (I'm not calling her the "heroine" for reasons that will soon become clear) is Haruhi, who's attending the uber-prestigious, ridiculously high class and filthy rich Ouran High School. The daughter of a widower, she's on a merit scholarship; and when she accidentally breaks a vase worth 8 million yen (roughly 80K in U.S. dollars--$1 to ¥100 is the typical translation, ignoring fluctuations in value), she finds herself roped into working at the school's "host club"--a club composed of six guys who meet in the music room and act as hosts to their female classmates, serving them tea and snacks and chatting with them. This is actually reflective of a common entertainment industry in Japan, although hostess clubs are more prominent there than host ones (a lot of Japanese will, in fact, argue that host clubs are designed solely to serve the women who work in hostess clubs, on the basis that they would prefer to relax around professionals--the assumption being that 'normal' women would never frequent them. Uh-huh).

"So, Haruhi starts working as a hostess?" Well, no. Like I said, I didn't call her the heroine of the story for a reason--she starts working at the club as a host. They get away with this pretty much because Haruhi doesn't give a rip for proper gender roles, and her clothes when she initially started attending Ouran were baggy secondhand threads (the club sets her up with a spruce new uniform--guys', of course). In fact, the guys in the club initially thought she was a boy (some were a little slower on the uptake than others); and the girls who frequent the club and become patrons of hers do as well.

The series from that point on is pretty much "Haruhi Tries Not to Strangle These Guys in Exasperation and Also Learns Some Things About Herself (But Mostly Tries Not to Strangle Them)." Hatori pretty gleefully twists and mocks standard harem tropes, both within the plot--the guys play very caricatured versions of themselves while hosting (the Silent Type, the Shota, the Twins, the Uber-Smooth Prince, Whatever On Earth Anyone Sees In Kyoya [okay, that's mean])--and without, like the arc where fangirl Renge shows up and tries to force everyone to act the way they would were they more stereotypical. It is a romantic comedy, though, and later volumes start to get more serious as the romantic part begins to outweigh the comedy one.

I haven't read the final volume yet, though (at the risk of spoilers?) I think we can all make an educated guess at who of the six--Tamaki, Kyoya, Huni, Mori, Hikaru and Kaoru--she's going to end up with. Me personally, though, I'm going to keep shipping Haruki/Kasanoda--because 'Haruhi the yakuza wife' would be the most awesome thing ever.

The series is complete; the manga has 18 volumes and went from 2002-10, while the anime ran for 26 episodes in 2006 (meaning the anime made up its ending, since the series was still ongoing, as these things so often do). Viz is publishing the manga as part of its Shojo Beat line, while Funimation licensed the anime for English. We don't have the anime at the library, but we do have volumes 1-17 of the manga--and we've got volume 18 on order!

Princess Tutu

This post exists solely because I was talking to our new Teen Librarian Rachel about anime and manga--specifically the Ouran High School Host Club manga and anime, the latter of which my antipathy to is vast--and after I recced this series to her, it occurred to me that I had failed to do a post on it yet! This error could not be let stood. So.

Oh man, Princess Tutu. Assuming you haven't seen it already, and you're still reading past the title, stay with me! This is one truly fantastic anime. I ran out and bought the DVDs as soon as they were released when I was still a poor college student, that is how fantastic is it. "Worth a steady diet of ramen to afford" is a rare honor I bestow (we here come to the crux of why this blog is about 80% manga to 20% anime--one of these is much cheaper than the other [well, was; manga's starting to trend up there as well]).

Princess Tutu is a shoujo fairy tale, except for the parts of it that are action battle sequences, or a horror story, or the characters hijacking the plot from the narrator and rattling the bars of their cage. It is also the story of a duck, who is also a girl, who is not-really a swan, and her love for a heartless prince, who is heartless because he literally shattered his heart with a sword to defeat the Raven King. Ahiru (Duck in the dub) is trying to restore the prince's heart, but she finds herself thwarted by two very different people: the adopted daughter of the Raven King who prefers the prince remain heartless so that he won't leave her side, and the reincarnation of the knight who was struck down trying to save the prince the first time around and who fears that history will repeat itself if his heart is restored. There is also a lot of ballet. I suppose I should qualify that half the action battle sequences are also action ballet sequences.

Still with me?

I hope so, but just in case, let me show you the ubiquitous .jpeg associated with this series. I'm pretty sure it'll do more to convince you to try this show out than anything I can say.

Image from the wilds of the Internet; I do not know the original creator.

Whenever I recommend this anime to anyone, I warn them that the first few episodes are slow. And they are! But the payoff for sticking it out is so high, I promise.

The Princess Tutu anime ran in 2002/3 and was licensed for English by ADV; when that company shut down, another one called AEsir Holdings picked up the title and rereleased it last year (I have the ADV version, so I don't know if there are translation changes between the two. I do know that ADV didn't translate some of the puns in the Japanese; but then, this series was one of the rare cases where the fansubs [which came out prior to the English licensing] were so spot-on and well done that ADV had some Sideshow Bob-sized shoes to fill.) There is also a 2 volume manga, released by ADV in 2004/5, but I do not in any way recommend it. Even as tie-ins go, it's pretty bad.

We don't currently have the series here at Mooresville Public Library, and unfortunately the only library in Evergreen Indiana that carries it is Lebanon PL, which is a bit of a far drive! But it is available online at Hulu. And MPL has both a computer lab with Internet access and offers free wireless!

Paprika, by Satoshi Kon

Paprika is a scifi film set in relatively contemporary Japan and directed by the inestimable Satoshi Kon, self-same director of the fantabulous Tokyo Grandfathers. An R&D member of an unnamed psychotherapy organization has invented a way for people to interact with and record others' dreams; but when the technology is stolen, the team is in a race to find the mastermind behind the nightmares as dreams and reality begin to collide.

The movie is full of the same gorgeous animation that's typical of Madhouse (the producer)'s work, but it has an extra 'umph' due to the surrealism of the dream scenes--and of all the scenes, once the aforementioned collision of the sleeping and waking worlds begins. The sound track is also lovely, though I don't think I'm going to be able to hear the parade music for a while without having a reaction like this:

Illustration by Sparrowbirdd on Tumblr

Paprika was released in 2006, and brought to the U.S. by Sony Pictures as a subtitles-only film. Unfortunately we don't have it here at Mooresville, but it is available just up the road at the Plainfield Public Library--and since they're an Evergreen Indiana library like us, you can check it out there with your card and return it here!