bluemist anime blog

true tears

true tears

It's hard to review true tears, and as I write this, I can't seem to find the words. The topic in front of me is a genuine example of a great anime, featuring some of the best animation, music, art, and characters, with an intriguing story that may still be in the memories of many up to this day. I was there during the initial broadcast, and I have read many bloggers and forumers arguing and discussing this series rather extensively. They paid attention to detail, and also had chosen their sides. It was like an epic battle, with everyone trying to convince everyone else that this-or-that girl will get the guy for sure. Of course, the ending showed a very decisive conclusion, and while some may not like whatever the results had been, I think we are all in agreement that this anime entertained, and affected us, sometimes to the point of having true tears in our eyes.
Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Reviews | 5 Comments »

Seraphim Call

Seraphim Call

11 girls, 11 stories, 12 episodes. Seraphim Call takes you to a journey throughout the city of Neo-Acropolis, seeing many ways of life and love through the experiences of these 11 girls.

In almost the same way as Sentimental Journey, Seraphim Call is a series of 11 separate stories for 11 different characters, with the final episode only bringing them together by way of being subtle acquaintances living in the same city. You can say this is just an amusing anthology of separate anime girl stories. On the other hand, I can see some splashes of genius in this otherwise old anime. It is as if this anime was set up as an experimental testbed. Each episode has a radically different writing and directing style. Episode 2, for example, is entirely shot from one camera angle. Episode 4 employs rapid scene-jumping from one timeline to another. Episode 5-6 are essentially mirrors of each other giving a different viewpoint. Episode 10 shows manga panels brought to life. Finally, episode 11 has a surreal feeling where only one character is actually onscreen. The rest, while relatively normal by comparison, have quite good stories in itself. Some of them though have unusual twists at the end which spoil the otherwise good run.

These characters were made and drawn by Aoi Nanase. She is quite popular for her bishoujo drawing style. Seraphim Call, along with the rush of dating sims during the late 90's, may have instigated the early wave of bishoujo fandom. Seraphim Call was actually serialized and featured in G's Magazine before it went anime. Maybe this was one of the early historic templates on how to make a multimedia bishoujo franchise. What followed it after all (Sister Princess, Happy Lesson, Futakoi, Strawberry Panic) had similar approaches of having around 12 girls in the roster, along with having multiple media forms like illustrations, short stories, manga, music and video. Seraphim Call may have followed a similar approach at the height of its popularity back then, but as it's quite old and rare to find the only remaining memorials would be the anime and this fansite which catalogs the various media related to the franchise.

It's certainly an interesting old piece, although I liked the set of girls in Sentimental Journey a tad better. Sad enough, all these characters are locked forever in their respective one-shot episodes. Same way as in the anime mentioned, each episode in Seraphim Call is so very appealing and interesting on its own, you'd regret the recent anime for losing the quality of old ones like these. I don't have an idea of what kind of trend this was, or if there are other similar anime I haven't discovered yet. One thing is these two are produced by Sunrise, so I wonder if they have more of this kind. It strikes me with a strong aura of nostalgia, when animation wasn't done digitally yet animated well enough to immerse and entertain a tad better (sometimes) than the current animes of today. Seraphim Call is yet another example of a wonderfully old anime, and I certainly hope I could journey into the past for more old gems.

+ Episode 1: Kurimoto Yukina- Episode 1: Kurimoto Yukina

- Yukina is a high-school girl who is also a renowned inventor.
- She is extremely scared of guys.
- The city has a terrorist threat of bombs going off, and Yukina is the only one who can diffuse it.
- The authorities try to seek for her help, but she refuses because of her phobia, to the point of actually fainting asleep.
- Despite this, she went to the scene hiding herself inside a robot.
- The police want to confirm her identity, so she said only the chief may look. All others were ordered not to.
- But when the chief remarked that she's cute, the other police went to peek. Her phobia returned and she fainted again.
- She woke up to the sound of her best friend, and successfully defused the bomb in the nick of time. Then she faints again in front of the inspector.
- She apologized for all the trouble by making a robot of herself to go say sorry to the authorities.

+ Episode 2: Teramoto Tanpopo- Episode 2: Teramoto Tanpopo

- This episode is entirely shot from the viewpoint of Tanpopo's new doll, Margarine.
- Tanpopo loves dolls, and oddly, always talks to them as if they were friends.
- We see her day schooling by distance learning through the computer, drawing with crayons and telling stories to her dolls.
- After gym class which is actually outside, Tanpopo talks to her dolls about her best friend Chihiro's secret crush.
- Chihiro visits Tanpopo. Tanpopo introduces Chihiro to her new dolls.
- Chihiro thinks Tanpopo is too childish, and she should stop talking to her dolls and making fantasy stories.
- It turned into a petty fight, and Chihiro went away. Tanpopo cries, wondering why her friends can't talk to dolls anymore.
- Chihiro apologizes later by voice mail, saying that Tanpopo should never change. Tanpopo is happy again.
- Err… the next day, the police discovered that the viewpoint from Margarine's eye is actually a hidden camera by stalkers.

+ Episode 3: Ose Chinami- Episode 3: Ose Chinami

- Chinami likes baking as a hobby. Her best friend Noriko says she'll get fat from trying all the cakes she makes.
- Chinami's father and mother are divorced. Chinami and her two younger siblings live with the father. The mother still meets them sometimes.
- The father talks to Chinami why she doesn't want to go abroad anymore. She wanted to go to France to study pastry making.
- Chinami now wants to find work she can do at home, so she can also look over the house duties. Her father is busy with his work, and it may be harder for them without Chinami around.
- Dining at a restaurant with her mother, Chinami discovered that one of the chefs in the restaurant is her mother's new boyfriend.
- Noriko talks to the mother about Chinami worrying too much over family and not thinking about her goals. Noriko wants her friend to succeed in baking and have a cake shop someday.
- That's also why the mother revealed about her fiance. The father lectured Chinami similarly about how families are supposed to support each other's happiness even if they go their separate ways.
- Chinami challenged the chef in making a cake. The mother will taste and determine which is more delicious.
- With her defeat, Chinami was able to redecide to go to France for her goals.

+ Episode 4: Kusunoki Hatsumi- Episode 4: Kusunoki Hatsumi

- This episode jumps very frequently in different timelines in the story.
- Hatsumi had always been boyish and athletic all her life. She starts to wonder why she isn't feminine.
- One day she met an interesting girl named Miyabi. Miyabi is an artist, and she wants to draw Hatsumi to reveal her inner beauty.
- Hatsumi rejects the offer because she'll be posing nude.
- Miyabi believes Hatsumi has an angel deep inside of her. Hatsumi is herself troubled about her personality.
- Miyabi oddly starts to stalk her, writing a big "Hatsumi is beautiful" text on school grounds and following her on her track runs.
- Miyabi applies for a job to coach Hatsumi at the school, and it is revealed that she was also a varsity sprinter in the past.
- To set things straight, Hatsumi challenged Miyabi to a swimming match. Miyabi lost, and so she finally agreed to model for the painting.
- Well… the finished product actually turned out to be an abstract painting rather than a portrait.

+ Episode 5: Murasame Shion- Episode 5: Murasame Shion

- Shion is the stronger-willed of the Murasame twins. She always protects her twin sister Sakura. Sakura loves her sister.
- One day, a love letter was addressed to the Murasame residence from an admirer. The first name was burnt off though so they don't know who it's for.
- Having a staunt personality, Shion shrugs the love letter off, thinking negatively about things. Sakura argues with her about it, taking a more optimistic approach.
- Shion wants to know more about how Sakura really thinks, and so she uses a certain virtual simulation device to enter Sakura's personality virtually.
- We are now projected into a series of scenes where the sisters are talking. It is unclear which is real and which is virtual. There was even a knife and stabbing sequence.
- The point though is Shion discovers that Sakura is envious about her intelligence, and thinks she doesn't compare.
- Also, Sakura fears that Shion might leave her if she accepts the admirer.
- Nevertheless, they agree that the simulation device and the letter only sent them astray, and decided to get rid of those.
- Finally, Sakura and Shion tests if they were in the real world… by kissing each other!

+ Episode 6: Murasame Sakura- Episode 6: Murasame Sakura

- Shion is the more introverted of the Murasame twins. She always looks over her twin sister Shion as her guidance. Shion loves her sister.
- One day, a love letter was addressed to the Murasame residence from an admirer. The first name was burnt off though so they don't know who it's for.
- Having a staunt personality, Shion shrugs the love letter off, thinking negatively about things. Sakura argues with her about it, taking a more optimistic approach.
- Sakura wants to know more about how Shion really thinks, and so she (also) uses a certain virtual simulation device to enter Shion's personality virtually.
- We are now projected into a series of scenes where the sisters are talking. It is unclear which is real and which is virtual. There was even a knife and stabbing sequence.
- The point though is Sakura discovers that Shion is envious about her attractiveness, and thinks she doesn't compare.
- Also, Shion fears that Sakura might leave her if she accepts the admirer.
- Nevertheless, they agree that the simulation device and the letter only sent them astray, and decided to get rid of those.
- Finally, Sakura and Shion tests if they were in the real world… by kissing each other!
- It is revealed that the stabbing actually happened with Shion injured in the hands, and that the admirer was actually addressing the love letter to… the Murasame twins' mother!

+ Episode 7: Hiragi Saeno- Episode 7: Hiragi Saeno

- Saeno is an English teacher, who actually reveals to three of her students that she likes Mathematics very much.
- One day, Saeno along with the students visit a nearby library to visit Professor Rosencrantz, who actually passed away 5 years ago.
- Saeno admired Rosencrantz's expertise in the past, but she worries that he seems to waste his time on proving a "theory" that a square can be drawn the same size as a circle.
- The theory seems impossible to solve because of the number pi, which is "assumed" to be infinite.
- 10 years ago, Rosencrantz discovered a secret hallway at school, with mathematical equations pertaining to try to prove the theory, and found a pi book with all the decimal digits that have been discovered so far.
- Rosencrantz discovered that the pi book's owner was a little girl… who was actually revealed to be a young Saeno herself in an alternate past reality. She was the one continuing the equations.
- Simply put, the secret hallway projects a time and reality paradox.
- Present-day Saeno went to the hallway, and met the Rosencrantz from 5 years ago, continuing the calculations to solve for more pi digits.
- Rosencrantz said that the world, and life itself, may be an endless calculation, and thinking of it that way, no mathematical quest is a waste of time.
- To further the research, Saeno went back in time to give the updated pi book to the young Saeno. This way, the solution for the theory progresses as each cycle of the time paradox happens.

+ Episode 8: Rindoh Ayaka- Episode 8: Rindoh Ayaka

- Ayaka is a rich and spoiled girl who just bought an expensive giant robot lizard as a pet.
- Her father wants to teach her the value of money, and convinces her to get a part-time job.
- Ayaka did get a part-time job as helper of a ramen shop.
- But then some trouble breaks loose in the city, so she neglects her ramen delivery job and went into her secret job as a superhero!
- Along with 4 other members (disguised normally as the Rindoh mansion helpers) and their robot mechas, they chase some jewel thieves!
- During the chase, her dad gets injured, and her pet lizard caught one of the thieves.
- Her pet lizard also helped deliver the ramen… late delivery though.

+ Episode 9: Kurenai Kasumi- Episode 9: Kurenai Kasumi

- "Kasumi" is a person who has become a urban myth/legend of sorts, with girls idolizing her and her various stories of being a strong woman.
- Most all of these stories are just hearsay, and that it accidentally started from what she did at a park fountain, which had then become a good luck ritual for girls.
- An idol news reporter, Lulu, is a rabid fan of the Kasumi legend, and follows it with much dedication as she reports.
- The real Kasumi though is actually the cameraman of the crew with her identity not revealed. Kasumi starts commenting negatively about the legend, and Lulu always confronts her.
- They continue filming reports. Kasumi herself would star as the legend Kasumi in some re-enactments with people who allegedly talked to Kasumi and were enlightened.
- Kasumi asks why Lulu hasn't been going to school. It is revealed that Lulu is running away from a broken heart when her crush liked someone else.
- Lulu thinks she can improve herself with the legend Kasumi as her model, and is angry at Kasumi for always picking on the legend.
- Lulu re-enacts a dangerous motorcycle stunt done by Kasumi. She pushed herself too much, and so Kasumi jumped to save her.
- Kasumi reveals herself to Lulu. Kasumi quit being a legend trying to match up to people's expectations, and is trying to find her real self. She told Lulu to be her best the way she is.

+ Episode 10: Matsumoto Kurumi- Episode 10: Matsumoto Kurumi

- Kurumi is a mangaka under a male pen name publishing her new manga called "Real Blue", which is about a setting of a boy and a girl living together.
- Kurumi's best friend thinks that she is living like the characters in Real Blue, because a guy called Satoshi suddenly moved temporarily in to her home.
- Satoshi and Kurumi don't talk much though, and her experience with him isn't like the manga she writes at all.
- Satoshi aspires to be a photographer. His father takes pictures to depict reality, but he believes otherwise, and that people sees a picture in different ways and interpretations.
- She is starting to struggle with her manga work, with her friend and even Satoshi saying that the manga is shallow and cliched.
- Kurumi starts to take the manga in complicated situations, similar to what Satoshi said about interpretations. Still, it's not the way she wants it to go.
- Satoshi is about to move away again to live with his own father.
- Before he leaves, Satoshi tells that he changed his beliefs as a photographer. What's important is the fact that he took the picture, and though people see the picture differently, each interpretation is real.
- Kurumi succeeded in giving an appropriate ending for her manga.

+ Episode 11: Tachibana Urara- Episode 11: Tachibana Urara

- This episode is animated with Urara as the sole character in an opera-like setting. Other characters do not show or speak up onscreen.
- Urara has a complex for her late father, and she wants to be a city architect like him. He doesn't have interest in other boys. Her mother is quite weak.
- Her mother and her friends tease her for being close to a certain boy, but she repeatedly denies liking him.
- Nevertheless, Urara and the guy go frequently to movies and are quite close together. He plays the piano and Urara frequently listens.
- One day, while they're watching a movie, the boy confesses to Urara.
- Urara was unable to answer him even when he called over the cellphone. Also, she doesn't seem to care even though another girl wants to date the boy.
- The boy left for Austria.
- Urara's mother fainted due to sickness, and so she was confined in the hospital. Her mother had to move outside the city for cleaner air.
- Urara experienced a dream sequence with her father. The father says that her problems are just part of growing up, and assures that everything will be alright.
- It is implied that Urara has moved on from her father-complex.

+ Episode 12: Sacred Night of the Seraphim- Episode 12: Sacred Night of the Seraphim

- This episode combines all 11 heroines together for a city event in which their faces are shown up to the moon to show that beautiful angels live in their city.

Posted in Reviews | 2 Comments »

Aoi Hana

Aoi Hana

I love slice-of-life series because it takes me into a leisurely pace without much heavy or sad emotions to worry about. Aoi Hana is one example of an anime that just walks you softly into a realistic world where love, while complicated at times, is just that… love. I would want to pace this review similarly slow as well, because this may be the first time I have actually dealt with girls love (yuri) as a topic. I am on the opposite sex of course, and so our tendencies to like yuri things may be a bit sexual by nature. Fortunately… and a bit unfortunately, this anime isn't anything like that at all. It is a female-oriented show designed for a unique female-oriented feeling, and therefore I need quite a bit of my shoujo-loving power for this one. Well okay, the anime may not be that deep to warrant any discussion about yuri actually, but I hope I can convey my interest in this series as lightly as possible.
Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Reviews, Shoujo | 2 Comments »

Saki

Saki

There's a certain way of feeling in my watching of anime that I dub as the "shounen feel". It's a bit hard to explain, but you kinda feel this whenever you are hooked into a certain shounen anime so much that you just had to watch that next episode or read the next manga chapter. In some cases, this feeling will hook you into the anime even though you don't know much about the actual subject matter at hand. One of my personal best examples of this oddity would be the anime Hikaru no Go. From the start until the very end of the anime, even with the bonus video lessons they show, I learned and knew JACK about Igo as a board game. Yet, I regard that as one of the best shounen anime I have seen. Similarly, Saki brings me into the world of mahjong. While mahjong is a bit easier to understand, I still had problems keeping up. Yet, despite the lack of mahjong knowledge and my hate towards useless fanservice, Saki keeps the shounen feel strong.
Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Reviews | 4 Comments »

Blue about Blu-ray

Around this time last year, after months of self-bickering on how to drive my PC upgrades forward, I decided to buy a blu-ray writer disc drive. This was a big leap that emptied my wallet for quite a while. It was priced around 250$ then. Nowadays you can get similar drives for almost half the price, and I might say that it's a rather good deal. Unfortunately, the format in itself still seems to be so unpopular. And even I myself deem it unpopular in my own usage, as I own only a handful of blu-ray movies because of certain unattainable price points. Yet with these conflicts, I still wanted to defend the format as a way to move technology forward, or at least to make me less sad about something that still has a chance to become a "useless purchase" for me.

What are we at right now anyway? We're just rising from recession just now, so I think more and more people are going to buy TV sets. LCD and Plasma sales are on the rise. We recently bought a modest LCD TV ourselves, and now I realize why regular consumers aren't buying blu-ray. The basic answer is that DVD quality is enough for them, sure. Another reason which is sometimes unmentioned is how people will watch quite a distance away from the TV. Coupled with the fact that consumers will want a cheap set, so I think an extreme majority own the small 32" screens. At those distance and sizes, even I don't see the pixels. DVD is really enough after all. Screw me who always watches video on the computer only a couple feet away from my LCD monitor. A TV isn't meant to be viewed this close. And so for our set, I conviced my parents to move the TV around for it to become closer to the sofa to better appreciate the visual quality.

The first blu-ray movie I bought would be the BBC Planet Earth documentaries. I would highly recommend this series as a prime gateway to the beauty of blu-ray. After that though, I really hadn't bought much else. Just a couple samplers and some blockbuster movies (Iron Man for instance). I have a grand total of 10 titles… for an entire year of having the format. My main enemy would be both price and region inferiority. I think by now in the US blu-ray movie prices have dropped near DVD levels, which is quite nice. Unfortunately I'm NOT in the US, so I have to make do with those prices + 12% tax + markup. A 20$ movie there will become 36$ here, which is freaking ridiculous. Prices in Japan are as horrible as ever too, some in the 80$ range even. I can import some because I know people in Japan but still I can't just blast my money just for some odd anime or two.

I think anime is the best showcase for blu-ray because you will noticeably see the difference. Lines are thinner in character designs and the colors become richer because you see more detail in the backgrounds. Japan knows this as most of their top-selling blu-ray movies are anime. Unfortunately, blu-ray anime in the US is almost endangered. With all the problems they have in selling anime DVDs, I don't think some localization studios will even move to the format. Such a shame, because part of me holding up to buying anime DVDs all-in-all would be because there is a slight chance that they would move to blu-ray someday.

Another problem in the horizon for blu-ray will be digital distribution. While today there doesn't seem to be any threat because of the competing formats and small libraries, we go back to the quality case. If DVD is enough, won't HD be enough even at low bitrates? Right now people enjoy their youtube at supposed HD format, which is no more than a 720p video with a low bitrate which degrades quality. Still, enough to whet their appetites. The second one would be piracy but I don't think this is as strong today. It's such hassle to download and move around a 4 or 8GB file, even if you say broadband is fast and hard drives are cheap. Also, to enjoy those on your big TV you still need an HTPC or media streamer of sorts, so the piracy audience are more of the techie types rather than the bulk of consumers who just want to plug-and-play.

The only savior of the format that I can think of is the Playstation 3. While still the sore loser in terms of video game sales, that box freaking does everything, including blu-ray. If it were not for this console, blu-ray may as well be dead two years ago. With the recent introduction of the PS3 Slim with its competitive price, I even think this is a second coming for the format. I don't have a use for a PS3 since I have my computer for high-quality gaming, but it really fits the bill for an all around entertainment device.

This holiday season will be a crucial one for the format. Personally as well, because I will go stock up on blank blu-ray discs for recording and backups. I just hope that locally the price comes down for the movies so that I can buy more. It's a really interesting battle in the video space nowadays, and I hope blu-ray gets a piece of that pie. At least, to justify my purchase of this blu-ray drive. Heh.

Posted in General | 6 Comments »

Love Plus: Impressions

Love Plus

People may be interested about how the Love Plus gameplay works. Depending on how you look at it, this may either be the most innovative dating sim ever or a freaking marketing gimmick. After playing for almost a whole day, I managed to get one girl and move on to the second part of the game, which is supposed to be the, er… Tamagotchi part. Anyway, enough for intros, this may be a long one. Let's start.
Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Bishoujo | 9 Comments »

TV5 Animega – Episode 2: Endless Eight

August 2009 marks the first-year anniversary of the TV5 reformat. This local channel of ours had been struggling to keep up with the big two (ABS-CBN and GMA), but since the reformat it has been doing quite well. They have innovative and fresh TV programming which made them #1 in some timeslots. In particular, the anime blocks had been receiving a lot of praise from some of our most dedicated local anime fans. For almost a year, a slew of anime have been aired with less cuts, good dubbing, and impressive lineups. Unfortunately, they can't keep up with their high pace for too long, and so these past few months have been quite troubling for them.
Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Anime | 4 Comments »