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If you’re in the mood for atmospheric horror anime set in samurai-era Japan, Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales makes for a nicely creepy evening or two of anime entertainment. Each self-contained tale is vastly different in tone from the other stories, and can be watched separately from the others.

The first is the darkest of the three stories. Yotsuya Kaidan (Yotsuya Ghost Story) is a retelling of a traditional Japanese ghost story. Tamiya Iemon, a ronin samurai, marries a beautiful woman named Oiwa; but after the birth of their child he grows restless. When a scheming young woman from a rich family offers her family’s wealth if he will marry her, Iemon agrees. The young woman poisons Oiwa, and Oiwa later dies; but after death she continues to haunt her former husband and all of his associates. The character designs for Yotsuya Kaidan are by famed artist Yoshitaka Amano.

The second tale is Tenshu Monogatari (Goddess of the Dark Tower), a haunting romantic drama set in feudal Japan about Zushonosuke, a falconer, who is ordered by his domain lord to retrieve an expensive falcon that has escaped. While searching for the falcon, Zushonosuke comes across a beautiful woman bathing in a lake, Tomihime. He follows the falcon to the woman’s castle, only to discover that she is a fallen god and the falcon is actually the spirit of her mother. Her mother committed the sin of falling in love with a human – the same sin Tomihime comes to fear she will commit with Zushonosuke. The tone of Tenshu Monogatari, rather than horror, is more romantic and supernatural.

The final installment of Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, entitled Bake Neko (Goblin Cat), employs a fascinating and unique art style as background to a quirky horror story. A demon cat haunts a corrupt rich family. A traveling medicine seller arrives, and as the demon cat’s attacks increase the medicine seller promises to exorcise it, but only if he understands why the family is being haunted – which leads to the unveiling of the family’s dark history and secrets.

Incidentally, Bake Neko gave rise to a separate anime series, Mononoke, which follows the continuing adventures of the enigmatic medicine seller, utilizing the same unusual art style.

Each of the three tales is around two hours in length (Goblin Cat is a little shorter, at one and one-half hours).

Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales was produced by Toei Animation and licensed by Geneon.

Jan Suzukawa works in the manga industry as a freelance editor and English adaptation writer. Website: www.jansuzukawa.com. Blog: jansuzukawa.blogspot.com.

Night Head Genesis is a dark and atmospheric – and oddly overlooked – anime series based on Night Head, a 1992 Japanese live-action TV series.

Naoto and Naoya Kirihara are two brothers with incredible psychic abilities. Unfortunately for them, this results in their being taken from their parents as young children and imprisoned in a research center located in an isolated mountain wilderness for fifteen years.

The story begins when the energy barrier surrounding the research center suddenly dissolves, enabling the brothers to escape. Now young men, Naoto and Naoya reenter the world they’ve been protected from for years – or perhaps, the world that has been protected from them for years.

Naoto, the older brother, has psychokinesis, or the ability to move objects using his mind. He is protective of Naoya, quick to anger, and can hurt others through his psychic abilities when he loses his temper. Naoya is clairvoyant and telepathic, and frequently afflicted by traumatic visions when physically touched by other people. In contrast to the more confident Naoto, Naoya is sensitive and timid, usually hiding behind Naoto figuratively (and sometimes literally). As the brothers had only each other to rely on for so long, they have an extremely close bond.

Naoto and Naoya are soon confronted by mysterious events involving other psychically-gifted people, including a female serial killer, and an unusual girl named Shouko who appears to be connected to the spirit realm.

The brothers learn that a vision predicts they will cause mankind’s extinction in an event known as “the Upheaval.” The Ark Corporation, a shadowy organization alluded to early on, becomes central to the plot in the final third of the series. Naoto and Naoya close in on the secret behind the Ark Corporation, but the time of the Upheaval is rapidly approaching…

Veteran seiyuu Toshiyuki Morikawa and Akira Ishida portray the Kirihara brothers. The attractive character designs are by manga artist You Higuri. The overall mood of the series is somber and often creepy. Due to frequent adult themes, Night Head Genesis isn’t suitable for younger than pre-teenage children.

Night Head Genesis is a 24-episode series, licensed in the U.S. by AnimeWorks and Media Blasters.

Jan Suzukawa works in the manga industry as a freelance editor and English adaptation writer. Website: www.jansuzukawa.com. Blog: jansuzukawa.blogspot.com.

Since we’re heading into the winter season, I thought it might be fun to review an anime that is set in the wintry locale of Hokkaido.

There doesn’t seem to be much josei anime out there, but one that stands out is Diamond Daydreams, a 13-episode series about six young women in the northern island of Hokkaido in Japan. Originally titled Diamond Dustdrops, the title referred to the ice-crystal phenomenon where the crystals glitter like diamond dust in the winter sky. The folk legend has it that wishes made upon seeing the diamond dust come true.

The six women live in different cities in Hokkaido and come from various backgrounds. Atsuko works in a Hakodate fish shop with her mother. Although she is already committed for a future arranged marriage, she finds herself attracted to an older man, a local jazz musician. Young Karin is an invalid in the hospital whose doctor tries to convince her to have a needed operation; but since her father died while undergoing surgery, she’s afraid to. Kyoko, a trendy filmmaker, is a demanding perfectionist whose controlling nature threatens her relationship with her easygoing boyfriend.

Suomi is a professional ice-skater with a secret from her childhood. Shoko is a radio talk show host in Sapporo who advises listeners on their love life problems – and who is secretly dating a married man herself. And in the final story, Akari struggles to support her widower father, who is ailing after his wife’s death.

Each character’s story is told in two episodes, with the final 13th episode serving as a grand finale in which each woman’s story is brought to a conclusion. The DVD set also features interesting extras on Hokkaido as a travel destination. If you need a break from shonen fight scenes and shojo schoolgirl stories, Diamond Daydreams might be the perfect anime to watch on a cold winter evening.

Diamond Daydreams was produced by Studio Deen and is distributed by ADV Films.

This column will be taking a break for the holidays, and will return in January. Happy holidays, everyone!

Jan Suzukawa works in the manga industry as a freelance editor and English adaptation writer. Website: www.jansuzukawa.com. Blog: jansuzukawa.blogspot.com.

You’ve seen his green face and fried-egg eyes staring at you from the manga shelves at the bookstore, and probably wondered what a manga called Sgt. Frog could possibly be about (other than, obviously, a frog who is in the military).

It’s about frogs from outer space invading Earth – what else? 

Sgt. Keroro finds himself stranded on Earth after Planet Keron’s invasion forces abruptly withdraw, leaving him in the home of the Hinata family. Natsumi, the teenage daughter, is suspicious of Keroro, but younger brother Fuyuki is thrilled by their visitor, being a fan of the paranormal and the unexplained. Their mother, manga editor Aki Hinata, loves Keroro because now she can exploit his adventures for her manga magazine.

Keroro is the leader of a small advance force, and his four subordinates got stranded nearby: Private Tamama, who was lucky enough to be taken in by schoolgirl Momoka and her extremely wealthy family; intelligence officer and curry addict Sgt. Major Kururu; ninja-trained Lance Corporal Dororo; and my favorite character, the gruff Corporal Giroro, a take-no-prisoners kind of frog, complete with scarred face and weapon belt.

If Giroro had his way, their leader Keroro would be more gung-ho about their continuing mission. Unfortunately, however, the lazy Keroro has been co-opted by the planet’s more fun distractions, preferring to surf the Internet and build Gundam models instead of resuming the invasion of Earth.

The pace of both the manga and the anime is quick and snappy. The Funimation English dub is a delight, with funny voiceover narration and American pop culture references. A note: the manga is more appropriate for older children and teens, while the anime is more kid-friendly.

The Sgt. Frog manga was created by Mine Yoshizaki and is published by TOKYOPOP. The anime series is produced by Sunrise/Funimation.

Currently, the first 27 episodes of Sgt. Frog can be viewed for free at Funimation’s website: www.funimation.com.

Jan Suzukawa works in the manga industry as a freelance editor and English adaptation writer. Website: www.jansuzukawa.com. Blog: jansuzukawa.blogspot.com.

It may be because I’m going to Yaoi Con this weekend, but for some reason I was in the mood for a gender-bendering manga, and Otomen perfectly fit the bill.

The cover illustration alone – featuring Asuka, the main character, wearing a flower in his hair – tells you that you are about to meet a different kind of male protagonist. On the outside, Asuka is a nationally-ranked martial arts competitor and is admired by the other male students. His handsome face and stoic appearance have the girl students falling all over him.

But secretly, Asuka Masamune loves to cook, sew, and stitch little stuffed animals. He makes beautiful bento lunches and is addicted to reading a shojo manga entitled “Love Chick” which – oddly enough – features a female protagonist named Asuka who has a hard time being her true self in front of others.

Asuka’s father left the family early on to become a transsexual, and Asuka’s mother is dead-set against Asuka being anything other than the manliest of men. Asuka tries his hardest, but he just loves doing typical girl-type activities. His friend Juta notices this and encourages Asuka in his feminine ways and to be who he truly is.

Once Asuka meets Ryo, however – a girl who only likes manly men – he is now faced with a dilemma. Ryo is a tomboy incapable of cooking or sewing or doing any traditionally feminine things. Can Asuka hide his girly hobbies and still win Ryo’s heart? And why is Juta seemingly pushing him towards Ryo? Could it be that the secret author of “Love Chick” is actually Juta… who is using Asuka as the perfect role model for his female protagonist?

I laughed out loud several times while reading Otomen, which is rare for me. When Asuka doubts his path and tries to return to being manly, he stops reading “Love Chick” and reads a manga called “Shonen Junk” instead. And his expression when a martial arts student tears his uniform is priceless. He so wants to sew up that rip!

As the back cover of Volume I says, “Having girly hobbies doesn’t make you less manly!” The gentle message of Otomen is that you need to be who you truly are to be fully alive – and happy. It’s also just a fun, fun read.

Otomen is published by Viz Media. Volume 4 of Otomen is due out next week.

Jan Suzukawa works in the manga industry as a freelance editor and English adaptation writer. Website: www.jansuzukawa.com. Blog: jansuzukawa.blogspot.com.

Two Anime Series Featuring Mini-Episodes About Cats

Some days are stressful, and can only be made better by… watching mini-episodes of anime series featuring cats. 

Chi’s Sweet Home is about a kitten who becomes separated from her mother and is discovered lying on the ground by Youhei, a little boy. Youhei is an only child whose family lives in an apartment building that doesn’t allow pets, so he and his parents have to keep Chi hidden. While they search for someone else to take Chi in, they begin to fall in love with the little cutie.

If you’ve ever wondered what your cat is thinking, this series may be of some assistance. Chi speaks so that the viewer understands her, but the human characters only hear her making typical cat noises. The actor playing Chi sounds just like an insatiably curious young kitten having adventures, if said kitten could speak. The creators have perfectly captured the habits and quirks of cats, like how they can become mesmerized by a moving shoelace, and hate baths (Chi screams that she’s going to die while they’re bathing her). The dad in the family becomes enamored of Chi, on one occasion buying a multitude of cat toys for her, only to find Chi just wants to play with the rustling plastic bag he brought the toys home in.

The second season, Chi’s New Address, shows the family moving to a new apartment just so they can keep Chi. Each Chi episode is only three minutes long, so you can indulge in taking a cat break whenever you need to.

For a completely different kind of cat-centric anime, there’s Neko Rahmen (“Cat Ramen”), a 13-episode series about a cat who owns a ramen shop. Neko Rahmen is more for teenagers and adults than young children, as its humor is more sophisticated. Taisho, a cheerfully unprincipled ramen chef, has only one regular customer, the affable Mr. Tanaka. Despite his not very good ramen, Taisho schemes to expand his business by using bizarre tactics, such as serving ramen topped with cat food to a famous food critic (who turns out to love it) and hiring ineffective assistants, like the French chef who tries to turn the ramen shop into a French bistro. My favorite episode has Taisho experimenting with the menu, offering up “Dessert Ramen” (ramen topped with strawberries and milk “for the ladies”) and “Gone Slightly Bad Ramen” with ingredients that have gone… slightly bad.

Neko Rahmen episodes are even shorter than the Chi episodes, logging in at only two and a half minutes apiece. You can watch the entire series in just under 35 minutes!

Chi’s Sweet Home is produced by Madhouse Ltd. Neko Rahmen is produced by Think Corporation. The second season of Chi’s Sweet Home and all of the Neko Rahmen episodes are available for viewing at Crunchyroll: www.crunchyroll.com.

Jan Suzukawa works in the manga industry as a freelance editor and English adaptation writer. Website: www.jansuzukawa.com. Blog: jansuzukawa.blogspot.com.

Kumiko “Yankumi” Yamaguchi is a cheerful and somewhat ditzy-seeming homeroom teacher for a class of delinquents at Shirokin Gakuen, a private high school for boys. She is small of stature, wears glasses, and looks unimposing. But things are not quite what they seem with the new teacher. The boys in her homeroom class are tough, but Yankumi – as it turns out – is a whole lot tougher than any of them.

The Gokusen is a comedy anime series that presents a fresh twist on the old person-torn-between-two-worlds scenario. Kumiko’s dream has always been to teach; but after her parents’ death she was raised by her grandfather Kuroda, who just happened to be the head of the Oedo Group – a powerful yakuza clan. As Kuroda’s only heir, Kumiko is set to inherit the leadership of the clan.

Since Kumiko’s connection with the yakuza would get her fired, she has to keep her family background a secret at the school, while at the same time teaching and improving the lives of her students. Trained in martial arts, she conceals her true tough girl persona and manages for the most part to fool her students about her yakuza identity. But there is one student, Shin Sawada – the bright and handsome leader of the delinquents – who suspects that Kumiko is not what she seems… which is where the fun really begins.

Kumiko is an appealing heroine in her desire to live her dream of being a teacher, while at the same time remaining loyal to her grandfather and the clan. How she manages her double life as teacher and yakuza princess makes The Gokusen an amusing and entertaining anime series.

The Gokusen was produced by Madhouse Studios. Licensed in the U.S. by Media Blasters and distributed by AnimeWorks.

Jan Suzukawa works in the manga industry as a freelance editor and English adaptation writer. Website: www.jansuzukawa.com. Blog: jansuzukawa.blogspot.com.

Autism is a complex, painful mystery.

With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child is about a family whose son Hikaru is autistic. The manga series begins with Hikaru’s birth and how his mother Sachiko gradually comes to realize that her son is ‘different.’ Hikaru’s condition is initially faced with denial and lack of understanding within the family and extended family, and later with the prejudice, ignorance and indifference of many in society. The initial volumes focus on Hikaru’s situation at school – where the faculty is ill-equipped to deal with autistic children – and with the other special needs children in Hikaru’s class and their families. Hikaru’s parents eventually have a second child, a daughter named Kanon, who does not have autism.

The story touches your heart on nearly every page, and the reader will shed more than a few tears – both sad ones and happy ones – throughout the reading of it. The courage of Sachiko and of the other parents who are raising autistic children is inspiring. This story is truly about the power of love; and you also learn a lot about autism and what can be done to help those who have the condition. It’s a beautiful, moving story – and ultimately a very uplifting one as well.

With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child, a manga series by Keiko Tobe, is published by Yen Press. In Japan, the story has also been made into a TV series, and both the manga and TV series have won awards for excellence.

Note: Yen Press publishes With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child in books that contain two volumes each and are usually stocked at the beginning of the manga shelves, since they don’t fit in with the regular-sized manga books.

Jan Suzukawa works in the manga industry as a freelance editor and English adaptation writer. Website: www.jansuzukawa.com. Blog: jansuzukawa.blogspot.com.

Vampires are in vogue these days, what with Twilight and True Blood, and a new manga series from TOKYOPOP falls perfectly in line with the new craze.

Bloody Kiss is about Kiyo Katsuragi, a girl who inherits a haunted mansion from her late grandmother. Unbeknownst to Kiyo, the mansion comes with a few extras: two vampires.

Kuroboshi is a bishonen who is looking for his “bride.” As he explains to Kiyo, vampires only drink the blood of one human, and that person is known as the vampire’s bride. Alshu, the other vampire, is Kuroboshi’s attendant. When the two were expulsed from their vampire clan due to Kuroboshi’s half-human blood (his mother was human), they were taken in by Kiyo’s grandmother and raised in the mansion.

At first Kiyo decides to sell the mansion and kick them out, but gradually she becomes attached to the two vampires. Kuroboshi and Alshu show up at Kiyo’s school and help her out of a few fixes, and Kiyo begins to fall for Kuroboshi. If only he would stop wanting to drink her blood!

Kiyo is an independent girl who can take care of herself, and she’s not above punching out Kuroboshi when he gets obnoxious. Kuroboshi pretends not to care about Kiyo, but of course he actually does. The art is cute and the growing attraction between Kiyo and Kuroboshi is believable, making Bloody Kiss a fun read for the shojo audience.

Volume 2 of the series is due to be released in November 2009.

Bloody Kiss was created by Kazuko Furumiya. Published by TOKYOPOP.

Jan Suzukawa works in the manga industry as a freelance editor and English adaptation writer. Website: www.jansuzukawa.com. Blog: jansuzukawa.blogspot.com.

One of anime’s classic films, Voices of a Distant Star – only 25 minutes in length – is both absorbing and deeply moving.

Voices of a Distant Star is about two young teenagers, Mikako and Noboru, in the mid-21st century. While in the final year of junior high, Mikako is chosen by the U.N. Space Army as a “Special Member,” or combat space pilot, and is sent to serve in space.

She and Noboru communicate by texting messages to each other on their cell phones, but as Mikako’s division travels farther and farther away from Earth, the longer it takes for cell phone mail to be delivered. At first it takes six months; then one year; then, as Mikako travels light years to Sirius, eight years and seven months. And as Noboru grows older in Earth years, Mikako remains virtually the same age.

As Mikako fights the alien Tarsian forces and experiences grand new vistas on different planets, Noboru remains behind in Japan, waiting longer and longer to receive each of her messages. Both he and Mikako, in her combat ship in space, miss each other as the years pass, but time and distance begin to take their inevitable toll.

The themes of isolation and people drifting apart feel as immediate as in any story set in present day, with the futuristic elements just adding to the overall visual effect. The animation is beautiful, with magnificent alien landscapes contrasting with rain falling on Japanese city streets, infusing the film with a quiet melancholy.

If you have friends who don’t understand why you watch anime, Voices of a Distant Star is the perfect recommendation for them.

Voices of a Distant Star (2002) was directed by Makoto Shinkai.

Jan Suzukawa works in the manga industry as a freelance editor and English adaptation writer. Website: www.jansuzukawa.com. Blog: jansuzukawa.blogspot.com.