I am so overdue on this post! The title says January, but it's already the ides of March. There's already some new series I'm starting and also some that are slated for April. I'm looking forward to the Persona 5 anime, the continuation of Shokugeki no Soma and finally an adaptation of Golden Kamuy. Guess what? It's also on my manga list too!
Another year on the "A Desecrated Soul" blog has passed. Rather than do a year in review post like the previous 2 years, I've decided to do a mashup extravaganza. However I do want to point out some things that stood out to me in 2017. My anime of the year was Mob Psycho 100 and 91 Days. Mob Psycho 100 is funny and ironic with an intentionally sketchy animation style giving it a free-flowing look. 91 Days was an underrated series that deserved recognition for its storytelling. Music wise there are too many titles to name and for manga, I keep revisiting Super Doctor K and The Case Records of Professor Munakata. Without further ado, let me introduce January's anime, manga, and music picks.
Mahoutsukai no Yome
Known also as The Ancient Magus' Bride, this story is one of romance and fantasy. Chise willingly sold herself into an underground auction ready to abandon her own life. That is until Elias, the ancient magus, wins the bid and purchases her to become his bride. The series has been given a lot of praise, but what captured me the most was the trailer. It gave me the impression that we are brought into a world of magic similar to Harry Potter where sorcerers and fae are kept relatively secret from the general public. The romance is secondary to the story, but you can see that it becomes more and more crucial. The relationship that Chise shares with Elias is a strange one. It is neither intimate nor foreign. My biggest intrigue is in the true nature of Elias.
Hoozuki no Reitetsu season 2
Season 2 explores more of the Underworld and Hoozuki's exploits. What I like the most is how the myths and historical figures get woven into the story in the funniest way possible. We also get Hoozuki's origin story which explains why he's cool-headed and a sadist at the same time. All of he storytelling is spun with the author's weird sense of humor. I have read a review before that someone didn't find it funny because they didn't get any of the cultural references and to top it off, it was very different from their own culture. While the series does require some cultural knowledge of Japanese and Chinese mythology, I think that for a layman, the series can be seen as educational than comedic because it breaks down myths and origins through humorous antics. As for me since I am already familiar with the mythology, I find Hoozuki no Reitetsu hilarious.
Shokugeki no Soma: San no Sara
Continuing from the previous season, episode one starts with the Tootsuki Festival. We officially get to know the Elite Ten more. The reason why I continue to watch the series and read the manga is that with food, there are limitless possibilities of recipes that you can create. The author doesn't pull things out of mid-air. Like many successful food related shows, the recipes are conjured from existing
recipes and techniques. There are already dozens of people recreating the same recipes from the show in their homes. I found all the recipes presented in the show mouth-watering so what's not to say that it is a feast for the eyes.
Golden Kamui/Golden Kamuy
I've heard of Golden Kamui for a while from browsing on Pixiv in the past. The story takes place after the Russo-Japanese war where Saichi, a Japanese soldier, teams up with Asirpa, an Ainu girl, in Hokkaido to look for a secret stash of gold. I was hooked on to the manga after a couple chapters because of the portrayal of the Hokkaido wilderness. The grisly scenes do not come from the violence between men gutting each other, but from wild brown bears eating humans. There's a certain realism in the story to let you know that not only humans are the main characters' enemies, but Mother Nature as well.
Zero: The Man of Creation
The manga series, Zero: The Man of Creation, was brought to my attention when my favorite subbing group, Hokuto no Gun, decided to scanlate it. As far as I know, they're one of the few groups that focuses on retro manga titles from the 80s and 90s. Zero is a mysterious guy with the amazing ability to replicate anything from artifacts to even a person. However the catch is that everything he makes, he calls it the one and only creation. No replica will exist as the original will be destroyed making Zero's creation the original item. The items he is asked to replicate is always something of controversy usually tying into a political conflict or some sort of memory dear to the client. Each chapter is episodic, but the cases are fun to read.
Kamunabi
This is a spinoff to the Professor Munakata series featuring historian Imibe Kana, a recurring character in the Professor Munakata series. Imibe goes on her expedition to explore the legend of Kumanabi. Readers familiar with Japanese folklore will recognize the story of Sakuyahime where she gives birth to her children in a burning room and comes out unscathed. Imibe stumbles upon a burial site where the excavators find bones of a pregnant woman. She tries to find out the connection between the site, the story of Sakuyahime, and the possibility of a ritual practice taken place during the birthing of children. The volume also explores several other stories with Imibe replacing Munakata's role.
Dirt by Kohh
Some of the first music I've listened to was actually hip-hop. Rock was something I explored more later on and eventually grew to like a lot. Chancing upon Kohh's music was like taking a journey back to childhood because I don't keep up with hip hop anymore. Dirt is a very well established album for Kohh as it has more solid content as opposed to his early mixtapes rapping about getting rich and fucking bitches. The title track "Dirt Boys" is by far one of Kohh's best song. It goes hard talking about how Kohh started off as a "dirt boy", essentially a nobody, and becoming someone influential in the hip hop scene. Dutch Montana and Loota, his long time cohorts, are also featured in the song. Their parts are also tying in with the theme of being "dirt boys", people that are often looked down upon, but are now rich and don't give a fuck about how others perceive them. Specifically, Dutch Montana points to the fact that as rappers, they are tatted up and Loota refers to his long hair with pride. I think like Kohh had mentioned in his various interviews of 2016 and 2017, he sees himself as an artist and creates content with more artistic value as opposed to commercial. This can be duly noted as Dirt doesn't contain songs about the glamour of being a star. Some titles and their lyrics are terribly depressing and upsetting like in "If I Die Tonight feat. Salu" and "Shakou". Kohh has become very experimental over the years taken much of his influences from American hip hop. The hip hop scene has become very small in Japan, but I think artists like Kohh make it apparent that hip hop in Japan has its place.
Black Cab by Higher Brothers
Riding on that hip hop wave, China has begun to create and produce more hip hop artists and rappers. The genre has grown immensely in the mainland where a fair share of its following comes from shows like "Rap of China". Very much inspired by South Korea's "Show Me The Money", contestants battle each other on stage through performances and are taken out if they lose the battle. I chanced upon promising rappers and singers like Gai that will most likely shape a lot of this generation's Chinese hip hop. However, the searches online had led me to discover, in my opinion, an even better group known as Higher Brothers. Black Cab is Higher Brother's debut album containing a lot of great songs like "Made in China", "Young Master", and "711". What made these guys extremely popular was their immense pride in their culture. Foreign artists reacted positively to "Made in China" because they respected how Higher Brothers took inspiration from Chinese culture. Music wise, they incorporated Chinese instrumentals over a beat and lyrically, the song is about how China's influence in the world made them feel proud as individuals. One of the unique things I like in many of their songs is the fact they don't always rap in "proper" Chinese. There's a lot of dialect deliberately thrown in and Melo especially, raps almost exclusively in Sichuan dialect on all tracks. The group has said that they attribute their rapping styles to a lot of American artists that they managed to search up on the web beyond the Firewall. I would highly recommend Black Cab as an introduction to their music. Please listen to these guys. They're so lit.
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