100th Post! PART ONE: Music and Entertainment Recommendation

Woohoo! I've reached the 100th post milestone and this calls for a celebratory post. Today's post will be a compilation of a variety of things that I came across recently.

Drama: Murder in the First (2014)

 

This TNT detective drama has recently finished airing and that ending was like ... wow. I thought it would a little more dramatic, but maybe the reason behind it was to reflect how the aftermath of a heated case is sometimes more quiet and brooding. Murder in the First investigates two cases that are seemingly unrelated. The tension between the detectives, Terry English and Hildy Mulligan, and Erich Blunt is just great. In each episode, there's always this wavering decision between proving Blunt innocent or guilty. You have to watch the entire series to the end to get to the bottom of the case.

July 2014 Historical Themed Anime

From my experiences, there's quite a bit of historical themed animes and they vary between using history as merely a setting or weaving a story closely aligned with historical facts. History itself is as exciting as you want it to be. Sometimes it may be entirely fiction and nonsense, but personally it boosts my interest in discovering the original story. I have few historical fiction animes to share that may not be well known to everyone.

Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto

 

Like the title implies, this story takes place in the Bakumatsu era of Japan. Akizuki Yojiro is a wandering swordsman with a mission to destroy the "Hasha no Kubi", the head of the conqueror.

Anime Report: Tokyo Ravens, Kingdom, Magi

I've finally finished Tokyo Ravens and it wasn't too bad. The pacing picked up towards the end even though how they wrote the story wasn't that good. Harutora may be a nice and oblivious guy, but having all the supporting female characters fall in love with him just isn't fair. Haha I don't think he deserves that love. The ending was not so much of a cliffhanger, but more like highly open ended. It's still a happy ending and they still didn't answer a lot of questions. I suppose the light novels may have more answers, but the anime certainly didn't. At least they gave Tenma some more screen time as opposed to being a quiet side character. Saotome was a familiar according to the novel, but disguised as a disciple of Douman. There's no mention of that at all in the anime like many other relationships. I think for now its assumed that the Twin Horn Syndicate survives and Tsuchimikados are hidden for safety reasons. I still don't get what Yakou's ambition was and what ritual he messed up that brought Japan into spiritual disaster. You would expect that by the end of the series it would explain why things happened in the beginning of the series.

Anime Report: HXH, Kingdom, Magi

I am currently on episode 115 of the HunterXHunter 2011 anime reboot.  There are things I like and things I dislike.  I don't like the narration and I like the character development.  The narration blatantly explains everything that goes on in the story and it feels like it assumes that the audience doesn't think for themselves.  There are many scenes that could have been shortened and could have been shown with action and dialogue.  The excessive narration allows more still animation which I am sick and tired of.  I would rather pick up a book than watch a lot of still animation.  Sometimes there is too much dialogue and very little action within one episode.  The episode in which Knuckle explains to Gon about his nen was my least favorite episode.  Knuckle went on and on to explain how his nen works through the entire episode when this could have been quickly resolved within a few minutes.  Clearly the production wanted to drag out the story.

The thing I do like about the series is character development.  The team is working with good material in the first place and it translates well on screen.  The tense atmosphere that builds up is very well done and I like how they directed the scenes.  There's a lot of detail put into the internalization of each character's thoughts and the voice actors did an excellent job voicing their roles.  Togashi's characters are always unique in appearance and traits.  Given that HunterXHunter is set in a fictional world, entirely different from our own, it gives him liberty to design things as he pleases.  Technology will rarely be out of date because it's different in the world of HunterXHunter and fashion is not out of style. 

As for Kingdom season 2, I'm behind and currently on episode 21.  For people that are fans of war and battle strategy themed stories, this is one to look for.  The manga I've heard is more graphic and more mature while the anime has definitely toned down certain scenes.  My greatest criticism is that for a war themed story, there is very little blood when most of the story takes place on a battlefield.  This is not to encourage all of us to become blood lusting monsters, but it's just not real at all if there's no blood.  There were plenty of scenes where a lot of graphic violence would have happened, but I suppose for TV censorship they toned it down. 

The struggle is real though.  Kingdom takes the viewer back to ancient China and into the front lines.  You get a good sense of how the lowest rank of foot soldiers try to survive in a war.  It's not all about the generals acting all flamboyant.  There's action going on with the strategists, the officials in the palace, and the royal harem.  It's a very intricate story written and they are very slowly relating to each other.  I would argue there is some inaccurate portrayal of ancient China because it feels to me several characters and especially Xin exhibits some qualities of a bushido filled samurai.  Bushido is uniquely Japanese and Chinese warrior values are a little different.  I don't know exactly how to say it, but I think it's partially due to how the characters speak their mind. 

Another anime I am liking very much is Magi The Kingdom of Magic.  It's an Arabian themed story bringing familiar names of Aladdin, Alibaba, and Sinbad.  It draws from a lot of myth and fantasy around the culture and combines it with well known ancient empires.  Kou Empire is clearly Han China and Reim and Partevia draw influences from Greece and Rome.  It's a story that combines themes of empire building, war, and magic.  The characters are drawn very colorfully and they're all very interesting to watch.  They are more multifaceted in season two and everything is not what it seems.  In Kingdom of Magic, we are beginning to see a war unfold and the dark Al-Thamen working behind the shadows.  There's still a lot of stuff we don't know and I really want to know.  Each episode leaves me wanting for more.

I still need to catch up on Kuroko no Basuke, Kyoukai no Kanata, and Tokyo Ravens.  If anyone has watched any of them, don't spoil it for me, but tell me whethere you liked it or not.