So admittedly, these series are pretty old news, but I just finished Kiddy Grade and having just rewatched Project A-Ko for the first time in ten years, I can’t help but want to compare the two. Well, I say compare, but really, I’d like to oil them up and make them fight it out in a big pool of mud. Everybody wins in that scenario.

Starting with the elder series (from ‘87-’90), Project A-Ko is a spoof anime of epic proportions. Featuring a “platonic” love triangle between three high school girls (aptly named A-Ko, B-Ko, and C-Ko; plot devices also include aliens (sometimes perverted), giant robots, powered armor that looks like swimwear, princesses, business tycoons, and a disturbing number of manly looking women. On a fun side note this series is what actually introduced me to homosexuality as a child. It’s a slice of life series with a bizarre backdrop and one absurdly strong girl.

Kiddy Grade (from ’02-ish) is remarkably straightforward series featuring two special forces cyborg girls caught up in a class struggle spanning the galaxy. With sophisticated plots and political intrigue, Kiddy Grade also rocked out the PG-13 area for fan service and generally high levels of innuendo. It’s a sci-fi action adventure that’s modern and sleek.

The main things I want to contrast with these series are all thematic, so we’ll get the really obvious stuff like music and animation out of the way: (from here on I’ll refer to Project A-Ko as Pako and Kiddy Grade and KG for the sake of not having to type things eight million times.)

Project A-Ko is old school, things are hand drawn and sometimes a little rough and have some errors. The character designs are really really typical, and the action is a mix of flashing lines or well-animated movement. The talking is a lot of flapping mouth shapes. As an interesting cultural note: the things that are sexy in Pako are considerably different than what are in modern series: For example, the sexy expressions and attitude for the teacher are totally different from what we see in recent works. Back on topic, the mechanical designs in Pako are really intricate and detailed, though, which is something I think we’ve lost with all of the computer graphic flash and lens flare. Speaking of flash and lens flare, Kiddy Grade is chock full of computer graphics and it doesn’t mesh well with the show at all. Oddly enough, all of the parts with heavy dialogue are not remedied with interesting camera angles or anything like they were in Pako, a flaw I find rather amusing. On the ecchi side, KG has considerably more jiggle and girls with bigger breasts than Pako, but the sexy stuff is so overdone and so ridiculously deliberate it comes across as really corny.

I usually have a lot to say about music in anime, but for once there isn’t a lot to say about either Pako or KG. Pako’s music is pretty standard for late 80’s stuff with some synth and just a generic ambience. It does its job, though, and facilitates the scenes. As a series of movies rather than TV episodes, Pako doesn’t really have opening or closing sequences. KG has really corny music, and while the music still does what it’s supposed to, it’s hard to take some of the scenes seriously with the music insisting on the emotions so damn much. Also, I’m really not fond of the opening and closing music/animation for KG. The music for both series is pretty cheesy, but the fact that KG is trying to be serious about it can ruin some of the atmosphere.

Now for the fun part of the review: see, you may have been wondering why I’m comparing a twenty year-old spoof series to a modern sci-fi one, but the reason is that they have so much in common and yet the different ideologies behind the shows make for wildly different viewing experiences. Well, that and the fact that Kiddy Grade jumps the shark about five episodes before the ending. Structurally speaking, KG and Pako are very different: KG is a 24 episode series while Pako was six movies with the last two taking place in an alternate universe. What that means is that the way each series can tell stories is very different. KG has a strict time limit for individual events, but can run a much longer plot overall. The brevity of the episodes, however, can be used to pack a lot more emotional punch. “Pako’s movies, on the other hand, can carry a more involved scenario, but can’t place as much emphasis on a prolonged multi-part plot” is what I would be saying if the movies didn’t fly in the face of convention and have continuous themes that build to a climax at the end. Well, the first four and the alternate universe pair each have a sort of separate climax. Anyway, the point I’m driving at here is that for some aspects, I’m comparing apples and opera; but for others I’ll be comparing twin siblings where one of them was dropped on its head a few times.

Ultimately, Pako and KG are about two girls, one young and proper and one older and rough, that are in a very close and rather suggestive relationship. In Pako, it’s rather blatant platonic love between A-Ko and C-Ko mixed with this creepily obsessive love B-Ko has for C-Ko (in this case B-Ko wants to supplant the older girl role). When I was little I admit I didn’t understand it much then, but as an adult I can understand it a bit better. C-Ko is the younger girl, A-Ko is the almost normal girl with super strength, and B-Ko is a super genius that builds robots to fight A-Ko. All of the alien attacks and giant robots are merely background things, the real plot stems from B-Ko trying to get between A-Ko and C-Ko. In the alternate universe movies, the series actually takes a twist and has A-Ko and B-Ko as friends with C-Ko coming into the picture later and screwing everything up. Regardless of which of the movies you are watching, the relationship between the three girls takes center stage at all times.

KG, on the other hand, has only the two girls and tries to show their relationship through their reactions to the different situations they encounter. Eclaire is our rough and tumble super strong chick with big boobs and very little self-restraint; Lumiere is the super lolita girl with a modified swimsuit and superior hacking skills. While Eclaire’s boldness is what gives the pair direction, Lumi’s technical skill is usually what pulls things through in the end. The girls are often forced to lay everything on the line as they work through the societal problems they face. Unfortunately, the delicate balance between the girls’ relationship and the class war tilts inexorable towards the class war with the aforementioned laying everything on the line being the only way to pull the show back towards the girls.

Man, this review is totally not going well; I feel like I’m back in college writing one of those papers I only read half the book for and accidentally stayed up too late playing video games. Oh well, maybe I can pull some sense out of this yet.

I guess what I really want to drive at here is how even the standard relationship between two girls, one junior to the other, have changed in a way that says more about the culture behind it and the evolution of the industry.

See, Pako has a certain tongue-in-cheek approach while still bringing a lot of original ideas to the table without worrying about any of the technical details. How do the robots work? Why are all of the aliens in the original universe female? There aren’t questions that matter: that’s just how things are. The thing to focus on is the hilarious and wild adventures two relatively normal girls have amidst all of the chaos around them. The fan service is there, but it doesn’t take the focus away from the core story. The human drama is simply that: human drama; Hundreds if not thousands of people die throughout the course of the first four movies, but the real emotion is placed on the issues that arise between A-Ko and C-Ko. For instance, when A-Ko goes after a boy, it causes a serious rift between the two and it’s genuinely interesting and not contrived at all. As a parody anime, Pako still brings a lot of originality to the table and makes for a refreshing thing to watch. The two alternate universe movies are considerably more serious, but the feeling of fun is still there and while all of reality gets put in jeopardy, it’s still totally related and actually dependent upon the relational development of A-Ko, B-Ko, and C-Ko. Pako never loses sight of what’s actually going on. Even with all of reality getting put in danger, it’s there as an interesting way to draw out and really refine the pinnacle moments of the character relationships rather than being the driving focus of the story.

KG, by a rather severe contrast, is a wonderful example of all the things that are wrong with anime in the modern industry. KG can’t decide between serious world-ending drama and light panty flashing humor: the gray area in-between fails on both accounts and ends up disjointed and sickeningly unbalanced. All attempts to flush out the characters are undone by insistence on little jokes like Lumiere’s obsession with Claire’s lack of elegance or the stupid amounts of fan service. Look, I’ve got nothing against fan service (I am really enjoying Queen’s Blade in all its boobtastic glory), but there’s a time and a place for it. Having a serious discussion with the enemy mastermind while the camera happens to be low enough to give us a wonderful view of one of the girl’s panties (complete with lines suggesting they are waaaay too tight) really takes the importance out of whatever is being said. Also, if you’re going to have that much jiggle and detail in the clothing lines, why not have more nudity? I had the same problem with Burst Angel, too: the service was so graphic with the clothes on it was like having a four course dinner including dessert but there’s no entrée. In more crass terms: why can we see a fourteen year-old’s private lines in her panties but not the twenty-something’s nipples? Not that I want to see more of the former, but I would like to see the latter. This sort of paradox service is present in many recent series and I simply don’t understand it; I can’t even chalk it up to the culture divide from being an American because it simply doesn’t make sense to me. Actually, there was one scene of nudity and it was really disturbing because it was akin to cyber rape, so I guess I should count myself lucky that we didn’t get more nudity if that was going to be the only to get it. Anyway, I’ve gotten off topic here. The story in KG was sweeping and there were episodes where I was genuinely moved by attempts of the lower classes to break free of the rich, but it cheapened both the relationship of the girls and the drama of the story. The relationship between the girls, though heartwarming and sweet, seems little like a chauvinist’s daydream about how women interact and the way the characters are pulled back into that ideal to try and bring humor or sexiness to a scene was a little much for my taste. Now try shoving a quip relating to that relationship into a scene where the police are about to fire on what are essentially contract slaves and everything sort of turns sideways: the seriousness seems weak while the humor is forced. KG seems like an original series, but it’s actually just mixing a lot of clichés in new ways (with which there is nothing wrong and is pretty much the best we can expect given that there’s a series about everything nowadays, even the life of bread in a bakery), but the mix just isn’t balanced. The main problem is that the relationship between Eclaire and Lumiere never changes or develops in any way. Given that there’s supposed to be some major character development and even the social fabric of the galaxy changes, it’s really weird to see that the main interactions between the two main characters never really changes throughout the show. Okay, that’s enough being mean to KG, I need to move along to the point.

When looking at what I’ve said so far, it’s pretty obvious that I recommend Project A-Ko over Kiddy Grade. It’s true, I really do. I only find Kiddy Grade worthwhile for the sheer hotness of Eclaire after she gets an upgrade to purple hair and bigger boobs; she’s really smoking hot then. Ahem. See, Project A-Ko was made at a time when there was a little more emphasis on fun and silliness; there were no demographics to really pander to and a series didn’t have to put the fate of humanity on the line to try and make something seem important. KG is a series with many of the same elements as Pako, but it tries to take an approach with more gritty realism and panty shots that poisons the whole thing. KG loses sight of its character development and tries to make up for it by putting the whole of human society on the line. See, going for the big picture approach without giving us a more concrete relationship to use as a measuring stick simply can’t impart the same amount of urgency as watching a group of characters we’ve seen mature in their interactions with one another put those relationships to the test. With the exception of the series that are really good and usually break the standards of the genres in which they belong, most modern series can be described with some or all of the following guidelines: fan-pandering (be it boobs or catering to fans of a previous incarnation of the series), plug-and-play plots (most romances, slice of life school days, and world-crisis dramas fit into this category), juvenile male power fantasy (any show where a fourteen year-old boy suddenly holds the fate of the world in his hands via machine, magic, combat skills, or ungodly ability to bake bread will generally fall into this category), and go-nowhere fluff (while Azumanga Daioh and Lucky Star fit into this category, it’s more the shows that try to imitate them that will go here in the negative). There’s this silly, driving idea that a series has to fill a set of requirements to be accepted by otaku, and it has lead to a terrible flood of same-y shows with shallow plots and generic characters. While I was going to take this review as an opportunity to crucify KG, I thought having something like Pako around would be a handy way to show that a series with many of the same pieces could be considerably better if the now standard approaches were all thrown in the garbage. See, Project A-Ko and Kiddy Grade have a lot in common, but Kiddy Grade makes for such a wonderful example of a mainstream successful anime (that isn’t about fourteen year-old boys) that is actually terrible while Project A-Ko (once dusted off) is really terrific because it was made before anime started getting itself caught up with what was expected of it.

Finally, the point: the industry has gotten too caught up in making shows that fit what’s expected of them that they let those expectations ruin what chances there are for innovation. I wasn’t expecting Kiddy Grade to completely rock my world, but its endless fan-pandering and stupid insistence on the fetish point of boobs, lolis, and implied lesbianism really killed what could have been an amazing statement about class-based social structures and the sacrifices called for in any revolution. Project A-Ko starts at the other end of the spectrum as campy humor where an amazing plot suddenly reveals itself towards the end while keeping a good handle on the applications of fan-service and silliness. Kiddy Grade simply has too much: too much CG, too much sexiness, too much realism, and far too many contrived scenarios to make the sexiness, plot, and CG actually fit on the screen at one time. I’m probably going to sound like an old man, here, but a lot of modern series simply have too much of too many things to actually be successful. If you look at modern successful series, they focus on an individual theme or related set of themes and then put a twist on it: Haruhi is a schoolgirl who happens to be god (if that spoils things for you then where have you been for the last two years?!), Queen’s Blade is a nudity driven series with a decent plot, and Emma is a romance set in Victorian England. See, something normal with a twist. While a complex series can make it as a great show, it usually takes a lot more creativity and consequently elevates itself above the level of mainstream pick-a-plot. Anime is ultimately supposed to be just entertainment. While I maintain that some of it reaches the level of high art, that isn’t what sells DVDs. However, that doesn’t mean I think the average anime fan is a rabid Naruto headband wearing idiot. I think we’ve all been brainwashed into being content with season after season of remakes and shows that have been simplified to the brain-is-jello-but-there’s-lot-of-tits point. Fact of the matter is that there’s always going to be a lot of crappy series made for every one worthwhile show that gets produced and we are obligated to buy those crappy series so the industry can stay alive. Well, I say we, but really I mean all of those stupid Naruto headband fad chasers.

~Whim

PS1 – Yes, I know this review is long and rambly. I care, really, but I figured if I spent any longer trying to trim it down and whatnot it’d never get done.
PS2 – One really good thing about modern anime is that it can be really sexy compared to some of the older stuff. One of my all time favorite sexy moments is still during Elfen Lied when the main character and his cousin are sitting together at a shrine to take shelter from the rain; if you’ve seen it you should probably know what scene that is.
PS3 – I only briefly mentioned the fact that Kiddy Grade jumped the shark about five episodes before the end as it really didn’t relate that much to the rest of the review, but it does merit a word: by jump the shark I mean all reason went out the window and the plot took a left turn at stupid and contrived avenue; also the pacing went to hell. I was tolerating the series up to that point (especially since we just got Eclaire’s hot new body), but it sucked too much for me to let it go.

For the life of me, I just can’t figure out how to start this silly review. Also, I’m still batting around the short vs. long thing for these, so just bear with me. Anyway, this week comes a series I was a little hesitant about, but I’m glad I took the time to watch it. See, there are three categories that a series will ultimately be sorted into: 1) great and artistically worthwhile, 2) entertaining, and 3) craptastic waste of time. Michiko e Hatchin, though awesome, fits neatly into the second category. Michiko e Hatchin is another nice reminder of why I’ve been journeying out into the world of fansubs and alternative titles. Though not spectacular, I was thoroughly entertained.

Michiko e Hatchin, or MeH from here on, is the story of a wild convict named Michiko and the abused foster child Hatchin. Hatchin (aka Hana) has just turned ten and life for her couldn’t really get any worse: her parents abandoned her as a baby, her foster family abuses her, and she’s stuck in the middle of nowhere. All Hana wants is for someone to take her away. That someone just happens to be Michiko, fresh out of prison. Crashing through the dining room window on the most powerful scooter ever known to man, Michiko takes Hatchin out on a journey for one man: Hana’s father and Michiko’s true love. (Hana is not Michiko’s daughter; Michiko was in prison when Hana was born.) Fugitives, the pair is pursued by cops, gangsters, circus slave traders, and one really pissed off chick with an afro across a place surprisingly like the Mediterranean somewhere in the 70’s. Well, I say Mediterranean in the 70’s, but I get the impression that it’s about as accurate as a Disney movie about the holocaust.

To start with, MeH is probably the closest we’ll get to a spiritual sequel to Cowboy Bebop. Or rather, it’s a girly version of Cowboy Bebop: not that that’s a bad thing and there’s still enough Michiko cleavage to choke a horse. The music, the style, the action, it’s all the hallmarks of a show trying to follow in the footsteps of a genre defining work. The music is funky and awesome. The art, animation, and designs are all fluid with an emphasis on the 70’s look. The gunfights and action are totally off the wall fun. The show is heavily character driven with lots of interesting characters that complement one another pretty well in relation to the story. In fact, I think I’ll give the characters their own paragraph.

The characters in MeH are well written with a surprising amount of depth. Our titular characters actually do develop throughout their journey, and even most of the supporting cast undergo some sort of growth. Shoot, even the villains learn things about themselves. Hatchin, though, deserves special mention: really, the entire show is about her. I really enjoyed watching Hatchin learn how to stand on her own, how to fight back, and even a little bit about love. It was also really satisfying to see Michiko’s straightforwardness get her into more situations than she could get out of. These characters are amazingly direct and sincere; no matter how insane the situation, everyone is so honest in their approach everything seems simple. The sheer guts some of the characters have is astounding, especially in episode 17. There are moments where the characters were so hardcore I couldn’t help but cheer. Also, I have to admire how much the emphasis on family really put all the other crap going on in perspective; while I wouldn’t call this a traditional family values show, it is definitely a show about family. Those of you who know me personally will find that statement very ironic.

Before I bring this to an end, I thought I’d mention child abuse, as it is a driving factor in this series. See, Hatchin gets abused a lot by her foster family; we are privy to a breaking point shortly before Michiko liberates her where Hatchin is about to have her face ironed by her ‘sister.’ While it was satisfying to watch Hatchin punch the girl in the face (probably the most satisfying moment in the series for me), the foster parents’ tacit approval really pissed me off. Unfortunately, Michiko, being a rather rough and tumble woman herself, is pretty hard on Hatchin and will sometimes hit her for almost no reason. There’s also a circus that sells runaway children. On the whole, I had a really hard time tolerating any of it since there was no counterpoint to it save for one hug. While not necessarily a show breaker, it did bring the series down quite a bit on the “let’s watch that again” meter. Child abuse is an ugly thing, animated or not.

MeH comes out swinging with powerful episodes and wonderful characters, but unfortunately it couldn’t keep it up for the entire series. Careful readers will notice that I did not say that MeH is the successor to Cowboy Bebop, but that it was the closest we are likely to get: after the first few episodes it’s like the series got scared of what it could be and wandered around the European waterfront until it got closer to the end and all of the characters needed to be wrapped up. It got really slow for a while there and I’m sad to see it couldn’t capitalize on all of that potential. Still, though, the characters are badass and the way they turn the concept of family on its head is welcome. On the whole, Michiko e Hatchin is a fun ride across a foreign land with some great company and only a few bleeding children.

~Whim

PS – I watched this series as a fansub from BSS.
PS2 – Sorry I got a little behind; had a big project at work.
PS3 – Only once during this entire review did I type ‘Hatching’ instead of ‘Hatchin’; and yes, there probably is some link there with the growing up part of the plot for Hatchin.

After my world got rocked by Kaiba, I did something I never ever do: I looked up the director and tried to track down other series he made. Two rules I try to follow for anime are going into a series blind and never trying to look for more of the same; I figured anything else by the guy would be sufficiently different that I wouldn’t be breaking either of those rules too much. I consider it more following the spirit of the law rather than the letter of it. Anyway, Kemonozume was made two years prior to Kaiba, and much to my surprise, was actually rated adults only by Anime Encyclopedia. Make no mistake: Kemonozume is no hentai. There’s lots of violence, nudity, and R-rated sex, but there’s nothing pornographic about it. Supposing that Gantz has an immature fascination with blood and tits, Kemonozume is actually an adult contemplation of those topics with some (good) social commentary thrown in for good measure. I suppose I should just come out with it now: Kemonozume is one of the most hardcore displays of badassery I’ve ever seen.

I could start breaking the series down following my usual pattern of music-animation-story-deathblow, but I did that once and it was over six pages. So I’ll try to keep it simple this time around.

Thousands of years ago, the gods cursed a pair of lovers such that they turned into monsters and ate other humans. However, being a pair of lovers they naturally had little cannibal children of their own and to this day a secret race of monsters has lived alongside humanity, well, more like lived on humanity. Not long after the demon children started to propagate, a secret order of martial artists was formed to fight the human eating menace. Fast forward to modern day Japan, where the soon to be leader of the martial artists falls in love with a woman who is more than she seems and we get a thrill ride covered in blood and sex with the fate of the world resting on one man in a suit and tie…and a sword.

What I love about Kemonozume is that it takes so many established conventions and turns them completely on their heads. What starts as a Romeo and Juliet styled romantic tragedy slowly turns to trip across the abandoned remnants of the country with a van ride across the sky before ending with a super stylized showdown atop a giant bowling ball rolling towards Tokyo. Nothing in this show is predictable and most things aren’t what they seem. The series doesn’t pussyfoot around, either: for an entire episode the main character is stripped naked and tied to chair after having his mind toyed with by someone much stronger and cleverer than he is. Kemonozume is hardcore for the fact that it is raw: the animation is rough (and eerily reminiscent of the old Bugs Bunny cartoons), the characters are straightforward, and nothing is watered down. There are so many fun things to talk about from this series, but the most amazing thing is that if you don’t want to pay attention to any of the subtle symbolism and social commentary, it’s still a great show and lots of fun.

The most notable thing about this series, for me at least, is not the animation style that will induce migraines in some of you, but the characters. For a series to be as badass as Kemonozume, the characters have to be equally awesome. Just to rattle off a few of the more awesome moments: a guy slices his own arms off by sticking his sword into the ground and ramming against it; a villain gets mutated and screams “now I’m even more awesome!”; the main characters try to have sex, but since one of them mutates into a ravenous beast when aroused she has to be handcuffed to bed, but she breaks free and the next morning finds the guy outside a blast chamber with her locked inside, both of them smiling; and the topper is probably the rogue samurai facing down the world in a suit and tie. These are characters I love for their flaws: they screw up, they panic, etc. Amidst all of the death and violence, the main character can’t kill anything; he always gets stomach cramps just as he’s about to deliver the killing blow. I was expecting him to overcome this flaw at some point, but then I realized just how nasty it is to want the main character to become a murderous bastard. His weakness turns out to be a really endearing driving factor right to the fantastically absurd ending.

Kemonozume comes out swinging with its rocking soundtrack and style; it’s a show with a direction to go and it doesn’t care who it has to kick to the curb along the way. If Kemonozume were a person, it’d be that badass biker that will discuss the misleading aspects of the current class structure as he rearranges your face simply because you wandered down the wrong alley. While Kaiba was philosophical and took the time to be thoughtful, Kemonozume only pauses while it reaches for another weapon. Oddly enough, my favorite part of the entire show is the lead in shorts used for some of the episodes (inconsistently used so that they are never predictable, I might add), where they take combine standard animation, a common place situation, and then twist it with the shape-shifting human-eating demons: the old monster trying to gum someone to death, the high school student’s first kiss gone horribly horribly wrong, and so on. These brief moments of reality bending insanity really crystallize the overall feeling of the show. The only criticism I have for the series is a sharp drop in animation quality for most of episode eight, but that quickly pales next to the fact that the series is so mind-bogglingly awesome that it reaches the point where if you have to nitpick the thing you have totally missed the point. A mistake the series will gladly correct with large claws. Much like Kaiba, Kemonozume is a series you simply have to experience; once you do you’ll find the idea of reviewing it a little redundant.

~Whim

PS – I watched this series as a fansub from Shinsen-subs; I am so glad they actually subbed this because it was hard enough to even track down the fact that this series even existed. If you are having trouble finding it try looking for Kemonodzume; the d is weird.
PS2 – Yeah, no review last week because of the holiday. Well, that’s the official excuse: I actually wrote a Kemonozume review but it was six pages long and clung to the notion that you needed something other than a firm command to go watch this series.
PS3 – Kemonozume is not a beginners’ series; do not try to introduce someone to the world of anime with this show.
PS4 – Hooray for the first review originally posted on flyingwhimsy.com!