Ganbarist Shun anime review

Another cheerful series, about a boy named Fujisaki Shun who wants to win a gold medal in Olympics. That’s it. That’s literally the story behind Ganbarist Shun (ガンバリスト!駿). He just shows up at his middle school gymnastics club, blurts this out and the story is underway.

 Things get interesting after that though, when it turns out Shun can’t even turn a simple cartwheel. And he has to perform in the regional tournament the very next day. This leads to one of the funniest first episodes I’ve watched in a long, looong time.
After that the humor content goes down a lot, in favor of Shun and the rest of his club members slowly but surely improving under the guidance of various coaches. Some of the performances are seriously impressive, especially Shun’s two turns on the horizontal bar (the manga co-author Morisue was an Olympic gold medalist in the same event). It’s spoiled a bit by the lengthy flashbacks, sideline comments and internal thought processes that punctuate every single move, but it’s still gripping to watch anyway. But, you never do get to find out why Shun wants to be a medalist anyway. He just does.
The series is only 30 episodes long (yes, 30 is “only” for a series as fun as this), and it’s never been officially released, so it’s not very well-known in the west. Even in Japan it never got a DVD release so you’d have to get VHS (what’s that mommy?) tapes if you wanted to own it. The only subs available are some seriously atrocious “Engrish” subs that I quickly ignored in favor of just watching it for myself. If you’re lucky enough to find it in a language you understand, I highly, highly recommend it.

Dog Days anime review

Official story: In the land of Fronaldo, the Republic of Biscotti has been aggressively attacked by the Lion Kingdom of Galette. Facing potential defeat, Princess Millhiore summons a hero who can save the country. What she gets is Izumi Shinku, a middle-school boy from Japan. Awaiting him in Fronaldo is the task of becoming hero enough to defeat his enemies while learning the peculiar rules of battle in this strange new world.

Cheerful, upbeat series about a boy who gets pulled into another world where he becomes their hero. He then helps them in a “war” against a rival kingdom. A war where nobody dies or even gets seriously hurt, and where everyone celebrates with a concert at the end. Apart from one encounter with a monster the series is light-hearted to the point of absurdity, and at only 13 episodes it’s over long before it has a change to grate on you.

There seems to be room for a sequel, but I don’t need one. They’ll only mess it up somehow anyway. At the end of Dog Days the world of Fronaldo has been saved, Shinku (the protagonist) has gotten lots of experience, and in theory he can go back again within 3 months. That’s enough for me.

I need more series like this. Stuff that makes me feel good inside and leaves a good taste when it’s all over.

Chou (Super) Virgin manga review

A seven-volume romantic/cross-dressing comedy by Uchida Fujimaru. The protagonist is Hanazono Ippei, a middle-school student who suffers from the interestingly-named “Cherry Boy” Syndrome, which means he freaks out completely whenever he even goes near a girl. Thanks to that he fails an exam for a co-ed high school, which means he loses a bet he had with his dad and has to dress up like a girl and work in their restaurant.

However, Ippei finds out that as a girl he has no problem at all talking to girls and gets a crush on one of the customers on the same day. This is good news for him… right?

Uhh, not quite. It’s never that simple. Dressed as Ichiko, Ippei manages to win Rika (his crush’s) trust while simultaneously sort-of dating her as Ippei. And then there’s the fact that Rika is a pro-wrestler whose her arch-rival falls in love with Ippei, which means you’ve got the beginnings of a far-from-ordinary romantic comedy.

Chou (Super) Virgin! was pretty good, since it had a good balance of romance, action and comedy. Ippei gets involved in pro-wrestling, has to save Rika from the clutches of a rival (who then falls in love with Ichiko), has to navigate his way through several tiffs with Rika, and has to keep his secret from coming out while slowly getting over his Cherry Boy Syndrome issues.

The ending was happy, but left a bit to be desired. SPOILERS: Rika finds out about the deception and is rightfully mad, but then Ippei goes “I love you! I only did this because I love you!” and then everything is somehow okay again and they’re a couple. The ending shows he explained his problem to her and that she forgave him, but it really is sudden. And they haven’t shown how they’re going to resolve the issue of her being 19 and on her own and he being 16 and in school. 10 years from now it won’t even matter, but right now they’re at very different places in life.

But well, all’s well that ends well. It was a fun series, not too many wacky hijinks, an interesting cast, and a happy ending. Can’t ask for much more than that.

More movies

I forgot to write up the two Hong Kong movies I watched on the last KLM flight I took a couple of months ago. They were “Double Tap” starring Leslie Cheung and Alex Fong, and “I Love Hong Kong”, with Sandra Ng and Tony Leung (Big Tony). They were both kinda bad, though Double Tap was watchable, especially in hindsight, seeing as it stars Leslie as a seriously depressed maniac. He plays Rick, a gun expert who develops a penchant for killing after shooting a crazed cop, while Alex Fong plays the policeman who has to track him down and stop him.

The movie was going well until the end, which was too simplistic. Basically the men shot each other, but Alex’s wife had taught him breathing techniques to prolong his life when shot, so he lived and Leslie died. See, that’s too simplistic right? Bit of a disappointment there.

“I Love Hong Kong” was just bad. The idea was good, about a man who moves back into a housing project with his family after losing everything. The movie is supposed to show how they adjust to life in a poor area and how they transform it eventually but 1. It takes them very little time to adjust completely, so there’s no tension there. 2. All the real transformation is carried out by the man’s shady friend, played by Eric Tsang. The family might as well not have moved back. 3. All problems are quickly and easily resolved, making you wonder if they were really problems at all. 4. The ending features a spectacularly cheesy singing sequence that made me cringe in my seat and change the channel. Way to go.

Watching Cantonese movies on flights really helps the time pass quickly, while letting me learn a bit in the process. Every time I watch a movie after studying for a while, I find I understand more and more of what’s being said without relying on the subs. I’m still not entirely ready to go sub-free, but I’m getting there.

Ten yori mo Hoshi yori mo manga review

A classic shoujo romance manga by Akaishi Michiyo. Ten yori mo Hoshi yori mo is at least 35 years old at this point, but a good romance is a good romance. About the only thing “off” is the lack of mobile phones, which made me go “Why don’t you just call him! Oh wait…” many times.

The story is about three high school kids who find themselves with superpowers, the love triangle that develops between them and their quest to find out who they truly are and where those powers came from.

Since it’s that old, I don’t mind spoiling: The girl Mio, and her beloved Sou/Rei turn out to have been Shizuka Gozen and Minamoto Yoshitsune from ancient Japan, finally reunited in the present. The bad guy Tadaomi is Oda Nobunaga reincarnated, meaning he has nothing to do with those two lovers and is just an interloper. He most likely mistook Mio for someone else, but this is never gone into.

The series ends with all three getting shot by policemen who mistake them for monsters. Tadaomi jumps into a fire, and that’s the end of him. Mio and Sou walk into the ocean, where presumably they are finally together in death. It’s possible that Mio used her powers to shield them from the water until they got further away, but not only has she exhausted her powers stopping a tsunami right before, but they have also both been, you know, shot, so it’s unlikely. So yeah, it’s not a very happy ending.

As far as romances go it was good, though. There’s no waffling between lovers, no silly misunderstandings, no petty squabbles between the lovers and lots of love and mutual respect. Mio and Sou find each other early and stay true to each other in the face of adversity. The cast is also kept reasonably small, allowing the story to be focused and fast-paced. I like that. If all shoujo romance series were like Ten Yori Mo, Hoshi Yori Mo, I wouldn’t have a problem with them at all. Except for, you know, the whole miserable ending thing. I still recommend it as a very enjoyable read with memorable characters.