Joenen Jump: Monster

Hello everyone! I've been busy this whole summer. With the combination of moving back home, leaving my job, finding a new job and getting to move again, life has been getting in front of Joemiroquai. Thankfully, things are somewhat winding down in a calm-before-the-storm sense and I had some time to ignore reality and find an anime that I have heard some reviewers say," there's so much hype around it! It deserves all the hype! I am the hype! HYPE!" This being said, I was skeptical and in that judgmental mentality, but so far my summer hasn't let me down. So after watching Monster's Inc. and Monsters University, I decided to kick back on a Monster energy and Watch Naoki Urusawa's Monster!

Starring 90s Trent Reznor

 

 Monster started off as a manga in the early 2000s and later turned into a series in 2004-2005. I could type more logistical information, but what I found important is that this is a type of anime called seinen, which literally translates to "young man". I personally haven't heard of this title before; I only know the basic anime labels that mean things are adult material. However, seinen animes are aimed at young men/men who are grown up/ men who like good anime. I say this because according to Wikipedia, other seinen titles include: Hellsing, Berserk, Battle Royale, Ghost in the Shell, and Elfen Lied. Because of these titles, I expected lots of blood, gore, fan service, and everything that anime is stereotyped.

 

 However...I was deceived. Instead of watching "Generic Guy Anime Episode I: Boobs" I found an enticing, alluring thriller that kept me hooked and wanting more. I wish people would just say that this show just has a feel of its own and try not to put labels on it. There were many things that make this series gripping for people that are looking for serious anime. Maybe it was the female characters that you can actually relate to and aren't as interesting as watching your fingernails grow. Maybe it's the fact that you can see every one of these things happen in real life. I feel that this series broke from the "seinen" brand that people have put on it because although it is entertainment, it is the kind of entertainment of watching multiple perspectives on an issue and how natural and forced events can effect the outcome rather than watching hulking male leads kill things because your animation studio is great and your plot writers are a bunch of canines who forgot how to dog.

for those who like pretty pictures and have no imagination.

The Plot

It starts off with Dr. Kenzo Tenma, a top of the line neurosurgeon in Dusseldorf, Germany in the 80s. Dr. Tenma has a lot of things going for him, but after a series of events in which his fiancee/daughter of the chief of staff/bitch says that human lives aren't equal and his soon to be father-in-law determines who Dr. Tenma works on, he realizes that he needs to make his own decisions and operate on the next person coming in: a little boy with a bullet wound in his head named Johan Liebert. Tenma saves the boy, and not only is Tenma in hot water, but three other doctors, one of them including the chief of staff, all wind up dead. Fast-forward nine years, and Tenma is doing well at the hospital when all of a sudden one of his patients start muddering about a monster who is going to take over the city. When that patient escapes to a construction site, Tenma chases the patient down and watches the patient get killed by the "monster" he was talking about, which turns out to be Johan Liebert, the boy he saved nine years prior. Because of Tenma giving him life before, he now goes on a journey to stop Johan from killing.

That being said, it has a relatively simple plot in the beginning: doctor saves kid, kid becomes serial killer. Over time, the plot becomes more developed and there are many events that contribute towards the development of the characters. Something else I really liked about this series is that there weren't plot twists in every episode, but rather a few large twists that change the focus entirely. Every episode adds little pieces to the overall atmosphere and come into play at a later point in time. However, I will say that there are a lot of little pieces: 74 to be exact. This is a lengthy anime, but they covered every single one of their points and left no stone unturned. Honestly, I've watched anime twice as long as this and walked away from them feeling unfulfilled *coughdragonballeverythingcough*

oh! is this the episode where Trunks is a little bitch?! I've seen this one!

The Characters

Oh my gosh, I can't rant about these characters enough. Every single character is fleshed out, realistic, and dynamic to the point that you can relate to them and know people that are like them. What I liked is that every character is justified for their actions. There is no," I did this because... reasons". Not only is there justification, but there is build up in episodes prior to those actions happening. I feel that that is something anime commonly misses; the idea of letting an idea fester for a few episodes rather than just trying to find quick execution. Something else that is here that isn't in a lot of anime? good female characters. Although there is only one female character that is fairly present (and really only one other one that pops in every now and again), the other female characters are well developed (MENTALLY) and honestly show more growth than the male characters. That is big to say, especially what happens through the series. I'll put the characters to you like this: in the end of the series, I liked every single character.

With that being said, there are a lot of characters. I mean a lot. Although each character is weaved in and out of the story seamlessly, there are many occurrences in which I said," hey it's that one guy from that one episode!" Thankfully, each character creates enough of an impact that he/she is hard to forget

The Presentation

At first, I thought there wasn't much to say about this aspect. However, as I think about it more I realize that Monster has an amazing presentation of realism and atmosphere.  From an animation aspect, it does really well in fulfilling the motions set out by the characters and FINALLY attach realistic facial expressions and not the typical anime faces. What impressed me was the atmosphere the Madhouse animation studio was able to build. there is an ample amount of shading and texture on the environment that everything looks sleek. The music tends to be a little repetitive, but it is used effectively to supplement the environment. The show's music is good... with the exception of the ending themes.

 

 For the first time, I think I heard music as aawkward as the composer looks...

The messages behind it all

Throughout the series, you see characters build friendships, become bitter enemies, and grow through the choices they have made. The two main messages behind it all (as it should be) is Tenma's downward spiral/obsession to stop Johan, and Johan's reasoning and background for the choices he made. There is a common theme of "What is a Monster?" throughout the entire series and it begs questions all the way until the very last scene. I wish I could rant about the messages more but I can tell you... they embrace a lot of things. From race, upbringing, nature vs. nuture, choices, frickin... everything. Hell, I was reflective when I watched the series, which is hard to do in a media where they try too hard to be philosophical.

Conclusion

This show is amazing. You should really invest the time to watch it, and get your friends to watch it so you all become better people. However... I think they should make a prequel to Monster. A show where Kenzo Tenma is struggling through relationships with girls and his parents and have some bubbly characters. and I think it should be called...

...
...

Monster High.

Thanks for reading!

Joey

P.S. Please subscribe, check out other stuff, and check out my friends stuff on geeksotroundtable.blogspot.com !

Joenen Jump #2: Wild Knights Gulkeeva

Today, we're going to take a trip back to 2003. There were many things that were different... the iPod was starting... we had a president that almost died by choking on a pretzel... most importantly, there was no youtube.  "But, how would one watch video film on the internet without youtube!?" You may ask. Well, if it wasn't on Newgrounds or Ebaumsworld, then you'd have to go to the sketchiest places on the internet to find what you need. I say this because this is where I found this anime. I was in 8th grade in 2003 and I was watching anime openings when I clicked on... this.

Or go to this for top quality. I could find it in my uploader :( 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wGy_DVhwFU

Now, before you," tch, typical 90s anime." Get into the 8th grade mentality. Ripping intro? Kid around my age with a sweet sword beating up alien/demons with an armored wolf, eagle AND gorilla!? I was instantly hooked! I WANTED to watch this anime! but, I fell victim of the early stages of the internet and no one heard of this... but now, after 10 years, I finally found the entire series online. After watching the first episode... here is how I feel about the whole series.

This show is so good!!! I really enjoyed the first episode. I know, I know it's the first episode... but I enjoyed the light-hearted aspects of the show. Not only that, but the biggest thing that stood out in my mind? The main character... has parents. that are ALIVE! and on top of that, they help the main character! I don't want to discuss too much about the first episode, but I'll sum the plot like this (in the words of geekasaurus mike) It's like Thundercats meets He-Man.

Now, before you go and watch it and come back and be like,"ISTOTULEENAHTLAIKDATATAL" let me explain something. This show was made in the 90s. Not only that, but it was anime in the 90s. You miss bare midriff shirts and mullets? They're back. Remember how people were overly moody because there weren't any guitar solos on the radio in the 90s? Well... I was... anyways! This has a lot of the antics that were popular in 90s anime. So, think about it like this: 80s set but with a 90s display. A lot like me!

So, after having an anime release that was 10 years in the making, I heavily encourage everyone to at least try this anime. Yeah, it doesn't break any new ground in terms of plot, but it's a good old 90s anime that reminds us of the golden age of anime and how it has progressed since then. One last key note: watch out for fan art of this show. The animals get really close...

Here's the first part of the first episode! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjzwu5sfuoQ&list=UU9iLuTAzLAYInIzzbKKRrnw&index=75

Thank you for reading!

Joey

Joemiroquai: The Last Story

Pixels and Perspectives #1- The Last Story

Remember the Wii? Well, there are some very good games on it that aren’t directly related to Nintendo! I know it may be hard to believe in times like these, but  there are many fine rpg titles for the wii like Xenoblade Chronicles and… uh… Tales of Symphonia and… well… you know… something besides this one that I am reviewing today. I’m going to give you a view on my interpretation of Mistwalker’s latest achievement The Last Story.

When I started playing this game, I was hooked and had a lot of high hopes for this game. However, I started to lose interest over time. I wanted to get into more battles because the fights were great! However, after about two thirds of the way through the game, I lost interest. So, what happened? I’ll start with what I liked.

What I liked:

- the battle system. To be honest, I think that the battle system is really fun and innovating. There is no wait-time and no real battle sequence. Heck, there isn’t even an attack button! You literally point the stick at the enemy and the dude starts swinging. Not only that, but you can have up to six people on your side in a fight. Six people! I haven’t seen that many people fight along side you since the Suikoden series! I mean… you had to have those kind of numbers in the Suikoden series because of so many characters, but in this game you can use everyone you know in a fight. Thankfully, there are varying roles with each character so all in all it makes a nice chemistry. Which leads me to my next point…

- the cast. I’ll get to the individual characters later on, but I can say this about the cast: I like them a lot. My first impression is that they look like characters from the world of Ivalice, from Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy XII fame. I've heard multiple reviewers dive into this... but I'll let it slide. It’s an attractive cast; they're young, and they get along very well. So attractive the fanart is through the roof on this one! I would post some but… well, let’s just say that the male characters get very comfortable with each other. Even though there is all that, I can say that there is witty dialogue between each character and it creates an overall lighthearted feel. 

Straight out of Ivalice, er... Lazulis... Island.

What I didn’t like:

- the characters. Now, I know in the last point I said I liked the cast. As I was playing this, I kept having this awkward complex of liking the dialogue and present chemistry, but hating how superficial each character was. Through this, I realized that the group is great as a whole, but none of the characters are solid enough to establish an individual identity. This is partially because of the structure of the plot, but to me this is a major pitfall because I ended up not caring for the individual people. I went from,” Oh no, this person could be dead!” and instead saying,” oh no! who’s going to heal me now!?” It was frustrating, but I think the shallow characters could be because of……

- the plot. The plot to this game isn’t really enticing. It starts off with our young yet sort of androgynous heroZael and his buddies being mercenaries and fighting through the land to make money. Zael finds this power called the Power of the Outsider, which is mysterious and no one really knows about it except… you guessed it… the corrupt king that wants to use it for his own benefit! He wants it to fight the lizard people because… I guess they’re lizard people… I wish there were nice lizard people in a JRPG… oh well. 

an eyepatch AND gold trimmed black armor?! totally not evil.

But anyways! It seems fairly standard, and although I haven’t completed the game the plot seems to be pretty much about that. There’s a princess involved that doesn’t want to be royalty and acts like a love interest for Zael… that’s as much individual character development as you’re going to get.

- the “we are obligated to do this to make the game longer” phases. There is a lot of this in this game. I will give you a perfect example.

***SPOILERS… but not really because this was used as filler….***

Ok, so like in every JRPG, you get captured. Since you are the main character, you don’t just do your sentence and come off looking like a respectable citizen. No! You meet another man in your cell named Horace, who is the king of fetch quests in this game. Anyways, he has been digging a hole and thinks you can get out by going through this hole. Wonderful, it provides experience and, well… I’ve been fighting in caves through a majority of the game. So, you get to the end and beat the obligatory boss of the area, and you get to a dead end… What does Horace do? He says,” I’m sorry master Zael. I thought this would be a way out.”

I wanted to just write gotcha… but this photo helped me deliver it more.

…… that’s it. You just spent about 30 min and nothing came of it!? No special item!? No new plot to this Outsider thing!? Then, guess how you get out of the cell? You are proven innocent.  This was very frustrating to me, and one of many examples of ways they tried to extend this game to make the storyline longer. The length of this game isn’t close to long either; I’ve spent about 15 hours on it and I’m two thirds through the storyline. One way they could’ve made this longer was if they changed…

- the difficulty. My last rub with this game is how easy it is. The battle system grants everyone five lives, and if your character uses all five of his/her lives, then you must start from the last check/save point. This is fine, but I’ve hardly lost one life in a battle, let alone all five of them. Another aspect that contributes to the easiness of the battle system is that the game stresses tactics in every battle, but the tactics can be easily disregarded which will lead to you winning battles by just brute strength. Pretty much, you just point your control stick at what you want to attack and… well that’s it because you don’t even have to manually attack someone.

What’s my verdict? The Last Story is fun, but don’t look at it if you want an in-depth and inventive RPG that changes the face of gaming. Although the battle system and overall feel is nice, the intricacies of the game make it become less appealing. Even though it is not the best RPG, I do believe that this game is at least worth a couple plays.

Joemiroquai's Anime Review

Hello everyone! This is the first installment of a new series that I wanted to create in which I review anime. Now, before I get started, I know the cute name is called JOEnen jump, which is a blatant play on the popular manga magazine shonen jump. Even though its called joenen jump I'm covering all sorts of anime! The first anime we are going to cover is an anime that I've heard is good and was a nice show  to get back into anime. I haven't a good anime in a few years, so I decided to try this.

Joenen Jump #1: Higurashi: When They Cry

When I was a kid, I started anime like most other anime fans my age by watching shows that I didn't know were from Japan. Pokemon, Dragonball Z, Speed Racer, and G Force/Battle of the Planets/Gatchaman were shows that I loved! Well, when I got into high school and college I didn't watch anime nearly as much. Not only that, but I realized that it was hard to watch a new anime. I realized that I only enjoyed anime for the nostalgic value. However, I wanted to try something new, whether it was shogo or shonen! and what better way to start a show by seeing this?

See? Happy, cute, shogo artwork. Everything's happy! Everyone's getting along. Now, this is how the show starts multiple times (I'll explain later), but almost every time the show ends it looks something like this (not really a spoiler, but still pretty gruesome)... 

BWAH! what happened!? It looked so happy in the beginning! let me explain how this show goes, so when you watch it, you won't be lost like me.

 Higurashi: When They Cry started off as a video game series that is set up like a visual novel. Although these games aren't very popular in the U.S. (besides 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors, which is amazing!) they are very popular in Japan. These kinds of games are extremely text-heavy and are built around the decisions that you make. The pitfall of taking a decision-heavy, multiple-ending-having game series and turning it into a linear anime is that the freedom of choice is taken away. Thankfully, this show accommodated for this by taking each path and putting it into separate chapters. I didn't know this at first, so I was very confused when the new chapters would start, which was my bad! The plots range from curses, desperation, abuse, and redemption. There is always a theme of the supernatural through each story arc but it pertains more to some arcs than others.

What I liked about this show

The pacing-- I will say that the pacing of this show is very good. There are many times in anime where they have recap episodes or random fan service episodes. This kept the recap and fan service down to a minimum! Another thing I enjoyed about the pacing is the rate of the pacing. I was never bored with the story arcs. More importantly, I didn't feel that the story was rushed. There are six chapters in the first season, and each story has their own way of having a strong pace.

The atmosphere-- The atmosphere is set very well. The biggest thing that impressed me was the seamless transition from a happy shogo anime to a twisted, disjunct tale of struggle. I really like how they introduce the transitions to each arc, as it generally starts with one character and the mood slowly seers into the other characters. 

What I didn't like about this show

The characters-- With each arc, there is generally three things: something evil, a designated "good guy" and a designated "bad guy". The evil is generally revolved this being called Oyashiro, who is the guardian of the city. There is a thing called "Oyashiro's Curse", in which someone either goes crazy and kills people, or kills his/herself. Because of the various arcs and choices characters switch roles fairly quickly. Because of this, it was hard for me to like a specific person, which is kinda frustrating for me because I'm a sucker for a good cast. Also, I felt like the characters didn't have a strong set of personality traits. Their emotions seem superficial and when things spiral out of control I didn't really care about the cast. 

Intentional plot holes-- With each arc, there are questions left unanswered. Now, I understand that this is a good way to use other arcs as a different vantage point to the previous story line. However, at the end of the series ( NOT a spoiler alert) there is a narrator that explains that there are many other questions left unanswered in the town, which I know is an easy to raise demand for another season. To be honest, I really don't like it when a series or a movie leaves out enough information that it won't make complete sense until another part is made. The cliffhanger also didn't come off as suspenseful or intriguing. So, anime, remember, learn from horrible movies and realize that if you want a sequel you must make each part strong as a stand alone movie (I'm looking at you, I Am Number Four!)!  

"but Michael Bay always makes a sequel!"

So, Now that I've ranted about the good and bad of this series, it's time to give my final words on it. Overall, the show was good. It had strong pacing, a decent story, and a pretty nice atmosphere. However, the characters are very flip-floppity and they always leave something out for the purpose of filling it in later. The real question is whether or not you are invested in it enough to watch until the plot holes are filled. The end of each arc is gruesome and climactic, which may make the beginning of the next arc feel out of place. Just remember that there are different arcs and it's a good show to watch if you want a nice blend of scariness, craziness, and cuteness

Thank you for reading!

Joey