Having seen the anime series a good number of years ago (before this website began), and thus knowing at least the eventual outcome of the first season, this is a tough volume to review in the usual way. For the most part, it’s very similar to the first few episodes of the series, so here are some thoughts about what stood out for me on experiencing the story for the second time.

• The hikikomori allegory aspects stood out much more strongly this time around: the hub world with the many possible entrances, the idea of talking to dolls as a form of therapy even–see Lars and the Real Girl for a much more positive take on the idea in American cinema, of all places. Reading this post-Welcome to the NHK! is instructive; the situation is somewhat reminiscent for one of the sister with the MMORPG-addict brother though Nori is much more domestic, much more motherly. (And less interesting, alas.)
• That contrast between Jun and Nori makes Jun that much more unsympathetic in this instance too. For some reason I don’t remember being as irritated with him when I saw the anime than when I read this manga. He really is a bit of a jerk, though of course the point of the series is watching him come out of his shell.
• The line work is lavish and attractive. I was not all that taken by the dolls in the anime for some reason, and I found many of the voice actresses annoying. There are some wide panels in the manga that show off the fine detail of the hair and the dresses and I can recognize the artistry in them now. Kudos to Peach Pit.
• It’s interesting we are barely told anything about the Alice Game so far. Most of the time spent in the in-between world was devoted, Evangelion-style, to the internal and real-life world of Jun and what he’s missing. As I mentioned before the hikikomori aspects are clearer to me now and so the story seems more character-driven as a result.
• Why did I also feel that the conversation Shinku and Nori have about the right temperature for tea leaves was a thinly veiled allegory about Jun? It reminded me very much of the conversation about pinot noir grapes in the movie Sideways, in which different kinds of grapes = different kinds of people.

Will I continue the manga? I’d actually be curious in knowing a little bit about how it differs from the anime from all of you who’ve read it, so feel free to give some general hints in that direction. (No outright spoilers, please.)

Just as Half Life had its head crabs, Alien Nine, a bizarre attempt to fuse the school slice-of-life genre with bloody alien hunting antics, has the ‘Borg. I suspect the name is no accident.

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The story in the Welcome to the NHK! manga has now fully departed from that of the anime, and the bleakness is almost stifling. Still, it really gets some parts of human nature right: the infinite capacity for self-deception and the power of indiscipline.

Note: Over a year ago, I reviewed volume 1, volumes 2 and 3, and volume 4 of the NHK manga. Even longer ago, I reviewed the light novel where it all began. This is a long-delayed follow-up to all this.

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Suffering is moe.

Crucified on the cross, Jesus Christ knew profound suffering.

Therefore, Jesus Christ is profoundly moe.

This, along with a few other propositions of dubious logical merit, forms the basis of Let’s Bible, a tale of Biblical proportions that toes the line between being bizarrely funny and simply wrong. Perhaps, as James Wood said, the Creator cannot be reified, but in Let’s Bible, Jesus is certainly moefied.

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Shitsurakuen is metafiction. However, rather than metafiction that cleverly employs existing genre tropes to make an argument, it is metafiction that simply arrives back at the starting point. Both visually and narratively, it borrows heavily from classics such as Revolutionary Girl Utena and Sailor Moon, yet fails to do anything new with the material.

The protagonist Sora is an innocent, strong-willed girl who believes in truth and justice. This essentially makes her a female iteration of the typical good-hearted male lead in shounen shows – not very smart, but with a good heart and a strong sense of right and wrong. From the get-go, she is contrasted with her more mature friend Tsuki. Tsuki has learned to accept the wickedness of the world and not fight back against it, thereby becoming a collaborator in her own oppression.

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Growing up in the latter half of the 70s horror movie boom which included such high profile works such as The Exorcist, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dawn Of The Dead, Halloween, and others, my childhood was well-versed in the art of nightmare weaving before the onset of slashers reduced the format into scant numbers, and dopey kill counting. So it was especially important that in the latter years that I searched for scares that matched those that affected me so strongly in my younger years. Thankfully, through the video age, it became easy to see that there were others throughout the world who felt similarly. Who knew that the art of scary was more than being hacked apart by a zombified goalie, or a wisecracking bundle of foam latex. They knew that horror could run deeper than that. And appropriately, Japan has often had a well attuned frequency between the natural and supernatural worlds, making it an ideal place to explore the blackest corners of the human mind.

With only days remaining until the veil between worlds fades yet again , it felt appropriate to go ahead and share a few horror favorites from the hallowed vaults. And since there’s no real shortage of great works, I’ll be making picks from both the manga and anime worlds. And besides, nothing suggests the creeping approach of winter better than a good, scary story to read at bedtime.

Keep in mind that these are merely my opinion, and am quite aware of the vastness of great horror works available. Just sharing ones I’d love to see more folks embrace over time.

So let’s get into it, shall we?

the prophetess, Hinoto

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Yomeiro Choice is all about excuses.

Sakuraga finds excuses to ditch girls and avoid relationships. His female friends find excuses to spend time with him and/or avoid confronting their own feelings. His time-traveling future daughters (yes, that’s right) try to find excuses for him to get their mothers teen pregnant in the present. Mangaka Tenkla uses this improbable setup to justify a ream of fanservice and visual gags.

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There is much I could say in praise of Eureka Seven. I have already covered it from an allegorical angle, but what about the experience? How good is it as a show?

There again, it does not disappoint.

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Take one gangly kid, one cooldere, and a bunch of heroic rebels who just want to live free. Put them in a dystopian future where an almost-magical element, trapar, generates lift forces and enables them to defy gravity. Mix in mecha, a threat to the world, and an uneasy peace. Serves seven: Eureka Seven.

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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to participate in the Japanese delinquent world? With its immersive atmosphere, highly decompressed storytelling, and blow-by-blow action, Worst offers readers that experience.

Other manga such as Tenjou Tenge and School Rumble feature older-looking high school students who have the features of young adults rather than teens. Worst takes this a step further: most of its brawling gang bosses appear to be in their twenties or thirties, despite being high schoolers.

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