New Semester, New Series

Five days till the semester is complete. During these sixteen weeks I have watched little anime, but what I have seen is largely fantastic. Samurai Champloo was first, hosted by the Anime Club (which is now concerned with Hellsing), and I watched Area 88, Murder Princess, and Gunslinger Girl. The last was the best, and the worst is probably Hellsing, though my taste in anime is far more strict than most. A glance over my anime list will betray a penchant for serious, often dark or disturbing, thought-provoking material. Very little light-hearted media of any kind - Haruhi stands out like a bloodstain on snow.

Samurai Champloo is similar in motif to Bebop: like the latter, it meanders while avoiding the general plot until the conclusion is close, but you love every minute of the journey. Area 88 was a beautifully drawn short series all about fighter jets - decent tale and great animation. Murder Princess (short OVA) was not so hot but could have been worse. Hellsing is a bloody mess, just fan service and ridiculous gore. But Gunslinger Girl! Now that is anime worth seeing.

It is impossible to spoil the plot because there is no plot - just five character sketches loosely tied to a larger theme of counterterrorism and Mob fighting. The implications and issues are profound, the characters real, and the animation quality through the roof. It wrenched me to see those little girls turned into systematic killing machines and wrenched even more to see how their handlers treat them. But I would watch it again in an instant and even buy it at some point. Questions on the ends and means, the power of the human spirit, morality in a covert war, and human cruelty are all raised, though none are answered. As Pan's Labyrinth was the best film I had seen since Citizen Kane, Gunslinger Girl is the best anime series since Claymore. It is an absolute masterpiece. Some called it everything wrong with anime and manga subculture (little girls "taken care of" by older men whilst clutching phallic symbols [why is everything a phallic symbol nowadays?] and whatnot), but they are as wrong as they are stupid. My taste is exquisite and I know Gunslinger Girl to be fantastic. I will probably let Zach in on the good news when next I see him.

I next plan to watch the second season though its animation quality plummeted - a severe disappointment. Afterwards, I found a short list of anime that look intriguing (a short list, for good anime is getting progressively harder to find): Le Chevalier D'Eon, Heroic Age, Gantz, Fantastic Children, Fafner, Full Metal Alchemist, Code Geass, and Devil May Cry. Their title alone interested me, and then they passed the Wikipedia and YouTube tests - I run searches on potential series; first an overview/summary test on Wiki, and then an Internet trailer. If they pass these triple challenges I grant them a pilot, but they had better deliver.

I hope S.2 delivers. I would be very sad if the fabulous first season had a Return of Jafar for a sequel.