“The Windy City” – Chicago (manga) – 4/10 Black Cats

Everything in the universe goes by indirection. There are no straight lines. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mangaka: Yumi Tamura

Genre: Action/Romance/Shoujo

Review Status: Complete (2 Volumes/2 Volumes)

Licensed: Yes, this manga is licensed in the US

Art: This looks more like a rough sketch than a manga. Unfortunately, the messy artwork makes it hard to tell what’s going on, and in some places is downright unattractive. It also seems dated for when the manga ran.

Summary: Rescue workers Rei and her handsome partner Uozumi are looking for survivors after Tokyo’s worst earthquake of the 21st century. But their efforts uncover man-made violence- they are suddenly attacked and their entire squad murdered! Some secret plot is lurking in the ruins of Tokyo Bay District D, and to find it, Rei and Uozumi must join a privately funded hostage rescue organization run out of a Tokyo bar called Chicago. Now, Rei saves the lives of others while she searches for her own salvation. (back cover of 1st volume)

Review: I’d always wondered what a shoujo action title would be like. Now I know! It’s… not that impressive. Rei works in a recovery unit, to help find those who are injured or trapped in the aftermaths of disasters. The first thing she says about herself is that her hair is long because it helps her sense danger. This should give you a clue to the quality of the rest of the series.

Unrequited love, government cover-ups, and terrorist plots pervade these two volumes. Apparently rescue workers are common targets for mad killers, because Rei and Uozumi know how to handle their guns and can detect and dismantle bombs. Their escape from a massacre and the subsequent cover-up lead to their recruitment into a special agency that investigates these issues and deals with kidnappings and murders outside of the jurisdiction of the police.

Rei’s longing for the love of her partner comes to the forefront at the most inconvenient and annoying times. The ‘mysterious third partner’ that she starts being attracted to is the stereotypical tall, dark, and handsome that pervades these types of stories. He’s also flawless, able to assess a situation in a single glance, and find his partners with the barest of hints. The partner? Injured but trying.
The focus is all over the place, story-wise. Everything that occurs is connected in the story, but why they all have those connection is up in the air. Some of the plots bank on kidnappers being really dumb (not double-checking or triple-checking their victim’s identity, for instance, and only going off of one photograph). Apparently their methods of stalking are also incredibly lacking, as they don’t discover his identity over the days they watch him. Others bank on just being outright unbelievable, such as the utopia that was being built, and the people not leaving when the earthquake hit. To boot, they added in a super-dramatic past for Rei.

The end of this was abrupt and an utter letdown… even though the rest of the manga meant I wasn’t expecting much in that regard. There’s no resolution to the plot or the relationships between the characters. The only reason I’m not giving this a ‘3’ is because of one character that has perhaps two lines in the manga and an omake dedicated to him- the doctor. I found him to be utterly hilarious, though the omake will probably only appeal to those who have a darker sense of humor.

Overall, this barely works as an action title, and is barely a romance one. Go for something else.

Recommended: No. Well, if you’re into action and aren’t looking or care about a strong plot. 13+. There is some slight blood- people are shot, explosions happen- but almost no gore to speak of. One guy is outright killed on the page. No nudity, no language.

Other titles you might enjoy:
Yomigaeru Sora: Rescue Wings (anime)
Flag (anime)
Zipang (anime)
Taiyo no Mokushiroku: A Spirit of the Sun (anime)

“In The Eye Of The Beholder” – Ode to Kirihito (manga) – 10/10 Black Cats

Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides. ~Lao Tzu

Mangaka: Osamu Tszuka

Genre: Drama/Psychological/Thriller

Review Status: Complete (4 Volumes/4 Volumes)

Licensed: Yes, this manga is licensed in the US

Art: Typical of Tezuka. The characters are far more cartoon-y than what you’ll find in most manga today, with some typical “older” touches to it- think those Mr. Magoo cartoons, and that’s what I’m talking about.

Summary: Kirihito Osanai is a young doctor who's just been introduced to the Monmow disease, which transforms humans into dog-like beasts and kills them within a month of the metamorphosis. While studying the pathology of the disease Kirihito himself becomes an unknowing guinea pig for his hospital's research into it. Under the auspices of research, Kirihito is sent to a remote village in the mountains, where he contracts the Monmow disease himself, and through a series of misfortunes, becomes estranged from his beautiful fiancée, Izumi Yoshinaga (the daughter of his hospital's Director and Chief Physician), and his close friend and rival, Urabe.

As the disease begins to transform Kirihito's body physically, the sudden metamorphosis impacts his character. Kirihito soon begins to doubt the medical world and after much resistance breaks down to accept his new role as a monster and spiritual figure in the quaint rural village he now lives in. Whether he is able to come to terms with his new life, however, it is certain that society will see him very differently. Quickly it becomes certain that Kirihito's life will be continuous strife dictated by the hospital that once employed him and is now looking to attain international acclaim by revealing the secrets (albiet incorrect) of Monmow's Disease.

It quickly becomes the secret mission of Urabe and Yoshinaga to find Kirihito and uncover the conspiracy and mystery behind this medical phenomenon, though Urabe seems to have motives of his own as pertains to the beautiful fiancée. Urabe, however, that is able to link the Monmow disease directly to water that runs from the mountain village where Kirihito is trapped, and the two doctors will independently discover the truth about Monmow. (Amazon.com description)

Review: Sometimes it’s really hard to sum up thoughts on a work. Ode to Kirihito is one of those ones. Kirihito is an honest, driven man, determined to not shake the boat too much. However, his honesty is a two-edged sword: When he goes against the hospital director and feels that he has discovered the true origin of Monmow disease, he is put in the sites of a man that will stop at nothing to support his theory and gain power and prestige from it.

You can tell what era this was written in. Osamu doesn’t shy away from showing the injustices that were perpetrated on people back then. There’s blatant prejudice and racism. At one point a character is nearly killed because she’s white, and (paraphrase) whites couldn’t catch a disease that until then had only been recorded in colored communities. Women are incredibly disenfranchised, with rape occurring several times simply because the man committing them was in love with them and ‘couldn’t control himself’. Sexuality plays a big part, from being used to oppress others to showing that even those who have differences aren’t all bad, as the racism works to show plays of power on the international stage.

It’s against this background that Kirihito must try and find a way to reveal the origins of the disease. He fights against ignorance and misinformation, and sometimes against simple blind hatred towards those who are different. Along the way he deals with the struggle of being considered less than human and the humiliation that comes with it, the question of whether it’s worth trying to survive in such unforgiving conditions, and whether he can actually succeed in his mission to avenge the woman he loved and find a way to right the misinformation the hospital director is trying to pass off as truth.

These questions are asked under the darkest of circumstances, from being used as a sideshow freak for a rich man, to finding a baby dying in the middle of a desert, to one of his companions dying in the dangerous way she lived her life. These events don’t exactly have happy endings. He might find the strength to move on, but they forever weigh heavily on his mind. Kirihito may have a measure of success at the end, but it comes at great cost.

There are definitely good guys and bad guys. Kirihito and most of his friends are sympathetic, dealing with deep flaws but ultimately being good people. The bad guys are mainly flawed, with few redeeming qualities, or what qualities they have dissolving under the need for power or under the pressure they face. It doesn’t make their stories less compelling. Actually, I feel it makes it moreso, as they overcome some obstacles but fail in others. They feel human, and utterly relatable in many ways. They make this story what it is- a brilliant work that showcases the effects of power and prejudice.

Overall, this is a moving manga about differences and revenge, and is a fascinating read.

Recommended: Adults only! People are killed in pretty terrible ways, from bombs and being shot to one instance of being fried alive. There is some gore- you see the wounds, the limbs, the bodies and blood spatter. It isn’t shy about the human body- there are several instances of almost complete nudity. There is also a lot of sexual imagery going on, from scenes of rape, attempted rape, and sex, or forced fellatiato. Thankfully the scenes are never completely graphic and often brief, with blackouts and symbolic pictures instead of being pornographic.

Other titles you might enjoy:
MW (manga)
Monster (anime and manga)

“Turning Time On Its Head” – Steins;Gate (anime) – 10/10 Notebooks

Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will. ~Jawaharlal Nehru

Genre: Sci-fi/Romance/Thriller

Review Status: Complete (24 Episodes/24 Episodes)

Licensed: Yes, this anime is licensed and available for viewing on Crunchyroll

Art/Animation: Very nice. The colors are vibrant, taking on appropriately darker tones in the appropriate places, though the art and character designs fairly standard. The animation is quite nice and fluid.

Dub Vs. Sub: There is no dub. However, since it has also been picked up for distribution by Funimation, one can be expected when it’s finally released.

Summary: Steins; Gate follows an eclectic group of individuals who have the ability to send text messages to the past. However throughout their experimentation process, an organization named SERN who has been doing their own research on time travel tracks them down. Now it’s a careful game of cat and mouse to not get caught and moreover, try to survive. (CrunchyRoll)

Review: This makes up for Chaos;Head in every way. C;H, infamous for being a terrible adaptation of a rather good VN, ended up being the benchmark for whether there could actually be a decent adaptation of a Nitro+ VN. S;G surpassed it in every expectation. Thankfully, you do not need to see or play Chaos;Head to enjoy everything about Steins;Gate.

Okabe Rintarou, Mad Scientist Extraordinaire, is attempting another one of his mad experiments- a microwave phone. Something just keeps going wrong, though. Things that they put into it turn into jelly-like approximations, chemically destabilized almost beyond recognition. He deems it a failure and goes on the trail of another crazy science experiment and conspiracy theory; Time travel. A shocking discovery, and an emergency cell phone call later, and Okabe feels the world change around him. Something is different, and he realizes that the girl that he had discovered dead is now alive. How? Why?

Recruiting her into his ragtag group of friends and their secret ‘lab’, Okabe discovers that time travel may not be as impossible as previously thought. It doesn’t quite work the way they thought it would though. By sending a message to people in the past, the present is changed. Only Okabe seems to remember the past, though, and each time the present is changed, he gets drawn deeper into the conspiracy that the organization STERN has planted around them. The eventual discovery of a horrific fate leads Okabe to try and return things to the way they were.

The one thing that you might want to look up on Wiki is “John Titor”. His explosion onto an internet board, with his claims of time travel and explanations of it, are somewhat important though not necessary to enjoy this anime. You do get the basics of it in the show. It provides the basis for how he is jumping timelines and changing fate.

This builds the story excellently. From who and what the STERN organization is, how and why people send the messages they do, to trying to escape the fate, to the knowledge of what the change will mean for Okabe and the girl he comes to love, there is really no wasted episode. It has some pretty good comedy and pretty heavy drama. The way it’s done, it doesn’t feel forced, and you come to like and care for the members of the group. The ending was very touching- and as much as I would love a follow-up episode, I think that this couldn’t be improved on.

Overall, for a solid sci-fi series that does what it does well, this is exactly what you’re looking for.

Recommended: 13+. There are a handful of swears, virtually all in the first half of the series. The worst it gets is one instance of the b-word. No fanservice except for one instance where Okabe accidentally walks in on Christina and Makise in the shows- you only see their backs. A guy who wishes he was born a girl sends a d-mail to his mom, and she’s born a girl in that timeline (the one instance where I was made truly angry by the science here. There is no way that eating vegetables or meat determines the sex of your child). There is a decent amount of violence, but the use of discretion shots is prevalent. You never actually see the wound being given- you see the aftermath, such as blood trickling down a face, or shadows and some blood, or a limp arm and a broken watch. The worse it gets is seeing the body fall after the wound, or in Okabe’s case, the knife in his gut and blood falling to the floor.

Other titles you might enjoy:
Real Drive (anime)
Steins;Gate movie (anime) (not yet released)
Higurashi: When They Cry (manga, anime season 1 and season 2, and VN)
Occult Academy (anime)
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (anime)
Future Diary (manga)
Time of Eve (anime)
Puella Magi Madoka Magica (anime)

“Can You Keep A Secret?” – Himitsu: Top Secret (anime) – 8/10 Beach Balls

Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets. ~Paul Tournier

Genre: Mystery/Psychological/Sci-Fi/Josei/Thriller

Review Status: Complete (26 Episodes/26 Episodes)

Licensed: No, this anime is not licensed in the US

Art/Animation: The palette of colors used is dark and subdued, almost dull. It’s a less well-know title by Madhouse Studios, so the animation is quite good, though the CG is very apparent and not always integrated well. Some of the styles look a little dated, but it has been over a decade since the manga came out, and that’s what the anime is based off of.

Dub Vs. Sub: There is no dub for this anime.

Summary: A newly developed method allows to display the memories of dead people. It is used to solve difficult murder cases. But at what cost? What of the dead's privacy as strangers poke about in their most private memories? What about the effects the imageries may have on the persons whose jobs require going through psychotic murderers' minds and experience whatever emotions and feelings these murderers felt as they skin and disembowel their victims?
(adapted from manga description)

Review: What are the secrets that drive people? Everyone has them. Some just happen to drive people into death and murder. Those are the secrets that this section investigate. By piecing together clues from the memories of those who have died, they discover things about people that are shameful, that are sad, that make them more human and real than just reading a case file.

How does this work? They take the brain of someone who has died in the last two days, hook it up to a machine that can ‘read’ the signals coming from the neurons within the brain, and using those connections they are able to see the things that happened within a persons’ life. It isn’t perfect- they are limited to what that person saw and sometimes heard, and we don’t store our whole life in our memories- there are some random ones, and some emotionally charged ones, and some important ones, but our lives are not stored like movies. However, using the clues within the memories of people, sometimes leaping back years, they are able to piece together most of what happened in a crime. Each case manages to make an innovative use of the machine and what it can do, keeping it fresh and interesting.

However, this isn’t a story about piecing together crimes, although that is a major component in the story. No, this anime is about the people in Section 9. Aoki, our main character, has been brought to Section 9 as an investigator. He navigates the world of Section 9, his own morals, and his family in order to try and find a balance in his life. It’s his questions and thoughts on what is happening that drives the best part of the series- the moral questions and issues that drive the series. The rest of the team all have their own issues and backstories, from Maki, the section leader that has a hard past to deal with, to Amachi, a woman with a slight sixth sense that is brought down in an investigation. Each person gets an episode to get into their characters, and while it does make them more real, they still receive very little character development.

The mysteries, while well done, and the characters, while decently interesting, are merely vehicles for the issues that are presented in the anime. This is all about privacy- how far does one go in investigating using these methods? When is it okay to divulge secrets that may destroy someone’s reputation? What happens when they intrude on another section member’s life? These things extend beyond the cases they work in and into their own lives- Aoki worries about his coworkers discovering his secret lust for his sister should he die and his father has secrets that have a lot to do with him. His coworkers carry similar worries and ideas. And even those issues delve beyond privacy and into things that affect society- you have problems concerning body modifications, homosexuality, and more.

How these are presented and handled creates much of the drama and makes the stories compelling. Everything is well done, but dealing with these is where the anime shines. This has a heavy psychological atmosphere that makes this heavy watching, but a very good show and handles these issues well. However, the anime does have some issues with various plot threads being dropped. The most noticeable of these is Aoki’s love/lust for his sister, which only is relevant for the first 4 or so episodes and then forgotten.

Overall, if you enjoy dealing with moral issues and society, then this is one to pick up!

Recommended: 16+. This is an anime that deals with some very heavy things. One person they investigate is homosexual. Some are having affairs. One deals with body modifications. Aoki is dealing with lust for his sister (this is not exploited or really dwelled on, merely mentioned). This does deal with murder mysteries, so there are deaths. Most are non-graphic, though the details behind what’s happening can delve into gruesome. I don’t recall any nudity, though there was at least one scene where Aoki sees his sister getting dressed and we see her back and the back of her bra.

Other titles you might enjoy:
Mail (manga)
Monster (anime)
Mouryo no Hako (anime)
Aoi Bungaku (anime)
Shiki (anime or manga)
Bokurano (anime and manga)