Category: Anime

I finished disc 1. Spoiler commentary below the fold, in which I suggest that the whole issue of reality vs virtual reality is a huge red herring.

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I’ve started watching disc 1 of this highly-recommended series. In a nutshell, the story begins with a schoolgirl in Tokyo who gets an email from a classmate who committed suicide a week earlier. I don’t have any meaningful plot insights as yet but my general complaint is that the story is really dragging along. To be honest I’m already kind of bored. However, Steven wrote in his review that “there’s economy to the story telling. Nothing has been included which is extraneous or unnecessary.” Based on that, and the other strongly positive comments from other otaku, I’m going to see this through.

Some spoiler speculation below the fold: (more…)

There’s an entire subgenre of Cyberpunk called steampunk, which fetishes steam and coal-based technology (most often set during the Victorian era). The ethos of the Victorian era was mastery over nature by sheer will and brute application of technology, and steampunk takes the signature technology of that era (namely, coal-fired steam engines) and extrapolates them to – frankly – absurd degree. H.G. wells is probably the literary forefather of the genre, but tit was really William Gibson and Bruce Sterling’s novel The Difference Engine that really established it. That was a great book, and I think set the general optimistic tone that is now common to steampunk (as opposed to the grim dystopian tone of most cyberpunk).

At any rate, Steamboy is pretty much tailored to the genre. I’m sure there are other examples of steampunk anime out there but I have limited awareness. I heard about Steamboy from AICN and decided to give it a shot.

In a nutshell, Ray is a prodigy child in Manchester, UK who has an innate knowledge of steam technology. His grandfather and father are working in Alaska and come across a new power source that immediately draws the attention of the great powers (US and UK). The new source, called a steamball, is sent to Ray to keep it out of the wrong hands but powerful grups convereg on and chase Ray trying to gain the technology for themselves.

I’m only about 1/4 way through the story but will update the post as I complete it. In the meantime, please chime in (no spoilers yet, please) with your thoughts on Steamboy if you’ve already seen it.

Some time ago I’d ranted about how Grave of the Fireflies was the most depressing anime ever, though others later chimed in with some context in defense. Now I see that Mark has a review up and it’s well worth a read. Like him, I still can’t recommend the title to anyone other than emotional masochists – but I can appreciate its value as a work of art with a message much better after reading Mark’s post. And I learned this wierd anime factoid of the day: Fireflies was originally intended to be seen back to back with My Neighbor Totoro. How’s that for emotional whiplash?