What I'm Watching: Ushio & Tora

I have been a fan of anime since I saw the edited version of the original Dragon Ball (not Z, that was a whole other series) back on YTV as a kid. I wasn't familiar with much out of Japan at the time, but something in the way Dragon Ball could be a comedy, action, adventure, and cartoon, all at the same time enthralled me. I have always loved stories about good against evil, but I'd never seen one done like this.

Then I soon enough found my way into series much like it, and realized Japan had been thriving on this for a long time. My interest grew and eventually I found more classics like Yu Yu Hakusho, Cowboy Bebop, and Trigun, among many, many others. I became a fan soon enough.

Cut to me as an adult many years later and I was feeling a bit jaded about it all.

Anime no longer began to appeal to me. It was now covered in nihilism and despair or slice of life series about nothing at all where nothing happens. No longer was it about good against evil, struggles against unstoppable foes, or likeable protagonists. Now it was about glorifying fetishes and empty-headed philosophy inspired by the never-quite-finished Neon Genesis Evangelion while being just as lazy about it. Anime was no longer made for people like me.

Then I heard that not only was a manga series being adapted to an anime, a common practice in Japan, but it was one made from 1990 to 1996, some of the best years for the action genre in anime and manga. It was also a series I'd never read before. A series that is still rather popular now in Japan nearly twenty years after ending. On top of that, it was being directed by the man behind my all time favorite anime, Trigun. The series was called Ushio & Tora, and it would run for 39 episodes, only adapting the main storyline from the manga.

So naturally, I had to give this a chance. And, boy, am I glad I did. The series is currently still running, but I can easily say, it was worth the quarter of a century wait for this.

Ushio & Tora is the story about a high-spirited kid named Ushio who is always eager to jump into the fray and help someone out, and a Youkai (a race of monster in Japan folklore sometimes translated as "Demon") named Tora who is a bit daft. The story begins as Ushio is cleaning out the basement at his family's Shinto shrine and finds a creature pinned to the wall by a spear. This spear is called the Beast Spear, and is a legendary weapon known for slaying evil all over the world over 500 years ago. Tora got into a fight with the previous wielder of the spear and was sealed away in the process.

Now, because Ushio had uncovered the hidden basement where Tora was hidden, evil monsters have been attracted to his hometown by the monster's powerful energy, and the two of them must band together to protect people from this new found threat.

But as Ushio and Tora begin to bond despite being polar opposites, we learn that there might be more to the world after all. You see, there are far worse terrors waiting in the world, and an evil just out of sight looking to devour every Youkai it can and to leave Humans in pure despair at the same time. And it will stop at nothing to achieve its goal.

That's right, Ushio & Tora is a world-shaking battle of good against evil.

But it's also a really good one. You see, Ushio is a good kid for a middle school student, always playing with kids, hanging out with the guys, and treating elders (that aren't his father . . . you'll see) with respect. But he's also a kid who makes mistakes and has to learn from them. Tora is the same, instead being far older and experienced, is enthralled with the modern inventions man has made in his absence. It is here that you can see that Tora is not the vicious killing machine he portrays himself as, but is actually a big kid just looking for a home to hang his hat . . . if he had one.

The Beast Spear gives Ushio incredible strength, enough to slay monsters, but also keeps Tora at bay as his prisoner. It also sharpens his instincts and grows his hair incredibly long. It's a lot for one middle school kid to deal with. But as the two of them are forced into rough situations together, Ushio begins to toughen up and Tor begins to understand more about the world he once hated so much.

The character dynamic is as solid as the buddy comedy is as the opposites play well off each other. There's also Ushio's dad who is a goofball with a strong sense of justice, Asako, Ushio's almost-girlfriend, who is as hard-headed as he is, and Mayuko, an eccentric girl who is responsible for Tora's hamburger addiction (long story), as well as a formed cast out of those Ushio and Tora end up helping along the way. It is an excellent example of how important family, friends, and community, are to our lives and how they are well worth protecting. Even with your life.

This show is the reason I became an anime fan in the first place.

And while manga has been pretty good these days (My Hero Academia, World Trigger, One-Punch Man, and Vinland Saga, just to name a few) there hasn't been much anime to rekindle that spark that anime had back in its glory days from the '80s through the '90s, even if there have been some good series since they haven't been much like Ushio & Tora.

Sure, there is violence and some nudity (always covered up, but its still implied nudity) but it is never over the top or in your face about it. It's more focused on the conflict between good and evil and how the good guys will finally come out on top.

I'm not sure if anyone's really watching Ushio & Tora, so I don't know if it will set off a trend to return to the classic style anime became known for around the world or if it will fall back into its bad old habits that is leading it into fetish obscurity, but if you are a fan of when anime was truly something to behold: a powerful expression of battles of ideals and souls, then you need to watch this show.

Anime is still a force to be to be reckoned with. No matter how obscured it may get, the light still shines through the darkness.

Lyric Time for a Busy Week

It's been pretty hectic this week, so here's a small post. Hopefully next week I can make a bigger one. For now, here are some inspirational lyrics that never fail to get to me. I've had these lyrics in my head buzzing away recently.

Sunny Days

Performed by: Jars of Clay

Written by: Stephen Daniel Mason, Charlie Lowell, Dan Haseltine, and Matt Odmark

Sunny days keepin' the clouds away

I think we're coming to a clearing and a brighter day

So far away, still I think they say, the wait will make their heart

Grow stronger or fonder, I can't quite remember anyway

So if you're waitin' for love, well it's a promise I'll keep

If you don't mind believing that it changes everything

Time will never matter

Winter, spring is what love can truly bring

Ice turns to water, water flows to everything

You can lose your mind, maybe then your heart will find

I hope you won't give up what's movin' you inside, no

So if you're waitin' for love, well it's a promise I'll keep

If you don't mind believing that it changes everything

Time will never matter

So if you're waitin' for love, well it's a promise I'll keep

Even if you don't mind believing that it changes everything

Time will never matter

If the car won't start, when you turn the key

When the music comes on, all your cold

Cold heart can do is skip a beat

It's a promise I'll keep, when you're waitin' for love

If you don't mind believing that it changes everything

Time will never matter

So if you're waitin' for love, well, it's a promise I'll keep

Even if you don't mind believing that it changes everything

Time will never matter

Your time will never matter

Back Home!

There was a lot of traveling this week, but I'm finally back! Unfortunately this means there is not any real time for a post this week.

Anyway, it's good to be back and I only hope I'll be able to write something next week.

Heroes: A Look Back [Season 1, Final Part]

Finishing up the first season of Heroes left me with mixed emotions. Certainly it was nice to see everyone involved in the finale, it certainly did not come together all too well. There were some good characters and reveals, but there were also things left unused and undone and the stinger at the end of the season was not anything I wanted to see from this show.

Claire did not have her memory erased, but everyone else in her life was essentially written out of the show (including her newly revealed mother) because the writers decided to make her father a character that just so happens to be a main character. This is a disappointment, but it does give her some development as she learns about her family. At the same time, her father ends up being one of the more interesting characters on the show when he stops inadvertently turning his wife's brain to mush.

Hiro's plot-line got momentarily derailed by family squabbles, but eventually lead to one of the best episodes in the season which is basically this show's version of Days of Future Past. His friend, Ando, also becomes much more or a hero in his own right despite not having any powers of his own. His story is almost ruined when, at the end, he fulfills his destiny and teleports to, uh . . . Ugh, I don't even wanna take about it. Let's just say that I would have preferred if the show kept its original idea of keeping each story limited to the season it was in. Hiro's story was complete, what happened was just superfluous.

Matt Parkman's story finally becomes worth paying attention to when he is approached by two characters (one of which is jarringly never seen or mentioned again) and is brought directly into the main story. He finally manages to be a real cop and put his power to good use. No more relationship drama or everyone calling him a jerk (for no reason, most of the time), just finally dealing with the main plot.

The low point of this season, however, has been the whole Nikki/Jessica storyline. It was an eternal cycle of Jessica being horrible and killing people, D.L. threatening to take their son away, and Nikki crying about it. Over and over. Their story ends with a confusing death of a villain that doesn't make a lot of sense if you think about how it was achieved, but leads to Peter getting a power that helps him tremendously in the final battle.

Speaking of, Peter's storyline was probably the best storyline in the season. It was the one I wish the rest of the show was more like. From the Invisible Man, to the Exploding Man, he is given a lot to do and a lot to parse through, leading to a final battle with a man who has similar powers to him, but is in a very different place.

All in all, it was a pretty good season with some warts to it. I can sort of see why it was seen as a "LOST-killer" when it started since people were getting sick of LOST spinning its wheels at the time, but it certainly wasn't amazing the whole way through. And from what I hear about how it degrades later, I doubt it will ever retroactively reach that level when looking back.

I'm leaving the province for the next few days, so my friend and I will not be able to watch any more Heroes for a while, but I don't think I'll be too eager to see more. Superheroes on TV (and in film) have come a long way since Heroes, but there is a lot of good here to admire. As it is, I'm glad I watched the first season.

I can't say much for the latter seasons, but season one of Heroes is solid television. If you're a fan of superheroes, you could do much worse than sit through this season of the show. At the very least, it should get you prepared for the new mini-series starting this Fall. I can only hope it manages to top season one and washes out the bad taste a lot of people have for this show. It certainly would be nice.

Heroes: A Look Back [Season 1, Part 2]

I was able to watch a few more episodes of Heroes, bring me about two thirds of the way through the first season of the series. My overall impression is that the series is currently not as strong as it was in the first part of the season with the Save the Cheerleader, Save the World story-line and that the new How to Stop an Exploding Man is suffering from some pacing issues.

For one, we haven't seen the exploding man for more than a minute or two so far. For another, there's only been one new character worth talking about and one character death that was fairly stupid, But the biggest problem is that not much has actually happened compared to the first half.

Peter Petrelli is learning about control of his powers from, literally, the Invisible Man, and . . . actually that's the only story that's really advanced.

His brother is still a jerk, Nikki's story-line is circling the drain, Mohinder has had about 5 minutes of screen-time, Hiro's quest has been derailed by unneeded family squabbles, Sylar is still killing people, Claire and her friends and family had their memory wiped bringing them back to point one again though at least she found her birth mother. And no that I think about it, why didn't Claire's father order the Haitian to wipe Sylar's mind so he would forget his daughter? He certainly has no problem destroying his son's mind with his employee's power, why not an actual, you know, threat? But I digress.

This is the problem a lot of series that have a 20+ episode season have. In about the third quarter of the show, everyone stays in a holding pattern until the end because they have to save their big reveals until the final few episodes. This means a lot of stalling.

Unfortunately there isn't much for me to talk about this time except that the usage of the Invisible Man has been on of the series best decisions so far. It adds a sort of world-weary figure and guide to Peter who had otherwise been flailing around without any direction and explaining his power as something truly interesting. Where this leads I can't be too sure, but for now this has been the best development of the show in recent episodes.

Claire's mother story-line impact would have been better if her father hadn't literally reset everything to zero and have her not remember anything that happened to save her from Sylar at the halfway point of the season. I'm curious to learn more about her and her relationship to her daughter, but for now we instead involve Nathan Petrelli in another story he doesn't need to be a part of. I obviously don't find the family anywhere near as interesting as the writers do, but I'll just have to deal with this revelation and hope it actually leads to something and makes Nathan actually do anything other than be smarmy for awhile.

I guess I'll just have to see what happens next before I can say more. I do hope the season finale lives up to what they are building up to and this holding pattern is broken soon.

To Be a Real Hero

Recently I read through one of the more popular recent series in Japan's Shonen Jump magazine (essentially a magazine with comics aimed at boys) thanks to a friend lending me the first volume of the story. And let me tell you, even if Japan has been lacking in recent years in the anime department, My Hero Academia is a distillation of everything that appeals to me in not only manga but in stories as a whole.

My Hero Academia stars hopeless wannabe hero fanboy, Izuku Midoriya, who lives in a world where superpowers are so common, they comprise 80% of the world's population. There powers are called "Quirks" since almost everyone has a different one. All, that is, except our main character. You see, Quirks develop in early childhood and never at any other point which means he is destined to be normal since those without Quirks cannot be superheroes (so far, there doesn't appear to be a Batman like hero in the story to prove this wrong, so for now I'll go with it) and Izuku is a bit of a wuss as it is.

Though he's a big superhero fan to the point that he actively studies them and knows almost everything about them, he is bullied by a former childhood friend of his who has an incredible Quirk (he can uses his sweat to cause explosions) and sees Izuku, or Deku as he calls him, as merely a worthless pebble in his path. Nobody else thinks much of him, either, his own mother blaming herself for him not having a Quirk (which is not actually her fault, but she is fairly neurotic), but nobody telling him the one thing he wanted to hear.

Though everyone writes him off, one day everything changes. The "#1 Hero in the World", All Might, is in town battling a slippery villain that keeps getting away. A creature made of liquid, he tries to take control of Izuku's body before he is saved by All Might. The two meeting is what changes the course of Izuku's life and lets him learn that he can be a hero, after all.

What I enjoy most about this manga is that though he is a normal kid who has a penchant for being pushed around, he has a sense of justice of wanting to do the right thing. When all the heroes with superpowers are too scared to intervene for either vainglorious, petty, or legitimate, reasons, it is powerless Izuku Midoriya who runs out into the battlefield to save someone's life despite having no chance of succeeding. All Might is inspired by what has occurred and offers him a chance to be a hero for real. All he has to do is have All Might's power passed on to him.

This is is only the first volume, meaning it mainly centers on Izuku getting his powers by earning them and taking an exam to enter the most prestigious hero school in the world, but even here you grow to like the characters. Izuku is not only smart, but he's very admirable, constantly facing impossible odds with all he has despite being scared out of his mind. All Might is a hero who is experienced and knows the trials of being a hero and doing the right thing, he educates Izuku on how it is not about being "cool" or popular, but about being good-- and that is the hardest thing in the world to do.

It's pretty funny, as well. There are a lot of weird powers and comedic bits based on Izuku's natural cravenness and All Might's image as a "super cool hero who saves people with a smile", not to mention well-timed comedic pratfalls as well. What absolutely floors me is the lack of raunchy humor or over the top gore which had become more common in recent manga. To be sure there are jokes about girls being from a different world and some violent scenes where blood is drawn and bone or two is broken but it isn't graphic at all but well in the natural world of the story. As far as it goes is a woman heroine called Mt. Lady who can increase her size to be a giant and people commenting on how beautiful she is. That's pretty much it. It's less explicit than a Silver Age comic book.

I have been reading recent chapters in the North American version of Shonen Jump, which releases new chapters at the same time they are released in Japan, and I can say without reservation that it keeps up its pace or heroes trying to be good and stopping the villains who merely want to destroy. I have to hand it to Kohei Horikoshi for creating a series for everyone that has such universal appeal. This is not something that comes around every day.

All in all, I heartily recommend My Hero Academia to anyone who enjoys a good action adventure story. Though it's still rather new, it is probably the best popular manga currently running. It is certainly the one with the most heart and a real breath of fresh air compared to certain other trashy series out there.

Heroes: A Look Back [Season 1, Part 1]

This might be strange to anyone reads this blog, but I never watched the mega-hit TV show Heroes when it originally aired. At the time I was so burnt out and tired of television that even hearing about a "LOST-killer" didn't really satiate my interest. So I never watched beyond the premiere episode.

To take you back to 2006, you'd have to remember that I like my shows more bright and hopeful-- sitcoms were dying due to aping Friends endlessly and dramas were all about grim and gritty. Neither of those has changed much, not to mention the reality show glut remains and single camera sitcoms are still basically all the same show of neurotic characters giving interviews for some inexplicable reason for easy punchlines, but there has been more of variety out there than there was in 2006 when Heroes premiered.

Since the superhero boom has been such a success for those of us who missed stories about people trying to be heroic and not moping around in pointless despair, I decided to go back to the show that first tried to make a drama about them. Now, I know a little bit about the show and how it slid far downhill, but I still wanted to give it a chance. Since it is having a revival mini-series this year, I thought that now would be the perfect chance to do so.

With a friend of mine, we watched the first half of season 1, which I had never seen before and which he had not seen since it first aired.

Early impressions? Pretty good, actually.

The characters all have good starting points and motivations. Claire Bennett is a cheerleader that is indestructible, Peter Petrelli and his brother, Nathan, have a combative relationship despite discovering they have unique powers that could change it. Hiro Nakamura believes he can save the world and be somebody special. Matt Parkman is able to read people's minds. Niki Sanders is a mystery even to herself. Mohinder Suresh is determined to find these people and learn more about his deceased father. Then there's the mysterious Mr. Bennett and the Haitian searching for those with powers for some strange reason and the villainous Sylar, who enjoys killing and taking powers for his own. All of this happens in the first half of the season, and there is quite a lot of build up in it that makes it easy to see why it was a hit.

The special effects are nothing much to write home about, being as the budget wasn't that great for the time. Some of the show can get way too graphic with the violence regardless, and some of the plotlines can get a bit soap opera at times. It's also hard to empathize or really wrap your head around some characters at this point like Niki Sanders who is more confusing than anything or Matt Parkman whose life is really unnecessarily overbearing for a normal police officer.

Where Heroes succeeds at this point is in the mystery, We don't know where any of this is going, or where the power came from, or what it's all for, and that makes it an interesting watch. The pacing, reveals, and character turns are all so carefully plotted that you just know someone had this planned out far in advance. There's a lot of good craft at play here.

Still, this is only the first half of the first season. There are still more seasons to go and still half a season left in this one. It could turn at any moment.

But at this point I can safely say I understand the hype and success it had. Now to see if the rest of it's reputation is just as well deserved.

More next time!

Waking up, growing up, and moving on

Sometimes when I'm thinking about things that have happened, the way things could have been and the way they are I wonder how I ended up just how I got here.

I'm passing the fourth anniversary of the day I finally saw the real world beyond what my eyes told me and I still think about this. What if I had moved away a long time ago? What if I had stayed where I was instead of where I am? What if I never woke up up? It's something that happens to me every now and then, and I'm not sure if it'll ever really go away.

Of course, it's a silly thing to wonder about. If any of those things didn't happen, I would be a different person. I know this for sure. Everything that happened in my life lead me to where I am now. What happened, how I reacted, and what naturally followed. The other possibilities? They aren't me. They never happened. They will never happen. Who I am now is purely from an act of Grace and how I chose to react and not a drawing of straws.

But, doubts always assail even in goofy things like this. It's just part of being human. Sometimes my curiosity overpowers what I already know.

What it helps me be is grateful. Grateful that I'm alive. Grateful that I was able to see what I had become and what I could be. Grateful that I was given the opportunity to be something better than I was.

It's something I might always be thinking about-- the what if, but it is not something I will regret.

I've moved on, and now I have to keep myself from falling again. We're all made of glass, but we can always glue ourselves back together with the right help. And that's a comfort for a screw-up like me.

Nite and Grey

Preformed by: Urge Overkill

Written by: Nash Kato, Eddie "King" Roeser, and Blackie Onassis

Would you lie? Would you lie to me?

Down in Memphis
And New Orleans?

Would you lie? Would you lie to me?

'Cause I don't need it anymore

'Cause I got freed

Nite and grey

Night as day

This is the last time

This is the last time

Nite and grey

Never been, never bend a knee

I saw Jesus on the road

And I got freed

Never going down, going down to Hell

'Cause I don't need it anymore

I'm already here

Nite and grey

Night as day

This is the last time

This is the last time

Nite and grey