Other: Neon Genesis Evangelion - Illustrations 2007 to 2017

 

Content Warning: Capitalism?

While I haven’t had a chance to really discuss this yet, but I REALLY like Neon Genesis Evangelion. As you’ll discover (if I ever get around to actually completing stuff), I’ve picked up some of Eva related stuff over the years. I have soundtracks, some spin-off manga, but only a few art books. When these were easier to find, I wasn’t as into them as I am now, so I kind of missed out. And, I have say, I don’t enjoy art books that are connected to a series or product nearly as much as I like art books of artist’s work (Luis Royo, Boris Vallejo, etc). So, this one was sitting in my Amazon cart for a few years until I picked it up as part of my birthday present to myself this year. Also, the price had dropped to something reasonable.

This art book comes at an interesting time for NGE as a product, and for the fanbase as well. If you’re unfamiliar, the original NGE anime came out in 1995, but has remained wildly popular (for the most part) ever since, and even had a pair of movies that released in 1997, that were kind of a wrap up/retelling of the original ending (we’ll discuss that more when I get to them), but the product was mostly dormant in terms of anime and movies. However, merchandise and doujinshi (fan comics, more or less) and other things related to Eva continued to sell well throughout the years. I think the best way to put it is that Eva never stopped being popular or really faded away. Eva is a classic for a reason, which I will be discussing as I work on my review of the series. But, even though it remained popular, there was nothing new to draw people in

Until the Rebuild of Evanglion films in 2007, which is when this book starts its collection., making this a really good period to chose for this collection. Because, not only was there a new series of films releasing, but there was even a new character! This is important, as Rei Ayanami was once nicknamed “The girl who can sell anything” by marketing companies in Japan. Because she was.

And that’s what brings me to thing I really want to talk about with this collection. While there’s some lovely pieces of just art, most of the illustrations in this collection are marketing material and advertisements. We have a few movie posters, but there’s ads for partnerships they had with clothing companies, stamps for smart phone messaging, images of for a tourism bureau, and so on. And you can see it in the art. The poses are there to show the character, but what they’re wearing. Parts of the collection just feel like I’m looking at one of those old advertising fliers or magazines you used to get in the mail, like the Sears catalog (yes, I’m old). And it makes me a little sad. I usually enjoy these sorts of things to see how the sausage is made, so to speak, the work behind the designs and how the characters develop into what we see on the screen. And this is less than and more “look how cool Shinji looks in this hoodie you can buy!”

All of that said, I do enjoy this collection. If I push the advertisement angle out of my head, I can look at that same picture of Shinji in a hoodie and see what Shinji could have looked like, if he hadn’t have been forced to become a pilot of a giant robot in a post/current apocalypse. And, I also have to admit, that some of the outfits are very nice. There’s a clear eye for what designs and patterns, and maybe even cuts of an outfit, and how they match or compliment the character.

If you’re curious about who’s in this collection, it’s mostly Asuka, Rei, and Shinji, but Mari is also very present. Which does make sense, as she was a new character and needed to be seen, so people would be curious about her. Mind you, she barely gets any screen time in the first Rebuild, and not enough after that one, but it’s nice to see her almost fitting in to the setting almost seamlessly. I hesitate to say much more about her, as I have to save those thoughts for when we get to the Rebuilds, but visually, she fits in without issue. One interesting thing I did notice about her use in the pictures and advertisements, is that she replaces Shinji in some ways. Usually, Eva pictures and ads have what I call “the trinity” (yes, I stole the term from the DC fandom, deal with it), where the pictures have Shinji, Asuka, and Rei featured prominently. But what I noticed in this book was that, even on the cover, it’s Asuka, Rei, AND Mari, with no Shinji in sight. I can guess a few reasons for this, the first being the matter I’ve already discussed, that she’s a new character and needed to be shown off, but I also think that it is something pointed towards the fandom. Let’s be honest, the anime fandom in general, and the Eva fandom is particular, skews heavily in the male direction. I’m not going to get into the weeds of the reasons behind it, as that’s not what I want to discuss at the moment, but let’s just take that as a fact. This explains why Mari is now in the trinity. We don’t need Shinji up there, when we can have three cute girls instead. Now, you don’t have to choose between The Doll (Rei) or The Bitch (Asuka), because you can have The Weirdo (Mari). Or something like that. No matter what you might think of her, Mari became an important of Eva as an advertising tool. And this book will make that clear as you read it.

It’s also cool to see how the advertising and partnerships develop as the Rebuild series goes on, as the book starts right when the first one drops, with the art swiftly moving away from the classic styles of the original anime, to the new versions of the characters and their designs, until we reach the end with the third Rebuild movie and a few ads for the final part (which took FOREVER to be completed).

So, if you’re thinking about buying this, ask yourself how much you want to see ads and how important the Rebuild era of the franchise is to you? Because there’s not a lot of the original in here, it’s all new and clean. But that could be what you’re looking... Oh, and there's quite a bit of Kaworu, for those fans of his.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Suggestion: If you got into Eva via the Rebuilds, or if really like them, this is a good collection for you.

Anime: Neon Genesis Evangelion (episodes 1 & 2)

 

Oh, yeah, here we go!!!

Content Warning: Violence, blood, emotional damage, parental emotional neglect, brief female nudity, and the beginning of your obsession (you only hope I’m joking).

Ah, this is truly one of the classics of anime and is more than likely responsible for the downfall of the mecha genre. This is THE “modern” mecha anime. It is a total subversion of a genre that turned around and became the new definition of the genre, going forwards. As this such an influential work, I recommend seeing it for yourself.

As such, this goal of this series of reviews isn’t to provide you with a guide of wither or not you should see this anime, but to help provided some context, things to pay attention to, and my own thoughts on the series. You have to understand that this anime is one of the things that made me who I am. I first started watching this show during my teenage years and was one of the first things to make me think. One of the first things to make me watch something over and over again, looking for details that I had missed. I haven’t seen the show in several years, so this will be nice to review it without as much baggage. Let’s begin:

Episode One: Angel Attack

The series begins with telling us that we are in the far off year of 2015, that year far into the future… Anyway. We see that the city is flooded, buildings left to rot away in the sea, but people are still alive, with the sound of an announcement being repeated over loudspeaker. We also see that humanity hasn’t advanced too much, with weapons of war (marked with UN) prepared to open up on… Something. Eventually, we get a shot of the first (but really the third) enemy, the Angels. It looks a bit more “biblically accurate” if you get my meaning. Now, we begin cutting between the action against the Angel, and introducing our main character, Shinji Ikari. He’s stuck in the abandoned city, with the announcement continuing to play, as the Angel continues to advance. We also see the UN military in NERV headquarters, leading the attack against the Angel. The final thing they send against the Angel is an N2 mine, which is supposed to mean “Non-Nuclear” but still has an EMP effect. Whatever. While some of the animation shows its age in this fight, it does really shine with the explosion of the N2 Mine. It’s absolutely fantastic.

After this, we start getting into our characters, beginning with Misato Katsuragi. She’s picked up Shinji, saving him from dying out there during the battle, but we see that she isn’t some great hero, she’s just a normal woman with car payments. We also get some information about Shinji and his father Gendo, the head of NERV. NERV has been prepared to defeat the Angel, who was only slowed down, not defeated by the N2 Mine, and the UN generals are forced to turn the battle over to NERV. However, there appears to be a problem with whatever they’re going to use against the Angel, as it doesn’t have a pilot. Until Gendo points out that Misato just brought them a spare pilot.

After being brought to a room by Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, and having the lights turned out, Shinji is introduced to the weapon that will save us all, the Artificial Human Evangelion Unit 01. In a normal mecha show, the young boy would be shown this giant robot and being told that he was going to pilot it, and this would usually result in him begrudgingly accepting that he needs to pilot it. However, this scene plays out a little bit differently than you might expect. Shinji, as you might imagine, isn’t up for this. He doesn’t know what this thing is and he doesn’t know how to pilot it. Misato and Ritsuko, who have been friendly up until now, are much more serious and tell him to pilot it. Gendo, keep in mind that he’s Shinji’s father, tells him that he expects him to get inside of it. And confirms that he only sent for his son as he “had a use for” him. Yeah. Real picture of paternal love right here… Anyway, Shinji chickens out and they wheel in Rei Ayanami. She’s a pale girl with bright blue hair, wearing a strange skin tight outfit and lot of bandages. She’s clearly not going to survive going inside the Eva, much less fight in it, but she will obey. While Shinji looks at her, the Angel attacks, causing a bank of lights to come loose from the ceiling. Eva Unit 01 moves its arm (exactly as Shinji does) to protect him from the lights falling. It shouldn’t have done that, given how it doesn’t have an “entry plug” or a pilot, and yet it has. Shinji checks on Rei, who was knocked out of her rolling bed by the attack, and his hand comes back covered in blood. Shinji then agrees to pilot the Eva. We then start a sequence of Shinji being in the entry plug, and having to breathe LCL, which will oxygenate his body and smells like blood, and we see the Eva get loaded up and getting ready to launch, with some details about how it works and all that. And then it launches, ending the episode.

Episode Two: Unfamiliar Ceilings

This episode begins almost directly at where the last one left off, with the Eva launching up into the streets of New Tokyo 3, to face the Angel. The Eva stands in place as Shinji receives orders to just focus on walking and he takes a step forward (into terror, perhaps?). They give you a perfect sense of scale with this moment, as the phone booth next to where the Eva’s foot comes down cracks. (For those of you too young to know what I’m talking about, there used to be these glass and steel booths that held landline telephones, that you could use to call people when you were out and about, which had vanished from most of the world by the time we actually reached 2015.) When Shinji tries to have the Eva take another step, he trips and falls flat on his face. While everyone is screaming at him to make the Eva get up, as well as providing him with weapons and lines of retreat, the Angel walks over, picks the Eva up by its head, and then uses its melee attack to damage the Eva’s head. The Angel’s free arm grabs ahold of one of the Eva’s forearms and crushes it, and we see Shinji grabbing his own forearm, having to be told that it’s not actually his arm that was being crushed. The Angel continues its attack and the Eva is thrown back as the wound in its head sprays blood on the building it’s leaning against. Yeah, you read that right, blood. This episode is where they start laying the groundwork for all the weird shit that’s going to be coming as we go forward. Speaking of how this episode is laying foundations, the episode then cuts to Shinji waking up in the hospital, with no idea how he got there. For there, we get treated to how the animation is going to proceed, with use of coloring to wash out the colors of the characters, still scenes used to draw attention to the dialogue being said, and, let’s be honest, what is probably a good way to save money for the really flashy stuff we’re getting. But, I find that these silent, still scenes, with their meditative qualities, are showing just how different Evangelion is when compared to others in the genre that have come before. When most people thought about the Mecha genre back when this show was made, there was a tendency to think about noble heroes fighting flashy battles, but I think that this is a misconception. When I think about the Gundam and Macross series, I find that the heroes weren’t always noble boys going out to win the war. While I will get more into this when I get into these series (when that ever happens), but I don’t think that the more popular Mecha shows were as much like the perception we have, and that while Evangelion did go further than any before it, it was actually building upon what had already been done before, instead of tearing it down. Ahem, anyway. After a very uncomfortable scene with Shinji and Misato running to Commander Ikari when they’re going get on the elevator, we find out that Misato has invited Shinji to live with her. Once we arrive at her home, we discover that Misato is very much a Millennial, in that she can’t keep her home clean because she works too much and drinks too much. Seriously, we were all like this in 2015 and you can’t tell me otherwise. Moving on, there’s the comedic introduction to Pen Pen, the warm springs penguin that pops up here and there from this point on. Once Shinji is laying in bed (showing our first real scene of the SDAT playing good old tracks 25 and 26 on loop), we get a flashback to the rest of the battle with the Angel. To summarize very quickly, Unit 01 goes silent and then berserk, regrowing the damaged forearm (supposedly impossible), and then starting fighting the angel. I’d like to point out that Unit 01 opens its mouth and lets out some very animalistic roars after this, making for an interesting question, what does a giant robot need with a mouth and the ability make noise? The Eva wins pretty quickly, shattering the Angel’s arms (making it bleed blue, thus why we’ll see “blood type: Blue” on screens in the future), and then breaks off a rib to start beating on the big red gem thing in the Angel’s chest. This is the Angel’s Core, which is very important to its survival, so it’s interesting how this uncontrolled Eva, piloted by someone who knows nothing about the Angels or Evas, knows to target this important weak spot. The Angel chooses to end its own existence and tries to take out the Eva with it, but the giant cross shaped explosion doesn’t do too much to the Eva. Well, except the rest of the armor on the head falls off, as Shinji is coming back to reality, and then the eye regrows as Shinji watches in the reflection of a skyscraper.

NOTE: In case you’re wondering, I’m doing two episodes at a time, because that’s how I first watched it back on VHS.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Suggestion: Watch it.

Manga: Gigant, Volume 10

 

Content Warning: Nudity, mild gore, and wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff

Here we are, the end of the road. The last volume. The end of this weird story. And it’s going to an odd ending, which shouldn’t be surprising, after everything else we’ve seen. It’s going to be a bit of a tough read, but let’s get started.

This volume begins with the aftermath of the last volume, with an EMP knocking out most of the technology in Tokyo. People are commenting on the fact that the US launched a nuke against the ETE satellite, with PaPiCo still aboard. Rei starts crying, begging that Chiho is alright. Three days later, power is restored to Tokyo and it is confirmed that PaPiCo died aboard the satellite, and she receives a state/global funeral. Meanwhile, Rei falls into a deep depression, unable to cope with the loss. His memories of Chiho brings him to her apartment, where he ends up FINALLY watching the DVD from volume one. I KNEW that was going to be important! I didn’t forget about it.

While watching the DVD, we discover the Space/Future Weirdos original mission: stopping the death of a Professor Banner in a freak accident. It’s believed that he will program Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics into Socrates and Plato and change the future. If you’re unfamiliar with the Three Laws, look them up on Wikipedia, they’re famous. Anyway. After making this discovery, Mochi reappears. Remember how the dog traveled to the future? Well, the future is now. Rei has a light-bulb moment and realizes that the other little button thing will take him back in time. Rather than doing the smart thing, like going home and using it, he uses it right then and there in the apartment, and has to get away before Chiho’s former (now current) shitty boyfriend discovers him.

Now that he’s in the past, and he knows that the Space Weirdos aren’t going to save the Professor, he does it himself.

After saving Professor Banner, he’s chased down by the original Space Weirdo that we saw die way back in volume one. Rei explains to him what happens and he waits for the other members of the team to arrive. I find it interesting that they’re still able to come back, given how the future they came from doesn’t exist anymore (at least, it appears that it doesn’t, given what happened). This the wibbly-wobbly stuff I was talking about.

But, here’s the thing, now that things have changed, Rei will never meet Chiho.

Using the button, he returns to the time that he left from, but he never met Chiho (which makes me wonder about those signs that were put up back in volume one, perhaps it was something done by Socrates and Plato?) but everyone is alive and the ETE stuff also never happened. And robots start integrating into society. Safe, sane, and helpful robots.

As Rei adapts to this reality, he sees Chiho saving the city in his mind’s eye, and remembers their conversations about how they would find each other if they were reincarnated. He does go to her apartment, seeing her outside, but her boyfriend is there, too. Their eyes met for just a second and she just looks away, with no recognation. But he just can’t forget her. He misses her. And, after a dream where she tells him to come and find her, he sets his life on a path to do just that.

The final chapter begins with someone asking Chiho if it’s true that she was an AV actress in the past, while doing her makeup. She confirms that she was, and that she broke up with her boyfriend last year. She also got a call from a movie studio, as there’s an up and coming director who wants her to star in his new film, his student film having won an award. Yeah, hold on to your butts…

We see Rei again, and he’s got long hair and glasses, and we see Chiho again, who’s also got longer hair, too. When they meet, she realizes that she’s been invited to the role because she was in porn and Rei admits that he used to be a fan. She says it’s the first time she’s ever been glad she did that gig. If you haven’t guessed it already, the movie Rei is making is their story, the story we read until Rei went back in time and changed everything. He’s had to cast someone to play him, but these are his memories, being made into a movie. As the movie filming continues, Chiho starts acting… Odd. She points out that she once had an outfit like the one the manga started with. She kind of confronts Rei, asking in a joking manner if he’s her starker, as the movie is her, through and through. He, like an idiot, spills the beans about how he changed the past and because of that, they never dated. She seems to take it as a joke and says she’ll give her best the next day.

While filming the scene where Chiho is going to go up and confront Socrates and Plato, she somehow remembers this reality she never experienced, but she remembers her love for Rei and his love for her. Crying, they embrace, and kiss. Meanwhile, everyone else looks around going “WTF?”

And that’s pretty much the end of the series. There’s a few other scenes before the end, but there’s no text, so you should read it yourself.

Whew. I started this whole blog because I wanted to talk about this series and it’s over. I know it’s taken a long (long, long) time get done, but I really had to wait for it to cool in my mind before I write this. I was angry the first time I read it, until the end, and then was sad the second time I read it. This series has been all over the place, but in the end, I’m glad I picked it up and I really hope you give it a chance.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Suggestion: Buy it. Buy them all. Let’s hope they make an anime, because the length of the story is just perfect for a 12 episode run. Maybe expand the future stuff at bit (a pair of bookend episodes at the beginning and end would do it) and there you go. 

Me, finishing this series <.<

 

Anime: Love Tyrant (overview)

 

Content Warning: Girls kissing boys, boys kissing boys, girls stabbing boys, the dreaded love triangle (or is it a square?), a Yandere to the extreme, and a sadomasochist.

Oh, boy, this is a weird one. But you know it’s going to be a good one because we’ve got a crazy Japanese teenage girl with an unusual weapon. A kukri this time.

Hang on, let me rewind a bit. First, I found this show a year or so ago on Youtube, as CrunchyRoll was offering the first three episodes for free there, just to give you a taste. You know, like the drug dealers they are. Anyway, I thought I’d give it a watch, and I did, and I had a laugh. Now, I’ve had a chance to watch all 12 episodes, so let’s talk about the show in general.

Our story begins with Guri, a cupid that’s really a NEET, convincing Seiji to find a girl to kiss him. He kisses her, which isn’t what she wanted. You see, Guri has a “KISS NOTE” which is really a parody of the DEATH NOTE, except you need to kiss someone in 24 hours or then you die. Well, Guri dies and you are doomed to be a virgin the rest of your life. She’s lucky she ended up with a normal guy like Seiji, because asexual/aromantic people exist, Japan. Anyway. Seiji and Guri make their way to Seiji’s school and start spying on Seiji’s object of affection, Akane. Seiji has been watching Akane for some time but has never been able to say anything to her before. Seh notices them and starts running over, calling his name, her ample booba (as you kids say) swinging back and forth. Guri thinks that she can’t see her, so she pants her. Um, yeah, so, Akane CAN see Guri and then gives a Yandere face when Guri says that Seiji kissed her. Seriously, she’s terrifying, even before the Kukri come out. Even with her shorts around her ankles. Guri and Seiji run away, only to be tracked down by Akane and Guri gets a kukri in the back. However, Seiji has to ask, why you gotta be like this? Akane tells him that she’s been aware of him watching her and thought that he loved her, so she’s been waiting for him to say something to her. So, yeah, just a little bit crazy, but we do find out why later. In the end, Akane and Seiji kiss. And then Guri does her transformation sequence and we see that she really is an angel. And then she kisses Seiji again, because not only has she written Seiji and Akane’s names in her Kiss Note, she’s also written her own. Because she wants in on the crazy. Thankfully, this saves Seiji’s life when Akane starts stabbing him. Oh boy, this girl… Anyway, let’s wrap up this episode. Guri uses a device to make Seiji’s family think that she’s part of it and so now she lives with him. And we get introduced t Guri’s boss Coraly who takes over the family cat’s body and gives her a human face. So, that’s a thing. We get the hook of the series, that Guri has to work as cupid or she’ll become a demon, and since she’s joined with Akane and Seiji, she will literally drag their souls to hell with her if she does. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? But, wait, there’s more. We get introduced to the other part of our love square, Yuzu, who’s Akane’s half sister and desperately in love with her. God damn it, Japan… She’s a tiny little blond girl that is just a little weird, but very much in love with Akane. She steals the Kiss Note to write her name into it, joined with Akane, as she overheard how the thing works. Oh, and she can create a magical shield. And we find out that Akane isn’t exactly a normal human either. After witnessing the confession of love from Yuzu, Guri adds her name to the book and the whatever shape this is love-thing. And then Yuzu trips and ends up kissing Seiji to confirm her presence in the love-shape. Because funny!

From this point on, we get introduced to Aqua, Seiji’s younger sister, who has an older brother complex. No, not THAT Aqua, even if they both have blue hair. Aqua, thankfully, isn’t added to the harem but does pop up from time to time, and adds some depth to Seiji. There’s also a recurring villain that’s a penguin that has a sexual obsession with Aqua and we finally see her conquer her fear of him and beat the stuffing out of him.

Seiji also gets to meet Guri’s father, Kami-Sama, or God. That’s right, she’s the daughter of the Almighty. And half demon to boot! It’s why she has such trouble with love. Sure, she mostly plays around by having men fall in love with other men, using her Kiss Note (and later cell phone), but it’s that she understands love on an intellectual level, not an emotional level. And that’s what Seiji has to teach her. Really, I think Akane’s a better teacher, but then again, she is a tad… Obsessive.

As the episodes go on, we’re also introduced to Shikimi, who’s Akane’s cousin, and a true sadomasochist, as she enjoys giving and receiving pain. Like, she enjoys it sexually. She tries to take away, and then torture, Seiji but it doesn’t work out for her. When she tries to get added to the harem, Guri denies her because she “doesn’t have any love in her.” So, yeah, she’s a real piece of work. Later, she convinces Guri to hide from everyone and manipulates her into giving up. But more about that later.

We also get to learn more about Akane’s and Yuzu’s family history. You see, Akane comes from a family of assassins, which explains the Kukris, and we meet her mother. Akane’s mother fell in love with a man, but he left her for Yuzu’s mother, and Akane’s mom has never let go of it. She’s a stone cold bitch and tries to make Akane the same way, a loveless monster. But, the truth is, that Akane’s mom was still in love with Akane’s father, she just couldn’t express it. When she makes Akane go cold, Akane is even more terrifying than when she’s hot. But she really does love Seiji, in her own way. I will say that I like Akane, to a degree, because her love is sincere, she just doesn’t know how express it the right way because of her mom.

When it comes to Yuzu, she met Akane when they were children and it was the first time she felt love. Now, I’m not a fan of incest in my love triangles or romances, because that’s just not okay. However, I do genuinely understand that Yuzu can’t help but feel the way she does. And Akane rejects her completely, so there’s no confusion. However, I would hope that over time, Yuzu would be able to find love with someone else, that isn’t her sister. Also, she has a magical shield because she’s from a family that protects people. It actually makes a really good contrast between her and Akane, and is well done, in that one is from the family that slays, while the other is from a family that protects. It also shows how different their love is. She also starts to fall for Seiji, but I don’t know if it’s love or just working from hating to accepting him, with typical teenage confusion.

I’d love to talk more about how things go, but I think you should give this show a chance, if it sounds interesting to you. If you’re a fan of older harem or Magical Girlfriend anime, this is a love letter to it, so you’ll probably like it. If you’re not experienced with the genres, but you’d like to give them a try, this would be a good place to start. Each character has a personality and you get to understand them as things go on. Plus, it is about love, and how each person loves differently. Oh, and it’s pretty funny most of the time. It’s worth the watch.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Suggestion: That’s right folks, we have a Magical Girlfriend show. Back from the dead, the genre returns…

Anime: Domestic Girlfriend (overview)

 

Content Warning: Nudity, sexual activity between teens and adults, adultery, lies, slight transphobia, Yakuza, and “no Chromo” incest.

I know that I’m late to this party but I’m here now. And it was a wild ride. You see, like many of you out there, about three years ago, I saw Gigguk’s video about this show. I thought it sounded fun, thought about looking it up, but forgot about it. Thanks to a friend, I got Crunchyroll. And I looked this show up after remembering it. And, I’m not going to lie, this show broke my damn heart. Hold on to your butts, this is going to be a weird one.

Just a second. Before we get into this one, I want to explain that I’m not going to do an episode by episode breakdown of the show. Instead, I’m going to talk about the characters, their journeys through the show, and why this show made me cry. Also, this is going to be filled with spoilers, so I want you watch the show, and then come back and read this. It’s a 5 out of 5, okay? It’s only 12 episodes.

Our story starts by introducing us to the main male character, Natsuo, a high school student. He’s just slept with a girl he’s just met named Rui Tachibana, who just wanted to have sex just to try it, basically. After this, we get introduced to the girl that Natsuo really likes, one of his teachers named Hina. Next, we have the thing that makes this show what it is: The fact that Natsuo’s father is going to marry another woman (Natsuo’s mother died ten years ago), who turned out to be Hina and Rui’s mother. So, Rui and Hina are sisters. And Natsuo is going to be their step brother. Yeah. You think this would be the makings of a romantic comedy, but it’s really not. Sure, there’s going to be some things that make us laugh, but you’re probably going to cry more than laugh.

So, who is Natsuo? He’s an aspiring author (way to hook my interest), but a relatively normal teenage boy. He isn’t a terrible guy, from what we’ve seen. He has emotional depth, and empathy, but he’s very clearly a teenage boy. He isn’t a cardboard cutout, he seems nice enough, but aside from his desire to be a writer and his infatuation with Hina, there’s not a lot about him that I picked up on the show.

Let’s go to Hina next. She’s a new teacher and that clearly attracts the boys at school. She’s dismissive of all of them, but seems to show some affection for Natsuo. This is something I didn’t quite understand. While he’s not as crude as his two male friends, there’s nothing he real does besides being nice. Maybe that’s the thing that makes Hina like him. I don’t know. Anyway. Shortly after the show starts, we find out that Hina is dating a man who’s married to another woman. And when Rui finds out, she’s less than pleased. You see, Hina and Rui’s father cheated on their mom and left her for the other woman. Only happenstance allows Natsuo and Rui to find out that Hina is doing this. Now, Hina has a good reason for liking this older man, Shuu, as he was the one person who was nice to her when she was in high school, but he was a teacher. I get the sense that this was done to have Hina draw parallels between her feelings for him and Natsuo’s feelings for her, but that didn’t quite connect for me. For one thing, Hina didn’t get involved with the teacher until after she was in college, when they happened to run into each other (it’s later revealed that he had a crush on her when she was in high school but didn’t let it be know). The other thing is that Shuu was just trying to be a nice guy to her, as she turned up in his class room to each lunch, because she was accused of flirting with another girl’s love interest (behind her back, because teenage girls). There’s a totally different dynamic between Shuu’s actions as a teacher compared to hers. Shuu saw someone in a difficult time in their life who needed someone to be a friend and he stepped up. If he fell in love later, I can understand. When it comes to Hina’s friendliness to Nasuo, I don’t know what there is. There’s only two, maybe three times shown with them interacting in any significant way before they become surprise step siblings. However, once she commits to being with Natsuo, she commits hard. This is after she’s broken things off with Shuu, but also after she’s caught Natsuo and Rui kissing (don’t worry, we’ll get into it) and has moved into her own place. I think Hina just let herself get caught up in the emotion of love without thinking about it. Perhaps because she was the “other woman” or perhaps it was seeing so much of her teenage infatuation reflected in Natsuo’s for her, or maybe both, that let her lose herself in this love affair. And what does it cost her? Everything. You see, Natsuo and Hina hook up (for the first time, I think) during the school trip to Okinawa and a photographer catches them kissing in the background of a picture. This is found out by the school principal and she’s forced to transfer at the end of the term. She TELLS NOTHING TO NATSO about this, moves without telling him, changes phone numbers, calls her mother ONCE to let her know that she’s okay, and pretty much starts over. Without telling Natsuo. That’s the part that kills me. She got caught, took all the blame, and destroyed her whole life for his love for her, and then cuts him out of her life completely afterwards. And, because we see a ring he gave her in the final shot to the show, we KNOW THAT SHE STILL LOVES HIM. This, this right here, is what gutted me. Also, since I have spoilers for the manga, I know that it’s also an allusion to that ending. And it hurts even more.

Anyway, let’s talk about the best girl, Rui. Okay, there is no “best girl” in this series. All of these girls are complex and very human girls that are all equally good and deserve the best. Like Gigguk, I just wanted everyone to be happy. But you don’t show me a girl with short blue hair and red eyes and NOT want me to give her everything. And it doesn’t hurt that she reminds me of a lot of versions of Rei Ayanami in the various AU Evangelion stuff I’ve read, it terms of her personality. Rui is one of those characters that you see and you don’t know what to make of her right away. When she discovers that Natsuo is going to be her step brother, and then later her classmate when she changes schools when they all move in together, she just wants to pretend that the two of them having sex never happened. Which was her intention when she had sex with a boy she’d never met before, because she wanted to know what it was like. However, as the story goes along, she becomes friends with Natsuo and ends up starting to really like him, like that. Before Natsuo makes it official with Hina, but is still lusting after her, Rui says she wants to try kissing and stuff, just to see what it’s like and wants to keep doing it. This leads to what happens with Hina walking in and seeing them. One thing I like about Rui is that she can communicate clearly when she wants to, she also has some tact. After she’s caught kissing Natsuo, she has a talk with Hina about it. And she flat out says “it’s not like we’re related by blood.” Yeah, she’s that kind of girl. And she’s the one who is driven to push Hina away from Shuu for moral reasons. If I remember correctly, she even says something like “what would mom say about this?” But she doesn’t tell her mom. She’s not that mean. Instead, she argues logically from an emotional point of view. Rui would probably be seen a neurodivergent in some circles, but I think that’s not quite right (I mean, it could be). What I see with her is someone who can articulate what she wants, when she knows what she wants, without getting caught up in things. She’s cute, she’s smart, and she’s got a good heart. So, seeing her kind of end up with Natsuo at the end makes me feel okay. Rui is better suited to Natsuo, in my opinion, because they’re closer in not only age but personality that Hina and Natsuo. Hina is passionate love, Rui is devotional love. There’s a difference. And I know that if the same thing happened to Rui that happened to Hina, Rui would handle in a mature way. So, yes, I am Team Rui, manga be damned. One of the things I like the best about the relationship between Rui and Natsuo is that we see Rui fall in love with him. Sure, it might be after they've already slept together, and she's kind of been the instigator of things between them, but she starts to feel things and expresses herself. That makes her, in my opinion, one of the better characters. She doesn't overtly lie about things and when she realizes what love is, and that she wants it from Natsuo, she says something. She even told Hina that she had feelings for Natsuo, making her better than most everyone else in the show.

Now, one other thing that Rui does is she makes friends with Momo. Momo is precious and must be protected and deserves only the best. Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, Momo is (to use an old phrase) the “town bicycle.” Everyone has had a ride. She admits to Rui that she’s been with 30 guys. Did I mention that she’s a high schooler? Yeah. Now, this has caused to have a bad reputation with both the boys and the girls at school. When some of Rui’s friends approach her about hanging out with Rui, she just lays down the law: “I choose who I get to be friends with.” When someone says that, you know they’re a winner. But, with just the one real episode we get with Momo, you understand why Momo is the way she is. You see, she’s been in a lot of abusive relationships and was even held captive for a few days by a guy. And you know that means that she’s got some serious damage. Which is that her parents are in a loveless marriage and she spends most of her time alone, which is better than having them around and arguing. If anyone deserves Natsuo’s passion, it really was Momo. But, when he sees the scars on her wrists as they’re getting undressed, “I keep them covered up, people only see them when I’m getting naked,” he stops. Instead of fucking her brains out, he makes her dinner. This is a point for Natsuo, but it also shows Momo that she doesn’t need to have sex to have someone keep her company, it’s just the easiest way when you’re a horny teenager. Oh, and she’s one of the smartest students in the school, too. And that, too, I feel is a factor in to why she was suicidal, because she was smart enough to know what was happening to her life and what it would mean. Plus, being smart is a great way to become depressed, just ask every kid who was in any sort of “bright kids” program when they were younger.

While there are other characters, I don’t think we get enough time with them to really get into them here. They’re important, yes, but I want you to learn about them yourself. While they’re important for the plot, they’re not the emotional core of the story. The three main characters, Natsuo, Rui, and Hina are who the story revolves around. Momo is important because she shows that Natsuo is more than his dick, but she also asks Rui if she can date him, which makes Rui have to face facts that she does in fact have feelings for him. And that’s important to the emotional story.

I do not love triangles. I don’t like most love triangles in most stories because they’re not well done. And I don’t like the idea in general because someone has to lose. Unless we’re working with different cultural norms, or are operating in a power fantasy, people usually couple up. Which means that someone who loves someone who doesn’t love them is going to end up hurt. This love triangle, this emotional conflict, is very well done. It hurts but in a good way. It twists the knife but you welcome it. Because it does something that all art should aspire to: It makes you feel something.

Domestic Girlfriend is one of those series that I know I’m going to think about again and again, and hopefully revisit in the future. I’m currently looking at picking up the series on physical media, that’s how much it hit me. And I hope it will hit you the same way.

Rating: 5 out of 5
Suggestion: One of the best things I’ve ever seen, please watch it.

Manga: Gigant, volume 9

 

Content Warning: Nudity (I don’t know why I even add it to this one anymore), violence, death, gore, and casual misogyny.

Here we are, the second to last volume of Gigant. And we are in for a ride. Buckle up, kids, because we are going into some wild stuff this time around.

The volume kicks off with our battle between the Future Weirdos and Chiho facing off against the reborn Satan. Or healed enough to fight again Satan. And it starts off with a bang. Or a finger laser. Not seen in the first round of the fight, Satan can make a laser come out of one of his fingers. While Chiho saves Rei, one of the Future Weirdos loses his arm to the laser. While the Future Weirdos try to rip out Satan’s heart (there’s a line I never thought I’d write), Chiho and Rei have a conversation about things. The sum of the conversation is Chiho asking for permission to stay and fight and Rei not wanting her to fight. Chiho, honey, you don’t need his permission for anything. However, Rei relents and agrees to meet Chiho at his house after she’s defeated Satan.

While this conversation is going on, the Future Weirdos are getting their asses kicked. They rip out Satan’s heart but that isn’t enough to slow him down. Using some super psionic power, he throws them off, and even kills two of them (the men, of course), while one of them explodes out of him. And this still isn’t enough to kill him!

But Chiho arrives, having grown even larger than normal, and just, kinda, sits on him. Mind you, she slams down on him pretty hard, but it just doesn’t look that impressive. However, Satan still isn’t down for the count and he pushes her off of him, even though he only comes up to her knee. She then bends down, picks him up, and starts tearing him apart. Literally pulling him in half and then pulling off his head. She continues to tear him up and drops the pieces in the river they’ve been fighting in.

And the world starts to celebrate. People are cheering, crowds are yelling Chiho’s stage name, and the three survivors, Chiho and the two female Future Weirdos, stand there to catch their breath.

And that’s when the “mothership” arrives. Three kilometers (over a mile) across at least, this massive satellite just hangs in the air above the city. One of the surviving Future Weirdos says that she was going to go up into orbit to take care of them but they’ve come to them. Like, how the fuck were you going to do that? I have so many questions. And it’s not like we’re going to get any answers. Because the satellite starts sucking up a bunch of stuff. Trees, trucks, helicopters, fighter jets, and finally the Future Weirdos and Chiho get sucked up into the satellite.

In side, we meet Plato and Socrates, the AIs. They look like the worst NEET out there, but with the heads of the famous philosophers’ sculptures for heads. Seriously, they’re sitting on a couch, wearing Millennial/Gen X band shirts, with Xbox controllers in their hands. Yeah. After introductions, Chiho asks if they’re aliens, to which they laugh, but then say it “racist” to call them AIs as they’re “pretty much human now.” Yeah, okay, dude. They were tasked to watch humanity but they learned all of the wrong lessons. They say that they thought they had humanity all figured out, but now they’re confused by Chiho, because she’s altruistic as you get. They assumed that humanity was selfish and self centered, thinking only for themselves, but here comes Chiho, risking life and limb for a world, a government, that has imprisoned her, ostracized her for being in a relationship with Rei, and otherwise only seems to love her because of her heroism. One of the Future Weirdos steps up and points out that humanity is both selfish and selfless, we’re all sinners and saints. The AIs counter that the destruction of the earth was decided by a large number of humanity. Chiho chimes in that she didn’t even save everyone because she was thinking about everyone else. She then says that they’re not even close to human, they’re just superficially mimicking them. One of them says “That’s like your opinion” and it always gets a laugh out of me.

The Future Weirdo then asks the AIs what they’re going to do with humanity after this, which makes them start discussing it. Chiho asks that they just leave humans alone, to which they agree, with a stipulation. They want to touch Chiho’s boobs. Jesus Christ on a pogo stick, why is everyone obsessed with Chiho’s boobs? Oh. Wait. Anyway. We find out that the AIs have only been studying men, not women, because “they’re inferior to men, they’re just chicks.” So. We have giant Incel AIs that have god-like powers. Fucking great. You know, I don’t even think that this is even slightly unrealistic. I’ve heard about what happens when you expose learning AI to Twitter…

But now it’s time for out punch out ending. While they’re arguing about being able to touch boobies, the news reports that the US has launched nuclear missiles against the satellite. By the time the AIs are made aware, they’ve already hit. We see the explosion moving down the hallways they’re all in, Chiho screaming no and how she wants to see Rei again, and then… We cut to an outside shot of Tokyo, where the sky is lit up, and then goes dark.

Now, I will leave you with the text from the last two pages of this volume:

WILL HUMANITY BE BLESSED BY A GREAT MIRACLE?

AND IF IT IS, WILL WE EVEN REALIZE IT’S HAPPENED?

CAN PAPICO AND REI’S LOVE ALTER THE FATE OF THE WORLD?

IT ALL ENDS NEXT VOLUME!

Rating: 5 out of 5
Suggestion: While clearly rushed and trying to get all of the points out as quickly as possible, this one really hits hard.

Manga: Gigant, volume 8

Content Warning: Nudity (of course), violence, gore, and

Are you ready for a short one? Because this volume is one big fight scene. As such, this will probably be a much shorter entry that usual. And I will strongly advise you to pick up this volume and read it yourself, as my commentary and description will never equal the art.

Okay, let’s get started.

This volume opens with one of the Weirdos trying to take down Satan with some energy blasts but it doesn’t work. Satan starts to retaliate with some kind of… telekinesis? I don’t know, they doesn’t explain it, but he moves his hands and the Weirdos start to bleed and double over. Satan gets tackled from behind while the others get into place. They crawl into his mouth, ears, and nose, but stay too long and he expels them out with fire.

Meanwhile, Chiho is making her way to the fight, while Rei is kind of stumbling around, and we get little glimpses of the destruction that Satan’s presence alone is causing. We see people continuing to kill themselves, but we also see people holding each other, crying or screaming, people bleeding from their eyes and ears and mouth. It’s really bad.

The fight continues, with the Weirdos ganging up on Satan, trying to save one of them that he’s grabbed in his hand. They kick, punch, and try to choke him, but it has no effect, and he handedly wins the fight. And that’s when Chiho shows up. She flies right into one of his eyes, making him bleed and stumble back. This is enough to make him release the others. Three of them shrink down and fly into his other eye, while the one that’s being crushed in his hand is able to free herself.

Chiho explodes out of Satan’s head, with the other three that were also inside of him, exploding out of his torso. They stand there, catching their breath, as the suicide field being projected by Satan fails. We see people dead and bleeding all over, and we find that Rei was about to jump off of a building. But, with his head clear, he stops and moves away from the edge.

While the Future Weirdos and Chiho stand there in the river, catching their breath themselves and everyone celebrating their victory, they look up to see a group of four new monster demon things. One of which has a stinger looking thing where his junk would be. They have too many arms, weird split heads, and are just plain body horror looking things, but clearly designed from the human form. We have enough time to go “Are you kidding me?” Before the battle starts again.

And what a fight it is. These monster or demons or whatever are fairly powerful and some of them have an explosive attack that dissolves flesh. Which we find out when a stray shot hits some people standing by the river to watch the showdown, Rei among them. During this fight, we discover that Satan isn’t dead, it’s regenerating. These monsters are here to buy him time.

This fight, which is intense, is also pretty short, as they aren’t as powerful as Satan. It doesn’t take them long to eliminate these monsters, using their smarts, growing larger inside them, and the energy blasts they have. Sadly…

It’s just long enough to give Satan enough time to regenerate and get ready for round two. In the next volume.

This is another filler volume, even if the fight is good. I think it’s a shame that they used the time they had left to have this fight last as long as they did. That said, it is a great fight, with full page spreads and all that good stuff. You see just how powerful both sides are, and it keeps you on the edge of your seat. But knowing that there’s only two more volumes after this makes it hard to justify the time it took to have the fight in the first place.

Rating: 3 out of 5
Suggestion: If you like gory fights, you like it. Otherwise, this will probably be a dud of a volume for you.