"School Days" Are Here To Stay, a Review

"School Days" is a gripping, slice-of-life anime that tackles the darker aspects of high school life normally not portrayed in Anime. The story revolves around Makoto Itou, a freshmen student at Sakakino Academy, who is in love with Kotonoha Katsura— a girl in the same year as he is and travels the same train he rides on. Watching from a distance, he only gains the courage to talk to Katsura through the help of Sekai Saionji— a female classmate of Makoto's, who unknown to him, is secretly in love with him.

You would think upon first glance, this would be the typical best-friend-in-love-with-friend-who-is-in-love-with-another-girl love triangle. Makoto does fall for Sekai as well, but this is not in the bitter sweet confusion of love. Even before Makoto's and Kotonoha's relationship could even deepen into a real relationship. Makoto's feelings begin to slip as he starts to complain of how tiring it is to be with Katsura and not as fun as he thought it would be to have a girlfriend. His attention turns to Saionji, whose offer of 'practice' with her turns carnal. Instead of escorting Katsura home from a group date at a indoor swimming park, Makoto leaves Katsura at the station and goes to Saionji's place. Makoto sleeps with Saionji.

Now in a relationship with Makoto, Sekai guilt-ridden cause of her betrayal of trust with Katsura, tries to convince Makoto that they should tell Kotonoha of their relationship. But Makoto unwilling to face Kotonoha, tells Sekai that they should wait for a better time to do so. Which only worsens the situation, Sekai's friends— Setsuna Kiyoura, Hikari Kuroda, and Nanami— convinced of their relationship, begin to despise Katsura; seeing her as desperate woman trying to steal away their bestfriend's boyfriend. Katsura gets further abuse in her own classroom, as Otome Kato— a former schoolmate of Makoto in middle school who is secrelty in love with him— and her gang bully Kotonoha into doing additional work for the school's cultural festival.

A far dry from the usual genre of romantic comedy animes based a dating sim game or H-game. Wherein one guy is surrounded by a multitude of doleful-eyed, sweet, and kawaii girls and can’t make up his mind who is the girl of his dreams. “School Days” instead tackles the darker aspects of high school life such as bullying, date rape, and pregnancy. Highly sensitive topics considered taboo in mainstream anime.

Makoto from the sweet, sincere yet hesitant guy, who you would think at first glance appreciate the deeper sentiments of love, turns the complete opposite. Like the average teenage guy those idea of having a relationship with a girl is having his way with her; in-experience with the deeper aspects of having a relationship. You would get irritated by Makoto’s naïve and ignorant idea of a relationship. But as you go on watching the anime, this irritation slowly turns into loathing and disgust, as Makoto ignorant and impatient with the current pace of his relationship with Katsura, turns his attention to Saionji, those offer of ‘practice’ leads him away from Kotonoha.Trading the deep, sincere, and sweet love of Katsura for Saionji’s blind willingness to have his way with her.

What makes the anime repulsive is not because Makoto is the sly, ultra-bishonen playboy typically type-casted in any anime. On the contrary, he is the complete opposite, friendly, shy, helpful, hesitant, you would never expect him to turn into a manipulative sex fiend. Naïve about love and all the feelings attached to it, Makoto, like the typical dolt of a guy, thinks more with his hormones than his heart. Dealing with the darker pathos of love and its flaws, “School Days” presents us a dark nightmare wherein ignorance, lust, and blind desperation to attain one’s heart desire can lead to fatal ends.

In someway, you will both hate and pity Sekai, in her blind love for Makoto have his way with her, because she loves him. Kotonoha, on the other hand, aware of Makoto’s infidelities, turns a blind eye, keeping faith in him despite of it all. Beautiful, kind, sincere, and loving, you can only feel sorrow for her as she sinks into madness.

Dark as the anime may be, I can’t help but give praise the producers of “:School Days”— both Overflow(for the game) and Studio TNK(for the anime)—, while most anime deal with sweet yet hilarious die of love with all the mishaps and misunderstandings. “School Days” shows us a bitter yet dark truth about high school life. Even Love in all its purity can turn bitter and cruel when we mistake lust for love, and blind willingness as a sign of selfless love. Dark, tragic, and grim as it is, I highly recommend it to any guy who happen to think that getting into a relationship is getting into a girl’s skirt— and to any girl bfore she makes that mistake that loving a guy is just letting him have it all.

Of Lost Souls and Struggling People in “The Ivory and the Horn”

Charles de Lint,
338 pages,
TOR Books Fantasy

Oddly as it is at this time and age that we think ‘What would it be like to have magic back in the world’. A second after we express that thought, the left side of our brain would react and state ‘That is impossible to happen’ and we’d often dismiss the former for the latter. Of course in this day and century we had already plotted the world and know every distinct area once thought impossible to see. Have map the areas of the human anatomy and explained how it works, from the heart that pumps the blood to every region of the human body down to a single neuron and its function in the transmission of nerve signals from the brain to its receptacle organ. And seen the universe and what’s it like through the aid of satellites sent into deep space and powerful telescopes. So we know already what is there to know about us, the universe, and the environment. Or so we’d like to think.

But what if the world isn’t that define as we think it is. What if there is another world mirroring our own? No this isn’t the Twilight Zone if that’s what you’re thinking. I’m talking of a world that may had existed before or running its course along ours, but hidden within every angled shadow at a certain time of the day. A world where fairies, dryads, and mermaids do exist but not as we pictured them in storybooks and scary movies. A chance encounter at the local drugstore with an overly perky individual, which turns out to be a sprite that got into the wrong store. Or a very beautiful girl you’d been admiring while on the train home. Then as she passes you by as she gets off at the next destination, you’d suddenly smell salt water as if you were at the beach. And in a dream you are surprise to find out that Jason, Freddie Kruegger, and Dracula or what looks like them, had been long time pals of yours in your dream travels.

This is the sort of world you’d see, once you read “The Ivory and The Horn” by Charles de Lint, a Tor Book Fantasy. A fantasy book roughly housing eight short stories, two novelettes, three chapbooks, and two novellas. “The Ivory and The Horn” presents a surreal fantasy world of ghost, satyrs, and spirits existing in between the spaces of the real world.

Set in the landscape of Newford City, a pseudo-American city that seems to be a chop-chop version of New York, Los Angeles, and Brooklyn. Skyscraper buildings, residential suburbs, and cosmopolitan architecture clashing with an urban jungle of rundown apartments, littered streets, and abandoned warehouses (or factories). A mini-America in between the wetness of the sea and the harshness of the Nevada desert.

The stories in this collection are a variety of hope, lost, renewal, sorrow, and mysticism. Each story having its own tale to tell. A caseworker for social services who’s about to give up, when a stranger appears in his life to renew his faith. The ghost of an old street lady comes back to help a young woman in need. One night a man meets a mysterious woman while throwing out the trash who teaches him to dream.

Each story can range from the simply bizarre; a fat nimble woman goes out collecting bones, to make dog-like figures in “The Bone Woman”. To the terrifying, a lady reporter is haunted by voices from a wishing well in an abandon motel in “The Wishing Well”. And the childish, a female artist bumps into a young girl at the market who accuses her of evicting a business establishment in a supposed imaginary world in “Mr. Truepenny’s Book Emporium and Gallery”.

But the stories themselves are not simple tales of fantasy (or urban fairy tales), as we’d like to think of them. Hidden behind the deceptive mask of a fantasy book are stories and tales of ordinary individuals who are down on their luck. Or of men and women those past had left behind scars so visible they carry them with them. A lesbian who has lost her lover to leukemia, a former kid from the streets who’s struggling hard to maintain a job and keep to her studies, a reporter who even with her good looks and chic style of dressing, is inside carrying the psychological scars of a broken family.

The characters in the stories range from artist and poets moonlighting as waitress at a café, struggling musicians, American Indians in the city, street people, social workers, and their non-human counterparts; a very irritating yet charming coyote spirit, a mysterious dark woman hanging out at a local jazz club, the ghost of an artist who seems to be in need of therapy and other phantasmal beings.

Most of the supernatural elements in “The Ivory and the Horn” seem to be a combination of Native American folklore, fairy tales, urban myths & legends, superstitions, and other myths & legends. Ghost in stories come out and talk in riddles (a thing rarely presented in movies and mainstream books) and animal spirits are depicted as women with features of the animal they’re suppose to represent, portions of which stick out at odd ends here and there. Some murderers take away a bit of paraphernalia from the people they kill, least they be hunted by their spirit. And a group of downtrodden native Americans living in the city rediscover the songs of their race. Incorporated in a manner that seems to dispel our now often trivialized conception of the faerie world (or spirit realm if you prefer) and to remind us that the world of the spirits is something we can’t confine to our own terms.

Going on a more technical note, each tale seems to favor an epigraph for an intro, which kind of acts as a contrivance to the underlying theme, essence, or situation in the story. In most of the short stories and other tales in the collection, narration is told by the narrator and the main character or by the character himself (or herself). While some are told by an anonymous character or in conjunct with the narrator.

A number of characters reoccur in most of short stories and the much longer pieces. While some of short stories have characters inherent to their own, e.g. “Saxophone Joe and the Woman in Black”, “The Forever Trees”, “Coyote Stories”.

The language is straightforward, honest, and intimate as we listen to the characters relate the day they’ve been through, their life, their emotions and feelings. Description is kept to a bare minimal, no large quantity of heavy description, as focus is primary on the story itself. Simple yet stark realism told by the narrator or the main character as the bitter yet often unseen truths of a city are presented to us free of any superflurousness, arousing both sympathy and compassion in the reader.

Heart pounding, at the same time heart wrenching, the stories in this collection reminds us of how it is to be lost, cynical, and often disbelieving in the strength of the spirit and the faith it requires to believe. Because all too often we have become too jaded and complex ourselves (and even a bit too grown up I might add) to believe in anything at all. A mixture of rapture, pain, sorrow, and lost, and oddly a feeling of relief after reading the tales in this collection. To know you are alone but at the same time not alone in the world.

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Charles de Lint is a musician, writer, and folklore scholar who has written over twenty novels, seven novellas, chapbooks, novelettes, and countless short stories. H e resides in Ontario, Canada with his wife, Mary Ann.

For more info you could check him out at his website: http://www.sfsite.com/charlesdelint/

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Weib Kreuz for Dummies

"Silent faces... girls that say so much"

*This a Fan article I did some years back when I first learn to love Anime. I did this as a contribution for my former otaku group, OAV. I hope you enjoy the article as much as I did when I wrote it*



Jads carries along with him in his wallet a picture of a girl named Rei. He knows almost everything about her, from the type of books she reads to her close friendship with Shinji and the people she feels friendly with. But unlike other girls of her age who shop, like to eat cake, and discuss which boy in class they have a crush on. Rei Ayanami, instead pilots and fights in huge bio-engineered mecha known as Evangelion units.

Rei Ayanami is actually an anime character in Neon Genesis Evangelion, produced by GAINAX (the one that also created Fushigi no Umi no Nadia, translated “Nadia in the Seas of Wonder”) and directed by Anno Hideaki. The 26-episode anime series which was broadcast in Japan, 1995, presented a story of human survival in the aftermath of a major catastrophe. To give a rundown of the story; in 2015 A.D., the survivors of the world’s population are still recovering from the cataclysmic disaster known as “Second Impact” which melted the Antarctic Polar Ice caps and flooded the world. The UN in order to prevent a similar event from occurring again creates a special defense agency, NERV. Under the command of Ikari Gendou, NERV is tasked to defend humanity against the threat of ‘Angels’. And a fourteen-year-old boy, Shinji, is suddenly thrown in the fray to pilot the Multi-Purpose Humanoid Fighting Machine‘Evangelion’. The show marked a phenomenal success in Japan, which also followed in the U.S., and also here in the Philippines.

Anime otakus watched the series on tapes borrowed from friends, collected novelty items from model kits, vinyl statues, and CDs to small items as buttons, stationary, and picture cards of their favorite characters.Going back, Rei is a fourteen-year-old girl with pale blue boyish-cut hair and golden yellow eyes. In the series she rare speaks, muttering a few words, and shows so little interest in other people. Silent, mysterious, and almost questioning her existence in the world and her emotions. This ghostly like character has won many anime fans with her almost mute performance.

Another anime heroine, Ruri Hoshino from Mobile Battleship Nades mysterious character. ‘Ruri-ruri’ to her shipmates and anime fans of the show. Ruri-ruri is an eleven-year-old, sky blue haired, golden-eyed girl who acts as the ship’s computer operator. Unlike her predecessor, Ruri-ruri has a little more spunk and likes to say ‘baka’ (meaning ‘idiot’) whenever she can’t comprehend her elders’ actions. Many other animes had its own share of ‘silent heroines’. Key: The Metal Idol from Viz Video tells the story of Tokiko Mima or ‘Key’, aico is yet another fourteen-year-old girl who acts and speaks as if she is a robot. But actually Key is the prototype for the PPOR series; a line of humanoid robots originally meant for military assaults in extreme combat situations. But Key rather wants to become human and must befriend 30,000 people and win their love to do so. Another one, D or Di (both of which many otakus aren’t sure is the right one) is a character from Dual: Misadventures in a Parallel World is a green-colored hair, teenage fighter pilot. Lain from Serial Experiments: Lain, is an elementary school girl who finds out another ‘Lain’ is spreading vicious rumors in the ‘wired’.

In recent animes before Evangelion and Nadesico, we seen ‘Duh’ anime girls like Usagi Tsukino (‘Sailormoon’ series), Momiji Fujimiya (Blue Seed), and Yohko Mano (Devil Hunter Yohko). Heroines who act clumsy, boy-hungry, and a bit stupid (no offense to the Sailormoon Fans). Who are trying to save the world from devastation (okay, somebody whack me on the head before I start mimicking Team Rocket) while looking for a boyfriend and dreaming to get married.

Also there appeared ‘The Diabetically Sweet Girl’ Category, mostly found originally in Japanese date simulation games; these too came into the anime spectrum. Appearing as junior high school students with innocent looking faces and doeful eyes as if they were as fragile as glass. Many young men (in Japan and throughout the world) have been lured into their spell. Most well known is Shiori (Tokimeki Memorial); another is, Akari Kamigishi who like Shiori sport red hair; These are the type of girls that ‘boys’ in their H.S. days dream/dreamt to be their girlfriends.

Other types includes, “The Bitchy Ones”, Sohryuu Aska Langley (Evangelion), Princess Ayaka (Tenchi Muyo), and Akane Tendo (Ranma ½, although personally I think she’s misunderstood by everyone). Who are a bit violent, oh no! They aren’t that violent; they just hit you with a mallet that seems to come out of no where. A little tomboyish and shouts a few really ouchy lines that makes you feel like a snail. But don’t worry they don’t bite… I think. And let’s not forget the types that make you wonder whether we’re man enough for them. The ‘Loud-mouth Babes’ like Ryoko (Tenchi Muyo), Lina Inverse (The Slayers), and B-ko (Project A-ko). Women, who can eat like men, drink saké… jars that is, and are the ones hounding them down.

But with the animes we seen (which are mostly Sci-fi), are presenting a different array of heroines who won both devotion and sympathy from their fans. Their cute, blank faces, deep soulful eyes, and childish appearance are just the sugar coating for why many anime fans adore them so much. Eleven to fourteen-year-olds who are task with so much responsibility on hands, while trying to understand the actions of their elders’ who seem to move illogically, and dealing with their own emotions.Knowing the amount of pressure Japanese children go through to meet exceptional grades; these characters may be parodies of that reality. Set extreme sci-fi worlds with Jovian lizards or PPOR droids or ‘Angels’ out to get them.

But also anime fans here in the Philippines and abroad, love them because like I said, they somewhat represent us. The inability at an age to thoroughly express what we feel. Never wanting to grow up because adults seem to be too complicated and why do we want to be like them. The blank faces that seem to hold so much and say so little. Those deep,’dead eyes’ that seem to reflect nothing back but questions. And sometimes the introspective insights the thought and feelings of these characters. Seems to hold our fascination and understanding for them. A vacant face with just a frown or a smile that lures us into a sense of bewilderment.

[I like to thank John Allen Delos Santos for the info he shared and the devoted websites I went to… although I forgot the names, the comments they had help me in this, as well as the pics I used in this article, and watching a lot of Anime.Domo!]

“A Look into the Fast Lane: An Initial D-First Stage / Review”

If you’re tired of seeing the drone of five handsome guys or not in the mood for mecha, or any cutesy anime with absolutely sugary characters that can give you a serious case of the diabetes. And want to return to something mundane and real that gets your adrenaline coursing through your veins as if you can feel that wheel skidding on the pavement and managing to get through that corner, then this anime’s definitely for you.

Base on the Manga by Shigeno Shuichi, published by Kodansha under the YANMA GA KC titles. Initial D is a ‘car’ anime that centers on the sometimes silly sometimes serious ‘duels’ that Takumi (The lead anime character) faces as he tries to finish his senior high school year and on the side, work at a local gas station. Which isn’t his fault at all, if his dump of a Hachi-Roku (AE86) can beat the gas off any highly-tune engine car that his opponents possess.

The Anime takes a perspective look into the life of a street racer (although I would rather call them downhill racers, where more likely their forte lie). The anime doesn’t contain the high tech customizations as in Maha Go Go (Street Racer). Where you see such gadgets as balloon tires or jet engines or any other sort of technological trickery. The customization you can see is much as ordinary as in daily life, a highly tuned 16-valve engine, front-wheel drive suspension, slick tires, fog lights; the usual refinements you see in a car— a car that is meant to drift through dangerous mountain corners that is.

The Character designs have a comic-strip sort of style with a variety of looks from funny-looking big-lip sort of people to average looking ones and not to mention some bishonen types and your typical street punks. The anime is rich in a variety of characters each with own persona. And does not follow the formulated bishonen and bishoujo formulas of today, which gives the anime a down-to-earth appeal which audiences can readily sympathize to.

The computer graphics that were utilize for the ‘duels’ in the series were quite superb. You can admire the detail they put in to make the cars as realistic as possible from the glint of the car’s body to the light emitted from the headlights, even up to the reflection on therearview mirror and side view mirror. Also the way they use shifting camera angles to show the race as it goes. Especially on the cornering as the cars go through those mountain passes and 'drift’ their way out of it. Not cutting it from one position to another, but showing good close-ups on the cars as they go through the corners.

Another plus factor for this anime is its sound track which is way cool; from its crisp techno-rap opening song “Around the World” to its equally hip and pop end song “Rage your Dream”. If that’s not enough for you, then the BGM songs during its duels are definitely something, something to add to your j-pop collection. Upbeat and fast tempoed pop songs with a dash of techno and a disco sort of feel, a worth listening to soundtrack.

A highly recommended anime not only for those car-crazy loving otakus out there, or out on a highway, but also for all anime otakus. Good action, Hip music, hilariously funny scenes, and some very solemn ones as well, plus a bunch of characters you’ll love, Initial D is definitely an anime to watch.

Initial D: First Stage contains 26-episodes, followed by a 13-episode Second Stage, there’s also an OAV, and a Movie.

Pics courtesy of: D-Initial World – www.geocities.com/dickerson08/index.html

Info on Creator from: around the world – www.atw2.cjb.net/