"Whose Eyes are Those Eyes?" Anime Review: Chaos;Head

What if the world is not what it seems? And the popsicle you are eating isn't real? How sure are you that the dream that you are dreaming isn't a dream at all? Are you sure that what you see is real? How can you be sure that the person your with is a friend, or an enemy? And... If you are God, and the delusions becomes reality. About what kind of the nodes you get? Is it the sensual world? The despotic society? The destuctive sanctions? Or...

Takumi Nishijo has lived the life of a recluse ever since as a child. Afraid of the real world, he spends his days watching anime, collecting vinyl figures, and living a virtual life as Knight Hal in the MMORPG Empire Sweeper Kingdom. He attends school on a minimum basis, obtaining enough credits to pass the mark and living his days as a hikkikomori in his container truck of a room. Until one day while chatting with a friend online, he gets a private message from an unknown chatter named Shogun. Clinking on a link attached to a message, he views a pic of a gruesome murder— one that hasn't happen yet. Thinking of it as just some weird joke someone is passing along the web, he forgets about... that is on the following evening, he stumbles on the actual scene himself.

Chaos;Head (Kaosu Heddo) is a twelve episode psychological suspense anime set in the flashy district of Shibuya. An Anime adaptation from a Japanese visual novel produced by Nitro+, Red Flagship, and 5pb. — the same visual novel studio that brought you Myself;Yourself. Produced by MadHouse, the same Anime studio that brought you Death Note, Gunslinger Girl, Claymore, Tenjou Tenge, Metropolis, and Trigun fame. Set in the backdrop of the popular Shibuya district; with shops and cafes can be found in Shibuya itself— those names have been altered. Also you may notice that upon watching the Anime, some of the websites that Takumi browses thru are parodies of such popular sites such as Google, Wikipedia, YouTube, and Yahoo.

As he receives more info on the murder he witnessed, which is part of a string of bizzare murders called The New Generation Madness. As much as he tries to forget the incident himself, unwanted messages from Shogun and daily feeds from his online friend Grim about the NewGen murders, hounding Takumi daily of the murder. Accused by a female sempai as the actual perpetrator of the NewGen murders and finding out the following day, that the blood-covered girl he saw at the murder scene, is same class as he is, and worst, a long time friend since junior high.

Is he really the perpetrator? Does he have a dual personality? How come he can't recall right away that the girl he's with a friend? Does he have lapses in memory? As he tries to find further the truth behind himself and the murders that have been happening around him, he gets himself entangled with other strange girls. Each having their own reasons for contacting him. The plotline in the first five episodes unravels slowly, but speeds up in the latter parts of the anime, as Takumi steps outside the boundaries of his hikkikomori lifestyle in order to find out the truth. As a bizarre earthquake errupts in the middle of the Shibuya district and other strange events follow afterward. Takumi finds out the name of the organization behind the strange turn of events happening around his home.

If you think this is your typical harem type romance— your dead wrong about it. Not unless, you have a thing for girls carrying swords. The only fan service you get are a by-product of Takumi's attack of schizophrenia, wherein Takumi suddenly views the girls in their lingerie, or acting out 'flagged' scenes found in common date sim or eroge games. And in this case, none of the girls are interested in Takumi for the standard reasons in most date sim games. That is, the near end of the anime may say otherwise.

Chaos;Head is a short anime series with a decent plotline with fair amount of complicated twist to keep the suspense going. Action-wise, those looking for an all-out-sword-battling action, may be disappointed, since most of the action happens at the latter half of the anime. But a good storyline and plot build-up to the end, Chaos;Head is great anime worth watching.

Mahou Shoujo Nagi!!! Japan's latest Pop Goddess!!!! - Anime Review: Kannagi

Kannagi a.k.a. Crazy Shrine Maidens is a Japanese anime that tells the story of Jin Mikuriya, a typical Japanese high school student with a not-so-typical dilemma at hand. After doing an all-niter to finish a statue for a school district exhibition, Jin wakes up with barely an hour to spare to go to to school. Unable to carry the woodedn statue he just finished, he grabs his bicycle in order to carry it to school. If that wasn't enough of a hassle, the statue that he worked so hard to finish on time starts to accumulate particles of earth. The statue shatters, revealing a young girl. Totally stunned, Jin pokes the girl in the face to make sure that he isn't dreaming it up. Jin, still in a stupor, gets patted by the girl like a little boy who got lost. Jin tries to asks the girl questions but gets the table turn on him, as the girl who introduces herself as Nagi, interrogates Jin on how he was able to summon her.

Based on a manga of the same title, created by Eri Takenashi, published by Ichijinsha, serialized in Comix Rex on December. 09, 2005. The anime was produced by A-1 Pictures and started airing in Japan on October 4, 2008 and finished on December 27, 2008. Kannagi tells the adventures, or should I say mis-adventures of Jin and Nagi, as Nagi claiming to be a guardian goddess dictates to Jin that in order to atone for using her sacred tree, must assist her to regain her powers as a goddess and destroying 'impurities' that may infest upon Jin's town.

From the on set of the anime, you might mistake as another 'boy-meets-magical girl' story wherein the boy gets entangled in typical useless guy who somehow helps the magical girl defeat some kind of monster sort of plot line. But rest assured, Kannagi is far from it, the only thing that comes close to it, is Nagi using a magical girl toy wand as an improvished exorcist staff. Plus her exorcism chant is rip off of a magical girl spiel from an anime that Nagi became fascinated with after being summon.

Much of the comedy in the anime comes from the situations that Jin gets into, thanks to the wacky and obliviously non-sensical ideas of Nagi. From having Jin buy a toy wand and paper to make an exorcism staff, to infiltrating Jin's school to build a fan base of followers to adore her, all are the biazare machinations of Nagi. For me, most of the anime's humor comes from the 'puns' that Nagi spurts out whenever Jin tries to scold her for doing something crazy again. Also that, Nagi talks more like a obasan but at the same time a selfish girl trying to pose as a mature woman.

Much of the storyline and 'puns' of the anime are the same in the manga, unlike other animes wherein the storyline is modified for commercialized purposes. Kannagi retains the plotline, dialogue,and humor of the manga. thus attesting to the Eri Takenashi's skill as a manga-ka.

In opening theme "Motto Hade ni ne!", Nagi sings on a stage like a J-Pop idol with side clips wherein the cast are portrayed as stereotyped characters in the pop idol industry. The intro was animated to a degree that it imitates how a real J-Pop idol performs on a stage. Another pun perhaps, or just some random idea the producers thought, either way, it was so catchy even I started singing some lines from the song. Minus the baton =)

Another short anime series that delivers a punch, Kannagi is a great anime to watch over and over again. A solid story full of humor never leaving a dull moment for you to yawn or pause. But also with rare snippets that we get to see a more sensitive and vulnerable Nagi that is much as kawaii as her comical self. I recommend Kannagi to everyone that wants to watch a great anime with a well-written script and great humor to match. If there are already translated versions of the actual manga, buying them is not a waste of your money.

Sadly, both for the manga and the anime are short lived, the reason for which, the manga-ka Eri Takenasi had to undergo surgery this past December 2008. In a press release by Ichijinsha this past January, the manga is in hiatus while the author is still recovering from surgery. Word in the web, has it that the suspected reason for the halt, is due to unwarranted reactions from a minority of fans of the manga over Nagi's 'civil status'. I for one, pray for the speedy recovery of Eri Takenashi and hope that she gets back to finishing up the manga. I want to read more of Kannagi and see how Jin and Nagi's relationship progress further.

sore demo ji-mi-da-NE!HONTO no koi-da-NE! kitsuite

anata dake ni atsui AN DOU TOROWA misete ageru sotto

Hard day’s night game

TOROke sou