I’ve had a stack of unread manga ever since TRSI’s last Del Rey sale. With things getting back to normal post-vacation, I’ve had time to start working on that backlog. Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, Vol. 7 was the first such title to come off the queue.
I’ve been jumping all over the place the last few days in terms of content. Anyhow, here’s my take on another anime DVD: Elfen Lied, Vol. 1.
I like to use Netflix to view anime that I either don’t intend to ever buy or haven’t decided. One such series is Elfen Lied. The series managed to garner a lofty #3 ranking of AnimeNfo’s top 200 ranking, which doesn’t really mean a lot, but I’ve found the site useful in the past when selecting new series to watch. After the first disc, I’m not convinced the series is any better than average; maybe slightly above, but that’s about it.
Before we get started, I should say that I’m a big fan of the Scrapped Princess anime. I was originally exposed to the series through a set of fansubs released shortly after each successive Japanese air date and it quickly rose to the top of my short list of good fantasy anime. I was naturally interested if the Scrapped Princess manga could also live up to the expectations set by the anime series.
Having recently put a rental copy of Appleseed through the paces, I’ve come away pleasantly surprised by this visually impressive sci-fi film. The feature that sets Appleseed apart is its extensive use of cel-shaded animation. The movie boasts numerous mecha designs that benefit greatly from the effect. The cel-shaded look also works reasonably well with the simple, stylized facial features famous to anime, lending depth while adding some odd shadowing.
The use of cel-shading in Appleseed seems to be limited to the characters and interactive objects like Deunan’s gun. Some of the lighter static backgrounds, like the tree-lined avenues that we see as Hitomi drives Deunan through Olympus, don’t benefit and look positively dated by comparison. Thankfully, the film has an abundance of night-time cityscapes that look great against the cel-shaded characters.
Beyond appearances, Appleseed proved to be far more engaging than I had anticipated. There are some bland fight scenes early on, but the story does eventually kick in and I found enough well-executed twists to keep me interested right up to the end.
Anime On DVD has posted a review of I’’s, Vol. 3. I was disappointed to read that the US publisher, Viz, has edited this volume for nudity. Earlier volumes were apparently edited as well. I find the decision to edit I’’s odd, considering that Viz chose to market the series as part of their Shonen Jump Advanced line, supposedly for older readers. Shouldn’t the mere notion of doing an edit of this nature send big warning signs that the title isn’t appropriate for your intended audience?
I’m reminded of the whole CMX/Tenjho Tenge fiaso, which I wrote about earlier this year. From what I gather, the edits have continued and CMX has refused to acknowledge the collective outcry.
Unfortunately, I’’s and Tenjho Tenge are not the only manga titles that have been Puritanized en route to US shores. Following Tenjho Tenge, Anime On DVD set up a discussion forum devoted to manga editing. It’s probably the best place to go to find out which titles have been edited or otherwise share your thoughts on the subject of editing in general.
Personally, I would like to see our US manga publishers take some responsibility and choose their licenses more carefully, or translate mature titles faithfully and package them accordingly. Censoring an existing creative work is degrading to the artist and insulting to the fans.
