Top 3 Anime of 2015

While I did manage to start quite a few anime in 2015, I was not able to finish half of them. Part of this was a result of my attempting to juggle too many at a time, part of it was due to personal events outside of the blog that demanded my attention late this year. Despite this setback, I did manage to complete three series that stood as a cut above the rest. I’ve nearly finished two anime properties that I hope will kick my 2016 anime reviews off with a bang. Until then, here are me picks for the three best anime that I viewed in 2015.

#3) Mobile Suit Victory Gundam: Considered by many to be the height of series creator Yoshiyuki Tomino’s ‘kill-‘em-all’ presentations, Victory Gundam carries a melancholy tone - more so that most other Gundam anime projects - which provides a curious but surprisingly effective contrast to the positivity exhibited by young protagonist Uso Evin. The hand-drawn animation still holds up quite well today, and avoids reuse of stock footage whenever possible, only increasing the perceived production quality for its day. The efforts of the League Militaire against the Zanscare Empire mirror the fight that the A.E.U.G. took to the Titans in Zeta Gundam, while also harkening back to the severity of losses during original Mobile Suit Gundam’s One Year War. The mobile suit designs are at their most bizarre for a Universal Century setting in Victory Gundam, with many of the Zanscare Empire’s bearing insect qualities. There are a couple laughable moments of gaps in logic, but on the hole, Victory Gundam still holds up well more than twenty years after its original release.

#2) Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine: A return to the flashy and upbeat action the series is known for, The Woman Called Fujiko Mine also displays a sultry, mysterious side befitting of the titular character. Effectively one of the earliest tales in the Lupin III chronology, The Woman Called Fujiko Mine focuses in part on how the classic cast first crossed paths with one another, but also explores Fujiko as a complex individual – the motivations behind her life of thievery, her sexuality, ghosts of her past, and the image others have of her versus how she perceives herself. While it certainly does not skimp on exciting chase sequences and zany humor that the franchise has become known for, The Woman Called Fujiko Mine treads into darker, more serious territory than most of its predecessors, to a mostly-successful payoff.

#1) Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders – Battle in Egypt: Building upon the already-stellar previous half of Stardust Crusaders, Jotaro, Joseph, Avdol, Kakyoin, Polnareff and newcomer Iggy face their toughest challenges yet from Dio’s Nine Egyptian Gods on their journey to defeat the time-stopping vampire. With each new installment in the Jojo’s anime series, the animation improves upon greatness, with wild color palette swaps, intense Stand battle sequences, and tactfully drawn-out scenes of drama and grief. This second half of the Stardust Crusaders anime adaptation wonderfully brings to life some of the most memorable encounters from the grander Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure storyline, balancing its action, humor, and mild horror elements with absolute perfection. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders is the best anime adaptation of the classic manga storyline fans could have hoped for. The absurd attention to detail and labor-of-love conveyed through this series make it easily one of the best anime of the past year, as well as among the most masterfully-executed anime of a generation.

2015 Year in Review: Anime

Resident Evil: Damnation

My rating: 7.75

Persona 3: The Movie – #1: Spring of Birth


My rating: 7

Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine

My rating: 8.25

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders – Battle in Egypt

My rating: 9.75

Mobile Suit Victory Gundam

My rating: 8.5

Top five video games and anime of 2015 - Spring and Summer contenders

We are now more than halfway through 2015, and I feel that my contenders for this year’s best anime and video game picks are currently fewer and further between than in years past. I have only come across a couple of games that really blew me away, and one in particular was a title that I did not expect to impress me as nearly much as it managed to. There are, however, a few major titles releasing this Fall and Winter that may very well find their way on to the final, year-end list, including Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and Star Fox Zero. On the anime side of things, there’s certainly been a clear front-runner since the year began, while other series have managed to offer me pleasant surprises with shorter episode counts.

- Video Games -

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth - Persona Q combines the dungeon-mapping and exploration elements of the Etrian Odyssey series with the familiar faces and Persona abilities from the third and fourth numbered entries in the Persona series. Persona Q is, in many ways, a game that is directly aimed at established fans of the series, offering callbacks to events that transpired in Persona 3 and Persona 4 Yet, it does well to establish an engaging narrative all its own. The lack of Social Link depth is unfortunate, but all the same, Persona Q is one of the most jam-packed and wonderfully enjoyable spinoff games of its caliber.

Splatoon - The fictional hosts of this game, Callie and Marie, tell players to stay fresh, and that’s exactly what Splatoon is – a fresh culmination of third-person shooting, action-adventure, platforming, and slight puzzle design, all wrapped up in a wildly inventive, punky aquatic vision of Tokyo, where online multiplayer is the primary focus. The soundtrack is kickin’, the neon ink colors bright and a blast to splatter over every inch of the map, and the community focus incredibly strong.

Shadows of the Damned - Delivering a simpler, more singularly-focused tale than other Suda51 creations, Shadows of the Damned sees the grindhouse-inspired demon hunter Garcia Hotspur racing headfirst into the depths of hell to save his true love. Weaving a curiously cohesive string of environments together to create a fresh vision of hell, and offering tight gameplay the focuses on three core weapons and their occasional uses for solving puzzles, Shadows of the Damned is a surprisingly solid entry in the legacy of Grasshopper Manufacture, even if its crude sense of humor falls flat from time to time.

- Anime -

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders (Egyptian Arc) - What is currently poised to take the cake as this year’s best-of-the-best anime, the second half of Stardust Crusaders has managed to ORAORAORA the competition and climb the ranks as one of my all-time favorite anime series. It’s a masterful follow-up to the first half of Stardust Crusaders, an adaptation which was already an incredible improvement over the wonderfully-realized animated telling of the first two arcs of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. The series keeps on improving as it progresses, and I couldn’t be more pleased with this love letter to the Jojo’s fanbase.

Ninja Slayer - Despite a rocky start, this goofy, sometimes off-the-wall homage to action anime of the late 1980s and early 1990s has proved consistently entertaining since. Drastic changes in animation style and quality poke fun at limited budgets from the era that Ninja Slayer draws so much of its inspiration from, and the exchanges of greetings that foes share prior to each violent encounter puts a smile on my face as character designs proves increasingly more silly. Ninja Slayer knows when to play its cards properly, balancing wacky humor with kickass action sequences.

Mobile Suit Victory Gundam - Victory Gundam has aged surprisingly well given its early 1990s debut. Sure, there are a handful of gaps in logic and corny sequences, but by and large, Victory Gundam plays the part of a spiritual successor to Zeta Gundam, pitting a rebellious group of ragtag teens and young adults against the cruel and violent expansion of the Zanscare Empire. The hand-drawn animation also impresses with its lack of reliance on stock footage, and the soundtrack haunts with its soft, yet still imposing melodies.

Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine - A throwback to the classic action and espionage of one of anime’s oldest and most iconic series, The Woman Called Fujiko Mine combines flash and flair of a bygone era with contemporary writing techniques for a smart, sexy, and thoroughly enjoyable telling of the earliest encounters between Lupin, Jigen, Goemon, Inspector Zenigata, and the titular Fujiko. The art style is gorgeous, retaining the traditional character designs with gorgeous lighting effects, harsh shadows, and an overall presentation factor that continues to impress with subtle impacts on the larger product.

Anime review: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders - Battle in Egypt

Picking up directly where the mid-season break left off, the Egypt arc of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure sees Jotaro Kujo and the rest of the Stardust Crusaders facing down the last remaining loyal followers of Dio. Most notable among these foes are the Nine Egyptian Gods, foes whose Stands prove among the most intimidating and powerful the heroes have encountered yet. And at the end of the journey, in mansion deep within the heart of Cairo, awaits the main villain himself, Dio Brando. Yet, the Stardust Crusaders have a few cards up their sleeve, revealing clever and previously unseen applications of their Stands, a few assists from the Speedwagon Foundation, and a new ally in the form of the temperamental and selfish Iggy, a scrappy dog who wields the Stand known as The Fool.

This second half of the Stardust Crusaders anime feels more tightly-wound, its narrative more focused. From the moment the heroes set foot in the Egyptian desert, there is a sense of urgency about their journey that was no so prevalent in the first season. The stakes are also higher, with these new villains challenging Jotaro and company in battles of wits or other indirect means, while those that do fight them outright play host to some of the series’ stranger but more memorable Stands.

The voice work is superb, all around. While the core has the obvious task of carrying the show from one episode to the next, the villains who appear for only two episodes at a time leave a lasting, often humorous impression. As is only appropriate, Dio’s presence commands as much attention as they show can offer Stardust Crusaders chief villain. The final confrontation between Jotaro and Dio is among the most intense and rewarding endgame battles in any anime of this episode count I’ve come across.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of Dio’s loyal henchmen and women receive ample screen time as well. Some of the fights feel perhaps a bit more drawn out than necessary, but by and large, it is to the series’ benefit, as practically zero of the finer details are left out from the manga version, and the battles are not resolved in too quick a time frame that would negate the drama and intensity. Each member of the main cast undergoes significant maturation since the outset of their journey, and it’s wonderful to see just how naturally this is conveyed. Later episodes play at viewer’s emotions with masterful technique, as there are callbacks to the earliest moments of the Stardust Crusaders’ quest, as well as a severe gravity of present events as they unfold.

The animation budget seems to have received a considerable boost since the first half aired, which in and of itself gradually improved in quality from the airing of its first episode to its twenty-fourth. While most characters stick to a particular color palette for their clothing, scenes where the Stand fights become especially intense warp to more psychedelic colors, a nice nod to manga author Hirohiko Araki’s tendency to present variations on the previously-established appearances of characters. The soundtrack is catchy, moody, and always appropriate, with rock influences playing in subtly as Stands clash and the Stardust Crusaders scour Egyptian streets for any clues that might lead them to Dio.

Stardust Crusaders does offer a definitive conclusion to its own arc, and does provide a satisfying endgame for the three story arcs thus far. However, there is still plenty of money to be made by David Production should they choose to animate Diamond is Unbreakable and other later arcs of the manga, and I have no doubt they would do a similarly stellar job adapting the stories of Josuke Higashikata, Giorno Giovanna, Jolyne Kujo, and so on. It has been many years since an anime left as strong an impact on me as Stardust Crusaders has managed, but I believe it is safe to say that David Production has made one of the greatest adapted anime series of all time. In so far as I am concerned, Stardust Crusaders has earned its place among the company of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and Unicorn Gundam as one of the most impressive works of its medium.

My rating: 9.75 (out of 10)

My rating for the Stardust Crusaders series as a whole: 10 (out of 10)

25 Days of Jojo’s - #2: Jean Pierre Polnareff

(Fair warning: there will be spoilers abound in this series of posts, as I find there are major moments that define some of these characters late in their respective story arcs. So in the event that you have not yet read/watched a particular part of the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure storyline, you may wish to skip over certain entries.)

#2 - Jean Pierre Polnareff: While each of the Stardust Crusaders undergoes a certain degree of maturation during their quest to defeat Dio Brando and all of his dark underlings, Polnareff’s is perhaps the most drastic. Much like Noriaki Kakyoin, Polnareff is introduced as a foil to Jotaro and company, having been infected by one of Dio’s vampire spores. After having it removed, Polnareff reveals that he wishes to join the Stardust Crusaders in order to track down J. Geil, the man who killed his sister. Polnareff’s original reason for tagging along on the arduous, often wacky journey to Egypt was to seek revenge – plain and simple.

However, seeing this task to completion was costly, as Avdol nearly died in the process. As Polnareff was unaware of his friend’s survival until meeting up with him on the island after his wounds had healed, he spent a good deal of the time grieving and beating himself up over those events. He came to place greater trust in his comrades, value the particular skills they brought to the table, and work better as a team player, assisting Kakyoin in battling the Lovers Stand on a microscopic scale and trying to protect friends new and old in a child’s body when fighting Alessy.

That is not to say that Polnareff’s role as comedic relief was lessened any, but it was altered. Later in the Stardust Crusaders arc, Polnareff largely cuts out his ogling of women and attempts at being a smooth talker. Instead, he has a couple of awkward run-ins with rival and foe Hol Horse, one where he is nearly forced to lick clean a toilet bowl, and the other resulting in his nostrils being invaded by two of Hol Horse’s fingers. Iggy gives him a difficult time as well, viewing Polnareff’s hair as his new favorite chewing toy and farting in his face while he mauls the Frenchman’s carefully-sculpted flat-top.

Polnareff’s Silver Chariot is all about quick and decisive strikes. Against less calculating foes, it’s a force to be reckoned with, but as proves the case late in the Stardust Crusaders arc, it is less than ideal for fighting the likes of Vanilla Ice’s Cream or Dio’s The World. Still, Polnareff is never one to give up, knowing how much his friends have sacrificed to allow him to live on and fight another day. He is the first of the heroes to encounter Dio Brando during the buildup to the final climactic battle, and despite Dio’s taunts, chooses to charge him head-on. While Jotaro is responsible for the majority of the damage Dio takes during the nighttime showdown in the streets of Cairo, Polnareff comes to his aid, piercing through Dio’s skull, aware that such a brash surprise attack could spell his own death. But after witnessing the deaths of Avdol and Iggy, and knowing that Kakyoin and Joseph had similarly fallen in combat with Dio, he was determined to do whatever he had to in order to stop the powerful vampire.

Polnareff, Joseph, and Jotaro eventually part ways after letting Dio’s body crumble to ash in the desert sun, but he makes a return in the later chapters of the fifth arc of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Vento Aureo. Polnareff plays the part of the contact Giorno Giovanna and the rest of the Gangstars are supposed to meet up with, and explains how he spent the years post-Stardust Crusaders researching the arrow until his leads led him to Italy and Diavolo, the man who crafted the arrows and ultimately put them into hands of Dio and Yoshikage Kira’s father, among others. Polnareff’s deductions cost him yet again, however, as he lost both of his legs in a battle with Diavolo, resulting in his being wheelchair-bound.

However, Polnareff has an ace up his sleeve in the form of one of the arrows, which he uses on his own Stand, elevating it to Silver Chariot Requiem, and losing control of it entirely as it rampages of its own will. During the chaos that erupts in the coliseum, Polnareff’s consciousness leaves his human body and is transferred to that of the turtle that had previously offered the Gangstars a safe haven from Diavolo’s thugs. Still able to speak, Polnareff offers what limited assistance he can to the Gangstars as the climactic showdown with Diavolo draws near, and at the conclusion of Vento Aureo, Polnareff is shown to be very much healthy and alive in the company of Giorno and the surviving Gangstars, albeit as a turtle.

25 Days of Jojo’s - #4: Joseph Joestar

(Fair warning: there will be spoilers abound in this series of posts, as I find there are major moments that define some of these characters late in their respective story arcs. So in the event that you have not yet read/watched a particular part of the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure storyline, you may wish to skip over certain entries.)

#4 - Joseph Joestar: In stark contrast to his noble and perhaps naïve grandfather Jonathan, Joseph Joestar is a more carefree hero, playful and comedic, but also not afraid to take justice into his own hands when necessary. The earliest impressions Battle Tendency offers as to what kind of protagonist Joseph will become arise from his handling of a few events in his home turf of bustling New York City. He give a couple of dirty cops a taste of their own medicine for their heckling young Smokey Brown, giving them mild injuries to teach them not to pick on people smaller than they are. Then, when Straits reappears and displays his fall from grace in embracing the vampiric powers once utilized by Dio Brando, Joseph displays a combination of fearlessness and resourcefulness, opting to pump Straits full of lead and play mind games with this ally-turned-foe before ultimately besting him.

Joseph is a goofball, sometimes a jackass, but no less of a hero than his grandfather or any of those who would follow further on down the Joestar bloodline. His ability to predict his foes’ behavior gives him a distinct advantage in surprising them, and when he himself is caught off guard, Joseph has a knack for crafting lucky half-baked gambles of plans on the fly. He is initially impatient during his training with Lisa Lisa and Caesar Zeppeli, thinking the former is asking the impossible of him, and not getting along too well with the latter. However, when the threat of the Pillar Men and their inhuman abilities becomes a more immediately pressing matter, Joseph tightens his composure and remains focused under pressure.

Despite exclaiming that his plans involve running away on multiple occasions, Joseph is far from a coward. These plays are almost always either a deliberate means of messing with his opponents and attempting to throw them off their game, or an attempt to bait his foes away from his friends and allies in order to ensure they are no longer in harm’s way. Joseph returns in later parts of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, acting as a core ally and mentor to Jotaro Kujoh and the other Stardust Crusaders, and later traveling to the Japanese town of Morioh to meet his estranged son Josuke Higashikata. Joseph is arguably the second most well-kown Jojo after Jotaro, having a similarly large impact on the course of events that shape the Joestars through the decades.

25 Days of Jojo’s - #16: Terence T. D'Arby

(Fair warning: there will be spoilers abound in this series of posts, as I find there are major moments that define some of these characters late in their respective story arcs. So in the event that you have not yet read/watched a particular part of the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure storyline, you may wish to skip over certain entries.)

#16 – Terence D’Arby – The younger brother to Daniel D’Arby, Terence similarly wagers souls, albeit in matches of video games, with the intent of storing them within marionette puppets. Whereas Daniel resorted to trickery, Daniel has no need for such underhanded methods, as his Stand, Atum, allows him to read the soul of any opponent with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers to questions, such as which move they will make next. Terence makes a point of mentioning how he even beat up his brother when they were younger, due to Daniel attempting to steal his girlfriend, which grants Terence an intimidating parallel to his otherwise suave image from the start of his video game duel with Kakyoin, Jotaro, and Joseph. Terence’s powers provide him with a distinct advantage during his first match against Kakyoin, but are ultimately exploited during his baseball match against Jotaro, who gains a leg up on Terence D’Arby by capitalizing on everything he learned during his previous battle with Daniel D’Arby. Faced with an impending smackdown from Star Platinum, Terence’s true colors are revealed, as he begins to sweat in panic, begging that Jotaro just get it over with already and unleash his signature ‘ORAORAORA’.

25 Days of Jojo’s - #17: Jotaro Kujo

(Fair warning: there will be spoilers abound in this series of posts, as I find there are major moments that define some of these characters late in their respective story arcs. So in the event that you have not yet read/watched a particular part of the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure storyline, you may wish to skip over certain entries.)

#17 - Jotaro Kujo: I won’t lie, when I started the Stardust Crusaders arc, I wasn’t too hot on Jotaro. Sure, I knew he played a hugely important role in the larger tale of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, showing up in many of the subsequent story arcs. I was also aware of just how powerful his Stand, Star Platinum, was in comparison to many of the series’ other Stands. There is no denying that Jotaro is highly adept in combat, thanks in no small part to his rebellious high school punk personality. But over the course of Stardust Crusaders, he gradually opens up to his allies and comrades, reveling with them during wacky and humorous situations, while also placing greater trust in Avdol, Polnareff, and Kakyoin as they display the specialized traits and strategies they bring to the table.

While the core of the story does shift to Josuke and Jolyne in Diamond is Unbreakable and Stone Ocean respectively, it is made clear that Jotaro has not only honed his skills even further in the years following his climactic showdown with Dio Brando, but that he also cares more deeply for the well-being of his friends and family, even if he hasn’t gotten much better at showing it. Jotaro’s intimidating personage remains constant throughout the larger Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure story, and despite the introduction of plenty of new faces in Steel Ball Run and Jojolion, is still considered by many fans of the series as the series’ definitive hero.

25 Days of Jojo’s - #19: Hol Horse

(Fair warning: there will be spoilers abound in this series of posts, as I find there are major moments that define some of these characters late in their respective story arcs. So in the event that you have not yet read/watched a particular part of the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure storyline, you may wish to skip over certain entries.)

#19 - Hol Horse: Of all the followers Dio accumulated during the events of Stardust Crusaders, few acted consistently like a dork as Hol Horse did. Something of an antithesis to Jean Pierre Polnareff, Hol Horse initially appears as a slick sharpshooter, teaming up with J. Geil to try and take down the Stardust Crusaders, and breaking ladies’ hearts as he travels from one town to the next. As the story progresses, however, his lack of confidence in Dio’s plans becomes more apparent, as does his general terror in the presence of the vampiric Stand user. Hol Horse’s final attempt at taking down the Stardust Crusaders sees him team up with the incredibly reluctant Boingo, and mess up so badly that he manages to shoot himself, resulting in his being put out of commission for the remainder of Part III.

Anime Update: "Back in Black, Time to Dust Yourself Off..."

Despite my best intentions, I still have not wrapped up the late episodes of Victory Gundam, as I poured practically all of my attention toward Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, and – to a slightly lesser extent – Ninja Slayer. Both proved quite entertaining to watch, if not for drastically different reasons. I have begun writing my review for the second half of the Stardust Crusaders anime, and I expect said review will be posted sometime later this month. As for Ninja Slayer, I intend to keep on plugging away at that series, one twelve-minute episode at a time, with a written review following not too long after its finale airs (whenever that is set to occur, later this year). While I was rather let down with Studio Trigger's debut series, Kill la Kill, I'm completely on board with Ninja Slayer's bonkers parody of late-1980s/early-1990s action anime.

I did in fact watch a good portion of G-Reco, and found it largely to my liking. The mobile suit designs, technology of the fictional setting, and even the art direction all remind me a great deal of Turn A Gundam, a series which I absolutely adore. I intend to finish G-Reco before the end of 2015 as well, which should prove a relatively easy task, considering that is has a shorter episode count than most full-fledged Gundam series. As far as the Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin films are concerned, I will continue to watch those as they are released, though it does not appear that those films are slated to come out on a particularly frequent basis – in fact, their release schedule seems not unlike that of Unicorn Gundam, which I suppose is just fine, so long as they carry on with such a high production value.

As far as other, more recent anime is concerned, I would like to give the recent Mushishi sequel series a watch. I loved the original and its bizarre fantasy folklore delivered through a calm and soft-spoken narrative style. Aside from that, there are not many series on the immediate horizon that I’m particularly interested in. Perhaps I’ll get around to watching the second season of Space Dandy – the first season was good fun and all, I simply kind of forgot about the second season in the wake of all the Jojo’s excitement. Sword Art Online’s second act of its first season left such a foul taste in my mouth that I have zero desire to view the second season.

I will keep my eyes and ears open for word of an official release date for the second season of Knights of Sidonia, however, as the first season of that anime hooked me enough to warrant a follow-up. And with regards to an (potentially) even longer-term viewing schedule, I’m excited about what Under the Dog might bring. I understand the project recently had a few staff members leave the project over creative differences, but I believe that character designer Yusuke Kozaki is still on board, whose work on the No More Heroes games I am a huge fan of.

25 Days of Jojo’s - #21: Daniel J. D'Arby

(Fair warning: there will be spoilers abound in this series of posts, as I find there are major moments that define some of these characters late in their respective story arcs. So in the event that you have not yet read/watched a particular part of the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure storyline, you may wish to skip over certain entries.)

#21 - Daniel J. D’Arby – Of all the villains the Stardust Crusaders encounter on their journey to locate Dio’s mansion, few come as close to besting them as Daniel J. D’Arby does. Armed with merely his wits and cunning, Daniel never once inflicts physical harm upon Jotaro and company, instead challenging them to a series of gambles with their souls on the line. D’Arby is of the belief that ‘it isn’t cheating if no one catches you’, which is perhaps what throws Joseph and Polnareff off from the start of their encounter with him. The Stardust Crusaders had, up until their intense betting matches with D’Arby, dealt primarily with murderers and violent fiends, and it is not until Jotaro decides to play mind games with D’Arby that they are able to overcome such a capable foe.

25 Days of Jojo’s - #24: Iggy

(Fair warning: there will be spoilers abound in this series of posts, as I find there are major moments that define some of these characters late in their respective story arcs. So in the event that you have not yet read/watched a particular part of the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure storyline, you may wish to skip over certain entries.)

#24 – Iggy: The most reluctant member of the Stardust Crusaders, Iggy is captured in the alleys of New York City by the Speedwagon Foundation due to his exceptionally powerful, if not simplistic, Stand made of sand, The Fool. Iggy displays a general lack of desire to be in Egypt with Jotaro, Kakyoin, Joseph, and Avdol, but goes out of his way on more than a few occasions to terrorize Polnareff, ripping out large chunks of his hair and farting in his face. The two develop a comedic antagonistic relationship, and the only encouragement Iggy appears to have in staying with the Stardust Crusaders for the majority of their journey is coffee-flavored chewing gum, which he gleefully devours anytime it is offered to him.

However, following his intense near-death battle with Pet Shop, Iggy finds a reason to fight alongside the Stardust Crusaders, and vows to help stop Dio, if for no other reason than he is angry that the villain's winged guard gave him so much trouble. Upon entering Dio’s mansion, Iggy begins to follow the advice that Avdol and Polnareff give him, actually strategizing in this dangerous building instead of running off and doing whatever he pleases. While Iggy does ultimately perish in a battle with Vanilla Ice, he does manage to help expose the villain’s weaknesses, and saves Polnareff’s life so that he can continue on to fight Dio with Jotaro and the others.

Anime Update: The Red Comet and Star Platinum

Yesterday, I watched the first entry in the Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin series of films. While I would not say that this first episode kicked things off to quite as strong a start as the most recent Universal Century OVA, Unicorn Gundam, it was a well-written and entertaining view nonetheless. Despite the name matching up with the recently-popularized manga retelling of the original Mobile Suit Gundam, which expands upon the story of the One Year War, this four-part anime release appears to be a prequel to that, seeing all the major players rise to their respective iconic roles.

This first film, Blue-Eyed Casval, deals almost exclusively with characters in the space colonies who will ultimately end up fighting for the Principality of Zeon, namely the Zabi family and Zeon Zum Deikun’s children, Casval and Artesia, who would later come to be better known as Sayla Mass and Char Aznable respectively. To finally see Zeon Zum Deikun’s death and the rising political tensions that led to the Zabi family’s rise to power and eventual declaration of war on the Earth Federation was long-overdue but no less impactful animated sequence as the first major events leading up to the One Year War. I certainly enjoyed seeing a younger Ramba Ral worked into the story, as his actions gave me a greater degree of respect for him as a character, while Char’s determination and focus at such a young age set the wheels in motion for his plans to exact revenge on the Zabi family for the death of his father. The occasional overly cartoony moments might appeal to younger audiences, but I found them a bit unnatural, even clunky in execution, given the more serious and tense atmosphere of Blue-Eyed Casval on the whole.

Despite my habit of sometimes picking up a longer anime series to view, watching for a while, moving on to another anime, then coming back again many months later to pick up where I last left off, I am now a mere five episodes from the finale of Victory Gundam. I intend to finish this soon, as I want to give the current G-Reko series a shot, but not before I’ve finished my viewing of Victory. While Gundam AGE and the Build Fighters series both failed to entice me, G-Reco’s highly-creative mobile suit designs and certain sensibilities that seemingly harken back to Turn A Gundam have me intrigued. As G-Reco is currently airing and thus not yet complete, I will likely balance my viewing of that with at least one other anime – be it one of the two remaining Gundam series I have yet to watch in full (Mobile Suit Gundam, ZZ Gundam) or something entirely unrelated to Bandai and Sunrise’s long-running franchise.

I’m still loving the current run of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, and if the most recent two-part encounter with D’arby the Gambler was any indication, the best episodes may yet lie on the horizon. Strong as the series has been since the beginning, the first season of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure displayed a similar increase in quality in later episodes, with the Battle Tendency arc being more of both a visual and narrative spectacle than its precursor, Phantom Blood. While I was plugging away at Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 this Winter, it has since been removed from Netflix’s offerings, and thus I will have to find another means of viewing the series if I intend to see it to completion.

I found myself rather disappointed with the original Ghost in the Shell’s narrative suddenly dropping off at the end of the 1995 film, but the recent reimagining known as Ghost in the Shell: Arise is currently available on Netflix, and I decided to give the first hour-long episode a try. Unfortunately, it did as little to keep me entertained as the few episodes of Stand Alone Complex I have seen ever did. Arise’s blundering gaps in logic as well as its obsession with not including viewers in on what would seem like prominent chunks of information have led me to effectively resign the entire Ghost in the Shell franchise as one of those properties that thinks itself much smarter than it actually is, and subsequently a property that I will not be wasting any more of my time on.

I intend to take my time with the third season of Sgt. Frog, as it is the last season that was localized by Funimation for North American release. There is a strong chance that I may see this third season to completion by the end of the year and review it accordingly, as I do love the series’ wacky humor in its pop culture references and the general behavior of the characters. With all of this in mind, the rest of the year is largely a blank slate with regards to my anime viewing plans, as Unicorn Gundam has entirely wrapped up, and other recent series I was viewing, like The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, I have since completed.

Top 5 Stands in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

Though the Ripple abilities harnessed by Jonathan and Joseph Joestar are the sort of ‘magical energy’ trump cards in the first two arcs of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Stands replace them from Stardust Crusaders onward. Stands are, in essence, a manifestation of their users’ willpower, and while the most iconic ones take on humanoid forms, their appearances can range from a small toy-sized fighter plane, to one powerful possessed sword, an electrical socket that forms a magnetic field around anyone who touches it, and even the collective consciousness of hyper-intelligent plankton. As is explained a number of times over the course of the long-running Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure tale, Stand users are the only ones who can see other Stands, and they will be inexplicably drawn to one another, be it on friendly terms or seeking to destroy one another. Below are my five current favorite Stands – as Jojolion is still ongoing and there will likely be more parts to Jojo’s in the coming years, this list may change in the future. Also, this list is based exclusively on the Stands, their appearances, and their powers, and the personalities or actions of their respective users do not necessarily bear any significant hold on their ranking.

#5 - Moody Blues: When part five presented the idea of a group of teens tracking down a mob boss and attempting to piece together the mystery of his identity along the way, Moody Blues stood out to me the moment its powers were explained. It allows its user, Leone Abbacchio, to rewind time and discover what transpired in a particular spot hours beforehand. It might not be the most exciting concept when compared to the Stands of the other Vento Aureo protagonists, like Guido Mista’s smart-mouthed revolver shells or Bruno Buccellati’s opening portals via zippers. Moody Blues is, however, quite practical, given the focus of their mission.

#4 - Whitesnake: Stone Ocean offered up many cool ideas that never quite panned out in quite as exciting a manner as I had hoped. It did, however, present some very cool Stand and core character designs, Whitesnake being chief among them. Enrico Pucci, Stone Ocean’s main antagonist, relies on Whitesnake’s ability to seal the memories and Stand powers of his foes on CDs in order to gain the upper hand on them. Whitesnake is present from a very early point in Stone Ocean, keeping tabs on Jolyne Kujoh, but often remaining in the shadows, carrying out tasks on Pucci’s behalf. It is one of the few Stands to display an ability to speak, and has a sinister, scornful personality that wonderfully matches its creepy subhuman face, its starkly-contrasting striped body, and the crown-like piece atop its head, denoting it as master of the Green Dolphin Street Prison

#3 - D4C: Considered one of the most powerful Stands in the entire series, D4C (shorthand for ‘Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap’) allows its user and President of the United States, Funny Valentine, to slip between objects in order to travel to parallel universes. D4C’s powers are barely even hinted at until it makes its grand debut late in the Steel Ball Run storyline, but when it does enter the scene, it commands center stage, constantly thwarting Johnny Joestar and Gyro Zeppeli’s attempts to halt President Valentine’s visions of grandeur. D4C also grants Funny Valentine an immunity to the dangers of traversing the multiverse, as he is able to move back and forth freely in order to heal himself via swapping bodies with alternate versions of himself, which D4C will subsequently follow. Any other individuals who might attempt to follow President Valentine to another reality, however, will ultimately meet their destruction upon being forcibly pulled towards the other version of themselves native to that universe.

#2 - Silver Chariot: The Stands in parts three and four of Jojo’s generally have simpler designs and powers, which is by no means a bad thing. The goofball would-be-heroes of Stardust Crusaders all boast powerful Stands with specialized abilities that complement one another well, though my personal favorite – both in terms of its aesthestic appeal and mystical powers – would have to be Jean Pierre Polnareff’s Silver Chariot. Single rapier in hand, Silver Chariot is a simple enough knight in armor design, but its lithe build and lightning-fast jabs make for a fresh approach compared to the heavy-hitting, armor-burdened design that would have proved the easier route to take in designing a medieval warrior-style Stand.

#1 - Killer Queen: Another one bites the dust with each detonation of Killer Queen’s explosive powers. Killer Queen is the antithesis to the Stand of Morioh’s local hero, Josuke Higashikata’s Crazy Diamond. Whereas Crazy Diamond can repair any broken object, Killer Queen is gracefully destructive, leaving not a trace of any of serial killer and user Yoshikage Kira’s victims (save for their hands, which Kira keeps as companions due to his fetishistic m.o.). While most Stands have a set power level they will never surpass, Killer Queen continues to grow more powerful over the course of Diamond is Unbreakable, making use of fellow Stand Stray Cat to launch projectiles and Kira's eventual 'awakening' as a gateway to forming temporal loops to overwrite any mistakes in Kira's plotting. Killer Queen’s appearance is largely humanoid, completely white, with a feline face and decorated with small portions of purple leather and gold studs. On its shoulders, its belt, and in a few other places, Killer Queen bears a terrifying skeletal face that appears to be something of a fiendish mockery of its own face – an appropriate parallel to the smooth and beautiful exterior housing such a violently destructive routine.

Top 5 Anime of 2014

As in years past, I have compiled my end of the year selections for my five favorite anime that I viewed in 2014.  Not all of these anime were in fact released during 2014, though each was released and aired within the past couple of years, and a few of these saw a run that carried on through 2014.  As with my top ten video game selections of the year, my rankings for these five best-of-the-best anime bears little correlation to the ratings I gave to each in my full review posts - rather, they are the five anime that I enjoyed most, and the five which left some noteworthy impact on me as a viewer. 

#5) Knights of Sidonia: Offering a more gritty and dire take on the mecha genre than many of its bigger-name contemporaries, Knights of Sidonia knows how to get from point A to point B in a timely manner, while still exploring enough individual stories that branch out from the core plot.  The scientific advancements made since mankind took refuge among the stars are curious and compelling, if not mildly inconsistent, but the way in which these play off the otherwise outdated tech and cramped living conditions for what are, in all likelihood, the last remaining humans, does well to balance the thriller, drama, adventure, and classic science fiction components.  If only the basic motions of the main cast members’ character models looked half as good as the Garde Unit mechs did when battling the parasitic and ever-adaptive Gauna, this series might have ranked a bit higher on this list.

#4) From the New World: Often times, the whole ‘post-apocalyptic’ subgenre gets stuck in a routine of desolate worlds decorated with litter more than ruins.  How much a breath of fresh air, then, was From the New World, which depicted not only a prospering society, but one which had performed an odd return to ancient technologies and lifestyle.  The strict, often shady rules of this future-past culture incorporate dystopian themes, while the science of the world is largely centered around the esper humans reserving their powers for practical uses that will better the whole community.  From the New World is very smart in its scripting, even though the emphasis on certain plot points might not make their importance known until many episodes later.  Other contemporary science fiction and fantasy anime would do well to learn a thing or two from this series’ careful planning.

#3) Puella Magi Madoka Magica: I admit, I was quite skeptical going into this series.  A number of people had talked it up as being a real game-changer for the magical girl genre – a genre that I was not particularly fond of – but Madoka Magica is much more than that.  Its twelve episode run delivered just the right number of twists and turns to keep me hooked from start to finish, and was fueled by some of the most genuine and raw emotion I’ve encountered in an anime yet.  It’s a dark and depressing tale, but in a similar fashion to Evangelion, it is multi-layered in its themes, yet ever-mindful of tying the narrative threads together for an impactful endgame.  Sometimes the saddest stories deliver the best development for both plot and character, as evidenced by Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

#2) Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders: While the first season adapted the first two parts of the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure manga impeccably well, they were, to a certain degree, always serving to set up the most popular Jojo’s story arc, Stardust Crusaders.  It’s no surprise why Stardust Crusaders has been so well-received since its debut twenty-five years ago – the cast of Jotaro, old man Joseph, Avdol, Kakyoin, and Polnareff makes for quite a raucous crew.  Regardless of how dire the circumstances or rotten the foe, Jotaro and company always manage to turn the situation back to their favor, with plenty of intense action and hilarious shenanigans along the way.  The Stardust Crusaders arc masterfully handles just what a long-running action series should be about – having fun, balancing the action and comedy, and knowing how to properly pace the story for fans new and old.

#1) Mobile Suit Unicorn Gundam: Unicorn Gundam is both a return to form and a push forth into bold new territory for Bandai and Sunrise’s long-running franchise.  I’ve stated in the past that I find the Gundam OVAs are typically among the most high-quality offerings from the franchise, and Unicorn Gundam is unquestionably among the best Gundam projects of all-time.  It has a large cast to juggle, and yet it handles each individual appropriately, shaping them as pieces of a more complex puzzle over the course of its seven (approximately) hour-long episodes.  It’s a love letter to Gundam fans new and old – one that is certainly among the most easily accessible for new viewers who have little understanding of the chronology of the Universal Century, but one that is also chock-full of references and ties to previous Gundam works like Char’s Counterattack, ZZ, and the original Mobile Suit Gundam that kicked off this definitive mecha franchise way back in 1979.

Anime review: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders (season two)

          
  Believed to have been long-since defeated by his rival Jonathan Joestar, Dio Brando returns in part three of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.  As his previously-severed vampire head has attached itself to Jonathan’s body, Dio now shares a strange bond with Joseph Joestar, Joseph’s daughter Holly, and his grandson Jotaro Kujo, through projections of their own willpower called Stands.  Dio’s ultimate goal is now to wipe out the remaining members of the Joestar bloodline, and to do so, he will call upon the most corrupt and detestable Stand users he can find.

Stands manifest in ways unique to each user, with Jotaro’s Star Platinum capable of delivering many quick and powerful punches with insane precision.  Joseph’s Hermit Purple forms a string of thorns that can be used to grapple onto objects within a rather short range, but its primary use is that of projecting images through photographs and television sets to give the heroes an idea of what Dio’s next move will be.  As Holly does not acclimate well to her Stand, she falls ill shortly after Joseph comes to visit her and bail Jotaro out of prison.  Knowing that Holly likely does not have the strength to overcome her own Stand, which proves to be of a parasitic nature, Joseph and Jotaro decide to travel to Egypt to face the problem at its source – Cairo, Egypt, where Dio is hiding.

Even before they leave Egypt, Joseph and Jotaro encounter two allies who vow to help Holly and stamp out Dio and his villainous followers.  These are Muhammad Avdol, an Egyptian who commands the flames of Magician’s Red, and Noriaki Kakyoin, a student around the same age as Jotaro, whose Hierophant Green can thin itself out and explore small crevices as well as perform a spread shot attack known as emerald splash.  Before long, the four heroes meet Jean Pierre Polnareff, a goofball who, despite his tendency to distract his ultimate aims with constantly chatting up pretty women, has a heart of gold and will not rest until the man who murdered his sister – a man with two right hands – is served justice.

With Stardust Crusaders being set in the 1980s, the culture and worldview is distinctly different from that of Battle Tendency, in the same way that arc was so far removed from its own predecessor, Phantom Blood.  With mass transportation now available on every continent, the heroes trip gains some significant headway early on, but it is not long before Dio begins ordering his faithful followers to crash the planes and hijack the boats that the gang attempts to use in their traveling nearly halfway around the globe.  And while the gang is ever-determined in their aims to stop Dio and save Holly (as well as the rest of the world), the Stand users they encounter begin to learn their weaknesses and their fears in hopes on exploiting these to gain the upper hand and please lord Dio – for the only way to defeat a Stand user is to either best the Stand in combat, or defeat the user in person.  With some Stands having incredible range, and others considerable levels of power, the same tactics are not always viable.

The comforts of home miles behind them, the gang travels through the ports of Singapore, the crowded streets of India, the narrow mountain roads of Pakistan, and across the Arabian Desert, traveling in beat-up automobiles, on the backs of camels, and whatever other means are available to them in locales that become increasingly further off the grid.  Not all of their enemies prove as intelligent as one another, however.  While Steely Dan’s attempt to plant his Stand within Joseph’s Brain and Enya Geil’s ability to control bodies after puncturing holes in them are equally lethal and powerful, many of Dio’s followers – particularly those encountered earlier on in the series – rely too heavily on their Stands and their cockiness proves their undoing.  As a result, some of the less impressive and subsequently less exciting Stand users are introduced and dealt with in the same single episode, while fan favorites from the manga typically earn themselves two full episodes in the spotlight.

The budget of Stardust Crusaders is notably higher than that of its 2012 predecessor.  While the animation style takes on a style more akin to the manga, with semi-exaggerated character designs and thicker outlines, the soundtrack is a mix of epic humming battle themes and funky jams that wonderfully compliment the action/comedy hybrid that is the core of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.  This first season runs twenty-four episodes in length, and while there is still plenty of story to be told by the time all is said and done, this first arc does a masterful job of granting each of the five protagonists time to shine through and develop into quirky, respectable heroes.  They each make their missteps, and while it’s true that Jotaro comes across as brash and foul-mouthed at first, the fact that these characteristics simmer as he hones his abilities with Star Platinum shows a great deal of maturity on his part, and an outlook on the larger picture that is quite different from that of his own grandfather, a man who sent the supposed ultimate life form Cars sailing through the stratosphere decades before.

Meanwhile, Kakyoin is typically the most reserved of the lot, and alongside Avdol, makes up the more serious side of the group.  That said, there are occasions where Kakyoin will make some completely unexpected statement or gesture that falls more in line with Polnareff’s wacky nature, and the fact that these come out of seemingly nowhere makes them all the more humorous.  Plenty of struggles lie ahead for these five unlikely heroes as they have yet to face off with the strongest of Dio’s loyal subjects, but make no mistake – for being only the first half of the long-overdue proper anime adaptation of the most popular part of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, this first portion of Stardust Crusaders is nigh-on masterful in its execution.  Few anime series are this consistently fun from start to finish, and the culmination of all these qualities is a testament to the care and attention the anime staff has put into bringing the pages of the manga to life.

My rating: 9.5 (out of 10)

Anime update: Yare yare daze...

I am now twelve episodes away from the finale of Victory Gundam, and I plan to simply follow that through to the end before revisiting From the New World. While Victory Gundam does present some strikingly aged storytelling devices and animation aspects, I feel it holds up overall better than most old Gundam series. So far there has only been one major moment where I rolled my eyes at a particular character’s behavior, and though there are some cheesy bits here and there from Uso and gang, the fact that this story is centered on what is effectively a group of child soldiers engaging in guerrilla-tactic warfare lends the whole thing to carry a dark and serious air about it. The body count for characters that see some actual development is notably high here, but even with the more adult nature of the themes at play in Victory Gundam, it doesn’t stop the anime from being a fun watch.

I’m also now two episodes into Stardust Crusaders, the second season of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. Obviously everything presented thus far has been in the interest of setting the stage for what is to come, but season two did not kick off to quite as big a bang as season one. Part of that is due, I think, to the fact that viewers are already familiar with Joseph Joestar and Dio Brando, and even Jotaro Kujo was teased briefly at the end of season one. I’m not particularly hot on the new animation style. It doesn’t look poor by any stretch of the imagination, and technically it probably is a step up in quality from that of season one. But in terms of aesthetics, I much prefer to look of season one. Perhaps I will come to appreciate it more when the Stands start duking it out on a grander scale. If nothing else, it is a nice little nod to the ever-changing art style of the manga (which I intend to read more of after Stardust Crusaders has concluded).

Beyond that, the next major anime viewing I have on the to-do list is the final episode of Unicorn Gundam, which airs next month. The most recent trailer sure highlighted a lot of major plot points – more than I had expected, in fact. But given that this final entry is reported to have an hour-and-a-half runtime, there is a pretty good chance that all the currently revealed info and footage is merely the tip of the iceberg. Unicorn Gundam has had an incredible run, and is one of the few recent anime I’ve followed from start to finish as it was airing – that used to be a habit of mine back in the days of Toonami, obviously, but these days I find it generally more convenient to simply wait until an anime has finished airing to start my viewing of it. With Stardust Crusaders, however, I intend to keep up with new episodes as they are released.