Editions

The Darkness in the Lychee Light Club

Written by lugiamania

Lychee Light Club is based off of a manga by Usamaru Furuya, which in turn was based off of a Tokyo Grand Guignol stage production of the same name. First off, the anime shorts are vastly different from the manga, which more than earns its 18+ rating. While the original manga is incredibly dark and filled with violence, gore, and sexual scenes, the anime is much more light-hearted and comedic. The characters are drawn in a super-deformed style, which adds to the charm, and the animations are simple but effective.

Music for the series is by Hakuei, the vocalist of well-known visual-kei band Penicillin. In fact, Hakuei himself does some of the voices in the series, and even makes a cameo appearance in episode 5. One of my favorite aspects really is the voice acting, which I found to be superb, despite the fact that each actor only gets a few lines. Kanon, voiced by Rin Honoka, was one of the standouts, with a distinct way of pronouncing her words that I can’t quite place, but find very fitting nonetheless.

Although each episode clocks in at around 3 minutes, the plot is simple enough so that there isn’t too much crammed into each episode. The premises centers around a group of middle school boys and their club, called the Lychee Light Club. After creating a robot fueled only by lychee fruit, aptly named “Lychee,” they order it to kidnap a beautiful girl who ends up becoming a part of the group. Each short centers around the club and the various antics they get into, such as trying to modify Lychee’s functions or forming a rock band. While the anime is nowhere near the level of disturbing as the manga, it does have a good dose of dark humor, and features certain plot points from the manga. The majority of the anime has storylines that weren’t from the manga, and so can be seen as a “lighter” version of Lychee Light Club. (Yes, I went there) It’s quirky and strange, but at 3 minutes a week, easy to digest and offers a glimpse into the world of Usamaru Furuya, who has since written a prequel to the original manga. For those of you wanting to dive deeper into the twisted world of Lychee Light Club, Vertical, Inc. has published the manga in English and is available at brick-and-mortar stores as well as online.

The Mystifying Magic of Magi

Written by Eclipsed_Oblivion

Dungeons overflowing with riches, flying carpets, and vast deserts; the Arabian Nights hold an exotic feeling of adventure and fantasy foreign to much of the world. These qualities, while oddly unique for an anime, fit the shonen genre perfectly, and Magi exemplifies that well. Magi is entrenched in an Arabian Nights world filled with sword fights, genies, and magic flutes. But even while exploring such a distinctive cultural setting, it doesn’t forget that it is an anime. With a balanced, fun atmosphere accompanied by a classic shonen quality, Magi is a strong anime made fresh and exciting by its unique world.

Introduced within one of that world’s many desert towns is ten-year-old Aladdin, a boy who can summon a gigantic djinn, a genie, to his aid by playing a magical flute. Unbeknownst to him, Aladdin is a magi, a rare, mystical being who has the power to choose kings. Still, he is just a boy, and he makes that clear when he waltzes into a merchant’s tent and eats his entire watermelon stock. After surviving the merchant’s abuse, Aladdin befriends Alibaba, the merchant’s cart driver, and they resolve to journey together and collect treasure from dungeons. As such, Magi emphasizes the quintessential elements of a shonen - adventure and friendship - but the aspects of magic and a distinct culture, along with a solid story and balanced atmosphere, also make it quite striking.

What is immediately noticeable about Magi is its application of Arabian Nights-style culture to its world. The backgrounds, which are animated beautifully, are chock-full of palaces, merchant stalls, desert sands, and nomadic grasslands, and the items, such as daggers, tapestries, carts, and even furniture are distinctive of that culture. The deserts become not just exotic, but also exciting with the addition of Arabian Nights-style magic. Magi, djinns, magic carpets, and dungeons give Magi an element of fantasy and excitement that a documentary on the Arabian Nights could never produce. Even character names and designs fit in with the cultural theme, with well-known Arabic names like Jamil and Sinbad and distinctive clothing like turbans and punjabi pants interwoven throughout Magi. These elements altogether immerse viewers into the world of Magi, but the best part is that they are used to create a unique environment that enhance the story rather than just be the best part itself. Magi doesn’t forget that it is an anime, and it still interweaves through the visuals wild hair colours and huge eyes to remind you of that.

Magi also makes use of its unique setting to create a balanced, but fun atmosphere. The desert dungeons, vast landscapes, and busy bazaars promote adventure and exploration, resulting in a sense of excitement. Humour itself fills these adventures, and especially with Aladdin’s pure heartedness and naivety to fill in the gaps, its difficult to not fall in love with the vast world of Magi. The Arabian Nights-style society isn’t just filled with joyful escapades, however; keeping in line with history, there are power struggles between the rich and the poor, upper classes regard slaves as insects, empires wage war with nomadic tribes, and people are killed ruthlessly. As these sorts of elements happened during the approximate era in which Magi takes place, this makes Magi’s setting feel more authentic and adds potential for a struggle between hope and despair. However, Magi only takes basic elements from history and makes them original; it creates its own empires, tribes, and characters, only using history and preexisting fiction as inspiration. Together with the elements that make it fun, Magi is a balanced anime that draws out laughter, but doesn’t neglect the darker parts of reality.

These qualities of hope and despair, along with the distinctive world, contribute to creating the classic shonen feeling that fills Magi. The relationships between characters don’t start off perfectly; they lie, use, and hurt one another, which helps to develop character, but it’s how they become friends that gives Magi an empowering quality. Battles also ensue as a result of wars and character conflicts, but there are only enough of them to highlight the action. Because Magi isn’t a battle anime, but rather a fantasy, the fight scenes come across as more heroic, and thus more inspiring, than usual. As well, Aladdin’s extreme naivety is responsible for most of the humour in Magi, but, because he is only ten-years-old, it just comes across as absurdly heartwarming. His ridiculous facial expressions, inability to read the atmosphere, and bad timing when summoning his djinn somehow make it easier to attach oneself to Aladdin. This all contributes to the somewhat nostalgic, uplifting shonen feeling that is a constant reminder of achieving our dreams while not neglecting our friendships.

Altogether, Magi’s unique cultural setting definitely makes it stand out, but Magi doesn’t just rely on its magic flutes and djinns to stay in midair; it is established within a balanced atmosphere that produces a familiar heartwarming, classic shonen quality. Magi’s distinctive world enhances and makes special that feeling of wanting to strive for one’s dreams while adventuring with friends. So, what are you waiting for? Prepare your magic carpets to adventure with Aladdin and Alibaba across the Arabian deserts! It’s a journey you won’t forget.

Getting Explosive with BTOOOM!

Written by Mupchubz

Welcome to the virtual world of BTOOOM! Leave behind all human desires of luxury and pomposity, you’ll only need basic survival instinct here. Acquire weaponry, armor, survival gear and gadgets. Seek out temporary shelter to avoid immediate danger. Strategize an attack and execute flawlessly without fear of death. This is the game world, where immortality is obtainable and perfection is commonplace by just pushing a button on a controller. Forsake reality and embrace the virtual; it’s truly that simple.

The story unfolds rather quickly for our protagonist, 22-year old Sakamoto Ryouta, an unemployed deadbeat who still lives with his mother and spends the majority of his time playing a game called BTOOOM! As Japan’s top ranked player and the world’s #10, Sakamoto thrives in BTOOOM! and seeks thrills by accepting all challenges. The game’s focal point is to destroy the enemy using only bombs, or BIMs. There are 10 variations of BIMs, ie, cracker-type bombs that explode upon impact, bombs with timers, and others that perfuse the atmosphere with poisonous gas after exploding. Each player is equipped with a chip that works like a radar, a sonar function to locate an enemy on the field. Only after obtaining 8 of these chips is the player victorious.

For Sakamoto, BTOOOM! is his escape from reality, his sweet release from all societal pressures and responsibilities, and his own domain whereby he can command and conquer without consequence. In this virtual world, fame is his shadow and glory is his armor. Yet his virtual world is shattered one day when it becomes a painful, visceral reality.

Sakamoto awakens one morning to find himself in a parachute harness dangling from a tree. His surroundings are unfamiliar and he can’t recall any recent events. Not knowing his whereabouts, he scours the location, finding a bag of convenient store goodies and odd cube-shaped supplies. He discovers that he’s on a tropical island and that the cubes in his possession are in fact timed bombs. Memory still eluding him, he continues onwards and encounters a crazed man and suddenly, it’s war: the stranger starts chucking round objects at him which turn out to be cracker-type bombs. Sakamoto runs for his life, in complete disbelief that his beloved game has been reduced to nothing more than mere debauchery for someone’s twisted amusement.

Instinct to survive at all costs launches him into overdrive mode: no more hesitation. Eventually grasping the functionality of his timed bombs, he strategically places one and kills his first enemy, reluctantly reaping the cracker-type bombs for later use. As he wanders through the island, Sakamoto must come to terms with his conscience and this new cruel twist of fate. Will he meet his demise at the hands of the game he loves?

Gear up as BTOOOM! leads us down an unbeaten path into webs of conspiracy and betrayal and plunges us deep into the psyche of gamers.

Catalog Spotlight: Code Geass

Copyright Information

Lychee Light Club © Usamaru Furuya/Lychee DE Light Club Project 2012, Magi (c)Shinobu Ohtaka/SHOGAKUKAN, Magi Committee, MBS, BTOOOM! © Junya Inoue / SHINCHOSHA, BTOOOM! partners, From the New World ©2012Yusuke Kishi・KODANSHA・“Shinsekai yori” Partners/All Rights Reserved, Sword Art Online ©REKI KAWAHARA/ASCII MEDIA WORKS/SAO Project, Naruto Shippuden ©2002 MASASHI KISHIMOTO / 2007 SHIPPUDEN All Rights Reserved. ©2002MK - 2007SP, Saint Seiya Omega © Masami Kurumada/Toei Animation, TV Asahi, Dentsu, Code Geass ©2006-2008 Sunrise/Project Geass, MBS, Character Design © 2006 CLAMP