Happy New Year!!!

Azmaria's Christmas

As she stares into the shop windows

She can see her reflection among the passing people

For the first time she believes what's new to her

The two, the order, beginning to tell her something new

For the first time she sees herself

Their voices chiming in her head, alive in this feeling, the scene she is a part of

She believes now she answers, she believes

That all things on Christmas are real

Happy Holidays to You From ASOC

Take A Pick Christmas Edition: Chrono Crusade

Take A Pick Christmas Edition : Chrono Crusade

 

So how is this for a premise, set in the roaring twenties, where bootlegging, gambling the spread of jazz and behind the dark corners devil worshiping rule. One nun from the Magdalene Order and a devil fight the creatures back to the darkness they came from, exterminating them when blessed weaponry and intervening when a human gets in over their heads in dealings with a devil. That’s the premise for Chrono Crusade a twenty four episode series based on the manga by Daisuke Moriyama.  On their journey the two main characters Rosette Christopher ( the nun) and Chrono (the devil) along with fighting against the devils for the order, they also search for Rosette’s  younger brother Joshua and hope to restore the victims of an incident long ago that has shaped everything for the two.

 

 

 

       In this journey they will deal with a new threat unlike any other the order has faced but two themselves know well enough, another group of devils that are rebelling against pandemonium and hope to challenge heaven and bring their own vision of the end of the world to life. Despite the dreary situations they deal with there’s plenty of humor, just trying to see Rosesste fit in with the rest of the order of nuns with her temper is funny in itself as it is to see Chrono to have to be the voice of reason, a usually kind and warm hearted devil, just don’t piss him off.  While Chrono Crusade has been criticized for its serious or dramatic moments turning without warning into humor and has been considered at times unbalanced for this reason it seems instead to be a way for both of us and the characters not to be consumed by the darkness of the problems around them and in life even the most serious of situations often have humor and a switch off not too far off, just a part of life I suppose.  Pretty much the show knows how dark it can get and will do so, more so than you might think after the first few episodes and it might just want to pull back a bit just to bring it back doubled later on. There are also moments that are heartwarming that come back to the underlining themes of the shows, such as Azamaria someone saved by the two and taken in by the order experiencing her first Christmas when she was told before that Santa doesn’t exist. See where I’m going with this week’s choice.

 

      Of course another element is horror in the show which gets to take center stage more often than not, after all with everything that’s going on it usually goes hand in hand, a red moon, a Jesus crying out tears of blood, rituals done by humans to summon devils,  if nothing else it runs parallel to many the horror movies out there of course though that isn’t Chrono Crusade’s sole purpose, like all the other genres it flirts with the story happens to touch on these things, you see the danger and feel the gravity of the situation. With an interesting display of wickedness that hides behind any era, especially the one the show is set in nicknamed the Roaring 20’s, one of several eras where the United States had reached a height of prosperity while also defining the lines set between the rich and poor, they would be shown in the anime along with shades of foreshadowing of things to come such as The Depression and of course World War II or the second storm if you will. 



 There is indeed the aspect of romance which is hard to miss, the relationship of the two main characters is sincere and Chrono's dedication to her is beyond words, you'll see what I mean. After all what Rosette wears around her neck is connected to Chrono their contract which costs her something dear they are already connected, her devotion to finding her brother is proof of that but in this journey you can see her devotion might be as much to Chrono as his is to her. Eat your heart out Father Remington. Chrono Crusade plays with these things becoming effected by them and effecting them in return as well and things might seem sort of bleak in the show but do not forget what one of the important themes of the show is. Before I get into that, a worthy comparison to the show is the original manga that ran for eight volumes, there are differences that I won’t spoil but it might be interesting to read after or before the show. The theme and message of the show really has to do with the characters more than anything, hope, what the main cast of characters seek, no matter how impossible things may seem at time, no matter how bleak  that one should never stop hoping.

 

 

 

 

Anime Quote

"What is important is to know fear and yet take a step forward" - Rosette Christopher, Chrono Crusade

Ani Poetry -The Nameless Monster II : A Poem For Monster

The Nameless Monster II

 

The days are perfect but the nights are filled with thoughts of a monster staring at her from the dark

Only the eyes are clear, the greatest terror would be the shadows lifting from the rest of it, revealing what this monster might be

The days are busy, filled with work and school and life but something feels like its missing, more so than the routine does for most

There’s guilt though in the smiling faces of her parents, there’s guilt about asking them questions about things you can’t remember. It comes from the truth that they always make you smile, they’ve always strived for her happiness

The man in the comfortable chair, nicely dressed asks her how she feels, when she tells him of the terror he assures her everything will be fine with his professional neutral expression, the one she’s come to depend on.

The one that fills her with a delusional haven. Everything will be alright he says.

Everything will be alright her friends say, the rest of their words tend to be muddled, she clings desperately to them to avoid the parts of her mind that scare her and make her curious. It never speaks but she hears a strong wind blowing, one that’s cold and feels as though she’s felt it before.

Even when she ‘s assured everything will be find without warning things can bring it back to memory, or strike her with terror, the very though has caused her to collapse before. Is something triggering it from a memory, is it the thing that lurks in her nightmares almost unseen.  The eyes she remembers, the part that holds a world of shadows

 

 

Everything will be alright she says to herself, it is and yet why does something wrong keep calling for her. It’s the eyes in the shadow, they’re telling you where to kill them, without the words just the memory of the sound, of strong blowing cold winds, it’s howling of victory. She nearly died along with someone else

 But they’re not dead, they’re not dead. It’s just another nightmare, lose yourself in the routine push the thoughts away she tells herself. Find the beauty in what some aren’t lucky to have

Until it comes to you, the curiosity, the birthday you’ve always questioned, at last a stranger says they’ll come to tell you the truth.

You promise you’ll be home, the guilt only grows with a simple lie, one simple lie and any truth you find will at last rest that part of you that questions, at last you’ll be able to enjoy the life you have.

The castle echoes from times long gone, there’s history in every stone.  Heidelberg Castle in all it’s glory, the night sky could have spectra after spectra leaping  from it and she wouldn’t notice. I was born to smother you with flowers it said. Her answer is supposed to be there but there is nothing but a lone light illuminating the loneliness of night time, except there is something as she gets closer a man whose eyes bulge from his head, fear and greed rule them.

A man calls her by another name after she saves him, a man who keeps calling her Ana. He tells her that he knew her and another, something tell you it’s the one that should be dead, the one whose eyes stare at you from the shadows.

 

As he speaks to her there is confusion and there’s a light that points to all the things she’s come to question, the shadows are her memories that she couldn’t recall but there’s one thing she’ll come to remember. You killed the beast she says to herself. You killed your brother but this man has brought him back to life.

There is terror on his face, as he tell you the truth right before the horror, these aren’t your real parents and yet they were your real parents, they were to you. In the home that always had its light on, dark now, like most of the castle from afar and that feeling from before is coming back again

 In the home with the warm smiles, lifeless with two bodies laid out, it’s a façade. The lies she told pull her heart to shreds, the guilt she felt was now a fire that burns her insides. She had lost more than what she was looking for, she’s lost everything.

 

 The doctor tries to bring the man next to her parents to life, in this moment though she believes the man can’t bring anything back to life, for he brought back death.

 She couldn’t move, not for the detectives that picked her and the doctor up, not for the fall into the river. Only to blame the man who resurrected the monster. Yet his kindness did not elude her. It was no one’s fault, no one’s responsibility, only hers to end the life that she should have a long time ago. Yet he was her twin and she couldn’t look away from the truth, something far worse had turned him into this.

Take A Pick Tuesday: Yu Yu Hakusho

                                      Take A Pick Tuesday: Yu Yu Hakusho

 

 

 

This is probably one of the easiest of anime to write about for me because I’ve seen every episode a million times. Being one of my favorite anime I’ve converted people into anime fans with this show, along with best that’s out there. One of the top shows in the 90’s in Japan, going into stiff competition with other juggernauts at the time and  would be followed by those that would in the years that follow reach the US to help spread anime even further in the US and around the world. Of course the show itself would be picked up by one of the largest distribution companies now,here in the US and help in that era of anime explosion. That would be where I was exposed to it, on Toonami, at times heavily edited, whats Sakyo's finger doing, later I'd learn holding a cigarette, still I never saw anything quite like it before.  I have always been drawn to Yu Yu Hakusho by its sheer honest storytelling, never mind that it’s a shonen show and had some of the most impressive action sequences I’ve ever seen. Action is fine but to me only when there is a strong story driving it. In that sense Yu Yu Hakusho had managed to do what all anime strive to do, surpass there genre to become an all-around great show, I could count as many moments that are memorable simply from the conversation  some of the characters are having and find them equal to any scenes that include some sort of fighting in them. I could also find there to be as many scenes that make me laugh, still laugh actually and those that move me in the deepest of ways, it pulls on all the right heart strings and brings out all the right emotions. That is why to my personal victory it has remained an anime I recommend to anyone I know that wants to get into anime or anyone that hasn’t seen it yet. So whether you’ve seen it or not it’s this week’s Take A Pick Tuesday.

 

         The premise has you introduced to the main character Yusuke Urameshi, who is already dead, the first episode retraces what led to his death, which was getting hit by a car in order to save a boy’s life. Right away you see Yusuke’s problem with most people as they haul him away into the ambulance declaring him dead already or in his eyes simply writing him off. Doing so introduces us to his life, how people see him and shows how misunderstood our character is. Yusuke is considered a juvenile delinquent, who only lives with his mother,who tends to binge drink and disappear from time to time. School hates him for all the fights he gets in when he actually goes. To him the world gives him a plate of crap so he gives it right back to them. Yet inside Yusuke is a good kid, unfortunately no one gives him the time of day to really see that, well almost no one. One of the few that understands this is Keiko Yukimora, childhood friend and love interest, she sees the good in Yusuke even if they fight and she has to more or less tame him when most fail at it. Mostly Keiko spends time worrying about him, always trying to get him to go to school and behave, she sees Yusuke as someone who spends more time being alone than with other people, a thing that deeply bothers her. There is a good chance that Yusuke understands Keiko more than anyone else does and no matter what she says knows it and vice versa. Despite the wishes of their teachers, Keiko tries her best to look out for Yusuke and would come to be the person he depends on the most once he realizes his predicament. Now the teachers Yusuke has are pretty evil, which they show and it proves that sometimes when a kid is telling you that a grown up is being messed up toward them, it can be true. Paying kids to beat up someone who pledged not to fight so his friend doesn't lose his job, which is supporting his whole household is evil, especial when he follows to make sure the job gets done. A teacher that plants a student's fountain pen in another student's pocket just to frame him and get him expelled, pushing him further by calling his mom a whore is evil! Come on people. Of course the million dollar question is whose going to believe him right.

      Being a ghost Yusuke is visited by the grim reaper who happens to be a pretty blue hair girl on an oar, wearing a pink kimono whose first introduction to him in the English dub is Bingo.  When she tells Yusuke the rare occurrence of an unplanned death has happened, she tries to tell him that he can take an ordeal to get his life back, Yusuke though isn’t sure coming back to life is all that great of an idea. As proof was his retracing  his day of what happened, actually going to school, arguing with Keiko, then dealing with two kids that were planning to use his name in a lie, a teacher that caught his reaction and tried to blame him for harassing them, causing him to leave school despite the pleas of an understanding principal. It seemed like it couldn’t get worse until he goes home to his mother who he argues with, storms out and deals with Kuwabara, a rival he’s beaten up more times than he can count, beats him up one more time he won't count and at last sees a kid chasing a ball into the streets. It shows Yusuke as a caring person when he scolds the child and then tries to cheer him up with funny faces.  Unfortunately the kid didn’t listen and chased the ball into the streets anyways and when a speeding car is coming down the street nonetheless. Thus his life is ended and finds the boy survived with minor injuries and actually wouldn’t have died anyways, the reason Spirit World where Botan is from and where the dead go for placement of where they'll spend eternity, is offering him an ordeal,because not even they were expecting him to give his life for anyone let alone a child. This being said Botan tells him he should take the day to think about it, what follows is Yusuke watching his own wake, a devastated Keiko, Kuwabara having to be dragged out by his friends because of a sorrowful rage and principal Takanaka who stops two of Yusuke teachers from badmouthing him and cries in front of his picture, believing he could have made something special of himself and in front of his mother who continues to call out his name. One of the best scenes is when the boy he died for, comes with his mother and thanks him and asks his mother why all those people were crying for Yusuke, he goes on to tell her how nice he was and said he guessed that they wanted to play with him too. That’s when Yusuke realizes that there are people that care about him and maybe him deciding to leave the world would hurt people around him, people he may never get a chance to know really love him.  It would come to this many times, the bonds he would have with the other characters, a pivotal moment with his mentor Genkai when she tells him “every decision you make, effects the countless people who care about you." Yusuke is quite the badass with the bad attitude but he really does care about people, no matter what he does, he would have to see that they’re his reason.

 

        Yusuke goes through with the ordeal meeting the prince of the Spirit World and son to King Yama, Koenma who appears as just a baby with a pacifier but of course has lived for centuries. During his ordeal he’ll have to help Kuwabara past his exam in order to save a friend’s job and protect Keiko as well as his own body from burning. All the while his bonds with those on Earth would grow, this unusual combination in him would make it so Koenma makes him a spirit detective when he becomes human again. Pegging on Yusuke’s natural fighting ability along with spirit energy he awakens in him, he would have him investigate various criminals who at first seem to be demons but will also be humans to help protect people in both the human world and the spirit world. As you watch you see that the crisises that come force Yusuke to often deal with foes and problems he isn’t ready for and also shows that the more dangerous the situation the greater his strength becomes, especially when those he cares about are in danger. Even though we know Yusuke is a swell guy his journey as spirit detective also helps develop him as a person and a character as well, not only him but two of the demons he would encounter in his first case. Kurama, a demon that took over a new born human and happened to be a very old fox demon bandit that  had grown close to the human mother that would raise him and Hiei a no nonsense criminal that holds a very mysterious power as well as a very mysterious third eye, the Jagan. Naturally Botan tags along and is the messenger between Koenma and Yusuke when a big case or crisis pops up.  Of course his rival would also become his best friend Kuwabara who would get caught up in his spirit detective cases and even Keiko who he tries to hide it from becomes aware and it only adds to the worrying she does for him as well as the cause of him being absent from her life more often than she would wish.

 

          The story as well as some of his adversaries are compelling, as are the characters that you can find very relatable, what of the great things about the show. As Yu Yu Hakusho progress further you find it hard to call his foes villains, they’re reasons certainly resonate and help to mold the maturity that would grow in Yusuke. Whether witness to a human forcing a demon to cry for the jewels her tears create, showing the cruelty of humans can be just as bad as demons, to a demon who can change the growth of his muscles causing him to have massive and I do mean massive power, said demon even forces Yusuke and his friends to take part in The Dark Tournament, a ruthless torment where demons take part for bragging rights when it comes to power and very wealthy humans can bet on it.  If he refuses he will be killed along with everyone else he cares about, forcing the potential this demon, Toguro sees in him. Why go that far actually has a lot more depth than you think and direct links to those in Yusuke’s life. It also forces him to deal with someone like him, such as the rouge spirit detective Shinobu Sensui, as they see what sort of person would try to open a tunnel from human world to demon world, with seven personalities, Yusuke witnesses the truth of what makes this human’s soul tortured in what I think is an unbelievable arc properly titled Chapter Black. Which leads into the very questions this character asks, are all demons evil or is it all humans, something major happens to cause him to look into this deeper, as well as the many politics that are happening in demon world, maybe in all of this he will find out what’s most important and what exactly he’s living and fighting for.

 

 

       Directed by Noboyuki Abe, Yu Yu Hakusho runs about 112 episodes which sounds long until it wraps you in and you’re addicted, plus compared to some anime out there who have four times it’s number, the show really is a drop in the bucket but it never feels like their stretching things out. The story as it continues goes deeper in its characters and best of all answers all your questions whether you wondered or not, why Koenma is always sucking on his pacifier, why do demons manage to get into human world at all and who exactly is the narrator. Face it they all get answered and it shows in a way that can make other anime green with envy, noted has to be the animation that goes through many changes, whether it’s the coloring or the shadows which add on or minimize, they seem to fit the tone of the episodes well and of course the many unique characters, the way they look, the way they talk and their backstory makes Yu Yu Hakusho truly unforgettable. If you’ve ever watched the Bount Saga of Bleach although it was what we call a filler arc it was also a tribute to the Chapter Black arc of Yu Yu Haksuho just to show you how far the influences of the show reach and yes the show it still a household name when it comes to anime. Its been voted many times on the 100 greatest anime of all tine and rightly so. So there it is, my early Christmas present to myself, giving Yu Yu Hakusho it’s Take A Pick Tuesday spotlight which I could go on with for another hundred pages or so. Lastly Yu Yu Hakusho is also very easy to get. Being one of Funimation’s first shows it helped expand their titles that would come after it  and has been re-released on DVD a couple of times and recently Blu ray in the form of four very affordable box sets. While purist will run to the Japanese audio, one of the things I give kudos to, is the line writers and voice actors and just about everyone else that was a part of the translation, is that they gave Yu Yu Hakusho its own unique spin that adds a little more flair to the characters in what’s fantastic voice acting. Look closely and you’ll see that some of the lead actors in the show Justin Cook and John Burgmeier who contributed to the line production and script adaption. So enjoy the show for all the things that make it wonderful and for those ready to watch heads up its addictive. 

A Podcast Companion

https://soundcloud.com/rats-on-a-plague-podcast

*Need more otaku time, well for more ideas why not hop on to the newly minted podcast Rats On A Plague Ship. A podcast that speaks on all matters of geekdom with yours truly and my fellow co-host Sal Almaraz. The true cure to when the hours feel like they drag!