Sorry for the lack of posts lately, just haven't seen anything worth posting about and I haven't finished anything lately until last night when I finally finished Shangri-La the latest anime with character designs from one of my favorite illustrators Range Murata based on a light novel that integrates both sci-fi and supernatural elements. I was sold on the anime the minute I found out that it was going to feature character designs by Range Murata and while I wasn't entirely impressed with the first few episodes by the end I was rather glad that I didn't drop it like I was thinking of doing. Shangri-La also marks the first series that I've watched entirely on Crunchyroll (well OK so I couldn't wait another 3 days for the final episode and I didn't want to start the subscription thing so I downloaded the last episode).

Shangri-La is one of those series with a lot of stuff going on, so much in fact that I just don't really know where to start my review. Or how to condense it all down into a relatively short review that encompasses everything about the series that makes it well worth watching. There's humor, action, romance and some series WTF moments. It also can be said to have a cautionary tale of what might happen (well minus the supernatural stuff of course) when global warming becomes a commodity to be traded. We already have a bit of global warming trading going on in real life as it is.

At the core of the story is Atlas a giant super-fortress of sorts that is controlled by the main baddy Ryoko who has to be the worst villain ever, a seriously sadistic bitch that played people used people and didn't care at all for anyone other than her own power over people. Thankfully in the end she gets what's coming to her rather poetically. Atlas is also the heart of the supernatural part of the story. Built on top of a long buried shrine that houses a mummified corps with a spear in her chest the original builders of Atlas began sacrificing young maidens to the goddess in order to keep Atlas from shaking apart. Hundreds of children were killed to become vessels for the resurrected goddess. Atlas is also the main prize for the terrorist group metal-age a group of citizens of Duomo, a city surrounded by an invading jungle, who want to make Atlas their home as well. In my opinion one of the larger WTF moments was when Ryoko massacred an entire girls youth detention center just because she was finished playing warden.

The leader of Metal-age is a young teenage girl who uses a unique sci-fi boomerang as a weapon. At first she doesn't want to be the leader of the group but during the series she goes through some hardships and see that she does need to become the leader of the group and once she does she becomes a very capable leader who at the end bests Ryoko and saves the world from total destruction. Thankfully her, her bodyguard Momoko the transvestite and the three old Otakus of Akihabara provide a lot of comedy relief through out the series otherwise I think it would be a bit more gloomy and not nearly as fun to watch.

There are a ton of other people including Karen the computer wiz with an innate ability to manipulate the carbon market but ends up as just another Ryoko pawn. Then there is Mikuni and her bunch Mikuni is a little girl with the ability to tell when someone is not telling her the truth. When that happens she is able to simply crush the person's body and kill them. She's really bratty until Miko comes along and befriends her and settles her down but once again Ryoko has an easy time of manipulating her when she takes Miko away from Mikuni and kills Miko by sacrificing her to the goddess. In the end Miko saves Mikuni and takes away her power to kill people and gives her the gift of being able to go out into the sunlight. And there are just a ton of other characters that round out the story each with their own important part to take in the story.

I couldn't believe they crammed so much stuff, rather well actually, into a 24 episode series without seeming rushed. The plot develops rather nicely at a good rate without giving things away early or being able to be seen from a mile away. I never thought once, "oh I saw that coming." To accomplish that several important questioned where simply not answered at the end and while it really wasn't important to the overall story it would have been nice to have them answered anyways. Overall though it was a good series with some great art and a well done story. It's also one that you can watch free and clear with a guilty free conscience thanks to Crunchyroll. No idea though on a DVD release.

You can check out a trailer for Shangri-La here...

It's already that time believe it or not to look at what is coming up during the 2009 spring anime season. There is usually a lot of good stuff that comes out during the spring season and this year is no exception. While your idea of what to watch might be entirely different than mine after looking though this V1 These are the shows that I'm most interested in watching this next season.

Fullmetal Alchemist 2: Another go at a good story but this time based off the manga should be good even if you've watched the original on a million times on [adult swim] like I have.
Queen's Blade: Supposed to come out last season but looks like it'll be this season instead in any case this is the purely guilty pleasure of the season with more fanservice than you can shake a "stick" at.
Phantom ~ Requiem for the Phantom: I don't know it just looked and sounded like it would be good so I'm going to give it a try.
Valkyria Chronicles: Pretty much everyone was talking about the game and the anime so it's a must watch one thankfully it looks good anyways.
Shangri-La: Two words Range Murata
Koihime†Musou OVA: Another postponed OVA from last season and another Guilty Pleasure
To-LOVE-Ru OVA: ditto on the Guilty pleasure but I really need to finish this anime first.
Dogs-Bullets & Carnage: Another one that just looks like it will be good. Read a little bit of the manga and I liked it so should like this as well.

There isn't any reason to list the movies that will be released during this season as it will be some time before they'll be released on DVD then by fansubbers but that also means movies from the prior seasons (say like the first Toppa Gurren Lagann movie) will be getting released along with a some other anime shows that I've seen listed in other people's Anime 2009 lists and I've provided some links to those sites so that you can check out all the other stuff that is being released as well. Now I'm just waiting for the V2/3/4 of the above image.

Links for everything else:
Hikikomori Den
AnimePH
Zomg Forums
Jimm Pantsu

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. An old wife's tail for sure and of course has nothing to do with today's Apple. I speak of the Korean anthology manga (manwa, what ever you want to call it) collected works book much like Robot that is simply called Apple. Trust me searching for the book was a pain because of the name. Type in Apple into a store's search engine and be dumbfounded by what you would find. In other words not the book. Asking about it at a store same problem. Sir do you want a Korean cooking book on apples? Uh...no damn it.

After a long time I finally found that Barnes and Noble had it in stock a couple months ago by searching with the publishers name Udon Entertainment instead of the book's title and ordered it post hast with a bunch of discount codes that brought the price down below $25. After seeing samples of the work I really wanted to check out what the Koreans had to offer in the large over sized colored manga collection genre and see if it was as good if not better than Range Murata's Robot.

Yeah so I've actually had it for a while and I've thumbed though it a few times looked at the stunning (and it is stunning and awesome BTW) pictures but I just haven't really had a chance to sit down and read it properly yet. So while the pictures are great I'm sure about the stories. In any case I figured I can still blog about the thing because I found out recently that the second Vol will be out soon (for these books soon is a relative term) some time in December (they say) while the next Vol of Robot will be out sometime in March (was supposed to be out this last June the slow pokes). And I wanted more people to know about these two great books and it also got me to thinking that I best be getting to reading the first Vol of Apple now dang it before the second one shows up.

To be honest Both Apple and Robot have a lot in common and while Robot has more stories and Apple has more stand alone pictures they both are worth picking up if you like checking out some fantastic colored samples of work by some of the better artists from both countries. Apple is a bit more expensive than Robot but it also has more pages too so the price is worth it. I just wish they would get them out sooner or at least when they first say they are going to be released. Anyways here is the supposed second cover for Apple Vol 2.