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The Staying Power of Yugioh

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When I first heard about Yugioh in the 90s, I thought it was a ridiculous concept. It seemed like the worst kind of commercialism. It pandered to children. It was an anime and manga series designed to promote a real life card game and toy series. I can be very cynical and I immediately dismissed the entire franchise on face value.

Then I saw some people playing the card game at my school and it caught my interest. I headed over to the local toy store, picked up the Pegasus and Yugi starter decks for my brother and me, and forced him to play the game. It was pretty darn clever. The game played a lot faster than Magic the Gathering and featured a huge variety of characters from the start. Each new set expanded the possible playable characters rather than just strengthening what was already available. It was, and still is, a pretty novel approach to building a trading card game.

yugiohyugiyami The Staying Power of Yugioh

Yami and Yugi team up through the power of the Millenium Puzzle

From there, I backtracked to reruns of the anime series (the 2000 version is the one that was released in the US; the 1998 version did not get broadcast here) on Saturday morning. I kind of fell hard for the show. Yugioh, in the initial manga and anime run (counting the 1998 version, as well), played heavily on Egyptian mythology. The main character, Yugi Moto, becomes possessed by the spirit of a pharaoh after solving the Millenium Puzzle, an artifact from his reign in Egypt. The pharaoh, Yami Yugi, takes over Yugi Moto’s body whenever he plays any of the modern adaptations of the ancient shadow games.

This actually puts the games in their original dangerous context. Unsurprisingly, 4Kidz–the US anime distributor that lost all of their licenses after butchering One Piece–sanitized the show beyond recognition. If you lose a match in the shadow realm, you die. Period. Your soul is trapped in the shadow realm with only a slight chance that you can be resurrected. 4Kidz said you were asleep and removed all of the menacing violence from the show.

Beyond the violence, Yugioh had a surprising amount of depth in its original run. The Egyptian mythology is only one level. There’s an interesting play on psychology with the relationship between Yugi Moto and Yami Yugi. It’s not a coincidence that they share a name; Yugi Moto has to use Yami Yugi to become a self-actualized person and a championship game player. The lessons he learns from Yami allow him to function in the world. There’s also commentary on international relations, gender politics, science v. religion, and a whole slew of other subjects. You just wouldn’t recognize it in the 4Kidz release.

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High tech duels on fast bikes in Yugioh 5D’s

The series has rebooted itself three times already. The first, GX, reset an almost identical story in a dueling school. Some of the most powerful TCG cards got their start in this run but the substance was lacking. 5D’s went heavy on the sci-fi with high tech motorbike racing and a lot of Western genre tropes stacked together in interesting combinations. Zexal reinvented the series with another intriguing concept, focusing on the lives of the characters in the cards before they became part of the game.

Somehow, Yugioh has managed to stay in the public eye for 17 years in Japan (about 14 in the US) and it’s more popular now than it’s ever been. Even if the anime and manga aren’t selling as briskly, the TCG has grown bigger than you can imagine. The game is popular enough to have multiple leagues–Dragon Duels for children under 12, Hobby League for casual play, Yugioh Championship Series for the competitive players–and many play styles. New sets are released four times a year with various specialty sets in between. The eligible pool of cards is adjusted every few months to re-balance the game among all the available cards.

Even with the high cost of remaining competitive, Yugioh keeps growing. It’s not unheard of to spend hundreds of dollars on a deck to be competitive at the large YCS tournaments. The TCG sets are released a few months after the Japanese OCG sets, allowing US players to plot their new strategies and drive up demand (and prices) before the cards are even available here.

Around 2008 or so, Konami (the current card game developers) began revisiting old archetypes from the original run of Yugioh. They turned under-used characters like Ninjas and Six Samurais into YCS-winning mainstays with just a few cards. They’re constantly looking back on the history of the game to play on nostalgia and change the meta–the much argued about rankings of decks and viable cards in the competitive scene. A new set introduced a few cards that could make Harpies, one of the oldest game archetypes, into a championship deck for the first time.

Well, tournament-winning deck for someone not named Robert Gannon. When I do play, I play my own spin on Harpies and my deck has been largely unchanged since 2003. I’m flexible enough to adjust the strategy on the fly to deal with deck the archetype is weak against and practiced enough to honestly say I lose more by my own mistakes than to an opponent’s strategy.

yugiohharpie The Staying Power of Yugioh

Harpie Ladies spawn and power up really fast once you lock the field

The most compelling part of Yugioh for me is the diversity. There is so much variety in the game that everyone can find a strategy that suits them. I’m a control freak who likes to lock down the field and power up in any TCG I play. Harpies have let me do that for about a decade. Other people like to go for one turn kills or massive combos that end the game quickly. Still others really go out there, aiming for victory conditions like deck outs (where your opponent no longer has any cards to draw) or winning on a tie breaker (if a match is not finished in 40 minutes, everything is decided in 3 turns). You can be inspired by type, combos, archetype, special summoning, spells, traps, or the minutia of the rules. How you play is up to you and every style of play can win with the right player.

This is where the staying power comes in. Konami keeps the game fresh with new cards and basically a new legal playset every few months. Players adjust to the meta, swapping in key cards or finding new territory to explore. Sometimes you succeed and sometimes you fail. You don’t know unless you play and you don’t play this game unless you’re really interested in it. Children compete against adults on a pretty level playing field. The rules are simple but the combinations and strategies are very open-ended and rely a lot on the luck of the draw.

14 years ago, I would have never imagined calling myself a fan of Yugioh, let alone a Yugioh player. I am. I don’t get to compete as much a I’d like to because of the cost of entry, but I find a way. This post was initially going to cover the YCS event in the Meadowlands, NJ two weeks ago. It’s literally down the street from me. I wound up getting caught up with work and pulling out. I wish I could have made it since my deck runs very well against the deck style that dominated the Top 32 final rounds.

One thing I know for sure is that, for the foreseeable future, there will always be another tournament to go to. Even if it’s at my local card shop or in the backroom of a convention, I’ll be able to pull out my deck and roll to see who goes first. A lot of TCGs have come and gone since Yugioh made its international debut (I miss you, Kingdom Hearts). Yugioh just happens to be the one that stuck well enough to break the world record for most TCG cards sold.

Thoughts on Yugioh? Share them below.

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Blast of Tempest: Shakespeare Unbound

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When I’m not writing here or at my regular gigs (or ghostwriting/editing all over the place), I teach educational theater. One of my favorite subjects to study and explore with students is Shakespeare. There’s a beauty and magic to his work that predates the formal exploration of magical realism by centuries. The students, as a rule, really respond to the more fantastic works like Cymbeline, The Tempest, and Hamlet, though the right framing can even make the histories an exciting world for teenagers. Not that the histories aren’t exciting on their own; I love them.

Blast of Tempest is a Japanese manga turned anime from writer Kyo Shirodaira and illustrators Arihide Sano and Ren Saizaki. It is a contemporary story of magic and inter-family conflict heavily influenced by The Tempest and Hamlet. The series is a fascinating exercise in re-framing well-known narratives to create something new.

In Blast of Tempest, magic is real. Mages from feuding clans wander the earth doing everything they can to raise the magical tree from the ground that powers their family. Yoshino Takagawa stumbles into this world after his friend Mahiro Fuwa disappears from school. Mahiro, whose sister, mother, and father were killed under mysterious circumstances a year before the story takes place, obtains the powers of a mage by chance. He will do anything to find out who killed his family, even team up with Hakaze Kusaribe (the leader of another clan stranded on an island by her own followers) to fight in a war he’s not a part of.

blastoftempestmaharoyoshino Blast of Tempest: Shakespeare Unbound

Yohino (left) goes where Maharo goes in Blast of Tempest

The story uses flashbacks and magic to present an original murder mystery/thriller through the lens of two of Shakespeare’s most fantastic (as in, driven by unbelievable fantasy) works for a new audience. There are parallels to characters and plot points all over Blast of Tempest. It’s not even limited to just Hamlet and The Tempest; those are just the major influences.

The Tempest and Hamlet are on opposing sides of Shakespeare’s catalog. The former is a broad comedy all about spectacle, magic, and romance. The latter is a dark tragedy about murder, mayhem, and broken lives. Yet, both stories are linked by a major betrayal–Prospero and Miranda are abandoned on the island in The Tempest and Hamlet’s future throne is stolen by his uncle with murder most foul–and large otherworldly conceits–The Tempest has magic and fairies, Hamlet has ghosts and nightmares.

The difference between a tragedy and a comedy in Shakespeare’s work is whether it ends in a funeral or a wedding. The comedies can be very dark and foreboding and the tragedies can be quite light until the ending flips the tone for a happily or miserably ever after.

Each major character in Blast of Tempest has a direct connection to characters in Hamlet and The Tempest. It’s a great literary device that builds a huge amount of suspense very quickly. The comedy and the tragedy cannot exist simultaneously for long because, at some point, the audience needs to be instructed to laugh or cry.

Mahiro’s connections are the clearest. He is Hamlet himself on a quest for revenge against the person who killed his family. He behaves in reckless and erratic ways to gain an advantage and distract from his quest for revenge.

He is also Caliban from The Tempest. The one person he lived for, his sister Aika, is dead long before the story of Blast of Tempest begins. He relinquishes control of his life to the mage Hakaze for some chance at a greater purpose in life. He failed at protecting his sister and, for a year, failed at avenging her death. He does not like being under Hakaze’s control and constantly rebels, yet he cannot achieve his own goals without her influence.

blastoftempestaika Blast of Tempest: Shakespeare Unbound

Aika is the motivation and cause of Blast of Tempest

Aika actually has a larger presence in the story than you might imagine from a long-deceased character. Through flashbacks, she takes on a multitude of roles in the story. She is the ghost of Hamlet’s father, constantly whispering in Mahiro’s ear about the need for revenge. She is Ophelia to Mahiro’s Hamlet. Her death forces him to form a plan of action against whoever killed his family. Aika is also Sycorax from The Tempest, the long-dead sorceress who gave Mahiro’s Caliban a reason to live.

Yoshino probably covers more characters than anyone else in the series. In the present story, he voluntarily places himself as Horatio to Mahiro’s Hamlet. He is the foil for Mahiro’s revenge plan and a loyal friend to the family. He will do anything for Mahiro because he knows that, without his help, Mahiro will destroy his life by taking his aggression out on the wrong person.

Yoshino also acts as Alonso from The Tempest, falling in love with the beautiful Aika and dooming himself to suffer through the world of magic he never knew existed. His own relationship with Aika–against the wishes of Mahiro–makes Yoshino the Hamlet figure, as well. He does everything he can not to fall in love with Aika’s Ophelia and dooms them both to misery when she can’t let go of him. Blast of Tempest has this great tension with Yoshino always on the verge of becoming even more reckless than Mahiro because of his world being so radically changed.

Hakaze acts as a number of different characters, as well. Because she is banished to an island by her own followers, she is Prospero in The Tempest. The once great leader is betrayed by the man she trusted the most and forced to live out her days unable to return to the world she created.

blastoftempesthakaze300 Blast of Tempest: Shakespeare Unbound

Hakaze’s powers are wind and weather related, like Prospero in The Tempest

The physical separation also places her as the Ariel figure in The Tempest. She can have control over the world without being noticed but only if she’s directly following the orders from Mahiro on his quest for revenge. Mahiro only hears her voice, placing her as the ghost in Hamlet. She tells him who is responsible for the murder of his family and how to get revenge, but cannot physically be there to really get involved in that.

Blast of Tempest‘s connections to William Shakespeare go much deeper than this cursory analysis. The characters strategically quote and paraphrase Shakespeare throughout the series. Minor and supporting characters alike through multiple roles whenever it is convenient to the story (Fraulein Yamamoto is Laertes to Yoshino’s Hamlet until she learns the truth and becomes Horatio and Ariel in one). Imagery from The Tempest defines the visual style of the magic in the series and individual scenes are structured around the brooding two-person at a time conceit of Hamlet.

What Blast of Tempest offers is a highly literate gateway for theater fans to engage with anime and manga for the first time. This is not a Westernized series even if it heavily draws on the most influential playwright in all of Western theater. It is a tightly wound explosion of magical anime marketed at boys as young as 10 but probably better appreciated by a more mature audience.

Thoughts on Blast of Tempest? Share them below.

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Death Note and Temptation

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I find myself revisiting the Death Note anime a lot more than I thought I would. The visual style is fascinating. The slow pace makes for some strong suspense. Even with some of the blatantly bad choices (cough potato chip), the show is just so watchable.

For those who don’t know already, Death Note is the story of Light “Kira” Yagami. He is a young man about to graduate from high school who discovers a mysterious notebook labeled “Death Note.” He picks it up and gains the ability to see a Shinigami–a god who can control who dies when. The Death Note also comes with the ability to kill people if Light knows their name and can visualize their face.

Light decides to become the God of a new world, killing every criminal broadcast on television or in print as the ultimate crime deterrent and punishment. The IPO is brought in to investigate Kira’s crime spree, led by the brilliant and reclusive crime solver L. L and Light are evenly matched in a battle of wits to see which set of laws will define the world of tomorrow.

The opening credits of the Death Note anime can be used to really open up the text of the series. In the original credits, the animators included a lot of Christian iconography. Ryuk is shown tempting Light with a shiny red apple in the style of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling. Light is shown first wandering around with and then taking a large bite of the same apple later in the credits.

There are other images, as well–a woman holds her fallen fiance ala Mary holding Jesus after the crucifixion, doves descend from the sky, characters pose in front of stained glass windows, and Light standing in a modified crucifixion pose (arms out, head back, one knee in front of the other, a fallen angel in the background).

The most significant image is the temptation of the apple. In the final moments of the opening credits, the apple is replaced by the Death Note on Light’s desk. Ryuk and Light pass apples back and forth to each other throughout the entire Death Note series. It is, simply put, a symbolic representation of temptation and original sin.

deathnotetemptationbook Death Note and Temptation

The literal Death Note

The story of original sin appears in the beginning the Bible. Adam and Eve are living peacefully in the Garden of Eden and obeying all of God’s rules. One day, a snake climbs off of the Tree of Knowledge–the one tree Adam and Eve are not allowed to eat from–and offers Eve a beautiful apple. He wears down her defenses and she takes a bite. The sensation is so strong that she convinces Adam to take a bite, as well. The couple have all of the knowledge of the world and are suddenly ashamed of their naked forms. They cover themselves in fig leaves before God discovers their betrayal and banishes them to a life of pain and suffering outside of the Garden of Eden. It takes the actual sacrifice of God’s son on Earth for God to forgive the human race and allow them to rejoin him in heaven.

Death Note riffs a lot on these themes throughout the series. Any human who uses the Death Note will not have a happy afterlife. They will be consumed at the time of their death by the Shinigami they received the book from and be tormented for all eternity. The Shinigami are so unconcerned with human life that they offer no guidance or support when using the Death Note. You can talk until you’re blue in the face and they will not answer your questions beyond the rules included in the notebook itself. These gods will ignore you until your time on earth has passed.

Yet, the Shinigami will tempt you into causing further harm to yourself. A Death Note user is offered a certain deal with the Shinigami. The user can receive a special kind of eye that lets them immediately see the name and date of death of everyone else in the world. If they accept the offer, they lose half of their remaining lifespan.

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Misa falls for the temptation of the Shinigami Eyes in Death Note

Light is not the only character to receive a Death Note on Earth. Misa, a popular teen model, also finds a Death Note. She immediately takes the deal with her Shinigami Rem, giving up half of her peaceful life on Earth for the ability to kill anyone she wants to on sight alone. Misa becomes obsessed with helping Kira complete his mission, putting both human Death Note users in danger. The risk pays off for Misa since she can immediately spot Light in a crowded shopping district.

The relationship between Light and Ryuk is far more unusual. Rem brought another Shinigami’s Death Note to Misa after he sacrificed himself to save Misa from a violent death. She has no real desire to be on Earth. Ryuk dropped his Death Note on Earth just because he was bored and wanted some entertainment. Light is able to tempt Ryuk into going against his apathy for human existence time and again with literal apples.

Ryuk is addicted to apples. He would eat them all day if he could get away with it. Light forces information out of Ryuk by providing or denying him apples at strategic times. At one point, L fills Light’s room with video cameras to capture evidence that he is Kira. Light withholds all apples from Ryuk until Ryuk tells him the exact number of cameras and their locations in the house. It’s like Adam was a better negotiator and actually got some useful information out of serpent instead of just getting a tasty apple and a lot of shame.

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Transcending Genre: The World of Fruits Basket

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I’ve spent more time covering male-targeted anime than female targeted anime at Sketchy Details. The plain truth is that more shonen titles get released in America and impact the way anime and manga are talked about stateside.

The beauty of manga in Japan is that the system is built around everyone at all ages reading it. Shonen manga, targeted at boys about 10-18 years old, is matched with shojo manga, targeted at girls about 10-18 years old. The shojo titles tend to focus more on relationships than the shonen titles, though they cover all the same genres.

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A sample of the curse in action. Read right to left, click for full.

Fruits Basket is one of the most critically acclaimed manga/anime properties of all time. Created by Natsuki Takaya, the fantasy shojo series focuses on high school Tohru Honda. She is forced to move into a tent and take care of herself when her mother dies in a car accident. By chance, she’s invited to live with her classmate Yuki Sohma. The Sohma family hides a deep secret that Tohru jeopardizes just by living there. Every Sohma is cursed to transform into a member of the Chinese zodiac if they are hugged by a member of the opposite gender who isn’t in the family.

The main difference between the anime and manga is how dark it gets. Natsuki Takaya goes darker than you might expect with some aspects of the curse. One Sohma boy is destined to die at a very young age in the manga; in the anime, he’s replaced by a girl who doesn’t have any additional curse. The slightly more optimistic tone is balanced by an altered ending that had to happen because the anime ended while the manga was still in production.

Fruits Basket is a reference to a traditional Japanese game. It’s like a cross between red rover and musical chairs. Players are broken up into two or more teams. They set up a circle of chairs with one less chair than needed for everyone to sit down. Each team is assigned the name of a fruit. One person stands in the center of the circle and calls out the name of one of the fruit. Each member of that team has to stand up and switch chairs; the person in the center has to try to claim one of the open chairs.

The game’s relationship to the story of the manga/anime is a symbolic one. The Sohma family are their own team in the world. Tohru becomes the girl in the middle of the circle, passing between the Zodiac-styled curse of the Sohma clan and the regular world that knows nothing about them. Tohru keeps trying to shake up the family and free them of their curse but they all move faster than her. She’ll keep calling out for the Sohma clan until she breaks through their defenses.

Fruits Basket has a really charming style. The choice of the Chinese zodiac opens up some really intriguing character traits that play into mythology. For example, an old legend says the cat, not the rat, was supposed to be in the zodiac. However, the rat tricked the cat into missing the banquet where the zodiac animals were finalized and the cat has never forgiven the rat.

fruitsbasketcat Transcending Genre: The World of Fruits Basket

Kyo is the cat, the outsider of the zodiac and the Sohma clan.

The 13th member of the Sohma family is Kyo, the cat. He is the outsider. He leaves to train in martial arts and has no patience for his family’s rituals and traditions. Kyo is also put at odds with Yuki, who transforms into a rat. Not only does Kyo think the family favors Yuki, Tohru begins to fall in love with both of them. Her presence in the house only raises the tensions between the subjects of the ancient myth.

As a shojo series, Fruits Basket does put a lot of emphasis on romantic relationships. Tohru is a teenage girl who is exploring her feelings. As she meets all the members of the Sohma family, she learns all about the love they’ve had and lost. That in itself makes it a far more open and bittersweet story than you might expect from a romance.

Then you actually get into the depth of the fantasy that cracks open the world. Fruits Basket is a quiet and meditative series. The mystery of the Sohma clan slowly unfolds while Tohru begins to open up to living a normal life again. Tension builds just a little bit at a time as the fantastic story of the Sohma family takes over Tohru’s life. Every whispered secret shared over tea in a quiet house pulls you in just a little more. The universe is so rich and so well-planned that you can’t help falling for the series.

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The romance is only one reason to watch Fruits Basket

You might not like every episode or chapter of Fruits Basket and you don’t have to. It’s a very broad-reaching property. It covers high school drama, high fantasy, romance, teen angst, world-building, character study, mythology, and self-reflection. With the anime, each episode is a careful exploration of the mystery of the curse and the Sohma family. The manga is a bit more wide-reaching and meandering but it still consistently draws your eye to the next panel.

The best entertainment is able to transcend marketing and genre bias to appeal to a wide audience. Then, the best entertainment becomes art when it creates discussion and debate over its merits. Fruits Basket is a series that can be enjoyed by a typical YA audience and appreciated by anyone open to a little bit of fantasy in their lives.

You can watch all 26 episodes of the Fruits Basket anime subtitled at Hulu Plus or dubbed at Hulu Plus or Netflix Instant. You can also be really ambitious and buy the entire series at iTunes.

Thoughts on Fruits Basket? Share them below.

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Watch: Pokemon Ballet

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One thing that fascinates me about anime culture is the heavy emphasis on music. Shows have so much music to pull from that Japanese theater companies are able to license titles for stage adaptations and use a lot of the original scoring. The opening and closing credits songs are radio-ready from the pilot episode and instantly recognizable for each series.

The availability of the music does also lend itself to questionable uses of songs and show themes from an IPR standpoint. Case in point: the Pokemon Ballet. Choreographer Andrew Plotner staged an unlicensed Pokemon Ballet at Creighton University. The description does not specify if it was for a final, another class assignment, a club, or an actual performance for the public. There’s clearly no ill intent in the work and the costumes and props suggest low budget student work. It’s just that the parody defense only goes so far and violating IPR for educational venues doesn’t always hold up as a defense. It’s a risk that people choose to take when adapting this kind of subject matter without a license.

The Pokemon Ballet is a really interesting piece to dig into. Plotner combined elements of the Pokemon game series with the anime to create a unique and familiar story. The introduction is the Professor Oak speech from the third generation games, where you could first play as a female protagonist. Ash is able to choose Pikachu, a variant on being stuck with the only remaining Pokemon from the anime and manga, and battles the gym leaders in anime/manga order. The music is a mix of scoring from the anime and the game series.

You can tell in the first few minutes that not everyone in this cast is at the same skill level when it comes to ballet. The girls playing Pikachu, Nurse Joy, and the ghost Pokemon perform en pointe, while many of the other dancers are barefoot or even in sneakers for the choreography. With that said, Plotner’s eye for staging the dances is strong and the cast is fully committed.

pokemonballetashandpikachu Watch: Pokemon BalletThere are some really beautiful moments that go a long way to make Pokemon Ballet really enjoyable. Pikachu and Ash have a lovely coupling duet when they first leave Pallet Town that establishes their bond. Nurse Joy’s big moment of reviving Pikachu after the thunderstorm is performed beautifully. Her extension and poise combined with Pikachu slowly copying the upper body movements as she recovers is quite lovely.

The ghost quartet is perhaps the strongest moment in the production. A veiled character follows Ash and Pikachu across the stage before collapsing on the floor. Three ghost Pokemon, presumably a mix of Haunters and Gangars, begin to circle the stage and each other en pointe. They surround the veiled character and bring her back to life. The whole thing has this great modern primitive style to it ala Vaslav Nijinsky’s choreography for La Sacre du printemps.

The biggest drawback is the costuming. It’s really inconsistent. Some characters–like Ash, Misty, and Team Rocket–are instantly recognizable while others–Pikachu, Charizard, Jigglypuff (?)–are barely suggested with color blocked dancewear. Student work or not, the integration of the games with the anime/manga made it so that instant identification of the characters was necessary to clearly tell the story. For example, I have no idea who the water Pokemon on Ash’s team was so I don’t understand why Pikachu was taunting it when it joined the team.

pokemonballetoakspeech Watch: Pokemon BalletThe intentional slapstick moments–Team Rocket knocking out scientists, the giant Game Boy prop, the “Are you a boy or a girl?” Oak speech, etc.–missed the mark for me. It’s a dance adaptation of Pokemon. We know it’s inherently absurd. There were just a few moments that stepped too far outside of the story itself to maintain a consistent tone and build tension leading into the Elite 4 and the Champion battles. The best moments had a really sharp and dry wit because the performance took itself so seriously.

The shortcomings in the piece are minor considering this is first performance footage of a low budget ballet. It’s very entertaining for what it is and shows that even something as ridiculous as Pokemon can be turned into engaging stagecraft. You can watch the entire 30 minute performance below.

What do you think? Sound off with your thoughts on the Pokemon Ballet below.

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Soul Eater: Teamwork as the Pinnacle of Human Achievement

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A special school exists for strong and talented students. It is the Death Weapon Meister Academy. Students are paired up into field-ready combat teams to hunt and capture evil souls. One student acts as a meister, the weapon master, and the other student acts as a weapon, transforming into a magical tool for specialized combat. The students aim to collect 99 evil human souls and one witch, in that order, to prove they are worthy of being used by the headmaster of the school.

souleaterweaponmeister 300x169 Soul Eater: Teamwork as the Pinnacle of Human Achievement

Maka and Soul Eater prepare for battle together (click for full)

Soul Eater focuses on three sets of students attending the Death Weapon Meister Academy. Maka Albarn is the perfect little student whose hard work is set back to square one when she and her weapon partner Soul Eater accidentally capture a shape-shifting cat’s soul (one of nine, to be exact). Black Star, a trained ninja, comes from a disgraced family of criminals. He’s teamed up with the exceptionally talented and patient Tsubaki Nakatsukasa who can become multiple weapons and steer Black Star in battle. The last team is Death the Kid, son of the headmaster, and Liz and Patty Thompson, homeless pickpockets turned magical guns.

Soul Eater follows longer story arcs with extended strategic battles against powerful witches like Medusa, Crona, and Arachne. The antagonists tend to target the more powerful students in an attempt to control or destroy them. The goal of the death scythes–weapons who reach the 100 soul threshold–is to kill witches. The witches fight back in an effort to dismantle the Death Weapon Meister Academy from the inside out.

souleatercomedy Soul Eater: Teamwork as the Pinnacle of Human Achievement

Yes, Death the Kid did freak out about this missed formation

A lot of Soul Eater is your typical wacky shonen action/fantasy/comedy series. The characters have big over the top reactions to everything they encounter. They do a lot of physical comedy and have funny catchphrases and quirks. For example, Death the Kid has severe OCD and cannot function in battle if everything is not perfectly aligned, including the Thompson sisters. His outbursts cut the tension and endear what could be a very unlikable character to a wider audience. I honestly expected to be offended by this treatment of OCD but it feels pretty accurate base on my own experiences in stressful situations.

The crux of the series, though, is the heart of the characters. More so than Naruto and other like fighting school anime/manga properties, Soul Eater is about building bonds with people. The students are pulled aside on a regular basis for private tutoring in teamwork and reading each other’s needs on the battlefield. A weapon can only be used effectively by a meister who bonds with her. The characters are literally more powerful working together than they are apart.

Going beyond the individual pairs of students and instructors, Soul Eater constantly preaches about the value of kindness and compassion toward others. There is a rather unfortunate character named Crona in the series. This child, androgynous in appearance though referred to as male or female on rare occasion in the manga, flips between being a villain and a hero. He is a pathetic child, weak-willed and unable to control his weapon. His weapon, Ragnarok, actually bullies him into harvesting innocent human souls, which turns Crona’s soul evil. The child, however, has no control over this thanks to the black blood–a biological insanity serum–running through his body.

souleatercrona Soul Eater: Teamwork as the Pinnacle of Human Achievement

Crona breaks my heart.

When Maka and Soul Eater fight Crona, they cannot get through the black blood barrier with physical attacks. It takes actually showing compassion and reasoning with the unfortunate and unwilling villain to be able to gain the advantage in the fight. They are so empathetic in their second battle that Crona enrolls in the Death Weapon Meister Academy to learn to control Ragnarok. Any time Crona is in peril, he only escapes when assisted by the other students and faculty at the school.

Even the faculty is not immune to needing a leg-up once in a while. Franken Stein is a genius scientist and caring teacher who is prone to bouts of insanity. The students and staff constantly have to work together to help balance his mental wavelengths so he’s safe to be around. Sid Barrett, another teacher, is only able to continue working at the school when Franken Stein has Maka, Soul Eater, Black Star, and Tsubaki bring him back as a zombie. Even Death himself, the headmaster of the school, has to call on students and faculty to help him run errands. He appears through a magical mirror and cannot abandon his post without risking a total takeover of the school.

Though teamwork is a pretty basic theme to riff on, Soul Eater doesn’t dwell on it. It’s a natural extension of the conceit of the series. Writer Atsushi Okubo establishes the meister/weapon relationship in the first issue and never includes exceptions. The characters literally cannot function or win in the Soul Eater universe without teamwork, so the value of teamwork is intrinsic to the series.

You can stream all 51 episodes of Soul Eater dubbed in English on Netflix and Hulu Plus. You can also watch the subtitled episodes at Funimation. Or, if you’re really ambitious, you can buy the four seasons at iTunes. Pt. 1 Pt. 2 Pt. 3 Pt. 4

Thoughts on Soul Eater? Share them below.

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Deadman Wonderland and the Prison-Industrial Complex

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Click the pictures full size images in this post. It’s a lot of black and white manga art and the details are too fine to make out at the smaller size. Manga is read right to left.

deadmanwonderlandgantaplea 204x300 Deadman Wonderland and the Prison Industrial Complex

Ganta’s plea falls on deaf ears in Deadman Wonderland

Imagine you’re back in middle school/junior high. Your class is going to go on a field trip to a new prison complex where the inmates are forced to run theme park and carnival attractions as part of their rehabilitation. You eagerly await the arrival of the buses when a mysterious figure shows up and kills everyone in the class except for you. He stabs you with a strange substance and disappears. Once you recover, you’re railroaded through the criminal justice system and sentenced to life in the new prison complex for murdering your classmates.

This is the premise of Deadman Wonderland. Ganta is a child framed for a horrific crime. Evidence is manufactured against him, including grainy video footage performed by an actor dressed like Ganta.

Writer Jinsei Kataoka and illustrator Kazuma Kondou seem to be riffing on the prison-industrial complex. This is the theory that prisoners are being forced into private prisons at a higher rate for profit and political gain. This would be a novel concept in Japan as all of their prisons are centered around rehabilitation and run by the Japanese government; there are no private prisons there.

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Deadman Wonderland is a theme park for citizens and a torture chamber for inmates

Within the anime and manga, Deadman Wonderland is the only privately-run prison in all of Japan. Prisoners from all over the country are sent there to work the amusement park. The money raised goes toward the restoration of Tokyo, which was destroyed after a giant earthquake. It is a win/win situation for the general population. Their city will be rebuilt and they get a new tourist attraction to take their children to.

Deadman Wonderland would be fascinating even if it was just about uncovering why Ganta was framed and forced into Deadman Wonderland. There’s also a dark fantasy element of the story that drives the plot just as much as corruption in privatized prisons.

The Deadmen are a group of inmates with fantastic powers. They are able to control and manipulate their blood as weapons. Some fire blood like bullets while others craft physical weapons. Some fly while others shield themselves.

These Deadmen are part of the underground world of Deadman Wonderland. A group of secret, wealthy investors bet on the results of battles between the Deadmen. The winner gets currency and medicine needed to stay alive in the prison. The loser has part of their body removed or amputated as part of a violent game show for the private backers.

deadmanwonderlandganta 300x211 Deadman Wonderland and the Prison Industrial Complex

The Deadmen, manufactured or born, are forced into danger every day

Ganta was injected with the raw essence of the Deadman power when his classmates were killed. His first day at Deadman Wonderland is wrought with peril. The assistant warden Tsunenaga Tamaki, who also acts as the figurehead for the underground battles, arranges for his murder. Ganta instinctively uses his new blood-manipulating powers to save himself from certain death in what would have easily been labeled an accident. It’s only a matter of time before Ganta is manipulated into joining his fellow Deadmen in the hidden cell-block of Deadman Wonderland.

The genius of Deadman Wonderland is the integration of social commentary. This is a scathing indictment of the for-profit prison industry from a creative team who clearly did their research. The rights of the inmates are trumped at every turn by the greed of the investors.

For example, the general population earns money to buy food, clothing, and supplies by participating in Deadman Wonderland events. The Dog Race is the most popular attraction in the park. Inmates sign up to participate in an obstacle course for cash and food.

When Ganta enters on his first day, the obstacle course is immediately set for its most deadly rules and challenges to really test Ganta’s powers. The crowd is told the inmates are acting so they don’t immediately rebel against the slaughter of dozens of prisoners paid for by their admission fees.

Deadman Wonderland also has an undercurrent of the school-to-prison pipeline in the prison population. The school-to-prison pipeline is used to describe how actions at school lead to an increased incarceration rate for students.

Most of the inmates Ganta winds up interacting with were forced into Deadman Wonderland as children and teenagers. This is especially apparent among the Deadmen themselves. Some of the most fearsome competitors are children. There’s even a specialty guard member who is a very young girl still learning basic math and grammar skills. Part of this is aiming the material at the shonen demographic (boys ages 10 and up), but the use of the children is deeper than superficial pandering.

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Children are a surprisingly large part of the prison population

These children are forced into the Deadman Wonderland on real or trumped up charges and then transformed into cold-blooded killers. There is no attempt to rehabilitate them or teach them skills they can use in the real world. The Deadmen are all facing life sentences with no parole and the general population inmates can have their sentences extended for arbitrary reasons.

Deadman Wonderland is surprisingly mature in its themes and social narrative for a shonen title. Sure, there is plenty of action and easy to follow narratives to appeal to the demographic. It’s filled with a lot of the tropes you expect in a shonen property. It also has strong character development, an exceptionally well-researched world, and a very mature and layered story.

A major story arc involves the Deadmen attempting to escape Deadman Wonderland as an act of social justice. They plan to release video tapes of the fights and torture game show to the press to hopefully cause reform or even shut down the facility. They’re not fighting for themselves; they’re fighting for the good of all the current and potential inmates in Japan. They’re fighting to restore justice to the criminal justice system and prevent the creation of new privatized prisons. They are fighting for their country to regain its moral core and show compassion to even the worst of its citizens.

Deadman Wonderland was adapted into a 12 episode anime in 2011. It is as faithful to the manga as it can be with the high level of violence in the books. There is also an OVA episode set two years later that examines another social issue: the militarization of police. The episode follows a police officer fighting crime with the lethal Deadman power. The series is worth exploring to be reminded that entertainment for children can have depth and nuance without isolating the target audience and for its well-handled social commentary.

Thoughts on Deadman Wonderland? Share them before.

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I originally published this piece in October and I still like it a lot. Elfen Lied is a very rich anime to write about. There are so many ways to approach the sci-fi/horror about the abuse and enslavement of an alternate strain of human evolution. It’s a great, mature anime that I enjoy revisiting every few months.

The Tangled Horror of Elfen Lied

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Little Witch Academia

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Remember when that short animation test of a swim team anime became so popular the animators actually got the series picked up? There’s another animation team attempting the same trick with social media. The difference is that they created an OVA (original video animation) pilot for a series that doesn’t exist yet.

It’s called Little Witch Academia and it’s cute. It’s like the Harry Potter series with a female lead and all the quirks of super cute anime. The style is quite lovely with really expressive characters and a strong world.

You can watch the full episode below.

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The Philosophy of Pokemon (Quinni-Con 2013)

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It’s very telling that the first panel I knew I absolutely had to see at Quinni-Con 2013 was called The Philosophy of Pokemon. If you’ve read my work for any period of time, you’ve realized by now that I like a deep analysis of pop culture. I think going that route really opens up the text of the entertainment artifact for a wider audience. It also allows me to make the case for the merits of lesser known or previously dismissed works.

Pokemon clearly doesn’t need any defending at this point. The manga and anime franchise so strange and popular that South Park jokingly accused it of being a political indoctrination program by the Japanese government is more popular than ever. There are spin-off video games, tabletop games, clothes, accessories, films, and even magazines devoted to the franchise. Yet all the popularity and game-based analysis in the world doesn’t do much to open up a deeper meaning.

Enter Quinni-Con 2013. The room for The Philosophy of Pokemon filled quickly. Pokemon panels always draw a crowd at conventions. This one was different. These people were here to dig deep into the world of Pokemon.

The hour long panel covered three major areas: the age of the trainers, the mythology of Pokemon within the world of Pokemon, and the ethics of battling Pokemon.

philosophyofpokemontrainers The Philosophy of Pokemon (Quinni Con 2013)

Children as young as 10 are sent out to catch and train Pokemon

The host of the panel laid out a strong case for Pokemon having parallels to Plato’s city in The Republic. In Plato’s work, the children are raised by the city. Everyone is invested in rearing the children to make the best society possible. Everyone aims to be the best people they can and working together on the next generation helps guarantee more of the best people.

In Pokemon, children as young as 10 years old travel throughout the country to become the best trainer they can be. Along the way, they are offered lodging, food, and advice from adults in every city, town, forest, countryside, etc. they pass through. The ethos of teaching young children to succeed at Pokemon training is ingrained in the core of world philosophy. You learn to best you can be in the world. Then you shape the world to be what you want it to be.

This world elevates the champion of the Pokemon League to celebrity status. They’re also a de facto leader. Since the only way to become champion, whether in a city gym or the whole world, is to beat the current champion, that champion gets to set the rules. If they believe rock Pokemon are the best, they will force you to fight and train against rock Pokemon until you prove your worth against them.

Not every child who sets out to become a Pokemon master succeeds. Yet everyone who goes on this fantastic journey benefits from the collective wisdom of a society that takes responsible for raising the next generation the right way.

philosophyofpokemonpokedex The Philosophy of Pokemon (Quinni Con 2013)

The Pokedex contains everything you need to know about Pokemon

From there, the conversation shifted to Pokemon mythology inside the Pokemon universe. The Pokedex is our introduction to most of the creatures Ash/Red encounter on their journeys. It provide quantifiable statistics–height, weight, gender–and more abstract knowledge–origin stories, myths, and fables.

Though the subject wasn’t debated, The Philosophy of Pokemon panel hinged on the assumption that the people in the series accept these stories as myth. These are the tales told to children to get them excited about the Pokemon in the wild and all the adventures they’ll have when they leave home at 10.

It’s an interesting angle on the story that doesn’t necessarily hold up. For every encounter with a wild Pokemon that doesn’t demonstrate the myth, there’s another encounter in the manga or anime that confirms it. Jigglypuffs do sing at the moon. Muks do drop down from cave walls and sewers. Magnemites do evolve by connecting to another Magnemite’s charge. Klinx do become injured if they stop spinning.

Here it would be important to note that there is a semantic distinction with these myths. Some of them talk about actual traits. Farfetch’d has his leek in the Pokedex entry because he’s known to have a leek in the wild. However, there’s no way to prove that you can wish upon a Ho-oh. Pokemon sometimes teeters on the line between myth and fairy tale but usually has a realistic basis for these Pokedex myths and facts.

The big argument for these stories just being fairy tales was the ghost Pokemon. These are creatures sometimes rumored to be spiritual forms of other Pokemon or even people. There is nothing to suggest that the ghost Pokemon ever lived, let alone died to become ghost Pokemon.

philosophyofpokemonhaunter The Philosophy of Pokemon (Quinni Con 2013)

Haunters gonna haunt and ghosts gonna ghost

What they do show is the separation between the physical and spiritual worlds of Pokemon. A lot of the religious figures in Pokemon are given more benign designations in the English translation. Suffice to say that if a character is in traditional Japanese robes, particularly purple robes, and wearing or carrying large wooden beads, they’re religious figures and they’re usually battling with ghosts or monk-like psychic/fighting Pokemon. The belief in another plane of existence is ingrained in Pokemon even before you look at the function of the ghost Pokemon.

The ghost Pokemon aren’t fully physical beings. They are immune to purely physical attacks in a battle. They pass through walls and disappear at will in the anime and manga. They reside in temples, cemeteries, graveyards, and abandoned buildings. Their lack of a physical body is tangible proof that every character in Pokemon has a spiritual side.

Take a look at pokeballs. Somehow, a small metal/plastic container the size of a fist opens up, sucks the physical Pokemon inside, and imprisons it. There is a flash of light and then the Pokemon is in or out of the ball. The actual physical being of the Pokemon can be regenerated at will with technology.

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The Tao of Gantz

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Gantz is a hyper-violent anime, adapted from an even more outrageous manga, that posits a very unusual interpretation of the afterlife. Imagine if you didn’t actually die at the exact moment your body dies. Instead of being done with the mortal life, your spirit is transported into an artificial copy of your body. You wake up, pixel by pixel, inside a strange room with a large glowing orb. When the room is filled, you’re instructed that you have one hour to kill an alien with bizarre weaponry and black skin-tight suits or you lose. Instead of passing on, you’ve been temporarily delayed in a cryptic game show with real life or death stakes.

taoofgantzgametime The Tao of Gantz

The game generates your new body in Gantz

If you lose, your spirit goes back with your actual body at the moment of death and your life is over; if you win, you get to walk away in your new, blemish-free body and keep on living until the next session of the game. Win enough times and you can earn your own life back without any more violent games. Lose once and your finished.

Gantz is best known for the violence and overt sexuality of the series. It’s a seinen manga, targeted at men ages 18-30, and it’s filled with perverted sexual encounters and even sexual assault. The images, animated in all too loving detail for the anime, are intentionally over the top and offensive. For me, they’re a huge blemish on a very well-conceived dark sci-fi universe exploring the mysteries of life and death.

Because of the graphic content, Gantz is often dismissed as just that series with x, y, or z. There is a lot more to dig into, though, because of the direction of the anime.

Hiroya Oku’s now 380 chapter and growing manga is not a hopeful piece of literature. The philosophy of the ball’s twisted game is almost nihilistic. The ball radically changes the rules if a contestant is doing too well and attempts to drive the player insane.

By the time they earn 100 points and can free themselves, they’re offered three prizes. The first is freedom, including the elimination of all memories of ever participating in the game. This is, more often than not, the goal of the player.

The second is the total wild card. The player will be gifted a super powerful weapon that will make their time in the game much easier. The ball is counting on the player developing a combination of bloodlust and Stockholm syndrome. Whoever or whatever is watching just wants the body count and they will manipulate the game to get those results.

taoofgantzcompetitors The Tao of Gantz

The competitors in Gantz never know what they’re up against

The third is what Oku hinged his interpretation of the story on. If you get 100 points, you can resurrect a dead competitor. Kei Kurono, one of the protagonists in the series, becomes obsessed with this option. He makes it his life goal to bring back everyone he can no matter how many times he has to reenter the game. This pushes the manga into a fight for redemption, resurrection, and teamwork against insurmountable odds. Much like the game pushes the players to go for more blood, the game punishes the players for trying to play hero and save everyone.

The anime adaptation by Gonzo pushes the story in a completely different direction. The first season is as faithful as it can be with TV censorship standards. The second season is a different situation entirely.

One of the more upsetting missions in the early chapters of the manga is the battle against the temple statues. The competitors have 90 minutes to destroy all the living statues in a sprawling Buddhist temple. It doesn’t end well for anyone.

Both the anime and the manga have a Buddhist priest has entered the game and is convinced prayer is the only way to survive the ordeal. When he begins to chant in front of an altar, the giant statues stop moving and just stare at him. They no longer attack the competitors. The priest stops praying long enough to admonish his fellow competitors for resorting to violence. Unfortunately in the anime, before he can pray again, a large living statue crushes him.

In the manga, the outcome is the same but the timing is different. There are panels that clearly show the priest fully chanting again and the statues disregard his efforts. They kill him in cold blood even as he praises them in his final moments on earth. The manga does not follow or uphold any earthly doctrines.

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How Anime is Dubbed (Quinni-Con 2013)

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At Quinni-Con 2013, voice actor/director Chris Cason ran a lot of panel about how anime is dubbed and released in the US. He works full time for Funimation, one of my favorite distributors. The panel I was able to catch was all about voice acting from casting to syncing and it was pretty eye-opening.

dubbinganimefunimation How Anime is Dubbed (Quinni Con 2013)When Funimation secures a license for a new show, they put together their in-house creative team. As many as seven separate shows are being worked on in different studios at a time with an regular work schedule of 10AM to 6PM. The director is given the translated scripts, character descriptions, and images from the show. However, they’re in charge of researching the show and influences to figure out the crux of the series. They plan for as long as the production schedule allows them so they can figure out the right tone and approach for the translated program.

After research is complete, casting begins. Notebooks are prepared with the title of the show, a description of the show, character descriptions with images, and auditions sides. About 150 people are called in to audition in a mix of scheduled audition slots and cattle calls. The scheduled auditions go off every 15 minutes for three days for a single show.

The voice actors arrive and are instructed to choose three characters they believe they can do the best on the show. They perform the sides and are given direction to see how well they can work with the director. This is a standard tactic in any performance situation. It always freaks my students out when they prepare for an audition and we ask them, on the fly, to go in a different direction. If the director has worked with you before, they probably don’t need to do this part. It’s meant to gauge what the working relationship will be like when the show goes into production.

dubbinganimechriscason How Anime is Dubbed (Quinni Con 2013)

Chris Cason

The casting process is hard. It’s not because of a lack of talent. Chris Cason estimates about 5% of voice actors nail everything they’re asked to do in a given audition; an even smaller percentage fail. The rest all do well enough to potentially be cast in the show in some way. It comes down to the blend of the voices. You hopefully get to choose your leads out of the 5% and then fill in the rest with complimentary actors who also gave fine auditions.

Once the cast is set and the contracts are signed, it’s time to actually record the show. It’s a much slower process than you would think. Cason says, working one on one with a voice actor, they usually get through 30 scripted lines and 35 reactions–screams, laughs, cries, grunts, etc.–each hour. The sessions with an individual actor usually last three to four hours. It takes about a week to record each episode in an anime series.

Actually directing the show is a challenge. Because of the tight time constraints, the actors are usually working cold. They’re given the script and have to go with it on the day of the recording session.

Once in the booth, the voice actors have to contend with two screens. The script for the show is on the left. The video of the scenes is on the right. We’re not talking about fan parodies on YouTube (that’s another post); the lip flaps have to match for licensed dubbed anime to work. Chris Cason equated it to acting with math. You have to sound good and sync up with a limited amount of time.

dubbinganimebooth How Anime is Dubbed (Quinni Con 2013)

Two screens at once for anime dubbing

The trick with actually directing anime is the style. Anime tends to be a pretty melodramatic form. With the exaggerated psychology that has evolved from manga art, the reactions by the actors have to be large enough to match the action onscreen. You can’t just whimper and sniffle when a character has seemingly unhinged their jaw and began gushing gallons of tears out of their eyes. The same applies to body-shifting anger and fear. If you go really realistic on an anime dub, it’s probably not going to turn out well. There’s a reason the young protagonists in a shonen series tend to scream all the time; they’re drawn that way.

Once a series has wrapped and the voices are ready to be mixed, it will be months before the cast and creative team can talk about the new show. They sign weighty NDAs threatening bad things if they talk about what they were working on before they’re allowed to. It’s a timing issue with the actual anime license and the distribution deal with the TV network. What it means is that, by the time a new anime dub airs on TV, the cast and creative team have probably recorded another series already that they can’t talk about. It’s a long road from license to release and one that is far more challenging than you might have imagined.

Thoughts on the anime dubbing practice in America? Sound off below.

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Abridged Series Creation: Anything for a Laugh (Quinni-Con 2013)

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At Quinni-Con 2013, there was a variety of panels about the process of creating anime. From drawing the art to casting voice actors for the US dub, the traditional aspects of the popular medium were well-covered.

creatingabridgedseries Abridged Series Creation: Anything for a Laugh (Quinni Con 2013)

Sometimes, the jokes right themselves

Quinni-Con also hosted a lot of events related to a less-explored aspect of the world of anime fan culture: abridged series. Abridged series are online parodies of popular anime properties. The creative team edits down the 22 minute episodes to a shorter length, usually about 5-8 minutes, redubs all the voices, and send-ups the ridiculous aspects of the series. Popular subjects are the melodramatic Death Note (see image), 4Kidz’ complete and total butchering of the much darker than it appeared in the US Yugioh, and the unbelievable adventures of a 10 year old traveling around the world to battle wild animals in Pokemon.

Sadly, very few of these abridged series are ever completed. It’s certainly not for lack of interest. An abridged series is just a huge undertaking. It’s surprisingly hard to get all the details to line-up for a full series run.

The abridged series panels at Quinni-Con 2013 were hosted by collaborators Nowacking and 1KidsEntertainment. The pair work on Pokemon: The ‘Bridged Series. They opened up about a lot of details people might overlook when they decide to criticize the release schedule of an abridged series or dive in and create their own.

abridgedseriescreationpokemonbridged Abridged Series Creation: Anything for a Laugh (Quinni Con 2013)

Pokemon: The ‘Bridged Series

The biggest thing you need to create an abridged series is time. You have to be extremely well-versed in the anime you’re manipulating. Nowacking and 1KidsEntertainment explained that you have to watch each episode enough times to know the material you can work with. Since you’re not creating a series from scratch, you need to work off of the footage available in the episode. You can have a gag about a severely depressed character if she’s grinning the entire episode. The only way around that constriction is to edit the art or splice in footage from other shows, which only adds onto the lengthy production schedule.

Once you know what you have to work with, you have to sit down and write the new abridged episode. The episode has to match the tone you already established for the abridged series and remain faithful to the footage in the actual anime. You have to realistically consider the talent you have and determine what you absolutely need to tell the story you want to tell.

The only real time-saver on an abridged series is that, since it’s parody, you don’t have to match mouth movements. The dialogue just needs to time out with the footage available, not necessarily look organic or natural.

The syncing is a minor advantage. You still need to record all the voice actors. The levels have to be right or else the audio is unusable. The characters have to be distinct enough so the viewer knows who is who even when it’s voice-over without the characters present. The tone of the voice and speaking style has to be consistent with the animation and character you’re trying to create.

From there, the actual raw footage has to be edited down to match the script. This is where you can insert footage from other series, manipulate the order of the episode, or alter the speed or direction of the footage for comedic effect. It’s a lot of things to consider for such a short medium.

Then, once the abridged series is actually uploaded, you have to make sure it stays on your video server of choice. Thanks to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and subsequent legal action, YouTube had to install safeguards to protect copyright holders. Many anime distributors upload episodes of their series in private mode and have Google scan all the available videos on YouTube for possible infringement. If your video is flagged, it’s taken down. That means lost views, lost viewers, and frustration.

Fortunately, the DMCA is a two-way street. The copyright holders get much-needed assistance protecting their properties online and the alleged infringers get to defend themselves. YouTube has a form built into the site that lets you explain why you believe your video should not be taken down. The answer is simple for abridged series: parodies are allowed under US copyright law. No one will view an episode of Pokemon: The ‘Bridged Series and think they’re watching the actual anime so there’s no actual damage to the copyright. It’s a pain, but you just plead your case and wait for YouTube to put your video back up.

The next time you’re watching an abridged series and find out that the updates only come every few weeks or months, take a moment to remember how much effort it takes to make an abridged series. These are fans who decided to rewrite a series for everyone’s enjoyment. They’re working other jobs or going to school full time because monetizing an abridged series is just going to get it flagged on a regular basis. Be supportive if you like the show, hold off on mentioning the real name of the actual series (it might impact the scans for automatic take downs), and have fun.

Thoughts on abridged series? Have any favorites? Share them in the comments below.

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Read: Letters to an Absent Father

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letterstoanabsentfathercryogonal Read: Letters to an Absent Father

Rare Candy Treatment deals in absurdity.

There are a lot of Pokemon webcomics out there. Rare Candy Treatment examines the odd quirks of the Pokemon universe. Super Effective is a slapstick reimagining of the manga, complete with black and white tones. Nuzlocke’s Hard Mode brings an alternate rule set–namely when a Pokemon faints, it’s actually dead and you must release it from your collection–to life with a lot of unexpected feelings. Everything from Cyanide and Happiness to Penny Arcade has done at least a one-off Pokemon comic.

Yet one short form webcomic still stands above the rest in concept and execution. Originally released in 2011, Letters to an Absent Father reimagines Ash’s journey from Pallet Town to Pokemon Champion as a series of letters to his father. Ash’s father is only ever referenced once in the manga and anime as a trainer who went on his own journey. Ash does not get to benefit from his years of experience as other 10 year old trainers do on their first journeys.

letterstoanabsentfatherpokemon Read: Letters to an Absent Father

If you recognize these characters, you’re ready to read Letters to an Absent Father

Artist Maré Odomo employs a simplistic art style for the comic. She relies on the reader recognizing basic attributes of major Pokemon characters–Ash has spiky hair and a red cap, Misty has a bright orange pony tail, Pikachu is a yellow and black mouse, etc.–to establish the context of the series. Then she flips the script and turns it into a brand new experience.

Ash’s only desire in the Pokemon series is to become the Pokemon Champion. He has to collect all the different species for the Professor’s research and evolve his team to beat gym leaders, but everything is done for the singular goal of being the best. His inner desires are left unspoken as he will sacrifice anything to achieve his lifelong goal.

letterstoanabsentfather1 300x91 Read: Letters to an Absent Father

Letters to an Absent Father 1 (click for full) Read More

Odomo wisely starts Letters to an Absent Father with the first emotional chapter in Pokemon history. The first wild Pokemon ash catches is a Caterpie. He raises his Caterpie from a small insecure little bug into a beautiful and powerful Butterfree. While traveling by the coast, his Butterfree falls in love with a wild female Butterfree. All the Butterfrees are partnering up and Ash knows the best thing for his Butterfree is freedom. Ash gives up the first Pokemon he ever caught so that it can be happier than it ever imagined. Odomo stacks that emotional story with a knock-out final line in the first comic, “Do you ever miss Mom? Love, Ash.”

From there, Letters to an Absent Father covers everything from first love to loneliness to self-actualization. It’s a whirlwind of emotional comics that never betrays the basic concept of Pokemon. Ash is expressing his feelings in private as they relate to his very public life as a Pokemon trainer. It’s a beautiful meditation on a popular series and an excellent piece of art.

The only slight downside is the need to know the basics of Pokemon to understand all the references. Even removed from that, it would still be a strong project. The story is universal enough that the fantastic elements you don’t recognize do not overshadow the heart and goal of the project.

You can read the complete Letters to an Absent Father at Maré Odomo’s website.

Thoughts on Letters to an Absent Father? Share them below.