Just like Ayakashi Ayashi and Bakumatsu Kikansetsu last year, this series was constantly compared to a superficially similar series in the same season--Seirei no Moribito, which also stars a solitary female fighter and a boy who becomes her charge--and everyone pretty much threw down on one side or the other. Us, we chose Seirei [much more below]. Claymore was just too bleak for us: the bleached-out color palette (you can see it even in these few screens); the bloody violence; the grimness of the character writing; the overall sense of a harsh, barren world pretty much bare of human sympathy (though, granted, that may be a pretty accurate sketch of a civilization comparable to, say, 10th Century Europe), just gave us nothing to hold onto. It depressed us, and that we don't need.
So it may have gotten more interesting after episode 6, but that's for someone else to tell you.

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Finished:
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OH! EDO ROCKET!(or literally Oedo Roketto, "Great Edo Rocket") --This utterly gonzo, criminally overlooked little anime (written by Shou Aikawa, who also wrote last year's more serious Ayakashi Ayashi, and who's drawn very liberally here from the ancient "Tale of the Bamboo Cutter", a/k/a "Princess Kaguya")) is about as unique as they get: a meticulously researched, Tenpou-period slapstick comedy about the restrictive reforms and "luxury bans" inflicted on the commonfolk by magistrate Mizuno Tadakumi in the summer of 1842, and a little band of backstreet dwellers who, in defiance of all such killjoyism, set out to make fireworks powerful enough to reach the moon. Yup, you read that right. It's got maps so accurate you can match them street for street, backgrounds based faithfully on Hiroshige prints, and a cast of characters at least half of whom were real people, yet TV sets and pocket calculators keep popping up, the pace is frantic, and it's so breathlessly funny and yet so detailed; like I said, unique. And has an impeccably cool swing-&-jazz soundtrack to boot. (Oh, and did I forget to mention that Sora, the girl who wants to reach the moon, is actually trying to get back there? because she was escorting a dangerous interstellar criminal who escaped here in Japan? I did, huh?) --No one seems to have noticed it, and only one sub group followed it to the end (fortunately, it was Shinsen, who have become consistently excellent at covering series that require historical and/or esoteric footnotes), but it deserves a lot more love than that. Anyone who loves Samurai Champloo or Gintama really ought to give it a try. Clever, fun, and good-hearted, this was a treat from start to finish.

[Footnote: as noted above, head writer Aikawa also wrote last year's Ayakashi Ayashi, set in this same time period, which was unfortunately cancelled after only 25 episodes. Episode 15 of Edo Rocket makes humorous reference to the cancellation by showing a chronology chart with the month of November 1843 covered over and referring to it as a time of ill omen-- it's the month in which the last episodes of Ayakashi Ayashi occur. ]

SEIREI NO MORIBITO ("Guardian of the Sacred Spirit")--This classy, handsome, richly drawn adventure is definitely a top-five favorite of the year. Set on a double-mooned world called Nayuro (which strongly resembles ancient China/Mongolia), it's the story of a capable, spear-wielding bodyguard-for-hire named Balsa, who one day leaps off a bridge to save the life of a child. Her heroic act earns her a visit to the Imperial Palace, where she learns that the boy she saved is Second Prince Chagum, and the Empress has good reason to believe that the bridge "accident" was a deliberate attempt on her son's life by his father, the Mikado himself. The Empress offers Balsa a fortune to take the boy away and protect him, and --not without misgivings--they hit the road; but meanwhile, Chagum's tutor, thoughtful, scholarly and drop-dead beautiful Star Diviner Shuga, is delving into the real circumstances of the little Prince's supernatural possession--the reason his father seeks his death--and the secrets behind the officially-sanctioned legend of Yogo Empire's demon-slaying founder. Not to mention the help we'll need from salty, iron-willed old shamaness Torogai; her apprentice and Balsa's close friend (who might like to be more), herbalist Tanda; and two clever street kid enterpreneurs named Tohya and Saya. --A terrific, many-leveled story of politics versus myth and nature, shamans vs. state priesthoods, the decay of indigenous knowledge under the pressure of new ways, friendship and sacrifice, coming of age, and the ecological and spiritual balance between two worlds, Seirei is just wonderful. It's beautiful to look at, drawn in a lush illustrative style with skies and landscapes that rival Mushishi's, and some of the best-looking character designs you could wish for, full of sympathy and personality. It's skillfully and subtly written, too, with delicate levels of character conflict, truces, loyalties and shy romances, plus continuity and completely satisfying pacing throughout; and the characters on both sides are so understandable, decent and honorable that it gives the story a fullness and depth you rarely find anywhere. I just love this series; it makes me nearly as happy as Eureka seveN did, and that is saying a lot.

[Addendum: has been picked up by Cartoon Network in America to begin airing in summer 2008, under the sub title Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit. Yay!!!]

(Left to right: Zeus; Judas and Shin; Gou; Ruka and Rei)

(Left to right: Judas and Shiva; Shin with his harp; Kira and Maya-chan.)

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Still watching/finishing up:
(Many titles, sorry to say, but bear with me. I will update as I get through.)
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TENGEN TOPPA GURREN-LAGANN ("Making Breakthrough Gurren-Lagann")--the one that broke our hearts. This delirious, high-energy, horrifically unlucky series had everything going for it at the start: Gainax' trademark dynamics, fast, fluid action, and wild comedy; frantic, high-octane directing by FLCL veteran Hiroyuki Imaishi; quirky, likeable characters, eye candy, and a terrific, lovable, passionately heroic star: the unforgettable Kamina. Set in a far-future world where humanity has been forced into subterranean cave cities but a few still dream of returning to the surface, it's the adventure that befalls plucky kid hero Simon, his pet mole-piglet Boota, and his dashing mentor/stand-in big brother Kamina when Simon, in his endless task of mining out more and more space to expand Jiiha Village, one day finds the key to a huge, mysterious giant mecha...
Out of the gate it was bar-none our favorite series of the spring season, but almost at once its luck turned bad. After a very public scuffle involving producer Takami Akai (a co-founder of Gainax) and another Gainax employee responding angrily to fan criticisms of the series on Japanese web forum 2channel, Akai resigned both his post on the series and his position at Gainax, effective with episode five (late April '07). This caused a lurch in quality, but the show seemed strong enough to weather it.
But then, in episode eight, they did something that Gecko and I can't ever forgive. Some said it was necessary to bring Simon into the forefront as an independent leader; some said it had been done out of spite, because Simon was supposed to be the star, but his "big brother" was running away with the fanbase. Whichever--like I say, it broke our hearts, and we couldn't care about Gurren-Lagann after that.
To be fair, the show is still 95% cool stuff, with nice art (gorgeous color palette!), a great cast of characters including a fascinating turncoat villain called Viral, a rousing rebels-vs-empire storyline, and some reasonably inventive giant robots...but...*snif* we really loved Kamina. (And I will never ever forgive Gainax for making my baby cry.)

HAYATE NO GOTOKU! (Hayate the Combat Butler)--"With a debt of 1.5 million, 16-year old Hayate Ayasaki's parents sell him to the yakuza to pay it off for his value as an organ donor. Not wanting to be cut up and sold on the black market, Hayate escapes from the yakuza thugs, and finds a very rich girl by the name of Nagi Sanzenin wandering in a park at night. Deciding to kidnap the girl for ransom money, Hayate's kidnapping speech is wrongly taken as a confession of love for Nagi. She finds out about the debt, and, feeling sorry for Hayate, pays it off: but Hayate must be her butler until he repays the 1.5 million (which will take about 40 years)."
---IMHO the season's best new batty comedy. Modest, humble, hard-working Hayate has been taking care of himself and his ne'er-do-well parents for years, though it's been tough: he had to leave school and find work to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads, while they squandered every cent they had on gambling, get-rich-quick schemes and self-indulgence. So he's used to work, and applies himself diligently to Nagi's plan for his future and to meeting the high standards expected of a Sanzenin servant. The plots are nothing to study for long--Hayate's tribulations in the exacting training process, Nagi's huge crush on Hayate and her jealous schemes, various misadventures with the rest of Nagi's wacked household including her intelligent pet tiger, Tama, and her cute, shrewd head maid--but mostly it's just for fun. Best game: spotting all the zillions of anime in-jokes and references scattered throughout, from puns and quotations to the marble busts of Ranma, Conan Edogawa and Inuyasha in the hall (Anime News Network has 157 trivia notes on the series!).

EL CAZADOR DE LA BRUJA (Spanish: "hunter of the witch")--This adventure series gives us a soft-spoken little girl called Ellis who apparently has the power to manipulate the molecules of solid matter at will. Several factions have sent bounty hunters after her, but the most persistent is a serape-wearing, sharpshooting, determined redhead named Nadie. An old fortune-teller, Ellis' only friend, is murdered for info on her whereabouts, but not before reading Nadie's fortune and asking for her promise to protect Ellis on her journey. By the end of episode 1 the two girls have stolen a jeep and set out for the south together-- Ellis doesn't quite know why, but that's where she needs to go--with everyone's goons on their trail, a secretive, highly placed man named Rosenberg watching their every move, and Ellis in possession of a crystal that seems to hold the key to Winay Marka, "the eternal place". Why does Ellis call herself a murderer, though she doesn't remember anything of the bloody scene we see in the opening flashback? What part does she play in Rosenberg's mysterious Project Leviathan? Nadie seems to have been sent by him (the photo she uses to identify Ellis is the same one that appears on the Project Leviathan website we see on Rosenberg's screen), but was she, and will her agenda change? and what could they find in Winay Marka? Cazador is an enjoyable, fast-paced adventure, with an unusual setting for an anime--the towns and deserts of Mexico and the American Southwest, beautifully depicted in rich earth tones, with typical pottery and crafts, foods and clothing styles all carefully detailed. Nadie herself is a very likeable creation, formidable but good-hearted and sympathetic. (Her Mexican serape would seem to be a visual nod to another famous gunslinger, Clint Eastwood's iconic Man With No Name, and it amuses me that she's the Girl With No Name--"nadie'" is Spanish for "nobody".) There's lots of gunplay but it has a high-spirited Western-movie feel to it, and though I've only seen the first quarter of it I'm really enjoying it. More to come.

(left to right: A Doll at work; The Wall; Haraguchi on the run.)

DENNOU COIL-- I'm always happy when I get to say this: I've never seen anything quite like this series. Set in Daikoku, an apparently average small Japanese city of the near future, it builds a fascinating, completely believable little world in which cyberspace and our somewhat more solid space intersect frequently, literally, and with strange consequences. Eleven years ago, Internet-connected, augmented reality eyeglasses and visors were introduced, and now they're something every kid has and uses as naturally as breathing. As the story opens, grade-schooler Yuko Okonagi, her kid sister Kyoko, and their petmaton, a cyberdog named Densuke, arrive in Daikoku. When Yuko finds a runaway dennou-neko--a cybercat--it becomes her introduction to Fumie Hashimoto of the Coil Cyberinvestigation Agency, a gang of kids who find lost cyberpets, and to a world that's nothing like her home in Kanazawa. Obsolete cyberspaces lie in wait to swallow petmatons like quicksand; toothless, wily old grannies are secretly master hackers (Yuko's own grandma, in fact, is the boss of the Coil Agency); kids trade their hacker skills for electronic currency called metabugs and dodge a scary-cute street patroller, a roaming antivirus program whose name is Searchmaton but which cheerily announces itself as Satchii. (In a subtle, lovely touch, Satchii and its flying minions can't pass through a torii gate--the traditional entrance to a Shinto shrine and always regarded as the passage between the material and spiritual world. Even Satchii's new third world of the virtual must respect the old ways.) --And while all this is happening, a cool, grimly determined mystery girl named Yuko Amasawa is relentlessly on the trail of black cyber-entities called Illegals: rogue viruses that slip into our world from obsolete cyberspaces and can only exist here by infecting petmatons. All this is new and weird to Yuko, but the local kids take it in casual stride. Why are things so different in Daikoku City? could it be because the place is the only known source of the raw material for metatags? --By making the kids and their town so ordinary and believable, the landscape so lushly beautiful, and the cyber-creatures so odd and folkloric, Dennou Coil accomplishes something unique in my experience: seamlessly melding a Miyazaki-like beauty, whimsy and sense of place with a storyline unique to the Information Age. It's something extra-special, and one of my favorite shows of the year so far.

HIGURASHI no NAKU KORO ni KAI (When the Cicadas Cry--Solutions) --The haunting and tragic sequel to last year's Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Little Rika Furude, the only survivor and the only one who knows the circumstances of Hinamizawa's recurring curse, struggles with despair as another festival day approaches and she faces her own murder yet again. Can anything at all be changed? Must she suffer this fate over and over again forever? Is there, can there ever be, a way out? Much less gruesome but immensely sadder than the original (though a number of the episodes are purely comedy, oddly enough), this treads much of the same ground as last year's series but in a very different way. It may puzzle viewers who aren't familiar with the first series, but anyone who liked that one should not miss this. [It should be noted that the world of Higurashi is much, much bigger than this, comprising an interlocked series of nine video games, a manga series, drama CDs and even a volume of poetry. Read the Wikipedia article to get an idea of its true scope.]

...go back to 2006 update.
...go on to the 2007 autumn season.
...go ALL the way back to Seasonal Reviews Mainpage for all anime series reviews 2005-8.

...return to Amalgam links page.