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Omonomono

The Book of Bantorra, Fighting Librarians, Adaptations

Fighting Librarians: Book of Bantorra is the sort of anime that I really should revisit, but I lack the means to talk about it, the motivation to review it, and the mind to chew on it some. At the same time, it’s a rich show and more people should talk up the show. It is a gem in the rough for sure.

There may be light spoilers.

There is an element shared within the themes to each of the books in Bantorra. By books I mean the literal books, the soul books, and the story arcs. Anyways, a lot of them are built like fables, yet a lot of them are textured like detective films, where details drive the narrative from clue to clue. Similarly, the foundational narrative style to Bantorra plans out like a fable-like backstory that hangs the rest of the narratives like a wire hangar holding up a fancy coat. It feels a bit cheap in this anime form after we get to the bottom.

The ending was built up pretty well, but I find it almost farcical at times, and it almost felt like Princess Tutu in terms of that meta construct about a story where the characters are within a story. As such, I feel the strength of the ending to the series heavily depends on your feeling about meta in your cup of tea.

What the show does very well, though, is to insert a lot of cute things that don’t look very cute, yet slowly worms into you. For example, the Noloty arc was very cute because of the joke about “the world is mine.” Except as translated, it works even better because you can think of it as possessive, or as a identity (eg., this is my world), as it was both. But the whole story arc was about a silly lizard and uh, I guess Enlike isn’t very cute either. Still, it’s one heck of a story about redemption.

Hamyuts is an ugly character (maybe even in design), but the concept of her character is kind of cute. She’s basically the emotionally regressive and introverted half of her twin-hood. The emotionally aggressive half was however not physically or psychologically aggressive, at least not enough. It was the same as the rabbits Hamyuts makes on her outfits, and how she kind of kept Mattalast at arm’s length. It’s like Hammy is a dysfunctional tsundere, but instead of lying to herself, she is “raging against the machine” or whatever.

It’s too bad that this machine is the purpose of her existence and the reason why there is even a plot to the thing. It makes me wonder how the light novel series compel its readers.

The cheeky elegance that is demonstrated through the first plot arc with Mr. Human Bomb and Miss Memento Witch captures the main reason why this show is worth watching at all, in my opinion. Too bad until it clicks inside your head, it’s so hard to pick up on that beauty. That is, unless you’re the kind of chap who likes these so-called nuanced characterizations and non-black-and-white moral and ethical dilemmas. I don’t really give those any mind, because even in a fairly detailed depiction like the ones we have here in Bantorra, it does not stand up to scrutiny.

Finally, for the fellow shallow-minded, you can feast yourselves on Serendipity. I recommend it with the caveat that it is only worth every dollar if you actually like Hammy’s designs, although I can’t think anyone who would mind those crazy fanservice shots of Mirepoc.

Judging a Book by the Climax: Pick a Few

It’s in the middle of March Madness. I paid my hour forward no thanks to the American practice of daylight savings time last week. It’s time to unleash my groggy discontent against the machine on undeserving television anime. These are just the first few that came to mind.

The Book of Bantorra – I shy away from long engagements, looking back at my viewing history in the past few years. Yet at the same time, series that I follow beyond 24 episodes tend to be much more satisfying than not, compared to the 1-cour variety. I think at times Bantorra was able to reach some great heights, despite its disjointed narrative format. It is a bit of an exception perhaps? But at the same time, shows that run for the full 2-cour length (and more) will have small plot arcs and side stories, which might effectively be the same thing.

What sets Bantorra apart, though, is that it was able to manufacture dramatic highs on a consistent basis. Plot arcs come and go as a matter of concluding the narrative, but what each story revealed is different, to say the least. The final arc tells us the backstory of the villain-protagonist, so regardless of what happens, it ought to end on an interesting note. Perhaps more importantly, though, the Noloty arc that concluded couple weeks ago was much more emotionally and philosophically provocative, and it serves like a proper climax.

Hanamaru Yochien – Why bother with climatic story arcs when you can have a climax every episode? And even when nothing of note happens, every episode of Hanamaru is notable. This is great stuff, if it is your cup of tea.

Your cup of tea being the operative phrase here. Different cups of tea might include Hidamari Sketch and Kimi ni Todoke.

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu – It’s conventional, but it works. Something about this style of comedy just sounds…sound. Add some Hideyoshi and you’ve got something to worth with. I guess traps are the latest rage for real now.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun – I think I like this show best when the QQ stops and the pew pew rains down like Skittles at the end of a rainbow. It’s too bad that the bad guys always have the best mecha designs; I’m thoroughly impressed at Telestina’s hardware. I’ve not seen anything like that since…the nineties. Someone jog my memory please, but it has been a dry time for those of us with a thing for SF-style power armor and hardsuits. In some ways watching Railgun was a Pavlovian adventure; you know what’s going to happen next, and then what’s after that, and so on, but you can’t bring yourself to just skip to it. I am definitely not in the Ruiko Saten camp of things.

I mean, it makes no sense if I watch the first and last episode of an arc in Bantorra, but it would in Railgun. It’s just the sad truth.

Durarara – This … doesn’t quite climax does it now. At least in Baccano! there was a “destination” so to speak; enough people perish that at some point the story will resolve, with the mysteries explained and people arrive at their “stable state” by the end. I’m not sure what that is for Durarara. At the same time I think it tries to paint a picture of normal life in which everyday is weird, or the weird is normal. So what is it when MootMikado crowdsources his way to safety? Well I guess the fact that he crowdsources his way to safety is the climax? orz.

The Nutbladder Ranking: 2010-02

February is 2 days too short I think. It’s jam-packed and I could use that extra time…at least so I can make more progress on the UC Gundam backlog. (I’m holding off on Unicorn until The Time Is Right. Even if that usually means RIGHT THIS MOMENT.) So much stuff, so little time. Let’s get on to it.

[Just to recall, this is just a list of things I found notable during this month.]

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