Anime: Tales Of The Abyss

Taken from the popular PS2 game by Bandai Namco, an anime version for the series has been made for the fans. A lot has been cut short as the anime spans about 12 episodes only thus only most of the important scenes are shown in the anime. The artwork of the anime is just as nice as the game and the transitions between scenes are somewhat acceptable.

(Pictures to be uploaded soon)

A world ruled by Yulia's prophecy, known as the Score is believed by people that 'unprecedented prosperity' has been promised to them. Thus they followed the path set forth in the Score which will lead them to that prosperity. Yulia's Score tells of a young man who is necessary in order to bring 'unprecedented prosperity.' His name is Luke fon Fabre. An heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear. He was kidnapped as a child by the kingdom's enemy, the Malkuth Empire. Since his return he has been confined to his family's manor for his own safety. He has no idea of the evil that now draws close.

(Pictures to be uploaded soon)

Overall, I'd say that Tales of the Abyss is worth the watch to recap your memories about the game. Or For those who just got to know it, it's worth watching too. Episodes are still currently available at streaming sites like Crunchyroll to Veoh so watch it while it's still there.

Visit the website at http://www.tv-toa.jp/.

Anime: Sister Of Wellber Zwei

And finally the next season of Sisters of Wellber has aired but with a Zwei at the back of the title. Watched the 1st season and now it's just about time to watch the next to find out the real fate of the princess. This particular anime takes place in the castle age where warriors wearing armors and wielding swords live.


Rita, the princess of the Kingdom of Wellber, stabs her sadist betrothed, prince Gernia of Sangatras and flees the city together with Tina, a feisty cat burglar who has given her refuge and offered to hire on as her bodyguard. Rita must travel on a secret diplomatic mission to the remote Kingdom of Greedom in a last ditch attempt to prevent a full-scale war between Wellber and Sangatras. On the second season, Sisters of Wellber Zwei, the gang arrived at Greedom just in time to prevent a war between Wellber and Sangatras. After this is resolved, Tina is looking for information about her parents' murderer, the man with the wasp tattoo.


Sister of Wellber has a nice tune to it's storyline. In Zwei, the story has dramatically change from the hunted to being the hunter for a murderer instead. Once again I've yet to watch the second season yet because of the many animes upcoming around this time of year. Sister of Wellber Zwei is currently still airing and I just might find the time to start watching this nice anime I've long forgotten.

Visit the website at http://www.production-ig.co.jp/contents/works_sp/1630_/index.html.

Anime: Birdy The Mighty Decode

A weird title for a weird anime, Birdy The Mighty Decode came from the same author Masami Yuki who also wrote the long running Patlabor series and in turn becomes an amazing anime too. This particular series has a continuation story which will be aired in January 2009 and that very well explains it's 12 episodes without a variable conclusion...


Birdy Cephon Altera is a Federation agent chasing interplanetary criminals to the planet Earth. While in pursuit of one, she accidentally kills a high school boy named Tsutomu Senkawa. Fortunately for Tsutomu, there is a way to keep him alive, although he ends up merged into Birdy's body and must remain so until the repair of his body is complete. So Tsutomu is stuck sharing a body with an attractive, strong space police agent, while trying to keep his family and friends from finding out about about Birdy. In the meantime, Birdy continues her investigation. Together, they take on a secretive group of evil aliens planning to perform experiments on the unsuspecting inhabitants of planet Earth.


The old switch-a-roo has become another series but with a bit of futuristic twist of fighting aliens and extra-terrestrial beings becomes one is what I would describe about this anime. Yet to fully watch this anime yet so I'm still in the daze of whats to come... In any case, if you do like Patlabor, you'll bound to like this next new series by Masami Yuki.

Visit the website at http://www.youngsunday.com/rensai/comics/birdy.html

Anime: Strike Witches Magical Girl

I collected gashapon models of Mecha Musume about a few months back and it so resembles this particular anime's characters. Strike Witches Magical Girl is an anime almost similar to Sky Girls that it sure brings back memories. But for some reasons, wearing bloomers and wielding big guns to fight a war just seems a bit too outrageous. But as entertaining as it seems, this is still a nice anime to watch...


Set in a world similar to Earth in the mid 2oth Century, Strike Witches tells the story of a battle to protect that world using a combination of magic and technology. The titular Strike Witches, a group of young women with high magical potential, have been gathered together from various nations in a task force to fight against the enigmatic Neuroi. This puzzling enemy force has appeared frequently and without warning in many areas across the world. In order to bring out their potential for use in battle, each Witch equips a unique machine onto their legs: the Striker Unit. With the Striker Unit equipped, they gain the ability to fly and their tapped magical potential provides the strength to utilize weapons far too heavy and powerful for a normal person. The franchise's main media focuses on the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, spearheading the counterattack in war-torn Europe.


If you'd like a mixture of both Sky Girls (Aerial Dogfights) and Gunslinger Girls (Big Guns), then this may be an anime just for you. I've yet to finish watching it so have yet to know the ending for this particular anime. You can watch it at crunchyroll or other websites available.

Visit the website at http://s-witch.cute.or.jp/

Asian or Caucasian?!

I've heard a lot of people who don't know much about anime and manga say that you never see any oriental (or East Asian) character designs in anime and manga and this issue is often used by many as a pretext to look down on the arts of anime and manga.

I have to admit that this issue is thought provoking. One cannot deny that there a ton of anime titles out there that use the so called “moe” character designs (large eyes, small mouth and nose...etc) but there are also many titles that don't use such designs at all. The question is: among the titles that don't use any “moe” character designs; are there any that use oriental designs?

This quetsion got me thinking so I decided to do some research in order to settle this issue once and for all with concrete proof. My research led me to compile a list of titles that have used oriental character designs in the past. The list is shown below:

1) Monster

2) Kurau Phantom Memory

3) Paprika

4) Otogizoushi

5) Happy (manga by Urasawa Naoki)

6) 20^th Century Boys (manga by Urasawa Naoki)

7) Zipang

8) A Spirit of the Sun (manga by Kawaguchi Kaiji)

9) Planetes

10) Like the Clouds, Like the Wind

11) Seirie no Moribito (it is set in a fantasy world but I will include it nonetheless)

12) Paranoia Agent

13) Texhnolyze

14) The Gokusen

15) Old Boy (manga by Nobuaki Minegishi)

16) Cromartie High School

17) Jin-Roh

18) WXIII: Patlabor The Movie 3

19) FLAG

20) Solanin (manga by Asano Inio)

21) Ciguatera (manga by Furuya Minoru)

22) Summer Holiday with Coo

23) Only Yesterday

24) Windy Tales (albeit the style is abstract)

25) Millennium Actress

26) Iryuu - Team Medical Dragon (manga by Tarou Nogizaka)

I believe that is a fair amount of titles that covers a large range of genres. There may be more titles that I don’t know about or I forgot to include so if you know of any such titles, by all means tell me in the comments section or via email and I will update the list.

The interesting thing is that all the titles listed above are not only examples of Far Eastern character designs but all of them represent some of the finest titles that anime and manga has to offer (and I’m talking about top quality here!). What's more fascinating is that all the people who use the character design issue to attack anime and manga haven't even watched or read any of the titles above despite the fact that all these titles are critically acclaimed. Of course all the serious anime and manga fans out there know that the main reason those people make such accusations is because they never bothered to look for such titles in the first place. It's always easier to make false accusations than to search for the truth.

There is another interesting issue I want to raise regarding character designs in anime. I’ve heard many people say that the widely used cute character designs that feature large eyes, small noses and small mouths are actually Caucasian character designs. I completely disagree. There are no Caucasian people with these facial features because if they did exist, they would be all over the news by now because they are different from the norm. Those widely used designs in anime were applied to Caucasian, Mongolian and Black races without exception. A famous example of this (though not something that I would call a quality example) is Plastic Little. That single episode OAV featured characters who belong to all the major human races but all of them were drawn using the same character design format mentioned above.

Now that I laid out all the facts, it’s time to tell you what I think and what I hope for. I believe that realistic character designs (Far Eastern designs if the story setting is Japan / Far East or other appropriate designs if the setting is outside the Far East) are best suited for serious titles while the cute design format is suitable for comedies. The number of anime and manga titles that feature Far Eastern designs have increased over the years and my guess is that it will continue to grow in the future. I don’t agree with other people who say that the cute character designs should be abolished because those designs are beautiful in their own way but I believe that their proper place should be in comedy and light titles. All in all, I think this cocktail of styles helps to enrich anime and manga and make them the captivating arts that we all know and love.

Edit: There is an interesting video on YouTube that actually sheds more light on this topic. You can see it here.