High Frequency Blade

Manga Review: Saint Young Men (aka Jesus is a weeaboo)

selrotta — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:58:00 +0000

…or, what if God (and Buddha) was one of us.

If you’re still familiar with one-hit wonder Joan Osbourne’s If God Was One of Us, then you may have played around with that thought. Did you imagine the earthbound Jesus as the holier version of King Midas, who turned everything he touched into gold? Did His footsteps turn the hot asphalt He walked on into holy ground? Was He even remotely human, in every sense of the word?

What if He was just chillin’ in a rented studio apartment, with Buddha as his roomie?

In Nakamura Hikaru’s Saint Young Men, two of the poster men of religion, Jesus Christ and Buddha, decide to take a break from their work and descend into Japan (surprise, surprise) for good old R&R. They rent an apartment, and judging by Buddha’s stricken reaction at Jesus’ exorbitant purchases, they’re also restricted to a certain budget. Will they enjoy their vacation? Maybe, if only their divinity wasn’t in the way.

Contrary to the Jesus Christ in every Christian’s minds, Nakamura’s rendition of the Son of God is incredibly human and a tad carefree, to the point of being a bit out-of-character at first glance. To Japanese highschool girls who catch glimpse of Him buying food in the nearest kombini, He is that Johnny Depp-lookalike who has a penchant for the Shinsen-gumi. He owns a Vaio, and is a J-dorama blogger who makes sure His reviews come out the same day that the episodes get aired – and His blog gets thousands of hits per day.

Tl;dr, Jesus is a weeaboo, just like us.

On the other hand, Buddha of Saint Young Men is truer to the Buddhist doctrine as the man who has discovered the Middle Way (the path between the two extremes of hedonism and self-mortification): he is temperate, scolds Jesus for squandering their limited vacation allowance on needless luxuries like a beginner’s clay modeling kit, and a full set of Shinsen-gumi cosplay, and absolutely loathes the extreme sensation of riding the rollercoaster. But he finds it in himself to become a Leah Dizon fan.

As expected of a manga of this genre, Saint Young Men pokes a small jab at its protagonists, putting Christianity and Buddhism in a humorous light. The manga even goes so far as to “reveal” that the fabled Baptism in the Jordan River was not a proof of Jesus’ divinity more than a show of John the Baptist’s great compassion, and that the white dove that descended from the heavens was the Father Himself, inquiring about the welfare of His slightly aquaphobic Son.

Jesus’ addiction to blogging was also explained as a manifestation of his desire for an audience; whether or not this translates to craving attention depends on the readers. I myself know that this isn’t always the case.

One of the bigger questions about this manga is whether or not Nakamura’s Jesus was too out of character. Is He, really? Jesus of the Bible was capable of playing truant as a kid to show His wits (or youthful presumptuousness?) off to them pesky old men; He certainly was cheeky enough to make His unbelieving disciple to touch his wounds just to show that he was that same person who died on the cross.

He was also human enough to wreak havoc on the merchants in His Father’s temple – but this manga series does not emphasize His righteous anger (an error which will be righted in this particular sidestory).

One of the more obvious reasons why this obscure title shines is its irreverent handling of subject matter, yet never straying far from what could be the entire point of this manga series: Jesus (and Buddha, depending on your beliefs) was once human, just like us. Does it follow, then, that mere humans can transcend humanity and become divine?

Another point being, of course, that people of varying beliefs can hang out with each other and become roomies. It’ll be wonderful if that other religious figure (hint: turbans) made an appearance, but we all know what would probably ensue. Denmark knows .

Of course, this seems to be lost in the more orthodox lot of believers and those too narrow-minded to appreciate the message behind the satirical comedy that is practically on the same level as Cromartie High and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (thanks to its tasteful placement of cameos like that one God of the New World).

While the manga has reportedly been received warmly by the Christian and Catholic populations in Japan, the manga a good ice breaker between people of Christianity and Buddhism – and by extension, Shintoism – it’s obvious how people from the more fundamental Christian countries will take this gem: all fire and brimstone. And it’s sad, really.

For those who missed the scanlation link: Saint Young Men

Anime First Impressions: Ristorante Paradiso

selrotta — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 02:53:00 +0000

Before I proceed, let it be known that I never liked harem anime of any sort, be it the conventional harem or a reverse one. There are two exceptions though: Kyou Kara Maoh and this one, Ristorante Paradiso.(…I’d like to explain why my exceptions are a bit…well, strange, but that’s besides the point.

Here’s the gist: A young woman named Nicoletta searches for her estranged mother, and finds herself in a popular restaurant in Rome, staffed by a group of bespectacled, older gentlemen who, despite their age, seem to attract a number of fans of the female persuasion.

I have to confess that I couldn’t help but cringe while writing the above paragraph. But no, this isn’t the same cringe as the Dragonball Evolution-type of cringe. Rather, this is a cringe of guilt. As in “this is horribly wrong but I like it so much” cringe.

Ristorante Paradiso’s characters are well thought-out and the cast makes for a promising brand of interaction. There’s spunky, impatient Nicoletta and her seemingly self-serving mother, Olga, who tries hard to make things appear A-OK to her husband all the while trying to patch things up with daughter in the most roundabout way possible thanks to her (typical) womanly pride.

Of course, the central characters – the gentlemanly staff of the restaurtant whose Italian name escapes me – are as interesting as your usual reverse harem cast of males, and a lot more.

But nevermind the entire restaurant staff, most viewers are interested with Nicoletta and the elderly waiter she’s crushing on, Claudio. It’s that one facet of the show that can potentially overshadow a lot of other things going on in the series. The producers know this fact very well too: the preview for Episode 2 already shows an aroused Nicoletta struggling to (gasp) undress a shocked yet submissive Claudio. Yes, cue another guilty cringe coming.

I’d like to rave more about it, but suffice it to say that the series kicked-off nicely. Sharing the same smooth, silky ambience of Bartender, Ristorante Paradiso may very well be that one guilty pleasure that merits a space in the typical anime viewer’s hard drive, but never quite show off to other enthusiasts.

Anime first impressions: Kuroshitsuji

selrotta — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:11:00 +0000

I’ve put myself on a hiatus from anime since last January for a couple of reasons: sheer fatigue and lack of any interesting series to watch. Sure, Gundam 00 was already good enough and Miss Sumeragi still elicits a fangirl scream out of me, but I’ve already overdosed myself on mecha and shonen. I had to take a break.

Then I bumped into this certain anime figure from a hobbyist blog that I frequent, Tomopop:

I heartily agree with one of the tags used in Tomopop’s article

After seeing that awesome Sebastian Michaelis figure, I knew that it was time to end my several months-long anime fasting. Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler), is about the day-to-day affairs of the Phantomhive household, particularly its head butler Sebastian, and his 12-year-old master Ciel Phantomhive.

I couldn’t help but see two other series whenever I look at Kuroshitsuji: Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro and Princess Resurrection. There’s the remarkable similarity between Sebastian and Neuro (both wear suits, sport almost the same hairstyle, partner up with kids, and have the same demonic sass), and the Phantomhive household can be considered parallel to Hime’s, with its noble head of estate and the bumbling staff. At this point it’s safe to say that fans of Neuro and Hime/Lillian will have another series to watch out for.

Judging from the first ep alone (I haven’t looked into the manga yet), Kuroshitsuji looks like it has the perfect set-up for an episodic series, with each episode having the dynamic duo deal with their guests using the world-famous Phantomhive hospitality.

The grotesque and macabre side of the mansion and its master seems to be only apparent only to outsiders, however; when left alone, Sebastian and the rest of the staff provide the mandatory comedy in the show but otherwise act quite normally – that is, if being overly clumsy and cooking meat with flamethrowers can be considered normal.

The first episode of Kuroshitsuji thankfully steers clear from any overt shounen-ai overtones, but fangirls can still look forward to getting their usual fix of sparkles, and petals falling all over the place. What else can you expect with a show that stars two pretty boys?

Admittedly I was looking for a show the likes of Mushishi and Mononoke. You know the formula: a guest enters the scene with a problem, the lead characters deal with the problem using hax, psychobabble and/or mindfuckery, and look good . While I did get exactly that from Kuroshitsuji, I wasn’t quite satisfied with it, finding that the “horror” part of the first episode is considerably watered down compared to, say, xxxHolic.

The ending would have done Sebastian’s demonic character justice if the crook of the week was indeed cooked in the oven, with his fat used for Sebastian’s scrumptious Lemon Meringue Pie (which was subsequently served to his hardworking staff). Instead, we have a comedic cop-out of an ending with the crook limping out of the mansion. Shame.

Not helping Kuroshitsuji is the rather blah selection of OP and ED. The opening theme, Sid’s Kiss of Monochrome, just sounds like a generic rock anime theme (good going, generalizing all rock themes like that), while Becca’s I’m alive sounds like it was ripped off from a Hansons or Moffatts album. Here’s to hoping a good theme from bands the likes of Nightmare and abingdon boy’s school.

(I couldn’t help but think that the choice of OP and ED for this show is a big hint that I’m expecting too much noir from this anime than what is actually intended. Meh)

In any case its still too early to pass judgment on the series; only the first episode is fansubbed so far (not to mention that I haven’t read the manga yet), and the show leaves a lot of room to introduce other interesting characters and events. I’m actually hoping that it won’t degenerate into a slight shounen-ai comedy and develop its horror angle a bit more – of course, with Sebastian being a demon, that isn’t too hard to do.

This nugget of wisdom is one of the few good things going for Kuroshitsuji first ep.

Ragnarok Online DS scans from Famitsu

selrotta — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 23:32:00 +0000

It was already announced quite some time ago (almost a year, in fact, but was drowned in obscurity), and just when I thought the whole thing was just a hoax out came a handful of screenshots for the fabled DS version of everyone’s favorite bitch, Ragnarok Online:

Scans taken from Famitsu, provided by gamekyo.com

As you can see, Ragnarok Online for the DS isn’t that different compared to its PC predecessor, except for the bigger sprites. The Kafra maids are still there, and the interface mimics that of the PC MMO, with icons similar to the skill/item hotkeys placed at the top.

But don’t be fooled: Ragnarok Online DS is predominantly offline. Does that mean, then, that we should refer to it as Ragnarok Online DS Offline? Or Ragnarok Online Offline DS? Feh, whatever.

To make things simpler, Ragnarok Online DS, like most DS RPGs, focus primarily on an offline single-player story campaign, and the only online action DS users will get is the three-person Tower of Mirages online mode. It’s not even clear whether this is done over the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection, or just plain multiplayer where all participants are in the same room (like Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates).

Here are the details of the game, taken from sites 1up and Go Nintendo:

gameplay remains closely related to PC title

offline story mode is main focus

Play as Ares, a mild-mannered kid who wants to start up his own guild and be a great adventurer like his father

recruit party members

takes place in the realm of Rune Midgard

build up characters to gain new jobs, skills

mostly stylus control

tap to pick up items, attack enemies

draw circles and more for spells

two brand-new jobs (Dark Knight can do special moves that drain HP, Shaman has various magic skills)

Online play: three people team up to take on the Tower of Mirages, a 50 floor random dungeon

December 18th release in Japan

no US plans yet

New character classes? Awesome TWEWY-like control scheme? Cool beans.

If the existence of a handheld RO was reported…say, years ago, when I was still interested in the game and it wasn’t quite yet raped throughly, I’d be all happy wappy over this news and despairing over the fact that it won’t probably see an English language release.

But my days with RO have already ended, so I’ll just say this: Meh.

Update: It’s confirmed, the multiplayer online mode will be hosted by Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, so partying up the usual way is still a go.