Feature: Holiday Wishlist #1

Holiday sales are upon us, ravaging our wallets and stealing our little pennies!  Whether we cry in our loneliness as we buy ourselves gifts, or we grin as we shower our friends and family with packages, we all tend to go over the edges of our budgets during the holiday season, especially for the many Christmas presents we simply must purchase.  If you don't, then consider yourselves one of the lucky ones!  Our main goal is to fulfill those seemingly never-ending wishlists for our kids, siblings, or friends.  We go done the list one item at a time, triumphantly checking them off and moving on to the next store aisle.

However, what if there was no list provided for you?  What if your kid or friend merely replied to your coaxing for an answer with, "Whatever is fine..."?  That doesn't help much, and you're kinda scratching your head, browsing catalogs and websites for what possibly fits.  You have an otaku hubby or boyfriend who you want to please?  Have a friend that's on the verge of diving into anime fandom?  Well, I'm here to help you in that department!  Check out the titles in this and future Holiday Wishlist feature(s) to get an idea for what titles to keep an eye out for.

Anime Holiday Wishlist #1

No, the “xxx” does not indicate hardcore anime porn with suggestive tentacles.  It doesn’t actually stand for anything, and the title is simply said as “Holic.”  Regardless of its strange labeling, xxxHolic is a 24-episode series revolving around a young boy named Kimihiro Watanuki, who possesses the ability to see evil and benevolent spirits alike.  One day he stumbles upon a shop where a mysterious woman called Yuko resides.  She claims that she can grant any wish as long the requestor gives sufficient payment.  In exchange for her taking away his ability to see the unnatural, Watanuki begins working at her shop and discovers that not everything is as it seems.

Unfortunately, the weak following for this show stopped FUNimation Entertainment from bringing over its sequel and accompanying OAVs.  I believe the “xxx” portion of the title caused this show’s poor sales here in the U.S.  Do I know that for a fact?  Not really, but it’s probably a safe assumption.  Back when my family owned our anime and manga shop, I saw people pass up this entertaining series on account of its naming.  I would suggest it to customers and receive strange looks as though I was a pervert fresh from mother’s basement.  Nonetheless, it’s one of the first shows I recommend to veterans and novices of anime.

Featuring English voice talents like Colleen Clinkenbeard as Yuuko, Todd Haberkorn as Watanuki, and J. Michael Tatum as Doumeki, xxxHolic offers an intriguing story with solid characters.  Character designs are outlandish with wonky limb proportions.  However, I was able to grow accustom to the abnormal anatomy in a few episodes, oddly considering it to fit the style of the series.  Background and side character art is nothing special, or sometimes nonexistent.  Detail appears in Yuuko’s costumes more than in other aspects.  Overall, this show heavily plays on Japanese folklore and superstitions, pulling together to bring the main cast alive through the customers that enter the shop.  Watanuki is a sympathetic personality that is easy to connect with.  He develops into being a more open individual by overcoming and enduring the hardships that come with his curse.  The mysterious aura surrounding Yuuko is bound to keep viewers engaged as well.

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Hmmm…I didn’t realize aliens and fishing would mix so well.  In only 12 episodes, tsuritama essentially tells two separate stories wrapped into one with a fantastical box and zany bow.  Socially inept and plagued with panic attacks, Yuki is a high school student who moves to a small town called Enoshima.  He encounters and befriends Haru, who is also new in town and more than a little eccentric.  In fact, he’s an alien.  A local boy named Natsuki is also introduced and gets the task of giving Yuki and Haru tips about fishing.  Akira is an Indian man with a pet duck and ties to a mysterious organization that seems really interested in Haru.  An unlikely group forms, realizing the blisses of fishing and helping Haru finish his business on the planet.

With its bold use of bright colors and patterns, you can’t help but give this series a glance.  It goes out of its way to deliver something unique and genuinely crazy in terms of visuals and plot.  Sometimes its quirkiness feels forced, but overall, the show offers an entertaining dip into the prospects of coming-of-age meets sci-fi.  A lot of heart and feeling were put into the characters, especially in Yuki.  His plight to overcome his social awkwardness is something that easily resonated with me; I struggled and still do with a lot of the problems Yuki possessed.

One aspect that might not rub people the right way is the vast difference in the story’s departure and its eventual destination.  It innocently appears as a heartwarming slice of life at first, but then spirals into a grand, implausible ride concerning aliens and the possible end of the world.  Even though I think the transition of one branching storyline into the next was smooth, the sharp contrasts between the beginning and the end could be off putting to some.  Casting into tsuritama’s purposely daft waters with the right expectations, though, you’re bound to hook a 10-pounder worth keeping.

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If you want to keep this Christmas dark with psychological twists and curses placed on school kids, then Another is a 12-episode series worth checking out.  Kouichi Sasakibara transfers to his new school only to be greeted by an air of suspicion and fear from his classmates.  He realizes that there is a dark secret that no one is willing to talk about.  At the center of this quagmire is an eye-patched girl named Mei Misaki, who immediately attracts Kouichi’s attention.  As he begins watching her more, he slowly notices that his classmates aren’t aware of her presence.

Licensed by Sentai Filmworks, the voices of Greg Ayres, Monica Rial, Chris Patton, and other great talents are featured, along with the typical ambiance and visuals of animated horror.  In terms of originality in graphic presentation of its material, Another scores pretty low.  It doesn’t labor to shake up the norm.  Colors are dreary with greys, browns, and blacks; clouds act as oppressive overhead canopies, and hallways are dimly lit.  All such aspects contribute to the horror atmosphere, which is so thick you could cut it with a knife.

Although some J-horror clichés creep into its seams here and there, and it can feel bogged down with dialogue in certain scenes, this series has the tendency to keep you at the edge of your seat.  It blends the elements of slasher and supernatural horror quite well.  When the series moves into the climax and ending, it’s reminiscent of the themes in the literature classic called Lord of the Flies.  Death is displayed gruesomely, and trust and former alliances gradually dissipate into dust right before the character’s and viewer’s eyes.  Clues in solving the mystery surrounding the curse and Kouichi’s class are present throughout the entire story.  They can be noticed by a very observant viewer, but the majority of the hints are so obscure that I doubt many will figure it out prior to the end.

Its slow pacing and excessive building of atmosphere in the first handful of episodes will be a turn off to some, but for the ones willing to endure, you’ll get rewarded with a dramatic and intense roller-coaster of a conclusion.

*all images from Rightstuf listings