Japan FTW! Tokko!

Much Japanese anime and manga that dwells in the fictional world requires a certain "suspension of disbelief" to enjoy.  I mean, it's easy to get into something like Star Wars, where the lines between good and evil are easily drawn, and it becomes second nature to learn to quickly dislike the "bad guys" of the piece.  Though more complex, it's also easy to enjoy Star Trek, because of the overarching themes of freedom, exploration, learning, and the betterment of mankind.  Japanese animated features and series, however, often blur those lines, drawing from a more "Hollywood from the 1970's" sort of melange, eschewing the traditional good vs evil sort of mentality for something more intertwined.  That's not to say there aren't defined "good" and defined "evil" sort of characters, but this medium explores a more layered approach, showing that while the "good guys" are indeed good, they often have their own demons to fight, along with those they may have to slay in the physical realm.

So why is it, then, that we in America tend to want to drag story and plot lines out as far as we can for the sake of character development, when in Japan, anime series can be as short as a half-season (12 or 13 episodes, sometimes less) to tell complex, convoluted, and intertwining tales like Tokko?  I'm not sure I'll ever understand that, especially when most anime adaptations of manga are usually re-interpretations of the manga, rather than an accurate retelling of events.  It's odd that many of these manga series would be so shortened in order to make them into anime series, when lengthening the series by a few episodes would usually be enough to make the anime more faithful to the manga.  Chobits is one example of an anime that is mostly faithful to the source manga, despite a few liberties here and there.  But other than excluding some plot elements, the essentials of the story remain the same, and the story is finished out without too many changes being made in translation.

In any event, Tokko is the story of a young cop, Inspector Ronmaru Shindo.  Shindo and his younger sister Saya just go from the police academy/training to actually getting assigned duties.  We find out very quickly that the Shindo siblings suffered a great tragedy when their entire apartment complex in Machida was massacred by an unknown murderous fiend, or possibly several of them.  As the plot unfolds, we learn that these murderers are actually monsters known as "phantoms", and that guns can't kill them.  They can only be killed by members of an elite special police force known as Tokko.  Tokko is the "2nd division" of the "Special Mobile Investigation Section", and Ronmaru is assigned as an Investigator in the 1st division.  It is later revealed that the phantoms came to earth from across the dimensions due to the actions of ages-old alchemists who summoned devils for the purpose of gaining power, only to have the "Box of Dirge" they used to summon them shattered into 108 pieces, each of which became a part of one of the 108 greater phantoms (who can summon lesser phantoms for the purpose of killing and eating humans).  Confused yet?

I'm just a lowly phantom, spare me!

So this story line isn't quite as confusing as my short description has made it out to be, but it definitely takes some time to wrap your head around it as you're watching.  In many ways, the plot of the phantoms serves to provide the horror and gore elements for the series.  As you can imagine, with members of Tokko slashing away at phantoms with their swords, phantom bodies are sliced in half and blood sprays everywhere, ala OneChanbara or other live-action Japanese gore films.  In addition to the main storyline, there are several character-based subplots that bring you to the knowledge that all Tokko members are survivors of the Machida massacre, and have phantoms contained within themselves.  These people have had their phantoms "activated" but have been able to maintain control of their humanity and harness the power of the phantoms in order to be able to kill them.  With the death of each greater phantom brings a piece of the Box of Dirge, and Tokko works to try and dispatch all the phantoms and re-assemble this box so the gateway to the other dimension can be closed and things be put back to normal.

Again, I'm probably not doing a very good job of explaining the story, and it's better when you see it yourself anyway.  It's an interesting story, if somewhat disjointed, and it helps propel the somewhat rushed character development.  With all the subplots going on alongside the main theme, as well as the bits of fanservice here and there, you'd think this thing would be a mess and fall apart, but somehow it all works in a weird sort of way.  That is, right up until the very end.  Not to spoil the fun, but just know that the end of the anime leaves a lot of questions unanswered.  Keep in mind as well, here in the US this is rated as TV-MA and they mean it.  The police officers are all pretty "colorful" with their dialogue, and there's plenty enough gore and violence to warrant an R rating if it had been in the theater.  Add some of the adult themes, and you have an animated short series that is definitely not for children.  But then if you're familiar with popular anime films and series at all, you probably already know that previewing anime prior to sharing it with your children.  That said, it's an enjoyable enough sci-fi yarn that will be a good weekend diversion, if a bit of a letdown at the end.  If you're into anime and you have a Netflix Instant subscription, you can do worse than Tokko.

Japan FTW! Chobits!

Anime and manga are uniquely tied together.  This is something that, in Japan, is evident by the quick succession with which anime gets turned into manga, and vice verse.  Across the water in America, Hollywood rushes (these days) to cash in on comic book heroes by turning those Intellectual Properties into money-making blockbusters, usually to the delight of casual fans, while hardcore fans are left wondering why someone who didn't understand or fully respect the source material was given the chance to tarnish that IP's reputation.  Saturday-morning cartoon iterations of popular comic books often miss the boat as well, despite occasionally making enough of their own spin on the characters (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being a good example) that they turn out to be a quality product of their own.  Still, we in the US often get the short end of the stick where it pertains to seeing our favorite multi-color print characters on either the small or large screens.


But as I said, in Japan, it seems they have a much more succinct vision of how these things are supposed to work.  Manga isn't just "comic books" over in Japan: it's a giant industry.  There are plenty of manga written and designed for the pre-teen and teen set, to be sure, but the range of manga is across the spectrum, from the cutesy Hello Kitty to very graphic depictions of violence and adult themes, along with a whole range of hentai (pornographic manga).  The anime world is very much the same, as there is a lot of crossover between the two, so the entire spectrum of tastes are catered to.  For every dead-serious anime like Gundam Wing, there is something like The Slayers that doesn't take itself entirely seriously and has plenty of fan service to please specific genre aficionados.


The real trick is getting a film, OVA, or series to translate well (and accurately) to the page, and the same is true for translating manga to celluloid.  Often with American media, a comic book will not often translate well to either cartoon, straight-to-video/DVD adaptation, or live-action movie because the original creator either isn't involved, has no say over the direction his/her IP takes in other media, or is just plain ignored when making suggestions or trying to help direct how their characters are brought to life.  There are exceptions (the Harry Potter series of films seem to please most fans of the novels, despite some changes), but the end result is often mixed.  Sometimes that is the case with Japanese media as well, though there are times when it is purposeful from the creator/author because they either desire a divergent story line, or sometimes they implement their own revisionist history.


So for fans of either an anime made into manga and the reverse, it's always a treat when those involved can translate one medium into another successfully and be relatively true to the story and characters.  Chobits is a great example of this, from what I've observed thus far.  I must readily admit I haven't yet read the manga series, though my wife owns the 2-volume graphic novel set. But we've been watching the Chobits anime series via the Netflix instant service (LOVE IT!), and my wife is telling me it's pretty faithful to the manga, right down to the dialogue being word-for-word in many instances.


For the uninitiated, Chobits is a story about Hideki Motosuwa, an 18-year old boy who is trying to get into college but has been rejected from the university he applied to.  As such, he moves to Tokyo to attend a prep school that will get him ready for the entrance exam he'll need to pass (and score high enough on) so he can reapply to a college.  As a farm boy Hideki is naive and awkward in the big city, so quirkiness like talking to himself (which provides the narration for the anime) and his social anxiety around females in general make him stand out like a bit of a sore thumb.  Add to that his complete lack of knowledge about technology, and he has some learning and adapting to do.  Specifically, he only knows of (but has never owned or used) "Persocoms", personal computers that are designed to look like people (usually beautiful young women).  He wants one, but they are very expensive and he can't afford one.  Fast forward a day or two in Tokyo and he stumbles across one laying in the trash not far from his apartment building.  He picks up the Persocom and takes it back to his apartment, not realizing he dropped a vital information disk when leaving the scene.


The Persocom, who you come to know as "Chi" (because that's all she says at first) is an adorable long-haired blonde "girl" who immediately develops an attachment to her new owner, and thus the story develops with Hideki learning whatever he can about Persocoms, and with Chi learning as much as she can.  Through the first couple episodes, Hideki discovers Chi is a famed "Chobits" Persocom, a series of custom-made units that have greater capabilities than standard Persocoms and have some ability to develop their own identity, like a sentient being.

"Hideki, welcome home!"

Hideki sees Chi as much as a person as he would any actual young lady, so this presents some rather hilarious and awkward scenarios as he learns how to interact with her, and as he tries to get clothing for her - indeed, the sequence where he tries for days on end to go into the store to purchase a pair of underwear for Chi so she can appear more modest is quite the knee-slapper.  Hideki's inexperience with the opposite sex is further illustrated by his interactions with Yumi, his boss' daughter (who appears to like Hideki and isn't the least bit shy with him) and Chitose, the pretty young apartment manager for his building.  So in many ways, despite coming from a farm background, it's easy for geeky and/or nerdy kids to identify with Hideki because he just doesn't have that social "gene" that gives him a more innate ability to interact with people.  His apartment neighbor, by contrast, is more typically nerdy, having his own mobile Persocom named Sumomo (endlessly cute!), though being much more comfortable in his own skin and able to talk to the opposite sex without second-guessing himself all the time.


The initial impression one might get of the series is that Hideki is a hopelessly hormonal (read: horny) teenage boy who has an obsession with the opposite sex (and a strong desire to check out Internet porn he's heard so much about), the story is much more tasteful and endearing than that description would lead one to believe.  As the story develops, you find out that Hideki's perception of Chi as a person plays strongly into their developing relationship as he teaches her and she learns more about herself and her role in his life and her own path.  So while the proto-typical sex-obsessed teenager character is there, Hideki is much more a gentleman than the series may initially suggest, and this more gallant characterization makes him a likable guy, both in spite of and due to his social awkwardness and generic teenage proclivities.  Hideki really is a nice guy, and this fact goes a long way to making him an endearing character.


While I haven't worked my way through the whole series yet, my impression thus far is that this is a well written, well animated, and well produced series.  The bouncy, happy theme song is insanely catchy and easily gets stuck in your head, and the little ditty that plays at the beginning of each episode as it's starting also rings in your ears long after the episode is over.  The positive themes of relationship and love are ever present, and the characters are almost instantly likable, which helped pull me in within just a few minutes of the first episode.  Overall, I find this to be an enjoyable series, and once I'm finished watching the series, I do plan on going back and reading through the manga because I do want to see the few differences and am interested in seeing the origination of this story line.