This impression is well timed; on the same day, I finished watching Iron Man 2 (the movie) as a DVD rental. The movie was a lot better than I had been led to believe. Anyway, I mention this because the anime is built directly on top of movie Iron Man reality. It has nothing to do with the comics other than that.

The Iron Man anime is clearly set up for being brought to the US and dubbed; the OP and ED sequences are completely voiceless, reducing costs for when it’s brought to Cartoon Network or whatever. The mecha animation is high quality CG. I cannot really complain about this; CG mecha animation has come a long way in a few years and it is, well, unobtrusive and eminently tolerable.

Japan is the setting, and this leads to various issues that seem comfortable to Japan. Ep 2 is about a rogue nuke and Tony Stark being suspected of being responsible since he uses stuff with plutonium, so he naturally views it as his responsibility to get the stuff back and clear his name. There’s clearly political intrigue going on, reaching all the way to the Prime Minister’s office. Tony’s American presence is tolerated rather than liked, even as he charms the public as much as possible. He’s also doing a good job of hitting on a Japanese female reporter, who serves as a necessary local touch.

Overall, the fact people are speaking in Japanese seems, well, unnecessary to the flow, and that confirms my belief that this was built as an “American anime” from the ground up.

Yakumo actually has a long history prior to anime. It began as a novel, has two manga adaptations, and even has a live-action drama and a stage play. Now it has an anime as well.

Supposedly the first episode covered a fair bit of manga in one shot. You’d never know if you hadn’t read the manga, though. The main thing is this: it features excellent animation, an air of mystery, a real plot, a somewhat internally tortured main character, a pretty/ cute girl who wants to be with him more and more (after he helped her out massively in that first episode), and well, a lot of mystery to go.

This is a hard anime to categorize. It has a little Five Star Stories in the sense of having a very “bishounen” (pretty boy) lead with a very effeminate “male” main character robot. Normal time works out on a sleepy tropical island. Essentially there’s something like Persona 3’s Shadow Time… except with giant robots. Super robots, in fact.

Anyway, I don’t mind the Napoleonic era vibe of the “Galaxy Bishounen” when he’s in action, and I’ve avoided any temptation to take this too seriously. There’s some nice character designs in this, especially girls, but well, there’s simply too much craziness to quantify it much or describe it. It’s going to tell us more of what’s going on when it damned well pleases, and that’s that.

Anyway, I’ve been enjoying it. It’s just taking place in a sort of comic “other” when it gets to the “battle” parts, so be forewarned.

So here’s the thing: I’m glad I watched two episodes before making any judgments. The mecha animation is good. I won’t say excellent, but it is plenty dynamic and satisfying. The problem, such as it is, lies with the character animation, which gets very cheap when characters are doing “anime faces” and things get comic. I mean, the games had much better faces for those things. Much better.

But, even though they’re pushing forward fast to compress a lot of the game’s actual lead-in so that we can see new characters faster and get some impression of the plot from an anime perspective, it’s nothing to be especially concerned with. Note that this seems all Korean as far as the animation goes. Not a complaint, I’m just saying that the strengths and weaknesses are what they are.

Content-wise, actually the most notable thing is the parade of bikini-clad babes during the ED sequence, which has been noted by Japanese fandom. I mean, this is a game series that has added a lot of “original” good looking girls (in addition from ones from anime for crossover mecha gaming) over the years, and OG packed these hot girls (and created brand new ones to join them) together in one place. Someone sane decided they might as well flaunt what they have.

The looks can seem a little “off” to me, compared to “normal,” as mentioned above, but the dynamism of the combat and the faithfulness of the voice acting makes me say this isn’t a bad show, and I hope it doesn’t become one.

Um…

This one defies me. I watched it and I’m still not sure what I saw. It’s essentially a maid cafe centric comedy, and it has an OP that has a very er, 1920’s vibe with flashing lights, deco themes, a song called Down Town (I think), and… it’s clearly the best looking part of this show.

Comedy that it may be, the animation is notably sub-par as I see it. The lead character is very off and is not a natural maid girl in the slightest, and a girl who does it much better than she does is trying to turn her into a classic klutz maid for better effect. And that is most of the plot so far.

I don’t know about this one…

This is basically about a little sister who is very cute, except in terms of how she treats her older brother; who really loves “little sister” cute stuff, with the exception as above; who is a complete pretty girl anime otaku and a pretty girl eroge (erotic video game) addict, and who essentially ends up corrupting her normal-ish older brother into her world.

While she touches on a lot of naughty things here, her motivation is all about the pretty girls, not the er, ero parts, so she’s getting her older brother to go through some of this game stuff for the plot and stuff. In other words, every censor and wannabe censor in Japan is going to truly, truly HATE this show.

Having said all this, it is funny as all hell, the production values are just great, the 2nd episode has the introduction of the fine, fine character shown on the left in the picture above, internet handle kuroneko (“Black Cat“), and we get to laugh a lot at otaku subculture and approach it in a non-creepy way that tells us, through the medium of a girl with a smile you can’t hate, that otaku are people, too.

…Um, something like that. But no, really, all these caveats aside, it’s been quite entertaining so far.

Since the beginning of the series, the first victim of the “mysterious illness” that Natsuno (usually called “Yuuki-kun”) knows personally, Megumi Shimizu, has been after him since “rising” from the grave and becoming a vampire, albeit we should not depend on “the rules” of vampires to apply perfectly. Having dug up her grave, and encountered a different vampire, Natsuno knows the truth, and so do a couple of other young villagers, for all the good it does them.

Having knocked out a vampire attacker out cold (but not “dead,” as it turns out), Natsuno half-buried the body. In daytime, he returned to find the grave neatly set exactly as it was before they had dug up Megumi’s  grave. Certain that both sides were now aware of each other, and having no way to take on the number of vampires on the other side, Natsuno essentially adopts a Castle Mode, determined to protect himself and his family as long as possible. He tells Akira and Kaori to not tell anyone that they have permission to enter their house, hoping that this protects them in the meantime.

A child vampire manipulating a Geisha doll had arranged access at Natsuno’s own house with Natsuno’s far too trusting father. (In this show, the “shiki” require permission to enter a dwelling.) His brother is outraged when the room where the child had been given shelter, and then disappeared from, is covered with religious symbols. Indeed, later on when Natsuno gets a literal tap on his window, remaining silent while holding a wrench, he listens as the figure at the window – he knows it’s not Megumi (“Shimizu” to him) by the silhouette – goes to the front and tests the front door, finding it unlocked. See, when Natsuno’s family had moved to this village, his father was very impressed with the fact that this was a place where people didn’t have to lock their doors.

Nice, unless a vampire is coming to kill you.

Now, the immediate background to this is that Tatsumi Kanemasa, a “daywalker” who functions as the field commander for the vampires, summoned the newly turned and declared that Natsuno must die. Of course, Megumi is very cross about this. Furthermore, Tatsumi prevents her from being the one to go after him. She wants Natsuno bad, and it’s not just because she had a crush on him in life. It’s simple, really; only a low percentage of those killed actually rose from the dead. If Natsuno was drained, there would be no guarantee at all that he would rise, though Tatsumi seemed to think that the odds were higher than normal.

So, she operated on this logic:

If “Yuuki-kun” wasn’t going to make it into everlasting undeath, then at the very least, SHE would be the one to get her fangs into him.

It’s funny. The metaphor writes itself.

So, Natsuno wanted to capture the vampire after him and expose them to all of the villagers. Anyway, not that the viewers had seen this part before, and so it comes as something of a surprise, but the part that catches Natsuno completely flatfooted, and blows his mind away, is that the soft, intimate voice beyond the window is from his deceased best friend, Tohru.

The wrench slips from his grasp.

Tohru is the one person who Natsuno cannot raise a hand against, even in undeath. Knowing it may mean his own demise, Natsuno opens the window all the same, and Tohru makes a grab at his right arm. The two stare at each other, and Tohru breaks off and runs away, ashamed of himself.

It is then that Megumi, who is knowingly defying orders, comes across the crying Tohru, having anticipated he would be the one to receive the order. She’s quite fine with letting him be and going to take Natsuno herself. Punishment or not, this is the depth of the emotion she has, even though she knows how truly frightening Tatsumi is, how he would think nothing of murdering his “own” kind in broad daylight, given a reason to.

Natsuno chases after Tohru to a place that both know well, what appears to be a tiny shrine. Here, Tatsumi arrives, introducing himself properly, as they had not properly met before. Really, it was nothing personal, but Natsuno was a threat to Tatsumi’s kind, to their existence. Just like the doctor, Toshio, Natsuno had realized their existence. Unlike the doctor, Natsuno was causing them so much grief that he be eliminated here and now. Stating he had no obligation to just let himself be killed, Natsuno pledged to run with all his might, which Tatsumi thought was just fine, but there stood Megumi in his path of retreat. Actually, Tatsumi wasn’t all that broken up about it because he knew Megumi would disregard his orders anyway. Megumi was very pleased at having the opportunity to take the kill.

Yet that was not to be.

Suddenly, a hand moved around Natsuno’s mouth from behind, pulling him back with supernatural strength. Tohru had captured him, and it was Tohru’s fangs that struck home.

In this moment:

• The pure diabolical delight of Tatsumi.
• The pure agony on Megumi’s face.
• The pure despair of Natsuno.

Ten episodes. One scene. One resounding climax.