I received this for my birthday around the time it was released in September but was engaged in playing a number of JRPG’s which would not see completion until Christmas day. I figured that I might not be missing much. How wrong I was. SPOILERS

In the near-future of 2027, humanity has created a new industry: augmentation. It is the use of technology to make us stronger, faster, and smarter. Unfortunately the world is divided along the lines of pro and anti-augmentation: supporters believe that it is the next step in human evolution and critics call it the end of humanity. It doesn’t help that the technology is reserved for those who can afford it. You play Adam Jensen, chief of security for Sarif Industries one of a handful of companies that research and manufacture augmentation tech. Sarif’s scientists are on the verge of a major discovery when high-tech soldiers assault Sarif’s headquarters, steal information, murder people, wreck the place and leave Adam for dead. But he hangs on to life and Sarif restores him to something more than a man through augmentations. Soon Adam is on the trail of an international conspiracy in order to discover who was behind the attack

Deus Ex Human Revolution is a genre defying game that mixes RPG character management with first person shooter action and third person stealth. It creates a heady mix where each section overlaps another comfortably serving to both cover weaknesses and allow situations the game throws at you to evolve in wonderfully original and different ways.

Games frequently ask us to believe we play super-soldiers and yet they restrict us in how we can approach situations and engage people. I always felt frustrated whenever blocked by a door that my hero should be able to shoot open or unable to climb a roof to bypass guards even though there are drainpipes. Deus Ex allowed me to explore the environment via the various ways of upgrading Adam which in turn allowed me to feel a sense of ownership and achievement whenever I approached things in the way I wanted.

Want to go in all guns blazing? Try it out. Want to sneak into places and remain undiscovered. It’s possible. Want to hack every computer available and control the security systems. Why not? I mixed things up.

Normally a game with stealth elements would have me grinding my teeth because I don’t have the patience to painstakingly memorise every enemy patrol route. I have more important real-life stuff to do. Deus Ex managed to make these elements enjoyable. I took the time to study tricky guard patterns and sneak past people and if I failed I shrugged my shoulders and just pulled out my guns an went with the flow because I could deal with the situation MY way.

It was this sense of ownership that made the game for me because I designed the character the way I wanted him to operate, disregarding abilities like radar and stealth and opting for hacking, strength and speed. Initially I felt under-powered and fragile but as I focussed on strategic upgrades I was soon punching though walls, running along rooftops and turning robots on their masters. With this potent mixture I was able to feel like I was free to do whatever my imagination could come up with. This reached its apotheosis in Singapore where I reprogrammed a turret and lugged the thing from building to building. I even carried it with me to a particularly challenging boss battle. It worked a treat. I lured the boss within the kill-zone of the turret and scooted behind some cover to sit back and watch the once fearsome super-mercenary get torn to shreds. I have done this in other games but those times I felt like it was breaking the game in some way however with Deus Ex I felt the designers were smart enough to design a great environment and let me play which gave me immense pleasure.

Enough about the mechanics.

The content is fascinating, beautiful and deep. The aesthetic isn’t a million miles away from Blade Runner’s neon hued sci-fi noir but Deus Ex has a luscious honey glow mixed with grime in many locations like Detroit and Shanghai. It also intelligently mixed up environments but the overall design and earthiness of the urban sections have a brilliant verisimilitude. I felt anchored in a near-future world which was believable and although the character models aren’t perfect the story and the world created are very compelling and the voice acting top-notch.

I knew I loved the games characters when I made a point of talking to every single person in every city from prostitutes to office workers and crooked CEOs’. What I didn’t realise was just how deep this love ran until I got into an ambush with Adam and Malik. I must have replayed that section seven times just to nail down the enemy AI routines and formations so I could save fly girl. Any other game I might have accepted letting a character die to proceed with the story but not here and the reward I felt in saving her was surprisingly delightful.

Even better was the fact that the game had depth in terms of its story. It had interesting politics that went beyond the surface of factions that so many games stop at. Deus Ex actually explored the ethics of human augmentation, big business and government oversight as well as delving into issues of morality and existentialism. I felt inspired by a lot of the content strewn around in ebooks and I would read newspapers and watch the news with the gorgeous Eliza Cassan….

I’ve bored you enough with this. There are other games I enjoyed in 2011 and some I have yet to play (Ghost Trick) but none that made me want to replay them as much as Deus Ex.

The story takes place in the Spring of 1998 at Yomiyama Kita middle school where a transfer student named Kouichi Sakakibara finds himself in a class under a curse which causes unavoidable death. It seems to be linked to the death of a student in the past but a code of silence has developed and a new beautiful but mysterious student named Mei Misaki seems to hold some of the answers.

This anime is based on Yuki Ayatsuji’s horror novel and it is reflected in the slow build-up and large cast of characters. The first episode sets up the story perfectly. The atmosphere is low-key with little in the way of open horror but there is the familiar J-hora imagery like dark corridors, mist shrouded temples, baleful waif-like girls, and crows. Then there are the creepy dolls.

They keep flashing up during the episodes and the mysterious eye-patch girl named Mei Misaki owns at least one of them so they will be integral to the story in some way. Speaking of Mei she has gripped my attention. She is the shade in the corner of the room that seems to haunt the class.

Whenever Kouichi mentions Mei looks of fear spring up on his classmate’s faces just before a collective amnesia descends upon his fellow students who are suddenly reticent in their behaviour. Then looks are exchanged and people rush to hush things up. She has the class in the grip of her hands but why? I’m intrigued not least because her personality swings from mysterious to blunt rudeness and she knows more than she is letting on. Mei even hangs out in a morgue and pops up when characters least expect or want her to… which is fun!

I’ll stop focussing on her before it sounds like I’m obsessed and mention other things… like… the soundtrack! which is a nice mix of creepy lullaby melodies and dismal strings. I liked the muted colour palette and the general sense of rot in the atmosphere.

Walls are weathered and paint is chipped, skies are dark with clouds heavy with rain and it rains a lot. Mei likes to stand in it. Oops, mentioned her again…

This one may be trading in familiar genre tropes but it has real potential to suck me in. At only 12 episodes I know I will finish it.

Howling

Release Date: 9^th February 2012 (South Korea)

Running Time: N/A

Director: Yu Ha

Writer: Asa Nonami (novel)

Starring: Song Kang-Ho, Lee Na-Young

This film is based on a Japanese novel named Kogoeru Kiba (The Hunter) by Asa Nonami and the last time Korea adapted a Japanese property was Old Boy which was just incredible. The trailer is very atmospheric and I for one am looking forward to Howling.

A veteran detective named Sang Gil (Song Kang-Ho) is teamed up with a rookie named Eun Young (Lee Na-Young) to investigate a mysterious case of spontaneous combustion in the back of a van. The strange thing is that the bones have animal bite marks. The two aren’t the best of partners for such an assignment considering he is a misogynist and she has her own personal problems but when another case emerges with similar details they are soon on the hunt.  

Howling stars the brilliant Song Kang-Ho who has been in many landmark Korean new wave films like Memories of Murder, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, The Host and Thirst.

Nameless Gangster

Release Date: 2^nd February 2012 (South Korea)

Running Time: N/A

Director: Yun Jong-Bin

Writer: Yun Jong-Bin

Starring: Choi Min-Sik, Ha Jung-Woo, Jo Jin-Ung, Kim Hye-Eun

Here’s another movie starring a vet from the Korean new wave. Choi Min-Sik (Old Boy, The Quiet Family, Crying Fist) looks like he’s having fun in this film so hopefully this translates into the audience getting some laughs.

Busan, South Korea. It is the 1990’s and the government has launched a war on organised crime and corruption. Choi Min-Sik is a customs officer used to dealing with the Korean mafia and decides he better quit the game and save his reputation before it is too late.

I developed a taste for South Korean comedies after watching The Quiet Family and My Boss, My Hero back in 2001/2 so I’m hoping this will be just as funny.

Love Fiction

Release Date: 29^th February 2012 (South Korea)

Running Time: N/A

Director: Jeon Kye-Su

Writer: N/A

Starring: Ha Jung-Woo, Kong Hyo-Jin

And then we come to our third film released in February which is a rom-com. I can’t say that I’m too interested in this one.

Ku Joo-Wol (Ha Jung-Woo) is a timid writer who had a successful debut but is now in the middle of a slump. Then he meets the girl of his dreams in Hee-Jin (Kong Hyo-Jin) who works for a movie distribution company but she has mother issues. Will Ku Joo-Wol overcome both of their problems… and so on…

Upstate New York, a lone woman is crouched in a snow bank casing a diner. Her name is Mallory Kane (Gina Carrano), former marine and black-ops contractor, and she is about to enter into a meeting with her boss Kenneth (Ewan McGregor) which will spiral out of control. After the incident she escapes by taking the car of a nineteen-year-old named Scott (Michael Angarano) tells him the events that lead up to her present circumstances and the people who have betrayed her.

I love a good spy-thriller especially those in the vein of the Bourne trilogy and Haywire delivers the action in spades and with such ease due in part to Sodebergh’s skill behind the character and Carrano’s action skills on the screen.

While the film has a script built on a non-linear narrative full of flash-backs that peel back the different layers of mystery the biggest sensation is that the film has a breezy sensibility and it is clear that Sodebergh’s experience in making thrillers has given him a confidence and technical skill that makes the action whip along amusingly. Haywire exchanges the messy and vicious forward momentum given to the Bourne films’ by Greengrass’s documentary feel with a sleek style that feels essential with no frivolous elements. Panning cameras, mid shots and a jazz soundtrack mark exciting chases and are mixed with long shots for action scenes where the music drops out and the action is staged cleanly and clearly with no flashy editing so Carrano’s martial arts skills are put on display as she takes her male rivals apart.

There is a lot of male acting talent here but new-actress and martial artist Carrano more than holds her own. She has a presence that has a direct aggressiveness mixed in with likeability. She can be charming like Bond and devastating like Bourne and don’t think that because she is a woman she lacks killer-instinct because she is as cold and brutal as any guy and has the brains AND brawn to overcome them. One character asks her,

“Is this your idea of relaxing? Wine and gun maintenance?”

She is a professional and thanks to Carrano’s physical presence and martial arts skill you will walk away believing that she is an equal to Bourne and Bond. The initial set-piece in New York is the best. Channing Tatum and Gina Carrano go at it with such vehemence and I found it a shock partly because it is never easy to see a woman get struck but also because the whole thing is unexpected and packed full of realistic violence where the effects are turned up to 11 and as a result when she takes vicious blows you feel it.

That’s not to say that the guys are slouches. Paxton who play’s Mallory’s father mixes maternalism and military experience, Tatum is a likeable if bland bruiser and Fassbender proves effortlessly suave and able to do brute physicality. Banderas is wonderfully louche and McGregor and Douglas are slimy government ops types.

There is a lot of star power in this ensemble cast but Carrano muscles her way forward. The film ends on an ambiguous note with a lot of loose-ends for Mallory to tie up and I for one will sign up to see the sequel to see her tie them up.

4/5 

Haywire

Release Date: 18^th January 2012 (UK)

Running Time: 101 mins

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Writer: Lem Dobbs

Starring: Gina Carrano, Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Bill Paxton, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Michael Angarano

Are Any of You Alive?

Release Date: 18^th February 2012

Running Time: N/A

Director: Gakuryu Ishii (previously known as Sogo Ishii)

Writer: Gakuryu Ishii, Shiro Maeda

Starring: Shota Sometani, Rin Takanashi, Hakka Shiraihi, Asato Iida, Mai Takahashi

Shota Sometani has appeared in some exciting films lately like “Himizu” and “A Man with Style” and this film looks very interesting. So much so that writing up a synopsis is a bit hard.

Set in a university campus that is attached to a hospital, there is a escaped female patient, a strange man, students and a café worker in a love triangle, a mother looking for a lost child, a love-sick doctor and an unreceptive nurse and an urband legend which could be linked to the end of the world.

.hack// The Movie

Release Date: 21^st January 2012

Running Time: N/A

Director: Matsuyama Hiroshi

Writer: Kazunori Ito

Starring: Nanami Sakuraba, Toori Matsuzaka, Kei Tanaka

My only experience of the .hack// franchise was buying a Tokyo Pop manga back in the early 2000’s. This looks far more interesting and with character designs from the legendary Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (Evangelion, FLCL, Nadia, The Secret of Blue ater) and a screenplay which comes from Kazunori Ito (Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor: The Movie) I’m very excited.

The story takes place in 2024 in a world connected by computer networks. A 14 year old girl named Sora Yūki has no interest in games accepts an invitation from her friends Kakeru and Tomohiko to go into a popular network game called “The World.” However, after an accident in the game, reality starts to suffer anomalies and strange events.

Take the ‘A’ Train

Release Date: 25^th January 2012

Running Time: N/A

Director: Yoshimitsu Morita

Writer: Yoshimitsu Morita

Starring: Kenichi Matsuyama, Eita, Shihori Kanjiya, Pierre Taki

Yoshimitsu Morita directed ‘Crying Out Love in the Centre of the World’ which was a big deal in 2004 so this film caught my interest. Kenichi Matsuyama plays Kei Komachi a kaisha-in (office worker) and Eita plays Kenta Kotama who works at his family’s iron foundry. Both men large railroad otaku and meet while riding on the same train.

Brandon (Fassbender) is an outwardly successful corporate type leading a seemingly charmed existence in Manhattan. However beneath his confident exterior lies a sex addict with a desperate need for flesh regardless of whether it is live or virtual. When his emotional extrovert younger sister Sissy (Mulligan) arrives at his apartment unannounced, Brandon’s fragile life begins to unravel and the true face of his problems begins to show through his facade.

The first shot of the film has Michael Fassbender lying on a bed in post-coital pose but he looks enervated. There is no sense of awe and wonder or achievement traditionally conveyed after sex in films just exhaustion and sadness in Fassbender’s face. Straightaway you realise that there is a darkness dwelling underneath everything.

This view is further compounded by the locations. Brandon’s life takes place in a wintry looking New York, all unmemorable offices and restaurants with the steel and glass of post-modern architecture. His apartment has a sterile feel due to its minimalist style and the only colour comes from record sleeves and stashes of porn he has hidden about. There is an overall lack of warmth in the world which is mirrored in the sex which has had joy and life leeched out of it because it has become a compulsion for Brandon, a procession of nude bodies and squalid, loveless encounters which act as a fix and that is without mentioning the endless pornography he watches online.

Fassbender gives a brilliant performance as Brandon. He conveys vulnerability and sexiness in even doses. He is a beautiful man who can use a single glance to root a woman to the spot. He looks quietly confident and at ease with himself compared to other men around him but as the camera lingers on his face you can see darker elements creep in: a wolfish gaze that enters his face when talking or just observing a woman and during sex there are moments of doubt, disgust, and shame.

There are contrasting scenes such as a date with a co-worker where you can see he is a normal person but as Brandon’s obsession with sex is all-consuming it affects his every waking moment. Steve McQueen uses visual inventiveness brilliantly to convey this. One technique is the use of rapid-fire montages of nude women or glimpses of flesh and then a cut to an out of focus shot of Brandon staring off camera before another shot establishes what is in his eye-line. As much as it paints a convincing sequence of obsession you become aware of his confusion and through Fassbender’s acting you realise that something is not right inside of him, but what?

Enter Sissy as played by Mulligan.

Where to begin? I love her? Okay that was a bit much but her performances always astound me. Despite having little screen-time I found her to be vital not just as an entrance into Brandon’s character but as a life force in the entire film.

Unlike Brandon who has internalised his problems and is falling apart inside, Sissy is a flighty, vivacious person who bears her soul to the world. Her character is constantly reaching out, particularly to her older brother Brandon. A simple dialogue exchange reveals the neediness Sissy has compared to Brandon’s usual routine of distancing when she asks him to see her perform at a club.

“You should come to hear me.”

“Yeah I will.”

“Yeah I will like last time?”

He does see her and in one of the best sequences in recent films we understand a connection between two human beings, one of the strongest in the world, that of brother and sister. As Sissy sings “New York New York” in the club it is caught in extreme close-up and in one long take. Then the camera cuts to Brandon as he responds with raw emotion, his guard dropped by his sister’s talent and her message that only they can understand.

The scenes where they physically interact with each other has a playfulness and a creeping incestuous element as we wonder at Brandon’s condition and their background but what really caught my attention was the fact that they acted like siblings – they conveyed that special bond that can unite them against others. It was in simple actions where I believed they could read and needle each other and that they hurt and need each other more than they can admit. It is through Sissy that we get more of an insight into Brandon’s problems with intimacy and if it was not for her character I doubt I would have cared half as much or found the film as affecting as I did.

It could have easily blown the subtle relationship by giving us information on their background but the script is smart and subtle enough to give us hints that felt genuine. Sissy has scars on her wrists, the two aren’t eager to talk to others about their backgrounds. All we get is a simple line:

“We’re not bad people. We just come from a bad place.”

The script does not elaborate. It does not need to because we understand that whatever these two have been through has almost wrecked them and unites them. We empathise and even come to sympathise by the end. However if it had not been for Sissy I would not have come to this conclusion.

I enjoyed this movie a lot. To focus on the sex is to miss the artistic rigorousness and intelligence behind the film and the amazing performances. Fassbender and Mulligan confirm that they are the best actors of this generation and McQueen is a formidable directing talent.

5/5

Shame

Release Date: 13^th January 2012 (UK)

Running Time: 100 mins

Director: Steve McQueen

Writer: Steve McQueen, Abi Morgan

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale, Nicole Beharie, Lucy Walters

Police are investigating a serial killer who targets pregnant women. The media have labelled him ‘The Dissector’ and are running sensationalist headlines such as “Pregnant woman dissected alive, husband put to death in 100 degrees boiling water”. After investigating the scene of a murder two detectives, Jeff (Chin Siu Ho) and Kwok Wah (Tony Ho) decide to comb the area and soon find a known suspect, Chan Kit (Juno Mak), and bring him in for questioning. Chan Kit remains silent throughout the physically brutal interrogation and is released without charge. If Chan Kit is not the killer, then who is? Jeff and Kwok Wah find themselves caught in a deadly investigation.

To call this a horror film is a stretch. Although it utilises elements of the horror genre and never shrinks from offering brutality it feels tame compared to some of the recent offerings from other regions. Indeed what the film bears out is an investigation of revenge powered by a strong central performance from Juno Mak.

The film opens with a low-key scene but death soon intrudes with a simple but long drawn out strangulation. The entire thing is captured in an audacious long shot with a serene looking Juno Mak hanging onto his victim who writhes about on the floor. From here on in there are some disturbing images but what is more interesting is the developing story which is not so much a whodunit but a why does he do it. Then an even bigger question arises which is why do the police harbour such strong certainty that Chan Kit is the villain and where does revenge come into the story.

Performances in this part are pitched at shrill and can seem faintly ridiculous especially as blood and police regulations are liberally shed but the film’s plot enters a flashback which helps to elucidate the story but exposes weaknesses in the film’s script.

The plot structure works because the non-linear nature of it hooks the viewer’s attention and skilfully disorientates them as they try to understand the story. Everything else about the script lacks subtlety and detail and it never rises above functional as characters are turned into simple binary opposites and the plot takes precedence.

Even more problematic was Sola Aoi’s character, the lead female role with a decent amount of screen time. Anyone hoping that the Japanese adult video star will get to exercise her acting abilities will be in for a disappointment as she spends most of her screen time as a ridiculously passive doll and that is when she isn’t called upon to shed her clothes as the camera fetishizes her. This is nothing new to horror but there is the suspicion that the director’s motives were salacious. The backstory is soon dispensed with and character motivation is revealed. Despite weak characterisation and a distaste for the way Aoi was treated the examination of vengeance continues apace and with the resumption of the police investigation I found I was caught up by the film’s sense of narrative propulsion which grows much more exciting as deaths become much more stylish and audacious with a number of cool face-offs and reversals.

The direction is restrained but entertaining with smart framing and varying camera angles that show the changing fortunes of characters and lots of slow motion for visually stylish chases. It is always visually entertaining good looking despite the muted colour-palette with many exterior locations holding a sort of faded beauty. When it proceeds towards the ending the stark visuals become even more compelling and act as an arena for a shocking finale that sets up an end coda that is beautiful pay-off, one spot of beauty after so much misery.

The film succeeds at being different from the normal output of Hong Kong and it thoroughly explores the ideas of revenge. While I felt the script was held together by an interesting plot the writing suffered from a certain blandness that robbed the characters of substance. Sola Aoi was under-utilised and the other actors get away with broadly sketching their characters but as the fim continued I overcame my reservations. A strong central performance from Juno Mak was the highlight as he makes a big impact as a man out for revenge. Despite a few weak moments where his decisions seemed ridiculous I found him convincing as a man so consumed by revenge that he goes to extreme lengths to exact it.

This is a dark trip that I found interesting in some places and disturbing in others. It sets itself an interesting question and answers it as stylishly as possible.

3/5

Revenge: A Love Story

Release Date: 9^th January 2012

Label: Terror-Cotta

Running Time: 91 mins

Director: Wong Ching Po

Writer: Wong Ching Po

Starring: Juno Mak, Sola Aoi, Chin Siu Ho, Tony Ho Wah Chiu

Based on a four-panel comic strip Kill Me Baby follows air-head Yasuna (Chinatsu Akasaki) and her classmate Sonya (Mutsumi Tamura). Things might be normal if it weren’t for the fact that Sonya just happens to be an assassin who still has to go to school. Now Yasuna finds everyday life is disrupted by Sonya’s killer-instinct.
Yasuna and Sonya are nice kids who always do the unexpected thanks to Sonya’s killing skills which is where the fun lies.

There are a lot of random elements and it will be interesting to see if the anime can keep them up. I must admit to liking the high school ghost story and the way it introduced a new character and there’s a lot of mileage in seeing Sonya’s indignation at having her deadly skills used for menial tasks.

The animation is simple but cute and the voices actors’ sound like they’re having fun. I can see myself watching this with glee.

The Ghost Cat and the Mysterious Shamisen

Saturday 14^th January, 19:30

Kiyohiko Ushihara (1897-1985), one of Japan’s leading directors of the silent period, is relatively unknown in the west but The Ghost Cat and the Mysterious Shamisen gets a rare screening. This is, an early chiller especially subtitled for Zipangu Fest, and a rare chance to experience one of Japan’s few surviving prewar horrors, a genre that was soon to be suppressed by the increasing state censorship of the wartime years. A quintessential example of the period “ghost cat” (bakeneko or kaibyo) movie, the movie follows Mitsue, the possessive onna-kabuki actress betrothed to apprentice shamisen player Seijiro. When one day Okiyo, a beautiful young girl of samurai class, is led to Seijiro’s house by his lost cat Kuro, she becomes besotted with him. Dark jealous passions are invoked in Mitsue, which are intensified when Seijiro gifts Okiyo his precious shamisen. The cat is the first to suffer at the end of Mitsue’s hairpin, but returns from the grave to assist Okiyo’s younger sister Onui avenge her sister’s murder.

Enter the Cosmos: Takashi Makino 

Tuesday, 17^th of January 19:30

A trio of short films by the experimental Japanese film-maker/animator Takashi Makino. This was recently seen at the ICA last year but the New Castle event will also include an introduction by Julian Ross of the University of Leeds who is a specialist in independent Japanese cinema.

Shirome

Thursday 19^th of January,  19:30

Blair Witch meets Morning Musume (or is that reference too old? AKB48 perhaps?) where the director, Kôji Shiraishi, stars in his own film as the director of a supernatural reality TV show who offers J-pop idol band Momoiro Clover the chance of appearing on NHK TV’s annual Kôhaku New Year’s Eve music show. What’s the catch? They are to perform their latest single in a haunted school where Shirome (white 白eyes　目), a ghost who can grant wishes and make people go insane if their wishes are insincere stalks the corridors. The stage is set for a lot of screaming and shaky camera. Incidental the J-pop starlets weren’t let in on the fact that this was a film…

Beyond Anime: The Outer Limits 

Friday, 27^th of January 19.30

This is a 90-minute programme of seventeen short animations made between 2002 and 2011.

Kanzeon

Sunday 29^th January, 19:30

This film explores the use of sound and its place in ritual. Filmed in Kyushu, the film looks at, and more importantly listens to, three very special Japanese musicans: Akinobu Tatsumi, the young Buddhist priest and custodian of a temple outside of Kumamoto City who moonlights as a hip-hop DJ while indulges his love of beat boxing in the remote forests; Eri Fujii, who has devoted her life to the mastery of the sho, a rare and ancient Chinese bamboo wind instrument evoking the cry of the phoenix, and Akihiro Iitomi, a master of Noh theatre and a kotsuzumi drum player whose love of jazz almost matches that of his passion for Japan’s traditional performing arts.

Source

Okay so one of my new year’s resolutions was:

In the first week of 2012, I will pick the Spring season anime I will watch and finish them quickly instead of dragging them out over a year,

Start off easy… The reason why I made this resolution was two-fold:

1. I write for anime websites and I frequently come across trailers and plot synopses that intrigue me.
2. I rarely start watching anime at the same time as others so when I visit favourite anime blogs I have to skip most content to avoid spoilers.

So here’s my Winter 2012 picks:

Rinne no Lagrange

Rinne no Largrange is a show that crosses girls and mecha in a collaboration between Production I.G. who are handling the story and Xebec who are producing it. Interestingly the car maker Nissan is providing robot designs.

Kamogawa City lies east of Tokyo next to the sea and this is where a young girl named Madoka lives. She is a proud girl with high spirits who helps people. One day she receives an unusual request, “Can you pilot a robot?” This request leads to a new life where she is part of a trio of mecha pilots defending the city from invaders from space

The production staff includes many industry veterans who have worked on a wide range of shows from Wolf’s Rain and Macross to Princess Jellyfish and Heroic Age. Interesting names include the overall director Tatsuo Satou who worked on Martian Successor Nadesico, while the character designs are by Takushige Norita who worked on Broken Blade and Chizuru Kobayashi who worked on Pandora Hearts. Screenplays were written by a team including Shoutaro Suga (Darker than Black) and Shigeru Morita (Gundam Seed, Blood+).

Kill Me Baby

After enjoying Soredemo and Haganai I’m more open to comedy anime and Kill Me Baby is near the top of my list.

Based on a four-panel comic strip Kill Me Baby follows air-head Yasuna and her classmate Sonya. Things might be normal if it weren’t for the fact that Sonya just happens to be an assassin who still has to go to school. Now Yasuna finds everyday life is disrupted by Sonya’s killer-instinct.

Another

This is the anime adaptation of Yuki Ayatsuji’s horror novel of the same name.

The story takes place in the Spring of 1998 at Yomiyama Kita middle school where a transfer student named Kouichi Sakakibara finds himself in a class under a curse which causes unavoidable death. It seems to be linked to the death of a student in the past but a code of silence has developed and a new beautiful but mysterious student named Mei Misaki.

The television anime has been produced by P.A. Works with big names in the production credits including Noizo Ito (Haruhi Suzumiya, Shakugan no Shana) working on character designs, Yuriko Ishii (Persona – trinity soul-) adapting those designs for animation, Ryou Higaki (Moribito – Guardian of the Spirit) handling the scripts and Tsutomu Mizushima (Blood-C) acting as director.

Gyo

I don’t like Junji Ito’s horror manga. I hate it. That’s how disturbing it is. When it comes to making nightmare fuel I place him next to David Lynch. I loved the live-action adaptation of Spiral and the prospect of an anime version of Gyo (Japanese for fish) is too much to resist!

A young couple visit the island of Okinawa to experience its beautiful beaches and balmy sunsets but get caught up in a land invasion by dead fish.

This anime is one of three works that has been animated by ufotable which will be released by Aniplex as part of their Anime Bunko project in February and it has been directed by Takayuki Hirao who was behind the highly acclaimed Kara no Kyoukai: Garden of Sinners.

Minori Scramble!

Minori Scramble, which is based on Mikage Chihaya’s manga, is the second anime coming from ufotable and released by Aniplex.

This slapstick science comedy centres on Tamaki Kakegawa, a girl who despises penguins. Her father is a penguin researcher and he’s constantly surrounded by them which explains the irrational hatred. Anyway to overcome her hatred of penguins Minori is drafted in. She just happens to be a penguinoid – penguin and android).  

Okay this is hardly Oscar Wilde but I like Minori Scramble!

So far I have already watched Kyousogiga and I loved it and posted about it. So I’m part way to fulfilling my resolution! Will I last the course with the rest of these shows?