Despera - The next Yoshitoshi ABe's hit anime

If you ask me about anime that has the biggest impact on my life, I couldn’t pick anything better than Yoshitoshi ABe’s ‘Serial Experiments Lain’. The show was everything that a cyberpunk and tech geek can hope for. This particular anime was also the reason that I decided to take a major in Computer Science back in the days. I have to mention that it’s also one of the most psychologically challenging anime of all times. Lain is by no means suitable for everyone, it’s jam packed with computer terms, even things that go beyond common knowledge at that 1998 era, things like ‘wired’ which is a term for an all-connected computer system, similar to a cloud system on the Internet, but ABe brought it even deeper with Augmented Reality systems that’s similar to the technology found in ‘The Matrix’. While Masamune Shirow’s ‘Ghost In The Shell’ puts us in a high-tech police and military technology whiz, Lain was more of a gritty self-realization of a wired-obsessed young girl, trying to poke the boundary between real and virtual worlds.

ABe is also known for his other brilliant work that is ‘Haibane Renmei’ or otherwise known as ‘The Charcoal Feathers Federation’. A beautiful and touching story about a world, where the inhabitants have charcoal-toned wings. Despite their wings, they are NOT angels. The show elevates the values of life and death, compassion, friendship and what truly caring for each other means. The anime won lots of awards, including one of the best art direction in anime for all times by Newtype magazine Japan. I personally loved everything about it: the music (the Hanenone album gives me the chills everytime I listen to it), the art, and the story.

This 2009, something really big is coming. The three musketeers that brought Lain to realization have gathered again for the second time and it seems that they have been busy producing the next candidate-to-be-legendary title: ‘Despera’. They are Yoshitoshi ABe (art), Ryutaro Nakamura (direction), and Chiaki J. Konaka (story). The anime will tell a story about a 14 year old girl named ‘Ain’ who is able to create high-tech devices unknown to the era that she lives in. The sci-fi alternative period story is set in Tokyo during the Taishō era in 1922, one year before the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake. There will be pre-WWII military references, old Japanese societies, and someone that has the premise similar to Half-Life 2’s G-Man. Quoting from Animage: “Unknown Man - A man in his 30s who is an associate of Ain's. In the prologue chapter of the novel, he claims to be able to see the future through the displays on Ain's computer monitors. His face and identity has yet to be revealed.” And judging from all those info, we can safely conclude that the anime will have thick cyberpunk theme, with the usual unpredictable deep plot written by Chiaki-sensei.

Most looked forward to anime this season? Definitely yes. Best anime of the upcoming season? Might not be, but the three big names that delivered Lain should be a great benchmark on how this anime will certainly rock most otakus in all over the world and blow a fresh wind of remarkably high quality presentation rarely found in the mainstream anime shows nowadays, like: Naruto, Pokemon, and Katekyoushi Hitman Reborn! to name a few.

note: Credit goes to Weiss for the scanned pictures.

Binary Magic

This might be the most interesting (not the best, mind you) anime of the season. From the first few episodes we have a winning formula. Moé:check, tsundere:check, mahou tsukai ( 魔法使い = magic user ):check, consistent animation: check, great voice acting:check, and I could go on. Not only the production values, but the story itself is also interesting, with a touch of unusual timeline of storytelling. The show begins at episode 00, not 01, and the prologue tells us many things about the world of magic that is Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou. I hear ya, it’s a long title, so I’ll just call it Yoku Mahou from now on.

The anime is an adaptation of a supposedly popular Shonen (Male) Light Novel in Japan written by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. The seiyuu casts are decent. Haruka Tomatsu as Yumiko Christina Ichinose, expect lots of ‘desu wa’ accent and tsundere-ness. Ai Nonaka as Koyomi Morishita, pretty much the return of Fuuko from Clannad! Then we have Minako Kotobuki that’s very talented in voicing a Yuki Nagato-ish character named Kaho Sakazaki, and some other seiyuus. Animation by Nomad is beautiful. The ‘feel’ of the original character designs by Miki Miyashita can be captured adorably by Makoto Koga, which is well known as the anime chara designer of Sola, ARIA, and Galaxy Angels.

Curious about the meaning of the title? Me, too. After some googling around, apparently, gendai mahou (trans. –modern magic) is one among several kinds of magic that exists in the world of Yoku Mahou. It’s originated from something called houten mahou (trans. –ancient magic). Not so clear about the differences between the two, yet, but this makes the magic world even more interesting to find out. So, ‘Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou’ can be roughly translated along the lines of: ‘I understand modern magic’. Oh the joy of weeaboo-ness.

Magic is defined as an act of combining magical ‘codes’. By ‘codes’, I’m referring to programming codes, not some unreadable runes or divine mumblings. Everything in Yoku Mahou’s world has this 01011101-ish code that can be re-arranged (transforming), erased (deleting), and of course, written (evoking). Not the exact way as portrayed by the creator of the novel, but you get the idea. Need more reason to watch? In the first episode your brain will be exploded by Yumiko's no-pan show, along every episode Koyomi will summon many pans (tarai=flat round metal bowl), and of course, pantsu (loosely described as: fanservice). A twist of humour here and there, some magic fights with fancy effects, and great OP & ED music to boot. I think I found my ‘Zero no Tsukaima’ fix for this season.