Archive for the Type-Moon Category


CANAAN Light Novel, Volume 1 (上)

June 17th, 2010

If you have watched the Canaan anime, you have read the Canaan Light Novel.

The Light Novel is very much a novelization of the anime series, written by a competent writer and enhanced with pleasing pencil art illustrations.

The LN series is in two parts. This first volume is, like the anime it shadows, a nice mix of exposition interspersed with action. We meet young photojournalist Ohzawa Maria and her mentor Mino, see a lot of Shanghai both above ground and below. We learn about the UA Virus,  and a bioterrorism threat by the terrorist group the Snakes, just as Shanghai hosts an International Conference on Terrorism. And we meet Canaan and Alphard, our foils that are the same in every way, except that they are not the same at all.

If you have not watched the anime, you will find no difficulty following the story – it is well told and well-executed. There is a lot of moral ambiguity – governments are terrorists, just as much as the terrorists are and the only truly innocent in the book is the title character, the assassin Canaan. Her synesthesia was one of the most visually striking qualities of the anime – I wasn’t sure it would translate well into text. I’m pleased to note that the author is competent enough to communicate it well. It works.

As I sat down to synopsize the plot, I find that it’s actually too complex for me to do it simply without losing much of its appeal. On the other hand, if you haven’t watched the anime and don’t really care about Canaan a priori, I’m also not sure I could convince you to pick this book up without it.

So I’ll do what I always do and focus on the Yuri. ^_^

Maria and Canaan’s relationship is a difficult one to nail down simply. They love each other – so much so and so obviously so that crazy villianess Liang Qi comments on it. But, then, Liang Qi herself is obsessed with the love of Alphard, the apparent villain of the series. And Alphard is obsessed to the point of monomania with Canaan, someone who she believes stole everything she had, even her name. (I’m still not convinced she’s entirely wrong.)

Canaan is, as I said, an innocent. She absolutely, unreservedly loves Maria and there’s a sense that, were she actually aware of things like “love” in the adult sense, she might actually be “in love” with Maria. But…she is not. Her love is like a child’s, or a puppy’s. Not because she is stupid or childish, but because Canaan does not yet know desire – and there’s no real way to know if she ever will at this point.

Maria’s love for Canaan is less perfect/more human, but is also, at the beginning at least, more admiration. She sees Canaan as something unearthly, like a superheroine. Yes, they are friends, but until she sees what she considers to be a flaw in Canaan, Maria is unable to regard her as an actual human. She is very much a Lois Lane to Canaan’s Superman and ultimately, Maria’s desire to bring them both onto an equal footing is what will drive the plot in the second volume – and change them both forever.

I was very, very vexed with the anime for bringing both of them right up to the moment of recognizing that they love each other, then providing what I saw as a rather lame excuse for “not that way, though.” As the novel has been, so far, an exact duplicate of the anime, I expect no less in the second volume. But, for the moment, Maria and Canaan yearn for each other more as the series puts them through increasingly dangerous situations.

This novel ends with the Snakes’ takeover of the Terrorism conference and Alphard’s plan to infect all of the world representatives with the UA Virus. The final scene in the book is Alphard fighting Canaan in the tunnels below the building.

So, basically, if you liked the Canaan anime and want to re-experience it through a text format, this is a good, compelling action story. If you like action flicks, and want to practice your Japanese reading skills, this book is an excellent choice – it has a fair amount of furigana and even the technical/scientific stuff is not impossible to understand.

I think this novel would have a chance to sell reasonably well, were it to be brought over here in English, as long as the translation was competent. (I don’t know if Seven Seas has a Kadokawa contact, but this would not be a bad match for them. A little Yuri, high gaming interest on account of it being Type-Moon, moe, action. I think they could make it work, since they have decent translators and adapters.)

Ratings:

Art – 8 (the pencil art mitigates what is otherwise typical moe)
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – ??? You could pretty much put any number on it, from 0 to 10 and be right. Let’s split it down the middle and say 5
Service – 4, but like 85% of that is Liang Qi

Overall – 8

It’s a good read and I’m glad I took a chance on it. Nice mix of character and plot, action and emotion, comedy and tragedy. Kind of the best of all possible worlds for a Light Novel and one of the best of breed I’ve seen in a blatant franchise extender.





Canaan Radio CD and Aoi Hana Sweet Blue Radio CD

May 29th, 2010

I’m still making my way through the last of the items I bought while in Tokyo. Not surprisingly, the Light Novels take the longest. And since I’m now working from home, I no longer have a commute during which to listen to my Drama CDs. (I know, I know, poor me….) Today I happened to be driving down the office, so I had a chance to listen to the Aoi Hana: Sweet Blue Radio CD. It has very little Yuri. I had listened to the first Canaan DJCD a while back, but as it also has only the vaguest hint of Yuri, I decided to not review it.

Well, while it’s true that both of them have very little Yuri, they both have something much more important in common – the content is primarily the voice actors and actresses screwing around and cracking themselves up. I figure that’s worth mentioning.

To start with, the Canaan Drama Cd was backwards. That is, although Maria and YunYun are on the cover, the content actually features Tanaka Rie (Liang Qi) and Ohkawa Toru (Cummings.) The two of them really don’t need us during this CD, because they are perfectly capable of amusing themselves without us. There were times during the conversations where they had themselves laughing so hard I couldn’t for the life of me understand a word.

They also both slip in and out of their roles freely so, when Ohkawa-san makes a bad joke, Qiang Li suddenly threatens him with punishment. I recall (it was a few months ago that I listened to it) that there were at least a few scenarios in which Tanaka-san, as Qiang Li, moaned with desire over Alphard. That was pretty much what Yuri there was.

Likewise, in Sweet Blue Radio, Gibu Yuuko (nicknamed “Gibuling”) and Takabe Ai (“Rabuling”) really didn’t need us so much. :-) The bulk of the radio CD was the two of them doing their best impressions of other kinds of voice jobs – AM and FM radio announcers, the person in a department store that calls for lost people, the women on all those ubiquitous food shows who ooh and ah over mundane items like the sandwich she gushes over. Of these scenarios, the one in which Takabe-san does her impression of an AM radio DJ actually made Gibu-san snort out loud. That was worth hearing.

Also amusing was the next to last track in which Okudaira Akira was a special guest and when she “leaves” the studio and “forgets’ her handkerchief, Gibu-san “runs after her” and “misses” guest Manjoume Fumi when she comes to visit the studio. It was idiotic, but they were having fun with it.

In this CD, there is a ‘memory’ of Fumi telling Akira that she likes her and Akira responding that she didn’t mind, no…she was happy about it. That’s about it. But it was a sweet moment.

Both CDs are more silly than special. If you love the series and/or the voice actors and actresses, its worth it for the giggling, the puns, the utter goofiness when people who get along screw around in front of the mic.

Ratings:

Canaan DJCD – 7

Sweet Blue Radio CD – 8





New Anime Season Summer 2009: CANAAN

August 26th, 2009

TYPE-MOON and I are not mortal enemies or anything.

It’s not like I hate their work, nor do I seek it out. I read Gunslinger Girl when I was reading Dengeki Daioh, but was never really grabbed by it. Nor was Fate/Stay Night created for me. I’m not a gamer at all and the anime was based on a visual novel I will never play/read. (And I do want to point out to the commenters who were annoyed that I called this a *game* that I did say I had NEVER played or looked at it. VNs are still pretty much considered “games” not “literature.” Until I can take a VN out at the library – it’s a game.) They aren’t staying up night worrying what I think and I’m not staying up nights thinking about them. :-)

But as you know, I *do* like hypercompetent women with guns, so when I heard about CANAAN, it immediately went onto my “to-watch” list. And I have not been disappointed at all.

In short, CANAAN is a live action series done as an anime.

War has carved a swath of destruction through multiple lives in this series. Loss of lives, of self, of their past, of their future, friends, family, whole villages have been destroyed. At the center of the battle is a virulent virus, and two women with inhuman skills that share a name… Canaan.

The linchpin of this series is a Japanese photographer, Maria, who has ties to a major pharmaceutical firm and to Canaan, the preternaturally gifted assassin whose sole goal appears to be to be a thorn in the side of the terrorist group known as the Snakes. This puts Canaan – and Maria – in the way of the Snakes’ leader, the equally dangerous woman now known as Alphard.

This series is built around the action. There are gun fights and chase scenes and explosions and that mysterious virus that causes people to mutate – always a favorite – and any old reason the writers can find for having Canaan leap off of things onto other things.

The Yuri is mostly for Yuri goggle wearers. Canaan and Maria are friends and instantly we can see where the doujinshi went with them this past summer Comiket. It’s not that much of a challenge though, so, there’s always the sexual tension between Alphard and Canaan, mostly because they are two powerful women-with-guns in the same frame. As you know, that must mean sex. Still not challenging though, so I’m betting that Liang Qi, Alphard’s incestuously inclined sister raped Maria in at least three of the best selling Canaan parody doujinshi at Natsu-Komi. Back in what passes for reality, this is a totally nioi-kei series.

I can’t really compare this to other TYPE MOON animation, I’m just not that familiar with their body of work. But, taken on it’s own, it’s a fun action anime, with a slight Yuri scent and a nice chunky government-military conspiracy. The voice actors and actresses are top notch and I’m really enjoying the heck out of it.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 1
Service – 4

Overall – 8

It’s also refreshingly not moe, with more adults characters than I’m used to these days. I approve!