AniManga: KaraKuri Circus

It's been a while since I've watched an anime that's almost a perfect adaption of the manga. KaraKuri Circus is a manga written by Kazuhiro Fujita. Published from 1997 - 2006 The anime aired from October 2018 - June 2019.

The story is about a boy named Masaru who wants to become a puppeteer. It sounds simple. The anime is full of complexity and plot twists that make you binge watch at three in the morning.  Masaru's story is part of an older story that started over 400 years before Masaru was born. 

Two brothers Bai Yin (older by a three years) and Bai Jin traveled from China to Prague to study western alchemy. They met a woman named Francine and both fell in love with her. The younger brother, Jin professes his love for Francine to his older brother, Yin. The older brother asks Francine to marry him. In retaliation Jin steals Francine, defiles her and hides in a small town. 

Yin finds Francine after five years of searching. He finds her imprisoned and sick from poor treatment. Not only from his younger brother but also the villagers. They were superstitious and feared Francine was a witch because of her silver-colored hair. She dies in a fire before Yin could free her from captivity. Yin confronted Jin and found that his brother had gone insane but had also successfully created an elixir for immortality. 

After Yin left in grief over Francine Jin created a doll of Francine. He uses hair from the real Francine combined with his elixir and alchemy to bring the doll to life. The new Francine was perfect in every way except he couldn't get her to smile. To solve the problem along with his boredom Jin made puppets called Automaton. Their job was to serve Francine and make her smile. To achieve this goal they created a circus group called the Midnight Circus.

Fast forward to modern times. Bai Yin, Bai Jin, and Francine have all been reincarnated. The elixir of life got poured into the town Well and made all the villagers into Shirogane. The Shirogane age one year for every seven human years. They possess immense strength, speed, regenerative abilities, and their blood is poison to Automaton. Francine was a Shirogane from birth. She was trained as a puppeteer who could manipulate puppets to battle Automaton.  

Bai Jin created a disease called Zonapha Syndrome to punish mankind for losing Francine. The Midnight Circus and other Automaton travel the world spreading the Zonapha Syndrome. The Automaton of modern times no longer perform circus tricks. Instead they hunt humans and drain their fluids to use as fuel. Masaru, Francine, Bai Yin, and the rest of the Shirogane battle to stop Zonapha Syndrome from destroying the world.

The story is original. The action and art style is awesome. The plot has love, betrayal, ambition, good character development and enough action to keep you pressing the play button. There's also deep questions of morality and loyalty between men and family. If you're a fan of awesome anime check out KaraKuri Circus. 

AniManga: Kangoku Gakuen (Prison School)

Kangoku Gakuen (Prison School in English) is my manga guilty pleasure. It has a comedic storyline, interesting character development, kinky imagery, and insane plots. The manga is written by Akira Hiramoto. Its been serialized since 2011. The series was made into a twelve episode anime in 2015.

This AniManga centers around a group of five teenage guys who attend Hachimitsu Academy. The school was formally an all-girl academy and one of the strictest schools in Tokyo. To make things worse the school is under the control of a group called the Underground Student Council. Most of its members hate men. The rest of the student body is apprehensive about talking to men because they have no experience with them. If that sounds bad..it only gets worse from there. On the high school premises is a small prison, hence the name Prison School.  The five guys named Kiyoshi, Takehito, Shingo, Joji, Reiji get locked in prison. 

Kiyoshi is the main character of the series. He's in love with the president of the USC (Underground Student Council) little sister Chiyo. Kiyoshi is also the love interest of Hana another member of the USC. Hana is a martial arts expert, sadistic and is jealous of Kiyoshi's affection towards Chiyo. Out of the four guys Kiyoshi is the most normal and runs into the most problems. Kiyoshi and Shingo were friends from middle school. Shingo, is your average high school delinquent. He has a pessimistic personality and almost zero loyalty towards the other four guys. 

Takehito (also known as) "Gakuto" is a glasses wearing otaku with a fascination for the Three Kingdoms. Throughout the series, Gakuto proves to be a smart strategist and opportunist. During their stay in prison, Gakuto and Kiyoshi come up with several ingenious plans to escape their forced captivity. Out of all the guys, Gakuto takes the most physical abuse during the series. He also has the worse reputation. 

Joji (also known as Joe) is the weakest member of the group. He has a persistent cough that never goes away. He can only take light physical exertion and is no help in their attempt to escape prison. Joe does have an affinity towards animals. At one point during the series, he is portrayed as a Doctor Dolittle by talking to a colony of ants. Joe is loyal to his friends. On numerous occasions, he tries to be the voice of reason for the group.  

Reiji (also known as Andre) is the largest member of the group. He is overweight and taller than the other guys. Andre stands out from the group because he is a masochist with extra long earlobes. He enjoys pain and being degraded. During his stay in prison, he becomes obsessed with their prison guard Meiko. Like Joe, Andre is fiercely loyal to his friends. Throughout the series, he starts out as a gentle giant. As it progresses, he becomes more outgoing. Due to his strange proclivities, he becomes the object of fascination for several girls at the academy. 

I'll leave the circumstances of how the guys get locked in the school prison up to you the reader to discover. What I will say is once the guys are in prison they get treated like POW's (Prisons or War). Their prison guard and enforcer for the USC is a woman named Meiko. She is in charge of keeping the guys in line by using fear, intimidation, and extreme violence. For some reason, she has a particular dislike for Gakuto. 

Meiko is a tall curvaceous woman who is fiercely loyal to Mari the USC president. Meiko also has enormous breasts which she flaunts proudly. As a youth, she was bullied for her breast size until Mari befriended her and helped her develop the self-confidence to be proud of her figure. Due to her constant strength training, Meiko is often drawn sweating. She is an extreme sadist with inhuman strength. Meiko is stronger than Andre the biggest member of the guys' group. She can be seen as the main protagonist during the first half of the series. 

Mari is the USC president. She is also the daughter of the Chairman of the academy. Mari hates boys and believes all men are perverts because her father has a fascination with the female form (especially butts). Mari plots and conspires with the rest of the USC to get the guys expelled from the academy. In the first half of the series, she is pure evil. During the second half, she becomes calmer because she experiences some of the torment she put the boys through. Her relationship with the chairman is tumultuous. She is overprotective of her friends and little sister Chiyo.  

The character development during the series is phenomenal. The whole first half is about the USC while the second half of the series is about the above ground student council. The USC and the student council go to war for control of the academy and the five guys get trapped in the crossfire. My one criticism is that during the second half of the series some of the story arcs get dragged out. The writers break-up the action between too many chapters instead of keeping it fast-paced and condensed. 

Overall Kangoku Gakuen is an awesome series. If you're looking for action, ecchi, romance, comedy, interesting characters, with insane plots...I highly recommend it. 

Animanga: One-Punch Man

It's been awhile since I've read a manga that has such a great blend of humor and action as One-Punch Man.

The original series began as a webcomic in 2009 by a man mysteriously known as One. The remake is illustrated by Yusuke Murata and written by the same One. That is the version I've been following.

One-Punch Man is an action packed manga, full of bizarre villains and heroes. The main protagonist is a man named Saitama, who is as unremarkable as they come. He has an average look, build and even a laid back disposition. What makes Saitama unique is his strength and love for mankind... especially his home town Z-City.

Ever since Saitama was a child he wanted to be a super hero. After numerous encounters with criminals he finally decided to take action and train his body to perfection. Through basic calisthenics (push-ups, sit-ups and running) for three consecutive months, Saitama was able achieve incredible power. He acquired enough raw strength to destroy almost every enemy he faced with one punch.

In his world the cities are given names from the alphabet (City A, B, C, ect....Z) and are often attacked by monsters. These monsters are called "Mysterious Beings," and range from normal humans to hybrid (beast) humans to intergalactic conquerors. Each attack against an alphabet city by one of these is given a threat level. Those levels range from "Wolf" which is a human level threat, to "God" which is an extinction level event. No one knows where the Mysterious Beings come from but they all seem to have an instinctive hatred for humans.

To handle threats against mankind a group of powerful individuals began the Heroes Association. This association employs citizens as heroes and provided them pay and services for protecting the alphabet cities. The hero classes range from "C" (ordinary human) to "S" (superhuman) and all officially recognized heroes are part of the Heroes Association.

Saitama joins the as the lowest ranked C-Class hero and works his way up through the ranking. Along the way he gains a disciple named Genos (The Demon Cyborg) who is impressed by his strength. Genos is on his own quest for vengeance and tries to learn the secret of Saitama' power. Ironically Genos is given the ranking of S-Class based off some of the monsters Saitama defeated. He is also one of the few individuals in the Heroes Association who knows how strong Saitama really is.

The manga was recently turned into a 12 episode anime that ended in December 2015. The anime was taken directly from canon material and featured superb artwork and battle scenes. The great thing about this series is that it's a parody of the whole super hero genre. In the video below Saitama shows up to stop a meteor from destroying all life on Earth. Check out the anime and check out the manga....if you like what you see. Don't forget to purchase official copies from the Mangaka, cuz those guys work long hours for little pay or appreciation.

AniManga: Fate/Stay Night Series

Fate/stay night is a Japanese visual novel, which was originally released as an adult game. Since its release in 2006 its been adapted into a manga and multiple anime series.

The story takes place in modern Japan. Where Shirō Emiya, became the sole survivor of a massive fire as a child. Shirō was adopted by a retired mage named Kiritsugu Emiya and taught the basic principles of becoming a mage. Kiritsugu Emiya, is the main protagonist in the fourth Holy Grail War (featured in Fate/Zero) which inadvertently destroyed Fuyuki City and left Shiro orphaned. Kiritsugu Emiya died some years later after instilling a strong since of justice in Shiro.

As a teenager Shiro witnesses a battle between servants and almost gets killed. By luck or fate he gets saved by a classmate and unwillingly becomes a participant in a death tournament called the Fifth Holy Grail War. It's bloody warfare where mages use heroes called servants from every time period in history. For a chance to have their wish granted by a cup called the Holy Grail. The stronger the mage the stronger the type of servant they can summon. 

There are seven different class of servants. Rider, Assassin, Saber, Archer, Lancer, Caster and Berserker. Each servant is equipped with a special weapon or ability called a Noble Phantasm. Since the Noble Phantasm can reveal the users identity, most servants refuse to use it until moving in for the killing blow or to escape a desperate situation.

Although most Noble Phantasms are weapons like Sabers, sword or Lancers, spear some Noble Phantasms are an ability. Berserker, who is the reincarnation of Hercules is equipped with the Noble Phantasm called regeneration. Since he had to complete twelve labors, he can be reincarnated twelve times before being killed. Gilgamesh, is unique because he is the first hero in history and possesses a very large number of Noble Phantasms. He was a servant of the Archer class who had a strange obsession for Saber. 

Saber, is King Arturia Pendragon more famously known throughout history as King Arthur. She is the strongest servant in the knight class which consists of Saber, Lancer, and Archer. Her Noble Phantasm is the mythical sword Excalibur. The sword remains invisible until Saber calls its name to deliver the killing blow to an opponent. The scabbard of Excalibur, is named Avalon. It gives the holder a limited form of immortality by repairing mortal wounds in an instant. Avalons regenerative abilities saved Kiritsugu Emiya's life several times during the fourth Holy Grail war.

Unlimited Blade Works follows a two-week period in Shirō Emiya's life. He goes from an amateur mage to becoming a Master in the fifth Holy Grail war. There are seven Masters for seven servants. Masters are capable of controlling servants by command seals placed on the back of their hands. A Master only has three command seals to control a servant. Once all three commands are used the Master loses control of the servant and can be killed by them. 

Shiro, summons Saber and together with the assistance of another mage named Rin Tōsaka tries to stop the Holy Grail war. Tosaka summons the servant Archer who turns out to be the future version of Shiro from a different timeline. Archer hates Shiro because he knows what awaits him after death. His biggest desire was to kill Shiro before he becomes a champion of justice and is reincarnated as a servant. 

Servants, maintain their form by feeding off their Master's Mana (spiritual energy). They can heal injuries and use their Noble Phantasm multiple times depending on how much Mana their Master can produce. Some servants like Caster, can drain Mana from humans causing them to fall into a coma and in some cases death.   

Caster, is a special servant because some Casters are also mages. This is dangerous to the Master because if the Caster is stronger than the Master...he will be killed. In the fifth Holy Grail War. The Caster is Medea. A sorceress who was the daughter of Greek King Aeëtes of Colchis. Medea was so powerful she was able to summon her own Assassin servant to assist in the Holy grail War. Only the Caster is capable of summoning another servant.  
   
To date there are three different anime series based off the Fate/Stay Night novels. There's Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Zero (the 4th Holy Grail War), and Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works (the 5th Holy Grail war). All three of the anime are superb. Although the writing, battles and character development in Unlimited blade works seems to be a step above the other two installments. 

If I had to describe the series in one sentence it would be. Fate/Stay night, is a mix of action packed battles, betrayal, tragedy, magic, with excellent characters and plot. Check out the clips below featuring battles between Shiro vs Gilgamesh and Archer vs Lancer. 

AniManga: Kiseijuu (Parasyte)

 



















Movies always speculate on what would happen if an intelligent alien species colonized the Earth. Parasyte, offers a gruesome answer to that question. Kiseijuu (Parasyte) is a horror manga written by Hitoshi Iwaaki that ran from 1988 - 1995. The anime started airing in October-2014 and ended March-2015.

Parasyte's are worm-like creatures that invade the body through the nose or ears and take control of the brain. Once the Parasyte controls the brain, the body is just a host that can change appearance and physical characteristics at the parasites whim. Once a person becomes a Parasyte they no longer retain their personality or human characteristics. 

All Parasyte's eat whatever type of creature their host body is. If a Parasyte invades a dog's brain, they feed on other canines, a cat's brain, they eat cat's, a human brain, they eat humans. When a Parasyte invades the body but cannot take over the brain, then both human and Parasyte share the body but retain their individuality.

The story revolves around a 17 year old teen named Shinichi Izumi. Shinichi lived a normal life in Tokyo with his parents until one night parasites invaded the earth. One Parasite attempted to crawl into Shinichi's ear as he slept, but failed because Shinichi was wearing headphones. The Parasyte was forced to enter through his hand which alerted Shinichi. Who then used the cord from the headphone's to trap the Parasyte in his right hand. Since the Parasyte took over his right hand Shinichi named it "Migi," which is the Japanese word for "right".


Migi and Shinichi form a symbiotic relationship as he learns about the world and tries to find his place in it. Parasyte's have low level psychic abilities which allows them to sense their kind but not what type of host they inhabit. These abilities also allow the Parasyte to assess the emotional state (aggressive, peaceful, nervous, etc...) of other's in their species. As well as the foreign Parasyte's proximity within several hundred meters.  

In the beginning of the relationship Migi protects Shinichi from other Parasyte's. As the story continues Shinichi develops his own power due to suffering a near fatal wound from the Parasyte who killed his mother. Along the way Shinichi gains a few friends and many powerful enemies from a group of organized Parasyte's trying to control mankind.

The story is a twisted reflection of the fear humans have when confronted with meeting other intelligent life. It paints a graphic tale of tragedy, suspense and horror mixed with elements of a normal high school student's life. The anime was incredibly well done! It looks like they used the manga as a storyboard for the animation. 

I recommend watching this series if you're looking for a dark science-fiction animanga that's action-packed to the very end. Check out the clip below.

AniManga: Akame Ga Kill

Now that the album is done, I have a little extra time to go snowboarding and catch-up on my manga. My latest love is AniManga: Akame ga Kill!  which literally means "Red-Eye Kill!"

I can describe the manga in three words "Off The Hook." The story focuses on Tatsumi, a villager who travels to the Capital city to raise money for his village only to discover the Empire was covered in corruption. The assassin group Night Raid recruits Tatsumi to help them in their fight against the Empire to end its corruption.

Night Raid, is a group of assassins comprised of the swords woman Akame, scissor wielder named Sheele, the string manipulator Lubbock, armored warrior Bulat, the sniper Mine, beast fighter Leone and their leader Najenda. They work together with the Revolutionary Army to take down the evil prime minister and free the citizens of the empire. Pay attention to the original line-up of names, because this series kills off main characters faster than the show "Game of Thrones".

All the members of Night Raid and most of the powerful fighters in the series use "Imperial Arms" also known as a Teigu. Imperial Arms were created by fusing parts of supernatural Danger Beasts with alchemy over 900 years before the series begins. Forty-eight of these items were created. Half of the Teigu were lost to history and the rest have been collected by the empire and rebels to become more powerful.

Although Teigu are weapons, they can be human and animal based which makes some hard to identify. The easy to identify Imperial Arms are swords, firearms, scissors, cosmetic box and armor. The difficult ones are a shape-shifting dog that has a fetish for consuming human flesh. And Susano, a powerful warrior who is also a Teigu who has lived over 1000 years. Not everyone can use an Imperial Arm. When a person chooses to use a Teigu, they must be compatible or the user risks death.

Throughout the series Night Raid collects and loses members and Imperial Arms battling the Empires most powerful general Esdeath. She has her own team of Teigu wielding warriors named "Jaegers" who protect the Empire and more specifically protect the minister. Aside from being crazier than the mad hatter on an acid binge, Esdeath is powerful and has an attraction to Tatsumi that borders on the psychotic. During a few points in the series Esdeath kidnaps Tatsumi and Night Raid has to rescue him from her icy clutches.

The manga series and the anime diverge with the anime no longer following the canon material during the "Wild Hunt" story arc. The anime chose to skip that whole arc and add their own ending to the series. I personally don't like how they ended the series, because they made up the ending and it seems rushed when you compare it to the rest of the anime series. 


 

With that said, I recommend checking out both the anime and manga because the series is worth it. Above I posted the final fight between Akame and Esdeath. 

If I had to describe the series to a new viewer in one sentence...it would be. Akame Ga Kill, is a mix of hardcore action, high speed battles, tragedy, madness and a whole lot of dead people.

AniManga: Highschool DxD

 

Summer is in full effect and Holland is hot. It's been so hot I would gladly take a trip somewhere cold for a vacation.

I just finished watching season 1 of the AniManga, Highschool DxD. Season two has already begun and the first three episodes have been good.  

Highschool DxD is about a boy named Issei Hyodo who becomes a demon when he gets killed by a girl on his first date.  Issei gets resurrected by Rias Gremory a high ranking, she-devil and heir to the Gremory clan. He is given the option to serve as her slave or die. It's later revealed that the girl who killed Issei was a fallen angel, and she did it because she sensed he had power.

The show is funny and full of fan service.The first season follows Issei as he learns what it means to be a demon, while going to school. Issei attends a former all girls high school. He and his two friends are perverted teens in love with the female form. I can honestly say Issei reminds me a little of myself at 15. He loves breasts more than anything else and spends a good deal of time trying to see and feel them. 

His master Rias Gremory is aware of Issei's lecherous mentality and uses her large breasts to motivate him in his demon training. Issei must learn to control the hidden power within him called a Boosted Gear. The entire back story to what the Boosted Gears are and how their bestowed has yet to be revealed. Hopefully it will be fully explained in season two.

The main protagonists in season one were other demon clans. The Gremory clan along with a few other clans make-up the royalty in hell.  The story takes place after the last great war where Satan was killed and the older brother of Rias Gremory takes his place. The enemies of demons are the Angels which exorcise the evil ones using holy swords. The swords are blessed by god and even the slightest scratch can kill a demon.  There are also fallen angels which are angels who move between hell and heaven. They are more like mercenaries who do assassinations and seem to be as corrupt as demons.

In between the laughter and fan service there is a lot of action and battles. The fight sequences are a mix of magic and swordplay with a little martial arts. Demons organize their slaves into teams based off chess. Issei is a "Pawn." Rias is the "King." She also has a Queen, Rook, and Knight as part of her team.When they go to war with a rival clan, they show the moves of the pieces on a chess board.

The swords are a main plot of season two. The most powerful holy sword is called Excalibur and it was broken into 7 smaller swords to better distribute its power. When the church separated Excalibur into pieces they experimented on children to see which were compatible. When they couldn't find a match, they killed the children. There was one survivor of the experiment and he serves as the knight of Rias Gremory. Both the church and the demon clans want the Excalibur swords destroyed. The  problem is that rogue priests and fallen angels have them and the church and Gremory clan have to unite to defeat them. 

If you like action packed, comedy, shounen, anime....check out this series. I posted a clip from a battle between the Gremory Clan and Pheonix Clan below. 

AniManga: Nurarihyon no Mago

I just finished watching the anime series Nurarihyon no Mago (Nurarihyon's grandson). It's an Animanga that was good... but left me unsatisfied with the conclusion.

The series is broken into two parts. First, there was Nurarihyon no Mago. The grandson of great Yakuza demon lord, Nurarihyon named Rikuo Nura. Rikuo has to take over as Third Head of the Nura Clan at the young age of 12 years old. His father was killed in front of his eyes so he was forced into the position.

The Nura clan are Yokai (demons) which protect humans and keep other gangs out of Edo, Japan. Rikuo is only one quarter Yokai, and can only change into demon form at night. The series follows  Rikuo as he trains to become a skilled ninja fighter while building his own parade of 100 demons. Just like his father and grandfather.

The protagonists in part one were a group of rival demons from the Shikoku area. They knew the Nura clan was weakened by the death of Rikuo's father and planned to take over their territory. The Shikoku group of 88 demons led by its leader Tamazuki, had a sword named the Devil's Hammer. The sword was fabled to be unbeatable. Even with the sword, they get crushed by the Nura clan.

There's also a third group of fighters which are humans named Onmyoji. They are like the Quincy's in Bleach. The Keikain House, are the most famous Onmyoji. They specialize in using Shikigami. Spirit creatures and elements like fire, lightening, water, etc. There job is to protect humans from yokai. 

In part two, Rikuo undergoes more training and learns how to control "Fear" which is demon energy. The Nura clan has to fight a 400 year old demon fox, named Haguromo-Gitsune. Who is trying to give birth to the anti-christ so demons could rule over the earth in darkness.

Part two is way better than part one in my opinion. It gives the complete back story on how Rikuo's father dies. Why he dies. Who orchestrated the hit. The connection with the Onmyoji, and a lot of ninja battles. The fights are fast-paced, with good action sequences. They mix martial arts with magic like Naruto or Bleach. 

The only problem I had with part two is that they don't conclude the story! The series stops on episode 25. They do a recap of the whole series in episode 26. If they did end it on episode 25...I didn't understand it. If you have seen the series or watch it and get the ending. Write it below this post in the comments or send it to me in an email. I am dying to know what happened.

Check out the battle between Rikuo Nura and Seimei the Anti-Christ below.