Fall 2010 - Togainu no Chi

The barrier of social organization is usually the one hurdle standing in the way of a story without inhibitions. Mad Max saw its dystopia through the end of oil supplies. Rollerball, Deathrace 2000, and Demolition Man required economic uncertainty and global corporatism. Ultraviolet required a virus to get out of hand, while Tank Girl needed a comet to create its wasteland.

Regardless of the cause and despite the need for survival, the outcome often results in a new playground for humanity. Japan's entries have usually involved more of a duty towards reconstruction (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Appleseed), but we've also seen moments where any rehabilitation attempts are damned by gang warfare (Battle Angel Alita, Fist of the North Star). We've also seen recent shows and movies that require survival over all other counts (Battle Royale, Highschool of the Dead).

The visual novel franchise Togainu no Chi, however, uses the battlefield as a playground for neither recovery nor exclusion—it's all how the bishônen play with each other.

Developed into an animated series by Aniplex, Togainu no Chi (running at the Anime News Network website as "Bloody Curs") still takes the idea of post-apocalyptic nihilism as a means of competition. In this interpretation of the Third World War (called the "Third Division"), Japan has been split by war and the resulting anarchy. Tokyo has turned into an abandoned wasteland known as "Toshima", occupied by seedy gangsters and drug lords.

Steely-eyed Akira is one of the silent fighters in Japan's legalized "Bl@ster" fighting rings, but his freedom is revoked when he is framed for a murder. His price to pay for escape is an entry fee into the corrupt Igra fighting game, a loosely-organized competition in Toshima where competitors wear dogtags branded with playing-card decals as a sign of participation. Once the competitor completes a winning hand, he can challenge the declared "Il-re" for the position, and the victor becomes the "king" of the competition until the next challenge.

Unsurprisingly, Togainu no Chi's story develops much like the visual novel—Akira is the central figure, forced to figure out how to clear his name, while also involuntarily drawing attention from the other characters like a yaoi magnet. His friend Keisuke tags along despite his lack of involvement in the game and fighting prowess. Akira's reputation also brings challengers to the fold—a katana-wielding non-participant, an effeminate fighter, a chain-smoking bystander, and the judge/jury/executioner of the game itself, personified by the drug kingpin Arbitro and his lackeys.

With all of its pieces laid out for battle, you would think that Togainu no Chi would move at a war-march pace that Kenshiro moved in Fist of the North Star, the battles defined by the finishing moves of the fighters. However, the show seems to play more like a chessboard, the pieces moving slowly while the experts contemplate movement. Perhaps it is a lack of real character development that is at fault—we manage to get some concern from Keisuke for his friend's safety, even some one-sided attraction towards Akira from the boyish Rin, but it seems that all of the fighters are just sitting around, waiting for something to happen. Akira himself is probably the weakest of the links, shrugging off help and conversation from all comers and letting the sub-characters define what his role and personality will be.

This isn't to say that Togainu no Chi is devoid of merit—the undermining plot is put together with some interesting angles, and the dramatic tone of the show has the occasional ability to trump the lackluster art. Fan service is held back in order to let the drama take over. However, an unemotional star can really drain the plot dry, as Akira gives a performance that is more Schwarzenegger than it is Bruce Willis.

It's probably fitting, since Togainu no Chi comes out a lot like The Running Man—man is blamed for a crime, man is introduced into a game for his freedom, man fends for his life. However, the end is guaranteed to have no kiss between hero and heroine, which is probably what will draw its target audience to the show. Togainu no Chi is a yaoi love story set in a dull slab of concrete—unmoving and gray to most, appealing to those who came to the museum to see it.

Fall 2010 - OreImo

Translation: "My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute."

You guys remember Gobots, those less-advertised precursors to Transformers? Back in 1984, I got my first Gobot toy for Christmas, and I couldn't have been happier. It was also the first memory I have of when I was truly enraged at my youngest sister, as it was also the first time one of my toys had been broken just minutes after unwrapping it. As I looked at the broken Cy-Kill in my hands through teary eyes, I told myself that sisters were not cute at all—in fact, with three of them tag-teaming against me, I'd be in a verbal war with them for years.

While I've reconciled long ago and have been good friends with my sisters since high school, I've come to understand that personal hobbies seldom mesh well with younger siblings. Unless you both discover your interests at the same time, there's a good chance that your anime fix or your manga shopping sprees will just make your younger sister or brother roll their eyes. It's also a likely given that they won't call you "Nii-sama!" either.

Kirino on the phone. Remind you of your sister?

That's the reality we face in the new show My Litter Sister Can't Be This Cute (Ore no Imôto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai, abbreviated into OreImo). Typical of many brothers his age, Kyôsuke doesn't see eye-to-eye with his middle-school sister Kirino—he's just jumps through the hoops at school in a plain fashion, while Kirino is more of a hipster girl, big on fashion and talking on the phone. However, an accidental discovery of an anime DVD case holding an erotic visual novel suddenly forces the tsundere Kirino into an awkward admission—she's a total closet otaku for anime and erotic visual novels.

Kyôsuke comes to a jarring realization that he knows very little about Kirino—after she floods his senses with her knowledge of the moe anime Stardust Witch Meruru and lolicon games, he discovers her need for guidance, as she's not even sure how she started enjoying them. Kirino does admit one thing; this is flat-out NOT some latent big-brother complex she has for Kyôsuke, despite the piles of "little-sister" games she has. While Kyôsuke could easily freak out, he opts to help her out as an older brother in order to keep his high-school life peaceful and to help Kirino be a little more comfortable with her lifestyle.

Does your sister react to eroge this way?

The light novel's illustrator Hiro Kanzaki has been retained for character designs, and the softer pastels brought to his characters add some good life to a colorful supporting cast. As Kirino is introduced to the Akiba subculture, she's also led out of the shadow of online communities and into more public forums. She starts to interact with two female otaku—Saori, a swirly-eyed meganekko who embraces her nerd lifestyle with colorfully-archaic language, and "Kuroneko", a lolita boys'-love fan whose own icy nature clashes with Kirino's.

Both side characters and the supporting cast do a good job at creating stability with their arguments for and against Kirino's obsession, as the story definitely needs some sanity to keep from hurtling off at a scary tangent. The precarious "Brother-X-Sister" relationship has been skirted in the likes of Durarara!!, AkiSora, kissxsis, and Yosuga no Sora already this year, so OreImo is already tap-dancing on a pretty active landmine. When presented with these taboos, both Kyôsuke and Kirino sensibly react the way that brothers and sisters should react.

Kirino and Kuroneko.

One technical thing that ought to be mentioned: this series was picked up by Anime News Network and was subjected to a premature leak, leading to its delayed release. That being said, I still prefer ANN's media player to those used by Crunchyroll and Funimation. The switch between raw Japanese and English subtitles is clear, and the transition between commercials and show is smoother. The screen may be smaller when embedded into the website, but the image doesn't get shifted like it occasionally does at Crunchyroll. It certainly helps that OreImo contains an art style that is certainly gentler on the eyes.

There. Sibling rivalry. That's more like it.

Is OreImo realistic? Perhaps the series is two steps closer to reality and one step back from it. Kirino is still the moe mascot of the series, acting mad at the world, only to soften from the effect of her fandom. This series is more to sell the point that otaku are not necessarily the overweight male stereotype, as the gender ratio is starting to balance a bit more, but such a maneuver only appeals more to that exact male stereotype they're trying to avoid.

OreImo paints a clever story through a fun-house-mirrored view of fandom, but there are signs that we're still watching more of the same. The show deserves to be watched, if mostly to observe the dynamic of anime fans interacting against their own hobby in the anime medium itself, but there's still danger lurking. Depending on the direction the show chooses to go, OreImo can either succeed at lampooning itself or fail by becoming its own target. Hopefully, it tells its story without depending on incest.

Yes, incest. There. I said it.