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Shelf Life
Springtime for Panties

by Bamboo Dong, Paul Jensen,

Jump to this week's reviews:
Denki-gai volume 2
D-Frag

On Shelves This Week

.hack//Roots Complete Series DVD
Funimation - 650 min - Hyb - MSRP $39.98
Currently cheapest at: $23.28 Rakuten

Synopsis: A new version of The World is out, and Haseo and his new guild mates are excited to search for the legendary Key of the Twilight. Their quest soon brings them face to face with a guild named TaN, which is trying to obtain one of Haseo's guild mates' character data. However, strange things start happening, and once again, actions inside the game are starting to have serious real-world consequences.

Thoughts: This series takes place seven years after the events of .hack//SIGN, and sets the stage for the .hack//G.U. PS2 games. It reunites director Kōichi Mashimo and writer Kazunori Itō who worked together on several of the .Hack properties, including the original series. You can check out some of Theron's thoughts on .hack//Roots here and here.





Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 - The Complete Series DVD
Funimation - 650 min - Hyb - MSRP $39.98
Currently cheapest at: $23.02 Rakuten

Synopsis: Tokyo is still recovering from a devastating earthquake seven years prior, but the reconstruction efforts are being sped along by androids called Boomers. Linna has moved to Tokyo for a job, but she dreams of joining the Knight Sabers, a group of armored suit-wearing women who fight against rogue Boomers. Linna gets her chance when she runs into Priss, a member of the Knight Sabers, and soon finds herself working alongside Priss, Sylia, and Nene.

Thoughts: I've always preferred the original OVAs to 2040, but that's not to say that 2040 is devoid of merit. It just lacks so much of the oomph and unforgettable music that made the original such a fan classic. Anyway, if you want to see what some of the other ANN writers have thought of the series, you can check out reviews here, here, and here. We love our Bubblegum Crisis. If you want to watch it online, you can stream the entire series dubbed or subbed on Funimation.com, or watch the first four episodes on Hulu, which also has the original OVA.




Ninja Scroll BD, DVD
Sentai - 94 min - Hyb - MSRP $29.98|$14.98
Currently cheapest at: $14.60 Rakuten|$8.75 Rakuten

Synopsis: When wandering swordsman Jubei saves a ninja woman named Kagero, he finds himself in the middle of a conflict involving super-powered fighters known as the Devils of Kimon. Later, when he's investigating a mysterious village plague, he discovers that the Devils are involved, along with a man from Jubei's past he thought was dead.

Thoughts: Back in the late 90s, if you asked anime fans what movie they'd recommend to newcomers, Ninja Scroll would always invariably be on a few lists. These days, the glow of Ninja Scroll has somewhat faded from our collective memory, but it's still a classic worth revisiting, especially as a critical piece of director Yoshiaki Kawajiri's body of works. If you're amongst those who've never seen it, you can check out some of our reviews throughout the years, or watch it streaming from The Anime Network and Hulu.




PUCHIM@S Season 1 + OVAs DVD
PUCHIM@S Season 2 DVD
Funimation - 111 min - Sub - MSRP $19.98|$19.98
Currently cheapest at: $14.99 Right Stuf|$14.99 Right Stuf|$14.99 Funimation Shop

Synopsis: This ONA follows the daily lives of the idols at 765 Production after they meet miniature versions of themselves, called Puchidols (petit idols).

Thoughts: These DVDs feature the complete ONAs, recombined into director's cut episodes, as well as OVAs. The episodes are adapted from a four-panel manga series written and illustrated by Akane, and directed by Mankyū, the director behind the somewhat bizarre Mobile Suit Gundam-san that you may have seen on your social media timelines in the form of naked dancing Char Aznable gifs. If anyone has thoughts on PUCHIM@S, please share them in the forums! Otherwise, you can check it out for yourself on Funimation.com and Hulu.






Shelf Life Reviews

We've got two comedies for you this week, both that occupy that hazy space between Shelf Worthy and Rental. First up, Denki-gai no Honya-san, a comedy about the employees of a doujinshi store.



Denki-gai no Honya-san is a thoroughly enjoyable series, although it's difficult to extol its virtues without simultaneously thinking about its price point. I've really liked what I've seen of Denki-Gai so far, especially this particular set of episodes, but I'm not sure I $23-enjoyed them. That's the ultimate cost breakdown for each episode on Ponycan's sumptuous and gorgeous four-episode BD and DVD boxset—lower, if you take into consideration the soundtrack that's packaged with it, a six-track compilation that clocks in just under 30 minutes. I mention all this not to trot out the tired back-and-forth about otaku-centric pricing models, but to explain why, despite liking the series, I wouldn't put my wallet where my mouth is.

It doesn't help that, while Denki-Gai is funny and delightful, it's not particularly note-worthy. I appreciate that the characters are likable, the humor is appropriately fan-oriented without being pandering, and the fanservice is cheeky, ample, and equal opportunity (panties, boob grabs, shirtless dudes, and banana hammock shots? A+). But while the episodes are laugh-out-loud funny while you're watching them, they're a little forgettable once the TV has been turned off.

Of the episodes included in this volume, I enjoyed "Panties in the Spring" the most. It's really a testament to the sturdy comedy writing chops of the production staff (and of course original mangaka Asato Mizu) that they can dedicate an entire third of the episode to panty flashes, and still have it be fresh and hilarious. Sensei is told by Kantoku that her manga has a "fatal lack of panties." When she points out a frame where she includes an upskirt shot, he dismisses it, saying, "It's just a blob of cloth." She and the viewers then get a crash course in the subtle art of panty flashes, from full glimpses, to tiny peeks, to something Umio calls Schrödinger's Panties. It culminates in Sensei's successful store display, which even includes a school uniform skirt that flutters on the edge of a reveal. That episode also includes my second-favorite scene on the disc—a silent film-styled flashback featuring Sommelier and a stray cat. I won't spoil the ending, but it involves the cat being taken away by two sneering hooligans.

Although most of the jokes in the show land, some of them drag on a little too long, especially scenarios involving Sensei. A large chunk of them revolve around her perceived homeliness, and although some of it is humorous, it gets so repetitive that it borders on mean. Jokes aside, there are some quieter moments in Denki-Gai that really shine through. In the scene that takes place after Sensei decides to quit her job at the bookstore to become a manga assistant, we get a chance to see how much the idea of her absence affects her co-workers. Likewise in "Homeless," it's nice to see the characters coming together to help Sensei finish her manga, even if the experience is full of mishaps. Denki-Gai can never stay serious for too long, but the gaps between the jokes are touching, and do a good job of keeping the characters a cohesive unit.

One thing that I absolutely adore about Denki-Gai is its incredible backgrounds. It's set in an Akiba doujin shop (a fictional version of the real-life Toranoana, sandwiched between "unimate" and a fictional version of Taito Station), so every square inch of retail space is filled with books and promo material, each lovingly drawn with fictional covers and characters. I watched some of the scenes twice, just to gawk at the backgrounds. This is recreated partially on the backside of the boxset cover art, which reveals a shot of the bookstore, but the complexity with which it exists in the series is fantastic.

The rest of the packaging is lovely, too. It comes with the aforementioned CD, two character mini posters, one of Fu Girl and one of Kameko, as well as a double-sided poster that replicates the front and back illustrations on the cover. The booklet might be the best part, though, containing character information, detailed backgrounds, and a section devoted to all the fake manga mentioned in the series, including the panels that were used as references for the spring panty festival.

Still, while the boxset itself is very well made and thoughtfully presented, and while the series itself is a good way to spend an afternoon, I don't personally think it's worth the sticker price. Even discounted, it's a bit much for four episodes of above-average-but-not-gut-splitting comedy. However, I do think that everyone should check out the series online (it's streaming legally on Crunchyroll), because it's well worth the time.
- Bamboo[TOP]

Next up, Paul takes us through the comedy of D-Frag!.

I've reviewed a number of high school gag comedies for Shelf Life, and D-Frag! is not my favorite show on that list. (That honor goes to the absurdly self-aware Chronicles of the Going Home Club.) It is, however, the only series in this genre that's been able to pull a Shelf Worthy rating from my cold, stingy hands. That may sound a bit odd, but the reason behind it is simple: when it comes to the basics of comedy, the show consistently hits the mark.

As is usually the case with this kind of series, the main characters are all members of the same quirky school club. The game creation club consists of three dangerously eccentric girls, a shamelessly lazy faculty advisor, and Kenji Kazama. Kenji fancies himself a juvenile delinquent, but he's really just a normal guy with spiky orange hair. The girls coerce him into joining so they can have the minimum number of members needed to retain their status as an official club. It's not until after he signs his life away that Kenji finds out they don't actually create any games worth mentioning and are in the midst of a bitter feud with the school's original, legitimate game creation club. I suppose he could just quit, but then the series would be over.

As you might expect from a show about a game creation club, D-Frag! is at its best when the characters are playing some sort of game. Over-the-top competitions with easily exploited rules allow each character to play up his or her unique personality quirks. Roka can be can be weird and adorable, Chitose can cheat like there's no tomorrow, Takao can get flustered when no one else takes the game seriously, and Kenji can get mad at everybody and yell a lot. The show is very good at having the characters progressively one-up each other until the original intent of a game is completely forgotten. That pattern of escalation reminds me of the Calvinball stories from the old newspaper comic Calvin and Hobbes, and it's a lot of fun to watch everyone try to rewrite the rules on the fly.

When the characters aren't competing over a handmade gym bag or playing an elaborate and violent version of tag, the humor is far less consistent. Some routines, like Kenji's encounters with the underwhelming “Band of 14 Devils,” work well enough to carry an episode. Other jokes, like the physics-defying qualities of Takao's boobs, are used more often than they ought to be. Just about everything in this series is funny the first time, but very few things are funny the twelfth time. The repetition is especially apparent if you watch more than a few episodes in one sitting, since it's easier to notice when the show uses the same gag over and over.

I first watched D-Frag! when it ran as a simulcast last year, and I honestly wasn't expecting it to hold up very well. Gag comedies tend to rely heavily on the element of surprise, since most of their humor comes from defying the viewer's expectations. While it does lose some impact on a second viewing, I was surprised by how often I laughed despite knowing how any given scene was going to play out. That longevity is a result of good, solid execution, especially from the original Japanese cast. In terms of both timing and delivery, D-Frag! has comedic dialogue down to a science. Even its weakest material is presented extremely well, and that extra polish gives the series a leg up on similar titles. Good presentation makes average ideas more entertaining and good ideas more memorable.

On merit, D-Frag! occupies a nebulous middle ground between Rental and Shelf Worthy. The reason I'm inclined to round up instead of down is that despite a handful of weak points, it's still a very good example of its genre. There are other high school comedies out there that I personally prefer, but D-Frag! is an easier title to recommend. Even if its subject matter doesn't strike your fancy, it's still able to make you laugh. When you're dealing with something as subjective as comedy, that's an impressive accomplishment.
- Paul[TOP]

That's it for this week. Thanks for reading!

This week's shelves are from Patrick, who knows what he likes:

"My name is Patrick. I am 26 and I am Irish, but I live in Tokyo and I work for a Japanese company.

Lupin and Rurouni Kenshin are the only franchises that I care about, so they are the only franchises that I collect.

So, what do you think? Suki?"


(Click on the images for a right-side-up version)

I need to embrace this philosophy of collecting; it would certainly save me some space and money. Thanks for writing in, Patrick!

Want to show off your shelves? Send your jpgs to [email protected]. Thanks!


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