Shelf Life

Blade Runners

First up, the valley of the dolls. Once you get past the total creepiness of Gundam MS Igloo, it's actually one of the best Gundam shows out there. It took me a while to come to this conclusion, because I was so frightened by their vacant eyes, their poreless faces, and their twitchy Xenosaga-like movements, but this series is definitely awesome.

Past Gundam shows have largely been based on the same theme—intragalactic warfare brought on by some kind of political dispute. Sometimes the rebels were the heroes, sometimes the status quo was the way to go. But what of the little guy? MS Igloo is a salute to the soldier, the technician, and the recruit who survived hell, but ended up dying because of a system malfunction. It focuses on everyday people, and that makes it one of the more accessible Gundam shows. It's short and episodic, too, so you don't have to sit through a million episodes to get the point.

The second volume (technically a standalone OVA that chronologically follows the first) is very similar in structure to the first—the ship is tagged with the responsibility of trying out some new government weapon, and the Lieutenant Colonel has to write about it. This time, it involves a rocket meant for fighting in planetary atmospheres, a junky mobile armor pieced together from leftover parts, and a fueling center that allows all the fighters to refuel and restock ammo in battle. Like the preceding volume, it also chronicles the many men who lose their lives, but this time, it also strives to be a little more dramatic. One of the test pilots ends up being a commander's brother, and in the last episode, the Lt. Colonel himself.

These episodes are so vastly different from everything in the Gundam franchise that it makes them worth sampling. It may help to have a slight background knowledge of the Gundam universe, but it doesn't really matter. At the end of the episode, regardless of who's fighting whom, the deaths are the same and the tragedies of battle are the same. This OVA is more about war than it is about anything Gundam, and it's a nice change of pace. I don't know that I'd ever pay $50 for three episodes, but it's definitely worth renting.[TOP]

There's always been something fascinating to me about stories that involve shady corporations or government-sponsored projects. It's fine and well to have a standard “bad guy,” but it's brought to a whole new level when the enemy is capable of a dark evil so immense that regular citizens don't even know about it. Secret testing facilities? Sinister medical research labs? It's stuff like that which makes shows like Witchblade cooler than they ought to be. It may not be the best show in the world, but as long as there are creepy men in white lab coats, I'll keep watching it.

Up until now, the series has established two main points—the Witchblade wielder is useful for getting rid of monsters, and there are many people who would love to get their hands on that power. With the third volume, the latter part of that comes into better focus as more time is spent on just how far NSWF will go to recreate a superior Witchblade. Between expending numerous humans as test subjects and living targets, and creating a small army of genetically modified soldiers, they're definitely unscrupulous, and prove to be adequate foes.

Villains aside, it's pretty clear that the “good” guys aren't that great, either. They've got their own bevy of sketchy experiments going on, and it's well known that their goals are just as morally impure as those of the bad guys. That's why Witchblade is fun to watch. It's not because the cast of characters is particularly fascinating, because most of them don't even matter, and a lot of the ones that do aren't even properly introduced, so you have no clue who they are. It's not even because the story is that interesting—because really, it's kind of a mess, and there aren't enough adequate explanations for everything to fall properly into place. Witchblade is fun because you have two giant corporations that can do anything they want to, and at the heart of it, you have this sweet mom and her super sweet daughter, who just want to stay together. It's like a super soldier spy movie, only without Matt Damon, and with a lot more breasts.

Also, let it be known that a crucial plot point in this volume is a drinking contest. I didn't think drinking contests were cool past freshmen year of college, but apparently it's today's modern duel. Apparently, some of these corporation heads can take down 20-some shots of vodka without dying, too, which is a feat in itself.

So between evil conglomerates, breasts, and binge drinking, we have the recipe for a show that's kind of mediocre, but has enough pizzazz to keep viewers watching. Deep down inside, everyone likes shows about taking down “the man.” That's why Witchblade is worth watching, but probably just as a rental. I love seeing some butt-kicking action, but once is enough for me.[TOP]

Last on this list is Hell Girl volume three, a series that I continue to be torn on. Since the introduction of the reporter, things have gotten a lot more interesting. Rather than just follow the same routine formula of watching people experience nightmares and get ferried to hell, there's finally an external force trying to convince people not to pull the Hell thread. The problem is, people keep doing it anyway, so his efforts are totally wasted.

This brings us to something interesting—in earlier volumes, I had thought that the reason Hell Girl spied on her clients was so that she could decide whether or not those they wanted to banish to hell were deserving of such. And, in fact, this was true for at least one episode. However, more recently, it's appeared as though this is not the case. Even if someone is innocent, they can still be sent to Hell, which gives the series new implications. It's also worth noting that apparently Ai's helpers are allowed to meddle in Hell's affairs, which may lead to interesting events further down the line. However, their existence still hasn't really been explained, which is disappointing.

It is nice to see the series pulling away from all those nightmare scenes, though. As interesting they were the first two times, they got dreadfully old really fast. Now things are changing up a bit, to the point that we don't even have to listen to the same old Ai monologues every time, which is a big improvement. For the first time, the series even showed the other end of the tables—that is, what happens to the people whom first pulled the thread.

All in all, the series is definitely looking up. I was worried that I would reach my saturation limit of Hell Girl, but it's been changing fast enough that my interest is still piqued. Subtle changes in Ai and the way that other people perceive her has made her a much more interesting character as well, so I look forward to seeing what will happen here.

Aside from that, it's still one of those shows that takes a fair amount of patience to sit through. It's still pretty repetitive, and nothing really stands out technically. It's not a series that I'd make a point to put at the top of my rental queue, but it'll keep someone entertained for a couple of hours.[TOP]