One would have to be infinitely dense to not have seen the Holmes/Watson direct allusion between Victorica and Kujo. Of course, I’m confident that there was no love interest between Doyle’s two iconic characters. Although, knowing the internet, rule 34 would have cured that by now.

I suppose it is asking too much to produce a story about detectives and mysteries that doesn’t have a Holmes-type character. The archetype has become the essence of the brilliant investigator. Moreover, people accept it. They even wish and expect it. So, the obvious result is a batch of characters loosely based around a stock set of archetypes and plots.

We’re supposed to forgive this slight simply because Victorica is freaking adorable…so damn freaking adorable. Are we supposed to fall all over ourselves just because she pulls out a pipe before solving a mystery?

Well, I say, not unless there are bubbles!

At least, they haven’t had her pull out a magnifying glass.

The most unique aspect of this show is the endless wardrobe that Victorica seems to posses. In particular, the many bonnets and headbands (you had to see that coming).

Pimples piss me off!

I’m all about wash-rinse-repeat. That’s why I think it’s important to maintain a proper clean face routine.

A clean face starts with the right product choice. It has to be something tuned to your personal skin type. Many people choose products based on what they are exposed to by friends or advertisements. I did my research at the store. I was looking for something clear and orange when I stumbled upon the Clean&Clear Morning Burst facial cleanser.

It has “Bursting Beads.”

So far, I’m not sure how well it works against the occasional pimple.  That’s okay, though, because it has “Bursting Beads.”

No, this isn’t one of those, “and it was awesome” post. It is one of those, “I thought I finished it seven years ago” post.

So, I’m sitting in my living room all cozy and whatnot due to the relinquishing of the ambient temperature during the season Winter, henceforth known as coldy-time. It being Sunday; me having completed my usual Sunday jog. I was settling into a nice morning of watching television. It occurred to me that I had plenty of time to finish the Last Exile re-watch project that I had started several days prior.

Sometime during the re-watching of Last Exile, it occurred to me that I was not quite recalling the events of said series. As the episodes progressed, I found that I was recalling less and less about the story. Until the point that I could not foretell anything that was going to occur in the final episodes leading to the climax of the story. This troubled me.

By story’s end, I had come to the complete realization that I had never fully watched the show. My re-watch project was a re-watch not. It was a watch project; yet, I was unaware until the very end.

Who knows how many more years I would have gone without knowing this, if not for the happenstance of wanting to watch it again.

Also, Al’s hair thingies are awesome.

I’ve always found it interesting that the heroines in anime are often strong, independent, and motivated. Whilst, the male heroes are often indecisive, reckless, and incompetent. The presumption is that this is because of the predominance of male anime fans. I’ve heard speculation that male characters are designed so that male fans can put themselves into the story in place of the male leads. This is more natural selection than design, IMO. (Specifically, I’m thinking about harem comedies, but I think it affects other genre.) The fact that these male characters do relate to so many anime fans is telling.

However, the fact that the female characters are often more popular than the male characters tells us something else. It isn’t always what one would think.

It has often been mentioned that the least interesting character in a harem comedy is the male character. This makes sense, if taken from the perspective of a male viewer experiencing the show through the male lead’s eyes. The other (female) characters play off the male lead to progress the story. The male isn’t as important as the female characters, in that sense.

Moreover, it doesn’t matter what the male character is supposed to be or be thinking in the context of the story as much as what the viewer is experiencing through his eyes (what the viewer is thinking). Thus, again, the story must progress through the use of the female characters. Because the story has to utilize the female characters to move the plot along. These characters become more defined, more human, and more relatable.

What happens when there are no male characters? Can you just give all the girls super powers, big guns, no pants, and mecha?

Will it be enough? Apparently.

Strike Witches is at its heart a magical girl show. There is nothing spectacularly different from any other magical girl show (aside form the striker units). But, like many others of its ilk, it proves that when it comes to anime you don’t need guys when you have a bunch of girls. You just need to give them big guns, independence, intelligence, and the ability to kick ass.

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I almost didn’t post this because there are a lot of contradictory examples that appose the arguments I made here. However, most of the ones I could think of have to do with the female lead being indecisive or incompetent.

Long ago, in time long forgotten, there was an anime called Heroic Age.

Actually, it wasn’t all that long ago. It would be around two years or so. Of course, in aniblogger time, that might as well be Precambrian.  Bloggers tends to be a bunch that have a fixation on the current.  I tend to notice spikes of interest in certain shows garnering more attention, as measured in “hits” on certain blog posts over the course of time. They seem to be centered around loosely associated geographic areas. I find it interesting, because it either means that fansubs are awfully late for these languages/areas or people are watching domestic releases in their spheres. It’s probably a bit of both, but I lean more toward the domestic release on either DVD or media broadcast. In regard to the latter, I lean more toward television broadcast.  This pure conjecture on my part, though.

As of late, I’ve been watching more and more rented anime. Despite reports of the demise of the American anime distribution business, there are still plenty of releases every month. But the real gems have always been the economy boxsets.  Although, currently RighStuf and DeepDiscount both have the two Heroic Age boxsets selling for around the $40 USD price range, which isn’t really “economy” enough for my taste, being about average for a 26 epsiode series.

Well, that’s why I rented it.

This one still partakes in the occasional English dub. I find I enjoy not having to put as much effort into absorbing the story. But, beyond that, the most interesting part of this story was the links it had to Greek Mythology. After doing some research on wiki, I left this series with a greater respect for the plot.

How elements correlated and are ingrained with Hesiod’s Five Ages is of particular interest. The five ages, embodied by the five tribes in the story, are probably the most succinct example of blatant allusion that I’ve ever seen in anime, and I find it wonderful. I truely do enjoy a story that makes one guess and conjecture about the meaning behind the lines and symbolism, but sometimes just having it plainly layed out is fun too. This is especially true for a story that so heavily leans on a known subject matter.

That is not to say that the story is a one-to-one mapping of mythology, but the links are rather straight forward. The Gold/Golden Tribe are the height of existence and the more pure and knowledgeable, the Silver being next, Bronze being war like, Heroic being nearly gods, and the Iron tribe being newly born; they fight for existence and suffer for all they have.

The story turns out to be one of hope and achievement, but we already knew that was the case. Destiny played a supreme role in the plot of Heroic Age. Again, this is something to be expected.  The fact that the Iron tribe could only achieve their status through blessing of the Golden tribe is classical Greek mythos, which only strengthens the story, in my opinion.

Technically, this is a mecha anime, which will immediately turn off those who hate mecha anime. For that matter, the “mecha” are not really all that attractive. For instance, Bellcross spends the entire show with its mouth hanging open, seemingly unable to clench its teeth.  They howl and rage and break things. There is rarely any emotion other than fury. They are beast, in the most literal sense of the word. Maybe it was purposeful, as it is noted in the story that they were linked with other tribes to give them a sense of purpose or heart.

It was that kind of superfluous pandering to the belief that destiny favors the bold and love can conquer anything that infused the story. That’s beautiful.

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So, “Heroic Age” actually makes reference to two things: Hesiod’s Heroic Age and the main character Age, as in Age being heroic. Isn’t that great? That’s totally awesome. I love word play. Although, apparently, the age the story takes place in wouldn’t be the “Heroic Age,” because that was before humans or the Iron Age.