Comic Book Review: ‘Amulet,’ Volumes 1 to 8

Amulet, written and illustrated by Kazu Kibuishi. 8 vols. New York: Scholastic | Graphix,

Amulet may be both the best and the worst thing to happen to children’s comics in the last ten years.

We have here before us one of the most ambitions, beautiful, and arresting graphic novel series for young readers that anyone has ever made. Although it starts with a bang and immediately sucks the reader in, by the time it reaches its not-conclusion in the most recent volumes, the story has petered out, suggesting that its fledgling creator was not quite as prepared to tackle this epic story as he at first appeared to be.

An underground city in Amulet
Epic.

Kazu Kibuishi has few titles to his name; in fact, he’s known for Amulet and almost nothing else. Nonetheless, he was the editor of the Flight anthology, which is still just about the best thing that’s ever happened to comics. Over time, Flight morphed into Explorer, an anthology aimed explicitly at young readers. At a time when so much of fiction for children and youth is designed for political indoctrination, Kibuishi appears to be a man concerned for what children actually need—good, solid stories full of heroes and villains and serious decisions that transcend the fads and fashions and worries of the moment.

Mechs walking through a rugged landcape
Amulet transcends itself.

That being said, in spite of what are apparently the best intentions, he appears in Amulet to have bitten off more than he can chew.

When Amulet made its debut in 2008, it shot to the top of the New York Times bestseller list, and for good reason. With a unique art style that finds a happy medium between careful detail and the overly simplified “CalArts” style, Kibuishi presents a tale for children that pulls no punches and reads like horror: The first volume opens with a young girl, Emily, watching helplessly as her father falls to his death. Two years later, she moves with her family into the decrepit house once owned by her eccentric great-grandfather; there, she finds a magical amulet, and shortly thereafter, a tentacled abomination grabs her mother and hauls her through a door in the basement. Emily and her brother Navin chase the monster into a parallel world called Alledia, a world full of robots, Rube Goldberg machines, and deadly monsters. Emily’s amulet grants her telekinetic abilities, but it also talks to her, playing games with her mind and constantly tempting her to sell her soul for power.

Emily on the deck of an airship
Emily gets all tempted and stuff.

Although intense for children, that’s seriously good stuff. The first volume of Amulet will leave your fingernails ragged and make your butt sore from sitting on the edge of your seat.

Although unable to equal the raw intensity of Book 1, the subsequent volumes are mostly pretty good. Starting off as a brooding horror, Amulet later settles into a more conventional epic fantasy with steampunk trappings. Emily, Navin, and their mom meet a wide array of characters including elves and furries, all while getting caught in the middle of a war involving kaiju and humongous mecha. Emily gains greater and greater power while also coming increasingly under the influence of the sinister voice that speaks to her through her magical stone.

Emily speaks to her dead father
Difficult subjects for children.

The great flaw of Amulet is that Kazu Kibuishi is clearly a huge fan of fantasy and science fiction. He has obviously consumed a large number of popular works in these genres, but like other enthusiasts (I am thinking particularly of Christopher Paolini’s Aragon or the late Monty Oum’s RWBY), he has consumed more works than he has digested. Kibuishi borrows elements form Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, The Last Airbender, and probably a host of other sources, but has not given sufficient thought to how these various elements might fit together.

Throughout the series, a careful reader will notice problems in consistency. For example, midway through the series, we learn that the elvish empire has destroyed a city called Frontera. A couple of volumes later, a handful of protagonists use their wiles to finagle their way onto a commercial airship headed for Frontera—because Kibuishi did not, apparently, consider how a major war and the total destruction of a city might disrupt commercial air traffic.

That particular detail is forgivable, but the series goes completely off the rails at the end of Volume 7. Although the entire series had represented this alien world of Alledia as steampunkish in technology, at the end of the seventh book, the heroes are suddenly boarding a spaceship.

When I read that, I thought Kibuishi was making a major mistake. That he took two full years to release the eighth volume deepened my suspicions that he had written himself into a corner he couldn’t get out of. Nonetheless, I crossed my fingers and held out hope that he knew what he was doing.

He didn’t know what he was doing. I am virtually alone in this (simply look at the glowing reviews on Amazon ), but the eighth and penultimate volume of this series is an unbelievable letdown.

This series has over seven volumes established a particular character as a major villain. The heroine deals with that villain anticlimactically. The series has promised us a major war between a ruthless invading force and a ragged band of rebels. The war ends anticlimactically without a major battle. The characters who blasted off into space were trained mech pilots on their way to pilot mechs in a last stand against implacable invaders. Instead of fighting from their mechs, they spend most of the volume visiting a farm while riding dirt bikes.

There’s a major fight in which many people die—and it happens entirely off the page. That is an astounding blunder for a series that has until now been full to the gills with heavy action.

I honestly don’t know what to make of this. In spite of some plot holes and rammed-together fantasy tropes, Kibuishi seemed, up this point, pretty good at avoiding the kinds of elementary mistakes he blunders into in the eighth book. He promises at the end that Book 9 will finish off the series—though he took a long time to release Book 8, and it’s anybody’s guess when the final volume will appear.

One thing Amulet has regardless of the story is gorgeous, carefully detailed artwork, although that is largely due to Photoshop rather than Kibuishi’s line work. Still, multiple full-page or two-page spreads are arresting with their sweeping views of rugged landscapes, airships, and fantastical cities. The art alone makes Amulet worth it.

Also, in spite of my criticism, this is the kind of series that will make you neglect your obligations: I sat down with all eight books and plowed through the whole thing, forgetting other duties in the meantime. Even the weak penultimate volume still offers a fair amount of entertainment, though it resolves several conflicts without sufficient drama. I will undoubtedly devour the ninth and final volume when it appears, whether I like it or not.

I do recommend this series, but it’s shaping up to have a poorer conclusion than I’d hoped for.

A Review of Grammarly Software

The process of editing my next novel, Rag & Muffin, is—mercifully—nearing its completion. To facilitate this process, I decided to shell out for a subscription to Grammarly Premium. I have just finished running the novel through it.

You’ve likely heard of Grammarly; due to heavy advertising, it’s a product that’s made itself widely known, deservedly or not, as a top choice among automated grammar checkers. Its reputation for accuracy may be undeserved and appears to have been artificially boosted by fake review blogs. Its most basic functions are free and can be added to popular browsers as a plug-in. However, a premium account, which runs at an outrageous price ($29.95 per month or $139.95 per year), is necessary to unlock is allegedly more advanced features.

Since Rag & Muffin is precious to me, I decided to shell out the money for a single month, download the Microsoft Word plugin, and see what I think of it.

Continue reading “A Review of Grammarly Software”

Review: ‘Key: The Metal Idol,’ Episode 9

Key: The Metal Idol, episodes 9, “Return.” Written and directed by Hiroaki Satō. Produced by Shigehiro Suzuki and Atsushi Tanuma. Music by Tamiya Terashima. Studio Pierrot, 1994-1996. 13 episodes and 2 movies. Rated 16+.

Available on Crunchyroll.

This episode continues to ease us into the second phase of the series. Still without any major action sequence, it largely centers around Akane and Key’s efforts to break into the idol industry

As the episode proceeds, they get false leads but also talk to several people who like their recommendations. In particular, the name of Tataki apparently has clout, though he had earlier demurred when they went to him for references.

Sakura talks to that one guy in the video store
That, unfortunately, is what she said.

Tataki is at this point an ambiguous character: He’s a square-jawed, masculine guy, but at the same time he is president of a Miho fan club and apparent lives for nothing but fannishness. However,  he has real influence in the industry, indicating he’s not just some geek.

Continue reading “Review: ‘Key: The Metal Idol,’ Episode 9”

Drawn Like My French Girls: ‘LoliRock’

They should have called it “Loli Auto-Tuned.”

LoliRock. Written by Madellaine Paxon et al. Directed by Jean-Louis Vandestoc. Marathon Media and Zodiak Kids, 2014-2016. Starring Kazumi Evans, Kelly Sheridan, and Vincent Tong. 52 episodes of 26 minutes (approx. 22.5 hours). Rated TV-Y.

Available on Netflix.

We now turn our attention to that other French magical girl cartoon, LoliRock. According to an earlier version of its Wikipedia entryLoliRock has the honor of being the first magical girl title from France, though this assertion was followed by the wisest and truest words to be found on Wikipedia, “citation needed.” One way or the other, we can can probably safely say that LoliRock is the first French magical girl show to get international attention. It made its appearance in France in October of 2014 and ran for two seasons. Its English dub now has a home on Netflix.

Continue reading “Drawn Like My French Girls: ‘LoliRock’”

Nanami Takes Over: The ‘Revolutionary Girl Utena’ Rewatch, Part 6

Meanwhile, in an unrelated subplot …

The bird is fighting its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Whoever wishes to be born must destroy a world. The bird is flying to God. The god is named Abraxas.

—Herman Hesse, Demian

Revolutionary Girl Utena, episode 6: “Take Care, Miss Nanami!” Directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara. Character designs by Chiho Saito. Be-Papas, 1997 (Nozomi Entertainment, 2011). Approx. 24 minutes. Rated “16+.”

Watch for free here.

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A reader helpfully points out that Nozomi Entertainment has uploaded Revolutionary Girl Utena to YouTube. When I first started this series of essays, I named some places you can acquire the show, but I didn’t think to check YouTube. I tend to forget that not all videos there are pirated.

#NotAllYouTubeVideos.

Anyway, I am continuing to watch the series from my enormously expensive collector’s edition DVD set, which is as luxurious and decadent as the anime it contains. But if you’d like to watch along with me without investing so much cash, you can now see the dub, free and legal, online. I’ll be posting the link to the YouTube video under the episode credits from now on.

Now with more images from Utena: Texts from Last Night.

This same reader makes an interesting comment:

On principle I object to stories that use symbolism as an excuse for ridiculous, poor, or perverse writing. If a story cannot stand up as an independent narrative it has no business obfuscating its shortcomings with allegories and parables. Art naturally embodies some aspect of reality. Every piece symbolizes something. Better that your symbols should be simple rather than convoluted.

Intricate meta-narratives can become great rewards for those who are apt to analyzing them, but the primary plot ought not to suffer for their sake. I shouldn’t need an essay to understand your unpainted canvas, and I should not need a documentary-length series of videos to understand what happened during End of Evangelion.

I’ve only seen up to episode eleven of Revolutionary Girl Utena, but those episodes do hold up as a narrative, despite some remarkable plot contrivances. I’m afraid to finish the series, unfortunately, since I suspect the train will drift off the rails as the series nears its end.

His opinion is similar to mine. I’m typically unimpressed with stories that use opacity to create the illusion of depth.

Some years ago, I loaned my set of Neon Genesis Evangelion to a friend who happened to be studying feng shui. She later contacted me excitedly to tell me that one of the characters in the show had objects on her desk arranged in such a way as to represent, symbolically, the characters’ interpersonal relationships. This is something I, and probably a lot of viewers, never would have picked up on, and that’s fine. I certainly don’t mind storytellers throwing in some esoterica like that. It can lend a story a certain richness even if it goes over most people’s heads.

But that is no excuse for failing to present a coherent narrative. Evangelion is rich with imaginative imagery, but it never gets down to the business of explaining basic elements of its plot, such as what Lilith is, or what the Lance of Longinus is, or what the hell is going on. Partly, it suffered because the creators didn’t husband their meager resources, choosing to blow their wad on boob jiggle in the early episodes so they had to subject us to torturous still frames in the later ones, like that infamous minutes-long elevator ride, or that nightstand. (Sweet Madoka, the nightstand! If I never again hear a dialogue about creative places to insert pills, I can die a happy man.) But even more than that, Evangelion suffered because director Hideaki Anno gave up on storytelling and turned the show into his personal psychotherapy session.

I stated in the beginning that Revolutionary Girl Utena out-Evangelions Evangelion, partly because it handles Evangelion‘s themes and postmodern techniques much more competently, but also because it accomplishes something Evangelion flubbed: It has a coherent plot with a beginning, middle, and end. That’s not to say that some parts aren’t opaque or that there aren’t unresolved plot threads, or that the show isn’t decidedly undisciplined. It’s definitely not perfect. But it has an intelligible storyline, and it manages to conserve its puny budget enough that it resorts to relatively few painful animation shortcuts.

Evangelion attempted something it couldn’t quite pull off. Building on that, Utena successfully pulls it off, albeit in haphazard fashion. I might also add that Princess Tutu, usually considered Utena’s spiritual successor, uses the same techniques, but employs them in a much more disciplined manner and entirely avoids the pitfalls of its predecessors. Continue reading “Nanami Takes Over: The ‘Revolutionary Girl Utena’ Rewatch, Part 6”

Musical Madness II: The ‘Revolutionary Girl Utena’ Rewatch, Part 5

Things continue getting freaky!

The bird is fighting its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Whoever wishes to be born must destroy a world. The bird is flying to God. The god is named Abraxas.

—Herman Hesse, Demian

Revolutionary Girl Utena, episode 5: “The Sunlit Garden – Finale.” Directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara. Character designs by Chiho Saito. Be-Papas, 1997 (Nozomi Entertainment, 2011). Approx. 24 minutes. Rated “16+.”

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Although the main plot of this show still eludes us (and will continue to do so until the third and final arc), this fifth episode represents a sea change in Revolutionary Girl Utena because it is the first episode to reveal what we’re really in for.

In the episode previous, we met Miki, another member of the student council. A mere middle school freshman, Miki is a child prodigy, a highly skilled fencer, pianist, and math student. He also has the hots for Anthy, whom he calls his “shining thing.”

Miki fencing with Juri.

Continue reading “Musical Madness II: The ‘Revolutionary Girl Utena’ Rewatch, Part 5”

Musical Madness: The ‘Revolutionary Girl Utena’ Rewatch, Part 4

Things start to get freaky!

The bird is fighting its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Whoever wishes to be born must destroy a world. The bird is flying to God. The god is named Abraxas.

—Herman Hesse, Demian

Revolutionary Girl Utena, episode 4: “The Sunlit Garden – Prelude.” Directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara. Character designs by Chiho Saito. Be-Papas, 1997 (Nozomi Entertainment, 2011). Approx. 24 minutes. Rated “16+.”

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Yeesh, haven’t done one of these in a while. My schedule these days is packed, but it occurs to me that I might be able to do so much as watch a single episode of a beloved anime on a semi-daily basis and discuss the same, so I’ve decided to continue our series on Revolutionary Girl Utena, the ultimate in LSD-fueled self-important mahou shoujo anime. Once again, I find myself sitting up late at night with one hand around a Captain Morgan Cannonblast and another hand hovering over the Print Screen button.

I have got to change my life.

Anyway, yes, it is indeed time once again to explore Revolutionary Girl Utena.

Yeah, I bet you’d like to explore Utena.

Continue reading “Musical Madness: The ‘Revolutionary Girl Utena’ Rewatch, Part 4”

‘Shugo Chara!’

Surprisingly sophisticated but unfortunately creepy.

Shugo Chara!, written and illustrated by Peach-Pit. Translated by Satsuki Yamashita. 12 vols. Kodansha Comics (New York): (). Rated T (ages 13+).

Shugo Chara!Shugo Chara! Doki, and Shugo Chara! Party!, directed by Kinji Yasuta. Satelight and TV Tokyo, . 127 episodes of 25 minutes (approx. 53 hours). Not rated. Available on Crunchyroll.

In Revolutionary Girl Utena, Kunihiko Ikuhara’s magnum opus, there are several screwball gag episodes dedicated to the side character Nanami, a spoiled rich girl who laughs inappropriately—a requisite character in shoujo anime. In the most fascinating of these gag episodes, Nanami awakens one morning to find an Easter egg in her bed. Convinced that she laid it, she at first tries to hide its existence but, on account of some misunderstood conversations, eventually concludes that egg-laying is normal for girls. In keeping with the coming-of-age theme of magical-girl shows in general and Utena in particular, the egg becomes a multivalent symbol by turns representing puberty, menstruation, childbirth, and child-rearing.

This one-off episode apparently inspired another whole magical-girl franchise, Shugo Chara!, by Banri Sendo and Shibuko Ebara, the two-woman manga-ka team known collectively as Peach-Pit. They got their start with works aimed primarily at a male audience: The little-known harem comedy Prism Palette, the raunchy magical-girlfriend series DearS (which is sort of like Chobits with more bondage), and an action series called Zombie-Loan. In the U.S., probably their most famous title is Rozen Maiden, an unusually classy harem series that’s like a cross between Pinocchio and Highlander with a veneer of Gothic horror. It’s spawned internet memes and a modest cult following.

Continue reading “‘Shugo Chara!’”

Is ‘Sailor Moon R: The Movie’ Too Gay?

Featured image: Totally a real screenshot from the film and not some crazy cosplaying by GeshaPetrovich.

Sailor Moon R: The Movie, directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara. Screenplay by Sukehiro Tomita. Starring Kotono Mitsuishi, Aya Hisakawa, and Michie Tomizawa. Toei Animation, 1993. In limited release from Viz Media, 2017. Dubbed. Runtime 78 minutes. Rated PG.

We’ll get to the meaning of the deliberately provocative clickbait title of this review in a moment. But first, let’s cover the preliminaries.

So, I just saw Sailor Moon R: The Movie, the first North American theatrical release of a Sailor Moon film, courtesy of Viz Media, which now owns the North American distribution rights. The film originally came out in 1993 and runs a mere hour and eighteen minutes. I hope some other showings around the country are more successful than the one I attended, or Viz Media is going to go broke, and I don’t want them to go broke until they finish releasing the series. Continue reading “Is ‘Sailor Moon R: The Movie’ Too Gay?”

‘Magical Girl Raising Project’: The Final Verdict

It’s a bloody mess.

Magical Girl Raising Project, episode 11, “Server Down for Maintenance” and Episode 12, “File Not Found.” Directed by Hiroyuki Hashimoto. Studio Lerche. Produced by Genco (2016). Two episodes of 24 minutes (approx. 48 minutes). Rated PG-13. Available on Crunchyroll.

I was going to review this earlier in the week, but my Flash player kept crashing for some reason. Anyway, let’s get this over with so I can get back to injecting Sailor Moon S straight into my bloodstream. As I mentioned before, Magical Girl Raising Project gave me a hankering for Sailor Moon S, and then Viz Media turned around and supplied.

I’m a heroine addict, and these distribution companies are my dealers.

Here be spoilers. Since we’re talking about the two final episodes, I assume that’s obvious.

Continue reading “‘Magical Girl Raising Project’: The Final Verdict”