Diamond no Ace

Sawamura Eijun is a gifted pitcher whose uncontrollable erratic throws caught the eye of a scout and assistant director from the Seidou High School baseball team. During a visit to the school, Eijun faced clean-up batter Azuma Kiyokuni with Miyuki Kazuya as catcher. Miyuki's words encouraged a nervous Eijun who throws his best pitch yet and greatly impressed the two. His inability to control his pitches, lack of proper training and exercise however make him an unlikely candidate for the team's ace. Eijun has to start at the bottom.

Eijun is joined by freshman Furuya Satoru, also a pitcher with high-speed and strong fastballs and forkballs. Like Eijun, he lacks experience in junior high baseball. He was alienated by his teammates who cannot catch his pitches and called him a monster. Eijun on the other hand was just unlucky to have average teammates who cannot match his passion for the game. Furuya also wants to be the ace of the team. He and Eijun will have to earn that position.

Another freshman, Kominato Haruichi, is a second baseman. He has an older brother on the Seidou baseball team who is extremely skilled. Haruichi has always been a big fan of his older brother Ryousuke and always imitated what he did. But imitation can only go so far. Will Haruichi finally be able to shine even when he's on the same team as his brother?

Seidou doesn't lack talent however. Despite Eijun's and Furuya's talks of becoming the ace, Seidou already has an ace. The best players in the team however will graduate after the Fall tournament. It's their last chance to get to the national stage. But even with reliable veterans, a great support system and talented freshmen Seidou has a lot of hurdles to overcome to reach that goal.

Sawamura Eijun

Furuya Satoru

Kominato Haruichi

Seidou High baseball team coach Kataoka Tesshin (right, foreground)

Eijun with mentor and senpai Takigawa Chris Yu

Seidou High Baseball Team

Seidou High baseball team's senior members

If you're a fan of baseball or just sports anime in general, Diamond no Ace continues the legacy of excellent team sports anime. The first season of Diamond no Ace is a story of discovery, triumphs and painful defeats. It has several colorful and memorable characters and intense match-ups. Although it doesn't require the audience to be familiar with baseball, a knowledge about the sport is an advantage when trying to understand to the various gameplays.

The plot follows the usual sports anime formula. A talented but untrained player comes into a promising team vying for the nationals. He wants to be the best in Japan but his ambition is also fueled by his desire to take his seniors to the finals who want to avenge last year's loss. One unique quality that separates this from other sports anime is that the lead character Eijun has a rival on the same team who is as strong or probably stronger than him. My only complaint is that the plays focus too much on the pitchers. That makes it difficult to remember the names of other characters besides Miyuki.

Sometimes several episodes are dedicated to one match and yet there isn't a boring moment. It's a level matched only by another series, The Prince of Tennis.

It's a relief that the 75-episode series did not choose to focus too much on the back stories of Eijun, Furuya and Kominato. Instead, it highlighted the plays and analyses of players. The humor was a bonus. If you enjoy sports anime or if you're a fan of The Prince of Tennis and you want to search for an anime with the same quality of story, Diamond no Ace is the series for you.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Gangsta.

Set in the city of Ergastulum, two Handymen take on criminals both the police and the underground cannot handle. Partners Worick Arcangelo and Nicolas Brown are the go-to guys of the cops and the mafia. Worick is the charismatic brains of the duo, while the deaf Nicolas acts as the muscleman.

Underneath the intrigues of Ergastulum's gangs lies the mystery of the Twilight, humans who possess extraordinary abilities through the use of a drug called Celebrer. These super-humans are ranked and identified through dog tags. Nicolas wears an A/0 tag.

Meanwhile, from across the Handymen's office and residence lives the prostitute Alex Benedetto. Worick and Nicolas are both aware of Alex's wretched condition. The Handymen decided to take her in when her abusive lover died.

Nicolas Brown

Worick Arcangelo

The Handymen

Alex Benedetto

The first thing you'll notice about this series is its great animation. The choice of the voice actors was also a factor why I had to watch it. Suwabe Junichi (Worick) and Tsuda Kenjirou (Nicolas) have two of the sexiest voices in the industry.

With a title like that you'd expect a lot action, guns, drugs and prostitutes, intrigues and crimes. Gangsta. fulfilled all such expectations so much so that you can feel the desperation and the anticipation of violence. Despite that, there are moments in the series when nothing seems to happen. Sometimes you forget what it's all about, if there was any point to the story at all. The intervals between action scenes and dialogues tend to lull you almost to boredom.

When it finally showed the back story of Worick and Nicolas, the series got more interesting. However, the story about the Twilights wasn't fully explored and the ending posed more questions than answers.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Deadman Wonderland

When a strange man in red armor slaughtered Igarashi Ganta's entire class and embeds a red crystal in his chest, his life changed forever. Days later he was sentenced to death and sent to a prison camp that  also functions as a theme park. In Deadman Wonderland, inmates are asked to perform various tasks that sometimes result to death. Each prisoner has a collar which constantly injects poison in the bloodstream. There is an antidote however in the form of a candy which must be consumed every three days. It acts as a currency in the prison and is acquired by performing the tasks given to them such as contests and performances.

Ganta believes he can still find the "Red Man" and avenge the death of his friends. However, he must first figure out how to survive the lethal games in Deadman Wonderland. With the help of his new friend Shiro, Ganta might just discover something more to the strange events he's been thrown into since the massacre of his classmates. Maybe it wasn't a random act of brutality after all.

Igarashi Ganta (sitting, left) with his dear friends before the massacre

Shiro and Ganta

The beginning was pretty intense and it's the kind of opening that gets you hooked to the story right away. This 12-episode series is action-packed, has a great back story and full of interesting, crazy characters. The downside to having so many colorful characters however is that they sometimes overshadow Ganta's story. The series tried to pack so many stories in such a short time that it's both exciting and frustrating. The animation isn't bad either. My main complaint is that the lead characters Ganta and Shiro are not as memorable as they should be for a promising series. Some characters become too distracting, you tend to forget what the story is about.

There are some great moments in the series however, especially the fight scenes. I don't recommend this however to people who don't like bloody battles.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Amatsuki

Rikugou Tokidoki is sent to a virtual history museum showing the Edo period to make up for failing his history class. He's the type of student who doesn't pay attention. Not a bad kid, but he's too laid-back. While looking around, he meets Shinonome Kon, also a student. He lost sight of his companion however and was attacked by strange-looking creatures. To his horror, he realizes that his attackers are not part of the simulation. He loses one eye but was saved just in time by a girl name Kuchiha. He learns that the nue which attacked him was controlled by a creature called Yakou.

Tokidoki is trapped in the real Edo and has no way of escaping. He is later cared for by Lord Shamon who is acquainted to his rescuer and the student he met in the virtual museum. Surprisingly, Tokidoki seems to have taken a liking to his new life despite finding himself in the middle of a war between demons and humans.

Rikugou Tokidoki and Shinonome Kon

Tokidoki meets strange creatures in virtual Edo

Tokidoki loses an eye when he was attacked by a nue

I found it a bit strange when Tokidoki took a liking to his new surroundings right away. Either he was too dissatisfied with his life or he was just too hungry for new adventures, I cannot say. It's not easy to tell what type of character he's supposed to be when I contrast my observation to how his new friends praise him as an individual. It's one of those series where an ordinary person who does not possess any remarkable intellectual or physical skill is destined for something great. A nobody becomes a person of interest in a new world. He would have been a more convincing lead character if the series didn't spend so much time talking about his qualities instead of showing how he earned such praises. 

This 13-episode series lacked something to make it memorable. There are powerful, mysterious beings; some promising fights that didn't turn out as well as I expected; and a magic system that was interesting. It had the ingredients to make it a good series about folk supernatural beings but the story wasn't executed well. The supporting cast were okay though.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

Emond's Field is a peaceful paradise far from the wars and conflicts of the rest of the world. That was until the trollocs and myrddraal attacked.  Rand al'Thor, Matrim Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, and Egwene al'Vere flee the village with strangers Aes Sedai Moiraine Damodred and Warder Al'Lan Mandragoran. The gleeman Thom Merrilin tagged along, and later, the reluctant village Wisdom Nynaeve al'Meara joined the group to watch over Egwene and the boys. The trollocs seemed to have attacked specific villagers only which is why Rand and his friends had to leave. The Aes Sedai Moiraine isn't clear about her plans for the villagers however, an issue which irritated Nynaeve. For now, their goal is to reach the safety of Tar Valon. Their journey isn't easy however. They were herded by pursuers to an abandoned city---only a prelude to more troubles ahead.

The story is told primarily from Rand's point of view. Nagged by thoughts that he was adopted by the parents he grew up with, Rand is also tormented by dreams of a man who calls himself Ba'alzamon. Mat and Perrin seem to have the same experiences as well.

The Eye of the World is the first installment of a 14-book series which is reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings. The concept of duality and the nature of time as a cycle or wheel is akin to some of the metaphysical concepts from Asia. The prologue introduces these important concepts. Light's victory over the Dark also sets the rules for the magic system used in the series. The imprisonment of the Dark One has tainted the male half of the True Source. It is easy for the readers then to determine that the course of events in the series involves the search for the Dragon Reborn and the continuation of the war.

There are moments in the book when there are too many unnecessary details. Sometimes it's tedious. The good thing about it though is that there is no lack of description. Something always happens. Although there are obvious clues as to who the Dragon Reborn is, the intrigues and mysteries of the nature of the Dark One is enough reason to keep reading.

Rating: 7 out of 10

New Spring by Robert Jordan

New Spring takes place years before the events in the first book of the Wheel of Time series. The story is about the young Moiraine Damodred and Siuan Sanche training to become aes sedai. They are caught up in trouble when Moiraine, Siuan and Amyrlin Tamra witnessed a foretelling by Gitara. She foretold that the dragon has been reborn. This dragon reborn is the prophesied champion of the light against the Dark One. To find the child, the Amyrlin ordered a record of all the babies born in the areas around Tar Valon and Dragonmount during the last days of the Aiel War.

When Tamra and other aes sedai died mysteriously, Moiraine and Siuan undertook the task of finding the dragon reborn themselves.

New Spring partly follows Lan Mandragoran's story as well . His carneira Lady Edeyn is trying to restore his name as the king of Malkier, but he later learns it will come at a cost.

It's my first book from this series so I was expecting a lot from it. New Spring didn't disappoint. I like Jordan's portrayal of the female characters Moiraine and Siuan. Two different yet believable females. I also like the intrigues going on among the sisters in the White Tower. As a woman I'm well aware that there's always a secret competition among us.

I'll expect more from the series proper itself. The world that Jordan created seems to be full of rich history, great secrets and an anticipation of an intense final clash.

Rating: 10 out of 10

The Hero, A Study in Tradition, Myth and Drama by Lord Raglan

Published in 1936, the book is divided into three parts. The first is about traditions wherein the author FitzRoy Somerset, 4th Baron Raglan discusses the differences and the validity of written accounts. There are accounts written at the time by persons present at the events they describe; accounts by eyewitnesses but not written down yet; archaeological evidences; accounts obtained from actors or spectators shortly after the event; and accounts obtained by questioning people what happened at the time before or those obtained at second or third hand.

He then proceeds to cite examples in legends and myths such as Robin Hood, the Norse Sagas, King Arthur, Hengist and Horsa, Cuchulainn, and the Tale of Troy.

The second part discusses what myths are about. According to Lord Raglan, most myths "are about gods, heroes, goddesses and heroines because they are accounts of the royal ritual... [r]itual religions aim to secure the well-being of the community by the due performance of ritual actions." Moreover, "each of these religions had certain rituals of central importance, and in each the central figure was the king, in whose person the fortune of the state was incarnate."

In this chapter, Lord Raglan enumerates the qualities common among heroes in myths and legends. The following is a list of the qualities he has observed from among the heroes:

1. The hero's mother is a royal virgin.

2. His father is a king; and

3. often a near relative of his mother; but

4. the circumstances of his conception are unusual, and

5. he is also reputed to be the son of a god.

6. At birth, an attempt is made, usually by his father or his maternal grandfather, to kill him, but

7. he is spirited away, and

8. reared by foster parents in a far country.

9. We are told nothing of his childhood; but

10. on reaching manhood, he returns or goes to his future kingdom.

11. After a victory over the king and/or a giant, dragon, or wild beast,

12. he marries a princess, often the daughter of his predecessor, and

13. becomes king.

14. For a time he reigns uneventfully, and

15. prescribes laws, but

16. later he loses favor with the gods and/or his subjects, and

17. is driven from the throne and city, after which

18. he meets with a mysterious death

19. often at the top of a hill.

20. His children, if any, do not succeed him.

21. His body is not buried, but nevertheless

22. he has one or more holy sepulchres.

Lord Raglan then cites examples of heroes and tallies how many qualities above are present in each hero. Oedipus has all 22 qualities, followed by Theseus and Moses with 20, while Dionysus and Arthur both got 19.

The last part is a short discussion on dramatic performances.

The author has a tendency to rant and go off-topic. Nevertheless, his observation of the heroes he has cited in the book might be helpful for people studying mythology and folklore. I do not recommend this however to people who have not read hero tales. Lord Raglan does not provide a summary of the tales of the heroes he used as examples.

Rating: 8 out of 10