I burned through the first half of Blood+. Normally, it takes me forever and a day to get around to watching a box set. If I go the collected box set route, it usually means I didn’t find it worthy enough to spend the extra money to get the initial single volume releases. So box sets are usually a I’ll see it when I see it, instead of a must see this now type of thing. Getting a box set felt a little different with Blood+ since it was actually one of the shows I was eager to see.

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One volume in and I begin to wonder which Gonzo made Red Garden. Is it the one that made Last Exile and Gankutsuou or the one that made SpeedGrapher and Real Bout High School? Cheap-shot mentioning RBHS, I know. I guess either way, Red Garden promises to be horrific, though obviously I pray for the good kind.

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Le Chevalier D’Eon scored well with me on a lot of notes in the beginning. The story borrows the setting of pre French Revolution Europe, uses the history and historical figures, twists them up, throws in zombies and wizards called poets in an intrigue filled plot. Sounds like it could be interesting, but add in wonderful art direction, solid animation (for a TV show), and a cast of characters that don’t fall into the usual collection of fetish archetypes and it should have been bait for best anime released on R1 dvd for 2007. I wish I liked it more.

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The episode that stuck with me the most on Mushi-Shi volume 3 is episode 14, Inside the Cage. While traveling through a bamboo forest, Ginko meets a man who can’t seem to leave the forest no matter how far he walks and what direction he goes. The man longs to return to his village after being gone for several years. He has such fond memories of the place and wishes to return with his family, even though the villagers who could travel to his home where he lives with his wife and child no longer visit. Even the man’s sister does not come and it’s all because his wife and child are different. What happens when the thing you have been longing for doesn’t want you?

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I wandered into a random screening room sometime around ten at night, mostly just looking for a place to sit down and rest. It almost didn’t matter what anime was showing; a seat and a break from the convention was the goal. As soon as I sat down, the opening for the next episode began. Some seconds pass. Hazy forest images and the first phrase of an acoustic guitar walking beside a gentle voice singing — I knew Mushi-Shi was something else. The opening imagery and music were so atypical of anime that I found myself relieved of any cynicism I might have carried into the viewing experience. Almost a purification. It’s kind of funny that the opening song is The Sore Feet Song considering the only reason I was in that chair at that particular time was because my feet hurt.

Wallpaper from Desk Top Anime

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