Journals
Monday,Apr 11 2005, 01:02:13 AMYuzuyu is a 5-year old girl whose mother has...
Yuzuyu is a 5-year old girl whose mother has just disappeared and now must stay at a relative’s house. One of the relatives she soon meets is her cousin, a high school student named Kippei. Kippei is a playboy at his school, the guy that seems to be on almost every girl’s mind. But his normal everyday playboy life is severely disrupted as his elder (evil) sister Suzuko assigns him the job of taking care of Yuzuyu. Now Kippei must learn how to do all the ‘motherly’ things that he never wanted to know about.
Even though Kippei seems to command the attention of most of the girls in his class there is one exception. Kokoro, a beautiful but often very quiet girl, pays absolutely no attention to Kippei and even seems to loathe him. Kokoro’s friends don’t quite understand her, as they seem to enjoy Kippei just fine. However, as Kippei spends more time with Yuzuyu he appears to change his ways and we observe that Kokoro becomes closer to the new Kippei.
Aishiteruze Baby is a love story, kids show, and drama all rolled into one. It not only deals with a rather innocent kid’s side through the eyes of Yuzuyu, but also from a more mature perspective from Kippei and his family. A lot of the stories start out innocent but evolve into dealing with a lot more serious issues like child abuse and suicide. Most of them deal with some kind of family problem but the love story between Kippei and Kokoro also plays into this. One could easily catch part of an episode and think this is merely a kid’s show because of the constant involvement of Yuzuyu, but nothing could be farther from the truth.
The characters are all fairly good especially the leads. Kippei is indeed a playboy but he doesn’t come off being a total jerk of a character. Although I think this is mainly due to the nature of the story. Kokoro has just about everything a good love interest should have and then some. She does have her own dark past but we don’t really get into that until later in the story. Most probably won’t recognize Yuzuyu’s voice actor because she hasn’t even been around that long! She’s voiced by a 9-year old girl, which gives the character a bit of authenticity I guess. Either way she does a good job with the Yuzuyu character.
Aishiteruze Baby was an enjoyable little series overall. It certainly felt like it was pushing some limits in the romantic and family drama departments. If you don’t mind the stuff I explained above then give this one a try. You might find yourself picking up a new manga series as well.
Monday,Apr 11 2005, 12:26:05 AMChrno Crusade Basic Info: Chrno Crusade is a...
Chrno Crusade
Basic Info: Chrno Crusade is a manga (Japanese comic) created by Daisuke Moriyama in 1998, which was first published in the old Comic Dragon magazine, and later in Dragon Age, published by Fujimi Shobo, a division of Kadokawa Shoten. The popularity of the series quickly gave birth to four drama CDs (1999-2001), an anime series (2003-2004), an anime drama CD (2004) and a novel “Tsubasa yo, are ga tamashii no akari desu” (2004). The manga and the anime series ended recently in Japan (June 2004), with a total of 8 volumes and 24 episodes, respectively. Chrno Crusade is licensed in several countries, such as the United States (by ADV Manga) and Germany (by Carlsen Comics). The manga is also known as “Modern Wizard” in Hong Kong, China, and Korea.
Summary: The story begins in New York in 1924. Sister Rosette Christopher, a young novice nun from the Magdalan Order, a religious militaristic organization, and her assistant and best friend Chrno, a patient and kind hearted demon, are sent to different missions, consisting mostly in fighting the many different monsters that lurk in the shadows. During one of their missions, they met Azmaria Hendrick, a young girl with supernatural powers that is somehow connected to Joshua Christopher, Rosette’s younger brother who was kidnapped several years ago by Aion, a former comrade of Chrno. Aion is an overly ambitious demon that has big plans for the future of the entire world and will go to any lengths to achieve his great “dream of freedom”. To do this, he needs the help of 7 very special people. What exactly are Aion’s plans, and what does he intend to do with Joshua and Azmaria’s powers? Rosette and Chrno, along with Satella, a jewel witch who is also targeting Aion for personal reasons, are determined to find out, but they will have to face the dark shadow of Chrno’s past first, a past that is now coming back to torment him and could separate Rosette and Chrno forever. Will the strong bond they share be able to survive the test? Will they be willing to pay a very high price in order to stop Aion and rescue Joshua and everybody else?