The Final Fantasy series must be put to rest...

I had mixed reactions when Square Enix unveiled their plans for Final Fantasy XV -- formerly Final Fantasy XIII Versus -- at E3. Just to give some people a visual backgrounder of what I'm going to be somewhat ranting about, here's the trailer (if you haven't seen it yet):



I was amazed at how beautiful and grand it looks. The cinematic storytelling is awe-inspiring. They obviously learned a lot since their Advent Children days. Most importantly, the gameplay holds a lot of promise.

So why am I saying that the Final Fantasy series should just die?

Well, it took me weeks to figure out what it was. I even searched through many articles just to find some ways of knowing if I wasn't the only abnormal person who felt this way. Turns out that I wasn't. Here are a few write-ups I've stumbled upon:

• Why Some in Japan Aren't Thrilled with Final Fantasy XV‘s Setting
• Square Enix CEO Resigns; FFX Fans Rejoice
• E3 2013: Final Fantasy XV and the death of the Japanese RPG?

Let me summarize and address a couple of points that have been raised in each page's comments section.

#1. Newer Final Fantasy titles have become too visually realistic.

It seems like the Japanese aren't too happy that their favorite fantasy game has become too realistic for their tastes. Personally, I have no problems with this. 

A screenshot of Esthar City, a place in FFVIII where everything looks sci-fi.

Final Fantasy VIII was one of my favorite FF titles and even though a lot of people, at the time of its release, complained about it being too modern and bordering on sci-fi, the gameplay still felt very much like a Final Fantasy game. There's the active time bar (ATB). It's turn-based. And the classic job system is very much in place even though it isn't too obvious to many lovers of classic FF. (For example, Quistis is a Blue Mage, though it wasn't explicitly mentioned in the game.) Which leads me to the next complaint.

#2 Battle system has changed from turn-based to action RPG.

Again, I have no problems with games that employ a non-traditional approach to RPGs. I have no problems with action or fighting games. I was a fighting gamer before I was introduced to Wild Arms and Final Fantasy VII. I have enjoyed Parasite Eve, Dissidia (both the original and Duodecim) and would have enjoyed Kingdom Hearts had it not made me nauseous.

A scene from Final Fantasy Dissidia 012 Duodecim, featuring many of my beloved characters

I could name many more games I enjoyed that the newer Final Fantasy installments are similar to but don't share the same title.

So if these two top comments aren't my issue, why do I still want FF to die?

It's simple. A game as promising as Final Fantasy XV should have its own franchise. This new direction that Final Fantasy is taking alienates many of us who aren't purists but want to retain a certain level of consistency in the title itself.

I feel that since FFX (a great game, though its sequel FFX-2 actually felt more like its old school counterparts, specifically FFV), the title has been veering farther and farther away from what was expected of it. Sure, innovation is a wonderful thing, but like stage musicals...there has to be a binding force to keep its identity intact. If you can't help but update the look and feel of the game, at least keep the atmosphere in place.

Well, a chocobo could be considered a binding force.
Except I'm not too sure if I should believe Squeenix when it  says  that this is a chocobo.
Source: uploaded by Paramina at Final Fantasy Wiki.

Nobuo Uematsu wasn't heavily involved with FFXII, hence I did not feel the Final Fantasy in it, even if I loved its characters Fran, Balthier and Ashe. But with FFXIII totally removing even the battle theme, I wanted to call the game by another title. To me, it has lost every right to call itself a Final Fantasy game even if I still gush over the likes of Lightning and Oerba Yun Fang.

It wasn't until that time that I realized that the Victory Fanfare was the last remaining glue that held all FF titles together. The book Buy-ology by Martin Lindstrom explained this feeling perfectly. Among all our senses, our sight is the one most bombarded with stimuli. Visual cues compete with each other for our sight's favor. Because of this constant visual overload, we have actually become quite jaded when it comes to the things we see. This makes our other senses -- particularly our hearing and our smell -- even more powerful. To me, at least, hearing a semblance of the old Final Fantasy reminds me that yes, it is a Final Fantasy game.



And now they totally want to deviate from the old ATB system. That blows the "feeling" part out of the water. I understand the need to milk a franchise for what it's worth, but whatever happened to producing other great  titles and franchises like Star Ocean, Chrono Trigger, Valkyrie Profile? Couldn't Final Fantasy XV have a franchise of its own so that it wouldn't have to dwell under the shadows of its beloved predecessors?

The death of Japanese RPGs...NOT.

Well, there's still hope for us people who miss traditional old school games. With the advent of mobile games, a few Japanese game developers and publishers like Kemco have been churning out new mobile jRPGs that have that traditional feel we all miss. I am currently addicted to one of those games, which I will be reviewing soon. Their games are available at Amazon.com (sometimes they even have $0.99 titles, and they often have half-price sales). So all is not completely lost...even if half of me is still pining for a new Final Fantasy that actually feels like one while the other half wishes for a Final Final Fantasy.

The title screen of Kemco's Eve of the Genesis

Fifteen years after Final Fantasy VII

Last week, when I started playing Dissidia 012 [duodecim], I experienced a sudden gush of nostalgia. I was ecstatic at the thought that I would get to play Final Fantasy VII's Tifa Lockhart and witness the possibility of more interactions with Cloud Strife.

Truth be told, Final Fantasy VII was the very first of the  franchise I had ever played, having grown up as a platformer and fighting gamer. Yeah, I was one of those "n00bs" older gamers used to belittle, the way my generation now scoffs at new "gaming kids", whose equivalent of our Super Mario is now Angry Birds. I was too young to play the earlier installations but I more than made up for it after FFVII. I have to admit that while FFIV and FFVI had deeper storylines, there was something about VII that made me remember the characters more despite its unoriginal epic tale.

I can't believe this was how it looked like back then.
And we all thought the graphics were freakin' awesome!

I guess I could credit the memories to Cloud's interactions with his comrades. Advent Children (AC), the 3D animated film that takes place two years after the final battle, may have turned Cloud into brooding Squall Leonhart, but I don't think I could ever forget how funny it was when he disguised himself as a girl just to get Don Corneo's attention. Or those hilarious dating combinations that can have a player picking brawler Tifa, sweet Aeris Gainsborough or dark, hulking Barret Wallace (dude in bottom-left screenshot) as possible escort. And that romantic Cloud-Tifa moment under the Highwind!!

(Much as it pains me to admit, I had thought Cid Highwind and Barret were old at 35 and 39 respectively, and Cloud was mature at 20. Now I am nearing Cid's age. Haha!)

Date scenes with Barret and Tifa.
Photos below are of Tifa and Cloud under the Highwind.

Some hardcore fans might grudgingly say that Square-Enix is milking the franchise with all the follow-up games, movies and merchandise but I, for one, am happy. I am one of those who rooted for a Cloud-Tifa angle, and reading developer interviews cemented my love for the game. It was especially thrilling to find out that they initially intended for Cloud to do something intimate with Tifa under the Highwind (but they scrapped the idea, fearing it would be too risque). I also wondered why Cloud became so cold in AC and it turns out that FFVII's scenario writer, Kazushige Nojima, had written novelas explaining the relationship between Cloud, Tifa and the children they adopted.

Tifa in both AC and original costumes.

I tried reading fanfics just to get my fill of Tifa Lockhart but they were nothing compared to Nojima's telling. I loved how he deepened the girl's character by making her tough yet vulnerable at the same time, generous endowments notwithstanding. She had spunk and wasn't afraid of letting Cloud know that she was having none of his seeming apathy.

Honestly, the best part of all the installations that followed the FFVII world is that I don't need to replay the game. Goodness knows, I don't really want to go back to timed battles (they were easy, but the pressure!!!), snowboarding (which made me dizzy), and that blasted Temple of the Ancients (rocks kept rolling all over me, which makes me wonder how I managed to finish harder games like the first Castlevania). I'm too old for mini-games that require good hand-eye coordination. In fact, if they ever remake some aspects of the game, I really do wish they'd come up with a tactics version. Or something that would be kinder to our generation, since we love the characters so much.

For those who are just as hungry as I am in getting your hands on some important snippets of Final Fantasy VII, here are some related (non-playable) literature:

• Advent Children
• Last Order OAV - warning: there are some scenes that deviate from the original game, which they fixed when they released Crisis Core.
• On The Way to A Smile - a series of pre-AC short stories penned by Kazushige Nojima, the second of which focuses on Tifa
• On The Way to A Smile: Episode: Denzel - an anime based on the first of Nojima's short stories and was released with AC Complete.
• Maiden Who Travels the Planet - written by Benny Matsuyama, this is a novel that tells of Aeris' experiences in the Lifestream after her death. This was published in the FFVII Ultimania Omega.

Revived Spotlight: L'arc~en~Ciel

This spotlight was originally posted on April 2002. We're re-posting it again now, since it's timely. L'arc~en~Ciel has been celebrating their 20th anniversary since the start of the year and has been doing concerts throughout 2011. The most recent, L'Anniversary Concert, was held last May 28–29, 2011  at Ajinomoto Stadium in Tokyo.

Here's Firesenshi's original April 2002 article. My updates are at the very bottom.

>>> L'ar~ En~Ciel One of Japan's leading JRock groups joined other elite members of the Japanese music industry in putting up songs for the Rurouni Kenshin Soundtrack.

When Tetsuya was forming a band, he just thought the french word for "rainbow" sounded cool. He probably had no idea how fitting the name would be for their rock group. Their sound is as diverse as its members, and as colorful as their band name. It's a mixture of heavy metal, techno, rock and pop.

L'arc~en~Ciel (Raruku to their most beloved of fans) was formed in February 1991. Its original members were Tetsu (bass), Hyde (vocals/guitar), Hiro (lead guitar) and Pero (drums). When Hiro left the scene, Tetsu decided to phone longtime friend Ken, who was then taking up an architectural course in a university. Well, our beloved bassist and band leader Tetsu must have awesome powers of persuasion, because he did talk Ken into joining L'arc~en~Ciel. It was smooth sailing then for the band, because by November of 1992, they have already released their first single, "Flood of Tears". Unfortunately, though, by December, Pero left the band. It was then that Sakura came into the scene, becoming an official member by April of 1993. It was also this time that L'arc~en~Ciel released their first album, "Dune". Success was spelled out for the band, as they soon made tours, videos, albums, and concerts from left to right.

But in 1997, Sakura was arrested for illegal drug use. L'arc~en~Ciel's career came to a halt. Their single, "Fourth Avenue Cafe" was cancelled (but for a time, it was made into RK's ending theme, before the whole incident with Sakura). However, after a few months without any sign of the band, it suddenly rose to the surface with a concert in Tokyo Dome--and a new drummer in tow, Yukihiro (who was an old member of the band Die in Cries). To say that their fans welcomed them back with open arms is an understatement. Their tickets were sold out in a total of four minutes, breaking the record of ticket sales in Tokyo Dome.

As of now, L'arc~en~Ciel continues to be one of the biggest jrock names around. Not only have theysold over 500 million copies of some double albums, but they also continue in making over a score of hit singles, and quite a number of albums to their credit. To the anime, manga and RPG fandom, they are best known for their songs "Niji", "Fourth Avenue Cafe", "Blurry Eyes", and "Spirits Dream Inside". The first two songs were included in Rurouni Kenshin OSTs; the third was made into DNA2's opening song; the last one, was used as the theme song of the amazing Final Fantasy movie, "Spirits Within". It doesn't end there. They make themselves known outside Japan, too. Their song "Lose Control" was included in the asian release of "Godzilla" OST. Another one, "Passion Road", rocked the scene of a Toyota commercial which was aired in Asia.

To most bands trekking Japan's hottest pop and rock music scenes, this is as big as it can get. And it doesn't look like they'll be fading any time soon--if the years they've spent in the limelight is any indication.

Skysenshi's note as of August 14, 2011

After Firesenshi wrote the above article, the band went into hiatus for a couple of years, while the individual members went on to pursue solo projects. Proving that L'arc~en~Ciel can stand the test of time, they reunited in 2004 and released "Ready Steady Go", which was later used as the opening theme of Fullmetal Alchemist.

Perhaps one of the most interesting reinventions they did as a band was when they called themselves P'unk~en~Ciel. Though they have gone through incarnations as The Zombies and D'ark-en-Ciel, it was as P'unk~en~Ciel that they actually changed roles: Hyde on guitar, Yukihiro on the bass, Ken on the drums and Tetsuya on the vocals. Having Tetsuya do the vocals actually affected their sound so they really came out sounding more like punk than rock. This is surely a testament to their vast array of skills and versatility. Besides that, they're still looking good as ever. It's hard to believe that in other countries, they'd probably be considered old men.

We're definitely looking forward to more of their ingenuity for years to come! =^.^=

International Game Developers Reach Out To Japan

Many people in the game industry worldwide have come together in an effort to help Japan, a country whose video games have inspired many designers and developers to be what they are today. This resulted in GamersHeartJapan, a project that urges everyone to donate to several organizations that are involved with Japan's recovery.

Here are some screenshots from their video:

Pictured above are just some of the most influential Japanese video game icons that some of the interviewees have named. Humble yet creative, they've pushed the video game industry beyond boundaries and convention.  Can you guess who they are?

The evolution of Japanese video games. They also credited Japan for their animation, among so many other creative things. In the video, game people talked about what they loved most about Japan and many have mentioned food, aesthetics and most importantly, culture, which every Westerner seems to describe as an interesting mix of discipline, innovation and craziness.

Perhaps my favorite quote in the presentation was by Siobhan Reddy, Studio Director at Media Molecule:  

"I love Japan because Japan is a total feast for the senses. Everywhere you go, everything you experience is just amazingly vivid..."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Do visit the GamersHeartJapan website to find out how you can help. Here's the complete video. It's about an hour long. Thanks to GM Tristan for the heads up!

A tribute to the literary genius behind Howl's Moving Castle

Diana Wynne Jones, multi-awarded author of many fantasy and sci-fi novels, passed away on March 26, 2011. She suffered from lung cancer. One of her best works include Howl's Moving Castle, on which Hayao Miyazaki loosely based an endearing anime movie of the same title.

She was awarded an honorary doctorate in Literature from the University of Bristol in 2006 and The World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2007. Howl's Moving Castle novel received the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award in 1987 and was also named by the American Library Association as a Notable Book for both Children and Young Adults.

The animated feature, on the other hand, not only broke box office records in Japan, it was also nominated for the 2005 Academy Awards.

It can be said that Ms. Jones had one of the most vivid imaginations when it comes to creating worlds in fiction. She will be sorely missed. I can only hope that someday, Miyazaki can pick up some (if not all) of her other books for animation.

She has one more novel, Earwig and the Witch, that will be published in the summer of 2011 by HarperCollins in the United Kingdom, Greenwillow in the US and Tokuma Shoten in Japan.

Spotlight: We can all learn from Japan's Strength

I'm supposed to only write one Spotlight feature per month but seeing the devastation that has swept Japan and the strength/courage her people displayed, I can't help but be amazed. We normally joke about how giant monsters always attack Japan or ponder about apocalyptic messages in many an anime feature. But the 8.9 earthquake and the tsunami attacks that followed seem to be just a few of Japan's real-life enemies.

After my initial horror at seeing live footages of the tragedy, I found myself reading up on the Japanese people's response to the calamity. One of the things I stumbled upon was Jun Shiomitsu's compilation of Tweets reflecting how the Japanese really feel about their plight. What beautiful people! They displayed surprising resiliency despite the tragedy. Here are a couple of snippets:

You can read his entire compilation here. Let me just say again how amazed I was that there were no signs of riot or mayhem amidst all these. They assisted each other calmly. I never thought it was possible for a nation to act so dignified at a time like this but I had been proven wrong.

For those who wish to lend a helping hand, I've previously blogged about the little ways in which you could reach out to Japan. I'm also trying not to read negative comments about Japan (Pearl Harbor etc. when the damage to Hiroshima and Nagasaki was hundred-thousand times greater) because that would just spark unnecessary negativity. All I know is that whenever a country suffers some natural catastrophe, Japan had always been quick to aid.

So I'm taking a break from reviewing anime, manga and video games this week just to offer this tribute. Japan, I hope we all learn from your shining example.

On a brighter note, I wonder if this steadfast behavior is common to the animals, too. I mean, many otaku have heard of Hachiko, the dog whose legendary loyalty has earned him a commemorative bronze statue in Shibuya. Here's another story about a loyal dog in the wake of the earthquake+tsunami combo:

Revived Spotlight: Rumiko Takahashi Special

Originally the January 2002 Special: The genius behind Ranma, Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, Inuyasha, and many other titles have been regalling us with her creativity since the 1970s. Take a glimpse of her short bio.

2002 special written by Firesenshi. 2011 Update notes by Skysenshi at the bottom of post.


Rumiko Takahashi 
Featured by Firesenshi, January 2002
Who hasn't heard of Rumiko Takahashi in the entire animanga fandom? She's easily one of the most famous and most lovable mangaka around. Many of her works have become instant classics—the most successful to date being Ranma 1/2. Some of her other popular titles include Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, the Mermaid Saga, and Inu-Yasha, which is her latest installment. She is also the author of many short stories (i.e., Rumic Theatre).

Rumiko Takahashi was born in the year 1957, in Niigata (Japan). She attended college at the prestigious Nihon Joseidai. At the same time, she also enrolled in Gekiga Sonjuku and was trained under the infamous Kozuo Koike (author of Crying Freeman). For several years during her days in the university, she boarded on an apartment in a small district in Tokyo. It was during this time that she became neighbors with a funny group of people who lived in another apartment just behind hers. This was the inspiration for Maison Ikkoku, a tremendous hit that surpassed even its successful predecessor, Urusei Yatsura. But truly Takahashi has outdone herself, for she came with another hit, an even bigger one that Maison Ikkoku ever was—Ranma 1/2. And there's no telling if she'll do it again, with her newest series, Inu-Yasha, especially when it looks very, very promising.

What are the secrets to her success? Two things: great characters and charming wit. In the span of her career (which is roughly over two decades), this trademark of hers has been recognized. Rumiko Takahashi is known for writing stories that are mostly character-driven. No one creates characters like she does, for hers are unique and unlike anything else, in their hilarity, eccentric habits and unconventional situations. In her manga, there are always tons of slapstick, clever puns (the title "Urusei Yatsura" is a prime example) and Japanese references included (which is why it makes her wonder sometimes why her works are so popular in foreign countries ^^;).

Oh, she's also very fond of legends, mostly Japanese and Chinese ones! Anyone who has encountered Ranma 1/2 will easily know that, but this fondness is also apparent in many of her other works.

It might come as a surprise that such a popular mangaka best known for her romantic comedies, also writes horror stories. But truly, she proves her skill and versatility as a storywriter when Ningyo no Mori (Mermaid Forest) and Laughing Target came to be published. Both are genuine examples of her talent in weaving macabre tales.

Now you see why she's so legendary?

It's only right we feature such a genius here at Okashi! ^_-

2011 Update Notes by Skysenshi:
In 2002, Inuyasha won Shogakukan Manga Award for best shounen title of the year. In 2006, it ranked 20 on TV Asahi's top 100 anime series. These make Inuyasha one of her most successful titles to date. It also happens to be her longest, spanning 12 years, since it ended in 2008.

Her latest manga, Rin-ne, began in 2009 and like most of Takahashi's titles, would find its way among the ranks of bestsellers. It is about a girl named Sakura, who can see ghosts, and her friend Rin-Ne, who is half shinigami and half human.

Rumic Special! Who hasn't heard of Ranma 1/2? Or even the latest Inu Yasha? All are unforgettable anime from great genius Rumiko Takahashi. We just had to feature her works! Series: Ranma 1/2 Ranma: Big Trouble in Nekonron China Ranma: Nihao my Concubine Ranma: OAV Maison Ikkoku TV Series Maison Ikkoku the Movie Mermaid's Scar Mermaid Forest One Pound Gospel Inuyasha Rin-ne Manga: Inu Yasha Maison Ikkoku Ranma 1/2 Rumic Theatre Vol. 2: One or Double Urusei Yatsura Downloads: Rumiko Festival Screensaver (was available in 2002)

Revived Spotlight: 2011 Valentines Special: Romance Mangaka

This is another one of our Spotlights that I'm reviving. We used to have many articles for one Spotlight, as you can see from our 2005 interactive poster:

Out of the three specials, I've chosen to revive Thundersenshi's article on Romance Mangaka. I'm sure there are more now, as we've recently discovered josei titles, which we prefer over shoujo. Anyway, here are a few of Thundersenshi's favorites. If you have a favorite that isn't mentioned here, well, you can always use the comments box so we can feature them in the future. =^.^=

---

February 2005 Valentines Special: Romance Mangaka
by Thundersenshi

Miki Aihara
She debuted in 1991 with Lip Konshasu under Bessatsu Comics. She is the author of Hot Gimmick, a shoujo gaining a bit of international attention recently. Like the mentioned title, her works are all shoujo, and mostly involving a high school setting, and her artwork is the classic shoujo type (big, starry eyes, and flowers). Aside from writing and drawing manga, she also enjoys shopping for clothes. Not much else is known about her outside Japan.

Hisakaya Nakajo
She is the author of the ultra-fun, ultra-romantic Hana Kimi (Hanazakari no Kimitachi e). Even as a little girl, she already loved reading, and she also had a talent for drawing. Who'd be surprised that she'd turn out to be a mangaka? She is enjoying quite some fame now for her beloved Hana Kimi series. She also came from an exclsuive girls' high school, which would account for her favorite manga settings.

Yuu Watase
Born in Oasaka, March 5, 1970. She's quite an established author already, having had a series of successful manga that were eventually animated. You would know her from some of her works like Fushigi Yuugi, Ayashi no Ceres and Imadoki. She enjoys writing big-scale stories, and this is apparent from all her famous titles. Fushigi Yuugi and Ayashi no Ceres certainly involved a heavy dose of legend and myth, as well as romance and adventure. Sometimes, a touch of culture and history, which is why her costume designs are always intricate and detailed. She researches them well. All these elements define her formula. She isn't really into classifying works separately as shoujo and shounen, she enjoys an infusion of all elements: romance, comedy and adventure. She also confessed to having idolized legendary Rumiko Takahashi (who wouldn't?).

Ken Akamatsu
Born on Kanagawa prefecture on July 5, 1968. He's the only male in our host of featured mangaka! He is known as the author of Love Hina, the manga that sold over 6 million copies in Japan alone, and took the rest of the animanga world outside Japan by storm. Like Keitaro, his protagonist in the aforementioned title, he took an entrance exam for Tokyo University...and failed. But who cares, he's a successful mangaka now, his latest work being Magister Negi Magi! He graduated instead in Chuo University, with a degree in Literature. He was already winning awards for his shounen stories even before he graduated from college. He also confesses to idolizing Rumiko Takahashi of Ranma 1/2 fame and Tatsuya Egawa of Golden Boy.

Revived Spotlight: Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon Special

Recently, a new meme in Facebook had nearly everyone uploading photos of their childhood cartoons for their profile pictures. This is what my profile looked like, attached to it are the meme instructions:

Via: Dong Jong Santos
Change your facebook profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same. Until monday, there should be no human faces on facebook, but a stash of memories. This is for eliminating violence against children.


I actually had another photo in mind, also with Sailor Uranus in it, but thought that despite the love it depicts...parents might get scandalized. LOLLERZ. So this is a "safe" photo. =^.^=

While all this was going on, I began to identify which generation my contacts belonged to. Those who had Candy Candy, Voltes V or Daimos in their profiles definitely lived in the 70s; Voltron, He-Man, She-Ra, Visionaries lived in the 80s...and we all know which era the butch-y girl in the skimpy sailor outfit above belonged to.

I had been meaning to unearth the original Spotlight archives but I couldn't find the right timing for them. Seeing all the childhood memories flood our Facebook walls, however, I think I've found the perfect opportunity to reminisce. The irony is, I just bought the entire Sailorstars season DVDs a week before. It was the only season I didn't get to finish. (Besides SuperS, which I didn't really care for since it was about that brat Chibiusa.)

The very first Spotlight article was written by Firesenshi for our October 2001 special. While many of our Spotlight articles were lost due to hard drive failures and many other unfortunate accidents, we were lucky to have kept the first. Of course, she began with the anime that started our interest on the web. Here is her original write-up:

October 2001 Special: Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon
World famous shoujo by Naoko Takeuchi, aired from 1992-1997
by Firesenshi

<< Naoko Takeuchi with her boss, Osabu. She usually puts comments on the side of her mangas with her "usagi" (bunny) trademark.

Naoko Takeuchi

mangaka of Codename wa Sailor V and Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon.

Born on March 15, Naoko Takeuchi is a Pisces and lives in Juuban, in Tokyo, the same area where Usagi Tsukino, the main character of her highly successful manga and anime, Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon lives. (My, that's an affluent neighborhood!)

She was said to have many aspects of herself in the characters of all the sailor senshi (soldiers) but any BSSM fan would know for sure that the main character Usagi Tsukino seems to have been patterned after Naoko herself. And from that, I assume that she is total romantic ^.^ not only because she's a mangaka of a famous shoujo manga, but you can see it from the stories, interviews and the songs she writes.

Yes, she writes some of those nice songs from Sailormoon with Route Venus as her favorite and something she actually relates to! ^_^

The success of Sailormoon actually began with a manga called Codename wa Sailor V. The main protagonist is Minako Aino, whose last name "Ai" means "love" for she is a soldier for love and justice.

When it was decided that her manga had potential to become an anime, Naoko decided to further expand the story and add more characters. So Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon was born!

Try to take a backtrack though and see for yourself how Sailor V was in fact Sailormoon. Aside from the fact that both protagonists had guardian talking cats who gave them their brooches to transform into sailor senshi, Minako Aino had her own special mysterious MASKED protector named Kaitou Ace a la Tuxedo Kamen. Actually, the funny thing is...

<< Minako has actually met Usagi in Sailor V. She has even encountered Rei, Ami and Makoto, the people we would know later as Sailormars, Sailormercury and Sailorjupiter in the BSSM manga and anime.

The rest is history. We now know how hugely successful BSSM was in television where it had countless dubs in various countries and officially released in uncut subs, the soundtracks, the art books, the various manga to the merchandise till it was one of the main anime featured in TIME magazine talking about how Japanese pop culture is sweeping across Asia.

Now from where I come from, everyone has heard about Sailormoon... even those dark people who only aspire to take anything gothic. And every Sailormoon fan has indeed heard about Naoko Takeuchi.

Naoko has been involved in various projects such as The Cherry Project and the recent one after Sailormoon, called PQ Angels. Shoujo material but none has eclipsed the enormous success of Sailormoon so far, an anime that ran for 5 years and 18 manga volumes.

Omoshiroii!!!

Naoko Takeuchi was married in January 6, 1999 to equally famous mangaka of Yuu Yuu Hakushou, Yoshihiro Togashi.

13th Anniversary Special: Reminiscing Classic Anime

Eight years ago, my cousin Firesenshi came up with a Spotlight article named "Anime Backtrack: March 2002 Special: Reminiscing Classic Anime". It covered a lot of the anime we Senshi grew up with. Alas, it shared the fate of many other Spotlight write-ups...it got lost in the course of our numerous transitions.

Since we're on the subject of revivals, let me just speak of -- and add to -- the very same anime titles Firesenshi wrote about eight years ago.  We began with these.  No, we didn't get to watch them during the first wave of their arrival into our country in the 70s (our parents were still in college back then), but we did get to catch their reruns in the 80s.

First there was Voltes V.  The horned antagonists fascinated us more than the human protagonists, keeping us glued to the screen till the time that the gigantic robot would have to wield his laser sword. Although...back then, I never really understood the word play. I was just simply enthralled by the enemies' bright colors.  Later, we noticed that after each exciting battle, the brothers Kenichi, Daijiro and Hiyoshi would contemplate the loss of their father. This was evident in the ending song Chi Chi wo Motomete (Searching for Father). And we little girls were left to wonder how come the resident girlette operates Voltes V's feet...

A couple of years later, we were introduced to the concept of a love angle in Tosho Daimos.  The premise was nearly the same: Earth was to be invaded by aliens that look like humans with something extra. This time, the aliens had wings! Like the Voltes team, the Earthlings here fought back with a giant machine. The little twist: the enemy's Princess Erika and the protagonist Kazuya became lovers. In the Philippines, however, Kazuya's name was Richard. And everyone, who would grow up to be silly adults, would much much much later joke about how Erika and Kazuya would go..."Erikaaaaaa!!!!" "Richaaaaaaaard!!!!"  We can laugh about how ridiculously romantic we were as little kids, but one can't deny that Daimos made a thorough impact on our lives while we were growing up.

Then we were to discover tragedy and triumph in Candy Candy.  I can still sing it: "She's a girl, pretty girl, with ribbons on her hair..."  I'm glad I didn't get to finish this anime when I was a kid, though. At that time, I was pretty pissed that they took Candy Candy off the air before we could get to the middle of it.  Watching it again as an adult, I realized that Candy's complete story would've been traumatic for a child.  She had a roller-coaster ride of a life and had very little reprieve between tragedies. Even the manga was exhausting!

We had a lighter alternative, of course. Astro Boy introduced moral lessons that were a lot more obvious than the previous anime we've been exposed to.  The innocent android boy would meet people and inadvertently change their lives through realizations.  There were times when it made me cry, like that particular episode where someone was killing off the world's powerful robots (some of them were so adorable, I was sad to see them die!) and there was another episode where Astro's sister would be mean to one admirer who turns out to be the operator of the robot she idolized.

It would be years and years and years and years later that we would rediscover anime. You guessed it, it was Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon.  It was through this show that I would be inspired enough to build my very first website...on May 18, 1997.  It was the beginnings of the Otaku Fridge (Firesenshi, Sugarsenshi and I were in college by then)...except the site had a horrendously long name, as I've already recounted in this section.  By this time, my cousins, sister and I would be led to so many other animated titles and video games that we'd spend weekends on anime marathons or game challenges at Icesenshi's house...while raiding her fridge during breaks.

Hence, the site's name.

By the year 2001, the Fridge had nurtured a community with active membership. At its peak, it had over a hundred active members and over 7,000 inactive lurkers.  The membership declined as the site administrators (mainly me, my sister Thundersenshi and my cousin Firesenshi) grew into adulthood and got swamped with real-life responsibilities.

So where are the old members now?  Some of them are still into anime.  Tsumenki and Kaoko maintain the Bishounen Project.  Furthermore, Kaoko, with her Kitchen Cow, went on to become one of the Philippines' most popular food blogger.  Rowena Lim Lei, formerly of Animetric.com, went on to become one of Manila's most prolific magazine contributor and blogger.  Voldemort is now into magic shows, DJing, and also hosts major events from time to time, while MarkPoa is among the people of Cosplay.ph.

So many events have transpired in the past 13 years and I think it's safe to say that much of our careers and current activities all started from anime.  Once in a while, we can look back on that.

Shoujo Fashion

Whoa! Our first Spotlight in four years! I never thought I'd see the day when we'd revive old features like this, but I think there are still a lot of things worth noting in the world of Japanese animation and manga. One of them is shoujo fashion.

Ever since I've read Paradise Kiss and Nana, I kept thinking about shoujo fashion.  I have never read manga or seen anime with such glorious fashion aesthetics as displayed in these two titles, so one can imagine how amazed I was at seeing so many delightful assortment of clothes on characters with just as colorful personalities.  And I'm not talking about stuff for cosplay here; I'm talking about stuff real people can wear on a daily basis.  A bit of reading on author Ai Yazawa's biography revealed that she studied in fashion school but ended up dropping out.  That seems like a good move, though, because she became very successful as a mangaka.

In Nana, I noticed Yazawa's versatility when it comes to fashion design. Protagonist Nana Osaki is a punk singer with a very tough persona and this shone through in her Vivienne Westwood inspired getup. The other protagonist, Nana Komatsu, exudes an air of cheerful naïveté that often gets her heart broken. Komastu's style is exactly the opposite of Osaki's -- her evolution from preppy to mature is always delineated by classic, timeless pieces. I didn't think it was possible to love two contrasting wardrobes seen on manga characters but that's exactly what I feel when I look at these two Nanas! I would raid both their closets if I could! (I actually spent about $170 on a pair of Vivienne Westwood Melissa shoes, thanks to this manga series.)

Now here's the thing: Ai Yazawa is a rarity.  I thought long and hard about all the anime and manga titles I've gone through and I couldn't identify another one that had Yazawa's fashion sensibilities.  It seems like every other shoujo heroine would either be dressed like a miserable spinster (those fashion-forward single ladies out there could hardly be called "miserable spinsters") or be buried under piles and piles of laces and flowers that make them look like walking wedding cakes.  The only time I actually like looking at a teenaged anime character is when she's wearing her school uniform.

One day, I decided to ask my sister Thundersenshi, who is currently shifting careers from being a multimedia artist to a stylist.  "Can you name one other mangaka who doesn't deck her characters like a Christmas tree? You know, who's not exactly like Ai Yazawa, but comes pretty close?"

She named Naoko Takeuchi, author of Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon.  I balked at first.  I didn't exactly like what Minako Aino (Sailor Venus) would wear in the anime series and the bubblegum sleeves of the senshi's final costumes in the manga kept reminding me of Dragon Ball. Don't even get me started on Usagi Tsukino's (Sailor Moon) over-usage of floral themes.

Then my sister said, "Look no further than your favorite senshi."

It hit me.  Haruka Ten'ou (Sailor Uranus) may be butch, but heck if she didn't make butch seem like the pillar of ultra femininity.  Before accessory piling became an international trend in the mid to late 2000s, Haruka was one of the first ones to do it. Before boyfriend shirts became cool in this decade, she was already sporting them in the previous decade. Her clothes -- whether she's in a suit or a gown -- are always making statements, characterizing her trailblazing attitude that not even the awfully conservative DiC dub was able to downplay.

She can switch from Power Dyke, with androgynous pieces that invoke Katharine Hepburn and which Takeuchi imbibes with a postmodern twist (low décolletage, bold accessories), to Fairy Princess, with minimalist gowns that gently follow the feminine curves ala Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. I would've loved to dress like her...except, I look more like Michiru Kaiou (Sailor Neptune), her partner.

As you can see, I'm still on the lookout for great, wearable clothes in anime and manga. With just two mangaka on my list, that's like searching for a needle in a barnyard full of ruffles.

Share your thoughts? If you know any other fashion-forward mangaka or manga titles, please let me know. It would be nice to find more of them.