Check It Out! - How Disabilities and Diversity are Handled in the Anime GANGSTA.

     Kay takes a look at how characters with disabilities are portrayed in modern media, specifically in the anime GANGSTA. She also talks about how the anime handles diversity, in the context of Japanese culture. For more information, and a bit of a review, read her article!

Anime Review: Granblue Fantasy: The Animation

Anime: Granblue Fantasy: The Animation

Genre: Adventure, fantasy, action, shounen

Rating 2.5 out of 5 stars

General Set-up: Lyria is a test-subject of the Empire and Katalina is helping her escape. Just as the Empire is catching up to them, the two run into Gran, a boy who is talented with the sword. Gran decides to help, but is fatally injured. In order to save him, Lyria shares her life-force with him. Gran decides to leave the island and travel with Katalina and Lyria to the edge of the earth and the island of the Astrals, where his father awaits him.

Characters: Gran’s dream is to become a skyfarer like his father. He is friendly and compassionate towards those in need. Before escaping with Lyria, Katalina was a lieutenant in the Empire’s army. She is a strong sword fighter. Lyria has the power to talk to and understand Primal Beasts, a power the Empire wants to use for themselves. She doesn’t know where she came from. Vyrn is a flying lizard who accompanies Gran and reminds me a bit too much of another high-pitched flying companion. The focus for character growth is mainly on Gran and Lyria, which makes sense, but it would be nice to see the other main characters have their chance to shine as well.

Plot: Sad to say, but the plot for Granblue Fantasy is pretty standard (which I guess shouldn’t be surprising, considering it’s based off of a video game). It follows the basic outline for quest narratives: The main characters meet and set out on their quest. They arrive in a new location. Something happens. They meet someone. Stuff keeps happening until they solve whatever problem the people in the area are facing and the person they met decides to join their adventure. The depart for a new location and the same thing happens again.

Ending: Considering the last episode is a filler, I’ll be referring to the second-to-last episode for the ending. Things seem to be happening too fast. The plot is accelerating at an unaccustomed pace with little to no explanation. Also, in the last showdown, multiple random new characters pop up to join in on the action. This seems a last-minute attempt to get characters from the original material screen time. What is more, they seem fairly overpowered, which just adds to the confusion. I did appreciate the development of Lyria’s character, but the ending seemed to open up more issues than it resolved.

Things to Watch For: There is fanservice in this show. Thankfully, it’s somewhat toned down and not blatantly obvious, but as you get closer to the end more of it pops up - especially with the explosion of characters in the “last” episode. Most of them were girls and almost all of them had less clothing than would be deemed reasonable in a combat situation. The filler ‘swimsuit episode’ certainly didn’t help.

Sights and Sounds: The soundtrack for Granblue Fantasy goes from slow and whimsical to march-like and adventurous. I really enjoyed the opening theme. The color palette for the show is vibrant, with an emphasis on blues and greens. I also enjoyed the design for the world and characters in the show! It is a fantasy world, with a bit of a modern and steampunk twist. For example, the main characters travel on an airship and Gran wears a hoodie!

Other Media: Granblue Fantasy: The Animation is based off of an RPG game. There is also a series of light novels that have been adapted.

Fillers: There is one filler, at the end of this show.

Length:This anime is 13 episodes long.

Where to Watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.

Final Thoughts: Granblue Fantasy has a lot of potential and there are a lot of things it does really well. It just tries to be too many things. It could be a war-strategy battle of empires show. Or it could be a show about a group of friends going on a quest. Or about an escaped test-subject hiding from the law. Or it could be about a boy’s search for his absent father. It could be all these things. The problem is, Granblue Fantasy tries to be all of these things at once and ends up having to sacrifice too much. It burns brightly, but soon fizzles out. It’s not that Granblue Fantasy: The Animation is bad, it’s just not as good as it could be.

Book Review: Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck

Book: Tiger’s Curse by Colleen Houck

Genre: Teen fiction, action, adventure, romance, Indian mythology

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Times I have read this: 1st time

General Set-up: Kelsey has just graduated from high school. Eager to earn some money to help pay for college she hires on as a temporary worker for a travelling circus stopping by. Among her duties at the circus, she assists the animal handler in taking care of the star of the show; a white Bengal tiger. Kelsey becomes fascinated with the tiger and spends her free time in his presence, often reading to him. When her time at the circus is almost up a man approaches the circus master about buying the tiger and returning him to a reserve in India. He finds out that Kelsey has become accustomed to the tiger and invites her to travel with them to India to ensure that the tiger has a good transition. Kelsey has become attached to the tiger and wants to spend some more time with him before leaving, plus being paid to travel to a foreign country for a few weeks is a deal she can’t pass up.

Characters: Kelsey may have just graduated from high school, but she has also been orphaned recently. Her parents were killed in a car accident a few years previous. Because of this she pushes her emotions deep inside and hasn’t had the chance to truly grieve for her parents’ death. Currently, she lives with a foster family who cares for her. Ren (short for Dhiren) is a centuries old Indian prince who suffers from a curse (think Beauty and the Beast with a twist). To be honest, I didn’t connect with the main characters that well.  

Plot: The plot for Tiger’s Curse takes a little while to get going. This is both a good and a bad thing. The bad thing is that the reader has to progress 80+ pages into the book before getting introduced to the main conflict. The good thing is that this allows for a smooth transition from ‘student looking for a summer job’ to something I would expect to find in an Indian version of the Percy Jackson series. Once things got going, the action and tension continue to build until the end. I would say that the author leans too heavily on romantic tension in the last ⅓ of the book, but maybe that’s just me getting disillusioned by teen fiction.

Ending: To be honest I was somewhat frustrated with the ending of the book. Part of this was due to the romantic tension going on and wanting to hit the main character over the head with the book. However, aside from this, the ending is well done. The pacing slows to an acceptable halt at an appropriate place. Even if I did not completely agree with the main character’s decisions, resolution is given and some potential threads are hinted at to set up for the sequel.

Things to Watch For: This book deals with Indian mythology and presents a different religion with various deities. Also, some of the scenes between Kelsey and Ren get a little steamy.

Other media: Tiger’s Curse is the first in a currently on-going series. The author, Colleen Houck, has also published several other books of similar genres.

Length: 400 pages (about)

Eragon (book) Review

Title: Eragon (Book 1 of the Inheritance series)

Author: Christopher Paolini

Genre: Fantasy, action, adventure, magic

Length: 500 pages
3.5 out of 5 stars

Notes: Eragon is the first book of four in the Inheritance series. It is also the first book that I read over 150 pages. It introduced me to the world of reading: a journey I have never looked back on. Eragon is the first book that showed me all that books can be. Because of this, I recommend that everyone read Eragon. Like thousands of readers, this book shows us that reading is an adventure.

General Setup: While hunting, Eragon finds a strange polished stone. It is soon revealed that the stone is actually a dragon egg. He is faced with two choices: join the empire he hates, or become like the dragon riders of old, risking his life. Eragon is thrust into a world with new rules he doesn’t understand.

Characters: Although I feel like I say this a lot, characters are very often what makes or breaks a book. The evolution of Eragon throughout the book is drastic at times and non-existent at others. At first, he appears to be nothing more than the stereotypical fantasy character. As the book Eragon progresses, he slowly changes, his emotions, beliefs, and convictions change as matures. Eragon is a coming of age story, and we quickly see Eragon go from a naive country boy to a battle-hardened warrior.  

The other character of consequence is Brom. Admittedly, I was rather disappointed when he was introduced. Of course the young protagonist has a wise, old mentor! But much like Eragon himself, Brom’s character evolved in the story. He began as a simply story-teller, but was really so much more. On the surface, Brom appears to be an Obi-Wan-like character, Eragon being very similar to Luke Skywalker. But as the story progresses, each character has their own presence that stands apart from the works they were based on.

Plot: What can I say about the plot? From the get-go it seems obvious that Paolini takes his cues from books in the same genre. Orcs--I mean Urgals (how could I ever mix those up?) are introduced in the first pages. Many of the different races bear uncanny similarities to much of Tolkien's work. Not that imitating Lord of the Rings is bad, but Eragon lacked originality in the beginning. But much like the character development, the further you read in Eragon, the more original the story becomes. And considering that Eragon is not only Paolini’s first work, but also how young he was when it was written, I can hardly find this a fault. I know of authors far more experienced that are far less original than Eragon! While ignoring the similarities to Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, the plot itself is sound.

The writing style itself is something that takes some getting used to. At times the writing is very flowery, and rather pretentious. This can make it difficult to understand for younger (and even older) readers. One of the most unique characteristics to Paolini’s writing is the many tangents that the books explore. Some see this as a flaw, but I see it as a strength. It retains a life-like quality. Many conversations with people are random, much like Paolini’s writing tangents. It gives the book a feel of a conversation, something I greatly enjoyed. But be warned, just because something comes up in conversation doesn’t mean that it will be talked about later on in the book.   

Ending: As I mentioned before, Eragon is the first book of four. The actual ending for Eragon is not a cliffhanger. It brings to an end most of the conflicts built within the book, but not anything like the end for the series. Many things are left undone, and the King still sits on his his throne.

Other media: Eragon was adapted into a movie, but we all try to forget that it happened. Think worse than the adaption of Dragon Ball Z and the Hollywood version of Ghost in the Shell combined. Or even worse. Seriously, that is two hours of my life that I will never get back.  

Things to watch out for: There is some brief language in the book, and some of the battles are gory.
The other topic I wish to address is the magic within the book. Some Christians believe that if any book has magic it is "witchcraft" and should not be read. (Although that logic breaks down when you realize the most read Christian fiction books are The Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings, both of which have magic.) I believe there is a difference in a book having magic as a plot device and a book promoting the use of witchcraft. Eragon falls into the previous category, as magic is used as a tool within the series. I believe that Paolini is not encouraging anyone to try and curse anyone else. Magic is simply part of the world of Alagaesia, not evil nor good. Magic is an amoral force.