Bamboo Blade (anime)

Bamboo Blade (Anime).  AIC A.S.T.A., 2007-2008. Licensed by Funimation Entertainment.

What’s it about?

Toraji Ishida (aka Kojirou) is a part-time high school teacher and kendo* instructor at Muroe High, and struggling to make ends meet. When his former senpai, Kenzaburo, who is also a high school kendo instructor, challenges Kojirou’s team, offering him a year’s supply of sushi from his father’s restaurant if his girl’s team can win--now all Kojirou has to do is recruit a team!  

*For readers unfamiliar with the term, kendo is a form of Japanese fencing, performed with a long bamboo blade, hence the title of the series

Find out more:

A part-time high school teacher and kendo coach, Kojirou, is struggling to scrape enough money together to have a decent meal. He jumps at the chance to win a whole year’s worth of meals at his friend’s father’s sushi restaurant. All he has to do is have his girl’s kendo team and beat his senpai’s team. Simple, right? Well, first Kojirou has to assemble a team. This proves to be difficult---in fact, at his first practice match against Kenzaburo’s team, he only has four girls, and tries to pass his best fencer, Tamaki, off as two different people. Kojirou eventually fields a full team of five with some formidable (and quirky!) fencers.

The character interactions are fun to watch, and quite funny. Dan, a short, plain-looking guy has a gorgeous girlfriend, Miyako (also known as Miya-Miya), so devoted to him that she rides around on a bike with a sidecar. In one episode, Miyako’s foot was injured, but she still rode the bike with Dan in the car despite extreme pain. Dan offered to help, but she knows his feet won’t reach the pedals. The fact that he offered to help, though, acted like the best painkiller in the world, and suddenly she power-pedaled her way back home. This character is rather two-sided, seeming extremely sweet and innocent at first (and always extremely devoted to Dan), but can be cruel and enjoys hitting people. When she is angry, she is depicted as being surrounded by a creepy black and purple aura.  This is a character-driven comedy, and quite hilarious, although no new ground is broken. The animation and backdrops are extremely well done, and the voice acting is also very good, especially in Japanese. Recommend this anime to fans of slice of life comedies and sports-themed anime. It appeals to both male and female audience, even though its target audience is male. 

Genre: Sports comedy, Slice of Life

Interest level: Grades 6 & up

Rating: TV-PG

Subjects: Kendo, High School, Sports, Teachers

Dub or Sub?

I’ve seen the first four episodes in English and thought the dub was decent, but I prefer the sub—the voice actors for Dan and Kojirou are hilarious!

Is it also a manga?

Yes, there are 10 volumes published in English, with the 11^th on its way in mid-December.

Similar anime & manga titles:

K-On!

School Rumble

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Ouran High School Host Club

Series information: The complete series is 26 episodes

One Piece (Anime)

One Piece (TV series). Toei Entertainment, 1999-present. English version released by Funimation Entertainment, 2007.

What’s it about?

Monkey D. Luffy ate a gum-gum fruit when he was younger, which gave his body such extreme elasticity; he is a nearly unbeatable pirate. Will this be enough for him to become the King of the Pirates?

Find out more:

Right before he is executed, the King of the Pirates, Gol D. Roger, utters the location of the greatest treasure of all time.  The treasure is known as the “One Piece,” and it promises endless riches and success. Naturally, an arms race among pirates ensues, with an unlikely contender for the title of Pirate King--Monkey D. Luffy. Luffy, the hero of the show, doesn’t seem like a pirate at all. He’s not a villainous, ugly, lecherous, murderous thug, and looks like a lightweight. Despite his slight physique, however, he is a force to be reckoned with on the sea. This is because when he was a kid, he ate a gum- gum fruit, which transformed him into an elastic boy. His body is able to easily deflect (and inflict) harm. The first few episodes show him recruiting his oddball crew, dubbed the “Straw Hat Pirates.”

This anime is exciting and action packed. The humor is broad, and sometime slapstick. Some of the funniest aspects are due to character design and skilled animation. Monkey D. Luffy reminds me a bit of Peter Pan, with his bravado and exuberant personality and unexpected fighting abilities (and maybe also because there are pirates involved.) Like Peter Pan, he has a melancholy side when he remembers his childhood hero Shanks. His ubiquitous straw hat, in fact, belonged to Shanks, and when he nearly loses it, the viewer is drawn into a sometimes poignant flashback sequence that gives a lot of backstory information and adds complexity to Luffy’s character. This anime is a great one to recommend to tween boys; there is broad comedy, creative action sequences, likeable heroes, and despicable villains. Both the manga and anime can be appreciated by girls because of the quality and humor, but this is not an anime that will typically hook shojo fans.

Genre: Shonen, Action/adventure, Comedy

Interest level: Grades 5 - 9

Is there a manga?

Yes, the manga is currently has 64 volumes (in Japanese) and 59 volumes translated into English (volume 59 will be released in early December). And more One Piece is on the way!

Subjects: Pirates, Treasure, Exploration

Rating: TV-14 (this rating is unwarranted, from what I saw; there was very mild language and a scene where a character loses his arm. This scene wasn’t graphic, though).

Dub or Sub? The dub was pretty poor quality. During a recent anime club screening at my library, audience members were making fun of the dub, which featured some embarrassingly overacted scenes. Midway through the screening, I asked if the Japanese audio with subtitles would be preferred. Everyone voted yes! Please!! The subbed version was much better. Once the subs came on, the audience started laughing at the jokes, not the poor acting.

Series information:

If you’re a new fan, it’s going to take you awhile to catch up: there are over 500 episodes of One Piece to date.

Similar anime and manga titles:

Naruto

DragonBall Z

Bleach

Shaman King

What time is it? ADVENTURE TIME!!!!

Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time!  2010-present.

This is largely a book blog, but working with kids, tweens and teens, I also like to be aware of what they are watching online, in the theatres and on TV. 

One such show is Cartoon Network’s breakout animated show Adventure Time! This show is aimed at an upper-elementary through middle school audience, but its appeal is far broader—I know 4 and 5 years olds who are fans and plenty of twenty-and thirty-somethings who are fans (myself included!)

This wacky, surreal series follows the adventures of Finn the Human and Jake the Dog, who is super-stretchy and has magical powers, in the Land of Ooo. Recurring characters include the Lumpy Space Princess, Princess Bubblegum, the vampire Marceline, and the villainous Ice King.  The episodes are very short, usually around 12 minutes.  

In a Lumpy Space Princess-centric episode, titled “The Monster”(in season three) LSP runs away from home and tries to be independent because she feels smothered by her parents, the King and Queen of Lumpy Space. She finds it hard to fend for herself and find food. She is taken in by a pack of wolves and feels accepted for the first time in her life—until she sees the wolves cheating on each other (they are actually just grooming each other). Then the wolves turn on her, and she flees. Covered in filth and goo, she looks really frightening. She comes into a village peopled with tiny farmers called the Fat Villagers and scares the daylights out of them. They drop their food and run, and LSP eats their crops.  Soon LSP realizes that she can be well fed by pretending to be a monster. When Finn and Jake hear this, of course, they must tell her this is unacceptable. They help mend the relationship between LSP and the villagers (she apologizes and gives them her “samiches”) and LSP and her parents.

The witty writing, great cast, and splendidly odd animation of Adventure Time make this show a great choice for kids and tweens. This is a recommended cartoon for anyone who has a slightly odd sense of humor, people who like satire, fans of absurdity, and most kids and tweens. The humor is clean and eccentric, and there are plenty of hilarious situations and fast-paced asides to stimulate the brain cells and funny bones of the viewers. 

Adventure Time is visually striking because the drawings are so simplistic and colorful. The human characters have few facial features. Princess Bubblegum’s face, for example, consists of a mouth and eyes. Her chin appears to dissolve into her long, long neck. Despite this, the characters are ultra-cute, except for villains like the Ice King. What I’ve noticed is that villainous characters are drawn with more detail than the heroes and their friends (even the friends that are very flawed, like LSP).  Anime characters are often like this as well, particularly male villain versus male heroes.  The cuteness of the characters, as well as their weirdness reminds me of anime, as well. Many anime fans are also very enthused about Adventure Time. A commonly heard refrain at LA’s Anime Expo (2011) was “What time is it?” and the loud, shouted response: “ADVENTURE TIME!” The voice acting in this series is insanely funny (i.e. LSP’s valley girl accent, juxtaposed with a deep voice) and never hits a wrong note.

I don’t watch much TV, but when I do it’s Adventure Time!

 Interest level: Grades 4-8, although fans are all ages! Rated TV-PG

Genre: Humor, satire

Awards: In 2010 and 2011 was nominated for Outstanding Short-Format animated program Emmy Award.

 

Characters:

Finn—13-year-old human boy, one of the last humans, in fact, whose hat covers his long flowing blond locks. Hyper and adventure loving!

Jake—28-year-old, laid-back magical dog who can bend and stretch into any shape. Finn’s best friend.  

Marceline the Vampire Queen—1000-year-old vampire who drinks shades of red—not blood—and becomes friend and ally of Finn and Jake.  

Princess Bubblegum—a combination of bubblegum and human genetic material. Extremely intelligent and sometimes temperamental ruler of Candy Kingdom. Finn has a crush on her J

Ice King—creepy 600 year old villain with magical powers (of freezing things, who woulda thunk?) who keeps kidnapping women in hope that they will become his princess.

Lumpy Space Princess—a spoiled-rotten extraterrestrial with a valley-girl accent who spends a lot of time living in the woods.  She can change other beings into her own species by biting them.

Similar shows & books: Fans of Adventure Time will love Roald Dahl and Lewis Carrol.  Older fans of Adventure Time may appreciate shows like Family Guy and South Park for their wacky humor, although these shows are not aimed at or appropriate for Adventure Time’s target audience.  Fans will also love the related show Fiona and Cake, the story of Fiona the human and Cake the cat, an alternate universe version of Finn and Jake.