More from Commarine:
Time for my picks for March. In January, I picked some animes. In February, I picked some manga. For March I figure I'd do one of both. So, let's begin:


   Anime

Coyote Ragtime Show
The King is dead. The great pirate Bruce was cut down by the corrupt galactic government. But before his demise, he hid billions of dollars in the small planet of Graceland where an insurrection against the government has erupted. Now, the infamous criminal only known as Mister has seven days to reach Graceland and retrieve the loot before the government completely destroys the planet. With the help of Franca (Bruce's daughter) and his coyotes, he must outrun two special agents (Angelica and Chelsea), the Mafia Queen (Marciano) and her deadly android maids known as the 12 Sisters before time runs out.

This anime reminds me greatly of the Joss Whedon movie Serenity (or Firefly, if you watched the series) due to its space cowboy backdrop. Despite the overall influence, CRS does have some anime connections. For instance, the agents Angelica and Chelsea remind me of well known female duos of the Gunsmith Cats and the Dirty Pair. Also, the android maids are obvious homage to the animes of similar genre such as Mahoromatic or Steel Angel Karumi. The plot is fairly straight forward and will likely not have many twists and heavy plot development as the story progresses. Also, the characters will likely not change much. The only possible development I see in this anime is the possible connections between all the characters in further DVDs.

Even though I love story and heavy plot development (see previous pick Ergo Proxy), it is sometimes refreshing to watch an anime that is just straightforward action and cheap dry comedy. Animes like this one are usually great after a long day at work or school when all you want to do is veg out and be entertained without thinking too hard. So, though I give this anime a C in story; the action, absurdity, and low brow comedy is definitely worth checking out.

Manga

Welcome to the NHK!
Twenty year old Satou has a problem; he is a Hikikomori. Unique to Japan, a Hikikomori believes the NHK (the Japanese Broadcast Network) is an evil organization bent on taking over the minds and souls of the Japanese people. To combat the conspiracy, Hikikomori shut themselves in their apartment completely isolating themselves from the rest of the world to prevent the NHK reaching them. This is not Satou's problem; he was perfectly happy in is self interned prison until a religious assassin seductress from the NHK steps up to his door destroying his little heaven. Known as Masaki, she tricks Satou by expressing her intent on helping Satou by breaking him out of his Hikikomori lifestyle. Now forced out into the real world, he must now work with people and converse with so called old friends in order to complete the temptress Misaki's plan to make poor Satou into a normal person.

I like this manga because it does something most animes don't do....make fun of the real social problems seen in Japan. If you think this is wrong, think of our American entertainment. Shows like Weeds, Nip/Tuck, The Shield and CSI make America's underbelly entertainment for all. So, seeing Japanese social problems in what is usually a fantasy genre is refreshing and sometimes funny. For instance, when Satou was out of town he meets up with his sempai from high school. At first you think of her as a normal businesswoman, until they talk about her favorite hobby, pill popping. Loxotan, Halcion, and her LEGAL stimulant ritalin are just a few pills she carries around all the time. There is even a panel that has a close up of her head resting in her hand where various cuts on her wrists are noticable. Though this may sound horrible, I think it's one of the more funny scenes in the book. Another fun part of the book is Satou's tendency to fall into the various social problems head first. For instance, when Satou meets up with his otaku friend from high school, they decide to create a hentai DVD- rom to sell at the next convention.

All seems well until Satou notices it is a lolicon hentai. After constant staring at drawings of young girls, he succumbs to the lolicon perversion. Feeling ashamed of himself, he forces his friend to take pictures of Satou as he takes pictures of elementary school girls at the park; with undoubtedly hilarious results. So, if you're into twisted, and I mean TWISTED humor this series is one of the best.  If you went to the meetup at Concordia, you may remember that we watched the fansubbed first episode of the anime. Though, no one has yet bought the rights to the anime yet, hopefully the popularity of the manga will bring anime to our shores.