Piracy and Anime

Being the type to delve into how industries operate when I’m interested in their products, I’ve been watching the problems with the anime industry – especially in the United States. Boom and bust cycles are fascinating to observe and the anime here in the States managed to do that in in the space of one decade. So an interview with the former Bandai Entertainment USA director of marketing gives a rare insight to how things actually work. Be warned, there is profanity in the podcast.

As I’m listening to it, the brief mention of how online piracy damaged sales caught my attention. It got me thinking on how a niche industry can be devastated by people stealing the product and never paying for it. Disclaimer: It isn’t right to steal from the big industries like Hollywood or music too. Also, I won’t get into the manga side of things.

Many are the mistakes that have caused companies to fold or retreat from the anime market in the U.S., but the explosion in file sharing coincided with rise and fall in my eyes. Once broadband saturated the country around the middle of the 2000’s, piracy of videos increased. That was also when anime imploded.

Fractale Episode 11: Paradise

The ambitious series ends in blood, death, and an extremely emotional ending that upset more than a few viewers online. With the future of humanity on the line, will Clain be forced to watch the love of his life die? Fractale: Reiterated concludes with HD screen captures and revised text.

With too much of a story to fit in twelve episodes, Fractale ends up with only eleven, consequently making this powerful finale densely packed with exposition and action. It is frustrating that this series was rejected by otakus in Japan and one has to wonder what could have been if it they had embraced it. As it is, we are left with this rushed, but conclusive ending to Clain’s journey toward adulthood and the final fate of the Fractale system.

The final episode picks up right where the previous one left off, with a shocked Clain and Nessa being confronted by Barrot. In an effort to protect the feisty doppel, Phryne sends her through the barrier to Clain. However, the Temple’s resident scientist and lecher alters the barrier with a wave of a hand so they can hear everything. If there was ever any doubt he was a sadist at heart, that is erased by his “free lesson” to Clain about the secrets of Phryne and Fractale’s God. Amazingly, the character becomes even more despicable than before.

Fractale Episode 10: To the Temple

The penultimate episode of the series is filled with battle, deception, and desperation as the forces of the Lost Millennium rebels attack the Temple. But will Phryne’s attempt to broker a peace produce results or make things worse? Fractale: Reiterated continues with new HD screen captures and revised text.

With the previous episode being more introspective and structured as a setup, it was guaranteed this one would be packed with action and so it is. Jumping straight into a pitched battle warns us there won’t be any of the prior humor present. In fact, this is a deadly serious episode.

To the Temple opens with a colossal air battle between the airships of Lost Millennium and the Temple. It is a kinetic and frenetic battle that looks spectacular. Both sides land blows and it gives a real sense of war also while being reminiscent of Studio Ghibli films. The quality of the production only falters once when a CGI stacked squadron of Temple ships attack and that was a minor thing, in my opinion. The Blu-ray/DVD release made that particular moment look a little better, but not much.

In the midst of this aerial chaos, Clain and Nessa arrive in the little airship. Threading through the flak, they manage to dock with The Danan to inform the Granites of Phryne’s running off to attempt negotiations. Cue the opening title sequence and the roller coaster ride that follows.

Fractale Episode 9: No Way Out

A quiet and introspective episode that is heavy on character development after the nightmarish events of the previous installment. Much is revealed about Phryne and Nessa, while the drums of war beat ominously in the background.The beginning of the end for the series is in sight with one last look at some of the charm that permeated the first two episodes. Fractale: Reiterated continues with new HD screen captures and revised text.

A pause to breath before the final battle is always good to have in any story, despite what some action film producers might think. This episode is all about that breather, but the consequences for the actions taken earlier unfold for the Granites throughout. While it is a slow down in action, there is none in content.

After the explosive ending to episode 8, No Way Out opens with a door opening. This particular door belongs to the emergency shelter seen just before the big bang unleashed by Dias and happens to have Clain pushing it open. He, Phryne, and Nessa are safe but the Temple base is now a gigantic crater in the ground. The little Phryne clone was obviously killed in the explosion, for there is no sign of her. Hopefully, the perverted Barrot was atomized. From the ground, Clain waves in a joyous Enri to come get them.

Fractale Episode 8: Secret of the Underground

Much about Phryne is revealed and a rescue mission goes very wrong when Fractale journeys into a deeper level of darkness. Warning: The TV-14 rating is very much earned by this episode due to extremely disturbing content and mild profanity in the English dub. Fractale: Reiterated continues with updated text and HD screen captures.

Secret of the Underground goes straight to the story instead of opening with the main title credits. We are greeted with the sight of Enri and the remaining Blues Brother returning to the Danon in the scout ship without Clain and Phryne. Subdued and upset, the blond girl reports the events at the end of the last episode to her brother, Sunda. Mainly concerned about Nessa, he is informed they brought her back but she is hiding in the computer systems again.

We then see the Temple airship, Odin, land in an underground base and Clain is seen struggling to breath. Yes, he somehow survived being shot but he is in very bad shape. He can hear people talking and briefly makes out the sight of Phryne over him trying not to cry. That capture says a lot about what the boy means to her, doesn’t it? Once again, the expressive facial animations of the series impress.

The distraught priestess desperately tries to negotiate with Sir Barrot to be allowed to stay with Clain, but he seems to be enjoying making her suffer over the situation. But it is his calling himself her father that the fading Clain hears just before passing out.

Cue the opening credits and the theme has never sounded sadder. It is a grim introduction to what turns out to be an even grimmer episode.

Fractale Episode 7: Veneer Town

The series shifts into high gear and the social commentary into overdrive when Clain and Nessa are introduced to the last city where Fractale functions completely. Nothing is what it seems in an episode that reveals more about Phryne and Nessa. Fractale: Reiterated continues with updated HD screen captures and revised text.

Be warned, this episode isn’t shy with its critiques of urban living and the chattering middle and upper classes. The world that watches the Kardashians, Big Brother, and The Jersey Shore  is not that much different from what we see when the series finally depicts a city. What is portrayed is not flattering at all.

Veneer Town begins on the Danan, where Clain has turned into a photography addict taking pictures of life aboard the Granite’s airship. Living life through the narrow focus of the viewfinder lands him in trouble with the girls once again, since he doesn’t realize they are washing their delicates. Please, somebody shoot this dead horse  running joke!

An attempt to photograph Nessa fails, since she doesn’t show up on the camera.  Clain is apologetic, but the ten year old doppel doesn’t care because she loves fun, especially when he is having fun. A film noir style narration by the boy reveals he didn’t know at the time what lay behind her smile.

Fractale Episode 6: The Farthest Town

The series kicks into gear when a stop to repair the airship leads to a chance encounter with refugees, another Lost Millennium faction, and a mysterious man. Things aren’t quite what they seem when Clain learns a harsh lesson about appearances and we get further insight into the problems of Fractale’s world. UPDATED  November 2012: Fractale Reiterated continues with HD pictures and revised text.

The beginning of the episode is very reminiscent of a Studio Ghibli film as we are introduced to another remote farmhouse like Clain’s. But this one has a gigantic cobbled together antenna array in back, along with a mysterious middle aged man pounding away on it.  From his lofty perch, he spies the Granite’s airship landing in the area.

It is a lovely scene and The Farthest Town is filled with more like it. Visually, this is one of the prettier episodes in the whole series so I found myself taking far more screen captures than I needed to.  But as superficially attractive as it may be, it doesn’t lack in story depth.

Fractale Episode 5: Journey

The series slows down considerably to show some not so obvious character development and let comedy take center stage.  Phryne slowly opens up, while Clain discovers manual labor.  But where is Nessa? Fractal: Reiterated continues with HD screencaps and revised text.

One of these days I’ll try to make an animated GIF out of the opening sequence.  Fractal patterns have always fascinated me and I really like the opening credits. By this point, the opening theme had really grown on me as well.

At first Journey feels like a filler episode, albeit one with some good character moments. After all the madness in the prior episodes, the pacing mellows out and in some ways it is a slice of life story. Most of the story is about normality, but most telling is how alien that is to Clain.

The episode takes place on board the Granite’s fascinating airship, which is not named.  The sheer size of the thing is impressive and we get something of a tour of its insides throughout this installment of Fractale.  Being on the run from the Temple attack that happened in the prior episode, the rebels are carefully staying in the dead zones of Fractale’s failing coverage. For the moment, there is peace and an opportunity to see their daily lives more closely.

Fractale Episode 4: Departure

Clain reunites with Phryne, but the light hearted adventure is gone when the price paid for the carnage ending the last episode begins to hit home for the Granite clan. While there are comic moments to be found, the series is darkening quickly as the Temple responds to the terrorist attack. Fractale: Reiterated continues with HD screen captures & revised text.

After the shock, if not whiplash, induced by the change in tone at the end of the third episode I had wondered where Fractale was headed.  Departure shows that the change is no fluke and integral to the storyline. More than that, it depicts that there are consequences for what you do in this fictional world. Harsh consequences…

Fractale Episode 3: The Village of Granites

Fractale finally earns its TV-14 rating as the tone of the series shifts dramatically from light hearted adventure to a darker and more serious story in this pivotal episode. Innocence is lost when the truth about the Temple is revealed to Clain in an episode centered around the Granite faction of the terrorist organization Lost Millennium. Fractale: Reiterated continues with updated HD screen captures and text.

I originally avoided Fractale when it started streaming because the promo art looked too “kiddie” to me. It was not until I read posts talking about the dramatic ending to the third episode that I was sufficiently intrigued enough to sample the first episode. If I had not been browsing message boards in search of intelligent anime, I would have never seen what ultimately became my favorite one. The Village of Granites is a game changer in the series, one that shocked quite a few viewers.

Fractale Episode 2: Nessa

A ten year old redheaded girl pops into being and extreme cuteness follows when Clain meets the second girl to invade his solitary life.   A whirlwind of happiness, the girl tests the teen’s ability to cope at every turn. But who, or more importantly what, is Nessa? Fractale: Reiterated continues with updated HD captures and text – July 2012.

The information about day to day life in the world of Fractale continues to be revealed and the plot advances quickly. But it is character development that takes center stage, with much of it being surprisingly emotional. A complicated plot does not a good series make on its own and here we find out if Fractale has more to offer.

Fractale Episode 1: Encounter

An ambitious anime aimed at an older and worldwide audience hints at its many layers in a very Studio Ghibli like first episode.  A remarkable amount of story is presented and set up, but just how much can only be fully appreciated after having watched the entire series.  What appears to be an innocent and light hearted series, Fractale is a much more complicated and multilayered journey into darkness. July 2012 – The Fractale: Reiterated project begins with here with new HD screen captures and revisions.

Having younger friends much into anime and being a Studio Ghibli fan myself, I decided to check out what the state of Japanese cartoons is these days.  I can’t say I’m impressed since most of what I found was childish, sleazy, mindless, or a combination of all three.  But I did unearth a few gems and this recently completed but commercially unsuccessful series is a crown jewel.  It reached for the stars and fell just short, all the while criticizing its own main audience, otaku’s (obsessive anime/manga fans) --  which was ratings and sales suicide. That alone would have made it interesting to me, but the complexity  and depth of emotion contained within Fractale’s storyline pulled me completely in.

Fractale is a science fiction story set on an unnamed island that appears to be Ireland roughly around the 32nd Century. Society is peaceful and people rarely directly interact with each other since they all have cybernetic terminals that links them through the Fractale system, that era’s version of the Internet. Holographic doppels (doppelgangers) that are the equivalent of current day avatars are the way people socialize, get around, and do everything without having to do anything.

Fractale: The Complete Series DVD and Blu-ray Box Set

Funimation puts out one of the best anime box sets I have seen and gives the Fractale  television series the deluxe treatment it richly deserves. Featuring exceptional packaging, a bevy of extras, and a top notch English dub, it is a fantastic bargain for fans of the science fiction anime.

Fractale tells the story of a young teenage boy living more than one thousand years from now in a world where the Fractale system connects everyone to an augmented and mostly virtual existence. There is no war, no hunger, and no need to work as the system takes care of your every need. Families are a quaint concept of the past and relationships are all remote since you can tailor your entire existence to be whatever you desire.

One day, a girl falls into his life and Clain’s peaceful solitary existence is changed forever. With the Fractale system beginning to fail and an armed terrorist movement rising to finish it off, the boy finds himself caught up in a conflict he does not understand and that will not leave him alone. So begins his journey toward adulthood with the fate of an entire world at stake. It is trip where innocence is lost and the mystery of Fractale is finally revealed at terrible cost.

If It Is Tuesday, Why Does It Feel Like Monday?

All day has felt like an extended case of déjà vu, but not in a good sense. Some of the symptoms of the possible case of Lyme Disease have come back and besides that it just feels like a Monday. Tomorrow being Independence Day is not going to help with the weekday confusion, is it?

Maybe it is the headache that is making me feel off, since it certainly messed me up in one of the League of Legends matches I played today. Good thing it was only a bot match.  I had planned to start playing PVP matches this week, but the health has not been up to it so far. My hands were shaking so badly I wondered if I was going to make it through the second match. Getting killed four times while playing Sona against beginner bots was atrocious.

Not that it was a bad day, there were good things including playing the afore mentioned game with real life friends. Also, I got to preorder Fractale on Blu-ray over at RightStuf. Though I could have saved money with free shipping from Amazon, I live close enough to RightStuf to get the set faster. Though Amazon did succeed in luring me into getting some classics on sale that were in my wish list.

A Passage to India on Blu-ray, Bad Day at Black Rock (truly awesome film) and No Time for Sergeants on DVD were too much to pass up. The last selection was inspired by the need to get free shipping and the fact that Andy Griffith died. It was either that or A Face in the Crowd, but it was the very funny No Time that made him a star.

It looks like my big plans to get a pair of reviews up by the 17th may not work out. The pain is making writing with any signs of intelligence very difficult. Oh well, we will see. I may see the new Spiderman, but I have to say I will go into it with some hostility after watching clips from it. That’s a pity since the Lizard was always my favorite foe of Spidey. I even had the Mego action figure of him when I was a kid.

And suddenly I cannot think of anything more to type. With no clue how to even end the post, I will just end it with a period.

Anime Worth Watching: An Opinion

A comment from Hanny has me thinking about which anime I like and how to go about recommending them. The problem is the style and content varies so much that they are hard to compare to each other. If I were an otaku it would be so much easier because I would like every new piece of trash that comes down the pike. But since I am just an entertainment lover and anime is just a minor subset of what I watch, my likes are very different.

Then there is the problem of trying to rank TV series against theatrical movies, which causes my brain to melt down. But hey, I like tilting at windmills, so here goes. My top three TV series are tied at number uno, so things get messy right off the bat:

1. Fractale, Area 88, Kimi ni Todoke
2. Spirited Away
3. Summer Wars
4. Only Yesterday
5. Squid Girl
6. Princess Mononoke
7. Howl’s Moving Castle
8. Porco Rosso
9. Castle in the Sky
10. C: Control
11. Croisee in a Foreign Labyrinth
12. Space Brothers
13. Bleach
14. Kiki’s Delivery Service
15. Tiger and Bunny
16. Whisper of the Heart
17. Bubblegum Crisis Toyko 2040
18. The Cat Returns
19. Denpa Onna
20. FLCL
21. Akira
22. My Neighbor Totoro
23. Nausicaa Valley of the Wind
24. Hellsing

Fractale English Dub Arrives in July

The best part of the release is that it will be a combination Blu-ray and DVD set. I have to say that Funimation did a great job with the trailer for it, since it captures how serious and dark the series really is.

Between this and the final set of Kimi ni Todoke, I am going to be broke in July. Broke but happy.