anime: Blue Seed eps 1-5

[meganbmoore]

The myth goes as such:  thousands of years ago, the land of Izumo  was terrorized by an eight headed monster, Yamata no Orichi.  An old couple with eight daughters was left in peace as long as they sacrificed one daughter to the beast each year.  When it came time to sacrifice their last daughter, Kushinada, the exiled god, Susa-no-o, came along and made them an offer: he would slay the beast for them, if they gave him their daughter as a bride.  Beast got chopped up, girl got married off to a stranger instead of eaten for lunch.  I'm sure she viewed it as an improvement.

Fast forward to today, and the descendants of Kushinada and Susa-no-o are known as the Kushinada.  Yamata no Orichi also spawned descendants, monsters known as the Aragami.  When the daughters of the Kushinada die, they set off an electromagnetic pulse that keeps the Aragami asleep underground.  As you can tell, it always has and probably alway will really suck to be female and a member of this family.  The current generation, though, went and had twin daughters, Kaede and Momiji.  Kaede was adopted by a man named Kunikida, head of TAC, an organization that hunts and fights Aragami, and is trained to fight them, while Momiji is raised to be a normal girl, oblivious to her heritage.  (And somehow living in Izumo, but completely ignorant of a famous legend about it.  I'll let that slide.)

However, when Kaede sacrifices herself to stop the Aragami, they learn that the electromagnetic pulse was split between the twins, and her death wasn't enough to put the Aragami to sleep for a couple decades.  Realizing this, Kunikida takes off to get to Momiji before anyone else does.

COMPLICATION!!!

Somewhere along the way, the Aragami got tired of this forced naptime and they created Kusanagi, a young man with supernatural powers thanks to the seven magatami beads-the true form of the Aragami-within him, specifically to protect Kaede.  Somewhere along the way, though, Kusanagi fell in love with Kaede(look, you create a guy specifically to protect a girl, and it's going to happen) and after her death, he decides to finish the job for her and attacks the clumsy Momiji on the way to school.  I really need to figure out why the "I will kill you" here makes me go "Ooh?" while almost the exact same thing in Gundam Wing made me go "WTH? Tell me I'm reading this coding wrong!"  Probably because, while Relena seems to take it as confession of love or some such, Momiji has the much more sensible reaction of wanting to get away from the psycho.  The fact that it takes about 5 minutes for "I will kill you" to change to "I will protect you even if I'm kinda a stupid @$$ about it" instead of 40~ episodes probably helps, too.

Soon, Momiji has joined TAC and is helping them hunt the Aragami, with Kusanagi tagging along in the shadows, ready to play Knight In Shining Armor when needed.

Am in love.

Kusanagi seems to have taken lessons in "how to let a girl know you like her"  from a certain red eyed guy named Kyo.  It's received in about the same vein, too.  He seems to have a lot of bottled up angst, and is one of those "I'm so badass" guys who is, but is also a lot nicer than he thinks he is.  Momiji's a clutz and does her best to be friends with everyone(including a certain rude guy obsessed with her panties) and does her best to be a useful member of TAC, instead of a princess in a glass tower.  Kunikida seems to be trying to let Momiji choose her own path, instead of choosing it for her.  There's also Takeuchi, Kunikida's second in command, who seems to be in love with him, Matsudaira, a scientist whose devotion to her work cost her her family, a pair of nerds I haven't learned much about yet, and Koume, a prickly soldier who got transferred to TAC for being too fond of blowing things up.  I like Koume.  She's my favorite after Kusanagi and Momiji.  Maybe before or tied with Momiji.  (I'm currently being glad that Momiji is being allowed to do things so far, despite her character type.)  Actually, so far, I like them all.

I like stories based on mythology, and I've been wanting to watch or read something based on the Susa-no-o myth for a while now.  Though I'm saddened that there is no sign yet of his grass cutting sword.  Also, Momiji has a magatama in her chest, and it's what lets her detect Aragami.  Kusanagi gets his powers from the seven magatama inside him.  Eight is the magic number of the Susa-no-o legend.  Not too obvious, are we anime?  I do wish, though, that it wasn't so fond of panty shots.  (And again: Kusanagi.  Related to Kyo.)

Comments

[azkadelliacain.livejournal.com]

I remember this one! Gosh brings back memories. Her underwear kind of became it's own character. Sequel movie kinda sucked though but loved it nonetheless

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'd notice the panties as much if it weren't for the part in the first episode where her skirt is shredded and the plant Aragami was going after her with tentacle things. While she was sensibly screaming for help and trying to escape, I was wondering exactly what kind of anime I'd been recced by normally reliable sources...

(Thankfully, it seems I needn't have worried, though it gave me flashbacks to part of the Ninja Scroll TV series that I would have rather not had.)

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha, don't worry. I would have said something if Blue Seed was really tentacle porn.

[(Anonymous)]

Don't worry, I have no doubts about that(from you or a couple others) but when the first story of a show has a scene where a girl gets attacked in her school and her skirt gets shredded and she's menaced by tentacles, the non-logical part of the brain tends to come forward.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

If you do console gaming at all, Okami is full of a charmingly cracky retelling of Susanoo and Orochi. (It's also got storylines involving its own odd little versions of the Hakkenden, Kaguya-hime, Issunboshi, Urashima Taro, Yoshitsune and Benkei...really, if you like Japanese myth and folktales it's utterly delightful crack.)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I actually don't do any gaming at all, but I have had Okami recced to me for just thast reason, so I figure I probably will check it out if I ever take up gaming.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I'm only the most casual late-bloomer dilettante sort of gamer myself, so I think I'm fairly safe in saying the gameplay here wouldn't be offputting to even a total beginner. It's relatively low-pressure, you can take your time and wander around and explore instead of constantly being pushed into combat situations, and it's not one of those frustrating games where you wind up dying all the time and having to do things over and over just for making small mistakes or not being fast enough.

If you do ever decide to pick it up, since it's an older game for a prevous-gen system it could probably be done fairly cheaply -- however, it might almost be worth waiting for the Wii version that's due out later this year. A lot of Ammy's special powers involve the use of the Celestial Brush to literally paint changes into the world, and that's just MADE for the motion-sensitive controller.

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid the grass-cutting sword comes only in the form(s) of Kusanagi and [spoiler].

I remember Momiji and Kusanagi's first meeting made me and my friends crack up when we watched this series in high school. It was, "Wait, what did he just say?!" But despite Momiji being rather, er, dim, she's a brave and earnest girl so it's hard to hate her. I normally dislike her character type, just because I have low tolerance for airheads, but she's so sincere, it's hard to summon up my usual distaste.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I suspected that about Kusanagi. I'm used to these "created to save the princess" types basically being walking weapons.

I really do need to figure out why the "I have to kill you" cracked me up there, but had the opposite reaction for me in Gundam Wing. Then again, Heero/Relena had a number of things where it works for me elsewhere, but not there. Of course, Kusanagi says it with ever so much angst and "I'm tough...TOUGH!" that you can't quite take him seriously.

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the thing about Kusanagi is that he says, "I'm sorry, but I have to kill you." But you know he's really just an angsty woobie underneath -- I mean, they meet on a path through the forest and the wind is blowing dramatically and Momiji is all, "WTF is going on?!" The reaction is appropriate. She doesn't say, "I love you too!" Which, uh, I think we can all agree is not a normal reaction.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the set up for it was all "yeah, right, you know better" so you couldn't take the death threat seriously, whereas with Heero, he really DID plan to do it(ok, Kusanagi intended to, but was obviously going to wuss out) and tried several times, and kept it up through most of the series(and I swear he considered it in Endless Waltz, too) and it took five minutes for "sorry, but i have to kill you" to turn into "RARR! I will protect you fromn the world! No one touches! Oooh...girly parts!"

I think it also helps that Kusanagi is about a hundred times more charming than Heero(I know it makes me an outcast among GW fans, but outside of a few psychological aspects and the opportunity to mock him, I wasn't all that big on Heero.) I am also amused that the English dub for Kusanagi is also that of Duo.

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Yeah, once Kusanagi started looking up her skirt (in a goofy "Har har, girly parts!" way, not in a "I'm a creepy stalker!" way), I'd say his Threatening Murderer Cred plummeted straight off a cliff.

I never got the Heero allure. I think it's the ultra-cold, efficient assassin thing, which theoretically IS a kink of mine, but Heero just didn't do it for me.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, actually, a lot of the actual elements for Heero, Relena, and Heero/Relena are set up for me to love, but the actual characters and pairing? Nope.

I think part of it with Heero is, that...well, all his cool qualities, Duo or Trowa do better.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

Blue Seed was one of the first anime series I ever watched. If you're watching it, I should get it down off the shelf and watch with you. While there's a stretch of monster-of-the-week episodes, its ending is excellent.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think I just started a string of "monster of the week to meet the cast" episodes. I'll probably be watching it at my normal 4-5 eps a day(likely more on weds, when I'm off work) rate.

[shadawyn.livejournal.com]

I wanted to rent this one when magicnoire recc'd it a while back because it sounded like fun. Sadly, Netflix seemed to be missing discs, and is in no hurry to replace them.

*goes to find a cheap copy for her next Retail Therapy spree...*

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I get the impression that Netflix is rarely in a hurry to replace missing anime discs. I got my copy secondhand, but I think it's been rereleased for a decent price.

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Watch RightStuf. The thinpak pops up for sale often in its weekly specials or Shawn's Deal of the Day section. Despite the fact that it came out a long time ago, I think it still moves copies.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Deal of the day?

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

On the front page:

Navigate to the menu bar (the one with all the exclamation points) --> Hover over Top Categories --> Select Shawn's Deal of the Day under the "Money Savers" section.

You'll also find the Bargain Bin and Closeout Item links there.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

I love Kusanagi. He's such a jerk but so likable in spite of it. He does remind me of Kyo as he can be a crude jerk but he doesn't really mean it personally. He's also adorable when he becomes a permanent attachment to Momiji in most situations.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

And he's a pervert. Don't forget that part. (And like Kyo, most of it seems to be centered on one person.)

Kyo/Yuya is pretty much an extreme(and slightly older) version of the Kusanagi/Momiji pairing type, which has just as much chance of being really good as it does of just being annoying. Though it tends to be annoying in shoujo more than in shounen...probably because shounen has more opportunities to balance out the things he should be smacked for with rescues and such.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

The Japanese seem to go for aggressive, pushy guys which works fine in shounen but comes across jerky sometimes in shojo.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

It works in shounen because it's typically a situation that calls for behavior like that in some areas, and you accept that the rest comes with it. Shounen heroines also tend to properly give some version of "screw you" in response.

Most shoujo, however, has most of that attitude directly romantically, with the heroine going "what...what does it mean?" which...isn't appealing. There are shoujo where it works, like Basara, but they're *shock* the more actiony/fantasy/historical/scifi types of stories, not the shounen romance/high school stuff, where we see a lot of it. Basically, for a pairing like it to work, there needs to be a whole lot of other stuff going on that also keeps the characters busy.

[lilac-breeze.livejournal.com]

I'm happy you're enjoying Blue Seed so far. Reading this has made me really want to watch the series again. XD

Oh, I do love Kusanagi. He can be such a jerk, but you know he never really means it. He's just adorable. He and Koume were my favorite characters, with Momiji trailing just behind them. Normally characters like Momiji annoy me after a while, but she's just so sweet and she tries so damn hard, you can't help but love the girl. Even if she makes me slap my forehead at times. XD The entire cast is really wonderful and I'm really fond of all of them.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I rarely have the problems others seem to have with female characters in anime and manga, and it's almost as rare that I understand why people do have the level of problems they do, but I do see where characters like Momiji are annoying to others, but Momiji is definately much better than most of her type.

Kusanagi is a character type (or for that matter, the Kusanagi/Momiji pairing) that rarely works for me in shoujo, but tends to be good in shounen. Koume's just fun. I really need an icon of when she looks so eager to kill something in ep 9.