So I know I mentioned that I would try and digest my current anime diet first before moving along. But Hatenkou Yugi was calling on me and somehow, I just couldn't resist and got a little gluttonous.
I spent about two days watching Hatenkou Yugi, also known as Dazzle. The first day I only watched the very first episode, which is something that I do to decide whether or not I will continue to watch a specific anime. If it's good, it'll entice me to continue. If it doesn't draw my attention, then lingering thoughts of watching the rest of it will slowly be left in the dust. And then I forget I even saw the first episode.
Not long after watching the first episode of Hatenkou Yugi, I easily began to watch the rest of it. As it is quite short, being merely ten episodes of fun-filled adventure, I quickly finished it off in one sitting. The title on my sidebar of current anime playlist hasn't even sat there long enough to be significant and I'm a little embarrassed. Though I guess it gives me something to do on this blog every once and a while -- heaven knows I've been slacking on my blogging not even one month into it.
I know little about the original manga, nor of the "strong manga support" that some say this series has behind it. What I do know is that I thoroughly enjoyed the entire series from beginning to end. The pacing was fast and upbeat, the storyline was interesting, and most importantly, I believe that this series plays on its characterizations more than anything. Our three protagonists exhibit a number of diologue, actions, and emotions that could probably tell the story better than the story itself.
For as long as I've watched anime, there have only been a select few with the same type of uniqueness in character creation, witty dialogue, and comedic timing. The telling of Hatenkou Yugi doesn't drag on nor does it present anything unecessarily, weaving each scene smoothly into the contents of the rest of the series. Drama is cut into comedy is cut into the emotional build-up of tragedy like a collage of different colors. Although I must add that the series gives little time to dwell on the injustices that occur in life, even when it gives you time to realize the entirety of the situation.
This is the adventure story I've been waiting for since Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bebop made their impressions in my otaku-developing heart nearly two or three years ago during my first anime viewing experience. For the series itself, there is no need to explain anything uncessary and it leaves further conclusions to be drawn by the viewer alone. The interaction between the three main characters gives priceless moments of endearment through insult and teasing, and draws the viewer closer to their emotional moments of heartfelt words. It's simply witty and unique. It makes you wish that it wasn't so short.
I've got to hand it to the creator of Rahzel. She's a new surprise to me every episode. Even with her tragic past and her sudden dismissal by her father to "see the world" after being unceremoniously booted onto the streets, she still holds up quite well for a fourteen year old girl. Instead of sobbing in wait for her father to change his mind and retract his statement, she instead wishes that she could have a companion on her journey, easily accepting that this is what she needs to do now. After all, life needs to be lived right, and there's no point in moping around.
To top it off, once she finds her new and mysterious companion oh-so-conveniently, she sets up her own stage for creating a fun-filled adventure together. "I'll make this damned boring life more interesting and mysterious for you," she proclaims to the pigment-lacking Alzeid as she is held at gunpoint. After all, even though he'd just been trying to steal money from some unsuspecting fool as part of his "part-time job", he looks bored and like he could use a good adventure, right?
And so the adventurous little trio is born, although during these first few minutes of the first episode, we know little about Rahzel and her magical powers, Alzeid and his personality, as well as the third companion Baroqueheat and his own role in this storyline. There is no direct destination for these three and Rahzel never announces where she wants to go exactly, but her proclamation of making Alzeid's life much more interesting proves to be quite a feat as we wonder if anything excites the albino gunman at all.
Throughout the rest of the series, we begin to learn about Rahzel, Alzeid, and Baroqueheat -- much less of the latter than the two former -- we begin to relate with them as they travel. Alzeid from the beginning is only looking to seek revenge against a woman with long black hair and blue eyes -- not so much unlike Rahzel's own physical appearance.
And yet the question remains to be unanswered by Alzeid of what he would actually do if he finally found this woman. Will he kill her? Will he let the idea of vengeance go? After all, our poor little heroine is adamant about keeping Alzeid's thirst for revenge settled at the last part of their adventuring to-do list. Her thoughts on revenge, after all, may reflect a little bit of the tragic incident that incurred when she was just a child -- the loss of her mother, followed by the subsequent loss of her old childhood life when she abaondoned by her birth father.
I often wondered, though they interact very little in terms of their beliefs, whether or not Alzeid took to heart Rahzel's thoughts on the concept of revenge and killing. Killing is killing no matter how one looks at it. Someone will be affected by someone's death and someone will in turn feel sadness or anger, thus leading to the desire for revenge. The cycle continues to repeat itself which is a truth in life itself. As Rahzel holds an innocent boy at gunpoint, she imparts these words to him when he is about to take the life of a person which may in turn cause her to lose her traveling companions. Thus she tells him that she will seek revenge as well and when that happens someone else will come find her.
"This is what it means to kill someone. Do you have the courage to endure ever-greater eternal sadness? Are you prepared to force your sorrow on others?"
As for the person who does the killing, no matter who you are, good or bad, the feeling of having taken a fellow human's life can't be a comforting one. To think that your one action was the one that had decided someone's life or death. Just thinking about it can give a person the chills.
Baroqueheat's involvement with the other two is not really revealed until closer towards the end, but his various attempts to romance the leader of the trio makes for good entertainment. Even near the end when he choses to leave the trio, a mere slight of Rahzel-approved verbal lashing drives him back into the trio in his role as "the one who loves Rahzel-chan to the death."
He also appears consistently as "the one who is separated from the trio or shows up late giving albino boy and the loud one much needed alone screen time to build their budding (non?) relationship." It's pretty much a given that Alzeid and Rahzel were meant to be our main male and female protagonists and Baroqueheat is really just a tag-a-long, but his presence is still ever welcome.
From beginning to end, I've enjoyed the various interactions between these three characters. Alzeid, though immediately cold and uncaring towards everyone else slowly grows to naturally care for the welfare of Rahzel regularly. His rare and inconsistent quirky moments and sarcastic remarks, and even his even rarer moments of "don't leave me out of the loop" tantrums makes one want to grin and give him a hug. For a cold-hearted killer, he's somewhat of a softy when it comes to Rahzel. The end scene where he's looking for the most suitable birthday present makes one giggle with utmost otaku-ism.
The jokes that they play on each other serve for some cutesy amusement, and when Baroqueheat spontaneously kisses Rahzel, you're just itching to see the subsequent slap-in-the-face scene; but upon seeing the look on his face, it makes you really think. When it seems that Alzeid is about to deliver the same treatment as a means to teach Rahzel a lesson in life, you're holding your breath in eager anticipation. Then you realize that Alzeid was just trying to teach Rahzel a very important lesson about being able to take care of herself and being too overconfident. In this scene alone, you finally grasp just how much Alzeid really cares about Rahzel despite his clipping words and cold demeanor towards her.
With each episode comes a new event for the three to encounter, and with each event comes yet more of the same philosophical life lessons imparted to others and the viewers, all packaged nicely in dazzling colors -- lameass pun intended. Or even the much less strongly believable half-baked philosophies that the characters can come up with by themelves.
There are just some things that they can say with so much meaning and it makes you wonder. At the same time, they show off a part of their personality that makes you understand them even more.
And now, a neat little life lesson-- because every life situation involving a trio must always come across the "who's more important to you" question. Right? O.o
Oh, I see Alzeid didn't much like that answer. So let's try again.
Our heroes help people in need and along with it present to the audience and each other another little part of themselves that can be new and suprising and revelating. Often times these adventures involve poorly animated fights and lots of colorful magic sparkles by our three invincible heroes: Rahzel with her cleverly utilized magic and wits, Alzeid with his level-headed tact and his gun, and Baroqueheat with... well, with his charm and his strength, I guess-- it also helps that the third of the trio has a nice little hand turns into sword weapon.
As this is a fantasy and adventure from the get-go, we don't find ourselves questioning anything about these three. Where did Rahzel get her powers? Does everyone else have them as well? And how come no one gets over exaggeratedly surprised or scared that she has such powers? And then there's Baroqueheat's arm... why does it turn into a sword? Not only that, but how does one young fourteen year old girl go about traveling with two men, much older than herself without getting scrutinized by the public?
Okay, so maybe some uncessary questions can be asked. And others more will come such as that of the mysterious pasts of the three heroes. But by the time these questions have come to surface, the storyline has already moved forward and you disgard these questions for later as somehow, you know they will be answered at some time within the rest of the anime. As far as the presentation of the storyline goes, it seems that jumping back and forth from flashback to present is a common device; utilizing sudden surprising twists without explanation goes along with it as well. After all, if you learn about everything from the beginning, then what's the fun in experiencing an adventure?
Even though I already knew the premise of this manga, I was still a little surprised to notice how Alzeid suddenly uses his magic in order to save Rahzel's life in the nineth episode. How come he'd never used it before? And if he did, why was it never made clear to the viewer? The manga, as I've learned, boasts Alzeid's extraordinary use of powerful magic, much more powerful than Rahzel's which she relies on in practically every episode but the last three. Maybe Alzeid's sudden use is just a way of convey how much more awesome he is now than he was before he revealed his magic. After all, he'd only been using a gun and hand-to-hand combat to get out of situations and the magic was used to save Rahzel when it seemed no other way would work.
Within these ten little episodes alone, the interaction between Rahzel and her two male companions grows lovelier and closer. It is a shame that the series ends so abruptly. There is yet much more to learn about our three heroes, and even the idea of a sequel is left hanging in the air since other characters introduced in the last episode have yet to reveal much more about their own purposes.
Hatenkou Yugi is amazingly fun to follow along with, and the little bits of comedy thrown into it casually make for a few good laughs. On the off-side, had this series been longer than ten episodes, I feel that it might have had room for more and better development. After all, even though I liked the fast paced story telling of Hatenkou Yugi, I didn't much like that so many things were glossed over like a background picture, even though they surely have some significant role in the bigger scheme of things.
Since this is the case then I will absolutely look forward to a sequel to this series. Ten is just quite short for me, and honestly, I don't think I've actually made myself sit through an anime series that was shorter than twenty-four episodes anyway. I tend to like the long, extended form of storytelling, because then you know that you still have a ways to go until the end rolls around.
On a side note, I firstly began watching Hatenkou Yugi for a few various reasons. First of all, I've read a good review of it somewhere, though I can't remember where. Secondly, THAT Anime Blog managed to blog all ten episodes of Hatenkou Yugi even if I haven't read them yet-- I tend to find certain reviewers and bloggers out there in the web world very insightful and will hold their opinions to some crazy high standard until I find somewhere to disagree with them. Lastly, I'm familiar with two of the seiyu who star in this series: Sakurai Takahiro and Kobayashi Sanae.
Takahiro has been a favorite of mine ever since the days of Final Fantasy VII and his portrayal of Cloud-sama in Advent Children. Kobayashi-san has become a familiar name to me ever since I became obsessed with watching D.Gray-man as this female seiyu is quite proficient in voicing young male roles a la Allen Walker. And just as I suspected, while listening to Rahzel's speech, I often caught a little bit of that voice known for Allen Walker in certain intonations and the laughing of her voice. It was enjoyable to think that way. I wouldn't mind finding Kobayashi-san's voice in another spunky, free-spirited young girl, nor as another young boy with a strong will and a gentle demeanor.
On an end note, while the artwork wasn't the best, the characters and the storyline made up for the most of it. Rahzel is your rarely seen strong female protagonist what with her kickass magical powers and her "don't cry if you can fix things by yourself" attitude. She's far from a damsel in distress as she easily overcomes all her troubles even without the help of magic, and attempts to help fix everyone and everything troubling that comes across her line of vision. She might be rash and quick to act, but she is also not all brawns without brains-- she's clever enough to get herself out of situations without having to rely on other people.
Similarly, her male counterparts do well to balance out her loud, justice and adventure seeking personality. Alzeid is cooler and calmer and keeps her from doing stupid things or dwelling on too emotional matters. Baroqueheat is like a bodyguard who will show up to protect her on the off chance that she really can't save herself-- he's also her little whipping boy to do all the messenger running oddball tasks as well as be the medium between her and Alzeid.
The music was well chosen and the themesongs were very catchy and meaningful. Hatenkou Yugi is an anime series that I would bet is one to live purely off of its characters and fast paced storytelling and still live dazzlingly -- pun not intended this time.
Echoing her claim from episode one, this is a nice way to wrap up these ten episodes.
Again, if a sequel were to be born soon, I wouldn't mind anticipating each and every part of it.
