Search form

Anime Reviews: The Trials of Young Love (and Art)

In a departure from his usual subject, this month James Brusuelas takes a look at the live-action, manga-based films Maiko Haaaan!!!, Nana, Love*Com The Movie and Honey and Clover.

I have something different this month. I took a look at some live-action films that -- with the exception of Maiko Haaaan!!! – are all based on serialized manga, the source of nearly all anime. In fact, if you're watching anime and not reading manga, you're definitely missing out. At any rate, track down these DVDs and get ready to read some subtitles!

Maiko Haaaan!!! features tongue-in-cheek comedy and a spirited and vivacious performance by Sadawo Abe as Kimi. All Maiko Haaaan!!! images © 2007 Maiko Haaaan!!! Film Partners.

Maiko Haaaan!!!

2008. Director: Nobuo Mizuta. 120 minutes. DVD, bilingual. Distributor: Viz Media.

This energetic and very tongue-in-cheek comedy is the brainchild of the renowned Japanese screenwriter Kankuro Kudo. Training his cinematic eye upon the tourist backwater that is Kyoto, particularly as the navel of the geisha world, Kudo presents the tale of Kimihiko "Kimi" Onizuka, a young man obsessed since childhood with maiko (apprentice geishas). Kimi abandons his Tokyo girlfriend -- after all, she isn't even from Kyoto -- to follow his dreams of not only courting a real maiko, but also playing that ever-elusive, maiko house game of strip baseball!! Nevertheless, not one for rejection, Kimi's girlfriend, Fujiko, ultimately tries to win him back by becoming a maiko herself.

A good comedy like Maiko Haaaan!!! is not about the basic plot structure, but about the hilarity.

As one might guess, such a synopsis implies the collision of one man's fantasy with a reality lurking in plain sight -- his old girlfriend, albeit now under the make-up of a geisha. But like any good comedy, it's never about the basic plot structure. It's about the hilarity! And here "energetic" is an understatement when describing the comic performance that makes Maiko Haaaan!!! so appealing. Spirited, vivacious, and vigorous are much better adjectives for encapsulating Sadawo Abe's performance as Kimi. The vein of this comedy, after all, is rooted in Abe's ability to play the comic hero, i.e., a figure willing to sweep aside the rules of the world and its decorum to achieve his desires. Thus, when his low financial status as a salaryman impedes access to the maiko houses, Kimi instantly revolutionizes his ramen factory with a grand business plan, which makes him rich. And when a millionaire baseball player soon emerges as his rival for the girls' attention, that doesn't stop this comic hero. He'll become a famous baseball player, a mixed martial arts fighter, a mayoral candidate, a movie actor, and even break out into a song-and-dance number to compete for the affections of a maiko! Simply put, Abe turns in a hilarious performance as the anxious, hyperactive, ambitious, and clueless man who ultimately rediscovers his girlfriend.

Overall, I highly recommend this film. Besides Abe's hilarity, the more dramatic subplot surrounding the character of Kiichiro Naito, Kimi's millionaire rival, is intricate, well thought out, and strongly supportive of the story. And as for Kou Shibasaki, who plays the jilted girlfriend, her ability to blend comic and dramatic acting is not only perfect, but her physical beauty is captivatingly elegant.

Strangers on a Train: Nana features a chance meeting between two seemingly different girls named Nana. All Nana images © 2005 Nana Production Committee.

Nana

2008. Director: Kentaro Otani. 114 minutes. DVD, bilingual, $24.98. Distributor: Viz Media.

Based on the manga by Ai Yazawa, Nana tells the story of the incidental meeting between two young women on a train to Tokyo. One is the quintessential punk rock girl, whose torn jeans and short skirts are seductively edgy with her jet-black hair and excessive eyeliner. For her, the train is a route to the glory of Tokyo's music scene. The other girl is more innocent and polished; Bloomingdale's is written all over her. For her, Tokyo is all about creating a new life with her seemingly perfect boyfriend. Nevertheless, both share the same name: Nana.

Overall, Yazawa's odd couple is handled with great sensitivity by the screen adaptation of Kentaro Otani and Taeko Asano. A story like this inevitably is about the growing bond between polar opposites. As the two come together, they learn and adapt for the better. The rough, punk edge of Nana Osaki cuts away at the naïveté of Nana "Hachi" Komatsu, while the latter's child-like innocence allows Osaki to momentarily set aside her hard facade. But don't fret; cliches are suppressed in this familiar tale. In particular, Otani and Asano weave this story of friendship around their shared love for a popular J-Rock band, to which Osaki has a secret connection. This secret is enticingly revealed throughout the film, and, in a refreshing inversion of expectation (perhaps more for us Westerners), it is the innocent Hachi that emerges as the voice of wisdom and the bedrock of this relationship.

Clearly Nana, like its manga forbear, is aimed at a younger female audience. It's the perfect audiovisual complement to those youthful dreams of finding both independence and that ideal friend, the one who will always be in your life. Be that as it may, I don't think anyone can watch Nana without growing fond of these two girls.

Adapted from the best-selling manga by Aya Nakahara, Love*Com The Movie is a romantic story about mismatched high schoolers. © 2006 Lovely*Complex Film Partners.

Love*Com The Movie

2008. Director: Kitaji Ishikawa. 100 minutes. DVD, bilingual, $24.98. Distributor: Viz Media.

So, what happens when the tallest girl in school falls for the shortest guy in class?? You get Love*Com The Movie. Adapted from the bestselling manga by Aya Nakahara, this romantic comedy centers around the gangly Risa Koizumi and the short, yet very hip, Atsushi Otani. The two, of course, begin as adversaries, trading size-related taunts for the amusement of their classmates. But as their high school years drag on, Risa and Atsushi not only become friends, but Risa's budding love for her vertically challenged classmate creates a nearly endless sequence of awkward situations and comic banter. And since timing is not this pair's forte, you watch and laugh as they try to work things out.

For a romantic comedy set in high school, Love*Com is a pleasant surprise. In comparison with the teenage flicks that Hollywood churns out, it's refreshingly cute. For once we have the teenagers without the self-obsessed, sex-starved, teenage angst. Now don't get me wrong; Love*Com incorporates plenty of adolescent pouting, and even a bit of sexual innuendo. But Risa and Atsushi are simply normal kids negotiating the unfortunate peer pressure that accompanies choices of the heart. Can they deal with the social discomfort of having an asymmetrical partner? And herein lies the brilliance of this picture (that is, besides the fact that it's hilarious). It presents the comedy and drama of kids being kids, not kids acting, speaking, thinking, drinking, and dressing like adults.

Check this movie out. In fact, teenage stress would probably be reduced if teens watched stuff like this, rather than Gossip Girl.

The coming-of-age tale Honey and Clover features five art students who are all hungry for a life filled with love and success. © 2006 Honey and Clover Film Partners.

Honey and Clover

2008. Director: Masahiro Takata. 116 minutes. DVD, bilingual, $24.98. Distributor: Viz Media.

From the dilapidated moving trucks labeled "Starving Students," which rattle your windows at all hours of the day, to those "thinner" college photos lurking in hallway closets -- and now, I suppose, hard drives – being hungry is indeed the universal epithet of the college student. In Chica Umino's Honey and Clover, life is no different for the impoverished art students of Hama College. They are all hungry for a life filled with love and success.

Set in rural Japan, Honey and Clover revolves around five main characters: Takemoto, Morita, Mayama, Hagumi and Yamada. And, from the provocative antics of Morita, to the socially awkward brilliance of Hagumi, each figure is not only wonderfully unique in their particular artistic discipline, but also in their demeanor. Consequently, in this "coming-of-age" tale, we watch the lives of five artists unfold as they try both to harness their creativity and deal with the complications of love. Friends they may be, but secret and not so secret attractions pervade this small group. Hagumi is unexpectedly the cause of a love triangle, while Yamada deals with the constant rejection of Mayama, who can only think of a mysterious older woman. In the end, each must navigate the traditional pitfalls of youth in order to find some kind of direction for both art and life.

Now, whether it be manga, contemporary popular fiction, or even television and movies, we are undoubtedly inundated by the romance genre. Thus what one looks for is a clever mix of the expected and unexpected, minus any overblown adolescent fantasy. And here I have to agree with the Japanese, who have honored Umino on a national level. Honey and Clover gets it right. By bringing together multiple variations of love, each embodied in a different character, it creates enough romantic tension to defy, or at least delay, predictability. In other words, you get hooked because you're not sure where these kids are going. And so, like these students starving for life and love, you too become hungry for what happens next.

This too is a must-see, something everyone can enjoy. Honey and Clover flawlessly illustrates our curiosity and concern about love and relationships. It allows you to experience that youthful uncertainty about life without feeling overly sentimental.

Raised on such iconic, Westernized giants as Battle of the Planets, Voltron, and Robotech, James Brusuelas is a literary scholar, critic and freelance writer based out of Orange County in Southern California.