Crystal Tokyo Anime Blog

     Here’s a few new anime motivational posters for the week of 4/13/2009. Feel free to share and enjoy these posters, but please at least give me a link or track back if you’re going to post them to a board or forum, I’ve seen one of my posters on a board where it said that it had been downloaded several thousand times but my blog said that the poster had only been viewed less than 50 times. Click on the poster to view at full size, enjoy.

I’m sorry that this review of the promo came after my review of episode one, but I just got my hands on it yesterday.

       Well, this is the promo episode from back in October or November, and it’s an introduction to the character’s and their roles in the series done almost talk show style. The main characters, Marika, Pet, and Gali are sitting on a couch, and they interact with themselves and the TV viewing audience. Marika is a average Gothic Lolita girl who hardly speaks, Gali is an old scientist who hosts a show about science with Marika, and Pet who’s supposed to add tension energy to the show.

       Then Gali explains to the audience, and to Marika that this is a science anime, pet promptly falls asleep while listening to him. After Gali explain his rebel background to Marika, a microphone wheeling MC breaks into their conversation. When Marika asks who this person is, Gali tells her it’s his uninvited buddy John Fleming. The John Fleming of electromagnetic induction fame, to which he replies that he’s really MC J.F.!

        When Marika asks Gali about MC J.F.!, we get a song called love coil that mixes the ideas of romantic love, electromagnetic induction, and the right hand rule. Different parts of the song are sung by Marika, Gali, and MC J.F.!  After the song, Marika admits that she doesn’t know Fleming’s Right Hand Screw Rule, so Marika and the audience gets a quick explanation of the rule, and the FBI  acronym. Well, that’s all for this episode.

     Well, this promo episode was just as weird as the first episode. The idea of using anime to promote science is a pretty interesting one, but the scientific ideas that Gali shows Marika and the audience are either confused, or slightly wrong, or I was just confused?  John Fleming does have two rules credited to him, the first one is his Right Hand Rule for Generators and it uses the FBI  acronym, and his other rule is his Left Hand Rule for Motors. Regardless of whether I was just confused or they actually were confusing the science ideas, I find this anime weirdly amusing.

So many bloggers seem to be covering series such as East of Eden, Asura Cryin’, Shangri-La, Ristorante Paradiso, I won’t bother adding my voice to those who are shouting into the void. But, I spotted the this strange anime called Marie & Gali who’s episodes are only  five minutes long, so I’ll be covering this series as the episodes come out.

       This series begins with a young girl (aged 13-14) named Marika (Marie) riding on a train. Marika’s dressed in Gothic Lolita style clothing and she carries a living stuffed plush doll with her that she calls Pet. Marika (Marie) explains to us that while searching for understanding in this unknown world she’s traveled to this strange town.

       When Marika gets off the train Pet runs away from her, she soon follow after Pet and is led towards a tower that looks like the leaning tower of Pisa except it’s not leaning. Marika goes inside thinking that Pet went inside where she meets a strange guy who calls himself Gali of Gali’s Hubble. He tells her he’s been waiting for a beautiful girl like her to come along so be can show her something wonderful, he has a one wheeled skateboard, and starts explaining physic lessons to her.

       When she asks who he is? He claim he proved the Earth revolved around the sun, Galileo, (wrong). Marika says she never heard of him and starts walking up the tower with Gali chasing after her. He asks her what’s the hurry? I looking for Pet. When he asks her if it’s a cat or dog, she says a stuffed plush doll. He thinks she’s full of it until he actually sees a moving plush doll, he then transforms his skateboard into a rocket powered skateboard, and he grabs Marika and they chase after Pet.

      Higher and Higher up the tower they chase Pet, until they have him corned at a dead end. When Gali and Marika finally catch Pet, the force of the skateboard crashes all three of them through the tower’s wall. The force of the impact causes the tower to tilt to one side, Gali and his skateboard crash to the ground, and Marika and Pet use her parasol to float to the ground. After she lands a lady walks up to Marika and says that she has to be the new visitor, so the walk off together. At the end of the episode we get the lesson of the day (the rule of falling, all objects fall at the same rate). Well, that’s all for this strange little anime.

       Well, this was a pretty strange anime, a Gothic Lolita girl traveling to a strange land to get physics lessons for a equally strange scientist. Marie & Gali might be a little weird but I liked it. Marika (Marie) the lead character is cute and likable, Pet is  a little weird but I guess any moving stuffed plush would be a little weird, and Gali is your typical half crazy mad scientist. Marie & Gali is nice five minute distraction from everyday anime.