I said on Twitter that this most recent episode of Angel Beats! was my favorite so far. True, but mainly in regards to the end. The humor was quite hit and miss for me, mainly on miss due to its repetitive nature and me not being a huge Yui fan. Up until we hit that certain point where the end is more than enough to make up for everything.

By this point, we’ve had the usual flood of “important/touching episode” blog posts and I’ve been stalling quite a bit with this post, so if you don’t know what happened yet I’ll be surprised. None the less. Spoilers will ensue. (All post images are clickable for source.)

Angel Beats! is a very different project for some of the Key staff. It’s referred to as mixed media, but most of us in this little blogosphere aren’t encountering much of the media besides the anime and the music. Maybe the manga by now. (I was reading it but then my internet cut out and I haven’t gotten back to it.)

But it still links up with a classic Key anime. We still have an obvious protagonist, sad background stories, a butt-monkey best friend, and moe all around (mostly concentrated on Kanade). Also baseball, gay jokes, and emotion-manipulating music. Naturally.

Angel Beats! is basically coming out as the compressed Jun Maeda/Key formula. They’ve got 12 episodes, a ton of characters, and goddammit they’re going to do their best to make you cry.

However, the most recent episode has what is really small logical deviation from the formula that just freakin’ blew me away. And to think it includes two of the most consistent roles from a Key VN.

Hinata is the best friend. The wingman. Butt-monkey extrodinaire! Complete with that BL ship-teasing I’ll never quite understand. (The target audience is moe-loving otaku, right? Right!?)

The only thing that sets Hinata apart is that he’s got a bit of a backbone.

Yui is definitely that hyper-active obnoxious girl (loli optional). The one that’s a favorite in Japan all along, but the Western fandom will warm up to after their horribly tragic bawww-fest comes out. You know, Makoto, Fuuko, and judging from her popularity in Japan, likely Kud from Little Busters! too.

As far as Fuuko being hated throughout Clannad, blame that on her reappearing after her beautifully sad story ended. In ridiculous ways that kind of negate the emotion. (For me personally, it’s just that I really dislike Ai Nonoka’s voice.)

Now my own opinion on Yui, obviously was that I didn’t even consider her much. I don’t think she was mentioned in my last post at all. I did, however, love her character design (gimme a Na-Ga drawing of her please). Like usual with these characters, I was prone to being annoyed with her, but I didn’t dislike her. I just put her in the usual category and expected to be blown away later.

And blown away I was. Because this is where Jun Maeda noticeably takes advantage of Angel Beats! being free from the constrictions of a VN. We have a side character romance here guys! And an adorable side character romance at that.

It would have been a complete surprise for me, had someone not spoiled it on Twitter. After watching the episode, and after I stopped my crying (the first tears Angel Beats! has gotten out of me so far), I remember seeing people who shipped Sunohara and Tomoyo during Clannad and remembering how I ridiculed them in my head due to the nature of its source material.

That’s what kind of makes it brilliantly wonderful. Because the main key fanbase is conditioned to not expect it. The wingman never gets a girl! He’s just the buttmonkey to be used for insulting and to beat up. Because that’s how a visual novel works. You’re playing as a protagonist, what’s the point of hooking up your best friend with another girl? You want those moemoe eyes looking at you!

But this isn’t a game. Every character is just a character with no alternative motives in mind from the writer. So, like with any other story without a harem, you can have another couple. Every girl doesn’t have to be shoe-horned in with one guy. Different personalities can meet their true complement~

Or something like that.

I’m probably more affected by it because I always have my shipping goggles on. Looking back now, there are totally hints for it. But I just write this stuff off as the usual shenanigans, there to make us laugh.

So yeah, I’m totally ecstatic over Hinata x Yui (where are my AMVs people!?). Just like everyone else. I mean have you seen how many pictures there are on pixiv? I’ll give you a hint, the fanart cluttering up this post doesn’t even cover 1/20 of it. It’s really the simplest, sweet stories that hit us the hardest sometimes.

To put this simply, this story is going to go down as one of my favorite Key stories of all time. Explaining Yui’s hyperactivity, rather than letting it just be Rule of Moe; Having Hinata give the best love confession speech of all time (seriously, Hinata is now my second favorite character because that was just too sweet ) combining it with a marriage proposal (one of my weaknesses~); Making it bittersweet and thus all the more memorable; and just the fact that it makes perfect sense, but I still didn’t expect it.

I’ve been enjoying Angel Beats! all along, but this is more certainly proof that I love it. People have been complaining and debating back and forth on whether it’s good, but I don’t care. I’ve been enjoying it and a move like this is enough to make it memorable forever. And that’s all I need, I haven’t quoted my forgotten blog motto in a while, but if I like it, it’s good and that’s all I need. Simple as that.

Maid Sama!
Cover of Maid-sama! volume 1 as published by Hakusensha featuring Misaki Ayuzawa (right) and Takumi Usui (left).
会長はメイド様! (Kaichou wa Maid-sama!)
Genre	Romantic comedy
Manga
Author	Hiro Fujiwara
Publisher	Hakusensha Tokyopop
Demographic	Shōjo
Magazine	LaLa
Original run	December 2005 – ongoing
Volumes	11
TV anime
Director	Hiroaki Sakurai
Studio	J.C.Staff
Licensor	Sentai Filmworks
Network	TBS BS-TBS, Animax Asia Anime Network
Original run	April 1, 2010 – September 23, 2010
Episodes	26 (List of episodes)
Anime and Manga Portal

Maid Sama!, known in Japan as Kaichō wa Maid-sama! (会長はメイド様!, lit. The Student Council President is a Maid!^?) is a shōjo manga series by Hiro Fujiwara. It is currently serialized in Hakusensha‘s monthly shōjo manga magazine, LaLa. There are currently 8 published volumes under the Hana to Yume Comics imprint in Japan.^[1] In their Anime Expo 2008 panel, North American publisher Tokyopop announced its various newly licensed series and that Kaichō wa Maid-sama! would be titled Maid-sama!.^[2] An anime adaptation began airing on April 1, 2010.^[3]

//

[edit] Plot

Seika High School, once an all-boys school notorious for its wild students and for generally being a terrifying place for girls, has recently become a co-ed school. With the female population still a minority and living in fear of the over-the-top antics of the males, Misaki Ayuzawa takes it into her own hands to reform the school and allow the girls to feel safe in the rough environment.

Training, studying and even becoming the first female student council president of the school, Misaki has gained a reputation among the male students body as an uptight boy-hating dictator and as a shining hope for the teachers and fellow female students. However, despite her tough-as-nails appearance, she secretly works part-time at a maid cafe in order to support her family. Unfortunately, her hard-earned reputation is threatened when the popular and somewhat impassive Usui Takumi takes an interest in her after discovering her in a maid uniform after school.

[edit] Media

[edit] Drama CDs

A drama CD for Kaichō wa Maid-sama was released in Japan and Philippines.

[edit] Anime

The October 2009 issue of LaLa announced that a television anime adaptation of the series would be produced.^[3] It will be broadcasted in TBS and BS-TBS during Spring 2010.^[4] The April 2010 issue of LaLa revealed the broadcast date to be on April 1, 2010 at 1:55 midnight. The adaptation was also present at the Tokyo International Anime Fair with Ayumi Fujimura, Nobuhiko Okamoto, Kana Hanazawa and Yū Kobayashi’s attendance.^[5] The Anime Network has announced that they will stream the series in the U.S. and Canada on their online player, starting with the first episode for premium subscribers premiering on June 15 and for registered members two days after. New episodes will premiere on Thursdays.^[6]

The staff list was announced and Hiroaki Sakurai directed the series with series composition done by Mamiko Ikeda who previous worked in the series composition for Emma: A Victorian Romance series and most recently the Rental Magica series and Hanasakeru Seishōnen while the animation character designs by Yuki Imoto and music composed by Tōru Motoyama. The series was animated by J.C.Staff who previously worked on Honey and Clover and Nodame Cantabile.^[7] Ayumi Fujimura and Nobuhiko Okamoto took on the role of Misaki Ayuzawa and Takumi Usui respectively.^[7]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Maid Sama! (manga) at Anime News Network‘s Encyclopedia
• Maid Sama! (anime) at Anime News Network‘s Encyclopedia
• Maid Sama! at Hakusensha (Japanese)
• Maid Sama! at Tokyopop
• Maid Sama! at TBS (Japanese)

The magazine’s furoku are usually calendars for New Year issues, drama CDs and so on.

The magazine was ranked 5th together with Shogakukan‘s Shōjo Comic and Kodansha‘s Weekly Shōnen Magazine by Japanese girls as their favourite manga anthology in a survey conducted by Oricon in 2006.^[1][2]

//

[edit] About

LaLa is the second shōjo manga magazine that Hakusensha published. Series’ that are serialized in LaLa is collected into tankōbon under the label, Hana to Yume Comics (花とゆめコミック ス^?), together with other Hana to Yume serialized manga. Fanbooks, illustration books for the serialized series’ are published under the Hana to Yume Comics Special (花とゆめコミックススペシャル^?).

Readers of the magazine are 97% female while the other 3% are male readers. Its age demographic consists of 4% percent for under-13 readers, 23.4% for readers aged 13-17, 20% for readers aged 18-20, 13% for readers aged 21-23 while the remaining 29.7% of the readers are aged 24 years old and up.^[3] Readers aged 24 and up are the demographic of the highest percentage.^[3]

[edit] History

LaLa began its publication in July 1976 as a sister magazine to Hana to Yume as Hana to Yume LaLa (花とゆめ LaLa^?) which was published bi-monthly. The magazine’s first publication featured Ryōko Yamagishi’s Hana no Seitachi (花の精たち^?) and was priced at 290 yen. The magazine’s first editor in chief was Nobumasa Konagai. The current editor in chief is Ikushū Ichikawa.^[4]

Then in September 1977, the magazine changed its frequency and became a monthly magazine. It then became its own independent magazine with a sister magazine of its own, LaLa DX.

In 1985, Hakusensha started publishing special publications of LaLa that was published irregularly under different titles over the years. It first started with LaLa Deluxe that was published seasonally. It later became the magazine’s sister magazine, LaLa DX.

Since LaLa Deluxe had been published, various special publication or supplement issues had been published. Bessatsu LaLa: Bessatsu RaRa (別冊LaLa : 別冊ララ^?) was the first published supplemental issue for LaLa. It was first published in the summer of Shōwa 57 and ended in Spring of Shōwa 59.^[5] Bessatsu LaLa (別冊Lala^?) had succeded Bessatsu LaLa: Bessatsu RaRa and was published bi-monthly from 1984 to 1985.^[6]

My LaLa, a special edited compilation of the magazine was published from the Autumn of Shōwa 59 to the Spring of 1985.^[7] LaLa Special Wendy (LaLaスペシャルWendy^?) was published first in Summer 1985 and its last issue was on June 1986 with a total of 5 issues.^[8]

LaLa Special Cindy (LaLaスペシャルCindy^?) was then published to replace LaLa Special Wendy. The first issue for LaLa Special Cindy was published from Summer 1986 to Autumn 1986. It was later revived for 2 issue which were published from Autumn to Winter of 1987 issue.^[9]

Since 2004, the special publication or supplemental issue of LaLa has been published as LaLa Special which serializes LaLa‘s side stories of the related series as well as featuring various mangaka’s one-shots.

[edit] Television commercials

The magazine had a series of commercials which was directed by Shō Yanagisawa called LaLa Kara no Oshirase (LaLaからの お知らせ^?, Information from LaLa).^[10] This series of commercials had won the Grand Prix award in the film category for “Best of Communication Media and Publication” in Ad Fest 2009.^[11] LaLa Kara no Oshirase Sui’ei Hen (LaLaからのお 知らせ 水泳 篇^?) and LaLa Kara no Oshirase Chikyū Ondanka Hen (LaLaからのお知らせ 地球温暖化篇^?) had also won 2 silver medals in the same event.^[11]

The series was also named as one of the “Gold Stars” in the 2nd Ad Stars 2009 Busan International Advertising Festival.^[12]

[edit] Current serializing titles

Listed alphabetically by romanized title.

• Caramel Boy – Masami Morio
• Chotto Edo Made – Masami Tsuda
• Gakuen Babysitters – Hari Tokeino
• Hachiyō-san ga Iku! – Junko Kanechiku
• Jun’ai Labyrinth – Yuki Nakaji
• Kaichō wa Maid-sama! – Hiro Fujiwara
• Kin’iro no Corda – Yuki Kure
• Kisu Yori mo Hayaku – Meca Tanaka
• Mishōnen Produce – Kaoru Ichinose
• Natsume Yūjinchō – Yuki Midorikawa
• Ōkami Heika no Hanayome – Mato Kauta
• Ouran High School Host Club – Bisco Hatori
• Seishun Kōryakubon – Sorata Akiduki
• Toshokan Sensō Love&War – Kiiro Yumi
• Vampire Knight – Matsuri Hino
• Yome Shūtome Kyōshitsu – Kikuzō Kashiwaya
• Yo-Jigen – Kana Niza

[edit] Past serializing titles

Listed alphabetically by romanized title.

[edit] 0-9

• 37℃ – Boku no Ichiban Suki na Mono – Fumika Okano

[edit] A

• Aah, Itoshi no Banchō-sama – Mayu Fujikata (moved to LaLa DX)
• Aitsu – Minako Narita
• Akaku Saku Koe – Yuki Midorikawa
• Alexandrite – Minako Narita
• Alien Street – Minako Narita

[edit] B

• B.B Joker – Kana Niza
• Banshee – Ryōko Yamagishi
• Beauty Honey – Tomo Matsumoto
• Bijo ga Yajū – Tomo Matsumoto
• Blan-New – Yuki Nakaji

[edit] C

• Champagne Shower – Nami Kawami
• Chidumi to Fujiomi-kun Series – Kyōko Hikawa
• Chizu wa Iranai – Rika Yonezawa
• Chotto Ippuku – Shii Emikida
• Cipher – Minako Narita
• Colorful Box – Yuki Nakaji
• Cynical Hysteria Hour – Kiriko Kubo

[edit] D

• Demon Sacred – Natsumi Itsuki
• Dr. Cudjo Kiki Ippatsu!! – Maki Hoshizaki
• Dream – Ryōko Yamagishi

[edit] E

• Eensy Weensy Monster – Masami Tsuda
• Eden e Oide – Miyao Nekoyama

[edit] F

• Fairy Master – Yutaka Tachibana
• Fruits Kajū 100% – Fumika Okano
• Frying Dragon – Miyao Nekoyama
• Fūin – Ryōko Yamagishi
• Funfun Factory – Yoshitomo Watanabe

[edit] G

• Gertrude no Recipe – Nari Kusakawa
• Gekkan 1 nen 2 kumi – Noriko Kuwata
• Greatest na Watashitachi – Megumi Wakatsuki
• Gin no Yūsha – Yoshitomo Watanabe
• Gokinjo no Hakubutsushi – Megumi Wakatsuki

[edit] H

• Hanasakeru Seishōnen – Natsumi Itsuki
• Happy Talk – Fumika Okano
• Harukanaru Toki no Naka de – Tōko Mizuno
• Hatsle de Ikou – Yuki Nakaji
• Hi Izuru Tokoro no Tenshi – Ryōko Yamagishi
• High School Aura Buster Series – Makoto Mori
• Hinata de Hirune – Asuka Sasada
• Hitomi no Naka no Oukoku – Fumika Okano
• Hitsuji-tachi wa Nani wo Mita – Masami Morio

[edit] I

• Ichikiyo & Chisa-hime Series – Nozomi Yanahara
• Ichimanjū-byō Monogatari – Emi Kurata
• Inner Quartet – Nami Kawami
• Inugami-kun Series – Noriko Kuwata

[edit] J

• Jūni Hisoku no Palette – Nari Kusakawa
• Jyōnan-Kōkō Seitokai Series – Masami Morio
• Jyu-Oh-Sei – Natsumi Itsuki

[edit] K

• Kaguyahime – Reiko Shimizu
• Kanata Kara – Kyōko Hikawa
• Kareshi Kanojo no Jijō – Masami Tsuda
• Kashō no Tsuki – Mari Hirai
• Katatsumuri Zensen – Kayo Fujikawa
• Kiss – Tomo Matsumoto
• Koi ni Tsuite Katatte Miyō ka – Asuka Sasada
• Koppa-mijin no Koi – Rika Yonezawa
• Koyama-sō no Kiraware-mono – Yuki Nakaji
• Kyō mo Minna Genki Desu – Miyao Nekoyama

[edit] L

• Lion wa Okite’iru – Maki Hoshizaki
• Love Chop! – Masami Morio

[edit] M

• Mahō Tsukai no Sid&Rido Series – Kiki
• Mari to Shingo – Toshie Kihara
• Mekakushi no Kuni – Sakura Tsukuba
• MeruPuri: Märchen Prince – Matsuri Hino
• Mikan – Enikki – Miwa Abiko
• Miki&Yūti – Minako Narita
• Miriam & Douglas Series – Kyōko Hikawa
• Momoko Manual – Yutaka Tachibana
• Moon Drop Chō no Kashikoi Usagi-san – Hiroko Shibata
• Mushi Series – Takako Yamazaki
• Muteki no Venus – Rika Yonezawa

[edit] N

• Nankin Road ni Hana Fubuki – Kumi Morikawa
• Natural – Minako Narita
• Network Pot-pourri – Nozomi Yanahara

[edit] O

• Ou-sama Game – Tōko Mizuno
• Okojo-san – Ayumi Uno
• Omake no Kobayashi-kun – Masami Morio
• Onī-chan to Issho – Hari Tokeino
• Omukae desu. – Meca Tanaka
• Osoroshikute Ienai – Noriko Kuwata
• Oz – Natsumi Itsuki

[edit] P

• Panorama de Koi wo Shiyō – Masami Morio
• Tennen Pāru Pinku – Meca Tanaka
• Penguin Kakumei – Sakura Tsukuba
• Ppoi! – Takako Yamazaki (moved to Melody in 2001)

[edit] R

• Red – Yuki Nakaji
• Ryū no Hanawazurai – Nari Kusakawa
• Ryū no Nemuru Hoshi – Reiko Shimizu

[edit] S

• Sailor Fuku ni Onegai! – Meca Tanaka
• Sennen no Yuki – Bisco Hatori
• Shinigami no Ballad – Asuka Izumi
• Sakura no Sono – Akimi Yoshida
• Shinobu & Tamao Series – Rika Yonezawa
• Shiranai Kuni no Monogatari – Natsuna Kawase
• So What? – Megumi Wakatsuki
• Strawberry Chocolate – Asuka Sasada

[edit] T

• Taiyō no Shita de Matteru – Fumika Okano
• Takkyū Sentai Pinpon 5 – Noriko Kuwata
• Tasogare City Graffiti – Maki Hoshizaki
• Tonari no Double – Yuki Nakaji
• Tonari wa Scramble – Yuki Nakaji
• Toraware no Mi no Ue – Matsuri Hino
• Tsuki wa Higashi ni Hi wa Nishi ni – Megumi Wakatsuki
• Tsuki no Ko – Reiko Shimizu

[edit] U

• Uepon – Jun Ishikawa
• Umi yori mo Fukaku – Makoto Mori

[edit] V

• Venus wa Kataomoi – Yuki Nakaji
• Vamp Series – Yutaka Tachibana
• Vampire Knight – Matsuri Hino

[edit] W

• Wanted – Matsuri Hino
• Wakana & Yukarino Series – Takako Yamazaki
• Warau Kanoko-sama – Ririko Tsujita
• Wata no Kuni Hoshi – Yumiko Ōshima
• With!! – Ken Saitō

[edit] Y

• Yakumo Tatsu – Natsumi Itsuki

[edit] Z

• Zig☆Zag – Yuki Nakaji

[edit] Related magazines

[edit] By publisher

• Bessatsu Hana to Yume
• Hana to Yume
• LaLa DX
• Melody
• The Hana to Yume

[edit] By genre

• Asuka
• Margaret

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• LaLa @ Hakusensha.co.jp

Nana Mizuki (水樹 奈々, Mizuki Nana^?, born January 21, 1980 in Niihama, Ehime Prefecture), born Nana Kondō (近藤 奈々, Kondō Nana^?), is a popular Japanese singer–songwriter and voice actress. Born and raised in Niihama, Ehime, Japan, Mizuki was trained as an enka singer. She made her debut as a voice actress in 1998, however, she released her debut single “Omoi“, under the King Records label on December 6, 2000. A year later, she released her debut album, Supersonic Girl on December 5, 2001.^[1]

In the years that followed, Mizuki enjoyed modest success that concluded with the release of her single “Innocent Starter“, which reached the top 10 Oricon singles chart, charting at #9.^[2] Since then, Mizuki’s releases have charted steadily higher in Japan, establishing her as one of the more popular singers in the country. Despite this, she remains a prolific seiyū, with over 130 voice roles in separate media.^[3] On June 3, 2009, her album Ultimate Diamond peaked at #1;^[4] while her single “Phantom Minds“, released on January 13, 2010, also charted at #1,^[5] further confirming her status as one of the highest-charting artists in Japan. Mizuki is the first seiyū to top the weekly Oricon albums chart and the weekly Oricon singles chart since its inception in 1968.^[6][5]

//

[edit] Life and career

Born in Niihama, Ehime, Japan, she began to train enka when she was five years old.^[7] In 1993, she released Compact Cassette single “Tsugazakura” (つがざくら, lit. “Phyllodoce Nipponica”^?) as “Nana Kondo”.^[8] However, she passed the audition of game Noël: La Neige and became a seiyū.^[7]

Mizuki released an image song single titled “Girl’s Age” under the name Chisato Kadokura in 1998. When she performed a concert at the age of 20, she was scouted by the Japanese record label King Records. Her debut single as Nana Mizuki, “Omoi“, was released on December 6, 2000. Her 2004 song “Innocent Starter” became her first Top 10 single and her 2005 single “Eternal Blaze” reached #2 position on Japanese Oricon weekly single charts.^[7]

Mizuki won the “Best Musical Performance” award by her song “Justice to Believe” in the first Seiyū Awards in 2007. Since her seventh album Ultimate Diamond debuted at the #1 position on Oricon weekly album charts during the week of June 15, 2009, she became the first seiyū to reach the #1 position on the Oricon weekly album charts since its creation in 1968.^[9] Ultimate Diamond sold over 74,000 copies in the first week, outselling the popular hip-hop band, Black Eyed Peas‘ album, The E.N.D., by over 20,000 copies in Japan.^[4]Another similar record was set during the week of January 25, 2010, as her 21st single, Phantom Minds, debuted at the #1 position on Oricon weekly single charts.

On November 23, 2009, NHK announced that Mizuki would take part in the 60th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen of New Year’s Eve. It was Mizuki’s first time appearing on the show. Nana chose her song “Shin’ai” for her performance.^[10][11]

Many of the characters whom she has voiced were initially very shy/soft-spoken (however, after interactions with other people, they gradually opened up (e.g. Fate, Lili, Nyamo, Hinata, and Wrath), six of her characters have romantic feelings for the main characters (e.g. Oboro from Basilisk, Hinata Hyūga from Naruto, Colette Brunel from Tales of Symphonia, Tamao Tamamura from Shaman King and Moka Akashiya from Rosario + Vampire), some of her characters craved maternal attention (e.g. Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and its sequels A’s and StrikerS, Wrath and Maria), and she was also part of the seiyu quartet “Prits”, alongside Yumiko Kobayashi, Natsuko Kuwatani and Hisayo Mochizuki (all four voiced characters in the anime Sister Princess).

Nana Mizuki voices Microsoft‘s Japanese Windows 7 official “OS-tan” mascot, Nanami Madobe. The mascot’s name uses some wordplay on Mizuki’s own name as well as the operating system (“Nana” = “seven”).^[12][13]

Recently, in the middle of February – Nana Mizuki became her hometown (Niihama, Ehime)’s First Tourism Ambassador. The news was broadcasted during her Live Academy 2010. Which is Kanagawa, Osaka, Aichi, Miyagi, in addition to Fukuoka, Niihama City, Ehime Culture will be held in Center Hall. There are 7 lessons in total.^[14]

She won the Tomiyama Kei Award in the 4th Seiyuu Awards.

[edit] Voice acting roles

Leading roles in bold.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Concerts

[edit] See also

• Category:Nana Mizuki albums
• Category:Nana Mizuki songs

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• Official website at Sigma7 (Japanese)
• Official fan program (Japanese)
• Nana Mizuki at Anime News Network‘s Encyclopedia

[edit] Roles

[edit] Animation

[edit] 1998

• Miscellaneous Girl A in Kare Kano

[edit] 2001

• Rabbit in Kokoro Library
• Karen in Sister Princess
• Kirala Mitsuboshi in Najica Blitz Tactics

[edit] 2002

• Tweedledee in Kiddy Grade
• Himiko Kudo in GetBackers (reprises this role in subsequent GB drama CDs)

[edit] 2003

• Fiore in Chrono Crusade
• Fafaru in Scrapped Princess
• Rei Otonashi in The World of Narue
• Miscellaneous Schoolgirl C in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch
• Alister Agrew in Last Exile
• Izumiko Murasaki in D.C. ~Da Capo~ and Da Capo Season 2

[edit] 2004

• Lilica Stacy in Girls Bravo
• Silvia in Viewtiful Joe
• Koi Chigusa in Futakoi
• Arf in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
• Shima in InuYasha
• Suiseiseki in Rozen Maiden

[edit] 2005

• Yue Ayase in Negima!: Magister Negi Magi
• Alicia in He Is My Master
• Kasha Maverick in SoltyRei
• Chromia in Transformers: Cybertron
• Koi Chigusa in Futakoi Alternative

[edit] 2006

• Chiroro in Sgt. Frog
• Yaya Nanto in Strawberry Panic!
• Ryōko Asakura in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya^[1]
• Yue Ayase in Negima!?
• Kanako Kasugazaki in Ouran High School Host Club

[edit] 2007

• Maki in Seto no Hanayome
• Lutecia, Auris Gaiz, Sette & Arf in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS
• Kiyo in Jigoku Shōjo Futakomori
• Himuro Fuu in Sketchbook ~full color’S~

[edit] 2008

• Sakura Ushikubo in Special A
• Yue Ayase in Negima! Shiroki Tsubasa Ala Alba

[edit] 2009

• Satomi Kanbara in Saki
• Yue Ayase in Negima! Mo Hitotsu no Sekai
• Tweedledee in Kiddy Girl-and

[edit] 2010

• Asakura Ryouko in The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

[edit] OVA and Video Games

• Kanako Urashima in Love Hina Again
• Kasuga in Sengoku Basara
• Eclair in La Pucelle: Tactics
• Micaiah in Fire Emblem: Akatsuki no Megami
• Dorothy Mistral in Mugen no Frontier: Super Robot Wars OG Saga
• Henne Valkyria in Mugen no Frontier: Super Robot Wars OG Saga
• Faintear Imitate in Triggerheart Exelica Enhanced
• Kazuki Mishima in Memories Off 5 The Unfinished Film
• Kazuki Mishima in Memories Off 5 the Animation

[edit] Other work

• Kuwatani is one half of the seiyū duo “coopee”, along with Chiwa Saitō. In the Divine Design arc of the GetBackers drama CDs, her character does battle with the character voiced by Saito.
• She’s also part of the seiyu quartet “Prits“, alongside Yumiko Kobayashi, Nana Mizuki and Hisayo Mochizuki. All four ladies voiced characters in the anime Sister Princess.
• She has worked alongside Yuki Matsuoka a few times.
  • In the Love Hina Again OVA, Matsuoka voices Kuro, a talking cat which is owned by Kanako Urashima (Kuwatani).
  • In the Negima series, Matsuoka voices Evangeline McDowell, while Kuwatani voices Yue Ayase.
  • In Getbackers, Matsuoka voices Madoka Otawa, while Kuwatani voices Himiko Kudo.
  • In The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Matsuoka voices Tsuruya, while Kuwatani voices Ryōko Asakura. However, the two characters never interact, especially since, chronologically, Asakura leaves the story shortly before Tsuruya is even introduced. However, they do interact at one point in the omake anime web series Nyorōn Churuya-san.
  • In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Matsuoka voices Amy Limette, while Kuwatari voices Arf.
• She and Sakura Nogawa have a sort of a rivalry in various roles such as Nanto Yaya and Okuwaka Tsubomi in Strawberry Panic, Michiru Mamiya and Ayumi Mamiya from Magikano and Suiseiseki and Hina Ichigo from Rozen Maiden

[edit] References

1. ^ Maeda, Hisashi. “The Official Art of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya”. (November 2007) Newtype USA. pp. 133-139.

• Taniguchi, Hiroshi et al. “The Official Art of Canvas2 ~Nijiiro no Sketch~”. (November 2006) Newtype USA. pp. 101-107.

[edit] External links

• Natsuko Kuwatani at the Seiyuu database
• Natsuko Kuwatani at Anime News Network

Sister Princess (シスター・プリンセス, Shisutā Purinsesu^?) is a popular Japanese bishōjo series authored by Sakurako Kimino and illustrated by Naoto Tenhiro. It began as a serialized light novel series in 1999. In 2001, a manga series and a bishōjo game for the Sony PlayStation were released. Sequels to the game were released for the PlayStation and Game Boy Advance. Sister Princess was also adapted into a Japanese anime television series.

//

[edit] History

The history of Sister Princess can be traced back to March 1999, when it first appeared in the monthly Dengeki G’s Magazine. Originally, there were only nine sisters, not twelve. Readers were able to vote for their favorite sister and following the tremendous response from the fans, the magazine decided to serialize Sister Princess.

In March 2000, a decision was made to renew the series, this time by featuring the short letters that the girls wrote to their beloved brother. Three more sisters were added to the mix: Haruka, who came from Germany; Yotsuba, who came from England; and Aria, who came from France.

A year later, on March 8, 2001, the game version of Sister Princess — about the older brother spending a month with all twelve sisters, and featuring original artwork by Naoto Tenhiro—was released on the Sony PlayStation. Priced at 6800yen (9800yen for the limited edition), the game was the third best-selling title in Japan in its first week of release.

In July of the same year, a new series of stories began in Dengeki G’s, right up till April 2002. While the magazine was preparing for yet another renewal of the Sister Princess stories for its May 2002 issue, a premium edition of the game (the original plus two other Christmas and Valentine side stories) was released for the Sega Dreamcast on Mar 28, 2002.

Sequels include Sister Princess 2 and Sister Princess RePure.

In September 2003, the series was retired as G’s Magazine premier flagship title (replaced by another popular series, Futakoi). Despite the urging of fans, no official story elements has been produced since then.

The portrayal of events in the first Sister Princess anime is not considered canon by MediaWorks or hardcore fans. It’s more commonly accepted as an alternate universe setting. The Sister Princess RePure anime is more faithful to the original magazine stories than its predecessor, and was created to answer disappointed fans. In fact, the stories told in the “second half” of each episode are actually modified versions of the magazine stories or mini-novels. There is nothing in Sister Princess RePure that contradicts the games, magazine stories or mini-novels: thus it can be considered canon, despite not actually being so.

[edit] The game

The premise behind Sister Princess is that an ordinary young man (the player) is made to live with twelve lovable little sisters, each with their own distinct quirks and personalities. Both the “little sister” characters and the plot of “being forced to live with beautiful girls” are very common and popular in bishōjo products.

Sister Princess is remarkable for its intensely cute and saccharine atmosphere, taking to an extreme a tendency in Japanese culture. With its focus of young girls, the series can be classified as moe but not technically lolicon since it does not contain pornographic elements.

The game itself plays out like a dating sim. Players have about a month to spend with the sisters with each day broken up into three segments: first is the free time period before noon, followed by the period after lunch and ending with another period of time before bed. During day time, the player can choose which of the girls he wishes to escort to school, if any. The period after lunch is similar to the one in the morning, with additional choices which allow the player to go to various places in town besides walking home with one of the girls. Every night before bed, the player will be allowed to check his e-mail and send replies. As the player continues to interact with the sisters, their reactions to their big brother will change accordingly until the ending.

According to one source, there are two different endings for each sister: the normal ending and the “non-blood relation” ending. As the name would suggest, the special ending reveals that the brother-character and sister aren’t actually related by blood. In the case of some of the older sisters, this can lead to the protagonist and “sister” marrying one another.

For Sister Princess 2, the story begins on the final day of school before summer vacation. Then the player chooses a sister who he wants to start with for a close relationship. Therefore, Sister Princess 2 is about spending the player’s time with either one sister or all sisters at the same time as they spend their summer together.

In Sister Princess 1, the player can see two different endings for each sister, but Sister Princess 2 has four endings for each sister. The first two were the non-sibling relation and siblings-together ending and, if the player chooses one sister in the beginning but ends up with another sister, either of the other two endings for the first sister who the player does not choose appear (“non-blood relation” ending and “still brother and sister forever” ending also) but with a different story.

Especially in Sister Princess 2, the player can spend the summer with all the sisters, not just one, in a special ending where the sisters invite their brother to a summer party where the brother and the sisters would swear to be together forever.

Sister Princess is one of the few popular dating game series that does not feature hentai elements. Despite (or perhaps because of) this, a rival company known as GIGA decided to create the hentai knockoff Colorful Kiss. While this game features a different cast of characters (to avoid lawsuits), their setup and personalities are comparable. Colorful Kiss was popular enough to warrant the sequel Colorful Heart. It is important to note that these GIGA titles are ultimately incestuous.

[edit] Characters

[edit] The Twelve Sisters

Part of the series’ charm is that each sister has a unique method of addressing her older brother. Each method is derived from either onii-san or ani, both of which mean “older brother.”

It is important to note that there is never any sibling rivalry among the sisters. Though they all are competing for their brother’s attention, it appears that their unconditional love for him strengthens their bonds with one another. The sisters not only regularly hang out with one another (often to exchange tales of how wonderful a brother he is), but they also arrange to “share” him when he inadvertently neglects to or cannot regularly visit any of them.

It should also be noted that the seiyū for the sisters are the same in the game and the anime.

The Twelve Sisters as they appear in the anime, ordered according to birthday: 1st row L-R: Kaho, Shirayuki, Chikage; 2nd row L-R: Marie, Haruka, Yotsuba; 3rd row L-R; Rinrin, Hinako, Karen; 4th row L-R: Mamoru, Aria, Sakuya

Aria (亞里亞^?)

Voiced by: Nana Mizuki (Japanese), Mariela Ortiz (English)

Hailing from France, Aria is a rather soft-spoken character who has a tendency to cry whenever there is trouble, uttering the phrase “kusu” (an onomatopoeia for sniffling) when doing so. She enjoys sweets, especially parfait, and can usually be found wearing very frilly dresses with plenty of lace and bows. She refers to herself in the third-person, which is considered childish in Japanese culture, and speaks slowly.

In the first anime, Wataru comments that time seems to pass more slowly around Aria, especially to someone who is used to the high-paced life of the city. In the second anime, Aria comments that being in the brother’s company relieves her of her ‘sleepy feelings’, energizing her.

She addresses the brother as Nii-ya (兄や^?) the most childish name for one’s brother. In English, she calls him “Mon Frère”. Her birthday is November 2, is a Scorpio, and stands 139 cm (about 4‘ 7“) tall.

Chikage (千影^?, “Thousand shadows”)

Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi (Japanese), Shelley Calene-Black (English)

Mysterious, aloof, and occasionally gothic, Chikage is very much into spellcraft, the occult, and religion. She is an accomplished practitioner of dark magic, but prefers to utilize her sorcery in subtle methods, rather than brute power. Common images associated with her are the Christian cross and butterflies.

In the anime, Chikage claims that she and the brother have been together in previous lives, possibly as brother and sister, perhaps as lovers. She expresses a desire to have him for herself somehow, but admits that he has refused the offer or simply slipped from her grasp several times throughout their incarnations. Out of all the sisters, she is the only one who entertains thoughts of somehow taking the brother away from the others, and almost executes plans to do so.

She calls the brother as Ani-kun (兄くん^?), the suffix -kun being an address to a boy who has a close relation or is about the same age as the addresser, giving the impression that her age is close to him. In English, she calls him “Brother Darling”. Her birthday is March 6, is a Pisces, and stands 157 cm (about 5‘ 2“) tall.

Haruka (春歌^?, “Spring song”)

Voiced by: Yumi Kakazu (Japanese), Tiffany Grant (English)

Hailing from Germany, Haruka aspires to become a perfect Japanese lady (Yamato Nadeshiko). She is frequently seen wearing a kimono and can be found learning Japanese tea ceremony (sado) along with other cultural things. Haruka is an expert at handling the daikyu and naginata. Interestingly, training in these weapons is akin to the training given to the brides of samurai; Haruka’s training in these weapons may or may not have been inspired due to her desire to be a perfect Japanese bride for a person of high standing—like her brother.

Haruka addresses the brother as Anigimi-sama (兄君さま^?), the honorific suffix -kimisama (a combinations of the honofirics kimi or kun and -sama) used to address a venerable person in the same bloodline. In English, she calls him “Beloved Brother”. Her birthday is May 16, is a Taurus, and stands 156 cm (about 5‘ 1“) tall.

Hinako (雛子^?, “Little child”)

Voiced by: Chiemi Chiba (Japanese), Serena Varghese (English)

The youngest of the sisters, Hinako is very much a child and shows her affection accordingly. In the anime, Hinako frequently insists on her brother reading to her from picture books.

Hinako refers to herself in the third-person as “Hina”, dropping the “-ko”. She addresses her brother as Onii-tama (おにいたま^?), a more childish version of Kaho’s onii-chama. In English, she calls him “Bro-bro”. Her birthday is August 15, is a Leo, and she is the shortest among the sisters at 132 cm (about 4‘ 4“).

Kaho (花穂^?, “Flower petal”)

Voiced by: Hisayo Mochizuki (Japanese), Cynthia Martinez (English)

Despite being a bit clumsy, Kaho is on her school’s cheerleading team and loves to cheer her brother on. She is an accomplished gardener, and frequently grows flowers for and with her brother. She refers to herself in the third-person and addresses her brother as Onii-chama (お兄ちゃま^?), a childish version of onii-sama. In English, she calls him “Brother”. Her birthday is January 7, is a Capricorn and has a height of 143 cm (about 4‘ 8“).

Karen (可憐^?, “Lovely one”)

Voiced by: Natsuko Kuwatani (Japanese), Hilary Haag (English)

Sweet and gentle, Karen’s personality sometimes seems more suitable for an older (rather than younger) sister. She is a very skilled pianist. In the magazine stories and mini-novels, Karen owns a kitten named Vanilla (who, incidentally, has a thing for vanilla flavored sweets). Like several of the sisters, she refers to herself in the third-person and addresses her brother as Onii-chan (お兄ちゃん^?), a way to call a brother by a younger sibling, usually a child. In English, she calls him “Big Brother”. Her birthday is September 23, is a Virgo and stands 148 cm (about 4‘ 10“) tall.

Mamoru (衛^?, “Guardian”)

Voiced by: Yumiko Kobayashi (Japanese), Kira Vincent-Davis (English)

The athlete of the group, Mamoru is always trying to get her brother to play sports with her. She is sometimes mistaken for Rinrin due to their similar hairstyles and their penchant for donning their eyewear on their head. As she is a tomboy, Mamoru uses phrases and mannerisms that only boys are expected to. As proof of this, she addresses her brother as Anii (あにぃ^?), a shorter address used by a male teenager. In English, she calls him “Big Bro”. Her birthday is October 18, is a Libra and stands 150 cm (about 4‘ 11“) in height.

Marie (鞠絵^?, “Nurtured picture”)

Voiced by: Ryouka Yuzuki (Japanese), Sasha Paysinger (English)

Possessing a weak constitution, the bespectacled Marie has spent a lot of time in the hospital due to her illness. Her pet Michael, a Golden Retriever, acts as her guardian and friend when her brother isn’t around. She addresses her brother as Aniue-sama (兄上様^?), the honorific -uesama (a combination of ue and -sama) being used within the royal family or as a sign of politeness. In English, she calls him “Brother Mine”. Her birthday is April 4, is an Aries and stands 148 cm (about 4‘ 10“) tall.

Rinrin (鈴凛^?, “Courageous bell”)

Voiced by: Chiro Kanzaki (Japanese), Nancy Novotny (English)

Gifted in the fields of science and technology, Rinrin spends a lot of her time building things but constantly asks her brother for monetary donations to keep her projects going. Lately, she’s been constructing a robot duplicate of herself, Mecha-Rinrin (メカ鈴凛^?). She speaks with a strong Chinese accent and addresses her brother as Aniki (アニキ^?), another way for a boy to address his brother. In English, she calls him “Bro”. Her birthday is July 9, is a Cancer and measures 152 cm (about 5‘) in height.

Sakuya (咲耶^?, “Curious blossom”)

Voiced by: Yui Horie (Japanese), Monica Rial (English)

Sakuya behaves very much like a modern teenager and is fashion conscious. She would love for her brother to see her as woman and not just a sister.

In both anime, Sakuya claims that she and the brother are connected by the “red string of fate” and expresses the desire that she might somehow marry her brother. She is quick to agree it would be impossible when in his presence. In the anime, Sakuya is arguably the most emotionally vulnerable of all the sisters where the brother is concerned, since she goes through extreme emotional reactions when they are separated—or when she anticipates separation. In the first anime, Sakuya frequently uses double entendres and innuendo when speaking to her brother, dismissing her words as jokes when he becomes really flustered.

Sakuya addresses her brother as Onii-sama (お兄様^?) as her sign of admiration. In English, she calls him “Dear Brother”. Her birthday is December 20, is a Sagittarian, and is the tallest of the sisters at 159 cm (about 5‘ 3“).

Shirayuki (白雪^?, “White snow”)

Voiced by: Kumiko Yokote (Japanese), Jessica Boone (English)

Shirayuki loves to cook, especially for her brother, and is always trying out new recipes for him. She refers to herself in the third-person as “Hime” (姫^?), which translates to “princess”. This might be because of her name’s Western variant: Snow White. She also frequently ends her sentences with the phrase “desu-no.” She addresses her brother as Nii-sama (にいさま^?), which is shorter than Sakuya’s, but polite. In English, she calls him “Elder Brother”. Her birthday is February 11, is an Aquarian, and stands 140 cm (about 4‘ 7“) in height.

Yotsuba (四葉^?, “Four-leaf clover”)

Voiced by: Tomoe Hanba (Japanese), Luci Christian (English)

Hailing from England (as evidenced by her occasional penchant for anything with a Union Flag), Yotsuba fancies herself a detective à la Sherlock Holmes. She can often be found with either a digital camera or a magnifying glass in hand, trying to spy on her brother. In the magazine stories and mini-novels, Yotsuba owns an unnamed talking toucan (not surprisingly, it can only say “checki” and “Ani-chama”). She refers to herself in the third-person and is fond of using the catchphrase, “Checky!” (チェキ!, Cheki^?). In the first Sister Princess anime, Yotsuba does not have a pet, but owns a toy bird aptly named “Watson”, who she keeps in a cage like a real bird.

She addresses her brother as Ani-chama (兄チャマ^?), which is a childish address similar to Kaho’s, but laced with a British accent. In English, she calls him “Brother Dearest”. She celebrates her birthday on June 21, is a Gemini, and is 149 cm (about 4‘ 11“) tall.

[edit] The Brother

Wataru Minakami (海神 航, Minakami Wataru^?, lit. “Sea God Wandering”)

Voiced by: Kenji Nojima (Japanese), Braden Hunt (English)

The brother whom all of the sisters adore. In their eyes, he can do no wrong. Until the final set of illustrated stories, the brother’s face was always hidden or turned away from the reader to keep his appearance hidden. This follows a tradition of most eroge protagonists, so as to allow the character to be a ‘blank slate’ so that the player can place themselves in his metaphorically empty shoes. As the series came to its end, a slightly modified version of the character design from the anime was used.

As the father of the siblings is never present, and the mothers of the sisters are regularly preoccupied by their upper-class careers, Wataru serves as much a parent figure as he does a brother. He devotes extraordinary time to teaching or guiding them through various life crises, no matter how trivial or difficult they may be. For this reason, the sisters attribute many of their personal accomplishments to him. Despite their unwavering testimonies, Wataru is not perfect, even in the magazine stories and mini-novels. He is unquestionably selfless however, and will do everything in his power to aid his siblings whenever humanly possible. Wataru also seems to possess an uncanny ability to show up exactly when a sister needs him most. Wataru has a habit of saying “It can’t be true” in almost every episode.

Understandably, the greatest fear the sisters share is someone or something taking Wataru away from them. For this reason, some of them entertain and dream of somehow becoming his wife or life partner. The inclination is far more innocent and less disturbing than it initially may sound: there are no incestuous intentions. As pure as Wataru’s sisters are, they show signs of jealousy and concern when a non-family member “takes” their brother away from them, fearing he may forget or leave them.

(The name Wataru Minakami was given to the brother character only for the first Sister Princess television series. In Sister Princess Re-Pure, he is simply referred to as 兄, Ani, or “Brother.”)

[edit] Supporting

Jiiya (じいや^?, “Court Physician”)

Voiced by: Kahoru Sasajima

Aria’s lady’s maid, although it is strongly evident she holds the position of nanny as well. She’s actually a young woman in her early or mid twenties, but Aria calls her ‘Jiiya’, a Japanese nickname for a butler, like the English ‘Jeeves’. The exact reason for this is uncertain, but most agree its Aria’s way of being playful. In the second anime series, it is possibly implied that Aria is simply used to calling the person taking care of her ‘Jii-ya’, as she points at a picture of an old man in butler’s clothing, then at her maid and calls them both ‘Jii-ya’. Of all the non-sister characters in Sister Princess, only Jiiya has a personal affectionate name for the sister’s brother. Combined with Jiiya’s coy nature around him, and her willingness to admit personal moments from her childhood, some fans of the maid wonder if she has personal feelings for him. If so, she keeps them well hidden from the others. She addresses the brother as Nii-ya-sama (兄や様^?), a more polite version of Aria’s address.

• Note: Jiiya is also the name of the Wataru’s butler in the anime.

Kakinomoto (柿ノ本^?)

Voiced by: Sakura Nogawa

Featured only in Sister Princess 2, Kakinomoto is one of the handful of non-related girls allowed to be near the sisters’ brother without causing any issues. She has been known to disagree with him, and played something of a devil’s advocate role. A very close friend of Haruka. Has a preference to be called Pride, rather than her given name.

Marie’s Nurse (看護婦, kangofu^?, “Nurse”)

The unnamed nurse who attends to Marie. Due to the nature of her duties and Marie’s regular medical needs, she has constant contact with the sisters’ brother (although not as frequent as Jiiya), and is one of the few non-sisters able to approach him without causing concern.

Mecha Rinrin (メカ鈴凛, meka Rinrin^?)

Voiced by: Chiro Kanzaki

Mecha Rinrin is a gynoid designed to be an identical copy of its creator as an experiment in robotics. In the anime, her purpose is also to lend full support to the brother in the absence of any of his sisters. Mecha Rinrin differs from her creator in her eye color and the unexplained requirement of a ball-shaped sensor on her head. Mecha Rinrin always overheats and inadvertently deactivates when the sisters’ brother praises her; presumably from overwhelming joy. It appears Rinrin programmed her doppelgänger too well, as it shares an overwhelming love for him, although her delicate circuitry cannot handle the overload.

In the first anime, Rinrin explains that she created her doppelgänger because she eventually intends to study in the United States. When that happens, she wants Mecha Rinrin to be there to do all the things for her brother that she herself won’t be available for. Rinrin herself feels sad at the thought that she might actually have made herself redundant until she is reassured by Wataru. Also in the anime, her dopplegänger’s immediate precursor is a much larger robot with a more robotic appearance, known as ProtoRobo or Pooh. While this robot looks less sophisticated, it is much more stable and capable of feats of strength and quite delicate manipulations. It also seems to care for its creator’s well-being.

Mecha Rinrin addresses the brother as Aniki (アニキ^?), just like her creator.

Michael (ミカエル, Mikaeru^?)

Marie’s loyal and highly intelligent Golden Retriever. Despite the name, Michael (named after the archangel) is a female, and eventually gives birth to a litter of puppies. Michael was a gift from her brother, to keep company and guard over her at the times when he could not. The pet also serves to give Marie inner strength, as having Michael depend on her proves she is stronger than others think.

Nun (尼僧, nisō^?)

Featured only in Sister Princess 2. The local temple nun who the brother visits to addresses many of Chikage’s spiritual concerns. Due to the storywriter’s lack of understanding of certain elements of Western culture, the nun strangely works in a Japanese temple, yet resolves matters with a Christian-like demeanor. Since Sister Princess utilizes Catholicism whenever it deals with the religious faith the sisters follow, it’s arguable to say she is a Catholic nun trying to “fit” in a Japanese environment.

[edit] Games

• Sister Princess (PlayStation, 2001)
• Sister Princess -Pure Stories- (PlayStation, 2001)
• Sister Princess Premium Edition (Dreamcast, 2002)
• Sister Princess 2 (PlayStation, 2002)
• Bundled set of “Sister Princess” & “Sister Princess -Pure Stories-” (Dreamcast, 2003)
• Sister Princess -Re Pure- (Game Boy Advance, 2003)
• Sister Princess 2 Premium Fan Disc (PlayStation, 2003)

[edit] Anime episodes

See list of Sister Princess episodes for the Sister Princess anime and its sequel, “Sister Princess Repure.”

[edit] U.S. DVD releases

• Sister Princess -Oh, Brother!- (DVD, 2004)
• Sister Princess -Sibling Revelry- (DVD, 2004)
• Sister Princess -Sisters and Sunshine- (DVD, 2005)
• Sister Princess -Brotherly Love- (DVD, 2005)
• Sister Princess -Gifts from the Heart- (DVD, 2005)
• Sister Princess -One Big Happy Family- (DVD, 2005)
• Sister Princess -Brother, Where Art Thou?- (DVD, 2005)

[edit] Japanese UMD releases (anime series)

The anime series was released in UMD format for the PlayStation Portable. Features in these UMDs include character designs and textless opening and ending sequences.

• Sister Princess & Sister Princess Repure I (UMD, November 23, 2005)
• Sister Princess & Sister Princess Repure II (UMD, December 21, 2005)
• Sister Princess & Sister Princess Repure III (UMD, January 25, 2006)
• Sister Princess & Sister Princess Repure IV (UMD, February 22, 2006)
• Sister Princess & Sister Princess Repure V (UMD, March 26, 2006)
• Sister Princess & Sister Princess Repure VI (UMD, April 26, 2006)
• Sister Princess & Sister Princess Repure VII (UMD, May 26, 2006)

[edit] External links

• Official website

Dragon Ball (ドラゴンボール, Doragon Bōru^?) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 through 1995, and later the 519 individual chapters were published into 42 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha. Inspired by the Chinese folk novel Journey to the West, it follows the adventures of Son Goku from his childhood through adulthood as he trains in martial arts and explores the world in search of the seven mystical objects known as the Dragon Balls, which can summon a wish-granting dragon. Along his journey, Goku meets several friends and fights against several villains who also seek the Dragon Balls.

The 42 tankōbon have been adapted into three anime series produced by Toei Animation: Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT. Additionally, Toei has developed seventeen animated feature films and three television specials. In 2009, Toei started rebroadcasting Dragon Ball Z under the name of Dragon Ball Kai which changes the footage from the original anime. Several companies have developed various types of merchandising such as a collectible trading card game, and a large number of video games.

The manga series was licensed for an English language release in North America by Viz Media, in the United Kingdom by Gollancz Manga, and in Australia and New Zealand by Chuang Yi. The anime series was licensed by Funimation Entertainment for an English language release worldwide, although the series has been dubbed several times by various studios. In China, a live-action film adaptation was produced in 1989. In 2002, 20th Century Fox acquired the rights to produce an American-made live-action film, which was released on April 10, 2009.

Since its release, Dragon Ball has become one of the most popular manga series of its time in both Japan and North America. It enjoys a high readership, with over 150 million volumes of the series sold by 2007. Several manga artists have noted that the manga series was the inspiration for their own now popular works, including Naruto and One Piece. The anime is also highly popular, ranking number 12 among the best anime series of all time in 2006. Reviewers praise the art, characterization, and humor of the manga story. The anime series have had more mixed reviews, with the first also praised for its characterizations, but the second has been often criticized for its long, repetitive fights, and the third is widely considered to be completely repetitive.

//

Plot summary

The series begins with a monkey-tailed boy named Goku befriending a teenage girl named Bulma, and together they go on a quest to find the seven magic Dragon Balls. Along the way, they meet and befriend a plethora of martial artists. Goku also undergoes rigorous training regimes and educational programs in order to fight in the World Martial Arts Tournament, a competition involving the most powerful fighters in the world. Outside the tournaments, Goku faces diverse villains such as Emperor Pilaf, the Red Ribbon Army, the demon Piccolo Daimao and his offspring Piccolo Jr., who eventually becomes Goku’s ally.^[1]

As a young adult, Goku meets his older brother Raditz, who tells him that they come from a race of extraterrestrials called Saiyans. The Saiyans had sent Goku to Earth as an infant to conquer the planet for them, but he suffered a severe head injury soon after his arrival and lost all memory of his mission. Goku refuses to help Raditz continue the mission, after which he begins to encounter other enemies from space, most notably the Saiyan prince Vegeta, who becomes his rival and, eventually, his ally as well. He later encounters Frieza, the galactic tyrant responsible for the destruction of the Saiyan race, whose actions cause Goku to transform into a legendary Super Saiyan. After an epic battle on the planet Namek, Goku defeats Frieza, avenging the lives of millions across the universe.^[2]

Four years later, a group of androids from the former Red Ribbon Army appear, seeking revenge against Goku. During this time, an evil life form called Cell emerges and, after absorbing two of the androids to increase his power, holds his own martial arts tournament to decide the fate of the Earth, but is eventually defeated by Goku’s first child Son Gohan. Seven years later, Goku is drawn into another battle for the universe against an extraterrestrial named Majin Buu. Joined by Vegeta and Gohan, Goku succeeds in destroying the evil half of Buu and the good half of Buu settles down with them. Ten years later, at another World Martial Arts Tournament, Goku meets the evil Buu’s human reincarnation, Uub. At the end of the series, Goku takes Uub away on a journey to train him as the Earth’s next defender.^[3]

Themes

At its core, Dragon Ball maintains the central tenets of the Weekly Shōnen Jump core philosophy of “friendship, struggle, and victory”. As the series shifts from a “heart warming” story into a more action-oriented piece, the protagonists go through an unending cycle of fighting, winning, losing, learning important lessons, then returning to the fight. As the series progresses, the heroes continue this cycle by using miraculous devices to achieve life after death while continuing their on-going battles with the dead heroes who continue to learn lessons as they defeat their challengers.^[4] The series also follows the idea that if someone is trying to be “the best”, they can reach their goals by constantly challenging themselves.^[5]

Production

Wanting to break from the Western influences common in his other series, when Akira Toriyama began work on Dragon Ball he decided to loosely model it on the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West.^[6][7] He also redeveloped one of his earlier one shot manga series, Dragon Boy, which was initially serialized in Fresh Jump and released in a single tankōbon volume in 1983.^[7] This short work combined the comedic style of Toriyama’s successful six-year series Dr. Slump with a more action-oriented plot and paid homage to famous martial art actor Jackie Chan.^[7][8] Toriyama notes that his goal for the series was to tell an “unconventional and contradictory” story.^[9]

In the early concept of the series, Goku and Piccolo were from Earth. With the introduction of Kami, the idea of having fights from other planets was established and Goku and Piccolo were changed to alien species.^[10] For the female characters, Toriyama felt it was not fun to draw “weak females” so he created women that he felt were not only “beautiful and sexy”, but also “strong”.^[9] Going against the normal convention that the strongest characters should be the largest in terms of physical size, he designed many of Dragon Ball‘s most powerful characters with small statures, including the protagonist, Goku.^[9]

The Earth of Dragon Ball^[11]

The fighting techniques were initially unnamed, but the series editor felt it would be better to name them all. Toriyama proceeded to create names for all of the techniques, except for the Kamehameha (かめはめ波^?, lit. “Turtle Striking Wave”) which his wife named when Toriyama was indecisive about what it should be called.^[10] When creating the fictional world of the series, Toriyama decided to create basing it from his own imagination to avoid referencing popular culture. However the island where the World Martial Arts Tournament is held is modeled after Bali. When having fights in the manga, Toriyama had the characters go to a place where nobody lived to avoid difficulties in drawing destroyed buildings. In order to advance the story quickly, he also gave most fighters the ability to fly so they could travel to other parts of the world without inconvenience. This was also the reasoning behind Goku learning to teletransport (thus allowing characters to move to any planet in a second).^[10]

After the first chapters were released, readers commented that Goku seemed rather plain, so his appearance was changed. New characters (such as Master Roshi and Krillin) were added and martial arts tournaments were included to give the manga a greater emphasis on fighting. Anticipating that readers would expect Goku to win the tournaments, Toriyama had him lose the first two while continuing his initial goal of having Goku be the champion and hero. After Cell’s death, he intended for Gohan to replace Goku as the series protagonist, but then felt the character was not suited for the role and changed his mind.^[12]

Toriyama based the Red Ribbon Army from a video game he had played named Spartan X in which enemies tended to appear very fast. After the second tournament concluded, Toriyama wanted to have a villain who would be a true “bad guy.” After creating Piccolo as the new villain, he noted that it was one of the most interesting parts of the stories and that he, and his son, became one of the favorite characters of the series. With Goku established as the strongest fighter on Earth, Toriyama decided to increase the number of villains that came from outer space. Finding the escalating enemies to be a pain to work with feeling it was too simple, he created the Ginyu squad to add more balance to the series.^[12] During this period of the series, Toriyama placed less emphasis on the series art work, simplifying the lines and sometimes making things “too square.” He found himself having problems determining the colors for characters and sometimes ended up changing them unintentionally mid-story.^[8] In later accounts, Toriyama noted that he didn’t plan out the details of the story, resulting in strange occurrences and discrepancies later in the series.^[13]

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama, Dragon Ball was initially serialized in the manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump starting in 1984.^[7] The series ended in 1995 when Toriyama grew exhausted and felt he needed a break from drawing.^[7] The 519 individual chapters were published into 42 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha from November 10, 1985 through August 4, 1995.^[14][15][16] In 2004, the chapters were re-released in a collection of 34 kanzenban volumes, which included a slightly rewritten ending, new covers, and color artwork from its Weekly Shōnen Jump run. Toriyama also created a short series, Neko Majin, that became a self-parody of Dragon Ball. First appearing in Weekly Shōnen Jump in August 1999, the eight chapter series was released sporadically until it was completed in 2005. These chapters were compiled into a “kanzenban”-style package for release in Japan on April 4, 2005.^[17]

The Dragon Ball manga was licensed for release in English in North America by Viz Media which has released all 42 volume in both censored and uncensored forms.^[18] Viz released volumes 17 through 42 under the title Dragon Ball Z to mimic the name of the anime series adaptated from those volumes, feeling it would reduce the potential for confusion by its readers. The first volumes of both series were released in March 2003, with Dragon Ball being completed on August 3, 2004 and Dragon Ball Z finishing on June 6, 2006.^[19][20] In June 2008, Viz began re-releasing the two series in a wideban format called “VIZBIG Edition,” which collects three individual volumes into a single large volume.^[21][22]

In 2006, Toriyama and One Piece author Eiichiro Oda teamed up to create a single chapter crossover of their individual hit series. Entitled Cross Epoch, the chapter was published in the December 25, 2006 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump. A manga adaptation of Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!! illustrated by Ooishi Naho, was published in the March 21, 2009 and April 21, 2009 issues of V Jump.^[23]

Anime series

Dragon Ball

Due to the high popularity of the Dragon Ball manga, Toei Animation produced two anime television series based on the manga chapters, and a third based on the series characters. The first series, also titled Dragon Ball, premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on February 26, 1986 and ran until April 12, 1989.^[7]

Harmony Gold USA licensed the series for an English language release in North America in the late 1980s. In their voice dub of the series, Harmony renamed almost all of the characters, with some names appearing very odd, such as Goku being renamed “Zero” and the character Korin’s name changed to “Whiskers the Wonder Cat.” This dub version was eventually cancelled.^{[citation needed]}

In 1995, Funimation Entertainment acquired the license for the distribution of Dragon Ball, as well as its sequel series Dragon Ball Z, in North America. Funimation contracted BLT Productions to help finance the first series and hired Ocean Productions to create an English voice track for the series at Dick & Roger’s Sound Studio. The dubbed episodes were also edited for content.^[24] Thirteen episodes aired in syndication before Funimation canceled the project due to low ratings, switching to working immediately on the more action-oriented Dragon Ball Z.^[7] In March 2001, Funimation announced the return of Dragon Ball to American television, featuring a new English audio track produced at their in-house dubbing studio, Funimation Studios, and slightly less editing, though they notably left the original background music intact, unlike their dubs of the two sequel series.^[24][25] The redubbed episodes aired on Cartoon Network from August 2001^[26] to December 2003. Funimation also broadcast the series on Colours TV and their own Funimation Channel starting in 2006.^[27]

Funimation began releasing the uncut episodes to Region 1 DVD box sets in March 18, 2003. Each box set, spanning an entire saga of the series, included the English dub track and the original Japanese audio track with optional English subtitles. These sets were released in Australia the following year. They were eventually discontinued and the series was re-released in 2008 as two box sets, the first containing 12 discs and the second containing 10 discs. In 2003, a new dub, produced by Blue Water Studios, was created and began to air in the United Kingdom and Canada. It used different episode titles and voice actors versus the Funimation version.

Dragon Ball Z

With the ending of Dragon Ball, Toei Animation quickly released a second anime television series, Dragon Ball Z (ドラゴンボールZ(ゼット), Doragon Bōru Zetto^?, commonly abbreviated as DBZ). Picking up where the first left off, Dragon Ball Z is adapted from the final twenty-six volumes of the manga series. It premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on April 26, 1989, taking over its predecessor’s time slot, and ran for 291 episodes until its conclusion on January 31, 1996.^[7]

Following the short-lived dub of Dragon Ball in 1995, Funimation Entertainment began production on an English-language release of Dragon Ball Z in North America. This time, they teamed with Saban Entertainment to finance the project, sub-licensed home video distribution to Geneon Universal Entertainment, and once again hired Ocean Productions to dub the series. Saban’s dub of Dragon Ball Z was heavily edited for content, as well as length, reducing the first 67 episodes into 53.^[28] The series premiered in the United States in September 1996 in first-run syndication, but also suffered from poor ratings, and was eventually cancelled after two seasons. In August 1998, however, the Ocean dubbed episodes began airing on Cartoon Network as part of the channel’s new Toonami programming block, where the series received much more popularity. With new success, Funimation continued production on the series by themselves, only now with their own in-house voice cast, as well as less editing due to fewer restrictions on cable programming.^[29] Dragon Ball Z was now in full production in the United States and the new dub of the series aired on Cartoon Network from September 1999 to April 2003.

The Funimation dubbed episodes also aired in Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Beginning with episode 108, however, an alternate dub, produced again by Ocean Productions, was broadcast in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Ireland, while Funimation’s in-house dub continued to air in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. In August 2004, Geneon lost its licensing rights to the old Ocean dubbed episodes of Dragon Ball Z, allowing Funimation to re-dub the first 67 episodes, restore the removed content and replace the old voice cast with their in-house one. These re-dubbed episodes aired in the United States on Cartoon Network during the summer of 2005.^[30][31] In 2006, Funimation remastered the episodes then began re-releasing the series in nine individual season boxsets. The first set was released on February 6, 2007; the final set on May 19, 2009. In June 2009, Funimation announced that they would be re-releasing Dragon Ball Z in a new seven-volume set called the “Dragon Boxes,” which were previously released in Japan as a five-volume set containing the entire anime franchise. Based on the original series masters with frame-by-frame restoration, the first set was released on November 10, 2009.^[32]

Dragon Ball GT

Produced by Toei Animation, Dragon Ball GT (ドラゴンボールGT(ジーティー), Doragon Bōru Jī Tī^?, G(rand) T(our)^[7]) premiered on Fuji TV on February 2, 1996, and ran until November 19, 1997. Unlike the first two series, it was not based on the original Dragon Ball manga.^[33] The series lasted 64 episodes.^[7] In Dragon Ball GT, Goku is turned back into a child by the Black Star Dragon Balls and is forced to travel across the universe to retrieve them.

Following the success of their in-house dubs of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, Funimation Entertainment licensed Dragon Ball GT for an English language Region 1 DVD release and broadcast in North America. Funimation’s dub of the series aired on Cartoon Network from November 2003 to January 2005. The television broadcast skipped the first 16 episodes of the series. Instead, Funimation created a composition episode entitled “A Grand Problem,” which used scenes from the skipped episodes to summarize the story. The skipped episodes, advertised as “The Lost Episodes,” were later aired after the remaining episodes of the series had been broadcast. The dubbed episodes had earlier aired in Canada using an English dub produced by Blue Water Studios on YTV, which divided the episodes into two seasons instead of sagas.^[34][35] Funimation released their dub to bilingual Region 1 DVD in two box sets, with the first season released on December 9, 2008 and the final season released on February 10, 2009.^[36]

Dragon Ball Z Kai

In February 2009, Toei Animation announced that it would begin rebroadcasting Dragon Ball Z as part of the series’ 20th anniversary celebrations. The series premiered on April 5, 2009, under the name Dragon Ball Kai (ドラゴンボール改(カイ), Doragon Bōru Kai^?, lit. “Dragon Ball Revised”), with the episodes remastered for HDTV, featuring updated opening and ending sequences, and a rerecording of the vocal tracks by most of the original cast.^[37][38] The footage was also re-edited to more closely follow the manga, resulting in a faster moving story, and damaged frames removed.^[39] As such, it is a “new” series created from the original Dragon Ball Z footage. Like all other Dragon Ball-based anime, Funimation Entertainment has licensed Dragon Ball Kai to be released in North America, airing on Nicktoons Network starting in May 2010, under the title Dragon Ball Z Kai.^[40][41] In addition to Nicktoons, Dragon Ball Z Kai will also air on The CW’s Toonzai (formerly The CW4Kids) programming block, beginning September 2010.^[42]

Anime films

Seventeen anime films based on the Dragon Ball series have been released in Japan. The first three films were based on the original Dragon Ball anime series. The remaining films included thirteen Dragon Ball Z films and one tenth anniversary special (also based on the first anime series). Funimation Entertainment has licensed and released all of the films to DVD in North America.

Specials

Three television specials based on the series were released in Japan. The first, Bardock – The Father of Goku, was released on October 17, 1990. It is a prequel to the series, set years before the start of the manga and details how Goku’s father, Bardock, discovers that Frieza is planning to kill all the other Saiyans, and his efforts to stop him. The second special, The History of Trunks was released on March 24, 1993. Based on an extra chapter of the original manga, it is set in a parallel universe where most of the series characters are killed by the evil androids. A Hero’s Legacy, released on March 26, 1997, is set 100 years after the end of Dragon Ball GT. It features one of Goku’s descendants who begins looking for the Dragon Balls in order to help his sick grandmother.

Two other specials were also released in Japan. A two-episode original video animation (OVA) series titled Dragon Ball Z Gaiden: Saiyan Zetsumetsu Keikaku, based on the Famicom video game of the same name, was released in 1993 and was set during Dragon Ball Z.^[43] Another special, Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!, premiered at the Jump Super Anime Tour on November 24, 2008. The special is set two years after the defeat of the evil Buu and has Goku and his friends facing against new enemies, Avo and Kado, and meeting Vegeta’s younger brother, Tarble.

Video games

The Dragon Ball franchise has spawned multiple video games across various genres and platforms. Earlier games of the series included a system of card battling and were released for the Nintendo Entertainment System following the storyline of the series.^[44] Starting Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Saturn and the PlayStation most of the games were from the fighting genre including the series Super Butoden.^[45] The first Dragon Ball game to be released in the United States was Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout for the PlayStation on July 31, 1997.^[46] For the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable games the characters were redone in 3D cel-shaded graphics. These games included the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai series and the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series.^[47][48] Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit was the first game of the series developed for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.^[49] A massively multiplayer online role-playing game called Dragon Ball Online is currently in development for release in 2010. It has been stated that Akira Toriyama has been working on character designs for this project for the last five years.^[50]

Soundtracks

A myriad of soundtracks were released to the anime, movies and the games. The music for the first two anime Dragon Ball and Z and its films was directed by Shunsuke Kikuchi, while the music from GT was directed by Akihito Tokunaga and the music from Kai was directed by Kenji Yamamoto. For the first anime, the soundtracks released were Dragon Ball: Music Collection in 1985 and Dragon Ball: Complete Song Collection in 1991 although they were reissued in 2007 and 2003, respectively.^[51] For the second anime, the soundtrack series released were Dragon Ball Z Hit Song Collection Series. It was produced and released by Columbia Records of Japan from July 21, 1989 to March 20, 1996 the show’s entire lifespan. On September 20, 2006 Columbia re-released the Hit Song Collection on their Animex 1300 series.^[52][53] Other CDs released are compilations, video games and films soundtracks as well as music from the English versions.^[54]

Live action films

A live-action Mandarin Chinese film adaptation of the series, Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins, was released in Taiwan Province in Republic of China in 1989.^[7] Considered a “tacky” version of the story by critics,^[7] the plot revolves around a rag-tag group of heroes, led by “Monkey Boy” (Goku) trying to stop King Horn from using the wish-granting “Dragon Pearls” (Dragon Balls) to rule the world.

In March 2002, 20th Century Fox acquired feature film rights to the Dragon Ball franchise^[55] and began production on an American live action film entitled Dragonball Evolution.^[56] Ben Ramsey was tapped to create a screenplay based on Dragon Ball Z.^[57] Directed by James Wong and produced by Stephen Chow,^[56] the film was released in the United States on April 10, 2009.^[58] The film was largely considered a failure by both critics and Dragon Ball fans,^[59] but was a modest success at the international box office.^[60]

Art books

There are two companion books to the series, called the Dragon Ball GT Perfect Files, released in May 1997 and December 1997 by Shueisha‘s Jump Comics Selection imprint. They include series information, illustration galleries, behind-the-scenes information, and more. They were out of print for many years, but were re-released in April 2006 and this edition is still in print.^[61][62]

Reception

Dragon Ball is one of the most popular manga series of its time, and it continues to enjoy high readership today. By 2000, more than 126 million copies of its tankōbon volumes had been sold in Japan alone.^[4] By 2007, this number had grown to pass 150 million.^[14] It is the “quintessential mainstream manga” driven by an unending story. Its immense popularity resulted in the series being continuously extended, first through the use of acrobatic devices that regularly kept the series from falling into the routine characters and story lines, then by having the central characters surpass death itself using miraculous devices. In Little Boy: The Art of Japan’s Exploding Subculture Takashi Murakami notes that Dragon Ball’s “never-ending cyclical narrative moves forward plausibly, seamlessly, and with great finesse.”^[4] Goku’s journey and his ever growing strength resulted in the character winning “the admiration of young boys everywhere”.^[6] On several occasions the Dragon Ball anime series has topped Japan’s DVD sales.^[63][64]

In a survey conducted by Oricon in 2007 between 1,000 people, Goku, the main character of the franchise, ranked first place as the “Strongest Manga character of all time.”^[65] Manga artists, such as Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto and One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda, have stated that Goku inspired their series’ main protagonists as well series structure.^[66][67] When TV Asahi conducted an online poll for the top one hundred anime, the Dragon Ball series came in place twelve.^[68] The first episode of Dragon Ball Kai earned a viewer ratings percentage of 11.3, ahead of One Piece and behind Crayon Shin-Chan.^[69] Although following episodes have had lower ratings, Dragon Ball Kai remains to be among the top 10 anime in viewer ratings every week in Japan currently.^[70][71]

Animerica felt the series had “worldwide appeal” that uses dramatic pacing and over the top martial arts action to “maintain tension levels and keep a crippler crossface hold on the audience’s attention spans”.^[5] Ridwan Khan from Animefringe.com commented on the manga to have a “chubby” art style but as the series continued it gets more refined with the characters leaner and more muscular. He also noted he preferred the manga versions of the series to their animated counterparts that makes the story slower and pointless.^[72] Anime News Network praised the story and humor of the manga to be very good due conveying of all the characters’s personalities. They also remarked Viz’s translation to be one of the best ones of all the English editions of the series praising the lack of censor.^[73] Rationalmagic.com remarked the first manga volume as “a superior humor title”. They praised Goku’s innocence and Bulma’s insistence as one of the funniest parts of the series.^[74] Writer Jason Thompson commented that the series popularity comes from a formula that Toriyama used in various story arcs from which he describes as “lots of martial arts, lots of training sequences, a few jokes.” Yet, he noted that such formula became the model for other manga from the same genre such as Yu-Gi-Oh! or Naruto.^[75]

The anime adaptations have also had different positive reviews. Dragon Ball Z was listed as the 78th best animated show in IGN’s Top 100 Animated Series.^[76] T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews considered the series characters are different from stereotypes characters and noted that they have much more development and in its sequels.^[77] However, they criticized Dragon Ball Z for having long and repetitive fights, though they remarked the show has good characterization.^[78] The storylines of Dragon Ball Z have been compared to Greek mythology.^[79] Anime News Network considered Trunks’s storyline to have an actual storyline with characters having more motivation than the common plot of the series.^[80] IGN commented that Dragon Ball GT “is downright repellent” mentioning that the material and characters have lost their novelty and fun. They also criticized the character designs of Trunks and Vegeta as goofy.^[81] Anime News Network has had negative comments of Dragon Ball GT. They mentioned the fights from the series are a very simple childish exercise and that many other anime were better. The plot of the series has also been criticized for giving a formula that was already used on its prequels.^[82]

References

External links

Anime and manga portal

• Official Toei Animation’s Dragon Ball website (Japanese)
• Official Toei Animation’s Dragon Ball Z website (Japanese)
• Official Toei Animation’s Dragon Ball GT website (Japanese)
• Official Toei Animation’s Dragon Ball Kai website (Japanese)
• Official FUNimation’s Dragon Ball website
• Official FUNimation’s Dragon Ball Z website
• Official FUNimation’s Dragon Ball GT website
• Official Madman’s Dragon Ball Z website
• Dragon Ball (manga) at Anime News Network‘s Encyclopedia
• Dragon Ball (anime) at Anime News Network‘s Encyclopedia
• Dragon Ball Z (anime) at Anime News Network‘s Encyclopedia
• Dragon Ball GT (anime) at Anime News Network‘s Encyclopedia
• Dragon Ball Wiki, an external wiki

Naruto (NARUTO—ナルト—^?, romanized as NARUTO) is an ongoing Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. The plot tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, an adolescent ninja who constantly searches for recognition and aspires to become a Hokage, the ninja in his village that is acknowledged as the leader and the strongest of all. The series is based on a one-shot comic by Kishimoto that was published in the August 1997 issue of Akamaru Jump.

The manga was first published by Shueisha in 1999 in the 43rd issue of Japan’s Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine. Currently, the manga is still being serialized with fifty-one tankōbon volumes released so far. The manga was later adapted into an anime, which was produced by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex. It premiered across Japan on the terrestrial TV Tokyo network and the anime satellite television network Animax on October 3, 2002. The first series lasted 220 episodes, while Naruto: Shippuden, a sequel to the original series, has been airing since February 15, 2007. In addition to the anime series, Studio Pierrot has developed six movies for the series and several original video animations (OVAs). Other types of merchandise include light novels, video games and trading cards developed by several companies.

Viz Media has licensed the manga and anime for North American production. Viz has been publishing the series in their Shonen Jump magazine, and as well as the indidividual volumes. The anime series began airing in the United States and Canada in 2005, and later in the United Kingdom and Australia in 2006 and 2007, respectively. The films, as well as most OVAs from the series, have also been released by Viz, with the first film premiering in cinemas. The first DVD volume of Naruto: Shippuden was released by Viz in North America on September 29, 2009, and it started broadcast on Disney XD in October of the same year.

The manga has sold over 100 million copies in Japan. Serialized in Viz’s Shonen Jump magazine, Naruto has become one of the company’s best-selling manga series. The English adaptation of the series has also appeared in the USA Today Booklist several times and volume 11 won the Quil Award in 2006. Reviewers from the series have praised the balance between fighting and comedy scenes, as well as the characters’ personalities, but have criticized it for using standard shōnen plot elements.

//

Plot

Naruto Uzumaki is a young boy who has the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox sealed within him. Twelve years before the start of the series, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox attacked the ninja village Konohagakure, slaughtering many people. In response, the leader of Konohagakure and its ninja military – the Fourth Hokage – sacrificed his life to seal the demon inside Naruto when he was a newborn. Konohagakure, however, regarded Naruto as if he were the demon fox itself and mistreated him throughout most of his childhood. A decree made by the Third Hokage, who replaced the Fourth Hokage after his death, forbade anyone mention the attack of the demon fox to anyone else. This included Naruto, who was not aware of the demon inside of him.

Years later, Naruto is tricked by the renegade ninja Mizuki into stealing a forbidden scroll, but he is stopped by his teacher, Iruka Umino. When Iruka almost dies while protecting Naruto from Mizuki, Naruto uses a supernatural ability Jutsu he learned from the scroll that creates multiple clones of himself, Shadow Clone Technique, to defeat Mizuki. This encounter leads Naruto to realize that he is the container of the demon fox.

The main story follows Naruto and his friends’ personal growth. Naruto befriends two comrades, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, who are assigned with him to form a three-person team named Team 7 under an experienced sensei named Kakashi Hatake. Like all the ninja teams from every village, Team 7 is charged with completing missions requested by villagers, such as doing chores or being bodyguards. During the course of their missions, Naruto befriends other characters that he meets throughout the series. Team 7 learns new abilities, get to know each other, and experience a coming-of-age journey as Naruto dreams of becoming the Hokage of Konohagakure.

After several missions, Kakashi allows Team 7 to participate into a ninja exam in which they can improve their ranks, and thus, take part in more difficult missions. During the exams, Orochimaru, a criminal at the top of Konohagakure’s most wanted list, attacks Konoha and kills the Third Hokage in an act of revenge. This forces one of the three legendary ninja, Jiraiya to search for his former teammate Tsunade, who has been nominated to become the Fifth Hokage. During the search, it is revealed that Orochimaru desires to acquire Sasuke Uchiha due to his powerful genetic heritage. Believing Orochimaru will be able to give him the strength needed to kill his brother Itachi, who destroyed his clan, Sasuke goes to him in search of power. Tsunade sends a group of ninja including Naruto to make Sasuke return to Konoha, but Naruto is unable to defeat him and bring him back to the village. Naruto does not give up on Sasuke, however, and he leaves Konoha to train for two-and-a-half years under Jiraiya’s tutelage in order to prepare himself for the next time he encounters Sasuke.

After the training period, a mysterious organization called Akatsuki attempts to capture the nine powerful tailed beasts including the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox sealed inside of Naruto. Several ninjas from Konohagakure, including Team 7, fight against the Akatsuki members and search for their teammate Sasuke. Although they manage to save Gaara the host of the One-Tailed beast, Akatsuki is successful in capturing seven of the creatures. In the meantime, Sasuke betrays Orochimaru and faces Itachi to take revenge. Although Itachi dies in battle, Sasuke is later told by the Akatsuki founder Madara Uchiha that Itachi was ordered by Konohagakure’s leadership to destroy his clan. Saddened with this revelation, Sasuke joins forces with Akatsuki to destroy Konohagakure. Meanwhile, as several Akatsuki members are defeated by the Konohagakure ninja, their leader, Pain, invades the village to capture Naruto. However, Naruto defeats Pain’s multiple bodies and convinces the real one to leave Akatsuki.

With Pain having left, Madara announces that he wants to obtain the nine tailed beasts in order to perform an illusion powerful enough to control humanity. All of the leaders of the five ninja villages refuse to aid him, and instead, join forces to confront him.

Production

Masashi Kishimoto first created a one-shot of Naruto for August 1997 issue of Akamaru Jump.^[1] Despite its high positive results in the reader poll, Kishimoto thought “[the] art stinks and the story’s a mess!” Kishimoto was originally working on Karakuri for the Hop Step Award when, unsatisfied by the rough drafts, he decided to work on something different, which later formed into the manga series Naruto. Kishimoto has expressed concerns that the use of chakras and hand signs makes Naruto too Japanese, but still believes it to be an enjoyable read.^[2]

When originally creating the Naruto story, Kishimoto looked to other shōnen manga as influences for his work, although he attempted to make his characters as unique as possible.^[3] The separation of the characters into different teams was intended to give each group a specific flavor. Kishimoto wished for each member to be “extreme,” having a high amount of aptitude in one given attribute yet be talentless in another.”^[4] The insertion of villains into the story was largely to have them act as a counterpoint to the characters’ moral values. Kishimoto has admitted that this focus on illustrating the difference in values is central to his creation of villains to the point that, “I don’t really think about them in combat.”^[5] When drawing the characters, Kishimoto consistenly follows a five-step process: concept and rough sketch, drafting, inking, shading, and coloring. These steps are followed when he is drawing the actual manga and making the color illustrations that commonly adorn the cover of tankōbon, the cover of Weekly Shōnen Jump, or other media, but the toolkit he utilizes occasionally changes.^[6] For instance, he utilized an airbrush for one illustration for a Weekly Shōnen Jump cover, but decided not to use it for future drawings largely due to the cleanup required.^[7] For Part II, the part of the manga beginning with volume 28, Kishimoto said that he attempted to not “overdo the typical manga style” by not including “too much deformation” and keeping the panel layouts to make it easy for the reader to follow the plot. Kishomoto said his drawing style changed from “the classic manga look to something a bit more realistic.”^[8]

Kishimoto added that, as Naruto takes place in a “Japanese fantasy world,” he has set certain rules, in a systematic way so that he could easily “convey the story.” Kishimoto wanted to “draw on” the Chinese zodiac tradition, which had a long-standing presence in Japan; the zodiac hand signs originate from this. When Kishimoto was creating the setting of the Naruto manga, he initially concentrated on the designs for village of Konohagakure, the primary setting of the series. Kishimoto asserts that his design for Konohagakure was created “pretty spontaneously without much thought”, but admits that the scenery is based on his home in the Okayama prefecture in Japan. Without a specific time period, Kishimoto included modern elements in the series such as convenience stores, but specifically excluded projectile weapons and vehicles from the storyline. For reference materials, Kishimoto performs his own research into Japanese culture and alludes to it in his work.^[9] Regarding technology Kishimoto said that Naruto would not have any firearms. He said he may include automobiles, aircraft, and “low-processing” computers; Kishimoto specified the computers would “maybe” be eight-bit and that they would “definitely not” be sixteen-bit.^[10] He has also stated that he has a visual idea of the last chapter of the series, including the text and the story. However, he notes that it may take a long time to end the series since “there are still so many things that need to be resolved”.^[11]

When asked about what was Naruto‘s main theme during Part I, Kishimoto answered that it is how people accept each other citing Naruto’s development in such part. Since being unable to focus in the romance during Part I, Kishimoto that during Part II he was to emphasize this theme more, despite finding it difficult.^[12]

Media

Manga

Naruto premiered in Shueisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine in 1999.^[13] The first 238 chapters are known as Part I, and constitute the first part of the Naruto storyline. Manga chapters 239 to 244 comprise a gaiden series focusing on the background of the character Kakashi Hatake. All subsequent chapters belong to Part II, which continues the storyline in Part I after a two and a half year time gap. The Naruto manga is serialized in North America by Viz Media in their manga anthology magazine Shonen Jump, with the first chapter of the English adaptation published in the January 2003 issue.^[14] To compensate for the gap between the Japanese and English adaptations of the manga, Viz implemented its “Naruto Nation” campaign, where it released three volumes a month in the last four months of 2007 in order to close said gap.^[15] Cammie Allen, Viz’s product manager, commented that, their main reason for the schedule was to catch up to the Japanese release schedule to give their readers a similar experience to that of Japanese readers.^[15] A similar campaign was planned for 2009, with eleven volumes from Part II of the series being released between February and April in order to catch up to the Japanese serialization. Starting with the release of volume forty-five in July, Viz will begin releasing Naruto on a quarterly basis.^[16]

As of April 2010^[update], 51 tankōbon have been released by Shueisha in Japan, with the first twenty-seven tankōbon containing Part I, and the remaining twenty-four belonging to Part II. The first tankōbon was released on March 3, 2000.^[17][18] In addition, several tankōbon, each containing ani-manga based one of the Naruto movies, have been released by Shueisha.^{[19][20][21][22]} In Japanese, Shueisha has also released the series for cell-phone download on their website Shueisha Manga Capsule.^[23] Viz has released 46 volumes of the English adaptation of the manga with the first being published on October 6, 2009.^[24][25] In addition, Viz Media released all twenty-seven volumes in a boxed set, thus constituting the entirety of the Naruto storyline before Part II on November 13, 2007.^[26]

Anime series

Naruto

Directed by Hayato Date and produced by Studio Pierrot and TV Tokyo, the Naruto anime adaptation premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo October 3, 2002, and ran for 220 episodes until its conclusion on February 8, 2007.^[27][28] The first 135 episodes are adapted from the first twenty-seven volumes of the manga, while the remaining eighty episodes are original episodes that utilize plot elements not seen in the original manga.^[29]

Episodes from the series have been published in DVD. The first DVD series has been the only one to be collected in VHS format.^[30] There are a total of five series, with each of the including four episodes per volume.^[31] The series has also been collected in a series of three DVD boxes during 2009.^[32][33] The newest DVD series is Naruto The Best Scene which collects scenes from the first 135 episodes from the anime.^[34]

Viz licensed the anime series for broadcast and distribution in the Region 1 market. The English adaptation of the anime began airing on September 10, 2005 and finished on January 31, 2009, with 209 episodes aired.^[35] The episodes have been shown on Cartoon Network’s Toonami (United States), YTV’s Bionix (Canada) and Jetix’s (United Kingdom) programming blocks. YTV still airs the show with newer ones at midnight on Sundays and with reruns at 4am on Tuesdays-Fridays. Beginning on March 28, 2006, Viz released the series on DVD.^[36] While the first 26 volumes contain four episodes, since DVD volumes have five episodes.^[37] Uncut editions are compiled in DVD Box Sets, each containing 12-15 episodes, with some variation based around story arcs.^[38] In the American broadcast, references to alcohol, Japanese culture, sexual innuendo, and the appearance of blood and death were sometimes reduced for the broadcast, but left in the DVD editions.^[39] Other networks make additional content edits apart from the edits done by Cartoon Network, such as Jetix’s stricter censoring of blood, language, smoking and the like. The series has also been licensed to the websites Hulu, Joost, and Crunchyroll, which air episodes online with the original Japanese audio tracks and English subtitles.^[40][41][42] The last Naruto episode aired on YTV’s Bionix block on December 6, 2009 at 12:30am ET.^[43]

Naruto: Shippuden

Naruto: Shippuden (ナルト 疾風伝, Naruto Shippūden^?, lit. “Naruto: Hurricane Chronicles”) is the ongoing sequel to the original Naruto anime and covers the Naruto manga from volume twenty-eight on. The TV adaptation of Naruto: Shippuden debuted in Japan on February 15, 2007 on TV Tokyo. It is developed by Studio Pierrot and directed by Hayato Date.^[29][44] ABS-CBN is the first TV network outside Japan to broadcast Naruto: Shippuden; it aired the first 40 episodes of Naruto: Shippuden, running the show through March 19, 2008. On January 8, 2009, TV Tokyo began broadcasting new episodes via internet streaming directly to monthly subscribers. Each streamed episode is made available online within an hour of its Japanese premiere and includes English subtitles.^[45] Viz began streaming English subtitled episodes on January 2, 2009, on its official website for the series. The uploaded episodes include both previously released episodes and the new episodes from Japan.^[46] Beginning in October 2009, the English dub of Naruto: Shippuden started airing weekly on Disney XD.^[47]

The series is being released to Region 2 DVD in Japan with four or five episodes per disc. There are currently four series of DVD releases divided by story arc.^[48] There is also a special feature included with the seventh Naruto: Shippuden compilation DVD based on the second ending of the series called Hurricane! “Konoha Academy” Chronicles.^[49] Besides the regular DVD series, on December 16, 2009 Kakashi Chronicles: Boys’ Life on the Battlefield (カカシ外伝～戦場のボーイズライフ～, Kakashi Gaiden ~Senjō no Bōizu Raifu~^?) was released featuring episodes 119-120 which are set during Kakashi Hatake‘s childhood.^[50] The first North American DVD of the series was released on September 29, 2009.^[51]

CDs

Cover of Naruto Shippūden Original Soundtrack

The Naruto soundtracks were composed and arranged by Toshio Masuda. The first, titled Naruto Original Soundtrack, was released on April 3, 2003 and contained twenty-two tracks that appeared during the first season of the anime.^[52] The second, called Naruto Original Soundtrack II was released on March 18, 2004 and contained nineteen tracks.^[53] The third, called Naruto Original Soundtrack III was released on April 27, 2005 and contained twenty-three tracks.^[54]

A series of two soundtracks containing all the opening and ending themes of the series, titled Naruto: Best Hit Collection and Naruto: Best Hit Collection II were released on November 17, 2004 and August 2, 2006, respectively.^[55][56] Of all tracks of the series, eight were selected and released as a CD called Naruto in Rock -The Very Best Hit Collection Instrumental Version- that was released on December 19, 2007.^[57] Each of the three movies of the first anime series has a soundtrack that was released near its release date.^[58][59][60] Various Drama CD series have also been released in which the voice actors play original episodes.^[61]

The soundtracks of Naruto: Shippuden have been produced by Yasuharu Takanashi. The first, Naruto Shippūden Original Soundtrack was released on December 9, 2007.^[62] The second CD, Naruto Shippuden Original Soundtrack II, was published on December 16, 2009.^[63] Naruto All Stars was released on July 23, 2008 and consists of ten original Naruto songs remixed and sung by characters from the series.^[64] The two films from the sequel also had their soundtracks, with the first released on August 1, 2007 and the second on July 30, 2008.^[65][66]

Original video animations

There are five Naruto original video animations (OVAs). The first two, Find the Crimson Four-Leaf Clover! and Mission: Protect the Waterfall Village!, were aired at the Shōnen Jump Jump Festa 2003 and Jump Festa 2004, respectively, and were later released on DVD.^[67] The English localization of the second OVA was released on DVD by Viz on May 22, 2007.^[68] The third OVA, Finally a clash! Jonin VS Genin!! Indiscriminate grand melee tournament meeting!!, was released on a bonus disc with the Japanese edition of the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 video game for the PlayStation 2.^[69] The fourth OVA, Konoha Annual Sports Festival, is a short video released with the first Naruto movie. In North America, the OVA was included in the “Deluxe Edition” DVD from the first film.^[70] The fifth OVA, Naruto: The Cross Roads, was featured at the Jump Festa 2010. It is focused on the character of Sasuke Uchiha during the time he was in Team 7.^[71]

Films

The series has also spawned six films; with the first three situated during the first anime series, the remaining from Naruto: Shippūden. The first film, Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow, was released on August 21, 2004 in Japan. It tells how Team 7 is dispatched to the Land of Snow to protect the actors during the shooting of the new Princess Fuun movie, to whom Naruto became a fan. As a bonus, the short original video animation Konoha Annual Sports Festival was included with the Japanese release of the film.^[72] It premiered on September 6, 2007 in the United States.^[73][74]

It was followed by Legend of the Stone of Gelel, which was released in theaters in Japan on August 6, 2005. The The film involves Naruto, Shikamaru and Sakura during a ninja mission in which they are involved in a war between the Sunagakure village and a large number of armored warriors.^[75] Unlike its predecessor, Legend of the Stone of Gelel did not see a theatrical release in the United States, and was direct-to-video instead. It aired on Cartoon Network on July 26, 2008 and then was released to DVD July 29, 2008.^[76]

The third film, Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom, was originally released on August 5, 2006. It shows how Naruto, Sakura, Lee, and Kakashi are assigned to protect the future prince of the Land of Moon, Hikaru Tsuki.^[77] The English dub of the movie aired on Cartoon Network and was released to DVD on November 11, 2008.^[78][79] On July 3, 2008, Sony released a Japanese DVD Box containing the first three movies.^[80]

The series’ fourth film, Naruto: Shippūden the Movie, was released on August 4, 2007, and chronicles Naruto’s assignment to protect the priest Shion who starts having visions of his death.^[81] The fifth film, Naruto Shippūden 2: Bonds, was released on August 2, 2008. It tells how ninja from the Sky Country attack Konoha and to stop them, Naruto and Sasuke join forces although the latter has already left two years ago.^[82] The latest film is Naruto Shippūden 3: Inheritors of the Will of Fire, which premiered in Japan on August 1, 2009.^[83] Naruto Shippūden 4: The Lost Tower is scheduled for July 31, 2010.^[84]

Light novels

Three Naruto light novels, written by Masatoshi Kusakabe, have been published in Japan by Shueisha, while the first two were released in English in North America by Viz. The first, Naruto: Innocent Heart, Demonic Blood (白の童子、血風の鬼人^?), retells Team 7′s mission in which they encounter the assassins Zabuza and Haku. It was released on December 16, 2002 in Japan and November 21, 2006 in North America.^[85][86] The second novel Naruto: Mission: Protect the Waterfall Village! (滝隠れの死闘　オレが英雄だってばよ！, Takigakure no Shitō Ore ga Eiyū dattebayo!^?, lit. The Waterfall Village’s Fight to the Death I am the Hero!), based on the 2nd original video animation of the anime, was published on December 15, 2003 in Japan and October 16, 2007 in the United States.^[87][88] The latest novel is an adaptation of the first Naruto film and was published on August 23, 2004.^[89] Viz has also started to publish new novels called Chapter Books written by Tracey West, and with illustrations from the manga. Unlike the series, the novels are aimed to children aged 7 to 10 years old.^[90] The first two novels were released on October 7, 2008 and currently at least 11 novel have been published.^[91][92][93]

Video games

Naruto video games have appeared on various consoles from Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. Most of them are fighting games in which the player controls one of a select few characters directly based upon their counterparts in the Naruto anime and manga. The player pits their character against another character controlled by the game’s AI or by another player, depending on the mode that the player is in. The objective is to reduce the opponent’s health to zero using basic attacks and special techniques unique to each character that are derived from techniques they use in the Naruto anime or manga.^[94] The very first Naruto video game was Naruto: Konoha Ninpōchō, which was released in Japan on March 27, 2003, for the WonderSwan Color.^[95] Most Naruto video games have been released only in Japan. The first games released outside Japan were the Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen series and the Naruto: Saikyou Ninja Daikesshu series, released in North America under the titles of Naruto: Clash of Ninja and Naruto: Ninja Council.^[96][97]

Trading card game

Naruto Collectible Card Game (ナルト- カードゲーム, lit. Naruto CardGame^?) is a collectible card game based around the Naruto series. Produced by Bandai, the game was first introduced in Japan in February 2003.^[98] Bandai began releasing the game in English in North American in April 2006.^[99] The game is played between two players requiring players use a customized deck of fifty cards from the set, a game mat, an item to act as a “turn marker” for noting whose turn it is, and a “Ninja Blade Coin” which is primarily used to flip for making decisions. In order to win, a player must either earn ten “battle rewards” through their actions in the game, or they must cause the other player to exhaust their deck.^[100]

The cards are released in named sets, called “series” in the form of four different 50-card preconstructed box sets.^[98][99] Each set includes a starter deck, the game mat, a turn-counter, and one stainless steel “Ninja Blade Coin”. Additional cards are made available in 10-card booster packs, and deck sets, primarily for retailers, contain all four box sets available for each series. Cards for each set are also made available in collectible tins, containing several booster packs and exclusive promotional cards in a metal box.^[101] By October 2006, seventeen series had been released in Japan spanning 417 unique cards.^[98] As of August 2008, ten of these series have been released in North America.^[102]

Art and guidebooks

Several supplementary books of the Naruto series have been released. An artbook named The Art of Naruto: Uzumaki contains illustration from the Part I manga and was released in both Japan and the United States.^[103][104] For the Part II manga, an interactive book called PAINT JUMP: Art of Naruto was released by Shueisha on April 4, 2008.^[105] The latest artbook was published on July 3, 2009 under the name of Naruto.^[106] A series of guidebooks for the Part I called First Official Data Book (秘伝·臨の書キャラクターオフィシャルデータBOOK, Hiden: Rin no Sho Character Official Data Book^?)^[107] and Second Official Data Book (秘伝·闘の書キャラクターオフィシャルデータBOOK, Hiden: Tō no Sho Character Official Data Book^?)^[108] were released only in Japan. The third databook, Character Official Data Book Hiden Sha no Sho (秘伝・者の書 ― キャラクターオフィシャルデータBOOK, Hiden: Sha no Sho – Kyarakutā ofisharu dēta book ^?) was released on September 4, 2008, and adapted Part II from the manga.^[109] These books contain character profiles, Jutsu guides and drafts made by Kishimoto. For the anime, a series of guidebook called Naruto anime profiles were also released. These books contain information about the production of the anime episodes and explanation of the characters designs.^[110] On October 4, 2002, it was released a manga fanbook named Secret: Writings from the Warriors Official Fanbook (秘伝・兵の書 ― オフィシャルファンBOOK, Hiden: Hei no Sho – Ofisharu fan book^?).^[111] Viz published it in North America on February 19, 2008 under the name of Naruto: The Official Fanbook.^[112] Another fanbook was released to conmemmorate the series’ 10th anniversary. It includes illustrations of Naruto Uzumaki by other manga artists, a novel, Kishimoto’s one-shot named Karakuri and an interview between Kishimoto and Yoshihiro Togashi.^[113]

Reception

Manga

Naruto has been well received in both Japan and the United States. As of volume 36, the manga has sold over 71 million copies in Japan,^[114] while in 2008 it increased to 89 million.^[115] In April 2010, Shueisha announced Naruto sold 100.4 million copies, becoming the fifth manga from Shueisha that sold more than 100 million^[116] During 2008, volume 43 sold 1.1 million copies becoming the 9th best-selling comic from Japan. Volumes 41, 42 and 44 also ranked within the top 20, but had smaller sold copies.^[117] In total, the manga sold 4.2 million copies in Japan during 2008, becoming the 2nd best-selling series.^[118] In the first half from 2009, it ranked as the 3rd best-seller manga from Japan, having sold 3.4 million copies.^[119] In such period, volume 45 ranked 5th with 1.1 million sold copies, while volume 46 ranked 9th, having sold 864,708 copies and volume 44 at 40th place.^[120]

The Naruto manga series has become one of Viz’s top properties,^[121] accounting for nearly 10% of all manga sales in 2006.^[122] Gonzalo Ferreyra, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Viz, noted that the volumes’s sales of Naruto astonished him as the attrition on the series is relatively low.^[123] ICv2 has listed it as the top manga property from North America several times.^[124][125] The seventh volume of Viz’s release became the first manga win a Quill Award when it claimed the award for “Best Graphic Novel” in 2006.^[122] The manga also appeared in the USA Today Booklist with volume 11 holding the title of the highest ranked manga series on the list, until it was surpassed by volume 28, which claimed the 17th rank in its first week of release in March 2008.^{[126][127][128]} Volume 28 also had one of the biggest debut weeks of any manga in years, becoming the top selling manga volume of 2008 as well as the second best-seller book in North America.^[129][130] During its release, volume 29 ranked #57, while the volume 28 had dropped to #139.^[131] In April 2007, volume 14 earned Viz the “Manga Trade Paperback of the Year” Gem Award from Diamond Comic Distributors.^[132] The manga series also became the top manga property from 2008 in the United States with 31 volumes having been published during the chart.^[133] Searches for the word “Naruto” were #7 on the Yahoo! web search engine’s list of the top 10 most popular search terms of 2008, and #4 from 2007.^[134] Responding to Naruto‘s success, Kishimoto said in Naruto Collector Winter 2007/2008 that he was “very glad that the American audience has accepted and understood ninja. It shows that the American audience has good taste… because it means they can accept something previously unfamiliar to them.”^[135]

The series has received praise and criticism by several reviewers. A. E. Sparrow from IGN noted how some manga volumes focus only in certain characters to the point the number of fans increases. He also praised the way that Kishimoto manages to make a remarkable combinations of fighting scenes, comedy and good artwork.^[136] The anime and manga magazine Neo described Naruto’s character as “irksome”, but attributed the series’ “almost sickening addictiveness” to its level of characterization.^[137] Carl Kimlinger from Anime News Network (ANN) praised the designs of the characters, since every one shows their unique way of acting and appearance. He also noted how even the “goofiest looking character” can act “damn cool” when he fights. However, Kimlinger noted that in some volumes there are several fights, so the plot is not able to develop, however he praised how each of the battles were emotional.^[138] The series has also been praised for remaining enjoyable after several volumes by Javier Lugo from mangalife.com, who also praised the antagonists as well as the fights scenes from the manga. Kishimoto’s artwork was also commented by Lugo as it makes the story “dramatic, exciting, and just right for the story he’s telling”.^[139] The start of Part II has been praised in another review by Casey Brienza from ANN. She noted how well the characters were developed as they had new appearances and abilities. Brienza also praised the balance between plot and action scenes allowing the readers the enjoy the volume. However, she noted that it is not frequent that all the volumes have the same quality.^[140] Briana Lawrence from Mania Entertainment added that in Part II, the manga feels “adult” since several characters grew up but there are still comedy parts in the series. However, Viz’s translations were criticized for being “inconsisent” due to the change of some Japanese terms to English, while other words were left intact.^[141]

Anime

In TV Asahi‘s latest top 100 Anime Ranking from October 2006, Naruto ranked 17th on the list.^[142] Naruto Shippuden has ranked several times as one of most watched series in Japan.^[143][144] The Naruto anime adaptation won the “Best Full-Length Animation Program Award” in the Third UStv Awards held in the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Philippines.^[145] The first of the DVD compilations containing thirteen episodes, released by Viz was nominated at the American Anime Awards for best package design.^[146] It also ranked as the third best-seller anime property from all 2008.^[147] Naruto was named “Best Full Animated Program” at the USTv Student’s Choice Awards 2009 held at the UST Medicine Auditorium on February 19, 2009.^[148] In ICv2′s “Top 10 Anime Properties” from the first half of 2009, Naruto ranked as the second best anime franchise.^[149] The episodes from Naruto: Shippuden have appeared various times in Japanese Anime TV Ranking.^[150][151] DVD sales from Naruto: Shippuden have also been good, having appeared several times in the Japanese Animation DVD Ranking.^[152][153] The freely streamed episodes from Naruto: Shippuden have an average of 160,000 viewers a week.^[154] Naruto has also been 20th among shows and channels from Hulu in February from 2009. In Joost, it was first during the same month. In February, Naruto: Shippuden was first among the animated shows on Joost while Naruto stayed second.^[155]

The Naruto anime was listed as the 38th best animated show in IGN’s Top 100 Animated Series.^[156] Reviewers noted that the primary focus of the series was on the fighting since they consider that the fight scenes are more dedicated than backgrounds. The music has also been noted to be a good match with the fighting scenes though it sometimes interferes with the dialogues.^[157] Martin Theron from ANN criticized the series for long fights, but he also noted that most of them break the “stereotypical shōnen concepts.” The soundtracks have been praised for enhancing the excitement and mood of the storytelling.^[158] Although Christina Carpenter of T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews considered the characters from the series as “likeable”, she commented that most of them did not surpass the “stereotypics” that appear in shōnen manga. She also considered Kishimoto “an average artist at best” and derided the poor transition of his artistic style into animation.^[159] Despite this, the second reviewer from T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews, Derrick L. Tucker, admitted that when the animators were at their best, they produced “artistic renderings that leave little to be desired on the part of fans of the manga”, but concluded the animation was “a mixed bag”. He also added that while fights were entertaining, due to the large number of them, the plot takes time to continue.^[160] Some critics panned the Battle at Hidden Falls special, as being a throw back to the earliest episodes of the main Naruto series. ANN’ s reviewer called it a poor addition to the Naruto franchise that didn’t “do the series justice” but may make viewers gain new appreciation for how far the series has progressed since its earliest episodes.^[161] Todd Douglass Jr. from DVD talk commented the OVA was good overrall but it still lacked the depth that common story arcs from the series have.^[162] Naruto: Shippuden received good response from Activeanime’s David C. Jones who commented on the new characters designs and the animation’s improvement. Like Lawrence when reviewing the Part II manga, Jones also felt the series to be more serious and more dramatic.^[163]

References

External links

Anime and manga portal

• Official Naruto website (Japanese)
• Official TV Tokyo Naruto website (Japanese)
• Official TV Tokyo Naruto: Shippūden website (Japanese)
• Official Studio Pierrot Naruto website (Japanese)
• Official Viz Media Naruto website
• Official YTV Naruto website
• Official Manga Entertainment Naruto website
• Official Madman Entertainment Naruto website
• Naruto (manga) at Anime News Network‘s Encyclopedia
• Naruto (anime) at Anime News Network‘s Encyclopedia
• Naruto (anime) at Anime News Network‘s Encyclopedia
• Naruto at the Open Directory Project

Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch (マーメイドメロディーぴちぴちピッチ, Māmeido Merodī Pichi Pichi Picchi^?) is a shōjo manga and anime series created by Michiko Yokote, with artwork by Pink Hanamori. The manga was originally published in the monthly shōjo manga anthology Nakayoshi. There are 32 chapters published (including two special stories) and are compiled into seven volumes issued by Kodansha.

The anime series was produced by TV Aichi. The first season of which, composed of 52 episodes, was shown on the TV Tokyo Network from April 5, 2003 to March 27, 2004. A second season, entitled Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure, lasted for 39 episodes and was aired from April 3 to December 25, 2004.

ADV Films acquired the license to the anime on June 2004 for its North American release, but was eventually dropped due to difficulty in finding backers and securing a TV airing deal.^[1] As of 2009, the anime has been completely dubbed but is being held by TV Aichi. It is unknown if a release will occur. While the anime has not since been re-licensed for an English language distribution, Del Rey Manga acquired the rights to publish the manga for the North American audience. It began releasing the manga on April 2006 under the title Pichi Pichi Pitch: Mermaid Melody.^[2]

//

[edit] Plot

Lucia, Mermaid Princess of the North Pacific Ocean, sets out to land to find the boy she saved from a shipwreck seven years before the beginning of the story, to whom she had entrusted with her pink pearl. She eventually finds the boy: a surfer named Kaito Dōmoto. But as the human form Lucia assumed, named Lucia Nanami, bears very little resemblance to her mermaid form, Kaito cannot recognize her. She cannot tell Kaito who she really is; otherwise, according to mermaid folklore, she would turn into bubbles. She tries to convince Kaito into figuring out who she really is (since the legend does not say anything about the other person discovering a mermaid’s true identity by himself).

At the same time, Lucia has been told that a group of water demons or suiyō (水妖) have invaded the marine world and she must gather the six other Mermaid Princesses and their pearls to bring back the legendary goddess, Aqua Regina, to stop them. To fulfill this, she joins forces with Hanon and Rina, Mermaid Princesses who came up to dry land, use their pearls, turn into singing idols, and use their voices as an offensive power.

[edit] Songs

Although Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch is comparable to any shōjo title, the anime’s songs are used not only as opening/ending songs, but are also used as battle songs and image songs. Each episode has at least one battle/image song performance.

[edit] Music

Opening themes

• “Taiyō no Rakuen ~Promised Land~” by Miyuki Kanbe (Episodes 1–28)
  Translation: Paradise of the Sun ~Promised Land~
• “Rainbow Notes♪” by Miyuki Kanbe (Episodes 29–52)

Ending themes

• “Daiji na Takarabako” by Lucia (Asumi Nakata) (Episodes 1–28)
  Translation: Important Treasure Box
• “Sekai de Ichiban Hayaku Asa ga kuru Basho” by Lucia, Hanon, and Rina (Asumi Nakata, Hitomi Terakado, and Mayumi Asano) (Episodes 29–52)
  Translation: The Place Where Morning Comes First

Mermaid songs

These songs are usually used in battle and as image songs.

• “Legend of Mermaid” by Lucia, Hanon, and Rina (Asumi Nakata, Hitomi Terakado, and Mayumi Asano)
• “Koi wa Nandarō” by Lucia (Asumi Nakata)
  Translation: Just What is Love?
• “Super Love Songs!” by Lucia, Hanon, and Rina (Asumi Nakata, Hitomi Terakado, and Mayumi Asano)
• “Kizuna” by Lucia, Hanon, and Rina (Asumi Nakata, Hitomi Terakado, and Mayumi Asano)
  Translation: BONDS
• “Yume no Sono Saki e” by Lucia, Hanon, and Rina (Asumi Nakata, Hitomi Terakado, and Mayumi Asano)
  Translation: To the Place After a Dream
• “Splash Dream” by Lucia (Asumi Nakata)
• “Ever Blue” by Hanon (Hitomi Terakado)
• “Star Jewel” by Rina (Mayumi Asano)
• “Aurora no Kaze ni Notte” by Caren (Ema Kogure)
  Translation: Riding on the Winds of the Aurora
• “Return to the Sea” by Sara (Kana Ueda)
• “Kodou ~Perfect Harmony~” by Lucia, Hanon, Rina, and Caren (with Coco and Noel in second version, and with Sara in third version)
  (Asumi Nakata, Hitomi Terakado, Mayumi Asano, and Ema Kogure; second version also includes Satomi Arai and Ryoko Nagata; third version also includes Kana Ueda)
  Translation: Heartbeat ~Perfect Harmony~

Other songs:

• “Kuro no Kyōsōkyoku ~concerto~” by the Black Beauty Sisters (Miki Tsuchiya and Noriko Shitaya)
  Translation: Concert of Darkness ~concerto~
  Sometimes erroneously called “Voice in the Dark” after a repeated (and understandable for English-speaking viewers) line in the song.
• “Yami no Baroque” by the Black Beauty Sisters (Miki Tsuchiya and Noriko Shitaya. Translation: Evil Baroque

[edit] Video Games

Three video games (developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan) were released on Nintendo‘s Game Boy Advance console during the original run of the anime. All the games featured multiplayer capabilities, but required each player to have his or her own copy of the game in order to play.

• Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch – Inspired by Dance Dance Revolution. This included eight songs from the anime.
• Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pichi Pichi Party – A “virtual board game” similar to the Mario Party series.
• Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pichi Pichitto Live Start! – Similar to the first Mermaid Melody game. This included fourteen songs from the anime, as well as several mini-games. Although this game (along with the first one) is a Konami-developed music video game, it is not considered part of the Bemani series.

[edit] References

1. ^ Mikhail Koulikov; Christopher Macdonald (2005-06-21). “Anime Next – A.D. Vision, Inc.”. Anime News Network. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/convention.php?id=233&p=1. Retrieved 2006-10-15. 
2. ^ “Del Rey Manga Acquires Four New Kodansha Titles”. Anime News Network. 2005-10-06. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/pressrelease.php?id=1287. Retrieved 2006-10-15. 

[edit] External links

• (Japanese) Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch^{[dead link]}: Official website of the anime at TV Aichi
• (Japanese) LIPS: Official website of the manga artist, Pink Hanamori
• Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch (manga) at Anime News Network‘s Encyclopedia
• Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch (anime) at Anime News Network‘s Encyclopedia
• Pearl Song: A site about the manga.

Sailor Moon (美少女戦士セーラームーン, Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn^?, officially translated as Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon) is the title of a Japanese media franchise created by Naoko Takeuchi. Fred Patten credits Takeuchi with popularizing the concept of a sentai (“team”) of magical girls,^[1][2] and Paul Gravett credits the series with “revitalizing” the magical-girl genre itself.^[3] Sailor Moon redefined the magical-girl genre, as previous magical girls did not use their powers to fight evil, but this has become one of the standard archetypes of the genre.^[4]

The story of the various metaseries revolves around the reincarnated defenders of a kingdom that once spanned the solar system, and around the evil forces that they battle. The major characters—the Sailor Senshi (literally “Sailor Soldiers”; frequently called “Sailor Scouts” in many Western versions), teenage girls—can transform into heroines named for the moon and planets (Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, etc.). The use of “Sailor” comes from a style of girls’ school uniform popular in Japan, the sērā fuku (“sailor outfit”), on which Takeuchi modeled the Senshi’s uniforms. The elements of fantasy in the series are heavily symbolic and often based on mythology.

Before the Sailor Moon manga appeared Takeuchi had written Codename: Sailor V, which centered around just one Sailor Senshi. She devised the idea when she wanted to create a cute series about girls in outer space, and her editor asked her to put them in sailor fuku.^[5] When Sailor V was proposed^{[by whom?]} for adaptation into an anime, the concept was modified^{[by whom?]} so that Sailor V herself became only one member of a team. The resulting manga series merged elements of the popular magical girl genre and the Super Sentai Series which Takeuchi admired,^[6] making Sailor Moon one of the first series ever to combine the two.

The manga resulted in spinoffs into other types of media, including a highly popular anime, as well as musical theatre productions, video games, and a tokusatsu series. Although most concepts in the many versions overlap, often notable differences occur, and thus continuity between the different formats remains limited.

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[edit] Story

The protagonist of Sailor Moon, Usagi Tsukino, an ordinary ditsy middle-school girl – or so she herself thinks, at least – discovers a talking cat named Luna, who reveals Usagi’s identity as “Sailor Moon,” a special warrior with the destiny of saving the planet Earth, and later the entire galaxy. Usagi, who is the reincarnation of the Moon Princess, must now protect Earth from a series of villains, beginning with the Dark Kingdom that had appeared once before, long ago, and destroyed the kingdom of the moon.

The characters in Sailor Moon awaken members of the court of the kingdom of the moon, and the people dedicated to protecting it; when the dark nemesis attacked the kingdom, the Queen sent the Moon Princess, her guardians and advisors, and her true love into the future to be reborn. As Usagi and Luna battle evil and search for the Moon Princess, they meet the other Sailor Senshi, incarnations of the Moon Princess’ protectors, and the mysterious Tuxedo Mask.

As the series progresses, Usagi and her friends learn more and more about the enemies they face and the evil force that directs them. The characters’ pasts are mysterious and hidden even to them, and much of the early series is devoted to discovering their true identities and pasts. Luna, who teaches and guides the Sailor Senshi, doesn’t know everything about their histories either, and the Senshi eventually learn that Usagi is the real Moon Princess. The Moon Princess’ mother had her reborn as a Sailor Senshi to protect her. Gradually Usagi discovers the truth about her own past life, her destined true love, and the possibilities for the future of the Solar System.

The plot spans five major story arcs, each of them represented in both the manga and anime, usually under different names:

1. the Dark Kingdom arc (Sailor Moon)
2. the Black Moon arc (Sailor Moon R)
3. the Death Busters arc (Sailor Moon S)
4. the Dead Moon arc (Sailor Moon Supers)
5. the Stars arc (Sailor Moon Sailor Stars)

The anime added an additional minor arc at the start of the second series, and spent the first few episodes of Sailor Stars wrapping up the plot from the previous series. Taking place before the manga timeline, its sister series Codename: Sailor V tells the story of Sailor V, Minako Aino and her adventures during the year before Sailor Moon itself starts. Many characters from Codename: Sailor V return in Sailor Moon, including Sailor V herself (under the name “Sailor Venus”).

[edit] Characters

NOTE: The characters are listed in the order of their import in Western versions.

Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon (月野 うさぎ, Tsukino Usagi^?)

The main character of the series, called Serena in the English anime (nicknamed Bunny in the manga). Usagi is a carefree schoolgirl with an enormous capacity for love, and transforms into the heroine called Sailor Moon. At the beginning of the series she is portrayed as an immature crybaby who hates having to fight evil and wants nothing more than to be a normal girl. As she progresses, however, she embraces the chance to use her power to protect those she cares about. Not too much longer, it’s revealed that she is also Princess Serenity of the Moon Kingdom and also the mother of Chibiusa, changed to Rini in the English manga. Because of her mother, Queen Serenity, giving her last bit of life energy to save her, Usagi is later known as Neo-Queen Serenity in the 30th century. As Usagi continues to play the loved heroine, she transforms into more powerful versions known as Super Sailor Moon and Eternal Sailor Moon. It has also been hinted that she may be Cosmo Sailor Moon.^[7][8]

Mamoru Chiba/Tuxedo Mask (地場 衛, Chiba Mamoru^?)

A student somewhat older than Usagi. As a young child he experienced a terrible car-accident that robbed him of his parents and of his knowledge of his own identity.^[9] During the series he has some precognitive ability,^[10][11] including dreams that inspire him to take on the guise of Tuxedo Mask and fight alongside the Sailor Senshi. After an initially confrontational relationship,^[12] he and Usagi remember their past lives together and fall in love again. His name is altered to Darien in the English-language adaptations, with the Tokyopop manga giving him the surname Shields.

Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury (水野 亜美, Mizuno Ami^?)

A quiet bookworm in Usagi’s class. Highly intelligent with a rumored IQ of 300,^[13] she can transform into Sailor Mercury, acquiring power over all phases of water. Ami’s shy exterior masks a passion for knowledge and for taking care of the people around her.^[14] She hopes to become a doctor one day, like her mother, and tends to be the practical one in the group. Secretly, she is also a fan of pop culture and romance novels, and becomes embarrassed whenever this is pointed out. Her name is westernized to Amy in the English-language versions.

Rei Hino/Sailor Mars (火野 レイ, Hino Rei^?)

An elegant miko (shrine maiden); her name’s westernized to Raye in the English versions. Because of her work as a Shinto priestess, Rei can sense and dispel evil even in her civilian form.^[15] When she transforms into Sailor Mars she can also manipulate fire. She is very serious and focused, but although easily annoyed by Usagi’s flightiness, cares about her very much. Rei is portrayed as boy-crazy in the early anime^[15] and short-tempered throughout, but is uninterested in romance and self-controlled in both the manga and live-action series.^[16] She attends a private, Catholic school separate from the other girls.

Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter (木野 まこと, Kino Makoto^?)

A tomboy who transfers into Usagi’s school; called Lita in the English anime. Very tall and strong for a Japanese schoolgirl,^[17] she can transform into Sailor Jupiter, attacking with lightning and with some control over plants. Both Makoto’s parents died in a plane crash years ago, so she lives alone and takes care of herself. She cultivates her physical strength as well as more domestic interests, including housekeeping, cooking, and gardening. She wants to marry young and to own a flower-and-cake shop.^[18]

Minako Aino/Sailor Venus (愛野 美奈子, Aino Minako^?)

A perky dreamer who acted on her own as Sailor V for some time.^[19][20] Called by her nickname Mina in the English versions, she has a companion cat called Artemis who works alongside Luna in guiding the Sailor Senshi. Minako transforms into Sailor Venus, Soldier of Love, and leads Sailor Moon’s four inner guardians. She also dreams of becoming a famous singer and idol; she attends auditions whenever she can.^[21] In contrast, in the live-action series, she is a successful J-Pop singer (of whom Usagi and Ami are fans) and has a poor health condition, choosing to separate herself from the other Senshi as a result.^[22]

Chibiusa/Sailor Chibi Moon (ちびうさ^?)

The future daughter of Usagi and Mamoru, Chibiusa travels from the 30th century to seek help to save her parents, then later to train with Sailor Moon to become a soldier.^[23] She learns to transform into Sailor Chibi Moon. At times she has an adversarial relationship with her mother in the 20th century,^[24] as she considers herself more mature than Usagi, but as the series progresses they develop a deep bond. Chibiusa wants to grow up to become a lady like her mother.^[25] The English adaptations call her Rini, and her alter ego “Sailor Mini Moon”.

Setsuna Meioh/Sailor Pluto (冥王 せつな, Meiō Setsuna^?)

A mysterious woman who appears first as Sailor Pluto, the Guardian of Time, who has the task of protecting the Space-Time Door from unauthorized travelers. Only later does she appear on Earth, living as a college student. She has a distant personality and can be very stern, but can also be quite friendly and helps the younger Sailor Senshi when she can.^[26] After so long at the Gate of Time she carries a deep sense of loneliness, although she is close friends with Chibiusa. Called Trista in the English versions.

Michiru Kaioh/Sailor Neptune (海王 みちる, Kaiō Michiru^?)

A talented violinist with some precognition. A year older than most of the other Sailor Senshi, she can transform into Sailor Neptune, channeling the power of the ocean. She worked alone for some time before finding her partner, Sailor Uranus, with whom she fell in love.^[27] Michiru is elegant and personable, already well known for her music as well as her painting, but has given up her own dreams for the life of a Senshi. She is fully devoted to this duty and willing to make any sacrifice for it. Like Ami and Rei, Michiru’s name in the English localizations, Michelle, is a westernized version of the original.

Haruka Tenoh/Sailor Uranus (天王 はるか, Ten’ō Haruka^?)

A good-natured, masculine-acting girl. Haruka, of an age with her partner, Michiru, transforms into Sailor Uranus, Soldier of the Sky. Before becoming a Sailor Senshi, she dreamt of being a racer, and she has good driving skills.^[28] She tends to dress and, in the anime, speak like a man. When it comes to fighting the enemy she distrusts outside help and prefers to work solely with Sailor Neptune and, later, Pluto and Saturn. She is renamed as Amara in the English-language versions.

Hotaru Tomoe/Sailor Saturn (土萠 ほたる, Tomoe Hotaru^?)

A sweet, lonely young girl whose name remains unchanged in the English versions (though pronounced slightly different). Daughter of a possessed mad scientist, a terrible laboratory accident in her youth significantly compromised her health. After overcoming the darkness that has surrounded her family, Hotaru is able to become the Soldier of Silence, Sailor Saturn.^[23] Saturn shows that being damaged should not stop one from being the best one can. Indeed, her past problems mean that she now wields forces of destruction so powerful that she is rarely called upon to use them (but unlike the others, her Senshi and civilian personae seem somewhat disconnected). She is often pensive, and as a human has the inexplicable power to heal others. She is the only one of the main characters to go with her name unchanged between the original Japanese and English-language localized versions.