Furu Anime Panikku

The storyline is so random and vague, it totally rocks.

Here’s why it rocks:

1. Chainsaws are cool, although dumb weapons. A mysterious man armed with this ups the fun.

2. A beautiful girl, Yukisaki Eri who battles the above said doubles the fun. What more can you ask for in a battle between the two, full of pantyshots mixed with violence?

3. The original story’s done by the guy behind NHK ni Youkoso, Takimoto Tatsuhiko. His first novel, to be exact.

The battles aside, the main reason why I like NHCE so much is due the story exploring the main character, Yamamoto Yosuke’s depression with his daily life. With his good friend dead in an accident, and his screwed up results, he literally has lost almost all the sparkle in life and even resorts to doing retard stuff such as shoplifting from the supermarket, and of all things, raw pork.

When he meets Eri, he feels that his goal in life is to protect her, as he believes that such a gorgeous girl such as Eri shouldn’t be endangering her life through fights with the monster welding a chainsaw. However, in actual fact, he is powerless to do anything, as only Eri has been granted combat abilities.

The ending of the series was just published in the latest Shonen Ace release. While it might have been overly plain, such a vanilla ending definitely suits NCHE’s ambiguity. I’m not going to spoil anything here, so read the manga if you want to find out.

Somehow, I am able to relate a little to Yosuke’s train of thoughts as the story goes on. Like him, I’ve somehow gotten quite tired of some portions of my everyday life. I’m not sure when all this began, but within me is a sector that longs for something fresh to spark up in my life. Something to break me away from my daily routine. Of course, an encounter with something as epic as NHCE’s plot is totally out of the 3D realm, but still, a unique, routine-breaking encounter is what one can always hope for.

Bah, I sound like some loser who has lost his direction and motivation in life. Sheez.

Anyway, I picked this up by chance in Animate back in April, when I was looking around for the Full Metal Panic Sigma volumes. I wasn’t expecting anything out of this since it was an impulse buy, but I’ve really grown to like to sheer random vagueness of the plot. Sadly the manga spans only over a mere 2 volumes, with the second and final volume released on 26 June. It’s a little too short, I think. Still, it’s a great short read for anyone who wants something randomly interesting.

Also, there’s a live action movie adapted from the novel, and the trailer has caught my interest.

The DVD for the movie’s released in 13 June, which is just a few more days to come. I’m dying to watch this now!