In the Quantum Leap series, neither Sam Beckett or Ben Song worries too much
about time paradoxes. Changing history is their mission. However, these Kyoto college
students are more familiar with time travel science fiction that argues any
change in the past could potentially destroy the present as we know it.
Unfortunately, they remember all that butterfly-effect jazz after they start
fooling around with the time machine they discover in their dorm. Putting the
time travel tooth paste back in the tube is tricky prospect in the six-episode
anime series Tatami Time Machine Blues, directed by Shingo Natsumi,
which premieres today on Hulu.
Anime
fans might remember how luckless Senpai pined for “The Girl with Black Hair” in
Masaki Yuasa’s The Night is Short, Walk on Girl. It turns out her name is
Akashi. He hasn’t really asked her out yet, but he sees her regularly when she
visits residents of his “tatami” dorm. Much to his dismay, Akashi has become a
disciple of Higuchi, an eternal slacker-student, along with Senpai’s nemesis,
Ozu.
Described
as a half-demon-half-student, Ozu loves to torment Senpai, but he rather irks everyone
when he damages the remote control to Senpai’s air conditioner, the only
working unit in the housing complex. The next day, when they students discover
a working time machine hidden in the closet, the logically decide to travel
back in time to save the remote (the only way to turn it on). However, the more
they think about it, the more they realize they might be causing a space-time
continuum disaster. To prevent catastrophe, they must travel back in time again,
which inevitably leads to even more complications, and so on.
Makoto
Ueda’s adaption of Tomihiko Morimi’s play (which was a sequel to his novel The
Tatami Galaxy) is a very clever micro-time travel romp, in the spirit of Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes, while retaining the neurotic humanism of Walk
on Girl. It is sweet, smart, and often quite funny. The animation is not
quite as vibrantly colorful as Yuasa’s film, but it is still lively and
distinctive, while the character design is largely consistent.
Whether it came from a lab leak or a wet market, there is no serious debate that
the CCP regime in China covered up the Covid outbreak we are all still enjoying
two years later. However, the folks managing the Resident Evil franchise
apparently did not notice. In their new anime series, it is the American
government that covered-up the zombie viral outbreak in Raccoon City and now
the corrupt Defense Secretary hopes to provoke a war with China to distract the
President. Fan favorite characters Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield must save
the day in the anime series Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, directed
by Eiichiro Hasumi, which releases tomorrow on DVD and BluRay.
Something
bad happened in Penamstan six years ago. It started out like Black Hawk Down,
but then the zombies showed up. The leader of the “Mad Dogs” unit barely
survived. Now, he is known as the “Hero of Penamstan,” but he is uncomfortable
with that title. Likewise, Kennedy would be uncomfortable to be called the “Hero
of Raccoon City,” but it gave him enough credibility for the President to ask
for him by name.
He
and the Mad Dog commando will be investigating Sec. Wilson’s suspicions that
China was behind the Penamstan incident, along with Shen May, a Chinese
American officer, who still has highly-connected family in Shanghai. Meanwhile,
Redfield turns up evidence of a suspicious biological agent is still infecting
residents of Penamstan, but there are people in the administration who want to keep
a lid on her allegations.
Since
there have already been six Resident Evil films in the Mila Jovovich
continuity, a reboot, and three anime features, so practically no time is given developing
Kennedy and Redfield. You either know them or you don’t. Jason “the Mad Dog” is
not much more than a stock character either. Although Infinite Darkness is
packaged as a series, there are only four twenty-four-minute episodes, so it is
really more like another anime feature cut into quarters. There is plenty of
action, but it often looks more like a video game on-screen, which sort of
makes sense, given its source material. There is also a fair amount of
halls-of-power intrigue, but it is largely derivative and entirely half-baked.
