Kingbeast's Lair

Summary

Doesn’t everyone love reading about product awards!?! Well at least I do. Thus I decided it was time to start my own yearly awards event. For lack of a better name I will call it the Lair Awards. (If anyone can come up with a better name that would be great…and no…”The Beasties” is out. 😉 )

Here is how the Lair Awards will work. There will be three categories: Best Anime, Best Read, and Best RPG. To be eligible for an award the product must have been reviewed in the last calendar year by me on the blog. There were a TON of great products released last year but if I did not review them they don’t count. Also note that I often review products that are quite old. A product is eligible for an award if I reviewed it in 2010…period…it does not matter when the product was actually released. 😉

NOW…on to the 2010 Lair Awards! 😀

Best Anime – Batman: Gotham Knight

The anime award came down to a two product race between two 10 out of 10 releases with colons in their names…namely Batman: Gotham Knight and Highlander: The Search For Vengeance. Batman: Gotham Knight took the edge with its powerful images, masterful storytelling, and varied art styles. The image of Batman holding a pile of guns staring up out of the sewers from the 5th story, Working Through Pain, is iconic. That single shot will stick with me for quite some time.

Best Read – Pluto

The award for Best Read was the easiest to select. I read and reviewed the fantastic manga called Pluto by Osamu Tezuka and Naoki Urasawa. The storytelling is visionary and the character artwork is detailed, fluid, and real. The robot police office Gesicht is deep and rich. This is one hell of a manga series.

Best RPG – The Esoterror Factbook

This award was by far the hardest to select. Four products tied this year with 9 out of 10 reviews. I gave 9 out of 10 reviews to Savage Worlds: Explorer’s Edition, The Ghostbusters RPG, Busytown: Eye Found It!, and the The Esoterror Factbook. I went back and reread the reviews, thought about the products, then decided that the The Esoterror Factbook supplement was slightly ahead of the rest. That’s right…a supplement is taking the award. I think reason this product gets the nod is due to the fact that it does what every game supplement tries to do…it tries to make the product it is supporting better. The Esoterror Factbook does that in so many ways. As I mentioned in the Summary at the end of the review, “If you are going to buy The Esoterrorists save your money until you can both the main rulebook AND this one.”

That wraps up the 2010 Lair Awards! See ya next year! 😀

-== What is it? ==-

Pluto is a science fiction manga that weaves a tale of what happens when human emotions collide with robotic artificial intelligence. The collection was written by Naoki Urasawa and Osamu Tezuka and is published by Viz Media in their Viz Signature line of manga. Pluto was released in eight volumes from February 2009 through March 2010.

The story of Pluto is inspired by the classic Astro Boy story “The Greatest Robot On Earth”. This story was written by Osamu Tezuka in 1951. You read that right…1951. 😉 The Astro Boy manga became so popular that in 1963 it was turned into the first weekly animated series in Japan. Both the manga and TV series are iconic. Naoki Urasawa, the co-author and artist of Pluto, is considered a modern manga master so his take on such a classic story adds to the importance of the collaboration.

The eight volumes have color covers with intricate portrait spines. Each book is 5.75? x 8.25? and is roughly 200 pages in length. Volume 8 of Pluto is actually a bit longer at 256 pages. The first 10 pages of each volume are in color and the rest are black and white. At the end of each book is an editorial by a noted manga artist or author. I am reviewing print copies that I purchased.

-== What I Like ==-

Pluto is visionary storytelling. It is science fiction at its very best. It asks very difficult questions then answers them from several perspectives. Some of the tough questions that Pluto addresses include what it means to be human, what means to “feel”, how far hatred can go, and when does it end?

Characters are beautifully detailed and real in Pluto. Gesicht, the robot artificial intelligence detective, is so well crafted that his story will make you cheer, hate, then cry. (Gesicht is on the cover of the first volume.)

Pluto is filled with fantastic artwork that is detailed, full of action, and not cluttered. Urasawa’s work is off the charts beautiful. The cover and spine artwork on the eight volumes depict different faces of the various main players. The picture wraps around the spine to the back of the volume. On the spine itself the face is lined up with the right eye of the character. It looks very dramatic on a bookshelf.

-== What I Don’t Like ==-

There is very little not to like about the story in Pluto. My only complaint on the story, and it is minor, is that is can be a bit slow at times. For the most part it is done to make an impact later on in the chapter.

The cost for each volumes feels a bit high but I am not a frequent manga buyer. Each volume of Pluto has a cover price of $12.99. I would recommend waiting for a sale at RightStuf.com. Just add yourself to their newsletter then watch for a sale on Viz products. 😉

-== Summary ==-

I have read various manga over the years and I can categorically state that Pluto is my all time favorite. Even if you are not a manga or comic book fan I encourage looking this one up. It had such a big impact on me that after reading the last two volumes I had to sit quietly pondering what I had read. Pluto is storytelling at a high level.

You can get the books at RightStuf.com for at this URL for $9.74. Here is a link to the first volume at Amazon.com. They sell it for $10.39.

I give it 10 out of 10 paws.

-== What is it? ==-

Batman:Gotham Knight is a collection of 6 animated shorts which are connected via an overarching story thread. It was released in July 2008 and was produced by Toshi Hiruma and Bruce Timm. Bruce Timm has a long history of fantastic animated features including Batman:The Animated Series. Each short was written by a different person and animated by a different company. In all case voice acting for Batman was done by Kevin Conroy who has voiced Batman for many of his animated tales.

Batman:Gotham Knight is comprised of 6 short films written by some excellent folks and animated by some amazing Japanese houses. Each short will be discussed in the detailed review below. The result is a film that in many way reminds one of Highlander:The Search For Vengeance.

There is no nudity in the movie but there is some strong violence. Some bloodletting is present in a couple of shorts but it is not excessive. This is not a Batman movie that you want to show young children. The movie is rated “PG-13” and I think that rating is accurate.

I was gifted the single disc standard edition version of the DVD. The version I have has only a few extras. One nice extra is a voice over by Greg Noveck, Kevin Conroy, and comics legend Dennis O’Neil. It was neat hearing the three compare notes on what they liked in the film, writing for Batman over the years, and voice acting for the various shorts.

-== What I Like ==-

The first short is called Have I Got A Story For You. It was written by Josh Olson and animated by Studio 4C. Studio 4C has done some fantastic anime work on titles like Tekkon Kinkreet and The Animatrix. This might be my favorite story of the bunch. The story revolves around a group of kids telling a story about how they say they encountered Batman. The storytelling on this one is masterful. The animation on this piece is very different and downright fantastic. It has a loose style that reminds me of Tekkon Kinkreet or maybe Beck. This one is a 10 out of 10.

Crossfire is the second vignette. This one was written by Greg Rucka and animated by Production I.G. Greg Rucka is a favorite of mine ever since a friend showed me his graphic novel Whiteout. Production I.G. has a long history of great anime including titles like Blood:The Last Vampire, Ghost In The Shell, and Le Chevalier D’Eon. (Watch this blog for an upcoming review of Le Chevalier D’Eon.) This story follows two detectives who have been recently added to Gordon’s hand picked crew. The pair get caught in the middle of a terrible gang war. The story and art style remind me a lot of the animated Spawn stories. This one is a 9 out of 10.

The third story is called Field Test. For this tale Jordon Goldberg does the writing and the animation is done by Bee Train. Bee Train is responsible for the .hack anime as well as Immortal Grand Prix. Field Test has a clean style of adult anime animation that I enjoy. It reminded me of the Basilisk series animation. This story involves a new Batman gadget that ends up putting others at risk. This one is an 8 out of 10.

In Darkness Dwells is the fourth story. This one is penned by David Goyer of Batman Beyond fame and animated by Madhouse. Ninja Scroll, Metropolis, Trigun, and Black Lagoon are just a few of the masterpieces from Madhouse. This segment has a fantastic art style that reminds me of work by comic great Mike Mignola. The shadows have a sharp quality that really brings them alive. This story involves Batman going into the sewers where he meets Killer Croc and Scarecrow. After Batman gets bitten by a toxin the story twists into that of a distorted madman’s dream. Brilliant. This one is a 10 out of 10.

The fifth story is called Working Through Pain. Brian Azzarello did the writing and Studio 4C did the animation. Brian Azzarello is most famous for his wonderful work on 100 Bullets. The art style for Working Through Pain reminds me a lot of Wagner’s Black And White. The lines are clean but soft. Nice. The story is out of this world. After being wounded the Batman wanders the suers trying to control his pain. All the while he is having flashbacks to times in his past where he learned about controlling his pain. The flashback scenes are telling and fun. The story with Cassandra in India is fantastic. Even though the flashbacks are so great the last scene in this segment is iconic. It shows Batman holding a handful of guns looking up out of the sewers. He is a hero burdened by violence. The image is one of the most powerful images of Batman I have had the joy of watching. Powerful. Another 10 out of 10 for this one.

The final story in the set is called Deadshot. This one is animated by Madhouse and written by Alan Burnett. Alan Burnett did many of the memorable Batman:The Animated Series episodes. Madhouse gave this story a great animation style. The shadows are angular and the technology is steampunk in design. The story involves the master sniper Deadshot trying to kill Gordon. The story really makes use of earlier events and characters in a wonderful way. I give this one a 9 out of 10.

-== What I Don’t Like ==-

The story in Field Test is a bit simplistic and rubbed me as being a bit naive. If the gadget worked that well except for this flaw maybe you could perfect it instead of canning it…I dunno. This is a minor gripe.

My only other complaint of Batman:Gotham Knight is with the voice acting. I LOVE almost every animated incarnation of the Batman especially the older Batman:The Animated Series. Even though Kevin Conroy does a wonderful job on these older series the dark nature of the Batman:Gotham Knight tales didn’t always fit his lighter tones. Maybe it is because I am used to hearing Kevin with lighter versions of the Batman but it was a distraction…albeit a minor one.

-== Summary ==-

Sometimes a collection of things combine to make something great. Batman: Gotham Knight is one of these times. Each time a short started to roll I marveled at the art style. By the end of each short I was in awe at the storytelling. This is a complete package that deserves a complete score.

You can get the single disc edition at Amazon.com at this URL for $7.99. For $8 this is a friggin’ steal! 😀

I give it 10 out of 10 paws.