Japanese Reading Report: 30 March 2025

This week was surprisingly fruitful despite also being extremely hectic with school. I finished two major assignments and also did *points down* all of that stuff. I probably only made it work because I didn't give myself any time for fun or games the whole week. Ah well, maybe soon.

AX アックス

I read quite a lot this week. I completed the first chapter, the titular AX — which established the tone of the story and gave an introduction to the main characters: Kabuto the hired assassin, his (unnamed) wife, and their teenage son, Katsumi — and also the second chapter, BEE.

The first chapter sort of had a sub-theme which was defined by the expression 蟷螂の斧, a method of fighting an opponent where you don't even consider the possibility of loss, despite the odds. It refers to the way mantises seemingly never flee from deadly situations. There were some extremely funny, well written scenes in the first chapter. Points of irony or points where Kabuto would accidentally slip and almost reveal his whole deal to his family - he doesn't want them to know he's an assassin, and he doesn't want his organisation to know he has a family.

So the first chapter was about a mantis (sort of). The second chapter is about hornets, hence the chapter title, BEE.

This chapter starts when Kabuto learns about a pair of assassins called スズメバチ - Killer Hornet. One of them recently died, and the other has it out for Kabuto, apparently. As it turns out, Kabuto's wife is also dealing with a killer hornet problem at home, and she tasks Kabuto with figuring out how best to deal with it.
After identifying it as killer hornets (and not a more docile species), Kabuto first thinks to hire a professional, but after some more research he decides he can probably do it on his own with enough protection.

The high point of the chapter involves him gearing up for the ordeal. He puts on layers and layers of winter clothes, a helmet, and lots of packing tape to seal off any vulnerable spots. As he puts it, he looks like a weird spaceman. My favourite moment is in the early morning as Kabuto is about to go out fully geared, he notices his son's door is open and he reflects on how quickly he has grown up. He gets sentimental and walks into the room in an, "I'm about to walk to my certain death. Look after your mother" fashion, still entirely wrapped in layers of clothes and tape. The juxtaposition was just very vibrant and funny.

Kabuto deals with the hornets just fine. He starts to empathise with them; he recognises that they're just behaving in their own way trying to protect their families just like he is with his. He gives them a proper burial.

The chapter ends with the real, human Killer Hornet showing up. Kabuto uses his current appearance to frighten Killer Hornet off, bluffing and saying he dressed this way in anticipation and he's currently impervious to needles, so don't bother. That works well enough. Kabuto passes out from the heat and thick clothing, and the chapter ends with a sweet moment.

カードキャプターさくら

Sakura and Xiaolang

So I finally finished this series. I have to say I'm extremely glad I endured a somewhat slow start and pushed through to the end. I absolutely fell in love with the relationships in this series — Sakura and Yukito, Touya and Yukito, Touya and Mirror Sakura, Yue and Clow, even Sakura and Mei-Ling — there was a strong network of relationships that really worked in the second half of the story. Of course, the relationship which was strongest in the end was Sakura and Xiaolang. I was a real doubter at the start of the show, but I've been converted.

Perhaps the only weakness of the second half of the story for me was that Clow's whole deal didn't totally mesh with his actions. He was extremely adversarial towards Sakura and risks her life constantly, and then at the end he's like, "It was just a joke, hah hah." What a brat.

真ゲッターロボ世界最後の日

Moments before victory

I finished my rewatch, as expected. I definitely enjoyed this show upon rewatch. The action and characters are really fun, and the visuals and music are just so perfect.

My favourite parts are definitely towards the end. The Shin Getter vs Getter G fight is just so fun to watch, and I love the build up to it, the psychological warfare and truth about Michiru's death that set the events of the whole series in motion.
I also love the Shin Getter Dragon stuff at the end. Going through the portal and seeing all the other Getters of past, present, and future, is just super cool.

Gou and Kei's relationship is also really cool. Love them.

キューティーハニー

I wanted to watch Mazinger following Getter Robo Armageddon, but I've always had trouble finding a way to watch Mazinger in Japanese at an adequate quality. I finally found a good source for the original series, but I still couldn't access it until later in the week.

永井豪 is known as the father of several popular genres: He popularised the true Super Robot with Mazinger and Getter Robo, he created the shounen anti-hero with Devilman, and (as I understood it), he fathered the ecchi (containing suggestive sexual elements, but nothing explicit) comedy genre with Cutie Honey.

I'm not really a fan of ecchi or romantic comedies. Other than Full Metal Panic I don't think there's any series that fits the genre that I would consider a big favourite of mine. But, I am willing to give any genre first a try. I'm obsessed with origins, I guess. So I watched the first few episodes of Cutie Honey and... it's not an ecchi comedy. Well, it is, but those are just two pillars of this series!

Cutie Honey is the story of a modern young woman, Honey, who very quickly learns that she's not a human at all — she's a robot. Her father dies, provides her with the truth and a mission to protect humanity, and the story quickly sets in motion. I would say that the content of the series (from what I've seen so far) is like a mix between Astro Boy and spy thrillers of the 60s and 70s.
Honey is ecchi, certainly. Her looks and body are a huge part of the moment-to-moment storytelling. Almost every male secondary character is interested in her, to varying degrees of success, and she frequently loses part or all of her outfits in every episode. And it's funny. It's definitely a comedy, in the same way that Getter Robo can be a comedy at times. The side characters are all goofballs who add levity to many of the scenes. It's all a little bit dated, I suppose, but it feels good natured and Honey is rarely the person in positions of vulnerability. Being a robot, Honey has several super-human abilities. She is super strong, has magnetic(? sort of) feet, has all kinds of gadgets to see through walls, tune into radio (it was the 70s, that was probably very cool!) and, most importantly, she can transform herself to assume various disguises. She always saves her ultimate form, Cutie Honey, for the final action sequence. It's like the perfect translation of a super robot plot into human-scale combat and drama. I really like it.

I would say the biggest weakness I anticipate is the episodic nature of the whole show. It's only 25 episodes — considered long for modern anime — which puts it at less than half of Getter Robo and nearly a quarter of Mazinger's count, so I expect it won't outstay its welcome, but I hope they find a strong plot thread by the midpoint and lock in, because I'd like to see some character development and payoff.

Anyway, all that to say I'm really enjoying this series. I think I'll have to give Devilman (the original series, I've already watched Crybaby) a shot because I think this 永井豪 guy might have been onto something.

ゲッターロボ（漫画版）

I finally decided to try the original manga version of this story. I'd like to read it all the way through to see what the original vision was meant to be. The version I'm reading is a physical rerelease by Move On Comics (not sponsored), which I didn't realise at time of purchase would be absolutely massive. Basically what is normally three volumes was put into two (not sure where the split happens yet). The first volume of this edition is over 400 pages. Needless to say I did not finish it between all of my other immersion and study.

In terms of actual progress, I read up to the end of Ryoma's introduction. This intro felt fairly in line with the 新ゲッターロボ introduction as I remember it (though my memory of each series is a bit hazy so feel free to email me any corrections). Ryoma rocks up to a karate tournament, beats the life out of everyone there, goes home to be sad with the portrait of his dead father, and is then assailed by a trio of ne'er-do-wells.

After surviving the assault, Ryoma is dragged to Saotome's lab to prepare to pilot Getter to protect humanity from the dinosaur race, but it's too late — the dinosaurs are already attacking, Ryoma is forced to kill some possessed people, hop in the unfinished chassis of Getter 1, and clear away a hoard of flying dinosaurs.