So!
Waaaay back in 2006, while I was still living in Yokohama, I convinced my then housemate that she needed to call in sick one Sunday so that we could go to Harajuku and the Tokyo Anime Fair. Which we did.
We got up pretty late though and only managed to get to Harajuku at about 1pm. Did our thing (I think L may have bought some GothLoli stuff) and then we tried to navigate our way from Harajuku on the west side of the Yamanote Circle to Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba. Which is an impressive piece of architecture but bloody annoying to get to.
I think that the commute took us about an hour, but I thought we’d be okay since we left Harajuku at 3.30pm and closing time at TAF was 6pm.
Or so I thought.
We arrived at Tokyo Big Sight where there were surprisingly few people around…suspicious. Walking to the entrance took another 15 odd minutes from the station. We eventually arrived at the gates to the fair and said “Two, please”
“Ahh! Ehhh….no”
“Huh?”
“etou…No more”
“Ehhhhhhh?! It’s sold out? Closed? But it’s supposed to close at 6! It’s only 4.30pm!”
But we weren’t allowed in. I was hella annoyed. I had my Urahara hat on and a wallet full of yen and I wanted to get inside to spend it, dammit! L was distressed too. She told the guy at the gates - and I’ll never forget how she said it - “But we’re from England!”
Wrong, but it seemed to work! The guy at the gate shoo-ed us inside. Then L said in an outraged voice: “He smacked my ass as we went past!”
Bwaaaahahahaha! I told her that she took one for the team, now let’s get shopping!
The place was empty. We were wandering up and down empty aisles - which in a way, was kinda cool, since we didn’t have to fight against crowds of people. Plus we had gotten in for free!
But nothing was happening, the screens were all being turned off, the displays were being dismantled. Only one stall still had merchandise for sale but they were in the process of packing up so I only managed to snatch a few Fullmetal Alchemist items before they too closed.
Why the hell is it closing so soon? Eventually we were told that because it was the last day of the fair, they closed earlier than usual to get a start on dismantling everything.
Admittedly they had a lot to dismantle. I managed to get some nice shots of a huge-ass Ichigo and life-sized Ed, Al and Naruto statues.
A booth babe handed us the last of the showbags and there wasn’t much left to do but leave. I think we were inside the fair for about 15 minutes. Maybe 20. I was kinda pissed about it. We got up too late and spent too long in Harajuku. But then again, it was my fault for not clarifying the closing time.
L and I promised each other that we’d fly back to Tokyo to attend next year’s Tokyo Anime Fair. Heh, that never happened, did it L?
Anyway, that was a fucking long prelude.
One of the showbags we managed to get our hands on had this printed on the side:
Le Chevalier d’Eon
I remember thinking: I’ve never heard of this anime before, but simply based on this one image - I wanna see it!
I still have that showbag too.
Anyway, on Monday I finished the second of my exams. Decided that I’d go home, bloody clean the place and make my housemate some dinner since I’ve been ignoring both her and the house while I’ve been studying. Finally, at around 9pm, I collapsed in front of the pay TV that I hadn’t really used even though I’ve been living here for nearly 3 months.
Hooray for the Cartoon Network and Madman Entertainment, that’s all I can say!
Adult Swim had Le Chevalier d’Eon on that night! Over a year since I’d heard of it an now I could watch it! And luckily it was also the premiere! I could start watching the series at episode one!
Admittedly, episode one in English….but even though I’m a subs-over-dubs anime fan, I could tolerate this dub. Dubs often work well if you know that there’s a particular accent needed, like French. Having Japanese actors speak Japanese in French accent would probably be amusing but it’s not what I’d want to listen to.
Not many characters had French accents in this dub but thankfully they didn’t sound painfully American. They did have some painful timing problems, as is often the case with English dubs, but I was just so keen to see this series that I was going to put up with it this time.
My rant about why Foxtel Digital doesn’t offer multiple audio stream will have to wait for another day!
So! A review of Le Chevalier d’Eon. Or at least, a Chidade-style review. Which basically means, focus on one obscure thing and don’t give any hints about the rest (see my review of Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest for another example)…
…anyway.
The series did start pretty well. I like historical novels and movies so I liked the genre already. It was definitely an adult anime with no dodgy censoring for the kiddies whose parents can’t cope with animated blood. It was going really well for the first 20 minutes. I had it pinned as an action (swordfighting/fencing), crime and espionage, political and historical drama about the times of Louis XV - maybe even something I could recommend to my Dad, coz I’m sure he could enjoy an anime or two if I could just convince him to sit down and watch it!
Then, in the last five minutes of the show, Le Chevalier d’Eon proved that on top of being an action, crime and espionage, political and historical drama - it was above all else, a Japanese animation.
…(spoilers ahead)….
A zombie appeared out of nowhere and the main character passed out and turned into a woman.
Go figure!
Honestly! It’s such an anime thing to do! It can’t be a proper anime or manga unless there’s some kind of monster, or robot, or something weird happening with people’s genitals!
Haha, I love it :D
It’s like that Rodriguez movie - From Dusk Til Dawn. For the first three quarters of the movie, it’s a Tarantino-esque, violent crime movie. Then, suddenly, there’s a bunch of vampires everywhere! Still an awesome movie though, heh.
I’m still liking Le Chevalier d’Eon, despite the obvious genre change. I probably won’t be recommending it to my Dad, though.
Also, I did a bit of research. The anime was originally a manga (common enough) but the manga was actually based on a novel. And the character of d’Eon was actually based on a real historical figure - Chevalier d’Eon who claimed to be born a woman and actually spent the second half of his life living as one!
Truth is stranger than fiction, people. Despite how hard manga and anime try, hehe. I learnt my lesson.
Still, I highly doubt than Hollywood would ever try anything like this. Maybe Rodriguez and Tarantino would - it seems up their alley. But they’ve long said how they appreciate anime and Japanese filmmaking.
This is why I love anime. It’s gives something new and different.
Le Chevalier d’Eon: 7/10
