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Jinki: Extend
Those of you who know this animé series will know that...well, it has problems. Those of you who know the manga probably know a better-presented story--or pair of stories, for that matter (though I haven't read it myself so I don't know).
But for those who don't know this series...well, what's it about anyway?
SPOILERS AHEAD, for both the animé series and most likely the manga series as well. Though maybe you don't plan on watching or reading it ever anyway...so feel free to read anyway.
Jinki: Extend--the animé series--is, based on what I've read, roughly the combination of two different manga storylines. The first, Jinki, stars Aoba Tsuzaki as main protagonist and takes place (rather uniquely) in Venezuela in 1989. The second, Jinki: Extend, stars Akao Hiiragi as main protagonist and takes place in Japan in 1991.
PLOT NUMBER 1:
Aoba Tsuzaki is a girl who likes constructing models and lives with her grandma in Japan. Shortly after her grandma dies suddenly, she is kidnapped and brought to Venezuela, and asked by her mother Shizuka (who is a jackass) to help pilot a "Jinki", a mech used to fight off "ancient Jinki", these gigantic tank-like things that are mysteriously appearing atop one of Venezuela's table mountains. This is somehow termed or related to the "Lost Life Phenomenon". Aoba is kidnapped by a man who pretends to be a crazy woman who thinks Aoba is her daughter, and who turns out to be her co-pilot, Ryohei Ogawara. He and his father, Genta Ogawara, are pilots of the Jinki named Moribito-2. Also at the base are Shizuka, a few other pilots (such as Rui Kousaka and her mom Minami Kousaka) and a crew of mechanics, whom Aoba quickly befriends. At first, Aoba is physically quite unfit for the purpose, but through insistent training from Genta (and a sprinkle of sheer force of will from herself) she becomes a good Jinki pilot. However, things become more complicated when Shizuka sends a nice boy about Aoba's age, Kouse, to duel Aoba in another Jinki. Shizuka seems to want Aoba to become a cold-hearted warrior or something.
Also, at some point, a mysterious masked boy fights Genta. It is shown that said boy has a grudge against Genta, later revealed to be because he's jealous because his adopted mom was some lady named Akana who decided that she loved Genta more than she loved said masked boy, whose name turns out to be Kokusho. Akana turns out to look very oddly similar to a character named Akao, who appears in flashforwards while most of plot 1 is being shown.
PLOT NUMBER 2:
We are in Japan. Ryohei seeks out Akao, who is a mysterious girl with a voice in her head telling her she shouldn't fight. She is compelled to join a group of Jinki pilots, which includes Rui and Minami, as well as Satsuki Kawamoto (whose brother Hiroshi works at the Venezuelan Jinki base) and Elnie Tachibana. One day, a mysterious Jinki pilot named Mel J. Vanette is treated for her injuries by this group of protagonists. She and another mysterious Jinki pilot, J. Hearn, have a long-standing feud; Mel J. Vanette (who turns out to be Michelle E. Hearn, J. Hearn's sister or something) wants revenge on J. Hearn for his killing her little brother Cecil in a traumatic scene that's replayed several times. J. Hearn is a member of the "Hachishoujin", an organization that...is vaguely implied to be evil, though their two known member, him and a mysterious Lady Shiva, who looks a lot like Aoba, are both jackasses personality-wise. Shiva plays mastermind and gets some random shapeshifting sexual predator dude to pose as Satsuki's brother, then kidnap her and attempt naughty things on her before the protagonists and Mel J. Vanette (who is always "Mel J. Vanette", "Mel J.", or "Ms. Vanette", but never "Mel") rescue her. But shapeshifting sexual predator dude is a Jinki pilot too, and he beats back the protagonists; Akao is told to use her special abilities to hep pilot a Jinki and save Satsuki. Shiva shows up to egg her onto fighting, while voice inside Akao's head (who looks very much like Akao, and turns out to be Akana) keeps on telling her not to. Akao decides to fight, albeit reluctantly.
In a later development, Akao's unwillingness to fight has gotten her pwned by some other random sexual predator dude in a Jinki battle, and she is kidnapped by said second sexual predator dude who tries to melt away her bodysuit in a tank of something other than water. Shiva shows up, kicks him in the face, and saves Akao...then forces Akao to fight Shiva in a Jinki battle. After trying to refuse fighting, Akao finally decides to fight Shiva--and promptly kills Shiva, which is what Shiva intended. This somehow causes Akao to go nuts, losing her previously pacifist personality, and gaining the voice of Shiva inside her head as well. Shiva somehow gets limited mind control powers over Akao, and takes her away. Mel J. Vanette vows revenge and joins the team of protagonists.
Aoba finally (FINALLY!) makes a reappearance, placing flowers at Genta's grave--oh, we finally find out that he actually died from that fight, by the way. She's heading to Japan to deal with Akao--apparently Shiva also appeared to Aoba and said that Aoba and Akao are two little devils or two halves that go together or something, and that's why Aoba feels it's her responsibility to deal with Akao's going nuts. By now, crazed!Akao is attacking Japan in an insanely huge mech which contains another reasonably-sized mech, both of which are Jinkis somehow. The protagonists try to attack the insanely huge red Jinki named Moribito-1, to not much avail. But it turns out that Aoba, with the help of a secret device that Shizuka put into the now-single-seater Moribito-2, can channel her sheer force of rage into fighting Akao's mech...but if she kills Akao, she will become the crazed destroyer than Akao has become, somehow by the evil/vengeful genes of Shizuka and maybe some other people flowing into her or something. Just as Aoba is about to kill Akao, though, Aoba gets an inside-the-mind scene where Akana tells her to stop fighting and Shiva tells her to continue (more convincingly). Aoba resolves to kill Akao...and then suddenly Aoba's mom (Shizuka) appears in Aoba's thoughts, and apologizes and Aoba and her mom embrace each other or something. This somehow causes Aoba not to kill Akao, and also destroys Akao's brainwashing/trance.
Oh, by the way, it was revealed Kokusho escaped with "a piece" of Akao somehow, and cloned her from Akana. Shiva was similarly cloned from Shizuka. Kokusho wanted revenge on all humankind or something, and thus wanted to use them to destroy the world. Or something like that. I really don't know.
Then at the very end you get an extra epilogue episode. The previous episode played a pun on the title of the series, by putting "to be extended" where "to be continued" usually shows up. And this OVA episode was humorously titled "Jinki: Extended". It shows the characters interacting in peacetime and gradually moving out of their pad, a shrine building in or near Tokyo. They end up "kidnapping" Akao and stripping her of all her clothes...then redressing her in a yukata, to enjoy fireworks while some of her friends also enjoy beers. Also, Most of the characters are headed away from Japan, possibly back to Venezuela. Mel J. Vanette has become a fashion model, while Satsuki has resolved to be less emotionally dependent on her brother.
----
More in the second post.
But for those who don't know this series...well, what's it about anyway?
Aoba is a young girl who loves to build models of robots. She lived alone with her grandmother until her grandmother passes away. Shortly after she is kidnapped and brought to a secret base where she discovers a huge robot. The piloted robots fight against Ancient-Jinki in The Grand Savanna, but the true meaning behind the fights is hidden. Aoba works hard at the base so one day she can pilot one of the robots and discover these secrets....well that's a lie.
SPOILERS AHEAD, for both the animé series and most likely the manga series as well. Though maybe you don't plan on watching or reading it ever anyway...so feel free to read anyway.
Jinki: Extend--the animé series--is, based on what I've read, roughly the combination of two different manga storylines. The first, Jinki, stars Aoba Tsuzaki as main protagonist and takes place (rather uniquely) in Venezuela in 1989. The second, Jinki: Extend, stars Akao Hiiragi as main protagonist and takes place in Japan in 1991.
PLOT NUMBER 1:
Aoba Tsuzaki is a girl who likes constructing models and lives with her grandma in Japan. Shortly after her grandma dies suddenly, she is kidnapped and brought to Venezuela, and asked by her mother Shizuka (who is a jackass) to help pilot a "Jinki", a mech used to fight off "ancient Jinki", these gigantic tank-like things that are mysteriously appearing atop one of Venezuela's table mountains. This is somehow termed or related to the "Lost Life Phenomenon". Aoba is kidnapped by a man who pretends to be a crazy woman who thinks Aoba is her daughter, and who turns out to be her co-pilot, Ryohei Ogawara. He and his father, Genta Ogawara, are pilots of the Jinki named Moribito-2. Also at the base are Shizuka, a few other pilots (such as Rui Kousaka and her mom Minami Kousaka) and a crew of mechanics, whom Aoba quickly befriends. At first, Aoba is physically quite unfit for the purpose, but through insistent training from Genta (and a sprinkle of sheer force of will from herself) she becomes a good Jinki pilot. However, things become more complicated when Shizuka sends a nice boy about Aoba's age, Kouse, to duel Aoba in another Jinki. Shizuka seems to want Aoba to become a cold-hearted warrior or something.
Also, at some point, a mysterious masked boy fights Genta. It is shown that said boy has a grudge against Genta, later revealed to be because he's jealous because his adopted mom was some lady named Akana who decided that she loved Genta more than she loved said masked boy, whose name turns out to be Kokusho. Akana turns out to look very oddly similar to a character named Akao, who appears in flashforwards while most of plot 1 is being shown.
PLOT NUMBER 2:
We are in Japan. Ryohei seeks out Akao, who is a mysterious girl with a voice in her head telling her she shouldn't fight. She is compelled to join a group of Jinki pilots, which includes Rui and Minami, as well as Satsuki Kawamoto (whose brother Hiroshi works at the Venezuelan Jinki base) and Elnie Tachibana. One day, a mysterious Jinki pilot named Mel J. Vanette is treated for her injuries by this group of protagonists. She and another mysterious Jinki pilot, J. Hearn, have a long-standing feud; Mel J. Vanette (who turns out to be Michelle E. Hearn, J. Hearn's sister or something) wants revenge on J. Hearn for his killing her little brother Cecil in a traumatic scene that's replayed several times. J. Hearn is a member of the "Hachishoujin", an organization that...is vaguely implied to be evil, though their two known member, him and a mysterious Lady Shiva, who looks a lot like Aoba, are both jackasses personality-wise. Shiva plays mastermind and gets some random shapeshifting sexual predator dude to pose as Satsuki's brother, then kidnap her and attempt naughty things on her before the protagonists and Mel J. Vanette (who is always "Mel J. Vanette", "Mel J.", or "Ms. Vanette", but never "Mel") rescue her. But shapeshifting sexual predator dude is a Jinki pilot too, and he beats back the protagonists; Akao is told to use her special abilities to hep pilot a Jinki and save Satsuki. Shiva shows up to egg her onto fighting, while voice inside Akao's head (who looks very much like Akao, and turns out to be Akana) keeps on telling her not to. Akao decides to fight, albeit reluctantly.
In a later development, Akao's unwillingness to fight has gotten her pwned by some other random sexual predator dude in a Jinki battle, and she is kidnapped by said second sexual predator dude who tries to melt away her bodysuit in a tank of something other than water. Shiva shows up, kicks him in the face, and saves Akao...then forces Akao to fight Shiva in a Jinki battle. After trying to refuse fighting, Akao finally decides to fight Shiva--and promptly kills Shiva, which is what Shiva intended. This somehow causes Akao to go nuts, losing her previously pacifist personality, and gaining the voice of Shiva inside her head as well. Shiva somehow gets limited mind control powers over Akao, and takes her away. Mel J. Vanette vows revenge and joins the team of protagonists.
Aoba finally (FINALLY!) makes a reappearance, placing flowers at Genta's grave--oh, we finally find out that he actually died from that fight, by the way. She's heading to Japan to deal with Akao--apparently Shiva also appeared to Aoba and said that Aoba and Akao are two little devils or two halves that go together or something, and that's why Aoba feels it's her responsibility to deal with Akao's going nuts. By now, crazed!Akao is attacking Japan in an insanely huge mech which contains another reasonably-sized mech, both of which are Jinkis somehow. The protagonists try to attack the insanely huge red Jinki named Moribito-1, to not much avail. But it turns out that Aoba, with the help of a secret device that Shizuka put into the now-single-seater Moribito-2, can channel her sheer force of rage into fighting Akao's mech...but if she kills Akao, she will become the crazed destroyer than Akao has become, somehow by the evil/vengeful genes of Shizuka and maybe some other people flowing into her or something. Just as Aoba is about to kill Akao, though, Aoba gets an inside-the-mind scene where Akana tells her to stop fighting and Shiva tells her to continue (more convincingly). Aoba resolves to kill Akao...and then suddenly Aoba's mom (Shizuka) appears in Aoba's thoughts, and apologizes and Aoba and her mom embrace each other or something. This somehow causes Aoba not to kill Akao, and also destroys Akao's brainwashing/trance.
Oh, by the way, it was revealed Kokusho escaped with "a piece" of Akao somehow, and cloned her from Akana. Shiva was similarly cloned from Shizuka. Kokusho wanted revenge on all humankind or something, and thus wanted to use them to destroy the world. Or something like that. I really don't know.
Then at the very end you get an extra epilogue episode. The previous episode played a pun on the title of the series, by putting "to be extended" where "to be continued" usually shows up. And this OVA episode was humorously titled "Jinki: Extended". It shows the characters interacting in peacetime and gradually moving out of their pad, a shrine building in or near Tokyo. They end up "kidnapping" Akao and stripping her of all her clothes...then redressing her in a yukata, to enjoy fireworks while some of her friends also enjoy beers. Also, Most of the characters are headed away from Japan, possibly back to Venezuela. Mel J. Vanette has become a fashion model, while Satsuki has resolved to be less emotionally dependent on her brother.
----
More in the second post.
Comments
Things I noticed in these plots:
* So many of the conflicts are due to Freudian Excuses. Kokusho, Aoba, Kouse, Shizuka, and Akana are all involved in parenting problems, and these problems are the cause of Kokusho's otherwise unexplained villainous nihilism.
* Assault (possibly sexual) against (female) Jinki pilots is an unfunny running gag of sorts. Aoba gets kidnapped by a crossdressing Ryohei pretending to be insane; Satsuki is targeted by a pedophile who pretends to be her brother, Akao gets thrown into a vat of clothing-dissolving liquid, and Akao again gets stripped...only by her friends as a prank.
** If this weren't enough, they apparently have made a eroge sequel with Akao as the main protagonist. No, I don't give a fuck anymore.
* WHO THE FUCK IS MEL J. VANETTE, AND WHY DO I CARE?
I seriously asked that last question multiple times. It took me a while to realize that I should stop watching the show normally, and pre-assume that I care about what's going on, rather than trying to read characters' interactions and emotions to figure them out at face value. This is just one result of the poor pacing of the show--there's little to no characterization before the characters really kick their role into high gear, so I'm left wondering questions like "Why is the just-introduced Minami so trustworthy?" and "Who the fuck is Mel. J. Vanette and why do I care?".
Which kinda sucks because these characters are actually pretty interesting. Especially Aoba, whose interest in model-building seems to be only used as a vague justification for her not being completely and utterly opposed to piloting a random giant mech. Elnie's technical expertise could be expanded on in great ways. Rui's usually super-disciplined and slightly stuck-up personality showed hints of hidden depths at the very end--but they were never explored. What is Shizuka's backstory? Kokusho's? IIRC I think Kokusho at least once raped Shizuka. Aoba is not Shizuka's first daughter, and she might actually be the product of said rape. Kokusho isn't Akana's biological son, but could he instead be Shizuka's?
The pacing, though, was the most horrible part. They wanted to tell two different stories in just twelve episodes. Concurrently. They did this by alternating between scenes from the two stories, showing a very distinctive fade in/out effect when changing from one to other plot, though you never knew how an episode you were watching was going to begin--on Aoba's or Akao's stories that is. Given that I knew nothing of the series to start off...this THOROUGHLY confused me. I confused Japan!Minami, Aoba, and Shiva, for starters. I knew that that distinctive fade effect meant something, but it took some time for me to realize that those weren't just flashbacks or concurrent events--they were actually events that were happening later in the same timeline.
And given the very limited time they had, it goes without saying that they basically had jack in terms of setting details. What are the ancient Jinki? Who made the man-made Jinki? Why do they have the same name? (Note that said name is "jin" ("human") plus "ki" ("machine"), even though it's spelled in Katakana. I think so, at least.) Why the fuck did Akana ever have to be Kokusho's surrogate mother?
It seems that the manga probably has a bunch more answers. In fact, if you check the Wikipedia page for this series, it (at the time of writing this post) has a WHOLE BUNCH MORE DETAILS that are not even touched upon in the animé. Apart from some animé/manga plot differences, it's also got a lot more things to fill in holes--Kokusho's "Kyomu" organization is the organization of antagonists, who are opposed by the protagonist "Angel" organization, and he has a Freudian excuse reason that doesn't come purely from bad parenting--apparently it's thanks to the Venezuelan military. Though some characters are still one-shot jerks, such as random sexual predator dude #1, whose name turns out to be Hamad. Or maybe that one's #2. Or maybe that one's Karis Nohman. I have no idea.
Well, for the whole trainwreck that it's been so far, has anything gone right? Well, for starters, I did say that the cast was definitely interesting. The whole thing about her enjoying model-building was actually something cool and unusual. So was the setting in Venezuela (even if it inexplicably contained a lot of Japanese people)--has any other animé series been set in that country? (To the show's credit, they DID roughly correctly cite the value of the Venezuelan Bolívar currency at the time--Minami betting 60,000 Bolívar would be on the order of betting US$15, so a five-digit bet is much more reasonable than it looks. this is based on quick research on the Bolívar on Wikipedia.)
The main issue, though, is...if only they had, say, 26 episodes instead of 12 or 13. It doesn't sound like the plot of the manga was that great, but at least it would have made more sense. (Not like the animé as it is now follows the manga plot/backstory completely anyway.)
Okay, now for the other things that I'd usually cover in a review:
* music: Didn't really stand out to me that much. I might check out a soundtrack of the series later, but as it stands I only remember the opening and closing themes and this one leitmotif of confidence or something along those lines that appeared in several tracks. It seemed decent. (Composer is Kenji Kawai.)
* voice talent: I watched the dub, and actually enjoyed most of the voice work. Shiva (of "today, you get to play the diabolical villain!" fame, and who is strangely not voiced by either Shizuka's or Aoba's voice actresses) had the least impressive acting, but Aoba herself had the best. The voices sounded expressive and convincing, but the script was where it was lacking.
* animation and art: Seemed decent. No Quality Cabbage, at least.
It seems that MAL's reviews of this series generally came to the same conclusions: that the show was pretty nice, except for the core of it--the plot--which really needed more time and development.
----
In summary: This show is a very nice conversation piece. It's not enjoyable as a normal show, though.
(Post has been split into two posts because "body is 6009 characters too long".)
This is more of a review. Though it's technically a "why it didn't work" essay.
But they are victims of really bad presentation.
Not because I think it looks particularly interesting, but mostly because I wonder if it is somehow a worse mecha series than Kannazuki No Miko (and if it is, that is why I would want to watch it), though I kind of doubt it.
In any case, it's not on baka and I don't want to download the torrent that's on Nyaa, so I probably won't watch it anyway.
And watch it because Aoba is awesome and because you get to see table mountains in Venezuela in an animé series.
And also watch it to study how NOT to present two plots at once.
But I did find E-D's subs of it, so my chance of watching it has improved slightly from 30 minutes ago.
(Seriously, I do that frequently. Did it for JE too.)
FYI, it's not on bakabt because it's an A.D. Vision dub, and those are almost all now owned by Funimation.
As for why I watched it...okay, fine, it was because there were cute girls in piloting suits operating giant robots.
That said, I am still confused as to why this series of all things got dubbed but not something much better like Uta~Kata.
Which is to say,
¯\(°_o)/¯
Actually, it depends a lot on who licensed it and how successful they think it'll be, which doesn't really have anything to do with the quality of the show.Bear in mind UK predates JE by about three months.
That's the only real possible reason I can think of, based on what I know about both series (that is, basically nothing).
Uta~Kata is superficially a magical girl series, but with much more mature themes and content. And more fanservice, actually, annoyingly. Also, it plays like a slice-of-life series more than a magical girl series.