RDG: Red Data Girl

This is a short, anime, only one season of 12 episodes, but it has an interesting concept. The anime is based on a book series and a manga.

The story is about a very reserved girl who lives in a mountain shrine with her guardians and has been sheltered and protected for her entire life. She feels that there is nothing special about her, and indeed, the only thing we know about her to be different is that technology shorts out or even breaks when she touches it. She has been told however that she is a very important person, a princess, and must be protected at all costs. The story begins with her act of cutting her extremely long hair to make bangs for herself... a seeming act of rebellion as magical strength is sometimes linked to ones hair, and this act is the first step in her taking a very small step toward self actualization. Or at least affirming that she is able to do something by her own will. The next change is that an old childhood acquaintance re-enters her life, and she is told that this boy (who has never been nice to her and seems disgusted by the fact that he must do what he is told) is her servant and will be enrolling in her school to protect her.

The plot progresses, and these two interact with each other (reluctantly) and meet new people with magical ability, throughout all of which she discovers that her body is to house a very powerful spirit and grows in magical ability herself. She very slowly comes out of her shell and begins to make personal relationships, and more actively begins to interact with her magical abilities and with the spirit world.

This was an unsatisfying anime to watch. Not because it wasn't good, because it was; the characters, narrative, and take on the fantasy genre were all very compelling. It was just too short. The characters developed too slowly for the length of the show, as did the plot, and by the last episode I felt as though I was at the inciting moment of the plot... where the true story should now begin. The story ends before any of the characters resolve any personal tensions, before the relationship between the heroine and the spirit possessing her was explored and we understood the boundary between the two, or if in fact they were two people at all, and what would happen to the heroine's spirit if they aren't. We aren't even told in any great detail the significance of this 'very powerful' spirit, and the ramifications of her presence or lack there of in our world. It ended at the beginning basically. The book series might go into more detail, bu the anime is highly unsatisfying.

Not un-worth the watch though. In what they do show you, the character development is well done, and the interactions with the other world and with various magical abilities are well thought out and the basis for a very good show. If this show was one or two more seasons long, it has the potential to be one of the better animes... but it doesn't go far enough. So I would still recommend it to be watched in appreciation of the story, but prepare for the unsatisfying ending.

Boy in the Oak by Jessica Albarn

Boy in the Oak is a picture book that almost can't be called a picture book. The story is told in full pages of text which are punctuated by black and which drawings and divided by translucent pieces of coloured, patterned paper. The pages of text are pretty full, I would almost be tempted to say that the book was meant for early readers, but the font is too small. Not your average picture book.

The story is about a young boy who was very rough and mean when he played outside. He would scare the animals in his backyard and do not so nice things like cut trees and pull out plants. The fairies in the area took notice and got so angry at the boy that one day they put a curse on him that trapped him inside an ancient oak tree. His parents went sick with worry and finally moved away when they couldn't find their little boy anymore. A new couple moved into the house. There were rumours that when it was very windy you could hear a boy crying near the house, but the couple ignored the rumours and moved in with their little daughter. The parents took care of the house and planted new flowers, and though the fairies were cautious of people they liked this. They really liked the daughter though. She was kind to all of the plants and animals and the fairies took note of this and appreciated her, especially in comparison with the mean boy. She fell asleep under the oak one day and because the fairies liked her so much, decided that they would put a spell over her so that she would never wake up and leave them. The boy in the oak over heard this and was outraged. He'd spent so much time in the tree that he had more than learned his lesson and had learned about the fairy's magic in the process, and he pushed both the girl and himself from the fairies.

The story is well told and unique, but the thing that will set this book a part is the presentation. I wouldn't personally associate that kind of art with a children's book. It is somewhat abstract and its displayed in the traditional way picture books associate pictures to text. The two translucent sheets that separate each page of text have nothing to do with the story and are there for a purely ornamental purpose and from my experience that is a little too intellectual for the average 3-5 aged child. I still recommend the book however. As I said the story is pretty good and it might be a fun way to introduce new art forms or storybook formats.

The Flower by John Light

This is a story about a boy who lives in a concrete world, then one day he's reading a book and he sees a picture of a flower. He's amazed by the picture and he ends up at the tiny pedlar shop where he sees a picture of a flower and asks the man about it. The boy is told that this is a packet of seeds, so the boy buys it and follows the directions on the back. Soon a sprout comes up out of the pot he's planted the seeds in and the boy gets excited. In a stroke of bad luck however, the plant gets sucked up some tube in his house and disappears. He's really sad about losing his plant and goes outside to see what happened to it. He's surprised to find that the flowers had grown all over some hay stacks.

It's a cute story about bringing beauty into the world. The world around the boy has something of a dark atmosphere, and it's countered with the search and desire for flowers.