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YouTube has lifted a block on users viewing official music videos after the website reached an agreement with songwriters’ group PRS for Music.

In March, the service blocked thousands of music videos to UK users after failing to reach agreement over fees.

YouTube, owned by Google, is paying an undisclosed lump sum to PRS, backdated until January and lasting until 2012.

Adam Shaw from PRS for Music told the BBC that he was pleased that an agreement had finally been reached.

“We have 60,000 song-writer and composer members and many of them don’t earn very much money at all – 90% of them earn less then £5,000 a year,” he said.

“The money we receive is really their living.”

Sanctioned

YouTube’s decision in March theoretically blocked all premium music video content – owned by record labels – in the UK.

However, many fan videos and official videos continued to be available on the site, including some sanctioned by the record labels themselves.

If content owners start to see the video site as just another useful platform rather than a threat, then everyone can start making money

Rory Cellan-Jones
BBC’s technology correspondent

For example, EMI-owned Parlophone recently became the site’s most popular UK channel of the year, with 240 million hits, despite the ban.

However, YouTube said the “tens of thousands” of videos which had disappeared “will come back over the next few days”.

“The music videos are an extremely popular part of YouTube and this deal doesn’t only cover the music videos but also music included in TV programmes like the X Factor and also for the inclusion of music in user videos as well,” YouTube’s Patrick Walker told the BBC.

The deal will also mean that new material will appear on YouTube as the site signs partnerships with other record labels and guest editors introduce their favourite videos.

‘Outraged’

In the UK, PRS for Music acts on behalf of member publishers as a collecting society for licensing fees relating to the use of music.

At the start of the row Mr Walker told the BBC that PRS was seeking a rise in fees “many, many factors” higher than the previous agreement.

He said the two were “so far apart” that YouTube had no choice but to remove content while negotiations continued.

If the public can access videos for free, and the artist still gets paid then it sounds like everyone’s a winner

Richard Hill, Birmingham

At the time, Steve Porter, head of PRS, said he was “outraged… shocked and disappointed” by the decision.

He said the move “punishes British consumers and the songwriters whose interests we protect and represent”.

The Music Publishers Association (MPA) joined PRS in urging Google to rethink, while Lord Carter, who was the UK’s minister for communications, technology and broadcasting, also waded into the debate.

Giving evidence before the Business Select Committee, the minister said he suspected a degree of “commercial posturing on the part of both parties” but said the row was indicative of a wider issue.

YouTube is the world’s most popular online video site but has been under increased pressure to generate more revenue since its purchase by Google for $1.65bn (then £875m) in 2006.

Services such as Pandora.com, MySpace UK and Imeem have also had issues securing licensing deals in the UK in the past 12 months.

SOURCE: BBC News

Adult video broadcaster’s take on a top television fundraiser trains a spotlight on Japan’s growing HIV problem

It is no surprise that an adult entertainment broadcaster would be concerned about the spread of the HIV virus and AIDS. But for one satellite channel in Japan known for silly parodies and wacky porn programming, that concern goes beyond immediate commercial interests — to trying to reverse wilting media attention on these debilitating illnesses even as they affect more lives in our communities.

“A decade ago, the AIDS issue was a priority in all media around the world,” says Paradise TV President Tsuyoshi Shiba from his office in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward. “But now global warming — and its consequences, such as rising sea levels — is the main topic. Of course, that is important, but AIDS directly impacts our lives now.”

The channel’s response is “24-Hour TV: Eroticism Saves the Earth,” a telethon to raise funds to combat the growing incidence of HIV/AIDS in Japan.

Starting Saturday evening and continuing through Sunday on satellite network Sky PerfecTV!, the event, in its seventh year, will feature a mix of in-studio attractions and live and recorded shows produced by Paradise TV, whose content includes news broadcasts in which the female anchorwomen are naked and sex-toy shopping segments.

The drive’s title is a stab at major broadcaster Nippon Television’s telethon “24-Hour TV: Love Saves the Earth,” which is transmitted live from Tokyo’s Budokan Hall on the same weekend and raised more than ¥1 billion for environmental causes last year.

Critics might deem Paradise’s satirical approach to be in poor taste, but Shiba begs to differ. “Paradise TV’s main concept is that we have to make things fun,” he says. “If the issue is serious, we still have to do it in our own way. A deep, dramatic theme is NTV’s thing. For us, we are happy that we can present an opportunity for discussions relating to AIDS to take place.”

Last year, the marquee draw for Paradise’s telethon gave viewers a chance for viewers to visit station headquarters, enter a special booth and fondle either the buttocks or breasts of two noted actresses five times for a suggested offering of ¥1,000. Returning this year will be a similar attraction but with three ladies — Mami Hoshikawa, Rika Shibuya and Yuna Hirose, collectively dubbed “Nyus” — offering up only their chests for the cause. (It is worth noting that “Nyus,” written with the kanji character for “breast,” is a play on words with the talent agency Johnny’s Jimusho six-member J-pop act NEWS, who are scheduled to appear on the NTV program.)

Over the two days, Paradise’s programming, which encourages contributions by phone or via the Web, will include five of the station’s female newsreaders (disrobed, of course) testing viewers’ sex knowledge by phone, women’s sumo wrestling (perhaps surprisingly, with clothed participants — albeit in traditional fundoshi [underwear]) and 24 hours of phone sex — which will upend convention, so to speak, as male callers try to arouse a selection of female receptionists in the studio into erotic bliss.

Additional funds will be collected through the auction of undergarments worn by popular AV (porn) actresses. In past years, similar on-air sales have topped ¥50,000.

Those making donations at the studios will receive condoms and red bracelets imprinted with AIDS-awareness slogans.

The event’s promotional graphic, penned by Yoshikazu Ebisu, is a cartoon of a bikini-wearing woman atop Mount Fuji exclaiming the campaign’s recurring message: “STOP! AIDS.” Last year, the same slogan appeared along with the famous manga character Machiko Sensei from a 2006 work by famed artist Go Nagai, which showed a female emerging from the end of a condom.

A lack of condom use and the rising frequency of new sex partners are reasons experts have cited for the higher number of HIV and AIDS cases in Japan. New HIV infections reached a record 1,126 in 2008, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. The number of AIDS cases over the same period was 431, bringing the combined total to 1,557 — also an all-time high.

This continues a trend in which reported HIV infections have generally risen since 1996. However, there is one positive within the demographic breakdown of infections, explains the Japan Foundation for AIDS Prevention, which supports the telethon again this year.

“The number of cases within the general population is not rising,” says Yasushi Sawazaki, director of the program operation section at JFAP. “Over the last five or six years, more than 60 percent of new HIV cases were as a result of men having sex with men.”

The overall situation remains of great concern, however, maintains Sawazaki. The foundation focuses much of its efforts on educating the gay population, which in Tokyo means working with committees that hand out condoms in bars in the gay quarter of Shinjuku 2-chome. The group also attempts to reach out to commercial sex workers and minorities that might not have access to adequate HIV information.

“Young people and teenagers will learn the basics about HIV in school,” Sawazaki explains. “But HIV is an issue related to sexual behavior. . . . We have to intervene and link knowledge to behavior.”

Actress agencies require that girls undergo HIV checks once every three to six months. Most male stars are hired on a freelance basis and are tested independently. Paradise requires all actors to wear protection during regular filming. “It is just a matter of common sense within the adult video field,” says Shinichiro Fukuyama, a Paradise representative. “We have to do it to protect the bodies of the actresses.”

Shiba is committed to continuing the pledge drive into the future, saying that it is a rare chance to show a positive side to the adult entertainment business.

“I feel that in taking a stance on the AIDS problem, we can convey that we are concerned with important issues shaping the world today,” he says.

Last year, the telethon raised a total of about ¥2 million. Besting that sum is not a concern for Shiba.

“The donation amount is not a priority,” he explains. “We think that raising awareness (about HIV and AIDS) among as many people as possible is the point. We have to help make some noise in Japan. That is what motivates us.”

“24-Hour TV: Eroticism Saves the Earth” will air from 7 p.m. Saturday until 8 p.m. Sunday on Sky PerfecTV! channel 913. Brett Bull is editor in chief of online magazine The Tokyo Reporter (www.tokyoreporter.com). He can be reached at captain.japan@gmail.com

SOURCE: The Japan Times Online

Sylvain Quimene of France has won the Air Guitar World Championships. How do the judges choose a rock god from the motley assortment dressed in wigs, spandex and capes?

He plays a mean guitar, but doesn’t strike a chord.

Sylvain “Gunther Love” Quimene is 2009’s Air Guitar World Champion after windmilling his way to glory in Oulu, Finland. So how did the judges pluck his madly theatrical performance from all the others?

Contestants are not simply judged on their technical ability, such as “hitting” all the notes, but on factors such as charisma, working the crowd and an elusive quality known as “airness”.

All over the world, air guitarists abide by the same rules. They perform a 60-second solo performance with an imaginary guitar-like instrument. Try to incorporate an air drum, for example, and the judges won’t be impressed.

Personal air roadies are allowed, but backing groups (real or air) are not.

“Air guitar is about drama – it’s about telling a story with a beginning, middle and end – in the span of a mere 60 seconds,” says Dan Crane, writer, air guitarist (stage name Bjorn Turoque, pronounced “b-yorn too-RAWK”) and a judge on the US circuit.

Contestants are judged on three standard criteria as set out by the governing body in Oulu, Finland. In the United States, scoring is done on an Olympic Figure Skating scale – from 4.0 to 6.0.

Technical prowess: “That is how much the movements of your flailing hands correspond to the music to which you are playing along to,” says Mr Crane.

Basic technique would include moving your hands closer together when you hear a high note to show you are playing a riff near the centre of the guitar, and moving them further apart on the lower notes (think Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure).

Stage presence/charisma: “Have audience members’ faces been melted – and if so, how much?”

Stage presence, naturally, includes the theatrics of dressing up. Wigs, skin-tight spandex trousers, capes and other accoutrements of a classic rock wardrobe are de rigeur.

Airness: “The extent to which an air guitar performance exceeds the imitation of guitar playing and becomes an art form in and of itself,” says Mr Crane.

An ineffable quality, says one judge, and so is difficult to define.

“It’s a bit like the X-factor – you just know it when you see it,” says Zac Monro, director of Air Guitar UK and championship judge.

“Nietzsche said something along the lines of: if you define something it loses a certain amount of its power. Air guitar is very much like that – if you can see the guitar it would be boring, and if you try to define airness, some of the depth would be lost,” the double world champion says.

Part of that “je ne sais quoi factor” is the ability to be taken completely taken over by the music, says Mr Monro.

“Some people go really nuts – it’s not just the fret board and the picks that take a kicking,” he says. “The body can take a kicking too.”

Jumps, knee bends, slides, windmills, and crowd diving are commonplace, as are injured knees and broken and sprained ankles.

Air is human

But, says Mr Monro, no matter how many back flips you perform, if you don’t have charisma, you’re in the wrong competition.

Those who get the loudest and longest response from the audience do the best.

And he advises wannabe guitar heroes to be original. “Someone does something new one year, and the following year everyone copies it,” he says.

Among the most memorable performances he has witnessed is one entirely based around a fake street fight involving 23 air guitarists.

Dan Crane, author of the book, To Air Is Human, plays the real guitar. But he says the fact that he’s a “there” guitarist often impedes his “air” guitaring.

“I just knew too much. I was frequently looking at my hands to make sure they were in the right place,” he says.

“On an air guitar, however, there is no right place. There’s an infinite number of notes on an air guitar. So, for ‘there’ guitarists, I say you must forget all you know. Air guitar is an entirely different beast for the taming.”

SOURCE: BBC News

You say tomato, he says to-mah-to — but don’t call the whole thing off just yet. Compatibility is all about the big picture, so don’t sweat the small stuff like favorite movies or taste in music — that’s just icing on the cake! But before you commit to being in it for the long haul, make sure you see eye-to-eye with your partner on the things that matter.

We asked members of Marie Claire’s online community for their long-term compatibility deal-breakers. Here’s what they said:

Compatibility Deal-Breaker #1: No Shared Interests

Member thetrekhippy said, “For me, both people have to have enough common interests so that you can enjoy spending time together doing those, but enough separate interests that you can enjoy learning about those new things from each other as well as enjoy time you spend apart. If you can sit with that person for at least 40 minutes just doing nothing but like watching shows on the telly or listening to music, and never once feel awkward or uncomfortable, never feel like you ‘have to make conversation,’ that’s a good sign.”
You and your partner don’t have to parrot each other’s hobbies and interests to be compatible, but what’s key is taking an interest in what’s important to your significant other. That means no eye-rolling when he’s off to his monthly golf game, and no exasperated sighing every single time her favorite show is on. Keep an open mind, invite your partner to join you once in a while, and show a genuine interest in what makes them happy.

Compatibility Deal-Breaker #2: Different Values

“For me, there has to be shared basic values, along with nonconflicting lifestyles and goals,” said uniquelyme2.
What registers as an important topic or value for you depends on you and your partner, but here’s a rule of thumb to follow: If you can’t get through watching the nightly news together without calling each other morons, screaming obscenities, threatening breakup, or blaming each other for the recession, a long-term commitment might not be for you. Keep lifestyle in mind as well. Opposites may attract, but they don’t often stay together. If your ideal Saturday night consists of Netflix and popcorn, and your partner prefers to party until dawn, one of you will always feel frustrated.

Compatibility Deal-Breaker #3: Clashing Future Plans

“You better know what you want out of this relationship so I have a clear idea of what to expect,” stresses jpwoc. Member shell1130 agrees. “I don’t need to know where our relationship is going from the first date, but it’s important for me to know whether he eventually wants children or if he has plans to live in another country or travel a lot at some point.”
Don’t hand him the pre-nup over appetizers on your first date, but do keep your future in mind. Lengthy discussions about children, career plans, location, and other major expectations need to be had before you make a major commitment, whether it’s marriage vows or a shared apartment. If you’re still in the early stages of dating, make sure you’re both aware of how exclusive the relationship is or has potential to be. If you’re looking for something serious, you don’t want to waste time with someone who’s content to casually date for years.

SOURCE: Yahoo! Personal

The TV program “Anpanman” has been recognized by Guinness World Records as having the most characters in an animated series, Nippon TV said.

As of March, the weekly program had featured 1,768 different characters, according to an official Guinness registration in June, NTV spokeswoman Shigeko Chino said Thursday.

The television version of “Anpanman” began airing on Oct. 3, 1988. Long popular with children, the titular hero’s head is a bun filled with sweet bean paste, hence the name, which means Red-Bean-Bread Man in English.

Most of the other characters are related to food, including Shokupanman (Loaf-of-Bread Man), Jamu-Ojisan (Jam-Middle-Aged Man) and Omusubiman (Rice-Ball Man.)

The “anime” teaches children to wash their hands and brush their teeth by showing Anpanman always defeating his archrival, Baikinman (Germ Man).

“We received this honor because we have kept airing the program for 21 years. Those who were children then have become adults and are watching it with their own children,” NTV producer Toshio Nakatani said in a statement.

In addition to the TV series, there have been 20 “Anpanman” movies.

“The ‘Anpanman’ series has had more than 2,000 characters and the figure is increasing, but the Guinness registration is very strict and they recognized only 1,768,” said Takashi Yanase, the series’ creator.

SOURCE: The Japan Times Online

We look at a few of the bands and performers that are due to take the stage at this year’s Rainforest World Music Festival in Kuching, Sarawak.

Remember that music festival held at a remote rainforest that got everyone’s attention? Yes, the Rainforest World Music Festival is back for another round of cultural displays and main-stage evening concerts. The mega festival is an annual 3-day music festival celebrating the diversity of world music which will be held at the Sarawak Cultural Village in Kuching from 10-12 July 2009.

We look at a few of the bands and performers that are due to take the stage at this year’s Rainforest World Music Festival.

LAN-È TUYANG (Sarawak)

A fan favorite, the local trio act is an electric trio formed by Sarawak’s younger generation of traditional musicians. Lan-È Tuyang uses a traditional instrument called the sape only found in Borneo and turns it in a highly hypnotizing performance. While maintaining its cultural foundations, Lan-È Tuyang performs the most entertaining and the most beautiful sape music the world has ever heard.

ZAWOSE FAMILY (Tanzania)

Dressed in costumes made from goatskins and porcupine quills, with ostrich feathered headdresses, the iconic Zawose Family has been a celebrated feature of the world music line-up since the early 1990s. Led by one of World Music’s biggest stars Hukwe Zawose before his untimely death, the group has travelled around the globe and performed at the world’s biggest stages to rave reviews. A show not to be missed, the Zawose Family music is truly infectious.

POUM TCHACK (France)

The six-member super jazz band from France, Poum Tchack never once fails to bring the energy into their performances. Formed in the outskirts of Marseille in 1999, Poum Tchack’s rich and varied blend of music has earned praise. Armed with acoustic guitars and drums, they invade the stage with the energy turned up to the maximum. The band embraces a wide range of musical genres to create their own signature style that will leave the audience breathless.

DAZKARIEH (Portugal)

Arguably Portugal’s biggest export, Dazkarieh is one of the most active and popular outfits in the world. Formed in 1999, the band gathers and performs with various musical instruments from different origins such as the Galician bagpipe, African Percussion and the Silver Flute. But what makes the band unique is that they sing in an imaginary language, the brainchild of the group itself, in an attempt to treat the human voice as an instrument itself. Through the years, they have molded a powerful, exciting, and unique sound that keeps audiences on their feet.

AKASHA (Malaysia)

AkashA is a 7-piece Malaysian band which was the surprise hit of the 2008 Rainforest World Music Festival. So popular in fact, they were brought in to do an encore show at this year’s Rainforest World Music Festival. Mixing hot Indian percussion with lightning fast guitar licks, AkashA redefine music by adding the best of Malay with a wide fusion of world influences. Their unique brand of music would definitely bring the audience to their feet and have them dancing along to the beat.

RED CHAMBER (Canada/China)

An interesting string band from China, Red Chamber is famous for their Chinese traditional ‘Plucked String’ performances. Featuring only plucked strings, the quartet creates a unique sound while performing a selection of genres that spans centuries, including transcriptions from the Tang Dynasty to modern compositions. The girls are also exploring other genres of plucked string music like Bluegrass, jazz, and a host of other folk traditions that would sure to attract anyone’s attention.

INTI-ILLIMANI (Chile)

Inti-Illimani, a traditional Latin American outfit from Chile, is perhaps the most successful band ever to grace the world stage. Playing on more than 30 wind, string and percussion instruments, Inti-Illimani celebrated their 40th anniversary in 2007 and the release of Pequeño Mundo, their forty-third album. Their stunning blend of instrumentals and vocals captivate the hearts of their fans all around the globe, and they are known as South America’s ambassador of human expression. Their music, especially, is a powerful link between the land and the people.

MUZSIKAS (Hungary)

Muzsikas, like Chilean group Inti-Illimani, is a veteran in the world music industry. With a career spanning more than 35 years and counting, Muzsikas is the most renowned and popular Hungarian folk music ensemble in the world. Muzsikas plays mainly beautiful Hungarian folk music. The ambassador of Hungarian music, they present the true folk music of Hungary to the international concert stage with their unique blend of vocals and instruments.

MOANA & THE TRIBE (New Zealand)

Formed in 2002, Moana & the Tribe have played nearly 150 international concerts. The band presents a wild fusion of contemporary and home-grown music, dance, songs, poi-rhythms and movement. They usually sing about culture, identity, and spirituality in their songs. Moana & the Tribe are the contemporary voice of the Maori tradition, respectfully bringing their deep cultural roots into a new millennium.

OUDADEN (Morocco)

Oudaden, one of Morocco’s most famous groups of the last twenty years, draws its inspiration from traditional Amazigh music. The group is passionately devoted to its roots, which they update into a lively music that North African audiences love so much. Oudaden’s music is an innovative mix of traditional percussion combined with modern elements such as banjo, electric guitar and drums; and their lyrics often explore the intricacy of love as well as the economic and social difficulties of their region.

SOURCE: MSN Entertainment

Space trading game Eve Online has suffered a virtual version of the credit crunch.

One of the game’s biggest financial institutions lost a significant chunk of its deposits as a huge theft started a run on the bank.

One of the bank’s controllers stole about 200bn kredits and swapped them for real world cash of £3,115.

As news of the theft spread, many of the bank’s customers rushed to remove their virtual cash.

Space scandal

The theft from EBank took place in early June but only now have details emerged about the amount of money stolen and why it was taken.

The theft was carried out by EBank’s chief executive, a player known as Ricdic, now known to be a 27-year-old Australian who works in the technology industry. His full identity has not been revealed save that his first name is Richard.

The stolen kredits amounted to 8% of the 2.6tn that Ebank had in its virtual vaults.

“Basically this character was one of the people who had been running EBank for a while. He took a bunch of (virtual) money out of the bank, and traded it away for real money,” Ned Coker, of Icelandic company CCP which runs Eve, told the Reuters news agency.

Eve Online has about 300,000 players all of whom inhabit the same online universe. The game revolves around trade, mining asteroids and the efforts of different player-controlled corporations to take control of swathes of virtual space.

It has now emerged that Ricdic used the cash to put down a deposit on a house and to pay medical bills.

“I’m not proud of it at all, that’s why I didn’t brag about it,” Ricdic told Reuters. “But you know, if I had to do it again, I probably would’ve chosen the same path based on the same situation.”

Ricdic has now been thrown out of the game as trading in-game cash for real money is against Eve Online’s terms and conditions.

The rules governing play within Eve would not have sanctioned Ricdic if he had simply stolen the cash and used it in the game, nor if he had bought kredits with real dollars.

The scandal is not the first to play out in Eve Online. In early 2009 one of the game’s biggest corporations, called Band of Brothers, was brought down by industrial espionage.

SOURCE: BBC News

Johnny Depp “almost religiously” avoids watching himself on screen, the actor has revealed.

In an interview with Radio 4’s Front Row, the Sweeney Todd star said his children had watched more of his own films than he had.

“I prefer to walk away with the experience as opposed to walking away with the product,” he explained.

Depp is in London to promote new film Public Enemies, in which he plays the gangster John Dillinger.

Character

Depp said: “I’ve not seen the film, so I don’t know what it looks like.”

He added: “I like to portray a character, inhabit a character and build character, but I don’t want to watch the end result necessarily, because it becomes about money then and I’d rather not think about that.

“My children have seen more films of mine than I have. They’ve seen all of them within reason – many more than I have.

He added: “I have no plans to see them – any of them.”

Depp also said he does not even check his on-screen appearance during the shooting of a film.

“I wouldn’t dare watch a playback or rushes or anything like that,” he said.

SOURCE: BBC News

Genres: comedy, drama, romance, slice of life

Age rating: Older Children (May contain mild bad language, bloodless violence)

Plot Synopsis: Takemoto Yuuta, Mayama Takumi, and Morita Shinobu are college students who share the small apartment. Even though they live in poverty, the three of them are able to obtain pleasure through small things in life. The story follows these characters’ life stories as poor college students, as well as their love lives when a short but talented 18 year old girl called Hanamoto Hagumi appears.

# of episodes: 26

DVD Release Review and Synopsis

Synopsis

Second-year art student Yuuta Takemoto lives the typical college life: sleeping, eating, and dealing with troublesome apartment mates like eccentric Morita and ladies’ man Mayama. Life gets interesting when Hagumi Hanamoto, the gifted niece of Professor Shuuji Hanamoto, comes to school and surprises everyone with her talents (and unusually young appearance). Takemoto wants to make friends with her, but Morita always seems to make the first move; Hagu-chan, meanwhile, is afraid of the boys and prefers the company of pottery student Ayumi Yamada. Gradually they all warm up to each other, learning the ups and downs of college life and beyond.

Review

Was it ever supposed to get this good? Honey and Clover began life as the debut series for Fuji TV’s “Noitamina” (read it backwards) lineup, a new anime block aimed at older female audiences. The simple but daring plan worked—young women who would never normally watch anime got into it, and the manga now breaks the Top 10 sales list regularly, sitting alongside blockbuster titles like Prince of Tennis or Bleach. But even viewers outside the target demographic attest to its greatness, pointing out its heartfelt storytelling and unique visual style. It was supposed to be just good enough for sophisticated female viewers—and it ended up being good enough for everyone. Funnier than most comedies and more touching than most dramas (even the live-action ones), Honey and Clover has emerged as one of the best shows of 2005.

Like a true slice-of-life series, it begins right in the middle of things—Takemoto in his second year of college, Mayama nearing graduation, and Morita stuck in seventh-year hell. When Hagu-chan shows up, there’s hardly any “please welcome the new student” pomp; she simply joins the cast, and the drama-go-round begins. There is no epic quest to fulfill, no convoluted conspiracy to unlock, no childhood friend to win over—it’s just a bunch of college kids figuring out what to do with their lives, and it is fascinating. Every character gets a moment in the spotlight, with story arcs transiting flawlessly between each other. Even Takemoto, who spends most of the series as a neutral observer, closes things out with an inspiring personal triumph. The mood of the show switches effortlessly from madcap comedy to utter heartbreak and everything in between, yet nothing feels out of place. Within a single episode, a game of Art School Twister takes humor to new heights, and yet minutes later, Takemoto muses upon the meaning of friendship.

Like all good shoujo, Honey and Clover succeeds because of its characters’ complex personalities. Morita emerges as a quick fan favorite with his bizarre antics and affinity for money, but to focus on him is to miss out on the intricate relationships between everyone else. In particular, Ayumi’s unrequited attachment to Mayama is sure to arouse plenty of indignation about the portrayal of women in Japanese entertainment. But maybe that anger is because Ayumi openly reveals everything we hate about themselves: weakness, insecurity, and the tendency to do really stupid things in the name of love. She is the most human character in a cast of incredibly human characters.

Despite this realism on the emotional level, however, the artwork in the show is decidedly surreal and dreamlike. The character designs match the manga almost perfectly with big, expressive eyes, ultrathin lines, and characteristic hatch marks. Even the coloring style adheres to the comic; you may never again see an anime that looks like it was watercolored (there are a few exceptions, like SaiKano). The animation is equally adept, with moments of broad physical comedy being rendered just as smoothly as subtle scenes of close-up dialogue. And of course, no discussion of Honey and Clover is complete without the infamous “food” opening, where spinning plates of food behave in very un-foodlike ways. This 90-second homage to stop-motion auteur Jan Svankmajer is just the first of many artistic touches, proving that the animators—like the art students depicted in the series—treasure creativity above all else.

If music is the language of emotion, then few shows speak it as eloquently as this one. With just a few studio instruments, the soundtrack is able to express the gamut of emotions that each character runs through. The energetic opening theme by YUKI converts into a gentle piano solo, and even Morita’s bouts of insanity are accented by charming comedic themes. The most effective emotional tools, however, are the insert songs by singer-songwriter Suga Shikao and rock group SPITZ. Playing a poignant song over internal monologue is hardly a new thing, especially in angsty teen dramas, but to hear it used in an anime makes the technique fresh once more.

If Honey and Clover has any faults, it’s that you want it to keep going after it’s over. It ends just like it begins—right in the middle of things, with so much more yet to be experienced. Without realizing it, you’ve become part of that circle of friends: you’ve shared their heartbreaks and triumphs, walked alongside them as they poured out their feelings, and watched each one of them learn a little bit more about themselves. Whether in school or not, who hasn’t asked themselves at some point: “What do I want to do? Who do I want to be?” Honey and Clover may not have the answers, but it’s all about trying to find them.

Opening Music Video

SOURCE: Anime News Networks (ANN), Wikipedia

Genres: adventure, comedy, magic, romance

Themes: Magical girl

Number of episodes: 13

Plot Summary: Meet Louise, a budding magician. The students at the Tristein Academy call her “Zero Louise”, due to her current record of zero successes with magic. In fact, her magic tends to go spectacularly wrong. Now, as an important test of her aptitude for magic, she must summon a familiar to be her servant. At this critical moment, she summons up all her magic and wishes for a familiar that is “devoted, beautiful and powerful”, and gets… Hiraga Saito, an ordinary Japanese boy. It’s difficult to say who is more surprised and dismayed, but the rules don’t allow for second attempts. Louise is stuck with her strange familiar, and he with her.

DVD Release Synopsis

Louise is the terror of Tristein Academy’s school of magic. Not because of her temper or imperious manner—though she has a healthy surplus of both—but because her every attempt at magic explodes, blowing bystanders into the bleachers. When the time comes to summon her familiar, a sacred rite that will bond a magical creature to her for life, she is understandably nervous. Her worst fears are confirmed when she summons, not a powerful creature, but a normal teenaged boy. Rudely yanked from his simple existence in Japan, Hiraga Saito is naturally rather confused to find himself in a faraway world of sorcery and medieval intrigue, but he’s the flexible type, and he soon adapts. Louise, a member of the magic-wielding upper crust, initially treats the apparently powerless Saito as a lowly peasant, but as it becomes clear that there’s something extraordinary about him, the inevitable begins to happen. Though there will be much battling of thieves, washing of delicate undergarments, and brutal punishment for flirting with sweet-tempered maid Siesta before anything comes of it.

DVD Release Reviews

Sure, The Familiar of Zero’s premise is derived from a long line of shounen romances about everyday Joes who are suddenly bonded to magical girls. Sure, Louise is a classic tsundere and the supporting cast is populated with quirky comedic stereotypes. Yes, director Yoshiaki Iwasaki (whose record of helming harmless fluff goes all the way back to El Hazard 2) has a relentlessly light touch that undercuts the more serious developments. And yes, his visual instincts are so pedestrian that one can’t help but notice the limitations of J.C. Staff’s purely routine animation. But frankly, who cares? It’s been ages since a good-natured, mildly ecchi romance worth its salt hit the market, and while far from perfect, Zero is both suitably romantic and smart enough to dodge the serious pitfalls of its genre.

Iwasaki’s light, upbeat tone does make the intrigue and frequent battles seem oddly inconsequential, an impression exacerbated by his flat action staging, and it also robs the darker turns that the plot takes—including a couple of dastardly betrayals and one shockingly sudden death—of their impact. But the failure of the plot as an adventure is secondary to its success as a romance. With his sarcastic spunk and unapologetic interest in the opposite sex, Saito makes a good foil for the aggressive, prideful, and surprisingly sympathetic Louise, their rapport equal parts attraction, growing mutual respect, and violent personality clash. The series’ fantasy setting, though jokey, is fully integrated into the overall romance (Louise and Saito’s bond as Master and Familiar is central to their relationship) and even the obligatory love triangle is genuinely workable, with Siesta sharing a viable, and far less volatile, chemistry with Saito. And as the series progresses, the silly magical hijinks and comically abusive relationships give way to an appropriately romantic second half that, thanks to Louise’s ferocity and Saito’s matter-of-factness, never grows syrupy and isn’t afraid to let its characters commit.

Replicating the success of Rie Kugiyama’s unabashedly fetishistic Louise and Satoshi Hino’s blithely confident Saito is no easy task. Of the English leads, Cristina Valenzuela is the more fortunate, as Louise has Eiji Usatsuka’s blindingly cute design to fall back on. Valenzuela also has the good sense to tone down Louise’s wilder swings, creating a slightly more mature variation on the character. Saito, on the other hand, is hobbled with a sadly generic design, leaving him entirely dependent on his actor. And unfortunately Jonathan Meza makes the fatal mistake of playing him with a quavering loser edge, effectively destroying his unflappable charm. Iwasaki is a veteran of romantic comedies (part of the reason, no doubt, that his action direction is so poor), but the little jolts of poignancy he teases from Louise and Saito’s evolving relationship cannot survive a toned-down Louise and a dispiritingly limp Saito. Nicholas Manelick picks up some of the slack with his hilariously ham-handed take on womanizing self-aggrandizer Guiche, and most of the other supporting players are solid enough, but a romance drained of its chemistry is too sad a thing to be saved by humor.

Less crucial is Shinkichi Mitsumune’s score, which is far more remarkable for its ability to keep out of the way (even when running on all cylinders) than it is for its musical qualities. It’s the sonic equivalent of J.C. Staff’s generic fantasy-world settings: pleasant, and in some cases downright pretty, but hardly a draw unto itself.

With its strong male lead, adorably sadistic romantic interest and definite romantic progression, it’s little wonder that The Familiar of Zero spawned two sequels. Other than Kyoto Animation’s coolly stylish romances and the occasional harem tripe, fans of the male side of romance have had little to dig their teeth into of late, so Zero comes at an opportune time. It may lack the complexity and emotional depth of the best romances, but even if it isn’t as meaty as one would like, it’s tasty enough—and towards the end, surprisingly filling.

Opening Music

SOURCE: Anime News Network, Wikipedia