Tactics

Original Title: タクティクス
Romanized: tactics
Literal:

Plot Synopsis

Kantaro Ichinomiya has two unusual jobs: He writes about folklore and mysterious tales of the occult to pay the bills, but on the side he is a skilled solver of supernatural situations. With the ability to sense things that others can't, he can seek out the root of mysterious situations of all sorts, but he's also quite friendly with a number of supernatural beings, and wishes the average person would treat them with the respect they deserve. To this end, he has long sought out the famed Demon Eating Goblin--strongest of them all--for whom he's already prepared a name: Haruka.

This good-natured 19th-century ghostbuster doesn't work alone--there is Yohko, a fox spirit in human form bound to serve him (begrudgingly, especially when he fails to bring home enough money to put food on the table); and as time passes he adds the enigmatic Haruka, the well-bred but naive little Suzu, and on occasion the rather quirky White Goblin Sugino and his "interesting" wife, Muu-chan.

What adventures await, and what is the truth behind Haruka's power and his relationship to Kantaro?

Quick Review

Rating: 3 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2005-06-15

Tactics offers a mild-shoujo take on traditional Japanese supernatural suspense injected with a shot of anime humor and wrapped in attractively rendered 19th century locales. Given the subject matter, it is a refreshingly upbeat series--it manages to serve up a variety of short character-driven vignettes without bogging down in melodrama. Unfortunately, while it puts an interesting focus on introducing a variety of one-shot characters the episodic stories are too short to develop any depth and the plots and characters are simplistic. It almost compensates for this with a wide variety of beautiful backgrounds, full of richly painted hues, architectural detail, and stark mood lighting. Sadly, that's where the entirety of the budget went, leaving none for the animation and barely enough to keep the character art from looking flat and out of place against the backdrops.

In all, Tactics looks to be an interesting formula with a lot of potential held in check by budget and adherence to anime cliche. It doesn't exhibit enough quality or creativity to stand out from the crowd, but it's attractive and offers a refreshing alternative to the unrelenting tragedy and gloom of many similar series. I'll be interested in seeing how it develops.

US DVD Review

Manga's DVDs (or at least the first of the series) are all-around solid presentations. The video is presented in anamorphic widescreen, with rich colors, sharp lines, and almost no compression artifacts outside a couple of brief shots with very noisy backgrounds. They include Dolby 5.1 and 2.0 soundtracks in both English and Japanese, all of which are crisp. The stereo tracks make good use of the soundstage, but the 5.1 tracks don't take advantage of all those extra speakers. The subtitles offer a proper translation.

The first disc offers an impressive selection of extras--in addition to the standard textless opening and ending animation, an art gallery, and a couple of Japanese commercials, there is a lengthy, rather casual interview with the two male leads, Kouki Miyata and Takahiro Sakurai (Kantaro and Haruka). The female target audience is more apparent here; the first part offers some superficial commentary on the series, but for the most part it's just personal background on the actors, with a Valentine's Day theme no less.

Content Guide

As of the first volume, there is little outright objectionable material, but generally mature themes and some light violence make it at least 10-up, probably 13-up depending on parental lenience.

Violence: 2 - The monsters can get a little rough, but it's largely bloodless.

Nudity: 0 - None as of the early part of the series.

Sex/Mature Themes: 2 - There are semi-symbolic sexual gestures and one episode takes place in a red light district, but the mature themes are mostly implied.

Language: 1 - No notably objectionable language.

Notes and Trivia

Tactics (actually, it's technically "tactics" with no capital) is based on a comic series written by Sakura Kinoshita and illustrated by Kazuko Higashiyama. It's available in English from AD Vision.

While Manga's translation is generally quite accurate, they did gloss over one joke; the names Kantaro gives the supernatural creatures he adds to his entourage are rather simplistic word plays. Yohko complains about the name he gave her because of it's origin--"youkai," the word for "supernatural creature," which she is. Haruka's name similarly comes from his being "by far the strongest" ("haruka ni tsuyoi").

One thing the translation doesn't address are "Tengu"--translated rather broadly as "goblin," Tengu are a mythical race of supernatural birdlike creatures very common in Japanese mythology. They are often depicted as human-like crows, usually wearing geta shoes and the garb of monks (which, true to form, Haruka has on when he first appears).

On an unrelated note, it's interesting that Kantaro's high-pitched Japanese voice isn't a fabrication or the result of a woman playing a male role--his voice actor sounds exactly the same in the interview included on the DVD.

Tactics has an odd pedigree: While it appears from the basic style to be targeted at a relatively young female audience, its 1:30 am airtime on TV Tokyo pretty much squarely pegged it as a show intended for hardcore anime fans, which may explain the colorful setting and attention to artistic detail.

TV Tokyo has the official Japanese website for those interested.

Availability

Available on hybrid DVD from Manga Video, with the first volume scheduled for release June 27, 2006.

Preorder from RightStuf. (They also carry Volume 1 Volume 2 of the manga.)

Looking to buy? Try these stores: RightStuf (search) | AnimeNation | Akemi's a(nime)Store