Shelf Life

The Departed

In all seriousness, this box is where the bones of the plot are picked clean by so many filler arc vultures. It reminded me of driving through Detroit in the late 1990s on highways so worn down that the steel grid of the road was showing through; you're just not supposed to see that inner structure. At the end of the last set, we were introduced to Bulma's son Trunks, who traveled back in time to stop Dr. Gero's evil androids from destroying the world. In this set, events begin to unfold in a way that Trunks doesn't remember, meaning that he has succeeded in changing the time stream.

Unfortunately, this means that the plot has to stop dead for at least one episode as the characters discuss parallel universes. Not that there's so much plot to stop at this point. For God's sake! The story is so extended that the androids have enough time to steal a truck and drive around having aimless skirmishes. There's no way this happened in the manga.

Eventually things become so convoluted that a second time machine is introduced. Note to amateur writers: if your time travel plot is so screwed up you have to start introducing multiple time machines, you're probably doing it wrong (unless you're writing for The Brak Show). But whatever, fine, I can believe the second time machine. More alarming than that, baby Trunks meets his adult self and plays with his own hair and there are no time crisis consequences whatsoever. What the hell?!

This set introduces Cell, and tells the unlikely tale of his creation. I guess I missed a few of these episodes on Cartoon Network because I didn't know Cell was genetically created from cells taken from Frieza, Goku, Piccolo, et al. There is a certain wonderful logic to this. Shonen Power Creep dictates that Goku must continue to fight ever more powerful villains. Short of a straight up clone of Goku, Cell is the next logical opponent.

And that's fine, that's very creative of Toriyama. However, I couldn't suspend my disbelief when Cell stopped fighting Trunks in order to declare that he's going to hold another World Martial Arts Tournament. Really? Really!? It's as if Cell is acknowledging that Dragonball was the best back during season four of the original series, and why can't we go back to those days? It's totally ridiculous. But then again, I can't imagine anyone, including me, watching Dragonball because it's so plausible.

In case you're confused by the crazy parallel time stream, it's all explained in a handy chart included in the lovely hardcover book that comes with this set. I don't think I've mentioned it in my Dragon Box reviews up to this point, but these discs default to the Japanese audio, which is a rarity among dubbed releases. Also, the discs are arranged in the boxes from right to left, Japanese style, so I accidentally started watching them out of order.[TOP]

Here's the plot: dead people are allowed to write a letter (or two) expressing their true feelings shortly after death. This mysterious handwritten letter is then delivered to a recipient of one's choice via a magical girl mail carrier. This series follows Fumika, one such sullen little letter carrier, and her talkative magic staff (called an Aaron) as they deliver letters to unlucky and often unwilling recipients. It's a little like getting served.

The action doesn't follow Fumika as much as it does the letter recipients (deliverees?). With this type of framing device, it can be hard to get attached to one-episode-only characters, sort of like in Golgo 13. As if the show anticipated this problem, many of the recipients in Fumika's delivery zone have things in common, so characters are connected across episodes in a way that feels pleasantly coincidental (like in a more casual Tokyo Godfathers sort of way). After the first third of the series, we learn a little more about Fumika's personal story. Eventually we meet Kanaka, who is another much more talkative magic postal worker, as well as a small set of persistent characters who carry us through to the end of this short series.

Structurally, it's interesting enough. My problem with Shigofumi is the sudden shifts in tone. The first half of the series deals with ripped-from-the-headlines social problems like teen suicide and school shootings (or more specifically school hostage crises). Then we jump from ABC After School Special territory into anime-land. Damnit if there's not a hot springs episode (even the talking staffs get to bathe). Besides, Fumika looks like a magical girl! Every time she shows up it's a little weird, as if the "real" tooth fairy popped up in the original Degrassi Junior High . The episodes dealing with Fumika's past seem like something that only happen in manga or light novels. Without mentioning spoilers, her father is an larger-than-life crazy bishonen guy.

Everything comes together in the end in a satisfying way, but because all the loose ends are tied up, and all our questions are answered, I don't think this is worth watching twice. It's like a jigsaw puzzle. Once you've solved it, are you going to bust it up and put it back the box? Or is it worth gluing together and framing? You know that kind of cheesy crap just collects dust and ends up in garage sales. Shigofumi is just going to collect dust on your shelf.

There is no dub, but there are some extras. One of the two discs includes a series of audio-only shorts set over still images. It seemed like it might be from a drama CD or something.[TOP]