View Full Version : Himitsu - The Top Secret, new TV-anime 2008 spring season
Just before the year closes, the top anime new just arrives, totally out of the blue. Yes, that was the sound of my head exploding you just heard!
Himitsu - Top Secret is a manga, written by Reiko Shimizu (Moon Child, Kaguya Hime etc) and serialized in the josei manga magazine Melody, from Hakusensha (Hana to Yume publisher). Its home to authors like Minami Narita (author of Cipher) and Fumi Yoshinaga (Oo oku), etc, as well as the fan favourite Ppoi!
Himitsu is a Sci-Fi / horror manga, as well as a police/detective story. In the near future, a way to access information in the human brain post mortem was discovered, which revolutionized the police work. Everything a person sees up to 5 years prior to death can now be accessed and transfered to a screen, so that the police can see exactly the same thing the dead person saw. This is now used in order to solve old, unsolved crimes, as well as a way to solve recent crimes (looking through a dead victim's memory in order to catch a glimse of the killer, etc).
The series deals both with the moral aspect of this intrusion of a person's private life even post mortem, but most of all with the people working at the part of the Police where this kind of work is conducted. Not all can handle looking through the mind of a killer.
So far, 4 complete mysteries has been published (4th volume to be published early next year), and so far they have all completely rocked! I'm pretty sure the anime will be toned down considerably from the manga, that can be pretty gory and graphic in its violence, but the phsychological horror is what makes this manga such a great story, so even with less gore, it could still be great.
Some links of interest:
ANN news piece (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-12-28/himitsu-top-secret-manga-gets-tv-anime-in-spring)
Hakusensha announcement (http://www.hakusensha.co.jp/melody/img/ml0804big.jpg)
Manga homepage (http://www.hakusensha.co.jp/himitsu/index.html)
New: NTV's anime homepage (http://www.ntv.co.jp/secret/)
Update: The animation will be done by Madhouse.
Update 2: There will probably be 26 episodes in all. Waiting for confirmation.
Himitsu is a Sci-Fi / horror manga, as well as a police/detective story. In the near future, a way to access information in the human brain post mortem was discovered, which revolutionized the police work. Everything a person sees up to 5 years prior to death can now be accessed and transfered to a screen, so that the police can see exactly the same thing the dead person saw. This is now used in order to solve old, unsolved crimes, as well as a way to solve recent crimes (looking through a dead victim's memory in order to catch a glimse of the killer, etc).
Wow, that actually sounds really interesting.
It IS good! Reiko Shimizu made a genious decision, when she decided to write every volume of the manga as a single case. If the anime is only slightly as good as the manga, it will be a blast.
My guess is that this will be a 12 or 13 episodes long TV-series, depending on whether they will do the prequel story or not. The prequel was a story about when the new brain scanning device was first put to use, on the (fictive) president of the US. This story was written a long time before the actual main story, so they might skip it, since the main characers aren't present. But it could also serve as a great introduction to the series concept.
But every volume of manga probably needs at least 3 episodes each, in order to fully capture the mysteries.
I'm practically dying to find out the voice actors now! There has never been any voice drama released to this manga, seing as it is a josei manga, and not BL either.
Westlo
12-28-2007, 04:41 PM
Looks interesting, another Spring series to look forward to. I'll probably check out a volume of the manga sometime soon.
musouka
12-28-2007, 04:42 PM
I am absolutely thrilled about this! It pretty much shot up to number one on my most anticipated list.
I can finally cross another shoujo mangaka off my list that I was desperate to see animated. (Now, please give me a Barbara Ikai anime one of these days and I can die happy!)
The only thing I'm worried about is the character designs. Shimizu's work is so beautiful with all its thin lines and subtle coloring. I would hate to see that butchered.
Busaiku
12-28-2007, 04:58 PM
Well, it's caught my interest.
I'm not well-versed with Ms. Shimizu's other works, so I don't really know what to expect, but I remain optimistic.
Helschadenfreude
12-29-2007, 01:56 PM
woot! I thought the 2nd and 3rd volumes were on the same case.. no matter.. I'm just so excited I have new adaptations that I actually want to watch.
While there has yet to be an official announcement, I did find out that a drama-CD was released for Himitsu - The Top Secret in 2005, as a send in service (not for general sales). The possibility for at least some of the actors being kept for the TV-anime is at least not zero. :)
Tsuyoshi Maki: Kishou Taniyama
Ikkou Aoki: Tokuyoshi Kawashima
Okabe: Banjou Ginga
Koike: Takahiro Yoshino
Imai: Hiroshi Shirokuma
Gundamhead
01-06-2008, 12:29 PM
Sounds great. I'll be interested to see where this goes.
Hakusensha updated and added a homepage for the manga (http://www.hakusensha.co.jp/himitsu/index.html). It presents the cases completed so far, and the forthcoming volume 4. You can see a few headshots of the manga characters, but so far no anime art visible. One of the links on the frontpage (under the colour picture of the main characters), leads to a preview page for the first manga volume (the prequel chapter).
Update: Madhouse will do the animation, according to this article (http://anime.goo.ne.jp/contents/news/NAN20080129_81/index.html) (jp)
musouka
01-29-2008, 11:18 AM
Hakusensha updated and added a homepage for the manga (http://www.hakusensha.co.jp/himitsu/index.html). It presents the cases completed so far, and the forthcoming volume 4. You can see a few headshots of the manga characters, but so far no anime art visible. One of the links on the frontpage (under the colour picture of the main characters), leads to a preview page for the first manga volume (the prequel chapter).
Mmm, flashing text. How very...geocities. :P
Busaiku
01-29-2008, 07:44 PM
I was pretty much swayed, but Madhouse just takes it even further.
I'm definitely game now.
Westlo
01-30-2008, 07:02 AM
Madhouse = sold.
Don't get me wrong I'm happy Madhouse are doing it but I'll be even more happy if I know they're also only working on only 2 more shows that season. Because as last Spring season showed (5 shows), the quality of their work suffers when they take on too much.
It seems that along with Himitsu that Madhouse are doing Kamen no Maid Guy as well as Allison to Lillia.
Hielostar
01-30-2008, 08:30 AM
Sounds quite intriguing. I'll have to keep an eye out for this.
I've started rereading the manga because of this, and it's as great as I remember it. I wonder if the anime can really do justice to it? I'm hoping for 3-4 episodes/case, depending on which case it is. The first one is shorter than the other 3 published so far. It might be told in only 2 eps.
NTV has put up a homepage for the anime which is now called Himitsu Top Secret - The revelation. Link (http://www.ntv.co.jp/secret/)
Words can't express how sad I am to see Reiko Shimizu's wonderful, characteristic art butchered like this, but I hope it will look better in the actual anime. Still, there's a couple of really heavy names on the voice actor side, so I hope that this project will get high priority from Madhouse.
Voice actors:
Maki: Tomokazu Seki
Ikkou Aoki: Daisuke Namikawa
Nanako Amachi: Ai Nonaka
Other info:
Director: Hiroshi Aoyama
Music: Yoshihisa Hirano
Character Design: Kyuma Oshita
Art director: Tomoyuki Shimizu
Sound director: Yasunori Honda
Animation by: Madhouse
Opening song: Kokoro Film by ALvino
Ending song: Kemuri by Makichangu
Considering what Madhouse is capable of, with any luck it will look better when it's actually in motion.
musouka
02-28-2008, 01:19 PM
Words can't express how sad I am to see Reiko Shimizu's wonderful, characteristic art butchered like this
W-what did they do to Maki?! I mean, I knew the designs were going to be difficult to carry over, but they look so generic...
I agree. I hope they look better in motion.
It sure will take time to get used to the new look. I knew the possibility of a redesign of the characters was high, but after seing how faithful Vampire Knight looked compared to it's manga, I sort of started to hope...
Westlo
02-28-2008, 11:13 PM
Tomokazu Seki just made me push this from maybe to yes.
Andrew Cunningham
02-29-2008, 12:08 AM
Yikes, Madhouse is really not pulling off a lot of victories this spring.
Comparing the manga covers to that is really...it's like they tried to draw the same thing, and got all the bits in the right place and the proportions basically right but totally fucked up the spirit of it.
There's a really fierce strength in the eyes on the manga covers - I read no josei or shojo manga, and never went to that section of the bookstore when I lived in Japan, and I still recognized it instantly (or at least her style) when I went to look. Makes and impression.
Would never have recognized her art from the anime designs.
roastedpekingduck
02-29-2008, 12:45 AM
I was really interested in the premise of Himitzu (always a sucker for stuff that deals with memory, technology, and morality) and the blandness of the designs means I'll likely opt for the manga and save myself some time. However, Spice and Wolf turned out decently, despite its rather generic designs and subpar production values due to the quality of its adaptive screenplay, so I'm not completely writing this out yet.
Yikes, Madhouse is really not pulling off a lot of victories this spring.
Comparing the manga covers to that is really...it's like they tried to draw the same thing, and got all the bits in the right place and the proportions basically right but totally fucked up the spirit of it.
There's a really fierce strength in the eyes on the manga covers - I read no josei or shojo manga, and never went to that section of the bookstore when I lived in Japan, and I still recognized it instantly (or at least her style) when I went to look. Makes and impression.
Would never have recognized her art from the anime designs.
You said it better than I could have. That's pretty much how I feel about it as well. Itazura na Kiss seems to have the same problem as well. If you compare the manga and anime art previews, you can see who is who, and how everything is included, but on the whole there is just something missing (the "feeling" of the original manga). Alison and Lilia seems to have the same problem. I just cross my fingers and hope that I'll enjoy the anime so much I'll just forget about it. :sd: The art piece on the Himitsu homepage looks really well done, so it still feels very promising.
I've found mentions in two blogs that the "obi" (wrap-around paper on the published book that's used for advertising) mentions that the anime will be 2 seasons (kuuru). This probably means 13 episodes x2, so 26 episodes if we're lucky!
The anime HP has been launched. You can see 4 character designs and a new picture of the lead characters.
http://www.ntv.co.jp/secret/
The first episode will be named: Nou wo Tabi Suru Otoko. Rough translation: The man who travels through brains.
Well I took a look at Himitsu while browsing around, since the premise original reminded me of Minority Report and really liked what I saw. From episode one we're put in the shoes of Aoki, a new member of section nine(*snicker*) who can read lips. He gets the usual low down from two female members(one whose pretty clumsy) and is told to speak to the director. Of course hes not at his desk but Aoki finds Maki asleep on the couch wearing a bullet proof jacket holding a bible. It's explained later on that Maki is haunted by what he sees, well I guess it'll do that to ya.
I don't know about you but Maki looks decently feminine, still hes an interesting character. So apparently Maki has a gun in the hollowed out book as it seems like hes decently mentally disturbed by his past experiences. Aoki pals around with another member of Section nine(ugh I forgot his name) as they go to retrieve the brain of a murdered mother but the husband steals it so that no one can see his wifes memories. It's an interesting moral and social issue in regards to going through someones secrets and inner thoughts to do the greater good. But we learn that the lady, the murderer, and the husband all knew each other when they were students and the wife went out with the murder for a decent bit of time.
Wife and murderer had a fight way back when, husband picked up her, they got married and had a daughter. While Maki, Aoki, and the gang are going through her brain, they find memories that shes held for years of the murderer and her enjoying some time, I assume it was when she was married and couldn't let him go or she just kept them before the guy "vanished". So anyway the guy stalks her, comes to her house and tries to get her to come with him, "it's her last chance", etc. etc.
They finally catch the guy at the end after going through the wifes brain and the husband tells the daughter everything. A poingant moment at the end is when Aoki notices the wife in the murder's sunglasses when shes talking to him at the house and he reads her lips as saying "I want to forget about you, I love my love husband and daughter". That makes it incredibly sad and even though she remembered the guy, she really loved her daughter and husband.
Overall it was an interesting show with appealing designs, good music, and a nice bit of suspense thrown in. In the last couple minutes I really wanted to know what the wife said and they hit you in the gut with it at the end. I can see the toll this will take on Aoki now and I'm sure we'll learn more about Maki's past. Episode two looks good as Maki is kissing someone and Aoki has a girl in the shower while he stands there dumbfounded. For a show like this I really enjoyed, almost a Minority Report meets Law and Order.
The only thing I worry about is that it might make me jaded if they all follow the first episode heh.
After a more than shaky start, the anime manages to adapt a whole passage from the manga almost completely faithfully. The order of things have been changed, as this is material from volume 2, while the main case from volume 1 is still missing in action (probably being saved for episode 12-13).
Anyways, the Kinuko story was well portrayed, and Aoki's relationship with his dad was well depicted. The next episode will once again have original material, but since the 4th episode was a lot better than the first one (which were both original stories written for the anime), I feel a lot more hopeful than before.
The music is also being used more wisely in later episodes. It was really distracting in the beginning, but now it almost didn't bother me at all.
For those of you who give this anime a try, don't stop at the first episode. I recommend watching episode 2 to 3 (despite the butchering of the manga and a slight change of story focus in this one) and 5 to 6 in order to get a feel for the real strength of Reiko Shimizu's brilliance. Of course, the best stuff has yet to be animated.
mrsparklenoodle
05-14-2008, 03:19 PM
I've seen one episode of the show, I was not super into it, but based on what's been said about the later episodes being very good, I'm going to give it another try. I haven't read the manga, but I have started reading Reiko Shimizu's Moon Child, which I'm finding to be utterly excellent, as good as the Please Save My Earth OVA for psychic powers, character interaction and beautiful artwork all in one.
I haven't read the manga, but I have started reading Reiko Shimizu's Moon Child, which I'm finding to be utterly excellent, as good as the Please Save My Earth OVA for psychic powers, character interaction and beautiful artwork all in one.
It feels like the anime producers are trying to fix the mess they made of the beginning of the show. But there's a time-lag, since the episodes are being worked on in advance. I noticed that it felt more like the original Himitsu by episode 4-5, and it'll probably get better from now on.
Still, the original Himitsu manga is far superior to the anime. If it was available in English, I'd recommend you reading the manga instead.
mrsparklenoodle
05-16-2008, 05:58 PM
Sadly, I don't speak Japanese, if I did I'd read the manga, but Moon Child is the only Reiko Shimizu work available in English, hence why I'm reading that instead, though I'm rather glad I discovered it anyway.
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