Love-sick shapeshifting fox Kitsune returns, with another plan to woo Shinobu.

This time the diminutive critter views a film (at the fox cinema) in which a fox turns a human woman into a fox for a night when she eats a magic nut. So Kitsune sets out to feed Shinobu the very same nut. However he’s forgotten where she lives. So he turns into Sakura to get Onsen-Mark to tell him the way to her house. Onsen-Mark is very drunk and very love-sick himself and actually thinks the tiny, fox-eared Sakura he sees before him is Sakura. He soon passes out though, and fter burying the unconscious Onsen-Mark under a pile of leaves, the dogs appear that were attacking him when Sakura saved him, and chase Kitsune. This time though, it is Kotatsu Neko makes the save, but Kitsune accidentally leaves his magic nuts behind.

TROUBLE.

As you may have guessed, if you’ve been following these episode write ups, these nuts are going end up eaten by everyone… Cunningly “disguised” as Shinobu, Kitsune gets Lum and Ataru to take him to Shinobu’s house claiming “I’ve forgotten where I live”. Shinobu is pleased to see Kitsune, but discovers he’s lost he nuts. It also becomes clear at this point that Kitsune can only talk to humans when disguised as one, as he turns into Lum and Ataru to tell them the fox as lost his nuts.

To Ataru’s surprise, even after learning that the nuts will turn her into a fox, Shinobu agrees to help look for them. However their search is in vain, until they run across Kotatsu Neko and Cherry making a stew… Everyone tucks in and soon, Shinobu, Lum, Ataru, Cherry and Kotatsu Neko have all turned into foxes and start floating away. Then as the smell of the stew spreads across Tomobiki everyone starts to grow fox ears & tails and start to frolic under the full moon.

Then we see Kitsune waking up in front of the cinema screen. Was it all a dream???

Another fantastic script from Michiru Shimada, who had also written Kitsune’s last appearance. Yuichi Endo also brings the same strong visuals, and what seems like the first time in ages the dream-like quality associated with the peak of the Oshii years.

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Screenplay: Michiru Shimada
Storyboard: Naoyuki Yoshinaga
Director: Naoyuki Yoshinaga
Animation Director: Yuichi Endo

Rumiko Takahashi amps up the confusion and Yuji Moriyama amps up the carnage.

This episode hinges around two main points. But first there is a manic chase.

What comedy anime shows nowadays are putting in such kinetic chase scenes? At least what I’m watching seems to depend more on dialogue and stage timing, rather than comedy that could only work as cartoons. Keroro? Shin-Chan? Is that it? Certainly doesn’t seem to be the shows that get talked about.

Anyway, once the chase is done, Asuka, Ataru and Mendou are put in chains for their own safety and we can get on with the episode’s plot.

The first point is Asuka’s confusion about men in general. While she eventually learns to not be afraid of her brother, that in turn leads to Ataru, Mendou and Lum worrying that she has a brother-complex. Which she sort of does, but it’s borne more out of ignorance than actual love. Her entire understanding of relationships and gender are reliant on what other people tell her. Which is hard when her initial reference point for men is Ataru Moroboshi.

The second point is that Ryoko decides to declare war on the Mizunokoji estate in order to end her brother’s engagment (in the hope she’ll be engaged to Ton-chan), bringing with her the deadly secret weapon – Octopussy (this is something added to the anime). This leads to a massive battle, and lots of stuff blowing up real good. Finally Ryoko unleashes Octopussy, which turns out to be a BGC-style power armour. Without the bonus of actually working well.

This all ends with everything blowing up, and Ryoko pulling her brother from the rubble. The punchline is that when Asuka hears Ryoko call Mendou “big brother”, she suddenly stops being afraid of him – after all he’s a big brother just like Tobimaro!

While I’m preferring Toshiki Inoue’s scripts, both this and the previous episode benefit from the strong visuals of Moriyama and Dokite.

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Screenplay: Shigeru Yanagawa
Storyboard: Yuji Moriyama
Director: Iku Suzuki
Animation Director: Yuji Moriyama

This is perhaps the first plot that really approaches the complexities of some of the Ranma 1/2 plots. I don’t mean complex as in deep, I mean in the terms of comically unnecessary twists and turns. Which is why it takes two episodes to handle.

In this episode we are introduced to  Tobimaro’s sister, Asuka Mizunokoji.

Here’s the complexities:

1) Mendou’s dad wants him to get engaged to Asuka
2) Ryoko wants to get engaged to Tobimaro instead.
3) Ataru is perfectly willing to take Mendou’s place.
4) Tobimaro was completely unaware he had a sister.
5) This is because Asuka has been raised away from men since birth, with the intent of getting her engaged when she turned 16.
6) She is also super strong.

Unfortunately for Asuka, the first man she lays eyes on is Ataru Moroboshi, which gives her a dismal view of men and mortally afraid of them. This leads her to want to wear her armour all the time to protect herself from men. Despite Ataru, Lum and Shinobu’s attempts to prevent the engagement, Mendou is dragged by his father to meet Asuka. And then Ataru shows up in drag, leading to Asuka going on the rampage and a manic chase through the Mizunokoji’s estate (makes a change from the Mendou estate). At the end of the episode Asuka’s armour flies off when Lum inadvertantly electrocutes her…

TO BE CONTINUED!

Lots and lots of running and destruction, two things that Tsukasa Dokite does excellently.

Asuka is voiced by Sumi Shimamoto, whose more famous roles include Nausicaa in Nausicaa, Kyoko Otonashi in Maison Ikkoku, Ginrei in Giant Robo. She was also the Japanese dub voice for Carrie Fisher in the Star Wars films.

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Screenplay: Shigeru Yanagawa
Storyboard: Iku Suzuki
Director: Iku Suzuki
Animation Director: Tsukasa Dokite

Once again Ryoko is portrayed as a having an interest in the supernatural. Not sure if this is a permanent shift in how she’s presented or if she returns to a straight mischievous portrayal later. This time round she makes a voodoo doll of her brother, and not trusting herself with it she decides to give it to someone she can trust to look after it (after using it to throw Mendou around a bit first).

That person is Ataru Moroboshi.

The twist that Takahashi throws in is that Ryoko doesn’t tell Ataru what it is, merely that he’s to look after it. As it’s Ryoko who’s asked him to do something, he actually does it, tying it round his neck and wearing it under his shirt. This leads to Mendou suffering all the ignominies that Ataru befalls the next day, such as being hit by Shinobu and electrocuted by Lum. Oh and being kissed by Ataru when Ataru kisses the doll thinking it’s a good luck charm.

Realising the situation and what Ataru would do if he learnt that he had a voodoo doll of him, Mendou dedicates himself to acting as Ataru’s protector the rest of the school day. Here the animation really comes into its own, escalating the tasks Mendou has to do to crazy levels not seen in the manga. And inserting all sorts scenes of the pair gazing longingly into one another’s eyes. It’s not until he’s been trampled by elephants that Mendou snaps and demands the doll.

Which of course leads to Ataru, who up to this point had been admiring Mendou for his heroism in saving him, nailing the doll to a tree!

Another solid episode, and Toshiki Inoue continues to show their skill at expanding a manga chapter to TV episode length. There’s also some flashy animation filling those gaps too. An sci-fi film parody that Mendou is watching on TV early in the episode and a baseball game both have some fun stuff in them.

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Screenplay: Toshiki Inoue
Storyboard: Kazuo Yamazaki
Director: Naoyuki Yoshinaga
Animation Director: Yuichi Endo

I watched this as a dub so I didn’t have to pay it that much attention.

Another show that touches on the magical realism current that’s run through 21st Century anime, but ultimately decides on being some kind of “steampunk”-ish action show. The three episodes basically exist to give you three big fights involving men in armour shooting at giant mutated demonic lumps of flesh. Which is good, because that it is all it really has going for it. The rest is a lot of dull people talking dully about sins and redemption.

The magical realism element is thrown out after the first episode’s exposition of how the world works and a doctor’s subsequent transformation into a demon. A teacher similarly mutates off screen in the second episode (not that you know as Manga have turned the three eps into a “film”). What was a teacher using magic in school for? And was he similarly wearing the armour that was supposed to stop it happening? Sadly such implications are not dealt with, as the remaining two thirds of the show mainly deals with people having flashbacks and getting upset about it, before dispatching the bad guys in remarkably short time, so the two heroes can fight to the death.

As a slice of a larger series of novels it does a better job than most, with the story all tying up neatly, but leaving future adventures open to sell the books. But it isn’t half dull when it’s not concerning itself with being violent.

http://www.crunchyroll.com/media-530250/chis-sweet-home-chis-new-address-43/

While this, and moreover the following episode, veers a little closer to anthropomorphising the cats more than it usually does in order to gently satirise the Japanese reverence of the elderly, there’s some nice work here. The actual feline reverence of the senior cat seems fairly realistic, given the neighbourhood cats’ reaction my own late cat’s passing.

But what I really liked was the fact that one of the things Tama admires Fuji for, the idea that he has seven different homes. Having had various neighbours’ cats try and treat me like their owner, it struck me as a realistic dream for a cat to hold.

In my continuing effort to create single idea tumblr’s that I never get round to updating, I have a new one.

DYNAMIC SIDEBURNS – a blog about the characters from Go Nagai/Dynamic Productions who have a certain, similar, look. It might reappear as a proper post some day. But in the meantime a tumblr’s a good place to dump ideas.

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For those of you keeping track, here are my other tumblrs.

BELL DEM SLAGS
animngland
LOLcosplay
TO WHACK ARMOUR TYPE ZERO
The Noun Who Verbed

Than the theme tune to Machine Robo Battle Hackers (1987)?

BONUS:

More early anime rapping in the ending theme to 1992’s Super Zugan (an early foray into late night anime). Like the BBC’s Porridge, it had no opening theme tune.

Kind of too busy to Urusei Yatsura it up this week, so light posting until the weekend I think. Starting with this song from Garfunkel and Oates.