Oddly this 1995 film is in Funimation’s second boxset, rather than the first, throwing out the chronology of the releases.

The first thing you notice is how much this theatrical feature benefits from Telecom weighing on the animation (with some Ghibli help apparently). Visually the film is a heck of a lot of fun and notches above the TV specials I’ve discussed so far. Where the last two have been dark and shadowy, this pops with colour and light. The grand destruction unleashed in the finale has a sense of scale that really makes it feel cinematic, not to mention possibly impossible to achieve in live action.

The story is some hokum about Nostradamus’s lost prophecies that is in the possession of a potential US Presidential candidate and is the target of both Lupin and a Nostradamus cult. It’s light and just there really to hang a series of set pieces to. Oddly it has three directors, including live action director Shunya Ito, despite that it doesn’t seem to suffer from it.

One quick note, before I get onto my arbitary criteria allow me to get all AnimeOnDVD (or whatever they are called nowadays). This is a letterboxed print, rather than anamorphic widescreen. Boo. And while it looks lighter than the previous two films I’ve reviewed, it could still look a hell of lot better. If I hadn’t paid so little for these sets I’d be more annoyed.

How much do the characters look like the animators might have seen a Monkey Punch drawing at some point in their lives?

Unsurprisingly they characters look pretty good, looking close to the classic second series designs. While far better animated than Dragon of Doom, they don’t quite play up the broad shouldered, gangly limbed Monkey Punch look in the way that film did. However the overall style is much more consistent throughout.

How ludicrous are the capers?

Oh this is pretty glorious. The credit sequence car chase has some great visual gags, then we get an archetypal Lupin prank on Zenigata, before a sequence on-board a plane that ends in Zenigata’s hilariously destructive bomb disposal techniques. All before we find ourselves in a sci-fi wonderland of a building for the plot proper. From there we are on island prisons, the Amazon, before returning to sci-fi tower for a finale that starts with the Brazilian football team being hypnotised to kick bombs hidden in footballs all over the building, and then gets more outlandish.

How much is Goemon involved in the story, rather than just a third act deus ex machina?

30 minutes in, Goemon has appeared for about 1 minute. He then meets the rest of the gang to help out, but outside of he and Jigen getting to be badass against the soldiers working for the Nostradamus Cult, he’s set dressing for much of this. They do avoid him showing up in the nick of time to save everyone else though.

Yasuo Yamada’s final outing as Lupin is fairly strong as these 90s specials go. The plot is goes all over the place, involving the Titanic, ninjas, Goemon’s clan secrets and the Triads. And it all culminates one of the most ludicrous, physics defying pieces of swordplay ever put to film.

Watching it this second time around was more enjoyable, as the ninja magic nonsense throughout doesn’t seem so much as an annoyingly cheap plot device and you can relax and enjoy the hokum for what it is.

How much do the characters look like the animators might have seen a Monkey Punch drawing at some point in their lives?

Dragon of Doom isn’t as wildly all over the place as Voyage To Danger was. And it doesn’t have the same problem with noses. Lupin has some nice mouth expressions. Jigen looks good (though he seems to be the easiest to get right). The opening fight with Goemon and the ninjas is great, with the lead ninja (and the Kabuki performers) have some nice Monkey Punch-like proportions. Goemon looks great, sleek, almost an extension of Zantetsuken. Zenigata, like Jigen, is nigh impossible to get wrong. The villain looks a lot like one of Monkey Punch’s stereotypical froglike Triad bosses. And even Fujiko is recognisable as herself. The only thing letting the side down is female lead character, Kikyou, who looks like she belongs in another film.

How ludicrous are the capers?

We start in Japan. In the opening sequence an entire building is sliced apart. Then we go to Paris, just to use a computer! Then we go to Hong Kong. To a fancy dress party. The plot involves the Titanic, the Triads AND ninjas. Exploding top hats, biplanes, deep sea diving, giant escape pedalos and and the physics blasphemy involved in the final mid air battle all add up to an over the top story.

How much is Goemon involved in the story, rather than just a third act deus ex machina?

This is a Goemon-centric film, but despite that all the other characters get a decent look-in too. It should be noted that the superior First Contact special borrows some elements of Goemon’s story here.

Getter Robo Go:

Cutey Honey F

Devilman Lady

Maō Dante

Robonimal Panda-Z: The Robonimation

A bit of a stretch with this one, what with it being Shuichi Oshida’s creation. ANN have Nagai with original concept credit. A courtesy/legal necessity?

Gaiking: Legend of Daikū Maryū

This is another stretch, being that this revamp bears little resemblence to the original, beyond the titular mecha.

Kotetsushin Jeeg

—

And I think that’s your lot for TV outings for Go Nagai creations. Well until Z Mazinger surfaces.

Let me know if I’ve missed any TV shows out.

Not the greatest of these, but it’s two of my favourite series mashed up.

via SWFBLOG

Psycho Armour Govarian

Is this another show that was shown in Spain or Portugal? Those robots look vaguely familiar to me.

God Mazinger

Note the sudden switch to a typical Eighties theme, rather than the rockingest marches ever written by man. I blame Macross.

Bio Armour Jushin Liger

Probably familiar to those who follow New Japan Wrestling.

—

I think that’s all the 80s TV anime. I’ve seen some places claim Cybot Robotchi, but I think that’s an Ken Ishikawa creation with Toyohiro Ando rather than with Go Nagai.

Devil Man:

Mazinger Z:

Cutie Honey:

Dororon Enma-Kun:

Getter Robo:

Great Mazinger

Getter Robo G:

OK that one has the same theme as Getter Robo. AS IT SHOULD. Because it’s AWESOME.

Steel Jeeg

Gaiking

Wiki tells me that Nagai had his name left off it, but recently confirmed he created it.

Gloizer X

I didn’t even know this existed until I started writing this post.

UFO Robo Grendizer

Magical Girl Chikkle

—

OK I think that’s all the 70s shows. Any I’ve missed from that decade (apart from the various movies)?

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, and I can’t be arsed writing this in December.

Kneejerk comments on anime starting in January – Go!

RIDE BACK

Maybe it’ll come out this time. I hope so, it looks like it could be awesome. I wrote about it here.

Kemono no Sōja Erin

What’s that? A 50 episode, Production IG produced fantasy show for NHK? Good, good.

Takayuki Hamana (Library Wars, Chocolate Underground) directs this adaptation of Nahoko Uehashi’s The Beast Player manga. This has the potential to be really high quality.

Genji Monogatari Sennenki

Osamu Dezaki directs a Tezuka Productions/Tokyo Movie adaptation of Murasaki Shikibu’s 11th century novel, The Tale of Genji.

I think that should tick enough boxes for you to be interested in checking this out.

VIPER’S CREED

Look at that logo! Look at it! Bask in its colour gradients! It’s awesome in its late 80s, early 90s video game cool. And it should not be surprising to learn that a man who is the definition of that era’s cool mecha is the head honcho of this show – Shinji Aramaki.

Of course his directing record isn’t quite as impressive as his design pedigree, but it should be worth checking regardless (and near-veteran animator Hiroyuki Kanbe seems to be the actual director).

By the way, this appears to be the only January show that isn’t an adaptation or a sequel.

Minami-ke: Okaeri

A third season of whatever this is. Something about three sisters if I remember rightly. I’m sure it’s showed up in one of these things I’ve done before, but I can’t muster the energy to check.

Kurokami The Animation

This Korean comic book gets an anime from the director of Emma & Twelve Kingdoms. No idea what the comic is like.

Asu no Yoichi!

Hideyuki Kurata slumming it again with another cute girl manga adaptation, this time from AIC. Debuting (?) Chief Animation Director Yumiko Ishii has done some interesting shows as a KA, so it may well look nice, even if the story is empty calories.

MAJOR 5th season

Perrenial baseball show continues.

WHITE ALBUM

Disappointingly not an anime celebrating the 40th anniversary of The Beatles album or even a misjudged musical ala “Across the Universe”. No. It’s, of course, an adaptation of a moe manga. Directed by Key The Metal Idol director Hiroaki Sato.

Maria Holic

Androphobic girl joins all-girl school. Girl falls in love with classmate. Who turns out to be a cross-dressing boy. From the team who brought you Zoku Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei.

Maria-sama ga Miteru 4th Season

And the fourth season of the real thing is due too.

Shikabane Hime Kuro

Second season of this adaptation hot on the heels of the GAINAX one. Not sure on the staff of this one as the website appears to just be an image at present.

Slayers Evolution-R

More Slayers.

Birdy The Mighty DECODE: 02

More Birdy. This is a good thing.

Zoku Natsume Yūjin-Chō

More folklore tales in this sequel to this summer’s series.

Shin Hajime no Ippo

More punching.

Hetalia – Axis Powers

The trend for webcomics to be turned into anime continues. This one appears to be about anthropomorphised countries. Specifically the countries involved in World War 2. Anthropomorphised as pretty boys.

Finished rolling your eyes yet?

Akikan!

Ugly looking romance anime from Brain’s Base.

Chrome Shelled Regios

Fantasy novel adaptation directed by journeyman director Itsuro Kawasaki.

I’ve had the Funimation Lupin III boxsets for well over a year now, I figured it’s time to sit down and watch them. Most of the first box I had seen before which is partly why I’d not got arround to it. The first in the set is the 1993′s “Orders to Assassinate Lupin” known as Voyage to Danger in this release.

I first saw this back in 2001 at the Liverpool anime convention whose name I’ve forgotten. It may have just been called Animecon. I enjoyed it back then, but watching it 7 years on, it’s severely lacking. It was supposed to be Masaaki Osumi‘s return to the character since the first series, but judging from the garbled English on his wikipedia page, the fact Masaharu Okuwaki is also credited and the final results, all did not go to plan. There’s a few scenes here and there that capture that first series magic, for instance the scene the screen shot above comes from, but overall it’s a disappointing film.

To get throught these reviews I’m going to judge them by arbitary criteria.

How much do the characters look like the animators might have seen a Monkey Punch drawing at some point in their lives?

Here’s the thing about a lot of modern Lupin III anime, it doesn’t look a lot like Lupin III. Or at least the guest characters tend not to. Oh and Fujiko often looks off too as various character designers ideas of sexy don’t coincide with Monkey Punch’s.

So how are things here?

Well, Jigen and Zenigata look good. Lupin looks OK. And despite director Osumi’s limited involvement, there are some very Monkey Punch-like poses here and there. Goemon’s design is a little soft. Fujiko’s figure is correct, but both her face and hair look off. Guest characters veer all over the place, tellingly there’s the rare character that looks like it’s been pulled straight out of the original Lupin III series that Osumi worked on, but in general the non-regulars look like they’ve walked in from a Detective Conan episode.

How ludicrous are the capers?

A Lupin film can have plot holes you can fly a plane through as long as there are capers. Fun capers. Ludicrous capers. Oh and crotch boxing gloves are good too. How caper-friendly am I? Well, I am the man who actually liked Oceans 12.

Well here they steal a submarine at one point. And then a nuclear generator by rolling it down a hill. And they use a giant hoover to steal the villain’s cash. But overall it feels a bit lacklustre compared to some of the stories that involve getting their hands on some specific great treasure. Not enough gallavanting around too.

Hold on. It can have an extra point for Lupin’s escape in the missile and the last 2 minutes of the film. I forgot about them.

How much is Goemon involved in the story, rather than just a third act deus ex machina?

OK this is a weird one. Goemon in the hands of bad writers is often like Superman in Justice League stories. His swordsmanship is established as so powerful he could effectively derail poorly written plots. Add his more moral nature compared to the other three leads and you can see why some writers don’t want to deal with him and find ways to sideline him. Or just have him absent until he saves the gang in the third act.

Here he’s pretty much involved from the get go, but then gets left babysitting Zenigata and the nuclear scientist for the second act. But that does involve some excitement and plot with evil Zenigata replacement, Keith. For a story that doesn’t focus solely on Goemon, he fairs well here. He doesn’t even have to be the deus ex machina, someone else gets that job.

For what I think it is, Astro Fighter Sunred is pretty good. That being a late night comedy Flash (or equivalent) cartoon. It’s certainly stronger than the terrible Flash version of Pyuu to Fuku! Jaguar that is somehow getting a motion picture. But it’s nowhere near the genius that is Gag Manga Biyori.

The central joke is that it’s a sentai show, where the hero and all his enemies are deadbeats living a pitiful existance. The supposed hero Sunred is a jerk who sponges of his girlfriend and wastes his days playing pachinko. General Vamp, leader of the Florsheim armies, tries to live out his side of he war between good and evil, but is thwarted by both Sunred’s reluctance to fight them and his own forces’ patheticness.

It’s fairly amusing. I didn’t find it rip roaringly funny, but it was a pleasant enough way to while away 15 minutes. It’s perhaps not quite madcap or crazed enough for my tastes, but it has promise.

A couple of notes:

In a bit of celebrity casting, Vamp and No.1 (the main one of the two generic soldiers in Florsheim’s armies) are played by Louis Yamada the 53rd and Tobiguchi-kun of the comedy duo “Renaissance”.

Secondly, the show has been available on niconico. From what I’ve seen, it appears to be following the BBC model of being available for 7 days after broadcast.

In thinking that Frank Sidebottom should be the new Doctor Who?

With Little Frank has his companion, obviously. And a cardboard TARDIS.