This just in from 1994!

October 16th, 2008 by Brack

Manga Mania, Issue 12, cover date July 1994. Still being published by Dark Horse, for now.

The editorial talks of two new companies entering the UK anime market - Animania & Anime UK. Animania would have a slightly brighter time of things than Anime UK, which went the way of Crusader - one appalling dubbed title and then death. It also mentions Virgin having plans to join the fray. As far as I know this never happened.

Article-wise there’s a Masamune Shirow article (w/ help from Toren Smith) on Dominion Tank Police’s hardware (the manga was starting this issue) and a Tezuka retrospective. There’s also a dimissive review of Gunbuster that seems hilariously out of touch next to gushing reviews for now forgotten titles like Wind of Amnesia, Galactic Pirates and Kamasutra.

And Wil Overton was trying to convince you that Ranma 1/2 - Hard Battle was a good game (8/10!).

UK NEWS

  • Animania were launching with “Guy, Awakening of the Devil“
  • Manga were releasing the first Devilman OAV, Monster City, Maris The Wondergirl, Roujin Z, the live action Gunhed and, of course, Guyver.
  • Cornerstone Communications released some Akira trading cards. My brother had some of these, got them from a local corner shop I seem to recall.
  • Anime UK were releasing KO Century Beast Warriors.
  • Kiseki were due to release Black Magic & Macross - Clash of the Bionoids
  • Western Connection were bringing Love City to an uncaring world.
  • Anime Projects made with the Genesis Survivor Gaiarth.
  • The first creeping in of Hong Kong action movie coverage began with noting the launch of the Made In Hong Kong video label with The Killer, God of Gamblers, The Barefoot Kid & Saviour of the Soul. Good times.

US NEWS

  • Rumiko Takahashi was due to appear at San Diego Comic Con.
  • CPM had Animated Classics Of Japanese Literature coming out.
  • Viz continued the deathly slow trickle of Ranma 1/2.
  • US Manga Corps had Iczer 3 and Project A-Ko 3.
  • AnimEigo had Urusei Yatsura: The Final Chapter.
  • Pioneer LDC had Green Legend Ran and more No Need For Tenchi!

JAPAN NEWS

Coming out on Laser Disc was:

  • Fortune Quest
  • Ah! My Goddess
  • Final Fantasy
  • VOTOMS
  • Dirty Pair Flash
  • Butt-Attack Punisher Girl Gotaman
  • Genocyber
  • The Hakkenden
  • All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku
  • Please Save My Earth
  • Angel Cop

Posted in Anime, Manga | Tags: , | No Comments »

Demon Butler Vs. Fairy Doctor

October 14th, 2008 by Brack

There’s two shows out this autumn in Japan that overly-romanticise Victorian Britain with a touch of the supernatural, Kuroshitsuji and Earl & Fairy.

Kuroshitsuji is the tale of a rich little boy, his demon butler and the rest of his incompetent staff.

It is the technically better made of the two shows, but it left me cold. It’s an uneasy mix of unfunny comedy and sinister horror of the supernatural punisher variety. The manga has a touch of Kouta Hirano’s style to it, which has been lost a little in the the anime. Instead we have a cleaner look with a slightly stiff and stilted look to its poses, despite some fluid movement. It’s well made, but it isn’t for me.

Earl & Fairy is the story of a Scottish “Fairy Doctor” who finds herself coerced into helping the heir to the only family who have a position in both the British and Faerie courts prove his identity.

It has average animation and is full of shoujo romantic cliche, but it has a lot more charm to it than Kuroshitsuji. The representation of Britain feels more familiar, like a BBC costume drama rather than the somewhat alien interpretation Kuroshitsuji had. The supernatural elements also feel more distinctly British using as it does specific fairies like Brownies and Merrow, compared to Kuroshitsuji’s vague demonic overtones. The 25 minutes zoomed by for me, a frothy lightweight romantic adventure.

That cat though, when he stands upright with his paws on his haunches, it damn well freaks me out.

Posted in Anime | Tags: , , | No Comments »

Hyakko - Episode 2

October 13th, 2008 by Brack

Oh dear.

That’s certainly some episode 2 quality drop off.

Yikes.

Posted in Anime | Tags: | No Comments »

MAD MONDAYS - Masaaki Yuasa.

October 13th, 2008 by Brack

Turns out that apart from linking to one for my first MADstravaganza panel notes, I’ve not posted a Masaaki Yuasa video yet. Well here’s one I’d overlooked from this year, that mainly focuses on his earlier, funnier work.

Posted in Anime, MAD Monday | Tags: | No Comments »

Kemeko Deluxe Episode 1

October 12th, 2008 by Brack

A dull boy finds the recipient of a rash promise made as a child return ten years later, to claim him as her husband.

No, it’s not Urusei Yatsura: Only You, it’s Kemeko Deluxe, the new series from Tsutomu Mizushima (Hare+Guu, xxxHolic, Big Windup!, Genshiken, Dokuro-chan), based on Masakazu Iwasaki’s manga.

This sort of home invasion comedy thing has been done to death, so you really better be bringing something good to the table if you’re going to add to this tired “genre”.

Well this does bring something to the table, and that is Mizushima.

The original manga is above standard fare, the Kemeko “character” being visually quite unlike most leads in this sort of thing, and it has a nice line in absurd mecha (somewhat reminiscent of Cat Girl Nuku Nuku - is the company name Mishima here a homage to that series?). So it has a head start on most these shows.

In addition to that strong basis, Mizushima has brought with him the blatant ribaldry of his own series Dokoro-chan & Dai Mahou Touge, and his excellent comedic timing. Equally at home with blue comedy, Raimi/Stooges slapstick and the comedy of embarrassment, he brings out the best in the source material. While Kemeko is not quite the genius creation that Guu was, she is still the best character he’s brought to life since that series. Chiwa Saito ably matches the animation performance with a vocal performance that really stretches her comedic range.

The weak point in all of this is the romantic element, Kemeko’s alter-ego Emuemu is somewhat disappointing compared to Kemeko, her stereotypical nature reinforced by the casting of Haruka Tomatsu fresh from playing the very similar Lala in the very average To Love-Ru. The good news is that, unlike the comedy, this element doesn’t get expanded upon in the script or direction.

Of special note should be the opening and ending, which are so dementedly perverse that you know you could only be watching a Mizushima show.

A promising start, and a show I’ll be following for now.

Posted in Anime | Tags: , , | No Comments »

Lupin III: GREEN VS RED

October 11th, 2008 by Brack

“Lupin III is smart and cool.”

Up until 2002 Lupin III films tended to be compared to Castle of Cagliostro, however modern Lupin III projects have been judged against Episode:0 First Contact, the high point of the Kurita Kanichi years. This fortieth anniversary OAV special doesn’t quite reach that film’s heights, but it’s got a lot to recommend it.

The special deals with a surfeit of Lupins and a private militia in possession of a deadly weapon. But more importantly it deals with the idea of a person or character as a meme. Monkey Punch has spoken in the past about wanting Lupin to exist forever, to become an immortal comic character like Batman or Spider-Man. This special deals with that idea, within the world of Lupin III itself.

The pre credit sequence deals with a cook, Yasuo who bears a close resemblence to our hero. Yasuo was of course the name of the original voice of Lupin III, the late Yasuo Yamada. In addition to this callback to the character’s past, the other “guest character” in this special is named Yukiko, after Yukiko Nikaido, the voice of the Fujiko in the 1971 Lupin III TV series.

Then after the opening credits we get Zenigata returning to Japan after chasing fake Lupin IIIs all around the world, before launching into the opening sequence proper (that I swiped those screenshots from here). I recognise enough of the faces from specific Lupin III projects that I’m guessing that they all do. This is one problem I had with watching the OAV, are some things poorly explained or are they assuming a familiarity with the character’s history I don’t have.

And then we are swamped in Lupins. A Lupin is caught shoplifting, and soon, across the world, Lupins are outraged that someone is impersonating them to commit such a minor offence. It’s not long before Tokyo is awash in Fiat 500s and red and green jackets.

Let’s deal with the main problem with this feature up front. It’s about 10-20 minutes too short. There’s 3-4 strands of plot running through the film and only one of them gets the time it deserves. The story of the two fake Lupins on the run (one of whom bears some resemblance to Nabeshin) gets particularly short shrift, and the story of the “Ice Cube” and its commentary on Japanese national paranoia comes to an abrupt halt.

Luckily the main thread about Yasuo is strong, and throughout there are some great animated set pieces and visual touches, the highlight being a rooftop duel between Fiat 500s, in a fully animated black and white recreation of Monkey Punch’s line work.

There’s loads of blink and you’ll miss it references in there. I know I missed the cameo that Detective Conan apparently makes. It definitely feels they made so much effort in including things for fans, that they didn’t leave enough room for all the story.

But don’t let that put you off, the theme of Lupin III being a state of mind rather than a person is a strong one and it’s perfect for a celebratory project such as this.

Posted in Anime | Tags: | No Comments »

MAD MONDAYS - Takashi Mukouda

October 6th, 2008 by Brack

Denno Coil, Fullmetal Alchemist, Gurren Lagann, Noein, One Piece Movie 6, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - Mukouda’s c.v. contains all the usual suspects for this feature! Here’s a whole load of clips of Mukouda’s nice naturalistic looking human movement. Well maybe. The poster of the video does say it is speculation to a degree. But there you go.

Posted in Anime, MAD Monday | Tags: | No Comments »

The Usual Suspects

October 5th, 2008 by Brack

The awesome opening sequence to Lupin III: Green Vs Red contains THIRTY different Lupin IIIs. And here they all are:


Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Anime | Tags: | No Comments »

Hyakko Episode 1

October 5th, 2008 by Brack

What this opening episode lacks in originality in the story department, it more than makes up for in the animation.

It’s another “girls doing funny things” show along the lines of an Azumanga Daioh. The first episode revolves around timid girl Ayumi Nonomura’s first day at the new private school she’s attending and her meeting with the determinedly respectable Tatsuki Iizura, the strong but silent Suzume Saotome and the unrelentingly gung ho Torako Kageyama. They’re all stereotypical characters you’d seen in any number of these type of shows, but both the script and especially the body language in the animation do a good job of fleshing out these simple archetypes.

The main character is Ayumi, and because she has a talkative inner monologue, she avoids being the simpering crybaby that these sort of characters can tend to become.

Tatsuki seems to have an element of Hyacinth Bucket about her, a number of characters introduce themselves by breaking down their names into their component parts, and she gives the most high-falutin’ indication of how to spell her name. It’s just one line of dialogue but it works wonders in establishing her character.

Suzume and especially Torako are established more in their movement than dialogue. Which is a great thing. In particular the sequence with the door, the window, the brick and the teacher had me laughing out loud. It’s not a particularly clever or complicated series of events, but it ain’t half some funny drawings. Yay for funny drawings.

Other great things - the backgrounds are wonderfully lush and detailed, tracking shot sequences with animated background, slightly rough line to the characters, the way the characters’ hair moves, the use of the camera/choice of shots and the shadow puppet flashback. Only an overuse of the fish eye lens annoyed me somewhat with regards to the animation.

It’s still something you’ve probably seen umpteen times before, but at least it’s doing it well and on the strength of this episode alone, I want to see what Michio Fukuda does next.

Posted in Anime | Tags: , | No Comments »

GOLGO 13 - Episode 14 - Death Shadow Of The Setting Sun

October 4th, 2008 by Brack

The CIA are caught stockpiling WMDs, so Golgo 13 is sent to erase the evidence. However the CIA are not the only people who want this swept under the carpet.

For the first time I can actually compare this directly to the manga. This episode is based on a 1976 strip called Shadow Of Death, which is collected in volume 12 of Viz’s recent Golgo 13 collection.

The manga more explicitly makes the opening investigation the Church Committee and delves more into the politics during the opening scene. However both the anime and the manga keep the identity of the man who orders Golgo’s hiring secret (are we suposed to assume it’s the President?). There’s one other change regarding the politics of the story, the second professional AX-3, is hired by the KGB in the manga, whereas he is hired by some nebulous Middle Eastern country in the anime.

Beyond the politics, the episode plays out very closely to the manga. Outside of a couple of extra scenes the manga has to play up Golgo’s awesomeness the story is exactly the same. The key part of the story as it pertains to the philosophy of Golgo 13 is again in the difference between Golgo and the episode’s main guest character.

In terms of his skill as a gunman, AX-3 is Golgo’s equal, so what is the difference between them as men? Well AX-3 shoots to kill, Golgo it appears, based on an exchange here, shoots to shoot. A target is a target to Golgo, it matters not if it is man or hairpin. And I think that’s a key part of Golgo’s appeal, in that it’s glorifying the skill he has, rather than the end result of it. He’s a man to be admired for his skill rather than what he uses that skill for.

Posted in Anime | Tags: | No Comments »

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »