Ah the first show in this daunting list of a decade’s worth of anime shows and a show that apparently does not exist according to Anime News Network. Despite being the creation of Takashi Yanase. The man who created Anpanman, and therefore a big deal.
Luckily Keyframe has a synopsis:
Nyago is not the best cat in Cat Town, he can’t climb trees and always seems to be either half asleep or with his head in a book. However because of his kind and caring heart he was given the power to help others and protect the town from evil by the wise spirit of the mountain.
Upon hearing a cry for help Nyago dons the costume of Nyanda Kamen, the super cat admired by one and all – gaining flight and superstrength but losing his tail in the transformation. With the help of his pterandon partner Hen, Nyago is there when anyone in the town needs him most.
Well that sounds like a ton of fun for kids. Superheroes, cats, dinosaurs. What more do you want?
A transformation sequence!
The ending.
The first big franchise show of this rundown. This is the second series of Ojamajo Doremi. The first series was picked up by 4kids during the 2000 anime boom, but they didn’t really know what to do with it when they got it. However it was a success all over the world, so make of that what you will.
What’s it about? A clumsy girl, Doremi, who becomes a witch along with her friends. And then they get up to witch hijinks in a wholesome, moral sort of way.
Opening not embeddable
Another franchise show, this time based on the Tamogotchi spin-off where you’d raise monsters and then fight them against other kids’ monsters. This was the second series of the anime. Possibly a step down in quality from the original series and Mamoru Hosoda’s work on the films, but really it was still far better than it probably deserved to be.
This was the state of the art in bishounen in the year 2000. Well, bishounen shot through the prism of Yuji Moriyama.
Based on Kazuya Minekura’s manga (which in turn was based on Journey to the West), it had already had an OAV series the year before. Like a lot of G Fantasy strips (E’s, Kuroshitsuji, Nabari no Ou), it feels a lot like shonen written for a female audience. Given that it started in 1997, before we really started to see a big shift to attract a fujoshi audience in Shonen Jump, I wonder if it was something of a trend setter in that respect?
The Yuji Moriyama designs though give the whole thing a weird vibe, like they weren’t quite willing to go all the way with the prettiness of the main characters so had Moriyama come to butch them up and make female characters more appealing to male viewers.
The second season of Mahoujin Guru Guru. Well more of a sequel as there’d been a gap of five years between the series. Not seen any of this season, but liked what I saw of the first. It’s a silly parody of console RPGs based on Hiroyuki Etou’s manga. This second series just adapts more of the manga, continuing pretty much where the first left off.
The first show of the year 2000 to embody much of the decade’s anime. Late night, low ratings and based on a light novel.
People like this a lot, but I never got around to watching it. Had I seen it in 2000, I suspect I’d have loved it. However my tastes have veered from the cerebral to the aesthetically visceral in the last 10 years, and I’m not really inclined to catch up here. Director Takashi Watanabe hasn’t really worked on much that set my world on fire, though I have liked Seishi Minakami’s scripts on Satoshi Kon projects, so it might be worth checking out those episodes.
There was a boom in interest in urban legends in Japan in the mid-nineties (similar to the X-Files/UFO boom) best illustrated by the Hanako-san films about the ghost that supposedly haunts school toilets. This is an extension of that craze, with Boogiepop the character thought of as an urban legend by other characters in the story. As the decade progresses interest seems to fade in urban legends and turns more to traditional folklore and magical realism (though part of that seems Harry Potter driven too, rather than just a natural progression).
Or as you may know it Candidate for Goddess.
I know next to nothing about this. Some kind of sci-fi mecha show that Bandai released in English, and appeared on Cartoon Network/Adult Swim. Mitsuru Hongo directed, and they are someone whose work I have consistently failed to see (Outlaw Star, IGPX, Reideen, Spirit of Wonder).
So there you go.
Well you’d think I’d have seen this action comedy about swordswoman Ran and martial artist Meow.
Akitaro Daichi, Madhouse, original material, produced for satellite channel WOWOW, it seems like something I’d be onto. However in the year 2000, that really didn’t mean that much to me. Nor in 2002 when Bandai put it out on DVD. DVDs that now seem to be OOP. I’ll have to hunt this down.
Eerily Youtube had just suggested this following video for me just before I checked what was next on my list:
Yeah, really gonna need to see this.
Your second Satoru Akahori show of the 2000s. And your second show designed to sell a trading card game, Monster Collection. It actually pre-dates the Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters show by 3 months.
More typical than Sakura Wars of an Akahori script, this can easily be seen as a direct descendant of NG Knight Lamune & 40, with heroes sent into another world and an over the top, somewhat effeminate villain and his sexy henchwomen.
Saban adapted it for Fox, then it moved to Disney following all that general upheaval. You can get DVDs of it in the UK for 99p in the clearance bookstore chain here.
The show that upset Adult Swim viewers, well, before Tim & Eric came along. It has some really, really odd comedic timing. Like someone on a load of downers trying to be madcap. Really odd.
Original opening:
