A really big indication of where anime was in America was that this second series was part funded by Cartoon Network following the original 1999 series’ success on Adult Swim. Its mix of social science fiction, Batman and giant robot fights was a winning combination and the design work had a crossover appeal lacking in more “anime” looking shows. I’ve seen the original and enjoyed it, but haven’t had the chance to see this sequel/conclusion.

Let’s note that just as the original theme was a fairly blatant (and awesome) homage/rip-off of Flash by Queen, this theme does likewise with the theme to Gerry Anderson’s UFO. It’s not the first anime to take it’s cues from UK “telefantasy” and it won’t be the last (there’s a more obvious example later in 2003).

Ah, more porn-to-tv adaptations. This time ELF’s pornographic take on the alternate history genre (Sakura Wars and Virgin Fleet) gets turned into a cartoon, and the porn removed. Bewilderingly this got a second series and an OAV, where presumably they could be more sexy.

I expect to be writing variations on that paragraph a lot over future posts…

Takeshi Mori delivers the first of this year’s science fiction as slice of life shows. Of course he then fills it up with female characters, as that worked well for him in Vandread. It was successful enough to generate 3 OAV series after the TV run was complete.

Neither the premise or the design interested me so I paid it no mind.

Oh hey it’s that thing that I ignored every time its trailer came up on my Lupin Specials boxsets.

Probably the first show I followed weekly via fansubs, as it was coming out in Japan. Great looking post apocalypse show about four wolves, that quickly seemed to loose it’s way and become a more overly complicated and less interesting sci-fi/fantasy show. Then during broadcast it hit production problems and had to put out a month of recap episodes, and that killed my interest entirely.

I’ve some fond memories of the old Robo Machine toys and the strip that ran in UK comic the Eagle as a kid. This revival of appears to be some kind of combination of Thunderbirds and Robot show, with kids as the leads. Which I’m sure must have been done before, as that seems like such an obvious good idea for a kids show.

And now to make you (and me) feel old, I bring you the following comment from youtube courtesy of Paperyoshi65

This Show is So OLD SCHOOL
i watch this SINCE I WAS 5

Yes, 2003 is now “old school” to 12/13 year olds. Though should you be allowed to use the phrase “old school” while still at school?

Videogame adaptation that I’m sure I get mixed up in my head with something else. Takeshi Mori brings the first space flight as work rather than adventure show of the year, though like his earlier Vandread remembers to fill it up with girls so as get the audience that want that in too. I knew the name, but until I just looked it up, I thought this was a completely different show. That was still filled with girls, mind you, but more militaristic than blowing up comets and meteors.

What was I saying about shows influenced by UK telefantasy? Wikipedia mentions this showing owing a little to James Bond, but there’s more than a little of The Persuaders to it too. Jack Hofner and Rowe Rickenbacker, the show’s heroes, can be seen as equivalents to Lord Brett Sinclair and Danny Wilde of the Roger Moore/Tony Curtis vehicle. I dismissed it at the time, but watching the opening again now, I think I might be tempted to check it out if I can find it cheap. Which may be tricky as it’s out of print following the Geneon USA closure. On the other hand it was so overlooked, there may be loads of DVDs clogging warehouses unsold…

Another Bee Train show I actually quite liked. Unlike .hack//Sign, this show actually resembled an online videogame as I knew it, with a lot more happening in the game itself, and players actually interested in playing the game. The two leads are still as boring as Sign’s (with an added creepy incest vibe) and the ending is straight out of Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain in it’s “fuck we don’t have an ending lets just get psychedelic” approach.

But, despite those flaws, I think there’s enough to like in the writing, characters and the music, that made it an enjoyable watch.

Or maybe it was just that it was half as long as //Sign?

Teenager suffers from head bonk amnesia reverting her mind to that of when she was six years old. Another show that I had in my head as being totally different than what it actually appears to be. Hiroaki Sakurai (Digi Charat) directs.