Golgo 13 - Episode 11 - Dead Angle

July 25th, 2008 by Brack

Two departments of the US government pit Golgo 13 and the young sniper Katz against one another, as Golgo attempts to kill a Jordanian envoy and Katz tries to stop him.

Oh, and we also get the most Osamu-Dezaki-y episode of Golgo 13 TV yet.

By which I mean… POSTCARD MEMORIES~!~!

And in a callback to Dezaki’s cinema outing with Golgo 13, a CGI HELICOPTER~!~!~!

While I’m not expecting this to be Dezaki (I’m assuming he’s busy with Ultraviolet & Cobra), I would be interested in seeing who directed this, as I’m surprised with not seen the Postcard Memory technique used more often in the series. Admittedly the episodes tend to be packed as it is and there may not be time such a pace slowing technique, but it’s almost something you are expecting from the series.

Storywise, it’s another mind game as people try to out-think Golgo, with some modern politics thrown in as background. It is a shame the television isn’t as brave as the manga and refuses to use caricature when real people turn up. This episode’s US Secretary of Defense looks nothing like Robert Gates, and only looks like Rumsfeld if you squint and imagine glasses.

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#34 - Ace wo Nerae! (Aim for the Ace!)

December 17th, 2006 by Brack

Classic shojo series about tennis, based on the manga by Sumika Yamamoto and directed by the legend that is Osamu Dezaki. Gainax's classic OAV series Aim For The Top! Gunbuster borrows both it's title AND it's plot from this show.

“It's plot?” I hear you ask through the secret microphone I installed in my blog. Yes, it's plot. Despite one show being about tennis and the other being about humanity being wiped out by the universe's immune system, they essentially have the same plot.

On Technogirls' Aim for the Ace! page (a useful English language source on this subject) the show is described thusly:

“Hiromi is only a rookie tennis player, yet the coach chooses her to be on the team defending the club's title, a position desired by many other players.”

With some simple find and replacing we can get Gunbuster's plot.

“Norikio is only a rookie giant robot pilot, yet the coach chooses her to be on the team defending the entire human race, a position desired by many other giant robot pilots.”

SEE! SAME PLOT!

There are some fansubs of the show, but it may be tricky tracking them down. As with most vintage shows there is little interest from the sort of person who frequents anime bittorrent sites and so seeding tends not to last as long as more recent titles.

You will more easily found fansubbed episodes of the recent live action adaptation. .

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#74 - The Rose of Versailles

September 20th, 2006 by Brack

This is another show I thought would have been higher just due to it's influence.

Anime News Network - The Rose of Versailles (TV):

Plot Summary: Raised from birth as a man, the Lady Oscar commands the palace guards at Versailles in the years before the French Revolution. Her beauty and noble spirit make her a shining figure in the eyes of both men and women but she is torn between her chosen life of service and duty to class and country and her own heart and desires. She lives as a noble amidst the opulence of Versailles but her keen senses and compassion are not blinded to the poverty of the French people.

Perhaps that it only ran to 40 episodes and came out a good deal of time after the manga shows that it is the manga (and stage play) that is has been a major influence on shojo titles rather than the anime. Tadao Nagahama (Combattler V, Voltes V, Daimos) had directed the first 18 episode before his death, with the remainder under the eye of Osamu Dezaki (director of a crazy amount of important shows and master of the freeze frame into a painting of the frozen cel). Unsurprisingly it proved popular in France under the name Lady Oscar. And there's also an English language live action film by that name, filmed in France, for a Japanese audience.

And guess what - it's fansubbed! All of it.

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