Blog @ Angel's Anime Rating Guide (AARG)

Tank Girl...

2012-01-31T14:15:00.000-05:00

Recently, I came across Tank Girl...

If you're into in-your-face visuals, outrageous action sequences and non-stop explosive laughs, this is your "rip-roaring power surge of a movie" (L.A. Weekly). The year's 2033 and since a humongous meteor hit earth, the world just hasn't been the same. No Movies, No Cable TV, NO WATER!!! A mega-villain, Kesslee (Malcolm McDowell), the leader of Water & Power, holds the world in his grasp since he controls all the H2O down to the last drop...or so he thinks. Two colossal enemies stand in his way: (1) The Rippers - an army of half-men/half-kangaroo people whose sole purpose is to bring down the W & P, and (2) a chick with a tank and tons of attitude - a.k.a. Tank Girl (Lori Petty). Kesslee had better get a grip on reality and his water jugs because not even a run in her stocking is going to stop her from saving the planet.

Way back in the misty dawn of time, during the infamous Ultimate Otaku Fall Cleanup, I once had a VHS version of the movie and, sadly, I let it get away. Although, I'm pretty sure the neighbor across the street ended up with that tape, I didn't really feel like asking for it back. Then, one fine day, I just happened to come across it on one of the movie channels, so, I recorded it. I promptly burned a DVD and created my own DVD cover art for the box.

Tank Girl didn't fair so well in its initial run. According to Wikipedia..

Tank Girl is a 1995 science fiction action film loosely based on the Tank Girl comic book created by Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett. It was directed by Rachel Talalay and stars Lori Petty as Rebecca Buck, aka the eponymous Tank Girl, who had originally appeared in the UK comic magazine Deadline.

The film received mixed to negative reviews from critics and had disappointing sales at the box office. It only grossed $4 million on a $25 million budget. The film holds a 42% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 33 reviews (14 positive, 19 negative).

Roger Ebert gave the film 2 out of 4 stars. While praising the film's ambition, he stated the film's manic energy wore him down: "Whatever the faults of "Tank Girl," lack of ambition is not one of them. Here is a movie that dives into the bag of film making tricks and chooses all of them. Trying to re-create the multimedia effect of the comic books it's based on, the film employs live action, animation, montages of still graphics, animatronic makeup, prosthetics, song-and-dance routines, scale models, fake backdrops, holography, title cards, matte drawings, and computerized special effects. All I really missed were 3-D and Smell-O-Vision."

In the wake of poor box office gross, Deadline collapsed, having apparently taken huge gambles on Tank Girl. Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett have since spoken poorly of their experiences in creating the film, calling it "a bit of a sore point" for them. Hewlett said, "The script was lousy; me and Alan kept rewriting it and putting Grange Hill jokes and Benny Hill jokes in, and they obviously weren't getting it. They forgot to film about ten major scenes so we had to animate them ... it was a horrible experience."

Despite, Tank Girl's poor performance at the box office, I still find it to be very entertaining and happily welcomed it back into the archive.

Ice...

2012-01-23T22:16:00.000-05:00

Recently, I picked up Ice. I heard that an Ice movie was going to be released in the U.S. soon and thought that I should check out the three Ice OVAs first...

Some strange virus, whether planned or accidental, has wiped out most of the population. The survivors? Beautiful women. Faced with the possible extinction of their entire race, some of these new Amazons have decided to live out their final days in the pursuit only of fleshly pleasures. Others choose to use their beauty, their might, and their minds to fight back and reclaim the planet once more.

Ice is set in a post-apocalyptic future not too far removed from our own time. There is some indication that during the time which preceded the story in Ice, there were extraordinary efforts at genetic engineering and perhaps even biological warfare. From the premise, one could easily imagine all manner of lecherous behaviour, but, if you're looking for THAT type of experience, you'll be very disappointed. There is some bare skin to be seen in the series, one girl-on-girl kiss and one face being licked, but, despite claims to the contrary in the premise, there are not really any naughty bits.

Ice does exhibit a strong environmental message which may turn off some viewers. While, the environmental message in Ice bears some similarity to the environmental message in the much earlier French-production of Gandahar aka Light Years, the overall tone of Ice has a greater sense of condemnation than in Gandahar. The world depicted in Ice is somewhat dark and fatalistic, but, everyone is impeccably dressed. There is a sense of fashion and opulence in Ice, that isn't seen in most post-apocalyptic settings.

There is some blood and gore in Ice, but, surprisingly, there isn't the quantity of red ink that one might expect from most post-apocalyptic settings. That being said, you may expect a handful of smashed bodies, severed limbs, gunshot wounds at point blank range and the occasional stabbing.

The heroine of the series is certainly Hitomi Landsknecht. And, like some anime heroes of legend, Hitomi seems to be virtually indestructible. Hitomi narrowly escapes being blown up, only to fall off a highway overpass not once, but, twice. Then, Hitomi is shot and stabbed and still manages to lead a desperate charge against impossible odds. However, Hitomi does have a few notable quirks -- she suffers from severe insomnia and she spends a certain amount of time talking to people from the past who have entered her mind.

The one song featured in Ice, "Aisareru tu iu koto" is actually quite nice. I was lamenting the fact that I would have really liked to see that song as a special feature on the DVD, but, then I found it it as the background music in the art and background entry in the special features menu.

Ice is not without flaws. There are some nice visuals in the Ice OVAs, but, overall, the world depicted in the series is really quite small -- encompassing little more than one town. Also, some of the technology envisioned in Ice is a bit more advanced than one would expect to find in a post-apocalyptic setting and certainly far more advanced than would be expected given the time scales involved.

My research indicates that the general consensus among anime fans regarding Ice isn't very good, but, I don't share their views. Although, Ice does have some noticeable flaws, I actually liked Ice quite a lot. Ice, although dark and depressing at times and somewhat lacking in some of its elements, is a series that I find easy to watch and re-watch -- warts and all. It does help that Ice is also a very short series. The overall tone of the series and some of the adult themes expressed would make Ice somewhat unsuitable for the youngest anime fans. I give the series a 4 out of 5.

And Yet The Town Moves...

2012-01-18T08:53:00.001-05:00

Recently, I started watching And Yet The Town Moves aka Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru...

Hotori Arashiyama loves mysteries, but there's one she just can't solve: why does the solution to one problem inevitably seem to lead to another? Like how when Hotori has to start working at the Seaside Maid Cafe after school to pay off a debt and her friend Toshiko fortunately knows exactly how a Maid Cafe should be run. Which is fortunate since Hotori has no clue. Except that, unfortunately, Toshiko has no interest in working at the cafe - until she discovers that Hotori's childhood friend Hiroyuki is a regular. Which SEEMS fortunate. Except that Hotori doesn't know that, while Toshiko likes Hiroyuki, Hiroyuki secretly likes Hotori, while Hotori secretly has a crush on... No, no more spoilers!

But if that's not enough drama, there's work, angst with a certain math teacher, table tennis between her classmates, her younger brother versus the school's bad girl... And yet, even though everything seems like it's going to crash at any moment, somehow Hotori's life keeps going hilariously forward.

According to John on the AnimeNation forum:

The fall 2010 Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru off-kilter slice-of-life comedy will be released domestically under the English title "And yet The Town Moves." The adaptation of Masakazu Ishiguro’s manga revolves around the daily lives and whimsical thoughts of high school girls that work part time at a small, suburban Japanese cafe.

And Yet The Town Moves is certainly a quirky title that is a bit off the beaten path. When I initially picked up this title, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but, I thought it might be worth looking into. First off, I really enjoyed the opening theme "Down Town." The pacing of the series, which is quite fast, actually caught me by surprise. Some of the situations Hotori and company find themselves in are just amazingly mundane, but, fun to watch. Some of life's tough questions are posed in the series. Such as: will Hotori ever pass her math class; will Hotori ever be able to remember what to buy at the grocery store; and so on and so forth...

The animation quality in And Yet The Town Moves is very good considering that nothing actually happens. It is apparent that the animators paid a great deal of attention to detail in their work. For instance, every once in a while the animators have a bit of fun with the fourth wall -- the TV screen. At one point, Hotori puts a bare foot on the TV screen and leaves a frosty foot print behind -- as if the inside of the TV screen was cold and the heat from her bare foot had caused condensation to form.

What really elevates And Yet The Town Moves to a level that is beyond its mundane appearance, is the humor and story telling. At times, the story tellers do indulge in teasing Hotori, but, Hotori's strength of will and determination still manage to shine through, making Hotori not just an object of ridicule, but, someone to be admired. I wasn't sure what to expect with this series, but, I'm thoroughly pleased to have taken the opportunity to visit Hotori for a while.

There are, of course, no naughty bits, gore or violence to speak of in And Yet The Town Moves. Those of you who don't like to read your anime are advised to stay away as the series is subtitled only. The series is very fast paced and is full of word play and puns that may not be immediately obvious to non-Japanese. There is a lot of dialogue and quite a few on-screen notes explaining some of the more obscure in-jokes and Japanese references. I found myself having to use the rewind button on my remote quite a bit in an effort to keep up. Overall, I enjoyed And Yet The Town Moves very much and give it a 3 out of 5.

Rosario+Vampire...

2012-01-09T07:53:00.001-05:00

Tsukune looks to be a typical high school student, but his grades are bad to the bone. Rejected by school after school, he finally gets accepted by an academy that's more than a little out of his neighborhood. Unfortunately, it's a school for monsters and Tsukune is the lone human! While forced to hide his secret, along comes a cute - but hungry - vampire girl named Moka. Beneath her cute and clumsy exterior, she too is not exactly as she seems...

I've always had a soft spot for vampires and rarely have I met a vampire I didn't like. After watching the first volume of Rosario+Vampire, I am very pleased to have met Moka. The series has a fair amount of fan service and does suffer from a distinct "monster-of-the-week" syndrome, but, the series doesn't take itself too seriously and even goes to the length of reporting the amount of time it takes Moka to defeat each challenger. With tongue firmly planted in cheek, Rosario+Vampire uses tried and true monster conventions as the basis for humor and a bit of action.

The story in Rosario+Vampire shares some similarity to Bastard and Master of Mosquiton in that Moka's powers seem to require some assistance from a human partner. But, unlike the aforementioned action adventure series, Rosario+Vampire leans more towards a slice-of-life romantic comedy, but, with monsters and the occasional monster smack down in the school yard.

The animation has that nice crisp look and feel that I've come to expect in more recent productions. There is a very nice transformation sequence that is repeated throughout the series. But, aside from the transformation sequence, there isn't a great deal of eye candy associated with the series.

Although, the world depicted in Rosario+Vampire does have things that go bump in the night, no one is truly evil -- they're just doing what comes naturally to monsters. There is some violence, but, no blood or gore to speak of. The series does exhibit quite a bit of fan service and while there are no naughty bits to speak of, the tone of the series may be a bit too risque for the youngest anime fans. Overall, I was very pleased to visit Moka and her friends for a while and give the series a 4 out of 5.

Heaven's Lost Property...

2012-01-03T22:20:00.002-05:00

Tomoki's life was normal until a wish-granting angelic android named Ikaros fell from the sky and started calling him master! Of course, thanks to his raging teenage hormones, most of Tomoki's wishes have something to do with panties. And that makes things pretty complicated, because one simple wish can lead to a rampaging robot made out of frilly undergarments or turn bloomers into bombs capable of blowing up entire neighborhoods!

If Tomoki doesn't learn to control his impulses around Ikaros and be more careful with his wishes, the chaos will only get crazier. Luckily, even with such a dirty mind, Tomoki's heart is in the right place. His hands, however, are a completely different story.

Heaven's Lost Property (Sora no Otoshimono) is a romantic comedy fantasy circa 2009 from AIC ASTA, based on Suu Minazuki's manga.

Recently, I finished watching the first season of Heaven's Lost Property. The series is stuffed full with fan service which, at times, can be somewhat of a distraction. The animation style is consistent with many recent titles -- bright colors, crisp animation. The characters do routinely transform into a chibi-fied form at times when they're being somewhat less than serious.

Despite copious amounts of fan service, there are no actual naughty bits to speak of. Strategically placed black dots, wings or even frogs appear at every instance where there might be a loss of modesty. That being said, there is some imagery, like a flock of migrating panties or a minefield of explosive panties, that would shatter any illusion of modesty.

Even with the fan service and wanton low brow humor, Ikaros, our lead heroine, still manages to shine spectacularly throughout the series. Ikaros seems to be able to kick ass with the best the baddies have to offer, but, also manages to struggle with the concept of smiling. Ikaros, despite being rather expressionless throughout the series, shows a surprising amount of growth and development.

There's some action is the series, but, most of the series focuses around romance, drama and heaping servings of comedy to give the series a light, fluffy aura while still weaving a thin thread of dread and malevolence as we catch glimpses of the world where Ikaros came from. The series contains quite a bit of fan service and adult themes and is probably not suited for the youngest anime fans. Overall, I was quite pleased with Heaven's Lost Property and give it a 3 out of 5.

Coicent and Five Numbers...

2011-12-01T13:27:00.000-05:00

I picked up the latest Feature Squared release that includes Five Numbers and Coicent...

Five Numbers
Four people awake to find themselves in the ultimate prison: an ex-soldier, a beautiful woman, an average Joe and a young computer hacker. Why are they there? What connection links them all? And how can they escape? The answer seems to lie with the fifth prisoner, an old man who knows far more than he is telling... and then there's the cat. It's the ultimate locked room mystery and all their lives hinge on solving it.

Coicent
It's a quick time jump to the 26th century where a school trip to a rebuilt 21st century city turns into a wild adventure for teen aged Shinichi. While chasing a talking deer that steals his bag, he runs into a strange girl trying to elude even stranger pursuers, and then things get really wild. It's a mad dash through a city of the past as two young people discover a chance at a new future.

Five Numbers, although short, was actually surprisingly good. There are some subtle details of the story that require a bit of rewinding to catch -- like reading headlines in a newspaper. The animation quality is reasonable, but, the character animation is noticeably artificial throughout. Despite the technical issues, I did enjoy Five Numbers. I haven't yet taken the time to watch Coicent, but, I have high hopes.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Update

I watched Coicent last night and I liked it even more than Five Numbers. Coicent really pulled hard on my heart strings, but, was still a joy to watch. Overall, this Feature Squared presentation is fairly good. Both features are a bit on the short side, but, still very enjoyable. I would give this double feature a 2 out of 5.

Optimized for Kindle...

2011-11-30T08:11:00.001-05:00

When browsing the blog with my Kindle, I noticed that the user experience was not really all that inviting. The blog has a mobile template, but, apparently, the Kindle isn't considered a mobile device, so, the standard template appeared instead. The navigation menu on the right side of the page was causing my page to appear in the less-than-appealing zoom-browsing-mode on the Kindle. So, I decided to move the navigation menu to the bottom of the page. Now, the blog entries fit very nicely within the bounds of the Kindle's margins without triggering the dreaded zoom-browsing-mode.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Update

Recently, I realized that the tabs at the top of the page don't work very well when pointing to external links. So, I had to remove the offending tab for the time being. There is a work-around that involves creating a blank page and adding a meta refresh tag to the page's html, but, that seems a bit inelegant and will probably fail in browsers that do not recognize the meta refresh tag. I tried adding a message advising that users would be redirected to another page, but, adding the message removed the meta refresh tag. I think I'll just wait for a fix.

Puss In Boots...

2011-11-07T08:16:00.002-05:00

Last night Mom and I saw Puss In Boots. According to Wikipedia...

Puss in Boots, a 2011 computer-animated adventure film produced by DreamWorks Animation, is a spin-off prequel to the Shrek franchise, which follows the character Puss in Boots on his adventures before his first appearance in Shrek 2 in 2004.

The film starts with Puss escaping a bounty hunter and entering a nearby town. Puss learns that two murderous outlaws, Jack (Billy Bob Thornton) and Jill (Amy Sedaris) have the magic beans he's been looking for half his life, which lead to a giant's castle holding valuable golden goose eggs. When Puss tries to take them from the two outlaws, another cat with a mask interrupts. Both fail and escape, and Puss follows the cat back to his hideout, where they have both a dance and a sword fight. After getting hit in the head with a guitar by Puss during their fight, the other cat reveals that she is female, much to Puss's surprise. Puss then meets his old childhood friend Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis), who introduces her as Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek), one of the best cat thieves in the world. They ask him to join them in finding the beans, planting them, and getting the golden eggs which lie at the top. Puss refuses to work with Humpty due to a past betrayal that left him falsely accused for robbery, alienating him from his hometown and adoptive mother. Puss abandoned Humpty in disgust, leaving him to be apprehended by the authorities.

Puss In Boots was actually pretty good. There were some very nice elements in the feature -- in particular, the dance-off between Kitty and Puss. The setting of the feature is more in keeping with Zorro than with the medieval trappings in Shrek. The story-telling was not as strong as I would have liked, but, Puss In Boots managed to hold its own reasonably well. We had a good audience for the showing -- no cell phones or overly noisy peoples. And, since we arrived a bit early, we were able to stake out our favorite seats. Overall, it was a good night out and Puss In Boots was well worth the price of admission.

I like the new Blogger dynamic templates...

2011-10-24T08:38:00.000-04:00

I'm particularly fond of the Magazine template. At the time of this writing (October 2011), there is very little customization offered for the new templates. In addition, scripts appear to have been disabled. This would prevent me from dynamically replacing the rating images on-the-fly. The Blogger team has made assurances that these deficiencies will be dealt with in forthcoming software upgrades.

Of greater concern is the fact that the new templates do not appear to degrade nicely in older browsers. About half of my traffic comes from people using older browsers. The site displays a message in older browsers that the user needs to upgrade. The user is given an opportunity to proceed, but, since the bulk of my traffic comes from search engines, I would think that such a message would tend to discourage users from viewing the site.

Overall, while I'm very pleased with the new templates, there are still some usability issues to work through, so, I don't think I'll be one of the early adopters.

Last Unicorn to Return to Theaters...

2011-10-17T14:04:00.000-04:00

According to a post on the AnimeNation blog, a long-running dispute over unpaid royalties owed to Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn, appears to have been resolved...

In its latest e-mail newsletter, Conlan Press has formally announced that the 1982 animated film The Last Unicorn will be getting a theatrical re-release next year. “Starting early next year and running through the middle of 2013, there will be more than 80 special digital theater screenings of The Last Unicorn taking place in America, Canada, Great Britain, and Germany. [Last Unicorn author] Peter [S. Beagle] will be at every one of these events to do audience Q&A, meet people, and sign stuff.”Furthermore, the film will also be getting a five-million dollar digital overhaul. “Not remastering, mind you, but renovating: going through The Last Unicorn from end to end and top to bottom, spending five million dollars to upgrade the special visual effects and soundtrack, smooth out and improve character animation, finish background paintings that were never completed, and add five to eight minutes of entirely new shots and sequences that will bring the story to a whole new level. And when the work is done, this wonderful new 30th Anniversary Version will be given a worldwide theatrical release in both 2D and 3D.”The 1982 film was produced by American production company Rankin/Bass Productions and animated by Topcraft, the Japanese studio that animated Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind two years later.

While I am pleased to see an end to the legal dispute, I'm not so sure I'd want to see a "renovated" version of the Last Unicorn. The recent re-release of the Lion King featured a 3D reworking as well, so, I'd imagine that it could be done with a great deal of effort. And, such a renovation could potentially realize millions in profits. I'm still leery of the prospect of significant changes to the original work. Even with my reservations, some part of me is curious to see what the studio has in mind.

Mary and Max...

2011-10-13T22:01:00.003-04:00

Some time ago, I came across a wonderful animated movie, somewhere on the dial, called Mary and Max...

From Academy Award winning writer/director Adam Elliot and producer Melanie Coombs (HARVEY KRUMPET) comes the hilarious and moving new claymated feature film about the pen-pal relationship between two very different people: Mary Daisy Dinkle (voiced by Oscar nominee Toni Collette) is a lonely 8-year-old in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. Max Jerry Horovitz (Oscar winner Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is an obese 44-year-old with Asperger's Syndrome living in the chaos of New York City. Over the course of 20 years and 2 continents, their unusual journey of friendship will explore autism, taxidermy, alcoholism, where babies come from, kleptomania, sexual differences, trust, copulating dogs, religious differences, agoraphobia and more of life's big and little surprises.

Mary and Max follows the relationship of the two main characters, who carry a great deal of emotional baggage. The feature has an overall feeling of sadness, but, is redeemed by its irreverent and quirky humor and its warm and touching moments. The animation style is largely in shades of gray with a few touches of color sprinkled about. Overall, Mary and Max is well worth a peek, but, may not be for everyone.

Trigun...

2011-10-03T08:22:00.002-04:00

Recently, I picked up the new Trigun movie, Badlands Rumble...

In town surrounded by quicksand, an outlaw from Vash the Stampede's past has resurfaced after twenty years. His name is Gasback - and he's looking to cause a little trouble. It seems Gasback has a serious beef with the town's mayor, who's paying dozens of bounty hunters to protect his turf.

One of those hired guns is a beautiful woman with a vendetta against Gasback. Will she get a shot at revenge? Maybe, if she can get through Gasback's bodyguard, Wolfwood. And what's Vash got to do with this mess? Nothing much - except for the fact that he personally set off the entire chain of events two decades ago!

To refresh your memory, the original Trigun series plot summaries follow...

Volume 1
The $60,000,000,000 Man
The legendary Vash the Stampede is a gunfighter so ruthless he has a $$60,000,000,000 bounty on his head and entire towns evacuate at the rumor of his arrival. Fortunately, the real Vash the Stampede is more heroic - even if he does act like a complete idiot.

Volume 2
Lost Past
A city is dying, but when they decide Vash's bounty is the cure, will they find it comes with too high a price? The reckless pursuit of rewards or revenge sometimes leads away from the true goals of life - love and peace. It's time for Vash to show what he can do when his past comes back to haunt him.

Volume 3
Wolfwood
Wolfwood, the man of the cloth with the cross, is also a gunman with a past. Like Vash, Wolfwood travels to find redemption in the desert but continually finds that confrontations with one's past can be far more deadly than a duel with pistols. Will these two kindred souls walk the same path or find each other obstacles to survival?

Volume 4
Gung-Ho Guns
Which is the real face of Vash? The clown, the saint, or the killer? Vash reveals more of his character and more of his secrets as he takes on a contract to kill, and then faces a man whose sole purpose in life is to destroy Vash! When a man is programmed to kill, can he deny his destiny?

Volume 5
Angel Arms
Bonds of love and friendship are strong, but some can only be preserved when they are severed. Vash must leave his friends and happiness behind as he walks the treacherous and bloody path prepared by Legato. The body count begins to rise as Gung-Ho Guns enters the picture, but Vash will do anything he can to preserve life!

Volume 6
Project Seeds
The seeds of life also spawned the seeds of death, but it is human nature to survive. Despite his urge for a simple life, Vash's past and his present continue to collide, and with Wolfwood's help, Vash resumes his crusade to save the world. Knives, puppets, and revenge versus love and peace!

Volume 7
Puppet Master
Vash leaps into the heart of the storm and leads Wolfwood to the space ship that failed to crash. Unfortunately the Gung-ho Guns have also invaded paradise with two purposes - destroy a sanctuary for humans, and to inflict as much pain to Vash as possible. Wolfwood chooses to side with Vash, but questions his ability to win - will Wolfwood walk the path of destruction again?!

Volume 8
High Noon
The choices one makes. The excuses one uses. What do they mean in the end if you don't get what you want? The time for the ultimate showdown has arrived, but will Vash be able to save everyone?

The first half of the original Trigun series has a light comedic tone. Vash doesn't reveal much about himself early on, preferring to be seen as an embarrassing dork or idiot savant. As the series progresses we learn a bit more about Vash's past and the series takes a decidedly dark turn. There is some violence and bloodshed, but, no naughty bits. I wasn't too sure about the series at first, but, after catching a few episodes on Cartoon Network, I grew to like it.

The movie takes place in the same world as the original series, but, is a self-contained story in an of itself. You don't need to have seen the original series to enjoy the movie. The movie is classic Vash at its best and we get to be reunited with all of our long lost friends from the original series. The movie is a good addition to the Trigun series.

Dot, on the AnimeNation forum, comments on a change to the English voice cast...

Following is a letter from my fellow cast member of the original Trigun series, Jeff Nimoy. It sucks that Funimation did this to both me (Meryl, original series) and Jeff. He posted it on animenewsnetwork… here ya go!

“Sorry to all the fans, I would have loved to play Wolfwood again and dub the Trigun movie, but Funimation dubbed it already without me. They called me and wanted me to fly myself out to Texas from Los Angeles and put myself up in a hotel while they paid me less than the original series paid. I would have lost money on the deal.? Then when I asked for more money, they went ahead and replaced me. Pretty cheap, huh? I guess they don’t care about the fans. Sorry, guys, I would have loved to play Wolfwood again, but remember, I’ll always be the original! -Jeff Nimoy”

Yup, in the midst of negotiating we suddenly got radio silence – and found out (from someone else!) that they went ahead and recorded it without us. I thought we were reaching a final compromise – apparently Funi did not. Anyway, sorry guys, I just had to spew! xoxo Dorothy Fahn (Melendrez)

But, since I prefer to read my anime, I didn't really notice the change. These things happen. Don't read too much into it. Money is still green and will always have a thing or two to say in business decisions. But, even so, I'm still happy to have had the opportunity to re-visit Vash and the world of Trigun. The series, as a whole, gets a 4 out of 5 and the movie fits in very nicely with that score.

Squid Girl...

2011-09-30T13:45:00.000-04:00

I recently picked up Squid Girl aka Shinryaku! Ika Musume...

Foolish land-born air breathers! Behold the terror from the depths, the tentacled conqueror of humanity: Squid Girl! With your pollution and stuff you really deserve it, so prepare for menacing, inky doom!

Squid Girl has come from the depths of the sea to conquer humanity for its pollution of the ocean. Within moments of arriving on the surface world, our easily distracted little invertebrate is promptly bullied into working for the Aizawa sisters as a waitress, supplying their restaurant with squid ink. If poor Squid Girl can't handle two pushy Japanese girls, how will she ever subjugate the human race?

Squid Girl is, as one would expect, a fairly silly series. There's nothing truly extraordinary about the series, but, it is still very enjoyable. Squid Girl is superbly stupid, but, I still had a lot of fun watching the series. I'm not sure, at this point, that I would want to watch both volumes of the series. Although, I might purchase the other volume just to complete the series.

The animation quality is reasonable given the subject matter -- expectations are not very high. The comedy is fast-paced, but, not as overwhelmingly fast-paced as Pani Poni Dash or Dragon Half. Much of the humor comes from Squid Girl's unfamiliarity with humanity and human culture. Although, the series is silly, it somehow manages to not be quite as silly and over the top as Excel Saga. Squid Girl is a nice family-friendly, almost slice of life drama, only with a confused squid girl with aspirations of world domination. Although cast in an entirely different mold, the nearest American counterpart might be Pinky and the Brain. There are no naughty bits or gore to speak of. Overall, Squid Girl is cute, fish-oriented fun and I give the series a 3 out of 5.

Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne...

2011-08-12T00:39:00.168-04:00

Recently, I picked up Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne...

Rin Asogi is an immortal private detective with a thirst for vodka and a talent for attracting things that go bump in the night. In a series of nightmarish vignettes spanning sixty-five years, Rin's lush body is sadistically pierced, blown up, and mulched to a bloody pulp. The fiend behind her tortured existence is Apos, an eternal being obsessed with sacrificing Rin to Yggdrasil, the tree of all life.

While Rin struggles to unravel the secrets of her endless agony, Apos lurks in the shadows, eager to tear into her ripe body and devour the memories of her countless lives. Rin's no stranger to the realm of the dead, but her next visit could last forever.

Somehow, I managed to overlook Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne during its original release. I caught a preview of the series recently and it looked very intense. The image, of two people seated on either side of a chess board with one of the two horribly mutilated and impaled by all manner of sharp implements while the other was casually seated, was just too shocking to ignore. On the strength of the preview, I immediately picked up the series.

John of AnimeNation comments on Mnemosyne...

... Given my personal penchant for anime of the 1980s and early 90s, it’s inevitable that I’d be a fan of the 2008 Mnemosyne television series. (I’m aware that the length of the episodes, and the total of only 6 episodes suggests that Mnemosyne should be considered an OVA series, but the program was promoted as a Japanese television broadcast series, so I consider it a TV series.) ... With its components consisting of attractive women, sex appeal, a sci-fi/fantasy theme, plenty of gruesome gore, and a somewhat indecipherable story that fills in narrative gaps with pure atmosphere, Mnemosyne practically is an 80′s or early 90′s anime production animated in 2008. ... The show is adult, stylish, smart, sexy, and violent. With the exception of having a strong leading male character, Mnemosyne provides everything that many American anime viewers appreciate about anime. ...

Early on in Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne, we meet the main villains. Laura, an assassin, skilled with firearms and other weapons, repeatedly tries to assassinate our heroine, Rin. Sayara has a sadistic personality, often torturing her captives to death. Apos, the main antagonist, seems to have no concept of human morals but instead, has a sadistic sense of amusement and beauty. Apos is sometimes seen in his castle, playing a tortured variant of chess with immortals.

Mnemosyne is certainly not for the younger anime fans among us. There is plenty of gore and more than a few naughty bits. When Sayara encounters Rin, although, we only catch a few glimpses of their time together, the aftermath is not pleasant.

Even though Laura, throughout the series, doesn't do anything nice to Rin at all, I found myself looking forward to Laura's appearances, since her appearances serve to break up some of the monotony of the series and add a bit of sparkle to what would otherwise be a very dark and depressing series.

I was thoroughly impressed with Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne. I give it a 4 out of 5.

Highschool of the Dead...

2011-08-11T08:30:00.001-04:00

I picked up Highschool of the Dead recently...

It began without warning. It continues without mercy. Now a band of high schoolers join forces with guns, swords, baseball bats and anything else they can get their hands on to battle a bloodthirsty, flesh-hungry zombie apocalypse!

Blood and gore abound -- Highschool of the Dead is certainly not for those who fear red ink. HOTD is like every zombie movie I've ever seen, but, with subtitles and fan service. All of the usual zombie-tropes are explored -- people being ripped apart, head-smashing, child zombies munching on their parents, and so on. By the way, the zombies in HOTD are of the classic slow-moving variety. These zombies are attracted to sound, but, cannot see. They have difficulty navigating stairs or steep inclines and although, they are very strong, they show no evidence of cognitive ability, such as problem solving or being able to use tools.

There is quite a lot of fan service (tight costumes, short skirts, bare skin and suggestive situations and dialogue) in the series, so, HOTD is probably not suitable for the younger anime fans among us. The animation quality has that nice clean polished look that I've come to expect in more recent anime. Despite, the copious amounts of blood spilled in the series, there is not a whole lot of eye candy to speak of. I found the series very entertaining and overall, I was quite pleased. I give HOTD a 4 out of 5.

My Dear Marie...

2011-07-06T07:59:00.003-04:00

I've recently taken the opportunity to re-visit My Dear Marie...

Ever met the prefect girl? Did she have the perfect boyfriend? Feel like you can't compete? Why not build your own? When a mad scientist attempts to build a robotic duplicate of his dream girl, Marie is the result. Of course, there are the usual unexpected complications. He built her too well and Marie has a mind of her own and a whole host of questions to go with it. The same questions that each of us ask of life. Where did I come from? Why am I here? Why do I look just like that girl over there?! Well, perhaps we don't all have to worry about that, but Marie does! To make a good deal even better, My Dear Marie comes complete with all three episodes!

Awkward Karigari imagines his problems are solved when he builds his own ideal android girlfriend. Things don't quite go as planned when Marie treats him like a brother, but maybe a female influence is just the thing to help Karigari find a real, human girlfriend.

MDM starts out like "Weird Science"- geek uses science to build his ideal girl. The first of three episodes employs a three-way love triangle between the geek, the robot, and the geek's "girlfriend".

The second episode brings in a new character and is not as much fun as the first episode and really detracts from the whole.

The third episode asks the question: "What would a robot dream ?"... It's strange and a lot of fun- contains homages to a bunch of shows (Cool Devices (or something along that line), Gatchaman, Captain Harlock (I think ?), and others). I really like the talking tennis ball.

Although some of the dream sequences are a bit on the suggestive side, there are no naughty bits to speak of. There's also no gore to speak of either as this short series is more of a situation comedy. I was a bit annoyed that the story-tellers didn't really develop the characters as much as I would have liked. Overall, MDM sits somewhere between Key: The Metal Idol and Cat-girl Nuku Nuku, but, isn't anywhere near as good as either of them. MDM is somewhat mediocre, but, does have some redeeming qualities. I recently noticed that this title was repackaged under the titles "Metal Idol Marie" and "Metal Angel Marie". I give My Dear Marie a 2 out of 5.

I purchased MDM on VHS, but, in the aftermath of the Ultimate Otaku Fall Cleanup, MDM was one of the titles that I allowed to slip away. Recently though, I've re-purchased MDM on DVD. Not to suggest that I've changed my mind on the title by re-purchasing it, but, I really do like the talking tennis ball.

Thundarr the Barbarian...

2011-05-23T08:10:00.001-04:00

Recently, after more work than I'd care to admit, I managed to complete my own collection of Thundarr the Barbarian...

Man's civilization is cast in ruin when a runaway planet speeds between the Earth and the Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction. Two-thousand years later, Earth is reborn from the ashes with a savage landscape, strange creatures and a primitive sense of justice. But one man fights to spread peace throughout the land: he is Thundarr the Barbarian and you can own All 21 Exciting Adventures starring Thundarr and his companions Ookla the Mok and sorceress Princess Ariel. Using their strength, courage and wits plus Thundarr's magical Sunsword, they journey from village to village, liberating slaves and battling all kinds of beasts, mutants, wizards, thieves and robots. The future of Earth may be shrouded in darkness, but Thundarr the Barbarian bursts into action as a shining symbol of hope for humanity.

I had a handful of episodes preserved in the archives from the time when I still had VHS tapes, but, I felt it was time to complete my Thundarr collection while the series was still being broadcast at a convenient time on Cartoon Network. I painstakingly archived all of the episodes that I could get my hands on and assembled my own collection. Sure, I could have just bought the "Manufacture on Demand" (MOD) version from Amazon, but, where's the fun in that.

Despite its age and the passing of the prophesied end of man's civilization, the series has managed to hold up surprisingly well and is still quite entertaining. My favorite episodes are the two episodes where Gemini appears (The Black Pearl and Last Train to Doomsday) and of course, Mindok the Mind Menace.

Kashimashi...

2011-05-19T13:49:00.002-04:00

Recently, I picked up Kashimashi...

Hazumu was a shy boy who enjoyed gardening, collecting herbs, and long walks in the mountains. One day he finally worked up the courage to confess his love to Yasuna, but she rejected him. Depressed, he wandered up Mt. Kashimayama, the place where they first met, to reconsider his feelings. After getting lost, he wished upon a shooting star and received a bizarre twist of fate. Now he is a she, and she stumbles headfirst back into social life and relationships only to find that the entire landscape has changed!

After reading the description, I thought that Kashimashi might be a fairly typical role reversal situation comedy -- and in many ways, it is. I was unfamiliar with the series, so, I didn't already know how the role reversal was going to take place. My initial thoughts turned to Ranma 1/2 and the mystical spring that caused him/her so many problems. But, then the aliens showed up. And, in a twist of fate that combines Birdy: The Mighty and Urusei Yatsura, the aliens (who, by the way, look surprisingly human) managed to complicate Hazumu's life.

Of course, Kashimashi derives much of its humor from gender confusion. But, there are also some very poinient moments where Hazumu's friends have great difficulty accepting the change. I'm reminded of similar issues touched upon in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and a bit more extensively in Star Trek: Deep Space 9. When a race of beings called Trills change host bodies, they sometimes have difficulty continuing relationships with humans after the move to a new body.

Kashimashi isn't as overtly gender confused as Princess Princess, but, there are plenty of gender bending moments nonetheless. The series does contain some frank and suggestive dialogue, but, there are no naughty bits to speak of. Overall, I found Kashimashi to be fairly entertaining. I give it a 3 out of 5.

Antique Bakery...

2011-04-19T08:09:00.000-04:00

I picked up Antique Bakery recently...

In food and in life, one must taste what is bitter to appreciate what is sweet...

Troubled by memories of the past that continue to invade his dreams of the present, Keiichiro Tachibana stuns everyone who knows him by abruptly quitting his ordinary office job to open a bakery. He envisions a predominantly feminine clientele and a wait staff of cute girls - but instead, his employees include a playboy patissier who's been fired from every job he's ever had, an ex-boxer with an insatiable sweet tooth, and an absent-minded childhood friend and old family servant. Can this unlikely quartet overcome personal tragedies, learn to work together, and discover a recipe for culinary success?

I've seen the first few episodes and so far, I'm a bit underwhelmed by the series. Basically, it's a slice-of-life drama about the lives of four young men who work at a bakery. Right Stuf is generally noted for bringing obscure titles to the U.S. that might not otherwise be given an opportunity for domestic release. Sometimes their releases are really entertaining like Leda: Fantastic Adventures Of Yohko or Irresponsible Captain Tylor and sometimes their titles are not so entertaining such as Ai City, Godmars and Towards The Terra. But, generally speaking Right Stuf releases don't usually lie in the middle of the road -- they generally reside in one extreme or the other. Of course, I did my homework and I expected something of this sort and perhaps later episodes will prove to be a bit more entertaining, but, my early impression is not good.

Evangelion 2.22: You Can (Not) Advance...

2011-04-07T14:06:00.000-04:00

Recently, I picked up the second installment of the relaunch of Evangelion...

In the earliest battles against the monstrous Angels, young Eva pilots Shinji and Rei were forced to carry humanity's hopes on their shoulders. Now, with the deadly onslaught of the Angels escalating and the apocalyptic Third Impact looming, Shinji and Rei find their burden shared by two new Eva pilots, the fiery Asuka and the mysterious Mari. Maneuvering their enormous Eva machines into combat, the four young souls fight desperately to save mankind from the heavens - but will they be able to save themselves?

Wow. Just when I thought I couldn't fall in love with Evangelion again the second installment of the relaunch just blew me away. After seeing the original series with its controversial ending and the two movies with a different, but no less controversial ending, the initial relaunch was certainly more highly polished than the original production, but, felt very familiar as it told essentially the same story.

The second installment has the same highly polished feel as the first installment, but, departs from the original in a number of significant ways -- I won't spoil it for you -- but, be prepared to be amazed. One of the more significant departures from the original story line is shown on the inner cover art for the DVD release -- Mari, the pilot of Evangelion unit 5. Eye candy abounds throughout the feature. There is some blood to be seen, but, there are no naughty bits to speak of. Overall, I was very pleased with the feature.

Tales From Earthsea...

2011-04-05T20:08:00.075-04:00

I picked up Tales From Earthsea recently...

Based on the classic "Earthsea" fantasy book series by Ursula K. Le Guin, Tales From Earthsea is set in a mythical world filled with magic and bewitchment. In the land of Earthsea, crops are dwindling, dragons have reappeared and humanity is giving way to chaos. Journey with Lord Archmage Sparrowhawk, a masterwizard, and Arren, a troubled young prince, on a tale of redemption and self-discovery as they search for the force behind the mysterious imbalance that threatens to destroy their world.

The animation quality is quite high and very consistent with other Studio Ghibli productions. The story, however, is a bit weak. While there is plenty of material in the world of Earthsea to work with, a large part of the movie is spent looking at pretty scenery. And, the dragons, although beautifully and stunningly rendered, make all too brief appearances at the start and end of the feature -- I really, really wanted to see more of the dragons.

There are some very nice moments in the feature, but, they occur rather infrequently in this nearly two-hour epic. There was some action in the last quarter of the feature as events build rather quickly near the end. As is the case in some foreign films, this feature does not have a typical Disney-like ending. The dubbing, as with other Disney productions, is really good. I thoroughly enjoyed the English dub as much as the original Japanese dialogue.

Overall, Tales From Earthsea was beautifully animated, but, thoroughly uninteresting. In my humble opinion, this feature is not a promising addition to the directing career of Goro Miyazaki. I give it a 2 out of 5.

Our Home's Fox Deity...

2011-04-04T13:33:00.003-04:00

Recently, I ordered Our Home's Fox Deity. At first, I wasn't sure why my local video store didn't feel a compelling need to carry this set of DVDs, but then, when the DVDs arrived, their logic suddenly became clear. Each of the DVD sets were packaged in over sized cases, each with two thin DVD cases placed side-by-side in the container along with hard-cover art books. Clearly this type of packaging, while being very nice for collectors, will not fit in the space allowed in most brick-and-mortar store shelves (or for that matter, the shelves of a humble anime collector such as yours truly).

Volume 1
The Takagami brothers are protected by a mischievous, supernatural fox named Kugen. Together with absent-minded shrine maiden Ko, their adventures are full of action and comedy in this mysterious story. Extraordinary things happen in their ordinary lives.

Volume 2
Kugen meets its sibling, Gyokuyo, for the first time in centuries during the joyful clamor of the Culture Festival at Akagi. Though Kugen thought nothing of the time it remained sealed, Gyokuyo saw things differently. Swearing revenge on the humans who harmed its only kin, Gyokuyo plots various schemes. Even more trouble comes to the Takagami brothers involving gods, werewolves, and the lost clan of the oni!

I watched the entire series in one sitting -- I was very tired afterwards. Our Home's Fox Deity combines some harem elements reminiscent of classic series like Tenchi Muyo, some elements of the monster-of-the-week genre as envisioned by series like Zenki and its own unique elements -- like the god of commerce managing the local convenience store -- to form something both familiar and new.

The animation quality has that clean and well-polished look that I've come to expect in more recent productions. There isn't very much in the way of eye-candy, but, the story is fast-paced, funny and engaging. The series is really more or a situation-comedy with elements of horror and action thrown in for good measure.

The monsters are not always what you might expect -- like the "bimbogami", a spirit that absorbs small amounts of good luck from each person it encounters, leaving modestly unlucky people in its wake. Even the oni, the horned-monsters of traditional Japanese lore, spoofed infamously in Urusei Yatsura, are given their own unique twist.

Kugen, the wolf spirit, is capable of transforming itself from either a male to a female form or a wolf form. Some of the humor of the series comes from Kugen's ability to change his/her/its appearance at will.

Overall, I was really vary pleased with the series. There are no naughty bits or gore to speak of and the series seems tame enough for even the younger anime fans among us. Of course, you will have to read your anime as the series is subtitled. The only drawback that I have is the awkward size of the packaging -- it won't fit comfortably on the shelf with my other DVDs. That being said, I'll just need to find a different way to display odd-sized sets such as this. I give Our Home's Fox Deity a 4 out of 5.

Reboot...

2011-03-16T13:43:00.000-04:00

I picked up the Reboot Season 1 and 2 box set...

Welcome to Mainframe. Home to Guardian Bob, formatted to mend and defend. Join the fast-paced action and adventure as Bob and his friends Dot, her brother Enzo and his trusty dog Frisket fend off attacks from the superviruses known as Megabyte and Hexadecimal in their relentless pursuit of chaos and the destruction of Mainframe.

Known as the very first completely computer-animated half-hour TV series, ReBoot debuted in the United States on ABC’s Saturday-morning block in 1994 and has captured the hearts and imaginations of kids and gamers ever since!

I had preserved a handful of episodes on VHS and even picked up a couple of DVDs when they were available. It's good to finally have this series on DVD at last. Even though Reboot is in excess of 16 years old at this point, the series still manages to hold up very well. Technological changes over the years have led to more realistic character animation in general, more realistic rendering of the human form and the use of more elaborate backgrounds. When compared to TV animation like Jimmy Neutron or Fanboy and Chum-Chum, Reboot still compares rather favorably. But, the fact that Reboot still manages to hold its own, indicates the level of quality the animators were able to achieve with the technology of the day.

I saw the first couple of seasons on ABC, but, after Reboot left network TV for syndication, I didn't see Reboot again until it surfaced on VHS, and later DVD, sometime in the mid-90s. The latter two seasons, which aired somewhere in syndication, take a darker turn than the earlier two seasons. And, thanks to advances in technology, the animation quality is noticeably better.

Bubblegum Crisis...

2011-02-17T21:29:00.000-05:00

According to an Animerica article circa 2004...

Originally released in Japan in 1987, BGC (then fully titled "Bubblegum Crisis: The Story of the Knight Sabers—Mega-Tokyo 2032") was a humble straight-to-video project featuring rather spotty animation quality and running less than an hour. However, it had something. Set in Mega-Tokyo (the city rebuilt after a second Great Kanto Earthquake) in 2032, BGC followed four young women who moonlighted as an armored mercenary/vigilante team called the Knight Sabers. Opposing them is Genom, the world's largest corporation and the manufacturer of Boomers—a series/race of mechanoids designed to serve man but who often threaten us in berserker fits. Caught in the middle is the hapless AD (Advanced) Police, a heavily armed anti-terrorist and anti-Boomer team.

Heavily influenced by the cyberpunk live-action film Blade Runner (1982) and the "rock and roll fable" Streets of Fire (1984), BGC was both a product of its times and something fresh and new. The anime perfectly captured the characteristic '80s obsession with anti-corporate anxiety, post-apocalypse survivalism, and technology run rampant. For good measure, it added heavy doses of superheroing, rock 'n' roll, mecha combat, and hot chicks. Talk about a recipe for success! The resultant brew was well-met in Japan, but was a smash hit in America's then-nascent anime environment.

Well-conceived by Suzuki, BGC had enough grabbing elements and mysterious plotlines to support nigh-endless development. Bubblegum Crisis proper carried on for eight OAV (Original Animation Video) installments, with each episode featuring better animation, writing, and directing than those before it. (The design work was always top-notch, however.) Now-bigwig designer/director Masami Obari (Fatal Fury, Battle Arena Toshinden) directed fan-favorite episodes 5 and 6, but troubles within Artmic and Youmex brought the series to an early close. Meanwhile, Suzuki had written an A.D. Police manga (illustrated by Tony Takezaki) that garnered praise as Japan's bible of all things cyberpunk.

Episode 1
Tinsel City
It is the year 2032 A.D. Like a Phoenix, the city of MegaTokyo is rising from the ashes of a devastating earthquake. In the twisted canyons of the megalopolis, the Knight Sabers, a small band of high-tech mercenaries, fight a lonely battle against the evil GENOM Corporation and it's sinister android "Boomers." A hard-rock soundtrack and gritty "cyberpunk" style propel this intense action film into an all too probable future, where technology has run amuck, and emotion is all that separates man from machine.
Episode 2
Born To Kill
It is the year 2032 A.D. The private war between the Knight Sabers and the GENOM Corporation heats up when GENOM recovers the "black box" the controls the U.S.S.D. satellite weapons system from the wreckage of Aqua City. Mason, the sinister GENOM executive in charge of the project, incorporates the black box into his pet project, the Superboomer android, and sets his Boomer assassins on the trail of anyone who stands in his way - including a friend of one of the Knight Sabers.
Episode 3
Blow Up
It is the year 2032 A.D. The GENOM Corporation's plan for "Urban Renewal" of MegaTokyo involves the use of Combat "Boomer" androids to terrorize the population and induce them to sell their land - cheaply. In other words, it's business as usual at the world's largest company. Meanwhile, Mason, the sinister GENOM executive whose plans have twice before been thwarted by the Knight Sabers, is determined to discover their secret identities and destroy them once and for all. When GENOM accidentally kills the mother of a young boy who has been befriended by Priss, reason can no longer hold emotion in check, and the Knight Sabers launch an attack on GENOM's huge, monolithic headquarters - and face a final confrontation with Mason at it's very summit.
Episode 4
Revenge Road
It is the year 2033 A.D. After their victory over GENOM and the evil Mason, the Knight Sabers take time out for a little fun. But all is not well in MegaTokyo. A mysterious black car, the "Griffon", is hunting down the rebellious bikers known as Outsiders. When Priss tangles with the Griffon on her new bike, she ends up with more than a few lumps and a score to settle. Enlisting the aid of Nene, the Knight Sabers' mole inside the AD Police, she begins her own private investigation. They soon narrow down the list of suspects to one man, Gibson, the victim of an Outsider attack. Meanwhile, Gibson makes the final adjustments to his terrible masterpiece. The Griffon emerges once again to stalk it's prey, AD Police springs a deadly trap, and the Knight Sabers race against time to prevent a tragedy.
Episode 5
Moonlight Rambler
It is the year 2033 A.D. A group of young women make a panicked escape from an orbiting industrial complex, crashing a stolen space shuttle on the outskirts of MegaTokyo. Priss finds a new friend, but what secret is she hiding? Could it have anything to do with the recent rash of "Vampire" murders? Or is that the result of skullduggery at GENOM, Inc.? Who is the mysterious Largo who seems to know altogether too much about the Knight Sabers? And just where is the D.D., a semi-intelligent battlesuit with an atomic dead man switch? The AD Police and the Knight Sabers race to gather the clues, and the result is a countdown to... DESTRUCTION!
Episode 6
Red Eyes
It is the year 2033 A.D. The mysterious Largo infiltrates GENOM and uses look-alike Boomers to frame the Knight Sabers. It's all part of his master plan to reshape the world into his terrifying vision of paradise. Helping him is Anri, the 33-S "Sexaroid" Boomer who, after the death of Sylvie in "Moonlight Rambler", is the last surviving space-station fugitive. Priss, heartbroken because she could not prevent Sylvie's death, resigns from the team. When Largo's imposters reappear, the three remaining Knight Sabers are seriously outclassed. Meanwhile, a chance encounter with Leon and a near-miss by an orbital bean weapon put Priss on Largo's trail. Largo faces down Quincey, the elusive chairman of GENOM, and demands that he hand over the Overmind Control System. Seeking to atone for Sylvie's death by rescuing Anri, Priss takes on Largo alone. A BIG mistake. Perhaps the last mistake Priss will ever make!
Episode 7
Double Vision
Houston, Texas, 2033 A.D. A GENOM executive inks a pact with the Gulf and Bradley Corporation to produce a sophisticated new combat Boomer. McLaren, GandB's Boomer expert, is looking forward to sampling the pleasures of MegaTokyo while working on the project. The festivities are rudely interrupted by a powerful crab-like Mecha. McLaren is the only survivor of the attack. Meanwhile, in MegaTokyo, the big news is the upcoming concert by Vision, a very famous and very mysterious Rock Star. Need we mention that Priss is not at all impressed? Vision's concert is just a cover. She's really here to avenge the murder of her little sister, Irene, who was murdered by a Boomer in "Born to Kill." Assisted by the faithful Kou, she attacks the research center in her Mecha but her reluctance to kill innocent bystanders dooms the attempt to failure. McLaren, more than a little unnerved by the attack, arranges for some protection - The Knight Sabers!
Episode 8
Scoop Chase
It is the year 2033 A.D. Would-be VidReporter Lisa Vanotte films the Knight Sabers in action, forcing Priss to destroy her father's favorite camera. Lisa vows to get even by discovering their true identities. When you want to dig up dirt in MegaTokyo, it doesn't hurt to be the Chief of A.D. Police's favorite niece! An unfortunate Nene finds herself saddled with the job of escorting Lisa around town. Despite a discouraging start, Lisa proves to be more difficult to mislead than Nene anticipates, and she almost manages to discover the Knight Sabers' secret training facility at Raven's garage. Lisa isn't Nene's only problem. Once again, her latest combat simulation is well below par, and the rest of the Knight Sabers won't let her forget it. They won't let her forget those extra pounds she's put on, either. Lisa refuses to give up her quest, and eventually persistence pays off. She obtains a photograph that proves Nene is a Knight Saber. Sylia, hoping to protect their identities, pays Lisa a visit, and tries to explain what the Knight Sabers' true purpose is. Meanwhile, Dr. Yoshida, a truly demented GENOM scientist, has secretly built a new type of Boomer. He decides to test them out by having them destroy A.D. Police H.Q. By hacking into the building's central computer one of the Boomers turns the building into an automated death-trap. Now Lisa's scoop may become an obituary -- her own!
Hurricane Live 2032 (Music From Bubblegum Crisis)
Now you can experience the hottest hits of 2032 MegaTokyo, in 5 pulse-pounding Music Videos created from the images and music of the revolutionary animated science fiction series, "Bubblegum Crisis."
Hurricane Live 2033 (More Music From Bubblegum Crisis)
Now you can bop to the time-warped beat of the hottest hits of 2033 MegaTokyo, in 7 thundering Music Videos created from the images and music of the revolutionary animated science fiction series, "Bubblegum Crisis," including live action sequences from the special "Tinsel City Rhapsody" concerts!

Bubblegum Trivia

Liner Notes From Episode 8 --

According to Suzuki Toshirnichi, Priss was slated to die ad the end of episode 6, and be replaced by Vision, because Oomori Kinuko was contractually unable to continue singing in the series [after episode 3]. Mr. Suzuki wrote 5-7 personally to engineer the change, but Priss was saved by a last minute change of heart. --- Source: Liner notes from episode 7.

Attentive readers will recall that, in the notes for Part 7, "Double Vision", we mentioned that the reason Oomori Kinuko had not performed any of the solo vocals after Part 3, "Blow Up," [because] she had landed a singing contract with, to quote Fujita Junji, President of Youmex, and Executive and Music Producer for Bubblegum Crisis, "a certain record company," and her contractual obligations effectively prevented her from singing solo in the series.

Those same readers may also note that, despite such statements, Oomori is back performing a solo vocal in... episode [8]: the theme song, "Chase the Dream". If you're wondering what gives, or even if you're not, there is an explanation. According to Mr. Fujita, around the time this episode was originally in production (mid-lo-late 1990), Oomori Kinuko, was forming a new band, SILK. When the video was originally released in Japan (January, 1991), SILK also released its first album, also called "SILK." The connection is that "Chase the Dream" was originally recorded by SILK for its debut album, and borrowed afterward by Youmex for use as this episode's theme. A similar thing happened with "Mr. Dandy," the ending theme to the original "Bubblegum Crisis" (now officially called "Tinsel City"), which was originally recorded by a band named "Bluew"(no misprint) for their debut mini-album, before being included in the video.

By the way, the band SILK takes its name from Oomori Kinuko's nickname, SILK, which is itself derived from the Kanji "Kinu" in her name, Kinuko, which literally translates as "Silk".

The scruffy, worn-out view of the not-too-distant future envisions beings called "boomers" who work and sometimes fight with humans. Bubblegum Crisis has a complex storyline spanning several episodes. The series is also notable for its groundbreaking use of music.

When Bubblegum Crisis came to the U.S. in the mid-80's, it was fairly expensive for a "cartoon" at $40, and it was less than an hour, and I would have to read! It took me a good long while before I could convince myself to pay $40 for the first episode.

BTW, the first episode was originally untitled by AnimEigo when it was released in the U.S. - the packaging reads: "Episode 1 of 8".

But, it was soooo good. I can still remember rushing into work the next day and announcing to my co-workers that one of the characters in the series had died. After all, it was the first time since I saw Bambi's mother die that I saw someone die in a cartoon! Well, my co-workers weren't nearly as excited about this shocking turn of events as I was.

This is one of my favorite series. A large series with lots of music, but, well worth the expense. I used to have all 10 individual subtitled VHS (this includes two music video collections - Hurricane Live 2032/33). Later, I repurchased the series on DVD and when a new and improved DVD box set came out, I repurchased the series again. Bubblegum Crisis is one of the few titles that I've paid to have three times.

Sacred Blacksmith...

2011-02-03T13:09:00.001-05:00

I picked up Sacred Blacksmith recently...

Cecily's a blushing knight in shining armor. Unfortunately, it seems most battles end with her as the damsel in distress. Her lack of skill and distaste for violence make her an unlikely heroine - until the brooding blacksmith Luke comes to her aid, using his powerful magic to forge blades of supernatural strength. Cecily wields this sacred steel and charges forth to face a dangerous new threat. A cloaked fiend is unleashing demons upon the land, and though he lurks in shadows, the villain is much closer than Cecily can imagine.

I've seen the first few episodes of Sacred Blacksmith, and, so far, I'm pleased with the series. So far, I've seen some elements that are very reminiscent of Claymore -- monsters that were once human and other elements that I've seen in other series, but, used in a refreshingly new way. Unlike Claymore, Sacred Blacksmith is not a brooding and malevolent -- there are glimpses of darker undercurrents yet to come, but, so far, the mood is decidedly less dreary. There is some humor in Sacred Blacksmith, often at the expense of either Cecily or Luke which serves to lighten what would otherwise be a dark and dreary series.

The animation quality is quite good. Sacred Blacksmith has a clean, well-polished look and feel that I've come to expect in relatively modern productions. So far, the creature effects have been consistent with Claymore -- minus the sparkly silver and gold eyes. While there are no naughty bits to speak of, there is some fan service and plenty of bloodshed and gore. So, the series might not be suitable for the younger anime fans among us.

I picked up the box set and it looks like there's room in the box for two additional DVDs, so, I would imagine that a part two will come at some point. Although the pace of the series is a bit slow, so far, I have high hopes for the series and will continue to support the series in the future. All things considered, I found Sacred Blacksmith entertaining and expect to finish watching the series (or at least the portion that I have on hand) in fairly short order. I give the series a 3 out of 5.

Update

Monday, February 07, 2011

I have seen the first two DVDs (part one) of Sacred Blacksmith and my original assessment stands -- the series has shades of Claymore within, but, is not as dark and brooding as Claymore. I found the series entertaining and I will continue to support the series in future.

Genshiken...

2011-01-27T08:26:00.003-05:00

I picked up Genshiken recently...

Sasahara appears to be a quiet college freshman, but a certain darkness lurks within his soul. For one thing, he knows what "cosplay" is, and he'd like to know more. He knows how to unlock all the secret characters in Guilty Gear X, and he'd like to know more. He knows what the plot twist is going to be in episode twenty-five of Kujibiki Unbalance because he's read the manga, and he'd like to know more. He's heard of doujinshi, and he NEEDS to know more. Enter Genshiken, the barely legitimized Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture, home to all the various subspecies of Otaku!

I've seen the first few episodes of the series and, so far, I'm very pleased. Genshiken is a slice-of-life drama that revolves around the experiences of a group of Japanese fans -- otaku. The series has a nice mix of dramatic and comedic elements. Although the discussions can be somewhat suggestive at times, there are no naughty bits to speak of. Of course, being a slice-of-life drama, there isn't going to be a lot of opportunity for blood and gore, so, don't look for any here.

Not unlike, its earlier cousin, Otaku no Video, Genshiken strives to mock and have a bit of fun at the expense of obsessed fans, but, not so much, as to be offensive or cruel -- it was written by fans for fans. Fans of what, you might be asking. In Japan, otaku, has a much broader definition than in the U.S. -- it refers to anyone with a devoted interest in something -- not just anime and manga. But, of course fans of anime and manga are prominently featured in the series. Overall, I found the series to be very entertaining. I give it a 3 out of 5. By the way, I picked up all of the individual volumes of the first and second series.

Update

Monday, February 07, 2011

I've seen the entire series, including the OVA. My only complaint, is that the OVAs were not packaged together. They were divided up amongst the individual volumes of Kujibiki Unbalance. So, I also purchased the Kujibiki Unbalance series just to have the OVAs. Of course, if I was willing to wait, I could just repurchase the entire first season when it's re-released as Genshiken DX or if I was willing to wait a bit longer, I could repurchase the entire first and second season when it's re-released as a complete series box set.

Black Butler...

2011-01-26T08:22:00.000-05:00

I picked up Black Butler recently...

Ciel Phantomhive is the most powerful boy in all of England, but he bears the scars of unspeakable suffering. Forced to watch as his beloved parents were brutally murdered, Ciel was subsequently abducted and violently tortured. Desperate to end his suffering, the boy traded his own soul for a chance at vengeance, casting his lot with the one person on whom he could depend: Sebastian, a demon Butler summoned from the very pits of hell.

Together, they'll prowl the darkest alleys of London on a mission to snuff out those who would do evil. They're a rare sight, these two: the Butler who dismembers with dazzling cutlery and the Young Master who carries the devil's marking. Rest assured that wherever they may be headed, it'll be one hell of a ride.

I've seen the first half of the first season and, so far, I'm quite pleased with the series. The series has a deliciously dark undertone which surfaces from time to time, but, is also peppered with humor and lighter moments. The series is entertaining and moves along at a modest pace. The series is a combination of horror and drama. There is some violence, but, not a lot of gore to speak of. There are no naughty bits. And, of course, the butler, Sebastian, steals the show almost every time he is on screen.

I'm told that the second season is streaming online. Although Black Butler is intriguing, I don't think I'll be rushing to my PC to watch it streaming anytime soon. I've seen anime on the PC screen before and I've been really underwhelmed by the experience. I have a nice flat-panel monitor, a brand-new PC with a dual-core processor and high-speed Internet, but, somehow I always mange to have problems. If it's not streaming issues, then there are problems with the video quality or there are problems with the subtitles. And, then, if I should want to add the video to my archive, there are a whole host of new issues to be addressed.

All things considered, I give Black Butler a 3 out of 5.

Princess Princess...

2011-01-22T21:52:00.001-05:00

I picked up Princess Princess recently...

Tooru Kouno left a sad family life to live at a prestigious all-boys boarding school. From his very first day, he feels like he's fallen into another world. The boys in his class seem to be strangely interested in his pretty-boy looks. He's shown around by Class President Sakamoto, who is mysteriously bowed to by everyone, even the upperclassmen. Tooru even catches a glimpse of an enchanting redheaded Princess. A graceful blonde named Shihoudani finally reveals the school's secret. To inspire the student body, campus pretty boys are required to dress up as girls... and Tooru is on the list!

I must admit that the premise is a bit strange, but, to my absolute surprise, the series is actually very entertaining. So much so, that I watched the entire series in one sitting. Princess Princess is essentially a situation comedy -- there are no giant robots, no spandex-clad superheroes and no blood or gore to speak of. There are young adults, presumably over the age of 18, who have some emotional baggage to lug around. Obviously, a big part of the series' comedy centers around cross-dressing and gender confusion, but, the series, easily manages not to be crude or overly off-putting. There are some suggestive situations, but, there are no naughty bits.

The series is very funny, engaging and fast-paced, but, not so fast-paced that I couldn't keep up with the subtitles. The music in the opening and ending segments is actually quite good in its own right. The animation quality is reasonable, given the content of the series -- you're certainly not going to be blown away by awesome special effects. The series does switch between traditional character animation and super-deformed animation. The series does, however, take every opportunity to poke fun at the "pretty boy" and "idol" anime conventions. I give Princess Princess a 3 out of 5.

Garden of Sinners (To BD Or Not To BD)...

2011-01-13T08:15:00.003-05:00

There's a new an interesting wrinkle in the domestic anime distribution model - BD-exclusives for the International market. Garden of Sinners is expected to be released in February 2011 in this revolutionary new distribution method. What makes this interesting is the price point - $400 to $600, depending on your anime e-tailer of choice. For those who don't know what Garden of Sinners is...

Garden of Sinners aka Kara no Kyōkai is a series of hit cult novels written by KINOKO NASU of TYPE-MOON (“Tsukihime -Lunar Legend-”, “Fate/stay night”) and published in KODANSHA BOX series. The best-selling novel series has since been adapted into seven fully animated theatrical films, of which each corresponding movie directly covers one of the original seven chapters. In Japan, the series of movies was released in theaters, starting December 2007. Each successive release became a box office smash with record numbers of attendees, while skyrocketing DVD sales of each movie outperformed many other series and movies.

After spending two years in a coma due to a traffic accident, Shiki Ryougi awakens with amnesia. In turn, however, she finds that she has also obtained the "Mystic Eyes of Death Perception," with which she can see the invisible lines of mortality that hold every living and non-living thing together. Working for a small independent agency, Shiki attempts to unravel the baffling mystery behind a series of abnormal, horrifying incidents, but do they foreshadow something even more tragic and ominous?

Things are not what they appear to be on the surface, but what dark revelations lie underneath? Shiki must tackle supernatural incidents with her special abilities while searching for a reason to live.

Contains 7 movies ("chapters"), each on its own disc, plus a bonus disc featuring extras and The Final Chapter, a bonus movie created exclusively for this Blu-ray set.
Chapter 1: Thanatos (Overlooking View)
September, 1998
In the city where Shiki lives, something triggers a spate of mysterious schoolgirl suicides. The connection between the girls who leapt to their deaths is unclear, although all of them have jumped from the Fujou Building, a skyscraper scheduled to be demolished. Meanwhile, Mikiya, after having gone near the Fujou Building, has fallen into a coma. Shiki heads to the Fujou Building herself to save Mikiya. And waiting for her there…is Kirie Fujou. The girls' suicides and Mikiya's coma were all caused by Kirie. Terminal illness had left her bedridden and immobile in a hospital, but one day, she acquires a spiritual body, a separate entity from herself.
Chapter 2: ...And Nothing Heart (Murder Speculation Part A)
1995
Mikiya Kokutou meets a girl who has a mysterious gaze, and falls in love with her. That April, at his high school entrance ceremony, Mikiya is reunited with the girl. The girl's name is Shiki Ryougi. Shiki keeps others at a distance, but as Mikiya interacts with her, she gradually opens up to him, though not without trepidation. Meanwhile, the city has been rattled by a series of bizarre murders. There are no known links between victims, and the motive is unclear. One day, Mikiya meets “SHIKI,” another personality that resides within Shiki. Mikiya suspects who the murderer is, but at the same time, he decides to believe in Shiki. An astonishing secret awaits him, but he doesn’t find out until three years later...
Chapter 3: Ever Cry, Never Life (Remaining Sense of Pain)
July 1998
One night, Mikiya helps a girl who is lying doubled over with stomach pains. Around that time, a number of dismembered bodies are found throughout the city. The murder victims are torn apart so badly that they don't seem like the work of a human.

Shiki finds the perpetrator of those crimes, who turns out to be the girl that Mikiya had saved. Her name is Fujino Asagami. Like Shiki, who possesses the Mystical Eyes of Death Perception, Fujino has the psychokinetic power to bend anything. At the end of a battle, what Shiki decides is...
Chapter 4: Garan no Dou (The Hollow Shrine)
June 1998
After spending two years in a coma caused by a traffic accident, Shiki Ryougi awakens with amnesia. One day, Shiki is visited by Touko Aozaki, a wizard and proprietor of a studio called "Garan no Dou." Due to the loss of her alternate personality, Shiki has lost not only any memory of her accident, but also any real sense that she's alive and spends her days as a mere empty shell of herself. Strange, enigmatic beings begin to attack her, trying to take control of her body, now that her soul is hollow. However, one day, she confronts the attackers who've resorted to force and Shiki makes the decision to fight of her own volition.
Chapter 5: Paradox Paradigm
November 1998
Shiki meets a boy named Tomoe Enjou, a runaway who claims to be a murderer. Shiki allows Tomoe to use her apartment as his hideout. And from that day onward, their strange cohabitation begins. But then one day, Tomoe sees his mother whom he's sure he's killed. Shiki and Tomoe head for the Enjou residence in the Ogawa Complex where the two see Tomoe's parents alive! There Shiki encounters a mage named Souren Araya and finds that he is the mastermind behind all of the incidents involving her up to then. Shiki finds herself trapped within spirals of paradox. And this is only the beginning of a vicious plot by Souren Araya, the powerful sorcerer and archrival of Touko.
Chapter 6: Fairy Tale (Oblivion Recording)
January 1999
Apprentice mage Azaka Kokutou, Mikiya’s younger sister, has been ordered by her mentor, Touko Aozaki, to investigate a certain incident in which fairies steal the memories of students at Azaka's school, Reien Academy. Azaka launches an investigation with the help of Shiki who can see fairies. As the investigation proceeds, Shiki finds out that Misaya Ouji, a student body president, is the one who controls fairies. However, the mastermind who gave her the power is Satsuki Kurogiri, a magus who controls words. Ironically, thanks to Satsuki’s magic, Shiki remembers that she had encountered Souren Araya and what he had told her two years ago.
Chapter 7: ...Not Nothing Heart (Murder Speculation Part B)
February 1999
Shiki awakes from her coma and starts to live a new life. Meanwhile, a series of murders are occurring after four years of silence. “Who is the murderer?” The incidents remind her of a murderous impulse hidden inside her soul and “SHIKI,” her lost alternate persona. While Shiki searches for a suspect, Mikiya also starts an investigation of his own to prove Shiki is innocent. As he follows a lead of a drug dealer, Mikiya comes across Rio Shirazumi, who was a senior at his high school. Mikiya finds out that Rio is the one who sells the drug called “blood chip” and tries to convince him to stop, but he is instead harmed by Rio.
Chapter 8: The Final Chapter
March, 1999
Mikiya Kokutou meets "Shiki Ryougi" again at the same place where he met her for the first time four years ago...

The set contains seven movies, each on its own disc, plus a bonus disc featuring extras and "The Final Chapter", a bonus movie created exclusively for this Blu-ray set.

In January 2011, according to Aaron H. Bynum on the AnimeNation blog...

...Every time I get an e-mail about the GARDEN OF SINNERS I crack up… $600 retail price tag? Blu-ray only? Absolutely hilarious.

How many anime fans even spend so much as $600 on anime domestically or even as an import over the course of three-to-five years? Laughable.

Also in January 2011, in response, seanny wrote on the AnimeNation blog...

I guess, but you should appreciate that anime is released in a form that can be bought and watched by international fans at all. While I’m not a fan of Kara no Kyoukai / The Garden of Sinners enough to throw down $400 for 8 movies, I appreciate that:

1. It’s a pretty f—ing rad box.
2. It’s the same box that Japan gets + English subtitles + translations for the hardcover book.
3. It’s $200 cheaper than the seemingly sold-out preorder-only Japan box while being a _simultaneous release_

I know we can all remember the days when half of every anime was licensed by ADV/Pioneer/Manga/etc. and slapped on a forgettable $80 DVD set a year later, but that model has obviously collapsed and you can’t even count on things like Kara no Kyoukai to come out in the ‘States. In an earlier age it would’ve been a sure-fire license, but not today.

So this interim solution of slapping Eng. subs on the Japanese premium box set, and dropping the price while maintaining the simultaneous release date is something I’m totally cool with. I wish every Japanese disc release had an international counterpart like that actually.

As to whether anyone’s going to buy it... who knows. I mean I’ve imported a few Japanese discs in the past before for things I _really_ cared about (having English subtitles on them helps e.g. Ghibli’s DVDs), but I don’t know how large of a market is made by international fans like me. It would be real interesting to know the sales numbers of that Kara no Kyoukai box.

Even if it’s just a few guys though, it was produced with minimal investment, as opposed to an original, dubbed DVD set that goes on the shelves of Best Buys and such.

So, there you have it. Eight movies for $400, works out to about $50 per movie, which is actually in keeping with the current price structure of the anime market. ~~I haven't decided whether or not to purchase this series, but, I must admit to being very tempted. If I do decide to jump over the cliff, this would be my first BD title.~~

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Updated

The Garden of Sinners box set arrived today. This is my first BD title and my second high-definition title (the first being Freedom). So, in addition to the $400 price tag, I'll have to get a BD player to play these on. Either that or hang the set on my wall next to my Laser Discs.

This box set features new cover art exclusively drawn by series co-creator and artist Takashi Takeuchi and includes a Deluxe Visual Chronicle Book containing staff interviews, all key visuals, illustrations from each movie, and artwork from the DVD packages, plus, exclusive to this North American release, a separate booklet of English translations (not shown) for the Japanese text in the Deluxe Visual Chronicle Book!

Special Features: The Garden of Sinners: Remix - Gate of Seventh Heaven (highlighted scenes from each movie with music by Yuki Kajiura and performed by Kalafina, subtitled), Special Program "Retracing All Seven Chapters of The Garden of Sinners" (subtitled).

And, as for no one being interested in the set, well, that didn't turn out to be the case -- ALL SETS SOLD OUT IN ONE DAY! According to the Anime News Network forum, Right Stuf, Bandai and AniPlex sold out the same day the set was released. I checked the Right Stuf web site on the weekend before the official release and it showed 44 units remaining. So, if Right Stuf had an even 50 in stock, at $400 each, they would have brought in $20,000 gross -- not a bad day's work. I have no idea what Right Stuf would have made on each set, but, certainly, AniPlex, the licensor, must have done reasonably well for themselves.

Not that I would want to buy $400 worth of anime in one sitting every week, but, if BD-exclusive distribution for the International market keeps anime on archival media flowing in the U.S., it would be nice to see more of this new distribution method in the future.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Updated

I've finally had the chance to watch Garden of Sinners. While this title was not the most expensive acquisition in my collection, Garden of Sinners, certainly ranks pretty high on the list. BTW, the current record-holder in my collection, at approximately $2000, is Urusei Yatsura (62 DVDs plus 37 VHS tapes). Was it worth the expense? In a word -- Yes! Garden of Sinners is beautifully animated, entertaining and engaging. The first movie, Thanatos, was very good and the series of movies which follow were even better than the first. The animation style is a mix of traditional and CG animation. The CG is blended reasonably well, but, is noticeable in a couple spots. The music throughout the series is quite good -- I found myself looping certain chapters to repeat the music tracks. Overall, I give the series a 4 out of 5.

Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends: 100% Complete Bull

2011-01-11T08:18:00.000-05:00

I picked up the Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends: 100% Complete Bull box set recently...

Now here's something you don't see everyday, Chauncey. It's the complete first season of one of television's smartest, savviest, and most subversively funny animated series, ranked by TV Guide as one of the top 50 series of all time. Like the animators at Warner Bros.' Termite Terrace (birthplace of Porky, Daffy, and Bugs), producer Jay Ward, his partner Bill Scott (the voice of Bullwinkle), and the cracked writing staff did not write down to children. The dialogue is witty and sharply satiric. Characters break the "fourth wall" between the screen and the audience. They make sly references to the show's creators and the television network. They hurl barbs of mass destruction at Washington, D.C. politicians. And then there are the godawful puns. This 18-disc set contains the entire series -- it's the whole shebang, featuring 91 trips in the WABAC time machine, 38 attempts to catch Snidely Whiplash, 91 tales fractured and 50 bits of wisdom from Mr. Know-it-All.

Linking these cliffhanging episodes are such hilarious segments as "Fractured Fairy Tales," which upend familiar storybook favorites (Red Riding Hood, for example, is a predatory fur merchant after the unwitting wolf), "Mr. Peabody," the canine genius who travels through time in the company of his boy, Sherman, and forthright Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties, who must contend with his own horse for the affections of sweet Nell. Bullwinkle gets extra credits as Mr. Know-It-All and as the host of Poetry Corner. And watch him pull a rabbit out of his hat! These cartoons are as fresh and funny as when they first aired more than four decades ago. Boomer-era adults will be amazed at the jokes that no doubt soared over their heads as children.

The box itself is nice the way it opens up, and inside is a book titled "FROSTBITE FALLS FIELD GUIDE" by Keith Scott. There is a page at the start written by Kimberly Ward. The book has photos and is filled with info on how the show was started and nice interesting stuff. and then there is An episode guide for each DVD of whats on each.

There is also a light yellow envelope with a flap lock and inside is a ribbon award that says on it "Exceptional adequacy award for helping promote public apathy toward the Bullwinkle show". On it also is a pin button with Bullwinkle on it.

Overall, the packaging is quite nice, but, it does have some drawbacks. The first major drawback is that the discs are packed in cardboard sleeves -- not unlike the new re-release of Avatar. This type of packaging makes it easier to scuff and scratch the discs. The other annoyance is that season 2 is on double-sided discs. But, aside from these issues, I still like having the series. I'll probably end up repackaging the series in multi-disc cases -- I'm not sure at this point if the multi-disc containers I have in mind will actually fit in the original case.

Nyan Koi!...

2010-12-14T08:02:00.000-05:00

Recently, I picked up Nyan Koi!...

When cat-allergic Junpei Kosaka damages a statue of a cat deity, the cats don't just get his tongue, they put theirs in his mouth! Now cursed with the ability to understand felines, Junpei must perform one-hundred great favors for cat-kind or face the fate of being turned into a cat himself!

Life quickly becomes a purrfect hell as every cat in the neighborhood starts sending Junpei their list of "requests." And if the kitties weren't already whipping him into a cat-atonic stupor, the women in his life are making things even worse. His sister, mom, and the girl he has secret feelings for are all cat-crazy; the local Yakuza's daughter is playing cat and mouse; the local cat-owning monk's daughters are acting catty; and Junpei's childhood best friend is ready to use him as a scratching post!

I've seen the first few episodes of Nyan Koi! and, although the premise is a bit on the silly side, the show is surprisingly entertaining. The animation quality is reasonable given the nature of the series. Of course, there are no naughty bits or gore to speak of -- just wacky cat-friendly fun. Even though I haven't seen the entire series, yet, I am reasonably pleased with this series, so far. I give it a 2 out of 5.

Ghost Sweeper Mikami...

2010-12-03T08:04:00.001-05:00

I picked up Ghost Sweeper Mikami recently...

You say you've got a ghost in your prefecture? In Japan that means you need to call Ghost Sweeper Mikami, the paranormal detective agency that's a little abnormal... Okay, make that a LOT abnormal, but they do specialize in disposing of things that most people don't even believe exist.

Run by the visually delicious and even more avaricious Reiko Mikami, and aided by the very perverted (but also very loyal) Tadao Yokoshima, they'll take any case that pays, and Tadao will do anything that might let him sneak a peek at Reiko's magnificent physique. How unfortunate for him that Reiko basically sees him as cannon-fodder, something that's quite useful when your day-to-day business involves exorcising oni, yurei, yokai and anything else you might find in The Illustrated Bag of One Hundred Random Ghosts.

The style and tone of Ghost Sweeper Mikami is not unlike a cross between City Hunter and Phantom Quest Corp. The animation style is consistent with early 90's animation -- GS Mikami is an older title after all. But, despite its age, GS Mikami is still very entertaining. Not unlike her Phantom Quest Corp counterpart, Reiko Mikami, is always looking for the next high-paying job. And, like City Hunter himself, Tadao Yokoshima's openly lecherous behaviour often causes his female co-star to use the hammer of retribution on his head or perhaps even give him a swift kick to the face. At times, the antics of the two lead characters can be a bit on the silly side, but, overall Ghost Sweeper Mikami is a reasonably good show. There is some fan service, of course, but, despite indications to the contrary, there are no naughty bits or gore to speak of. I give it a 3 out of 5.

Tangled...

2010-11-29T21:58:00.000-05:00

When the kingdom’s most wanted—and most charming—bandit Flynn Rider (voice of Zachary Levi) hides out in a mysterious tower, he’s taken hostage by Rapunzel (voice of Mandy Moore), a beautiful and feisty towerbound teen with 70 feet of magical , golden hair. Flynn’s curious captor, who’s looking for her ticket out of the tower where she’s been locked away for years, strikes a deal with the handsome thief and the unlikely duo sets off on an action-packed escapade, complete with a super-cop horse, an over-protective chameleon and a gruff gang of pub thugs. In theaters this holiday season, Tangled is a story of adventure, heart, humor and hair—lots of hair.

Over the weekend, I went to see Tangled -- the Disney-fied retelling of the classic story of Rapunzel.

According to Wikipedia...

The movie's visual style is based on the painting The Swing, by the French Rococo artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Because (former) director Glen Keane wanted this to be an animated movie that looked and felt like a traditional hand-drawn Disney Classic in 3D, he first had a seminar called "The Best of Both Worlds", where he, with 50 Disney animators (CGI artists and traditional artists), focused on the pros and cons of each style. Due to limitations in computer technology, many basic principles of animation used in traditionally animated movies have been absent in CGI films; but because of recent advancements, it is now becoming possible to blend the two, utilizing the strengths of each. Keane has stated numerous times that he is trying to make the computer "bend its knee to the artist" instead of having the computer dictate the artistic style and look of the film. By making the computer become as "pliable as the pencil," Keane's vision of a "three dimensional drawing" seems within reach, with the artist controlling the technology. Because many of the techniques and tools that were required to give the film the quality Keane demanded of it didn't exist when the project was started, WDFA had to make them on their own.

I was was very pleased with the feature.

Metropolis...

2010-11-22T23:52:00.000-05:00

I picked up the re-remastered version of Metropolis recently. According to Wikipedia...

Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist film in the science-fiction genre directed by Fritz Lang. Produced in Germany during a stable period of the Weimar Republic, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and makes use of this context to explore the social crisis between workers and owners in capitalism. The film was produced in the Babelsberg Studios by Universum Film A.G. (UFA). The most expensive silent film ever made, it cost approximately 5 million Reichsmark.

Metropolis was cut substantially after its German premiere, and much footage was lost over the passage of successive decades. There have been several efforts to restore it, as well as discoveries of previously lost footage. A 2001 reconstruction of Metropolis, shown at the Berlin Film Festival, was inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in that same year. In 2008, a copy of the film 30 minutes longer than any other known surviving copy was located in Argentina. After a long period of restoration in Germany, the restored film was shown publicly for the first time simultaneously at Berlin and Frankfurt on February 12, 2010.

According to GFT on Amazon.com...

Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS was very successful with both critics and audiences when it debuted in 1927 Berlin--but it was thereafter edited for distribution by Channing Pollock, who disliked it and removed great chunks of the film and substantially altered the storyline. The resulting film was admired for its visual style, but it proved a critical and box office disappointment. Neglected in the wake of sound, surviving prints of the film were left to corrode and decay--and when it began to reach the home market via VHS and DVD the results were very hit or miss; Blackhawk released a fairly credible version of the truncated film to home video, but for the most part the quality of these releases varied from barely mediocre to downright unwatchable...

A great chunk of METROPOLIS--perhaps as much a quarter of more--has been forever lost, but this Kino Video DVD release offers the single best version of the film available. The previously cut footage that still exists has been restored; gaps in the film have been bridged by the occasional use of stills and explanatory title cards; the film itself has been painstakingly and digitally restored; and the soundtrack is the Gottfried Huppertz original created for the film's 1927 Berlin debut. In seeing this version of METROPOLIS, I was struck by how very differently it reads from the previously available truncated version. The visual style and the story itself are much more exciting and cohesive, and in the wake of this restoration it becomes impossible to deny the film status as landmark of international cinema.

This is actually my third trip to Metropolis -- once on VHS and twice on DVD. I picked up the previous remastered version running about two hours. So, when a newly re-remastered version running at nearly a half hour longer than the previous version, became available, I had to pick it up. For those of you who have difficulty with movies that are not in color, you may find that having to read your movies without spoken words or even sound effects, may be a bit of an acquired taste.

GFT continues to ramble on...

...There has been complaint that this restoration runs at incorrect speed and the performances are therefore unnecessarily jerky. I did not find this to be the case. In certain instances the movement is deliberately jerky and mechanical--the workers are a case in point--but beyond this there is nothing for which the difference between silent acting and modern acting techniques cannot account. There has also been some complaint that the title cards should have been left in their original German and translated via subtitle. There is a certain validity to this, but it seems a minor quibble; title cards were typically translated in the silent era itself...

According to Jason Blosser on Amazon.com...

First, the recovered print allowed the restoration team to properly edit the film to match its original cut - the previous edit was assembled according to the best available notes (and the original script) and some of it was conjecture. Next, what you realize when watching the film with this new footage, is that the editing was extraordinary for the time. Few other films of the era use quite the same aggressive pace of cutting, and this really enhances the dramatic experience. Finally, you're actually getting to see HUGE portions of the story that had previously only been told with descriptive title cards. So what's been added? More of the Yoshiwara nightclub sequence is now included. The character of The Thin Man becomes a much greater and more menacing presence in the new cut - not only tracking down Josaphat and 11811, but also appearing as a monk to Freder and revealing a Bible image of the Seven Deadly Sins that is visually identical to Machine Maria's frenetic dance. In the previous cut, you'd see title cards when the workers storm the M-Machine, when Freder and Josaphat break through the bars of the air shaft to free the children, when Rotwang kneels before his monument to the real Hel, when the worker mob finds and chases Maria, etc - now you get to see all of that. The result is that you FEEL the tension build - the film experience is much more dramatic and gripping now. As was the case with the original King Kong, film audiences back in 1927 must have just been completely freaked out by Fritz Lang's Metropolis. It's still an extraordinary experience today, some 83 years later, and with this new restoration that's more true now than ever.

The Secret of Kells...

2010-10-22T08:12:00.000-04:00

I picked up the Secret of Kells recently. According to Amazon...

In contrast to big-budget Hollywood CG features, The Secret of Kells is a welcome reminder of how warm, personal, and compelling traditional drawn animation can be. The story takes place in the eighth century, a perilous time when Viking raiders threatened to destroy Irish civilization. Since his parents were killed by Vikings, 12-year-old Brendan (voice by Evan McGuire) has lived within the walled monastery of Kells under the stern eye of his uncle, Abbot Cellach (Brendan Gleeson). But his life changes when Brother Aidan (Mick Lally) arrives at Kells with a wondrously beautiful but unfinished illuminated manuscript, created to be "a beacon in these dark times." Brendan realizes he wants to become an illuminator and complete the book, despite his uncle's opposition. His decision helps him win the friendship of Aisling (Christen Mooney), a silver-haired wood fairy--and requires him to battle the monstrous pagan god Crom Cruach. The visuals in The Secret of Kells were inspired by the eighth-century manuscript the Book of Kells, which has been preserved in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. Fans of Samurai Jack will recognize another influence on the flat, angular figures and their stylized movements. Brendan's adventures are exciting enough to keep children entertained, while its graphic beauties will delight adult viewers. The Secret of Kells surprised many observers when it earned an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, and it's a film no one interested in animation should miss.

The Secret of Kells is beautifully animated and has an interesting story to tell. I saw these eyes staring back at me from the video store shelf and they said "Buy Me", so I did. Even though the story revolves around Brendan, it's actually, in my opinion, Aisling who steals the show. I was really very pleased with the Secret of Kells.

Shiny Toy Guns - Major Tom...

2010-10-03T23:34:00.002-04:00

Sometime ago, when the Lincoln "Luxury at Lightspeed" ad campaign was in full force, one of the ads featured a 30-second clip from Shiny Toy Guns rendition of Major Tom (Coming Home). Youtube came through for me, yet again, and I was able to track down a roughly 4-minute version of the song, but, the video, such as it was, consisted of -- presumably -- a picture of the album cover. I added the music clip to the archive.

Recently, while poking around the AnimeNation news board, I came across a post for a new CG music video created by IKEDA and employing the vocal talents of Vocaliod Luka Megurine singing the song "Corruption Garden". For those of you who don't know, a vocaloid is a software package that can be used by talented individuals to produce music using the software's own vocal capabilities -- essentially a "singer in a box". The video is quite impressive and the music isn't half bad either.

I added the music video to the archive and found a nice wallpaper to use for the DVD case. I then took the time to marry the video with the music from Shiny Toy Guns. The stories don't quite mesh, but, it still manages to look cool. Sorry, I've no plans on sharing my mash up.

Hetalia...

2010-09-25T04:16:00.003-04:00

I picked up Hetalia recently...

Forget everything you learned in history class, and imagine all the nations of the world as cute guys hanging out on a wildly inappropriate reality show. Now, toss in every stereotype ever and prepare to pledge allegiance to your favorite superpower in Hetalia Axis Powers!

Maybe you'll surrender to Italy's charms. He's a sweetie who's always got a noodle in his mouth and he's BFF with blue-eyed Germany and shy Japan. Sounds nice, right? Of course, their friendship sort of causes World War II, but is that really such a big deal? Not if it means those adorable allies France, America, and England will be stormin' the beach!

I've seen the entire first season in one sitting. Hetalia is fast-paced, fairly entertaining and (like the Cosby Kids Show of many years ago) if you're not careful you might learn something. There are no naughty bit, blood or gore to speak of. America is spot on and as for the other countries, let's just say that the characterizations are not flattering. The timeline of events portrayed in Hetalia is not entirely consistent with history, but, Hetalia isn't supposed to be considered a documentary -- it's entertainment. The animation quality is generally reasonable given the content and the style switches from conventional to super-deformed and back again. There are a lot of fast MTV-style cuts -- not unlike Excel Saga or Pani Poni Dash. Overall Hetalia was quite good -- I give it a 3 out of 5 -- and it's aside from Honey Tokyo, it's my first "educational" anime.

Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2...

2010-09-22T13:39:00.003-04:00

Recently, I picked up the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 DVD set...

Haruhi continues her search for exciting ways to keep her world from being boring. Unfortunately, for Kyon and the rest of the SOS Brigade, they are forced to go along for the ride.

On the night of the Tanabata Star Festival, Kyon is transported back in time by Mikuru Asahina to what may be the source of what led Haruhi to search for aliens, time travelers, and espers. In the last two weeks of summer vacation, Haruhi leads the brigade on a dizzying list of summer time activities, eventually culminating in the brigade experiencing what they think is deja vu but they're actually re-living the same two weeks of summer over and over again. It's up to Kyon to figure out what's missing to get them out of their endless loop.

As fall rolls around, everyone prepares for the school arts festival, but Haruhi isn't content with their class's survey project. Instead, she hatches her own plan for the SOS Brigade to film and screen their own movie. Step behind the camera to see what went on to create the cinematic "masterpiece" that is The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode 00!

I'm not big fan of the multi-disc packaging where the DVDs overlap, but, with five discs (including a music CD with two tracks), I couldn't repackage the set. I had a quick peek at the set. The animation quality is consistent with the original series. The second season is expected to be quite controversial...John of AnimeNation wrote:

...In a certain sense, the "second season" of Suzumiya Haruhi anime consists of only three distinct episodes. Episode 8 is unique. The eight "Endless Eight" episodes are strikingly similar to each other. Likewise, the five "Sigh of Suzumiya Haruhi" episodes are more similar to each other than different. The "Endless Eight" story arc – literally two straight months of the same episode with cosmetic differences – may have inflicted mortal damage to anime’s marketability. The current Japanese DVD release is reportedly under performing, but isn’t an abject failure. Speculation theorizes that completist Japanese otaku are continuing to purchase Suzumiya Haruhi DVDs despite their distaste for the content of the DVDs. America doesn’t have that sort of fanatical devotion. There’s absolutely no certainty that an attempted American DVD release of the “second season” episodes wouldn’t be a failure, or would meet with outspoken scorn from American fans and consumers. With so much risk at stake, and seemingly so little potential gain, I can easily envision domestic distributors considering the Suzumiya Haruhi "second season" a hot potato not worth touching...

Also, relentlessflame, a contributor to the AnimeNation blog, commented on the chronology of the series...

Just to clarify the way it’s being released on DVD in Japan, it *is* in fact being released separately (not as part of a re-release), but is packaged and named as if to fit in to the original season’s chronology and releases. The first new DVD was labeled "Volume 4 Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody", and the rest of the volumes are 5.142857 through 5.999999 (obviously to fit between volumes 5 & 6). The original 14 episodes are not included on these new releases, and they’re not being re-released at this time...

I started to watch the second season, but, because it's been a while since I last visited the world of Haruhi, I thought I should have another look at the original series, to refresh my memory, before returning to the second season.

Angel's Anime Rating Guide Is Moving...

2010-09-20T13:40:00.002-04:00

After seven years being hosted with Verizon and twelve years in existence, AARG is moving much of it's content to Blogger. It'll take a while to move everything into my new accommodations and there will be some broken links during the transition.

This decision is being made, ironically, because I got a new PC. The new PC doesn't run all of my old software, including the custom-built web content management apps that I use to manage the web content. It's really not worth the effort to have the apps rebuilt and continuing to manage the site without the web content manager will prove very difficult. It'll be much easier to take the opportunity to rebuild a new site using the much more powerful features already available on Blogger.

Another advantage of the switch is that there will be much more room for me to grow. I'll have about 20 times the space I currently have for images and it's free. Also, I'll be able to manage the site from any location with Internet access. I'm not entirely sure at this point, when Verizon will pull the plug, but, I imagine it will be soon. So, if there's anything on the existing site, you just can't live without, now would be the time to do some archiving.

Update

Contacted Verizon to make arrangements to have the service stopped. Visitors to the site should now receive a 423 (Resource Locked) error message. All of the wallpapers and a small portion of the cover art have been moved to Blogger. The anime ratings and some of the commentary have also been moved to Blogger. But, a large chunk of the site has yet to be moved.

On the plus side, I've got the rating data stored in MS Access and I can run a query to produce the rating lists with links to the relavant pages (if available). I've also got a mechanism in place that will allow me to dynamically change (using a bit of javascript) the rating images as I change the layout of the site.

Shigofumi...

2010-08-26T13:21:00.005-04:00

I picked up Shigofumi recently...

Are some secrets best kept with the dead? For most Shigofumi Mail Carriers, charged with delivering messages from the recently departed to those left behind, the question is purely rhetorical, as most Carriers are dead themselves and past the point of caring about the still breathing. The solemn girl known as Fumika, however, is all too aware of the mortal perspective, for she is still aging: an indicator that she is somehow, mysteriously, still alive.

Yet neither Fumika's own personal tragedy nor the knowledge that her mail may be a mixed blessing at best will stay her grim determination to make her morbid rounds. Though the postal scales of fate may be eternally shifted, Fumika will make sure each posthumous posting from the ultimate dead letter office reaches its intended target, even when there's deadly postage due!

My set had a few scratched on it, but, it played very well. I started watching Shigofumi and was so engrossed in the series that I ended up watching the entire series in one sitting.

The animation quality is fairly good. There aren't any spectacular jaw-dropping effects to speak of -- Shigofumi is more of a drama. Although, there are no naughty bits to speak of, Shigofumi does contain some very strong themes that might not be suitable for the youngest anime viewers. Shigofumi does employ a bit of humor to lighten what could otherwise be a very depressing series. Overall, I enjoyed Shigofumi quite a lot.

Despicable Me...

2010-08-23T13:54:00.006-04:00

Over the weekend, I saw Despicable Me...

In a happy suburban neighborhood surrounded by white picket fences with flowering rose bushes, sits a black house with a dead lawn. Unbeknownst to the neighbors, hidden beneath this home is a vast secret hideout. Surrounded by a small army of minions, we discover Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), planning the biggest heist in the history of the world. He is going to steal the moon. (Yes, the moon!) Gru delights in all things wicked. Armed with his arsenal of shrink rays, freeze rays, and battle-ready vehicles for land and air, he vanquishes all who stand in his way. Until the day he encounters the immense will of three little orphaned girls who look at him and see something that no one else has ever seen: a potential Dad. The world's greatest villain has just met his greatest challenge: three little girls named Margo, Edith and Agnes.

I enjoyed Despicable Me a lot. I wouldn't mind seeing it again in the theatre, but, it looks like I'll have to wait for the DVD.

Vampire Knight...

2010-07-23T13:04:00.004-04:00

I picked up Vampire Knight recently...

At prestigious Cross Academy, there are two sessions of classes: the Day Class and the Night Class. As the school's Disciplinary Committee, Yuki Cross and Zero Kiryu keep watch over the Day Class students, who are all infatuated with the beautiful, elite Night Class students. As Guardians, Yuki and Zero must also protect the secret of the Night Class - they're all vampires!

I've heard good things about Vampire Knight, but, have not yet had the opportunity to see any of the series. It's a 13-episode series, so, I would imagine that Viz will release the series in three volumes. I'm not sure yet, if I would want to have three volumes of the series, but, I've rarely met a vampire that I didn't like.

Queen's Blade...

2010-06-24T07:37:00.006-04:00

I picked up Queen's Blade recently...

In a land where a queen is chosen every few years solely by winning a tournament, there can be no short supply of formidable opponents. For one woman warrior however, an early defeat clearly shows her that she is lacking in experience though she may be bountiful in body.

Fortunately, while defeat could spell one's doom, her life is saved by a powerful stranger. But unfortunately for this savior, less-than-pure motives and shrewd family members mean her reward is a prison cell. Her release is prompt when the unseasoned warrior she saved, tired of her current lifestyle of nobility, sets off to prove herself.

According to AnimeNation...

The advertising “obi” wrappers on the two latest volumes of Hobby Japan’s popular series of Queen’s Blade role playing game books reveal plans for a Queen’s Blade anime television series. Hobby Japan launched its line of Queen’s Blade illustrated role playing game books in 2005 as a spin-off from the successful and long running Lost Worlds RPG book series that debuted in 1983. The Japanese exclusive Queen’s Blade game book series has spawned a host of merchandising including figures, manga, drama CDs, novels, fan created doujinshi, and more.

So far, I've seen the first volume of the series and I'm really very pleased with the series. The animation quality is fairly good and the story is very entertaining. The show is a bit on the risque side, so, the younger anime fans among us, will have to stay away. Overall, the series has been a treat to watch and I look forward to seeing more of it.

Read All About It! Season 1...

2010-06-15T08:09:00.003-04:00

Many years ago, before Elmo was all the rage on PBS, there were shows like Read All About It! According to Wikipedia...

Read All About It! was a Canadian educational television series produced from 1979 to 1983 by TVOntario that aired during the early to mid 1980s; It also aired in repeats in the 1990s. It starred David Craig Collard as Chris, Lydia Zajc as Lynne, Stacey Arnold as Samantha, and Sean Hewitt as Duneedon, ruler of the galaxy Trialviron. In the second season Michael Dwyer joined the cast as Alex. The main goal of the show was to try and teach viewers about skills such as reading and writing & history in the midst of an entertaining program...

Read All About It! focused on Chris who inherited his uncle Derek's coach house after his mysterious disappearance. The show took place in the fictitious town of Herbertville, where Chris and his friends Lynne and Samantha started a newspaper called The Herbertville Chronicle in uncle Derek's coach house. The coach house contained two artificially intelligent robots: Otto, a device which communicated by printing it's thoughts on paper; and Theta, a talking computer with an integrated monitor. The coach house also held a transporter which allowed teleportation to and from the galaxy of Trialviron, as well as transporting many literary characters like the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, Merlin the Magician from King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable, and Captain Hook from Peter Pan into the coach house. The first season focused on the newspaper uncovering a conspiracy by mayor Don Eden (the alter ego of Duneedon, the ruler of the galaxy Trialvaron) who wants to claim King's Park as his own to get a rare mineral he needs to invade Earth...

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that there will ever be a DVD release. According to writer, Clive Endersby...

Unfortunately, as far as I know there are no plans to do anything with ... [Read All About It]. Due to special 'educational' arrangements (ie: lower fees) that channels like TVOntario had with the various unions (writers, actors, directors, musicians) renewals of clearance rights and royalties had to be paid in advance for a set number of years — rather than an after-payment of a percentage of sales as is normal for commercial programs.

Because of the cutbacks (or lack of growth) in funding for these types of stations, they cannot afford to renew these clearances 'up front' which would decimate their program budgets in any one year. Both TVO and the various union members would dearly love to switch these contracts to a 'percentage of a sales' system but the law is the law and neither side can change an existing contract without agreement from all who signed it.

Fortunately, Youtube came through for me once again. Although the quality of the source video is somewhat poorer than I would like, at least I have something for the archive.

L5

2010-06-12T07:47:00.003-04:00

I added L5: First City in Space to the archive over the weekend...

Set 100 years in the future, L5: FIRST CITY IN SPACE is a story told in flashback by the first child born in space. The film combines incredible computer-generated imagery, actual footage taken of space expeditions and scientific data to create a compelling vision of how humans may live and travel in our solar system in the next century.

I was poking around the dial and came across L5 on the Documentary Channel and decided to add it to the archive.

At just under 35 minutes, L5 is fairly short. The story-telling is a bit dry, but, is still reasonably entertaining. The special effects are actually quite good -- it would probably be even better on the big screen.

Overall, although L5 exhibits some shortcomings, I was still very pleased with the feature. L5 also gave me a good opportunity to work on my video editing skills by removing the commercials from the feature and burning a nice clean DVD.

Daria...

2010-05-28T08:13:00.010-04:00

I picked up the Daria Complete Series box set recently...

The people of Lawndale just don't get Daria Morgendorffer. She's cool with that. See, Daria was born alienated, and now she's just trying to make it through high school with as little human contact as possible. Popularity, friends, activities... whatever. Daria lacks enthusiasm, but she makes up for it with sarcasm.

Glenn Eichler, Show Creator, wrote in an insert in the DVD bot set...

DEAR BELOVED CONSUMER,

Finally, the complete DARIA in an officially sanctioned box set. It's the answer to every diehard fan's dreams. Which, given the makeup of diehard DARIA fandom, means it's an opportunity for them to kick off a raging, decades-long debate over the collection's merits and, by extension, each other's validity as human beings.

So let's answer the big question right away 99 percent of the music has been changed, because the cost of licensing the many music bites we used would have made it impossible to release the collection (and for many years did). So no, these aren't the shows as aired, but more like one of those astronauts in a TWILIGHT ZONE episode who returns from space and his wife can't figure out what's changed about him, until it slowly dawns on her that instead of a cool song from 1991 playing when he walks into the room, it's some tune she's never heard. Yeah, it’s just like that.

To put it bluntly, replacing the music had to be done. Does that mean this box set is compromised? Season I Daria would have said, "Yes." Season V Daria would have said, "Shut up and pass the remote." Let the raging begin.

What this collection does have is all the episodes, in the highest-quality, most complete versions that could be found; the two movies; extras like the "Sealed With a Kick" animatic, the "Freakin' Friends" video and the Daria Day intros; interviews with some (but by no means all) of the people who contributed to making the show so moth fun to create and watch; and a bunch of other things of interest to the uber-fan. Casual fans and DARIA first-timers can ignore the extras. There will be no quiz

Finally, many thanks to the people at MTV Home Entertainment, who worked long and hard to dig up and assemble the elements necessary to make this package possible. I'm looking forward to watching these shows again, and I hope you are too.

I've seen the first season already and even though, as indicated by the show's creator, it isn't the "original" version from the late-90's, I still enjoyed the series.

To be honest, I didn't really notice the changes in the background music, so, I wasn't really, really offended by the changes. Certainly, I would have preferred having an unaltered release, but, I understand that some compromises had to be made to enable this release. That being said, if I had the good sense to have preserved the series when it originally aired, then I would be less likely to want an altered release.

The only annoyance that I have with the release, was the commercial for the Maxx which says that the series is "available", but fails to note that it's only available as a DVD-R on-demand service from an online store. I believe that the Maxx deserves the same release treatment as some of MTV's other series, like say... Beavis and Butthead.

Update

I have, since my previous post, seen the entire Daria TV series, both movies and all of the extras in the Daria DVD box set.

There were some spots where the background music had been changed, but, I don't believe that the changes to the background music affected the quality of the storytelling in the series. Diehard Daria fans may be somewhat disappointed with the fact that some changes were necessary, but, I believe that the end result is a reasonable compromise. I would rather have this version of Daria, than no Daria at all.

That being said, I DO object to the changes in the background music in the DVD release of the WKRP TV series. I didn't purchase the release of WKRP on DVD and I don't intend to anytime soon. I have a handful of episodes preserved in the archive. I feel that changes to the background music, in this case, have more of an impact on the storytelling in the series, because the core of the series revolves around music.

Although the Stingray TV series didn't revolve around music, music was an important aspect of the series. I had several episodes of the series preserved in the archive and was pleasantly surprised to find that my favorite episodes in the series remain intact on the official DVD release. In the case of Stingray, I purchased the DVD set and repackaged the series in my own DVD cases and included my own DVDs in the set.

Michael Shayne Mysteries...

2010-05-13T07:49:00.005-04:00

I picked up the Michael Shayne Mysteries box set yesterday. Why? Because it spoke to me and said "buy me"...

This very welcome box set turns up the heat on one of detective films' cold cases. Created by Brett Halliday, Michael Shayne appeared in 31 books between the 1940s and '70s. He is not as popularly known as other screen shamuses, but he's good company. As portrayed by Lloyd Nolan (best known as curmudgeonly Dr. Chegley on the groundbreaking sitcom Julia), Shayne is not as hard-boiled as Sam Spade or as sage as Charlie Chan. But, as one shady character observes to someone whom Shayne has just pasted, "You know better than to mix with Shayne." He's a working-class mug ("His office is in his hat, his home is in his car," he remarks), usually "down on his luck" and short on cash. As Michael Shayne, Private Detective (1940) opens, the furniture from his office is being repossessed. Still, Shayne has ethics enough to turn down $5,000 for a suspicious-sounding case. ("$5,000 will buy a lot of ethics," he's told). He's got some odd habits, from twirling his keychain to singing the odd Irish ditty. In each film, Shayne manages to get himself into some "screwy scrapes." In Private Detective, a "gag" backfires when an attempt to scare a gambling heiress straight results in a murder with Shayne's gun at the scene of the crime. In The Man Who Wouldn't Die (1942), Shayne pretends to be a wealthy woman's husband to get the lowdown on a body that won't stay buried. In Sleepers West (1941), he's on the right track when he accompanies a murder witness by train to San Francisco. Blue, White and Perfect (1942) is a real gem that finds Shayne embroiled in wartime espionage, smuggled diamonds and dodging his jealous, matrimonial-minded girlfriend.

These lively B-films each clock in at less than 80 minutes. What they lack in budget they more than make up for in shadow-drenched, dark, and stormy atmosphere, Shayne's moxie and inestimable support from some great character actors, such as Clarence Kolb (the crooked mayor in His Girl Friday) and Douglass Dumbrille (the nasty racetrack owner in A Day at the Races), who appear in Private Detective. For a collection of obscure films, this box set has all the trimmings, with three original featurettes that provide efficient primers on Halliday, Shayne, and Robert McGinnis, the artist who created luscious and lurid covers for the Shayne paperbacks. There is also an interactive trivia guide that makes the six-degrees connections between cast members and the film-noir world.

I'm a big fan of classic films and of detective shows in general and what better way to have the best of both worlds than with the Michael Shayne Mysteries. Now, of course, Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep or as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon are still the standard by which all great hard-boiled members of the detective genre aspire. Lloyd Nolan's performance as Michael Shayne is not as hard-boiled as Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade and is more akin to William Powell's performance in The Thin Man, but nonetheless, Lloyd Nolan does an admirable job in placing his unique stamp on the detective genre.

Death Dealer Comes for Frank Frazetta...

2010-05-12T07:47:00.002-04:00

According to AnimeNation...

Iconic illustrator & painter Frank Frazetta passed away yesterday in Fort Myers, Florida, of complications following a stroke. He was 82. Frazetta’s work included comics, movie posters, and well-known cover illustrations for pulp fantasy novel franchises including Conan, Tarzan, and John Carter of Mars. Animation fans may be most familiar with Frazetta’s work through his 1983 film collaboration with animator/director Ralph Bakshi, Fire and Ice.

I have Fire and Ice on DVD and Wizards, another Bakshi production, Frazetta's name is invoked as an incantation by the lead character. Recently, I also picked up Frazetta: Painting with Fire...

For the last half century, Frank Frazetta has dominated the world of Fantasy Art with his images of fierce warriors, helpless princesses, and fantastical creatures set in the most lavish landscapes.

Journey to a place where up until now, only the privileged have been able to witness the man behind the legend. See what hardships he overcame and choices he made that drastically changed the course of his career.

Painting With Fire tells of a fascinating life and what Frazetta's artwork means to future inspirations. Share an intimate moment with this artistic virtuoso as Frank Frazetta's extraordinary life story unfolds before your eyes.

I have had the good fortune to have seen some of Frazetta's work over the years. He will be missed.

Spicy City...

2010-05-02T08:34:00.006-04:00

After revisiting Ralph Bakshi's version of Lord of the Rings, I decided to look into another Ralph Bakshi animation -- Spicy City. According to Wikipedia...

Spicy City was an animated television series which was created by Ralph Bakshi for HBO. The plot was described as a science fiction anthology series set in a futuristic city with a seamy side. Spicy City premiered in July 1997, beating South Park to television by over a month and becoming the first "adults only" cartoon series and lasted for one season which consisted of six episodes.

The series does exhibit some risque elements and it is certainly not suitable for the younger animation fans, but, even after more than a decade, the quality of the stories and the animation still manage to hold up reasonably well.

I had a handful of episodes from the original HBO broadcast and decided to supplement my own collection with a handful of episodes from Youtube. It proved to be quite challenging to get everybody to live peacefully of the same DVD. I had some issues with the audio on one episode, while another episode had to pieced together from different sources. All things considered, I think the project came out reasonably well.

I would probably repurchase the series from a legitimate source, but, at this point, the series doesn't appear to be available on DVD from an authorized source. There appears to be an online source that is selling the series on DVD, but, I have my doubts about the online distributor.

Comic Book Confidential...

2010-04-27T21:41:00.001-04:00

Recently, I picked up Comic Book Confidential...

As Kevin Smith observes in his 2002 introduction to the DVD, Ron Mann's 1989 documentary Comic Book Confidential hasn't lost a bit of its relevance. It emerged as comics were enjoying a popular renaissance, when Frank Miller was redefining the Batman mythos in the mainstream, and scores of independent artists found their unique voices in the burgeoning aftermath of the underground comics explosion of the '60s and early '70s. Mann's irreverent sensibilities are perfectly suited to this graphically kinetic history of comic books from the early '30s to the late '80s, itself presented as a graphic hybrid of comic art, archival footage, and lively interviews. All of the major players are included from each era, and Mann's masterstroke--having latter-day comics innovators read from their work--makes for some delicious storytelling straight from the source.

Comic Book Confidential is a documentary that touches on some of the work of a handful of mainstream comic book artists, but, spends most of its time delving into the art of a variety of "underground" comic book artists. I've seen this documentary before, but, I can't seem to remember when. Although, I haven't set foot in a comic book shop in a number of years, I still enjoy learning about the history of the comic book industry and lives and work of comic book artists. After Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked and Crumb, Comic Book Confidential is one of my favorite comic book themed documentaries.

If I include documentaries on animation, then the Pixar Story and the Hand Behind the Mouse would have to take precedence. Comic Books Unbound, which includes some footage from some other documentaries, explores the relationship between Hollywood and the mainstream comic book industry.

I've seen Drawing a Revolution, which delves into the relationship between Hollywood and anime and touches on some of the history and fan interest in anime. I've also seen a variety of behind-the-scenes documentaries of the making of various anime (Steamboy, Metropolis, Satanika, Gunsmith Cats, etc.), but, so far, I haven't come across any really noteworthy anime documentaries that I might want to watch more than once.

Blue People Are Still Cool...

2010-04-22T13:31:00.003-04:00

I saw Avatar on the big screen twice. I've seen the movie with and without 3-D -- the 3-D version didn't work very well for me, but, what little I did manage to see looked AWESOME. Even though the 3-D version didn't really work for me, I was still very impressed. Unlike a lot of CG-rich movies that I've seen in the past, Avatar doesn't feel as artificial. The story is very reminiscent of "Dances With Wolves", where a soldier heads out to the frontier and meets the natives -- hence the term "Dances With Smurfs". But, Mom and I came to be entertained and James Cameron's Avatar didn't disappoint. There's a lot of action -- a bit too much for the youngest viewers -- and at two and a half hours, its a bit long. Today, I've picked up the DVD...

A paraplegic ex-marine finds a new life on the distant planet of Pandora, only to find himself battling humankind alongside the planet's indigenous Na'vi race in this ambitious digital 3D sci-fi epic from Academy Award-winning Titanic director James Cameron. The film, which marks Cameron's first dramatic feature since 1997's Titanic, follows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a war veteran who gets called to the depths of space to pick up the job of his slain twin brother for the scientific arm of a megacorporation looking to mine the planet of Pandora for a valued ore. Unfortunately the biggest deposit of the prized substance lies underneath the home of the Na'vi, a ten-foot-tall, blue-skinned native tribe who have been at war with the security arm of the company, lead by Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang). Because of the planet's hostile atmosphere, humans have genetically grown half-alien/half-human bodies which they can jack their consciousnesses into and explore the world in. Since Jake's brother already had an incredibly expensive Avatar grown for him, he's able to connect with it using the same DNA code and experience first-hand the joys of Pandora while giving the scientific team, led by Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) and Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore), some well-needed protection against the planet's more hostile forces

On a chance meeting after getting separated from his team, Jake's Avatar is rescued by Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), a Na'vi princess, who brings him into her tribe in order to give the humans a second chance at relating to this new environment. When word gets out of his increasing time with the alien species, Quaritch enlists Jake to do some reconnaissance for the company, as they'd like to persuade the tribe to move their home before taking more drastic measures to harness the treasure hidden below. Yet as Jake becomes one with the tribe and begins to understand the secrets of Pandora, his conscience is torn between his new adopted world and the wheelchair-bound one awaiting him when the psychic connection to his Avatar is broken. Soon battle lines are drawn and Jake needs to decide which side he will fight on when the time comes.

Lord of the Rings...

2010-04-07T08:00:00.004-04:00

I picked up the remastered version of Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings...

Although it was ultimately overshadowed by Peter Jackson's live-action Lord of the Rings trilogy, Ralph Bakshi's animated adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy classic is not without charms of its own. A target of derision from intolerant fans, this ambitious production is nevertheless a respectably loyal attempt to animate the first half of Tolkien's trilogy, beginning with the hobbit Frodo's inheritance of "the One Ring" of power from Bilbo Baggins, and ending with the wizard Gandalf's triumph over the evil army of orcs. While the dialogue is literate and superbly voiced by a prestigious cast (including John Hurt as Aragorn), Leonard Rosenman's accomplished score effectively matches the ominous atmosphere that Bakshi's animation creates and sustains.

Bakshi combined traditional cel animation with "rotoscoped" (i.e., meticulously traced) live-action footage to produce a version of the Lord of the Rings that deserves more credit than it typically receives.

I had the previous un-remastered DVD release and the primary reason that I wanted to have this version, was not so much that it had been remastered, but, rather because it contained a new documentary on Bakshi's life and work. I combined the new and previous version of Bakshi's Lord of the Rings in a double disc case. It looks like a lot of the interview footage was taken from a recent Comicon panel discussion. It's nice to hear Bakshi talk about his passion for animation.

And Now for Something Completely Different...

2010-04-06T07:40:00.002-04:00

I got And Now for Something Completely Different recently...

Monty Python's first feature is essentially a reworking of their best skits from the first two seasons of their cult TV series Monty Python's Flying Circus, shot on film outside the usual studio sets (Nudge Nudge, for example, is set in a tavern filled with passersby). As the TV series was as yet unseen in the U.S. at the time of this feature, And Now for Something Completely Different became for many Americans their first taste of the Pythons' brand of surreal, silly humor and remains a fond favorite. The writing and performances are fine and the film is packed with some of their best bits: How to Avoid Being Seen, Hell's Grannies, Blackmail, The Lumberjack Song, The Parrot Sketch, and The Upper Class Twit of the Year, among others.

I wanted And Now for Something Completely Different primarily for the Parrot Sketch and it wasn't half bad, but, many of the sketches have been shortened and, at times, the film's pacing is somewhat slow.

Overall, And Now for Something Completely Different was O.K., but, I did end up downloading the Parrot Sketch from the Monty Python Channel at Youtube. I changed the DVD case to a double-disc case and added the downloaded Parrot Sketch to the DVD case on its own DVD.

Strike Witches...

2010-04-03T21:35:00.006-04:00

I picked up Strike Witches recently...

The year is 1944 and the world lives in fear of unidentified flying objects called Neuroi. With the old-boy old guard unable to thwart this deadly menace, humanity turns its desperate eyes to an aerial attack force with much nicer legs. Meet the girls of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, better known as the Strike Witches. These darlings of the great blue yonder may not have standard issue uniforms, but they do have all the right stuff. Where the average flyboy falters, these dolls blast aliens to bits in the bat of an eyelash. With a little magic and a whole lot of leg, the girls of the 501st are winning the war on pants, and aliens!

On it's face the concept of the series, is amazingly implausible -- young ladies wear special boots that resemble a combination of airplane wings and a helicopter on each leg and fly around like airplanes. But, I've seen the first few episodes and I've found the series to be remarkably entertaining. The animation quality is quite good -- it has a nice well-polished look and feel that I've come to expect in fairly recent productions. A welcome surprise, was actually the sound track -- the series employs a very nice instrumental track which enhances the flow and pacing of the series and gives the series more of a theatrical quality. There's lots of action and some bloodshed. There is plenty of fan service and some suggestive situations, so, the series, although entertaining, may not be for the youngest anime fans. Overall, the series is somewhat implausible, but, very entertaining.

Honey Tokyo...

2010-04-02T22:06:00.005-04:00

According to Anime News Network...

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s "Welcome to Tokyo" tourism promotion website has launched. The site features a map of Tokyo tourist spots, a quiz game about Tokyo sightseeing spots, and an original short anime titled "Honey Tokyo." The streaming anime short film is viewable in high and standard quality in Japanese language with subtitles in English, Chinese, Korean, German, Italian, Spanish, and French.

Yasuhiro Aoki, director of the "Kung-Fu Love" segment of Studio 4°C’s Amazing Nuts! music video collection and select episode director on 4°C’s Tweeny Witches and Kimagure Robot anime series, drafted the Honey Tokyo character designs, drew the film’s storyboards, and directed the short at Studio 4°C. Reportedly the short was produced at a cost of around 50 million yen ($550,000 USD) funded by the Japanese government.

I've been a bit leery of downloading anime on the web for two reasons. First, there's a lot of unknowns in the world of anime -- it's difficult to know if a title will be worth the time to download ahead of time. There are a lot of opinions and speculation, but, there aren't really any authoritative sources. Second, I'm a big fan of archival media -- I like to have something that is professionally made, that I can hold in my hands and display on a shelf. There are also some legal issues and a few technical concerns.

Honey Tokyo seemed like something really unique that wasn't likely to be officially released on archival media here in the U.S. and it was short enough that I didn't feel it was a burden to download. Besides what other government on the planet would spend more than a half million dollars to produce a really nice 11-minute anime commercial (China -- perhaps, but, who would want to watch it).

Rapunzel...

2010-03-28T00:06:00.004-04:00

At some time in the 1950's, Mom happened to see Rapunzel on TV. According to Wikipedia....

A childless couple that wanted a child lived next to a walled garden which belonged to an enchantress. The wife, as a result of her long-awaited pregnancy, noticed a Rapunzel plant (or, in some versions of the story, rampion radishes or lamb's lettuce), planted in the garden and longed for it to the point of death. For two nights, the husband went out and broke into the garden to gather some for her; on the third night, as he was scaling the wall to return home, the enchantress, whose name is said to be "Dame Gothel", caught him and accused him of theft. He begged for mercy, and the old woman agreed to be lenient, on condition that the then-unborn child be surrendered to her at birth. Desperate, the man agreed. When the girl was born, the enchantress took her and raised her as a ward, naming her Rapunzel. When Rapunzel reached her twelfth year, the enchantress shut her away into a tower in the middle of the woods, with neither stairs nor door, and only one room and one window. When the witch went to visit Rapunzel, she stood beneath the tower and called out:

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb the golden stair.

Upon hearing these words, Rapunzel would wrap her long, fair hair around a hook that sat beside the window and drop it down to the enchantress, who would then climb up the hair to Rapunzel's tower room. A variation on the story also has the enchantress imbued with the power of flight and/or levitation and the young girl unaware of her hair's length.

One day, a prince rode through the forest and heard Rapunzel singing from the tower. Entranced by her ethereal voice, he went to look for the girl and found the tower, but was unable to enter. He then returned often, listening to her beautiful singing, and one day saw Dame Gothel visit, thus learning how to gain access to Rapunzel. When Dame Gothel was gone, he bade Rapunzel let her hair down. When she did this, he climbed up, made her acquaintance, and finally asked her to marry him. Rapunzel agreed.

Together they planned a means of escape, wherein he would come each night (thus avoiding the enchantress who visited her by day), and bring her silk, which Rapunzel would gradually weave into a ladder. Before the plan came to fruition, however, Rapunzel foolishly gave the prince away. In the first edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales, Rapunzel innocently says that her dress is getting tight around her belly; in subsequent editions, she asks the witch (in a moment of forgetfulness) why it was easier for her to draw him up than her. In anger, Dame Gothel cut short Rapunzel's braided hair and cast her out into the wilderness to fend for herself.

When the prince called that night, the enchantress let the severed braids down to haul him up. To his horror, he found himself staring at the witch instead of Rapunzel, who was nowhere to be found. When she told him in anger that he would never see Rapunzel again, he leapt from the tower in despair and was blinded by the thorns below. In another version, the witch pushes him and he falls on the thorns, thus becoming blind.

For months he wandered through the wastelands of the country. One day, while Rapunzel sang as she fetched water, the prince heard Rapunzel's voice again, and they were reunited. When they fell into each other's arms, her tears immediately restored his sight. The prince led her to his kingdom, where they lived happily ever after. In the early Grimm version the Prince makes Rapunzel pregnant. In another version of the story, the ending reveals that the witch untied Rapunzel's braid after the prince leapt from the tower, but it slipped from her hands and landed below the tower. This left the witch trapped in the tower.

The only version of Rapunzel I could locate from the 1950's was a 1951 stop-motion animation produced by Ray Harryhausen. Although Youtube came through once again, sadly, this wasn't the Rapunzel that Mom saw more than half a century ago. I've heard of a 1979 version of Rapunzel directed by Tom Davenport, but, that is a bit too recent. There's also a version with Shirley Temple circa 1958, but, I'm fairly certain that the Shirley Temple version is not the version that Mom remembers. Mom seems to recall an adult actress playing the role of Rapunzel. In any event, I went ahead and added Ray Harryhausen's Rapunzel to the archive.

The Lady and the Reaper...

2010-03-27T23:43:00.003-04:00

During the Oscar ceremony, I happened to notice an nominee for an animated short called The Lady and the Reaper.

The Lady and the Reaper (La dama y la muerte) is a 3D imaging animated short film created by Javier Recio Gracia and produced by Kandoor Moon. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film and won the Goya Award for Best Animated Short of 2009.

An old lady, who lives alone in the countryside, is looking forward to death so that she can meet her dead husband. When the Reaper arrives and she is about to reach afterlife, she is pulled away from the Reaper by a smug doctor. The Reaper and the doctor fight fiercely, and eventually medicine wins. The Reaper leaves, but the lady is not willing to postpone the encounter with her husband.

I was very fond of this short, so, went to the official site and eventually added it to the archive.

Alma...

2010-03-22T23:59:00.005-04:00

Late in December of last year, I happened to wander into one of my favorite anime hangouts and came across a post for Alma, an award-winning animation director, Rodrigo Blaas.

Alma is Rodrigo Blaas' first short film as a director. Originally from Spain, Rodrigo Blaas has worked in animation for more than ten years, in Spain and in the United States.

Seizing the possibility of directing his first independent short film, Rodrigo Blaas asked some of the best artists in their field to take part in this independent project: French animator Bolhem Bouchiba, character designer Carlos Grangel and Sergio Pablos, art director Alfonso Blaas, music composer Mastretta and sound designer Tom Myers.

I've seen Alma several times already and although it's not scary, Alma does exude an aura creepiness. I like the animation and the story. I'd certainly purchase this title on DVD, but, it remains to be seen if it will be released on archival media. Regardless, I did take the time to add Alma to the archive.

Nissan "Dream Garage" Commercial...

2010-03-20T12:57:00.005-04:00

In 1996, I saw the infamous Nissan "Dream Garage" commercial and immediately afterwards, I made an effort to add it to the archive. But, eleven years later, in the aftermath of the Ultimate Otaku Fall Cleanup, try as I might, I couldn't remember which one of the 2000+ VHS tapes had the commercial on it. So, sadly, the commercial went away.

Mr. Nissan - Mysterious man with the terrier dog, glasses, baseball cap and a big grin featured on a series of Nissan automobile TV commercials in 1996. The mystic Mr. Nissan character was loosely based on the former Nissan Motor Corporation U.S.A. founder Yutaka Katayama who reportedly represented "honor, integrity and fun." Nissan North America launched its "Life is a journey. Enjoy the Ride." advertising campaign with a two minute television commercial at the 1996 Super Bowl.

The spot featured a "Dream Garage" filled with vintage Nissan vehicles most notably a silver 1967 Datsun Roadster 2000 prominently used in the print campaign. The ad campaign tag line read: "Life is a journey. Enjoy the ride."

Recent expeditions into the Internet have demonstrated that a great many forgotten treasures may found half buried and discarded all over the place.

It took a while to find what I was looking for because I couldn't remember much about the commercial. But, after several days of searching, I realized that I was looking for a mid 1990's Nissan commercial. After about a week, Youtube came through for me, yet again. Surprisingly, the Nissan "Dream Garage" commercial is a very difficult ad to find. Sadly, I wasn't able to find a high resolution version. Even so, I added it to the archive and although the quality isn't as good as I would like, I did add it to the archive and, at the very least, this incident has driven home the need for me to better document what my archive contains and where archived items can be found, so that I don't lose track of my archive again.

Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone...

2010-03-19T07:36:00.008-04:00

I just picked up the revised relaunch of Evangelion...

Tokyo-3 still stands after most of civilization was decimated in the Second Impact. Now the city endures the ceaseless onslaught of the deadly Angels, bizarre creatures bent on eradicating the human race. To combat this strange and ruthless enemy, the government agency NERV constructs a fleet of towering humanoid machines - the Evas - and Shinji Ikari is called into action, reluctantly taking his place at the controls of Eva Unit 01.

Living a life of loneliness and questioning his existence, Shinji struggles to accept responsibility for mankind's battle for survival. Shinji will fight the Angels alongside the only person who might understand his plight: Rei Ayanami, the elusive and frail pilot of Eva Unit 00. Shinji and Rei will struggle to learn a simple truth: when carrying the burden of humanity's survival on your shoulders, you are not alone.

Based on the 1995 anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone features a similar storyline of the first three volumes of the original with updated sound and images. My favorite angel is still Ramiel, who gets a serious upgrade in the relaunch. The revised relaunch includes additional content that expands upon the storyline a bit and some enhancements of the existing content. Even though, the story is essentially the same as the original and the initial relaunch, I'm still very pleased with the revised relaunch. In the special features, there is a preview of the second part of the relaunch (Evangelion 2.0) and I must say that it looks really, really good.

Groovies: Rolling...

2010-03-17T13:03:00.007-04:00

My latest trip down memory lane and into the bowels of the Internet was quite a little adventure. Some time ago, I happened to see a music video on Cartoon Network featuring Betty Boop and music by Soul Coughing called "Rolling" on their "El Oso" album. I had meant to add this item to the archive, but, I waited too long and it disappeared before I could catch it. Once again, Youtube came to the rescue, but, this time there were copyright issues and, as a result, there is NO AUDIO. After poking around awhile longer, I came across Operation Time Capsule. OTC had the audio, but, the OTC video was poorer quality than on Youtube. So, I used the video from Youtube and the audio from OTC to make a new video. Now this item has been added to the archive.

Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty...

2010-03-12T07:32:00.007-05:00

During the Oscar ceremony, I happened to notice an nominee for an animated short called Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty.

Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty is a six-minute-long CG/flash animated socially satirical black comedy short film, directed by Nicky Phelan and produced by Darragh O'Connell of Brown Bag Films in 2008. It was written by Kathleen O'Rourke. The plot centres on Granny O'Grimm, a seemingly sweet old lady, who loses the plotline as she tells her own version of Sleeping Beauty to her terrified granddaughter.

I downloaded the animation from the official site and began the process of archiving it on DVD.

The transfer to DVD didn't go as well as planned at first, but, then I realized that I had made a mistake in setting up the conversion process. As soon as I corrected the process, I began to see an immediate improvement in quality. Upon realizing that this flawed process was used in all of my previous efforts, I decided to reprocess Megas XLR and it turned out really, really well. In the initial processing phase, the "CN" in the Cartoon Network "bug" in the lower right corner of the screen was barely legible and the fine print "Cartoon Network" text under the "CN" appeared as just a smudge. After reprocessing, not only could I read the "CN", but the fine print "Cartoon Network" text under the "CN" was clearly visible.

So, thanks go to Granny O'Grimm for pointing me in the right direction. I'm going to have to reprocess all of my previous finds, but, if the quality improves as dramatically as it did with Megas XLR, it'll be worth the extra effort.

Raccoons and Other Animated Classics...

2010-03-08T07:28:00.007-05:00

After recent trips to Youtube yielded a Cosmic Christmas and other animated gems from the past, I developed an interest in some other animation from the early days of Nelvana. Intergalactic Thanksgiving aka Please Don't Eat the Planet seemed like an interesting story, so, I gave it a try.

When the space farmer family the Spademinders (Maw, Paw, Victoria, and trusted hound Cromwell), "bump into" the planet Laffalot, they decide to set up a homestead. The planet is home to a race that values humor to such an extent that the funniest person on the planet (Eric Fain) becomes the king. The current king's son is probably not going to inherit the throne because he's not funny. In fact his name is "Not Funny Enough" ( a little joke from his father).

Even though the farmers are straitlaced, hard working folk, the natives find them the funniest things on the planet. Their enjoyment in watching the farmers work is a nuisance to the farmers and a threat to the king's rule. The howling masses all praise King Spademinders, the funniest in the land.

Prince Not Funny Enough, (with Cromwell escorting), shows Victoria around the planet. She learns that the inhabitants of the planet don't have to work because their food is mined instead of grown.

During a confrontation between the King and the usurper farmers, Victoria, Cromwell, and the prince fall into the interior of the planet. There they discover that over-mining has caused the whole planet to become unstable. They also find a group of industrious bugs who are working hard to shore up the planet and keep it from falling apart. When the prince wonders why they hadn't warned everyone, they reply: "Who listens to bugs?"

The King's tears at losing his son, and the planet's natural fecundity result in giant crops springing up. Victoria and Prince Not Funny Enough are saved when they cling to the roots of the harvested plants.

In the end, the natives of Laffalot learn that they have to give back to the planet and that there is more to life than joking around. The plant's roots do such a good job of holding the planet together, that the bugs are able to take a break. Unfortunately, they pick up the bad habit of telling lousy jokes.

I also looked into Take Me Up To The Ballgame and despite its age (almost thirty years), I enjoyed it even more than Intergalactic Thanksgiving.

A children's baseball team (consisting of anthropomorphic animals) encounters a talent scout from outer space named Irwin (voiced by Phil Silvers), who offers them the chance to play against a team from another planet. They later discover that they're playing in a championship game, and that the opposing team has never been defeated because making up one's own rules — which Earthlings call "cheating" — is a common practice in interplanetary baseball.

During the first few innings, the Earth team is not doing well against their opponents, and some of the players suggest that they should cheat as well; the team's leader, however, insists that it would be wrong because "cheaters never prosper" (an assertion that provokes laughter from the entire stadium).

The Earth players start anticipating their opponents' tricks and countering them without breaking the rules; the spectators are thrilled by this unexpected turn of events, and the Home Team actually enjoys having a genuine challenge to face despite the fact that the Earthlings are now winning. Irwin, who'd bet heavily against the Earth team, tries to put the odds back in his favor by entering the game himself, but it's no use; the Earthlings win the game.

While I was visiting some of the more ancient Nelvana properties, I decided to check out Romie-0 and Julie-8...

In the future, two rival robotics firms are hard at work trying to create the next major leap in robotics. Both tout their wares at the latest robotics convention. The Mega Stellar Company has released their Romie-O model of robot, while Super Solar Cybernetics has released Julie-8. However, unforeseen by their creators, Romie-O and Julie-8 begin to fall in love, harboring feelings for the other.

After the convention, Romie-O comes to Julie-8, and admits that due to their company's rivalry, they most likely cannot be together. The two decide to run away in order to keep from being broken up. Unsure where to go, they come across a rather shifty individual named Gizmo, who agrees to help them find a safe haven.

Meanwhile, both of the two robot's creators (Mr Thunderbottom and Ms Passbinder) find that their creations are gone. At first they blame the other for stealing their creation, but then agree to work in tandem to find their robots when it turns out neither knows what has become of them.

Unknown to the two creators, Gizmo has transported Romie-O and Julie-8 to a planet of junk named Trash-O-Lot, where the two come face-to-face with an enormous Junk Monster named Sparepartski. The monster has Romie-O transported to the other side of the planet, but imprisons Julie-8 for his own purposes. Gizmo appears to her shortly afterward, and suggests that she offer to marry the Junk Monster in exchange for Romie-O's freedom off the planet. Julie-8 decides to try this offer, and Sparepartski accepts, much to the girl's displeasure. While happy for Romie-O's release, Julie-8 is saddened over her fate, and removes a necessary circuit, causing her to 'die.' In the meantime Sparepartski has found Thunderbottom and Passbinder's ship nearby, and taken them prisoner as well.

Unknown to Julie-8, Romie-O has managed to escape from the other side of the planet, and has made his way to her chambers. Upon finding her with her circuit removed, Romie-O reinstalls it, and the two attempt to escape. Along their way out, they encounter their creators trussed up, and set about freeing them.

However, their escape does not go unnoticed, and Sparepartski soon starts to chase them across the junkscape. The two robot lovers carry their creators in hopes to get them to safety, but end up locking up when they run into a 'rust storm.' The immobilization of the two robots causes their creators to carry them out of harm's way.

The rust storm also claims Sparepartski, who it is then revealed was a giant scrap concoction made by Gizmo. Gizmo reveals his love for machines, and after seeing Julie-8 at the robotics convention, wanted to make her his bride. Romie-O and Julie-8 then convince Gizmo that with the amount of trash on the planet, he could very well fashion his own sweetheart of his very own. Meanwhile, Mr Thunderbottom and Ms Passbinder have reconciled their differences, deciding to unite their robotics houses in a merger, much to the delight of Romie-O and Julie-8.

Some time ago, I had the opportunity to purchase a DVD set of the Raccoons TV series. Unfortunately, I let the opportunity pass and now it appears that the Raccoons TV series is out of print. It may come back someday, but, in the meantime, I really wanted to have at least one episode for the archive. The very first special created with the characters from the TV series was a Christmas special, so, that was what I settled on...

The story takes place in a forest located "slightly a ways north" on Earth called the Evergreen Forest. It's "the day before the day before Christmas," but Dan, the chief forest ranger, just learned that someone is chopping down all of the forest's trees. His children, Julie and Tommy, are concerned, but their father assures them that he'll do whatever he can to get to the bottom of it. The kids, with their sheepdog, Schaeffer, go to sleep and dream of winter fun. Meanwhile, in one tree known as the Raccoondominium, the Raccoons are preparing for Christmas. Ralph picks up the paper, and he too is outraged to learn about the disappearing trees. Bert, however, doesn't take the matter as seriously. Yet outside, the tree thief is revealed to be Cyril Sneer, who is looking for big bucks in his lumber company. His son, Cedric, tries to talk him out of his crazed plans to destroy the whole forest, reasoning that they already have enough trees. But as Cyril puts it, "I'm Cyril Sneer, a lumber profiteer! Whenever I'm near, trees disappear!" And unfortunately, one of those trees turns out to be the Raccoondominium.

Left without a home, the Raccoons try to find who's behind the destruction of the forest. However, Cyril dropped their tree on the way, where Julie and Tommy find it and declare it the perfect Christmas tree. Ralph sees the kids bring in into their house, and deduces that they must be stealing the trees. Once Schaeffer is left alone in the cabin, The Raccoons make their way inside, where they find the Raccoondominium decorated with ornaments, tinsel, and lights. As the Raccoons try to get their stockings back, some decorations fall onto the floor and Schaeffer, who has been napping nearby, wakes up from the noise and chases them through the forest. Eventually, though, Schaeffer finds out the truth about his family's Christmas tree, as do the Raccoons about his innocence. The animals then team up to find the real tree thief. Once caught, Cyril finally admits that it was he who cut down the trees and that Cedric is innocent. Cyril eventually promises to replant all the trees.

The Raccoons and Schaeffer are pleased that they have saved the forest, but the Raccoons are still upset that they still haven't got a home and Schaeffer shares their sorrow, as he is desperate to help them but he can't think of how to help. They walk back to the cabin and they wish each other a merry Christmas and Schaeffer tells the Raccoons not to give up hope. Julie and Tommy have already returned and as they begin to wonder why some of the decorations have fallen off the tree and where the stockings came from (they belong to the Raccoons), Schaeffer realises they can help and alerts the kids to the window, where the Raccoons can be seen in the cold. Julie and Tommy realise that their Christmas tree must be the Raccoons' home and they phone their father so that the Raccoons can get a new home.

The next day, the kids rush to open their presents, but are surprised to see that the tree has gone. When they ask their father, he tells them that they didn't even have a tree, and the kids realise that it mustn't even be Christmas Day yet and they must have dreamt the events of the previous day. Dan tells the kids that the mystery of the disappearing trees hasn't been solved, but the trees have stopped being cut down for some reason. He reads a newspaper article to them which says that "Overnight, thousands of seedlings were planted but they didn't know who did it." Schaeffer alerts the kids to the window again and they can see that the Raccoons have found a new home in a re-planted tree not far from the cabin.

I've been rather busy lately catching up on some old animated gems. From what I've heard, I don't expect the Nelvana shorts to be available anytime soon. The Raccoons did make an appearance on DVD a few years ago, so, they might come back on DVD. The music rights might be an issue if the series is re-released. It's a bit hit or miss at this stage.

Megas XLR...

2010-03-01T07:51:00.003-05:00

Several years ago, Cartoon Network aired a series called Megas XLR. I saw some of the series, but, it was gone before I had the opportunity to preserve any episodes for the archive.

In the distant future of 3037, humanity is fighting a doomed war against an alien race known as the Glorft. In order to save the Earth and their species from total annihilation, the human resistance steals a prototype giant robot from the Glorft and modifies it, renaming it "Megas" (Mechanized Earth Guard Attack System). The plan was to send Megas back in time to the Battle of the Last Stand in 3035, which was the last major offensive fought by humanity against the Glorft. Humanity lost that battle, and the war moved more and more in the Glorfts' favor ever since, but the members of the resistance believe that Megas can tip the scales and hand the Glorft a decisive defeat.

Before the plan can be executed, an attack by the Glorft forces the human resistance to send Megas back in time ahead of schedule. Kiva, one of the main architects of the plan, decides to pilot it and attempts to transfer into it from her own mech. During the attempt, Megas' head is blown off by enemy fire, destabilizing its timedrive and sending the robot to 1936. Megas languishes in a junkyard in Jersey City, New Jersey until it ends up in the hands of Coop (who bought it for two dollars, and never bothered to actually pay for it), around the year 2004. Coop turns Megas into a hot rod project and names it XLR, for Xtra Large Robot.

Kiva and the Glorft also go back in time in the hopes of retrieving Megas, arriving in Coop's time. When Kiva finds it she discovers that she is unable to pilot it because of Coop's modifications; because the Glorft attack destroyed Megas' head, Coop had to jerry-rig together a new set of controls using a car and various video game controls. Coop's constant video game playing has made him the perfect pilot for the remodeled Megas, so Kiva grudgingly decides to train Coop in Megas' proper use until she can repair the timedrive.

According to BenelliM4's blog, not only is Megas XLR better than the Wii video game, No More Heroes, but, Cartoon Network seems to be aggressively seeking removal of Megas XLR from Youtube. Despite this claim, I did, however, manage to find a couple episodes of the series on Youtube and added them to the archive. The quality wasn't as good as I would have liked, but, it's watchable.

Gummi Bears: Girl's Knight Out...

2010-02-19T07:43:00.006-05:00

In the aftermath of the Ultimate Otaku Fall Cleanup, a number of gems of classic TV were unceremoniously placed in trash bags and set out by the curb or given away. Among the dearly departed was an episode of Disney's Gummi Bears cartoon called "Girl's Knight Out".

In Girl's Knight Out, King Gregor proposes a series of tests for Unwin and the other squires to become Princess Calla's bodyguard, which includes stealing a golden apple from the strong and mysterious Black Knight. Calla conceals her appearance in a suit of armor and competes as well to prove she is capable of her own self defense.

I wasn't greatly concerned at the time because I had a DVD collection from the series and although the collection didn't actually contain that episode, I was hoping that Disney might release a second volume at some point in time in the future. My recent discovery of the classic Cosmic Christmas cartoon, inspired me to poke around for this lost episode of Gummi Bears, which I found on Youtube and promptly downloaded and added to the archive. I'd still like to have an official release, but, now I can rest a bit easier knowing that this episode is safely archived.

Piki and Poko: Adventures in StarLand...

2010-02-15T07:42:00.006-05:00

Some time ago, I was wandering around the dial and came across an episode of Piki and Poko: Adventures in StarLand. It's a silly, but, utterly adorable show.

Piki and Poko: Adventures in StarLand is a flash-based animation produced by Mondo Media circa 2000. The heroines of this anime-inspired series, Piki and Poko, are two cute teens from Tokyo who battle the forces of chaos. Next to this girl power epic, with its saturated colors, exaggerated 3-D perspectives, and ass-kicking action, many other web animation productions looks crude, stilted and flat.

Piki and Poko, an epic fantasy with no overt allusions to popular culture, is a new direction for Mondo. The sophisticated viewer, however, will recognize many coded references. One villain-the Homemaker-could be Martha Stewart's alien twin, cooking up vats of drugged fudge, expertly folding killer origami animals.

Piki and Poko is simultaneously cute and a send-up of cuteness. Candy canes murder and maim. Marshmallow bunnies are as addictive and dangerous as crack cocaine. A kernel of corn is a warrior; cosmic power's found in a skirt. There's a rich fluidity of good and evil, malice and sweetness, that's disarming.

Piki and Poko have had occasional broadcasts on late night cable TV, but, the series has never been released on DVD. I found most of the episodes on Youtube and took the time to download and archive them. It appears that the production stopped abruptly at 29 episodes, leaving a handful of episodes unfinished.

A Cosmic Christmas...

2010-02-14T11:26:00.009-05:00

Many years ago, I saw a cartoon about aliens that come to Earth looking for the meaning of Christmas. But, for many years, I couldn't remember the title. In 2005, just before Rock and Rule came out on DVD, I came across an entry on a Rock & Rule forum regarding other Nelvana releases -- among the titles mentioned was "A Cosmic Christmas". I saved that forum entry for future reference...

Three aliens from an unknown planet, who bear a strong resemblance to the Biblical Magi, visit earth to know the true meaning of Christmas. Peter, a young boy, and Lucy, his goose, are the first to encounter them. Unable to find the true meaning of Christmas in town, Peter takes them to his family's house in the woods. While Peter's grandmother tells the aliens about her memories of Christmas, Marty, one of the town's bullies, steals Lucy. In the chase to rescue Lucy, Marty falls through the ice in a lake. Peter attempts to rescue him but falls into the lake as well. The townsfolk, who were out searching for the aliens, attempt to save the boys but their human chain isn't long enough to reach them. The three aliens, who had sworn not to interfere with events on earth, decide to help in order to learn the meaning of Christmas. The rescue effort is successful. The townsfolk are quick to condemn Marty for stealing Lucy, but have a change of heart when they realize that Marty stole Lucy because he had nothing to eat. Peter offers Marty and his friends the chance to join them for Christmas dinner and the aliens realize that family and the spirit of forgiveness are the true meaning of Christmas.

After 5 years, I decided to revisit the Rock & Rule DVD Release forum (it seems to be inactive at this time) entry and see if the title was available.

Message: 1 [Digest Number 502]
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 09:23:04 -0700 (PDT)
From: M P
Subject: other nelvana shorts?

Since Devil and Daniel Mouse was being released with R&R, I was wondering if Unearthed may have any interest in releasing any of the other Nelvana shorts? Examples include A Cosmic Christmas, Take Me Up to the Ballgame, Rome-0 and Julie-8, [Intergalactic Thanksgiving, or Please Don't Eat The Planet], etc...

I found that the title had been released on VHS at one time, but, it is currently unavailable. Sadly, it doesn't appear that the title was ever released on DVD. I did, however, manage to locate a web quality version on Youtube. With my recent adventures in transferring a one-minute web-quality commercial to DVD, I decided to try my hand at transferring a 25-minute web-quality video to DVD.

With the files downloaded, the DVD authoring process was fairly straightforward. The resulting DVD does exhibit some artifacts associated with the low quality of the source content (blocks are visible in some scenes and fine details, like the small print in the end credits, are somewhat fuzzy), but, even with the poor quality of the transfer it's good enough for me. Some day, if this title ever becomes available on DVD, I would certainly replace my web-quality transfer with an official release. But, sadly, it doesn't appear likely to happen anytime soon. According to a post titled "Correspondence from Nelvana, October 15, 2009" by anvilscepe (Los Angeles, CA) on Amazon...

I can't believe that this still hasn't been released on DVD. I was ecstatic that "The Devil and Daniel Mouse" was released as a supplement of the "Rock and Rule" DVD - even in its truncated form - but it's still pretty painful to see this release doomed to exist only on VHS.

Anyway, the reason I am writing now is to share some not so great news about this title. I reached out to Nelvana and asked if they had any plans on releasing this and this is the email I received in response:

"Hi anvilscepe,

I'm terribly sorry for the lateness of my reply. I have been looking into this for you and it's not looking promising. It doesn't appear that any of the titles you are interested will be released anytime soon.

Thank you for your interest in these properties, and thank you for letting us know that there is interest out there for these... I'm going to pass this on to our sales team to see if we can't sell these to a distributor in the States.

Take Care,

Sarah"

So there's that update. Sad but true. Maybe I'll contact Warner.

Thanks for reading.

It's sad to hear such unhappy news, but, thanks to "666wolverine" on Youtube who made it possible for me relive a small part of my childhood.

1984...

2010-02-10T07:04:00.006-05:00

After a bit of poking around on the web, I came across the Apple commercial -- "1984". At one time, I had preserved the iconic ad on VHS, but, after the Ultimate Otaku Fall Cleanup, that commercial went away. I took the time to save the Youtube video and burn it to DVD. I even made up a nice cover for the DVD case.

There were some false starts and the DVD authoring process took a bit longer than expected, but, on the bright side, I now have a good process in place for transferring web video to DVD.

Rental Magica...

2010-02-03T07:45:00.008-05:00

I picked up Rental Magica recently. I've heard good things about the series and as it happens, it also bears some similarity to another series that I enjoyed -- Phanton Quest Corp. (You-Gen-Kai-Sya).

Destroying supernatural monsters... Dispelling dark magic... It's all in a day's work for the mages of Astral! However, after the mysterious disappearance of the company president, they're left in a lurch. His son, Itsuki Iba, begrudgingly fills in, but Itsuki's unfamiliarity with magic could spell bad news for Astral - especially with their rival Goetia vying for the very same contracts. As the jobs grow ever more dangerous, they soon find that staying in business is the least of their worries.

I would like this series to succeed, but, the distributor -- the Right Stuf -- has not had a very good track record with its releases in the past. Some releases, like Irresponsible Captain Tylor, I really, really enjoyed, while others, like Ai City, Godmars and Towards the Terra left me feeling a bit less than impressed.

Revisiting Roujin Z...

2010-01-28T07:49:00.006-05:00

Years ago, I used to have the dubbed VHS version of Roujin Z and it was not half bad. But, recently, well after the apparent demise of Central Park Media (the U.S. distributor), I happened to come across the DVD, so, I decided to bring it home with me.

Written and designed by Katsuhiro Otomo - the director of the ground breaking film Akira - and featuring the top names in Japanese animation industry - Director Kirohuki Kitakubo (Patlabor - The Movie, Black Magic M66), and Animation Director Fumio Lida (Wings of Honneamise)!

An elderly invalid, Takazawa, is volunteered for a bizarre experiment that may revolutionize care for the elderly - despite the protests of his young nurse, Haruko. The Z-001 is supposed to be the ultimate surrogate nurse - it can monitor, bathe, feed, exercise, and provide entertainment by linking with the patient's brainwaves.

However, the capabilities of the mechanical caregiver grow beyond the designer's original plans when it attempts to satisfy Takazawa's every need. Responding to his whim, the Z-001 transforms into a bizarre, unstoppable robot - which smashes out of the hospital and battles its way through police barricades en route to the beach! However, one of the designers has a hidden agenda and unveils a secret military prototype of the Z-001 - Codenamed: Alpha. The only person who can rescue Takazawa from the over-protective grip of the Z-001, and Alpha, is the person who knows him best - Haruko.

Last night, rather than watch the President's State of the Union address, I decided to revisit Roujin Z. The animation quality appears somewhat dated, but, overall the title still manages to hold its own. Of course, Roujin Z is a bit silly near the end, but, still very enjoyable.

Princess Resurrection...

2010-01-26T14:06:00.005-05:00

Recently, I picked up Princess Resurrection...

Hiro Hiyorimi is an orphan who goes to live with his sister Sawawa, the caretaker of a creepy old mansion. He ends up saving the life of the mansion's resident, who turns out to be a princess of the monster kingdom - and his new master.

I've seen the first few episodes and, so far, it seems very interesting. I'm not sure yet, if I need to have two volumes of the series, but, so far, it's not bad.

Spice and Wolf...

2010-01-19T07:40:00.006-05:00

I picked up the Season 1 set of Spice and Wolf last week...

Lawrence, a traveling merchant searching for profit, finds a naked girl with the ears and tail of a wolf asleep in his cart. Her name is Holo - a harvest goddess with an untamed beast lurking inside who longs to return to her beloved northern home. Armed with his street smarts and her animal instincts, a simple peddler and a forgotten deity begin a journey through the wild countryside. Along their path, the riches of happiness shall be reaped, even as the bankruptcy which dwells in the human heart is exposed.

I've always had a soft spot for cat girls. It remains to be seen if that soft spot extends to wolf girls. I've seen a few episodes and so far, it seems fairly intriguing.

Evangelion 1.01: You Are (Not) Alone...

2009-11-20T07:43:00.016-05:00

I've just seen the relaunch effort of Evangelion...

Tokyo-3 still stands after most of civilization was decimated in the Second Impact. Now the city endures the ceaseless onslaught of the deadly Angels, bizarre creatures bent on eradicating the human race. To combat this strange and ruthless enemy, the government agency NERV constructs a fleet of towering humanoid machines - the Evas - and Shinji Ikari is called into action, reluctantly taking his place at the controls of Eva Unit 01.

Living a life of loneliness and questioning his existence, Shinji struggles to accept responsibility for mankind's battle for survival. Shinji will fight the Angels alongside the only person who might understand his plight - Rei Ayanami, the elusive and frail pilot of Eva Unit 00.

Based on the 1995 anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, Evangelion 1.01: You Are (Not) Alone features a similar and somewhat condensed storyline of the first three volumes of the original with updated sound and images. My favorite angel is still Ramiel, who gets a serious upgrade in the relaunch. Even though, the story is essentially the same as the original, I'm still very pleased with the relaunch.

Revisiting The Animated Transformers Movie...

2009-10-28T07:27:00.006-04:00

Recently, I've been rewatching the Transformers animated movie (circa 1987) and I've noticed some differences between the 10th anniversary edition that I had on VHS and the 20th anniversary edition that I have on DVD.

More Than Meets The Eye! The year is 2005, and the Decepticons have retaken Cybertron from Optimus Prime and his Autobot warriors. Both sides are seething with anger, and that has blinded them to a hideous menace headed their way. That menace is Unicron, a monster so powerful he devours planets. Unicron has chosen to take control of the Autobot Matrix for his own evil purposes, and to accomplish this he has created a force of super robots. By gathering the remains of fallen Decepticons, including Megatron, and infusing them with life, he forms the Unicrons. With Decepticons on one side, Unicron on the other, and Optimus Prime lost in battle, Earth and Autobot survival depends on The Chosen One who must rise up to open the matrix and use its full power. Who that is remains a mystery.

The 20th anniversary edition has been digitally remastered and "color corrected". Also, this release marks the first time that the widescreen version of the movie has been available. I think that the most striking difference between the earlier version and the current version is the color. The new version is *much* brighter than the old version. In some scenes the color correction doesn't seem quite right. Just look at poor Hot Rod -- he's pink!

Also, there appear to be some edits to the original material. The opening sequence in the remastered version omits the crawl describing the battle between the Decepticons and the Autobots. It also appears that the widescreen version has been artificially cropped. You'll note in the remastered version that Hot Rod's hands are missing.

The changes that were made to the Transformers Movie seem, IMHO, to be a bit too much of a good thing. I'm not against restoration. I just don't believe that the production studio did a faithful restoration on the print. Rather, they modified the print in what appears to have been a somewhat arbitrary process -- not unlike colorizing a black and white movie. And, if you were unfortunate to have the fullscreen version on DVD, you'll find that the publisher chopped the sides off of the already chopped frame.

Lucky Star...

2009-09-09T13:33:00.008-04:00

While watching Kannagi, I came across previews for Lucky Star. So, I picked up the first volume of Lucky Star...

Meet Konata, an athletic and intelligent girl too dedicated to her favorite primetime anime shows to excel in anything but otaku culture; Miyuki, the cute, bespectacled living example of moe with an encyclopedic knowledge of all subjects; Kagami, the bitter-sweet, tough but shy straight-man to Konata's constant teasing and pranks; and her younger fraternal twin sister, Tsukasa, a kind but air-headed klutz. Witness this study in the human condition as our heroines explore the unexplored in questioning the ordinary!

Lucky Star seems like an interesting anime that I might like. I'm not sure yet, if I'll like it enough to buy six volumes worth, but, I'll give it a try...

Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens

2009-08-31T12:45:00.008-04:00

I picked up Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens recently...

The goddess Nagi has arrived and wants you to worship her!

Nagi is the local deity spirit of the town of Kannagi and she was able to take a physical form when Jin Mikuriya carved a wooden statue of her out of a block of wood from the sacred tree of his family shrine. Nagi's mission is to cleanse the impurities that plague the land, but since her sacred tree has been cut down, she can only do this with Jin's help.

While pursuing an impurity, Nagi is reunited with her sister, Zange, who happens to have converted to Catholicism. Zange's power is greater than Nagi's due to her scared tree still being in tact and becoming a local celebrity taking confessions on the street at night. The only way for Nagi to regain her power is to gather her own followers and gain popularity.

It seems like an interesting show... Which makes the distributor's actions somewhat puzzling. Most anime distributors are very happy to promote their new titles, but, Kannagi is unusual in that it arrived in the U.S. without a formal announcement from its distributor, Bandai. On July 16th, 2009, AnimeNation reported:

In lieu of an acquisition announcement, Bandai Entertainment has simply released the first DVD volume of the Kannagi ~Crazy Shrine Maidens~ anime television series today. The subtitled only release contains 7 episodes plus a non-credit opening and episode 7 non-credit ending. The second DVD volume, containing the second half of the 14 episode series, will be released on September 24.

The next day, Bandai explained its actions:

Bandai Entertainment President Ken Iyadomi has explained the rationale behind the sudden and unanticipated American commercial release of the Kannagi TV series. “North American anime companies have suffered unexpected heavy returns from general market retailers in recent years but if we can sell moderate quantities exclusively online where no sales returns exist, I believe we can acquire more anime for the US market to be released in this pattern,” he said. The first domestic DVD volume of Kannagi is available directly from Bandai, and one online retailer.

Update

Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens is an interesting show, but, judging by the distributor's actions, it seems as if the distributor doesn't have faith in the success of Kannagi. Most anime distributors are very happy to promote their new titles, but, Kannagi is unusual in that it arrived in the U.S. without a formal announcement from its distributor, Bandai.

Because of it's unusual distribution scheme, Kannagi had to be ordered, it will not be available in my local video store. There were a handful of items that I wanted to order, so, I added Kannagi to the order and a couple of weeks later, it arrived. There was nothing spectacular about the packaging or special features. And, given the distributor's lack of interest, I could only hope that Kannagi might not be a disappointment.

The animation quality is very good, but, since the series is a somewhat of a slice-of-life type drama, there really aren't any jaw-dropping special effects to drool over. The look and feel of the series is quite understated and ordinary. The "impurities" are just black silhouettes and don't always appear very convincing. There is some humor in the series, but, for the most part, the story is a character-driven drama.

Although, there isn't much in the way of eye candy, Kannagi turned out to be a fairly entertaining and engaging series. Even though, it'll have to be ordered, and the series may not appeal to everyone, I highly recommend the series.

Bludgeoning Angel...

2009-07-17T13:56:00.006-04:00

I picked up Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-Chan today...

Imagine a world where the secret to immortality has been discovered, causing women to stop aging by the time they turn twelve. Sounds like it might be a perfect playground for a discoverer with less-than-wholesome interests, doesn't it? That's exactly why the Big Man Upstairs sends Dokuro-chan, one of his angelic assassins, into the past to "deal" with the sicko who messed with nature!

But Dokuro-chan decides instead to move in with her target, Sakura Kusakabe, and keep him too occupied to find eternal life. Funnily enough, the path of nonviolence leads to a fountain of blood, as Dokuro-chan accidentally kills Sakura on an almost-daily basis only to resurrect him with a magical chant moments later.

With a name like "Bludgeoning Angel", I couldn't resist bringing this title home with me. From the summary, Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-Chan seems like it might be something along the lines ofExcel Saga -- certainly when I read that one of the main characters keeps dying, Excel Saga is the first title to spring to mind.

Update

The novelty of seeing Sakura's head being torn off with a fountain of blood and gore again and again, gets tired fairly quickly. Despite Dokuro-Chan's seeming propensity for killing Sakura, Dokuro-Chan seems to have obsessive affection for Sakura. The situation is, of course, complicated by the arrival of another Angel assassin and Sakura's interest in Shizuki, another girl from his school.

There is a lot of violence in the series and at times, the violence can be very graphic, but, the world Dokuro-Chan lives in is not a malicious place. People, once killed, don't stay dead and the violence in the series is generally confined to Sakura.

There's also a lot of fan service and suggestive dialogue in the series, but, there are no naughty bits to speak of. The animation quality is, at times, noticeably poor. But, given the subject matter, expectations are not very high anyway.

Although, I bought this title, primarily because of its name, I was hoping that this title would be somewhat more entertaining than it turned out to be. After the novelty of seeing Sakura killed over and over again wears off, there's not really anything left to hold my interest. There is some humor in the series, but, much of the humor is derived from violence and once the impact of the violence wears off, what is left, is an awkward love-triangle.

Contrasted to a series like Ah! My Goddess, where an otherworldly being meets a guy from Earth, Ah! My Goddess is sweet, innocent and it was really interesting to see how events unfolded. Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-Chan is anything but sweet and innocent and it was not at all pleasent to watch. In Excel Saga, the humor is fast-paced and takes a variety of different forms. Whereas, Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-Chan has a much slower pace and the humor is somewhat repetitive.

I like the name of the series, the fact that the series is self-contained and there were some parts of the story that I did like (the effect of removing an Angel's halo being one). Although, the series is not completely without merit, overall, I was not very pleased with the series.

Rocket Girls...

2009-04-01T12:46:00.016-04:00

I've added Rocket Girls to the anime ratings database...

School is finally out for the summer and Yukari Morita has big plans this season. It's off to the Solomon Islands for her, in search of her long-lost father. Unfortunately, the archipelago stretches over 28,000 square kilometers and boasts a population of about 500,000 people. With odds like that, what's a girl to do?

Luckily for Yukari, the local Solomon Space Agency is in desperate need of a new astronaut. With their promise to help find her father, Yukari begins her part-time job as an astronaut!

I've seen the entire series and it's actually surprisingly good. I had my doubts when I first saw this item on the store shelf. It was calling to me, but, I still had my doubts.

The animation is crisp and bright. It appears to be mostly traditional animation with a handful of CG elements thrown in here and there -- nothing too spectacular. The CG effects are not blended very well with the traditional animation and, at times, appear somewhat out of place. The story-telling is somewhat contrived, but, still reasonably good. The humor in the series held my interest fairly well. There are no naughty bits or gore to speak of. The series is a nice character-driven drama -- there's very little action and very few visual effects.

Overall, the series is reminiscent of movies like the "Right Stuff" or "Apollo 13". There's quite a bit of technical jargon and a number of pretty images of the Earth, as seen from space. In some of the more technical aspects of the series, reality is stretched pretty thin. But, if you can suspend disbelief to some degree, I believe that you'll find the series entertaining.

There were no inserts in the case and only a handful of special features in the set. The most interesting part of the special features was a three-minute pilot episode. The pilot version reveals that the character designs had changed dramatically compared to the final version -- the characters originally had a slightly older, more realistic appearance.

I liked the fact that the entire series is in one package, but, I didn't like Bandai's decision to use multi-disc cases where the discs overlap one another. I prefer to have each disc on a separate panel, so, I moved the series to my own three-disc case.

Still, all things considered, I am fairly pleased with Rocket Girls, but, I'll admit that the series' may not be for everyone. In addition, the series' $50 price tag and its subtitled-only format may not inspire others to take a chance on the series.

I went ahead and added a couple of wallpapers featuring two of the lead characters in the series to my humble wallpaper gallery.

Stopped by AnimEigo recently...

2009-03-04T13:04:00.006-05:00

AnimEigo is one of the pioneers of the American anime industry and is responsible for bringing such gems as Urusei Yatsura and Bubblegum Crisis to the U.S. I stopped by the AnimEigo site recently and got such a tickle out of their latest sale announcement, that I thought I'd share with you...

Would you believe it, 2009 marks our 20th year of operation. Ah, the good old days, when 45-minute OVAs on VHS tape sold for $40, and the fans were damn glad to be able to get them. Now you want them on DVD, you want liner notes, you want dubs as well as subtitles. Want, want, want... that's all we ever hear from you! What about our needs? What about the boats and sports cars all our employees deserve so very much? What about finally getting that corporate jet for Natsumi -- she'd settle for a small one, and they're cheap right now!

But Nooooooo! You keep insisting that we provide better products for lower prices! You keep insisting we "celebrate" our 20th year by giving you great deals on most of our titles! Don't you realize that unless we can charge higher prices, we'll have to let go essential staff members like the AnimEigo Fan-Girls -- those exceptional young women who ceaselessly labor to keep Bobby, Branson and Aaron cool as they labor under the hot Carolina sun to author DVDs for you?

No, you don't care. You don't care at all. And it just makes me depressed and tired. So tired, in fact, that I just can't bring myself to update the database and return our prices to their normal levels. I just don't have the energy. You're just going to have to put up with the incredibly low sale prices for a little longer.

I hope you can live with yourselves, you ingrates!

Now, if that doesn't inspire you to take your credit card out and order one of everything from the top shelf, I don't know what will. I am certainly one of the ingrates who spent $45 for the first episode of Bubblegum Crisis and I was damn glad to have it. Over the years I've probably spent close to $2,000 on AnimEigo's products. And, I'll keep coming back for more. Certainly, if, they ever renew their Spirit of Wonder license.

Adventures In Mighty B Land...

2009-02-17T07:33:00.010-05:00

A couple weeks ago, I put together a DVD of several episodes of the Mighty B TV series. Fresh off my adventures in authoring a two and a half minute DVD, I decided to try my hand at remastering the episodes of the Mighty B, I had on hand.

BTW, for those who don't know the Mighty B...

The Mighty B! is a Nickelodeon show created by Erik Wiese, Cynthia True and Amy Poehler. Poehler also provides the voice of the title character, Bessie Higgenbottom. Its first episode premiered on April 26, 2008. The series was developed under the working title of "Super Scout" before adopting its current name...

Bessie Higgenbottom is a Honeybee scout (this series' portrayal of the Girl Scouts of the USA) who is determined to collect every single badge in Honeybee history. Honeybee folklore implies that in doing so, she’ll become a superhero called the Mighty B. Bessie often enlists the help of her dog Happy, her brother Ben, and her best friend Penny.

My new and improved DVD authoring software turned out to be, not so new and improved. It was relatively painless to set up a project file and add a menu, but, things started to go downhill from there. I had a lot of problems adding the content. The files could be added in bulk, but, when previewing the material to identify which episodes were which, the app would freeze and I would have to reboot. I went through a number of rounds of trying to identify my content and get the menu in order. It took several hours just to get the menu in order.

I noticed that the app would occasionally complain that my video drivers might not be up to date. So, I decided to check the NVidia website to see if there was an updated video driver and there was. It took about four hours to get the new driver installed. Fortunately, that seemed to fix the issue with previewing the content.

The next issue involved editing the content -- removing commercials. The editor would freeze when attempting to edit the content. Eventually, after several hours worth of effort and many many saves, I was able to get the content edited -- more or less. There was one episode that gave me a lot of problems. The editor, for some unknown reason, refused to show the end of the episode. So, I couldn't tell where the episode actually ended and where the commercials started.

After a day and a half of work, I managed to get the content ready for burning. I started the burning sequence and discovered that the app would have to process the content before actually burning the DVD. The processing would take about two and a half hours. About half way through the process, the app froze and nothing was burned to DVD. At least the app didn't kill a DVD, but, after rebooting, I found that the app could not pick up processing where it left off -- it had to start from the beginning. I tried a couple of times to get the app to complete processing and it refused. So after two days of effort, I've got nothing to show for my work, but, a two and a half minute DVD and a $90 hole in my wallet. I checked the web for advice on the app and discovered that there's a lot of pain out there. My next step will be to try a different software package.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Update

I picked up some new software and tried, yet again, to remaster the episodes of Mighty B that I had on hand. The effort was successful, but, altogether underwhelming. The quality suffered greatly during the transfer and mastering phases. But, all of my efforts were not in vain. I did figure out a process for burning web-quality content to a DVD and as long as I don't ask too much of my humble DVD authoring software, it actually works fairly well.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Update

With new and improved software and DVD authoring techniques in hand, I decided to revisit the Mighty B DVD that I'd made the year before. This time around, I was able to quickly and easily remove the offending commercials and the duplicate episodes and make a nice double-disc set with the official DVD and my own DVD compilation in one case.

Babylon 5: Conflicts of Loyalty on DVD...

2009-02-11T07:53:00.009-05:00

Recent discussions concerning the future of the anime industry and the industry's evolution into an online-only distribution model have prompted me to look into converting various file formats into a DVD format. I cobbled together some software and hardware in an effort to conduct an experiment to test the viability of transferring movie files on my computer to a DVD that will play in my older-model DVD player. The first candidate for my first foray into DVD authoring was a 2-minute-23-second teaser trailer for something entitled: Babylon 5: Conflicts of Loyalty.

Some time ago, I happened to come across a teaser trailer for Babylon 5: Conflicts of Loyalty. It's a trailer for a Babylon 5-themed mod for the game, Nexus. A very talented team of artists and programmers recreated 3D models of the various ships featured in the Babylon 5 storyline. Once created, the 3D models could then be inserted into the Nexus game environment. The trailer shows a series of in-game battle sequences featuring the Babylon 5-themed 3D models and set to a suitably melancholy music selection from the Babylon 5 TV series.

My initial test was successful, but, did not go as well as expected. I had to covert the original file to a lower-quality format, before converting it to DVD. It took about a half-hour to convert two minutes of material and the experience, in general, was not as user-friendly as I would have liked. The difficulties that I encountered highlighted the need for new software. New hardware wouldn't hurt either, but, there is no budget for new hardware at this time.

On the bright side, I came up with a nice cover for the DVD case. Even though, the teaser trailer is only slightly more than a couple minutes, I made up a DVD cover for it and I'll still keep it in the DVD archive.

For my second attempt, I upgraded my DVD burning software and added a handful of quick and dirty conversion utilities for any formats that were not supported. The new software made all the difference. I was able to set up a custom menu page and add my movie file to the DVD with just a few mouse clicks. As an extra feature, I even have an animated menu page. The picture quality was much better in the second attempt and the whole process only took a few minutes. And, best of all, my older-model DVD player didn't care about all the frills -- it played the DVD without any problems.

I found a nice utility that can handle those pesky FLV files very well. Although the utility claims to also handle flash (SWF) files, it's really not that good. I think that once I get my hands on a fairly decent flash converter, I'll be ready to venture out into the world and see what sorts of anime are available. It remains to be seen if Internet-quality subtitled anime will still look good once it's burned to DVD.

Gunslinger Girl...

2009-01-24T12:03:00.005-05:00

I've added Gunslinger Girl to the anime ratings database...

In Gunslinger Girl, the Social Welfare Agency is a government sponsored corporation that's on the fringe of technology. They give terminal patients another shot at life using cybernetic implants, shaping the patients into efficient machines for handling the government's dirty work. Having survived the brutal slaughter of her family, Henrietta awakens to her new life at the Agency with a re-built body and no memory of the past.

We've got girls, guns and violence. The series starts out with a bang when Henrietta almost single-handedly takes out a room full of bad guys. Unfortunately, she wasn't actually supposed to, or, at least not without instructions.

The series has a clean, well-polished appearance. The action sequences are very well executed. Sometimes, the callousness with which the characters commit violence can be a bit disturbing. There is, of course, some gore in the series. There are no naughty bits to speak of. Overall, I was pleased with the series.

The Mighty B...

2009-01-23T21:25:00.001-05:00

I spent about three hours today putting together a DVD of episodes of the Mighty B. According to Wikipedia...

The Mighty B! is a Nickelodeon show created by Erik Wiese, Cynthia True and Amy Poehler. Poehler also provides the voice of the title character, Bessie Higgenbottom. Its first episode premiered on April 26, 2008. The series was developed under the working title of "Super Scout" before adopting its current name...

Bessie Higgenbottom is a Honeybee scout (this series' portrayal of the Girl Scouts of the USA) who is determined to collect every single badge in Honeybee history. Honeybee folklore implies that in doing so, she’ll become a superhero called the Mighty B. Bessie often enlists the help of her dog Happy, her brother Ben, and her best friend Penny.

Although, the world Bessie lives in can be a bit strange, I do like to visit from time to time. The show is funny, irreverent and quirky, but, at its core, the show is very sweet. My favorite episode is "Bee Patient" where we discover that Bessie, like many young people, has a fear of needles. I also like the rapport between Bessie and her dog, Happy and the fact that Bessie isn't afraid to pick her nose.

As I was finalizing the DVD, I discovered, to my pleasant surprise, that there's going to be an official DVD release. According to TV Shows on DVD, there should be an official release on February 24, 2009...

Nickelodeon and Paramount Home Entertainment will release The Mighty B! - We Got the Bee on February 24th. Besides getting an hour and a half of cartoon episodes on this disc, you'll also get a "Behind The Mighty B!" Featurette where you can meet the Creators and Cast of the show, a look at the Original Animatic of the episode "Bat Mitzvah Crashers", and also a "Running with the Rainbow Unicorn" Karaoke Music Video. Video is full frame, and audio is English Stereo.

I'll definitely purchase the official release when it becomes available. Depending on how much of an overlap between the episodes I already have on DVD and the episodes that will be available on the official release, I'll probably, also keep my DVD. As with other series like Josie and the Pussycats, Catscratch and the X's, that I've preserved on DVD, sometimes I'll take the time to repackage the official release in multi-disc DVD cases and include my own DVDs in the set.

Big O...

2009-01-22T00:14:00.008-05:00

I've added Big O to the anime ratings database...

Paradigm City. A City of Amnesia. Forty years ago everyone lost their memory, but humanity continues to survive. They've learned to operate machinery, produce electricity, and go on living each day at a time. Still, there's something missing in a town with no past and no history of what has come before.

Roger Smith is a Negotiator, hired to negotiate disputes between parties, and Roger enjoys a reputation for being the best at his job. But he has an ace up his sleeve... a rather big ace. He controls a Megadeus called the Big O, a wondrous piece of technology from before the age of Amnesia. Occasionally, fragments of memories appear, and with them often comes trouble. The Big O comes in handy for subduing such dangers, but does it serve some greater purpose? Together with the unusual R. Dorothy Wayneright and his loyal butler Norman, Roger Smith keeps Paradigm City safe from the nightmare of memories.

According to Wikipedia...

The television series is designed as a tribute to Japanese and Western shows from the 1960s and 1970s. The series is done in the style of film noir and combines the feel of a detective show with the mecha genre of anime. The setpieces are reminiscent of Toho monster movies and the score is an eclectic mix of styles and musical homages...

...The English language version premiered on the Cartoon Network on 2 April 2001. Originally a thirteen-episode series, positive fan response internationally resulted in a second season co-produced by Cartoon Network, Sunrise, and Bandai Visual. Season two premiered on Japan's SUN-TV on January 2003, with the American premiere taking place seven months later.

I first encountered Big O on Cartoon Network a few years ago. I'm not a real big fan of giant robot shows, but, I'll make an exception for Patlabor and perhaps, Big O as well. I've seen almost all of the series, including the second season. The first season ended rather abruptly and left a lot of unanswered questions. My guess is that the producers never really had much more than a vague concept for a possible second season. As a result, the second season, which appears to have been created by committee, suffers from a definite lack of focus.

As a whole, the series does tend to delve into variations of the "monster of the week" scenarios that allow Big O to showcase its talents. But, the series also has a very unique appearance. Much of the decor has an "old world" feel -- it's worn and well used -- as if has been around for centuries.

Big O is a decade old at the time of this writing and its animation is showing some signs of age. The animation is not as highly polished as more recent anime, but, the story-telling is very good. The series has a nice balance of action and drama. There are no naughty bits and very little gore in the series. The battle sequences are fast-paced, engaging and very well executed.

I enjoyed the first season and even if it didn't really have an ending, I would be pleased if it hadn't been extended to a second season. The second season didn't seem to capture the same "magic" that the first season had. I enjoyed the first season enough, that even when there was no "second season" in sight, I purchased the "complete 13-episode series". After the second season debuted in the U.S., the series was re-released as season one and two box sets. I'm grateful to have seen more Big O, but, I still have some reservations about the second season. Overall, I was, for the most part, pleased with the series, but, not so much that I would want to buy the second season.

Darker Than Black...

2009-01-21T08:01:00.005-05:00

I picked up the first volume of Darker Than Black...

A new and deadly breed of covert agent walks the streets. Known as Contractors, these assassins and spies wield bizarre supernatural powers to carry out the dirty work of others. They thrive in the underworld, between rumor and reality, their loyalties always in question.

One among these operatives is more mysterious than the rest: the masked killer BK201, the Black Reaper. His true identity and intentions remain unknown, but as his path weaves through the shadows and alleys of Tokyo, blood is spilled on both sides of the law. It's a new age of confusion, and the rules of engagement have changed.

The title spoke to me and said "buy me", so, I did. The story seemed like something I might like, so, I'll give it a try and see what happens. As with Claymore, some distributors are distorting the cover art, but, as with Claymore, I was able to clean up the cover art a bit.

Claymore...

2009-01-15T07:19:00.009-05:00

I picked up the second volume of Claymore yesterday...

A brutal scourge stalks the land. Yoma, monsters driven by a hunger satisfied by only one quarry: Humanity. The dark breed knows but a singular foe: Claymore. Human-Yoma hybrids of extraordinary strength and cunning, the Claymores roam from skirmish to skirmish delivering salvation by the edge of a blade... for a fee.

Thus begins the twisting tale of Clare, one such sister of the sword driven by pain in both victory and defeat. A child silent and suffering hidden in her past, Clare's march toward vengeance unfolds along a path marked by violence, solitude and scorn. In a land where even the predator is prey, the haunted hearts of hunter and hunted alike wear the scars of the age.

The story seemed somewhat intriguing, so, I thought I might give it a try. I first encountered Claymore in a print ad and it just seemed to jump out and demand my attention. At this point, I have the art box and the first two volumes.

BTW, the cover art was taken from a distorted view of the cover box that is commonly available on the web. I had no real difficulty removing the distortion, but, I did spend a few minutes cleaning up the image a bit. Given the size and quality of the source image, 350x500 was the best I could do. I would scan the cover art, but, like Witchblade, the Claymore cover art makes use of reflective materials that do not scan well.

Update

Claymore follows the exploits of Clare, a soldier in the service of the "Organization", as she slices and dices "Yoma". Yoma are humans that have been transformed into monsters. Claymores are half-human and half-yoma -- they have the minds and souls of humans, but, can draw upon the immense power of their yoma side to do their dangerous work. Claymores must be cautious with the yoma side of their nature, because, their yoma side might consume their human side and transform the Claymores into full-fledged yoma. Claymore is packed full of violence, bloodshed and gore. Scenes of people munching, people smashing, monster slicing and all manner of gore.

Claymore is mostly traditional animation with only a few CG elements. While, the animation quality in the series does not appear to contain any technical flaws, it does appear that the animators took some noticeable cost saving measures. Throughout the series the animators make use of some still shots and some panning sequences of still shots. There's one particularly unsuccessful sequence of birds sliding sideways across the screen. Thankfully, there's more than enough action to draw my attention away from some of the more obvious shortcomings.

The visual style of the series is dark and moody. It's rendered entirely in muted colors. Even the blood, is a few shades darker than one would expect. The most striking feature of the series is the way the eyes of the main characters are drawn. The Claymores have intensely silver, almost jewel-like, eyes. The yoma have brilliant gold eyes that appear to glow from within. In most cases, the eyes are rendered using traditional animation, but, when the story-tellers want to convey an extra level of intensity, the eyes are beautifully rendered using CG effects. Another interesting aspect of the appearance of the series lies in the blood of its victims -- humans and Claymores bleed red and yoma bleed purple.

Many of the themes in the series relate to the hazy line that seems to separate humans from the half-human, Claymores and the formerly-human, Yoma. Although, the story-telling is fairly good, there is a tendency in the series to venture into the "monster of the week" syndrome -- newer monsters, bigger monsters, badder monsters, etc... The only thing that saves the series from becoming too monotonous is its unflinching violence towards women and its appallingly callous portrayal of violence in general. There were scenes of torture and child abuse in the middle of the series that were fairly intense. Claymore is certainly not for the younger or more squeamish members of the anime community.

Overall, Claymore has some flaws and is certainly not for everyone, but, I still found the series to be engaging and entertaining.

Curse of the Bambino...

2009-01-03T07:23:00.001-05:00

Recently, I had revisited an HBO documentary on Red Sox fandom and the so called "Curse of the Bambino". Since the Red Sox have actually won the world series, the themes discussed in the documentary are no longer relevant.

HBO's wry, enlightening account of 80-plus years of the Boston Red Sox's travails is a fusion of wit and history. "Everything's going fine," says one of this documentary's talking heads, speaking of the Red Sox's legacy of 11th-hour screw-ups. "Then: boom. It's like watching The Wizard of Oz and Dorothy is ripped apart at the end by flying monkeys." Comic Steven Wright compares the team's history to a Dickens novel, and Denis Leary says love of the Red Sox is "sado-masochism." The problem is that Boston's doomstruck organization, fans say, has been in karmic payback since 1920 for then-owner Harry Frazee's sale of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. Historians dismiss claims that Frazee used the money to finance Broadway's No, No, Nanette, and there's evidence the self-destructive Ruth had actually become a liability for the team. In any case, the symbiotic fortunes of the Yankees and Red Sox is entertainingly summarized here.

Even though the documentary is no longer relevant in regards to the "curse", there was a nice quote that in the documentary that I thought I'd share with you. Matt Wilson said of Red Sox fandon:

It's like watching the Wizard of Oz, then Dorothy dies at the end. You know, she doesn't just die -- she's like, ripped apart by the flying monkeys and Toto eats her remains, and "The End", credits roll.

It doesn't speak well of Red Sox fandon, but, it evokes a really horrible image that appeals to me in a really twisted way.

Third: The Girl With the Blue Eye...

2008-12-03T23:26:00.005-05:00

I've added Third: The Girl With the Blue Eye to the anime ratings database...

In a devastated world overrun by monstrous bugs and ravaged by outlaws, there's only one person to call when you really need a job done right: Honoka. With a sixth sense for danger, sword skills that are second to none, and a smart-aleck A.I. tank by the name of Bogie, she's ready to tackle any job and solve any problem for her clients. But while crossing the desert one night, she finds a young man alone in the wasteland. It's the first step of a journey that will challenge even Honoka's amazing skills to their very limit!

I've seen the first volume and the animation quality is spectacular. I'm quite impressed with the look of the show. The animation is a mix of traditional animation and CG. The sword-winging scenes are particularly nice. But, all is not sweetness and light. The bug-slicing scenes leave a bit to be desired. The giant spiders are a nice concept, but, they're not executed as well as I might like. The giant ants are a bit better, though.

Also, some of the mecha battle scenes seem a bit stilted. The animators seemed to be trying so hard to make this one thing look really cool, that they failed to realize that there was no purpose for that one thing. I won't tell you what the thing is. You'll have to figure that out for yourself. I like the relationship between Honoka and Bogie, but, their rapport wasn't enough to hold my interest in the series.

I got my first peek at Third via a preview on the Haruhi DVD. I like girls, guns and sharp objects. So, this title seemed like a natural choice. As for the story, I like the idea that humanity seems to have drawn the short straw. But, overall, the pacing seems a bit slow. I lost interest in the series after the first volume.

Heartwork...

2008-11-29T02:32:00.008-05:00

I've added Heartwork to the anime ratings database...

Yuu Asakura was a mild mannered university student - until he found a mysterious duffle bag with a gun and orders for an assassination. He was terrified at first, but when he held the smooth metal of the pistol in his hand he started to become someone else. Capable of anything, Yuu takes the assassination job and enters a world of nonstop sex, blood and guns.

The story was quite intriguing and fairly engaging. There's also a fair amount of blood in the series. More often than not, female characters end up being shot in the face during intimate moments.

Except for the parts where female characters find themselves on the wrong end of a gun, almost all of the H scenes are fairly conventional. The animation is a mix of traditional animation and CG backgrounds. The animation quality is noticeably poor in places. I was disappointed that Chief Morikawa, the character pictured on the cover box, doesn't actually have any H scenes.

Overall, the story in the first and second acts was good, but, went downhill in the third act. Although, blood is always a good thing, I was somewhat disappointed with Heartwork. I don't think that Heartwork was a complete waste of time, but, I also don't think I'll ever bother to watch it again.

Wordsworth...

2008-11-28T02:42:00.010-05:00

I've added Wordsworth to the anime ratings database...

God created Light and Shadow and separated them with the power of the divine Wordsworth Tablet. One day, the Wordsworth Tablet shall be read and all will be understood, and Light and Shadow will join and become complete. But someone has shattered the Tablet.

The Tribe of Light and the Tribe of Shadow each blame the other and war ensues for 100 years. The story revolves around the bumbling but very skilled Prince Astral of the Tribe of Shadow who may be the one to bring the Tribes together and restore peace.

Follow the exploits of Astral, the undisciplined heir to the throne of the Shadow Forces as he battles the forces of the Tribe of Light and lusts for his bride-to-be, Sharon. The worlds envisioned in Wordsworth are fairly well realized. I've always had a soft spot for cat girls and Nina, the resident cat girl in the Tribe of Darkness, is by far, my favorite character.

Wordsworth, even without its H scenes would still be a fairly entertaining sword and sorcery tale. Although, there are some animal-people H scenes, the majority of H scenes are conventional and somewhat disappointing. On the bright side, there is some blood and gore, however, it's mostly slicing and dicing.

Wordsworth isn't particularly old, but, the animation has the look and feel of a vintage anime. Despite the dated appearance of the animation, the quality is reasonably good.

I heard about Wordsworth years ago, but, it wasn't until recently that I seriously considered adding it to my collection. This series was originally released in a one episode per DVD format and wasn't really worth the expense of buying multiple DVDs. Wordsworth has since been re-released in a single DVD format and is a much better value. Overall, Wordsworth is entertaining, but, not necessarily because of its H scenes. If you're looking for an entertaining, epic sword and sorcery tale and you're 18 or older, you might enjoy Wordsworth. But, if you're looking for good H scenes, you'll probably be disappointed with Wordsworth.

Bible Black...

2008-11-27T02:52:00.016-05:00

I've added Bible Black to the anime ratings database...

At a harmless looking college, the teachers and staff are practicing a dark religion. By devoting their bodies to perversity, they chant their dark spells and control the lusts of the student body. Everywhere the students turn, they are drawn to acts of perversion, even in public. Perhaps the school nurse has the answer, as she holds special counseling sessions for the female students.

In Bible Black, Minase, a student at a harmless looking college, discovers a book of magic spells. Using the dark magic contained within the book, Minase made a pact with the demonic university nurse, Miss Kitami. By devoting their bodies to perversity, they chant their dark spells and control the lusts of the student body.

The story is quite elaborate -- spanning four volumes in the first story arc. Most of the H scenes are fairly conventional, but, there are some scenes of torture in the series that may be a bit much for casual H fans. That being said, there is some blood and gore in the series, but, given the themes of the series, the violence is quite tame. One has to expect the occasional human sacrifice in tales of dark magic and demons.

The animation quality is fairly good. Bible Black has a clean and polished appearance. Overall, although there's a bit more story than I usually expect to see in an H title, I was pleased with the series.

Making Fiends...

2008-11-08T21:13:00.012-05:00

A few weeks ago, I happened to catch an episode of a new show on Nicktoons called "Making Fiends". The animation is crudely drawn -- the quality is on-par with South Park, but, with less color than South Park. The story-telling, which is what attracted me to the series, is surprisingly good. Although, Nicktoons markets the show as a "kids show", the themes and humor in the series are rather dark -- even though there's no blood or gore, the series does exhibit a vicious streak.

The show revolves around the life of Charlotte, a sweet, innocent little girl who is the new girl in the town of Clamburg (she used to live in Vermont, according to the first webisode). Charlotte is also incredibly naïve, and is unable to think badly of anyone around her. Charlotte quickly makes "friends" with Vendetta (or so she thinks), a horrid little girl who makes monsters, or fiends, through baking. Vendetta cannot stand Charlotte's happy-go-lucky nature, and will often go to great lengths to destroy Charlotte (or at least get her out of the way for a little bit). These attempts inevitably backfire, usually resulting in Vendetta doing great damage to herself. When they do succeed, Charlotte can only see the bright side of her situation and will become more annoying than usual. Everything is back to normal by the end of the episode.

Vendetta, due to her fiend-making abilities, appears to have the entire town at her control. As such, Clamburg is a bleak, dark and forbidding place. Mr. Milk, who has gotten the misfortune of teaching Charlotte and Vendetta's class, is incredibly timid and never gets around to teaching due to his fear of Vendetta's reactions to his lessons. Charlotte's classmates include Marion, who speaks quietly and is fearful of Vendetta; Marvin, who starts each sentence with the word "my" and has his property vandalized by Vendetta in various ways (which leads to such exclamations as "My banana!" and "My ice cream!"); Malachi, who speaks in Shakespearian phrases and consistently warns Charlotte against messing with Vendetta (to no avail); Maggie, who has resigned herself to depression and dreams of someday escaping; and Mort, an earnest little boy who often spouts nonsensical advice.

During the course of my research on the series, I discovered that Making Fiends was based on a web-based animation of the same name. I downloaded a handful of webisodes for the web-based version of the series and managed, after a bit of effort, to save the opening animation, from the Nicktoons version of the series, on my PC.

The Nicktoons version of the series varies somewhat from its web-based counterpart. The Nicktoons version, although crudely drawn, is somewhat more highly polished than its web-based counterpart. In addition, the stories in the Nicktoons version have been modified to some degree compared to their web-based counterparts. Some of the overt violence in the web-based version has been toned down or left out entirely for the Nicktoons version. For instance, the web-based version showed a character being thrown at the camera and there was no indication that the character survived; meanwhile, the same scene in the Nicktoons version showed the character being tossed out of the shot and landing somewhere off-camera with some indication that the character survived.

I considered purchasing the first season DVD of the web-based episodes, but, in the end I decided against it. However, I enjoyed the Nicktoons version of the show so much, that I decided to save a few episodes on DVD.

Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit...

2008-10-07T07:52:00.013-04:00

I saw an episode of Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit on Cartoon Network over the weekend. While I don't normally have any great interest in samurai-type shows, I found Moribito to be surprisingly good. I came into the middle of one episode and I didn't actually see anything awe inspiring, but, there was enough of a story to hold my interest for a bit. I'm fairly certain that the episode I saw was somewhere in the middle of the series.

At a time when the balance of nature still held the civilizations of mankind in thrall, a single drought could spell the end of a society and doom its inhabitants to piteous deaths. Prince Chagum has been imbued with the power to stave off the drought and bring new life to his empire. However, this is a suspicious time, and he is accused of possession by an evil spirit.

Court advisors only see one solution. Chagum must be put to death by his own father's hand. His salvation is in the form of Balsa, a spear woman and mercenary from Kanbal, the kingdom across the mountains. Her skills are legendary, and although reluctant, she is held by a mysterious vow to save eight souls before she dies. Can she fend off an entire empire and make Chagum her eighth soul?

I don't think I'll try to track down additional episodes on Cartoon Network -- I'd really rather see it on DVD from the beginning. Unfortunately, it looks like I'll have to wait until November to pick it up on DVD.

A good thing about Moribito is that it's fairly short. While, I have no problems buying one or two volumes of a series, even if I suspect that it's something I might not like, unless I know that the subject matter of a series is going to appeal to me, sight unseen, I'm really very reluctant to buy an entire series.

In the case of Moribito, the length of the series is not really an issue and what little I've seen of the series, suggests that the series probably won't suck, so, I'll have no problem picking up the entire series when it becomes available. Overall, the animation quality is good. I didn't see much in terms of action, but, the one episode that I did see, managed to hold my interest. The English dub was reasonable. Though, it remains to be heard, if it compares favorably to the Japanese language version.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Update

I happened to stumble upon two more episodes in the series in the last few weeks. I still haven't seen much in terms of action, but, the series is managing to hold my interest.

Update

I first encountered Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit on Cartoon Network. While I don't normally have any great interest in samurai-type shows, I found that Moribito was surprisingly good. I came into the middle of the series and have since managed to see almost half of the series and even though there's not much in the way of action, the series still managed to hold my interest.

The animation quality is crisp and clean. It's mostly traditional animation with a handful of CG effects thrown in here and there. One scene that occurs early in the series, shows Balsa standing at the top of a hill and then the point of view rotates 180-degrees. The scene looked good, but, was a bit choppy -- it was not as smooth as the animation in Tweeny Witches, which made extensive use of CG effects.

There's not much in the way of action. There is some in the first few episodes, but, most of what I've seen is somewhat less than action-packed. The story (or at least what I've seen so far) is more of a character-driven drama then a samurai epic. There's also a fair amount of political intrigue in the series.

The English dubbing is not bad. I've seen more episodes on Cartoon Network than I actually have on DVD and I think that the voice actors did a fairly good job. That being said, I still prefer to read my anime.

The packaging leaves something to be desired. The series is packaged in jewel DVD cases -- like a jewel CD case, but, tall enough not to look out of place in a DVD rack. I don't like these cases because they scratch and crack very easily, the spindle that holds the DVD is particularly flimsy and they won't be easy to replace, should the need arise. The good thing (or bad depending on your point of view) is that the box for the series reveals just how large the series is going to be. I'm pretty sure it'll be eight volumes with 3 or 4 episodes per volume and a total of 26 episodes.

Overall, the animation quality is very good, but, the pace of the series is a bit slow. I was, however, still pleased with the series, if not the DVD packaging.

XXX Holic...

2008-10-03T07:20:00.006-04:00

I picked up volumes 4 and 5 of XXX Holic yesterday...

Watanuki has been haunted by spirits his entire life; a curse flowing through his bloodline that prevents his peace. When incessant demons dog him to the ornate door of the Dimensional Witch Yuko, he meets a mystical woman of insight and luxury, quick to help those in a bind - for a fee.

To be free of his visions, Watanuki agrees to work in her shop of dreams and visions. Helping Yuko with her customers, Watanuki quickly learns that those looking to fulfill their desires should be wary, for the price may be higher than they ever wanted to pay...

Although, I don't usually collect a series, sight unseen, I did in this case. The story seems reminiscent of titles like Pet Shop of Horrors or even Rei Rei (without the H scenes, of course). I expect that there will be some unfortunate characters in the series, but, given the length of the series, I would hope that it doesn't end up being a "monster of the week" type series. In general, the story seemed like something I might like.

Another reason I was drawn to the series was that I've had a fondness for the works of the artists known as CLAMP. CLAMP is fairly well known by anime fans for their artwork, character designs and story-telling. While, I can't say that I've enjoyed all of CLAMP's work, I still have high hopes that XXX Holic will not disappoint.

Tweeny Witches...

2008-08-24T23:13:00.008-04:00

I picked up three volumes of Tweeny Witches. They spoke to me and whispered -- buy me. So I did. I've added Tweeny Witches to the anime ratings database.

Arusu, a young girl who believes in magic with all her heart, finds her dreams have come true when she's thrust into a magical world that is nothing like she imagined. While wonders surround her at every step, from fairies of all shapes and sizes to fantastic magic spells to whimsical modes of transportation, she can't help but disapprove of how magic is used in the Witch Realm and where it comes from.

Thrown together by certain circumstances with two young witches named Sheila and Eva, Arusu quickly learns magic despite being a normal human and stirs things up everywhere she goes, challenging the status quo. Between rival witches, a mysterious pirate, and invading forces, can the trio fulfill their individual hopes and dreams?

I've seen three volumes their its entirety. Tweeny Witches is an extraordinary piece of work. The story-tellers have crafted a rich and vibrant world in which to tell their story. The story centers around Arusu, a young girl who finds herself a stranger in a strange land.

In this world fairies are real, but, they're not the cute Tinkerbell-type fairies we've all come to know and love. The story-tellers have taken classic icons of Western mythology and reshaped them in this wonderfully different world.

The animation is crisp, clean and highly polished. It's a mix of traditional and CG elements, but, all of the elements are blended very well. There are some things, like the stone tower where the fairies are kept -- which is just perfectly rendered in 3-D fly-by shots -- that are clearly CG elements, but, for most other elements, the blending is seamless. I've also noticed that the animators have made use of a lot of advanced multi-plane effects -- allowing them to give the animation the illusion of depth.

The story is fast-paced and engaging. I felt that I couldn't wait to see how things evolved. The rich animation and its high quality compliments the story and pacing very well. Tweeny Witches has a lot going on in the background, but, since the pacing isn't as frenetic as Paniponi Dash, I found that I could pretty much keep pace with the story and keep an eye on the background elements without having to use reverse too often. Of course, I read my anime, so, it takes a bit more concentration than if I were to just select English language dialogue.

The opening and ending animation are very entertaining and beautifully executed. The opening, in particular, reminds me of an animated medieval picture book. The packaging isn't all that inspiring and didn't quite capture the wonders that lay within. But, I did like the fact that the publisher decided to release the series as three double-disc sets, rather than, the more traditional, six single-disc format. I had some issues with a couple of the discs not playing on my older-model DVD player, but, they all played very well on my newer-model DVD player.

I really enjoy the ending theme. The second disc of the first set contains the clean opening and ending animation. Recently, while, I had the ending animation looping continuously, it was pointed out to me that the tone of the song is not unlike the Chipmunks. As much as it pains me to admit it, it seems that this is so.

There is some violence, but, there is no gore to speak of. There is the obligatory shower scene, but, there are no naughty bits. Overall, I was very pleased with Tweeny Witches. In fact, I was so pleased that I added two new wallpapers.

The X's...

2008-08-22T07:54:00.007-04:00

In October 2007, in the aftermath of the Ultimate Otaku Fall Cleanup, I decided to let my collection of X's on VHS go. Spending time with the X's is a guilty pleasure that I indulge in from time to time. So, I replaced my VHS collection of X's with the Nick Picks Volume 5 DVD which had one episode of the X's. For some time now, I've been debating whether the one episode of X's that I had on DVD was enough for the archive.

Annie Award-winning designer/creator Carlos Ramos (Oh Yeah! Cartoons) presents a new Nicktoon about The X's, a family of spies who are on the midst of being fired due to their inability to keep their secret identity a secret. The four-member clan is made up of Mr. X, Mrs. X, their daughter Tuesday X, and their son Truman X. They work for the top secret spy organization, SUPERIOR. However, this agency is continually involved in conflicts with another secret spy organization, S.N.A.F.U. S.N.A.F.U. is a wicked group known for its malevolent activities.

S.N.A.F.U. is made up of four main members: Glowface, Lorenzo Suave, Sasquatch, and the Scream Queens. Glowface is continually designing and building evil lairs, and The X's continually destroy them. The X's must attempt to blend in with society, or be taken off the assignment, or, most likely, fired from SUPERIOR. But each time they try to blend in, something almost always goes horribly wrong.

After months of debate, I happened to notice that blocks of 3-4 half-hour segments were being broadcast this week. So, I decided to gather up 10 half-hour segments, filter out the commercials and make up a couple of DVDs for the archive.

Farscape...

2008-08-19T07:53:00.005-04:00

In October 2007, in the aftermath of the Ultimate Otaku Fall Cleanup, I found myself in a dilemma. I had the entire Farscape series from beginning to end. But, the entire first season was on VHS and the remainder on DVD. I wanted to replace the first season with DVD, but, after visiting sites like Amazon and Ebay and seeing outrageously overpriced used (and "like new")sets going for upwards of $400, I decided to hold on to my VHS tapes for the time being.

Farscape is genre television at its most ambitious, inspired both by the cult appeal of Babylon 5 and the continuing success of the Star Trek franchise, but taking a visual and conceptual leap beyond those shows. Making extensive use of CGI, prosthetics, and state-of-the-art puppetry, courtesy of Jim Henson's Creature Shop, the Farscape concept has a freshness that makes it look and feel completely original. Among the first season's 22 episodes, "Premiere" introduces the characters and the basic premise: American astronaut John Crichton (Ben Browder) is flung through a wormhole and comes out in the midst of an interstellar prison escape on the other side of the universe. When the galactic cops (called "Peacekeepers") mark him as the new public enemy number one, Crichton is forced to ally himself with the convicts: hulking warrior D'Argo (Anthony Simcoe), blue-skinned priest Zhaan (Virginia Hey), fugitive peacekeeper Aeryn (Claudia Black), exiled king Rygel (Jonathan Hardy), and Pilot, the giant insectlike nerve center of their living ship, Moya.

I had considered the possibility of just transferring my VHS tapes to DVD, but, that seemed too much like work. Recently, while poking around one of my favorite anime retailers, I decided to try my luck and see if they had any Farscape on hand. Well, sure enough, they did. And, at a very reasonable price. So, now I can finally toss one of the last remnants of my VHS archive.

Batman - Gotham Knight ...

2008-07-10T07:38:00.006-04:00

I picked up Batman - Gotham Knight yesterday. I've seen previews for this and it looks really good. I did watch some of the special features, but, I didn't have time to devote to actually watching the feature last night.

Acclaimed screenwriters including David Goyer (Batman Begins) Josh Olson (A History of Violence) and Alan Burnett (Batman The Animated Series) join forces with revered animation filmmakers on six spellbinding chapters chronicling Batman's transition from novice crimefighter to Dark Knight. These globe-spanning adventures pit Batman against the fearsome Scarecrow the freakish Killer Croc and the unerring marksman Deadshot. Using an arsenal of high-tech gadgetry from Wayne Industries Batman's ethical boundaries exist only where he chooses to place them leaving some fearful of his power. The sharp storytelling complemented by stylish art from some of the world's most visionary animators masterfully depicts the blurred lines of Batman as man, myth and legend.

Later, I did find some time to sit and watch the feature. It was pretty good. I thought that it was a very nice addition to the Batman franchise.

WALL-E...

2008-06-30T13:26:00.005-04:00

Over the weekend I saw WALL-E.

After hundreds of lonely years of doing what he was built for, WALL-E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) discovers a new purpose in life (besides collecting knick-knacks) when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that WALL-E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet's future, and races back to space to report her findings to the humans (who have been eagerly awaiting word that it is safe to return home). Meanwhile, WALL-E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets into motion one of the most exciting and imaginative comedy adventures ever brought to the big screen. Joining WALL-E on his fantastic journey across a universe of never-before-imagined visions of the future, is a hilarious cast of characters including a pet cockroach, and a heroic team of malfunctioning misfit robots.

I have been eagerly awaiting the release date for WALL-E for some time now. I recorded the Starz Inside feature: A Pixar Story, which details the history of Pixar and included some previews of WALL-E. I've also been following some of the hype surrounding this movie and I'm pleased to report that WALL-E lives up to the hype. I can't wait to see it on DVD. Pixar animators love to hide character references from their earlier works in each movie that they make.

More Red Garden...

2008-06-24T07:37:00.012-04:00

I recently added volumes 3,4 and 5 of Red Garden to the heap of unwatched anime.

An odd string of suicides surrounds a private institution on Roosevelt Island. On the night a classmate dies, Kate, Rachel, Rose and Claire wake with no memories of the evenings' events. The next night, the four girls are drawn together by mysterious red butterflies only they can see. Converging at Central Park, the girls are approached by a strange woman who tells them they are dead. Now, the four girls must work together to learn the secrets of their death - and the means to return to their previous life.

In an unrelated turn of events, I've also picked up the Season 4 box set of Hawaii 5-0 and the Bugaloos box set. With all of the distractions that have arisen lately, all of the projects that I've been wanting to work on, anime watching has had to take a back seat.

Monday, October 06, 2008

Update

In an unfortunate turn of events, Anime News Network reports...

Funimation has issued new retailer solicitation lists, and thus confirmed that it will ship the anime series Red Garden and Welcome to the NHK in December in two DVD box sets each, instead of single DVDs. Both titles were formerly released by ADV Films before their rights holder Arm Corporation transferred its licenses to Funimation. ADV Films had shipped five of its six planned DVDs for Red Garden before canceling its release earlier this year. However, the only way to get the final episodes on a North American DVD is to get Funimation's Red Garden Complete Collection Part 2 box for a suggested retail price of US$49.98.

Well, I'm already committed, so, it looks like I'll have to repurchase some of the series just to have a complete set. Also, it looks like I'll have to wait until December to finish off the series.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Update

Anime News Network also reported...

The North American anime distributor Funimation has announced that it will release the final DVDs for Red Garden, Pumpkin Scissors, and Welcome to the NHK — all former ADV Films titles that were one or two volumes away from completion when Funimation acquired them — as standalone single DVDs. The online retailer Right Stuf will carry Red Garden volumes 4 and 5, Pumpkin Scissors volume 5, and Welcome to the NHK volume 5 in December, although the exact street dates are still being scheduled. The 6th DVD volumes of each of these series will also be released at a later date through Right Stuf. The originally planned box sets will still be offered.

That makes me feel a bit better...