Fuck DCU App!!!

MISC. MANGA, *Record Of Lodoss War: The Lady Of Pharis

This prequel to original Record Of Lodoss War: The Grey Witch manga, and the original OVA and anime TV series was conceived by the creator, Ryo Mizuno, and brought to life by artist Akihiro Yamada. It was first released in the 90s after The Grey Witch, and then later released in English in the early 2000s by CPM Manga, first in comic book format, then as a trade paperback, followed by an extended first volume, and finally as a second volume which featured the rest of the printed material, making both complete volumes very rare buys for American otaku.

Set decades before the time known as The War of Kings, an wicked Duke seeking power unleashes a creature known as the Demon Lord who appears as a young naked woman. The Demon Lord then sends her legions of monsters to ravage all over the fantasy island of Lodoss. A mercenary called Beld and his wizard partner Wort come across the sexy warrior priestess Flaus(also the title character!)who employs them to help protect her region. A holy knight named Fahn joins them in order to clear his name when an doppelganger working for the demons stole some relics that are used to protect his kingdom. They are later joined by a surviving dwarf king, and elf girl, and a masked sorceress. Their crusade leads them to help the elves purge their forest of demons. This leads into the War Against Evil which went on for three years, and shaped the kingdoms of Lodoss.

The Lady of Pharis brings a darker tone to the Lodoss storyline, and Yamada's artwork takes a less than familiar look to the anime/manga's history. It appears more like traditional fantasy illustrations instead of the standard "big eyes and speed lines". More in the set of a dark fantasy like Berserk or Bastard. The manga isn't as readily available if you wanted to find the entire series in both completed volumes, but might want to sample one of the single issues which are considerably cheaper.

Which one of these buttons do I push to make Lara Croft have sex with me in real life?

ANI-MOVIES: *From Up On Poppy Hill

Based on a short-lived 80s manga, From Up On Poppy Hill is a coming of age story set in 1963 Japan, just prior to them getting the Olympics(the first time). It was produced by Studio Ghibli, and the second one being directed by Goro Miyazaki, whose father Hayao wrote the screenplay for along with Keiko Niwa. As more of a slice of life tale than the usual Ghibli fantasy, this movie acts a self-aware teenage melodrama.

Umi is the main caretaker of her grandmother's boarding house for ladies. Her mother is studying medicine in America, and her father disappeared during the Korean War. She keeps setting up a flag for ships in the harbor near her house, hoping deep down that her father will recognize it should he return. The school she goes to has an old dilapidated building called the Quartier Latin used by several clubs made entirely of boys, and it is under danger of being demolished to give Tokyo a fresh look when the Olympics come. The head of the school's journalism club Shun is one of the main campaigners trying to save the Quartier Latin, who also wrote about Umi's tradition of setting up her flags. Umi seems to fall for Shun in his heroic efforts to keep the clubhouse up, and convinces a lot of the school's girls to help clean up the joint which prior to that looked like a disaster area for bookworms. Despite their fiery crusade, the clubhouse is still threatened with being torn down, and even though Umi finds her feeling growing for Shun, he discovers from an old photograph that the two of them might have the same father, thus they can't go any further without turning the plot into a stereotypical incest harem anime. The return of Umi's mother from the States sets the story straight on their shared background.

This works as a splendid period piece in the same way the flashback portions of Only Yesterday give the look of 1960s Japan with the nation was trying to speed along progress in order to bury their past in the previous wars. There is some genuine character growth and comradery among the high school student as they try desperately to rescue their clubhouse, which ends up taking a larger portion of the story than the budding teen romance. The animation is not exactly as breathtaking as your average Ghibli production, but as setting is more based in reality in place of the spirit world. The American dub features some surprising additions including Ron Howard, Gillian Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, and the late Anton Yelchin as Shun. Probably one of the single most charming anime movies of the new millennium!

Nike-man to the rescue!

Only hate and snap judgement will guide you through the future.

OBSCURE OVAS, *Read Or Die

There are some OVAs where the anime is set a separate chapter to the manga its based on, Read Or Die is defined as being follow up to the original manga series. This 3-episode anime fits into the continuity of the source material with the terminal bookworm, Yomiko Readman, acting as a special agent for British Library with her skills a "papermaster", someone with the ability to control and contort paper in the same way Airbenders can manipulate air. The OVA is set some years after the manga, both written by the original author, Hideyuki Kurata, which is an odd blend of X-Men and League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

A criminal organization called the I-Jin composed of evil clones of historical figures, each with their own superpowers, its collecting rare books in an attempt to kill off most of the human race using a song that makes its listener want to kill themselves(very similar to the bad guys' intentions from Kingsmen). The British Library, which here is acts as covert collectors of hidden knowledge, sends in their best agent, Yomiko Readman, aka: The Paper, and teams her up with Black Widow stand-in Nancy, and special ops soldier Drake. Nancy has powers similar to Kitty Pryde as she can phase through solid objects, but is revealed to be a double agent working for the I-Jin, and steals Yomiko's copy of Beethovens' Immortal Beloved, so a clone of the famous conductor can use his suicide symphony to kill billions of people. The Paper along with Drake leads a final assault on the I-Jin's moving island stronghold to stop their Bond-villain scheme for world domination.

Despite being a continuation of an already existing media, the R.O.D. OVA works as a good separate story on its own, and doesn't require the viewer to have read up on the manga's background. Even the anime sequel series, R.O.D. The TV, doesn't incorporate too much from the manga, even though it completely retcons the true intentions of the seemingly noble British Library! The OVA has some slick action, likable characters, a sizzling smooth score, and a fits fine into the video collection of even a moderate anime fans. Its been released on DVD in America through Manga Entertainment, but only available on Blu-Ray in the R.O.D.: Complete Collection which includes the entire TV series by Aniplex.

YOU HAVE DESTROYED MY DREAM! AND NOW, I WILL DESTROY YOOOOUUUU!

ANI-MOVIES, *Freedom Fighters: The Ray

Set as a pseudo-prequel to the "Crisis On Earth-X" crossover arc set in the Arroverse live-action TV shows, The Ray was a Golden Age hero from Quality Comics back in the 40s, that DC Comics bought up along with other characters from the same publisher and put them on their own separate world known as Earth-X, set in a different universe from the normal Justice League-version of Earth. On Earth-X, the Nazis didn't loose WWII, and have dominated most of America, with the only superheroes to stop them are the Freedom Fighters, comprised mostly of Quality Comics characters.

Set some months before the annual Arrowverse crossover specials, the main heroes of the Resistance(never actually called the "Freedom Fighters" in the movie)made up of Phantom Lady, Black Condor, Dollman, Red Tornado, and The Ray are leading rebels to a safe location, but are ambushed by the Nazi villains trinity called the New Reichsmen made up evil versions of Supergirl(Overgirl), Green Arrow(Black Arrow), and Flash(Blitzkrieg, who might be their equivalent of Zoom). The battle results in the death of Dollman, and Red Tornado getting trashed leaving only his android brain. Earth-X Vibe shows up and transports a lethally hurt Ray with Red Tornado's brain to Earth-1. Once there, he meets his Earth-1 counterpart and bestows his powers to him just before dying. The new Ray uses his powers to save lives and fight crime, although they mostly seem to center on the victims being of the LGBT community, and shows more when Ray bullies a politician into equalizing the laws for minorities(which should send off some serious supervillain flags!). His activities get the attention of Flash and Green Arrow, who bring him in to help fight a random giant robot attacking Vixen's home turf. Earth-1 Ray then decides to have his Vibe send him to Earth-X to fight the New Reichsmen, and decides to stay on this world to help the Resistance.

This web series-turned-compilation movie doesn't 100% fit into the storyline shown in the Crisis On Earth-X story, mostly concerning Ray's physical appearance and whether or not this version was from Earth-1 to begin with. The main problem storyline-wise is it introduces overly-sensational concepts like giant robots into the Arrowverse, at least under the Earth-1 technological dynamics. The other main setback in this is that the DC TV universe writers continue to prove that they seriously fail at genuine dialogue for its LGBT characters, which they tend to go out of their way to point out in each show. Despite their good intentions, it shows a major lack of sincerity when you have heterosexuals providing dialogue for LGBT characters, which isn't insulting but just widely inaccurate. As far as a "superheroes vs. Nazis" in modern day plot goes, it pulls through, especially when Ray as handing Overgirl her butt on a plate!

Turd in the wind, Muddafukka!

How some cosplay girls see themselves

MISC. MANGA, *Sam Zabel And The Magic Pen

Fantagraphics got New Zealand artist Dylan Horrocks to do a full-length version of his webcomic, Sam Zabel And His Magic Pen. This hardcover is a sprawling journey throughout different comic genres for fans of the Golden Age, indie zines, and manga.

Sam Zabel is a comic book artists working on the current version of a Silver Age superheroine done in an "extreme" sleazy adaptaion. He takes a trip to a small town to give a speech at a college on comics culture. While there, he runs across a zine artist who introduces him to an old comic she found at a local shop. Sam picks up another copy of it, and then finds himself sent to the John Carter styled sci-fi world of Mars where he's worshiped as a prophet by the Martians. He encounters the schoolgirl manga-character brought to life, Miki, who uses her intense collection of comics to go from one comics world to another. The two travel throughout different genres in search of the "Magic Pen" which can help get Sam home.

This one-shot graphic novel works as a fine trip through the annals of comics history, with something for all fans. Manga otaku will find Miki especially fun with her rocket boots and laser gauntlets as she goes from world to world. A great look out how real life effects the works we read and create on our own, as well as the opposite of how it evolves in comics storytelling over time.