MISC. MANGA, *Devilsh Darlings: Portal Fantasy

Minoru Mitsuba made his American manga premiere in this one-shot collected graphic novel, Devilish Darlings: Portal Fantasy. With the concept of isekai being the promenate genre in the current otaku culture, the idea of an average person getting sent to a fantasy world is a sure seller nowadays. Throw in a gratuitous amount of fan service, and you'll be sure to hit a few marks on a manga fan's hit list.

Keitaro is a regular youngster from modern day Japan who falls through a portal and into world right out of a D&D wet dream. As soon as he's there, he confronts a large dragon, who is really just a pet for the half-demon Nia, a cheerful scantily-clad gal who is surprised to meet a human. All the half-demon in this world are apparently female, and can only mate with humans, of which only seem to end up there through magical portals from other dimensions. Nia agrees to help Keitaro get back home after hearing about another portal several days journey away. They are joined by fellow half-demon Rosette, who is also horny for Keitaro, but suffers from severe shyness, despite wearing nothing but a bustier and a g-string. The trio help out some ailing orc families, and a lonely werewolf girl, while finally coming across a small village of older scantily-clad half-demons who want to use Keitaro to help "repopulate".

This single volume manga makes for a nice treat with its adorable yet alluring artwork, and would be appealing to those wanting to get a peek at the current isekai craze. If anything, its a nostalgiac throwback to 90s manga fans which were heavy on sexiness factor and short on substance. If you happen to be able to download this through some sort of discount or coupon code, you might feel a little less shorted for paying full price on a one-shot deal.

ANI-MOVIES, *Fuse: Memoirs Of The Hunter Girl

One of the most adapted Japanese stories to inspire anime is Hakkenden, whether its hit titles like Dragonball and Inu-Yasha, or direct adaptations like The Legend Of The Dog Warriors OVA, the supernatural saga of Takizawa Bakin's novel. Fuse: Memoirs Of The Hunter Girl was a full-length feature by TMS Entertainment which most American animation fans night know better for working on Batman: The Animated Series and Cybersix, which despite premiering in Japan in 2012 only recently getting an English-subtitled release.

Set in mid 19th Century, Hamaji is a girl growing up in the Japanese mountains whose makes a living as a hunter. Growing up with her grandfather, her paternal elder recently departed, leaving her alone, but she gets a letter from her estranged brother Dousetsu, a samurai-wannabe in Edo who asks her to come live with her. The captiol city has been infiltrated by creatures called fuse, which are the descendents of a princess that "mated" with her pet dog, and all have the power to appear as humans while turning into canine-hybrids that eat people's souls. Dousetsu and Hamaji set out to find one of the last fuse in town, which is revealed to be the local head courtesean. Hamaji learns that the kabuki actor Shino is the last of the remaining fuse who is on a vendetta against the current shogun, who set out to erradicate all the fuse as they might have claims to the throne. The tomboyish hunter girl ends up falling for Shino, so Hamaji has to try and stop his rampage of revenge before their destructive feud causes her new friends in Edo to perish.

TMS Entertainment gave this production a real seasoned effort, with unusual character designs, but breathtaking landscapes and background. The story moves along fine, while being chronicled by the grandaughter of the original Hakkenden's author as a friend of Hajami witnessing her whole romantic adventure. It's an enjoyable watch where you enjoy the struggle the characters go through, while the visionary animation will sink you in to an alternate history fantasy.

Fire Dick Lasers!

 

Kneesa is officially a Disney Princess!

 

ANI-MOVIES, *One Miliion Year Trip-Bander Book

Being the first ever made-for-television anime movie, Osamu Tezuka's Bander Book is a spawling space saga spanning eons done in the spirit of Warlods Of Mars and other sci-fi pulp stories. This was released over the Japanese airways in the late 1970s during a telethon, and was one of the most popular anime movie of its time. It was Tezuka's open ticket for taking his panache of transforming humans into animals all the way up to 11.

Sometime in an alternate future, Earthling Bander is sent off by his parents after their interstellar flight is targeted by assassins. Bander is recieved by an alien race of humanoids who all have the ability to turn into animals, but can only maintain their human form thanks to a special control ring. Their peace is disrrupted by invading space gangsters arriving in a ship modeled after the Nautilus from 20,000 League Under The Sea, and run by none other than Black Jack. This is not however the Black Jack from his own manga series where he is a superhuman doctor, but a different version of the character as numerous other Tezuka characters appear as well, including Don Dracula and Astro Boy, and Tezuka himself can be briefly seen in the background of one shot. Black Jack is secretly Bander's brother whose parents were assassinated by a corrupted Earth government, which was the result of them accidently releasing a huge dose of fear gas into the planet's atmosphere through a time warp going back millions of years. On his quest, Bander tries to save his family, and an alien plant princess, all while realizes that his time/space trek can't change mankind's destiny as the future is already in set, despite the fact that all the humans were turned violent due to their own time travel dealings.

This was only recently made available for North America through various streaming services, so it might turn off some non-old school otaku being in Japanese only with subtitles. It was also one of Tezuka's more experimental anime mixing in psychedelic imagery with quick animated sight gags. It can be difficult keeping up with the ever-shifting pace of the plot, but pans out to be a bizarre and still stunning spectacle of an anime viewing.

MISC. MANGA, *Silbuster

During the mid-90s, the manga market was making its mark in the American geek world, and alot of these weren't done directly through the general Japanese publishers. Several titles were obtained from the underground doujinshi market, which even though a large portion of it is made up of "fan comics", a good portion of it is original material. One of these was a mature but silly sci-fi superhero sentai sage titled Silbuster, done by Ikkou Sahara. Combining elements of Iczer-One, Ultraman, and various Super Robots anime, this was an ongoing spoof saga of supergirls vs. giant monsters.

The Earth is being invaded by mysterious aliens constantly sending spies in human disguise to infiltrate military secrets, along with them occasionally mutating into city destroying kaiju. Doctor Kizuki is helping to prep mankind's best chance, a spaceship named Starlight, along with his middle daughter Mitsuha being genetically altered into a superhuman. After her father is killed by the aliens, Mistuha takes on the codename of Silbuster to battle the space invaders, with her powers of super-strength, finger beams, and the abilty to transform into a giant with an expanding costume, even though her first time going big resulted in her fighting a monster totally naked. Silbuster works with her techinal expert older sister Mitsuho, along with her part time Playboy bunny younger sister Mitsuka to prevent the aliens from advancing their plans. Silbuster also learns kickboxing from the enigmatic Masked Boxer to gain a fighting advantage over kaiju stomping rampages.

The manga went on to be released as 19 seperate issues in English through Antarctic Press, which got two collected edition making for only less than half of its run being covered in graphic novels. Like numerous doujinshi titles translated into English, Silbuster never actually reached its conclusion, possibly due to several of the original fan comics not achieving an ending because of the mangaka being hired into the official manga market. Ikkou Sahara's work has a unique style similar to Artmic and AIC anime from the late 80s, with a love of tokusatsu TV shows that later on went to influence Super Sentai and Power Rangers. There's some cheeky humor and gratuitous fan service throughout the manga, making it not meant for younger readers, but old school otaku will likely favor it as just reading it takes them back to the Golden Age of "Japanimation".

Justice For Ben Tramer

 

ANI-MOVIES, *Injustice

Based on both the first video game and the Year One comic book prequel series, Injustice show what would happen if Superman lost all inhibitions and tried to bring his own brand of "truth and justice" to the entire world. Originally starting out as a spinoff of Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe, the Injustice video games took characters from the DC Universe(s) and had them each on the same power level thanks to a special super-pill which would allow characters like Black Canary be able to survie an actual fist fight with General Zod. None of that level of combat translate in the movie adaptation as its later on in the story, but is more of how the world would react to a serious paradigm shift with its super heroes.

Set in another version of the standard DC Universe, the Joker with Harley Quinn kidnaps Lois Lane, and exposes Superman to a Kryptonite-laced faceful of fear gas, forcing him to see Lois as the monster Doomsday. The resulting fight kills Lois and her unborn child, sending Superman into a vengeful frenzy, and impales the Joker. Under Batman's orders, Green Arrow secretly takes Harley into custody to save her from Superman's wrath, while the Man of Steel slowly divides the Justice League and the rest of Earth's heroes as he along with Wonder Woman establish a new world order. Batman heads up an underground network of vigilantes to maintain peace on a street level, while Superman's influence spreads stopping all wars, and using hi-tech monitoring systems that he forced Mr. Terrific to acquire. Superman tries to send the inmates at Arkham Asylum to a secret prison, but Batman gets in the way, resulting in Robin accidently killing Nightwing who later becomes this universe's version of Deadman as "Deadwing". Robin convinces Superman to ally with his grandfather, Ra's al Ghul, and creates a superpowered android named Amazo to be the first of an army of mechanical monitors. Amazo blows a major fuse while patrolling Smallville, and Superman is shocked to find out that Ra's gave it similar powers, causing the deaths of Hawkman and Cyborg. Batman's remaining heroes arrive to help take down Amazo, while Mr. Terrific uses a dimensional gateway to bring in a Superman from another universe to battle his corrupt counterpart. A Lois Lane from a totally different reality still pregnant with her Superman's child to convince this tainted Superman to surrender, leaving Batman and the remaining heroes to salvage the rest of their Earth.

The task of folding an entire comic book maxi-series along with portions of the first video game into a single feature-length production doesn't play out as tight as a longer movie or mini-series might have had a better chance at. Key characters like Lex Luthor are completely absent, while others like Flash get either killed or taken down off-screen, and numerous plotpoints are other rushed or rewritten in an attempt to streamline the narrative of this massive saga, which means leaving out the other 4 volumes of the Injustice prequel comic, and pretty much all of the first video game. The singular story on its own is decent, but works more like an alternate universe 2-parter from the Justice League animated series. The Injustice movie makes for a good enough watch for fans of DC superheroes, although hardcore admirers of the original source material might be turned off by the abridged plot.

Dr. Loomis! Dr. Loomis!

 

ANI-MOVIES, *A Timeslip of 10,000 Years: Prime Rose

One of Osamu Tezuka's obscure and more risque manga was this the basis for this made-for-TV feature. Prime Rose was a sci-fi/fantasy embracing the Mad Max and Conan genres that had dominated the early 80s. The 4-volume manga was developed into a full-length production, the difference was though is that Tezuka tweaked the anime to more fit his original vision.

Set sometime in the future, a demonic spirit takes over a defense satellite named Death Mask, and splits it in half, one part landing in a Japanese city, and the other in Dallas, Texas. Both cities are sent 10,000 years into the future where the Earth is a wasteland, and the two civilizations are broken up into the agressive Guroman and the peaceful Kukurit, which continue to fight for dominance. A time traveller from around the same era Death Mask, Gai Tanbara is tasked with going into the future both cities were sent to for investigation, even though this "Time Patrol" claims to have found traces of these civilizations from this point in time, meaning they don't need to investigate it at all if they already have proof of their existence. Gai's annoying brother tage along to be the Scrappy-Doo of this story, and the two become seperated as the occupying Guroman forces taking over. The pretty Emiya is the daughter of a Kukurit merchant, and catches the eye of the Guroman governor. She runs off to learn swordfighting by an outcasted warrior, who later reveals he's her father, and the former king of Kukurit. Emiya's real name is Prime Rose, and she set out to defeat the Guroman forces, and allies herself with Gai to confront the demonic force responsible for all their suffering.

Prime Rose is a confusing watch, both from a narrative perspective, and from the linear dynamics of time travel which contradict several plotpoints. The animation is reasonable for the early 80s, but not cinematic quality. There's a few changes with the characters from the manga like Emiya now having purple hair instead of being blonde, and the Guroman governor in this version being totally bald. The manga hasn't been released in English at this time, but the anime is a decent release through Retro Crush, even though there is some misplaced subtitles in this Japanese language edition.

ANI-MOVIES, *Sherlock Holmes And The Great Escape

Surprisingly not being a remake of Hayao Miyazaki's Sherlock Hound anime TV series from the 80s, this production from China is based on the light novel series by Lai Hao and Yu Yuen Wong, The Great Detective Sherlock Holmes. The books tells cases of the opium-addict investigator in an anthropomorphic universe, which only differs from Sherlock Hound as all the characters in that were all dogs. Sherlock is still a canine person in a world of other various animal people, even though the horses are still just horses. This CGI movie is an adaptaion of the second of the 5-volume series, each one acting as its own seperate story.

Set in 19th Century London, Sherlock is on the hunt for the gentlemanly thief White Storm, who is like a Robin Hood stealing from the corrupt rich to give to the downtrodden. Sherlock deduces the thief is Mack, an illusive man who secretly visits his orphened daughter every year on her birthday, and captures him on his annual visit. Mack then spends the next four years in jail, with his daughter now old enough to get married to her childhood sweetheart, so he escapes from prison to attend her wedding. This fires up the hatred of fellow prisoner Scarface as he used his own escape plans without him, and manages to evade the hapless police to get his petty vengeance, even though he managed to break out of jail on his own! Sherlock and Mack team up to capture Scarface who has captured Mack's daughter. There's a ending teaser where Sherlock realizes that this whole four year affair was really the machinations of the mastermind Moriarty, hinting at a sequal that so far doesn't seem to be happening.

Sherlock Holmes And The Great Escape has some impressive 3D animation, keeping the look of illustrator Wong's character designs. The character designs and mannerisms are token anime-themed, as several Chinese productions are inspired by Japanese entertainment, most especially in the scenes where Sherlock describes how a crime scene played out. The plot itself deviates severely from your standard Sherlock Holmes mystery as its made fairly clear who the original suspect was, and then adding a large thug as the main bad guy for the 2nd act. If you're looking for enjoyable Sherlock movie with talking animals for your kids to watch, then you might be better off watching The Great Mouse Detective, or at least catch the Sherlock Hound anime that this is clearly ripping off.

Where the Hell is the buddy cop movie starring these two?

 

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Prefectural Earth Defense Force

Having no relation to the Monster Attack video game spinoff, or the live-action 50s movie(aka: The Mysterians), Prefectural Earth Defense Force was at first a limited gag manga from the 80s parodying tokusatsu shows like Ultraman. Kouichirou Yasunaga created the manga, and the doujinshi gained enough traction to get Studio Gallop to take it up as a one-shot special, even though the anime is formatted as a 3-episode series in a single production, which was groundbreaking for the dawn of OVAs. Titles like Project A-Ko helped boost the market for anime spoofs, but this OVA helped carry it along the genre for the otaku market on both hemispheres.

A prefecture in Japan has been targeted for being conquered by the evil criminal organization, The Telephone Pole Group, mostly because their plans for world domination are better off being localized to a single section of a nation to begin. To counter this, the governor hires the baseball club of the nearby high school, consisting of only three members. They are given a boost from a foreign student from India who just happened to be turned into a missile-launching cyborg after a doctor fell in love with the idea from watching The Six Million Dollar Man. The villains consist of a standard leader with a thing for crowns and capes, a free lunch hording floozie, and a near endless army of masked minions. Despite there being superhero hijinks abound, alot of the plots deal with the characters overreacting to each other's efforts, leading to massive explosions resulting in tons of property damage.

Most of the humor and subject matter are slightly dated since it's from the early days of anime fandom, but it does make this OVA something easier to watch as opposed to a spoof like Project A-Ko which makes fun of numerous Japanese and American pop culture icons. Prefectural Earth Defense Force was available only in America on DVD directly through ADV Films' online store, meaning it wasn't readily for sale at your local Best Buy or most anime con dealers. There are some surprisingly impressive animation sequences in the OVA, which make it worth a watch if you're curious enough about retro anime, although it is hard to come across an affordable copy.

ANI-MOVIES, *Defenders Of Space

Yet another Korean knockoff from the Joseph Lai filmography, Defenders Of Space, was original titled Phoenix-Bot: Phoenix King(also known in parts of Europe as Master Of The Future), and features several ripoffs of various anime and Japanese toylines. Among these are White Base from Gundam, some of the ships from the Leijiverse, and a certain fire engine from Transformers which as this point was still part of its original Diaclone line, plus the title character of Tezuka's Phoenix manga.

In the future, the mighty Zinba empire lead by Emporer Nicholas are a race of blue aliens ripping off the Gamilons from Yamato armed with Tatsunoko super robots, and invade the human colony on Mars. Some of the youngsters were luckily off planet playing baseball, and arrive just as their city has been decimated. Two of them head to Earth to seek out the power of the mysterious Phoenix King, instead of for some reason getting help from Earth's defense forces, which seems to be run by guys in business suits. The pesky kids unlock the Phoenix King robot, which is actually Inferno from Transformers and only transforms into a fire engine near the end of the movie after a single Autobot manages to take out an entire galactic armada.

The animation is sub-par, even by Korean forgery standards, with the characters changing facial patterns from scene to scene. There's boring music, and even though its only a little over an hour long the film pads out several segments with shots of the Phoenix-Bot flying in space, almost like the entire movie was one big commercial for this one 80s action figure. There are parts where the movie completely say "screw you physics" like when someone shoots opens a ship's window in space to run a drive-by on an approaching missle, like something out of GTA. If you're planning on doing your own Mystery Science Theatre session for a crappy anime wannabe bootleg, then dial this up, which is conveniently part of the Ronin Mecha lineup on Tubi.

ANI-MOVIES, *Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle Of The Realms

Acting as the second half of what would have been a more effective trilogy, Battle Of The Realms continues the story from Scorpion's Revenge. This animated movie combines elements from the later Mortal Kombat video games past the original one, and tend to rush plot elements from a series of fighting games that got more convoluted as it went along. The major difference is that in this one, the realm of Outworld is referred to as Edenia, the world that Otherworld eventually merged with. Former Avatar animator Ethan Spaulding returns as director, with slightly upgraded quality.

After the previous Mortal Kombat tournament, Shao Khan begins an invasion of Earth, with the tournament champions leading up humanity's defense forces. Shao Khan convinces the thunder god Raiden to petition the Elder Gods for a final Mortal Kombat to end any future conflicts, even though its not explained how Edenea could go to war to Earth since they lost the last tournament. The Gods agree, with Raiden asking to have his godhood removed so he could join Earth's fighters as a participant. Meanwhile, Scorpion is being hunted by the mad god Shinnok to unlock the final hidden piece of a powerful entity known as the One Being, to which Shinnok sent cybernetic Lin Kuei ninjas. The new Sub-Zero seeks revenge against Scorpion who was tricked into killing his brother by Quan Chi. The new Mortal Kombat takes place on the Outworld conquered realm of Edenia, of which Princess Kitana is the rightful heir to. Earth's fighters particpate with Liu Kang finally besting Shang Tsung, but newcomers Kung Lao and Stryker dying in combat. Kitana tries to assassinate Shao Khan fighting Raiden, but the skull-headed hulk stops her and kills the thunder god, which pressures Liu Kang to unlock his inner Super-Saiyan and defeats Shao Khan. The Elder Gods lend Liu Kang their combined powers so he can take on the revived One Being merged with Shinnok, leading to a full blown kaiju battle with the fate of the universe lying in the balance.

The sheer way the stakes keep building to cosmic levels in this single feature is sort of like taking Avengers: Age Of Ultron and zooming right into Endgame. You can tell that WB was rushing this out as a cashcow when the opening bit with Scorpion showing off his moves is taken out a meme of "Ultra-Instict Shaggy". You can get whiplash from the pace the plot warps to, and many might find the way the story escalates more than a little jarring. There's some development in Johnny Cage and Sonya's relationship, and we get to see Jax's new robot arms, but Liu Kang's evolution from fighter to godhead is more than slightly a major paradigm shift. Fans of the video games will probably find it inviting, however the average animation lover or comics fan would be better off just renting it.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Appleseed

Although most people might be familiar with the 2004 CGI movie, Masamune Shirow's manga series was turned into this feature-length OVA one-shot from 1988. The original comic was similar to Shirow's later work of Ghost In The Shell dealing with special police forces in a high-tech future and was one of the founding Japanese contributions to the cyberpunk genre. The OVA, along with several other anime adaptations of Shiro's titles, the director took a sci-fi cop story and turned it into a stage for social or political commentary. Kazuyoshi Katayama director had previously worked on 80s hit movies like Space Adventure Cobra and Nausicaa, but the 1988 OVA does lack the financial backing and high quality of his former productions, but this nostalgic gem by the legendary Gainax studio still maintains a place in anime history.

After the third World War, a good portion of the Earth lay in ruins, with the metropolis of Olympus acts as a shining beacon for refugees. Most of the citizens are either cyborgs, or bioroids, artificial humans. There is also a large population of regular humans, alot of which were former wastelanders. Two of these former road warriors are the sexy blonde SWAT team member Charon, and her cybernetic partner Briareos who has most of his outside replaced with mechanical parts, including a noticeable pair of antennae which makes him look like a big metal bunny. The city is being targeted by a terrorist cell set on bringing Olympus' down because they believe the utopian lifestyle is inhuman, and they kidnap the bioroid Hitomi whose DNA can bring down the entire computer network. This allows the terrorists to pull a grand theft mecha with one of Olympus' giant mobile battle towers to wreck the city, all while Charon and Briareos try to figure out the traitor in their midst in their mission to rescue their friend Hitomi.

The Appleseed OVA does steer slightly of the manga plot from a cyberpunk crime story to more one of soapbox for mankind's struggle between elitism and basic survival. The quality is above the norm as far as other OVAs from the time, but you can still see where alot of corners were cut, infamously with examples of Engrish like "Red Alart". There's alot of inconsistencies between the cybernetics lore from the OVA and the original source material including other cyberpunk titles, like having the entire city's defense being carried around in the DNA of a random girl, or the huge cyborg Briareos being able to consume human food which is never used in any of the other Appleseed adaptations. It's a token in the library of standard anime viewings, but still a great look into the 80s era.

Beachcomber is a Disney Princess

 

I HAVE THE POWER DROID!

 

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *El-Hazard: The Magnificent World

One of Pioneer's earlier OVA series they produced before they changed their name to Geneon was one of the first pinpoint isekai titles, El-Hazard: The Magnificent World was a 7-episode done anime through AIC, similar to Tenchi Muyo, as it spawned several sequels and spinoffs. The first self-contained OVA was an otherworldly anime inspired by the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, with another OVA continuing the plot in a separate series. Hiroki Hayashi gave this anime a similar treatment he directed in the original Tenchi series, and liked one of the character designs so much that he reused it for his TV remake of Bubblegum Crisis. The first and last episodes of the initial OVA were twice as long as the middle episodes making for a progressive opening and finale.

Ancient ruins are mysteriously discovered on the campus of a Japanese high school, and a strange girl emerges from the tomb to send a quartet of the after hours residents to the Arabesque world of El-Hazard. Once there, each of them realizes that their journey resulted in gaining superpowers. The main character Makoto can use technopathy to synchronize with ancient El-Hazard machinations, alcoholic teacher Fujisawa now has super-strength when he is sober, the business minded Namami can see through magical illusions, and her maniacal brother Jinnai has the ability to communicate with the strong hordes of the insectoid Bugrom. Jinnai leads the Bugrom as they invade the human kingdoms of El-Hazard, led by Princess Rune, whose sister Fatora has been kidnapped. Makoto happens to look exactly like the missing princess, so he masquerades in drag to replace her as he recruits a trio of priestesses to help them unseal the deadly weapon known as The Eye Of God, a miniature satellite that can open holes in dimensions. Acting as the true masterminds are the deceptive Phantom Tribe, refugees from another dimension who can create mental illusions to hide their true forms, and they kidnapped Fatora so they can use The Eye to take revenge against El-Hazard for getting yanked from their home the last time The Eye was activated centuries ago. Jinnai further ups the ante by becoming master of the deadly android Ifurita, who Makoto recognizes as the one that sent them to El-Hazard in the first place. This makes for a surprising but memorable ending that is somewhat undermined by the OVAs continued adventures.

The first regular sequel, El-Hazard 2, continues the Earthlings' adventures in the magnificent world as they encounter a different Ifurita and another ultimate weapon. This continuity was carried on to the second TV series, El-Hazard: The Alternate World, where the cast gets transported to a completely different dimension with its own Eye Of God. The first TV series, El-Hazard: The Wanderers was an extended remake of the initial 7-episode OVA, but with some characters getting shuffled around, or completely removed altogether. The original OVA was a groundbreaker in its early set up of what would eventually be labeled as a "harem" anime with the main male character becoming the source of several female characters' intentions. The animation quality begins a little rough in the first episode, but by the time the mail plot gets going in the following episodes, the animation gets a noticeable upgrade. The character designs a bright and eye-catching, with some sprawling landscapes and backgrounds. The soundtrack is quite exceptional, with both the English and Japanese lyrics simultaneously added to the original dub, which on its own is stellar, especially Jinnai's madcapped laughter. The original OVA was first released on VHS through Pioneer and combined El-Hazard 2 in a DVD collection from Geneon. It only recently finally got Blu-Ray release by Nozomi Entertainment, with a crisp new restoration making for a rich viewing experience. Unless you grew up on anime in the 90s, El-Hazard might get on some people's nerves with the several tropes that largely sprung from its first outing, but is still the groundbreaking isekai of which has influenced numerous current anime.

DOCTOR OCTAGONAPUS: NO WAY HOME! BLARGH!

R.I.P., Sonny Chiba.

ANI-MOVIES, *Black Jack: The Movie

Osamu Tezuka, the Walt Disney of Anime, has created numerous titles released in English such as Astro Boy and Kimba The White Lion, one of his most enduring manga titles, Black Jack hadn't seen much exposure in the Western Hemisphere. The story of a scarred rogue doctor has been transferred to several TV shows, OVAs, ONAs, and a least one prior live-action film, Black Jack: The Movie was the first of three feature length animated motion pictures to highlight the bizarre world that the enigmatic surgeon saves life in.

During the 1996 Olympics in "Atlantis", several American athletes begin breaking records, which leads everyone to believe this is a new breed of superhuman with increased physical and mental capacities. The unlicensed medical genius known as Black Jack is called into investigate a former patient suffering from some of these superhumans who are now becoming burned out and dying. Black Jack's mission leads him to working for the evil conglomorate Brane Industries, lead by the CEO's mad genius daughter who actually created the extraordinary medical condition which is now a full blown disease. The story strays a little saying it all leads to a special fungus in the Afrcan desert, from which a cure is eventually found, but at the cost of mankind needing to clean up its act as far as the enviroment is concerned.

This was a phenomenally visual production, with stunning animation, but the main fault takes the premise for what should have been a single episode into a full length feature. The characters can appear to be pointlessly mysterious, and gives the viewer frustrated as to what their prime motivations are. The first OVA series and original TV anime of Black Jack are available for American otaku to view, and are a better representation of Tezuka's crossover characters.

Plundor RULES!

ANI-MOVIES, *The Sea Prince And The Fire Child

Before they started making busloads full of cash from making Hello Kitty merchandise, Sanrio created several animated productions concieved international projects with other animation studios to do projects lile Unico and The Mouse And His Child, similar to a Disney-type company that leases the services of other countries to handle the actual production. Originally titled The Legend Of Syrius, this was intended to be a family picture despite involving nudity, incest, and tragic deaths. As it was inspired by Romeo And Juliet, this is a fairy tale of divine proportions, but gushing with whimsy.

Possible happening far before the dawn of man, the lord of the sea who shared a romance with his sister, the goddess of fire. The two were cunningly seperated by a jealous wind god, and the realms of Fire and Sea were blocked off from an area called the Forbidden Zone. Each godlike sibling had their own child, the Sea Prince Syrius who is immedieately promoted to king at the beginning of the movie, and the soon to be queen Malta of the Fire Kingdom. The two end up meeting each other as Malta is tasked with guarding an eternal flame at the edge of the Forbidden Zone, and they of course fall in love as two fiesty teenagers would, and even learning that their parents were siblings doesn't deter their romance. The young lovers are divided by their parents, but Syrius and Malta escape on their own, and search for a special kind of flower which blooms every few decades that allows them to travel to a star where fire and water live in harmony. Their quest leaves the best friends of each title character loosing their lives by sacrificing their love, making for possibly one of the first lesbian characters in an anime movie. After the flowers bloom in front of Malta leaving her heartbroken, the fire princess then acends into the Fire Queen, just as Syrius finally escapes his father's prison, but goes blind looking at the sun just after Malta's transformation, and eventually the young king dies from sunshine exposure. Malta snaps out of her evolution lag and tries to return Syrius to the sea, which would mean her own death. Syrius's father intercedes, and helps the two rise up to their own heavenly star where its mostly hinted that the young lovers are in fact alive in their own idealic paradise.

Sea Prince And The Fire Child can be viewed as being highly influenced by the early Walt Disney movies, with a large portion of its runtime being dedicated to the comical secondary characters, plus some stunning background animations. The main couple leaves you wondering if Peter Pan tried to woo Sleeping Beauty, which makes for another Disney comparison. However the feature does make for a fine fantasy romance, although not really for all ages despite its target audience.

Super Shredder vs. Skelegod

Skelegod, what's going on?

 

ANI-MOVIES, *A Wind Named Amnesia

Hideyuki Kikuchi has written numerous novels set in post-apocalyptic settings such as Vampire Hunter D and Darkside Blues, but his early 80s work of A Wind Named Amnesia is one of the few science fiction stories where mankind's downfall wasn't caused by nuclear war or a robot uprising. Kikuchi along with Vampire Hunter D co-hort Yoshiaki Kawajiri, a movie was released during the height of the Akira wave where several futuristic anime films were produced. The film itself became slightly like its namesake as it was a sleeper hit lost in the fold with numerous apocalyptic anime, mixing in action like Fist Of The North Star, and philosphical like the original Appleseed.

Happening in the far off year of 1999 AD, a strange wind wiped out the memories of all human beings on Earth, reducing them to mindless barbarians with no knowledge of their former lives, including how to speak or take care of themselves, least of all any idea of who their families were. This lead to animal pack mentality, causing the survivors to be killed off or cannibalized by humanity's remaining physical and carnal needs. The young wanderer Wataru was fortunate to be given alot of basic knowledge thanks to a lone paraplegic naned Johnny who kept all his memories thanks to a computer in his brain at a military facility that was trying to turn people into psychic cyborg soldiers. Johnny ironically gives Wataru his "Japanese" name to take his downloaded information on his journey after Johnny dies. Wataru runs into a hot lady with bleached white hair calling herself Sophie who helps him take down a rogue police mecha. The two set off across the American wasteland encountering cults, dystopian civilizations, and roaming gangs who still only have their basic instincts to fall back on. Sophie eventually reveals that she's from an alien race that unleashed the amnesia creating wind on Earth because they feared how humans were progressing to quickly, and might prove to be a threat to them down the line. Wataru has a final battle with the killer mecha again that was hunting them this whole time, and then has an obligatory sex scene with Sophie just before she gets beamed back up into space, leaving the human race to their unknown future.

A Wind Called Amnesia seems to start and end on Hollywood styled action action sequences, but the majority of the run time gets lost in its own efforts to define how destructive human nature is. Whether its reverting to animalistic tribalism or becoming dependent on technology for survival, the anime tries to rope several seperate chapters together into a single production which might have worked better as a limited OVA series. The movie is largely as forgettable as the plot device leaving alot of potential dangling with its lack of keeping the viewer interested, at least with above average animation.

Justice For Jonesy

 

MISC. MANGA, *Kamen America

With female superheroes like Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel finally making their way into mainstream movies, some in the indy market decided to create their own homage to the genre, but with an anime style to it. Mark Pellegrini and Timothy Lim did a crowdfunding for their 3-part series titled Kamen America("kamen" being the Japanese word for mask)about an American girl getting great powers and the responsibilities that go along with it.

Carly Danvers is a fashion designer who pays the bills working as an entertainer for the USO. While on location in a foreign country, she gets a piece of space wreckage landing on her. Waking up weeks later, she now has a standard set of not-fully reaveled superpowers such as flying, super-strength, and firing energy blasts, plus in keeping in with the anime theme has her hair turning blonde. She adopts the alias as Kamen America, even though the point of her wearing a mask and using a codename is somewhat moot as her real identity is public knowledge. After fighting and befriending her Russian counterpart, who is renamed Kamen Comrade, the two soon encounter another young woman given similar superpowers, the Japanese girl Kamen Comet.

Kamen America is mostly anime visually with classic Dragonball-styled attacks, which is slightly unusual as most Japanese superheroines are either sentai rangers or magical girls. The effort works out, although they don't seem to really explore the discovery of a mere mortal gaining superpowers, and them juggling their regular life goals with that of being a well known public figure. The comic doesn't dive to deep into the standard fan service you would expect from a series about a buxom super lady in tight clothing, although it also doesn't seem focus that much in the title character being an American-themed superhero leaving out any kind of politics you would naturally expect to show up. Kamen America is unique as its recent presence has started off a strong fan base asking for more of the independent offering.

ANI-MOVIES, *Mary And The Witch's Flower

Studio Ponoc was off to a good start with their first movie when founder Studio Ghibli alumni, producer Yoshiaki Nishimura and director Hiromasa Yonebayashi adapted the Mary Stewart childrens novel, The Little Broomstick. Ponoc's efforts are clearly influenced by prior Ghibli works, especially Kiki's Delivery Service and Spirited Away, as there are several visual hints in what this might on its own be a precursor to Harry Potter which wouldn't be released until another twenty years later.

Mary is a young redhead moving to her great aunt's home while waiting for school season to start up. She finds a special flower called a fly-by-night which temporarily imbues her with magical abilies, and activates a nearby abandonned broom which flies her away to a school for witches and warlocks. Mary makes the administrator Mumblechook and resident mad scientist Dee into thinking she is really looking into going to their school, but the ambitious lead witch discovers that Mary got her powers from finding flower that was stolen from them years prior by Mary's great aunt after she quit being a witch. The troublesome ginger girl must now return the flower in order to save her neighbor Peter who Mumblechook has kidnapped to use the flower's power to transmutate several of the students into magical animals.

Mary And The Witch's Flower is so far Studio Ponoc's first full-length movie, followed by an anthology collection of animated shorts titled Modest Heroes, but you can tell that they pulled several tricks from their years with Ghibli as various different kinds of magic are utilized such as energy barriers made of liquid. Although the plot tends to suffer somewhat from moving the Ghibli tropes checklist as alot of the minor aestheitic of the characters' backstory can't be explained as their motivations shift along with the ever-changing narrative. On its own, the movie is one of the best modern animated fantasies created within the last decade, and an enjoyable all-ages fairy tale feature.

Summertime Rocks!

The Overlook Hotel, Celebrating 100 Years In Business!

 

ANI-MOVIES, *Fireworks

In what might upon first watch seem like a copy of Your Name, Fireworks was released a year later, but originally based on 1993 short movie which itself was inspired by Run Lola Run featuring multiple timelines. Similar to Your Name it is a time travel story between Japanese teenagers, but instead of body-swapping its a supernatural experience with timeloops. Studio Shaft managed to put together a unique take on romantic fantasy that director Akiyuki Shinbo made in the same manner of his work on Madoka Magica.

During the summer classes, pretty student Nazuna is feeling sad as she is being forced to move out of town since her mother is getting remarried. So she decides to run away from home, and spend her last night choosing between two boys, Norimichi and Yusuke, both of which are good friends in her school. Nazuna has the three of them swim a lap to decide which one of them she wants to be with in her last night. Yusuke wins, but decides to flake on her as the other guys from school had made a wager to see which way fireworks explode, either flat or round. During the swiming race though, Norimichi hurt his foot, and runs into Nazuna at the clining Yusuke's father works at, and he tells her that she has been stood up. The two bond a little, but Nazuna is chased off by her mother, while dropping an unusual marble she had previously found. Norimichi picks up the marble and wishes that he had won the swimming race instead, which somehow magically causes time to flow back with him now beating Yusuke, with Nazuna asking him on a date for the fireworks instead, although Norimichi seems to keep a minor recollection of the prior timeline. Norimichi goes off with her to the train station, only for Nazuna's mother and stepfather coming to bring her back home, causing him to use the marble again in order to reverse time again where the two of them actually get on the train out of town. Nazuna and Norimichi bond more on their short ride where they get chased still by Nazuna's mother, but also Yusuke and his friends. The two try escaping to a lighthouse where they use the marble again to wish themselves into a bizarre abandonned mirror image of their town. Nazuna and Norimichi decide to stay together no matter what world they end up in, while the marble containing their mirage being destroyed. The following day at school, Norimichi is absent as from class, leaving a very ambiguous ending as to whether he ran away with Nazuna or the magic marble had some effect on their fate.

There is a great divide between those who have seen this movie as to whether its unexplained fantasy elements makes or breaks the story. The characters are somewhat generic high schoolers, with the main female lead being a somewhat manic pixie dream girl that all the boys in school secretly seem to long for, with some either choosing to acknowledge their feelings for her depending on which timeline is taking place, possibly as if each version of the world had their own set of physics to them as one reality does have flat fireworks while the other has round ones. The characters are hard to pick on where exactly their heart is at while each different scenario plays out with the cast changing personalities. Fireworks is a pleasent anime movie to see, although it might not be as memorable except for seasoned otaku.

We are all Jet Jaguar now!

 

ANI-MOVIES, *Johnny Destiny: Space Ninja

Often sighted as being the very first anime knockoff movie, Space Black Knight was a Korean production released during the same year that the original Mobile Suit Gundam. Despite some of the character designs being blatant Xeroxes of various Gundam characters, the only connection to existing other anime might be some similar starship designs to various Leiji Matsumoto anime. The film was released on dubbed VHS titled Johnny Destiny, Space Ranger, but labeled Johnny Destiny, Space Ninja for retail, then years later redubbed and relabeled Captain Of Cosmos. The later dub is currently available online titled Ronin Mecha 1, which is weird considering there's no real giant robots involved, especially since its a Gundam ripoff.

Set in the distant year of 2021, the film follows your standard cheesy Silver Age comic book about a space "ranger" who has to stop an evil space queen and her army of blue centaurs from taking over the galaxy. The opposing force has little in the way of armaments, even though everyone here seems to have the ability to breath in space. Aside from a lazy spaceship battle near the end, the title character's chasing the queen into the bowels of her exploding planet takes up a good portion of rest of the film.

The original Johnny Destiny dub is slightly more tolerable than the Captain Of Cosmos take, althought it sounds like George C. Scott is doing a few voice overs in the first take. Johnny Destiny himself is a simplistic rip on Amuro dressed as Char from Mobile Suit Gundam, which might be a novel idea for old school otaku to seek it out, your better off at least probably watching the second dub which is available free online.

MISC. MANGA, *Space Pirate Captain Harlock

Similar to them taking on the continuing saga of Robert E. Howard's shared universe in The Cimmerian, Ablaze Publishing worked in tandem with anime legend Leiji Matsumoto to do a new take on his "Leijiverse". The new English-language Captain Harlock comic has artist Jerome Alquie coordinating with the creator of the first anime space opera to combine both the original Captain Harlock TV series, as well as the Queen Millennia. This might sound familiar to old school American otaku as one of the several gestalt anime shows where more than one show was fused into a single title like Robotech or Voltron, and was the basis for Captain Harlock And The Queen Of A Thousand Years which brough together two seperate titles into a single narrative due to similar animation and a heavily edited chronology.

In the year 2977, outlaw defender of human freedom, Captain Harlock and his crew of the starship Arcadia continue their crusade when a new alien menace known as the Mazon plot their invasion of the Earth. The Mazon were a race of females that settled down on Earth even before humanity evolved, and they now want to reclaim our world after using all the resources on their own planet. Unfortunately, Earth's government has depleted its own natural treasures. So, the crew of the Arcadia has to maintain an uneasy balance between to conflicting forces which seek to eventually exterminate each other.

This new comic is the first Americanized adaptation of Captain Harlock in over thirty years, the original of which came out in the 80s by Eternity Comics, a subsidiary of Malibu Comics, that eventually was swallowed up by Marvel in the mid-90s. Jerome Alquie's style is reminiscent of motion picture comics where they make an entire comic using screenshots from an existing material like animation. Space Pirate Captain Harlock is a worthy intro into sprawling saga of the Leijiverse by tying several timelines together into a shared plot.

Happy Father's Day

 

ANI-MOVIES, *The Tale Of Princess Kaguya

The Tale Of The Bamboo Cutter has been adapted for various anime media, including Sailor Moon S: The Movie, but aside a live-action film from the late 80s it didn't have its own animated feature production dedicated to it. Studio Ghibli regular Isao Takahata made his last anime movie this 2013 Oscar nominated movie, whose superb creation landed him his own behind the scenes full-length documentary chronicling the directors etherial swan song. The Tale Of Princess Kaguya takes one of Japan's pinnacle folk tales and makes it open to Western audiences, originally through Disney, and then again after it was requisited by GKids.

A middle-aged bamboo cutter lives in the Japanese mountains. One day, he discovers a tiny Thumbelina-like sprite in the woods which immeadiately turns into a human baby girl after being touched by the bamboo cutter's wife. The baby keeps growing older at an accelerated rate, and is hinted to be a princess as her parents keep finding blessings from heaven to raise the child. With their newfound wealth, the family moves into a stately manor in the capital where the now young lady is officially named Kaguya. Her beauty gets the ears of all the eligible members of the royal court, each of which are sent on their own impossible quest to win her hand in marriage. After every one of the suitors ends up either going broke or flat out dying, the emperor himself tries to claim Kaguya, but this ends up backfiring as Kaguya finally realizes she comes from the moon, and accidently wished to be sent back to her celestial realm. Kaguya was a resident of the lunar kingdom who learned about the romantic Earth from a lady who had lost her magical robe on her trip there, and the young princess wished to be reborn on the mortal world to experience what love is. Her hasteful wish to return comes true as Buhdda himself and his entourage puts everyone guarding Kaguya to sleep, and is ascended back to the moon, but maintains her Earthly memories on her voyage home where its hinted she is reborn again.

Possibly taking a hint from the Ayashi No Ceres legend of a heavenly figure her divinity while growing a family in the human world, Isao Takahata's take on the bamboo cutter tale tries to bridge the seperate sagas into the same continuity. Most of The Tale Of Princess Kaguya movie covers the plotpoints of the source material, but greatly expands on it from the point of view of Kaguya herself and how she wanted to lead a simple life instead of maintaining her position as a rich noble, and how her decisions impact the lives of her adopted family. The entire film is more of an exploration of the title character's perspective on the world around her, despite she the fact she wishes to be merely a mortal instead of a divine being. The style of animation fluxuates during some of Kaguya's more spirited dream sequences which has her interacting with others on a spiritual level. The dub is acceptable, but seems to miss the charm of the previous Ghibli English adaptations. The movie altogether does show Isao Takahata's lifetime of quality as one of the premiere anime legends.

ANI-MOVIES, *Spirited Away

As winner of the first anime to get Best Animated Feature from the Oscars, Spirited Away has gone down as Hayao Miyazaka's masterpiece and the single highest selling anime movie of all time, at least until the recent Demon Slayer film. Studio Ghibli's production was in fact an original idea by Miyazaki, and not based on a prior source like a book series or manga. The film carries the message of Japanese myths, western commerce, and environmental issues without being like an old Captain Planet episode. This modern fairy tale carries young viewers into a scary but stunning world worthy of Wonderland.

Young girl Chihiro is with her parents as they get lost while on their move to a new city, and the family crosses over to a vacation spot in the spirit world. The parents get turned into pigs after dining on the local cuisine, so Chihiro now has to make a deal working for Yubaba, the enterprising elderly witch who runs the resort. Our heroine is befriended by Yubaba's dragon assistant Haku who can take on the form of a young boy, and secretly saved Chihiro's life from drowning in a river when she was younger. Chihiro's time at Yubaba's bathhouse has her catering to a myriad of gods, spirits, ghosts, and other monsters, including a strange creature called No-Face who becomes corrupted by the resort's consumerism. A trip to Yubaba's twin sister witch helps Chihiro break free of her contract and restoring her parents, although they return to the human world realizing that a considerable amount of time had passed during their spiritual encounter.

Following up his success in Princess Mononoke, Miyazaki came out of semi-retirement to create this original production. As far as animation quality is concerned, this features various realistic designs while still taking influence from Japanese folklore, including taking time to dwell on the mystical background. This can work against it though as some scenes tend to go on longer than necessary, and mostly for those who appreciate the aesthetics of quality animation. Spirited Away succeeds in telling a fantasy tale set in the 21st Century, although it does make it difficult to always tell where the narrative is going with the creator's need to add a new piece of lore to the story with minimal explanation to its relevancy. It's a lengthy film that carries audiences into a completely new realm of imagination, and making them long for more from Ghibli's visual genius.

ANI-MOVIES, *Justice Society: World War II

Originally intended to be a Wonder Woman animated series set in WWII(similar to the first season of the Lynda Carter TV show), Justice Society: World War II is the first DC Comics project starring very first superhero group in their own title outside the regular comics continuity. Supposedly taking place in the same refreshed DC Universe animated movies as Superman: Man Of Tomorrow, this is the also the first DC project bridging the gap between the Golden Age and modern day superheroes.

Prior to the watching the main feature, it would benefit the viewer to seeing the DC Showcase short of Kamandi At Earth's End which indirectly ties into the movie, similar to how DC Showcase: Catwoman was a contination of the Batman: Year One movie. Based on Jack Kirby's post-apocalyptic saga that would later go onto influence his work on Thundarr The Barbarian, Kamandi is thought to be the last boy alive on Earth, and gets thrown into a gauntlet of challenges by a Planet Of The Apex knockoff tribe to be proclaimed as their "mighty one", who it turns out was actually Superman. Kamandi then sets off to find Superman in the wastelands, with a large hint that this was a smaller part of a larger narrative. For a DC Showcase film, it utilizes Kirby iconic designs to shine the light on one of the lesser-known comic book characters.

The feature presentation starts off with Barry Allen(aka: The Flash)visiting Metropolis with his girlfriend Iris, who is black in this story to mirror The Flash TV series. He zooms off to help Superman stop an attack by Brainiac, meaning the evil alien android might have been the one who hired Lobo to hunt Superman in the Man Of Tomorrow. During the fight, Flash travels through a wormhole that takes him to Europe smack in the middle of WWII where the Axis are being held back by a secret team of superheroes classified as the Justice Society of America. Lead by Wonder Woman the last Amazon, the team consists Hawkman, Black Canary(complete with her "Canary Cry"), Hourman, and the Golden Age Flash, this team reports to the Allies through Diana's boyfriend Steve Trevor, and their correspondent referred to as Shakespeare. The JSA gets a mission to rescue Dr. Fate being held in an Nazi-occupied castle, where its revealed that Shakespeare is given the Superman outfit from an unnamed youth who bears a strong resemblance to Kamandi, and the mysterious war reporter is bulletproof. Barry Allen regocnizes Dr. Fate as the one who he saw when going through the wormhole, coming to the conclusion that he's not just in the past but in a pararllel universe, or an Earth-2. The JSA follow Dr. Fate's info to the Bermuda Triangle where they encounter Aquaman and his Atlantean forces, who turns out to be under the mind control of the power of Nazi agent known as The Advisor, which most regular DC Comics fans would be familiar using the moniker of Psycho-Pirate. The rest of the movie seems to loose the traditional DC Comics storyline angle and seems to combine the ending to Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, and Throne Of Atlantis where Wonder Woman is in mortal combat with Aquaman while the other heroes focus on the Atlantean forces invading New York. After Hawkman and Steve Trevor had already dies, Shakespeare finally decides to join the fight to stop the remaining Nazi bomber planes back when Superman only had the power to "leap tall buildings", which is similar to having Constantine freeing Wonder Woman from Darkseid's control after she had already killed Etrigan in Apocolips War. The JSA manage to snap Aquaman out of the Advisor's control, but leaving Atlantis as a possible existing enemy in this reality, while the Advisor himself disappears, hinting at a possible rematch. Barry Allen manages to get back to his world thanks to Golden Age Flash where the modern day speedster cements a friendship with Superman and suggesting that they form a league of their own.

Justice Society: World War II has a greater production than what Warner Bros. put into the previous movie of Superman: Man Of Tomorrow. The opening credits pay homage to films of the 1940s, and the plot moves along in the style of old movie serials. It does switch paces though from a war movie to an atompunk story with the introduction of Aquaman and the Nazi-controlled Atlanteans, with a large emphasis spent on letting the viewer know that any of the heroes could be casualties of war. Old school comics fans should thrill at all the references to DC Comics' history layered throughout the film, and recent comics readers should get a kick out of the Golden Age crackerjack action!

ANI-MOVIES, *The Secret World Of Arrietty

As one of several adaptaions of The Borrowers book series by Mary Norton, this was the first new Studio Ghibli animated movie of the 2010s. The Sercret World Of Arrietty is a family fantasy film taking the concept of "little people" that has been a genre on its own since before the days of the Grimm Bros. Hiyao Miyazaki handled some material simlarty to this in Nausicaa with giant insects, but Arrietty is greatly scaled down and brings a large perspective on a relatively minimal scale. However, Miyazaki only did the screenplay on this project, where as it was directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi who went on to greater success with his second movie, When Marnie Was There. It was Japan's biggest movie of 2010, and later got dubbed by Disney, which is now owned by 4Kids, as well as a seperate English dub done for the U.K. by Studio Canal featuring future Spider-Man, Tom Holland.

Sickly young man Sho has to spend some time at the country estate of his grand aunt while he prepares for an upcoming heart surgery. While he's there, Sho notices a tiny girl known as a Borrower, and tries to befriend her by leaving her a sugar cube. The girl called Arrietty has started carrying on the family tradition of being a Borrower, learning from her parents who she lives with underneath the house floors. Sho and Arrietty's friendship expands, but his knowledge of the Borrower's existernce leads to them having the small people leaving to find a new home. But Sho manages to help them escape the machinations of his aunt's nosy housekeeper. The American dub has some additional narration by Sho about how he never saw Arrietty again, but still hear's rumors of other nearby little people, its not known however if this is canon with the Japanese and British editions of the film.

Like most Ghibli movies, there is great detail given to the characters background and enviroment, especially how someone only a few inches high would view the world from a scale much smaller than humans. You can see how a premise like this might make for a great video game about micro-humans struggling to survive in a world with the threat of what would be them giants to them. The music is enchanting by French composer Cecil Corbel, and brings a distinct sense of whimsy to the production. The Secret World Of Arrietty is an amazing animation attraction for the entire family, and specifically enjoyable even for non-otaku!

ANI-MOVIES, *Kiki's Delivery Service

Eiko Kadono's popular Kiki's Delivery Service book series premiered in Japan during the mid-80s, and was appealing enough for Studio Ghibli to make it an international hit by producing a 1989 animated movie. Hayao Miyazaki once again directs the family-frlendly anime done as a supernatural light comedy. This successful anime had a 4-part manga adaptation, as well as several different dubs, one specifically by Robotech's Carl Macek for international Japanese flights, and then later on by Disney, with various edits made to it for various releases, emitting various dialogue that didn't fit with the original script, or replacing the opening/closing theme by American talent. The current version is now available through GKids who ended up re-releasing most of the Ghibli films.

Set in a modern day version of our world where witches are accepted as part of everyday society, teenage witch Kiki sets off on her year long journey away from home to discover her special talent. Aside from having some experience flying a broom, Kiki's only other real witch ability was talking to her cat Jiji. The wannabe witch settles down at a town at the seaside, and sets up business as a fying delivery girl while helping out at a bakery that let her stay there. Kiki reluctantly befriends local aeronautics enthusiast Tombo who becomes fascinated with her flying skills, even though his familiarity with some of the more snobbish teenagers put Kiki off, leading to her having an existential crisis. This depression causes her to temporarily loose her powers, but gains them back when she has to rescue Tombo from a runaway blimp, as most Miyazaki productions tend to have unique aircraft in abundance.

Similar to Whisper Of The Heart, Kiki's Delivery Service is also a coming of age story, but on a somewhat younger scale, and set in a slightly fantasy world. Not your standard "magical girl" anime as Kiki isn't fighting demons every week, the movie is a far less cynical story, not totally on the level of fairy tale, while also not being a dark gothic story with all the typical supernatural elements in various other anime. The animation quality is brilliant with serious detail given to the literal ups and downs involved in human flight, plus the character designs are of standard Ghibli fashion, although slightly more expressive to keep it comedic. The preferred version of the dub you would probably appreciate the most is the current GKids edit keeping the Disney dub, but leaving out Americanimsms that were done for to make it seem "trendier".

ANI-MOVIES, *Whisper Of The Heart

The late Yoshifumi Kondo had been a veteran in the anime biz for decades before taking up director duties on the only project he oversaw for Studio Ghibli, Whister Of The Heart was the first one done by the studio not to be directed by either Haoyo Miyazaki or Isao Takahata(more noted for Grave Of The Fireflies), and became a great note for Kondo's legacy just a few years before he passed away. The movie was based on the manga by Aoi Hiiragi, who hasn't had many other her other titles released in English, so the anime is one of the few exposures Western audiences to her work. This anime was the first theatrical film not directed by Ghibli's Big Two, and unlike their former titles wasn't a fantasy/adventure, but a modern day coming of age story.

Middle schooler Shizuku is struggling with schoolwork while constantly reading fairy tales and other fantasy fiction, while spending most of her time reading books from the public library her father works at. She notices most of the books she checks out were previously checked out by another boy named Seiji. One day while following a roaming cat to a hidden away antiques shop run by a kind old man, whose grandson happens to be Seiji, which at first she can't believe because Shizuku's first encounters the fellow schoolmate with him teasing her, despite the fact that his original attempts to gain her attention were met with failure as she was lost in her own world. Seiji informs Shizuku that he'll be in Italy for two months to become a violin crafter, and might not be joining her as they move onto high school. Shizuku dedicates the intervening time proving to herself that she can work towards a goal by creating a story based on the mysterious cat statue she amazes over in Seiji's grandfather's shop. She completes her self-appointed task just as Seiji returns early to declare his love for her.

Aside from the slice-of-life nature of a theatrical Studio Ghibli project, its real life setting makes it slightly hard to sell to younger viewers hoping to see something more whimsical like My Neighbor Totoro. This makes Whisper Of The Heart somewhat of a cult hit among Ghibli titles. The original Disney dub has a great cast to it, which was eventually re-released through GKids, and the different versions of Take Me Home played in both the English and Japanese editions througout the film make for an interesting piece of American nostalgia. This movie was followed up by a spinoff of sorts titled The Cat Returns based on Shizuku's story she wrote in itself was more of a fantasy adventure, even though Whisper Of The Heart is a heartwarming and purely charming feature on its own.

MISC. MANGA, *Black Blizzard

As one of the very first genuine manga titles ever made, Yoshihiro Tatsumi made this crime drama in late 1956, featuring both color and greyscale sections, which is a standard in even modern manga as the beginning usually begins with a few pages of color. Black Blizzard was a crime drama that unlike most of the Tezuka manga of the 60s, it didn't feature aliens, robots, or superheroes. In fact, Tezuka was a collegue of Tatsumi who encouraged him to make longer stories during a time that most Japanese comics were anthologies of short segments. Tatsumi decided to instead create manga intended for mature readers, which on its own was a turning point in the history of Japanese publishing, bringing on more pulp fiction themed titles.

Two fugitives escape from a train, and are handcuffed together. Now on the run, the professional criminal Shinpei and newly convicted Susumu ge better acquainted with Susumu going over the story of how becamed a wanted man. The young man fell for the singing daughter of a circus owner, but was found with the owner's corpse with no alibi. His affair lead to his arrest, but Susumu does find salvation in a shocking twist that links his and Shinpei's fates together.

Yoshihiro Tatsumi got his idea for Black Blizzard from the Count Of Monte Cristo, which itself was later turned into a sci-fi anime series. Drawn and Quarterly did a fine job cleaning up the vintage manga for English readers, and the plot is engaging for fans of The Fugitive and The Shadow.

ANI-MOVIES, *Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind

Hiyao Miyazaki began his earlier career with projects like Lupin III: Castle Of Cagliostro and Future Boy Conan. Prior to the founding of Studio Ghibli, he also arranged to have a manga series he created into a full-length animated movie through Toei. The manga itself become a sprawling saga much sought after by collectors, and the movie itself was first released in English under the title Warriors Of The Wind, an infamously despised dub and edited edition put out by New World Pictures. It wasn't until it was later re-released through Buena Vista, and again years later by GKids in its full glory, even if Shia Lebouf isn't one of your more favorable voice actors. The style of Miyazaki's post-apocalyptic vision went on to influence several Japanese video games and RPGs, including Final Fantasy, but also became the basis for his later successful anime, Princess Mononoke.

Occuring a millenium after what was probably WWIII, the remnants of mankind struggle for life in seperate nations surrounded by an evergrowing deadly forest called the Toxic Jungle, infested with large Mothra-sized bugs. Nausicaa is the princess of an area titled the Valley of the Wind, although why its not referred to as the "Wind Valley" is unknown, and the Toxic Jungle's poisonous flora is constantly teetering on the edge of infecting the inhabitants' healthy trees. The Valley of the Wind becomes the center of a war between the neighboring kingdoms of Pejite and Tolmekia, as the feuding nations plan to use a buried giant robot to change the course of their struggle. A Tolmekian military faction is sent to the Valley to secure the weapon while taking control of the locals, and assasinating the already dying king. Nausicaa works with the Tolmekian to ease her citizens, but they are shot down by the Pejite prince on their way to being held as war prisoners. The princess and prince both survive the thrilling arial duel, taking refuge under the Toxic Jungle where they discover that the land beneth it is healthy enough to breathe with clean water. Nausicaa tries to jam the tide between the Valley's feuding kingdoms, while saving her people from a raging stampede of the huge insects.

Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind's movie covers most of the events of the manga, although it has a different conclusion as the manga was still in production at the time of its release. The movie itself has been considered one of the single greatest animated movies of all time, even decades later. It acted as the dawn of Studio Ghibli's foundation, and helped build the genre of anime as a mature artform not just used as a vehicle for super robot shows. The character designs are brilliant and memorable, with equally elegent animation still years ahead of what today's CGI could never accomplish. Its one of the first true fully-realized fantasy anime projects of the time.

MISC. MANGA, *Domu: A Child's Dream

One of Katsuhiro Otomo's first projects was the limited series was this sci-fi thriller. The manga ran from 1980-81, and was eventually released as a single paperback in Japan, and then released in English over a decade later by Dark Horse Comics. Domu serves as the foundation for Otomo's work on Akira as both deal with psychics and their effect on the world, although this story is more of a eerie urban fantasy as opposed to an apocalyptic epic.

Inside a large block of apartments in an inner city housing project, strange events are afoot with unexplained deaths, most of which seem like suicide with all the departed person's articles missing. The police can't pin down the source of this phenomenon, but several inhabitants are under suspicion as the lower class citizens each seem to have their own unique quirks. The truth is one of them is a high level esper that has been playfully meddling with their neighbors minds and memories. Only a more responsible local psychic can stand up to the other's psychotronic rampage.

Domu: A Child's Dream introduces the world to Otomo's style with emphasis on more realistic character designs. The manga has some timeless imagery to it that still captures the reader's attention. There's alot to offer in this eerie psychological single-volume comic to satisfy both horror fans and otaku.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Bubblegum Crisis

Before Akira, before Ghost In The Shell, before them all was the premiere cyberpunk anime, Bubblegum Crisis. As an amalgam of two American movies, Blade Runner and Streets Of Fire, this OVA series was intended to be 13 episodes, but instead cut short to only 8. Following this was a sequel/wrap up in Bubblegum Crash, a prequel anime + manga in A.D. Police, as well as a TV remake along with its own prequel and spinoff OVA, plus an American comic book prequel mini-series by Adam Warren. Despite its derivative title, Bubblegum Crisis is not some magical girl anime about high school idol singers! It's a sci-fi superhero action drama, with stakes fitting its American influences even though there are the occasional scenes of standard anime hijinks. The anime was one of the pioneers in the dawn of OVAs that began in the mid-80s, and was largely popular due to its soundtrack albums that were released for each individual episode, for which back then on VHS was at least $60. This made its major studio Artmic into one of the premiere production companies of the time. Unfortunately, because of internal politics and finances, Bubblegum Crisis was cut short during what was ultimately a filler episode.

Beginning in 2032, Japan was earlier hit with a major earthquake that decimates Tokyo. The city is reborn as "Megatokyo", largely due to the work force of androids called Boomers manufactured by the now very powerful Genom corporation. One of the original designers of Boomers, Dr. Stingray, was killed years prior, and now his daughter Sylia leads an all-female team of mercs known as the Knight Sabers, each one wearing their own specialized combat armor that were all years ahead of anything that Tony Stark could have invented at the time. The other members of Sylia's team are obligatory tsundere/underground singer Priss, fitness expert Linna, and the bubbly Nene who works for the AD Police, Megatokyo's anti-Boomer task force. The first few episodes have the Knight Sabers dealing with Mason, a rogue member of Genom who might be the one behind the death of Sylia's father. Next is a stand alone about a vigilante with a supped-up race car knocking off a biker gang. Following this is a 2-parter featuring escaped sex-droids from a space station who ally with the cyborg terrorist Largo who has a personal vendetta with thew Knight Sabers. Following this is another stand alone episode about the idol singer Vision seeking her own revenge against Genom. The last episode has Nene trying to stop her boss' nosy niece from discovering the Knight Sabers' secret identities, while a random Genom scientist tries to kill off the superheroine quartet just to boost his own ego.

Each OVA episode is done as its own mini movie, some ranging from 30-50 minutes long each, with major anime industry names behind it like Masami Obari, Kenichi Sonoda, Hiroki Hayashi, and Hiroaki Goda. The legacy that this single anime spawned was the springboard for numerous cyberpunk titles across near countless media franchises, including Batman Beyond. The singular major drawback to the groundbreaking series is that it never reached its proper conclusion.