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 of 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, a Japanese girl called 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 idea of a mere mortal discovering they gained uperpowers, 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, but it also doesn't seem to focus that much on 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 that flies her away to a school for witches and warlocks. Mary makes the administrator Mumblechook and resident mad scientist Dee believe she is really looking into going to their school, but the ambitious lead witch discovers that Mary got her powers from finding the 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 filling the Ghibli tropes checklist as a lot of the minor aestheitics 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 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 and 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 gets 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!