OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Demon City Shinjuku

Yoshiaka Kawajiri is probably best known by Western otaku as the director of Ninja Scroll, along with adapting several American franchises like Batman, X-Men, and The Matrix. He even went on to do a feature-length Highlander, which his appreciation for the original live-action movie was on full display in this 1988 OVA. Demon City Shinjuku was a sci-fi horror novel by Hideyuki Kikuchi who also wrote the source material for Kawajiri's similar anime of Wicked City which came out a year prior, even though this outing tones down on the sex and violence. The anime dub was done by Manga Entertainment's British studios, so there is a gratuitous amount of overused cursing in it to try and appeal to edgy genxers.

In an alternate history, a corrupted psychic uses his teachings to open up the doorway to Hell from the Shinjuku section of Tokyo. The evil Rebi Ra defeats his spiritual brother in arms Genichirou in an epic battle, leaving the entire area a wasteland filled with demons. A decade passes with the rest of world achieving peace, now lead by a "World President" who gets caught in a trap by Raban Ran, although his original psychic teacher manages to save the President by staving off the trap. This leaves no one left to challenge Raban's final act, so Genichirou's surviving son Kyoyo is sent to confront him armed only with a wooden sword and a moderate amount of training in the school of demon slaying. Kyoyo now has to deal with the remaining local killers still hanging around Shinjuku, along with taking care of the President's useless daughter in one big escort mission right out of a video game.

You can see a fair amount of what would influence Kawajiri's work in Ninja Scroll what with a lone swordsmen side-scrolling through a hazardous landscape battling a variety of superhuman adversaries. The story is stilted and wonky, suffering from serious pacing, although the selling point is the electrifying action scenes. The anime has achieved a level of popularity among American otaku as a cult classic, mostly because of its screenings on network TV in the 90s, as well as having its own English-language RPG. It might not be a keeper for your personal library, even though it could fill up an evening of retro anime watching.

MISC. MANGA, *Seraphim: 266613336 Wings

Despite being written by Ghost In The Shell director Mamoru Oshi and drawn by Satoshi Kon who created Perfect Blue, you would think that a titles like Seraphim: 266613336 Wings would have garnered more attention. This manga from the 90s went on for a good while during its original Japanese run, despite the fact that it was never completed largely due to a difference of opinion between the two creators. It is difficult to recognize it from either Oshi or Kon's future works, even though it combines science-fiction and Christian lore years before Evangelion had a crack at it.

In a dark future, a sickness called the Angel Plague has brought entire nations to a halt, causing global catastrophes and social unrest for years. The World Health Organization send in a mysterious girl to be escorted by a trio of specialists named after the Three Wise Men(one of which happens to be a dog)and investigate the source of the plague. What follows is a serios look into how religious dogma can affect the mankind by turning the world into a dystopian wasteland.

One of the main things holding this manga back is that it keeps shifting to flashbacks during the first few chapters with no context allowing the reader to know when that portion of the story is taking place. There are a number of parts where the narrative will go off on a tangent focusing on the individual characters' motivations instead of sticking to the main premise. The entire but incom]nplete series is currently available through Dark Horse Comics, so it might be worth a read if you are a steadfast manga historian.

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OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Spirit Of Wonder: The Scientific Boys Club

A second anime of Spirit Of Wonder was made nearly a decade after the original OVA one-shot, but this time as a 2-episode series, each one split up into two-separate parts. Still produced by Ajia-do Animation Works, the anime is still based on Kenji Tsuruta's anthology manga which is a sci-fi romantic comedy.

The series is split into a 2-part story of The Scientific Boys Club which is set in the same world as Miss China from the first OVA. This spinoff has a trio of eccentric old amateur scientists who decide to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their club by planning an expedition to Mars based on the works of their idol, astronomer Percival Lowell who believed the red planet had canals and that there was still life there. The SBC gets help from their youngest member, who happens to be married to one of the club founder's daughter who they keep bugging for her expertise on calculations, even though she wants to live the life of an average housewife. The crew manages to create their own space zeppelin that rides the mistaken ether streams between Earth and Mars, although they are underwhelmed to discover there are no canals there or any sign of life.

The other two segments of the OVA series returns first to a short of Miss China who has begun to slowly shrink thanks to Dr. Breckenridge's latest invention. Jim is able to restore China to her height, but only resulting in China growing so big she tears the roof off of her restaurant. The second installment takes place sometime afterwards with Breckenridge using his space reflector telescope to project the surface of Mars, but because the planet is so far away its all blurry. That doesn't stop China from dreaming up an intoxicated-fueled 3D mirage where she is karate chopping a Godzilla-sized Martian monster. There are plenty of callbacks to the prior OVA, even though they never show the ring around the Earth that was made in the original story.

The quality of animation has gone up for the production company in the OVA series in turn from the 90s one-shot, including some impressive CGI. The only down point is a majority of viewers might be put off by the Miss China segments if they haven't seen the original OVA. This also has a completely separate dub as it was released through Bandai instead of Animeigo, but the acting is still on an exceptional level. There is also lots more fanservice which is a bit of a detour from the prior family-friendlier outing.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Spirit Of Wonder: Miss China's Ring

Kenji Tsuruta created a near decade run of his title, Spirit Of Wonder, which is a sci-fi romantic comedy set in a dieselpunk variation of our world. In 1992, Ajia-do Animation Works produced a one-shot OVA based on one of the manga's chapters that was labeled in English as Miss China's Ring, even though the genuine title was Melancholy Of China decades before Haruhi Suzimiya was even thought up.

Set in an alternate 1800s in a place called Prince Of Wales Island, the young entrepreneur China runs a restaurant named Tenkai, which also doubles as the residence for a pair of eccentric scientists, the rent-dodging Dr. Breckenridge and his assistant Jim who China seems to have a thing for. Breckenridge's latest invention is the Space Reflex Telescope which creates a 3D reflection of anything its aimed at, including the moon which Jim turns into the world's biggest birthday card for China. Jim takes it a step further by convincing China to use her "butt-kicking power" to smash a reflection of the moon, causing it to turn into a Saturn ring around the Earth, even though this would probably cause unheard of natural disasters in the real world.

The OVA is just brimming with charm which is its most memorable feature. The cute relationship between the jealous China and clueless Jim are typical of 90s anime, plus mixing this with a mad scientist scheme creates a heartwarming story. There are some animation glitches here and there, but the lovable plot and outstanding dub by Animeigo harness the sentimental otaku in all of us.

ANI-MOVIES, *A Thousand And One Nights

Conviently premiering in the summer of 69, the first of what would be labeled the Animerama trilogy, A Thousand And One Nights by Mushi Productions is considered as being the first animated movie for mature audiences. Creator Osamu Tezuka had an equally big enough catalog of adult material compared to his all ages works like Astro Boy or Kimba, and this feature showcases exactly how adult his aesthetics could get. Inspired by the Arabian Nights, this was psychedelic trip that closed out the 60s in the best possible way. An explosive creation combining the best of animation quality available at the time with a jazzy musical score.

Water merchant Aldin heads to Baghdad to make some coins and comes to free the luscious slave girl Mirium. The two have one the first animated sex scenes in the palace of a rich voyeur which gets raided by the forty thieves who secretly work for the prime minister and his sneaky blue-skinned right hand Sabaik. Aldin manages to escape, not knowing that Mirium died giving birth to his daughter Jalis which Sabaik adopts. Aldin finds the thieves' secret cave along with the leader's daughter Madia who takes off with takes off with Aldin on a flying hobby horse. They land on an island filled with nude nymphs that prompts Aldin to part ways with Madia, although he changes his mind about staying with the naked ladies as he is shocked to discover they are really a tribe of snake-women. Aldin then comes across a magical boat that can conjure up nearly anything he wants, to which the story fast forwards 15 years where he now goes by the name Sinbad. His daughter Jalis has fallen in love with the shepherd Aslan thanks to a rendezvous due to a bickering pair of imps. Aldin returns to Baghdad as a rich merchant and becomes the new sultan after winning a drawn-out competition proving that he has the bigger treasure. As the new sultan, "Sindbad" starts going mad with power by commanding his own version of the Tower of Babel to be constructed, making the citizens in resent their ruler, who also tries to woo Jalis totally unaware that she is his daughter. Jalis is reunited with Aslan just before she unknowingly commits incest, which takes Aldin being abdicated after his past is revealed but manages to escape beheading as the huge tower crumbles down providing a distraction, and the now ex-sultan goes back to living as a poor man wandering the desert.

Obviously not intended for children, this anime take on the classic tales is in reality a lost classic. Discotek Media should be praised for not only restoring the original Japanese edition but also the shortened European dub. The movie is a literal carpet ride of comedy, carnal action, and cryptic imagery providing a perfect time capsule that leads into the trippy anime of the 70s.