ANI-MOVIES, *God Mars: The Movie

Gigantor creator Mitsuteru Yokoyama also created another mecha manga in the mid-70s titled Mars. This was adapted into a 64-episode anime TV series in 1981 titled God Mars that was slightly successful, which in turn was edited into a compilation film called God Mars: The Movie in 1982. How do you fit a 64-episode TV series into a 97-minute long movie? You chop it to bits! The film quickly shifts from one scene to the other usually with no transition at all, and at the same time concludes with the plot left dangling replaced by a semi-original ending. The movie had first been given more than one release in America on VHS, but only recently got put on streaming and Blu-Ray along with the entire TV series, although every version is in Japanese with subtitles. You might get a better experience with the full TV series, but you should make up your own mind on this film.

Set in the far-off year of 1999, mankind is just branching out into the universe because of advances in their technology. This doesn't set well with the evil Emporer Zul, ruler of the planet Gishin and its forces. Years ago, Zul had sent a child to Earth to become the pilot of a giant robot named Gaia whose anti-proton bomb could destroy the planet if humans got to far in space exploration that it might upset the aliens' plans for galactic domination. The baby was Mars, the son of the Gishin scientist who created Gaia but was killed by Zul for opposing his plans for conquest. Mars grew up as a regular human and only learns of his alien heritage after the Gishin start attacking Earth, which is convenient as he's already on a special military team known as the Crusher Squad. Mars is bonded with Gaia which is a bright red mecha with the dopiest grin on its face that is piloted by Mars' newly-awakened psychic powers. A good portion of the film from this point on has Mars fighting against the Gishin forces while his twin brother Marg keeps get sent to confront him, even after Zul has Marg's memory wiped, making Marg this anime's version of Tuxedo Mask. Marg eventually dies for real but keeps showing up as a Force ghost giving Mars spiritual advise. Zul himself eventually shows up on Earth as a giant mental projection that Mars in Gaia has trouble taking down. Fortunately, Mars discovers from a recording by his father that there were five other mecha stashed around the world which would have been more helpful before this climax. Mars is able to psychically pilot all the other mechas into combining with Gaia to create a larger gestalt robot called God Mars, and takes Zul into space and desperses all the anti-proton energy into the emporer's body causing a huge explosion. Zul's real form is revealed as a tremendous space tumor whose essence is now spread throughout the universe just waiting to eventually come back together. Mars brings Gaia and the other mecha back to Earth where its hinted that each of them will be piloted by the other members of the Crusher Squad as they await Zul's return in a sequel that never got made.

God Mars: The Movie does a reasonable enough job showcasing the original anime series condensed into a feature-length film, even though it is terribly obvious that much of the content was left out and that there was more story to come after the finale. The major drawback for this is that an anime movie about a giant robot barely shows the actual robot in it and only saves the bigger combiner robot form in the last few minutes of the film. If the intent for coming out with this theatrical cut was to draw more attention towards any toys in Japan that might have still been out at the time. It was easy for American distributors in the 90s to gain the license for the movie version of this on VHS, even though you're still getting a better shot at the series by watching the complete series.

MISC. MANGA, *Cthulhu Cat

After doing three manga titles about cats, creator Pandania continues his funny feline theme with Cthulhu Cat. This full-color one-shot special is Garfield meets Dagon as the book takes the H.P. Lovecraft mythos and bonds it with slice-of-life comedy. Even though the real-life Lovecraft had a cat he gave a racist name to, the enigmatic author had several stories where cats were secretly controlling the world, so combining the idea with his most popular elder gods seems like a winner of a dinner.

A regular Japanese guy finds an abandoned cat in a cardboard box, even though this one is green and has some small tentacles around his mouth. The Cthulhu kitty's new owner tries to buddy him with his current housecat which is largely ignorant to the Ancient One's background. After the man starts showing videos of his stray online, the meowing monster starts getting visits from various cults and churches looking to worship the hideous thing, while at the same time they all encounter cat versions of other Lovecraft entities like Yog-Sothoth who also stop by to chat with their fellow demonic deity. There's a reason why the tentacled tabby has been reborn as a semi-adorable cat, but that is largely inconsequential compared to the laughs it brings.

Cthulhu Cat embraces the madness of Lovecraftian horror and perfectly fuses it with Sanrio-themed adorableness. Despite the adult source material, the manga successfully manages to enchant all ages in a sensational stand-alone special.

ANI-MOVIES, *Phoenix 2772

One of Osamu Tezuka's earliest manga titles was Phoenix, an unusual anthology taking place at multiple times in human history all tying to the otherworldly entity of the Phoenix, a shapeshifting firebird. The manga ran for year in 1954, even though Tezuka never got around to doing a conclusion for it in the other 35 years of his life. In 1978, there was a full-length anime movie based on the manga that bombed, so another one in 1980 titled Phoenix 2772 was made to focus on a single person's adventure instead of several lifetimes chronicled in the prior film. This was released in English and retitled Space Firebird, and an even shorter cut of the dub was released in America with much of the coherence chopped out of it. Phoenix was Tezuka's big space opera outside of Astro Boy, but this second attempt at trying to adapt only a small chapter of the manga was met with some strong highs and lows. Tezuka himself directed it along with Taku Sugiyama under his Tezuka Productions, so the "God of Manga" was fully involved in this project. The entire experience was a nice chance for Tezuka to flex his animation muscles and get creative, including having the first ten minutes done with no dialogue at all. The downside to allowing Tezuka having this much freedom with his own production made a good portion of the movie being padded out with pointless cartoon shenanigans and instrumental suites that pad the film out and considering that this second adaptation of the manga was even shorter than the previous one, that is staggering in hindsight.

Set in the way off future, humans are created in test tubes and raised by robots. One such child is Godo who always treated his robot caretaker Olga as a friend, which is understandable as she gives off the appearance of vivacious blonde that is capable of multiple vehicle transformations. Godo becomes a pilot and falls for a rich girl engaged to his greedy brother who punishes him for this by sending him to a labor camp. Olga along with some wacky cartoon critters bust Godo out after he befriends fellow inmate Dr. Surata who plans on going in search of the legendary Phoenix to help revitalize the Earth which is dying from all its resources being plundered by humans. Godo and his crew take a shark-shaped ship away from yet another variation of Tezuka's central character of Blackjack who here is a prison warden. After a long intergalactic chase, the Phoenix damages Olga but revitalizes the robot and gives Godo an ideal life on a fruitful planet. Godo decides to bring much of this new planet's vegetation back to the dying Earth to harvest, although his efforts are for not as the planet just then starts going all Krypton. Godo and Olga are two of the only ones remaining and the Phoenix entity inside the robot says she'll reformat the Earth for the remaining survivors if Godo gives up his life. This works and humankind is given a fresh exodus while Godo is reborn as a baby and Olga turned into a living woman who has to raise her new child in a post-apocalyptic world.

After watching Phoenix 2772, you'll swear that End Of Evangelion ripped off its finale from this as they are hauntingly similar. Both the full-length and edited versions of the British dub suffer from standard acting usually done in Hong Kong kung-fu flicks. The original but incomplete manga has been released several times in English, and the Space Firebird dub was readily available on VHS through several different shady distributors from the 80s-90s due to their being no known existing license on it at the time. There's not currently a version of this streaming in North America, nor is there one on official DVD or Blu-Ray, so keep your eyes open for an old bootleg copy at your nearest used video store.

R.I.P. Tony Todd

 

Somehow, Palpatine got re-elected.

 

ANI-MOVIES, *Time Stranger

In 1981, the Super Robot craze was dying down in anime, and mechas was turning a little more toward realism as a machine of war like in Macross and Gundam. One of these anime caught in the middle of the transition was GoShogun, a 26-episode TV series that initially was released in America as part of the Macron-1 series which was glued to a completely unrelated mecha series similar to Voltron except that both shows were rewritten to be in the same universe. GoShogun was about three separate combat experts who become pilots of a combiner robot to fight a group of villains called Docooga vying for control over a new element called Beamier which could be used to conquer the world. The leader of the bad guys was Neoneros whose trio of generals would fight the GoShogun crew as they protected the human race, but he was so evil that his generals leave him and join forces with the goody guys to overthrow their boss. Four years after the series ended, an anime conclusion was made titled GoShogun: The Time Etranger which in many English markets has been renamed Time Stranger(no relation to the Time Stranger Kyoko manga). This took the sextet of heroes and former baddies into a totally different series which combines mysterious elements of Night Of The Living Dead and Jacob's Ladder and merged it with an 80s action romp normally starring Chuck Norris. The movie removes the mecha fighters and puts them in an otherworldly adventure like something out of The Twilight Zone but armed with a stockade of weapons the A-Team would have. This is a shocking turn when a sentai show ditches the robots and puts the Power Rangers in Carnival Of Souls.

Remy is the only female member of the GoShogun team and hasn't seen her commrades in forty years. On her way to a reunion with her two co-pilots, Remy stops a gang of terrorists in a high speed aircar chase, causing her to crash. All of her teammates converge at the hospital she was taken to and none of them seemed to have aged much in the last few decades, despite the fact that one of them is a big mutant clone. While her colleagues try to save her life, Remy is tied between flashbacks of her when she was an orphan trapped in a hole and a bizarre dream realm where she and all five of her mates are caught in a desert town infested by Muslim zombies, some of which attack on bicycles. In this hellscape, Remy is told by a childlike prophet that she will die\ in a few days from being torn apart by the rowdy locals. Deciding to fight against her death ticket, Remy and the rest of the GoShogun crew go totally commando on the whole town and their battle escalates to fighting a giant demon cat in an epic climax in a dusty graveyard. Whether or not any of this is really happening on some other level of consciousness or it's just a vision Remy is having before her final breath is never completely revealed.

Time Stranger is a departure from the main anime series that deconstructs the former hero trope when you take away all their sci-fi toys and have them fighting a radically opposite new foe. The real strange part is that there is no head bad dude for the heroes' confront, but simply the inevitable end that all mortals must face, whether it be in real life or an imaginary counterforce. The animation can shift from standard to monumental, particularly in the battle scenes where a small team of seasoned specialists have an arsenal that can take on an entire city of undead opponents. It is entirely possible to enjoy this solo movie on its own without seeing anything of the original TV series, although it gives you a bigger insight into the heroes' relationships and how the single female character was the centerpiece of their lives who was very capable of holding her own in a fight.

The Owl House: Love & Weirdos, A Look Into Disney's Witchcraft Cartoon

Disney Channel was looking for the next comedy/adventure cartoon to fit in their files like Gravity Falls and Star Vs. The Forces Of Evil that wasn't adjacent to the standard Mickeyverse. Since Harry Potter had long since wrapped up, a new fantasy with kids learning magic seemed like a good enough idea. Animator Dana Terrace presented her plan for a series titled The Owl House blending common witchcraft with modern day pop and folk culture. Even though it might at first look like an Americanized version of an isekai anime, the show went on to have its own sense of style with fluid animation, realistic characters, deep lore, and engaging voice actors. What truly caught the eye of casual animation fans was how it drew in viewers as it engaged those who might be seen as weirdos. The Owl House encompassed the depiction of physical, emotional, and mental barriers in a positive manner. It also heavily took into account the encumbrance facing those coming to terms with their own gender, sexuality, and personal identity. For a show to highlight representation this way on a family-centered network was the first steps that the series faced towards its own premature end.

Dana Terrace was a storyboarder on Gravity Falls who eventually became a director for the DuckTales reboot. She took influence from anime like Utena and Pokemon, plus Tenchi Muyo which is evident as Eda's design is a clear copy of Ryoko. After working on DuckTales, Dana pitched the idea of a fantasy/adventure to Disney in 2018, and was greenlit at the same time as Amphibia, of which both shows are secretly in a shared universe.

Season One came out in 2020 with 19 episodes. Season Two was given 21 episodes in 2021. Season Three was trimmed to just a trio of hour-long specials instead of 20 regular episodes. Disney roped in the show as its serialized nature wasn't bringing in successful ratings. Part of the problem with this was because of episode leaks, although the major reason Disney cut the series short was largely due to the backlash from conservative parents on the show's open depictions of LGBTQ+ characters and all-inclusive nature which didn't fit into the company's standards at the time. This lead to a lot censoring of non-heteronormative material in foreign markets despite the show's strong fan following for it being all-inclusive.

The cast is vastly diverse with many professional voice actors and some with minimal voice over experience. Sarah Nicole Robles is the main character of Luz who only had some past credits in Disney dubs. Wendie Malick is Eda who had decades of experience in sitcoms, as well animation voice overs in Bojack Horseman and The Emperor's New Groove. Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch pulls double-duty as both King and Hooty. Tinkerbell herself Mae Whitman plays Amity. Anime VA regular Zeno Robinson is Hunter. Another anime veteran is Mela Lee as Kikimoa. Matthew Rhys is Bellos who later went on to do voices for Tuca And Bertie as well as the Watchmen duology. Cissy Jones is Lillith and afterwards played Elita-1 in Transformers. Former Bumblebee voice Bumper Johnson is Principal Bump, Michaela Deitz who played Amethyst on Steven Universe is the shapeshifting Vee. Rachel MacFarlane from American Dad is Odalia. The Collector's actor Fryda Wolff has indentified herself as bisexual. Non-binary actor Avi Roque portrays the similarly non-binary Raine. Also included were Tati Gabrielle as Willow and Issac Ryan Brown as Gus.

Dana Terrace's original pilot had Amity being a witch disguised in the human world that Luz fell for and follows to the Boiling Islands. Luz gets stuck in the Demon Realm helping Eda escape her sister Lillith that here is the principal of Hexside. In the original story, Eda secretly works for Bellos who wants her to bring in the one human for him to inspect.

The main synopsis of The Owl House is that it takes place in another dimension called the Demon Realm. Luz is an Afro-Latina who moved to Gravesfield, Ohio so her mother Camila could get medical help for sick father. After her father's death, Luz is sent to a neurodivergent summer camp as she has ADHD. Instead of getting on the bus to camp, she winds up following an owl into an abandoned house which leads to The Boiling Isles that are the remains of a dead Titan where she meets Eda Clawthorne, the Owl Lady, a witch who promises to teach Luz magic. Eda had adopted a young creature she named King who thinks he is the lost king of demons. Luz attends the Hexside School where she befriends Amity, a stuck up girl who eventually changed her ways and formed a romantic relationship with Luz that recognized herself as bisexual.

The Boiling Isles is run by Emperor Bellos, who in reality is Phillip Whitebane, a witch hunter from the 1600s whose brother Caleb supposedly fell for a witch named Evelyn. Phillip makes clones of Caleb called Grimwalkers to act as his Golden Guard, the latest one of which is Hunter. Belos also stays alive through methods of cloning, plus consuming Palismans. Belos can inhabit bodies by splitting his soul. It’s possible that every split makes each version a totally different Belos, meaning the real one has been dead for years. He became emperor after setting up the Coven system. Each coven is broken up into 9 different systems: Emperor’s, Abomination, Bard, Beast Keeping, Construction, Healing, Illusion, Oracle, Plant, and Potions. Belos established these to utilize Titan's blood on the Boiling Isles which would allow him to open the portal door back to the human world.

Wild magic is the only kind outlawed by Belos because he couldn't control it. Evelyn was a wild witch that seduced Caleb, as well as being Eda’s ancestor. Flapjack was probably Evelyn’s Palisman. It's strange that in the series finale Eda eventually sets up her own school of wild magic which is paradoxical to her philosophy of being an individual as passing on what she’s learned can conform others into her own lifestyle. Eda resides in what's called The Owl House that was originally used by her father who fashioned Palismans. The house is inhabited by a bizarre owl demon with a long neck attached to the front door called Hooty

The enigmatic character of the Collector is part of a cosmic group called The Archivists who trapped him in the Demon Realm. The Archivists removed all the Titans because their power cancels out their own, so they either did this as an act of preservation or just plain old spite. King’s father was the last remaining Titan who took his hatred for The Archivists out on The Collector and left him on an island that was really his hand sealed off in another dimension with Titan Trappers that worshipped The Collector as a god. This is where King learns of his true heritage as a titan. Bellos finds The Collector's prision in a disc in his early days as Phillip because of a trip that Luz and Lillith took to the past in what is referred to a Time Pools.

The entire plot of The Owl House is one giant causality loop. A future timeline that only exists because someone went back in the past to set it up in the first place. Luz and Lillith were supposed to find the Time Pools, go back and meet the younger Phillip Whitebane, which in turn lead him to The Collector. This isn’t a fate vs. destiny debate because it's on a fixed timeline. Even though this timeline has been established, it’s possible to change it, and equally possible that Luz and Lillith ended up in a completely different reality when they travelled back to the future/present.

In a causality loop, even in a fixed timeline, it can be diverted. Chaos is a major factor in its creation, and the forces of order and chaos are constantly pulling at each other to close the loop or collapse it, either effect would replace it with a different timeline. When these forces are working against each other, reality can be radically altered in numerous ways. People who died can be brought back to life in one way or another, as well as someone temporarily gaining powers that they never had before. Bellos likely hired Lillith to begin with to keep her close so he could manipulate her into going back in time in the first place, a possibility he learned through oracle magic.

The Owl House utilizes the concept the Time Pools very well as they work under the principle of chronomancy, not time travel. Chronomancy is the magical manipulation of temporal energy, whereas time travel is the scientific and occasionally natural navigation of timestreams. Chronomancy is largely paradox free, even though order and chaos will still tug at both ends to cause a probability collapse. How this would ultimately resolve can only be answered in whatever aftermath there is upon its conclusion.

Eda would have been one of the most powerful witches on the Boiling Isles if it weren't for a curse placed on her. Despite her potent mastery of wild magic, Eda periodically transforms into what's called the Owl Beast leaving her unable to use magic. The owl curse stems from one of the Archivists who captured the actual Owl Beast and sealed it inside a scroll. Eda's sister Lillith placed this curse on Eda when they were younger which she now has to take an elixir for on an almost daily basis to keep it under control. Eda's curse is a metaphor for someone stricken with disability and having to adjust to their new way of living after a life-altering incident.

Amity begins the series disliking Luz because she only cared about social status. This was changed when she realized Luz was sincere in her honesty, and how wrong her parents were when it came to treating her fellow students. Amity was originally childhood friends with Willow but ditched her when pressured by her mother. Willow’s abandonment by the other students helped her discover the strength of her inner self to overcome her status quo. Amity saw this and left Boscha’s highbrow crowd to embrace this philosophy, which also lead to her becoming attracted to Luz.

In the beginning, The Titan itself had the mysterious Bat Queen as its Palisman, even though her size doesn't compare to that of the Palisman which act as a witch's familiar or animus figure. When Luz finally meets the Titan near the end of the series, it is shown that he has a demon growing out his eye that looks like Hooty, even though what the connection between the two is never explained. All magic on the Boiling Isles stems from what’s left of the Titan’s spirit. Evelyn found the Titan’s missing eye and used it to make the portal door. The Titan’s spirit exists in the In Between, a subspace within the Demon Realm which acts as the portal dimension that leads to Earth.

The Owl House has a huge theme of neurodiversity. The Coven system is an allegory for conformity, and Luz’s desire to study more than one form of magic showcases her lack of being able to focus on a single goal. This is partially due to her ADHD and lack of foresight. Luz’s sense of alienation is why she adapts to the Demon Realm so well. Her anxiety also drives her while holding her back at the same time which prevents her from fitting in with her more conventional peers.

This series also manages to spotlight on living with a disability. Eda's curse is a living example of this as it prevents her from using her magic that she keeps boasting about, and she’s afraid her beast mode might harm any of her loved ones. It could be seen as someone recovering from substance abuse, except this is a real curse and Eda needs to take medication to keep it in check. The Owl Beast curse also prematurely aged Eda physically which is a good way of illustrating how a handicap can limit a person's lifestyle.

One thing that The Owl House shined brightest was in its transgender representation. Eda's old friend Raine Whispers is non-binary, but they broke up with her when Eda didn't open up about her curse. Eda tried to rekindle their relationship, despite the fact that Raine was secretly leading a rebellion against Bellos all while being a coven head. Non-binary characters aren't that abundant in most TV series, but here they are given the respect and dignity that any binary person would.

LGBTQ+ was equally given as much attention in the series. In the beginning, Luz was shown as heterosexual, even though over time she slowly gains feeling for Amity who is initially implied to be a lesbian. The two of them officially become a couple halfway through Season 2, and their relationship grows from there, including one of the first animated same-sex kisses. Unfortunately, their romance gets more airtime in the Disney Chibi shorts than the actual Owl House TV show possibly due to the series being cut short. Willow's fathers are also a fine example of gay delineation. It’s likely that gender and racial diversity in the Demon Realm wasn't considered a negative issue which might have been part of Belos’ puritan crusade to rid the world of witches.

Trauma and PTSD are also major factors that were brought to the forefront in The Owl House. Luz is still reeling from the death of her father and trying to be accepted in school, while her mother Camila also had trouble growing up and is now a widow doubled with being a single parent who is defensive about her only child. Hunter is shocked that his entire existence is a lie as he was created solely to be part of his uncle's evil scheme, and he deals with it by running away to find comfort with those who understood about being critically distraught. Willow and Gus first bonded over both of them being social outcasts. Eda is constantly stressed that she can't use her magic anymore and has to make a living selling human junk since she doesn't trust anyone in authority. Lillith is stricken with guilt when she reveals it was her that cursed Eda, even though she now shares the curse that also causes her to fret adjusting to her new handicap. King has identity issues since his origins were at first a mystery, and after he learns he was really a titan, he worries that he won't live up to his father's legacy. The Collector had it worse than anyone as his own people tricked him into being isolated and as they snatched up all his young Titan friends, then he got sealed away by King's dad and reduced to a mere shadow who trusted Bellos to release him, only to be betrayed again despite all his reality-warping powers.

The Owl House's tragically brief time on general streaming TV was enough to make it notable among regular Disney watchers and its theme of inclusion to those some would refer to as weirdos. Even though they stick together, the weirdos' wish to be understood and accepted is a universal message that anyone intelligent enough should be able to pick up on.

MISC. MANGA, *Fairy Tail

Hiro Mishima had a decent amount of success with his first serial Rave Master that got an anime adaptation with a catchy theme song by Reel Big Fish done for the American dub. His next manga had ties to the same universe in this pseudo-spinoff titled Fairy Tail. Whereas One Piece could be seen as "pirate-punk", this genre of this manga would be something along the lines of "fantasy-punk". The manga was first picked up for American readers by Del Rey Books who went defunct in 2010, so Kodansha picked it up after reprinting the volumes that were already released. The anime adaptation has become one of the most successful releases among American otaku, and its follow-up, Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest has just come out in Japan with western fans salivating for the latest installments.

Lucy Heartfilia is a young summoner who is looking to join the guild of rowdy wizards known as Fairy Tail. After an experience with a poser magician, Lucy comes across Natsu Dragneel, a member of Fairy Tail that was raised by a dragon. In their first mission together, they take their winged talking cat colleague Happy on a mission to the mountains investigating the disappearance of fellow wizard Macao who got turned into a horny primate. From this point on, we learn more about Natsu's mysterious past, and the revelation of a secret cabal of villains who are plotting their demise just to relieve their boredom.

With two hit anime TV series, a pair of full-length animated movies, and a series of OVA specials, Fairy Tail has left its mark in anime fandom. Their adventures do include a brief crossover with the Rave Master cast. Whether this will lead to a Hiro Mishima multiverse is yet to be revealed. The manga is dynamic, even though it does give into a much of the anime cliches of characters doing cartoon takes of being surprised or the males lusting over the females in a way that's borderline creepy. Fairy Tail is not for kids, but young adult readers who are looking for a little more adventure in their fantasy stories should be satisfied.

R.I.P. Greg Hildebrandt