ANI-MOVIES, *Onward

Disney's first Pixar release of 2020 came out just at the dawn of the coronavirus, so Onward already had an uphill battle trying to get anyone to dare coming out to the theaters. Monsters University director Dan Scalon headed this project that was an original story he had written with Keith Bunin and Jason Headley which took about three years to complete. The movie unfortunately didn't make any of its money back at first because of the pandemic although it has gone on to gain some accolades after it went to streaming. Onward is a low fantasy tale that mixes family values with a road trip comedy, but with eldritch beings instead of humans into a genre usually referred to as elfpunk.

In a version of our world entirely populated by enchanted creatures, magic was commonplace along with your standard dungeon quests with magic users. Somewhere along the line, this society gave up using sorcery with the rise of technology, so they replaced their magic wands for automatic garage doors. Set in modern day, young Ian Lightfoot is an elf turning sixteen even though he never knew his father who died before he was born. Ian's mother Laurel is currently dating a centaur police officer that is always on the case of his older brother Barley for being a slacker who is more interested in preserving the abandoned ways of magic and is ravenously into RPGs. It turns out Ian's father left a wizard's staff behind for them to bring him back to life for a single day. The staff is powered by a rare gem which is entirely spent conjuring up only their father from the waist on down, so Ian and Barley take a tip from a gaming manual to find a manticore who it claims to have another gem. Turns out the manticore now runs a family restaurant, but the brothers use a map meant for kids to locate the gem. Laurel gets wind of this and sets out to make sure her boys don't use the gem as it might unleash a curse. Along the way, Ian learns he can use magic with the staff which helps when he and Barley come across pixie bikers and other obstacles, only to find that their quest leads right back to the local high school. Barley finds the gem followed by the curse which takes the form of a dragon made of parts of the school building, but Laural manages to help stop it with the manticore's old sword. Unfortunately, the remainder of their father's time is about spent, and Ian is stuck under some debris making Barley the only one who gets to say goodbye to their fully corporeal father before he disappears. Barley relays his father's love to Ian and they help people get interested in magic again.

Onward is up to scratch as far as Pixar movies go, at least that far as not being one of their gratuitous sequels. There doesn't seem to be as much love for this film that most generic Disney fanatics have so for some of their other releases, but having it come out just at the start of pandemic lockdown really put people in a bad mood which affected the movie's overall outcome. The animation and lush backdrops are picturesque, although Pixar didn't appear to put as much effort into this like some of the other visual masterpieces like Up or The Incredibles. The premise for this might have made for a reasonable series on streaming because the standard feature length doesn't do this urban fantasy world enough justice.

ANI-MOVIES: The Mouse And His Child

The Mouse And His Child was the first full-length animated movie put out by Sanrio along with what would eventually become Fred Wolf Films who animated the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. Based on the book by Russell Hobson which is a children's story that contains some mature narratives and symbolism, Fred Wolf and Charles Swenson who created Mike, Lu And Og both directed this 1977 theatrically released adaptation. The movie meanders in its own minutiae which makes it incredibly tedious to sit through, while in contrast the film is visually pleasing. This was probably one of those films you caught on cable TV in the 80s on a lazy weekend afternoon and vaguely have a hazy memory of. It was the second film for Fred Wolf Films after the adult animated feature Down And Dirty Duck, so The Mouse And His Child was a major contrast from their prior production, similar to if like Ralph Bakshi did a Saturday Morning cartoon after finishing up Fritz The Cat. Despite the fact that the film had decent enough advertisement behind it, after its theatrical release it got folded into the highest level of obscurity with only a VHS release in America with little fanfare. This isn't really a lost treasure but more of an important footnote in animated film history that was forgotten mostly because it gets caught in its own pointless philosophy.

A toy of a father mouse and his child dancing when they're wound up begin life in a toy store but are thrown into the garbage when they fall of a shelf. The mice come across a rat named Manny who runs a small rat empire with enslaves other abandoned toys to do the hard labor, but the mice manage to get help from a prophetic frog who helps them on their journey to be free of needing to be wound up in order to move. The mice's quest for self-autonomy leads them to a wise peg-legged muskrat who rebuilds them and independent of being wind-ups. The closing part of the movie has the father and son mouse freeing the other toys enslaved by the rats, and for some reason the papa mouse marrying an elephant toy at the end which no one seems to question as its one of the first cross-species weddings in an animated movie.

The Mouse And His Child does contain a reasonable quality of animation put into it, however the theoretical questions it insists on dumping into the laps of young viewers makes it a chore to sit through. The musical score is equally grating with the opening and closing theme being sung off-key by the voice of the child mouse. The only real mark for this might be its English dub cast with Sir Peter Ustinov voicing the snidely rat Manny, along with other talents like Sally Kellerman and Cloris Leachman, plus fans of Wizards will recognize Bob Holt as the savant muskrat. You might be able to track down an old video cassette copy of this if you're a compulsive collector of vintage cartoons, however the film has little staying power to make it significant.

ANI-MOVIES, *Elio

Elio was Pixar's attempt at doing an original movie since Elemental, even though on its own that borrowed heavily from their parent company's film Zootopia. This movie could however be seen as a backwards version of Disney's Lilo And Stitch to which they conveniently remade into a live-action movie that came out the same summer. The one thing I noticed from most reviews of Elio was the vacancy of any comparisons to The Last Starfighter because it borrows a metric ton from the classic 80s sci-fi flick. The concept for the movie was dreamed up by director Adrian Molina when he was CalArts which is plainly obvious as a majority of character designs look like they were out of the cookie cutter "CalArts Style" that much of the older animation fans claim to be tired of, even though you could compare them to previous shows like Steven Universe. Molina directed this along with fellow CalArts graduate Madeline Sharafian plus Domee Shi with the screenplay written by Pixar regulars such as Mike Jones. However, all this talent didn't stop Elio from being Pixar's biggest dud losing out big time to K-Pop Demon Hunters which didn't even get a theatrical premiere and went straight to streaming. The family film is on its own a reasonably decent production, but Pixar's higher-ups had watered down Adrian Molina's original prospect partially due to his vision of the title character being queer-coded. If this is another situation similar to when Disney cancelled The Owl House because it was upsetting conservative parents because of its LGBTQ nature hasn't been fully confirmed, but Pixar's unwillingness to invest in the creator's original vision adds to Elio lackluster outcome. It is visually eye-catching with Pixar's new use of lenses and lighting help sell the interstellar benevolence you might be looking for in a movie with friendly and not-so friendly aliens.

Elio has dead parents like most Disney kids, so he's now living with his Aunt Olga who is a major at an Air Force base specializing in tracking down orbital space trash. Elio is obsessed with aliens and overhears a meeting Olga has about a signal which one of the crew claims is an alien response to the first Voyager space probe which causes Elio to respond to the signal causing the entire base to lose power. Olga sends Elio to a military camp where he gets taken by a collected organization of aliens called the Communiverse who believe he is the leader of Earth and send a clone of him to take his place on Earth. Elio wants to become part of the Communiverse, but they can't except any new members after the last one they rejected declares war on them. Grigon is the warlike leader of a race of huge caterpillars who stomp around in mecha suits modeled after giant crabs, and Elio tries to establish peace between them and the Communiverse, but fails to do so and becomes a prisoner. Grigon's son Glordon meets Elio and escapes with him to the Communiverse that hold Glordon as a bargaining chip to establish peace of which Grigon agrees to, but after having a fun time touring around all the sights the Communiverse has to offer, Glordon admits he doesn't want to go back to become bonded to his own mecha suit. Elio makes up a clone of Glordon to takes his place, but Grigon is not fooled and takes over the Communiverse which reveals Elio's deception, and they send him back to Earth. Glordon accidently uses Elio's star craft to go to Earth which is secured by the Air Force base, so Elio, his clone, and Olga rescue Glordon after taking back the spaceship. Once back at the Communiverse, Elio is able to work out a peace treaty and gives up his shot as an ambassador to live on Earth with his aunt, even though he still keeps in contact with Glordon via ham radio.

Elio wasn't seen as being a failed production because of the quality Pixar put into its visual aesthetics, but instead to how few people actually went to go see the film in theaters. Disney didn't have as much confidence in this as they had for their Lilo And Stitch retread, so they didn't put any genuine advertising into it, least of all any merchandise. The premise of a boy wanting to be abducted by aliens isn't all that original, even though Pixar managed to add their own touches to make it gratifying. This wasn't Pixar's hugest departure from their former glory, however Elio suffers from poor management and a blitzed ad campaign.

ANI-MOVIES, *The Fox And The Hound

The Fox And The Hound was Disney's 24th full-length animated theatrical release based on the book by Daniel P. Mannix which has a radically different ending from the one adapted for the movie. This was Disney's first movie in the 80s and its biggest challenge was the transition of a new generation of animators, one of which was Don Bluth who with others all left halfway through the film's production to go off on their own and animate The Secret Of Nimh. Other new animators that worked on this as their first major production were Tim Burton, Brad Bird, John Lassiter, and Henry Selick, so this was the launching pad for many of the studio's future alumni. The movie was the highest grossing animated title of the year which helped as it was the most expensive film of its kind at the time. This success helped bring about a direct-to-video midquel 25 years later, although the original was considered the last of Disney's classic animated movies before the company's renaissance which had the unfortunate side-effect of condemning The Black Cauldron into the realm of obscurity.

An abandoned baby fox gets adopted by the old widow Tweed that she names Tod and he becomes friends with her neighbor Amos' new pup Copper under the tutelage of the older hunting dog Chief. Tod and Copper have fun together during the fall, but Amos takes Copper on a long winter training journey. Once springtime comes around, Tod has grown up and tries to rekindle his friendship with Copper who is now a better hunting hound, but when Chief gets hurt chasing Tod away, Copper threatens to get back at him. Tweed takes Tod out into a game preserve to ensure his safety, even though that doesn't stop Amos and Copper to hunt down Tod along with his new fox friend Vixey. An encounter with a ravenous bear causes Tod to rescue Copper with the faithful hound protecting him from the trigger-happy Amos, and the old friends part ways.

The Fox And The Hound had mixed reviews when it first came out but still did well as it was the only American animated film that was released that year intended for children. This was the final film that Disney's two remaining Nine Old Men who were the studios main animators when they first opened in the 1920s. The casting for this was masterful with Corey Feldman and Kurt Russel voicing both the young and older Copper, Mickey Rooney as the older Tod, Sandy Duncan as the pleasant Vixey, Pearl Bailey as a helpful owl, Pat Burttram as the ornery Chief, and veteran cartoon voice actor Paul Winchell playing a featherbrained woodpecker. Again, the original source material was supremely edited down for its animation adaptation whose finale makes the one for The Little Mermaid look tame, but Disney did manage to pull off a good enough production. The film does suffer from serious pacing issues and filler sequences that padded out the runtime, but it is ultimately an enjoyable watch for the whole family.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

For being the first animated Star Wars movie as well as the only one not released through Fox, The Clone Wars received a theatrical premiere at the dead end of summer 2008 which didn't help its box office numbers. Meant to bridge the gap between Episode II and III of the prequel trilogy, this was first covered in an excellent 2D micro-series on Cartoon Network directed by Genndy Tartakovsky of Samurai Jack fame, but three years after that trilogy ended a new Clone Wars series was made also by Cartoon Network, this time entirely animated in 3D. The drawback to this is that the micro-series was not considered canon which really sucked if you had come to adore the unstoppable Captain Fordo, although this didn't become totally non-canon until Disney took over the entire franchise. The 3D series ran for 7 seasons first on Cartoon Network, briefly on Netflix, and then concluding on Disney+. The 98-minute-long movie was obliviously intended to be a prolonged pilot episode, but some corporate bigwig thought they could sell more Happy Meals if it was shown in cinemas months before the ongoing TV series. Directed by future Star Wars pioneer David Filoni, The Clone Wars movie was intended to act as a self-contained arc that would be the opening for the weekly network cartoon, so the production quality was not up to theatrical standards which was noticed by most viewers. If this had been released a decade later, then the movie would have gotten enough exposure on the various Disney networks, but because they had to get greedy with it, the license holders had the biggest Star Wars theatrical bomb instead, or at least until the sequel trilogy came out.

Set sometime after Attack Of The Clones, the titular Clone Wars are fully underway with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker leading the Republic army against the Separatist forces throughout the Outer Rim of the galaxy. Anakin is surprisingly presented with his own student, Ahsoka Tano, an enthusiastic teenager ready to prove herself as a Jedi in training as the two of them have to rescue Jabba the Hutt's kidnapped son. This is all a scheme by Count Dooku and his apprentice Asajj Ventress to have the Hutt clans support the Separatists instead of the Republic. The film goes from one action scene to another leaving little room for character development, so the film is simply one big toy commercial and not in the somewhat entertaining way it was done in the 80s with Transformers and He-Man.

The Clone Wars is a sad excuse for a Star Wars movie. Where some fans had problems with the Solo motion picture, at least it was a solid effort at a full-length feature. This animated outlet should have remained on television as it was first intended. One of the only positive aspects is the debut of Asoka who fortunately became a much more likeable character throughout the TV series, plus Christopher Lee returns to voice Dooku making it his last Star Wars appearance. It also has some of the most cliche dialogue you'll ever hear. It is entirely possible to skip this film and just go straight into The Clone Wars series unless you are an obsessed Star Wars completionist.

X-Men '97: Don't Call It A Comeback

Previously on X-Men, the original animated series ran from 1992-1997 on Fox’s Saturday morning lineup. After three more animated series, including an underrated anime, a follow-up to the 90s show was finally picked up. Since the first cartoon aired, Marvel Comics and Fox had both been bought up by the unshackled juggernaut of Disney. The Witcher screenwriter Beau DeMayo mapped at a new 10-episode TV series exclusively for the Disney+ streaming service. This revival was titled X-Men ’97.

Premiering in 2024, the first season brought back the iconic theme song that had fans from all over headbanging but this time with a rotating cast during the opening credits. Like Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, the X-Men lineup for each episode matched which characters were officially on the team roster at the time. Instead of Saban Entertainment, the production is handled by Marvel Studios which doesn’t suffer from the horrid CGI that their What If show had. The actual animation is provided by Tiger Animation along with Studio Mir which was the Korean creators who did The Legend Of Korra. Ten episodes were made for the opening season with two more seasons in the works.

A large majority of the original voice actors returned including Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm, Cal Dodd as Wolverine, George Buza as Beast, Lenore Zann as Rogue, and Adrian Hough as Nightcrawler. The rest of the cast is filled out with replacements as some of the actors from the former show had either retired or passed away with the brightest example of this has Holly Chou replacing Alyson Court as Jubilee allowing an Asian American play the firework-shooting mutant even though Court did get to play an older virtual version of her.

Season One takes place about a year where X-Men: The Animated Series left off, Professor Xavier left control of the X-Men over to their old nemesis Magneto all while Jean Grey is about to give birth to her and Cyclops’ baby. It’s revealed that Jean is a clone as the original shows up after fake Jean gives birth to Nathan Summers who is immediately captured by Mr. Sinister and infected with a virus. Bishop, who had joined the X-Men since last time, takes the young Nathan to the future where he can be cured and eventually become the time travelling Cable. The clone Jean changes her name to Madeline Pryor and leaves the team. The Friends Of Humanity continue their anti-mutant terrorism, and their chief assassin X-Cutioner causes Storm to lose her powers which she regains after help from Forge. All this while the cybernetic Bastion plans on using Sinister and an entire population of human Sentinels to first wipe out the mutant island of Genosha, and then later the rest of the mutants. Gambit dies on Genosha, Rogue briefly hooks back up with Magneto, and the recruit Sunspot joins the team. Xavier returns to Earth from the Shi’ar Empire and helps the X-Men stop both Magneto and Bastion separate missions. The final battle has most of the core X-Men being split into two parts in time, some in a post-apocalyptic future while the others are sent to ancient Egypt.

X-Men ’97 was not only a return to form for the franchise, but it was also unbound by the limits of a network cartoon show intended for kids. Its new streaming run allows room for more character introspection, conflicting romances, mature themes, and dramatic reveals. Much more ground from the vast history of X-Men comics is covered in these ten episodes which is helped by the extra minutes of airtime. The core message of observing mutants as a prejudice and various forms of discrimination is still present, so nothing is lost from the huge generation gap between this and the original series. The animation goes through a major evolution with crucially upgraded battle scenes that take serious hints from numerous anime titles such as Dragonball and Evangelion. Season Two is due out in 2026 with all of the Season One cast returning, so you can bet your adamantium bones that it will be as awesome as its predecessor.

ANI-MOVIES, *Sky Blue

Originally titled Wonderful Days, the 2003 Korean animated movie Sky Blue is a mixed media project combining 2D animation, CGI, and live footage doctored to appear animated which finally got its American release in 2004, although there has never been a western release of it on Blu-Ray or DVD, or any authorized streaming in English even though there is a dub of it. Sky Blue was released in Japan after Gainax rewrote it, and in many versions of the movie there are a few minutes cut out of releases outside Korea mostly for pacing with an alternate prologue. Another change from foreign releases was having the musical score replaced with totally different songs possibly due to licensing issues, but this radically changes the context of certain scenes. It is nearly to the point where Sky Blue and Wonderful Days are mutually exclusive movies, so it depends on which copy on the film you come across. There was also a director's cut of Sky Blue came out a decade later with an additional 9 minutes added on to it, so be sure you don't overpay for a copy of it.

Taking place in 2142, the environment has broken down, and the remaining humans are surviving in the dystopian city of Ecoban powered by recycled waste, and those who live in the wastelands become scavengers in order to survive. Shua is one of the outsiders who are trying to stop Ecoban's energy production which is polluting life outside the city which blocks out the sun with stormy clouds. Shua works for Dr. Noah who was outcast after he built this poisonous ecosystem destroyer and has to see about shutting it all down. Shua is mixed with his dedication toward his allies and his feelings for one of the city's security agents, his childhood friend Jay who is now working under the thumb of the commander Cade who got Shua banished in the first place by blaming him for the death of a superior officer years ago. There's a huge clash between Ecoban's ruling class and their military which a ragtag rebellion is able to counter with their attack on the city's power complex.

This was the directorial debut of Kim Moon-Saeng who prior to Sky Blue only worked on commercials although he presents a very professional production in his first and so far only fully animated movie. Aside from being featured at several international film festivals, but despite that there wasn't an authorized physical release for English speaking audiences to enjoy. It is an amazing cyberpunk spectacle with stunning animation even though the characters fall flat and are basic action movie stereotypes.

Magic Knight Rayearth: The Original Amphibia

Magic Knight Rayearth was a game changer as well as a genre breaker. Created by the powerhouse quartet known as Clamp, the manga appeared in the monthly Nakayoshi magazine and was split up into two halves, the first from 1993-1995 and then the second immediately afterwards running until 1996. An anime TV series came out less than a year after the manga premiered that went on for two full seasons, followed by an OVA remake simply titled Rayearth, plus six different video games only one of which got released in America as the last title put out for the Sega Saturn system.

Clamp had already gained past success with Tokyo Babylon, X, and RG Veda, plus their connected series of Clamp School Detectives that is in the same universe as Duklyon and Man Of Many Faces. Magic Knight Rayearth is partially tethered to the Clamp School books but not officially a tie-in. The manga wasn’t simply another magical girl series, but also the mecha genre and as one of the first isekai titles to ever be released.

The saga begins with a trio of eight-graders each from different schools on a field trip to Tokyo Tower which is Tokyo’s answer to the Eiffel Tower. The three girls are the tomboyish Hikaru, the prideful Umi, and the rational Fuu who all get whisked away to the magical land of Cephiro and chosen to be the legendary Magic Knights by the mage Clef. The girls must journey through the land gathering weapons and learning magic to rescue the childlike Princess Emeraude from the high priest Zagato who has seemingly usurped the throne. Emeraude acts as the Pillar of Cephiro where she must constantly pray for the country’s safety and serenity, and Zagato’s actions have now filled the land with monsters and other dangers as it slowly falls apart. Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu are helped on their quest by the mysterious mascot character Mokona who looks like a bunny-eared marshmallow. Along the way, the Magic Knights acquire evolving weapons and armor as well as giant mechanical gods called Mashin each equipped with elemental powers. Zagato sends his minions one at a time who all fail to stop the Magic Knights, most of which become their allies along the way, including the vagabond Ferio who starts a romance with Fuu. The Magic Knights eventually obtain all three Mashin and movie on to their final battle with Zagato.

Now, to explain what happens at the conclusion of the first half of the series would give away one of the single biggest plot twists of all time. Seriously, you will not see this coming! The second half concludes the series in a new saga with the characters trying to save Cephiro from the aftermath of the first half. The Magic Knights are called from Earth again and this time to protect the country from three separate invaders from foreign nations. Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu gain more allies and enemies all while living up to their responsibilities as Magic Knights. There is a stark difference between the second half of the manga and Season 2 of the anime adaptation as there is a stand-in villain for the anime where the manga’s true antagonist would be revealing too much. The anime diverges in its own direction as both it and the manga’s second half were being released nearly simultaneously.

Magic Knight Rayearth was such a hit that plans were being made to bring it to America as fast as possible. The manga itself got its English release in the pages of Tokyopop’s premiere anthology magazine MixxZine at first in American left to right format and then later in the standard Japanese tradition of right to left. Dark Horse Comics eventually picked up the publishing rights and rereleased the manga in hardcover box sets. The anime was a different story as The Ocean Group put together a dubbed pilot specifically for Fox Kids that wasn’t greenlit, but Media Blasters stepped up a few years later to put the series on VHS and DVD. The OVA series titled Rayearth which was a grim reverse isekai take on the original story was released by Manga Entertainment although not as prosperous. The Sega Saturn game didn’t flourish as much in America either as it was for a dying video game system.

The impact Clamp made on anime culture with Magic Knight Rayearth can be broken down into several categories. The mecha genre is slightly touched on as the Mashin in it is magic based even though the concept came out a decade earlier in Aura Battler Dunbine. The parallel world concept also got its big start here gradually became a thriving source in the mid-90s because of Rayearth which led to similar anime titles like El-Hazard and Vision Of Escaflowne to which eventually became the isekai boom of the last few years, the difference being that Rayearth is a portal fantasy whereas modern isekai involves being reincarnated in another world. The major anime subculture to get a boost from this series though was the magical girl wave which at the time was shifting to young superheroines like Sailor Moon who used their powers to fight aliens and monsters, even though Rayearth went a step further by bringing ordinary girls from our world and having them gain magical abilities in an enchanted realm while putting them on a quest straight out of a JRPG in a standard “save the princess, save the world” scenario, despite the fact that journey turns out to be anything but typical.

Magic Knight Rayearth has left an even bigger mark on American media. The most obvious is the Disney Channel original Amphibia which creator Matt Braly admitted to, the only difference being that his show had the three girls being separated when they first came to their magical world instead of starting out their adventure together. Even Amphibia’s trio of girls powering up scene at the end of the series is straight out of Rayearth. Now with a brand-new anime remake on the horizon, Magic Knight Rayearth is a quintessential piece of anime nostalgia that is still worthy of being appreciated by modern day audiences. Clamp’s other manga-turned-anime titles like Cardcaptor Sakura, Angelic Layer, Chobits, and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle have helped the rise of anime into a commonplace medium for English-speaking fans everywhere. Rayearth is the ultimate otaku melting pot with giant robots, high fantasy, video game logic, and cute girls conquering evil.

ANI-MOVIES, *Windaria

Windaria might be known to some older American otaku as Once Upon A Time which was released on VHS and DVD originally through Harmony Gold, the same company that put out three separate anime TV shows in English under the title Robotech. The infamous Carl Macek was behind the American transfer of the film which had to remove several minutes worth of footage to make it compatible for younger viewers, as well as having the entire script rewritten because Harmony Gold was given no scripts from the original Japanese production. In fact, there are several scenes with violence and nudity that were edited out, and the film had a happier ending glued on to it, plus an added narration done by Russell Johnson, aka: Professor from Gilligan's Island. Based on the novel by Ultraman author Keisuke Fujikawa who also adapted the script, Windaria was a 1986 film directed by Kunihiko Yuyama who went on to work on anime such as Pokemon and Slayers. The movie might seem to borrow quite a little from some of Hayao Miyazaki earlier works like Laputa and Nausicaa, however the truth is that this anime came out at the same time as both of those films which just happened to have a dieselpunk theme to them with a hint of fantasy/adventure thrown in.

The small farming community of Saki lies near a huge old tree called Windaria which lies in between the nations of Itha and Paro who for some reason after a century of peace decide to go to war. Getting caught in the middle of this is Windaria resident Izu ends up becoming a turncoat between both factions all while he ignores the love of his sweetheart Marin. Itha's Prince Jill and Paro's Princess Ahnas have been carrying on a secret romance together and hoped to create a union for both countries, but the greedy plans of their tyrannical parents force them into becoming enemies resulting in each of their deaths. Paro ends up being the victor in the war after having Itha flooded by their own aqueduct sabotaged by Izu who becomes drunk on the reward he received and totally forgets about Marin until the queen tries to have him killed for overstaying his welcome. Paro heads back home only to find that nearly everyone there has died including Marin, although her ghost appears just before she ascends to a flying ship that collects departed souls with Paro claiming he'll become the captain of the ghost ship after the current one's tern is up in a few months.

Windaria was director Kunihiko Yuyama's next film he worked on after the trippy Time Stranger, so going from one story that celebrates life through time loops to another that displays how everyone is susceptible to corruption in a fairy tale themed setting shows how diverse Yuyama is as a director. The original full-length version of Windaria has never been officially released in America and has only been put on VHS by Streamline Pictures and later on DVD by ADV Films, so you're really missing out on the superior version unless you can get a copy of the imported laser disc with subtitles as Once Upon A Time is just a pale shadow of the true edition.

ANI-MOVIES, *Metropolis

Fritz Lang's 1927 classic of Metropolis was made into a one-shot manga in 1949 by the God of Anime, aka: Osamu Tezuka. Decades later, it was turned into an epic movie at the dawn of the new millennium directed by Rintaro who had previously done the Galaxy Express 999 duology, plus written by legendary Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo. Unfortunately, the sci-fi drama didn't leave its mark on the international market as it only made less than half the budget back, partially due to Americans unwilling to see non-Ghibli anime theatrical releases. The film was animated by Madhouse who had previously done anime adaptations of Tezuka's Unico manga. Rintaro envisioned this as a dystopian future but with Tezuka's character designs that explores the symbiotic relationship between men and robots which was the basis for the creator's later series of Astro Boy. The film models itself after the ultramodern vision of the original Metropolis film, even though you can see some major Final Fantasy VII influence from especially in the titular city's layout.

In the probably American metropolis coincidentally named Metropolis, the upper class secretly run the city with their surplus of robot workers who have replaced most humans in their everyday job. The big dog in charge is Duke Red who's not-so-secret police of the Marduks are under the command of his adopted son Rock to maintain security, but Red's master plan is a giant contraption called the Ziggurat meant to capture the power of sunspots even though he's really intending it for global domination. The Ziggurat's key part is a realistic android girl named Tima that Red ordered from the criminal scientist Dr. Laughton, but this activity has gotten the attention of a detective from Japan, Shunsaku Ban along with his nephew Kenichi who were hired to find the rogue doctor. The detectives are assigned a robot police escort that they name Pero and track Laughton to his secret laboratory where Rock decides to cancel his father's contract on his own resulting in the death of Laughton and Kenichi falling to a lower level of the city along with Tima who has no idea she's a robot. Kenichi and Tima befriend some of the garbage-collecting robots of the underground along with a human revolution planning to rally against the Marduk who in turn are hunting for Tima which Rock is targeting to keep out of Red's grasp. Despite this, Tima eventually ends up in Red's clutches as he banishes Rock, although he managed to disquise his way into the activation of the Ziggurat which causes Tima to lose control resulting in the destruction of the weapon and the end of the Marduk's reign. Kenichi manages to get one last piece of humanity from Tima before her remains fall from the Ziggurat and are picked up by the worker robots who carry on the spirit of her innocence. You will want to check out a post-credits scene what happened later on after Kenichi decides to stay and side with the robots.

Metropolis was a true retrofuture production bridging the gap between Tezuka's Golden Age designs with Rintaro's cyberpunk viewpoint. The film goes in a totally separate direction from Tezuka's original manga which on its own was only partially inspired by the 1927 movie as the role of Tima was based on the androgynous robot Mitchy who was later repurposed as the main character in Princess Knight. Metropolis has several moving parts although it's not difficult to follow and the scene-transitions are deliberately inspired by those from silent movies. The movie also carries over Fritz Lang's theme of how building a Tower of Babel so mankind can stand next the gods ultimately leads to destruction. This grand movie took an entire five years to complete as at the time was the most expensive anime film ever made since Akira, but the high production cost failed to help make this a more memorable hit as they should have put a little more money into international advertising.

MISC. MANGA, *Tales From The Age Of The Cobra

Enrique Fernandez is a Spanish artist who made his big premiere in the American comics market with an album-sized graphic novel of The Wizard Of Oz through Image Comics, then a few years later IDW decided to republish his original 2-part mini-series into a trade paperback titled Tales From The Age Of The Cobra. Fernandez's technique is old school anime similar to rough pencil-drawn animation that made up most of the 70s like Lupin and Captain Harlock, so a lively adventure inspired by the Arabian Nights was a brilliant fit for his style.

A masked storyteller relays a story set ages ago about the illusive thief Irvi who tries to free his love, the beautiful Sian, from a harem, but he has to literally sleep his way up to her room over a few nights. However, Irvi has to give up on Sian and runs across the unlucky in love thug known as the Bull who soon raises his own empire after renaming himself the Cobra with Irvi being his lucky charm that he keeps around. Irvi finally makes his escape after being the subject of several of Cobra's experiments by a quack potion maker in an attempt to make a powerful elixir. Irvi eventually befriends the performing dwarf Maluuk who arranges to finally put an end to Cobra's evil reign while reuniting to Sian for a series of selective endings that the storyteller alludes to which are up to the listener to decide on.

Tales From The Age Of Cobra has a rich story showing sympathetic for both the heroes and villain displaying how none of them are truly guilty or innocent. Enrique Fernandez's artwork thrives with eye-catching imagery that takes you back to Bronze Age of comics. This comes in an album-sized novel with tight but stunning panels that keep you reading the entire saga in one entire experience.

ANI-MOVIES, *Feast Of Amrita

Feast Of Amrita is a scarcity among other horror anime movies. For one, the entire thing was done by a single animator, Saku Sakamoto who had previously worked on Ghost In The Shell 2, and it was also a prequel to a full-length production he made a few years earlier titled Aragne: Sign of Vermilion which itself was a surrealistic horror. This slightly shorter production took him about 3 years to complete after the original and later combined both into a single compilation named Nightmare Bugs. Feast Of Amrita like its predecessor is a genuine J-horror movie which is something most anime horror tends to skip out on. There is a very real dread of the unknown and things crawling around in the dark here, plus coupling that with a cross between Hellraiser and Groundhog's Day makes for an intense ride for being an adequate 48-minutes long.

Near the end of their senior year, a trio of high school girls: Takumi, Yu, and Aki decide to spend one of their last days together riding a train all the way to the final stop. Once there, they notice someone falling from the top of an abandoned apartment complex. Takami runs in and her friends enter the inner ring of the building where Yu is killed by a man-sized insect monster. Aki eventually finds Takumi who was also being chased by big bugs, but then Takami is captured by a skeletal humanoid which she quickly dispatches with some shears, although she finds Aki has been absorbed into the body of a giant centipede. Takumi then gets flashbacks of things that had happened and glimpses of what might happen, which is followed by dozens of dead versions of herself falling out of the sky. She realizes that she is stuck in some sort of time loop where each attempt she tries to escape results her dying hundreds of times with each try getting that much closer to escaping. Takumi believes though she would rather stay with her friends in this insect hell not knowing that their places have now been filled by three former denizens who are now free in the human world.

Feast Of Amrita goes between gore flick to sci-fi thriller during its short run time and delivers both splendidly. Saku Sakamoto blends the 2D animation with the limited frame rate used in the CGI making for an intensely creepy feature reminding some watchers of old Playstation survival games. This is a perfect movie for a Halloween party, not too long or short that delivers shocking twists and gut-wrenching terror in one insidious scare package.

ANI-MOVIES, *Grendel Grendel Grendel

Grendel Grendel Grendel was one of the first feature-length animated movies to come out of Australia which has in recent years become a hub for independent cartoon crafters. Before Wicked or Maleficent, this was a retelling of a classic tale from the villain's perspective. Based on John Gardner's novel Grendel, this allegory for high fantasy was developed into a 1981 film directed by Alex Sitt who also did other short-animated projects. The design of the characters and the world this takes place in are distinctively trippy which flashback to psychedelic visions from Yellow Submarine. The film had a limited theatrical release due to its mature nature and specific sense of humor. The deconstruction of what men refer as monsters is singled out as the character of Grendel from the legend of Beowulf has always stood out on his own as not specifically a demon or evil spirit or some malformed giant. This undefinable creature is for all intentions the original boogeyman, or as he's referred to in this film as the Great Boogey, plus the role of his mother here is never clearly defined as other interpretations. The film's producer Phillip Adams even introduces the movie by comparing Grendel to other monsters, although this is the preamble for the story's warped dry wit.

Grendel is a large spotty green behemoth that lives in a cave near the rising kingdom of the egotistical Hrothgar who raised his land by claiming anything he could scavenge, including a merchant's daughter he takes for a wife, much to the chagrin his warrior Unferth. Grendel grows tired of the foolish king and raves about it to his mother who is really just a figment of his imagination living in the depths of his cave. Grendel's delusions even carry over to a wise dragon who he sometimes seeks for advice, as well as the occasional singing number, which riles the monster to go and attack Hrothgar's mead hall regularly biting the heads off his subjects. Hrothgar's soothsayer known as the Shaper converts the people to religion and view Grendel as the spawn of Cain making him a monster. Having enough of this, Hrothgar messages the foreign warrior Beowulf to come and finally slay the Great Boogey leading to the inevitable clash where the bold hero and his beastly crew attack Grendel lobbing his arm of. After the encounter, Grendel wonders off possibly to bleed to death, but since this is told from his point of view it is where the story ends.

Although this was an animated movie, it was clearly not intended for family viewing with cartoonish violence, slight nudity, and its deadpan humor. The minimalist character designs use clean lines with flat shapes in the animation and will remind modern day watchers of Samurai Jack. The musical scenes are moody and fit the time even though the soundtrack sounds more like it's out of the late 60s than early 80s. The main appeal of this rare treasure is the voice of Grendel is done by Sir Peter Ustinov whose eccentric performance comes through as pure comedy and works better here than when he was mercurially casted in Winds Of Change. Grendel Grendel Grendel is an unconventional look at the hero's journey who here is a 12-foot monster.

Anime Infuences In Knights Of Guinevere

After Dana Terrace had her groundbreaking animated series, The Owl House, cut short from its run on Disney Channel, she teamed up with Glitch Productions about doing her next project. The independent Australian animation studio already had several web series under their belt like The Amazing Digital Circus and Murder Drones which have not only gained fame on their YouTube channel but also on other mainstream formats like Netflix, so them working with Terrace seemed like a natural fit. Her new series was Knights Of Guinevere, a sci-fi dark comedy that pokes more than just a little fun at Terrace’s former Disney overlords. The plot involves Andi and Frankie, a pair of down and out friends who are trying to survive in a planet-sized amusement park where they come across a busted android of the park’s mascot Guinevere and the pilot shows the lengths they go to try and repair her as she reminds them of an another android they met as children. Whereas The Owl House was influenced by several anime titles, Knights Of Guinevere also borrows elements from some classics, particularly cyberpunk which of course reigned during the late 80s-90s. Aside from the obvious choices like Akira or Ghost In The Shell, there are some particular ones that deserve a look at if the KOG pilot won you over.

Two anime anthology films that are good points of interests. There is Neo-Tokyo from 1987, a short trilogy of separate stories where one segment named Construction Cancellation Order written and directed by Katsuhiro Otomo which is a social satire about a salaryman sent to South America to stop a huge project meant to set up a city in the middle of a swamp entirely operated by malfunctioning robots who want stop following their program to finish the construction of which the foreman robot sees even the company rep as a threat to their project. Another anthology is Memories entirely written by Otomo with a chapter titled Magnetic Rose directed by Koji Morimoto about space scavengers that discover an abandoned station that is supposed to be the resting place of a famous opera singer, but as the story goes on, we learn that the station’s main computer has gone haywire and projects an image of the opera star luring the salvagers into a trap and deludes one of them into believing they are the singer’s deceased husband. Both vignettes focus on the dangers of how allowing AI to operate on its own for a prolonged period can be hazardous if left without monitoring. Leaving out the human factor of a self-automated society can lead to disaster.

An underestimated but masterful anime movie that you can see traces of KOG is in the Metropolis anime movie from 2001 directed by Rintaro that was based on Osamu Tezuka’s manga. Taking place in the city of the same name, Metropolis is run by plutocrats where most of the general labor is handled by retro-looking robots leaving a good portion of the underprivileged masses out of work and rebelling against their industry. With the corporation having more power than the government, the regular citizens are swept away by the whims of the rich, so the citizens blame most of this civil unrest on the robots themselves making them seen as the lowest minority despite the fact that they were built only to serve mankind. As an underground movement rebels against the tyrannical Marduks lead by Duke Red, his latest creation, a robot called Tima has gone missing which was meant to be the centerpiece of a ziggurat that would leave the entire city subject to automation. Tima befriends a young detective who teachers her more about humanity which leads to her ultimately deciding to spare the people of Metropolis from the ravages the Marduks. A good deal of KOG is inspired by this hidden masterpiece by Rintaro, as well as the Fritz Lang 1927 movie the manga was based on, especially with its anti-fascist statement and how people tend to blame robots for their problems instead of the big businesses making the robots in the first place.

One anime/manga titles most generic are aware of is Alita: Battle Angel which is one of the few that managed to be remade into a successful live-action American movie. Prior to the Robert Rodriguez film, creator Yukito Kishiro allowed only a 2-episode OVA to be made of it because he wanted to focus more on the manga, even though the impact it left with US otaku is one of the biggest influences on cyberpunk, much of which Knights Of Guinevere was probably inspired by. In a dystopian Earth, the airborne city of Zalem rests above the ground level Iron City which lives of the scraps that get tossed down by the snobby tycoons above. A scientist finds the remains of an abandoned cyborg girl he names Alita in the trash to rebuild her only to find that she is a rare type designed by the military to fight wars on Mars. Alita’s strength and discovering her emotions puts herself and her new allies in danger as the despotic forces of Zalem are constantly bombarding her with violent strife. KOG begins as a mirror reflection about a mechanical maiden being recycled from rubbish and turning out to be more powerful than the mere mascot she was thought to be.

Without a doubt, the anime that a left significant impact on KOG was the original anime anthology masterpiece Robot Carnival from 1987. This had eight short stories, each directed by a different animator. Out of all of them some fit into the world Dana Terrace might have imagined, one being the opening and closing segments featuring a huge fully mechanized carnival-themed showcase modeled as the words "Robot Carnival" which dispenses exploding marching bands and automatic cannons laying waste to a small village in the desert with no idea where it came from and what its original mission was. Another part is titled Star Light Angel where a girl in a futuristic amusement park is captured by a giant robot while a park employee dressed as an android tries to save her. The mysterious chapter of Presence is about a robot maker who invents a female bot that seems to take on a life of its own, so he destroys it and years later at the end of his life believes his old creation is acting as his angel of death. The last story that is closely kindred to KOG is Nightmare where a drunken man runs for his life through downtown Tokyo which he believes is changing into a motorized monstrosity all at the whims of a robot wizard on a flying scooter, although whether this really happened is up to viewer, but it demonstrates how technophobia can lead to suspicion and fear of the misinformed.

ANI-MOVIES, *Gunbuster: The Movie

Evangelion's Hideaki Anno began his directorial career in Gainax's first ever solo production, the 6-episode OVA series Gunbuster. Each episode was about half-an-hour long which worked for the original VHS releases back in 1988, but when you shoot ahead a few decades later you might want to see the original anime, and since the sequel series of Diebuster was set to be released it was decided to do a compilation film of the original series. This eventually led to a double feature of compilation films of both series of each OVA series, but as the Diebuster movie managed to maintain most of the original footage, the Gunbuster collected movie left out a ton of material that were integral to the whole movie. The problem was the Sentai Filmworks had the Blu-Ray rights to Gunbuster: The Movie while Discotek Media released the full OVA series with bonus features including the only English dub the anime ever had. Sentai's release of the movie came out in the states a year before Discotek OVA Blu-Ray, so this would lead many uninformed American buyers to choose the correct one.

One of the main problems that people face when trying to discover vintage anime is that a good portion of it from the 80s-2000s were OVA as there most TV shows didn't start getting released on home video until around the mid-90s This is why the original Mobile Suit Gundam was reformatted into a trilogy of compilation movies since not everyone had VCRs to record the show back in the late-70s. Compilation movies were from this point done at first as an affordable way for those just dabbling into anime could enjoy the bulk of a series without having to shell out the entire amount for the whole enchilada. Numerous OVAs such as Macross Plus and Armitage III were compiled into single movies, sometimes with additional footage or a completely different English dub. Gunbuster was first picked up on VHS through US Renditions and later on Manga Entertainment, but didn't have it released on DVD, even though it was for a limited time released on DVD as a double-feature with the Diebuster movie. Sentai Filmworks decided to get the jump on everyone in America and released the compilation movie over a year before Discotek Media released the entire OVA series with the English dub and additional features. This isn't uncommon when it comes to compiled releases of OVAs in a English version as the 3-episode OVA series of Dangaioh was first put on three VHS tapes, but the DVD version was a dub-only release with the entire first episode left out aside from a quick rundown reviewing everything that happened in it, so anime compilation movies cut out a great amount of material and leave out a lot of the subtilties and character development that you would get from the full OVA series.

Gunbuster: The Movie leaves out at least an hour from the original OVA, even if that includes the opening and closing credits to the most of the episodes, the chibi feature at the end of each episode, and some of the unnecessary in-between bonuses like the karaoke scene where Hideaki Anno actually took out a few minutes to correct a mistake in some of the prior technical explanations they made, you're still missing out on some viable material that were ejected from the movie version. Depending on what wholesaler you frequent, the movie cut of Gunbuster is probably available at a cheaper price, but if you want to get the whole experience of this mecha classic then you should really just get the single release of the complete series.

R.I.P., Drew Struzan

 

K-Pop Demon Hunters: Why It's A Big Deal

K-Pop Demon Hunters was another original release for Netflix in June of 2025, but since it came out during the middle of the bustling summer blockbuster season the masses didn’t pick up on it at first. Most movie goers were either checking out the latest superhero or dinosaur flick in the theaters and didn’t bother watching anything at home on their own streaming service. K-Pop idols were popular enough with fans all over the globe, however taking that concept and having the singers lead a double life as blade-wielding beast busters was an inspired idea.

Maggie Kang was a storywriter and animator who worked on films such as The Grinch, The Lego Ninjago Movie, Trolls, and Rise Of The Guardians. She also worked on various movie franchises like The Croods, Rio, Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, and Despicable Me. Maggie grew up as a Korean girl living in Canada and worked with Shrek creator Aron Warner who had joined Sony Pictures Animation after leaving DreamWorks to make the animated movie Wish Dragon to which she pitched the idea for Korean pop singers fighting demons. Warner got the project greenlit in 2021 and Sony was riding high from the success of the Spider-Verse movies, even though Sony was hesitant to put the animated film in theaters, especially with a production cost of 100 million dollars. Korean culture was on the rise, and Netflix was quick to recognize this as they knew how tremendous shows like Kingdom and Squid Games were, so when Sony went looking for distributors, Netflix snatched it up. Sony got paid only $20 million from Netflix for the streaming rights, however they didn’t expect how huge K-Pop Demon Hunters would become. Over the summer of 2025, the movie gained more traction through word of mouth as it became the #1 original title in Netflix history with a bestselling soundtrack. Sony does still have the contractional rights to do further installments, so it's possible this might lead to a bidding war as the direct-to-streaming cartoon movie grew into a genre-blending juggernaut. This led to theaters having special singalong screenings which is a big landmark for breaking out of the streaming format.

Maggie Kang directed KPDH with Chris Appelhans, a former children's book author turned animator that just finished directing Wish Dragon. The story for KPDH is an original premise not based on any existing source which highlights the K-Pop industry and merges it with supernatural adventure. The anime-styled action has martial arts and synchronized dancing, making each fight scene into its own mini-music video. The other big attraction was the musical numbers which help distinguish the film as a musical where some pieces are done as a performance while simultaneously operating as their own stand-alone vignette.

Korean folklore might seem like the central premise for the story, however the thought of spirit warriors fighting against demonic forces can be applied to dozens of historical cultures. Demonology itself is applicable to numerous mythologies. The Honmoon concept made specifically for the movie that acts as a barrier between the human and demon realms which is essentially placing a harmony-based sound wall to keep the demons underground, even though the film never explains the dynamics of this forcefield powered by people’s moods can repel the literal forces of Hell. The demon king Gwi-Ma is a formless entity but does have the presence of a Satan archetype using deception to achieve his goals, although the film doesn’t really come out and say if any of the victims of the soul-stealing demons are in fact dead. Other spiritual beings in the movie are “yogoe” which are generic Korean spirits that interact with humans and demons which take no specific sides are represented by a grinning blue tiger and a multi-eyed magpie. Yogoe are neutral and not affected by empathy or hostility which is why both spirits are still around in the human world after the new Honmoon is created at the end. The Honmoon itself is executed through music which was an instrument used in ancient Korean exorcisms.

Music is a key ingredient in KPDH as it is the weapon of choice used by both Huntr/x and the Saja Boys. Huntr/x uses music to lift people’s emotions and find confidence in themselves to not give into darkness. The Saja Boys instead implement music to coerce humans into lowering their defenses, making them subject to suggestion which in the movie translates into just your average evil brainwashing scheme. The Honmoon is powered by the syntropy humans generate when their hearts are united all listening to the same harmony. Depending on the performers, this music can either be a valuable weapon or a deadly weakness, so when Rumi’s demon side is finally revealed, Mira and Zoey turn against her, thus disrupting their euphony which ultimately leads to everyone falling under the Saja Boys’ spell. Rumi eventually finds the harmony inside herself, allowing her to synchronize with her bandmates and defeat the Gwi-Ma which shows that people need to discover their inner strength to be part of a larger circle.

For many fans, another factor of KPDH’s appeal is that of representation as they interpreted Zoey’s random and insecure nature as being autistic, or Mira’s rebellious attitude attributed to not fitting in with abuse she received from her family. The largest allegory is Rumi’s demonic nature being seen as an example of gender expansion hiding their inner gay nature. These are all acceptable comparisons, although the downside to any fan theories regarding a character's backstory is that very little of it is really brought up in the film. Unless it's stated that this character is gay, or has ADHD, or was a recovering addict, then we as the audience have little to no clue to confirm this. Representation does matter, however if the story doesn’t take the time out to define any of that, then how much it matters doesn’t register enough to be recognized. Rumi’s birth was because of the interaction between her human mother and her unknown demon father, so the possibility exists that Rumi’s mother was the victim of a sexual attack. This is why there was much speculation behind Huntr/x’s mentor Celine who knew the truth of Rumi’s heritage, which is why she wanted it to remain a secret from everyone else. The fact that this largely an all-ages feature film doesn’t allow the audience to know the dark underbelly of the demon hunters’ lives, although this takes away from the representation most fans were looking for if it never addresses it. There might have been more room for this if they weren’t set on having the running time being only 96 minutes.

Speaking of being short on time, one last aspect that caught more attention from fans than what was given was the made-up romance between Rumi and the demon Jinu who is only doing all this to have the memories of his former life erased by Gwi-Ma so he can enjoy his eternally damned afterlife in peace. Rumi is desperate to keep her demon history a secret, and Jinu is the only one she can talk to about any of this even though she should have been smart enough to know that trusting him was a bad idea. Even the music number the two of them have seems forced, plus Jinu’s sacrifice at the end is too little too late as he just would have been sent back to the underworld anyway which isn’t any better than giving up your already cursed soul. It’s not that the fans who fell for this romance are simps, but they should have seen the flaws in it

Sony Pictures Animation efforts will hopefully lead to future original Korean animated productions making their way to English-speaking audiences. Manhwa, the Korean equivalent of manga, has been largely successful with Americans, particularly with the advent of Webtoon. Korean animation on the other hand has had little exposure in America. Movies like Seoul Station, Red Hawk, Sky Blue, and Ghost Messenger have all gotten Western releases but never stood out among other animated releases. Most of the Korean animation that has been translated into English were underground rip-offs of already established Japanese anime such as Gundam and Dragonball, including some American properties like Batman, Wonder Woman, and Tron which hasn’t helped establish any trust between nations. However, a month before Netflix premiered KPDH, they released the original animated movie of Lost In Starlight by Han Ji-Won which was a science-fiction romance done in the spirit of Makoto Shinkai films such as Your Name. It is possible that Netflix picked up Lost In Starlight to help familiarize Americans a little more with Korean culture, although KPDH goes its own direction modeling itself more like a Marvel movie. Hopefully, there will be further efforts to bring more Korean cartoons over to this side of the ocean as the triumph that KPDH has become might help give this untapped resource more exposure.

ANI-MOVIES, *For Whom The Alchemist Exists

For Whom The Alchemist Exists was an RPG that ran online for a decade before it was shut down. Also known as The Alchemist Code, the Japanese video game got a full-length anime movie in 2019 whose chief director was none other than Shoji Kawamori who originally designed Optimus Prime. Animated by Satelight, the film took the steampunk fantasy gameplay and rewrote it into being a slightly original isekai despite the fact that the borrowed quite a few concepts from 90s anime titles like Rayearth. This entire movie could be seen as a copy/paste of both the Escaflowne movie and Leda: The Fantastic Adventure Of Yohko where the shallow concerns of an emotionally damaged schoolgirl somehow compared to the plight of an entire world being consumed by evil.

Set in the alternate realm of Babel, alchemy has been the source of much chaos in this world's development where magic users can summon up heroic spirits called Phantoms from the past to join them in their battles, similar to Servants in Fate. From the discord arises a multi-headed dragon called Destruk who wraps itself around the central Tower of Babel which cuts off the alchemists' powers, seals the Phantoms away, and plunges the land in darkness with giant robots called Dark Mages. Two alchemists, Liz and Edgar, use some of their last caches of magic to summon a Phantom to help save the world, but instead they get Kasumi, an original character to the movie who is a teenager from our world given the powers of purifying dark magic by an incidental interdimensional gatekeeper that acts as the god character in isekai who reincarnates people into another world. Kasumi has no idea how to activate her powers, but the kindness she shows some of the refugees and her home cooking helps them to lighten up and temporarily regain their alchemy. The former Phantoms are now corrupt and working for Destruk who are sent to collect Kasumi. Edgar leads an assault against Destruk after the alchemists reunite with some of the secondary characters from the video game while Kasumi purifies the Phantoms and they join their former comrades in battle. Kasumi learns that Destruk was originally a serpent sacrificed in the previous wars that was transformed into a giant dragon, so she uses her white magic to free the cursed reptile while sending herself back to Earth. Turns out the whole thing that was holding Kasumi back in her world was working up the courage to stand up to her mother on pursuing her dream as an actress, but that slightly stressful scenario is supposed to be equal to liberating a magical realm is a wonky piece of storytelling.

For Whom The Alchemist Exists is hard to compare as how it adapted the video game, especially since the online servers were shut off years ago. The production is fine, and the CGI used for the mechas and magical tanks is honestly implemented fairly well, but it doesn't seem to be that it was above the quality of a TV series and not totally up to theatrical release standards. Anyone expecting to get the deep storytelling of Fullmetal Alchemist is going to be for a disappointment, and even any fans of the game might find this movie lacking in any stimulation.

ANI-MOVIES, *Hula Fulla Dance

Hula Fulla Dance is a coming-of-age story with an unnecessary supernatural ending. Written by The Colors Within scriptwriter Reiko Yoshida, this Bandai Namco Pictures production was directed by Gundam veteran Shinya Watada and released in 2021. This is based on the real-life hot springs resort, Spa Resort Hawaiians, which had previously been the subject of the Japanese classic Hula Girls, but it was the first time anime was used as the narrative. The film also was done to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the disasters that hit the Tohoku region. The anime movie was popular enough to get its own manga adaptation, even though it hasn't gotten much notice in America.

Hiwa just graduated high school in Japan and wants to take up her older sister's career of being a professional hula dancer. It's never stated, but its implied Hiwa's sister passed away from the Tokoku disasters, so Hiwa joins the Spa Resort Hawaiians' hula dancing troupe along with four other girls who each have their own dreams and personal setbacks. Among them is Kanna who wants to forge her own path away from her parents, the painfully shy Shion, the overweight Ranko, and Hawaiian native Ohana who came to Japan because she was too short to be part of a hula team back home. The girls screw up their debut performance but get their act together by the time of a national hula dance off where they use an unconventional pop song for their shot. Throughout this, Hiwa keeps dreaming that her deceased sister is coaching her own from the afterlife while possessing a mascot plushie, which oddly enough turns out to be true but not in a horror movie sort of way.

Hula Fulla Dance is a traditionally 2D animated film, although during the dancing performances the animation shifts to using 3D models for the dancers which is a sharp contrast to the otherwise lively graphics. There are some standard shoujo manga cliches, including Hiwa's flirting with her sister's old boyfriend, but it does have a fair message of friendship and entering into maturity. You're not missing out much on this predictable slice-of life feature, even though it might be worth a viewing on streaming.

ANI-MOVIES, *Josee, The Tiger And The Fish

Josee, The Tiger And The Fish was a short story written by Seiko Tanake which had previously been adapted into two live-action Japanese and Korean movies, so Bones director Kotaro Tamura helmed its first anime adaptation in 2020. This is a melodrama that shines a light on how the physically disabled are looked on by society, which is a subject long absent in anime, plus how they struggle in a world that wasn't designed for someone like them. This beautiful story gloriously demonstrates how life is very limited for in this position who still try to achieve their dreams.

Tsuneo is a college student working part-time in a scuba store hoping to get a scholarship to Mexico to witness a rare type of fish, but all this changes when he saves the life of the paraplegic Josee when her wheelchair gets out of control. Josee's grandmother hires him to act her caretaker, even though they don't get along at first, but eventually start to warm up to each other over time. Josee has spent her entire life without the use of her legs, and after her grandmother passes away, she finds that her choices in life have shrunk, so Tsuneo helps motivate her and make her more sociable, despite that Tsuneo still wants to go on his journey. Tsuneo once again has to save Josee from a car accident which leaves him with a broken leg that puts a stop to all his plans. Josee decides to face her fears and become a children's book illustrator but can't work up the courage to face Tsuneo after the accident. Fortunately, two of Tsuneo's work buddies help coerce them back together while he goes though physical rehabilitation. After finally getting out of the hospital, Tsuneo goes looking for Josee only to have to save her again on her runaway wheelchair where they finally confess their feelings. Tsuneo ultimately gets to take his trip to Mexico and reunites with Josee after his trip.

Many have compared this to other sympathetic anime romance films such as A Silent Voice and Ride Your Wave is it focuses on how a tragedy can bring people together despite their differences while also succeeding in their goals. The eventual romance between the two main characters is fairly obvious from the beginning, even with Josee putting up an angry front when they first start working together. The mixed message the film conveys of romance blooming in the face of detraction and does not try to hit you over the head with a heavy-handed result. The characters grow and become better than they were by the end of the film, plus Bones' animation is captivating. Whether you can view this and find it acceptable will vary between what anime films you've watched prior to this, but it is very wholesome even with some of the more noticeable dramatic cliches.

MISC. MANGA, *Xanadu

Anthropomorphics were huge in the indie comics market in the 80s largely due to all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wannabes, but out of all of them only one managed to establish what most people nowadays refer to as the "furry" genre. Xanadu started out as a 5-issue mini-series by Vicky Wyman in 1988 followed by a sequel mini-series, a color special, and its own fanzine. This was one of the few talking animal comics from the 80s that was entirely cast with anthropomorphic characters and was also a swashbuckling adventure in the spirit of Conan and Dungeons And Dragons. Borrowing traits from both European and Asian folklore, Xanadu begins as a recognizable sword and sorcery tale, but elements of Japanese mythology work their way into the plot. The late Vicky Wyman had a grand sense of romantic fantasy which translated into amazing comic art done in black and white which also leans into manga style.

Set in the magical land of Xanadu, the current Empress is Alicia, a unicorn ruler whose father Allynrud settled his empire after ceasing the quarreling Nobles who are mythical creatures and their adversaries the Freeborn who are the other anthropomorphic citizens. There are also the Domestique animals which take the place of regular animals such as ones for riding on instead of horses. Alicia's foxy handmaiden Fatima is carrying on a flirty relationship with the swaggering feline gentlemen thief Tabbe who keeps infiltrating the castle much to the chagrin of the griffen captain of the guard Plume who has plans of his own for who should be on the throne. Word of this reaches the neighboring kingdom of the Golden Realm run by golden dragons, so the high princess Kajiko arrives in Xanadu along with her younger brother Kinomon who will become one of Alicia's royal guards. Plume's treachery is revealed and he escapes, only to later bond himself with the spirit of the dark sorcerer Typhon which ultimately leads to his demise. The second mini-series shows most of Alicia's court going on a voyage to the Golden Realm but are sidetracked by pair of selfish kyryn and some pesky pirates. The color special acts a prequel set in the early days of the Golden Realm, so it's unusual that nearly half of the entire Xanadu comics run doesn't actually takes place in the empire it's named after.

Vicky Wyman didn't pull her punches when it came to having her animal people expressing their opinions and feelings which makes for a lot of passionate intrigue. Wyman's artwork had great details and unique screen tone backgrounds that are equal to even the most professional manga creators. Xanadu is a stand-alone testament to exactly how deep furry lore can go that shakes off the negative stereotypes that seem to plague the fandom.

ANI-MOVIES, *Origin: Spirits Of The Past

Origins: Spirits Of The Past was an original story written by former Ghibli animator Umanosuke Iida a few years before he died which was animated into an anime movie by Gonzo in 2006. Similar to numerous Ghibli projects, this film has an environmental theme to it that harkens back to Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind as well as Castle In The Sky. It's another post-apocalyptic epic, although not the bleak type you find in Fist Of The North Star or Mad Max. Gonzo executed this splendidly with their 3D animation with 2D artwork, even though some of the mechanics look somewhat shotty.

Set in the 24th Century, an experiment on the moon caused the entire surface to burst which showers the Earth with lunar debris, so now the surviving civilizations get by using a water bartering system in a world covered with the ever-growing Forest. Agito is a young citizen in Neutral City who spends his days collecting water and caring for his father Agashi who is slowly turning into a tree because he became enhanced by a strange race known as the Druids who imbued Agashi with super-strength to help settle their town. Agito finds a girl named Toola in a cryogenic pod who was placed there before the cataclysm, and she is welcomed into Neutral City. The neighboring nation of Ragna is an industrious country run by its military which their commander Shunack learns that Toola has been released and has the key to a special apparatus called the ESTOC that can supposedly help restore the world. Toola goes with Shunack to help them in their efforts, but Agito doesn't trust them, so he makes a detour to the heart of the Forest where the Druids dwell. Agito is quickly enhanced by the Druid spirits, and then the narrative skips over a sequence where he was captured by the Ragna forces to awaken with his hair now silver and with super-strength and endurance. Agito makes his way to the Ragna city to bring Toola back to Neutral City, but Shunack is having none of that and incapacitates Agito as he takes Toola to the ESTOC while the greedy enhanced commander also betrays the Ragna military. Shunack activates the ESTOC which is an entire mobile volcano which will in reality wipe out all life on Earth, although Agito stops the process by freeing Toola and Shunack accepts his fate.

Origin: Spirits Of The Past is an altogether rushed production with entire scenes left on the cutting room floor as the story shifts from one scene to another with no transition or explanation. The film should have been longer in order to fill in the deleted footage. Aside from the ecological metaphor, the movie carries a message of generational discrimination for those who want things to be they were in the past instead of working towards the future. The CGI effects are commendable, especially for the early 2000s, but Gonzo needed to liven up the character designs as you can see that they are reused models from other anime titles. The soundtrack is equally memorable with a mildly acceptable dub. As a thinly veiled tagalong to some earlier Ghibli films, it does make for a praiseworthy feature.

ANI-MOVIES, *To Every You I've Loved Before + To Me, The One Who Loved You

The double deal anime movies of To Every You I've Loved Before and To Me, The One Who Loved You was released in Japan in 2022 based on the two books that simultaneously came out from author Yomoji Otono. Each one of these sci-fi romance novels centered around the premise of parallel worlds, or multiverse for most MCU fans, where there's a reality for nearly every decision we make and its alternative folds out in another. The actual scientific terminology they use in it is profoundly wonky and could usually be brushed aside as the type of technobabble you would run into on Star Trek, but if you could figure out how the concept of time travel worked in Your Name then you shouldn't have too much trouble keeping up with it. The plot spans multiple worlds where things are mildly similar to only somewhat different, so nothing heavy like out of What If?. The two movies were produced by separate studios and directors, although both are easy to meld together into a single feature if you watch both, and there is no particular order to which one of them you would watch first, but we'll take the route that is a little easier to follow.

To Me, The One Who Loved You was directed by Kenichi Kasai and animated by TMS Entertainment. Koyomi was a normal boy who decided to live with his father Shodai after his parent's divorce who just happened to be working at an institute dedicated to Imaginary Science where they can transfer someone's consciousness into a version of themselves in a parallel world in a process called Parallel Shift. The dog of Koyomi's grandfather passed away and this causes the poor kid to cry which gets the attention of Shiori, the daughter of the institute's director Genko, so she uses what she knows about the Parallel Shift method and stuffs him in a capsule that takes him to a world where his grandpa's dog is still alive but his grandfather is the one who died. Koyomi spends a night in this world and then wakes up back in his own world where we later learn that his counterpart had transferred into his body. Shiori wants to go to a world where her parents are still married, but Genko stops them, so Shiori and Koyomi grow up to be friends, and of course fall in love. Years later, Shiori and Koyomi are shocked to learn that their parents are getting married which for them shoots down any plans they have for getting hitched in the future, even though they didn't know it's legal for stepsiblings to marry each other. In a panic, they Parallel Shift to a world where both their original parents aren't divorced, but Shiori gets hit by a car while she's there and upon Koyomi's return to his own world finds that Shiori is now brain dead. After sometime, Koyomi coordinates with Shodai and Genko that Shiori's spirit is stuck at the same street corner in every world they shift to and that it's possible to put her back in her body, and the young lad takes up his father's practice spending years learning all about Imaginary Science and working at the same institute, even though Shiori's body eventually gives out. Still researching Parallel Shifts, Koyomi gets an assistant in Kazune who knew him in high school even though he never noticed her. Kazune helps Koyomi in his efforts to relocate Shiori's ghost to reality where the two of them never met in an effort to untether her, and after looking into the chemical dynamics of beer Koyomi figures out how to achieve this concept called a Time Shift. A few decades later, Koyomi and Kazune are married with grandchildren of their own, but the elderly Koyomi has finally worked out the figures for a Time Shift. This results in Shiori finally being set free into a different reality, while Koyomi wondering why he left a note to himself to meet a street corner since neither of them are aware of their past lives.

To Every You I've Loved Before is the other side of the bridge of this story which was directed by Jun Matsumoto and animated by Tatsunoko. Picking up where the other installment left off, the elderly Koyomi figures out the ghostly form he encounters at the street corner was from a far-off Parallel Shift. Years earlier, the story jumps to the world that the previous Koyomi first went to where this Koyomi moved in with his mother after his parents divorced, although he still has a faint memory of shifting to the other Koyomi's world. Later in high school, Koyomi meets his world's version of Kazune and the two start a friendly rivalry, and eventually begin working at the Imaginary Science institute, as well as get married and have a child. There is some tension with their son nearly getting killed and an alternate Kazune dropping in on their reality because the son in her world didn't survive, as well the Kazune from the other movie's timeline interacting with theirs preparing her to help her Koyomi meet Shiori. The fated meeting happens, but the older Koyomi returns to his Kazune as she has been the one at his side all his life.

Comparing To Every You I've Loved Before and To Me, The One Who Loved You to each other is a tall order. Each one is its own distinct story that deal with similar characters but that took very separate paths in their lives. It is possible to watch To Me on its own without watching To Every You since there is a good deal of footage from the latter was already shown in the prior which makes To Every You ten minutes longer than To Me. Your mileage may vary between which film you see first, even though To Me does a better job of explaining the theory of Parallel Shift and we get a better view of Koyomi where he dedicates his life to free the spirit of his childhood sweetheart. With two different studios handling the production of their own film which is bound to another made it difficult to fill in all the gaps that the viewer will notice. It isn't as confusing as Tenet, but when watching both of these movies you have to accept that each one is its own story set in their own world but slightly similar, and there are times when these stories intersect. Overall, the joint production can resonate with anime fans, and it also fits non-otaku since there aren't any big tropes that usually go with the genre. Since both movies are sold together in the same Blu-ray pack, it's easy for any potential watchers to enjoy their purchase, although you might find it more fulfilling if you catch them on streaming first.