ANI-MOVIES, *Lilo & Stitch

Coming out the same year as their other outer space epic, Treasure Planet, Disney's Lilo And Stitch was more of a family comedy adventure in the vein of E.T. minus the extended bike chases. For their 42nd theatrical animation release, Disney came out with a largely original idea instead of yet another fairy tale adaptation. Animator Chris Sanders first came out with character of Stitch in the mid-80s when he was working on Muppet Babies, and then got work from Disney on Beauty And The Beast, The Lion King, and Aladdin. After a while, Sanders talked to the Disney bigwigs for using Stitch in his own movie, and then they localized it to Hawaii to give more exposure to Pacific Islander culture. Sanders also provided the voice of the bizarre alien critter in this movie and most of its various sequels. The movie was done largely in traditional animation with watercolor backgrounds and some CGI animation. It was a phenomenal success and spawned off a trinity of made-for-video movies, an animated series, and even a genuine anime spinoff created specifically for Japanese audiences. Of course, this found its way into the eternal library of animated movies that Disney insists on reproducing into live-action knockoffs. Although how it achieved this is still a quirk because the film isn't really a feature-length story but a script for a half-hour TV show plot for Disney Afternoon stretched out to 85 minutes. Chris Sander and collaborator from How To Train Your Dragon, Dean Deblois, are good writers, but this film takes what was supposed to be a kids book and adds in a warehouse load of cliches and overelaborate drama that seriously drag it into the mud.

Lilo is a recently orphaned Hawaiian girl who lives with her older sister Nani, and the story takes place sometime after their parents passed away, although Lilo doesn't seem to be mourning over it too much and is hampered down by not having a sturdy parental figure. There has been much speculation as to whether Lilo was neurodivergent, even though it's hard to tell with a child that young how they would process the grief of losing their parent. Lilo's behavior has gotten the attention of social worker "Cobra Bubbles" who looks like he just retired from the Men In Black and is concerned about Nani raising a girl on her own while having trouble keeping a job. To hopefully help calm Lilo down some, Nani takes Lilo to an animal shelter to find a pet, and she picks out a strange looking dog she names Stitch. The dog is in reality an alien created by a mad scientist from space that was engineered to be nearly indestructible, and the united alien worlds have sent Stitch's maker Dr. Jumba and the cycloptic Earth expert Pleakley to capture him, but after failing the alien higher-ups the large soldier Gantu to capture the runaway. Gantu finally gets Stitch along with Lilo, but Stitch escapes and talks Nani along with his first duo of hunters to help get her back. In the original cut of the movie, there was supposed to be a lengthy chase with Stitch and friends stealing a jet and chasing down Gantu in his ship in the middle of a city, but since this film was released after 911, the entire chase was recut with Lilo's rescuers using Jumba's ship instead. Stitch saves Lilo, the alien council concedes to allow Stitch to stay on Earth, and Mr. Bubbles turns out to be an ex-CIA agent who had already dealt with alien diplomacy and helps square Nani and Lilo's living arrangements with Jumba and Pleakley remaining on Earth to be their wacky neighbors.

Lilo And Stitch is moderately enjoyable, but it never really keeps the balance of two sisters struggling through a tough period in their lives and the wacky space monster antics. Lilo is an animated early example of an emotionally damaged child with her own way of doing things, even though the film never really gets around to addressing this, possibly to not have this family movie as a vehicle for trying to understand neurodivergence as many others have tried and failed. There are some standard boisterous hijinks you would expect from a Disney cartoon, but these can get in the way of attempting to have this be a feature film. Your children should find it charming, but most older animation fans might pass on because they've already seen material like this before and just because it's a Disney movie doesn't give it a free ticket.

ANI-MOVIES, *Heavenly Sword

Regularly when an animated movie based on a video game is put together it's done with the idea that it would come out within a short period around the game's release, sometimes even prior to it. Heavenly Sword on the other hand didn't get an adaptation come out until seven years later. This direct to digital release was put together through Sony Animation along with the video game developers, Ninja Theory. The film is completely CGI and, in some parts, appears to be an extended cutscene from the Playstation 3 game, while other times it seems like FMV gameplay, but the entire hack and slash experience is mostly solid to the original video game with some additional characters and situations. Because the film was delayed for so long, it wasn't met with any fruitful triumph even among longtime gamers.

In an alternate timeline, the Heavenly Sword is a powerful blade that is said to imbue its wielder with power and to be able to vanquish darkness. In a previous war, the sword defeated the evil Raven Lord and its user disappeared leaving the weapon behind, eventually winding up in the care of a sacred clan lead by its head Shen. Shen's son was supposed to be the chosen one that would use the Heavenly Sword, instead his wife sired a fiery redhead girl named Nariko. Not deterred, Shen went and spawned a few other kids as backups, one of which is the young Kai who most the clan see as being someone that was adopted, although she knows that she's Nariko's sister. An evil raven spirit finds a vessel in the power-hungry King Bohan who amasses an army and sets out to capture the Heavenly Sword which could destroy him. Nariko and Kai escape Bohan's attack on their clan and go in search of their formerly unknown brother Loki who is supposed to be the genuine chosen one. They free Loki after rescuing their clan from Bohan's fortress, but the man is immediately killed by Bohan's sword master who also wounds Kai. Nariko defeats her brother's killer and eventually gets into a final battle with King Bohan sparing his life after the raven spirit abandons him. Nariko uses the sword's power to revive Kai's life at the cost of her own leaving Kai to take up the mantle of the sword's keeper.

Heavenly Sword is one of the more faithful adaptations of a video game, although the additional material does burst through plain as day. The film has a large quality of animation than what was used in the actual game, and it is possible to enjoy it as its own independent feature without playing the game at all. The cast is fair with Anna Torv reprising her role as Nariko from the game, but instead of Andy Serkis as Bohan we are gifted with Alfred Molina, Thomas Jane does a brief part as the tragically fated Loki, and Ashleigh Ball of My Little Pony fame as the mischievous Kai. This is almost one of those "so bad it's good" video game movies, but very little keeps it from being forgettable.

ANI-MOVIES, *Urusei Yatsura: Only You

Rumiko Takahashi's first real hit was her sci-fi sitcom of Urusei Yatsura and she based it on the idea of the love triangle formed in Archie comics from America even though her own manga was more of a love octagon. The manga had already been turned into a fruitful anime TV series in 1981, and halfway through its second season it broke even more ground by creating one of the first original films based on an existing anime not including compilation movies. Takahashi gave the original manga its own particular brand of off the wall comedy, and this carried over to the anime which has boasted onto several of her other titles like Ranma 1/2, Inuyasha, and Maison Ikkoku. The first movie was titled Only You and throws any first-time viewers into the deep end as we're introduced to the main setup of this wild world and its random characters, so unless you saw something of the TV show prior to this you might feel a little left out. Urusei Yatsura is about a space princess named Lum who becomes engaged to the lecherous Earth boy Ataru, and all of the various would-be suitors for either one of them both terrestrial and alien. Future Ghost In The Shell director Mamoru Oshii started his film career in this production, and its shows with the vividly higher quality of animation as opposed to that featured in the TV series.

The movie opens 11 years earlier where a younger Ataru is playing with a mysterious girl and they promise to get married. Cut to modern day and everyone in the Urusei Yatsura universe aside from the two main characters get invites to Ataru's wedding to the mysterious alien girl Elle. Elle is the ruler of her own galactic empire, and she sends some representatives to inform Ataru of their upcoming nuptials. Lum jumps the gun on this and collects Ataru, his family, and the rest of the cast from Earth to get married ahead of Elle's wedding. Elle sends a spy to snatch Ataru back along with most of his friends and rivals. One of them finds out Elle has an entire refrigerator full of frozen bishonen that she collects. Lum along with her friends, family, and military forces to attack Elle's world and the overwhelming chaos has a majority of the cast get sent back in time to witness the Elle and Ataru's first meeting where it turns out they didn't really get engaged. After returning to the future, Elle calls off the wedding and Lum tried to get her own wedding to Ataru back on track, but he rushes out of the ceremony with the rowdy cast chasing after him.

Urusei Yatsura: Only You is considered by Mamoru Oshii as one of his failures because he didn't just want it to be an expanded TV episode with a higher budget, even though it does seem like that at times as there are at least three music video breaks to pad out the film, and entire characters get lost in the shuffle of all the hijinks. The first real original movie was seen by most fans as Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer, the second one directed by Oshii which took the characters into an entirely original story at the whims of a mischievous entity. Only You does have some impressive animation when comparing it to the TV series, and there are several takes on pop culture including cameos from icons like Godzilla and The Greatest American Hero, a concept that was later done to perfection in the ultimate 80s anime spoof, Project Ako. If you've never seen the Urusei Yatsura series, you might still enjoy their theatrical debut which began the legacy of anime movies based on a hit TV series.

R.I.P. Peter David

 

ANI-MOVIES, *Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel

Having already done the previous routes of the Fate/Stay Night video game in two separate anime TV series, it was decided to do the last remaining route Heaven's Feel as a movie trilogy, although a great deal was left out of it, nearly as much than what was left out of the Unlimited Blade Works motion picture that condensed the entire story arc in a single feature. Each film based on the game by Kinoko Nasu had its own additional title to it. Part 1 is Presage Flower, Part 2 is Lost Butterfly, and Part 3 is Spring Song, which played from 2018-2020. All three movies were directed by prior Fate/Stay Night character designer Tomonori Sudo and was animated under Ufotable in their first Fate anime since Fate/Zero.

Presage Flower begins with Shirou Emiya sometime before we normally see him at the previous entries with his budding friendship with Sakura, the younger sister of his Archer Club mate Shinji. She helps Shirou around his house as he recovers from a broken arm. Over a year later, their relationship hasn't gotten out of the friendzone, although we quickly sweep through several episodes and fast forward to where Shirou has already summoned Saber and been told about the Holy Grail War by Kirei, a priest and former caretaker of Shirou's schoolmate and fellow rival mage Rin. Kirei fought Kiritsugu Emiya, Shirou's adopted father in the previous War which decimated the city ten years ago, plus Kiritsugu was also Saber's former master. The war has seven mages summon up their own legendary fighter servant from anywhere in time to battle for them and win the Holy Grail to have a wish granted. Some of the servants are already dispatched by the deadly Assassin, while the servant Rider is controlled by Shinji. Rin and Shirou form an alliance as Sakura comes to stay with Shinji until the danger has passed. They find that Assassin has Sakura's grandfather Zouken as his master and that he is really a swam of insects. Shirou and Saber go to the nearby temple leading to Saber's apparent death and Shirou no longer an active mage in the war.

Lost Butterfly has Shirou resolving to stop Zouken's shadowy entity from devouring the city. Sakura gets kidnapped by Shinji to lure out Shirou, but interference from Rin and her servant Archer spoils that plan and reveals that Sakura was really Rider's master. Sakura's power unleashes on Rin and Shirou and they awake in Kirei's church where Rin tells Shirou that Sakura is her biological younger sister, and she plans to take out her sibling if her power gets out of hand. Shirou vows to protect Sakura and tries to form an alliance with Illya, a young mage with her hulking servant Berserker. Zouken unleashes a corrupted Saber to kill Berserker in an epic clash. Assassin chops of Shirou's arm leaving a dying Archer to give him his own before he dies. Rin and Illya move in with Shirou and Sakura since they've lost their servants. Shirou finally confesses his love to Sakura which they make love, but this sets Sakura off as she sleepwalks at night killing people, including Gilgamesh like it wasn't anything where in prior Fate anime he was the top dog servant. Sakura goes back home to confront Zouken but ends up killing Shinji after he assaults her and she is fully taken over by the shadow inside her.

Spring Song picks up with the now darker Sakura taking Illya as she's supposed to be a living vessel for the Grail, and Shirou teams up with Kirei to rescue her. Shirou taps into Archer's arm to defeat Berserker. Illya informs Shirou and Rin about the shadow's true evil which is an Avenger servant that fused with the Grail during the prior war and will be reborn through Sakura, so Shirou creates a copy of a magic sword to retaliate. Sakura expels Zouken and absorbs Assassin plus the shadow with Saber under her control. Shirou and Rider combo attack Saber stopping her, while Rin finally gets through to Sakura. Illya sacrifices herself to the Grail where she's reunited with her mother from Fate/Zero while Shirou has a climactic clash with Kirei which is something that had been building up for over three whole Fate titles. Shirou ultimately dies, but Rin and Sakura manage to get a replacement body for him thanks to a sorceress from the expanded "Nasuverse" roster of works.

Heaven's Feel draws a close to the game that started the entire Fate phenomenon. The trilogy earned great praise in Japanese theatres upon release and even achieved big success at special screenings in the US. The animation by Ufotable is remarkable, especially in the sparkling fighting scenes where two opposing superpowers clash in an eruption of dark magic and color. Like most Fate installments, there is a considerable amount of lore to get through, and since this storyline coincides with two other anime series, there is a lot that is left out of numerous characters but more added to the cast highlighted as this was their time to shine. It is satisfying to watch the entire trilogy in a single setting that pacing it out between each chapter. If you've never checked out any of the other Fate anime titles, then Heaven's Feel is a fair enough starting point, although it doesn't get much darker than this version.

R.I.P., George Wendt

Oz: The First Isekai

In 1900, L. Frank Baum began the American fairy tale with The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz. The former salesman turned children's book author already had a few titles under his belt, including a sequel to Mother Goose, but when he collaborated with artist W.W. Denslow to create his own personal take on Alice In Wonderland, he wanted to have a story about a young girl leaving the mundane world and entering a true fantasy realm, not just a dream such as in the 1939 movie. Thus, the Oz books were the first genuine isekai, both its original incarnations and its follow-ups. Many of Baum’s novels that weren’t in the Oz series were eventually brought into the Oz continuity so characters like Santa Claus became part of ever-expanding cast, making Oz one of the world’s first shared fictional universes.

Baum was a feminist and had married the daughter of one America’s leading suffragists. He had four children that he dreamed up short stories for along with some of the neighboring kids while he was struggling to make sales in his curiosity shop out west. Aside from already having a short career as a playwright, Baum worked with Denslow to make an amazingly illustrated novel based on his ideas of an enchanted realm which was intended for the entertainment of younger readers. This led to an entire empire that Baum was the ringleader of including stage musicals and one of America’s first independent movie franchises which was focused on children's entertainment. He oddly made more money from the expanded Oz media he created than the actual novel. The underlying theme of having the main character in most stories be a female and interacting in a land of sorcery stood on its own as most other American young fiction was geared toward boys. After he passed away in 1919, the Oz books continued to be made by different authors and illustrators, including a boundless stream of adaptations and sequels which numerous creators have added their talent to.

The first animated adaptation was a short done in 1933 by Ted Eshbaugh that first opens in black and white then changes into color when Dorothy arrives in Oz, although the short didn’t get shown much in color at the time because Walt Disney on the copyright on the Technicolor film process and didn’t want the outside film to compete with his cartoons. Disney also wanted to acquire the rights to Wizard Of Oz to follow up their success with Snow White, but the film rights were instead sold to MGM who released their own live-action movie to compete with Disney.

MGM’s 1939 movie went through several directors before settling on Victor Flemming who did it just before he went on to direct Gone With The Wind for Selznick Pictures in the same year. This film also starts out in black and white until Dorothy gets to Oz and the entire film changes to color after they got the rights to Technicolor a year before it was released. The movie starring Judy Garland as Dorothy wasn’t a hit when it first came out and didn’t gain any real traction with the public until it was first re-released in 1949. It became an annual standard when NBC began broadcasting it in 1956, even though the initial showings were presented completely in black and white as color TV didn’t become common until a decade later.

The aftermath of the 1939 movie had ramifications that ran deep in the pop culture, so much so that numerous new adaptations, sequels, and spinoffs arose over the course of time based on the Oz books. Disney did their own live-action sequel in 1985 titled Return To Oz, plus a prequel in 2013, both of which are connected to the MGM movie. A popular stage musical titled The Wiz with an all-African American cast was made in the 70s along with its own film. There were several animated takes on Wizard Of Oz including a full-length feature by Filmation titled Journey Back To Oz, a Rankin-Bass TV series, a few TV specials and indie movies, a Saturday Morning cartoon, and various international productions including a Mexican film, as well as many from Russia inspired on their version of Oz written by Alexander Volkov.

Japan of course tried their own approach to Oz. Even though there are many ancient tales like that of Urashima Taro as an example of otherworldly travels, Oz remains prevalent as a source of the fantasy genre. There was a bizarre full-length Toho anime movie in 1982 directed by Gundam animator Fumihiko Takayama which was modeled much more after Baum’s original designs. Following this was a 52-episode TV series done in 1985 that covered four of the Oz novels which are even closer to Baum’s vision although slightly rewritten in its adaptation. Afterwards there was another TV anime that was a complete sci-fi remake titled The Wonderful Galaxy Of Oz from Enoki Films in 1992 where Dorothy leaves her home planet of New Kansas and gathers a group of friends to help her search for magic crystals. Each of these received an English release, some of which were in compilation movies only, but they all proved that Oz was a prime motivator for the anime industry.

The manga business also had a takes on Wizard Of Oz. One such manga was Captive Hearts Of Oz where Scarecrow, Lion, and Tin Man are handsome bishonen while Dorothy is on a predetermined path. Toto: The Wonderful Adventure was a standard fantasy adventure about the young lad Kakashi who adopts a dog named Toto who can turn into a big dragon and then teams up with Dorothy on her quest down the Yellow Brick Road. A Korean comic titled Dorothy Of Oz has a girl named Mara ending up in an alternative Oz where the Wicked Witches are mad scientists and Mara is referred to their legendary savior known as Dorothy. Some manga merely borrowed elements from the Oz books like Mar where a boy named Ginta is sent to the realm of Mar Heaven and befriends the teenage witch Dorothy who summons monsters based on Oz characters. At least two American productions claiming to be manga have been done of the first two Oz book, one by Antarctic Press and another by Seven Seas Entertainment.

The Oz books fall under the label of portal fantasy which in Japan is often referred to as isekai. On its own, The Wizard Of Oz separates itself from earlier fantasy publications like Alice In Wonderland as it features someone immersing themselves in on otherworld outside of their mundane lives and navigating their way through it. This became the basis for isekai in anime and manga which really began to spark back in the 1980s with the TV series Aura Battler Dunbine. In it, people from the regular world are sent to pilot magical giant robots in a parallel dimension where fairies and unicorns are common. Other titles in the 90s such as Magic Knight Rayearth, El-Hazard, Fushigi Yuugi, Digimon, and Escaflowne had young people getting sent to another world or even sometimes a different planet. Further anime that came out such as Inuyasha employed time travel as an isekai trope where someone travels to a point in the past where magic was something your average person could use. The tide shifted when it titles like .Hack and Sword Art Online where the main characters get stuck in a virtual reality and can’t unplug without dying in real life. The majority of what most anime fans recognize as isekai is where a normal human is either summoned to a magical world like Familiar Of Zero or die then get reincarnated in the fantasy of their dreams. These reincarnations can have them being reborn as their normal selves, sometimes with heightened abilities that excel their statis in their new life, while other times they might be reborn as a totally different creature like a slime monster or a large spider, as well as inanimate objects including swords and vending machines.

Many of these isekai have the main character going on a quest which might lead them back home. A good majority of them place the character as a hero where people automatically adore and respect them. Some of these protagonists are living out a power fantasy like getting their own harem, while other might be more grounded and just wanting to become a simple farmer that happens to be staffed by cute elves. One occurring theme is the main character plagued by a higher power in this fantasy world by being transformed into a different age or gender despite their new magical talents. Time loops also play a part in isekai where someone can be resurrected to some point in the past if they are killed along the way like in a video game. Studio Ghibli has made the biggest impact with only a few isekai movies like Spirited Away, The Cat Returns, and The Boy And The Heron.

Out of the four standard categories of isekai consisting of immersive, intrusion, liminal, and portal quest, the Oz books fall under many of these. By its very nature, the original Wizard Of Oz book is immersive as it features a girl trapped in another world. This also validates the book as a portal quest as Dorothy is constantly on a journey to go back home travelling from one part of the enchanted land to another, usually dealing with witches. The land of Oz itself is liminal with the real world as there is more than one way to access it, normally via natural disasters. As far as intrusion is concerned, Oz rarely tracks over into the civilized world we know aside from some of the more creative sequels and spinoffs.

There have been anime adaptations of other L. Frank Baum books such as The Life And Adventures Of Santa Claus but the Oz series has been the inspiration of a great amount of iseaki titles. Whether the other world is high fantasy, space opera, or just a computer simulation in a role-playing game, Oz will remain the foundation for many isekai yet to come, hopefully not being reincarnated as a yellow brick.

ANI-MOVIES, *Lupin The 3rd: The Mystery Of Mamo

Aside from having a whopping five different dubs, The Mystery Of Mamo was the first anime movie of the classic Lupin The 3rd. Also titled The Secret Of Mamo, Lupin's first animated theatrical release based on the 60s manga came out in 1978 after the bizarre but equally funny Lupin III: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy live-action film. This movie came out during the second Lupin anime TV series that most Americans will recognize as being the same one that first premiered on Adult Swim. Monkey Punch's manga was a big hit as was the original TV series, so there was already enough hype behind it. Soji Yoshikawa had the rare chance as director of this movie when he's regularly an animator and scriptwriter. The film itself was animated by long-time running studio TMS, and this was their first feature-length production, even though the movie made the characters look more like Monkey Punch's original designs. The movie has had several English releases, including one from Streamline Pictures, Manga Entertainment, and of course the segments used in the jumbled together old laser disc arcade game Cliff Hanger. The dub most Americans would be familiar with is the one currently available on most streaming services that was recently put on Blu-ray by Discotek Media featuring dub veteran Tony Oliver as Lupin.

The story begins with Lupin getting hanged and the ever-diligent Inspector Zenigata sets out to see if he's really dead. Turned out that the real Lupin, the world's greatest thief, is alive and goes on a hunt for the legendary Philosopher's Stone inside an Egyptian pyramid all for the chance to roll in the sheets with the sexy Fujiko. The curvy cat burglar is working for the mysterious figure of Mamo who wants the stone to find the key to immortality. The diminutive mastermind sends his assassins out to capture Lupin and his gang of sharpshooter Jigen and modern-day samurai Goemon. Lupin and his gang break up over his infatuation with Fujiko, and the femme fatale kidnaps Lupin and takes him to Mamo's Carribean island. The US Army attacks Mamo's base while Lupin escapes and reunites with Jigen, but only to go to Mamo's other secret base. He learns that Mamo is really a gigantic brain that's been alive for thousands of years and use short humanoid clones to interact with other mortals. Lupin thwarts Mamo's plans for a nuclear war and destroys his huge brain as it launches itself in to space.

Lupin The 3rd: The Mystery Of Mamo had several different titles, but that was done in retrospect as it was the first anime movie of the franchise. The film has a very surrealistic approach to it with some bizarre visual aesthetics, and it followed the more aggressive and sexaholic motif of the original Lupin manga. This has been the center of great discord among longtime Lupin fans as more people had become more accustomed to the slightly nobler Lupin that was done in Lupin The 3rd: Part 2. The deeper sci-fi elements the plot employed work in contrast to that of the Lupin TV series of the time that were used more in Lupin The 3rd: Part 1 TV series. There are also things that never get brought up again like Zenigata's daughter and the US government's involvement. The Mystery Of Mamo has some rough animation in it which was bumped up in budget for the first Lupin anime movie, but still very attractive in a way that TMS champions at. This is a captivating romp with a fantastic release by Discotek Media featuring all four English dubs, not including Cliff Hanger, and the Streamline dub has some overlooked talent in it including Robert Axelrod as Mamo. If you're just catching this on streaming, the Geneon dub is good enough, but you might want to invest in the Discotek Blu-ray.

MISC. MANGA, *Gatchaman

It's been a good hot minute since Gatchaman had been seen on the American comic book racks. There had been two different comic book outings under the English version of the TV show by Sandy Frank, Battle Of The Planets, one in the 70s by Gold Key Comics, and one by Top Cow Productions in the early 2000s which included two separate Thundercats crossovers and one with Witchblade. This however is the first time that there has been an American publication sharing the original Japanese title of the Bronze Age superhero anime from Tatsunoko Productions. The original Gatchaman is a sentai series that began the tradition of "five teenagers with attitude", but instead of clunky robot dinosaurs, they were able to take down giant robots with ninja skills and sleek space age super-vehicles. Mad Cave Studios not only has picked up the anime plot for modern day while still keeping its counterculture esthetics in a regular series, but there are several mini-series that help fill out the Gatchaman universe.

In this new adaptation of the Japanese franchise, the Earth is being bombarded with attacks by a criminal organization known as the Galactor whose advanced technology has been cause acts of terrorism. Mankind's biggest hope is a quintet of young warriors in bird costumes who go by the codename Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. This team consists of their leader Ken, the hothead loner Joe, the token female Jun, the bulky pilot Ryu, and the youngest Jinpei. They each have their own sweet rides that hook up with the larger Phoenix ship flown by Ryu, and they can work as a team or just as effectively as individuals. There have so far been solo adventures of Ken, Jun, and Ryu. Mad Cave even went as far as to do a rare look into the point of view of the villains in a Galactor mini-series with their leader Berg Katse trying to root out some underminers within his own ranks.

Mad Cave Studios has done a pretty good job expanding the lore of the 70s anime for modern audiences. Their version of Gatchaman is tight, diverse, and got great superhero action. There is some real talent behind the various artists and authors with their own take on each character as well as their uniting as a team. Aside from the main title and the solo adventures, there's also a spinoff title Only One Earth where Gatchaman's mettle is tested in Galactor's latest scheme. Mad Cave was also clever enough to make a solid mint by offering several variant covers for each issue for collectors. Gatchaman is a fine enough carrier of the classic anime's legacy and worth it for any die-hard sentai fans.

"Animation Takes A Long Time!" Dude, Hold My Beer!

MISC. MANGA, *Wicked: The Graphic Novel-Part 1

With the hit musical finally getting a film adaptation, that still left the original book to receive any kind of adaptation as the musical greatly diverges from the source material. Wicked: The Graphic Novel is a planned duology by William Morrow Paperback taking Gregory Macguire's first volume of what was called The Wicked Years series that is being illustrated by Scott Hampton who has worked on such mainstream titles as Hellblazer, Batman, and Star Trek as well as his own series of Simon Dark. Gregory Maguire's take on The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz by L. Frank Baum which started the entire Oz phenomenon shows an alternate history from the point of view of The Wicked Witch Of The West which champions the antagonist in place of the main protagonist. This began Maguire's askew take on various other children's books like Snow White, Alice In Wonderland, and Cinderella. The concept of the villain's origin really caught on from the Wicked musical and brought it more to the surface of pop culture. This caught on with creators like Disney releasing several fairy tale movies redone from the point of view of the villain such as Cruella and Maleificent. When Winnie Holzman rewrote the original Wicked novel for Stephen Schwartz's Broadway musical in 2003, this brought further attention to Macguire's book which to anyone that's read it is starkly contrast to the stage play. Both the book and the musical incorporate elements from the Wizard Of Oz book from 1900 as well as the 1939 MGM live-action film famously starring Judy Garland as Dorothy. The movie brought more attention to the character of the Wicked Witch of the West who is turned from being a mild villain from halfway through the original book as the film's overarching villain constantly trying to foil the heroes' plans. Maguire's true take on the Wicked Witch's origin is truly a work on its own and the graphic novel modifies that as best it can.

The main plot of the Wicked book shows about the earlier life of Elphaba, the green-skinned girl who would eventually become the Wicked Witch of the West. The reader first gets a slightly out of canon prologue with the Witch trailing Dorothy and her friends as they first make their way to her castle after seeing the Wizard. The book then opens up on Elphaba's early years in Munchkin Country where she was the probable daughter of a religious leader and his less than faithful wife just as the royal family of Oz falls to the arrival of the Wizard in his balloon. Cut ahead a few years to Elphaba's teenage years at Shiz University where she first meets Galinda who is not as egotistical as her musical counterpart. The two of them befriend one of the college's few remaining Animal teachers, Dr. Dillamond, who is fighting for the rights of "Animals" which area animals in Oz still capable of speaking because the Wizard's rule seems to be outing all the talking critters. Dillamond dies, and Elphaba believes it is the fault of Shiz head Madame Morrible, so she travels with Galinda to the Emerald City to report their findings directly to the Wizard himself which ends in failure. Elphaba sends Galinda back to Shiz on her own and decides to stay in the Emerald City to join an underground movement. A while afterwards, Elphaba in hiding comes across her old schoolmate Fiyero, a prince from the western country of the Vinkus who had already married with three children but still decided to engage in a love affair with his green-skinned friend. Elphaba then fails an assassination attempt on Morrible which leads to Fiyero getting captured by the Wizard's secret police and her grieving her loss in a convent where she is taken in by the mysterious Mother Yackle. The second volume will cover the latter half of Macguire's novel much of which is never covered in the musical.

Wicked: The Graphic Novel-Part 1 adapts the majority of the first act of the Wicked book, but there is a great deal that is left out of it if you've read the original novel. There is a controversial segment involving some of Elphaba's schoolmates at an adult club which has no real bearing on the main story at all and was mainly added either for shock value or to pad out the story. Much character development is also not included, specifically Elphaba's sister Nessarose, her Nanny, and Galinda's chaperone Clutch. With Scott Hampton's illustrations, a fair deal of the narration has been excluded as well, so if you haven't read Maguire's book prior to the graphic novel then you're missing quite a bit of backstory. Hampton's realistic artwork is vivid but doesn't really bring out the color most people are used to in an Oz story, although not to the point of making the fairy land look like a dystopia. It is highly recommended that fans of the original book should check this out, but for fans of musical and movies might not be satisfied.

ANI-MOVIES, *The Rose Of Versailles

Somewhat inspired by Osamu Tezuka's Princess Knight, manga creator Riyoko Ikeda took a new approach to historical fiction with her 1970s series of The Rose Of Versailles. Ikeda was part of a new movement of shojo artists in the 60s who made the genre more fitting for older readers largely caused by new political movements in Japan, and she incorporated this into her retelling of the French Revolution with original characters added to the mix to give it more drama. What set this manga aside from any other ones at the time was that the main character was a female soldier in the Royal Guard who was raised as a boy since her father was dead set on having a son. This turned the idea of the main girl character on its head with them taking a larger part in forging the story and not just acting like a helpless damsel waiting for some handsome prince to save her. The manga was so popular that it not only got its own legendary anime TV series, but also a live-action cult movie, and several awarded stage musicals which set the path for other titles like Sailor Moon and Death Note to also get the Broadway treatment. Finally, after 50 years, a brand-new anime based on the manga came out in 2025, but this time they took the 40-episode TV series and folded it into a feature-length film, along with some original musical numbers. So, they took the influence of both the existing anime and the lineage of the popular musical based on it and throw them all into one large bag which makes it more like a compilation movie than an original adaptation. The music is honestly good in both the English and Japanese dubs and considering how few anime movies that are a full-fledged musical, it's a slight shame even though the animation by Mappa is exceptional. When the story had the luxury of an ongoing TV series it had more room to flex itself, but here its condensed down to a 113-minute-long movie and added some musical breaks in it, which here are more like mini-music videos, making the whole film like the bullet points of the story complete with a historical narrator.

During the late 1700s, Oscar Francois is a woman general in the Royal Guard who was raised as a man and everyone in the service of Marie Antoinette treated her as another male despite her radiant blonde hair. Oscar has to balance the Queen's secret relationship with a Swedish count a secret from the King, so she eventually leaves the Royal Guard to join the French Army. The men under her command don't respect her at first because of her gender and noble background, but Oscar quickly wins over their loyalty. Oscar's duty is questioned further when she tries to break off her arranged marriage and finally gives into the deep feelings for her longtime companion Andre who has served as her friend and colleague since they were children. With the French people rebelling against the monarchy after years of poverty, Oscar finally seals her love with Andre, and they help lead the French citizens against the rule of Louis XVI on a final raid on the Bastille.

Riyoko Ikeda eventually did not only a manga prequel to The Rose Of Versailles but also a sequel chronicling Napoleon's rise to power, even though neither of them made the impact that the original story did. This led to shojo manga evolving to handling elements like same-sex romances along with speculative fiction. Mappa's treatment of the characters doesn't stray too far off from the 70s TV series designs with Oscar seeming as bishojo as ever, plus the animation is very smooth although not up to anything on Ghibli's level of quality. The main problems are the tight script which leaves entire characters and subplots dangling in the air, as well as the addition of the musical scenes which is not like something from a theatrical production but like a musical vignette told from perspective of the characters' inner voice. This modern take on the classic tale makes for a decent enough abridgement of the entire saga with a sweeping soundtrack that probably won't stick with most fans of musicals.

Ruth Buzzi, R.I.P.