Jim Shooter, R.I.P.

 

ANI-MOVIES, *Fate/Grand Order: Final Singularity, Grand Temple Of Time: Solomon

With one of the longest anime movie titles ever, the first major story arc of the Fate/Grand Order video game is adapted for the big screen, although if you want to get the English dub for it, you'll have to shell out a lot of mola for the Blu-ray as it isn't available on streaming. If you're looking to save some cash, get it directly through the Crunchyroll store for about half the cost. Taking place after the Babylonia TV series, Final Singularity, Grand Temple Of Time: Solomon has the last singularity the heroes at Chaldea have to deal with after the other seven. If you're including the prelude feature from First Order there are a total of nine singularities, which including this movie, only four of them got an anime production. With director Toshifumi Akai picking up production from the Babylonia anime, the film was written by Type-Moon founder Kinoko Nasu, and animated by CloverWorks studio which was also behind Babylonia. This was the "Avengers Assemble" for the majority of the Fate/Grand Order main characters, but only ones that were featured in the prior singularities, so some of them make their animation premiere in this movie even if only for a fleeting moment.

With the seven collected Holy Grails, Chaldea plans for their last battle to fight the Mage King Solomon who is responsible for the whole scheme of setting up time disruptions throughout human history to wipe out humanity. They manage to convert the Chaldean HQ into a mobile fortress to enter the last singularity. Ritsuka is given a new suit that allows him to summon up several Heroic Spirts at once making him the ultimate Pokemon player, while Mash is confronted with her limited mortality as she only has enough lifespan for this final battle. Lev Lainur shows up for the first time in a while to stop them and reveals that he's one of 72 demons that power Solomon's history eraser button. Ritsuka brings together the majority of all the Heroic Spirits he's encountered over his travels, and they dismantle Lev while Ritsuka and Mash go to confront Solomon who it turns out is not really Solomon. The big boss is Goetia, the first of the demons that was borrowing Solomon's body to restart the whole of creation so demons would replace humans as the dominate race. A huge reveal behind one of the secondary characters sets to the path to Ritsuka's giant clash with Goetia, so I won't spoil the whole ending for you. Suffice to say, it's a mostly happy ending.

As probably being the last anime to be made for the Fate/Grand Order franchise, this movie was made with the intention getting profits from fans of the game. There are so many throwaway characters that make quick cameos and references to events you don't even know about unless you played the game that anyone outside the fandom would just be totally lost. If you just want to watch this to get some closure or are simply a Fate completionist, then it's a decent idea to check this out, but if you're a hardcore Fate fanatic than you'll want to get Blu-ray box set with all the bells and whistles including an art gallery and more. The huge downfall with this being the conclusion to this particular branch of the Fate family tree is it clocks in dozens of the heroic characters that only manage to get a swift few seconds of airtime with no dialogue at all, and most of the actual story is bogged down with the philosophy of why human existence is pointless in contrived monologues. It's better to go ahead and watch one of the original Fate/Stay Night adaptations, or even Fate/Apocrypha if you want a better parallel universe story.

ANI-MOVIES, *K-Pop Demon Hunters

As their first movie after the blockbuster Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, Sony Pictures Animation's musical Netflix direct release of K-Pop Demon Hunters combines the elements of recent hit anime like Demon Slayer and Blue Exorcist with Korean pop music which has reached an international explosion over the last decade. Written by former children's book author Chris Appelhans along with Maggie Kang, this film has been in production for over four years. Animated by Sony Pictures Imageworks which is Sony's computer animation and visual effects department who have worked on everything from MCU epics to Disney live-action remakes of animated classics, there is some rough edge designs and movement, even though most of the characters look like they're Bratz rejects that keep switching between meme faces. The story was an original plot not based on any specific source, despite the fact it's easy to see they took a bunch of anime cliches and threw them into a blender making for a mildly edible beverage. The story is the singular flaw as this movie feels more like the follow-up to an already existing TV series instead of starting off fresh in its own new continuity.

For centuries the evil formless demon lord Gwi-Ma has been trying to ensnare the souls of unsuspecting Koreans. To fight this darkness are a trio of female hunters who use their fighting skills and magical music talent to form a gold energy fence between the human and demon realms known as the Honmoon. The hunters' music allows them to harmonize with the potential innocent mortals they protect and to sweep the demons under the rug. This legacy has gone on for generations with the current incarnation being a K-pop group called Huntr/x made of the tough Mira, the wrapping Zoey, and their lead singer Rumi who is secretly half-demon which even her teammates don't know about. The only one aware of Rumi's background is the band's mentor Celine who was a friend of Rumi's mother, although the movie never really gives any context to that and if Rumi's parents had a real relationship or if it was a forced siring. Huntr/x finishes up their world tour and instead of taking some time off, they immediately decide to release their latest single, again just after concluding a world tour! At the same time, a new boy band named the Saja Boys appear and become the Misfits to their Holograms. The rival group is in reality a team of five demons working for Gwi-Ma disguised as handsome young men with their leader Jinu doing this to have the memories of his mortal life completely wiped away of when he sold his soul for fame and abandoned his family. The Saja Boys know that Huntr/x are really demon hunters, but Jinu figures out that Rumi is half-demon and the two of them seem to bond with their shared hidden pasts. This popularity war culminates in an idol award which the Saja Boys use their shapeshifting skills to trick Rumi into revealing her demonic heritage which breaks up Huntr/x because of all the lies. Gwi-Ma has Jinu and his demonic forces put on an impromptu concert to once and for all lower the Honmoon so they can invade the human realm. Rumi shows up at the last possible minute and somehow musters the strength to overcome the evil magic and unite with Huntr/x to vanquish Gwi-Man forever sealing him away, but only after Jinu sacrifices himself to give them that last bit of energy to take it up to eleven. All their fans seem to have no problems with Rumi being only half-human, plus that Mira and Zoey get over Rumi lying to them for years pretty quickly even after their victory.

K-Pop Demon Hunters was a bold attempt to cash in on the popularity of Korean music groups and how mainstream that anime has become in the West over the last few decades. Sony's animation is up to par with the same quality of the Spider-Verse movies, although the character designs are copy/paste from any generic shojo titles who really do appear like fashion dolls with constantly changing facial expressions. The plot can get exceedingly contrived with forbidden romance hints that are ripped right out of Sailor Moon, and there is a landfill's worth of lore to swallow before you can wrap your head around what is going on. The reality of how hectic the life of a K-pop idol can be is represented well in this movie as it can be literally something out of a soap opera, and anyone whose watched the old Jem cartoon knows what that means. Sony intended for this to be a one-shot production but given the centuries of history that the plot set up and where the story could go from here, it's not too hard to see this spawning off a sequel or prequel franchise.

MISC. MANGA, *Gaea-Tima The Gigantis

Manga creator Kent started out with a 7-volume dystopian series titled Colorless, but followed it with new giant monster epic, Gaea-Tima The Gigantis. More borrowing from alternative kaiju designs such as Gamera and Ultraman as opposed to the traditional Toho monster movies shows how an attack from a titanic monster can leave a huge impact on a small Japanese town. In many ways, this was a prelude to Godzilla Minus One which came out later the same year.

Sukuba is a small city by the sea that a decade ago was devastated by the arrival of a kaiju called Gaea-Tima. Now, the city has repaired most the damage and is bills itself as a tourist spot with one of the survivors named Miyako has made a living creating miniature figures of the same monster. The arrival of oceanographer Tatsukuni in town is serendipitous as a completely different kaiju appears. Out of nowhere, Gaea-Tima also appears and seemingly fights of the other kaiju and then suddenly vanishes. Miyako finds a small ball left behind after the battle which turns out to be a dried up egg of another Gaea-Tima monster left behind and only needs enough water to reach his full height. Tatsukuni tells Miyako that he's part of a secret group called Fune whose job it is to chronicle and prevent surprise kaiju and has her join their team just as yet another monster attacks leaving Miyako no choice but to use her "pocket monster" to counter it.

This was a vividly iconic manga with impressive monster designs that you wouldn't conventionally expect. Kent has an atypical approach to his art and writing which are much more grounded than what you would find in something like a sentai. Don't expect any superheroes in colorful helmets with plastic armor to show up anytime soon. Your average Godzilla-holic will probably appreciate this unexpected new manga treasure.

ANI-MOVIES, *Elemental

If you ever wondered what Disney's Zootopia would've been like if it was more of a romantic comedy instead of a humorous mystery, then Pixar took that bet when they produced Elemental in 2023. Where Zootopia showed different animals living together in a single big city, Elemental does the same dance but with living anthropomorphic elements. The film was directed by Peter Sohn who hadn't held that position since he headed The Good Dinosaur, and has an original story written by three writers most of who didn't have much experience working on animated movie screenplays but TV sitcoms. Since this was one of Pixar's movies not focused on children, it became more of a sleeper hit despite Disney's attempt push Elemental Happy Meals, even though the film managed to gain a larger audience outside of theaters.

Taking place in a world of living elemental people, Element City is set up as the great melting pot for different elements to live together in harmony, even though each element is sanctioned off into their own separated part of town. Bernie and Cinder are a fire couple who move to Element City to open up their own store called The Fireplace which they plan to one day hand over to their daughter Ember. A few years later, Ember is trying to get ready to fill in for her father when he retires, she finds that dealing with the steady flow of customers is infuriating, causing her to erupt into a raging fireball which breaks a water pipe in the basement. This has a water element named Wade who is also a city inspector leak in. He learns from Ember that her father never got permits for any of the pipework when he made the Fireplace, so Wade goes to report his findings to City Hall much to Ember's sadness, even though Wade feels bad about what he had to do. The well-meaning water boy tries to square things by having her speak to his flighty cloud supervisor Gale who permits Ember and Wade a week to find where the water leak is coming from, even though that is something that civil service should handle. The two of them find a break in the dam from the water part of town and manage to seal it up with sandbags, but Wade couldn't get a proper crew together to cement it shut, which is also a failure of the city's officials, so Ember seals it with tempered glass made from her own fire which shows her creative talent for glassblowing. Wade and Ember then start to spend some time together and find that they enjoy the other's company. This is solidified when they visit Wade's family, and his mother tells Ember about an internship as a glass maker when she realizes her temper is her heart's way of telling her that she doesn't really want to take over the Fireplace. After a dazzling underwater excursion, Ember and Wade discover they can actually touch each other despite whatever social rumors they were laboring under. Ember realizes that she can't be with Wade because she's committed to helping her family, but Wade tries to convince her of his feelings just as the dam breaks again causing fire neighborhood to become flooded. Wade helps Ember save her family's precious Blue Flame furnace which wins over Bernie's approval for Ember to go and pursue her dreams with Wade while someone else takes up running the Fireplace.

Elemental is one of Pixar's visually exceptional productions even though it doesn't leave the same impact as some of their other releases like Toy Story probably because as a romantic comedy it appealed more to mature audiences. Pixar manages to draw attention to the struggles of culture clash and how immigrants in a new country would have difficulty adapting to a shared community. As far as the romance angle, Wade and Ember's relationship is somewhat trite, but still fairly acceptable. The most alluring aspect is the animation which went far and beyond Pixar's standard level. The characters are designed like something out of spirits made by Studio Ghibli, and their interactions with opposite elements are nearly lifelike. Elemental is more of a film that was made to stretch the studio's talent than it was to cash in on a blockbuster movie, even though the similarities between this and Zootopia are more than obvious which takes away from the movie's appeal.

ANI-MOVIES, *The Colors Within

Naoko Yamada's third full-length anime movie, The Colors Within, picks up from the emotional ride that A Silent Voice plus Liz And The Blue Bird left off on. The former animator of K-On took up directing this feature also about a teenage band with an original story written by Reiko Yoshida. There are few other films that compare to the story structure and the way that the characters coalesce their separate lives into a singular commitment of working together. Yamada's peculiar perspective combined with studio Science SARU's outlandish animation that made Dandadan a home run turn this into a subtle and beautiful coming-of-age feature to consider.

Totsuko is a student at a catholic girl's school who sometimes does tiny but forgivable sins, plus she is kind and thoughtful with the unique ability to see people with their own separate glow of color. This isn't magic or some mutant superpower, just a different perspective on relating to others, similar to how the character Shoyo from A Silent Voice views all of his peers with a large letter x over their faces to mentally block them out. Totsuko's point of view, often referred to at synesthesia, makes her notice fellow classmate Kimi who later on drops out of school despite not telling her rather hip grandmother who took her in. Kimi got a job working in a bookstore which Totsuko discovers by following a stray cat which borrows a note from Whispers Of The Heart, and she also notices Kimi practicing her guitar that her brother left for her. Someone else who noticed is Rui, a teenage boy who spends much of his spare time playing the keyboard and of all things a theremin, after which he asks Kimi if she wants to form a band with him in front of Totsuko. The aura-sensing schoolgirl notices that Kimi and Rui's colors reflect well off each other, so the matchmaker in her kicks in and insists all of them become a band, even though Totsuko only just then picked up a book at random about playing piano. The three of them concede to meet at a vacant church that Rui is caretaker of which the girls have to take a ferry boat to get to despite Totsuko's motion sickness. Totsuko starts writing lyrics about the solar system after she gets an epiphany in science class, even though she gets in trouble after inviting Kimi over to her dorm while the rest of the school went on a field trip which forces the two of them to spend more time together doing community service for a month. On Christmas Eve, all three of them meet up at the church and get snowed in where they all open up about each other and what motivates them to be in a band. They get an offer from the school's Sister Hiyoshiko to play at the Valentine's Day celebration which has them put on the performance of a lifetime.

GKids did an amazing job localizing this for English-speaking audiences, especially their localization of the Japanese song lyrics, making the English dub as good to watch as well as the original. As this is Naoko Yamada's first original anime movie not based on an existing property or franchise, The Colors Within is a heartwarming slice-of-life that she perfectly directs. The animation drifts between traditional and watercolor visions shown from Totsuko's outlook and helps as the nearly flawless design breaks the barrier between dreams and reality. The main draw of this anime is the soundtrack which you don't get to experience much of until the concert near the finale, but composer Kensuke Ushio deserves a special salute as the music here mirrors the work he did on Devilman Crybaby and Chainsaw Man. Even though the characters' motivation for forming a band were done merely as a hobby who still want to achieve their life goals, their attempt to put together an amateur achievement has a deep resonance on them. The Colors Within doesn't tug on the heartstrings as much as A Silent Voice did, but it is a more uplifting slice-of-life movie that is safe for all ages.

ANI-MOVIES, *The Wild Robot

Based on the first of Peter Brown's trilogy of books, The Wild Robot is the latest wannabe franchise from DreamWorks Animation as there are plans to do movies of the next two books. Borrowing elements from classic Disney animation as well as some Ghibli films, How To Train Your Dragon creator Chris Sanders directed and wrote the screenplay for this adaptation. Nominated for several awards including the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, the fully-CGI film is basically a sci-fi fairy tale with talking animal shenanigans. Universal Pictures didn't give this the normal kind of buzz they regularly do for an animated movie like Kung Fu Panda or Shrek, even though it did get overall praise from audiences and critics.

Set in not so far off future, a shipment of robots is stranded on an island filled with animals mostly indigenous to North America with only one activating. The robot is just in beginner mode, so it doesn't know its alone in a forest with no human customers, so it goes into stasis and deciphers the language of all the animals it observes. It awakens and asks the animals for tasks for it to do, but the robot ends up getting chased by a bear and accidently kills a family of geese leaving only one egg, so the robot now calling itself Roz hears from a helpful possum that she needs to raise the gosling to be able to fly off the island before winter. Roz raises the young goose and names him Brightbill along with a lonely fox named Fink whose usually sad that he doesn't have many friends as he's a predator. Roz eventually gets Brightbill to fly and take off with the other migrating geese who treat him like an outsider for being a runt, and Roz decides to stay on the island through winter until Brightbill come back. Roz had already made a huge shelter which she uses to protect all the nearby animals as the winter was very harsh which causes the predators and their would-be prey to have to get along until the weather lets up. Brightbill and his flock have a quick adventure in the factory where the robots are created while the same company dispatches a retrieval team to collect Roz. The animals all unite to stop Roz from being taken and end up driving them other robots off, but Roz realizes they will eventually return so she decides to go back to their factory when a second team of robots is sent to the island. Brightbill eventually returns to the company where they took Roz too and finds out that she still has all her original memories even while fitting in as a model product.

The Wild Robot is rich in talent with vibrant animation as it manages to split the differences between the natural background beauty and the cartoonish talking animals along with the somewhat typical robot designs that greatly reminds me of 80s comic book designs. Rox is a dead ringer for Fugitoid from the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, but the animators didn't hold back on giving her Inspector Gadget-like add-ones similar to R2-D2 as it pulls out a new bonus feature whenever the plot calls for it. The cast is equally amazing with Lupita Nyong as Roz, Pedro Pascal as the wily Fink, and other amazing voice actors like Mark Hamill, Catherine O'Hara, Bill Nighy, and Ving Rhames. The movie was widely received especially upon older audiences as this is a hard-PG rated movie harkening back to dark fantasies from the 80s. There is room for progress if the sequels get greenlit which DreamWorks is probably going to jump on as they've wrung out most of their Madagascar creativity. Hopefully they won't ruin this by making a crappy live-action version of it.

ANI-MOVIES, *Fate/Grand Order: The Movie, Divine Realm Of The Round Table: Camelot

Picking up sometime where the First Order movie left off, Fate/Grand Order continued its story within the online game which mixes in characters and concepts from the entire Fate franchise into one huge multiverse. The task of heroes Ritsuka Fujimaru and Mash Kyrielight is to travel to separate time anomalies and resolve the paradoxes which includes getting that reality's version of the Holy Grail. By this point in the story, the crusaders of Chaldea are from a future where they're the last surviving members of the human race in a doomed timeline and the only Mage and Heroic Spirit available to handle the task. This 2-part movie is an adaptation of the sixth of seven singularities where Ritsuka and Mash continue their mission having already tackled five other singularities that have never been covered in any anime. The two movies of Divine Realm Of The Round Table: Camelot are titled Wandering; Agateram and Paladin; Agateram, both being released within six months of each other, the first one was animated by Signal.MD and the second by Production IG. The movies curtail the events of the Sixth Singularity from the game, where the Seventh Singularity managed to get its own TV series adaptation.

Trying to repair the proper timeline, Ritsuka and Mash are joined by a female version of Leonardo DaVinci as they go to an altered past in 13th Century Jerusalem run by an adult version of Saber(aka: King Arthur)who here is referred to as the Lion King. A new Camelot has been set up in the Holy Land run by Artoria and her knights who take over one of the last refuges in a desert wasteland, although the knight Bedivere teams up with the time travelers to dethrone the Lion King. They head to the kingdom of Ozymandias where the Holy Grail is in the Sun King's possession, and he sends them on their way with a gender-swapped Xuanzang from Buhddist history. Along with this Caster servant, Ritsuka and his crew journey to the village of the Hassans where Assassin from Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel is in his nicer original form of Cursed Arm who gets help from Ritsuka and the others to rescue their spy, Serenity. Lancelot makes a play for the Chaldeans but is beaten into submission by Mash who finally discovers the Heroic Spirit she was given was none other than Lancelot's son Galahad. Lancelot is now on Ritsuka's side and has secretly been gathering his own army, and he allies himself along with the Hassans to assault the fake Camelot posing as a holy city which is a flying fortress armed with the gigantic Sacred Lance capable of destroying all life in the world. Ozymandias gives the Holy Grail to Ritsuka to even the odds and attacks with his flying pyramid. The Chaldean resistance individually takes down each of the corrupted Round Table knights while the rest of the world is being decimated. Ritsuka, Mash, and Bedivere reach the Lion King at last where it's revealed that the whole reason King Arthur has been on her dark path is because Bedivere didn't take the sword Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake when Arthur first died causing her to be remade into an unwavering soulless monster. Bedivere bestows Arthur with Excalibur which wakes her from her spell and the timeline begins to reset as the Chaldeans are returned back to their reality.

This duology is hard to break down. Each one is animated by a completely separate studio with Production IG handling the second one masterfully as it had more fight scenes, but the entire watching experience is difficult to get through with the contrast in style. Unlike the Fate/Grand Order: Babylonia TV series, the duology had to cram much more of the Sixth Singularity story from the video game into a collected feature that's less than four hours long, so a great deal of the story details gets axed, including an entire scene with the iconic Old Man of the Mountain who is regulated to a short flashback scene in the second movie that took place in between the two films. The first movie also has various plot cuts and a lower production value since there's less action in it. The main drawback for general audiences is that these movies were made solely for Fate fans, specifically players of the Grand Order game as there's little outside its own storyline that fans outside of the game could comprehend. The other downside to these movies is that they are each sold individually on special edition Blu-ray with an ensemble of extra swag but either one is at least $100 each. For having possible the longest title for a movie series ever, Divine Realm Of The Round Table: Camelot is for devoted Fate otaku and only worth a look if you rented it off streaming.

ANI-MOVIES, *Lost In Starlight

Korean animation only gets a fraction of exposure to most Western audiences aside from the rare gem like Seoul Station. Han Ji-won is an animator with much clout behind her whose more recent film, The Summer, was a moving animated lesbian drama. Her latest movie, Lost In Starlight, was oddly enough inspired by a commercial she did for a jewelry company back in 2016 about a woman's memories of her going from child to astronaut to grandmother. Han Ji-won's popularity got the attention of Netflix so that they premiered Lost In Starlight on their streaming service along with an English dub. Upon first viewing, many Americans will identify the animation as similar to that of Makoto Shinkai, and even the story structure of this sci-fi romance is patterned after Shinkai's, except this time it features an older couple instead of teenagers.

In 2026, an expedition to Mars ended in failure, so cut ahead to 2051 when NASA is planning another trip to the Red Planet to find out what happened to the original explorers, one of which was the mother of Nan-young Joo, a xenologist who is trying to be among the crew. Nan-young's emotion's towards discovering the truth of her mother leaves her off NASA's roster and instead set as a reserve candidate. Nan-young takes her old record player to be fixed and encounters Jay who specializes in repairing older hardware of which the two form a relationship. The two of them become even closer when Nan-young realizes that Jay is the musician who did a track that was only released online briefly a few years ago that she was in love with, although Jay's stage fright prevents him from performing on stage with his old band. Nan-young is eventually chosen to be on the Mars mission after she makes a startling revolution which could make the planet's air breathable. She doesn't tell Jay at first which leads to them breaking up, but they get back together, and he sees her until she takes off with the rest of the NASA team. While Nan-young is on Mars, Jay finally works up the strength to try performing live for the first time in a long while. However, a storm that forms on Mars leads Nan-young to a life-or-death situation that culminates in an insanely prolonged climax that you have to see in order to believe.

Lost In Starlight is a refreshing look into the not-to-distant future with AI playing an even bigger part, plus smart watches and holographic projections taking the place of mobile phones and tablets. Han Ji-won's production is not specifically influenced by Makoto Shinkai, despite the fact that you'll find elements of his works like Voices Of A Distant Star dealing with estranged romances across the stars. There is a considerable effort towards the music in this film even though there are only a few songs performed throughout it. The flow of colors is nearly psychedelic, bleeding the barrier between what is really happening and what is a dream among the trippy imagery. The animation is stellar and the main characters' relationship is what drives the story. For a deep look into the future of Korean animated movies, this is a true macher and a decent competition for any anime production.

ANI-MOVIES, *Mobile Suit Gundam: The Movie Trilogy

The 1970s were the age of "Super Robots" with shows such as Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, and Gaiking that dip more into the superhero genre instead of science-fiction. In 1979, a new type of mecha anime premiered created by former Astro Boy animator Yoshiyuki Tomino and the crew at Sunrise titled Mobile Suit Gundam which uses mecha as literal tools of war. Set in a far-off future, this was the original Gundam anime that all others come from, that includes sequels, prequels, midquels, spinoffs, remakes, and any alternative universe story of which there are several. Gundam takes the mecha genre and brings on elements of space opera, love triangles, war drama, and pointless running around of annoying orphans. The anime TV series went on for 43 episodes and even though it was cancelled due to low ratings, but the Gundam merchandise sold so well that the show was re-edited into a trilogy of three theatrically released, making them the very first compilation movies of an anime series. There weren't too many other compilation films of anime series again until the 90s because of the budding VHS market. The three motion pictures managed to contain most of the highlights of the series without sacrificing much of the basic story as numerous anime compilation movies had a habit of doing after the trilogy. The third movie turned out to be one of the highest grossing movies in Japanese history, largely because some of the animation was redone specifically for the theatrical release. Most American's first exposure to the entire Gundam franchise was the VHS and DVD releases of the trilogy in the late 90s when Bandai Entertainment set up their American branch called Anime Village. It's strange that there two separate dubs of the movies and the original Mobile Suit Gundam TV series which got an English release sometime later. As an abbreviated version of the anime series, the trilogy works out better than most compilations, even though some of the bizarre soundtrack additions are questionable.

Taking place in a future known as the Universal Century, humans have spread out to the rest of the galaxy and live in space colonies with their own artificial ecosystem. In the year of 0079, a rebellious military nation called Zeon has risen and is fighting the Earth Federation for control. Zeon is conquering sections of space, including their assault on Federation base, Side 7, the inhabitants of which are housing the latest warship labeled White Base and its new brand of military mecha robot called a Mobile Suit, their experimental model is called a Gundam. The Gundam is decked out with machine guns, a laser rifle, a giant battle shield, and a pair of lightsabers that here are labeled Beam Sabers. The son of one of the Gundam's designers, Amuro Ray gets in the robot to help the surviving Side 7 refugees, and they lead an exodus away from Zeon. White Base eventually makes its way to Earth, even though they have to fight their way to Zeon occupied areas until they make contact with the Federation. Zeon is led by the Zabi family who usurped the throne from the founding family which has only two remaining outcast, Char Aznable who has joined Zeon as a masked commander, and Sayla Mass who is secretly part of the White Base crew. The crew of this experimental ship are all branded as Newtypes which is a space traveler with slightly psychic awareness, similar to extra sensory perception. Amuro's powers seem to blossom before anyone else's on his ship because he's the regular pilot for the Gundam and sees more combat than the others. White Base is eventually sent with the Federation forces to an astounding amount of space battles in their final push against Zeon. An estranged rivalry and comradery forms between Amuro, Char, and another Newtype, Lahla who is Char's subordinate and they all gain a psychic connection through their duels. Ultimately, the Federation forms a peace treaty with Zeon in what in Gundam history becomes known as the One Year War which sets the stage for an entire timeline that is still going on to this day.

Mobile Suit Gundam is the quintessential mecha anime, which is slightly odd as most American's exposure to the franchise is when Gundam Wing was first broadcast on Toonami. The original TV series and its movie compilations is hard to translate to Western audiences as their just not accustomed to war anime, even in the depts of space, or at least one where there are clearly sides of good and evil whereas in Gundam it can be largely ambiguous regardless of which continuity it takes place in. Few shows have captured such iconic scenes like the "Sieg Zeon" speech, Amuro saying goodbye to his mother, the first time Char meets up with Amuro outside of the cockpit, the ironic deaths of each of the Zabi family, and the final battle for White Base with the entire crew activating their Newtype abilities at the last minute which finally validates those damned orphans who usually just get into hijinks in the background. If you're looking to get into the eternal Gundam multiverse, then the movie trilogy is the best starting point.

MISC. MANGA, *Cyborg 009

Just like Speed Racer and Gatchaman, another authentic Japanese anime/manga property converted into an American comic was Cyborg 009 back in 2013 by Archaia Entertainment. This was a 5-issue mini-series(starting with Issue #0)that was eventually reprinted into a single graphic novel. The original manga by Shotaro Ishinomori who also created Kamen Rider and Super Sentai, he had birthed one of the first full superhero teams in Japanese culture during its run in 1964, and it beats out Giant-Size X-Men by a decade from having an international roster of heroes. Cyborg 009 spawned several manga volumes, video games, anime TV shows and movies, plus crossovers with 8 Man and Devilman. Archaia writers Bradley Cramp and FJ DeSanto along with artist Marcus To took some of the early story arcs of the manga and condensed them down into a limited American comic.

A young man awakens with amnesia not remembering his past and escapes from a secret facility ran by the underground organization Black Ghost who have turned him into a cyborg codenamed 009. 009 runs across eight other test subjects who are also cyborgs that break free of Black Ghost's experiments. From this point on, the nine of them use their own individual high-tech powers and abilities to confound Black Ghost's attempt at world domination and spreading their own brand of evil. Sekar is the commander of Black Ghost and had his entire body cyberized which takes the combined powers of all nine of the cyborg team to counter. 009 almost sacrifices his own life to finally stop Sekar, but the bionic heroes succeed with room for further adventures.

Excalibur and Teen Titans artist Marcus To did a remarkable job adapting the first sentai team into an American comic book, plus made it much more diversified than the original Cyborg 009 which was largely weighed down by ethnic cliches. The Cyborg 009 group manage to gel well together despite their cultural differences and unfamiliar backgrounds as they unite their amateur efforts to prevent heavily armed terrorists, which might be due to the limited number of issues in the series whereas an ongoing comic would benefit from a longer narrative. If you wanted a short-cut to understanding a classic manga that help set the stage for tokusatsu as we know it, then look up this dynamic recreation. As a bonus, Issue #0 also reprints the first few chapters of the original manga as well.