ANI-MOVIES, *Blue Thermal

Kana Ozawa created the five-volume manga series of Blue Thermal in 2015 that was popular enough to not only get a prequel manga, but a full-length anime movie in 2022. The studio behind it was Telecom Animation Film who has a long lists of credits in several American productions like Real Ghostbusters, Inspector Gadget, and Mighty Orbots. It's a slice-of-life story with some melodrama added to pad out the film's 103-minute run time. There is resplendent designs and flying sequences, although some of the characters are obvious generic anime stock.

Tamaki Tsuru is a freshman on her own in her new college and accidently causes the aviation club's glider to be damaged. The team captain Kuramochi talks her into paying the debt off by joining their club, and later discovers that she has a natural talent for operating a glider and all the aeronautics involved with it. The majority of the middle of the story has Tamaki contending with rival gliders and her big sister from the competing school who has been holding a grudge against her since they were young, so the plot is lengthened with customary anime cliches. The film wraps with Tamaki working out her feelings for Kuramochi who has gone missing in Germany while the aviation club is going through its finals. There's never any confirmed romance, although greatly hinted at between the male and female leads.

As a movie, Blue Thermal better here than it might have as a TV series which it was first conceived as, even though it can seem lackluster at points. Eleven Arts decided to save even further money in their English release of this by not providing a dub or even bothering with a U.S. theatrical run. You can find this on Blu-ray through Shout Factory but could save some cash just catching it for free on numerous streaming channels.

ANI-MOVIES, *Fear(s) Of The Dark

Not related to the Canadian horror movie, Fear(s) Of The Dark is an animated horror anthology done entirely in black-and-white by Prima Linea Productions who also helped produce The Red Turtle film from Studio Ghibli. This was done as the brainchild of a select group of cartoonists and designers that pulled their talents to create a study of fear in everything from social anxiety to full-blown horror. The major problem with the film is the sequence it is presented in, as it is has several different segments that don't chronologically play out one after the other. There are wraparound intervals between each chapter which are all narrated pieces of a woman going over her everyday woes with a constantly shifting graphic backdrop. The interior components are their own separate installments, even though a few of them break to backup to a previous story that hadn't completed yet, so it's the horror anthology equivalent of channel surfing while you're watching something on one TV network.

The first and opening story is four chapters of a nobleman walking around town with his quartet of violent dogs that each hunt down an innocent victim who is powerless to fight back which ends with the final canine turning on his sadistic master. The next tale is by comic artist Charles Burns who created Black Hole about a shy young man who begins a relationship with a girl he knows from college that turns into a Kafkaesque nightmare with insect/human hybrids. Following that is one that also gets brought back througout different points in the movie about a Japanese girl plagued by the ghost of a samurai. After this is a particularly creepy story where a boy in rural France witnesses his neighbors getting slaughtered by a crocodile, which is odd enough considering there aren't any crocodiles native to that area, but the victims it left behind are forever changed into creatures of the night. The finale is the longest where a large man seeks shelter from a snowstorm in an old, abandoned house and finds himself going through the memories of a former occupant as he slowly gets trapped in the dark confines of the haunted mansion.

Fear(s) Of The Dark blends in traditional and CGI animation in their own segments, and still looks good since it was made in 2007. There is no English dub so that might put off a few potential American viewers, but it maintains the tradition of horror anthology movies like Creepshow even if half the material is about everyday fears and not just supernatural. The eerie imagery puts you in the mood for dark tales of one of our deepest emotions.

ANI-MOVIES, *Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths-Part Two

Where the first installment of the Crisis trilogy that is supposed to wrap up the Tomorrowverse was a rousing time-tripping event, Part Two is more of a character study of two of its main characters instead of an actual story. The second chapter leaps from different points of the prior Tomorrowverse titles while showing how the still remaining characters attempt to hold their realities together. The movie strays somewhat from the original Crisis On Infinite Earths comic book series of the 80s, even though it's trying to establish a new take on old characters who were first introduced in that same event. If there was a reason for buying this movie on its own as opposed to waiting for the compilation movie that Warner Bros. will do is if you're a profoundly compulsive DC fan who has to get everything related to comics as they are first released.

The state of things is that there are five remaining Earths being held together with a tower on each one keeping the anti-matter waves at bay. Joker tries to destroy one with Solomon Grundy and Killer Crock while Tomorrowverse Batman teams up with different members of the Bat-Family from various realities to stop this attack. The remaining heroes gathered by The Monitor are coordinating in an attempt to prevent being wiped from existence. The majority of the first half goes over the lives of Supergirl and Psycho-Pirate who was the main villain from Justice Society: World War II. We learn about Supergirl's life after Krypton exploded at the beginning of Legion Of Super-Heroes at how she ended up spending some years under the care of The Monitor and then eventually heading to Earth to reunite with her cousin. Psycho-Pirate's entire backstory is covered in his prior life on Earth-2 as Charles Halstead who can control emotions, how he gained the ability to travel to other worlds from Dr. Fate, and how he went from one reality to another when he would wear out his welcome just restarting his plan in a different universe. It turns out that Psycho-Pirate was also Doctor Spectro from the DC Showcase: Blue Beetle short, meaning that he has assumed different identities on other worlds, and finally gets a visit by Supergirl who is now Harbinger thanks to a power transfer by The Monitor. Pycho-Pirate gets The Monitor to also give him a portion of his cosmic power to enhance his own empathic abilities as the villain begins to make contact with The Monitor's opposite, the equally powerful Anti-Monitor. This mysterious new enemy sends hordes of shadow demons against the heroes who are defending the towers. Wonder Woman disappears along with the Amazons on their world, the Bat-Family fall prey to Psycho-Pirate's control, and John Stewart manages to finally awaken John Constantine from his centuries long haze of being Pariah but at the cost of the last remaining Green Lantern ring. Psycho-Pirate manipulates Supergirl into taking out her aggression on The Monitor, brutally attacking him. The Anti-Monitor coalesces all his shadow demons into a single huge giant about to destroy the final tower, ending on a cliffhanger.

Part Two carries on the story from Part One, but it all seems like the entire project could've just been split up into a longer double feature instead of a trilogy. Despite the Bat-Family showing up on a lot of the promotional material, there is little done with the characters, and Will Friedle as Batman Beyond only gets about two lines in the whole movie. The final chapter is supposed to feature the return of many former DCAU actors, including the final performance of Batman by Kevin Conroy, although it seems like it will be more of a sound bite. You would be better off waiting until the final chapter is released before bothering with this forgettable filler episode, or at least when they do the mandatory collected edition of all three movies.

Granamyr + Zubeia, The Ultimate Power Couple

 

ANI-MOVIES, *The Little Prince And The Eight-Headed Dragon

Columbia Pictures was really getting experimental with its release back in the day of the 1963 animated movie, The Little Prince And The Eight-Headed Dragon that was created by Toei Animation which back then was called Toei Doga. The color film was done in anamorphic widescreen format which works in its favor as there are several sprawling shots of flying fantasy and fiery fights. The story is inspired by the legend of Susanoo who was the Shinto equivalent of Thor but as a child. Yasuji Mori was one of the animation directors on this film who had previously worked on Toei Daga's Tale Of The White Serpent, and his style went on to have a huge effect on future artists like Genndy Tartakovsky and Tomm Moore. In fact, the design for this movie helped shape the style of The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker video game. Another big contributor to the film was the music by Akira Ifukube who is famous for creating the scores for the original Godzilla movies. The movie achieved a moderate success among other 60s anime productions dubbed into English at the time like Magic Boy and Alakazam The Great, even though it only recently got a Blu-ray release in both Japan and America featuring the original 60s dub.

Susanoo's story is he is the son of a pair of gods that fished out the islands from the ocean that eventually became the nation of Japan. His mother, the creation goddess Izanami, passes away off screen somehow, and Susanoo's father tells him to just get over it. The super-strong godling instead throws a big tantrum and wrecks half of the city. He builds a boat of his own to find his mother in the afterlife since his father forbids from giving him a vessel to travel in. Susanoo travels with his rabbit buddy Akahana and first fights a giant fish who the King of the Sea thanks by sending him to the realm of his brother, The Crystal Prince. The Little Prince is given a special elemental stone that comes in handy when he battles the temperamental God of Fire who can replicate himself which makes for an awesome spectacle. Our hero then gets another tagalong with the large Titanbo from the God of Fire's former country to look for a new land for his people. Susanoo continues to his sister, The Sun Goddess, who becomes so embarrassed by her younger brother's shenanigans that she seals herself up in a mountain and her followers spend several minutes trying to coax her from coming out, so they don't freeze to death in the darkness. After the Sub Goddess finally comes out of her hole, she banishes her brother to search for his mother. Susanoo meets a girl known only as the Little Princess who is the next to be sacrificed to an Orochi here referred to as the Eight-Headed Dragon. The Little Prince pledges to save the Little Princess by confronting the dragon after he gains the help of a flying horse which helps him finally slay the multi-headed kaiju. Susanoo then decides to stay in this newly reborn land and help the Little Princess rebuild her people's kingdom along with making it a home for the Fire refugees.

Despite the fact that this movie helped influence several future animators, you can tell that the film itself borrowed heavily from Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty, especially in the duel against Maleficent as a dragon. The dubbing is very forgettable and doesn't fit the lip flaps at all, but altogether not the worse that made for a 60s anime dub. The movie is now finally on streaming and officially free on YouTube, so be sure to give it a look.

ANI-MOVIES, *Flavors Of Youth

Donghua is to China what anime is to Japan. Much of the anime produced of the anime gets outsourced to China, so it's about time that a crossover of donghua and anime was finally made. Not only that, but that the feature was done by Haoliners Animation League from China and none other than the anime studio of Comix Wave Films who took the world literally by storm with Makoto Shinkai films like Your Name and Weathering With You. Shinkai isn't involved in this production at all, but the combined project titled Flavors Of Youth shows traces of his influence. This is also a rarity among anime as it's an anthology film which haven't had much exposure in the 21st Century with titles like Short Peace. The movie is broken up into three segments that show their connection at the beginning and post-credits ending as all the characters from each segment converge at an airport, everyone going on their own chosen path. All three stories take place in China and show how life there isn't too different from any other highly populated parts of the world, in fact if they didn't mention it was China-based then most international viewers would probably think it all happens in Japan.

The Rice Noodles opens up with Xiao Ming remembering his youth when his grandmother was living with his family and usually takes care of the him as the parents are off working. Xiao Ming has fond memories about the noodle shop near his family home that he loved the food from. The rest of the story has the lad growing up and moving around sampling noodles from different parts of China that never seem to have the same delicious taste he did when he was a boy. Xiao Ming is eventually called back to his old home as his grandmother passes away and is happy to find that the old noodle shop is still there and recalls his golden days.

The second part is A Little Fashion Show is slightly forgettable as it deals with a tall model named Yu Lin who is left to take care of her younger sister Lulu after their parents die. Yu Lin became a model to stand out for Lulu and provide a living for her, but she now begins to question if she isn't getting too old for her profession as a young upstart rival starts making things rocky for her. Lulu makes things easier for her as she starts designing her own line of clothes that she made specifically for her big sister.

The final chapter is Love In Shanghai that flashes back between 1999 and a few years later with Li Mo carrying on a more than friendly relationship with his classmate Xiao Yu. The two of them confess their feelings for each other in the teenage days over a shared audio tape they use as a sort of dating journal. Xiao Yu says she's planning on going to a school for academic achievers while Li Mo would probably go to a regular nearby school. Li Mo secretly tries to enter this advanced school which he actually manages to get accepted to, but Xiao Yu fails to enter it much to the violent disapproval of her parents. Li Mo decides to be stubborn in his decision to go forward and becomes an architect who designs his own hotel that Xaio Yu visits him when they're both adults to rekindle their friendship.

Flavors Of Youth is a major boost for the slice-of-life genre with no supernatural or sci-fi elements that anime normally inhabits. Even though it takes place in China, there isn't much emphasis on living or growing up in that specific nation, so despite the sharp imagery of Chinese landmarks, it doesn't become a pretentious travel guide. Each of the stories is significant as they all recall the characters' own pasts and the sense of nostalgia that those bring about. The dub is fair with Jona Xiao and Crispin Freeman standing out, but Ross Butler was totally miscast as Li Mo who has as much range as voice actor as a mute frog. There is no physical release of this anthology as it is streaming exclusively on Netflix, even though it is worth a watch if you're already a subscriber.

R.I.P. Trina Robbins