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Gameoverse: Don't Call It A Pilot!

Glitch has become more than an independent animation studio from Australia. It has become a full-fledged juggernaut including scores of merch outside of the generic swag you usually see in niche markets and right up on the mainstream toy isles, plus getting a mainstream theatrical release for one of their series finales. Their latest pilot is by Ross O’Donvan titled Gameoverse which has taken the world by storm and was cowritten by Arin Hanson also known as Egoraptor. This all started back in 2009 on the springboard for wide-eyed animators known as Newgrounds as a mini-series and O’Donovan tried pitching it to Glitch although it was put in stasis for years as O’Donovan went to work for Game Grumps. Finally in 2024, it was announced that Glitch would make this a full series. The animation obviously got an upgrade, with real gaming and animation professionals backing the project, plus the shocking part is that even though it’s inspired by retro video games, the animation is done in 2D.

The pilot takes place in a universe where each planet is its own video game world inhabited by a variety of characters, featuring a hero and a villain. If at some point, if the hero defeats the villain, then the entire world is destroyed by an unknown source. This sets up competing factions, one is the Farcade who are essentially the good guys who try to help the villain win, while their counterparts of the Syntax are doing the opposite who gather the destroyed planet’s energy into something called Float which is supposed to be able to restore those who were killed when their planets got the finger. This sets up an original concept with rival organizations battling for simultaneous devastation along with keeping the status quo with no progress being made by the hero in his predestined struggle as the game’s lead character.

This might sound like a remake of the Wreck It Ralph movies with its concept of game hopping, but Gameoverse goes an extra step further outsiders from one reality altering the course of a world caught in its own loop. This can affect how each video game world works on its own physics, making for a diverse selection of game genres to choose from. It also digs into the morality of trying to go along with a program everyone in that world follows while having complete strangers show up and trying to either help or heed their progress.

Gameoverse does have a temple of talent behind the cast with anime actors like Erica (Netflix Ritsuko) Lindbeck and Chris (Not My Vegeta) Sabbot, although Egoraptor playing two of the major characters doesn’t blend well especially his Grunkle Stan voice as the Barney parody dinosaur. The writing also needed some tweaking by waiting to save most of the character motivations until a later episode. Many people don’t like it nowadays when they give too much exposition in the first episode and instead get right to the action, however this door swings both ways and not giving enough can work against it.

One thing that doesn’t most people don’t seem to notice that this is a pilot episode. The story ironically takes place after the original trailer with the Farcade team adding the Learnosaurus to their roster, but there is a big divide between a pilot episode and the first episode. It’s clear from examples like Hazbin Hotel that the pilot and the first episode made for streaming were separate in tone and theme with a totally different cast being added to the series than the plot, an alteration in the animation quality, plus less time spent on people going, “Who is this new character?”. It’s hard to say if Glitch is planning on changing much from the initial Gameoverse episode like giving it a completely redone beginning like what was done with Bee And Puppycat for Netflix. Even though the studio might make huge changes like making it as dark as something like Final Space with concepts like planetary oblivion looming over the characters, or they might make it an absurdist comedy out of a Douglas Adams novel. So, whatever goes on between now with the pilot and when it becomes an ongoing series might be one big chasm to leap.

There’s been some major criticism claiming the pilot relies to much on fan service. Not so much the appeal to old school gamers, but the fact that the two main female characters spend most of the episode in bikinis. This isn’t done in a leering way but in a G-rated cartoon approach. The heroic Kit and the wicked Miss Information aren’t drawn with overtly sexual designs and are instead very generic with a visually retro motif, so it’s nothing on the level of a Dead Or Alive volleyball match.

Gameoverse is still rough around the edges, but there is a ton of potential along the way. It’s not like they’re doing yet another bad video game adaptation such as the old USA Network cartoons based on Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. Instead, it’s an above average homage to gaming culture keeping otaku stimulated with the random comedy and overexaggerated personalities of the colorful cast of characters. It’s not yet at its peak, but the pilot did go out of its way to make a first impression, even if some narrow-minded people see it as a Pibby clone.

ANI-MOVIES, *Deemo: Memorial Keys

With all the movies animated and live action based on video games lately, only one of them is based on a rhythm game, which means we're never getting that official Dance Dance Revolution film. Deemo was a rhythm game with an actual story to it that was released in 2013 that gained a big following, which was adapted into full-length anime movie in 2022 by Production IG and Signal.MD as their last project before Production IG bought them out and just after they completed Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop. The director was Shuhei Matsushita who also directed Doctor Stone, although there seems to be a supreme lack of effort put into this as its all CGI and looks like mid-2000s cel shading. The models from the video game appear better than those in the anime and the character movements are stiff like they're all lifeless puppets, plus the bad story pacing added to film's downfall.

The movie is split into two plots both playing out at the same time. One has an amnesiac young girl named Alice entering a fantasy world, so already they're just ripping off Lewis Carroll. The dream realm is like the inside of a castle with books and talking toys and a tall dark stick figure called Deemos who plays the piano. Whenever Deemos plays some memorable music other parts of the castle open up which eventually lead to the way out, so Alice and her friends are first thwarted by a masked girl who eventually joins in their efforts. After a while, Alice realized that all these characters were aspects of her life before an accident which killed her older brother who she lived with and the masked girl was an incarnation of her dream self, so this whole time Alice has been in a coma. Years later, Alice was adopted by her brother's old music instructor who teaches at an academy that she is a student at, but she had almost no memory of her time in the dream realm until she was given an incomplete song her brother left for her. With the addition of her finally gaining some friends in school, Alice's memories are restored and is able to finish her brother's piece.

Deemo: Memorial Keys is a below average production that stretches out a meager video game plot with the meandering antics of Alice's toy friends, and the narrative has an uneven flow to it as it switches between the modern-day events and those during Alice's extended dream sequence. The entire film is jumbled in its presentation and is difficult to keep cohesive with the only plus sign being the piano soundtrack which does help keep the movie's head above water. You can watch this on several free streaming services, but you'll probably instantly forget it after a single watch.

The Gameoverse Guide To The Galaxy

 

Terminator Zero: An Unfinished Future

Since it looks like Disney will never release that Aliens Vs. Predator anime series (Yes, it’s real! Look it up!) it’s up to the Terminator franchise to break in the nostalgia vault of 80s sci-fi movies and have it redone as an anime titled Terminator Zero. Mattson Tomlin who did uncredited writing on The Batman movie and worked on Netflix Animation’s The Sea Beast developed the series also for Netflix, and it was directed by Masashi Kudo who was an animation director on Bleach. This was animated by Studio IG that most Americans would be familiar with from its various incarnations of Ghost In The Shell, which is convenient as similar to the original movie version of that cyberpunk classic took the premise of a high-tech action tale and turned it into a cerebral exploration of humanity’s relationship with machines, the same is done here where normally huge cyborgs mowing people down with machine guns is replaced with slow-paced tone that brings a deeper philosophical approach to it. A total of 8 episodes were released in late 2024 completing the intended first season, however a year later Netflix announced it was cancelling the series leaving any fans of it hanging waiting for a resolution.

The story for this is completely free from the original Terminators movies showing how other parts of the world dealt with the rise of Skynet after it ends up nuking most of the world, so for once we’re not roaming around California. Starting out in Tokyo just before the prophesized Judgement Day in 1997, the brilliant Malcom Lee has spent the last few years developing a revolutionary AI named Kokoro with the hidden intent of competing with Skynet. Malcom is really from one of the numerous post-apocalyptic futures that travelled back in time to 1983 with his cybernetic partner Misaki, although his plan for creating a rival for Skynet instead of just plain trying to destroy it altogether is a little more convoluted. During his stay, Malcom fell in love and had three children, the eldest one Kenta is a prodigy sharing his father’s genius, and Misaki has been reprogrammed into being the children’s nanny. A Terminator from the future has been sent back to prevent Malcom’s efforts, but a female member of the remaining human resistance named Eiko is also sent to stop the Terminator plus her own mission involving Malcom. Kokoro stops Skynet from bombing Tokyo, even though the rest of the planet is decimated, plus she uses an army of early robots to take control of the panicked population while deciding to help the remaining humans with revelations of the Terminator and Eiko’s pasts from the future coming into focus. The series ends with Malcom getting killed from the Terminator with Eiko and Misaki along with all three kids exiting what’s left of Tokyo. How the story was to continue from here is up in the air, although the idea is that Kenta has a large part yet to played in a possible future.

Time travel takes a hard turn in this from most of the other Terminator outlets when here it gives its own explanation as to how the concept works, which ironically helps tie all the other movies together into a single universe, although broken off into multiple realities. There’s a scene where a prophet who leads the future human resistance explains to Eiko just before she goes back in time that whenever a Terminator or someone is sent into the past that they’re going into a completely different timeline, meaning for every time trip results in the birth of a whole different history being established, so the future the traveler originally came from is now inaccessible since their now in a totally separate history. This gives a lot of leeway to free itself from the Terminator movies to become its own story, plus it means that each of the sequel movies takes place in their own timeline like it’s a parallel universe, so you don’t have to worry about any continuity inconsistencies.

Terminator Zero borrows more from the first two Terminator flicks more than the other sequels or the cancelled Sarah Conner Chronicles. The anime doesn’t give into repeating the same lines that most Terminator tales have like “I’ll be back,” although there is the standard high-speed chase, slaughtering of a police station, and creepy moments where the victim is hiding from the mechanical murder machine. There’s also a decent amount of time spent in the dystopian future, especially in the very beginning when Eiko single handedly takes down a Terminator to get its CPU chip for her time trip. Unlike other Terminator sequels, this one does contain some serious plot twists involving time travel which haven’t really been used since the first movie. Its main advantage is having no strings attached to anything involving John Conner and the average American characters.

There is enough action in this, although there is a lot more philosophy added to the fire. A good portion of the 8-episodes has Malcom stuck in a Terminator-proof room conversing with his AI Kokoro who is split into three different goddess forms and spends most of the series listening to her creator monologuing about why Kokoro should help protect humanity and help them defeat Skynet. For all the good this is supposed to do, it doesn’t stop Skynet from bombing all but Tokyo around the globe, so the protagonist’s efforts don’t amount too much to protect the rest of the world as he was more concerned with the safety of his family.

Anime has adapted numerous other American properties like The Matrix, Highlander, Batman, Witchblade, Halo, and various Marvel Comics. Terminator Zero bucks the trend by setting its own course not tying itself too much to the original source material. Production IG did a fantastic job providing top notch animation and not resorting to having their secondary department handling the quality 2D production, even though there is impressive CGI incorporated into it. Viewing the entire series is like watching an entire 4-hour long movie as each episode leads right into the other and the main course of it takes place over the course of a few days just before and after the upcoming Judgement Day.

There is a lack of cohesion in the narrative, specifically during the first half of the series, like whenever they go to Malcom’s children walking around the mostly abandoned Tokyo trying to avoid killer robots. It’s possible that the first season of Terminator Zero was intended to be only 6-7 episodes, but having it stretched out to 8 meant a great deal of filler material had to be thrown in. This might have added to the show’s premiere not receiving the sort of ratings that would have prompted Netflix to do a second series. Even though the single season does reach an ending point, there was clearly room for more stories to tell and tighten up the uneven pace of the original.

ANI-MOVIES, *Swapped

From Nathan Greno, the director of Tangled, is this new feature Swapped, which despite what a ton of critics thought isn't trying to hitch a ride on to the same bandwagon as Disney with their recent release of Hoppers. Not to belittle the title, but this movie isn't about body-swapping, as it is more about getting changed into a totally different animal. This is the third full-length movie by Skydance Animation, and the second one to premiere directly on Netflix, plus written by John Whittington from some of the Lego and Sonic movies. This is an original story taking place in a fantasy world with imaginative creatures that look like they're out of Pokemon with some of them being part plant or mineral. There is some seriously decent world building in this and character growth which help separate it from the usual Pixar wannabe movies.

Set in a lush valley, a small island in a river is inhabited by small furry mammals called Pookoo, and the story starts off with the young Ollie starts with a tale about how the current predicament of having their harvest raided by birds called Javan is all his fault as he introduced their food to a Javan when he was younger. Once they finish up the flashback, Ollie falls down a hole and finds a magic pod left behind by a herd of colossal mammoth-like plant-hybrids known as Dzo who would use their magic to maintain harmony in the valley, although the Dzo were casted out when a deadly predator called a Firewolf set the whole place ablaze. Ollie touches the pod and is transformed into Javan, so he runs off and is found by a trio of Javan sisters one named Ivy who helped saved him from drowning. After losing the other Javans, Ollie gets some information from a large fish called Boogle that there are other body-changing pods throughout the valley. Ollie finds one but Ivy gets to it first and is accidently turned into a Pookoo, so now both of them are stuck in the form of the other with the cure being more pods which Boogle happens to know about. The nearest pods are miles away, so Ivy has to teach Olllie how to fly to get there, and this begins an amazing aerial scene. Along the way, Ollie discovers that Ivy was the Javan he met as a child which caused the birds to take over the Pookoo's rations, however they put aside their differences to avoid some hungry Treewolves which are not on fire like the Firewolf. The two of them finally find the magic pods and change back to their original forms, but its at the beginning of the third act where a twist villain shows up like Hans from Frozen which causes all the animals of the valley to come together in order to survive and defeat this new menace. It might seem a cliche, but this does actually add a daring climax to the movie.

Swapped does deliver in the way a number of other talking animal cartoon films failed to do. It isn't just a Freaky Friday clone starring some of Disney's Wuzzles, but an original concept set in a fascinating backdrop. The casting is somewhat odd with Michael B. Jordan and Juno Temple as the two main characters having to walk a mile in the other's shoes, even though it does ultimately work out in the end. It is a shame that this went straight to Netflix instead of getting a theatrical release, despite the fact that this did help K-Pop Demon Hunters into becoming a blockbuster, however Skydance Animation created a truly cinematic experience with an engaging all-ages fantasy.

MISC. MANGA, *A Centaur's Life

Kei Murayama's first big break as a manga creator was A Centaur's Life which is a slice-of-life that just happens to take place in a world of half-human creatures. Murayama's other works include a yuri sci-fi one-shot, but an entire society of demihumans in a modern day humanless Japan is also a fresh idea. If you've read Beastars or were marveled by the mixed species concept of Zootopia, then this should be of great interest.

Himeno is a shy centaur going to high school along with other fantasy beings. Her two best friends are the draconid Nozomi, plus Kyoko of the goatfolk who are in fact not satyrs. She has to deal with the advances of some of her hornier schoolmates who find her attractive because of her being slightly top heavy, although she's fairly modest compared to most fan service norms. There is no major direction for the characters to pursue as their stories are aimed at how a society of different breeds get along. The opening Chapter 0 is somewhat off kilter as it has Himeno asking Kyoko and Nozomi to check a certain part of her body which is normally impossible for a centaur to see, but she is relieved when she appears to be normal, at least compared to other centaurs. There is a strong hint of shojo-ai in this, as well as some definitive sapphic representation in further chapters, but will probably be a big draw for any lesbian fangirls. The commonplace setting of an early 21st Century metropolis is a keen idea for a manga where the entire cast is made of people you would see in an RPG monster manual.

A Centaur's Life is not for younger readers as it does involve some mature situations, although this is not an adult title either. The manga is still running in Japan and Seven Seas Entertainment is doing a fine job releasing it into English in their larger-sized graphic novels. Imagine a toned-down version of Lucky Star inhabited by Dungeons And Dragons characters, and you're set for a fun read.