ANI-MOVIES, *Appleseed Ex Machina

Appleseed was the second of Masamune Shirow's manga that got anime adaptation back in 1988. Shoot ahead to 2004 and Genesis Survivor Gaiarth director Shinji Aramaki took the reins of an all-CGI animated movie remake. Despite the dated cel shading, this Appleseed was successful enough to get a sequel in 2007 by the same studio Digital Frontier. Appleseed Ex Machina had the additional bonus as being the only animated production by action film guru John Woo, and they let you know that at the beginning of the film with a flock of doves. The animation got an upgrade, even though it still maintains that mid-00s 3D which crosses the border between great looking action but uncanny valley.

Taking place two years after the original film, mankind survived a global war by creating huge metropolises made up of not only humans, but cyborgs, and bioroids that are artificially created humanoids with enhanced abilities. One of these cities is Olympus which is threatened by terrorists, so to combat this is the special E-SWAT force, two of its officers are from the last movie, the nimble lady Deunan and her giant cyborg partner Briareos who fought by her side during the war before he lost most of his body. Briareos is taken out of action after a hostage situation, so Deunan is temporarily teamed up with Tereus, a bioroid made from Briareos' natural DNA. So, now there's a slight love triangle going on with Deunan's devotion to her true partner who happens to be a big hunk of metal, and the new guy with the same looks and behavior of the man she knew before his accident. An underground organization called Halcon threatens to destroy Olympus as they planted nanites in the latest mobile devices that mind control its victims. Halcon plans on taking control of the world's satellites to subjugate the planet, so Deunan along with her old and new partner have to launch a Matrix-styled assault on the Halcon headquarters filled with flying robot drones.

Appleseed Ex Machina is a step up for a cyberpunk feature finally bringing some high-octane action to the mix and abandoning the heavy exposition that weighed down the 2004 movie. It's clear that Shinji Aramaki borrowed a little from the Wachowskis when he turned up the volume on the fight scenes, however you still get a gratifying feeling after watching it. The best thing about this movie is that you can see it on its own without seeing the original, in fact it's probably better if you don't. Aramaki followed this up a few years later with a pseudo-prequel titled Appleseed Alpha which was more of a post-apocalyptic flick instead of a cyberpunk thriller, but you could also skip that and just enjoy this one.

MISC. MANGA, *You & Me

Most American otaku from the 90s might be familiar with Hiroshi Aro's manga, Futaba-Kun Change, which was a gender-bending madcap comedy done as an homage to Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma 1/2, but one of his other titles managed to briefly appear on American bookshelves that also honored Takahashi's work, You And Me which was his own take on Maison Ikkoku. Hiroshi Aro has had the entirety of Futuba-Kun Change available in English on formats like Kindle, but You And Me only got seven single issues with no collected paperback when Studio Ironcat translated it in 2002 as the company eventually went defunct under the label IC Entertainment. The original Japanese title for this was Yuu And Mii which of course means "you and me", and oddly enough there is an unrelated manga titled You And Me, Etc., but this version is more of a fast-paced gag series filled with a constantly moving parade of mature situations.

Yuu is what's referred to as a ronin which is someone who has troubling getting into a university, so he moves into his own apartment to concentrate on studying, however his apartment building called Yaninarisou is filled with the peak of strange neighbors. For one thing, Yuu discovers he has a roommate named Mii who is the ghost of a sexy girl that doesn't mind randomly getting naked. Among the other spooky inhabitants are a musclebound shojo manga creator, a creepy loner who longing to make friends, another ronin who truly needs a haircut, an ex-masked female wrestler, and the landlord who always wears midieval armor. Mii takes a serious liking to Yuu and makes his life even more hectic than a teenage ronin could normally handle. From here, Yuu tries to keep his sanity while studying for college, fending off his horny dead roomie, and the other weirdos in this supernatural looney bin.

You And Me is on its own a spastic comedy that never slows down to get into anything deep like character backstory, so it's pretty good for today's swipe left generation. Other historical gag manga like Dr. Slump and Crayon Shin-Chan have gained fans over the decades, but they also had popular anime to back it up. You And Me is one of those lost manga that saw a glimpse on the other side of the Pacific which never got a good enough chance to develop a following.

R.I.P., Daveigh Chase

 

ANI-MOVIES, *Taro The Dragon Boy

In 1960, Miyoko Matsutani created a popular children's book titled Taro The Dragon Boy that went on to have its own anime series in the mid-70s. Cutting ahead to 1979, Toei Animation did an animated movie based on the book which was directed by the studio founder Toei Daga. Columbia Home Pictures picked up the movie for an American release, and it recently got distributed by Discotek Media. The English dub does have some voice over royalty with Taro being portrayed by Billie Lou Watt who originally did the voices of both Astro Boy and Kimba, but another actor that most people weren't aware of was none other than Earl Hammond as the Red Demon who any fan of Rankin/Bass will know as the voice of Mumm-Ra and Mon-Star. This is a simple tale not bogged down with any recurring villain and is more about a young boy's redemption with expressive scenery and kooky characters.

Centuries ago in Japan, a young boy named Taro lies around all day while his grandmother works in the dried up fields in their village. Tora's mother was turned into a dragon because she violated the law of the mountains and ate all the fish she caught and didn't share them with anyone even though she was pregnant at the time and working on her own as a widow. After giving birth to Taro, the mama dragon became blind and is spirited away to another lake leaving her son behind. Taro is out one day and meets a Tengu that gives him some of his private hooch which gives Taro superhuman strength but only when he uses it to help others. Taro befriends Aya, a girl from a neighboring village who gets taken away by the well-meaning Red Demon, but Aya is kidnapped by the larger Black Demon. The Red Demon helps Taro defeat Black Demon after he falls to his death, even though that never stopped a certain coyote, then Taro throws Red Demon up to the clouds where he can play his drums and basically is this movie's version of Raijin. Taro then goes on a crusade to find his dragon mother and along the way helps depose a wicked rice farmer who doesn't share any of her loot with any of her workers. Taro gets frozen by some snow women, but Aya shows up on a flying pony they freed from Black Demon. They find the lake where Taro's mother dwells, and they free her from the curse.

Taro The Dragon Boy is a slight deconstruction of various Japanese myths and legends, particularly with yokai playing a notable role in this story. The film is not exactly high fantasy, but clearly not set in the ordinary world as it has talking animals and magical beings. Even though its based on a children's story, it's not completely for kids as there is some blatant nudity showing up here and there. If tales of the Monkey King stir your pot, you'll discover a likable hero in Taro.

ANI-MOVIES, *The Wonderful World Of Puss 'N Boots

Charles Perrault had adapted numerous children's stories such as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, both of which had a young girl getting help from an outsourced miracle worker, but when it came time for Puss 'N Boots instead of it being a divine fairy it is a clever fast-talking cat with impressive attire who assists a young boy get the girl of his dreams. Toei Animation released their own musical adaptation in 1969 titled The Wonderful World Of Puss 'N Boots that was so successful that they turned the title character into the official company mascot. Directed by Kimio Yabuki who a year before did The World Of Hans Christian Andersen for Toei, the film stays fairly true to the original book up until a point but then the finale has a long chase sequence that went on to inspire numerous animators, including some of the movie's animation crew which was made up of Studio Ghibli's Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. The film spawned a few extra anime features starring the fashionable cat, but this movie was the start of the whole craze, and its cartoonish style became a source of innovation for future Japanese productions including anime and video games.

In this version of beloved fairy tale, the puss in question is named Pero who lives in a kingdom of cats, and he becomes an outlaw after sparing the life of a young mouse which the film never bothers to show. Now on the run from a trio of henchcats, Pero teams up with the young Pierre who is cast out by his two older brothers after they cheat him out his inheritance. Pero hears that the King is looking for a rich man to marry the Princess, so he gets the idea to have Pierre appear as a prince so they can live the high life. Conscripting some help from a family of bandit mice, Pero arranges for Pierre to gain an audience with the Princess Rosa, although she already had another suitor stop by before him named Lucifer who turns out to be an ogre that uses a skull-shaped pendant to do magic and take on any form he wants including a rip-off of King Ghidorah. Unlike his fairy tale counterpart, Pierre decides to tell Rosa the truth that he's not really a rich prince, which works out okay for him as Rosa already had feelings for him. However, Lucifer appears and kidnaps Rosa turning the film into a "save the princess" story that the Mario Bros. made a career out of. The story gets to the point where Pero cons Lucifer into taking on the form of a mouse where in the source material Puss eats the mouse, but instead Lucifer changes back to his tall ogre form and the last 20 minutes are a huge pursuit around Lucifer's castle with all its various traps and revolving towers. Pierre catches up to Rosa and the expose Lucifer's pendant to sunlight which destroys the lusty ogre, and then the couple get married and live happily ever after while Pero is still being chased by the three henchcats sent to kill him.

Unlike the Shreck spinoff movie, Toei's take on Puss 'N Boots is more faithful to the original story with the addition of more swashbuckling and some familiar cat and mouse shenanigans. Either due to the bumbling henchcats or the mouse family, the plot is constantly in motion, and even the English-translated catchy music numbers are competent enough to keep up with Disney's quality. This is a confirmed all-ages feature that's good enough to entertain even the kids of today with dynamic movement and thrilling cartoon action.

Batman Yells At Cloud

ANI-MOVIES, *Mulan

From the 17th Century book of Wu Shuang Pu, the story of Hua Mulan has endured for centuries, so since Disney was looking to making their next features more appealing to Eastern audiences, they thought this story willed fit the bill. Former Hanna-Barbera animator Barry Cook and one-time Ralph Bakshi assistant Tony Bancroft both directed Mulan in 1998. For a saga that spans over a decade, the film tightens it up to an 88-minute-long feature too overloaded with comedy to be considered an epic adventure. Not winning any Oscars, Mulan did become a big hit with Millennials and eventually Gen-Z children. Despite the gender-bending qualities of the story, it didn't exactly become the pinnacle of trans representation you would expect, even though Donny Osmond's contribution to the soundtrack practically became an LGBTQ battle cry. The success of it went on to a made-for-video sequel plus a completely irrelevant live-action remake that nobody asked for. Mulan herself was of course drafted into the unconnected Once Upon A Time series, as well as being added to the Disney Princess line-up even though she's not a princess, this was despite the fact that the title character is rarely the focus of the story, similar to Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. A good portion of the plot is enraptured with the comic relief and side characters, so the comedy distracts from the coming-of-age war story it could have been.

Taking place during the 4th-6th Century in China, the Hun army led by the ruthless Shan Yu invade mostly because he hated the fact that they put of the Great Wall just to keep him out. All the active males are to be enlisted into the Imperial Army, but the head of the Fa family is still suffering from an old wound, so his rebellious daughter Mulan takes his armor and pretends to be his son Ping. This doesn't set well with the Fa family ancestors who plan to send a powerful dragon spirit to help her, but the demoted jive-talking minor dragon Mushu uses this as a chance to earn his spot back among the guardian spirits. Mushu and a lucky cricket eventually catch up to Mulan and help her blend in with the other men, especially with the Captain Li Shang and three of the more stooge-like soldiers. Mulan manages to keep her secret up until an encounter with the Huns on a mountaintop has her burying the entire enemy army under an avalanche, and her wound caused her comrades to discover her feminine side, so she is sent home by Li Shang without being reprimanded. Shan Yu and a few of his stronger men survive the snowslide and plan on sneaking into the imperial palace and kidnap the emperor which Mulan notices. She tries to get her former comrades in arms to believe her about the incoming danger, but they brush her off, so Mulan stops the remaining Huns and blows up Shan Yu in an explosion of fireworks. Mulan is praised by the emperor and has Li Shang follow her home because they never really set up a romance between the two of them.

Mulan seems like it should fit into Disney's blockbuster roster, but even the famed Szechuan Sauce can't erase many of its blatant faults. The soundtrack is limited with only 4 songs for a picture that is billed as a musical, and only one of those is remembered for Disney fans to sing loudly at convention karaoke sessions. The characters are interesting, but the main character is drowned out by the extended cast, so since this is Disney heroine that already had two animal sidekicks, the addition of her knucklehead trio of army buddies and the bickering bureaucrat outweigh any potential that Mulan might have earned on her own, but at least she didn't have magic powers in this version. The cast is decent with regular voice actors such as James Hong, George Takei, and June Foray, plus Ming-Na Wen makes her animated premiere here as Mulan, but the outplaced Eddie Murphy and several other Chinese characters being played by white actors doesn't help. The breakout of the film is the animation which was the first movie to be completed in the Walt Disney World studio as opposed to in Hollywood. Mulan on its own works as a single feature but trying to make a cheap sequel and a flimsy remake stretched its credulity.