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.

ANI-MOVIES, *Brother Bear

As the 44th theatrically released Disney animated movie, Brother Bear was one of the last non-CGI films the Mouse Mansion put out in cinemas. Being an original screenplay not based on any existing material like most Disney flicks, this was inspired by Inuit folklore. The story starts out fairly strong, but it really seems to go downhill once it becomes a talking animal movie. It did pull in several times its production cost back at the box office, but the film never seemed to gain any sort of lasting love even if it did get a direct-to-video sequel three years later. Phil Collins returned from Tarzan to do most of the soundtrack much the disdain of the haters, although Tina Turner adds a smashing song to it. For a 2D animated film, this was one of Disney's best since their renaissance with amazing backgrounds and underrated character movements that can flawlessly go from realistic to cartoonish at the drop of a hat.

Set sometime after the Ice Age in what would be called Alaska, a native tribe believes that divine spirits maintain order and live in the aurora borealis. Kenai is the youngest of three brothers who is finally receiving his totem which is like a rite of passage into manhood, but he is given the totem of love which his older brother Denahai gives him a hard time over it. The eldest sibling Sitka tried to maintain peace in his family, but Kenai's negligence leads to a bear stealing their food causing it to get into a fight with him which results in Sitka sacrificing himself becoming one with the spirits. Kenai goes after the bear and during the fight the bear falls on his spear, which technically means that the bear's death was theriocide and not Kenai's fault, although the great spirits have a crooked legislative system and put all the blame on Kenai by turning him into a bear. Denahai thinks that the transformed bear has killed Kenai and sets out to avenge his younger brother's demise, so Kenai now in the body of a bear runs into his tribe's shaman woman who tells him he has to go the top of a mountain miles away that reaches up to the aurora. On his way to the mountain, Kenai comes across a lone talkative bear cub named Koda who has been separated from his mother on their way to the same location, so Kenai teams up with Koda since he knows how to get to his destination. Along the way, they run into a pair of hoser moose based on SCTV's old McKenzie Bros. sketches who tag along their journey and manage to hitch a ride on some migrating woolly mammoths. Kenai and Koda run across some other bears who also travelled to see the aurora which Kenai begins to bond with the other bears and considers Koda as a little brother. Koda tells why he was on his own and Kenai realizes that the mother bear was the one he accidentally killed, so he confesses the entire truth to Kona in a scene that was entirely drowned out by Phil Collins' insistent lyrics, and Koda runs away just as Denahai finally catches up with them. The concludion has Sitka's spirit finally showing up as an eagle who transforms Kenai back into a human letting him know his bear curse has passed, but Kenai takes back his old bear totem so he can remain as an older brother for Koda. Whether or not Kenai can decide to change back into a man at will is up in the air, even though it's implied all he needs to do is take off his totem necklace.

Brother Bear was the first to start Disney's strange habit of making films where people get magically changed into animals and quite of few have noted that Pixar took this idea for their movie Brave. For a story that is supposed to take place after the Ice Age, the Inuit seem to have very up to date clothing and equipment, plus the animals use modern day concepts like pinkie swears and playing I Spy. Most of the casting is decent, although being a sucker for Strange Brew I actually appreciated Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas reprising their roles as Bob and Doug McKenzie but with antlers. One thing that is lacking in this movie is the actual "brotherhood" aspect which the film is titled after as we don't see any real bonding between Kenai and Koda until near the final act. It does dwell on some standard cartoon tomfoolery a bit too much, but it doesn't descend into immature fart jokes that most early 2000's animation seemed to be obsessed with. You will probably have an enjoyable time watching this, although whether it validates repeat viewings is up to the audience.

MISC. MANGA, *I'm In Love With The Villainess

Isekai has become the new standard for otaku, but regularly the protagonist ends up going to a world of high fantasy. I'm In Love With The Villainess does take place in a fantasy world but is slightly more up to date instead of taking place during the Middle Ages. Starting out as a light novel written by Inori and drawn by Hanagata, it was later developed into a manga in the pages of Comic Yuri Hime, a shojo-ai themed anthology mainly targeting older female readers, a market usually referred to as josei. There isn't a lot of isekai focused on sapphic relationships, so this was a refreshing change of pace, so much so that it even got an anime TV series that lasted for a single season.

Rei is an office drone whose only salvation from her dreary life is playing a dating video game for girls known as an otome game titled Revolution. After working to the point of lethal physical exhaustion, Rei is reborn in the magical world of Revolution as the 15-year-old main character, but instead of setting her sights on one of the male leads she targets the token villainess Claire, a stuck-up royal who constantly berates her for being a commoner. Despite the social abuse she receives, Rei continues to publicly make it clear that she flat out loves Claire much the hair drill schoolgirl's chagrin. The academy they both attend is a training ground for citizens to learn elemental magic in defense of their country, and Rei has proved that her MP is so immeasurable that she excels over the all the other students as far a potential is concerned, most of this was thanks to Rei playing the game this world takes place in countless times. Rei even gets a job working as Claire's maid just to be close to her which she managed by knowing her rich father's true backstory. From here Rei eventually begins to break down Claire's spoiled nature and even ends up marrying her and the two of them adopt two daughters which is pretty much the perfect outcome for a sapphic romance.

I'm In Love With The Villainess is a lesbian fangirl's dream come true, and writer Inori intended for this to represent the older shojo-ai audience, although this is still a teen-rated manga that doesn't give into fan service. The manga is very sweet and sincere in its commentary on societal issues not only for LGTBQ readers but also classism with how the elite treat the ordinary working population. The light novel story has concluded including a spinoff set in the same world, plus the anime seems to have wrapped up for now, but the manga is still ongoing, so seeing how a lesbian couple will thrive in a game-based fantasy world after they've already tied the knot should be incentive enough for any yuri fans.

MISC. MANGA, *Kaiju Kamui

Shintaro Arima created this new ongoing manga inspired by Toho monster movies and various mecha shows like Evangelion. Kaiju Kamui is almost like Kaiju No. 8 except with less humor and its more about someone actually piloting a giant monster instead of turning into one. You can see the look of recent kaiju designs in this from sources like Pacific Rim, Godzilla Minus One, and the Monsterverse franchise.

Large creatures labeled Mega-Organisms are ravaging Japan and the only main defense against them are special pilots called Link Operators who have a neural connection to their fighter jets. This new tech is called the Neural Connection Operating System and allows the user full mental control of their aircraft. After an attack by a Mega-Organism, all of the Link Operators are wiped out except for their leader, Yamato Shidou, and he is chosen by a kaiju countermeasures team to pilot their new weapon branded Kamui. The Kamui is the offspring of a former defeated kaiju that scientists had altered to be controlled by an operator placed inside a special cockpit from within the titanic body. It's now up to Yamato to use this prototype to prevent any upcoming monster attacks, even though he is still feeling the emotional loss of his squadron.

Kaiju Kamui is a refreshing idea in the kaiju genre where someone is given total control of a living monster instead of a giant mecha to fight other giants. Amira does a fine job with the mostly original creature designs so they don't just look like your average monster-of-the-week, although the author does need to work on the pacing of his story because a lot of first few chapters has an ace pilot living through one huge loss to becoming the chosen one destined to protect mankind withing in the first volume. If this ever gets adapted, it will hopefully be done in live action since tokusatsu has made some serious progress in the last few Godzilla productions.

ANI-MOVIES, *Meet The Robinsons

Unless your movie has Feebles in it, any film titled Meet The...." should be avoided at all costs, and yes that includes any Robert De Niro outing. Meet The Robinsons was Disney's 47th full-length animated theatrical release, as well as only the third one to be fully CGI that wasn't done by Pixar, and even though their previous 3D animated movie Chicken Little made twice of its budget back, this film only broke two million making it a serious dud by Disney standards. Based on William Joyce's children's book, A Day With Wilbur Robinson, this is almost a spiritual spinoff to Joyce's previous work on Fox's Robots movie as it involves atompunk elements which you might find in titles like Astro Boy or The Jetsons. For a mid-2000s all CGI production, Meet The Robinsons suffers from seriously dated graphics which Pixar had on its own perfected with their first release of Toy Story. Even Mainframe's work on Reboot and Beast Wars had better animation than this movie, and they came out over a decade before this. Another thing is that the story is stupefyingly sporadic going from one cliched cartoon gag after another following a paper-thin plot, so it's more like a tilt-a-whirl of cartoon gags sewed together in a time travel tale. The best way to describe this is that it is like watching Back To The Future: Part II without ever seeing the original chapter, but even lovers of non-linear narration won't appreciate it.

An orphaned boy named Lewis has been living in the orphanage for 12 years and still never got an adopted family, mostly because he's obsessed with learning who his real mother was and why she abandoned him. This fixation has Lewis diving into science and cobbling together whatever kind of contraption he can get from everyday objects, all of which seriously ticks off his roommate Goob who he keeps up every night with his constant tinkering. Lewis makes a memory scanner to see what his mother originally looked like from within his own memories as a baby and decides to premiere this at a school science fair, although a strange man with a bowler hat sabotages his efforts. A boy Lewis' age named Wilbur claims he's from the future and they journey several years to meet Wilbur's extensively bizarre family of the Robinsons most of which were also orphans and profoundly eccentric. Without getting into spoilers, it becomes obvious how each of these characters are relative to another across the past and the future, even though you don't have to be a Time Lord to realize that time travel doesn't work that way.

Meet The Robinsons is a mismanaged mess of a film that strings together a succession of unfunny non-sequitur cliches. The animation is rank and it's like the Mouse Mansion really didn't give a darn about making anything of genuine quality which is why Disney bought up Pixar just so they could have some type of decent 3D production. Aside from the extensive star-studded cast who make up the whole of the Robinson family which includes everyone from Tom Selleck to Adam West, there isn't any major pull for this as a large portion of the cast is made of different Disney animators and staff. Even with a time travel plot, this disorganized feature isn't worth of being a major Disney cinematic release, so don't even bother.

Rest In Power: Roger Sweet, Co-Creator of He-Man

ANI-MOVIES, *The Croods

The only way they could get Nicholas "effing" Cage to be even more Nicholas "effing" Cage was if they had him play a cartoon caveman version of himself! Directors and screenwriters Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders came up with this update on The Flinstones, but this modern stone age family don't live in a stonepunk civilization and are in constant danger of going extinct. The Croods from Dreamworks went on to make theatrical sequel, plus two separate animated TV series, one a prequel to the first and the other a continuation of the sequel movie. The 2013 film released with a booming success making more than three times its budget back from box office sales. The plan at first was to make The Croods a stop motion production with Aardman Animations at the helm and even featuring John Cleese and based it on a Roald Dahl book titled The Twits, although this wouldn't get its own animated movie until 2025 when it premiered on Netflix. Aardman instead went on to make Early Man about cavemen meeting civilized humans and starting the game of soccer, all this while Dreamworks rewrote the original pitch into their own distinct movie. Instead of ex-Monty Pythoners, the cast features Nicholas Cage as the caveman dad, Emma Stone as the rebellious older daughter, Ryan Reynolds as a lone teenager who has been surviving on his own, plus Cloris Leachman voicing yet again another grandma character which she practically made a career out of.

A prehistoric family living in the time that the continents were drifting apart, the Croods are the only remaining humans in their neighborhood as the rest of the humans were either killed by the local wildlife or died of infection. The ever-shifting landscape causes the Crood's cave collapsing, so they head out into the open world to find a new cave. The elder daughter Eep comes across the slightly more informed boy called Guy who told her about upcoming natural disasters, and gains the rest of the Crood's trust when he shows them he can make fire as well as crafting shoes out of dead animals so they can walk on bumpy terrain. The father Grug realizes he has been holding back his family by having them constantly hiding in caves instead of actually living and eventually comes around to Guy's way of thinking. The whole crew of Croods find a safe sanctuary near a tall mountain and end up adopted several different animals as pets.

The Croods is both an entertaining animated film while also being an enchanting visual experience. The character designs are standard cartoon types you would expect from a Dreamworks production from the 2010sm, but the landscape, backgrounds, and bizarre Seuss-like creatures seem like they come from a holistically different movie. The film won several animation awards, but 20th Century Fox failed to bother genuine merchandising to draw any real attention to its initial release which has made the movie a hidden gem despite all of its animated spinoffs. On its own, the original movie is an uncanny family adventure that is rewatchable.