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.

ANI-MOVIES, *How To Train Your Dragon 2

Taking place after the first theatrical movie, a few shorts, and a series on Cartoon Network, How To Train Your Dragon 2 got released four years after the original and seriously veering off the source material. Based on the book series of the same name, the sequel goes its own route once again written and directed by Dean DeBlois who made it with the intention of turning the franchise into a trilogy. It was so popular that Dreamworks is of course doing a live-action remake similar to the original. The fact there's an entire section of it in Epic Universe proves that the sequel helped add to the brand's stalwart position in family entertainment.

Set five years after the first movie, Hiccup and Toothless uncover new lands and entire islands covered in green ice. These uncovered territories are inhabited by dragon trappers who are collecting for their warlord, Drago Bludvist. Hiccup is certain he can talk Drago into giving up his tyrannical ways despite everything his father Stoick's advises him about. Along the way, Hiccup finds his mother Valka who has been hiding away in a sealed off sanctuary of dragons watched over by an alpha dragon. Valka has spent the last two decades keeping the dragons safe from Drago who wants to add them to his dragon army. After a brief reunion with Hiccup and Stoick, Drago's army attacks and takes control of the refugee dragons via his own alpha. The alpha has the ability to control other dragons and temporarily causes Toothless to kill Stoick. Hiccup and the rest of his crew make it back to Berk to stop Drago and defeating his alpha, although Drago's fate is never revealed, even in any of the expanded media.

Having Hiccup go from being the shame of his village to following in his father's footsteps as the new chief is a good direction to take the main character as he and the others have grown up. The supporting teenage characters are mostly just sort of there hanging around and not adding much to the plot, although you can see how Astrid and Hiccup's relationship has strengthened over the years. Dreamworks really upped the ante with their production which is a serious evolution from not only the original film but the animated TV series as well which was lacking int the usual Dreamworks quality. The stakes a higher here and there is a darker presence for the heroes to struggle and suffer through. The only downside is that just like the first one is that they never actually explain "how to train your dragon".

MISC. MANGA, *D'orc

With Dungeons And Dragons churning out more animated content, and the rise of isekai being a driving force in anime and manga, then D'orc might be right up your alley. Creator Brett Bean who had previously worked on I Hate Fairyland plus Rocket And Groot came up with this parody of fantasy tropes. Fans of The Dragon Prince will recognize quite a few familiar plot points and story similarities.

In the mystical realm of the Sunderaine, there lies an extended border separating the good side from the bad side of the lands. This area is known as The Scar where there is no good or evil, just ongoing fighting between various factions. However, among the rabble of different races that exist within The Scar is a half-dwarf, half-orc referred to as D'orc. This half-breed wanders the desolate landscape who is constantly trying to avoid either good warriors or bad who want him to join their side. D'orc has a living shield with a large durable eye in the center who keep trying to have him get into fights. This isn't helpful as there's a prophecy which states that the half-and-half is said to bring about the end of the world. Word of D'orc's existence come to light as the kingdoms of light and dark each send their own personal assassin to nip the prophecy in the bud.

D'orc has a modern animation design to it with the numerous other races like humans, goblins, giants, and golems dreamt up by Brett Bean's imagination. The comic has become such an underground hit that some issues are going for hundreds on Ebay and it's already up to its third printing in just a little over a month, plus it had a crossover with I Hate Fairyland. If you ever wondered what a formidable version of Gollum might be up to in Middle Earth, then you should give this romp a read.

Mecha Anime Before The 80s

When most people think of mecha anime, they usually picture hot-blooded teenagers in colorful spandex piloting large robots comprised of rocket-powered vehicles. The sub-genre of mecha was the first anime to gain international appeal, but it all began in 1963 thanks to Osamu Tezuka, otherwise known as The God Of Manga. Tezuka created a manga that ran for 16 years titled Mighty Atom, or Astro Boy as it was called in English about an android modeled after a young lad that would fly around and do normal Silver Age hero stuff, including tangling with robots and monster bigger than him. Mighty Atom was adapted into one of the first serialized anime TV series featuring some amazing character designs for the time.

The first confirmed giant robot anime series came out at the same time called Tetsujin-28 Go that was rebranded as Gigantor in America. The robot in question was originally designed by the Japanese for WWII, but the English version rewrote as taking place at the turn of the century. Tetsujin-28 was controlled by a boy with his radio watch that would battle equally big bots. The creator, Mitsuteru Yokoyama, wrote a similar manga titled Giant Robo that was turned into one of the first live action mecha shows, but out west was called Johnny Sokko And His Giant Robot.

One of the first definitive mecha superheroes was 8 Man by Kazumasa Hirai about the original cyborg crimefighter. An investigator is murdered by gangsters, so a scientist places his mind inside the body of an elite android with super-speed, plus the power to take on the forms of other people including his old human self. The kicker for this was 8 Man powered himself by smoking cigarettes which replenished his energy. Only in the 60s could they make a superhero with the hook of getting children to smoke.

A step up from this was Cyborg 009 where nine people were turned into cyborgs, each with their own unique ability intended to help the criminal organization Black Ghost. 009 and the other cyborgs rebel against their benefactors and become one of the first superhero teams in anime who would regularly tussle with super-powered agents and other technological villains.

A final mecha anime from the 60s was Flying Phantom Ship which was a full-length movie directed by future Nintendo founder Hiroshi Ikeda. This was the first anime film to be dubbed into Russian and had none other than Hayao Miyazaki working on the mecha designs. This short film had a humongous robot named Golem attacking a city as a weapon of mass destruction.

Once the 70s started, Tatsunoko Productions premiered one of the longest running anime franchises, Gatchaman, which was picked up in America by the notorious Sandy Frank who labeled it Battle Of The Planets, and was rebranded twice onwards as G-Force and then Eagle Riders. The series had a team of five teenagers with attitudes (sound familiar?) that wore bird-themed superhero outfits and used their high-tech vehicles to fight colossal mechs dispatched by the evil organization Galactor determined to rule the world. This was one the first anime to feature gritty character designs and genuine character depth, as well as young heroes putting their lives on the line for the sake of peace and willing to kill to achieve it.

Following this was the dawn of what became called the era of Super Robots. These were big bots piloted by a single daredevil sporting a silly helmet who were the only ones capable of operating the battle machine. This eventually gave way to having a team of multiple young fighters piloting a giant robot, some of which were comprised of several smaller vehicles. One of the first anime of which was Astroganger about a towering robot built to protect Earth from aliens. The downside to Astroganger was that it was an incredibly dumb robot, so a ten-year old is given the great responsibility to make sure that it didn’t trip over its own giant feet.

The show that really put Super Robots on the map was Mazinger Z created by gag manga writer Go Nagai. Here, a giant robot made of a special alloy by an eccentric scientist who died leaving control over it to his reckless biker grandson Koji to counter the devious Dr. Hell who had an entire army of mechanical monsters. Mazinger Z had some of the first toy merchandise featuring the heroic robot along with its adversaries. Following this was a sequel series titled Great Mazinger with an even more powerful mecha that would clash with monsters called the Battle Beasts. There was also a spinoff called Grendizer about a robot using a huge flying saucer to travel around in.

Another mecha show by Go Nagai was Getter Robo which is known as one of the first combined robots where a giant robot was really a trio of aircraft. Depending on which configuration was used to assemble the robot, it could take on three separate forms, each with their own particular abilities. The three pilots were all spirited young men who weekly took on the sinister forces of the Dinosaur Empire. Getter Robo would even crossover with both Mazingers in a special theatrical release, plus there was a sequel titled Getter Robo G.

Brave Raideen pioneered the transforming robot craze which marketed it as one of the biggest gimmicks in anime. In it, the Demon Empire awakens after centuries of slumber to conquer the world, and the only one who can stop them is Akira, the last surviving member of an ancient race who takes control of a robot that was built millennia ago. Raideen could change into a godlike bird, making it a first long before Transformers.

Robotic superheroes weren’t absent from the 70s as the character of Tekkaman was a space knight who surfed on top of his own transforming robot Pegas which would create an extra set of armor around his own existing suit. Tekkaman saw success later in the 90s in the Tekkaman Blade remake anime.

Dino Mech Gaiking followed this with another tale of aliens invading Earth, and a psychic baseball player is given control of the robot Gaiking which could take on a humanoid form, a dragon, a jet, and two different tanks.

Casshan is another dip in the cyborg superhero waters. This time it’s a human brain put into an android body called Casshern who now sets out to free the world from evil superpowered robots that have dominated mankind. Casshern and his faithful transforming robot dog Friender along with a hot survivor named Luna set out to take down all the enemy androids and free everyone from their maniacal rule.

Captain Harlock creator Leiji Matsumoto got in on the Super Robot craze too with his own series of Dangaurd Ace. Earthlings are looking for a new planet to colonize, and the mysterious tenth planet Promete, but the warlord Doppler has put together his own armada. It’s up to the brave Captain Dan and young Takuma to utilize Earth’s only remaining giant robot to stop Doppler’s forces. This anime also gained a large international fan base thanks to multiple foreign dubs.

Combattler V is one of the most recognized gestalt robots from this era. This was the first of a series dubbed the Robot Romance Trilogy made by Toei Animation which all had giant robots with their own colorful pilots. In Combattler V, a group called the Battle Team unite their vehicles to form a giant weapon used to protect Earth from the alien Campbell Empire and their devastating robot beasts.

The next chapter in the Robot Romance Trilogy was Voltes V, a super electromagnetic robot whose anime gained major international popularity. The evil aliens from the planet Boazan send their Beasts Knights to of course conquer the world. A scientist assembles the Voltes Team to man their big mecha and defends not only our world but liberate the aliens’ planet as well. The Boazanian Prince Heinel was given significantly more character development as a protagonist that female fans of the show demanded he get a more poetic ending instead of just dying like all other lead anime villains.

Tosho Daimos is the last part of the trilogy by Toei. This has a nobler race of aliens coming to Earth in peace seeking a new place to live, but an assassination caused both sides to declare war. A transforming robot called Daimos which can do karate is driven by Kazuya who pilots it only to try to get a date with a lovely space princess who gets amnesia and is unaware of the war between her people and Earth. There is no specific enemy in this mecha show, but there are parties working on both sides sabotaging any chance of peace.

Rounding out the 70s was the groundbreaking Mobile Suit Gundam from Sunrise which launched the entire Gundam saga. Instead of fighting supervillains or evil aliens, robots were used from two opposing forces in the solar system both stemming from Earth with both sides treating their robots as advanced military hardware to be used in war. The rebellious Zeon was trying to establish their own space empire while the unified Federation tried to maintain peace in this period of war. Most of the main characters are young people who must grow up fast defending their territory as well as their lives while trying to master piloting the tremendous Mobile Suits which is one of the first mechas to come with lightsabers. Zeon is corrupt with the vengeful Char working from within to bring them down, however his efforts form a legendary rivalry with the Gundam pilot Amuro, plus they both form one of the first anime love triangles along with Char’s love Lalah. This also leads into a new evolution in humanity called Newtypes who have the psychic ability to fully coordinate with their space-bound robots in combat.

Most of the mecha anime from the 70s might not have made anyone in America notice if it weren’t for the advent of Shogun Warriors. Mattel teamed up with Japanese toy company Popy to create some of the first diecast metal toys to be released in the US. These included robots and super vehicles from various shows like Getter Robo, Combattler V, and Great Mazinger. Aside from the diecast construction, what really grabbed the attention of toy collectors everywhere was varying sizes from 3.5 inches to a staggering 2 feet tall, making them some of the biggest action figures ever made, even though some of them had loose parts that would’ve been a choking hazard. Mattel even managed to rope Toho into letting them add giant figures of Godzilla and Rodan to their roster, so this one of the few times tokusatsu kaiju were on the same line as anime robots. There was even a Marvel Comics series set in the Marvel Comics universe where three of the mechas could share panels with the Fantastic Four. The Shogun Warriors brand has endured for decades, but with less lethal rocket launching weapons.

Many of these anime titles have eventually been brought over to the States. Some of them were given a new name and broadcast in America like Tranzor Z or the cornucopia that was Force Five. We can thank companies like Discotek Media for finding some of these long-hidden gems and releasing a great number of titles on Blu-Ray and various streaming services, including a few available legitimately on YouTube. If it weren’t for hard boiled mecha such as Getter Robo, we wouldn’t have timeless classics like Transformers or Gurren Lagaan.