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 started 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.

Twilight Of The Gods: The Unfulfilled Ragnarok

Aside from Tales Of The Black Freighter and Legend Of The Guardians, Zack Snyder has only dabbled in animation. Since he directed the Dawn Of The Dead remake, Snyder created a long line of live-action films mostly based on comic books. His studio of Stone Quarry Inc. produced their first TV series title, Twilight Of The Gods, inspired by Norse folklore which would be entirely animated, and largely in 2D. Hand-drawn animation is rare nowadays such as Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal, so to have a streaming title using this same approach is almost like finding a real-life unicorn. This series is co-produced with the French animation studio, Xilam Animation SAS, which was previously behind Kaena: The Prophecy and I Lost My Body. Zack Snyder conceived the series when showrunner Jay Olivia was writing another animated show for Netflix titled Teres, and they worked on this together for a Netflix premiere while Snyder was making his Rebel Moon duology. After a single season of 8 episodes in 2024, it wasn’t until a year later that Netflix decided to cancel the series, partially due to their own original animated productions not paying off as well as some of their direct-to-streaming offerings like K-Pop Demon Hunters.

This is not a kids’ animation. There is a ton of violence, sex, and hardcore violence with no hiding behind cliches or euphemisms. The fact that this is a Viking tale is also an excuse for presenting life as brutal as possible in a world with monsters and mad gods. The animators seriously focused on detail when it came to the epic fighting scenes utilizing magic and superhuman efforts. Twilight Of The Gods goes for the gusto in the action sequences, and the score by Hans Zimmer adds even more light to the fire. Some of the sex scenes are more overt that normal, but it doesn’t shame the relationships between those of the same sex, bisexual, or any transgender characters.

The story has the female warrior Sigrid who is a half-giant princess that left her homeland to explore her human mother’s country which is under sieged by a warlord. Another clan led by King Leif also attacked the warlord at the same time and he falls in love with Sigrid, although they spend some time together before getting married because Leif’s father won’t sanction it since she can’t conceive an heir. Sigrid takes Leif to her village of giants where they are to be married, but none other than the gods Thor and Baldr crash the party looking for Loki who is disguised there as a small lizard. The giants battle Thor for his rowdy attitude, and the thunder god completely decimates all of them aside from Sigrid and Leif who Baldr allows to go uncounted for some reason. Loki brings Sigrid down to Hel where he and his daughter Hel of the same name offer Sigrid a chance for revenge against Thor, although Loki’s deal is ambiguous as he has his own plans which are to alter the destiny of Ragnarok where his children are killed off.

This set up has Sigrid assembling a band of warriors to help her slay Thor including Sigrid’s fellow shieldmaiden Hervor, the rune-crafting poet Egill in Leif’s debt, the witch Aile with her wolf-man partner Ulfr, and later the dwarf Andvari who provides them with god-killing weapons and joins them as he has a secret grudge against Loki for causing the death of his brother. The band of six go to Vanaheim to get passage into Asgard when bargaining with the Vanir who are the gods that lost in the first war against Odin, Thor, and the rest of what’s called the Aesir. After a misunderstanding, Sigrid’s forces team up with the Vanir, other giants, and a pack of wolves unite to launch a frontal assault against Asgard.

The finale has Sigrid’s army attacking Asgard over several days. Meanwhile, Aile is meeting with Odin who wants to know the future, and she shows him the Norse gods being replaced by Christianity. Afterwards, Aile is reborn as a new god while Baldr is killed trying to save Thor from Sigrid which is the prophesized beginning of Ragnarok. Thor’s mother Freya takes him to Valhalla as Loki kills Sigrid so she can follow him. Sigrid awakens in a huge hall with several fallen warriors having a good time, and Thor casually tells her that this is just the beginning, even though this is where the season abruptly ends.

Despite the high praise and good ratings, Netflix waited for over a year to announce they weren’t going to renew Twilight Of The Gods for a second season leaving many people hanging as to what was next to come for the characters and the series. Netflix is notorious for doing this with many of their original shows, but most of them get at least a second season before getting a definitive cancellation. Considering all the high-ranking talent behind it, Netflix wasn’t confident enough to allow a continuation. This might have been because there was a minimum of advertising put behind this since Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon series didn’t perform as well as what was projected, so Netflix was hesitant to give it a full promotional campaign. Also, Netflix already had a similar animated series that vividly told the story of another pantheon, Blood Of Zeus, which might have deterred any prospective viewers from giving it a chance.

Twilight Of The Gods had very much going for it. There were the original character designs, the classic fantasy plot of a handful of misfit heroes on a quest against overwhelming odds, the lightning-fast action, and it broke all the barriers when it came to over the top carnage as it has battles that make The Boys and Invincible seem like a thumb war. To me, this was the best adaptation of Norse mythology which is true to the gods’ vanity and how their petty feuds would cause nothing but turmoil for any mortals caught in the crossfire. Marvel Comics never even came close to representing the divide between the divine and mankind. Hopefully, Zack Snyder will find a way to continue this saga at through a different avenue as the creators of The Dragon Prince managed to. It at least deserves a full-length movie that acts as a grand finale.

ANI-MOVIES, *Inside Out

Apparently, no one told Pixar that when they were making their first Inside Out animated movie that there already was a sitcom titled Herman's Head that they shamelessly ripped the idea off from. The concept of someone's entire self being controlled by different aspects of their personality in one big starship bridge right out of Star Trek isn't totally new as Disney had done this before in the 40s, even though this production stretched the idea out to a full-length feature which works against it in several ways as the film has to layout a lot of filler material to maintain a steady pace. This is one of those Pixar films that expects you to just believe a metric ton of things upfront in order to move the story forward, like how in Cars there are no humans or in Toy Story where all the toys are alive for no explained reason. This was an appealing idea for a movie, but most who saw it were distracted by Pixar's cliched attempts at humor to notice the gaping plot holes in it. Director Peter Docter pretty much recycled this whole move when he created the future Pixar movie Soul.

A young girl named Riley is moving to San Francisco where she has to deal with conflicting emotions of losing her old friends and surviving in a new home. This internal struggle takes on the forms of five beings operating a panel within Riley's head including Disgust, Fear, Anger, Joy, and Sadness who accidently lose some of their hosts core memories, so Joy and Sadness get shafted out of the control room to find the lost memories in the form of glowing orbs. Riley's head consists of different theme parks representing things she cherishes such as family and zaniness which all begin to crumble as Joy and Sadness fail to get back to headquarters and even results in the definitive death of her imaginary friends. Joy and Sadness do eventually make it back to the central hub through of Riley's subconscious and help her stabilize and deal with her new surroundings, even though the audience is never given any idea whatsoever the effect of having entire parts of her mind just disintegrated and why this poor girl isn't lying in a coma for most of the film.

Inside Out does make up for its bad pacing with Pixar's stellar animation. It's an entertaining enough feature for children with all its bright colors and fluid animation even if much of the material going over most kids' heads, and some adults can relate to their past experience growing up. However, there is little compelling to this story, and the main characters is slightly bland who has no control over her own life as it's under the absolute domination of bickering inner emotions. The obscure vagueness that Pixar decides to once again rehash when they create some new take on the common world with living toys or cars is getting stale. This film also misleads people into thinking that sadness can only be lifted if they get help from someone else instead of relying on yourself to find your own steady ground. Inside Out was a big enough hit for Disney to make a sequel to, but then they also never released that Dumbo continuation they were planning either.

ANI-MOVIES, *Inu-Oh

Hideo Furukawa wrote a novel about a true feudal Noh dancer called Inu-Oh. Science Saru made this into a rock opera in 2021. Much about Inu-Oh’s life was unknown, so the book and the film took several liberties with his history.

A boy named Tomona is blinded when his father finds an ancient sword and spends years training to become a biwa player. He comes across a deformed lad who calls himself Inu-Oh, the cursed son of a Noh performer. Tomona discovers that Inu-Oh is haunted by the spirits of deceased soldiers who want their stories to be told, so the two of them put together the equivalent of a rock concert with theatrics telling one of the deceased warriors’ tales which slowly help Inu-Oh become more human. They gain great success, but the newly formed government forces them to tell only stories that meet their approval. This leads to Tomona being slain for rebelling with Inu-Oh waiting 600 years to find his old friend’s spirit.

Inu-Oh is an insane musical which you will need to watch in Japanese with subtitles to understand them. The Noh performance merged with biwa music is the equivalent of a Queen concert. Masaaki Yuasa of Devilman Crybaby fame directed this madcap animation feast for the eyes that has a rocking soundtrack and picturesque visuals.

R.I.P., James Tolkan. A true Master of the Universe

ANI-MOVIES, *Animalympics

In what could be the first American animated compilation movie, Animalympics was originally supposed to be a pair of TV specials done for the 1980 Summer and Winter Olympics. The winter one aired and received a few awards, but because Jimmy Carter boycotted the summer games after an incident with Russia, the second special never aired. It was aired during the next Olympic games on cable TV but this time as a single film, which is strange because they had summer and winter sports in the same place at the same time. Directed by Steven Lisberger who would go on to create Disney’s Tron franchise, this was animated by his own production company. The film works well enough as a collected edition, although the entire film is collage of sketches done that you would normally catch in one of those old Tex Avery cartoons where the entire thing is like a newsreel, even though stretching that out to 78 minutes might be pushing a little. The film had a gaggle of actors with Gilda Radner doing most of the female characters, future Mr. Burns voice Harry Shearer, Billy Crystal doing his best Howard Cosell impression, and audiophile Michael Fremer doing at least half the cast. Much of animation is reminiscent of Looney Tunes and some of the Goofy cartoons that spoofed sports documentaries. A good portion of the film is padded out with musical numbers, some of which are dream sequences or trippy scenes to get high with.

The entire plot is really a telecast of the first ever Animalympics from Animalympics Island which was originally the lost city of Atlantis. There are no humans in this reality, just anthropomorphic animals that managed to live together in peace before Zootopia even got out of the stable. The network covering this is ZOO with several different reporters and news anchors. Some of the athletes have a whole story behind them like a dog skier getting lost in a Shangri-La type land in the mountains, plus a daring bird countess who wins a fencing match. The one segment that gets the most attention is a marathon that goes on for several days between a French goat and an African lioness who run together over the finish line after falling in love with each other. There are jabs at pop culture of the time like disco which aged badly when the movie finally released, plus some of the characters were analogs of celebrities like John Travolta or Muhammad Ali that were dated.

The film was a launching pad for future animators including Brad Bird of The Iron Giant, Roger Allers of The Lion King, plus Bill Kroyer who joined Disney to do the CGI effects for Tron. Most of the humor is lost on younger viewers even in the 80s since it was mostly written during the late 70s. The soundtrack is slightly memorable, but the entire film is random vignettes tied together like an episode of Wild World Of Sports, so the attention span on any real plot is as sporadic as a roller coaster off the rails. Animalympics is more of a great study case for young enterprising animators than an entertaining theatrical production, although it did awaken the furry fetish for a whole generation.