Frieren: The Story So Far

Elves in anime are not uncommon. Ever since we met the high elf Deedlit in Record Of Lodoss War, elves have been a staple in various fantasy titles, usually isekai. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End on the other hand is a genuine high fantasy with no otherworldly reincarnations or portal fiascos. Based on a manga written by Kanehito Yamada and drawn by Tsukasa Abe, Frieren focuses on a thousand-year-old elf who is one of the last of four heroes that embarked on a decade-long quest to defeat the standard demon king, who here is actually called The Demon King. The pitch is how a long-living elf gets by in the world as an obscure mage who most people have forgotten about from her past adventures, despite the fact that elves are slowly going extinct on this mystical continent and there aren’t that many other elves around to confuse her with.

An anime based on this came out in 2023 with the first season of this show going on for 28 episodes which is a few episodes longer than most first seasons. The second season recently premiered with as much buzz behind it as the previous one. The fandom that the show has developed is strong, although there is a grand deal of resistance from those who tried to talk their anime friends into it.

The most divisive thing about the series is that there is a large amount of wandering around in the first season which is what made a lot of Star Wars fans from bothering with Lord Of The Rings. After the elderly death of the heroes’ party leader Himmel, Frieren is trying to find a new purpose in her life when she’s not looking for lost grimoires to pick up new spells to help make everyday life a little easier. Many newcomers might think of the anime as being a slice of life story that happens to take place in a Dungeons And Dragons world, but if they bothered to get through the entire first season they would see there is some deep lore and character development.

World building could also be a contributing factor as to why some otaku were put off by it. There is an inordinate number of flashbacks to Frieren’s original party during their crusade, even more flashbacks than in an episode of Kung Fu. Plus, every, and I mean every character has a backstory which is fine for the regulars but for the ones that show up the one time or are just passing though, it gets more than a little repetitive. The anime is a slow burn, however if the first season is extended by several episodes and concludes with a self-contained story arc, then the patients of the average viewer are seriously tested.

The main plot has Frieren running into the last surviving members of her party, the occasionally sober priest Heiter and the sturdy dwarf Eisen, each of which has their own protege that Frieren adds to her company. She first becomes the mage teacher of Fern who is a purple-haired girl that Heiter adopted and spends a few years training in her own particular brand of folk magic. The second one to join them is Stark, Eisen’s former pupil who is a nervous but ultimately strong warrior. The trio go from the southern part of their continent to the north where the souls of the dead are said to be and Frieren hopes to see Himmel’s spirit. The problem is that this is the area originally ruled by the slayed Demon King whose forces are running amok vying for whatever territory or power they can seize, and on top of that they need to have a first class mage to proceed there, so Frieren and Fern have to spend many episodes just trying to pass improbable tests while competing against other mages also hoping to gain a license.

Along the way they run into various strangers, Frieren’s former acquaintances, and the occasional but temporary additions to their party. Taking into account all of these character’s origin stories and the bountiful flashback, the story does tend to drag on at points. Even some of the characters who show up briefly during the school test saga that we got to know the personal history of are immediately dismissed away by the judgmental elf Serie leaving you to wonder what the point of was getting to know them at all. Remember though that the series is ongoing and they might show up again to take part in some future chapter, like the only male elf Kraft briefly making a few scant scenes whose acts with another human helped motivate additional party member Sein into become an adventurer more than likely has a larger role to play in an upcoming scenario. Considering that this story spans decades, there’s also room to transform guest characters into part of the full-time cast.

As far as the quality of the show itself is concerned, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End does have consistently good 2D animation with only the occasional use of CGI. Madhouse is the studio behind the anime’s beautiful aesthetics, and this really comes through during the occasional boss battle. Season 1 director Keiichiro Saito had already proved his mettle when he did Bocchi The Rock and presented this initial installment as a revolutionary step up for a contemporary fantasy series. The soundtrack by Evan Call is also noteworthy.

The anime has customary dangling plot threads like if Fern and Stark will couple up, Frieren possibly embracing her status as the highest level mage in the land and actually stop being a big sleepyhead, Sein eventually meeting up with his old friend, where the mage exam’s winners and losers will end up, and what probable lurking evil is waiting for the party of heroes once they reach the Demon King’s castle. Like Frieren’s sturdy luggage, this anime is intended to last quite a while, although hopefully not as in an endless saga like One Piece which episode count has gone past 1000. Keep in mind that the story is still a work in progress, so as a wise wizard might’ve paraphrased, “There is no journey’s end because nothing ever ends.”

ANI-MOVIES, *The King And The Mockingbird

Similar to The Thief And The Cobbler, The King And The Mockingbird was an animated film that went unfinished for decades. Initially based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Shepherdess And The Chimney Sweep, director Paul Grimault began production of this in France in 1948, but within a few years the funds dried up, so an incomplete version of the film was released in 50s. For the next two decades Grimault was able secure ownership of the movie and add on to it along with most of his original animation crew so he would have his film fully realized and premiered it in theaters in 1980. For a production that was stretched out over generations, you can see some of the early days of cartoons influence put into it, over time however it became more distinct and hallucinatory. The movie became so well regarded that some of the founders of Studio Ghibli were inspired by it, although it didn't hurt at all that there was a huge mecha in it too. The King And The Mockingbird hasn't been given an English dub as of yet, but there was one of the incomplete edition released in 1957 under the title The Curious Adventures Of Mr. Wonderbird with Sir Peter Ustinov giving another melodramatic performance as the titular bird, and this version is in the public domain for all to enjoy.

A progressive modern kingdom is ruled over by the serendipitously named King Charles who is a tyrant that locks his unwanted subjects in a city underneath the palace and hastily dispatches any who defy him in one of the hundreds of conveniently-place trap doors he had built all over the place. One night, a painting of the King comes to life and sends King Charles down a trap never to be seen again, and the new false King takes his place as he is lusting after a beautiful shepherdess who left her own painting along with her lover, a young chimney sweep. Meanwhile, Mr. Wonderbird has a vendetta against the original king for shooting the mother of his children, so the large talking bird uses his wisdom and charismatic speaking into helping the couple escape along with the rest of the kingdom's people. The fact that the King has an entire menagerie of amusing toys to stop all who oppose him including a giant robot and cronies with working bat-winged flying suits doesn't help the innocent heroes from living under the fake King's thumb, but Wonderbird manages to gain control of the mechanized monstrosity and uses it to destroy the castle with all the former subject including the living painting couple forming a quaint new village for themselves.

The King And The Mockingbird has a surrealistic vision to it where we get to see much of the world building than we do of the characters. The beautiful craftsmanship that went into the character designs which their body language combined with the superb fairy tale backdrop blends together for a complete package considering that the film took longer to complete than nearly any other animated production. The mixing of cartoon physics of illustrations coming to life and bringing the downfall of an evil empire with advanced technology makes this one of the few fairypunk genre films ever made.

ANI-MOVIES: *Ultraman: The Adventure Begins

You might've seen Netflix's recent reboot of the Tsuburaya Productions' tokusatsu franchise, but the first time the Ultra Series was specifically animated for English audiences was in 1987 in a combined project between them and Hanna-Barbera of all people. Ultraman: The Adventure Begins was the second attempt to remake Ultraman for foreign audiences after a live-action film was made for Thailand in the 70s that created an entire licensing fiasco, but for Tsuburaya's first animation they made for outside Japan it was done by Ashi Productions and Studio Sign in a feature-length movie that was supposed to be the pilot for a TV series, although it never got picked up and the movie only got a limited release on VHS in the 90s. Recently, Mill Creek Entertainment had a Blu-Ray release of the film, but with a whole new English dub. The original dub included an all-star cast including Adrienne Barbeau and Stacy Keach Sr. along with regular animated voice actors from the 80s like Charles Adler and William Callaway. Mill Creek's release of the film has standard modern actors such as Kellen Goff and Caitlan Glass, plus for some reason there are no subtitles on the Japanese track of the Blu-Ray with no closed captioning. Originally titled in Japan as Ultraman USA, the film didn't even get released there until two years after its American premiere, but copies of it did include the first English dub, so there appears to be some sort of licensing kerfuffle between Mill Creek and Tsuburaya.

Taking place in a somewhat advanced version of the 80s similar to what you would see on GI Joe, three stunt pilots all survive an air crash caused by a spontaneous burst of light. They then get a call to come to a golf club in Georgia which is secretly the headquarters of a groundskeeper who somehow has ties to benevolent aliens and tells the pilots that they're no bonded with superpowered giants that appear when big monsters are around. Conveniently, three giant monsters happen to be running amok all over America, so the newly dubbed Ultra Force (no relation to the Malibu Comics series of the same name) take off from their new base set in Mount Rushmore with Lincoln's mouth acting as a runway. One of the monsters is a botanical nightmare while the other is an electrical abomination that the Ultra Force defeats. The last of the three monsters is really just a baby hippo-like dinosaur that the Ultra-Force send off to a peaceful planet. However, one other monster appears which begins to keep evolving every few minutes and attacks New York, which might have explained why this movie was in limbo for years as the World Trade Center is featured prominently during the kaiju rampage. The Ultra Force turn into their giant silver forms to stop the monster which gets new superpowers including phasing and cloaking until the only way to stop the kaiju is to quickly drop it into the sun before it grows to being the size of a planet. There's the hint of possible more adventures for the Ultra Force, but this was all she wrote as far as a sprawling space opera.

Tsuburaya's franchise has had better success in Japan with its various releases in English, even though most people might confuse Ultraman with SSSS Gridman which has similar character designs. The American-designed production had some prime animation incorporated into it and the Blu-Ray was given a quality release for an anime forty years old, although you're better off catching this on streaming since Mill Creek botched the hard copy, but make sure you get a bootleg Ultra Force t-shirt.

Cybersix: The First Animated Trans Superhero

In 1991, Argentinian writer Carlos Trillo and artist Meglia put together their original title of Cybersix in the pages of the Italian comics magazine Skorpio. This wasn’t an adult comic book, but was certainly not intended for younger readers, so it’s strange that 8 years later it would get turned into an American Saturday Morning cartoon show. Premiering on Fox in 1999, this 13-episode TV series was produced by the Canadian-based Network Of Animation and animated by TMS Entertainment which is the same anime studio that prior to this gave us Lupin III, The Rose Of Versailles, Cobra, Sherlock Hound, and Magic Knight Rayearth. TMS also contributed to several American productions like Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Duck Tales, Inspector Gadget, The Real Ghostbusters, Animaniacs, Little Nemo, Mighty Orbots, and Tiny Toons. The series director was Toshihiko Masuda who has worked in everything from Thundercats to Death Note, and he carried TMS’ fluid style of animation throughout the entire series. TMS regularly handles some of the animation of various American animated projects, but in Cybersix they were given much more freedom to show the world how their attention to detail and slick style shines when it puts the pedal to the metal.

The premise for Cybersix was pretty revolutionary for its time, decades ahead of the curb as far as the depiction of unconventional life choices. The main character was originally a young boy who was transformed into a cybernetic woman named Cybersix, part of a type of artificial humanoids called Cybers created by the ex-Nazi scientist Von Reichter. The criminal mastermind is constantly trying to take over the coastal town of Meridiana with his genetically engineered monsters. Von Reichter’s schemes are constantly thwarted by Cybersix who wears a dramatic outfit of black leather, a wide brimmed hat, and profoundly long cape which she uses as a parachute. Cybersix hides her nocturnal activities by taking on the identity of a high school literary teacher, and a male one at that named Adrian, so Cybersix is not only a transgender character but a cross-dresser as well.

Before the animated series came out, Cybersix had a live-action TV adaptation made for Argentinian audiences even though the title character didn’t have her eye-catching ensemble and was played by a model. The first series was quickly cancelled due to low ratings, but somewhere along the way TV developers Judy Valyi and Barry Whittaker managed to convince the production companies of three separate countries to invest in the creation of an animated series. The cartoon premiered on Fox Kids in America, Teletoon in Canada where it was dubbed, plus Kids Station in Japan. The American version was heavily edited, and not all 13 episodes were shown on Fox even though they did give it a decent enough advertising campaign. This became one of those lost 90s animated series like The Legend Of Calamity Jane which came and went within a short period of time, so it never got the kind of attention that heroes like Batman or X-Men received.

The original Argentinian comic was published in Italian and later Spanish but has never had an official English translation. The comic was an elaborately mature title with sexual situations. Cybersix was one of the only surviving test subjects of Von Reichter’s experiments called Cybers, and Von Reichter wants to claim her back. Other creations were his Datas that are similar to Cybers put in animal form, as well as the Technos which look the most human, and the most common ones are the Fixed Ideas which are hulking big thugs who carry out Von Reichter’s grunt work and resemble Frankenstein including the female ones. Whenever Cybersix defeats one of these minions, they’re reduced to a vile of green liquid which she consumes for sustenance just like a vampire which is an idea that got left out of the TV series after the first episode, otherwise you’d have a main character who kills monsters only to leech off their life energy. One of the Datas was given the brains of Cybersix’s brother who had them put into the body of a panther named Data-7 who eventually becomes her sidekick.

The original artist Carlos Meglia started out as an artist for the Skorpio magazine and then as an animator on shows like Scooby-Doo and Smurfs. He teamed up with writer Carlos Trillo on a comic titled Irish Coffee involving paranormal investigations. Trillo came up with the idea about a Nazi scientist who escaped the SS by having his brain transplanted into a different body on two separate occasions. The character designs are reflections of old pulp fiction heroes like The Shadow and Miss Fury which worked well in comparison with Batman: The Animated Series which was equally inspired by the early Fleischer Studios’ Superman cartoons. The Cybersix comic had a gratuitous amount of nudity in them which is common for a few European publications. The short-lived live-action series did help get the ball rolling on Cybersix’s progression into an American animation. TMS Entertainment did a spectacular job honoring the original comic’s style with long flowing shots in action scenes and breathtaking fight choreography. The character designs maintain that of Carlos Meglia’s original incarnations combined with TMS’ crisp animation.

Cybersix was a major attraction for those seeking transgender representation in animation as the title character was a male put into the body of a female disguised that kept the dual-identity of a male named Adrian who was befriended a man named Lucus who in turn was attracted to Cybersix, thus setting up a love triangle which is a common staple of superheroes. Lucus in the original comic was a reporter, but in the cartoon he is a science teacher that works at the same school Adrian does and the two of them are work buddies, even though Lucus finds himself going out of his way to help Cybersix on her latest case acting as the Steve Trevor to her Wonder Woman. The trans allegory came out more in the cartoon series than it did in the comic as Cybersix and Lucus’ relationship was physical as well as emotional.

Despite the lack of success of the Cybersix cartoon, the show premiered around the same time as James Cameron’s Dark Angel TV series which was also on Fox. Both creators believed that Cameron had lifted the idea for their series about a female vigilante from their source material and filed a lawsuit against, but ultimately the suit never went anywhere because they didn’t have enough money to support it. Part of the problem Cybersix had was maintaining the difference between a cartoon intended for children while still having it based on a mature comic book. Another was that the series was very formulaic with its standard Monster of the Week cliché.

Cybersix had an exceptional premise about a female superhero beating up Nazis which is one of the most time-honored traditions in comic books. It worked for Captain America, Spy Smasher, Shazam and several other Golden Age superheroes, so for that idea to be carried over into a modern-day production gives it major appeal. Nazi-punching is what superheroes do best, and having it be done by a woman is even cooler. Cybersix would normally fight Von Reichter’s latest lab experiment gone wrong with everything from werewolves, flying eyes, winged goblins, brainwashed birds, krakens, shapeshifting mud, and an entire kaiju-sized living island. Each episode had her defeating the new challenger along with her panther/brother Data-7 usually with Lucus’ assistance plus a homeless boy Julian who they never seem to get a home for. Von Reichter regularly has his youthful clone Jose carrying out his fiendish plans, although Jose sometimes has his own agenda when carrying out his father’s schemes.

The animated cast had a roster of anime dub professionals with Cathy Wesluck who most know as Shampoo from Ranma 1/2 as Cybersix. Terry Klassen, aka: Krillin is Von Reichter. Michael Dobson who portrayed Starscream in the Transformers Unicorn Trilogy was Lucus. One of the best is vocal chameleon Scott McNeil who was half of the cast of Beast Wars voiced Data-7 who despite having human intelligence communicated like any other panther would.

Cybersix gained little ground during its initial American TV run thanks to getting cancelled to early and lasting only a single episode. Thankfully, the rescue department of Discotek Media managed to put the entire series on both DVD and Blu-Ray including several bonus features including the original pilot. The fact that this was one of the earliest American cartoons that was inclusive to LGBTQ audiences should have guaranteed its place as an icon among other series like Steven Universe and The Owl House. Hopefully its underground status will peak out more as it is available free on multiple streaming formats. It’s got sweeping superhero action, romance, enthralling animation, and one of the greatest theme songs for a Saturday Morning cartoon ever made.

R.I.P., Catherine O'Hara

 

ANI-MOVIES, *The Deer King

The Deer King was originally a series of novels written by Nahoko Uehashi who had anime adaptations done of her works including Moribito and The Beast Player as episodic TV series, but this was the first time that a motion picture would try telling an entire fantasy saga in single feature-length movie. Production IG was the studio behind this 2021 release directed by former Studio Ghibli animators Masashi Ando and Masayuki Miyaji, and their prior experience is on full display as there are major influences in this from films like Princess Mononoke of which one of the animators actually worked on. The quality of animation is up to Hayao Miyazaki standards, but what really bring it down from the reputation of a Ghibli production is bad pacing and the rush to fill in the entire novel series plot into a 114-minute-long movie.

In an alternate reality, the Zol Empire had taken over the country of Aquafa, but rebellious Aquafese wish to liberate themselves from Zol even though they have maintained peace with their conquerors a decade ago. A bizarre plague is sweeping through the land while taking the form of spiritual wolves, a bite of which causes Zolians to eventually die while the Aquafese are unaffected. In a prison mine, former resistance leader Van and an orphaned girl Yuna are the only survivors after a wolf attack. Van is one of the last of an Aquafese tribe known as the Lone Antlers and they had a special kinship with the deer of this land here called pyuika, and manages to wrangle one of his lost bucks into giving him and Yuna passage to a village of pyuika wranglers. Van seems content in this new home with Yona as his adopted daughter even if he lost his family during the Zol occupation. Meanwhile the new lord of the Aquafa is preparing for a visit from the Zolian emperor which is threatened by this virus, and a young doctor seeks out Van and Yuna as their blood might be the cure to the disease. The hunt is on now for the doctor, his eager bodyguard, and a tracker woman to locate these survivors, but Yuna is taken away by the wolves leading to Van teaming up with his unlikely allies to bring her back from the Aquafese liberators planning to use the outbreak to free their nation no matter who gets hurt along the way. Van realizes that his immunity to this virus is giving him enhanced strength and supernatural powers, but he has to suppress his emotions in order to not let it give in to rage.

The Deer King contains spectacular visual aesthetics with rolling landscapes and a very rich lore to it, however the dense lore is what prevents it from achieving any replay value. There is more than enough backstory to comprehend and several conflicting terms to keep up with. Many critics shot down the movie for its bad pacing and trying to understand the post-credits conclusion, plus there are too many comparisons to Princess Mononoke as both films are eerily similar. I'd suggest catching the film on streaming first before you decide whether or not if you want to actually add this to your library.

ANI-MOVIES, *Cosmic Princess Kaguya!

No, you are not mistaken! There was a movie titled The Tale Of Princess Kaguya released by Ghibli Films in 2013, but that and this new film, Cosmic Princess Kaguya! are both based on the monogatari about a bamboo cutter who becomes the adopted father of a child from the moon. Unlike in Over The Moon which is inspired by Chinese folklore, this one also follows the Japanese legends of the moon being a heavenly domain ruled over by divine beings. Studio Colorido finished out the third of a 3-picture deal with Netflix after Drifting Home and My Oni Girl which would all premiere on the streaming service with this movie, and the level of reality-bending they implemented in Penguin Highway is on full display in this tilt-a-whirl which is constantly switching between the real world and the online world. Similar to Belle and Summer Wars, this takes place in the soon-to-be future with slightly more advanced technology where VR is a commonplace, however like Belle this movie is also a musical at least in the slightest sense with the occasional number that is intended as a performance and not a plot-halting song that gives way to a miniature music video. The soundtrack was scored by some of the Vocaloid producers of numerous J-Pop bands, so the songs are more like an impromptu concert than a musical scene that adds to the storyline. After being in production for 3 years, Studio Colorido drove a lot of online culture into this movie, even though this can drag on with the runtime of 142 minutes, not to mention the multiple endings that were tacked on like you're playing a visual novel instead of watching a movie. A good thing is that this is one of the most sapphic anime movies ever made.

Happening in 2030, struggling high school student Iroha is barely making ends meet as she lives on her own as she desperately tries to achieve a college scholarship. On her way home from her part-time job, Iroha comes across a glowing telephone pole when a baby inside comes out. Now, Iroha has to be the caretaker of this child who rapidly ages into her teens, and it's determined that she is the reincarnation of Princess Kaguya from the old story, so she decides to give the moon child the same name as her progenitor. While getting used to having a needy alien girl declaring her love to her, Iroha also has an active life in the digital community of Tsukuyomi where everyone has online cosplay personas in a cyberspace modeled after feudal Japan where the virtual idol of Yachiyo is the apple of Iroha's eye. Kaguya decides that she's not going to let her story end the same way as her namesake where she is taken back to the moon by celestial spirits, so she nudges Iroha into using her hidden songwriting talent to help her be the newest online sensation. After gaining enough support and finances from their efforts, Iroha and Kagura move into a high-rise pad with the two of them growing together as a couple. Of course, just like in the fairy tale, the moon folks come to collect Kaguya, but not after she and all her allies put on a banging concert even if Kaguya does reluctantly give in and goes back home. Now, you would think that this is where the story ends, in fact there's a faux pas ending that any Netflix subscriber will recognize which turns out to be totally fake. There is an additional 20 minutes left where a great deal of secrets are revealed involving time travel, alternate history, retro-cyberpunk cliches, and a love story spanning thousands of years.

Cosmic Princess Kaguya! is a total recommendation for anyone deep into online culture and its future possibilities, although it might not completely appeal to non-otaku who have as yet to pop their anime cherry. Studio Colorido along with Studio Chromato did a spectacular job producing this with spontaneous battle sequences when the characters abruptly go into Fortnite mode along with the dreamy asthetics of the virtual world. The music gives off the appearance that it was extemporized instead of planned in advance and make for a banging soundtrack, despite that the Japanese language version of the songs are leagues better than the Americanized lyrics even though the dub actors do have singing potential. Netflix ran across this same hiccup last year with their release of The Rose Of Versailles where the English versions of the song don't fit all that well into a musical not originally written for western audiences, so this film will probably not gain the same fanbase that K-Pop Demon Hunters made bank on. Fans of shoujo-ai will appreciate the yuri representation on display here as its left up to the viewer to interpret whether Iroha and Valkyrie have a genuine girls love anime.