Why Asteria Sucks...

 

WE CAN DO IT!

 

MISC. MANGA, *Shuriken

Recalled as being one of the first real anime/manga-inspired American comic books, Shuriken was created by longtime independent artist Robbie Buyers. Originally released in 1985 by indie publishers Victory Productions, it was eventually partially collected by Blackthorne Publishing in a graphic novel, then continued in another series through Eternity Comics, and then as a short-lived follow-up by another creative team. Not being based on any specific Japanese title, Buyers claims his original inspirations were the earlier works of Osamu Tezuka and Leiji Matsumoto, even though his comic deals with modern day ninjas, which is unusual considering there weren't numerous anime or manga at the time that delved into the genre. Shuriken might have been more inspired by the deluge of ninja-themed movies that were common in the U.S.

Kyoko is a professional ninja employed by Morgan Enterprises, and uses the alias "Shuriken" when acting as a professional bodyguard. Kyoko's friend Jean is attacked by the masked ninja Eagle's Claw, who is really her brother Koji, and now working for the yakuza. Kyoko heads to Japan to help free Koji from the Japanese mafia, even though Koji kills another friend of hers and somehow accepts the excuse of him being "schizophrenic" for just previously committing murder. Shuriken then travels back to America to see about freeing herself for Morgan Enterprises' personal ninja clan known as The Organization. Morgan agrees to let her quit, although a little to easily as he sends his personal bodyguard Megumo to kill Kyoko's new boss as she tries to get a new career as a model. Kyoko manages to get Megumo to admit to the assassination, and then plans to get even with Morgan.

The next title in the series was Blade Of Shuriken by Eternity which took place after the original, while still taking off in a new direction for fresh reader where Kyoko gets a job working as the bodyguard for the corrupt mayor who is being targeted by the local mafia. Shuriken: Cold Steel takes place afterwards showing Kyoko getting into a more world-saving level of adventure. This also tied into Shuriken: Team-Up where Kyoko crossed over with other Eternity Comics characters, the comic itself was supposed to be a mini-series but only lasted one issue. This was followed up by new Shuriken series in the early 90s, except this time it was written by S.A. Bennett with art by Wes Abbott, and took a hard dive into its manga roots with a style similar to Masamune Shirow works like Ghost In The Shell.

Shuriken is an thrilling look at the early days of "Ameri-manga", which didn't take from usually sources at the time like mecha shows, and more from obscure Japanese titles like Cat's Eye. It might be tricky to be able to collect all the scattered issues as their not legit available digitally, even though your average modern day otaku might be satisfied with the first collected graphic novel for a look during Golden Age of american anime fans.

It's not Christmas until Mrs. Deagle gets shot out of her upstairs window.

R.I.P., Jeremy Bulloch (aka: The REAL Boba Fett)

ANI-MOVIES, *Klaus

As their first ever original animated movie, Netflix premiered this full-length feature exclusively on their streaming service. Directed by Sergio Pablos, who was a former animator for Disney, brought his skills to this talent to this production done by his own company, and his talents are highlighted as the main character's profile is a humanized replica of Dr. Doppler from Treasure Planet. Pablos' directorial debut resulted in one of the first original 2D animated movies since The Princess And The Frog, plus several awards including Netflix's first animated Oscar nomination.

Happening possibly sometime in the early 20th Century, Jesper is the son of the head of the postman academy, and his father hoped his son would eventually shake off his spoiled upbringing to take up the role of a hardworking postman. Jesper is then cast out to the far northern town of Smeerensburg to run a post office, and he has a year to mail 6,000 letters, otherwise he will be cut off. The vain postman soon realizes that his new dingy home is the residency of the longest running fued between two families. After realizing that none of the citizens have any mail to send to anyone, Jesper checks up on a lone woodcutter isolated on the northern part of the island, who is an intimidating large bearded man named Klaus that spends most of his spare time making birdhouses. But Jesper finds out that Klaus has an entire storehouse filled with toys he made, and the two of them eventually unite to help deliver toys to the lonely children of the town by sending letters away to Klaus. This begins a ripple effect where the childen start to play with each other, better behavior, wanting to attend school, and causing the older citizens to act more neighborly. All this positive attitude ruffles the feathers of the heads of each feuding family who decide to work together top stop Jesper and Klaus' racket. After eventuallty running out of the toys, Klaus recieves help from nearby Sami village to prepare for one big haul of toys in a plan Jesper came up with, to be delivered on Christmas Eve. What follows is Jesper having to decide whether or not he wants to finally reach his goal to win back his father's favor and leave, or to help Klaus bring peace to the town.

This was a very fresh take on the origins of Santa Claus, even though there have been hundreds done over the last century. Klaus stands out from the rest by having a story set far back, but successfully makes it appealing for modern audiences. The animation is breathtakingly gorgeous, mixing in with some CGI, but with a strong foothold in tradional 2D productions. Klaus has a definitive place in the library of holiday classics.

David Prowse is just spending a year dead for tax reasons!

ANI-MOVIES, *Miss Hokusai

Even casual admirers are aware of the classic artwork by Katsushika Hokusai, at least from his Great Wave Of Kanagawa, a woodblock print of a giant wave off the Japanese coast. The life of Hokusai's daughter, O-Ei, was chronicled in a manga series by the late Hinako Sugiura, which was later turned into a full-length animated movie by Keiichi Hara, whose previous works dealt with more family-centered titles like Shin-chan and Doraemon.

Set in Japan's capital city Edo during the early 1800s, Hokusai is a celebrated artist, whose techniques seem to have a supernatural life of its own. His daughter O-Ei helps him with his work, and is a proficient artist on her own usually specializing in erotica. Hoskukai has a younger daughter, O-Nao, who is O-Ei's half-sister that unfortunately is blind and weak from constantly being ill. O-Ei has difficulty settling on her feelings for more than one romantic inspiration, either her father's only student Zenjiro, or another fan of Hokusai. She ultimately tries to find passion with a crossdressing geisha, but still can't focus her heart's direction into her work. O-Nao continues to struggle with her condition, and believes her father won't visit her because he's afraid of sickness, all while O-Ei keeps consoling her sister as she tries to show her what the visual world is like.

The anime has been released dubbed through GKids, although though quite alot of the material is not especially for all ages. The quality of production that Madman Entertainment put into this project is impressive, despite the occasional drop in performance making it appear like something more out of a made-for-TV movie instead of a theatrically released film.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Record Of Lodoss War

Beginning as a Japanese remake of fantasy games like Dungeons And Dragons, Record Of Lodoss War was developed into a related series of novel by creator Ryo Mizuno. This also prompted the printing of several different manga, and eventually into one of the earliest ongoing OVA series. Madhouse took up the Herculean effort into making the anime, while it was produced by animation veteran Masao Maruyama. Having one volume released monthly in the early 1990s, all 13 episodes were put out within the span of less than two years. The anime itself was based on the first four volumes of the prose novels, plus the two-part manga, Record Of Lodoss War: The Grey Witch. The storyline was carried out further in the Record Of Lodoss War: Chronicles Of The Heroic Knight anime TV remake which expanded on a newer generation of characters, as each portion of the series' history deals with six different characters forming a party to save their land from darkness, largely in the spirit of The Lord Of The Rings.

Set hundreds of years after a war of the remaining gods, their final battle caused part of the continent of Alacrast(which would be the basis for the fantasy comedy Rune Soldier)into breaking off and forming the cursed island known as Lodoss. Centuries later, Lodoss is seperated into several kingdoms, most of which are allied to each other, except for the mirky smaller island nation of Marmo, lead by the reckless Emporer Beld. Marmo begins invading Lodoss with its forces of goblins, wolfmen, and dark elves, all lead by their general, the dark knight Ashram. While this is happening, the sturdy old dwarf Ghim seeks to find Leylia, the daughter of a high priestess that saved his life. Ghim sets help from his wizard friend Slayn, and the two come across the wannabe knight Parn with his friend Etoh, a recently graduation priest. The four team up to save Parn's village from Marmo forces, and then travel to the nearest kingdom to join in the struggle for freedom, which has them teaming up with the pretty high elf Deedlit. After gaining the thief Woodchuck to their party, the now six heroes go on various quests to prevent Beld's ambition from tearing Lodoss apart. However, all sides a secretly being played by Karla, a grey witch who keeps all the opposing forces in perpetual battle so as not to give any one side the most power to either conquer or unify all the kingdoms. Parn and his party have several members either leaving temporarily, or permanantly, and their quest leads to dragonslaying, epic duals, and the resurrection of an evil goddess.

Record Of Lodoss War wasn't Ryo Mizuna's take on the RPG-inspired genre, not only with the various spinoff titles, but also with his more recent Record of Grancrest War, which despite the similar title doesn't have any direct connection to the Lodoss franchise. There was an anime continuation titled Legend Of Crystania, even though it works more as a sequal to the TV remake, as some characters died in the OVA series who show up alive in the frst Crystania movie. There is some difficulty structuring together the collected plot of OVA series, which skips some chapters and characters from the original novels, in fact the premiere episode is more done as a preview of the anime as it takes place in the middle of the first story arc with the six party members having already gotten together. Another criticism is you can tell which episodes had a bigger budget due to the slight lack of quality in animation, or reusing footage from previous episodes, like a red dragon and repainting it black. But, despite the mileage, Lodoss War has achieved level of nostalgia unparalleled among other 90s OVAs, as its one of the few ones to actually get a Blu-Ray re-release. Whether it's gamer, Tolkien fans, or generic otaku, Lodoss War is an excellent example of bringing life to a genre which at the time wasn't as huge as it would be, since fantasy anime was a niche market.

ANI-MOVIES, *Seoul Station

Being one of the few Korean animated movies to be recieve a release in the States, Seoul Station owes its initial success as being a loose prequel to the live-action Korean zombie film, Train To Busan. Being released in theatres merle weeks after the original movie, the animated prelude was directed by the same creator, Yeon Sang-ho simultaneously had both films in production for a near simultaneoue debut. This was followed up by a live-action sequel years later titled Pennisula, although like Seoul Station, all three installments aren't really direct follow-ups, but more seperate stories set in the same universe.

The movie begins with a homeless man at the main train station in Seoul having been bitten by an unseen attacker, from which he gets back up and starts spreading a zombie plague among the numerous homeless population. The main part of story deals with Hyu-San, a runaway prostitute now bunking up with her current boyfriend Ki-woong, whom she breaks up with after finding out he's been taking pictures of her sleeping to sell online. Suk-gyu, a man claiming to be Hyu-San's father tracks down Ki-woong when a detective locates her picture, and the two men spend a lengthy amount of time weeding through the zombie hordes to find her. Hyu-San meanwhile has to work her way around the fascist police who see everyone, living and walking dead alike, as being a hazard. She is finally reunited with Ki-yoong after finding refuge in a model home, but is shocked to find out that Suk-gyu is in reality her ex-pimp, who murders Ki-yoong, and spends a large amount of time stalking the showroom for Ki-yoong. The killer pimp spent all this effort chasing her down because she stole some money from him, but gets his just desserts as he's attacked by a now zombie-fied Ki-yoong. All this while the city of Seoul gets overrun with increasing numbers of living dead.

You can watch either Seoul Station or Train To Busan without needing to see the other as there is little carryover from one to the other. The animated movie is more of a study of how Korean society looks down on its homeless population, and how manically depressed your average blue collar Korean worker can get, even without the addition of a zombie apocalypse. Filmrise managed the American release, with it being currently available on DVD and Blu-Ray, along with most streaming services. The CGI-animated characters are better than average without taking away too much from the constantly shifting plot, although the "twist ending" might derail alot of gorehounds who wanted to see more of an animated zombie film instead of a character study of represserd Korean citizens.

MISC. MANGA, *Leia: Princess Of Alderaan

Claudia Grey wrote a bestselling novel taking place in the new Disney-approved Star Wars timeline which covered the early years of Princess Leia's life. This was adapted into an official manga webcomic titled Leia Organa: Ordeal of the Princess by artist Haruichi, who also did the artwork for The Legends Of Luke Skywalker. The manga itself is being reprinted as a series of manga graphic novels through Disney.

Speeding through the adorable years of the post-prequel trilogy, Leia, the adopted daughter of the Viceroy Bail Organa and Queen Breha of the propserous planet of Alderaan, which has fallen under the control of the newly risen Galactic Empire. Leia is now sixteen, and going the the three trials to become the recognized heir to the throne of Alderaan. She first goes on a mercy mission with Alderaan military to the war ravaged world of Wobani(shown in Rogue One), but is appauled by how the Empire treats its impoverished citizens. Not able to take provide relief for all the citizens, she allows a hundred of them to be hired as members of her ship's crew in order to give them a better life on Alderaan, but this unkowingly shoots down a plan that Bail Organa had for give all the Wobani people. This strengthens Leia's resolve to understand politics better by becoming a galactic senator. She then begins another part of her royal trials by engaging in pathfinder training. Future adventures have Leia crossing paths with Star Wars regulars like Grand Moff Tarkin and Mon Mothma, plus the beginning of her relationship with fellow senator Holdo.

Haruichi does a splendid job of bringing life to Claudia Grey's young adult novel, especially with how adorable Leia was when she was a "youngling". This fits well into the current Star Wars history, as its been revised after Disney bought out Lucasfilm, which seriously rewrites alot of the original expanded universe lore. Fans of the dearly depated Carrie Fisher will totally enjoy this spotlight on the "Young Princess Leia Chronicles".

ANI-MOVIES, *DC Showcase: A Death In The Family

For the second time in a decade, a collection of DC Showcase shorts is collected into a single edition. This brings together four different segments originally featured in full-length animated releases like Superman: Red Son. However, in order to pad out the product as a complete package, instead of coming up with another team-up like Superman/Shazam: The Return Of Black Adam, Warner Bros. decided to take their blockbuster Batman: Under The Red Hood movie and give it the Choose Your Own Adventure technique. This upset quite a few people as you can't make any of the divergent paths in the streaming release, and is only on Blu-Ray or DVD.

The Batman: A Death In The Family segment shows how things might have gone different during the Under The Red Hood movie from the beginning where Jason Todd, the former 2nd Robin, instead took on the identity similar to later Batman villain Hush, or Red Robin. There are numerous choices, like deciding if Jason for survives his ordeal with the Joker, but becomes broken, or if Batman was the one who died in the explosion, with Jason taking up Batman's job. Some of these have different turnout like runins with Talia, Two-Face, or an unmasked final confrontation with the Joker. The story fits well into the original movie similar to Marvel's old What If? comics. But if you don't have the home video release, you're just getting a clip show of the genuine film.

The first of the regular DC Showcase shorts is Sgt. Rock, DC's equivelant of G.I. Joe. Set during WWII, Rock(voiced fantastically by Karl Urban)looses his entire troop in battle. The tough soldier now gets tasked with leading the Allied Forces monster army known as The Creature Commandos to raid a secret Nazi base making its own nightmare brigade. Normally, Sgt. Rock's character isn't involved in "weird war stories", but this feature balances out the horrors of war as well as the supernatural.

Next is Death, the younger sister of Dream from Neil Gaiman's Sandman Vertigo comic, who regularly doesn't meet up with the general DC Universe characters. Taking place in Gotham City, an unemployed artist is struggling to find something to inspire his creativity, while being brought down by his own personal demons. Death here looks like a cute gothic girl who poses for him, although the main reason she shows up was to bring him into the afterlife. It's a very steady-paced story, having less to do with the actual fantastic realm of The Dreaming, and more about how a single person's place in the world can be shoved aside by everyday minutia.

The Phantom Stranger is another look into the mystical side of DC Comics. Stranger himself is probably the most enigmatic character in comics altogether since he's almost never really gotten a proper origin, or exactly who/what he represents, but ususally acts as an oberver of the mortal realm. Here, he acts as a defender of humanity as he tries to persuade a young woman from getting involved in a demon's scheme to steal her soul, after already sucked the life out of a group of teens right out of Scooby-Doo. If you were to compare this to other DC attempts at horror like in their previous Showcase spot of The Spectre, than this one takes a second place, although it still makes for an interesting watch. Plus, DC regular Michael Rosenbaum as the devious demon is a real treat.

Finally, Adam Strange gets his own solo adventure. Traditionally, Strange was the Flash Gordon of the DC Universe, as he's an Earthman who regularly gets teleported from his homeworld to the distant but advanced planet of Rann. There, he married the resident Alanna, and the two of them had a daughter. Rann eventually gets invaded by the Hawkpeople from Thannagar, who cause Alanna's death, and Adam being beamed to an unknown snow world currently being mined by alien humans. After years of being stuck on this planet, Adam gives up all hope of being able to go back to Rann and find his daughter. Strange however gets to show why he was a true space adventurerer with his jetpack and raygun as he barbecues big bugs rampaging through the space station, Starship Troopers style.

Each of these chapters are largely acceptable on their own, although it might depend on your taste in comics as most of the aren't geared toward costumed crimefighters. The original DC Showcase installments are mainly done to hightlight the more obscure parts of the DC Universe, and this collection does its job of making the wider world of comics not be all capes and cowls.

ANI-MOVIES, *Fate/Grand Order: First Order

In 2016, to premiere their new Fate/Stay Night spinoff mobile game, Lay-duce studio produced a made-for-TV animated movie based on the story's prologue. Like most of the titles in Fate universe(s), it stems from the original Fate/Stay Night anime, and its two divergent anime showing alternate takes on the storyline. Fate/Grand Order brings a Terminator element into the mix with this introduction to the new series in First Order.

Set in an alternate timeline during 2015, a special isolated base run by Chaldea Security Organization uses a mixture of tech and magic to monitor mankind's future history. A fluxuation within the timeline results in the probable exticition of all humanity, so the CSO sends their last remaining time-travel candidate Ritsuka(who could be a girl in the video game depending on the player's choice), along with his teammate Mash who during the trip has take on the spirit of a Servant Class. Servants in the Fate series are historical or fictional character reincarnated to take part in a war between several mages that use their powers to win the Holy Grail, a mystical chalice that can grant any wish, although sometimes in a Monkey's Paw fashion. Showing up in a dark alternate version of the Fifth Holy Grail War(i.e.: Fate: Stay/Night)in 2004, Mash has been given the spirit of the knight Galahad, and uses her new abilities as a magical shielder to protect Ritsuka as his servant. Another tagalong from the future was the commanding officer Olga, and the trio are attacked by Medusa, who in this timeline has been reclassified as a lancer. Cu Chulainn appears as a reclassified caster to rescue them from the grim gorgon, and relays to the time travellers that this version of the world has been tainted with the power of the Holy Grail, and now under the watch of a possessed Saber(originally a female reborn King Arthur). The new RPG party has to make it past some other possessed magic servants, one of which technically shouldn't even exist anymore since they're from the future which is at this point in time is non-existant. Our heroes defeat Saber thanks to Mash's Noble Phantasm super-attack, but its revealed that this was all part of the plan of a rogue member of the CSO, Professor Leff, who is secretly working for a cabal of demon gods bent on using time anomalies to make the human race extinct. Olga is killed during this confrontation as she unknowingly died in the future with only her spirit travelling back to take on a solid form. Ritsuka and Mash return to the future, but are informed that Leff's forces have opened up seven other anomalies, so the two of them have to journey to each timeline and retrieve the Holy Grail from each one, leading to a new assignment called "Grand Order".

First Order acts as the opening chapter to a campaign of seven different quests throughout time, two of which have so far been turned into their own anime TV series, making this movie a prelude to the entire new saga. If you had at least seen any of the original three different anime titles base on the first Fate/Stay Night game, then you shouldn't have too much trouble wrapping your head around the idea of the storyline. However, if you've never sampled any of the Fate titles, then you'll be pretty lost in this. It also seems to contradict the Fate/Extra: Last Encore anime series which is set even further in the future, but can be brushed aside if you dismiss most plot failings in time travel stories.

ANI-MOVIES, *Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (And Don't Come Back!)

As the last of the original Peanuts movie series of the 70s, Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown was another depature from the normal neighborhood shennanigans where some of the cast goes not to summer camp, but all the way to Europe. Charlers M. Schultz wrote this original story based on his tour as an American soldier during WWII. Released in 1980, it would be the last Peanuts theatrical release until The Peanuts Movie in 2015.

Charlie Brown gets a letter from a mysterious girl in France who somehow knew that he was going there as part of the foreign exchange student program, which Linus only bothered to tell him about the day before they were supposed to leave with Peppermint Patty and Marcie. Somehow getting Snoopy with Woodstock along as part of their student group, they fly to England, where Snoopy gets kicked out of Wimbledon, to which an American domestic dog already has an unexplained membership with. They take a hovercraft across the English Channel(about a year before they actually had that kind of public transportation!), and get a rental car in France which Snoopy is able to drive despite his feet being nowhere near long enough to reach the pedals. Peppermint Patty and Marcie stay with a young farmer boy during their visit, while the rest go to this chateau they were invited to. Once there, they have to spend the night outside since there doesn't seem to be any residents, all while Snoopy sneaks out to get hammered on root beer at the local cafe. It's eventually revealed that Charlie Brown was invited by the granddaughter of a woman his grandpa new during WWI, even though they never explain why she didn't just send the invite to the entire Brown family since Chuck's dad is the direct son. The ticked off old "Baron" who runs the Chateau finally lets the boys stay after they help put out a fire that would have burned the joint to the ground. The Peanuts gang then head onto a European road trip viewing WWII memorials that were later covered in the TV speccial, What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown?

The final movie in the Peanuts tetralogy had lesser quality than the previous movies. It seems more like it was meant as an hour-long TV special elongated to be a feature-length film. There's alot of call backs to prior Peanuts installments, and repetition of gags like Pepperment Patty confusing her hosts hospitality for romance, or Snoopy causing two different auto accidents while not having to fill out any police reports. If your a hardcore Charlie Brown fan, than you should enjoy this for at least one viewing, but the movie was clear indicator that the golden age of Peanuts cartoons was drawing to a close.

Boris Karloff is playing death metal! Your argument is invalid!

 

Just Vote Damn It!

 

If Freddy Krueger and Where's Waldo did the DBZ fusion dance...

Freddy is stopped by the power of heterosexuality!

 

Don't go on Jamie Lee Curtis' lawn!

 

ANI-MOVIES, *A Monster In Paris

 

In what could be seen as a dieslelpunk-themed story, A Monster In Paris is loosely inspired by Phantom Of The Opera, and an American/French production directed by former Shreck animator Bibo Burgeron, and produced by Leon: The Professional director Luc Besson. The CGI film was birthed by former company Europacorp which also handled the Arthur animated movie trilogy.

Taking place during the famous overflowing of the river Siene in Paris, cinema owner Emile joins his egotistical gadget-making friend Raoul on an errand in a remote-controlled jalopy of Raoul's own design. A stop at an out of town scientist's greenhouse, currently in the care of the scientist's monkey, Charles. Due to some "monkeying" around by Raoul and Emile, a certain mixture of chemicals is spilled on a flea, mutating the insect into an 8-foot singing monster that unintentionally begins to frighten the Parisians. The smug chief of police Maynott plans to use this monster's precense as a distraction to the flooding river, as he tries to run for mayor. Raoul's old schoolfriend, Lucille, has become a successful cabaret singer, and befriends the flea, whom she calls Francoeur. Lucille dresses him up in fancy suit with a mask, and uses Francoeur's natural talent for singing and playing the guitar as a cover while Raoul and Emile have been deputized into finding the monster that they created.

This period piece had a limited release in its initial American run, but did better on home video and cable, making it a sleeper hit, mostly amoung animation fans. A Monster In Paris is not specifically focused as a childrens picture, but more of a family-themed comic sci-fi fantasy. There's many nods to old cinema tropes, especially the musical numbers done under dreamy energetic imagery. Sean Lennon's singing voice as Francoeur is particularly memorable. The third act does drag on somewhat as a long chase scene, but as a whole it is a whimsical animated experience worth looking into.

Is Ben Tramer STILL Dead?!

ANI-MOVIES, *Pocahontas

Disney finally decided to animate a page right out of American history, at least a full-length one since Ben And Me was a short film. Pocahontas was released during Disney's 90s Golden Age, and directed by former character animators, Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg. It was made during the rise of "politcal correctness", so the thing that probably set a number of possible movie-goers off was its more fairy tale approach to historical facts. Still way beyond the point where the public outcry on the evils of colonialism had dried up, this didn't stop the movie from scoring a big enough success with audiences, and recieving a pair of Oscars. Disney first set out to give this same tone of romantic fantasy that they had with Beauty And The Beast, despite the fact that the actual story was neither a romance or a fantasy.

In the early 17th Century, explorers from England trek across the ocean to found a settlement in the New World, where their Governor Ratcliffe has his mind set on finding gold, but ship's captain John Smith wants a fresh frontier to see. Once they reach the shore for which would eventually become the state of Virginia, the English realize that there are natives nearby, the Powhatan tribe, who had just won a minor war against a neighboring tribe. The Powhatan princess Pocahontas is betrothed to their highly decorated warrior, Kocoum. But like most Disney Princesses, Pocahantas wants to defy her tradition, even though she's already blessed with the power to talk to animals and an enchanted advice-giving tree. She runs into John Smith, and somehow the "magic" of the land allows her to understand English, making for an unexplained universal translator. The two overly attractive strangers soon end up falling for each other. This rushed romance is threatened when Ratcliffe's inability to find any gold leads him to believe the natives are hiding it all, leading to a confrontation between John Smith and Pocahontas' tribe blaming him for the death of Kocoum. Pocahontas manages to save John from being executed, in a scene that Disney would later reuse for the conclusion of Lion King II. John Smith sacrifices himself to stop Pocahontas' father from getting shot by Ratcliffe, so he has to be sent back to England in order to recover, making for one of the few Disney movies where the adoring couple don't end up together in the end.

Aside from the complete disregard for historical facts, Pocahontas engaged alot of people's interests. There is an over abundance of musical numbers and segments totally dedicated to animal sidekick antics, showing the severe lack of direction in story structure. The animation is above the norm of average Disney quality, especially in the landscapes, and some interesting choices in voice overs with Disney veteran David Ogden Steirs as the greedy Ratcliffe, as well as his lighthearted servant. The movie's success lead to a made-for-video sequel, Pocahontas II: Journey To A New World, which covers the next chapter in Pocahontas' life where she travels to England and falls in love with her true life future-husband, John Rolfe, although this also is heavily edited from its actual doctrine. It's impossible to watch Pocahontas without questioning alot of the real events, and should be more viewed as a full on fantasy/adventure.

Vote Sealab 2020

 

ANI-MOVIES, *Tarzan

Disney finally got around to tackling the interconnected worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs with its Hollywood blockbusting title character, Tarzan. Seeing as how there's probably more films about the Lord of the Jungle than there are of Dracula and Santa Claus combined, Disney wasn't exactly taking on a property that was unkown to movie fans, like The Rescuers. Directed by A Goofy Movie's Kevin Lima and Frozen II's Chris Buck, it was Disney's priciest film to date, and seriously blended traditional 2D animation with CGI graphics more than any prior production. There was also a major collaboration with Phil Collins as he handled the soundtrack, but turned out better than Sting's final outcome with The Emporer's New Groove, although its pretty obvious that Collins is trying to measure up to former bandmate Peter Gabriel with his experimental approach to music. The movie was successful enough to produce two sequals, one of which was really the pilot for a TV series, an approach that Disney failed in other attempts like Cinderella II, plus a "midqual" in the style of Bambi II.

Starting out in the mid 19th Century, a young couple shipwreck off the coast of a secluded part of Africa along with their newborn son. For some reason, instead of simply puting repairng their boat, the instead build a fully-furnished treehouse, supposedly with cargo from their sunken ship. This wasn't exactly the best idea as both parents get eaten alive by ravenous leopards, leaving their young son to get adopted by a troop of gorillas, under the care of their leader's wife, Kala. Named "Tarzan", the animalistic human learns the ways of the jungle, and can communicate with most of the animals, some of which happen to know what piranhas are which don't even exist in Africa but have no idea what human beings are. A now grown up Tarzan befriends explorer Prof. Porter, and his daughter Jane who are looking for the local gorilla band. Their guide, the dubious Clayton, was in fact planning on capturing the gorillas to sell to upper class British twits. Jane teaches Tarzan about human customs and how to speak English, but their relationship is jeapordized by Clayton's scheme, and Tarzan has to choose between the world he grew up in or the one his parents came from.

Tarzan is up to the date it was released in 1999 as probably Disney's highest quality production to date. The animation is very fluid, especially the jungle chase scenes where Tarzan is sliding on trees, something that would later be redone for the sky surfing in Treasure Planet. Some of Phil Collins' musical choices seem a little shoved down your neck and could be more subtle. The casting is okay, especially Brian Blessed doing an awesome job as Clayton, although I don't understand why a gorilla indigenous to Africa would have a New York accent. The movie is ultimately mostly faithful to the original source material, although more of the Tarzan saga would be covered in the Legend Of Tarzan TV series.

There's no way you're not getting laid wearing one of these!

These dern robot farmers 'r taking jobs away from real Americans!

ANI-MOVIES, *Superman: Man Of Tomorrow

Meant to act as the possible beginning of a brand new continuity as the post-Flashpoint DC Animated Movie Universe, Superman: Man Of Tomorrow(one of the Man of Steel's earlier monikers)is a fresh retake of the Kryptonian Crusader's origin. A brand new crew of animators and creators seems a little genrebreaking considering the asthetic set by the previous 15 movies, but does craft a cool experience for anyone wanting to get into the DC Universe.

Kansas farmboy Clark Kent is really a superpowered human-looking alien who spent his youth keeping his abilities secret, known only to his adopted Earth parents. Clark moves to the big city of Metropolis, and gets a job working at the Daily Planet paper, but hints his secret identity to the public as the "Flying Man" as he stops an exploding rocket from crashing into the city. This gets the attention of the cigar-chomping Kiss Army reject alien bounty hunter, Lobo, who manages to be a physical match of Clark in his currently masked persona. Lobo claims that there is bounty on Clark for being the last of the Kryptonian race, and their fight goes to the STAR Labs, exposing the kind-hearted janitor Rudy to alien chemicals. Clark gets help from a shapechanging Martian that had been ghosting him for days, ultimately allowing Clark the chance to knockout Lobo. The Martian named J'onn tracks Clark back to the Kent farm and reveals his extraterrestrial background of being the last known survivor of Mars, and helps Clark unlock a piece of Kryptonian tech that informs him of own heritage. Rudy awakens from his accident with the power of sucking off energy from people and electricity, which causes him to go on a rampage, resulting in this "Parasite" sucking the powers from Clark, now going under the name Superman. J'onn, who Superman calls the Martian Manhunter, is seemingly fried by Parasite, so now Clark has to ask help from the imprisoned genius, Lex Luthor. Luthor managed to hire Lobo after he broke out of STAR Labs, and hopes that a Kryptonite ring that was used against Superman could be used to stop the now gigantic Parasite.

Man Of Tomorrow is a fairly stilted new approach to doing Superman's origin story. The main fault was alot of story points were left out, like who hired Lobo to catch Superman, or Martian Manhunter's background on being secretly being an Earthling for years. This might meant to be explored in future DC Animated releases, but aside from a hint of Batman existing in this, nothing else about the broader DC Universe, like the Green Lanterns just neglecting all the superpowered alien battles that keep popping up on Earth. It's nice to finally see Lobo in one of these direct-to-video DC titles, and cool to seem him go a little more blue in a production outside network television. This is one of the weaker Superman origin stories, more interested in delivering a message of social acceptance instead of compelling superhero epic.

Darkseid has BEAMS!

ANI-MOVIES, *The Emperor's New Groove

What was originally supposed to be a musical epic titled Kingdom In The Sun put together by animation directors Roger Allers and Matthew Jacobs(infamously documented in the film The Sweatbox)was later totally rewritten into a family comedy film that was Disney's first full-length animated movie of the new millenium. This made for a strange reception as most Disney toon movies were regularly based on an existing fairy tale or childrens book, plus the original billing of Kingdom Of The Sun synced with its comedic rebranding didn't leave alot of confidence to initial theatrical releases who weren't sure what to make of it. If the movie was based on some centuries old Grimm Bros. story, audiences would know what they were getting into, so The Emporer's New Groove gained real success after its home video release, becoming a hit with its video rental premiere. Cats Don't Dance director Mark Dindal was given the reigns of the movie, although seemed to trip a little later on with Disney's underated Chicken Little which he also directed, although his helming the Kringle holiday special worked out better for him. However, this departure from Disney's average formula seemed to pan out for them in the long run.

Set sometime during the height of the Incan Empire, or at least in some alternate reality where the Incans never went out of business because the film is filled with up-to-date cultural references, Kuzco is a spoiled teenage emporer who has a compulsary need to have things go a certain way, otherwise it would upset his "groove", leading him to fits of selfish rage. One such upset makes him fire his royal advisor Yzmna, a creepy elderly lady who along with her bumbling but good-hearted sidekick Kronk happens to be a part-time mad scientist who plans to poison he Kuzco, but because of Kronk's nincompoopery is instead turned into a talking llama. The now llama-ized emporer is accidently taken away by a Pacha, a village leader that Kuzco planned to kick off his land to make room for an amusement park. Pacha rescues Kuzco from turning into a jaguar snack, and agrees to help take him back to the palace if he doesn't bulldoze his home. Yzma and Kronk are on the trail for Kuzco after getting some help from a bi-polar squirrel, which has the two parties continuously missing each other in an Incan "diner". The chase leads back to the palace where a mixup of potions has several guards also turning into animals, but Kuzco manages to become human again after several tries, while Yzma is turned into a menacing fluffy kitten. Kuzco is restored to the throne, and builds his getaway on an empty neighboring hill next to Pacha's.

Despite being out of the feature-length non-musical comedy for several years, Disney did turn out a quality production on the level of classic Looney Tunes humor. The animation itself is very above reproach, but not the engaging way that prior landmarks like Beauty And The Beast did. The thing that really sells this movie is the witty performances by the cast. David Spade makes a great recovery into movies after the loss of his former partner Chris Farley as Kuzco, Patrick Warburton cemented himself as a voice over gold mine, and Eartha Kitt plays one of the most bombasticly cartoonish Disney villains of all time. As one of the best buddy comedy films of recent memory, The Emperor's New Groove achieved its place as a fan favorite despite its shaky history.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S: *Ogre Slayer

Curse Of The Undead Yoma creator Kei Kusunoki later made a modern day Japanese horror series, Ogre Slayer. This manga went on for 20 volumes, and was popular enough to get its own 4-episode OVA series. Final Fantasy writer Kenji Terada handled the anime adaptation, which is sort of like a more terrifying version of Blade Of The Immortal.

In Japan, ogres are usually referred to as "oni", demonic man-eating monsters that feast on human suffering. Some centuries ago, an ogre mother gave birth to a human looking son born not with a horn but an enchanted sword. Both the boy and the sword are called Onikirimaru(aka: Ogre Slayer). The humanish youth believes that if he uses his sword to rid the Earth of all ogres, he will be free of his supernatural past. Fast forward to 1990s where Onikirimaru travels through Japan, getting involved with several cases where ogres prey on innocent humans. One is a schoolgirl infected with ogre twins that spring out of her body whenever she's in trouble, while another has a deceased ogre trying to reform himself after being cut to pieces sometime in feudal Japan. Onikirimaru appears like a Japanese schoolgirl as he goes on his seemingly never-ending quest.

There's some outright gore in this anime, plus some violently sexual situations, so really not for kids. Viz released the anime on VHS only in both dubbed and subtitled, but they only put out the first 2 volumes of the manga series, so you might have to dig around a little to get the complete story.

ANI-MOVIES, *Dragonball Super: Broly

Being the first DBZ movie under the Super label, this was meant as a follow up to the Dragonball Super anime series, although whether its officially canon is slightly up in the air. The character of Broly was featured in three other Dragonball films, but none of them have been in the same continuity, and more of an expanded universe, which is what Dragonball GT eventually came to be accepted as. This movie introduces the "legendary Super-Saiyan" into the established timeline, but fitting all the events previously covered in Dragonball Super. Unlike the previous theatrical Dragonball releases, this was co-produced with 20th Century Fox Japan along with Toei.

The first part of the movie retcons alot of the origins of the Saiyan race, which apparently excludes Goku's father Bardock getting psychic powers allowing him to see Planet Vegeta's destruction. Paragus, a prideful Saiyan, resents his unpredictably powerful son Broly being exiled to a far off planet by King Vegeta, and chases after him just as Frieza nukes their homeworld. Jump a few decades, sometime after the Universal Survivor Arc, Frieza is alive again after helping save his own universe, and sends some of his low level flunkies to get the Dragonballs on Earth, all so he can wish himself to be taller. Meanwhile, a pair of Frieza Force minions rescue Paragus and Broly from their outcast to join Frieza's team. All this activity gets Goku and Vegeta's attention as the last Dragonball in the North Pole, where Frieza sicks Broly on Vegeta. After a major tussle between the Saiyan prince and outcast, Goku steps in, but Broly beats him two even in his Super-Saiyan Blue form. Goku and Vegeta teleport away and try to perform fusion, all while Broly stomps the tar out of Frieza in his gold form for a solid hour. Now combined to be "Gogeta", the 2-in-1 Saiyan nearly ends Broly, while turning the Arctic into a volcanic wasteland. Broly was fortunate to make friends with his original rescuers who use the Dragonballs to wish him back to his home planet. Goku seems to not have any problem with this as he teleports their later on with some supplies from Earth, hoping to sometime spar with Broly again just because he enjoys the challenge.

Again, it's not confirmed if this movie is officially part of the Dragonball canon, or if it ties into the Super Dragonball Heroes internet series. It does make for a good retrospective of the established Dragonball history, plus establishes a new status quo concerning Earth's heroes and Frieza's reborn empire. The fight scenes are bombastically invigorating, with probably the greatest superpowered melee shots ever done for an anime. The dub keeps the majority of actors from the previous TV dubs, so there's no real shake up in the localization. The film achieved a major success in America, largely due to it getting a direct theatrical run in U.S. theaters, which helped it not only become the highest grossing anime movie in the franchise, but one of the biggest anime blockbusters of all time.

Legally speaking, you can't be "vengeance", "the night", and "Batman". Pick just one you greedy bastard!

You'll never see a He-Man x Skeletor kiss!

Meanwhile...in every amusement park everywhere...

ANI-MOVIES, *Deathstroke: Knights And Dragons

Similar to Constantine: City Of Angels, DC Comics original "Deadpool" got his own internet animation mini-series that was eventually re-released in this compilation film. Deathstroke was a dark shadow of Captain America originally introduced in the mid-80s as a repeating foil for the Teen Titans, who eventually spun off to his own title as an anti-hero. The character has been seen on the Teen Titans animated series, Arrow, and a cameo in the Justice League movie, but this is the first time that the one-eyed gun for hire has been the star of his own feature. The animation seems more similar to that used on The Venture Bros., which is largely due to a good portion of the production being handled by Titmouse, Inc. The story is also separate from any existing DC Universe titles, as there doesn't seem to be any other superheroes in this reality. J. M. DeMatteis wrote the script, and gives it the lethal seriousness that he showed in Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt.

Slade Wilson is a injured American soldier who volunteers to be part of testing the army's own super-soldier formula. It doesn't seem to work at first, and Slade then separates himself from his lover, Gen. Addie Kane. While he takes his leave from the armed forces, Slade has a brief affair, as well as realizing the experiments had a delayed reaction, where he now has enhanced strength, speed, and reflexes, as well as a powerful healing factor. Thus, Slade adopts the identity of "Deathstroke" as a hired mercenary, while keeping his career secret from Addie, who he marries and has a son named Joseph. Deathstroke is eventually tagged by a terrorist group known as HIVE that send their main agent Jackal to kidnap Joseph and add Slade to their ranks. Joseph gets rescued, but at the cost of his vocal chords, as Deathstroke seemingly kills Jackal. Time jump a decade later where Slade is divorced from Addie, and became a full-time merc. HIVE however is reforming under the leadership of a mysterious new queen, and has Joseph kidnapped again as the mute teen has psychic powers which the terrorists' plan to exploit in their plans for world domination. Slade teams up with Addie and his ex-partner Wintergreen to stop the HIVE, and their commander which turns out to be Deathstroke's daughter Rose he never knew existed who has all of her father's abilities. Rose is really working for the revived Jackal, who was an original character made up specifically for this movie.

Deathstroke: Knights And Dragons functions better as a mini-series as you can see there are breaks in the flow of the plot where they would timeskip several years at a time, and go from one big bad to an even higher big bad waiting in the wings. This was one of the faults with the Constantine mini-series, plus the two Arroverse animated spinoffs, Vixen and The Ray. The production quality seems to lack a little of the more cinematic style of the regular DC Animated Universe titles, but at least as good as the Harley Quinn series. The main drawback in the movie is the motivations of the Jackal as we never learn his true intentions, and spends the entire film under battle armor, so we don't find out his real identity. It was suggested that Jackal is supposed to be a stand in for Deathstroke's original son(aka: Ravager), but his appearance seems more like he's with the DC Comics' criminal organization Kobra. If you've been waiting as long as most fans have for Deathstroke to finally get his own movie, then this will tide you over until they give him the eventual live-action film. Although, fans of hard-R splatterhouse action should also be satisfied.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Grey: Digital Target

Frontier Line creator, Yoshihisa Tagami, specialized in military manga with a science fiction spin to it. One of his earliest works, Grey: Digital Target, was a post-apocalyptic saga that got turned into a mid-80s feature-length OVA one-shot by Ashi Productions, which would later go on to do Blue Seed. They Were Eleven's Satoshi Dezaki directed and co-wrote this anime take on Mad Max.

In a war torn Earth that had been through more than one armageddon, the world is divided into various segments called "towns". The citizens can work their way up to joining the A-Class by taking on military operations against other towns. Commando specialist Grey(better known as "Grey Death")takes the most dangerous assignments he can to move up the social ladder as fast as possible, partially to honor the memory of his ex-lover Lips, who he honorably wears her monogrammed battle helmet. After a suicide mission where only he and sexy blue-haired Nova, and the two survivors become questionable of the system they work for. Grey's mentor Red is reportedly captured by an enemy town, so Grey and Nova break protocol and try to rescue him. Travelling to Africa, the renegade soldiers uncover a plot involving a super computer named Big Mama that has been manipulating humanity into perpetually fighting each other, using each town feuding with their nearest counterpart. So, like a more under-the-table version of Skynet that used androids and cyborgs to act as dummy soldiers fighting the human armies into a never-ending war. Grey is recruited into one of Big Mama's militia after loosing his arm and having it replaced with a huge laser cannon, but breaks free after Nova rescues him. The two head for a final battle against the remaining Big Mama computer tower, which by the way they give a last detail after the closing credits.

The manga only lasted for two volumes, which were released in English through Viz, who also did the anime on VHS that was given a dubbed and subtitled release. The OVA is broken up into various segments labeled as numbered "Approach"es, this is mainly used to separate the time skips from one scene to the other. The actual animation is fairly relevant for the time, but up for most motion picture anime quality. There is some mature themes like nudity, sex, and people getting strait up shot in the face, so really not for kids.

ANI-MOVIES, *Like The Clouds, Like The Wind

While the rumor of it being a Studio Ghibli production, the 1990 made-for-TV anime movie, Like The Clouds, Like The Wind, was in fact done by Studio Pierrot. The confusion comes from the character designs of Katsuya Kondo, who worked on several Ghibli titles like Princess Mononoke and Howl's Moving Castle. Kenichi Sakemi wrote the original novel that the movie is based on, and the majority of his titles deal in Chinese history and legends. Gatchaman animator Hisayuki Toriumi directed the film, and features some theatrically-relased movie quality.

Set in 1600s China, the residing emperor passes away, and his oldest son is set to inherit the throne, thus must acquire a harem of wives to solidify his lineage. Happy-go-lucky farmer girl Ginta decides she'd like to give a shot at being a pampered concubine, but once at the capitol's inner palace begins to realize the stark reality of the power-shifting kingdom. Ginga is one of several girls from all over China who apply for a position as one of the new emperor's wives. There's an assassin plot from the mother of the previous emperor's younger sons, and a rebellious uprising from some hooligans who start their campaign just because they were bored. The real meat of the story though it Ginga, and the bonds she forms with the other bridal candidates, as well as her relationship with the castle staff, including her future husband in disguise.

This movie is set apart from most "harem anime" as it is about an actual harem, plus it is one of the few ones to give real respect to Chinese culture. Sometimes referred to Kumo Kaze, the film was finally released on DVD and Blu-Ray by Discotek Media, although only in Japanese with subtitles. It has very somber moments, but some truly memorable characters, and worth a look at least on streaming.

2020 in a nutshell

ANI-MOVIES, *Scoob!

With having more made-for-video movies than any other cartoon character, Scooby-Doo was inevitably going to get a legit animated theatrical movie, even though COVID-19 had different ideas. Scoob! is the first non-live-action film to feature the Mystery Inc. team that was intended to be shown in cinemas, but the black plague of the 21st Century caused movie houses everywhere to shut down, so it was released instead first on demand, and then regular DVD and Blu-Ray. Done as another remake to the Scooby-Doo franchise, this doesn't go the standard "guy in a monster costume" route, but instead trying to set up an expanded Hanna-Barbera cinematic universe.

Starting out during the A Pup Named Scooby-Doo years, Shaggy adopts Scooby, and the two of them befriend three other kids on Halloween where the end up solving a mystery with a neighborhood thief. Over the next few years, the gang have a successful run of covering several similar cases, and as eventually want to expand Mystery Inc into a legit business. However, completely randomly added Simon Cowell shows up to sponsor them, but thinks they should lose Shaggy and Scooby. Distraught, the two chums go bowling, and are attacked by transforming mini-robots. The twosome get rescued by real life superhero, Blue Falcon(actually the son of the original), plus the bionic Dynomutt, and Dee Dee formally of the Teen Angels. Turns out that Wacky Races bad guy, Dick Dastardly, needs to capture Scooby to open a door the Greek Underworld, which would unleash the monstrous three-headed canine Cerberus on the world. Fred, Velma and Daphne get abducted by Dick and his robots, while the Blue Falcon crew is searching for one of Cerebus' skulls that will open the door to the Underworld.

There are several nods to various Hanna-Barbera cartoons, some of which were connected due to shows like Laff-A-Lympics that teamed up various cartoon characters from different shows. There could've been some more set up with the Blue Falcon backstory, and how Dynomutt got to be less of a goofy idiot sidekick to an genuine crimefighter, plus Dee Dee's ties to Captain Caveman who also has a part in the movie. The animation is slightly above average for some other studio created 3D computer animated productions, although not exactly in the Pixar level of perfection. The choice to have most of the cast to be voiced by currently trendy celebrities as opposed to the veteran voice actors is also a major distraction. Scoob! might not specifically be the best for old school fans of the original Saturday morning cartoon, but makes for a decent rental.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Kite

To make one thing clear, I'm only reviewing edited version of this, not the uncut versions which were mostly gratuitous hentai. Kite was a 2-episode OVA series by Yasuomi Umetsu, mostly known for a segment from Robot Carnival, that was later released in the States as a combined anime, with several different releases in the States. It's a high-action crime drama, but included with some pointlessly added sex scenes in some cuts. The anime is intended for mature audiences in any incarnation, mostly due to the gory fight scenes and explicit content. Very much like an animated La Femme Nikita.

Orphaned schoolgirl Sawa secretly leads a double life as an assassin, part of an underground vigilante society that targets rich celebrities and upper class deviants that prey on young victims. Sawa's boss is Akai, a police detective that covers up the assassinations, who also plotted the death of Sawa's parents in order for her to join their cause. Akai's partner is the scarred unblinking weirdo Kanie, who he also shares Sawa in bed with inbetween missions. Kanie is the handler for another teen assassin, the lonesome Oburi, and both young killers develop a short romance. However, Sawa gets in way over her head when she has to take out one of two famous twins in a bathroom, which leads to one of the most bombastic sequences outside of a Road Runner cartoon. Despite surviving the ordeal with the sort of luck lottery winners couldn't even wish for, she ends up getting blamed for the screw up, and has a falling out with Akai, then goes to Oburi. Akai later finds Kanie murdered by Oburi, and has a final confrontation with Sawa where she reveals she knew about his deception the whole time. There is a secret almost Sopranos ending letting viewers know that the vigilante organization is still active.

The success of the gritty OVA lead to a sequel titled Kite: Liberator which adds a whole new science-fiction element to the story with nothing less than space monsters, plus a third installment is in the works. There was of course an American live-action remake starring Samuel L. Jackson which went on to be one of the most panned anime adaptations ever made. For the original anime release, Media Blasters had the edited version, a Director's Cut, and a Special Edition, the latter two are usually labeled under "hentai". Kite is also a shared universe with Yasuomi Umetsu's other OVA series, Mezzo Forte, which eventually got its own television spinoff titled Mezzo TV. Obviously not intended for kids, but Kite is great for a fan of Tarantino's splatter fests.

If Optimus Prime and Optimus Primal had a baby...

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *8-Man After

Before The Six Million Dollar Man, Robocop, and Teen Titans' Cyborg, the very first man-machine crimefighter was 8-Man, a manga by Jiro Kuwata, who later went on to do the 60s Batman manga, which was turned into one of the first anime titles to be shown on American television in the 1960s, known out here as Tobor the 8th Man. Unlike numerous anime released in America in the 60s-70s, this unfortunately wasn't one that was kept in reruns like Speed Racer, even though it did get its own retro-styled live-action movie in 1992 that did get a limited English release. Following the movie's success in Japan, it was decided to do a 4-episode OVA followup to the first anime series titled 8-Man After. It's initial release was done by Streamline Pictures with 1-episode per VHS tape, and eventually in the obligatory Perfect Collection video, then later on DVD by Image Entertainment, and more recently on Blu-Ray by Discotek Media. The various releases though haven't exactly boosted the superhero's infamy in the States.

Taking place sometime after the original 60s series, the 8-Man(secretly private eye Azuma)disappears, and his city is overcome with a crimewave of cybernetic thugs. Azuma's old secretary who only discovered his secret identity shortly before his last battle is now working for a company, which is in reality behind the whole robo-baddies empire, run by the evil "Mr. Halloween". The chief bad guy is taken out though very early in the series by his second-in-command, an ex-cop that killed former officer Hazama's sister. Hazama himself is in an accident and given the cybernetic frame of the previous 8-Man to become the new hero on the block. With super-speed and robotic strength, 8-Man has to hunt down the mechanical menaces, while still trying to cling to his humanity.

8-Man After takes the approach of doing a classic hero and refitted for the 90s, similar to Batman Beyond and Phantom 2040, except this was one of the first titles to do so. The anime is much grittier than the campy 60s series, highlighting this 8-Man's willingness to use more extreme methods to take down killer cyborgs. The major drawback is they never give any real answer as to the fate of the original 8-Man, and how his robot body was recovered to be filled in by another candidate. The addition of a "fresh kid" to act as the Scrappy-Doo of the series doesn't help out either. However, the OVA does make for an above-average cyberpunk 90s anime, at least of the ones that came out before Ghost In The Shell.

ANI-MOVIES, *Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade

Anime pioneer Mamoru Oshii created this anime film as part of his shared universe known as the Kerberos saga largely centered on his manga series, Kerberos Panzer Cop, an alternate universe version of Japan where a heavily-armed special police unit exits to maintain order. This slightly derailed history is a dystopian reality where the government has a larger grip on the citizens. So, basically like a retro version of George Orwell's 1984, but with less resources to simultaneously watch the masses. Oshii's political intrigue views are fairly apparent in his take on Ghost In The Shell which made a standard cyberpunk manga into an intense intrigue saga blended with existentialism. However, Oshii let animator Hiroyuki Okiura take over as director on this anime chapter of his ongoing arc.

In post-WWII Japan, the 1950s are a troublesome time for Japanese citizens as the government's overzealous efforts to make their nation a financial empire causes severe uprising between classes. This gives rise to an anti-terrorist task force that works with the public security police. Kazuki Fuse is special unit soldier who fails to stop a female bomb courier from blowing herself up, and is such demoted by being sent back to the academy for training. Fuse learns that the suicide bomber had a sister that he feels obligated to apologizing to, but the young woman named Kei is secretly working with the public security in a plot to take down the special unit, using Kuse as a sacrificial lamb to take the fall in the following scandal. After rescuing Kei from the staged bomb exchange, Kuse reveals that he's a part of a secret society within the special unit called the "Wolf Brigade", and seek to eliminate the underhanded members of public security.

Jin-Roh was first released in 1999, and created with a fairly obvious Red Riding Hood backdrop to it, and Oshii had tried for over 5 years to have it made, but was given the Ghost In The Shell movie to direct instead. This might be why Hiroyuki Okiura was given the task of taking over production that was put out by Bandai Visual. This eventually lead to enough to success that a Korean live-action adaption was recently unleashed to equal praise. There have been numerous other chapters of the Kerberos saga adapted to multi-media life novels, radio drama, and other animated shorts, much of which has yet to be given and English release. Bandai Entertainment originally put out Jin-Roh on DVD in the early 2000s, and later on re-released on DVD and Blu-Ray through Discotek Media. The dub was handled by the Ocean Group, so if you're familiar with most of the 90s Viz Media dubs, you should get a nostalgic rush in this romantic but tragic action/drama.

Happy 80th Birthday, Bugs Bunny!

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Blue Submarine No. 6

Based on a late 60s manga by Satoru Ozawa, Blue Sub 006 as its called was made into a 4-episode OVA series at the turn of the century by former Gainax studio, Gonzo. The manga was updated by Ozawa in the mid-90s, which prompted the anime adaptation, which took on a completely new approach to releasing anime in America at the time by Bandai Entertainment.

In a Waterworld-like post-apocalyptic Earth, the fanatical Dr. Zorndyke shifts the planet's poles, causing massive flooding around the world killing billions, and then the mad scientist creates a race of human/animal hybrids and living aquatic battleships to wipe out the rest of humanity. The remaining surviving forces unite with a plan to nuke Zorndyke's army with the advanced new submarine labeled Blue 6. Hayami is an ex-mariner asked to be part of the program by the orphaned ensign Kino, and reluctantly agrees, but becomes ensnared in a strange relationship with one of Zorndyke's creation, the quiet mermaid Mutio. Hayami is reunited with the Blue 6 crew after one of the sentient battleships communicates to him Zorndyke's intent to test humanity when pushed to the brinke, leaving Hayami and Kino to have a final confrontation with the mad scientist whose death could result in the end of all life.

Bandai had a strange release with the English adaptation of Blue Submarine No. 6. Firstly, the dub wasn't done by their regular group of voice actors from Bang Zoom Entertainment, but instead Coastal Studios which handled all of Animeigo's dubs. The other is that at the time most OVAs were released in either VHS or DVD with at least two episodes each, but Bandai decided to instead put it out with one episode per volume, meaning you had to get four different tapes/discs to collect the entire series. There was a special edition on Cartoon Network that was released in an abridged version known as the Toonami Cut, but a bunch of the nuances are left out(including the mermaid boobs!). The OVA was directed by Mahiro Maeda, who later went onto do anime like Gankutsuou and Last Exile, all of which captured the blending of traditional animation with CGI models. The original animation does seem dated by today's standards, but doesn't deprive your average viewer of what was at the time a real game changer.

ANI-MOVIES, *Robot Carnival

One of the first full-length anime anthology films, Robot Carnival came out in 1987 at the dawn of cyberpunk anime. Rounded out by the APPP studio, which had previously done the first Project A-Ko installment, this production was several segments done by 8 different animators., each one done with the theme of robots or other mechanized creations.

The opening and closing segment was a comedic wraparound by Katsuhiro Otomo, about a year before his the premiere of the Akira motion picture. Set in an alien desert, unsuspecting poor townsfolk are crushed and attacked under the huge tank treads of the titular "Robot Carnival", a large mobile platform with dancing alien maidens and destructive fireworks, leaving nothing but devastation in its wake.

The second segment is Franken's Gears by Koji Morimoto who founded Studio 4C. A mad scientist creates a large hulking mismatched robot who mocks his makers movements, which unfortunately collapses on the old man, killing him.

Star Light Angel is a more shoujo-type short by Gundam character designer Hiroyuki Kitazume. Two girls spend the day at a robot-themed amusement parks, where one of them turns out to be dating the other's boyfriend. The distraught damsel goes through a nightmarish roller coaster where she is attacked by a giant mecha, but gets rescued by a noble bishounen robot.

Presence is one of the only two portions with actual dialogue, and was animated by Yasuomi Umetsu, most known for creating Kite. A family man secretly creates his own lovely teenage android, but becomes shocked when she shows signs of actual thinking. Scared at what this might mean, he demolishes his fembot, but is later visited by the robot's spirit as his own personal Grim Reaper.

Deprive is a strait up action movie trailer by director Hidetoshi Ōmori, which seems like a more macho version of Star Light Angel. Earth is assaulted by alien robots, and a lone cybernetic soldier goes to rescue his true love from the evil overlords. Very much done in the spirit of anime like Casshan.

The most enigmatic one of all the features is Cloud by Manabu Ohashi. Here, a robot boy carries on wandering, all while the history of mankind plays on the background. This was done in a sketchy technique, making it seem like a series of single illustrations.

A Tale of Two Robots is a steampunk farce of giant robot anime by Hiroyuki Kitakubo, who went on to do the original Blood: The Last Vampire movie. In late 1800s Japan, an egotistical genius creates a large mecha to take attack the citizens, but his plans are thwarted by five teenagers with attitude and their mobile parade float.

The last installment is Nightmare by Takashi Nakamura, who had plenty of experience with TV hits like Yatterman. A mystic but mechanized entity starts creating robotic monsters, all being orchestrated by his scarlet-caped herald. A drunken businessman who passed out during the takeover awakens to be chased around town on his scooter by the manhunter machines.

Robot Carnival is a pinnacle in the history of anime creation. The various takes on the standard subject matter of robots shows how imaginative different animators can be, taking it to different genres like fantasy, romance, and horror. The film was first put out dubbed by Streamline Pictures on VHS, but wouldn't be finally put on Blu-Ray and streaming decades later under Discotek's mission to revive retro anime. Assemble this perfect package film for a mind blowing experience!

Japan is getting ready for the 2020 Olympics

What to do to people who won't put on the damn masks!

ANI-MOVIES, Belladonna Of Sadness

The final entry in the "Animerama" trilogy by Mushi Production was the only one not to be done by Osamu Tezuka. Animerama was a series of adult-themed animated films from 1969-1973, although this film, Belladonna Of Sadness, features a good portion of it not in actual moving pictures but instead still shots, done in an early motion comic approach. It was directed by Eiichi Yamamoto, who worked on previous Tezuka productions like Astro Boy and Kimba. Yamamoto took this mature fantasy story and blended it with some serious psychotronic visuals, like you'd expect to watch this while listening to music from Woodstock. The story was based on La Sorcière, a 19th Century report on witchcraft and archaic arts.

Taking place in France during the Middle Ages, Jean and Jeanne are two young lovers get married, but the greedy king asks for her virginity to cover their wedding tax. Thus, Jeanne is raped by most of the nobility, and sent back abused to Jean. The battered wife is tempted by a small spirit who promises to help her in exchange for an ethereal sex exchange. Jeanne is able to use the magic into starting a new trade as a merchant, being one of the only ones in the village able to pay the insane taxes. This gets the attention of the king, who makes Jean the tax collector, which gives Jeanne a reputation as a revered figure dressed in green. The jealous queen has a servant attack her, tearing her outfit, which confusingly causes the villagers to run her out of town. Jeanne is revisited by the spirit who turns out to be Satan, and grants her even more power. With her dark magic, Jeanne unleashes a plague on the land, but convinces those infected that she has the cure with a belladonna flower. The villager begin worshiping her, and this further infuriates the queen, who sees her demise after her servant makes a pact with Jeanne for her love. The king sends Jean to convince Jeanne to join the royalty, but Jeanne refuses saying she wants the whole world instead. Jeanne is then burnt at the stake, while Jean is killed trying to save her. This sparks the villagers into their eventual contempt with the monarchy, which eventually becomes The French Revolution, seeing Jeanne as the eternal spirit of liberty.

The actual animated scenes in Belladonna Of Sadness are exceptional for the early 70s, but most creative were the tripping out montages which were normally done for sequences of sexual tension, to full out orgies. This still shot illustration maintain the flow of the story good enough while being backed up by convincing voice acting. It is not for younger audiences, but can't totally be seen as explicit "hentai" either, which is a concept that wouldn't really reach anime on a regular basis until around the mid-80s. There are some exceptional character designs, that appear to be what might have influenced illustrators like Yoshitaka Amano(Final Fantasy), so you can view this and understand where the more mature-themed anime got their start from.

Cause every girls crazy about a sharp dressed ape.