ANI-MOVIES, *DC Showcase

DC Universe decided to go ahead and take their DC Showcase features from three of their prior regular full-length releases into a single movie anthology, along with a brand new longer segment, the headliner of Superman/Shazam: The Return Of Black Adam. It also claims to have all three of the previous shorts now in expanded editions, but that is not the case with this as none of the shorts of The Spectre, Jonah Hex, or Green Arrow were changed in any way from their original release. Why they advertised it like this I have no idea, as Warner Bros. is usually pretty straight forward with their promotions and let you know what you’re really getting.

The first feature is of Superman/Shazam that actually acts as an origin story for Captain Marvel, which is pretty cool since there’s never really been anything done of him outside the comic books. BTW, I need to point out that this is the DC Comics’ Captain Marvel who is really the original one, and not the Marvel Comics character of the same name. There’s a long history behind that involving copyrights and whatnot, that I suggest you look up on your own time. Anyway, it opens with an evil superpowered baddy called Black Adam arriving on Earth after hitchhiking it across the galaxy for the last 5,000 years. Adam was given the powers of the Greek Gods by the wizard Shazam long ago, but went rogue, so the wizard sent him far into space. Now that he’s returned, Adam seeks out the next one who will inherit the powers of Shazam. It turns out to be a young orphen named Billy Batson who is currently being interviewed by Clark Kent for a news report on the homeless(even though he has an apartment). Adam shows up and flings Kent through a wall, although conveniently Superman shows up(weird!)to give him a run for his money. Billy manages to escape, and is magically sent to the underground lair of the aging Shazam. He gives Billy the ability to turn into an older version of himself with the powers of flight, speed, and superstrength, with the new name of Captain Marvel. He and Superman team up to take down Black Adam, and with the help of Shazam’s talking tiger friend, con the villain into reverting back to his old form which ages him five millenia in a single moment. The mini-movie ends with Billy sorta forgetting the whole concept of a “secret identity” when confronted by some punks. This was a great little feature which explored some of the old DC Comics Presents territory where Superman would team up with other heroes in Brave And The Bold fashion. It was wonderfully directed by Joaquim Dos Santos who also did great work in Avatar: The Last Airbender, as well as the other DC Showcase shorts.

The first of the three original Showcase stories is The Spectre which is done like a cross between a 70s detective TV show and a grindhouse movie. Jim Corrigan is a police detective who is really the Spirit of Vengenance, and as the Spectre he hunts down the murderers of an ex-girlfriend’s rich father. This has some particularly spooky and gripping scenes in it. The Spectre himself is very convincing as voiced by Gary Cole(aka: Harvey Birdman!)

Next is Green Arrow, where the Emerald Archer has to rescue a young princess in an airport from assassins. He gets into a chase with several thugs while being shot at by the evil archer, Merlyn The Magnificent. GA bests Merlyn, but is nearly taken out by his client, Count Vertigo. Luckily, Black Canary shows up to bail Arrow out. Neal McDonough was fine as GA, and Malcom McDowell is charismatic as ever as Merlyn.

The final bit is Jonah Hex which was phenomenally better than that crappy live-action movie. It’s a regular tale of the horribly scarred gunslinger with no supernatural plotpoints thrown in for no good reason. Jonah goes hunting for an outlaw with a large bounty on him, and runs a fowl of a crooked but dead sexy bar owner and her goons. This holds up as being a great Old West tale, while still holding onto the great feel of a nostalgic comic story. Thomas Jane is also just as tough as the voice of Hex, and not just doing a Western version of The Punisher.

Aside from how there was nothing new added to the previously released shorts, I’d say this is worth at least renting if you didn’t have the Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths, Batman: Under The Red Hood, or Superman/Batman: Apocalypse special edition DVDs or Blu-Rays. I dunno if there are plans to release Superman/Shazam as a bonus on an upcoming feature release, but otherwise unless you’re a huge Superman or Capt. Marvel fan you might wanna save your money until this ends up in the used DVD rack.

MISC. MANGA, *Sgt. Frog

From Mine Yoshizaki, the creator of Arcade Gamer Fubuki, comes this great mixture of Invader Zim and The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy. Sgt. Frog, or Sgt. Keroro as its called in Japan, is your typical boy-meets-cute alien story, but this one is done for anime fans with plenty of hyjinks enstore.

Sgt. Keroro is the leader of a squad of five invaders from the planet Keron, where everyone there is basically 2 ft. frog people. While doing observations of an Earth family, he is discovered by the two children, Fuyuki and his older sister Natsumi. Now, his mission has been comprimised as they capture him and capture his Kero Ball which is a piece of alien hardware. They then get a quick message from his planet that they're cancelling the invasion of Earth and have to leave all their soldiers there behind. Now, the sergeant is stuck on Earth, but luckily Fuyuki takes a liking to him. He convinces Natsumi to let the stay with them, as long as he does all the chores. Then, their mother Aki, a manga editor, comes home from an extended business trip to discover an alien frog now living in their house. Weirdly enough, she becomes completely fascinated with him, and unknowingly makes him the star of her next manga, Baron Frog. After that, they all learn that Fuyuki's classmate Momoko, who secretly has a major crush on Fuyuki, is housing Private Tamama, the younger member of Sgt. Frog's missing team. He also has a split-personality and the ability to shoot lasers from his eyes. They later find Corporal Giroro, the trigger-happy officer from Frog's unit.

Sgt. Frog has already developed into a popular anime series, as well as a line of merchandise that nearly rivals Hello Kitty. The manga is extremely funny, and great fun for younger readers, although it does have some mature themes to it. Better than E.T., and funnier than Alf, this is one alien abduction you'll like to see. Also check out the Arcade Gamer Fubuki anime which is in the same universe at this too!

JESI THE GENIE, *Part 4: Page 10

Story by Jer Alford, art by E. Aedo.

ANI-MOVIES, *Firebreather

Cartoon Network decided to go an extra step further with one of their regular productions with this CGI made-for-TV movie based on the Image Comics series by Phil Hester and Andy Kuhn. The comic has been was two seperate mini-series and a one-shot special, although the title character is a regular part of the Image Comics universe, and seen in comics like Invincible and Bomb Queen, even though he was first concieved to be part of Marvel Comics’ Young Avengers team. The film was written by Jim Krieg who also wrote for Ben 10 and Spider-Man, plus it was directed by Peter Chung(creator of Aeon Flux!).

The movie takes place sometime after a there was an an attack of giant monsters referred to as “kaiju” that ravaged metropolitan cities across the country. The king of the monsters, Belloc, reaches somekind of treaty with the humans by having a woman bearing his child. There is never any explanation as to how this was done! I mean, did they go out for a movie and some dancing, and then end up doing it on top of the Houston Astrodome? The sheer size-difference is mindboggling enough! It’d be like Smurfette trying to get it on with Wilt Chamberlain! Anyway, cut to 16 years later, and Godzilla Jr. has grown up into a slightly normal looking teenager boy named Duncan, aside from the orange-ish skin and rugged skin that most people must think is zits. He and his mom Margaret have moved into a southeastern suburban town, and Duncan has trouble dealing with the token a-hole jocks at his new school. Duncan goes to a party later that night and tries to pick up a cute blonde there, but it all goes to Hell when his Dad shows up and carries him off to his underground lair. Belloc explains to him since he is the heir to the kaiju monarchy that the other kaiju can challenge him for succession. Duncan mutates into full dragon-humanoid mode where he can breath fire and has superstrength. He is later found by the anti-kaiju military force, one of whom is undercover as his school’s gym teacher, and Duncan is brought home to his mother. Later, he becomes the target of two rebellious kaiju who want to take over. Duncan sprouts large wings(larger than what he had in the comic), and manages to bury them under a mountain of snow, which is weirdly enough right by the desert. Despite his secret being blown, Duncan goes back to being a high school student, even though you’d think that he’d have to be swarmed by paparazzi after taking down some rejects from Monster Island.

This was a pretty well executed movie. There’s some great action scenes, and the animation really grabs the full scale of the giant monsters. You’d almost wish that these guys were working on Power Rangers. I’m not sure if some of the animators who did this worked on The Clone Wars, but it was a vast improvement from their normal if that is the case. I highly advise you to check this out next time it plays on TV, or if and when it makes its inevitable DVD release.

Wolfhoof

JESI THE GENIE, *Part 4: Page 9

ANI-MOVIES, *Nadesico: The Motion Picture

Most of the time, when a movie is a continuation of an anime TV series, its either a remake like Escaflowne, or it takes place during the show like Naruto. However, alot of times the movie will act as a conclusion for a series that has already run its course, such was the case in Evangelion and Fullmetal Alchemist. The Nadesico anime(also known as Martian Successor Nadesico)was a 26-episode TV series that was billed as being a “space opera”, but at the same time was one of the first shows that actually riffed on anime fandom, specifically the outer space and giant robot genres. There were numerous references and jokes used throughout it which spoofed/honored the whole mecha theme in anime, even to the point where the opposing alien army had based their entire culture on a 70s super robot show. It was also a harem anime with the main antagonist had at least 2-3 girls vying for his attention, even during the middle of a space battle. So, mix Star Trek with Gundam and mix in a Love Hina sense of humor, this is what you’ll get.

The movie itself takes place about three years after the series ended, where fan-favorite Ruri who was an ensign when we last left her is now a full-fledged captain with her own ship, the Nadesico-B. The war between Earth and the Jovians(who’re really outcasted humans from Jupiter)has ceased, and the original Nadesico-A crew has split up, most of which left the military altogether. Three of their numbers were killed though during an accident: the main character Akito, Captain Yurika, and the over-explaining Inez. It might seem a little disheartening to have some of the major characters murdered offscreen, but this comes into play later on. Ruri and her crew go to inspect the main station involved in the Hidalgo Plan which combines several warpgates using Boson Jumping linking parts of space into one big junction. The station suddenly gets taken over by a rogue new faction calling themselves the Martian Successors made up of people from the Jovian and Earth governments. They are utilizing the alien artifact found on Mars at the end of the TV series to capture the entire Boson Jump network, which is being controlled by an unconcious Yurika who is not as dead as rumored. Akito is not so dead either, and acting on his own in a dark Aestvalis mecha trying to stop the rebels. Ruri is given command of the new Nadesico-C to head to Mars and confront the Martian Successors, so she has to get the old Nadesico-A crew back to man it. Her officer Hari teleports to Mars with another A-class Boson Jumper, the also not-dead Inez, and prepare the new Nadesico for the final battle. Akito has a last duel with the commander of the Successors who caused him and Yurika to have their deaths faked in the first place, and then takes off into space leaving Yurika finally awakened by Ruri and the others. This leaves room for a sequal where Akito and Yurika are reunited, which unfortunately never happened.

As a followup to the TV show, this was fairly good. Given the extensive original cast, they managed to give most of them some decent screentime, although the two main ones are either now tragically emo or unconcious for the whole movie. This was really a chance for the supporting characters to shine, especially Ruri who had been thrust into the captain’s chair to make the fanboys happy. The animation took a serious upgrade from the series to the movie, mainly in the space battles and mecha fights which were downplayed quite a bit on the TV show. I’d mainly only advise this be watched by fans of the original anime, even though the ending leaves you wanting for there to be more.