ANI-MOVIE, *Neo Tokyo

There's a small percentage of anime movies that are anthologies made up of short stories. Some like Batman: Gotham Knight and The Animatrix are set in the same storyline, while others like Robot Carnival are set to a certain theme. This movie was a trio of sci-fi/fantasy tales done by some of the best anime directors in the biz. Originally titled Manie-Manie(or Labyrinth Tales)in Japan, it was released in America as Neo Tokyo because Katsuhiro Otomo who had created the hit Akira was one of the contributors on it, and the idea was to make people think that this film has some connection to it by naming it after the city Akira takes place in.

The first chapter was directed by Rintaro(Metropolis)in the vein of Alice In Wonderland featuring a young boy and his cat going to scary circus with creepy clowns. This story actually comes around at the end as a bookend to the trilogy. The second part is The Running Man by Yoshiaki Kawajiri(Ninja Scroll)about a race car driver in the future who during his last race suddenly gains psychic powers, and runs across the souls of every racer that died in one of his races. The last one is by Otomo called Construction Cancellation Order, where a large corporation sends one of its office drones to deal with a giant construction project in the South American jungle where the facility is run entirely by robots. He comes to realize that the robots have gone mad, and tries to sabotage their efforts which involves revitalizing the enviroment.

All the stories were based on the works by Japanese sci-fi writer Taku Mayumura, who has mainly dealt in space operas. This movie was first released in America on dubbed VHS by Streamline Pictures, and then later on DVD by ADV Films which kept the original Streamline dub. It's biggest claim to fame in America is that The Running Man segment played on MTV's Liquid Television during the 90s. It's a movie that's been praised more for its artistic value, similar to films like Tekkonkinkreet and Perfect Blue, but its still very entertaining and packed somes of the best visuals in an anime production. Watch it at least to get a little culture into your otaku catalog.

JESI THE GENIE, *Part 8: Page 5

Story by Jer Alford. Art by Serena Paccagani.

ANI-MOVIES, *Steamboy

Katsuhiro Otomo decided to go from cyberpunk with Akira to steampunk in this adventurous epic. The movie had the mild cost of over 25 million dollars, and was in production for well over a decade. Even though it didn't really make the kind of impact that Otomo's previous works did, it is still a compelling film.

Set in the 1860s, Ray Steam(yes, his last name is Steam!)is the prodigal son of the steamologist, Edward. Edward and his genius father Lloyd have spent the last few years developing a highly compressed form of energy in a containment called a Steamball. Lloyd sends it to Ray for safe keeping from the conniving O'Hara Foundation, of which Edward has alligned himself with. Ray eventually gets kidnapped by the O'Hara thugs, and confronts his father, along with the very bratty Scarlett O'Hara. He makes off with the Steamball, and tries to seek help from Edward's rival, Robert Stephenson(based on the actual scientist). However, Stephenson wants to use it to fight Edward and the O'Hara Foundation who have created a giant steam-powered flying fortress called the Steam Castle. The castle begins to assualt London during the Great Exhibition, which leads to some great battle sequences between the O'Hara and Stephenson forces, with steam-powered tanks, battlesuits, airplanes, and submarines. Ray uses the Steamball to create a portable rocket, and flies into the castle to stop his father, and rescue Lloyd and Scarlett. Ray gets Scarlett away before the castle eventually falls, although both Lloyd and Edward apparently surivived according to the montage during the closing credits.

Steamboy is one of the shining examples of steampunk's influence on anime, more so than some Miyazaki movies like Howl's Moving Castle. It incorporates some of the best from the genre including the outlandish 19th Century technology and the bounding spirit found in the works of Mark Twain and Jules Verne. Now, the major faults with that though are it spends too much time debating on the morals of science and what it should be used for. The time they waste showing Lloyd and Edward arguing over philosophy alone would've taken at least thirty minutes off the movie. The other problem is that it's a little longer than necessary, and seems like it seriously lost alot of its direction during the last act. It does however leave a bold mark in the annuals of animation, and worth checking out at least for some exhilirating visuals. Very recommended for fans of children's literature

JESI THE GENIE, *Part 8: Page 4

Story by Jer Alford. Art by Serena Paccagani.

ANI-MOVIES, *Monster Vs. Aliens

I didn't get around to watching this when it first came out in theatres, but was suprised at how good it was when I checked out the DVD. Dreamworks(creators of Shrek and Kung Fu Panda)did this as a comedic homage to the monster movies of the 50s.

Starting out, Susan was a blushing bride about to be married to her shallow weatherman boyfriend Derek, but a meteorite chrashes near her and dowses her with an outer space radiation called quantonium. She is then transformed into a white-haired giantess, and immeadiately accosted by the military, who apparently were expecting a giant to be there at the crashsite in the first place because they had large hypodermic needles to put her to sleep with. Susan wakes up in the secret government facility of Area 52 which houses other kinds of "monsters". The team consists of Bob the blob, the amphibious Missing Link, the insectoid mad scientist Dr. Cockroach, and the tremendous kaiju Insectosaurus. Things seem miserable for Susan(now called Ginormica), but the evil alien overlord Gallaxhar shows up in his starship and launches a giant robot loose on San Francisco. So the monsters are sent to stop the robot in exchange for their freedom. After an epic battle that wrecks the Golden Gate Bridge, they destroy the mecha, and Susan heads to her hometown along with her new monster buds to see her fiance. However, Derek breaks up with her, which makes Susan embrace her monsterhood. This would be nice, except that Gallaxhar kidnaps her to extract the quantonium from her to power his clone-making machine and invade Earth. Bob, Link, and Cockroach board the ship and find Susan who is now normal size after having the radiation sucked out of her. They manages to destroy the ship's computer, and Susan confronts Gallaxhar, which gets her cosmic mojo again, turning her back into a giant. They escape on Insectosaurus who is now a gargantuan butterfly. The monsters then agree to continue working with the military to defend Earth against other threats.

M.V.A. was a very enjoyable movie. The 3-D is applied wonderfully, unlike some other animated films. The story pays great attention to the Silver Age schlock creature features, both the stereotypical monster ones and flying saucer flicks. The casting was fine, although it was a little overboard with Stephen Colbert at the President, and they could've just had John DiMaggio doing the voice of Keifer Sutherland's character, General Monger. Like in most Dreamworks cartoons, there is alot of pop culture subreferences, although one of the genuinely good ones is the DDR session. There's already been an OVA prequal called BOB's Big Break, and a Halloween TV special, but knowing Dreamworks there's probably gonna be an actual movie sequal too. Definately seek out this monster mash!

Cherry Berry Clone Jutsu!

ANI-MOVIES, *AH MY GODDESS: THE MOVIE

Where as alot of anime movies are connected to a TV series, Ah My Goddess is signifigant as it was a direct sequal to the original OVA series from the 90s, which in America was called Oh My Goddess. Although the film included a few elements from the manga as well, this actually came out a few years before the TV remake.

Set around sometime after the end of the 5-episode OVA, Keichi is still living with the goddess Belldandy, and her sisters Urd and Skuld. Belldandy is visited by her old teacher Celestin, who was unknown to her imprisioned on the moon for rebelling against the gods when she was young. Celestin was released by the fairy princess Morgan Le Fay(from the Arthurian legend)to try and gain access to the Yggdrasil system that Heaven uses to control Earth. Celestin infects Belldandy with a virus that makes her forget everything that happened to her from when she first came to Earth and met Keichi. Urd and Skuld try using a vaccine to cure her and give back her memories, but this causes the Yggdrasil system to crash, and Celestin takes over Keichi's body. With Morgan, Celestin nearly succeeds, but Belldandy regains her memories and frees Keichi of his control. The three goddesses then bring their powers together to heal Yggdrasil, and set everything right again.

This film was very well executed. It had a solid story, a decent plot, and unlike alot of anime movies that spinoff from a series, it actually tied into the original in an exceptional way. It was directed by Hiroaki Godha, who went on to do the Ah My Goddess TV series which retold most of the story from OVA. You can enjoy this movie even if you're only briefly familar with the characters. Weirdly enough, you can see this as sequal to both the TV and OVA series. The astounding digital animation that was used(for in 2000)is still remarkable by today's standards. Even though there's a little less of the comedic factor that usually follows an AMG title, its a very entertaining shojo comedy.