MISC. MANGA, *Dirty Pair

Based on the light novel series by Haruko Takachiho, the Dirty Pair has never up until 2010 had its own original Japanese manga, despite an anime TV series, a movie, OVAs, and a 90s remake. Most American otaku are probably familiar with Adam Warren's Dirty Pair various comic book mini-series, but this is the first manga done for Japanese readers, aside from the manga extension of the Dirty Pair Flash OVA. Manga artist Hisao Tamaki has also done the manga adaptaion of Star Wars: Episode IV, plus his own creation Astrider Hugo have both been published in English. This "new" manga took about a decade to finally get released through Seven Seas Entertainment who have a taste for publishing manga heavy with fan service. The series was first printed into two separate volumes, but collected into a single large book for it's English release, which is in itself of the first light novel anthology, The Great Adventures Of The Dirty Pair.

The first story features our titular duo, Kei and Yuri, who have the codename of "Lovely Angels", although their destructive reputation has them eternally branded as the Dirty Pair, and their assignment is to uncover a conspiracy on the planet Dangool involving a rogue faction of the government setting up its own interstellar battle station. The second chapter is a short one involving the Lovely Angels trying to escape a timeloop where they end up blowing themselves up. The final installment is an extra-length one where Yuri gets some help from childhood friends that grew up to be officers to help her and Kei take down the Lucifer criminal organization, which in the original continuity of the novels was the Dirty Pair equivalent to SPECTRE. This last one is a little more overt than their normal adventures, even though it finally gets around to showcasing Key and Yuri's esper link, where they can share a clairvoyant vision by bonding together on an almost romantic level, which is something that they can't do on their own which is why they were teamed up in the first place.

Hisao Tamaki has a real flair for space opera-themed manga, and hopefully he'll get his own ongoing cosmic odyssey title going. Fans of the 80's version of Dirty Pair should appreciate this, especially with their feline partner Mughi who here is more of a sleek oversized mutant panther. It fits nicely into a cyberpunk frame, but is a great read for old school sci-fi fans.

Zim rips off Akira!

ANI-MOVIES, *Invader Zim: Enter The Florpus

After 13 long years, Netflix managed to conclude two of Nickelodeon's discontinued series, first of which was the Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling TV special. Enter The Florpus brings back Invader Zim in all its dystopian and disjointed glory. Series creator Jhonen Vasquez(who also made the infamous Johnny The Homicidal Maniac comic)returns with all the whole crew, including all the original vocal cast.

Keeping an eternal vigil on Zim's invading activities, Dib has spent the previous undetermined amount of time watching Zim's house while stuffing himself in his office chair. Zim finally emerges along with Gir stretching as Dib shows up wheeling his pudgy self where Zim explains he spent the past time lurking inside his toilet waiting for Dib to become unfit enough to stop him as he rolls out "Phase 2". However, because Zim was in seclusion for so long, he forgot what Phase 2 was actually supposed to be. Upon realizing this, Zim looks into when his species' Irken fleet is set to arrive on Earth, and it turns out the Tallest don't even have Earth on their singular galactic domination plan. Dib gets himself back in shape, and finds Zim in a manic depression who realizes his whole invasion mission was a set up by the Tallest. Zim surrenders himself to Dib who plans to unveil Zim's alien-self on live TV during the premiere of his father Professor Membrane's latest invention, the Membracelet which is similar to Leela's wrist gadget from Futurama. Zim instead hijacks the event by having Membrane sent off to a space prison, and reworking the Membracelets to transport the Earth in the line of the Irkin fleet. Doing so opens up a "Florpus" hole, where several different realities clash together like an dimensional black hole. Dib and his sister Gaz use the starship Tak left behind from the TV series to rescue their dad, while Gir makes Zim a giant mechanical throne ripped off right from the Akira manga. After an intense space chase, the Membrane family returns to fight off Zim's robot army, even though through the whole thing Dib's dad still thinks the whole thing is a dream, including the pudding-loving goldfish-looking clone Zim made of him. Professor Membrane manages to get a hold of Minimoose, Zim's main control for the teleporter to send Earth back, while the Irking flight arrives in time to get sucked into the Florpus themselves, supposedly ending the alien threat once and for all.

This was a complete return to for the entire crew. The animation is of course given a massive upgrade, with only slight adjustments made to the character designs. The meta-commentary on popular culture, massive consumerism, and blind faith in the media show out in full force here. The only glaring glitch in the movie is it seems to retread considerable territory already done in the TV series final episode where Zim also uses a disguise to convince the Earthlings into teleporting themselves to their doom. The made-for-TV movie does perform as a more than above average extended episode of the original series, while still leaving room for a possible continuation. The major bonus for otaku is the anime-styled opening sequence which looks like its right out of Gurren Lagann!

ANI-MOVIES, *Lego DC Batman: Family Matters

Since the addition of Robin, the "Batman Family" has spawned off dozens of characters for 80 years, most of which are superheroes. There's been multiple Robins, Batwomans, Batgirls, plus additions like Alfred and Ace the Bat-Hound. So, it was about time they did an animated movie highlighting the majority of the Batman Family. This concept has been looked at before in The Lego Batman Movie and in Batman: Bad Blood, but Family Matters is probably the most expansive ones ironically blending two mature story arcs, Under The Red Hood and Infinite Crisis.

The Lego Game universe version of Batman decides he's tired of dealing with Wayne Enterprises while keeping his secret identity, so after his scientists unveil a new AI system called Brother Eye, Bruce decides to sell his company to dedicate to being Batman full time. A new masked villain called Red Hood teams up with Two-Face to buy up Wayne Enterprises, along with control of Brother Eye, which creates an army of robots to take over Gotham. Red Hood also implements several villains into splitting up the Bat-Family so he can capture them one at a time. After taking down Nightwing, Batgirl, Batwoman, and the new Robin(Wayne's son Damien), he calls Batman back to the Batcave to confront him. The Dark Knight deduces that Red Hood is really Jason Todd, the second Robin, who in this universe instead of getting killed by the Joker just dropped out because Batman wouldn't let him finish a video game. Bruce convinces Jason to stop being such a jerk and go back to being a good guy, just as Two-Face reveals his plan to take over Gotham with his robots. The Bat-Family springs back into action along with Red Hood's help to pull the plug on Brother Eye, and stop Two-Face.

Family Matters is a good expansion of the Lego DC Universe, for once narrowing in solely on Batman Incorporated instead of the wider Justice League roster. It's a better story involving the Batman cast instead of Gotham City Breakout which was only good when it switched back and forth to the JLA trying to nab the regular Gotham villains. The dub has former Batman Beyond, Will Fredle as Nightwing, and regular Teen Titans Robin, Scott Menville as Damian Wayne. Unlike most of the Lego DC features, this one also implements the fact that Batman and his disciples are "Master Builders" in their own universe when they combine several vehicles using Lego bricks.

ANI-MOVIES, *Song Of The Sea

Tomm Moore's second full-length animated film with Cartoon Saloon after Secret Of The Kells was a welcome followup deep in Irish lore and European urban fantasy. Where as the previous production took place during the viking era, Song Of The Sea brings the mythology up to modern day.

Ben is a young boy living in a lighthouse on a small inlet in Ireland. He cared very deeply for his mother that supposedly died giving birth to his younger sister, Saoirse, who is a mute. Ben now lives with his father, sister, and their dog Cu. The family gets a visit from their grandmother on Saoirse's 6th birthday, but leads to the young girl finding her mother's old cloak that allows her to transform into a seal, which reveals that her mother was a "selkie", a water spirit with the power to take on a human form for a number of years. After discovering Saoirse's secret, her grandmother convinces their father to let the children move in with her, miles away from the ocean. The ancient goddess Macha sends her owl lackeys to capture Saoirse because a selkie's song could free all the faeries she turned to stone by taking away their emotions. Ben and Saoirse leave their grandma's house on Halloween while encountering the last three local faerie folk not under Macha's curse. The trio tell them of Macha's plans to kidnap Saoirse, so the siblings barely escape the creepy owls, but Ben loses his sister. Luckily, the lad stumbles across an old storytelling spirit who leads him to Macha's lair, and uses the goddess' stolen emotions to make the old crow feel again. Saoirse is still not feeling well, and Macha informs them she needs her mother's robe to heal her. After finally reaching the lighthouse, they use the robe to change Saoirse into a seal again, while Macha uses her magic to free all those still under her petrifying spell. This summons the spirit of Ben and Saoirse's mother who removes the robe from her half-selkie daughter, making her now fully human.

Song Of The Sea is very deep in Celtic folklore, although you don't need to have a degree in mythology to enjoy it. The story is easy to accept as a present day fantasy, and despite its dark overtones the film rolls along good enough for all ages to watch. The animation is above the quality that Cartoon Saloon did in Secret Of The Kells, and you can see how far they've come during the five years between movies. Even though its limited U.S. box office time got it an Oscar nomination, it didn't raise the level of success as your standard Disney animated movie.

By the power of Star Wars franchising!

The Mandalorian MUST take off his lazy-ass helmet!