ANI-MOVIES, *Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind

Hiyao Miyazaki began his earlier career with projects like Lupin III: Castle Of Cagliostro and Future Boy Conan. Prior to the founding of Studio Ghibli, he also arranged to have a manga series he created turned into a full-length animated movie through Toei. The manga itself become a sprawling saga much sought after by collectors, and the movie itself was first released in English under the title Warriors Of The Wind, an infamously despised dub and edited edition put out by New World Pictures. It wasn't until it was later re-released through Buena Vista, and again years later by GKids that it got its full glory, even if Shia Lebouf isn't one of your more favorable voice actors. The style of Miyazaki's post-apocalyptic vision went on to influence several Japanese video games and RPGs, including Final Fantasy, but also became the basis for his later successful anime, Princess Mononoke.

Occuring a millenium after what was probably WWIII, the remnants of mankind struggle for life in seperate nations surrounded by an evergrowing deadly forest called the Toxic Jungle, infested with large Mothra-sized bugs. Nausicaa is the princess of an area titled the Valley of the Wind, although why its not referred to as the "Wind Valley" is unknown, and the Toxic Jungle's poisonous flora is constantly teetering on the edge of infecting the inhabitants' healthy trees. The Valley of the Wind becomes the center of a war between the neighboring kingdoms of Pejite and Tolmekia, as the feuding nations plan to use a buried giant robot to change the course of their struggle. A Tolmekian military faction is sent to the Valley to secure the weapon while taking control of the locals, and assasinating the already dying king. Nausicaa works with the Tolmekian to ease her citizens, but they are shot down by the Pejite prince on their way to being held as war prisoners. The princess and prince both survive the thrilling arial duel, taking refuge under the Toxic Jungle where they discover that the land beneth it is healthy enough to breathe with clean water. Nausicaa tries to jam the tide between the Valley's feuding kingdoms, while saving her people from a raging stampede of the huge insects.

Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind's movie covers most of the events of the manga, although it has a different conclusion as the manga was still in production at the time of its release. The film itself has been considered one of the single greatest animated movies of all time, even decades later. It acted as the dawn of Studio Ghibli's foundation, and helped build the genre of anime as a mature artform and not just used as a vehicle for super robot shows. The character designs are brilliant and memorable, with equally elegent animation still years ahead of what today's CGI could never accomplish. Its one of the first true fully-realized fantasy anime projects of the time.

MISC. MANGA, *Domu: A Child's Dream

One of Katsuhiro Otomo's first projects was the limited series was this sci-fi thriller. The manga ran from 1980-81, and was eventually released as a single paperback in Japan, and then released in English over a decade later by Dark Horse Comics. Domu serves as the foundation for Otomo's work on Akira as both deal with psychics and their effect on the world, although this story is more of a eerie urban fantasy as opposed to an apocalyptic epic.

Inside a large block of apartments in an inner city housing project, strange events are afoot with unexplained deaths, most of which seem like suicide with all the departed person's articles missing. The police can't pin down the source of this phenomenon, but several inhabitants are under suspicion as the lower class citizens each seem to have their own unique quirks. The truth is one of them is a high level esper that has been playfully meddling with their neighbors minds and memories. Only a more responsible local psychic can stand up to the other's psychotronic rampage.

Domu: A Child's Dream introduces the world to Otomo's style with emphasis on more realistic character designs. The manga has some timeless imagery to it that still captures the reader's attention. There's alot to offer in this eerie psychological single-volume comic to satisfy both horror fans and otaku.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Bubblegum Crisis

Before Akira, before Ghost In The Shell, before them all was the premiere cyberpunk anime, Bubblegum Crisis. As an amalgam of two American movies, Blade Runner and Streets Of Fire, this OVA series was intended to be 13 episodes, but instead cut short to only 8. Following this was a sequel/wrap up in Bubblegum Crash, a prequel anime + manga in A.D. Police, as well as a TV remake along with its own prequel and spinoff OVA, plus an American comic book prequel mini-series by Adam Warren. Despite its derivative title, Bubblegum Crisis is not some magical girl anime about high school idol singers! It's a sci-fi superhero action drama, with stakes fitting its American influences even though there are the occasional scenes of standard anime hijinks. The anime was one of the pioneers in the dawn of OVAs that began in the mid-80s, and was largely popular due to its soundtrack albums that were released for each individual episode, for which back then on VHS was at least $60. This made its major studio Artmic into one of the premiere production companies of the time. Unfortunately, because of internal politics and finances, Bubblegum Crisis was cut short during what was ultimately a filler episode.

Beginning in 2032, Japan was earlier hit with a major earthquake that decimates Tokyo. The city is reborn as "Megatokyo", largely due to the work force of androids called Boomers manufactured by the now very powerful Genom corporation. One of the original designers of Boomers, Dr. Stingray, was killed years prior, and now his daughter Sylia leads an all-female team of mercs known as the Knight Sabers, each one wearing their own specialized combat armor that were all years ahead of anything that Tony Stark could have invented at the time. The other members of Sylia's team are obligatory tsundere/underground singer Priss, fitness expert Linna, and the bubbly Nene who works for the AD Police, Megatokyo's anti-Boomer task force. The first few episodes have the Knight Sabers dealing with Mason, a rogue member of Genom who might be the one behind the death of Sylia's father. Next is a stand alone about a vigilante with a supped-up race car knocking off a biker gang. Following this is a 2-parter featuring escaped sex-droids from a space station who ally with the cyborg terrorist Largo who has a personal vendetta with thew Knight Sabers. Following this is another stand alone episode about the idol singer Vision seeking her own revenge against Genom. The last episode has Nene trying to stop her boss' nosy niece from discovering the Knight Sabers' secret identities, while a random Genom scientist tries to kill off the superheroine quartet just to boost his own ego.

Each OVA episode is done as its own mini movie, some ranging from 30-50 minutes long each, with major anime industry names behind it like Masami Obari, Kenichi Sonoda, Hiroki Hayashi, and Hiroaki Goda. The legacy that this single anime spawned was the springboard for numerous cyberpunk titles across near countless media franchises, including Batman Beyond. The singular major drawback to the groundbreaking series is that it never reached its proper conclusion.

It was Martian Manhunter all along!

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Blade Runner: Black Out 2022

Acting as the first chonologically and canonical continuation to the original 1982 live-action movie, Blade Runner: Black Out 2022 is one of three shorts meant to lead into Blade Runner 2049 film. Ofter referred to as a "prequel", it was in fact released a month before the theatrical full-length sequel movie. Director Denis Villeneuve had each of the shorts done by directors he personally respected, so for the single animated one he tapped Shinchiro Watanabe of Cowboy Bebop fame, as is apparent with both future sci-fi stories taking place in versions of Earth where the planet has suffered from a near extinction event. Being twice as long as the other two prelude shorts, this one tells more of a full story where as the others were like deleted scenes from a full-length movie.

Taking place three years after the original movie, the film starts out with two remaining Replicants runaways planning a major assault on what is left of the Tyrell Corp., along with a human technician willingly helping them from the inside. Their operation is to cause a nuclear missle to take out all of Los Angeles' electricity grid, while the Replicants Iggy and Trixie destroy the entire Tyrell database regarding their series of androids, so that Blade Runners won't be able to use existing records to hunt down other Replicants.

The Black Out event is mentioned briefly in Blade Runner 2049, but is meant to act as a major reference point for the upcoming Blade Runner: Black Lotus anime TV series happening a decade later with Watanabe returning as creative consultant. Black Out 2022 itself is a brief chapter in the franchise's lore, but also is a defining piece of striking animation even for non-cyberpunk fans. The short is mainly available on official video services like YouTube, but not currently on home video.

ANI-MOVIES, *Ocean Waves

First titled I Can Hear The Sea, this made for TV movie selection was released throughout most of the English-speaking regions as Ocean Waves, despite having little to do with a seaside setting. Based on Saeko Himuro's book, the Studio Ghibli produced movie was handled by most of the groups' less experienced animators, which apparently lead to having the project getting delayed. It's one of the few Ghibli titles that don't have science-fiction, fantasy, or supernatural element to it, and mostly done as a dysfunctional high school romance. Aside from being initially aired in Japan in 1993, it didn't get an American release until the 2010s, and that was with no English dub, possibly meant as an impulse buy for completionists.

During their schooldays, students Taku and Yutaka bond from being the only ones protesting the school's decision to cancel their trip. A pretty young transfer student named Rikako who slowly rises in popularity mainly due to her high scores. Yutaka develops feelings for Rikako, but she bonds more with Taku during the school's trip to Hawaii after she talks him into lending her some money. Taku later hears from Rikako's friend that she borrowed the money to visit her divorced father in Tokyo, which he takes the place of her escort. Their Tokyo voyage has the two slightly bonding, but Taku realizes Rikako's vanity and arrogance when dealing with her family and old friends. Once back in school, Taku had an argument with Rikako when she told Yutaka of their trip, and the three of them were having a falling out for the rest of their final semester. Years later, Taku goes back home for a class reunion where he and Yutaka reconcile, although Rikako was absent because she was back in Tokyo looking for Taku, to which the two have the possibililty of a new beginning.

Ocean Waves is one of the more realistic teenage melodrama anime titles. The style and music are extremely reminiscent of early 90s anime like Here Is Greenwood and Kimagure Orange Road, even though it doesn't give into stereotypical tropes like some of the overhyped Rumiko Takahashi manga. The anime movie was followed up by an animated sequel which wasn't produced by Studio Ghibli, thus American otaku will have to look into any existing imports to find out how Rikako and Taku's relationship developed past the finale. The subtitled American release suffers from miniscule lettering that are difficult to interpret upon first watch, making it necessary to frequently rewind to make out the text.

What if Synergy was really Skynet?