OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Cyber City Oedo 808

Being the third in a series of titles Yoshiaki Kawajiri worked on that had the word "city" in it, Cyber City Oedo 808 is a cyberpunk story that commits the sin that numerous futuristic tales commit by taking place too far in the actual future. Happening in the year 2808, this world of tomorrow still has grounded cars and outdated robotics that were retro even at the time this 3-episode OVA came out in 1990. Kawajiri brought his brand of lightning animation of which he would soon use in his cult classic Ninja Scroll. Speaking of cult, the British dub for this is one of the more infamous English dubs of an anime as it is peppered with pointlessly misplaced cursing which makes it a chuckle-fest for pre-teen boys.

In the far-flung future of the early 29th Century where the city of Oedo has been constructed with a history of deep underground crime still holding power. The combat this, police chief Hasegawa takes a page out of Escape From New York and lassos a trio of convicts all serving out life sentences consisting of the loudmouthed Sengoku, the effeminate Benten, and Gogul who looks like Bebop from TMNT. All three of these prisoners are given exploding collars and are forced to help out the police on special cases in order to take time off from their sentences. Each of the episodes deals with a separate case spotlighting one of the members of this sci-fi suicide squad in which the first one has Sengoku trying to stop a skyscraper so stupidly tall that it requires its own gravity-controlled generated to keep it balanced from collapsing on the city after the building is taken over by the spirit of a deceased architect. The next chapter sees Gogul being manipulated in a convoluted caper to fight a new psychic-powered cyborg created by the military to control the police. Finally, Benten investigates a series a murders to which all evidence points to the killer being a vampire, most of the ideas from this episode helped inspire Kawajiri's work on Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.

Cyber City Oedo 808 is similar to numerous cyberpunk titles as it is set in a dystopian future which seems to be set in a version of the world after more than one apocalypse has taken place as most of the robots seem like something out of Star Wars instead of artificial humans like in Blade Runner. The English dialogue is cliche of early 90's dubs filled with cursing just for the case of cursing despite that it makes it one of the better anime titles to watch for an evening at home getting drunk. The OVA is a must for die-hard fans of old school but fluid animation. It is one of Kawajiri's most recognized works, even though usually overlooked by non-otaku who have only watched his more mainstream releases.

Stop starting at Ultraman's butt!

 

MISC. MANGA, *Lucky Penny

What most might dismiss as a gender flipped Scott Pilgrim, they would be surprised to discover it is a fresh take on the idea of a hapless loser in love. Lucky Penny by Yuko Ota and Ananth Hirsch is a gaggle of geek references and realistic shenanigans presented in a manga-styled graphic novel. The major difference between this and Scott Pilgrim is being a more tangible story showing the struggles of a youngster just trying to make a living despite their meager skills and education.

Penny is a lackadaisical young woman who gets fired from her failing retail job and loses her apartment at the exact same time. Her friend Helen helps her out by letting her live in her storage facility as well as getting a job at her family's laundromat singularly managed by her moody younger brother David. Penny charms a gym employee Walter so she can use the showers for free, but the two of them begin to bond over their love of tabletop games. Penny's notices their seems to be a conspiracy going on with a gang of wandering pre-teens grifting the neighborhood which leads to a seriously secret ending culminating into the comic's equivalent of a boss fight from a video game.

Lucky Penny isn't specifically geared towards otaku, but it is drawn and executed in the manner of mange storytelling. It's a straightforward slice of life comedy with larger than life characters and how embarrassing a budding young romance can be.

ANI-MOVIES, *Sailor Moon Eternal

Sailor Moon Crystal was a retelling of the original manga without all the monster-of-the-week fillers that padded out each season of the 90s series adapted into five separate story arcs. However, the TV remake only covered the first three arcs, leaving room for Sailor Moon Eternal to do the Dream saga, otherwise labeled as Sailor Moon SS(or "Super S"). This was produced by Toei Animation as a two-part theatrical release which is supposed to be followed up by simliar production covering the Sailor Moon Stars saga.

Picking up where Sailor Moon Crystal left off, Chibiusa's trip back to the future is cut short by the arrival of a new enemy, the Dead Moon Circus. These mirthful monsters are from the literal dark side of the moon where the original Queen Serenity banished them to and finally broken free during an eclipse. Lead by the lethal Queen Nehelenia, the DMC send out their agents of the Amazoness Quartet who in turn dispatch their minions, the Amazon Trio, to give each of the Sailor Guardians their own evolution and power up. Chibiusa learns that Nehelenia has captured a pegasus called Helios who guards the Earth's inner realm of Elysion. This causes Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask to become ill as this invasion blocks the connection to each of their respected magic crystals. The outer guard of the Sailor Guardians along with a rejuvenated Sailor Saturn who has grown back into her prior age arrive to help the rescue the other Sailors from the Amazoness Quartet, each of whom are revealed to be Sailor Guardians in the future acting as Chibiusa's personal guard. All the planetary protectors eventually combine their powers to smite Nehelenia's plans to take over the world by freeing her grip on Elysion.

The animation done for this massive production was a step above what was done in the Sailor Moon Crystal series, although not substantially as it was filled with stock footage of transformations and special attack sequences. This could have easily been released as a single TV season instead of breaking it up into two movies. The major draw for it is the superior retelling of the manga bringing in obscure characters like Mars' companions Phobos and Deimos, or Artemis finally in his human form. Sailor Moon Eternal makes for a spectacular watch for 90s Moonies completionists, but anyone going strait into the Sailor Senshi story will probably end up being lost.

ANI-MOVIES, *The Grinch

Illumination tried to milk the Dr. Seuss cow one more time after The Lorax with yet another full-length adaptation of How The Grinch Stole Christmas which was perfect the first time in the 30-minute TV special done by the master of facial expressions, Chuck Jones. The live-action version gave people the jibblies, so possibly going back to animation would be a step back up. The CGI is pleasant to watch but bringing in modern day 3D animation filled with pop culture references don't really help.

This version of Whoville doesn't mention the fact that their world exists in a microverse which happened to have their own counterparts to Jesus and Santa Claus as Christmas is the center of the entire town's attention. The Grinch is a mysteriously green loner that lives inside a nearby mountain along with his dog Max who realizes he needs to go into town for groceries. The decorations, good cheer, and aggressive carollers reinforces Grinch's hatred of the holiday, so much so that he plans on stealing the entire thing from everyone. He decides to dress up as Santa Claus(this time with an actual white beard!)and herds the fat reindeer Fred into pulling his sled which he stole from his neighbor. Fred is later shown to have his own family so Grinch lets him go and replaces him with Max. With an assortment of gadgets right out of Wile. E. Coyote's catalog the Grinch successfully pulls off the citywide heist, even though the Whoville residents still sing welcoming Christmas which seeps into his heart. It's just then that the sled filled with swag almost goes over a cliff where Fred and his family shows up to use their mutant reindeer super-strength to help Grinch retrieve his stolen goods so he can return them. The Whoville folk are strangely okay with this as they invite Grinch to Christmas dinner where the reformed loner realizing that all he really wanted was to stop being alone. There is a subplot in this with Cindy Lou trying to ask Santa to help with her single mother raising her twin baby brothers, although this is mainly used as filler to make it to an 85-minute long feature.

The Grinch is definitely the lesser annoying of the two adaptations of Seuss' book and it does have a number of charming cartoon gags. The downside is that it pulls along what is a short story into a full-length movie by giving the Grinch another unnecessarily sobby origin with pathetically little dedicated to giving any details concerning his past. The original TV special is still one of the single greatest holiday specials of all time and this movie is more of a humorous cash grab instead of becoming a Christmas standard.

ANI-MOVIES, *Mirai

Being the only non-Ghibli anime movie to be nominated for an Oscar, Mirai was directed by Mamoru Hosoda of Summer Wars fame. Produced by Studio Chizu, the 2018 movie used elements from Hosoda's previous title The Girl Who Leapt Through Time into a new time travel fantasy feature for all ages.

Kun is a playful 4-year-old who gets some competition for his parents' affection with his newborn sister. The baby Mirai(which is Japanese for "future")is taking up most of the family's time with their second child, and the Kun is naturally jealous of her for this. The boy goes out to the garden of the house that his family built enclosing a tree where he meets a humanized version of his dog Yukko, revealing that there is something enchanted concerning this tree. Kun gets a visit from a teenage Mirai from the future who convinces him to put away a pair of dolls which is a Japanese tradition concerning a girl's marriage. Somehow being able to go along with all the weirdness, Kun soon gets sent back in time to meet his mother as a girl, and then later on his great-grandfather after WWII. A visit from Kun's future self leads him to a realize that Mirai has a place in his family as her future self shows him how the tree in the garden literally acts as a family tree with its mysterious power.

Mirai is shown from the point of view of a toddler with none of the adult characters having any given names. It doesn't make Kun out to be a likable protagonist, but then he's only 4 as his perception on the bigger world is still developing so any criticisms about him being a brat should add his age to the equation. The anime is an original idea by Hosoda and the creators at Studio Chizu where their vision expands into a diverse feature with the various timelines Kun visits. As a movie, this might not seem as memorable as a Ghibli presentation, although it does help the viewer appreciate the ties to their family both past and future.

Christine McVie, R.I.P.