MISC. MANGA, *Cereal

Having already done comedic revisions of stapled pieces of nostalgia such as The Flintstones and Snagglepuss, the creator of the Jesus/Superman crossover Second Coming did a series of short stories for Edgar Allen Poe comics published by Ahoy Comics. Cereal was an anthology of connenected stories set in the same world where old breakfast cereal mascots are constantly battling for power. It is like what Universal had in mind for their failed Dark Universe but actually pretty good with tongue in cheek satire. The macabre look by Starman artist adds to the dark humor.

In a land made of several strange characters like anthropomorphic animals and monsters, the Marquis de Cocoa got turned into a vampire by one of his subjects, and he tries to keep this secret from his neighboring allies who frequently come to his castle for a big cereal-filled breakfast. Meanwhile the Leprechaun King's enchanted Crown Of The Four Wisdoms has been stolen by a traitor to the throne who is trying to keep it away from the maniacal General Post, a warlord whose army of bizarre creatures is rampaging the countryside, including the reanimated body of the now pink-colored Franken Barrie. All this has the various leaders trying to monopolize on their own personal crusade of dominating breakfast which they believe is this most overwhelming force in the world. This concludes with a showdown of the surviving mascots at Post's Fortress Honeycomb.

The trade paperback collects all the original chapters from Edgar Allen Poe including three new installments that complete the story. There are some dark takes on classic cartoon characters like the Sugar Smacks frog being a gravedigger, the Rice Crispies elves as a crew trio of barflies, and Cap'n Crunch as a ruthless cutthroat. Cereal might seem like nothing more than a dark spoof of Saturday Morning commercials, but it is engaging take on familiar faces blended into a Game Of Thrones fantasy world.

ANI-MOVIES, *Harmagedon

Kazumasa Hirai created several manga mainstays such as 8-Man, Wolf Guy, and Spider-Man: The Manga, but his series of Gemna Wars from 1967 became a major groove in the history of anime and manga fandom. The original manga went on for only two volumes but was adapted into extra-sized full-length animated movie titled Harmagedon, and yes, that is how it is spelled. Harmagedon's plot follows the story of people with superpowers uniting to stop a demonic force from destroying the world, something that has been reflected in series like X/1999 and Dragonball. Madhouse and Kodokawa were the studios behind the film which premiered in 1983 and was directed by Rintaro who had already gained a huge success with his work in the Galaxy Express 999 duology. The huge draw to Harmagedon was that character designer was a young Katsuhiro Otomo, and the story of apocalyptic psychics played in a major influence in his later legendary manga, the iconic Akira. The anime movie became the bestselling animated film of that year, even with a genuine conclusion to it as the manga weirdly ended on a cliffhanger. The manga continued in several different other remakes involving an over overabundance of time travel which created an entire multiverse, one of which got its own television adaptation in the critically panned Genma Wars. Most Americans became aware of Harmagedon from the laserdisc video game Bega's Battle that was translated in English into Bega's Battle which was quickly phased out of arcades with the wild number of games being hammered out in those days, the game itself used footage from the anime movie. The film itself didn't get an English release until Central Park Media put it out on LD and VHS in 1992, and then later a number of DVDs some of which were special editions featuring commentary by director Rintaro. Despite all that history, the anime never really caught on with American otaku, not even a Blu-ray release.

The movie starts out in the early 80s with a Transylvanian princess named Luna having her flight to America getting destroyed by a extension of the evil cosmic force known as Genma whose sole purpose is wipe out all life everywhere. Luna is saved by the will of the universe called Froy who awakens the princess' psychic powers and teams her up with the last remaining members of a different alien race decimated by Genma, the retro-cyborg Vega who has spent the last few millennia in stasis waiting to be awakened. Vega and Luna then seek out other espers around the world to help form their own Avengers team, so Genma won't kill all life on Earth. One of these espers is the main character Jo Azuma, a typical Japanese teenager with a big sister complex. His powers get activated after an encounter from one of Genma's agents who can possess other people. Jo then teams up with Luna and Vega to stop a Genma hunting another esper in New York which creates a psychic shoutout to the rest of Earth's espers. Genma's essence begins to create disasters all over the world like engulfing Tokyo in a sandstorm. Jo and the others psychic warriors converge for a final battle with Genma who has merged with Mt. Fuji to become a colossal multi-headed dragon made of lava.

Harmagedon did managed to have a somewhat satisfying conclusion as opposed to the original manga, although the 135-minute long movie stretched out scenes of minor characters one time too many. There is way more attention dedicated towards Jo's incestual feelings toward his sister than there should be, while a great number of the other psychic warriors barely get any screen time, like they were all the other X-Men that weren't Wolverine. The movie has a bad habit of dragging the story on to the point you start to wonder where exactly the plot is going, Harmagedon is a necessary watch for anime fans of any stripe just from the history that the movie left in its wake.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Capricorn

Johji Manabe has been active in the manga industry since the 1980's, but only a fraction of them have been given an anime adaptation. His space opera Outlanders got its own OVA one-shot, and Ginga Sengoku Gunyuden Rai was the basis for the Thunder Jet TV series. A good portion of his manga titles over the last few years has been regulated to adult material, but his earlier works such as Drakuun and Caravan Kidd were sci-fi comedies with a large helping of fan service. His limited series Capricorn from the late 80's was one of these more cheesecake fantasy titles that managed to get its own OVA special in 1991, even though it tried to fit in about 5 volumes worth of plot into a production that was less than an hour long. The manga itself never got an American printing, but the anime was distributed in English through ADV Films even though it was only on subtitled VHS. Seeing as this was one of the first isekai anime that U.S. otaku got a taste of you would think it might have gained a little more notice later down the line.

Taku is a generic high schooler who keeps getting knocked over by the female punks on campus. One day, an image appears of another planet which sweeps him up in it and he winds up on the alien world of Slaffleaze which is populated by anthropomorphic animals. This planet of furries is under the thumb of the corrupt leader Zolba who has utilized the power of a device called the Infinity Anchor which bridges their world with ours and is plotting in invasion of Earth with his airship navy and an army of dragon clones that were made from the remains of an extinct race known as the Yappi. The last of their kind is a dragon girl named Mona who appears mostly human aside from the wings, horns, tail, and her fire breath. She and Taku finally meet along with some other local animal people and plan a revolt against Zolba. It helps that Taku has now digivolved into a full-size dragon to prevent the invasion. They free the Yappi clones from Zolba's control and destroy the Infinty Anchor, only for Taku to decide to return to Earth even though he's still in his dragon form.

Capricorn could almost be seen as a prototype to Escaflowne which has very similar themes like anthropomorphics, dragons, and another world hidden away from the Earth, even an interspecies relationship between a human and a dragon person. The concept of isekai didn't really gain any attention in America until full-length series like El-Hazard or Magic Knight Rayearth found their bearings amoung English-speaking otaku. The OVA itself has the raw and bizarre look to an early 90's anime with much of it appearing to come right out of a Nintendo game. It's not the best representation of Johji Manabe's works outside of manga, but it does make for a great late night screening with old school fans.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S: *Battle Angel

Yukito Kishiro's original manga Gunnm ran for 9 volumes in the early 90's, followed by an even longer follow up titled Last Order, and now continuing in the Mars Chronicle manga, with some various prequels and spinoffs. The manga gained such international fame that it became the focus of James Cameron to do a live-action feature based on it, but since Cameron become more overwhelmed with hit Avatar saga, after a near two decades it was hand over to Robert Rodriguez to direct as the last official movie under the 20th Century Fox label. Prior to the American movie's inevitable release though, the manga first adapted into a 2-episode OVA in 1993 by Madhouse directed by animator Hiroshi Fukutomi which roughly covers the first two volumes of the series, which also acted as a blueprint to the American movie as it also recaps the same opening story arc. The OVA didn't go further than the two episodes because the original author wanted to focus more of his attention on his manga rather than an anime based on it.

Taking place in the future where a good portion of the Earth was decimated in world wars, one of the few remnants of civilization is the dystopian town of Scrap Iron City which lies directly below the floating utopia of Zalem that tosses their unwanted material down to the dingy city populated largely by cyborgs. An exiled Zalem citizen named Ido now works in the cityscape scrapyard as a cybernetics doctor who sometimes checks the huge piles of junk for salvageable robot parts. He happens to find the remains of an android girl that he takes back home and repairs to act as his surrogate daughter that he has named Gally. The young mechanical maiden later discovers that Ido is also a part time hunter-warrior which are volunteer bounty hunters that patrol the city for wanted fugitives. Gally decides to become a hunter-warrior too, partially to help her would-be boyfriend Yugo who secretly has been robbing innocent people of their spines so he can buy his way up to the Zalem. Gally has to confront the rowdy criminal Grewcica who was sent to kill her by Ido's former partner Chiren, a character original to the anime which was rewritten in the movie as being Ido's ex-wife. Gally learns that Yugo is now wanted for his crimes and watches as he is gutted down by a rival hunter-warrior, so our battle angel brings his remains to Ido who saves him by turning him into cyborg. The now mostly mechanized Yugo is later killed in an attempt to physically climb up to Zalem by a giant ring of spinning spikes. The OVA ends with Gally and Ido mourning what was left of Yugo in a small, ballooned basket.

Madhouse really delivered in this production with their detailed character designs and fighting sequences. There is also a mind-bending amount of violence in this for a 90's anime, that was mostly tempered down for the movie adaptation. Most Americans might have trouble accepting the fact that the translated version of the title character is Gally instead of Alita which was the name used in the original manga English release by Viz Manga. The American version of the OVA was available on dubbed VHS and DVD with a completely separate dub made for the European market by Manga Entertainment. Both of these releases were put on ice after James Cameron got the rights to the movie which also gave him authority on its anime adaptation, even though the OVA has been out of print for decades now with nothing available for streaming. It's unknown if the anime will finally get a re-release or even put on Blu-Ray, so you might need to hold your breath if you want to see a licensed edition of this cyberpunk classic.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *D.N.A. Sights 999.9

The late Leiji Matsumoto had several manga titles over his career, most of which were part of a shared continuity known as the Leijiverse. The manga Fire Force DNA Sights 999.9(having no relation to the Fire Force anime TV series)was later turned into an OVA one-shot in 1998 that was released in America under the now defunct Urban Vision only on dubbed and subtitled VHS. That limited engagement is enough proof that this particular anime didn't leave the same kind of mark that other Leijiverse sagas like Harlock or Emeraldas had made. Like other Matsumoto projects, there is the addition of a number to the title similar to Galaxy Express 999 and Interstella 5555 to distinguish them from other anime. DNA Sights 999.9 doesn't have any strong relations to the rest of the Leijiverse aside from some gratuitous cameos in its finale. It does have some impressive animation for the time though by Madhouse Studios.

Set in the far off future of 2024, a meteor had previously split up and caused mass destruction all over the Earth. The survivors of this apocalypse set up a new order secretly led by an alien agent known as Fouton who is trying to cover up the involvement of her people from the arrival of an investigating visitor. The girl reaches Earth in a fiery impact and goes by the name Mello appearing as a ghostly image. She is found by young scavenger Daiba who begins to notice that he has special mental abilities that allow him to figure out any kind of technology. He is later rescued by Yuki, a teenage girl with similar powers that just awakened in her. They find a cat who can communicate telepathically as all three of them have reached a higher level of evolution that gives them understanding of not only alien science but potential future tech. The two teenagers and their cat rendezvous with a more corporeal Mello and realize that they have to leave the planet in order to ready mankind for their next stage of evolution while the Earth spends the next thousand years recovering from the meteor attacks. Fouton is having none of that as she calls the remaining forces under her command to stop their launch into space. Our advanced heroes end up getting saved by Captain Harlock and his ship the Arcadia along with a supposedly automated Yamato from Star Blazers which seriously screws with the Leijiverse timeline as most of the events involving their respective realities haven't happened yet.

Exactly why the Leijiverse history is so wonky is explained slightly in the Harlock Saga OVA where Harlock goes to war with the Norse gods resulting in a new unstable timeline mixing in different titles into a single reality. DNA Sights 999.9 is a victim of this cosmic reshuffling which makes for an incoherent story that is like a chemistry experiment gone wrong. Trying to figure out where the plot is going is a decathlon of endurance with the only relief being that the running time is under an hour.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Mask Of Zeguy

Mask Of Zeguy might seem like a premise merges Fushigi Yuugi and Fate/Stay Night where two schoolgirls get sent to a parallel world that is inhabited by famous historical figures, but this was made in 1993 before either franchise got its own anime. The OVA was only two episodes long which wasn't based on any existing source material. The story is a hodgepodge of ideas and concepts that were poorly thought out and seriously hard to follow. Its mixing of time travel and parallel worlds only make it more confusing as director/writer Shigenori Kageyama made it out to be which only helps if you're fluent in Japanese history. Since this was before isekai became the instant hit it is nowadays, it is difficult to see what kind of plot they were going for, even with cyborgs and werewolves added to the fold.

Miki is a schoolgirl who has a fight with her friend Sayaka, and they both end up in a magical realm called the Cloud World. This place is a crossroads of several different points in time allowing people to travel from one point to another, but the only way to navigate it was the instincts of a common looking cat. Miki runs across a Shinsengumi samurai and an eccentric scientist who invented an airship with its own self-replicating organic engine whose droppings can be used as defensive mines. Her friend Sayaka has been captured by an evil queen that now possesses the titular Mask of Zeguy which allows its owner to gain access to the portal between both their world and ours. This villainess employs a time displaced Leonardo DaVinci who makes her instruments of destruction while at the same time operating a small puppet doppelganger that he keeps on his shoulder. Miki is recognized by some telepathic locals as being the reincarnation of their prophesied priestess who can use the power of the deity Zeguy to oppose the evil queen. Sayaka is thought to be the priestess and Miki has to rescue her from the queen's clutches. It might seem like they won't be able to conclude the series like several 90s OVAs, but the final battle with werewolves and cyborgs wraps up pretty quickly as the two schoolgirls get sent to their own time after defeating the newly powered queen.

This OVA staggers all over the place with misleading ideas and plot complications that seem to resolve themselves offscreen. There is unforgivable meandering throughout the 2-parter leaving the watcher bewildered as to what the heck is going on and where the resolution is coming from. You can pretty much just leave this one behind and spare the $100 asking price for the Central Park Media DVD.

ANI-MOVIES, *Missing Link

Laika Studios already had a winning streak with their stop-motion animated movies Coraline, Paranorman, and Boxtrolls, their latest endeavor was a little less epic than their previous entry of Kubo And The Two Strings. Their more humor-based entry was Missing Link calling back to the literally adventures of Henry Rider Haggard and Arthur Conan Doyle while creating a family-friendly comedy in the spirit of Disney's Emperor's New Groove. Animator Chris Butler is back as writer and director of this Victorian era globetrotting story.

In the late 19th Century, knighted explorer Lionel Frost hopes to eventually join a gentlemen's club made of big game hunters. Lionel fails on his latest attempt to get a picture of the Loch Ness monster, so his new plan is to find the cryptid known as Sasquatch after receiving a letter regarding the creature come from the Pacific Northwest. Once in America, Lionel finds a large hairy creature he names Mr. Link who informs him that he was the one who sent the letter. Link is the last known Sasquatch and he wants to find his distant Yeti cousins on the other side of the world. Lionel disguises Link as his new valet as they seek to acquire a map left behind by a deceased explorer which is now in the possession of his widowed wife Adelina, of whom Lionel had a previous fling with. Meanwhile the club's president Piggot-Dunceby wants to prevent Lionel's admission into their society and sends rival hunter Stenk to sabotage his efforts as the newfound threesome who have set out to find Link's Yeti brothers. They travel to the Himalayas and discover the Yeti sanctuary, but the white hairy cryptids are a society of snobs that see Mr. Link(now with the first name of Susan)as an unwanted country bumpkin. After being tossed into a pit, Lionel, Adelina, and Susan make their escape for a final battle between Piggot-Dunceby and Stank on an ice bridge over a deep chasm. Adelina leaves them to find her own adventure while Lionel takes on Susan as his partner as they plan for an expedition to Atlantis, despite the fact that Disney already beat them to it.

Missing Link is a fine middle of the road film meant to entertain audiences while simultaneously providing a sensational visual experience. The stop-motion animation by Laika is still up to the quality of their prior movies' standards, although not as captivating as their past releases. It's mostly clear that this was intended to be a pacifier for movie buffs, not being too deep but just a rollicking good time.