OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Battle Skipper

Set in the not-to-distant-future, Battle Skipper is a 3-episode OVA series, despite the fact the DVD release is labeled as a “movie”.

The plot involves the five members of the Etiquette Club in one of Japan’s most prestigious schools are secretly a group of crimefighting mecha pilots called the Ex-Stars. Their main competition is the school’s other club, the Debutante Club. Their leader is planning on taking over the world with her own army of mechas. So, the Ex-Stars try to foil their plans, while still having a decent grade average!

This series was based on a Japanese toy line but became its own unique and dynamic action-comedy series. For fans of Project A-Ko or Sailor Moon, Battle Skipper is a hilarious anime with lots of great gags and a wonderful sense of fun.

JESI THE GENIE, *Part 2: Page 1

Story by Jer Alford. Art by Ariel Levya.

ANI-MOVIES, *Summer Wars

Mamoru Hosoda followed up his Academy Award-winning sci-fi shojo movie of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time with an extended remake of his original Digimon short movie(which was the second chapter in the American release of Digimon: The Movie). Summer Wars is a full-length feature blending in high school romance with digital armageddon.

At the beginning of summer vacation in Japan, math whiz Kenji is working with his buddy Takashi as a moderator for the massive online network called OZ(no Wizard Of Oz puns present)which is a virtual world similar to WOW, but with less of a midevil setting and more like playful icons involved in fighter tournaments. Kenji’s cute energetic classmate Natsuki offers him another quick job to help her prepare for her great-gramma’s 90th birthday. He accepts, and the two of them go off to Natsuki’s family estate in the country. They are a large and diverse family descended from a samurai clan, and the great-grandmother Sakae is about everything you’d be looking for in granny. Kenji is shocked though when Natsuki claims to her family that he is her boyfriend, but she says that in order to make her grandma feel safe about her. Confused during the night, he gets a strange text message send in code, which he uses his math skills to crack, and sends it back. He awakes the next morning to see on the news that OZ has been been hacked into and that he is being blamed for it. It turns out that an A.I. program masquerading as Kenji’s avatar, calling itself Love Machine. It proceeds to take over OZ, which Kenji tries to stop with a new avatar Takashi made for him, along with Natsuki’s cousin who is really the brilliant game fighter, King Kazma. They tangle with Love Machine, but after absorbing a few other avatars, it goes all Super-Saiyan and kicks them out of the system. It then proceeds to infect computer systems all over the world, causing mass confusion and hysteria. Its later revealed that Natsuki’s estranged uncle is the one who actually created the A.I. that the American military try to use, but it escaped into OZ. This news infuriates Sakae as she banishes him from her home. The ensuing action causes Sakae to pass away in her sleep. The family believes that Love Machine is responsible, so they pull all the stops to try and pull the plug on it. They call in resouces from all over the country, even by bringing in a huge supercomputer to back them up. Natsuki uses her superior skills at tea ceremony card playing to challenge Love Machine to a final card game. She gets help from players all over the world to shut him down. However, it causes a satellite to begin falling towards their location. Kenji hacks into the satellite’s system, and has it crash near the estate.

Summer Wars features some impressive digital effects, specifically in the online world, although you sorta wish there was more added to it than the cartoonish avatars. The style used for the offline parts are a little more standard, at least for a generic non-Ghibli anime movie. The main appeal for this movie though is the compelling story, and the tightnit seperate world the family of characters exist in. They’re very believable, despite some of the standard anime tropes that are present, and you can recognize at least one member of your own family in Natsuki’s. This film makes for a great watch, at least as a gateway anime since it takes alot of what makes for a great story and an engaging syle.

MISC. MANGA, *Spider-Man: The Manga

Way back at the beginning of the 70s, years before it even became a Japanese tokusatsu live-action TV show, Spider-Man managed to be the second American superhero to get his own manga series. Batman beat him out by a few years out east, but Spidey was Marvel’s first hero to pull some numbers with the Japanese. Probably based on the fact that his outfit is quite literally “big eyes & speed lines”. It was written and drawn by Ryoichi Ikegami, who later gained fame in the States with one of the first English translated manga, Mai The Psychic Girl, as well as Crying Freeman, Samurai Crusader, and Sanctuary. It was also co-written by 8-Man creator, Kazumasa Hirai. Despite the retitling that was given to the America reprinting of it, the Japanese title was just Spider-Man

The story is largely based on the original comic book, although its relocated to Japan. Yu Komori is working on an experiment in his school’s lab, and accidently infects a random spider with radiation, which bites him. Yu soon realizes he now has spider-like powers, and within the span of just three pages manages to come up with web fluid and working shooters for them. After dawning a costume he sews together on his own, he decides to fight crime as Spider-Man! He then starts tangling with Japanese versions of Lizard and Electro, as well as some original ones.

The thing that works for this is Ikegami’s gritty art style that works for him better later on in some of his own titles. Marvel Comics released this in scattered comic book issues in the 90s, never completing the original print run though. There was an official manga done of The Hulk done around the same time as the Spider-Man one, but it had an even shorter run, and hasn’t been reprinted in English. There was also an X-Men manga which was an adaptation of the 90s TV series that was published in America by Marvel along with the Spider-Man one. A more kid-friendly manga called Spider-Man J came out a few years ago, which Marvel first reprinted in Spider-Man Family, and then in two Spider-Man J graphic novels. Although there’s so far been no English collected edition of the original 70s

MISC. MANGA, *Princess Prince

From Tomoko Taniguchi, the creator of Popcorn Romance and Call Me Princess, comes this funny spin on an old fairy tale.

In order to fulfill an ancient prophecy, pretty boy Prince Lawrence’s father had him raised as a princess and renamed him Lori. However, a young angel bird threatens to expose his secret. That and the handsome young suitor Brandon has intentions on kidnapping him, although he believes that Lawrence’s sister is really the princes posing as a princess. This while Lawrence under the guise of Lori escapes with the Princess Jenny who are being chased by other pursuers.

Princess Prince is an enjoyable shojo manga, although mainly for hardcore manga fanatics. The American graphic novel collects the entire series originally printed by CPM Manga in comic book format.

MISC. MANGA, *The Mighty Bombshells

Back in the early 90s, Antarctic Press was printing out some actual manga, including Vampire Princess Miyu. Alot of these had limited runs in Japan, some of which were not released through a mainstream publisher, but dojin circles. One of these was The Mighty Bombshells, a 2-issue series that was originally printed in Japan through Bandai’s Cyber-Comics. It was created by Yujin Ishikawa, who also worked on a one-shot Antarctic put out titled Justice which looked at American superheroes through the eyes of Japanese artists. Might Bombshells was Ishikawa’s take on an all-female superhero team in the vein of groups like Femforce, but with a Justice League International approach.

The stereotypical alien queen Sondum hops on down to Earth to try and set up a new empire. Landing in New York, she quickly uses her mind-control powers to hypnotize the male members of the Vanguards superhero group. Ms. Liberty is the only one left(aside from the injured Lady Pulsar), so she puts together a makeshift team of uber-chickas to stop Sondum. She gets Blitzkrieg and Fireball from the Eastern team of “Euroforce”, the Japanese mutant Cherry Blossom, Chinese kung-fu babe Red Dragon, and Dynamite Girl from the Texas Rangers(not the football team)who’s built like a brick shipyard. They head after Sondum’s citadel, and take on some mutated citizens. They then clash with the brainwashed heroes, and with Lady Pulsar’s help at the last minute manage to stop Sondum, and free the other heroes. The girls decide to stay together as “The Might Bombshells”, even though three of them are already on other teams groups.

The story is pretty basic for a standard superhero comic, although its strange that the design of the characters wasn’t done in the expected anime style with long legs and jiggling boobs. Even the heroines costumes aren’t all that revealing, as you’d think there would be alot of short skirts with panty shots. This could’ve been a single-issue story, but some bonuses were thrown in, including some concept art, character bios, and a short quickie about Cherry Blossom’s superhero boyfriend. I’d recommend looking these up if you can find them from cheap some comics dealer.

MISC. MANGA, *Venger Robo

Even though alot of people consider this 1993 manga to be an adaptation of the Getter Robo Go anime TV series(the weakest of the Getter saga!), Venger Robo was actually an original story that was later adapted into the OVA series, Shin Getter Robo Vs. Getter Robo. BTW, this was no direct relation to the Shin Getter Robo OVA which was released in America as Getter Robo: Armageddon, or the Shin Getter Robo TV series that was also put out here under the title New Getter Robo. Venger Robo is so far the only manga of Getter Robo to be put out in English.

Set about a few years after the original enemy of the Dinosaur Kingdom was wiped out, a new threat emerges known as the Metal Beasts. To counter this, an advanced class of Getter Robots is created. The problem though is finding pilots who can physically handle the pressure of piloting one of them. The government recruits mean-ass street fighter Go Ichimon, swordsman Gai Daidou(not the dude from Gekinganger), and the stereotypical professor’s daughter, Sho Tachibana. They go on to form the new Getter Team, and fight the evil machinations of Prof. Rando and his beasts.

Getter Robo creator Go Nagai wrote this, and it was drawn by Ken Ishikawa who co-created Getter Robo along with Nagai. Ishikawa has also done manga adaptations of Ultraman, Ninja Resurrection, Samurai Showdown, and Super Robot Wars. His style is very gritty and appealing for fans of hardcore shonen anime. Viz released this as a 7-issue comic book series, although no collected edition has ever been done. Possibly because the market for mecha manga is very small as compared to animated and live-action.