Anime Guardians Of The Galaxy

MISC. MANGA, *Ninja High School

Ninja High School has been widely-regarded as the beginning of "American Manga", as it did come out in the mid-80s just a manga itself was first really creeping into the U.S. market, and it was an original story without it being an American comic based on a Japanese franchise like Robotech. It was first done through Antarctic Press, but then in color through Eternity Comics, and then back to AP again. Created by Ben Dunn(whose prior work including the mecha-inspired Dynamo Joe)mashed this as "Urusei Yatsura meets Archie".

Seemingly normal teenager, Jeremy Feeple, is the son of one of the world's greatest female ninja and the world's greatest rat exterminator(who is now missing). Living in the middle-America town of Quagmire, he becomes the target of two very aggressive girls, one is Ichi-Koo, an up and coming ninja clan leader, while the other Princess Asrial, an alien skunkgirl of imperial birth. A duel begins between the two of them matching Ichi's ninja skills against Asrial's alien strength and technology, but Ichi's wannabe boyfriend Lendo intends to win her heart. Jeremy gets some help from the enigmatic Professor Steamhead, and ultimately his friends get him out of this jam, with Ichi and Asrial becoming the "Betty & Veronica" for his affections. This lead into a spinoff series titled Ninja High School: Version 2 taking place years later dealing with Jeremy's younger brother Ricky who is an accomplished ninja-in-training and his own problems with out of this world female suitors, although it was later retconned into the regular storyline thanks to a time paradox. Eventually, the series becomes a mix of folding in several anime fads and clichés, while at the same time telling a cohesive story with the characters mingling with aliens, superheroes, demons, evil ninjas, and witches. One storyline dealt with Lendo's younger sister Yumei as she went to a totally different high school in Hawaii. This folds back into more material with Ricky Feeple and his friends into plots with feuding ninja clans.

There have been numerous spinoffs from this including Quagmire USA., AOK, and several annual specials. NHS also shares the same universe as other Antarctic Press titles like Gold Digger and Warrior Nun Areala. It's a long and complicated series to get into, even though there have been several jumping on points throughout its run(usually the manifestation of some cosmic restart button), but it is worth looking into, at least from the beginning. You can see how the artwork improved over its 20+ year run. If you liked looking at how old school otaku operated in Otaku No Video, then you run through some real American comics history!

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Moldiver

When Pioneer was starting out their line of original video anime productions, one of their more forgotten titles was this tribute to the Superman Family. Moldiver was a 6-episode OVA series with super-powered suits, robo-babes, mecha suits, and space adventures.

In the mid-21st Century, Mirai is a young model whose brother Hiroshi has created a special device called a Mol-Unit that allows its user to create a special hologram around them endowing them with powers and abilities far beyond mortal men. Hiroshi at first uses it to be a superhero under the name Captain Tokyo, but Mirai gets her hands on it and Hiroshi somehow allows her to continue using it. The weird part is when Mirai first uses the Mol-Unit, she transforms into her brother's bulky Superman look, which is weird with her girly voice coming out of someone who looks like a bodybuilder in a spandex outfit and cape. Mirai later redesigns the Mol-Unit so it looks more like herself in a frilly superheroine getup and calling herself "Moldiver". All this while the mad scientist, Dr. Machinegal, is planning on collecting rare bits of technology from the 20th Century for his own selfishness, and he sends his platoon of sexy android women on missions to obtain these collector's items. There appears another Mol-Unit user later in the series to rival Moldiver, who is really Mirai's younger brother, although despite nearly killing her several times, it's never clear as to why he's doing this. The final story arc deals with Mirai's love interest being sent out on a space mission with Dr. Machinegal trying to sabotage it.

This was a fair anime series, but mostly only appeals to any otaku of blatant fanservice and superhero shenanigans. The OVA was released at first on VHS(and laser disc of all things), then eventually on a collected DVD. There was a manga sequel by Shinpei Itoh(creator of Hyper Dolls)which so far hasn't been printed into English. Another attempt at reviving it was going to be a Moldiver American comic book mini-series that Pioneer was planning for several of their titles which only got one issue of Phantom Quest Corp and all six issues of Tenchi Muyo(that was a sequel to Tenchi Universe. Moldiver herself makes a cameo on the Tenchi Universe TV series as it is Mihoshi's favorite TV show!

ANI-MOVIES, *Mr. Bug Goes To Town

A classic among classics, this was the second feature-length animated film from Fleischer Studios who were most known for their work on the original Betty Boop, Superman, and Popeye. Their first full-length movie was Gulliver's Travels was a groundbreaking follow-up to Disney's Snow White, but Mr. Bug Goes To Town was a fresher approach at an animated movie, even though it was inspired by a book by Belgian poet Maurice Maeterlinck titled The Life Of The Bee. Brothers, Dave and Max Fleischer, put alot of time and effort in completing this, even though it broke up the Fleischers for a while, and the movie itself proved to be a financial wreck. However, over the decades the movie has become viewed as a cult hit. The film was originally supposed to be titled Hoppity Goest To Town, although the current DVD release of it is called Bugville.

Set in the big city, a community of bugs live in a patch of land in the park. Their tiny community is in danger as the fence to their area has been damaged and people keep throwing cigarette butts on them setting their houses on fire. Fortunately, former resident Hoppity the grasshopper comes back home to help, and reunite with his sweetheart, Honey the bee. The greedy rich bug, Mr. Beetle has his sights set on Honey though, and frequently sets his two cronies, Swat and Smack, to fowl up Hoppity's attempts to hook up with her. Hoppity finds out their human neighbors are a couple of successful songwriters, and their incoming payment from a recording company would allow them to have their yard repaired, making the bug community safe. Mr. Beetle gets wind of this and arranges for the check to the couple from coming in, thus causing the bugs to have to seek shelter in the newly created sky rise building. Hoppity hears that the couple is getting a place on top of the building, so all the bugs make their way up the building as its being built and eventually make it to the top just as the couple moves into the new penthouse with a lavish garden for the bugs to live in.

Mr. Bug Goes To Town is truly worth seeking out and adding to your collection. It is admittedly a little longer than it should be as the plot seems to string along near the end, but it really makes for a timeless all-ages classic. Since it's in the public domain you can find this under several releases, just maybe be a little picky about the look of the quality depending on what company is doing it.

MISC. MANGA, *Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge

Despite the title, this was the only full on Darkstalkers manga to get an English printing. Viz first released it as a 6-issue mini-series, and then as a collected trade paperback, unlike some of their other video game-based manga releases which were originally printed in Game On! magazine. There have been other manga based on the Darkstalkers games, including one of Vampire Savior(or Darkstalkers 3), plus a compilation of stories from this series and Red Earth titled Maleficarum was released in English. There were also two American mini-series created by Capcom Comics to coincide with their successful Street Fighter comics. This manga was on its own done by Run Ishida who had also worked on the Warrior Nun Areala one-shot comic. It was probably given the title of Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge instead of just Darkstalkers to coincide with Viz'a release of the OVA series of the same name, which they used to differentiate between the anime series and the American Darkstalkers cartoon.

This is set up in three sections all set in the same world where monsters are referred to as "Darkstalkers". The first one is a short one where the succubus Morrigan confronts the vampire lord Demitri. The next one is a 3-part story featuring the catwoman Felicia where she frees her "owner" from some kidnappers, teams up with the werewolf Jon Talbain, and the two of them then stop the zombie rocker Lord Raptor from stealing someone's soul. The last segment is another 3-parter about the Darkstalker hunter Donovan(who is half-Darkstalker himself)as he crusades to stop Morrigan from stealing the souls of innocent men.

This was a fair collection of stories that works better than the mish-mash that was the OVA series adaptation of the video games. If you were a big enough fan of the original Darkstalkers video game trilogy, than this is totally down your dark alley.

ANI-MOVIES, *Azur & Asmar: The Princes' Quest

This CGI-animated movie was done as a Belgian/French/Italian/Spanish production created by Michael Ocelot, a longtime animator whose work includes Tales Of The Night, and Kirikou And The Wild Beasts. Similar to the classic animated film, The Adventures Of Prince Achmed from the 1920s, this was an Arabian Nights-styled fantasy adventure story done in the point-of-view with the characters usually being seen from one side. It was done with lavish 2-D backgrounds and 3-D characters to create an enchanting effect like you're looking at a moving watercolor painting.

Set sometime probably in the 15th or 16th Century, a European nobleman's son named Azur was raised by Jeane, a Middle Eastern nanny whose son Asmar was the same age as Azur, and Jeane raised them both as her own. She would often tell them stories about the Djinn-Fairy locked away in a mountain waiting for a prince to rescue her. Until Azur reached a certain age, his jerk-ass father sent him off to boarding school and kicked Jeane out along with her son. Years past, and Azur decides to instead of living up to his father's expectations to travel across the sea to see the tales of the Djinn-Fairy are true and free her himself. He gets knocked overboard and ends up in the correct land, but the locals are superstitious about someone with blue eyes, so Azur pretends to be blind. He teams up with a beggar, who leads him to Jeane's house, and she is now a rich merchant. Asmar is also planning on seeking out the Djinn-Fairy the following day too, so Azul goes to the nearby clever but young Princess Chasmous who helps him with some magical items for his quest. Both Azul and Asmar go their own separate ways on their journey, but they are ambushed by bandits, so the two of them eventually have to team up to complete their quest. In the end, both of them enter the Djinn-Fariy's inner-sanctum together, which makes both of them eligible to marry her. After using her magic to summon nearly the entire remaining cast to see how to solve the conundrum of which one she should marry, the Djinn-Fairy calls forth her cousin the Elf-Fairy to help decide(although one wonders why her cousin wouldn't help to free her on her own in the first place). However, the Elf-Fairy falls for Asmar while Azul becomes the winner of the Djinn-Fairy, making for a very happy ending.

I'll admit I was very impressed with the film's approach to telling a story. The mixture of English and Middle Eastern dialogue give it an outstanding international flavor. The animation is revolutionary and mixes in modern computer animation with traditional theatrics. It appeals to all ages, and is really worth seeking out.

MISC. MANGA, *Sidescrollers

Artist from F-Stop and creator of Salt Water Taffy, Matthew Loux, did this one-shot graphic novel hoping to appeal otaku and video gamers. Sidescrollers plays out like Clerks meets Saved By The Bell, but with a serious manga approach to it.

Set a few weeks after high school graduation, slackers Brad, Brian, and Matt are spending their summer off playing video games and with seemingly no real plans for the future. Whether they're going to college or getting jobs is never really explored, even though it's revealed Brad works part-time at a fast food joint. The story itself shows a productive day in the life of these three geeks. They spend their time arguing about which cereal mascots would win in a deathmatch, collecting action figures, and keeping up their high score on the nearby Street Fighter arcade game. They also have to dodge Brad, the local jock/bully character who is dating Brad's love interest Amber whose only seeing her to win a bet, plus Brian being stalked by the most evil cat in the world. This all leads up to a big party where Brian's brother is playing with his band.

Sidescrollers is a slice-of-life story that would probably make for a lighter-toned Kevin Smith screenplay. The book actually won some young adult readers awards, although it recently came under fire by some conservatives about its profanity and sexual overtones. It's possible that it wasn't fully looked over upon its original release, but it does make for good read for teenage readers and for generic geeks who like a decent story with relatable characters.