Publisher: Bandai Entertainment (USA)Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 13 Episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 2000 - 2001
Currently in Print (as of writing): No
After watching both 1970’s live action series of this franchise, I decided to see if the very out of print anime version that Bandai released a couple years back was avalible through third party sellers at Amazon. Unlike the last time I looked, I was lucky this time with plenty of second hand copies available for reasonable prices (because I'm not paying US$100 for this show). There was a real push in the late 1990’s and into the very early years of the 2000’s to revive a number of properties. I think this was mostly due to the success of “Evangelion” and producers insanity of flooding the market with tons of shows.
The anime version of this show is quite a different beast to its early 1970’s tokusatsu counterpart. Right from the start, Mitsuko’s role has changed. She doesn’t work with her father nor knows about Dark. Also Jiro is much more of an innocent. He knows nothing of the world and is continually making mistakes when he comes into contact with humans. Surprisingly the detective Hanpei Hattori makes a return as well, though he’s hardly as bumbling as his live action counterpart. He also gets a female assistant in this incarnation of the story, but she doesn’t get much worthy screen time. Mitsuko and Masaru ask him to not find their father (presumed dead in the anime version), but Jiro instead who feels he belongs nowhere after a misunderstanding. Other significant changes included Professor Gill’s flute which now sends orders to all his androids, not just a device to send Jiro crazy. Also making a welcome return is Saburo/Hakaider, but he is plainly more evil this time around.
In this version, the much more empathetic Jiro has something called a Gemini Conscience Circuit. I think the translation here misses the connection with the Pinocchio story which is being read to Masaru in the first episode. Jiminy Cricket is Pinocchio’s conscious in the story and there is an obvious pun being made on Jiminy/Gemini (though maybe Bandai don't want to get sued by the Mouse). Surprisingly the plot of this show is pretty damn good. It’s certainly a lot darker than the 1970’s show and naturally made for an older much more sophisticated audience. In early episodes not much is revealed to the audience about the evil organisation Dark or their plans. I’m not sure if the staff were assuming the audience had familiarity with the original story. Gill’s motivations and the appearance of his androids are rather murky and confusing. Being a very early digital painted show, it looks a lot brighter than and not as nice as modern day animation. There are some quite noticeable lower resolution shots with lots of jagged lines. Despite what some reviewers say about the animation frame rate, it’s not abysmal. It’s pretty much standard for the time period for a low budget late night anime. It’s more than adequate, but you can see corner cutting for sure.
Overall this is a rather decent series. It did start out a bit slow but soon built up to a rather nice finish (and that annoying recap episode was totally unnecessary in a series this short). Also the new material, especially involving Mitsuko and Masaru’s family and Jiro, was unexpected and rather good. I’m unsure if this adaptation is a direct port from Ishinomori’s manga or pulled out the series’ staff’s heads. I thought it was strange Jiro’s guitar was underutilised, seeing as it is the character’s trademark. Not quite as good the original, but quite a fun show. 6.5 out of 10.
"Kikaider 01 – The Animation"
Publisher: Bandai Entertainment (USA)Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 4 Episodes x 30 minutes
Production Date: 2001 - 2002
Currently in Print (as of writing): No
While this is practically a remake of the 1970’s live action series, in the end it’s more like a sequel to “Kikaider – The Animation”. Basically what they done is here is taken is core plot of the show, and pruned it down to the bare minimum and made Jiro the centre of attention. Again I think the staff of the show assumed that those watching had knowledge of the 1970’s show as Hakaider’s organisation and Shadow seem to working separately in the first scene, then mysteriously have joined forces the next time we see them together. Ichiro is a bit of a dill in this show. He’s a bit unlikable. There’s also the addition of another android named Rei/Kikaider 00, created by a monk named Fuuten from a spare android made by Dr Komyoji, who looks a lot like Elmer Fudd. Again I’m not sure if these characters are taken from Ishinomori’s manga (or if he did a manga for this show) as they’re not in the 1970’s show.
The central core plot with Akira and Rieko has survived this adaption, but Misao and Hiroshi have been jettisoned completely. Akira’s relationship to the weapon he holds the key to is also quite different. Making a very welcome return is Bijinda, but her human form is perplexingly called Mieko rather than Mari. We also see the return of the various Hakaider brothers, Shadow Knight and Zadam, though most of these are reduced to mere cameos. We also see the Shadow minions appear, but strangely not Big Shadow (or Waruda unfortunately). Being a very short OVA series, I felt there wasn’t much time at all to develop Rei, Bijinda or Ichiro. But right from the start to almost the end of the series, it just feels like one big action scene. This works pretty well most of the time, but at the expense of a lot of character development. The animation became pretty dire in the final episode. I’m not sure what happened there, but it did reduce a lot of enjoyment for me, mainly because this was the climax of the story and it was in the middle of the biggest action sequence of the OVA series.
In the end, like the animated TV series, it’s a nice adaptation. It’s much darker and aimed at a more sophisticated audience. I think I would have like a bit more meat to the plot, however the action sequences where good. It’s fun, but rather forgettable. 6 out of 10. Bloody amazing the stuff which companies released during the US anime bubble, eh?
Remaining Backlog: 25 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).
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