Video Backlog: "Gakuen Alice"

Publisher: Nozomi Entertainment (Right Stuf, USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Dub and English Subtitles
Length: 26 Episodes x 25 minutes
Production Date: 2004 – 2005
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

One thing this becoming a rarity in the English language market is shoujo anime. Sure most of the CLAMP stuff has been released, but outside their work, girl’s stuff is hard to come by. While not a shining example of the genre, this show is still pretty fun. The story revolves around 10 year old ditz Mikan Sakura who decides to run away and follow her best friend Hotaru Imai, who has been accepted into the Alice Academy, a school which is apparently set up to take in geniuses. After an attempted kidnaping, she is saved by one of the school’s teachers, Narumi, who accepts her into the academy. However the school specifically recruits children that special powers which are called Alices. The students don’t initially accept Mikan because it seems she has no Alice. However Narumi is certain she has one.

Like a lot of shoujo anime, it is initially very humorous, but soon heads into territory I don’t particularly like. It’s to do with the way Mikan is treated by the school, the students and teachers. As you may have guessed, she’s treated pretty appallingly with threats by students and lots of teasing, a teacher who doesn’t like her or her Alice, and naturally she is given arduous tasks which she would have no way of completing successfully. But of course she smiles like an idiot all the while. And her so called friend, Hotaru Imai, is no help at all and is always rather cold to her, because she’s a genius. Once the show passes about the half way mark, things brighten up a bit. Mikan find the “freaks” in the school and finds acceptance and naturally the kids in her class magically begin to accept her, even though the situation has not really changed. I’ve never liked this melodramatic claptrap in shoujo, even when it’s done for laughs like it is here.

For the most part, the second half is pretty light and humorous, but there is a darkness behind the purpose of the school. It is brought out into the open by the end of the show, with the help of an outside group who is against what the school does, but it’s all wrapped up too neatly and conveniently at the end of the series. There are a couple of problems here. One is that the manga is still ongoing. Second they’ve toned down a lot of the darker elements that were in the manga. So the horror of what the school is up to is revealed and the fact that students can’t go home to see their parents, ever, is glossed over. Add in the appearance of the three principals of the school which is also glossed over and not explained or built on. There’s a lot of loose ends not tied up by the final episode.

So to sum up, it is a fun little show with quite a few laughs and some great characters. However it does seem rather unfinished and I was disappointed by that. I would like to see more shoujo available commercially in English, but of better quality than this one. I suppose “Rose of Versailles” is out of the question? But good on Nozomi for releasing this. I know this material isn’t a big seller. I did notice some rather major screw ups in the subtitles in the last episode. It’s not too distracting, but it is pretty disappointing. 6.5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 24 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: "Detroit Metal City"

Format: Region 3 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional Cantonese Dub, English/Chinese Subtitles and Chinese Subtitles (Traditional and Simplified)
Length: 103 minutes
Production Date: 2008
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

I suppose it’s not too hard to see why DMC was a runaway hit in Japan. For whatever reason it seemed to have peaked in 2008 with the release of the (very underrated) anime and this live action film. While latter volumes of the manga have been rather lacklustre as author Kiminori Wakasugi seemingly is running out of ideas, the earlier material is hilariously funny, and luckily the film, like the anime, uses the best of this material. The manga is just not an excuse to present gross, foul and juvenile jokes. I read it as not only a satire on the metal music industry, but also self-conscious hipsters who spend most of their time up their own arses. Negishi is stuck between being adored as Johannes Krauser II, which he despises, and the hipster world which is disinterested at best when it comes to his corny pop songs. Not only are the metal fans depicted as gullible idiots, the hipsters are portrayed as shallow and latch on to anything which is “in”.

While the anime took full advantage of crudeness of the manga, the live action film tones a lot of the material down. This is rather disappointing. The whole point of the manga was satirising the crudeness of death metal and play up its absurdness in how crude and shocking it is. Due to the short runtime of a film, a number of separate storylines are funnelled into one. Most of this occurs at the beginning of the film where Aikawa meets Negishi for the first time since school. The filmmakers merge this in with the manga chapter where Negishi goes on a date with her as well as trying to do an in store appearance with DMC. It’s also merged in with the chapter where Negishi has an altercation with DMC fans with Aikawa looking on AND where Aikawa goes to the DMC concert to do a report for the magazine she works for. There’s way too much going on to make the sequence successful and a lot of the jokes and parts which made these separate manga chapters work have been cut out. Strangely there’s also the deletion of the personality of Johannes Krauser II bleeding through into Negishi’s personal life. This is what makes the manga so funny.

Apart from the merging of manga chapters and the sanitising of the material, the film makers have annoyingly (and predictably) decided to focus on the permanently stalled romance Aikawa and Negishi. Focusing on this romance is really missing the point of DMC. There’s also the deletion of a number of characters. Most notably the “Capitalist Pig”, Negishi’s neighbour and the Death Records president’s underlings. However amusingly her underlings have been replaced with dogs, which bizarrely works somehow. I have to make mention of Jack ill Dark who is infamously played by Gene Simmons in this film. Yes, he does sing “Fuckingham Place” in the film and the end sequence where he and DMC battle it out, complete with “the Beast”, is hilarious.

The (over) acting can be quite bad at times, however Kenichi Matsuyama, who plays Negishi and Johannes Krauser II is fantastic in the role. Though at times he overacts when playing Negishi. Overall it’s your typical piece of commercial Japanese cinema. A lot of the original material has been sanitised greatly which is highly disappointing. I think a great opportunity has been missed here. They’ve decided to play it safe which is both frustrating and to be expected I guess. However the film can be really devastatingly funny when it wants to be. The Hong Kong DVD is a bit annoying as Chinese and English subs appear at the time same time despite the fact there is two separate Chinese sub tracks. 6.5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 24 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: "Guin Saga"

Publisher: Sentai Filmworks (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 26 Episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 2009
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Admittedly I knew nothing at all about this show before viewing it. It’s based upon the longest running novel series by one single author in history; the 130 volume “Guin Saga” heroic fantasy novels written by Kaoru Kurimoto. The series ran from 1979 to 2009 when Kurimoto died of cancer. It’s odd that Japan has such a large and vibrant fantasy novel industry. I think the problem for a lot of western anime fans though is that “Record of Lodoss War” is more often than not the benchmark that all other Japanese fantasy is compared against. I’m not sure if this is entirely fair. So how does this one compare?

I think the show starts out really, really strongly with the kingdom of Parros being invaded and captured by Mongaul army. The young twins, prince and princess Rinda and Remus, are transported instantly to the forest of Roodwood by some sort of machine that Parros owns. There they meet the leopard headed Guin whom protects them from Mongaul soldiers and the many dangers of the forest. They are later captured and meet fellow prisoners Istavan, a mercenary, and Suni, a young member of the primate-like creatures called Sem. After the fort is attacked by a Sem tribe which isn’t Suni’s, the group take advantage of the chaos and escape.

I think things get bogged down when the world is expanded beyond the five core characters. Certainly I did find a lot of it quite intriguing. In particular the character Lady Amnelis, a female general in the Mongaul who bites off more than she can chew and is not welcomed at all by some men who think the army is no place for a woman. However I think there is way, way too many characters to keep track of. I also lost track of the political machinations and who was backstabbing who and why they were doing it. It all became a bit of a mess to me. The best character here is most definitely Guin. While he has lost his memory, he’s a born leader and is relay quite cool and unflappable. The series works best when we are following his story. The twins were also quite interesting, in particular Remus and his spectacular personality change.

The big problem with the series is that it obviously only a fraction of the story. The initial mystery of what the device is which transports the twins in the opening episode is never explained. Nor is Guin’s full backstory or what is up with his leopard’s head which many people think is a mask. Nor is Remus’ change in personality fully explained. Reading up on the novels, I think a bit of the subtext has been left out, which is a tad annoying. Quite a number of large battle sequences use CG characters to represent the hundreds of soldiers on the battle field. This mostly works, but some sequences look a bit dodgy. Like there was a glitch in the computer program. I initially thought it was my discs or player, but it only happens during these scenes (admittedly this only happens a few times, mostly towards the end). Certainly the best part of this show is the first half. The battles are pretty good and some of the political stuff was very good (when I could keep track of it). The lack of an ending (the show leaves EVERYTHING up in the air) was quite a disappointment. Still there was quite a lot here to keep me interested and entertained. 6.5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 26 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: "Sinking of Japan (Nihon Chinbotsu, 2006)"

Publisher: Edko Films Ltd (Hong Kong)
Format: Region 3 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English and Chinese Subtitles
Length: 134 minutes
Production Date: 2006
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

I really liked the original 1973 version of this film (known variously as “Japan Sinks”, “Submersion of Japan” etc.). It was a Toho special effects filled epic which was true to its title. The acting was pretty good and the effects gave Hollywood a run for their money. Surprisingly it was also rather melancholic and downbeat. I have the Hong Kong disc of that film which cuts at least 10 minutes from its runtime, a fact I wasn’t aware of when I bought it. I’m not sure if it’s a better film because of this, as I’ve heard others say the film is way too long.

I knew Shinji Higuchi was directing this film and had very high hopes for it. Higuchi was a core member of Daicon Film. Most notably he did the special effects on their epic “The Eight-Headed Giant Serpent Strikes Back”, the only Daicon Film to receive a proper commercial video release that wouldn’t send copyright lawyers swarming to the front door of Gainax. He also did the special effects for their other tokusatsu shorts and became a storyboard artist for many Gainax productions. Outside of the studio he worked on “Godzilla (1984, aka Return of Godzilla or Godzilla 1985)”, “Mikadoroid” and was special effects director for the 1990’s Gamera trilogy, considered the best daikaiju films ever made in many people’s eyes. In the last 10 years, he’s gotten into directing. His first film was “Lorelei”, a sci fi submarine film. That was a well-received film. “Sinking of Japan” is his second feature.

Well, it does start off with quite a bang, with a rather spectacular scene where Tokyo rescue squad member, Reiko (Kou Shibasaki), saves submarine pilot Toshio (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi) and young orphaned girl Misaki (Mayuko Fukuda) from an explosion in post-earthquake Tokyo. While dangling from a helicopter, of course. We soon get to the meat of the story with the discovery of the fact the plate Japan sits on will be dragged under the ocean. 40 years is given as a date that this disaster will happen, but the actual time they have left is latter discovered to be 338 days. Plausibility went out the window at this stage. I really tried hard to suspend disbelief, but couldn’t. Things just got sillier and sillier. The prime minister’s plane is engulfed by a volcanic eruption which reaches the cruising level of a 737. The wacko overacting scientist, who discovered Japan has less than a year left, comes with a crazy plan to blast Japan away from its plate using N2 bombs (borrowed from NERV perhaps?). Add in the rather frustrating and really awkward relationship between Reiko and Toshio clumsily brought together in the script by Misaki, played by Mayuko Fukuda, the girl with the acting range and ability of a rock.

While the plot is absurd, the dialogue woeful and the acting substandard, it somehow manages to be a bit more entertaining than a lot of Hollywood films in the same genre, though at times by not much. There is quite a good base here for an excellent disaster movie. Forgetting the implausibility of the plate Japan sits on suddenly sinking into the crust of the earth, you have the problem of refugees, the politics behind all of that and the problems of evacuation, seeing as planes can’t take off due to the volcanic ash I the air. This is reasonably explored, except for the whole Japan is being abandoned crap. Do they really have to get all nationalistic on us? Arrg! The resolution on how Japan is saved is pretty silly too. So Japan can gather up hundreds of drilling rigs in to time at all from around the world, yet there’s only two deep sea submarines in Japan? And both have to be manned and there’s no robotic submarines and they couldn’t borrow and one else’s? What the fuck? I know it was a plot device, however how it was used and the end result was pointless and annoying. At least the special effects were really good, and the cinematography was brilliant. However in the light of the recent earthquake and tsunami, it’s a bit disturbing. 5 out of 10, and I’m being really generous.

Remaining Backlog: 26 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha the Movie 1st"

Publisher: King Records (Japan)
Format: Region 2 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English and Japanese Subtitles
Length: 130 minutes
Production Date: 2010
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

So, I really haven’t been much of a fan of this franchise at all. The majority of popular magical girl anime are based off shoujo manga and the anime themselves are (at least in the initial series) aimed at a young female audience. But of course if you look back at the promotional events for “Sailor Moon” in the early 1990’s, you could only see male otaku in the audience in their 20’s. The “Wedding Peach” video and music releases were squarely aimed at otaku with LD box releases being the initial home video format and the Furil music group being comprised of the three lead actresses. Nanoha is a different kettle of fish. The anime and everything associated with it is aimed at otaku. The show’s even a spinoff of the hentai game series “Triangle Heart”.

To be clear, I don’t dislike it because it is aimed and created specifically for the otaku audience, but I think because of that it doesn’t as much charm as the magical girl shows aimed at young girls. There is laziness in the writing and the characters are a bit one dimensional. There’s also the purely otaku elements such as the magical wands which in their function and usage are most defiantly made to please their core audience. The whole franchise comes off as like a remix of “Cardcaptor Sakura” for men. And despite being made for that target audience, it is completely free of any (sexual) fan service. This is kind of good, as we’re dealing with prepubescent girls here. Both Nanoha series released in English left me rather cold. It was rather a soulless magical girl show I thought.

This movie is a retelling of the first series. Despite what I thought of the first two series, I was really pleasantly surprised with this film. I don’t know why this is either. I’m assuming it’s because the movie takes the basic structure of the first TV series and truncates it down to a taut 130 minutes. Surprisingly the film doesn’t feel rushed at all. None of the characters feel underutilised either. I think that’s quite an achievement really. Certainly how Nanoha obtains her powers and how she first uses them doesn’t make a whole lot of sense and feels a fraction too rushed, but this is a criticism of a lot of magical girl anime. I thought Nanoha was a bit simplistic and naïve, and that Fate was clearly the most interesting well developed character in the show, but this is really no different to the original TV series. I also noted that the character design and design in general was a bit generic. Coupled with the colour and setting design, it felt like a lot of anime from the mid 2000’s, like “Shakugan no Shana” and others. Computer game based animation with designs and situations to match. OK maybe it’s not THAT bad, but I did get that feeling from the film and TV series.

Overall, I for some reason really enjoyed this film. I really can’t tell you why. The run time put me off a lot, but it’s paced really nicely and the coda at the end is really good. I have the regular edition, which contains no on disc extras as such (the special edition came with a second disc of extras), but comes with a nice booklet. Seeing as Geneon sold a heap of the first and second series, one can only wonder why the third series “StikerS” never materialised in the US, nor this film. I must say this film has really turned me around on this franchise. I’m kind of looking forward to the next film in the series, “Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha the Movie 2nd A's”, which is to be released next year. Still, it’s not an exceptional movie, but it is a pretty good one with some great action sequences, a good plot and good animation. 7 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 26 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: "Planzet"

Publisher: Media Factory (Japan)
Format: Region 2 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English and Japanese Subtitles
Length: 53 minutes
Production Date: 2010
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

For some reason I’ve always been interested in Japanese anime DVDs with mythical English subtitles on them. Admittedly they’re pretty scarce, and when you find them most of the time the show has already been released in the US or Australia. Occasionally you’ll get a real rarity that for some unknown reason includes English subtitles that has no chance of being released in the west. This is one such show.

You may be familiar with “Negadon: The Monster from Mars”, a 30 minute short written and produced by Jun Awazu. The film was released by CPM a couple of years before their demise. In that film, Awazu showed his love for old monster movies from the 1950’s and 1960’s in a CG animated format that looked quite good. “Planzet” (though it should probably read as Plan Zet, i.e. a plan called Zet) is very similar to that first short. The giant monsters are replaced with an alien invasion, but the styling from 1950’s and 1960’s Japanese sci-fi films are very apparent. However parts of it are very modern. The robots for instance and the setting are more current in terms of design.

The plot itself is pretty stock standard. Alien invasion plots have been done to death, and this one adds nothing to the genre. I understand that this maybe part homage to the genre, in particular old Toho sci-fi films, but it doesn’t make for interesting viewing. A lot of the lines are pretty corny as well, and it’s all a bit predictable in the end. The part where this film really, really shines is the CG. The background and sets as well as the mecha look incredibly realistic at times. The humans on the other hand… Let’s just say we’re getting to uncanny valley territory. The skin tones are incredibly real looking, and from behind sometimes I found it hard to distinguish between a human and CG. Their faces are wrong. Sure they aren’t the demented flesh puppets (as I call them) that appeared in “MS Igloo”, but they don’t look right either, particularly in the mouth region. Movements can be a bit awkward as well at times and for some reason the t-shirts characters wore just didn’t look right. Odd as all clothing looked good. It’s also odd that the entire cast is made up of six people. The army base depicted in the show seems to contain only four people. It may be easier to have a small cast for animation purposes, but it looks daft in a film like this which is told on such a grand scale.

Summing up, it’s not a bad movie (well it did get a 15 screen release in Japan, so it’s a movie). The animation is pretty damn good but the characters look a bit wrong. One wonders why they didn’t just use real actors instead and matte them into the CG. The screenplay isn’t so great. I look forward to the next project Awazu does, but hope that someone else comes up with the story, not him. I’ll give it 6.5 out of 10, mostly for the fantastic animation and action sequences.

Remaining Backlog: 26 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: "RideBack"

Publisher: Funimation (USA)
Format: Region 1, 2 and 4 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles. Region A and B Blu-ray, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles.
Length: 12 episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 2009
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

I’m buying a lot less from Funimation than I used to. Most of their stuff doesn’t interest me at all. Really don’t care about the umpteenth Shonen Jump-esque title with tons of fights and other nonsense. To me NIS, Nozomi, Siren Visual and Sentai (and perhaps Discotek) have been releasing the more interesting material. This show is quite a different matter though. I was taken aback by the image of a girl riding some crazy looking half robot, half motorbike contraption. For whatever reason, fandom has ignored this one. I suppose when all they’re interested in is Clannad and Harhuri and soulless magical girl shows (like Nanoha, made for otaku, not girls), then perhaps I’m not surprised at all.

I’ll readily admit the plot is quite farfetched. You have the planet which was taken over in a virtual coup d'état with the secret weapon being something called a RideBack, a robot motorcycle, however not at all the ones seen in 1980’s anime like “Megazone 23” or “Genesis Climber Mospeada”. The central character is a young woman who was an elite ballet dancer, but decided to quite after she sustained an injury on stage. She then goes to university and ends up accidently joining a RideBack club. Then she saves her best friend who is caught up in a terrorist incident and accidently ends up being labelled a terrorist and winds up working close to them. OK, so there are some leaps of logic here and there and a lot of convenient happenings, however it’s pretty darn fun.

Apart from the very likeable lead, Rin, the main stars of the show are RideBacks. While they may upon initial viewing look like a motorbike with robot arms, they’re more like ungainly robots who can transform into bikes. At time you have to suspend disbelief as some of the moves they make are clearly in breach of the laws of physics. Rin herself is a great female lead. She’s plain, despite being a ballet genius, and always has slightly unkempt hair. She’s also quite strong willed and while she has a strong social justice side, she also seems to be a realist. A real far cry from most modern day female leads. Quite refreshing really. Most of the other members of RideBack club are bit naïve in comparison. The other thing I liked about this show is the character designs. They’re quite different from the norm. In tandem to Rin’s story, we also follow the military and government’s internal power struggles, which is a key element of how Rin accidently finds herself on the wrong side of the law. Tied in with that is the actual history of how the world is practically governed by one power. While from the promotional material the show looks like a mecha show, which it is, ballet becomes a major motif, especially in the final couple of episodes. I’m not sure if it works that well, but using (or comparing) ballet moves to pilot a robot is an interesting concept.

I read on one forum that some fans were particularly impressed with Tamayo Kataoka, a champion RideBack racer and president of the University’s Rideback club. Seriously, I don’t see what everyone else sees in her. She’s not all that interesting and plays a minor role in the story as such in the latter half (I think a number of characters could have substituted for her in that role). Maybe it’s because she’s scantily dressed? I think the military officer, Misao Yokoyama, is more impressive. Devious, intelligent, beautiful and a woman in uniform. That’s my kind of woman! Also I must make mention of the animation. It’s a Madhouse production, so it’s quality from start to finish. The cherry blossoms in the first episode where gorgeous. Funimation’s limited edition isn’t all that special. All you get is a key chain. The box is lovely though. In the end, this show is really fun. A really quite over the top and blatantly emotionally manipulative scene coupled with some quite implausible plot points did spoil things though. 7 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 26 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: "Gatchaman (OVA)"

Publisher: Urban Vision (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 3 Episodes x 45 minutes
Production Date: 1994 – 1995
Currently in Print (as of writing): No

In the early 1990’s, Tatsunoko Productions remade most of their 1970’s output (arguably the 1970’s was when they were at their creative peak) mostly as a series of OVAs. While the “Tekkaman Blade” TV series was the most successful and best of the remakes, I think the three part “Gatchaman” OVA comes a very close second. I think it’s a really underrated series. Artmic, who co-produced the series, along with Tatsunoko has been very clever in how they chose to adapt the material. They’ve taken three key episodes from the original 105 episode TV series; the first episode with the Turtle King, the 11th episode with the first appearance of Red Impulse and the final episode. The character designs are by Yasuomi Umetsu. (of “Kite” and “Mezzo” infamy), who seems to have done the designs for nearly all the Tatsunoko OVA remakes. Everything has been modernised but the designs still retain the elements from the original mecha and characters.

The basic storyline remains from the three episodes they’ve used, however they’ve expanded all three stories and changed a few of the elements around. The biggest change is the final episode. It’s really hard to explain what the changes are as I’ll give away what happens in the original 1974 final TV episode. I will say the coda to this OVA is a little surreal and doesn’t quite make much sense. Apart from the redesigned mecha, which look great, but is still almost as crazy as the 1970’s originals, the characters are brilliant. The Gatchaman team is pretty much prefect (essentially it’s the template for sentai shows up to the present), however I think there is a lack of development for most of the time. Most of the time the focus is on either Joe or Ken. I think the writers assumed the audience would have knowledge of the characters and series. In particular I liked Joe in this version of the show. His obsession of using violence over strategy was quite amusing. His only solution is to use the Bird Missiles. The Galactor henchmen were also nutty as their original counterparts. There were also additions of special ninja soldiers which didn’t appear in the original series. Also of note is that Berg Katse’s (or Verg Kaste as he’s titled in this English adaptation) morphing gender is revealed a whole lot sooner than in the TV series. Galactor’s origins in this OVA are almost identical to the new animated section in the 1978 Gatchaman compilation movie.

Sometime in the mid 1990’s, Harmony Gold bought and dubbed this show. But it took until 1997 to see any sort of commercial release when they finally flogged it off to Urban Vision. The dub changes almost all the names to “more acceptable” western ones and the episode titles and supers are also changed slightly. Even back in the 1990’s the majority of anime companies where no longer doing this shit. Some of the titles clash with the subtitles (like changing the Turtle King to a Dragon King, and even more stupidly changing the Red Impulse to the Red Spectre), as well as errors such dates changing from 2006 to 2066. It’s hard to believe a 60 year jump had taken place in the story. Urban vision has also cut some of the end credits, which while retaining Bill Meyers and Maurice White’s (of Earth, Wind & Fire fame) theme song, removes the visuals that go along with the song.

In closing, I think this is a fantastic OVA series. Sure it’s not perfect, but it is well animated, has a great story and brilliant designs and manages to almost equal the original in a lot of departments. Urban Vision’s DVD is pretty good (the video is quite decent for something released in 2001), except for the hangovers from the name changed dub, and includes the music video with the updated original Gatchaman theme song. The cover artwork is boring as hell. I don’t know why just didn’t use the Japanese volume one cover. Strangely enough, this DVD came out five years before the Japanese DVD. Really must have been a bomb in Japan maybe. For me personally, I think it’s a real fun show and really wish fandom had taken more notice of it. I really wish Tatsunoko would do a TV series remake of the original series. 8 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 26 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: "Pixies"

Publisher: 4AD (UK)
Format: Region Free DVD, PAL, English Dialogue
Length: 145 minutes
Production Date: 1988 - 2004
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

My childhood years (the 1980’s) were spent growing up in the country. The only music I heard was on AM radio, filled with top 40 hits and an odd collection of hits dating back to the 1950’s. I did like some pop music (mostly Duran Duran, Inxs and a few others), but thanks to ABC TV through Rage, Rock Arena and various Saturday morning music video shows, I was introduced to alternate rock and the emerging sample based music such as the early UK house scene (KLF, Coldcut, Bomb the Bass, Beatmasters) and of course hip hop music from the US. I first heard “Here Comes Your Man” by the Pixies on Rock Arena on ABC TV in 1989. The music video was completely daft with lead singer Black Francis (Frank Black, or Charles Thompson to his mom and dad) and bassist Kim Deal not miming at all to the song, just opening their mouths when the lyrics where sung. I didn’t get it. I don’t think it was until they released “Dig for Fire” until I really got what they were on about, and by the time the “Alec Eifel” video appeared on Rage (do really think any of their music was played on local radio?) I was fan and bought as many of their CDs I could that were listed in the local record shop’s catalogue.

And then the bastards broke up, just as I became a fan of their music. I think the real shame with the Pixies and a number of other bands of the 1980’s, is they never got any exposure in mainstream media and didn’t get any recognition outside Europe which they so deserved. Probably this is in part the Pixies fault as they refused to do any video as such. Only one video (“Alec Eifel”) has them miming properly and looks like a real alt rock video. The rest have them doing other things like playing live or the infamous “Veloria” video which has them running out of frame in one continuous slow motion shot.

This video compilation, released in conjunction with a “best of” 4AD compilation (“Wave of Mutilation”), around the time they reformed and toured and toured and toured (still no sign of a new album, which is probably for the best), is divided into four parts. The first and probably the best part of this disc is the live show in London from 1988. They’re a rather ordinary lot on stage (in some segments on this disc, it looks like four people off the street just came in and stated playing on stage) with absolutely no stage theatrics, but they certainly know how to make a nice racket. There’s a good sampling of “Come On Pilgrim” and “Surfer Rosa” here, as well as covers of the Beatles “Wild Honey Pie” and fan favourite “The Lady in the Radiator Song (In Heaven)”. The second section covers their music videos, including the posthumous “Debaser”, which a bit of a dreadful clip conceived by 4AD with no involvement from the band.

The third bit is the fairly good “On the Road” which is a compilation of camcorder footage taken by Myles Mangio, who was a key part of their tour staff on their European and US tours of 1989. There’s some funny stuff here and it shows that drummer David Lovering was the clown in the band. At one point he gets the address of a 12 year old girl in Italy, which Kim then confiscates. Kim Deal herself proves to be the most interesting of the group. She’s particularly hilarious in this section of the DVD, speaking bad German and buying woeful touristy gifts in Europe for her family. Towards the end of this section, it does become a bit tedious and a little dull. Guitarist Joey Santiago barely says a word and Charles is Charles really. The fourth part is Channel 4’s hour long documentary “Gouge”. While it does have some really interesting interviews with Thom Yorke, David Bowie, PJ Harvey, Bono, Badly Drawn Boy and others, it’s not particularly enlightening. None of the Pixies interviews or with producers Gil Norton and Steve Albini tell us much about the band or the recording process for their records. A lot of stuff seems to be missing or glossed over, like how they almost broke up in 1989, Charles publicly ending the band in a radio interview without the other members knowledge, and Kim Deal’s absence in the documentary is rather conspicuous. Best part here is Joey Santiago getting his dues from a number of big artists for his underrated guitar work and Charles admitting he had some “UFO experiences” when he was a child and recounting a story of when he was told he could “holler” by an old bloke.

While I love the band’s music, their videos aren’t very good for the most part. But then again they were about the music, not about their image or stupid stage theatrics. The concert section of this release proves that. That is certainly the best part of this DVD. The documentary part is more about what a bunch of modern day artists and a couple of annoying jurnos whose opinions I could care less about. I’m going to give the disc 7 out of 10, mostly for the concert.

Remaining Backlog: 26 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: "Durarara!"

Publisher: Aniplex USA
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 26 Episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 2010
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

A lot of fans now days say that modern day anime are crappy. I don’t think that’s true at all. Sure, there is a lot of rubbish in the market, but there’s always something that catches my interest every season in every year. Though admittedly I usually watch anime several years after it’s been broadcast or released in cinemas. Keeping up to date with the newest anime isn’t a high priority for me at all. This show is an exception for me and is one of the better titles released in the last couple of years.

“Durarara!”, like an increasing number of anime since the mid 1990’s, is based on a light novel. I’ve always thought that most anime adaptations of light novels are better than adaptations of manga. Perhaps because you can cram a whole lot more story and detail in a novel than you can a manga. Apart from the (mostly) wonderfully realised and multi layered characters, what impressed me most about this show was the structure of the story. Unlike a lot of shows, it doesn’t buggerise around with multiple pointless episodes introducing the characters and situation by having mindless “adventures” before the actual real plot begins. It actually manages to introduce the underground and criminal world of Ikebukuro as well as most of the main characters within an episode and a bit. Gradually we are given insight into the world of Ikebukuro and its main characters. The only episodes that seem pointless are the two bonus episodes made for the video release of the series. The last one is especially pointless and completely unnecessary. The show is divided up into three arcs. The first arc, which mainly revolves around the headless underground female bike courier, Celty, is certainly the best and most intriguing.

However I found the last two arcs to be a little lacklustre in comparison to the amazing first. The second involves a super natural entity called the Slasher, which was rather good, but didn’t live up to the first arc (which was also supernatural themed). The third involving the mysterious Dollars gang and the disbanded Yellow Scarves gang, nicely ties up the other arc (all three arcs are intertwined with the main characters being the links that binds everything together), felt a bit of a letdown to me, probably because the direct lack of supernatural elements that were in the first two arcs. It’s not that this show is bad at all. It’s really quite good. I just felt that everything was a bit of an anticlimax after that incredibly good first arc. Apart from the two bonus filler episodes, there was little I didn’t like about this show. The introduction of the hard arse motorcycle cop was intriguing, but didn’t amount to much at all in the end. The introduction of Shinra Kishitani’s (Celty’s carer, provider and potential lover as such) father also added diddly squat to the story. He soon too disappears from the show without an explanation.

An extremely good show overall, but is let down by a few elements and fact the first half of the show is way more exciting than the first. The story is very well told and planned very well over the original 24 episodes (I’m ignoring the two bonus filler episodes). The characters are all written and developed very well, but Celty, the supernatural headless bike courier who is afraid of aliens and is rather feminie and a little fragile at her core, steals the entire series from the rest of the cast. In closing, a very good show, but I wish it had been better. 8 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 26 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: Riding the Trapar Waves

"Eureka Seven"
Publisher: Bandai Entertainment (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 50 Episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 2005 – 2006
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

This is yet another series I acquired for really cheap from the infamous Right Stuf bargain bin a couple of years back. I read an interview a while back that the producers felt that some Japanese fans didn’t want to watch the show because they thought it was an “Evangelion” knock off. While it does have a female lead that looks and acts a bit like Rei (the pale skinned, green haired Eureka), if that’s true I’m not sure where the hell fans got that idea from. The set up of the alternate future world with its trapars (sort of like a rideable ether) and LFOs (i.e. robots) and Compac Drives (fuel sources) is really intriguing and the designs are just fantastic (with Shoji Kawamori and Kazutaka Miyatake, how could it not be?). For the most part, the story is pretty damn good. There are plenty of twists and turns along the way.

While the show looks fantastic, there are a number of problems with the way it’s structured. First it has that structure to the story that is similar to many modern day anime series; first nine or so episodes are introductory, the next set has the big reveal, the final arc resolves everything. It’s lazy series structure planning in my book. In terms of the peaks and troughs of the climaxes, the show doesn’t fare that well. I thought it was rather ill structured in that regard, especially towards the end. The series was a bit too long as well. After a cracking and very exciting start, the crew of the outlaw ship Gekkostate, end up abusing and humiliating the lead character, 14 year old Renton Thurston, though hazing and just general abuse. This set of five or so episodes when on for way too long and ends portraying the main cast as a bunch of no hoper surfer bums. Yeah I know that this was probably the intent, but I think the writers fail to convince that these slackers are a competent anti-government force for the rest of the show. Another episode is complete filler (the soccer one), which was odd seeing as the story was nearing the climax, and we also have a recap episode. I think at least seven or more episodes could have been cut from the show without any consequences.

There’s also the rather dubious way Gekkostate’s magazine “ray=out” is compiled, edited, published, printed and distributed. How the crap does it happen? We see proofs of one magazine cover, but other than taking lot of photos, the aptly named Stoner is never actually seen working on the magazine. You also have the rather silly premise that “ray=out” is a cover to get information out about what the army is really doing. I though the character Anemone was rather wasted in the show. It always seemed her character was meant to play a larger role, especially in terms of combat and screen time, but in the end we only see a small part of her world. I would have liked to see her role expanded a lot more. Her pet, whatever the hell it is, was rather annoying and just seem to spit out pellet like crap all the time.

While the story is pretty good (if daft and nonsensical at times), the action sequences are dead drop gorgeous. The inclusion of musical artist names as well as songs as character and episode titles names, was for the most part amusing and well done. However two characters called Ray and Charles, and the city of Warsaw apparently also known as Joy Division in this series, was a bit too obvious and stupid. There are a lot of dance music references such as band names like KLF and LFO, as well as dance equipment such the Roland 303, 808 and 909 rhythm/drum machines and the Technics SL-1200 being used for mecha names. I also noticed a couple of classic late 1980’s early 1990’s tracks being used titles for episodes such as “Pacific State” by 808 State. Overall it’s not a bad show. There was certainly a lot of potential there, but I think it squandered a lot of that, mostly due to poor planning. I’ll still give it 7 out of 10 though.

"Eureka Seven: Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers (Pocket Full of Rainbows)"
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 115 minutes
Production Date: 2009
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Quite an interesting reboot of the series. Somehow they’ve managed to keep the vital parts of the story and eject the parts which are irrelevant. I suspect it would have been pretty hard to cram a 50 episode series into a film that runs for a bit less than two hours. I’m kind of impressed. Essentially the same story is being told as the TV series, but there a lot of differences. Such as Renton joining the army and being assigned to the Gekkostate who are still a military unit, Renton knowing Eureka since they were children etc. Surprisingly a lot of the cast’s back stories are changed quite substantially, and the case of the crew of the Gekkostate, stretching believability to the utmost extreme. Amusing a number of the secondary cast are dead or have aged substantially before the start of the film. The series original protagonist fares the worst. Not only is he dead, but a paedophile too!

The other key change is the LFO’s, in particular the key one in the series, the Nirvash. It was understood that in the series the Nirvash was a being of some kind. In this movie version he is a cute little creature with annoying catchphrase (noise really) who seems to live inside the larger Nirvash. I think. It doesn’t quite make any sense, especially since you see him get out of the Nirvash in the movie, but it seems he is the actual Nirvash at the end of the film (and yes I am aware his name is Nirvash). Like the TV series, the movie is quite confused and murky at various points in the plot. Things just happen for no apparent or explained reason. Other minor things made little sense, like why Gekkostate crew were dressed in civilian gear even though they were military. The thing which impressed me though is how they took footage from the TV series, actual animation, and quite a number of scenes at that, and created new footage and a brand new story around those scenes.

When all is said and done, it isn’t a bad movie at all. I’ve read a couple reviews saying the animation is subpar, but that’s nonsense . It’s much better than some of the rather dodgy animation in the TV series and is equal to or a slightly better than many recent anime films. Like the TV series I think some the reasoning behind certain plot points is rather murky at best, but overall it’s fun movie and condenses all the good stuff from the series. Some of the new concepts where a little bit iffy, but the good stuff outweighs that. 7 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 26 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).