Video Backlog: "Keroro Gunso the Super Movie: Gekishin Dragon Warriors de arimasu!"

Publisher: IVL (Intercontinental Video Limited, Hong Kong)
Format: Region 3 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional Cantonese dub and English, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified) Subtitles.
Length: 78 mins (feature), 16 mins (short)
Production Date: 2009
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

For whatever reason, I’ve been having a lot of trouble with my mail recently. The package of discs from Hong Kong took around four weeks to come, even though it usually takes a single week. The package was pretty banged up with one disc’s case/cover slick being split. Urk. And people wonder why downloading is popular. Lately with the problems in the US market in terms of anime companies falling over and the general cheapness of releases (in particular the flimsiness of cases and shoddiness of cover art work, coupled with typos in subs etc), I’m seriously considering giving up buying discs altogether. It’s utterly frustrating.

Anyway, this film, it’s the fourth in the series. This time around giant blue semi-transparent arches appear over the world, suspiciously resembling the bodies of traditional Asian dragons. However world governments deem them not to be a threat and people continue on with their daily lives (I mean after the crazy shit which happened in the first three films, is it any wonder that the general population just shrugs off these weird and regular worldwide happenings?). However the Keroro platoon decides to investigate and the members are sent the four corners of the earth, with the exception of Keroro of course. He’d rather fight with Natsumi. Tamama isn’t helping either. He’s travelled to France with Momoka to visit her friend, Sion. However Tamama mysteriously disappears, and Keroro, Fuyuki and Natsumi head to France to find him. However en route they attacked by a dragon looking not too dissimilar to Tamama. After a crash landing they reach Sion’s estate, however it becomes quite clear that Sion may be the one controlling the dragon as well as being the one behind the arches. Soon Giroro, Kururu and Dororo are also turned into dragons and begin attacking various cities. It looks like Keroro might be next on Sion’s list.

Accompanying this movie is the short “Kero Zero: Depart! Assembly of Everyone!!”. This takes place before the first TV episode and depicts the preparations for the invasion of Pekopon (i.e. Earth). Predicably not all goes well, with Keroro being subjected to some sort of weird curry test by Kururu, and the rest of the platoon has to deal with its own invaders trying to conquer Keron. I think there’s a point with long running series like this one, where it just becomes a bit formulaic and tiresome. I think “Keroro Gunso” hit that point long ago. To a large degree, the cast are going through the motions. Everyone conforms to their assigned personality traits and the Keroro platoon appear with afros etc. Perhaps this franchise should have been put to rest a couple years earlier than it was. The plot itself isn’t all that great. It’s fun and provided some laughs, but rather silly. Compared with the action spectaculars of previous films, this one seems rather subdued. The short, like previous shorts, was rather uninteresting.

As I said before, there were some laughs in the film, most of which involve “Keroro Gunso’s” infamous anime and manga parodies. In particular “Tales From Earthsea” (considering the theme of this movie, it makes sense), “Gamera”, “Street Fighter II” and of course Gundam, in particular “Gundam F91” and “Zeta Gundam” are up for a bit of satirising. Unlike the last two IVL discs, the English subtitles here are relatively good, in fact as good as the first movie, though they seem to have an aversion to subbing any of the on screen text. There’s an amusing subtitle where Keroro first meets Sion and greets her with a “Sieg Zeon!” (as a pun on her name). In parentheses, the IVL subbers incorrectly inform the audience that “Sieg Zeon” is a “Gundam character”. Yeah, uh huh... In the end I was entertained for sure and there were a few laughs, but it really felt laboured and worn out. I can only give it 6 out of 10.

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

Video Backlog: “Redline”

Publisher: Manga Entertainment (UK)
Format: Region 2 DVD, PAL, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles. Region B Blu-ray, PAL, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles.
Length: 102 minutes
Production Date: 2009
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

I originally saw this film at Madman Entertainment’s Reel Cinema screenings in September 2010. It was the last film I saw at that mini festival and I was completely narked off at the behaviour of my fellow patrons. Apart from the general rowdiness (sit down, shut up and watch the film, or fuck off! I didn’t pay $18 to hear your “hilarious” banter) they pretty much laughed at everything on screen, even when nothing was happening. I can only assume that most of them were Amish and this was the first “moving picture” that they’d seen. Or they’re very easily amused. In that case why don’t they just sit in the mall and be amused by all the pretty colours and movement instead of annoying fellow cinema goers? As you might of guessed, I didn’t enjoy the film as much as probably would have. However I decided to give the film a second chance.

The plot is relatively simple; Sometime in the distant future, anti gravity vehicles have become the dominant form of transport. However there are those who still race cars which are earth bound and use petroleum engines. Racer, JP, is on the verge of winning a race called Yellowline, however his car is sabotaged, crashing hard, only metres before the finish line by his mechanic and childhood friend, Frisbee. Frisbee has been baking backroom deals with the mafia on fixing races and is now in pretty deep. In fact many years before JP took the fall for Frisbee when the law found out about a deal. Still JP’s friendship was strong with him. If JP had won Yellowline, he would have qualified for the prestigious Redline race. However as this race is being held illegally on Roboworld, and militaristic government has publicly announced they will do anything to stop the race going ahead. Not wanting to be killed by Roboworld forces, several racers pull out which means JP can enter the Redline race.

Despite Frisbee’s misgivings, JP decides to enter the race using the dirty money from his dealings with the mafia. Despite Roboword being run by highly advanced mechanised beings, the planet outside the military is a backwater. There JP has his car built by his mechanic, a four armed old man (whom I don’t think we are ever told his name), and designed by Frisbee. During the downtime, JP meets up with Sonoshee, the winner of Yellowline. He has been smitten with her since he met her when he was a young racer, however now she is completely focused on winning the race and has no time for romance. Meanwhile a ragtag band of rebels and a few of the racers decide to make the defences of Roboworld inoperable.

This is one obscenely over the top film . Created by Katsuhito Ishii (“Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl”, “A Taste of Tea”, “Funky Forrest”) and directed by Takeshi Koike (“Party 7”), the style of this movie is practically comparable not nothing in the anime market to today. It’s a very cartoony style, in the same vein as "Trava - Fist Planet Episode 1"(originally released on the DVD short film compilation series "Grasshoppa!!" back in 2001), which was also a Koike/ Ishii production. In fact the characters from those short appear in this film. It’s also been stated that “Redline” is a prequel to “Trava”. “Redline” is just so filled with colour and action, and packed is packed to the gills with off the wall characters and ideas. There is never a dull moment. In the climatic race, not only do we see the racer battle it out at breakneck speed whilst dealing with the Roboworld forces, a gigantic bio-weapon appears, which then fights an opposing monster/weapon. While this is going on, romance is blossoming between JP and Sonoshee. At times there is so much going on it feels as if it’s going to all fall apart. This is most evident in the climatic race which is probably a touch too long.

The UK release is fantastic. I bought this dual BD/DVD version as I wanted the Blu-ray version as I’ll probably be in the market for a BD player next year (now that code free players are a lot more common). Also it was cheaper than the Japanese version and the US version hasn’t come out yet. It comes with a booklet with interviews with Katsuhito Ishii and Takeshi Koike (seriously Manga, would have killed you to at least put the bios of both people in different coloured fonts so it didn’t run together with the interviews?), and fantastic piece called “Car Wars” by the one and only Jonathan Clements. In his piece he not only identifies “Cannonball Run” as an influence, but unlike others who have written about the film, he dismisses Hanna-Barbera’s “Wacky Races” as an influence and rather convincingly suggests “Machine Hayabusa” from 1976 as a much more likely culprit, citing Ishii’s age (he would have seen it as a kid) and the similarities between it and “Redline”. In particular the lead in that show refuses to weaponise his car like the other racers do, just like JP. Both characters want to race “purely”. Though I never liked his criticism of anime much, I really love Jonathan’s articles on anime. He really knows this stuff. Overall it’s a fantastic film that is completely different from the rest of the anime pack. It is overwhelming and maybe a bit unfocused, however it’s brimming with lots of fantastic concepts and characters. It’s style over substance and it certainly knows this. It succeeds at what it sets out to be. 8 out of 10.

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

Video Backlog: “Honey and Clover”/”Honey and Clover II”

Publisher: Viz Media (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 38 Episodes x 23 minutes
Production Date: 2005 – 2006
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Anime aimed at the female market is rare as hen’s teeth. Even more obscure is material from the josei genre. There are so very few anime titles in this genre released commercially in English. Believe it or not, Viz has released two of them. Kind of hilarious as hardly anything gets released by Viz now days. Initially the story centres on three young men who are students at an art college in Tokyo and board together in a rundown apartment complex. The three soon meet Hagumi Hanamoto, or Hagu as she is known. Despite being a genius artist, she is a very shy young woman and also very short and young looking for her age. Two of the boys, Yuta and Shinobu, soon develop feelings for her. Shinobu is more hyper of the two and can only seem to express himself by scaring and harassing her (like dressing her up as various cute characters and photographing her and posting the results on a website). Yuta is the more reflective and caring of the two and hides his feelings for her. However putting a wedge between her and the two boys is Shuji Hanamoto, a professor at the college and cousin of Hagu. He is highly protective of her.

The other member of the apartment, Takumi Mayama, is in his final year of college and is initially helping out Rika Harada, a widowed friend of Professor Hanamoto, at her architecture firm. He falls in love with Rika, but a fellow student, Ayumi Yamada (and master at pottery) is in love him. Unfortunately he only sees her as a friend. The show follows the trials and tribulations of the students as they fall in and out of love, graduate from college, find employment and find themselves.

Actually that last sentence makes it sound a lot drippier than it actually is. This series is based on the josei manga by Chika Umino, whom most anime fans would have seen her work via her character designs for “Eden of the East”. For the majority of its length “Honey and Clover” plays out like a comedy. And it’s truly genuine humour too, not the hokey, obvious, painful stuff you see in a lot of anime. I laughed out loud quite a lot with this show, which is surprising as most so called anime comedies fail to do that with me. What helps a lot though is this show is aimed at young adults, rather than 14 year olds or otaku like most anime comedies. The five main characters (the students) play off well against each other and are quite believable. The only exception is Shinobu who is a little over the top and unbelievable. However mostly his personality and behaviour makes a lot of the comedy work. The supporting cast, especially Professor Hanamoto and the workmates of Takumi’s second workplace really add to the show.

What I found unusual is that initially the focus of the show was on the three boys rather than the two main female characters. Also the men in the show seem to be a lot more stable than their female counterparts. I initially found Hagu to be a very strange and not very likable character. I really prefer strong female characters and she was definitely the opposite. However gradually the audience is allowed to get closer to her and inside her mind and by the end I found her to be a very sympathetic and likable character. I really enjoyed the journey the character took. The last third of the show (essentially from the last couple of episodes of the first season, and practically all of the second season) heads into drama territory big time, but it doesn’t seem forced or schmaltzy at all. It felt like a really natural progression. I have to applaud that, especially after suffering through the utter bollocks and ham fisted “drama” of “Air”, “Kanon” and the like.

There were a few problems with the show. Occasionally some elements were way over the top or just plain silly, like the cross dressing owners of the architectural design studio or the surprise at the Academy Awards ceremony, however the majority of the time it’s quite a believable show. If I was a bit nasty, I would make the comment that at times the show plays like some sort of middle class fantasy. Make that a fantasy of middle class Japanese woman. Ah, that’s bit horrible. I mean how is that any worse than the latest escapist moe crap that anime fans harp on about like it’s a Kubrick film? At the very least “Honey and Clover” is infinitely better written, better plotted and more realistic than that other pap. I must make note of the opening for the first half of the first series. Seriously, what the fuck were they thinking? What does it have to do with the show? The “making of” segment reveals that it was made in the hope of getting the attention of non-anime fans. Well I guess since this show was the very first show to screen in Fuji TV’s noitaminA block, maybe they had a point, but does anyone other than anime fans watch these shows? I mean if you’re going to play them after midnight, then what do you expect? In conclusion, this is one of the best shows I’ve seen in quite a while. It’s really funny, well written for the most part and drama isn’t too melodramatic or forced. I kind of wished some of the over the top elements were toned down and things had worked out a bit differently for the main characters (hey, call me a hopeless romantic), but then again real life isn’t like that. 8 out of 10.

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

Pop Will Eat Itself – “Box Frenzy (Remastered and Expanded)”

Publisher: Cherry Red Records (UK)
Format: Compact Disc
Length: 71:42
Production Date: 1987 – 1988 (2011 reissue of Chapter 22’s 1987 album release)
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

I think it was in 1991 that I’d heard “There Is No Love Between Us Anymore” for the very first time on Triple J while myself and my family and I were in Canberra. It was getting spin because Chapter 22 had rereleased pretty much the entire back catalogue of the Poppies material they had. PWEI had hit the charts in UK with “X Y & Zee” and the third incarnation of “92°F” and they wanted to cash in. The only alternative music I’d heard in my home town was via TV, mainly SBS’ “The Noise” and ABC’s “Rage”, so it was by pure luck I’d heard that old Poppies tune on the radio (the disc was an import, it’s never been released here). But I think I may have read a discography in NME or Record Collector prior to this, so I knew PWEI’s releases prior to “This is the Day”. So on that trip I went down to the huge independent record shop in the city and picked up “Box Frenzy” (curiously it was a US import distributed by Rough Trade, not the UK import), and the expanded CD single of “There Is No Love Between Us Anymore” and “Now For A Feast”. I recall my aunt looking at the title of “Box Frenzy” and the song titles “Inside You” and “Beaver Patrol” and alerted my mother to the rude CD I’d bought (though “Box Frenzy” refers to the samplers and drum machines that PWEI now were infatuated with). Mum didn’t really care. I’d was already listening to Ice-T, NWA, Geto Boys and Ice Cube. PWEI were cream puffs compared to them.

In late 1987, PWEI released the single “Beaver Patrol”, an obscure cover of a song by an equally obscure band, the Wilde Knights. This was a 180 degree turn on their indie pop punk rock which had worked well for them. Now it was samples and drum machines with guitars. Naturally the UK press hated it, especially since they’d done an EP of covers with the jokey version of Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s “Love Missile F1-11”. They’d already cultivated a music media image of them being larger drinking yobs. The press labelled them in one instance “an unkempt idiotic New Order”, but more often than not they were described as the UK’s answer to the Beastie Boys. Oddly enough it was because of the Beastie Boys that the band made the decision to use samples, drum machines and rapping. After going to a Run DMC/Beastie Boy’s concert, that was it, they decided to change their style. Strangely enough the Beastie Boys stated out as NYC punks in the early 1980’s and turned to rapping a few years later.

The album was produced by Robert Gordon at FON Studio who had already remixed their “Love Missile F1-11” for the 12” version which was dubbed the “Designer Grebo Mix”. An altered version of that mix appears on this album. It was Gordon’s work with Age of Chance that so impressed PWEI that they decided to work with him. They were a similar band to PWEI, though a bit more serious and polished. In fact they also used pretty much the same set up with a band and samplers and a megaphone on some tracks. In some quarters and in the liner notes of this album, you get the feeling that PWEI were creating this album in some kind of vacuum. People have to remember what was going on musically in England at the time. In 1985 Colourbox released the sample heavy “Just Give ‘Em Whisky” and in 1987 the similar “Hot Doggie”. They were also the core of the group M/A/R/R/S and their infamous “Pump Up The Volume”, released around the same time as this album. You also have Sigue Sigue Sputnik who were doing similar things to PWEI in 1986 (even though they were ridiculed, especially because of their audacious promotion and appearance. However in retrospect the music was ahead of its time). In the first half of 1987 you also had stuff like Coldcut’s “Say Kids What Time Is it?” and the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (aka The KLF) with the single “All You Need Is Love” and their follow up album “1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?)”. Of note is the fact “Rockman Rock (Parts 2 & 3)” from that album is sampled on both “Let’s Get Ugly” and “U.B.L.U.D.” on “Box Frenzy”. This album was rereleased in 2003 by Castle Music with nine additional tracks. However this new remastered and expanded compilation is far more of a satisfying release.

Tracklisting:

1.Grebo Guru (3:56)
2.Beaver Patrol (3:09)
3.Let’s Get Ugly (4:03)
4.U.B.L.U.D. (3:51)
5.Inside You (2:36)
6.Evelyn (3:18)
7.There Is No Love Between Us Anymore (3:55)
8.She’s Surreal (4:11)
9.Intergalactic Love Mission (3:55)
10.Love Missile F1-11 (4:11)
11.Hit The Hi-Tech Groove (5:09)
12.Razorblade Kisses (1:51)

The album itself is a mixed bag really. It starts out quite strongly with “Grebo Guru” which incorporates their burgeoning mix of guitars, sampling, drum machines and rapping. The humour remains with a very funny sample at the beginning which doubles as a clever intro for the album. Next we have the first real single from the album, absurd and maybe rather misogynistic “Beaver Patrol”. Daft by itself, but somehow it slots in perfectly on the album. “Let’s Get Ugly”, a remake of “Ugly” is more Beastie Boys than anything else, as is “She’s Surreal”. “U.B.L.U.D.” is a simplistic track but works very well. However the next two songs, “Inside You” and “Evelyn” are pretty awful. Many of the songs on this album are reworkings of older material done in PWEI’s former minute and a half pop punk style or their slightly more mature indie pop style that developed out of the “Sweet Sweet Pie” single. These two are of the latter variety and have gone though absolutely no transformation except drums being replaced with a drum machine. These two tracks rank as possibly two of PWEI’s worst and certainly don’t belong on this album. To be fair this album was done a budget and in a very short frame time, so probably these two songs didn’t get the attention the others did.

Side two begins with the fabulous “There Is No Love Between Us Anymore” which is pure indie pop meets dance music. One of PWEI’s best ever songs. So simple yet so great. We also have the alerted remix of “Love Missile F1-11” and a rather fun instrumental piece layered with some vocal samples called “Intergalactic Love Mission”. Second to last is the much maligned “Hit The Hi-Tech Groove”. Personally I think this is really fun song. It’s obviously a piss take and quite possibly a dig at house music. There’s samples here from Adam and the Ants’ “Stand and Deliver”, Mel & Kim’s “Respectable” (yes, really) and Jack 'N' Chill’s “The Jack that House Built”. What a combination. The final track, “Razorblade Kisses”, is album filler. It’s essentially a dinky keyboard version of “Evelyn” with a couple of samples to make it sound like a music box. I think overall that it’s a bit of scattershot album, however there are some really fun and outstanding tracks here. It’s probably PWEI’s least successful album, both artistically and financially. Maybe their worst if we discount the latest album, 2011’s “New Noise Designed By A Sadist”, in which Graham Crabb is the only original member of the new reformed PWEI.

13.Picnic In The Sky (2:50)
14.Kiss That Girl (1:48)

These two tracks are from the “There Is No Love Between Us Anymore” single. While “Picnic In The Sky” is a fun song more indicative of their direction before they found samplers and drum machines, “Kiss That Girl” is a dreadful piece of shit. It’s a dopey ditty with a horrible sing-along chorus and dopey lyrics. One can wonder why they decided to waste valuable studio time and tape on this shit. Quite arguably the worst PWEI song ever.

15.There Is No Love Between Us Anymore (Specially Extended Dance Mix) (4:44)

A great remix for the 12” single. In fact it sounds almost nothing like the original. This is a different and vastly superior remix of the song than the version than the one that appeared on the Castle version of “Box Frenzy” in 2003. This remix also formed the basis of “Psychosexual” which appeared on “Cure For Sanity”.

16.Grebo Guru (Sonic Sounds EP Mix) (4:13)

This appeared on a 7” vinyl single given away free with the now defunct Sounds magazine in the UK. Despite saying it’s a “mix”, it’s not. It’s a completely different recording with very different percussion and some a line or two of alternate lyrics. I suspect this track has been mastered from the a 7” vinyl single as apparently all of the master tapes from the Chapter 22 era have gone walkabout. Still, it doesn’t sound too bad at all and it’s certainly a very welcome addition to this compilation.

17.Supersonic Human (Graham’s Home Demo) (0:36)
18.Intergalactic Love Mission (Graham’s Home Demo) (1:59)

Two of Graham’s demos from the period. “Supersonic Human” is an acoustic number that eventually would morph into “Grebo Guru”. Unfortunately only a snippet of this song only seems to exist as you can tell by the runtime. The track just cuts and we only hear the end of it. “Intergalactic Love Mission” is surprisingly relatively unchanged in structure from its final album version, save for its acoustic guitar, improvised percussion and lack of samples.

19.Def.Con.One (Clint’s Home Demo) (1:50)

Surely one of the best bonus tracks on this compilation. The basic ideas here are pretty much what ended up on the studio version. The “Funky Town” sample is more pronounced in this version and it sounds like the same bassline from Bomb the Bass’ “Beat Dis” is being used here. The lyrics aren’t fleshed out here (though the chorus is partly the same as the studio version), but Clint’s alternate lyrics are hilarious; “I play guitar!/Wanna be a real rock star!”.

20.Def.Con.One (3:43)
21.Def.Con.One (Doomsday Powermix) (5:54)

Issued in July 1988, this is arguably the moment that PWEI found their groove. This song was the template they used for the next two albums. Like the album, this was produced by Robert Gordon at FON Studio. This was their last outing with Chapter 22 and Gordon. As I understand it, the band had already signed to RCA at this point (after singing then being unceremoniously dumped a few days later by London Records), so the question is why did they decide to release this on this label? At any rate it makes for fine bridge between what they were and what they were to become.

The song itself combines the Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog” with Pseudo Echo’s cover version of “Funky Town” (apparently, the sample sounds like the original Lips Inc version to me) and various samples and ton of pop culture references, mostly comic ones, Alan Moore comics in particular. The artwork for the single also marks the first time the band would use the Designers Republic. So you could say that this single truly marks the first “true” outing of PWEI. I must also note that this particular version is somewhat different to the one that appears on “This is the Day”. The guitars are much more muddier here, Graham’s megaphone bits where rerecorded and there are some sample changes and additions as well in the “This is the Day” version. What is so amazing about this track is that it was meant to be a B-side to “Radio PWEI” which was recorded at FON at the same time. In the end the FON version of “Radio PWEI” was dumped and forgotten. The “Def.Con.One (Doomsday Powermix)” is a little forgettable. It’s nothing more than just an extended mix.

Missing Stuff

Not a great deal of stuff is missing from this release. The B-sides from the “Beaver Patrol” 12” single, “Oh Grebo, I Think I Love You (New Version)”, “Bubbles” and “Ugly” appear on Cherry Red’s compilation of “Now For a Feast” as well as Castle’s 2003 compilation and a variety of other sources. The track “...On the Razor’s Edge...” which appeared on the “There Is No Love Between Us Anymore” 12” single can be also found on Castle’s 2003 compilation of “Box Frenzy” and 1991 reissue of the single as a 8 track CD. However it’s not really an essential track in my opinion. It’s a just an instrumental remix of “Grebo Guru”. There’s also the live versions of “Inside You”, “She’s Surreal” and Hit The Hi-Tech Groove” which originally appeared on the “Def.Con.One” 12” and CD single. They’re also available on Castle’s 2003 compilation releases of ” Now For a Feast” and “Box Frenzy”, inexplicitly split between the two releases. These tracks are kind of bad and aren’t the Poppies best performances. They’re also edited badly. Again, not really essential. The previously mentioned FON version of “Radio PWEI” is available on Cherry Red’s 2011 remastered and expanded “This is the Day”. The track I’m a little disappointed about not being included is the single version of “There Is No Love Between Us Anymore”. It’s not too different from the album version, but it would be nice to have. The compilation album "PWEI Product 1986-1994: The Pop Will Eat Itself Anthology" or Chapter 22’s 1991 CD reissue of the single are the easiest ways to find it.

This is the third time I’ve bought this album (original Rough Trade version, 2003 Castle Music reissue and this version). Personally for me I think it was worth it for the demos and obscurities, as well as the liner notes from guitarist Adam Mole. However in the last couple of days I have discovered that Cherry Red decided to release a compilation of the bonus tracks on both “Now For a Feast” and “Box Frenzy” as a download on Amazon. This would have saved me some cash if I knew about this. I’d prefer to download and shove them on to CD-R and make my own compilation. Oh well. Next time I’ll have a look at Cherry Red’s Remastered and Expanded edition of PWEI’s second and arguably their best album, “This Is the Day...This Is the Hour...This Is This!”.

Video Backlog: "Flag"

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: 2006 – 2007
Currently in Print (as of writing): No

Twentysomething photo journalist, Saeko Shirasu, becomes a Japanese media darling when her photo of civilians raising a makeshift national based on a discarded UN flag at the end of a civil war in Uddiyana, becomes the defining image of the war. The flag itself becomes a symbol of the country’s new found freedom and as a rallying point for insurgent groups in upcoming peace talks. However despite being under UN guard, the flag is stolen by an opposing rebel group/religious cult. In what seems to be a public relations exercise, the UN hires Saeko Shirasu through her mentor, veteran war journalist Keiichi Akagi. The flag theft was not made public, and the UN’s idea seems to be for Saeko to tag along on the mission to recover the flag in the hope of her taking another iconic photo. She is assigned to the SDC (Special Development Command) who are using a new weapon, HAVWC (High Agility Versatile Weapon Carrier), which is essentially a bipedal robot. Some soldiers have a problem with her presence (even if they don’t publicly say so), however she is soon accepted as a member of the team and participates in missions as an observer.

This is a very interesting TV series from Ryosuke Takahashi, the creator of other robot shows such as “SPT Layzner”, “Votoms”, “Blue Gender”, ”Dougram” and “Gasaraki”. As you can see, he knows a little about robot anime. Just a bit. What’s most surprising about this show is that robots are part of the background and not the focus. Instead the focus is on the journalists, mainly Saeko, as well as the members of the military division SDC. The way the story is told is also quite different. Most of what we see is through the viewfinders and laptops of Saeko and Keiichi as well as a couple of news reports. Keiichi also provides narration throughout the show. The series is like a documentary using video footage shot by the pair as well as photographic stills mostly taken by Saeko. An emphasis is placed on how the journalists use their camera and how they document a story. So we get out focus and sometimes shots which aren’t framed well, and of course lot of camera shake. A lot of the shots use CG models which makes for some realistic camera angles, though not all of this works. Some of it looks awkward. The show is also a story told on two fronts; the internal workings and life of a secret mission to recapture the flag as told by Saeko, and Keiichi on the outside sniffing out stories using contacts and continually being frustrated by the UN public relations.

For the most part, this show really works and is quite different from other anime you care to mention in this genre. The country itself, the fictional Uddiyana, seems to be located in the region between Pakistan and Afghanistan with some Tibetan-like culture mixed in. It’s a very timely piece and has obviously been influenced by post 9/11 conflicts in the Middle East. I think because of that and the public’s familiarity of how journalism covers these conflicts, some of the material presented here doesn’t quite ring true. In the battles in particular, there never seems to be any bloodshed, even though we’re up really close to the battle. It was all rather sanitised and I found this to be rather a curious way to present this to an audience that is really familiar with these kinds of conflicts. Some of the drama, in particular a tense scene between a HAVWC pilot and Saeko was rather ham-fisted and preachy. Saeko’s character can be quite hard to swallow as she comes off as rather naive and seems really ill-equipped to be a journalist in a war zone. There’s also the annoying re-usage of animation and stills throughout the show. It’s not overused, but it’s noticeable enough. Surely they could have upped the budget slightly to at least change these scenes to make it far less noticeable. However more often than not, everything clicks and it’s great show. I personally liked the interaction between the locals and the UN on the SDC base, and how they befriend the locals. There’s also this contrast with the general UN and their seemingly lack of care for civilian causalities in getting an outcome.

The mecha is quite interesting if a little awkward at times. Studio Nue’s Kazutaka Miyatake was the designer. Maybe it’s the transition from paper to CG model that doesn’t quite make some of the movements of the HAVWC work, mostly in tank/vehicle mode. I had some difficulty with Bandai Entertainment’s volume 2 DVD. The disc was released in the period where the company seemed to pressing batches of shitty or badly authored discs that almost all players refused to play in their entirety. Unfortunately I didn’t really take notice of this when the issue was brought up on various forums, and only figured out what was going on well after the fact. This annoyingly resulted in having to repurchase the second volume. Ignoring the follies of Bandai Entertainment, the series is a very different beast from just about anything produced at the time of its release. Scratch that, make that most anime, full stop. There are no child characters and it’s told primarily from a mature, adult perspective. The documentary-like structure and cinematography also makes it stand out from the pack. The somewhat simplistic way certain parts of the plot played out and some of the character interactions and their personalities sort of destroyed the realistic setting that had been created. However this show was pretty damn good and gets 7.5 out of 10 from me.

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

Video Backlog: "Fantastic Children"

Publisher: Bandai Entertainment (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

I find that Takashi Nakamura’s anime films are a real mixed bag. I really enjoyed his 1995 children’s film released as “Catnapped!” in the US. However his second film, “A Tree of Palme” really frustrated me. I saw that film at a festival and it broke down around three times, leading me to believe there were sections missing from the film. Certainly that made sense as there seemed to inexplicable jumps in the film’s narrative. I had heard of this TV series and I was really wary about purchasing it. “Palme” had really soured my relationship with this film maker. However a couple of years ago I decided I really should buy up the Bandai Entertainment shows I was vaguely interested in as they seemed to be going out of print at quite a fast rate. That was probably a good idea on my part.

The story follows a group of white haired children known colloquially as the Befort Children. In the year 2012, a police detective named Cooks accidently comes across this mysterious case while searching for a missing 12 year old girl, Flo. A number of children, all with white hair and blue eyes like Flo, have gone missing in the same area (a fictional country that sort of resembles Cambodia or Thailand). Curiously all of the children are dead ringers of children taken in a mysterious photograph taken by his grandfather a hundred years ago. Investigating further he discovers that a scientist of some note, Dr Radcliffe, had befriended his grandfather and had attempted to investigate the mystery of Befort Children. His work leads him to discover that the Befort Children have made appearances all over Europe and Asia since at least the 15th century and have all regularly disappeared at the age of 12. Cooks investigation into the children leads him to discover that everything seems to be tied to a mysterious research company called the GED Organization.

Close by on Papin Island, a 12 year old boy named Tohma, discovers a girl his age named Helga and a younger boy named Chitto. Both of them have run away from a state run orphanage on a nearby island. However both are soon captured and forced back into the care of the state. While searching for Helga and Chitto, completely unaware that both have been captured, Tohma comes across Tarlant, one of the Befort Children. After fighting with him and the other Befort Children, the tell Tohma that they wish to speak with Helga, whom they call Tina, urgently. A plan is hatched to rescue Helga form the island, however at the same time as the rescue, the GED Organization locks down the island the orphanage due to an escaped criminal, however not is all that it seems. The escaped criminal turns out to be a woman who looks like she is in her 80’s and claims to be someone 50 years younger.

Certainly this series is filled with many mysteries during the first half of the show. It did make for very intriguing viewing. However most, if not all, of the mysteries are revealed to the audience in one or two episodes before mid-way through the series. Some of the answers to these mysteries are rather unsatisfactory in my opinion and require a lot of a large degree of suspension of disbelief. I noticed that the core elements of this show are very similar to “Please Save My Earth”. Not wanted to spoil the plot of this show too much, I will say that the elements are handled in a much more believable way “Please Save My Earth”, whereas in “Fantastic Children” the continued existence of the children is a little too hard to swallow. I’m not really a spiritual person, so perhaps it was because of that, that I found it really hard to accept the explanation, though I can accept the storyline in “Please Save My Earth” quite easily. The character designs and the feel of the show really make it seem like a children’s adventure show in the same vein as “Future Boy Conan”, “Mysterious Cities of Gold” or “Nadia of the Mysterious Seas”, especially because of the future technology in a time period that looks much older (yet it’s meant to be 2012). I question why the show is set 8 years into the future. There are no technological or any other markers to indicate that it is indeed 2012, nor is there any real need to place the show in this year. In fact due to the technology and clothing, it could easily pass for any year within the last two decades.

When the Befort Children, detective Cooks or those working for GED are out of the picture (i.e. it’s Tohma, Helga and Chitto), I found it a little slow moving and uninteresting. Luckily this only happens for two or so episodes. After the big reveal early on, we see in flashbacks, the real origin of the Befort Children (trying not to give away spoilers here) and this changes the tone of the story to a large degree. However it doesn’t quite explain the children’s behaviour and survival skills over the last 500 or so years. For me at least, I thought there were some really large leaps in logic concerning their movements and survival tactics. The gap between their technology (and also them constructing from scratch now or several centuries ago is also problematic) and them being able to find Tina also didn’t quite gel for me. Surely it would have been easier to find her, say 400 years ago with futuristic technology and a much, much smaller world population than several hundred years later with several billion more people on the planet. The version I have comes with a bonus soundtrack, which is odd as the packaging doesn’t mention it at all. Still, it was quite a nice surprise. In the end however I found this to be quite an enjoyable show. There are some rather big leaps of logic which narked me off a bit, but I can forgive this. The ending too was a bit overly sentimental and sort of flew in the face of what the Befort Children wanted to do in the first place. Overall the show is quite entertaining, but not an underrated classic as the DVD slick copy says it is. 7 out of 10.

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

Pop Will Eat Itself - "Now For A Feast (Remastered and Expanded)”

Publisher: Cherry Red Records (UK)
Format: Compact Disc
Length: 62:18
Production Date: 1985 – 1987 (2011 reissue of Chapter 22’s 1988 compilation album)
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

I’ve been a fan of Pop Will Eat Itself since I heard “Can U Dig It” on a video show (think it was Countdown Revolution, the “hipper” successor to Countdown). Certainly this kind of music wasn’t getting played on any radio stations near me (stuck out in western New South Wales, out in the boonies). This is was the second PWEI release in Australia after “Def Con One” which was released with no fanfare, the video didn’t even get an airing on Rage. I didn’t even realise it was released here until only a couple of months ago. It wasn’t until 1991 that I discovered that the Poppies had released two albums prior to their “This is the Day”. On a trip to Canberra I went to the biggest record shop in the city which also happened to be the largest independent and imported a ton of rare and unusual records. I found the re-releases of PWEI’s debut LP, “Box Frenzy” on CD, the expanded CD single of “There Is No Love Between Us Anymore” and this compilation “Now For A Feast”.

The original compilation came out in 1988 (issued by their original record label Chapter 22), but features their first two EPs released in 1986, two tracks from a three track 1987 single and two tracks from what is dubbed “the covers EP”. The material is quite different from the latter hip-hop/dance inspired punk rock stuff. It’s three chord one and a half minute pop punk delivered with a large slice of humour. The Chapter 22 version of this record left out three songs issued on the original singles. An expanded version of the compilation released by Castle Music in 2003 (which was deleted only a couple of years latter) fixed this problem and also included a smattering of other PWEI music recorded in the “Box Frenzy” period and after which didn’t really fit on the album. In July this year, Cherry Red reissued the album for a third time with a bunch of unreleased tracks. I really can’t believe I’ve bought this album three times now...

Tracklisting;

1.I’m Sniffin’ With You Hoo (0:53)
2.Sick Little Girl (2:29)
3.Mesmerized (1:27)
4.Theresapsychopathin My Soup (1:05)
5.Candydiosis (1:00)

The first five tracks on this reissue are from their “The Poppies Say GRRrrr!” debut EP from 1986. This was a self-produced and released EP they sold for £1 each at gigs in brown paper bag sleeve on their own label, appropriately called Desperate Records. It’s short post punk/pop dopey fun. “Sick Little Girl” is rather misogynistic with lyrics like “She’s a real dumb bitch/a waste of good skin”. Seriously, what’s up with that? I could never work out if “Candydiosis” was dig at the Jesus and Mary Chain as the lyrics mention “Candy Talking”. My favourites off this EP are “Mesmerized” and “Theresapsychopathin My Soup”.

6.The Black Country Chainstore Massacree (1:42)
7.Monogamy (1:39)
8.Oh Grebo, I Think I Love You (1:53)
9.Titanic Clown (1:24)
10.B-B-B-Breakdown (1:37)

The next five are from their “Poppiecock” EP which was released in lateish 1986, which by this time they were signed to Chapter 22 records. A 12” version of this EP included the “The Poppies Say GRRrrr!” on the flipside. The 12” was also repressed as “The Poppies Play Five A Side” I think. On the original Chapter 22 compilation album, this EP was first on the tracklisting, then “The Poppies Say GRRrrr!”. I think the five tracks here are much better than their first EP. It’s the same formula for sure, but the song writing is much better.

11.Sweet Sweet Pie (2:12)
12.The Devil Inside (1:46)
13.Runaround (2:05)

The three songs from the “Sweet Sweet Pie” single released in early 1987. This a much more poppy PWEI and perhaps a lot more commercial and in line with what was being released on indie labels in the UK at the time. PWEI were to ignore the trends of the UK indie scene forever after this release. The original Chapter 22 compilation didn’t include “Runaround”. In fact the song didn’t appear on CD until the 2003 Castle Music version of this album.

14.Love Missile F1-11 (2:48)
15.Orgone Accumulator (1:58)
16.Everything That Rises (2:31)
17.Like An Angel (2:30)

This is the infamous 1987 “Love Missile F1-11” EP otherwise known as the Covers EP. The story goes that when the Run DMC/Beastie Boys tour came to town, PWEI went and where inspired by what they saw and changed their musical direction. Drummer Graham decided to get on the mic and they brought in a drum machine. However when you listen to “Love Missile F1-11” (a cover of Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s only hit), it’s not that much different from what they were doing before. The Poppies were obviously taking the piss out of Sputnik with terribly juvenile lyrics replacing a lot of the original lyrics, however in hindsight, didn’t PWEI become a more interesting Sputnik? Take away Sputnik’s glam image and dub effects, and well, it’s sampling and guitars. A bit like PWEI, no? Also featured on this EP is covers of Hawkwind’s “Orgone Accumulator” and the Mighty Lemon Drops’ “Like An Angel” which previously appeared on the compilation album “Take The Subway To Your Suburb” the previous year. Shriekback’s “Everything That Rises (Must Converge)” rounds out the EP. This last song wasn’t included on the original compilation nor “Love Missile F1-11”. At least Chapter 22 managed to stick “Love Missile F1-11” on the expanded version of the 1991 reissue of the “There Is No Love Between Us Anymore” single. “Everything That Rises” didn’t make it to CD until the 2003 Castle Music version of this album.

18.Dust Me Down (Wild and Wandering Demo) (2:52)
19.Johnny Ray (Wild and Wandering Demo) (5:19)
20.Apple Tree (Wild and Wandering Demo) (3:06)

From these track onwards, Cherry Red has labelled these tracks a as bonus tracks, even though some of the tracks prior didn’t feature on the original compilation. Anyway before PWEI the band called itself Wild and Wandering, and they released a very out of print EP called “2000 Light Ales From Home”. According to the liner notes of this compilation album, the members of PWEI preferred these three demos (circa 1985 I believe) rather than the actual commercial release they put out. It’s very different to the two EPs and singles which followed. It’s much more prog rock really. The songs sound a bit wanky to be honest. I’m glad they chose a different musical direction after this EP. It’s interesting to hear it though. Apparently they sold less than a 100 copies of the EP.

21.Summer Girl (Live at Birmingham Uni, 1986) (2:31)

An audience recording of a live PWEI song. It’s kind of a forgettable song really. Sounds a bit like “Picnic in the Sky”.

22.Inside You (Pre-Beat Box Demo) (2:26)
23.Picnic In The Sky (Pre-Beat Box Demo) (2:38)
24.Theresapsychopathin My Soup (Early Version) (1:10)

According to the liner notes, they recorded a heap of songs that were never released, but all the masters are missing. In fact all of their Chapter 22 stuff is long gone, except for the post “Box Frenzy” sessions. I wonder if the rest of Chapter 22’s masters for their catalogue has vanished as well? Anyway if they hadn’t gone to that Beastie Boys/Run DMC concert, I guess this is the direction they would have gone it. It’s not too different from the released versions really, except live drums.

25.Everything That Rises (New Version) (2:34)

From the “Love Missile F1-11 (Designer Grebo! Megamix)” 12”. Doesn’t really sound all that different from the original. Why it was rerecorded and released remains a bit of a mystery to me. Perhaps it was for their debut album before they decided to go the “Box Frenzy” route.

26.Oh Grebo, I Think I Love You (New Version) (3:32)
27.Bubbles (3:10)
28.Ugly (1:35)

All three are taken from the 12” version of “Beaver Patrol” (“Bubbles” also appears on the 7” version). According to the liner notes, these three tracks were recorded pre-“Box Frenzy”, hence their inclusion on this album, so are probably indicative of what a PWEI album would have sounded like before they decided on the sample and beatbox route. I think they’re fun songs. The extensions to “Grebo, I Think I Love You” sort of drag it out for a little too long though. Still, it’s a kind of fun version.

Missing Stuff

I think Cherry Red has done a pretty good job on this release considering the lack of master tapes. The only track with dodgy sound is the audience recording which pretty forgivable. The liner notes make special mention of the “Designer Grebo! Megamix” for “Love Missile F1-11”, but for some reason fails to include it. The biggie though is non-inclusion of the “2000 Light Ales From Home” EP. In particular the two tracks “Stand By Me” and “Real Cool Time” on the EP aren’t included in this compilation. Maybe the members of PWEI were too embarrassed by it? While the 12” of the “Designer Grebo! Megamix” of “Love Missile F1-11” is relatively easy to come by, the Wild and Wandering is much more difficult to obtain.

While this is my third purchase of this compilation, I think was worth it. But then again I’m a big PWEI fan. It was well worth it for the Wild and Wandering demos and unreleased PWEI stuff. The liners notes are rather informative and fun too (especially those from guitarist Adam Mole). Certainly the collection of songs here are a lot more coherent and less scattershot than Castle Music’s version (the audio’s better too). All the songs belong together, while Castle bizarrely included live tracks from “Box Frenzy” and even “Def Con One”. I’ll have a look PWEI’s first album, “Box Frenzy”, next time.

Video Backlog: An Innovative Gundam? Not Really…

“Mobile Suit Gundam 00”
Publisher: Bandai Entertainment (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 25 Episodes x 25 minutes
Production Date: 2007 – 2008
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

To me, the Gundam franchise is like a bit like a well-loved pair of shoes. It’s nice and comfortable, but a little worn out. OK, maybe that’s a bit nasty I suppose, but most Gundam series are just a variation on previous series (“G Gundam” being the obvious exception). “Gundam 00” on the surface seems to have borrowed slightly from the core concept of “Gundam Wing”; a group of bishonnen fighting against armies in their personalised Gundams, though in this show they operate as a team and not individually. The four main pilots in the show have personalities similar to those in “Gundam Wing”, especially the protagonist of the show, Setsuna F Seiei , who is very much like Heero, the lead in “Gundam Wing”. The show is set in 2307, where the world has depleted all of its fossil fuels and now uses a huge array of solar power collectors in orbit around the Earth, supported by three orbital elevators. Three “power blocs” each containing a group of countries, support each elevator and naturally this led to military confrontations. In fact a 20 year “Solar War” has just ended.

A private military organization called Celestial Being emerges out of this chaos and makes an audacious statement to the world that will eradicate all conflict on earth. To achieve this goal the organisation has four robots, called Gundams, at their disposal to quell any outbreak of war. The Gundams are highly superior pieces of machinery to anything in Earth’s military forces. However the three power blocs don’t take this lying down and join forces in an attempt to stop Celestial Being’s Gundams. OK, the main problem I have with this series is that the bulk story takes place on six main fronts; Celestial Being, the three separate power blocs, journalist Kinue Crossroad and her colleagues, and her brother Saji Crossroad and his overbearing girlfriend Louise Halevy. Then you also have a ton of secondary characters. While a large cast is par for the course in the Gundam universe, the links between these six sets of characters doesn’t actually become really tied to each other mid-way point for most of them. The odd one out is defiantly the links between everyone else and Saji Crossroad and Louise Halevy. They just seem to exist in this world and besides Saji’s sister being reporter and Setsuna living next door to Saji, there are links or seemingly any meaning as to why we’re following them. Yes, they do play a larger role in the second season, but it didn’t make sense to introduce them so early. Their presence adds nothing to the story being told in the first three quarters or more of the series. The addition of Haros also didn’t really add much. At least in “Seed” and “Age” they seem to be there for a purpose.

With the large cast of characters, I found it rather difficult to figure out who I should concentrating on and what was important to the plot. But the plot itself was also a problem. First some of the main idea such as an organisation who wants to stamp out war and mapped out by a man who died 200 years ago is pretty absurd. The supposed age of some of the concepts and propulsion systems is pretty highly unlikely too. Besides a lot of the names being rather silly (not as bad as some of Tomino’s names from the original Gundam), you also some really cringe worthy dialogue and characters, mostly the Gundam pilots, looking pained up and serious while saying it. The best thing about the series is obviously the animation and the designs. The battle sequences are gorgeously detailed and have a very high frame rate. It’s obvious that Sunrise has poured a lot of time, effort and money into this project. Overall and on balance, the show is a really good piece of entertainment. If the focus had been much clearer and precise, I would have enjoyed it much more. In fact I’m enjoying “Gundam Age” (currently streaming on Gundam.info) more than this show mainly because of that fact. 6.5 out of 10.

“Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season”
Publisher: Bandai Entertainment (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 25 Episodes x 25 minutes
Production Date: 2008 – 2009
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

The second season takes place four years after the events of the final episode. Due to Celestial Being’s intervention in various conflicts across the world, the three “Power Blocs” united together and virtually all wars ceased. A new force is created called A-Laws whose main job is to crush all opposition to the new united government. In particular a rebel group called Katharon has emerged and are determined to expose A-Laws and its brutal crackdown on any dissent. Celestial Being reforms also to fight against A-Laws. However behind the scenes is a shadowy group called the Innovators, which is a small unit formed of people who have special abilities. The Innovators have been manipulating the Earth governments and A-Laws as part of their master plan.

While it seems that the creators of this series hit the reset button (to a degree), the show does build upon what happened in the first season. The first few episodes contain many scenes of our favourite bishonen look concerned and make profound statements, but soon it develops into really good thriller, albeit with fighting robots. I did find the conclusion a bit too much. Three episodes which portrayed one very, very long battle did my head in. After the screwing around with Saji Crossroad and Louise Halevy, their roles and story become very well defined in this series. I really thought the series planners could have written their parts a lot better for the first season. The main plot with the Innovators was really intriguing, but it is never made clear if they are genetically modified or a new species of humans. The Innovators group themselves have terrible uniforms which look like they came from a bad 1970’s sci-fi film like “Logan’s Run” or something. Certainly there’s a bit of stupidity in this show; Gundam pilot Tieria Erde (who’s male) infiltrates a party for a number of high ranking officials, dressed as a woman. He even has a prefect female figure. Was this sequence meant to be serious or is it some sort of unfunny joke? There’s also the replacement for Lockon Stratos which defies belief. In the end I did enjoy this show a lot more than the first series. It still has a number of problems. I think for the most part the staff crammed too many ideas into the show and didn’t develop a lot of the m properly. For example it is never really explained how Marina Ismail’s (the princess of Azadistan) song infiltrated its way into the consciousness of the general population despite the fact her and the children she was looking after seemingly never made contact with the outside world. Magic, was it? 6.5 out of 10.

“Mobile Suit Gundam 00: A Wakening of the Trailblazer”
Publisher: Bandai Entertainment (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 121 minutes
Production Date: 2010
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

This film follows on from the second season, the bulk of the story taking place a couple of years after the events of the final TV episode. The plot here is quite different to any Gundam series so far. It involves the return of an exploratory space craft making a return to Earth from Jupiter. The space craft is headed on a collision course to Earth and Earth forces do their best to try and break up the craft. Unfortunately some pieces end up not burning up in the atmosphere and make it to the surface of the Earth. Within the debris zone, strange occurrences begin to happen. Accidents involving Innovators happen regularly. Some Innovators are attacked by what seems to be a living metal. It is concluded the metal is an alien life form and is dubbed Extra-terrestrial Living-metal Shape-shifters (ELS). It is soon discovered that a large metal sphere and an uncountable number of smaller alien creatures are materialising out of the great red spot on Jupiter on a course headed for Earth. All of the Earth forces including Celestial Being join forces to fight off the alien attack.

Judging for the codas on both season of the TV series, Sunrise had the entire structure and plot worked out of the entire franchise, from episode one to the movie, beforehand. One can only wonder why it’s so damn incomprehensible for a fair wack of its length. Some trimming of storylines and the deletion of swathes of characters would have helped immensely in terms of storytelling. Too many characters, too many ideas spoil the series. The film gets bogged down right from the start, and then ends up like an animated “Maximum Overdrive” (yes, the crappy Stephen King film) with tons of driverless vehicles chasing our heroes. Then it sort of starts to borrow a bit from “Bye-Bye Jupiter” and some bits from “Gunbuster” and with some original material it sort of develops into a rather intriguing movie. Then we have a rather draining hour long battle sequence, and one hell of a schmaltzy and moralistic (can’t we all just get along?) ending with a very silly and perhaps embarrassingly sappy coda. There’s also a couple of characters I’d never seen before who are presented matter of factly, as if there were normal cast characters. It had me scratching my head. Maybe it was the ridiculously large cast of this show which did my head in and I could remember who was new or I’d seen before. Anyway, it’s a decent movie ruined by a stupid ending and homage’s to bad 1980’s films directed by Steven King. 6 out of 10, and I’m being rather generous.

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

Video Backlog: “Twilight of the Dark Master”

Publisher: Urban Vision (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles.
Length: 45 minutes
Production Date: 1997
Currently in Print (as of writing): No

I watched this today, but until I read the synopsis of this OVA in “The Anime Encyclopaedia”, I really had no idea what exactly was happening in this show. The first sequence shows a young couple in passionate embrace, then we see a one horned monster, her severed arm after being attacked by the monster, and the monster escaping and finally being caught by what one would assume are the police, but they’re not. They’re actually here to capture the monster as its part of some sort of experiment by a company. Things get more confusing when the one armed woman (now with cyborg replacement limbs) sets out for revenge on the monster and enlists a bishonnen called Tsunami Shijo. It is unclear whether or not he is involved with the police or some sort of private eye. Then it is discovered that the monster is being kept at some sort of underground sex club and the monster is actually the one armed woman’s lover. There are also some demons and a bloody supernatural ending with a giant demon, but it was all rather incomprehensible to me.

The show is actually based on a manga and would probably make a lot more sense if I read that prior to watching it. In the manga a Great Mother Spirit created demons, guardians, and humans. In the OVA which set in 2089 in Neo-Shinjuku, the battle is still ongoing, with our bishonnen hero, Tsunami Shijo being a guardian who is fighting the owner of the club, Takaiya, who is a leader of the demons. Why he is turning people into demons and how this is linked to a drug company is mystifying and not explained in the anime.

The best thing about this OVA is the designs and the animation. Though a lot it is extremely dark and you can’t really make out too much detail. I’m unsure if this is deliberate, but I’m assuming this is the fault of Urban Vision who have most likely over saturated the colours for the DVD release. Visually the show is a complete rip off of “Blade Runner” There’s spinner like cars, a dark gloomy cityscape and there’s even a scene with the one the one armed woman appears in clear plastic raincoat with a shattering glass shop window in the background, much like the very famous scene in “Blade Runner” where Zhora crashes through the store window after being shot by Deckard.

I remember we were going to play this OVA at the club I was running back in 1998 or so. For some reason we didn’t. I sort of remember this show being a lot better and more horrifying (especially the very strange sequences in the underground sex club). Looking at it now, it’s much tamer and a whole lot more incoherent than I remembered. I’ve probably made it sound worse than it actually is. It is a lot of fun and the designs and animation are pretty good. Because of that I will give it 6 out of 10.

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

Video Backlog: Keroro On the Big Screen

“Keroro Gunso the Super Movie”
Publisher: IVL (Intercontinental Video Limited, Hong Kong)
Format: Region 3 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional Cantonese dub and English, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified) Subtitles.
Length: 60 minutes
Production Date: 2006
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

The first of the “Sgt Frog” movies begins with Fuyuki buying a limited edition Gundam model kit for Keroro, while the rest of the platoon dutifully practice their invasion in a simulator. Keroro and Fuyuki walk home from the hobby shop where they discover a small shrine in a disused block of land. When Keroro throws a coin into the shrine for good luck, it seemingly disappears inside some portal. Keroro chases after it (as it didn’t mean to the give the shrine that much money) with Fuyuki. Inside they seem to have been transported to back millions of years. Fuyuki accidently opens an ancient ruin which has inside a glowing crystal, which they naturally manage to break. Keroro does a substandard patch up job and the both run through the portal back home. The next morning most of the population of the city (including those of the Hinata household) find they are have a red “X” somewhere on their body and they have telepathic abilities. While almost everyone is delighted by these powers, excitement soon grows to unhappiness. In reality the mark is part of an ancient lost Keronian weapon called Kiruru that Keroro and Fuyuki have accidently unleashed.

I think with this film you really have to have seen the first season of the series to fully understand what is going on. The movie is no more or less just a big budget one hour version of a TV episode. Sunrise has really gone all out to make the film look as spectacular as possible. It’s a fun rollicking big ride of adventure from start to finish. Early on there is a rather bizarre cameo from a fox like creature. He’s there because he’s a character from “Incredible Zorori: Quest for the Mysterious Treasure”, which was shown alongside this film in cinemas. Tamama, Giroro, Keroro, Kururu and Dororo appear as special guests in the “Incredible Zorori” film as well. The other thing I noticed was this film plays to family audiences a bit more than the TV series. It’s not surprising that it was partnered with the “Incredible Zorori” film, as that is a children’s anime. The subtitles on this disc are a little bit Engrishy at times, but are more than adequate. Overall it’s not the best film I’ve seen, but it’s a whole heap of fun. 7 out of 10.

“Keroro Gunso the Super Movie 2: The Deep Sea Princess de arimasu!”
Publisher: IVL (Intercontinental Video Limited, Hong Kong)
Format: Region 3 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional Cantonese dub and English, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified) Subtitles.
Length: 78 mins (feature), 16 mins (short)
Production Date: 2007
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Film two follows on for the first where a second Kiruru appears in the South Pacific attacking an ocean freighter, but is defeated by two unknown entities that look like Keronians. Momoka presents Fuyuki with a strange unseen small aquatic creature, apparently found by her father’s company in the South Pacific. This is a part of her plan to ask him out on trip to the South Pacific to a private island, but of course the rest of the household invites themselves along, mainly because the Keroro platoon want to discover and obtain the source of the power that destroyed the Kiruru. While on the island, they are attacked by strange creatures and Natsumi is abducted and taken to what seems to be an underwater kingdom, ruled by a creature called Maru who claims he is prince of the deep sea, but who really, really looks like an alien. Maru wants to claim Natsumi as his princess. Naturally the rest of the gang go to rescue her. At the end of the film is a 16 minute short called “Chibi Kero: Secret of the Kero Ball!?”, which a CG short feature which tells the adventures of the young Keroro, Giroro and Dororo as Keroro forces Giroro to borrow his brother’s Kero Ball so he can impress a girl. As you’d expect, things go wrong.

The main feature is quite a fun film filled with lots of action sequences, much like the first film. Sunrise has done yet another great job on the film’s designs and animation. It looks spectacular. The focus here is on Natsumi and deals a lot with her emotions and relationships wither her oddball members of her household. I think perhaps the film is a touch too long and the short film that accompanies is way too long. It’s a really unfunny and dull short. The English subtitles on this disc are woeful. It was a little hard to figure what was going on. It’s not at the level of incomprehensibleness of say your average bootleg DVD, but it’s getting there. Surely a proper commercial DVD in country that has English as an official language shouldn’t be this bad. While the main feature was very good, the short takes my score down to 6.5 out of 10.

“Keroro Gunso the Super Movie 3: Keroro vs. Keroro Great Sky Duel de arimasu!”
Publisher: IVL (Intercontinental Video Limited, Hong Kong)
Format: Region 3 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional Cantonese dub and English, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified) Subtitles.
Length: 96 mins (feature), 11 mins (short)
Production Date: 2008
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

The Keroro Platoon invites Fuyuki along to explore Machu Picchu in Peru. In reality they want him there as guide because they have detected a highly level power source which they want to obtain. After some misadventures, the platoon find themselves in a room with a large blue crystal in the centre. Keroro tries to pull out a large key causing the room to activate and transform. Fuyuki notices a strange girl in the room before they leave but can’t alert the others due to the chaos. The platoon run for their lives and head home. Later that day a large alien craft appears over the city an hovers over Momoka’s family residence. It seems to be an (competent) invasion by another Keronian group, but their leader is a dead ringer for Keroro. In no time the new invaders seem to have brainwashed the entire planet into worshiping their leader, and set about to wipe out the old invaders. The short coupled with this film is “Warrior Kero: Debut! Planet Sengoku Ran Big Battle!!”, where Keroro’s superiors banish the platoon to a planet that looks like a set of a samurai drama. They are given instructions to overthrow the current tyrant Viper before they can return to Earth.

The main feature seems to rehash a lot of the Kiruru plot elements from the first and doesn’t seem as fresh and fun as the first two films. Some of the jokes and visual gags are rehashes too. I felt it really dragged for a while in the first half while the story was being set up. The second was much more fun with great little plot involving the seemingly unbreakable bond between Keroro and Fuyuki. The short was OK, but not great. The major problem for me with this film was the horrible English subtitles. I’m not sure if they’re worse than the second disc or about the same. I had real difficulty trying to figure out what was happening in the story. Quite disappointing really, but it was fairly entertaining and fun for most of its length. 6.5 out of 10. I was hoping I’d received the fourth film I ordered from Hong Kong, but alas it hasn’t arrived. Unfortunately IVL hasn’t released the fifth film in the series. I kind of doubt Funimation is going to release these films.

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

Video Backlog: "Keroro Gunso (Sgt. Frog)"

Publisher: Funimation (USA)
Format: Region 1, 2 and 4 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles.
Length: 78 episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 2004 – 2005
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Yes, I’m essentially at least five years behind the majority of fandom in regards to watching anime. I think this mostly because I only watch commercial stuff rather than fansubs (and I rarely watch simulcast streaming stuff), and my backlog stretches back to stuff I bought over two years ago. I’m cutting back and at least the pile of unwatched discs is getting noticeably smaller. Maybe that has to do with the smaller size of multi disc packs rather than having less actual anime left to watch. Anyway, I’ve been looking forward to watching this show for a while. I had previously seen the first three movies which are available with English subtitles on IVL’s DVDs which are only available in Hong Kong (there’s a quite a lot of unusual anime titles available in the Hong Kong market legitimately, I’ll probably do a post about it one day).

But anyway, let’s talk about the actual show. The plot follows a planned invasion by the planet Keron of Earth (which the invaders call Pekopon). The inhabitants of Keron are humanoid frogs no taller than 60 or 70 centimetres. The invasion has sent forth a small five Keronian platoon as an advance force. However they are abandoned by the main fleet. The platoon’s commander, Sergeant Keroro, ends up hiding in the Hinata household, but is discovered by 15 year old Fuyuki, naturally a UFO and general supernatural/conspiracy freak. Unable to make contact with the four remaining members of his platoon, Keroro ends up being the family’s domestic slave essentially. This is mostly due to Fuyuki’s 16 year old sister, Natsumi, taking a dislike to Keroro, though Fuyuki and the kid’s mother, Aki, are pretty much delighted to have an alien in the house.

Over the course of time, Keroro’s platoon members show up and take up residency in the Hinata’s house. Rich girl Momoka Nishizawa, who has a psychotic and obsessive crush on Fuyuki, has been looking after Private Second Class Tamama, a young Keronian who seems rather cute and lovable, but can go into uncontrollable rages especially if anyone gets too close to Keroro, whom he worships. Corporal Giroro shows up next. He’s a military Keronian through and through, and is upset that Keroro doesn’t take his responsibilities seriously at all. Sergeant Major Kululu, the snickering prankster of the group, has been under the care of Mutsumi Houjou, a mysterious student whom Natsumi has a crush on. Though Natsumi only knows him as Saburo and he moonlights as a popular radio host, whom Natsumi religiously listens to (though nobody seems to make the connection that the two are the same person). Finally Lance Corporal Dororo arrives. He was rescued by a female ninja called Koyuki Azumaya (who seems to have a strange crush on Natsumi). Dororo has learnt the ways of the ninja and no longer wants to take over the Earth. Unfortunately he was pretty much forgotten by the other members of the platoon. Joining them is as Angol Mois, an alien who looks like a normal human teenage girl. She has actually come to bring Armageddon to Earth in 1999, but overslept five years. She is a long-time friend of Keroro and disguises herself as a clueless teenage school girl, though she is a bit clueless anyway. Because of Mois’ closeness with Keroro, Tamama is insanely jealous of her. The platoon and hangers-on end up living in a disused basement under the house where naturally a female ghost lives. Kululu manages to create a base underneath the house, where the platoon and in particular Kululu creates his schemes and inventions.

Once the main cast and some secondary players appear on the scene (such the metal hero parody, Space Deputy Kogoro, and his apologetic sister Lavie), it’s settles nicely. Usually there will be some sort of bizarre set up, usually involving Keroro creating a massive disaster, followed by a ton of jokes on that set up. Naturally the writers use the large cast as key players and the focus of many episodes. It’s not always about Keroro. For the first 60 or so episodes, each episode is split into two story halves. In fact the whole set up reminds me a lot of “Urusei Yatsura”. Certainly it feels a lot like early episodes of that show, except more focused on comedic elements and practically no hints of romance. The biggest ongoing joke in the show is Keroro’s absolute reluctance to do anything about the invasion. He’s more than happy to make Gundam model kits or watch the anime “Space Captain Geroro” (a parody of “Yamato”). Occasionally when Keroro becomes fully hydrated (Earth’s atmosphere is a bit too dry for Keronians), it will attempt to enslave the planet, but when he realises that there will be no more Gundam kits, he gives up. I felt that after the first season (after episode 51) the show lot it’s way for a while. The writers lazily use the characters failings as comedy fodder, but it does become quite predictable after a while. For example you know Tamama is going to get insanely jealous, that Mois will attempt to destroy Earth etc. However after a few episodes, the writing improves quite a bit and it mostly falls out of this mode.

Apart from the humour centred on the personalities of the cast, pop culture parody, in particular anime, forms a large part of the source of comedy. Being that this show is produced by Sunrise, Gundam is a key target for parody, with “Yamato” trailing in second. “Evangelion” follows behind. But there’s also some very strange parodies of “Galaxy Express 999”, a very literal parody of “Space Adventure Cobra” and very subtle “Patlabor 2 the movie” reference. I also noticed parodies of “Samurai Troopers”, “Aim for the Ace!”, “Votoms” and even “Babel II” amongst others. Overseeing this show is Junichi Sato of “Ojamajo Doremi”, “Mahou Tsukai Tai!”, “Princess Tutu”, “Kaleido Star” and “Aria” fame. I don’t think this show is like anything else he’s done. The creator of the manga is Mine Yoshizaki. This is probably the only work of his which I have liked. Both “Arcade Gamer Fubuki” and “NaNa 7 of 7” left me cold.

Funimation’s adaptation is quite good. The only real problem was the “Americanisation” of episode title cards with really bad puns, which most of the bore no resemblance to the translated Japanese episode titles as seen in the disc’s subtitles. I think there was absolutely no reason to do this at all. The Japanese titles made perfect sense once translated. The series is very much steeped in Japanese culture (not just pop culture) and probably needs some liner notes for some references, some of which I’m sure a lot of seasoned anime fans would be a little unfamiliar with. Of course none of the sets contain these. So far Funimation has only released 78 episodes of this 358 episode series. I highly doubt we’ll see all of those, but hopefully we’ll get another 26 or so episodes. Maybe. Overall, these set of episodes were pretty fun. A lot of the time I found myself laughing out loud at least once every episode or so. The writing does focus on the various characters’ traits and they do become clichés of themselves at times. However clever writing and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of situations seems to keep everything fresh for the most part. It’s got to be really hard to think up new scenarios every single week especially when each episode is self-contained. I’ll give this show 7 out of 10.

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