“Generator Gawl”
Publisher: ADV Films (USA)Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 12 Episodes x 25 minutes
Production Date: 1998
Currently in Print (as of writing): No
In the far flung future of October 2007, three teenage boys, Koji, Ryo and Gawl arrive via a time wormhole from the year 2145. Unfortunately they realise that something has gone wrong with their trip back in time. Instead of arriving more than a year ahead of their deadline, they realise they have arrived with only three months left before they have to complete their mission. Their mission is to stop the research currently going on at the Oju Academy. If they don’t, World War III will happen. By hacking into the school’s database, they manage to successfully enrol themselves as students. They also manage to arrange accommodation by staying in rental accommodation supplied by the mother of soon to be fellow classmate, Masami. A rather forceful teenage girl, Masami doesn’t get along with Gawl at all. In fact she accuses him of being a pervert and stalker. But this is nothing more than a distraction to the three boys, as they have to fight off continual attacks in the form of “Generators” seemingly transported to this time period from 2145, sent to foil the trio’s plans. Generators are a kind of enhanced human being who mat look normal, but can transform into a creature capable of super human strength. Gawl is also a Generator and ends up fighting off the majority of their pursuers. The trio soon discover that a mysterious woman named Ryuko Saito is behind the funding of the research that will lead to the creation of Generators which will bring about World War III. They decide to assassinate Dr Tekuma Nekasa whose research is key to all of this.
Like many of Tatsunoko’s shows, this one involves a transforming hero. Like “Tekkaman Blade”, made some six or so year before this TV series, this show has very similar designs, but is a much more upbeat and colourful looking show. The problem I had with this show is nothing is made clear as to what is going on until about half way through. It’s all a bit confusing as to what people’s motives are, especially for Koji, Ryo and Gawl. Most episodes have Koji and Ryo doing a bit of investigating and trying to keep Masami out of their hair, and then a new Generator lands and Gawl fights it. I also got a bit sick of Masami’s clashes with Gawl. It was something we’ve seen a million times before in similar shows. The character design looks very late 1990’s AIC which isn’t surprising since designer Akira Oguro had worked as a key animator on many of the company’s shows. The series does improve substantively mid-season with a flashback to Koji, Ryo and Gawl’s past (or is that future?). Though with these and latter revelations, it is a little bit hard suspend disbelief. Time travel paradoxes abound. It wasn’t even this convoluted in “Doctor Who”. Despite this I really enjoyed the latter half and will give the show 6.5 out of 10.
“Hyper Doll”
Publisher: Pioneer (Geneon, USA)Format: Region 1 and 4 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 2 Episodes x 30 minutes (originally 40 minutes each)
Production Date: 1995
Currently in Print (as of writing): No
For some unexplained reason, an alien power has sent two humanoid androids, Mew Fumizuki and Mica Minazuki, to defend Earth against various monsters. However neither is interested in defending the Earth at all and would prefer to laze about. The only thing that can motivate them is their boss, an alien whose hologram inexplicitly appears out of pineapple and ham pizzas or okonomiyaki. The only other motivator is a boy their age, Akai, whom they love to tease. Mew and Mica are operating undercover as high school students and are always threatening to dispose of him if he reveals their identities. The only reason he associates with them is he accidently discovered their arrival (only hinted at during the opening credits) and pleads with them to protect the Earth anytime there’s trouble. Mew and Mica also take delight in teasing Akai about Shoko, a girl he is interested in and funnily enough Shoko feels the same. A monster jellyfish creature, Kurageman and Inagoman, a grasshopper monster, sent by villainous Dr Zaiclit (*snicker*) soon terrorise Shinjuku. Again it’s up to Akai to attempt to get Mew and Mica to save the day.
This 1990’s OVA is to a large degree representative of a lot of the disposable trash that was released in that decade. For me, I really think to borders on a fine line between amusing disposable entertainment and utter crud. It’s based on a rather forgettable manga by Shinpei Ito which was published in part in English by Ironcat about a decade ago. Mew and Mica are fairly unlikeable. They’re bratish, self-absorbed and uncontrollably violent. Akai is the stereotypical luckless male who’s as dull as dishwater and moans all the time like he’s a teenage Japanese Karl Pilkington. The monsters are as expected, quite absurd and include a talking monster earthworm in the second episode. I suppose the area where it does shine is in the parody of live action superhero shows (of the Japanese variety). In particular I liked most of the absurd aspects of the monsters including a complaint from Inagoman that he disappointed that his only dialogue was “Nago!”. The humour in the show was rather hit and miss for me, but I did find Mew’s comment that she thought yukatas were for bondage strangely amusing.
The truth is though I do own the DVD version of this, I actually decided to watch my old Pioneer subbed VHS tapes instead for this review. For the dub VHS and DVD versions, Pioneer have cut out the 10 minute bonus live action sequences and the live action end credits. This is highly annoying as they do add to the show. The voice actress for Mew (Mayumi Iizuka), Mica (Yukana Nogami) and Shoko (Yuri Shiratori) perform a song (over the top of scenes from the show) during the end credits. The first live action sequence involves a live action Mew and Mica saving a tokusastu otaku and his girlfriend from a giant monster intercut with Mayumi Iizuka and Yukana Nogami performing of all things, a cover Pink Lady’s late 1970’s disco hit “Monster”. The second one is less elaborate with Mayumi Iizuka, Yukana Nogami and Yuri Shiratori playing live action versions of their anime characters. The commander appears suddenly out of a pizza which causes Shoko to faint. Mew and Mica decide to fall asleep beside her and all three have a dream about going to Yokohama while they sing a song from the “Hyper Doll” soundtrack. The VHS versions also came with a translated version of the Japanese LD inserts (folded up of course). One has a transcript of a conversation between Shinpei Ito and Hideaki Anno (yes, the Evangelion director). Their conversation involves idols and their own fandom with idols. How’s that for an odd extra? Overall it’s a rather mediocre OVA, but does provide some laughs at times. The out of print DVD does strip the original English subtitled release of some really interesting material which is a shame. 6 out of 10.
“Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens”
Publisher: Bandai Entertainment (USA)Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Subtitles
Length: 14 Episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 2008
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes
High schooler Jin Mikuriya carves a female wooden stature out of a holy tree that has been cut down from a shrine earmarked for redevelopment. Much to his surprise a girl his age bursts out of the sculpture. She is named Naga and claims to be a goddess. As the shrine she is the goddess of is being merged with another due to redevelopment and her sacred tree is no more, she has no place to go and ends up staying with him. Luckily he curtly lives alone in a rented flat. Nagi also claims that she has to cleanse the “impurities” from the area, which take the form of various insects. She uses a found plastic toy baton from a recent anime magical show as a makeshift exorcism staff. While Jin is more than a little sceptical at parts of her story, he also has to contend with his school colleagues and his childhood friend, Tsugumi who is smitten with him and takes the living arrangements the wrong way, despite Nagi insisting that she is Jin’s half-sister. To complicate things further, Zange, apparently Nagi’s twin sister turns up in town posing as a catholic and on her way to becoming an idol by taking confessions for 100 yen per person in the streets of the CBD. Apparently several centuries ago, Zange and Nagi were the same tree, but was split and planted either side of the river for the convenience of worshippers. Luckily Zange’s tree resides inside the grounds of a catholic church, hence her get up. Nagi decides to become an idol too. After all she needs worshippers, the worship of her transfers into her powers. Jin soon discovers that Zange has actually possessed the form of a girl named Hakua Suzushiro. Her father Reiri Suzushiro, the schools’ religious research teacher, has doubts about the Nagi’s claims, which casts doubts in Jin’s mind about her.
I suppose this series can be best described as A-1 Pictures doing its best Kyoto Animation impersonation (albeit the episode animation isn’t as good as Kyoto’s). The show certainly looks and feels like one of their shows, especially with it’s very inspired opening animation sequence which the titles card animation sequence echoes the one in first “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” series. Of course the idol concert themed opening animation has practically nothing to do with the show itself, but that doesn’t really matter. It’s probably one of the best opening animations I’ve seen in the last decade. I love it. The show itself is pretty typical with a boy surrounded by a number of women, one a tsundere, one a childhood friend etc etc. It also follows the usual clichéd path of having a number of “slice of life” episodes where little of any consequence happens, and then it dumps the drama and resolution quickly into the final three or so episodes. While there are number points in the series where hints are dropped (some not so subtle) as to what is to come, I really feel this is a playbook that anime series planners have used way, way too often in the last decade. It really makes me ache. But luckily what saves the show from the doldrums is that it is quite funny at times. It certainly had me laughing out loud at a number of points, which quite frankly surprised me. A lot of the secondary cast are pretty good, but mostly fall into stereotypes. However they were quite entering stereotypes which I’ll freely admit. There are also a number of otaku friendly parodies in the show, but the “Lucky Star” karaoke one was way too obvious. The US release was an experiment by Bandai Entertainment and Aniplex, announced and released on the same day, sub only on two separate discs only six months after the Japanese release. Unfortunately they never continued with this experiment. In the end this show was only slightly better others in this genre. 6.5 out of 10.
“Nurse Witch Komugi”
Publisher: ADV Films (USA)Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 6 Episodes x 25 minutes
Production Date: 2002 - 2004
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes
A rabbit like alien from the Vaccine World who is named Mugi-maru, is sent a mission to find someone who can transform into a Nurse Witch and save the planet from viruses spread by the evil Ungrar. The first person Mugi-maru comes across is the mildly successful cosplay idol Komugi Nakahara, who gleefully accepts the role. While Komugi should be promoting various products and appearing at various fan events, she’ll be forced to fight off another one of Ungrar viruses, usually spread by her nemesis Magical Maid Koyori. In reality Magical Maid Koyori is Koyori Kokubunji, Komugi’s friend and fellow model at the agency Kiri Pro.
OK, I’m really not going to spend a great deal of time on this review. Remember “Soul Taker”? No? Well I guess some of you do. This rather bland spin off OVA series has the cast of the original series in different roles in a sort of absurd magical girl/”Otaku no Video” kind of show. However the parody aspects of the magical girls genre fall flat, as do the bits involving otaku culture. Then there are a ton of shitty jokes about breasts and perving on girls in the bath. It’s all rather ho-hum. The third episode is essentially a music video compilation with crappy story woven around it. If the songs or the visuals were entertaining, than I wouldn’t have minded, but it’s pretty boring. There were some rather funny moments though. In particular there was a great “Gatchaman” parody in the second episode (this is a Tatsunoko production so there’s plenty of references to their older shows spread out over the six episodes), and I thought the transforming Big Sight building was rather clever as was some parts of the finale in the last episode, but that’s about it. There’s a follow up two part OVA called “Nurse Witch Komugi-chan Magicarte Z” which ADV obviously couldn’t be bothered with. Probably just as well. I just wish it was a bit more witter and the writing was a bit cleverer. Instead it’s aimed towards the lowest common denominator. I will still give it 4 out of 10 because some parts were kind of OK.
Remaining Backlog: 28 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs)
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