Video Backlog: “The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness”

Publisher: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (Japan)
Format: Region Free Blu-ray, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English and Japanese Subtitles
Length: 118 minutes
Production Date: 2013
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

I had really gone off Studio Ghibli films in the last decade and a half. Despite all the awards and critical acclaim, “Spirited Away” didn’t really leave much of an impression on me at all. Since that film very little of their output has wowed me. But I did think “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea” was a great film as well as “The Cat Who Returned a Favour”. The other films since 2001, I could take or leave. I’ve even stopped buying the films as they came out on home video in Japan. I only bought the last two films a month ago when I was in Japan.

I didn’t think my view of the studio or their films would change until I saw this documentary. Mami Sunada, whose only previous film was the documentary “Ending Note” (subtitled “Death of a Japanese Salaryman” in English), went to Studio Ghibli just about every day from autumn 2012 to September 2013 when Miyazaki announced his retirement. The film follows the production of Hayao Miyazaki's “The Wind Rises” and Isao Takahata’s “The Tale of Princess Kaguya”, both due to be released on 20 July 2013. Already by autumn 2012, things are going really badly with Takahata’s film. Only 81 cuts (of animation) have been completed. The producer of the film, Yoshiaki Nishimura, has been working on the film since at least 2006 and is finding it near impossible to crack the whip in order to get Takahata moving along. Because Miyazaki is working at the main studio in Higashi-Koganei and Takahata at a second studio miles away, Sunada focuses almost entirely on Miyazaki and his film.

Apart from those directly working on Miyazaki’s film (Other than Miyazaki, the main focus is on his giggly production manager known affectionately as Sankichi), Sunada also focuses on producer Toshio Suzuki, who essentially runs the financial and business side of the studio and seems to be forever in meetings with third parties. To be honest the lack of Takahata's presence doesn’t really matter. A fair chunk of the movie does deal with this side of the studio. Suzuki is seen dealing with publishers, merchandise sales and the promotion of their two upcoming films. The business side of the company is centred at the main studio at Higashi-Koganei, so it makes sense that Sunada would focus her film there.

But as you imagine the majority of the film deals with Miyazaki’s struggle with his film; he has trouble completing the storyboards, he wonders out loud to Sunada what kind of film he is making, he has trouble finding a suitable actor to fill the lead role of Jiro etc. Sunada shows his daily routine at the studio and his working relationship with Sankichi whom he seems to adore, and even anointed her wedding. However we also hear form several of the key animators who say they like to keep their distance from him and more troublingly that several really talented staff quit due to the fact they couldn’t work with him. While Miyazaki can be rather jovial and happy, many of the times he talks to Sunada he’s quite pessimistic. It seems that that the 2008 financial crisis and the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami have led him to believe the future won’t be bright. Regardless he also says that he feels hope for the future due to children. Studio Ghibli even has an in-house child care centre.

Suzuki’s various troubles during the production of the films seem to get worse as the documentary progresses. He wonders what he should say at the press conference in regards to Takata’s film. Later he concedes that there is no hope the film will make its 20 July release date. Later in the film he seems to be a mediator between Goro Miyazaki and his producer over an argument regarding his next project. Goro doesn’t come off well in this segment. It feels as he’s being really difficult as he explains he never wanted to be a director. Though Suzuki tries to convince him he is doing the right thing, by the end of this section of the film you can see that Suzuki has had enough. He’s literally slumped over the table exhausted as Goro’s producer continues to try to negotiate with Goro.

The largely absent Takahata (who appears on camera for less than two minutes some 15 minutes before the end of the film), is the main source of frustration for Suzuki and Miyazaki for a great deal of the film. Both don’t believe he’ll finish his film. “It’s almost like he’s trying not to finish” says Miyazaki. The strange thing is that Miyazaki does seem to hold a lot of respect for Takahata, but in the next breath will run him down and criticise him. At one point he recalls a time where he came back to the studio after “My Neighbours the Yamadas” had been finished, and the studio was in a complete mess due to the way Takahata ran it. All the while he seems to be smiling while telling the story, as if it’s a pleasant memory. He later tells Sunada that he has abandoned Takahata as a film maker, though she retorts by saying “Isn’t he making a film now?”. Takahata and Miyazaki’s working relationship is complicated further when we are told via archival footage and photographs that Takahata discovered Miyazaki, but Miyazaki overtook him in terms of talent and popularity.

The other main player in this documentary is Evangelion director Hideaki Anno. He first gets involved when Miyazaki and Suzuki decide that he should voice Jiro in the film. After a hilariously awkward audition, shockingly both of them give him the part. Anno animated the God Warrior segments in Miyazaki’s 1984 film “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind”. The pair have been friends since. Anno’s appearances in the documentary make him come off as really awkward, mostly the times he tries to voice Jiro. When Sunada asks Miyazaki what thought of him when he first met him, he says he felt he was like an alien. Later Miyazaki quips that Anno is fun to bully. In what is probably one of the funniest scenes of the film, Miyazaki complains about Mitsubishi Zero otaku. Sunada asks Miyazaki if he is an otaku. He says no, but after that Sunada edits in a scene where Anno and Miyazaki are playing with a model Zero aircraft in a meeting with Suzuki.

It has been suggested by some reviewers that Sunada is a bit of a “fangirl”, but there really is no evidence of that in the film. As I described in the last paragraph she isn’t above making a little fun of her subject. There has also been criticism of the lack of Ghibli film footage from their back catalogue. But the film isn’t about the animation itself, it’s about the studio and the people in it. The only time we see any of footage Miyazaki’s films is just before he is due to go into a press conference about his retirement, when he calls over Sunada and explains why he likes animation so much. Sunada filmed and directed the documentary herself. It really looks fantastic. She focuses on little details and frames everything so beautifully. Having been to the area where Studio Ghibli is, it is a gorgeous suburb, so she really didn’t have to work too hard to make the film look great. Sunada also focuses on the studios’ cat Ushiko and uses footage of her to link scenes together. The DVD and BD versions also have an extra feature called “Ushiko Saw It”, which is pretty much a bunch of outtakes centreing on Suzuki.

Overall it’s a fantastic documentary. Sunada seems to have an uncanny ability to choose this time period of the studio’s life to make the documentary. It does explain why some of the casting and story decisions were taken with “The Wind Rises”. However the film does make me a bit sad. Studio Ghibli doesn’t need to close down, however Miyazaki seems determined it will. There’s also Miyazaki’s determination to make another film after the completion of “The Wind Rises”, which seems to have completely evaporated in the final section of the film when he announces his retirement. Despite the west’s love affair with Miyazaki films, the only English language version of the documentary on blu-ray is the Japanese version, which has no English subs on the extras. You really have to wonder why that is. Apparently the US DVD of this film is already out of print which is baffling. I’ll give this film 8 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: Six series, 13 movies, two OVAs also waiting for second parts for two shows to be released before viewing them.

Video Backlog: “Vampire Hunter D (aka Bloodlust)”

Publisher: Eastern Star (Discotek, USA)
Format: Region A Blu-ray, NTSC, English Dialogue with optional English Captions for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Length: 102 minutes
Production Date: 2000
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Ten millennia have passed on Earth. During this time the world went through an apocalyptic period whereafter vampires became the rulers of a rather feudal-like and less populated Earth than our current one. However the vampire’s reign has come to an end with the people revolting due to their predatory nature. Bounties were put on their heads and a class of bounty hunter evolved to rid the Earth of their kind. The Elbourne family arrange a meeting with the vampire bounty hunter known as “D”. Not exactly a friendly affair, the family has their employees train their guns on him at all times. They know D is a dhampir, the offspring of a father who was a vampire and a human mother. The family’s daughter, Charlotte, has been apparently abducted by the vampire Baron Meier Link. Desperate to get her back all costs, they offer a handsome sum which D says will not be enough, and that she may already have turned into a vampire. Though the eldest son is angered by this, the father intervenes and concedes that he would like D to end her life if that indeed is what has happened to her. To complicate things further, the family then inform him that they have also hired the infamous bounty hunters known as the Marcus Brothers.

The Marcus Brothers are already hot on the trail of Baron Link’s horse drawn carriage. Driving though a small town in their armoured truck, they discover the Baron has already passed though and the entire population have been transformed into zombies. However the Baron’s minions are absolutely no match for the bounty hunters who dispose of them in a few hectic minutes, despite the zombies attempting to ambush their truck. The leader of the hunters, Borgoff, hears a cyborg horse galloping closer to them. He fires one of silver arrows towards the sound, upon which we learn is D, who catches the arrow barehanded and snaps it in half. After a brief and terse greeting between the two bounty hunters, D leaves to hunt down the Baron, with Borgoff unconcerned that he now has competition in rescuing Charlotte. The only woman in the group of bounty hunters, Leila, decides to take off on portable motor bike in an effort to beat D. Soon after, D manages to catch up with Baron Link’s carriage inside a tunnel. In the ensuing fight D hears Charlotte call out to the Baron and realises something is wrong with the situation. The Baron manages to overpower D and escapes.

The following evening, D has caught up with the carriage, which is protected inside a mirror-like barrier. While D tests the defences of the barrier and attempts into find a way in, Leila arrives on the scene and immediately begins her attack on the barrier. In the ensuing chaos the baron makes his escape and Leila is badly injured. Initially content to leave her there to die, D has second thoughts when she calls out for her mother. He tends to her wounds, something that Leila is confused about and outwardly at least, not even the slightest bit appreciative of. It soon becomes apparent that Baron Link is headed towards the lands where a monster clan called the Barbarois live. Someone has paid big money to hire the clan of mutants to protect him. Though D seemingly has no problem dealing with the minions sent by the head of the Barbarois to kill him, the ones protecting the baron’s carriage are different story. The trio of mutants start to pick off the Marcus Brothers one by one. But soon D arrives and along with the Marcus Brothers they soon manage to even up the score, though with their ranks heavily depleted. Both D and the remaining bounty hunters in the Marcus Brothers discover that Baron Link’s carriage’s is headed towards Castle of Chaythe, home of the “ghost” vampire Carmilla. But why would Carmilla pay the Barbarois clan to protect Baron Link and Charlotte?

For whatever reason, I have sort of ignored this film, or missed it. I first came across it when it was screening at the very first Japanime film festival back in 2000 as part of a larger arts festival being held in Sydney as part of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. I had a chance to go to the festival, but passed it up. A couple of years later, the now defunct US anime video label Urban Vision released the film on DVD and later promised to release another version, this time with the Japanese dub (yes, the original version of the film was the English version). I waited for its release, but of course this never eventuated. Eventually I forgot all about the film. Backtracking a bit, I should explain this film was released in Japanese cinemas with the same English dialogue version as presented on this disc (with Japanese subtitles of course). When it hit home video over there, it came in the theatrical English language version with Japanese subtitles and separate, newly dubbed Japanese version. I really have no idea why this happened. The original English version was a ploy to get it into US cinemas, apparently. The version released in Japanese cinemas also differs from the English language home video version with Japanese pop band Do as Infinity providing a closing theme rather than the music score by Marco D'Ambrosio. Also despite what Wikipedia or any other source tells you, the subtitle “Bloodlust” does not appear on any Japanese publicly material, merchandise, any home video version or on the film’s title card. It’s just called “Vampire Hunter D” over there.

Based on “Demon Deathchase” (originally called “Wandering on Death Row”), the third novel in Hideyuki Kikuchi’s “Vampire Hunter D” series, it certainly puts Toyoo Ashida’s (“Fist of the North Star”) 1985 movie adaption to shame (and it WAS a movie. The Eirin mark on the title card, movie programmes, movie trailers etc, prove this. Please stop calling it an OVA!). Directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, of “Ninja Scroll” and “Wicked City” fame, unlike the 1985 film the character designs, while most certainly have Kawajiri’s distinctive style stamped all over them, are very sympathetic to Yoshitaka Amano’s originals. Like most of Kawajiri’s works, the action is kinetic and an absolute joy to watch. The story holds up really well too with a theme of doomed love sort of playing out on two fronts, as well as a secondary plot which looks at the dueling humanity and base vampire urges that both D and Baron Link struggle with. The film is just gorgeous to watch. Kawajiri paces the film beautifully. The film does make use of CG, but surprisingly it’s mostly unnoticeable. Nothing really sticks out and screams “this is CG”. It’s blended very well and the use of 35mm shot cel animation is apparent though filming artefacts.

The film does have its share of problems and of course the biggest one is the English adaption. Most of the acting and dialogue is pretty good. Where it falls down is some of the throwaway corny lines or the addition of additional lines of dialogue where there would be silence in a Japanese film. Over explanation through dialogue is one of my pet peeves of blockbuster Hollywood films. I thought Mike McShane, who plays D’s talking symbiotic left hand (he calls himself a “parasite” in the film), was miscast. But this is probably more due the fact his character is written as coward-like at times rather than the cold, sardonic, almost evil creature he is in the novels and 1985 film. Marco D'Ambrosio's score is mostly fitting and excellent at many points in the film. However at it occasionally devolves into a cheap sounding synthetiser track which sounds like it belongs on some B-grade direct to video film.

But putting aside those criticisms, this is a bloody good film. I can’t believe I ignored it for so long. I think the shoddiness of the original 1985 film had done a lot of damage in how I viewed the franchise. Discotek’s blu-ray is pretty good considering the apparently poor quality of the source material. The film still hasn’t received a BD release in Japan (only out of print and hard to find VHS and DVDs from 10+ years ago exist) which is a shame. I would love to hear the Japanese dub, but I don’t think that’s ever going to happen on a commercial English language release. A new “Vampire Hunter D” TV series is apparently in production, but I think it’ll be hard to beat Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s film. I’ll give this film a solid 8 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: Six series, 16 movies, two OVAs also waiting for second parts for two shows to be released before viewing them.

Video Backlog: “Robot Carnival”

Publisher: Eastern Star (Discotek, USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Dub and English Subtitles
Length: 90 minutes
Production Date: 1987
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

An omnibus OVA, as it sounds, “Robot Carnival” contains nine shorts about robots. The opening and closing segments tell the story of a giant decrepit monolithic carrier which ploughs through the desert taking out a small village. Once a giant circus-like attraction, it is now a forgotten relic with its automated robots unintentionally killing, wounding and destroying anything in their path rather than original purpose of entertaining. But its time is coming to an end. "Franken's Gears" is the retelling of "Frankenstein", though this time the Doctor builds a robot, which mimics him a little too closely. "Deprive" is a rather conventional sci-fi story where a young girl is kidnapped by an invading band of robots. Her own personal servant robot goes on a quest to rescue her. In "Presence" a man married with children feeds his complex about women into the creation of a very human like girl. However the creation proves to be a little too human as she develops a conscience of her own which disturbs him.

"Star Light Angel" is a light shoujo-esqe story of two girls enjoying a day at a robot themed amusement park. When one of them introduces the other to her new boyfriend, she realises that he has been dating both of them. The other girl runs off, dropping a necklace that her boyfriend gave her. However a robot, who is smitten with her, decides to return it to her. Possibly the oddest film of the lot, "Cloud", is an arty abstract piece which follows a young robot boy walking through scenery of clouds, apparently an allegory for the history of mankind. "Strange Tales of Meiji Machine Culture: Westerner's Invasion" is about a mad foreign scientist trying to invade Japan during the mid-19th century in his giant robot. A group of local teens use their own wooden robot (actually constructed for a town parade) to defend the city. However the battle is slow and becomes absurd due to the technological constraints of the time. In the final film, "Chicken Man and Red Neck", at night in Tokyo when everyone is asleep, the city taken over by various strange looking robots and machines. A drunken man awakens to find these machines everywhere and is chased down by one of the robots who seems to be a lookout for the machines.

While some consider the 1970's as the golden age of Japanese animation, the 1980's saw some real milestones and a number of more experimental and avant-garde anime being made mostly due to the bubble economy in Japan. The early 1980's also saw the birth of the direct to video anime or OVA (Original Video Animation). Despite some claiming "Robot Carnival" is a theatrical feature (though it was screened on the independent cinema circuit in the US in 1990), in Japan it was an OVA release. Though like many OVA releases of the period, I suspect it may have had a very limited theatrical release after its initial video release. Japanese movie programmes for the film do exist.

The film itself is a real surprise. Instead of using well known anime directors, most had only experience as key animators and character designers. The biggest name here is Katsuhiro Otomo of "Akira" fame. His contribution, the opening and closing segments, are great bookends to the rest of the film. As with a lot of his work, there is a lot of black humour with the juxtaposition of the horror and terror of the Robot Carnival machine mowing down an entire village, and the joy and fun that the carnival is supposed to and did bring in as seen in its previous working life. Some versions of the film only credit Otomo, while others also correctly credit Atsuko Fukushima as co-director. She is probably most famous for being a key animator on  "Kiki's Delivery Service", but also went on to direct the opening segment of another omnibus film Studio 4°C's "Genius Party". Speaking of Studio 4°C staff, one of their most famous staff members, Koji Morimoto, directs "Franken's Gears". He was director for the films "Fly! Peek the Whale" (released in the UK in the mid 1990's), the "Magnetic Rose" segment of "Memories" and the brilliant short film "Noiseman Sound Insect". Probably the biggest name other than Otomo here is Yasuomi Umetsu who is most (in)famous for his girls, guns and sex OVAs such as "Kite" and "Mezzo Forte". However he was also a very in demand character designer in the 1990's for a number of OVAs such as "Gatchaman" and "Casshan". His segment, "Presence", is probably the most beloved of all by fans. One of only two segments with any dialogue, it follows the story of a family fan who secretly builds a human like girl, but then rejects her when she becomes too human. It’s quite thought provoking, sad and even a little creepy at points.

While most of the films in the film are mostly experimental, they have a certain look to them which is very much like anime of that period. But Mao Lamdo's odd "Could" sticks out like a sore thumb. Based on his own picture book, "Snow and the Young Boy", the entire segment is nearly all black and white and mostly focuses on a young robot boy walking along while clouds and wild weather swirl behind him. The film is meant to be allegory of the history of humankind. Most reviewers seem to find this segment the most boring, which is fair enough. While it really doesn't seem to belong in this group of shorts at all and would probably work better as a separate animation aimed at the arthouse crowd rather, I found it rather interesting even if I didn’t get the subtext upon the first viewing. "Deprive" by Hideotoshi Ohmori is also one not liked by fans. However I don't mind this segment. The passing of time has aged it substantially, but I guess I'm sucker for 1980's animation, and this segment pretty much has all of the stereotypical elements of sci-fi anime of the mid 1980's. More liked however is Takashi Nakamura's " Chicken Man and Red Neck", based upon the "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence from Disney's "Fantasia". Anime fans would be familiar with Nakamura's works such as "Fantastic Children" and "A Tree of Palme", both of which he created, designed and directed.

My own personal guilty pleasure and favourite from this film would have to be the "Star Light Angel" segment. This was directed by Hiroyuki Kitazume who at the time was most famous for being the character designer for "Gundam ZZ". In fact the two-timing boyfriend of the two female leads looks an awful lot like Char Aznable. Apparently there a few of cameos of characters he designed for other anime in the segment, however the only one I picked up was the incredibly blatant Tetsuo Shima and Akira cameo (from "Akira", obviously not designed by Kitazume), who walk right up to the camera. According to the soundtrack liner notes, the segment is inspired by A-ha's "Take on Me" music video. Though I think it's much cheesier than that. It's so 1980's and so happy, fun and bursting full of colour. Rounding out the collection is "Strange Tales of Meiji Machine Culture: Westerner's Invasion " which supposedly a parody of WWII propaganda films of the 1940's. Like most of the directors here, Hiroyuki Kitakubo who directed the segment, has had quite an amazing carer. He helped with animation on "Urusei Yatsura" when he was only 15, was director on the first OVA in the infamous "Cream Lemon" series, and directed "Blood: the Last Vampire" and "Roujin Z". Another big name, Yoshiyuki Sadamato (of Evangelion fame) provides the character designs for the segment. Besides "Presence", this is the only other segment to include dialogue. Streamline, who produced the English dub, were criticised by some fans who claimed that the accents for the Japanese characters were slightly racist.

The quality of the production on all segments is quite amazing for a direct to video production. Almost all of the shots in each segment are animated at 24 frames per second, the same as big budget Disney films. In most anime you're lucky if you get 8 frames per second of animation. Almost every shot is incredibly fluid and detailed. The subject matter, while reasonable commercial for most of its length, isn't exactly what you'd equate with box office success especially when you view the entire film from start to finish. A lot of the films are rather abstract and even quite arty. You have to wonder why and how this film got the green light. However projects such as this weren't so uncommon in the 1980's. Films such as "Angel's Egg", "Labyrinth Tales (aka Manie-Manie or Neo Tokyo)" and others were being made and sat alongside more commercial fare. The entire soundtrack for the film is also a highlight. Joe Hisaishi, who has scored all of Hayao Miyazaki's films, wrote the music for all of the segments except "Cloud". Though all synthesiser based, the music is quite amazing and fits all of the pieces quite well and gives the entire film a coherency.

While the old Streamline pictures versions had some segments reordered (according to Carl Macek this was due to the fact there would be fewer reels for the US 35mm prints, something which he never explained until 2010, the changed order baffling anime fans for years). That version also omitted some of the closing credit animation/stills (as to remove the kanji credits, the Japanese end credits do appear as a bonus on the US Laserdisc). For the first time, in English language versions at least, the Eastern Star/Discotek version restores these parts as well having proper translated English subtitles (the out of print Korean and Japanese DVD versions only had “dubtitles”).

Unlike the Korean and Japanese DVD versions, this version is anamorphic widescreen, a first for this film. The original film was shot in open matte format, but unfortunately all DVD releases have been cropped for vista format (i.e. 16:9). Actually I’m pretty amazed at how Eastern Star/Discotek has handled the video, especially as it’s been sourced from poor composite video masters. It looks pretty darn amazing considering. Unfortunately like all DVD versions so far, a small segment at the end of "Presence", where the picture fades to black and the flapping of wings can be heard for 30 seconds afterward, is missing. Not sure why this is the case. I suspect it’s an error from the original mastering of the 2001 Japanese DVD which has carried on to all other versions.

"Robot Carnival" is an amazing film from an era of Japanese animation which we will probably never see the likes of again. Even though one or two of the shorts might be of lesser quality, the film as a whole package is pretty astounding. Besides Studio 4°C's small output, there are very few experimental films or even regular anime made now days that hasn't been thoroughly market researched and has planned otaku themed merchandise as a tie in. Also the animation quality in this film is absolutely amazing, even though filming artefacts are apparent throughout the film. In 2001 when Japanese studio A.P.P.P. made its debut into the US market with the label Super Techno Arts, it sourced ideas from American anime fans about which directors it should use for a planned sequel to the original film. Unfortunately it was never realised which I think is a real shame. While the Eastern Star/Discotek version doesn’t have the 100 page booklets about the making of the film like the old Japanese and Korean DVD versions, it’s still a worthwhile purchase as the video and subtitles are far superior to those versions. 8 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: Seven series, 18 movies, five OVAs also waiting for second parts for two shows to be released before viewing them.

Video Backlog: “Super Dimension Century Orguss”

Publisher: Eastern Star (Discotek, USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Subtitles and English Dub (episodes 1 to 17 only).
Length: 35 episodes x 25 minutes
Production Date: 1983 - 1984
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

In the year 2062, the world is at war once more. This time it is mostly over the control of a space elevator which can cheaply and easily transport materials and people to and from Earth’s orbit. The night before the Freedom Space Corps plan an all-out attack on the space elevator, second lieutenant Kei Katsuragi is making out with one of his girlfriends, Tina, one last time. Sprung by her father, Kei makes a hasty retreat as Tina’s father chases him from the property with a shotgun. Waiting for Kei is a fellow officer in the Freedom Space Corps and friend Olson D. Verne. He drives him off to safety back to the barracks in his sidecar.

During the following day, the mission doesn’t go to plan. The original plan called for a Space/Time Oscillation Bomb to be set off to blast the space elevator into an alternate timeline to end the war. The plan is called off when the enemy swarms the area and the engineers fail to calibrate the bomb in time. The bomb is then set to self-destruct in order to be kept out of enemy hands. Kei feels frustrated at the failure of the operation and decides to set the bomb off himself. He manages to stop the bomb from self-destructing and attempts to reactivate it. However as there are no set coordinates for the bomb, it activates sending the space elevator off and the surrounding area into an unknown dimension. Worse yet is that both Olson and Kei are caught I the bomb’s blast before they have a chance to escape.

Kei is blown with his aircraft, the Bronco II, to what seems to be a alien world. He awakens inside an infirmary which he initially mistakes for a military one. Much to his shock he discovers that he is with an Emaan caravan on a ship called the Glomar. The Emaan are humanoid creatures, mostly female, with appearances very similar to humans, except for one major difference; they have tentacles that protrude from the neck and are used primarily for non-verbal communication. Even more of a shock is Kei’s introduction to Jabby, a sentient dinosaur-like creature. Kei soon learns that he hasn’t landed on an alien planet at all but seemingly time travelled. It is the Earth some 20 years after a dimensional disaster where parts of several alternate timelines and dimensions were funnelled into one causing mass chaos. As a result several cultures are forces to try to coexist together. The Emaan themselves are a kind of nomadic trading culture. While they do have a homeland, they will travel the world salvaging old machines, restoring them with their advanced technology and selling them for profit. While it may seem that the inhabitants of this patchwork Earth can generally coexist, the world they inhabit is incredibly unstable, with small parts of the world continually phasing in an out of other dimensions almost without warning.

Unfortunately for the Emaan on the Glomar, the war-like Chiram appear asking them to hand over the “Singularity”, by which they mean Kei. The Emaan are also aware of this and try to make a trade, much to the disgust of Kei. The Chiram refuse all negations and decide to take Kei by force. This is disastrous for the Emaan who know nothing of battle tactics and begin to be slaughtered by the Chiram battle machines. Kei is shocked by the lack of the Emaan’s fighting shills and takes off in his Bronco II to defend them. After dispatching most of them, and having to confront one of the Chiram pilots face to face, he is equally shocked by their tactics and way of life as he is by the apparent matter of fact way the Emaan deal with their dead. Frustrated with the perceived lack of answers from the Emaan and the situation he finds himself in, Kei unwisely decides to leave. In an attempt to avoid an attack from the Chiram, he flies into the dimensional barrier that covers the earth, some 500 meters above the ground. The barrier is like flying into an incredibly violent storm and is practically impenetrable. With his Bronco II severely damaged, he crashes to the ground.

Kei is saved by a young female Emaan called Mimsy who takes him back to the Glomar. Along with the chief of the Glomar, Shaia, the Emaan hatch a deal with Kei to stay and promise to rebuild his plane, which later rechristened as the Orguss, named after the god of war of Jabby’s race. Kei being a playboy considers this a good deal as there are plenty of young women and food. He soon finds himself being attracted to Mimsy which causes tensions with the Glomar with Mimsy due to be married to Slay. Add in the constant attacks from Emaan and Kei’s selfish nature, which at one point has him forcing Mimsy to purchase a child humanoid robot girl called Mome, an ancient relic from the Mu robotic civilisation. It’s too much, so the rest of the Emaan decide to vote on whether to let him stay or turf him off the ship. Kei is saved by the fact that the Emaan senate orders the Glomar to return to their homeland as Kei is key to returning the various dimensions to their original place. However the Glomar has to battle through attacks from the Chiram and an increasingly hostile Mu empire. All sides are after Kei and have the technology to reverse the effects of the original dimensional bomb. However all sides fear annihilation from the other side’s attempts to restore the dimensional timelines.

“Orguss” is probably most famous for being the show that replaced “Macross” in its timeslot when it finished its broadcast. That’s probably being a little bit too harsh on “Orguss”. The show pretty much had the same key staff that worked on “Macross” and in the same roles as well; Noboru Ishiguro as director, Haruhiko Mikimoto did the character designs, Kazutaka Miyatake did the mecha designs and the music was again handled by Kentaro Haneda. Many of the pieces sound like they come from an unheard “Macross” soundtrack. Like “Macross”, Studio Nue conceived the series. The one notable absence from the staff is mecha designer Shoji Kawamori. The mecha designs certainly aren’t as good as those in “Macross” (many fans attribute this to the fact Miyatake was working on “Aura Battler Dunbine” simultaneously), but what you can’t deny is the animation is far more consistent and arguably far better than all of the Korean outsourced “Macross” episodes. Another element of the show I quite liked was the opening and ending songs by American (though almost entirely sung in Japanese) Casey Rankin.

The other very “Macross” element of the show is the character Athena Henderson of the Chiram army. I don’t want to give away spoilers to the show, but I will say she looks and acts very much like Milia Fallyna Jenius. There are also a few nods to “Macross” along the way; Kei day dreams about the girls he’s left behind in his world including Minmay, Sammy and Vanessa, there’s also a quick topless shot of Misa Hayase on a Chiram monitor and markings on a box inside the Glomar seems to indicate it contains VF-1 Valkyrie parts. Noboru Ishiguro also makes an animated cameo appearance. Most of the early part of the story of “Orguss” involves the Glomar simultaneously setting up markets to trade and fighting off attacks from the Chiram who are hell bent on capturing Kei. A secondary plot line involves the relationship between Mimsy and Kei. Along the way the group goes through several trials such as being attacked by a group of barbarians on horseback. It’s not until episode 12 where things change up gear with the presence of Athena and another character from Kei’s past. Things become more desperate for the Glomar and the planet as it is revealed the disastrous position they’re in.

Certainly the story becomes far more interesting in the last arc where there is a three way battle to reverse the damage the Space/Time Oscillation Bomb has done. But it does take a long time to get there. I thought a number of episodes were a bit unnecessary. The battles are really well done for the time period, but animation is recycled many times during these sequences. Admittedly this was sort of standard practice of the time. A number of charters are also added to the story which I think really serve no purpose. For example the Mu empire robots Mome (just take out the second “M”…) and the Captain, a quite useless fighting robot the crew salvage. Having said that, it’s still a pretty good robot anime show. Apart from the really well thought out concept of various dimensions and timelines converging onto one planet, there’s the lead character Kei. It was a bit unusual to have a somewhat unlikable playboy type as the lead for the time. He is a bit of a dope and does chase after the ladies a bit too much, but over time he sort of becomes a bit of charmer and more dependable, even heroic.

The show has had a bit of chequered history in English. It was first released on a series of VHS tapes by US Renditions back in 1992, but only reached as far as episode 17 and the series of tapes were was cancelled by 1994. Luckily the show was released by in full by ImaginAsian in 2007, albeit on DVD-Rs. The series the company released were pulled when the DVD-R replicator they were using when bankrupt the following year. This version from Eastern Star/Discotek may still use the same old composite video masters that ImaginAsian used, but the subtitles are far more accurate, even though there are some grammatical errors. Somehow I’ve managed to buy all three versions of the series, though only three of the eight VHS tapes these were released. It was pretty hard to come by those tapes back in the 1990’s.

Like a lot of older anime, “Orguss” probably hasn’t stood the test of time. It is a really fun show, but I think a number of episodes don’t further the story in any way. A small number of characters (mainly the two robots) add very little to the plot other than comic relief. Despite all of its flaws (and there are many), it‘s still quite an enjoyable show. If you love Studio Nue stuff and robot shows of the era, it’s a no brainer. The series was followed up a decade later by the seriously underrated “Orguss 02” OVA which works as a standalone OVA but manages to link the end of the original series and give it all a proper ending (the ending of “Orguss” could be seen as a bit vague and unsatisfying). I’ll give “Orguss” a 7 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: Seven series, 18 movies, six OVAs also waiting for second parts for two shows to be released before viewing them.

Video Backlog: “Gatchaman: the Movie”

Publisher: Sentai Filmworks (USA)
Format: Region A Blu-ray, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Dub and English Subtitles
Length: 110 minutes
Production Date: 1978
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

A strange alien entity called Leader X lands his needle-like space craft somewhere in the Himalayan Mountains. There he takes what seems to be two human embryos to create a mutant called Berg Katse, whom he will use to create an organisation to take control of the planet. Some 30 years later, around the year 2000, a huge turtle shaped robot called Turtle King attacks and destroys a uranium facility. At a meeting of the International Science Organization (ISO) the delegates of the world’s countries discus this new threat. All are baffled at the identity of the new threat to world peace. Except for the top scientist at ISO, Dr Kozaburo Nambu, who surprises the gathered delegates by naming the secret organisation behind the attacks; Galactor. He further stuns the delegates by announcing that a special team of five young people, the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, has been formed in order to defeat Galactor.

As Dr Nambu is advising the delegates at the ISO of these developments, Gatchaman; Ken the Eagle, Joe the Condor, Jun the Swan, Jinpei the Swallow and Ryu the Owl, are hot on the trail of Turtle King in their God Phoenix craft. Hot-headed Joe is frustrated that their orders are to follow but not destroy the Turtle King. Realising that the Turtle King is headed towards a city, most likely to destroy it, leader Ken decides to sabotage the machine from inside. He takes along Jun and both of them take out as many Galactor agents as possible and then direct Ryu to fly the God Phoenix inside the Turtle King. However the commander of the Turtle King has seen through their plans and surrounds Gatchaman with hundreds of agents who fire on the team. But Gatchaman defeat the agents and the commander abandons ship in an escape craft. It seems Gatchaman has won, but Galactor turn off the Turtle King’s propulsion system causing it plummet towards earth before they can make their escape. Ken is forced to make the decision to use the firebird technique to escape. This is involves the God Phoenix seemingly transforming into a fiery bird, but causes immense stress on the ship and its crew. Using the technique Gatchaman escape the Turtle King before it hits the ground and kill the escaping commander in the process.

Afterwards Dr Nambu is visited by a scientist from the country Hontwall. The scientist advises him that the Galactor will initiate the V2 plan; that is to force the Van Allen belt to descend so that radiation covers the Earth. The scientist suggests that the Earth should surrender to Galactor which raises suspicions in Dr Nambu’s mind that the scientist isn’t who he says he is. The scientist reveals himself to be Berg Katse and repeats the ultimatum before making his escape. Dr Nambu orders Ken to team up with the leader of the mysterious agent team Red Impulse in order to infiltrate the country of Hontwall. It is believed that the country’s defence minister has teamed up with Galactor in a plot to bring down the president. Red Impulse has been searching for evidence for this for a decade without success. Ken and the leader of Red Impulse manage to break into the defence minister’s mansion but are unsuccessful in blowing opening a large safe suspected of containing the evidence they need to take action against the minister. Later Galactor raid the president’s compound and take over Hontwall.

Back in their hometown, the Gatchaman team take a break at a café run and owned by Jun. Gunshots are heard outside and Ken is surprised to see his old friend Sabu shot on the ground.  Sabu has sustained only minor injuries and soon makes a full recovery. Sabu tells Ken that he thinks he may have found his long lost father, previously assumed to be dead, in Hontwall. Ken takes the decision to follow Sabu back to Hontwall to find his father, without letting his teammates know. However this is a trap set up by the country’s defence minister and Galactor in order to lure out Ken’s father, who they suspect of spying on Hontwall. In the meantime Galactor sets their V2 plan into motion, exploding a rocket in the stratosphere causing the Van Allen belt to descend and causing atmospheric chaos on Earth. Berg Katse give the world’s leaders an ultimatum; surrender in 24 hours or it won’t send a second rocket into the stratosphere in order to send the Van Allen belt to its original place. While the team are furious with Ken’s apparent abandonment of them in favour of finding his missing father, Dr Nambu still orders them to defeat Galactor’s plan. Unbeknownst to the team, Red Impulse have saved Ken from Galactor’s trap and have infiltrated Galactor’s secret base which is constructing rocket to correct the Van Allen belt. Ken advises the Gatchaman team of the base and Galactor’s plan is thwarted, but only after a terrible sacrifice is made to save the Earth. Galactor does not give up after this failure. They soon hatch an insane plan to destroy the Earth from within its own molten core.

This release is such a welcome surprise. Originally released in 1978, this film is mostly a compilation of the “Gatchaman” TV series from 1972 to 1974 that Sentai Filmworks previously released on BD and DVD under their previous name ADV Films. The film comprises mostly of the finale of the first arc of the TV series (episodes 51 to 53) and the amazing finale of the series (the final three episodes, 103 to 105). Around 10 minutes of the first episode is tacked onto the start to introduce the characters as well parts of episode 31 to bridge the two halves of the film together. What’s most interesting about this particular feature is the four or so minutes of new animation, mostly dealing with Leader X’s arrival on planet Earth and his creation of Berg Katse (the latter told through some rather dodgy video effects matted back onto film stock). An additional minute or two of new animation conclude the film. Also new to the film is a new score from the NHK Symphonic Orchestra, though this is limited to a couple of new pieces which are recycled a number of times in the film.

This film came at a very interesting time in Japanese sci-fi and animation production. The “Yamato Boom” had begun two or so years prior and seemingly had no end in sight. As a result anime fandom had taken its very first steps. “Star Wars” also appeared in Japanese cinemas that year, though local studios had already taken advantage of the film’s delayed Japanese release and produced and released their own cheapie rip-offs. You also had Sandy Frank releasing his own version of “Gatchaman” in the west (as “Battle of the Planets”). It makes sense that animation studio Tatsunoko would throw its hat into the ring and have a go as well. Apart from resurrecting the franchise via this compilation film, they also created a new TV series at the same time; the highly inferior sequel “Gatchaman II”.

So how does the film fare? I’ve constantly said on this blog that I am no fan of the compilation anime film. Yet again this film has not changed my mind about them. And yet again the problem here is much of the plot and character development has been discarded in order to keep the story moving. Right from the start there’s problems. The 10 minutes edited from the first episode is meant to introduce the characters, but of course there’s barely any time to do that. The sub plot of Ken and his father is handled really well I admit, however in the second half of the film things get really messy. A highly important plot line involving an illness of one of the Gatchaman team members (trying not to give away spoilers here) is botched. The character in question keeps seeing flashes of light due to a brain injury and this becomes rather debilitating. However this is not explained at all in the film. The edited film gives the incorrect impression that the character is blinded by a spotlight and is easily captured, which is totally out of character for that particular team member. It is also implied that the injury was caused by a fall which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense within the context of the film. I wish Tatsunoko had expanded the film by another 10 minutes just to fill in some of the narrative gaps.

The highlight of the film is of course the new animation. It totals about four or five minutes which includes the end credits. The new animation is of interest to most fans because it explains how Leader X and Berg Katse came to be. A post script also has Dr Nambu in voice over questioning the existence and origins of Leader X, which I thought was a bit too philosophical and out of character for Dr Nambu. Is this new material worth the price of the disc? I think it’s up to the individual. If you’re a rabid “Gatchaman” fan, yes, casual fans, maybe no. Bizarrely Sentai Filmworks have produced an English dub for this film. Considering the amount of TV series they haven’t commissioned dubs for, this seems a little odd. However they did re-release the original TV series on BD, so they must know something about the sales of the TV series when ADV released it on DVD. In Japan the film hasn’t been issued on BD as far as I’m aware. In fact the film was only available on DVD via mail order as a bonus to people who collected the TV series discs some 15 years ago. The Sentai disc contains no extras which isn’t all that surprising.

For a compilation movie, it’s a bit of mess at times, however it’s fun most of the time and for me the new animation was very interesting. The plot with the Van Allen belt is kind of silly when you stop to think about it for a second, and the animation has aged. However it probably was the best animation on Japanese TV at the time. You can see the love and attention Tatsunoko poured over the series in every frame of the show. That said, this a bit of an average compilation film and unfortunately reminds you how much better the TV series was. 6.5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: Eight series, 18 movies, six OVAs also waiting for second parts for two shows to be released before viewing them.

Updates and Other Stuff

Just been on a three week trip to Japan. I hope to do some posts on my trips over the years to to the country, but in the meantime here's a teaser;

It is an amazingly beautiful country at times, once you get outside the big cities that is. Also I find that cities and towns outside metropolitan Tokyo to be far friendlier and nicer, especially the ones in the Kansai region.

2015 has been a bit of shitty year for me; bouts of mental illness as well as many weeks off work because of various physical illnesses. There's also been the disintegration of my workplace (in terms of staff numbers and general unhappiness among the remaining employees) and my family situation isn't going too well. Regardless, I plow on most of the time.

Anyway I hope to do a lot more reviews over the next few weeks plus post some other stuff I want to talk about. We'll see what pans out.

Anime On the Big Screen: “Miss Hokusai”

Venue: Capitol Cinemas, 6 Franklin Street, Manuka, ACT
Date: Thursday 15 October 2015
Distributor: Tokyo Theatres Co., Inc. (presented by the Japan Foundation as part of the Japanese Film Festival)
Format: Digital Projection, Japanese dialogue with English subtitles
Length: 90 minutes
Production Date: 2015
Currently on Home Video in English (as of writing): No

It was only a month ago we had the “Love Live!” movie in cinemas. Now this week, from Wednesday to Sunday, the Japanese Film Festival has come to town. It is really a reflection on the current state of Japanese cinema; it’s pretty crap. The vast majority of films screening are live action adaptations of manga or light novels with Jidaigeki films coming a close second, and a small selection of “box office hits” that have had the life wrung out of them by production committees (a group of companies that have a financial stake in the film, who often know nothing about the film making process, but are more than happy to interfere with every aspect of production including the script and casting). Only one independent film made the cut. It’s a pretty abysmal selection of films. Even worse is that in every city the selection of films changes, so if you want to see a specific film, you might have to head to Townsville, Perth or wherever it’s playing.

There are some anime films in the line-up this year. Most annoyingly ”The Case of Hana & Alice”, which I really wanted to see, is only screening in Brisbane, Perth and Sydney. The only anime film to screen here is “Miss Hokusai”. With the Arc cinema at the National Film and Sound Archive operating very infrequently due to federal government funding cuts, the festival is now held at Capitol Cinemas in Manuka. Manuka may be a posh area, but Capitol Cinemas are easily the most unkempt, rundown cinema in all of Canberra. Look, I know it’s the oldest cinema in Canberra, but seriously a renovation is sorely needed. It feels as if nothing has changed in the last decade since I last saw a film there. In fact I don’t think any improvements have been made to the cinema since I moved here some 21 years ago.

I grabbed my ticket and made my way up the old stairs to the cinema 6. Bizarrely there was a table outside the doors with few women in their 70’s milling about with bags. I wasn’t too sure if there were there for some sort of reason to do with the festival or another screening, or if they had commandeered the table for their own purposes. They latter came into the cinema but left soon after. In fact quite a few people came in, realised it was the wrong screening and left. Most of the audience were festival going types with quite a few ex-pat Japanese in the crowd. Otaku types were few and far in-between; a couple of guys, one with a Gatchaman t-shirt (I often seem him around these type of events), a couple in their twenties with the lady wearing a Totoro backpack. In all around 45 to 50 people showed up the screening, which surprised me a bit. A number of adverts ran at the start of the screening, mostly of the festivals sponsors. The Japan National Tourism Organization one was interesting. Apart from the usual clichés (Mount Fuji, Geishas, Shinkansen, the Tokyo skyline with Tokyo Tower etc.) they had a couple of shot of the infamous Robot Restaurant in Kabukicho, Shinjuku. While it was one of my favourite experiences when I when over there a couple of years back, Kabukicho is a red light district, albeit a relatively safe one. Even the rather safe Robot Restaurant feels a little dodgy with its showgirls with Yakuza tats and the doorman who looks like he stepped out of a crime drama.

Finally, after a good ten minutes of adverts, the film began. “Miss Hokusai” tells the story of late Edo period ukiyo-e painter and print maker Katsushika Hokusai, aka Tetsuzo, and his daughter O-Ei. Hokusai, in his mid 50’s in the film, is most famous for the instantly recognisable wood block print “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” as well as “Fine Wind, Clear Morning” aka “South Wind, Clear Sky” or “Red Fuji”, both part of his “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” series. Set in 1814 in bustling Edo, some 15 years before Tetsuzo created his famous “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” series, O-Ei, in her early 20’s, and her father live in various run down apartments creating their artwork. While O-Ei is an accomplished artist in her own right, most of the time her work goes uncredited as she plays assistant to her father, who at this point is quite famous. He has many clients across the country and has created many works including giant dharma on a 180 square metre wide sheet of paper, to a pair of sparrows painted on a grain of rice. Hokusai is a workaholic and only paints, eats and sleeps. The pair move out of apartments when rubbish from rejected artwork and remains from brought home meals overwhelms their work/living space. Living with them is a young man named Zenjiro. An alcoholic and ex-samurai, he has taken up ukiyo-e painting, mostly of the erotic kind. Though he is criticised by both O-Ei and her father for lack of originality, he will later become famous for his erotic artwork and prints of beautiful women under the name Keisai Eisen.

Tetsuzo is separated from his wife, whom O-Ei regularly visits. The pair had a child named O-Nao who is now around 6, but was born blind. She is cared for by Buddhist nuns at local temple, however O-Ei regularly visits her for outings. Zenjiro introduces a young and upcoming artist called Kuninao to Tetsuzo. Kuninao hopes Tetsuzo will become his mentor. The trio often had out on the town when Tetsuzo is frustrated with his work. In one such instance, O-Ei accidently ruins a large dragon piece that her father has been working on when ash from her pipe falls on it. With one day until the deadline for the piece to be complete, Tetsuzo blows off his client’s concerns and goes out drinking with Zenjiro and Kuninao. O-Ei ends up completing the work during the night.

The film itself is a series of vignettes, probably due to the fact it is based off an episodic 1980’s manga called “Sarusuberi” by Hinako Sugiura. As a result it’s pretty hard to write up a proper synopsis of the film. After the introduction of the main characters, the audience is treated to a number of mostly unrelated stories. For example O-Ei is commissioned to do a portrait of a courtesan and heads out to do some preliminary sketches with Tetsuzo and Zenjiro in tow. Having heard rumours of the courtesan’s neck growing while she is asleep, Tetsuzo tells the courtesan a story of when his hands used to leave his body and roam around the city. He cured phenomenon by bandaging his hands and placing sutras on them. Intrigued by the story, the courtesan tells the trio to stay for the night and only come to her chamber if they hear a bell being rung. Later than night they hear the bell which is attached to the courtesan’s pillow. They witness her neck twitching and eventually a ghostly apparition of her head and neck separate from her body and flies around the room, though seemingly trapped by the mosquito net canopy surrounding her bed. The courtesan wakes and tells them that the apparition often escapes the canopy and asks if she will need to do the same as Tetsuzo to rid herself of it.

A second story involves more paranormal strangeness as Tetsuzo is asked to help exorcise a panel painting of hell he painted many years ago. It seems to have possessed the lady of the house. The audience is also shown much of O-Ei’s daily life such as her fascination with fires (a common spectacle in the era) and her infatuation with another ukiyo-e painter named Hatsugoro (better known as the famous ukiyo-e artist Totoya Hokkei). In the last part of the film O-Nao becomes deathly ill and moves in with her mother. O-Ei tries to get her father to come visit her, but he seems apathetic towards his younger daughter. O-Nao feels she is the one in the wrong and that somehow she is troubling her father.

As I previously mentioned this film is based on Hinako Sugiura’s manga “Sarusuberi”. Sugiura was quite an interesting woman. Originally an assistant to feminist mangaka, poet and essayist, Murasaki Yamada, she was heavily influenced by the Edo period and researched her Edo period manga in great detail, often illustrating them in an ukiyo-e style. She eventually gave up manga in the early 1990’s in pursuit of research on Edo period lifestyles and customs and wrote several books on the subject. I would suggest her life would make for an equally interesting film as O-Ei’s. Unfortunately the manga isn’t available in English, but I assume the episodic nature of the manga is in part the reason why the film feels a bit disjointed. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It comes off as a kind of “slice of life” type movie; different things happen every day to the main cast. The problem of course is there really is no cohesive narrative to the film. Sure we have the subplot of O-Nao and O-Ei’s family ties, but that’s not quite enough to hold it together. In the end the film just closes as it begins with O-Ei on the Nihonbashi bridge, with text explanations of what happened to the characters after the film. It does feel like a bit of a anti-climax.

The director was Keiichi Hara whose last film, “Colorful”, I absolutely despised. Going through my review of that film from a few years back, well, I can see I didn’t have a fun time watching it; “It’s like a rather sad portrait of a lower middle class family with a ton of problems and their suicidal teenage boy” and my assessment of the film as “sentimental, moralistic trash”. It utterly baffled me that many critics lauded Hara as some sort of brilliant emerging anime director based on this boring, schmaltzy film that looked like it was adapted from a rejected 1980’s telemovie script. As a result I wasn’t really looking forward to “Miss Hokusai”. However as the film progressed, I quite enjoyed it. Like “Colorful”, “Miss Hokusai” focuses on a dysfunctional family, though in this film there is at least a sense of humour in the script, and it doesn’t wallow in cheap sentimentality. I soon realised that “Miss Hokusai” isn’t about a narrative as such. Hara seems more concerned with setting moods in the film than tying all the parts of the separate stories together. As I said before, this isn’t really a bad thing as long as you’re prepared to go along with what Hara is trying to do.

Personally I quite enjoyed the detailed look into Edo in the early 1800’s. There is a lot of lavish detail in not only the physical look of the animation (by Production I.G), but also in the social aspects of its inhabitants. I was rather taken by the spiritual and paranormal elements of everyday life. The visual aspects of the era are also apparent with dream-like sequences being animated in an ukiyo-e style, possibly influenced by the original manga. However the character animation itself looks a little sparse. It’s certainly not as detailed as some TV series. Because of this, it does feel at times the budget was a bit limited. The other slightly problematic aspect of the production is that some of the music feels really out of place. The rock music at the beginning and end sequences of the film clash with the historical setting. However most of the other music fits in with the Edo era and mood of the film. The end credit song by Sheena Ringo, though not fitting in with the period of the film, is quite good and sort matches and segues from the final scene which is a short shot of modern day Tokyo.

As I mentioned previously, one of the core elements of the film is the sibling relationship between O-Nao and O-Ei. There’s quite a number of charming sequences which show off their close relationship, with O-Ei vividly describing their surroundings to the blind O-Nao. A couple of scenes have O-Nao exploring her world via sound and touch, which is not something you usually see in anime. It’s all these little moments which make the film work as opposed to an ongoing narrative you’d have in a normally structured film. O-Ei is certainly the most interesting character in the film. She generally doesn't take nonsense from anyone. For example she criticises Zenjiro for his lack of originality and nicknames him "brazen" because of it. She seems quite independent at times, but others quite vulnerable. Her crush on Hatsugoro is one of the more interesting elements of her character that I sort of wish was explored a bit more. It is rather interesting that the men are portrayed as mostly no good bums. I’m assuming this is partly because of manga author Hinako Sugiura’s feminist background.

One of the biggest problems to a non-Japanese audience is the film assumes that you have previous knowledge of Hokusai’s work. A scene involving O-Nao and O-Ei on a boat makes a visual reference to “The Great Wave off Kanagawa”, but nowhere in the film, not even in the “what happened to them afterwards” on screen explanations at the end of the film, is it explained what impact Hokusai’s work had. I also think that the fact O-Ei was an underrated and uncredited artist is also somewhat glossed over (or more accurately, underemphasised) in the film. What did surprise me though was that a lot of the material in the film did actually happen and is supported by historical documents. Unfortunately this is not mentioned in the film and only way you’d find out about this is if you researched her life story yourself.

As I left the cinema, there were a bunch of volunteers from the Japan Foundation, standing and grinning right outside, holding boxes where you could put your completed survey into (of which one wasn’t given to me before I went in…). I found this as bit strange and weird as you were just confronted with these people with almost no explanation as you walked out the door. I had no idea who they were at first. Maybe the Foundation could just put a box outside and be done with it. There were at least half a dozen people collecting surveys, which was overkill.

Anyway, in conclusion it’s a pretty good film. The lack of a cohesive narrative lets the film down a little bit. But if you just go with the flow of the film and understand that it just follows a certain period of O-Ei and her father’s life, you’ll probably enjoy it. Two things of note before I finish; this is the third time one of Keiichi Hara’s films has screened theatrically in Canberra (the previous two were “Colorful” in 2010 and “Summer Days with Coo” in 2009, which I unfortunately didn’t get to see), yet none of his films are available on home video in this country. Also currently the only English language distributor for this film is All the Anime/Anime Limited in the UK which is a bit of a shame. I was going to give it .5 less, but on balance I really think this film deserves a 7 out of 10.

Video Backlog: “Memories”

Publisher: Siren Visual (Australia)
Format: Region B Blu-ray, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Subtitles
Length: 113 minutes
Production Date: 1995
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

“Memories” is a three part omnibus film based on three different one shot manga by Katsuhiro Otomo (of “Akira” fame). The first story is called "Magnetic Rose". By the last decade of the 21st century, man has conquered space and left debris of old space craft littered across the universe. As a result, salvage companies comb the far reaches of space taking anything of value from old disused satellites and other junked spacecraft. We follow one of these salvage ships, the Corona, and its crew; the captain Ivanov, navigator and computer expert Aoshima, second in command and engineer Heinz, and womanising second engineer Miguel. After disposing of a disused satellite and rejecting a final job from head office, the crew of Corona prepares to head back to civilisation for a well-earned break. However a S.O.S. message derails their plans. This is no ordinary S.O.S. Someone seems to be broadcasting Puccini’s “Madam Butterfly”. Unfortunately the message is coming from an area called Sargasso, nicknamed the graveyard of space, which is full of highly volatile magnetic storms. Despite Aoshima reminding the crew that the computer has no anti-magnetic shielding and Miguel voicing his displeasure of having to go rescue someone, Ivanov knows by law they must answer the rescue call and makes the decision to do so.

The Corona traces the point of transmission and discovers what seems to be hundreds of junked spacecraft in pieces. At the centre of this space junkyard is an oddly shaped wreck. Miguel and Heinz fly to the airlock of the wrecked vessel in their small shuttle craft. Fearing that the transmission could by a trap set by pirates, Miguel and Heinz have their guns drawn at all times. The spacecraft seems to be quite old but seems to have fresh oxygen aboard. The pair exit the elevator after the last airlock and utterly surprised to discover what seems to be an opulent European interior with massive chandeliers and what seems to be a large painting of the owner, a dark European woman in a red dress. Miguel spots what he thinks is a woman with a parasol on a grassy hill in the distance. Thinking it is a survivor he runs after her but ends up running through a hologram and into the wall behind it. Heinz laughs at him, but the pair is put on alert again when a cherub-like servant robot comes up to them stating that dinner is ready. The pair follow the robot into a dining room where they discover a sumptuous meal which actually turns out to fake. In fact most of the items inside the ship seem to be pale imitations of the real thing or in various states of decay.

In another room they discover large collections of trophies and awards and a small hologram of the ship’s owner Eva Friedel. They discover she was an opera diva that was popular nearly one hundred years ago. Eventually she lost her voice and became a dancer but felt unfulfilled. Tragically her fiancé, Carlo Rambaldi, was murdered only a few weeks before they were due to get married. Miguel discovers that the source of the S.O.S. transmission is moving. The two decide to split up to track it down and to find any possible survivors. The pair are soon drawn into a hallucinatory world seemingly controlled by Eva Friedel, but is in fact the ship’s computer who has seemingly taken on her personality. While Miguel is taken in by this world, Heinz refuses to be trapped and struggles to escape its clutches. Outside a magnetic storm is kicking up and the crew of the Corona must decide to wait for their crewmates or abandon them and save themselves.

In the second segment, “Stink Bomb”, Nishibashi Pharmaceuticals lab technician Nobuo Tanaka is having a hard time battling his flu. Despite having a flu shot at the medical centre and taking practically every flu tablet on the market, he still can’t shake it. A work colleague advises Nobuo that a new fever medicine has been developed by the company and a sample is on the section chief’s desk and he should try it to see if it works. Later that day Nobuo visits the section chief’s office to hand him a report. He’s not there, but Nobuo notices what he thinks are the sample fever tables his colleague mentioned. Thinking he has nothing to lose, he takes one and decides to rest in the visitors’ room. Later in the afternoon the section chef races into labs in a panicked state desperate to discover who took one of the sample pills. Upon being advised that it was Nobuo and that he hasn’t left the building, he races off to find him. Meanwhile the staff begin to detect a strange smell but cannot decipher what exactly it is.

Nobuo wakes the next morning a little anxious that he slept right though the afternoon and into the night. It’s almost time for staff to be coming into work, but there isn’t any sign of movement. Nobuo passes the reception desk to find the receptionist seemingly asleep. When he tries to wake her she slumps to floor, apparently dead for a number of hours. He tries to find others to help him, but can only find dead or seemingly unconscious colleagues everywhere. He calls the emergency telephone number for an ambulance. Afterwards he discovers the section chief slumped over near the biological contamination alarm which he apparently disabled before his death. Nobuo is baffled as to why the chief has done this and cautiously decides to reactivate it. The alarm immediately triggers and a bank of TV monitors turn on to show several panicked men in suits from Nishibashi Pharmaceuticals trying to figure out what is going on. One of them, Kyoichi Nirasaki who is head of new medicine development, takes control and questions Nobuo about what tripped the alarm. Confused about the incident and alarmed about the local authorities finding about the research, he orders Nobuo to gather up the data and sample of a new type of secretly developed medicine and take them from his current location near Kofu in Yamanashi prefecture to the company’s headquarters in Tokyo, about 140 km away. He is ordered to tell no one he is from the company and leave before the authorities arrive.

Nobuo realises the medicine in question is same he took the previous day. On his way to the train station via a bicycle he discovers dead animals everywhere and strangely plants in full bloom, seemingly attempting to reproduce as they die, even though it’s still winter. He later discovers several car accidents with the drivers dead, including the ambulance he called for. The city Kofu is the same. In Tokyo at the Self Defence Force headquarters, Nishibashi Pharmaceuticals president Kamata as well as Nirasaki are called in to explain what is going on. The drug in question was made for the Self Defence Force under the orders of the minister to counter effect biological weapons but had unintended side effects which the company was researching. The army soon reports that the epicentre of the disaster seems to be moving, something which makes no sense until Nirasaki explains that Nobuo is bringing documentation and samples of the drug to Tokyo. It dawns on everyone that Nobuo is the cause of the biological contamination. This is confirmed by soldiers evacuating a panicked population and the fact everyone else is dead in the affected areas except Nobuo. Somehow the combination of the drug as well as the flu medication in his body has made Nobuo a walking biological bomb. The decision is made to try to kill him, but he is now emitting a yellow cloud gas and no one can get close to him due to the toxicity and pungent smell of the gas. With Tokyo in panic and seemingly conventional weapons malfunctioning due to the gas, they have to somehow stop him reaching Tokyo.

The final segment, “Cannon Fodder”, revolves around a young boy who lives in a militaristic society. The society is literally walled in with just about every single aspect of the citizen’s lives revolving around the military and a war against an unseen enemy. The film also follows the life of the boy’s family; a mother which works in munitions factory and the father who is a munitions loader for giant cannon. While the local media report that they are succeeding in the battle and the war will soon be over, it is clear that some of the citizens are apathetic to the cause. The father of the family is latter reprimanded due to the fact his unit botched a cannon loading. His young son has dreams of being a prestigious officer who fires the large cannons with much pomp and ceremony and definitely doesn’t want to be a cannon loader like his father.

I think I first discovered “Memories” via the manga anthology of the same name which was published in 1995 by Random House (an Australian reprint of the 1994 Mandarin Books UK version which was in turn compiled from single issue comics published by Marvel imprint Epic Comics in 1992). I recall the only story from the film in the anthology was the "Magnetic Rose" story and the other two didn’t appear. The original anthology called “Memories of Her...” was published in 1990 and contains far more material than its English translated counterparts. The film version was apparently conceived as a set of OVAs, but in 1995 eventually was upgraded into a theatrical feature. Then in 1996 or 1997, the local anime club ran the film which was taped off the Japanese laserdisc which had English subtitles via closed captions. I loved the film when I saw it and searched out for a fansubbed copy as soon as I could.

All three segments are really interesting films. “Magnetic Rose” was directed by Koji Morimoto, the founder of Studio 4°C who also did the animation. He’s not the best known director but has directed the "Franken's Gears" segment of “Robot Carnival”, “Noiseman Sound Insect”, the “Beyond” segment of “The Animatrix “ and “First Squad”. The script was written by Satoshi Kon who adds a sub plot involving Heinz and his deceased daughter which beefs up the original story. It’s unsurprising that this segment of the film is the one that’s always considered the best in the film by critics and fans alike. The animation is stunning (though some of the CG looks dated), it’s highly suspenseful and has a fantastic soundtrack by Yoko Kanno (incorporating previously published music by Maria Callas). It’s really hard to fault this segment at all.

The “Stink Bomb” segment was directed by Tensai Okamura  who’s most famous for also directing “Blue Exorcist” and “Wolf's Rain”. Over the years I’ve really come to love this segment and I think finally it’s become my favourite in the anthology. Nobuo is such a gormless, hapless idiot who never, ever figures out he is the cause of the disaster. Add in some amazingly detailed animation including some completely over the top military sequences animated by Madhouse. I do love Otomo’s dark humour and here it is really dark and exceptionally humorous. His character designs are great too. He does plain and ugly characters just brilliantly. It’s fantastic farce where not only the military are portrayed as complete nitwits who can’t even kill one man despite what firepower they throw at him (not exactly their fault, but…), but the pharmaceutical company who end up nearly destroying a country due to a single pill. The music is great too with a weird mix of ska, military marches and brooding sting quartet with some additional brass.

“Cannon Fodder”, directed by Otomo himself, is probably the least successful of the trio. However it’s still a great film. It’s far less frantic than the other two and also less realistic looking. From start to finish it’s just one long continuous tracking shot (though there’s a few cheats along the way) as it follows one day in the life of a family who live in a militaristic society. At times it reminded me of Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis”, especially the scenes of the citizens heading off to work. The music in this segment is also quite interesting with a strange collection of instruments being used such as a Jew’s harp and accordion along with synthesisers. The biggest letdown of “Cannon Fodder” is the CG done by Studio 4°C who did all of the animation in this segment. It does look dated, especially with its use of mapping. In particular items on wall which should be 3D end up looking very 2D as the camera makes its way through a hallway. At the very least the story is quite thought provoking and the end of the film implies that everyone knows there is no enemy.

Siren’s Blu-ray of the film is quite stunning. It has never looked this good in English. In fact the resolution is so good it shows that the effects in "Magnetic Rose" were rather low-res and muddy (well compared to modern day effects). This is probably to be expected as it’s a 20 year old film and the CG effects do show their age. However the cel animation looks brilliant and clear. You can even read the documents on the table in military briefing room in “Stink Bomb”, one of which seems to be a Majestic 12 manual! The disc also comes with a terrible looking trailer (4:3 letterboxed) and a making of featurette which includes interviews with the directors and all of the pilot films, though I think some parts of the pilot films were cobbled together for the featurette. Both of these extras are direct ports from the original laserdisc and DVD versions. I still have the original Bandai Visual DVD set I bought back in 1999 of this film. It came in LD sized packaging with a reproduction theatrical programme (and English subtitles on the disc of course). I really don’t think I can sell that or junk it. It’s too nice to lose.

It’s really weird to think that this film is only available in English on Blu-ray in Australia. I really don’t understand why more of a fuss has been kicked up over its release here. Maybe that’s due to the fact it previously hasn’t had a decent release in English (sub only DVD from Sony in the US back in 2004). This film deserves to be seen and appreciated by more anime fans. I just adore the film and find it far superior to Otomo’s more recent omnibus anime film “Short Peace”. 9 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: Nothing.

Anime On the Big Screen: “Love Live! The School Idol Movie”

Venue: Dendy Cinemas, Level 2, North Quarter, Canberra Centre, 148 Bunda Street, Canberra City, ACT
Date: Saturday 12 September 2015
Distributor: Madman Entertainment
Format: Digital Projection, Japanese dialogue with English subtitles
Length: 99 minutes
Production Date: 2015
Currently on Home Video in English (as of writing): No

A year ago or so, I had a blog in which I looked at old anime video tapes, old defunct magazines, music video compilations (e.g. like the two “Bubblegum Crisis” ones) and the occasion anime film that ends up in cinemas locally. I was going to recommence publishing stuff on that blog (I stopped about a year ago), but have decided I’m not ready to restart it. So I’ll be publishing this review here instead.

For those who have been living under a rock for the last five years, otaku are now inexplicably gaga over J-pop idols, not real ones though, animated ones. The popularity of real life mega merchandise machine AKB48 (and its countless spin-offs) has bled into other sectors of otakudom. The first was the video game franchise the iDOLM@STER in 2005. The popularity of the game exploded and unsurprisingly there was ton of merchandise, manga and anime spin offs. Naturally imitators popped up left right and centre such as “Wake Up, Girls!”, “Aikatsu!” and of course this juggernaut of a franchise.

The franchise was originally announced in the July 2010 issue of Dengeki G's magazine as a multimedia project between its publisher, Sunrise and music label Lantis. The magazine laid the groundwork of providing images of the cast as well as the back story. Soon the merchandise was coming in thick and fast, mostly as CD singles and later albums. Manga and other merchandise followed and finally two anime series comprising of 13 episodes each in 2013 and 2014. The show itself followed a group of nine girls who form an idol group (called μ's, pronounced Muse – no, nothing to do with Matt Bellamy) and enter a national school idol competition in order to save their school which due to be shut down. That’s the crux of the story, more here if you’re not familiar with the show or the characters.

Last time I went to one of these one off anime movie events (which Madman seems to be now doing in lieu of their now defunct annual Reel Anime film festival) was back in February 2014 for the “Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion” screening. Like the first film in that series, that screening was emceed (and practically run by) a local cosplay group, who hadn’t even considered the fact that maybe other people outside their little group would be coming to watch the films. So you’d get to the cinema and there would be an unannounced cosplay competition, or the results of a previously played “scavenger hunt”, or giveaways that seemed to exclude people outside their group. Of course none of that was advertised on Dendy’s website… So when I got to the cinema for the “Love Live!” screening, it was much to my surprise that when I got my ticket I was immediately given my bonus poster (pictured above), signature board (mine was an image of Rin) and code to play an online “Love Live!” game (which of course I’m never going to play). Normally this stuff would be given out at the actual door of the theatrette itself. This led me to believe that the local cosplay group had not been invited to help out this time. What a shame!

As the time for the screening rolled around, I noticed that the crowd was completely different to previous screenings. Cosplay was largely absent besides a half-hearted Umi and Nico and nearly half of audience were native Mandarin speakers. I didn’t spot a single anime t-shirt on anyone. The crowd was much smaller as well. Only 90 people showed up in the cinema, compared with the 260 patrons or so for the second Madoka Magica film. Frustratingly there were no seating allocations as per normal Dendy screenings, even though I had already booked and allocated my seat online. First in, best dressed. I was told that they were forced to change cinemas due to some problem. Doing some searching online, none of the usual local fandom groups mentioned the screening at all, which was strange. The online presence of the cosplay group also seems to have disappeared as well. It’s kind of weird that the demographic of anime fandom has changed that much in 18 months here. Even a guy my age who used to come to all of these type of events (seen him around since my anime club days of the mid 1990’s) didn’t show this time. So in lieu of terrible emcees and giveaways we had about 15 minutes of adverts and trailers. No intro from any of the Japanese voice actors which was odd considering Emi Nitta (who plays Honoka) was featured heavily in the English language promotion.

One thing which did happen in the cinema was that after the adverts had begun, a couple of cosplayers, one as Eli, the other as Nico, sat down next to me. 10 minutes into the film itself, the Nico cosplayer starts crying. It wasn’t even an emotional scene. Nico continues to cry on and off for the entire film. Then 30 minutes before the end, Nico goes into full on uncontrollable sobbing, with the Eli cosplayer joining in while trying to comforting her at the same time. Even without that now defunct shithouse cosplay group, I still got my fill of fandom awkwardness and weirdness.

With that out of the way, time to talk about the film then. “Love Live! The School Idol Movie” picks up exactly where the final episode of the TV series left off. The organisers of Love Live! are holding a brand new competition at the Akiba Dome and have asked μ's to help promote it. For reasons unexplained in the film, this promotion is to take place in New York City and μ's performance is to be broadcast live in Japan. All of this despite the fact they’ve already decided to disband. After a couple of amusing side journeys, the girls arrive at their hotel and prepare for the event. They practice in Central Park and are befriended by the locals who speak English rather poorly and/or awkwardly. Hanayo has a terrible hankering for plain white rice and girls go out to local Japanese restaurant. However on the way back Honoka manages to get separated from the group and in a panic takes the wrong train and ends up on Broadway. There she meets a young Japanese woman who is busking on the street with only her beautiful voice. Honoka is taken by her performance and the two end up chatting. She tells Honoka that she was in group that broke up and now she sings on her own. This leads Honoka to have second thoughts about breaking up μ's. The unnamed singer then guides Honoka back to her hotel, but seemingly disappears when Honoka tries to introduce her to the rest of the girls. Honoka is left holding the young woman’s microphone stand case.

The girls end their stint in New York City with a performance in Times Square. Upon returning to Japan the girls immediately realise they are famous with video of the performance playing in the airport and people wanting their autograph. With their fans wanting them to continue with μ's they have second thoughts about disbanding. Honoka talks with the members of A-RISE who tell her they will continue their career even though they have graduated from high school. They suggest she talk to their management company and give her the contact details. The members of μ's come to the conclusion that they have two choices; follow the path of A-RISE and become fully-fledged idols or to hold onto their original determination and end the group after graduation.

That’s about all I can write about this film without giving the ending away. There really isn’t a whole lot to it all. The movie is just a bunch of set pieces strung together with a threadbare story and few character driven gags. That’s it. It probably should be called “Love Live! The School Idol Musical” as the girls often break out into song spontaneously. Sure, there were similar scenes in the series (most notable Honoka’s song at the end of the very first episode of the first series) and most of time the sequences made sense within the story, but here it’s so blatant. There’s just no rhyme or reason to the sudden outbursts of song in the film. And then you have the many unanswered questions that the movie raises. For instance, why in God’s name did they need to go to New York City? Who is the unnamed singer that Honoka befriends (and seemingly follows her back to Kanda)? Where are the staff/crew setting up the New York City performance? How come we never really see the audience in any of μ's performances?

I suppose none of this really matters. The first two seasons of "Love Live!" aren’t exactly taxing on the brain. It’s utterly silly, the characters are stereotypes, comes off as a bit schmaltzy at times and has as much substance as fairy floss. The point of the show (apart from the music) is to showcase the characters and the relationships between all nine girls. That’s why the fans love it; the characters are so damn endearing. However if you cannot connect with the characters, then the franchise isn’t for you. It’s utter fluff. I still don’t understand why they didn’t write in more of a sub plot for the unnamed New York City street singer. I mean she ends up back in Tokyo and won’t go into Honoka’s family sweet shop when invited by Honoka. What was up with that? After reading several reviews and opinions on the film, it seems the girl in question is most likely a Timelord (trying not to give spoilers away here…). I just wish that the makers of the film had at least given a few more clues as to her real identity. In the film her presence could be seen to be open to countless interpretations.

Putting that small annoyance to the side, undoubtedly the best part of the film is the two concluding musical sequences. They are just two beautiful fantasy set pieces, especially the grand finale. Watching the film, the one thing which really stuck out at me is how much the basic story is so similar to the “K-ON!” movie. In both the girls go over to an English speaking country, perform, head back to Japan to graduate before breaking up the band. It is rather an unfortunate comparison as I think “K-ON!” does a far better job at showing school girls enjoying their first time on an overseas trip than “Love Live!” does.

The film is nothing but a love note to the fans of the franchise. The animation is fantastic (though I’m still put off by CG models of the girls during concert sequences), there’s tons of humour and lots of (non-sexual) fan service and it’s just utterly fun. Having said that, it’s ultimately an empty vessel. You won’t find an exciting plot with lot of twists and turn here. It’s all played pretty safe, which could be seen as major disappointment. However the spectacle of it all, especially the concert sequences just about make up for the rather threadbare story. 7 out of 10. Bandai Visual in Japan is releasing the movie on Blu-ray in December with English subtitles as they did with both seasons of the TV series. You may want to import than rather than waiting for NIS America who still haven’t released the second series on Blu-ray.

Video Backlog: “Turn A Gundam”

Publisher: Sunrise/Right Stuf (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Subtitles.
Length: 50 episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 1999 - 2000
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

After an absence of around two thousand years, a group of humans who left the Earth for good, the Moonrace, decide to send down a team of three of their kind to see if they could inhabit the Earth again. The group is made up two 13 year old boys, Loran Cehack and Keith Laijie, and a young girl around the same age named Fran Doll. The three go their separate ways in order to infiltrate life on the planet. Unlike the high tech world of the Moonrace, Earth people’s technology is decidedly regressive with a world more in line with early 1920’s technology. Loran is surprised to come across a stream and decides to bathe in it. Attempting to recover a treasured keepsake that ends up floating downstream, he loses his footing and is carried away by the current. He is saved from being drown in the stream by two girls his age; Kihel Heim and her sister Sochie Heim. Loran soon recovers from ordeal and Kihel, daughter of a wealthy mining magnate, offers him a job in their mine and board. A couple of years pass. Loran ends up being a permanent part of the family’s staff. As well as having meals, board and education covered, he eventually becomes the family’s chauffeur. Later Loran meets up with Keith and Fran, whom have become a baker and news paper photographer respectively.

As Kihel had done previously in the year, a coming of age ceremony is prepared for Loran. On his 15th birthday, a group of teenagers along with Loran trek up the side of a mountain where a large idol known as the White Doll sits. Loran chooses Sochie to be his partner in the ritual which involves disrobing and mimicking stigmata on each other’s backs via leeches. But before the ceremony can be competed, an explosion occurs in the middle of town. Fires and other explosions follow and the teens scatter down the mountainside. Loran soon realises that the Moonrace have begun an invasion of Earth and is horrified. Loran and Sochie realise that the White Doll seems to be falling apart. What is actually happening is a thick protective coating is falling off a giant robot with a moustache like antenna which was hidden within the White Doll idol. Recognising that it is a mobile suit, Loran scrambles inside with Sochie and via the manual, he manages to start it up. Loran attempts to persuade the attackers to stop but fails. As a last resort, using a beam rife found beside the mobile suit, he fires at one of the Moonrace mobile suits, damaging it but also destroying the barrel of his weapon. This causes the enemy to retreat.

Upon returning to the Heim family house the next morning, the pair discover it has been party damaged in the battle. Worse is the fact that Kihel and Sochie’s father died when the house was hit by enemy fire. Kihel and her mother return from ball held the previous night. In shock and denial, their mother refuses to believe that her husband is dead. In shock Sochie slaps Loran and blames the entire battle on the fact he piloted the mobile suit. Earth doesn’t have governments as such. Instead there are principalities run by noblemen. The area the Heim family live in is Inglessa, which is ruled by a young nobleman named Guin Sard Lineford. Unbeknownst to the general population is that he has been secretly been negotiating a land settlement deal with the Moonrace (Earth does have primitive radio communications). Negotiations seem to have fallen though. Meeting with Loran, Guin ropes him into joining the principality’s militia (no governments means there is no real defence force) as he knows how the White Doll works. Loran has not let on to anyone that he is from the Moonrace and continues to play along. As a result Kihel also manages to have closer ties with Guin. Sochie also joins the militia as a mobile suit pilot

Skirmishes between the Moonrace and Earth militia continue. Eventually a ceasefire is called and Queen Dianna, ruler of the Moonrace arrives in order to personally to finalise the negotiations. It is immediately apparent to those who known the Heim family that the Queen is a dead ringer for Kihel. But while the negotiations are still taking place, the Moonrace have already begun their migration back to Earth. Vast areas are being fenced off much to local farmers disgust and Moonrace migrants are setting up in temporary camps. This causes more skirmishes between militia and the Moonrace mobile suits. Meanwhile local archaeologists have discovered more hidden “lost technology” like the moustached White Doll. Possibly over 2,000 years old, the mobile suits and other mecha are found buried in hillsides and in caves. All are protected by nanomachine membranes which have preserved them in mint condition. The discovery of these machines and the fact that the militia can pilot them, adds fuel to the fire. During the negotiations, Guin invites Queen Dianna on to his personal dirigible. There she meets Kihel and noticing the uncanny resemblance between them decides to swap clothes with her for fun. However this turns out to be a more permanent arrangement when Queen Dianna’s personal assistant arrives unexpectantly. Both are forced to take on each other’s roles and while playing each other’s part, they both soon find sympathy for each other’s people.

Oh god, where to start with this glorious mess of a show. So this show was a project for the 20th anniversary of Gundam. Conceived and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, the idea behind the show was to consolidate ALL of the Gundam continuities into one. No, I shit you not, that was the idea. Is it successful at doing that? Well, probably not. What you may not know is idea behind the name of the show. Apparently the “Turn A” mark on the head of the show’s Gundam is a mathematical symbol used in predicate calculus representing the universal quantifier, meaning "for all". So in other words it means that all the Gundam universes are all set with Turn A’s universe.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about the show. OK, if you’ve read this blog you know I am not a big fan of Yoshiyuki Tomino’s work. He’s bloody notorious for throwing audiences into shows without explaining what is going on, having terrible character names and awkward, baffling dialogue. Luckily this show doesn’t hit quite hit that trifecta of pain, but it more than makes up for it by confusing the crap out the audience for apparently no reason right up to the half way mark. There was a lot of negative criticism against “Gundam Reconguista in G” for its lack of coherent storytelling. Having seen both, I’d say “Turn A” is even more of a confused show. Take the first episode; Loran, Keith and Fran appear on screen in a capsule being sent to earth, all inexplicably singing “Mary Had a Little Lamb”. During the episode we take several time leaps without any explanation or anything to show the passage of time (e.g. scenes set in different seasons, or onscreen text stating the year or month). Scenes also transition into others without any explanation. For example characters could be inside the Heim mansion in conversation, then suddenly everyone is at the coming of age ceremony. The camera angles and cinematography can also be strange. One episode has an overhead shot with the camera slowly spinning. Even as the show progresses, key elements of the story are never really explained in the initial episodes. For example why is there such a gulf of difference between the technology of the Moonrace and the Earth people? It is hinted that Queen Dianna is at least a couple hundred years old, but isn’t she meant to be normal human? Why have the Moonrace returned to Earth? And it is never explained what Loran, Keith and Fran’s mission really is.

Unbelievably, most of these questions aren’t properly answered until we hit the half way mark of the show. You have to question why in hell Yoshiyuki Tomino does this to the audience. In what way is this beneficial to the story? I don’t understand how keeping this information from the audience helps at all. Knowing the background of the world, the background of the main characters is vital to understanding the story and the motivations of the characters. The only plausible explanation as to why this happens in his shows that he is considered God-like and no one (at the studio level) dares criticise him or make suggestions or asks him to work with a story editor. I mean basically Tomino does whatever the hell he likes. For example Guin constantly refers to Loran as Lauren (despite knowing his real name is Loran), tells the Moonrace delegates that Loran is female and even forces him to cross dress at one point. It is never, ever really made clear how this tactic helps the militia in anyway. There was a rumour that Tomino initially wanted Loran to be female in the story and the producers vetoed that. Tomino supposedly had his revenge by having him dress up as a girl. If that’s true it certainly explains a lot.

Other weirdness in the show includes one principality’s militia dressed in US civil war-like military outfits and one Moonrace mobile suit pilot having a Mars symbol (male gender symbol, ♂) on the crotch of his pilot suit. None of the reviews on this show I’ve read have seems to picked this up which amazes me. There’s also a small band of Moonrace descendants who have been living on the Earth for many generations whom seemingly without any contact with the Moonrace, take up arms against the militia, though it is never explained how they obtained their mobile suits. Putting aside my complaints about the show, it does improve immensely in the second half of the series. The battles are well choreographed, factions develop in the militia and the Moonrace and it’s just a really fun show. I’ll fully admit it doesn’t start of well with some really bad animation in the first four episodes and the lack of explanation of the world. If you can get past the half way mark, you will be rewarded. The designs are quite well done with Syd Mead (of “Blade Runner” fame) designing several of the main mobile suits including the much maligned Turn A Gundam. Yoko Kanno wrote and performed the soundtrack and the insert songs. It’s a pretty good soundtrack, but far from her best. She previously worked on Tomino’s “Brain Powered” TV series the year prior to this show’s broadcast.

The series was previously announced by Bandai Entertainment for a 2012 release. But their parent company pulled the plug on the company and it was never released. That release was to include an interview with Syd Mead. Luckily Sunrise have included it on the second DVD set. Running about 75 minutes in total, it’s broken up into three parts; in the first Mead discusses his early life and how he got into design work. The second focuses on this movie work. The third is of most interest to anime fans as he discusses his work with Sunrise over the years on various Gundam properties and his work with Yoshinobu Nishizaki in the late 1980’s on rebooting the “Yamato” franchise which eventually became the “Yamato 2520” OVA. That project was cancelled after 3 OVA episodes and a “episode zero” were released. The best thing about this interview is Mead talking about working on a live action Gundam in 1984 for Lionsgate, which was scuttled due to the fact Sunrise refused to let the company license the property.

All in all, “Turn A Gundam” is a odd, strange and rather frustrating show. It’s also well designed, has some really great characters and battles. Also of interest is the political machinations on the Moon and the factions developing between the hodge podge collective of militia fighting against the invasion and within the invaders on Earth themselves. The first half did shit me, but the second more than won me over. Silly and daft as it is, at the same time it’s also quite intriguing and lots of fun. Certainly nowhere near the best in the franchise, but certainly nowhere near the bottom. 7 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: Three series, seven movies, two OVA/specials, also waiting for second part of one show to be released before viewing it.