Video Backlog: “Garm Wars: The Last Druid”

Publisher: Animatsu (UK)
Format: Region B Blu-ray, PAL, English Dialogue
Length: 92 minutes
Production Date: 2014
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

The planet Annwn was home to eight races of humanoid beings called Garm. When their creator Diarne left the planet, the races started waring with each other. Eventually over the years and years of wars, only three races remained; the Columbia who are specialist in aerial combat, the Briga who are specialists in land combat and the Kuntak who only survived as they provided their technical expertise to the Briga. As result of the battles, the land is wasteland for the most part and the air is polluted. Regardless the battles still continue on. In an ongoing battle, the commander of a Columbia cruiser notices that the Briga are chasing one of their own shuttles. It is suspicious enough to want capture of the shuttle by Columbia cruiser soliders who battle the Briga fighters as the chased shuttle eventually crashes. Inside is a Kuntak named Wydd (Lance Henriksen, Bishop in “Aliens”, Frank Black in “Millennium”), a Gula which is a kind of holy dog, and a Druid named Nascien (Summer Howell, Alice in “Curse of Chucky”). The Druids are supposedly an extinct race, yet here is one with a Kuntak. The Druids are said to hold massive amounts of data and are able to do millions of calculations. They are extremely useful as tactical weapons.

Wydd and the Druid are transported to the interrogation room by a solider named Khara (Melanie St-Pierre). Wydd thanks her predecessor who died in battle (Khara is a clone) while saving him from being captured by the Briga. He offers her a chance to be blessed by the Gula, however they arrive at their destination before she has a chance to be blessed. In the interrogation Wydd is more concerned with parting his philosophy on why the Garm races are fighting each other than answering the Columbia interrogator’s questions. They are initially dismissive of the fact that the person next to him is an actual Druid, however Wydd eventually convinces the head interrogator to give the Druid access to the main core (the Columbia cruiser’s main computer) in order to prove his claims. Despite some of the interrogators misgivings, Wydd links the Druid to the main core and within minutes the Druid causes an overflow of data into the main core, killing all of the interrogators and eventually the commander of the cruiser and anyone else linked into the main core.

A Briga squad, led by Skellig (Kevin Durand, who played Martin Keamy in “Lost” and Fred J. Dukes in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”) storm the Columbia cruiser in order retrieve Wydd, the Druid and the Gula. They enter the sleep hive where Khara’s cloned sisters live and kill them all, retrieve Wydd, the Druid and the Gula and make their escape. Khara is devastated at the loss of her sisters and is determined to fight the escaping the Briga. The Columbia cruiser is sunk only moments after Khara leaves in her aircraft fighter. She follows the Briga craft and manages to damage it but is shot down herself by enemy fire. She survives and begins to walk across the barren landscape. She soon comes across the downed Briga craft and tracks the survivors for several days though some extreme terrain and weather. There at the edge of the Tork sea is the remaining Briga solider, Skellig, as well as Wydd, the Druid and the Gula beside a Briga tank.

Khara takes on Skellig in an attempt to kill him, however he gains the upper hand and throws her to the ground. But before he can deliver the fatal blow, the Gula jumps on Khara, blessing her. Wydd reminds Skellig that it would be foolish to kill someone who has been blessed by a Gula. The group forms an uneasy truce when Wydd reveals to Skellig that he has been directing him towards the land of the Druids and not the Briga command base. He tells both Khara and Skellig they they both cut off from their tribes and convinces them to join him on his quest to discover why the creator Diarne left Annwn. Despite the fact the pair do not have much Mana (essentially a life giving energy that both of them use), they agree to help him and set out on the Briga tank across the sea and wasteland. Khara soon finds she is questioning the war and everything around her, though Skellig doesn’t share her concerns.

In the last couple of years Mamoru Oshii has made a number of live action projects; the epic yet box office failure of the “Next Genertion  -Patlabor-” mini film series and full length theatrical feature and “Tokyo Mukokuseki Shoujo (Nowhere Girl)” which looks like a genre B-movie exploitation piece. The third live action project was this film; “Garm Wars: The Last Druid”. Initially announced by Bandai Visual in October 1997 as "The Record of Garm War" or "G.R.M.", it was seemingly abandoned and never made. Most people assumed that his 2001 live action film, “Avalon” was made in response to that or was cobbled out of ideas from "The Record of Garm War". It came as a major surprise when out of nowhere in late 2012 it was re-announced as co-production between Bandai Namco, Production I.G and Canadian film company Lyla Films. The film eventually debuted at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 2014 and got a small theatrical release in Canada the following year. Since then not a great deal has been heard about the film. Madman Entertainment’s Eastern Eye imprint released the film on DVD and Blu-ray in March this year and Animatsu (formerly Manga Entertainment) gave the film a UK BD release as well in the same month. The film still hasn’t received a Japanese release. That won’t be until the 20th of May this year.

The fact that no large film distributors or home video companies have picked up the film and its staggered release speaks volumes about it. Certainly it’s not as self-indulgent and frustrating as his very early live action work such as “The Red Spectacles” and “Talking Head”. Over the years he has developed as a live action director. This film is very much in the vein of his 2001 film “Avalon”. Its filled sepia toned landscapes, militaristic hardware and the usual Oshii philosophy. His infamous fetish for basset hounds is also here in big way. The first time we see one is right at the five minute mark. In the film the dog plays a major role as a Gula, a kind of holy animal which can bless people. Apart from showing several battle sequences with lots of militaristic machines, Oshii also concentrates on religious themes (another Oshii trait) most of which seems to use a lot of language and elements of Genesis in Wydd’s quest for his creator.

There are several aspects of the film which annoyed me. First and foremost is that film feels like it’s been pieced together from bits and pieces from previous Oshii films. Khara certainly feels more than  a bit similar to Motoko Kusanagi, a scene in forest battle sequence feels like it’s a direct lift from “Patlabor 2 the movie” and the Briga tank seems awfully similar to the one in “Angel’s Egg”. I will admit that much of the photography and CG effects are utterly gorgeous at times. However some shots just looked too over processed and utterly unnatural. Some of the shots of a battle sequence inside a forest also looked quite unnatural, especially shots of a CG Skellig climbing over a giant creature. Wydd’s dialogue at times can seem rather waffling and pointless. You can almost see an expression of “what in god’s name am I saying?” on Lance Henriksen’s face. However I thought Melanie St-Pierre and Kevin Durand (the other two main actors in the film) were pretty good, despite a small portion of their dialogue coming off a bit silly. The script was co-written by Geoffrey Gunn who does a decent job, though his career seems to be in a rut, his CV credits him mostly writing scripts for terrible genre and exploitation films.

In the end, that’s what the film feels like; a B-movie. It's ambition more often than not outstrips it's budget. I sort of wonder if this film will end up in a line of those cheap DVDs you find in supermarkets and dollar stores, full of films that you’ve never heard of. Kenji Kawai yet again provides the score for another Oshii film. It’s mostly ethereal and otherworldly like a lot of his other work in Oshii films, but in some spots it does come off as bit generic which disappointed me. Most of the story and the designs are pretty damn good. What lets the film down though is that it can be a little hard to figure out what is going on. Oshii has created a fully realised world, however it requires a minute and a half info dump of non-stop dialogue before the credits to get people up to speed. The ending also felt a bit too abrupt and not well thought out, almost like an afterthought. Overall it wasn’t a bad film. There are some fantastic elements to the film. But like a lot of Oshii’s films, there’s too much navel gazing, too much self-indulgence. It’s certainly not a patch on “Avalon” which I think is his best live action film. 6 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 12 movies, three OVAs/specials, five TV series, also waiting for second parts for four shows to be released before viewing them.

Video Backlog: “Code Geass: Akito the Exiled”

Publisher: Emotion (Bandai Visual, Japan)
Format: Region Free Blu-ray, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English and Japanese Subtitles
Length: 5 episodes, 51 minutes (episode 1), 59 minutes (episodes 2 to 5)
Production Date: 2012 – 2016
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Set in-between the two TV series of “Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion”, this five part movie/OVA series begins in 2017 a.t.b (Ascension Throne Britannia) where the 132nd regiment of the United Republic of Europia (European Union or EU) military is taking on a unit of Knightmares from Holy Britannian Empire. The war between the two superpowers has been ongoing for some time now. In this particular mission, the EU military is planning to take back St Petersburg, however have been blocked at Narva (southwest of St Petersburg) by the Britannian military. The EU’s soldiers in this battle are made up entirely by Elevens, refugees from the island nation once known as Japan. However they are losing the battle with the Britannian military decimating the EU’s Alexander Knightmares. The commander of the mission, Leila Malcal, orders a retreat to save as many lives as possible. However her commanding officer, Pierre Anou, rescinds the order and pulls a gun on her. She disarms him and he is taken away by military police. The battle is coming to an end and the sole surviving solider is Hyuga Akito, who seemingly under influence of Geass, surprisingly singlehandedly defeats all of the Britannian Knightmares.

Afterwards Leila with Akito as her bodyguard travel to Paris in order to argue her case for a much broader offensive to General Gene Smilas, current leader of the EU. She argues her case but doesn’t get what she wants. Later Leila and Akito become escorts for the general in his motorcade. En route they are attacked by a small band of Elevens. One manages to take out the transport for Guardmares (security Knightmare robots) as well as the Guardmares themselves with his Knightmare, while a second throws a grenade under the general’s car, forcing Smilas and Leila to flee before it explodes. Smilas is then taken hostage. But Akito manages to subdue the Eleven and his Knightmare, barehanded after his Guardmare is disabled. The three Elevens, Ryou Sayama, Ayano Kosaka and Yukiya Naruse eventually surrender when they realise their plan to hold Smilas hostage in order to obtain more Knightmares is doomed. Leila makes a deal with them; either join the EU army under her command or go to prison. Of course they choose the former.

Leila, Akito and the new recruits return to their base, Castle Weisswolf in the French Alps. Ryo, Ayano and Yukiya are assessed as suitable to become members of the squadron, however some have misgivings. As a result the trio are confined to their quartes and the mess hall. Akito warns Leila that if they are not given free reign they will rebel. The trio soon discover that there are secret passageways in some sections of the castle and plan to steal several Knightmares and escape. They hack into the security cameras and upload a program that looks as if they are in their quarters and change the settings on their security passes. However Leila and Akito soon discover and thwart their plan. Leila guarantees their safety in an upcoming battle when Ryo claims that they’re being sent on a suicide mission. Much to their disbelief, Leila tells them that she will be accompanying them on the mission in her own Knightmare.

The audacious new battle plan has Ryo, Ayano, Yukiya, Akito and Leila being launched in a rocket into space, where their capsules will re-enter the atmosphere and their Knightmare’s will burst out, and paraglide down to the surface with a backup force of Knightmare drones already on the ground. Their mission is attempting to take back Warsaw. However right from the start things don’t go to plan. Ryo, Ayano and Yukiya attack Akito in an attempt to kill him. Their plain is thwarted when long range cannon fire (from 500km away) engulfs the area and everyone is forced to flee. They end up running into a Britannian force which they eventually defeat. Leila suspects that someone has leaked their plans. Eventually they arrive at the town of Slonim but cannot find a living soul there. They ambushed by a waiting elite Britannian Knightmare squad. Akito’s Geass takes over and he manages to “infect” Ryo, Ayano and Yukiya who fight like savages and manage to defeat some of the enemy Knightmares. At this point their commander, Shin Hyuuga Shaingu, in his insanely over the top golden centaur like Knightmare (named Vercingetorix) takes on Akito, breaking his Geass hold on the others, who end up losing their battles and exiting their Knightmares. Shin reveals that he is Akito and that he is going to kill him.

It wasn’t all that surprising that “Code Geass” got a sequel (though this more of a quasi-prequel/side story). But I wasn’t really expecting much as the OVA which came out prior to this. “Code Geass: Nunnally in Wonderland”, was a kind of crappy 25 minute picture drama that wasn’t worth anyone’s time or money. I really wasn’t expecting much at all from this series and bought the first disc pretty much on a whim on my last day in Japan on a holiday in March 2013. I wasn’t immediately won over, but upon a second viewing I was floored. The story is pretty damn good (and far less over absurdly the top than the TV series), the animation is brilliant and so are the mecha and character designs (with CLAMP returning as character designers). This series is one of the increasing numbers of big budget OVAs released theatrically (with ticket holders getting an early copy of the OVA on Blu-ray) then given a general home video release some months later. It seems to be working a treat for Bandai Visual and as an added bonus most of these types of releases from that company have come with optional English subtitles.

Apart from the main story of Leila and Akito’s unit, there’s also a parallel story involving the political machinations of Euro Britannia, made worse by the arrival of Julius Kingsley (a barely disguised Lelouch Lamperouge) and his bodyguard Suzaku Kururugi, apparently sent by Emperor Charles zi Britannia in order to reignite a stalled campaign to gain more territory. C.C. also returns but not as you’d expect. One other character from the TV series makes an appearance, but it’s a bit spolierish, so I won’t mention who it is. Like the TV series there is a huge cast, almost too many people to keep track of. Other than the characters I mentioned, Britannian Knightmare squad members Ashley Ashura and Shin’s offsider Jean Lowe are also interesting characters to watch out for. As is Claus Warrick, Leila’s military underling and a bit of a drunk. Director Kazuki Akane (“Vision of Escaflowne”, “Noein”) certainly has made the show look spectacular, however there isn’t much in   the way of clues to help you try and figure out where the series fits within the larger “Code Geass” franchise. The only real clue to when this takes place is the 2017 date, which you may have missed if you weren’t watching the first TV series too closely. The fact that the EU has a completely different year calendar (Revolutionary Calendar year 228 is 2017 apparently) only confuses things further. As does the way the EU treats the refugee Elevens (just as appalling as or worse than the Britannians) or the fact some of the EU military outfits are just as dressy as the Britannian’s. As a result I was kind of confused as to where the story took place, until the Britannians showed up.

The only other problem I had with the show was some of the sequences were a bit silly and the post climatic scenes seemed a bit daft (until we get to the post script at the end). However overall the series is quite restrained compared to the amazingly over the top atmosphere of two TV series. It also feels a lot more plausible as a result. The Geass phenomena is also fleshed out a bit more (with a rather intriguing character called the Caretaker of Space-time making a couple of appearances), however not all is revealed and in the end it’s still quite a mystery. The Knightmare battles are pretty amazing and really well choreographed. All of them are CG instead of the hand drawn Knightmares in the TV series. I really like Shin’s insane Vercingetorix, a transformable centaur/humanoid type gold in colour with a bizarre lance made of gears. The Japanese releases are pretty good with great artwork and full colour booklets. I’m really glad I got these over the Funimation release.

I’m really surprised this series hasn’t made more noise in western fandom. I guess it’s because no one is streaming it. I think it’s one of the best anime series to be released in the last few years. It looks fantastic and the story is really good (maybe a couple too many side departures from the main story). In the last couple of weeks I watched the two TV series again before watching the entire “Akito the Exiled” series. It really surprised me how insane and melodramatic the original TV series were. I’d say “Akito the Exiled” is a far better sequel than the original because it chooses to be a little bit more subdued. 8.5 out of 10

Remaining Backlog: 14 movies, three OVAs/specials, five TV series, also waiting for second parts for four shows to be released before viewing them.

Japan, A Shopping Overview: Jinbocho

I’ve pretty much done over the major anime shopping centres in Japan (maybe I could have done one on Ikebukuro, but I haven’t done that area over properly), as well as mentioning some of the record shops I like going to. The other thing I like shopping for is books and magazines. While there are hundreds of book stores dotted across Tokyo, Jinbocho (sometimes Romanised as “Jimbocho”) in Chiyoda is literally called booktown for a very good reason. There are over 150 book stores and most of Japan’s major publishers have their headquarters there. Many of these stores sell second hand books which (some a bit on the scholarly side of things) and also period novels and classics, however a number of shops sell Japanese (and some western) pop culture stuff such as movie merchandise, popular and niche hobby magazines, rock music merchandise, manga, tokusatsu and anime items and even gravure idol books and videos and porn. A lot of this material can be fairly recent or as far back as the early Showa era. Naturally the pop culture stuff is what I’m most interested and what I’ll be focusing on the most in this post.

To get there from Shinjuku station, go to the Toei Subway and take the Shinjuku line (green coloured, Shinjuku is station number S-01). Generally it’ll take less than 10 minutes to get to Jinbocho (station S-06). Take exit A1 and you’re on Yasukuni Avenue, the main thoroughfare in Jinbocho. Turn right, and the fourth shop down will be @Wonder (open from 11am, 12pm on a Sunday). This shop has an amazing selection of Japanese movie memorabilia including theatrical posters, movie programmes, flyers, lobby cards and promotional stills and related magazines and books. While it’s got some amazing stuff, it has been raked over by collectors, so be aware. There are quite a fair few anime posters on the first floor at the back of the shop on the left hand side. Just up from @Wonder is Vintage (open from 11am, 12pm on a Sunday), who have a wide range period magazines, from the 1950’s right up to present day including popular stuff right down to various subculture oddities. First floor has general stuff, cinema and whole heap of rock magazines related to western artists. Second floor has male and female idol stuff, more pop and rock music magazines and men’s magazines. There are some anime related books here (on the first floor), but are pretty expensive when compared with places like Mandarake.

In the next block is Bunken Shoin (open from 10:30am, 11am on the weekends). They used to have separate rock music and general pop culture stores, but now I think it’s the one shop. They mostly stock J-pop, rock and various other genres of music magazines, books and various bits of merchandise including some anime, manga and tokusatsu magazines and books, concert programmes and idol books and assorted merchandise. There’s a lot of western pop, rock, prog rock and metal books and magazines here as well (mostly Japanese stuff). Just next door in the Kanda Used Book Centre on the second floor is the Nakano Shoten Mangabu (open from 10am, 11am on the weekends). Not 100% sure why it has Nakano in the store’s name as it’s nowhere near Nakano. This shop made the rounds of western collectors in the last five years or so and as a result it’s been picked over. They still have a lot of rare first edition manga sets, a ton of weekly shonen and shoujo manga magazines dating back decades and some movie programmes and theatrical anime movie posters.

Keep heading east along Yasukuni Avenue to the end of the block, then cross Hakusan Avenue, and you’ll come across Comic Takaoka (open from 11am, 12pm on the weekends) in the next block. Certainly this two floor shop (first floor and basement) isn’t as well stocked as many of the shops elsewhere in the city, but they do stock a fairly wide range of manga, some doujin, some magazines and some artbooks. It’s time to get off the main road and do some exploring of some shops in the backstreets. Track back to the crossing and walk across to the other side of Yasukuni Avenue and begin to walk up Hakusan Avenue on the right hand side. Walk past the pharmacy and two blocks later you should come to a side street just before a Hertz/Toyota car rental shop.  Turn right into that side street and walk approximately three blocks. On the far corner of the third block should be a coffee shop with a sort of European façade. Turn left around that corner and the very next building next to the coffee shop should be a thin red brick building. On the second floor will be Kanke Shobo (open 11am). This small shop has an amazing range of rare and obscure manga, manga magazines, Showa era children’s books and magazines and other obscure Japanese pop culture oddities. Most of the stuff dates back from the 1950’s (some even older) to the late 1970’s. Once you’re done there, walk out of the shop and turn to your left slightly as you exit the building. You’ll see a thin grey bricked building with a florist on the ground floor with a blue awning. To the left of that building is a slightly larger brown brick building with a garage on the ground floor and the entrance next to it. On the third floor of this building is Kudan Shobo (open from 11am, closed Sunday). Like Kanke Shobo they have an amazing selection of rare and obscure manga including some original artwork, period children’s magazines and manga magazines, period doujin, merchandise, anime scripts, animation setting and design sheets and other related material. And as with Kanke Shobo, it’s mostly 1950’s to 1970’s material.

When you’re done there, turn left as you exit the building and keep waking to you hit Yasukuni Avenue. On the other side of the road should be Shosen Grande (open from 10am) which has idol and manga stuff on the first and third floors respectively. Next door in the block on the right is Komiyama Shoten (open from 11am) which has an amazing selection of modern and classic art books and prints. I really liked the Jamie Reid “God Save the Queen” Sex Pistols prints, but they were way out of my price range (and how the hell would I get one home anyway?). Duck down the alley way next to Shosen Grande and Komiyama Shoten and turn left at the next street. A hundred or so metres on your left will be a shop with a maroon coloured awning called Aratama (open from 11am). They have a couple of other shops which are filled with vintage porn/idol magazines and photobooks from what I can gather. This particular shop is interesting though. The first floor is a bloody dog’s breakfast with old VHS tapes of gravure idols and nude models on one side in unorganised piles and old and newish idol, gravure idol and junior idol photobooks. This is the first and only time I have seen a shop with junior idol stuff in it. To be honest it sort of shocked me when I realised what the books were. A small spiral staircase leads to the second floor with more idol merchandise than you could poke a stick at. Most of it ranges from the late 1970’s up to modern times.

Exit Aratama and turn left. Cross the road and walk to the next block. Almost at the end of that block should be Rock on King (third floor, open from 1pm, closed Wednesdays and Sundays). As the name suggests they have a massive array of rock and pop memorabilia including photo books, concert programmes, fan club bulletins, posters, some CDs and DVDs, merchandise sold only at concerts, and books on the history of various music genres. Just about every genre is covered in the range of merchandise on offer; Japanese rock, metal, a lot of prog rock, some J-pop and idol stuff and some indie stuff, both western bands and Japanese. Of course most of the material is of Japanese origin. Not much stuff in English. To get to the final shop in our jaunt around Jinbocho, exit Rock on King to your right. Duck down the next side street to your right. In the next block on the right is Book Dash (open from 11am). Yes, you can tell from the books outside the shop that the main product being sold here is gravure idol photobooks as well as idol photobooks. Inside they also have men’s magazines and nude photobooks dating back to the 1980’s as well as VHS tapes and DVDs of gravure idols and even a ton of obscure race queen stuff. They also have a surprisingly wide range of vintage manga and anime items. Certainly it’s no Mandarake, but there is some interesting stuff here.

That’s it for Jinbocho and my series on shopping in Japan. Next up I’ll be taking a look around Shinjuku, the area I always stay in when I go to Tokyo.

Japan, A Shopping Overview: AruAru City and Fukuoka

Surprisingly there aren’t many large otaku shopping districts south of the Kansai region. In fact the largest of these types of areas outside of the Kanto and Kansai regions is way down in Kyushu, in Kokura in Fukuoka Prefecture. Not far from the Japan Rail (JR) Kokura station is AruAru City, a seven floor complex of mostly otaku type shops. The Tenjin area of Fukuoka also has a number of anime and hobby related stores, though spread out over a wide area. First up, let’s go to AruAru City.

If you’re coming from Hakata station and have a Japan Rail Pass, you can take the Shinkansen to Kokura station in around 17 minutes. If not it’ll take anywhere from 40 to 80 minutes on the JR Kagoshima Line depending on if you get the rapid, semi rapid or regular trains. If you take the Shinkansen exit, you’ll find yourself out on a walkway overlooking the rear of the station. Here you will find a full sized statue of Captain Harlock.

Leiji Matsumoto was born in Fukuoka, hence the statue outside the station. Next to Harlock there are statues of Maetel sitting on a bench (so you can sit next to her) and Tetsuro standing next to the bench. Both are from Matsumoto’s “Galaxy Express 999”.

Following the path to the right you’ll eventually come to a walkway which leads across to AruAru City (most shops open from 11am), a otaku shop complex which the promotional material claims has a focus anime, games, manga, idols and local comedy. It opened in 2012 and seems to be linked with the Tokyo Anime Centre in Akihabara. The walkway leads you to the second floor, however I’ll go through the shops from the top of the building the bottom. On the seventh floor is the Aruaru City Theatre which has comedy acts, idol group performances and karaoke nights in the evenings from Tuesdays to Fridays. The sixth and fifth floors have the Kitakyushu Manga Museum (open from 11am, closed Tuesdays). Costing ¥400, the small museum mostly features the work of Leiji Matsumoto (including another Harlock statue) and a Manga Time Tunnel which begins in 1945 and goes right through to modern times. The tunnel leads to a manga library. Unfortunately I came on a Tuesday and never got to go inside the museum…

From the fourth floor downwards, it’s all anime related shops (for the most part). The fourth floor has Smile Station (figures and other anime merchandise as well as purikura photo sticker machines). Also on this floor are branches of Super Position Recycle Shop (second hand figures and merchandise) and Mandarake (open from 12pm). The Mandarake branch at AruAru City is a little light on in terms of books and manga. They do stock loads and loads of figures and have a surprisingly good DVD and Blu-ray section. The third floor has a number of big chain anime related stores; Animate, C-Labo (cards), Gamers, Melonbooks (doujin) and Lashinbang (second hand figures and other goods). The second floor has a mix of stores including Machi Asobi Cafe (anime themed café in one shop, the other has various anime goods) a Jungle branch (second hand figures), Jiku Chushinha (local doujin circle goods), G-Stage (UFO Catcher and other games), a branch of Robot Robot (figures), AMPnet.jp (video and PC games, BDs and DVDs, figures and some anime goods) and Gatcha Gatcha Section (gatchapon of course). On the last two floors (the first and the basement), there’s a real mix of tenants including a real estate agent, a golf store, and internet café, a karaoke bar, a family restaurant, a slot car race circuit and a practice space/studio for bands. What really impressed me about AruAru City was the amount of really great figures for sale in the shops. The day I went there, most of the shops had a lot of really rare and unusual stuff there for reasonable prices.

That’s about it for Kokura. Now on to the Tenjin area in Fukuoka. To get there take the JR Kagoshima Line back to Hakata station, then transfer to the subway and get on the Kuko Line (the station number for Hakata on this line is K11). This will take around 60 to 90 minutes or a bit over 30 minutes if you take the Shinkansen from Kokura to Hakata station. Once you’re at Tenjin station (K08), take exit one. Walk west along Meiji Avenue and in the third block on the left will be the Mandarake Fukuoka store (open from 12pm). Like the one in AruAru City this is overflowing with figures and merchandise. There are more books here, but it’s not as comprehensive as other Mandarake stores. I was hoping for a selection of movie programmes like most other Mandarake stores have, but was surprised that like the AruAru City store they had none. Follow the road back to the main intersection which crosses the main road in Tenjin. Turn left up the main road, two blocks on the right will be North Tenjin Building and on the sixth floor is Book Off Super Bazaar Tenjin. In the building next door, the Daiei building, is Volks on the sixth floor. Like the other store in this chain they have a ton figure, model kits, accessories and supplies as well as a large range of Dollfie stuff.

Across the road from the Daiei building are branches of Gee! Store (on the second floor) and Melonbooks (on the third floor). Head south down the main road to the end of the block and turn right. In the next block on the left will be a local branch of Toranoana. Another set of otaku-like shops can be found back on the main street three blocks south. After the block with Tsutaya and Tenjin Core, turn left down the side street past the side of Tenjin Core. At the end of the block is the Vivre shopping centre. On the sixth floor is a branch of Animate as well as the Animate Café, another branch of Smile Station and Mint Trading Cards and Card Games Shop. There was a branch of Kotobukiya around here as well, but that shut down in 2014. Walking back to the main street, turn left and keep walking south for about four blocks. On the other side of the street is the Loft shopping complex. The basement floor of the building is a hobby shop called Tom Sawyer. They have model kits and supplies, figures, some merchandise and some garage kits.

That’s it for Fukuoka. Unlike other regions in Japan, there is a fairly up to date website called Fukuoka Otaku News which highlights all the otakuish type events and shops in the region. Unfortunately it’s only in Japanese, but it’s easy to navigate. There’s a lot of interesting things on the site including directions on how to get to the Gundam Bar Solomon and the Bar NERV Fukuoka Branch. Yes, unofficial Gundam and Evangelion themed bars. This concludes my series about anime shopping in Japan. Next up I’ll be looking at Jinbocho in Chiyoda, Tokyo which is well known for its used book shops.

Video Backlog: “Magic Users Club!”

Publisher: Nozomi Entertainment (Right Stuf, USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Dub and Subtitles
Length: 6 episodes x 28 minutes
Production Date: 1996 – 1997
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

An enormous cylindrical alien spacecraft takes out a defence satellite and continues onwards into the Earth’s atmosphere. Above the Pacific Ocean, the US military attempt to take it on with a fleet of ships and tens of fight jets. Drones are launched from the alien spacecraft who then proceed to vaporise the fighter planes, missiles and ships, without harming a single human being. Fast forward to a year later; the world’s governments have realised that if they do not attack the alien spacecraft, now known by the world colloquially as the Bell, then the Bell and it’s spherical black drones, known as Eyeballs, do no one harm. The Bell seems to be some sort of unmanned exploration device, though no one really knows its true purpose. As a result the bulk of humanity go about their daily life without worrying about it or the Eyeballs.

However the president of the Magic Club Kitanohashi High School, Takeo Takakura, has taken it on himself to rid the world of the Bell. However in reality he only said this to impress fellow club member and underclassmen Sae Sawanoguchi because he has the hots for her. One Saturday morning he asks the club to gather at the pier. However of the five members of the club, only Takeo and Ayanojyo Aburatsubo show up. Aburatsubo is the vice president and also the only other male in the club, however has eyes for Takeo, who has no intention of reciprocating his feelings. Eventually the clumsy Sae shows up to join them much to Takeo’s horror as he really has no intentions of fighting the Bell. Sae’s best friend and fellow club member, Nanaka Nakatomi, joins them but only remind Sae that they both agreed to not to go. However Sae ends up bawling and says she’ll support him anyway. In the end Takeo, Aburatsubo and Sae take off on their broomsticks and fly out over the ocean towards the Bell, despite the fact Sae can barely fly on her broomstick.

With Takeo still not knowing what to do, the three arrive within visual distance of the Bell. However they are soon interrupted by Nanaka who flies past them at an incredible speed hanging from her out of control broom. She eventually decided to join the group, but only has rudimentary magic skills. The trio’s collective efforts to stop her fail, and as a last ditch effort to stop her crashing into the side of the Bell they get her to let go of the broom stick with Aburatsubo eventually saving her from the fall. The out of control broomstick is eventually vaporised by the Bell when it ventures too close. This sets off a number humanoid probes who decide to examine the club members. The probing becomes too much and Sae accidently transforms one of the humanoids into a pillow. Panic ensues and everyone makes a run for it, however Sae gets captured. Despite the other humanoids attempting to vaporise their broomsticks the other club members manage to escape end up in the ocean. Sae ends up accidently vaporising her captor with her magic and floats down on a hired boat which contains investigative journalist Mitsuru Minowa and his photographer Yoshito Yoshimoto. A little embarrassed, Sae heads off three on the remaining broomstick. Mitsuru is intrigued by the four of them and decides to investigate them further.

The following day Nanaka drags Sae into the clubroom at school to inform Takeo of their resignation. Who would want to be in a club that fights aliens? While Takeo is gutted at this, there is also the pressing issue of the Manga Club encroaching on their club’s space. The club’s president, Mizuha Miyama, has a nasty habit of bullying Takeo using her uh, “ample assets”. However the fifth member of the Magic Club, the skittish boy magnet Akane Aikawa, uses her magic to create a flower on Miyama’s head. She tries to pluck it off, but another appears in its place. It doesn’t matter how many times she repeats this, a new flower takes its place. Her doting Manga Club members rush her to the infirmary. Unbeknownst to everyone, Akane’s magic has gained the attention of one of the Eyeball drones that proceeds to break into the infirmary and examine the flower and Miyama. Sae asks Takeo if he’s going to help, which leads the rest of the club (minus Akane who’s on a date) to mount a rescue plan save Miyama. The replacement magic to remove the Eyeball more or less works (after a couple of attempts), but the club soon realise that they have to use their magic more cautiously so as not to attract the attention of the aliens.

This little OVA was easily one of my favourites in the mid to late 1990’s. It was sort of a “gateway drug” into magical girl anime for me, even though it strictly isn’t magical girl anime per se (it’s aimed strictly at the male otaku set, not prepubescent girls). I think it was also the very first anime I saw which featured a high school club, a feature which modern anime certainly isn’t short of now days. The OVA was directed by the king of magical girl anime, Junichi Sato (“Aria the animation”, “Princess Tutu”, “Kaleido Star”, “Keroro Gunso”, “Tamayura”), and I think was the first anime he directed after he left “Sailor Moon R”.  Ikuko Ito did the fantastic character designs, Mahiro Maeda (of Gonzo and early Gainax fame) did the mechanical designs and the CG sequences and Ichiro Itano was the animation director for the avant title which featured the massive battle between the Bell and it’s drones and the US Navy. I especially love that sequence, even though the CG Bell is by modern standards really low res and primitive. I’m pretty sure some anime fan’s speakers where damaged by the boom of the instrumentation and sound effects after about 45 seconds of complete silence (due to the fact the Bell is in space for those first 45 seconds).

While the story and plot of the OVA is pretty good, the characters make it shine. Sure they are a bit clichéd; Sae is an utter klutz, Takeo is a perverted teenage boy, Akane is the hot babe, Nanaka the tomboyish best friend and Aburatsubo is the yaoi archetype. However they are terribly endearing and it’s hard not feel empathy for them sometimes. There is a slight emphasis on “ecchi humour”, however it isn’t the driving force of the show and is mostly used to make fun of Takeo’s tendencies. I think from the early to late 1990’s was bit of a golden age for the OVA format. While there was a lot of trash, there are a number of gems including this title. The budget looks reasonably large with a number of fantastic animation sequences. For example the sequence where Sae meets the magician Jeff as a young girl in the forest, or Aburatsubo taking Nanaka for ride on a broomstick around the empty school, or the five club members using their magic to turn a campfire into a circle of dancing fire people. These moments are truly magical, if you’ll excuse the pun. There’s a follow up TV series which screening in the wee hours of the morning in late 1999. It’s a decent show but hardly as fun as the OVA. The transition of this show from OVA to late night TV series mirrors what happened to the OVA market. Certainly a lot of these late night TV series would be far better as short OVAs due the fact there’s not a lot of meat on their bones. It’s a pity that the OVA market is effectively dead.

Nozomi Entertainment’s DVD is far better than anything Media Blasters put out. This version removes those shitty English overlays of Japanese text, actually has a stereo track for the English dub and has a great set of features, including a short behind the scenes look at the long departed studio Triangle Staff (of “Serial Experiments Lain” fame). The video isn’t brilliant with some aliasing and moiré artefacts, mostly in the dated CG sections. However there is no HD version of the show and it is a step up from the Media Blasters DVD version. Overall I think this a great little show. It makes me really pine for that short period where OVAs existed. The animation is fantastic, the music too and the story is quite fun, if a bit silly. I really enjoyed catching up with this title which I hadn’t seen for years. 8 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: One movie, one OVA, five TV series, also waiting for second parts for five shows to be released before viewing them.

Video Backlog: “The Laws of the Universe Part 0”

Publisher: Kofuku no Kagaku Publishing (Japan)
Format: Region Free Blu-ray, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English and Japanese Subtitles
Length: 125 minutes
Production Date: 2015
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Halle, Ray, Anna, Eisuke and Tyler are teen boarders at the prestigious Nazca Academy. Besides being close friends, they are also preparing to present a yet undecided topic at the upcoming school festival as part of the Research and Creation class. Halle’s sister, Natsumi is having trouble sleeping and concentrating. She constantly finds herself out in the forest near the school late at night not knowing how she got there. Eventually one morning she faints during breakfast in the cafeteria. Halle is concerned for her welfare especially after she discovers she has been to the cram school called the Genius School. The cram school is the talk of the Academy, with strange rumours circulating that they hypnotise the students who then have prefect recall of whatever they read.

The group decide to ask Professor Yoake of the Space Sciences division to help. Through hypnotic regression, Natsumi recalls that she was actually abducted by grey type aliens and taken aboard a spacecraft, however an accident occured before the aliens could complete some sort of procedure on her brain. The professor hypothesises that the aliens have inserted a mind controlling chip inside her head which cannot be picked by a CAT scan (how convenient!). The following day at one of the professor’s lectures, Ray enthusiastically decides that the group’s topic for their presentation at the festival should be “The Truth About UFOs and Aliens”. This is in part to find evidence of the creatures that abducted Natsumi and to find a way to protect her. Rather than leave the school during the summer break, the five of them stay at the academy to prepare their presentation. Eisuke and Tyler overhear a group of students saying they are going out into the forest late at night. While Eisuke says that they should keep it a secret, Tyler follows the group but loses them in the forest. He sees a light and realises it’s a spacecraft. He tries to run but is abducted.

The next morning he admits to the group of his abduction. He tells them that a beautiful blonde humanoid alien from the Pleiades star cluster explained to him that the grey type aliens that abducted Nastsumi are actually cyborg worker drones who work for an evil reptilian alien race (paging David Icke). While the group is disbelieving at first, Halle then admits she too was abducted the previous night by a monkey-like alien from Alpha Centauri. She too was told the same story as Tyler and also that the reptilians have infiltrated the militaries of China, Russia and America and are trading military secrets, and also the cram school and Nazca Academy. The group then gather up as much evidence they can in order to expose what is going on for their presentation at the school festival.

However on the day of the presentation they discover all their files and even their backups have been deleted. Obviously it’s a conspiracy! Those dastardly reptilian aliens have infiltrated the school and have foiled their plans! Ray decides to expose the reptilian’s plot anyway and makes an impassioned speech saying that Natsumi, Halle and Tyler have all been abducted while admitting they have absolutely no evidence for their claims. Despite being heckled, Ray continues on, but the principal decides to end the debacle and gets up on stage to stop him. Anna then notices a light shining through the window and attempts to alert everyone to it. The light suddenly levitates both Ray and the principal and sucks them out of the auditorium. The pair find themselves inside an alien spacecraft where a giant goat-like alien being warns them that the reptilian alien race is plotting to take over the Earth.

Well, let’s start at the beginning; Kofuku no Kagaku (or most amusingly in English, Happy Science) is what is termed in Japan as a “New Religion” or in laymen’s terms a cult (if it quacks like a duck…). Due to the Aum Shinrikyo Sarin Gas subway attack in 1995, Japan has looked upon these cults with high degrees of suspicion, however are relatively tolerant of them. Happy Science’s leader, Ryuho Okawa, claims he can channel the spirits of Muhammad, Jesus Christ, Buddha and Confucius, though the cult seems to be mostly an offshoot of Buddhism. Much like Scientology, the cult vastly overestimates (or flat out lies) about the amount of followers it has (12 million) and sells tons of self-help books, lectures and novels by Okawa. Originally in the late 1990’s the cult seemed to be prophesising the apocalypse as per the Nostradamus prophecies. When the four horsemen failed to show up, Okawa switched gears to predicting an invasion and takeover of Japan by China and North Korea. The invasion theme ties in with their political wing, Happiness Realization Party, who are just as barmy as you’d imagine. Happy Science also adds other new age spiritualism into the mix including bog standard UFO and alien lore.

Somewhere along the line Okawa made so much money off his gullible followers he funded films based off his books and teachings. In the late 1990’s he produced the live action film “The Prophecies of Nostradamus”, but hit pay dirt with their second feature film, the 1997 anime film “Hermes: the Winds of Love” (the only Happy Science film to get a commercial home video release in the US). Like clockwork every three years another anime film from the cult appears in cinemas and as long as the faithful show up, the films will continue to come out in the same manner. To appeal to a wide international audience, every film since 2000 has had dubs and subtitles in multiple languages, though the films haven’t had any home video releases outside Japan other than “Hermes” (the dubs and subtitles do end up on the Japanese DVDs and BDs). There’s also been a push to have the previous anime film “The Mystical Laws” (which also got a limited run in the George Street Hoyts cinemas in Sydney in 2012) and this film nominated for the Oscars, but both attempts have failed.

The reason for the Oscars snub is obvious; the films are batshit fucking insane. Oh sure some of their films start out quite normal, but soon devolve into complete insanity, with strange fantasy elements and blatant proselytising. While in this film (the Japanese title literally means “The Secret of the UFO School”) it’s all bog standard populist UFO conspiracy rot to the 70 minute mark (which is weird enough), when the spiritual nonsense makes its appearance with the professor sending the teens’ souls into a UFO via some bizarre machine he’s constructed. They then travel to other planets, meet strange aliens (one insectoid creature they meet claims he often enters Eisuke’s body in order to watch anime), and find spiritual enlightenment. 20 minutes later were thrown back into the plot and the climax of the film, where massive and unbelievable plot twists take place as the reptilians make their move. It also has what is easily the most bizarre and unexpected transformation of any main character I have seen in any film in recent memory. It’s like something out of a 1970’s Go Nagai manga like “Devilman”, only weirder. Add in an absolutely out of place insert song in English which is probably the most bizarre love song I have ever had the displeasure of hearing.

Despite many of these films being squarely aimed at young audiences and anime fans in general, no one seems to bother with them outside the Happy Science faithful. And not for lack trying with mainstream advertising and pitifully trying to hook an audience in with “top Hollywood talent” like Jennifer Beals (of “Flashdance” fame) in the English dub. That part of the film promotion is odd as Beals’ character, Inkar (who looks like a modern version of Maetel from “Galaxy Express 999”), has only a handful of lines and appears for couple minutes maximum. The director of this film is Isamu Imakake whose only real mainstream directing credit was the “Captain Tsubasa: Road to 2002” TV series. Other than that he’s directed two other Happy Science anime films; “The Mystical Laws” and, easily my favourite of their films, the utterly insane “The Laws of Eternity”. I can only assume Imakake is one of the faithful. Like the other six anime films the cult has released, the animation (by Brain's Base) is at best workman like. It really feels like there isn’t a whole lot of love or pride in the work. Imakake also provided the character designs which don’t fare all that well when animated. There’s a lot of off model animation in the film. The CG is also a mixed bag. Some of the sequences look quite spectacular, while a few, like the dragon during the climax, look utterly appalling.

After watching all of Happy Science’s anime films over the years, I really find it hard to believe that these movies could be used as recruitment tools. They’re just too bizarre and at times incoherent for anyone who isn’t already under the spell of Ryuho Okawa to be entertained or inspired by. For people who haven’t drunk the Kool Aid the response is usually laughter, bemusement, boredom or confusion. While this film is a bizarre, strange train wreck, nothing can top “The Laws of Eternity” I’m afraid. However what really baffles me is how these films, which are nothing more than vanity projects of a cult leader, manage to get commercial theatrical releases in Japan every time. 5.5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: One movie, also waiting for second parts for three shows to be released before viewing them.

Video Backlog: “New Initial D the Movie: Legend 1: Awakening/Legend 2: Racer”

Publisher: Neo Films (Hong Kong)
Format: Region 3 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional Cantonese dub and English and Chinese (Traditional) Subtitles.
Length: 62 minutes, 65 minutes
Production Date: 2014, 2015
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

For years Mount Akina in rural Japan in Gunma prefecture, north of Tokyo, has been battleground for young men to race each other drifting style down the mountain in their supped up cars. One of these young men, Koichiro Iketani of the local street racing team the Akina Speed Stars is driving over the mountain early one morning when he inadvertently witnesses a battle between a rival Akagi RedSuns member, Keisuke Takahashi and an old black and white Toyota Sprinter Trueno (aka AE86). The mysterious AE86 outmanoeuvres and easily beats Takahashi’s Mazda RX-7. Feeling humiliated by this, Takahashi decides to track down the AE86 for a rematch. At the town’s petrol station where Iketani works, Takahashi quizzes Iketani about the identity of the AE86, however Iketani admits that while the car is well known amongst the local street racers, no one knows who owns the car. Later Iketani invites his two co-workers, the aloof Takumi Fujiwara and the somewhat dorky but obsessed with street racing Itsuki Takeuchi to a meet on the mountain. However when they arrive that night, the two Takahashi brothers, Ryosuke and Keisuke arrive along with other members of the Akagi RedSuns.

Ryosuke, the leader of the Akagi RedSuns suggests to the Akina Speed Stars that they should practice together, but in fact this is a veiled challenge to them. Ryosuke and Keisuke’s goal is to dominate the Kanto region, and the first step is to defeat the Akina Speed Stars. The Akina Speed Stars are easily outmanoeuvred by the Akagi RedSuns. However Iketani attempts to keep up and pass them. This ends in complete disaster when he loses control when he hits a bump in the road and his Nissan Silvia and ends up crashing into the guard rail. Iketani wants to beat the Akagi RedSuns and searches for the owner of the AE86. His boss at the petrol station, Yuichi Tachibana, tells him the AE86 belongs to Bunta Fujiwara, the owner of a local tofu shop. Iketani pleads his case in order to get Bunta to race against Keisuke, but he declines saying he is too old to get involved in their races.

Meanwhile at high school, Natsuki Mogi whom Takumi has a bit of crush on, starts getting a bit friendly with him. She suggests they go out on a date to the beach together. Takumi asks his father, Bunta to borrow the car, the AE86, but he initially declines. Unbeknownst to just about everyone is that every morning around 4am, Takumi delivers tofu in the AE86 to a hotel on the other side of the mountain. In reality Takumi doesn’t really care about cars or street racing and only flies over the mount and back each morning to get the chores done. He unwittingly beat Keisuke Takahashi that day which accidently lead to the beef between the Akina Speed Stars and the Akagi RedSuns. Bunta has second thoughts about lending the car to Takumi. He makes a deal with him; if Takumi defeats Keisuke on Saturday night, he’ll lend him the AE86. Bunta tells Iketani to expect the AE86 to race, much to his relief.

On the evening of the race, people like the side of the road up Mount Akina. It looks like the AE86 won’t show and one of the other members of Akina Speed Stars nervously lines up to race Keisuke Takahashi. However at the last second the AE86 comes up the mountain. Much to the members of Akina Speed Stars’ horror, Takumi gets out of the car. Iketani realises that Takumi is the one who does all the deliveries for the tofu shop and it was him who originally beat Keisuke. Convinced that Takumi will beat Keisuke a second time, he gives him his blessing to race for the Akina Speed Stars.

You may remember “Initial D”. It was the hottest thing ever for a while in fandom in the very late 1990’s and into the early 2000’s. God, I even remember an “Initial D” arcade game at my local cinema in the very early 2000’s! The anime was a really weird combination of flat traditional animation meshed poorly with low resolution CG cars and dreadful Eurobeat music. Certainly I never got it at the time. It was sort of like a sports manga and certainly had all the hallmarks and clichés of the genre. I did not care for the car racing or the testosterone fuelled rivalry between the characters. The other strange element of the franchise was how bloody ugly the characters looked. Even the women looked like bloody horses. To this day I still don’t understand why it became so popular. Much to my surprise I discovered that the anime adaption has been pretty much going non-stop from 1998 to 2008, then a few years break when it was rebooted again in 2012. Since then we’ve had a few anime adaptions, with the manga eventually finishing in 2013.

In 2013 for the 35th anniversary of Young Magazine (who published the original manga) a three part retelling of the franchise was released in cinemas over 18 or so months. Surprisingly the first two films have been released in Hong Kong by Neo Films on DVD with English subtitles. From what I can gather, the first two films cover the first two and a half tankobon or the first 15 episodes of the original anime TV series. There is a lot of material cut out to fit the 60 minute or so runtime of each movie. The really glaring omission in my eyes is the truncation of the development of Takumi and Natsuki Mogi’s relationship, in particular her dabbling in enjo kosai (that dates the franchise right away, huh?), which is completed deleted in this adaptation (save for her comment about how little Takumi and Itsuki are paid for their work at the petrol station). I recall that my local anime club in 1999 refused to play the anime when I showed them due to the rather subtle hints at it in the first episode. I was flabbergasted and couldn’t believe how conservative they were. The other change is that Takumi tells Itsuki that he punched Natsuki’s ex-boyfriend which I don’t think was in the manga or the 1990’s anime adaption.

The voice cast was also completely replaced. Mostly I have no issue with this, but Mitsuo Iwata (Kaneda in “Akira”, Kintaro Oe in “Golden Boy”) is Itsuki Takeuchi. He does dumb enthusiasm so well, and the new actor for Itsuki, Minoru Shiraishi, is hardly as good. All modern day Japanese animation is at least digitally coloured, so the CG cars most certainly don’t stick out like dog’s balls as they did the in the original TV series. However the animation does look rather cheap. Most modern TV anime looks a lot flashier and better than this film. Having said that, the racing scenes in these films are incredibly tense and really well done. The animators really take advantage of the CG animation to create really interesting cinematography. The second film has quite a number of shots of internal shot of engines which looked quite amazing and night time shots included the glow of the car’s disc brakes. The only real negative in the CG is the use of speed line or cross hatching. I’m assuming that it’s there because it’s imitating the manga. However at times it looks like the cars are all scratched up.

Though I have previously bagged out the ugly character designs, to a degree they have improved them a bit for these new films. However Shingo Shoji in the second film in particular looks even uglier and deformed than ever before. The subtitles on the both films are OK. It seems that it’s a very literal translation and at times read very awkwardly. They certainly need a clean-up and revision. The signs and on screen text are also not translated in the first film. The second film’s subtitles do translate a lot but not all of the signs and on screen text. As per usual there are practically no extras on the discs. The exception is the first film which includes a making of, but it is only subtitled in Chinese.

I know I am not in this franchise’s demographic. I do not give a crap about drifting and am not a testosterone filled teenage boy. However the action sequences are pretty exhilarating. The film manages to look like its set in modern times even though it’s from a manga originally published 20 years ago which is kind of amazing. I suppose to a certain degree not much has changed in terms of kids and cars over that time. I do have to question why a remake was needed. It’s patently obvious they’re trying to get a new, younger audience into the franchise. I don’t know if it’ll be successful. While I’ve seen some online whinging about the removal of the Eurobeat music, I note that as with the original anime, the Avex Trax music label is still providing the music. All in all, the films aren’t all that bad. They aren’t all that great either, but the battle scenes on the mountain are quite amazing. The last film came out in February 2016, so we’ll see if Neo Films ends up releasing it. 6.5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: Two movies, also waiting for second parts for three shows to be released before viewing them.

Japan, A Shopping Overview: Osaka

Contrary to popular belief, there are other anime/otaku shopping hotspots outside of metropolitan Tokyo. Most large cities do have their own “Akihabrara”, even if it only consists of a couple of chain stores such as Animate or Toranoana located in the same street or a complex shared by a number of stores. Outside of the Kanto area the biggest of these is Nipponbashi (or Den Den Town), an electronics area which partly evolved into a Akihabara-like otaku shopping paradise, albeit much smaller. There are a couple of Mandarake stores in the city as well, but not within walking distance of Nipponbashi (well, it’s a 20 minute walk to the nearest Mandarake). In addition there are a couple of smaller shops outside Nipponbashi I thought would be worth mentioning. And as per with other areas in this series of posts, there really isn’t anything useful in English about Nipponbashi/Osaka anime shopping and the Japanese guides/lists are a little spotty in terms of accurateness. I have deliberately ignored some of the additional stores that Toranoana and Animate have in Umeda and have concentrated on the main areas and stores.

First up, let’s go to Nipponbashi. The best way to tackle the area is to start at the end of Sakai-suji avenue. To get there from Osaka, go to Umeda station (station number M16) and take the Midosuji line towards Tennoji station. Get off at Dobutsuen-mae station (M22) and transfer to the Sakaisuji line (K16) towards Ebisucho. Get off at Ebisucho station (K18) and use exit 1A. You’re on Sakai-suji avenue at the southern end of Nipponbashi (Den Den Town). Go north (opposite direction, away from Tsutenkaku, Osaka’s infamous tower landmark) and stay on the right hand side of the street. In the next block you’ll find the Nipponbashi Information shop. Open from 11am, they have general information about the area including the Pombashi Map which comes out every so often. Though it’s entirely in Japanese, it does list every hobby and electronics store in Nipponbashi as well as the dozens of Maid Cafes dotted around the area (at times it feels there are more Maid Cafes here than in Akihabara). They also have a dual language map in Korean and English (or more accurately “Engrish”), but it’s not up to date as the Pombashi Map. The store also includes promotional material for upcoming festivals in the area, flyers for the local Maid Cafes and original merchandise for the area’s mascot character, Neon and her offsider Hikari, created by Noizi Ito of “Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” fame.

In the next block on the same side of the street as Nipponbashi Information shop is Disc Pier, which is part of the Joshin chain of electronics discount shops. I’m not 100% sure but I think Joshin is a Kansai based chain. Open from 10am, you’ll find anime and idol related CDs, DVDs, blu-rays and some anime merchandise on the sixth floor. In the same block (around the back, not 100% sure because I’ve not been to the shop since it moved) is the first Disc J.J. Open from 11am, this is a record store that has used CDs, DVDs, blu-rays and laserdiscs. There are some used and new (well, unopened since the 1990’s) anime laserdiscs, but most are near their original retail price or dearer. All along the opposite side of the street are various porn and manga stores (not separate, together). Enter at your own risk. Your eyeballs may not be the same afterwards. A couple of smaller second hand record and DVD stores can be found on that side of the street as well.

In the next block on the left hand side of the road is the main store of Super Kids Land. Part of the Joshin chain it has five floors of hobby goods  Open from 10am, it mostly has plastic model kits and hobby supplies, remote control cars and model trains. The next block on the right hand side of the road is another Disc J.J. store. This one is larger three floors of vinyl records, DVDs, blu-rays and laserdiscs. Like their other shop it is open from 11am. On the other side of the street a little way up the block is a-Too. Open from 11am, this thin building has five floors of used DVDs, blu-rays, games, figures and other merchandise. The first floor has games and cards. The second floor has manga, photo books, CDs, DVDs and blu-rays. The third floor has anime and tokusatsu DVDs, blu-rays and CDs, plus seiyu CDs and light novels. The fourth has figures, anime porn, adult PC games and magazine. The fifth floor has live action porn DVDs and idol DVDs.

On the corner of the next block across the road you’ll a massive sign with picture of Go Nagai robots and characters. This is the entrance to Mazingo Jungle, an offshoot of second hand anime and pop culture store Jungle. This shop is fairly new and contains nothing but Go Nagai related merchandise and figures. The shop is a partnership between Jungle and Go Nagai’s Dynamic Planning production house. It is in fact Dynamic Planning’s official store. The shop is open from 12pm. Down the side street, two doors down from Mazingo Jungle is Gakiranger. Open from 11am, they sell second hand and new Gundam model kits, Maschinen Krieger model kits, anime figures and other merchandise.

Continuing back on to Sakai-suji avenue, on the right hand side of the road you’ll find Volks right at the end of the block. Open from 11am, there’s character goods and figures on the first and second floors, sci-fi and robot plastic model kits on the third floor, military model kits and accessories on the fourth, naval, car and aircraft kits on the fifth, train models on the sixth floor and Dollfie stuff on the seventh floor. Around the corner from Volks is Hero Gangu who stock second hand figures, soft vinyl toys and other anime and tokusatsu merchandise. They open 12pm and are closed on Wednesday. Directly opposite Volks on the other side of the road is K-Books with three floors of doujin related merchandise.

On the same side of the street right at the end of the block is Super Kids Land character store. You might have seen pictures of this store’s giant billboard which used to read “Osaka Gundams” with a picture of a Gundam on one side, and a picture of a Zaku on the other. It’s possibly the most famous landmark in Nipponbashi. The store has model kits and hobby supplies and anime figures on the first floor and Gundam model kits (of course) on the second floor. It opens from 10am. In the very next block on the same side of the road is Toranoana (doujin and related merchandise) with Super Position Recycle Shop (second hand figures, toys and gatchapon etc.) right next door. On the opposite of the road from those shops is Jungle’s main store. Probably the biggest second hand otaku-type shop in the Kansai region, they have tons of figures, soft vinyl toys and figures, DVDs, blu-rays, gatchapon and just about everything else you can imagine. Last time I went they had a display of “Mad Max” memorabilia, none of which was for sale unfortunately.

That’s about it for Sakai-suji avenue. In the next block on the right hand side you’ll see a rather grand building which is the Takashimaya Archives. Follow the building down to the end of the block, cross the road and turn left. About 20 metres up the road will be Sofmap and a few other discount electronics stores. In the next block, half way up on the right hand side of the road will be the main Gee! Store in the area. This shop mostly has cosplay stuff, but has some anime t-shirts and merchandise. If you’re standing outside Gee! Store, walk across to the other side of the street and turn left and take the next street to your right. This is street is colloquially called “Ota Road” and is home to dozens of otaku-like shops and Maid Cafes (hence the name). Keep walking to the next side street and to your right you will see the Yellow Submarine card shop. On the left is another Sofmap store is Naniwa Dengyosha which sells a lot gatchapon as well as figures. Across the road is Sound Pak records. They mostly have a lot western prog rock, but you never know your luck. At the very next intersection there are a couple of more card shops, another Yellow Submarine and Card Pal.

Half way up the next block on the left is the second a-Too shop. This branch has games and used anime DVDs, blu-rays, figures and CDs on the second and third floors of the building. Right next door is a branch of retro games chain Super Potato and another Toranoana shop as well as the local Gamers shop. Another store down is a second Super Position Recycle Shop.  In the next block along we have the Gee! Store Annex, Super Position G-1 (figures and gatchapon), a second Gakiranger shop and Kotobukiya. A car park is on the right and after that a monolithic building which houses Animate on the first and second floors, Lashinbang on the third floor, Mellonbooks on the fourth 4th, and a branch of cards chain C-Labo on the fifth floor. Opposite this building is a second branch of K-Books. Keep going up Ota Road a few tens of metres on left a couple of stores up is White Canvas. They sell doujin merchandise.

Really, that’s it for Ota Road. There’s nothing else of real interest except for a few maid cafes, if you’re into that stuff. Next we’ll head to Mandarake Grand Chaos which is about a 20 minute walk from Nipponbashi. The other option is to take the train. Walk back to Namba station (M20) to take Midosuji subway line to Shinsaibashi station (M19), a two minute trip in total. Use exit 7, walk towards OPA retail outlet at end of block and turn left then right at next intersection walking past the Big Step complex. Three blocks later, turn left at end of block. You’re roughly in the Americamura area of Osaka which is their trendy youth fashion district, kind of like a combination of Harajuku and Shibuya. Keep walking south, past the cement park in the middle of Americamura and the police box on the right. There will be a small post office on the left and finally King Kong CD & Record a little further past that also on the left. Right next door should be Mandarake Grand Chaos. This branch has four floors; the buyback counter, shonen manga and figures are on the first floor, games, CDs, blu-rays, DVDs, older manga and art books are on the second floor, male idols merchandise, doujin for women and cosplay merchandise are on the third floor and fourth floor has manga and doujin for men.

There are a couple of other weird little anime shops full of slightly obscure out of print things not far from Nagahoribashi subway station. To get there, go back to Shinsaibashi station (N15), get on the Nagahori Tsurumi-ryokuchi line and take the one minute trip to Nagahoribashi station (N16). Take exit 7, head east, which should be straight ahead out of the stairs. Three blocks down on the right, next door to language school is a shop called TSK. There is no name on the shop, and I really have no idea what hours it is meant to be open (see picture to the right for what it looks from on the street). While the store mostly seems to be storage area for online sales at Rakuten, the people who run the shop seem to have no trouble with people coming into the shop. They sell tons of anime and general laserdiscs and box sets, VHS tapes, DVDs, CDs and records. The shop is a dog’s breakfast with stuff everywhere and no prices on anything. Best bet is look through the listings at Rakuten, print off the listings of the items what you want and go into the store.

Another anime shop exists not too far from TSK. To get there keep going east one block away until just before the Hanshin Expressway Route 1 overpass. Do not go underneath or cross the canal. Instead turn left, walk about 7 blocks down following the Hanshin Expressway Route 1 overpass. On the right should be Tokage no Shippo (or X-Saab as they’re known online) On ground floor is a restaurant (used to be an Italian one, not sure if they’re moved out). Tokage no Shippo is on the second floor. Use stairs down the right hand side of building to get to the shop, not the elevator. Again I have no idea what hours the store keeps. They have a wide range of used anime merchandise from CDs, DVDs, blu-rays, some laserdiscs, figures and posters. The shop is small but they have a pretty good range of vintage 1980’s and 1990’s stuff. Again see the picture above for what the outside of the store looks like (nicked from one of their flyers, because I forgot to take a photo of the shop…). To be honest both stores are pretty hard to find, so I have created a map here to help you.

Finally on to the main Mandarake store in Umeda. To get there back track beside the Hanshin Expressway Route 1 overpass and cross the canal to get to Matsuyamachi station (N17). Take the Nagahori Tsurumi-ryokuchi subway line to Tanimachi Rokuchome station (N18), transfer to the Tanimachi line (T24) to get to Higashi-Umeda station (T20). The trip should take no more than 15 minutes. Try and exit out of the Whity Mall and use exit M6 or M2. On that side of the road you should see a giant Big Echo karaoke advertisement sign. Head down the covered mall next to the karaoke advert. The Umeda branch of Mandarake will be 170 metres on left. A second entrance can be found a further 10 or so metres on. Last time I visited in late November 2015, I seem to recall that the shop had been renovated. Note that I was suffering a really bad head cold at the time and may be wrong... Anyway this branch is pretty much like the one in Americamura except it seems to have more of an emphasis on cosplay merchandise. The covered mall also houses some really interesting restaurants with eye-catching and sometimes bizarre store fronts.

That's it for Osaka. Next time I will be having a look at AruAru City near Kokura station in Kitakyushu plus a few other shops in the Fukuoka Prefecture.