Forgotten Anime: “Megami Paradise”

Distributor: ADV Films (USA)
Original Year of Release: 1995
English Video Release: 1996, NTSC VHS, Japanese Dialogue with English subtitles
Japanese Title: Megami Paradise
Runtime: 2 episodes x 29 mins

Note: Originally posted on the "Lost World of Anime" website in 2005. Revised version published on the "Anime Archivist" blog in March 2014.

Certainly a lot of amazing OVAs came out in the 1990’s like “Giant Robo”, “Please Save My Earth”, “Key the Metal Idol” and a ton of others, but of course there was rather predictably a lot of trash. I’m not going to make any excuses here; a lot of that trash was kind of fun. Like I’ve said before, anime does quite a number of things well, in particular genre films and exploitation material, the staples of live action low budget cinema. In fact a lot of the time I think anime is far more successful producing this kind of material than their live action counterparts, particularly Japanese live action. What we have here with this OVA is clearly material that fits in the exploitation category. The story of this little OVA goes something like this;

Megami Paradise is a land in a fantasy world setting, seemingly inhabited only by gorgeous women who wear skimpy clothing, have incredibly long legs and are mostly between the ages of 14 to 29. In this otaku wet dream world, a high priestess, called the Mamamega shields their world from by using the Astrostar, a magical device that absorbs evil. The Mamamega’s main job is to purify the Astrostar when it has reached its limit.

A new Mamamega has recently been appointed, and she chooses a young girl named Lillith as a shrine maiden. Lillith is a white witch, and her job as shrine maiden will be to protect the Mamamega, but she also has to recruit other shrine maidens. Her first candidate, Stasia, has absolutely no interest in the job as she believes it is currently so peaceful in Megami Paradise, that the shrine maiden’s job is nothing but a token position for those who want fame and prestige. Upon leaving, Lillith is harassed by a pink haired girl called Rurubell, a magical girl complete with wand and “Creamy Mami” parody spells, who grew up with Stasia and is very close to her. She asks if she is on Lillith’s list of candidates, which of course she isn’t. Despite Lillith’s attempts to get rid of her, she manages to tag along. Lillith’s next candidate is Megami Paradise’s strongest swordswoman, Juliana. Unfortunately Rurubell decides to test Juliana out, and casts a spell sending magical bubbles in her direction. Juliana easily defeats the spell, and sends a powerful blast via her sword to flush the duo out from their hiding place. Despite their explanations, Juliana is understandably very angry with them and chases them off. Soon after, another powerful and potentially deadly attack is aimed towards Juliana. Believing it was Lillith and Rurubell, she sets off to teach them a lesson.

Meanwhile Lillith sets off to speak with other candidates with the persistent Rurubell in tow. Every candidate they visit has been attacked by someone using magic. Lillith and Rurubell become the main suspects, and despite a lack of evidence against them, are soon being chased by a pack of girls being lead by Juliana. They manage to ditch their pursuers and proceed to a hall, where the last candidate is dancing with a group of girls. A magical spell is suddenly cast by someone and all of the dancers in the hall collapse. The attackers show themselves and announce that they are the shrine maidens of Yamimama, the evil opposite of the Mamamega. The evil shrine maidens have attacked all of the candidates in an attempt to bring down the Mamamega. A melee ensues with Juliana and Stasia joining Lillith and Rurubell in the fight against them. The Yamimama use many attacks against them, but soon their evil summoning witch, the elf like Angela, conjures up a gigantic woman who all but defeats them. It’s up to Lillith to summon forth something to defeat it, but she doesn’t haven’t much confidence in herself to do so. Naturally (and predictably) the others convince her that she can do it, and she calls up a giant white dragon to defeat Angela’s spell, and the evil shrine maidens soon retreat.

A few days later the coronation takes place for the new Mamamega and the new shrine maidens; Juliana, Stasia, Lillith and Rurubell. The ceremony begins but it is soon apparent that the Astrostar and the old Mamamega are both missing. The perpetrators of the crime make their appearance. The Yamimama shrine maidens are up to their old tricks. They have stolen both and in the chaos they also kidnapped Lillith. The Yamimama plan to use her as a portal to rid Megami Paradise of the Astrostar. Juliana and Stasia set off the rescue Lillith and the Astrostar.

As you may have guessed from the pictures accompanying this piece, this short OVA series is all about fanservice, fanservice and more fanservice. In particular the very Japanese and very odd fetish of panty shots. I’ve never, ever found this type of fetishism to be erotic whatsoever. Anybody who is familiar with Studio Fantasia, creators of this anime, will know what to expect. They’re the studio who made the OVA series “Aika” (released as “Agent Aika” in the US) and the TV series “Najica”. Both are disturbingly chock full of panty shots with only the occasional hint of plot or story. When I first saw “Megami Paradise” with a friend many years ago, we both howled with laughter at the number of panty shots in the show. At the time I thought it was just so exploitative of the lower half of the female body it was laughable. It just had to be a joke. That was until I saw “Aika” (which is a complete rip-off of the dud James Bond movie “Moonraker” as well as being nothing more than a piss weak excuse to show panties every 30 seconds). That show has just got to be seen to be believed. Both “Najica” and “Aika” make “Megami Paradise” look tame in comparison.

Despite the completely over the top nature of this show (which you must admit makes it fun to watch), the other thing going for it are the designs, which are superb. For a show now over 15 years old, the animation is still looks reasonably fluid and quite good. Unsurprisingly the show is based upon a manga which was in turn based upon a PC Engine Super CD-ROM game, and with all the fan service, it’s little wonder that Gainax was involved in the game’s development. The story is pretty stock standard, but it’s pleasant enough. Surprisingly for show this trashy some big name voice actors make appearances in this show. Megumi Ogata, most famous for Shinji Ikiari in “Evangelion” plays the redhead swordswoman Juliana, and Beldandy (“Oh! My Goddess”) herself, Kikuko Inoue, plays the blue-silver haired Stasia. They must have been desperate for some cash.

But when it comes down to it, this show is nothing more than forgettable fluff. With “Project A-ko” director Katsuhiko Nishijima at the helm, what else did you expect? Of course though this show is nowhere near “Project A-ko” in terms of greatness. It’s trash with a capital “T”. However I did enjoy it a lot when I first saw my friend’s copies, and I did buy it when both tapes (ADV released the two OVAs on separate tapes) were being flogged off for about $5 as VHS were being dumped by the truckload by online anime shops over a decade ago. Oddly I didn’t enjoy the show as much when I saw it a second time. Like a lot of guys, I secretly do like a little bit of fan service occasionally. I generally have a bad reaction to it when it becomes the sole focus of a show or replaces plot or becomes exploitative. Over the last decade I have come to detest the current focus on fan service in a lot of modern anime. In particular the way it’s gone from something that was an afterthought to a core part of a show. The fetishistic, cliché ridden and bizarrely sanitised aspects of modern depictions of fanservice annoy me as well. Being an older show, it does not suffer from these problems as much and surprisingly has a decent story. But the implied lesbianism, occasional bondage and S&M references, gratuitous panty shots, really short skirts and high cut panty lines totally overshadow any positive elements this show has. But I suppose when you take away the fan service elements of this show, what you are left with is a pretty bland fantasy OVA.

In the end this is an OK show if you don’t mind the production staff’s obsession with panties and high cut panty lines. The question for me is when ADV was at its peak, in a market where “DearS” and other derivative trash outsold worthy series like “Master Keaton” by about 100 to 1, you’d think it would have been a perfect time to re-issue this title on DVD. Amazingly they didn’t. If you are trying to find something different from the current crop of anime, this isn’t a title to look out for. Only those who like panties and the lower half of the female body will probably feel the need to search this title out.

Long Lost Japanese Anime Magazines Part 4 (of 4)

Note: Originally published on this blog in late 2011, republished on the "Anime Archivist" blog in March 2014.

In the final segment of this series we’re looking at the first decade of the 21st century. Unlike previous segments, I don’t own a single issue of any of these magazines, so I’m going off other people’s descriptions of them. Like the prior decade, the magazines which popped up in this era barely saw out three years, with most barely making it to a second year of publishing. None made it to the end of the decade. Of course this decade saw the rise of the internet and the start of the beginning of the end of printed media, though the Japanese print media industry seems to be infinitely healthier today than its western counterparts.

“Newtype.com”

Publisher: Kadokawa Shoten
Frequency: Bimonthly
Size: A4
Publication Dates: September 2000 – May 2002

This magazine was of course an offshoot of Newtype magazine which has been running since 1985 and continues to be published today (in fact it’s still the highest selling anime magazine in the market). Initially a special issue of Newtype magazine itself, this short lived magazine became its own entity and was dedicated to the rare internet anime (Original Net Anime or ONA as they were called). The magazine also looked at the ever increasing commercial websites for anime series. Issues also came with a CD-ROM. Looking at some of the Japanese fan comments on the magazine, it’s rather interesting that some criticise the magazine because it was behind the times. As far back as the mid 1990’s, anime companies already had websites up for their shows. Indeed like the US, there was also a large anime fandom presence on the web in Japan. Looking at the contents of the first issues, there really isn’t much difference in content from a normal issue of Newtype magazine. That lack of differentiation makes this magazine a bit redundant, which was probably the reason it was eventually discontinued.

“Dengeki Animaga”

Publisher: Media Works
Frequency: Quarterly, Bimonthly
Size: A4
Publication Dates: August 2002 – November 2005

While writing this section of this series up I only just realised that Dengeki Animaga was a successor to Dengeki Animation Magazine, which in turn had its origins from B-Club magazine. Like many of the magazines which appeared and then disappeared just about as quickly in this period, there seems to very little in this magazine to differentiate it from its competitors. The question is why have five or six different clones of Newtype or Animage when the originals are superior? Though from what I understand, this incarnation of magazine went straight for the bishoujo anime fan and featured the girls from the top anime series of the time (as can be explicitly seen from the cover I’ve chosen). After its name change from Dengeki Animation Magazine, in August 2002, it shifted to a quarterly release schedule. Sometime later it eventually went bimonthly. All toll 19 issues of the magazine were released. Two “best of” mooks (magazine/book) were released in the months following the final issue. The magazine was succeeded by Dengeki G’s Magazine which still continues to this day.

“Nikkei Characters!”

Publisher: Nikkei Business Publications
Frequency: Bimonthly, Quarterly
Size: A4
Publication Dates: March 2003 – August 2006

The other thing to make note in the new crop of anime magazines that popped up in this era, is that the majority of them were offshoot of other successful magazines. “Nikkei Characters!” was initially a special issue of Nikkei Entertainment magazine. Obviously it was successful enough to warrant a regular bimonthly issue. Again like all other magazines of this period it contained information and news on anime as well as games and manga, though with more of a focus on the business side of things as I understand it. One thing I do quite clearly recall about the magazine is that it had a number of minor scoops. In particular I remember they were the first to announce the news that AIC was going to release a TV series of “Megazone 23” in 2004 or so. Pity the scoop never became reality as AIC seems to have cancelled the production. Nikkei stopped production on the magazine with the June 2006 issue, only to announce that it would come back as a quarterly, which only lasted one solitary issue in August 2006. It was never seen again after that.

“Anime Studio”

Publisher: Ozora Shuppan
Frequency: Bimonthly
Size: A4
Publication Dates: October 2004 – December 2004

This magazine is quite an interesting one as it focuses more on the production side than the fandom side. Despite this difference in focus to anything in the market at the time (or perhaps because of it), the magazine only managed to last a grand total of two issues. Reading through the contents of the second issue, it’s a bit of surprise as there is quite a lot interesting material here. First there’s a feature on Mitsuteru Yokoyama of “Tetsujin 28” and “Giant Robo” fame. Then there’s an Osamu Dezaki interview who’s done everything from “Tomorrow’s Joe”, “Aim for the Ace!”, “Black Jack” OVAs and even the film adaptations of “Air” and “Clannad. They also look at the outsourcing of anime production to Korean studios, another interview, this time with Masahiro Maeda on “Gankutsuou” and the cover story on the 20th anniversary of Gainax. I suppose Japanese anime fans are more interested in pages and pages of pictures of bishoujo than anything with any depth.

“Ani Colle Dragon”

Publisher: Fujimi Shobou
Frequency: Irregular
Size: A4
Publication Dates: October 2004 – January 2006

Yet another off shoot of a successful magazine, but with a major difference. Ani Colle Dragon was a mail order magazine spin off of the monthly magazine Dragon Age (which itself was an amalgamation of two older Fujimi Shobou magazines; Comic Dragon and Dragon Junior). While it had the usual items you’d find in anime magazines of the time such as features on various anime (mostly related to Dragon Age and its parent magazine Dragon Magazine which serialised light novels), fan created content like letters and art etc., the magazine was essentially a mail order catalogue for various items publisher Fujimi Shobou was flogging off to Dragon Age’s readership. One of the items I recall was a doll of Teresa Tesutarossa from “Full Metal Panic”. The magazine also came with special extras every month such as a DVD full of promotional films for related Dragon Age/Dragon Magazine anime and related merchandise and a life size poster. In the end the magazine was shelved after only four issues in January 2006.

“Animation RE”

Publisher: Index Communications
Frequency: Bimonthly (?)
Size: A4
Publication Dates: October July 2005 – March 2006

Yet another very short lived magazine from this period. The information I have on it pretty sketchy to say the least. It seems that Animation RE mostly focused on interviews with the staff of various anime. One issue contents page shows that it contained interviews with the staff from “Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa” and “Fantastic Children”. In fact the magazine I saw also seems to contain a big feature on Studio Bones who produced the first “Fullmetal Alchemist” series. Not only are there main features on the main staff of these shows, but also singers of the show’s theme songs and naturally voice actors as well (actually pretty much every anime magazine has a section interviewing voice actors or singers, so it’s not that unusual). A fair number of anime magazines which popped up from the late 1990’s were printed in mook form, and Animation RE is no different. Like an increasing number of magazines of the period, this one also came with a bonus DVD. Alas it wasn’t enough to save the magazine. As far as I can tell it never got past its third issue.

“Bessatsu Anican R”

Publisher: Emu Jiitsu
Frequency: Monthly
Size: A5
Publication Dates: November 2007 – June 2008

Yet another anime magazine spin-off of a successful parent magazine; Anican R. That magazine is mostly dedicated to idol singers and groups, but also voice actors, live events and of course anime. It seems like an all-encompassing otaku magazine of sorts. Why it was decided by the publishers to create an all anime magazine, I don’t know. Unfortunately I have even less information on this magazine than Animation RE, so please bear with me. From the meagre results I have obtained with my research on the magazine, it contained the usual stuff you’d find in just about any other anime magazine; features on anime shows and films, interviews with staff and of course voice actor and idol singers, fan sections, reviews on anime DVDs and related soundtracks etc. There really isn’t anything here at all to differentiate it from the other magazines in the market. It was published in a mook format and only lasted six issues.

So that’s it for long lost Japanese anime magazines. While print media is on a steady decline in the west, there still is a market for magazines in Japan, including anime related ones. Certainly the amount of issues sold per month may have decreased somewhat, but sales for magazines like Animage, Newtype, Animedia and Megami magazine are still pretty solid. However I have noticed some changes such as Animage’s page count, which has been significantly trimmed back. The magazine is like a shadow of its former self. I must confess that for about 14 years I religiously collected both Newtype and Animage, but stopped as of the January 2012 issue for each. Undeniably the magazines do take up a lot of room, and let’s face it, I can get all the information in the magazines including pictures from the web. The internet has practically killed off all but two English language anime magazines; Otaku USA and the UK’s Neo Magazine, who stubbornly refuse to lay down and die (I don't include UK's MyM really as magazine as it focuses on other pop culture and hasn't had a cover dedicated to anime for a very long time). It also seems that it will still take quite a while for anime magazines to die off in Japan with about half a dozen magazine titles focusing solely on anime still being published monthly.

Anime On the Big Screen: “The Wind Rises”

Venue: Dendy Cinemas, Level 2, North Quarter, Canberra Centre, 148 Bunda Street, Canberra City, ACT
Date: Sunday 2 March 2014
Distributor: Madman Entertainment
Format: Digital Projection, Japanese with some German and Italian Dialogue with English subtitles
Length: 126 minutes
Production Date: 2013
Currently on Home Video in English (as of writing): No (Released on Blu-ray and DVD by Walt Disney Japan, June 2014)

Note: Originally published on "The Anime Archivist" blog March 2014.

It was only a month ago that the third “Madoka Magica” movie came to town. Now this week we have a proper theatrical release of what is supposedly the last feature film Hayao Miyazaki will direct; “The Wind Rises”. I have to admit that since “Spirited Away”, I have been put off by a lot of his works. After “Princess Mononoke”, I felt that Miyazaki’s films became rather surreal and a little nonsensical. For instance what’s up with the black goopy creatures that seem to inhabit every single one of his films since “Mononoke”? While I do prefer the older Miyazaki films to modern era Miyazaki, I still enjoy his newer work. I felt that his last film, “Ponyo”, was a return to form for him. It was an excellent children’s film.

After a bit of an ordeal trying to get into civic (why are there seemingly road closures for events every bloody Sunday in this town?), I got my ticket and went in. I must note at this point that like the US, this film is being released in both subtitled and dubbed formats. Interestingly the cinema here is playing the dubbed version twice daily, while the subtitled version is screening three times a day. That says a lot about our town. Like a lot of these events, there was real mix of patrons. There were a couple of young guys continually blabbing on about games, five otakuish types, a father with a teenage daughter and the rest were a mix of older and young people. In all about 25 people showed up for a mid morning Sunday screening. The trailers before the feature were all Hollywood CG animated kids films. There seems to be such a wide gulf between films made for Japanese kids and western kids. The Hollywood stuff is crammed full of slapstick and crappy pop culture jokes for the adults, while generally the Japanese stuff focuses more on the story and the characters and are truly “family films”. It’s not that I don’t like Hollywood CG films, it’s just a lot of them are a bit predictable and sameish. I note that unlike the other trailers screened, the Dreamworks film “Mr. Peabody & Sherman”, did not get a single laugh out of the audience. Not a murmur. Oh dear.

As you may be aware, this film follows the life of Jiro Horikoshi who is most (in)famous for designing the Mitsubishi A6M Zero. The film opens in a small Japanese town some time after WWI, where we first meet Jiro as a young boy in his family home asleep. He dreams of climbing onto the roof of his house and taking off in his own plane with bird-like wings. After flying around town and surprising many of the townsfolk, he is attacked by a strange creature-like airship and it’s payload of bombs. His plane is destroyed and he awakes just as he is about to hit the ground. At school he borrows an English language aviation magazine from a classmate. With his younger sister he translates the magazine using an English dictionary. Enthralled at the article on Italian aircraft designer Giovanni Caproni, that night in another dream, Jiro meets Caproni who invites him onto one of his planes. Jiro and Caproni talk about aircraft and Caproni realises it is a dream they both share. Caproni suggests to Jiro that he should build planes because his eyesight isn’t good enough to be a pilot. The next day Jiro declares to his mother that he will become an aviation engineer.

We fast forward to Jiro as a young man studying at university. Jiro is riding a crowded train back to Tokyo after a trip home and decides to get out of the carriage and stand on the steps outside the front door. There he meets a younger girl called Naoko Satomi who saves his hat from being blown off the train. It is 1 September 1923, the day of the Great Kanto earthquake. It hits just the train just as it makes it to the outskirts of the city. After the earthquake the passengers hurriedly exit the train. Naoko’s maid who was accompanying her has hurt her leg. Jiro thoughtfully helps the couple out by using his slide rule as a splint for her leg and accompanies them back to Naoko’s family house in Ueno. Jiro then rushes back to the university where he meets his friend Kiro Honjo. The earthquake has caused several fires in the city, including the university. Jiro and Honjo attempt to save as many reference books and documents from the burning engineering faculty. In amongst the documents and books, Jiro finds a postcard with an image of Caproni on it. Jiro daydreams that Caproni is encouraging him on.

After Jiro graduates from university he and Honjo find employment at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. He is lauded as a genius engineer but is bullied a little by the foreman, Kurokawa, who tests him by designing a component for an already built prototype. Jiro impresses Kurokawa enough that he is assigned to the Falcon Project, in which Mitsubishi is competing to build a fighter for the defence forces. But lady luck is not shining on them and the prototype crashes to the ground and a rival company wins the bid. With no projects on the cards, the company send their top engineers, including Jiro and Honjo, to the Junkers factory in Germany. Despite the fact Mitsubishi will be buying licences to make Junkers aircraft in Japan, the guards are somewhat hostile and protective of the aircraft. After Jiro witnesses a Junkers factory worker being chased by the secret police later that night, he questions if he is following the right path. In a dream Caproni tells Jiro not to doubt himself and that he has a small window of opportunity to make an impact on the world.

In the late 1930’s, Jiro becomes the chief designer for a new fighter plane for the navy. It is a culmination of many years of hard work. While the initial moments of the test flight seem to indicate it is a success, the plane crashes to the ground. Dejected, Jiro heads to a secluded resort. There he discovers that Naoko is also staying there. After the earthquake in 1923, he attempted to track her down, but her house was burnt to the ground and he could find no trace of her. He tells her that since he first met her had constantly thought of her. A romance blossoms over the next few days and eventually he asks her father for her hand in marriage. However Naoko has tuberculosis and tells him she won’t marry until she has recovered.

This is quite an odd film to be honest. It’s based upon Miyazaki’s manga which was serialised in Model Graphix magazine from 2009. The manga itself is in turn based upon a late 1930’s novel with the same title by Hori Tatsuo. But oddly that novel isn’t about Jiro Horikoshi. It’s about a woman who has tuberculosis and is living in a sanatorium in Nagano. Why Miyazaki has grafted that story on to the life of Jiro Horikoshi is beyond me. It’s the biggest problem this film has. Jiro seems to be continually obsessed with aircraft. It’s only in the second half of the film that Naoko returns to the film. Outside the few scenes they’re together, Jiro doesn’t give the impression he thinks about her at all. He gives off the impression of being cold and mechanical. Partly to blame is the bizarre casting of “Evangelion” director Hideaki Anno as Jiro. Against the other professional actors in the film Anno sounds monotonous and flat. Only during the final scene of the film does his voice show any real emotion. There were also a couple of plot points in the film which made no sense whatsoever. For example German expat Castorp (played by Steve Alpert who heads up Ghibli’s international division) appears at the resort apparently to give advice to Jiro and to criticise the Nazi regime. Later we discover he is wanted by the Japanese secret service who are also apparently watching Jiro becuase of his previous contact with him. Because of this, Kurokawa offers Jiro refuge in his house. However this plot point is never explained in any further detail or followed up. Which is quite odd because Jiro’s designing the nation’s fighter planes. The film is already quite long as it is, and these scenes could have easily been snipped without any consequence.

While the film is clearly about Jiro’s obsession with aircraft, the elephant in the room probably should be addressed. I’m really surprised the media has not made more fuss about the film’s subject matter. Apparently Miyazaki wanted to make a sequel to “Ponyo” but Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki convinced him to make this film. I’m not sure why Miyazaki listened. The growing fascism in Japan (and Germany) during the 1920’s and 1930’s is touched upon in the film but there seems to be no effort made to connect these events with Jiro’s work. There is practically nothing shown of the death and destruction the Mitsubishi A5M and the Mitsubishi A6M Zero caused, nor the fact they were built using slave labour. Ironically in one of dream sequences Caproni asks Jiro if he would like to live in a world where the Pyramids weren’t built. I don’t know if this Miyazaki making a subtle nod how these planes were made or not. I suspect it isn’t and it’d be a shame if Miyazaki couldn’t see the irony in that line of dialogue. Compare how fascism and war were treated and depicted in “Porco Rosso” to this film.

Putting aside the those problems with the film, as per usual there are moments of Miyazaki magic. The dream sequences are absolutely stunning. They show off Miyazaki’s fascination and love of flight and aircraft. Another great sequence is the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake. Mixed into the audio of this sequence are human vocalisations which make the quake seem like a living, breathing entity. The aircraft sounds, both in the dream sequences and “reality”, receive the same treatment as well, though it’s a bit more subtle. I found that element of the film a bit odd because Miyazaki is a complete plane nut and I expected him to use the real sounds of these aircraft. At times an effort is made to show the humanity in Jiro. Upon seeing the Junkers hangers, Jiro joking asks where their Oxen are, as Oxen are used to pull the prototype aircraft to the runway at Mitsubishi, a sore point for Honjo who feels the Japanese are decades behind the west.

I noted that as the lights came up in the theatre, there wasn’t as much as a murmur from the audience. They seemed a little stunned. I think I can understand the reaction. It just doesn’t seem to flow naturally as a film. The two parts of the film, Jiro’s life story and Naoko’s illness, don’t really meld together well at all. Despite Miyazaki’s fondness for strong female characters, Naoko doesn’t have much depth at all (and the other women in the film are just bit players). The only thing the audience really knows about Naoko is that she’s a sickly woman. She’s not involved in his work or even encourages him or takes note of it. As a result the two stories really don’t seem to connect. The romance side of the plot isn’t all that interesting or engaging either. In the few scenes of them together it felt really contrived and false. I just couldn’t believe the way the relationship was unfolding. In the end the film is really about a monotonous voiced aeronautical engineer who designs a couple of planes for the Japanese navy and has a seemingly not very deep relationship with a woman who is at death’s door. It’s truly a strange film. In the end Miyazaki tries to show that Jiro is remorseful for the aircraft he has designed, but I thought came off as a bit hollow. It’s almost as if there is more sorrow for the aircraft than for the human suffering those aircraft caused.

Looking this film, you really have to wonder what the future holds for Studio Ghibli. I thought “Arrietty the Borrower” was kind of average and “Up On Poppy Hill” was a bit dry to say the least. Compare those two films with the work of Mamoru Hosoda. His films are always set in the modern era and are quite fun and engaging, truly “family films”. Ghibli seems old fashioned in comparison. Amusingly Miyazaki practically drummed Hosoda out of Studio Ghibli after several failed attempts to get his version of “Howl’s Moving Castle” approved by the studio. He eventually quit and Miyazaki took over as director of the film. Now with Hayao Miyazaki not making feature films, all you have left at the studio is the somewhat mediocre son, Goro Miyazaki, and Isao Takahata who only makes a film once in a blue moon and he isn’t getting any younger (though I am really looking forward to “The Tale of Princess Kaguya”). You have to admit that their roster of directors doesn’t look very strong.

I can put aside the bloody and painful history of the machines Jiro designed and accept this film as a story of a guy who loved aircraft. But it’s a story that isn’t particularly told well. The two separate halves (Jiro’s and Naoko’s) really don’t mesh together well. I think the real problem is that the audience isn’t given enough information about Naoko and their relationship isn’t really explored enough. She doesn’t seem close to him or his work and the courtship felt false a bit silly to me. I don’t know why Miyazaki didn’t just excise her completely from the script and concentrate on Jiro. But I have to admit the scenes which show Jiro’s love for aircraft are just magical. However those scenes really didn’t make up for the rest of the film. I can only give this movie 6 out of 10. For me “The Wind Rises” is the most disappointing film in Miyazaki’s long career.

Anime On the Big Screen: “In This Corner of the World”

Venue: Dendy Cinemas, Level 2, North Quarter, Canberra Centre, 148 Bunda Street, Canberra City, ACT
Date: Sunday 15 October 2017
Distributor: Umbrella Entertainment (presented by the Japan Foundation as part of the Japanese Film Festival)
Format: Digital Projection, Japanese dialogue with English subtitles
Length: 128 minutes
Production Date: 2016
Currently on Home Video in English (as of writing): Yes, Edko Films Ltd (Hong Kong), English subtitled DVD

The second film in my 2017 Japanese Film Festival jaunt came after a 15 minute break following the screening of “Napping Princess”. I had a quick toilet stop and had to wait a few minutes before being let in back in the cinema. I was then given another film evaluation form by volunteer and went in. Like the previous film, around 50 or so people showed up. Again ages were mixed but I noticed a few more Japanese patrons this time. There wasn’t a great deal that was different to the previous film’s audience, which isn't that surprising considering two anime films were being screened in a row. Even the pre-film trailers were identical to the previous film. The only thing of note in this screening was the fact Dendy managed to cock it up by playing a prerecorded evacuation test voice over half way through the film. Luckily the audience was spared any sirens. So without further ado, let's talk about the film;

The film introduces us to a 9 year old Suzu Urano who lives in a small coastal town called Eba, near Hiroshima in 1933. Though her family is rather poor, she seems to lead a happy life. Her favourite pastime is drawing and painting. One day she comes across her friend, Tetsu Mizuhara, whom she finds sitting on the shoreline. Tetsu’s older brother recently died in a ferry accident. He doesn’t want to go home as his parents have taken up drinking and no longer go to work. Suzu decides to paint a picture for him based on upon his description of the white peaks on the waves looking like white rabbits. He takes the picture and thanks him and tells her that he plans to join the navy. As the years progress Suzu works for her grandmother’s business of cultivating seaweed to be used as Nori sheets.

In 1944 at the age of 19, her parents receive a visit from the family of a young man her age asking for Suzu's hand in marriage. The young man took an interest in her when he saw her during one of the family visits to the area when he was a child. Apparently the pair played together as children, though Suzu cannot remember. Suzu is anxious about the meeting even though her family tells her she can say no, and goes to the sea shore instead of meeting them. She accidentally meets them anyway as they ask her for directions back to the station, though they don’t realise it’s her. Initially thinking the man asking for her hand in marriage is Tetsu, Suzu is disappointed to find out the truth, however still decides to marry the man, Shusaku Hojo, and move to the family’s home on a hillside above Kure, more than 25km away from her home in Eba. With the war well under way, and Kure being a port for the military, most of population is employed with the military. Shusaku is judicial civilian officer at the military court.

Suzu finds herself doing most of the housework for the family as Shusaku’s mother, San Hojo, is injured and spends most of her time in bed. Suzu’s sister in law, Keiko Kuromura, who has returned home after the death of her husband and forced closure of her business, constantly criticises and nit-picks her. But although Suzu is a little bit clumsy and forgetful, she still manages to be loved by the family. As the war progresses, Suzu is forced to help out with handing out rations to citizens and even finds herself being rather creative in providing meals for the family using locally found herbs and recipes from eras ago, and creating new clothes from her old kimonos. Despite the hardships her family life is still filled with joy and happiness, especially with Keiko’s children around.

Suzu’s love of drawing gets her into trouble as the military police discover her drawing the harbour side including the various war ships stationed there. She is accused of being a spy but luckily she is let off. Later her childhood friend Tetsu arrives as his ship has docked for shore leave in Kure. Shusaku lets them be together during the night knowing that this might be the last time Tetsu sees Suzu. In the end despite Tetsu telling her he still has feelings for her; Suzu tells him she is faithfully married to her husband. Later Shusaku is drafted by the Navy to a base at Otake city, some 60km away. 1945 brings regular US air raids not only during night, but increasingly during the day as well. By mid-summer US aircraft commence firebombing of Kure with the Hojo family house also almost burnt to the ground. However thanks to Suzu’s actions, the house is spared any major damage. But soon after yet another US bombing run of the harbour, a major tragedy strikes Suzu and the rest of the household.

This film is based upon Fumiyo Kono’s seinen manga which was published in Weekly Manga Action back in 2007 to 2009. Considering how the covers of that manga anthology mostly feature bikini clad girls or idols, I found that fact pretty hard to wrap my head around. The manga just seems unsuited to that publication. The manga was published in English as “To All the Corners of the World” back in 2011. Prior to this adaptation, the manga did receive a live action TV adaption also in 2011 which I have not seen. This anime adaptation was directed by Sunao Katabuchi whom I have previously talked (or more accurately raved) about. He directed the much underappreciated “Mai Mai Miracle” and the mostly unseen in the west “Princess Arete”, which will finally get a bare bones home video release from All the Anime in the UK in December. However Katabuchi is known to most western anime fans as the director of “Black Lagoon”, which seems really out of place when you compare his rather family orientated theatrical fare.

I really think this is Katabuchi’s best work to date. The film charts the adolescence to adulthood journey of a young woman living the Hiroshima area during World War II. Of course the audience already knows what the outcome of the film is as such due to the setting and time period. But the film really isn’t about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. It’s about Suzu’s life and family. More broadly it’s about family and working to survive when outside forces threaten to tear your family apart. In no way is war glorified. Naturally war is portrayed as some thing destructive to society and the individual, shown in the way Suzu’s hobby of art is curtailed by the military. Like other Japanese films about the war, Japan to a degree is portrayed as victim, or more accurately its citizens are. Personally I have no problem with that. It’s undeniable that Japan did some bloody awful things, however the citizens where divorced from that aspect of the war, especially on the home front where this story takes place. It's easy to argue they are victims of their warmongering leaders.

While the second half of the film takes a much darker turn, there are more than enough touches of humour to offset the grim sections of the film. There are some really cute moments in the film where Suzu's mother coyly discusses what will happen on the wedding night, likening consent to the groom asking if his wife will let him open her “umbrella”. Hilarity later ensues as Shusaku literally asks for her umbrella. Even a very serious moment such as Suzu being accused as a spy by the military police is later laughed away by her family who can’t believe anyone would be stupid enough to think she was. There are some really nice ideas explored in the film such as Suzu getting lost in Kure and ending up in the red light district. There she meets a young woman whom she previously met back in her grandmother’s house in Eba as child. Back then Suzu was told by her older brother that the child she saw was a zashiki-warashi (a child spirit), when in fact she was a homeless child living the grandparent’s ceiling, hiding from them and only to come out and steal a bit of food when hungry. There are couple of these moments in the film where a backstory of a seemingly inconsequential character is told. I felt it really added a lot to the film.

If anything I probably think the film is a little bit too long. I thought the film would come to a conclusion once the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, but it kept going, telling the story of the aftermath and what happened to Suzu’s family. Surprisingly not a great deal of the bombing is really shown nor the full impact of its aftermath, with the exception of one young girl and her mother, who become vital to post climax part of the film. And despite the horror that threatens to break the family apart in the second half of the film, it doesn’t really wallow in sentimentality or becomes schmaltzy, which easily could have been the path it took. The animation, produced by MAPPA (of “Yuri!!! on Ice” and “Terror in Resonance” fame) is excellent. It captures the feel of the original manga and depicts World War II Hiroshima Prefecture with incredible detail and accuracy. From what I understand Katabuchi went to great lengths to make the film as accurate as possible. The film certainly moved the audience, they loved a lot of the light touches and humour in the film. The Japanese woman in her thirties who sat next to me was very emotional in the second half and cried a bit.

From the opening production idents, I discovered the film is being distributed in Australia by Umbrella Entertainment. As far as I’m aware they don’t do theatrical releases which is a crying shame. This film should have had a limited theatrical release in this country, mostly as an antidote the many poor “Your Name” clones and faux Ghibli films Madman has and will foist upon cinema goers. Instead it will wallow in relative obscurity here (it's still not solicited for home video release in Australia). Overall I really liked this film. Perhaps it is a bit too long. Maybe some of the material chronicling Suzu’s early life should have been shortened or cut all together. However I did like some of the explorations of secondary characters which some might see as the director being indulgent. Regardless I really enjoyed this film. 8 out of 10.

Anime On the Big Screen: “Ancien and the Magic Tablet (Napping Princess)”

Venue: Dendy Cinemas, Level 2, North Quarter, Canberra Centre, 148 Bunda Street, Canberra City, ACT
Date: Sunday 15 October 2017
Distributor: Warner Brothers Japan (presented by the Japan Foundation as part of the Japanese Film Festival)
Format: Digital Projection, Japanese dialogue with English subtitles
Length: 110 minutes
Production Date: 2017
Currently on Home Video in English (as of writing): No

Less than a week after “Fireworks”, the 2017 Japanese Film Festival has arrived in town. From what I understand it’s the 20th year of the festival and unlike the previous couple years the line-up was pretty good. There’s even a couple of decent anime films playing. Unfortunately both are playing on the same day, one after the other! First up was “Napping Princess”, which for some reason was being screening under the clunkier English title of “Ancien and the Magic Tablet”. Everywhere else in the western word it has screened under the former title which is a far more literal translation of the Japanese title, so why they are doing this is beyond me.

I had got my cheap early bird tickets for both films online almost a month ago, so I just headed straight into the cinema. I was given an evaluation form for the film to fill in on my way in by a volunteer. Around 50 people showed up for the screening, with a wide variety of age groups, mostly of European extraction (i.e. most likely white Australians), but a sizable number of Japanese people were in attendance. They guy next to me was a chatty bloke in his 40’s with high function autism or Asperger’s syndrome. Of note were a number of adverts before the film from the festivals’ main sponsors; Tokyo DisneySea, Japan National Tourism Organization (using footage from a MasterChef’s episode filmed in Japan), Japan Airlines and a local Japanese restaurant in civic. With that out of the way, time to talk about the film;

It is the year 2020. Kokone Morikawa, who is in her final year of high school, lives with her father, Momotaro Morikawa, a slightly eccentric car mechanic, in the town of Kurashiki on the edge of the Seto inland sea. She constantly naps and has dreams in which a princess named Ancien lives in a country called Heartland. This country revolves around automobiles and most of the population works in a car factory. However the citizens have to deal with almost non-stop traffic jams and the factory workers are "encouraged" to buy the new cars the factory makes, or have their pay docked. Ancien owns a tablet computer which she can use to make magical things happen. She turns a gift of a stuffed bear into a living, breathing creature called Joy. She also turns some of the factory’s machines into sentient robots and a motorbike and sidecar into a transforming robot which she names Heart. However the king is disturbed by her powers. He takes Ancien’s tablet and locks it away in a vault. He also isolates her in a tower connected to the castle.

In spite of this, seemingly Ancien’s powers attract molten metal creatures called Colossus who regularly attack the country. In response the kingdom has created giant robots named Engineheads which are mostly effective in dealing with the creatures. Despite being advised to banish Ancien in order to save the city from the attacks, the king cannot find it in his heart to do so. Later as another Colossus attacks the city, Ancien steals the tablet from the vault along with Heart and escapes with Joy. Outside she comes across disgruntled factory worker Peach (a dead ringer for Momotaro), whom she mistakenly assumes is a pirate due to his dress sense. Together they hatch a plan to fight the Colossus by using the tablet’s magic on the Engineheads. However the king’s chief adviser, Bewan, does his utmost to thwart their plans.

Meanwhile in reality, Kokone receives a text message from her father that he is going to her mother’s grave that evening and to meet up with him there. Kokone’s mother had died several years earlier in an accident. Later that day at school Kokone is told by her teacher that her father has been arrested and transferred to Tokyo for the apparent thief of a company’s secrets. Obviously shocked and confused by this, she makes her way home but stops by her mother’s grave. There she finds her teddy bear (which looks exactly the same as Joy) with her father’s tablet inside (also like the one in Kokone’s dreams). Her father uses it to diagnose problems in cars and to also help make autonomous vehicles for his customers. At home she receives a knock at the door from a man who looks a lot like Bewan and two other men dressed in suits and dark glasses. However she pretends not to be home and hides. The men enter the house and she discovers from their conversations they are after the tablet and her. She soon receives a text message from her father with a picture of the man who looks like Bewan attached whom he tells her not to trust.

Hiding in the linen cupboard she is almost discovered by the suited men. But her friend and son of a local police officer, Morio, arrives to relay information about her father, which forces the men to flee. The suited trio have managed to steal the teddy bear with the tablet inside and have fled to the local airport. Kokone ropes Morio into helping her and the pair take off in the family’s sidecar (which looks exactly like Heart), manage to steal back the bear and tablet and the in the process Bewan’s suitcase. The paperwork in the suitcase reveals that Bewan is actually called Ichiro Watanabe who is a fairly high ranking executive at Shijima Motors. Kokone’s mother was the Shijima Motors chairman’s daughter. Kokone is confused as to why the company would want this tablet. Not knowing what to do and having no other communication devices (as Watanabe also took her phone), they decide to use the tablet to post messages on the message board Kokone’s father frequents in the hope he’ll see them. The two fall asleep and Morio finds himself dreaming in Kokone’s world, riding with Ancien and Joy on Heart as they fly though the sky. When they wake up, they discover they are in Dotonbori, Osaka, some 200km away from where they were last night. Morio puts this down to the fact the sidecar is an autonomous motorbike and probably took them there based on a pre-programmed course. However seemingly other miraculous things happen as they make their way to Tokyo to meet the chairman of Shijima Motors in order to talk to him and free Kokone’s father. Is it really magic or just a bunch of strange coincidences?

When I was in Japan in late March and early April this year, I went to Production I.G’s store in the Marui department store in Shibuya. Even though this film had just finished its cinema run there, they were still promoting the hell out of it. However this film isn’t a Production I.G movie per se. The studio behind it is Signal.MD, a subsidiary of Production I.G which has a focus on family films. They’ve mostly done a series of “Pokémon” OVAs and also produced the “Atom The Beginning” TV series. This is the studio’s first feature as far as I’m aware. This creator and director of this film is Kenji Kamiyama, and it’s his first feature after his dreadful cel shaded CG movie “009 Re:Cyborg” back in 2012. Kamiyama is better known as the director of “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex”, “Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit”, “Eden of the East” and “Minipato (Patlabor shorts from 2002)”. He has had a pretty amazing run as a director, but I think that run of top notch anime from him has finished.

For most of its length I admit it’s a pretty good film. Both Kokone’s world and her dream world inhabited by Ancien are fairly well thought out and interesting. I also thought the main plot involving Kokone’s parents and their abandoned development of autonomous vehicles by them was intriguing. So was the exploration of how families can break down due to tragedies and how this behaviour is really not at all beneficial to anyone, especially children. There’s also a lot of humour in the film as well which is perfectly timed and well written. The audience I saw the film with roared with laughter at many of the comedic moments in the film and really seemed to enjoy it. Towards the end, the film comments on Japanese corporate culture, in particular how myopic and outdated it is, which is something you really don’t see in a film like this. For the vast majority of the movie, despite some heavy undertones, it’s rather light and fun, and I enjoyed that atmosphere it created.

But the major problem with this film is the merging of reality and the dream world of Heartland. Both are fully realised worlds, but it really felt like there was constant tug of war by Kamiyama who spends way too much time in the dream world without explaining why we are there or how this relates to rest of the story. Towards the middle of the film, the two worlds do literally collide. This intensifies for the finale where it is pretty much impossible for the audience to decipher what is real and what isn’t, which members of the cast are experiencing what Kokone is experiencing and most importantly how and why this is happening. The final section of the film really makes little sense. I found it reminiscent of Satoshi Kon’s “Paprika”, however in that film the surreal chaos is caused by a device called a DC Mini which can allow people to enter people’s dreams. Here no such device exists and no explanation is given as to why the dream world and reality combine. I found it virtually impossible to make the leap of logic that Kamiyama is asking the audience to make.

Like “Your Name” and last week’s “Fireworks”, this film also falls into a similar pattern with the core elements of school kids in a rural town mixed with paranormal happenings. The film also adds a number of recent Japanese media buzz terms and topics into the mix such as the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (which plays a big part in the climax of the film). As a result it does feel quite derivative and not something worthy of a director such as Kamiyama. Putting aside the major problem I have with the merging of the two worlds of the film, there are few other parts of the plot which frustrated me. First was Shijima Motors roping in the police to arrest Kokone’s father on what is some pretty flimsy evidence. Second is the reasoning behind why Shijima Motors need the tablet as it is revealed early on that the company already has a copy of the software inside it.

For the most part I can overlook some of the flaws of this film. I lot of it is escapist fantasy which I really liked. Heartland was a particularly well realised world. I even enjoyed the melodrama and didn’t find it schmaltzy at all, which is highly unusual for me. But the lack of explanation as to why reality and Heartland merge (and if that merge is something everyone experiences or only some) in the climax is the big downfall for this film. The other problem is for all the time spent in Heartland, little of it propelled Kokone’s story along. However for the most part, the story and characters really did charm me. The animation was pretty good too. I really should give this film .5 less, but I’m going to be nice and give it 6.5 out of 10.

Anime Music Video Compilations: “Urusei Yatsura: Love Me More”

Publisher: Kitty Video
Format: VHS, Beta and Laserdisc, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue
Length: 60 minutes
Original Release Date: 25 July 1983
Animation Exclusive to this Release: No
Other Sources (Japanese unless noted): Urusei Yatsura: Love Me More (VHS, Beta and Laserdisc Re-issue 1986), Urusei Yatsura: Love Me More (VHS and Laserdisc Re-issue 1991)
Currently Availability (as of writing): Out of Print

Note: Originally published on "The Anime Archivist" blog March 2014.

A huge hit in Japan during the 1980’s, “Urusei Yatsura” (usually translated as Those Obnoxious Aliens), the anime series, based off Rumiko Takahashi’s manga, seems to go on forever. Certainly as I watched the entire series over the course of a couple of months, it certainly did feel as it would never end. I was surprised that the series was popular enough for AnimEigo to persevere with releasing the entire series, which took them from the first VHS volume in 1992 to the final DVD set in 2006 (the licence eventually expiring in late 2011). Like a lot of Rumiko Takahashi’s longer works, a great chunk of it is highly entertaining, though once the (large) regular cast make their appearances, it can get somewhat stale. The characters become caricatures, especially when there’s no real plot to the series, just randomly concocted comedy. However in small doses, “Urusei Yatsura” is a fun show. It’s kind of unsurprising that the show spawned many merchandising spin offs including this music video compilation (the first of at least three such videos). What’s more surprising is that this video seems to be the first ever anime music video compilation produced for the home video market and the first “Urusei Yatsura” home video release of any kind.

For those who don’t know the story of “Urusei Yatsura”, here’s a brief run down; an alien race called the Oni invades Earth. They mercifully give the humans a fighting chance by taking part in a game of tag. I the humans win, they'll leave the Earth. Their computer randomly selects oversexed high school boy Ataru Moroboshi of Tomobiki, Japan as the human contestant. The game involves Ataru trying to touch the horns of the Oni representative Princess Lum. Unfortunately the Oni didn’t tell Ataru that Lum can fly. Ataru spends the next few days trying and failing to grab on to Lum. The people of Earth are incensed and some are planning to lynch the Moroboshi family. In an attempt to encourage him, Ataru’s long suffering girlfriend, Shinobu Miyake, promises to marry him if he wins. On the final day of competition Ataru manages to distract Lum by whipping off her bikini top and manages to grab on to her horns. Ataru is over the moon and states now he’ll be able to get married. Of course Lum misinterprets this and thinks he means he wants to marry her. She moves into the Moroboshi household. Lum tries hard to get Ataru interested in her, but seems to lust after every other girl in sight, which usually causes fits of jealousy and electric shocks from Lum. Later Lum’s charms cause a small group of boys to form a fanatical fan club based on her. As the show progresses, a number of Lum’s alien acquaintances and relations begin visiting her and in the process cause problems and chaos for Ataru and the people of Tomobiki.

With that quick synopsis out of the way, let’s look at the compilation;

“Lum no Love Song (Lum’s Love Song)” performed by Matsutani Yuuko

Almost all of the videos have an opening narration by Lum who often explains which episode the animation is from. This first song is immediately recognisable to most anime fans (over a certain age…), even those who haven’t even seen the show! It was used as the first opening animation theme and was originally released as a single on 21 October 1981. The animation comes from the first story of episode 12, “Love Battle Royale”. This episode saw the first appearance of Tsubame, who is engaged to sultry school nurse Sakura. Sakura invites Ataru, Lum and company to a disco. Naturally Ataru tries to seduce Sakura. This enrages Tsubame, who is a warlock of sorts and has studied western magic, so he conjures up various creatures in response, including Lum’s ex-fiancé Rei, who morphs from a handsome Oni to his large tiger-cow form. The episode sort of degenerates from there.

“Kokorobosoi Na (Forlorn, Aren’t You)” performed by Helen Sasano

This song is the second ending to the series and was released as a single in April 1982. The animation is culled from the first part of episode 6, “Love Triangle Black Hole” which was broadcast on 25 November 1981. In that episode Ataru phones Shinobu in an attempt to set up a date with her, but of course Lum overhears. And naturally both Shinobu and Lum are mad at him. Ataru doesn’t give up and despite Lum trying to throw multiple spanners in the works and he eventually manages to organise a date with Shinobu. However Lum isn’t having any of this and shoots lightning bolts from her UFO in an attempt to stop the date. The end result is that the town transforms into a war zone.

“Lum no Ballad (Lum’s Ballad)” performed by Fumi Hirano
“Lum’s Ballad” is taken from the “Only You” movie soundtrack which was released in February 1983. This music video’s animation is edited from the episode “Ten-chan’s Love” which was originally broadcast on 5 May 1982. Somewhere in the show, Ten (Lum’s baby cousin) falls for Sakura. To appease his moodiness, both of them double date with Lum and Ataru. Things get romantic (as they can with an alien baby and a sultry high school nurse) towards the end of the clip. Of course Ataru has to spoil the mood.

“I, I, You & Ai  (I, I, You & Love)” performed by Kobayashi Izumi

This song was the fourth ending song and was released as a single on 1 December 1982. The animation for this video comes from episode 38, “Steal Darling! The Copy Operation!” which debuted on Japanese TV on 8 April 1982. This video features Lum’s childhood friend, Ren, who arrives unexpectantly on Earth in the first series of the show, and ends up love rival with Lum for Ataru’s affections. Ren is up to her old tricks and plans to steal a kiss from Ataru. But Lum discovers her plans and uses a gun to duplicate Ataru to thwart her. But of course you know this will lead to trouble and escalate completely out of control. Ren retaliates and uses a similar gun to also copy Ataru. By the end of the episode there are hundreds of Ataru’s roaming the city, with hoards running after Ren, a couple with a very confused Shinobu and more being created by Lum and Ren in an attempt to thwart each other’s plans.

“Ucchu wa Taihen da! (The Universe is Very Strange!)” performed by Yuko Matsutani
The song used for this episode is one of the more recognisable from the series. It was the first end theme for the show and was originally released as the B-side to “Lum no Love Song” on 21 October 1981. I think the title of the song suits “Urusei Yatsura” to a “T”. It’s a damn weird series at times. “All Quiet at the Library!”, which was originally broadcast on 16 June 1982, provides the source material for this video. In it Ataru meets a girl called Wendy in the school library and decides to help her out (with ulterior motives of course). For whatever reason the characters of the library’s books escape and start roaming the library and of course chaos ensues. The usual gang help out Wendy putting the books back on the shelves in order to return the characters to their rightful places. A lot of the animation featured in this episode is in the easily recognisably style of Yoshinori Kanada, who you might know from the “Birth” OVA (previously released in English as “Planet Busters” and “The World of the Talisman”) and “Leda the Fantastic Adventure of Yohko”. There are also a number of pop culture references thrown into the animation such as “Tiger Mask”, “Godzilla” and “Ultra 7”.

“Symphony Part 1” performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra

The compilation takes a break from pop music and uses a symphonic piece. I am not exactly sure where the music originates from, but I suspect it is sourced from one of the movies. The animation used for this video is taken from the second story in episode 16, “Terrible Inspection Day”, originally broadcast 10 February 1982. In this episode the student’s mothers come to school, including the son of the wealthy Mendo family. Mendo and Lum’s mothers get into a fight which sees the Mendo family’s prize bull reduced to beef bowls by Lum’s mother and a full on battle in the skies above the school with Mendo family fighter jets and UFOs. Ataru’s mother decides that the dispute should be resolved by a game of roulette with her as the dealer. However when both Mendo and Lum’s mothers place bets, the house wins. The Moroboshi family are now rich beyond their wildest dreams. However the losers aren’t exactly happy with the outcome and decide to wreak revenge on the Moroboshi household.

“Dancing Star” performed by Kobayashi Izumi
Back to Japanese pop music for the seventh video. The track used here is the second opening theme song which was released as a single in July 1983. “Demonic Jogging”, the second story of episode 17, which was first broadcast on 24 February 1982, provides the visuals. After Ataru inadvertently foils a suicide attempt of a young woman, he and Mendo get into an argument over who is nobler and somehow agree that a tennis match would be best to figure out who that is. All of the visuals used are from the tennis match portion of the episode. To be honest it doesn’t make for a great music video…

“Margarita” performed by Helen Sasano

This music video is based upon episode 42 “Drunken Boogie” which first appeared on Japanese TV on 1 April 1982 (how appropriate). In this episode Ataru gives Ten and Lum a pickled plum. While harmless to humans, it has a curious effect on the two aliens, with both of them becoming intoxicated. This causes Lum to harass other students for more pickled plums, in the process zapping them. Their dim witted teacher, Onsen-Mark, doesn’t believe the students that Lum is drunk because of the pickled plum and is convinced a student has brought alcohol to school. There lot of trippy and surreal imagery in the episode as seen through Lum’s eyes. This video uses the B-side to “Kokorobosoi Na (Forlorn, Aren’t You)” to accompany the visuals. The single was released in April 1982.

“Kage fumi no Waltz (Shadow Tag Waltz)” performed by Shiori
The next video’s audio was originally released on the “Only You” soundtrack in February 1983 and was the film’s insert song. The animation comes from episode 41, “Panic in the Typhoon!”, and was originally broadcast on 1 September 1982. The Moroboshi house isn’t weathering the typhoon too well and is leaking like a sieve. Lum uses a device to levitate the water drops leaking from the roof. But the mood gets quite romantic when a blackout occurs, but what do know, Ataru spoils things as usual.

“Hoshizora Cycling (Cycling in the Starry Sky)” performed by Virgin VS

I sort of remember this episode (“Appearance of the Red Phantom”, episode 37 broadcast on 28 July 1982), but I cannot fathom why the all of the guys in the show are dressed as women. A school formal is taking place and the gang are inexplicably dressed in drag. A mysterious masked man in black called the phantom appears at the dance. The last time he was there was when Onsen-Mark was student. and the phantom stole his girlfriend. However the phantom is now a lot porkier and the girls have no desire to be near him. Lum decides to cheer him up by asking him to dance, but the mood is spoilt by the arrival of his wife. The episode again features the distinct handiwork of Yoshinori Kanada and includes cameos by Kamen Rider, Tiger Mask and a pitcher from the Hanshin Tigers baseball team. The song used in the video, “Hoshizora Cycling” was the third ending theme for the series and was originally released as a single in October 1982.

“Yume wa Love Me More (My Dream is Love Me More)” performed by Kobayashi Izumi
The song used in this video was the sixth ending theme and was first released as a B-side to “Dancing Star” which was released in July 1983. The visuals are culled from episode 59, “St. Valentine’s Day Horror” which first hit Japanese TV on 16 February 1983. In this episode a young girl called Mako takes a liking to Ten, but of course the feelings are mutual. Lum and Ataru try to help things along (which Ten doesn’t like). However Ataru spies Mako’s mother and tries to seduce her. As per how things usually happen in this show, Lum finds out and you can pretty much guess how the episode ends.

“Moonlight Coaster” performed by Virgin VS
The video uses mostly the roller skating sequence from episode 39, “Pitter Patter, Summer Date” which was first broadcast 11 August 1982. Lum pretty much blackmails Ataru into taking her on a date by stealing his little black book of girl’s numbers. She decides to hide her horns and act like a normal girl and roller skates with Ataru in the park. Later Lum returns Ataku’s book, but strangely decides not to use it to go out with other girls that day. The song used in this video, “Moonlight Coaster” was the B-side to “Hoshizora Cycling” which was first released as a single in October 1982.

“Symphony Part 2” performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra

The final video uses another symphonic track. Unfortunately, like the other piece previously used, I’m not exactly sure where  it originates from. The animation is taken from the first part of episode 16, “Oh Lonely Teacher! First Appearance of Kuribayashi Sensei” (and seemingly the last appearance of Kuribayashi Sensei in the show), which first aired on 10 February 1982. As you might have guessed by the episode title, a new teacher comes to school and manages to upset the proverbial apple cart. However when he sets eyes on Lum, he’s smitten. Lum decides to go out on a date with him and the two of them head to the amusement park and other clichéd date spots you typically find in anime. As the video ends, Lum (in voice over) bids the viewers farewell and credits scroll on screen.

So is this one hour long compilation worth your time? Like the other anime music video compilations I’ve written about, it all comes to down to whether you enjoy the music and if you’re a fan of the franchise. As I said in the beginning of this post, “Urusei Yatsura” is a lot of fun, but perhaps it is better seen in small portions, say an episode at a week like the original broadcast. It does become pretty repetitive as the series progresses. Your tolerance to “Urusei Yatsura” and early 1980’s J-Pop may be higher than mine. The videos themselves are pretty bog standard in terms of editing with dialogue from the episodes sometimes edited in. If you’re a diehard fan, then you’ll probably want this for your collection.

As for availability, well for a franchise this popular the options are surprisingly few. Amazingly this compilation (to my knowledge) has never made it to DVD or Blu-ray.  There were the original VHS, Beta and Laserdisc releases in 1983, as well as a re-release in February 1986 and another re-release in June 1991. There seems to be very few copies for sale in the second hand market. I saw one LD being sold for around ¥500 and a handful of VHS tapes being sold from ¥800 up to ¥2,000. I also managed to find a Beta tape being sold for ¥9,000. Rather slim pickings there. So if you’re a fan of the series as well as the music, by all means hunt it down (as long as you own dead media players). The hassle of finding an original copy probably isn’t worth the time for casual fans of “Urusei Yatsura”. This wasn’t the only music video compilation made for the franchise. I’ll be looking at a couple more at a later date.

Anime On the Big Screen: “Fireworks, Should We See It from the Side or the Bottom?”

Venue: Dendy Cinemas, Level 2, North Quarter, Canberra Centre, 148 Bunda Street, Canberra City, ACT
Date: Saturday 7 October 2017
Distributor: Madman Entertainment
Format: Digital Projection, Japanese dialogue with English subtitles
Length: 90 minutes
Production Date: 2017
Currently on Home Video in English (as of writing): No

Another month and another new anime film is being screened in cinemas. Admittedly it’s still not a regular occurrence; however there have been more new anime films and reissues (such as the recent Ghibli film festival) in cinemas this year than in the last two combined. And it seems the next six months should bring even more anime with several features being distributed by Madman and a couple on the film festival circuit later this month. Apparently screenings for “A Silent Voice” made over $600,000 for Madman, which seems a bit nuts. No wonder they’re continuing to release anime into cinemas. Having said that, I was little surprised Dendy was screening this film, which must have a limited audience, three times a day for a week commencing Thursday.

Though we are well into the second month of spring, it was a surprisingly cold morning. I got a ticket to the earliest screening I could, 10am. I got up a bit late, so I grabbed a quick bit to eat in the mall and went and got my ticket. However I was told by the staff member that as I ordered on line, they didn’t issue a physical ticket at the box office. Amusingly no one checked my printout as I went inside the cinema. I wasn’t expecting a huge turnout for this film, but the lack of cinemagoers truly shocked me; a grand total of five including me; two women in their twenties, one young Asian woman who sat right at the back and an older man down the front, who left 30 minutes into the film and never returned. Other than that, there was nothing else to report in regard to the screening. Might as well talk about the film itself;

In a small coastal town called Moshimo, it is the end of school term. On his way to school with his buddies, seventh grader Norimichi Shimada notices Nazuna Oikawa, whom he has an interest in, as she stands by the rocks on the shore and picks up a marble like ball the size of a golf ball out of the water. After a PE class, both Norimichi and his friend, Yusuke Azumi, are assigned pool cleaning duties. Yusuke tells Norimichi he has to go to the toilet before they start. Inside the pool Norimichi discovers Nazuna sunbathing on the side of the pool. Wanting to get closer to her, he sheepishly strikes up a conversation, which leads to a discussion about the marble like ball she found in the sea that morning. As Yusuke arrives back, Norimichi makes a hasty exit, as he doesn’t want him to find out Nazuna is there, as he also has a crush on her.

As they finish cleaning, they hatch a plan to race each other in the pool. They determine what they could use as a prize. Eventually Yusuke says that if he wins he will ask out Nazuna. Before Norimichi can answer, Nazuna rushes in and asks if she can join in on their races. She says if she wins they both have to do what she says, though is coy on what that might be. During the race, Norimichi stubs his heel badly on the side of pool (as he gawks at Nazuna as she passes him underwater) as he does a flip turn on the return lap. This causes Nazuna’s marble to fall into the water which Yusuke catches. Nazuna wins and as Yusuke came second, asks him to come to the festival and firework display at the local shrine that night. She retrieves her marble and leaves. Later in class, Norimichi and Yusuke’s friends, Kazuhiro, Minoru and Junichi are having a heated discussion about fireworks. Half the group think fireworks are flat if you see them from the side; the others think they’re round all over. To solve this for once and all, they decide to go to the lighthouse on the shore and view the fireworks from there. The losers will have to do the victor’s summer homework. As they are discussing this, Nazuna enters the classroom. Yusuke looks at her out the corner of his eye knowing he has already committed to going the lighthouse with his friends.

In the evening after school, Norimichi discovers Yusuke inside his bedroom playing video games. Apparently his parents don’t lock the back door to their house. Yusuke admits that he had planned to go to the festival with Nazuna, but is going to ditch her to go with his friends to the lighthouse. Naturally Norimichi is a little be narked over this, but doesn’t let on too much. Yusuke notices Norimichi’s heel is still bleeding and recommends going to see his father, the local doctor. This is in part a ruse into getting Norimichi to tell Nazuma he won’t be going to the festival with her. When he arrives at the surgery he notices Nazuna patiently waiting for Yusuke in her yukata and strangely has a suitcase with her. After seeing the doctor, Norimichi sheepishly tells her the bad news. Outside the two of them talk for a while. He asks why she has a suitcase with her. She initially says she is running away from home, but then deflects the subject.

Afterwards Nazuna bids Norimichi farewell and sets off, but soon returns panicked and running. She is fleeing from her mother who roughly grabs her and is hell bent on taking Nazuna back home. Her suitcase falls to the ground spilling its contents everywhere. Apparently Nazuna was meant to leave town with her mother and her new partner and naturally she doesn’t want a bar of it. In desperation Nazuna asks Norimichi if he would have taken her to the festival if he came second in the swimming race. As she is being hauled away, Yusuke, Kazuhiro, Minoru and Junichi arrive and see what’s happening. Realising what has happened and wanting to save Nazuna, Norimichi attempts to take after her and her mother, but is apparently blinded by the setting sun. Upon seeing Yusuke he becomes enraged and beats him up for not taking her to the festival. Initially shocked and confused, the others eventually intervene in the fight. Frustrated, Norimichi picks up the marble from the contents of Nazuna’s suitcase and hurls it towards a community noticeboard displaying a poster of the festival. Oddly it doesn’t make contact and Norimichi finds himself transported back in time to that morning before the swimming race. He now has a chance to set things right.

This film is based upon a short 1993 live action telemovie written and directed by Shunji Iwai as part of a series of short films called "If: Moshimo". Iwai is a bit of a darling of the Japanese cinema scene with critically acclaimed films such as “Swallowtail Butterfly”, a segment in the omnibus film “New York, I Love You” and probably his most famous work “All About Lily Chou-Chou”. Iwai also released “Hana and Alice” in 2004 and made an anime sequel called “The Case of Hana & Alice” in 2015 which I quite enjoyed. Oddly I don’t think any of his films have had a theatrical release over here. I attempted to watch the original 49 minute telemovie before watching this film, but at the time could not find an English language version anywhere. Long after the screening I discovered it did receive a Japanese DVD release which amazingly does include optional English subtitles.

From what I understand, this anime version of Iwai’s telemovie keeps all of the core elements of the original, makes the kids slightly older and nearly doubles the length of the story. The film was produced by Shaft, who are best known for “Puella Magi Madoka Magica”, “Hidamari Sketch” and of course the anime adaptions of Nisio Isin’s “Monogatari” light novel series. I have to admit I’m not an overly big fan of their work. Their titles tend to have distinct look to them which is uniquely “Shaft”, which by all means is not a bad thing. For a major theatrical film, oddly most of the key staff have little or no experience; screenwriter Hitoshi Ohne has done very little of note and director Nobuyuki Takeuchi has made he career in the anime industry as a key animator. Unsurprisingly Akiyuki Shinbo (director of the studio's most popular titles; “Puella Magi Madoka Magica”, “Hidamari Sketch” and “Bakemonogatari”) is listed as chief director and mostly likely supervised and guided the two novices.

The film overall is a bit strange, but I really liked it for a great deal of its run time. It isn’t overly original by any means; a romance set in a high school. However for a good deal of it's length it did win me over. It’s really hard to get swept up in the adolescent romance, Nazuma’s sense of isolation and wanting to be free of her mother and wanted to escape small town life for Osaka or Tokyo. There’s also Norimichi’s desire to want to live his life with her and set things right after his friend stood her up. The film looks absolutely gorgeous, but certainly doesn’t have that “Shaft look” as seen in their most popular titles. Instead it opts for as much more realistic look. Some of the backgrounds are very photorealistic, so much so that I initially thought I was looking as live action shots edited into the film.

Many mainstream reviewers have made the unavoidable comparison of this movie to Makoto Shinkai’s “Your Name”. I think that’s a more than fair call. Both are high school romances, set in small towns, with supernatural elements and time travel plots. You could suggest that “Fireworks” is playing off the success of Shinkai’s film and is the only reason you’d resurrect a forgotten telemovie from 1993 and format it into a full length anime film. Another point that's more than fair I think. The film itself transforms from what is a very likable “Run Lola Run” like romance with a teen couple trying to elope, to a bizarre dimension hopping film with a very weird and misplaced musical/fantasy sequence which I suppose shows Nazuna hasn't really thought out her actions, but comes off as odd and cheesy. However I must admit the marble device that Nazuna found is quite interesting if a little unoriginal. I also quite liked the lighthouse motifs used the film, though maybe towards the end of the film they were a little bit too strange for my liking. There's also the "If" (or more correctly "what if?") motif which intertwines with the lighthouse motif and ties in with the original theme of the original live action series. While some reviewers have noted that some of the animation wasn’t all that great, I only had problems with a couple of scenes; a mid distance shot done with CG of the boys going to school which looked dreadful, and a couple of really off model animation shots. Other than that the animation was pretty darn good.

In the end I’m not too sure what to make of this film. The core plot of two teens trying over and over again to elope and escape their little town and their lives is really interesting and fun. I also liked how it showed how teen boys adore women and how awkward they are in expressing their feelings. However it is overlaid with a somewhat odd dimension jumping plot, with each dimension subtly different (mostly to do with how fireworks explode) from the next. Assuming it was a straight time travel film, I was sort of confused by it all, and I had a feeling others in the cinema were too. I think screenwriter Hitoshi Ohne tried to be too clever by half adding in the dimension concept to the original story and in the end has made of hash of things. The end scene could also not make a whole lot of sense, depending on how you interpret it. For the most part, it’s quite an intriguing film. The dimension hopping silliness which raises its head half way through the film really did let it down though. 6 out of 10.